~*Puck's Reflections*~

[Puck the Devil]

And when you look into my eyes
Felt a sudden sense of urgency
Fascination casts a spell and
you became more than just a mystery
And I think about you all the time
Is this fate? Is it my destiny...?

You know what? I'm getting bored, so I'm just going to put a few spells here that I've used in the past so I can entertain myself. I don't quite remember everything, but I think it works something like this.

First things first. As Minerva and her Hogwarts Wizarding and Witch friends know, Latin is a wonderful language for casting spells. Mostly because most humans these days don't recall the language and insist that it's 'dying out'. Nevermind that they use it everyday without their even realizing it, but don't get me started on that. If you're strong enough in magic power (like, say, a purely magical being such as I) then you don't even need to use Latin for incantations. I imagine for someone of my magical caliber, any language will do, even the ridiculously common and badly-abused English language. Let's see...

Rhyming can be an important factor in spells, but again, it's not always necessary. Take a look at Minerva's sort, for example. They're all humans, but they still have magic blood in them, so they find it best to use Latin incantations and wands to direct their magic, but their 'spells' usually consist only of one word, which I find rather impressive for humans of any kind. But that kind of makes it difficult to rhyme with just one word, doesn't it? I imagine it also kind of limits their power in the same way their language is limited. Besides, my way is much more elegant and stylish. Rhyming Latin is a heck of a lot more difficult than rhyming the large-yet-redundant vocabulary of English where they have a thousand synonyms, homophones, and hominid - excuse me, homonyms (There, you see what I mean?! How confusing is that, I ask you?) - so it's a great deal easier to get across what you want to insinuate/imply/incorporate into the spell while rhyming. Not to mention it's a great deal easier to find loopholes, misinterpretations, and that sort of thing if you're so inclined (as am I). After all, I live for subterfuge*.

On the matter of things like wands, to us Fae, they're like training wheels on a bike. They're laughable. Only the really cautious, weak, or insecure use them to direct and channel their magic, though I'll admit it's a bit easier than shooting magic from your mouth and eyes (and other orifaces) like trying to direct lightning from the sky. I do fancy using mirrors and other reflective objects to channel my own magic, but again, they're not entirely necessary. I've done spells without them before, but for more complicated and long-range spells, reflections work quite nicely. For large-scale, wide-range spells, on the other hand, nice big bolts of lightning do the trick just fine. The best thing is that no human ever suspects a giant, blinding flash of light to be even remotely out of the ordinary in a rainy place like New York. Minerva and her folk, on the other hand...well, it's probably for the best they stick to their...sticks. Wands. Whatever. Even magical humans aren't any more wise than regular ones. They just make bigger, messier mistakes and have more intense wars for dominance and power. Plus, as expected, more intricate ways of killing and deceiving each other. Magical or not, humans will always be drawn to their own destruction. It's just the same picture portrayed in a whole different media, really.

I myself usually enjoy going by 8-syllable lines with four lines per spell. On occasion I might make it longer. Generally I use the rhyming pattern of AABB because that's what comes easiest to me and it sounds nice. However, I can rhyme all four lines as an AAAA pattern. It's naturally more difficult, but I think that might be what adds more power to the spell. After all, I had to do one of those in order to undo the spells I did on the humans and gargoyles of Manhattan. Then again, that may just be something to do with the undoing of spells...hm. I should look into that some more. If only I could be free of this stupid dungeon and experiment a bit! As of now, I can only work little pieces of magic; nothing too serious or important. Here's one I just thought up because the humans here were boring me:

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/breedable-changing-pets/guardian-fairies-new-babies-for-pook-thaliawen-pg-1513/t.13171934_22833/#22833]A simple spell for the Encouragement of Inspiration and Entertainment[/url]

~Oh, come on, now; this just won't do!
What could be wrong with all of you?
I, Puck, did not come all this way
to seek out boredom over play.

Ask what you will of me and know
that Puck likes putting on a show.
I'll grant a wish if you so choose
so make one that's sure to amuse!~

Better yet, I think I'll list all the spells I remember here. I don't know why that wretched pirate girl didn't think of it before. Or maybe she did and just chose to withhold that information like she does to all her other friends, like that pokeboy who's deathly afraid of mirrors, Shadow. If you ask me, I think she's just venting out her own frustration of Starlight not telling her what she wants to know about her own past life on us, so she retaliates by keeping what she knows of our past lives secret. Hmph. Typical spiteful mortal girl. Maybe she even allowed her Nobody to let me rot in here on purpose. *sigh* So much for that chance at friendship we promised each other...

Anyway, I'm ranting. Where was I? Ah, yes...

[url=http://www.gargoyles-fans.org/characters/spells.htm]The Magus' incantation from the Grimorum Arcanorum[/url]

“Dormiatis dum castellum super nubes ascendat!”
(May you sleep until the castle rises above the clouds!)

* This might be one reason I, fairies, demons, and a great deal more magical creatures are more feline-lovers, as the talking cat mentioned in the story The Last Unicorn, "And no cat anywhere, ever gave anyone a straight answer." I mean, do you know any that do? The Cheshire Cat, for instance; particularly in his explanation to Alice as to how he knows he's 'mad'. "You see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags its tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad." Now, that may seem like a straight enough answer to those of you with technical-minds, but let me ask you this - were the cat wagging its tail while it spoke these words, would that mean it was mad as in 'angry' or mad as in 'crazy'? Not to mention Alice goes on to refer to the cat's 'growling' as 'purring'. Again, another prime example of why English words are so wonderfully fun to mess with.

More interesting yet are the stories about cats not being allowed into Heaven or Paradise or whatever it is you might call it. They say in Asia that sea demons leave alone sailing vessels with cats on them out of courtesy to the cat. Heard of all dogs going to heaven? Even in that story, the dog hell had the devil in the shape of a cat. Not just there, either. In the story of The Cat Who Went to Heaven, "...the traditional belief in [that] time was that cats are supposedly cursed, because of their pride and sense of superiority, which apparently caused them to refuse to bow before the Buddha in his lifetime, and that this therefore means they are barred from achieving Nirvana. Consequently, the prevailing thought is that no cat may go to Heaven." (Yes, the title of said story contradicts this, but that's because, as everyone knows, cats are clever creatures and whatvever higher power up there is supposed to be very forgiving according to human tales, so.) Moreover, in the Zodiac Origin Story called The Great Race, the cat was tricked into missing the introduction feast by the Jade Emperor (their version of god in that religion/time/culture) and was thus cursed to be omitted from the Zodiac as the 13th animal (and of course no one likes the number 13 due to its bad luck. Also associated with demons, devils, and fae. Go figure. And with our races being cast from heaven, it's really no wonder we empathize with the creatures).

But check this fascinating connection out. Remember that Buddism story I mentioned earlier? "Most historians agree that Cat is not in the list since the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac were formed before Cats were introduced to China from India with Buddhism." In which they were also excluded. Yet somehow they were worshiped in Egypt, where the feared god of Death was a canine Jackal. Peculiar, don't you think? I need to ask my dear friend Bartimaeus about that...he seemed particularly fond of a certain human (Ptolemy, I think he called him - something of a pet name, since many humans went by that at the time) living during the reign of the Ancient Egyptians. Ol' Barty is also referred to as a demon, though technically he's just a spirit of fire and air like the rest of us (but no less devious, cunning, or vain, and no more honorable, noble, or humble, either). It's really no wonder one of his favored forms is also a cat, and he's also dabbled with old England's magicians/wizards a bit himself. UGH! My head is starting to hurt. I blame Minerva! I would have never read so many books and had so much useless knowledge in my head if it weren't for her! Now I'm cursed to remember all of that for the rest of eternity!

I feel the magic all around you
It's bringing me to my knees
Like a wannabe
I've got to be chained to you
I feel the magic building around you

 

[Puck the Devil]

I wasted two spells on Jack Frost here. So much for conserving magical energy...
I have yet to put them here. They're on his comments in his profile.

Update: I also used one on that Nasty Little Boy.

Also, here's more info on me:
http://gargoyles.wikia.com/wiki/Puck
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Owen_Burnett