#.゜–– headcanon . * with a glib tongue & a clever mind .

[penddraig]

it's very important to me that you all know that howl's magic is meticulous and essentially follows complex procedural structures that can only be mastered after years of education.   the best i can explain it is,   he treats his magic much like you'd treat mathematics,   physics,   chemistry.   basic spells are like the basic compounds of magic,   which he builds upon to create new magic.   in his study of spells and charms in graduate school   ( like  … think STEM for magicians ),   he essentially became in expert in the topology of magic and how basic parts of spells all weave together to create larger,   more complicated enchantments.   which is why you can always catch him jotting down notes for himself and scribbling so much down on paper while he's trying to figure out what basic spells he needs to put into his magic whenever he's creating new magic.   however,   he has a lot of "grandmaster" magic already memorised and can cast these without a second thought.   transformational magic,   teleportation magic,   and physical manifestation are amongst some of what he's already mastered.   that type of stuff is very easy for him.   stuff like divination,   alchemy,   transmutation,   etc are a bit trickier for him,   and he has to think a while on those.

[ … ] he's also more than capable of casting black magic,   or magic for ulterior selfish purposes specifically meant to harm others,   but he really doesn't do much of that unless he absolutely has to,   since it triggers the harpy to respond physically and mentally,   and he would really rather not !

[uizado]

you  know  how  people  are  always  trying  to  figure  out  what  their  muse’s  handwriting  is  ?   this  is  how  i  imagine  howl’s  handwriting  looks  like:

phd  student  has  no  time  to  write  in  anything  but  chicken  scratch  that  only  he  can  figure  out.  good  luck  reading  his  writing  in  the  margins  of  his  spellbooks.

[penddraig]

i think howl can sing.   yes,   this sounds a far cry different from how i was last year when i said i thought he couldn't sing,   but hear me out.   he does call himself an unmusical welshman,   and that itself is true.   like,   he clearly never tunes that guitar he carries about with him nearly as much as he should.   but he wouldn't be carrying around with him if he didn't think he could at least sing a little bit,   and he extensively checks himself to make sure every part of him is presentable at any given time and won't embarrass him.   so yes,   i think he can sing.   i don't think he is a singer.   i don't think he has an amazing voice,   but i think he has one of those voices that settles somewhere in the bottom of his throat and sticks in larynx and he is very capable of shaping his voice to the note so that he can hold the tune.   he'll be flat sometimes,   or a little sharp sometimes,   but to the untrained ear it's the type of miss that doesn't really matter much.   and he does have musical knowledge from his time playing the piano,   so he does know how a note is supposed to sound.   he's sure not amazing,   but he does like to hum and does like to sing,   and that guides and counts.

... ( i'm listening to llosgi pontydd by the way. )

[penddraig]

actually,   i was struck with the thought while in the shower that part of the reason why howl is so intimately attentive to his magic in regards to others,   and the rest of the world,   is because of his schooling back in wales.   at the university level,   he studied philosophy with a specialisation in spells and charms,   then later on delved further into the latter in pursuit of his doctorate.   i've had this thought in the back of my head that his studies,   like a required course while on the path to his bachelor's,   would also delve into the ethics of witchcraft,   wizardry,   what areas of legislature,   government,   and everyday activities need or do not need the presence of magic.   ie :   a course named "magical ethics" is much like medical ethics,   in that it questions instances of moral dilemmas in the magical field,   whether or not a certain solution is considered a moral failing or not,   and certain things people should not do with their magic   ( such as committing unethical murder,   fraud,   stripping a person of their autonomy,   etc ).

generally,   howl tends to question the inherent goodness versus wickedness of magic and its place in everyday life.   and then mrs pentstemmon,   too,   who is about eighty by the time howl reaches ingary and knows way,   way more about the socioeconomic situations of witches/wizards,   guides him further in that.   his previous studies,   coupled with her centralised instruction,   is what puts him in place in ingary itself,   and later other countries.   he's basically like a metaphysician-wizard whose priorities to happen to lie in magic,   and so he becomes aware of all this when dealing with people,   which he does every single day.   considering it all the time is what helps keep him 'good' in spite of everything that happens to him. is he capable of taking revenge on the forces that have cursed him ? yes. does he know it's wrong and refuses to tarnish his morals for as stupid a reason as that ? yes. he just wants to exist.

this all is also part of the reason why he feels so desperate not to lose his humanity after swallowing the star,   although that's another topic for another time.

[penddraig]

i don't know how to say it any way other than : howl's voluntary harpy transformation works a lot like american dragon jake long's transformations ...  where he can shift any part of his body at any time   ( actually,   this works with any animal transformation as well,   but the bird is the one he shifts into most frequently because  …  well ).    that means he can also have pointy teeth if he wants to.   or the ever-favourite talons in place of his nails.   this is useful in a variety of situations.   including more intimate ones.   thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[penddraig]

hey,   it's me,   back again to talk about howl's magic because that seems to be all i talk about at all times.   constantly.

this time,   i'm here to talk about the structure of his magic.   simply put,   and as i've said before,   magic is complicated.   howl's magic is complicated,   but his leans on the idea of compounding spells into something greater,   much like a mathematics equation or chemistry.   wizards that practice like howl can often feel the "shape" of a spell,   whether it's read aloud or simply something they have to feel around themselves,   and that's what helps them firstly to discern what sort of spell it is : whether it relies on physical elements,   or more magical and unseen elements,   or whether it is dark magic    then,   what type of catalyst the spell takes,   like speech,   action,   etc.   in that shape is where one can find the layers of the spell.   delving deeper,   one can find the skeleton,   and then the anatomy,   and so on and so forth.

as howl puts,   there are always puzzles within spells,   so that they cannot be easily deciphered or deconstructed.   the more powerful the spell,   the more layers there are,   and naturally the more mistakes are sewn into it.   these are mostly found in spells of power,   or ones that affect the physical world.   they're not often seen in smaller spells,   such as levitation or simple concoctions.   mistakes made there are generally telltale signs of inexperience.   also,   mistakes in magic sometimes make the spell less concentrated,   so that it won't blow up in someone's face should they actually mess it up.

howl is so used to practicing magic by now that he oftentimes through his runes and recitations together.   his mistakes ?   extremely howl mistakes to make,   and that's what makes his magic even more wild and madcap at times.   he also tends toward illusion spells as his favourite type of magic,   and those are much more forgiving when it comes to accidental errors.   he also put a lot of puzzles into his castle,   and he's often aiding calcifer's stunted magic   ( when he still has his heart )   so they aren't taken off guard by anything.

his lessons in as a student in both graduate school and ingary are all based on this idea of structured magic,   and his interest is all of this was the reason why he decided to pursue it into his higher education,   and then further into graduate school.   though a lot of it stems from his natural inclination towards magic,   he still had to learn how to craft his spells and incantations to the sharpest degree.   in essence,   howell's education from swansea university is what shot him into the professional tier,   and then later,   mrs pentstemmon helped him hone it into what others are familiar with today,   and how i tend to write it.

[penddraig]

now seems like the perfect time to inform everyone that howl is, in fact, good with his fingers and ( even without having experience with others ), is a quick learner who may or may not also involve magic in his fingertips to make an experience with him feel heightened. whether that means simple tingling at the point of contact or something that can overstimulate an entire nervous system to the point where an orgasm feels like a hair too much ( don’t worry : he will be sure to coax the parasympathetic after everything is done so his partner can relax afterwards ).

[penddraig]

eh what the hell.   i am going to post a little thing for sunday since it has been a while since i've properly posted anything spicy here.   howl will start off any relationship as inexperienced in the bedroom obviously,   since he's never been with anyone before.   however,   once he's been with his partner a few times and finally become more comfortable with them,   his outer personality will start shining through.   he'll be rather flirtatious and will make compliments about the other person's body and the circumstances.   he will also become incredibly annoying.   sorry in advance.   and what i mean is that he's going to tug at his partner's clothes and press up against his partner and whine and groan,   especially when he's feeling particularly frisky.   just presses his pelvis against them and rub against them like he's trying to get off on just that alone.   and he just might go through with it,   if he's not stopped.

[penddraig]

all righty,   some of you wanted to know what sorts of black magic howl is capable of casting !!! so i will elaborate on that immediately.   

much like the witch of the waste ( since he has made a contract with a fallen star and thusly tied their magic together ),   howl is capable of producing powerful magic that can change the anatomy of any living creature.   his magic isn't necessarily careless in this,   considering he's been studying it and been taught what magic to use and what magic is too dangerous to use on others,   but he very well can separate external body parts from people without killing them,   like the way the witch took prince justin apart but how he was still very much alive in many different places,   and how she also took apart wizard suliman and put him into percival and the skull and the scarecrow.   essentially,   a very magically sped-up version of surgical amputation procedure + healing + recovery period,   in the span of a few seconds.

in a similar vein,   he can also get into a living creature's system with his magic and trick it into doing whatever he wants it to do.   he can make any of the body's systems respond to his magic willingly and pretty much control what happens inside a person's body ( ie:   getting physically ill,   bruising on the inside, unnatural duplication of cells ),   as long as he calculates it precisely right.   it is very possible for howl to make a body start killing itself from the inside out.   in terms of the mind,   he can also control someone else's.   how well he can entirely depends on how mentally capable the other person is.   someone who has more assertive thought will be far less likely to be controlled than someone who has an uncertain / passive mind.

this is a given,   but since howl's magic spans a few centuries-worth of teachings,   that means his magic is not immune to being sought out by shadow magic,   so he is easily able to call upon creatures of darkness.   he's not able to control this as much as his other dark magic,   which is why they often appear whenever howl loses control of his temper,   whether in anger or in anguish.   they usually appear wailing and menacing and mimic howl's behaviour and current emotional mindset :   aggressive and offensive when he's angry,   repellant when he's in despair.

necromancy is not something with which howl is unfamiliar,   but something even he has never done before.   he is able use magic and spells to mimic the biological processes that keep a living creature alive,   and can force that into a corpse so that he can either speak with it or use it to do his bidding.

these are just a few,   but i'm sure i'll think of more as i continue writing with / plotting.   teehee.   x

[penddraig]

the idea that magic notably howl's and those who practice magic in the world of ingary is not a catch-all.   the idea that magic does not cure many or all afflictions.   the idea that magic,   once more,   follows systemic procedures that are regulated against the boundaries of biology,   react in different human beings in different sorts of ways,   and must be refined to work with or beside certain illnesses and disabilities.   the idea that howl has tuned his abilities enough that he knows a number of blanket magic to deal with 98% of nature.   specific disorders or chronic illnesses reacting differently to a spell,   or flat out rejecting the way a rune works.   howl having to tweak his magic to work around it without disturbing those natural processes.   howl having to study up to figure out how to cure,   or alleviate the symptoms of,   a new strain of disease he's never seen before.   ideas like that. the idea that there are things he will never be able to cure, but that he can always work around.

[penddraig]

i have many thoughts when it comes to the witch of the waste in relation to howl's thought on his body thanks to that earlier post. like, howl figures out early in his life that he is trans, and that the body he was born into is not the particular one that suits him the best. he puts work into his body, electing for top surgery and testosterone to present himself the way he loves, the way that makes him the most comfortable. he does everything right for himself, and by the age of twenty-four, he's really fallen in love with who he is and what he looks like. he's happy and confident in it, and he doesn't give a care what anyone else might think of him. he is a simple man, he wants to be perceived as beautiful, and he's very vain for it.

and that being what the witch of the waste preys on. she knows that he cares for his looks a lot, and that he's constantly thinking of how he looks, and that is what she focuses on when she decides to win him over. and for a while, it works. howl is so caught up in his feelings of infatuation, he's so desperate to find someone to break the contract between calcifer and himself, that he races straight past all the little flags, chases her. he feels quite sorry for her, and perhaps she just has a funny way of looking at things. perhaps she likes to give gifts and, after all, who doesn't like to receive gifts ? one of those gifts just might end up being a broken contract, after all. she's a very impressive, very powerful woman.

and then he begins to realise what hints she's dropping. that she could afford him a new set of hands, since this one has a little cut on it. that he's beautiful in the places she's planning on taking for himself. no comments on his done-up face, on his dyed hair, on the magically-carved curves. and it rubs him the wrong way, because after all he went through, he loves this body. and it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth to know that the witch wants to change it in any way. everything but his head, the apples of his cheeks, his beautiful green eyes. he must keep that all the same.

so he goes, no. he won't do that for her. there's something in his eyes that tells him to run, and, suddenly, he's terrified of it. of her, of changing himself. so there he goes, running again, fingers shaking and a doubt notched into the back of his mind that he's never had before.

[penddraig]

one of the main reasons why howl does not like his harpy transformations so much    other than him being unable to control it when it gets out of hand   ( see :   after using magic to intentionally harm anyone to a great extent,   or if it’s forced out of him )     is because it is gruesome every single time.   the vain and afterfeathers sprout out of his skin forcefully and without much warning,   basically slicing through like sharp knives before softening out again in the actual consistency of feathers.   that means every single place the feathers sprout are going to be bloody both at skin level and dotted across all the feathers.   it’s also very painful for the few seconds it takes to transform,   which only increases depending on how severe the transformation is.   it’s fundamentally very different from his controlled transformations into literally anything else,   since the latter uses a structure of his magic he has actually honed and is familiar with.   but the harpy is somewhere even he doesn’t know how to get to.   if he did,   he would have ousted it ages ago.

he spends so much of his time prettying himself up every morning,   bespelling his makeup and enchanting his jewelry,   only to have this terrible,   disgusting creature lurking in the depths of his mind behind a thinly veiled cellular wall of magic,   waiting for the chance to ruin his complexion until he can get to a place where he can bathe and heal himself, and threatening to take him over entirely if he isn't careful and benevolent with his magic ( not that he needs to be warned like this, because he is pretty much always benevolent ).   so for the most part,   he tries not to harpy at all,   unless absolutely necessary.   you’ll never know,   until he has to.

[penddraig]

i hope everyone knows that, aside from the obvious theme from the ghibli movie, which means everything to me, there is also the part of my mind that has assigned sosban fach in every single form as his theme. especially brass band willebroek's version of it. it gets so dramatically howl at around 1:14. and he's the one singing it in the books anyways, so it's simply automatically His in my head.

[penddraig]

and since we're on the topic of black magic,   i may as well speak a little on the howl-as-morally-grey-wizard au i have in the works,   that i've never really talked about but that could naturally progress from howl's circumstances.   this is,   of course,   assuming that sophie does not happen her way into his life / he doesn't find a magic user powerful enough to break his contract with calcifer.   because he could very easily fall into the morality trap.   he already teeters on the edge of it by the events of hmc,   as observed by mrs pentstemmon herself,   who i quote :  

“i prefer him with black hair,” mrs. pentstemmon announced.   “that boy is going to the bad.” “who? michael?”   sophie said,   bewildered.   “not the servitor,”   said mrs. pentstemmon.   “i do not think he is clever enough to cause me concern.   i am talking about howell,   mrs. pendragon.” “oh,” said sophie,   wondering why mrs. pentstemmon only said “going.” howl had surely arrived at the bad long ago.   “take his whole appearance,”   mrs. pentstemmon said sweepingly.   “look at his clothes.” “he is always very careful about his appearance,”   sophie agreed,   and wondered why she was putting it so mildly.   “and always was.   i am careful about my appearance too,   and i see no harm in that,”   said mrs. pentstemmon.   “but what call has he to be walking around in a charmed suit? it is a dazzling attraction charm,   directed at ladies—very well done,   i admit,   and barely detectable even to my trained eye,   since it appears to have been darned into the seams—and one which will render him almost irresistible to ladies.   this represents a downward trend into black arts …"

and …

“i assure you it is so,”   said mrs. pentstemmon.   “this is why i was anxious to see you,   mrs. pendragon.   howell,   you see,   was my last pupil and by far my best.   i was about to retire when he came to me out of a foreign land.   i thought my work was done when i trained benjamin sullivan  [ … ]  then howell came,   and i saw at a glance that he had twice the imagination and twice the abilities,   and,   though i admit he had some faults of character,   i knew he was a force for good.   good,   mrs.   pendragon.   but what is he now?” “what indeed?” sophie said. “something has happened to him,”   mrs. pentstemmon said,   still staring piercingly at sophie.   “and i am determined to put that right before i die.”

and …

“my feeling is that he has gone the same way as the witch of the waste.   they tell me she was not wicked once—though i have this only on hearsay,   since she is older than either of us and keeps herself young by her arts.   howell has gifts in the same order as hers.   it seems as if those of high ability cannot resist some extra,   dangerous stroke of cleverness,   which results in a fatal flaw and begins a slow decline to evil …”

and i choose to believe with my characterisation that he is aware he's beginning to turn toward the bad,   but that there are certain things he enjoys,   such as courting people and being vain and prideful and blatantly lying about his circumstances,   often to the detriment of those he's lying to.   he doesn't give those up easily.   and being one of the most powerful wizards in ingary means that he will easily become and unstoppable force,   and who doesn't like being on top ?   and with a contract with a fire demon,   the longer the demon has the wizard's heart,   the more the demon takes control of it and the less emotionally and morally sound the wizard becomes.   the point where he's bad comes when he no longer cares at all whether or not he's hurting others with his magic or his behaviour in general.   in fact,   he finds a lot of fun in it.   so essentially,   he's the most powerful wizard in his country and is slowly losing his humanity in the meantime,   which as it turns out is not a very great combination !

[penddraig]

If Howl big birb (sometimes) then does he have some birb tendencies? Like collecting random shiny things like a crow? (I typed this and then remembered all the trinkets in his room)

oh yes !   absolutely he exhibits some birb tendencies.   definitely the shiny trinkets would never have gone so overboard were he not plagued with this harpy inside of him.   he was never a hoarder in his life, but now there's all this stuff in his room that he's picked up willy nilly.   to be fair, he also does imbue a lot of those objects with enchantments of his own to keep the castle charged with extra power to keep the witch of the waste away, so it's not a totally useless tendency to have. just kind of annoying [ ... ]   then he also moves a bit jerkily, the way birds move their heads to stabilise their visual surroundings.   he's not nearly as bad though, given that he can move his eyes independently, but sometimes it just feels like habit  …  it can be a little creepy when he just turns his head real fast and freezes to stare for a few moments.   that's not very often though,   but the habit does get worse the more transformed he is.   also he will randomly bring things to people he loves like a crow.

(   not to put a damper on things, but at the same time he's exhibiting birdlike tendencies, it is a reminder that the harpy's sentience is creeping ever nearer to howl's own active consciousness and has started to bleed into him in ways that would never show were it not suddenly a part of him.   he may be cute, but actually, that's signs of an intruder.   :)   )

[penddraig]

don't tell . tags 1 .

.゜––   ooc .  *  what a pretty fire blog . .゜––   save .  *  this is mine now ! get your own ! .゜––   ic .  *  starter . .゜––   ic .  *  thread . .゜––   ooc .  *  answered . .゜––   ic .  *  answered . .゜––   ooc .  *  dash commentary .

.゜––   study .  *  a heart's a heavy burden . .゜––   musing .  *  some people say he ate their hearts . .゜––   mannerism .  *  i'm going to bed where i may die . .゜––   headcanon .  *  with a glib tongue & a clever mind . .゜––   skills .  *  if at first you don't succeed try try try again . .゜––   aesthetic .  *  nobody's safe in a wizard's house . .゜––   art .  *  out of a steam of verbena scented spells . .゜––   music .  *  in my head i hear a symphony . .゜––   self promo .  *  i'm dying from neglect up here ! .゜––   promo .  *  don't you want your heart eaten ? .゜––   meme .  *  i look like a pan of bacon & eggs ! .゜––   wishlist .  *  i see no point in living if i can't be beautiful . .゜––   edits .  *  seems everyone in this family's got problems . .゜––   crack .  *  i assure you i am cone sold stober . .゜––   queue .  *  i hope your queue burns .