Ari nods, smiling politely.

Politics.

Politics indeed

They divvy up who is gonna do what for the next while. Ari, Temple and others get into the study where various divinations will be performed. Temple wants to know everything about the unfamiliar divinations.

As does Ari! Which is convenient.

The one that came with Dal-Mirdone is willing to give them explanations while the others set things up. Which is fairly quick, one of them is a telekinetic.

Now, if Ari doesn't mind taking off some clothes so they can draw on his skin...

Ari has never minded taking his clothes off, and he's not going to start now.

They don't mind when he removes the tunic.

But when Ari starts removing the leggings and people realize there is nothing beneath that, most cover their eyes. With various levels of protestation.

Dal-Giulikian blinks and after staring for a bit does the same.

Temple is shamelessly looking. "I think they are expecting you to have underwear," he comments.

Ari looks deeply confused, then remembers from last night. "...Oh, those tiny, hidden pants that you people wear? I could probably borrow some."

One of the women that's arranging things looks like she doesn't want that to happen, but she doesn't say anything.

"Sure, from whom?"

"Gabe, I guess? He's more my size than anyone else in the general vicinity, certainly. Or we could all just, you know, work around the fact that I have a penis. Like adults."

Temple shrugs. "Works for me. Works for everyone? Don't be unprofessional in front of the new-worlders." Temple says mockingly shaking a finger at the group.

"Let's just get over with it. I think the next step is painting the runes over Ari, right?" there are nods all around.

Ari will obligingly hold still. He's not ticklish.

Then he will have various people applying substances for magical purposes.

(Well, maybe not entirely magical purposes.)

(Temple is not the only guy paying particular attention to Ari's physiques.)

Ari notices. He doesn't make a huge deal of it, but he notices. And appreciates it.

More importantly: The entire point of this exercise is to figure out if Ari is what he claims to be (which is proven correct so far) and also what are Ari's traits an immortal part human.

Ari is exactly what he claims to be! He is 75% something, and 25% another, different thing. He will live forever, bar the intervention of some outside force; he's extremely strong, and has astonishing reserves of health and stamina; he is flame-retardant to a frankly absurd degree, largely resistant to cold and electricity and poison as well, and can manipulate lightning, fire, and some other kind of energy more or less at will. He can also turn into a much larger, spiky version of himself, who is even stronger; it's in question, however, whether he could turn back.

Well, the last bit is concerning. Everything is interesting, but that last bit is still concerning. Temple reports this to Ari. "There might be sorcerous ways to bring you back to normal or stop you from being stuck, but they would require time and research. What causes you to change?"

"When I'm in serious danger, that's usually the most effective. It can happen whenever I get too emotional, or need power for some reason, but it's worst when I'm really in danger. I've ripped men to pieces like that."

"Wait, like the Hulk?"

"Close enough," Temple tells Dal-Giulikian before turning back to Ari. "Would you mind turning briefly so we can see the changes?"

Ari gives him a look. "Didn't you just say I could be trapped in that form forever? Besides, it's not under my conscious control."

Temple blinks. "By what I could interpret, it sounded like something that could be indirectly triggered. Possibly through some effort and it looked like you could achieve a partial transformation fairly easily too. Like, so easily that it's that easy to achieve full transformation."

He raises his hand. "I would like to cast a vote against monster transformations happening indoors."

"Oh, yeah, I get bigger sometimes and it's not much of anything, but I'd need something to break. So I guess if anyone's volunteering to tie me up, we can run that experiment."