The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Making People the New-Fashioned Way

Previously: "The High Cost of a Deeper Education" 

You might as well be methodical about these things, and experiment with all the possible variations before advancing to the next stage. You are not normally this careful—that potato gun you built, and the time you disassembled your own bicycle, are proof of that—but this kind of stuff strikes you as being very dangerous. You'd like to master each aspect of a spell before proceeding to the next stage.

You're also made cautious by the obvious dangers of being caught in an impersonation. Suppose you sealed this mask, with your image in it, and Robert or one of your friends got into it. They could cause a lot of confusion and mischief for you. And if you made a mask that contained their image? What would happen if you got caught strutting around in disguise as them? No, the best thing to do, if you're to make some kind of disguise, is to make it a disguise that isn't of anyone in particular, and that means mixing images inside a mask.

You give some little thought to making up a new mask, and mixing up people's faces inside it while saving this one that you've made of yourself. But then you reflect that there's not much point in having a mask of yourself on hand, for what's the point of disguising yourself as yourself? And you're not going to let anyone else disguise themselves as you!

Besides, you remember what a chore it was making this mask, and don't want to make another so soon.

No, it's best to obliterate the image of yourself by mixing it with someone else. But who?

Robert is an obvious candidate, but that would probably result in a face too much like your own. One of your friends? How would you convince them to put the mask on?

Your cousin Umeko? That gives you a shiver of transgressive pleasure, but it also fills you with worry. What would happen if you mix male and female forms in this thing?

Next: "The Mash-Up" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"