[Here's the thing: he can clearly see the snakes the other conjured as illusions. So what part of the equation is he missing this time? And he knows it isn't perception.]
Shouldn't you be the one answering that? I can't lie, so both of those things are true.
How?
[There are other factors likely involved but nope, this is what he's fixated on. For Apollo, objective reality will not be not easy to reconcile with deliberate acts of magic involving transformation, even as gods are said to be capable of it.
Divine beings were powerful. In his world, it was by their will the miniature garden was created. Yet the act of creation is an addition to actuality, not messing about with its intrinsic properties.
(Turning mortals into animals, for example, does count as mucking things up - a replacement of reality, so to speak.
Should he discover the existence of reality-bending supernatural items, Apollo will be equally, if not more so, pissed off.)]
no subject
Shouldn't you be the one answering that? I can't lie, so both of those things are true.
How?
[There are other factors likely involved but nope, this is what he's fixated on. For Apollo, objective reality will not be not easy to reconcile with deliberate acts of magic involving transformation, even as gods are said to be capable of it.
Divine beings were powerful. In his world, it was by their will the miniature garden was created. Yet the act of creation is an addition to actuality, not messing about with its intrinsic properties.
(Turning mortals into animals, for example, does count as mucking things up - a replacement of reality, so to speak.
Should he discover the existence of reality-bending supernatural items, Apollo will be equally, if not more so, pissed off.)]