ORIGIN

Diem Dark tumbled ungracefully out of the Mysterious Rift and into Origin Cave. Heels over head, wooden box falling, belongings scattering-... She swore, loudly, pushing up and looking sharply around. "Fuck! -Shit, shit, shit." Eloquence incarnate, she then headed for her stuff, picking it up where it'd gotten strewn over the crystalline rock.

Halfway there she paused, her cartilaginous flesh face--currently in the shape of a vulture's skull--staring around in awe. She had half-knelt, hand outstretched, for a pile of papers but now she looked around her. "I'm really here. ...Cool." The skull-face twisted up into a broad grin, and she hastened to grab her pen and her pencil, her set of dice, the notebook, blank character sheets and so on. It all went back into the wooden box, which was carefully tucked under her arm, and she readjusted her clothes.

She looked down at herself as she did so. "T-shirt, check," she thought, looking at the navy blue with its faded print of a dark grey cow skull and paler grey text. SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE, it said, and--yeah? Accurate. Unintentional, but accurate. Moving on. Cloak, check. Suitably edgy. Pants- and here she hastily patted them down. "Pockets! YES." Score. Pockets were always great. ...No shoes, but that was all right; she liked being barefoot, even if these feet were soft on the bottom.

Diem spent a long moment flipping the cloak's hood up and down, grinning. "Always wanted one of these," she muttered to herself.

Well, everything seemed intact. Good start. Now for exploration, and meeting new--Wait! There was one last important thing to do before she started checking out the caves.

Diem crouched, squinting and concentrating. Right. Magic. ...How do I do this? She wasn't sure she was doing it right, at first. She was pretty sure that looking like she was trying to use a toilet wasn't the right way, but... screw it.

A long moment later, nothing had happened. "Balls," she said aloud.

A failure at magic was a prime opportunity to put her main gift from the other side to the test. Out came the wooden box, and out of that came the little twenty-sided die. She'd liked the idea of another one--one the Collector had given away in ages past. This one was a recolor of that one, but it bore the same magic. She called it 'the Recolored D20,' an amazing failing on her part in terms of creativity but to hell with it.

The important thing was that it could be used to tip the scales when something failed, or, if you were a complete idiot, had succeeded. She turned the little die over in her hand, admiring its deep emerald green hue and gold etchings, then knelt and gave it a roll. She felt it flicker, and take, and felt the magic well up--startling, when she hadn't been concentrating on it. It was like the die found it within her and pulled it forth, teasing it from the topaz at her chest.

"Whoa."

As the magic began to form a small shape before her, she scrambled to catch up. It'd conjure a familiar--she knew that--but she'd been thinking so hard about the die she'd forgotten to pick a form for it! My cat, but--no, if something bad happens back there, that'd be awful, to see it here all the time. But a cat wouldn't be bad, right? "That, or a tiny dragon..." she mused. "Or a little unicorn!"

Honestly there were lots of things that'd make a cool familiar! Cats, sure. Owls! Or a little t-rex! Oh--a wolf! Or-

The little blue shape fully formed, and it was a very tiny alligator. It looked rather like an adorable baby gator, with big eyes and a natural grin, but it was made of blue light. "Okay, holy shit you're cute," she said, and picked it up, pulling it into her arms. It wasn't solid, but-

'Squeak.'

"The fuCKING LASER NOISE! I love you," she told the ghostly baby gator. It continued to make its tiny laser sounds, a noise that carried through Gemini, paired with Diem's own squeak of adoration.

Diem jolted, scrambling to ensure she didn't drop the glowing alligator hatchling. Both her skull-face and the alligator's translucent blue (oversized) head jerked to face the incoming dragon. Incoming-... small dragon, comparatively, but still big enough; thankfully she didn't have much time to wonder if it'd be hostile.

Yanyue. Right-... Right. She had to do this right. Her first introduction to a--well, another--Gembound. Okay. I can do this. Just act natural.

"Hi! I'm-"

Oh, fuck, what's my name?!

Diem froze, staring with wide eyes at the dragon, for about three heartbeats. The alligator chirped.

"...Deee... Diem. Diem Dark." The "g" would just confuse people, so "d" it was. It meant the same thing, anyway, and... She cleared her throat. "You can call me either? Or both. Nice to meet you! Are you a dragon?" It looked... familiar, somehow. Like a memory flickering just under the surface. Like... she'd seen this one before.

The second half of the question bumped its way back into her mind, then, and she glanced down at her familiar. "Oh, I dunno! I just summoned it! I could name it Dragon, too, which would be funny, but I think it's... a little small." She grinned at Yanyue. "You're, uhh--new, aren't you? Young? This portal, it's magic," she explained, stepping aside to make room, and gesturing to it. "Maybe if you ask it nicely, it'll give you something cool?"

That seemed a good way to make new friends. Cool stuff was always good.

"With magic, yeah!" she confirmed, unaware of the infectious cheer. What a happy encounter! "I dunno, though, it's--sort of a special spell? I think anyone can learn it eventually, but it's... uh." She tried to remember. "Limited edition sort of magic..?" Wait, that wasn't right. It wasn't like there were only six of them to go around, or something. Ugh, her brain was a wreck after that whole-... thing. She shrugged it off.

"Squeak?" She eyed the gator, who stared back. "I'll consider it," she assured Yanyue, then turned a vulture beak to watch the portal. "If nothing happens, don't worry about it. Maybe it's just... y'know, all worn out. I just came through it," she explained. One hand kept petting the entirely ethereal alligator hatchling, despite being really unable to. It was like petting magic, or more accurately, light.

Surreptitiously she glanced down into the die that lay in her hand. "It didn't spawn anything," she said sadly. "You could try again later!" she said, afraid to disappoint the happy little dragon. A thought occurred to her, then. She knew there were caves beyond caves, here, and a dozen biomes, but the specifics were eluding memory for some reason. "Hey, uhh--could I ask a favor?" she asked, eyeing them. They seemed an amiable enough critter. Maybe they'd say 'yes.'

The dragon thought she was cool.

"Hell yes! High-five!" she declared, stepping forward and holding up her palm. She then eyed the sort of dog-paw feet on Yanyue. "Just-... slap your paw up here. Hand-to-hand. It means--uh--solidarity!" Sort of. "You're cool too."

I'm not turning out to be the best at explaining things, am I?

She turned, then, eyeing the portal and considering. "I don't think it'll mind. I think it'd probably rather you get something cool, but the chances are probably low, so just keep coming back!" she advised. "Right! Favor!" She shuffled her 'high five' hand back under the other arm, which still supported the alligator and held the magic die. "So, uhh, have you been around more than a day or two?" Hard to tell, but... "I'd really like a sort of... tour? Not just of this cave but a few of them. You know anywhere cool you could show me?" She paused, realized she was overusing her probably-favorite (no, second-favorite) word, then hummed. "Anywhere you think is... interesting, or fun? I could use a guide. Being new and all." And she was, flickering memories aside. She'd known of this place, but she'd never seen it--not like this, not from within, not with real glimmering stones and the palpable flicker of magic.

And the wisps of Order mold, but... that she could ignore, for now.