ORIGIN

Zoey couldn't just... show up, demanding a trial from a guy she had never met. Would it be more weird to show up with a random gift for a guy she had never met? Well. She wasn't sure if anyone had ever thought of it. Emuh seemed to have quite the lonely role, confined to his trial chambers... There had to be something that she could make for him that he would appreciate.

Well. He probably was something a loner. Surely he could leave his trial room if he wanted. Maybe he liked to be alone. If that was the case, then he might enjoy something that would suit a more solitary lifestyle. She considered this. He was... a Giant owl, or something? A big bird. Probably a bird of prey, anyway... Did he eat meat? She didn't think she could just show up with something that produced seeds and just assume that it would be appropriate. She also couldn't bring him more than a morsel of meat even with her magic. There wasn't exactly a spell that made infinite meat, even with enchanting magic. At least, as far as she knew.

Food was typically her love-language, so that was where her mind first went. When that failed, she instead turned to thinking of other things that gembounds tended to like. She loved flowers, but she wasn't sure that a master of magic would be particularly impressed with an undying blossom. Emuh didn't strike her as a gardener, just from the... general vibe of the doorway in Polaris.

There was, however, the shows in the theater of Cepheus. The palace cinema. It would be quite the trip for Emuh to make... Maybe she could finagle a way to bring the show to him?

Nodding to herself, Zoey settled down among the crystals of Polaris, and tried to form a smooth, flat, reflective crystal... Her magic surged, and then fizzled out into nothingness.

This part might be more exhaustive. Her stone magic wasn't particularly her best element. She had played with it a little, but her inexperience shown in her initial failure. Despite being surrounded by shimmering blue crystals, she couldn't so much as shape one near her.

With a huff, she broke off a small piece of crystal from a nearby cluster and clutched it in her talons. She would try again, this time with a starter... perhaps that would help?

That seemed to do it. From the piece in her talons, the crystal sprouted rapidly, growing and bursting around her talons. She set it down, and with as much focus as she could pour into it, she began to smooth out the shape, flattening it into a sheer slab of solid, translucent crystal.

It was perfect. Her golden eyes reflected as little glowing orbs in the shimmering crystal plaque. The next step would be to infuse it with enchantment magic. She always likened this part to creating a bauble, without the light. It was like pouring your magic into an object, saturating it with your life energy, to create a vessel to hold the magic that would shape the object into the item you wanted it to be.

That task would take even more of her energy. But she was determined to see it through. The crystal, which had already been formed mostly from her magic, was eager to accept more of her strength into it. She sighed softly as she felt her stone drain, pouring her heart and soul into the crystal.

She hoped that such a gift would be well received by the stranger. It was something that would live as long as she did. A piece of herself, offered unconditionally. It was the least she could do to show appreciation for the challenge that she was about to throw herself into.

Now that Zoey had made the crystal ready to accept her magic, she closed her eyes and did her best to remember the most recent show at the cinema. There was... It was the Over-Seen? She didn't really remember the title so much as the characters. Those she could picture, and she tried to fill the crystal with the shimmering aether magic that made illusions.

Part of her expected the whole thing to appear, sound and all, on to the stone. Maybe that was a bit too ambitious, given the magic she was working with...

She opened her eyes to find the crystal had taken her magic, put no true shapes appeared among the smooth crystal surface. Instead, it seemed to reflect light within, shimmering with sparkling, multicolored light. She clicked her mandibles together. It was quite pretty, but not exactly a screen one could put on unless they were really and truly bored.

She would still bring it, because it was pretty, and he could hang it up somewhere, maybe... If he wanted. If he didn't want it, it would look nice in her alcove.

... Right... Well. That hadn't worked as she intended it to. Maybe she could shape a bauble in some way, to glow in a certain way to give off the impression of a scene? Was that even possible?

Now she was well and truly in the realm of imagination and creativity. Everything was equally possible and impossible, and the only way to find out was to try. But she needed another crystal to work with. She set aside the delicate, shimmering crystal so that it didn't get damaged by her next attempt.

She took another chunk of crystal from a nearby cluster, and used that bud to create a larger object: this one was a large crystal with several smooth sides. It needed seven large sides, so she carefully sculpted the crystal with her magic, forming a seven-sided crystal with a flat base and that came together into a sharp point at the top.

That... would probably work. As long as she could get her magic to do something like what she wanted.

The first scene she wanted to do was of Overseer Nothilus, who was supposed to be the cartoon-ish villain of the story. If she messed up his likeness to any degree, it would be the least offensive... and kind of the point of the story. She took a deep breath, and touched the very first side of the crystal with one talon.

Like a bauble, but controlled more like an enchantment: shaped into a very specific shape.

The scene poured out from her talon before her very eyes. The spider-like Nothilus appeared inside of the crystal's face, scampering up to the vaguer shapes of the valkhounds who were in a chaotic mess, silently sneering at them with an expression of distasteful mockery, before scampering away to go get one of the Masters.

It was stunning. It only lasted a few seconds, not enough to be more than a fraction of the entire show, but it was... exactly what she had wanted. At least, a snapshot of it. There wasn't any sound... But she didn't know how to do sound.

Maybe she could write a transcript to go with the piece? That thought tickled her.

She knew that this would be the scene before the end... or, maybe the third from last? She had planned seven sides, because she was going to illustrate all seven characters... But now that she could depict a whole second-long animated scene (and how good it looked! Small and crude in the crystal, but clear as her own mental image!) she had to reconsider.

The first scene would be of Overseer Baldwin giving everyone their tasks. Then she could have two to a scene: Fillian and Kragrak, and Helly and Lorilus, and Vostilor... Then the piece she had just done, with Overseer Nothilus. The ones that followed would be of the Master returning to see the tasks suddenly done, and then leaving, with everyone celebrating at the end... That made for seven scenes. It would work. It would work!

She decided, in her ambition, to depict Overseer Nothilus returning with Master Solerus to the scene. She would have to fit the hastily resolution of everyone getting over their differences, a flurry of motion to turn the chaos into a beautiful creation and completion of the task set to them by Overseer Bathwin. She turned the crystal and placed her talon to the surface of the adjacent side.

Her magic did not respond, at first.

She needed to focus more on her memory, she thought. On the feeling of a concentrated bauble-shape. She closed her eyes, and breathed in and out. She had done it once and she could do it again, she was certain. A vision of the crew scrambling to work, ending in their finished work, with Master Solerus stepping into the scene to admire the work...

And when she opened her eyes, nothing happened. She could feel her exhaustion seeping in through her carapace. She had asked quite a lot of herself. But she didn't feel completely worn through yet, and her determination persisted. Just a couple more scenes, while she still had the feel of it... then maybe she should take a break.

She turned the crystal to look at the first scene. Hopefully the crystal wasn't too imbued with magic to take more of the baubling... but it only appeared on one face, and the rest were still blank. So surely...?

Give it another try, she told herself. I can figure this out. She turned the crystal back once more, and tried to think of this from a new direction. Of an image blooming like a flower... The scene of comradery in the face of scorn. She could put those feelings into a picture, a moving scene...

This time, when she opened her eyes, she saw the scene just as she remembered it from the theater. She was panting lightly, her carapace heaving, but two of the seven faces now held beautiful, shimmering light scenes of the show.

She was getting somewhere now.

Her magic was feeling completely drained, however. She needed to eat something. Maybe go catch a viewing of the show...? She could write down the story while she rested on some paper. She didn't have the best penmanship, but... Well, it would be a good break, and it would help the story make some more sense. Right? Right.

exit to take a magic break :)