ORIGIN - Meditation

Gabriel's eyes were closed to the world as it looked not out towards the world but inside itself. It was looking for something that could not be seen with the naked eye or heard with one's ears. Gabriel knew, of course, that magic existed. it was here, crackling in the air all around it. It was inside itself, and it could even use it for small things and enhancing its senses. But the magic that Gabriel had learned only expanded its own horizons, without directly affecting anything in the world around it.

With its eyes closed, the pup was able to feel its body, and the magic gently fizzling in the air around it... so close that it could almost touch it. The pup knew that somehow, its magic was linked to the presence of the things... the creatures dominating almost everything in the world around it. They were so small, yet Gabriel knew... there was a lot more to them than was immediately apparent. There had to be. otherwise, what purpose did they serve?

Gabriel knew that its aim would be to find out.

Breaths deepening, Gabriel reached out into the world around, looking for them.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: here
notes: here

The deeper that Gabriel concentrated, the more that it could feel the magic deep inside of it, like a coiled spring just out of its reach... it could feel the power building... more and more. And then suddenly, the senses came rushing in. They were everywhere... there were so many senses, so many presences here that Gabriel was overwhelmed. When it opened its eyes, it couldn't even see. there was simply too much...

Before Gabriel knew what was going on, the small dog's own senses were returning to find itself sprawled on it's side amidst a mossy bed, its limbs feeling disconnected and head dizzy atop its shoulders. the dog shivered, slowly making an effort to push itself back onto all four paws.

It was so close, yet somehow ended up worse for the wear.

Gabriel would just have to keep trying.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: here
notes: here

Quiet constant of empty space around him... the distant, rushing roar far above him of the waterfall...

Ice was enclosed around him, not to heal him now, but just out of comfort. The jaggedness of the edges created different levels to the sound around him, a breathing; and he focused on this for the long periods of time he spent down in the lagoon below the Pisces waterfall. He listened to the many things that happened within the Cave. He monitored the auras of the gembounds, but the ruby was his priority.

Recently it had gone into a place that troubled him. It had done a deed that hurt him. Spiked ice crystals had formed randomly on the outer casing of his shell the whole time he watched the ruby, until he couldn't see it. A darkness came over the area the ruby was in, covering the ruby, the diamond, and the benitoite. The spiked ice crystals grew out like branches, forming thinner spikes. A top layer of hazardous ice now lay atop his domain like a glacial tree. What had his ruby done? He couldn't see through this darkness; and it hurt him.

So he fell into a deeper meditation. Afterward, while continuing to monitor the auras in the Cave, he again picked up the ruby. Still here, was it? Unsure how much time had passed, his mind searched elsewhere. He was searching specifically for the everburning chaos that disappeared from them before. Nemean was about, but Raheerah was still missing. Even now, Tenzin couldn't locate him. After all this time of him trying, he still couldn't locate him.

But something was reaching out to him. Maybe not specifically, but in general. Iron Pyrite shimmering in a rounded shape... Tenzin could feel the effort it expended but with little reward.

"There is no failure," the phoenix projected. "Only learning."

He had never come across a gembound at the right time of meditation like this. It was a rare opportunity to connect for him. Despite the little reward from the attempt of the gembound, he couldn't sense any remorse from it. A smile lifted on his beak.

"What brings you on such a journey of learning?"

As it slowly pushed itself into a sitting position once more, the pup heard- or rather felt a voice in its head, coming through to it from somewhere in the darkness. Unlike many might have, the pup did not blindly assume that it was all in its imagination and instead looked around, wondering where the voice was coming from, and more importantly- who possessed it. The pup bowed its head deeply with respect for their words, that bow soon becoming a nod. "I agree," Gabriel called into the blue, scanning every corner for a sign that it wasn't alone. The pup had another little magic trick up its sleeve- different than the one it had just tried- and it knew that if the other being was out there, it could find them.

For some reason, Gabriel was unable to feel their heartbeat; perhaps they were simply too far away. From that alone, Gabriel knew that this being's magic was more powerful than it could dream in the near future. But perhaps someday... especially if Gabriel could manage to slip in a favour or two...

The other being- whoever and whatever they were- was now questioning its intent. The pup sniffed the air and paused to consider its words, just like it always did. "I wish to one day bring my kind to new heights. I cannot accomplish that if I don't focus on the present." A noble enough cause, Gabriel thought. But there was more to it than just that; to everything, of course. "I wish to extend my reach to the far corners of the caves. Learn everything I can. Be prepared for anything."

Gabriel was curious, knowing that whoever was there, they did not mean to harm it. If it had wanted to harm the pup, it would have done so upon its earlier lapse in control.

"What's your purpose here?"

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @Game Master CJ
notes: here

The body of the phoenix was still in its casing of ice. Its body was dormant and only its mind moved. His lungs breathed and his head was forever bowed as long as he stayed meditating. He listened as the gembound he connected to responded. It tried another form of magic and Tenzin waited, but no success came from whatever energy it had expended that time either. It spoke of its goals for its kind, and Tenzin wondered if it meant the gembound. Its next set of words had Tenzin quiet and in thought for a moment.

"There are places in the Cave that even I cannot each from here," he admitted. "I can feel that there are presences beyond us, but a denseness lays between us." He let a pause rest before continuing. "What do you feel you need to be prepared for?" 'Anything' was too broad for Tenzin.

It asked the phoenix what his purpose was here.

Here, as in this section? Here, as in this life? Here?

"Right now, I am monitoring, watching; I am reading and waiting. My body is sleeping. My mind is awake. I am resting until I am needed again. When an everburning chaos threatens to destroy all life again, my body will wake, and I will extinguish the flame."

He reflected on the battle with Raheerah.

"I am wisdom. I am life." Tenzin said after some time. He thought back on the failed attempt of magic the Iron Pyrite had used earlier. "You will not find me where you are. I sleep under the waterfall in Pisces." The lagoon was too deep for any eye to see the bottom, but the magic the gembound had tried to use would probably detect the slow heartbeat of the phoenix there.

Gabriel stopped walking, quickly realizing that its efforts to look were futile. Instead it sat back on its haunches and after a quick check to make sure that in its current location it was alone, it closed its eyes so that it was enclosed in thought once more. "I'll admit that the intricacies of magic- that which you speak of, I assume, evade me. I have not been wandering this world for very long, but in my short time here I have only learned just how much there is to learn." The words were ironic, but true. For such a tiny dog, the caves were a huge place, and currently it did not possess the ability to see very far outside of its physical view.

"Prepared for disaster. Prepared to defend their own lives. I was born in the room of Bones, and it seems only right that such a disaster... whatever that may be... could happen again. I want to protect us from that." It was true- the Room of Bones was a place ingrained into Gabriel's being, and it seemed only right that something had to have happened there. Many of the bones even had Gems embedded in them- perhaps what they were was caught in a vicious cycle of extinction and reincarnation. One that Gabriel had to break out of so that their generation- the modern-day Gembounds- could finally be safe in their own world. Knowing that they would never truly die out because of Gabriel.

Because, in Gabriel's eyes, the only truly dead gem was one lost to the seas of time.

The creature locked in ice stated their own purpose. It was similar to their own goal in a way- but whilst they aimed to deal with the cause of disaster if and when it came- Gabriel was preparing the Gems for that day. it was to be the forebearer, weighted with these ideals and the knowledge to be the driving force to the resistance. "A noble cause," Gabriel spoke eventually, tail wagging unconsciously from side to side. The pup felt that it could learn much from this great creature... whoever it was. They were able to reach out and survey the caves without even being there, which was something that the pup was aiming for. "Can you teach me to see without eyes?" Gabriel asked, referring to their power.

They went on to let the pup know of their location. Pisces... the waterfall room. Gabriel's brother-in-arms, Tacitus, had told it the way. "Pisces... I know the way."

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags: @GameMaster CJ
notes: here

With the pause that reigned between them, Gabriel was again reminded of its original purpose. once more it glanced around and slowly sat back on its haunches, ears pricking to attention. Then, it lost its grip on the world outside and turned its gaze inwards. anything that they might have said at that moment would not recieve a reply and would be only half-processed.

It looked within itself, searching for some kind of magic; usually when Gabriel successfully performed magic, it reached out to touch the world around, but this time it did not want to sense, but to change something within itself. What exactly it didn't know, but being successful in this endeavor would bring it to learn more about its magic and itself in the process.

Almost immediately, Gabriel felt a surge of power. Gabriel pushed that power around, trying to make it useful somehow- even though it didn't know exactly what it would do. Soon, Gabriel felt a growing feeling of nausea, a bubbling feeling gathering in its belly, and it felt all those tiny lifeforms working as one to create something unpleasant... Gabriel suddenly knew that this was the purpose that its magic served. It would definitely be able to channel it better now knowing what it did. A small smile twinged at the sides of the pup's muzzle despite the saliva that was beginning to trickle from one side of its mouth, the burning feel of bile at the back of its throat, and the general unwellness that was brewing inside it.

With a shudder, Gabriel pushed the feeling down.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."

tags:
notes: here