ORIGIN - And So the Cycle Begins Again

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As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
The way Oliver put it, they were all little Spires, they were all its children, although she thought her butt-gem made her look more like the Spire than him. It matter not, they were all equal under the shadow of the Spire.

"So, you can weave it, make it do what you want, like silk?" Thothaga asked. She had yet to use her spinnerets, yet she knew of their abilities, like an ancient memory within her DNA. She imagined spinning a web of magicka. She'd summon different kinds, water, darkness, light, and weave them into something useful.

Thothaga placed a foot on a broken shard from her chrysalis and wondered if she could make it glow or draw water from it. Her gem shimmered as it drew on magicka from within, and around it. Suddenly, her essence and shard's connected. Like a pop of lightning, images flashed through her head, broken and fleeting. She saw a pale shape with many legs, the next, the chrysalis's walls shattered releasing a flood of amniotic fluid. As swiftly as the visions came, they vanished.

Startled she stumbled back as if she'd been zapped. Oliver's voice drew her back to reality. Thothaga turned her body towards him, confused like she had been in a daze. "I'm sorry." She said, rubbing her pedipalps together. "What..?" She kept her gaze on Oliver as she wondered if he shared the same experience. "Did.. you see that too?"

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Oliver // OOC:

Oliver peered, for a beat, waiting, but instead of responding, Thothaga seemed to become distracted. At first she appeared enamored with his words, with the concept of magic--but then she was turning, touching the stone, and seemed quite startled by something.

"See? Uhh... I saw you touch the rock. So. ...No?" Bewildered, he hesitated, then scooted forward a little to press his own forelimb's talon on a small piece of stone--it might have been gemstone from the chrysalis, or merely a pebble; he didn't really pay attention. He did, however, focus on his own magic, speaking as he did.

"I'm not sure what silk is but that sounds right? You can--weave it, sure. Make it do what you want. Like this," he added, satisfaction blooming in him as the small bit of stone began to glow golden-white. He removed his talons, pushing it gently toward Thothaga. "You can keep that, if you want it. So-... Different Gembounds can do all sorts of things with it. I mean I explained some of it but. There's more, a lot more. You can make people sick, or healthy. You can make water outta nowhere. Or fire, too. --Though I guess, I mean--fire usually comes outta nowhere-..." He trailed off, puzzled for a moment by his own words, silent.

At length he shook himself out of his brief fire-related trance, blinking at Thothaga.

"There's a hyena in the bone-room that says she can tell the future from it. There's a white dragon somewhere that can boil the air with energy and once he blew his own eye off--it can be dangerous. There's a big ice-bird that can make whole oceans of ice. And I used to know a bat who could see things by their heat. I think."

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Thothaga

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
"A hyena that can tell the future?" She gasped, staring up at Oliver with her many, many eyes. She wondered what a hyena was.

Thothaga drew the glowing shard closer to her, and played with it by covering it with her claws, and watching its golden light seep through. "Thank you," She said sweetly. "I like this shiny." Thothaga wanted to keep with her. She could carry it in her fangs, but she would need to eat sooner or later.

My silk! Of course!

Thothaga pulled a few strands of thin, white silk from her spinnerets and wrapped it around Oliver's gift like an amulet, as if she had so many times before. "Now, I can keep it with me." Thothaga chittered with giddiness as she attached it to the peak of her protruding gem. "To remind me of Oliver the nice bird-dog."

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Oliver // OOC:

Oliver's ears went back, his head lowering and his feathered tail briefly sweeping the floor. He was pleased, and it showed, though the upturning corners of his black lips could barely be called a smile.

"That's--very nice!" he responded softly. He hoped she liked it. "And that--use of your um. Spiderweb? That's really smart." He nodded, peering at it for a moment, blinking gentle blue eyes.

For a moment he sat, thinking, then he spoke again. "You could carry lots of stuff like that. Maybe make... bridges... ladders and stuff for other Gembound. Even-... Bind up wounds," he added. The implications of such an ability were, to him, immense and interesting.

"Um--meanwhile, is there anything else I can--do for you?" he added, blinking at the spiderling again. "The caves are pretty big, and if we leave we might not see each other again for a long time."

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Thothaga

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
The spiderling crouched and wiggled her abdomen, making Oliver's trinket dance in the air. "I like you," She chirped. "You are very kind, bird-dog."

Thothaga giggled at all of Oliver's ideas. She didn't know what half of them were but the words sounded funny. "Yes! Yes! And I will spin a big web with Oliver on it, it will shine like crystals and catch many flying things!" She reared and stretched her font legs out wide, as if she was already admiring this grand web she had woven in her mind.

At first, it didn't cross her mind that, eventually, she and her new friend would have to part ways. Thothaga already felt small compared to the great Spire, but when Oliver hinted at rooms beyond Polaris, she felt even smaller. Would the caves swallow him up, never to be seen again? Thothaga drooped. "What do you mean?" The spiderling felt new emotion swell with in her. It was heavy and weighed her down like stones. She was... sad, and showed in her eyes. She did not want Oliver to become lost to her.

"No!" She protested, rearing once more. "I will wrap you up like shining crystal!" Suddenly she pulled strands of silk from her spinnerets and threw them at Oliver as her many legs went to work, attempting to tie him up in a sticky, Oliver-sized cocoon. "And take you with me! I will carry you, that way, we can still see each other! "

Thothaga was enthusiastic about this idea, exploring the caves with her new friend literally by her side. Unfortunately, she did not take into account Oliver's feelings on the matter, or the uncomfortably sticky situation she was wrapping him up in.

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: @Oliver // OOC: god forgive me

Oliver's eyes widened as the sticky webbing started to thwap all over him. He let out a short and startled yelp, scrambling backwards but half-tangled already. His voice came alarmed and protesting.

"What--no no no! No! Don't--do that! I'm alive, I can't get tied up and carried around! I need to go around and--do my own things! My own stuff!" he added, as if 'stuff' somehow clarified what, exactly, he meant by 'things.' "And you have to do your own things too. There's lots of others in the caves, it's not just us! I can fly, anyway! If you wanted company I can just kinda flap to you!"

Okay, technically it was gliding, but right now Oliver wasn't about to nitpick on the distinction. Instinctively, his worry bordering on fear, he tried to call up water to slick some of the sticky webbing from his fur and feathers. It came, though not very strongly, the wet making him at least slippery enough that he hoped he could wriggle out of it--given enough time.

He knew that Thothaga was young; he knew that she would be enthusiastic, and ignorant, about the world. He had no doubt in his mind that she might well hurt--even kill--others by mistake, until she knew better. She might bind him up, then realize that he was far too heavy for her to carry, and either drag him around or leave him to die. Could she even get the webbing off, if he were cocooned?

"I'm too big to carry, anyway," he added worriedly, hoping he was right.

{Table code credit to Madison, altered a bit!}

@Thothaga

As a maiden she tiptoes shy with her light
She is modest and pure as she graces the night
Thothaga paused mid weave.

Her pedipalps twitched, then suddenly, she snipped the silk from her spinnerets. "Sorry." Thothaga said sheepishly as she sliced open Oliver's unfinished cocoon with her fangs. "I got... carried away. Oliver is not crystal, Oliver is living friend." She helped him untangle the sticky web from his fur and feathers and rolled it into a ball. "Take it." She said, pushing it towards him. "Gift from talking spider, Thothaga." If her physical form would have allowed it, there would have smile on her "face". Instead, her beady black eyes just stared at Oliver, unblinking and inscrutable .

I wish the silk would glow like Oliver's gift. She thought longingly. She imagined it glowing, like the crystal shard, just for fun.

Suddenly, each strain of the balled up silk began to glow faintly, like a tangled strands of light. "Oh!" She gasped, pulling her foreleg away from it. "I made it glow!" Pride rose in her abdomen, and she thought she felt magicka surge from her gem.

With a flick of her forlegs, she rolled the ball towards him. "Very thirsty now, must drink entire river, enjoy shiny silk." She turned and headed off. After a few paces, she stopped and looked back at her new friend. "Oliver come, if he wants." Though she could not make expressions, her eyes glistened as if they were almost pleading. And with that, the spiderling took off in the direction of the Crystal River.

-exit Thothaga-

"Listen to me."
Thoughts...

TAG: // OOC:

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