ORIGIN

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Siren nodded, pink locks falling over her face as she turned her head to point back the way to Monoceros. "Yeah, it's over there," she explained. "It's really windy-- sometimes the wind gets so strong and it goes around in circles that it makes these real big, uhh-- twisty shapes, that picks up dust and rocks and stuff and throws them about. It's real angry."

From the pile she lifted a headpiece-- warped, either from age or to fit over a face that was more like Laurel's than her own. She studied it curiously for a moment, it's wings on either side of the head were rusted, but pretty. "Uh," Siren went on. "I don't really know how to fix things either but! I wanna learn, and I'll be the best at it." The humanoid nodded several times as she waded past the trash to place the helm on Laurel's face, without asking.

It was loose, but it did fit.

"Noise?" she asked, ears twitching upwards curiously. "Okay? What kinda noises can you make? I can scream and stuff but it's real loud and it hurts my throat."

@Laurel

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

"Angry wind?" She's heard some angry wind before, but nothing that actually did anything. She wondered what it'd look like- would it look like anything at all? "How do you see wind?" Laurel questioned, curious to hear the answer. Did she have some sort of magic to see it?

Laurel whipped her head at the noise of moving metal, eyes going wide at the weird metal looking thing. It looked like a Gembound's head, something like she'd see on a skull, maybe. "I think you'd be good!" The greyhound pointed her nose to the weird digits on Siren's paws.

Though, the headpiece was slotted right over Laurel's head. The dog blinked in minor confusion. It felt weird, but she glanced back to the mirrored plane to look at it. Almost instantly, her tail perked and she held up her head proudly, the piece dropping forward down her forehead ever so slightly. "It's really pretty! I like this stuff!" She turned her head this way and that, looking at all the angles. "Thank you, thank you!" She yapped, plopping down her butt again with a panting grin.

She thought for a moment on the 'noise' part. "Oh, right, yeah- I found out I can make this weird noise?" She pushed up the helm on her head with one paw as she tilted her head, her eyes unfocusing and staring off in the distance. Now, she just had to willingly summon the music. Alright.

Taking a deep breath, she focused on the spark of magic between her shoulders. All at once, a singular 'DONG' rang out from her spine, startling the canine. She yipped and jumped, faceplate dislodging itself from its place. "That wasn't supposed to happen!" She cried, trying to turn her head to stare between her shoulders.

@Siren

Serendipity considered this question carefully for a moment, furrowing her brow. "Uh, well," she murmured uncertainly. "Well, you can't-- but it picks up all this sand and dust and stuff so you can sorta see it. It doesn't have face," she added. "But it seems angry."

"Yeah, maybe?" Siren said as she waded back through the garbage to find More Things. "I dunno if anyone's like, super good at stuff without doing it a bunch of times though. I wasn't good at finding stuff until I did it a lot, 'cause you have to learn what stuff hurts when you touch it and stuff." She was good at it now, of course-- she'd done it so often that she hardly ever cut herself on the blades and sheets of metal, now.

She looked up from the piles expectantly as Laurel began to speak, and then summoned magic. She did not, however, expect whatever noise just came out of her mouth. She started, the hairs on the end of her tail straightening out and her ears bolting almost directly upright like a rabbit.

"HUH?" She grunted bewilderedly, blinking.

Unsure what just happened-- and being told it wasn't meant to happen --Serendipity decided not to bring up what might have been an embarassment for her. Instead, she moved right along.

"I can make fire," she offered, extending a hand. The limb heated up at once; it burned with golden-red fire that flickered in her hand. It would have burned the skin if it weren't protected-- naturally tough and calloused to resist the heat for a short time. Longer than anyone else could bare it unprotected, at least.

It faded shortly afterwards, leaving the mauve skin warm to the touch. "It, uh, burns, though," she said. "I dunno if you've ever seen fire before? But it hurts if you touch it and stuff. But it makes food taste sorta good?"

@Laurel

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

Boy, wind was weird.

Laurel stretched out her muscles as she tried to calm herself from the Bad Noise that resonated from her. Where id it come from? It was nothing like the magic she'd done before.

"I- guess," Laurel said to Siren's words. "That was the third time I've tried to do the noise, but uh.. First time it did that." She scratched at her face with a front paw, laughing softly. "I'm sorry."

At the paw offered, Laurel peered forward, leaning towards the hand. She could practically feel the heat on her fur as it glowed. "Wow," she murmured, staring into the light. "That's cool."

Laurel waited for Siren to finish talking before pressing her cold, wet nose into her hand, eager to feel the heat. "I don't know what burning is, is that like it hurting when you touch it? The uh... Sharp things don't burn, right?" She brought her snout back up to Siren's, tilting her head this way and that. "I haven't seen fire, can you do that too?" Her tail thumped against the metal below, causing a small piece to fall and clatter. Food sounded good right now, but she was more interested in this new friend she'd made.

@Siren

Siren blinked and shrugged, bending over to pick up the faceplate to settle it back onto Laurel's head. "I mean, it was a noise," she offered reasonably. "And yeah! I like fire." She grinned dumbly, rubbing her hands together and going back to rummaging through the piles.

"Yeah but it isn't like, a sharp pain like with scratches and stuff," Serendipity explained, lifting a sheet of metal to inspect it. It was warped, but mirror-like, not as rusted like the rest of the metals here. "It's like, uh, a dull kinda throbbing? And it gets really hot and stuff, 'cause it's fire."

"I don't think I can do fire, but I can, uhhh," she looked around, and then planted her hand on the sheet of metal, turning it to face Laurel. Her hand sparked up with more heat and began to heat up the metal, more and more and more until the thin aluminium began to melt.

When it did, Serendipity was quick to move her hand away before it melded into her skin. It was half-instinctual, half-common sense. She didn't want metal as a hand, after all. The silvery sheet was left with a child's handprint left behind in it, quickly cooling down enough that it left a slightly disorted shape behind.

"Uh, don't touch it now, though," Siren warned. "It'll still be really hot and burny and stuff but you can probably feel the heat from it if you get close enough?"

@Laurel

,

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

Laurel would purr if she were a cat at the touch once more. Instead, her tail just continued rapid fire smacking all over the place, hitting the metal below. Siren was right; it was a noise, a pretty magical one that someone else wouldn't be able to make.

"I like fire too," Laurel stated, fully knowing she had no clue what it was. She had to fit in with the cool kids, though. "So like, when you get really tired and you're hurt because you're tired?" That made sense. "Are we made of fire?" Something inside Laurel told her yes. She liked fire even more now.

The canine bent away to let Siren pick up the sheet, her face plate sticking on her head nicely. She'd probably grow into it eventually.

"Wow," she marveled as the sheet melted away, dark discoloration where the paw had been. Wide-eyed, Laurel reached a paw up to touch it just before she was told not to. A whine escaped her lips. She wanted to touch it though! But, politely and obediently, her paw found its way back to the ground as she stared. Instead, she brought her face close- it smelt kind of awful, but it did feel good! "How do you do that? I wanna do that." A tinge of sadness took over the greyhound; was it because she had a gem that she could do that? Laurel didn't think she had a gem, not like the other ones on the caves.

@Siren

Serendipity nodded along. Of course Laurel liked fire. Fire was the best. It was good, and bright, and warm, and those were the only features anything or anyone needed to be liked, of course.

For a moment, however, she was confused at what the greyhound was asking. A moment of consideration later, however, she came to understand that when she was tired, her eyes did sort of burn. It wasn't like how fire burned, but it was similar enough. "Yeah, a little bit? But like, way more hurt."

She didn't think they were made of fire, though. "We're not really filled with fire, we're filled with blood. So we're probably made out of that instead?" She shrugged very casually; as newborn gems do when they discuss such topics as What Are We Made Of.

Her dimly-lit gaze flicked between the melted sheet of metal and the dog. "I dunno," she admitted. "I just think about doing it and then it happens but it sort of hurts. I think it might be like how you make noises, because your gem glows when you do it, and mine sorta glows when I do fire-- though it's hard to tell because my gemstone is on my paw and my paws start glowing whenever I do it. With the fire." She added, as if to clarify.

A long moment of consideration later-- "Do you think where our stones are effects what kind of things we can do? And things with their stones on their paws do fire and things with their stones on their shoulders do noises?"

@Laurel

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

If fire hurt, Laurel probably wouldn't like it that much. But, Siren liked it, so there should be some bonus to it, right?

"Yeah, but what if fire is just another word for blood?" She didn't seem to be getting it at all. Blood was a thing to be made out of, maybe, yeah. But what about everything else? She was pretty squishy, and her skin held in the blood, probably a lot like the other creatures she hunted.

Thoughts rattled around in Laurel's empty brain as she studied the hand print on the metal, still, ears pricked as she memorized it through sight and scent. It was weird; maybe she could ask someone about it later on.

The canine turned when Siren spoke again. She had her full attention. If it hurts, why do it, she almost asked, but bit her tongue. That'd be rude to say. "Maybe?" Is all she could muster up to say, the line of thought edging on the border of too advanced for people with zero brain cells.

Curiously, Laurel turned her head to study the thing on her head as Siren thought as well. She didn't really expect the question to be turned on her, though.

"Umm.. Maybe, but I don't make noise from my back, normally?" Her shoulders rolled where her gem was. "Like.. My throat moves when I talk, so my gem should be in my throat?" She didn't understand. "Maybe people with gems on their throats to different things." She shook her head. This was getting too convoluted. It was time to change the subject.

"Um... Are we friends?" A soft, anxious whine escaped her lips as she held her head down and gazed up at Siren with the biggest puppy-eyes. She looked like a 2nd grader who'd just confessed their love to a girl during recess. Friends talked, right, and they gave each other things, so they were friend, right? It was a perfectly valid line of thought.

Though, Laurel hadn't given anything to Siren, yet. She didn't know if anything here would be better than Siren could find herself- maybe she'd just have to find something for her later on. That worked.

@Siren

Siren thought about this possibility as about as hard as an eight-year-old's brain possibly could, but she ended up gently shaking her head. "No, I don't think so. Blood's a bit like water 'cause it runs and stuff and it's wet but fire is, like, really dry. I think they're different things." Truthfully, she wished she were made of fire, rather than... squishy smelly red stuff. It'd be a lot cooler, for one.

The child absent-mindedly adjusted the faceplate on Laurel's face, thinking. "I dunno," she admitted. "Magic seems sort of random but I don't know anyone who can do what we do but I don't know anyone else who can do any other magic, either." Siren did not, in fact, know anyone else. But that was far besides the point, because Not Having Other Friends was totally Uncool. Serendipity had to look, Cool.

Speaking of which--

"Yeah, duh," she said, surprised. "Of course we're friends. Why wouldn't we be?" It seemed quite obvious to her, truthfully-- no one was being mean to each other and no one was eating each other or anything. They were talking and being friends, and therefore they were friends.

Were there meant to be other ways of achieving friend status?

Serendipity had no idea. "We'll be friends forever," she assured with a very confident nod, patting Laurel's shoulder gently before she returned to rifling through the piles of junk laying on the floor.

@Laurel

L A U R E L
i'd prolly rather nap than wonder

Laurel's tail thumped against the ground absentmindedly as she thought. Fire was confusing. "I guess," she murmured out, somewhat defeated. Blood being fire made sense to her. Maybe it was a bit too much for her baby brain to comprehend.

Magic, it seemed, was the same, though in a more positive way, at least. Her energy returned at the touch and readjustment, tail wagging a bit faster. "Maybe we're really special?" Obviously, friends were special things, and maybe they were meant to be friends because they were so special! She hadn't seen anybody use magic before, and to see someone else able to do what they called magic, well. That was something special.

The little pup's body seemed to practically quiver at the affirmation of friendship. She actually had a friend! Laurel's tongue lolled out in a grin as she looked up to Siren with wet eyes. They were friends! Laurel didn't really understand what a friend was, but maybe friends were people you really really care for, and the canine wouldn't mind describing Siren under that umbrella.

Her body almost exploded out of her fur at the pat. Hopped up on excitement, the canine stood and whole body waggled from side to side, excitement abound. "Wait! I wanna find something for you! That's what forever friends do!"

She had no clue what 'forever friends' did, but hopefully that'd be it. As Siren returned to scavenging, Laurel paced and waded through the metals. It all looked odd- she had no clue what her new friend would even want.

An idea came to her. "Wait, Siren!" Laurel called, her head turning back to the odd gembound. "There's shiny stuff in the bone room, different from the stuff here! I can get you some of those if you want 'em?" There were tons of colorful bits stuck in the bones, she'd found, so many that she probably couldn't carry them all back. She'd try though, for her friend! "It's not that long away," Laurel continued, pointing her snout in the direction she'd come from. "It's uh.." She paused. How did she get here again? "I think it's a right- no, it's a left! Left if you're coming from this way!" White paws trampled back towards Siren, her tail still wagging and her faceplate dislodged once more from trying to find some more things. "We could go together!"

@Siren

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