ORIGIN

Serendipity blinked up as Azure started laughing, not getting the joke. Maybe she was laughing off the failure, instead? Was that healthy?

Ah, well, no time to think too hard about it. She rolled her shoulders back for a moment. "I got it,"she said quietly, focusing back onto the ground below her hands. Another deep breath and, finally, she really did got it.

Smooth, glittering blue stone began to rise underneath her palms, slowly forming into a longer shape. It was outright exhausting, more so than it usually was. Sweat shone off her arms and face while she focused on the shape-- long and tipped with a triangle, and then the protruding bars of the crossguard, and then the handle of the hilt.

She was out of breath by the time she had finished. It was more a sword in the way that it was shaped than anything else-- the blade was a little too thick, not sharp enough, but it sure was a sword. Dip moved her hands back, wiping her forehead, and then lifted it up.

"It needs some work on it," she said, studying the gemstone. "It's sorta heavy, too, but maybe if I sharpen it up and grind down the stone it'll weigh a bit better. What do you think?" She turned the sword over for Azure to get a good look at it.

Shuffling, she went to stick her hand into the puddle while Azure took a look at it, swiping the water across her face. She flicked an ear back to listen to Azure speak while she did so, thinking, considering.

A big bag was what she initially had in mind, too, and that ultimately seemed a little inconvenient to her. Lugging a lot of weapons and armour bits and jewellery around, even if it'd mean reaching more people, ultimately seemed like it'd be a lot of work. But then again, so did clearing out a new house.

Her knuckles brushed against the hollow of her chin, thoughtfully. "Maybe we could look into moving things," she said. "Things that you can drag or push along easier than carrying everything in a bag?"

What she was imagining now was something akin to a sled-- a basket, with something that could make movement easier? But what? Dip eventually shook her head a bit. Her mind was foggy enough after casting-- not in the state to try to plan a whole new project.

"I'll look into something but we might find something that won't be that hard to clean up, you know?" She said, mildly reassuring. "Moving would be good-- fun, maybe, too, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. I need to think and find some stuff, you know?"

She didn't want to sound very dismissive of Azure's ideas-- in fact she was afraid of coming across like that. She wanted to make it work, and find something, but it'd be better to do it after a good nap and a clear head.

Azure laughed for a solid fifteen seconds, caught in her own fit of hysteria, before choking out words. "Sorry, I was gonna--I was gonna make a little sword as a joke and be like ha ha, you know, I beat you to it but I didn't even manage that," she managed to choke out. Laughing at herself, then--not at Dip, at least. She shook her head and managed to stifle back further laughter as the sword swept into graceful being.

Thick, maybe; dull, perhaps, but Azure wasn't a blacksmith so to her it looked like a perfect, gleaming, glittering gem-blade. "Whoa! Looks like the joke's on me, that's great," she praised Dip, with genuine admiration. A brief click of nails had her circling to look at it from various angles, bird's head tilting sharply this way and that to get a better look. "...Can I glow it? I want to try something. Have you ever tried grinding down glowing rock-? Maybe we can make glowing dust!" she went on, in a rush of enthusiasm, eyes again widening. The possibilities here were fascinating. They could paint with glowing dust, or suspend it in liquid--for some reason-?--there had to be a use for that. "I bet there's loads we could do with glowing dust! Imagine if we could find a way to paint it onto stuff? Glowing patterns, symbols!" she went on, excitedly.

"It's really good work, though," she hastened to add, eyeing over the sword again. "How d'you think it'd stand up against a metal one? Like if they were both in good condition?"

As for the whole moving-and-selling thing, Azure just acknowledged this with a brief chirp and a bob of her head. She wasn't concerned about being dismissed--Dip was too careful for that; she knew it wasn't a very well-fleshed-out idea. Just a concept to keep in mind, really.

She'd have to think about it, herself. Maybe invent the wheel, or something.

Serendipity blinked a few times, and then snorted amusedly. "We should do a contest sometime to see who can make a tiny sword first," she responded playfully. Not right now, though-- she was already almost exhausted from making the sword.

She thought for a moment as she turned the blade over in her hands for a moment. She'd never tried to scrape down anything that Azure had made glow, no-- that would be rude. The humanoid eventually pushed herself up and started heading towards the entrance to the den. "C'mon."

The sword was set down on the stone-slab table and she went rummaging around piles of-- well, trash, to find what she was looking for. "Can you glow the gem sword for me?" She asked, as she pushed aside a sheet of thin metal (which, she realised a second later, might make for good wire-stuff).

"I dunno if it'll be as good as or better or worse than a metal sword," she admitted, as she took out a scrap of cloth, studied it, and then tucked it right into her pocket. "I mean, there's only really one way to find out, y'know?" She paused, staring at her coat for a moment, and then a memory came flooding into her head.

Who knows what the Collector had, but he might be able to help with the moving-stuff problem. Serendipity wasn't very sure if she'd like what he might ask for in return, however. He had mentioned gathering relics in Hydra, last time, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to risk death to get something to move a store around with.

Dip glanced back to Azure, and then back to the pile. She pulled out a satchel and moved to set it on the table, going back into her pocket while leaning onto the stone. "Hey, uh," she began, slowly-- carefully, caves knows she didn't want to worry Azure. "There's someone I might be able to ask about getting stuff packed up and moved around but I'm not sure if he'll have anything."

A pause. "I'm not sure what kind of pay he'll ask for either." Murder, probably. "But I can handle it. I'll just be out in Canis for a bit to see if he's still there." Which he might not be, considering it'd been ten cycles.

From her pocket she produced a flat stone and the scrap of cloth she had archived in there not twelve seconds ago, setting them on the table as well.

"One way to test?" Azure parroted, amused. "What, smash them into each other and see which one breaks?"

She paced over to the gemstone sword and reared up a little, planting both taloned magpie-feet onto its shimmering blue blade. Blue glow, to go with the blue, she decided. Most of her light was blue, a little was just... light; she'd never mastered, nor even really tried, other colors.

Azure concentrated, for a long moment, listening to Dip speak of the Collector as she did so. The gemstone flared into slow illumination, glowing from within until it was a bright, solid azure hue. She fell back, blinking contentedly at it. "Okay, it's glowing. -It's pretty," she added, almost in surprise. "I think the blue on blue works? I like it," she added--not that she'd have any use for an actual sword, but to look at, it was pretty.

"While you're out I can look for wire? Is there anything else you need?" Sometimes she'd offer, and keep a lookout for certain metal or rocks. Indeed, she sometimes brought things back of her own accord--armor scraps she'd thought looked interesting, or things like that; not all of them proved useful, but it was fun, somehow, nonetheless. A shared endeavor, a creative, constant work... something to keep her busy.

She turned to pace a few steps toward Dip, peering to see what she was doing, and then moved a little aside so as not to be in the way.

"Two ways to test," Serendipity smirked. "I think smahsing them into each other would be bad, though, considering it'd destroy one of the swords."

She watched Azure with a softer, fonder smile-- admiration, as the blue glow enveloped the sword. She moved for the hilt once the hybrid moved away, gently turning it over in her hand. "The gemstone might be better, though," she said thoughtfully. "It might be harder to melt, and harder to fix, and it probably won't rust. It might be heavier though-- so harder to use. But using it is sorta the only way we'll find out which is better."

Dip nodded her agreement regardless as she picked up the whetstone and scraped it against the gemstone. There was a brief moment of fear-- that the rock wouldn't do anything --but the stone was fine. Aside from the horrific screeching, but that was par for the course. "I like it, too," she said. "It makes it look really magical and pretty."

Shriek. Shriek. Shriek. Such were the noises of the blacksmith. As she ground the gemstone with the rock it dusted out onto the cloth she left out-- glittery, starlit blue flakes fell onto the rag below, starting to amass a delicate pile as Serendipity scraped along.

"I don't think I need anything else, nah," she said. "I'll go soon, maybe, just to see, and be back before the lights turn off, yeah?" She half-shifted as she spoke to let Azure see the gathering dust, grinning gently over.

Azure retreated quickly once the shrieking of stone-on-stone began, flopping back down beside her flowers. Beak prodded at the next one in the chain--a little daisy, by looks--and she peered up, briefly, as Dip worked.

"Oh, I figured you'd have to destroy 'em to figure out how much they can take, anyway. It's pretty, either way," she agreed--and then, since she couldn't pick the damn thing up herself--"How much heavier is it?"

She had little else to add, just content in the routine; but when Dip finished, she pushed up and nail-and-hoof-clicked her way back over to peer at the dust pile. She eyed this thoughtfully, for a time, leaving the flower behind her (her magic hadn't seemed to take at all, but that wasn't unusual).

"Sure. I mean, I'll be fine here. Say, do you mind if I try something with this dust while you're out? I'll try not to use it all, but we can always make more. Thanks for grinding it all up, by the way. I don't think I could hold the rocks long enough to do it," she added; telekinesis was only so strong, and though Azure was quite experienced with it by now, there was only so much she could do.

She considered this and supposed it would make sense-- it'd be good to see if one was more durable than the other but Serendipity didn't want to lose a blade doing something dumb. "It's not like, so heavy I can't lift it, but," she paused for a moment, searching for the right words to explain, as she twisted the sword gently on the table. "It might not be great if it slows you down while you're fighting something, right?"

Sword and grindstone shoved aside for now, she picked up the rag, carefully, and poured it down into the satchel. There wasn't huge amounts of it, but enough to start testing something, sure. The rag, still a little glittery, was set aside as Dip pulled the flap over and lifted the strap.

Pulling it up, she offered the leathery strap to Azure, so that she could take it. "Don't worry about it. Use as much as you like, yeah?" Caves knew that sword was still nowhere near done. There'd be a lot of magic dust to go around. "I can make more for you when I get back if you like it."

Serendipity stretched out briefly and tilted her neck either way until the joint made a low popping noise. To which, she groaned a bit and shook herself out with a rustle of cloth. "Do you want anything while I'm there as well, from Orion or Canis?" She asked.

Azure eyed the swords critically as Dip spoke.

"Yeah, I guess not, although if something's heavy enough and sharp enough you can just swing it down, it'd be strong enough to cut something's head off. Like a dragon," she added, wryly, though she wouldn't have recommended attempting it.

Even getting close enough to try would be dumb. They'd burn you alive before you could attempt it.

Or... ice you.

Whatever.

Fucking dragons.

She took the satchel gratefully, first with her beak, then transferring it to one forefoot. She eyed Dip thoughtfully, tilting her head. Did she need anything from Orion-? No, not that she could think of. Canis..? "Bring me back a couple of bones, maybe?" she suggested. "I'll see if I can make anything with 'em. Cool-looking ones," she added, with enough humor in her tone to show that she was leaving "cool" up to Dip. "Be safe, yeah? I'm going to get to work on these flowers."

Serendipity side-eyed Azure for a moment, and then offered another bemused snerk. "Like a dragon," she agreed. Maybe gemstone swords would be good exclusively for killing dragons; she'd just need to sharpen it up enough that it could cut through scales and bones.

Morbid, she abruptly thought to herself. She took the whetstone off the table and stuffed it back into her pocket, stepping outside the den again.

Bones were cool enough, at least-- she could find some interesting ones. She paused and then backpedalled to the pile again, yanking out a second satchel (because, let's be honest, her pockets were grimey enough and she didn't need Bone Dust to be added to it) and pulled it over her head, avoiding the horns. "I'll see what I can find," the humanoid nodded. She'd see what she could take without someone getting offended, at least.

She stepped back outside and ruffled out her coat. "Yeah, I will," she said. She wasn't usually very worried about her own safety but the gentle anxiety of what the Collector might ask for nipped at the back of her neck. "Good luck with the flowers. I'll be back before it gets dark."

Hands stuffing themselves into her pockets, Serendipity started to make her way out of Monoceros.

"Sure," she chirped, cheerfully. She watched Dip go.

She was... desperately glad her friend hadn't died, really. Not to get too dark about the whole thing, but Azure's sense of safety and stability wasn't exactly all there. Security was hard to come by when dragons kept wrecking all your shit every time you built a life. Not that it was even always dragons. Having Dip still around was a point of... well, an anchor in the bird-hybrid's life, and a good one.

Azure couldn't have asked for a better friend, really.

She turned and lay back down, flat on her stomach, with her hooved hind legs splooted out behind her; and she nudged at her flower again, a moment of rare and peaceful contentment overcoming her.

She'd work while Dip was out; and her friend would get back safe. She always did.

Azure tried to ignore the anxiety that gnawed at her, assuring her that it wasn't the case. Nothing lasts forever, that little whisper warned, and Azure told it to shut the hell up, because she was busy preserving flowers.