ORIGIN - Mountain Dew

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She'd promised to teach Dewberry whatever the little snake wanted, but so far she'd mostly just worked with her sort-of-sibling nearby. Today, she was hoping, might be different; and Azure was prepared, sort of.

Well, as prepared as she could be to try and teach a snake how to make things, which... generally required hands. She wasn't really sure how to go about this, in truth, but she was trying.

"Dewberry?" she called, looking over the supplies that she'd laid out.

Dyes, a bit of burnt coal (not too hard to find, here, not after Raheerah's tantrum), a couple of bones; a black feather, a blue and a white (from her own shed feathers), a bit of grass and a twist of wire, and a couple of small stones. There was a bunch of grass, too, along with the rocks she used as a mortar and a pestle.

She wasn't sure where she could go with all this, yet, but she hoped they could find out together.

@Dewberry

"Hi!" Dewberry called, slithering over to her sister's work station. She peered at the different supplies: dyes, grass, rocks, bones, feathers, and... a long twisty thing? "What is this?" she asked, nudging the wire with her nose. "Where'd you get it?" The rest of the stuff seemed to be easy enough; they could be gathered from Lesser Gembound, or, in the case of the gems, simply be formed from thin air with magic. Had the wire been formed in a similar way?

"What are we doing with these?" Dewberry asked, then amended it to: "What should I do? I can - move things with magic, or I can try some of the spells that you know?" She'd seen Azure make dye before, with ingredients similar to these. They could then be applied to a surface in streaks of vibrant color, and magic would make them permanent. She tilted her head to look at her own scales, considering for a moment what it would be like to be a different color. Not permanently, no... but it would be fun to try.

"You offered to paint me once - do you want to do that, after we make stuff? I could paint you too, if you want."

@Azure

"That's 'wire!'" Azure answered, taking a step back and to the side to make a little room for Dewberry. "Dip makes that out of scrap metal--mostly from the tunnels. I mostly use woven grass, myself, but the metal is pretty neat! So I uh," and here she paused, turning to look everything over.

She'd never really taught anyone this stuff, before. She wasn't sure which parts of it to explain, and why, so she fell back on slightly-confused honesty. "Well, after... Blackberry was pretty big on destroying shit, you know, and I--found out I like making stuff more. I don't really know all the words for any of it, and I'm probably not all that good at it but I find it, like--relaxing?" she tried, uncertain. Her heart was hammering in her chest, unexpectedly; she feared that Dewberry would maybe find the offer silly, or sad, or uninteresting. The latter wouldn't be so bad, maybe, but Azure... hoped. Hoped they could bond, hoped she could give Dew the same sort of happiness she herself had found in creation.

"Anyway, it's all stuff I taught myself so I figured... I could show you some stuff, you can pick what you want to do? And I can show you what I know. I'm not an authority on it, or anything, and maybe you can do better on things and we can teach each other!" Nervousness. Was she doing this right-? Azure took a breath and forced herself past her anxiety, pushing into the meat of it; she leaned down to tap black beak to one of the little bags. "In that bag's a bunch of what we call 'beads.' They're little gemstones with holes through 'em. I can make those with magic, and then put the wire or cord--uh, woven grass--through the holes. And then you get a string with lots of pretty beads on, and you can wear it!" She gently upended the bag, dumping out a few little beads--they were just tiny gemstones, really, and with her mind, she carefully threaded a few onto a woven cord lying beneath. The cord lifted into the air, the few beads sliding neatly and quickly onto it, so that in just a few seconds she had a passable bracelet, of sorts.

Azure then looked at Dewberry.

The snake.

Who had no limbs to wear jewelry on. Off whom necklaces would probably just fall. Oh.

Hurriedly, she moved on. "In that bag there's flowers from Eridanus. I've got magic that can preserve them, and then I can make a gemstone around them. I can put other stuff in there too, like... crushed stone--I crush it in that thing, there, with mind-magic," and here she nodded to the mortar and pestle, "so it's all glittery. And I can put that into other stone, so it comes out like this." Here she touched beak-tip to a small, clear quartz, through which were scattered--rather unevenly--speckles of glowing light. It was pretty, though hardly a masterwork.

"And this stuff's the paint, yeah! You can put this on walls, mix your own colors... some of it's pretty neat. Glowing stuff, or bone. -Sorry for, um, maybe overloading. I just figured I could introduce you a little bit to everything, and if something specific interests you, I could teach you how to do that? Or maybe some of the magic I use?"

Her tone was hopeful, kind. And only a little bit desperate--for her sister to approve, for her to be happy, for her not to judge Azure too harshly for... whatever imagined reason.

@Dewberry

Dewberry listened and watched closely, taking note of each kind of trinket Azure showed her. They were each pretty, but all in distinctly different ways. And they were versatile: differently-colored gemstones could be arranged into patterns, Dewberry thought, and she was already imagining the infinite variety of plants that might be made into preserved gems.

Since the beads were premade, it seemed like it would be a simple enough task to string them together. If she was going to make them from scratch, she would need to learn the spell Azure had used to make them, since she didn't think she could gather any the right shape and size with a hole already in them. Apart from those, the paints seemed to be the most approachable option.

She looked over the supplies again, thinking. Dewberry didn't know how she'd wear jewelry and slither at the same time - she didn't think it'd be very comfortable or convenient - but she could make some for Azure, or as lair decorations, maybe. Or trade them with other Gembound, like Azure had talked about, but she didn't think a beginner's project would turn out good enough for that.

"Can you teach me about the paints?" she asked, making her decision. At least with paint, she was pretty sure the colors eventually faded and washed away without magic. The results of any failure with paint would not be so permanent as a gemstone. It would be a good place to start, then.

@Azure

Gathering apprehension burst into excitement as Dewberry chose paints. She liked the idea-! She wanted-

Oh caves, oh fuck, she has nothing to paint with. Horror flickered through her. The snake could only... slither though paint. She couldn't hold a brush, or-...

Azure pushed the thoughts away. Dewberry could... use her tail, maybe. Or maybe Azure could make her something-...

"Sure!" she answered cheerfully (hiding her newly-blooming nervousness; she didn't want Dew to be disappointed). "This one might be a little harder with no, like--limbs--but you can paint with your tail, or your snout maybe. Or I can make you a ring to put your tail into, maybe? With a feather to paint with, or something. So!"

Azure turned, nosing at the little dye pots and the raw materials with her beak. "There's all kinds of things with nice colors in the caves. Berries, flowers, feathers, gemstones--and if you crush them, and mix them up, you can put them on things! You can use water to mix up most of it."

The little pots were corked with little bunches of dried-up plant; Azure popped the tops off so Dewberry could see inside, and turned, raising a baubled stone to provide a little extra light (the place was already strung with the things, anyway, but still). "So this one's, um--crushed up bone, mostly. And when you put it on things, it's like magic, the paint turns... hard like bones. And this one's from burnt things, so anything you put it on is just black, like charred wood. That's blue, from a gemstone, and that's orange--oh, and this one's great!" She unstoppered another, and bright light flooded out. "I made a rock glow, with magic, and when I crushed it up and added water, the paint still glowed! Oh and this one... Hold on, and don't touch this one. I'm not sure it's safe, and I don't wanna waste it," she added.

This one, when unstopped, glowed neon green. Black smoke seemed to shimmer through it. "...Cool, huh?" Azure said, in a hushed voice.

@Dewberry

Anything crafting-related seemed to be harder with no limbs, and Dewberry had to remind herself not to be frustrated. That could be fixed with magic, after all, and both she and Azure had the appropriate spells. It could even be an opportunity to hone both her artistic and magical abilities, if she did it right. Absentmindedly, she reached out to a feather in the pile. Could she paint with it, using her magic? But it seemed she didn't yet have enough control; it wobbled in the air and she could not get it to point the way she wanted it to. Oh well; Azure had other solutions.

She couldn't help but shudder a little at the bone-dye, remembering the abundance of bones in Canis. But it was a curious substance - how did it harden once applied? And how did Azure get the pieces of bone to dissolve in the water? These were questions she could ask later, Dewberry decided. There were plenty of less morbid dyes to explore first.

The glowing ones were particularly interesting, and she flicked out her tongue curiously when Azure uncapped the neon green paint. "What did you make it out of?" she asked. "Can we make more, so we can experiment without worrying about running out?"

@Azure

Azure watched the feather tremble and fall, and set herself then and there to making something the serpent could perhaps use. She turned, looking around, and set her gaze on the beads--maybe something like that? But... something that could fit a feather in it? Something Dewberry could push her tail into, alongside a feather; it'd take a bit of maneuvering, but once the ring was on and the feather tight to her tail, she could paint with it.

"That magic you're using's super useful for this stuff. I've gotta use it all the time but uh, I might have an alternative for some stuff, too." She pressed pointed black beak to the ground, and concentrated. Something easy to see, so she doesn't use it. Orange, maybe? Species color-blindness aside, orange usually seemed a decent choice. It took longer than expected--the magic didn't want to come, at first. And when it did, the ring was a little lopsided--thinner on one end than on the other. But it was topaz, by looks, and about the right size and shape, at least.

Azure used beak and claws to thread a feather in. "If you can push your tail tight enough into the ring it should hold the feather to your tail, if you want," she offered, then turned her attention to Dewberry's actual question.

"That one's kinda gross! But it's cool, right? We can make more, but it's not easy to make. I don't mind, though--I even have magic I can use to make paint permanent, so we could paint a picture and it'd glow forever! Uhh--it's made out of... let me think," and here she paused, brow furrowed down as she tried to remember. "I know I used some black goop from a fish I'd found. Dead, I mean, you know how stuff turns to oil-? I was just experimenting, 'cause the shine the oil leaves. Like uh, that pink and green shimmer. So I grinded up a green gemstone I made, and then a rock that I'd made glow, and mixed it all together. So that's like... green gemstone, oil and glow! It'd probably work with other colors, too, but I wanted to match that weird shine it has."

She eyed the stuff, then Dewberry. Normally she wouldn't want to waste this kind of thing--she avoided eating meat, and so oil wasn't something she ran into all that often. But this was her sister, and if this was the color that called to her, it was more than worth the use. "You can give it a try, if you want? We could put stripes on you, or paint the wall--anything's cool! Anything you want." Her tone was warm, encouraging; she genuinely couldn't wait to see what Dewberry did with her creativity.

@Dewberry

Dewberry watched as Azure summoned a gemstone ring, pressed into existence from other rocks. Its shape was a bit crooked, but when she tried to wedge her tail inside, it fit well enough and didn't slip off when she moved it around experimentally. "Thanks."

The glowing green dye was made from oil, which seemed like it might be easy enough to find at first. But the more Dewberry thought about it, the harder she realized it might be. She swallowed her prey whole immediately after catching it, and could not kill them with venom or constriction. She wouldn't be much of a help in collecting more oil to make the dye, unless she used her magic.

Fish, like Azure said, would probably be easiest - all she needed was to lift them out of water. But suffocation seemed like a cruel death, and Orion didn't have much water anyway, so they weren't the most convenient. Bugs, then? She could crush them with a stone, maybe.

If those were the ingredients, then Dewberry didn't think there'd be anything unsafe about it. As long as she didn't drink it, right? Still, she felt an instinctual shudder of disgust at the thought of actually touching something made with decayed fish goop. Maybe she could save that particular dye for... later. But glowing would be cool!

"Could you - put some of the glowing paint on me, maybe? The one without the oil in it? In any pattern you like. And I can... try to practice with something easier to make, first, on the walls?" Dewberry looked over the row of uncorked bottles. Blue to start with while she learned, maybe, so the design wouldn't be too obtrusive against the stone walls. She dipped her tail feather into the bottle, then lifted it out again carefully. It felt like a clumsy process, but it was her first time doing it. She'd get more dexterous over time, right?

An arc of blue paint on the wall close to the floor, along with two lines that converged to a point, formed a crudely-drawn bird's head. Back to the curve: two more lines formed the antlers, to which she added a couple more lines branching out. They were a little... short, though, and remarkably thick compared to the size of everything else. Dewberry gave the feather another dip, then placed a smear of paint in the forehead area for a gem. A dot for an eye, which ended up taking up half the blank rock space inside the head...

Her tail grew tired, and Dewberry wondered if the feather would work better attached to her nose. Ah... no, it did not fit there, she discovered, as she took it off and tried to wedge her snout inside. Her magic, annoyingly, failed when she reached for it. Tail again, then? Perhaps it would be easier to paint generic patterns than specific images. She stuck her tail back inside the gemstone ring, pausing to brainstorm what kinds of shapes she could try.

@Azure

Azure took the single step needed to come up alongside Dewberry, and then flopped down good-naturedly onto her belly. "Sure," she agreed, tone amiable, and picked up another feather in her beak. This one she'd nipped at, trimming it a little, for smaller precision--and the snake's body was small enough to need precision.

She used talons and beak to pry open the little jar--one of the water mixed with ground and baubled gemstone. "I can add colors, too, make it glowing green or red or whatever," she told Dew, and then picked the feather up in her beak again.

As Dewberry worked, Azure was focused on her own task: carefully marking lines and dots along the serpent's little scales. She made a sort of zigzag, diamond pattern--like a rattlesnake's markings--with little dots within and between them, as if to emphasize. She was sitting back to admire her glowing handiwork when she realized that Dewberry was eyeing over what she'd been paining on the walls--and Azure turned to look at it.

Her blue eyes widened. "Oh!" (and she forgot the feather was in her beak, and dropped it, but it wasn't like it'd be damaged or anything)--"That's me! Is that me? That's awesome!" she cried, and there was genuine enthusiasm in it. It wasn't that the paint was bad, or good, it was that it was her, and she was truly touched. She beamed at Dewberry, pleased and flattered--and noted that she was struggling to reposition the ring.

"Oh, uhh... I could try to make one that'd fit your head? If it's easier. Maybe... Hm. Give me a second," she said--"Oh! And look at the glow, tell me if you like it. I could always make it permanent, if you wanted." Hers wasn't really a drawing of anything, though--just a symmetrical pattern.

Then she eyed the ground, thinking about what she could do to help the snake to paint more easily. A hat-? No, she had nothing she could wear it on. And she was so small that even holding a feather might be hard.

"I could try to make, like... a double ring, big enough for your head. So like--we could stick a feather in one, and leave it there--or replace it, I guess, for new colors? And you can put it on and off. It'll be hard to get right, though," Azure mused.

A few moment's focus--and a grunt, at length, of effort--and a new gemstone slowly formed. This one was blue, unintentionally, not far off the colors that marked Dewberry's form here and there. But this one was in the shape of a figure eight, with one hole perhaps large enough for her head. Azure wasn't sure how snug the fit would be, but she sat back, eyeing it. "If you put the feather in the little hole, maybe you can put your head in the bigger one, and use it like that?" she suggested--and her eyes strayed back to the Azure on the wall. "I love that. Thank you," she added, still pleased.

@Dewberry

Azure's praise was the sun the caves had never known, and Dewberry basked in its warmth. "That is you!" she beamed, leaning her head against her sister's leg for a brief moment before reaching for the blue-dyed feather. She inserted this carefully into the figure-eight gemstone, then pushed her snout into the other end. It fit snugly--Dewberry didn't think she'd be able to talk with it on--and blocked out a good amount of her field of view, but it still fit! She'd have something to paint with! "mrmg-" oh. Dewberry leaned her head against a corner of rock, sliding the paintstone off. "It works! Thank you so much!"

And now she had glowing patterns, too, so there would be light where she went no matter what! At least, if they were made permanent. Now that the paint on her scales had had time to dry, Dewberry twisted around herself, looking at the markings Azure had drawn. "I love them," she breathed. "They're so pretty!"

But with as many colors of dye as Azure had, there were pretty much infinite possibilities beyond the glow. "I don't think I'd want them permanent--I mean, they're definitely good enough to be! But there are loads of different paints, and I kind of want to try them, you know? Be able to change it up every once in a while? I could help you make more colors, too, if you teach me!"

@Azure

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