Splashy watched as the reptile stood straighter. She wondered if he was trying a spell. With a head tilted to the side, she began to wonder what else he could do. Slowly, she began to notice a change. It was gradual, and by the time she noticed that it was colder, snow was already beginning to pile up. She then turned to the red wolf who was watching. With a bashful lick of her chest fur, she responded. "I-I'm not very good. He's the one who is good. This is...my first time ever doing anything like this." She turned back to the snow and watched it until the reptile spoke. Flicking an ear slightly, she opened her mouth, "Splashy." She shifted for a moment, unsure if she should say more or stay quiet.

After a moment, she spoke again. "What other spells can you do?" She had never seen someone else with the same type of spells as her, so she had to admit she was fascinated. She only had two that she knew of, and Ghanyarah seemed to know lots! She continued to watch the snow slowly falling, accumulating into a blanket of the cold, white fluff.

@Ghanyarah

Cuan wished that she could do something- ANYTHING, for the party. maybe moving a pretty pebble to a flattering place?

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again

Hael was more than a bit overwhelmed by all of the gembounds present. From afar, the group hadn't even looked that big! And there were still more creatures coming!
The kitten curiously listened as the larger feline beside her spoke, first to another cat (the one that looked like her!) and then they talked to her, greeting and welcoming her to the party. Hael flushed under her fur and hoped she had made a subtle entrance. Suddenly, the idea of all those eyes on her was a bit unsettling.
But it wasn't hard to see that she wasn't the only one feeling that way. The feline that had greeted her first looked just as shaken, if not a bit more. Almost neurotic, even, like they'd make a dash for the exit if two creatures would talk to them at once. Hael glanced at them, unsure if she should say something, in fear of startling them.
She decided on a quiet "Thank you." and left it at that. There was too much happening to worry about it much longer anyway.

The grey cat beside the larger feline made an Ice Sculpture out of thin air, like the one that had been there already when Hael arrived. She couldn't help but gasp. "Woah!" The kitten exclaimed, a grin splitting her thin, ebony lips, revealing her sharp baby teeth. "That's so cool!" An admiring glance was cast to the grey cat, before her amber eyes continued to trail over the rows of party guests.

A red-pelted creature entered, bigger than Hael. Instinctually, the fur on her spine raised, but she didn't know why. Something about their smell just unsettled her? The sharp canines flashing when they spoke didn't help at all. The kitten quickly averted her eyes.
Unfortunately, the next in line mirrored the other gembound almost completely. Only the placement of their stones was different - were the first gembound had their stone in the middle of their back, this one's replaced their right eye.
They introduced themselves as Xireidei, which made Hael feel a bit better about them. She liked knowing their name, even if it was as good as useless.

Then the brown-haired creature spoke, the one the two Ice Sculptures were modeled after. Maybe they were important? They had to be! Why else would they have two sculptures made for them?
But sadly, Hael lost focus halfway through the creature's speech. She wasn't very good with following long tirades yet.
And the scale-y gembound beside them was much more interesting to look at anyway!
Their gem was red and like a horn and their body was super long!

Hael would've starred longer, but then the other gembound met her gaze (just for a split-second, they probably didn't even notice, but Hael definitely did) and the clash of red against amber eyes was enough to startle the kitten out of her interest.
She watched as they made snow, which delighted Hael so much that she didn't even need to make an effort about not looking at the scary gembound anymore. The snow was fascinating enough to hold her interest for a while.

One of the dog-ish gembounds talked again and then the cat beside Hael, who made more snow, but she only zoned back into the conversation when the scary gembound was talking to the grey cat, which she ignored and instead played with the snow that had begun gathering on the ground instead of melting.
She bounced her front legs up and down, watching as her paws left imprint in the fresh layer of white. Her right pawpad made a soft chink! noise whenever the moonstone gem clashed against the snow beneath, but Hael hardly noticed.

She heard the older cat beside her introduce herself as Splashy, which she made sure to repeat silently to herself as to commit the name to memory. Although the other feline had taken close to no notice of her, Hael wanted to get to know them. Splashy was the first cat like herself she'd met! Didn't they want to get to know her too?

And then it hit her that almost everyone seemed to have something to do. Splashy and the scary gembound could make Ice Sculptures and snow, the brown-haired one was planting flowers and arranging fruits - but what could she do? "Can I help with something?" Hael mumbled sheepishly, glancing up at Splashy from the corner of her eyes but technically speaking into the open round.
There had to be something she could help with, right? A way to become useful. She didn't want them to think of her as a tiny, helpless baby.

For: All the party people!

Notes here!

Thanks Vii❣

Cuan looked at the gemling who had looked away from her. Her thoughts drifted off to her daydreams. These daydreams had a plant, a plant that when eaten, tasted cold and sweet. Cuanakrys snapped back to reality, and wondered why the kitten had looked away from her. Was something wrong? "Hello?" Cuanakrys asked the multi-colored kitten.

@Hael

The reptile cocked his head at the feline's modesty. Her ice sculpture might not have been as accurate, but that didn't mean it wasn't good. Any art was good art and Ghanyarah didn't believe he had any right to judge anybody but himself - after all, he was his own worst critic. But even so, Ghanyarah didn't always strive to be better. Sometimes, having something that wasn't perfect was better than having something incomplete, or nothing at all. He wanted to reassure her that her work was just fine. "Producing anything at all is good for a first time." He answered crisply, speaking not just to comfort her, but the truth. It would have been a failure only if she couldn't summon her magic, and even that was a failure built on learning.

"I have been practicing for many cycles." The reptile added as he shifted his attention back to Cuanakrys. It had taken a long time and even still Ghanyarah felt he could always improve. There were moments he felt himself nagged with frustration remembering all his shortcomings. His loss to the white dog that he had tried to eat. His attempts to teach Nova. How long he had spent trying to protect his kin, only to see them vanish after re-emerging from his chrysalis.

He nodded at the feline again. "Splashy. A fine name." Ghanyarah said, drawing his mouth into a strange reptilian smile. "I can do many other things. Most of my magic is violent and meant to harm, however..." He spoke thoughtfully, trying to think of anything else he could show her. He didn't want to harm anyone here in order to demonstrate his abilities. So instead he stepped back and sucked in a lungful of air, instantly feeling it grow heavier within his chest. Then he gathered it all up in his cheeks.

What he had intended was a grand display of water streaming from his jaws like a glorious fountain, producing a mist that caught the rainbow light, but he'd miscalculated. Or a trickle of water had fallen back into his windpipe. One way or another, it wasn't exactly the spectacle he'd been planning, because when he made to spit the water up above their heads, he choked - coughed - and sputtered a pathetic few spurts of water instead. Heat instantly rose to his scales as embarrassment set in and Ghanyarah laughed loudly and awkwardly. "It usually looks a lot better than that!" He admitted sheepishly, sinking into the ground.

The kitten, the one he'd eyed hungrily, wanted to know if there was anything she could do. "Surely whatever you can do is more impressive than me." Ghanyarah said quickly, hoping to shove the attention onto the kitten while he nursed his bruising pride.

Conversation sprung up around him, and Tuck couldn’t help but smile. This was the most excited he’d been in some time. While giving himself a break from his failing Magic, he hopped closer to the others, deciding to point out the lack of food in the vicinity. Tuck had grown a lot mentally since hatching, especially after he’d Bonded with a carnivorous kyte, and he didn’t really care that some Gembounds needed to eat other Gembounds, as long as the only kinds being eaten were the kinds that didn’t talk. “Hey guys!” he called out, looking around at all the cats (why were there so many cats?) and wolves and the big lizard. “A couple of you should go hunting or something,” he suggested. “Unless you wanna go hungry… or… try some fruit, I guess. But I’m assuming most of you with those very sharp-looking teeth wouldn’t enjoy fruit much. Anyways…” He shrugged. “It’s up to you. I mean, I can catch bugs, I guess, but nothing big enough for any of you. Unless I wiped out the entire population of bugs in Polaris.” Tuck chuckled a bit at his own joke, and then smiled at all the party-goers and turned back to the mistletoe.

It took some effort, and the mistletoe branches that sprouted from the ground weren’t very big, but they were enough, what with the other two festive plants to make the place look nice. Whew! Now he just needed to grow some fruit, and since right now, he was the only herbivore around, he’d stick to just one plant. Actually, the one he had in mind wasn’t a fruit at all. It was a pumpkin that he wanted to grow. (Technically, pumpkins are fruits because they bear seeds but whatever). Tuck had kept those pumpkin seeds from all those cycles ago when he’d met Baratheon, and he’d been wanting to save them for a special occasion. And now was as special a time as any. But first he needed to give himself a break. Doing all this Magic was exhausting after a while, and he was feeling the effects of casting a bunch of high-level spells in a row. He sat down, feeling a little dizzy.

"Speech looks like this."
"Thoughts looks like this."
This is Garmer.


tags: here
notes: here
words: 373

A chill sliced through Septiezal's scales and seeped down into his bones stirring him from his after meal slumber. The large serpent shifted in his hole, wrapping his coils tighter around himself, but still, the precious heat escaped him. Strange. He thought suspiciously. I don't remember it being this cold. Fornax, the cavern where he had set up his home for cycles, had grown uncomfortable hot, forcing him to leave it behind. Now Polaris was becoming too cold. Was anywhere in these blasted caverns the perfect temperature? Septiezal wished the cave would make up its mind.

The vibrations, he had just started to take notice. The python could feel many foot steps from outside his hide, as well as voices. He pretty sure thought he felt the word "party" and "ice sculpture" once or twice. A great furnace of bubbling irritation rose in the snake. Why couldn't everyone just leave him alone.

"Hey!" He hissed angrily as he slid his head out. "What's the big idea?!"

Septiezal found himself in the middle of a what looked like gathering and he immediately regretted the decision to pop in. What he thought was only a few Gembounds turn out to be many. He could feel their presence scrawling on his scales, like ants, many, many ants. The python nervously flicked his tongue a few times, inspecting the scent of everyone around him. He did not recognize anyone here, save for that bite-sized monkey, Tukluk, who insisted on putting some sort of healing poultice on his charred scales many cycles ago. One Gembound caught his attention, it was another reptile, like him. Septiezal saw last of what appeared to be his "water fountain". If his face had developed eyelids, the python would have squinted suspiciously at him. Unless any other water users made their abilities known, that other reptile was the main suspect on Septiezal's list for messing with the temperature.

__________________________________________________________

"Listen"
Tag: Anyone! || OOC:

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;

I lift my lids and all is born again

Upon her glancing throughout the round of party guests again, Hael's eyes caught on the ones of one of the red wolves. She wanted to look way, but they spoke directly to her, so she would've felt bad by ignoring her. "Hallo." The kitten spoke timidly, smiled a bit but then turned to glance at the scary reptile, which had spoken to her as well.

She'd only seen their last display of magic out of the corner of her eyes, but she was sure that even if it hadn't worked like they wanted, it was better than everything she could do. "I can only see things that happened, sometimes." Hael revealed, flushing under her long fur. It wasn't anything spectacular, really. And she'd only done it a few times since finding out she even had that power.

Luckily, the marmoset provided a better way to make herself useful. "I'll go hunting!" The Norwegian Forest Cat exclaimed happily and looked around to see if someone else would come to help her. She wasn't exactly what one would call a good huntress. Still, even that was preferable over just sitting around.

Somewhere out of their circle, someone yelled. Hael's ears swiveled around to the source of her noise before she could snap her head into the voice's direction.
Her eyes landed on a long, sleek reptile. She would've replied something, but Hael didn't understand what they were saying. What's the big idea? Didn't make sense to her at all, so she just averted her eyes and looked back to the other party guests. hoping someone else would clear that up.

For: all the party people!

Notes here!

Thanks Vii❣

Cuanakrys noticed someone yelling, and decided to answer. "The big idea is a party..." Cuan said to the snake, not really caring about their mood. 'Hey, maybe they might join in.' Cuanakrys thought, waiting, and wondering if she could make a fanciful things arrangement. Cuanakrys looked at it. The arrangement had quite a few differences than what she imagined, like instead of the corner left stone being red, not blue, or that some rocks had to be replaced, but it would do for now, as it was still in the shape of a cat face.

Splashy turned to Ghanyarah. She flicked an ear. "I...suppose." She continued to listen to the reptile, and blinked when he mentioned that most of his spells were harmful. Could she also have spells that could be...harmful? She didn't want to hurt anyone. She just wanted to make things that are pretty, like the ice sculpture and snow. She watched as the other tried a spell, but lowered her ears when it failed. "I'm sure it looks great when it works." She gave a small smile before turning to the one who seemed to be hosting the party.

Hunting? She could do that. She's done pretty much all she can here, after all. She turned to the other cat. "I can go hunting with you, if you'd like." She was about to say more, but a voice caught her attention. Turning, she saw a snake, glaring at them all. She blinked, tilting her head. The big idea? Of what? Of all of this? The red wolf replied to the snake, so Splashy turned back to the cat with a small smile.

@Hael