Pride dipped his head at one contestant after another. He softly murmured an agreement when Damask praised the shy one--one he'd met before--and offered praise, too, to each contestant as they came.

Deli, however, irked his nerves at once. The dog's remarks were rude, sarcastic even, and Pride glanced over with narrowing silver eyes. He said nothing, at first, unsure if the digs at Azure and then at Tahi-shei were deliberate, even.

"Magic is always fickle," he reassured Tahi-shei, with a nod of acknowledgement.

Of Temperantia he was proud. A nod, more warm than polite. Her matter-of-fact good nature and manners toward the next contestant were also admirable, though he'd have to be careful not to give her undue credit as a Seven member.

Svartis' display was quite impressive--it was hard not to be. Sebastian setting himself aflame had been fascinating but a black dragon, wreathed in ice and mist, roars echoing--it certainly had a dramatic flair. "Excellent," he commented simply.

Akaari's effort was also interesting: a strong display of magic, and magic of the mind, at that. Pride gave her a nod, and a "Beautiful, thank you." Then Deli, again--and at first they seemed sincere, but the "little pile of rocks" remark again had Pride's eyes narrowing, and he raised his voice sharply.

"You--I trust your remarks are not intended sarcastically. Mockery would not be welcome here; I suggest you watch your tone."

Oh, and here was Wilder... fantastic, Pride thought, annoyed. He disliked the cat, for various reasons; and for whatever reason she did not acknowledge his presence. For the best. He said nothing, bar a brief, polite nod, masking his feelings entirely; this was neither the time nor the place for them.

Hopefully the other judges would have a kind word for the cat, in his stead.

wow!, all right, so the next contestant really was a straight-up wheel with wings. damask twisted her head back and forth as temperantia approached, tracking those otherworldly movements — ...

alpha.

a sharp, if subtle intake of breath. the sight of them invoked a veritable flurry of thoughts, questions, tangling emotions: oh, they look like absolute shit. what happened to them? what are they doing here, they're not on the list, something's not right — focus, damask! she ushered her eyes away — but not before (oh, she could've sworn it) they caught onto alpha's, mutual recognition in the look. the colossus lingered in her periphery, and damask angled almost imperceptibly away, shoving them out of sight and out of mind. don't worry about it, don't worry about it ... watch, watch, watch.

temperantia's display was lovely, mesmerizing, as they themself were. that said, it erred on the simpler, weaker side overall. not the crowd's finest. svartis, however ... oh, man. she sat back, awestruck. the one-dog peanut gallery rankled her more and more by the minute, but for once, she actually agreed with them. that vanishing act was nothing short of stunning, the stuff dreams were made of. hey, are you jealous, kid? yeah, maybe a little. "sebastian's magic was stronger, but that? spectacular," she said softly to the other judges. "we have a serious contender."

he said he was a dragon, though? didn't alpha — stop thinking about alpha.

right, yes, next up, akaari. very charming, despite her inexperience. the bird of prey smiled thinly down at her as she finished: points for panache. after her was wilder, of ... the bonebound? was damask supposed to know this cat? she'd never heard of her, let alone seen her. she peeked over at auré. he's tense. so's pride. and yet, wilder's performance didn't fail to impress. damask observed the play of blue-and-pink light with wide-eyed wonder, tail swishing from side to side. this had to be in the top three so far. why weren't the others saying anything? that silence needed breaking. "well done, wilder. thank you." she gave another smile, slightly warmer than the last — overcompensating. here was a puzzle worth solving, but later, later; they still had half a show to go.

Hunter had seen magic before, sure.

But nothing, nothing like the stuff on display here. Even the ones that were less than spectacular were met with wide, bicolored stares of wonder. Hunter cheered for each one, clapping and hooting, throwing his arms up after particularly daring displays.

(This was his first time seeing Dragons, and he wanted to ride one really badly. That-- that was definitely a rude thing to think, so he kept that to himself.)

Seriously, though! How did they do all of that? As a cat ("Wilder of the Bonebound", wow! They all had such cool names--) finished up her act, Hunter gave a holler, and then leaned back against the crystal he was chilling on.

He had never really practiced his magic... Maybe he could be a super cool wizard, some day... But even trying to summon the smallest amounts of magic came up with nothing more than a faint tingle on his forehead.

Shucks. Well, it was still cool watching all of them. He played with the end of his violet scarf, and grinning from ear to ear, wondered if there would be an intermission or bathroom break or anything like that.

hunter's just watching with big envy..

content warning for building anxiety :(
Sebastian's act was... certainly breathtaking, to say the least. Aure hadn't quite felt the full brunt of fire, but he knew from Cetus that it was hot enough - and the beast hardly flinched. Merely croaked in a smoker's voice his thanks and lumbered off. The wyvern blinked, offering a loud, clear - awestruck - "thank you," in his wake, before glancing to either judge. "I feel like he did a similar act last year?" he admitted, but shrugged it off lightly, "I don't want to mark him down for such a strong cast, of course..." All idle murmuring.

As for Azure - there wasn't much showmanship but the dedication was there. The hippogryff started to go off before he could get a particularly good look at any one of the baubled spheres, but... "I'd love to see them up close, after the show! Thank you, Azure." Bright eyes glanced over at the dog that'd been commentating thus far, squinting.

Aure let it go fairly quickly, distracted by Tahi and his fungus? A deer, akin to Astraea, then. His feathers somehow managed to stay smooth, even if he was a bit... uneasy - oh. Just inky caps - "it's alright - magic doesn't always listen. Those frills are nice." Useful for any number of situations.

Temperantia drifted into view, and the young King was reminded yet again of Cetus. Yet again, he had to somewhat school and remind himself that hey, Mother isn't such a threat anymore. He'd already subconsciously checked before he even settled in. Not a trace of the fungus in this crowd. Aure focused in on the bouncing shimmer and the baubled dirt, and offered a brief "lots of flash and glitter - thank you, Temperantia."

Ice and skillful vanishing acts drew him out of his quiet spiral for a moment, jaw dropping just slightly in awe. The first and third acts could have perhaps had more umphf! but... bright eyes glanced over to Damask as she spoke. Aure nodded in full agreement, "I've never seen anything... like that, really."

Akaari was, in a word, cute; she pranced around the place, sending a wisp here and a wisp there, building an interesting little display that required a fair bit of maintenance. Three separate things floating around at once was no easy feat, even if wisps remained fairly steadfast after the initial cast. The young King offered her a warm smile, and a "good job, Miss Potent."

Then... he couldn't help but to stiffen up. Feathers stood half-mast, temporary distraction completely out of mind. Logic urged him towards the path of it's been a while, she's not acting off, she's just performing and ending off on a blinding flash again - Aure twisted away, closing his eyes to drown out the white-hot light. His heart thumped irregularly in his chest, and smacked against his lungs once. Damask said something, but it parsed forwards and backwards at the same time. Good thing, at least. No words came to mind but be calm.

Aure focused too hard on his magicka to fully grasp the next exchange, what Pride was saying; and too focused on trying to be subtle about it, just smiling and thanking the little cat for her performance and calling up the next contestant ("Mercurius!") to the stand. He inhaled pointedly, and scanned the faces of the crowd. Clear, clear, clear - the deer he's just wearing inky caps that's not in him the deer. Bright eyes blinked once, and he inhaled again. The coast was clear. He could come down from this - but...

But, as a quick aside to Pride, and to his daughter, he had to admit: "I'll be fine."

The pale beast moved into the arena quietly, moonset eyes regarding his fellow participants: the ones that'd gone before him, he thought, all had fantastic performances in their own ways, regardless of success. They flickered towards the judges. He'd sat there once, hadn't he? It was somewhat amusing how their roles had changed. Pride passed opinion now, rather than himself.

It was funny, too, how similar their acts might end up being.

Mercurius shifted slightly, twisting over his shoulder to grab at the leaf-bound package he'd come in with. "Allow me to... get set up," he called. Punching through the green with his teeth, the storyteller scattered seeds of all sorts across the rock. He deposited the empty pouch on the ground, and set to work with his magic - an exhausting and daring grab. Hopefully, it was impressive.

Perhaps it was, but only in the sense of grasses and wildflowers springing up to ensnare his limbs. They bound in tight, but didn't hurt quite as much as the immediate migraine and throb of his gemstone against his skull.

Mercy, in that calm and collected manner of his, attempted to play his failure off as intentional. Fake it until you make it, as they say - except when the incandescent blue glow of the Spire was proving to be far too great, and plants were restricting bloodflow to your legs from the elbow down. The pale beast tugged against them, managing to free one limb well enough. He'd work on the others as he spoke, of course, and go for more illusory magics.

He'd just been looking to shake it up with tangible things, that's all. It was far less exhausting to produce a display when half of it was already three-dimensional.

The pale beast shook himself, clearing his throat (both made his head throb harder.) Tail flicking idly, he started smaller and stared ahead of himself. A glimmering sphere about the size of his head pulsed into being. It hovered in place, and was directed around himself with a few passing glances as he began, "I told my sons this story often, when they were just fawn-cubs - I hope that all of you will enjoy it."

A long, slow burn. I hope it's worth it.

The storyteller directed his light here and there as he continued, "it's... ah, more of a description than anything, but I hope that it tickles your fancies -" Bah, he thought amusedly towards himself, get into it. Focus, dear. Don't throw a line without being smooth about it. "I've dreamt of this place often, and I've named it the Eventide. An infinite expanse, with a violet ceiling unhindered by earth. Where paw and hoof and wing never have to stop beating because they have met the end of the world. Water lies beneath every bent branch of tree, and rabbits and grass are plentiful."

As he went on, Mercurius urged the light to shift behind him; just as it disappeared out of his line of sight and began to fade, he had it swell into a fuzzy, white rectangle. ("Beasts large and small, alien and not roam.") Each detail spoken of dredged another carefully-memorized feature of the amaranth-soaked world in his mind. ("Fish of many colors fill the streams.") It seemed almost like he was mentally dragging and placing each feature on an XYZ plane, bringing them out from the rectangle until he built up a glimpse into such a wonderful land. ("Fruit weigh down each tree...")

Moonset eyes closed in the process, every bit of added magic adding to the considerable strain on his reserves. More than once, the illusion flickered, and it looked posterized. Not exactly hyperrealistic, nor well-sustained.

"It's this Eventide that I hope lies above." A glimmering, purple starfield was draped over the crowd in general, almost patchy. "It's this Eventide, bountiful and good, that I hope awaits us - or, perhaps, that we can create for ourselves." Mercurius opened his eyes, and the illusion departed in a show of dissipating white glimmers. Tricks of the light, almost. "Thank you."

Back into the crowd he went.

@Madhukar

So Madhukar had just watched:
1.) Someone set itself on fire. - Legitimately impressive, definitely an intimidating start.
2.) Someone try to... crystalize a plant? - Intriguing, perhaps she'd go investigate later.
3.) Tahi!! And the deer didn't seem to be doing so well...
4.) Something bouncing around without legs and making... dirt glow? - What?! Okay.
5.) A giant winged creature become invisible in sparkling mist. - Actually cool.
6.) THE BRAT.
7.) A creature like herself attempt to do some pretty magic. - Okay.
And finally, just as a lump had begun to form in Madhukar's throat (good thing it wasn't charged),
8.) A creature make a vision of some strange, foreign place, that was supposed to be pretty but didn't seem to have bugs.

A pattern she'd noticed -- not quite a coincidence! -- was that those who tried to make something tended to not do as well as those who tried to be something. And also that Akaari THAT STUPID BRAT SUCKED-- but anyways.

Madhukar breathed deep. She already knew what to do. The only and most impressive thing she could possibly be... herself.

Apparently you didn't need to give an introduction, but Madhukar wanted one. "I'M MADHUKAR, AN' I'M LOUD AN' VIOLENT!"

She hunched over, bristling her fur and emitting a sharp growling as she closed her eyes and focused の several points around her body. She wanted to train the spark -- yes, the one she knew she could control with her mind! -- to follow that path.

The flashing wasn't bright. Perhaps she'd strained too much by trying to make it go far across her body. But it was there, for the good-eyed. Flashing from her right front paw to her right elbow, then to her shoulder, then to her forehead. Then it cross down her back and fizzled out prematurely before it reached her back left leg, as she'd planned.

But it was there. She was doing this!!!

She wasn't off the hook yet. Her act only got more difficult from here. Timing, timing, timing, no! Location! Location was where it mattered.

High above her head, so it would shatter the entire arena! And she would try to follow its time. Thunderclap, go!

She raised her head in time with the BOOOM!!! that went off above, letting out the kitten equivalent of a roar. It would've been dwarfed by the blast of the thunderclap, which was in part intended. The point was, hear her FEARSOME ROAR!!!

And for little BRATS like the one that made lights and moved stones, you ought to fear it to too!

Now for the final touch. Where to aim, where to aim? Not at the judges, no, that seemed like a bad idea. So maybe... just up in the air. An arc, a thin parabola-- but wouldn't it go splat?! She'd move. She'd be fast. It'd all be a part of her showcase.

She looked up, focusing all her energy into making this as good as it could be. Although, to be fair, what was she without a little chaos?

What was she with chaos? Nothing, it seemed. No lump formed in her throat. No lump of bile, that is. Just a lump of... discomfort.

She looked and nothing happened, she lost her focus and it all went downhill so she just said, "THERE'S MORE T' ME, BUT IT IN'T REALLY FIT FOR A SHOW!" And if that little freaking brat was anywhere watching, Madhukar's gleaming eyes would try to find it... and kill it with nothing more than a look.

Because it was true. All that wrath, all that ire... it was probably enough to freak the judges out.

So instead, Madhukar walked away.

@Azrael