Tahi had rebounded from the initial shock of finding a newly-awakened Madhukar quite quickly; in fact, he'd jumped at the chance to inform her that he'd discovered a new spell and was excited to show it to her. At his own request, they'd gone to Polaris -- Tahi-shei studied best here, what with the broad supply of latent magic at his disposal, and always felt invigorated here. "So," he said once they'd come to a stop, "this is an offensive spell." He grinned, waiting for her response -- last time they'd hung out, he'd been really struggling.

"Well," he said, "I actually learned two new spells! But only one of them is flashy. The other one is kind of hard to prove that I'm using. That's not the one I'm showing you, though!! Do you mind if I try it out on you, or would you rather I do it on something else? I've never tried it against someone before, but I don't think it should hurt too bad... I can probably hold my blow anyway."


@madhukar

It had been... actually rather pleasant to receive Tahi as a visitor in Eridanus. She'd been cooling off from the misfortune of having to deal with other people and, at this point, she felt about ready to reenter the cruel and daunting world. The mushroom deer, her magic partner, had seemed excited, and that excitement was a little infectious. They'd bounded off to Polaris. Madhukar couldn't say it was her favorite place... far from it, actually-- but that rush of energy deep throughout her core was never unwelcome.

Madhukar sat and watched Tahi speak. Grin. An offensive spell, eh? Madhukar didn't say anything, but her brows did raise and the corners of her mouth twitched upward laxly in something of a surprised smirk.

Apparently, Tahi had learned two spells! One flashy. 'Flashy how?' she wondered. Flashy like hers? Madhukar wouldn't put it past this talkative nerd to spice up the speech with a little bit of wordplay. The kitten often found puns to be one of the many aggravating things on her list of "Thing to Despise", but she recognized that Tahi was much, much better with words than she. Tahi could do stuff like that. So she'd let it slide.

"Try o' me." Madhukar replied, ease in her slowly maturing voice. She was sure that, whatever it was, she could handle it. She'd handled a lot of stuff recently.

@Tahi-shei

He buzzed with excitement, but did pause. Actually, hadn't Madukar chrysalized because of a backfire of magic? ... He hoped she wouldn't react poorly to this. "Let me know if I scare you, okay?" he said gently, not wanting to upset her or actually injure her. He wasn't sure if this spell even hurt, although it could definitely make you a little numb and tingly if it backfired (which he'd experienced before). He took a deep breath, remembering Madhukar's words about needing to aim.

He focused on her paw, specifically. The web of chrysoberyl inside it, becoming less visible as she grew. He scuffed his hoof against the ground as if to make friction, and that same unrestrained energy started to rise up in him. It demanded a use, and he planted his hooves on the ground. Concentrated on the violence of it, did not let it overwhelm him. He maintained his control.

Electricity started to crackle in the air around him, a shift in the pressure and borrowing from the firing of his synapses and the fluttering beat of his overactive heart. He opened his eyes and then, as simply as flicking his wrist, a crack of electricity made contact with Madhukar's stone and diffused. If she'd been casting, or if she tried to cast right away, no effect would be had -- but neither did it exactly hurt.

Once he realized he'd cast it, Tahi-shei's eyes lit up. "Look!! See!! I did it, I got the idea from watching you and I thought hey, maybe I can try that too, and I worked super hard and look I did it!"

@madhukar

Tahi's request to say when Madhukar was... scared? Scared! That was ridiculous. Her expression shifted to a slight disapproving pout. "I no scared." Scared?! No! Never! "Nev' scared." Tahi should keep that in mind! The last time Madhukar had been scared was when she had been a teensy little kitten! Just born! She was older now, yes. Much older now! Much more powerful. Much less to fear.

Tahi looked at her paw. Her immobile one. The gaze felt a little... well, it made her feel kind of antsy. Uncomfortable. Like a beam of light she couldn't see but she could definitely feel. If she could move that paw, it would've twitched. Then again, if she could move that paw, having it be stared at wouldn't have felt so unpleasant. It was her weakness, her constant reminder that without her magic, she was... she didn't want to think about it. The source of her magic, the source of her power, and the source of her... dependancy. Her agony. She didn't like it when it was noticed for so long.

Soon it was over though, and she felt a slight spark! A toothy smile shot up to her face as Tahi started lighting up, talking excitedly, like the light switch had just flipped to 'on'. That spell felt familiar. And this feeling welling in her chest did not (although it wasn't entirely foreign either). Pride. Pride! Pride for someone who wasn't herself. She was proud of Tahi. Her... her friend had grown while she had been, um, away. "Elec-trick!" she piped up with glee, pausing between 'elec' and 'tric' so she could try to force her mouth to make the right shape. Little did she know she'd made, yes, a pun! How shocking!

"Good! Good! Good fo' Tahi! Whassa other spell?" she began to wonder. Tahi said two had been learned. She understood she might not be able to see the other, but she at least wanted to know what it was meant to do. Maybe it was another electric spell!

@Tahi-shei

He preened at the praise (and the pun), his hooves stamping just a little bit with glee. "It wasn't easy to learn! It took me a while, but I think you could probably learn fungal magic if you tried. Isn't that exciting? Trying to learn spells outside your native magic...!"

He flicked his ears as she asked about the other spell. "It allows me to see through fungus! Kind of. They can't see, exactly -- no eyes -- but I can share their senses and know where they are and what they're aware of. It's pretty useful! I, uh, got the idea from someone else. Not a very nice guy, generally, but knowing that it was something I was capable of gave me the idea so I did my best to learn it." He closed his eyes (because eliminating sight made this easier) and tried to cast it.

The fungus all around pinged up first like on a radar, and then he became hyper-aware of-- moisture, temperature, Lessers dying in the distance. The buzzing of energy in the air and the urge to grow, spread, spore, propagate. He was reminded of a question he'd asked himself previously -- Am I the fungus or the mycelium?

@madhukar

Learning fungal magic sounded like a very interesting prospect for Madhukar. Something that didn't hurt. Something perhaps more controllable. Madhukar liked the idea, although it seemed like it could be a challenge. Madhukar was up for a challenge. Maybe she could impress Tahi like Tahi had impressed her! Having another magic practice session sounded fun. Useful. Madhukar began to wonder if the bugs she hoped to give new homes to enjoyed mushrooms as well... then it would be double useful!

The description of the other spell was intriguing indeed. Another fungal one. Madhukar didn't blame Tahi; learning one electric spell was hard enough for the both of them, honestly. Tahi had said that fungi liked to grow, that empathizing with them was how the magic worked. It seemed the mushrooms rewarded the empathy by letting Tahi straight up become a mushroom. Madhukar had thought Tahi a mushroom when they'd first met, so it was fitting. Did she really want to become a mushroom? She supposed it could be nice.

Apparently Tahi had gotten the idea from 'not a very nice guy'. "Wha' guy? Who?" There was someone who gave spell ideas? Someone who wasn't very nice? Madhukar rarely ever had an interest in meeting new creatures, but maybe she could ask this one some questions about magic. Some questions Tahi might not know the answers to. Maybe something about... plants. Madhukar had a list of questions about plants, and before she'd chrysalized she'd had a few ideas about who to approach about them. But over that time trapped in a rock, she'd forgotten most of it.

While Madhukar watched as Tahi did... something (the spell, she supposed, although it didn't look like anything was happening), she focused on her paws. Electricity, she wanted. To help the mushrooms. It worked as plans, the static fluttering about a predetermined path around the base of her paws. Would that help? Probably not. But it was just to feel the tingling.

@Tahi-shei

Tahi-shei shifted -- no, squirmed -- at her question. He didn't want to desecrate the conversation with news of the Collector, but he also knew it would hurt Madhukar to know that he was keeping a secret from her. He frowned and finally sighed. "I... you have to promise me you'll never go see him, okay? Ever, no matter what. I'll tell you, 'cause I don't like to keep secrets from you, but I never want you to go see him. He's dangerous and he'll make you agree to something awful." Well. 'Make you' was strong -- you had a choice, of course -- but the Collector was charismatic, persuasive, cold. Tahi-shei didn't trust him, and: "You're powerful enough already, you don't need whatever he's offering you."

His eyes did catch, however, on her electricity sparking down her paws and into the ground. The effects of the spell had already faded, but he tried to spawn a little field of mushrooms under her anyway. He knew that any energy was good energy, and he saw no reason why the mushrooms wouldn't react well to the new source of energy from which to draw.


@madhukar

Tahi's request made Madhukar tilt her head slightly, feel all the more curious. Never go to this creature, no matter what? Yes, Madhukar had power, but it was a reckless, ruthless power. What if she wanted an idea to help her control it? If she could never figure out how to control it alone-- no. She wasn't going to think that way. It hurt too much to think that way. To think that her power would rule her forever. It was her own, wasn't it?! It was her own now, right? She had to learn to master it herself, didn't she? No easy route for her, no ideas from fishy outside sources. Besides, maybe this person wasn't even worth counseling, if Tahi seemed to dislike him so much. Tahi had already helped her a lot

"Okay. I won' ever see 'im." The promise felt sealed the moment the words hit the air. Madhukar wasn't going to see whoever this creature was. Maybe that was for the best. It would force her to rely on her own skills, and keep her safe from whatever detriments Tahi had faced.

The solemnity of the moment was kind of ruined by the sudden spree of mushrooms popping up around Madhukar. They... made her giggle. "Maybe I ge' mushroom spell too," she mused. A mushroom spell would be nice! Maybe bugs liked mushrooms. Maybe mushrooms were nicer to their creators than electricity. Eridanus had mushrooms, and Madhukar always enjoyed seeing them. Funky little hat people.

@Tahi-shei

Tahi-shei nodded, glad he'd gotten her promise. "His name's Collector, I think, and he lives in Canis -- it's full of bones and cold water. Not very many plants, if any," he said, knowing she'd be interested in them. "He gives away powerful things in exchange for asking you to do something horrible, like hurt someone or even kill them." He sighed. "I made a deal with him 'cause I wasn't thinking clearly -- but it's working out, I promise." No intentions of sacrificing his morals, no-sir.

His eyes lit up at the prospect. "Hey, maybe! If I can learn an electricity spell, I'm sure you could learn a fungal spell. They're kind of... quieter, I think. Maybe not necessarily soft and peaceful like I used to think, but definitely not... loud, like your spells. Like they take focus and have a more sort of creeping power, than being loud and dangerous."


@madhukar

So the creature she was to avoid was 'Collector', who lived in Canis, a place of bones and cold water. No plants. Not even plants! Honestly, why would anybody want to live there?! Collector had to be a weird dude if he preyed on people seeking power and lived in a humorless bone dome. The picture Madhukar conjured in her mind of such a scene, of a creature like Tahi making a deal with someone so bizarre and cruel, and it was almost funny, that contrast.

Tahi admitted to making a deal with Collector because Tahi 'wasn't thinking clearly'. That made Madhukar tilt her head just a little, made a drop of concern reach her eyes and morph her expression. Not thinking clearly? "Wha that mean?"

On another note, having a fungal spell sounded like a nice change, if what Tahi was saying about it would be true for her. Something creeping and peaceful, not loud, not dangerous. She wondered what she could do with a fungal spell. Maybe just... grow mushrooms, like Tahi did. She wouldn't hate that.

@Tahi-shei