[hider=In which it takes 5 months to make a very simple post.] In this simple story, Brown is recovering from her fight with a demon, but for unknown reasons she doesn't seem to be healing. Makeda finds her and take her to Ilunabar. The Muse then calls Astarte, who fixes Brown's broken soul. After that, the two start to discuss outfits and magics, Ilunabar decides to give the avatar not only a new set of outfits, but also magical jewelry, all for free. Makeda gets 7 Khookies. [/hider] [i]Cold...[/i] Darkness was all that she could see. [i]W-[/i] Thoughts ran through her mind, yet none stuck long enough to earn her attention. The only thing she paid attention to now was the emptiness within her very being. It felt as if something was missing, something important. [i]What is it?[/i] A tingle went up her spine. That was good, it confirmed to her that she was alive. But if she was alive, how come she couldn't move, how come she couldn't breathe? Slowly, she started feeling her limbs. It was only a short moment until she managed to open her eyes. The first thing she saw was grass. Then she felt the dirt against her cheek. Then she groggily moved her arms and propped herself up onto her knees. "Where am I?" Her voice came out coarse, as if she'd just gone weeks without speaking. "Last I remember, I was running from the... That Thing." She closed her eyes and let a deep sigh escape her mouth. There was nothing to do about it now. For all she knew, the nut, her gift to cheer Astarte up, had been eaten by the Beast by now. Brown smiled bitterly and looked at her arms. As she looked, they seemed to shift. Sometimes, they looked transparent and other times, they looked blurry. Other than that, there seemed to be some kind of... Crevices, on her skin. As if an earthquake had broken away her body, and the depths of the crevices were black and empty, as if they had no depth. Yet when she tried to touch such crevices, she found her hands moving away on their own. "By Vestec's non-existent beard..." She snorted at her bad joke, "Bad time to make jokes. Let's just heal our injuries. Stop influencing me, Astarte, you have me speaking to myself now." Brown said to no one in particular as she stood up and flew up-- Only she couldn't fly up. She raised an eyebrow and tried again. Nothing. Now she was starting to get upset. Next, she focused on healing herself and wiping away the strange crevices, but when she looked at her arms once more, they were still there. She started shaking. "So I was running from the mad imp, and then I came upon these plains and I couldn't run anymore. Then I fought the imp and... Lost?" Brown covered her mouth, as if speaking about fighting was something she wasn't supposed to do, "How did I lose...?" "My own magic, reflected back at me." "I was hit by myself." The implications were many. As the Avatar of the Goddess of Soul Manipulation, though, Brown did away with the first implication first. It was a quick test, one she had not done in ages. She put her hand on her belly, right above her belly button, and focused. Nothing. "I'm... Broken?" -------------------------------------------------------------------- Brown plucked one of the bright flower's petals and ate it. "No effect, either? What kind of flowers are these? I thought mortals ate plants to heal their ailments..." She stepped on the flower, ending its agony. Then she felt guilty and dropped to her knees. "No, no, sorry about that! I didn't mean to kill you, I mean- I kinda did but I didn't mean to kill KILL you..." She kept muttering about apologizing to a dead flower, not noticing the being approaching her from behind the growing trees. Makeda had heard the tale of carnage from afar and had now finally reached the murderess herself. She swooped into the grove swiftly and landed right behind the person, who yelped and fell over in surprise, her golden armor gleamed and contrasted with her dark skin, a hammer of holy energy was in her hand and... And she noticed what the person was saying she had murdered, nothing more than a flower apparently, and unless some new species of sentient flowers had been created, it was not really a reason to smash someone's face. "Pardon me. It was not my intention to startle you. I have misheard your story and presumed that this was something far more gruesome." Brown looked up at the armored heroine, the surprise on her face slowly washing away. She cast her a worried, intermittent glance and pointed at the dead flower, "But it is gruesome! It's dead. I can see its small, little plant parts splattered all over the ground! And I can't even heal it, you know? It just annoyed me so much that it didn't heal me..." The angel now had the chance to observe the woman in front of her in all of her oddness, the skin crumbling in what appeared to be fissures that led into endless depths. She had absolutely no idea of what it was, but it looked to be in trouble. "Worry not, for when you smashed the plant its seeds were spread around this meadow. In a year there will be countless new flowers born from this single one, if you are feeling sorry, that will be your chance to make up for it." she did feel that it was odd to care so much about a plant, but there was no ill deed in it, and therefore she refrained from judgments, if anything, excessive sympathy was a virtue in this cruel world. "And about the healing. I'm an angel, and I have the power to cure. It's not trained, but trying it won't hurt. All you have to promise is to not try to smash me like you did with the plant." her voice was initially very harsh when she first arrived, but it had softened up by now. "So that's how plants reproduce..." Brown nodded in understanding, "that explains the golden armour. Though I don't believe your healing powers can heal my ailment, we should still try. The sooner I'm fixed, the better!" Brown grinned and clasped her hands together in front of her. Makeda took Brown's hand and with two fingers she touched the arm near one of the "damaged" areas, she started to chant something under her breath and the avatar would definitely feel the warmth of the healing magic spreading trough her limb... with the exception of the fissures, which still felt as cold and wrong as before. "It doesn't seem to be working." "These aren't physical wounds. Not in the usual sense of the word... If I were a mortal, these fissures would mean my soul is broken and fading." Brown did the tiniest pout. The talk of souls was something the angel recognized as beyond her realm of understanding, what she realized, however, was that the woman was not mortal, therefore probably somehow related to the realm of the gods. "I couldn't help you, but I know someone who understands these issues better. I was en route to meet her right now, so if you want, I could bring you with me." Brown nodded, "That would be really kind of you. Please do." The angel pondered for a short while before suddenly picking the avatar up, one arm under her legs and another supporting her back while the avatar held onto the angel's neck for dear life. She had never carried a being while flying before (outside of a few brawls, but the purpose there was very different from this one.) She opened her wings and took flight, didn't show any sign of doubt, however, not only because she didn't want to worry the person, but because she was not one to show such emotions. But in the end, it wasn't hard at all, and she was able to cross the skies as smoothly as always. Up there in the clouds, the new panoramic view would reveal some oddities that were not clear before, some trees had leaves of odd colors, some flowers were oddly organized as if it was in a garden, and some hills had a rainbow-like appearance. (http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1274350/thumbs/o-RAINBOW-MOUNTAINS-900.jpg?2) Brown had trouble looking and focusing on the view, as the speed and altitude at which they were going were too great for her weakened state to endure. "C-Can you slow down-" Brown's grip on the angel's neck slipped and her vision turned dark for a split second, "I think I-I just passed out. Im s-seeing colourf-ful hills a-and big gardens." Immediately, Makeda started to slow down and fly lower, if before they were speeding trough the air now they were in something that could be described as "gently gliding". Still, the rainbow hills and gigantic natural gardens persisted. "Sorry for that, I'm accustomed to race across the skies so for me that speed was already sluggish. The landscape you are seeing are not a mirage, probably just Ilunabar and her projects, she filled my homeland with blue trees once." "Haha, thank you for slowing down," Brown chuckled. "Also, I don't think I have asked your name yet. Mine's Makeda." "I'm Brown, Avatar of the Goddess of Magic," Nearly instantly, Brown's attention shifted to the view. Her eyes sparked, literally, with lavender colored energy, "Ow- Too much beauty for me to handle right now." She winced and put a hand over her eyes. Still, the image of the rainbow hills and organized flowers was burned in the back of her mind. How would the colored dirt taste? "A goddess? Huh, carrying a goddess in my arms was surely not something I thought I would ever do" a soft prideful smirk formed on her face for a brief moment. "Too much beauty?" this worried Makeda, as they were going to what was supposedly a site where Ilunabar's energy was at its peak. They kept flying up the hills, and then the mountains until they reached what looked like the darkened spires, but if in the past it was pure depthless dark, now it looked like a starry sky, except it was on the ground. Brown started shaking in Makeda's arms, desperate to explore all the places she'd shown her. Makeda didn't take Brown into the starry land, however, instead, she took her to the first temple she saw, one made of long hallways with lofty stained glass windows. "In your state, I think it would be unresponsible to take you down into Ilunabar's domain. Instead, I will bring her here." "Oh, of course. You don't know how excited I am! I'm going to meet Ilunabar before Astarte herself!" Brown giggled and grunted as she was put back on the ground. "You have never met the entity who has created you?" Makeda shook her head, gods were an unusual lot. "No, I meant that I'm going to meet Ilunabar before Astarte meets Ilunabar." The angel left soon after, diving down into the fake starry sky down bellow. Brown was left alone in the halls of the temple. On the opposite side of the glass mosaics of the windows, there were cushioned benches and other types of furniture. Eventually, the sound of steps started to echo again in the halls. The Goddess of Beauty arrived with Makeda following her behind. "Astarte?" she asked. Brown stood up from the bench and sized The Goddess with a quick glance. "I'm her Avatar, Brown. I like your dress." She smiled. "I don't mean to waste your time, I can leave if you're busy, Ilunabar, though I... Need your help." Brown sighed and looked at the crevices on her arms. "Why thank you. I didn't know Astarte had an avatar, though frankly, I have never talked to her and it has been millions of years since we last met, so it's natural that I'm not up to date." She inspected the avatar closer, very similar to her sister, yet very different. Noticeably, she was damaged, and the Muse had a feeling that the fissures were not part of the original design. "Oh do not worry about time, just tell me what afflicts you and we will see what we can do." "To put it simple, I'm broken. I don't feel any of Astarte's essence within me and I can't do any of the magic I used to be able to do. I expect I was broken in a fight against a particular demon earlier, though I'm not sure how I survived..." "Hmmmm" the goddess approached the avatar and started examining her up close. It was curious, not exactly within her realm of understanding, but not exactly beyond her either. "The best person to deal with this issue would be Astarte herself, the harm here seems to have been done within the soul... Perhaps just resting would be able to heal it, perhaps we will need something else." The goddess stopped examining Brown and instead sat in one of the benches, pondering about the topics. "You mentioned a demon?" Brown sat back down besides Ilunabar and nodded, "Yes, I summoned him to help me track a few nuts in the Deepwoods. Turns out demons can't be trusted, as he ate four of the five nuts, became a monster even more powerful than I and nearly killed me," Brown tapped her feet on the floor, "I think his name is Lish'Burath." "Of course they can't" Makeda almost yelled. The goddess rose her hand ordering the angel to quiet down and then responded to the avatar. "Well, that is just terrible. To think that a demon could do something like this to an avatar of a goddess. Surely something must be done, but I wonder what." "Huh... I know!" Brown grinned and started shaking in her seat, trying to contain her sudden burst of excitement. Oh, how much she hated having to deal with Astarte's hyperactivity, "Why don't you message Astarte and tell her I'm here? She'll come straight away!" "That seems to be the logical route." At the same moment, Ilunabar started to compose a message to reach her sister. Something along the lines of "Hello Dear Sister. One of my heroes has recently found your Avatar in a bit of a pinch. Something about losing a fight to a demon and waking up to find herself broken and unable to use her powers. She is currently a guest at the Pictaraika, in the same region where the darkened spires used to be. The first temple to the north, please use the door instead of slamming trough the window. Warmest regards, Ilunabar." "And done. She should be arriving soon, I guess, again, I have never met her. Speaking of which, is there any particular snack she likes? A drink? Tea? Coffe?" Brown raised an eyebrow, "She once ate a tulip-" Knock, knock. It was the light rapping sound of a pair of knuckles knocking on the beautiful window behind Brown. Beneath the sea of changing colours and shapes of glass, a floating goddess could be seen, with long, flowing lavender hair. Brown decided to ignore the knocking, "So yeah, I think she likes vegetables." The Goddess outside the window pressed her face against the glass in an attempt to look through. A gasp was heard before her voice came muffled through the window. [i]"Brown!"[/i] In a thousandth of a second, Astarte had flown around the Temple, slammed through the door and tackled Brown to the marble floor. "Brown! What happened to you? I couldn't reach you and I had no idea where you were!" Astarte pouted and hugged Brown tightly. "U-Unghh..." Brown grunted. Astarte let go and helped the panting Brown to her feet. It took a moment for Astarte to look over at Ilunabar, her sister. There was a moment of silence when their eyes met. Astarte's were worried, while Ilunabar's were mildly amused. "O-Oh!" Astarte gasped and turned around, blushing. She quickly fixed her hair and straightened out her dress. The first impression may not have been that great, but she did want Ilunabar to like her. After a minute of fidgeting, Astarte turned back around, sporting a polite smile and standing up and straight like a proper person. "H-Hello, Ilunabar!" Ilunabar analyzed Astarte for a bit, she was someone who felt very different from the other gods, aesthetic and psyche wise. Cutely mischievous and very energetic, Ilunabar felt like that of all her sisters this was the one closer to her, neverminding the clumsiness. "Hello, Astarte. It is nice to finally talk to you, after, you know, a few billion years of being just acquaintances." she smiled "Y-Yeah, I didn't know that much time had passed. I spent most of it in the Deepwoods, you know. I heard you made flowers. I like their taste, and lavender flowers grow at my feet when I stay still for too long. I like them too." "Time just flies, doesn't it? If I were not such a busy person, I think I would lose sight of it as well. And you eat flowers, huh? I have to say that so far I have focused more on their visual aspect, but there are indeed some that hold certain tastes and substances." At this moment a marionette brought in a tray with tea and biscuits. "This liquid, for example, is made from pouring hot water at flowers and herbs. There are many sorts of tastes, this one is more of your liking, I believe, sweet and palatable." she offered the goddess a cup. Astarte took the cup in her hands, taking in the clay's texture and the heat that was emitted from the tea. She took a sip, afraid not of getting burned, and revelled (??) at the flavor. She raised her eyebrows and pursed her lips. "This is good! Why don't mortals drink this all the time?" "Eh, it isn't properly invented yet. I'm doing what I can though, shouldn't take too long before its common at least in some places." "But careless conversation aside, how have you been doing recently? The situation your avatar is in worries me, and as I said to Brown, I'm always willing to help." "Oh, uh... Yeah," Astarte looked at Brown, who was straightening out her dress while giving Astarte furtive looks inbetween her phasing in and out of view, "She's broken. It seems like the essence that fueled her was nearly... Wiped out. She should be dead." "I'm right here," Brown rolled her eyes. "I'm happy you're alive, Brownie." Brown smiled. "Uh," Astarte looked back at Ilunabar, "so I should probably fix Brown, but I can't do it here..." Astarte bit her tongue in thought. Suddenly, she perked up and flew over to Ilunabar's side, whispering in her ear. "What if we fix her together? Like, I give the essence and fix the brokenness and you give her a new dress? I mean, she really needs to stop trying to look like me!" Astarte giggled. "Yes, she surely needs help getting out of her current state, it is so dangerous to leave an avatar like this and..." She completely stopped her sentence when Astarted talks about the "fixing" plan. A wide grin started to form on her face, her eyes ablaze with inspiration. "A dress? The needs of a new look?" she whispered back. "Oh, I can do that... I might have already kinda done that, in fact, at least some designs, you know, twenty designs or so. Now that it's a serious request, though, I think I can expand that number into three digits, maybe four." She pondered for a bit. "And jewelry. Recently I have really been dedicating time to that particular craft and I think your magic could benefit from it." Astarte grinned, casting a furtive glance toward Brown, who tilted her head and raised an eyebrow at both Goddesses. "You think so? How could my magic benefit from wearing jewelry? I mean, it's pretty and all but they're just metals and crystals." "I don't know yet, I'm just making an educated guess. I can cast my power pretty well using gems and metal, so I doubt other sorts of powers won't flow as well with it. In a sense, it is similar to light going trough a glass." The goddess created a little circle of glass within her hand and held it against a ray of light, making it focus into a single spot and becoming intense enough to softly burn that spot. Then the glass turned into a prism, and the light refracted into a rainbow. "See?" Astarte pursed her lips and waved her hand through the rainbow. "I think I understand, you say your gems will strengthen my magic by focusing my essence?" "Yes! That description does fit the effect well enough. Right now it is all very theoric and at most, I can provide you simple blank slate garments. Eventually, with experience and cooperation, more interesting things could be created." She sighed at how overly meticulous her explanation was getting. "Sorry, I don't mean to make it sound too complex. I'm just a bit excited at the possibilities." Astarte shrugged, "It's fine Lunie, I can hear you out all day if need be!" She said and took a swig of her tea. "I do find the way your magic is born from within the soul to be quite beautiful to look at, I cannot master it myself, but if I can help you in any form, that would be more than enough and..." Astarte snorted and stiffled a laugh. Ilunabar stopped mid-sentence. "I did it again." she reprehended herself. "Anyway. I will try to get something for you to use, then we can see the effects." "Okay, I'll go about fixing Brown while you set that up. Oh, and don't use flowers on the attire, because I might end up eating them, heh..." Astarte smiled sheepishly. "Edible... clothing?" Ilunabar stared at nothing for a few seconds as her mind immediately developed a few concepts in her mind, the true problem was to find an use for them. "... maybe, a nuptial night tradition?" she asked to no one before noticing she was making that comment aloud. "Ah! Sorry. The concept was too amusing. But yes, let's do that. You fix Brown, I will sew a couple of outfits, none of them being edible, for Brown's own safety." she gave Brown a thumbs up, showing she cares... in her own definition of "caring". Brown returns the thumps up hesitantly and with a flick of Astarte's fingers, both she and Astarte blink away. --------------------- Astarte looked around the plains quickly. Then her head snapped around violently to stare at Brown. "How did this happen to you?" Brown fidgeted, never making eye contact. "I... uh," She fidgeted some more. "You uh, what?" "I... Fought a demon?" Brown shrugged and bit her tongue. Slowly, Astarte's features softened, "Do you have any idea how worried I was when you wouldn't answer to the thoughts I sent your way? Do you?" Brown frowned and shrugged once more, "You could have made me appear in front of you at any time." Astarte stepped close to Brown and hugged her tightly. "I value your time. What if you were busy with something important? I wouldn't want to bother you, Brownie." She said softly. "You don't bother me," Brown hugged Astarte back, "you don't bother anyone, really. Especially not Vestec." "That's because he's nice and fun to be around, you know. Somewhat like the [b]GOD OF THE WIND[/b]," Astarte shouted and stopped to giggle, "but more wild." "He's a wild child of the stars." Brown rolled her eyes and gently pushed Astarte away. "A very wild child of the stars." Astarte smirked. "Almost as wild as my wounds." "Oh!" Astarte gasped and touched Brown's shoulders, where bright lavender colored light began to shine. In a moment, the light swept over the fissures covering Brown's very being, and forced them together. At first, the result seemer scar-like, but thankfully the scars eventually faded, turning into mere marks in the Avatar's skin, much like lines of a slightly lighter skin color. Brown looked at the hands and saw she wasn't phasing in and out of physicality anymore. She probbed her footing and found her legs to have grown to their previous strength, and tested her aura and found, when she began to float a hover in the air, that she had recovered her abilities. It was then that Brown grinned and kissed Astarte's cheek, "You know I love you a lot right, Astarte Asteroid?" "I know, but you don't show it sometimes. We're like what the humans call family, we should eat some flowers together sometime instead of just speaking through thoughts all the time." Brown rolled her eyes again, "Bet you'd like Vestec to join us too so you could share your meal with him. Oh, and his stupid little giggles too." Brown started to giggle but was quick enough to cover it up with a snort. "They're not stupid." "They really are." "Okay, [i]maybe[/i] they are a little bit stupid. But I can be a little stupid too, does that make it a bad thing?" "Yeah, pretty much." Brown smirked. Astarte upturned her chin and huffed, closing her eyes. "I hope an ogre eats you whole one of these days." "Maybe, but you know you'll cry a river if that happens!" Astarte's lip quivered and she looked away. She was trying to hide it, but it was obvious as well that her eyes were beginning to water. "Well, think you later, Astarte. I have to fix some things, look for some people as well to embark on a planet-wide adventure. Pretty awesome stuff if you ask me." And Brown flew off. Astarte wiped her eyes and sighed, "I was hoping she'd hug me again." ---------------------- Astarte burst in through the window into one of the surface facilities of the holy site. "Oh, that was a window...?" Astarte muttered to herself as she stood up straight, remembering that nearly all other windows were like that one in Ilunabar's place. She looked around and saw no Ilunabar, but what she did see was a shard of glass right through the center of what was undoubtedly the world's most beautiful painting. She looked around furtively and threw the painting out of the window. "What Ilunabar doesn't see, won't destroy her hopes and dreams..." She whispered to herself. "Luna? Are you here?" Ilunabar had indeed turned far more sneaky after she forsaken the dresses and picked the cloak, combined with the natural illusory nature of the Pictaraika she could easily hide without even trying, as she just did with Astarte. Teasingly, she decided to sneak a bit closer to the other goddess, saying "Hello" when she was very close to Astarte's ear. "Eek!" Astarte jumped and yelped, crashing against another set of beautiful, invaluable art and absolutely destroying it, "H-Hey," Astarte groaned and dug herself out of the mountain of broken items, "that was a good one." She looked around at the destroyed pieces and smiled sheepishly. "I know those are not the best ones I have around," she said looking at the shattered remains of pottery "But that is no reason to break them like that, so please, be careful." Astarte looked at Ilunabar with raised eyebrows, "Not the best ones?" She sighed but quickly after started to smile "So, how is Brown? Is she fine? I'm almost done with my task, and I can't wait to see her trying on all the new outfits." "Oh, she's fine really! Mostly. Uh," Astarte scrunched up her face in thought, "[i]All[/i] the new outfits? How many did you make? And so quickly?" "Eh, just a few, really. Maybe a bit more than what current mortal numerical systems could count, but that isn't an issue for us." she rolled her eyes and leaned back against a wall. "Also the magical jewelry should be done soon too. I just need my divas to get a few more gems." Astarte eyed Ilunabar's pose and did her best to emulate it, leaning against a wall as well. "Want me to bring Brown here right now, sister?" "Sure, unless there is something else you'd like to discuss in particular." Ilunabar summoned a little notebook and started to flip its page,reviewing some entries. "Uh..." Astarte looked around and shrugged. With a snap of her fingers, Brown appeared, looking as if she had her arm around someone's shoulder. "-And after you grab the bull by the ba-" She stopped and looked at the Goddesses, then sighed and did her best to force a smile, "If it isn't Asteroi- Astarte and Ilunabar. What can I do for you two, so soon after my departure?" "We're gonna dress you up like a human girl's straw doll!" Astarte grinned and looked at Ilunabar with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Ilunabar smiled. "First things first, let's get you out of those dreary grabs of yours." which of course were just the mirrored version of Astarte's own robe, the muse was quite aware of that. "... Dreary?" Astarte raised an eyebrow. With the snap of her fingers, glass shards flew across the room and perfectly cut Brown's so that it effortlessly fell off from her body. Before she was allowed the time to react, Ilunabar and a group of Marionettes were at her side, quickly grabbing her and dressing her into a fancier dress, in soft brown with green ribbons and golden decorations. "This isn't quite as comfortable-" Brown pressed her lips together and pulled at one of the ribbons. The muse analyzed it for a second and nodded, "Okay, that looks nice enough, but let's try something sleeker" Immediately the dress was taken off and Brown was dressed in a different outfit, this time she used pants, two layers of shirt and some sort of cloth on her neck. "Hmm, no, that works best in purple, but I don't want to break the harmony of the current brown color selection." "Colors have harmonies?" Astarte asked wide eyed. Next came a soft fur dress with a puffy hat, then three more dresses of varying length, one silky garment that wrapped her a bit too tightly, two tunics, then one outfit that only consisted of a loincloth and a chest wrap which Brown seemed to enjoy way too much, then one that centered on the use of a stylish cape, then a very large dress with far too many layers... The muse worked quite quickly and seemed to go by the outfits quite fast, managing Brown like the straw doll that Astarted had referenced. The last outfit she dressed Brown in before deciding to take a break was one with loose sleeves and a combination of pants with a half-skirt for the sake of giving a sense of flow when she flew. "Okay, let's stop with the clothes for a second because the jewelry has just arrived." Ilunabar clapped and quickly gave Brown a modest looking ring made of copper and pearl. Brown toyed with the ring in her hand for a moment before looking over her current attire. She stretched a bit and let a yawn escape her mouth. "Yes, I do like this one more than the others. Not too frillt, comfortable, and this skirt thing over the pants-" "Is very cute!" Astarte chuckled. "... Yeah, I suppose." Brown blushed and shrugged. "Your magic is supposedly born from within the soul, that means visualization is a huge part of it. I believe that focusing that power in a single item can improve the quality of the spells by simply taking out the noise from your mind. For example, this ring here has the purpose of creating a circular magical shield in front of you, try using it." Brown eyed the ring again. It didn't look particularly special nor did it feel magical in any way she'd expect but well, who was she to refuse a polite request to use jewelry? She put the ring on her right ring finger and balled up her hand into a tight fist. "Visualization and focus, huh? So if I focus on the ring, it should..." She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. In a split moment, it was as if half of a translucent spehere was materializing in front of Brown. Flickering in and out of existence and filling the air with magical tension so thick one could probably taste it. The flickering continued for the better part of a minute, until the half sphere managed to stabilize. At this time, Astarte flicked a small beam harmful energy toward the shield. it made no sound as it was absorbed by the shield. "That's some useful jewelry to have," Astarte nodded and Brown opened her eyes. The shield remained for a short while longer, but it eventually vanished. "I don't feel as drained as I normally feel after one of those stunts." "It makes sense, with a refined focus you probably waste less energy as it all goes into a clear form." Ilunabar pondered for a few moments. "It is good to see it is working, yet, there is still a long path for me to go with this craft." She opened a case and revealed quite a handful of different jewelry, from elegant earrings and necklaces made of gold and silver to rough looking bracelets and charms decorated with feathers and ivory. "This is all yours, not all are magical yet, but with time we will figure out an use for all things." Brown couldn't hide the grin as she took the case and began inspecting each accesory. "Ah, there are two more I would like to try." Ilunabar said as she took out a brooch from the case and pinned it on Brown, softly stinging her skin. "Ouch!" "Sorry, got distracted." she adjusted it. "The purpose of this is storing energy for later use, you will feel softly drained right now, but later, it could refill some of your power, I believe." "Huh, useful." The other piece was for Astarte, it was a scepter made of silver and purple gems, with the smaller ones being in a flower shape and the largest one being a deep purple orb at the top of the staff. "No idea what this could do... just got excited and ended up making, supposedly it could turn even a rock into a bunch of petals, but it could as well be so unstable it just creates an explosive beam or maybe it will do something else, who knows." Astarte took the scepter in her hands, gingerly. It was rather light and easy to handle, despite its heavily ornamented appearance. "It's very pretty, but I think I'll try it out later-" Astarte looked around at the numerous destroyed art pieces and chuckled, "I don't want to break more paintings or sculptures." "As I said before, it is no big deal, the stuff here is far from my best. Still, such mindless destruction isn't ideal either. Anyway, I think this settles the outfit and jewelry issue, what else is there to discuss?" "Well-" Astarte began, "Can the jewelry bypass magic negation fields?" Brown asked Ilunabar. The muse tilted her head "Magic Negation Field? I fear I'm not familiar with this concept." "I've been thinking it over. I had an unfortunate encountre with one of them, uh, recently." Brown looked away and then back at Ilunabar, "It was a place where I couldn't use my magic. It's like it went dormant when I was there..." "Well, it all depends on how it blocked it. If it was something that blocked your biological magic or your focus, I imagine they would act well against it. If it somethings that nullifies magic itself, then it is something that is beyond me, it is your very power after all." She pondered a bit. "But even in the latter case, depending on what causes it, it could still be countered." "For example, let's say that the very nature of the place is anti-magic. Quickly draining away all power that leaves your body. You could take one of the energy collection brooches I made and suddenly release all of its energy in the air, for a few seconds, I imagine, the sudden burst of energy would outweigh the suppression, creating a bubble of charged air in which you would be able to cast a spell or two before the anti-magic takes over again." Ilunabar punched the air while saying that, clearly excited about the glorious scene of magic and explosions. Quickly enough, however, she came back to her normal self. "Or at least that is what I think. I can give you the tools, but the craft is yours, my sister." "That's a great idea Ilunabar, I'll try that out!" Said Brown before flying out the broken window at an insane speed. Astarte watched as her avatar left and then turned to raise an eyebrow at Ilunabar, "It's a good idea I suppose. I wonder where these magic negation fields are at, though..." Astarte looked down and kicked away a small piece of a sculpture. "So, I think we're done here, right Big Sis?" "I think so. For now at least. Always feel free to come back whenever you want to chat, or ask for a new outfit or gem or pretty stuff in general... just avoid the windows, please." she smiled. "And take care of that fashionable avatar of yours. She is a bit too bold for her own sake." she ended with a sigh. Astarte returned the smile and waved her hand dismissively, "She is, but she'll be fine. She has your jewelry and fashion on her side now, doesn't she?" Ilunabar nodded as the goddess of magic left.