Lights, Camera, Action! [Lyssoryl, Fish Stick please]

[Xyltha Thanole]

Mid Kalendryas, Winter, Era I, PF XV, right after they sign up at the Versian Festival booth

Lyssoryl

"Well, I only recently arrived for the Festival, so I doubt you would have seen me around before this brightening. Why don't we go to the school cafeteria and plan our talent show there, then? Are you free at the moment?"

"As it happens, I am, so I shall lead the way. Apparently we shall have to make plans which do not include any lions, but I am undaunted. And I'm afraid I still don't know your name, which is a fact that might come in handy."

Lyssoryl lead the way to the cafeteria, veering expertly through the crowds of festival goers. Once there, the pair found a table in an out of the way corner. She disappeared into the kitchen, but shortly reappeared with a tray of refreshments. She set the tray on the table and climbed up on the chair, her feet swinging in the air.

"It seems to me that the difficult part will be to incorporate magic into the act in a way that won't cause everyone's eyes to roll up into their heads while we're reaching clara. There's only so much dead space an act can survive. It will probably help if we start the show with one or the other of us already in clara. Hmm...actually, I'm not entirely sure what sort of spells are available to you. Do you have any that are showy and dramatic?"

Xyltha

Following the marching halfling, Xyltha had to endure the mincing pace limited by her stumpy legs. On the way to the cafeteria, he introduced himself properly.

"Oh yeah, sorry. I'm Xyltha, by the way. Nice to make your acquaintance."

Finally, they had arrived at their destination, and once they had settled down with a platter of refreshments within reach, they began discussing the Talent Show in earnest.

"Well, I agree with you. We'll need to alternate casting spells, seeing as we take a fair while to get into Clara. I take about three to five minutes, I think. But I can only cast a limited repertoire of spells. I don't have anything particularly flashy.

Well, I can cast a sphere of light that has a rather cool dramatic effect. And my Star Force and Force Bolt also is quite flashy in that respect. What about you? I don't know what kind of spells Song mages can cast."

[Lyssoryl]

"Well, all my spells are of course songs. The only one I have with a visual effect is Sonnet in Solo, which envelops a weapon with a damaging glow. I could stir up the audience's patriotism with Aelyria's Anthem. It is fairly tempting to sing Leland's Lullaby, as it would give the audience a feeling of comfort and safety, although if anyone is sleepy it might well put them under. Healers Hymn is also quite a nice song, and if any of the audience has scrapes or brusies I could heal them and it might make them well disposed towards our act."

Lyssoryl thought a moment.

"Is your sphere of light spell an area of light you stand within, or is it a globe of light that works as a lantern? And if the latter, can you move it about with your mind? We might work out a skit with your sphere of light representing a fairy which I interact with and perhaps chase about with a comically oversized butterfly net."

[Xyltha Thanole]

Xyltha perked up at the mention of the spells available to the Song Sphere. He wasn't sure how they worked, but from the sounds of things, it seems that the actual playing of the songs effected their magic one way or another. How interesting, indeed.

"Well, that's a good thought. My Sphere acts as a floating sphere of light. I could make it act like a fairy for you to chase. While you introduce the act, I could at the same time summon the sphere for you to chase. Maybe even two!

Then I continue chasing them, and you hand me that butterfly net, then go and make it glow... and we'll pretend that that's what made me be able to catch the fairy in the net. Then I'll hand it to you, and we each grab one..."

He paused, unsure how to continue. Honestly, he couldn't quite see where all his miniplot of the skit was headed. He was just brainstorming still. There was more work to be done to flesh out the skit.

[Lyssoryl]

Lyssoryl gave Xyltha an appraising glance.

"I shall be very much impressed if you can mentally control two spheres of light simultaneously, well enough to make them seem to be living creatures, all the while playing a part on stage. We should definitely give that a try before we count on it, I believe it will be difficult."

"One thought I had would be that we were explorers in search of a particularly rare sort of fairy, which is said to bless the world in various important ways. Perhaps we could open on a jungle scene with a forbidding ancient stone carving looming in the background. The fairy appears, as played by your ball of light. We try to catch it, but it evades us, with a number of comical mishaps along the way. Eventually I sing Leland's Lullaby, and the fairy lands on a convenient stump or boulder, apparently a sleep. We pick it up and cradle it lovingly, gazing fondly on it's countanence, then WHAM, we press it in a book to preserve it, with the ironic twist at the end being that we are souless collectors destroying a natural treasure that up until now the audience thought we revered, making some sort of poinant statement of the moral decay of society or something of that nature."

"Of course, here I am assuming that the goal is entertainment and not just cramming as much magic into the act as possible."

[Xyltha Thanole]

Xyltha pondered on her mini plotline. Well, it seemed quite feasible enough. And he did agree with her notion that magic wasn't the be all and end all of the Talent Show. No, entertainment would figure prominently in it for sure.

"It could work. Yes, I think it might well work. How long do you need to cast Leland's lullaby? Hopefully you won't be putting the audience to sleep, otherwise they'll miss the whole twist at the end too. Ha ha!"

After a quiet minute for more thought, Xyltha continued.

"Yes, but what if we extended the twist. We can have another fairy come out of nowhere, and magically open the book to rescue her friend. Then they attack us in a final showdown. People always like showdowns, don't you think? You can even play your Aelyrian anthem song at this stage, to arouse the audience's sense of outrage at us."

[Lyssoryl]

"How long do you need to cast Leland's lullaby? Hopefully you won't be putting the audience to sleep, otherwise they'll miss the whole twist at the end too. Ha ha!"

"Like you, I need a few minutes to go into clara, and then a few minutes more to sing. Of course, the song should be entertaining so there needn't be any dead space there. The lullaby makes people relaxed and give a protective aura for those who sleep, but it should not actually force anyone to sleep. But if the whole audience does happen to go down we can always steal their coin purses and flee into the night." She smiled at this last comment, hoping to indicate that it was a joke.

"Yes, but what if we extended the twist. We can have another fairy come out of nowhere, and magically open the book to rescue her friend. Then they attack us in a final showdown. People always like showdowns, don't you think? You can even play your Aelyrian anthem song at this stage, to arouse the audience's sense of outrage at us."

"Well, we can certainly give that a practice try, but we'd be back to you needing to control two balls of light again. I also think that we should try not to stray too far from comedy, unless we're going to be entirely serious from the start. Our skit will not last long enough for many changes of moods, and comedy is easier than seriousness. Perhaps the 'fairies' could chase us from the stage apparently stinging our rear ends or something."

[Xyltha Thanole]

oocFinally! you got a nice avvy. o.O Where did you get it? She doesn't look like a runty halfling, though. :P

Xyltha conceded her point. It was a talent show, and he doubted the audience would take too kindly if it became a convoluted farce.

"You do have a point, I guess. Well, then I guess that's our main plotline: We chase after a fairy, which we catch, then we shut it in a book. Then we get chased off stage once it's been released?

Yes, well as for the balls of light, I think I'll need to practice controlling it first. I'm not sure if I can even control two, but one can only try, I guess. But I think even if I can only conjure one, we can still have that "fairy" escape its containment, and sting us off the stage well enough."

He grinned as he finished his summary.

[Lyssoryl]

OOC: Runty!? Cha! I'm small, not disfigured.

"I think that might work out OK. We should practice to work out any of the kinks or to see if we need to add anything. I propose that we arrive on stage and I monolog to set up the skit while you pretend to study maps or something as you reach clara. The fairy comes out, we chase it comically, I run into a tree and pretend to be unconcious while I reach clara, I sing, and so on, as we've planned."

[Xyltha Thanole]

OOC:haha fine fine. I guess I'm just a bit speciest against short stuffs :p I sent a PM to Fish Stick for him to mod our spells and what not, by the way.

Xyltha nodded eagerly in agreement. He felt they were finally getting somewhere. It was time to put their plan into action, and see how it fared.

"Ok then. Hang on, I'll try to conjure up one of my lights, tell me if you think it'll be suitable to use as a mock "fairy"."

He quietly slipped into Clara, the quiet persistent state of peace and calm where he could fuse his inner Vis and Ara to create Mana. Time seemed to stop, as he descended into the meditative trance of spell casting. Having attuned his senses to the magical flow around him, he dipped his spiritual energy into the Astral planes, to summon forth a glowing mass of Force, whereby he would fashion it into a glowing sphere of light. He would send it hovering over the halfling's head, testing his limits of control over his conjuration...

[Fish Stick]

As Xyltha slipped into his clara, there was no din in the area that would cause him to be unable to concentrate hard enough to reach his Clara. He would be able to see the arcanic essenses flowing around him, and within him. As he worked with them, he managed to create the glowing sphere of light, dim, and not entirely very powerful, as it was an initiate casting it, but perhaps bright enough to give the desired effect. He would attempt to move it towards Lyssoryl's head, but only be partially successful as it flickered out, and dissapated when it neared her head. He would certainly need more practice with it...

[Xyltha Thanole]

Xyltha cast a bleary-eyed glance near the cether's head, just emerging from his trance-like state. He gave his companion a sheepish smile, and comment ruefully:

"Sorry, I haven't exactly been practising my spells lately. I'll try that again. Argh! Hopefully I can make it more fairy-like by the time the Festival starts."

Sighing in frustration, he picked up a creamy bun on the platter the kitchen-assistant had brought out. The delectable aroma filled his nostrils; he could just about taste the creamy texture before it disappeared into his mouth. Yes, that did the trick - it soothed his anxiety somewhat, keep those phantoms of doubts at bay even as he had failed his first attempt at conjuring the glowing "fairy".

"Mind if I have a rest, why don't you go ahead and strum a few strings of your spell songs. I'd like to have a gander at what you can do, too."

His wandering right arm snagged another creamy pastry, as he settled down to see if Lyssoryl would grace him with a song. Food, entertainment - ah, this brightening was going down a treat - well apart from his failed attempt.

[Lyssoryl]

Lyssoryl patted his hand and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine. We have plenty of time to practice."

She took a goodly drink from a mug of milk, then set it on the table and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

"I'd happily have a turn at spell casting, although I do not yet play an instrument so it shall be singing and not strumming. I suppose that I shall do Leland's Lullaby."

She took a deep breath, fixing an feeling of peace and comfort in her mind. It was a good atmosphere for her to cast this spell, as she had always enjoyed being in the kitchen and felt relaxed and happy there. She took her time gathering energy for the spell, then began to sing gently, with emphasis on the delicacy of the notes. Her voice was pleasing and soft, and perhaps a bit child-like.

[Fish Stick]

As she began to sing the song, they could both feel the feelings of serenity slowly drift through their beings. It was almost as if all of the cares in the world had been lifted, and they were in a serene peaceful garden. Sad to say, the spell was broken when a large noise erupted from the kitchen. If the two looked over towards a doorway, they would see Sera peeking her head out, and waving to them apologetically. "I'm so sorry, one of our cauldron's was off balance. It was a beautiful song though, you should not be afraid to let it flow through you more when you sing it, and sing it with all of your heart Lyssoryl!" she exclaimed. "Oh, who is your friend?" she then followed with a question...

[Lyssoryl]

Lyssoryl's eyes widened "Sera! are you a bard too?! Why did you never say? I believe in the future I will take your advice and also be warry lest falling cookery startle me out of my concentration. This is my new friend Xyltha Thanole. Xyltha, this is Sera, the head cook and the kind person who taught me how to manuever a bit in the kitchen myself. Xyltha and I are going to perform together in the talent contest."

[Xyltha Thanole]

Xyltha was likewise startled out of his repose. Startled, he jumped to his feet. When the cook explained herself, Xyltha nodded. It was nothing to be worried about. Not so worrying as a house falling down, or the kitchen catching fire. He flashed a grin at the boisterous cook.

"Serale, Sera. Nice to meet you. Yes, we're just practising for the Talent show. Sorry to disturb you."

He looked back at the Cether in askance. "That was a very soothing song indeed. Are you still alright to continue, or do you want to take a break?"