Artifact 01: Colorblocks

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

[ Sitting at a small, wooden table with a tall umbrella, Angela seems to be enthralled with something. The something sits on the table in front of her.

It looks like a collection of painted wood blocks, the kind of thing a baby would play with. They are currently arranged to look like a small cluster of houses, complete with angled roofs and chimneys. Suddenly, she lifts a hand, and knocks all the blocks down.

This would be disappointing for anyone admiring the block sculpture, but only briefly, as the blocks immediately start to build new houses, all on their own. ]

Comments

[lamb_of_gold]

How curious

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

It's an artifact. [ She watches it rebuild, then pulls one block out of a building. The remaining blocks reshape themselves into a different building. ] I'm not sure what it was made for, though. It's pretty harmless.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Kinetic manipulation using an extra-dimensional pull and a natural gestalt semi-sentience, perhaps.

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

Magic, actually. But you were close.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you'll never have heard of Clarke's Law, so I won't bother explaining it.

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

Afraid I haven't. Do you have objects like this in your world, too, or are you just used to finding a way to explain weird things?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Both. I used to construct blocks like that in the nursery.

[buckingbronco.livejournal.com]

[It's hard to tell if Dino is watching the blocks, or watching Angela]

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

You were a child prodigy, I take it. [ She takes a few blocks away from the on-going construction and watches as the other blocks adapt and rebuild. ] My great-aunt made these things, as did other artifact mages.

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

[ She's just enjoying playing with the blocks for now, swiping a few blocks from the others and watching them create their own buildings. ]

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Most Gallifreyans can build that sort of thing from a young age.

[grins]

Though I have always been more intelligent than my peers. What constitutes an 'artefact?'

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

You're a talented group of people, then. [ She returns the smile, propping her chin on one hand. ]

Basically, any object that has a lasting enchantment on it and can change itself or its surroundings. My necklace is one, too. [ She holds the charm that resembles a heart encased in ice up. ] It can produce snow. I'm not sure what the point was to some of these, though some are rumored to be very powerful. I'm hoping to find one that will help my kingdom.

[buckingbronco.livejournal.com]

[Speaks up after a while] That looks like fun.

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

[ She looks up from the blocks, shrugs and smiles a little. ] It's pretty neat.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

And I presume it isn't easy to make them.

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

It takes a special kind of magic, one that died out with the mages who used it.

[buckingbronco.livejournal.com]

[Comes closer to look at the blocks] What is it exactly? A toy?

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

It's an artifact. I'm not sure what it was used for. Maybe it was for kids. [ She takes more blocks, isolating them with her hands. They build their own building. ] Or it was just an experiment. Maybe they were hoping to create self-repairing houses or something.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

The secret of it was forgotten, or was there something in the genetics?

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

No mage really has the power to use that kind of magic anymore. Back then, a lot of mages had Eyes of Flame, gems that gave them additional power. But there was a war between those who used the stones and those who thought they were evil. The mages lost, and we were forced to hide lest we be hunted down and killed by the winning army.

[ She goes back to watching the blocks. ] We're barely able to hold on to what we have now, we've lost so many who knew the old magics.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

They always fear power.

So you're a mage, and a hunted one, then?

[mercwamouth]

They should make a version of Jenga out of this stuff.

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

And yet Ricrot is now slaughtering his enemies. If anyone should be feared, it should be him, not my people.

I am. My mother is the queen of the kingdom we established.

[whitestlotus.livejournal.com]

Hello, whalamato man. What in the world is Jenga?

[mercwamouth]

The original wood block game!

Pull 'em, stack 'em, don't let 'em topple!

Edge of your seat fun!