Jasper Ashti's page

He gives that wide smile, adopting one of his doubly nonchalant poses, giving a slight nod.

"True, true. It's all about having fun, right? We're both due for a bit of it, I think. Stuck for a couple of ages and only brought back out to save the universe, we've earned a chance to goof off for a bit."

Jasper watches her slow build of frustration as he learns more modern dance moves.

"Hey, it's not so bad. I think maybe you might be having trouble with it because you're thinking too much about it as a whole different thing. Dance styles don't just happen, they kind of build and shift from one to another over time. So let's start with ballet and kinda loosen up from there."

He laughs a bit at assuming he'd be a show off.

"I'm not going to deny it, but we'll see how things go. Maybe we can work something out to really impress folks together, eh?"

He puts his hands on his hips as he's ready for the next lesson.

"Well, a year behind is better than a few centuries behind, and from another planet." He gives An a bit of a spin as they depart from slow dancing.

"Maybe that's something I could help you with. If there's one thing I am, it's flexible."

He turns a 360 with his top half as his lower half stays planeted, demonstrating.

An talks him through the very basic steps fairly quickly, humming as she went rather than trying to find the right songs to play. Going over and changing the song repeatedly was too much trouble. She doesn't exactly have the best singing voice, which is apparent even from something as basic as humming. Up to you of course how well and quickly he learns. :)

Jasper picks up the dances fairly well. It takes him a few tries to not step up into the air every third count, but he gets used to it eventually. Once she's hum a song for a few bars, he picks it up, being a natural mimic, literally. At least, half of him is. His voice isn't too bad, but he's right between a baritone and a tenor, which doesn't leave much room for a good range.

"It's normal for the guy to lead...but this is a casual party so I doubt it's an issue either way. Slow dances are easier. I'll show you the steps for the most common tempos, but honestly don't worry if you forget. Some people just sort of shuffle sway their way through those kind of songs. And the faster songs are all about improvisation, but I can show you some basic steps that were popular a year ago anyhow. Can't have changed too much in a year, right?"

Jasper nods and takes the usual slow dancing position, albeit with two arms around her side and his lower arm on the side holding her hand behind his back.

"Do lead on, then." He smiles and awaits instructions.

She nodded. "Yeah, you gotta time it just right so that the fashions have come back around to what you were wearing before or it's just awkward," she joked.

"And yeah, of course I can show you how to dance. This kind of party is pretty informal so any dancing will be pretty simple anyways." She held out a hand. "Shall we?" she asked, grinning.

He chuckles and stands, brushing himself down a bit.

Jasper takes the magic mirror back whenever Andromeda gets to that point in emptying her bag of holding. He takes it gently, giving it a bit of polish before producing some light orange striped wrapping paper and trussing it up in an elegant, if unpracticed package, somewhat impressive in its lack of any tape.

"Maybe you could teach me a bit? It's been a while since I've danced, and I only really learned elemental sphere-dancing and the Auran waltz, both of which involve a bit more lateral maneuvering than Material Plane dances seem to."

He nods knowingly at the glitter problem.
"Dude, I know, right? It's the worst. I thought I could mimic the colors some fey have, like, under the eyes, but it's all just make up and illusions. I can't shift anything that doesn't exist somewhere, so I had to learn how to do all that myself. I mean, decades to practice helps, but every time someone dug up my bottle, aaall the fashions had changed and I come billowing out in this cloud of smoke and wind wearing stuff their grandparents wore. Definitely hard to make an entrance like that."

She raises an eyebrow at the tail, but doesn't say anything. "Yeah, there's lots of reasons why someone would want or need to use a wish. Still sucks that there were so many people willing to take advantage of you to get it. Seems like there were better ways. But maybe I'm just used to wonders as something normal. And the wish spells my grandma used tied into the ones my ancestors used in....weird ways. So I guess wishes aren't the easiest thing to either obtain or use by any method really. Or it could just be us. I mean, there's not exactly a big sample size to go by, and there's a definite survival bias since it takes a certain amount of inventiveness and resourcefulness to survive being hunted for centuries, but we're kinda good at innovation with a heaping side of unintended consequences. And what I've seen in the pool when I decided to study the history of my people suggests that it's not totally just my family. I mean, we take it to new heights, but that's that whole survival thing in action I think."

"So....for tonight, should I wear the twinkle stars dress or the one with the puffy purple skirt? Not really sure which one is more party appropriate," she said, holding up both garments, one in a midnight blue covered with...

"Yeah, they definitely don't always go like you plan for them to. Usually it's because I make them not, but not always."

He looks up and regards the two dresses. "Well, I suppose it depends on whether you're planning to dance with anyone or not. The stars might help you get a partner, but if you wanna dance on your own, the other would keep people at about this distance." He holds up his hands in an ever so slight exaggeration of the width the skirt.

"It's hard to say. Once magic gets involved the normal rules kinda get tossed out the window. That's the whole point of magic after all," she said with a shrug, starting to hang up her clothes in the wardrobe. "Telling the laws of physics to sit down and shut up," she joked.

"Kinda makes you feel sorry for the people that can't use it, doesn't it? Sometimes people would tell me to make them be able to use magic, and I couldn't really blame them. It was really rare for anyone to get my bottle that deserved it, but I can't a couple of em, I really couldn't fault for wanting the things they did."

"Yeah, that's probably true. I wonder if when I shrink, my atoms are getting smaller, or if they're just disappearing..."

He flips through the book a little bit more, exploring the little flaps and tabs.

"Oh, you'll like them! It's like a regular book, but there are specially folded bits, kinda like origami really, that pop up when you open to a page so you can see things in more detail and three dimensional. Here, let me see....it won't be my original copy, of course, but they might just be here...." she said, kneeling down to examine the bottom shelf of the bookcase. "Yep! Found it! The whole set. Nuclear Physics, Chemistry, Bioengineering, Geology, and Robotics. I read these a lot as a kid. Although Jiminy didn't like to share them, so it wasn't easy to get my turn," she said, wrinkling her nose as she remembered. "And then Taron would take them just to get a rise out of us."

What else would you expect from Tam and Aananda's kids? I'm pretty sure they had elemental ABCs too....A is for Arsenic, B is for Boron, C is for Carbon, D is for Dubnium, E is for Erbium, F is for Flourine, G is for Gallium, H is for Helium, I is for Iodine, J is for .....well, turns out the whole idea breaks down at J. Huh. All the other letters, but no J. How disappointing. :P

Jasper accepts them with a raised eyebrow, opening up the nuclear physics book, his eyes going wide at the unfolding diagram.

I was made very aware of this fact in elementary school, given that my name starts with J and our class tried spelling out names in elements.:p

"What's a pop up book? That sounds fun. I actually got to see society move from scrolls to books, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised they've gone another step further."

"Oooh!" she squealed, accepting the origami unicorn, "It's so cuuuuute!!!"

She turned to find a good spot to display it on the shelf when he asked about the crystal and she giggled. "No captive spirits, I promise! And yeah, most people use data crystals to store music. Among other things. They store information. When I plug the crystal into the player, the player translates that information back into sound and plays the song. That's a total oversimplification, but I don't think you're really wanting to know why it works on an atomic level ...we would have to cover what atoms are...and explain about computer code...and electricity.....yeah....ummm.....for now it's best just to know that it works. With no magic involved. Although, I guess it can be hard to tell the difference when it comes right down to it," she added, considering.

The djinn smiles softly as she accepts the unicorn and goes to place it with her things.

After enjoying that song, he takes a seat as a slightly slower one comes on, giving him time to finish This and hand it to her.

"So does everyone use those turny crystal things for music? Are there like spirits bound in there to play songs? Cause if so, that's like really not cool."

Jasper listens to the song for a while, slowly getting more into it.
"Hey, this is pretty good."
A few moments later he's standing up, smiling and dancing around the room a bit.
"Dude, I love this!"

Gotta wait until I get back to some wifi to listen to the song and post for Jasper, promise I didn't miss this one. :P

She laughed. "Uh, no. Definitely unicorn. Cliche, I know, but hey, nobody said favorites had to be logical."

"Oh, dude totally. Mine was an artichoke for a while. Now it's pangolins cause they're like rolly artichoke dudes."

"If it makes you feel any better, a lot of people from this world are just as weirded out by technology as you are. Up until recently the only tech around was stuff leftover from hundreds of years ago. I just grew up around it because my mom is a mechanic and inventor. Outside of Avalon and Kuros, there are a lot of places where the most advanced technology they ever see are the trains. They use magic for most of the stuff we use technology for. Unless it's one of the places that thinks that magic is evil, in which case things get pretty primitive. So you're not as far behind on that stuff as it might feel like when hanging around me and my family," she said with a shrug. "Sometimes I just forget that it isn't normal for everybody. It's good to remind me now and then."

He nods and rubs his free hand together, producing a couple small sheets of paper.

She gave him a lopsided smile as she sat down cross-legged on the bed, hugging one of the ruffled pillows against her chest. "Yeah, I guess it is. So when it's your turn to have a freak out about all of it being too much, I'm here. For whatever that's worth. We can take turns having break downs," she said with an impish grin.

He chuckles and sits next to her, leaning back and letting his arms lay out while he also puts two hands behind his head.

"Yeah, probably," she said in a resigned tone. "Too bad I can't take them with me outside of time. Cause I'm pretty sure dealing with all my mess is not going to be a quick process. And I'm not that good at being patient. Growing up as the Champion of Time kinda messes with your sense of how long things should take," she admitted. She tried to just relax for a moment. "Thank you. For being here. For not running for the hills. All of that."

"It would feel like the same amount of time for you, though, wouldn't it? Maybe it won't be so bad. And you could use one of those fancy demi-plane rooms to speed stuff up."

::Oh, I probably won't be alone the whole time. She often shows up to keep me company. She's not exactly sympathetic but she does at least listen. Or pretend to listen I suppose. I don't know. It's just....this is always what I do when things get bad. I go there so I can get it all out of my system without bothering anyone else....okay, maybe there are some flaws to using this as a coping mechanisms...:: She finished blowing her nose. "I didn't really think of it like that before. I didn't realize. I'm still just trying to put up a facade like I have things together and I really, really don't." she said with a sigh.

"I'm not sure that this is something that really helps. It kinda just sounds like talking to a painting. And I did that a lot when I was kid. It didn't really do much. And it doesn't bother me to try and help. I'm not sure what I can do, but being here for you doesn't bother me. I think maybe you aught to talk with one of the councilor people they have here."

She blew her nose loudly. ::Yeah, let's not have any catastrophic accidents today,:: she said with a mental grimace.

::I need some time to process stuff. And I know where I can have as much time as I need, but not take up any time here. It's a special place my patron made for me.:: She hesitated, unsure if she should ask the next question. ::There's a special pool there that I can use to see anything that's happened in the past. The farther in the past, the easier it is to see. I....can use it to find out information about what happened to your family if you want....I mean, if you don't already know...::

He smiled softly at the offer and gives her a soft squeeze to his side.

::I'm sorry,:: she says, gasping for air between sobs. ::I thought I was done crying. But there's just too many emotions in too short a time and I'm so confused trying to feel all of them at once. And apparently that comes out in hysterical sobs. I'm really sorry. I know I'm kind of a lot to deal with. I didn't mean to fall apart so much.::

Jasper produces a handkerchief and hands it to her with one of his free hands.

An laughed and took the box. "Why thank you, you shouldn't have," she jokes back, setting the box down in front of the wardrobe and also setting down her new - and rather full- bag of holding beside it. "Time to unpack, I guess," she said throwing open the doors of the wardrobe. It was empty except for a few school uniforms hanging up for her. Except they weren't like the uniforms she'd had before. Same green and white color scheme, but instead of skirts there were leggings, the shirts were also of a much clingier fabric than she usually wore outside the ballet studio, and there was a loose green sweater that could be tied around the waist if desired instead of the green blazer. She looked confused for a moment and then thought about it some more. "Oh. Yeah....friction could actually be a problem....and skirts might be difficult if I suddenly got speedy....Thanks," she said, patting the wall as she realized the school had solved a problem for her before she'd even noticed it was a problem.

And then she found herself suddenly tearing up. She wiped her eyes quickly, trying to get back to unpacking, but the waterworks were back with a vengeance and she ended up sitting down on the floor in front of her closet sobbing uncontrollably.

An can feel a soft hum as she puts a hand to the wall for a moment, which explains the low hum that was easily assumed to be a generator in one of the service rooms as she was complementing the school earlier. Seems the school is thankful of the praise.

When her shields crack, and she lets herself out, Jasper frowns a little, softly, and kneels next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders and rubbing her back gently with the other on that side. For certainly not the first time in his life, he wishes he could grant his own wishes so he could know what to do in a time like this. After everything, the best he could think was just to give her time to let it out and be there for her support. He wasn't sure anyone had ever experienced loss in the exact same way she had just, but he was fresh off the realization that everyone he had grown up with was gone as well as his parents, mixed feelings and all, so he does know it's not easy.

"I'm kinda just good at getting to know one person kinda well really quick. Part of the whole "Eyyess mastaah, your weesh my commaaand" schtick. Lucky for you, this time it's not so I can make you magnetic when you asked to be the most attractive person in the world."

Jasper's room is on the second floor, and he'd never seen the staircase before, so he's visibly confused for a moment before they start up it and he realizes he's only expending more energy thinking too hard about it.

He smirks somewhat in distaste as he sees the musty hallway her room is situated on. When they get to the door and she checks it out, he turns an about face to the hallway.
He takes a moment and sets the box down, freeing his hands to work as he blows open the windows to the hallway, inhales deeply and exhales a powerful gust, blowing away all of the gathered dust and cobwebs, leaving the hallway at least a bit friendlier if not totally clean.
With that short chore done, he ducks through the door and checks out the room, nodding in appreciation of it's accuracy to her taste.
"Definitely you, An. No doubt about that."
He picks up the box and there's a short flash while her back is turned before, grinning in that way he does, he presents her with her own things in it giftwrapped with a bow.
"Got you a roomwarming present, hope you like it."

She shrugged. "I dropped off my paperwork at the office last night. It was late so I just put it in the inbox, but that's probably good enough. I guess we'll find out. Once we're out in the corridor proper I'll see if it leads me to a room or to the office," she said, trying to paste a smile on her face, but it just didn't quite work. "Hopefully I'll get a non-homicidal roommate this time."

Jasper nods and follows her out to the hallway, box in one of his arm sets.

"Ah, I probably couldn't do much better, then, sorry hon."

He gives the customary last squeeze before they break, and he picks the box up, ready to follow her.

"You think we need to get you registered before your room will be here, or would the school already know?"

Jasper gives the best hugs. Twice as good as anyone else.

::I understand that this is really complicated right now. I'm not gonna say that I know how you feel, but I'm here to do anything you need to help.::

He rubs her back softly.

::Do you think it would help to talk with them just once? Getting a chance to meet them yourself just a for a little bit?::

Oh gosh, that sounds like crying. Dog ears are good. Should I be listening? I can't hear most of it. Does that count as listening? I shouldn't be listening.

He shifts back up to his djinn form, working on the puzzle box so his hands have something to do.

Hey, it opened. Ooh.

He holds the camel figurine up and trots it along the edge of the open box.

Hey little guy. What's your name? Maybe your mystical Crystal will tell us.

He sets the two on the back of the puzzle box and makes magic fingers at the little crystal.

I see a future as Horus the Camel for yoooouuu.

He'd look and see if there's anything in the locket next. If it doesn't open, he eventually moves on to the key and identifies its power, using it to open the locket and look inside.

Summary of questions: Is it a "Crystal Ball" with the scrying and everything, but mini or a regular ball of glass/quartz? Any pictures in the locket?

He gets up and hugs her softly.
::Oh hon, I'm sorry to hear that. Do you want to talk about it? Or do you wanna not talk about it?::

Jasper smiles and gives her a double armed side hug.

"Hey, no worries." He taps the side of his head to indicate telepathy. "Just ping me if ya need me. I'll be right here."

He's suddenly a white furred Labrador, sitting loyally by the door next to her box of things.
::Good luck.::

"It's just a hologram projector," she said about the frame, noticing his interest. "The pictures are all stored on the memory crystal in the center. There's actually other copies of that crystal too cause Mom and Grandma both wanted to keep all the photos of course. It's all nanite tech. It's a machine, but the pieces are so small you'd need a microscope to even see them. I don't really notice it much because I grew up around so much nanite tech. It's my mom's specialty. She can pretty much miniaturize anything once she's had a good look at how it works."

"I think the problem with sorting things in my head is that there's this whole quantum entanglement crap going on. Technically they're all versions of me, so it's all 'my' memories. It's easier to sort when I have access to external information. Like photos," she said, leading the way down the hall and around a corner. She stops in front of a door and wipes her hands on her pants like she's nervous. "Okay, here goes," she said, knocking on the door.

Jasper doesn't dwell on it too long before he sets it back in the box. "I guess it's just different times we grew up in. Everything was all running on magic when I was a kid. I stopped back home right after Freedom found me, and everything is pretty much the same technology wise, but I guess there was a big overthrow of the government while I was gone. I never even saw any statues of my dad anywhere. But I guess that's what happens when you're dropped out of time for a couple thousand years, eh? Stuff kinda moved on without us."

"I'm not really sure how the school actually works. Maybe it's its own demiplane or something. All I know is that it works," she said with a shrug, opening the closet and taking out the few clothes hanging inside, placing them in the offered box. She picks up the picture frame and sighs. "I swear this frame has a talent for picking the most embarrassing photos to show at any given time. Pretty sure that's why Ephebe left it. Here's a picture from the day Taron burned my half dragon Barbies. There's me crying, and Jiminy patting my head to try and make me feel better, and there's Taron looking bored while Mom scolds him....Master Quo loved to take pictures of awkward moments like this. He said we'd appreciate them someday. Still waiting on that," she said, rolling her eyes as she tossed the irritating holodisplay into the box.

"I appreciate the offer to duplicate things, but kinda the point is the memories that went along with them. It's not really about the stuff itself. At least I have the photos. They help when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't remember which memories are mine." She tossed her dance bag on top of the sparse contents of the box. "That's it. All packed. Told you it wouldn't take long," she said smiling. "Now to break the news to my parents."

"Guess the saying goes for jokes, frogs... Magic buildings..."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have explained it badly. No, there's only one magic building, and yes it's definitely sentient. It started out as a small cottage that's been in Uncle Ryo's family for ages. And it expanded as necessary to accommodate extra family. It likes to keep the core part of the house the same though. Almost like a control room really. No, the school is just an extension of the house. Ryo wanted to open a school so it sort of grew one. And it keeps expanding as necessary. Only family and people we bring in as guests are allowed to go into the house part. I think if it wanted to hide it could actually go back to looking like a cottage on the outside, but everything in the school would still be on the inside. But that would freak people out, so it lets the school part look somewhat close to as big as it is, sort of. It's a very unique sort of building," she said leading the way down a corridor that hadn't been there before to a door that sort of appeared in the wall as they got closer to it."Come on in," she said, gesturing for him to follow. Inside the door was a pretty normal looking house. There was a large sunny kitchen, a cozy living room filled with beat-up furniture, and a stairway leading up. "My room is upstairs. Grandma's lair is the basement. She's often in the kitchen there unless she's working with students."

She led the way upstairs, still talking. "You make a good point about stuff, and it's my fault actually that Ephebe got most of my stuff. I basically stuck her here to take my place. In my defense I was dead, and had been through a lot of trauma, and it was totally messing with my sense of perspective. It never occurred to me that it doesn't work like that or that I would end up coming back. But that doesn't mean it isn't hard sometimes. Here's my room," she said, heading for the third door on the left. The room was a small bedroom. There was a twin bed with a colorful patchwork quilt on it, a mostly empty bookcase with one small holographic display on it that was cycling through images, a large wardrobe that was hanging open with not many clothes hanging inside, and a desk that was cluttered with various knickknacks in varying states of broken. There was one large window on the opposite side of the wall with ruffled white curtains tied back to each side of it, and a faded rug in a floral pattern on the floor. There wasn't a lot here that seemed to fit with Andromeda's personality.

Despite still working on the puzzle box as they walk and talk, he's attentive to the explanation, nodding and giving the occasional "yeah," or "uh huh." As they arrive, he ducks through the door, shrinking a bit to fit better in the room. "Oh, okay. That kinda makes sense. Like my room in the bottle. But that's kind of a slice of another plane sealed in a bottle."

They appeared back in the school in a corridor that seemed to be pretty far from the normal sections. "You're welcome to help me move if you like, but there isn't really that much to pack. My dance bag. A couple of favorite outfits. That's pretty much it. Ephebe already got most of the sentimental stuff," she said with a grimace. "I think I still have an old photo frame. And that's about it. Come on. You can come see if you want. It's a pretty generic room now. It always was really. The house is like that. It's not all elaborate like the school is. It was here first, and it has a certain way that it likes to stay."

"I mean, I don't have anywhere else to be." He hooks his thumbs into his pockets as he follows along with her through the corridors. "That kinda sucks. You'd think you'd get first call since this is your reality. But, if you don't mind me getting philosophical, having stuff has always seemed less important to me than having experiences. I guess it comes with the territory. Kind of my job to give people stuff, and they don't tend to end up happy. Sometimes that's my fault, but that's neither here nor there." He chuckles as he pulls out the puzzle box during the walk, working on the last corner.

"Hey, I can help us move out of ya like. Gotta put these to use."

He goofily flexes one set of arms up and one down, briefly becoming super jacked before deflating like a balloon to his normal size.

With it decided that they were off, he gives some finger guns at the fey. "Have a nice life."

And with that, they're gone, back at the school presumably.

Jasper looks back to her and shrugs.

"Eh, good enough for you, it's good enough for me."

He stands, hands on hips and arms crossed and delivers one last oration.

"With apology served and forgiveness given, your sentence shall now be re-written. No more fear in hearts you'll strike, if this miss you'll be alike. When forgiveness is sought of you, give in earnest and quickly too. Take this lesson to your heart, never from you let it part. It is revoked."

With a clap of thunder, the enchantment falls away, leaving him as his normal self, hopefully slightly changed.

"So, you about ready to head back?"

He turns to Andromeda and his smile is back with hands in pockets like none of that had even happened.

The fey blanched, as he realized that the djinn had treated him in a fashion that was totally in keeping with the laws of his own people. "Take it back!" he wailed. "Take it back!"

"Ooh, sorry Charlie. No can do. Afraid it's out of my hands now, but as a consolation prize, I'll tell ya what ya can do."

He leans over to An as an aside. "I even went to all the trouble of making it rhyme, and he still didn't listen. Mortals." He exaggeratedly rolls his eyes and turns his attention back to the angry, diminutive man.

Jasper produces a pair of glasses and clipboard, looking over the glasses as he reads from the board in an official sounding voice, "You've been charged with aggravated aggravation, minion bullying, insect enslavement, assault and beettery, and general dislikability. How does the court find you?"

He sidesteps, now with his hair piled up high in rolls stacked in a curly updo, holding a very small version of his war hammer. "Guilty!" He knocks the hammer on the back of the board. "I hereby sentence you to either honestly, earnestly, pleasantly apologize to this lovely you miss that you have wronged, or to life in this predicament of your choosing. May the gods have mercy on your soul."

He tosses the whole collection of props behind him nonchalantly as they vanish into white smoke and he returns to his previous hairdo, standing next to Andromeda.

Finding their way blocked by people, and An's previous record of allowing him to assist her over things, he offers a hand with a simple "hold on," before air jumping them both over the crowd to the empty patch.

The oddest thing about the blind panic is that once anyone reaches 20 feet away from the gnome, they start to think and aren't really sure of what exactly they were scared of, causing an odd wave to move over the crowd from a full sprint to a slow jog and leaving almost a perfect circle clear around the gnome.

Jasper snaps, granting the elf freedom of movement and forcing the gnome off of him.

As the paniced elf sprints away, Jasper groans and puts one of his hands to his face.

"You're 'respected and feared,'" he says, mimicking his voice in a way only a shape shifter could. "Not really what you wanted, huh?"

"I can understand the frustration. I was an only child, so I never really had expectations to live up to. Well, not as far as siblings go, at least. Nobility expectations are way ddifferent. But when I decided I didn't want those any more, I ended up enslaved and granting wishes. Guess we both kinda had our own prisons growing up, huh?"

Jasper has downed two or three of them and summoned a cup up to drink from. He has 3 corners undone by the time they notice the the wave of screaming.

"Survey said wished to be respected and feared, so he's got an aura of fear. Kinda had to fine tune the level a bit. Not enough for mass Hysteria, but too much for it to be any good to him. Strong enough minds can shake it off. It was either that or turn him into some kind of dangerous animal, and that just didn't feel curseish enough. He's a dick, and he kept innocent bees stuffed into a tube so he could shoot them at people."

He smirks and stows the box in one of his cargo pockets.

"We should probably go find him."

"Yeah, it really does." She opened one of the pile of boxes and practically inhaled the first warm cinnamon roll. "Mmmmmm. Tastes as good as it smells."

"Hey, thanks for earlier. Telling me about how you had trouble with your powers when they were new. It really helped me feel better. Sometimes it feels like I'm the only one who struggles with this stuff while everyone else just sort of gets it no trouble. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who messes up, you know?"

"How's it going with that puzzle box? You figure out the trick to open it yet?"

Jasper is turning the puzzle with three hands while the other slides into one of the pastel pink boxes and pops a roll into his mouth. Being large had its advantages.

"Oh, dude, of course. Learning powers is just like learning how to walk. It might take a while, but they're still part of you. Eventually you'll be able to do it without even thinking. I've never known anyone that can just *snap* automatically do whatever. I've granted like 6 wishes to become a sorcerer and only one of them didn't immediately set herself on fire."

With three hands trying to tackle the box, the other is left doing his regular animated motions while he talks, including holding up 6 fingers on one hand.

"I'm starting to make progress. It makes a little click when I do something right. Well, I assume that means I did something right."

"It's no big deal. Before I died, I didn't really go out much. Or really at all. This is my first time going shopping with a friend, so I'm just happy to get to experience something new," she said, smiling happily. "Pick out a table and I'll be right there with the food!"

She headed up to the counter, leaving Jasper to sort out the table. She ordered three dozen cinnamon rolls and a couple gallons of lemonade. That ought to do for a light snack, she supposed. The gnome taking the order seemed a little bit taken aback by how much food she was asking for, but just shrugged and started boxing it up once she paid for it all. Not his job to argue with crazy people.

Andromeda had the pile of boxes and the two jugs of lemonade somewhat precariously balanced as she turned around and looked for Jasper.

"Well, you're back now. Brand new you, and you get to start making your own memories. Thanks for bringing me along for them." He smiles and pats her on the back as they split up, Jasper finding a table with a pleasant green umbrella with lights hanging off the inside. It's along the edge of the space so if they got a visit from the angry gentleman, he wouldn't be moving through and disturbing too many other customers. It was a punishment for him, not everyone else around, after all.

Once she's close enough for him to stand and help without losing the table, he takes some of the top boxes, making the stacks more manageable for the last few feet, setting them down at the table.
"Thanks, this stuff smells great."

"Well, I think I still technically can, but I'm kinda used to it. Grandma tends to really turn up the frightful presence when she's upset. So I don't really notice it that much anymore," she said, thoughtfully. "Well, if we have to wait, then how about we stop and get some refreshments. There's a cafe over there, and I can small the cinnamon rolls from here. And you can work out how to open that box while we're eating." she said, pointing out a small wagon with tables arranged around it that appeared to be run by gnomes.

"I don't think that aura is strong enough to touch you anyways. Decently powerful folks can ignore it."

He looks up from the box at the stand she mentioned.

Let's do a wisdom check.
1d20 + 2 ⇒ (7) + 2 = 9

"Sure, sounds good to me. Only if you don't mind paying for one more thing, though."

An laughed. "Sure, no problem. You can buy the snacks next time," she said with a wink as she handed over the money.

Mogra counted out the coins to make sure that it was enough and then nodded and handed over the box to Jasper before once turning around and curling up so that it looked like a huge trash heap was all that was there.
"I guess she's not really into goodbyes," An said, shaking her head at the wonderful strangeness of the place.

"I guess not."

An's shoulders shook with silent laughter, but she didn't say anything. She turned to the creature and held up the wrench. "How much?" she asked.

"For the wrench and the music box," she said, pulling an ornate silver music box out of the pile and thrusting it at Andromeda, "3000 credits."
"But I didn't want," Andromeda began, but the creature interrupted her.
"Mogra doesn't sell you what you want. Mogra only sells you what you need," she said with an air of finality that made it clear that it was pointless to argue with her.
An shrugged and produced the credits to hand to Mogra. Mogra took the money and nodded, turning her attention from Andromeda to Jasper.
"For you, Mogra has this puzzle box. 300 credits," she offered.
And put her purchases into her bag as she waited to see what Jasper would do.

Jasper counts something out on his paper clawed fingers.

"Growing into your powers, eh? It can be tough. There was a while where I couldn't make a hand gesture without blowing everything I was pointing at away. I'm sure you'll get used to it quick. And moving that fast should definitely help with homework."

Jasper looks up at the wizened creature they had landed on, not surprised by much at this point.

"Oh, excuse us. Didn't realize- uh, oh, thank you. Oh cool! I didn't know anyone else made these."

Jasper is mostly offered paper things and figurines with minimal moving joints, pretty well illustrating the different levels of civilization they grew up in.
When Ephebe looks over at him again, all of his fingers are topped with folded paper claws, and he makes a little alien growling sound as he holds a tiny figurine of a camel awkwardly in one claw while he opens and closes his other claws over its head. He stops when he notices Andromeda looking at him and very obviously flaps his hands, trying to shake the claws off to little success.
"Uuuh, nothing."
He hides one of his hands as he continues to try and pull them off, the other going under his chin in a fist, still clawed.
He nods, and answers, trying to shift the focus from what he was doing before.
"Mmhm, yeah, perfect. For his boat thing. Definitely."

Slowing her down with wind, and bracing himself to catch her, he's able to halt An's dizzying race around the cavern, but not without both of them sliding into what looks like a large pile of junk. An laid still, having trouble adjusting back to slower speed. "That was....interesting," she said weakly. "Thanks. I wasn't sure howI was ever going to stop."

Jasper lays next to her, breathing hard with all the very sudden magic he'd expended just now.

"Hoo. That was something. Are you ok? What even was that?"

His centauric lower half fades away, bringing him back to just one extra set of limbs.

Teleporting next to Andromeda proves to be its own challenge as she is moving around the cavern at supersonic speeds and absolutely zero idea how to slow down, so it takes a few tries to get close.

He can try and use wind to slow her down, or he can try to catch her, which might sting a bit, or some other strategy I haven't already thought of. :)

As soon as she moves past him, he moves into the line she's running and makes a strong gust against the direction she's running, also adopting a centaur's lower half for just a moment to brace himself and slow her down without both of them getting knocked over. If the wind doesn't quite stop her enough, he's also ready to go into Gaseous Form to prevent serious harm.

The gnomelike creature made a panicked "Urk!" sound as he found himself very suddenly outclassed and overpowered.
Will save: 1d20+6
"I wish to be respected and feared," he squeaked out in spite of his own better judgment.

An inhumanely loud voice rings through the gnome's mind, unheard by any other.

There's a clap of thunder and the gnome will suddenly find himself sans hand on his shirt, falling to the ground along with his companions. When the dust clears, Jasper is nowhere to be seen, and the when trolls look at him, they scream and back away on the ground until they can scramble to their feet and bolt, the same reaction anyone in the market would have.
Scare spell centered on him, making anyone in 20 feet frightened of him.

With the spell cast, Jasper immediately teleports to Andromeda, or at least next to her in that instant if she's still moving.

She takes the mirror and puts it in the bag with the other packages, grinning at his unaccustomed show of clumsiness. "Well, I guess I'm just hoping that something will jump out at me," she said, turning around just a little too quickly and accidentally bumping into a winged gnome looking guy with brightly colored hair and even brighter clothes. His expression quickly turned ugly. "Oh! I'm so sorry," she said apologetically. "My bad. I should have looked before I stepped."

The gnome guy sneered angrily. "Yeah, you should have!" he screeched. The two trolls that were following him took a step forward. "Nobody messes with me!" He pulled out a strange looking gun with an odd bulge at the back and a trumpet shaped barrel.
An held up her hands, trying to talk him down. "Hey, I said I was sorry! There's no need to take it so personally. I'm not trying to cause any trouble."
"Well, you found trouble!" he screeched, firing the weapon which produced a large swarm of bees that all headed towards An.
She took a step back and that's when the whole world suddenly went into slow motion. At least that's how it felt to her.
From the outside, it looked like she took a step back and then sort of blurred into a streak of light that ended up bouncing around the entire cavern like a sort of super speed pinball while the bee swarm tried and failed to keep...

Jasper goes wide eyed as Andromeda speeds through the market, leaving him alone with Doctor Bees and his henchtrolls. He'd need to help with that, but one thing at a time.

Using Heart's Desire, a DC 28 save versus confessing what he really wants. Going for something corruptible, preferably, but I can be creative if necessary.