Scar blinked. "You want me to make you a life crystal."

Iskall nodded enthusiastically. He pulled out a notebook and flipped to a dog-eared page, filled to the brim with scribbles and sloppy notes. The paged detailed a figure, with a scribbled "6'" next to it. The figure had a very geometrical body, composed nearly entirely of squares and rectangles. Along the messy sketches were words, including but not limited to, "ask scar for help", "omega-sized transfer insert", "m a g i c", " truth abour Mumbo????", and-- in all caps and underlined, "HUMANOID BODY FOR G". He held the notebook right in front of Scar's face before the Hermit slowly took it out of Iskall's hands and began to look over it.

Iskall watched intently as Scar begun to look over his plans. He was practically bouncing with exhilaration, and brimming with giddiness. He hadn't been this excited to do a project since he had first made the plans for his Omega Tree base. And, for once, it wouldn't take forever-- Mumbo had done most of the work already. He just had to prepare Grumbot's new body.

After a moment, Scar, without looking up, said, "Well I like the idea, but why me? Wouldn't you rather have X do it?" He handed Iskall hack the notebook and looked away slightly. Clearly embarrased, he continued, "He's a lot more advanced than me. Heck, he probably wouldn't need a crystal!" The Hermit waved his hand in what Iskall assumed was the direction of Scar's magic village. "Have you seen Larry?"

Iskall had, in fact, seen Larry. And Scar might be right, in the idea that X was more talented and could probably do what Iskall was hoping for. But then again, Iskall couldn't place his finger on it, but the way X was acting caused the cyborg have second thoughts about asking the admin for help on this. The way he acted around Mumbo struck Iskall as odd, and he didn't exactly want to pester him about it. So, Iskall shook his head. "I came to you for a reason, Wizard Scar. You think you can do it?"

Scar looked back at Iskall, his eyes glimmering. After a moment, he matched Iskall's grin and nodded. Adjusting his hat, the wizard began pacing, his strides full of determination. He began talking, and Iskall wasn't entirely sure who it was aimed to, so he continued to stand there, folding his arms. "A life crystal is definitely going to be a lot more work than a simple health crystal, though I think I can start there..."

After a few minutes, it was evident that Scar wasn't talking to Iskall, and the swede prepared to take off back to his Omega Tree, but Scar piped up, making Iskall pause. "Oh, Iskall. I'll probably have it in a few days." He then continued to say muttered nonsense that Iskall couldn't make a word of, and the cyborg took that as his sign to leave.

------------------

Scar's POV-

The 'muttered nonsense' was actually Scar rambling on about his thousands of ideas for Iskall's crystal. The Hermit had never gotten a request before-- unless it was Xisuma giving him 'homework'-- for obvious reasons. So, the wizard had never really needed to come up with ideas on the spot, and was having a bit of trouble doing so. Oh, gosh, why did he say he'd have them in a few days? 

Few days... when would that be, again? Scar reasoned out 'few' to be two, so that would be Sunday, it being Friday that day. As he confirmed internally the day he would have to keep free, he froze. Today was Friday. He had a meeting with Xisuma on Friday.

Scar looked up at the midday sun. He was really crunching for time, now! The two had agreed to meet at sunset every Friday to go over magic... things... and Scar was about to be late for the third time in a row-- though usually it wasn't his fault; it was the trees'. He quickly gathered his materials, including the slimeballs Iskall had delivered not an hour before he came back, shoving a notebook in Scar's face.  Placing them into his pouch, he took out some rockets and flew back to his magic village, where X would soon be waiting.

Lucky for him, by the power of rocket spamming and lucky maneuvering, Scar was able to get to his destination in a mere matter of minutes. Landing right in front of Larry, Scar quickly emptied the contents of his pouch into a chest; grabbed his spellbook, a notebook, and a quill; and set up some chairs and a table outside.

Larry chirruped in greeting and moved his head down for Scar to give him a little pat pat. The wizard obliged gladly, rubbing his snail's head as a purr-like sound seemed to emanate from him. Scar chuckled, and leaned back again, opening his notebook to a blank page and setting it on the table. He also opened up his spellbook to a page very helpfully labeled 'Stuff'. Dragging his finger down the page, he landed on a scrawled word, 'Animation'. The action of bringing something inanimate to life. 

Simple enough.

...Or not. As the rest of the sunlight drained out of the sky, Scar's notebook filled with quick-written, yet somehow clearly legible, notes and sketches. The spellbook was definitely helpful-- the notes on animation were easily deciphered by the wizard. The issue was transferring the direct magic to magic applied by crystals. As the sunset waned and the moon peaked over the horizon, Scar used the light from his crystal that he still wore around his neck to illuminate his writing. Even though he could see perfectly well without it-- the effect increasing his sight capabilities, after all-- it was a force of habit that he couldn't shake, and the crystal itself was a nice example to glance at from time to time.

Eventually, when he deemed his research to be done, and was ready to begin enchanting, Scar quickly went back inside Larry's shell to retrieve a certain heart-shaped, clearer than glass crystal. Scar had been saving this one for something special, as it was one of the few crystals he had that were actually shaped like something, and this was as good a time as any to use it. He quickly climbed back down the ladder and retook his seat at the table, and continued to finalize his preparations.

Scar didn't even notice, as he worked, that the admin hadn't arrived until the moon was at its peak in the sky, when said bee-suited Hermit came crashing down right into the water off the shore, making a relatively large splash. Lucky for Scar, nothing got damaged, but he must've jumped out of his skin, as Xisuma chuckled as he resurfaced.

"Sorry, Scar," he said quickly, climbing out of the water and checking his suit for any leakage. "I got a bit caught up in my work and couldn't make it on time." 

Scar blinked. Since when was X ever late? He had never 'gotten a bit caught up in his work', and often even came early. X had been acting exceedingly abnormal lately, hadn't he? The admin had seemed... off... for almost two weeks now. Scar wondered if there was anything going on that troubled him. "Are you alright, X? You've seemed a bit out of it for awhile now."

Xisuma waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, no, I'm fine," he reassured Scar. The wizard nodded slowly, uncertain, as he continued. "Bit of work to catch up on, that's all." Directing his gave to Larry, the Hermit smiled. "Hi, Larry!" The snail chirped in response, obviously pleased to see X and Scar couldn't help but smile.

X sat down in the chair opposite to Scar, his eyes drifting immediately to his spread of supplies. Gesturing to them the Hermit asked, "Seems like you've been up to a little work as well. What are you doing with all of that?"

Scar, who was not prepared in the slightest, quickly fumbled his crystal and held it up. It wasn't yet enchanted, so it was somewhat hard to see for even Scar, who had his handy sight aid. "I'm working on a new crystal, actually. A lot different from my other projects." He held up his notebook to show the admin.

X nodded. "Oh?" He squinted a bit behind his visor. Scar was confused for a moment before he realized, of course X couldn't see it. He didn't have Scar's crystal. 

"Oh, uh X, do you need-" 

X shook his head with a laugh. "Nope." He raised a hand to the side of his helmet and pressed a concealed button. The mini bee wings sparkled and fluttered, glowing a dim white. The purple visor flickered at lit up, a bright magenta emanating from it. "Magic."

As Xisuma-- presumably-- read Scar's notes, the wizard internally kicked himself. Of course the admin would have magic. He was the one who taught Scar it, why wouldn't he? That was silly of him. But then, that arose the question...

"Well, that looks interesting, Scar, but wh-" Xisuma began to speak, but Scar cut him off.

"Wait... if you could do that the whole time, why didn't you just... always have it on?" Scar cocked his head. Wouldn't that be useful? To simply have it on at all times.

"Well," Xisuma explained. "The thing is, I don't keep it on all that much to preserve my suit's charge. This thing right here-" Xisuma twiddled with one of the antennae of his helmet. "-this suit, is the source of all this magic."

Scar opened his mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out. What? 

"Well..." X fell silent for a moment, evidently lost in thought, before explaining further. "It's rather like a source. Of course, it replenishes over time, but-- for some reason I can't explain-- it does not like to recharge while its being used. And I have to use it quite a bit to deal with... things." Xisuma shrugged. "So I try not to use it when I don't absolutely have to. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to anything-- or anyone," he added gesturing to Larry.

Scar shut his mouth, which he had just realized was hanging wide open. He had no idea. He never even questioned where the magic came from, but now that he thought about it, the magic had to come from somewhere. And apparently it came from X's bee suit. But something didn't add up. 

"Wait, but the magic existed long before now, long before your bee suit. What had it come from before it came from that suit?" Scar placed down his notebook and crystal and folded his arms, sitting back in his chair. This magic stuff was certainly interesting, and rather confusing, to add.

Xisuma laughed and put his hand to the center panel of his suit. He pressed down, and the suit changed before Scar's eyes. What used to be the bee suit was now X's normal green one. "That's just it, Scar. It's the same suit. Cool, right?" He pressed it again, and just like that, the bee features were back.

Scar nodded. "Yeah!" Magic was awesome.

After a moment, X leaned forward on the table. "But enough about me. I see you're trying to bring something to life? And with a crystal, at that? Pretty advanced stuff."

Scar nodded eagerly. "Yes, I am. Definitely a lot more complicated than everything else." He held up his sight crystal, temporarily removing it from his neck and losing the effects. He really had to stop relying on this-- he was practically blind without it. Nonetheless, the Hermit continued his thought. "This thing only took me a few hours to plan and make." He replaced it, and grabbed the other crystal. "This, on the other hand, has taken like four hours just to plan out."

X nodded. "Yeah, that sounds about right. This admin magic is complicated stuff. Honestly, I'm surprised-- and impressed-- at how easily you're getting the hand of it."

Scar was about to thank X for the compliment, when he froze. Sputtering a bit, he said quickly, "What do you mean, ad-admin magic?!" Is this what the magic was? X's special powers? Is that what Scar was learning? How had he never known this?

X grinned. "You heard me." He then continued, as if this was all completely normal. "With you, well, not being an admin, I wasn't exactly sure how well you'd be able to do this." His eyes sparkled behind the visor. "But you've really impressed me."

Scar continued to sputter unintelligible nonsense, and X clapped his hands together. "So! What exactly is your project for? Making a new friend?"

Scar shook his head out, snapping out of his confusion. "Actually, it's for Iskall! He needed help on a project he was doing." X nodded intently, and Scar continued. "He wants to bring Grumbot-- you know, the huge robot-- to life. Something about Mumbo?"

Scar had a feeling he wasn't supposed to spill Iskall's idea, but something was nagging him to tell X. Scar wasn't sure if it had paid off, but something definitely happened. X blinked, sitting up straight. The mention of Mumbo obviously bothered him. This had happened last time, hadn't it? When Scar had mentioned the investigation. X had frozen up. What was with him?

"Oh." X definitely seemed more uncomfortable. "That is... interesting." He shifted in his seat, then looked uo at the sky, where the moon was beginning to set. "Well, I- I think it's about time that we part for the day, no? No homework today-- just let me know how your project turned out! Bye Scar!" And without waiting for a response from the wizard, the admin had taken off.

Scar sat there, dumbfounded. What in the world just happened? Even Larry seemed a bit confused, letting out a soft whine. After a moment, Scar snapped back to reality. It was getting late. He probably should get some rest.

And as he said goodnight to his snail and climbed back into his shell, he realized something else. He hadn't seen Jellie in two days. Scar knew right then what he was going to do tomorrow.

He would be visiting his good pal Sherlock Grian.

-(Author's rambling)-

Merry Christmas, if you celebrate the holiday, my little Readers! My present to you lovelies is a decently long chapter!

When I tell you that this chapter went through so many rewrites and reworks, I am not lying in the slightest.

Also you can expect mid-chapter POV switches to happen more often now! :)

Anyway, if I don't see you guys again before the new year, have a very happy one! We are almost out of 2020; we've just got to hang on a little bit more!

And as always, have a great day, and see you next time, my little Readers!

Promise out!