"Much of my selfish desire to be a magic rock is in the - meaning behind it. I will consider it."

"Meaning behind it?" asks a classmate.

"Oh, it's much more grand to prove yourself and make a wish out of true heart's desire that saves a great many people, and then gain magic powers from an empress, than it is to simply make a wish to heal yourself. It's like something out of a play, and while I know life is no play, the aesthetic will certainly make me feel more strongly."

"Huh. Whatever works," replies the classmate.

"Yep!" He doesn't get it, but that's fine. Hardly anyone really gets another person. Plus her culture is evidently weird, and she's a weird member of it.

She thinks about what life might be like as a resurrection dispenser. "You don't have to use your power even if you've got it", pff. Of course that's wrong. She'd be wracked with guilt if she never used it, and wracked with stress and worry about using it too much and not having a proper life either, too. Maybe she could precommit to, say, only 20 hours a week - low since it's liable to be monotonous - or whatever other number makes sense - and have that decision be already-made and therefore not something to feel guilty about.

Is there more class time today or are they done?

They have a written essay test on various scenarios and what things would be permissible or ideal for an onsite magic rock to do.

She asks Instructor Raunat, if she becomes a magic rock and moves back to her home and her home declines to join Mir or Vanda Nossëo, will she be subject to any laws or taxes or regulations other than those of her home polity?

(It'd be a bother to be living peacefully and then suddenly find she's guilty of treason or something. Not likely, but worth checking. Sunsea City definitely will join though, they're probably just negotiating for bonuses or trying to work out a larger state to join as)

If she stays physically located in a nonmember polity, no, except insofar as Mîr provides consultation on the range of possible crimes someone can commit if they have magic.

Test:

1. Imagine that you are a resurrection-specced magic rock. While you are off duty, a demon you have never met before visits you at home and offers to pay you to help him resurrect some basement dwellers. What would be appropriate? What would be ideal?

...

4. Imagine that you are a teleporting magic rock. During your on-call shift, an Elf you recognize but don't know well approaches and asks you to accompany her to a new world and check for Ardas adjacent to it. What would be appropriate? What would be ideal?

5. Imagine that you are taking a vacation, and while you're having breakfast, a magic rock you have never seen before has a visible crisis outside the restaurant, and collapses, presumably from low magic. A witness asks if anyone present is a magic rock who can donate some magic, but you are low on magic yourself. What would be appropriate? What would be ideal?

...

8. Imagine that you have no unique power relevant to the situation; imagine you are at a bus station, traveling for personal reasons, and a fistfight breaks out between two people who look human on the platform opposite yours. What would be appropriate? What would be ideal?

...

10. Make up a situation of your own that might challenge a magic rock and explain what's challenging about it and how you'd resolve it and how it would ideally be approached.

Good to know.

Her introduction mentions her perspective from a bronze age culture where the laws reflect the cruel necessities of precontact life. She will answer from a moral perspective and less a legal one.

She gave mindreading permission; Therefore they are using it; Therefore the quiet temptation to present herself in optimistic light can go drown itself.

1. ...Who is this person anyway? Nobody she knows, that's for sure! Bothering her on her day off, even. She'll decline and possibly-sarcastically hand him the contact info for the resurrection queue. However, it wouldn't be inappropriate to do a bit of due diligence to make sure the new people will be alright, sticking around and talking to them about it at least, and then accepting, perhaps after some negotiation. Ideally one would ask why this demon is jumping the usual queue, and perhaps report it to the police if they are acting suspicious.

4. (She notes: She is unclear about the hierarchical structures at play but assumes she isn't working directly for this elf.) Travelling to new worlds sounds very dangerous. There is a reason they came forth with an enormous starship and teams of envoys, no? It would be inappropriate to simply go gallivanting into a new world, better to apologetically decline and suggest making an official request. Ideally, she would go out of her way to check on this new world and what is being done about it, and possibly get involved in the teleporting effort at that point.

5. It would be appropriate to report the issue to an appropriate hotline, which she presumably has saved and ready, and call it a day. Honestly it would be reasonable to do nothing and trust that someone else will handle things, but she is aware of the bystander effect and would have more relevant information, so it'd be rude to not at least reassure people. It would be ideal to go out of her way even on vacation, donating a bit of magic and sticking around until a refill could be had or if that doesn't help, or listening to the cheering-up song herself and dealing with the forced emotion to provide such a charge.

8. Random magic rocks are not the police, and have no special powers or training. She doesn't want to spend time being questioned by the law or risk getting too entangled in something that's not her business. Perhaps a shout to security would be appropriate. Ideally one would get in there and break it up (carefully, to not hurt anyone), but it really depends on the specifics at that point.

10. A close personal friend dies in an accident and you don't have a resurrection power, but have a loose acquaintance who does:
Ideally, one would simply pay the usual fee for resurrection, whatever it is, or else follow whatever standard process there is for a priority request. However, some people might try to jump the queue, convincing or owing favors or whatever to the friend and summoning a demon for this purpose, and get them back as soon as possible, since the personal friend has a place to go back to. This would be a valid response, but is not how she would solve the situation; Instead consoling friends and family and pushing as hard as possible for a priority queue through the "normal" system, since Vanda Nossëo seems to be quite excellent at making these things run smoothly.

When the exams are collected the instructor says that most of the questions were based on either real events or training exercises that magic rocks who want higher responsibility positions go through and they'll talk about what really happened tomorrow. Dinnertime!

Samara mingles and socializes at dinner, and also asks if there's an art club or anywhere she could get a short gig?

(She also emails various front-page-of-search-engine news sources with a somewhat dramatic blurb summarizing her story and saying she wants to do an interview if she can be paid a small sum for it.)

"Gig doing what?" asks a classmate.

"There's the Splatter Basement," enthuses another. "It's kiiiind of aimed at kids but if you've never been you should still go, it's fantastic."

"Mushroom Garden has art gallery type stuff but it's mostly a drug den, coffee and cannabis and stuff - stick to those till you know what you're doing though -"

"Palhur is a sewing circle kind of deal."

"I've not elected to become a citizen yet, it'd be bad optics back home, so no basic income, so doing anything, maybe quick portraitures? Splatter Basement does sound fun, and well, I've partaken in opium before but it was just hedonism without substance so I'll be avoiding that- I think I'll check out splatter basement and mushroom garden, those sound neat."

"If you wanna draw caricatures you can draw a couple of us as samples and then set up on the street somewhere."

She has managed to acquire a sketchbook and pencil somewhere and will thank her classmates and draw sketches! 'Caricatures' implies a certain style, doesn't it? Hmm. She draws rough sketches of head-and-shoulders, highlighting and slightly exaggerating prominent features like tusks, eyes, hair, jaws. Her style leans towards the imposing and majestic, since she's certainly not going for realism her architectural habits appear to be sneaking in.

"Oh, that's Pral, isn't it - look, Pral -"

"Oooh, I look like a marble statue."

"Oh, I'm glad you like it! Is there a good way to turn these into computer files?"

"Yeah, you just take a picture - lemme see your computer?"

She hands it over with a slight shrug.

"Okay, so on a chiplock you gotta -" Pral navigates on her own computer to the camera app on hers. "Like so."

Yes, you can go over there, a good little minion that follows her orders running around a grand plaza of apps at a thought, as seen from high above. (This is the conceptualization that works best for her, okay?) And open the camera.

She can position it and - fuss with placement and lighting a bit actually, so it's a good shot - take a photo fine from there. "Just like that video I got taken of me, thank you. Want a copy?"

"Yeah!"

She will figure that out in a bit too, then. And then head outside and ... She doesn't have a table or anything actually. She can fetch her easel (the work so far on her eclipse painting is dry now) and use that and stand smilingly offering caricatures at a guess of a reasonable fee.

She has takers! Can she do one of this toddler that won't hold still? This couple, cheeks squashed together? This guy's pet peccary? These two are alts, can she draw them both but not make them look as identical as they are by leaning on stylization?

She can certainly try all these challenges. The baby and peccary come out looking almost royal. She gives the two alts very different expressions, which helps as well. Adds flowers for the couple.