Alright, everything was ground up now. Caleb just had to make a PLANET out of it now. He took out his wand and pointed at the foliage/element/stone mess he'd created and cleared his throat. "Fingere Elementi!" he exclaimed as he jabbed his wand toward the powder.

A few seconds later and the spell had taken effect, giving him a nice round planet to add to his solar system. He now had two planets - one that was round and one that looked roughly like a potato. Ah well.

Grindd. Grindd. Grindd. Lots of grinding. This one was a bit harder than before. Harder to grind. Maybe her arms were hurting her. She bit her lip, trying to grind a little more. Grindd. Grindd. Grinddd. Okay. Had it done now? She put the grinder down, before looking into the mortar. Oooh yes. It was all nice and powdery. All done. Yaay. Green planet was nearly done. She beamed, picking her wand up, and poking through the mortar. She wanted to make sure that it was all ground up. She wanted to make sure that it all was before she made the green planet. And it seemed to be. She smiled, before getting ready to do the spell. Carefully she jabbed at her mortar, whilst saying the words "Fingere Elementi!" anddd a planet appeared. A nice green one. Perfect. "So pretty." She beamed, putting her wand down carefully, before picking the planet up and adding it to her glass box.

"Oooh. It looks so goood!" She beamed, clapping her hands together. It made her very happy. She liked it so much. "4 planets...1 sun. I just need one more planet." And then she could add her moon and it would be perfect. Turning back to her desk, she looked at the foliage, before deciding what color to use.

Ok Caleb, do NOT forget the powdered elements this time! He didn't want to make more than one trip to the supply table. All he needed to do was make one more planet and then his solar system would be complete.

This time he grabbed a dull little rock but some flowery looking foliage to add to his powdered iron. He grabbed all the ingredients and headed back to his table, dropping it all in the mortar and getting ready to grind it up. He hated this part. It was hard grinding up rocks with his regular muscles - but with his arthritis hands? Forget it.

Okaay. So she had a green, blue, yellow and orange planet. What colour should she do next? She mused to herself, before picking up some red foliage. That would be a nice red planet right? She liked red. It would be like a hogwarts house colour solar system, with additional colours obviously. She liked that. Smiling to herself, she put the red pieces of foliage into her mortar, along with the small stone to go with that planet. Picking up her scoop, she carefully scooped two lots of iron into her mortar. She was getting tired now. Her attention span was kind of small. And she was bored. It was fun making planets, but not after making so many planets. But she was nearly done now. Just this and a moon to make. That would be good. Then she could go nap. She liked her naps.

Having placing her scoop down, she picked up the grinder, before getting to work grinding the stuff together. Grindd. Grindd. Grindd. She really was tired now, it was taking her much longer to grind the stuff together. Come on Grace. Hurry up. and get this donee.

Hobble... hobble... hobble...

... And... he was here! After what felt like years. Aside from the usual huffing and puffing, the boy stood proud at the door of the laboratory. He had made it! And... he had only taken... what? Seven breaks? One for each floor? Not bad, right? Right.

Hobbling over towards the cupboard, Alec tugged out his lab coat and goggles and slowly pulled them on. There. This was what kids these days called science-y, yeah? Astronomancy was what he was here for. And to... what was it again? Reaching into the pocket of his shirt, the boy pulled out a piece of parchment where he had hastily written down the instructions. Planet making. Awesome. And to do that, he needed... his Sun and planet. This... required more walking, right?

Making a small face, the Head Boy started walking forwards and around the lab. His sun and planet. Did he label his glass box? He... forgot. He also forgot where he had been sitting during their lesson so... the boy was pretty much peeking at each of the glass boxes in search for his own. Glass box... glass box...

... AND THERE WAS HIS OWN!

... had he been sitting here? The boy looked around before shrugging his shoulders. What did he need now? Foliage, was it? And stones? Okay. Alec shuffled off to grab some of each of those items, where some actually meant a lot. He didn't want to have to go back and forth from his box a lot. Just look at how comfy these stools were! When he had shuffled his way back, he didn't hesitate in sitting back down again, letting out a small sigh of relief as he did so. There.

UGH this was tough. Smashing stones into powder should be illegal. Wasn't there a spell they could do?? This was so MUGGLe of them.

But despite his displeasure, it was finally ground down into a powder and he was ready to make his planet. He raised his wand and cleared his throat again. "Fingere Elementi!" he exclaimed as he jabbed his wand towards the mortar. He watched as the planet formed, this one was kind of reddish, like Mars.

Alright, three planets and a sun! That was good enough for him. Smiling, he took his solar system carefully and headed over to put it away before leaving the laboratory.

Tessa slowly straightened to see the smoke and a large burn mark on her work space. She winced, hoping that Professor Flamsteed wouldn't be too upset. She sighed and cast a cleaning charm, happy to see that most of the burn marks came up.

What had gone wrong?

She wasn't sure- because she couldn't remember. However, she knew she had to follow the directions exactly. There was probably too much material there or something...

Finished cleaning, she went up and picked out the two small berries- purplish and red. She took a smaller stone and then made sure she had two level scoops of iron. With a sigh, she began grinding everything together. She watched carefully, wanting to make sure nothing else went wrong. Once she was finished, she lifted her wand- but after a second thought, took a few steps back.

"Here goes nothing... Fingere Elementi," she cast, watching carefully. The whirlwind was a little more normal this time, and once it had gathered, it remained in its small planet form. She slowly approached, wanting to make sure it didn't explode again. After all, she wasn't moving as fast as used to. The planet remained stable, and she let out a sigh of relief.

"One more to add," she said, and slipped the planet into her solar system. It was then that she noticed that her sun was slightly reddish in color. Frowning, she glanced at her notes and saw that the reddish color meant that her sun was getting cold.

"What was that spell...Dextrini Potitus," she cast, jabbing her wand and flicking it upwards until it was shining brilliantly again. "Much better!"

Grindd. Her arm was really hurting now. Grace pouted, putting her grinder down. She was going to have a little break. So that her arm wouldn't hurt so much. She hummed, looking at her glass box again as she had her little rest. Ahh. It was so pretty. Her arm felt better now too. Now to finish her grinding. Sighing Grace picked up her grinder again before beginning to grind again. "Come onnnnn." She groaned, trying to grind a little harder, though it did hurt. Her arms were reaaaally aching. Grindd. Grindd Grinddd. Okay. She peeped in, and beamed. It was done. Yaaay. Smiling, she put her grinder down. She was so glad that it was done, because that meant that she was nearly done. And then she could go nap.

Time to make it into a planet. She picked her wand up, before jabbing it in the direction of her mortar. "Fingere Elementi" She said, hoping that it would work. It had worked all the other times so she was thinking that it would work. And it did! "Yaaay" She beamed, as she put down her wand, and picked the planet up. Carefully she added it to her glass box. "Ohhhh. So pretty." Anddd it was really nice.

"Nowww for a moon!" Quickly Grace returned to her notes, to remember how to make a moon. Okay. So she needed a small stone, and some iron. Nothing else. Perfect. Grace carefully added a small stone to her mortar, along with the two scoops of iron. Then she began grinding, thankfully for the last time.

Sander returned to his workstation after helping the Slytherin boy. Even though the boy was smaller than he was, Sander felt exhausted after helping him. He leaned against the workstation to catch his breath for a couple of minutes. As he stood there, he gazed inside the glass container containing the solar system he had created.

As he watched the planets zip around the sun and the moon orbiting around Rivendell, Sander felt compelled to sing to them. He had been told that music helped calm everything. He remembered a song his mother had taught him when he was a young boy. The tune was similar to the nursery rhyme, The Farmer in the Dell.

Sander leaned over as close to the container as he possibly could, and began to sing softly.

"The Family of the Sun,
Its planets number eight,
Plus other rocky, icy worlds
That we appreciate.

Mercury is hot
and Mercury is small.
Mercury has no atmosphere;
It's just a rocky ball.

Chorus:
The Family of the Sun,
Its planets number eight,
Plus other rocky, icy worlds
That we appreciate.

Venus has thick clouds
That hide what is below.
The air is foul, the ground is hot.
It rotates very "slow."

Chorus

We love the Earth, our home,
Its oceans and its trees.
We eat its food. We breathe its air,
So no pollution, please.

Chorus

Mars is very red.
It's also dry and cold.
Some day you might visit Mars
If you are really bold.

Great Jupiter is big.
We've studied it a lot.
We found that is has many moons
and a big red spot.
Chorus

Saturn has great rings.
We wondered what they were,
Now we know they're rocks and ice
which we saw as a blur.

With atmospheres that swirl
& wispy white clouds too
Uranus and Neptune
are so cold that you'd turn blue.

Chorus

Pluto's small and cold
It has an icy face.
We call it a dwarf planet now,
But it's still quite a place."


Sander ended the song. He couldn't tell whether the solar system he had created liked hearing a song about the real solar system...even if it still mentioned Pluto as being one of them, but he hoped they did.

Was it time to leave yet? Sander studied his watch.

Bay walked into the lab and went right for his seat where his sun and planet were already waiting for him.. cool they were still doing fine..which was great…

He pulled out his parchment with his notes on them.

so All Bay needed to do was to do the same steps to create more planets.. and maybe a moon… He went in search for his ingredients he needed for a few planets… he grabbed a bunch of foliage and a few small stones.. he already had iron at his desk.. trying to carry everything back to his desk he was glad when he made it safely.

Alright time to make some planets.

Bay grabbed his foliage and a small stone into his clean mortar which he cleaned before the end of the lesson so he didn't have to do it now. He then added two scoops of iron and crushed all three into a powder… okay thats now done…

Looking down at his notes he saw that he was right on track.

Picking up his wand he jabbed it in the air and said "Fingere Elementi" seeing that it was becoming a planet Bay placed it in the box and quickly closed the lid… awesome one planet down… he started on another grabbing his same ingredients and crushing them he said the incantation again but he must have not said it correctly for nothing happened…

ugghhhhh Bay hated being old…he tried it again and this time he was successful..he put it in with the others and closed the lid again.

phew… yay Bay had made two planets… so right now he had three planets and a sun in his glass box.

Tessa peeked at her solar system with a smile. She had four planets all slowly circling her healthy sun. She watched them for a long moment, still unsure of what to name them. Finally, she pushed away from her work table and moved up to the front. Unsure of what planet to make next, she decided to make a moon for one of them.

Moving to the box, she took out a yellow leaf and a small white stone. She studied it and then gave a nod of approval before scooping up the proper amount of iron. She put all three ingredients into the mortar and began to grind them together.

Finished, she brought out her wand, pointing it at the materials. "Fingere Elementi," she cast, half wondering if she could do the spell nonverbally. However, her concentration wasn't fully on the spell, so after a brief spin, everything settled back into the mortar. She frowned at it and refocused.

She cast again, her voice firm, and soon there was a small yellow sphere. "Hello moon!" she said with a smile. She took it over to her solar system, and timing it carefully, she dropped the moon so that it was taking into the green planet's orbit.

Ian huffed a little bit more and then decided he needed to work something else out. He took this stone out of the mortar, grabbed his shoe and started banging it against the rock while it was on the lab table.

BANG!BANG!BANG! he went after it with gusto until such time as he struck the rock and caused it to shoot from the table to the side and against the wall. The rock bounced off the wall, struck the floor and rolled under a table that looked entirely too close to the floor to retrieve the rock. He sighed, went to clean out his mortar and start all over again. How frustrating! Ian thought to himself.

He shuffled up to the table containing the ingredients and started to gather them. Perhaps he needed to work with others, but he looked around and didn't see anyone who wasn't already engaged with someone else. He carried his items back to the table, placed the foliage and iron on the table and the stone in the mortar. He figured he'd make sure the rock was breakable before he tried again. This time, he brought his pistle up a bit higher and tried to crush the rock with more force. He lifted up the implement and noticed the rock was still in fairly good shape, but it did have a chip in it. That was a good sign.

Bay smiled on how everything was going so well… looking around he saw a bunch of other students working away, this class was so much fun.

looking down at his notes again he still had everything he needed.

grabbing some more foliage he placed it in the mortar as well as a small stone and two scoops of iron.. grind…grind…grind… this class was giving Bay a workout on his arms.. one to grind the ingredients and the other to hold the mortar still..

wiping the sweat from his brow he looked down in the mortar.. phew everything is a powder now.. he took out his wand again and jabbed it in the air and said the incantation.

quickly he put his fourth planet in the box… taking a sip out of the bottle of water he brought he got right back at it..

ugghhhh more grinding… Bay had to stop mid way to give his poor little tired old man arms a break.

once it was done he did his wand movement and incantation and placed his fifth planet in the box..

awesome… so now he had five planets and a sun… looks like he had a lot more grinding to go.

Okaaay. So grinding. Grinding. Grinding. She was so bored of this. So she was very glad that she was doing her moon now. And then she would be done. For now anyway. She wanted to add more planets, but that would be done latter. Sighing, Grace continued to grind her stuff together. At least this was a little easier. There was no foliage in it, so it was kind of easy. It still made her arms hurt though. She looked into her mortar, and smiled. It was all crushed together! Yay. She was happy. She could go have her nap soon. She just needed to make the stuff into a moon.

Picking her wand up, she jabbed at the mortar, whilst saying the words ""Fingere Elementi" and a moon appeared. "Yaaay." She beamed, picking it up and adding it to her glass box. "Preetty." She beamed, watching all the planets, and the moon and the sun. She was very happy with herself right now.

After cleaning her equipment, Lux went to get some more foliage. This time, she gathered things that were blue because it was her favourite colour and she wanted a blue planet. Once she was satisfied with that, she went to look at small stones, sifting through until she found one that was really smooth and peppered with specks of different colours. Pretty.

Heading back to her station, she placed everything she had gathered into the mortar, adding the two scoops of iron. Crush. Crush. Crush. Smushing everything up into a nice powder.

Pointing her wand at it, she said, "Fingere Elementi." Watching the planet start to form, she opened the lid and tossed it inside before shutting it again. This planet was going to be blue, so there was only one name that would work. "I shall call you Pygmy Puff." Because both Toffy and Ziggy were blue Pygmy Puffs.

Ian worked harder at the stone and was finally able to get it to manageable pieces. He added the foliage and iron and after some higher level of exertion was able to make a powder. He dabbed at his forehead with the sleeve of his cloak and dried it off.

Taking his wand, and re-adjusting his goggles, he pointed his wand at the powder and spoke the incantation Fingere Elementi!

He watched as a small star (sun) rose and begin to illuminate from the mortar. He was growing pleased until about 30 seconds later, the light from the star began to grow brighter and he sensed a greater amount of heat emanating from it. It also seemed to be growing bigger. This caused him some concern and he turned his mortar over and tried to cover the miniature sun. He heard an explosion from within and covered his face as he saw the mortar fly into the air and crash against the wall before landing on the floor behind him and cracking into multiple pieces. Ian's shoulder's sank as he looked at the table, which had a hole in it now and turned to bend over gingerly and try to pick up the pieces of his bowl. He performed the Reparo spell to fix the hole in the table as well as his bowl.

Ian was done. He gathered up his supplies, his now charred parchment and quill and placed them in his bag. After ensuring his work area was clean, he left. He'd ask the professor about it later. For now, he was too tired to continue.

Staring. And sitting. Because the seat was comfortable. ... But... he had to get started on this soon enough, right?

He squinted down at his list of instructions. Mortar and pestle time, yeah? Vivid memories from the lesson came flooding back. This wasn't going to be a great step, was it? Giving both a quick clean with his wand, he added one... two scoops of iron into the mortar before adding some foliage and stones in there too. Not too much, yeah? Because... walking. He really didn't want to have to get up so many times if he could help it.

... Right. Planet.

Making a small face, Alec held up the pestle and started crushing the items in the mortar. It didn't take much to make his wrist tired but... he continued crushing the iron and foliage and stones. This... was still a weird combination, by the way. And the boy wished that there was a magical way to crush the items instead. ... Was... there one? A spell? ... Shrug.

After what seemed like forever, he stopped and breathed out a sigh of relief. THIS was the spell part. A simple one, too. Placing the pestle down, he grabbed his wand and took a deep breath. "Fingere Elementi!" JAB! Planet? Yeah? No? He was kind of counting on this because he really didn't want to start from the--

PLANET!

Grinning to himself, he picked up the planet and quickly added it into the glass box before sealing the box shut again. Bending down wasn't an option so... he picked up the box instead and held it right up to his face. Hey there, sun and planets! Did he have to give them a name? Because... that sounded like more hard work. And he had the imagination of a broccoli so...

... wait, how many of these did he have to make, again?

Heading back to the foliage, Lux decided that this time, she would collect things that were green; that meant lots of grass and green leaves. Once she was satisfied with what she had collected, she selected two stones, because this planet would have a moon just like Merplanet did.

Setting everything down at her station, she cleaned her equipment before placing everything she had gathered besides one of the stones into the mortar. Two scoops of iron, and then smush smush smush. Smushing everything into a nice powder. Jabbing her wand at it when she was done, she repeated the Fingere Elementi spell before opening the container momentarily and tossing the forming planet inside. It was almost automatic for her now, this process.

Cleaning her mortar and pestle again, she placed the other stone inside and added the right amount of iron to make her moon. Smush smush smush, and that was a fine powder as well. Jab and repeat the Fingere Elementi spell, before opening the container and tossing the moon inside. Closing it again, she gazed at her new baby planet and moon. "You shall be Middle Earth, and your moon shall be called Hobbiton."

This was fuuuuun.

The box was placed down and more squinting down at his parchment took place. Five planets and a sun was the minimum. Five. And he had... two planets and a sun.

Three more planets. Just three.

Taking a deep breath, Alec added two scoops of iron into the mortar before adding some foliage and stones too. ... Pause. The planets should vary in size, right? Because... this was a solar system. And the planets would be different sizes. He glanced over at the sun and frowned a little. But it shouldn't be bigger than the sun so... should he risk it?

...

Deciding against it -- what if it went wrong? -- the boy picked up the pestle and started grinding the items in the mortar into, what was hopefully, something that was... powder-like? Right? After roughly half a minute, he tilted his head and observed the items in the mortar. ... Yeah... no. It wasn't... powder-like. Or as powder-like as the other one had been.

After a couple more minutes, he set the pestle down and grabbed his wand again. "Fingere Elementi!" JAB! ... He hadn't added in more foliage or stones than he should have, right? Or more iron? He... forgot. But... the planet was forming, which caused him to grin some more. He opened the box and tossed the planet inside before shutting it firmly again. There.

Could he take a break now or...?

"Thanks!" the littler badger beamed proudly at the compliment. Chyeah, Head Girl Ella approved of his work. He peered over at hers too, to see how it was doing, and was sort of captivated for a second. "I love these things. They're so clever. And cool." This was the sort of magic Toby loved. "I mean, a solar system in a box? Amazing."

Tobias had chucked another couple of leaves, as well as a pretty blue stone that had instantly caught his eye when he was picking them out, into the mortar, had added two scoops of iron powder and was now grinding them up again. He was starting to feel the physical effects of the crushing too, and it was worrying. Because wasn't Tobias supposed to be the kind of person who could just always keep going? Well he did that anyway, powered through even though the cramp in his shoulder was almost too much to bear. Every now and then Toby paused under the guise of checking to see the consistency of the powder, and would start again.

Eventually the deed was done, and Tobias had a mortar of fine, blue-ish green powder. He picked up his wand again and cast the spell.

"Fingere Elementi!"

And just like that, he had another planet. Tobias grinned to himself, opened up the lid, tossed the planet in and closed the box again. So now he'd done... three? No... just one? Or... how many had it been?

Tobias frowned and peered in at the box again. He had his sun there, and three planets were inside. One was completing smooth, steady orbits of the sun, whilst the other two were kind of moving around it in a jagged, slow sort of way. So he'd just done two then, which meant two more today.

Blinking behind his goggles, because that sun was bright when you were so close to it, even behind the tinted lenses, Tobias straightened again and added more foliage to the mortar. He picked what he thought must be a reddish orange kind of stone, and added that to the mortar too. It was hard to distinguish colour with these things on. Still, it ought to be could anyway.

Once he'd added two scoops of iron, Tobias started attempting to break down the stone, but he glanced up at Ella every now and then. Just because there was... you know... stuff on his mind.

He thought about saying something. Actually opened his mouth to speak, but when he spoke, the words that came out were something completely different to what he'd wanted to say.

"I never asked you which Quidditch team you support."

Eh. That works too.

"Welcome, Toby." Grin! Did he know how much she enjoyed this? He was one of her favorite people and the Head Girl couldn't help but try and spend as much time as she could with him, wanting to get it all in before the term ended. UGH. Why did she have to graduate again? Shaking the thought from her mind, she glanced over at the younger badger and smiled, nodding in agreement. "It's brilliant! Airey is a really great Professor, don't you think?" And yes, she genuinely thought that. The man's classes were extremely engaging and unique, not to mention fun. She enjoyed few others as much as she did his.

And 3 more planets to go.

Ella glanced down at the ones she'd already made, admiring them for a second or two. There was the grey-ish blue planet that reminded her of Alec's eyes and the red-ish brown one that was a lot like clay. Finally there was the pretty yellow one she'd just added. Pretty Solar System was pretty so far. Now to add another one to the bunch. Keep the pace going and all.

The eighteen year old placed the blade of grass and the green-ish stone into the cleaned mortar and then went for the Iron, adding in two scoops. She loosened her hand a bit before beginning the painful crushing again, thinking her hand might need some ice when she was done here. She wasn't giving up, though. Not in her nature.

Crush. Crush. Crush. Crush.

After what seemed like forever, the eighteen year old set down the pestle and reached for her wand. What...was the incantation again? Blink. Blink. Blink. Seriously? She knew this. It was... ... ...OH!

"Fingere Elementi!"

BEAM!

Green was her favorite and so this planet, with all it's green goodness was her favorite too. She carefully added it to the box and was just reaching for another stone when Toby spoke up. Quidditch, eh?

"The Harpies. They've been my favorite ever since I learned about Quidditch. What about yours?" And she smiled over at him before looking down at her work again.

Purple stone. Well, a grey-ish purple but still, extremely pretty. She had a darker purple petal that would go nicely with it and she searched for that, eventually locating it among some sticks. Both the stone and the petal were then added to a newly cleaned mortar before the blonde went through the familiar motion of adding two scoops of Iron. Scoop. Scoop.

Now for the crushing. Oh joy! /Sarcasm.

Crush. Crush. Crush...

Break time was happening. ... Or... maybe not a break but more... staring at his slowly developing solar system with a small smile spread across his face. This was nice, wasn't it? But... what exactly was he going to name these? Could he go with a theme or... just come up with random names? His favourite names?

... No. You couldn't give a planet a human name. ... Right?

... This was hard.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention away from the glass box and looked over at his mortar and pestle. He had two more planets to go and then he was done, right? Unless he decided to make moons. Did he want to make moons? Did these planets want moons? He... didn't know, so more staring took place. This was hard, too.

But he didn't have to worry about the moons now, right? Right. Once again, he scooped up two scoops of iron and added that into the mortar, along with the foliage and stones. Different coloured stones. And speaking of stones, he was soon running out of those which... meant another trip to the boxes. Making a small face at the thought, Alec picked up the pestle and started grinding up the items in the mortar.

And crushing.

More crushing.

A couple of minutes and a sore wrist later, and... there. Powder. He picked up his wand and... ... SQUINT down at his piece of parchment. Spell? Spell... "Fingere... Elementi..." he mumbled to himself before looking down at his mortar, "Fingere Elementi!" JAB!

Hey planet number... ... whatever, it was another planet! He tossed that into the box before sealing it shut again.

It had taken a while, and Mo was glad he hadn't waited around for it, but the little planet he'd created in class was finally successfully circling the little sun in his glass jar. Originally, the planet hadn't quite taken to the idea, but Mo liked to think it had made friends with the sun. They understood each other now.

He hung out, peering into his jar and vaguely clutching his lab coat and goggles, as he waited for his partner to arrive. How would one go about making a planet with rings, hmm? Mo would very much like to try for one of those. And maybe a tiny moon or two wouldn't be remiss. He mentally mapped out the room he had available. And waited.

See this is what happens when you actually enjoy a lesson. You come up to Flameo's lab and actually do the homework. He was glad he had one planet done with his awesome sun of course.

Nigel got into a labcoat and goggles. There was his partner. "You know i think i like this mad scientist look" Though maybe not blow up any planets this time around. Due to actually wanting to get this assignment done.

So he needed seven planets. That seemed doable. Now where was all the foliage and the rock needed to start this assignment. Plus that spell Nigel will remember. Once he has everything necessary to start.

Yeah that spell.

"We're all mad here," Mo straightened (as much as possible) and grinned a welcome as Nigel finally appeared. It wasn't strictly necessary to do this assignment with a partner, but it sure didn't hurt. Especially when his partner was as laid back and easy to be around as Nigel.

"Do you suppose the color of the stone or the type of foliage makes a big difference in what the planet looks like when it forms? I want them to be differently colored, and I want one with rings." It was important, this ring thing.

Just to test the theory, Mo selected a red-brown pebble, a green-black one, a knobbly gray, and a pale white one that looked perfect for skipping. That was one stone per planet he intended to make, in addition to the green one he'd made previously. "How many are you going to make? Planets, I mean." Mo moved on to selecting foliage... theoretically easier, although it never really was.