Catpone Cerberus

"For now." Jenna pointed out "And even now...I'm out of action for at least a week." "We won a battle...in a war far older than us." she became notably more serious "There is also the question of...how did they find us in the first place?" "We have been careful, I thought we were doing well." "How long have they been...on our trail?" "Did they just happen to notice us, and sent those things? Or...have they been following us for a while...waiting for us to be isolated?"

"Likely." Jenna agreed "Or at least I can't come up with any logical explanation for the darkness." "The sun is clearly there, we can see it, it just doesn't light anything up." "The portals could in theory be technological, but we haven't seen anything that looks like technology, only the dark beam in the sky."

Jenna shook her head "Unlikely" "There was no mention of such in the journals, besides, the timeline doesn't make sense." "Even with the weirdness that goes on with time here, it's clear this whole thing didn't happen, what, three days ago?" "If the portals were made by the original inhabitants, they would have appeared in our world earlier than they did." "But I admit I have no idea where the things that came out of them came from, and why they were here in the first place." "And who made the portals, since those things were way too mindless to do something like that." "And lastly, what's with the constant, unnatural darkness? What is it linked to? or is it its own thing entirely?"

"Frankly, I hope I never have to see...them again." Jenna stated "Wishful thinking I know...but dragon can dream." she laid down "That's really the only thing I can do...right now." "Hope and dream."

@Blitz Boom "It is not the daily upkeep that concerns me, the hive can run itself even without a queen for a good while, assuming no outside queen takes over, and even the most incapable queen has the basic capabilities by instinct." Asildae stated "But rather, it is our neighbors that pose a threat." "My mother was excellent at keeping them in control, a combination of diplomacy and power that kept stupid ideas out of their minds." "She taught me her secrets, something my sister never got to know." "To put it simply, I worry our neighbors, as unimpressive as they are, may still surpass my sister in aptitude." "Which could be a threat to the hive while I'm gone." "But, at the same time, it may provide useful tool for my repossession." Even now, as the buildings came into view, Asildae grabbed any prey that came too close to her, though she no longer took off to get something from further away, so her victims now consisted mainly of insects that flew or crawled too close; It may be that there was something else common between her and Glutton than just their agreements, as Asildae had at this point eaten quite a lot for someone of her size, even if it was in form of goo. "Say, as we are nearing this settlement, is there any social norms I should keep in mind?" "I don't particularly care if I'm seen as unusual, but I rather not make accidental enemies because of some silly rule I'm not aware of." Equestria was indeed a weird place, and Asildae observed it all, even if it may have seem like she was more focused on catching food than paying attention to anything, partly to learn, and partly for safety, ------------ Magma's reassurances didn't quite hit what Vaz had meant, as Vaz's thoughts were on a more existential issue, the ritual and his variants on potential futures, was it his fate to fail the ritual? was there no existence where it did what it was supposed to do? Though, Magma did touch another thing he had been thinking now and then. Active degradation was not a concern to him, as his mind, like his body, kept renewing, keeping him at the mental state he was; thus his comment on injuries being undone rather than healing. Rather his concern was his mental limits, something his memory had already reached, thus him forgetting things; It wasn't that he was forgetful, quite the opposite, his memory was quite good for a kobold, rather, a kobold's mind was simply not meant to remember several centuries of memories, and he had reached the biological limit. It was easy to deal with memory issues like that, as he kept journals for that exact reason, storing them in a place he could access magically, though funnily enough, he currently couldn't recall where the place was physically. But what about other parts of his mind? what would happen when he reached his emotional limit, if such existed? He did not address the topic though, only gave Magma a thoughtful nod to acknowledge her input. "I start by stating that I am merely speculating, as I have not tested covering myself with molten stone." "Assuming you have the element of surprise, eliminating any potential magical means he has to stop you from covering him in the first place, I see no reason why it would work any worse or better than any other means of continuous damage." "In case he feels no pain, the weight alone could work to slow him down if nothing else." "I would also argue that if it is the case that he lacks a rational mind, to call him a living being is not an accurate statement." "As in such a case, he would be simply a possessed corpse that imitates a living creature." "How permanent such action would be even if successful, I am not certain." "Because as stated, it could still take longer than your existence, to exhaust the energy keeping him alive." "To come up with proper action, you must understand my, and by extension, his nature." "We do not simply heal from an injury, rather, the injury gets undone." he ripped a single scale off his arm and dropped it, causing a deep enough wound to slightly draw blood, and in almost an instant, with a momentary green glow, the missing scale was back before the one he had ripped off had had time to land on the ground. "I am not ageless in the way you may often think with immortality, rather, my body has frozen to the age and state it was in when I completed the ritual." "In case of an injury, I do not grow new to replace what is lost, but rather, the energy from the souls is used to remake what was lost as it was." "Depleting this energy is what you would need to do." "The challenge is, that even if the source of injury is constant, like in the case of being trapped in lava, the state of injury isn't." "Our body would always, even if only for a moment, return to its fully intact state." "In one hand, this means more energy is spent, quickening the process of running out, but in the other, it also means chances to escape, to counter your methods." ----------------------------- Charir didn't really know what to think on Leviathan's first point. First of all, the fact that Leviathan was allowed to help Ruby in the first place, or that she was close enough to her treasure to even potentially show interest in messing with it, were already massive shows of trust to Charir, it simply did not happen among their kind, until the two dragons already had a trusting relationship, so clearly Leviathan had made some kind of an impact on Ruby, either that or Ruby had seen her as so puny that she posed no threat, which was possible too. The family point he also didn't really agree on, mainly because being 'just her friend' seemed quite a lot closer than any family he had seen from his own kind, granted, he acknowledged that their understanding of 'family' was currently very different. Her compliment, while it felt nice, also confused him slightly, mainly because the concept of 'cute' in the way she meant it was still foreign to him, and had it come from one of his kind, it would have been an insult. not that he showed the confusion, as he looked mostly thoughtful, thinking through what had been said. The explanation of 'honey' got similar thoughtful reaction, he understood the concept, but he didn't fully understand why sweet things you ate were terms of affection, but then again, he barely knew the word for 'affection'. He listened equally intensely at Leviathan's take on family, so intensely in fact, that he was caught bit off guard when she placed her hand on him, not in a bad way, but it was clear he had been very into her monologue. He didn't have any comments on it specifically, mainly because he had to think through what she had said before forming any deeper thoughts about it, so he just responded with "I think, I want that too?" "I don't want to be like mother." "I don't want my daughter to want to kill me." he was talking about Ruby here, granted she didn't want to kill her father specifically, but in his mind, Charir imagined himself being more involved with his potential offspring, so he compared himself to his mother in this matter, even if among their kind the father didn't usually really matter enough for anyone to want them dead. On Leviathan's latest comments, Charir responded in uncharacteristically serious tone "It is the most horrible place I know, I rather slice my own throat than live there again." it was probably the closest he had gone to Ruby's coldness naturally, he had no love for his home, though his tone went up right away, as he continued "This side, it is more nice, lot more." As the Lake, and bit later that massive structure that was the library came to view, they would experience the first dragons approaching them. It was a group of young dragons, about head taller than Charir all of them, though it was hard to say if they were older than him, or if the size difference was because he was a runt. It was a group of three specifically, all different kinds; One was similar in build to Charir, though their scales were notably thinner, and even more significantly, their scales were pearlescent white, and their horn and claws were transparent, also sharing the pearlescent look of their scales. Second was a longer, almost snake like dragon, they had no wings, and had relatively short legs, their scales various shades of green. The last one was one of Voltaick's kind, though unlike Voltaick, this one wasn't constantly charged with electricity. They were flying from the direction of the library, when one of them spotted the duo, and after some hesitation, they made their way towards them. When they got closer, there seemed to be some kind of minor argument, likely about who would say hi first, as the trio seemed a bit wary, which was understandable, at least to Charir, who was also wary of the trio. Ultimately, it was the Voltaick's kin that was in front when the group approached, his voice revealing him to be male "Hi, you are the visitors right?" "We have never seen a Death-Bringer from close." the green one joined in, he too was a male "There is of course Elder Dask, but she's so large, that we can only see her from far away." the third one didn't say anything yet, instead they looked at Charir in curious manner, before their scales and horns started changing color, turning them to the same colors as Charir, which obviously got Charir's attention, which in turn got the green one's attention, and he remarked "Don't mind her, She does that." this caused her to look embarrassed and change colors again, though not to the pearlescent white that was likely her base color, but rather ones matching the environment, making her harder to see. They had also gotten someone else's attention, as in the lake, among the various aquatic dragons, one dragon was looking at them, a blue one, the size or build was hard to conclude at this point, as it was a distance away, and only the head was above water, but it was at least Ruby's size, likely larger. They however didn't do anything yet, just observed, and it could be none of them even noticed it, Charir didn't at least, as he was focused on the dragons close by.

"Unlikely" Jenna stated "Only thing they could have, would be clues on what they were....but that doesn't help in locating Elders." "Besides, we heard and saw the helicopters....Talon has already cleaned the site up, if there was something...it's no longer there."

"Based on those journals, neither did the original inhabitants." Jenna reminded "Other than that everything just kinda died." "Everything but the mold." "I do feel that this whole portal and time breaking thing is disconnected from that, a separate event."

"There's no service here...so contact is not an option before we can keep moving." Jenna stated "And I don't know enough to know where to start.".... "I only knew what was relevant to my job."

"There is also the potential that we are just not seeing something." Jenna said thoughtfully "What I mean is, there's clearly something supernatural going on with this whole thing, so should we really assume that we can perceive everything?"

@Blitz Boom Just to inform you a bit on what I'm planning to do. I have only few of existing dragon characters for the Homelands (even Werodex I made up for the RP, though in her case I have been meaning to make a character similar to her), so while couple of the already existing ones may appear at some points, When the duo reaches the part with more dragons around, I will be creating some "temporary" characters too as we go depending on what fits, that won't have pictures and such. I'm mainly saying this because those characters obviously won't have thought out backstories and such, and it will likely show in how I write them Basically NPCs is what I'm saying.

@Blitz Boom "Loyalty based on what one provides, is only strong as long as you can provide more than others." Asildae mused, it probably wasn't a surprise that a hivemind didn't really see the positives of a non-hivemind system, and would never fully understand such things; in the same way how other creatures probably didn't like the idea of a hivemind, due to them being used to the individualism of separate mind. "You can have your fun if you wish to come with me, it has been a while after all, and it is likely that my sister outnumbers me, so there will be plenty to try and come for you." "Just try to keep it outside, easier to clean up." "The physical hive also has anti-magical properties due to how we build them, so it could be bad for your health to go inside." she didn't really care what happened to her likely to exists sister's daughters, she would obviously take control of them in case of victory, but she had no reason to wish for them to be spared. "Truthfully, if she does not outnumber me after all these cycles, she is even more incompetent than I assume, for reproduction is one of the easiest parts of being a queen." it was of course relative, she wasn't saying that creating hundreds of eggs was in any way pleasant, but compared to everything that related to being the leader of a hivemind, it was quite simple and easy, with the hive doing everything necessary by instinct. "Assuming of course the hive isn't already dead from her utter ineptness." it was a potential that had to be acknowledged too, as far as she knew, it could be there was no hive left to take back. "That would be a shame." ---- Solar wasn't as worried, because he had been approaching the whole issue from the point of unpredictability from the start. He knew things didn't appear in the same order as they left his word, based on both the mentioned example of his equipment, and the fact that things he knew had disappeared before he was taken, were yet to appear here; To him that obviously meant that either something, likely whatever was in-between, didn't follow the rules of time, or there was other places where things ended up. Or as he now assumed due to this whole thing, it was likely both. Another reason why his worry didn't increase, was because to him it didn't really matter when something was taken, for it to be dangerous, it wasn't like there was any time in the last millennia when some kind of battle wasn't going on in his world, so a risk of actively hostile forces appearing always existed. "I appreciate it, but it is you who is likely more concerned about my other self than I." "My questions on him are merely curiosity, though one does make me somber. Is it my fate to become this?" "Am I doomed to hurt my kin like this in every potential?" "But that aside, I may still look into the place again, as I believe I stumbled upon them long time ago, maybe it possesses new information, or maybe not, it shall be seen." Solar turned off the projection "Do you have advice on how we should handle the situation if your counterpart was to end up here?" Vaz shook his head "If I knew, I wouldn't be here talking to you." "The only thing I can say, is that I and he, are not forever." "I may exist long enough to be called immortal and undying, but in truth, there is a limit." "We are limited by the souls we gather with the ritual, and redoing it would take much time and preparation." "So were you to capture him and keep him in state of constant injury, he would die eventually." "However, as I do not know the limit for myself, and even less for him, it could still take until the end of time." "So it is better to wish you never need to worry about it, and if you do, that there is some of me left in that mind." For the Macabre clan, for Solar's part, he had never heard of them, so their equivalent in his world had never made a name for themselves. Granted, he didn't know their location, so he didn't even know which empire's territory they would land on in the first place. For guesses on their fate, he would have few if he would have thought about it. 1. they exist in relative peace, likely working for the empire they are under, be it willfully or not. 2. They are dead or hiding. Or 3. their family line was among the waves of immigrants the fled Equestria at the start, and they are living somewhere in the rest of the world. He did know that magics like that had been studied by the Empires in the past, but they were generally met with similar issues than biological modification, and were replaced with more easily controllable methods. The sisters also weren't fans of the immortality part of that research, as it challenged their place as something special. ------ "I thought it was you who keeps her calm, she tolerates you a lot." Charir remarked, he didn't think he had any kind of effect on Ruby, even if he was still wondering why she saved him in the first place. Even getting the gift jewelry from her, which was still around his horn, was explained by her wanting to be able to locate him better from distance, even if it still meant the world to him, since he had never been given anything before, especially not from his own kind. The timing of his question may have been bit odd in the big picture, but to him, it made perfect sense. They were alone, just two of them, and they could understand each other, Charir didn't know when would be the next time it would be like this, and he wanted to keep it between the two, without even Ruby, as he still felt the need to be tough around his sister, even if she hadn't critiqued him once, and seemed to tolerate such acts from Leviathan even herself. Charir listened to the response thoughtfully, though when Leviathan said she was proud of him, his eyes sparkled form happiness, even if he tried to act like it wasn't the biggest ego boost he had gotten in his life, sure she had communicated it before, and had caused similar reaction in Charir, but hearing it so directly was a special kind of feeling that Charir would hold on to for a long while. He also learned a curious aspect about language, specifically with Leviathan calling him 'adorable little whelpling; he did know equivalent words, but in his language, such words were pretty much always meant as an insult, yet he didn't feel insulted, due to how Leviathan said them. He of course knew that how things were said was important part of meaning, that's how he was able to somewhat understand Leviathan's intentions before without understanding the language, but he had never considered that insults could have a positive meaning too, especially since he still didn't quite understand the concept of positive cuteness, as to him it was just a synonym for weak....lot of their insults were just different ways to call someone weak if one thought about it actually. "Isn't honey what some insects make, funny word for endearment." Charir pointed out, seemingly amused by it, his tone was generally more joyful as he failed to hide that Leviathan's words made him feel warm inside, though again, he would have not been able to put to words why exactly. "And I...." he seemed to be struggling to find the right words "...I am happy you are so...nice?" he still wasn't sure if he did pick the right words "I guessed it was positive every time you do those things, but I didn't want to assume." "Nobody has ever treated me like that." the mood in his tone lowered as he continued "Everyone is always so..." he tried to think for words for a moment, but decided to just imitate instead, pulling his face to the cold expression Ruby was known for, and gestured at it, before letting his emotions show again because he didn't actually know how to stay emotionless. "...that or angry." "You said you feel like we are family?" "Is that what family is supposed to be? Being nice? Showing affection?" "Not just instinct? Learning to survive?" They would likely end up moving in the direction of the library, as due to the shape of the land and how the roads and structures were made, that was where everything eventually led, mainly because that was the direction where everything was, the other directions that weren't towards the Death-bringer side, were mainly filled with caves like the one where they were staying in. And while there was constantly movement, different types of dragons flying here and there, nobody paid much mind to the two small dragons, at most glancing in their direction, at least for now.

"Which again goes to the original problem." Jenna stated "Where to start from?" "My contact is deep...in their systems, they have dug out lot of secrets." "But even they...have found no evidence on the topic." "We can't just go and ask someone...those who know, are likely very loyal." "And even if we did find an elder...they could just capture us instead." "Or kill."

"It also feels less bad if we need to defend ourselves, if the target is more monstrous." Jenna added thoughtfully "Though obviously I'd prefer not needing to fight at all."

@Blitz Boom Just in case you have forgotten what Charir is on about with Werodex calling him and Ruby stuff

@Blitz Boom Asildae gave a thoughtful nod "I see, it is curious that these things seem to always centralize in these lands specifically, as there is no information about such things where I come from, even in the oldest of folklore." The loss of free will didn't really concern her, mainly because being a hivemind species meant that she didn't appreciate free will in the same way. After all, as far as she was concerned, even a queen like her, was ultimately just part of the machine already; Sure she was more independent than the average member of her species, but that didn't mean she particularly cared for being alone, in fact, it was quite unpleasant. "Species come and go, that's nature." Asildae remarked, she didn't have much to say on the topic of evolution and extinction, as she had never met these other species, nor was there much about them in the various writings her hive had collected during her mother's and grandmother's reign either. She also wasn't worried for her own species, as their location and way of life was such that it was unlikely that any outside species had the motivation or means to wipe them out. "I have read about these 'Changelings', and have wondered how they keep their hives loyal with their lone minds." "I can imagine our kinds getting along, for we do not compete on anything." She seemed amused by Glutton's comment about her sister being family "I have hundreds of sisters, having to kill one pest has no weight on my conscience." "My other sisters and my daughters hold greater place in my mind." Asildae stated rather bluntly "I have no issues with 'cheating' as you put it, in fact, I'd argue there is no such thing as cheating." "Had I been outsmarted by her, I would concede defeat and start anew." "But I was not, she did nothing to win." "She hid like a coward, and hired someone else to do her work." "That is not the behavior of someone fit to be a queen." "She endangered the entire hive in the short term by bringing armed outsider in, and in long term, her weak leadership will only bring doom." "I seek to take back my hive not because of vengeance, even if there is a personal aspect to it of course, but because it is my duty as the queen." "My hive's safety is my responsibility, and my incompetent sister is putting it in danger." She watched the dragons fly over them, and while she did find the clothing bit odd, she didn't pay too much mind to it, mainly because she didn't know if it was unusual. She knew of dragons, like she knew of ponies, but her knowledge was very limited, and she had no idea how old the information was, so she had no knowledge on what the clothing culture was for dragons in Equestria, or anywhere else in that matter. She did ponder a bit about the materials used, since she did know they could breathe fire; It wasn't genuine curiosity though, more thinking for thinking sake. ------------- Vaz just nodded to Magma's guess for now, as he continued studying the projected version of himself. "Latter." Solar stated "I already knew it may be the case, since my equipment I had with me back home, arrived here a week later than myself." "But this confirms it, since her fate likely predates the findings from the ocean." "But it doesn't change much, as such risk has already been identified before." "After all, the reality anomalies in my world by their nature are unpredictable, and crazed alicorn or long desiccated corpses aren't any more or less likely regardless of non-linear appearance." "But I do admit that I'm happy that Sheez we got was from before this started." He looked at the pile of parts that used to be a pony like him "It could potentially work if you were to heat up her parts, but it isn't necessary, my systems provided enough power to pull the data out." he then turned towards Vaz "You however, what do you mean by unstoppable?" Vaz put his hand on the symbol again. "I can't die." "I'm not invulnerable, I feel pain, and can be injured, but all injuries, even those normally lethal, will heal, or, more accurately, will be undone." "I come from a dying community, a sickness was killing us and making us infertile, our numbers were in freefall." "We tried everything, science, magic, gods, spirits, everything. Nothing worked." "My family had their own research, I believe the closest term in your language, would be necromancy, though not entirely accurate." "It is the foul side of magic, we were as much outcasts as kobolds can be without banishment." "While capable of doing so, we did not wish to reanimate or raise the dead, but to eliminate death altogether, or at least delay it." "We created a ritual, new magic, a project of many generations, and I was the one to finish it." "Without going into much detail, we learned to harvest what your assistant called 'ethereal energy', a powerful energy greater than any magic, after all, nothing is greater than life itself." "It worked." "The plan was to sacrifice few, to give the rest more time, I was to be the first sacrifice, and also the test subject." "As you can tell from me speaking to you here, it didn't go as planned, the effect was reversed." " Thousands of lives given to a single vessel." his voice broke a bit with the last sentence, grief and regret apparent in his words. He gestured at the projection "He has the telltale signs of reanimation, however, he looks alive and healthy." "So with this limited information, my assumption is that, your version of me died at some point, but has been brought back, likely using my family research." "Due to the nature of my current existence, I have a connection to what I assume to be the realm that our souls inhabit, today, I felt a brief presence in there, another connection. Him" "This is why I believe my ritual was used to bring him back." "I am a skilled mage, and due to the nature of my existence, stamina and other normal limits are not a concern." "I do not currently know any spells I could use to do that..." he pointed at the pile of parts "...but I am more than capable to output enough power for that." "I cannot die, and while you could slow me down since I feel pain, you would get tired eventually." "I can reanimate the dead; with some preparation, I could build an army of undead creatures like dragons to lay destruction." "I won't, I have no plans to do anything but try to undo my existence." "But he?" he again pointed at the projection "He hates you." "And having been brought back from death, it's likely that pain doesn't concern him." Vaz's tone became even more serious "Lastly, there's the matter of numbers." "I'm already as powerful as I am, and I only had access to a community on brink of extinction." "From what I was told, my kind is doing fine in your world in population." "So, it is likely that my counterpart had access to larger number of souls, ten thousand, hundred thousand, maybe millions more, which makes him far more powerful than myself." "The one question I cannot answer is, if that really is me, or if it is just a feral creature in my body." "We never studied using the ritual for reanimation, so I have no idea what it does to the vessel's original mind and soul." "Regardless, your world has a dangerous threat to face, and regardless of who wins in the end, destruction and death will be unfathomable on both sides." "I would pray for your home, but gods have never listened to us." ---------- "She did also call me 'protector'" Charir thought out loud, it sounded nice, protector, nicer than what Ruby was called, but it was equally weird to him, because protector? him? he was two cowardly and small to protect anyone or anything. He seemed a bit surprised by the cheek clap since Leviathan hadn't done it before, but not in a bad way, and while there was no smile since it still wasn't natural to him it was clear he wasn't against the scratches either, even if he barely felt it. If you were to ask him why he liked it, he wouldn't have been able to answer, but the reason was his craving for affection, something he had not been provided for most of his life. For the first time the magic that allowed them to understand each other failed a bit too, specifically with the word 'hun', mainly because Charir didn't know any equivalent term in his own language either, but he didn't ask about it because it sounded positive. "Right. You are right." He said "Maybe, both?" he thought about something for a moment "Before we go, question." "What is...this?" he then 'petted' and 'scratched' Leviathan, he didn't actually do it properly, but rather just imitated them to get a point across "And why you do it?" "Don't understand wrong, it is...nice, but what does it mean?"

"Honestly, I rather not have anyone I need to convince here." Jenna mentioned "I can't imagine anyone, or anything, that lives in a place like this, to be pleasant to talk to." "I almost prefer the idea of something feral, since you don't need to try to guess what they are going to do."

"Hard to speak to someone...you don't know the location of." Jenna argued "Or know if they truly even... exist." "And persuading the Great Wyrm?" She started laughing, but had to stop because it was still quite painful "That's just silly." "The Great Wyrm is one of the founders." "They build the system...They are Talon." "Everything that happens in Talon, is under the command...of the Great Wyrm."

"Turning it off was the original plan, it's just so far from our entrance that it's no longer viable." Jenna reminded "But regardless, seeing how mindless the things that entered our world seemed, I have a feeling that whatever may or may not be protecting things, is likely more feral than something that can be reasoned with."

"Depends on change." Jenna pointed out "You can't predict the mind...of a dragon." "But there's a bigger problem with the... whole thing." "I have no idea, who they are" "The only name I know...Is the Great Wyrm, the leader of the whole thing." "But I don't know who she...or he, is." "It is believed that there is other elders too...running things on the background." "But it is not known how many, where, or who."

@Blitz Boom Asildae shrugged, she didn't have much to add since she didn't know for sure how she had ended up there, though she was equally surprised how few creatures made their way to her, sure there had been some critters that had come to investigate the singing, but it had been relatively few. Her best guess was that animals around here just weren't stupid enough to wander into a dark cave with sounds inside, or maybe there was a local predator that made similar sounds? She wasn't that well educated on the wildlife here. Asildae did notice the change in Glutton, and was more curious than anything, in big part because magic was one of those things her kind didn't have much understanding on, mainly because they didn't use it. They weren't incapable of learning magic altogether; but not having their own usable natural magic, and their hives forming an area of magic-nullification due to how they were build; magic wasn't really relevant for them to learn. She would have likely been more impressed if she actually knew about magic, since at her current level of knowledge, as far as she knew, what Glutton did could have been one of the most basic spells in existence, or the hardest one to exist, Asildae simply had no idea. Asildae gave a sort of 'kinda' gesture at Glutton's rhetorical question, since it was not entirely that simple; Yes, generally speaking her understanding was that draconequui kinda just came to existence, but out of nowhere? not quite, since nothing came out of nowhere. Asildae kinda just figured that some kind of magic formed them, instead of biological means. The fact that they could apparently reproduce more traditionally was a surprise to her, but at the same time, it made sense in how weird it was, it would be the creatures known to break the natural norms to be able to do that too. While listening to Glutton, Asildae would now and then suddenly charge in a direction, and grab a small animal from a tree or the ground, never far enough to not hear Glutton speaking, but enough that Glutton would need to turn her head if she wished to look at her. It was everything from birds and rodents to lizards and even one snake, who all got the same treatment, as Asildae injected them with her venom, seemingly indifferent to their attempts to scratch and bite her. She also now and then grabbed insects and other invertebrates that happened too close to her. Asildae's movements were quick and snappy, not too different from her smaller, distant relatives she seemed to like to snack on; and with how sudden they were most of the time, it was hard, if not impossible, to predict when and where she was going to move. "A fascinating tale, it is curious to me how little your kind is known outside these specific lands." "Considering what you told me, I can say for certain that some of the creatures where I come from, would likely see your kind as gods." "It makes me also wonder. Since your kin is from sound of it generally such that you embody things that go against the current order, does there exist an opposite equivalent?" she was more pondering out loud than expecting actual answer, but would let Glutton respond if she had an answer. "What comes to my story, there are few details that need to be explained first." "The place where I come from, we have no name for it, nor our species." "Those have many names in many languages, often descriptive of appearance or action, combined with specific cultural believes." "But for us, there is only hive, and other hives are described by location or by the queen." "For you see, we do not have a language, no written word, or spoken tongue." "Hive is one, we are what you would call, a hive-mind, so external communication, is unnecessary." "And when it comes to communicating with other hives, we use pheromones and body language, and sometimes buzzes or whistles." "Such communications are simple, for there are only few reasons to interact: conflicts, upkeep of peace, and reproduction." "That is why I speak your language, and many others. We do not have writing, so what we learn from outside the hive, comes in many languages not our own." "As for where I come from, it is what you would call 'jungle', there is not any great civilizations nearby, only my kind, and tribes of various other creatures." "Not always a pleasant place to live, but food is plenty, and that's really all that matters." "It is far from here, but as stated earlier, I'm not entirely aware of the exact relation to this place." "My hive was build by my mother's mother, somewhere around 400 seasonal cycles ago." "My mother inherited it from her mother, like I was supposed to inherit it from her." "Queens often stay in their mother's hive, as building a new one is lot of work." "Being a queen is not a title for us, it is a physical reality. We are twice the size of our sisters and daughters, and our mind is more capable to allow us to oversee the hive." "A hatching of a new queen is initiated by the hive when the old queen is nearing the end of her life, this is so that the new queen can learn certain skills before taking over, as not everything transfers perfectly through the hive-mind." "It is also because to be even a day without a queen, is extremely dangerous to a hive, as loss of a queen leaves them vulnerable for takeover by another queen." "We hatch fully matured, I had hatched only few cycles before I found myself in that cage." "Daughters are always linked to their mother, but the issue rises when the queen dies, or is otherwise separated like I was, as the hive is left without protection, and lacks the will to resist a takeover." "Normally, the new queen, the daughter of the old queen, will take her sisters into her care, but sometimes, like in my case, there is more than one queen that hatches, and when the old queen dies, the hive splits." "Sometimes, especially when there's more than two, some of the queens leave and build a new hive, but other times, it leads to conflict, until only one queen remains." "As you may have figured out already, my species is mainly female. Now and then a male hatches, sometimes intentionally, sometimes randomly, and they are sent away." "Their lives are short, they hatch, they leave, they try to find a queen in need, either succeed or fail, and are killed." "But don't feel too bad for them, they are mentally lot less developed, they are not smart enough to want anything more." Even during her own explanation, Asildae would catch and eat prey. "At this point, you may ask, why am I more legitimate than my sister." "And the answer is simple, timing, she hatched only days before our mother's death, she lacks the teachings given to me." "I also already had some daughters of my own, and most of my sisters took my side." "She is, by definition, an intruder, if not a parasite; not to mention the use of hired help." "If my sisters and daughters had free will, they would rebel." ------------------------------ "Skilled is bit of a wrong word, but...point is, she didn't go down easy." Solar was still bit bothered by the whole thing, not because he hadn't seen stuff like that, he had, plenty, nor was it because he particularly cared for his colleague, they weren't in bad terms by any means, but she was...a lot to deal with sometimes, so they only interacted as much as their duty required. No, it bothered him because he couldn't help but think about it happening to him, and because he knew that moment had been recorded into her systems too, which meant he would see it. "I'm still running analysis for everything, but I can confirm this as the source for the signal I received." "It seems to have activated after...the separation. so there isn't much data on that, but I have an idea why it was active." "Our communication systems can run on minimal power, for the purpose of transporting emergency signals even after our death, and location purposes." "It was not made with the idea that there would be no body left at all, but the heat from being left on the cursed desert was likely enough to keep it running still." "It cut out due to it being lot colder here, as there was not enough heat to keep it running." "It does also mean that her fate may be one of the first events of whatever is going on, since there wasn't an alarm yet, and based on the data I've analyzed already, it seems she was on a regular mission at the time." Magma didn't need to address Vaz, as he spoke himself after walking closer and looking at the projection for a moment "This confirms what I sensed earlier was what I thought, but I didn't imagine it would be like this." "Stiffness in muscles, faded colors, something missing in the eyes." "That is not me, it is merely souls puppeteering what used to be me." "In other words, dead, brought back to life." he paused for a second "Yet there are no signs of decomposition, no missing parts." he put his hand on the symbol on his armor in pained manner, while looking into the eyes of his projected equivalent,"It is disheartening, to see my work used in such a manner." "Such, selfish act." "Yet I can't blame them, after all, your dragon friend told me what you did to us." he looked at Solar "New kind of darkness has fallen on your world, and I'm afraid you don't have a bright enough light to counter it." "If your empires are the immovable, then they are about to meet something unstoppable." ------- Ruby stayed quiet. "Look around later, still tense." Was Charir's simple response, and for the first time his exact emotion was hard to read, he was clearly tense like he said, his voice too mirroring it, but it was hard to say what else may have been on his mind, if anything. He was also seemingly bit tired, there was still day left, but the whole thing had been so stressful that it took a toll. Charir didn't follow Leviathan, not right away that is, instead, it would be ten or so minutes later when Charir walked outside, sitting down in front of the cave and looking at the environment, the electricity caused by Voltaick's mere presence had finally left Charir's scales entirely, though he wasn't sure when that happened, as he had been preoccupied by his thoughts. "I'm concerned about her." Charir broke the silence, speaking quietly so that his voice wouldn't travel far, but loud enough to be heard "She acts like mother, if mother could control herself." "And do you remember what Elder Werodex called her?" "Mother of Destruction" "What does that mean?" he sounded bit nervous, as if he wasn't sure if he should say it out loud.

I posted here 2016 the last time, I guess it's good to update what has changed in the last 9 years. Okay so, Alcohol and Smoking/vaping are the only ones that are still true somewhat, but it's not quite that simple. Alcohol: I don't have anything against alcohol by itself, rather, what I despise is the Finnish alcohol culture. Everyone drinks, anywhere you go, there's alcohol in some form. Pride? people bring alcohol, big Family assembly? there's a bar. Any event? alcohol. The only place you don't find someone getting drunk, is children's events where it is specifically banned. Seriously, my 18 years old coworker (18 is the age-limit), genuinely asked me how I manage to spend my time in weekends if I don't drink. My man, you've been legally allowed to drink for less than a year, and drinking is the only hobby you have? Smoking/Vaping: Again, nothing against the thing specifically, I just don't like to be forced to inhale the smoke and smell. For the rest that teenage me mentioned, it turns out I just dislike annoying people Those two things are probably the only popular things that I actively hate, for everything else, like sports, TV shows, and such, it's more just not caring for it. At least ones that aren't related to politics