Catpone Cerberus

"There is really no point in trying to understand how it works any further than that, since by nature of being supernatural, we likely can't properly understand it." "But it would be nice to know how these things connect to each other, if at all." Jenna said, frustrated at their lack of answers "Find some logic in all of this."

@Blitz Boom When they got close enough to civilization, Asildae stopped grabbing things from the air to eat for now. She watched Glutton to eat the rock and grow new rocks, though she again seemed to be mostly curious about it rather than anything else, at least outwardly, as having no soft skin, or really even facial muscles similar to most creatures, Asildae didn't really emote with her face as clearly, her eyes and body language being the biggest indicator of her emotions. Though she was generally just curious about it, as due to her kind's inability to properly utilize it, their study of it was mainly observing, thus her reaction to it was more analytical than awe. "Why compromise if the other side cannot resist you?" "A compromise is to minimize damage on both sides after all, so if the other side cannot cause damage to you, why bother pleasing them?" "I believe you individualistic creatures call this kind of unnecessary compromise 'compassion'." "Many see it as noble, but in truth, it's a privilege." Asildae stated thoughtfully On Glutton's point on messing with ponies, Asildae let out couple short quiet whistles, likely her version of chuckling "I have a feeling that I can get a reaction out of them by just being myself." "I've learned that herbivore creatures tend to find our ways of feeding repulsive." As they arrived to the city proper, Asildae's gesture turned to match her general, almost regal demeanor, her head held high, and her hands behind her back in confident manner. It did somewhat clash with her general behavior though, considering she didn't seem to really care what others thought of her. The truth was that she wasn't trying to seem like anything specific, she was simply mirroring her mother, she didn't really know the social connotations of certain body language to other creatures, as she had no need to know them. Asildae once more observed the event's happening next to her, she didn't really feel much of anything seeing it, as her different nature caused a disconnect from the whole thing. Being a hive mind, her relationship to her daughters was different, and thus her relationship to young in general, lacked certain warmth; Thus this interaction was merely a curiosity, a quirk of individual minds that she didn't properly understand. It was also worth mentioning that in age only, this filly was possibly older than her, since she had hatched only some seasonal cycles ago, and she didn't quite understand the mind of a child, due to never really having a childhood in that way. "The young of other creatures are fascinating to observe indeed." "Fearful and fearless with no clear logic." "So curious and stubborn, yet also easily manipulated to act and think in certain ways." "They also seem to bring up emotions in others, like happiness in you." "That is something, I can't quite relate to." ------------------------------ Solar hadn't interrupted the conversation, because to him, they hadn't been just standing around. Not only was Vaz's insight important with the potential new threat, but he had also been working the whole time, the data from the remains actively being analyzed in his systems, and various scans running on the pile of sand to make sure there was nothing they had missed; this all was of course unseen from outside, so physically he had indeed just stood there. "I do believe we are done here yes, I cannot find anything else of note here." "I'll gather the pieces, and we are ready to leave; we'll need to notify whoever is in charge of environmental issues, so that they can come and see if the sand needs to be removed." He then materialized a bag from a small compartment in his metal parts, and started carefully collecting the pieces of his former colleague. Vaz spoke meanwhile. "In some ways you could call it time manipulation, but I don't believe time itself is affected in reality." He started "I admit I don't properly understand it myself, but I believe it is more a form of recreation." "Creation of identical copy of sorts." "It is also why my counterpart is so visibly stiff." "He was resurrected, so he does not return to my youthful health, but rather, to the rigid existence of a reanimated corpse." "You are correct that any means of magic nullification has no impact on this effect." "That is because while the ritual itself was magic, the process that keeps me alive, requires no magic to operate." "It is fueled by souls, already in the vessel." "If blocking it is even theoretically possible, it would likely be lethal to you yourself too, for you would also nullify your own soul, whatever that would entail." a terrifying concept really, what would it even mean to nullify the soul of a living creature? "As for the suggested methods, I have no experience to state their effectiveness." "But you are likely right in the possible failure points, especially if my counterpart is not hindered by things like pain." "We can't know for sure, if he even has vital organs left, as we do not know just how alive he is." "Again, using the ritual for bringing someone back from dead was not something we considered, so all I can do is guess." "Is there something more you seek from me?" "I have told what I know could assist in countering one like myself, and if I am still around in such a case, I would also seek to help to counter them." "But, I have no reason to return to the capital, as I now know that those I seek, live in the town nearby, so until you have further questions, this is where we part ways." "I have one, what is this?" Solar once again projected an image, again from the point of view of the pony who's remains they found, though this time, the other Vaz had wrapped her in green, glowing, string like tendrils, coming from his fingers, and her field of view was more limited, as damage had appeared on the lenses of her artificial eyes. "Ah, that's simply how lot of my magic works." Vaz's eyes lit up, as green, glowing string like magic shot out from one of his hands, wrapping around a nearby stick, which he then moved around before snapping it in half. The 'strings' then retracted back to his hand, and his eyes returned to normal. "It allows me to control the flow of magic better, letting me use more or less magic as needed." "It also makes it easier to do several things at once." ------------------- Charir didn't really have the context for cheating when it came to relationships, mainly because having a relationship where such was even possible was not exactly a common place among his kind, so while a permanent partner sounded nice, and he understood why breaking of one's trust was a big deal, what leviathan said didn't translate properly to him, as he simply understood it as the father betraying the mother, without any context on what kind of betrayal it was. He was surprised about what he learned about Leviathan's mother, but not shocked, partly because he knew she had grown up with some other creatures, diamond dogs as she called them, though he didn't know what those actually were. The other part why he wasn't particularly shocked, was because only really knowing his own mother, he had no reason to think it wasn't normal among dragon mothers to be so...volatile. "Mothers' really like to punish their young over fathers' actions huh?" He simply remarked "I do sometimes wonder why mother did not just smash my egg, she clearly despised father, and me." he didn't sound sad about it, in fact, he was awfully casual saying it. Everyone waited Leviathan to do her orb thing before speaking, Charir being the only one visibly fascinated by it, while the three others were just curious what she was doing, as magic wasn't exactly rare around here, so it didn't really impress anyone as much as it did Charir. Though depending on how fast it traveled, they spoke before it reached its goal, as it was a good distance away. For the larger dragon's reaction, while it was too far to see expressions, it gave a wave back, and brought their forelegs on the side of the lake, leaning on them in relaxed manner, they were unsurprisingly aquatic in nature, having webbed feet and fins, and while rest of their body was still hidden underwater, the shorter looking legs implied they were similar in shape to the green youngling, so likely one of the 'serpents', as Werodex had called them. "It's natural." the young female responded, clearly happy about the compliment, as a rainbow of colors moved through her body before she returned to the white pearlescent color and transparent horns and claws "But I still need practice to properly control it." the green one cut in "Yeah, she keeps disappearing." to which the female responded with "At least I don't send my friends to treatment by almost electrocuting them to death." "It was one time! And why did you bring me into this? He's the one being a jerk" "Because he can't do anything-" she was cut short from all things, Charir, who just interrupted the argument with "I think it is nice." "The color thing." "You are pretty" Which seemed to take the trio off guard, causing the female once again briefly go camouflage for a moment before turning white again, and both of the males also were surprised by the directness. Charir in turn was bit surprised they were so surprised, as he lacked the social experience to know why calling someone pleasant to look at among his age group could cause any kind of reaction. "I can also do electricity, but I don't know how yet, it just happens." "I'm called Charir." "I'm Oreon" The white female responded first, surprised by the sudden compliment, especially coming from a Death-bringer "It's nice to meet you both." "Ereo" said the Voltaick's kin, and the green one finished with "Vulri". "You can also control electricity?" Ereo then asked "Yes, but I don't know how yet." "I think my father was your kind." the two others looked at Ereo, who responded defensively "Don't look at me, I don't know who it is"

"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?"

OOC: It was night, sound of sirens could be heard as smoke rose to the sky in the distance, Jenna was running as fast as she could, holding her black backpack on one of her shoulders with one hand while holding her other hand against her side. She was injured and tired, and she was amazed she had gotten away with so little, after all she should have been dead after a fight with a Viper. She collapsed on her knees and breathed heavily, Damn this body, how can humans even live with pain tolerance this low, she couldn't continue too much longer, she needed to tend her wounds and rest, but she didn't have place to go. Jenna wasn't what she seemed like at first glance, because though she looked and normally acted like any girl at her age, she wasn't just any girl, in fact, she wasn't even a human, she was a dragon, she was just disguised as a human. But she was nothing out of the ordinary, in fact, there was countless dragons living among humans, hiding in plain sight, and most of them belonged to a huge organization called Talon that had been established long time ago to save dragons from extinction in hands of The Order of St. George, organization of dragon hunters. But not everyone wanted to be part of Talon, and Jenna was one of them, but Talon didn't like those who didn't follow their rules, thus Jenna had just had her first encounter with a Viper. Vipers were what Talon called their assassins, they skilled killers who were feared by every dragon and human who knew about them, and it was pure luck that Jenna had survived the encounter with relatively small injuries. Jenna looked around here, there was no abandoned buildings around, but she would need to find a hiding place, she scanned through the area and noticed that one of the houses had still lights on, she pushed herself up and started walking towards the house, I guess I have to rely on good ol' human kindness, I just need to make sure they don't call anyone. She stopped in front of the door and looked behind her to check nobody had followed her, she then turned back towards the door and rang the doorbell. She let her fear show on her face, knowing that it would help to persuade the human to let her in.

OOC: It was sunny Friday afternoon and last of the classes for the week had ended, Jenna was standing outside the main entrance of the school listening music through her headphones and playing with a coin she had found from bottom of her leather jacket's pocked (1, 2, 3, 4,). She was bored, and didn't have any plans for the day, or for the whole weekend in that matter, and was killing time as she was trying to come up with something to do, but it was nothing new, because while everyone else in her age group were hanging with friends and or partying, she was usually alone, not because nobody wanted to be with her, in fact, some people wanted too much to be with her, but because she had made the conscious effort to make them to leave her alone. It wasn't that she didn't like company, no, she just didn't like the type of people most of the choices for that were, that and there was something she didn't want to risk showing to said people.