private Deep Science 1x1 with Blitz Boom

[Illiad Easle 3,121]

@Blitz Boom

(Null)

On 2024-10-18 at 2:45 PM, Blitz Boom said:

"You look more familiar, than any of those I have seen before. Close to dragons, but without their flaws. It's very... Unusual."

Her voice were wary, and her muscles tense, but she tried not to show it too much outwardly. She did not want to end up like the ones she saw circling the two, drained of free will, and drawn to naught but worship.

They nodded at her assessment, "Indeed, it does seem like having known us before has altered your perception of us. But your perception is also quite different from most other ponies. We think you would manage our presence better than most others, perhaps even better than the changelings."

They motioned for her to leave, "One last thing though, a final test. Tonight, write down everything you can remember about this encounter, and send it to us. Then, once you are back in Troy, do it again. We would like to see how distance and time affects your memory of this encounter."

"Now, your friends are waiting for you outside."

 

Even turning away from them, their visage was stuck in her memory, it was hard to remember how she had perceived them before.

 

Once she was out of the room, and the doors closed behind her, she'd be approached by Ranger and Arcade, the both of them looking a bit off from the encounter, "Can we go now? I don't want to come back if we don't have to."

 

(Cherish)

On 2024-10-18 at 2:45 PM, Blitz Boom said:

Cherish's smile stiffened, when she heard Nova's question, and a brief moment of fear passed her, whilst a breath of air strained itself through her clenched teeth. It lasted but a second, before she pushed it down, though her smile did not have the intensity it did before. It thankfully did not go beyond that, as Nova would get answers some other time. Away from her, which were best. She could handle hearing about death to an extend, but she had been picturing Lyft assisting with some wounds, and then hearing that question, in the moment, reminded her of another doctor. Someone she'd rather not think about, as the last time she had been talking even a little about that... A-Anyway, her adoptive mother had needed to hold her for an hour after that, through the crying and screaming, and it took three weeks to get through a story, that took maybe five minutes to explain in total.

Lyft glanced over at Cherish briefly with a concerned and sorrowful expression, having felt the potent discomfort from her at the question, but she didn't press the issue. It wouldn't help to single her out like this here. But she hoped that Cherish would feel comfortable asking her questions privately if she wanted to.

 

On 2024-10-18 at 2:45 PM, Blitz Boom said:

"You... *clears throat* If you're healthy, that's good for your organs, so you'll probably live longer, yes? I've always been told that exercise and eating right, is a good way to stay healthy. And taking your vitamins."

Lyft smiled at Cherish's answer, both because the answer was good, and because Cherish had been willing to participate after the uncomfortable incident. 

"That is correct, living a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy foods helps you to make sure that your organs are functioning properly, which in turn helps you to grow properly and live longer. Regular exercise is good for your muscles, your blood flow, your breathing, and other physical attributes, as well as often being good for some mental attributes like mood regulation. Taking vitamins can be good to keep you healthy if your regular diet is lacking, but you should be careful as taking too much can cause damage, or if they're not mixed properly for your species. Not many ponies know this, but the different pony species actually have slightly different nutritional needs."

Lilac seemed a bit overwhelmed by the information, given all the big words that Lyft was using, and so she raised her hoof, "Um, I don't know what all those words mean" pointing at what Lyft had written out.

Lyft chuckled, a bit embarrassed, "Oh! Sorry, I should have used a simpler explanation. Still, you don't need to worry about all this exactly just yet. This is more for me to see what you all already know, so I know what to teach you about and how to teach it. The example that Cherish shared has actually given me a good idea as to where we can begin."

She turned her attention back to the class as a whole, "We're going to start by learning about how food and exercise helps us to be healthy. First we'll learn what food is healthy and unhealthy, then we'll go into why. Then next week we'll start into exercise, starting with what we can do, then understand why the exercises are helpful. Does that sound good?"

Most of the class seemed interested in that plan, or were at least unopposed to it.

Lyft nodded, "Well, since we're coming up on lunch time, why don't we start with an activity? Each of you can come up and write down what things you've brought for lunch today, then we can sort them based on which kinds of ponies can eat them, and whether or not each item is considered healthy or unhealthy. Also feel free to add to the list with other foods you've had before that might be more different."

(Since Void is packing their lunches, you can list what she packed and if she included anything special in any of their lunches, plus whatever Cherish wants to put up. I'll add the extra items for the young ponies and Nova/Lilac's lunch in my next post.)

 

(Grey Changelings)

Things had been mostly quiet in the Grey compound since Basher had been captured. There was a bit of an air of disappointment given Basher's capture had not been followed by an influx of members like the Grey Mare had wanted. Still, the changeling trio had been given their share of the reward, and returned to the duties they had worked on before.

Craven had recently been assigned to act as a guard for Basher's cell, and was encouraged to try and get Basher to open up a bit, maybe convince him to cooperate? He wasn't told how he might accomplish that though.

At the present, he was standing by Basher's cell. The pegasus in question was once again rhythmically bouncing a ball against the opposite walls.

In the adjacent cell was Birdie, Basher's lieutenant, a unicorn mare who Arcade had taken down. She had been somewhat more cooperative than Basher had, but didn't know much about the organization. She had mostly been Basher's bodyguard and lookout, while the other lieutenant, Moth, had been the real second in command. 

[Blitz Boom 4,606]

@Illiad Easle

(Null)

On 2024-10-24 at 10:37 PM, Illiad Easle said:

They nodded at her assessment, "Indeed, it does seem like having known us before has altered your perception of us. But your perception is also quite different from most other ponies. We think you would manage our presence better than most others, perhaps even better than the changelings."

They motioned for her to leave, "One last thing though, a final test. Tonight, write down everything you can remember about this encounter, and send it to us. Then, once you are back in Troy, do it again. We would like to see how distance and time affects your memory of this encounter."

"Now, your friends are waiting for you outside."

Perhaps she were good at this, but it were an advantage that came at a cost. Dealing with gods, or demigods, were risky and required stepping around on eggshells, lest something bad might happen.

Those who usually fawned over the dragons, they likely only knew the stories of gods, or might have seen a play, or something like that, so they were enamored, and unaware of what they were dealing with. To them, these two were probably just higher beings, whom they should fawn over, as some kind of benevolent being.

Null could not see gods as benevolent beings like they could, because she knew what gods tended to be like. Sure they were not all the same, but they were often above them, to a frightening degree. Unable, or uncaring about their subjects, and incapable of empathizing with them. It would be like her trying to see eye to eye with an amoebae.

Some did better. The ones in Harrowmark, and the primary in Caneighda, were even openly communicating with them, to try and connect and see their subjects more closely, but they were still on a whole different level. Even if they understood, could they really connect? With the callous disregard for life that Null had seen, she had a hard time believing that they ever truly could, and if you couldn't empathize, what were to stop you from doing horrendous things? If they did not register of living, thinking creatures to you, what stopped you from simply doing things, out of boredom, or on whim?

She'd seen how bad it could be. The points where death would have been kinder, and had hit both those who worshipped them, and those who stood in opposition. So whilst she could worship, show respect, even pray somewhat genuinely, she could not watch them with unburdened reverence. It were foolish to do so, when you had seen what she had. And that did not even include how the worshippers were themselves sometimes.

"They haven't seen what I've seen.

And I'll write some things down. By your leave."

She'd bow her neck, then go on her way, feeling some small amount of relief the further she got away from the room they were in. She could hardly remember what she used to think of them right now, when she still had her curse. Some vague recollection that this wasn't right, but right now, she couldn't focus more on it than that. Maybe later, her head would clear up, and it'd be easier for her to recollect that. For now, she were just happy to get out of here.

On 2024-10-24 at 10:37 PM, Illiad Easle said:

Once she was out of the room, and the doors closed behind her, she'd be approached by Ranger and Arcade, the both of them looking a bit off from the encounter, "Can we go now? I don't want to come back if we don't have to."

A shiver went over Null, before she saw the others approach her. Seemed like they had gotten out unscathed. That was good. Never knew when it came to things like this.

"I don't ever want to return to this place either. Being in there, makes me miss my curse.

Are you two okay? I swear, I didn't know it would be like this. I've only seen their dulled followers, and thought they'd make you overly complacent, if you didn't have some kind of protection. I didn't think it would be so... Varied."

She were more than happy for them to be on their way, and not return here again, ever. Even if she had to make a letter, she were gonna ask a changeling to deliver it. She hadn't an urge to return to that place, long as she had a choice in the matter.

====================================================================

 

(Cherish)

The young ponies had varied lunch boxes, as Void tried to keep them towards their taste, but they were overall still healthy. They each had home made bread, some cut fruits/nuts packed into its own little wrapper, scraped butter and whatever they liked the most on top, that were fitting it. Mostly it were some variation that still played around the same baseline, though as she were trying her best to accommodate them all, Elef's lunch had some slices of meat, that she had cut from a raw piece she had gotten. If he preferred some spice, or it cooked, she'd have done that, but it might well simply be raw, juicy meat, packaged in next to the bread, to make sure it wouldn't go dry.

They all also had a nutrient bar, that she had made a fair bit. They were easy, had a lot of protein in them, and while there were some sugar, she did her best to make it mostly natural sugar, to avoid this getting too unhealthy. Though at times, she did make stuff more sugary for them at home, this were school. Good, healthy brain food were important. Though Elef's were differently colored. As she put crickets in his, she were using a bit of fruit juice to make it a little redder, so she didn't accidentally give one of the others the wrong one.

They also all had some water with them. And even if it were the day after Gemini's party (or the day after that again) they wouldn't get cake in their box. She'd rather they enjoyed some of the leftovers after school, than eating it in school. Besides, she didn't want the other students to feel bad about their own food, in case they didn't have anything as good. Though if the others had promised to share, she would have let them take some slices of leftover cake along with them. Cut so there'd be one for each student int he class.

Cherish's were simple. Some water, and a sandwich. Rough bread, and various greens. Including cactus slices, which she actually found fairly tasty. Nothing she ever got back in Equestria, but trying it here, it had been an instant hit.

There were also an olive, or the Trojan equivalent stuck to the top, with a toothpick. Sooth liked doing so for the looks, as it gave it some class, in her opinion. And it provided her a toothpick, in case Cherish got something stuck in her teeth.

Cherish also but a lump of diamond up from her pack next to it. Poor quality and filled with cracks, it were essentially worthless for any shop in her opinion, but that wasn't the intention with it either.

"It's for my dragon friend, Crow. I found that after I was out with her yesterday, and thought I could surprise her with it today. I dunno if its healthy though. Just that dragons eat them."

She had literally stumbled on it out there, on her way home. Gave her a big surprise, but she were pretty sure she knew exactly what to do with it, as Crow probably didn't find a lot of gems to eat, out in the desert. Made her wonder how much they really needed this, but... Maybe she'd know now? She just knew that Crow had talked about it longingly once, and she didn't really have anything else to use this for.

What it were doing out there... She had no idea, and wasn't gonna ask, because the answer were probably some variation of someone had it, then bad stuff happened, and it got dropped in the sand dunes, until it uncovered again recently. Could have been trashed too. hard to day. The dunes could hide things for years, while the sand shifted around.

==========================================================================

 

(Grey Changelings)

*sigh* Why did it have to be him?

Well, he knew why him, out of the three of them. Mongoose were doing better, but he were still best kept to things that included cleaning duties, or supervision. He were also too easy to manipulate, which were a risk they couldn't take with Basher. And Yannit supposedly had other things to attend. That or he were being mislead, and they were trying to make the three of them work more independently, rather than being stuck as a group. He sorta suspected that might be the case, but he were worried that asking the question would get him in trouble somehow. Not that he really had someone to ask. He were given orders, and followed them. There weren't much of a boss to go and ask. Not unless you counted Grey mare herself, and he would hate to disturb her. Surely her time were more valuable than that. And even if it were not, he'd rather try and avoid accidentally catch her ire.

So now he were here. Performing guard duty, on a pony that he had partaken in chasing down, in his own small way. Props to that small mare too, for still giving them the share they did, considering they hadn't been able to do much, before she seemingly solved it herself. It had been a welcome surprise, though honestly, the more he did this, the further the thought of stopping once his debt were paid, went from his mind.

Yes the work could be dangerous, and at times it were nerve-wracking, or tedious, but he did feel like he were making a difference, and helping to overall make things better than they were before. It offered him a chance to seek penance, and he were glad that he had the chance, as the guilt just kept gnawing more and more at him over the years, after what he had done. Yet it also offered him purpose, in a world that didn't have much of it.

Sure he could follow Bling and the others, but she had enough hooves there, to where she could let go of a few. He were still grateful for what help she had provided though, as most of them were. Hard for him to put a bad word on her, and he would openly protest, if he were told that they had to go and enact vengeance upon her of all creatures, as she were about the least dangerous, spiteful being he had ever met in his life. What were there to seek vengeance for?

*sigh* Okay, okay, focus on the job. He had to do this. Guard Basher, and trying to get him to open up perhaps, and be a bit more cooperative. He could do that... Maybe. Honestly, what the hay were he supposed to talk to Basher about? The weather? Not something he could really witness a lot in here.

"...You okay in there, sir? You've been awfully quiet."

Yep, he was gonna excel at this alright... Couldn't Basher just hit him in the head with that ball, and free him from his own idiocy?