Aisede

Aw nice, a new artist

Rose giggled at Aloe's playful poke, nuzzling her affectionately in return. "While I wait on my simulacrums, would you care to join me in a hunt for some marine regeants? As a tremendous stroke of ironic luck, I happen to be short on stock of aquatic plants due to my recent landlocked operations. We can start here, and if we don't find anything particularly notable, I'll take us to some places I've flagged down as points of interest." Taking her hoof and smiling, she looked the pony in the eyes. "While we're at it, you can catch me up on how the spa's been doing. We live together, but yet I hardly feel I know more about your work than my own personal experience!" She laughed at that, a bright and cheery note.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/211280 In In The Company Of Dragons, taninims are a player race dragon specifically engineered to be fair and balanced... To an extent.

I've always wanted to play a taninim or a dragon, but DM's seem to have a special wariness towards them

"Rummy," she said simply, finishing doling out seven cards each before flipping up the top card on the deck: 9 of clubs "Five-hundred point game. I assume you know how to play?" Discreetly, she tucked the two Discords back into the card box, since those weren't a part of this game.

The moment he sat his flank down, she picked up the deck and began to shuffle it with a flourish, causing the cards to perform figure-eights and other such gravity defying tricks before rejoining their paper pedros. "Oh, no, she's already taken care of that. She's a monster hunter. She just needs needs your help harvesting some plants or transporting some goods to the market. In return, you get to keep a share of what she makes." The cards did one more mundane trick before settling down, whereupon she began dealing the cards face down. "Or you could keep the raw materials for whatever reason. Fire hydra scales are a lovely shade of red and would make for interesting decor."

Noticing his skepticism with a roll of her eyes, she went ahead inside and continued talking. "Have you heard of Marais De Fue? It's a hazardous region with monsters, fire geysers, and a rich trading economy- rich in materials, not neccesarily wealth." As she took a seat herself at the table, she tossed him an expectant look. "I have a friend there. 'Nautilus' is her name, and she has something to give you in exchange for your services. How much do you think fire hydra blood is worth in the local market? Or their scales. Teeth." She shrugged. "Any part of that creature, really. Or other strange and awesome fauna and flora."

That's right. Living creatures absorb and use magic throughout their life, releasing it upon death. If every creature were to live forever, there'd be a magical famine. In attempting to bring life eternal, she'd condemn the entire world as it was ran dry of the very essense that fuels it. Not only that, but in depriving this place of magic as well, thousands of souls would cease to be... "... All I ever wanted," she started in a small tone of voice, hanging her head under that steely gaze. She couldn't stand to meet it. "Everything I stand for is to promote life and perpetuate a creature's continued existence. But, perhaps..." Looking up, she saw that these beings did continue to exist, in some form or fashion, after death. If not the very concept of who they were. "Perhaps death isn't the cessation of existence I had thought it was. I still can't wrap my head around it- I want to hold on, but..." Sighing, she returned her attention to Twilight, fearlessly locking eyes with the powerful alicorn. "I think I understand why you brought me here, Twilight. It was to show me that life cannot exist without death, and that in attempting to disrupt the natural cycle, I may very well condemn creation. I just wish it didn't have to be so..." She thought, then, as she usually did. She thought on a solution. Her mind always turned to solutions when confronted with an unknown. Was there some way to create magic? Or was magic like matter and energy, unable to be created or destroyed. She could always draw magic from other realms- poke holes in the fabric of space and dip the metaphorical straw in, but not, that would only cause long-term harm to the target world.

Rose wondered, as she passed by the windows into another 'life', if she'd see any of her crew in there. Or a past iteration of herself... Or John. This place... It dispoved everything she knew about the afterlife- most glaringly of all that she had no hope of ever reaching it and reuniting with her Ill-fated colt. The original Rose would kill herself ten times over to be in this place, in that moment, if it meant she could be with him once more. "What do you know?" It was the only meaningful question she could sum up. "And... Is this just your world, or all of them? Could I meet my mother in this place, and if I could, would I even recognize her?" She'd never met her mother, she didn't know what she looked like, but if she did see her would there be some invisible tug in her heart that told her who she was?

Rose hesitated. For once in her life, she didn't know what to do, or what to expect. Every facet of her life was carefully planned and predicted, outcomes rationalized and events compartmentalized. She was especially familiar with magic, even the esoteric kinds. But this was new. She said those of high ability are the only ones that can pass, does that mean that Rose somehow, without concious effort, passed the barrier on her own? Was she wrothy of the secrets it had to share? She decided that then wasn't the time to think of such things. She was there now, and she had been presented with an opportunity to expand her world view. She touched her horn to Twilight's. She could use a change in perspective.

'Dead.' the word rang around in Rose's skull like a funeral bell, seeming to linger in her ears far longer than it should have. She was stunned, rooted in place. Denial waged a war inside of her- denial of the fact that she could ever die. Even as a mere copy of the real thing, she had still been designed with eternity in mind. She couldn't die, it simply wasn't feasible. How did it happen? How could she not notice? She knows they didn't drown- she's amphibious, and Twilight wouldn't let herself die that way. But... Wait, how was she still thinking if she were dead? Was she simply a conciousness now? A mind without a body, adrift in endless space? She couldn't remember ever going through such a space when she was possessing a creature, nor when she were fatally wounded and pending revival by one of her spells or enchantments. It... It simply couldn't be- Rose felt her chest seize, but then, how could she feel that if she didn't have a physical body? Right, perception... Perception. This is how she was perceiving things, and this, the void, was simply how she saw death... "We're... Dead." The words barely left her mouth, breathless as she was. She wasn't sure how to process any of this. It was beyond her, and that was a novel experience she wished hadn't been thrusted upon her so suddenly. "How?"

Building their own private palace underwater? It was ambitious, and expensive. She liked it. "Excellent idea, my love! Although, I must admit that I am unfamiliar with this Maretonia and its architecture. In Andalusia, the sea harbored many a lost temple- typically, though, they housed cursed treasures, or were cursed themselves. Thus, they were never extensively explored. ... I do recall seeing similar architecture in some world geography pamphlets, though," Rose continued after some thought. Taking Aloe by the hoof, she swam the two of them a good distance away from the structure to view it from a better vantage point. "Tenochtitlan. I was mistaken as a pony belonging to their culture by the Prince, once. I also aided one of them- or their benefactor- out in the griffon lands. I should still have a simulacrum there, in fact..." Yes, the pieces were falling into place. As she clapped her hooves together with a giddy smile, she turned towards Aloe, gripping her hooves in her own. "Oh, Aloe you brilliant spa pony you! We're going to have the perfect home to raise our foals in."

"excellent idea! I actually had something special in mind, if you would be interested in some adventure on the side ~ please, follow me inside." Rose would lead Vera past the front counter, and to a closed door. The room beyond the door was not the room that was usually there, but Vera didn't need to know that as the gestured inside. There was a table and a set of chairs in there, with an otherwise homely decor. A deck of cards lay on top of the table, awaiting use.

Unfortunately, with two ponies who didn't know shit about proper housing, the end result was still rather... Lackluster, but it was a damn sight better than what had been standing there before. Satisfied with her own work- and especially the modifications to the room containing the modified Maretonian ruins, she gave the entire structure one last appraisal before nodding. At that exact moment, the potion's effects also began to wear off, the hippogriff very quickly reverting to his terrestrial form as the magic binding his metamorphosis was undone by entropy. -- Before even a drop of water could enter into his air-breathing lungs, Rose reported the two back onto dry land a short distance away from the pool she'd had created, briefly glancing at the rack of extra bottles. None of them were missing- as if she'd ever expect somebody to steal them- so she redirected her attention to Vera with a cordial smile. "I must appologize for the abrupt change in scenery, I simply didn't wish for you to accidentally get any water in your lungs. I know how difficult that can be for terrestrial mammals."

Hmm... Well the potion should only last an hour, it took her about twenty minutes to gather the materials, and it only took about half that long to assemble the sample structure. "Surprisingly, we haven't been down here for more than thirty minutes at the least, so it should still have about half an hour left in it. We could spend that time restructuring your demo building into something more sturdy, if you like. It would definitely be appreciated, and I can pay you afterwards if it's liveable."

She also followed him in, looking around. She didn't seem overly confident in what she saw, but she didn't voice those right that very moment. "I'll have to make renovations some other time, but it does seem sturdy enough, and the environment of this lake is rather static. No hostile marine life that I detected, and few enough ponies visit the lake that our discovery is low." She turned towards Vera, offering a hoof with a profession demeanor. "You have done a sufficient job, sir."

"So it is... A juvenile form of Rummy," Rose confused, appraising the hippogriff 's work with a critical eye. She swam around its circumference, studying its many angles and dimensions. It was a far cry from the best she'd seen, but she supposed it would have to do until she could find a more competent carpenter. "And this will keep me, my love, and my foal safe?" She had to clarify, especially considering who it was for. Rose could survive easily without any sort of shelter, but Aloe and her egg... They deserved something more.

So it has elements of Liar's Dice in it, but it's more of a trade? Curioser and curiouser. "So if I have three fours, and you have one, and I ask you if you have a four, then you must give it to me- and under those conditions, I win the match?" It's such a simple game. In her first life, her foals never wasted their time on such trifle things, instead learning life lessons and adopting vital skills that they would later use to thrive in the harsh environment they grew up in.

Rose tilted her head to the side, furrowing her brows- before doing a full on barrel roll and facing him head on again. "I'm afraid I am unfamiliar with this game, 'Go Fish.' how does one play it? Does it involve actual fish?" If it did, she was in trouble, because while she could just create some simulated piscine life forms, she'd have a harder time locating and obstracting actual fish.

After the... taxing event which resulted in the first of Aloe and Rose's eggs, Rose could not have been more giddy to show the mare what she had done with the lake in which she expressed an interest in a week or so prior. Hoofing over the potion and diving in, she pinged the invisible tracker she'd planted at the unbuilt house's location and quickly swam after it, making sure not to leave Aloe behind any step of the way. "So this hippogriff bandit- or whatever he claimed to be- came to my shop the other day and expressed an interest in my wares. In exchange for giving him a hoof, he tutored me in the ways of underwater architecture, and built the foundations of a 'hideout', although I intend on adding more homely furnishings to the structure. We should talk about that later- but look!" Darting forward, she pointed out the smoothed stony floor of the modestly sized hole in the lakebed, illuminated by floating, jellyfish-shaped lanterns dotted through the room, glowing her trademark turquoise. Specifically, she bypassed the dark-wood columns create a patchwork lattice outlining the general shape of the intended structure, and went straight for a series of stony constructs, seeming to have been at least in-part renovated to a more presentable state. To the uninitiated, they may just look like strange bits and pieces of an architect's artwork, but they were really 'borrowed' Maretonian ruins, ancient runes and newer additions faintly pulsing with a soft, white light. "I've acquired these peculiar structures and enchanted them to create a safe-zone. This little area could act as a nursery of sorts, and prevent the guppy from straying too far out of a safe zone. What do you think? Is there anything I should add?" Oh, she was just too excited for this.

"ALRIGHT!" Kettle was more than happy to make more of her namesake, and hopped down off of his head, her landing cushioned by a swiftly manuevered bucket and the buttery contents. From there, she scampered off to where the funny lady was currently sleeping, stopping briefly at the door to smile and wave at her new friend. "I'll make a turbo super ULTRA BIG bucket for you and the whole school! Oh, oh! What's your favorite don-imate? Dondimant... What do you like on your popcorn? Caramel like caramel, and Sweet Corn always wants EXTRA sugary butter but I just put marshmallow sauce on it-" suddenly, she gasped, hooves going straight to her cheeks as she came to an epiphany. "Marshmallow sauce and sprinkles! It'll be like ice cream, but kettle corn! Kettle-Cream!" Oh, she has GOT to make that... And she'd go into exorbitant detail as she prattled on to herself, quickly losing herself to her culinary fantasies. The mind of a foal.

"Ah," Rose nodded sagely. "I know how that can be. Liars Dice is much the same, although that is the name of the game ~" the seapony giggled into a hoof as she continued to orbit his work environment, providing idle commentary. "So what kinds of card games do you play? Perhaps we could test each other's mettle after this, hm?" It's been awhile since she last played any sort of game, but she should still remember how to play.

Rose floated closer, orbiting his workspace as she listened and jotted down mental notes. She jotted down literal notes, too, summoning a notepad and pencil that were apparently waterproof- or something akin to it. "You've mentioned shelter and hideouts, pardon my prying but I would very much like to hear more on that while you work. I shouldn't be concerned, should I?" While she didn't make it sound like it was a significant matter to her, it was still very much present in her mind. She'd been a pirate, once, and she knew those two terms rather intimately. It's not something a civilian or simple vagabond includes in their vocabulary.

Now with all of her attention occupied by the nice colt, Kettle got comfortable, making a nest of Chipper's mane as she smiled down at him. Beaming, actually. "That's so cool! Does that mean you can stitch bone to bone? Like a quilt, but bony- OH, OH, can you make a bone shirt?" For some reason the idea of walking around with a bone shirt just sounded so cool. "Corn bones ~" she giggled, evidently lost in images of boney corn, or what she imagined the bones of a plant to look like. That way, she'd never be far away from her corn! And she'd look pretty good rocking a corn shirt, too.

Rose found herself relaxing at Twilight's touch, the action oddly... Calming. Motherly, almost. The solemn queen listened quietly as the alicorn spoke, of her fears, and of her seeming philosophy. She'd always viewed death as an ending. A punctuation in the story of somecreature's life. Spirituality, ironically, happened to be a concept that eluded her- in both her current and past life, despite the forces she reckoned with. Rose didn't know much about this 'Luna' character, or Celestia, really, but she'd gleaned enough via osmosis to gather that they were significant figures in this world, with cosmic powers and sovereign duties. Still, she struggled to piece together Twilight's meaning. She'd heard of oneriomancers, and maybe she'd met one or two, but she couldn't quite remember. Was she saying they were in a dream? Had she fallen asleep, and the mare had transported the two of them across the divide? Or were they someplace else, such as the aether, a place of raw magic? Without a saying a word, she lifted her head to gazed out into the distance, extending her own senses. Reaching out for the answer to Twilight's question.