Personification Life - IC Part VIII [open]

[Urran]

Anew was once again drawn to the strange door. She didn't know what it was about it but she soon found herself knocking on it once again and waiting for an answer. Besides, didn't new neighbors always go around and introduce themselves? She knew that someone lived here, why else would this room require such a heavy duty door?

[Urran]

"Oh....so just not beef then? Well, I suppose that's alright. Insects, on the other hand, sounds...interesting. Never tried them, although I pulled a stint in the Asian markets of Palmont City once. Business, not pleasure. Meant I couldn't enjoy whatever they'd fried up on a grill," Ray scratched his head at the memory, confused as to why the insects had been prepared to look as if they were practically still alive.

"I'm sure I'd be fine with them if it was just the meat, and they didn't look like insects. I'd just have to try them. Doesn't mean I don't think eating the things hole is odd....Say, is there a reason as to why you don't eat beef? Cultural? Religious?"

"Oh..that..i-it's just my species. The complex proteins found in red meat are toxic to us." he explained in his soft, gentle voice. Yoshi was a bit amused by Ray's statement. It was kind of hard to prepare bugs and have them not look like bugs. It's not like you could skin them. The again, in Urran food often looked it they did when it was alive. He loved eating whole stewed fish with only the intestines removed. Urranese saw intestines as unclean and it was one of the few parts of an animal that they didn't eat.

[New Aksarben]

"Not any yet, but I know he stuffs papers he's working on under his little blanket nest thing. I'm an artist myself, so I know about the kind of urge to keep unfinished pieces away from other eyes, so I guess that part makes sense," said Giovenith. "And that's a bit of an odd way to meet, but nice, in a way. It's just, I suppose, despite there being few other talking ponies in this world I personally know of, there is something of a stereotype surrounding the idea that they would be overly cheerful, childish, super happy social sacks of sugar. Not that you guys are that, but that's what the wide wild guessing came up with."

Giovenith was unaware that that stereotype already somewhat existed in the world where Equestria resided as well, mainly held among the Griffons and the Dragons. Like any stereotype, it had it's root beginnings in some minor truths (ponies generally did hold something of a 'smile at all, friendship is best' attitude), but getting on the more important picture showed that things were perfectly capable of going, and often did, in wildly different directions than what was expected. Sterling was friendly and cheerful-seeming, but not in the kind of saccharine brain-dead way that had often been portrayed, and Willow... well, Willow was Willow, as they had all just agreed on.

OOC: Gotta go to bed now, see ya round.

"Well, if you ever hear his descriptions for some of his paintings, then you will really see his cynical side." Steeling nodded, and finished up his pancake. He noticed that two new people had shown up in the communal dining room through the open door to the kitchen, and waved politely to them, before looking back at Giovenith. While meeting new hyoo-muns might be interesting, Gio was currently talking to him and it would be rude to suddenly cut that conversation off. Plus, he was learning a lot about this world from her, which was a bonus.

"And yes, ponies aren't all happiness. While we are naturally cheerful, we can be serious. But dragons and griffons never seem to believe that..." Sterling sighed as he levitated his plate over to a nearby sunk, along with the dirty pancake making supplies.

---

"That it was!" Octavian responded with a nod. He smiled at Drova again, with one that showed the touch of psychopathy in Octavian. That is to say he looked a bit crazy smiling like that. Mainly because he never seemed to smile unless he was hurting others or doing something really stupid.


"Want to try playing now? It is wicked fun." Octavian asked his friend, gesturing at the controller near Drova on the arm rest. "I can walk you through the controls, too. I may not be the best teacher, but it is pretty easy to learn console controls as they have fewer buttons than a computer does."

[The BranRiech]

While Drova's smile was more friendly than Octavian, she still appreciated the gesture of friendship and waited for him to hand over the controller. But then the girl realized that a controller was already set there for her. She tentatively reached for it and started fiddling with the controls.

"Alright, get over here and show me this." She chuckled.

Maybe it was an excuse to get him closer? It probably was.

[New Aksarben]

Octavian obliged and scooted a bit closer to show her the controls. Octavian pointed towards the buttons and explained what each did, from using the left Stick to move around and how to get into a car and the rest of the basic controls. His writer thought it would be boring to type out the controls exactly, and thus thought it would be best to simply abstract it. Octavian did his best to patiently explain things, but he rushed at some parts and skipped all around the controls, which might have made it a bit confusing to Drova.

"So, do you understand how to play a bit more now? Or should I explain anything again to you?" Octavian's tail continued waving lazily back and forth behind him, brushing against Drova occasionally due to their proximity. His ear randomly flicked atop his head, for some reason or another.

[Cerillium]

"Truly? I believe he loves me, but realistically, based on his actions, I sometimes have to question it. We only do things when it's convenient for him, and he never says "I love you, Kei" anymore like he used to." Kei sighed. Ogoti was right. Tieria seemed to rely on her. He was tethered to her for moral support, but never gave anything in return to the goddess, who simply wanted to settle down, but still keep independence.

"You're right, about it all." She admitted. "He never grew up with a mother, I think he's drawing parallels with me and a mother he never had. It sounds reasonable, I'd say, but it's not."

"It's only right that you talk to him about it."

Ogoti knew there were universal truths. One of them was that buttered toast always landed wrong side down except in zero g. The other was that men were clueless at times. They plodded through their day feeling secure without the need to reassure and reaffirm. Women, however, needed reassurances. Tieria, despite his dependency issues, was still male. He was perhaps clueless to Kei's frustrations. This created a unique relationship phenomenon: blindsided revelation.

There was another universal truth that women seemed to fashion into law. Surely all young females attended the same law school because their tendency to follow this law seemed passed down through thousands of years of evolution?

"You can't change him into what you want; you can't reshape him. You can express your frustrations and, for a time, he'll be compliant and modify his behavior, but he won't change. His nature is his nature. To change, he needs a behavioral therapist. You aren't qualified hence all you can do is enable or remove yourself. I say this because he can't change you. He's forced you into a mold - mother figure, protector, confidence booster or whatever it is that he needs. You've modified your behavior for a time. See how unhappy you are? This is how Tieria will feel if you insist he change his own behavior. That isn't fair to him. All you can do is love him for who he is. If all you love is the thought of being in a relationship with someone, then you don't actually love him. You love being in a relationship. Perhaps all he loves is the comfort of a relationship?"

Ogoti shrugged and folded his hands on his chest again. "My personal opinion is you're not right for each other. He's a good man but his desire to modify you has, throughout the history of the relationship, made you unhappy."

---

"Well, alright then." Yuna sighed, a bit reluctantly. She said no more as the girl walked off towards the door, shutting it behind her for Will to lock it. Finally, she could get out of her clothes for the day, and just go to bed.

But not before a nice, long bath.

The figure didn't lie in wait for Yuna to get into the bath. He'd come up from the drain once she'd already settled in. There was a bubbling on the water surface similar to a sauna jet and then a dark form slowly broke the water surface between her knees.

"Guten Abend."

The voice was muffled by the gas mask and odd filters jutting out from each side of its muzzle.

---

Meanwhile, Swith had enjoyed a relaxing morning at the local zoo. She took the twins to see the exhibits and then allowed Sydney to take pictures of llamas with a cheap digital camera. They returned home for lunch and Swith spent a good hour trying to figure out how to work Thriller's old laptop... specifically how to turn it on. Siduer bailed her out by uploading the pictures by himself. Word had already reached her that Blythe and Xanthe had gone off to help their companions on some sort of quest, and she realized the building was a lot more quiet... and possibly a lot more safe... without the purple menace running around.

Klaus set the heavy bag down. He could have fashioned it into a hammerspace item but then he wouldn't draw pleasure from the inhabitant's protesting screams.

"Schaddap." He gave the bag a small kick.

He was fairly certain the angel-turned-succubus-turned-angel-again would be along any minute. He'd had a few fun fun weeks of hide and seek, but Xanthe was undoubtedly miffed. He wouldn't take the chance of Bane finding the Purple Menace however. He wasn't that heartless.

Klaus untied the top of the bag and shook the contents onto the lobby floor. Blythe would most likely wheel around and claw his face. He'd prepared a counter attack for just such an occasion.

[The BranRiech]

"H-hoo." Drova chuckled a bit as Octavian's tail brushed by her. She somewhat understood the controls, and was still a bit wobbly. Drova wished the character had wings though, and ended up finding one of those weird human flying vehicles. The character, Michael, had a good flying skill, butDrova still crashed the damn thing once or twice, once into a greyhound bus on the highway. It was more annoying than iy was funny, and eever the royal, she tossed the controller onto the ground in a fit of anger before she realized what she judt did.

"Oh . . . I'm so sorry!"

The controller wasn't broken, but letting go of temper among friends was unforgivable.

[TotallyNotEvilLand]

Cerril stretched and let out a loud yawn as he rolled off of what he had personally claimed as his bench in the lobby. He slowly picked himself up from the floor and rolled his neck before picking up his pillow. "I might actually try to start conversations with people today, who knows?" He muttered, looking around for any signs of life in the lobby.

"Ah... Well, good luck with her. Talk to me later, okay? I'll be out here in the lobby for most of the day." He said, lying down on the bench and resting his head on a conviently placed pillow. "See you later, Mr..."

"As big as my thigh is...I am not a pillow," the Conservator said sternly to Cerril. "And isn't that uncomfortable, putting your head on my armor?"

No, this wasn't at all awkward.

"... What." Cerril quickly withdrew his head from his the conversator's lap, his eyes widened. "Jeez, there was a pillow there a minute ago!" He said indignantly, shuffling away from him.

[Cerillium]

Cerril stretched and let out a loud yawn as he rolled off of what he had personally claimed as his bench in the lobby. He slowly picked himself up from the floor and rolled his neck before picking up his pillow. "I might actually try to start conversations with people today, who knows?" He muttered, looking around for any signs of life in the lobby.

The old cyborg stared at the strange creature. He wasn't sure if someone had thrown a dead animal on the Thinking Bench as a form of off-color humor. He'd seen a moving picture with a horse head in someone's bed. He didn't remember the name of the film but it had left an impression.

At first, he assumed this new (presumed dead) being on the bench was a cruel joke played on his employer. She spent her days nervously awaiting her husband's return from war.

"What are you?" he asked Cerril. His voice was nearly as soft as the ticks and whirs coming from his body.

[TotallyNotEvilLand]

Cerril stretched and let out a loud yawn as he rolled off of what he had personally claimed as his bench in the lobby. He slowly picked himself up from the floor and rolled his neck before picking up his pillow. "I might actually try to start conversations with people today, who knows?" He muttered, looking around for any signs of life in the lobby.

The old cyborg stared at the strange creature. He wasn't sure if someone had thrown a dead animal on the Thinking Bench as a form of off-color humor. He'd seen a moving picture with a horse head in someone's bed. He didn't remember the name of the film but it had left an impression.

At first, he assumed this new (presumed dead) being on the bench was a cruel joke played on his employer. She spent her days nervously awaiting her husband's return from war.

"What are you?" he asked Cerril. His voice was nearly as soft as the ticks and whirs coming from his body.

"... A changeling. Shapeshifting bughorse, pretty much." He said, examining the cyborg. "Is that a costume or are you actually a robot? I could never tell the difference." Cerril said, yawning and balancing on two legs.

[Torsiedelle]

"Yea, we could celebrate.", Katya agreed. "I rarely celebrate nowadays, and it would be a nice....bonding experience, I suppose? I'm sorry."

She patted her belly. "I think it'll be around....march? April? Sometime. It's been a few months. I'm dying without a smoke or some wine."

....

"Ponies?", Torii thought. Something wasn't right with it. She knew it.

She'd ask Gio later. Noting Tasia's look, she shrugged and kept following. Not long to her room, anyway.

[Tiltjuice]

"... What." Cerril quickly withdrew his head from his the conversator's lap, his eyes widened. "Jeez, there was a pillow there a minute ago!" He said indignantly, shuffling away from him.

Dia grunted in disbelief. This one needs glasses, he thought, and said nothing more because unfortunately his handler's lunch break was ending and he had to go back to work.

He watched the bughorse and the cyborg.

[Giovenith]

"Well if they are choosing to miss out on gaining wonderful companions, then that is simply their problem," Giovenith reassured Sterling. "Stereotypes are never fun to deal with. My opinion, unless you're prepared to accept the stereotypes surrounding yourself as fact, you have no reason to be pinning them on others." She followed the unicorn's gaze, and upon seeing Tasia and Torii, also smiled and gave a wave to her passing friends. "Hey guys."

Willow gave a passing glance at the two other hyoo-muns, flicking an ear in thought, but otherwise not putting forth any further engagement, choosing instead to focus on his food.

"Oh, Sterling, you don't have to wash those," said Giovenith, walking over to the sink. "I did make the mess."

[New Aksarben]

"H-hoo." Drova chuckled a bit as Octavian's tail brushed by her. She somewhat understood the controls, and was still a bit wobbly. Drova wished the character had wings though, and ended up finding one of those weird human flying vehicles. The character, Michael, had a good flying skill, butDrova still crashed the damn thing once or twice, once into a greyhound bus on the highway. It was more annoying than iy was funny, and eever the royal, she tossed the controller onto the ground in a fit of anger before she realized what she judt did.

"Oh . . . I'm so sorry!"

The controller wasn't broken, but letting go of temper among friends was unforgivable.

Octavian looked quite annoyed for a second when the controller was thrown, but managed to calm himself down with a heavy sigh when Drova said she was sorry. He could forgive his friend for getting frustrated with the game when her people had no idea what they were themselves. "No, it's fine. I get pissed at this game sometimes as well. And you did not break anything either, so I don't have anything to get mad at, really."

The prince bent over while remaining sitting to pick up her controller. It took him a bit to get it due to the fact it ended up a good distance away. Octavian refused to stand up to get it though, as it was easily within reach. Octavian finally managed to get it though, and handed the controller back to Drova.

"The game takes practice, man. You'll get better at it, and flying, with time and as you play it more." Octavian nodded, with a much nicer smile this time.

[Cerillium]

"... A changeling. Shapeshifting bughorse, pretty much." He said, examining the cyborg. "Is that a costume or are you actually a robot? I could never tell the difference." Cerril said, yawning and balancing on two legs.

"Transhuman is the popular terminology. I loathe trends. I prefer to be called cyborg."

Relieved that the changeling wasn't a cruel prank on Swith, he folded his arms and nodded to Cerril. "You must be new here. Welcome. I am Ceril."

[The BranRiech]

The door opened with a heavy sigh, like usual, and there Rylli stood. Bran was just walking in at the time and gave her a quick peck as Rachelle skipped downstairs. It was evidence to Anew that a family actually lived there. "Excuse me? Are you lost?" Rylli asked, looking at Anew with a smile. She might not have been planned to be there, but hey, a person's a person, give them your best!

--

"Yeah. I guess it's that when I was at least trying to teach him about emotions, I fell in love with the idea of being in a relationship, so just recapping what you told me. We're terrible together. There's some redeeming qualities to him, but we don't fit together." Kei said and nodded understandingly. "He's the square hole, and I assume I'm the round peg. Sure, there's someone out there for him, but me? No. He doesn't seem to get that there's other fish in the sea as well. He could totally find someone perfect, just not me."

--

"Video games aren't my . . . Ah, I heard someone say this once, forte? Yeah, they're not my forte." Drova sighed. "Want to just watch some TV then? I'm familiar with some of that, and I don't need to control anything. Or . . ."

Drova blushed a slight bit, smiling back. "Just enjoy our company together?"

What was wrong with her right now!? Octavian was only his friend, why did she think like this?

--

Only when the young Pyersai was tucking into bed, wearing her flowing robes (Hey, she needn't be in uniform in bed, right?), did she look up to see her visitor speaking in a language not heard by the Pyersai for a very long time, but recognized as German. She didn't know any of it though, but it must have been a greeting, because Will had told her her room was safe, so an unwelcome intruder was sort of off the list.

"Hello? Who might you be, and why is your face covered?"

[Urran]

Anew smiled. "Oh, no, I just came by to introduce myself. My name is Anew Returner, I just moved in and thought that I would say hello." she explained with a smile. She had her hands folded behind her back and kicked the ground a little.

[New Aksarben]

"Oh....so just not beef then? Well, I suppose that's alright. Insects, on the other hand, sounds...interesting. Never tried them, although I pulled a stint in the Asian markets of Palmont City once. Business, not pleasure. Meant I couldn't enjoy whatever they'd fried up on a grill," Ray scratched his head at the memory, confused as to why the insects had been prepared to look as if they were practically still alive.

"I'm sure I'd be fine with them if it was just the meat, and they didn't look like insects. I'd just have to try them. Doesn't mean I don't think eating the things hole is odd....Say, is there a reason as to why you don't eat beef? Cultural? Religious?"

"Oh..that..i-it's just my species. The complex proteins found in red meat are toxic to us." he explained in his soft, gentle voice. Yoshi was a bit amused by Ray's statement. It was kind of hard to prepare bugs and have them not look like bugs. It's not like you could skin them. The again, in Urran food often looked it they did when it was alive. He loved eating whole stewed fish with only the intestines removed. Urranese saw intestines as unclean and it was one of the few parts of an animal that they didn't eat.

Jacob stayed silent through the exchange between Yoshi and Ray, mainly due to the fact that he didn't really have much to say about things. Yoshi could explain his own biology much better than Jacob could, so he hadn't interrupted that conversation. As nothing else had really been spoken about so far, Jacob hadn't really had anything to respond to. So he had simply stood there for a while and listened to his two friends converse. But it really was about time they got going. They were still standing outside of the Three Tails apartment, and there was only a certain amount of time in the day.

"Ahem. I believe we should head to the elevators here. We do want to go exploring the city a bit and have lunch, don't we?" Jacob asked when there seemed to be a natural pause in the conversation. "You two can walk and talk, right? I don't want to interrupt you two conversing, but I am starting to get a bit hungry."

---

"Video games aren't my . . . Ah, I heard someone say this once, forte? Yeah, they're not my forte." Drova sighed. "Want to just watch some TV then? I'm familiar with some of that, and I don't need to control anything. Or . . ."

Drova blushed a slight bit, smiling back. "Just enjoy our company together?"

What was wrong with her right now!? Octavian was only his friend, why did she think like this?

"Sure. We can watch TV if you want, Drova. There probably is something good on on some channel." Octavian shrugged, and quickly got up to shut off the Xbox and grab the remote from under the TV. He had sort of forgotten it there earlier when he had been looking through the games, and thought it would probably be a good idea to recover it. The prince plopped back onto the couch next to Drova, and switched the TV back to the normal channels, before beginning to surf the channels.

It took him a moment to register just what Drova had said last. At first, he thought it was nothing at, but then he realized that it did sound a bit odd coming from his friend. The prince's ear flicked yet again as he turned a bit to look over at the Pyersai, a look on his face that showed his curiosity. "..... What exactly did you mean by that? 'just enjoy our company together' ? It just sounded a bit odd in context, and coupled with the fact your face turned red when you said it, I'd really like to know what you were thinking when you said that......"

---

"Well if they are choosing to miss out on gaining wonderful companions, then that is simply their problem," Giovenith reassured Sterling. "Stereotypes are never fun to deal with. My opinion, unless you're prepared to accept the stereotypes surrounding yourself as fact, you have no reason to be pinning them on others." She followed the unicorn's gaze, and upon seeing Tasia and Torii, also smiled and gave a wave to her passing friends. "Hey guys."

Willow gave a passing glance at the two other hyoo-muns, flicking an ear in thought, but otherwise not putting forth any further engagement, choosing instead to focus on his food.

"Oh, Sterling, you don't have to wash those," said Giovenith, walking over to the sink. "I did make the mess."

"Well, That is true. Stereotypes are not very good. There are plenty of stereotypes for the races of ponies, too, and for the other species of my world. Some are basically true, but those are just the ones that are more biologically based than anything." Sterling shrugged, and continued floating things over to the sink. He really couldn't think of what else to say on said topic, so he decided to move onto other ones.

But Gio telling him that he didn't have to wash the plates and such made him smile a bit. "I was really just levitating things over there so it was easier for you to get them clean, Gio. Even with levitation magic, it can be a bit difficult cleaning things like that. IT can be a bit hard to tell how much pressure I'm putting on things with my magic, sometimes. Plus, you have hands and probably will be able to clean the plates better. But I can help put them away once you're done cleaning, friend."

[Cerillium]

"Yeah. I guess it's that when I was at least trying to teach him about emotions, I fell in love with the idea of being in a relationship, so just recapping what you told me. We're terrible together. There's some redeeming qualities to him, but we don't fit together." Kei said and nodded understandingly. "He's the square hole, and I assume I'm the round peg. Sure, there's someone out there for him, but me? No. He doesn't seem to get that there's other fish in the sea as well. He could totally find someone perfect, just not me."

"He's a good person," Ogoti nodded. "He's intelligent and not bad looking. He'll have the freedom to find someone who he doesn't have to reshape into what he feels is perfect. You'll find someone, too. What's not to love about a goddess? Even my darling Nemesis has sterling qualities, despite being the goddess of revenge. She makes a fantastic souffle, by the way - adds little fruits and berries and bakes them in ramekins decorated with hearts and smiley faces."

He grinned at Kei and hoped his effort to cheer her had worked.

"Alright, my dear. Now you need to talk to Tieria. Do you need my support?"

Only when the young Pyersai was tucking into bed, wearing her flowing robes (Hey, she needn't be in uniform in bed, right?), did she look up to see her visitor speaking in a language not heard by the Pyersai for a very long time, but recognized as German. She didn't know any of it though, but it must have been a greeting, because Will had told her her room was safe, so an unwelcome intruder was sort of off the list.

"Hello? Who might you be, and why is your face covered?"

The figure had stepped out of the tub and shook himself off like a dog while Yuna was dressing. His clothing wasn't any different than his gas mask. The strange dark wool was similar to what Klaus' men wore only he had a canister hitched to his back.

"Why shouldn't it be covered," he queried. He tried the door and found it locked.

"Have key?"

[The BranRiech]

"Oh! Well greetings, Anew." Rylli grinned. She wasn't quite prepared to invite her in yet though. I mean, she was a complete stranger at the moment, despite now being identifiable by a strange name made up of two words.

"So where do you hail from then?"

--

"I-I nevemrind!" Drova said defensively. "I was just thinking we could hang out here, maybe I could spend the night or something, friends do that, right?" She nodded, trying to draw the subject off of her errant comments. They were turning her purple with the blushes that were the result of said comments, and then the realization as to what she'd said.

But . . . She meant to say that, right?

--

"I can handle it on my own." Kei nodded. "I've broken relationships before, and I can do it again. But this time? I'll do it respectfully. I really hope we can be friends after this too. Like we said, he's a good guy."

She got up, waiting to see if Ogoti had any last words for her before heading out.

--

"Key for what?" Yuna asked as she watched her guest dry himself. Strange, he seemed to take a bath in clothes . . .

"I asked first, answer, then I will." She made a little "Not so fast" finger waggle with a slight laugh. "Oh, and if you mean the key to the door? You're out of luck, I think it's barred locked from the outside."

[Cerillium]

"I can handle it on my own." Kei nodded. "I've broken relationships before, and I can do it again. But this time? I'll do it respectfully. I really hope we can be friends after this too. Like we said, he's a good guy."

She got up, waiting to see if Ogoti had any last words for her before heading out.

--

"Key for what?" Yuna asked as she watched her guest dry himself. Strange, he seemed to take a bath in clothes . . .

"I asked first, answer, then I will." She made a little "Not so fast" finger waggle with a slight laugh. "Oh, and if you mean the key to the door? You're out of luck, I think it's barred locked from the outside."

Ogoti respectfully rose as Kei stood. He pecked her cheek and then bowed.

"Good luck then," he smiled. His heart wasn't trouble for her sake anymore. They were good beings, Kei and Tieria. Seeing that she intended to leave, he bowed again and made his way from the dining room.

---

"It's covered because it's supposed to be covered."

Yuna's strange visitor appeared crestfallen. The door was locked? Damn it. He thought surely he had the correct pipe this time. Yet, there was still a chance.

"Do they leave it unlocked when you are gone?" His shoulders lifted just a little in hope. He could always retrace his steps tomorrow.

[New Aksarben]

"I-I nevemrind!" Drova said defensively. "I was just thinking we could hang out here, maybe I could spend the night or something, friends do that, right?" She nodded, trying to draw the subject off of her errant comments. They were turning her purple with the blushes that were the result of said comments, and then the realization as to what she'd said.

But . . . She meant to say that, right?

Octavian blinked, his mind working to try and figure out why Drova had suddenly turned so defensive. Drova had never really reacted like that before. It was odd seeing his friend act so defensive when Octavian had just asked a simple question for clarification. Was being a girl messing with Drova's head or something? That would make sense, seeing as personality was affected by hormones, and the different genders had different hormones. Octavian continued thinking about that as he focused back on the TV for a few moments.

"Sure, you can stay overnight. But you'll likely have to sleep on the couch. I only have one bed, after all. We can also hang out too. I have plenty of things to do around here, and we can always head out and do something if we really want to. Like head out to a gun range or somewhere to have some fun there. Or something." Octavian shrugged, and glanced back over at Drova as he continued flipping through channels to find something for them to watch.

[Giovenith]

"Well, That is true. Stereotypes are not very good. There are plenty of stereotypes for the races of ponies, too, and for the other species of my world. Some are basically true, but those are just the ones that are more biologically based than anything." Sterling shrugged, and continued floating things over to the sink. He really couldn't think of what else to say on said topic, so he decided to move onto other ones.

But Gio telling him that he didn't have to wash the plates and such made him smile a bit. "I was really just levitating things over there so it was easier for you to get them clean, Gio. Even with levitation magic, it can be a bit difficult cleaning things like that. IT can be a bit hard to tell how much pressure I'm putting on things with my magic, sometimes. Plus, you have hands and probably will be able to clean the plates better. But I can help put them away once you're done cleaning, friend."

"That's very sweet of you! But you guys can just relax, I've got this." Although she had the rather guilty curiosity to know about these individual stereotypes, Giovenith knew much better than to dwell on such an uncomfortable subject, focusing instead on beginning to wash the dishes. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask about this world?"

Willow silently flew over to gently set his plate in the sink, before landing and walking off a bit to observe the kitchen details a bit more. He ran a hoof along some of the structures and furntirue, paying an artist's mind to the crafting.

[The BranRiech]

"The couch is fine, thank you." Drova nodded, calming down now after the horrifying incident where Octavian seemed to dig right into her with his questions. She was definitely not prepared to answer them, especially when she wasn't even prepared to answer them for herself. "And no gun range, unless I can bring my own rifle." She stipulated. That could be something done later, maybe even when the rain subsided.

But for now, TV, and friendly conversation would have to prevail. Not that Drova minded though, being inside was completely normal to him, er, her, wait what?

--

With the final wordsa of encouragement, and being substantially happier now that she felt like she'd be truly free once more, Kei wandered off to her apartment, opening it to find an entire dinner laid out for them. Tieria was sitting down, waiting for her, she presumed. He must have slaved over the food for hours! It looked fantastic.

Too bad the subject that would be talked about was a little sad, and Kei wondered how he would take it.

"Tieria. We should talk over this food, thanks for making it by the way." She smiled warmly and sat down.

--

"It's unlocked in the morning for my training, said it's for my safety that I'm locked in here. But yeah, when I'm gone, it's unlocked." Yuna responded and pointed to the door. "Fair enough about your face, but why the menacing mask then? Why not a smiley face or something?" She joked. Truth be told, she thought it would be funny.

Picture it, a huge, imposing figure . . . With a happy little smiley face mask.

[New Aksarben]

"Well, That is true. Stereotypes are not very good. There are plenty of stereotypes for the races of ponies, too, and for the other species of my world. Some are basically true, but those are just the ones that are more biologically based than anything." Sterling shrugged, and continued floating things over to the sink. He really couldn't think of what else to say on said topic, so he decided to move onto other ones.

But Gio telling him that he didn't have to wash the plates and such made him smile a bit. "I was really just levitating things over there so it was easier for you to get them clean, Gio. Even with levitation magic, it can be a bit difficult cleaning things like that. IT can be a bit hard to tell how much pressure I'm putting on things with my magic, sometimes. Plus, you have hands and probably will be able to clean the plates better. But I can help put them away once you're done cleaning, friend."

"That's very sweet of you! But you guys can just relax, I've got this." Although she had the rather guilty curiosity to know about these individual stereotypes, Giovenith knew much better than to dwell on such an uncomfortable subject, focusing instead on beginning to wash the dishes. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask about this world?"

Willow silently flew over to gently set his plate in the sink, before landing and walking off a bit to observe the kitchen details a bit more. He ran a hoof along some of the structures and furntirue, paying an artist's mind to the crafting.

"Nor really." Sterling said with a shrug, levitating his book out of his saddlebag and beginning to read again. "But I can answer any questions about Equestria and my world that you have, Gio. I know quite a lot about it, and may be able to tell you things about it that you haven't already been told. And asking questions might help make the time pass as you're cleaning the dishes for us. Thank you for that by the way. Really nice of you to make us waffles and cleaning up after us!" Sterling nodded happily and gave Gio a happy smile. Then he thought of something.

"Has Willow told you very much about our homeland? I can answer any questions about it that you have, but I'd like to know how much you know already first, so I don't tell you something you already know.'

---

"The couch is fine, thank you." Drova nodded, calming down now after the horrifying incident where Octavian seemed to dig right into her with his questions. She was definitely not prepared to answer them, especially when she wasn't even prepared to answer them for herself. "And no gun range, unless I can bring my own rifle." She stipulated. That could be something done later, maybe even when the rain subsided.

But for now, TV, and friendly conversation would have to prevail. Not that Drova minded though, being inside was completely normal to him, er, her, wait what?

"Good. The only other place you'd have to sleep if you didn't want to sleep on the couch would be my bed, and I'm pretty sure it would be a bit awkward sharing that." Octavian chuckled a bit, watching the channels flip by on his TV as he spoke. His tail was back to waving lazily, and occasionally brushing against Drova. "And fine about the gun range. I wasn't really feeling like shooting things, and it might not be best to head out in this rain, really. We'd both get soaked quite quickly, and have to head back to our apartments and change clothes. On the subject of clothes: Do you need to head to your apartment and get some? You do only have what you're currently wearing, after all."

Octavian glanced over at Drova again, before looking at the TV and continuing his channel search. He was still thinking about how Drova seemed to be acting kind of oddly. She seemed to be embarrassed by something or another, and a few other things similar to that had caught his attention. But it probably wasn't anything really important. Drova was Drova, no matter what gender he was currently. Octavian shrugged to himself, and turned his attention back to the TV to try and find something interesting to watch.