Re: hello, long lost cousin

[Syron]

"What?" Lance turning invisible... that was a new thing, and Shade didn't believe it. He was good with light manipulation, but only in the sense that he was able to pull it together to form solid objects somehow, but the manipulation necessary to turn invisible was on a whole different level. It was a whole different talent, it had nothing to do with giving light mass, and that's where Lance' talent laid, as far as Shade could tell. "Before I believe that I have to see", she said skeptically to the stallion is question. "Show it!"

[Lance]

with all eyes on him, Scint was feeling a it nervous, even his head seemed to sink a little. he exclaimed, "Fillies, please, calm down." he then exhaled, "Star's right, I'm fairly certain it's among my capabilities, but I've never really tried it. certianly not yet, there are things to be managed and taken care off before I even dared try. for the moment it would just mess with the natural order of things, like, Shade would suddenly not hate me as much, for example. He knew he was being cryptic, but he had no choice.

[Scrapper]

Scrapper was pretty much falling asleep by this point, magic this, magic that. Lance can do this and he can't do that. Not ever having to care about magic makes it a terribly boring subject for him.

"What the hell is even going on?" He whispered to himself before attempting to take Star's previous idea and fall asleep.

[Starlight Charmer]

"Ah, Well, uh. Whatevers." Star said, her face showing confusion. Shrugging, she flew up to the top of the tree, and, spotted a bird, held out her hoof.  When the bird landed on it, she played with it a little, singing birdsongs. When it landed on her nose, however, she caught the bird between her hooves, and started to devour the avian in a few minutes, savoring the slightly spicy taste as her teeth ripped apart flesh from the bone. When she finished, she burped, and tossed the skeleton to the ground, coughing up some feathers. She wiped her mouth of the blood, staining the black fur on her hoof.

[Syron]

Shade smirked at Lance. "You can't until you did it. I'd rather rely on a disfigured but evidently stable illusion than a theoretical..." She was suddenly interrupted by a drop of blood falling down in front of her, drawing her attention upwards. The scene she saw was kinda unexpected, and definitely creepy. Griffons ate meat often, but it was rare seeing one just eating an animal as caught, without any preperation. Seeing a pony (or changeling in pony disguise) do it certainly added to the grotesque. "... invisibility", Shade ended her last sentence, looking at Star with an expression that could be described as a mild 'what the fuck?'. "Taste good?""

[Lance]

Scint barely knew anything about changelings in general but he looked up in Sync with Shadowstrike and Widened eyes. He watched the skeleton fall to the floor and almost teared up. "Starlight I am caught between throwing up and crying. please don't do that ag-MMBL" Scint's cheeks puffed up as a tear ran down one, and both his front hooves covered his mouth. he swallowed, and looked fairly green. "I don't know about the bird, Shade, but I know all too well something didn't taste good here..." he coughed a bit.

[Scrapper]

"Yeeah, meat tastes better if you prepare it." he said with his eye's shut, not too fussed about the sounds being made and more about resting. "It's an acquired taste, and I won't say I particularly like it raw, but if you can get used to raw meat, cooked and prepared is almost like heaven." He said with an honest tone, what, with him having eat meat to stay alive on more than one occasion.

[Starlight Charmer]

Star licked her lips, and nodded. "The bird was a little spicy, but overall, I'd give it a seven out of ten. Very delicious." Giving a toothy grin, she flew down, and coughed up another feather. She noticed Lance's reaction, and giggled a little. "Sorry, I was hungry. I don't wanna die of starvation. That would suck." Yawning, she rubbed her eye with a hoof, and crawled over to Scrapper, curling up to him because he was extremely warm. Closing her eyes, she said, "Meat is pretty nice, I must say."

[Syron]

"I thought Changelings eat love, not meat", Shade curiously inquired, while levitating a bottle of water to Lance, and using the shuriken Scrapper wore around a string around his neck to poke Starlight, though being careful to not actually injure her. She still wasn't sharing him.

[Lance]

Scint gladly accepted the bottle from Shade with a partly muffled "Thanks... a lot..." still gagging a bit from the terrible fluid he had to swallow prior. After instead swallowing some water, his attention refocused to Scrapper, on his note of an acquired taste. this wasn't the first time he'd suggested eating meat. not exactly. "I thought you were kidding, when you ate that fish in that board game. please tell me you're kidding.

[Scrapper]

"No, I am not kidding. I had a choice of getting used to it or starve to death. Which one would you pick?" He said as he ignored the tugging from the 'necklace'. He knew why it was tugging, Shade isn't one for sharing as it is. He's probably the top of Shade's 'Not-Fucking-Sharing' list.

"Yeah, I can eat meat. I was surprised when Shade only asked me whether I was stupid or desperate. I was expecting some gagging but clearly I misjudged her at the time." He said, still very relaxed.

[Starlight Charmer]

Star grumbled and scooted a few more inches away from Scrapper, missing the practical mobile heater. In answer to Shade's question, she said, "Well, for me, since my father was a unicorn, I eat food to survive. I require love as a supplementary, so I can actually do stuff. Like magic. So there's that." Stretching, she chanted a tune she had learned from her mother,who had a dream of traveling across the land of Equestria, entitled "Crystal Mountains." This brought some tears to her eyes, because it brought memories of her mother back.





((Very much so like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEm0AjTbsac ))

[Syron]

"With meat you've certainly taken a strange choice in your food. I'd expect a half-pony to tend more towards a herbivorous diet." With Star not occupying Scrapper anymore, Shade decided to take the spot herself. She leisurely walked over, and gave her stallion a quick kiss as she laid down against him. However, cuddling wasn't her only intantion. "I've asked Silvern for something to find out a changeling and she's working on it", she whispered. "But I suggest that we start using codewords. Starlight may not mean any harm, but I still don't trust her. I'd rather not let her pose as of one of us, even if it's only as joke."

[Lance]

Lance... didn't have perfect hears, so he couldn't quite listen in on what Shade was saying, but he did sense something was up; Shadowstrike might have been a unicorn bent on revenge, but she wouldn't settle for such a small stab at Starlight but taking her place next to Scrapper. the whispering mouth on Shade's muzzle only confirmed his thoughts. that said, it was probably something he wasn't meant to be part of, or Starlight. Either way, making himself appear clueless while making Starlight clueless would be the best course of action. thankfully, Starlight's easily amused. "Am I the only pony here who finds it amusing Shade's constantly poking throwing Star's at star, and intending on leaving her seeing stars?" he winked at Shade, "Yes, Shade, I'm looking at you. your horn glows, like, every time Star gets close to Scrapper and then mysteriously moves away.

[Scrapper]

"Agreed, but not here." he whispered back, intent of shortening the suspicious conversation as much as possible.

After that he shifted his position a little so that he'd keep Shade a bit warmer during their cuddle. He'd probably be running around in circles to keep warm, but he's better off buying his time until the drink wears off.

[Starlight Charmer]

Star rolled her eyes as Lance tried to be funny.Shivering, she desperately wished she had something warm or extremely hot with her at that moment, as she realized she was freezing. Jeez, When did it get so cold? She thought a bit, until a joke came to mind. "Hey... What do you call an Alligator in a vest?"She waited for a minute or two, and then said, "An investigator!", laughing. As she said that, a freezing gust of air slapped her across the face and cut off her laughter, much as she's sure Shade would want to do. The air reminded her of a place her mother told her about, and she started singing a song that was popular, as Nerubia said, in that region.


(( Basically, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlCPOCwo3FY ))

[Syron]

"Interesting, just now was the first time I used a shuriken for it. You see quite a lot of things, Lance. Even stuff that isn't happening", Shade replied smirkingly. The first time, all it had taken was a dark look to drive the changeling away, the second time she was thrown by her mane (with only a little magic help), the third time was actually getting Star away from Shade herself, and had been handled with a well conceiled throwing knife. And this time? Well, this time the glow of her horn could have come from the water bottle she'd been levitating, but admittedly she had been using a throwing star this time. Though Lance mainly wanted to make a wordplay, his facts didn't align very well. "And Star, I fear joking is not one of your talents. Stick to illusions. And shivering, you seem to be quite good doing that right now. Maybe we should bring this outside meeting to an end?"

[Lance]

Scint scribbled onto a sticky note something as an idea hit him. he then floated the noe over to Shade was he spoke his next words. "or she can work on her jokes and illusions, be a better entertainer." the note read, see: distraction.[/i[] Lance then picked up a couple more notes he found off the floor, probably there from his fall prior. "and yeah, I suppose we [i]can call this meeting to an "end." but first, Star, where can I find you, when I need to?

[Scrapper]

"Ugh, I just got comfy." Scrapper said with a little groan at the end. "But I guess it makes sense for both of us to be warm, rather than have me freeze to death trying to keep just you warm." He said towards Shade as he returned the earlier kiss. Simply remaining in his position of keeping Shade warm until she was ready to leave. OR Until she stood up just so he had to move.

[Starlight Charmer]

Star stood up and calmly trotted over to Lance, getting close by his ear. Once she was barely not touching his ear, she said in a barely audible fashion, "Dunno if I mentioned it already, but I don't have a home. Also, it's dangerous to stay in one place too long. Unless you want to meet in a certain place at a certain time. I'll try to promise to show up, I will!" She buzzed her wings a little, and then lost herself in thought, trying to name places that would be easy to visit.

[Syron]

"What, I thought you're used to the cold", Shade said mockingly as she stood up, nudging Scrapper playfully. "At least you aren't wet from dropping into a river." Right on cue a raidrop found its way down to them, landing with a light splash on Shade's nuzzle. "Not yet, anyway", she quickly ammended her last statement.

[Lance]

Scint held back the urge to say "not too different from us, especially since Shade's already scorned him for revealing things. instead, he called out the first thing that came to his mind, "next Sunday, think you can find the train station by then?" Scint sensed the rain starting to drizzle, and fought another urge to conjure an umbrella; he wasn't allowed to conjure anything outside the under-market unless absolutely necessary, he had to keep his talents a secret, lest it leads to the wrong eyes watching.

[Scrapper]

Scrapper chuckled and stood up with a stretch just after Shade. "I am, I just thought I could make it sound worse and make you feel sorry for me! Shows how much that plan worked didn't it!" He ended with another chuckle, not to concerned by the rain. At best it makes all the younger ones go inside and stop screaming loudly when a spider so much as moves one of it's many legs. And he comes back home drenched a lot, so Shade's probably stopped caring if he gets a little wet by now.

[Starlight Charmer]

Star nodded to Lance's request. "It's just a train station. Not like a flesh golem is gonna pop out of nowhere and eat us." Giggling, she saw the rain start to trickle down, and shielded herself with her wings. She looked at Shade, and thought of something that would get her stabbed. She blurted out the very words that would probably kill her, saying "SHADE'S WET!" As she said this, she chuckled and ran behind the tree as if it were a giant defender of small changelings.

[Syron]

"Really? That's the best you can come up with?", Shade said in direction of the tree, sounding pointedly bored. "If you're trying to provoke me, you'll have to be more serious about it." She pulled up her hood to shield herself from the slowly but surely amassing number of drops in the air and turned to go. "'Till next time then. Lance, with us please. We have to discuss something."

[Lance]

Scint was going to sigh at Starlight's provocation, but then Shade seemed to want to discuss something with him. he sighed anyway, thinking he was in trouble for something; he wasn't normally called out like this unless Silvern was scorning him. or Prism was scorning him. or Shade was scorning him. "see ya in a week, Star!"he waved to the changeling behind the tree, and trotted past shade to the nearest under-market entrance. he'd already expected Shade and Scrapper to either tail him or trot beside him; his pacing was certianly slow enough for them to position themselves wherever the heck they wanted to be; it's not like he was trying to evade them. but his ears and voice did drop to that of a surrender when he asked with melancholy, "Alright, what did I do this time?"

[Scrapper]

Scrapper followed Lance, knowing that Shade would follow also, or at least assumed she would. He had to admit, Lance's cousin can be equally annoying as she can be amusing. He himself was also quite happy to avoid getting Star killed because he was apparently really attractive, which isn't surprising at all.

"Knowing you lad, you were probably mean't to be working right about now. Wasn't working at that magic-y place your job?" He said in reply to Lance, though it probably wasn't what Shade planned, it did make the most sense to him at this moment.

[Starlight Charmer]

Starlight watched them leave, and then crawled up the tree and tip-hoofed her way across the branches, attempting to make the smallest amount of noise possible. She tried to make out what they were saying, until she stepped onto a decrepit branch, and fell a few feet away from the group. She waved dazedly at them, saying in a drunkenly manner, "Hey, don't forget me, pallies! Where else am I supposed to go?"

[Syron]

Shade stopped and turned back to Star, ignoring Lance' question for the moment. It wasn't something to be discussed in Star's presence. "We can't let you follow us. Not yet anyway. But the city has a lot of abandoned apartments, I'm sure you'll be able to find something. Eastern District would be a good point to start."

[Lance]

Scint shook his head to Scrapped mildly, "already got permission to miss out on a bit of the day, but I'm supposed to head back as soon as I was done here. which is right about now." then Starlight fell nearby, Shade had her say, and Scint added, "Shade's right, tons o' places back there, heck, I used to bounce around from one abandoned apartment to the next on just a single road! avoid angering the inhabitants, though."

[Scrapper]

Scrapper continued to walk by, whistling a tune and not really paying any attention yet. Where Star goes isn't too much of an issue yet, she HAS done well enough on her own so far.
Though with her being a changeling and how she acts, he couldn't help get disturbed by thoughts of HOW she survived.

[Starlight Charmer]

"Hey Lance! Do you remember our problems with abandoned buildings? Yeah, I think that was my fault actually..." And in a lower tone, Star said, "If I hadn't been almost-caught by those two griffons, then there would have been a smaller problem..." She slowly stood up, shook her head to remove the dizzy feeling, and took a few steps forward. Then it comes down to the question of, What the heck WOULD I do to survive a week without any help.... Hmm... She thought about it for a moment, causing a blush to blossom across her face. "Heh, heh.... What would I do to survive a week..."

[Syron]

"You're a changeling", Shade deadpanned. "Just take an appearance they don't know and stay low. And that also includes not using your wings while disguised as unicorn."

[Lance]

scint added to Shade's sentance "or save yourself the trouble and disguise yourself as a pegasus. unless you use your magic as much as you fly when you shouldn't. and in all seriousness, what happened back then, shouldn't happen again. I mean it's not like lightning strikes in the same place twice..."
Scint's thoughts suddenly hovered left and right... he met his classmate/friend a short while ago completely by accident and just in time to catch her in action and he ran into what turned out his cousin completely by accident and just in time to save her from some very concerning griffons not to mention his encounter with a deadly flesh golem and that strange underground encounter with a giant skeleton zombie cow not to mention his remarkable discovery of the under-market by falling down a hole to it as well as that oversized snake that he dissintegrated by yelling at it OH, and that time he got struck by lightning. twice.

from the moment scint drifted off into his thoughts his face gradually shifted from his signature cheer to tilting his head slightly, squinting his left eye and really reconsidering his last words in that fleeting awkward silence. "but be very very careful anyway. because reasons. very, very good reasons."

[Scrapper]

Scrapper kept whistling, until he finally got fed up of the message not being all too clear yet.
"I think what they are trying to say is 'Please, sod off because we're trying to talk and don't want to be followed.'" He said after abruptly stopping his nice little tune.
"I'm sure there is plenty of others you can eat the love out of, instead of just me." He said just after, then began whistling again.

[Starlight Charmer]

"Alriiiiight. I'll stop being a bother. If you need me, I'll be places. Or strewn across a wall, hung up by my intestines. Whichever comes first." Star shrugged, and turned around, heading in the opposite direction as the trio. She made a slow, emphasized trot, her head drooping. She felt the rain picking up, and pretty soon she was drenched in cold water.  After a minute of this kind of walking, she picked up to a gallop, and then took off, wind and rain smacking against her as she flew away. Soon, however, her wings became too waterlogged for flight, and she came spiraling down and smashed into a nearby building. Well, flying in cold rain is a bad idea. was her last thought before darkness overcame her, as she fell into unconsciousness.

[Syron]

Shade silently watched her running off, but let out a groan when the half-changeling took to the air. That mare really needed to learn to stick to her disguises and NOT FLY AS A UNICORN! She watched a moment longer, and was about to turn away when she noticed Star losing control. The crash looked painful. "Can one get anymore pathetic?" Shade asked sighingly, displeasure clear in her voice, before trotting off in the changeling's direction. "Let's see if she's still standing. Probably not."

[Lance]

"that is in fact a bad idea for two reasons. First, she's most probably alright even if she wasn't alright because she's resilient like that. and second, if we check up on her it totally ruins her attempt at making a brilliant exit. And if we pretended I was terrible at math, then third, she just might be about to pop her head out of the window and yell at us "I'm ok!" but if she doesn't do the third one I guess w should check up on her. Scint pretended to know things as he adjusted a pair of glasses more comfortably over his nose, tilting them slightly, and causing a slight shimmer reflecting the moonlight for a split second.

[Scrapper]

Breaking his whistling again with a loud sigh, "She's gotta come with us now doesn't she? And I have to carry her, I'm calling it now."

He then turned around a followed Shade to Star's crash site.

[Syron]

"I was going to suggest Scintillance carries her."

After a short walk they had Star in their sight. Luckily, the quickly picking up rain has kept the crash from getting attention, since there was hardly anypony nearby, and those who were, were more interested getting somewhere dry. Shade didn't care, her cloak giving her good protection as long as the downpour wasn't too crazy, and as a consequenz she generally approved of rain. Less attention to fall on her. And unconscious changelings. "Knocked out, as was to be expected", she commented dryly.

[Lance]

Scint groaned when shade had given him the position of carrying the changeling, but otherwise gave no signs of refusing the role.

"I don't think I can take her to the under-market. not again: Silve's never going to let deliberate act of ignorance like that go. he said, as he magicked the apparently incredibly light changeling onto his back. he even took a look behind him with concern upon discovering that fact. "And I still need to get back to Silve, without another under-market stowaway. I suppose we can just... leave her better hidden here instead of plopped onto the floor for whoever to find her. looks like she already found a building abandoned enough."

[Scrapper]

"Oh boy, I'd love to have you as a relative Lance. 'I'll just, leave my cousin in a bin rather than take her somewhere safe!'" He said in a genuine happy tone because he didn't have to carry something for once. If it involved carrying, he usually had to friggin' do it.

[Syron]

"I'm not planning on letting her know how to get to the undercity. On the way up, she's gonna wear a blindfold", Shade countered. "Besides, Silvern won't complain if we bring Star. In fact, she's half expecting it." With another look around she confirmed that nobody had picked up interest and motioned to Lance to pick his cousin up. "Let's go. No need to stay any longer."

[Lance]

"oh, yeah, real funny, Scrapps. and yet you've managed to leave me in a bin that one time, and we aren't even related!" Lance chimed back at Scrapper, although his remark did hurt, the one about being a terrible relative. He's only just found out he's not the last living member of his family, and this is really how he was going to treat his cousin? Scint did his best not to show it, though. he better fastened the unconscious changeling to his back, and than doubled over what Shade just said. "Half expecting it? care to fill us on what happened while you were down there?" Scint referred to Shade's trip to getting that healing artifact, of course.

[Scrapper]

Scrapper just chuckled at Lance's response, and resumed whistling happily at the fact he didn't have to carry Star.

[Syron]

"I asked her for a way to detect changelings, and she wants to study Star's illusion for that", Shade explained as they made their way.

((Time skip as soon as we run out of things to talk about))

[Lance]

((time-skip denied, still have something to talk about.))

Scint sighed, but kept a smiling expression through it. "good ol' overcautious Shadowstrike, if not prepared for everything, then already preparing. Anyway, what was it that you called me over for earlier, something about discussing something before Star kinda interrupted."

[Syron]

"Codewords", Shadowstrike said. "Sil will probably take some time, and whatever she whips up is going to be expensive, so I'm not sure if we can get a changeling detector for everyone without getting extra money first." She threw a glance at Star. "But we'll decide on the codewords when Star certainly can't hear it. I don't trust unconscious ponies, or changelings."

[Lance]

Scint wasn't sure what crazy idea drove him in this direction, but he thought it. "And what if you did trust her?" Lance just had a thought; changelings had managed to nearly take over Canter-lot, just by their ability to disguise and deceive. and then there's starlight, who had that potential, and more. apart from her unicorn-blood giving her an altered natural changeling appearance, she seemed to have an impressive grip on illusory magic. and beyond that... she was his cousin, and for now, he thinks he can trust her. if shade did as well... This changeling might be just what they needed.

[Syron]

"If I trusted her, I would do exactly the same. It's not just about Star, but changelings in general. She just reminded me that changelings exist, and apparently are nearby", Shade answered. "Besides, I don't trust her. She doesn't have hostile intentions, but she's careless, clumsy, and attracts attention. Every secet given to her I will consider a spoiled one. She's a risk to keep around."

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