#cave talk

[scarlet-cavern]

Hello! I have a question for Jade that's kind of not a question..

Your shattered horns are so rad... How come they look like that, if it's not rude to ask?

jade: thank you!! I'm quite fond of them myself.~ i'll allow you to gaze upon them head-on, since you're so intrigued!

jackalope antlers are these crystal fractals that catch and store magic for later use. they tend to shatter if you store too much magic in them! I, however, am not a physicist.. Maddie! did I get all of that right?

maddie: uhh... basically? i went ta school for engineerin not biology. way i understand it, with castin stuff, more surface area means more power, and more expensive to make. magical fractals are great at both catchin lotsa magic and gettin bloated from too much. too much bloat without lettin it out means it breaks.

jade: yeah, I think what happened with me specifically was that I passed by someplace.. or someone? something? with a lotta magic that my antlers simply could not handle.

now, what jackalopes do with a set of broken antlers is up to them. some like to grind up the shards into a fine dust, which can be used as a secondary in some mana-recovering medicines and potions. some sell them off since they're a rather useful component for creating self-sustaining magical items.

me personally? I use what little magic I have left (and whatever magic they're able to draw now) to have them float and reform. I can reform them into tools, weapons, armor. or floating platforms, which can support my weight. or in this case.. Maddie's weight!

maddie: it is somehow not the least comfortable place i've had to sleep

[sentientcave]

Every time I see finger tattoos I think about getting "BOOK CLUB" tattooed across my knuckles and every time I grow a little closer to making it a reality.

[snakedad]

How about slosh, heft and delicacy? For anyone where this applies :3

Slosh: How long does it take to digest prey (or how long does it take to digest you)?

phy: i get to choose that! i have a special set of aerosols that can speed up or slow down how fast my stomach works on its contents. it can take as short as a couple minutes or as long as, well, never. as for intestines, normal amount of time for a dragon. so like, a couple days

eli: ive found it really depends on how much space i have in there. if its a small pred, or theres a lot of other bodies with me (of my own or of others) it can take quite a while ;). but depending on the pred and how hungry they are... well, i am quite small.

Heft: Do you gain a lot of weight from your prey?

phy: I'm one of those lucky dragons that has a pretty fast metabolism, so i tends to stay pretty thin. I'm not afraid to toss around a full belly though

Delicacy: What's the weirdest or most notable thing you've ever swallowed?

phy: ooh, a though one. i haven't been around that long, so i don't have very many stories to share. I'd say the strangest was probably a slime, just in terms of sensation, though a fairy orgy takes a close second

eli: phy's knot

[scarlet-cavern]

I am curious about the world in which you all live in:

Is the population all animal and animal-folk? Are there towns and cities? If so, how come you decided to live in a cave?

jade: well.. as far as I know, the population couldn't really get more diverse! there's humans, elementals, birds, kobolds and dragons, mantises, cats, jackalopes. you name it, basically. most any species can either be feral, or a 'folk. both live pretty seamlessly together, you'll find.

walk through any village and you'll see over a dozen different species before leaving, I'd reckon. everyone, no matter what they are, has a place in most towns and cities. and many buildings are made with this diversity in mind. accommodations for small, four-legged folk such as myself, or vice versa!

Maddie: and yeah we've got cities. Tlen on its own has two pretty big ones— Landering and Shellat, not to mention the port town Parvanni that's basically the nexus of trade on Tredan. Cooperation is a sign of civility, after all.

phy: as for why we're camping out in an obscure cave north of Landering, lemme give you a brief history lesson.

Old dragon is actually a retronym you know, we used to just be called dragons up until about 33 decades ago. The Hunters' Guild was — still is, kinda — a group dedicated to killing all the "monsters" in Atheria. They really meant any species, sentient or not, that might oppose the rule of humaniforms. So when they had built up enough support and strength, they decided to start killing dragons.

That war lasted 2 decades, and did lead to the deaths of most dragons. A few hatchlings survived that became new dragons, but 31 decades ago the remaining Old dragons gathered together to fight back. The end of the Hunters' war was hardly even a battle, but it was so late. Only a handful of Old dragons exist anymore.

I was born 31 decades ago, in this cave. I spent my first years hiding, remaining unseen. I'm probably one of the youngest Old dragons, but they don't really talk to me much. Besides, if there is a younger Old dragon than me it's probably best that they're kept secret. This cave, however, has always been my home; I've just been lucky enough to get to share it.

jade: if anything, I feel lucky that you trust me enough to let me stay here, love.~ this is better than any burrow I've ever lived in. bigger, too. more stony.

eli: GAY

eli: same tho

[snakedad]

pred and prey for the vore ask thing?

3 things you like in a pred

eli: teeth, claws, and a willingness to use them

Eliza: I like things to be tactile, but soft. Tongue, long neck, smothering stomach, all that. Also my eyesight isn't very good so it's nice when it's pitch black, paradoxically. It means I don't have to rely on my vision at all.

3 things you like in a prey

phy: really, I'm not very picky. consent is important, but other than that, meat is meat. though if you want me to digest you I'm gonna need proof that you can reform, since i can't do it myself.

[snakedad]

Mm, based on how you have an architect, is it safe to assume the cave you live in is no ordinary natural formation? Can you tell me more about it?

actually it used to be! even a popular as landering is, the mountains to the north are politically protected as both a wyvern habitat and an Old dragon habitat (thanks to phy) so it's pretty quiet up there. for an Old dragon, phy gets out a lot though, so she ended up collecting friends and partners.

initially it really was just a large cave in the mountains, but once the group got big enough we got maddie on board and she got to do a lot of fun stonemoving. nowadays the cave system represents a sketchbook, lots of weird experimental shapes and textures that she changes in her off time.

she likes the look of intricate Renaissance freizes and walls, but brutalism is more fun to build, so those tend to be the most common styles. now she sticks around because we let her practice, and also for Ezira's cooking.

[snakedad]

Can i ask to know more about your ocs? They seem interesting and fun :3

of course!

porphyria is me! aka phy, Phyr, and pokili, all pronouns. I'm a low shapeshifting dragon, mostly right now i can swap between quad and biped, and change my size, but I'm working on adding a more interesting form to my repertoire

as for abilities, my blood glows, which is usually visible slightly in my wings, though it gets brighter when I'm blushing. that also means my insides and certain outsides also glow a pleasant dim purple, for any prey that find themself in there

on top of that, i have a cool party trick where i can inhale a vapor, let it percolate in my weird kidneys, and then exhale a concentrated version of it. it's mostly fun to get people drunk with, or high. i also use a very strong magical aphrodisiac called pearlpetal, which has led to some very enjoyable nights

(eli and Eliza and the rest below the cut)

eli is, for the most part, just a feral ferret. it's not particularly big, or endowed, or like. smart. just a little white ferret that, when it dies, pops back into existence next to its corpse

from what it's told me, it has the impressive and singular ability to be extremely annoying (i believe it completely). before it joined our caves, it made its living stealing small amounts from big hoards, then coming back to annoy them until it was... satisfied (read: torn apart repeatedly)

~

Eliza is newer, and mostly keeps to herself. she's an anthro garter snake, about 5'2 without the tail. we haven't gotten art of her yet because she has a very slender shape that most anthro snake artists don't do. she bakes very well, and about once a month she gets very needy and dominant for a night. outside of that though, we'll still have some innocent, she fun

~

maddie is our architect. she's a small brown stonemover gravelmouse (no her species has nothing to do with her profession. gravelmice tend to be freeloaders, or borrowers). she's very ace and generally uninterested in being eaten, though she's been mating pressed by eli once or twice to satisfy what little libido she does have. mostly though, she helps give us new rooms and makes sure everything stays stable

~

Lance is... i don't know much about Lance. i know of them, from eli, but it is very good at keeping secrets, and it's not really worth the effort. ask it yourself, maybe you'll have more luck

[snakedad]

would you still eat me even if i

i would find and hunt and eat you no matter what you turn into, love