The Nineteenth Trial

[hot_mess_express]

Who: Everyone
When: Day 43, evening
Where: The Mermaid's Beach

Come on, come on heroes...! Come hither!

[ There's a playful giggle and the sound of splashing as the Mermaid's beach appears in the clearing. ]

Let's play a game...!

Comments

[bowtiedbones]

Huh.



That's different.

[MILK???????]

[daydreamshimmer]

How so?

[Herbivore, nooot quite vegan.]

[bowtiedbones]

[PEOPLE MILK??]

Umm well, for one thing, sheep and cows are just animals too where I'm from. Herding dogs are used for sheep because a trained one can move dozens of sheep faster than the shepherd could by themself.

[daydreamshimmer]

[LISTEN]

[Ponies are weird.]

....is this gonna be hearing another horror story? Because like I get animals are more prone to wild emotions and need more guidance, but it's disturbing to hear it for things that can be far more rational.

[bowtiedbones]

I'm not a farm girl, but "rational" is not a word I would pick to describe a sheep.

[daydreamshimmer]

So this would be another horror story.

I get animals need more help, but I mean....ponies are a dominant species. Cows and sheep could have cities if they wanted, they just like things more traditional. It's....disturbing.

[bowtiedbones]

Humans are a dominant species too, but we're the only dominant species on this plane. Almost every animal I can think of is going to be some kind of horror story.

Do you have monkeys? Or apes?

[daydreamshimmer]

Yeah, though they're usually on the fringes of the country.

[bowtiedbones]

Humans are related to those.

[daydreamshimmer]

....you know, that's one of the few species type that doesn't have a fully sentient race.

Closest are the storm creatures, but they're more like lemurs-sloth-goat hybrids.

[bowtiedbones]

Well, now you know what the sentient version looks like.

[daydreamshimmer]

Well, kind of. I still don't get the near hairless and scaleless thing.

[bowtiedbones]

We don't need hair, so we don't have hair.

[daydreamshimmer]

[She gestures to the dress.]

And yet you need to wear clothes even for temperate days.

[bowtiedbones]

That's just modestry and personal taste. It wouldn't hurt me to go naked, I just don't want to.

[daydreamshimmer]

....then why did humans start having it be a thing?

Like I get extremes, ponies need to dress for extreme colds too, but most of the time we just do it when we want to dress up.

[bowtiedbones]

We're very adaptive. Being able to dress up or dress down in layers lets us take advantage of a very wide range of environments beyond the savannah-type area that we evolved in, where being naked and sweaty was more useful.

[daydreamshimmer]

So you didn't have clothes then?

[bowtiedbones]

I think we must have figured out clothes quickly, but there was probably a long period of just being naked and sweaty all the time.

[daydreamshimmer]

Still seems like fur would be simpler.

Got more squares?

[bowtiedbones]

I do! Want a compliment?

[daydreamshimmer]

Sure.

Wanna trade clothes too?

[bowtiedbones]

This is a challenging situation, but you've been adapting admirably!

Sure, want my shirt?

[daydreamshimmer]

....people keep saying that, but it's pretty impressive you say that when I had a break down on you.

Probably need to be shirt and pants. [Or skirt, WHATEVER ELIZA IS WEARING.] I only have the dress with me and the hat isn't actually mine.

[bowtiedbones]

The whole outfit? Well, okay.

[she's actually wearing cute overalls today]