ORIGIN

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A good, solid name. Reid squinted and ducked around the offered flask, tail flicking this way and that while her sibling reeled away. She, however, took it gladly, reared up on her haunches and held the glass tightly with her claws.

It smelled sharp. It tasted sharp, once she stuck her tongue in the neck. One lap and she lifted up, practically waking up, blinking hard as the taste hit her. It's not like she had a frame of reference for taste; to her, this was amazing. It was certainly fragrant, that's for sure.

Tilting the bottle, Reid dove in, drinking a good swig of it and getting her meager fill. Wow. Okay. Is all food like that? She had to tear herself away from it, licking at her lips and staring up at all the cheering. Maybe that wasn't so bad, huh? It was easy to twist her muzzle in a smile back at them, fangs bared in mirroring excitement.

"I'll shape? Will there be more beers..?" Not that she'd finished this flask, but she could certainly see why the rest of them loved it.

@Waker

Such easy deflection of her interest caused Waker's lips to curl the slightest back, a grimacing image of mingled hurt and frustration. Why couldn't she touch the Shaper's odd dangling attachments? What was so special about these tools that she wasn't good enough for them? Rudimentary vocabulary and a newborn's perspective kept her firmly in the dark as to the possible reasons behind these statements, so instead of quiet understanding, a questioning whine rose in her throat. Nevertheless, the flask was accepted, the tentacle it pressed against instinctively wrapping around the offering.

Ears flattened as she glanced about her, each unique presence taken in and registered as so uncomfortably unfamiliar. Even those beings that she felt a vague connection with, her hatchmates as she would come to realize, possessed forms quite different from hers. Neither a tail nor hooves could be laid claim to. She was something other, apart from them. This growing knowledge itched beneath skin; seeking to forge one similarity with present company, she delved her tongue into the flask's swishing contents and refused to retreat from the bitterness that slapped taste buds.

"Learn," she rasped. "Am welcome to... Shape like you?"

Meanwhile the belt remained a temptation situated in the corner of multiple eyes, and she had many limbs to spare. Even as she spoke, another unoccupied tentacle crept toward it, suckers angled to curl around one of the tools held there and perhaps liberate it into her care.

There was a chorus of cheers as the first child declared their intent to be a Shaper; high-fives and fist-bumps were offered all around, the fox-like creatures pausing to show Cernunnos how to high-five with a backward-angled hoof. (This was very important for his education.)

More cheerful encouragement, and celebration, was offered when Reid agreed, too--and when she drank. This was also important.

And more high-fives were offered to tentacles as a Shaper answered Waker. "'Course you are! Anyone is, really." This one took a long swig from a flask. "Fun job, too." They never noticed the tentacle swiping the small rock hammer from their belt. Gone, forever. Maybe.

They started to pull up chairs, and benches, and one sat back to deal cards. "We'll teach you Poker, too!"

"Well, yeah, but first things first! Shapin' is an ART. You're young, so you don't know it yet, but every cave in this place is different, just like every world out there's different. You got your jungles," he went on, lifting clawed fingers to start ticking biomes off. "Deserts, and you got your ocean worlds. Uhh."

"Well, every world's got more than one biome." The card-dealer gestured for the kids to take seats, but it was an invitation rather than demand. "Usually the cold spots, they got a lot of snow. Maybe mountains, maybe just ocean, or plains. Or they might have tundra, y'know? -You don't know," that one corrected himself. "But, uh, meadows and forests, big cities--this cave, Centaurus, it's meant to train the big dogs who get made here. So we make it into all of those things, change it once a cycle, usually. It takes a lot of work but it's great! You can make traps, lay out treasures for them to find-"

"LOVE it when they find those treasures. It's work for 'em but it pays off-"

"I love it when they find the traps." A few of them snickered, at this.

"But the end result is that whatever the Dreamer sends us, we make. But we get artistic license, y'know? So it's a lot of fun! We build worlds!" This Shaper threw out their arms, grinning with many pointed teeth. Ahh, job satisfaction.

@Cernunnos @Reid @Waker

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Reid

Waker

Game Master Dark