>>@ALKOHEIST | @ALL

[frogfractions]

Does anyone have need of lipstick? I've been able to create a few tubes' worth, but I don't use much makeup myself. The benefits of eternal youth, basically. I should be able to manufacture nail polish as well, and perhaps a few other things. We can discuss based on your needs.

In news that I promise is highly, and in fact, completely unrelated, I've finished my research on the Shaper specimen. As I'm sure most of you are aware - unless we've picked up some new recruits in the past week - we had a pest problem. Basically, I dissected one.

[What follows is just straight-up a picture of a shaper's brain. There's a vial of blue blood to the left, and a plastic container full of small bones to the right of it. Off-camera, there's a few other internal organs she's separated and tucked away, but mercifully she hasn't decided to show everything to the camera.]

Would anyone like to enjoy foreign cuisine with me? The brain is supposed to be a delicacy, so we might as well give it a try. It's unlikely I'll be able to get a hold of another specimen, so it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance, in a way.

And if you'd like access to my research notes, I can text them over to you. Knowledge is meant to be shared, after all. They mostly concern the creature's biology, since understandably I did not want an annoyed psychic creature bouncing around my room, and thus could not leave it alive to study its behavior. In layman's terms, I like being conscious.

Incidentally, any and all moral or ecological complaints can be forwarded to my secretary, @MODERATUS. Thank you for your time.

Comments

[frogfractions]

If you're trying to intimidate me, it isn't working.

This feud of ours is charming, but don't patronize me. It's insulting to both of us, basically.

[bloodings]

i dont have to try and intimidate anyone.

know your place. be careful not to annoy your superiors too much.

[frogfractions]

I only have one person I consider my superior. And you are not Saint-Germain.

Don't try my patience with a line like that again.

[bloodings]

youre right. someone like me is as far from sainthood as can be.

but im the strongest. nothing else matters.

[frogfractions]

Strength on its own is a tool used to destroy. It's what a gorilla uses to become the leader of the pack.

Basically, what matters is knowledge of the world around you, and knowledge of yourself. Without those things, you're just a child at best and a fraud at worst. Without them, your strength doesn't have a purpose.

And your strength must be very purposeless if you're choosing to threaten me with it over a schoolyard jab. I'd suggest a hobby.

[bloodings]

eating is my hobby.

[ Just to get that out of the way. ]

strength is what it takes to be king. everything else is secondary. prove your worth in battle and people will follow you to the end, just to see how far you can take them.

but it figures that a weakling like you would know nothing.

[frogfractions]

A king's a foolish thing to want to have, and a monstrous thing to want to be.

Also, you keep calling me weak, then ducking my offers to spar. Basically, I'm starting to think you're all bark.

And eating isn't a hobby. Cooking is, but not eating.

[bloodings]

the hell? dont insult peoples hobbies. theres nothing wrong with it.

[ Even if she has no problem insulting other people's hobbies herself... yes, this is what she's focusing on out of all that. ]

[frogfractions]

A hobby is something you devote time to. There's no time investment in eating - if you want to live, you're going to eat anyway.

[The worst part is, Prelati's stubborn enough to just try and argue with Mordred about this instead of trying to drag her back onto topic.]

[bloodings]

i dont just eat to live. its enjoyable on top of that.

[frogfractions]

And a laborer can enjoy his work, but that doesn't make it a hobby.

[bloodings]

you just get more and more annoying, you know that?

[frogfractions]

Think of it as osmosis.

Learning to cook would mean you could enjoy the food you wanted to when you wanted to, you know.

[bloodings]

i can cook just fine. but its the sort of food an army eats on the march.

other stuff is way better. junk food especially.