Aphrodite Goddess of the Dead There were a few places that one might find the Goddess of the Dead within. And she had found it. Finding the path that would lead her down to the death hole filled with the bones of the dead, she wanted to find herself some new accessories. She had lost majority of them in her travels and found that she missed the necklace that had normally adorned her throat full of the fangs or claws of the creatures she had learned to hunt and kill growing up. Once she had gotten down to the bottom of the gorge, Aphrodite began to skim through the white hollowed out bones. The moon high above her head and full as the sun was before it, giving off that eerie glow to her back as it casts its light on her gray blanket. Giving her a ghostly look perhaps or one might have thought that there was just the gray speck floating around when in reality it was just her."Talk here." && 'Think here.'

Andraesa found the boneyard to be peaceful, in a way. There was little to fear of the dead and less to fear of the animals that liked to pick over their remains. A creature that preferred a carcass was not going to be an animal that sought a fight with a simple passerby .... she hoped.

She had circled back to the boneyard on her way back to the jungle, her weary paws finding solace in the well-trodden paths set against elephant skulls and femurs. The bones were heavy and daunting, bleach-white in the moonlight, and far too big for the girl to break open alone, but still she could sit with them. Imagine their history. Pretend to know their future.

Another body shuffled in the dark, and from the smell, Andraesa almost hazarded to guess that the pretty winter woman she had met earlier had chosen to make another appearance. Her silvery eyes snapped up, intrigue ringing her pupils.

Come to speak to our friend again? She quipped into the darkness, her eyes not quite catching the strange features of the Oasis lioness that accompanied her in the gloom.

@Aphrodite ♔

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Aphrodite Goddess of the Dead Her jewels scanned the dead. The bones that gleaned and glistened in the moonlight as she walked through them. The souls that were etched into the very ground she walked on because no one had thought to bury them. To give them a place that would welcome them, no they had been left here to rot and now she was here; their goddess. But alas, she was not alone and a voice echoed from the walls and skittered across the bones to greet her causing her violet jewels to spark when they flashed towards @Andraesa. Her very presence wrapping around Aphrodite and drawing out a dark grin. Oh, do we have friends I cannot see? Or was there another that Aphrodite had missed?"Talk here." && 'Think here.'

Embarrassment washed over the girl's features as she realized, all too quickly and all too slowly at the same time, that the other lioness was certainly not the winter princess she had run across. This lioness was darker, holding none of the icy blues and silvers that made up the other woman's pelt. Any other lion would've easily seen the difference, even in the gloom.

Apologies. Andraesa offered, trying hard not to squeak out in frustration with herself. I was expecting another of your pride, assuming you are of the Oasis and not simply a passerby. The sand clings to your scents. She could smell it now - now that the woman was close enough to count her whiskers - the difference between floral and fruit underneath the sun-warmth and desert.

What brings you to the graveyard at this time of night? The girl continued politely, hoping the rose woman were not the type of animal to readily contribute to the pile of bones that surrounded them.

@Aphrodite ♔

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Aphrodite Goddess of the Dead It is clear that the girl mistook her for someone else. The apology is all too revealing of the embarrassment and Aphrodite gives her a chuckle. No need for apologies, I do enjoy meeting potential friends. Dead or alive. It didn't matter to her really. She would talk to a Spirit, learn all they know just as well as she'd talk to a lion that still breathed the very air she did. But to know that there was another, of course Aphrodite knew there were others whose scents were everywhere in the Oasis not just her and Harou and Brielle anymore. It is to be expected when you live in the desert. The sand to cling to her darker pelt. It itched. Aside from enjoying the night sky, I've come looking for accessories. You? @Andraesa"Talk here." && 'Think here.'

I am a sort of biologist. Andraesa struggled to call herself a healer. While she had picked up bits and bobs from her sister and mother, she had never felt called to the more noble art of medicine in the same way. The plants she cultivated were dangerous, unyielding against most of her mother's mixtures.

However, to learn poison-making was also to learn the antidotes that came with, and the fallout of such things. In truth, she had merely circled the badlands because they were peaceful. The lions that stalked these lands did not bother with the dead nearly as much as they wished to tussle with the living in the distant Pit, and so Andraesa could study the exhumed bodies of the deceased without much interruption.

I like to study all walks of life, all stages. It allows me to better understand the body if I can see it from the inside out. Imagine how much more sufficiently you could understand a living being if you only had access to their heart, ribs, marrow. You could read their very fibers and know all there was about them. The girl let out a small sigh and ran a claw over one of the bones that dusted the ground beneath them.

But for now, I study bones because that seems like the most basic building block of our bodies. Except perhaps the marrow inside, though I have not been able to break into any larger specimen to study that. Small teeth and all.

@Aphrodite ♔

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Aphrodite Goddess of the Dead She would listen to the lioness before her. She spoke of how she tried to understand the body from the inside out and Aphrodite never thought about that. Perhaps it could help her in her future fights. But that wasn't the part of her mind that was thinking it would be beneficial to know those things so instead she kept her thoughts to herself and began to look around the bones that were within her reach, including a skull from a warthog. Interesting. That is a very interesting way to go about it. She would muse before glancing over towards @Andraesa again. Ears twisted on top of her head as she would tilt her head to the side just briefly. For longer skulls, or bones in general, look for any cracks in them. Not all animals die from old age, there could have been a very bad injury - like a broken bone - that could've caused their death. Especially to the head."Talk here." && 'Think here.'

It seems as if you speak from experience. Andraesa comments, her lilac gaze traveling from the stranger's eyes to the bones she grazed across. She couldn't make out any hairline fractures in the gloom, but she trusted that the inky lioness was correct in her assessment and wisdom.

Whiskers twitch in subtle appraisal of the desert lioness. She carried a natural sort of charisma, the kind that reminded her of her pseudo-aunt or of the Greyflood women she had met before as a youngster. She imagined the black lioness with a duchy title back the Oasis, a duchess of the dead - skeletal nobility.

Do you study bones too, or are you purely a collector? Andraesa pressed on, not hoping to end their interaction quite yet as she studied the woman more than the ivory in front of them.

@Aphrodite ♔ (bad post but i wanted to continue this somehow ^.^)

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Aphrodite Goddess of the Dead The comment @Andraesa stated caused Aphrodite to chuckle. Perhaps I've had some experience. She would muse at the thought. In her travels, Aphrodite had crushed a few skulls. Broken a few bones to get rid of her opponent in order to keep herself from being killed. It had worked out so far and the bones, well that was just an after thought of wanting to keep them for herself. There were a few other reasons that she had wanted to keep them. And there was the question. Violet jewels locked onto the woman before her and she chuckled again, Both actually. Ears twisted on top of her head as she would listen. And you?"Talk here." && 'Think here.'

Andraesa shook her head. I am just a scholar. I do not have much need for remnants in my vocation.

To work in the shadows meant that as few souvenirs were to be left behind as possible - as a general rule. She knew some were more or less subtle depending on their personas, but from those she had spent any time learning from, she knew that her chosen role took a great deal of tact.

No doubt, hauling around the radiuses and scapulas of her enemies would hinder any element of surprise she wished to maintain.

I hoped that coming here and studying those already gone would give me a good chance at understanding the living. If I had a more argent tongue, maybe I could extract my education from breathing individuals. On the contrary, your proposed experience is no doubt very persuasive - cracking skulls and causing death and all that.

Her parti-colored face breaks into a cheeky grin at her own joke, dark humor crinkling the corners of her eyes. Unless, of course, I have misunderstood your reason for collection?

@Aphrodite ♔

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