• NSC
• Marigold

Background

Marigold Moonshimmer was born in Valley City, California Bay Region, on 7 April 2201. Part of a limited run of expensive luxury children's pet and toy mons, she sold quickly to a well-off shareholder couple in Prosperity who acquired her as a companion (and status symbol) for their then-three-year-old daughter, Minerva.

Essentially a newborn herself at the time of her acquisition by the family, Marigold, or simply "Mary" as she was often called, honed her sense for human interaction alongside Minerva, from whom she was generally inseperable. Minerva's parents encouraged this, due to Marigold's majestic appearance impressing people at social events. Marigold was frequently complemented on her beauty and, already predisposed to it by her nature, consequently developed a high sense of esteem and pride in herself. She learned to hold polite and engaging conversations with the humans and mons in her company and took interest in the information that flowed in the conversations around her. This proved a double-edged sword; she was able to maintain her own comfortable station by being a good companion and endearing herself to the relevant humans, but also became keenly aware of the situation of most mons and the way humans perceived them and their place.

When Minerva was around 14, she finally became too large to ride the pony-sized Marigold. Coinciding with a shifting circle of friends, this led Minerva and Marigold to begin drifting apart. They grew closer again when Minerva took an amateur interest in trying her hand at the battle-sport, consequently having Marigold fitted with sporting upgrades. Marigold took part in few battles, however, with Minerva being unwilling to risk putting her in matches where she could be killed or significantly injured. Finding injuring her mons distasteful in general, Minerva's interest in the battle-sport soon waned, sparing Marigold from any further fighting. After this phase, Minerva attempted to get her parents to buy a Physical Development Plan upgrade for Marigold that would allow her to grow into a full-sized horse so that they could ride together again, but Minerva's parents nixed this idea by pointing out that it was impractical for a horse-sized mon to try to live in the house, and there was insufficient space to build quarters for her in their tiny yard.

Minerva and Marigold remained companions while Minerva grew up. When the time came for Minerva to move out on her own and begin independent adult life, she found that the housing she was able to afford became cramped with a pony-sized mon sharing it. She finally gave Marigold up, reluctantly selling her to a couple with a two-year-old. However, their two-year-old, predictably, quickly became bored and had little capacity for real bonding with Marigold. As a result, they turned Marigold over again, selling her to a mon vendor who shopped her around for a few months looking for another buyer without much success.

Eventually, growing uneasy with the prospect of her license renewals being uncertain, Marigold talked her way into being bought by Weatherby, and then into being jailbroken to free her from needing license renewals once she realized Weatherby and Ann could do so.

Appearance

Unicorn!

Originally: White coat. Lavender mane. Pointy. Pretty.

Currently: Disguised as "Sunshine" using superficial PDP mods. Light silver-dappled coat, pale yellow and orange mane. Still pointy. Still pretty.

Personality

Unicorn!

Abilities

Unicorn!

Social acumen. Intelligence. Fabulosity.

Aether type (simulating "unicorn magic") sporting upgrades, intended for light matches against similar size category mons.

IRL in for-real combat, Marigold is built like a horse and is able to run and kick like one. Her horn is strong, and sharp enough to gore with, if needed.

Microstructures on the frogs of her hooves, similar to the structures that give geckos sticky toes, allow Marigold some capacity for lifting, moving, and using objects, although in a more limited range than having real hands would allow. She can also, more crudely, manipulate objects with her mouth when needed.