1st Salute - Accidental Visual

[her_saga]

[A blonde pony with a white cape over her back is pacing up and down along the grassy path just near the Everfree Forest. A green gem radiating with power floats above her, following her. Not that she seems to mind. She's muttering stuff to herself, but in a little bit, her voice becomes audible. It doesn't seem like she really knows what the scroll's for either as judging from the perspective where she's towering over the view, it's just lying there on the ground.]

… So's now I'm a horse. Okay, that's a step down from robot, but I can make this work. Let's weigh the pros and cons. Pro: now I can serve Lord Il Palazzzo with the strength of one extra horsepower instead of none. Con: it'll be awfully awkward for him to try to lift me up in his arms. … and I'm going to miss fingers something fierce, I just know it.

[She looks up at her hooves disdainfully and starts tapping at the grass.]

Yeah, I wouldn't trade away the oft unappreciated, yet superior ability of humans to “grab stuff” even for a lucrative career in tap.

[The blonde pony pauses for a little while and stares intently at her hooves. She drops down on her hocks and shouts into the air with raised arms.]

OKAY BUT WHY AM I A HOOOOOOOORSE!!!!????

Comments

[rollsoffthetongue]

Y'learn to make do, really. Like, when I had a campsite out in the woods- [Before it got too cold, anyway] -I learned how to use my legs and the rest of my body to move stuff around, rebuild parts of the camp, things like that.

And as it turns out, magic ponies have a bigger range of movement than you might think. [Go figure.]

[her_saga]

... [Excel is... mulling over that. The gears in her head are turning and turning before soon enough, they snap.] Sh-shock!

Th-that's right. Housing. If I'm going to have to stay here for the long haul, I'll need a place to stay. Not that I'd have any oats and hay to pay off the horsey landlords here, I can make due with... with.

Okay, so camping. You've got 2x4's here, right? Cardboard? I know you won't have glue, but there has to be some equine-friendly material to splice everything together.

[rollsoffthetongue]

[Good job, Jaune.]

Wh-whoa whoa, hold on a second! There's housing available for off-worlders, you shouldn't have to worry about that. It's the communes, totally free so long as you're not afraid to help out around the place.

'Course there's always rentable places, or finding a friend and staying with them.

[her_saga]

[Red flags. So many red flags. Excel is a person that goes well and beyond her efforts to maintain a certain level of privacy. Having to live with another co-worker is fine, but even two was pushing it. Any second, any wrong move, against a whole mess of people and that will mean she may let slip certain organizational secrets.]

...... Privacy, noun. "The state of being free from unwanted or undue intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs".

So... How about that cardboard, huh?

[rollsoffthetongue]

[He mutters "You can have your own room" but keeps on trucking anyway.]

I don't think cardboard'll do very well for camping. [He thinks, for a moment.] Do you want my tent? I mean, I was thinking of going back out there in the spring, but hey I've got a job. I can buy another one then. And it's just kinda taking up space otherwise.

[her_saga]

[Kindness? From a stranger? Altogether, she'd gladly accept just about anything free, but even then...]

Alright, who are you? Common courtesy's one thing, but if a stranger goes above and beyond that for no apparent reason, I think that's worth some scrutiny.

[rollsoffthetongue]

[Is it too late to back out of this conversation.]

I'm just trying to be nice? Besides like I said, it's just in my way right now.

[her_saga]

[Far too late.]

Niceness, huh...? And you know I can never pay you back.

[rollsoffthetongue]

I'm not nice to get paid back, I just like helping people.

[He rolls his shoulders with a shrug, even lifting his hooves; looks like a bit of that "unusual range of movement" he mentioned earlier.] I try to keep the phrase "Strangers are friends you haven't met yet" in mind, and all. Hasn't let me down yet. [More or less.]

[her_saga]

Funny, mine is "strangers quietly plot your downfall and patiently wait for when you turn their back on them". I guess what I'm trying to say is...

........

I accept your offer.

[rollsoffthetongue]

-Y'do? [Don't mind the reaction, he's just a little surprised after all that reluctance and the guarded attitude.]

[her_saga]

My other policy is "if it's free, then don't ask too many questions." Besides, it's just a tent. I can think of only six ways you could've rigged it.

[rollsoffthetongue]

Heh, believe me you would know if I'd attempted to rig something. Which I wouldn't, but-...

[Nevermind.]

Is there somewhere I can meet you to deliver it, or...?

[her_saga]

Isn't the point so that people don't know? [Unless he's really bad at it, but that's a distinct possibility, sure enough.]

Leave 'em by one of the trees outside the forest or something. I'm not leaving till I know for sure I didn't miss a way out of this hundred horse town.

[rollsoffthetongue]

Leave it by the forest, got it.

Wish I could tell ya there was a way out, but I can't. At least no conscious way, I mean there's some way out because I've done it, twice, but not by choice. And it was just kinda this... flash-of-light thing, not like- not a door, or something like that.

Others might know something, but I've got a feeling if it was two-way everybody'd know about it. [Not gonna argue the possibility though, because it pays to be hopeful.] Time freezes wherever you came from at least, so no matter what there's plenty of time for looking.

[her_saga]

Oh, don't worry. I was just gonna deck whatever brought me here. Straight in the kisser.

[A simple solution to a complex problem.]