| Those Thieving Ponies! |
| Summary: | A group of students are finally able to follow the thieving alicorns to their base of operations in one of the school's laundry rooms. In the process of trying to get their personal items back they discover the real cause of the alicorn invasion. |
| Date: | IC Date (2019-04-06) |
| Related: | http://coralsprings.wikidot.com/log:2019-03-31-sunday-sundae-funday |
| NPCs: | Princess Thlipsi, various alicorns |
| Scene Runner: | Gabrielle |
| Players: |
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Metis/Prometheus Laundry
It's a laundry room. It has front load, high efficiency washers and dryers. Washers make up two rows back to back in the middle. The dryers line the walls across from them. On the back wall is a long counter with a sink. There are a few chairs for those who want to sit and watch their clothes process, but otherwise it is quite a boring room.
Coral Springs High has been plagued with minor thefts of food and personal items for days now. Items of sentimental value and, of all things, sweets of all kinds have been disappearing from all over the school and finally, some industrious students have managed to follow the culprits to their base of operations, which seems to be the laundry room for the Metis and Prometheus dorms. Following the alicorns has been an exercise in frustration. They are perfectly quiet, incredibly hard to catch, active mostly (but not always) at night, and they have a tendency to disappear from existence at random moments.
These particular alicorns, converging from various areas of the school, fly into the laundry room and disappear into a shimmering spot of wall at the back of the room, between the left row of washers and dryers, right above one of the big sinks.
Buddy was just getting used to owning things so the idea of something being taken from him was odd too. So when the group gathered together to track them down, Buddy was definitely in that group. As they head down into the laundry room, Buddy is moving as silently as he can not wanting to spook them.
A certain wolf girl enjoys baking on weekends. Then suddenly her baked goods have been disappearing! Ugh. Frustration mounted but the girl kept a handle on it.. if someone is desperate for a bit of sweetness, who is she to track them? Then the unthinkable happened. Grace's most precious possession, that which brings her joy…. TAKEN.
It's thanks to months of conditioning that Grace didn't fly off the heckin' handle upon discovering that her old, tattered recipe scrapbook (compiled by her beloved Uncle Vee) had been stolen. So now at present she is with a group of students who have tracked the culprits down.. a low snarl rumbles throughout the petite girl's entire body.
Besa was annoyed when his honey and tea went missing. But now he's upset, his drum is missing! His drum! He runs into the group and joins them, ready to reclaim his things! His drum! He'd be growly too, but after hearing Grace's, he gently touches her arm, "Be calm my friend. We will figure this out."
Gabrielle has been hearing about the thefts but overall she was a bit oblivious to the whole thing. Until this morning. This morning she woke up to find that her stuffed bunny, a ragged, beat up old thing that pretty much no one knows about because it only gets pulled out of it's hiding space once everyone in the dorm is sleeping or when Gabby is alone and needing someone to talk with, disappeared from between her fingers, literally. She's been roaming the school all day looking for it and only coincidentally caught a glimpse of a bright purple pony flying by carrying a well used artists palette between its front hooves. 1+1 turned into 'missing bunny' in her head and she immediately followed the pony to the laundry room just to see it disappear into the wall behind a few other ponies that apparently half the school was tracking.
Someone who is a long way from calm is Sierra. What was stolen from her was rather personal, sentimental, and, perhaps most disturbingly, was attached to her body when taken. Unicorns or not, that was a step too far. The Latina senior is on the warpath in sweats and t-shirt. Anyone nearby will feel the heat emanating from her. A nod to all the others who have tracked the thieving beasts down here. "At least we will have them trapped in the laundry room." Oh…they went through the wall. Sierra is the type who will happily follow them but she does hesitate with so many other students around. "I'm following them."
Buddy waves his arms as people approach. He lifts a finger up to his lips in the 'sssshhhh' position. He gestures with his thumb into the laundry room indicating that they are in there. Was the stuff in there? Buddy wasn't sure, but it was a good guess. He waves at his face a bit when he feels the heat from Sierra. Peeking around the corner, Buddy notices that they are flying through a wall. Through a wall. Totally unfair. "Psstt. That is where they are going."
Besa means well, but that raggedy book is beyond special to Grace. It's a direct tie to the closest thing to a functional parent that the girl has… every page, his perfect handwriting. Notes upon notes of tricks, formulas, commentary… Uncle Vee may as well be talking to her from those pages. Her nostrils flare but she calms at the boy's touch, "Stealing is wrong." She grates out, and the steel can be felt in her limb. Others arrive to stake out the thieves and Grace's scarlet eyes rove to look at each determined face in-kind.
Sierra's words ring a bell and Grace nods and tentatively pads toward the point in the wall where the alicorns entered the laundry room beyond. "Hmmmph". She ambles forth at Buddy's words, reaches forth to try poking the affected portion of wall. Sniffs; tries to catch scents. Attempts to listen to happenings beyond the wall. Gets fed up and makes to carefully… try to ease her body through the wall. Will it work?! She wants her book back!
Besa nods, agreeing with Grace, "Yes, it is." He frowns, not liking his. He starts tracing the rune on his leg for his khopesh and ready to follow the others through. "What are they?"
Gabrielle nods to everyone else but stays a little apart from the group, eyes downcast or following a passing alicorn. Once people start talking about going through the wall after the alicorns she calmly walks up to the counter, gently nudges Grace and makes her way around her to climb up onto the sink. Then she steps right into the shimmering section of wall, disappearing from view. As she disappears she says, "If I'm not back in two seconds, its safe."
Safe? Sierra doesn't know the meaning of the word. They stole something very special of hers and she wants it back. And if they put up a fight, then they'll learn why so much of the world thinks she's more supervillain than superhero. "You want to live forever?" she asks before going straight through the portal. Such a great role model for the younger students.
A pink alicorn flies by the group with a pack of Twinkies dangling from its lips. As she nears the group she flips onto her back, flies a slalom pattern between the remaining students heads, staying just out of reach and smiling sweetly at the group the flits into the wall portal.
Seeing others poke through the wall, Buddy gets up and moves into the laundry room. He is distracted for a moment by all the shiny machines until a pink alicorn goes flying by him. He starts to growl in his throat, a very canine sound though he is still in human form. He then steps through the wall as well figuring that others are doing it.
The little brunette snarls out, not moving to obstruct anyone from following along after Gabrielle. "Give us back our things!" Grace belts out.. never mind subtlety. She catches herself though, tries to be calm. Too much anger is not good. She will follow when safe and her eyes are immediately glaring 'round for her precious book, pausing briefly upon the strange little creatures. They are not cute to her; her wolf is possessive of her belongings and pink and puffy or not, these little brats TOOK… her.. precious thing.
Besa huffs, this is not going to end well. He'll follow Grace, mostly to try to keep her from freezing and hurting anyone. He's not yet drawn his sword…yet.
Stepping through the shimmering portion of the wall is like stepping through a thin layer of gelatine. Everything goes grey for a second and when sight returns the world is completely different. Everything is bathed in a pleasant blue-ish light and the night sky is filled with brilliantly white stars and a big moon, full and white. Under those stars is a landscape full of rolling hills covered in strangely disproportionate apple trees. In the small valley among the hills closest to the opening in the wall (which shows as a shimmer blur hanging in the air on this side of things) is a farm, a small chicken coop off to the right, with some beehives a little beyond it. To the left side of the farm is a set of tilled fields growing indetermiate crops, a tall, narrow farmhouse sticking up into the horizon behind them. And centered between the fields and the behives is a large, red barn. The farm is surrounded by a white fence and is accessed by an wooden arch wreathed in apple vines. All in all, stepping into this world is exactly like stepping into a cartoon.
The alicorns are flying straight into the barn and coming out empty hooved. And yes, they notice the students but they don't seemed bothered by it, some of them even flying a curious circle or two around them, just out of reach, before flitting back into the school. Every so often a new alicorn flys through the portal, another random item gripped between their front hooves or carried in their jaws.
Gabrielle is standing a little off to the right of the portal itself, trying to make sense of it all, looking both confused and delighted.
"Christ" Is Sierra's reaction as she takes in the new world. It is NOT said in an excited way. "I guess it takes all kinds of alternate realities." She is happy to ignore the alicorns, making a beeline for the barn instead. Though she does spare a glance to her clothes to make sure they haven't turned into some strange anime inspired outfit. That would be…pretty cool actually. Sierra is a nerd at heart, despite all the fury.
Buddy stops just on the other side of the wall as his mouth drops opens. "ooOOOOOooo," he coos upon seeing everything. Talk about distractions! "Look at that. Oh, and that. Wow, look at those trees. Yay!" He looks like he would wag his tail if he was in a form with one. Seemingly having forgotten everything going on, Buddy starts to head to the trees.
Good thing, again, that Grace is: A. knowledgeable of her nature and B. has an anger buddy like Besa who recognizes the cues (he had her curse briefly!) and knows how to pull her back, even with spoken word! Otherwise had Grace neither of these things in her arsenal, she'd be wolfing out and doing the Dance of Pissed into that funky cartoon farmscape! Just imagine that mental image! These cute, animated hoarding alicorns and a 6+ foot bipedal wolf monster raging onto the scene. But no.. no… the girl keeps it together. Even she is amazed.
Spying one of the alicorns emerging through the portal and into the scene with some else's possession in it's mouth, Grace attempts to snag the thing back. No use, the little creature passes her unscathed. So like a good disgruntled wolf she turns with intention to start stomping in the direction of the barn and fence. All scrawny 5'2" of her.
Besa's nose wrinkles, and he utters something in ancient Coptic. He does not look delighted. This is strange and not comforting, at all. To be fair, he also wasn't raised on cartoons. "I pray this is not an alternative reality." Cause that means there's a Besa stuck here…which makes him frown. His fingers twitch, but now he's considering something completely else…if it's an alternative realty. "Buddy, stay with us, please. Grace, wait for us. We will go together, as a group." He doesn't say pack, but hopes that's what she hears. He'll hurry after her.
Gabrielle follows behind Sierra and Grace, grinning like a fool. Under her breath she says, "This is /awesome/! I'm in a cartoon!" Seh even snags an apple off of one the closest trees and bites into it with a huge, drool-inducing crunch. Mumbling around the bite, juice dripping from the corner of her lips she gasps, "Its, like, the /perfect/ apple!"
The group makes it to the apple vine covered arch and then they have a bright pink alicorn with an unusually curly mane and tail hovering in front of Grace.. "Nonononono! You can't be here! You're too angry! You'll just make things worse! Here! Have an apple caramel pie to make you happy. If you're happy, you're welcome!" A pie appears in her front hooves as if by magic, little whisps of steam curling up from its perfectly baked crust, filling the air with the smells of, yep, you got it, caramel and apples!
"I wouldn't eat that" Sierra asides to Gabrielle. "What do you think cartoon food will do to your stomach? Ever seen a cartoon in a place like this go to the toilet? Nope. So it will be sitting there forever in your stomach because you're NOT a cartoon." The beacon of light and hope that is the Latina smirks at the alicorn that thinks Grace is the angry one. "If you don't want us to make things worse, then give us back our things. And stop taking them. That is, like, sooooo rude. How would you like it if I stole all your things? Or burned down this farm?"
Buddy suddenly stops in his tracks. "Wait!" He yells sticking his hands up in the air. He then turns and faces the group actually bouncing up and down and waving wildly. "This place is wrong. Way wrong. There is no poopie smell. This is *gasp* fake!" He looks at one of the alicorns and says, "Why would you have fake stuff. Fake stuff isn't even real!"
Baking..? Grace is just in the middle of one more stomp in the direction of that heckin' barn. Her wolf is sizzling in her heart, wanting her possession back. Her precious, precious thing. Her—wait, baking? Baked goods?
Grace freezes at both Besa's words and the appearance of this bright pink pony with a-
The girl pauses in mid-stomp, her ponytail twitching, bright red eyes widening from their narrowed look of DOOM.
She holds the pie now, perplexed but neither approaching nor moving to do much else. She sniffs it, doesn't make to eat it. Scarlet eyes peer over the delicious dessert, staring hard at the pink alicorn. "You need to stop taking peoples' things. I'm angry because you are intruding on stuff t-that is important to people!" Grace exclaims. Sierra's words egg her on but luckily she does not move on, merely glares sternly. "Give. Me. Back. My. Recipe book." The normally polite and gregarious girl snarls.
This weirdly reminds Besa of being in Hell. It just looks odd and different and he doesn't like it. Agreeing with Sierra, "Please do not eat anything here." He tenses, glancing to Buddy at the revelation, although a small part of him is relieved that he doesn't have to rescue any Besas from here. As they're addressed, the apple pie is looked at with skepticism. "We would like our possessions back now, please." He's a polite boy…who's considering pulling out his sword.
The pink alicorn's ears and tail drop noticeable, making her look really, really sad for just a moment. Then she perks up, smiling brightly as she makes another pie appear out of thin air, this time one with a mass of fluffy meringue on top, its brown peaks making it look like a cloud that got a smidge too close to the sun. Bright yellow patches peek out from between the meringue and the golden crust as the pie flies over to hover in front of Sierra, enveloped in a cloud of translucent pink magic. Flitting manically back and forth between the memebers of the group she says, "Oo!Oo! I know what's wrong. And you're really angry too! Have some lemon meringue pie while we go to the see the Princess. She'll explain everything!"
Her uber-chipperness breaks for a moment as she stops in front of Buddy, little cloud of steam appearing over her head as her cheeks go red in momentary anger, "We're are /not/ fake! Just different." then she's back to being manically happy, "Come! Follow me!" and she flits off towards the barn.
Meanwhile, Gabby stops for a moment in reaction to Sierra's warning, looks down at the apple, then shrugs mumbling, "I'll take the risk. This is the best apple I've /ever/ had!" around another bite of apple. She follows the group, eyes glittering with amusement at the little pink alicorn's antics.
Sierra is not eating magical lemon meringue pie. She can make things appear out of thin air too…and she certainly wouldn't eat those. "Princess? Is she in a tower?" A few years back, Sierra would have fried everyone, but the school must be working, as now she is prepared to go and see this Princess instead. Probably just fry her. This is an improvement.
Buddy crosses his arms and says, "But you don't understand. Buddy knows. Buddy lived in the woods before. Trees make yummy food for animals to eat. Animals eat yummy food and go poopie in the woods. But the poopie is important. It helps the trees too. They work together." He shakes his head and says, "First they steal stuff, then they have no poopie in their woods."
Even in this cartoon strangeness Grace must watch her anger, for it's beginning to quicken. She just keeps holding the caramel-apple pie, because it's giving her something to do with her hands. The scarlet eyes intensify in their glow and for the sake of her own sanity and not causing more trouble, Grace focuses on only two things: getting her book back as soon as possible, and not letting anything about this strangeness nettle her anger further. She will follow along as complacently as possible, warring inwardly with her girlish wonder and offended wolf.
She trails along quietly to see what the heck this 'Princess' has to do with things going missing. Tries to keep murderface at a minimum.
Great, now Gabrielle is poisoned. Or under the fake realms's sway now. Besa shakes his head to the pie. He partially agrees with Sierra, "We will speak to this royalty." He lets Sierra take the lead, staying close to Grace if he's needed to keep her calm. "Come Buddy. We should stay together."
A butterscotch colored pony joins the group, flying next to Buddy, "Poopie? What's poopie? Anyway, we have the best soil around. Its what makes our apples so scrumptydumtylicious!" Energy from its horn shoots out and pulls over an apple from one of the trees, making it float in front of Buddy, "Here! Try one." A suggestion that Gabby heartily supports, "Buddy, they're /awesome/! You really should try one. Everyone else is being silly about this. Except for the part about getting our things back. They definitely can't keep Mr…" She trails off, instead taking another crunchy bite of apple.
The pink pony flits back and forth between the barn doors and the group, making sure that everyone is following. Once the group makes it to the barn they see a mound of sweets and random items in the middle of the barn flor. And on the far side, an alicorn very different from the rest. She's a sleek, long-legged alicorn with large feathered wings and graceful features. And definitely not as erratic or spastic as some of the others which are in search of fun and sugar. This one seems to have more of a focus. Her pelt is a dark indigo blue and her mane is pearly white, overlong, flowing bringing attention to her cerulean eyes and overly long, tappered ears. A delicate sterling silver crown of sorts is nestled in the creature's mane, with a trio of onyx-like gems set into three glistening points.
As the group comes in she bows her head, exuding a regal demeanor, and says, "Welcome.I am Princess Thlipsi." Ignored by all the alicorns that have gathered to curiously examine the newcomers is the cloud of pearly, wispy pink magic coming off the gathered items and coalescing into tiny, glimmering crystals that then float over to a small pile next to the Princess.
And throughout all this the lemon meringue pie continues to float after Sierra bouncing around in the air like an eager puppy.
Sierra keeps glancing back to growl at that floating pie. She should be thankful that Saoirse isn't here. She would be into this even more than Gabrielle. Speaking of, that girl is starting to seem awfully brainwashed. "No one eat anything."
Sierra's eyes scan the pile of goodies, looking for what she has lost, before bothering to look at the Princess. "Greetings, Princess Thlispi." She emphasizes the lisp. "I'm Queen Sierra of the Fire People and I would really like our things back." The magic being done is not lost on her but the focus is on getting back what she has lost. "And could you please stop this pie following me." Sierra swipes at it as if shooing off a pesky fly.
Buddy gasped even louder. "You don't know what poopie is? How do you people even mark your own territory? I mean, these are important things in woods, but you don't have any of it. Without those things, it is fake woods which means fake trees which means fake food. Buddy doesn't even really like regular people food yet much less fake people food. Yuck! I can show you poopie." He looks like he is about to transform when Sierra introduces herself. "Wow! You're a queen too, Fire Girl! That's great." He looks directly at the princess and says, "Hi, princess thi…Tihli…you. She helped save Buddy from Granger and Shocky Man."
Besa doesn't like this, at all. He shake this head at Buddy, "Do not eat it." The apple, that is. Also don't eat poopie. But that's for a different day's conversation. And then he hates that he has to say it, "Do not show them, Buddy!" Please don't. He lets the fire princess talk, instead he takes a step closer to the pile and frowns as he studies whatever is happening to their items, "What are you…taking from them?"
The "Do not show them, Buddy!" is actually a chorus as Gabrielle and Grace both say it in almost exactly the same words and at the same time as Besa. Which interrupts the butterscotch colored pony as she's explaining to Buddy that, "…fences mark territories…". The adamant chorus catches her by surprise making her flutter in a quick agitated circle around the group. And by that time introductions are happening.
The Princess tilts her head a bit to the left as she listens to Sierra and Besa. Her lips curl into a knowing smirk as she catches Sierra's implied insult but she ignores it, instead addressing the questions and requests. The pie following Sierra floats back over to the Pink pony, who starts to eat it, her ears and tail drooping slightly in disappointment at having her gift refused.
At the same time the Princess answers the students, "No harm was meant. The Queen is suffering and we need concentrated joy to minimize her distress. Your items are merely being borrowed and no harm will come to them." Focusing specifically on Besa she finishes her explanation,"We are just gathering the joy that has concentrated in them, nothing more."
"You do know that by stealing all the joy, you're making us all miserable and angry. Is that what you really want?" Sierra sighs in relief as the pie flies off. "Thanks for that." As for stopping Buddy demonstrating some things…where's the fun in that? "Yeah, the Queen is suffering and she doesn't like to suffer. She gets mean."
"Does this mean you will give them back when you've drained them? You know, it would have been so much better if you just asked to borrow them, drained them, and then gave them back to be recharged. Stealing does not make you friends." Sierra knows this from experience.
Buddy drops his head when people yell at him not to show them. "But it's important for trees…" he says in a defeated tone. As they explain that they stole stuff, Buddy places his hands on his hips. "Silly tiny ponieses. Don't you know that you can't steal joy. It has to be shared. When you share joy, everyone has some. When you try and steal it, you hurt peoples who hurt you back." He looks back at the rest of the team, "See what happens when no poopies in the woods."
"Causing others distress for joy taints the joy." He's assuming here, cartoon logic is not something he's versed in. "If your Queen needs help, we will help her. But you must return all that has been stolen without permission first." The ancient teen brings those very dark eyes of his up to look at this winged creature directly. "Who is your Queen?" Does his hair look even more perfect in this weird cartoon world? Yes, yes it does.
Thlipsi's wings flutter slightly and she draws her head back, long equine neck forming a graceful curve that somehow does a better job at expressing her displeasure and offence at being upbraided by younglings, of any race, than words ever could. But when she speaks she's as calm and gracious as she's been from the beginning, "We do apologize for the momentary distress the /borrowing/ has caused. But circumstances are complicated and this is much less harmful than drawing joy directly from living beings, which would definitely cause damage, permanent damage in some cases." She looks down at the pile of items for a moment as the process of turning raw joy into crystals seems to be coming to an end then returns her attention to the students, "Rules are differtent from what you're used to here. Trust that the joy we're getting from your loved objects /will/ be of help to the Queen, with no inherent taint. Queen Ca-"
And in the blink of an eye the whole cartoon world has disappeared, leaving the students standing in the middle of the laundry room, the pile of personal items at their feet, no worse for wear. Except for the sweets. All the food is completely gone, leaving nothing behind but empty wrappers in the case of the foods that were actually wrapped up.
"O…kay…" is Sierra's reaction to finding herself back in the laundry room. "Did anyone else get the feeling that the Princess didn't intend for us to leave just then? Something else is happening." She tests the permanency of the wall. Looking for the portal before glancing down at the pile of objects. "Do we just get all the students down here to find their stuff? If anyone finds a ring, it's mine." A pause before adds. "Not the ring for a finger."
Buddy furrows his brow and says, "Who is Queen Ca-? That is a weird name even for Buddy. Ca?" He shrugs and then finds a shirt inside the pile of belongings, a blue shirt with little white clouds on it. "Hey, that is mine!"
Besa folds his arms, although he looks more contemplative than annoyed now. His drum is easy enough to find in the mess, he carefully moves things out of the way before picking it up. "I….need to go check on someone. I will alert students when I see them that their items are here, yes?" If what he thinks is happening, that someone was just dreaming.
Gabrielle frowns at her suddenly empty hand. She had been nibbling at the last little bits of apple through the whole conversation with the Princess and clearly she wasn't done. "Awwww…" Strangely enough, she doesn't go for the pile and instead just hops up to sit on one of the dryers, listnening to the others talk. And waiting.
When probed, the wall is as solid as ever, not a trace of the portal left behind.
Sierra frowns at the solid wall. "I should probably ward this room, stop them coming through again." She's not just fire, there is a lot of Aztec magic in her too. Then suddenly she turns to face the others, eyes wide. "I get it! Queen Ca…it's Callisto! She's behind all this. It's totally her kind of fairy thing. Didn't she have some issues recently? And she's pretty powerful. She may not even be aware of what she is doing. We have to find her." She looks at the pile of goodies. "After I find my ring."
Besa winces, but then nods, "Yes. It is most likely Callisto Dreaming…" Capital D! "She would not do this on purpose, I know." He takes a deep breath, "She is under much stress. And to know she is causing any hurt in others will just make it worse." As for the ward, "I do not know that this is location specific, Sierra." He would help her look for her ring, but he doesn't know what she meant by not for her finger. So he doesn't dig around in the items.
Gabrielle shrugs a little bit, feeling more at ease as the group starts to thin out, "There really wasn't any harm done. So maybe she doesn't really need to know about what the ponies have been doing, just that they have been trying to make her feel better…"
"Well Callisto needs to get back in control. She's too powerful to have her dreams disrupting reality. What if she dreams angry?" Sierra rummages around and finds her ring - her nipple ring. "Umm…the promise rings Saoirse and I gave each other. Fingers were way too conventional." It could have been worse! "Someone who knows Callisto well needs to talk to her."
"I will speak with her." Besa runs fingers through that pretty hair of his and sighs, that's going to be a terrible uncomfortable conversation.
Today Gabrielle's middle name is Patience. She waits and even participates in the conversation, for as long as it takes. Once Sierra and Besa decide to leave she hops off the dryer, checks one last time to make sure that no one is left in the room then dives for the pile of items. After a short, frantic search she comes up with a well-loved, very ragged plush bunny. She hugs it hard for a second, smiles bigger then anyone sees her smile, ever, then disappears, leaving behind a flash of light and a pop of imploding air.