IC date: | Summer 87 |
OOC date: | September 15 |
PCs: | Manyara, Dream-Daze |
NPCs: | |
GM: | None |
Another day of the changing of the season. Another day spent changing leaves. Another nice day to boot, even with the cool breezes and everything aimed at cooling temperatures from their summer highs.
Another day for a little blue unicorn to plot awesome adventures.
Today the little unicorn Dream Daze has finished her job early! They didn't really give her much to do, being a foal and all, so her leaf-changing quota today was just a couple trees. Leaving her with a whooooole afternoon to do anything she wants!
And today, she wants to pay a visit to a local gypsy. For she has heard /stories/ about the mystical powers that lurk within this tent, and her plans may just require a little mystical power to pull off properly. Thus does she enter the tent of wonders, her little filly eyes widening soooo much at the sheer amount of /stuff/. It's a deceptively large tent, after all! Almost all she can do is gape at the overload of pure mischief sitting here, for anypony to use!
Indeed, the tent is full of things! Potion sand charms and bottles and scrolls and all manner of magical-looking sundries to excite the imagination. Who knows what half of this stuff does? A cauldron bubbles cheerily on its warmer, the liquid inside a bright, pumpkin orange, vials already set out and ready. The incense smells particularly sweet today, like someone had added a splash of spice into a batch of cotton candy. Speaking of candy, somepony has gotten into the autumn spirit early! Another cauldron in one corner is bubbling a bright crimson, and a tray of apples is set out beside it, each already speared on a stick. Everypony loves candied apples~
Oh my. Candy! Candied apples, cotton candy, sweet smells and sweeter treats~ Dreamy's found heaven! Heaven! It's going to be difficult to save her bits for what she's actually here for, with the veritable smorgasbord of goodies! In fact, her tummy makes a gurgle of protest at being subjected to this horrible temptation when she hasn't even had lunch yet… Sigh~
Dream Daze nontheless wanders casually through the tent, sniffing at this, looking at that, getting up on hind hoof to peer at some of the tables. She does linger, longingly, at the candied apple station, but doesn't really stop until she makes it to the strange orange vials. Those she has to stop, and sniff at, curiously.
They smell spicy! A nice, sweet spicy, but spicy all the same. Perhaps not what one would expect from that color orange!
A soft rustling comes from the thick velvet curtain, which draws back after a moment to let the tent's occupant through. The abada is carrying a teakettle and floating along a few teacups along behind her, smiling cheerily.
Suddenly pony! Or..abada! Dreamy's gaze surely catches the movement, wide foal eyes watching the strange owner of the tent wander in, teakettle and all. Magic~ She takes her hooves off the table of orange vials, bouncing along after, trying to make at least a /little/ noise so she can be noticed. After all, it's impolite to use her particular magic on strangers!
Manyara heads for the table in the center of the tent, floating the teacups down carefully. She casts a glance back towards the following filly, giving her a warm smile and a nod of greeting, followed by a quick vision of a cheery wave, right along with the 'Welcome!' speech-bubble! Non-vision Manyara, meanwhile, is carefully pouring the tea, as if that were the most normal way ever to greet somepony.
Dreamy /blinks/. If there was ever a way to blow this little pony's mind, it would be to use her own magic against her. First. In greeting no less. It stuns her enough to stare for a looong moment at the abada, jaw dropped and everything! And then she's back to scampering, making up for lost bounces, practically flinging herself into the cushion that would be a perfect place to sit. She immediately makes herself comfortable, complete with content sigh, the only real noise she can make.
Then she sends a cautious vision back to the tent owner, of the same sort of mental greeting, a waving Dream Daze and a 'Hi' thoughtbubble~
Manyara settles cozily onto the opposite cushion, smiling and nodding. She floats a cup of tea over to Dream, settling it down in front of her and following it up with a vision of sugar cubes with a question mark over them.
The little filly nods! Followed up with an image of three of the little sugar cubes being dunked in the tea. She sways in her seat, finding it all sorts of neat to be having a conversation in like media for once. It makes her feel…not so different.
Three little sugar cubes are plunked into the cup accordingly, followed by a small spoon in case she'd like to stir! A plate of sandwiches is brought over in turn, set down in the middle of the table. It is just around lunchtime, after all! And lunch is always better with company. This vision is of flowers; what sorts make up the sandwiches, to be precice! Daisies, of course, and lavender, and those on that corner are sunflower, and there's a couple cucumber as well if one prefers veggies.
So much food! It's like… It's like this tent owner knew company was coming. Obviously she knows a lot. Like how this mute little filly works.
Well that's fine. Dreamy can accept this, when it comes with free food and tea! She nods to the flower visions, then blushes faintly when her stomach catches up and growls again. She's nothing if not a pony with manners though, looking up at the tent proprietor hopefully, sending an image of herself munching on a sandwich with a question mark hovering above.
Manyara nods and smiles warmly, waving a hoof at the sandwiches invitingly. Go ahead! Guests first.
Yay! Dreamy has to hold herself back from outright lunging at the plate of tasty-looking sandwiches! Instead she levitates just a couple of them her way, keeping them both suspended so she can take bites out of each, alternating one then the other. Om nom nom~
One good thing about her style of communication? She can talk and eat, and not be rude about it. So she sends an image, of Manyara's head with the word Shopkeeper? posted above it. Followed by an image of the whole tent, with another question mark! Just what kind of shop /is/ this?
Manyara takes a few sandwiches herself, smiling. She nods to Dreamy's first question, she is indeed the Shopkeeper! She sends a picture of herself, her name written out beneath her image in a neat, handwritten, somewhat swirly script. As to what kind of shop this is? She chuckles. Well, that's complicated! First she shows her the shelf of potions — what they are is pretty clear! And then a flash of the charms, carefully crafted, with a magical shimmer about them. And then some of the scrolls, unrolling to show the spells written within. Why, it's a magic shop! …And then a vision of various food and sundries. Sandwiches, tea, the candied apples and a few other such treat. Manyara gives a slightly sheepish shrug. Everypony needs a hobby. She likes to make treats!
A magic shop! Dreamy's eyes practically glitter amid all the visions of potions, and charms, and artefacts, and scrolls and… And even the goodies! So many goodies. This is /totally/ a dangerous place for a curious foal to be. Especially a foal with a few bits to burn.
Now that her suspicions have been confirmed though, and now that a couple sandwiches have been completely devoured, Dreamy hovers a napkin over her mouth to dash crumbs away. She ponders how to ask this question… She /is/ here on business after all, though… It's interesting enough that she might come back just to look around more.
The next vision she sends is one of a picture of a scroll that rolls out into a map, with an equal sign, and then a picture of…a mountain. Made purely out of ice cream and candy, with a caramel river. And a small group of foals, standing at the top of this giant mountain, wearing their treasured explorer hats. This is what she wants! To buy…an adventure! When the vision fades, Dreamy has the biggest wide-eyed hopeful foal look /ever/ trained on the mystical shopkeep.
Now this gets her attention! This… this is interesting. And new! And creative! Yes, Manyara likes this concept. She ponders for a moment, smiling, and nods slowly. She floats over a scroll, a quill, an empty inkwell. The sandwich is set aside and the scroll rolled out, blank and ready for filling. A vision is flashed to dream: the group of foals, walking along a path — wearing their hats, of course! And then, those same foals, on a small ship, Dreamy peering through a telescope. And then a question mark! Land? Sea? Both?
Dreamy actually cant keep herself from climbing onto the table when the scroll's produced, and /writing/ happens! Even when more visions come, Dreamy's magic mingling with the thoughts sent her way, creating something of a…thought-chat-room. And on this collective mental drawing board, the image of walking foals, and sea-faring foals, are both circled. She likes /both/ ideas! Though the ship is double-circled, because if she has to pick one, that's the better one. Their original idea /was/ to go sailing for the Lost Isle after all.
Into the inkwell the quill goes, and then to the scroll, scribbling quickly in sparkly, gleaming ink that seems to fade into the scroll after each sentence. Manyara nods at each response, and eagerly lets the thoughts flow back and forth. And tosses a few more questions out! A smooth spin of the sun rising, setting, rising again, and another question mark over the cycle. Various types of candy flash by, a few different ice cream flavors, each popping up for Dream's perusal.
Dreamy 'answers' each question in kind, as best as pictures and flashes of text allow. Days? Well… She didn't want to keep everybody from home too long, and somehow doubted anyone's parents would let them wander out of the Harbor for more than a night (if even that), so she better put a 'one' there. Ice cream flavors though, that gets pretty much a solid nod for each flavor. She hasn't met an ice cream flavor she doesn't like!
The quill continues to dance cheerily across the scroll with each answer, gleaming ink sinking into it lightly. Manyara seemed quite focussed on it, eyes watching the quill's progress, only pausing to occasionally confirm this or that with Dream. A number sign over the group of foals; a completed mountain of varying sizes with a question mark overtop; a river of caramel, then of cocoa, then of what might well be strawberry syrup, each with question marks dancing along.
The question of how many foals makes Dreamy ponder. She…has to put a question mark there. Then mentally scribbles it out and puts a 3-6 there instead. She /wants/ all her newfound foal friends to come, but she has a hunch only a few of them might actually get to make it… Size? Oh my. Big! No wait… Medium? What even counts as medium? She settles for one of those middling sizes, because she doesn't want it to be a 'show up and there's the summit', but she doesn't want it to be a 'oh god this mountain of candy has no eeeeeend'. …Actually she kinda does. But it wouldn't be advisable. Then the question of the river! This earns a couple soft and thoughtful taps of hoof to tabletop, along with a hesitant circling of all three? Caramel, Chocolate, Strawberry… All are good! Can we have all? Three rivers!
Manyara nods, adding a few more lines with the quill before sitting back, looking satisfied. The scroll rolls up, glows bright gold for a moment, then dims down, floating merrily over to hover in front of Dreamy. Manyara looks over at her, smiling and sending a vision of Dream looking the scroll over. Have to ensure it meets expectations~
Such wide-eyed wonder~ Dreamy's nearly bouncing on the tabletop, and in fact is more or less vibrating instead, letting her magical telepathy claim the scroll so she can carefully unroll it again and look it over. Is this /the/ map then? It looks… So good~ The map is rolled back up again, set to the side of the table, out of the way. Then Dreamy pretty much bounces across the table to hug the shopkeeper! And…flash an image of a coinpurse with a question mark. Because she /did/ come with bits. Magical maps to ice cream islands probably aren't free!
Manyara giggles and happily returns the hug, beaming. That was /fun/. A very enjoyable spell, that. Hopefully the foals would enjoy it just as much as she did!
She ponders the question of price for a moment. Finally she flashes up ten bits, counting out of the coinpurse one by one, and a question mark of her own. An acceptable trade for such an adventure, perhaps?
Dreamy promptly nods! She hops to the tent floor, tucking her nose into her saddlebag to pull out her dainty little (yet surprisingly bulging with bits) coinpurse. Ten bits are counted and laid on the table, and the map that was sitting there is levitated up to join the other shiny stuff in her saddlebag. Then…five more bits come out and get placed on the table to join the other ten. Which Dreamy flashes a little picture of the sandwiches, plus one candied apple. For the road, naturally.
Manyara chuckles and floats two of the bits back to her, crossing an X over the sandwich picture. Why should she charge for good company to share lunch with? But she keeps the payment for the apple, trotting over to dip a nice, big, crisp-looking green one into the candy coating and giving it a moment to dry before floating it over to her. Can't beat fresh-dipped! What better way to bring in Autumn than with candied apples, after all.
Dreamy promptly flashes a big happy filly face. Freshly dipped is the best! It's also quickly chomped on, the little foal swaying on her hooves, the magically floating treat swaying with her. She seems..reluctant to leave all of the sudden, even though her 'business' is done, finding things to direct questions about. Mostly this involves a picture of the item in question, and a question mark. Like..those orange vials. What are /those/ supposed to be? Oh, oh, and this sparkly grey misty swirly potion over here! Because it's /pretty/…
Manyara settles back down on the cushion, not seeming at all put off by all the questions. The orange vials are answered with a vision of a pony, changing colors and even shape! Into different sorts of ponies, or other creatures — griffons, dragons, that looks like a timberwolf, hey a zebra! The changes fall away quickly, though; a spinning clock qualifies the time as three hours. Merely costumes! But great for the season! The grey one is met with a grin. And another image of a pony, looking perfectly normal — until they walk into a sunbeam! Then they /sparkle/. Bright glittery sparklepony. Who looks quite confused by this turn of events!
Oooh… These potions just /scream/ mischief. Dreamy gets the tiniest bit shifty-eyed, sending an image of one of the costume vials being poured in a drink, then being offered to a pony. Will they still temporarily change form?
Manyara nods cheerily. While the other form changes were more controlled, this time the vision-pony changes randomly a few times before settling in on something. In explanation, she shows a vision of a pony drinking the vial, a thoughtbubble above its head showing a pirate pony, which is what the pony in question ends up costumed as! Another pony takes it, however, with his thought bubble a big ???, and he changes randomly a few times before settling in as a… princess? Manyara shrugs and giggles a bit, looking amused at the thought herself.
Dreamy claps her hooves together! Ooooh that looks like a /fun/ potion! Costumes, trickery, shiny things~ Harmless fun! Dreamy bounces with the prospects, putting up the price tag next to each of those mischevious items. She might as well take a little fun with her, right? That costume stuff can come in handy…
Manyara smiles, turning to pick a card up off a nearby table and offer it to Dreamy. It was an advertisement, announcing the tent as a place to come for such potions, spells, and sundries! And wishes. But mostly just magic in general! And right along the bottom it announces that with presentation of the card, one's first potion or charm purchase is free!
As for the others, they're priced by shelf. The lower shelves are five bits, the middle between ten bits and an Iron, and the top shelves are the real /serious/ stuff, those can go all the way up to a Stalleon! The costume potions would normally go on the middle shelf, but the vision shows them being floated down to arrange on a lower shelf! Seasonal sale! An autumn favourite, those.
Dreamy beams~ Reasonable enough. She might have to consider reopening the lemonade stand just to make enough bits for interesting things here. More happy hopping ensues, the little blue unicorn floating a couple of the orange vials, and the sparkley-misty potion together, making more bits fly out of her saddlebag for the payment. These will be /great/ fun~ This whole trip has been fun!
Manyara chuckles happily, looking rather pleased herself. It's nice to have somepony appreciate her wares! She flashes her a vision of a bag with a question mark over it. Don't want to overload her with things to carry!
Dreamy responds with an image of her saddlebags having lots of room. She came prepared! She does send a vision of a hug though, because this shopkeeper's been /awful/ nice. Especially with the whole mental link and all. Which..she reluctantly breaks, the 'chat session' ending. The little foal blinks. Oof. For some reason, she feels suddenly…alone.
Manyara smiles, willingly stepping forward to give her a gentle hug and a little nuzzle. And one last vision: the tent itself, with the tentflap wide open, a light glowing inside as the sun rises and sets behind it. She's always open for visitors!
That does help. Dreamy returns the nuzzling, the spring returning in her step when she starts to exit the tent, throwing back a big 'Thank You!' note vision!
Map, acquired!