fandomtownies | The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (2/1)

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The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (2/1)

...well, Steph had brought this on herself, hadn't she? It was going to make it a little bit difficult to restock the shelves today, and it was weird to not have a beanie on her head ~~due to an inability to find a cooperative generator with that option~~ but also? It was a little bit awesome even if Saffron had yowled and darted off to perch atop the highest shelf. She refused to come down from there now, and hissed at Steph every time she passed by.

"You know, I really can't blame you for that," Steph told her.

It was slightly awkward to have to call her online gaming group and explain to them that today's session was cancelled because she was a little bit, uh, indisposed, but look, she couldn't roll dice very well today.

On the upside? She'd discovered that her hooves sounded awesome against the wood flooring of the main shop area, and would be spending a lot of time today just trotting up and down the aisles to experiment with the sound and rhythm.

[OOC: Open, though inevitably SP today.]

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By the time afternoon rolled around, Watts was aware something was going on, if not exactly what. The staff at the Perk had been surprised to note he had hands, though.

Said hands were currently holding on to a tray with two mochas and a couple oatmeal blueberry muffins- the latter had been on special today so he figured why not.

“Hello, St- ah. Steph?” He was too busy staring to notice that his hat had missed its mark when he went to hang it up and instead of resting on a tentacle it had flopped on to the floor.

Steph was in the middle of stomping out a complicated pattern with her hooves at the time.

"Llewellyn! You're still you!"

Cool, at least that wasn't her fault!

Watts reflexively glanced down as if to ensure that he was, in fact, himself.

“I am, yes. And you are- not? At least, you don’t look like you.”

"The rainbow on my ass wasn't a dead giveaway?" Steph asked, laughing and swishing her tail just because she could. "This is what I get for making jokes about it the other day."

“You made a joke about turning in to a colourful horse?” Watts wondered, setting the coffee and muffins down on the counter. “That seems- oddly specific.”

Steph sighed. "Not... specifically a colorful one. Vi and I were talking about always turning into cats, and I said something about not assuming that because it could be ponies next time ~~which my player said having totally forgotten this was coming up lol~~."

She eyed the coffee somewhat mournfully.

"It's amusing so far, but the lack of thumbs is going to get old really quick."

“Why the long face?” Watts asked, not quite connecting the dots regarding the potential difficulty drinking a coffee in her current shape presented.

Somehow Steph hadn't expected her groan to sound so different, but considering... well... current aforementioned long face it made sense that it sounded much more like an exasperated whicker.

"I both hate and love that you said that. But... thumbs, dude." She held up one hoof and waved it near the coffee. "Maybe if you take the lid off, I can at least get to what's inside?"

If it helped any, it had been a genuine question and not meant as a joke?

“I suppose that does explain why the oatmeal muffins were on sale,” Watts said as he obligingly took the lid off one of the coffee cups. “If this is- a widespread phenomena.”

No, no, accidental or not it was a good joke! The groan was a badge of honor.

"The oatmeal muffins were --" she shook her head ruefully, rainbow mane swishing. "Someone at the Perk thinks they're funny. No, that actually is funny."

“Got one for myself as well,” Watts said, taking a bite out of one muffin while sliding the other closer to Steph. “They’ve blueberries in them too.”

"Thanks," Steph told him, genuinely, and propped her forelegs up on the table with one hoof on either side of the muffin to hold it in place while she nibbled at the top of it. "Were... any other people ponies that you noticed so far?"

“Not that I’ve seen?” Watts admitted ~~because he wasn’t a morning person, and thus missed the grumpy herd at the Perk earlier~~. “Steven certainly wasn’t.”

Thank goodness, because waking up with a horse seemed nearly as awkward as waking up as one.

"That would have been awkward," Steph said wryly, "to grossly understate things. But I appreciate that you still have hands and can bring baked goods and don't have to have a cutesy graphic stamped on your butt."

Which would have been a pretzel, undoubtedly.

Did he twist to glance at his backside even so?

Absolutely.

“I am glad to be of whatever assistance I can. Though, I must say- your colouring, if highly unusual, is rather fetching.”

Valid reaction, really.

"Thanks. It's pretty dope, right?" Steph asked brightly. "Very rainbow, so I naturally approve. But now I'm trying to figure out what color pony you would be."

Don't think she wouldn't draw this when she had thumbs again, Watts.

"Very... dope," Watts said, echoing the slang term with some uncertainty, because that was one of those words for which he had a very different association. "You are? What are your thoughts?"

"I honestly can't decide," Steph admitted, "because your aesthetic is way more refined than mine is, but I feel like there should definitely be some kind of plaid involved."

"Normally I would say I don't believe horses come in plaid, but before today I would've said a rainbow-coloured mane would be out of the question as well."

Steph shook a hoof at him playfully.

"It's Fandom, Llewellyn. You seriously can't be surprised by these things by now."

"Well- yes and no?" Watts tried. "I am no longer surprised by the concept of waking up in- a different body. But I maintain my right to be surprised by what, exactly, Fandom decides to transform people into."

Steph laughed and took another awkward nibble of her muffin, which she was starting to smush between her hooves.

"Yeah, that's absolutely fair. Asking how, on the other hand, might just be an exercise in self-punishment."

“That I resigned myself to not knowing the moment I accepted that I would, in fact, be traveling in to the future,” Watts told her.

"That... was extremely intelligent of you," Steph declared, blowing some of her mane out of her eyes. "How've you been, anyway?"

“All right, mostly,” Watts said. “This time of year is- not my favourite,” he admitted. “But Steven and I are planning a trip to Barbados over the school break.”

"Really racking up the frequent portal miles," Steph remarked, swishing her tail; her expression was sympathetic, maybe even more so than usual thanks to the huge pony eyes. "I don't think I ever asked, but what goes into choosing where you go on these trips?"

"Oh, any number of factors," Watts said. "Portugal and Peru were- 'bucket list items', as they say. For myself and Steven respectively. Then an opportunity came to visit London, and of course I wanted to see where he was from. Which, naturally, meant a visit to Toronto of my era in return," he grimaced a little, because that trip had been... not the most relaxing, what with the murder and then the whole... private detective situation. There had been other trips as well, of course, but Steph didn't need a rundown of the reasoning for all of them. "This trip, the defining criteria was 'somewhere warm and sunny'."

"So, you were saying," Vi said, trying not to hit anything with her wings, because apparently it wasn't enough to just turn into a bright pink pony.

"I know," Steph sighed. "I know. This is all my fault, I'll own that. So not fair that you get wings, though."

"They're more trouble than they're worth," Vi grumbled. "I keep nearly crashing into buildings when I try to fly."

"So no asking you for a ride, huh?" Steph asked. "Damn."

On any other day, that would hae gotten an eyebrow waggle, but apparently being a pony was the one thing that could put a brake on Vi's libido.

"If you were still you-shaped, I'd try, but as it is..."

Steph had fully expected an eyebrow waggle, and looked a little surprised when Vi didn't do it.

"Yeah, I know. Bad idea. You still look badass, though. Adorably."

If Vi was going to hit on any pony, it'd be Steph.

She shoulder bumped her, trying to keep her wings under control. "You're pretty adorable yourself."

Steph got whapped lightly in the eye by a wing anyway, but she didn't seem to mind.

"I am somehow even more obnoxiously gay than usual," she said, flipping her surprisingly luxurious rainbow mane. "Think we can get the gremlins to take a picture of us like this?"

Vi's own mane was a short, shaggy mess. "If they're not inclined to, I'm sure Little Bit can persuade them."

Steph grinned at her and trotted over to pull her phone out from behind the counter with her teeth.

"Is it wrong that I just really need to make sure Ryan's brain breaks again?"

"You do it out of love," Vi said. "Should we send him video?"

Steph turned big, grateful pony eyes on Vi. "You're the most supportive ever. And hell yes."

"I'll see if I can hover, really mess with him." Sorry, not sorry, Ryan.

"You're the best," Steph told her delightedly, and reached out with one foreleg to try and sort of ruffle Vi's mane. "And you look fucking adorable like this. I can't get over it."

Vi shook her head and leaned across to bump her muzzle against Steph's. "It's so weird," she said. "When I'm a cat I kind of forget I'm supposed to be a person, but I definitely know I'm not meant to be a pony right now."

Steph made a contented noise -- pretty different from the usual human sort she made -- and nuzzled at Vi's face.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Hopefully that means this won't last too long?"

Because her place, especially the sleeping area, was really not optimized for ponies.

"Hopefully," Vi said. "It's hard to roll dice or open cat food without thumbs.

"And I can't ask Little Bot to do everything," Steph agreed with a sigh. "At least when one of us turns into a cat, the other one is still human."

Vi let out a lot of of whickering laugh. "If we were both cats at the same time, Saffron would probably quit."

"We'd be stealing her whole thing!" Steph agreed, stamping her hoof in amusement. "Poor Little Bot would have his hands full trying to keep us all fed."

"And Saffron doesn't like sharing when we're human," Vi pointed out, shaking her mane.

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The Magpie Emporium, Thursday (2/1)

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