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Post by Malcolm on Jun 22, 2020 20:30:30 GMT -6
So. This had been a terrible idea. Malcolm had been in this town maybe two weeks, and he had already decided that he hated this place. It reeked of animal dung wherever he went, and it seemed, for some incomprehensible reason, to be the vogue for everyone to make little zoos of their home. He couldn't go five steps without stumbling into a creature, well controlled or otherwise. he was pretty sure they outnumbered the people here ten to one if not moreso. ... And that meant, to blend in, he had to get one of his own. He had thought, very well, how about a horse? At least it could carry him around, which wasn't ideal, but since rickshaws and the like weren't common here, and beasts of burden were so easy to come by... But he had grossly underestimated several things. The first of which was how much dung a horse produced. 1
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 22, 2020 20:35:55 GMT -6
He didn't have enough money to afford 'help' just yet, seeing as he only arrived two weeks ago, and boy, was he ever feeling the sting. For now all he could do was grit his teeth and wear a perfumed bandanna as he worked, but soon...
... Well, that was why he had taken this job from this 'quest' board, wasn't it?
But the reason the horse was with him was because the man who had sold it to him had given him a little warning. 'Oh he looks sweet 'n docile now, but just you wait til he gets a li'l older! These Pure bloods, they decide you ain't been good enough to 'em, they up an' stop listenin' to ye altogether! Well, you get along now, sir. Be good to 'im, an' he'll be good to you!'
This accursed place. Even the horses had standards? Just who did they think they were?
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 22, 2020 20:39:30 GMT -6
"Let's get one thing straight here. I'm the one calling the shots here, got that?" said Mal, leading the horse by a... well, a lead. He didn't really know how to ride yet, and the horse didn't come with tack, and while it was trained--- which was a big part of the reason Mal had bought it to begin with, since brown was really not his color--- Mal wasn't exactly aching to fall off a tall animal.
But, well, if they were holding a gun to his head to spend time with the damn thing, at least he could lead it around town with him while he ran errands. Everyone here seemed to treat everything else as though it were a dog, so he couldn't look that strange if he was just following suit.
... Really, why couldn't the horse have been one of those gold-coated ones? Or a lovely vision in white, to better match Malcolm's own coloring; that would be something.
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 22, 2020 20:43:14 GMT -6
Unfortunately, he was stuck with a horse the color of dirt. And he was stuck going with it to find some bugs in some park, because that was the work to be had, and that was what people were paying good money for this month.
The things he did for the sake of his dreams... Goodness.
At least the park was easy to find. The layout of the city itself wasn't very complex. In fact, Malcolm wouldn't have deigned to call it a 'city' if the matter had been up to him. His own hometown had been a much grander example of the word than this strange little backwater. Armed with a map, a little patience, and a lifetime of navigating much more complicated streets, it didn't take him long at all to find it.
And there it was, filled with people and their... animals. Of course it was. Just like everywhere else.
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 22, 2020 20:46:54 GMT -6
Malcolm had chosen to come during the evening, since he was looking for 'glow moths', which presumably had habits similar to fireflies. What use was glowing during the day, when the sun inevitably drowned out whatever pathetic lights you could put out? Ideally the time to come would have been early nightfall, but he didn't want to get kicked in the dark by his spooked Designated Animal Companion, thank you very much. Evening it was, and they couldn't stay out too long either.
"I don't suppose you want to catch them for me," said Malcolm. "I could pay you in carrots." He said it in jest, of course, since he knew it could hardly be that convenient. The animals here were capable of some strange and unusual things, but he had been assured that the horse was, for all of its other bells and whistles, still of a perfectly ordinary horse-ish intelligence. Pity.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jun 25, 2020 13:02:15 GMT -6
No sign of the glowflies yet. Yet another shameful thing about this place, eh?
[Nothing happens.]
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 29, 2020 19:21:10 GMT -6
The horse merely stood there, being a horse. Its ears were pointed at him, but Malcolm didn't know whether that was a good thing or not. He supposed he should be flattered that it was paying attention, but really, it could start paying for its own food and board by doing something useful.
... Though it was odd that it wasn't putting up more of a fuss, to be honest. Animals didn't like Malcolm. This one had some manners, so maybe that had something to do with it. Or maybe the creatures here were just different enough that it didn't bother them that... Well, actually, he didn't know why animals didn't like him. Universal bad taste in the animal kingdom, probably.
He shrugged one shoulder and sighed. "It was a long shot, wasn't it? Well. Come along. I have to find these things first, before I can go about catching any."
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 29, 2020 19:24:19 GMT -6
The operative word here really was 'find'. Malcolm had been hoping this would be a quick, easy, one-and-done sort of deal, but when he got to the park, he couldn't immediately see any signs of anything glowing, moths or otherwise. There were plenty of things he didn't care to pay any attention to, like children, and old people, and couples out walking their bizarre household monstrosities. There were also plenty of mosquitoes, which told Malcolm that there was some sort of water source near by, and that he may regret coming out here this time of day. Not that he had much choice in the matter, but at least he would know not to come back on summer evenings unless he had to.
They did say rare glow moths, but... How rare could an insect be, anyway? "You don't suppose I could catch some of these and pass them off," he said, to the horse.
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 29, 2020 19:27:22 GMT -6
What a sure sign that he was starting to lose his mind in this place, that he was talking to the horse. It was just a jest, of course. There was nothing remotely glowing or mothlike about the mosquitoes, though they were rather larger specimens than he was used to seeing, and as fluent a liar as Malcolm was, he didn't think he could pull the wool over someone's eyes about that sort of thing when they were a society dedicated to the study of, well, bugs.
There was nothing to do but keep searching. Malcolm walked into the park with the horse following behind him, and smiled at passers-by if they made eye contact. Sure, he didn't want to be paying attention to random strangers, but there was no sense in being hostile about it. If you looked friendly, people trusted you more easily, and trust was a pretty powerful currency.
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 29, 2020 19:31:00 GMT -6
It wasn't as good as cold hard cash, of course, but then, nothing was. Still, it was very useful, and Malcolm wasn't the kind of fool who would go about inviting ill will by scowling at everyone he met. He had known fools like that, and he pitied them for their lack of foresight, every time.
... In fact. People were a valuable resource. Malcolm watched their reactions carefully, searching for any sign of suspicion, but apparently his guess had been on the money: it was perfectly normal to just take you... horse... to the park. When he smiled, other people smiled back. Well, some of them scowled or averted their gaze and walked away, but based on his sample size, he figured those were cases of it's-not-you-it's-me.
"Excuse me," he said, approaching an elderly woman out on a walk by herself. They seemed like a fairly likely prospect for information, he thought.
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Post by Malcolm on Jun 29, 2020 19:34:38 GMT -6
The couples were likely more absorbed with each other than their surroundings, and while children could be expected to notice insects, they also weren't terribly reliable sources. An elderly person, who perhaps lived in the area and knew it well, had decent odds of knowing where he could find what he was looking for, with the added benefit of coming with relatively few risks or complications. Malcolm brushed up his best, most winning smile, and was pleased to see the woman smiling back at him.
"Can I help you, young man? Oh, and my goodness, what a lovely Equillion you have with you."
"Thank you, that's very kind," said Malcolm, though privately he didn't really know what she saw in the horse. At least he assumed she was talking about the horse, anyway. They did call them something else here, though he hadn't really bothered to commit the name to memory himself.
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Post by Jack on Jul 2, 2020 18:38:32 GMT -6
Hmm, how odd, no glowmoths could be found here!
[Nothing happens]
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