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[truefriendship]

Who: My Little Phonies
Where: All around the mansion
When: 10/19 - 10/21
Rating: THIS IS A CHILDREN'S SHOW
Summary: Starlight Glimmer is making poor life choices. Everyone else gets to suffer now.
The Story:

Maybe you're outside, enjoying the fall weather. Maybe you're in the kitchen, or just wandering the halls. It doesn't matter. As soon as you lay eyes on that purple pony, walking around with a cyan-glowing horn and an insufferably smug look on her face, your world will twist.

Suddenly you're on four hooves, not two feet. You have a mane. Maybe you're lucky enough to have wings, or a horn. You aren't a human now. You're a pony, your special talent emblazoned on your flank to show the world who you are.

But clearly, this is how things have always been, right? Pay no attention to your memories of hands, this is normal now.


[ooc: Feel free to make your own top levels and go wild! See here for ooc plotting. Also here if you want to make a custom pony.]

Comments

[angewiesen]

"Stuff we've talked about?" Jean knocked his head to the side, and then thoughtfully sat down on his rump. "We have a lot of 'cultural exchanges,'" (hoof made air-quotes included) "And... I dunno, fishing? Depressing stuff. You asked once on one of your posts if anyone feels like they're a different person than who they were when they first came here."

So no, his memory was pretty good.

[ssmisery]

The wing closes again, and Lapis falters, her muzzle scrunching up. Since she's merely a pony-shaped gem, she still has a stone embedded in her back as always; but since she IS pony-shaped, she can actually see it a little. Like, it's still kinda awkward (especially with MLP's freaking giant heads and tiny bodies) but that's a heck of a lot better than a humanoid body can manage without outside assistance or shapeshifting.

And there's something fundamentally weird, fundamentally foreign, about properly catching sight of herself. If she wasn't already sure something was wrong, somehow that little detail would clinch it. Still, if she can't put her hoof on why, it's just another vague off feeling, adding no new clues to the mystery. All she can do is stubbornly hold onto that feeling and hope to do something with it before it slips away again.

All that said... she shakes her head, turning it back to Jean. The memories check out so far and that's probably not even the right lead, but she has to pursue something, and that means pushing for specifics.

"What do you know about gems so far?" It's the first followup that comes to mind given her train of thought, but to be fair, if we're generally sorting out facts it's not an unreasonable question; she knows she's not the only one he's talked to.

[angewiesen]

"Well, you're rocks. You've all got a rock on you somewhere and that's you-- whatever shape you take isn't really alive, it's just like... a tool."

"And you aren't totally unique, like humans are. Peridot told me there's actually tons of other Peridots running around, so there's probably more Lapises and Pearls and what-not. You're all made-- by who, I don't know-- to do a certain job that you know how to do right away and that's... All you do. You and the others here live on Earth and you've broken away from, uh, what'd'you'callit. Homeworld. And you do what you want, which is a weird thing for Gems to do. You're all rebels or something. And you're really proud of it too."

[ssmisery]

She listens patiently without any outward reaction. It's a pretty decent summary, for the most part -- from Lapis's perspective, not a summary of gems, but a summary of what things a non-gem finds notable. All culture and society, little cold hard data about how they actually work, which goes to show that he has been talking to her a lot.

He's not right about everything, of course, although it's good of him to be so cooperative. "What do you know about me?" she continues, on a cautious whim. A question like that can be dangerous, and she generally can't afford to spare much concern for what anyone else thinks of her, but somehow she's surprisingly curious now.

[angewiesen]

"Like, about you? Or about you?"

Sorry, he didn't really know how else to get that across. Her as Lapis the Gem or her as Lapis, the individual being?

[ssmisery]

That gets a raised brow and a dry "What, has someone been saying things about me?" Once again it's not clear to exactly what extent she got what he meant and would simply rather be sarcastic.

[angewiesen]

"Nah, not like that," Jean raised a hoof thoughtfully. "I mean about you, Lapis, not you Lapis the Gem. I've never heard anyone aside from Peridot say anything about you anyways."

[ssmisery]

Lapis gives a horsey shrug, which is also a lot like just stretching her back and shoulders. It looks comfy. She runs out of her limited curiosity fast, though. "I dunno. It's not like you've met any other Lapis Lazulis to compare. We're not even that common on Homeworld."

[angewiesen]

"Okay, then what I know about you."

He paused again to think, then started.

"Well, you're kinda mysterious. Or at least you like to be thought of that way. Privacy, like you said. But when I got to know you, I found you're just really direct. You say what you want to say, not more, not less. So sometimes you're hard to get answers out of. But sometimes you can be contemplative too. And then you can turn right around and be sarcastic in the same sentence."

"I honestly don't know if there's anything you really care about, but you do tend to show up when I've got something to say, so... Maybe you do. In your own weird way."

[ssmisery]

There is a substantial silence at the end of that, Lapis looking a bit frozen. She doesn't know what she was expecting, other than the question potentially being a bad idea; she's not sure whether it was or not. None of that was awful to hear, but...

well, she doesn't know what to do with it. There are reasons she generally can't bring herself to care what anyone else thinks. If this had been a terrible idea, if she had found the answer really objectionable, Jean is someone she'd be very comfortable telling to shut up and move on, but it's not that. Maybe she just wasn't expecting that level of thoughtful analysis. He may find her mysterious, but it makes her feel kind of exposed. Of course, it's not like she goes around giving out details about her life or her history, so what else was he supposed to do?

Regardless, the moment must pass like all others and Lapis does eventually manage to answer.

"Huh. All right," is what she says, very very blandly. That level of non-response could be construed as a sort of 'shut up and move on' of its own, perhaps, but in another moment she adds, "You're... not bad to talk to." Almost reluctantly, as if that's the one time she has to explain herself or something,

[angewiesen]

When given a little time to contemplate, Jean had a rather analytical mind, towards both problems and people. His strong sense of intuition was part of the reason he'd survived so long as a soldier. He knew how to spot trouble when it was coming, and was a quick judge of character when the chips were down. Both traits that would serve him well someday in the future, when he'd take on his own role of command.

"Pfft," Jean blew air through his lips and rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks. What a glowing compliment."

He hadn't exactly complimented Lapis in any way either, but still. This was their regular mode of conversation.

"So? Able to figure anything out yet?"

[ssmisery]

"Not a thing." She sighs. "If our memories match up, I don't even know what else to try. Maybe this is pointless."

[angewiesen]

"Well, if an event's going on, it'll end eventually. Then we'll figure it out after the fact. Though I don't think that satisfies you."

[ssmisery]

"Of course not," she agrees, but that's pretty resigned too. Lapis doesn't particularly expect things to be satisfying around here. "I guess I'll keep going. Have fun out here."

[angewiesen]

"It's not fun, it's training," he retorted with a grumble, but didn't pause to pull one of his swords out of his sheathes with his mouth and take back to the skies. No reason to waste the day ruminating of there was now way to figure it out.