Author Topic: A Bird in the Hoof  (Read 60 times)

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Offline Woodwind

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A Bird in the Hoof
« on: September 25, 2017, 08:24:25 pm »
Woodwind wakes with a start as the train pulls into the Ponyville train station. He stretches and rubs at his eyes as he gets up from his seat, gathering up his notebook and the large case that had been sitting on the bench next to him. He yawns as he steps off onto the platform, eyeing a nearby clock and taking a few moments to get his thoughts together. He's always been a nocturnal sort, and at this time of day he'd normally be in bed. There's going to be a meteor shower tonight, however, and the lights of Canterlot would make it hard to observe. He heads out of the train station and picks a direction to start walking with no real destination in mind. There's still many hours before it even gets dark, and all he really needs to do before then is find a good spot to get his telescope set up, which should be easy enough. All he has to do is fly up and take a look around. For now though he'll just take a walk, and maybe get a little something to eat. While he's been to Ponyville a few times in the past, his memory of where things are is lacking, though he's sure he'll find a restaurant of some kind eventually. As a matter of fact, it seems like there's a small cafe of some sort just on the next corner, and Woodwind is about to head that way when a small object suddenly falls right out of the sky, ricochets off his telescope case, and embeds itself into the dirt at his feet. He jumps back, his wings extending as he nearly takes to the air before he gets a hold of himself. He looks around in embarrassment though the other ponies on the street seem to have not payed him much mind. He turns back and with a little trepidation leans down to examine the object, which turns out to be a small metal statue of some kind of bird. Woodwind turns his eyes upward, but there's no window ledges it could have fallen from, nor pegasi to have dropped it. Curious now, Woodwind quickly digs it out of the dirt and it seems to be, miraculously, unharmed, though there's some kind of weird device attached to one wing. He's about to take a closer look when the thing suddenly moves, it's unencumbered wing half closing and a few short twitters coming out of the little statues body. Woodwind drops the bird, which twitches a few times and jerkily stands up. Woodwind looks around nervously before sitting down to examine the little robot(?!) more closely, which seems to be having problems moving one of it's wings. After a few more seconds, during which the little bird seems to get the rest of itself more or less under control, it turns and gives a wave at him with it's good wing. He blinks, surprised, and it gives chirps a few times as well. He frowns, unsure what to do... ah! his notebook! He reaches for it where it had fallen on the ground earlier and flips it open to the most recent page and scrawls out a quick "Hello! Can you read this?" and presents it to the bird.

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Offline Haywire

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Re: A Bird in the Hoof
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2017, 09:07:12 pm »
Ah yes, the feeling of being halfway embedded into the earth. Bubo knew this feeling well, despite his attempts to prevent it from becoming too familiar. Seemed that this, along with the earlier introduction to the side of a wagon was a sign that he and Haywire may need to address this issue yet again if ever Bubo could wrench himself free from the dirt and find him. This could take a while depending on when he'd finish diagnostics on what was getting jigged in his insides and work around the obvious limitations of being unable to actually see anything meaning he'd be working off of feel again and-

Oh, welp, someone was popping him from his crater it seemed. He found it unlikely that Haywire would have caught up to him so quickly so he wasn't surprised when he failed tor recognize the pony that had pulled him like a carrot from the ground. He wondered for a few seconds whether or not to just stay still and wait for a moment where the stranger wasn't watching him so as to just take flight and get away, but one of his wings was being especially stubborn today and didn't seem like it would be loosening up anytime soon. Guess he'd just have to roll the dice on this one.

Please don't be interested in seeing how this works on the inside, Bubo really didn't want to go through another city chase scene...

Bubo loosened up not long after being freed and soon dropped back down to the ground then went through his usual motions to try and work out the stiffness that so often plagued his body. As mentioned, one wing was not having it right now and would hinder any speedy escape by air leaving bubo to simply hope whoever this was didn't think he was some toy to be played with. With a few chirps he looked up and gave the pony a wave of his good wing and waited to see his reaction. Confusion was normal and writing a message was neat. Could he read that? Sure could, bubo spent hours a day pouring over Hay's blueprints and notes to try and help him make sense of them. Quickly taking in the few words on the page Bubo let out a string of chirps and bobbed his head down a few times to try and do his best impression of a nod. Allowing the pony a moment Bubo turned his attention to the sounds around him to listen for a familiar whistle that would help him get an idea of which direction he'd come from. his descent had been sudden and without warning as they most often are and with the fall he'd lost track of where he was. It didn't help that he didn't know the layout of Ponyville beyond the quick scanning he'd done from the air and as a result he'd have a hard time making his way back to either Haywire or finding this site he'd been sent to scout for and try to meet him there. He just needed to get his bearings...

If only he could get to high ground. He'd be able to find his way back no problem, or maybe even spot Haywire from there as the town wasn't very dense in its layout. The streets were wide, and Hay often times drew attention to himself when running around anyway. Hopping to face the pony better he caught site of the wings he was sporting and was relieved that this may possibly go a lot faster than he thought. He'd just have to figure out a way to convey that message to the stallion. Chirping was going to be futile, and it was difficult to do charades when half of your most expressive limbs were shut down. Uhm... writing maybe? he couldn't really use writing utensils very well and he didn't know how likely the pony might have had some ink or soft chalk with him.

Maybe it would be best to just watch his reaction first? It was possible the pony would just walk away or may not be the safest choice as of yet so he'd want to be sure before he started climbing all over him in an attempt to direct him to the sky.

Offline Woodwind

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Re: A Bird in the Hoof
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2017, 02:28:29 pm »
Well, that definitely seems like a yes. Woodwind nods himself to show that he understood, watching as the little mechanical bird looks around a bit, though it's hard to tell if it's looking for anything in particular. While it does that, he takes a moment to check over the case his telescope is carried in, though he's reluctant to take his eyes off the fascinating construct. There was a sizable dent in the side, as Bubo had hit it fairly hard, but the case had done it's job and it didn't seem the telescope would have been damaged. He turns back as Bubo faces him, apparently waiting for him to do something. He should probably ask it some questions, there are a lot of things he'd like to know about it after all, though it probably can't answer in any way he'd find meaningful... He thinks for a few moments, then scribbles a few things in his notebook. "Are you on your own here? Are you damaged? Do you need help?" Best to stick with simple yes/no questions for now, until he can figure out a better way to understand the little machine. Probably it has an owner or something around nearby, and he can get his questions answered better there. He hopes.

Offline Haywire

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Re: A Bird in the Hoof
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2017, 03:36:50 pm »
More writing. He must not be able to talk. What are the odds of meeting two ponies like this so close to each other? That was fine, Bubo was more or less in the same boat right now. At the question he turned his body a couple times to try and get across a negative for the first two then flapped his wing a few times and hopped as if trying to take off. Obviously he wasn't having much luck but he hoped the pony would understand what he was saying when he continued by pointing first to the pony's back and then skywards. He then brought the wing to his head and pretended like he was trying to look far into the distance and tilted his head with a chirp as if to ask if he understood.

Offline Woodwind

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Re: A Bird in the Hoof
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2017, 11:28:22 pm »
Woodwind watches as the bird does a little side to side motion, close enough to a head shake that he takes it as a no to the first two questions. It seemed like the little machine isn't actually... "hurt" might not actually apply, but it was close enough. Woodwind has no idea what could be causing the wing to stick though, if that was the case. Maybe there was something stuck in it? It clearly can't fly whatever the problem is, but of course, Woodwind doesn't have that problem. He nods, the pantomime being relatively easy to understand. The robotic bird wants to try to spot it's owner from the air. Flying might be a little awkward though... Woodwind shifts his wings a bit, the telescope case getting in the way. He wouldn't be able to really move much, but he should at least be able to make it to the rooftops, or possibly a low cloud. Before that though, he does have a couple more questions it might be able to answer, since he wouldn't be able to ask once they're airborne. "Is something stuck in your wing?" He's unsure if there's anything he'd even be able to do if there was, the machinery was likely quite intricate inside. "Which way should we start looking? Can you point the way?" He reaches down with his hoof to let Bubo hop onto his hoof, but waits to see if it will give a direction before taking off.