Scene #4055: Roadside Picnic

Owner	Pose
Blurr	Zoom zoom zoom. Blurr is zipping across the plains of some version of the US, sonic booms popping through the air as he nimbly jumps from interstate to interstate. Not too much traffic out here today, so he doesn't have to worry as much about accidentally knocking anyone off of the road. Not that it's actually happened--okay so it's happened once or twice. Maybe a few times. But no one was hurt! He comes up behind a couple of semitrucks and darts in between them, flipping sideways so that he can just barely fit in the space between the lanes. And probably giving them a scare. So maybe he's a bit of a showoff.
Inga Freyjasdottir	So, it seems Inga is having a picnic. Alone. Well, mostly alone. There's also a goat grazing nearby, muching grass happily while Inga lays in the sun, figuring she may as well enjoy the day since she's gotten herself fantastically lost again. Something quickly approaches down the nearby road, probably noisily. Inga, not recognizing Blurr just yet, makes the stink eye. Such unpleasant noise disturbing her picnic. Why would anyone want to travel so fast for fun? She can't imagine.
Blurr	Who would want to go that fast for fun? Is that even a question? The truck drivers are probably freaked out of their minds, which Blurr likely finds amusing. Silly humans! He darts ahead of them, driving up a ramp and jump off onto another highway headed directly toward Inga's picnic site. Speaking of Inga, the Autobot notices her lying in the grass and immediately veers off the road. He probably shouldn't have come charging toward her like that, but he stops just in time, flipping up into his more recognizable biped form. "Inga, hey!" he greets.
Inga Freyjasdottir	Suddenly, the speedy vehicle is veering straight toward her! Inga's eyes widen in sudden alarm and the goat bleets and bolts away as Inga tries to scramble to her feet, only to collapse in a heap and glare at Blurr as he transforms into his more recognizable form. "Blurr! By the gods! You scared the life out of me!" she complains, then turns to check on her goat...who is still running away. "And you've scared my goat away, bloody Hel!"
Twilight Sparkle	And then, as Blurr no doubt skids to a stop in front of Inga, there is a burst of purple-white light and a shower of sparkles as...Twilight Sparkle appears? She blinks, then looks around, then raises a hoof to her chin in a thinking posture. "...well...that wasn't supposed to happen." she says, then giggles a bit. "But, I suppose that is a good result!" She floats a notepad out and scribbles on it with a pencil before looking over at Inga and Blurr. The little purple pony smiles to them before waving a hoof. "Hello!"
Staren	Staren looks a little queasy, with singed or scorched patches on his clothing and hair. He coughs a cloud of smoke. "So that's what being magically teleported feels like... I'm okay..." Of course, such things only happen with /accidental/ teleports. Twilight knows what she's doing usually! But, unintended teleports are just one possible side effect of doing SCIENCE. He holds a hand up to his eyes, peering out at the bright sunny outdoors. "Where are we? Inga? Blurr?" He waves a little uncertainly with his left hand while continuing to use the right to shield his eyes, before remembering his goggles and pulling them over to protect against the sun. "Hi guys. What's up?" he dusts some soot off his coat.
Blurr	Blurr looks a little sheepish at Inga's indignance. "Uh--sorrysorrysorry!" Yes three 'sorries' in rapid succession. He glances at the goat, and darts forward a step or two to reach down and attempt to grab it and pick it up to keep it from escaping. And then Twilight and Staren suddenly appear. "Oh, uh--hi. You two look familiar. I have definitely seen you before, I swear to Primus I have. But uhm...what were your names again?"
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga lets out another small scream of surprise as Twilight Sparkle appears in a burst of light and sparkles, with Staren in tow. Inga sputters for a moment before squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath. Dignified. You are a dignified lady, Inga. "Twlight, Staren, how nice to see you both," she says, summoning a smile. Blurr had better go wrangle her goat or she's gonna wrangle him! "What is up? Well, I was having a nice picnic which I suppose I will now invite you all to join," she answers, motioning to the blanket on which she sits. "I was ah...exploring. Got a bit lost," per usual. The multiverse is confusing! Luckily, Blurr gets the goat! The goat bleats at him but puts up with being brought back over, at which point Inga distracts the beast with a sandwich. "Blurr, this is Staren and Twlight Sparkle. How strange you are not already acquainted," she says with genuine surprise. She figured everyone knew just about everyone.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight's ears splay back as Inga lets out that small shriek. But, when Inga tries to forget that she just did that, Twilight decides not to press the issue. "Oh, thank you!" she says to Inga before moving to join Inga. After helping to make sure Staren is not on fire from the unexpectedly powerful teleportation. Twilight looks up at Blurr, then hmms. "I am not sure we have met before...which seems like it would be easy to remember! I don't know many large robots. Just Staren's constructs and the Star Hawk." she says with a smile. "How are the two of you doing today?"
Staren	Staren blinks at Blurr. "Staren. Your ally in the Union... I guess we haven't seen eachother in awhile. it's okay, I forget stuff all the time, you just can't tell because I have a computer in my head reminding me." he taps the side of his head, just below his ear, then waves a hand at Twilight. "And this is Twilight Sparkle! I dunno if you've met." Staren runs a hand through his hair and looks to Inga. "You got lost? Umm... would it help to have a map, or... or would it be better if I stopped trying to solve every problem I see and just enjoyed the picnic?" Every once in awhile he does have a glimmer of self-awareness. "Um... what's the goat for?"
Blurr	The goat flails its legs, but Blurr brings it back over and puts it back down near Inga as gently as possible as she feeds it a sandwich. Phew, that was a close one. "Well if you're lost and need a ride somewhere as soon as you're done out here, I could help you out." He arches an optic ridge a little. "'Picnic'?" The Autobot glances down at the blanket on the ground as she motions toward it. "That's a weird word." Then Inga mentions names. "Oh, right. Staren. And Twilight. I'm acquainted with them, I just didn't remember what their names were. I see a lot of different people, it's hard to keep everyone's names straight." he shrugs. "Sorry about that!" he glances apologetically at both of them.
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga smiles to Twilight, then pulls a bit more food out of her pouch. She hadn't planned for so much company, but due to her little pocket to agartha she is plenty ready for it with ample tacos. It is now a taco picnic. There's also tea, which is still hot and ready to pour. Magic is lovely. Inga looks to Blurr, mollified now that he goat has been caught. "Yes, a picnic. It is apparently what you call eating out of door," Inga offers with a shrug. "It's very popular from what I understand." "Well, as I was wandering I happened past a farm and I thought I had been needing a new goat so...I purchased her," she explains to Staren. "Hopefully she'll get along well with the others..." Back to Blurr. "A ride...ah..I think I'll manage. I can just sort of...use my conduit to the world tree and can find my way back from there," she explains. Inga isn't a huge fan of riding in cars or giant robots and whatnot. "So, that explains me. What are you all doing here? Wherever here is. I don't actually know," she says with a blink. "Maybe a map would be useful," she asides to Staren.
Staren	Staren blinks as Inga explains she needed an additional goat. "You... collect goats?" So Inga is okay with a map! He's not forcing solutions on people this time! In a flash, he's pulled a tablet computer from his pocket and is showing maps from the Union database. They're pretty general, actually, it's not like someone's mapped this exact spot... but for orienting oneself in the multiverse? (See +map) "We're in a region called the Planetary Plains... sorry, the Strait of the Americas. On Earth," as he describes, a picture-in-picture appears showing the globe of earth, initially centered on Scandinavia and then rotating southwest and highlighting the continents in question, "there are continents called North and South America. For some reason, copies of North America from several different worlds have unified into the surface of the Multiverse here." North America is pulled off the globe and the picture-in-picture view zooms out, showing a diagram of endless North Americas connected in a line.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight looks a bit sheepish when Inga asks what they are doing here. "Well, I was practicing my long-range teleportation magic, and apparently the magic got tangled up a bit. I am not entirely sure how we ended up here, but at least we were not caught in the fabric between dimensions and didn't have our molecules scattered like dust!" Twilight takes a seat on the blanket and accepts some food, making sure it is vegitarian of course. She watches Staren's display, her ears perked in interest while she nibbles on her food item. "I wonder if there is a strait of Equestrias somewhere?"
Blurr	Blurr nods at Inga's explanation of picnic, peering down at the tea and tacos with a degree of curiosity. "Interesting," he replies, then glances at the goat. "What do you do with the goats?" It's probably a good thing Inga has declined the ride. Blurr doesn't have a very good understanding of human anatomy and therefore riding in him can sometimes make one ill, although at least he knows how to prevent them from getting flattened by G-forces. To her final question. "Me? Oh, nothing. Just patrolling, and kind of racing with myself I guess." And showing off, of course. "Hmm, a map? I could send one over to your hailing frequency. Er--your laptop. I mean phone. I mean, desktop. Slag what do the humans call them??"
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga looks at Staren, her expression one of utter puzzlement. "Collect goats? I...keep animals as I was always lead to believe was the natural thing to do but I suppose you have a very different upbringing than my own," she says. "I have goats and chickens and sheep are on my list for the future. It is just what I am used to...though I do like to buy yarn, even though I enjoy spinning its nice to see those brightly colored skeins all wrapped up and squishy and soft..." Inga goes a little starry eyed for a moment, then clears her throat and reaches for tea. Inga looks to Twilight, blinking. She smiles, though her eyes say she is quite lost. "Yes, at least not that," she replies. Anyway, maps! Inga's eyes go wide again, this time with wonder. "That is incredible...I cannot read the words of course but...well, I hope there are landmarks to go by at least," she responds quietly. "And that over there, that is where Uppsala is yes? I've been shown a map before," she asks, pointing toward Sweden. Back to Blurr, Inga sighs. "Well, they are for milk or meat or for sacrifice," she explains to Blurr. People these days ask the silliest questions. "I don't have any of those things. Can't have a computer. Harry destroys them by being in the general vacinity for some reason," she offers with a shrug. Doesn't bother her any, she doesn't trust the things anyway.
Staren	It takes a second for it to click in Staren's head. Oh, Uppsala must have been a farming village. Or from a culture that didn't treat 'farmer' as a specialization, where everyone just kept their own livestock. Makes sense. He nods. "Ah, right. Yes. Different situations." Staren smiles at the look of wonder. Not taking joy in her ignorance, rather, glad to see she's interested in learning. Isn't the Multiverse cool? Twilight's question he responds with, "I wouldn't be surprised if there's one /somewhere/ in the Multiverse, but given the anthropocentric nature of Sector 0, I doubt there's one around here. Maybe there's another area where ponies are common and humans are the rarity, such a place might be more likely to have a Strait of Equestrias." To Inga he nods, the diagram going away as the picture-in-picture fills the screen instead, returning to the globe and centering on Scandanavia, then where she's pointing. "I think so?" After a second, the map goes away, to be replaced by the wikipedia page for Uppsala. Then he realizes she can't read, and changes it to a slideshow of the images. "Well, here's what it looks like now I guess... and a map and painting from the 18th century..."
Staren	Staren frowns slightly. Can't have a computer... He looks to Twilight. "I wonder if it would be possible to make a magical computer? Oh! Or perhaps, more simply, a magical dumb terminal!" He grins as he begins to see a solution coming together in his mind. "It doesn't have to be a whole magical /computer/, does it, the physical machine can be stored somewhere else, and just use magic to display the screen contents and relay keypresses and mouse movements and stuff..."
Twilight Sparkle	"I would not mind a ride back! I doubt I could duplicate the spell to get back to Equestria from here." Twilight says to Blurr, smiling cheerfully. She has no idea that she might be putting her life in danger. Staren starts talking about magical computers, and Twilight shrugs lightly. "Many things are possible with magic, and I have a computer already. I am sure it would not be difficult to make a magic computer." she says before nibbling on her food again.
Blurr	Blurr listens to Inga but much of what she says goes way over his head. Yarn? Spinning? Soft skeins? "Sacrifice for what? Meat I assume you meant you eat it. And milk is that stuff your juveniles drink right?" Now of course he has assumed she has children. "What's yarn? Who's Harry? Well maybe I could give you a chip with a mini-projector. Unless Staren's going to give you that datapad." He glances at Twilight. "Equestria, is that the planet you're from? What are you anyway?" She looks like some kind of a cross between a horse and a human to him. "Oh, sure I could get you a ride back. Just tell me where to go and I can get you there."
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga watches Staren, her expression changing rapidly as he begins the slideshow of Uppsala--of what it looks like now. Her eyes grow shiny with sudden tears as she watches, seeing not so much that is familiar aside from the great grave mounds. The temple is gone, and the trees where the sacrifices were hung, and of course her little cottage would not have remained.. "Looks...quite different now," she says quietly, looking down and fussing with the teapot while she schools her emotions. Inga looks up to Blurr, raising a brow. "Ah...yarn is spun from wool--a moment," she says, then digs into her bag, pulling out a ball of yarn to show him. "The wool for a sheep is taken, carded, then spun so that it holds this shape. It is used to make clothes," she explains. "And as for Harry, Harry is my--" pause, searching for a word... "Partner," she settles on how he most often refers to her. "A magic computer? Really I don't think it necessary! We have the ah, magic radio...thing I think it will suffice! Trust me, Harry's magic would find a way to break even a magic computer I'm sure. Strange effect of the magic in his world. Wizards and technology do not mix," she shrugs.
Staren	Inga is... crying? What did he do wrong what did he do what did he-- Oh. A memory from a dream suddenly comes to him. "I'm, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking..." Fortunately, the conversation turns to other subjects. "Ah, I... well, I think any problem can be overcome with a clever enough solution, but I won't push."
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight notices the look in Inga's eyes, and stretches out a hoof to gently pat Inga on the arm in what is meant to be a comforting motion. She looks over to Blurr after that. "Equestria is the name of our land, yes." she says to Blurr, smiling gently. "And, I am a unicorn pony, one of the three pony races that comprise the population of Equestria. We also have other creatures living among us, such as donkeys, griffons, zebras, and even a cute little purple and green dragon!" Twilight also reaches to pat Staren as well. "Hey, come on you guys. We are having a fun picnic! You know what Pinkie Pie says when people get sad? That you should laugh instead! Um...let's see..." Twilight thinks a few moments, then her ears perk. "Ah! I've got it! A neutron walks into a bar and asks for a drink. It asks the bartender 'What do I owe you?' and the bartender says, 'For you, no charge.'" Twilight giggles profusely after her 'joke'.
Staren	Staren's put the tablet back in his pocket now that the conversation has moved on. At Twilight's joke he grins and gives her a double-fingergun gesture. "Ehhhhhhhhhh!"
Blurr	Blurr nods at Twilight's answer. "Huh. Noted." He also listens to Inga, and peers down at the ball of yarn she had produced a fair bit of curiosity. "Sheep, oh yeah those are the ones with the really thick fur. So you make your clothes out of it, that's cool. Harry is your partner? Well maybe you should tell him not to destroy all your technology, especially since you're working together." He smirks at Twilight's joke. "That was--" He shakes his head. "Sort of funny, I guess. But I think I must have heard that one from Wheeljack about a million times."
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga smiles softly to Staren, shaking her head. Apology not necessary. "Quite alright Staren. Really, I had to see it sometime hmm?" she replies, apparently recovered. To Twilight she also smiles in appreciation for the kind gesture of comfort. The joke however, is met with a blank expression. "...I don't get it," she says. However, she does laugh at Blurr's remarks. "We live togethers, partners in more than work," she laughs. "Besides, we get on fine with what technology we have," she says. A spinning wheel was modern technology to Inga, nevermind a computer.
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight has her turn to look a bit befuddled at Staren's response to her joke. She smiles as best she can, then blinks as Blurr mentions that he has heard the joke several...thousand times. At Inga's blank expression, Twilight blinks. "Oh! Forgive me, Inga! Um...let me see if I know a joke more appropriate to your time period..." she says. She thinks about possible jokes as Inga talks with Blurr, but Twilight is no comedian. "Let's see..."
Twilight Sparkle	"Oh! I know!" Twilight clears her throat. "A pony walks into a bar." Twilight pauses for effect, then. "...and wakes up in a hospital!"
Blurr	"Oh, you live together? So you're like bunkmates? Or are you more like endurae?" Blurr...doesn't have a very solid concept of what 'married' means. A long time ago, a sort of Cybertronian equivalent to that was a common practice, but as the war raged on, it became less and less common. He stares at Twilight as she tells another joke that he doesn't get at all. "Uh..."
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga blinks at Twilight. It takes her a moment, but she then laughs. It took her a moment to put it all together, but then it was funny! Inga snickers to Blurr. "Ah, sure. I don't know what endurae means however...?"
Staren	"I... I thought maybe you'd already visited it, on other Earths..." Well, now everyone's distracted by Twilight's joke! He's tempted to tell his own joke, but Inga won't appreciate the calculus one. Or the one about hotels not having 13th floors. Or about how B should be unlucky because it looks like a squished-together 13... Um... What's the joke said to be the most universally funny? It's a bit morbid, but the technology involved should all be stuff Inga's encountered by now... but he can't bear to tell that joke in front of Twilight. Ugh, this is a toughie. Twilight's got another joke to try, though! "Um... I think in that presentation, it's kind of unclear. Maybe like... a pony walks into a bar. Ow! Or, a pony walks into a bar. The next pony ducks under it."
Twilight Sparkle	Twilight seems confused as Blurr doesn't get it. It makes her reconsider her assumptions about Cybertronians. But, Inga laughs, and that's who she wanted to laugh. Twilight smiles happily, then stands. "Well, we should get back to Equestria. Spike will need to be put to bed soon, and I need to reshelf the day's books before bed. It was pleasant unexpectedly running into the both of you!" Twilight says cheerfully. She then moves to nuzzles Staren lightly. "Shall we?"
Blurr	"An endura is, uh--" Blurr pauses, trying to think of the best way to explain. "It's like elected kinship. People you designate to be part of your family. Let's see," He considers a moment, then continues. "see you know how humans don't get to choose who their family members are? Since you guys are born to someone. Well, on Cybertron, we used to elect our family members ourselves. I think. It was a long time ago. Not a lot of people do it much any more. Since--" he looks downcast. "you know, a lot of times they end up getting killed."
Inga Freyjasdottir	Inga nods to Twilight and Staren. "Yes indeed, it was nice seeing you both. Take care," she says, and starts gathering up her things. She might as well head out as well. She nods to Blurr. "Well, suppose it is a bit like that then. We're...mates," she says with a slight blush and a smile. "Anyway, I should get the new goat home as well. Have fun with your racing," she says to Blurr.
Staren	Staren does not think there's anything about Harry's and Inga's relationship that necessitates beating around the bush. Maybe he should ask why Inga's cagey about it. Or maybe he probably shouldn't. He too looks a bit downcast at Blurr's explanation, but then Twilight reminds him they need to be getting home. He puts an arm around her withers and smiles, "Yes, good to see you again, but we'd better be going!" Staren initiates a series of controlled teleport hops to bring them to the nearest warpgate.