Wanderlust: Equestrian Nights

Wandering Eye takes a seat and looks over the menu. "Hmm, I'll have the tulip sandwich and salad. As for wine... I'll have the Pinot Noir." He looks over at the twins, wondering what they'll have...

((My ignorance of wine is matched only by my ignorance of... several other things. I do believe there's some wine with Noir in the name, however.))

Bubbling Spring grumbles a bit, conjuring some water to splash in his hair to draw out the alcohol. "New sign. It insists that we not jump. I'm inclined to ignore it at this point, but in all likelihood I'll end up falling on my own head, just like your whiskey." He spreads out his magic in both directions, hoping to find the door somewhere along the staircase. "Any suggestions?"

At the sound and smell of the whiskey splashing, Jack snickers. "Well yeah, jumping inwards sounds like a good plan if we feel like falling forever or possibly breaking existence. What about jumping outwards? Is that a thing that can be a thing?"

((It's okay Dusk, I don't know much either; I'm making it up as I go. Read this, and go check your PM please?))

Discord blinks a bit. "Oh? Not quite! Clearly, you have never had the fine dining experience before! But that's alright, I had to explain it to Applejack and Rainbow Dash as well. You see, here we have four different courses; a salad, soup, main, and desert courses. There are also two 'in-between' courses to occupy the pallete in between courses; a fruits plate and a cheese cart. And, ideally, even differing wines for each; but I only have access to one kind at a time for complicated reasons. Ah well..."

---

As Spring's magic tries to parse the staircase, it confrims what the map had already confirmed to him. (But not, interestingly, Jack...) As the spell tries to parse the non-Euclidean geography, Spring's brain insists that this staircase shouldn't be possible as his spell begins to implode...

((Will check, please, max DC 30. You suffer a -2 penalty to Arcana checks, length depending on how high you roll.))

Bubbling Spring curses quietly and rubs his horn as his magic winks out. "I think it we jump outwards we'll eventually land on the staircase again. I can't find the door magically, so I guess maybe we should just turn back and hope we walk into it?"

OOC:

At this point Water's eyes are spinning. It's her sister who knows how to deal with this fancy-shmansie-stuff, not her. Soft handles it with a breeze. "I think Water and I will both take the chef's special, and whichever wines go best with that each course."

"I see." Wandering Eye looks to the menu. "Let's see... I'll have this salad here, and the carrot soup, and the moussaka, and lastly for desert, the raspberry chocolate chip cannoli. Ah, and for the in-between dish I'll have the fruits plate. And, of course, the wine I mentioned before." Wandering Eye smiled.

((turns out, if you Google "fine vegan dining" you can come up with a lot of stuff.))

((I have no idea what half that stuff is. This should be fun.))

Discord grins at the selections made. "Right away!" he says, snapping his fingers; wine glasses and two bottles of Pinot Noir (according to the label) pop into existence. Another snap, another flash, and the salad course pops in. The twin's salads consist of your basic lettuce leaves arranged in a sort of valley, with what they first think to be flowers occupying the center; however, further inspection reveals it to be an elaborate arrangement of lettuce and cabbage leaves. How it was accomplished is anybody's guess, but the flower-salads match the Twin's appropriately color-wise.

Wandering Eye's has been treated with similar artistic flair; again,the lettuce forms a sort of base, with sliced carrots and cucumbers making a shape eerily not unlike his Cutie Mark...

"I'll be back shortly with the next course. The wine pours itself, but don't call it 'sir', it works for a living." Another snap, another flash, and the Draconequus vanishes. The trio can hear a string quartet being piped in from... Somewhere. They can't identify a source, and probably shouldn't worry about it too much.

Wow, Wandering Eye thinks, Discord really went all-out with this. using his telekinesis, he levitates a piece of cucumber to his mouth and takes a bite. He really isn't experienced in fine dining so he hopes he isn't breaking some bizarre unwritten rule. After finishing the cucumber slice he decides to try and open up a conversation with, "So, what else haven't we talked about..."

Water picks up a fork with her hoof and starts eating the salad, Soft doing the same with her telekinesis. "This is really good. Anyway, I don't think we really know as much about you as you do about us. Tell us about yourself?" Water gives a short laugh. "It sounds like we're interviewing him for a job! This is how you do it: so, where are you from?"

Taking a cue from the twins, Wandering Eye uses his telekinesis to pick up a fork before eating a bit more. "You're right, I haven't talked much about myself... well, I currently live in Canterlot, but I was born in a Diamond Dog town called Barkham." Bite. "As you probably know, I'm here on behalf of the University of Canterlot. I work there as a professor of ancient history, specifically the time before Celestia and Luna came to power." Another bite, and a slight hesitation. "I also do work with ancient magical artifacts, such as, apparently, Discord's travel case."

"I actually don't get a lot of free time... most of the time I'm doing work, or things related to work - I do enjoy my job, after all." He takes another bite while he considers his response. "But I do like reading, for instance."

"Anohter book nerd? Oh, yay..." Soft gives her sister a look. "So what books do you like? I personally love the Lady Knight series."

Spoiler:

"Interesting," Wandering Eye replies. "I myself lean towards fantasy and science fiction, myself... I don't really have any particular favorites. Books I really like, sure, but I don't pick favorites."

"There aren't. The staircase is a, um..." Bubbling Springs sifted through his vocabulary for a moment before lamely finishing "...a loop. So we could probably go forward and reach the door eventually, but I have a vague idea of how far we've gone, so we may as well try going back." So saying, he turned around and started back up the staircase.

Water leans back, already done with her salad, while Soft still nearly half of it left. "Any favorite authors, or just ones you prefer over others?"

Wandering Eye thinks for a moment. "I like authors with a good ability to describe things, who have a really good grasp of language. It's called "purple prose" and while it gets a little... flowery at times, if done well it's really good. If I had to name a couple authors, Wordcraft and Purple Ray are pretty good at that sort of thing."

Worldbuilding:

Bubbling Spring and Jack Daniels take a longish time getting back up the stairs, ending up back at the same door they came in from... And then Spring discovers another problem. While the floor was only mildly sticky elsewhere, it seems to be especially so in one particular spot... The very spot he has just put his front hoof down on. He is now stuck quite firmly to the floor.

---

Meanwhile, Discord pops in on a fairly romantic dinner. "How are we doing so far? Good? About time for the fruits plate, I think," he says, snapping his fingers. The fruits plate turns out to be a big round thing, with a space in the center to permit the candles. The plate is also clearly able to spin, judjing by the wobbling
it does once in a while, although you're not sure how exactly it does that. Discord leans down to whisper in Wandering Eye's ear. "You may have been a bit mistaken though. You get the fruits plate now, and later on the cheese cart. You didn't have to choose there."

Bubbling Spring almost trips over himself when his hoof refuses to leave the ground. "Lovely." He hisses, exasperated, as he summons hot water to try and unstuck his foot, feeling for the door more locally with his magic as well.

ooc:

Bubbling Spring can sense a nearby door... But it's the door to the Little Prince. Presumably...

Meanwhile, he does unstick his foot... But he also gets a nice chunk of the floor wet, making it in turn very slick... For now. You have about 5 or 10 seconds until the floor dries and becomes sticky...

"Why thank y- are those mango slices?" Soft levitates a few fruit slices to herself, covering them in a soft glow the same bright green as her eyes. "Mangos?" Water looks at the fruit slices with wide eyes, her mouth twitching into a smile. "It's been so long..." At once, the two gleefully, barely containing themselves within proper table manners, have at the slices of this particular fruit. "Have you ever had mango before?" "We first discovered it way down south, early in our search. If you want to get any, I suggest you get some now, this second, or you may never see it again."

Bubbling Spring heads through the door, not even bothering to warn JD about the wet spot.

"I don't believe I have," Wandering Eye admits. "Sounds like I should try them, though," he says as he lifts a piece of mango over to his plate. "So, what's your favorite place you've visited in your travels?"