Dagnabbit! (Come one, Come all)

[Indu]

((Tryin' to get my pony-taur legs back under me. Betts feels a bit rusty))

Although she'd never admit it now, Betts had been a very big Whinny-the-Pooh fan growing up. Still, for all the countless hours of watching video tapes, and tv series, reading the books and whatnot, it seemed she hadn't been paying very much attention. Particularly to one sad, gloomy, stuffed donkey and his architectural skills with twigs.

Betts had made up her mind soon after appearing in this strange place that she'd need a place to settle in. To live. Immediately the vision of a nice warm log cabin, maybe with a small garden, had popped into her head. She'd even thought how much time and effort she'd save hitching a plow to herself if she could find or make one.
However, despite the grand image in her head, the best she'd been able to come up with by means of shelter had been a very Eeyore like twig tent... And even that the stuffed animal would have laughed at.

For one, stuffed toys must be much more weather tolerant than she thought, because her little hovel was very drafty. She'd tried to insulated it with plant life, but... she'd been in such a hurry she hadn't paid much attention to what green things she'd been grabbing up in greedy, pudgy little hands... And now had a rather uncomfortable case of Poison Ivy reddening her hands and arms.

After that, and a terrible nights sleep the evening before, the midget-taur had given up and now sat on her back end beside the toppled remains of twigs and leaves, arms crossed - when she wasn't scratching them - ears flat and expression dark. Pouting, for all she was worth, glancing over at her failed shelter on occasion and whickering angrily at it.
"Doggone dumb 'ol... nature..."



~
((......See, tol'ja I was rusty.))

[Roose Hurro]

Over the years of his life, Deen had also learned to appreciate Pooh Bear and Puff, the Magic Dragon... and things like country-western music, hot rods, comic books and anime. He also had a quite extensive collection of knives, swords and other sharp things. Though he never carried or really used any of them. Well, except for the knives (and other sharp things) he kept handy for barbecue use. Claws and teeth just didn't do it for slicing fruits and veggies, or carving meats.

And so...

... at Bett's insult, Deen just popped up out of apparent nowhere, right at her side, a chuckle rising from his chest...

... "Heh... as Batty Koda said once... Gravity works!" A grin, as he held up a jar of ointment...

... "Thoee made this last night... it should help."

[Indu]

Not having been expecting company, having forgotten about that particular Nism talent, Deens arrival took Betty a bit by surprise. 'A bit' being something of an understatement, as her reaction to his arrival involved a large jump and gasp of surprise, and a flailing of legs and arms as the butter-ball pony girl toppled over sideways and then struggled to right herself.
"CONFOUND YA FUZZY LIZARDS! Don't do that!"

Perhaps it was Deen's bad luck that he always seemed to find Betts when she was frustrated or in a bad mood, in this case both. Giving a very equine snort, blowing her haystack of a mane out of her eyes, she frowned at Deen and struggled back into a sit, eyeing the jar. Then snatched it, grumbling a moody "thanks..." under her breath.

Holding the open top up to her nose, she sniffed it warily a few times. "M'startin' ta think yawl'r stalkin' me. Allus poppin' up, unexpected-like. One 'o these days I'm liable to have a heart-attack I hope ya know." Looking sideways at Deen, one eye narrowed suspiciously. "Fer mah hands, right?"

[Roose Hurro]

A "fuzzy" eyebrow went up at Bett's reaction, a grin for effect, and then a nod, ears and tail's tip twitching...

... "Yep, for your hands... and any other irritations...." That last line, soto voice, a hand covering his muzzle.

A humf-snort and a wiggle of nose, before he licked between all four nostrils as if at an itch, crossed his arms, and gave her a look somewhere between concerned and mischieveous...

... "Heh... you're too stubborn to have a heart-attack." He turned his attention from Bett's to her collapsed construction... "Though you could just soften long enough to return... you're always welcome to come back. Ooor..." Deen crouched down and picked up a loose twig for examination... "You could just find an empty place in the Village. Thoee and I could help you fix it up... curtains and everything."

Deen pointed twig and grin Bett's way...

... "Or you could continue being irritated... in more ways than one."

Then a deep sigh, as he gave the twig a chew...

... "How many times do I have to say I'm sorry?"

[Indu]

Refusing to surrender her pout, leaning back so that she could use her cleavage and shirt as a desk top to set the jar on, she dug into its contents with four fingers of one hand and began to slather her poison ivy liberally on the other arm.
"Yeah, then I outta have that woman'o yers bathe ya in the stuff." She grumbled.

She listened to him as he spoke of finding a place to live in the village, arguments she'd heard before. Her reluctance, however she might pretend, had relatively little to do with Deen or kin however and much more to do with her pursuers. The wizard who was responsible for Betts' current shape had not given up on her yet it seemed and ever now and then she was beset with his 'attack dogs' who would pop out of more portals like the one that had carried her to this place, bigger, meaner, and smarter than the last.

Betts was not the kind of person who wanted help fighting her own battles, or someone else's blood on her conscience of someone happened to get in the way, or be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

To Deen she simply replied, ignoring most of what he said and responding solely to his ending question, "At least one more time, fer each time I gotta look'et ya." As she dipped her fingers in again for another helping of the ointment, the bottle slipped and fell into her shirt causing her to cry out in annoyance and shoot to all four feet. She was getting better at working them, at least when she wasn't thinking so much about it.

"Aw for the love of-!" Her hands covered in the ointment, she was reluctant to touch her shirt or dig around inside, so she had to be content with hopping up and down until the jar fell out the bottom. Snorting, her tail lashing one hip in annoyance, Betts bent with difficulty and swiped it back up, shoving it back toward Deen.
"I'm doin' just fine by myself! I'll get it figured out, I just ain't never built mah own house 'afore! What, you don't think I kin do it?" The whites showing, her eyes flashed at the thought that there was something someone thought she wasn't capable of, and a stubborn grin took up upon her face, shaking a finger at him. "Well shows what yawl know! I'll shows ya! Just you wait!"

Snatching the twig out of Deen's mouth, paying no attention as to whether it had come from her pile or not, she sniffed loftily "Stop eatin' mah house." And trotted back to her pile, picking the sticks out carefully, not wanting to get a rash anywhere else.

[Roose Hurro]

It wasn't that Deen though her incapable... ohhh, no!... on the contrary, this plump little pony-girl taur, at times, had bigger... ummm, heh... 'balls' than he had. She certainly knew how to care for herself, stubbornly independent to a fault, yet Deen, for all his apparent goof-off nature, couldn't just let it go. Even after all she said. So...

... well. Ummm.........

Deen almost offered to "retrieve" the errant ointment jar, but thought better of it. Besides, it was rather entertaining to watch Betts "perform" her little dance, though male Nism of course had no... how to put it?... experience with mammaries of this kind. The whole... ummm... 'boob' thing, a mystery. Though he did have to admire their... usefulness, in Betts' case. Good thing he had the twig to chew on...

... but then, he suddenly didn't, when Betts snatched it from between his teeth, like a toy taken fron a naugty puppy.

A step back, jar now in hand. A thoughtful rub of chin. Lash of tail. Sigh. Ears turned back...

... "Betts, you could at least come back tonight, for supper..." Another grin, a pat to his belly... "We're having chicken pot pie!"

[Indu]

Betts paused, one ear turning back in Deen's direction independent of the other, her stomach gave a gurgle which turned into a sour squelch and she groaned with a shudder, her mouth watering at first at the memory of being human and eating meat and then with nausea as her new 'tastes' caught up with her.

Stamping a back hoof, she turned slowly, ears flat, and asked in a tone to match, "S'at yer idea of a joke?"

Not that potatoes and vegitables and gravey didn't sound good... but she and meat no longer 'hung'. It was one of the most irritating things about this whole transformation, as Betts had been a proud 'carnivore' and avid beef eater... before. Now, even grass tasted better to her than animal flesh, and certainly stayed down much better. Something which Betts resented with a passion.

[Roose Hurro]

No matter how hard he tried, it seemed Deen could get nothing right with Betts. Always foot in mouth, so to speak. Taste of twig still on his tongue, he winced at her return, realizing too late his faux pas...

... "Sorry..."

Deen dropped to his haunches, head down as his eyes looked up...

... "We can leave out the chicken."

He really did feel bad about the whole mess between him and Betts. He liked her, for all that he got on her nerves so very often. Rubbed her the wrong way. His eyes dropped to follow the downward point of his muzzle, his gaze falling on the open jar, the bits of Forest floor stuck in the ointment...

... "Friends help friends, through thick and thin... through stubborness and irritation." For once, Deen looked up at Betts without a grin, just that... alien light in his deep green eyes.........

[Indu]

Betts maintained her flat frown for a few more minutes before she was forced to abandon it with a sigh, roll of the eyes and slump of the shoulders. By far, one of Deen's most irritating qualities was how difficult he made it to stay irritated with him. Not that a single one could explain the exact why of it, but sometimes a woman just wanted to be good and mad for a while.

"Ohhhhhhh...." Glancing at him again and grimacing, Betts dropped her meager armload of sticks in surrender. "fine, I'll at least come visit fer one 'o yer fancy dinners... But no meat, an' no hanky-panky!" Listing her conditions, one hand found its way to a hip-whither and the other shook another finger at him. Then she trailed off into a shudder. "I already know much as I care to 'bout them 'bird 'n th'bees', thank ya kindly, and my stomach is delicate enough as it is without havin' t'worry 'bout that."

Lifting both hands to look at them, now with bark bits and leaves stuck to them, a greasy ointment smear left on her whithers, she sighed and settled back as three of the four legs locked, the fourth back hoof cocking in a stable, relaxed possition. "N'maybe that woman'o yers kin fix me up with some kinda bandages 'er some such 'til this here rash goes away."

[Roose Hurro]

When Betts finally agreed to accept his invitation, Deen brightened. He'd be sure to tell Thoee about the "No meat! No hanky-panky!" rules Betts insisted on giving. Heaven forbid she should know any more about his and Thoee's intimate moments! And well... hey!... honeymoon WorldWalk or no, it wasn't like they had sex ALL the time! Just... aheh... more frequently than a houseguest could tolerate, it seemed.

Well.........

At Betts' mention of bandages, Deen's face took up The Grin, the lid he'd been holding all this time went back on the jar, and the jar got set down on the ground...

... "I can do better than that..."

Deen turned, leapt, and vanished from nose to tail, back only a moment later with a small white towel flung over his shoulder and a roll of bandages. Without further ado, he wrapped up her arms himself, despite her protests, snipped the bandages off somehow by using his fingers as a pair of scissors (the material sealing to itself when smoothed), then offered her the towel to clean off hands and whithers with.........

[Indu]

Before Betts could form a complete protest, arms were wrapped up. She would have preferred Thoee had done it but... well, done was done. Holding her hands up to inspect them, she gave a brief sigh and accepted the towel cleaning herself off.

"Thanks... I guess." Pausing as she twisted a bit to make sure she'd got her side well enough, having to pull and moosh parts of her pudgy body out of the way to get a view, she either was satisfied or lost interest in doing a good job and draped the towel on her own shoulder.

"So who else yawl invintin' to this little shindig?" She asked with a quirk if an ear. "Doubt yawl came all this way just to talk me intuh eatin' over. Yer allus lookin' ta throw a party." Her tone was, as it usually was when talking to Deen, a little cranky and huffy. But now that she'd agreed to pay them a visit she sort of hoped something bigger was going on. For one it would mean she wouldn't be the only focus of the visit, Betts could only stand so much attention at once and as Deen had already showed they tended to fuss over her a little bit. For another thing, some socialization might do her good, beginning to feel a little isolated and 'hermit'-ish.

[Roose Hurro]

Deen actually had just as much skill in first aid as Thoee... after all, he'd learned from her. No, he didn't have her "bedside manner" or her in-depth training in xenobiological medicine, but he wasn't a total ingnorant on how to care for others. His knowledge of geology and planetary physics, however, matched the depth of her own training in equal measure. Two very different personalities with two very different areas of training and expertise. In other words, a perfect match of opposites. Amee at her best couldn't have picked better.........

Which brought Deen around to Betts' question.

He pondered for a moment, ears first back then upright and alert as his tail started swinging side to side...

... "Well, Thoee and I did run across a new arrival yesterday. Her name's Jenna, and... heh... she has quite a story. Thoee's making her something to wear for the occasion right now, in fact. Call it a Welcome to Deep Forest dinner. I'm thinking Devon should be invited, I'll have to see about that... oh, don't know if you heard, but Tiffin has a new girlfriend. They should be showing up, too. Jena could use some socializing, to help her cope...."

Deen crouched to retrieve the ointment jar, head tilted charmingly towards Betts...

... "More we have to welcome her, the better."

[Indu]

((... I just had a thought, doesn't Jenna have to be approved before I can play her anywhere else, even here? O.o))


~


Betts brightened noticeably when it was shared that indeed there would be more company than just her over. And a new arrival to boot. "Oh yeah? Guess that means I ain't the new girl on the block no more. Sure, I'll come an meet 'er. Jenna huh? I knew a Jenna once." Her smile widened just a little bit more, at the mention of Devon. "Sure, sure, been a while since I caught up with 'ol long ears. Us hoo-dooed humans ought'a stick together. Woulda' thought you'd have gone lookin' fer him first, seein' as how yawl is such good friends."

The mention of Tiffin and his 'girlfriend' brought a good natured roll of the eyes. "Oh great, another couple, that's all we'll need. I hope this Jenna'o yers ain't hitched t'anyone otherwise I'm gonna start tuh feel left out. I'mma need someone t'talk to what ain't suckin' face." This, followed by a chuckle.

[Roose Hurro]

A grin from Deen...

... "Yeah, I would've, but you needed this..." He held the jar up and waved it... "more urgently."

Deen stood up and stretched a bit...

... "Besides, Tiffin and Amee are smaller, and needed more time to prepare. Jenna's already in the Village. Heh... Devon tends to wander, kinda like you, so I was saving him for last."

Jar went up and then came down again, caught neatly in Deen's clawed hand at the end of his toss, as he started to walk around Betts' collapsed shelter...

... "Jenna doesn't even have a boyfriend... Tiffin and Amee? Heh... they kinda remind me of, well, Thoee and me, when we were dating. Amee is... heh... well, unusual, I have to say. I'll try to let them know to keep it... toned down, but I can't make any promises."

Deen had his turn to chuckle at the thought.........


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((ooc)) Again, HVR is supposed to be a place to do things you can't do in the other forums, so I would think it would be the same as the NPC issue... again, when in doubt, just PM Gaeva or Forge. That should settle it. ((ooc))