Roaming, restless [After Dungeon Keeper]

[morganknight]

Morgan was restless.

When restless, he tended to roam the ship, checking on things he knew of, or seeking out places he didn't out of curiosity. Today was a little of both. After the pitched battle in Hydroponics, he felt a particular obligation towards one plant in particular: the apple tree he'd helped Applejack grow from a seed. For all that he'd done his best to contain Hydroponic in the fight, he hadn't been able to do anything specific to protect that plant.

Done there, he headed back down in the City, off to one particular place that had caught his interest when he had heard about it: an 'air temple'. Not on the map, not listed in the directory, or he'd have wandered over just to take a look a long time ago. Now that he'd heard about it, well...

Time to investigate.

[OOC: Just say where you find him; it can be pretty much anywhere, since his trip covers a lot of ground across the ship.]

Comments

[morganknight]

Worry? That wasn't it. He was just very, very impressed.

"I will. Whenever you want. It will be glorious!" he said, fist thrust into the air. (Every once in a while, he did lapse out of "martial artist" and into "lead guitarist", you know.)

[appletastic]

Applejack laughs. "It sure will be. I'm looking forward to it, sugar."

[morganknight]

"Me too. More and more with each passing day."

He took a bite out of the apple and almost melted, just because it was so good to have a real honest-to-god apple instead of mush or mush disguised by illusion. Also, apples are delicious. He savored the bite, chewing slowly, before finally swallowing.

"I'd like to learn something, too. If it crosses your mind to trade teaching for teaching."

[appletastic]

"What do you want to know?"

Applejack wondered what she could possibly teach to someone who could do anything they put their mind to. "Herding, apple-bucking, baking, gardening, juicing? I'm sure you could do all of it."

[morganknight]

He chuckled. "I never got the hang of cooking when I tried it. I enjoyed it, though. Baking, gardening, juicing? That all sounds really interesting to me, of the options. The important thing is to always keep learning, no matter what it is, though."

[appletastic]

"All right," Applejack nodded. "Our first bushel of apples should be ready to go soon. I think I'm gonna try to make some Apple family cider. Won't be the same without the whole family, but I think you'll do fine."

Oh, yes. Maybe he could take Big Mac's place on the treadmill.

[morganknight]

Because it would be awkward to have Rainbow Dash take that role when Morgan was also helping...

"Oh, now THAT I'd like to learn!" he said brightly. "I love cider!"

[appletastic]

"Think you'll still like it after a workout?" She was kidding. She knows a little workout's nothing to deter Morgan. Not even a big one.

[morganknight]

"Oh yeah, when I'm thirsty and in need of a good drink, THAT's when I'll stop liking cider." He rolled his eyes, perfectly aware of the joke.

Though now he did wonder how he was gonna convert some of his favorite workouts for Applejack's sake. For example, she couldn't hang upside-down by her rear legs, then transfer grains of rice from a low bowl to a high bowl, one at a time, through a process of arduous ab crunches; she didn't have fingers to hold the chopsticks.

[appletastic]

"Then we'll get it going. Soon as I can get some kind of squeezer."

It was possible to get it done with hooves, she supposed, but it'd be rather inelegant and take forever.

[morganknight]

"What does that involve specifically?" he asked. "I might be able to call in a favor or two..."

[appletastic]

"Well...lesse. We need a treadmill to power the machine, some squishing mechanism, barrels to collect it in. It'd help if we had somepony else checking the apples too, but I can handle that."

It was a tall order. Hopefully the lines would be shorter than Ponyville's.

[morganknight]

"Hmm. I bet the tavern has some barrels we could use. And as for mechanisms, it'd be easy to hit Stephen up for that... treadmill power?" He'd imagined a more conventional power source.

[appletastic]

"Yeah, that'd be great! Something wrong with that?"

It wasn't like she had access to magic. And that would just mess with the flavor, never mind all this 'technology' that the humans had these days.

[morganknight]

"i was just thinking that wasn't efficient, but what do I know? I'm bipedal! Of course that works better for you than for me!" He shook his head at himself, smiling at his own failure to not think in solely human terms. Applejack was just so much more, well, Applejack than she was 'a pony', so it was easy to forget.

[appletastic]

"Well if you're gonna be working it, how would you do it?" She was as suspicious of new ways to do it as ever, but she'd give it a listen. No sense in making the poor man bend out of shape just to please her.

[morganknight]

"Well, from what I know, humans use presses. Squeeze the cider out," he said, pressing together his hands demonstratively. "But I don't know exactly how they work, so I'd probably design it wrong."

[appletastic]

"So maybe I'd better go with what I know. I could run the treadmill, and you could sort?"

Good, bad? Only the best apples will do!

[morganknight]

"I'm willing to do whatever helps. Sorting is fine by me... that could actually be a pretty good learning experience." Man, this was really making him crave cider, even though he had a perfectly good apple to munch on!

[appletastic]

"Great! We'll just bring you two buckets. Good apples go in one, bad ones go in the other. And never the two shall mix." Simple, yes? "I think you'll do just fine."

[morganknight]

"Any use for the bad apples?" He did his best at everything he could! But true, this might not be beyond his best efforts.

[appletastic]

"Target practice?" Okay, not really. She only wanted the best quality apples in her apple products, but...

"I guess if somepony's really hungry and they're not too bad, they can have 'em. Just gotta make sure they know what they're getting first."

[morganknight]

"It's kind of a waste-not want-not situation, with the way food is around here," he said, sitting up to look at the apple in the tree. "We definitely should do SOMEthing with them just to squeeze as much out as we can."

[appletastic]

"Right. They might have some juices in 'em for baking, if we can get some bread. I need to check on everypony else's crops." What a big mess they were! Maybe they should coordinate the growing to get something resembling a meal once in a while.

[morganknight]

"Apple bread...?" He'd never thought of that before, and it immediately sounded so delicious he wanted some this instant. "Okay, maybe we need to get off the topic of food before I start salivating," he said, taking another bite out of the apple he held to forestall the urge.