Collapse looks to Magloria but closed her eyes sand curled up next to Jump Start. However the way she layed gave her a view of Magloria. Looking to Magloria, she would slowly shut her eyes and fall asleep.
Collapse would curl up into a small yellow ball next to Jump Start, with her tail wrapped around herself. If nothing ended up happening, it is very much possible she'd get a very good day's rest.
As Collapse settled down, she could see that Magloria didn't appear to close her eyes just yet, apparently staying up a little while longer to make sure nothing bad happened. Didn't stop her from looking cute (in Collapse's eyes, not Magloria's or anyone without a death wish) when laying down like that, forehooves tucked under her chin.
Unfortunately for Collapse, she was woken up sometime later by the sounds of something rummaging around their camp. It didn't sound big, but the fact it was there regardless was concerning.
She still felt tired, so it couldn't have been too long since she fell asleep. Magloria was already up on her hooves, and about to check what was messing with their stuff.
Collapse fell asleep with a gentle smile across her face as she imagined snuggling Magloria cutely, feeling her warm soft floof against her body was something that she strongly desired. Like that, she went off to sleep.
Upon waking up upon hearing something rummaging around in the camp she would instantly snap awake and instantly would search for what it was. Hopefully it wasn't anything dangerous. Maybe Ash somehow followed them? As unlikely as that would be. Either way, she was prepared to deal with what lay ahead.
As they both stepped out into the harsh midday sun, they quickly saw that what Collapse had thought was pretty accurate. They might've hidden from the panthins, but there was exactly 1 feline who already knew where they were.
Ash's tail was seen flicking about as she looked through one of their saddlebags, head stuck straight inside one of the flaps.
Magloria definitely wasn't happy about this. It was bad enough someone was messing with their things, but worse when it was someone who acted so inconsiderate to others. Probably why she was going through their things in the first place.
A long and disappointed sigh is heard from Collapse. "Well, if anything...she is persistent enough to cross all the way through the jungle in following us..." she narrowed her eyes slightly as she walked up to Ash and her magical aura wrapped itself around her and pulled her head from the saddlebags.
"Explain yourself to us. Quickly." Collapse said in an authoritative manner, clearly not very pleased with Ash's presence here. It seems like they'd have to take care of her for the time being.
Ash let our a yelp of surprise as she was encased in magic and pulled from the saddlebags. When she realized what was going on and who was doing this to her, she calmed down. "Oh hi again." she said.
She began explaining why she was there, after being prompted to. "Well I figured you lot might've finally calmed down from how you were acting, so I followed you the entire way! Then I decided to check what you had, just in case you picked up something dangerous that would explain why you'd be like that. I haven't found anything yet, but I just need to keep looking!"
Magloria growled. "We're acting like that because of *you.*" she pointed out, hoping Ash would realize this as well. She didn't.
"You can't be sure of that, because you'd be too crazy to realize you're crazy. Which is why I need to find it." Ash replied, then tried getting back to her search, obviously failing while the levitation was still in effect.
Collapse held Ash inside of her grasp for the time being. "Look. I don't know how inattentive one can get but you shouldn't be out here. It's not safe for small panthins like you, our personal feelings aside." she sighs in disappointment about her inability to understand.
"You probably won't listen, and yeah, you guessed it - I don't expect you to, but you are the one who isn't paying attention to us. I don't understand how one can be so careless and inattentive. It may cost you someday." Collapse sighs, shaking her head. She definitely was still pretty displeased with Ash.
"Maybe if we let you search - You'll see that there is nothing that makes us crazy." she smirked somewhat.
"I'm not any sort of Panthin." Ash replied. "Those cats are way bigger than me. I'm a Burmesian Small. Demeaning name, but it's because of our size difference." Those words were awfully similar to what she told her before in that building.
She continued, a smile on her face as she found something funny. "You keep talking about me paying and things costing me, but I don't have any Panthin money. Why would I pay for something if I didn't have anything to pay with?" she paused, "But anyway, that's off topic. I don't know why you went there."
"Yes, let me find the thing. Though maybe it's your poisonous coloured fur. I might have to find a way to shave it off later, to save you."
Collapse sighs. "No, you aren't shaving off our fur. Either you have a very short term memory or you don't have much of the range in thinking. No offense, but it's probably both." Collapse sighs and sets Ash down. Looking to Magloria she was seemingly unsure of what to do. Ash definitely got in the way of things and she certainly didn't feel like sticking around to babysit the Burmesian Small.
"I don't really know what we should do now. We were gonna look at the blueprints and then see about gathering more materials, right? Can't really do much if we have to keep watch of Ash here..." she mutters.
As soon as Ash was let go, she immediately went back to the saddlebags and began searching through them again. The clinking sound of metal tools was heard, so that must've been Jump Start's pair.
Magloria sighed. "We don't really need to look at their building blueprints unless we wanted to make something similar to it. Based on what else was in the building, it just looked like they build... well, buildings. Not machines or anything else."
She looked over to their current shelter. "We could use an upgrade, but we still don't have the means to refine materials ourselves, unless you plan on cutting wood into planks with just that axe."
A hammer was suddenly tossed in a direction, one that apparently irked Ash. Magloria narrowed her eyes. "As for Ash, I would much, *much* prefer to just get rid of her. Outright ending her is probably too harsh, but maybe there's a way we can get her to leave on her own terms." she pondered.
"I agree. She is annoying but we don't wanna...end her or anything. So lets try to think of a way for her to leave on her own terms. Maybe she'll just get bored and leave? I would hope for that to be the case." Collapse stated and looked over in Ash's direction.
"Well the least we could do I suppose would be to cut down more trees and continue building a larger shelter, but I don't wanna have any of our tools or bags go missing, if you know what I mean." she sighs, it seemed like getting Ash to leave on her own terms was the best option at this point in Collapse's opinion.
"I think we would need more advanced tools beyond what we have currently. Proper ship building tools. We can cut down trees, but without a maul the larger trees will be an issue, you saw how hard it took to chop the big one down the last time." Collapse remarks.
Magloria shook her head. "I doubt she's going to leave because she gets bored. Maybe she would, but not before causing a bunch more problems for us. I'd rather make her leave before then." she said.
"Better tools for proper destruction and construction was the entire point of going to that workshop in the first place, don't forget. We might still have to go back there eventually, but we have other things to do first. Both the cat and studying the maps you got properly."
She glanced directly at Collapse. "You did manage to find a map that showed the jungle, right?" she asked.
Collapse nodded and proceeded to take out the map that showed the jungle. She wasn’t sure how far the map went in terms of the jungle but at least they could take a look at it and see for themselves.
“Yeah I definitely agree with that. If she was a filly then I would gladly take care of her but she has been rude and dismissive of us so I am not wanting anything to do with her really.” Collapse spoke, disappointed in the situation but hopefully they would come up with something soon.
It turns out the map that she took out wasn't the one that she saw in the building. The one she looked at previously about detailing parts of the jungle was a lot smaller. This one however showed much more land, though with a bit less detail. Many parts weren't explored yet.
Though there were several spots into the thick of the jungle that were marked. Some with circles, and others with crosses. One in particular was marked with a question mark.
Magloria looked to the map itself then back to Ash several times, inspecting the details alongside thinking about how to remove their unwelcome guest. "I wonder if we can use her rudeness and dismissiveness against her? Make her think she's doing what she wants to do, but actually isn't?" she suggested.
"Could very well do that, but how would we do that? That's a good question. I think we should explore this map though. I wonder what the question mark is here." she commented. "Although there is no telling how old this map refers to so it may be out of date. Even if it is dated there is no telling what it actually refers to since they likely use a different system of dates than we are used to." Collapse commented.
[04-Feb-22 09:58 AM]
"We're not exploring anywhere with that furball trailing behind us." Magloria stated, "I would much, *much* rather not have any risk of her screwing up and causing bad things to happen just because she was there. We're making her leave first."
"Also it doesn't matter how outdated this map is. Even if it is and there are newer versions, it's still a lot better than not having one at all." she started tapping her hoof on the map, trying to plot a course they would take if they were to head to that unknown marked spot. "It's interesting that you considered this place first, though. Who knows what could be there. The panthins certainly didn't, it seems."
"Maybe that place has a lot of water . Panthins don't like water, so that's a possible idea." she suggested but then looked over to Ash, watching the small little furball. "Well I mean, let's try to get Ash out first. Any possible ideas to do that? Maybe we could try to lure her back to Carocal or act in certain manners that make her not want to stay around anymore?" Collapse suggested seeming rather unsure of that.
Watching Ash, a part of her felt bad. Ash was kind of adorable in a way but her rudeness is what turned Collapse away from keeping her. If she was a good little kitty, then she'd want to keep her.
Magloria moved her hoof so she was pointed at the shorelines and the river, plus what appeared to be a lake they hadn't found yet. "Nah. They clearly mark water locations differently. I'd imagine this question mark represents something they don't know anything about." she stated.
Turning to the black cat, who was now busy playing about with a coconut shell, she continued. "She'd just follow us back here again if we tried to lure her away, and acting differently would just reinforce her thoughts on us being 'crazy'."
She put a hoof to her chin, "Maybe if she believed that what she needed was *somewhere else*, she'd leave..." she thought aloud.
If Collapse really wanted to have a cat around, there were probably other Burmesian Smalls back at Carocol. All they'd have to do was find one that wasn't so insane and still wanted to follow them.
Collapse kept what was spoken about in mind as she looks to Jump Start. Jump Start was better than a cat, that was for sure. She was warm, soft, and extra reliable. A kitty would be cute for a time but then she realized they would have to take care of the cat while they have a lot more pressing matters. No cat, she decided. Maybe when they returned home she would get herself a 'normal' one.
"Right. Perhaps we can say that that there is a place where other Burmesian smalls are at and point her in the direction of the outpost we visited before, where we met Eliza. Make her believe that she has to go there for some reason. To boot, we won't be sending her off in any random direction." she suggested.
Jump Start was still inside their shelter, asleep, fur ruffled, belly-up and tongue partially sticking out. Not exactly the most graceful representation of their species, but that hardly mattered in the jungle.
"She seems to prefer wanting to 'help' us, rather than go after others of her kind. You'd think we would've seen her with a partner if that was the case. Perhaps we could convince her the problem is found elsewhere? Not in that outpost, that's too close to here. She might come back quickly. Somewhere in the furthest part of Carocol instead, which she should be able to find." Magloria responded.
Collapse agrees. "Well that sounds good. Perhaps we could convince her that we saw someone like her that she might desire? And she'll spend long enough looking to the point where she wouldn't come back?" Collapse asked, looking over to Jump Start and grinned at the sight of that. In her eyes she just kept thinking Jump Start was the second best pillow ever.
"Or alternatively we could think of something else...hmm..." she thought aloud.
"First let's see if that would even work." Magloria said, then looked over to Ash. "Hey! Would you chase after a male Burmesian Small?" she shouted, briefly startling the feline from her soldier impression, her coconut hat falling off her head.
"If a tom wants me, they're going to have to come after *me*. I'm not going to waste time hunting one." Ash replied, before getting back to the most important task. Pouncing on this damn annoying fly that keeps buzzing by her ear.
Magloria turned back to Collapse. "Looks like we'd have to make her go after something else. Why not just say what she's looking for is in Carocol?" she suggested.
Collapse couldn't help but grin slightly at the way Ash was attempting to pounce on the fly. It was almost amusing to watch. Afterwards she would turn back to Magloria. "Definitely can do that. But we have to ask ourselves, what is she looking for? Food and to be taken care of? If that's all she wants she should have just stayed behind because we can't really do that for her." Collapse spoke. "We can also make whatever we do sound as unappealing as possible to someone who just wants to stick around and not do much." she concluded.
Magloria smiled. Normally this sounds nice, but in Magloria's case it often didn't mean anything good for the one being smiled *at*. Means they missed something obvious.
"Well Collapse, we've already tried making being around us a bad idea, and look how that turned out." she pointed at the cat, "Now lets consider, what is she looking for? Well what's something that she's been looking for the entire time she's been here, except for when she's been distracted?" she asked.
Instead of waiting for an answer, she continued. "She wants to find something to fix us. She's not going to find anything here, so she'll keep searching endlessly, which means she'll always be here. Now consider if we told her that what she was looking for was somewhere completely different..."
She didn't finish her sentence, hoping that instead Collapse got the idea.
Collapse seemed to hesitate upon seeing that smile across Magloria's face. She sure felt stupid here, as she was never too good at coming up with plans. "Ah right, right, she wants to 'fix' us because we look so colorful to her. She thinks our coats are the problem so maybe we can play into that." she suggested even more hesitantly, thinking she'd be called out for suggesting that.
"Let's go along with your suggestion, and see what comes of it, sound good?" she added, hoping that Magloria would simply go along with what she wanted to do rather than do something else to make her feel worse about her suggestions.
"Yeah, just say that what she's looking for to fix us is found somewhere around Carocol. Tell her it was... the cause of our coat colours or something. She'll probably believe that." Magloria suggested.
The blue mare began moving back over to the shelter before giving Jump Start a couple pokes on her chest. If they were going to be up for the rest of the day, might as well all be up.
Ash meanwhile had gone back to her main focus, which was searching for something inside their saddlebags. However this time she decided to go even further and jump into one of the bags, to improve her search methods.