Iron got his ass beat and has pissed off a whole criminal syndicate, Amber is doing some shady shit at the police station, Silver is making friends, and Spark is enjoying Whinnysotan hospitality.
Amber follows him and throws her hooves around him, but not in a way that restrains him from moving. "Grab it and hide it, they're coming. Play along, I'll try foolin' them." She nuzzles him lightly, though she tenses up at how gross it feels with a stranger.
>>145518He looks back to her for a moment, then continues forward at high speed. It’s probably very difficult for her to stay attached. He looks at the various rows of shelves, trying to find exactly the right one.
“What is this? Are you trying to be my overly affectionate nephew, or something?”
[1d20 = 19][1d20 = 3]>>145519“He’s in this crowd” he says, and starts moving
>>145508Iron lightly smacked his lips as his tongue danced along them, enjoying the view of such delectable food waiting for him to engulf them inside him.
He took his time approaching the food proper wherever it was, approaching his muzzle towards it as he prepared himself for the first slurp/bite.
>>145518>>145520In another bout of good luck, he goes to the section, and grabs the items in question, finding it rather quickly among the many on the shelves. It’s two paper envelopes, and nothing more. He places them close to himself.
The other ponies, fortunately, are not in there. Not yet.
>>145521Cassava noodles, lightly spiced, and still steaming from the voodoo magic
>>145522And thus, Iron 'striked' at the food, taking a mightly chunk of noodles with him to see just how different these 'leftovers' were compared to freshly cooked ones.
>>145523He turns to her, letting her place her hooves on him, looking above and past her towards the entrance of the room. Amber can’t see behind her, but she doesn’t need to. She can hear them coming - at least Stalwart and Swift Soul, perhaps more. She knows they will be there imminently. He turns to her to look her in the eyes, smiling.
“Good choice young lady. Wouldn’t be the first time they caught me with a young mare during work hours either. Just, whatever your birthday is, it’s now a year earlier. Happy eighteenth.”
He moves in closer to her, much closer, with his head and both forelegs, sitting down in front of her, placing his left foreleg around her neck, pulling her closer, closing his eyes and kissing her with some force. His lips meet hers, and he even tries to place his tongue in her mouth - at least he doesn’t shove it. His right foreleg moves in under Amber’s jacket, and presses a pair of envelopes against her chest.
>>145524nom nom nomA little softer, and not as intense in the spicy flavor
>>145525Amber widens her eyes in shock and it takes all of her willpower to not instantly recoil away. By no means does she let his
tongue enter her mouth, though she does purse her lips and try to adopt the façade. She takes one hoof off his withers to meet his own hoof and subtly tuck away the envelopes. It takes a few moments for her to get over the surprise and act into the kiss.
>>145526Iron hummed in delight, closing his eyes in pleasant surprise at just how similar it tasted for being 'leftovers' taken from so far.
Gulping the mighty piece of meal, he soon turned to Cauldron in pure wonder. "How does these leftovers stay so good for so long?" he proceeded to ask before scarfing down on the food proper.
>>145520Silver follows the protestor.
>>145527He presses forward and raises his forebody up a bit. His right hoof goes completely under jacket, trying to ensure the envelopes are against her chest and in her hooves. Then he pulls his leg out and pulls her jacket inwards, over the envelope. He's clearly not faking the kiss
at all, rubbing his lips against hers, and then attempting to move his tongue against hers, and then her lips. His left leg is right behind her head, and it seems that if she tried to pull away, he would have tried to stop her. He opens his eyes, though in a half open "loverly" way, first looking at Amber, but then quickly over her left shoulder.
"
Scabbard. What in Tartarus are you doing?"
Now he lets his leg off of her, though he doesn't break the kiss.
>>145528"Refrigeration." She says, smiling
>>145529They have to nearly plow themselves through the group, as they go from one location to another, with the protestor not seeming to know the precise location of the pony. Finally, the protestor says
"Here he is. Hey. Hey!. Read Extra?"
He A pony turns to them both
"This is Read Extra. He works for an 'official newspaper, but he also works for the real one."
>>145530Iron stopped his eager eating to stare back at the zebra with a bit of confusion before gulping his current bite. "Refrige-what now?" he blankly inquired, blinking in puzzlement.
>>145531"Oh, just more magic." She answers, smiling as she places a tea bag in the kettle.
>>145532"Oh!" Iron gasped in realization before nodding excitedly. "I get it!"
He soon went back to finishing the plate offered to him for good this time.
>>145530"Mmmmm!" she resonates in an annoyed fashion, though it may be difficult to tell from a passionate response. Unlike Scabbard, who seems to be a professional at this (a fact that creeps her out the more), she makes no elaborate movements but remains wooden. However, as she's faced away from the entrance her acting skills probably don't need to be tested. She doesn't move or break the kiss―though Scabbard can tell she is shaking slightly―but only tucks the envelopes flat between her body and her dress.
>>145530He offers a hoof shake to Read Extra, and motions to Clip.
"Pleasure to meet you. This is Paper Clipping, and he would like to work for real paper."
>>145534Scabbard doesn't seem to be particularly interested in breaking the kiss, but he does so anyways some time after being yelled at
Scabbard:
"I'm helping this filly since you've been occupied."
Stalwart:
"Helping? Come in five minutes later and you'd be humping. Come on, you could have at least stayed in your office."
Scabbard:
"Hey, she needed help, none of you were helping, I just got in, I helped her."
Stalwart:
"You can't be romancing witnesses. Is she even eighteen?"
Scabbard:
"She isn't one of my witnesses. And yeah, I know her from the college, that's all."
Stalwart:
"Yeah, well get the fuck out of the evidence room. The Blackhooves just showed up."
Scabbard stands up, and walks past Amber, then past Stalwart - who gives him an extremely disapproving glare, and then past Trakyr, who is smiling and gives him a pat on the back, exchanging the words "Nice one."
>>145533She pours a cup
"Oh. Wow. that was quick. Should I make more?"
>>145536She walks out of the room as well, and stammers,
"I'm-I'm sorry, I-I hardly ever get the chance to see him so I thought I could visit him at work...."
>>145536Iron checked his stomach's satisfaction as he looked at the cup in question, slightly taken aback by its sudden appearance on stage.
It
could potentially allow for more, but he felt like a mooch already after failing to finish the war against the Spaghettis. "...I will think about it," he answered, peering over the cup's contents.
>>145535He does extend a hoof, but gives a very weak grip and shake. Perhaps this is because of Paper Clipping, who moves up and very enthusiastically says,
"Hello, my name is Paper Clipping, I was a typesetter back home. I hear you are a distributor? I'd love to get in contact with the paper here. The real one, I mean. For the Communist movement. I love what you have here in Baltimare. I'm new to this place-"
He doesn't give the pony much time to respond, but eventually he answers,
"How do I know you're in the movement?"
paper Clipping tries to give responses of his own
>>145537Stalwart turns to Amber, with a look of condemnation
"Was the gun found near Hoebuck at all?!"
Swift Soul physically pushes Stalwart aside, breaking Stalwart's attention on Amber. He turns back to her to say
"I have to keep this. It isn't legal in Baltimare."
He follows Swift Soul into the evidence room. The bat stops to look at Amber, looking her up and down, and then enters behind Stalwart. Trakyr enters last, but he looks over at both Scabbard and Amber.
>>145538It's a beige colored water. Not interesting
>>145539Iron turned back to Cauldron with a puzzled look, pointing down at the cup. "Is this for me?" he soon asked the zebra
>>145540She scrunches.
“This is for your... for her.” He says
White Sands walks up, and with her magic, takes the cup.
“Do you want some?” Black Cauldron asks Iron
>>145539She shuts her eyes and points her face at the floor, not saying anything.
>>145541Iron breathed a sigh of relief, wiping his brow with a hoof at having dodged a bullet for a second. "I was just about to drink it," he admitted with a sheepish smile.
>>145539Silver lets Clip answer, not yet interferring in the discussion.
>>145542“Kid. We’re not done yet. Not quite. Let’s go back to my office.” Red Scabbard whispers into her ear.
>>145544“Yeah, I was in the Communist Party. Not of Equestria, but... a part of the International.”
“Yes, we were in CAN. Anarchist affiliation.”
Clip is silent for a moment
“What of the Communist?”
“That Stallionist stuff? More power to the State, which exists only to perpetrate class oppression? No thanks.”
Clipping
“Well, yes. You’ve read Lemon, right? It’s to remove the upper class during the transitory period.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of him.”
The feeling is a little tenser now
>>145543That water is incredibly dirty and they should know better than to drink water if that color. It’s like leaf-stained standing water in certain pools, an odd yellowish tint.
>>145545Such a realization made Iron's eyes to widen considerably, soon looking back at Cauldron. "Wait," he uttered "why was the water so brown?"
>>145545Her ear twitches and she nods. She will turn to follow.
>>145547He motions for her to follow him. He enters his office, and closes the door behind him.
He turns to her,
“You have it, right? That’s the most dangerous part. But it’s not all. Now, you must cover your tracks and I mine.”
>>145546“It’s tea.” She answers
>>145548Iron's mouth hung open slightly, unsure what to think of such a brew. "...is tea dangerous?" he uttered, a bit unsure. "It looked like water puddles after a lot of rainfall against the mud."
>>145545Now, Silver interferes.
"Friends, friends, this is what fascists want. They want us picking petty fights with each other so we are weak. You are both against fascist regime of Black Hooves and their occupation of numerous peoples across world, yes?"
>>145550“Shh! Calm down. Right now, you’re exactly where they expect you will be. In my office with the door closed, and I promise you they don’t expect you out just yet. Now, what story did you tell them when you came in? Keep your story straight, and so long as they have something else to be worried about, it will be fine.”
>>145549“No, it’s, it’s a perfectly safe beverage. See? She’s drinking it.”
White Sands is indeed drinking it, with an annoyed expression.
>>145551They each, respectively, blink
“He has a point” Clip says
“So... can I help?”
“I’ll see” the other stallion says.
“You’re a typesetter, right?”
“Sure am” clip says
“Well, here’s a copy of the unofficial paper.
He hoofs over a pamphlet to Clipping
>>145552Silver takes a look at the paper while it's being passed.
quads for best pony>>145554“Okay, so they will be expecting some kind of report on where the revolver came from. Otherwise they will be curious as to how you got it, and ‘I wanted to see my boyfriend.’ Doesn’t quite cut it. But that isn’t our big problem. Our big problem is what you have under your jacket right now. Now, you have it, but that doesn’t mean every mention of it has disappeared. To do that, we’re going to need to get a set of keys, go into the offices, and change some documents.” He looks up at her. “Do you hear me?”
>>145553It’s a set of blue papers that are folded into pamphlet format, with a few words in the front.
>>145555She nods but still looks uncertain.
"I was just told to come here and deliver that paper to you. This keeps getting more and more complicated."
>>145555"Huh. I would have thought it would be red, or gold."
>>145558He says to her,
“You’re in this, I assure you. But the problem is simple. The master key set is located near the Secretary at the front. I have an office I need to be in. I need her to not notice me as I take the keys, and anyone in any other offices to not notice me.”
>>145559“We have a red one, too” the stallion says
>>145560Silver nods.
"That is more what.I expected. So, how will we know if Clip is accepted?"
>>145562“Someone else in the organization will tell us. He should attend a meeting, first.”
>>145563Silver looks at Clip.
"I get feeling he would want to attend regardless."
>>145552Iron rubbed his snout with his hoof in contemplation, carefully analyzing Sands' overtly displeased look pensively before turning back to face Cauldron. "She is acting a bit strange," he sumrised with a small frown, looking back at the tea cup with a curious look. "...could I have some, too?"
>>145565“She is... I think she expects you to know these things.”
Black Cauldron turns the faucet off
“Yes, you can have some.”
>>145564Paper Clipping wags his tail and smiles
Read Extra looks to him, and to Silver.
“There’s a soup kitchen on 34th. Meet there, around 5 Pam most days. There will be somepony to help.”
>>145566Iron's ears perked up at both statements, now looking a bit lost. "Should I?" he repeated with a bit of apprehension.