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 Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:52 am
 Paper Tiger again found herself ditched by all of her friends. If she were smarter, she would realize that it was because of her terrible personality. Her stable-mate, Total Party Kill, was always quick to call her an a*****e. But Paper Tiger figured, assholes needed love too. So this was the final straw. She was going to go out on her own and find other phonies that appreciated her. But step one, was finding her own sweet pad to live in. Being that she was a foal, she didn't have any money to rent or buy a place. She swiped things from the house that she thought she could maybe barter away, but she wasn't expecting to get much for them. She wandered around Phonyland until she found an appropriate dark alley in the Admin section of town. There she tipped over a large, square trash bin, emptied out the garbage, and climbed inside. This was going to be her new home. It wasn't fancy, but at least she wouldn't be living with that pack of losers anymore. Running away was the best idea she'd ever had.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:19 am
Umbra didn't have any particular schedule that he adheered to nor area that he preferred. Any area of Phonyland was subject to seeing the odd little blue colt, walking around with his mind full of ideas for adventures or make-pretend solo games. Today his wandering hooves had brought him to the rather gloomy industrial side of Phonyland and his mind was full of high-speed chases and daring escapes, all which made the little colt's pace pick up. He ramped up into a gallop, head lowered in focus as he veered around the abandoned streets, jumping up and off of old crates and taking tight turns into alleyways.
His excellent game would have continued, but unfortunately someone had gone and dumped a trashcan over inside the alleyway- something Umbra hadn't expected and therefore ran straight into the back off, bouncing off of the thick plastic with a soft 'uff' and toppling onto his backside.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 11:27 am
The trashcan shook. Startled, Paper Tiger rushed out to see what was happening. She saw a little blue colt, and was about to tear him a new one until she saw how dazed he looked. He wasn't shaking her home to be mean, he looked like he bumped into it. She went over and waved a hoof in front of his face. "Hello? Can you see me? Are you okay?" First she would make sure he didn't have a concussion or something, then she would yell at him for not paying attention to where he was going.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:06 pm
"I'm fine." Umbra frowned, shaking his head to clear it as he pushed away the other foal's hoof. He huffed as he pushed back up onto his feet, narrowing eyes glancing over the odd orange filly in front of him.
"Why is a trashcan in the middle of the alley? Did you do that?" He grouched, weaving around Paper Tiger to poke at the upturned trashcan with his hoof. It wobbled. He felt irritated by its very existence.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 12:17 pm
"It's not just any trashcan! It's my home!" She said defensively. And he now had the nerve to poke at it. You don't just poke someone's house! Sure, it wasn't much, but it's all she had right now... This guy was terrible. "And what were you doing running down an alley anyway? You should probably look where you're going!"
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 1:42 pm
"Why do you live in a trashcan?" Umbra entirely dodged the questions about himself unlike how he dodged the trashcan. Umbra gave the can a nudge, pushing it slowly so at least it was against the wall in the alleyway and not in the middle where just anyone could run into it.
"I mean. It's a trashcan. It smells bad and stuff. And what will happen when phonies come by wanting to throw away their garbage?" The orange filly was mucking up the system- not that Umbra particularly cared if she did, it's just he's used to other phonies caring about this sort of thing. Order and normality and whatnot.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 4:38 pm
She looked down at the ground. It was hard to explain why she lived in a trash can now. Finally she decided, and said with a scowl, "it's temporary." The look on the colt's face told her that wasn't a good enough answer. "I just left home today, and it was the first thing I saw. Trash can today, but soon I'll be moving up in the world." Dreams. Ambitions. Paper Tiger had them. They were just kind of vague things, and not solid ideas, but they were hers. She was going to do it without needing any of her stupid old friends. "And you didn't answer my question. Why exactly are you in this alley?"
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:05 pm
"Because I felt like it. You're going to smell like trash if you stay in a trashcan. Why not like, live in a tree? Or just ask someone if you can stay with them for a bit?" Umbra's tail flicked as he eyed up the can- it was pretty big, but a little spark of magic and a hefty shove got it standing upright soon enough. Which just meant all he had to do was drop the strewn garbage back inside.
"Plenty of old mares take in foals." Umbra huffed and puffed as he dragged over a particularly heavy bag of what was either metal bits or possibly rocks.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:10 pm
She hadn't thought of any of those ideas. A tree would have been too windy to live in, most likely. The plus side though, is that she could drop things on phonies that walked by. And as far as asking someone if she could stay with them, she wasn't really sure who she could ask. Paper Tiger hadn't been alive for very long, but she'd already burned a lot of bridges. "Hey! What are you doing?! That's my stuff!" He put the can back up, and now he was throwing her stuff into it like it was trash. "That's my super cool stash." She ran between him and the can, and stood in his way to stop him.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:35 pm
Umbra glanced between the filly, the garbage can, the bag of probably-rocks, and back to the filly again. His head tipped slowly- he would have expected this kind of behavior from himself. It was interesting to meet someone else that embraced oddity so thoroughly.
"You're serious, aren't you? About living in a trashcan? Like, even for a little bit, you're still serious?" He honestly hadn't expected that, so the colt dropped the bag he was dragging and simply stared at her. "Do you want to live here? Seriously."
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 5:54 pm
Paper Tiger got all shifty-eyed again. "Well... um... Yeah I'm serious about living here, but I don't really want to live here... at least not longer than I have to. It'll build character. Then I'll move up and out." She was kind of embarrassed. And he just kept staring. It made her a little uncomfortable. The filly came back with her usual, smart retort, "Take a picture! It'll last longer, bub!" Spicy. That's for sure.
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2014 6:09 pm
Umbra rolled his eyes. She had a lot of spark to her, which was interesting as well, but now that he knew she didn't actually want to live here, he didn't think it very right to just let her. Building character was for work, sleeping in filth was just sad. Unless the kind of person that enjoys sleeping in filth was doing it.
"Well you can stay here if your 'super cool stash' is so important. Or you could come home with me, there's already five kids in my house so it's not like one more s'gonna be a problem." His mom would never turn away someone who needed help, he was sure of it. If she could put up with him, she'd be just fine with the little tabby firecracker determined to live in a trashcan.
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 10:58 am
Her mouth hung open. For the first time ever, Paper Tiger had no idea what to say. No one had ever been so generous to her before. Sure, other phonies had shared toys with her, but no one had every offered to share their house. She was beyond humbled. "You... you really mean that?" She said, kind of blushing. "You don't even know my name yet..." The filly again extended her hoof to him, "I'm Paper Tiger." Was this how phonies should treat each other? Maybe her family had the right to be upset with her. She wasn't nearly as nice as this colt was.
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 11:17 am
"Knowing your name doesn't change how much you're living in a trashcan," Umbra replied gruffly, but extended his hoof out all the same to gently shake the firecracker formally known as Paper Tiger. He didn't mean to sound rough- he was just surprised, and he tended to look a little angry when surprised. Had she really thought he was just going to leave her here after she admitted to not wanting the glamorous garbage lifestyle? He hadn't thought anything of offering her a place to stay until she stood there blushing and looking dumbfounded.
"I'm Umbra. Do you need help carrying your... stuff?" The colt asked, glancing around at the scattered trash quizzically and wondering which ones she had claimed as her own.
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Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2014 11:49 am
"Umbra, I'm sorry, but I can't take you up on your offer." As cool as it would be to go live in his home, she had her own home to go live in... one that wasn't a trashcan. "I should really just go back and live with my family." she paused, really not sure of how to phrase it, "and I should really find something nice to give them to make up for all the worry this has probably caused." But what could she do? Paper Tiger wanted to do something as big as being offered a place to live. Thinking of gifts wasn't what she usually did. Paper Tiger always just looked out for herself, and didn't really worry about the feelings of anyone else. That was probably why everyone in her stable was mad at her to begin with. "What do you think would be a good gift to make up for running away?"
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