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Post by Jack on Feb 8, 2021 20:14:17 GMT -6
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Post by Silver on Feb 13, 2021 5:57:35 GMT -6
"Ah, you're too cute, Conifer," Silver said. They instantly became distracted and started to play with her instead of continuing the lesson. They rubbed under her chin, eventually coaxing her to roll over so that they could rub her belly. Like the rest of her body, her belly was covered in leafy needles, like those on a pine tree. Silver never did know whether they were fur or leaves, but they liked the feel of them tickling their paw all the same.
"Belly rubs for a cute, cutie," they cooed as they ruffled the needles on her belly. They often spoke that sort of nonsense to their creatures while they played with them, carrying on a one-sided conversation with those who couldn't respond.
Lucent, however, could respond. He just generally chose not to. He hated playing Silver's stupid games, and he resented that he had to spend time learning the language of people. What had people ever done for him, anyway? He had only ever known people to be selfish, judgemental monsters. He watched from a few meters away as Silver played with Conifer, and he felt a pang of jealousy. He shuffled closer so that he could watch what they were doing.
6 [115.9; 2.2, 7.2] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 3]
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Post by Silver on Feb 16, 2021 6:35:22 GMT -6
"There is plenty of belly for both of us," Silver said, turning to look at Lucent. They had noticed him approach, but they didn't want to make too big a deal of it at first. Just as they said that Conifer rolled back over onto her belly. "Ah... or not, well, you could pat her still, if you wanted."
"No?" Silver continued to talk despite the lack of response. Lucent continued to watch them, but he had nothing to say in return. His expression was unceasingly flat. "Well, I could always pet your belly, then." They reached out to touch Lucent, but he took a defensive stance and they didn't want to upset him. "You could pet mine, if you wanted, though I'm not sure I'd recommend it..."
None of their inane chatter seemed to be cheering Lucent up. They sighed softly and Conifer leaned her head against their leg. At least she seemed happy. That made them feel better. They idly scratched behind her ears as they tried to think of another way to engage Lucent. Clearly, he didn't like gardening and weird half-plant creatures as much as they did, but they really did think it would break the ice. Perhaps they were wrong about that.
7 [115.95; 2.4, 7.4] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 4]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 0:43:45 GMT -6
Of all the creatures they had ever met, Lucent was the most cold. At first they thought that he would grow out of it, but they longer they knew him, the more they doubted that he could change. Maybe this is just how he was. It made them feel like a failure. Like they had failed to instill hope in him or something. They knew that some people would never change, but they couldn't help feeling guilty anyway. That's just how they were.
What Lucent didn't know was that the two of them were more similar than they were different. Silver knew exactly what it felt like to be different. They weren't like anyone else, and that perspective often helped them to empathize with the odd creatures of this strange land. Whatever the case, they weren't ready to give up on Lucent yet.
Perhaps if they kept teaching him how to speak Common, they could continue to communicate. They might just learn something about him that would help them understand. "Well if you don't want to play with me and Conifer, is there something you would like to do?" Silver asked. Conifer was starting to become familiar with the sound of her own name after all of this, and she put her branchy paw up on Silver's leg when she heard it.
8 [116; 2.6, 7.6] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 5]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 0:54:34 GMT -6
Lucent paused and tilted his head slightly. It was cute, but Silver wasn't about to say that, lest it annoy him further. He was processing what was being said, but he didn't understand it fully. He really had little desire to learn how to speak. Who would he even talk to? He knew how to say 'no' and that's all that really mattered to him. At least that's what he wanted to pretend. Deep down he did want to know, and wanted to communicate. He was simply too stubborn to admit it, even to himself.
Silver thought for a second about what to do when Lucent didn't answer. Did they need to ask simpler questions? Maybe. They knew that Lucent understood them at least a little bit. They had known him for a while, after all, and they rarely stopped talking.
"Play with Conifer?" Silver asked, stroking her paw as it grabbed at their sock. Lucent shook his head. "There we go, that's something! Hmmm...." Silver tried to think of other things they could do in the garden that might catch his interest better. They looked over at the flower bed where the flowers would begin to grow after spring. Would Lucent like them?
9 [116.05; 2.8, 7.8] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 6]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 1:36:13 GMT -6
"Flowers?" they asked. Lucent looked over to a flower bed when Silver pointed, but he didn't see a lot of things resembling flowers over there. He looked back, confused. Did he not understand that word as well as he thought he did?
"Plant flowers?" Silver asked. Was that more clear? Perhaps not. "One second..." they said, and started to dig through their trusty bag. They were looking for some seeds that they wanted to plant. Finally, they found a packet of old seeds, and poured them out onto their palm. "Seeds?" They held them out so that Lucent could see.
Lucent reluctantly took a seed and looked at it. "Seed?" he repeated. He wasn't sure he knew what it was for. It kind of looked like food. He stuck it in his mouth and crunched down, but it tasted horrible so he spat it back out right away.
"Oh, sorry about that, ah, I think... you know what, I'll just show you, how about that?" Silver shuffled over to an area where the dirt looked soft enough to dig in, and Conifer followed after. She scratched at the ground, imitating Silver when they did the same. Then they pushed the dirt inside and looked back at Lucent.
10 [116.10; 3, 8] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 7]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 1:42:45 GMT -6
"Look, Lucent," they said. They pointed at the ground, but Lucent looked unimpressed. He was still really sour about that seed thing. "Come on now, don't be like that, look at this, I'll show you how it works." Showing Lucent how to garden was going to be so fun, Silver thought. They couldn't think of a better way to spend the day.
"See, the seeds go in the dirt," they explained. They shook some seeds into the dirt, all while keeping their eyes on Lucent to see that he was watching. Meanwhile, Conifer had dug a little hole of her own. She looked up cutely at Silver as if to ask if she did a good job. Silver rubbed her head and smiled. She was such a sweet little creature. For a brief second, they almost wished Lucent was so easy to get along with. Though they shook that thought away quickly. They didn't want him to be someone else. That wasn't how it worked.
After a moment of staring at the ground, Lucent asked a simple question. "Why?" He didn't understand why they had shoved the hard gross things into the ground. Nothing even happened! This was infuriating. He was mad that he had actually taken the time to pay attention.
11 [116.15; 3.2, 8.2] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 8]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 4:26:55 GMT -6
"It's a seed," Silver explained again. They said the word as slowly and articulately as they could so that Lucent could understand it better. "Seeds... grow," they said. That was when they realized that the concept of a seed turning into a plant was even more complicated than they would have thought about. Lucent really didn't know about these things. They assumed that some time, a long time ago, someone had taught them the same way. Probably... well, they didn't want to think about that right now.
"Seeds turn into flowers, and plants, and even trees. The seeds grow up into all the kinds of plants you can see here," Silver waved their paws around to demonstrate.
Lucent looked at the hole in the ground, the around at the trees and plants of the garden. He didn't get it. He wrinkled up his face and shook his head. Nope. This wasn't making sense.
"Look here, Lucent," Silver said. They waved Lucent over, and for once he actually did come over and looked down into the hole where the seeds were. "See, if I cover this seed with the dirt, it will grow up some day. But it takes a really long time to grow from very small to very big, you understand?"
12 [116.2; 3.4, 8.4] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 9]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 5:05:03 GMT -6
Now, Lucent really hated to admit when he didn't know stuff, but he was actually pretty curious about this seed business. It just didn't make much sense to him. His limited vocabulary prevented him from making a better understanding of what was going on. Silver could tell that he wasn't following entirely, but they couldn't figure out what it was he was having trouble with. If only there were some sprouts around they could use to demonstrate. Not in the thick of winter, sadly.
"Oh!" Silver said aloud. They could use pictures. They dropped their bag onto the ground next to them and pulled out a notebook. Confier stuck her head in the bag, but immediately backed back out. There was a list of some kind on the page, but they couldn't remember what it was for so they just doodled in the margins.
"Look," Silver said again. If there was any word he knew well, it was that one. Then they slowly and carefully drew a picture of a seed. Then a picture of a sprout just barely poking out of the ground. After that, there was a picture of a flower. With a smiley face, of course!
13 [116.25; 3.6, 8.6] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 10]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 5:20:23 GMT -6
Just in case the point wasn't clear enough, Silver also doodled some water droplets, a little sun, and a clock on the page. "See," Silver explained, "once you put the seed into the dirt, like we've done here, with lots of sunshine, water, and most importantly, time, it'll grow into a big beautiful flower. Do you understand?"
Lucent studied the picture, then the ground where the seed was placed. Then he looked around at all of the plants and trees in the garden. Was what silver said before true? Did that apply to all of the kinds of plants and trees around them? Surely the tree was not ever as small as a seed. That just didn't make sense. Lucent pointed to the tree and said, "Seed?"
"Yes, even big trees come from seeds. This tree could have been here for many many years. Lots of years. It is much older than you, and older than me, too. It will also still be here... be here when we're gone. All from one little seed."
Lucent wasn't sure he understood the concept of trees outliving them, but he was starting to get the general concept about how plants grew. It almost made sense to him now why Silver always dragged him here. Almost.
14 [116.3; 3.8, 8.8] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 11]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 5:24:10 GMT -6
Trees, flowers, and bushes came from seeds. Lucent now understood that, at least on some level. There was something about the incredible amount of time it took that he hadn't grasped yet, but he got the general idea. What about that odd bush creature that had been hanging around, though? What did Silver call it? Cannie?
"Cannie?" Lucent pointed to Conifer. "Cannie... seed?" She seemed different from other plants in that she walked around and had eyes and stuff like that. Lucent didn't really understand how she was so different from the bristly bush that grew at the base of the huge tree that was older than he could possibly imagine.
"Conifer," Silver said. She liked that word, so she turned around to look at them and see what was going on. "Conifer is not a seed, no. She grew from... she was a baby, like you once were, and me. Conifer is an animal, I think, and she grew up from a baby. Do you remember puppies?"
Lucent wasn't sure he remembered being a baby, and he sure couldn't picture Silver as one, but he did remember what a puppy was. They were stupid, tiny versions of creatures that weren't done growing yet.
15 [116.35; 4, 9] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 11]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 5:41:33 GMT -6
"Con... Conif... puppy..." Lucent was trying to string together a sentence that made sense. "Conifer was puppy, now Conifer is..." Well he didn't know the word for what she was now.
"That's right! Conifer used to be a puppy, but now she's a little older." Silver knew that King of Evergreens got much bigger than Conifer but they had to admit that they had no idea how old she was or where she was on that spectrum. She never seemed to grow much. Perhaps she was a runt. Either way, they weren't about to explain that to Lucent.
"When someone is all grown up, we call them an adult, do you remember? Conifer is not an adult, and not a puppy. She is in the middle. There's not really a good word for that... for people, we call that 'child'."
Lucent nodded. That did make sense. He was an adult, and so was Silver (at least he thought so), but Conifer was not there yet. The word child he had also heard before. Though he wasn't sure he had ever met one personally. There was a lot about the world that Lucent didn't know. If he kept humoring Silver, he might just learn something useful.
16 [116.4; 4.2, 9.2] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 12]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 5:59:28 GMT -6
Silver smiled softly. They were glad they had finally touched on a topic that Lucent showed some interest in. It was often so hard to get through to him that they would take any win they could get. It made sense, in a bittersweet sort of way, that he was interested in the life cycles of things. His own life cycle was so unusual, after all. They wondered if some day he would ask a lot of questions about it. The only thing they could do was be honest, but they weren't looking forward to talking about it.
Conifer began scratching at the ground again, but the cold earth was unyielding against her claws. That was boring so she flopped back over onto her back and hoped for more belly scratches, which Silver was happy to provide while they thought about what to do next.
Lucent was being quiet again. What he had learned about seedlings and the cycles of life was interesting, but not enough to sustain his attention. He sat on a nearby tree branch and watched over the garden while he thought about a few things. It was a very peaceful place to sit, he had to give it that.
17 [116.45; 4.4, 9.4] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 13]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 6:14:56 GMT -6
Lucent closed his eyes and listened to the silence all around him. The winter was cold and barren. He rather liked it that way. For a moment it seemed eerily quiet, but the longer he listened, the more he could hear. There was more fullness to the world in the garden than he had ever thought. It was a nice enough place, he supposed.
"What do you think, Conifer?" Silver asked. They continued to idly rub her as they looked at the frozen ground in front of them. "I bet if we work on it, we could get this part of the garden ready for spring. Do you want to help me? Of course you do!" Silver used their puppy voice with her, which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy.
"You love the winter, don't you Conifer? You're one of the few critters around here that doesn't look sleepy," they laughed. Most garden creatures were more sedentary around winter time, with the interesting exception of the King of Evergreen and Mussimander, who were more active than ever. There were also the winter Koguma with their shaggy coats, though they seemed happy no matter what time of the year it was. Koguma were just like that, they supposed.
18 [116.5; 4.6, 9.6] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 14]
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Post by Silver on Feb 26, 2021 6:21:57 GMT -6
Silver kept an eye on Lucent while they worked, but they gave him some space to figure out... whatever it was he was trying to figure out. The last thing they wanted to do was smother him. Especially not right after they had achieved a little bit of a connection, finally. They would treasure that moment for a while, they thought. It was nice getting to know him a little better, even if they didn't really talk about anything important.
The first thing they needed to do was rough up the surface. Just under the frozen layer of dirt, there was fresh, crumbly soil perfect for planting things in. They just had to get to it. They grabbed a strong hoe from where they kept the tools and started to smack at the dirt with it. Since they weren't very strong, it was proving rather difficult with just their hands and a hoe.
The ca-thunk ca-thunk noise of the hoe on the ground made it hard for Lucent to focus. It also made him wonder what the hell they were doing. He hopped down from his log and watched for a while without saying anything. What in the world were they trying to accomplish with that thing?
19 [116.5; 4.8, 9.8] [Lucent: Foreign Language (Common) - 15]
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