|
Post by Skylos on Nov 23, 2021 5:51:29 GMT -6
What Skylos ends up finding isn't rocks at all. But bricks. Give or take on their sizing because the bricks look almost handmade. The occasional dead weed poking out of the dried clay and all. These would do. Glancing left and right, he sees nobody around the trash pile. The bricks are HEAVY, and dense. More made for building fireplace then standing up pallets but he will take what he can find at the second. The library probably can even tell him HOW to make bricks of his own. There is a river with plenty of dirt and mud running past the city too. The idea is firmly in his head, but later. Later. Lift pallet now, make bricks later. He takes several trips to bring over two bricks at a time. A total of sixteen bricks later, the pallet is up about six inches off the ground and the cat looks pleased with his work. The vespa isn't even looking at it! 79 [0/5 0/10 9/20] tbb 4
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Nov 23, 2021 5:56:43 GMT -6
/Looks like you found your own food./ the cat says to the wormling as he finishes positioning the final bricks once again. Yes, he is being super picky here. Just the sounds of wet chewing can be heard. Do worms even possess teeth? Not that he wants to know. The ruby bug has grown some since the initial hatch out a few weeks ago. Developing some unusual dark striping across his body. He is going to call the little red eyed worm a male for now, because he does not know specifically. What would the little purple eyed one be... purple is the color of the rich and fancy, so perhaps a female? /I do not know how to tell male and female bugs apart, I am sorry about that./ he apologizes to the baby vespa. The only real sign she even is listening to him is the occasional tic of a tiny flutter of antennae. 80 [24 0/5 0/10 10/20] 3.0 tbb 5
|
|
|
Post by Nadia on Nov 23, 2021 6:33:46 GMT -6
That's a freckly fruit.
|
|
Yang
Flea Market Artist
Posts: 1,001
|
Post by Yang on Nov 23, 2021 20:49:59 GMT -6
The area seems ripe for more insects! Trundling just a few yards away, another bug nibbles on loose greenery here-and-there. It pauses for a moment, cleaning its front-claws and tiny antenna, before carrying on forwards. There doesn't seem to be any urgency in its mannerisms as it walks on, even when it manages to see the sentient & its bug-friend!
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Nov 28, 2021 15:43:48 GMT -6
'I'm pretty proud of this achievement', he convinces himself. Standing back to admire his tiny pile of vine logs on the pallet, stood up by bricks. This will help him remain warm in the winter too, for most of the overgrowth must be old enough to be somewhat woody. However, not everything is safely burnable. Toxic fumes and such. Long as it doesn't rain between now and the solstice, the logs should dry out properly. He better get back to work clearing space because come spring... perhaps he could have a space for the bugs to crawl around that isn't a cardboard box. Partially rotting smears of fruit decorate the edges of the purple eyed bug's mandibles, the rinds falling around her from her found meal. Belly sated, the tiny sickles reach up to clean her eyes, clean her mandibles, clean her face. All the different cleanings that a baby bug can do. 81[25 0/5 1/10 6/20] tbb 6
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:09:28 GMT -6
Between the used set of pruning scissors that are definitely not built for paws, his determination and about half a day's worth of time, with occasional check ins on his purple eyed wormling, Skylos had a growing pile of kindling branches cut apart and laid out to dry. This stuff can be tied off and sold for kindling to the folk down in the lower end areas of the city that nobody likes to talk about. But one of them takes care to remember the others once finding good fortune. Nobody forgets that unless they leave the city entirely. THe little vespa wormling gives a mandibled extension of jaw, more commonly known as a yawn. Baby bugs weren't too interesting in terms of what they can do. Eat, grow, eat, grow. Wash rinse repeat. Unlike the ruby eyed larvae she had seen most briefly in the box of monsters the cat lived in. 82 [25 0/5 1/10 7/20] tbb 7
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:14:43 GMT -6
No, she'd sensed his presence. Not a drone of the hive, maybe a worker? Would he accept her as the queen of this small hive? Workers do choose the queen, but it is not living in a egg cell as a regular bee or wasp does. Was the cat her worker/drone then? The wormling squints her eyes, though unable to actually blink. He's doing worker's work. Moving things. Gathering. Not a bit of food in sight, although she is full at present. No, he seems to be clearing his hive? That makes no sense. But makes no movement to approach him for curiosity's sake. The little vespa wormling is quite comfortable where she stays. Well, she's not wrong. Skylos is kind of doing 'worker's work'. Chop and gather as much of this wood as he can before his paws drop the shears, narrowly miss his foot and settle down. 83 [25 0/5 1/10 8/20] tbb 8
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:19:40 GMT -6
The muscles in his hands ACHE. Perhaps doing a number of days in a row of consistent pruning and chopping wasn't his smartest idea. Granted, there's a visible walking space now. Beneath the reclaiming vines and branches is an old, beaten down gravel path. Like someone attempted to put in walking space but gave out early or just plain didn't finish. Gripping anything, heck, flexing his hand at all made pain lance up his wrists into his arms and shoulders. Yes, catfolk aren't typically the type to become gardeners. The hard work would pay off though. A place to let Kouta and Kitri and the buglets run around to their hearts content without leaving the sanctuary of the labs. Since he was young, all he knew was the land beyond the walls, now beyond the fields outside belonging to the everfield association?, are wild and dangerous to travelers. You needed special permits to leave. 84 [25 0/5 1/10 9/20] tbb 9
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:23:54 GMT -6
Or to get out with reasoning. Come to think of it... the cat man sinks onto a rock that is conveniently tall enough for a humanoid to sit on, his fluffy face squished in thought. How do you get into the canyon and back if it is dangerous to leave. Just how much 'land' does the lab control out beyond the fields? He vividly recalls the violent and aggressive way the gray draconic reacted to being called a labs monster. The green eyed man even called him not one. Were there creatures untouched by the influence of the tall white compound beyond the lands? How has he never seen something resembling a real bird before, or a fish, as depicted in aging texts of the library. He's thinking harder then a worker should be thinking. The wormling watches him with a mix of curiosity and a bit of disgust. Workers work, and tend to their queen. 85 [25 0/5 1/10 10/20] tbb 10
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:35:59 GMT -6
Which he is not doing. Short of bringing her out to this very wide and slightly cold hive where she has to GATHER HER OWN FOOD, and not be fed it, and work on maintaining the hive instead. No, he has his priorities backwards. He should be paying attention to her, and only to her. A tiny trill comes from the little worm. She starts squirming over to where the cat is pondering more then a worker should be doing, and stops next to his foot. trillll... Hm? Looking down, he sees the vespa practically on his foot, looking up at him with those big purple eyes of hers. He glances past the vespa child to see the barest remains of her meal. /I guess this means you want some attention now./ he comments to the little bug. Trilll.... The tiny barbs of her mandible wiggle like she's trying to answer his question. 86[25 0/5 1/10 11/20] tbb 11
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:40:39 GMT -6
Thanks to a great thing called barrier of language, he doesn't quite understand the trilling noise from the baby vespa as he bends down, painfully (for him) grasps the substantial grub around the middle and lifts her onto his knees. She isn't slimy. There's an almost leathery feel to her grubby skin. .../Uh... do you like being petted?/ he's never petted a bug before. They get one look in his eyes and flee for their lives. The eyes don't blink but the little sickles on her front (he assumes this is the front) seem to angle outwards from the points like an attempt to shrug. Or was he trying to read too much into this. Granted, he has spiders for roommates. Giant spiders. They aren't wasp grubs though. The wrongness is there. She can see it lingering behind those actually kind of pretty eyes of her worker cat. She can see it. 87 [25 0/5 1/10 12/20] tbb 12
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:47:07 GMT -6
Not an active even wrongness, just...it lingers like the rotten food taste if it gets stuck around her mandibles. Granted she's only been hatched a short amount of time and this isn't something experienced yet. Her buggy instincts consdier casting the worker from her hive. Granted, then that would mean no workers. The ruby eyed one she'd briefly seen? Already bigger and older then she is. Don't antagonize the bigger grubs without reasoning. Short of spitting in his eyes. A tiny hiss comes from her. She doesn't like the wrongness but isn't going to hop off his legs just for that. The hiss. Great. She doesn't like him. Well there went the idea that short of hatching out his own friends so they knew him to be a source of giving food, Skylos didn't know what to do exactly to prevent them all having an abrubt issue with something he cannot control. 88 [25 0/5 1/10 13/20] tbb 13
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:51:18 GMT -6
/Look. I can't control that my eyes look like this. I have tried putting something over my eyes once or twice and creatures still freak out when they make eye contact with me. So don't...dont' run away./ His head drops a little, ears drooping. Not like he ASKED for this crap to happen to him. Stupid spell. The rocks the green eyed man gave him to send him to the canyon and potentially back weigh on his mind heavily briefly but that doesn't help. Worker is upset? The little queen to be (in her head) listens to his morose sound. /Listen to me. I'm clearly losing my mind. I'm talking to a bug who doesn't understand me any better then talking to my dogs./ Well, only friend he has in the world aside from any of the lower folk who are willing to talk to him again. Because once he had come back with eggs... 89 [25 0/5 1/10 14/20] tbb 14
|
|
|
Post by Skylos on Dec 1, 2021 6:56:51 GMT -6
Once he had come back with monster eggs, those around him knew he had intent to leave. Because once you got monster eggs or even a monster itself, the culture of the city opens up like a clam to you. Higher society living, all for having a single monster at your side. There wasn't a world for him there anymore. Some wished him well, others told him they'd loot his corpse if discovered. Yeah, that helped his confidence levels of becoming rich and fancy, totally. A little tap on his arm. Looking down, the cat notices the vespa wormling paying attention to him again. Was... was she trying to comfort him? Yeah right. This is a grub, practically freshly hatched. Not even close idea that she could understand him. Even if his own specific noises go over her head, the wormling isn't stupid enough to miss the sound of upset. Don't be upset. Workers are too busy to be upset because they all work. 90 [25 0/5 1/10 15/20] 5.0 vespa (swap) tbb 15
|
|
|
Post by Nadia on Dec 1, 2021 14:53:04 GMT -6
The grass rustles, and there's a cold nip in the air. Winter must be on its way...
[Nothing happens.]
|
|