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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 21:52:15 GMT -6
It had heartened him; winter was hard on him for many reasons, and perhaps it wasn’t very nice of him, but he was always glad to see it go. There was something about it now, the way he felt more attuned to the earth and the plants around him… He couldn’t have put it into words exactly, but winter was the season of death and dying. He really felt it now, keenly, in a way that he had never used to do before.
Aster had never liked winter either, he remembered. At the time, when he had been just a Harachiu, he had thought less of it. It wasn’t necessarily that he thought Aster was faking it, but he had just thought it was all a bit… melodramatic, maybe. How could the seasons matter so much? It was only a little cold.
He never said as much, of course.
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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 21:52:37 GMT -6
Dami might have, and on occasion, he did - Dami always had the temperament and none of the tact, and spoke whatever was on his mind. But Dami liked the winter, and anyway, Aster didn’t expect anything different from him, because it was Dami. They all knew what he was like.
Now though… Now Aubrey understood. It wasn’t a one to one understanding, since he and Aster had different reasons for disliking winter. And Aster didn’t talk about who he had been or what had happened to him before he came here. He never had, and still didn’t, and Aubrey strongly suspected that he probably never would. But now, at least he could relate, which was more than he had been able to manage before.
But just as there had been those in his old household who liked the snow, so too was there creatures who liked it here.
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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 21:52:51 GMT -6
Thistle preferred it to be cold. She was already out and about when Aubrey made his appearance, and while she didn’t exactly greet him, she did pause and turn from whatever she had been doing or observing to turn her attention to him.
“Hello, Thistle,” he said, lifting a hand in a form of greeting. The motion didn’t mean anything to her, and it wasn’t something he meant to teach her either, though it occurred to him just then that he could have, if he wanted to. What purpose would it have served? Not much, but it might be a fun thing to do if he had the time. He didn’t have so much to occupy him these days, with the Houluh all trained in the basics and settled from their puppy days. He wasn’t what you would have called bored, but he certainly had time for extra projects if he wanted to take some on.
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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 21:53:21 GMT -6
For better or for worse though, Thistle had become accustomed enough to Aubrey that his presence no longer demanded her attention the way it might have done when she was newer to his home. After all, now she knew more or less what to expect. After it became apparent that he wasn’t about to disturb her directly, she turned back to whatever it was she had been occupying herself with before. As it turned out, she had been watching birds.
Aubrey had put up a feeder over a year ago, close to when he had first gotten the place, actually. It had been something to do. At the time he had been feeling a little lonely, and although he had Yeo-reum for company, he had thought he really wouldn’t have minded a little more company too. Emphasis on the word ‘little’.
It had been a good investment, in the end.
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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 22:34:58 GMT -6
Watching all the different birds, or even the same few familiar ones that became regular visitors to the feeder, had brought him a lot of joy. It did make him feel less alone in the city, as strange and silly as it sounded then. Now he knew better, but he had also learned not to have so much contempt for what had worked for him then. It had gotten him through, hadn’t it?
And since then, it had just become a habit to keep filling it up, even though he didn’t have nearly as much time to watch the birds as he used to. It was a shame, but even so, it was also a sign of progress. He had more things in his life now than he had before, and that could only be a good thing, considering how empty and at a loss he had been once upon a time.
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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 22:35:11 GMT -6
Besides which, as it was turning out, it wasn’t a complete waste of effort. Someone else was watching the birds, and deriving evident enjoyment from it, given that she kept coming back to the feeder. Aubrey wondered what Thistle thought when she looked at the birds, and if her relationship with them was any different on account of her being almost a tree herself. Did she find them vexing, he wondered?
At first he had thought maybe he ought to be concerned about the attention she gave to them. If there was a chance she might be hostile about their presence, he had hoped to head it off before it became a serious issue. But as time went by and the days passed uneventfully, he ceased to worry about this. There were always plenty of other, more pressing matters to worry about, many of them with a stronger foundation of evidence for his concern.
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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 22:35:36 GMT -6
In time, day by day, little by little, it had become buried by the weight of all those other things, and now he hardly thought of it at all anymore.
If she hadn’t harmed any birds for this long, then there was no need to trouble himself over it any further. And if she was harming them, and was simply too good at hiding it for him to notice, then… well, he wasn’t going to catch her at it anyway. In that case there was no need to be paranoid about it, wasting his efforts on something that was beyond his reach, which may not even exist to begin with.
Besides, the birds did keep coming back. He figured if she was doing something awful to them, they would have taken the hint and vacated the yard by now, whatever the feeder might promise them in sunflower seeds and suet.
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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 22:35:46 GMT -6
The fact that Thistle had gone back to watching the birds was a clear dismissal, but Aubrey still kept up a merry little dialogue as he went about his business. It was something to do, and it was actually still a little odd to him to be living by himself, without anyone to talk back to him. After all, growing up, there had always been Aster, and after a while there had been Damien too. Past that, there had been a lot of other Harachiu, to the point where it sometimes got quite loud - though they were so small - and the house itself was so large - that there was quiet and space if you had ever wanted it. And Damien, in particular, had wanted it, so it was just as well.
“Don’t mind me, Thistle,” he said, smiling to himself. “I’m just going to do a little digging, maybe a little planting.”
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Post by Briar on Feb 25, 2021 22:35:56 GMT -6
Truth be told, he didn’t know if it would be a good idea to plant now. Another fall of snow might kill off whatever he set down, and that would be disappointing, not to mention a waste of time and effort. The cost in terms of his own time and energy didn’t bother Aubrey, but he didn’t like the idea that he was setting a poor plant up for failure.
The reason he hadn’t come out until now was, in fact, the snow and cold. Shoveling snow just to get at soil that had frozen solid wasn’t what Aubrey considered a good time, and again, it just wasn’t efficient. Better, and much easier, to wait until things warmed up on their own and made the soil easier to work with. And the fact that it was cold enough for this sort of thing to happen probably meant it was too early to plant anything anyway, but still…
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Post by Jack on Feb 26, 2021 7:57:24 GMT -6
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Post by Briar on Feb 26, 2021 12:54:46 GMT -6
It had been warmer lately, warm enough to melt the fall of snow just a few days ago. And Aubrey thought, he could at least begin preparing some beds for when it did finally become warm enough to plant something. Maybe it was a bit premature, but he was in the mood for working in the garden, and the exercise would do him some good, he thought. Now that it was finally warm enough to do it again, he didn’t waste any time in setting out to do just that.
He put on the gloves again. Protecting his hands was even more important now, since there was still a bit of a chill in the air. “I don’t suppose you’d like to help me out?” he said, ostensibly to Thistle, though he doubted she was even listening to him. Like his presence, his chatter must have been something that she had grown used to, and grown used to ignoring.
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Post by Briar on Feb 26, 2021 12:55:04 GMT -6
After all, she had seen that it meant so little in terms of actual practical consequences for her. Aubrey liked to talk, and nothing in particular happened when he did talk, most of the time. He had only taught her the one word, after all, and that had been her name.
She had retained it reasonably well, and Aubrey had honored it by not using it as frivolously as he had before. Now that there was the real consequence of commanding her attention to him, he felt that he had a responsibility not to annoy her too much with it. After all, if someone was constantly calling his own name, and then telling him nevermind, even Aubrey wouldn’t have been very pleased at the prospect. He glanced at her, fully expecting her to still be watching the birds, but instead she was now watching him. He inclined his head at her, and smiled, careful to keep his lips over his teeth.
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Post by Briar on Feb 26, 2021 12:56:03 GMT -6
He didn’t know if she would interpret bared teeth as a sign of aggression, since he didn’t think she had that type of teeth to bare in an aggressive signal herself, but still better to be safe than sorry. It was a common gesture among animals, and maybe she knew it simply because it was a signifier in species other than her own.
Not that he figured she knew what a smile was either, on a person, even if she was created by the labs and looked like one herself if you squinted a bit. But Aubrey’s body language, too, was open and friendly, and maybe that would be encouraging enough for her. After all, he did actually want to spend time with her if he could. The trouble was just that he didn’t know how.
In that sense, he felt that gardening like this was his little compromise.
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Post by Briar on Feb 26, 2021 12:56:34 GMT -6
He didn’t know how to engage with her, to be sure, but he could spend time doing his own thing in the garden, and spend time adjacent to her without causing much fuss for either of them.
And he thought, maybe that was enough. There were plenty of people who preferred something similar, to simply spend time adjacent to someone they cared about. That was enough engagement, and enough company, for them. If Thistle was the same way, Aubrey didn’t want to push her past her limits simply for his own satisfaction. And it comforted him to imagine that she really did think of them as being quite close, even if she didn’t show it very well.
Come to think of it, a lot of people he had known growing up were like that, which was probably why it had occurred to him so quickly that she might be the same.
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Post by Briar on Feb 26, 2021 12:56:45 GMT -6
Aster had never been very overtly affectionate, and Damien was more of the prickly type, who would sooner give insult than anything else. Even some of the younger Hara had been more reticent, more shy - though not all of them, thankfully. There had been, for better or for worse, quite a variety of personalities among that lot. So at least Aubrey was used to the idea, even if he thought sometimes that it might be nice to actually have someone show, through more direct words or actions, that they thought well of Aubrey and enjoyed his company.
But maybe that was belatedly what was happening for him now. Thistle watched him, with a kind of focus that suggested genuine interest. Aubrey became self-conscious as he realized this, and noted that he wasn’t actually doing anything particularly interesting right this minute. Would she grow bored and wander off again simply because of that?
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