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Post by Briar on Jan 22, 2022 19:59:19 GMT -6
He would have had to do it, either way, but... No, perhaps he couldn't stomach it after all. His position here was both more and less precarious than it had been in his last household, but push come to shove, he didn't think he could bring himself to enact cruelty on a creature who could, after all, very clearly feel pain and suffering.
But it hadn't come to that, fortunately, and for now he was glad for the companionship where he could find it.
As the creature hadn't spooked after all, and seemed to be showing a genuine interest in what he was doing, Briar shifted himself a little to make it easier for the King of Evergreen to see. He moved more slowly still -- not that he had been working in a hurry before, but now there was a slowness to his actions that came with the act of demonstration.
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Post by Briar on Jan 22, 2022 23:08:37 GMT -6
He didn't know if the King of Evergreen would pick up on that sort of nuance, but at the very least it could enjoy the show, and Briar would have something to make the work more interesting. Briar doubted they would ever have the sort of closeness that allowed for, say, pets and the like, but that was fine. He had to remind himself not to get too attached to anyone or anything here. They weren't his -- nothing was, generally -- and Yeo-reum was right in that they would have to go, eventually. Once he found what he needed to find... then they would have to go. No, he would be happy to leave this place, if only to put as much distance between himself and Noa as he could.
Winter was a good time for pruning, so Briar checked the trees to see if any of them needed it this year.
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Post by Briar on Jan 22, 2022 23:11:34 GMT -6
There weren't many trees to speak of, since Noa's interests lay mostly in herbs and medicinal plants, though there were a few whose bark or flowers were of interest. Briar had planted things like tomatoes and lettuces, but he hadn't seen fit to put in any fruiting trees. Those were a long term commitment, and wouldn't have borne any useful fruit within his time here; nor could he assure that they would be taken care of once he was gone, at which point it would have simply been a waste to try and establish any in the first place. But there were still a few trees growing within or near the bounds of the garden -- some simply to save the inconvenience of having to wander out into the untended woods to gather what was needed. These had been in the greatest state of neglect when Briar had first taken over the garden.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 4, 2022 10:55:10 GMT -6
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Post by Briar on Feb 6, 2022 1:32:34 GMT -6
Trees got on well enough even without care sometimes, but even when that was the case, there was a lot that could be done for them with good pruning. Besides shaping them up to be easier to manage and better looking, it also prompted new growth if done correctly. That they had been let go to that extent had been a little disheartening to see, and restoring them to a proper state had been the work of several weeks’ worth of attending them, spaced out over a year. But now they were in better shape, and he had only to trim them a little more to keep it that way.
The King of Evergreen drifted after him, though when he picked up the pruning shears, it shied back somewhat. Briar looked back at it, and the corners of his eyes creased with subtle amusement. -This isn’t for you,- he signed.
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Post by Briar on Feb 6, 2022 1:32:49 GMT -6
It felt a little foolish to sign at a creature that he knew wouldn’t understand him, but people spoke to their creatures often enough knowing the same thing. He did too, once upon a time -- or thought he did, anyway. He hadn’t realized that Yeo-reum had been clever enough to actually pick up the language when he had spoken to the fish in the pond.
A lot of good it did either of them now, since Briar had had his tongue cut out, and couldn’t speak any language anymore. He had taught Yeo-reum how to sign not too long ago, which had been helpful -- mostly it had been helpful. Only now Yeo-reum had the means to tell Briar in no uncertain terms just what he thought of this place, and how they really ought to just leave, several times a day. Almost every time Briar saw him, really.
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Post by Briar on Feb 6, 2022 1:33:01 GMT -6
But the King of Evergreen would only ever pick up a few signs if Briar made the effort to train it, the same way creatures would learn to recognize vocal commands. And it would probably never sign back, even though it had the means to, having hands that it used to grip things like branches. And it did look at his hands when he signed, as if it was aware that there was something going on there, even if it wasn’t sure what exactly it was.
It was nice, actually. It made Briar feel as if the King of Evergreen was listening to him. Things felt different now that he couldn’t speak. He had known that it would be hard, and when it had happened he had been deeply distressed, but he hadn’t really understood the extent of it at the time. There were details he never thought about until after he was already living in it, being confronted by them.
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Post by Briar on Feb 6, 2022 1:33:23 GMT -6
But before Briar could start pruning in earnest, a rustling caught his attention -- and the King of Evergreen’s, a moment later. Briar froze, and the King of Evergreen shied away somewhat, looking toward the tree line again. Briar didn’t blame it for wanting to retreat. Briar himself knew it probably wasn’t anything dangerous -- Noa’s monsters generally didn’t come into the garden, and they didn’t attack except on Noa’s orders -- but he was still unsettled. It was only when the rustling resolved into the form of a fluffy Koguma that he relaxed slightly, but even so, he put down the shears and walked toward it.
The Koguma looked up at him and clicked its mandibles, apparently unintimidated. He didn’t know why the Koguma here were so brazen. Was Noa feeding them? … No, after thinking about it for a moment, Briar decided that couldn’t be possible.
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Post by Briar on Feb 6, 2022 1:33:43 GMT -6
Noa didn’t bother with anything that wouldn’t bring him benefits, and he didn’t see how Koguma could be of any real use to him. And even if they could be, it was probably better for the Koguma if they weren’t, since Noa didn’t seem like the type who cared if his tools broke.
He couldn’t tell them to shoo, but he could still make a sharp hissing noise through his teeth, and wave his hands at them. He did that now, and the Koguma finally startled, seeming to come to the conclusion at last that he didn’t mean any good things for it. Still, it tried to avoid him, darting around at first. What was it trying to get at? Briar turned to look, and found the King of Evergreen standing over a pile of berries.
Ah… The Koguma must have collected those for itself.
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Post by Briar on Feb 22, 2022 19:03:19 GMT -6
The sudden understanding lent an indignant air, in retrospect, to the Koguma’s attempts to get back to its hoard. And Briar did feel a bit bad about cheating the creature of its food, but it was more important that he got it to leave, before it caused trouble or, more worryingly, caught Noa’s attention.
The Koguma held out a while longer, but in the meantime the King of Evergreen had closed in, and in a sudden show of force it hissed at the Koguma. Both the Koguma and Briar himself were taken aback by the gesture. He had never known the King of Evergreen to be aggressive, and he had never heard it vocalize either… Though maybe you couldn’t really call hissing a vocalization, not really. Briar could still hiss too -- and even if it had been his voice that was ruined, rather than his tongue, he wagered he could probably still at least manage to hiss.
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Post by Briar on Feb 22, 2022 19:03:34 GMT -6
But funnily enough, this was what finally did the trick. The Koguma backed off a few steps, then made a full pelt run for the woods again. Briar hoped it wouldn’t come back. He would have to install some better fencing to keep them out, maybe see if he could get permission to put in a hedge… Ah, but that would mean pointing out that there was a pest problem to begin with, so maybe not. Or maybe he could put one in without asking after all. The worst that could happen was that Noa removed it, which would be a waste of work but not much more.
He wanted to thank the King of Evergreen for its… assistance. He was sure he would have been able to manage on his own eventually, but it was the thought that counted. It had been trying to help him -- or that was what it felt like, anyway.
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Post by Briar on Feb 22, 2022 19:04:01 GMT -6
Maybe it was presumptuous for him to think so; maybe the King of Evergreen just didn’t get along with Koguma, be it a natural or a learned antagonism. If they lived in the woods, then they would have had plenty of opportunities to run into each other. It was entirely possible that this little altercation was just the airing of an old grudge. It was even possible that these two specifically were acquainted, in which case it would have been a very curious story indeed.
But Briar liked to think that the King of Evergreen had done it at least in part out of consideration for, or solidarity with, himself. He must have been getting soft. He knew it was no good to get attached to a creature that lived here, but they had spent over a year together already, and it was hard to harden his heart completely against a creature.
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Post by Briar on Feb 22, 2022 19:04:30 GMT -6
He held his hand out to the King of Evergreen, but it wasn’t so tame a thing that it would accept a touch from him for no reason. It stared at his hand a moment, then moved on, and Briar was left smiling a little self-deprecatingly. Well, that was how it was. What did he expect?
He didn’t begrudge the King of Evergreen that sense of distance, however. He understood it well. They were, perhaps, good companions, but they weren’t exactly close friends. If the King of Evergreen enjoyed Briar’s company more than it didn’t, that was good enough for him. He didn’t need great shows of fealty or affection. Not even Yeo-reum, whom he considered to be his closest friend, was that type, though he supposed some of the Houluh were, having raised a few now, after having lived here for some time.
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Post by Briar on Feb 22, 2022 19:04:44 GMT -6
Perhaps that was also why he felt a bit strange with them. It put him off balance to work with a creature who was so open and trusting, so removed from the sort of baggage he himself carried. Loki, who was half feral when Briar found him and who still didn’t trust strangers, was the one Houluh that felt most familiar and comfortable for Briar, and seen through this lens it wasn’t hard to see why. He understood best the way that Loki thought, even if he had to manage that caution. It was harder to predict what Joker and Lyra might do, brazen and friendly as they were.
Briar watched the Koguma run a little while longer, until it was out of sight and lost amongst the cover of the trees. Once he could no longer see it, nor any sign of it trying to come back, he went back to what he had been doing before.
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Post by Briar on Feb 22, 2022 19:05:21 GMT -6
He picked up the pruning shears and got back to work, though it took him a moment to figure out where exactly he had left off, and which branches he had planned to cut away.
Now that he had the shears in his hands again, the King of Evergreen shied away once more. It continued to observe him from a distance, but there was, distinctly, the sense of distance being put between the two of them. It made Briar laugh, a little. He wished he could explain this, that he meant the King of Evergreen no harm -- or perhaps even the purpose of pruning, and what good it could do for the trees, to keep them neat and healthy. But there was no way to, and the misunderstanding was a little amusing, so maybe it had its own merits.
Well, the sooner he began the work, the sooner he would finish.
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