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Post by Morgan on Jan 7, 2022 21:27:52 GMT -6
In some ways, critters were a lot easier to deal with than people. They tended to be simpler and require simpler needs, as well as not be nearly as deceptive. Morgan had a keen eye for such things, and it typically caused them to have worse trust issues than they already had, at least to their view. No, creatures were preferable by far. Even their Tat-lung family were far more honorable than any humanoid they'd ever met- and those people were VERY intelligent in comparison to humanoids. Morgan sometimes had difficulty connecting with other humanoids. Perhaps it was for the best that Matsuba was squarely animal in body and intelligence and squarely more easily dealt with (if a little boring to be around, he really wasn't as playful or anything like that compared to other critters). They do wish sometimes that he was less likely to just stand there and stare at them.
[17] - [Continuing to play with Matsuba, same day]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 7, 2022 21:33:15 GMT -6
Being stared at by Matsuba was, as Morgan could easily state, generally very offputting too. He stood about people-height (if a little short) and tended to have a weird mixture between 'puppy dog' eyes and 'dead eyes' that just gave the bespectacled human the heebie jeebies. They tried not to think about it too much. It wasn't like it was Matsuba's fault that he was a tad on the creepy side on the best days. It was why Morgan was pretty happy to leave the little hermit mostly alone the rest of the year- not that he seemed to mind either. He was only ever bothered whenever Morgan called in a Vet to check on them the whole rest of the year. They wanted the berry-grabbing time of year to hopefully be the least stressful event that it could possibly be overall.
They ignored the way that Matsuba stared at them now, in favor of starting the process of clearing out the overgrowth.
[18]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 7, 2022 22:11:34 GMT -6
The human put their tools down, leaning them against a tree so that they could find them easily again. Then, they selected the one that they figured would allow them to remove the overgrowth easily enough. The area that they had set to task at was really overgrown, worse than they'd seen it for a long while. "Oh, this is gonna take a long while..." They griped beneath their breath while looking at the tangle of various different weeds that had choked out whatever had been growing here before. "I guess I need to see what I c-can do about directing my staff better." That sounded like a lot more trouble than they would have otherwise hoped- but then again they would not always be out here theirself.
Matsuba watched them from beyond the tangle, leaning on his stick and staring at them with those big ole shiny eyes. They tried not to feel a little bit weirded out by the way he just... Stared.
[19]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 7, 2022 22:19:02 GMT -6
They threw theirself into the work, despite the fact that they really were not suited for back-breaking work, specifically to distract theirself from how nervous Matsuba staring at them made them (if he just wasn't so bipedal he wouldn't be so uncanny-valley feeling to them really) and how cold it was outside. It may not have been cold enough to frost, but it was still chilly and damp outside and working with the earth really made them feel uncomfortably damp and chilly too. They tried to use the garden hoe first to try to separate out the vines and longer weeds, but it was proving to be quite difficult to get the pieces all worked out. Would a shovel work better? They had brought one over, so they went to swap out the garden hoe with the shovel instead. Once they had it in their hand, they weren't entirely certain if this would help any at all.
[20]
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Post by Nadia on Jan 8, 2022 12:52:54 GMT -6
The bunanas are still thriving.
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Post by Morgan on Jan 8, 2022 16:36:27 GMT -6
The overgrowth was no match for the shovel despite Morgan's initial misgivings, though it took a lot out of them to work on it. Morgan was not a very strong person, and holding what practically amounted to a glorified stick with metal at the tip up for a long period of time left them with trembly arms and a light shiver over their shoulders. They wiped the sweat from their nape (it was cold, why were they sweating so much?) and leaned the shovel up against the tree. They needed to take a break, or else they were going to exhaust theirself. Morgan returns to the estate to freshen up before returning an hour later. They stood back at the patch before long- and Matsuba had not at all moved a muscle. "Gawsh Matsuba. D-din't move an inch did you?" It was really unsettling, even if Morgan did have to say so theirself! What an odd creature.[21] - [Still Playing with Matsuba, Same Day]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 19, 2022 22:49:34 GMT -6
Morgan was still quite overtired from the physical exertion from earlier. The truth was that they hardly did any sort of physical labor and really had no interest in it. However, they did sometimes come to the garden and find some little snippet of something that the robotic servants left, and they tended to fix those things theirself. They always regretted it later, but they tended to do it anyway. Especially now, they regretted it. Morgan finds somewhere to sit down nearby. They had quite a few benches put into different parts of the garden, so there was one nearby. Ever 'dutifully', Matsuba followed after them with his head down slightly. He was snuffling again- towards Morgan's sleeves whenever they sat down. "W-what boyo? Do you want treats?" Perhaps giving him a treat or two would convince him to let them check for berries. He still hadn't allowed them to even look! "I guess I can give you a treat or two."
[22]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 19, 2022 22:57:30 GMT -6
Morgan dug around in their pocket for a moment, trying to find the treats. There were quite a few objects in there, some of them were ones that they had completely forgotten that they had placed in their pockets at all. They began to drag some of them out, and they laid them on the bench beside them. The king of evergreen sniffed at a few of them. There was that blasted flashdrive that they'd lost a week prior! Apparently it wasn't lost at all. However, they didn't pull out the satchel of treats until they had emptied every other object out of their pockets. "What a mess!" They complained to theirself. They really needed to keep their pockets more clean. At least three of these were basically amounting to pocket lint, and the flash drive... Well, it couldn't be helped. They opened up the satchel of treats once they found it to pull one of the treats out.
[23]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 19, 2022 23:03:34 GMT -6
The treats were really gross- all of them stuck together. Apparently the sorghum syrup had gotten a little warm in their pocket. It made no sense really- wasn't it super cold outside? Morgan murmurs and wrinkles their nose, and then they pull one of the little treats off. Oh yeah, they'd left their labcoat near a heater when they'd went to their room to wash. That was probably why all of the sorghum had melted and then reformed back to stick all of the little popcorn balls together. Whenever they pulled the one apart from a few of the others, a little drip of sorghum dropped between them in a line. "Gross." They complained. "Really freaking g-gross." They made a sour face as they managed to pull them apart far enough to get the one ball away from the others. It would still be safe to give one to Matsuba, they decided.
[24]
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Post by Morgan on Jan 19, 2022 23:06:58 GMT -6
The problem with the popcorn treat balls seemed to be more of a visual issue than one of any sort of illness concerns. They still winced as they handed it over to where Matsuba stood. "G-good boyo." They managed, as the creature took a sniff of it first. It did look pretty suspect, they figured- no wonder the creature was having second doubts about it. "If you don't want it, t-that's okay, a-and all." Morgan says, gently moving to take the thing back. They could toss them all out, if the creature thought they were bad. Something out there would eat them, so it wouldn't be a big waste. However, Matsuba reached out quite quickly and grabs it from their hands with a somewhat humanoid-esque hand, and even Matsuba made a face whenever the sticky things stuck to his hand. He couldn't get it to come off, either- not even by shaking his hand around.
[25]
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 4, 2022 10:36:41 GMT -6
The winter chill is making your garden unproductive, but at least your King of the Evergreen is feeling pretty happy!
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Post by Morgan on Feb 5, 2022 20:02:06 GMT -6
"Told ya it w-was gonna be sticky." Morgan said, voice a little somber. A bitter cold wind rustled through the trees right about then, shaking icicles from the limbs that had refrozen there after the briefest stints of warmth above freezing that had occurred while Morgan had been inside. They sighed and shivered, drawing their labcoat more closely over their thin form. "It r-really is way too cold for me to be out here." Morgan complains to no one in particular. The king of evergreen tried in vain to get the sticky popcorn ball off of his hand and finally he resorts to eating it off of his hand instead- licking the sticky sourghum off of it with his tongue. Morgan is a little fascinated with how long it took the evergreen to figure that out. "Are you really n-not that uh, s-smart?" Morgan murmurs, hardly even thinking about what they were talking about. Was Matsuba typical for a king of evergreen?
[26] - [Continuing to play with the King of Evergreen]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 5, 2022 20:08:46 GMT -6
Morgan turns away from the King of Evergreen momentarily. They do call for him to follow them, but they mostly had to get finished with the projects that they had planned out for the rest of the day. They'd really much rather be out starting Kaodie off with some of his more serious training today; or perhaps even taking him to the indoor warmth of the gym (since the critter did need some physical therapy to get more confident on his prosthetic)- but it was far too cold to take him out today (or really be out on the town at all). So Morgan decided to do some of the harder work in the garden to get it ready for the warm part of the year today- where they can keep their eye on Matsuba in case he dropped any of those ever-important berries. They had been going into the year hoping to get ten sets- but they knew that was impossible.
[27]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 5, 2022 20:14:44 GMT -6
Morgan just didn't have the time to pour into the creature for long enough to hope for ten sets. No; instead they'd need to get as many as they could today and put it to rest. They knew from past experience that several sets could easily be produced at once; if they were lucky. However, the strange creature was as fearful of his tail being touched as ever, even though they'd been working with him for years off and on at this point. Alas; why did Matsuba have to be so shy! Still, at least he followed them very loyally as they moved to the shed, removed some more of the tools- and took them with purpose over to the next area that they were going to clear out. There were tons of different things overgrowing there- with no produce to take home in sight. Their garden really had been barren for some reason.
Just Bunanas, and nothing else...
[28]
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Post by Morgan on Feb 5, 2022 20:19:03 GMT -6
The bespectacled human had considered theirself an expert gardener before- and of course they always had the garden fertilized and otherwise cared for quite well. "This is what I get for mostly ignoring the garden for s-so long, huh?" They grumped, before getting to work. There was really only so much work that someone with a body as weak as Morgan's could do- but they really didn't have a lot of time to work around Matsuba to hopefully catch those berries before they fell off. They worked for as long as they could before they had to rest again- and their hands were cold due to the horridly chilly weather. They leaned one of the tools up against a nearby tree and try to warm their hands in their pockets. Not too far away, the ever patient (or bored) looking Matsuba watches with half-lidded eyes. Undoubtedly he was expecting another snack.
[29]
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