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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 29, 2022 14:45:27 GMT -6
Fiera reached out toward another shape in the mud, and pulled out... another tree branch. She sighed and tossed it off into the trees behind her. Penny's ears perked up as it flew and she was off like a shot after it. "Penny, don't... actually yeah, that's fine." Fiera said, thinking for a moment. If the houluh pup wanted to go fetch a stick, that was fine by her. She was more than welcome to play with the branches laying around so long as she stayed out of Fiera's way and didn't get herself hurt. Sure enough, the pup soon came trotting back with her prize- a stick longer than she was- and flopped down next to the wheelbarrow, chewing on it loudly with playful growls. "Well, at least one of us is enjoying themself." Fiera said with a snort, shaking her head as she examined the mud pools some more.
Fiera 5 Penny 3.0/8.0 15
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 29, 2022 16:15:35 GMT -6
Another quick movement with her gloves, and she managed to get ahold of something that was definitely made of metal. A quick yank, and she pulled out- her shears! "Ah, my babies! I thought I lost you!" She cooed, brushing as much of the mud off as she could with her glove, revealing a shine of metal. She would have to clean these off properly soon, or else they would risk rusting. Still, she was glad to have them back- few of her garden tools got as much use as these shears, and their loss would have been sorely felt for sentimental reasons even if she could easily buy another set. She set them a lot more gently than the trowel in the wheelbarrow, practically tucking them in. "Alright, what's next..." The humanish said to herself, casting her eye around the field of mud once more. There were plenty of lumps, but...
Fiera 6 Penny 3.1/8.1 16
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 29, 2022 16:26:21 GMT -6
She couldn't help it- it was bothering her. Fiera walked over to her shed and looked at it a bit more closely. A few stray vines of ivy were still desperately clinging to the side, no doubt the oldest and best rooted ones, but considering that all of their roots had been torn from the ground, they were already starting to wilt and die. She probably wouldn't be able to save them, but at least she could get the shed upright again. She reached down, hoping her back would put up with all this bending over today. Then she gave it a heave-ho, throwing herself backwards to pry the structure out of the mud. She heard clattering coming from within almost immediately- it looked like there were a few small objects that hadn't been thrown out. She would grab those in a minute; for now, she finished righting the structure again.
Fiera 7 Penny 3.2/8.2 17
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 29, 2022 16:43:33 GMT -6
She stood back for a moment once it was stable again, admiring her work. It wasn't in the exact same spot as she left it the previous week, but it was close enough. The door however had been ripped straight off its hinges. Upon closer examination, it looked like the hinges themselves weren't damaged however, and she should theoretically be able to simply snap it back into place. Of course... the door was actually up IN a tree at that moment, so Fiera decided to leave it be for the time being. With that out of the way though, she decided to peek inside to see what that clattering noise could possibly be... and found... eggs? "More of these?" Fiera chirped to herself. She picked one up- it was a pale blue, with light scratches skittering across its surface, like the hairline fractures in a freshly frozen, clean and clear pond.
Fiera 8 Penny 3.3/8.3 18
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 29, 2022 16:58:31 GMT -6
It fit neatly in her palm, smaller than many of the eggs produced by the labs, and yet she couldn't imagine it was laid by any natural creature. She had found a few of these eggs before- not exactly like this one though. They came in all sorts of beautiful shapes and patterns and had been taking the city by storm recently, their origins apparently unknown. She had a whole bushel (was that the right word? She certainly didn't have a dozen.) back home from her last trip tot the mansion. And... that's where she thought they were from, really. The last month there was all about new, fresh life. Eggs were a symbol of that, so she assumed they were some fresh new token that the mansion was leaving for visitors to find, as it did sometimes. She had been happy to pick them up then, but hadn't really thought much more about it.
Fiera 9 Penny 3.4/8.4 19
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Apr 29, 2022 17:13:26 GMT -6
But now that they were HERE... what did that mean? Fiera's mind raced with sudden possibilities. She supposed they could have been blown here from the mansion in the storm, but- no. She mentally slapped herself for even entertaining that thought. The storm happened AFTER March ended, for one. And second of all, exterior weather only very rarely crossed the border between the outside world and the mansion, and only when it was suitable for the sort of mood that the mercurious building was trying to curate. If it was sunny during July then the mansion would be happy to adopt the weather of the day with the same clouds scooting across the plain of blue inside the mansion's boundaries and without, but should a storm blow in, the mansion would... still be sunny. So it seemed entirely improbable that the storm would enter such a "safe" season and scoop up JUST these eggs.
Fiera 10 Penny 4.0/10.0 20
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 2, 2022 9:06:33 GMT -6
This all implied that the eggs were just... being left around EVERYWHERE in the city, or at least in the areas that people were prone to looking for things, such as in the gardens and mines and fishing bank. But that left the question of what was leaving them around and why. While the eggs were seasonally appropriate, they managed to find their way even into private property, and they clearly weren't candy. Though Fiera hadn't tried cracking them open, they were far too tough and their shells too similar to regular egg shells to be considered as a sweet treat. That implied that they were living eggs... or maybe decorations of some unknown material. The latter was a bizarre thought- who would then be so foolish as to just throw these around everywhere? Why? Was it possibly some sort of bizarre advertising venture for a new manufacturer of materials?
Fiera 11 Penny 4.1/10.1 21
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 2, 2022 9:25:22 GMT -6
Even the thought of that felt stupid, however. The eggs were completely unmarked except for their own natural patterns, and the balance of them felt too natural to be made of any manmade material. So that left the option of them being from a natural creature. Fiera had to admit that this also felt very unlikely. They were all completely different looking, for one. She had found a couple eggs with similar, nearly identical patterns, but those patterns varied wildly. One that looked like it had the scales of a carp could be sitting right next to one that was deep purple with golden leaves printed on it. They almost looked painted, but the patterns were set into the texture of the egg. What sort of creature would lay eggs with such a variety? And yet, she had definitely seen similar cases with some of the other creatures produced by the labs.
Fiera 12 Penny 4.2/10.2 22
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 2, 2022 9:45:40 GMT -6
For example, repointe eggs had scales growing out of them, and she was pretty sure the lindigs just looked like rocks before hatching. So these could be just some sort of weird new critter with an obscene number of breeds... except normally eggs weren't handed out quite like this. There were usually pick up spots around the labs where people could roll up and adopt or buy the new species. These places were carefully maintained and licensed to make sure no one with ill intentions was adopting the new creatures or, even worse, to make sure no knockoff creatures were being produced and sold to the public. The results were either highly aggressive or... highly viscous, let's put it. Of course, even those knockoffs at least pretended to be the regular labs officials, passing out creatures at sketchy but familiar drop off points around the city (albeit on the edges).
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Yang
Flea Market Artist
Posts: 1,001
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Post by Yang on May 2, 2022 12:49:38 GMT -6
Something can be spotted,just out of the way and tucked into a small shadow...
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 2, 2022 13:22:04 GMT -6
But no, these ones were just... scattered around. Fiera rubbed her neck awkwardly. Maybe they were rejects from some project, doomed to never hatch? And yet... they seemed too pretty to be rejects, and they were certainly poorly disposed of if so. Still, they were quite popular right now and Fiera felt the need to collect them as much as everyone else, so whatever they were originally intended for couldn't be too bad. At the very least they were still popular as collectors' items, even if they never hatched. Sure enough, just as Fiera so much as glanced at the wheelbarrow again, she saw another one tucked up underneath it. With all the mud around, she must have missed it on her first pass through. She bent down awkwardly, reaching underneath the barrow to pull out the new egg. She quickly wiped it off with some leaves from a nearby bush.
Fiera 14 Penny 4.4/10.4 24
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 2, 2022 13:24:05 GMT -6
They didn't do the best job of wiping, but at least Fiera could see the details of the egg now. It was a deep black coloration, but with a streak or two of stark white. It almost looked like lightning arcing through a dark sky, and Fiera's lips quirked up into a smile. She had to admit that wherever these eggs came from, they were quite appealing- she couldn't help but be entranced by their aesthetic. So without further ado, she quickly shoved it into her backpack, nestling it in with the others. Hopefully it was warm enough in there to incubate... whatever it was that could be growing in there, if anything. With that out of the way though, she figured she should probably get back to cleaning up the remnants of her shed. She sighed heavily- thinking about the mysterious eggs had certainly been a welcome distraction from it.
Fiera 15 Penny 5.0/12.0 25
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 2, 2022 13:26:15 GMT -6
After all, it was a lot more fun to sit there and muse and philosophize about the potential of a tiny object she found in her gardens rather than actually doing the hard labor to work on them. Her shed area was still a complete mess... but at least the shed itself was upright now? It was caked in mud, which Fiera very much wanted to clean off, but doing so would require the use of water... and with how sticky the ground was, the last thing she wanted to do was risk reflooding the surrounding area and causing her missing tools to sink even further into the mud. So instead she decided to root around for some more of her tools. A couple of them were easy to find. The long poles of her rake and hoe made it easy for her to simply kick her way into them.
Fiera 16 Penny 5.1/12.1 26
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 2, 2022 13:31:59 GMT -6
Once she found them, Fiera picked those up and shook them off as best she could, laying them tool side down against the wheelbarrow, letting the rest of the liquid hopefully drip off. She took a quick stock after that- she was still missing a pair of smaller clippers and her bottles of enriching water droplets. She had little hope for the latter- she had always noted how delicate looking those bottles looked, likely for show, but functionally it meant that the odds were they hadn't survived the storm, instead being smashed to pieces when the shed blew over, or if they were swept into a tree, so on and so forth. The thought of broken glass sitting around in the mud however... Fiera decided to keep a closer eye on Penny, not wanting her to cut a paw on accident on any of the materials that could be lying around.
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Post by Fiera Ferella on May 2, 2022 13:48:27 GMT -6
Either way, she decided she needed to wrap up this cleanup soon. She had other things in the garden to fix, and the thought of broken glass made her want to move Penny to more solid ground ASAP. She began sifting through the mud again, shuffling her rainboots through the sludge until she hit something solid, at which point she'd yank it up and see if it was anything worth keeping. If it proved to be just a stick or a rock, she'd throw it as hard as she could into the woods... while Penny wasn't looking, to avoid the houluh shooting off after it and getting herself lost. Penny, to her credit, was being awfully patient about all of this. Instead of causing trouble for Fiera, she was more than happy to just patter around in the puddles, endlessly entertained by how the swirled and splashed around her young paws.
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