|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:05:02 GMT -6
Creature: Loricatus / “Lorie”Level 2 (0/5) / Loyalty 0 (0/5) Stamina: 2 Strength: 2 Resistance: 3 Dexterity: 2 Mentality: 1 Special Abilities: Stone Skin, Psychic Resistance Moves: Bite, Rend, Climb, Mental Barrier Tricks: Accept Blood/Scary SightsCharacter sheet: linkInventory:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The new tour around town begins much as it usually did on the courier’s “day off”, except for the small addition of a bear trailing his steps on a lead. The sight itself nothing out of the ordinary - the City is completely filled with residents who have some form of creature at their heels at any given time, or another. Perhaps not bears as such, but the beast is small enough to escape most notice of what it actually is (Plus it is adorable, to many senses, and that tends to make people easily blind to its future shape as a terrible armoured war machine. Supposedly.)
The courier’s meandering veers back around to the questing board in time, seemingly incidental, as he takes in the slips found on it. In truth, while the previous encounter here had been accidental to its fullest, he couldn’t deny the opportunity it presented - help make the courier a more familiar face about town, obtain some more contacts and leads through interactions, and, well, searching the store did make him realize certain ‘other’ opportunities there which could come in handy.
. 1 .
Loricatus: 2 (1/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:05:33 GMT -6
He picks up the folded piece of paper, turning it around this way and that to find the writing, but failing. Finally, he unfolds it, breaking apart the delicately folded form. Ah, there it is.. It appeared there would be no forlorn love lost and unrequited to chase off this time. The task at hand is much more menial in nature, which made it a good deal fortunate it was the courier to come pick it up (as funny as it would be to imagine the knight planting trees, it would be far too out of place. Plus, armour and labour were a poor match).
He folds and pockets the paper, turning on heel to head to the fields indicated in it, as the bear cub meanders after following a brief pull of the leash. For all intents and purposes the beast is still completely untrained.. But young enough to be harmless and in some sense, malleable. At least, so he keeps reading. The act of training creatures continues to be a field quite unfamiliar, but the main aspect that all the writings seem to emphasise is sharing time with the creatures.
So, the cub gets to come out for a walk (and some digging).
. 2 .
Loricatus: 2 (2/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:06:24 GMT -6
This isn’t to say he expects the cub to be of particular use in the matter. The thing might try to dig a hole here and there out of sheer boredom but it is just as likely it will simply try to chew through the seed bags because they smell nice (or it’s entertaining). Leading it to the field is another matter as well, the cub being far more prone to diverting its attention than following the rather straightforward path the owner is taking. He remembered the habits of the hounds and had some experience in horses, but both of those had been pre-trained before he got around to using them. A bear is a far shot from either, even if he would have had any hand in that dressage.
“Come on,” he occasionally mumbles to the thing, only to walk a few more feet before the cub is already stopping again to sniff a piece of grass. It’s not long before exasperation gives way to dignity and he simply picks up the hefty cub to partly sling across the shoulder and continue on.
. 3 .
Loricatus: 2 (3/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:06:48 GMT -6
If the courier is to be ignored on a general basis of blending into the background, that incident would cement him quite firmly into the memories of quite a few passer-bys. Creatures beside their owners is not an uncommon sight in the City, but a humanish hauling a rambunctious bear cub over their shoulder is another matter. By the time they reach the planting fields he’s certain at least a dozen denizens would remember him quite clearly for a month to come (and at least a few of them would still recall the scene with a head-shaken chuckle a year after). Not exactly according to plan, but at least it checked off the “have a more definitive presence inside the City” box on the list.
“Hey..” the courier calls to a human who seems the more authoritative out of the gathered people (by which it means they are holding a clip board. Find any number of people in a crowd and the person holding the most paper (or, alternatively, a sword) is probably the headman). “Heard there was work here?”
. 4 .
Loricatus: 2 (4/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:07:20 GMT -6
The bear is all but about to crawl onto his back, so he finally rolls his eyes and places the cub back down on the ground (though not releasing the hold on the leash). Dusting himself off, he clears his throat and tries again, a burst of slightly lilting, “Sorry about that.. Playful lil’ beastie, this one. Heard there was work t’be done?”
If he-from-ten-years-ago saw he-of-now, they would have been impressed at the sheer unbridled audacity and gall the whole act was putting on. They would not have assumed it to work for ten seconds. But this was the Labs and the Labs ran on a whole other jungle of rules, to the point the appointed ‘headman’ of the planting fields simply glances over, takes in the bear, the humanish, doesn’t even give a second glance before pointing to a pile of seed bags and rows of saplings, followed by a few brief instructions and the immediate losing of interest.
It was just that easy, gods.
. 5 .
Loricatus: 3 (0/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:07:51 GMT -6
The courier picks up a bag onto one shoulder and hoists a few saplings by the bag they were in with the other. A brief moment of consideration causes the leash to be switched over to the tail, the end of it coiling through the lead hoop. “Come on, bear,” he mumbles again, and immediately chides himself into a correction of, “Come on, Lorie.”
Right.. The name thing. These beasts won’t learn unless you keep using the name. He didn’t necessarily need a book to tell him that, but then names have a funny, malleable nature in his eyes (at least, when it came to the living). Titles, descriptives and callings seem almost more real in many ways than a name. But that isn’t really his to argue - the beasts learn what they learn, how they learn it.
“Loricatus,” he corrects again, before giving the leash a light tug to distract the bear away from a passing piece of pollen.
There’s work to be done.
. 6 .
Loricatus: 3 (1/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:08:19 GMT -6
The two manage to wind their ways through the other volunteers of the day, to a slightly more vacant spot towards the centre of the field. The man is no agriculturist, knowing no more about farms than an accountant would, so what the field used to be is largely a mystery to him. Perhaps crop land, perhaps a park, perhaps an old demolished building paved over in dirt - anyone’s guess really. Whatever it was, these people wanted it full of trees and plants.
He drops the bag onto the ground and places the saplings next to it. First order of business is to secure the cub, for he can’t keep looking over his shoulder every time the leash tugs a little. The ground around is littered with all manner of tools and objects, some of them volunteer-brought, others volunteer-produced. Off to the side of some empty sacks are a few wooden slats, used for striking into the ground next to fragile saplings in order to have them grow upright.
Those will do..
. 7 .
Loricatus: 3 (2/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:08:46 GMT -6
No-one really takes notice when the courier takes one (after all, they’re free to be used by anyone on the job) and anyone hardly blinks an eye when he hammers it into the ground near their little planting plot, looping the leash through at the top. There.. Now the bear is in line of sight of him and can’t simply run off to devour precious horticulture. At least, for now. Already the bear cub’s wandering strains the length of the leash and he paws the ground to crawl at some bug just outside of his reach. The pole wobbles, but holds.
“You, stay there,” the man mumbles again, more to make himself feel better about it than any illusion the words would actually work. And speaking of work, there was much to do if the vacant plot of this field is any indication. A few more burrowed tools from piles here and there (a simple small shovel and a rake, nothing the field has any shortage of) and he begins to dig.
. 8 .
Loricatus: 3 (3/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:09:09 GMT -6
Many a fool would shun menial labour, especially if they were to come from a particular set of social status. He wasn’t all too different to that, once, but lessons have been since learned, one way or another. Delegated to the lower classes, sure, but if you’ve been sitting a little too comfortably for far too long in simply playing face, a little physical work was just what is needed to get back in form. Crouched down in a field of grass and dirt, digging holes in the soil to place little saplings and poke seeds into may not seem like much, but it can still serve a cause.
A month ago his shoulders were aching after just an hour of practise with the sword. It remembered the motions, just.. had trouble following it. A week ago it was better, but still nowhere close to how it used to be. And today he got to haul a bear cub across the shoulder, in order to get to a field where he’d be crouching, digging and carrying crates of plants for hours.
. 9 .
Loricatus: 3 (4/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:09:58 GMT -6
Progress came in different strides and who was he to deny an opportunity such presented.
The digging itself, of course, is no great science. At least, so he assumes, right up until an observative eye takes note of the people around him. Most of them seem to be going through the same motions, looking not unlike the bear cub trying to paw the ground in some form of entertainment-fuelled imitation. Most people would stop looking after that. But sharp minds produce sharp eyes and he notes details - the way someone pats down dirt, another taking saplings from their pots, a third one measuring out the depths of the holes, a fourth spacing them out.
The courier pauses, looking at his own work so far and realizes.. It’s kinda sloppy. Sure.. the courier probably doesn’t know much about planting, but this is still no great science. And mistakes get noticed more than not. It wouldn’t do for word to get back to the questing board about this culus messing everything up.
. 10 .
Loricatus: 4 (0/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:10:19 GMT -6
There was no telling what future jobs could field in terms of expertises needed, but as far as things he himself needed, access and currency for the shop featured quite prominently. And that tiger was no-one to simply cross at the best of days, much less her worst.
So the man took subtle lessons and plenty of notes from his surrounding comrades-in-plants - he adds more spacing between the seeds, to make room for roots to grow and spread; he makes sure the dirt isn’t packed own too tightly to simply choke them out; he doesn’t dig too deep for the plant to be unable to spring forth or too shallow for the birds to peck out the seeds as soon as humans vacate the field.
He even pauses to stop the bear from wandering too close to another’s plot, looking to nibble and bite at some saplings there. To be sure he doesn’t presume the bear to particularly favour plants as an edible, but being young and largely dumb it doesn’t stop it from wrecking damage.
. 11 .
Loricatus: 4 (1/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:10:40 GMT -6
Sure, one day it’ll grow up to be a great big beast of war (again, supposedly) but it doesn’t need to prove itself in the here and now on neighbouring workers’ results. Well.. it could if this was a competition, but given most other creatures here seem trained to at least obey some commands, he suspects it to be entirely too obvious who the culprit would be. Besides.. It’s for the plants.
The stake keeping the leashed bear from slipping off into a miniature rampage is pulled up and hammered back down into the ground a few feet away, this time making any sapling stand securely outside the cub’s radius of operation. “Now, stay..” he chides the beast, crouched before it. The cub’s reaction is to only roll over on its back and simply coo-rumble a response.
He sighs. Perhaps this would have been easier when this thing was still deathly afraid of him.
. 12 .
Loricatus: 4 (2/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:11:10 GMT -6
The trainer to break the cub’s fear had done a good job, perhaps a bit too good. He is used to beasts not liking him (approval isn’t exactly something high on the priority listing there) and it has come in handy at times. Now he just has to figure out how to handle this thing with charm alone. Or however the hells it’s done around these parts.
Leaving the cub to rolling around on the ground, nipping and scratching at pieces of grass, the man gets back to work on the planting. Each one of them had been assigned a little section to work on and despite the slow start, he rather assumes theirs was turning out nicely. It would take several years before the saplings grew large enough to get the full effect of a tree, and not all of them might even make it through the winters (or survive a passing hungry deer during one), but that was no longer his concern after today.
. 13 .
Loricatus: 4 (3/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:11:31 GMT -6
By the structure of the planting (or rather the missing of it) this field is looking to be turned into just a patch of forest. The saplings have some sense of grid-like placement, but only so far as each assigned worker is keeping to it. Pausing after another bag of saplings are finished being put in the dirt, the man dusts the gloves and takes in the surrounding effort as well and all too easily notices how the ‘grid’ line running all the way back to the beginning of the field is more like an ocean wave of crests and dips as it passes through different peoples’ assigned plots. Well, grades for effort, at least.
“You, stay,” he mumbles to the bear again for all the good it does and goes to retrieve more saplings. The cub pulls the leash taut and softly whines after, even though the pile of plants is hardly a dozen feet away from them.
The man has just picked up another bag when the creak and snap of wood causes him to turn back around.
. 14 .
Loricatus: 4 (4/5)
|
|
|
Post by Èdan on Mar 30, 2020 10:12:02 GMT -6
The sight of the cub plodding happily after him, broken sapling stick stuck to a leash rattling behind, is one he expected and yet was hoping to avoid. The man sighs, yet again, and grabs the leash to guide the cub back to a safe distance. Yamming it into the ground, for what feels like the tenth time that day, he grumbles, “Lorie, stay..” before turning to resume the planting.
Perhaps it's the hour, perhaps coincidence, perhaps some strange will of the gods, but the bear cub simply plops itself down in the grass and stays put, watching until the man manages to finish up the last batch of saplings for this area. So quiet was he, in fact, that it is much later when the man finally gets a sinking feeling of having forgotten something and notices the cub still cheerfully sitting and not immediately going about acts of random destruction.
“..Uh,” Right, the praise thing. “Good, Lorie.” he goes to scratch the headplate of the tank cub.
. 15 . (added)
Loricatus: 5 (0/5)
|
|