Star
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Posts: 136
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Post by Star on Apr 23, 2020 0:52:00 GMT -6
From time to time, I would travel the city with no particular goal in mind. During one such trip, I came across something very peculiar. It was a board full of requests, each promising a reward for their completion. Most of the requests were old or not worth taking, but I did come across one that seemed worth trying. It was a request to clean up a garden. That didn't sound very difficult, so I decided to give it a chance, even if it did seem like grunt work. I stopped by my lair on the way to the destination so that I could pick up one of my creatures to help me. I know she is not nearly smart enough to maintain a garden on her own, but I think Mercedes can be useful for digging with her tough claws. I know I do not want to get my own paws too dirty if I can avoid it, so I think she will be valuable. [10.05, 0.2]
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Star
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Posts: 136
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Post by Star on Apr 27, 2020 22:17:57 GMT -6
The garden I was meant to help with was outside of a parasol shop. While I don't necessarily need a parasol, I thought I might be able to trade it for something useful later on. If I could convince Mercedes to do all of the heavy lifting like I intended, it would be a relatively easy way to add to my hoard. The only problem was finding my way there.
People numbered places, which would be very convenient if they actually did it correctly. Instead the numbers jumped all over the place and many things had the same number despite being in entirely different sections of the city. Street names were arbitrary as well, but once I found the street I needed I could just walk its length until I found the appropriate place. There couldn't be that many parasol stores in the city. Keeping Mercedes in order wasn't that difficult, which I found encouraging.
[10.1, 0.4]
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Star
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Posts: 136
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Post by Star on Apr 28, 2020 5:34:42 GMT -6
It felt like a very long time before I found the parasol shop, but it was still early in the day. It must have seemed longer because of how dreadfully boring it was to wander the city streets in search of it. I ordered Mercedes to stay put and had a hasty conversation with the owner of the shop about the quest. To my surprise, she looked happy to see me and quickly showed me to the garden where I could begin working.
"Come, Mercedes," I said to her. She was distracted by something, so she did not heed my command. "Mercedes," I said more sharply with a bit of a hiss behind it. She looked at me that time, and I gestured for her to follow me around the shop and into the garden. Eventually she figured it out and came around, only because she knew that I had the bag of treats with me. Whatever worked was fine with me.
[10.15, 0.6]
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Star
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Posts: 136
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Post by Star on Apr 28, 2020 5:42:23 GMT -6
As it had been raining a lot lately, the ground was soft and squishy. The plants flopped over, unable to cling to the dirt which should have held them up. As I was inspecting the garden, I stepped right into a huge mud puddle which swallowed my claw. I took an abrupt step back and felt something sharp in my flank. I hissed and turned to find Mercedes standing entirely too close to me. One of the shimmering gems on her shoulder stabbed me, though it was far from enough to break through my scales and pierce the skin.
"Make yourself useful and dig a hole," I said, clearly disgruntled. I probably should have taught her how to dig properly before bringing her here, but I did not have a lot of time to prepare. Since she was not making herself useful, I used my free claw to give her a gentle shove so she wouldn't be right on top of me again. I pulled the other one out of the mud with a horrible sucking sound. This was already turning out to be a bad idea.
[10.2, 0.8]
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Star
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Posts: 136
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Post by Star on Apr 28, 2020 5:57:39 GMT -6
There was mud everywhere. For some reason, people loved their high maintained plant set ups. So much so that they were willing to pay handsomely for a complete stranger to figure it out. It was like the human version of a properly curated hoard, I supposed. Once I had surveyed the garden, I had a pretty good plan for fixing it up. Much to my annoyance, Mercedes would be helpful for very little of it. There wasn't a ton of actual digging or heavy lifting to be done. At least she was nice to look at.
In order to avoid getting my claws completely caked with mud, I started with some light tidying. I grabbed all of the fallen twigs and branches and encouraged Mercedes to do the same. She wasn't much help, but I was able to convince her to pull out larger bits of debris and hold on to the basket I was dumping them all in. Once the ground was relatively clear of tree litter, I set the basket near the fence. Then it was someone else's problem.
[10.25, 1]
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Star
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Posts: 136
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Post by Star on Apr 28, 2020 6:07:38 GMT -6
The garden was already looking so much better! I was proud of what I had accomplished in such a short time. It was smart of the shopkeeper to ask for my assistance. There was still plenty to be done, however, and I considered what needed to be done next to make the place look that much better.
The plants could use a little help standing up, but if I were honest, I didn't know that much about growing plants. I did know that they should probably be standing up, so I worked on that. Some of the plants were attached to the ground with little grates and poles. I reached down and tried to pull one of the plants back through its grate, but it snapped off in my claws. I put the broken plant in Mercedes' basket and moved on to the next one. With some practice, I was able to sort out most of the others without breaking too many more.
[10.3, 1.2]
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Star
Full Member
Posts: 136
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Post by Star on Apr 28, 2020 6:12:29 GMT -6
Standing the plants back up was of little use if they weren't well supported. The falling rain had washed away a lot of the soil. Thankfully, someone had bought some extra soil for us to spread out. This was the part I was looking forward to the least, so I saved it for last. I ripped the seam off of one of the bags and tried to encourage Mercedes to lift it for me. She clearly wasn't taking the hint, so I grabbed the open sack of soil and laid it across her back.
"Walk with me," I told her. I had another treat to offer her, so she was able to figure that one out. Mercedes slowly followed me and just as I had planned, the dirt spilled out of the bag in a (relatively) neat line across the garden bed.
There! The plants were straightened, the dirt was spread out, and the tree branches were removed. What else could be done? Satisfied with my work, I sought out the owner of the shop for my inevitable praise and reward.
[10.35, 1.4]
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Post by Renathan on Apr 28, 2020 6:20:45 GMT -6
You have rolled a success! Your QP has been added to the bank and your prize will be sent shortly. You may continue roleplaying if you wish!
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