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Post by Jack on Aug 30, 2020 11:08:17 GMT -6
What's with the color green for this garden?
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 12:53:35 GMT -6
Gardening Venture #2 > Xentus, accompanied by...
A new venture in the garden with a new golem companion. Saturn had grown nicely into a mobile, walking.. Walker. He'd originally planned to take the creature out to Eterra, but that plan fell through after his recent trip to the herbologist's shop. Ah, why go to the canyon when there was much work left to be done in the garden? The leopard was in the middle of ferrying about a hand pulled wagon of supplies - fertilizer, seeds, those special drops and pellets. He also was toting along his two new garden residents; a leafscatter named Rasuda and a currently unnamed king of evergreen. And Saturn, of course. The golem stalked right beside his legs, threatening to trip the mammalian with its uneasy steps. Its master glanced down at it for a moment, warranting a couple of clatters from its hard shell-head. Sometimes, he could never get over how strange the golems were..
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 12:59:33 GMT -6
As much as he wanted to sit and study the sand specimen, there was work to do. The leopard looked at his mess of a 'garden'. Unfenced, overgrown, and with creatures roaming about as they pleased. He had their respective habitats set up, meaning small huts and corrals, but it was a meager set up at best. Ideally, once the garden was properly fenced in, the residents could occupy any particular spot they pleased, with huts and hutches set up in each section as they established their respective boundaries. The sand golem here would be helping in loosely outlining where he wanted what. And perhaps help to fill in uneven ground. The earth stalker he still had was probably a better candidate for this operation, but the walker needed more personal bonding time so that it would mature a little more quickly. Xentus lead his entourage through to the loosely defined entry of his garden, setting down the wagon by the gazebo.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 13:04:42 GMT -6
The two new residents, lead in with leashes, were taken to the central, temporary hut and hutch area. There, they could join the other garden creatures in their new home. There weren't many living here yet, now totaling only 7 with these two new additions. He did still need to introduce his pachee, Fauna, here, but he felt that he was going to ideally spend more one on one time with her sooner or later. He supposed pachee would need to have their own, dedicated section so that the males and females could be kept separate. Ah, something to mull on later.
"Welcome to your new home", the leopard gently told the two new additions, "This one hopes you'll enjoy it here." And with that, they were unleashed and allowed to freely roam. Saturn watched them carefully, on guard in case either decided to do anything funny.. But the leafscatter immediately scampered off, while the evergreen slowly sauntered about, examining the garden.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 13:09:56 GMT -6
"Come along, Saturn. There is much to do today", the leopard called to the golem, who immediately perked up and waddled to his side. A clawed hand gently touched the top of its carapace, rubbing the stone-like texture gingerly. The walker pressed into the touch, grinding its segmented head in an odd way of purring. The feeling under his hand was odd, but he refrained from pulling back in favor of petting the walker a little longer. Saturn was among his favorites. It and Neptune were oddly personable, he felt. They still had that typical on-edge guard dog behavior of golems, but somehow seemed to display more personality.. He wasn't sure how to describe it. Was it from them being fusions? They were the combination of previous lives that bonded with him.. The endless curiosity was creeping back into his mind again. With a sigh, the man dismissed them and began heading back to the gazebo.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 13:16:24 GMT -6
The first chore on the list today was to fertilize the resident habitats. He hadn't done it this month and he figured the soil was getting rather depleted by now. It was nice that he didn't need to come out here and actually feed these creatures. Er. Plants. Animate plants. They were still on the difficult side for him to come to terms with biology-wise. Animal-like plants that seemed much more like animals than plants twisted his brain in terms of what he thought he knew about plants. He did do his research and studied well on traditional flora; he had to know what was poison and not in order to survive the wilderness. The enigma of living plants would be overcome when he decided to sit and spend time with them, he supposed. The leopard wheeled the wagon to the first weedy dirt plot, Saturn waddling right after him at the ready.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 14:15:22 GMT -6
Looking over the flowerbed, it was much more overgrown than he anticipated. Weeds took over, growing thick and tall. Some sections of the flora looked eaten, perhaps grazed on by the dragon oak that enjoyed hanging around here in particular. The leopard's eyes trailed over to Saturn, thinking on how to employ the creature to help cut down on the work. It could probably do well at ripping the weeds from the soil. Directing it to do this might be somewhat tricky.. Xentus knelt down beside the creature, touching its head-shell. His fingers traced long the seams, then circled the open pores that exposed the interior.
"Saturn would do well to help Xentus, yes?", he murmured carefully, thinking about his plan for the creature, "He would like Saturn to open up." Plain words typically did little to entice golems to do his bidding. It gave them the idea of his will, but truly imposing it upon them was a bit harder.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 14:20:17 GMT -6
He didn't expect it to know what he wanted by just thinking or saying it. The idea was to guide it, step by step. For it to open its 'mouth'. Then to approach a weed. Then to blamp down on it. Then to tear it from the ground. First step, getting it to open. The golems were quite reserved about exposing their inner seed to the outside world unless it was to feed or get a better look at its surroundings. But the preservation of their seed meant nothing when their bonded one desired something. He felt like he was exploiting the creature, in some way.. But this was how they operated, as he understood. Carefully, the leopard began prying open the creature's segmented head.
"Open", he directed plainly. There was initial resistance to his action at first, the shell holding firm. But the words, his will, and his action all began to sink in, and the segments parted.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 14:32:38 GMT -6
"Very good, Saturn", the mammalian cooed, releasing his hold on the creature's head. A praising touch rubbed one of the parted segments. Now, next step was to have it target a plant. He wasn't sure how easy this would be, but he'd go with whatever idea popped into mind first. A nearby dandelion was plucked from the earth and held up before the golem's open head. Then, he began manually closing the open segments around the stem. The pieces locked together, firmly holding the plant. Saturn stayed stock still during this process, aside from whatever motions the leopard directed of it.
"Bite plant. Okay?", he said carefully, staring hard at the creature's inner seed. It probably didn't understand this concept yet. He hardly expected it to. Creatures like the golem needed a while to grasp the concept of something like this. But time and patience was something he had plenty of.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 14:45:46 GMT -6
And one of the greater benefits of the golems was their intense desire to serve their bonded one. So even if it didn't quickly grasp the concept of what he was trying to teach it, it would try regardless. Unlike something truly dull like the predecessor golems who may never even attempt to understand. Saturn stood there with a dandelion in its 'mouth', seeming to wait for the next directive the leopard had for it. The sight gave him a sudden thought - it needed to know to also let go.
"Open, Saturn", the leopard directed, starting to grab at the creature's segments again. Its segments parted, and the weed dropped. "Good. Let us try that again, alright?" Xentus grabbed another weed at random, placing it right before the creature's open head. "Plant", he said firmly, then placed the weed into the open mouth, "Bite." And again, he manually motioned to close the segments, hoping to instill what he wanted of the creature.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 19, 2020 14:52:13 GMT -6
The goal was to have the golem recognize plants and bite them, for now. The act of pulling them up would need to come later. Baby steps, very small baby steps. Saturn did just fine under manual control, though how much it recognized as commands and direction, he didn't know. With his mind focused only on it biting on weed stems, it would hopefully piece this all together. He felt that he could sense some kind of eagerness from the golem.. This was the first time he'd ever really given it a job, after all. Aside from just walking with him and it being an overprotective guard, it didn't have much else that it did. Perhaps it found this enriching.
"Again, Saturn. Open", the leopard directed, his hand hovering over the creature's segmented face. He hoped it might be able to open its mouth on its own at the word.
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Post by Jack on Sept 19, 2020 19:35:20 GMT -6
The sun beats down on your head, and the water seems to evaporate from your brow as you stand there under it's baking heat... It's been so long since it's rained, and you know for sure that there's no way your plants can grow well in these dry conditions.
(the next 5 posts yield no result)
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Post by Xentus on Sept 23, 2020 10:32:00 GMT -6
Saturn's head split along the seams, without any aid from the leopard. The clawed hand reached to pet the creature instead of pulling at its pores, a gentle hum of approval escaping the leopard. "Very good, Saturn", he murmured to it, "Now then. Plant." The weed stem was twirled between the leopard's fingers, bringing it back to the golem's focus. With its head-shell split open, its inner seed had full view of the object the leopard was trying to imprint with the word 'plant'. Thin, green, with appendages.. Sometimes colorful. A narrowed definition, but one that he hoped the golem would get the idea of. The stem was then thrust forward into that open maw.
"Bite", Xentus directed firmly. The walker seemed to process the word, head segments twitching as it thought through this command. Bite. It didn't want to disappoint its master. Bite. What did he want? Bite.. After a moment of deliberation, the segments of its head closed around the weed's stem.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 23, 2020 10:43:28 GMT -6
"Well done, Saturn", the leopard chimed in praise to the golem. The creature looked back at him, seeming to twitch with excitement. It did something of praise! Oh, how it only lived for the affections of its master. There was nothing more that fulfilled it. It pressed its head into the petting hand of the leopard, soaking up as much of this as it could. It was.. Oddly cute. For the golems being somewhat mechanical beings, this kind of behavior was unexpected. Then again, he hadn't really spent much time trying to train any of them. He.. Didn't want to get attached to something that would just forget any of their past memories. But here he was, bonding with little Saturn here. A trickle of sadness washed over him. Saturn had a purpose, he had to remember that. But it didn't mean he couldn't cherish the time they had together.
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Post by Xentus on Sept 23, 2020 10:51:08 GMT -6
The golem seemed to pick up on this twinge of sadness coming from its master, calming its excitement in exchange for concern. Why was master saddened? Even if he tried to hide it behind that gentle smile, it could still feel that faint aura. A shift in his will and desire, ever so slight. Xentus did his best to wave it away in favor of refocusing on the task at hand. To have Saturn help him pull up some of these weeds. It seemed to get this biting thing down.. Decently enough. It was slow, but speed would come with time and practice. Next, they had to work on targeting.
Xentus pointed at a weed still embedded in the flowerbed, staring hard at the golem to ensure he had its attention. He basically always did. "Saturn. Plant", he started, moving his gaze to the weed he was pointing at, "Plant, yes?"
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