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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 7:55:37 GMT -6
“Well, I suppose it can’t hurt to take a look.” She said, while also realizing that it definitely could if there was any broken glass on the ground. Still, she tugged Mango forward a bit, who clip-clopped along after her, anxiously looking from side to side as they passed through the gate. As expected, the park wasn’t in great shape. Weeds threatened to consume just about every manmade object in the area, and several storms throughout the years had blown tree branches down around the area. Luckily the paths were still walkable- the grass had only grown up around the cracks, leaving a relatively clear area for Fiera to walk, and to its credit the place didn’t seem to have a huge amount of manmade garbage lying around. It wasn’t dirty necessarily, just… neglected. Up ahead of her, a secondary fenced in area came into view, albeit patched up with a variety of materials.
Fiera 5 Mango 1.0/3.0
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 11:05:06 GMT -6
She was about to peer between the slats to see what it was until a sign caught her eye. "Do not use pool, unsafe!" It read. Ah, yeah. That would do it. Just for the heck of it though, she peered between the slats anyway. What was in there... didn't look like a pool to her at first. It looked like a bunch of fallen leaves. But then she realized- that was just how many leaves had fallen in and were now floating on the surface. Ew. It didn't smell terrible though, just a bit musty, so leaves and other plant matter was probably the worst of what had fallen in so far. Sure there were signs everywhere saying it was dangerous, but honestly Fiera had seen far worse than a stinky pool. She glanced around. There was what appeared to be a plastic bin several feet from the poolside.
Fiera 6 Mango 1.1/3.1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 15:36:37 GMT -6
Fiera ambled over to it and opened it up. Sure enough, there were some pool cleaning supplies in there, such as brushes and nets. They weren't in great repair, with a lot of them being rusted, bent, or otherwise damaged, but they didn't look unusable either. There was a stray garbage bag at the bottom too- perhaps originally meant to hold a specific object to keep it from getting water damaged, but there was nothing inside it now. She could use that. As Fiera took the garbage bag out to inspect it for holes, she had a sudden though- why... was she doing this? Was she even allowed to do this? She looked around. Well, it didn't seem like there were any groundskeepers around to yell at her for it. And if they tried, she'd yell at them first for leaving this place such a mess for her to clean up to start with.
Fiera 7 Mango 1.2/3.2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 15:51:57 GMT -6
Harrumph, that was right. If other people were going to neglect this place, she would just have to make it livable FOR them. Starting with this nasty pool. And in the meantime... she glanced back at Mango, who was still staring up at her with his big wet eyes. He could afford to get to know a new area a bit more, and get a bit more freedom. Who knew, maybe he'd relax a bit if she wasn't directly supervising him every minute of the day. She leaned down and picked him up briefly, setting him back down next to a bench and tied his lead to it. There. She could see him easily from where she was while cleaning the pool, but the lead wasn't long enough for him to walk over, hop in, and drown himself while she wasn't looking. He could however explore nearby grassy patches as much as he pleased.
Fiera 8 Mango 1.3/3.3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 15:54:06 GMT -6
For now though, it looked like he preferred to stay curled up under the bench waiting for her to return. "Mango, it's fine. You can go play!" She said, waving at him, but he didn't respond. Fiera sighed and rustled around in her pocket before pulling something out- his favorite squeaky toy. It brought him a lot of comfort when he was especially afraid, but perhaps he would warm up enough to actually play with it while they were here. "Here you go." She said, poking it into the gap between his neck and front leg. "Have fun while I work on this, ok?" She said, and got a soft bleat in response. It would have to do. With her pet taken care of, Fiera turned to face the pool area again and circled around until she found what looked like a gate. It had been closed off with a heavy block of wood.
Fiera 9 Mango 1.4/1.4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 15:57:16 GMT -6
Luckily, said block was easy enough for Fiera to lift and set to the side. The pool gate swung open with surprisingly little resistance, and Fiera stepped inside with a net and the plastic garbage bag in her hand. She hooked the bag on one of the ramshackle patches sticking out of the fence, freeing up that hand to work. She wasn't dressed particularly well for work today but, well, someone had to do it. Besides, the net had a long pole on it that allowed her to reach out far over the water, so it wasn't like the nasty pool gunk was coming anywhere near her clothes anyway- she could just dump it straight into the garbage bag. She reached out with the pole experimentally and dipped it in, her nose crinkling at the greenish-brown water that bubbled up from where she pushed down on the slick of dead leaves.
Fiera 10 Mango 2.0/4.0
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 21:26:10 GMT -6
Gross. Fiera prayed to herself that she wouldn't see anything worse further down in the water once she cleaned the sludge off of the top. A frog leapt away from the pool as she worked, apparently deciding to live somewhere that was... less under assault. Fiera wished it all the best as she got to work on scooping leaves and other debris out of the pool, gently lifting it with the net, letting the water filter out, and then upending it over the top of the garbage bag. It worked well enough, as the net wasn't deep enough for anything to stay trapped on it, and if anything got stuck she could just tap it against the fence a couple times to get it out again. She managed to work up a steady rhythm like that, moving back and forth between the pool and the bag. She let her eyes drift as she worked to take her mind off of it.
Fiera 1 Mango 2.1/4.1
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 21:33:13 GMT -6
Outside of the fenced off area surrounding the pool, she could see that Mango was finally starting to get a bit more comfortable. He had stood up from his curled up position huddled under the bench, and was now carefully sniffing around the surrounding area. He even gave the ground beneath him a few test licks and nudged some spare pebbles with his nose to see if there were any minerals in there to help him grow his scales, but alas, nothing. (Not that Fiera would want him eating any rocks around here anyway- cement wasn't exactly a good food source for repointe.) He still seemed too wary to leave the shadow of the park bench, but at least he wasn't going to spend the whole time cowering either. Fiera let herself relax a bit, no longer worried about potentially traumatizing her pet by leaving him unaccompanied for a few minutes. He was going to be fine.
Fiera 2 Mango 2.2/4.2
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 21:38:23 GMT -6
With that in mind, she got back to work on the pool. It was physically demanding work, but it went faster than she thought. That was probably because while she had to make a lot of movements, getting the leaves out wasn't really very difficult. They were quite light and had mostly adhered to each other so she could get them out in large, easily moved chunks. Within a few minutes of undistracted work she had managed to pull the lion's share of them out of the water. The pool water itself was the color of tea that had been steeped for too long, and the water level implied that it had been left to evaporate for a while. She was pretty sure she could still see the bottom of it if she squinted, but it could equally be a trick of the light from the clouds lining the sky above.
Fiera 3 Mango 2.3/4.3
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 21:43:10 GMT -6
She poked around at the bottom with her net. She was... pretty sure she could feel something scraping along the bottom there, but when she pulled the net up to the surface, nothing else was attached to it. "Hmm..." She muttered to herself, and grabbed the brush instead. It was a bit sturdier, and less likely to tear if there WAS something down there. She plunged it into the water, scraping along the bottom again and dragging it up the side. Her ears flicked up when something that wasn't brush finally broke the surface of the water- a huge branch. She pinned it against the side of the pool with the brush and carefully shuffled her way around, reaching down and pulling it out of the water before tossing it next to the rest of the garbage. After that she tried running the brush around some more, but couldn't find any more debris.
Fiera 4 Mango 2.4/4.4
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Jan 31, 2024 21:46:02 GMT -6
"I guess that's it, then." Fiera said to herself, looking at the pool. It was true- she had cleaned it out as well as she could, but without access to things like filters and water pumps she couldn't get it much better than this. Hopefully whoever was meant to be taking care of this place could take it from here. For now though, she was all worn out. She exited the fenced area and looked towards the park bench. "Ready to go, Mango?" She said, but the repointe was nowhere to be found. Instead, his lead (still tied to the bench) led out into the weed filled bushes behind the bench. "...Mango?" She called into the brush, hoping he would respond. Within a few moments he trotted out again, proudly holding onto the reward for his bravery- the frog that had hopped out of the pool, frozen in terror between his teeth. Fiera yelped and wrestled it away from him, releasing it into the grass once more, but was sure to give him a treat for good behavior. She had gotten something done, and he had managed to do something brave. A good day for them both.
Fiera 5 Mango 3.0/5.0
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Ramal
Full Member
Posts: 110
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Post by Ramal on Feb 4, 2024 21:35:44 GMT -6
If plants could eat living things, could they run around? Could they fly like Pashmina? What made a plant different from an animal or a person? Ramal had many questions, but he decided to leave most of them unanswered. It wasn't very productive to just grill their friend on nature and biology. Plus, it didn't sound like fun.
Though Zenjesi had reassured him a few times now, he was still concerned about Marian's antics. The way she ruthlessly charged forward against her restraints made him uneasy. It felt like the all too familiar dance of predator and prey, each one waiting for the moment to strike or to run. Thankfully, it was ended abruptly by the magic of the amulet. So that's how that worked.
"What would I..." he repeated, pondering the question. He was shocked both by the sudden reaction of Marian and the question itself. "Ya, I was hoping you could tell me what... to do? What to do firstly, for good gardening."
[8, 3.2]
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Post by Zenjesi on Feb 15, 2024 11:51:16 GMT -6
It was to be a short window of peace, but Zenjesi had learned that those could not be allowed to simply pass when training Bulldozers. They remained in a crouch beside Marian while she remained locked in place, gently stroking the top of her head and whispering a few reassuring words. Their head turned up towards Ramal as he spoke; it seemed he was truly intending to allow Zenjesi to lead this project. All of their knowledge and experience promptly trickled out of their ears, leaving their mind a blank slate as they were placed on the spot.
"Ah... ah, yes," they began to mumble. "I like the plants like these." On all fours, Zenjesi crawled forward, reaching out a hand to one of the thorny vines that was choking out the bush it grew through. "Or the carnivorous. But this is not Zenjesi's garden. This must go." They began to trace their long fingers down the vine, seeking out the stem amidst the snarled web. "You must take the root. Then it cannot return," they explained, pointing it out to Ramal. "I will need gloves, or I will bleed."
Zenjesi: 0.9 Marian: 3.8, 1.9
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Ramal
Full Member
Posts: 110
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Post by Ramal on Feb 15, 2024 18:29:49 GMT -6
Assuming Ramal didn't know what he was doing was usually a good bet, but in this case it was practically guaranteed. He watched with wonder as Zenjesi quickly identified a single vine, then followed it into the tangled mess where it started. What made that vine noteworthy?
"Does this mean this plant is not carni... eating meat?"
Gloves! Right, Ramal did fine some gloves during his initial cleanup of the greenhouse. He thought clothes for hands was a rather silly concept, but as Zenjesi requested them, it suddenly made sense. The gloves were made to protect one's hand from thorns. He wish he had thought of that earlier.
"I think there are gloves in here," he said, ducking his head into the stuck-open greenhouse door. He pulled a few things out of the toolbox and returned, holding them out like a prize. No two matched, but between them it was possible to at least find one that fit each hand.
"Which part is 'root'? Can you show me?"
Pashmina made a wide loop around the garden, carefully watching the ground for any predators. Any other than Marian, of course.
[8.1, 3.4]
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Post by Emery on Feb 22, 2024 10:52:03 GMT -6
Moxie had been naughty lately. In fact, she had had to muzzle him when they went out as of late, as he had been proving a bit too hungry and a bit too fast to avoid being a threat to smaller animals such as squirrels. It was a haphazard affair, more like a mess of chicken wire gently clasped to his head with leather straps, but it had worked well enough to keep him from shoving any poor unfortunate beasts into his mouth while they were out and about. She was glad that she had plans to take him in for a training session soon- he certainly needed it with his behavior. Still, poor behavior recently was no excuse to avoid taking him out for exercise- in fact, avoiding it would probably make him get cabin fever and act out even further. So here they were, out on the town. Emery 1 Moxie 14.1/14.1
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