Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
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Post by Darky on Dec 21, 2021 15:07:15 GMT -6
After a while, though, he also began to be invested in the activity itself, hopping closer to the bushes and almost looking to imitate the mammalian by raking the leaves with his own claws, head tilting and angling to search beneath. In a sense this was natural behaviour to his kind, being the type to eat both berries and bugs, so what better way to scavenge them than in a giant pile of opportunity.
Darky smiled as she worked beside him, though her own goals were much more closed to making sure anything dangerous was removed before Orchis got to it, and preferably without him noticing. One such incident was another of the strange fruits, though this time a bright, almost lime green colour, turning up from among the leaves, and her quickly stashing it without the branchaeopter noticing. A trick not so easily done considering his attentive nature, but it did help to have him find a stray beetle at the time.
(49) Fall Darky: 49 Orchis: 12 (4/5) / 12 (4/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
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Post by Darky on Dec 21, 2021 15:16:55 GMT -6
Such luck would be few and far between though. The next time the sphinx brushed some leaves aside she came across some stray stalks to wheat, still looking to be ripe for harvest despite the colder weather. Much more concerning was the brightly colour fruit just beside them, however.. And Orchis certainly did notice that one, considering the stalks were almost as tall as him.
Fortunately his attentions were mostly fixed on those, leaving the mammalian with a window to quickly snatch up the fruit and pocket it, before starting to cut loose the wheat stalks. As they swayed from the motions, the branchaeopter's head followed them near exactly, making the sphinx wondering just how much he understood it to be food, and how much it might've come across as a toy.
Orchis was very much a bird-based creature, though the look that he gave those stalks of wheat as they rustled and moved wasn't unlike a much more feline-style attention to a feathery stick..
(50) Fall Darky: 50 - (added) Orchis: 13 (0/5) / 13 (0/5)
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Post by Nadia on Dec 21, 2021 17:39:40 GMT -6
One more fruit to tide you over... and something coming loose from Orchis?
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Jan 7, 2022 8:06:47 GMT -6
It was some time after that the mammalian once more returned to the garden plot, though by that point the world had turned a stark white - Piles and heaps of snow covered most of the world, layering it in a soft but rather cold blanket. The sphinx, too, ended up layering herself quite a bit more than that, in order to keep warm. How many years has she been in this climate by now? And yet each winter, the struggle begins anew as if the previous ones never really happened.
True, she never really liked the heat of the desert either, but one extreme does not make the other seem any better. As such, the mammalian walked through the gate looking more like the personified version of an overstuffed scarecrow than most regulars of the City, with a lot more layers in a lot more (haphazard) styles. At least.. more so than the usual, that is.
(1) Winter Darky: 1 Omèn: 1 (1/5) / 1 (1/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Jan 7, 2022 8:10:51 GMT -6
Of the long pants there were two layers, of the jackets three (not counting the light shirt beneath). A thick woolen scarf was wrapped around the neck tall enough to cover the lower half of her head. A had had been pulled on as well, although concessions had to be made for the ears, lest she also end up walking around half-deaf. So while those still had to deal with the outside cold, at least her fingers and toes were kept warm in woolen gloves and fur-lined foot-coverings, respectively.
The first time she ever did this, she had trouble even leaving the door. These days the restrictions on movement from all the layers wasn't necessarily any better, but at least she's more used to it by now. So with a slightly different gait than usual, she made her way through the garden, trying not to appear like she was waddling all too much in the process.
(2) Winter Darky: 2 Omèn: 1 (2/5) / 1 (2/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Jan 7, 2022 8:15:14 GMT -6
There are people who might complain the weight and restrictiveness of armours, wondering how warriors were even able to do anything in them, but for the sphinx the armour feels a lot more a second skin than these winter attires. Largely because unlike winter attires, armours are actually made to fit a wearer as well as designed to retain mobility as much as possible. Certainly not in all cases, true, but the different schools of thought don't really compare to the rather singular school of clothes designing.
The snow crunched softly beneath her feet as she waded through the entry lane, and was immediately met with a problem.. The paths through the City and up to the garden were well-maintained by the City itself, but each garden was every owner's own responsibility. And in this case, leaving it unattended until after the heavier snowfalls meant most of the paths were under a rather thick layer of it..
(3) Winter Darky: 3 Omèn: 1 (3/5) / 1 (3/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Jan 7, 2022 8:33:52 GMT -6
One could still see the vague outlines among the fluffy bumps that denotes bushes, benches and the occasional rock or boulder, but by and large it was one continuous surface, smoothly rolling into each other. The sphinx's face slipped into a brief moment of despair as she weighted the options.. The plan has been to come to the garden and do some tending work, but not quite to this sheer of a scale. Most of the plant creature would have been slumbering in their pens and tiny houses, though some remained awake for the winter, so she packed along some food to scatter around the yard, both for them as well as any birds or other critters that might be passing by.
Sweating one's self into a puddle shovelings snow kind of dampened that plan, though.. Well, perhaps it wasn't so bad. She's had to trek through worse environments, whether it be water in the caves, swamps in the jungle or floods at the farm.
(4) Winter Darky: 4 Omèn: 1 (4/5) / 1 (4/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Jan 7, 2022 8:40:30 GMT -6
Curious eyes in deep cherry tones watched from above as the mammalian began to ever so slowly march her way through the thick snow, trying to get closer to where the apple orchard was. It was a funny-looking walk, and the leafscatter found the whole process rather amusing to observe, nevermind she wasn't quite sure who this new individual was. Omèn vaguely recalled a two-legger who occasionally came by, but this one looked much different to that, and in all the wrong colours, too!
Still, her head slowly turned as the mammalian huffed her way along, one high steps into the knee-deep snow at a time, trying to not lose her grip on the little cloth bundle in her right hand. Not that dropping it would have really done anything to it, given it was mostly dried fruits, berries, nuts and some pressed little cubes for the birds, but the less she has to dig through snow, the better.
(5) Winter Darky: 5 Omèn: 2 (0/5) / 2 (0/5)
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Post by Nadia on Jan 8, 2022 12:51:16 GMT -6
It's amazing how things can grow year-round.
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Feb 4, 2022 1:50:48 GMT -6
Spirits on high.. The sphinx never figured to miss the heat of the desert quite as much as when winter came around, and every year it almost seemed as big of a surprise as the last. Not for the first time she wonders if there might be some way to bring heat with you, as something like a personal object.. But the intricacies around that would be too finicky, plus there's also the consideration of convenience. It's not exactly convenient to have an object on you that melts everything within immediate distance, leaving you splashing through puddles, slush and mud instead..
Well, unless it's a heat of a different type, more to keep her warm than to keep the area around warm, but that's whole other concept with a whole other series of issues.
Continuing with her self-made misery, the mammalian slowly trudges along as the leafscatter watches her approach the orchard, one slow, snow-laden step at a time. What poor thing..
(6) Winter Darky: 6 Omèn: 2 (1/5) / 2 (1/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Feb 4, 2022 4:09:19 GMT -6
Comparatively, the leafscatter has little difficulty rising to her feet in the bare-branched apple tree and tentatively tip-toeing along the crusted snow towards the trunk of the tree. Her form is small and she's light on her feet, and the snow has seen a series of melting and freezing so the powdery white is more like a crusty shell across the branches. Her tail brushes against some icicles from the branches above, before she briefly curls and makes a small jump to a neighboring branch, to continue this odd observation.
There, she settled, among another pile of snow caught between the fork of the branch, and watched as the mammalian gradually drew closer. The footfalls were only getting heavier, as the garden's natural elevation sloped down a little, though the snow remained quite level to itself. Suddenly the steps were even deeper than the sphinx imagined, but she kept going, repeatedly telling herself she just needs to set out the food and leave, by means of consolation.
(7) Winter Darky: 7 Omèn: 2 (2/5) / 2 (2/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Feb 4, 2022 9:14:04 GMT -6
Just make it to those trees, scatter some stuff around and then leave - Easy as that. There was a good chunk of deep snow between 'those trees' and even more between them and 'just leave', but she tried not to think about that. A fleeting thought almost floated through her brain on whether the shijin might be able to 'float' her across the snow.. but that would be a bit too close to abuse of such power (And really, the neglect was all her own doing, so this was mostly something her reaping said sowing).
As deep as it was, the mammalian did notice that she seemed to be the only one leaving a deeper track into it. It hadn't snowed for a few days, so most tracks on it were fresh enough. Some small, like the leafscatter occasionally coming down to 'ground' level and leaving small tip-toe prints, while others were a bit larger, probably Orchis awakening from a hibernation nap to wander around and realize everything is still too cold.
(8) Winter Darky: 8 Omèn: 2 (3/5) / 2 (3/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Feb 4, 2022 9:17:59 GMT -6
If it werent that the pond had heating built into it, the lotine would have likely preferred to nap away the winter as well. As it stood, she instead found the silver tat-lung as her rather constant companion. Darky hadn't really got as far as to make any new actuaintances with Hyacinthe, but from what Mear has said she's certainly a lot happier here than she ever was at the kennel. Perhaps she could even teach her a thing or two about gardening?
That might certainly help prevent issues like this. She can hardly be in two places at once (Assuming the TROD was busy as well), but with another helping hand here, she necessarily didn't need to be.
Above, the leafscatter scrunches her little nose, trying to learn more about this strange two-legger. She almost thinks to catch a whiff of something familiar, but a brief breeze and chill air are quick to carry it away.
(9) Winter Darky: 9 Omèn: 2 (4/5) / 2 (4/5)
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Darky
Flea Market Artist
Veritas et Aequitas
Posts: 1,268
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Post by Darky on Feb 4, 2022 9:22:27 GMT -6
The sphinx's next step punches through the deep snow, but hits something slightly elevated underneath it. It's only a fraction of a second later that she realizes that something is round, and only after her weight had already shifted forwards. Suddenly the object rolls out from under her, and the sphinx has a (relatively short) fall into the thick snow, landing on her side. The landing is soft, making the thick blanket of snow a blessing for once (though her legs would still disagree), and she struggles a bit to find solid footing for her hands before she pushes herself back up.
Oy.. Well, failed that step. She checks the bundle in her hands and finds the food still accounted for. Then, with the leafscatter's ears perking at the commotion above, begins to dig into the snow for whatever she had stepped on. She feels out the round thing and pulls it up, dusting off snow to find.. A snowberry? Well, guess some had been missed in that last harvest after all.
(10) Winter Darky: 10 - (added) Omèn: 3 (0/5) / 3 (0/5)
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Post by Fiera Ferella on Feb 4, 2022 11:03:08 GMT -6
What luck! Your leaf scatter has produced a berry!
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