☀️ summer catchall

[hearthwarming]

🌼 who: Oriphi & others
🌼 what: open prompts & catchall
🌼 when: second half of Summer
🌼 where: various
🌼 warnings: will add as needed!

i. after the hurricane

[ When the skies clear and the sun comes back out after the hurricane passes, Ori does her best to visit every. single. farm. She had spent most of that time inside making sure her and M-21's farm was weathering the storm well enough, and then most of the rainy day following... baking cookies. Many, many cookies.

Which she is now showing up at your doorstep with, rapping upon the door politely. ]

Hello there! I just wanted to check on everyone! Do you need help clearing your farm? Or if you got hurt during the storm, I can heal... Oh! And I have cookies.

ii. funny forest furries

[ On some of the other sunny summer days, Ori will make her way into the woods surrounding the forest farms to practice her magic and figure out what's going on with her shapeshifting ability.

Which is really to say... Anyone exploring or foraging in the woods may find themself running into a rather peculiar sight: choose your fighter between a bear with webbed platypus feet and a platypus face, a rabbit with mouse ears and horns, or a parrot-colored giant owl... ]

iii. double trouble ( aka 'you split into two identical copies of yourself for a day' babey)

[ Did you just see Ori somewhere in town, perhaps delivering flowers during the daytime or hanging around the tavern during the evenings?

Well, now you're seeing her again, somewhere else, even though it seems impossible for her to be in two places at once... unless...?

Anyhow, any prolonged staring will spur the tiefling to approach. ]

Is everything okay? You look like you've just seen something interesting!

iv. wildcard
( feel free to toss something else in! we can hash things out at my plotting comment if you're feeling something else! )

Comments

[chronosynthesis]

[... He tilts his head. He wasn't exactly offended, but...] Would you really not want to keep one for yourself?

[He mostly mystified the importance of tracking only his adventurous eating.]

[hearthwarming]

[ sorry Syr she is just like this!! ]

...Oh, me? I already keep a journal! Well, maybe not about food specifically, but still... That does come up sometimes...

[moonstriking]

You think so?

[Judith smiles, watching Ori climb up through a ladder. ]

Your way seems much more convenient though.

[hearthwarming]

Maybe, but it definitely doesn't look as acrobatic and impressive!

[ Once she reaches the top of her little vine ladder, she pulls herself up to carefully perch on the branch. ]

I wonder if that was enough to fill your square...? I guess we could try climbing up higher if not, too!

[chronosynthesis]

Ah, I see. [That doesn't sound exactly like what she was suggesting at all.] Well I'll think about it. We probably should get more stationary around here...

[moonstriking]

[ Judith will just allow that flattery. Ori seems insistent. Judith glances at her card, waiting for the stamp to appear. And then sure enough... ]

Ah, that was quick.

[hearthwarming]

[ Look, so many people here seem to have very low self-esteem... And as someone who struggled with that for so long (and still does, honestly) she always errs on the side of flattery. She always means it earnestly, as a little gesture of kindness that might bring a bit of warmth to someone's day. She can hope. ]

Wonderful! Wow, that was so much easier than having to go get matching shirts or something...

[moonstriking]

[Judith blinks. And since Ori is so close, she'll just reach out and pet her head gently]

Fufu. That one would be difficult.

[hearthwarming]

I managed it because someone was kind enough to offer when we realized we shared that square, but... Relatively speaking, it's still easier compared to... Well.

[ The smutty ones... ]

Anyway, these squares are a great way to make your house and farm better, so... If you need more help with them in the future, just let me know!

[ But wait... Miss Judith is petting her head!? It almost takes a second to realize this. ]

Oh! M-Miss Judith..?

[moonstriking]

[That's a cute reaction. Judith smiles, perfectly pleased]

Ah, I wasn't sure how else to thank you.

[hearthwarming]

Oh, um...

[ Was a simple "thank you" not enough... Not that she's complaining. Ori has always been one for casual contact, anywho. ]

You're welcome, Miss Judith. Hah, sorry if the horns get in the way a little bit.

[graftage]

Hmm.

[He considers it for a moment, tilting his head to let his glance flick over her from horn to toe.]

Well, I think you'd look cute with short hair.

[moonstriking]

Not at all.

[Judith smiles. It's a little like her nageeg swishing behind her. Avoid and aim for the middle.]

[hearthwarming]

I did cut my hair a while back, liiike... This?

[ She brings a hand up to just below her chin. It was one of those Character Development Haircuts, you know? ]

But - ah... Thanks, Mister Steinbeck... To be honest, it's crossed my mind a few times because of this summer heat. It must be a lot easier to work out in the farmlands with short hair, huh?

[graftage]

Oh, that's definitely a look.

[A sharp little nod, and a casual little point at his own head, hair underneath his hat.]

Sure thing. You don't get it caught up in things or anything. [A little pause.] Your hair's just fine, though. A guy I know, he has hair all the way down to his legs. He'd probably get all tangled up.

[hearthwarming]

All the way down to his legs? Wow, that's impressive, and I'm sure he looked beautiful and ethereal, but... Wouldn't it get in the way during combat?

[ combat!?!? ma'am this is a farming / dating simulator game ]

[graftage]

Well, funny thing about that. Let's...just say he had stuff up his sleeves for that.

[:3]

[hearthwarming]

Hm, really? Like what...?

[feralheart]

[ This time M-21 doesn't startle at the touch. Though instead of looking down at the tattoo, which he knows entirely too well already, he watches her face. He wouldn't say he's the most adept at reading expressions. But she really doesn't try to be anything but an open book. It's strange somehow, to be on the receiving end of that sympathy from someone who wasn't an experiment herself. He doesn't want her to have to understand it.

And he really hadn't planned to unload all that on her. Something about her just made it difficult to lie, somehow. Maybe the guilt of lying to a partner really was on a different level. ]

You didn't have a reason to tell me.

[ And it's not like he'd begrudge anyone else keeping secrets even if she'd meant to. Still, since she's offering, he's glad enough to divert the topic to something a little lighter. And of way more interest to him personally; there's a lot he still doesn't know about her. ]

...Then I will. Were you born with that? Or you learned it?

[hearthwarming]

[ Ori certainly wears her emotions plain as day, her heart on her sleeve. She makes for a terrible liar, in any case. There had been a time in her life when she tried her best not to be so emotive, but the efforts were almost always futile. Over time, and as she quietly worked on her own confidence, so too did her ability to be unafraid of her feelings, to let herself feel them.

Even when she's not entirely sure what it is, exactly, she's feeling for M-21 in this moment. Sympathy, to be sure, but... An earnest wish to make his life better, somehow, too. To give him the grace to find himself and make an identity for himself when that had been taken away from him in the past.

Being teammates means being open and honest with one another. So when he asks, she naturally answers. ]

I learned it. Being a druid means... my magic comes from a deep connection with nature, instead of something like a bloodline or through studies or a deity. I guess you could say I felt close with it since I was little, but I didn't learn to use my magic this way until I was a teenager. That was when my sister and I became mercenaries. She had her own magic, and I had mine, and that was the only way we knew to get by.

[ a bit of a wry smile, at that. Her past is perhaps not as joyful and full of wonder as it first seem. ]

[graftage]

Hm. Well. Its...kinda scary?

THANK YOU FOR THIS PRESENT ♡

[feralheart]

[ It's a hell of a way to realize that he hasn't really given deep thought before to what it means for her to be an adventurer. It sounded like such a fantasy idea to him, traveling with friends and defeating evil. But that fantasy was her life too.

How had Adelis put it? People chose adventuring "if they fancied death nipping at their heels"? Or maybe, if they already knew that fighting was something they were good at. He lets her fingertips brush past his wrist as he takes her hand in his instead, cupping it and turning it palm-up. For a moment he studies it as if expecting to find some kind of trace of her experience, like the tangible one permanently imprinted on his own skin. ]

...That's young. The two of you only had each other?

[hearthwarming]

Oh? Well, now I'm really curious. Did he use his hair in combat, or something?

[graftage]

Haha, no, that would be fun...though...

[He screws up his face as if thinking about it for a moment.]

Mm. You really want to know? [He raises his hand, wiggling his fingers.] He could turn his body into tentacles.

[hearthwarming]

Oh...

[ All in all, she doesn't seem too fazed by this!? ]

Wait, how does being able to turn into tentacles help with the long hair?