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| What new gift has been unlocked? |
| Water (rivers, ponds, lakes... ocean?) |
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56% |
[ 9 ] |
| Soil, Earth, Erosion |
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6% |
[ 1 ] |
| Arthopods (insects, arachnids, etc.) |
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31% |
[ 5 ] |
| Volcanic (magma, igneous rock, land formation) |
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6% |
[ 1 ] |
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| Total Votes : 16 |
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 Posted: Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:13 pm
 PROMPT CONTEST: APRIL 8 - APRIL 18
blood bay buck colored by MoonRazor
full size + unedited
The new gift is AQUA, the power over bodies of water, both still (as in lakes and ponds) and running (rivers and springs) Quote: Aqua users control water found on the earth, rather than the skies as with atmos users. They can change tides and flow, summon springs, and drain water from flooded areas. Aqua users are deep and ponderous, swelling with hunger for knowledge. They flow with the tide and handle change with an unflappable attitude. What comes, comes, and an Aqua user will be ready to accept it. They can be deeply philosophical and desire to leave no question unanswered. but their patience in legendary. ____________________________
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2020 12:17 pm
The Way the River Flows
username:Onewintersnite
buck's name:Mní Wiconi (meaning water is life)
prompt option: b
prompt response: The world swirled and shifted in a gentle back a forth motion like the waters of a ocean creasing the shores. Mni Wiconi allowed the Grandfather Tree to take him on the vision quest he had been waiting to do for many moons. His mind clears and he can see that he is just at the edge of the Homewood's and Barrens. Before him is a group of botanic nouls and some atoms nouls working to expanded the greenery of the Homewoods into the Barrens. "Noble work to be sure." Mni Wiconi thought as he watched the group.
As he stood watching though he could see that even with all their efforts the young seedlings just could not get enough water to last longer then a few minutes. "Poor things." he said with a shack of his head. One of the nouls of the group spots Mni Wiconi and comes over to ask him if he had any ideas that might help. "Hmmm..." he ponders the conundrum. He had no gift that would improve the situation in anyway but a thought did in fact accrued to him.
As a young noul Mni Wiconi remembered playing in little streams on the mountains. He would drop a small flowing stick in the water and race after it as it made the trip down the stream. One time he had followed a stream up mountain to see where the water was coming from and how the stream worked. As he walk farther and father up the mountain, keeping the stream just to the left of him, he found a beautiful crystal clear lake. He learned that the lake was being feed by the snow as it melted and a small opening down hill had formed make the stream.
"I have any idea but its going take a lot of work. A lot of digging." All the nouls form the group gathered around, they were all in on whatever plan he might have to help Vykeli flourish. "Ok well first we need to go up that mountain and find a stream that will lead to lake high up." "I know just the stream." one of the atoms nouls said "And its not to far off." "Great you will take two nouls and where the stream starts make the opening wider and then work you way down the stream as you go widening the stream." That would help get a stronger flow of water since the next part was going take even more work. "Next we need a couple of nouls to start digging small rows starting form this point and going out in the barrens in a triangle pattern." Not wanting anyone to misunderstand him he draws an example of how the trenches should look. "Everynoul understand?" He asked the ones that would be digging into the barrens and in the mountains. They all nodded and set to work. Turning to the last few nouls he explained to them that they would start redirecting the stream to this area, just on the edge of the Homewood then they set off to work as well.
It took all day and well into the morning of the next day. All the nouls of the group had reconvened together at the edge of the Homewoods and Barrens. The stream had redirected nicely and was flowing at a nice steady place. Has the water worked its way to the trenches the grown absorbed the water quickly but with the constant follow of water the trenches never dried up.
The ground around the trenched darkened and that is when they all know they had accomplished a great thing and would be able to plant seed and they would grow. "Ok I think it is safe to try and plant again." With that a couple of the nouls planted some seeds, then a botanic noul helped the seeds sprout. Has the group watched the green shots come up, they all held their breath with hope. After what seemed like forever the sprouts stayed alive and in a rush they all breathed with relief. It had worded.
As the group began to congratulate each other Mni Wiconi's water the world fade away like a water fall washing before his eyes. The Grandfather Tree came back into few and he was once again standing at the base of the roots. He had completed his quest now it was time for the Great Tree to revile to him his gift. He waits in a respectful bow and knows whatever he is blessed with he will be a productive member in make Vykeli great again.
wc:771
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2020 12:22 pm
The Way the River Flows
username: HeavenlySnow
buck's name: Buziba (means deep or open water)
prompt option: B
prompt response:
Buziba traveled the heated path across the barrens to the massive grandfather tree. It had been a tiring journey but it wasn’t over just yet. Taking a swig of much needed water, he began the climb to the top of the plateau which it lived upon. He approached it respectfully and with a deep understanding of its influence over his kind. This was the path into adulthood that the majority of his kind took. Buziba had made sure he packed just the essentials on his journey to the grandfather tree. Water, food, some first aid, oh and a couple delightful books. While he couldn’t understand the funny symbols, the pictures helped tell him what was going on. There were lots of diagrams in his favorite as well. Buziba was going to try and learn what the symbols mean so he could further understand what the diagrams were. He took another deep drink of his flask, put it away and took a deep breath as he stood at the base of the massive tree. It seemed he didn’t have to wait long, the tree almost seemed eager to start.
The world around him dropped away and was quickly replaced with him back towards Homewood. He was on the outskirts that ran against the heat and dryness of the barrens. How curious, he wondered why he was here of all places. No matter, he would get an answer for this soon enough. Buziba trotted along, weaving through some of the trees as he moved closer to the barrens. Soon he could hear the voices of other nouls and stepped out between two trees. The heat blazed to life on his back even more than it did from with the trees. It was most uncomfortable. Before him several nouls were talking among themselves, some seemed very upset while others seemed about ready to cry or give up. He wasn’t entirely sure, but something was happening to upset them. Just past them he could see failed attempts at cultivating plants, that’s when they noticed him standing there.
“Oh thank goodness, a fresh noul,” one said walking over to him. “Please help us. We’re trying to expand the green of Homewood into the barrens. But no matter what we do, the heat and lack of water keeps killing our sprouts.”
The others had joined the noul speaking to him. There was four of them standing there gazing with hopeful eyes up at him. Well alright then, the thought, let’s see what he could do.
“Are you all botanics?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” the first to speak said. “We’ve been out here working on this garden patch for some time.”
“Have any others come to help you? Atmos nouls?”
The botanics blinked at each other than at him. “No,” the first said.
Buziba walked over to the garden patch that they had been working on and examined it. Their work was just fine, but they had been fighting a loosing battle with the barrens out here. The heat and lack of water was too much and so those were the very things needing to be addressed first. But they couldn’t just turn off the sun...ah hah! He turned around and faced the nouls, while pulling out one of his books. He laid it on the ground and nosed through til he found what he wanted. It was all based on what Others could do but he was sure that they could mimic it in their noulicorn ways. The four looked at him oddly.
“From what I see, you have two major issues. Heat and water. Walking over here, I didn’t feel the heat as bad from under the trees, once I stepped out, it really bore down on me. So what needs to happen, is we get trees planted along the garden plots. We’ll need a few atmos users to help make sure they stay watered. If we have to, maybe we can replant much larger trees instead of using saplings.”
“Why trees again?” a noul inquireed.
“The trees will help the ground stay cooler for the sprouts. Once you get those established, dig trenches for where you want water to go. These will help water go where you need it most. While doing all this, make sure to set out barrels or other water tight containers to collect any water the atmos users bring when they create rain. This will be water you pour into these trenches.
Ideally, if there was underground water that we had access to and a way to bring it to the surface, that would benefit the sprouts and trees. But to get started, I highly suggest teaming up with atmos nouls.” He concluded, leaving his book opened to a couple diagrams. One showed Others bringing up ground water with a pump, this had interested Buziba greatly. Large bodies of water on the surface would really help cool down the barrens, but there had to be at least water underneath that could be accessed and brought up eventually. It would help the botanic nouls expand the green of Homewood into the barrens. It was just a matter of finding the water hidden below and figuring out how to bring it to the surface.
“What if we don’t have much success with trees?”
“That’s a very good question and point. Another option would be to weave vines and other durable materials into shelters that can be used to cover the sprouts. Not completely tight against the sun, but enough to disrupt the unbearable heat coming down.”
“This all sounds so labor intensive and like a long process,” another pipped up.
That noul was correct. This was going to take a lot of work, but this was important. Fighting against the barrens was never bound to be easy either. But Buziba firmly believed that they could do this and any problems that arose he was more than happy to help them solve.
“You’re right, it will be. But nothing worth doing should be easy. We’re going up against the barrens after all. We can do it with hard work, patience and teamwork.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2020 12:23 pm
The Way the River Flowsusername: Kesmi buck's name: Turtle prompt option: A prompt response: Turtle had always had his nose in a book of some sort or from somewhere. Some of his own personal collection were from one of the many libraries he had found in the Ruins. It was to there the tree had sent him after it had reached out to his companions. He had watching Dusty fall into a trance and even his own sister Dove. He was third in line, Finch opting to be last as they all knew he would wander away and pull out some sort of reading material. The Tree having vanished from sight did the dream become of one that he had always had. Books everywhere! Turtle couldn't stop turning as he stared starry eyed at the musty and somewhat moldy bindings on the many shelves. Some stretched far from his reach, but he would find a way to acquire what he wanted. Shaking his head, Turtle headed over to the closest shelf and nosed through some of the volumes there. As he looked, the one thing he noticed was that none of these were written in a language he could read. Frowning slightly, Turtle pulled one off the shelf and carried it over to one of the last standing tables. Putting it down he pushed open the cover and looked inside. It was still something he couldn't read. Head tilting Turtle looked around the place for something else. He had seen a couple this language to that language books before... Or at least something close to what he could make out. But it did seem that they were no such books here... That he could see... "Hmmm... " Was all he voiced after a few moments. "If I were a language book, where would I be placed..." Not really a question to the masses around him, but just a thought to himself as he always did. Turtle left the bottom floor of room, up a set of stairs to another floor. Here the books were much the same as it was the bottom floor. Well, next best thing! Returning to the floor he had started on, Turtle pulled a couple more books. Snatching up a few scraps of paper, he looked through the books noting similar ones. The symbols and scratches. He made a running tally against the language of the Noul. He would figure this out one symbol at a time, no matter how long it would take. "As Father always said, There is no bottom to the well of the known. For the unknown is always looming to bucket it out one drop at a time.... Or something like that." Turtle chuckled as he kept working at the books. For when he was able to figure out the cast of symbols and scratches. He could read what was left behind and pass it on to better Noul-kind. Further more, to ever expand his memory warehouse, shelves had been cleaned, but would these be enough? Turtle hoped so... Time spanned into the hours, Turtle not giving up on it until he could make a little headway in the translations. Already letters were starting to fall into place. Sentences were starting to form before he seemed to have an idea of what one book was written about... At least a sentence or so that may read the possible. “Do not fear failure but rather fear not trying.”
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 11:07 am
The Way the River Flowsusername: EchosSweet
buck's name: Feruzi [Turquoise]
prompt option: A
You find yourself in the ruins, deep inside a unit built by the Others. The musty smell of old paper fills your nose as you realize you're surrounded by books. None of them are written in a language you understand.
What do you do?
prompt response:
It was overcast today. Feruzi turned his face to the sky, inhaling the warm, thick scent of moisture on the wind. With the sun obscured by cloud cover and a breeze tickling the air, it was an opportune day to stretch his old joints outside the copse of trees that served as home.
Feruzi was no stranger to the Ruins of Erli. In his youth, he had sprung up side stairways, wedged himself into rooms so deep as to be hidden from sunlight, hoarded trinkets left behind by the Others in search of each item's purpose. So many noulicorns shunned anything left behind by those that came before them, but if there were valuables to be collected or resources to be utilized, shouldn't they do their best to see that nothing went to waste? And if noulkind put in the effort to learn of what practices took place here, they could try to ensure that no one followed the same destructive path of the Others.
The items here could mean something, if only anyone was interested in learning what.
Feruzi wanted to know, and so he hoarded. When his collection had overrun his thicket in Homewood, he'd laid claim to a habitation unit deep within the Ruins, out of the way of most exploring noulicorns. He'd gathered his items and tucked them away, down a staircase and into a basement of his chosen unit. Here, he kept his collection organized.
There were metal prongs and blades and scoops that the others kept in drawers. So Feruzi had taken the drawers and stacked them in a corner. There were cans that sloshed when shaken, and after giving one an experimental stomp to crack it open, he'd discovered they were filled with the Other's source of odd-smelling nutrition. He lined them neatly along a back wall. Here he had baskets filled with towels and blankets. Over there the remains of powered appliances. Tucked in a nook were the bright and colorful games and toys that he expected must have belonged to their children.
And lined on a shelf, Feruzi kept the Other's tomes. He could not read their language, and he'd never had luck finding anyone who could. But he couldn't let their words go to waste, so he kept them, along with everything else.
It was on a gathering expedition that he'd stumbled into a particularly far-away unit that was filled with almost nothing but books. They lined every shelf of tall bookcases. They littered the tables. A few scattered piles dotted the floors. This unit in particular was massive compared to most Feruzi had been in, and there was no way to transport all that he had found to his own space. ...But it would be a shame to leave them open on the floor, with pages flapping in the wind and leaves and dust scratching across whatever messages they carried.
They would need to be preserved.
It wasn't a task to be completed in a day, but Feruzi found that he didn't mind the work. Everything here could be organized as he did with his own items. These books could be put into neat stacks. The ones left on the tables and floor could be returned to the shelves so that only their bindings were exposed to debris, and the pages were kept safe. The ones with pictures could be set aside to be riffled through later. Perhaps he could glean something from those.
'Why?' He could hear his younger sister demanding of him. 'Why should we waste time on the riddles of those who destroyed our world? Our time should be given to fixing what they ruined!'
Feruzi agreed. Of course Feruzi agreed. He wanted to see a Vykeli as peaceful and luscious as all the stories said it had once been. But he was not so foolish as to expect it in his lifetime. And in understanding what had caused the Others' downfall, perhaps they could forge an easier path to fixing what they'd left behind. Their books were written memoirs, reservoirs of their knowledge and actions. He couldn't read them. Feruzi doubted any living noul could.
But there were more than just living nouls left behind. One day, a powerful vivify ascended may stumble upon a single crushed bone in the Ruins. That bone may have been around since before the Others departed. It may have belonged to a creature that had spoken to them. It may have understood their language. It may have even been able to read their tomes... Such a creature didn't exist, yet, but it one day might.
And when it did, Feruzi would be pleased to have it decipher the tomes he kept in his habitation unit, and if he was very lucky, perhaps the ones here would be well-enough preserved to be read from.
Until then, he would wait, tidying these as best as he could and bringing back to his unit any he thought looked especially promising.
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2020 9:11 pm
The Way the River Flows
username: thyPOPE
buck's name: Ysmaiu
prompt option: C
prompt response: He had only been curious.
He'd heard that the Grandfather Tree would give you a vision, when it knew you were ready. This could not be a vision; he'd gone from curiously pressing his hoof to the Tree's large, flat root to scorching heat and dryness. He knew what the Barrens looked like - he'd wandered through on his way - but he'd never seen it like this, without the little green line of the Homewood in the distance. Where was he?
Ysmaiu shook his head. He was no intrepid explorer. He was barely full-grown, still a little gangly and not quite graceful in his steps. It was worse when every step meant he was touching hot ground.
And yet he had to keep walking. Standing would be worse; it hurt so much already. He should've known the Tree would get mad at him. He hobbled nervously, looking to and fro for a large rock - one of those low-growing shrubs he'd seen during his trek to the Tree in the first place - the shimmer of an oasis in the distance - anything.
How could you know where you were going, this deep in the Barrens? All he could see was that the sun was high above him. Oh, no - the Barrens were flat forever, but when he turned around he realized he could see tiny lines of mountains in the distance. He knew those, at least, though his heart thundered to realize that his beloved Homewood was so small that he couldn't see it, wherever it might be in relation to him. Was it between him and the mountains? On the other side?
No, it couldn't be. He could make out the Grandfather Tree's silhouette over there, now that he was trying. Where was he? He didn't know anything about the Barrens, except that somewhere underground there were caverns, which held the source spring for the scant amounts of water that sometimes showed themself and then vanished. It sounded...well, it sounded like a fantasy, if Ysmaiu was honest. But if he was so far from home - and he had to be, when he thought about how the Tree must be positioned in relation to those peaks in the distance - then he couldn't make it home, and that meant his job was to seek out food and shelter, since he hadn't brought it or anything.
Because he'd been stupid, and curious, and wanted to know what those little buds on the tree meant. He wasn't even old enough for a Gift! Was he?
Ysmaiu shook out his mane. It was silly to think of it, now. There was the thought of clear pools of water deep beneath the surface - and there were the tried and true methods people had always repeated for him and for any underprepared traveler: look for signs of life. The Barrens' denizens knew it best, and if he followed them, and was not greedy, he, too, could survive at least long enough to make it home. That would be the smart thing to do.
So that was what he did, at first. For a few...minutes.
There really was nothing out here. It was vast and awe-inspiring. Terrifying, too, of course: there were no little traces of motion, no fluttering leaves or stray branches cracking underneath someone's foot.
There was sand, he supposed. Wind, slow enough that its presence only made him conscious of how much cooler it truly could've been in a less stifling environment. It snaked through his hair and shuffled sand into the loose hair dangling from his fetlocks. He had to lift his tail so it didn't get too hot, but that grew tiring after only a few seconds. Sometimes it looked like a silhouette was shifting in the cracks, or circling in the distance - but was that a sign of life, or just a trick of Ysmaiu's own eyes?
He couldn't tell, and it was beginning to get monotonous here. His mind began to wander: where might caverns hide out here? Wouldn't knowing where the water lay be of help, to other nouls? It would be nice, to know definitively that there was a destination out here, and that young, curious Ysmaiu had brought news of it back to the Homewood. That'd be helpful, right, and it'd be a place for him to rest, too, for a few days.
Fungi grew in caves, right? Those were edible. He hadn't brought food, and he didn't want to scavenge for lost corpses in the sand.
It was still a search, either way. He wouldn't be losing time. He could look for both - little movements, carrion cries, and maybe hints of where the land might slope downward. Deep shadows, perhaps, or thick lines - from far away, it was hard to tell whether one of those little cracks in the dry earth might turn out to be a ravine. A ravine would be a good place to start, right? There, at least, there might be stone that was sure to be sturdy. He wasn't sure how he could handle getting back up from there...but he could search for its end.
There was a spring in his step, now, as he continued onward.
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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:30 pm
This was even harder to judge than the last one! We needed to call in reinforcements for another set of eyeballs on this one.
With lengthy consideration, Echosweet's Feruzi is our winner! We loved his rich personality and established character. His interest in the Others is fascinating! EchosSweet Feruzi is all yours!. His initial ability is Irrigate The user controls the direction and flow of water, even over unnatural terrain, allowing it to travel to areas that would otherwise be impossible. +1 aqua healing to an area And for our runners up, some randomly rolled item prizes! OneWintersNite +4 RP points for your entry Heavenly Snow +5 RP points for your entry kesmi +3 RP points for your entry thyPOPE +4 RP points for your entry
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