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 Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:13 am
 Creamy paws made barely a sound as they traveled though grass and undergrowth. They moved with energy and purpose but had an easy enough pace that it was clear their destination wasn't a life or death mission, or even one of great urgency.
Merit always moved like this, to the point where if one simply listened you could identify her from her walk. Well, you could if you could hear it. Hard-working and a firm believer in getting things done right, she wasn't so much a hard-core, fun-killing, punctual perfectionist as she was someone who just lived their life to it's fullest.
Merit was officially a carer for the Santimonia tribe, but after Aria had grown the only "kit" in the tribe was Ariel. The permakit was actually just a little older than Merit, so she treated her like the tiny adult she, for the most part, was. There was still plently to do in the tribe, of course. There weren't many members yet, and Merit never minded doing a little gathering on the side. It helped her scout our the land and learn the best hiding spots for when little ones finally came about.
Today was different though. It was Resting Day. Merit had already bathed in the pool; her fur was even still a bit damp. She'd chosen to spend her time off on a nice, leisurely stroll, nevermind that she was still walking with a gait just a tad to purposeful to be considered leisure by most.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:46 am
 She knew she wasn't supposed to be out and about this land, she knew better. This was tribe land, are near to it at least. She was unwelcomed. But.. she had a habit. No, an addiction. She had to see pretty foxes. She had to watch them in their world, thrive and live. She had to. They were so beautiful, and if she herself couldn't be beautiful then why couldn't she just watch the real beauties?
That was her sick habit. Watching the beauties. No, she didn't stalk, and no, she didn't hate them. Hell, she didn't even compare much. She just wanted to see how she wished she could be happy. People paid attention to them. Abby? Well, she was just one out of several foxes that looked identical to her but were not related to her. It was a curse. To be this way. No one paid attention. No one noticed. So she watched. She watched as the people who were noticed and loved lived, and wondered how she could be like that.
Part her hair this way? Fluff her fur up that way? She watched and mimicked, but it always failed. But she never got angry. She was just not meant for beauty it seemed. Never meant for it.
She heard footsteps approaching, ducking under a log and squirming until she was hidden. What was she doing? Hiding? Why? Because, someone was coming, and if they spotted her she didn't want to see that disappointment, or that look that clearly said she was just another "one of those". She couldn't take seeing that look anymore.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:38 pm
Merit was just wondering when she should change course before she ended up walking off the tribe grounds altogether. There was a fallen log somewhere up ahead, brought down by a storm that came around not long after she'd arrived in the tribe. She'd made note of it as both a good place to take shelter and a good hiding spot. That would make a nice turn point, and then she could pick another direction to walk in. Or even head home, since the walk back to base would take most of what was left of the day.
She heard some rustling up ahead, but didn't pay it much mind. The forest was full of small creatures making all sorts of noises. Ah, there was the log. Maybe she'd tag it just to say she did get that far before turning back.
Since she got as close to the log as she did, it was kinda hard to miss that blazingly crimson fur set against wood brown and the flat, green-ish brown of forest floor that doesn't get enough sunlight. "Well hey there," Merit blurted, surprised. "Whatcha doin' under that log, sweetie?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 3:02 pm
Oh no, oh no, oh no, they were coming closer! She tried to wriggle closed to the log, possibly hide her fur, but then she heard the voice. The accent put her off for a second, confusing the vixen. Wait, she wasn't used to hearing such an accent here. She squirmed out from under the log, eyes looking up and scanning the vixen. She always did that. Always. She wanted to see what she didn't have.
Oh!
"You're like me!" She squeaked. She had seen a few foxes like this one, she was one of the foxes that was left on Christmas! Every Christmas random BCR's were left around, and out hatched identical kits. This vixen was like her! Her tail wiggled slightly, ears flicking back against her skull in seconds. She smelled like other people.... This vixen wasn't like her. She had people!
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:06 am
This strange vixen had unknowningly hit the best was to make a good first impression on Merit. The vixen was very maternal, one of the reasons she was a carer, and tended to treat everyone like her children. Or, at the least, like she was a doting aunt with many nieces and nephews. The hiding, then enthusiastic reponse made every line of tension in Merit's frame vanish.
She chuckled, flicking her tail behind her in a way that almost looked lazy. "Well now, hun, y're gonna have t' elaborate on that. What'cha seein' about us tha' makes ya think I'm jus' like yourself?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2011 12:59 am
The reassuring chuckle was all she needed to encourage the vixen, wiggling slightly in her spot, grinning. A fox like her! And a nice one! Even if she did have a home with people, she was like her! She'd understand Abby's pain. She'd understand~ Unless.... Unless she would think Abby was weak for it? She stopped wiggling, taking on a sad look of a thrown away puppy, ears flopping down.
"B-Because you are one of my kind...Right? A fox that was part of the wave of BCR's left around Christmas, right?" She whispered, looking back up. "You're like me. I was a Christmas BCR, too."
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Posted: Mon Jun 20, 2011 12:12 am
Merit found herself fighting the urge to snuggle close to the vixen, wrap her tail around her, and starting muttering and cooing like she was trying to pacify a distraught youngster. For one thing she'd just met this vixen, didn't even know her name, and for another most adults weren't too fond of being treated like children.
She tried to focus on the questions instead. "All them babies an' stuff tha' get left around durin' the cold? Oh darlin', I try my hardest not t' think about stuff like that. It just depresses me, thinkin' o' all those youngins left on their own in the snow, durin' what's supposed t' be a happy, family-based occasion."
Now Merit tilted her head, taking in the female. The pattern did look kinda familiar, but in a vague way. "I'll be honest with ya, sweet pea. It don't matter squat what ya look like. I could have seen a half dozen with your pattern, or I could be seein' this pattern f'r the first time. Don't matter none. I see wha's underneath the fur."
She could resist giving the female the lightest touch of her nose with the tip of her tail, like how humans would tap their children's noses with a finger. She was also smiling, but it was a kind and understanding one.
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:38 pm
So... So this vixen was not one of her kind? Or was she? Abby wanted to confirm her suspicion, but stopped when the tail touched her nose, blinking. Suddenly, what the vixen said had hit her, and strong, tears nearly welling. A person that judged personality? There were really people like that? However luckily she didn't cry, instead smiling.
"O-Oh." Really? Oh was the only thing she could say? Lame! Pathetic! Idiotic! She needed to stop being so negative. She needed to learn to be more civil to herself in general.
Civil..
"Oh! I...I'm Abby, miss."
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Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 11:32 am
Merit nodded, and chuckled a little. "My name's Merit. Now don't be callin' me miss more than you c'n help it. It makes me feel like some aunt at a tea party insistin' that everyone gets dressed up all fine an' dandy and minds their manners. I ain't all that strict and formal when it comes down to it."
The sharp-eyed female had noticed the emotional state Abby was in, though the vixen did a good job of hiding it. Really she was in sound health right now, though she could have easily slipped into a deep self-loathing later on in her life that might have involved self-destruction, even. That was thinking of the worst-case scenario, of course, but it was part of how Merit thought. If one anticipated and prepared for the worst, generally it never happened.
Unfortunately this vixen also seemed very manipulable. It would have been wrong to make an instant judgement based on the first meeting, with only a few sentences between them, but Merit suspected that anyone with decent looks and a silver tongue could have come along and charmed this vixen into becoming little more than a willing slave. The thought caused her brow to furrow ever so slightly. She herself often walked the fine line between helping and manipulating, and wanted to make sure she got things right.
What she needed was more information, since all her speculations right now could just be misreading Abby's body language. "Well t' be answerin' y'r question better like, I was one o' those babes dropped down 'round Christmas time. Now I don't know if my parents were the ones who raised me 'r not, but I was one o' them lucky ones that got adopted into a family. We adopted lots o' folks, and after awhile I felt like I could do more good somewhere else cause there were already so many people in th' family. So I took to travelin'. Saw a lot 'o things I ain't wished to ever see, saw a few that touched my heart. Found myself a new family around these parts with the Sanctimonia Tribe, though we ain't more than a few foxes with a common goal an' open hearts."
Merit stopped, and chuckled again. "Look at me, jus' lettin' my tongue waggin' all it pleases. I betcha I'm borin' ya t' death. What 'bout y'rself, darlin'?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 11:05 pm
Abby listened carefully to the vixen, nodding in the proper (and sometimes improper) places. She wagged her tail, content to just listen for the time being. When Merit called on her she blinked, head tilting. Her own story? Abby didn't have one really. She thought about if for a brief second, ears flicking. Now that she thought about it, Merit was lucky. She had a home, both when she was a kit and now. Unlike Merit, Abby just couldn't find a place to settle in, so she traveled forest to forest, simply seeking something. Something she couldn't have.
"I woke up and it was snowing." She said, nodding. "That is my first memory. I didn't have anyone. I wasn't found. I guess. Instead, I was left alone. So.... I raised myself." She nodded at this, smile wavering for a brief second. "It was cold and it took awhile for me to find a nice home.... but I snuggled into a open tree for my first few months of life until I got to big. By then it was warm. It was hard I guess in the winter.... I had to steal food from humans when they walked by sometimes. I even once went inside one of their weird triangle thingies, that had the most food." She nodded at this, looking at the ground.
"I learned how to hunt eventually, it took awhile without anyone there. Now, I travel a lot!"
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:15 am
Merit felt her heart breaking just a little bit more with each phase of the story Abby told her. "Oh darlin', that's just so sad," she said, unable to restrain herself from scooting close to the vixen and nuzzling her like she was a kit. "It's good t' be able t' take care of y'rself, but ya shouldn'ta had t' done it all alone," she lamented.
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Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2011 12:36 pm
She looked at the vixen when she came closer, blinking at the nuzzle, eyes raising to meet Merit's. She was confused to say the least, head tilting. How was it sad? It was natural to her. Though, Merit came from a family, so to her not having one must be strange, just as having a family was strange to Abby. She looked at the ground, shaking her head softly.
"Well, its not as sad as the kits that didn't survive. Some died because they couldn't care for themselves." She looked up, nodding at this with a frown. "When I was little I was lucky to find a way to fend for myself."
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Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 2:30 am
Merit sighed softly. "I know," she replied. "I was only a little an' was spendin' most of my time growin' up, but even in a family there was no way to escape all o' that." Merit would never be able to forget the haunted look in her adoptive family's eyes whenever they came back from hunting or gathering. They never answered the inquiries about what was wrong, but looked down at all the children with heartbreaking sorrow and would spend at least the next hour nuzzling as many kits as they could keep a hold of at a time. Merit wondered, had she been an adult at the time, if her heart would have been strong enough to bear all of that.
"It ain't good t' dwell on th' past f'r too long, not the things ya can't change least," she said. "Ya must have some happy memories, else ya'd have grown as hard and cold as a rock at the bottom of a lake frozen over in the dead of winter."
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Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:00 am
Abby tilted her head, wondering if she had. She smiled then, nodding to Merit. Of course she had happy memories! Who didn't? Though she wondered if what the vixen had said would be true, would she have become an emotionless empty void? "When I was growing up, I used to play with bunnies. Hence why I don't eat them. Maybe my memories aren't the best, but I did the best I could with what I had. Yes, it was hard, but it was worth it for the time I stood still and managed to see something beautiful."
She shook her head, smiling at Merit. "Besides, its just who I am to appreciate beauty, because I myself am plain. Beauty has always been something for me to smile at." She was not fishing for compliments, this much was obvious. It was the truth, a fact.
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Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:52 am
Merit nodded. "I think it's th' hard times that define who ya are as a person. It makes ya stronger, and makes ya better able ta really appreciate all the good things in life once they're comin' at ya. Folks take too much f'r granted." She shook her head. Certainly she'd seen more than enough of that in the city, one of the main reasons she had never wanted to return to that place.
She smiled a little, then shood her head again. "Ya aren't plain, darlin'. It's a common fact that there are pretty and flashy beasts out there that are a treat f'r the eyes, but that don't make ya plain." She chuckled. "Why, standin' next ta me, y'r downright gorgeous with all those bright colors on ya!"
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