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 Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 5:01 pm
It felt hard keeping hidden, keeping to the trees near the cabin with Antisana, but he knew he needed to keep from being seen. Earth was full of humans, and even if they might have eyes, hair, and skin colors of every color, they most certainly didn't have horns or ears like his. The last time he'd been spotted, he'd been lucky, and the lady had been someone from space like he was. So in a way, it made him just the slightest bit braver as he slipped out of the treeline and found his way towards what looked like a manmade geyser surrounded in stone. It wasn't something he recognized as being on his planet as well, but it was obvious to him that this wasn't a natural formation. Keeping quiet, he dipped out of the tree line and approached the structure, his ears twitching as he tried to listen to every little sound so he could run and hide if he needed to. The last thing he wanted to do was to upset the humans that live here by not following the rules or by standing out. Trailing his fingers over the edge of the stone, he was surprised by how clear the water was as he leaned over and peered down into it. There were metal circles all over the bottom of the basin; they almost reminded him of the currency used back home, but it was the wrong color and size. Taking a quick look around as his tail started to wave slightly, he climbed up onto the tall edge of the basin and tried to reach in to grab one of the metal discs so he could see what they were.
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2025 5:46 pm
"I've heard that's bad luck," said a voice behind him, mild and without judgment, although perhaps a voice emerging suddenly from where silence ought to be couldn't be anything but startling. He had been watching the strange little creature for some time - dimly aware of what he must be looking at, but with a curiosity that had only risen with every second that his own presence went unacknowledged. Perhaps those little alien ones had bad radar, he reasoned; or perhaps he was aware that he was being watched, and only did not care. If the man behind him was from space, he didn't give off any immediate signs of it, besides a mustache that maybe was not a typical human choice. But the stealthy way with which he had moved seemed explained by his uniform - which, even if it was bright yellow, had a sort of meticulous softness to it, down to the leather soles of his feet, which seemed to indicate that he was meant to move quietly and discreetly. "I never believed it," he continued. "But I do know if you want change there used to be easier ways to get it, before everyone stopped carrying cash."
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2025 10:59 am
Feronia startled as he heard a voice, nearly falling into the water as he scrambled to balance and look back up. Yelping slightly as he scraped his hands on this stone, his ears flattened down as he knew he'd probably been caught doing something against the rules in this world. "Ah... I'm sorry. I wasn't sure." Fretting slightly as he looked at the man in yellow, he kept seated on the stone structure even as he fidgeted with his hands anxiously. The words they mentioned had his anxiety bleeding into confusion as he tilted his head. "Change? Cash? Are those some sort of items for a ritual or ceremony?" Did he accidentally upset some sort of altar or offering for a higher being? That idea dawning on him had him worrying even more as he looked between this human and the submerged disks.
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Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2025 5:53 pm
"Ah. Hm," he said, very intelligently. One of the great virtues of Maus as a person was that he often simply rolled with it. He rolled with it now. "You don't have like - commerce - currency - wherever it is that you're from?" He asked this with a genuine curiosity, rocking back on his heels with his thumbs thrust into his belt, assuming the comfortable posture of a man settling in for a long conversation. "Sounds pretty utopian. Although. I guess, yeah, those particular pieces of currency were part of a ritual. It's a ritual that doesn't do much but kill goldfish and give janitors extra work, though," he said pleasantly. "But you'll still catch hell if the wrong person sees you doing it. Sometimes you see a woman who's just starting to get a little leathery and her face is all pinched up like this -" he demonstrated "- and she's got a weird haircut, and if one of them sees you, maybe best to bolt. But no need to bolt right now. Tell me about this utopia." As he spoke, he procured from subspace the accoutrements of a moustached thirty-year-old who was settling in to chat: not a vape, but maybe worse. He spoke around the cigarette in his mouth as he lit it, adding: "Do you smoke? I could spare one."
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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2025 1:54 pm
At the mention of currency, Feronia's ears perked back up, and he nodded quickly. "Yes! Ah, we do have currency, but it's not like those in the water." They looked all different, both in size and color. Shape-wise wise they were the same, but he couldn't quite tell what any of the coins said on them due to the movement of the water. The mention of killing some sort of goldenfish or giving someone extra work didn't quite make sense if it was related to a ritual; it sounded more like a curse or hex instead, and as he looked at the main, the more he described and the more he demonstrated, the more Feronia found himself confused. Shaking his head a moment as he tried to catch up after all the new information, he again was confused by the word utopia. But if it meant a place one lived, then he was alright going forward with sharing the word of the Vinemoss. "Feronia is..", he started, then paused as he thought about what he'd woken up to before continuing a little quieter, " was a place reliant on the gifts of harvest from the land and the Vinemoss, and I made sure everything was done to keep the fields and land prosperous..."Again, he paused, this time to look at the odd stick in the man's mouth. It looked like incense but smelled awful. But if this was some sort of communal sharing ritual or something alongside creating a friendship, he couldn't turn it down if he wanted to have a good impression on this human. At least they seemed more open than the man from his first moments on this planet, even if they'd really helped him and fed him. "If that is alright," he nodded towards the smoke they had.
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Posted: Tue Sep 09, 2025 2:40 pm
Maus was not fooled by this even for a second. It was, therefore, not a reflection of the kindest parts of his nature that he handed over a cigarette right away, immediately following up by holding out a lighter. He was looking at Feronia with a sort of expectant pleasure at what was about to take place. It would be good for him, he reasoned, to learn the hard way. God knows he'd spent the last fifteen years trying to quit and failing. Having therefore squared away his act as one of benevolence, he reclined on an easy conscience. "You must be one of those interstellar travelers," he said, stating the obvious just in case his own realization was not equally obvious to Feronia. "How long have you been around?" He did not say, as he was thinking: clearly not long. "Inhale," he added helpfully as he tried to light the thing.
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2025 2:55 pm
Taking the thing, he looked at the fire source as well. It seemed interesting, even if he personally wasn't a big fan of open flames. It was so easy for them to break free and cause damage to everything. At first, he examined the stick a bit and tried not to make it obvious as he tried to see whatever was in it, which seemed sort of like something back home, maybe incense or dried petals.
"Oh! Uhm, yes, I believe so. Are there others like me here?" Not that he'd seen or met any so far in the few days he'd been here. Which he was starting to guess was obvious, considering he hadn't been doing well at keeping his ears and tail hidden. That and how everything here was new, and he wasn't sure exactly how to proceed without someone else guiding him along to make sure he didn't make any mistakes. "I'm not certain, just a few sunrises, I think, but with how the weather seems to be, I find it a bit hard to tell how much time has passed." Finally getting a handle on the small fire source, he lit the paper stick and did as they instructed, at least he tried before that acrid smoke left him coughing and then almost inhaling the thing. Crumpling forward a bit as he coughed and tried not to let his embarrassment show at potentially failing at this new thing, he wasn't sure if he should try again since he'd dropped the thing and it seemed to go out as it landed in a puddle.
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Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2025 6:02 pm
Maus observed the proceedings with sober interest. "Ah. I thought you were already familiar," he said, his apology a little too sincere to be sincere. "Well. A valuable lesson about Earth vices, I suppose. Hard to believe given how disgusting they are, but one you pop you really cannot stop." He reached out one foot to stamp the cigarette out just in case the puddle didn't do the job. It was always a b***h to waste a cigarette, but he wasn't actually sure this one was a waste. "Has no one helped you out yet? One of those awful cats, maybe?"
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 8:25 am
Looking up once he got over a bit of the coughing, he frowned slightly at the mention of the things knowingly being disgusting. But he did know how some bitter or distasteful herbs were used back home in teas to commune with those in the past, or at least for others to feel like that was what was going on. At the mention of a cat, he remembered that Antisana had mentioned one, but they hadn't shown up just yet. Was that what they meant? "I have been helped by a few other people, but an awful cat? You don't mean a mauvian? They were always so kind back home when they visited." Were they just nice on his planet? He'd have to remember that if things were different here. "Are there a lot of them here? Maybe just one or two might have been awful and not all of them?" Speaking more hopefully than sure of what he was saying, Feronia managed to sit back up and pull one of those bottles that kept things cold out that Antisana had given him. The fruity drink helped keep him from coughing a bit more, but the main thing it did was help get rid of that nasty taste.
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Posted: Sun Sep 14, 2025 4:52 pm
The knight, for his part, equably smoked without a single cough or wheeze, but equally without any sign of pleasure. "I think if you don't find them awful as a sort of baseline," he said companionably, "you'll probably like them fine. They give me the heebie-jeebies, you know. Anyway, you should probably look into that. You've gotta have someone helping you, right?" He had received a vague and possibly erroneous impression of this from his own situation. "Tell them to find you a ********' Mauvian." A pleasant thought occurred to him. "Say it just like that and they'll understand that it's urgent," he added soberly.
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Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2025 10:22 am
Watching as they kept at it with the smoking stick, a smoke as they'd called it, which he guessed fit the thing even if it was a simple name, he nodded at the mention of finding mauvians not awful. "Yes, someone I think sort of like you? But... different. Not as brightly colored in attire. " He wasn't sure if nicer was the right word to add in either, but more straightforward felt right. This person, well, that thought stopped for a moment as he realized he didn't know their name, so he figured he should fix that before it became too rude to ask. "Ah uhm my name is Feronia, what should I call you?" He asked a bit hesitantly as they mentioned to say something specific. While he didn't know all of the slang or words humans used, he could tell that it sounded especially rude or sharp. Which was the last thing he wanted to be to the humans he'd met so far. "I'll let them know, I think they had mentioned knowing one, but I know back home Mauvians were quite busy and had important work to be done." And it was important that he never interrupted their work or made any trouble for them. "I wouldn't want to cause them any trouble, considering I'm a guest here on this world. But I think it might be better for me to learn a bit more from them to have a better understanding of things here." Because at this point, each human he met had been so different in how things should be handled that he felt himself more confused than ever.
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Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2025 4:25 pm
He took an ounce of mercy, then. "Well - they're busy, but their job is to help people like you," he observed. "That is the important work they're doing. It's you." He took a drag, adding somewhat mournfully: "And me, there for a while. But mostly you." And then, after a moment, he juggled his cigarette to the side of his mouth and stuck out a hand. "Maus," he said. "Knight, Earth, that sort of thing. I'm almost as fresh-faced as you are," he added, looking, certainly, not very fresh-faced at all. This was probably metaphorical. "Or I'd try to be more useful."
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Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2025 6:05 pm
At that, his ears perked up a bit, and he nodded slightly. Something changed in their tone, and it seemed like something sour had happened before, but he stayed quiet since he figured it might not be his place to say anything or ask about what might have happened. But when they stuck their hand out, he looked at it for a moment and then hesitantly took their hand, not sure exactly what to do after that. "Oh, isn't that what this planet is called? So you're part of this place's guards? Though.... even if you say you're new, you must have grown up here, which already gives you knowledge of this place that I have no idea of." Offering a light smile, he hoped his compliment wouldn't be taken poorly. This whole manner of socializing with anyone outside of the Vinemoss was still new and fresh to him. Though at least now he had an idea of what some of the people in this world were like, even if at this point he was surprised that all of them were male so far. At least maybe they were if things were similar to back home, but that, he knew, was not something you asked people or brought up.
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Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2025 8:03 am
Sara Draconia Oh my god Fern you can't just ask people why they're white male "Oh god," he said. "You're really, really new. I see. Gonna do a number on my sensitive conscience when I run off and abandon you here in a minute," he added, although this expression of genuine remorse might have meant more if he hadn't been, in fact, about to run off and abandon him. He then demonstrated to him how a handshake worked. "You wanna squeeze a bit," he said helpfully. "Try to convey that you're like - firm of mind and intention via your grip or some bullshit. Kind of a weird ritual, really. But anyway." He released him, giving him a regretful eye. "Find one of those cats ASAP," he advised. "They're gonna set you right, and that's their job. If I knew where you could find any I'd drag you to one myself," he said, "but I make it my goal to know as little about them as possible, and so far I'm having amazing success. At least you're adorable. People take pity on you when you're a soft little cute thing," he finished, and he said it with the kind of satisfaction that suggested he knew this from experience - as he did, although he could not actually remember being a soft little cute thing.
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