INNERBLOOM // open, fruit farming

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iota

ナインイオタ [abbr="Iota speech, thoughts, self-reference"]x[/abbr][abbr="Oni speech + attacks"]x[/abbr] info

[abbr="bird of paradise plant"]Strelizia[/abbr]. [abbr="spider plant"]Chlorophytum[/abbr]. [abbr="brooms"]Genista[/abbr]. [abbr="larkspur"]Delphinium[/abbr]. [abbr="silver cock's comb"]Argentea[/abbr].
Iota, per her morning routine, performed role call on her plant life in the Greenhouse, making sure each plant were still present. They'd been her favorite plant species since her Laboratory days; she'd sneak out of her recess area to the library to read, and often she would read a book on wild plant species. The book in question had been nearly torn to shreds, as Iota opened that book more than any other. She'd scan the page, examining every minute detail of the plants down to their very cells, it seemed like, constantly telling herself she would become a human florist in another life, one not filled with constant torment.

Strelizia. Chlorophytum. Genista. Delphinium. Argentea. Yup, all still here, just in time for the blooming season.

On her journey to find herself, along with a new community to coalesce with, Iota carried with her individual packs of seeds for each species of greenery she had in mind, and just so happened to find a suitable greenhouse near her new home in the dilapidated Tanglewood town. "Someday," she had told herself, looking upon the abandoned greenhouse, "this town will be my canvas, and nature's beauty will be my brush."

She sat up and huffed, grinning widely, satisfied with her responsible gardening skills. Just like how the humans do it. She paced around the greenhouse, thinking of new ways to further her gardening skills. Tanglewood's fruit cache is ... pretty barren, I must say. For a clan that lives in a "green" area, one would think there'd be a plentiful supply of fresh fruit available.

She opened the glass door of her greenhouse, stretching as the morning sun beat upon her rosy pelt. She scanned the area in an attempt to find a stash of relatively supple fruit supplies. Unable to see any kind of greenery other than mossy trees, she pondered yet again. I bet the Barn has ... something. If no fruits, maybe seeds? It's worth a try.

With a creak, the barn door slid open, revealing all of its rotten wooden contents. Stale hay bales, bones of... a cow? A horse? Whatever it was, it was covered in ants and flies, making Iota shudder in disgust.

wimp.

Ignoring Oni's unnecessarily rude comment, she peered around the barn in search of anything useful for fruit farming. At last, she'd found ... something; the stench of whatever it was told Iota that it'd been eatable at some point. She leaped up the table of which the scent had been coming from, gagging at the smell of the rotten berries and apples, which had sitting lonesomely in a woven basket. Holding her nose, she picked up the basket's handles with her horns and stepped out of the barn for some fresh air.

Setting the basket down, she sifted through the fruit corpses, and to her surprise, she found their seeds, intact and ready for harvesting. Perfect. She stood up and called out to her clanmates, "Hey guys, wanna help farm some fruits? I need'a find some land for cropping."

She sat back down, thinking again about what she'd said. They probably wouldn't help her without some sort of incentive, knowing a few of the members of the clan. She stood up again and yelled, "When they grow, how about we have ... a fruity ice pop social?"

Iota hoped to gods that at least one of them knew what an ice pop was.

Morgan appeared as if on cue, keeping its distance from the long-rotten food as it neared Iota. "I can help," it offered, wagging its fluffy cream tail. "Fruity ice pop social...?" It wondered for a moment what the term could possibly mean; the combination of "fruity" and "ice" seemed to make sense, though "pop" and "social" did not. At least understanding the gist of it, the samoyed stepped close to Iota and sniffed at the seeds she was holding. "What are these?" it prodded, its curiosity piqued.

Following its questions, the dog added, "There is some clean water near town. No gators. Farm there?" As Morgan knew little about farms, its suggestion was uncertain, though still hopeful. It was prepared to purify more water if Iota would rather the farm be made somewhere else.

[color=#6b7e99]✦ ✦ ✦

Nayru had surprisingly been nearby, gathering herbs as she seemingly always did to contribute to her growing supply. Deep down, she knew that she didn't hardly need that many but the process of picking and cleaning them herself had soothing properties over her. Besides, she liked to keep her paws moving. That was the one good thing about being the new caretaker of a small alligator she supposed- she was always busy tending to it, teaching it, and ensuring that she dismissed any innate killing instincts it might have possessed. In combination with her desperate need to constantly accumulate herbs, she supposed she rarely had anytime to enjoy any other facets of her life.

That was why she was so intrigued by Iota's inquiry, not realizing that the other fae was so close. Abandoning her place among herbs and such, Nayru quickly located both she and Morgan, a faint smile appearing upon her lips. The medic liked both of them greatly and was thus rather interested in helping out with a fruit farm... the popsicles were an added bonus. [b][color=#6b7e99]"I'd love to help," Was all she nodded, bobbing her head in an excited fashion, [color=#6b7e99]"When do we start?"

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i o t a

ナインイオタ [abbr="speech"]x[/abbr][abbr="self-reference; thoughts; Oni speech"]x[/abbr] info

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Iota bowed her head in greeting to the samoyed, ecstatic of its quick and eager response to a call for help. She listened to its question on the ice pop social, snickering internally because she'd been right about her clanmates' being unfamiliar with the concept of frozen juice with friends. "Well, you see, Morgan, my goal for the social was to farm these here fruit crops, extract their juices, freeze the juice and serve them as a treat." Her mouth watered at her own thoughts of eating an ice pop; her inner sweet tooth was finally beginning to blossom, it seemed. She flicked her ears towards the seeds she'd gathered. "From what I can tell, these are seeds from various berries and other fruits. I couldn't really tell because the fruits I'd picked them out of were rotten." She slowly pushed the woven basket of dead fruit to the side, worried that her samoyed comrade could smell the unsightly greenery.

She listened to its questions about the purified reservoir nearby the shabby town. "Clean water, you say? That'd be perfect!" Her eyes began to glow, enthusiastic about her clanmates' willingness to help her crop the fruits. "We could build some kind of irrigation system out of the reservoir and keep the sprouts watered automatically."

Nayru approached next, sounding off her willingness to assist the crimson-horned she-cat. "I'd love for you to help, too! We can start now, if you'd like. I think I have just enough seeds to start us off." She informed Nayru about the nearby purified reservoir and the plans to build some sort of irrigation system. She could already taste the sweetness of the berries, their juices frozen to the touch and ready to be snacked on by the Tanglers. It'd be a great way to help them get to know one another as well, while also giving Iota some street cred. "I'm ready when you guys are!"

Morgan took in all the information, finding itself more than able to understand it all. "I see," it replied, a hidden smile forming. It could really use a treat of some kind; it had very rarely had fruit in its life, so this opportunity seemed perfect. "I can freeze juice for you later," the samoyed said, turning away from the pair to look around for its destination. After a moment it yelled, "I'm ready. Follow me!"

The cream canine ran in the direction of the pond, which was thankfully a straight shot from where they all were.  From afar it scanned around for any alligators or other presences, but the area seemed clear and empty. "Good," it muttered under its breath.

AMUNET GHANA ✧ PROXY — TANGLEWOOD — TAGS

Hoping she wasn't late, the fem would trot over with both her curved ears angled forward and she offered those already there a smile as she said with a nod "I can help as well," She loved the sound of this and was quite happy that the youth usually had the greatest ideas. She twitched her whiskers for a moment and flicked her fluffy tail to the sides letting a soft sigh escape her slightly parted jaws, this would relaxing in a way and well, she doubted that anything could wrong as of right now especially with such a joyful task.

© madi

    For a Tanglewood everyman, it wasn't unusual to glance up into the trees by chance and discover a lazing Beck tucked between the branches. Even in the sweltering humidity, the ghastly feline could always be counted upon to be lounging about in the dense treetops. To no one's surprise, that was exactly how he was wasting his time, accidentally predicting where Iota and her ragtag team of landscapers would end up deciding to use as an orchard. Not that Beck minded too much; at least it was close to the rickety old farm itself. Peeling bark jabbing into his flanks as he restlessly fidgeted against the birch's trunk, the poltergeist had been attempting to force himself into an impossible nap, lantern-like eyes shut and senses turned off as he pretended to sleep. Evident by the dark circles shadowing his glare, his methods had been failing for centuries.


    Even with his stubborn endeavor to catch a far-fetched wink of sleep, his notched ear perked and twitched at nearby voices, tetchily flicking about as if trying to swat away an annoying mosquito. One lazy amber eye peeked open into a hooded squint, tracing out blurred and familiar movement through the leafy haze. A huff of air and a hollow sniff next, Beck recognized the four members after a moment, begrudgingly shifting from his slump to crane his neck out and peer down at them. What were they doing? Another sniff informed him of the rotten fruit they were carrying, a sickened scowl twisting his freckled face at the basket. "D'ya have to use that? What are ya even doin'?" Beck hissed from his perch, stump of a tail thumping on the branch as a tic. Beyond the obvious answer of interrupting his hopeless nap, his ears flattened backwards at their explained plans. He hadn't exactly thought of starting their own farm before then; they all were animals that were supposed to hunt and eat each other, right? Maybe they were turning into herbivores all of a sudden, or were just feeling adventurous.

    Wiggling slightly before jumping down from his branch with a graceless landing, Beck shook the mud and dust from his grimy flanks, leaning back onto bristly haunches with his head tilted expectantly. "Whatcha got for me to do, then, Eye-O-Tah?" the boy drawled teasingly, honey-brown eyes dulled with boredom. He had nothing better to do today anyways, so why not humor her fantastical ideas for now?

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i o t a

[b]☾ IOTA [abbr="attacks"]x[/abbr] info [abbr="speech; self-reference; thoughts;"]x[/abbr] FIREBRAND ☾

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The pink she-cat's lips unfurled into a sly smile at Beck's arrival. It's a wonder he, of all people, would show up to some "lousy" fruit-farming escapade. Though, who was she kidding? Sometimes it gets so quiet around Tanglewood for her that she'd probably end up doing something Beck liked -- as long as it wasn't murder, of course.

Amunet's arrival was quite pleasing as well; it was very nice to see that so many kind faces had shown up to assist her in her newly-formed party-planning committee. "Welcome to the club, you two. Right now, we've got our sights set on a clean water reservoir, thanks to lil' Morgan over here." She gestured lightly to the ice-masked samoyed with her horns, rather grateful that the pooch was so willing to help.

"Beck, if you'd like, you can be in charge of putting the seeds out. With that reservoir nearby, we should have enough water to start an orchard." She held out the fruit seeds towards Beck, counting them with her free paw to make sure she hadn't dropped any clumsily. "There are only a few here for now, but once the seedlings sprout a bit, more seeds should be available at an exponential rate. We'll have ourselves a thriving orchard in no time."

She turned to the rest of the crowd, tail thrashing about excitedly as she'd finally get to share her passion with her clanmates. "As for the rest of us, we've got some landscaping to do. If that reservoir is anything like the rest of Tanglewood, it's cluttered with trees and uneven ground nearby, so we'll have to clean that up first before Beck can get started with the seeds." She kicked the ground underneath her lightly, suddenly hitting a sort-of roadblock. "Uh... Anyone able to cut down some trees?"

// BACK IN BUSINESS BAYBEE LES GO

Morgan nodded, shifting its attention to the nearby trees. "I can cut, I think." The samoyed had never attempted cutting something that huge, but it was confident that it could do it. It summoned water from two of its bracers, breathing in as it formed a thin stream. Converting it into ice, the dog threw it at the nearest tree, but to no avail. The icicle broke into pieces, leaving a small mark on the tree's bark but doing little else.

The cream dog scooped up the pieces before they hit the ground, bringing them back together as a liquid. It threw the plain water at the tree next, accomplishing just as little as before. In frustration, it stomped on the ground and pouted. "How..." The samoyed growled at the tree as it gathered its water once more. It formed a finer icicle this time, but with its concentration broken, some of its water still remained as a liquid. The tip dripped a little, so Morgan pushed the inside of the icicle forward to cover the water inside. To its surprise, some water spurted out of the icicle's open end at a higher speed than expected.

Hatching an idea, Morgan took a deep breath and heaved a large sphere of the water from the nearby source. It formed a similar contraption to the icicle, with a little open tip and a bunch of unfrozen water inside. Levitating the huge icicle toward the tree, the samoyed took a sharp breath, forcing the ice forward from the back of the icicle. With the ice pushed at the highest speed the canine could manage, water blasted out of the small end of the icicle and into the tree. To Morgan's delight, the water shaved off a portion of the bark with ease.

However, the dog also found itself fatigued by the immense task of controlling so much water. Shaking its head as it panted, it threw most of the water back into the pond, leaving even less than it started with. "I'll rest," it muttered, sitting down in front of the tree and bringing its water down to practice. Morgan remembered the feeling of the water as it was forced out of the hole, closing its eyes to focus on the memory. It took its own smaller stream of water and threw it back and forth in the air, starting slow but gaining speed little by little. "Move," the canine whispered, warning the others around it as its focus deepened. It sank down into what appeared to be a trance, the little stream's velocity rising with each firm breath.

After some minutes, the water in front of Morgan was little more than a blur. It was moving at such a high speed that the samoyed knew it could not control it if it opened its eyes. "Shh!" it hissed, requiring complete concentration for the next part of its attempt. The dog began to send the stream forward, shifting it millimeter by millimeter until it reached the tree from before. Gritting its teeth, Morgan kept its breath steady as it felt the water make its first contact with the wooden giant. Just as it hoped, the water slashed straight through the bark as if it were empty air. Keeping up its breathing, the samoyed moved the aqua bullet through the tree.

Once finished, the water left a completely clean cut; the tree fell straight down onto its own stump, having no bias one way or another due to how thin the cut was. Morgan kept the water going for as long as it could, memorizing the speed to the best of its ability. Once satisfied, it slowed its breathing until the water hung in midair. The samoyed let it fall, and pulled some water out of the pond to replace it. It threw the water sloppily at the tree, the small wave pushing enough for it to fall over and away from the dog's comrades. "I guess I can cut," it uttered between panting, exhausted breaths.

(TL;DR - Discovered/used high-speed water in order to cut down a tree.)