Character development RP for
Ephriam and also a challenge for myself. I plan to reply at least once daily to this RP, in order to get myself back into a routine of writing, and hopefully develop a proper character that is active. If anyone would like to join me, that would be great!
(Oh, and take a look at Ephriam's pictogram. It reminds me of Simba's symbol!)
E2A: Feel free to just jump in. No requesting required!
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Lesson 1: Water was cold this time of year.
The icy chill froze the little one to his very bones. He pulled himself from the crystal clear water of the pond that lay in the south end of the forest. He was too cold to cry, but the little's lower lip quivered pitifully all the same. A spray of chilly liquid created a small patch of wet ground as he shook off the water and was officially born to the forest. The fawn's pictogram, in that moment, winked to life above his tiny head.
Ephriam it read.
Elk children come larger than many other fawns. Ephriam was a decently-sized child with a dandy brown coat and a broadly-flared muzzle. As he teetered up the bank and onto the dry grass, walking started to become more mastered. Once E had it down, the fawn broke into an easy lope through the woods. His first inborn mission was to find a place to bed himself down.
Carefully, he circled each tree in the forest that appealed to him. E had no idea what his little standards were, but he kept searching anyway. Gnarled pines were ignored, and trees with mushrooms were skirted without a second glance. Only tall trees would do. Large trees would be investigated, and all the better if they had a skirt of ferns. Just when the babe was growing exhausted and frustrated, he found a stand of several red trees that fit the bill. They towered near the ruins, by a small mound with a circle of mushrooms and some fallen logs.
Unceremoniously, the baby stag flopped down among the ferns at the base of one of the giant red trees. Unaware of the drying power of the sun, the little wapiti lay shivering in the shade. It was then that he found the ability to cry. Like any other babe, it was because he was tired and uncomfortable. A small whine escaped his velveted lips as he tried to figure out why he was getting wetter around his face. The hopeless feeling that washed over little Ephriam was simply dismal. He hiccuped loudly, shaking the ferns around him. This wasn't a way to stay hidden, but the babe was too absorbed in himself to care.
bumping.
(OOC) (Sorry forgot to ask to
Agora lie amidst the ferns, staring up at the sky. It clouded only by pesky trees leaning too close, which bothered her, as she wanted a good view. She wiggled impatiently on her back, wishing the trees could just move over a bit so she could have a full view of the sky. After many minutes of staring, she decided she would seek out a better clearing to explore this strange phenomenon called 'the sky'.
She's only actually payed attention to the sky a small while ago. She was only a slightly new fawn, having been around a few days, but she was always so busy running and playing and exploring the forest that she hadn't had time to admire the details. One example, the sky. After galloping through the forest a while, she realized that she hadn't payed much mind to the ever changing lighting of the world around her. Sometimes it was bright, and other times scary and dark, but she hadn't really thought about it. So one day she looked to where the light came from, and there awaited the sky. And the sun, of course, which she quickly realized was not for staring at.
And now here she was, finally trying to get a view of the glorious sky, but the trees just spoiled everything. Agora let out a heavy sigh, but then told herself not to be so pessimistic. She hadn't seen any clouds, or what the sky looks like when it transitions to dark, or much other than its blueness, and as she glanced up, she saw that probably wouldn't change. As she trotted through the woods, dead ferns and leaves crinkling underfoot, she thought she heard something in the distance. Another deer, perhaps, or maybe a frog. She met a frog once, and it was pretty funny, so she wouldn't mind finding another. Agora paused and listened to the noise. On closer inspection, it seems too heavy to be a frog.... Maybe a deer? But it was awfully small to be a full grown deer. That left the only other explanation; It's a fawn, of course!
Agora sped up, forgetting about the sky as she ran at full speed towards the noise. She loved running, and this felt like a great excuse to run. As the trees flew by she realized she could easily spook someone if she just burst out of the trees like a comet, so she slowed to a trot through the greenery. The sounds had stopped, but she still went towards the noise, wondering what sort of fawn it would be. She sped up a bit, and eventually arrived in a grove of red trees. Glancing around, she saw something nestled in the ferns. Hmm.... It was brown with white spots, so what other could it be than a fawn? But it looked relatively new, so Agora lied down at the edge of the grove, wondering how to approach a newborn fawn without appearing too scary or intimidating.
E hiccuped again, snuffling a
Frustration exuded from the sigh that shook the little calf, showing that he had indeed probably spent the past 10 minutes having this little tantrum. Now, the babe was at least a quarter of the way dry and feeling a slight bit more comfortable. It was probably the ferns and moss that soaked up some of the pond water from his fur. Later in life, he may remember this for various life-preserving purposes. Now, though, he was too absorbed in himself to care.
As one of his hooves pressed flat against the earth, the elk calf felt himself relax a bit more. Having his hoof on the ground was nice, and it tickled a little to have the blades of greenery wiggle between the toes. "Mmm." He cooed, happy, before a sound at the edge of the brushline caused him fear. It wasn't birdsound or windsound... it was another animal. In fear, the babe quickly dropped his head. However, curiosity was one of the traits of all fawns here in the forest, so he did peer through the undergrowth the best he could in order to watch the newcomer's hooves. They were like his, he found, so couldn't be all that bad. Slowly but surely the babe raised his awkward head and looked straight at Agora with a pair of large, dark eyes. The expression he wore wasn't really readable, since he had yet to practice them. For now, though, it would have to do.
Agora wasn't really paying
She hopped to her feet and took a step back, startled that the fawn was staring right at her. She blinked a few times at the fawn, feeling silly for being so startled. It's just staring at you, its not some scary monster She told herself, stepping back forwards and plopping down onto the grass. She felt very curious.
"Hi." She said, sounding rather cheerful.
She began wondering what to say after that, looking around for inspiration for something to talk about.
"Umm... Have you seen the sky yet?" She asked, "It's very blue."
She found this a very silly thing to say, but thought the fawn should know.
The fawn's ears flopped back
What was the sky? Oh, he should probably respond to her... greeting? The words seemed to come from nowhere at first. "Hi." He replied with a bit of difficulty. Ephriam took a moment to process what she was talking about. He followed her gaze up to the sky, tipping his head way back in order to get a proper view through the trees. "The sky? That's what... you call it?" The words again came with a little bit of difficulty, mainly because he hadn't ever really spoken before, but also because he had craned his neck back so far that his windpipe was stretched to the limit.
The fawn dropped his head back to its natural position and looked again at Agora. "The sky is very blue." He agreed, bobbing his head in a nod. "The..." he searched for the word." ... pond is blue like the sky. It is really, really cold. I don't like it." He spoke, still not well able to talk about anything that didn't relate to himself. "I like the sky." He added, fearful that she would be upset if the sky wasn't good enough for his tastes.
Ephriam smiled as best as a deer-faced could do in this world. "I just came out of the pond. " He couldn't think of another way to explain, and thought that since she was like him, she probably knew all about coming out of the pond and being born.
Agora smiled after he
After the fawn had finished speaking she realized she still wasn't noticing things, which was a personality trait by now. She hadn't payed attention to his scent, or full appearance, or how he acted. Now that she was paying attention to things like scent, she noticed that it was not an it anymore, but a he.
She decided she should tell him what she remembered about where she came from, even though she couldn't remember it very well.
"I can't exactly remember how I was born. It's all fuzzy in my memory, but I do remember one day waking up. I was confused at first, but eventually I understood. This place is very... Hmm..." She said, thinking for a moment.
"Funny." She said, at last deciding on a word to describe the forest.
"It's very nice here though. There's a lot to do. But there's a lot of things to learn, too."
She felt quite wise telling the young fawn about the forest she'd spent time exploring.
"Would you like to learn about anything first? Because I can tell you. Maybe you'd like to learn more about the sky, or the water, or the trees, or the grass," She said, her voice sounding a bit dreamy as she recited all the lovely parts of the forest, "or maybe even other deer. Luckily you don't have to experience it all in one day, though. Oh, but you might not even know what a day is yet..."
She tilted her head in thought.
"Oh, right, umm... Is there anything you'd like to know?"
As the older female went on
"I know the water... and I know the sky since you told me." He nodded enthusiastically, proud that he knew something too. "I have heard more deer but I have not seen more deer... how many are there?" The calf looked around himself, then back to the human-faced babe in front of him. There didn't seem to be any more deer. However, there was much more world than the little one had explored between the pond and this grove near the ruins. And as a matter of fact, he wasn't very good at seeing when he came out of the pond. It took awhile for him to blink away the newborn blindness and come-to.
"I've only been around for this day. The light has moved a little, but not a lot." He gestured toward the sun. The more interaction he had with Agora, the larger his repertoire of knowledge was getting. Well, that was likely because he now could put words to concepts. Interaction always helped with that. "Oh and what tastes good?" The babe's tummy growled like an angry lion to punctuate that question.
"I'm not too sure how many
Agora began to glance around for any bushes near them. Spotting some reddish ones a few meters away, she rose to her hooves, shook off some clinging grass, and trotted towards them. The berries were made of many little circles of red bunched together to form one berry, which Agora thought was funny. She pulled off one and tossed it back to where they were lying. She repeated this a few times until 6 or so (she wasn't really counting) berries were lying in a clumsy pile. She pranced back and lied down on her side once again to see how many she'd actually gotten. Whoops, looks like there's 7 she thought, hastily swallowing one (and forgetting to chew) so it would be equal.
"These are berries." She stated proudly, as if they were of her own invention, before nudging 3 towards him. She chewed on one, finding the slightly sour taste to be quite delicious.
"These ones seem kind of sour, though." She said, her cheerful mood still being projected in her voice.
The fawn learned that day how
As she explained that they might be a little sour, the calf lapped one of the morsels from the ground. Three would be enough for the young calf for the moment, just to sate the grumbling tummy. The bruise-colored tongue turned red as he crushed the raspberry against his palate. The little spheres exploded and the juice hit his tongue in overwhelming flavor. These were an ultimate first food, and the cheerful look on the fawn's face said all that anyone would need to know. However, E still had to speak when he was done: "I prefer berries too."
'Too' showed a small sign of growth in little Ephriam. He was considering himself in relation to Agora. Even on his first day, the fawn was growing at an amazing rate. Although not physically changing much, he had already learned to converse and that others mattered... all in a matter of hours from his birth out of the pond.
The final two berries went down quickly. However, the second was lapped up with a few pieces of grass. Like a salad with raspberry vinaigrette, the flavors made him feel happy as well as sated. He grinned widely, red-stained tongue licking his little black muzzle clean. "You know a lot about this place. How?" He started what he believed to be small-talk.
"How?" She repeated, tilting
Now that she truly thought about it, she'd learned about the forest in many different ways. Some things she could naturally know, like to avoid sharp-looking objects or anything with thorns, and some things she learned from experience, like the fact that submerging your head in ice-cold pond water wasn't always the best idea. Other deer taught her about community, and social interaction. From other deer she learned to play, leap, and just feel part of something.
"Because everything was willing to teach me something, and everything had something to teach." She answered slowly and carefully, her sentence layered with uncertainty and her pitch rising slightly at the end of her sentence as if she were asking a question. However, a few moments after, her ears perked up as she thought over what she said. That wasn't as stupid as it sounded in my head she told herself.
"Umm, yeah! What I just said." She giggled, forgetting half of it the second the sentence slipped form her thoughts.
The words Agora said were
The forest was carpeted with emerald greenery so soft that a worm couldn't cut itself on the blades. E smiled at his new home. This place was pretty beautiful. "I wonder how this place got to be so pretty." He mused aloud. "Do you know how it got here?" The elk was coming into his own vernacular now, finally practiced in talking. He emphasized the question by cocking his head slightly, as deer from this place are wont to do. He resumed normal posture quickly after, though, so as not to look weird.
Agora felt perplexed by his
"I've never thought about it that... Nothing has taught me that yet... And I wasn't born long ago, less than a month... even though it feels like forever..." She sighed, "Well, luckily you don't have to learn everything right away. Actually, I don't think anyone can ever know everything, but that's fine for me since I don't really need to know everything. I guess because everything is a lot of stuff to know, you know?" She giggled, looking around at the visible forest and its inhabitants, whether it be a bush, or a mushroom, or a beetle. It's really true, there's too much to know here. If I myself knew everything, It'd ruin all the curiosity. I wouldn't know what to do with what I knew, either....