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Post by 0 on Oct 24, 2017 1:21:58 GMT
The hills fell away, a worn cliff face that had collapsed into the sloping black sands of the obsidian coast. The wide strip of sand mixed with ash and basalt stretched for a long ways between lapping waves and grassy plains that sat between rocky cliffs.
A lean shape slid down onto the shore, a black rabbit whose face and back was spattered with white. Oktokki turned silver eyes upwards for a brief moment, staring at the rays of sunlight as they tried to peel back the rolling gray of a cloudy sky.
After a few moments she dropped her gaze and began a slow lope down the length of the sea.
Last time she was here there had been that terrible storm, winds whipping the sea into a roiling mass, and rains pelting the sands with a fierce tenacity. She'd been rushing through it like a mad hare, determined not to lose time on her journey, and ended up bumping right into that trio of equines.
Save perhaps the collapse of that cliff behind her, there was no longer any trace left of that storm.
Something hard stabbed into one of her paws, which the rabbit drew back immediately, giving the pricked surface a quick lick; a bead of blood began to form on the black fur that covered the unguarded underside.
Her nose went to the sands, lightly prodding at the insulting opalescent point. One breath blew away the ash that buried the object, and a quick swipe of the offended paw upended it entirely.
It was a small scallop shell, pearly white and glinting in the weak light. She turned it over, finding the translucent object picked clean of its former owner; only sand filled its curved surface now.
As she held a paw to it, she noticed something strange begin to happen, spreading out from the toe touching it. The rabbit blinked and withdrew her paw, and the shell was as normal; when she put it back it began again, until the effect covered its entire surface.
The empty scallop shifted its hue, turning from white to a dark blue.
The rabbit sat down, staring. "That's...."
She pulled back her paw and put it down several times over, observing the change. It was a slow crawl to cover, but a quick dart in retreating. After only a few touches the blue lightened up, briefly flashing orange before turning black. For some reason her mind went to those dark sandstone tunnels, and those gemstones that had seemed to react to her passing, crimson minerals that would glow only when she drew close enough.
Standing, the rabbit picked the shell up in her mouth, and began to continue down the coast, squinting at the sharp touch of sand in her small wound, but ignoring it nonetheless. There were likely many such shells buried in these black sands; she'd just never had the chance before to realize it.
Her heart swelled as she was reminded again of her fondness for these lands, each seeming to possess its own unique feature of some sort, and her determination to discover it all. The rabbit picked up her pace, and the shell became a vivid green. Within seconds she began to tear across the shoreline, the scallop held tight as she swerved to meet the shallow reaches of the waves, crashing headlong into a curl of sea foam.
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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ashfall
Oct 28, 2017 0:43:00 GMT
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Post by Loner。 on Oct 28, 2017 0:43:00 GMT
Snowshoe paws skillfully navigated the uneven rocks above the cost. This place looked a lot like the home she had grown up at.
But it wasn't. The scent of canines and felines aplenty was not there. There was just the scents of the sea, and more common local creatures, birds, fish, sea grass.
The pang of homesickness was pushed away. Fulfilling the needs of the day was more important.
Carefully snow leopard worked her way down towards the waves, navigating the uneven ground with ease till corse sand slipped between her paws. She glanced out into the waves. What was out there? An underwater world which she couldn't explore.
But... something was out there... Something on the edge of the waves. She would have passed it off as mere driftwood if not for the way it moved.
Curiosity got the better of her. She approached until she could see. It was a rabbit.
Jinora did not bother hiding. Her grey-white pelt offered no camouflage. she assumed her presence might scare the rabbit so she maintained a respectful distance. She wondered what a lagomorph might be doing in this sort of place.
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Post by 0 on Oct 28, 2017 4:39:16 GMT
The rabbit was tossed under before being unceremoniously thrown back to the shore. Despite her best efforts to keep the water out of her lungs, the rabbit still found herself hacking up a few specks of water as she tore herself away from the shallows, having underestimated the force of the wave that she'd slid into.
The scallop shell was dropped onto the obsidian sands, and her eyes scanned it carefully, watching how the surface shifted colors. It was pearly white save for the spot where her mouth had been holding onto it the whole time underwater, although that spot swiftly returned to the same colorless opalescence once she had dropped it.
She grinned, wiping her mouth as he finished coughing onto the coast, and sitting back on her haunches. Water washing gently around her wispy milkweed tail, the shell was awkwardly picked up in fumbling paws. She watched, shivering, as the cold water slowly dripped from the smooth shell, tipping it slightly to drain more of the sea from its shallow cupped shape, and light blue spread from her toes to conceal the surface once more.
In the blurred reaches beyond her vision's focus, she noticed a strange smudge of grayish white against the black, and lifted her eyes to see the heavy form of--of...some sort of feline. Reminded her more of a cougar than those lions she'd seen--gosh...how many seasons ago? Although she supposed its fur looked just as thick as a lion's mane.
The rabbit's lips turned upwards in a genuine smile as she stared towards the stranger, knowing that if it had wanted to pounce her, the feline had every chance to do so before she'd even noticed it. Instead, the distance it maintained was more than a respectable one.
"Howdy!" the rabbit greeted cheerily after a moment of silence, with only the slightest hint of a stutter despite her still-trembling muscles. Her voice was discordant and hoarse, worn from lack of use and a quiet retreat from reliable sources of fresh water. After a beat she continued with a "How's it hangin'?" as though the stranger were an old friend.
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Oct 28, 2017 16:18:47 GMT
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Post by Loner。 on Oct 28, 2017 16:18:47 GMT
A pang of worry crossed the snow leopard's thoughts as she watched the rabbit be pushed by the waves. She took a step forward, ready and willing to come to the rescue should the waves overpower the smaller creature.
She held back, muscles tense.
Thank goodness the rabbit managed to escape the power of the waves on her own.
Still worried, the snow leopard was careful as she began to close the established distance. The rabbit's wellbeing was of primary concern. Thankfully the lagomorph recovered and even spoke. The snow leopard released a held breath and smiled. "I'm just glad you're alright." She responded. "Its strange to see a rabbit trying to swim."
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Post by 0 on Oct 28, 2017 19:16:15 GMT
The rabbit cracked another smile, one that held perhaps a hint of embarrassment. An utter stranger was worried for her well-being? And a cat for a rabbit, no less!
"Well...," she said, one ear turning back. She was holding back a chuckle, reminded of a certain scrawny lion in the desert.
Her gaze flickered briefly down to the shell. A shock of orange coursed across its surface, but aside from the one flash it remained a light blue.
"I were jus' tryin' ta fin' somethin' out." She hadn't exactly chosen the most...easy methods of doing it--careening face-first into a wave was rarely a smart decision. But hey! It had all worked out in the end, hadn't it?
The rabbit stretched out her front legs, turning her paws around so that the shell was laying on top of their furry, padless palms. "Have ya seen these before?" Her eyes were on the shell, but her gaze returned to the stranger after the question had been posed. Everything was always bigger up close, wasn't it? She lifted her arms to make it a little easier for the feline to see, trying to encourage her to touch the shell herself.
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Post by Loner。 on Oct 29, 2017 0:18:44 GMT
Find something out, well... now Jinora was curious too. Maybe it was something she knew, or maybe it was something new.
At first glance it wasn't anything more than a sea shell, the like of which appeared on many other shores, but she'd spotted the changing colors of the thing. That meant there was something up with it wasn't there. Slowly the snow leopard lowered her nose to touch the shell with the tip.
she then pulled away, observing the results with her seaglass green eyes.
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Post by 0 on Oct 29, 2017 1:41:44 GMT
The stranger's nose was almost as big as the shell. Already it had started changing from light blue to green just as the feline was reaching for it, and when she touched it, it swiftly shifted colors again. Light blue spread from her nose, hit the rabbit's green, and the whole thing turned black.
There wouldn't be much time to observe; once the stranger pulled away, the shell quickly began returning to green.
The rabbit grinned, staring at the shell likewise. "Sweet!" she said, and the shell slipped out of her trembling fingers.
She watched it return to white, then stood herself up to shake the cold water from her fur, something she probably should have done in the first place. She'd probably be left shivering for a while longer yet.
"Oh, oops--" the rabbit would apologize hastily, realizing that the stranger might have gotten sprayed by the flying droplets. Her gaze slid over the feline with a meek grin.
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Oct 29, 2017 3:54:08 GMT
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Post by Loner。 on Oct 29, 2017 3:54:08 GMT
The snow leopard watched the shell intently for the few moments it was changing color. "That really is not something you see every day." She agreed. She'd see some oddities out in the world but nothing quite like this in her wanderings. Was the cause biological, magical or spiritual, or something else entirely. It would take more experimentation to figure out an answer
The snow leopard blinked as water flicked at her face. She could feel the icy chill of it in a few places, but her thick fur kept most of it from ever touching skin.
"No big deal. A little water's nothing." She sat for a moment, wrapping her tail to one side. "You can dry yourself off if you want, I don't mind. And it's better than catching a chill." She pointed out. The annoying thing about her pelt was that if she got soaked it took forever to dry, but it also could handle a lot of water, so if it could be useful as a towel for a smaller creature than why not.
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Post by 0 on Oct 29, 2017 17:53:12 GMT
The rabbit's face fell in unsuspecting surprise, silver eyes practically shining at the stranger's suggestion. Whoa...this had to be one of the nicest felines she'd ever met--give that lion a run for his mane!
Slowly the leporid brought herself forward, and began dragging, then rubbing, her body across the spotted beast's sides, and one of those big fluffy legs. Despite her attempts, there was still quite a bit of water left on her; she was no wolf, couldn't shake the liquid out very efficiently. Luckily a lean rabbit in still-growing winter pelage couldn't hold too much water, and it was only a minute before the rabbit felt sufficiently dry enough to draw herself away from the big cat. Even so, she took a few more seconds just to enjoy the strong warmth wafting off the feline's body.
"Thank you!"
Returning to her previous position, the rabbit brought herself down into a sit behind the dropped scallop shell, and buried her paws in the black sand underneath it. She turned her feet inwards, setting them just under the shell and on top of her buried paws for additional warmth. The toes of her front paws were positively burning with a frost, and she was sure it wasn't just from her not-so-long-ago drenched state.
A small smile came back to her face as she looked down at the scallop shell again, which began to turn blue once more now that her feet were touching it from below. She could feel a slight tingle of sorts from the place where her toes touched it, a sense of cold returning.
"I think it feeds off body warmth," she stated at last, the stutter finally gone from her voice; she was warm enough also to stave off that thick accent she'd displayed only moments earlier. It was the only explanation that she could think of, and it seemed to fall in line with it turning colorless upon being soaked in the icy water.
One ear twitched in thought. "But I don't know what determines the color...."
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Nov 1, 2017 16:08:44 GMT
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 1, 2017 16:08:44 GMT
It took quite a bit of trust or bravery for a small animal to rub itself off on a large cat's fur. Jinora was glad to have established a situation where the rabbit could do so without visible sign of angst or fear. She looked down at the huddled rabbit with gentle fondness, observing that the shell whatever its value was seemed to hold quite the fixation.
"What if I just touch it." It had gotten quite dark when she and the rabbit had both been touching the shell, so why not try a few more experimental steps. What if she touched it? What if another rabbit or similar sized animal touched it? How about a natural heat source like sunlight in a warmer season? How different would the color be?
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Post by 0 on Nov 1, 2017 17:22:36 GMT
The rabbit nodded at the feline's suggestion, immediately understanding the line of thought behind it.
She nosed the shell off her paws, accidentally flipping it over in the process, not that either side appeared to display any differences except in whether it was concave or convex. It turned back to white.
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Nov 1, 2017 18:39:36 GMT
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 1, 2017 18:39:36 GMT
She placed a paw across the shell. Since her fur was so thick, her paw had to completely cover it for her paw pad to touch it. It was quite cold to the touch, but she let her paw rest there for several moments before swiftly pulling it away. She'd seen how quickly the colors could change, so she knew she had to be swift to catch a glimpse of it and find out if the shell had turned blue or some other color.
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Post by 0 on Nov 1, 2017 21:39:31 GMT
The rabbit turned her eyes down to watch as the feline covered the shell with a paw. When it was removed the small scallop had been pushed down somewhat into the ashy sands, a light blue against the black grains.
As the color began to wash away the rabbit gave it an experimental poke with one of her own toes, briefly filling the fading blue with saturation again where she touched it. She emitted a short squeak of delight at the almost tie-dye effect, giving it another quick poke. The blue shifted to green, then became that same cold opalescent white.
Her lips turned down, forelegs stretching out before her as she slid down onto her belly, arms to either side of the shell, staring at it, pensive and still unsure. Her nose gave it the lightest of touches and she let it remain there, dark blue slowly filtering across the folds of the scallop shell.
She glanced up towards the feline before letting her eyes settle on the shell again. "Your thoughts?"
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Loner, Kazetatsu, Kaze
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Nov 3, 2017 19:31:01 GMT
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Post by Loner。 on Nov 3, 2017 19:31:01 GMT
"Length of touch determines depth of color, and repetitions change color, while multiple contacts at once equal black?" Jinora ventured a a hypothesis for the system which governed the shell. It seemed like a potential answer, though she didn't think the tests so far provided sufficient proof for the claim. Thats why she worded it as a guess.
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Post by 0 on Nov 3, 2017 19:46:48 GMT
The rabbit blinked and twitched an ear, silent while she tried to parse what had just been said. She was no scientist, and it was suddenly a lot for the little leporid to take in all at once. She tried to piece together what was proposed with what she had so far witnessed.
After a moment she cracked an uncertain grin and said, "Maybe!" The rabbit withdrew her nose, the shell turning white as she popped back up to her feet.
The faint warmth that had finally reached her paws slowly began to drain away again. She stepped back to give herself another shake, then started to stretch her muscles.
She'd spent enough time staring at a scallop shell. Time to get moving again, warm herself up!
"Oh--uh," she said as she stretched, looking back towards the feline, "m'name's Oktokki, by the by!" A small chuckle escaped her lips at the realization that she'd taken so long just to introduce herself to the stranger.
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