-1/4 Cirr 2024/02/22(Thu)14:03 No. 1084168 ID: e139aa
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Author's Note/Warning/Apologies:

Hi! It me a Cirr. Before we get going I figure I ought to assuage readers that are only familiar with Flockload that no, this quest is not a replacement for Flockload. In fact, I had intended to pick Flockload up at the beginning of March, as I was busy industriously working on a month-long game jam project that had to be cancelled due to my health cratering a few days ago. I'm getting better, but not quickly, and I want to try and get back into the swing of quest stuff again without messing up Flockload with a combination of feeling terrible and being rusty as heck.

This is supposed to be a short and simple quest. I am posting this statement here, in this quest thread, as a monument to my folly if it becomes anything else. You may wonder why I'm posting this in this thread and not in a questdis thread at all. And to that I say, uh...

Also I can't write content warnings for a work that doesn't exist yet, so, uh, standard 18+ warning applies and I'll make sure to spoiler text and spoiler thumbnail anything if it gets too beyond the pale and my internal editor hasn't already barged into my internal office screaming about the cuts we need to make for public decency. Yes. Yes, despite all evidence otherwise, I do still have such a thing.

Well! I think that answers all questions. If it doesn't, then I guess someone can make a questdis thread.
I still don't feel great so be forewarned if the quality is off. Art especially. On with the show.

1/4 --- 2024/02/22(Thu)14:04 No. 1084171 ID: e139aa
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The sun's light filters through the fog and the canopy above, but only creeps under the rock overhang. A creature stirs, groaning softly, uncomfortably woken to a world of sensations he tried to ignore overnight. His belly remains empty, and the gnawing absence and aching pain is stronger than ever. Ears flicking around, he hears the wind through trees, the calls of flittering fliers above, and the rushing of the stream nearby.

2/4 --- 2024/02/22(Thu)14:04 No. 1084172 ID: e139aa
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He yawns and slowly gets up, shuffling from the overhang until he can stand. His chest and thighs are still bruised and aching from an unfortunate encounter with a tree, while fleeing from something loud and vicious. Painful, yes, but dim reminders that he could easily have not woken up this day.
Life has been hard ever since the day the forests erupted into light and flame, separating him from everything he knew, but the days have felt harder and harder still.

He was shown the right berries and mushrooms when he stood knee high, but they've all gone now, and the only things left are unknown to him.
In his dreams, every new berry he tries sickens him terribly. Every new mushroom kills him. His heart stops. His lungs seize. He erupts into fungal growths that rip his skin and burst his flesh. The sight of new mushrooms now fills him with cold apprehension. A vague memory of former kin, perhaps, and a horrible fate he can only remember the shape of.

And now he realises that the hunger is dulling him. Slowing him down. He never was a very good hunter, and soon, he won't be able to hunt at all.
He misses the taste of meat more than anything else in the world right now.

3/4 --- 2024/02/22(Thu)14:04 No. 1084173 ID: e139aa
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His thirst is at least easier to solve. The clear waters of the river roll as unendingly as they did before his birth. The clearest and cleanest river he's ever known. The main thing keeping him here while food seems to get harder and harder to find.

He stares into the river after drinking his fill, looking into the eyes of his reflection. How he can be in two places at once, he does not know, but once again he finds himself looking into his eyes. So deeply, as if he could see through them and into something deeper.

He watches his eyes narrow as he stares. The face of frustration. Of course he sees frustration. The river is true. It's the feeling running deepest in him.

He pauses, spotting something, frowns, and picks off a trespassing woodlouse on his ear. He snaps it up in his jaws quickly. It's barely substantial.

4/4 --- 2024/02/22(Thu)14:04 No. 1084174 ID: e139aa
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He looks around the forest. Either he's going to have to try hoping he finds significantly more woodlice today, or he's going to have to search an even larger area around him.

He really doesn't want to get lost again. Not like yesterday, not with what almost got him out there. He didn't even see it. He just heard the roar and knew he had to run.

What does he do?

Mark out a stockpile and get digging, boy!

>A World Without Names
rip Call-Name, huh

anyway go downstream someplace new in search of food, I guess.

Are there any other landmarks around besides the river you are familiar with that have hunting grounds you know about? Navigating from landmark to landmark helps prevent getting lost and you desperately need to eat, which means hunting.
Also uh, what tried to eat you yesterday and how can we avoid its hunting grounds?
I assume there is no great source of fish in the river you can exploit?

Yeah, follow the river. If you want to leave it, make marks to leave a trail behind you when you go far, so you can come back to it. Little bundles of sticks on the ground pointing where you came from. Do you know how to make traps? Snares? Pointy stick? Maybe you don't know how to make anything. In that case you need whatever natural strengths you have. Looks like you have good ears, so those will help keep you from danger. Maybe help you find something you can kill and eat. Listen for grubs gnawing in tree trunks. Try get a sturdy stick and put a point on it, at least, and watch out for fish in the water as you travel. Keep an eye up and around for birds' nests.

>>1084174
Time to go somewhere completely new. Follow the river in whatever direction seems useful. Keep a lookout for any fish.

Arm yourself, head downstream

Have you bathed? Cleaning wounds and reducing your scent might help. Finding a not unpleasant blade of grass or piece of bark to chew on (not eat) might stave off hunger.

The river must come from or flow to a larger body of water, and you're more likely to find life if you follow it. Spear fishing would be ideal.

Since gathering doesn't work, hunting is the only option. Limited as it is, he will have to focus on the parts of the hunting he was taught that he wasn't absolutely terrible at.

He may not have been good at hunting, but is there something else he was good at? He may not be a very intelligent individual, so the chances of him coming up with unfamiliar ways of procuring food would be low, but perhaps he could some other quality of his to assist his survival.

can you fish?

People who say follow the river have the right idea here. Perhaps prey will drink as well.

I suggest carving marks into trees to keep yourself from getting lost. If you don't have claws for it, you should get a stone for it instead.

On that note, do you know how to make tools? A simple spear does much to empower you.

>Pokemon but they don't say their names all the time
Oh thank @#$%.

>Hunt
Stick with foraging for nuts and berries for now. Those have lots of energy at low cost.

So, the main character being obviously an Eevee, should have some sort of superpowers, maybe those could help with hunting and exploring and such? He should have ability to move with superspeed for very short, directed bursts by infusing his body with a sort of 'normal' elemental ki. This can be used for a quick surprise takedown of prey or for mobility and scouting and getting to hard to reach places or climbing. There's also a few ranged energy blasts, but those are more advanced.