Eyes PixPet Writing Thread... I'm excited this finally happened! One day, I might make a thread to keep track of my PixPet family's adventures, but right now, work is keeping me so busy that I am not able to update frequently enough to justify it. PixPet is currently one of the few things keeping me sane.
In the meantime, Inanna has written about her long-awaited first times hoarding.
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Inanna the Indigoat's Journal, Page 4
February 17, 2019
Now that I have finally been allowed to go on hoards, I’ve been very busy and very tired, so I haven’t been writing much. Hoarding really is more draining than it sounds, and the results aren’t always satisfying. But I keep on going, and each time, I still set out with hope, knowing that I am at least doing my part for our little family.
My first day was eventful, but not in the ways I had hoped.
Feb. 3, 2019, Part 1:
I had been looking so forward to my first hoard, but I did not expect to spend the entire time looking after a hatchling Velibolt. Liadan was the first to hatch of our five new eggs, in just over half a day. She was very curious about her surroundings, and it’s a good thing we didn’t have many belongings aside from plushies, or she probably would have broken them in the zealous way she examined everything. I barely kept her from scratching up the rose glass designer table. I don’t particularly care about most of the other stuff, but I am protective of that table.
Liadan had priority for one of our seven hoarding spots because she has not only one, but two evolutions, so I had to wait until the next egg, a Sunobra, hatched about 5 hours later. Like me, Suraj did not have an evolution, so since I had been waiting for over a month, and he had just hatched, I got his spot. This would give him some time to get used to the world, anyway, and he eventually curled himself around our Pydeer egg, where he would mostly remain for the next three days until it hatched.
Meanwhile, Liadan and I waited for visitors to come play and give us extra treats to fortify us for when we finally went out for the first time. A couple people dropped by and gave us carrots and tomatoes, which we didn’t particularly care for, but it was better than nothing. Liadan was beginning to get a little stir crazy by now, so even though we could have used one more treat, Schnecco finally just sent us out.
As soon as the door opened, the Velibolt zipped down the street, her clawed feet a blur. Schnecco said it reminded her of a roadrunner, whatever that is, and then told me to keep an eye on Liadan. I took off after her, but my four hooves could barely keep up with her two feet! I was out of breath before I knew it, and Liadan had already taken a turn and disappeared somewhere.
I slowed to a walk, enjoying the clip-clop of my hooves on the path, but wished I was free to go where I wanted, at whatever pace I wanted. Not seeing any trace of the Velibolt, I came to a halt and tilted my ears back and forth, listening for any sound that might tell me where she went. A rustling sound in someone else’s yard caught my attention, and I went over to investigate. To my relief, there was Liadan, but she was trying to pull a lucid evolvulus flower out of someone else’s flower pot. They must have left their gate open when they left on their latest hoard.
“Liadan, stop! That doesn’t belong to us!” I raced into the yard to put myself between the Velibolt and the flower pot.
“But it’s so pretty! I want to bring it home!”
Gently, I lowered my head and nudged her back a little. “We have to find something else to bring home that isn’t already owned by someone else.”
Liadan crossed her feathered arms defiantly. “But—”
Thwump! We both looked up at the sound of a door being flung open, and jumped back as a Bovitaur burst out. “What’s going on out here?? What are you doing??!”
He (or she, I really wasn’t sure as I felt that surge of adrenaline) lowered his head and pointed two curved horns menacingly at us. My own tiny horns, though sharp, were a joke compared to those.
“N-nothing,” my voice shook despite my greatest effort to remain calm, “s-sorry, we were just—”
“Do you know how long it’s taken for that thing to bloom?!” Without waiting for a response, the Bovitaur charged at us, head still lowered. Even Liadan had enough sense to perceive the danger and zipped out of the yard. I scampered right behind her, taking care to stay out of the way of her clawed heels and flailing tail, and gave the gate a hefty kick to slam it closed as we cleared it. A thunderous crash told me that the Bovitaur hadn’t stopped in time. I hope the gate wasn’t too damaged, as we had been the ones ultimately at fault for trespassing, but I didn’t stop to check.
Liadan was already several meters ahead of me, but after a few minutes, she slowed and then collapsed. I thought it had all finally been too much for her, but as I got closer, I realized she was laughing. I scowled at her, exasperated. “Do you even realize the danger you put us in?”
She kept on laughing, her beak clacking after each breath. “Yes! What even was that thing?”
I slowly let out my own breath. There seemed to be no fazing her. “Of all the yards you could have broken into, it had to be a Bovitaur’s.” This was not how I had envisioned my first hoard.
Liadan broke into a fresh bout of laughter, clapping her front claws together. Those things could probably do some serious damage if she wanted.
“It’s almost time to head back,” I sighed. “Looks like we’ll be going back empty handed. At least now there is an office that gives out Pixcoins to any PixPet that goes out on a hoard, just for trying.”
“Really?” The Velibolt had stopped laughing, but her eyes still sparkled with merriment.
“Yes. There didn’t used to be, but so many pets were getting discouraged by coming home with nothing, that this office was finally established. Alasdair told me it’s not far from our neighborhood, so let’s go.”
For once, Liadan obediently followed me. A Finngriff who worked at the Pixcoin office gave us each 4 Pixcoins, what appeared to be the standard for low level PixPets, and we walked the rest of the way home, a bit subdued now after that whole misadventure.
“Eh, that’s about what I expected,” said Schnecco as she took our measly Pixcoin offering. The high hopes I had harbored of bringing something substantial home after my first hoard had deflated, and I flopped onto a pile of plushies, trying not to show my disappointment.
Liadan meanwhile animatedly recounted everything that had just happened to Suraj, who was still wrapped around the Pydeer egg. Liadan’s version of the story was highly embellished, with tales of battling and taking down the Bovitaur with her bare claws, and the Sunobra justifiably just shook his head in disbelief.
Feb. 3, 2019, Part 2:
I was still recovering as Schnecco excitedly harvested lime pumpkins from our backyard, where an Antabir egg was slowly incubating. “Since Liadan hatched lime, I’m going to make a decorative item potion with the trinuts you found in that shop a few days ago,” Schnecco told me. “Maybe that will help her find one of those fruit bowls everyone is talking about.”
I just shrugged. As long as Liadan didn’t try to steal a fruit bowl from someone else, I didn’t care. We were about to go out on a second hoard together, and I was not looking forward to providing the constant supervision this Velibolt apparently needed. Vasuki and Alasdair were away on their usual long hoards, or I’d have asked one of them to watch over her. It was Alasdair’s fault that we even had her.
Liadan was currently shoveling food pellets into her beak in preparation, getting crumbs all over my precious table. I decided I had better nibble a bit myself before putting the rest in a satchel in case my appetite improved on the road. We were both only Level 2 now, so it wouldn’t be a long trip, but I didn’t feel like eating much right then. Schnecco began cooking some sapphire stew for the decorative item potion as she sent us off.
It turned out I should have eaten more before we left, as I spent most of the hoard running after Liadan trying to keep her out of strangers’ yards again. That or from trying to drink out of random discarded potion or liquid gem bottles.
“Lia, no! Lia, stop! Let’s go this way towards the forest...”
Unsurprisingly, we didn’t make it very far, and had to head back home with just a few Pixcoins once more.
The decorative item potion was still brewing after we had rested and it was time to head back out. I made sure to eat more pellets beforehand this time. Briefly, I thought about going my own way, leaving Liadan to whatever fate she decided to bring upon herself, but then thought better of it.
Liadan ran ahead as usual, trying to lose me at every turn. At one point she craned her neck back toward me. “You’re no fun, Inanna! I will find something this time.”
“Just make sure it’s legal!” I called after her, trying to catch my breath. I was really out of shape, cooped up as I had been for over a month. Still, after the last two trips, we could both go further now, and finally made it to the forest. Liadan at last managed to evade me between the trees. I made a halfhearted attempt to find her, but after a while grew too frustrated. I had wasted enough time on that troublemaker. Let her learn her own lessons.
Remembering Alasdair’s description of a clearing with a farm, I set off to find it, finally unencumbered. It took some searching, but there it was, just as he had said! I made a beeline for the pile of fertilizers, and helped myself to eight whole packs of plant quadruple harvest fertilizer. These should last us awhile. Giddy to have found something for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised to also happen upon some liquid quartz on my way back. It wasn’t good quality—in fact it was a dull grade 27—but it was something, and I would take home anything at this point. One day, with more practice, I would be able to find higher quality ingredients like Vasuki and Alasdair, but this would have to do for now.
As I prepared to walk back home, I heard a cry from not too far away, and my heart leapt to my throat. Liadan! Maybe I shouldn’t have left that dinosaur creature on her own after all. I galloped toward the sound, taking care to keep my well-earned loot balanced on my back, which wasn’t easy. Just in case something dangerous lay ahead, I paused behind a tree and peered cautiously around the trunk.
There was Liadan, dancing around with a lime capsule between her wings. It didn’t look like anyone or anything was chasing her. I sighed and stepped out from behind the tree, narrowing my eyes. “You scared the pumpkins out of me.”
“I told you I’d find something!” she sang, ignoring my concern. “And I did it by myself, too!”
“Great, I also found something when I was finally by myself,” I grumbled.
Liadan dropped her capsule and ran toward me. I stumbled, the fertilizer and liquid quartz rolling off my back, but thankfully nothing broke. Liadan had wrapped my neck between her feathery arms, not in an attack, but in a hug. “Good job, Inanna! I guess we can go home now.”
“Yeah, I guess,” I replied, too stunned to say much else. We picked up our respective items and made our way back home while Liadan danced in circles around me, telling me about how she had battled an Ursufuzz to get the capsule. Like Suraj, I doubted most of her story, but wondered if she actually had seen an Ursufuzz. How did she even know what one was? It was more likely that an Ursufuzz had helped her find the capsule, as most were not the confrontational type.
When we got home Schnecco was as pleased as I expected with all the plant quadruple harvest fertilizers (while mostly ignoring the quartz), but they were outshined by Liadan’s lime capsule. As Schnecco opened it, our jaws dropped.
“It—it’s—it really is,” I muttered.
“You actually did it, Liadan! And I didn’t even have the chance to give you the potion!”
Liadan basked in the praise while we all stared at the fruit bowl. Even Suraj had left the Pydeer egg, slithering over to see what the commotion was about.
Without warning, a black shape fluttered over, picked up the bowl, and flew off with it.
“Wha--?” I glanced around, trying to make sense of what had just happened, but the shape had already flown out the front door. Had we been robbed?
“That’s Ramona,” Suraj informed us. “She just hatched a little while ago.”
We went over to the wide window where we could see a Tuxo in the front yard with her wings wrapped around the bowl, pecking at the fake fruit.
“She won’t break it, will she?” I wondered.
Liadan was already out the door, not to rescue the fruit bowl, it turned out, but to befriend her new feathered kin.
“We could probably sell that fruit bowl for a decent amount of Pixcoins, but I don’t think Ramona is going to give it up any time soon,” Schnecco smiled as she watched the Tuxo and Velibolt play together. I’m pretty sure she didn’t want to sell the fruit bowl anyway.
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