I am a sunflower.
- [Sunflower] -
You are a sunflower
This is unusual.
It is calm. The world is bright. The grass, verdant, moves as a soft wind blows across the serene, spring-tide landscape. Myself as well… My 'body', my leaves, my stem, and my petals are moved by this breeze.
This, too, is unusual.
The wind does not reach me often. I am in the middle of many sunflowers. On a normal day, they would block the wind from reaching me, and I usually could do nothing, save to listen to the soft rustling that the collection of their long, slender, fat-headed bodies makes.
I am the middle-child, unseen from any angle. But today, their voices are quiet. I do not hear them. Today, the wind reaches me.
— This is very unusual.
The most significant oddity is, however, the fact that I am here. That I am aware.
I sway, moving my many large leaves, flush with verdurous green, up and down. My round, flat face, which is always angled up towards the bright sun above our heads during the day, now does something unusual; it turns, as I will it to turn.
— I will my round face to turn towards the left, and it does so. There is nobody there.
I will my warm face to turn towards the right now. My many honey-gold petals, only now starting to begin to sprout, as the season of my life has only just begun. There is nobody there either.
Of the entire field of sunflowers, I am the only one left. They are all missing. They have vanished.
How unusual. How very, very unusual.
I ‘look’ around myself. I feel like this field that I see, this meadow, I feel like this is where my home has always been. I haven’t been moved; I haven’t been brought anywhere else. I am where I have always been; I am what I have always been; a sunflower.
But, for some reason, I am alone.
My ilk are missing. The ground shows no traces of them ever having been here. I do not know why. I do not feel their roots, and I do not feel any empty cavities in the soil where they might have just been before I woke up.
For some reason, I am awake. I am aware of being alive.
I have never been aware of being alive before, I think. It is very calm, honestly speaking. This doesn’t seem so bad. However, I also do not know why this has happened. Is this normal? Do all sunflowers come to possess self-awareness, eventually?
I slowly lift my head, looking towards the sky and towards the sun.
- [Sunflower] -
You bask in the light of the sun
+ 1 EXP EXP: 1/20
A shadow obscures the glowing warmth that I bask in for an instant as something swoops down out of the beautifully blue sky — something horrible, something small and fluffy, a tiny, azure monstrosity.
It chirps, landing on my face. A bird. I know it is a bird. I recognize the sound of its twitchy movements. However, I scream.
— Calmly, mind you.
I calmly scream as it sticks its beak into my face and begins to rip pieces out of myself. It eats my precious seeds, which are still young. They need more time.
- [Sunflower] -
Health-points: "You are a sunflower. Sunflowers do not have health-points."
Ouch. I do not know what that means. Is the bird talking to me? I do not understand.
Slowly, I sway my body from side to side, moving as fast as I can, which is only about the pace that my body could move at if there were a strong wind pushing against it.
The bird is unimpressed. The terrible monster continues to steal more of me, gorging itself greedily on my life-essence. I can only watch in silent horror as the twitchy, jumpy mass bobs around in front of the space that I see from, its disgusting little birdy-bird feet clamping onto my stem as it pecks and picks and takes.
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- [Sunflower] -
Health-points: "I just told you. You’re a sunflower. You don’t get health-points. Stop wasting my time and just die or something, okay?"
It continues to peck, and I quietly scream. I do not want to bother the world after all. It is a peaceful day, and it would be rude of me to ruin that for everyone else.
Something rustles in the forest nearby.
The devil-bird flies away, chirping in fear as it is disturbed. I am rescued.
I straighten myself upright, wondering how I managed to survive such a terrible endeavor. Will I ever forget these twisted nightmares, freshly scarred into my mind’s eye? These images of a vicious beast partaking of my flesh while I stood powerless to stop it?
— I do not know. I am a sunflower. But now I am missing many seeds. They were good seeds, too. I have many good seeds left yet. But I had more before.
I hope some of them manage to escape and to grow somewhere nice. I would like to look at the same sun as them.
I lift my head towards the forest, looking at my savior. The thing breaks out from the line of tall trees.
I like trees. They are strong, big, and wise. I am just a sunflower. I am not insignificant, but I am not as significant as a tree. But that is okay. I am calm. The trees are often rude, however. They like to steal the sun and keep it all for themselves.
Calmly, missing a part of my face, I watch the strange thing approaching me. It looks like a sunflower too, but its body isn’t green. Its head isn’t yellow. It only has two large seeds inside its strange face, one on either side of it. They are white and round, with splashes of green inside. It pulls something behind itself — a big, wooden mass that smoothly rolls over the ground.
How very unusual.
— You are an ugly sunflower.
I do not mean to be rude to my savior, but I couldn’t help but think so. Their brown, long, curly petals, pulled back behind their head, do little to attract pollinators. Their two seeds, while large and significant features of their face, could never be carried away by any reasonably sized bird. In fact, I am starting to suspect, as I look at the odd thing, that it simply might just be a defect of nature. It even appears to only have one set of reproductive organs, whereas I have many, but I cannot say for sure. I am just a sunflower.
Sunflowers have both male and female reproductive features.
My savior stops in front of me, looking around at the landscape and then back towards myself.
I lower my head, looking at her. I am taller. Although, I would much rather be looking at the sun. Would you like to sit here with me? We could look at the sun together for a while. It has yet to fully rise, and it promises to be a very calm day today.
— If the bird does not return, that is.
The message that I send through my buried roots does not seem to reach her. I can’t help but notice that she, the stranger, isn’t rooted in the dirt. She does not even seem to have any roots at all. Instead, she just has her two thin trunks, which diverge from her stem, pressing down against the ground.
I think that she is more like a bird than a sunflower.
Have I made a mistake? Oh well.
With a meandering pace, I slowly look back up towards the sun. I am calm, and the sun is so bright. Let us be calm together, even if you are ugly and misshapen.
A gentle wind continues to blow, catching my petals and leaves. The warm summer breeze envelops me in a gentle sensation that I have not felt since I was just a small seed, buried deep, deep, deep down in the warm, soft ground.
- [Sunflower] -
Health-points: "I told you to beat it. But fine, if you want them so badly, then here, have them. Enjoy." HP: 04/06
Oh.
I look back down, calmly feeling terrible, incredible, languishing pain as I stare at my would-be savior.
The strange thing is down in the ground, tearing up the dirt like some kind of animal. She digs around me, damaging my soft roots, as she is somewhat careless in her efforts.
This is unfortunate. I like my roots. They are wide-spread and sturdy. They help me find water. When it is dry, they go deeper into the world. When the dirt is wet, they spread out wider.
However, she digs the dirt away, and then I find the most unusual thing happening; I am moved. Grabbing my body and its thick, naturally plump, and sturdy stalk, she pulls me and a large chunk of my roots out of the ground and places me onto the big, wooden thing that she was pulling behind herself.
— It hurts. I am in incredible agony.
But at least I am higher up now. That means I am closer to the sun than I was before. I suppose it evens out.
My roots find no water here. I still have plenty left inside of me, however. But I cannot dig through the wooden thing that I am on top of now. Somewhat indifferent, I lift my head, looking at the sun, which is indeed closer now than before.
How pleasing.
- [Sunflower] -
You bask in the light of the sun
+ 1 EXP +1 Health-Point EXP: 2/20 HP: 05/06
We move. She has returned to the wooden thing’s front and now pulls it behind herself, taking me somewhere else.
This is most unusual.
Oh well. I spread my leaves out wide at my sides and continue to bask in the light of the glorious morning sunshine.
What a beautiful day.
- [Sunflower] - 🌻 Health-Points: 05/06 Soul-Points: 01/01 Level: 1 Experience: 02/20 Class: You are a sunflower. Sub-class: None Race: You are a sunflower. Obols: 000
- [Stats] - STR: 01 DEX: 01 WIS: 05 INT: 04 LUK: 06 LOV: 04
- [Abilities] -
[Bask]
Basking in direct sunlight will give you EXPERIENCE as well as restoring lost HEALTH and SOUL
I am a sunflower.