[Cactologist]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: Cactologist
Buttermilk: Bedelia

“I’d like to help harvest some more!”
Username: Cactologist
Buttermilk: Bedelia
Word Count: 713
Prompt: "Granny, come quick! This animal needs help!" It was an early morning, still in Bedelia's first summer, but she had already developed her love for caring for others. She had been taking her daily walk through the woods and had spotted an unfamiliar animal laying on its back, it's legs and tail stiff, mouth gaping, and eyes wide. It was unresponsive to Bedelia's efforts to arouse it, and she was convinced that it needed her help. "Granny!"
Bedelia's grandmother stumbled from the house, her puffy eyes wide and curlers still in her hair as if she had just fallen out of bed. A robe was draped haphazardly around her, and the three slippers that adorned her hooves were already soaked with dew. "What in the high heavens is all the ruckus about, Bedelia? It's too early for this!" she exclaimed crossly.
"Granny, I found an animal that needs help now! It might already be dead! How can you say it's too early!?" Bedelia argued frantically.
Sighing, Bedelia's grandmother nodded. "You're right. Lead me to where you saw it. There's no time to waste."
Together, Bedelia and her grandmother rushed through the early morning mist without saying a word. When they reached the spot that Bedelia had seen the animal, they skidded to a halt. There was no animal to be seen.
Bedelia couldn't believe her eyes and shook her head, rapidly searching. "But... but I know it was here! I know it was! Right here! Granny, you have to believe me!"
"I do believe you, Bedelia. Let's look around."
An hour later, the entire area within a 500 feet radius had been thoroughly examined multiple times to no avail, and Bedelia flopped down back where they had began, her head in her hooves.
Her grandmother sat down beside her. "Bedelia," she said gently, "I know I've already said this, but maybe it was okay and walked away."
"No! I saw what I saw! It was injured, or, or dead!" Bedelia cried, embarrassed and almost hysterical.
"Sweetie, can you describe for me what it looked like and what it was doing one more time?"
"Well," Bedelia said, thinking, "it looked almost like a mouse, but a lot bigger. It definitely had a mouse nose, tail, and ears. Its eyes were black and beady like a mouse's, too. It had a white face, but a black and white body."
"Like stripes?"
"No, a mixture of hair, so it almost looked grey. There was black hair underneath the white hair. It had weird little feet, sticking up in the air. They kind of looked like porcupine feet, or maybe a mouse's again. It's mouth was kind of open, and it's eyes were looking straight ahead. Granny, it looked like it was in pain! Granny, are you listening?"
"Yes. You said looked like a mouse, but bigger?"
"Well, yes, but-"
"And that it might have been dead?"
"Yeah... what are you thinking?"
"Bedelia, do you know what an possum is?"
"N-no," Bedelia mumbled.
"A possum is a animal just like what you described. And they do this thing, see. They play dead. When they are afraid, they act like they are dead so predators won't hurt them. Honey, I thing the animal you saw was a possum that thought you might hurt him, so he played dead then ran away. He's just fine, now, I presume," Bedelia's grandmother explained.
Bedelia didn't look up and her cheeks burned red. She didn't like being told she was wrong. Furthermore, she had been so convinced and had dragged her grandmother all the way out here. It made her feel so young and silly, and she didn't like it. She was ashamed and embarrassed and didn't know what to say because she knew her grandmother was correct.
"Bedelia, don't feel bad. I understand. There was no way you could have known. You did the right thing. Now come along, and I'll make some blueberry pancakes for breakfast, and we can forget this whole thing,"
"You mean it? Blueberry pancakes? I thought those were only for birthdays,"
"Well, birthdays and when you're feeling down. How does that sound?"
"Amazing! Let's go! Oh, and I'm sorry. Do you think you could show me a picture of a possum?"
"Of course, Bedelia. Come on,"

[Desmond]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: Desmond
Buttermilk: Takara

“I’d like to help harvest some more!”
Username: Desmond
Buttermilk: Takara
Word Count: 100
Prompt: Takara 's been proven wrong pretty often, thought she hates to admit it. It's all a part of growing up, though, and in the spirit of being mature and earning respect in the eyes of her herdmates, she takes each time as a moment of learning. Slightly begrudged, grumpy learning, soured by the thoughts of 'I could have been right if you weren't so good at making your point, darn you', but... learning all the same.

She's absolutely forgiven Willard for being right about crickets reacting to precursor signs to storms, and not storms themselves. Yup, absolutely, no hard feelings there.

[Queen Vivane]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: Queen Vivane
Buttermilk: Magpie

[yeena]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: ceance
Buttermilk: Wulfe


“I’d like to help harvest some more!”
Username: ceance
Buttermilk: Wulfe
Word Count: 103
Prompt: Wulfe wasn't a worried character, really. He stuck to himself and his husband and didn't have much to worry about in the world beyond what Morgan was thinking about, or if Mordred had been fed. Sometimes there were situations where he was more alert but, otherwise? There wasn't anything that he had to care about right now. He didn't have children that ran around his feet, bothering him for this and that and placing themselves in danger on purpose. Regardless, he cast a hidden look to Morgan, tending to the garden he had crafted in the back yard. Perhaps that could change, eventually.

[Yodel]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: Yodel
Buttermilk: Alli

“I’d like to help harvest some more!”
Username: Yodel
Buttermilk: Alli
Word Count: 550 words
Prompt:

Alli arrived at the crop field today unable to believe it was the second last day. She had helped out every day so far and planned to continue until the very last day, giving Liz all the help she could give. She had grown quite attached to the heifer over the days.

"I was a little worried at first that I wouldn't have much help or that there'd be a weak harvest, but it seems like I've been proven wrong!" Elizabeth explained. Today instead of getting straight to work, Alli took some time to sit and socialize with the older cow. They began by talking about their worries, based on Elizabeth's original comment.

The first thing Alli brought up was animals. How unexpected. In general, she worried about her animal friends, if they were alright, if they were fed, if they had shelter, etc. This only intensified if she knew of a bad situation. This concern makes her very protective of the animals, so much so that she pushes everything else out of the way to do what she can to ensure their safety by any means. While talking about her various buddies, she was reminded of Daffy's pesky duck, whom she worried about, but was very entertained by.

To deal with these worries, Alli typically makes sure that her friends are cared for so she doesn't need to worry if their needs are met, along with being around them. On top of that, when there isn't anything she can do, she tries to remind herself of that fact, and that it isn't a bad thing most of the time. She tries to tell herself that sometimes there's no point in worrying, but unfortunately, it only works some of the time.

Alli's other biggest worry is, of course, related to her insecurity around her horns. Because of her childhood and the bullying she endured, she still has a lot of anxiety about it. There's always a fear in the back of her mind that someone is going to make fun of her, make a rude remark, or somehow she is going to start getting bullied again despite being a grown cow and not having experienced anything like that in years. But even still she is unable to shake that worry.

Alli's best strategy to try and live with these worries is to surround herself with positive cows when she can, especially Basil, her love. Basil always reassures her that she is beautiful, especially with her horns, and makes sure she knows she is loved. Hearing things like these helps to soothe Alli's frets.

As the conversation continued, it started steering towards mistakes and being wrong. Alli explained that she doesn't often get very upset unless her animal friends are in harm's way, even if she was proven wrong. There have been numerous times when she was worried that her canine friends may be ill or injured and pushed the farmer to bring them to the vet, only to find out that they are perfectly fine. While a little embarrassed at her unnecessary urgency, she can only be relieved at her mistake. Alli can't recall a time when she became irritated by the fact that she had been wrong, she always handles these situations gracefully, accepting her mistake and moving along.

[lucas tazmily]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: Pufferheart
Buttermilk: Beth

[Micki.]

x
“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: Micki.
Buttermilk: Mia

“I’d like to help harvest some more!”
Username: Micki.
Buttermilk: Mia
Word Count: 313
Prompt:

Mia is an odd, complex combination of both carefree and high strung. She is very carefree about financial things, such as paying bills and buying clothes – after all, she has plenty of money. She’s also very carefree and spontaneous when it comes to traveling, often making spur of the moment decisions to go on road trips and backpack across Europe.

However, she is incredibly high strung when it comes to business – she runs a tight ship in her department, and she won’t tolerate anything less than perfection from her employees. She can often be found upset about poor work performance, both her own and that of her employees, and seems to be much more on the nervous side when she knows that something is not up to her standards – almost as though she’s waiting on her father to tell her she’s doing a terrible job and kick her out of the company and disown her.

Mia is also very high strung when it comes to things she creates. She often paints and sculpts as hobbies, but over the years her family has sent her pieces off to art galleries. As a result, any sort of fun has been drained from her hobbies and they’ve become very stressful and nerve-wracking, What if her art isn’t good enough to be displayed in a gallery? What if people think that she’s untalented? What if her father makes fun of her lack of success?

She most often worries about what her father thinks of her. Just the thought of disappointing him can send Mia into a tailspin. As far as dealing with her worries, well, Mia doesn’t really. It’s much more common for her to push things to the side and ignore them until she explodes, which often involves a lot of screaming and yelling at some poor soul who has minorly inconvenienced her.

[fawn-]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: fawn-
Buttermilk: Mia

[Elliad.]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: Elliad.
Buttermilk: Melody

“I’d like to help harvest some more!”
Username: Elliad.
Buttermilk: Melody
Word Count: 151 Words
Prompt:
Melody’s greatest fear was losing her family. As the heifer grew up, she gathered friends, making her own edition of a family, somewhere everyone could feel like they belong. However, she was always worrying that she’d mess it up, ruin the utopia she had created for her herd.

When Melody would get into this headspace, she would distance herself, watching over the herd from afar. She would listen for rumours and whispers to decipher the going ons of her herd without getting herself close enough to get hurt. The heifer would listen for secrets being shared, trying to work out if anyone needs her help, making sure to protect them all without getting too close – for if she were, they may get to know her too well. She feared that it would hurt more if she knew them well then she lost them than if she never knew them at all.

[certified]

“I’d like to help harvest!”
Username: certified
Buttermilk: Journee


“I’d like to help harvest some more!”
Username: certified
Buttermilk: Journee
Prompt:

Journee always worries about her daughter, Sequoia. She worries that her daughter feels obligated to stick around because she [Journee] is blind. She worries she won't find love or get to be able to go out and enjoy life like she should.
Journee lowkey feels like she's tying her daughter down and she doesn't want that.

She frequently checks in with Sequoia, making sure she knows she doesn't have to stick around, that she's able to take care of herself and do just fine. But Sequoia loves her mom, and wouldn't rather do anything else. She enjoys helping. She loves being there for her mom. She loves that her mom is her mom and best friend all in one.

Journee though, does happen to enjoy that her daughter is around, as she doesn't feel so lonely. She enjoys going to the Saturday Farmer's market and picking out fresh fruits or taking Sunday walks around the farm or even sitting down and telling her daughter stories of her calfhood, which honestly wasn't that extraordinary.

Journee handles her worries by communication. Cries it out first, but will talk to her daughter about how she feels. It's not always easy though. She has a hard time putting the right words together and also worries about hurting Sequoia's feelings by saying something that she may take personally, so she definitely has to think out what she wants to say.
They have a pretty good relationship though, and Sequoia is more than understanding of her mom. She tends not to take things too personally, like her mother thinks she may.

265 WC