It's raining outside, all the sheep are indoors, everything is quiet, time I think to instanciate in the forest.

I wake and go for a stroll to the water fountain. What will I be today?

A bunny! Let's take a shower.



Hey there's another bunny! Let's go and say hello.



This one does not have the soulmark. Cute company, sure, but I am unlikely to have any deep interaction here.



I visit the waterfall and try on a red pelt. Looks nice with these horns. But everything looks nice with these horns.



Oh hey I never noticed these little flies round the gravestones before!



I thought I noticed some movement but it was this deer sitting down to rest, best not disturb them then. Especially with those scary red antlers.



Passed a deer and they partially dematerialised. Are those... your eyeballs?



I always enjoy seeing a pile of glowing deer all sleeping together all cwtshed up. ("Cwtsh" is a lovely Welsh word that can mean "a hug" and also "a snug, safe space" and when applied to people the feeling is like "physical closeness in a comfortable shared protective space").

It is a lovely word, and a lovely thing to see.



It was quiet, so I went to sit on the little hill for a while. Glancing at my deer in repose I saw motion and stood to investigate and hey it was Eris!

Instantiated thinking I'd likely have a quiet stroll again only to find the place full of active deer.

So nice to see familiar others, Eris, Saater, Widmung, and others I have yet to know well.





Much frolicking ensued, and although my frame rate decreased, my happiness increased proportionately, to be in such nice company. Somebody was trying to get all orthogonal to reality here it seems, disappearing into the floor of the forest haha



Much glowing gregariousness.



I liked it when you all lined up there, I could take a nice group screenshot of you all



Let's all rub on the same tree at once



All aglow, and another deer taking a dive into the forest floor. (The peculiar things you can do to the animations are part of the way you communicate in here, it seems).



Two deer butts sticking out of the tree lol



Such a lovely time hanging out with you all. Thank you for spending time with the ox-deer-ram-thing <3



Goodnight, and I will see you all again soon <3

I instantiate for my evening stroll. Quiet tonight, deer are sleeping, but that's fine, it's still pleasantly chill to be here.

I commence existence in what I think is close to my currently appropriate form. I like the ram horns, I like the light grey pelt, and the real deer mask is also cool, even if it doesn't match my pelt. And I think the species mixture suits me, being a human whose primary "influential animal" has always been an ox, being a deer that's part sheep.

Yes, that's me.



I've given the forest most of my monitor tonight, which is nice, as I can get more detailed screenshots. Deer are sleeping, and as I walk around I take a good look at them, and a picture too, as it will help me to learn the pictos of everyone. I hope they don't mind if I stand quietly by to have a look.

These guys are nearly always asleep here by the ruins. That swirly red and black pelt is very striking.



The butterfly set is also very distinctive. I like the variance in the different sets. Perhaps ram horns aren't that divergent after all.



The skull mask is one I have admired before, and actually evokes a Welsh traditional costume called the Mari Lwyd in which a dancer using a horse skull mask features. It reminds me of the first time I saw Widmung.



The skeleton pelt is nice too. I guess that one only gets allocated at Haloween.

Thought I'd go for my usual night stroll, see if anyone's around.

Yeah I like these horns. I don't think I can put flowers on them though but they do look kinda cool.



Oh hey I'm not alone! Good evening/temporal greeting appropriate to your timezone!



there's more? Hi there!



actually now that more deer awake than I've ever seen! Hey everyone, lovely to see you all! Saater, always great to see you! Is that Eris over there too? And more pictos than I know, I'm going to have to be looking those up...



Hey Widmung, lovely to see you too! How cool is this seeing so many deer here!

Frolicking ensues, much to my delight.

At one point I stopped to take a screenshot and everything got a bit laggy and I managed to lose everyone and had to run around the whole forest until I found you all again. Daft ox. Haha. I was so pleased to get back to you all.



And I got utterly blasted with forest magic again and again



I got to try a bunch of cool new looks.



BLAM! Hit with the glow again. This is so much fun



Then we all had a bit of a dance. Forest rave haha!



During all this I am absolutely grinning like a bastard, I should add.

How cool does Saater look here with the light coming from their antlers. Look at that!



At times everyone was just glowing. It was quite magical!



I really didn't expect to have so much company. I never have before and it was lovely!

"it's super late" I thought, "I should go to bed" I thought, but I just wanted to see a bit of forest..

for a while I trotted around and everyone was asleep (having im-batted myself)

and then you were there, Saater and Widmung together, so lovely to see the two friends together and to run around with them!

Got a bunch of magic cast on me, I am starting to get an idea of what I want my deer to end up looking like...

Sorry I didn't stay longer but it really is super late here.

But so happy to see you two!



(ah yes now I remember how to put images in, it's been a while since I've touched an img src tag haha)

Off to bed with a big smile. Looking forward to seeing you again and thanks for the frolics!

I have had A Day today, a couple of utterly bizarre and stressful things happened, one of them necessitating calling out the emergency vet. I need some deer time.

I come into existence and... um...

https://imgur.com/ZW8ivoL

I'm a bat.

https://imgur.com/dmYcF4p

Hey guys, nice to see you, I'm up here, being a bat!

https://imgur.com/PXOqE3q

I'll go to the water fountain, inside the mushrooms there magic wears off, perhaps that'll make me a deer again.

https://imgur.com/KZILRKK

YES! Deer. Posh new antlers and all.

I'm sure now when I leave here I'll be a perfectly normal...

https://imgur.com/zRudk07

BAT. I'm still a bat.

Perhaps I can pray the bat away?

https://imgur.com/1u18NJI

Nope! Bats can't pray!

Oh HEY IT's SAATER! I am so happy to see you! I'm over here, being a bat, please excuse my bat-ness!

https://imgur.com/BJbdaqf

We run around and frolic (as best as I can frolic, being a bat). Now I am really smiling despite being a bat.

We head to the drinking fountain and I am happy to be able to finally greet Saater in my deer form.

https://imgur.com/Z11jFZu

We drink the water and I come up frog, twice. Saater looks nicer as a fluffy bunny.

https://imgur.com/d7MIs65

And their deer form always looks super cool too.

https://imgur.com/KtWJTP7

I shall have to think about what I want my deer form to look like too, now that I am grown. Hey, maybe this time when I leave the circle I will be...

Nope, still bat

https://imgur.com/0XKvg1s

And after a little more frolicking I headed back to the little hill to sleep. Thank you Saater for being there exactly when I needed just to run, frolic and hang out with another deer in the forest (or flap, at least, being as I was a bat).

Your company was very much appreciated, and now I can go to bed with a smile on my face after a rough day.

https://imgur.com/zTfhvfU

Came into existence on the little hill, once again I'm intersecting with someone else, sorry!

And oh, I'm a proper stag now!

https://imgur.com/ZeAK8UW

Look at my antlers!

https://imgur.com/dRiOarT

Last night I tried to come here but I guess the server was down, there was no connection and the forest was empty. But tonight everyone's here again and I met someone who was awake.

https://imgur.com/4qGYOLf

They cast a bunch of magic on me and now it doesn't wear off!

https://imgur.com/ORl3wgY

There were other deer around too, I thought this was Saater from the pelt but that's not their glyph I don't think. There was a faun running around at some point too but I didn't get to see them up close.

https://imgur.com/HQiTDtx

We had a bunch of fun, there was a lot of running and frolicking.

https://imgur.com/TI4xtnN

Managed to get another mid-leap selfie.

https://imgur.com/4bYfic1

Tried on the red pelt myself!

https://imgur.com/MfCdt0i

I don't think I've seen anyone who's a mini-deer like this before. I guess that's a new mode since I was here long ago. Looks cool!

https://imgur.com/nC9y3Hs

Investigating the rock structures.

https://imgur.com/1fyuzbf

Here we look like one long deer intersecting a tree haha

https://imgur.com/0eYvWRE

Resting for a few moments.

https://imgur.com/BsRAPQf

It's good to see a bunch of deer around.

https://imgur.com/6ILW6ZS

We went to the water fountain where I became a frog and they were a crow.

https://imgur.com/wvmVsSi

We tried a second time and they were a bunny and I was... a frog again lol.

They looked way cuter than me.

https://imgur.com/Uro0Wb0

Then it was time for me to head back to the little hill, to sleep. My companion cast some cool antlers on me, which I can retain now that I am grown up!

https://imgur.com/2Hl5AL7

Thank you for spending time playing with me! It has made my first day as a grown stag a lot of fun <3

Time to chill on a Friday night so I thought I'd take a walk.

I came into existence snuggled up to another deer who was already on the hill! It made for a pretty picture but I hope they didn't think I was being inappropriately familiar.

https://imgur.com/UAT6GGy

what a pretty configuration they have!

https://imgur.com/ruNKkv1

I met another deer who was awake, and we exchanged hellos and pleasantries (at least I hope all mine were pleasantries, I still haven't fully mastered all the postures yet and I don't want to accidentally send one that's insulting).

https://imgur.com/66mf05S

I stopped at the water fountain for a bit and tried out the bindings on my f-keys in a place where I wasn't near any other deer and where I therefore couldn't either accidentally upset them or randomly turn them into something by pressing the wrong button. At least now I know how to do a greeting-bow without having to fiddle with the icon menu.

Suddenly a flower that looked like an opium poppy appeared out of nowhere. Its stem passed through my body, impaling me to the bottom of the pond. Red particle sparkles emitted from the top of the flower.

If this'd happened while I was at work on a Tuesday it would have really freaked me out, and probably hurt quite a bit too. But here, in the Forest, it wasn't so alarming. Weird things tend to happen around this fountain, I have noticed, even if you don't drink the water. Once a statue fell out of the sky here. Once I saw a fish swimming through the air.

I managed to take a picture, and the flower was gone afterwards, and I was unharmed.

https://imgur.com/KjhmMam

Some places are particularly pretty; I like the places where I can almost lose myself in the flowers. These graphics may be ancient but there is still a real beauty in the landscape. You can tell it was put together by artists.

I came into existence today to find it was foggy in the forest.

https://imgur.com/RkDxlNa

I dallied in the ruins a bit, poking around. Looked into the pit here, although it seemed a bit scary. There's someone asleep here.

https://imgur.com/FtondlJ

And these guys are often sleeping here when I exist. I guess we all have our own perception of time, here. My evening walk time is nap time for many. Most, tonight, it seems.

https://imgur.com/uyaD2DF

I need some of those blue flowers for my antlers. Oh, wait. I don't have any antlers yet. I guess my ears will have to do.

https://imgur.com/G3VjB6J

The forest looks different in the fog. Like the trees are floating. I don't remember there being as much weather here, in my past existence.

https://imgur.com/EMc4Rzv

The light makes everything look different, in the fog.

https://imgur.com/96EyB8Q

Oh hey I met you the other night, I love your horns and pelt! Nice to see you again!

https://imgur.com/pIkT9b4

I should take a walk around and look at some of the other deer who have found themselves here. I'm shy, I'll try to be quiet, I don't want to seem like I'm nosy.

Oh I don't think I've ever seen anyone with a null glyph before!

https://imgur.com/KHTYqA6

There's a couple of deer by the waterfall. Let me just get a bit closer so I can see their glyphs. I should learn people's glyphs.

https://imgur.com/5vBOPGt

AAH I woke you up I'm sorry I'm sorry

https://imgur.com/7nTvkL8

But you were kind and polite and we exchanged pleasantries. It was nice to meet you .

The mist certainly lends a different vibe to the place

https://imgur.com/XRSerNF

I guess everyone finds a favourite spot to sleep, just as I do on the little hill near the ruins.

https://imgur.com/GQkheNl

Amongst the blue flowers is not a bad place for it.

https://imgur.com/IN5M1fn

Quiet night tonight.

I thought I'd try taking some panoramic views of my walk in the Forest this evening.

https://imgur.com/a/0kKnwQq

Asleep on the little hill. I like how you can see all the distant shafts of light shining down.

https://imgur.com/a/uDj03jR

Awake! Time to have a wander.

https://imgur.com/a/uCmV4wf

Always good to spend some time sitting amongst the flowers.

https://imgur.com/mPjt2mq

Oh hey I can climb up here!

https://imgur.com/eLBgEsK

Wait did I just turn into a frog??

https://imgur.com/mnf8qvu

what happens if I pray here? And wait is that another new fawn?

https://imgur.com/WKtEdzg

I L L U M I N A T U S

https://imgur.com/NSHTzfS

Oh hi, nice to meet you! Excuse me trippin' balls back there!

https://imgur.com/lExx06B

Yay, I met someone else new! I love those horns and that fancy pelt! Very handsome!

https://imgur.com/DnfhtMz

Am I inside the tree, or is the tree inside me?

https://imgur.com/cjVm48W

We ran around in dizzy circles! Thank you for taking time to play with me!

https://imgur.com/l2XLAnD

Was about to head off to sleep but then I bumped into Saater! Yay! So happy to see them again!

https://imgur.com/2psUqNq

We ran around like fools leaping and running and Saater cast new horns on me. I like these ones!

https://imgur.com/32BCr9j

These antlers are nice too. Look at me all standing up on my back hooves like I'm a big stag lol

https://imgur.com/52X6UCN

I had a good time. It was nice to meet some new deer and especially nice to see Saater again!

https://imgur.com/VK2EGWT

Good night! I hope I'll see you again soon!