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 Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:41 pm
Come one, come all, to Friendly Ranch Traveling Petting Zoo and Pony Rides!
Our clean and friendly animals will be a hit with kids – spice up any company picnic, family reunion, birthday party or church nativity scene with our animals and services!
Coming to you from beautiful Colorado, Friendly Ranch Petting Zoo and Pony Rides offers domestic and exotic breeds of animals. This immersive hands-on experience suits all ages. See donkeys, ponies, llamas, rabbits and more! Introducing Donkey and Pony rides for the little ones! The most popular traveling zoo in the county! Reserve today for our flat rate!
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:43 pm
Backstory Many of us have experienced the childhood rite of the petting zoo, for better or for worse. Getting bucked from a pony, butted by a donkey, peed on by the animal you’re holding, falling in the dirt, and finally leaving exhausted and covered in dirt merely scratch the surface of the wonderment of the ephemeral petting zoo. This roleplay flips this experience, putting the characters in the positions of the animals as they deal with wriggling humans day by day. The Friendly Ranch Traveling Petting Zoo This particular zoo is a travelling petting zoo, which is located (typically) in Eastern Colorado. The current time of year is May – the rainy season is beginning to come to a close, leaving the weather perfect for uppity folks to purchase use of a petting zoo. The owner of the zoo, Jim Hiddleman, is more concerned with profit and is therefore the most successful (and perhaps most infamous) animal-related businessman in the county. He keeps the staff small to cut costs, and looks for every opportunity to make a buck. While his daughter Cindy typically keeps him in line as far as the animals are concerned (she is a veterinarian by trade, and cares for the welfare of the animals), he has been known to sneakily trade his stock and do deals that are highly questionable in the petting zoo world. The zoo is always on the move, setting up in places from rural farms, upper-class mansions to suburban parking lots. Simple portable fences are employed to section off the animals, and a pony carousel is used for pony and donkey rides. The Animals There should be about 20-30 animals in the petting zoo at a time. The large animals include miniature donkeys, ponies, llamas, pot-bellied pigs and sheep and goats, while small animals include an entourage of chickens, ducks and rabbits. I will also accept other types of animals, such as exotic breeds, if people are interested in roleplaying them, but won’t include them just yet for simplicity’s sake. Characters may, of course, play animals that are not officially in the petting zoo, such as vermin or any relevant animal that may interact with the zoo.
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 3:44 pm
Rules/Guidelines: I am rebooting my previous “minimalistic” roleplay, which took place in the kitchen and featured both animal and inanimate characters. This has similar roots, but is clearly quite a different roleplay! The rules have therefore changed. Check them out below! 1. In “Kitchen”, there was a post limit of two sentences. I will not be enforcing a post limit in this roleplay due to the restriction causing posting issues, but I do still highly suggest and entreat short posts to keep in spirit with the quick and lively pace of the roleplay. Aim for a single paragraph. 2. Please play as an animal character, though you may use a human as an “NPC” sort of character, especially when dealing with screaming children. You may play more than one character as long as you can handle it! 3. This roleplay should have a light, PG-feel to it. There can be harrowing moments, but I’d prefer this roleplay to follow a bouncier, Disney-feel than becoming George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Use your best judgement! 4. Disney-logic applies to animal communication: the animals can chat with other animals, and they can understand human language, but humans cannot understand animal “speech”. 5. Other than the short-post suggestion, regular RP guidelines (don’t be a jerk, no godmoding, always give Sypon pastries) apply. You know the drill!
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:07 pm
Profile Information: Profiles should be submitted to the Profile Thread in the Workshop section of The Grotto. Keeping with the short-post theme of the roleplay, make sure that you keep your profile light! For appearance, temperament and other I do not expect or suggest lengthy descriptions of your character.
[size=11][b]Username:[/b] Your name here!
[b]Name:[/b] Include nicknames if relevant
[b]Species:[/b] Specify the particular breed if relevant
[b]Age:[/b] Because animals age differently relative to one another, I suggest using universal words to describe them. (eg: baby, youth, young adult, adult, old codger, senile, etc.) This field is fairly loose.
[b]Gender:[/b] Your character’s gender here!
[b]Temperament:[/b] Use up to 5 adjectives to describe your animal.
[b]Appearance:[/b] This is typically where you put markings, fur length, or any particularly interesting facts about your animal that would set them apart from others of their species.
[b]Other:[/b] Any other relevant information that you must share with the class.
[/size]
Characters:Humans (Sypon):Jim - Owner of Friendly Ranch Cindy - Jim's daughter; animal care specialist Animals in Petting Zoo:Baron, Shetland Pony (Sypon) Billy the Kid, Goat (Lobo-chan) Maurice, Sheep (Katanari) Periwinkle, Pig (Micillia) Ricardo, Llama (Rock_hard_yo) Miscellaneous Animals:Bootrags, Rat (Katanari)
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 4:59 pm
Reserved for future use.
The roleplay is now open!
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Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:48 pm
Welcome to the Friendly Ranch!
It was hardly noon and the park already smelled like animal waste and hay bales. The first gig of the week was off with a bang - a company picnic in Ruby Park.
Jim was striding about with the crew of Friendly Ranch, setting up fences in rapid time. Only a half hour until the MicroCorp company picnic-- the annual cash cow (no pun intended) for Jim Hiddleman's pride and joy. The caterers were sure to be there shortly, so the crew had to stake their claim first before they were forced way back into the boonies.
The gaudy trailers that flashed the petting zoo's name were littered about the concrete parking lot. There was a barbecue area that the food station was to be set up to the North, and in a broad grassy patch to the East, the petting zoo was to be set up. With the fences now erected and labeled for each particular animal species, the crew began to unload the animals from their trailers.
--
"This is it, ladies and gentlemen!" barked Baron, trotting out of the pony trailer. "Look sharp! Don't scuff your hooves now,"
Baron looked particularly bushy-tailed today. He lumbered along, lead by a handler.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:36 am
"Oh my, oh my... Not so quickly now!" Maurice gasped, as she was bustled down the ramp exiting the trailer. Sheep were pressed against her on every side, eager to be out in the open air. Though she was of a similar mind, there was no need to rush.
"Dearie me, Baron!" She called, over the rabble of eager animals. "Everyone is so excited today! But do we have to hurry so?"
As she carefully edged down the ramp, Bootrags watched from above, nose and whiskers set a-twitch by some deliciously fascinating smells. He would have to investigate later; for now there was his friends to look after. He scampered down the trailer, to find some convenient nook that offered more shade and less threat of aerial attack.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:49 am
Baron flicked a lock of his dappled white mane out of his eyes with a toss of his head, and looked at Maurice. "Got to make a good first impression, you know! Hup! It's to be expected!"
He hesitated outside of the pony pen, waiting for the sheep and goats to filter into their larger enclosure and waiting like a sentinel, making sure that they were orderly.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 6:10 am
"Oh boy oh boy oh boy!" Billy hurried to get into the pen before any of the others, sometimes forcing her way over another goat. Once in the pen, she circled the fence before finally settling down.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:30 am
"Hey!" Baron huffed, striking his hooves in the dirt. "Order! Order, now! Tch!" He looked at Billy sideways as he turned to go into the pen. "Kids!"
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Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 10:10 pm
"I suppose," Maurice said reluctantly, at last clearing the ramp. She tested the grass under her hoof. It was plush with no secret stones to lodge in her toes. Satisfied, she wandered to a quiet side of the pen, moving at her own leisurely pace of course, before flopping down, with her legs curled beneath her fluffy form. "Yes, do as the Baron says dear," she said, nodding to herself. You'll sprain a leg prancing around like that. Oh, I do hope it doesn't rain," she added with a wary glance at the sky.
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 5:33 pm
Periwinkle snorked as the handlers ushered her and her siblings out onto the green grass. Pig trotters stomped, and snouts went to work exploring the new are.
"I sure hope it does rain Maurice! More mud is merrier!" oinked Periwinkle as she rolled in the grass.
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Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 6:41 pm
Billy skipped away when Baron huffed at her, laughing.
"You're no fun, Baron. Lighten up."
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Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 11:19 pm
"I say," Baron whinnied, padding the ground in his enclosure. "I certainly have fun -- not the kind you kids do. I mean, not exclusively to goats that is," flustered, he reared slightly to take a couple of laps around the pen to cool down.
In odd timing with Periwinkle's musings, a slurry of fluffy clouds appeared over the horizon. It was anyone's guess if a sprinkle was to happen (the smells in the air weren't particularly telling), though the humans hoped for and expected the best. The zoo was nearly set up -- the catering van rolled into sight.
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Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 3:23 pm
Maurice sighed despairingly. The pigs were always eager for more rain so long as it meant more mud to roll around in. Those creatures had the strangest sense! "Well, perhaps only a light sprinkle," the ewe mused.
Bootrags scampered along the bottom of a fence. He paused briefly to regard the sky and then hopped up onto one of the lower rungs. "With any luck you'll be right." He said then turned to address the pony. "Baron, sir. The van's arrived and a crowd is beginning to gather. Looks like you'll have a good line of visitors today."
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