Telling them a story told by flora

[punchtheflowers]

Who: COMPLETELY OPEN
What: Good old gardening fun
Where: Greenhouse and gardens
When: Sept 5th to 12th
Warnings: Well, anything can happen. But try to be nice to the plants

Comments

Re: EVERY NIGHT.

[voice_of_animus]

Caim even went to the greenhouse at night. If anything, Caim actually spent very little time in his room. He was too busy trying to acquaint himself with everything. Not necessarily people, but places. Locations were important. People were too, of course, but only in the perspective that he had two categories: those who weren't threats, and those who needed to be killed

[miss_dreavus]

Blacky's run-in with Erika hadn't stopped her from sneaking in at night to pilfer the berries. It did, however, inspire her to replant as many as she ate, even going so far as to send other people to purchase rare varieties from specialty markets in the city to populate the greenhouse with. As satisfying as it was, it also seemed to be some twisted dark joke; she was a dead thing creating new life.

After she'd finished snacking for the night, she began her round to the storage shelves for a spade... and paused.

I'm not alone, she realized, something that she hadn't noticed when Erika caught her. An unfamiliar presence more urgently drew attention than a friendly one. She doubted she was in any danger-- it was probably some new student or teacher or even a new plant-- but she wanted to gain the upper hand anyway.

Just like that, the woman vanished.

[voice_of_animus]

That one he hadn't been expecting. Caim knew he was the slightest bit mentally lacking upstairs. He knew it. How could have ever doubted it? He saw things that normal people shouldn't have seen. He endured things that normal people would have been instantly broken by. He... Well. To say his mentality didn't affect his behaviour was a bit of a falsehood.

So when Blacky disappeared, he'd wondered briefly if he'd simply created her. He wasn't sure how, because she certainly wasn't the sort of woman his mind would have made. But if she hadn't been real... Well, that just wasn't possible. He still had one of the spicy berries. And it still had a bite out of it. Oh, the things one could learn from the bite marks in fruit...

Cautiously, he edged himself out of his hiding place and drew up a hand to fix his hair. Then he took a closer look at the berry he had found before. No. She had to be real. He was pretty sure she was. Fairly sure. But if that were the case, where had she even disappeared to?

[miss_dreavus]

If Blacky were wise, she would have studied Caim to figure out what kind of person he was before sneaking up on him. But she always was a little on the impulsive side. Besides, her reasoning was that this was a form of study. She wanted to see how easily startled he was for future reference.

She rematerialized behind him, silent and unbreathing... until she shrieked.

[voice_of_animus]

If she'd stayed quiet, it probably wouldn't have done anything, but no. She had to shriek and considering how silent it'd been in the greenhouse up to that moment, Caim did jump, and immediately tried to put a clamp down around it. Just to make it not seem quite as large as it was. Never mind that the spicy berry he'd been holding just went flying elsewhere.

Then he whirled around and looked at her for a good period of time. Supremely unamused, he wrote in his notepad and held it up.

"That wasn't nice."

[miss_dreavus]

Try as he might to tone down his reaction, Blacky could still taste his fear in that moment, and a shiver of pleasure ran down her spine as she drank it in. No matter how many sweet berries she scarfed down, had been too long since a meal that satisfying. Was her necklace glowing for a second there?

She raised an eyebrow as he wrote, but the reason became self-evident as he held it up. A mute, hm? That was interesting. Also a little disappointing, because she could never aspire to get a scream out of him. Sigh!

"I'm sure stalking people isn't very nice, either. Just how long have you been in here?"

[voice_of_animus]

He scrunched his face up a bit and shook his head. Stalking. He wasn't stalking anyone. He couldn't think of anyone he wanted to stalk. At least, not yet. He doubted he was going to either. If he was going to kill someone, there was no sense in stalking. He was just going to lift his sword and end it there.

There was no need to prolong the inevitable.

"I wasn't stalking," he argued. "I come here to get a better grasp of the people."

[miss_dreavus]

"The best way to do that is with a little interaction." She stalked in a slow, tight circle around Caim, looking him over appraisingly. He actually seemed a little intimidating to her, now that she got a good look at him. But there was something else, too. Something about the way he carried himself, and the look of his eyes that spoke of innocence long gone. If he dyed his hair a platinum blonde...

She abandoned that train of thought then and there.

[voice_of_animus]

Initially he began to turn the moment she started circling him. Then he found himself pausing. There was no logic in constantly turning around, except making himself dizzy. But there was no way to escape the rather odd sensation he got from it. She circled him like he was her prey. He knew he was being analysed. And he didn't much care.

"Mayhap." Then with the slightest lilt of the head he waited for her to cross before him again as his eyes rested on her face. She was fairly small in comparison to him, wasn't she? "And what sort of magic causes a woman to vanish in thin air?"

[miss_dreavus]

She stopped again in front of him, if only because it was easier to read if the notebook was conveniently right in front of her.

"There's nothing terribly magical about death, is there?"

[voice_of_animus]

He stopped to think about that. He saw some pretty interesting things about death that literally could have been contrived as being quite magical. His head inclined briefly and then lifted again when he was done writing.

"Depends on how you die."

[miss_dreavus]

"I suppose that's true enough." She shook her head with a rueful smirk, her wavy hair falling about her shoulders. "Nothing special about mine except that I didn't pass on."

Blacky tilted her head forward slightly but kept her gaze up, trying to maintain a dominant position despite being shorter. "I should ask your name at this point."

[voice_of_animus]

Back in his home, if they didn't pass on, they became demons. And if this woman was a demon, she was certainly one of the more pretty demons he'd ever seen. Caim's insides didn't turn at the sight of a woman, however. He'd been so hardened over time that it was almost near impossible to touch him.

He was almost relieved when she implied the request for his name. It meant he didn't have to say anything about her potentially being the kind of demon that could suck out his soul with a mere smile.

"Caim. And you?"

[miss_dreavus]

Some men might testify that she HAD left them a soulless husk. Hohoho.

"Caim," she read aloud, to better remember the name. "I'm Blacky. A teacher at this school." The introduction was automatic by now, something she'd done dozens of times this year alone. How embarrassing it would be if she had to introduce herself to some non-student somewhere out in the city. "So what brings you here, besides being a wallflower?"

[voice_of_animus]

He nodded as she read it, just confirming that she said it right. As long as she wasn't calling him 'Came'. He listened as she gave her name and nodded along. In fact, Caim spent a lot of his time nodding or shaking his head. That sort of came with the mute territory.

So she was a teacher. Not that he was going to have her for any classes since he wasn't a student, but at least he had an idea of who she was. At her question, he took a few moments to write.

"Just watching the people come in and leave. This is a very popular place, evidently."

Which implied that he'd been sticking around for at least two or three days on a regular basis.

[miss_dreavus]

She was totally calling him Came.

She raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing him. "So you've been here quite a while, I take it." Which meant there had been ample time for him to watch her make of pig of herself before she got to make a proper first impression. Fantastic. If only she'd caught on to him a little sooner. Now she just felt like a fool.

At least she couldn't get fat.