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: 6th, mid-morning.

[voice_of_animus]

Caim never really knew what to expect with those who visited the greenhouse. Then again, he never really knew what to expect with much of anyone and pretty soon that was going to become a problem. Riley had proven himself useful, and so had a few others, but Caerleon's prince could not so easily determine the benefits he would obtain from others with a simple conversation.

No, it would take more than that, and unfortunately he had so little patience, that he wasn't sure how effective it was going to be.

That and so much more had filtered through his mind. It all came to a halt when he saw Ai. And as quietly as he could manage, which was by no means very loud at all, he carefully scooted to hide in a group of nearby plants to watch her. Although he really had absolutely no idea what she was even doing there. Surely stranger people would come by later, however, and do stranger things.

Staring at something never hurt someone. Except when one stared at the sun. Even his mother had told him such a reckless action would render him blind

[violetcandypop]

Ai certainly didn't notice the man amidst the plants. She continued to quietly admire the unplucked Pikmin. She wondered what their faces were like, hidden under the ground from her.

[voice_of_animus]

When he hadn't seen her move, he moved out of the foliage and stood behind her rather quietly. He could afford to sit and simply wait. Well, stand in this case. Just to see her reaction when she finally realised he was there. And to understand what it was she was looking at.

Wanting to understand most things was certain to become his downfall, he believed.

[violetcandypop]

Ai felt the sensation that one gets when they're being watched for the first time. She couldn't help but peer over her shoulder after a moment or two of trying to ignore it. To her surprise, there really was someone watching.

Initially, she looked a little surprised. Once she got a good look at who it was, though, she smiled sweetly and waved. "Hello, Caim the standard human."

[voice_of_animus]

She wasn't afraid at all. Instead, she knew very well who he was and when she acknowledged him, he offered a very low and respectful nod. He wrote briefly.

"Hello, Ai the Pikmin."

Even if he didn't actually know what a Pikmin was in the first place. Then he knelt down beside her to see what she was looking at. This, the action of sitting with her, was almost foreign.

"What is it that you're looking at?"

[violetcandypop]

Ai waited patiently as Caim scribbled in his notebook. She read his note slowly, then smiled again. He knew who she was! After the second note, Ai turned her attention back to the plants.

"These are Pikmin!" she replied, pinching one of the leaves. Ai's affectionate gesture caused the leaf to wriggle slightly, which in turn caused a third smile to blossom on her face. "I don't know who's they are, though. I want to pick them very badly."

She shot Caim a concerned look.

[voice_of_animus]

He leaned over to get a better look at the plants. Ah... So Pikmin were actually plants. Which... meant...

The prince looked over to Ai and studied her for a few moments. But she didn't look like a plant at-- Oh, wait. There was a leaf in her hair. Never mind. He supposed he could sort of understand why she was a plant. Sort of. Except not really.

He reached over to her hair and lightly tapped at the leaf adorning her longer locks, "You are a plant? Like these ones here."

[violetcandypop]

Ai wiggled and smiled as if she had just been tickled when Caim touched the leaf. She nodded and replied, "Yes. I told you, didn't I? I learned how to be a human at school." Rather proud of herself for learning such an impressive skill, she smiled wider.

"I grew up in a garden like this with my brothers and sisters." She paused for a moment, then asked, "Do you know my sister Vianca? She's a white Pikmin."

[voice_of_animus]

He nodded slowly, as though he was still piecing the things together. Of course she'd said as much, but it was one thing to see her plant kind with her as a human... form beside him. Just what kind of academy was this anyway? Someone had said it was prestigious, but he couldn't remember who it was off the top of his head.

So a prestigious academy taught plants how to become humans. And just how many plants had been picked in Caerleon for nightly dinners and been stripped of life? He shook his head quickly to clear the thoughts. There couldn't have been any Pikmin back home. It just wasn't possible.

Then he blinked and nodded.

"Yes. She was not one for many words. Akin to me."

He flipped through his notepad and found the picture he sketched of Vianca. It still wasn't pristine, but Caim certainly had a knack for the visual arts, it seemed.

[violetcandypop]

Her face completely lit up when she saw Caim's drawing of Vianca. "Yes!" Ai shouted excitedly, "That's my sister, Vianca!" She resisted the urge to reach out and grab his notepad; he might not like that...

When she calmed down a little, she nodded back. "Yes, she's a little quiet. She spends a lot of time at the library, reading."

[voice_of_animus]

He tried not to cringe. By the Goddess, children were sometimes so unruly and loud. But at least he didn't have her directly in his ear. The last thing he needed was to lose his hearing as well.

But as Ai talked about Vianca, he was careful to pay attention. The white Pikmin - as it were - was certainly a girl of few words, and fewer than Caim. That alone intrigued him.

"Reading."

Then he flipped to a new page. "You two are very different, then."

[violetcandypop]

Ai nodded. They were very different.

"Yes. But we are both Pikmin," she replied. "Just like humans, Pikmin have very different personal-i-ties."

[voice_of_animus]

Caim was beginning to think everything had a different personality, whether it was a book, a plant, the Pokémon Dana had said were more or less captives to the humans, and so on and so forth. So Caim made the safe assumption that if it was living, it probably had a personality, even if it was rooted to the ground. But again, that was all conjecture.

He stared at Ai for a time and then he nodded. "I see. You would have these personality differences, even if not in the form of a human, correct?"

[violetcandypop]

"That's right," Ai replied. "I've always been afraid of flying, I've always liked music, and I've always been loud, too. My sisters and brothers told me so, anyway."

She thought. Had Vianca always liked reading? It'd be hard to read a big book in Pikmin form, she decided...

[voice_of_animus]

Caim nodded again as he listened to her. So she was afraid of flying, which he supposed any distant possibility of giving her a ride on Angelus was out of the question. (To be perfectly fair, Caim thought it entirely likely that the red dragon wasn't going to allow anyone to mount her other than her pact partner.) And she liked music, which briefly made him think of Inuart.

Except Ai was nothing like that man. She didn't appear selfish or idiotic in the least. In fact, she sounded rather bright. She was talkative and cheerful, kind and polite, enthusiastic and charming. A bit like Furiae, he supposed, though they didn't look at all similar.

"How else should one be able to hear you unless you are loud?" While Caim may have thought children were meant to be seen and not heard, he seemed to have a degree of understanding. After all, he'd caused much ruckus in his past.

[violetcandypop]

Ai couldn't help but grin at Caim's reply. She covered her smile with both her hands, peeking back at Caim over her fingertips. She nodded, completely agreeing with him. "Exactly!" she replied from behind her hands.

"What things do you like, Caim? Do you like to draw too?" she asked. The sketch of Vianca that Caim had shown her earlier was still exciting to her. "I like to draw."