Difference between revisions of "4928/Greenhouse 73"

Latest revision as of 04:29, 24 December 2016

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Greenhouse 73, it's... a pretty big greenhouse, this one was largely darkened at the moment, as opposed to the rest that had much brighter lighting. There was light in the room, though. That was for sure. There were a few mixed plants that were already prepared and planted in the greenhouse, and sprinkled among them were several with bulb-like buds that gave off a subtle glow, likely a plant that grows in places of complete darkness.

     Speaking of glowing things in the darkness, Nasa was nearby the entrance to the greenhouse, her purple eyes glowing faintly in the darkness and making it obvious where she was -- at least until Heinkel's night vision settled in at any rate. She seemed to be carrying a large basket which gave off a vaguely pleasant scent, some sort of seasoned meat, and presumably some sort of drink! ... Also sprouts. Lots of sprouts.

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  Even to someone who had been to Njorun Station, the sheer breadth of scale displayed by Ad Coelum is staggering. The yields from Res Communis are contributed toward an equally staggering breadth of relief efforts. Accordingly, its manufactories and agricultural facilities seem like they go on forever. They don't, but the sheer scale of the ship's production wing is an excellent means by which to put one's place in the cosmos into perspective.

  Although Heinkel Wolfe had taken her battered antique German military motorcycle to reach the ship itself, she had parked it in the appropriate facilities and used the bullet train to reach the growing facilities.

  Thus it is that heavy bootsteps announce the priest's arrival. Heinkel Wolfe is a tall individual, an inch shy of six feet, with just enough solidity to her to look intimidating in her cassock-like coat, starched white collar stark against the black. Her features are extremely androgynous, as much so as her voice, and her eyes are hidden completely by round sunglasses, designed more like optical shields than glasses; they prevent any light or visibility from reaching the eyes.

  Dangling on a leather thong around her neck is a plain iron cross, large enough to draw attention to itself, but not so large as to be gaudy or to get in the way.

  The coat is buttoned closed, but as she approaches Greenhouse 73, she starts undoing buttons. It's warmer in here than the wintry weather of Rome; it won't hurt to wear the coat open. It's a very nice coat, in all fairness. Under it, she's wearing a simple but classy-looking black vest; the inside lining of the coat is, in the bright lights, actually a very deep violet. Subtle gold piping on its hems lend it a little elegance.

  So it is that the priest approaches, the beads of a rosary dangling from her hands. She's murmuring something as she walks, and once she gets close enough to see the rosary, she lifts it and presses the cross on it to her lips, tucking it back into a pocket. There might even be a faint hint of approval at the dimmer lights. Curiously, there's no adjustment period for her night vision -- she moves confidently and steps with sureness.

  One hand is lifted toward the drow with the glowing eyes. "Guten tag!" the priest calls. Her voice is as androgynous as her appearance. It's genuinely difficult to say with certainty whether it's a feminine man or a masculine woman, unless Nasa can tell by scent or aura or something non-standard. Heinkel still manages a half-smile, especially at the sight of the basket. Dinner sounds good, because she realises she hasn't eaten since breakfast.

  "Ah, danke. I didn't bring you anything, unfortunately." Heinkel shrugs a little helplessly. "I'll just haf to make it up to you, if you come to Ferdinand Luke's. Ah, vhat ist that? I don't eat meat very often at all, but it smells nice."

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Yep. Heinkel is a very confusing looking person, that's for certain. And while Na`Sabal-Une Fang had a strong sense of smell, she'd never particularly tried learning to diseminate male from female with it, more the scent of game or danger. She had opted for a much warmer attire, wearing a large fluffy sweater that had a torn open back to allow her semi-transparent wings to peek through. Almost two feet shorter than Heinkel, she definitely has to look up to see her face. "Good evening!" She calls out in response to Heinkel.

     She flashes a grin towards her, those sharp teeth of hers flashed, but not entirely intentionally. "Ah, it's a bit of deer that I caught earlier while hunting. I prefer to eat stuff that I've caught or hunted myself. There's some wild veggies and some berry water as well with it; all seasoned and cooked up." Over a fire or a barbcue from the wood smoky smell that comes from the basket.

     "You don't have to pay me back though. You came to help with the gardening, after all. I just decided to provide food and drink because gardening can be hard work." Nasa says with a nod, turning to begin to lead Heinkel deeper into the greenhouse, where there were several pots of plants that were ready to be transplanted, and much more of the greenhouse was empty in the area.

     "I'll have to come visit anyway though! That's where the children are, right?" The faetouched drow comments back towards Heinkel, pulling a simple cloth to set over the ground to place the basket on.

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  Since the greenhouse has such meticulous lighting controls, no light bleeds in from the surrounding steads. Heinkel seems to consider the lighting levels for a moment, looking about this way and that. After a few moments she shrugs, reaching up and whisking her sunglasses off.

  It is eminently obvious the instant she removes those sunglasses that Heinkel Wolfe is not wholly human.

  When lit in darkness, human eyes catch light, but it only reflects off of them. When lit in darkness, the eyes of cats not only catch light, but draw it in and reflect it from a special layer of the retina. The effect is that they seem to 'glow,' adopting a flat red or green colour when the light strikes them just so.

  That's exactly what Heinkel's eyes do, but rather than a greenish colour, they're a milk-pale blue-white colour. Very bright, too. Enough to tell that they're throwing back all that light with incredible efficiency. With even the slightest twitch of her eyes, the light changes, sometimes brighter or dimmer depending on how the light strikes them.

  She folds the glasses neatly and drops them into a pocket, along with her hands.

  When she shows them, Heinkel's own teeth are just a little bit pointier than a human's should be.

  "Danke. It smells delicious. I don't usually make a habit of eating meat very often--" The Wolf responds badly to the temptation of red meat, "--but I'll make an exception for this."

  She enjoys meat. She used to eat more of it. The Wolf tends to react badly to the taste of meat, though, and it gets a lot harder to stuff the jackass primal spirit back into its can where it belongs. Keeping the Wolf under control is a constant struggle, and the Wolf doesn't really need to have any free advantages.

  "Ja, gardening can be hard vork. It's revarding, though. At least, I'fe alvays found it to be that, as long as you can be patient. It's a hobby und vocation for patient people, ja?" The priest folds her arms, tilting her head, eyes gleaming blue-white in the gloom. "So ist my preferred method of hunting. I use a long-range Dragunov rifle. Vaiting for the perfect shot also requires a lot of patience."

  She tilts her head, nodding at the drow's question. "Ja. It's an orphanage about tventy miles outside of Rome. It's vell-protected, since there's alvays an Iscariot agent around, und lately, more than von. It's the safest place I can go if I haf to stay somevhere. It's more a home to me than the motel rooms I rent, or the apartment I haf in Vatican City. I didn't grow up there, but I found acceptance there."

  Shrugging out of her coat, Heinkel casts it aside to drape over the nearest available piece of furniture. Even a wooden crate will do. It turns out the vest she has under it is sleeveless, and it's the vest that bears the starched white collar; not the coat. Even the gloves are shucked off and tossed to lie over the coat. "So. Vhat needs to be done? Or did you vant to eat before ve get to vork? I could go either vay."

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     Oooh. Glowy eyes! Nasa's eyes glowed with more of an inner magic style of glowing, like a dim light that was in the back of her eyes more than the external lights being absorbed. Still, Nasa largely doesn't comment on the eyes -- her own glowed so it wasn't a huge deal, especially since she was not particularly human, herself. The only comment she makes is. "You have rather beautiful eyes." Before focusing back on getting food out of the basket to set out on the cloth on the ground. "Well, if you'd rather, there are plenty of the wild vegetables which should be tasty enough; I didn't do anything particularly special with them, mostly just spiced and roasted them over a firepit." She comments.

     She slips her fingers under the edge of her oversized sweater and pulls out a small knife, which she uses to cut off a piece of the chunk of venison she'd brought; not a specific cut. Just whatever had been good off of the deer at the time it seemed. She almost daintily was beginning to place the meat and vegetables on her plate. After she was done with that, she offers the knife to Heinkel to cut off a piece of her own.

     "It's hard work, and as you can see, I'm not actually the strongest or largest person in the world, so sometimes I have difficulties. I can cheat a little with my magic, but that's more energy used that could be put towards gardening." She says, motioning towards the plants that had already been established; probably given a small boost with her Hand of Growth to get them going so she can get her medicines into decent production as soon as reasonably possible.

     "I see... I can't really do much with guns." She says, motioning towards her pointed ears. "They don't behave well with my sensitive hearing." The drowess comments, idly taking a small bite of a wild tuber; probably something related to a potato. "Will I have to worry much about them trying to protect it from me when I visit?" She asks curiously about the orphanage. "Or should my Paladins badge be enough to dissuade that?" The mention of finding acceptance there gets a briefly flashed grin. "That is a great thing to have gotten, though. I have found a place similar to that myself, in the faerie forest. It is not a glamorous home, but it is a welcoming one." She nods.

     The question of what needs to be done gets her motioning towards the various pots. "I was thinking of eating first; I've been working all day to be honest. But anyway, mostly right now I'm just digging holes to get those transplanted into." She motions towards a few holes that she'd already made, one of which looked like it had just been started, with one of those small gardening hand-shovels sitting next to it. "I was going to work on doing about... five or six more, enough to transplant those plants before I rest for the night."

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  Heinkel's head tilts, and the wmoan arches an eyebrow in what looks like puzzlement. It seems she isn't accustomed to receiving compliments, especially those on her physical appearance. She opens her mouth as though to say something, but eventually she just closes it, baffled.

  "D-danke." Spiced and roasted vegetables? "Ach, I may haf to pass on some of those, too. I haf a dangerous sensitivity to peppers und hot spices. Vhat a shame. I bet they vere good, too."

  The knife is taken, a piece quickly and efficiently sliced off with a practise that suggests somebody familiar with knives. It's flipped neatly around and caught by the blade, hilt offered to Nasa. Once the pit faerie takes it, she doles out some vegetables, though the ones that have the most spice are carefully passed over.

  "Ja, it's not easy. It's hard vork to dig a hole und plant a tree, you know. Most people don't think about that. It requires a lot of knowledge. It's also hard vork to cultivate fields." Heinkel half-smiles, spearing a little of the venison and popping it into her mouth. Going by her pleased expression, it must be tasty. "Vell-done venison."

  "Actually, my hearing ist also sensitife, but I guess I'fe gotten somevhat used to it. Too much und I'm feeling pretty deaf by the end of the day, though." Heinkel gestures a little nebulously with one hand. "Vhen I'm sniping, I take some kind of ear protection vit me for vhen I take the shot. I listen before I put them in to make sure there's nothing near me."

  "Your Paladin badge should be enough to put that down." The priest spears another piece of meat, popping it into her mouth. "Ve vere under contract to the Union, too, vhen it still existed... ve're used to multiversal travellers. It vas a bumpy start, but my vorld has never tried to close itself off from the multiverse."

  She crunches on venison, shrugging. "Hunh. That's fine by me. I hafen't eaten all day, either. Five or six of those? Sure. Although ve don't haf plants that glow like that, back vhere I'm from. Hunh, I vonder vhat it takes to get von of those established..." The priest eyes the plants speculatively, eyes hooding and one brow arching slightly.

Na`Sabal-Une Fang (367) has posed:
     "Hm? Oh. Yeah... it has pepper on it. Nothing crazy or special, but it's still pepper." Nasa says thoughtfully. She should probably have asked more questions! Oh well, it's too late now! Nasa watches with mild interest as Heinkel cuts off the slice of the venison. She actually admires that silently, giving an approving look as she takes the knife.

     She carefully cleans off the blade with a cloth and slides it back away under her sweater. After that, she takes another bite of her tuber, chewing on it in silence as she listens to Heinkel speak, her eyes shifting around the fields. "Mmm... I'm unsure if I really know how to tend proper fields. I can help a lot with my connection to nature, but I'm used to a garden. This is much larger of an area." She says with a small nod. "Luckily there's a lot of people willing to help, and some automated systems." She says, pointing out a few sprinklers here and there.

     "Thank you; I have had a lot of practice cooking wild game." The pit faerie responds with a soft chuckle. "Mm. I'm not from a world that has much in the way of explosives and guns, mostly villages and cities. So I guess I'm less used to them, I've kind of avoided them where I could since coming to the Multiverse. Though I've come to appreciate the quieter guns." Nasa says with a small nod. The mention of ear protection gets another nod. "...I'm honestly too, well... I'm too overly cautious to cut off my hearing. I like to know where everything around me is at all times. Though hearing protection is preferable to a blown out eardrum.." She muses silently for a while, chewing on a piece of the deer meat.

     She simply nods towards the mention of the paladin badge being enough. And the contract. "Yeah. I can understand it being a bit bumpy; you were around for when I first arrived here, I think. Remembering those times makes me cringe. It's hard to think of myself being that... ... insane... like I was back then."

     The comments on the glowing plants gets a small smile, "They're actually subterranean plants, they grow in deep deep caves in my world, so they're very hardy plants that can grow in most dark places. They don't tend to do quite as well in direct sunlight, but they're good for a garden like this. It helps the people who don't have dark vision to get around safely without being too much light to make the other plants become sickly."

     She taps a finger against her lip. "You could probably keep it in a bedroom easily enough, so long as you keep the windows covered most of the time. They require daily watering and can grow to be about 3 feet tall. They're... not really an edible plant, but they won't make the average human particularly sick, and they'll feed themselves on stray insects that come in -- which is why they glow -- so can help with flies." She explains. Finally, she adds, "The glowing bulbs can be used in a pinch for a particularly foul tasting tea that can help with constipation."

Heinkel Wolfe (Dropped) has posed:
  "Ja. Unfortunately, I haf a sensitivity to pepper." Heinkel wrinkles her nose. "I used to like it, but I can't haf it these days. It's been a vhile since I vas able to eat something really, /really/ hot. Now, even mild things are hot to me."

  The priest shrugs, spearing another piece of venison and finishing it off thoughtfully. Her eyes almost glow as she considers her plate. "I'm also used to smaller plots of land. Vhen I vas groundskeeping at the church in Brugge, it vas a lot smaller than von of these industrial-size plots. A little more manageable than this, you know?"

  "Ja. I did that more than vonce. I vasn't really thinking about my hearing after... you know." She gestures towards her eyes, as though that says all that needs to be said. They aren't the eyes of a human. That's for sure. "So the next mission or two I vas on, I shot at my target, und... vell. Yeah. I vas pretty deaf for a vhile after those incidents. Bleeding ears, intense pain, totally deaf. Not much fun."

  Heinkel considers the plate. She seems to be deliberately chewing it slowly and carefully. The Wolf likes to eat things, and it has food aggression. If she exercises that extra bit of self-control, she can foil it and keep the primal spirit stuffed in a jar where it belongs.

  "Ja, I can understand that. I use my hearing to locate things. Most of the time I can filter out the obnoxious background noise, but most of the time, sudden loud noises are pretty painful." She shrugs. "Most of the time, I can deal vit the sound of my guns. I'm pretty used to them by now efen vit enhanced senses. I don't actually carry hearing protection unless I know I'll be using a caliber efen bigger than vhat I carry." She scowls. "That, or Police Girl brings that assault cannon she calls a gun vit her."

  She shrugs. "So they grow underground. Vell, that explains why they'd glow in the dark. Ja, I don't think I could grow something like this, since the apartment I haf in Vatican City ist pretty bright. I guess I could try completely blocking off a room, though. Light-sensitive things tend not to need much light to ruin them." Boy, does she ever know that. That must be why she wears those sunglasses everywhere, to go by how insanely reflective her eyes are.

  "Mostly, I just think they look cool. Ve don't haf any bioluminescent plants that I know of." Heinkel leans over, poking near but not quite at one of them. "I like plants. They can keep you company vitout being judgemental. Also, they're really resilient, most of the time. Besides, it looks like there's enough growing here for medicine that von plant from the processing varehouses von't be missed."