ORIGIN - water cooler talk

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Pollen's lips drew tight for a moment, and her eyes went wide at the tone. "Umm- you might get it tangled it in something! Maybe not us. We have short fur." She shrugged, one leg unfolding and dropping down to swing gently.

Saw... What? Pollen let out a small 'hm', trying to think. And then- "Oh, that just happens if you close your eyes?" Had Obieth blinked and just now realized that? Or did she close her eyes somehow without actually closing them? Strange. She shook her head, watching Obieth pace with a casualness to her expression. "Miss Aethril made me one!" She nodded, one paw up to her chest with pride. "She said that I could be one, because I like plants, and I wanted to do things with them! She's very nice to make me one."

Pollen tucked the leg still folded up closer to herself with both hands, simply watching Obieth. The way she moved- it was much more sleek than Pollen, matching the fluidity of Aethril. They were very alike. Was Pollen going to be that graceful, someday? She hoped so.

She didn't think she had her own bed, though. "Sometimes," she claimed after a moment of deliberation. "I sleep on the lounges, usually! I don't have my own room or anything, though." She shrugged, not particularly moving from the bench- if Obieth walked away right now in search of new stimuli, Pollen certainly wouldn't stop her.

A thought, and- "do you have a bed, all to yourself?" She hoped Obieth did- it seemed like something she'd like, perhaps.

@Obieth

She took Pollen's explanation as a question, given the gentle uptilt of the gardener's voice, and responded with a slight shake of her head. "No, it was something else." It hardly mattered; she had already half-forgotten it, uncaring. It wasn't that she wasn't curious about it; she almost wished it would happen again, so she could study it. But she was distracted by the green of this grass blade, or the roundness of that pebble, her mind in the here and now.

Obieth paused to glance at Pollen as the creature explained how she'd become a gardener. It made sense enough to her. It was, after all, Aethril who had made her into a guard--with her own insistence, of course. And Pollen--like her--did not have her own bed or room. (Obieth was unaware that she would be returning to a new bed of her own, as a surprise from the Valkhand.)

"I don't have a bed. I have... a cloth," she explained, turning away, voice and expression faintly dreamy as she thought of her very own piece of fabric. "It is... blue, but when light touches it, parts of it shine purple, or green. Like Oil," she explained. "And... I have a pillow. It is soft. Thick. I enjoy it, very much," she decided. "But I do not have a bed." Her paws came to a halt as she said this, distantly bitter, claws curling into the earth at this terrible injustice.

Aethril had a bed.

She'd made Obieth get off of it.

"I want a bed," she decided. (Her later discovery of said bed would only strengthen her vague belief that her own desires controlled the entire reality of the universe.) Sinuous body curved, coat flashing slick beneath the voidlight as she turned back to stroll past Pollen again.

"Are you the only Gardener?" she asked. She was wondering, in a roundabout sort of way, if Pollen were teaching herself how to care for plants. Or was someone else, some other Gardener-creature, showing her how to do all of this? Teaching her how plants felt things, or how little trees were soft? She considered both, but was not sure which one seemed better: it would be good, she imagined, to have more knowledge granted to you, but to learn all of that on one's own would be an impressive feat.

@Pollen

Hm. Well, if it was something that wasn't closed eyes, and something Obieth seemed to dismiss, then all Pollen could do was shrug. Her paws folded together over her leg, shoving the thought away too, figuring Obieth probably saw something figuratively, or other. A vision? She wouldn't know.

"It sounds pretty, at least," Pollen offered, finding the silver lining. "And, it's your's! It's kind of a bed, especially if it has a pillow, then." She wanted a bed like that. Maybe something with a lot of pillows, and a blanket sounded good, too... She sighed wistfully at the thought, closing her eyes dreamily.

Her eyes fluttered open at the question. "The deer are gardeners, too! But, they don't like to talk." Correction, they didn't talk. "Miss Aethril said there might be some somewhere else, and I can learn from them someday. But for now, I'm the only Gardener who uh- I guess talks, and stuff. Other than Eggbert." In truth, she didn't know a lot- a lot was gathered through magic, and the rest was guesswork, things she's learned from Aethril's gentle guidance and watching the deer amble about their business. Eggbert, too- bless his heart, though, he really did try.

Her ears flicked back for a moment. "Maybe um- I can learn a little guarding, too, just in case you'd need one to stay here! Then I can be a guard-ener!" She giggled at the awkward pronunciation, the pun evident in her voice. "I think I'd need to learn all I need to to take care of plants first, though, so I don't feel bad for not being around them or something. They're usually okay, though- but I like to make sure they are, y'know?" She leaned in a little, head tracked Obieth with a warm regard. That would make sense, right?

"Kind of like-- I guess, knowing Miss Aethril is safe before you can do your own thing?" she wagered a guess, assuming that's what would link her thoughts to Obieth's understanding of her own job.

@Obieth

She lowered black haunches to the ground, again--ever in motion, it seemed, yet somehow restful. The movement was unrushed, fluid, and teal eyes drifted back to Pollen as the gardener spoke. "You will need to learn it all, then. And if another gardener comes, you can teach them." She turned, looking out over the garden grounds. "The deer can speak?" she asked, curious; Aethril had told her they were all right to hunt and eat. "Venomson," Obieth thought she'd called it, or... something like that, at least.

"I will teach you guarding, if you want." Obieth had no idea how to guard, as yet, but she wouldn't let such a detail stop her. Right now, she simply followed Aethril around and made sure there was nothing lurking. Past that? ...Maybe she was like the gardener; she'd just learn as she went along.

The reminder that Obieth was only free when her duties were fulfilled was a minor irritation, and one that earned an empty glance askance from the Valkcat. She wanted to be free to wander, but... honestly, it was a minor gripe. She didn't have enough wanderlust yet, or knowledge of what she was missing--those tantalizing hints of lands unknown--to really have anything in mind other than "I sort of would rather be somewhere else," at times. Still, it was with the faintest gritting of teeth and hiss that she acknowledged Pollen's words, and the accuracy of them. "Yess," she agreed, with a flick of the tail-tip coiled around her legs.

@Pollen

Pollen made a small noise of consideration, one paw coming up to tap at her bottom lip. "That's a lot to learn..." she mumbled before nodding. She would do that, then. She would be the Overseer of Plants! Was that a thing? She kinda oversaw the plants now, anyways, so maybe that title was redundant.

She paused, though. "Oh-- no, I don't think they can. I don't think they'd make good conversation, anyways." Imagine, talking about how good the grass tasted that morning. ... Did grass taste good? Pollen frowned briefly, thinking on this now. She didn't want to eat grass, she'd decided. It probably wouldn't taste good to her, nor would it be very nutritious.

Pollen perked at the offer of learning. "Maybe I can learn after you learn everything there is about guarding, too? And we can teach each other, if you'd like," she returned with, faint excitement in her mind. That way, they wouldn't need lesson after lesson with each other, and could learn everything at once.

She leaned back, just a little, at the look. A tilted head showed that Pollen didn't quite understand what it was for- not particularly, anyways. But- ah, and Pollen shuffled her legs together. "Do you think you could ask Miss Aethril for some breaks, though? I take breaks, sometimes, and things are okay when I come back, so Miss Aethril would probably be okay if you weren't around her all the time."

Maybe she was projecting. But, still, she rattled on, her childish voice running on without a filter behind them.

@Obieth

Did Obieth want to learn... plants?

Her eyes swept down, regarding them, considering. They might be useful, somehow--if she could learn how the thorns worked. Maybe she could grow thorns, herself. She wasn't certain how it worked, in truth, but that hardly mattered. Somehow, she imagined that Pollen's teaching would be rather more dry than might interest her. Obieth, however, did not know enough about plants to be certain of even that. She could accept, for now--come and listen to more of the Gardener speak, drink in the sight of dew beading on leaves and voidlight igniting flower petals in its eerie glow.

That would do.

And if she got bored? Well, she could always leave. "Yes. I will learn plants, when we have both learned." Why not.

As for breaks? Velveteen coat shifted as Obieth tilted her head to one side, faintly puzzled. "I am... on a break," she pointed out, almost gently. Had Pollen forgotten that? Or was she missing some form of context; maybe something from the conversation prior?

Ahh, but this opened up a new question entirely, one that had Obieth's teal eyes studying Pollen with renewed interest. It had seemed to her that plants were the Gardener's whole world--she'd seen no signs of other interests. Which begged the question: "What do you do, when you are on... breaks?" Her tail-tip flicked up curiously, briefly glowing a dim teal, too.

@Pollen

When they both learned. Pollen realized something, though- "It may take a long time," Pollen warned gently. "There's a lot of plants to know about." How many had she seen so far? Ten? Fifteen? That was a lot of plants. Though, considering that Pollen couldn't recognize difference much yet... Who knew how many there were! She shook her head just slightly, laughing out through her nose with a huff. "But, I promise to teach you when I can."

She gave a determined nod to that. That was a promise.

Pollen blinked, though. "... Oh! Sorry- I thought you were looking around for um- for Miss Aethril, or something. Did you ever want to take a break outside of the Palace, maybe?" Her tail flicked behind her as she considered- would she want to take a break outside of the Palace? She didn't think she would, and she hummed in thought for a moment.

"I like to explore the halls. There's so many, I get lost so many times- sometimes, I think I should be working, but I'm all the way on the other side of the Palace!" She covered her mouth this time as she laughed, grinning again. "Otherwise, I guess it's hard to take breaks when I like working, but um... Oh! I like looking around outside the Palace, too! There's a really pretty rose bush where I hatched-" did she mention that already?- "and I like to keep it clean. I wanted to bring some of the shards, too- would that be weird?" She hummed.

"I wanna watch Nedies cook. I might do that on another break." That too was a smaller, less significant promise, one made to herself in her own mind. It would be fun, she imagined. "Maybe I can come guard with you when I'm on a break? Or-- ooh, I could help Eggbert! I don't know what he'd need help with, though..." She hummed again, tucking her head into her shoulders just slightly. "But, I like breaks. Would sleeping count?"

She shook her head and watched Obieth as she rambled, fingers tapping at the stone bench under her. "What do you do on breaks?" She concluded the entire line of thought with, bringing it back together to her.

@Obieth

Obieth's mind raced to keep up with Pollen's every word. She was fighting to imagine each mentioned scene as it came: the plants, for one, and how long it might take to know them. A glance around told her this was true: some were thick and thorned, others were trees with hard, rough trunks and many leaves. Others were thin-stemmed flowers, or bushes, some with little berries on them. And then there was the grass, and ferns, soft beneath one's paws. Obieth had never really considered it before, but even in her very brief life, she had to have seen dozens of plants already. It would, she noted, take quite some time to learn: Pollen had to be right, there.

'Did you ever want to take a break outside of the Palace, maybe?' was not answered straightaway; instead the Valkhound considered this, a twitch of ridged tail accompanying her train of thought. She might have formed an answer, but for the black cloud that went sweeping through Pegasus behind Pollen, a giant monstrosity of void-like miasma--a hallucination, though she couldn't know that. It vanished a moment later, fading into the back of the cave, and with a mental shrug Obieth attributed this to the caves' general darkness and Void, from all that she had seen of them.

Her attention strayed back to Pollen, who was speaking of the Palace halls--and the cat's mind tried to catch up. She could picture them, yes: delectable sheen of marble white, glinting clean, beautiful but something was subtly wrong with it all. The columns and pillars were too neat and perfect for her. She wanted them to be uneven, mismatched, but she could not deny the overall power of the Palace's aesthetics: someone had designed it to a precise ideal, and done so quite well.

She imagined a rose bush, too, as it was mentioned. Thorns, she'd been told of. The flowers, Pollen had shown her. She tried to imagine the shards of a chrysalis, and shook her head indifferently at the question of whether it would be weird to keep them. "I do not see why it would be weird," she answered, her voice a murmur. Why would it be-?

She imagined Nedies, cooking. The scents of these 'spices' and the hot food that he could create. "Maybe I can watch him cook," she suggested, thoughtful, hopeful, shifting from one paw to the other at the idea. Maybe he would give her food. Maybe it would be a buffet even without the food: a tempting series of sights and smells that she could indulge her senses in. "I think I would enjoy that," she reflected. "You may guard with me," she added, with a magnanimous nod, "if Miss Aethril says you may."

As to Eggbert, she couldn't imagine what the strange, fuzzy being might possibly need help with, but she didn't know enough of it to judge; she simply pondered it, and then moved on, trying to keep up with Pollen's thoughts once again. Did sleep count as a break-? She didn't know.

The question of what Obieth did on breaks circled back to Pollen's first: her questioning whether the Valkhound ever wanted to take breaks outside the palace. "I am... here," she explained, her tone and expression empty due to faint confusion, and little more. "This is my... break."

Realization struck, then, and her eyes widened a fraction, and she clarified: "This is my... first, break." This explained, Obieth looked Pollen up and down with another thoughtful flick of the tip of her tail. "I am pleased that I came here first. You... your garden," she added, lifting her head and glancing around like royalty who had claimed this place, "are worth knowing." Then she looked back to Pollen, all unearned regal bearing.

"So you... visit places, when you do not work the flowers. And you look at things." She considered that, and then offered her approval: "Those sound... pleasant. That is what I am doing," she added, and was that pride?

Obieth definitely knew how breaks worked, it seems: she'd nailed this one.

@Pollen

Pollen hadn't noticed Obieth's straying, her own mind focused on her rambling, lost in her own words. If it wasn't weird to take the shards, then she'd like to gather them, she imagined- where would she put them, though? She could bury them, though she got the idea that they weren't like seeds, really. She huffed at the thought, tapping her lips for a brief moment-- perhaps she'd go back once she had a room of her own.

"I bet it'd be very fun," she spoke on witnessing Nedies- she'd only really been in and out before, and she could only imagine what it'd be like. "Same with guarding! Maybe it'll help to have even more eyes on the lookout, too." In truth, she didn't understand the danger of the job, and only thought it to be something fun to do with people she liked. "I'll ask her when I see her next."

Conversation continued, and came back around, and Pollen listened as Obieth explained that her break was now. Oh! She hadn't known. Plus, her first break? How long had she been working?

"I'm glad you stopped by," Pollen laughed out, drumming her hands on her knees. "You are worth knowing, too." She watched as Obieth, in all her queenliness, look about the garden. She acted much like a queen would, didn't she? Not that Pollen knew any other queens to compare, but it seemed to make sense, anyways. She nodded when her own ramblings were brought together, leaning forward.

"There's a lot to see in the Palace, without even going outside of it, too. You could spend a lot of breaks in here." She paused for a long moment, looking at Obieth, watching her. "How long did you want to take a break?"

Was it about to be over, she wondered? She liked talking to Obieth, but she hated for it to get awkward if she ran out of things to ramble about... Maybe they could sit and look at the garden together? That might be nice. Or Obieth can watch her work! There were a lot of different possibilities, and she couldn't wait to possibly pick one out for the both of them.

@Obieth

'You are worth knowing, too' sounded like a statement of the obvious, to Obieth; she didn't even consider it arrogant to "know" that knowing a Queen must be wonderful, for Pollen. Her visit was probably the highlight of the gardener's day--right?

She dismissed the thought, indifferent to it, so utterly sure of her own self-worth that it had shot beyond arrogance into oblivious naivety.

"I will... take many breaks, then," she decided, studying Pollen thoughtfully. Breaks sounded good. Wandering, seeing things-... "I will enjoy... moving around. Seeing things I have not seen." As for her breaks-?

Obieth considered this.

"Aethril has told me to return by the time her tea is done." She considered, and reflected--a little belatedly--that she hadn't thought to actually ask how long tea took. Most likely, it was already coming to an end--or ended, but Obieth didn't know that. "Do you know how long a Tea takes?" the Valkhound asked, peering at Pollen. "Do you know... what a Tea is?"

She, with all her blind assumption of her duty, had no idea.

@Pollen

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