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 Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2024 7:32 am
The summer heat was unpleasant, but harsher conditions provided important opportunities for scientists who were trying to reintroduce life to a world where almost nothing could thrive. Some of the plants were withering under the late July sun, and some of the animals were seeking places to rest. Unfortunately, most of Naeria's beloved mushrooms did not like the weather, although she had taken careful notes of the few that could tolerate it. And now, she was trying to see which of the plants in the human's gardens were able to stand up to this weather. She went out at night, not worrying about her disguise, and she ended up knelt next to one of the pollinator gardens in one of the parks. The coneflowers were doing well, she noticed, and typed the notes onto her ComTech, also noting that they were sometimes known as echinacea and that they were valued by the humans as a medicine. There were some yellow flowers that looked similar, and she was on her Earth phone trying to find the right Earth website to see if they were a variation of the same species, or if they were something else. She didn't notice someone else approaching.
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Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2024 11:26 pm
Honestly, Ekstrom was about ready for summer to be over.
She was hardly the type to complain about her life being too eventful. Generally, it wasn’t, but between her love life, the weird happenings during Star Festival, and then the horrible encounters with some particularly aggressive corrupt senshi in recent weeks, it wasn’t hard to see why. At this point she just wanted to get past all of that, for time to fast forward, for the cooler weather to come and bring with it the changing leaves, the popular spiced drinks of autumn, and the prospect of the holidays. She could use an excuse to head back home and spend some time with family. They always grounded her, all of them in their own ways. Plus there really was no replacing her mom’s hugs.
Or her cooking.
The thought made the squire sigh as she walked on. Tonight she was in another one of the city’s parks, alone. In her efforts to distract herself from introspection she decided to go out for a quick patrol. She was still alone but being outside...sort of helped. It was refreshing, at least, and thankfully had been uneventful so far.
It wasn't until the tail-end of her route that she finally spotted someone, kneeling in one of the gardens. Nothing about the scene screamed, "Danger, keep away!" to her–no Chaos auras or otherwise any weird, creepy vibes–so with a curious tilt of her head she made her way over.
“Drop something?” she asked, hoping she didn’t startle the other person. Her smile was small but still as cheerful as ever, her worries temporarily fading at the prospect of possibly helping someone out.
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Posted: Sat Jul 27, 2024 7:41 pm
Naeria glanced over her shoulder at the sound of the voice, her yellow eyes wide as an owl's, her shoulders scrunched up like she was ready to bolt. The humans weren't supposed to see her like this. She knew that. She needed to be more careful, needed to leave- It was a knight. She saw the symbols. Mercury. It stopped her from just sprinting off, because the knights were supposed to know about them, although half the time they ended up startling anyway when they saw her purple skin and pointed ears. So she did not sprint, but she but she still tucked her feet under her so that she could if she needed to. "I," she said, quietly, voice cracking from the anxiety. She swallowed and tried again. "I am trying to find what plant this is." She pointed to the yellow flower.
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Posted: Mon Jul 29, 2024 6:56 pm
Purple skin and pointed ears were the least of her concerns, really. Appearances didn’t speak as loudly as auras did these days, at least when she was powered up. Ekstrom was relieved, and her smile was all the brighter for it, when the other didn’t startle like most did when she randomly called out. She kept a decent space between them just in case, though, and leaned forward and down a bit when she pointed out the flower.
“Aha,” she said, then gave a little laugh and shook her head. “Sorry, I’m not really a plant person. But!”
Quickly, she dug into her subspace, pulled her cell phone out, and began tapping the screen. It was a bit finicky with gloves so it took longer than she would have liked, but eventually she turned her phone around to present it to her.
“I have a coworker that is really,” really, really, really, “into plants, and she mentioned that there are apps that can identify plants. She borrowed my phone once and installed it because–,” she cut off for a moment and pulled on a thoughtful expression before ultimately waving her hand as if to dismiss something. “Well, that’s a pretty long story I can share later if you wanna know, but to cut it short, I happen to have the app! If you wanna give it a try?”
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2024 7:39 am
This human seemed like one of the nice ones. That was good. It was so hard to tell, just by looking at them. Naeria did not relax all the way, but she relaxed a little, so that her heels were pressed flat on the ground again instead of lifted up so that she could start running. "I also have a friend who likes plants," said Naeria. "I know more about fungus. Mushrooms?" Also yeasts, and molds. They were fascinating and were useful in everything from making aerated baked goods to those alcoholic beverages that the humans seemed extremely interested in, and yet nobody ever seemed as interested when she started talking about that. Mushrooms were fairly loved, though. They were part of that trend called cottagecore. She knew that. "I am just trying to see if I can help some with research for him. Bring him ideas," she explained, and then added, "Oh. I am Naeria. Of Velencya. Hello." The app sounded interesting, and more useful than trying to type keywords in her second language into a search engine. "Can I see it?"
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Posted: Wed Jul 31, 2024 7:58 pm
”Ooh, mushrooms are delicious!” she said, thinking of the myriad of recipes she’s tried over the years with various types of mushrooms. “That’s mostly all I know about mushrooms–how to cook them. Yeast, too! When I’ve tried,” and she sighed at that, hinting at the fact that she’s failed more than succeeded, “making homemade bread, at least. I haven’t had time to try recently…”
Ekstrom briefly let her thoughts run away for a moment, wondering when she could squeeze in some time to try another bread recipe. Maybe she should stick to something simple, first, no matter how badly she wanted to try the fancier things she saw in those baking competition shows.
She caught herself quickly, though, and when she introduced herself Ekstrom extended a hand. “Ekstrom! Of Mercury, but you probably already guessed that.” With introductions out of the way, she moved in closer and crouched down beside Naeria and held her phone in such a way that she could show her what she was doing.
“Okay, so this is the interface…” She went on to explain how to pull up the camera to point and shoot, and how to save the things that you find. “And that’s…pretty much the most basic function of it! My coworker could probably show you a whole lot more about it, but there’s probably a guide in there somewhere.”
With that, she gestured for her to take her phone. “Here, why don’t you try it with the ones here that you wanna look into ?”
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Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2024 7:11 am
"They are delicious," said Naeria, all traces of fear and shyness leaving her body as she was able to talk about her favorite thing. "And there is also fungus that you can use for medicine, for waste management, and even as a building material!" Recreation, too, she thought, thinking about how some of the humans reacted to the mushroom-inspired hallucinogenic properties she'd added to her weapon. This girl, however, seemed to be having plenty of fun on her own, just opening up her app and trying to identify this flower in front of them. It was almost like a simplified version of her ComTech, connected to Earth's databases. She could have almost gotten distracted looking at the app and the full extent of the information withint, but she took a breath and focused in on this particular mission. She pointed. She clicked. She read the text box that popped up. "Black Eyed Susan," she said. "A species native to much of the United States, and the state flower of Maryland." She looked back over to Ekstron. "I wanted to see if it was a kind of echinacea, but it seems to be a different genus." She seemed nearly as excited about this as she had been about the mushrooms. "Thank you for you help," she said, handing the phone back. "That was kind."
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Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2024 8:14 pm
Ekstrom happily sat and watched Naeria work with the app. There was a part of her that was curious about the plants she was curious about, but the squire was more glad to have been able to help someone so her focus was more on Naeria than the plants. A satisfied little smile sat on her face, and she bobbled her head as Naeria read what the app picked up for the yellow plant in question.
“You’re welcome! Honestly, I should probably know that flower after living here for the past five years,” she chuckled as she took the phone back. “Sorry, but I’m glad the app was able to help!”
Unsure where to take the conversation next, she turned to the plants for a second, and then back to her. She had her questions, but she hated to pry. Offering an open line of communication couldn’t hurt though, right? Maybe she could ask them down the line, if they actually became friends. Or at least better acquaintances.
“Mm, well. If you ever need help identifying plants again, or need help with anything else, feel free to give me a call. I’ll do what I can.”
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Posted: Sat Aug 03, 2024 1:22 pm
"That is okay," said Naeria. Honestly, she'd found that many humans knew very little about the miracle of biodiversity that surrounded them. She always reminded herself that they were young, because she did not want to become jaded against humans like some of the others. The ones that were cruel, she did not like. This girl, though? She was sweet. "You can call me," she said, and then turned back to her own phone. Wasn't there a way to- yes. There it was. She sent over her contact information, feeling like a master of human technology. It could not be a bad idea to get in contact with a knight. "Thank you again," she said. "I am going to show these plants to my friend, now." And with one more nod she was walking away. its_ p a o Fin for me! Thanks for the RP!
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Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2024 7:45 pm
Naeria beat her to sharing her contact information, but Ekstrom gave a happy little bobble of her head all the same. She saved the contact information before calling, letting it ring twice before hanging up.
“Done, and you’re always welcome! See you around!”
With that she got up and stretched a little bit, watching Naeria go as she did. When she was done, she got back on the path she was on earlier, deciding it was a good time to call it a night and already making plans for what she would be doing once she got home.
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