Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Is it really such hard work?" This was an honest question. She'd never actually thought about the work that went into the gardens and shrubberies and lawnrings of the spacious-living elite. "... I always thought that plants just... did their thing. But I suppose thats why there's gardeners, aren't there."

Ma'am chittered at her, a few of the roaches watching Rastin and very much approving of this young male and his manners.

"... though apparently Ma knows all about this." she tapped one of the roaches affectionately. "Gosh, though, I've never had a garden to keep." she laughed.

"You haven't had a readymade meal? They sell them in the supermarkets - they are packaged and sealed. All you need to do is heat, and sometimes add water and... it's done! And so tasty!" And full of chemicals but, they were tasty chemicals. "They are really great, and so convenient!" Especially when one was studying. No need to take the time to cook - there it was, cooked food.

"Well, I think some people keep gardens on the roof, or in their windows..." Maybe she could get a window box, plant some flowers... but nah. Just keeping the outside looking decent was hard enough work. She was a hard-working troll already - with an internship to boot. "Well, I'll have to see. I have a pretty busy life! I don't know if I have the time for a garden, haha!"

Their teapots arrived, as well as their teacups. They were simple painted pottery. Functional and pleasant, but nothing to write home about. The salad was also pretty, but not particularly amazing. It was fruit and veggies... and a stray roach, who scuttled back to it's fellows very sheepishly. The dumplings, however, looked fantastic.

"They're delicious." Psykgi said, a little defensively, though he did have a point. Gog only knew what was in them. "But I don't have the time to really cook anything." or the desire, "They are just so convenient... and besides, of all the things that can kill me, I feel like my food is the least of them..." and they hadn't done it yet.

"Speaking of, do you want any of my salad?" she offered, smiling. He'd offered to share his dumplings, after all, so it was only fair to share the other plate.

"Sure." She passed her plate over for the offering.

"Well, I suppose I could try that!" she said, tipping a nice serving of fresh fruits and vegetables onto his plate. She wasn't sure about it, but hey. She'd try anything once, even a plant. Chances were, it wouldn't survive...

Oh well.

"Well, a lot of it's studying. If I want to get into the Civisect Intitution of Higher Schoolfeeding, I need to be com-pletely on top of my game there! But I'm also an intern at the Civisect Rehabilitation Facility!" she returned her plate to her side, "Have you ever heard of it?"

Oh my gog he was hilarious, but Psykgi made a concious effort not to laugh at his nutbeast-esque face.

"Well!" He didn't know about them? Granted, the Rehab center was sort of out of the way, but surely he knew about educational institutions! And government sponsored projects!

Just how out of the way was Four Fronds?!

"Well, so you know how Chittentown is a biiiig center of academic learning and engineering and suchlike? Well, Civisect is too, or we will be!" ... that disaster aside, obviously. That was a setback. "We're going to turn out such quality scientists and inventors and engineers... That silly desert schoolfeeding edifice won't even know what hit it!" she giggled. The tower was a setback... but trolls always bounced back from setbacks and in the end, Civisect was just better. Not just because of the highbloods, of course. Though their money would definitely help.

"Well. The Rehabilitation center is a fantastic institution! There, we delve into the mystery that is the mind!" she said, pouring herself tea and, with a gesture, offering to do the same for Rastin, "And helping trolls remain sane and productive members of the empire. It's a new field, ab-sol-lutely bursting with fascinating new discoveries." she regarded her tea - it looked good, it smelled good, and it would probably taste delicious, too. "The mind is so amazing!"

She watched intently as his face changed. Something she'd said had unbalanced the careful scales of his mind. The Rehab center? Was he one of those silly trolls that thought that mental health was mere foolishness and weakness... or did he have aberrant thoughts and feared their discovery and rectification? She wanted to know... She had to know.

She kept talking and watching.

"Oh my gosh! I'd heard you had robots running amok there! We had some misbehaving machines too! Weren't they SUCH a pain?!" she said, happily drinking her tea. Or, perhaps, partially happily. The whole bomb thing always dampened her mood, just a little.

"Well it was... or at least, the main facility was. I think you folks - well, not you exactly, you're from Four Fronds after all - were in a separate facility, out in the desert, right? That's what we did! You should really check out the main facility, though - it's not bad! Not bad at all. But oh my gosh, Civisect is going to be so much better..." she shrugged, "With... hopefully fewer machine failures." Not having poison gas leaks while trying to educate oneself would be nice.

"It really is!" she said happily, observing his body language with rapt and enthusiastic interest. "But, gosh, I don't think I would be qualified to judge their mental state! I'm just an intern, haha!" Though, she supposed, you did need to be a little bit insane to bring a whole newly-explored field of science and medicine to the troll mainstream. So maybe they were insane! In a good way... actually, she would have to look into that and see what she observed on her rounds.

Anyway, enough about herself. "So. You've never been invited out to eat before. Does this make this your..." she ate a dumpling mischeviously, "First Date?"

She listened with furious hunger to his opinions. It seemed that the unease from before had cracked, and out spilled something facinating - concern for others that threatened to infringe on anti-empire aberrance. It was well articulated, clearly something that had been bouncing around that calm head of his for a while. This was going in her notebook, under the half-forgotten entry for his name. After he'd left, of course - it wouldn't do to miss anything he said because she was scribbling in her notebook, gosh no!

"And?" she said, seemingly unperturbed by his anger, "Did you? Save them from burning, that is."

Ooo, doctor in training! She liked the ring of that. "Oh dear, you didn't like my little joke?" she commented, looking up at him. Ma'am chittered in alarm, but Psykgi was calm. Though, not really - a fascinatingly twisted puzzle had presented itself before her, and she had found some scintillatingly intriguing pieces. She wanted more. She wanted to look into his mind and unravel his secrets. She wanted to know what made him tick, and how she could turn such a clearly intelligent troll away from his potential anti-empire leanings. For the betterment of troll society.

"Aww, it's fine. You really aren't my type anyway." she laughed. Not every fascinating case was sexy after all. Some were simply... science. "And don't worry, I'll pay the check. It's really a shame about your appetite.." She waved goodbye at him, "So, by for now... But, gosh! We're probably going to meet again!" she said, "So, see you then!"