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 Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 8:58 pm
Gravel crunched and rolled under the soles of his sneakers as he walked, his right hand stuffed deep into the pocket of his jeans, Alexandre was a man - or teen - on a mission. The mission was simple, nothing as complex as what he'd done for the Negaverse but no less nerve wracking. He was here to not just buy plants, could he ever go to a plant nursery and not buy a plant? but he was also here to look into working here. It wasn't that he needed a job but he had the time and needed to do something with that time, and energy.
His left hand came up to adjust the designer sunglasses he wore as his direction changed, he had been acting like he was here just to purchase and had been heading for the green houses. Changing direction Alexandre headed for the main green house where they also rang people up, this green house was the size of three and a half combined regular green houses, up to the counter he stood waiting till the woman waiting was rung up.
"Afternoon Mike." Being on a first name basis with the workers was a good thing, he hoped, when it came to looking to work here. The place was mostly family owned and run, with cousins and uncles and aunts and such, so while it was family run it wasn't as small as one might think it would be given that it was a family run operation.
"Afternoon Alex, lookin' for something in particular today? I can help you if you need." Not that he really needed it if he wasn't here for a potential job.
"No, I was actually wondering if you were hiring." A slight bit of nerves seeped into his voice, this really wasn't like the normally blunt and to the point teen. He simply said what was on his mind, whether a person liked it or not, most times but this wasn't a situation he'd ever found himself in and was unsure if they were hiring or if they'd even take him in - it was a family thing after all.
"Let me get my sister to take over and we'll go to the house and talk about you working here." A kind smile came across the males lip, brown eyes lighting up with the smile. Next door, only a fence separating it from the parking lot and green houses, was a large three story victorian style home where Mike, his wife and two children, lived. they were always able to be gotten since they lived right here on premiss really.
"Alright, thanks." Watching as he left to go get his sister once the female customer had finished paying and getting her plants loaded onto a flatbed with wheels and headed off to her car.
Thankfully it didn't take long and with a smile and greeting between him and Mike's sister he followed the other into the house, toeing off his shoes as he entered the home. "I just need something to do with the summer, too much free time and really I don't have a lot to do. I thought I'd get a job doing something I'm knowledgeable in."
And so on the talk/interview went with him filling out paperwork and being told that since he was always here, and they knew him and that he knew his plants, he could start work when he was able - in two days. So with the business, sort of business, done the two walked back along the gravel of the parking lot and past the gates onto the grounds of the nursery. "Now to get some shopping done. Thank you Mike." An honest smile as he shook the mans hand once more and headed off, finding himself a flatbed cart with wheels and pushing it along the gravel toward the back green houses where the more exotics were. Now when he went home he could call his mother and tell her the news - he had his first job. She'd not doubt be happy, and then ask him how much he'd spent on plants.
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:38 pm
Plant nurseries and green houses were not exactly the sort of places Paris expected to spend much of his time. If he wanted to walk amongst nature, he tended to do it outside in a park where he could enjoy the fresh air and natural breeze rather than the climate controlled conditions of a greenhouse. Added to that the fact that he knew absolutely nothing about plants except that they tended to grow in dirt and tasted pretty good when they were used for food, walking up and down a greenhouse looking at plants whose names were completely lost to him was one of the last places he’d thought he’d be.
Unfortunately, his mom wanted some new plants for her new house, and she apparently couldn’t be satisfied with the home and gardening section of a Lowe’s or a Home Depot. Thus he found himself being dragged along to… whatever this place was… but it seemed like it was family owned and operated, which he supposed was nice. At least it didn’t smell like a Lowe’s or a Home Depot. He much preferred to smell of plants to sawdust.
At some point during their visit—which had already lasted far longer than he’d been led to believe it would—Paris had gotten separated from his mother and now wandered around alone, stopping to examine a few particularly colorful plants before moving on to find something else of interest. He suspected his mother might have been in a different greenhouse entirely, but as he didn’t want to waste his time searching around for her he figured if he just stayed put she’d come find him when she was ready to leave.
Releasing a long, drawn out sigh, Paris dug his cell phone out of his purse just long enough to check the time. It seemed he’d already been there for at least half an hour. He didn’t really care that his time was being wasted since it wasn’t like he had anything better to do that day—no work, no rehearsal—and he would rather keep busy than sit around moping at home, but the whole keeping-his-mind-off-of-bad-stuff thing would have worked a lot better if there was more of a distraction around.
Frowning to himself, Paris put his phone away and then shoved his hands into the back pockets of his shorts as he ambled around, looking at things at random and wondering what sort of plants his mom had meant to get anyway. He glanced around at some of the people who seemed more comfortable in this setting to see what they were doing, picking up a smattering of conversation every once in a while, but most of it tended to go over his head.
“Well, this is the last time I offer to do anything with mom that has to do with decorating her house,” he muttered to himself.
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 1:11 pm
With a job secured, provided he could be on time and earn the job he'd gotten, it was with a smile plastered upon his face that Alexandre stepped into the greenhouse he'd been looking for. The greenhouse labeled, right on the outside, as number fourteen was home to many tropical plants and with the bright colors, and odd appearance, of many of the plants it was a greenhouse he ventured into every time he was here. For whatever reason the family who owned the nursery had a thing for growing as many species of exotic plants as they could, he'd once asked why since such plants weren't common here in most cases. He'd been told something abut branching out and trying to get people to see, and hopefully buy and plant, some less common plants so peoples properties weren't all so boring and...the same. It made sense in a way, most people used the same plants and colors to decorate their homes and it was rather boring to be honest. His and Lily's home wasn't much better as his exotics, and most of his plants, were kept in a backyard greenhouse rather than put on display though.
Glancing around from the greenhouse entrance he spotted what looked to be a rather bored female, though he supposed they could also be lost or looking up something on their phone. Deciding to see if either of the last two things were the case he made his approach. Catching the last words she spoke he now had a better idea of what the problem was, not a person who liked plants and stuck here.
"Sorry to interrupt, but perhaps the problem is also that you don't know much on the plants here so can't help? If you could help maybe you could get things done faster..." Venturing to offer a solution to the obvious problem, and in a round about way offer his own assistance. Might as well start work early, at least in this case. He would not hang around here all day helping every single person, not on a day off and when he wanted to purchase plants himself. Speaking of that his eyes were already wandering to the plants to his direct left where various species of Heliconia were. Each one tall green stalks with bright red, orange, yellow flowers each one looked like a bird of paradise but the color was different and the 'flower' shapes were different as well. But that was because this grouping of flowers were known as false birds of paradise due to how close they looked alike.
"If you want I could assist." His eyes had not yet left the plants, as he thought of just how many he could get and put into his greenhouse. Could he also plant some in the backyard?
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 6:14 pm
Paris turned at the sound of a voice that seemed as if it were talking to him—it had to be, seeing as there didn’t seem to be any other people wandering aimlessly around close enough for the voice to have been meant for them.
The boy in question wasn’t any taller than he was (though Paris could thank his penchant for heeled shoes for giving him a little bit of an extra boost) and not much older, by the looks of it. Paris looked him up and down as if to size him up properly, though there wasn’t much of a point seeing as it was clear he meant to offer help rather than giving him a hard time.
“What, you know about this kind of stuff?” he wondered.
He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Maybe he wasn’t a fan of plants or digging around in the dirt, but he was sure there must be plenty of people out there who enjoyed it if places like this actually existed. It must have been just as likely for a kid his age to enjoy gardening as it was for them to enjoy ballet—or baseball, or video games, or any number of things, really.
Different strokes for different folks, and all that.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” he said. “I’m mostly looking for indoor plants, I guess. Or I should be. Don’t really know which are which. I think mom mentioned outdoor plants, too, but I don’t know if she just wants hanging pots or flowers or what. There’re already tulips at the house, but I figure those are pretty generic for city flowerbeds. Not much space along the front walk to put much else.”
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 7:07 pm
"Plenty. Do you want to know about these plants in particular or something less exotic? Though I should first ask where the plants are meant to go, as in how much sun light. Certain plants will burn in the sun and others will thrive in it." He could name several plants which loved the sun, like the ones he was turning his attention away from. Some though...they just died in the sun. That was one of the biggest things which decided what someone could and couldn't go for.
"Tulips, bright and common, as you said, but they aren't bad. They like full sun, doesn't mean they are getting that. But assuming they are than the plants around us can handle full sun and are bright enough to hold their own. Though they are a bit on the tall side they are certainly eye catching and exotic." Which was why he liked them himself. Full sun was nice to work with, but he liked a lot of the plants it permitted. Though full sun here wasn't the same as full sun in a more southern place so crotons were out, in his mind, the color their leaves were known for would fade even in full sun here.
"For indoors I like vine plants, ivy, wandering jews, orchids are nice also but need a little extra care. I think though, with an orchid, the reward of the flowers and colors is worth the extra attention." He obviously knew his way around a plant nursery. "Do you want to look around here and than the orchids?" He had several himself, but would always look to get more, there were far too many variates of orchid. While he spoke he finally took the time to look over the female in front of him, not for a moment did he think the blond before him was male. He could think of one word to describe them: cute.
"Your mom...no pets? Or does she have a cat or dog?" With Lily and Eamon he knew to take pets into account, and having his own he really did watch what he let Cadha near. He didn't need to come home to his dog having nibbled on the wrong plant.
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:51 pm
“Uhhhh…” was Paris’s first unintelligent response, though it pretty much summed up what was going on in his brain at that very moment.
He’d never been the intellectual type. He certainly wasn’t what one would call a “dumb blond”—he at least had some common sense and a bit of street smarts—but he didn’t usually pick up new concepts as easily as he might have liked, not unless it had to do with physical activity, which was his comfort zone. Plants, he was beginning to think while listening to this kid talk, seemed to be something of an intellectual hobby, if only for the variety and the amount of care that went into raising them.
“S-Sure, yeah,” he said, trying his best to force his brain into motion so he could do more than stand there staring like an idiot. “Let’s look around. Uhh, I’m not sure what rooms Mom had in mind. Maybe the living room and the kitchen. Living room’s in the front of the house. Lots of windows. Facing east-ish, so… I guess it gets decent sunlight. The kitchen, not so much. It’s in the back of the house.”
There. He hoped that was… er… at least moderately helpful.
Paris looked around at the plants they were closest to in the hopes that he might seem as if some of this stuff was actually sinking into his brain. It sort of was. Just not as deeply as he might have liked. He almost wished he had a pen and notebook so that he could write some of it down. He was sure he’d forget some of it by the time he found his mother again.
“Mom doesn’t have any pets,” he replied, “but I have a cat I bring over sometimes. And… she’s expecting a baby?” he tried, attempting a lame joke, “That’s sort of like having a pet, isn’t it?”
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Posted: Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:09 pm
He could see he was causing the others brain to shut down, it wasn't an intellectual hobby per say but it certainly could try ones brain and thought processes. Trying to remember light and what needed what and where to put them, not to mention other factors like what plants were really not something you wanted near animals or children. And that was really a long list, long enough to likely make Santa's naughty and nice list look small.
"Alright, we'll go slow. I don't want to cause you too much distress. We'll find some nice plants for your mother. Perhaps even something you'd personally like." A smile before he found himself chuckling. "I'm not sure I'd make that comparison but it is a rather apt one. It will remove some plant ideas though, I wouldn't want to risk a child eating certain ones or the cat you have. The damage some plants can do, aside from death, can be more than a little unpleasant." Plants always were an old way of committing murder, and for good reason. Most people didn't know what plants did what so easy to get away with plus so many options were out there. You could cover it up even as the person, victim, eating it on there own.
"I won't worry over the yard, I don't think a baby will be eating those plants. The ones in the house however I'll keep that in mind for. What do you think of being a big sister?" Of course he had no reason to think this a male in front of him.
"Oh...what color tulips does your mother have?" He knew a few plants which looked good with them, but colors...Yes, a lot to take into account and think of. It was an art form of a sort in his opinion.
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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:11 am
Paris was definitely beginning to see how it could very well be considered an art. Normally art was a subject he was very well versed in due to his family’s history. This time he couldn’t even try to act as if he had a clue. The most he could do was hope some of it stuck and processed in his brain in a usable fashion.
He smirked slightly at the big sister comment and shifted his eyes up to the ceiling for a moment to consider the merits of letting this poor kid know he wasn’t exactly going to be a sister. A year ago he wouldn’t have even bothered with the correction, but his experiences with Chris had given him a bit of a new perspective. He still didn’t necessarily think it was especially horrible for him to let people think what they wanted, but he supposed if someone was going to be nice to him then they deserved the truth more than someone who was going to be a total jerk.
“Well, I can’t say I’ll ever really know what it’s like to be a sister,” he said once he’d lowered his eyes to look at the other boy again, trying to effect more of a friendly smile rather than an amused one. “But being a big brother was never really anything I’d planned for, so it’ll take some getting used to.”
Paris spoke and acted as if his gender was of absolutely no concern to him, and for the most part it wasn’t. He didn’t mind the questions or the confusion (he couldn’t really blame people when he walked around in short shorts and frilly tops with obviously feminine cowboy boots), nor did he particularly care if someone wanted to refer to him as one over the other. He’d always felt his gender was sort of ambiguous in the first place, treading somewhere in the middle rather than falling into either side. Most of the time he was totally okay with that. Other times… well, he wasn’t so sure.
“If I remember right,” he continued in an attempt to make the boy’s confusion seem as if it wasn’t such a big deal, “there were pink and yellow, red, purple… maaaaybe orange. I didn’t really pay much attention to the flowerbeds out front when we looked at the house, to be honest. But there was definitely a variety, not just one color. Oh, and I know Mom’s favorite colors are blue and purple… not sure if that’ll help pick out anything, but…”
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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 12:04 pm
Startled he turned his head, perhaps a bit too quickly, and stared. Not something he'd normally do, it wasn't polite and it surely made him look bad in a way he didn't want to even when not at some social event. But he was shocked, and understandably so. "I apologize, you make a rather convincing female. Would you prefer I change to male terms, or is it female terms you prefer?" Was this a person who planned to transition or what? He'd actually never dealt with a person who was in that position so he didn't know, and felt it best to ask. He didn't want to insult someone especially when he'd be working here in two days time.
The blond was so calm about his, he didn't seem upset or offended in any way. How odd, he'd have thought this teen would be upset with him for getting it wrong...or putting them in a position of telling him their real gender when they obviously favored looking like a girl. So maybe it didn't matter what terms he used? He'd soon have an answer though, he hoped.
"With all those colors I'd go with something white. Any other color will look good with some but not with others. I think I know something you might like, name and appearance. A bleeding heart, they aren't too hard to care for either. Since it'll be outside I'm not as worried, as I would be if it was indoors, over toxicity though I will warn that children should be watched around it. Eating any part of the plant can have some consequences. The only other problem is that touching it can, in some people, cause a mild skin irritation. Do you want to see it?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 5:48 pm
Paris kept a friendly smile on his face throughout the confusion and the questions. This part of the gender ordeal had never bothered him. They were all valid questions after all, and the other boy was being very polite about it. It was people of a different sort that made the issue so bothersome sometimes. He was glad this situation had not devolved into one of those.
“To be honest, it doesn’t really matter to me,” he admitted. “Most of the time I don’t even bother making the correction, but you’ve been nice, so… I figure I should at least be honest. I’ve been in a couple of situations where the lie’s been worse than the truth and it’s sort of given me a bit of a different perspective on things.”
He’d found that most people appreciated the truth more, even if they didn’t agree with it.
He considered getting a little deeper into the topic, as he suspected there were a few more questions beneath the surface, but he didn’t think now was the time for it unless it was expressly asked. Otherwise, he’d be more than happy to answer. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t been faced with similar questions before.
“I’m Paris, by the way,” he said when he realized they’d gone this long without any introductions. It seemed kind of wrong to have revealed his gender without even putting a name to the face. He even took one of his hands out of his back pockets to offer a shake. “I think I’d like to see this bleeding heart thing, if you don’t mind showing it to me. Kind of a morbid name, though, isn’t it?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 8:01 pm
There were of course other questions, but he didn't think it honestly appropriate to ask someone he didn't know. He wasn't the kid of person who looked and pointed at people or loudly asked embarrassing questions in pulic. He might be a snob, and he knew he was, but he did have his manners. It was just a matter of when and where he wished to implement the lessons his parents had given him. This was one of those places and times.
"Alright, that makes things easy for me." He wouldn't fumble at all, hadn't insulted the other, and he wouldn't feel like one term should be used over the other.
"A parent of yours liked France?" He questioned, grinning at the others name. "Alexandre, my mother had a bit of a French name baby thing." His name was French in nature, it had caused confusion with teachers in the lower years. Where most teachers got the last name wrong, sometimes the first name, his teachers thought his name was spelled wrong on the attendance lists. They'd always ask him if the spelling was right, it was.
"A morbid name but when you see it you'll get it. It makes sense, it looks like a heart that's...bleeding. They come pink or red and white or all white. I'm thinking the all white might work. With the array of colors your mother has I think using pink or red might be too much, neither color works with everything I think. White however works with everything, and it's a nice delicate flower where as the tulip has a large flower. So it should work nicely, not to mention the smell is quite nice as well." And he motioned the other to follow him, leading them out into the sun and and to green house ten. This one had many flowers, like the others, but the flowers this time were vastly different and right in front was what he was looking for. Like he said they looked just like their name said.((A few pics. Might help to have a visual. XXX ))
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 4:50 pm
“My dad was actually born in France,” Paris explained, ignoring the momentary pain in his chest at the thought of his father. “Not in Paris, though. Down south in Marseilles. He moved to the states when he was two. I guess Mom had a thing for it.”
He followed behind the other teen as they left the greenhouse to make their way to one of the others. Paris found that he didn’t particularly mind the company. Sometimes it was a bit of a pain to have other people butting into his business, especially nowadays when he was still trying to cope with his father’s death, but kindness and the show of politeness from others had always been appealing to him. He’d come to notice that more recently, when he stopped to recognize the sort of people his good friends were.
When they came upon the flower Alexandre had suggested, Paris examined it with interest. “Wow, I see what you mean,” he said, noting the shape of the flowers. “That’s almost creepy in a way, but it’s cool, too. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these before.”
Then again, he didn’t spend much time staring at the scenery when he went out, at least not enough for it to make an impact on his memory. He was pretty sure something like this would have stuck, though, what with the notable shape. Most of the gardens in the city tended to look the same. He figured it was a little harder to be original when space wasn’t always as available as it would be in areas less densely populated.
“So when I’m picking out plants I should think of it like picking out clothes?” he wondered as the other boy emphasized the neutrality of white. “Neutrals go with anything, colors should match or contrast in a visually pleasing way, too many accessories looks tacky, that sort of thing?”
That certainly made sense to him. It was much easier for him to remember and take into account than the amount of necessary sunlight and whether or not something was poisonous.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 5:40 pm
That was interesting, he didn't know anyone who had family from elsewhere or were from elsewhere themselves - at least not that he knew of anyway. Nodding his head he tossed a smile over his shoulder. "That's interesting. Should I assume you speak French then?" Not knowing where Marseilles was he didn't mention it, though he did know where Paris itself was. "Did he ever...go back and visit? It seems a lot of people tend to do that, going back to visit their roots." At least it seemed like it, he'd seen it enough on tv, online in stories, and other such things.
Looking over the flowers he held up one of the vines and let the delicate flowers rest in his hand. "Indeed, a little creepy but also quite lovely. They aren't all too common in most peoples gardens though they do well here, it's just everyone seems to do the same." The arrangements were just the only thing which changed, though sometimes you'd get people with very similar arrangements and that annoyed him. At least be different in some way.
"Yes, you can think of it just like that. It's something of an art form, in my opinion. The only other thing you need to consider is how much light a plant can handle, the information tags on the plant or in the pot tells you that. You can burn a plant so other than that yes, look at color and such. It's like fashion, a good way to think of it. It sets a mood, or can tell something to people seeing it." It was the easiest way to explain it, without going into more details such as toxicity of some plants which complicated things. The sunlight though was something always needed consideration.
"So the white bleeding hearts you think?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 7:35 pm
“Dad went back for a while in his twenties, but I’ve never been,” Paris replied. “He taught me French, though, so there’s that. Maybe I’ll get there one day. I don’t really have the means to right now.”
He wondered if that might actually be a good idea one day, getting out and going to France and exploring his own roots. He didn’t expect to see any family, though he was sure quite a few of them still lived there, but even just going to seeing it all, visiting the place where his father was born, the place where one side of his estranged family had originated, and walking the streets of his namesake might offer a bit of closure Destiny City couldn’t really provide him with. And if not that, it would be an experience he’d never had before.
Paris didn’t know how right he’d feel going without his father, however, and as that was a pretty personal subject he didn’t mention anything more about it. That wasn’t the sort of depressing stuff you really wanted to talk about around a stranger.
Instead, he got a closer look at the Bleeding Heart and tried to come to a decision about the plant. Now that he could sort of relate plants to fashion he thought he might have an easier time picking things out if and when he had to. He’d just have to make sure he paid attention to the tags and the information that was provided with them.
“Yeah, I think so,” he said in response. “I mean, I’d have to see what my mom thought about it since it’s her house and all, but I don’t know. I kind of like it. It’s different but… I mean, I guess there’s something sort of romantic about it almost. And this’ll be alright in the front of the house with the most sunlight? The house is pretty close to downtown, so it doesn’t have much of a front yard. Just a flowerbed on each side of the front steps…”
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 8:38 pm
"I'm glad to hear your father went, and I hope you eventually get there. I've only been as far as England but I plan to go to France eventually. I want to see the art, the Louvre." Oh yes, that was a thing he really wanted to do. "I'm afraid though I'll wind up utterly lost, I speak no French and how well they speak English I don't know." He did worry about that, being lost and finding no one to speak a good amount of English, it worried him and kept him from asking his parents for a summer vacation.
"Yup, it can handle the full sun. Any other pertinent information is on the tag, your mom can read it. Watering is fairly normal and if it ever gets pests those are noticeable and can be handled. I've seen the yards downtown, I don't even have a front yard though I do have a backyard big enough for flowerbeds, grass, and a small greenhouse. So I'm happy," Ok, so he really had a thing for flowers. Shrugging gently as he spoke.
"I'll grab one and we can show your mother. If she likes it just let me know how many more are needed and I'll grab them for you." Oh yes, he was starting work early he knew he was and expected a bit of teasing from some of the younger family members here.
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