Welcome to Gaia! ::

Fulgurite still wasn’t quite used to some of the freedoms being eternal provided.

When he wandered through the halls and the offices of the agents and senshi, people generally left him alone, besides for the occasional person who needed to know the way to go. It helped that he had gotten good at wearing the face of someone who looked busy--he wasn’t, not really, but if someone thought he was on Important Eternal Work? Maybe they’d let him be.

On occasion, he considered filing for his own office in this place. Not because he necessarily needed one, but it would provide him a place to hide away. It might have been worth the hassle.

He was derailed from his own thoughts by the gentle ballet music and the increasing scent of pine. It was enough to capture his curiosity. Was someone growing a pine tree in this miserable place? How? Pine could tolerate lower light conditions considering it thrived during the winter season, but he was fairly sure this didn’t apply. Fulgurite had trouble enough with Albite’s garden.

Fulgurite decided to venture closer to the office, because if anything, maybe what he saw would make his life easier.

And what he saw was more plants and a face that brought back memories he hadn’t quite wanted. The events that had led to the two of them crossing paths in the first place, for one.

Fulgurite had not been expecting to be addressed directly, necessarily, but perhaps he should have known better. For one?

For one, he was ******** staring.

He cleared his throat, averting his eyes from the general he was facing for a moment. That general. He had been the one to take over Fulgurite’s care first–or second, if the length of time Bischofite had kept him under his titulege really counted at all–which meant that with the appearance of this general came the reappearance of those days to his mind. Thinking of that confrontation in the alleyway and what it had eventually led to had brought goosebumps to his skin.

Nectaris had coached him out of a lot of the things he learned during the early days, and it left him looking at Benitoite with the same face as a different person. “General,” he cleared his throat. “Well, suppose we’re equals now.” How that had happened was beyond him. When he was “recruited,” that wasn’t a possibility. “Benitoite. I just noticed the plantlife you had in your office and was a bit curious.”

Yeah, that was easy enough.

Hobby for plants … Did having a thing for plants end up common among those of the Negaverse? He supposed this space was … dreary, at best. The constant lack of sunlight was something that Fulgurite was not necessarily comforted in. Plants, he noted, as he walked into the office further, were something that at least made the air feel a little less thick, even if it didn’t necessarily brighten anything up.

“It does look like a greenhouse down here.” Fulgurite had to admire that, at least. Benitoite seemed to know what he was doing. “Bet Prehnite would have some thoughts on this too – have you talked with him?”

… Why was he trying to build connections here? That was the last damn thing he wanted to do.

Maybe it was meant as a distraction from talking about himself, but Fulgurite knew he couldn’t dodge the question forever. “I’m alright,” he fidgeted, toying with the edges of his bangs. “A lot’s happened since I was on your team and since,” well. Anyway, “moved teams a few times. Ended up with Sylvite and then with Albite,” because saying he wasn’t Sylvite’s still felt odd. “Took me a while to get through my super years to get to eternal, but here now.”

He glanced over his shoulder to his Crobat wings.

Unfortunately.

"Opposite, actually," Fulgurite's lips ticked up in mild amusement. In some ways, it was comforting. Not even every General knew everything about every other general, so the concept that they would know a lot about him seem to fall flat. It was hard to convince himself otherwise due to how he was recruited, but perhaps things would be okay? "He loves plants. Think it might be one of the few things he cares about other than his own team."

Perhaps.

His civilian life had always been in a lot of ways more important than his powered life in the Negaverse. By the same token, his civilian life was part of what got him into this mess! He had been recruited in the first place because of his sister's relationship with a half-youma… He glanced away from his wings and back toward Benitoite. "Thank you," because he was supposed to be thankful.

It was no easy feat. That much was true! And he did have his own freedom now, very few people can teleport them elsewhere. But something still felt…

The crystals?

"I think that makes sense, right? The crystals are what essentially grows in the dirt here. Maybe they're in some way nourishing?" Crystals were everywhere here. "Could be providing the nutrients they need to deal with the fact that it's very dark down here."

His instinct went to the floral. It was easier to focus on that than anything else.

Cared about little outside of his team, his plants, and his family … to be honest, a part of it felt familiar. Fulgurite could sympathize with caring about little outside of those close to him, like his family and his boyfriend (and potentially his girlfriend? He wasn’t sure where he stood with Nectaris). By the same token, perhaps he cared too much, and perhaps that was where the problem lied. He hated everything the Negaverse asked him to do. He hated everything the Negaverse saw as normal.

Like the blood, and the fighting, and the killing. Perhaps there had been a point that it was a way to deal with aggression.

Not anymore, not really.

“I can sympathize,” he said, despite all of that. “Family is one of my biggest focuses.” Foci? It was definitely foci–

Plants. He could deal with plants. “Bonemeal is a pretty good additive for soils if you want to encourage the growth of certain plants.” He hummed to himself, thoughtfully. “The crystals might be adding some nutrients that good bonemeal and manure are lacking. Depending on the plant you’re growing, might be worth switching out the soil for something a bit sandier or grittier. Root vegetables prefer that for example.”

He was a florist by trade. This? This he could talk about.

Family shouldn’t be the cause for an officer to abandon their duties and vanish, mm? It impacted some of how he thought already–he couldn’t leave, he couldn’t abandon his family, not the family that the Negaverse already knew about considering Orah had some kind of situationship with the person who recruited him–but it reinforced something that made the bitterness well up in his chest. He couldn’t leave and abandon his family.

The Negaverse also expected him to effectively abandon his family in service of their eldritch goddess and whatever starseed craving plan she had today.

There wasn’t an angle he could win this, was there?

“Might be worth it to look into hydroponic plants, too,” Easy to talk plants. “They don’t tend to need as much soil as their roots are often just hanging and you can spritz those. Some soil is still needed to help keep the plant sturdy and maybe to give them small improvements from any fertilizer, like the crystals…”

Well, at least some of his advice. Did this count as giving a general advice? Did he do his job?

“Honestly,” and he could tell just by looking at them, “I think the crystals are helping.” What were the crystals actually powered by?

Maybe that was a thought he didn’t want to have.

He understood wanting to see something as a certain way and realizing that way was false. That spoke to a lot of his life, really, but he wasn’t here to get philosophical with his former general. That was actually the last thing he needed, or wanted, considering everything – plants was something he could do that didn’t harken back to everything else.

Crystals.

“Lighting is a good idea, beyond general experimentation with crystals. Beyond plants that developed to grow in the shade and the dark, the greater majority of them need sunlight, and even those that don’t could benefit from it sometimes.” This office was going to look like a jungle by the time Benitoite was done with it. Fulgurite couldn’t blame him, necessarily – he also liked plants after all.

Good distraction from everything else, really.

“Sounds like you have a good system for this.” What were those crystals made out of? “Can’t hurt to try mixing them into the water. In theory, could allow more direct absorption and might help the plant growth.”