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 Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 5:06 pm
A break, for food and drink, had been taken earlier in order to regain some of his lost energy as he was tending to his ever growing collecting of plants. He wasn't adding any more plants to his office, he didn't have the room anymore, but the plants he did have were still growing. Watering can in hand, and his coat laying drapped over his office chair, the petite general was situated behind a small tree and a large bush which was growing dazzling purple hued flowers...which it most certainly should not be growing.
Watering his plants he took a glance about and heaved a sigh, this was taking forevber to get throught. He had an appointment scheduled with their Queen so he could request another place for his plants. His office wasn't the most suitable place for them any longer, and not just due to it's lacking size, but the plants themselves were now leeching energy from anyone who entered his office. It wasn't noticible at first but enough time in his office and it became more than noticible. He knew it was happening so had been pacing himself and taking breaks, he didn't need to be passing out in his office, and the last break resulted in two water bottles sitting on his desk with one of them half empty and the other still untouched. The food he'd had was already gone and the container in the small tash can he kept in his office.
The uv growing lights were a bit harsh for the blonds eyes but he was making due, he had little choice in the matter, his plants did need the light in order to grow. He was hoping for some sort of protected place to grow them in, similar perhaps to walking through a shark tank at an aquarium, as it would allow him to observe his plants through glass and remain safe from their energy leeching. He'd be able to walk into their part of the set up when he needed to water them, or tend to other needs, but for simple observation he could be safe. It was an idea but he wasn't certain such was even possible, perhaps it was just an empty hope or a dream. He did however posess something which could be useful to them all; once he got them out of his office that is.
Yelping as he tripped on a vine, he had not seen that there, he caught his balance as he nearly face planted into yet another tree in his office.
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 7:55 am
"What the ********," Faustite said as his way of announcing himself when he entered the room. "Worse than Preh's office." He grimaced at the humidity, the heat, and worst of all, the surfeit of flammable materials right down to the wooden desk and furniture. Benitoite may as well have posted a sign on the door proclaiming no Faustites allowed for how difficult it would be to avoid burning the whole place down.
As he thought about it, though, burning down the office might be doing Benitoite a favor. It wasn't just Faustite that had trouble navigating the office — the b*****d plants were trying to trip their General, too.
"Heard you had plants in here, but this seems excessive," he remarked from the doorway. Folding his arms, Faustite leaned against the frame as he debated whether he wanted to step in and probably set the place on fire, or have a discussion from the doorway. Doorway seemed just slightly better, all things considered.
"You two in a competition for breeding a man-eating plant, or?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 19, 2023 8:18 am
He couldn't help it, he really couldn't, he laughed at the others non greeting. Bringing a hand up to try and cover, and maybe even smother, his laughter. "I'm not aware of anyone else with plants in their office, much less as many as I've got." He said stepping out into full view. Still as prim and proper looking as usual, despite his slightly messy hair, the blond was staring at the other for a moment. Had they come for some particular reason or just because they'd heard about his plant collection, without knowing the exact size of it.
"Well, if we're competing for creating a man eating plant I'd say I've won, in a round about way. They won't eat a person persay but they now have taken to draining energy. So I suppose they're like vampires...just less messy." Shrugging as he spoke rather casually about such, even whilst standing amongst the flora and fauna which had taken up the whole of his office.
"I've had to take a few breaks in order to regroup, and regain my own energy, while tending to them." Not that it bothered him, it was just part of owning these particular plants. Ones up above had other problems you had to work with, aside from getting dirty and wet, they had bugs...and spiders. Here he at least didn't have that to worry about. He would work with the energy draining since he knew it was happening now, unlike the first time.
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Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 3:48 am
He hadn't made a boy laugh in a while, certainly not unintentionally. It was ever a relaxing and welcoming sound, but Faustite told himself to keep it to business.
As much as gawking at and investigating rumors qualified as 'business', anyway. The plants were the Negaverse's business if they were bothering officers like this, but their draining energy aspect sounded useful at a glance. As he remained in the doorway observing the scene, he inferred that they must have been draining energy to their own ends. The office looked outright overgrown by these things. Perhaps Benitoite was nursing energy-draining plants for now, but they might coalesce into some gigantic plant monster later.
Would be nice, though, if they could stick Rift crystals in the pots like they were those little globe things and use the plants to store energy. They were innocuous, didn't give off an energy signature, and were altogether more suited for the job than a Lieutenant if placed in a decent location.
"What's your plan for them?" He asked, gesturing toward the overgrown foliage. "'Specially if they're draining your energy enough that you have to take breaks." Stealing from a General was stealing from Metallia, after all.
"If you don't have one, I can burn them down for you."
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Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 9:18 am
Tilting his head he smiled at the other. "Isn't it obvious? I can collect the energy they've gathered, I've done it before." Though it had been his own energy he'd been collecting, and consuming, but the fact remainedhe could collect from them. "I'm going to grow more of them and infest the city with them. I have an appointment with our Queen to discuss the idea." Oh that smile of his grew even more, mischevious and just a touch of something else. There was something dark there was the petite General let his finger tips gently ghost down a dark green leaf, moving from one leaf to another, a gentle trailing of his finger tips.
"I always did find it amusing how easily plants can kill and yet people ignore it, they marvel at the pretty colors, and grow them in their homes. They worry about guns and knives but if you really wanted to kill someone it could be done with much less fuss and mess. Most people have the means right in their own homes or yards." He knew he certainly had the means by which to kill a person in his personal greenhouse. He also, unlike most, had the knowledge by which to do so. He might just have to work with the dosing of things, since everyone was different, but he could get the job done if he wanted to.
As Benitoite spoke he kept his eyes on the other. "Most people look at the knife someone holds and not the tea they drink. They look at the obvious threat and ignore the possible ones. That same thing should help these go undetected in the city. The other side isn't likely to look at some plants and see the enemy." It would work to their advantage and could supplament things for the Negaverse.
"I've been using crushed dark crystals in their soil to help with growing down here but it seems to have had other effects on the plants, which I didn't predict, but I doubt anyone will complain once they are put to use helping us." He'd need a lot more crystals though if he expanded this little project of his; which he did wish to do.
"I've also spoken to a General of mine and we'll be testing their medicinal properties against normal counterparts." Using plants he had at home to test them against. "Their changes might allow them to be stronger in that regard as well." With any hope they would be stronger, perhaps even last longer, when used in such manner. It would be nice to have better pain killers avalible to himself; not that he was going to mention that at the moment.
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Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 6:18 pm
"Never been able to drain plants," Faustite returned, incensed. "Why would it be obvious." Rather, in his years as a Lieutenant and a Captain, it was impressed upon him how little return on investment the Negaverse acquired out of anything that wasn't human. Anything lacking a starseed, really. To Faustite, plants draining energy may as well have been wasting it.
He hadn't asked for the lecture about people's preferred murder methods, but Faustite waited it out. He had enough experience with ramblings between Murikabushi and Albite that he could tolerate it better than he used to. Gone were the days that a foaming-at-the-mouth flaming General would be at Benitoite's throat for saying in five hundred words what he could have said in five. He was still irritated by the empty phrases and restatements wasting his time, however.
"More nuanced than that, but go off." Benitoite was still, theoretically, looking for a way to benefit the Negaverse, even if he insulted one of its agents.
Faustite knew nothing about plants. He never kept them when he was human, and he certainly couldn't touch them now. The last plant he had was a cactus given to him by Kamacite, and while he understood nothing of how to feed it or how much light to afford it, he was able to follow instructions like 'water it once a week'. That was as far as he had ever gotten before it succumbed to the Blight, however. All that business about nitrogen fixing stayed in high school biology class, and how crushed crystals applied to plants was far beyond his figuratively and literally black thumb.
"Which of those," he pointed at the plants, "can make Fliegerschokolade, then? Could use agents that go for longer. Better we have the means to restore energy and magic on the fly without starseeds."
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Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 7:09 pm
Staring for a moment at the use of the foreign word he couldn't help but ask about it, because it was a word he was unfamiliar with. "That is that - that word?" He was too afarid to butchering it to attempt to repeat it, but he was certain the other knew what word he meant. "Something to provide energy? I could work on growing such plants. I have ones more used for taking care of pain and other things. But I could add to what I'm growing." But he'd also need more room for that. "We'd have to grow them and see after that if they prove to provide more than normal plants would. But it's something we could work on as a project."
Though he did worry that the crash from such a thing might be worse than crashing from coffee, or espresso, if the plants did more than their natural counterparts would. It could mean a worse crash as well. Again, things to test and study as well.
"I could wrtite up a list of things to test and grow the plants needed for the tests. We could work on a variety of experiments. If I get the green light from our Queen you could offer me some ideas to word on and I can see what cna be done." If anything, of course, he couldn't and wouldn't make promises but he could do his best with what he grew.
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Posted: Thu Jun 22, 2023 10:15 am
"'Flyer's chocolate'. Was used in World War II by Germany. Blitzkrieg practically ran off it, else the soldiers couldn't keep up with those advances. Think it had methamphetamine in it?" Faustite rested a hand on his hip while the other one took over following his words. "If we had something like it, something without the deleterious effects of drugs or starseeds, we could push our own offensives." Were this a known battlefield, it would be easier to push a more traditional war. But with both sides having to shy away from publlic eye, they could but hold these ridiculous, ineffectual skirmishes in an overlong war of attrition.
Faustite nodded to Benitoite's explanation. "See to it that you do." He wanted whatever they could find of it — whatever was useful, if anything. If any plant could be engineered to claim energy to its own ends, and those ends proved promising to the Negaverse, then he wanted every last species exploited for all it was worth.
"Will send you a missive, then. Soon as you tell me when the Queen greenlights you." His knuckles rapped against the door twice, as if announcing his intention for departure. "If they fail to deliver, my offer to burn them down stands."
With that, he pushed off the doorframe with his shoulder and started back down the hall.
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