Summary:Koriand'r meets Eve in the public park Log Info:Storyteller: Starfire |
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~~
It's a bright and shiny morning in Washington Square Park. People are coming and going, you know, doing their usual things because of course they are. New York is New York.
Amongst those people is one blue-haired Goth Girl who's kneeling down by some shrubbery and taking photos of it with her phone camera and making notes of it. She's hard at work, it seems. She's a recognizable sort — both as the minor heroine Morning Glory, if you're tuend into that kind of thing deeply enough, and as rather estimable gardenr who's been profiled for her work on some of the finest gardens in the New York area.
She's also a shameless cheater about it.
~~
"I ask of you for the excusing, please!"
Eve's light is blocked by someone stepping into the path of the sun and casting a shadow over her. A /long/ shadow. The newcomer is dressed wholly inappropriately for the late February weather in New York; low-riding jean shorts, calf-high cowgirl boots with a modest riding heel, and a baggy off-the-shoulder sweater that proclaims HARVARD in a clash of white and crimson.
All that exposed skin is a suspiciously brilliant shade of orange. Almost a luminescent, really, in certain lights, and impossibly healthy. The woman speaking is bent deeply at the waist, stooping waaaay over so her long and (almost literally) fire-red hair scrapes the grass. It puts her head on level with Eve's. Her hands are clasped politely behind her back and her intense green eyes sparkle with inner light and no trace of self-consciousness. "I see that you are photographing flowers! And you look like the girl on The Instagrams who calls herself Morning Glory," the orange-skinned woman explains. "Are you the person I am thinking of? I will be still very happy to meet you if you are not!" she assures Eve, cheerily.
~~
You know, the world has gotten progressively stranger for Eve over the decades she's been alive. Sure, /she's/ gotten progressively stranger, since she was turned into a horrible beast of vegetation and tentacles and maws and oh god how can you have that many eyes and so on.
None of that, of course, prepares you for a drop-dead goregous alien princess showing up looming over you in inappropriate clothing for the weather. Eve, herself, is dressed appropriaately…
.. for a Goth.
"…well, that's /one/ name I go by. I don't run that instagram. It's a creepy fan account. Hi."
She blinks her eyes, slowly, once up at her.
She is trying to find her brain. It's around here somewhere.
~~
"Then I am doubly happy!" the orange woman declares, with total sincerity. "I am pleased to find the person I was looking for. Not that I was looking for you," she amends. "I am a Great Fanatic of yours," she explains. She's still bent almost in half at the waist and doesn't seem bothered at all. One might also observe she's a little deeper in Eve's personal space than most find comfortable.
"You see, I, too, enjoy the growing of plants. The horticultures," she amends. "That is such a wonderful word!" Her hands clasp together. "Horticulture horticulture horticulture. One could say it *many* times without getting bored."
"I wish my garden to grow better than it has been doing and on the social media you're always saying 'Hit me in the comments with questions'. I do not wish to hit anyone, and I don't know how to hit someone in the comments in any case. May I just ask you some normal questions about gardening?"
~~
Eve takes a deep breath and leans away from her, back onto her hands, to put a litle space between the leaning tower of Kori and herself.
"Yeah, okay. You can… you can ask me questions. That would be fine. Very fine. Okay."
She is staring. Staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaare.
She's not even blinking for a moment.
~~
"How very wonderful!" Kori declares. She straightens to her full height— six five in /low heels/— and then kneels smoothly on the ground, heedless of grasstains on her knees. She peers owlishly at Eve, not blinking either. "I have been trying to grow tomatoes and they are not producing any fruit," she explains. "Not even the wrong kinds of fruit. Just no fruit at all. I was confused earlier on and I tried fertilizing them with vegetable grower, despite them being clearly fruits. Do you think that is the reason that they are not growing? I also tried singing to them. That did not help either."
Her immaculate features fall, crestfallen. "Do you think my singing was so bad that it scared them into not growing?" she asks, dismay in her voice.
~~
"…no. No, I do not think your singing is to blame, given that's completely irrelevant to what plants need. There's a lot of folklore about what plants crave. In reality, all they need is the right tempreature, the right soil, the right light, and the right amount of water. If it's not blooming then you're deficient in one of those categories, generally speaking." She leans back a little further because Kori is, frankly, more than a bit intimidating despite herself.
"Do you, uh, have any pictures of your plants that I could see…?" She's happy to help.
Because, frankly, this is a bit weird.
~~
Kori continues the non-blinking conversation with Eve, though she at least doesn't pursue the other woman when she leans backwards. Ebullient, yes, but relatively harmless, it seems.
"Why yes! I have many pictures, on my intelligent telephone!" She reaches into the back pocket of her shorts and produces a phone, flicking through the pictures before showing it to Eve. Whatever Kori's growing, it is very definitely *not* a tomato vine. The leaves are smooth and spear-shaped, each sporting a subtle curve and twist. If anything, it looks like a hot pepper plant. The fact that it's being grown in a closet without any direct sunlight probably isn't helping, either.
~~
You know, she suspected that might maybe be the case. At least it's not a pot plant. Those get grown in closets all the time.
Eve lets out a sigh. "Soooo. Where to start. Okay, so, fiiiiiirst… not a tomato. That's /probgably/ a hot pepper. Did someone tell you it was a tomato? Two, it's not getting enough direct sunlight. You nede to put it somewhere else." These are the obvious things to say, and well, she's noty sure what else to say. She's a little worried that hearts might get broken or something, given how earnest she seems. Earnest Alien Princess.
She closes her eyes, finally.
~~
"Hah! I have won the game of not blinking!" Koriand'r cheers herself. "Do not feel bad, friend Glory. I am the best at the not blinking game and the contests of Staring. You were a worthy adversary!"
She examines her phone, twisting it this way and that to look at the picture. "Ah! Yes, someone told me it was a tomato plant. Well, he said it was a 'potted plant'," she amends. "And then he winked, and said it can be grown indoors," Kori clarifies. "I told him very emphatically I wanted a *tomato* plant and he got very angry when I told him the leafy buds he had were not anything *like* tomato seeds!"
"And then he said I needed fertilizer and water and lamps. I bought fertilizer and water at the garden store but I have lamps, so I just put a lamp in my closet. And some music," she adds, again.
~~
There's a long suffering sigh.
She knows where this is going to go.
"How about I go with you and I get you a nice tomato plant and then you can grow that, you know?"
She rubs an eye with a knuckle.
And then blinks again. She remembers to blink.
~~
"You would do this for me?" Kori clasps her hands under her chin with a gasp of awed gratitude, eyes shining. "That would be most gratifying! I wish to make the salsas next week for my friends and I was told that growing my own tomato would make for the best possible salsa mix. Unfortunately, the lack of tomatoes has been a challenge so far."
She levitates(!) to a standing position and unfolds her legs so she's standing, and offers Eve a helpful hand up. "Where can we go to obtain a tomato plant? Is it not better to start with the seeds?" she says with polite hesitation.
~~
"WEll, I mean, if you want to go through the whole process, sure, of growing it yourelf. But I'll just, you know, provide. And then you can grow from seeds. Wouldn't want you to miss your, uh, salsa making opportunity." OH, she has to contribute to that. Because it seems quite possible that Salsa made by this Alien Princess will be a complete disaster and she wants to hear all about it later.
Like some journalist making queso.
Anyway, she accepts the hand after a halting moment and lets herself be pulled up.
~~
"Wonderful!" Kori doesn't let go of Eve's hand. Which would be slightly awkward, except a moment later Eve's feet come off the ground too as Kori starts *flying* without any external apparatus or power. "I should not wish to miss an opportunity either. Fortunately, I still have yet to find the friends for whom I'd serve the salsa. So I believe there is time!"
She gets about fifty feet off the ground and turns in a low circle over the park. "Which direction are the tomato plants? I have been looking for the garden in this park and I cannot find any tomatoes or fruit trees or anything! I assume I am not looking in the right places— I have not checked the bathrooms, but they smell very bad and I think they are perhaps not a good place for growing food anyway."
~~
"…ohgod," says Eve as sh raises up into the air. "Woo! This is actually pretty cool! Not only are you an orange alien from god knows where but you can FLY?" That's pretty cool, honestly.
"Tomatoes don't normally grow among the plants out here in the city. Why don't we go to your place where you've got your plant and I'll replace it with a tomato plant for you? I can take care of it — seriously. Just take me there!"
She feels weird about suggesting that, but well, you know, it'll work. She's clearly got some place to go and she knows what she's doing.
~~
"I am sure your god knows where Tamaran is!" Kori calls down to Eve, cheerily. "It is a very famous planet and we have been spacefarers for thousands of years!"
She banks southwest, a glimmer of green light flickering in her wake as the wing tugs at her thick, unbound red hair. They approach a building that could be better described as an urbanization project; it's decrepit and worn down, and the neighborhood looks fairly unsavoury as they streak overhead. Starfire hovers near a window, opens it, and helps Eve inside. It's a tiny one-bed apartment, with a kitchenette and a table barely big enough for two. The decor is thirty years old, at least, and looks more 'painted over' than repainted in the last few rounds of renovations.
"This is where I have been growing my tomato plant," Kori says, and opens the door to a tiny utility closet. A mop, broom, rag, bucket, and container of Borax share the space with her pepper plant, which is producing nothing but oxygen at this point. A desk lamp with a paper shroud is next to it. "I wish I had a garden as big as yours! It did not look like the ones on your Facebook page. I would very happily turn that entire green lawn into a place for patching pumpkins," Kori explains.
~~
So.
Flying.
Believe it or not, it's not Eve's first trip throiugh the air. She's been around the block a few times on the superhero scene and flying isn't an uncommon power. That said, if you can't do it yourself, it never ceases to be a mix of exhilerating and terrifying. She's tense through the whole trip, even if she ventures the occasional smile that's practiced enough to never quite reach more than a wan one. She's goth, after all. You can never let yourself be caught expressing joy.
Once she's back on her feet, the plant is exposed, and there's a pepper plant to look at, she sighs.
"Okay, sooooo. Let's take it out of the closet and put it where it belongs, in the window."
She bends down to pick it up and carries it towards the window, setting it on the center of the table. There, she carefully explains, "Since you know I'm also Morning Glory, I have control over plants and… wait, you think that whole place was mine? It's not. It belongs to everyone around here. It's a public park, not a private garden. Oh, geeze.. Okay. Uhm. Anyway, most people can't do this. I'm just going to change your plant into a tomato plant and provide you some seeds so you can grow your own too. Okay? Okay!"
She lays her hand beside the plant and focuses on it, and indeed, it begins to rapidly /grow/ and /change/ and bloom before their very eyes.
That is no longer a pepper plant. She has, quite literally, just changed it into a tomato plant before their eyes.
Cheater.
~~
Kori gasps in awe, covering her mouth with her hands. Her eyes shine at the sight of leaves shifting and buds sprouting. Green to orange to a ripe ripe red, and Kori picks up a succulent tomato and takes a bite out of it. She chews several times.
Then she spittakes into the sink. "Oh! Ugh! That is terrible!" she says, eyes watering, and sticks her head under the faucet to run water into her mouth. "By X'hal, it's like licking a Zornian muck beetle! Why would humans grow such a terrible tasting fruit?" she demands, aghast.
~~
"…well, we usually mix it with other stuff. Not too many people just eat the tomato straight off the vine." says Eve, trying not to laugh. She mostly succeeds. "Or it could taste different to you becasue you're an alien and who knows what your taste buds are like compared to our's." Of course, Eve isn't entirely human either. Actually, she's not even slightly human, though this is less than apparent.
"Welp! I, uh. Well. Anyway!"
~~
"Perhaps the salsa will taste better," Kori says, trying to fend off a tone of dismay. "The Home of Ladies and Gardens suggested that I need two tomatoes per person. If I invite a hundred friends over, that will be two hundred tomatoes!" She picks up a magazine from the table and flips to a recipe in the back, holding it out for Eve to look at. "Fortunately I am not sure if this apartment can accommodate one hundred friends, so I think that might be an overestimation. And I am sure some of them wouldn't like tomatos either," she assures Eve. "So I hope the… six that I still have will be sufficient. I am very much filled with the gratitudes," the towering redhead princess tells Eve. "I wish I had some means of repaying you. Here is the leftover change from my Starbucks this morning. It is two quarters, a dime, and three pennies," she says, gravely. "But it is quite hard metal so it's much more useful than those silly paper bills people insist on."
~~
Finding the change in her hand, Eve just sort of looks at it. "But…"
"You… have a lot to learn about living in New York," she says, after a long halting moment where everything else she'd say would be some degree of sarcastic, ironic, or possibly both. And she's not really sure she can bring herself to do that to Kori, it seems, given the various expressions that go over her face. "Salsa is pretty good. If you like spicey stuff, anyway." Blink. Blink.
Some days are just bizarre. This is one of them.
~~
"Yes, I do love the spicy stuff," Kori says, enthusiastically. "And I am learning much about living in New York! I have only been here a few months and I have learned so much. For instance, I learned from the rental agency that this apartment was a 'very good deal'," she explains, gesturing around her. "And earlier today, someone explained to me today how they could use my cards of credit to help earn me money! Alas, I have no such cards," she sighs. "If I did, I would help that poor prince of Niger who sent me the electronic mail."
"But you, friend Glory, have been most helpful. I am very much in your debt," Starfire tells the metahuman botanist. "Perhaps you will join me, upon the feastday of the Fifth of May when I make the salsas!"
~~
It is indeed dawning upon Eve that it is a good thing indeed that Kori does not, in fact, have any lines of credit. "How exactly are you paying for /this/ place?" she asks, after a moment. "Uh, thanks for the invite. Yeah, you're not in my debt. It's no big thing, okay?"
She looks down at the tomato plant. Then back up at the fruit that she's talking to.
~~
"With money!" Kori explains, cheerfully. "I offered to pay with knowledge of ancient history and the music of my homeworld, but I was told that they required 'cash'. Cash, on Earth, is dollars. So I have been looking for ways to make a 'quick buck'. My apartment neighbor has said often he could think of a way I could make a 'quick buck'. I have seen many women coming and going from his apartment and he wears a great deal of valuable gold, so he seems to be making money quickly!"
"I would welcome a slow dollar equally, though, so I am currently looking for a 'the job'," she explains. Is she hovering again? She's hovering again, boots not quite touching the floor.
"I have been paid for transporting parcels and messages across the city. I tried delivering pizza but it kept getting mysteriously crushed sideways when I landed. I had the same problem with burritos, and I believe that is why dubyew-dubyew-dubyew-dot-door-dash-dot-com suspended me. So I am being a courier of information only, now."
~~
She knew she wasn't going to like hearing any of that. She closes her eyes for a moment and then draws in a deep breath. Also, 'cause the flying kinda creeps her out. "Yes. I can see how that might be a problem… Ahj. Information. Are you, like… delivering missives? Or memorized messages or something?" She asks, carefully, having a feeling she isn't going to like this answer either. Who knows what terrible things could be being caused by an innocent alien princess.
Also, she's hovering and, as stated, it kinda creeps her out.
~~
"I am delivering paperwork, I believe," Kori explains. "It looks and smells like paperwork. And I filled out many many many pieces of paper while I was emigrating here. Sometimes, it is digital however, and I am given a 'flash drive'. I do not understand why they call it a flash drive; it doesn't emit light. And it does not function as a digit of the hand, so I do not understand why it's called a 'thumb', either," she explains. "But it makes people angry when I ask these questions. I am glad you are not angry!"
When Eve opens her eyes, Starfire's inches from her face, staring down at her with an expression that'd be worried if it wasn't for the fact that her eyes are, y'know. Glowing with faint irradiation.
"Am *I* making you angry, friend Glory?"
~~
"Oh. WEll. That's not so b-AHHHH," that's when Eve opened her eyes, of course, and there's a Kori right in her face and she takes a step back and trips over the chair and falls on her ass with an immense crash.
It's all very graceful.
~~
Kori watches all of this with wide-eyed solemnity. "Did you mean to fall?" she asks Eve.
"I would normally catch you. But I caught a man in the park when he fell, and he got very mad at me! Perhaps the facepaint he was wearing makes him angrier than usual. Or clumsier, as many of his fellows in warpaint were falling over when they hit each other with the large hollow mallets and the water concealed cunningly in a posie."
She brightens, hovering over Eve. "Do you think they were practicing for a war dance? I would be offended too if someone interrupted my tumbling."
~~
"Ow."
Eve is laying there on the floor.
"No," she manages to wheeze. "No, I did not mean to fall. In fact, I would have preferred being caught this time. But i'm okay! Really! What you saw a… thing, yes. That other thing. Not this. This was a legit fall. Owwwww?" she lays there on the ground to get her breath back.
~~
"Ah. Well, next time I will try to move more quickly," the Tamaranean assures Eve. She offers the other woman a hand to her feet. "I am grateful for your assistance, friend Glory. But I regret that I must end this social interaction," she says, with a tone of great and sincere sorrow. "This is a busy time of day for couriers and I am hoping I may even apply for a job with James Jones'. They make delicious sandwiches!" she says, beaming a smile with eyes shut and hands clasped near her cheek. "But I understand the owner prefers to be called 'Jimmy'. I only hope he doesn't think me too informal."
"May I call upon you for advice another time, friend Glory? I would be most grateful for your insight and wisdom.":
~~
Oh god noooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
That thought is what races through Eve's mind.
"Of course you can," is what comes out of her mouth. "And please be informal. Call me Eve. Please. Can… you take… me back to the park? That's where my car is."
She doesn't want to forget that part. It's an important detail.
~~
"Yes, I can!" Kori says. She nods enthusiastically and beams a smile at Eve.
AM "Okay. Let's do that. Take me."
Eve holds a hand out.
Kori probably hears that line a lot.
~~
"Wonderful! Hang on tight, friend Glory!" Kori steps behind Eve and wraps her arms around the other woman's midsection. The Tamaranean hugs Eve close and then zips out the open window with Glory cradled close, a blurry green streak of light heading back towards the park!