ataraxion | 003

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003 | Video

[It's not very often that Asato makes a post to the network, preferring to read and hear what others have to say, offering bits of awkwardly-worded input when he thinks it could be useful. He's not one to draw attention to himself, and though it might seem difficult for a relatively big guy with cat ears and a tail, he tends to manage it too.

He's just a quiet guy minding his own cat business, part of which he's spent in the gardens, carefully tending to something each and every day. The result of nearly a year of watering, trimming, checking and double-checking, is what he moves the video feed to quickly after he sees the feed is on, offering only a quick glimpse of his face.]

I have--these.

["These" being a little pile of some kind of fruit. They're somewhere between a peach, an apple, and a currant, the size of a baseball at their largest, ranging from magenta to purple in color. He can't show it through the feed (much as he wishes he could!), but the scent that's coming from them is a strong mix of sweet, sour, and spicy.]

Kuims. Is what they're called. I planted them. I can't eat all of them, but I don't want them to go bad. [Which is why he's happy to offer some to whoever wants to stop by in the gardens and try them out.]

They're really good. In my world, lots of people like these the best. [A great advertiser he is not, but he's trying, and his enthusiasm is genuine.]

Please come have some. I don't need anything in return for them. Um... They're good in cakes, too. [That...should wrap things up, he figures, so the feed gives a shake, comes back to his face one more time, and clicks off.]

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I see. [He looks up and watches Netherlands dissect the kuim, still waiting for the moment he'll actually try it instead of inspecting it. But he's curious all the same to see what Netherlands is doing with it, so he cranes his neck a bit and observes.

Fortunately, they do have seeds inside, a few oblong seeds the size of cherry pits.]

We'll have a lot of seeds. You can keep some too.

Mm.

[A slight hum and he starts flicking the seeds out by knifepoint onto the floor, all in a little gooey pile near his feet. Once he's finished he swipes the knife on his jumpsuit, flicks it closed and shoves it into one of the many pouches the TQ uniform seems to come with.

Looks up at Asato with half a grin.]

Save 'em, we'll plant 'em all.

[Asato brightens considerably when he hears that, happy enough to have one fruit-bearing plant after a year of care and work. But each fruit has a nice palm-full of seeds, and if they plant all those, and they all bear more fruit...they'll end up with so many, he can't even count that high.]

Yeah. I'll look after them. Then everyone will have some to eat.

[Besides the childlike enthusiasm, there's a certain weight to his words that he doesn't seem to realize is there. But having lived most of his years in a valley where very little grew and where what did manage to survive could cut a person to pieces if they tried to gather it up without thinking, it's impossible for him not to value every little morsel of food.]

Freeze some this time, stagger out the plantings...

[Just. Making plans out loud before he takes a tentative, considering bite, no big. They're messier than he'd like and he has to keep his sleeve at the ready, just in case any juice decides to make a break for his scarf. Over his chewing he hears Asato's words and wonders about that, brows raising slightly.]

Might be better not t'plant them all at once.

No?

[He's no expert on this, more used to gathering what he finds on any given day than making long-term plans for growing crops. That doesn't mean he's not interested in learning, though, especially if it'll leave them with more in the end.

For now, he's happy to see Netherlands finally taking a bite out of one. The juice and the mess are just part of the experience, but Asato's probably much less concerned about walking around all sticky than Netherlands is.]

If that's the better thing to do with them, then we'll do that. You know a lot about planting things. So I'll help you do whatever you think is best.

[A nod as he takes another bite and wipes the juice on his sleeve, chews and swallows and takes a moment to try to figure out how to explain it. And shoots a stilted sort of grin Asato's way even though he figures nothing in that was meant as a compliment. It still warms him to get approval from someone as important as Asato.]

If we plant 'em at different times, you won't get 'em all at once again. Could have some every month or two.

[While Asato's certainly happy to get them all at once, or even happy to get some at all, he never considered doing some kind of rotation with the planting. It makes sense, he figures, given that the conditions here are designed specifically to grow edible plants of all kinds, but his mind's still stuck on seasons and soil conditions and things of that nature. All this hydroponics stuff is still a bit out there for a simple country cat.

So his eyes go a little bigger and he can't nod in agreement quickly enough because every month or two--]

You could do that? Really?

[Asato's sincerity is gonna slay him, pretty sure, because all of that excitement over a few little fruits is both endearing and completely understandable. It's how he felt (on the inside) when he successfully grew a few potatoes or how he would imagine he might feel over a good crop of tulips suddenly popping up one day. The enthusiasm is goddamn infectious, so when he leans in and nods it's almost as eager.]

Sure. Dry 'em out and freeze them... I could do it, or I could teach you. If you want.

[In a way, it's not a source of confidence in himself, being able to grow these things, as it is just a sense of relief that yes, they can grow food, the food is edible, there is food to eat that is good. That's a source of reassurance more than personal pride.

But the prospect excites him all the same, because these things aren't just nourishing, they're damn tasty too. And Asato can't not be excited about tasty things.]

I want to learn how.

[Unfortunately he doesn't know enough about where Asato comes from to get it, entirely, and what little that does resonate isn't anything conscious. Regardless he's glad when Asato says he'd like to learn (even if he half-expected that answer), because it's more time they can spend together and it's something the both of them seem to like.

And it's easy, this part.]

Mm. Planting isn't hard.

[Just gonna grab one of the wet cubes and hold it up between his fingers.]

We got a lot of these, already wet. Ready to use. Called rockwool cubes on Earth... dunno what the hell they're made of here.

Rock wool. [He echoes it slowly with a twitch of his ears, stepping closer to have a look at the little cube in Netherland's fingers.] It doesn't look like a rock. Or like wool.

[He looks up from the cube at Netherlands after making that observation, somewhere between simply declaring what he sees and questioning what that's all about, what they're for. Beyond "put a seed in the ground and it will grow" he doesn't have a clue how planting works. But if Netherlands says it's not hard, then he believes him, and he'll try his best not to prove that claim wrong.]

Uh. [Blink. He glances back and forth from the cube to Asato, not sure if he wants to bother explaining it.] No. Guess not.

[Anyway. Rather than explain that it's something about how it's made - he's not sure if it's the same here and really it's not that important - he clears his throat and tilts the cube to show off the little indention in the middle.]

All ya have to do is put the seed in there and put it back in the tray. There's a place where we start everything, keeps them warm an' moist until they sprout. After that we put 'em in the right row.

[Human things are so strange. It's no wonder there were so many of them once.

But he's gotta learn how to use this sooner or later if he wants to grow a sizable, healthy batch of kuims and not have to wait a whole year for more, so he'll put aside his wonder at just how odd some of these things are and pay attention to how it's all supposed to be done. After hearing that explanation, he still can't fully make sense of the whole procedure, but he doesn't really have to. It's not the mechanics he wants to concern himself with, it's the eventual pile of sweet, delicious fruit they'll end up with.]

And then we just grow them like normal? After they're in their row.

[He opens his mouth to say "yes", then closes it, tries again because the answer is actually "we grow them in hydroponics", then has to stop and wonder what normal would be to Asato. What is normal where the sky is never blue?]

Depends. What's normal, for you.

[What usually happens on the ship is that they're planted in the community gardens and the department keeps an eye on things, but if Asato wants to know how to work down here it wouldn't hurt to explain it more thoroughly.]

[Yeah, the hydroponics thing has been the most difficult part of growing his kuims, even a whole year later. Asato's just watched the way other plants grew and tried to treat his the same way, fingers crossed, and it's been nothing but a relief that everything seemed to have gone more or less okay.]

Plant them. And water them. And look at them every day to make sure they're healthy. [Watering them (and giving them food, it's no secret to any cat that the earth nourishes a plant) is covered by the hydroponics, but he doesn't think of it as normal. The way he's described isn't normal either, at least from his experience, but he knows that it should work something like that. After a moment's thought and a glance around the gardens, his lips purse a little and he gives his head a shake.]

No. I mean...the way the others grow here.

Don't need to check every day.

[It's hard to keep a small smile from twitching up the corners of his lips, at that. So careful. And he's pretty sure the same care will be focused on his explanations, too, but showing is probably easier than telling - though he thinks that some of it might still need to be left to the department. Explaining pH to Asato would be a lot more difficult than explaining it to Strider, he thinks.]

Most people let the department take care of the nutrients.

[His attention stays on the plant and the fruit with that explanation. Even if he doesn't need to check every day, and he could leave it to the department, neither of that really feels right, so after a moment he shakes his head before looking back to Netherlands.]

I want to take care of them. And look at them every day.

[Or whenever he's able; he's in here pretty often regardless, so there's no reason he can't.] That's my responsibility. I can handle this many.

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003 | Video

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