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Flower Power (15): Destiny City has erupted with colorful wildflowers, both beautiful to look at and surprisingly fragrant. The aroma is incredibly alluring, and it's difficult not to be tempted to get a closer whiff. As expected, it smells even more amazing up close, and immediately after inhaling the aroma, colors seem brighter. Lights appear softer. The world takes on a warm, dreamlike quality where everything feels just a little more magical. Some describe glowing trails of light, shifting colors, or patterns that seem to move when they aren't looking directly at them. Others find themselves unusually cheerful, creative, or sociable. Unfortunately, not every experience is pleasant. What begins as a pleasant daydream can quickly become overwhelming, and the same flowers that inspire wonder in one person may leave another feeling confused, anxious, or trapped in an unpleasant hallucination. The effects always fade with time, maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours, but no one seems quite sure why these flowers have such unusual properties. If you're the type to stop and smell the roses--be careful.
Ilmare usually enjoyed the odd flowers that cropped up this time of year. She had fond memories of the firework flowers a couple of years ago. Even if that Mars knight had been pretty stuffy about things. But even the sham battle had been fun and she’d made sure they used the flowers exploding properties to full effect. So, while she was mildly disappointed that the flowers this year didn’t explode, she was still eager to visit and experience them for herself. And she’d heard that this batch smelled amazing. Ilmare loved amazing.
As she neared the field, she felt an Order aura somewhere within, but dismissed it for now. There were pretty flowers to ogle and the breeze was already sending a faint whiff of fragrance towards her. Inhaling deeply, the corrupt decided that she needed to get closer. The smell was, to her, like some delightful blend of dandelion, rose and lily. And she wanted to be right in the middle of it.
__
Nemausa hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the flowers. He had no idea what kind of flowers they were, but he had at least confirmed that not all Earth flowers had that effect; he’d eaten several flowers from random yards and parks just to make sure, and none of them made him feel even remotely as good as the ones in the fancy field had.
So he had to go back. Obviously. He got the feeling - from hearing people talk more than any reasoning on his part - that the unusual activity in the city was somehow time-limited, so he made his way back to the field with a quickness. That was why he’d powered up: he was faster that way, and if he missed out on the flowers because he ran too slowly…
But he didn’t. Something in him unclenched and he grinned, making his way happily toward the field, once again on all fours as he galumphed his way closer. When he reached the edge of the field, though, he pulled up short.
Someone else was in his field. And they did not feel like a friend. They made his ears itch. The ear-itching people were not good. This, too, he had mostly learned through observation more than any personal experience, but…still. He narrowed his eyes slightly and straightened up, walking slowly into his field. His field.
On Nemausa, if someone tried to take your stuff or your place, you just jumped them and tussled until one of you ran away. He had learned that Earth did it a little differently - but not always, and not always that much differently.
…But the flowers were nice, and he didn’t want to roll over them and destroy them. The thought almost caused him physical pain.
“...Hi,” Nemausa said, still squinting suspiciously at this interloper. “Who’re you?”
—------------------------------
The appearance of a strange, mouse-earred senshi was less than pleasing, given the whole… mouse ears thing, but Ilmare held her peace and instead did her best to soak in as many details as possible. Seeing actual alien looking people still startled her. But other than mousey features, this person just looked like… a person. Not so scary when she looked at it like that. So she kept her expression pleasantly neutral and continued to sit in the middle of the flowers.
“It is customary,” she answered gently, “to at least introduce yourself when demanding someone else’s name.” The chiding was mild, but the meaning was clear. She knew this senshi wasn’t from Earth. She was trying, in her own way, to give them some helpful tips. “I can’t say I don’t understand why you’re looking so bristley at me, because I get it, corrupt senshi. Blah blah blah how dare I exist. I’ve now just saved us a good ten minutes of pointless philosophical debate. Hooray!”
Okay, maybe that had been a little mean, but she was so tired of having the worst assumed of her when she literally wasn’t doing anything beyond existing. She knew down to her bones that the side she’d been conscripted on were The Bad Guys. She was working on fixing that. But things took time to do safely. But that wasn’t something she was about to share with a complete stranger. So instead, she patted the ground beside her.
“For ******** sake, sit! I am not giving myself a sore neck looking up at you. And I’m not up to anything nefarious. I just wanted to enjoy the flowers while they last. And I’m Ilmare. And, in spite of what I said about introducing yourself, I’d prefer to not know your name. I can’t be forced to report on what I don’t know, y’see? If they don’t have names, it keeps y’all a bit safer. Not by much, but a bit.”
It was something at least.
—--------------
Nemausa blinked at the Earthling, ears drooping slightly as she spoke. Yep - if they made his ears itch, they were probably mean. She was kind of mean. He hesitated, not entirely sure if wanted to sit down with her, but then she softened a little bit and said something about not reporting on him.
He didn’t know what that meant, nor did he know what ‘philosophical debate’ was, but…he understood just wanting to sit in the flowers, so cautiously, he did just that, and joined her.
“...The flowers are nice,” he finally said, because she’d gotten him so turned around he couldn’t remember what, if anything, he’d been planning to say otherwise. He still felt vaguely possessive of them, of the field itself, but even on Nemausa, he had always been willing to share. Even with people who were kind of mean. So Nemausa decided he could share his field, if just for a little while.
He picked up one of the flowers and nibbled on the edges of its petals, then paused, remembering what she said about customs. He glanced around, then landed on a pretty pink flower, plucked it, and held it out to her.
“Do you want to try one?” Nemausa asked, absolutely no guile on his face. “They’re really good!” At least, to him. His other new best friend hadn’t cared for them, but that was okay - more for Nemausa! Maybe this Earthling would have a better-developed palette for what was obviously an Earth delicacy.
—--------------
Nodding agreeably, Ilmare was pleased when the strange little senshi sat down. Progress, of a sort, was being made. “Aren’t they?” she replied, eyes half closed in quiet contentment. “Maybe not as fun as the flowers we got a couple years ago, those exploded and got everyone covered in glowing dye, but still pretty nice. And they are certainly better than weird lilypads, avoid those if you can, by the way.” She was speaking casually, as she would to anyone who was obviously from out of town. She’d found that it saved some time in the long run.
All the same, the offer of a flower startled her until the words registered. Her little alien was asking if she wanted to eat a flower. Clearly he had, could and was eating them, but if he was part mouse, that was a natural thing to do, right? Holding up a hand, she answered politely, “Thank you, but no. I’m afraid my stomach isn’t built for eating flowers like this. You’ll just have to tell me how they taste, I guess!”
—------------------
Nemausa shrugged easily and retracted the flower, nibbling at the edge of it. “Hmm…this one is very…fruity. Sort of….frothy?” Nemausa tilted his head slightly as he considered. “Like bubbles. I didn’t know flowers could make bubbles on Earth, but I think it’s neat that they can!” Nemausa gave her a smile and absently scratched at the base of his ears; they were still itching like crazy, but she wasn’t being so mean now, so maybe his ears could get it wrong sometimes? Hmm…
“You had flowers that exploded?” Nemausa said, raising his eyebrows slightly. He held the flower in his hand slightly away from his face, even though he’d eaten many of them with no explosions so far - he didn’t want to find the kind that did explode when it was already down in his tummy.
“What’s wrong with the lilypads? And also what are lilypads?” Nemausa asked, frown deepening slightly. “Do all plants on this planet have some way to try and hurt you, except these pretty little flowers?” Nemausa glanced around, eyes landing nervously on the trees in the distance. If the flowers could explode, what could those things do? He shuddered slightly. They didn’t have greenery like this on his planet, which he’d been sad about until the whole ‘exploding flowers’ lore dropped; perhaps Nemausa was better off without.
—---------------------
There were flowers that made bubbles? This was news to Ilmare. And what did ‘frothy’ taste like anyway? Still, it was interesting enough hearing how someone else was experiencing the flowers. Still, she had to chuckle, just a little, at how suddenly the mousey enshi held the flower he was eating away from his face. “Don’t worry, I have seen the exploding variety in a couple of years. They were perfectly safe, no one lost any important bits. The worst that happened was if you brushed against them, they exploded more like a smoke bomb. A lot of colored smoke and splashes of stuff similar to glow in the dark paint, but not. If those,” she pointed to the nibbled flower, “were of the exploding variety, you would have known way before the first bite.”
As for the lilypads, Ilmare tilted her head to the side and studied the other senshi. “Have you really never seen a lilypad before?” It was so odd to talk to someone who hadn’t experienced what was a fairly common earth plant. How to explain… “Okay, so some places on earth have flowers called water lilies. Do you have a phone? I can help you with an internet search if you do. But basically, these plants grow in water. Mostly lakes, though. I’ve never seen any in moving water. The plant is this big floating leaf and the flower grows kind of in the middle. You see them a lot in curated gardens since they’re pretty striking looking.” She paused a moment, deep in thought before continuing. “This year, a lot of lilypads have sprung up, a lot bigger and sturdier than normal. I went out to investigate some because of a gut feeling and they wound up having these weird, angry and hungry frog monsters under them. Not youma, by the way. But they were tough to fight. So, if you come across any, I just wanted you to know to be careful. And no, Earth plants don’t really try to hurt you.”
She’d decided against mentioning the tree monsters that she’d encountered in the past. Instead, she decided that this little mouse needed a crash course in Terran botany. “Most plants are harmless. Some are poisonous though, so be careful of what you try to snack on. If you have a phone, I can show you an app you can use to identify them. Just exercise a little caution, right? I mean, plants are alive too and all living things want to survive and they’ll adapt and evolve in order to do so. As long as your first response to a plant isn’t to stick it in your mouth straight away, I think you’ll be fine.”
—-----------------------
Nemausa considered this. After a beat or two, he handed over his Senshi phone, which was of course the only phone he had, as he had never even heard of the concept of a telephone before landing on Earth.
“It kind of is my first response,” he admitted, ears drooping a little as he confessed this. “To most things, not just plants. It’s a good way to tell if something is friendly or not and to figure out the rules of a place.” Once again, he thought of the library - he wanted to go back there, but he was sure that the scary lady in charge of the place wouldn’t let him back in even if he was dying to death on the front doorstep. “Plus sometimes it’s yummy! And when it’s not yummy - well, my tummy’s pretty strong,” he said, patting his stomach appreciatively.
“But…poison might be stronger than my tummy,” he continued, with no little bit of consternation. “So…I guess if there’s a way that thing can tell me if the thing I want to eat is poison, and you don’t mind showing me…” Nemausa looked back at her and smiled, almost shyly. “I would really like to know how to do that. Thank you.”
It was only when he looked at her full in the face did he notice - her head! It was–it was broken! Anguish crossed over his features, but he really did his best to keep his voice level and normal when he spoke. “Um. Does. Are you. Are you okay?” Nemausa gestured to the spot on his own forehead. “Do you…need help? Has that always been there?”
—-------------
Flattered as she was by how he handed his phone over to her, Ilmare wanted to be sure that they were both staying safe here. Handing the phone back, she grinned, “I’m just gonna tell you how to find the info, hon. You gotta do the work yourself or you won’t learn. So, plant identifier first. Open up your internet search and look for ‘Picture This Plant Identifier’. I use it on my phone and it’s pretty easy. Just open, take a picture and it’ll find the closest match. Download it onto your phone and you’re good to go there! Once you have that, you can google lilypads.”
She was cheerful enough as she gave directions, though she nodded quite emphatically in agreement that having something that would tell him what was poisonous would be a Very Good Thing, Indeed. He might have an iron gut, but why take that sort of risk?
“If you really wanna eat flowers, go for dandelions,” she began. “I know for fact the whole damn plant is edible and safe. At least until it goes to seed.” She would have said more, but the sudden anguish on his face when he actually looked at her made her go still. Her smile turned a little sad as she held out a hand for his. “It’s been there since I was awakened,” she said softly. “You can touch it if you like, I promise that you won’t feel a hole or anything too distressing. It doesn’t hurt. It’s just… there.” She slid past the question of if she was okay or needed help. That wasn’t a subject that she felt comfortable burdening a stranger with. Particularly one as innocent seeming as this little mouse. Get him used to life on Earth first. Then they could worry about how Corrupts fit into the narrative.
—--------------------
Nemausa did not know what an internet was, or how to search for one. Nor did he know how to spell these Earthling words. But he didn’t want to look stupid in front of his new friend, so he just mashed buttons until he got to what he was pretty sure was the right place, and did what she said. Tried to, anyway.
Maybe he’d just continue to roll the dice with the poison/not poison thing.
But he couldn’t do that, not really. Finally, he let out a sigh. “How do I–what buttons make those words? The Picture Plant thing you said?” He didn’t try to give her the phone again, but the frustration was clear on his face. He wasn’t trying to be useless or unappreciative of her help, he just -
Earth was an awful lot to deal with, sometimes. And he didn’t even have a hole in his head! This poor Earthling…
“Sorry,” he said quietly, shaking his head. “Sorry.” He hesitated a moment, then took her offered hand in his, but didn’t try to touch her beyond that. “I’m sorry you awakened with a hole in your head. It–it’s really not–not fair how it happens sometimes. Being Awakened into all of this.” It wasn’t fair his planet was dead, it wasn’t fair he was on a planet full of strangers, and it wasn’t fair that the itching in his ears was insisting that this nice Earthling was a bad guy.
It just wasn’t fair at all.
“Can I help you? At all?”
—------------------------
Oh. OH. He was even more innocent than she’d imagined. Poor, poor thing. Giving his hand a friendly squeeze, she scooched a little closer to him and began to point out the places to touch on his phone. “You’re kind. That’s worth a lot more than you might think,” she answered gently. “And don’t you worry your cute, mousey ears. We’ll get you set up. How much Earthling can you actually read? No shame there, by the way, there are plenty of people who grew up here who’re a lot older than us who can’t read. Here, let me get my phone and I can show you the spellings…”
True to her word, she got out her own, regular ol’ phone and pulled up a note app in order to type out words for him. “Okay, see this word here? That’s ‘plant’. And this one is ‘picture’. Now, see that bar there? That’s your search feature. Type this,” she typed quickly and then held her phone where he could see if. “I’ll get you as up and running as I can before I have to head home. And word of advice? Find senshi friends. Or knights. There are some good ones out there. But if you see senshi with this,” she pointed to her forehead and chest, “be careful. I can’t emphasize that enough. Be even more careful if you see senshi like me, but with cracked looking skin because I don’t think there’s any possible reasoning with them.” She didn’t like to bring up the Ascendeds when she only had brief glimpses and rumors to go on. But those rumors were more than enough for her to know that they were Bad News. And it tore at her soul to imagine this little mouse at their non-existent mercies. “Oh, there’s the app you want. Go ahead and touch that icon so it’ll download. Once that loading bar fills up, it’ll be downloaded to your phone and you just have to touch the icon to open it. Easy peasy, right?”
She made her voice coaxing, encouraging. If she had her way, her little mouse was going to stay good and safe. Whatever it took. And as the night deepened, she showed him other words and apps that would help make his life a little easier. By the time she had to leave, she was comfortable enough to reach over and give his hair a friendly ruffle.
“Time for me to head home. You take care hon. I hope I see you again, I really do.”
Standing up, she saluted, then grinned and waved before heading off. As she walked, she caught sight of a blue-ish glimmer and reached down to pluck a sapphire star charm from the grass.
