Open RP in A's Garden

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

The encounter with Delirium in the Popcorn Room had disturbed A deeply. He hadn't realized quite how changed he was until suddenly his mind had been back then. Wishbone's welcome distraction had gotten him away from her, but he still felt the weight he'd spent the last few years pulling himself out from under.

He tried to focus. It wasn't planting time yet, but he'd drawn out plans for new beds in his garden, butterfly-attracting flowers around the gazebo, and the worked the dirt there now, preparing. It gave him something to think about that was now.

As long as he could keep from looking at his inevitably bleeding scraped knuckles...

Comments

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

Kurama tilted his head. He may have been the go-to demon for knowledge obscura on all manner of plants and their uses, but butterflies were, outside of the fact that he knew what they were and they served a function (IE, Pollination) completely beyond his frame of reference. He tried a shot in the dark for this one.

"Fffflowers that turn into butterflies?" he hazarded. Well, considering this was a school for magic, he might not have been entirely off the mark, but still.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

He stared at Kurama, trying to figure out if he was being serious, then laughed, sounding perhaps less too-tightly-wound than he would have an hour ago.

"Flowers that attract butterflies."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"Don't... most flowers attract butterflies?" He had to admit, it was a blank spot on his brain. He was all about aesthetics in the form of art and jewelry and plants (the former two he'd stolen so much of it was impossible not to form a distinctive mind for taste) but... what was so intriguing about insects? He remembered someone from his 'past life' mentioning an affectation for collecting the dead ones, but still.

Maybe it was because they were pretty?

Anyway, at the very least his own ignorance on the subject wasn't embarrassing. And it was making A laugh, which was worth any lack of genius in the world.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Most can," A agreed. "But some butterflies like some flowers better, like having a favorite food. Not even 'like', it's going to be flowers that lure butterflies that come to feed off them. I'd really like to try a specific garden of flowers with potent nectar and plant it near a beehive, but there are a couple of reasons it shouldn't be near here or the mangosteen grove."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"Do bees and butterflies get into territory wars?" He wondered. In a place like this, he half expected such a thing to include little pieces of armor made out of acorn caps and the like. Little drummer butterflies sporting red (green? Bluish-brown?) badges of courage. The mental detour was getting too much.

"Or do you not want to cross-pollinate? Ah, and the sudden temperature shifts, that could effect them too..." What a fascinating thing, to let nature do all the work. Kurama was so used to manipulating everything to his specific desires that the thought of keeping pollinating insects around had never occurred to him.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I'd want specific plants for honey," A agreed. "Strongly flavored herbs, maybe. And it would probably be a good idea to keep the beehive away from places set up for picnics."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"Prudent," Kurama said, grinning wickedly. "I'm sure certain parties wouldn't want to have any very special trysts ruined by a badly-placed stinger."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"It would make for a good sneak attack, though." He couldn't help grinning; some of Kurama's less appropriate sense of humor had rubbed off just a little. "If it were a portable beehive, and you snuck up on someone while they were distracted."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I can see it now," Kurama grinned, waving his hand in a sweeping gesture,as if taking in a marquee. "The Sting of a Thousand Bees, truly the most diabolical of attacks." especially if the recipient was allergic to bee stings, in which case it would be doubly evil. But knowing A, justly deserved. He laughed. "You have a mind for mischief, little brother."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I, I think Mello and Yukimura would be disappointed in me if I hadn't learned a little about tactics. A beehive isn't very practical, because you don't have control of the bees." A thought about it, considering the matter as if it were more than idle conjecture. "It might be good as part of a perimeter defense system. But I would have to have the kind of ability with bees that you've taught me with plants to be confident about something like that."

Laughing, he should his head. "It's a good thing I don't have to plan defenses for a fortress. I don't think bees are usually involved."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"There are probably spells you could achieve something similar with, but then again, you wouldn't want to run the risk of a colony suddenly deciding you're the Queen Bee. In a magic place like this, that could get..." he grimaced, "terribly awkward."

He shuddered, and decided to shift the topic back to something a little less... gross. "As far as strategy goes, you can learn from bees, even if you can't utilize them. The honey bees native to Japan, for example, lure invading hornets into their nests and cook them alive. I think they're the only members of their species who have developed defense tactics like that." Obscure knowledge, thy name is Kurama. (http://www.marfdrat.net/2010/09/25/japanese-honey-bee-defense-against-hornets-cook-them/)

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Bees can cook?" A gaped at him, startled, trying to imagine it. "Do they eat them, I wonder? I've never heard of carnivorous bees, but it seems like a waste of protein otherwise, and insects are very good at not wasting things."

He thought a bit more about the implications of what Kurama had said. "It sounds like what they used to do defend castles, pouring boiling oil on attackers."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"They vibrate," Kurama corrected, grinning. "You're right, it's just like boiling oil; only slower. I don't know if they actually eat the wasp, though." He tapped his chin thoughtfully, dredging up memories of high school biology. "If I recall, there are bees in South America that are carnivorous, but they've evolved to the point where they aren't really bees anymore."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

That sounded a bit unnerving, and A shuddered. "I, that, I don't like the idea of carnivorous bees. If I keep a hive I think they will be ordinary bees that make honey and make maps by dancing, and not use them to attack people. There's something a little upsetting about thinking about swarms of bees attacking."

[serrulata.livejournal.com]

"I didn't know that, about the dancing," Kurama mused. His focus, after all, ran in a vastly different circle than A's would. He shifted, bringing his knees up to his chin. "It's unnerving when you're on the receiving end of a swarm, yes. But alternatively, think of how they all group together to protect each other. No one bee fights alone."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"It's how they tell other bees where good sources of nectar are. I suppose it's like how they all fight together, they all work together on everything else." He smiled. "Like making friends here, we work together and help fight off dangerous people. My House colors are even like a bee!"