dreadinquisitor | Mask or Menace

[Poe grins widely.]

Sounds like you got a thorough introduction. [Badumtush.]

And not at all. Skeets introduced me to GIFS - I don't even know what kind of animal that even is, in all honesty, it just looked way too adorable to leave behind.

Mostly I just wanted to check in on you.

While I was still as shiny and new as a babe. How I was supposed to know bears didn't mean bears? Honestly.

[His smile shifts. Not gone, but fixed. The practiced one, just to keep someone from worrying.]

I'm still here.

And with tea now. I managed that all on my own.

Wait - bears don't mean bears? I mean, I had to figure out what a bear even was in the first place - why does it need to mean two things? [A laugh.]

[He can tell the difference between a real smile and a not-exactly-real one, but he doesn't raw attention to it. He just offers his own genuine one.]

Hey, there you go. You at home? I'm in the garden if you want to join me. The weather's nice, at least.

Right? Apparently it's a term for a specific group of men; big men, with lots of hair. I guess sexual connotations are usually attached.

[And it only made him wish- not that Dorian were kidnapped, no, but that he was aware of a place like this. That they did exist.

He shrugs it off, then brightens.]

That's right, you're here, aren't you?

[He moves, standing up from his seat the table, and suddenly the camera is pointed at his belly-button as he crosses to a window... then to another. And suddenly Poe is in frame as Maxwell waves to him.][A gentle snort, and the camera whirs as it zooms in on Poe's face and the smudges of dirt.] How's the dirt taste this morning?

[Poe laughed, then waved.]

Knew they had some weird names for stuff, but that's one I hadn't heard yet.

And not bad, all things considered. Though I think I could go without actually tasting it, if I could get away with it. But everyone keeps telling me "winter is coming", so gotta get in the time while I can.

I wouldn't have imagined you as the gardening type.

[The camera lingers for a moment more, then there's a jarring collection of images, sweatpant clothed legs, carpet, a wall still slightly stained by a painted slur (scrubbed but not wholly gone), then darkness, as Maxwell leaves his communicator facedown on his nightstand. There was only the sound of rustling, and Maxwell's distant voice.]

It's good though, working with one's hands. Simpler. Honest.

Technically, the garden is Finn's. [A grin as he watches Maxwell disappear from view.]

I don't know about simpler. My parents kept a lot of plants, including some really rare ones. It's not as difficult to hurt them as you'd think.

Simpler, doesn't mean easier.

A delicate plant isn't for example, deciding the fate of a man that tried to kill you because he was being bribed with the life of his dying son.

[The camera lifts, and Maxwell reappears, now officially dressed if still casually. (He'd decided he liked jeans. Not as protective as his leathers, perhaps, but comfortable.) The house moves by in flashes as he walks. There's the sound of a door opening and closing, and then the rustle of grass. His voice is suddenly an echo, before he taps the video closed, as he comes into view.]

It's more straight forward. And I've always liked it.

Edited 2017-09-20 23:12 (UTC)

[That got an eyebrow raise while Maxwell wasn't in range to see it. His face has gone neutral again when the face appears, and he offers a sideways bemused smile.]

Easy. You find out who bribed him, shoot him out of the sky, let the man and the kid go.

[It's just the grin that makes it obvious that maybe he understands it's more complicated than that. Maybe. But morality is pretty black/white where he comes from...]

[Maxwell's eyes says it wasn't. A flash of a memory, an old weight, there before he smiled and blinked it away.]

So, what are you helping this Finn grow then?

I'm guessing... not elfroot, but I still have some experience with the general idea.

[He crouches down, happy to join Poe on the ground, the dirt cool beneath this hands as the sun warmed the back of his neck.]

What, you don't know Finn? He's not home now, but I'll introduce you later.

[He doesn't pry. Poe's answer to everything is 'shoot the badguy', so... He might not be the best when it comes to complexity.]

Elfroot? Nah. No, mostly right now it's uh - Why are you making me remember the names of these things - Tomate-toes? Something called Spinnish? Edibles, anyway. A few flowers.

[He wipes his brow with his arm, leaving a streak of dirt across his forehead.]

This one - [He points with the tip of his trowel] - is apparently called cabbigs, and is supposed to stay that weird purple colour. Which is pretty neat.

[Maxwell's smile grows as Poe goes on. He starts to laugh, and presses his lips together, out of politeness. He reaches for a tiny plant and begins to gently free it from its container, readying it for the hole Poe was digging.]

Vegetables not big in your world? Or just not these ones?

Not these ones. [He gave an apologetic grin, before digging out the hole a little wider so that Maxwell could put the seedling in.]

Every planet has different plants, different atmosphere, different environment. Some can be transferred between planets, since humans need a certain atmosphere mix too, but not all of them. So these are all brand new to me.

It's something like that, where I'm from. Not as extreme, but as far as I know bananas, for example, are rare outside of the Qunari homeland where it's warm and wet enough for them to grow. They'd wither up and die screaming if some poor fool ever tried it in, say, Ferelden.

[He waits for Poe to finish, then leans in to gently work the root-ball into the waiting hole. He keeps talking as he works, scooping back the dirt Poe had troweled away and gently mounding it around the plant.]

But we have these, [his lips twitch], given my translation's accurate. It's a good bunch... except maybe the cabbage. [He glances up with a grin.] I never finished it as a child.

Edited 2017-09-21 09:18 (UTC)

Bananas... those I know. The yellow fruit with the weird skins, right? That I'm sure your Internet Bears would love? [He flashed Maxwell a grin because, sorry Max, you aren't escaping the sex jokes here.]

Cabbage. That's it. Not Cabbigs. It's weird how much language I've had to learn here. I had to finish my vegetables as a child or I wasn't allowed in my mom's ship, which meant no flying the next day. So yeah. I ate them.

And here I would have remarked about what a good boy you are.

[He heaves a heavy sigh, but there's a smile hovering around his mouth and he pats the dirt around the plants stem, tucking the seedling in.]

There was no incentive for me, it was one of those "because I said so" deals. I've always had trouble with those too.

Are you talking to the Roomba again?

[Finn hadn't been about to make out any words as he walked from the drive way to the backyard, arms full of more garden supplies (manure, mostly manure). He'd just heard the distinct masculine rumble which meant it wasn't Maeve, so assumed and yelled out before he could see anything.]

Could you grab- oh!

[And Poe had company. Surprise?]

[Poe laughed.]

Yeah, no. Good boy would not have been a descriptor for me, as a kid. Especially not after my mom d-- [But here he was cut off by Finn appearing, and Poe looked up from his work with a grin.]

Hey! You're home! Come and meet Maxwell, our newest neighbour.

[There's a little confusion, one of Maxwell's eyebrows lifting (Roomba? But he hadn't seen anyone else). But he offers the newcomer a smile as he approaches. He rises up from the dirt and claps one hand against his thigh to - more or less - clean it off before holding it out.]

Hello. You're - Finn? I'm guessing.

[A glance at Poe to confirm.]

Edited 2017-09-21 23:00 (UTC)

Hey, yeah.

[Finn reflexively shifts the bags he's carrying to reach out his own hand- then snatches it back at the last minute.]

Uh, actually? Let's get the crap out of the way first.

[Literally. He's not dissing on small talk, but apparently gardens need these bags of poop. So. Let him hand these off to Poe first.]

[Poe just laughs and takes the manure, putting it off to the side.]

Pretty sure his hands are already dirty, but you're good to go now.

[Maxwell's eyebrows go up, but his smile remains, handsomely lopsided as the bags trade sides.]

A pleasure. Poe's told me about you.

[As he offers his hand again, he gestures to the garden with the other.]

I hope you don't mind me getting my hands in.

Mask or Menace - IC Inbox

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject