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Post by Perceptor on Sept 14, 2011 20:12:05 GMT -5
Month 2, Week 4, Day 3. Somewhere in India, in the rainforest. Semi-private; please request to join.
The lovely thing about portions of the rainforest here in the depths of India is that with the quantities of indigenous elephant travel that occurred, there were paths existing already that were sufficient - barely - for mechanisms of the stature of the Autobots wandering amidst the riotous plantlife. It's a nicety that Perceptor posits that Botanica will appreciate.
"Ah!" Perceptor exclaims, carefully folding back large fronds of thick, woody ferns until he can duck into the natural clearing at the base of a tree that dwarfs even him. "Dipterocarpus macrocarpus! And quite the specimen of one! They do not proliferate in groups, due to their size, but grow as single individuals at significant distance from one another throughout the forest."
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Sept 14, 2011 21:58:37 GMT -5
Botanica looks with no little wonderment upon the wilderness to which Perceptor has brought her. She reaches over and places a gentle hand on the tree's trunk.
"It is beautiful. This place- it reminds me of the planet my team and I were exploring. It is heartening to see that even on such an industrialized planet, some places of the pure Green still thrive."
Her face falls slightly as she looks over at Perceptor. "Especially after some of the ravages addressed at the symposium we so recently attended. I admit I am quite worried about where the planet is heading in that regard."
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Post by Perceptor on Sept 20, 2011 20:28:25 GMT -5
Perceptor smiles broadly; he'd expected that Botanica would enjoy this place. Or any number of deep boreal forests that still flourish across the planet. India merely had the benefit of marginally easier maneuverability for mechanisms of his size.
"It would be interesting to hear more about that world, sometime. With all the myriad of other issues confronting us since our various arrivals, we have not had much opportunity to simply compare notes."
"I do fear for the future of these ecosystems, however," he adds, agreeing with her sentiment. "Although there are very localized efforts to preserve and live in harmonious balance, and there is a wide-scale, global campaign of awareness of the fragility of these systems, it is not an issue which the average human has bothered to concern him or herself about yet."
"There seems to be a general air of... distrust toward any scientific discovery which impedes their comfort, and, at their current level of technological advancement, the measures required to halt the degradation of climate alteration would require some systemically implemented alterations of behavior."
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Sept 21, 2011 10:27:05 GMT -5
Botanica casts a sidelong look at Perceptor. She has been busy with her duties, yes, and Perceptor has been often- especially of late- absent from most of their shared circles. "You know I am always willing to talk with you, especially about our shared passions. My door is always open." She smiles, "Even if we have to have that talk on the fly between projects."
"I don't understand it, though. Without these forests, they can't survive. The air will grow thin and comfortless, the land bare and brown. Do they think surviving via test tube nourishment and ventilators is any kind of life?"
She moves of to another plant, a great towering bush filled with red and gold flowers. As she reaches out to gently touch one of the petals, the plant shudders slightly causing shimmering pollen to run to the ground.
"They will continue on in search of comforts, only to one day look around and miss the comforts they have destroyed."
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Post by Perceptor on Sept 21, 2011 17:50:36 GMT -5
Perceptor nods and chuckles. "Of course. Thank you."
He sighs, kneeling to study a tiny moss specimen. "Humans have such short lives, compared to us. It affects their perceptions of the world around them. Unless the alterations are drastic enough to be documented by even the least knowledgeable individuals within a space of a few years, they are easily forgotten, or ignored entirely."
He shakes his head. "It is too easy to procrastinate, leave the burgeoning problem for the next generation, purely because it will not affect the current. What they fail to understand is that these alterations may become irreversible by the time they become so obvious. It is only in very recent years - or rather, it had only been in very recent years on the Earth I am familiar with - that concern for their own environment had received a groundswell of acknowledgment" and support."
He glances back, watching the motes of pollen drift. "I only hope that it is not too late."
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Sept 22, 2011 23:01:09 GMT -5
"As do I."
Vines have started to curl up and around Botanica, the vegetation of this place reacting to her as all plantlife does. With an indulgent smile, she pats a particularly thick stem fondly and moves out if their grasp.
Botanica cocks her head to one side, listening.
"Do you hear voices?"
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Post by Perceptor on Sept 27, 2011 13:50:42 GMT -5
Perceptor watches the vines with an almost indulgent smile. The Biosphere is a wonderful addition to their ship, however, there is just nothing quite like the full immersion of being upon a planet's surface; he'd rather thought Botanica could use a little such immersion, even if the world is not as healthy as the one she had once been studying.
Or even Gillanan, really, for all that the inhabitants had fled or been taken away.
He goes back to examining the thin scattering of green moss again, offering merely a distracted, "Hmm?" in answer.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Oct 6, 2011 23:03:51 GMT -5
Botanica frowns and cocks her head again. "I thought I heard singing- chanting-perhaps. I wasn't aware this area was populated or even widely traversed."
She lays a hand upon the wide trunk of another large tree. "Whatever it is or was, the trees here like it."
Moving closer to Perceptor, she sighs and says, "I really do appreciate your bringing me here. Based on the reactions to my appearance I noticed after the symposium, I fear that my spending too much time in the public eye might not be for the best. But I do so want to explore this planet's wilds...."
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Post by Perceptor on Oct 19, 2011 20:58:13 GMT -5
"It is my pleasure, Botanica," Perceptor replies, reaching out to pat her upon one graceful arm. "There are a great number of wild places upon this planet that we can access, that should keep you removed from the public eye, if that is your wish."
However, the public eye may not be able to keep itself away from Botanica.
Around the curve of the wide trail that had led them here, the singing and chanting that Botanica had caught before, renews, more vigorously, and the first of a gaggle of humans hikes into view.
"And we give praise to the Goddess for the wind in the trees," the young woman in the lead chants as she taps her hand against the tambourine she holds. She's barefoot, like about half the people with her, while the others tromp along in Crocks or Birkenstock sandals or Barefoot Shoes, although they're all dressed in very similar, brightly dyed saris that look so new that they still have the folds pressed into them from their packages.
"Oh. My. Goddess! LOOK! Everyone LOOK!"
It's unclear which of the pale-haired women shrieks that in a rather valley-esque accent, but, suddenly, the whole group shuffles to an ungraceful stop as they stare at Perceptor and Botanica near the trees.
The air erupts with shrieks and squeals both feminine and masculine, as the entire group dashes forward en mass.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Oct 21, 2011 23:46:11 GMT -5
"That sounds lovely," Botanica says, "I was looking at some of the environmental maps and-"
Whatever else she was going to say is completely lost in the shouts of the Witches of 90210 as they descend upon her so suddenly that she can do little but stare open-mouthed and blink. The entire group crowds around her, just out of touching distance, some offering verbal tribute and praise, some questioning, some demanding. Some just sit and stare in starry-eyed awe.
Botanica lifts her head and looks at Perceptor. Her expression reads confused with a clear smattering of "help me."
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Post by Perceptor on Nov 18, 2011 22:11:59 GMT -5
Well, this is certainly a... rather baffling situation. First, this is certainly not the demographic of individuals he would have expected to stumble upon them this deep into the jungle, much less the country. These men and women - all relatively young, by human standards - are most certainly not natives of this region, or even this continent, despite the dress and customs they ape.
More importantly, however, the humans' reactions to their presence, or rather, specifically to Botanica's presence, is utterly... perplexing. The quiet shock certainly makes sense, as this world is not yet accustomed to the presence of Cybertronians, much less a plant-former like Botanica.
However, certain of these rather pale and excitable humans - particularly the thinner females, he notes absently - seem to be attempting to attribute some manner of divinity to Botanica?
"How curious!"
// I do believe that they have mistaken you for a deity of some sort, Botanica! // Captain Obvious observes with curious amusement.
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Nov 22, 2011 21:31:25 GMT -5
Botanica blinks at Perceptor's conjecture. "But... I am not," she answers him aloud, obviously confused. "Surely that can't be..."
Her protests are interrupted by two of the women, who seem to be arguing back and forth about exactly which goddess is supposedly standing before them. One seems convinced that Botanica is a manifestation of Demeter, because, "Duh, she's a plant goddess," while the other scathingly replies, "We're in India. Wrong pantheon."
"My name is Botanica," the plant in question finally says loudly over the babbling voices, "I am not a deity of any sort. I am a Transformer."
Meanwhile, the vegetation of the area is starting to grow up and out at a rather accelerated rate.
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Post by Perceptor on Dec 17, 2011 20:42:50 GMT -5
"Oh yeah?" one rather belligerently bubbly blond replies. "Then what's with that, My Lady?" She points to the rather reactive growth around them, crossing her arms triumphantly over her... expansive assets.
The argument breaks up for a moment as the whole group suddenly pauses to stare at the surrounding plant-life, a chorus of "oooos" and "ahs" filling the relative quiet.
// Any technology, sufficiently advanced, can pass itself as magic to an uneducated, or unlearned populace, // Perceptor replies. There's a smothered laugh lurking in his voice; he finds the whole situation rather charmingly amusing, actually. // And these humans are... not exactly learned examples of the species. //
"Lady? Why have you waited so long?" someone finally ventures. "The world is so broken now. Why did you wait until now to come?"
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Shanodin
Major
The Chamberlain, Her Chivalrous Immensity, Lady Botanica. The Unyielding Vanquisher of Weed Killer
This is NOT her field of dreams
Posts: 700
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Post by Shanodin on Dec 20, 2011 15:22:51 GMT -5
Botanica shoots Perceptor a Look. If she had an internal radio, he'd be getting an earful right now for that not quite hidden laughter.
"Again. I am a Transformer, part of the Autobot contingent...," she glances at the vegetation, around her, "Ah, yes. I am the keeper of my planet's Green, its voice. The Green of other planets tends to recognize that and respond accordingly." She has no idea that her explanation is perhaps the worst things she could say if she wants to squelch the idea that she's a goddess. "But I'm as mortal as any other of my kind. More so, really," she adds dryly, "I bleed. Most don't."
The earnest entreaty that comes next softens Botanica's expression and she moves over to rest a hand on the person's shoulder. Botanica is, above all else, a Mother.
"She isn't broken. She's weary, and she has lost her voice- or you population can no longer hear it. If you lot would but act like the keepers you were created to be, she could heal."
Botanica attempts to move past the group now and back to Perceptor's side. She's hoping to stop the arguments about her divinity or lack thereof by leaving the area.
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Post by Perceptor on Dec 23, 2011 21:08:47 GMT -5
He can't help himself! The whole situation really is highly amusing, if only for the irony of the nature-obsessed taking an alien robot to be a deity of their own world. His expression remains all too calm, and he probably simply forgot that Botanica does not have an internal radio with which to respond.
Probably.
He manages, barely, to restrain his impulse to wince as he listens to her explanation. He doesn't have much experience with these bohemian nature-centric faiths such as these individuals seem to be practicing, however, even he can tell that her choice of wording might not have the desired effect.
Which... it does not. The chorus of gasps and satisfied, reverent sighs should be evidence enough of that.
"Tolja," one t-shirt and cargo shorts bedecked man says as he nudges a sari clad woman with his elbow.
"Mistress! M'lady! ...what should we call you?" a younger woman wonders as she interposes herself between Botanica and Perceptor. That latter is rather amused to note the scowl she gives him; apparently the 'vile mechanical menace' has no place with the Nature Goddess.
"M'lady, how?! Tell us how! What can we do to hear again? How can we help you heal!?"
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