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 Feb 8, 2009 18:42:31 GMT -5
Day 7 of Small Plots period. Seimi-private, please ask before posting in
She's been avoiding the worst areas of the burnout during her salvage efforts. So much lost, so many dead. Majestic trees that had lived for centuries now blackened, devoid of leaf and vine. Flower and brush and thorn and moss, all gone now. But it is not just the flora Botanica mourns as she forces herself to work her way further into the dead forest. An entire ecosystem has been damaged, and it may never fully recover.
How many species lost? How many symbiotic relationships destroyed?
A wave of nausea hits her, and she falls to her "knees," retching. The soil, the ground water, even the air here...it's tainted. She'll have to work hard to keep the taint from spreading.
//Pee-Dee, might I have a word with you at <coordinates>?//
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 9, 2009 15:05:31 GMT -5
//Sure, sure!//
Shortly thereafter, there comes a roar of a motorcycle engine, and a rusty 'bike jounces into the area. It pauses and almost seems to curl up on itself. "Smokey's going to be so mad..."
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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
|
Post by Shanodin on Feb 10, 2009 10:48:36 GMT -5
She doesn't know who Smokey is, but right now, Botanica isn't mad. She's sick and saddened, upset, but not mad. What happened here...was not truly deliberate destruction on Pee-Dee's part, and the Junkion was acting in self-defense, more or less.
It is the nature of battle that the innocent and the bystander suffer more than combatants.
What Botanica hopes to do is to simply...make Pee-Dee more aware. Even on Cybertron, mechs seemed to have no concern for their environment, are never held accountable for damages done.
The bandage at Botanica's shoulder is gone, though there's still evidence of scarring, but her lower torso is still covered. Absently, she touches the bandage as she addresses the Junkion.
"You seem to have recovered well enough. Would that all had your resilience." She tries for a neutral tone, but doesn't quite succeed.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 13, 2009 20:38:49 GMT -5
Pee-Dee barks a laugh. "Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little boys are made of! Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what little girls are made of! Trash and rot and all that's tossed, that's what Junkions are made of!"
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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
|
Post by Shanodin on Feb 14, 2009 10:38:48 GMT -5
Flippancy, however, will get Botanica’s pollen up. And that is how she takes Pee-Dee’s response. Flippant. Uncaring. Unrepentant
Her expression hardens just a touch. Pee-Dee is not the Dinobots, she reminds herself, as she fights not to just snap out a retort. Instead, she waves one set of hands in a sweeping gesture, indicating the ruined forest as a whole.
“One can’t rebuild this in a matter of days, or even months. Congratulations, Officer Pee-Dee, on being partly responsible for the worst razing of a land that I have ever seen.”
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 14, 2009 14:54:22 GMT -5
Pee-Dee gives Botanica a baffled look at the sudden change in mood and tone. "Okay....?"
Things take time. Everyone knows that.
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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
|
Post by Shanodin on Feb 15, 2009 15:53:33 GMT -5
"You don't understand!" she snaps. The sudden rise in her temper disturbs her balance, and the toxicity of the land hits her again. "None of you do!"
"I don't know why I even bother. You all have never even stopped to think what your actions do to your own homeland, why would you even care about another's? A vorn may seem like a day to the near-immortal, and almost any part an be replaced, but that is not the way it works. Not here."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 16, 2009 16:20:50 GMT -5
Pee-Dee is used to being yelled at. That doesn't mean she particularly likes it. Good cheer vanishes below metal, and hard red optics study Botanica.
"You make a mistake in assuming I am like everyone else, Missus Botanica." A pause. "You desire stasis, because you are still a Cybertronian at your heart. Well, life is not static. It ends, and it begins. It is destroyed, and it is reborn. There are plants that do not germinate until they are roasted in a forest fire.
"You want a world that never changes, then build your own and let no one else go there. This one is alive, and it will change."
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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
|
Post by Shanodin on Feb 17, 2009 11:12:04 GMT -5
Botanica tilts her head up at Pee-Dee, her own eyes narrowing at the challenge. "And you mistake me, if you think I desire stasis. It is the nature of the green and growing to shift and change, to adapt and learn. The old is tilled into the soil to feed the new; such is as it was and always will be."
She crosses her arms across her chest. "Forest fires are a natural part of an ecosystems evolution, and were it just the fire, I might not be so upset. True, I would mourn the loss of species which will never grow again, those unique to this patch of land, mourn the disruption in the relationship between flora and fauna. But such is the price of rebirth."
"But there can be no rebirth is the soil is dead, and poison spreading through groundwater will damage more than this patch of forest. I need to know what caused that Pee-Dee, so that I might better combat the poisoning. And so I can keep it from affecting me while I work."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 18, 2009 19:53:19 GMT -5
"Life will find a way."1
Pee-Dee turns to wander through the blight, looking for the place she remembers being shot at. "The perp - white car'former, Decepticon, mouth like his mother didn't beat him enough as a child - shot me with his rifle." She frowns, trying to figure out how to describe the rest. "Then I burst into flames inside. It didn't do as much damage as when That One got me, though."
---
1. Jurassic Park
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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 Feb 19, 2009 11:03:10 GMT -5
Botancia frowns, "So it's a gas poisoning then, likely from your components melting from the heat. Would be easier to deal with if I knew exactly what made up your internals, but that changes as quickly as the wind."
"It also means that more than this area would be affected. But with luck the poisons were thinned out enough to do no more than small damage."
She cups her chin in one hand, idly tapping her fingers on her cheek. "From the inside, you say? That's odd. Most weapons capable of such heat would have to start externally."
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 23, 2009 13:28:33 GMT -5
Pee-Dee nods in agreement. "Got hit, didn't really leave much of a hole, yeah? So I kept right on charging. Felt kinda weird, though... Then I burst into flames."
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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
|
Post by Shanodin on Feb 24, 2009 11:11:09 GMT -5
Her frown grows deeper. "I don't like that. Such a weapon sounds as if it somehow uses your own components against you, or perhaps has some sort of delayed incendiary round. But such things are not my specialty."
"Have you talked to Kup? He seems to know everyone from the base reality set. He might recognize the description...," Botanica trails off, then sighs and shakes her head. This wasn't why she called Pee-Dee out here.
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Post by Pee-Dee on Feb 25, 2009 16:23:58 GMT -5
"I'll try to catch up with Chief Kup and talk to him about it, Miss-Doctor-Lady!" Pee-Dee says brightly. Eeee, she has an excuse to track down the Chief and talk stories out of him!
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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
|
Post by Shanodin on Feb 26, 2009 11:01:17 GMT -5
"All right then," Botanica says, stifling another sigh. Pee-Dee is so mercurial. It makes a conversation....trying.
"Would you be willing to assist with clearing and breaking down some of the burn out? Some of it can be left to feed the soil, though I may encourage the natural process a bit." She idly touches a fallen trunk, and it is suddenly spotted with a colorful and rapidly growing fungus. "But some of the more poisoned trees and soil will have to be removed."
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