Weed 'Em and Reap

[Sentinel Prime]

Month 2, Week 2, Day 2, Event Horizon biosphere, open.

- - -

Sentinel Prime is in the biosphere again. He could even say he's used to it. He doesn't like it, but he can put on a facade and act pretty convincingly! There are rules to the place, at least. Sentinel Prime can deal with rules.

He's wondering what his duties are going to be today. Probably Being The Pickup Truck. Sentinel Prime had no idea pickup trucks were so useful in gardening! ... he'd never have picked this alternate mode if he knew.

Sentinel Prime crouches down on the path and pokes at one of the rocks, which is, in his estimation, out of place. Yes, it's a stupid germy rock, but whatever. He's going to have a shower when he's done here.

Besides. The rock was on top of a little... what did Botanica call it? An Akarso. There you go, lil' guy! Sentinel Prime gives the Akarso a stern look. No more falling into a bad crowd and getting rocks on you! That just leads to bruised and torn leaves.

The whole display is completely ridiculous to anyone who may be watching.

[Shanodin]

Perhaps so, but the one watching isn't laughing! In fact, she's quite pleased by Sentinel's little display.

Botanica calls out, "Sentinel, over here if you please. We'll be staying in the cultivated garden today."

The plantformer is mostly recovered from her Cosmic Rust infection, though she still has moments of weakness and pain. Her coloration is back to normal, though there are thin strands of autumn colors shooting down a few vines that will never return to normal. Age, you see, can't be reversed.

She is sitting beneath a vine-and-flower covered pergola. On the table before her are some small potted shrubs, as well as a variety of hand-held gardening tools.

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime straightens out in a quick hurry, with a sheepish expression of, 'I wasn't doing anything, honest, ma'am!' on his face, his arms folded nervously across his chest. Was he supposed to let nature take its place and leave the rock there? But the rock was on the path; someone might have walked on it anyway and stepped on everything, rock and Akarso all. Sentinel Prime looks around shiftily.

He frowns when his vision alights on Botanica. He's not unhappy to see her; he's... muttering something about 'Autobot health care' and possibly 'budget reforms'.

Sentinel Prime shakes it off, though, and swiftly enough makes his way over to the indicated area, paranoidly careful to stay on the path. He's happy enough to stay in the cultivated garden. The place is still deceptively dangerous and not to be trusted, but at least there aren't tesla trees trying to zap him into fertiliser.

He asks carefully, "Having a good cycle, ma'am?"

[Prowl]

The place may be one not to be trusted, but only if you aren't wary of what you're stepping in or on.

Prowl emerges from a small group of bushes and tress to greet Botanica with a wave. He also nods towards Sentinel. He may not be entirely fond of Sentinel, but there's no need to have those feelings in the biodome.

"Hello," he greets the two.

[Shanodin]

Wait, is Sentinel actually concerned about Botanica? Perish the thought!

"Oh, it's good enough, Sentinel. I've been doing much better lately, and am quite glad to be back in my natural environs. I trust you are doing well?" she asks in return.

Once the Prime answers, Botanica gestures to the bench opposite the table from her. "I thought we might work on some of miniatures from the more structured part of the garden." Smiling, she adds, "It can be a calming, meditative practice, and is actually very ordered- oh! Hello Prowl!"

She waves back at the ninja, and her smile brightens. Botanica is always happy to see Prowl enjoying the biosphere; she knows he truly appreciates it.

"Would you like to join us?"

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime wouldn't want Botanica to die! She's been nice to him, he doesn't stand to gain anything from her dying, and she's a nice shade of yellow.

Also, Cosmic Rust is just nasty. Not a good way to go. The history vids from his reality are absolutely appalling on that account. He eyes the ruddier threads warily, but surely, medical wouldn't have let her loose if she was contagious, and anyway, he has his Cosmic Rust shot.

He gives Prowl a squinty look and greets, a bit curtly, "Prowl."

Sentinel Prime sits down on the bench a bit stiffly, testing to make sure it can support his weight, and he answers Botanica, almost automatically, "I'm fine, ma'am."

[Prowl]

Prowl wasn't expecting any sort of warm greeting from Sentinel. Though as far as he can figure, he's had little to no interaction with this particular Sentinel so there really is no reason to have harsh feelings towards him. It's been one of the things he's thought on as of late.

"I've been watching a particular flower patch bloom and kept it watered and trimmed. It has taken up a few good cycles of my time as of late," Prowl nods. "I'd enjoy taking some time away from seclusion."

[Shanodin]

The bench can support both mechs actually. Botanica chose this area because it was designed for the average mech in their company.

Prowl's discussion of gardening earns the another pleased smile from Botanica. "Yes, I know. It is a very happy area now. I appreciate all the work you did while I was incapacitated as well."

She nods toward the collection of potted vegetation. "Please, both of you, pick one that seems appropriate." There are a variety of sizes and shapes for them to pick from.*

Botanica's own choice is very tiny, and looks a bit like a tree from the mangrove swamp done in miniature. She picks up a small (even by her standards) pair of clippers and begins to prune back a small section of damaged limb.

"So you are well recovered then Sentinel? I understand you are quite the hero of our late battle."

---

*Pick a bonsai!

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime is okay with this Prowl, actually. Sure, Prowl was one of Captain Dorkwheels's bots, but Prowl did a wicked awesome job with that casino heist, and Sentinel Prime loves it when his plans actually work as opposed to blowing up in his face. That, and Prowl is so quiet that he's... kind of forgettable, at least to Sentinel Prime, anyway.

He can't help but think that maybe being way too interested in organic species is something they teach at Ninja School. Sentinel Prime could imagine his Jazz gardening, too, talking on and on and on about gardening tips, how to grow the most rockin' eon roses, and he stares up at the 'ceiling', as if asking the stars to preserve him.

Sentinel Prime looks over the potted plants with some distrust. This is clearly a trap. He's done some study - know thy enemy and all - but he doesn't know what all of these plants are yet, and he doesn't even know what the selection criteria are supposed to mean. 'Seems appropriate?' What is Sentinel Prime supposed to be doing with the plant?

He frowns and eventually picks out something like a blue spruce. It is blue, which is always a good thing, it has this pointy spines on it like the tip of his lance or the spikes of his shield, and, uh, it looks like it could take Botanica's tree in a fight? Sentinel Prime doesn't even know anymore, but he does know this particular species, if he identified it correctly, is pretty harmless to robots and enjoys acid soil. It has been started in Group Style, so it faintly resembles a cluster of skyscrapers.

Sentinel Prime picks up the pot, sets it down on the table, and looks around shiftily, apparently checking the potted plant for traps. When Botanica asks him a question, he freezes for a moment and makes sort of 'gnh?' noise before recovering his composure and looking up and over at her.

Hero? Sentinel Prime hasn't felt like a hero. He's felt a bit like an idiot, sometimes - slag, Sentinel, why'd you jump on a bomb when you could have thrown it back at Waspinator - because that's his freaking Skyboom Shield, he won't just throw it away like garbage. There haven't been any medals or commendations or any kind of improvement in his status. Perhaps Sentinel Prime defines heroism as something external, that comes into existence when others recognise work well done, as opposed to something internal, that derives from using courage to do the right thing.

He does love praise, though. A large, slow smile spreads over his face, and he straightens a bit, agreeing slickly, "That's right, ma'am. It was only a mesh wound. I'm fine. That Seeker, Blackarachnia, Waspinator, and Oil Slick, on the other hand... I'm sure they're still hurting."

If only their pride.

[Prowl]

"You are quite welcome," Prowl says, nodding once. He then sits down after choosing a small bonsai. This one cascades out of the pot and along the side of the rather tall pot it is in.

He looks it over and starts oh so carefully tending to it, while listening to Sentinel and Botanica talk. At the moment, he has nothing to contribute, but is fine with listening.

"Here, Sentinel," he says after a little bit, noticing Sentinel's confusion. He offers him a small pair of pruning shears, "Try carefully removing leaves that seem unnecessary to the overall look of the tree."

[Cheetor]

If the order of the day is relaxing, then nothing is more relaxing than hanging out with a friendly cat!

That cat is Cheetor - which may or may not be unfortunate, depending on who you ask.

Either way, he strolls lazily up to the group in beast mode. He's been chilling out here in the biosphere after he got out of medical post-battle. "Hey 'bots, what's goin' on?"

[Shanodin]

Botanica snorts, "I looked over the reports while in quarantine, Sentinel. You were hurt very badly, but your likely saved several lives in the process."

Slowly, she brushes away a bit of dirt to better expose a section of rootline on her bonsai. "My memory is still a bit laggy in regard to some items before the battle. Lingering affects of my illness and such. We've been discussing ethics during these sessions, if I recall correctly. Where did we leave off last time?"

Botanica scoots over on her bench when Cheetor appears. "We're working on some bonsai* for the cultivated garden. Please, pick a plant and join us if you like."

---

*In reality, this is probably some Cybertronian term. Handwave.

[Sentinel Prime]

Sentinel Prime sits back a bit on the bench when Prowl offers him the pruning shears, as if Prowl had just brandished a weapon. He takes the pruning shears only cautiously, and he tests them for sharpness idly on his thumb. A user of pointy things himself, he is well aware that a dull weapon is a weapon dangerous to its user. How many times did he drill that into bots' heads at boot camp?

"The look of the tree?" he asks suspiciously. "It's a tree. It looks like what it looks like." This seems pretty obvious to him! Is Prowl playing narc, trying to get Sentinel Prime to commit some tree abuse in front of Botanica, who will then arrest him on charges?

Then Cheetor arrives. Erk. Sentinel Prime buries his head down in his tree, busying himself... counting the needles, yes. That is exactly what he's doing. He's not exactly afraid of organic creatures anymore, and AllSpark knows, he barely even thinks of Botanica as techno-organic anymore, but Cheetor is a cat.

A cat somewhat indirectly got his head chopped off and his body violated and humiliated.

Luckily, Cheetor is not at all housecatty, so the association is very faint, but... wow, this tree has a lot of needles. His voice is muffled by the tree as he mutters in reply to Cheetor, "Slagged if I know."

"Uh, pardon my Helexian, ma'am." He looks back up and over at Botanica. "Oh, it wasn't that bad. I'm sure Perceptor made it sound worse than it really was. He frets, you know? Bot needs to loosen up a little," says the king of uptightness. "I... was discussing the Twins." He glances back over at Prowl and Cheetor and adds defensively, "They were there. It wasn't behind their backs or anything."

[Prowl]

Ah. Prowl shakes his head slightly and then shrugs his shoulders, "If you feel that it needs no change, then that is fine as well," he says. He's not going to try and force Sentinel to learn anything unless he wants to. There's no point in it.

He turns and nods his greeting to Cheetor and then goes back to sculpting a small branch to perfection. He really does like this sort of thing!

[Cheetor]

Cheetor looks over the plants, pondering the appearance of them as well as if he wants to get in on this.

Eh, why not?

Cheetor rears back on his hind legs with a low flash of purple light as he transforms. He only looks slightly less cat-like, though he is missing the tail he had. He settles on a Chinese Elm and finds himself a set of shears. He never really got into this type of thing back home that much, since the Vehicons were always breathing down their necks, but now? Sounds like an interesting thing to try, at least.

"It does look like what it looks like, but there's bits that have grown too much. Just have to trim those bits down, make it look more balanced. At least, I think so", he says as he looks at Botanica a bit expectantly. Clearly, she is the expert since she's the plant!