You should listen to Navi DuBleu. (heyheylisten) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-10-20 23:35:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, leon orcot, navi |
Who: Navi and Leon.
What: Plant purchases.
Where: Deku's Nursery.
When: Last week.
Warnings: A little swearing, not much.
Status: Complete!
Leon had no idea how to care for a pet butterfly of all things, and his dreams weren’t much help. Both Gattolotto, the Christmas cactus he’d received from his dreams a number of months ago, and the butterfly had died pretty quickly in the dreams, though both seemed healthy once he’d’ got them here.
He’d ended up looking up some care sheets for butterflies (turns out they were an actual pet that some people kept, which kind of blew his mind) because he was stuck with the thing whether he wanted it or not. He could probably release it into the wild, but it had travelled worlds to be with him and he had to admit that it was kind of pretty. He’d been making a sugary water dish to feed it with, though he thought that maybe Bart the Butterfly would probably enjoy some actual flowers. Gattolotto had had buds in his dream, but it wasn’t flowering right now, so something else was obviously needed.
He’d seen Deku’s Nursery mentioned on the Network, which seemed like a good enough reference for buying a flower for a butterfly that manifested from his dreams, and was checking out some of the potted flowers, obviously a little lost.
Humming to herself, Navi danced a little to herself as she watered the daisies. She was about to moonwalk when she saw a customer. “Oh, hi! Can I help you find anything?” He was cute, and if she weren’t working, she’d have flirted. But as a responsible business owner, she never flirted on the clock.
Leon heard the humming before he noticed the girl, and he turned to her, still frowning thoughtfully to himself. If someone had told him a month ago that he’d be looking to buy actual living flowers for a pet butterfly, he probably would have laughed. As it was, he was grateful that he wasn’t likely to run into any coworkers around here. “Yeah, I’m looking for some flowers,” Leon said. “Something that really doesn’t require much attention and that uh… butterflies like to eat?” Or drink. Whatever the hell it was that butterflies did to flowers.
Navi beamed, always appreciating people who liked flowers and insects. “Oh, they drink the pollen!” She was cheerful as ever, and filled with more facts than a room full of kindergartners. “How do you feel about shrubs? I’ve got some butterfly bush that’s easy to take care of. Just water it once a week and make sure it gets about half an hour of sun, and you’re good to go.”
“Like, an actual bush?” Leon asked. “I don’t know if I have room for that in my apartment.” His apartment was pretty small all in all. “Do they grow inside?” It probably would have helped if Leon mentioned that the butterfly was a pet and not just some insect flying around outside, but it didn’t really occur to him that that might be important information.
“Oh, I have little stalks of them in pots. If you trim it, it’ll stay cute and smallish. They do great inside if you put them by a window!” Navi smiled and motioned for him to follow her. She lead him to a row of purple plants in pots. “I try to tell people to only grow it inside, because it’s technically an invasive species. But in pots it’s easier to control, because no matter what I say people will grow it outside anyway.” She puffed out her cheeks in a disgruntled, yet adorable way. “It’s in the lilac family, so it’ll make your apartment smell good too. Nature’s Febreeze.”
Leon’s apartment could probably go with some freshening up, given that his apartment mostly only ever got cleaned when Sharon was over and was feeling especially productive. And the plant was pretty too. Between Gattolotto, Bart, and this bush thing his apartment was going to filled with pansy-ass, yet nice-to-look at things. He’d never be able to have visitors over again.
“Is that legal? Planting invasive species?” He’d been looking up his animal laws lately in case D ever decided to show up in the Orange County and set up shop with all his damn man-eating gerbils, but he hadn’t looked much into plant stuff. A few months ago he wouldn’t have even known what ‘invasive species’ meant, but D had filled him in on that too. “You think Bart will like this?” Context was obviously overrated.
“It is, yeah, just because the government only figured out recently it was invasive.” Standing up, Navi put her hands into her pockets and smiled. “Assuming Bart’s the butterfly, yup. It’ll be food and a place to sleep all in one. I mean, I could ask him for you, but all butterflies I know say they dig it.” To people who didn’t dream it would sound whimsical. People who knew Navi better would know she was only just barely exaggerating.
Leon frowned a little at that. The invasive species that D had told him about had been the trouts that Americans had introduced to Lake Titicaca, which had helped to wiped out the Titicaca Orestais. The idea that it wasn’t illegal to cultivate invasive species didn’t exactly sit right with him. And then he wondered when he turned into such a goddamn hippie. “Well, at least plants don’t make other plants go extinct.” Beat. “Do they?” When it came right down to it, Leon had no idea how plants worked.
“You speak to butterflies?” Leon blurted out, before he realized that it had probably been a figure of speech. Just because D probably conversed with fleas when Leon wasn’t around didn’t mean everyone could talk to animals.
“Not usually,” Navi smiled. “They’ll compete for sunshine and rain and soil resources, but that’s about it. Though I’m sure it has happened. Honestly, nobody should be landscaping out here anyway, period, unless it’s desert blooms.” But Navi stopped herself from getting onto her environmentalist soapbox. He didn’t need to hear it, he was a customer.
She smiled at him and laughed. “I do in my dreams,” she offered. She didn’t do it while she was awake, but she hoped to eventually. Because talking to bugs and flowers would be awesome.
Leon bit back a smile. It was a little refreshing hearing someone giving a damn about the environment. Not that Leon did. He didn’t care much about it before his dreams, and D sure as hell wasn’t going to turn him into some weirdo hippie environmentalist, but it was still nice to hear. “Well, I’ll be keeping it inside, so I guess it’s good enough for me. It can keep Gattolotto company on the windowsill. Gattolotto being my cactus.” He did like that cactus. He chatted with it a bit every morning, usually reading it the newspaper over breakfast, greeted it when he came home, and on the nights he read a little before bed he’d make sure to read to it as well. It never talked back, but he enjoyed having it around.
“Really?” Leon asked. “Well, if you ever wanted to test out your talking to butterflies power, I’m sure Bart’d love to have some real conversation sometime.” He and D probably discussed Animal Kingdom politics over tea or whatever bullshit D talked to his pets about in the dreams, and might be missing those talks. Assuming he could remember coming over from the dreams.
Navi beamed at the idea of this guy having a cactus, and Navi chuckled. “Cacti are such little personalities. They always struck me as the grumpy old men of the animal kingdom.” She had a couple in her bedroom herself, if only because her cat wouldn’t eat them. “I hope I end up talking to plants and stuff like I do in my dreams. That’d be heaven.” She chuckled at the idea, looking down in embarrassment. “Unless they hate my singing. Maybe then I’ll tell them to shush. Here. You should take this one home with you.” She pushed a pot with the aforementioned lilac blooming within. “It’s yours, no money needed. You have to tell me how your friend likes it, though.”
The ‘grumpy old man of the Animal Kingdom’? Leon couldn’t help but frown to himself, not because he was particularly offended by Navi’s assessment but more because now he was wondering if D hadn’t settled on the cactus for exactly that reason. Leon wouldn’t put it past the guy to make fun of him through plants, even if it was supposed to be a gift to help Leon through a break-up. And now he was wondering about Bart, too. Had there been some sort of secret meaning in the stupid butterfly too?
“I don’t know if flowers can hate people singing. Isn’t it supposed to help them grow even if it sucks?” he asked, grinning. He never sang to Gattolotto, because the only time Leon sang was in his shower or in his car, but he wanted to think that the cactus would be happy with his singing whether he was any good or not.
He took the flower with a smile. “Seriously? Well, now you’re definitely welcome to come by sometime to talk with Bart and Gattolotto and…” He frowned at the flower. “This have a name? Or am I going to need to come up with one on my own?” Leon really wasn’t the best at coming up with names. Bart the Butterfly, who had almost been named Flappy if not for Veronica’s timely intervention, could attest to that.
“It does, but maybe they grow out of anger at crummy singing, I dunno.” She put her hands into her pockets, beaming at him. “Why not have the butterfly name it?”
“I don’t speak butterfly,” yet. The thought came before Leon could stop it, and he shook his head. Just because he’d gotten drunk one time and had a lengthy discussion with a rat over pizza didn’t mean that he was magically going to be able to commune with animals. He wasn’t fucking Dr. Dolittle. “I guess I could probably sit on it until I can find a way to communicate.”
Navi leaned forward and stage whispered. “Me either. I hope so soon, though!” She clapped her hands giddily. “I don’t talk to all animals, but I can talk to all plants. So I think butterflies come from being so close to plants.” Really, being a blue fairy was pretty rad in the dreams. “I hope you get to soon!”
Talking to insects and plants wasn’t Leon’s definition of a good time, but Navi seemed like she’d be happy enough with the powers. Besides, they were probably less yappy than some dog and probably not nearly as big of a smartass as Steve the Rat was. And he was very fond of Gattolotto; maybe having an actual conversation with her instead of just one-sidedly telling her about his day when he came home at night would be nice. “I hope you do, too,” he said, and he meant it.