Green Thumb. [Closed]

[ivchameleon]

Behind a quaint cottage-style home where the sun splashed the ground and greenery with it's warm rays was where a specific Yarrow Garden resident could be found most-often. It was behind her own house that she had started her first garden, with seeds bestowed upon her by her parents. She had spent hours with her nose in books since she first learned to read, which lent her a good standing with the local library and a long list of previously checked-out books. Most having to do with growing lush plants, flowers, and bushes. The little canine was known as a bookworm in her family, but had a passion for growing things.

As her knowledge expanded, she slowly earned a specialty in cultivating deadly plants. Things that would poison and kill even the most resiliant creatures, like nightshade. Yes, the sunset-hued gal had a special place in her heart for nightshade of all kinds, though she most commonly had belladonna in her soil. It happened though, that not too many knew that she had such a talent for growing flora. Most of the ones that had any clue to such a fact were in her family which was small to begin with, the librarians that she stopped to frequently chat with, and the other residents with gardens to tend to that needed tips for success.

Today she was seated lazily across a bench with her snout delved deep into a bit of text about cross-breeding different plants, which was much more simple than she had expected it to be. When she had hands that actually functioned as such with individual digits, she was going to have to try some experimenting with different species to see what she could get away with. Yeah, things like that she just couldn't wait for. But she knew the day would come when she would be granted her bipedal body. Until then, she could very well concoct and scheme what to cross and what might be quite interesting to see the product of.

As well as her backyard garden was concealed, it was not uncommon to have visitors pass by the backside of her family's property. It was backed by a nice country path that many took leisurely walks on. Although, she was usually too busy to say hello. Today was different, she was watching for someone interesting to come along.

[Greenie]

Occasionally Elodie enjoyed taking a walk from her mothers' Villa and simply enjoying the scenery.

This, however, was far beyond what she considered 'scenery'. This had to be one of the neighborhoods her mother had shown her when she was little and threatened to leave her in if she didn't eat her vegetables. It had been a weird threat, but had worked on the young feline; she had no wish to be left to fend for herself. Some of the homes were beautiful and the people were obviously just as pretty as herself--the female ones, that is, not that one saw many males around, period--but the implied nature that her family was somehow better than theirs still tried to linger within Elodie's mind. Here in the Gardens it was less persuasive than when she was afar because those of Yarrow were those of Yarrow, and you didn't treat your own with ill, but it wasn't her fault some of them just didn't have the money she did.

In the end, Elodie really didn't know where she was. She hadn't bothered to take a maid with her, because the feline hadn't planned on going that far, but her thoughts had gone astray and she'd mentally awoken to find herself by a quaint little cottage on a cute little path.. in what was essentially the middle of nowhere to her. So she stopped, sighed, and looked around, and was quite relieved to spot a canine not too far from where she was.

The girl was reading, but that was just too bad, wasn't it?

"Hello there," She called softly as she approached, "I don't suppose you could help me? I was taking a walk became lost in my thoughts and I'm afraid I have no idea where I am now," Elodie laughed slightly and smiled, as if amused with herself. Really, she was just irritated that she'd wound up here, but there was nothing to be done about it anymore.

[ivchameleon]

Pink eyes stared at the pages in front of them, preparing for the time to come when she would be able to put this knowledge into practice. It was fascinating to her how you could take a tomato plant, slice it down the middle of the stalk in a "V" shape, then take another stalk such as a jalapeno, with an inverted "V" and put it into the stalk of the tomato, and grow a hot tempered tomato from it. Of course this would come in handy when she wanted to cross her nightshade with nettles or something. Oh yes, that would be wonderful. A nightshade plant with deadly little spines on the leaves that would rip up your throat on the way down. What a wicked little mind the beautiful Yarrow Garden resident bore.

Not quite so caught up in her book as she neared the bottom of the second page of drawing examples and figures, she cast her gaze up and saw that no one was passing by at that moment. Pity, because she could use some conversation. She was almost finished with the book as it were and had no others left in her collection to peruse. A trip to the library would be necessity before the afternoon passed, which meant a nice long walk into town. Laying next to her bench was an old-fashioned leather strap that children used to tie around their books to carry to school with them. It was a treasure she had found up in her grandma's attic one day when she was much younger and came in handy when she had a few books to return to the library and didn't want to slobber all over them trying to get them back safe and sound. Instead now, she just put the strap around them, buckled it, and carried it by the handle. Once she had accredited the inventor of that strap, because she would have probably never thought of it herself because things like that were not something that passed through her mind too often. She was the consumer, not the supplier.

A freshly cleaned paw reached up gingerly to turn the page as her eyes cast themselves back down on the heavy 60lb pieces of paper. No, they weren't actually 60lbs, but paper was measured in such a way. The thickness was measured in a special kind of "pound". Or so she had thought, but she had never really done any studying into it. The next few chapters passed with ease and her brain absorbed every bit of information that went into it. Storing it in later file cabinets for use in experiments. Anticipation filled her so quickly that she felt as though she might bust at the seams before she ever got to try anything out.

Lost in the typed out words of one of her favorite authors, the multicolored cutie missed the feline that strolled up until she spoke. Arching her brow and tilting her head back only enough to cut her eyes toward the stranger, she whuffled a witty response back to her.

"Well, you are in Yarrow Gardens. But I assume you knew that, considering the colors of your pelt are similar to my own. Although, if you have Alzheimer's, you wouldn't remember that. You don't have Alzheimer's, do you?"

With a sort of sly grin and a chuckle she stretched from her head all the way down into the very tip of her tail. It was a very cattish stretch for a dog, but felt so good after sitting still for quite a spell. Easily she slipped down from the bench and onto her large paws, snaking across the grounds behind her home toward the well-decorated feline. Her tail swished as she passed her precious plants, taking in a deep breath of their lovely perfumes. Each individual flower, stem, and leaf had it's own aroma. She loved every one of them.

Coming within several feet of the stranger, she stopped and lowered her backend onto her haunches. "Well..?"

[Ry]

Souris scampered down a country path, en route home, when she encountered a quaint cottage, replete with deadly plants. The mouse hesitated, then slowed. The Gardens contained may plants that were highly poisonous and resilient, but few residents grew such wealth, in such profusion.

Perhaps within these grounds, she would find someone who knew the subtle art that she was attempting to master. Or even a new teacher.

Although, more likely, she'd find another poisoner, instead. Undeniably a useful art, poisons, but any high-ranking Heart either was partially or completely immune, creating serious limitations in the skill, especially for an ordinary poisoner.

Perhaps, a Yarrow Gardens botanist would be able to help her circumvent the limits, and allow her to improve her rudimentary knowledge.

She stopped, coming to a halt at a reasonable distance from both Cards, wary. Hers was the black suit - above the Clubs, certainly, but beneath the red. And the feline, carriage and jewelery, simply screamed her wealth. She was outclassed, and she knew it. But she was of the Yarrow Gardens, and female, that had to count for something. Didn't it?

"Hello," she greeted both Cards in general, and hoped civility or preconditioning, or both, would kick in, and canine and feline would reply.

[Greenie]

Elodie merely stared at her for a few moments after she spoke, wondering if she'd heard the girl correctly. Alzheimers? What the bloody hell was that? And why was this silly girl asking her that? Elodie was very tempted to turn around there and just hope the path took her back home, but an innate dislike of being bested forced her to stay and converse some more.

"Yes, I am aware of my general location. I was asking for something more specific, if you don't mind." While her voice was hardly condescending or rude, it was bordering on hard, as she disliked having random garble spit out at her. Why couldn't people simply answer her question with an answer and not another question?

Elodie paused, about to say something more, when a third Gardener joined them. This one seemed far more polite than the first, so she felt more inclined to respond favorably to her. It wasn't her fault the silly canine annoyed her, was it? "Greetings," She replied with a bit of a smile.

[ivchameleon]

Amused even if only for the moment with herself, she swished her tail from side to side against the ground. Hearing the feline's response which was neither warm nor cold, no information was given aside from the fact that she knew approximately where she was at the moment. With a snort the Yarrow looked back at her house in reference to what she was about to say.

"Well, you are at my house." she responded, still managing to maintain her silence for the most part. It wasn't pertinent to the conversation that she be quiet, but she was not one to just babble away like there would be no tomorrow.

Upon seeing the other Gardener her eyes just seemed to light up. Not only did she have one to play with, but two. Thinking about it, she recalled that there were a few plants that were ready for experiments, and perhaps... Just perhaps... She could get one of them to be her guinea pig.

"Hello there," she said in an almost cattish fashion toward the mouse, leaning toward her with a toothy grin. Clever as she was, she may not be able to get the cat to consume anything she had, but the mouse... Now that was another story entirely. She was outranked, and may be swayed to do just about anything that either of them desired. This fueled the canine's thoughts and she concocted as to which plants to offer to the rodent, trying to remember just which one affected mice in a way that would not be able to be traced back to her as being violent or even homocidal; but instead moreso like that of food poisoning. As she schemed, a cheshire smirk took over her facial expressions.

Today was going to be more fun than she expected.

[Ry]

The mouse smiled shyly back at the feline, responding formally in turn,"Greet you", fear and delight pounding through her veins. Direct address from a Heart was always a privilege for the lesser Cards, but the Hearts' legendary temper made conversation a chancy thing at times.

And the Diamond, leaning towards her with a smile, seemed pleased to see her, too. She hesitated, then, being the meanest suit, introduced herself, reluctantly, "I'm Souris", waiting tensely to see if she'd be accepted. Acceptance was half the battle.

She would need to be able to converse freely with both Cards, and she couldn't do so otherwise. She might be lesser in suit and ability, but her betters had to accept her, before she could discover if either gardened the grounds beyond. Maybe that Card would have the specific skills and knowledge she sought, and maybe, having that knowledge, that Card would be willing to take on a pupil, and teach.

If the Cards would just acknowledge her first.