From Red to Green [Bee]

[Esfiel]

Off to the side of the street in a decent, busy section of the Capital stood a booth with the words "Looking for Botanist" along the top. Aima had worked hard to create and move it to this location, a location where she'd been told she was allowed to set it up least someone try to get rid of her before she accomplished what she needed.

Leaning against the table she sat at was a strange contraption that looked like crouches, but with bizarre attachments and additions that looks like it made it more difficult than helpful to walk. One might even question that they really were crouches, but for the broken leg the Corvie sported.

Aima was using her broken leg and seeming helplessness to draw in people to ask them questions. She was going to find someone who could help it, even if that meant seeming pathetic to do it! Someone in the Capital City must know something about plants, or at least know of someone who knew something! She'd considered going back to Corvistowne to look for someone to help, but traveling all the way back on a broken leg didn't seem all too appealing.

Her goal was to make a chlorophyll liquid to replace her blood with. The chlorophyll should take nutrients from the sun to energize her body, while taking away the wastes that her body produced.

There could be a side effect of parts of her turning green, though, but surely that was worth it! What was a bit of greenness compared to finally being free of her contamination? And if she decided she didn't like it, well, after she had no blood maybe she'd go into genetics and fix it?

As long as the chlorophyll liquid ran through the airtight tubes, she shouldn't have to worry about diseases or viruses, for they couldn't even get in her "blood stream". Even if she was wounded she's only have to worry about infection as long as the tubes didn't break, which they most probably would not.

Now all she needed was to wait until she found some information of someone who could help her, or a person themselves. She couldn't bring herself to ask her sister for help, despite her growing obsession with plants, but she had managed to ask for the names of some of her idols. Those names were written in the notebook she had along with descriptions, suits, and ranks of those people. Maybe she'd happen to see one while keeping an eye out?

[Bee]

Mnem was in an exceptionally good mood, owing largely to the package in her hands. Filled with water, it housed one of the flowers she hadn't had in her personal garden in quite some time. Her first small batch had been ruined in a Monty-related tragedy, and availability had been exceptionally low for a depressingly long time. Which was a shame, because the sacred blue lily had so very many uses--perfume, aromatherapy, tea, alcohol, a nice little sedative. Small wonder it was sacred.

She cooed at it. "You'll be fruitful and multiply back at the palace," she assured it. "No wicked bandersnatches will rip you to shreds."

And if one did, Mnem would mount its head on a pike as a warning to the others. Banders, feral beasts that they were, were likely well-attuned to that kind of display. Perhaps that would keep Mirriam far away as well, should she ever decide to return.

Now all she needed to do was take her precious new baby back to--

Botanist. She caught it quite out of the corner of her eye. Looking for Botanist. She stopped and looked at the sign curiously. After a moment of pondering this sign's existence, she looked down, to a Corvie (but of course, who else would do something so odd?) sitting in a booth. Botany was not a profession one typically hunted for on the side of the street. She didn't seem to have a plant that needed investigation or identification. Though in certain circles, she had heard the term used for...

"Darling," Mnem said, "if you're looking for someone to supply you with opium, I suggest not advertising so openly."

[Esfiel]

Aima saw the woman before she took notice of her, though in all honesty she was exceedingly difficult to miss, what with her colorful hair and clothes. In the back of her mind Aima knew something was out of place, as though she was missing something she ought to know. It was almost as if she were familiar somehow..

Then it hit her! She looked like one of the people her sisters had given her descriptions off, although she couldn't remember her name. Aima flipped open the notebook that held the information, but before Aima could properly scan, find, and read the entry Aima's booth had already gotten the woman's attention.

Aima's jaw almost dropped when she talked of opium, and although it didn't she certainly didn't hide the look of shock. Opium may have been legal, but Aima never did those types of drugs, or any, really, unless she was undergoing a surgery. She didn't care to find out what would happen if she took drugs with the tubes running through her.

Though that could be interesting.. She shook her head to herself, as though to clear the thought out of her head. No drugs! Now was the time to remove her blood, not test the side effects. She'd have her whole life to do that after she was down to zero percent blood.

"No no!" she exclaimed, quickly trying to clear it up. "I'm not looking for opium, I assure you. Opium's quite easy to get in Corvistowne if I should want it. I need a botanist for purely scientific and medical reasons."

[Bee]

Well, at least she wasn't shaming herself by looking for that fraudulent "mystic" substance. The Highlands had the right of it to ban it. She had seen a good few opium sots, and they contributed nothing to society but surreal fairytales.

Mnem shifted her box and smiled lazily. A good mood usually led to her amusing herself, which usually led to being a wee bit of a prick to others. Such was entertainment. "Well, I'm sure someone will happen along eventually who can help."

Though really, she was mildly curious as to what exactly this girl wanted, which was why she chose not to make a smirking exit after what would usually be a parting line. Living with Corvies had given her something of a morbid fascination for their work, even though she usually derided the impracticality of a lot of it and frequently found herself occupying a space where yelling "IDIOT" at the top of her lungs to either Minh or her daughter was really the only appropriate reaction.

[Esfiel]

"Someone..?" Aima asked. She didn't come over to help? Oh wait, maybe she wanted her to ask. That was how these things worked usually. Would it seem creepy that she somewhat knew who she was already? Maybe she was used to it considering her sister knew of her as a botanist. At this point it was either be forward or let her walk away. If her research was worth it the decision should be simple.

And it was certainly worth it.

"Could you help me?" she blurted ungracefully. Might as well get straight to the point rather than trying to be subtle about it. "It's just that.. I've heard of you before, well I think I have, and.." It wasn't a lie, even if she couldn't remember her name. She still needed to get herself out of the hole she was digging, though, so she decided to continue on. "I'm tying to replace my blood with a plant mixture, but I need help making the mixture.." Least she accidentally kill herself, and Aima really didn't want that.

[Bee]

For a moment Mnem was quite genuinely surprised that the girl knew who she was, but then she thought about it for a moment and concluded that surprise was stupid, however amusing it would've been to saunter off without the girl realizing she'd just missed an opportunity.

She was royalty, after all, and even though half the shit she'd gotten up to with her career with was so under wraps it was effectively mummified, the rest of it was fairly common knowledge. There were even a couple of books out there, somewhere, though they were probably badly in need of new editions, at this point. Huh. Perhaps she could add that to her to-do list. Right under "another martini."

She quirked an eyebrow at the girl. What a perfectly Corvie thing to want. Replace her blood with a plant mixture. She figured the girl meant chlorophyll. Or some kind of chlorophyll solution. "You want to run on photosynthesis?"

[Esfiel]

Really Aima was willing to run on anything in order to get rid of her blood, or try any other plausible solution. It just so happened that the two most plausible solutions to getting rid of blood were solar power and photosynthesis. She already had the plate in her head, and she was looking to get two more on her back, but that wouldn't solve everything. The blood needed to be replaced.

"Yes," she answered. "Not fully, but at least partly." Or enough to lower her blood percentage something noticeable. "I'm working on both photosynthesis and solar power, but photosynthesis will take care of removing the waste my organs create where solar power won't.." And even Aima wasn't daring enough to replace her blood with water just to see what would happen. That was the type of test she'd perform on some volunteer.

She wondered if she'd have to worry about plate related diseases if she did this, but that was a concern for another time. Right now she wanted to commit to the idea. Would she help her? She seemed interested, or at least curious, but then Aima had never been skilled in reading people. People weren't her thing, but it was easier when she had a goal in mind or was discussing her work in some way.

[Bee]

"All right," she said, tapping her fingers along the top of the box. "I'll bite."

She wanted to see what kind of progress this girl had made so far. Such a curious thing, to try to operate like a plant. Such a potentially amusing mixture of scientific ambition and outrageous stupidity. But Corvies had more ambition than sense as a rule, and if Minh could engineer the monstrosities in her lab, she supposed the girl had as much chance at success as anyone, with a little help. And Mnem might have something to write about later, in addition to a fool-proof excuse for not visiting the spawn when she came to town. And if the efforts failed, well...

She was always deeply entertained by the tears of others.

Solar power...ah yes, her little metal antenna. A fine idea, that. She wouldn't have any chloroplasts to expose to the sun with the furry body of a Card.

"I suppose, as any Corvie worth her salt, you've a laboratory?"

[Esfiel]

One moment Aima was thinking she was going to lose her, the next she was absolutely ecstatic. She was going to help! Or at least she was curious enough not to leave just yet and come with her to her lab. Aima wasted no time in standing up from the little booth she'd created and grabbing for her crutches.

"Thank you! Yep, I've got a laboratory, and it's not too far from here, either," she rambled happily. She certainly did have a laboratory in a basement room in the building she was staying at. The landlord must have been used to Corvies because hers wasn't the only lab down there. She hadn't asked why they were down there. Aima always assumed it was to avoid destruction of the main parts of the apartment and help contain extra chemicals and smells. Her own laboratory was dedicated to different plant life and plant created substances, not all of which were rightfully hers, but she figured it'd be awhile before her sister realized that some of her stuff was missing, figuring out exactly what was missing, and then who had borrowed it.

She collected up her notebook and attached it to one of the crutches she held. Carrying it back to her lab in her mouth didn't seem too exciting given she might have to talk on the way back. It wouldn't due to have a bunch of paper hindering her speech. "This way, if you will.."

[Bee]

She followed the girl as she strode down the street on her crutches. She was almost quite charmingly reminded of Minh and slightly less charmingly reminded of her youngest offspring. They just got so excited when they discovered something new and shiny. Nearly like watching a child unwrap a present, except slightly different, because it wasn’t nearly as irritating, and she had taken pains to almost never give her children presents. Handouts would only teach them to expect charity, and the world was not so sweet a place. She had been a practical mother that way.

She was very curious as to where the girl lived, as well. In order to build the lab of her dreams in Capital City, Minh—with Mnem’s assistance—had taken over an entire apartment complex.

“You’ve enough space to get your work done?” she asked. “My curiosity’s a bit piqued as to what you’ve managed to accomplish so far.”