Inbox: Pumpkin Hollow

[lovinglefthand]

An In-Character inbox for First Aid, chief clinician and surgeon at the Winterbottom clinic.

Comments

[graveling]

[And now, in perfectly sane conversations to have:]

Is it going to be weird if my bees pollinate you?

[lovinglefthand]

Wha -- what?

[Sorry Angel, First Aid has a little mental catching up to you.]

Is this Angel? You got your bees?

[graveling]

Yes! Or at least, the hives have been built. So I will have bees soon. But I wanted to check in because you’re not normal flowers.

Sorry.

[The apology sounds like reflex.]

[lovinglefthand]

Oh! Don't be, it's a fair question. I...think my flowers are normal? Apart from the part where they're growing in moss on top of a layer of metal, instead of dirt...

[Hm.]

Well, they have pollen and nectar, anyway. I don't think Serranai would want to hurt your bees.

[graveling]

Most flowers aren’t holy, heh. Or a gift from a holy entity, same diff.

But I wasn’t worried about her flowers hurting the bees, so much as them bugging you.

[lovinglefthand]

Yeah, but it was a gift that was meant to be used. Otherwise why would she have included penicillin?

But that's...a good point. Honestly I'm more worried about them crawling into my seams and getting stuck inside me...[He makes a shuddery little sound of disgust. Bees are fine. Crushed bee in his gears? Not fine.]

But I don't want them to go hungry either...maybe if I just stay in altmode while visiting the hives...

[graveling]

I mean, bees range pretty far. They will be finding you, even if you don't visit the farm.

We can play it by ear, see if it becomes a problem.

[A pause.]

Kinda interesting, to...have the attention of a goddess.

[lovinglefthand]

Oh yes! But it's also comforting, too.

[Quietly...]

It reminds me of how things used to be, before my people's last leader, Optimus Prime, was killed...He always worked so hard to look after each one of us. The goddesses are like that too, I think.

[graveling]

They try to be. It's hard, with the barrier. I talked with Mortanne, once, about it.

[Yes, like had a whole literal conversation with her.]

[lovinglefthand]

With -- with the goddess? In person?

...Is it okay to ask about it? I don't want to be rude.

[graveling]

Yeah, you're okay to ask. It...was kind of in person. In a dream, though. Mortanne's domain is the Beyond, and that's not just death. It's dreams, too.

[lovinglefthand]

Oh wow...I didn't know. What was it like? What did you talk about?

[graveling]

I originally wanted to talk to her about my nightmares, the fact that...I don't need sleep, but sometimes sleeping next to Eddie would be nice instead of just waiting all night for him, you know? But we talked about a lot more than that. The barrier, Degas. She let me ride in her carriage while we talked.

[He's still vaguely awed by the experience and that comes out in his voice.]

[lovinglefthand]

[First Aid is awed as well.]

That's amazing, Angel. That's...wow. Really, really amazing.

Er. Did she have any advice for us? Anything we should be doing differently or...better?

[graveling]

She did have some things to say about the barrier. How they can't give us the answers because figuring out what is going on is a part of breaking the curse. Us calling on them, honoring them, invoking them gives them more ability to get through the barrier to act.

[lovinglefthand]

So they can't help us unless we ask for it first? [He's glad he thought to ask for a blessing, in that case...] But I suppose there are probably reasons why we can't just ask them how to take the barrier down, right?

[graveling]

Figuring it out is part of breaking the curse. Giving us the answers will not work in this case.

[lovinglefthand]

Oh. Well, gosh. That's awkward.

[Understatement, First Aid.]


Have you been talking to anyone else about this? Because, honestly...outside of diagnostics, I've never been very good at logic puzzles...I think this is definitely going to be a group effort, Angel.

[graveling]

I've told Jean and River. But I don't really know...how to best tell everyone?

[lovinglefthand]

I get it. It's a really personal thing, right?

What if...you wrote down the important things that other people need to know, and had someone else tell them? Like in a meeting?