smartass_captain | So a starship captain and an ex-imperator walk into a shop...[ tagging Furiosa]

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So a starship captain and an ex-imperator walk into a shop...[ tagging Furiosa]

Getting a bit of fresh air is good for JIm anyway, and he looks a little less miserable as they stroll toward a busier part of the Nexus. The commercial district is a mecca of all types of wares and services, shops upon shops lining the street and every kind of food you can imagine (plus ten kinds you couldn't until just now) sold in little corner cafes and diners.

Sure there's a scrap shop selling auto parts Furiosa will recognize, but there's also stores like the one they pass where a tiny man seems to be intent on building and selling as many ludicrous inventions as possible--including a nuclear powered toaster. Jim takes this in stride, stopping to chuckle at something every so often while they go.

Eventually Jim will lead Furiosa into a room so white she'd think she wa dead. The Print Station from an office supply store is only happy enough to accept the data off of Jim's PADD (and somehow convert the data into something they recognize, Jim doesn't think too hard about that) and cheerfully tell him he'll have his manuscript ready in an hour or so.

"Welp. Looks like we've got about an hour to kill. Let's see if we can find some gardening supplies. And possibly a solar powered moisture farm starter kit. Since Furiosa's world is quite lacking in water.

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Furiosa walks with an almost military bearing--possibly this is not unusual to Jim's eyes, given where he comes from--head high, back straight. She keeps pace with him easily, giving the impression she could go a fair bit faster if the occasion called for it. There's no reason to hurry, though, and she starts to slow a little here and there as they pass windows displaying interesting goods. The auto parts store makes her actually lurch off their projected course, though. It's like watching a child see a toy store for the first time. She puts her hand on the glass of the window briefly, gauging what's available, wondering what she can find to pay with. Not that they're really short of auto parts, but these are new and clean.

While she's turned away looking, Jim may catch a glimpse of the brand on the back of her neck, a skull in a fiery wheel. Sooner or later she's going to get that removed.

She doesn't push to stop for more than a few moments, though, aware of their actual purpose. She's quiet in the pristine white room, aware of her own dust-stained state and feeling unusually awkward about it. She responds to him when he speaks, though, nodding. "Solar-powered anything. We use wind power and guzzoline and man power. Solar power is too hard to catch with what we've got to work with."

But it would be a coup, energy-wise.

Jim says nothing about brands, dust, scars or the like despite anything he may have seen. He's no stranger to torture or doing what's needed to survive. Survivors are never quite the same even if they get out. His marks just don't show on his skin. They're buried deep, which is where he prefers to keep them.

Good to know wind powered is an option too. Whatever guzzoline is, it sounds vaguely like the old petroleum based fuels in Earth's history. Kind of sad that there's a severe lack of food or water on her planet, but the oil crisis seems to have been averted.

Now that they're in the heart of the commercial district, this is the extent of Jim's knowledge of the place. He's been here a couple times, but never with such direct purpose in mind. He rubs at the back of his neck self consciously as he peers up and down the way.

"Alright....uh. Huh." Where to start. "You guys have seeds or anything by chance? Fertilizer? Uh...shit I wish I'd paid better attention in my xenobotany classes. We need to find something that will help you guys obtain water first, I suppose. Fat lot of good the rest of the stuff does without water for the crops to grow."

Well, it was the oil crisis that prompted everything else to fall like dominoes. Oil wars, then water wars, then the bombs started going off. It's a wonder anyone survived at all. Our bones are poisoned. We have become half-life.

Furiosa just happens to be in a fortunate location. There are maybe two working refineries she knows of in the world, and Gastown is less than a day's run. A blessing and a curse; they need the fuel, but the city is still powerful enough to be a threat.

He has no way of knowing this, of course; she's a little wary of talking too much, even around people who seem trustworthy. But then, he can't help her if she doesn't share a little. "My city is on an enormous aquifer. Water is less of a problem than you'd think. There's no more rain or snow--at least, not in any real quantity worth counting--but if the old maps I have are right, there aquifer is hundreds or square miles in size, under the earth."

"Obviously if it's not being replenished, it's a bad idea to waste it, but I think we can begin by watering crops and work out ways to conserve and recycle it from there. Seeds, though..." She looks around them thoughtfully. "We have a collection, but some of the seeds are very old. May not be viable any longer. Anything we can get that grows well in harsh conditions would be welcome."

"That's handy." An aquifer huh. Water recycling might be a bit more useful there. With at least a bit of information to go on, Jim starts wandering down side streets and peering into shops every so often to check out what's going on inside.

A shop lined floor to ceiling with thin boxes with a hook nosed gentleman sitting dourly behind his desk. Nope. Bookstore? Not useful without the supplies. Maybe later. Asgardian tavern so full of uproarious laughter than Furiosa and Jim can hear it from outside--definitely not. Some kind of sporting good store. A grocery shop. Alien looking musical instruments.

"I swear this place has everything under the sun except the things we're looking for, Jesus." Jim grumbles while they walk, but he doesn't seem legitimately upset. It's more of an apologetic look, as though he's wasting her time by being here. A little off the busy streets, however, is a neat little garden fence lined shop that smells vaguely of dirt and mulch. Paydirt.

"Here we go." There's even a little greenhouse tacked on behind the shop!

Furiosa eyes the bookstore with interest, but since she's already been shown to the Library, she's less ravenous for knowledge than she was. She doesn't bat an eye at the laughter from the tavern; actually she smiles wistfully, reminded of nights camping on the road with her crew. Hopefully Asgardians brew better liquor, though.

"It's all relatively new to me," she admits. "And much more organized than most of the places I've been for trade. Bartertown has this kind of variety, but it's...louder."

Swindlers don't last but so long in Bartertown (bust a deal, face the wheel), but aggressive salespeople thrive there. You can hardly walk past the marketplace without getting six different people yelling and shoving things at you. She thinks she prefers the organization here; she can look without being looked at.

Still, she brightens visibly at the garden shop, inhaling the scent of earth and compost. "Mmm! What do they take in payment, here?"

"Honestly? I've paid for some things with credits from my world, some things by barter. It depends on the shop. I've got plenty to sell here. No idea how these folks convert it, but usually I see people just pay however they do in their own world. Mine doesn't really use currency anymore for the most part--it's complicated--so I usually trade in information or technology."

The interior of the little garden shop is about what you'd expect; perhaps not Furiosa as this is probably a very strange thing to her. There are the usual planting flowers for sale in several varieties. A case with a few bouquets and arrangements for sale.

Seeds and gardening tools and decor lining shelves further in. Really, the greenhouse is where the magic is. Bags of fertilizer and mulch stacked neatly on pallets. And more plants in neat little rows than Jim could even name. He knew a lot of these weren't form Earth. Sulu would know better than he, but oh well.

"Water and guzzoline is currency in my world. Water, at least, is readily available here. Fuel maybe not as easily, but I haven't seen many vehicles, either." She pats her trousers--her leathers appear to hold several pockets, like cargo pants but sleeker. Unlike a War Boy, she doesn't overload them. After a moment she comes up with a handful of battered coins, some caked with dust. They're from Immortan Joe's collection, inherited by her and the Sisters, and she has no idea if they have any real value. They're mostly Australian, but there are a few American silver dollars, a Canadian loonie, and a couple Deutsche marks.

She'll have to find out if they're worth anything. If not, there are a few trinkets Joe kept that might be made of decent metal.

She eyes the tools with only mild interest. They've made their own gardening tools and those seem to be just fine for them thus far. The plants are what catches her eye, and she takes a few tentative steps toward a shelf of succulents, trying to read the labels and prices. "I need cattails, if I can find them. To filter water. Cattails or corkscrew rushes, or maybe horsetails. And for the sand, maybe some kind of yucca..."

"Yucca might work pretty well. I'm not sure the others would take to the sand all that well on their own..." Jim's perusing the aisles, wishing Sulu were here to help him sort through all these plants.

Wait no Sulu got weird about plants. Spock would be better. Definitely.

"What we oughta find is some hardy grass that can start claiming back some soil from all your deserts." JIm rubs at his chin thoughtfully. That made sense, right? Wow he's not much of a farmer. Shame on you, Jim. You're from Iowa.

"We have some better soil on top of the towers," she says. "But the rushes...there was a woman I met when I first arrived in the Nexus, and she showed me a book with some information on how to purify water. Rain gardens and tiered pond systems. We don't need it for the aquifer yet, but there's a place--"

Pause. She still gets emotional about the Green Place, and that has no place here and now. "The place I was born. The water and soil were poisoned. If I can help clean it, get it supporting life again--not even humans, necessarily. Just living things."

"It'll take time and experimentation, obviously." She picks up a jade plant and strokes the leaves with a fingertip. "And desert plants are probably a higher priority. Still."

"...what kind of grass do you have in mind?"

((I just got back from a vacation, hence the lag in my own replies. I am the same player as Courtney Crumrin, though. Loved the demon plot! I thought about sending Furiosa in but never really made a decision either way.))

Out comes Jim's trusty PADD again as he flicks and taps his way through a myriad of screens faster than Furiosa can even see what he's doing. He turns it around a moment later, pointing to a picture of long curly grass.

"Desert mesquite grass. Needs full sunlight, drought resistant, lives in sandy or gravelly soil. The more grass you have, the less the winds can eradicate topsoil when it forms." Jim flicks through several other images and turns it around again. "Desert sage. Medicinal flowering shrub that needs no water once established. The plant has many medicinal properties."

That thing is so strange. Fascinating, but strange. Not for the first time, Furiosa wonders about the technology available in the Nexus. How much can be adapted to her world? How much should be attempted?

She wants a leg up over the omnipresent dangers of road scavengers and gangs, but not at the risk of unbalancing their fragile society. Might take some trial and error.

In the meantime, she peers cautiously over Jim's shoulder. "We have seeds for desert sage. One of the Vuvalini kept them. A couple seedlings to get a jump start wouldn't hurt, though. And I haven't heard of the grass before. We have food plants for the most part now, and then a few things like dandelions, soapwort, suicide nettles, hens-and-chicks. More aloe would be nice."

It's a place to start.

"Aloe..." Jim scans over the device, licks at his bottom lip while he concentrates. It's a nervous habit. He nods a few times before slipping the device away again. They've got a hero list, time to start digging around the shop.

Jim heads for the seed bank first, leaving the seedling hunting to Furiosa for the moment. The grass, aloe, and several desert wildflowers are picked up after a few minutes of poking around.

Jim pauses when he passes by several small cacti. That's an important thing in desert ecosystems isn't it? Something something wildlife? He frowns thoughtfully at them.

She lets him wander away, comfortable by herself despite the strangeness of the location. It's almost like falling into a trance, walking among so many living plants. Like working in the gardens on the terraces, only better because these are all unfamiliar and different. Some are so delicate she's afraid to touch, some are budding or fruiting and some are--some are moving. Completely by themselves.

She gives a yelp of surprise as something green and knobbly bonks into her right arm. Backing up a step, she checks to see if it's bitten her, but that's silly. Plants don't bite. It's still moving, though, scrabbling in a slow circle, and she tilts her head, crouching slowly just out of its range.

Tartary Vegetable Lamb the tag reads. Yearling cutting.

"What the hell--Jim!" She waves him over with a flailing metal arm (best approach from the right). "Have you ever seen one of these??"

Jim's head snaps around. He jogs over , holding several pouches of seeds close to his chest.

"Yeah?" She's pointing at a plant moving on its own and the captain stops and stares. Moving plants weren't a completely unheard of thing, though in his experience that usually means they're about to spit something deadly or caustic at his landing party. He immediately grabs Furiosa's arm and pulls her out of its reach, just in case.

"I haven't." Jim frowns at it. "I don't want to think they'd put something dangerous out in the shop randomly, but....I've lost men to strange flora before."

She lets herself be pulled, but she also twitches at the grip, a violent little motion, and bares her teeth briefly. Jim can add does not like to be grabbed to the laundry list of things he is discovering about Furiosa, if he's keeping count. She doesn't swing at him, at least.

"...try never to do that without warning," she says. "I've been known to punch first and ask questions later."

His concern seems valid, though, and she checks the spot on her arm that brushed the plant, for a second time. "Thanks, though. It doesn't seem very coordinated, whatever it is."

The squat little woman behind the counter has been watching them idly, and now she emerges and comes over to see what they're reacting to. "Oh, goodness. He must be getting ready to flower. They're always hungry when they're trying to bud. Don't worry, it's harmless unless you stick your fingers in its mouth. They prefer moss."

"...do...you need to feed it?" Furiosa feels way out of her depth all of a sudden.

"I'd rather take a swing from you than have lethal spores shot into your airways." Jim retorts, but lets her go quickly. "Like I said, lost lots of good men to shit like that before. Makes you kinda jumpy." Jim sucks in a breath, glancing back at Furiosa then to the plant again.

He startles at the woman's voice. Jim's usually so good about people. He immediately puts on a disarming smile.

"I meant no disrespect, of course, ma'am. I've seen some interesting plants where I'm from, and not all of them are content just to nibble."

She almost snaps right back at him, I never gave you permission to put your hands on me, War Boy--I will take care of myself and don't ever forget it--

...except, of course, he's not a War Boy, and something about his tone seeps through the little burst of adrenaline. Something familiar. She scowls, anyway, but the shopkeeper's interruption gives her some space to recover and re-analyze.

The shopkeeper, by contrast is either oblivious to the tension or happily ignoring it. "No offense taken, love! I do have some dangerous specimens, but I keep 'em in back."

To Furiosa, she adds, "Probably should. No good to let 'em wear themselves out foraging. Tell you what, if you have a weed problem, this is exactly the plant you need. Be right back..."

She bustles off, and Furiosa is left looking half confused, half sullen.

"You're alright." Jim isn't sure if it's the idea of a plant--something so rare and valuable to her world--being dangerous or his pulling her back that has her upset, but either way, no one was hurt.

"...Holy shit." Jim hands Furiosa the seed packets, each with a handy little tag, before he circles around to a plant toward the back.

"She has a borgia plant! That's some serious gardening interest." Jim whistles, clearly impressed. "Yeah we may want to double check everything is safe here. This thing," Jim points to an innocuous plant with lumpy green pods. "This thing will kill you faster than anything if you eat it."

Mostly the pulling her back. She doesn't take well to chivalry to begin with, and is prone to defending her little bubble of personal space with punches and sharp elbows jabbed into soft tissue. Come right down to it, she doesn't much care for him telling her she's all right, either, but there are more interesting things to focus on than ruffled feathers. She raises an eyebrow at the seed packets, flipping through them gently with a hum of approval.

Thus mollified, she follows him slowly and tilts her head over his shoulder to eye the plant he's pointing at. "Then I don't think I want one." Her lips quirk.

"We already have a Stinging Tree. I think that's all the mean plants we need." Horrible stuff, really. The Vuvalini used it for defense, when they were living in areas where they could cultivate it. Dag has grown one specimen only, and they're looking into extracting the poison for weaponry but otherwise making sure it doesn't spread.

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So a starship captain and an ex-imperator walk into a shop...[ tagging Furiosa]

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Sorry for slow-tagbacks! I've been running an event in Nexus this weekend :x

funny you should mention that

Omg :D!

<3

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