ArchivedLogs:Flower Hunt

Flower Hunt
Dramatis Personae Hive, Kaylynn
In Absentia	2015-10-05 "I'm not /trying/ to do anything illegal."
Location <NYC> Creative Little Garden - Lower East Side
It's not a big park, really. A small secluded garden in the Lower East Side, quite close to Tompkins Square. The trees stretch overhead to both sides of the mulched paths, forming a leafy canopy through which New York's murky city-sky is visible. Between the paths the grounds spill over with an abundance of flowers, hedges, community-tended, in here. The paths all wind together into the small central clearing, a little circular retreat with fountain and benches. It isn't terribly cold outside, which may be why so many people are out in the park this evening. The day's warmth may be fading slightly but with chillier weather right around the corner quite a few residents have decided to make the most of it. Among them is Kaylynn who wanders down one of the many paths that wind through the foliage. She doesn't necessarily stay on trail though. Occasionally the Texan disappears into a bush only to appear 7 feet ahead with a flower or some other oddity in hand. Her attire is rather unremarkable and consists of black leggings a pale blue dress that falls to just above her knees and a black jacket that's certainly seen better days. And instead of a purse she sports a...Pikachu backpack. There's a young man wandering down the path -- rather unremarkable, too, in faded old jeans, brown suede workboots, a weatherbeaten brown corduroy jacket (several sizes too big for his skinny frame) worn open over a black denim button-down, grey messenger bag slung over his shoulder. Hive's shoulders are slouched, head bowed and a scruffy thick mop of black hair partially obscuring his eyes -- perhaps obscuring them a little too /much/, because he doesn't seem to see Kaylynn emerging from the bushes until she's stepping out onto the path again. "Fff -- woah --" One knobbly-fingered hand lifts reflexively towards her elbow, pre-emptive bracing since /he's/ just about to crash; he swivels a step to the side as his head jerks up quickly. "-- {Sorry, sorry.}" Reflexively, the apology is in Spanish. His darkly shadowed eyes skip up over Kaylynn; there's a kind of lazy half-lidded cast to his expression that looks deceptively tired, belying the very-much-alert state of the telepath's /mind/ as he filters stray surface thoughts from the others around him in the park. "Clearly -- undercaffeinated today." His gaze has dropped back away from Kaylynn's face to -- take stock of the flowers that she has been gathering. "Ah!" The small noise escapes Kaylynn's lips and she leans back, nearly stumbling right back into the bushes. Thankfully that tragedy doesn't quiet come to pass. It takes her a second to steady herself but eventually there's a shake of her head, "No no, you're fine. People probably don't usually pop out of the bushes around here." A soft lilt colors her voice, making it quite clear that she's from the south and nowhere near New York. There's a nervous laugh as she runs a hand through the brown locks that tumble in waves to her shoulders. It's then that she follows his gaze down to the flowers. "Uh...I'm not /trying/ to do anything illegal." She's not going to get in trouble for picking flowers, is she? Hive's eyes lift again, slowly, a faint furrow pulling his brows inward. There's a moment where he just looks at Kaylynn a little blankly, before his head gives a quick shake and he exhales a short-sharp laugh. "Do I look like a cop?" His hand drops to his side, resting against his messenger bag and twisting at the strap. He nods towards the flowers she holds. "There still tiger orchids in bloom somewhere here?" "Not exactly, but you never know! You might be some undercover park ranger or some such." Though even she finds this a bit far-fetched and follows up with a quiet laugh. "I don't really know names, but if those look like what the name implies I think I might have seen a few." She nods down at the flowers in her hand, "They just looked pretty...and some are edible so I figured I might experiment with flavors." "Actually," Hive reflects thoughtfully, "they're kind of misnamed. They're really way more /spotted/ than striped. If they wanted to go with cats, leopard orchid would probably have been better -- they're --" His fingers unfurl, spreading out to describe the shape of a flower in the air. "Yellow, most of the time, with kind of -- dark red speckles --" His description is maybe, as descriptions go, not particularly evocative -- but nevertheless as he speaks, a very clear image blossoms momentarily in Kaylynn's mind of a cluster of the large spotted flowers. He drops his hand again, looking back to her flowers. "Which of those taste good?" "Leopard you say...well, that'd be one pretty cat with those colors!" There's still a hint of confusion in her features before that image pops into her mind. Kaylynn suddenly snaps her fingers and nods, "I've seen those around I think! Not many...I'm not even sure if it was today to be honest." As for the flowers, she ends up pointing to a honeysuckle variety. "They usually bloom in spring but there are a few that go from summer to early fall. I kind of lucked out." "It's kind of late in the season for them," Hive admits, though he sounds a little wistful on this. "But it hasn't been that cold yet. A lot of things are around later than I'd have expected." His hand lifts, reaching out somewhat absentmindedly to the honeysuckle to brush a fingertip against one petal. "... what do you use them /for/? I mean. What are you flavoring?" "I'm afraid of what comes when the chill really sets in...what I wouldn't give for a Texas winter." Kaylynn shakes her head before offering one of the stalks of honeysuckle to him. "Chocolate...it adds just a hint of flavor on top to balance things out. And it makes for good decorations to boot." "Decorations for the chocolate?" There's a faint widening of Hive's eyes in mild surprise when Kaylynn offers the honeysuckle out. He takes it, though, with a dip of his head and a small smile. "Every winter I always say I'm going to go the hell back home." He lifts the stalk of flowers to his face, drawing a deep breath in. "Just fronting, though, I never do. Just stay here and complain about it a lot. Snow is fun, though." "Mhm! Nothing like a tiny flower on top to make it look a bit more glamorous." Kaylynn grins when he takes the stock before tilting her head curiously. "Where's back home? Though yeah, snow is fun...especially when it's all light and fluffy. We'd get snow every once in a while back home but it was hard and ended up getting muddy if you tried to play around in it." "Thailand." Now the note in Hive's voice is /definitely/ wistful. There's a faint tug of longing that whispers against Kaylynn's mind, another -- fainter, distant -- flutter of mental imagery, more /felt/ than visualized. A lick of breeze carrying salty ocean scent, the sound of a ringing gong, a ripple of voices, a tang of spices. There and then gone again. His eyes close, nose pressing further into the stalk of flowers. "In the city the snow gets gross but you head outside -- all kinds of fun skiing not even too far off." His eyes open again, gaze flicking to the side of the path. "You want to see if we can find those orchids?" "Thailand? That's incredible..." Though it gets much more incredible in a second. Her eyes flutter closed briefly as the smells and voices surround her for a moment. And then it's all gone in a flash and she's left grinning, "I'll have to look into that, find some nice places out in the less civilized areas." For now though there's an immediate nod as Kaylynn begins parting the bushes once more. "Most definitely, I've got to see these pretties for myself! Shall we? " And it's back to flower hunting!