The Deck of the Cape Rouge, Thursday Morning

[okteiviakom]

Octavia had been having a lot of thoughts since her visit to Engelsøy the other week. About her past, sure, as always. About the present, likewise.

But the future, too. Her own, that of her loved ones, that of the planet.

A lot of that last thing, actually.

And all of those thoughts were beginning to trend towards action. Like there was a restlessness in her bones, reminding her there was still time, there were resources, there were fights to join and pursuits to engage in.

(Maybe even ways to make amends for everything she'd done wrong in her own time.)

She'd been quietly compiling things in two notebooks. In one, she was trying to collect every last bit of information she could remember about how the first Praimfaya had come about, whether it was something she'd been taught on the Ark, something she'd heard on the Ground, or something she'd read down in the bunker. Anything and everything, no matter how small.

In the other, she was putting all of her research into... well, the jumble things that were running the planet into the ground right now. Who the big players in fighting it were, and what the big things they were doing were.

Probably no surprise that Octavia had been sleeping progressively worse over the last week or so. Just the cost of throwing herself at something that called to her, for the first time in years. Still, right now on Thursday morning, after a too-early breakfast, she was working on something much more practical, easy, and very, very local: the little garden of planter boxes she'd handwavily established on the deck of the Rouge at the beginning of summer.

Putting her hands in some soil was doing a lot to center her.

[ooc: Open, ofc!]

Comments

[okteiviakom]

"Something like that, yeah," Octavia confirmed with the tiniest nod. "But it does kind of work here, too."

[my_own_advocate]

Lucifer smiled. "Are you enjoying it so far?"

[okteiviakom]

"When the porgs don't think it's for them," Octavia replied on a little huff, "yes."

[my_own_advocate]

"Well, the porgs think everything is for them," Lucifer pointed out. "Never have managed to persuade them otherwise."

[okteiviakom]

"That's because you don't speak porg."

Neither did you, Tavi. You just spoke Trig and had a big reserve of patience for dealing with them.

[my_own_advocate]

"Porgs don't have a real language, darling."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia raised her eyebrows a bit.

"Yes they do."

[my_own_advocate]

"And you know this how?" Lucifer asked.

[okteiviakom]

"Because all animals have systems of communication?" Octavia said, with a little shrug, like it was obvious. "And they're just as real as ours."

You should've seen this coming, Luce.

[my_own_advocate]

"A system of communication isn't the same thing as a language," Lucifer pointed. "Can't exactly have an in-depth conversation with a porg, can you?"

[okteiviakom]

"We can't, they can."

Well, for a given value of 'in-depth', anyway.

[my_own_advocate]

"I really don't think the porgs have ever had an in-depth conversation about anything."

Lucifer turned his head and watched one accidentally shove its buddy into the water.

"Look at them. They're like pratfalls made flesh."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia snorted. At him, at the porgs, it worked for both.

"Oh, like you never do anything ridiculous."

[my_own_advocate]

"I also do many very serious things," Lucifer protested. "They do not."

[okteiviakom]

"They survive, it's pretty serious."

Unlike Octavia's wry tone.

[my_own_advocate]

"They don't have in-depth conversations about surviving," Lucifer pointed out. "If they did they'd be far more coordinated."

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's head tilted a fraction, now with a sliver of... concern, maybe?

"Okay, fine," she said. "They don't."

[my_own_advocate]

There was no need for concern. Lucifer was just taking a silly argument entirely too seriously again.

"Right," Lucifer agreed. "... What were we talking about again?"

He was a very serious man.

[okteiviakom]

Octavia's concern triggers may have been a little overly sensitive lately. No points for guessing the ambient concern over Duke had a lot to do with it.

"How there's special garden maintenance needs here," she said, a little softer than she'd meant to.

[my_own_advocate]

"Right," Lucifer said, nodding. "So... what are your plans?"

[okteiviakom]

"Just to see how everything grows?" Octavia offered with another tiny shrug. "If it grows."

Porgs aside, so far so good, but there were still things that could go wrong.

[my_own_advocate]

"I never did ask you what you planted," Lucifer noted, looking towards the planters.

[okteiviakom]

"A lot of herbs, and a few vegetables," Octavia said. "Stuff that... we have a proven use for."

Ever practical, our Tavi.

[my_own_advocate]

"Stuff you've cooked with before?" Lucifer asked.

[okteiviakom]

"Some," Octavia admitted. "But mostly stuff you've cooked with. Or Duke."

The 'we' had been very much on purpose, yeah.