Cherry picking [Open]

[zouichi]

As Zouichi had mentioned earlier, the cherry trees behind the Inn had begun, as of the past few days, to bear fruit. Whatever oddity of the 'seasons' here had encouraged them to bloom before, apparently it had convinced them that now was prime cherry season.

He reached up into the branches of one of the trees, plucking the ripened fruit and leaving the rest for later. He'd promised some to Alendian, of course, but truth be told, he was setting aside the sweetest, choicest fruits for someone else. A larger proportion of fruit to pit, not too soft or too firm, with the most attractive colors...

It was normally a fairly mindless task, but he was engrossed enough in picking and sorting today that he might be caught unawares.

[The thread with Alendian and Ildraniath is closed, otherwise the post is open]

Comments

[carrieswar]

"Yo!"

Jr.'s eyes scanned over the accumulation of fruit Zouichi had picked off the trees, choosing to skip making a grab for one and instead walking up next to him.

"Gathering stuff for inside?" he asked, with a small jump to be able to reach one of the lower branches to grab at something to snack on. At least he was good at making it look as unembarrassing as possible.

[zouichi]

Zouichi smiled at him. "Yeah. Well, we can't very well just leave all that fruit up there, right? Not when the alternative is tasty slop."

Jr., you were so smooth and not adorable at all.

[carrieswar]

That was what he aimed for.

"Wonder if it's feasible to even make the slop bland at best if we mixed in stuff like this," he mused, rolling a cherry between his fingers before taking the bite. "Though 'cherry-flavored slop' doesn't sound all that appetizing."

[zouichi]

"Oh, I'm sure the ship could manage it," Zouichi said dryly. "And that sounds so lovely. I'm going to hold out for the mint-chocolate slop, though."

The artificial sun filtered through the leaves in pleasant fashion -- not really the same as a real sun, but at least the trees themselves were real. "...Actually, you gave me an idea. Back when the Chancellor was around, didn't he try flavoring ice cream? Maybe we could somehow work out cherry ice cream."

[carrieswar]

"Hey, I like mint chocolate, maybe closing your eyes helps."

Grabbing for another cherry, Jr. nodded. "Yeah! I remember that. Sounds like a bit of work if we're doing everything ... but it might be worth it, huh."

[zouichi]

"I think so. Not that there's anything wrong with vanilla..." Actually, had he ever had vanilla ice cream? Probably not.

"So. I haven't much of you lately. What've you been up to? A secret project?" Like a girlfriend okay no.

[carrieswar]

"We should see if we can get more than just cherry, then!"

Jr. could totally get a girlfriend if he wanted, Zouichi, ok. Okay maybe not. He brought his hand up to rub at the back of his head with a grin - though it was one tinged with annoyedness. "Mega secret!" he responded sarcastically. "I've even got a code name for it. Operation GLaDOS."

[zouichi]

Now that was a thought. Then they could have...

AN ICE CREAM PARTY.

"GLaDOS. Yeah, that figures," Zouichi said, looking a little irritated. "Was that before or after the who 'dating experiment' deal? Anyway, guess what you missed out on? We found out what happened with the last crew that got released from the pods."

[carrieswar]

With a pause, Jr. raised his gaze to Zouichi curiously - hesitantly curious. "Yeah? What happened to'em?"

[zouichi]

"The Daligig killed them." Zouichi looked outright grim. "Took them down as they were trying to escape. Sakura and Barbara Wright found the recording."

[carrieswar]

Tilting his head back some, he let out a small groan. "I wonder, was anyone really surprised about that?" Because it sure wasn't a surprise to him.

"I guess that means we've got some planning to do. What's been up since?"

[zouichi]

Zouichi shook his head. "Command knows about it, but they've been quiet. In fact, they haven't made an official statement on any of this. The Council hasn't said a word, either, but that's pretty much business as usual. For right now, a few of us are kicking around ideas on what to do. Which is going to be complicated, because apparently the Daligig are traipsing around areas of the ship we can't get to. But what I don't want to do is stay under their thumb any longer than we have to."