'Ere the world ❆

[wolfofmidgard]

Who: Meja & you (open)
When: Day 115
What: Magic, plants, attempts at being scholarly.
Where: The community garden, or thereabouts.

Initially, she ventures out to the garden at night — magic can occupy her time when everyone is asleep. Meja brings her notebook with her, along with a blanket to ensure it stays dry and a sack full of stones. She's been writing down everything she can remember from her teachings with Fenrir, even basic rules and exercises. Magic is fickle, her teacher had informed her, and you must not give it a chance to bite.

That had mattered more when she'd been mortal, but still. It was a good thing to keep in mind, especially in terms of damaging her surroundings on accident.

She can be found at the garden in early and late morning, with her hood over her head and a collection of flat stones at her feet, a throwing dagger in hand. The Asgardian steel won't bend, won't break, and so whittling a single rune into each stone isn't difficult. Just time-consuming. A handful of stones are finished, sitting next to her notebook, but she hasn't started her experiments yet. A few more stones first. There's a light mist in the air that only goes a few feet away from the garden itself, something to give the plants a boost at the time of day that they drink the most. And every so often, her gloves glint and glow, the physical sign of the conditions she's maintaining.

Comments

[wolfofmidgard]

Meja's stumped about that. She thinks as she carves, a furrow in her brow. More harm than good? Fruit? Isn't fruit good for you, unless you have an allergy? "Has fruit harmed the population at large? I can't imagine apples having the foresight to make a plan."

[hung_garian]

"I take it you haven't been reading your Bible much lately. For shame, kiddo. For shame."

He clucks his tongue, affecting school marm much better than any teacher ever managed... or so he hopes.

"Put it this way - not all apples are, historically, as beneficial as Iðunn's."

[wolfofmidgard]

She laughs quietly at his tutting. "I'm sorry. I haven't read the Bible at all. My mother told me the basics when I was girl — but that was a long time ago, and, before now, there's been no use for that knowledge. She wasn't very fond of Christians, and raised me in no particular religion at all."

[hung_garian]

"Smart woman."

After all, he may know that the Abrahamic faiths are more or less right (in his universe, at least), but that doesn't mean he has to like them. Despite being a key figure in multiple religions, doctrine of any kind is not something he's fond of, and as he sees it, the religious kind is one of the most prevalent and divisive kinds there is.

"There was one thing the Christians got right, though - fruit and veg is evil. For the sake of your immortal soul you're better off sticking to processed food."

[wolfofmidgard]

"We seem to be in a drought of processed foods," Meja notes, grinning. "Nothing to process them with. I don't do much eating, anyway. Usually just when it would be rude not to."

Or, you know, whenever she can find chocolate. She has a sweet tooth that only a few know about.

"What's the story behind fruits and vegetables being evil, anyway?"

[hung_garian]

"I don't think anyone's gonna take offence to your diet here, sugar. Don't know if you noticed, but it isn't just processed foods we're getting short on."

And, well, he really should be doing something to help with that. For the moment he's hesitant to - he doesn't want the entire community relying on him to feed the five thousand or whatever - but he tells himself he will if the food situation gets really dire.

"The story? Frankly I'm surprised you haven't at least heard of it, but if you're really serious... well - the way the Bible tells it, the world was once overrun by giant talking apples. Once God created Mankind, there wasn't enough space for two master species, so Satan recruited the apples - and a rather impressive warrior race of carrots - to help him oppress the humans. Long story short, there was mortal combat between man and fruit for ... oooh, millenia, I'd say. Nowadays humans show their dominance by eating the inanimate descendants of their former enemies, but personally I think they're getting complacent. Might not be long now before the grocery aisles rise up in defiance and the whole thing starts all over again."

[wolfofmidgard]

Her grin stays firmly on her face as she listens to his story, raising her brows whenever it seems dramatically appropriate. While Meja's never read the Bible (although she thinks she should perhaps rectify this, if she gets a chance), she wasn't born yesterday. Quite the opposite, really.

But hey, she can go along with a bit of silliness.

"It's a good thing we don't have a grocery store, then, I suppose. We'll all be much safer from killer apples and carrots," she remarks, and her tone is nonchalant even if her expression isn't.

[hung_garian]

"Pretty fortunate, huh? I'm just hoping your magic moonrunes don't interfere. The last thing we want on our hands is a bunch of homicidal vegetables all hopped up on sei­ðr."

His expression stays firmly in the camp of 'butter wouldn't melt', but there's a touch of something else, too - conspiratorial, perhaps, or knowing. He appreciates her going along with the joke. People who do are always a lot more fun.

[wolfofmidgard]

Being too serious all the time is a condition that Meja doesn't believe in. There's a time and a place, certainly. But without a touch of silliness, she wouldn't have turned out the way she had; her mother had very insistently made sure that fun had just as much of a place in the home as education. In the early days, at least, when she'd been able to. But her later years are a time that Meja doesn't think much about, anymore, on purpose.

"Don't worry. I'll try to keep the peace. By taking a bullet and eating the vegetables, if necessary," Meja chuckles.