914/Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Date of Scene:	12 June 2017
Location:	New York City
Synopsis:	Till and Tigra talk, and Till tiptoes around questions! Also Till learns a bit about mortals and free will.
Cast of Characters:	222, Tigra

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Till (222) has posed:
Where else would one expect to find Till but a park? There's a lot of parks in the city of New York, and Till has basically been making the rounds of them. It's easy when you can fly, but once he gets to his destination, it's always better to do his thing while in human form. Cuts down on the possibility of getting discovered. Thusly, Till is on the great lawn in Bryant Park, in human form, and dressed in the usual t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers that look like they're thrift-store finds.

He's tending a flower garden around the base of a tree... a garden that most certainly was not there before. But it looks like it's been growing for a week or more. The buds are still closed, but it won't be long until they are. There's a watering can that he's made out of a discarded tin can and pokedholes in the top of one side -- that way the water will stay inside, but will sprinkle our when he tilts the can.

Tigra has posed:
As it happens, Tigra's made her way to the very same park Till's hanging out at, and at the very same time. She isn't in the very same spot, however. Instead, she makes for an intersting sight at the chess tables, seated across from a man who appears to be homeless. Quite the odd pairing, and no less than a handful of people have begun to mill about to watch them with the curiosity of, well, a cat.

It isn't much longer before the game ends, Tigra reaching into a shoulder bag to give the man a sandwich she'd bought from a street vendor before coming here, and they part ways. She takes to following one of the paths that edge up against the lawn itself, pausing for a look around.

Till (222) has posed:
Till picks up the can-sprinkler and tilts it to water the flowers. Once he sets the sprinkler can down again, he leans down a little, as if he's sniffing at the flowers. But the way his mouth moves... is he TALKING to them?

Then again...given the closed bud of the flower closest to him -- it's a tulip, to note -- begins to very slowly peel itself open, so... maybe he IS talking to the flowers? Maybe he's encouraging them!

Tigra has posed:
Tigra happens to glance toward Till, and there's a long moment of silence from her as she squints his way, staring, listening, making use of sharper feline senses to aid in her eavesdropping. There are many other sounds in the area, but the trees do provide a bit of a buffer from some of it and focusing on one spot helps.

Is he..talking to the flowers? Apparently so, but something about him also seems familiar. While she's trying to place the where, when, and what, she starts toward him and bare feet cross over from path to grass.

Till (222) has posed:
Tigra's sharper hearing will catch the murmurs as she gets closer. But here's the weird thing. The murmurs never become clearer, no matter how close she gets. It always sounds like it's just barely too low for her to hear, though she can make out language. The flower seems to like it, anyway...

Till doesn't seem to have noticed Tigra yet. He's shifted to another flower and is repeating the same thing. He needs to be subtle here, he can't just make the whole bed of flowers burst into bloom. So he's doing it one flower at a time, so as to attract as little attention as possible.

Tigra has posed:
Most people don't pay that much attention to the random people around the city. There are so many of them, it's difficult to devote that much focus to everybody. In this case, though, Till is the center of Tigra's current studies, especially when the ability to hear and understand exactly what he's saying doesn't change. Of course that's going to strike her as abnormal, perhaps as much as she is to the eye.

This is how she ends up stopping within a few feet of Till, her arms lightly crossed in front of her as she leans somewhat to one side, peering curiously. "You seem familiar," she begins, sounding speculative about it.

Till (222) has posed:
So engrossed in his flower-talking is Till that as he hears her voice, he starts. Unfortunately, he's leaning pretty far forward to 'talk' to the flower. So, well, balance is upset, and he pitches forward, into the flowers, with a "WAH!" and then a muffled "Oof!" And somehow he manages not to harm a single flower, evident when he pushes himself back again, to sit tailor-style in front of the flowers.

He looks up, rubbing the dirt off his nose, blinking large green eyes at Tigra. Oh, he remembers her. Most definitely! Though he doesn't immediately note it. "Do I?" he asks. "Where do you remember me from, do you know?" No, as all Fae, it's time to poke for information first, see where the recognition ends.

Tigra has posed:
Tigra manages /not/ to lose it when he falls down, though a part of her finds it /very/ amusing that someone could be so far lost in a task that the realization someone's nearby causes that sort of reaction.

She has the decency to keep a straight face and only point out, as she leans forward to brush a finger at his cheek if allowed, "You missed a spot." Whatever the result of that, she moves back to a fully upright stance as she's questioned by him. "Pretty sure it was the place with that woman who controlled all the plants."

Till (222) has posed:
"Thank you," Till offers with a smile, as Tigra points out the spot he missed. He reaches up and brushes the remaining dirt away. Now, when Tigra notes where she's seen him before, he blinks. He's not allowed to lie, and there's not a whole lot of wiggle room there. So... he nods. "That's right," he confirms.

Tigra has posed:
"Thought so. You seemed infatuated with her," Tigra points out, helping remind him as if he might have forgotten about how he reacted toward Poison Ivy. She was on the curious side as well, if suspicious and conflicted, but not quite like Till. "Have you found any more construction sites to turn green again?" the feline then wonders, the question on the pointed side as the tip of her tail flicks side to side behind her.

Till (222) has posed:
Till tilts his head to the side a little, thinking about the words. "She's pretty. And it's rare to see people that are so connected to nature." He's trying to give away as little as possible with that answer, while still avoiding lying. He frowns a bit at the tone. "No. I don't know why you'd ask it that way. Flowers are better for the environment. Besides, there are these little spaces set aside for nature to be natural, so I don't figure anybody will mind if I help them along a little."

Tigra has posed:
Tigra will have to admit, begrudgingly, "She didn't smell bad, but I have a feeling she made it that way. Did you see how much the people with her followed everything she had them doing?" Oh, she noticed that they appeared to be under Ivy's spell.

"Anyway, I like nature as much as anyone. Plants and trees smell better, it's less noisy away from the city, and it's a lot more colorful, but I don't know about the whole damaging equipment thing. Why not focus on other ways?" Still, she sounds at least somewhat conflicted.

Till (222) has posed:
Till blinks at the mention of how the people with her listened to her. Headtilt. "I figured she was their boss," he ventures. "It didn't look odd to me." And it didn't really. Because... well, when a greater Fae tells lesser Fae to do something, THEY BETTER DO IT, and like yesterday!

However, he does nod at the mention of other ways! "That's why I'm here. I don't think anybody would mind if I put flowers around a couple trees."

Tigra has posed:
Tigra is left to squint at the one whose true nature she's ignorant of, shifting between thoughtful and skeptical. "She was, but they looked like they were in a trance until I tried to talk to one of them." That's when the man tried to get physical with her. Then, a nod toward the flowers. "No, I don't think anyone would mind, but just how powerful are you with this stuff?"

Till (222) has posed:
Till blinks again. "Well... if it was for their own good... and adding nature is good for everybody, right?" He really doesn't seem to have much of a problem with Ivy possibly having controlled people to get them to do what they did with that construction site. As for how powerful he is? Here his eyes narrow a little, a bit of a shrewd look starting to interfere with the image of childlike innocence. "What do you mean? And why do you want to know?"

Tigra has posed:
"It's up to each person to decide what's for his own good," Tigra explains, reading a certain angle into his response that is probably more accurate than she knows. "That's what free will is all about." She begins to pace, pausing to crouch before a few of the flowers and have a closer sniff before adding from down there, "You know cats are curious. I'm just living up to the stereotype. She looked pretty powerful, and whatever you were doing didn't seem all that light either." The tail curls on its own, loosening and swaying with no particular pattern to it.

Till (222) has posed:
Now that -- about everyone deciding what was for their own good -- just seems to confuse Till, as the frown shows. "But not everybody knows," he points out. "Shouldn't people who know more be in charge of that decision? Donuts are bad for you, but people eat them all the time anyway. Doing other stuff while driving is bad too, and there are people who stop them from doing it. Shouldn't everything be like that?"

...His morals seem to veer sharply into blue-and-orange territory, don't they?

The flowers... well, they smell like flowers. Though the ones he's been coaxing to bloom via whatever mechanism he uses to do so seem to have a stronger, sweeter aroma, and their colors seem more vibrant. But they're otherwise normal. As for her observation? "Most of the plants were already there. They had the potential to grow flowers, so..."

Tigra has posed:
Tigra raises a brow at the line of questioning from Till, and his brand of logic, his morals and ethics that are showing up a bit more. "That's not for others to decide, though," she tries to tell him with a patient demeanor. "Donuts aren't healthy, but they taste good. There's a lot of stuff that's unhealthy but tastes good. It's up to each person to decide whether they'll eat it or not. That's a lot different from having a law about driving when you're distracted. You aren't going to risk killing somebody just by eating a donut."

How did they end up talking about this sort of thing, again?

"If they were working for her because they wanted to, that's different from someone doing something to make them," the woman in fur and stripes points out, pausing long enough to hear his explanation about the flowers. "So you were just adding something to them."

Till (222) has posed:
Till blinks at the explanation, honestly seeming confused at the way it's being explained. "So... as long as you're only hurting yourself it's OK, but if it's something that will hurt other people, it's not OK and someone should stop you?" He sounds more than a little incredulous at that. "But if you hurt yourself, you can't contribute to society." That seems like a serious thing to him. As for the mention of adding? He nods. "It was there, so I just sort of... 'pushed' it."

Tigra has posed:
Tigra can only shrug at this, admitting even if it may bug her on some level, "Not everyone is cut out to contribute to society like someone else might. But, having a donut once in a while isn't going to kill anyone. They can exercise and work it off, you know." It's an attempt to explain, at least. "But for the most part, I believe in doing what you will as long as it doesn't hurt someone else. People have the right to that much." She's sniffing at the flowers a bit longer, letting their scents linger at her nose.

Till (222) has posed:
And that seems to confuse him more. "...There are people who DON'T contribute?" This seems to boggle Till. "I mean... I figured there was some rhyme or reason to it somewhere, but... that's a little weird. Seems like someone would MAKE them contribute, somewhere down the line..." He pauses, shakes his head. "...People are weird. But I guess that's that whole... 'leaving the nest' thing I keep hearing so much about?"

Tigra has posed:
"That's..how freedom works. This isn't some communist country where you're thrown into forced labor if you're lazy." Tigra's having a bit of trouble articulating this concept to someone who either doesn't really grasp it, or he may simply just disagree with it. "You must have had a different upbringing," she determines, gesturing somewhat helplessly with her hands out to her sides, palms up. "As long as you're not breaking the law, not hurting anyone, and you're not, um, screwing around instead of doing the job you were hired for, you get to live your life the way you want whether someone likes it or not."

A few seconds pass and she lets that hang there before changing things up a little. "How did you get to do this stuff with the plants, anyway?"

Till (222) has posed:
Till nods. "I did," he agrees. "Everybody did what they were born to do. Which isn't too bad, since it's what we all do anyway." He shifts, leaning forward and propping his elbows on his knees. Then comes the question of the flowers. "Like I said, we all do what we were born to do. That's what I was born to do. Plants are my thing, especially flowers."

Tigra has posed:
Tigra is left to shake her head slowly, coming to think the two just have a different set of opinions and ideas about ethics and morals just don't line up if her efforts to explain things are any indicator. Yet and still, she tries one more time. "I wasn't born to do../this/..it just came about at some point," she says as she gestures to herself. "If you're born somewhere and your family's already done a certain thing for generations and that's what you'll do too, sure. You're born into that. But that's the other nice thing about freedom. Almost anyone can be anything they want to be if they work at it."

Upon returning to the other topic at hand, she expresses curiosity as she says, "I'd like to see more of that, but I get it if this place might not be the best for it in case someone's watching who shouldn't be."

Till (222) has posed:
"Well... it's a little different where I'm from," Till tries to explain. But instead of looking for more ways to explain around it, he admits, "I can't really go into a lot of details about it, but... when I say I'm 'born' to do something, it's something that's part of my soul. Others sort of... have that freedom, I guess. I don't get to pick." He doesn't sound sad over it, no. But he does believe it with the utmost conviction.

Though as Tigra mentions wanting to see more of his abilities, he winces. "I can't, not in public. I'll get in trouble. People aren't supposed to see it."

Tigra has posed:
Whether or not Till's explanation about actally being born into what he does registers with her, Tigra comes to nod slowly in consideration. "Huh. Well, that's definitely not the same for most people, but..hrm." Not quite the answer she must have been expecting, so she's left shaking her head before the idea strikes her.

"Then we can go somewhere more private," she grins. "Then you can show me, hmm?" He already did it once in public that she knows of.

Till (222) has posed:
Till seems to hesitate. "Well... I don't know if I can or not," he hedges. Which is true -- if she doesn't already know that the supernatural exists, even though she's clearly not a 'normal human' herself, he'll still get in trouble if he 'lifts the Veil' for her. He chews on his bottom lip a little. The he asks suddenly, "...What do you believe in?"

Tigra has posed:
"I have a feeling you can if you want to," Tigra answers, and it could be taken as a challenge by her, or a simple declaration of what she sees as a fact. She knows nothing of the truth about him, yet. His question leads her to stop after she'd begun to pace, tail trailing along behind her. "You're going to have to be a little more specific than that."

Till (222) has posed:
Till squirms! "...I might get in trouble," he notes. "I don't want to get in trouble." When she asks for specifics, he chews on his lip again, thinking. "Imaginary things. Dragons. Elves. Demons. Jimmy Hoffa." Yes, he added that last one in there for comedy's sake. And possibly to break the tension a little.

Tigra has posed:
Tigra pfffts, a show of amusement following. At his expense? Probably not, but she's grinning his way now. "Oh, come on. I can tell you want to." So she says. "Besides, the risk of trouble sometimes is part of what makes life so exciting. If I worried about that all the time, do you think I'd be going around like this without trying to hide it somehow?" she asks, gesturing to herself. Hello, walking tiger-woman here!

She then grows more serious, at least long enough to explain, "Look. There's a lot out there that doesn't make sense or doesn't seem explainable, but I've already seen enough so far to think just about anything's possible."

A pause, for dramatic effect.

"Even Jimmy Hoffa. Wasn't he supposed to be this person from a long, long time ago?"

Till (222) has posed:
Till shakes his head. "Not THAT kind of trouble. Never THAT kind..." His voice is hushed and frightened, and he pulls his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. Frightened kid is frightened! Whatever the consequences of 'that kind of trouble' are, clearly he wants no part of them.

Though he blinks at the question about Jimmy Hoffa. "...I didn't think it was THAT long ago. But he was a really important person, very public figure, and then suddenly disappeared. Nobody's ever found out where he went or what happened to him. But anyway."

He chews his lip again. "Well... I guess I can show you a little about it." He just has to stay in human guise, that's all. She can know what he does, just not WHY or HOW. Works for him. He stands. "Where would we go?"

Tigra has posed:
"Hrm?" For the first time in all this, Tigra appears more conscious of the stress Till seems to be feeling about showing off. Odd. Why would anyone who can do these things /want/ to keep them hidden? She hasn't grasped that feeling yet.

"I think he died something like forty years ago. I remember reading about him in school."

Shaking her head, Hoffa and whatever else is going on with this is abruptly waved off. "You know what? Don't worry about it right now. Or, try not to. I'm being pushy, you're not really ready and you're spooked about it. Yes, I can tell. I have a feeling this isn't the last time I see you around, especially if you hang out around places like this. When it's a better time, you can give me more of a proper demonstration. Meanwhile, you can keep working on your flowers." No harshness in her words. No frustration or irritation either. She truly sounds like she's being understanding of his situation, whatever it is.

This seems like a fair proposition as far as she's concerned.

Till (222) has posed:
Till looks sheepish at the observation. "It's... yeah. I'm sorry," he offers. "There are... circumstances. That's not a good explanation, but it's about all I can give." He offers a sheepish smile. "Thank you, though. For understanding. It's not that I don't want to tell you. But I'm not allowed to, you see."

Tigra has posed:
Tigra waves it off, shaking her head. "It's fine. Really. You're getting all stressed out over it. I get it." To some extent, even if she hasn't figured out the truth yet. All she knows is he can manipulate plants somehow. "Central Park's got a lot of quieter places. If you still want to show me by then, find me in the woods in the northern part of the park around this time. It should be safe enough. Otherwise, I'll know it's too big to share. For now, I'll let you go back to what you were doing."

Till (222) has posed:
Till nods. "I'll remember," he notes, with a smile. As Tigra begins to depart, Till waves. "Be well!" It's true, though. He does have flowers to get to blooming. Secretly, so the whole park doesn't know...