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*It's fashioned rather like a circus tent - rounded and bulbous, all curves and no angles with intricate iron-work spiralling between panes of glass. Inside, the greenhouse is a veritable jungle. Several trees reach the top of the enclosure easily like contorted pillars while vines, visibly and contentedly writhing, cover everything as neatly as a fresh layer of linen over a bed.
Earthy, messy and gnome-ridden, the Higgs manor greenhouse seems too untamed, too dirty, for a woman of Victoria's leanings. And yet, morning finds her in a thick, tarp-like dress, its material far more hardy and far less extravagant than her normal attire. The hems are dusted in soil and the position of her knees are highlighted with vague, grassy stains. Her tools of choice, a pair of prim gardening gloves and a bone china water jug, hopelessly dwarfed by the shrubbery.
Despite her meagre supplies, the mandrakes are already cooing in wriggly expectation, their malformed bodies plump and fully grown yet still distinctly infantile. The nearest mushes its gnarled face into the back of her legs happily, like a kitten wanting attention.*
Earthy, messy and gnome-ridden, the Higgs manor greenhouse seems too untamed, too dirty, for a woman of Victoria's leanings. And yet, morning finds her in a thick, tarp-like dress, its material far more hardy and far less extravagant than her normal attire. The hems are dusted in soil and the position of her knees are highlighted with vague, grassy stains. Her tools of choice, a pair of prim gardening gloves and a bone china water jug, hopelessly dwarfed by the shrubbery.
Despite her meagre supplies, the mandrakes are already cooing in wriggly expectation, their malformed bodies plump and fully grown yet still distinctly infantile. The nearest mushes its gnarled face into the back of her legs happily, like a kitten wanting attention.*
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Date: 2011-05-14 07:43 am (UTC)He's tolerated the flowers that always seem to crop up in his own home at the feminine insistence of his mother, but they are always in vases and they always wither quickly without the sun to hold them. Plants are safe once they begin to wilt, still fragrant but neutralised. This place is fretfully different, however, and not a single thing looks brown or tired. The hall of bushes that leads up to the greenhouse shudders as he walks along them, sending the message of his arrival ahead to goodness only knows what. Even through the glass he can see the building is stuffed with leaves and stocks and flowers, all woven together by a slithering army of creepers. Dreadful memories of ill-fated Herbology lessons jump around in his stomach, warning him that he could be unleashing anything that might be growing inside.
What he sees as the door swings inward though, thankfully, is not stingers and thorns but the gold of Victoria's hair. It stands out like a beacon of humanity among all the green, and he'd be almost glad to see her if the sight of her kneeling on the bare earth didn't make him frown and think dirty thoughts in the truest, most soil-related way of the word.
He stands there, not sure if knocking is appropriate in outdoor buildings, and only reveals himself after several moments of silently watching Victoria use a trowel when something experimentally touches his ear. He starts, makes a very odd sound that must be some kind of syllable in some language, and sees several delicate, thread-like vines recoil back to their home on the doorframe, blackened and spurned.*
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Date: 2011-09-11 08:36 am (UTC)I sincerely hope you haven't touched anything.
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Date: 2011-09-11 10:21 am (UTC)No I - It touched me.
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Date: 2011-09-11 10:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 10:41 am (UTC)It's a wonder they don't grow away from here.
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Date: 2011-09-11 10:43 am (UTC)Whatever do you mean by that?
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Date: 2011-09-11 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 11:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 11:19 am (UTC)Do you plant many carnivorous things?
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Date: 2011-09-11 11:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-11 11:58 am (UTC)No I - I've found myself curious. I'd like to know.
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Date: 2011-09-12 01:55 am (UTC)You're upsetting the mandrakes.
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Date: 2011-09-12 02:14 am (UTC)*Eyes momentarily closed to fend of the lightheadedness he had avoided since Herbology lessons in school when he'd been forced to repot smaller versions of the same dreadful creatures, Regulus sticks a finger briefly in his ear to tempt sound back into it and get rid of the ringing the Mandrake has left behind.*
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Date: 2011-09-12 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-12 06:53 am (UTC)*What looks like remorse for this relative he has never met is actually far more selfish than it appears. With obstacles ahead of him put in place not just by the Dark Lord, but with Helga Hufflepuff in mind, Regulus knows to expect something wretched and growing, but he isn't looking forward to spending 30 days at the hospital for it, or worse.*
Victoria... Are plants - well, worse, now more than they used to be years ago? Surely they've changed somewhat.
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Date: 2011-09-12 09:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-13 02:55 am (UTC)...So they haven't?
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Date: 2011-09-27 10:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-27 06:51 pm (UTC)Well, all the same-
*This is necessary, he reminds himself, but being laughed at has kicked though his already fragile control. His hands spring together in front of him, he sees himself fidget this time, checking the buttons at his wrists, but he lets it turn it's course in order to keep up the bravery to continue his line of questioning.*
If not for the plants, what about for people. What about very old growing things. Forests, vines - maybe even flowers, I can't be certain. Would you say they would have been rather similar to the ones now or have we changed them to be easier to control...
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Date: 2011-09-29 09:51 am (UTC)Your prying is grounded in some planned, ill-informed act of illegality, is it not?
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Date: 2011-09-29 10:12 am (UTC)No. ...I plan everything.
But I'm not, planning anything.
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Date: 2011-09-29 10:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 10:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 10:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 10:27 am (UTC)What help could I possibly need with plants, Victoria, I - we're hardly in Herbology anymore.
I - came... to see you. Just - to see you.
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Date: 2011-09-29 10:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-29 10:41 am (UTC)I'm... I shouldn't like you to think of me as irregular.
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Date: 2011-10-16 11:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-16 11:08 am (UTC)*His words have become very sticky and strange, clearly not entirely honest but as he stumbles along it begins to seem as though he's merely uncomfortable with being firm, or being close with another human being, rather than worrying about matters of ancient traps and horcruxes.*
We're to be - um. I believe we should make an effort to find more pleasure in one another's activities. You... like plants. I'm not adverse to history so... combining the two doesn't seem very irregular to me when one considers the logic.
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Date: 2011-10-16 11:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-16 11:26 am (UTC)*All eloquence, so precarious a skill in the presence of the opposite sex, is gone. Regulus is left embarrassed and no longer sure of the meaning of anything being said, and definitely no closer to his goal.
Woman may preach as many hobbies and passions to others as they so chose, but when the time comes Regulus has only seen one true interest come up with women and it just so happens to be the one he finds most perplexing and inappropriate. It is the ever looming topic of the Relationship, and it will haunt him til the day he escapes this life.*
I'm not certain I understand? If I've caused any offence I certainly didn't intend to be unbecomingly spontaneous.
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Date: 2011-10-16 11:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-16 11:33 am (UTC)Very well.
Lately, this has become something rather... interesting to me. And I simply would find your thoughts compelling.
You have so very much to say, usually, I thought you might enjoy a little conversation. Like - friends, sort of.
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Date: 2011-10-16 11:48 am (UTC)Sort of.
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Date: 2011-10-16 11:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-17 01:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-17 01:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-06 08:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-11-06 08:49 am (UTC)