Green Thumb [2430-1-2 Thur 1:00 pm]

[Persephone Ruspoli]

"Thank you!" She smiled, encouraging Skye to open up and talk more. "Most of my pieces are emotional, which can be really polarizing." Perse had the reviews to prove it. Some people thought she was great, and others thought her work was about as deep as a child's finger paintings.

"I can show you a few of my other sculptures if you'd like." She thought about offering to show her the photos, but most of them were of the Below. Skye probably wouldn't find anything interesting them, or they could trigger her. Persephone wanted this to be a good day for Skye, one with only happy tears if there were going to be tears of any kind.

"Projector, wake up." Perse said, and the projector overhead did indeed wake up, spilling out light onto the ground. "Run exhibition12.exe."

It whirred, and a few seconds later, it projected an image of her Garden series. These were the finished products, fiberglass casts sanded and painted to look as she wanted. It carefully flicked through the series, pausing whenever a hand ventured into the light. They had an organic look to them, like they had been grown instead of sculpted. Large pink flowers opened up to reveal eyes and mouths, stems tied themselves together to make shapes, and the 'fruit' it bore were cleverly painted globes of Terra.

[Titus Vere]

Persephone brought up the Garden series and Titus decided to step a bit closer instead of keeping his distance. This was hardly his favourite series by Persephone but it did have one sculpture he particularly liked. As it flicked through the series, he paused it for a second on the Flytrap.

There was something sexual about the sculpture. The Flytrap was rather normal, green and tall and rather unremarkable until you saw the traps had been replaced by mouths, green-coloured lips surrounding the bright pink insides. It was a simple substitution, but the effect was striking.

He pulled his hand back, letting pass by again and rotate through the rest of the series. "Not all her artwork is so abstract." He told Skye, since he knew Persephone wouldn't think to make a distinction.

[Skye Thompson]

Skye wasn’t exactly sure what Persephone was saying, but she nodded at the invitation to see more sculptures. She leaned forward as the projector flicked on, brimming with curiosity. What she saw made her smile. Something about the way the shapes twisted and curved seemed so natural somehow, so beautiful. And the colors! They stood out vividly to her, so bright they seemed to almost glow. Skye loved the colors. And like a little child hoarding candy, she wanted to take the colors and clutch them tight to her chest so no one could ever, ever take them away. Green was her favorite. Blue, the color of the sky, the color of her eyes, had always been her favorite color, but now something had changed. She wanted to see green, plants and trees, entire forests of green. Skye smiled again at the thought. Perhaps someday she could do just that.

Titus stepped forward and put his hand in front of the projector, stopping it on a certain image. Skye look carefully at it, but she could not see anything that made it stand out from the others, that would make Titus want to stop and look at it at length. Perhaps later she would test her new resolution about being reckless by asking him about it. He leaned forward and whispered something to her. Not quite understanding, Skye just nodded and turned her attention back to the projector. “They’re beautiful Persephone. I love all the colors.”

[Persephone Ruspoli]

"I'm glad you do." And she really was. It was a great pleasure to know that Skye, without any knowledge or training in the arts beyond the most basic of understandings, could still enjoy Persephone's work. Sometimes it felt like others she was competing against completely forgot there was an audience other than the elite.

"We'll have to do some art together one of these days, if you're interested." There was plenty of clay, and it would be easy enough to get some paints and canvases if that's what Skye wanted. Persephone had very little interest in painting, particularly since there was such a huge divide between digital and traditional artists. There wasn't the same divide when it came to sculpting since it didn't matter if you did it by hand or designed it with a computer, in the end you had a physical object you could touch, usually made of the same fiberglass either way.

As well, Perse just wasn't nearly as good at painting as sculpting. You had to make the 2D plane work for you, which was far different than making a 3D object. It was too easy for things to come across as flat on canvas, where a physical object could overcome such difficulties.

But they could stand here all day talking art. That wasn't the plan for today. "Come on, let's go up. It's such a nice day." She offered a hand to Skye, ready to lead her over to the stairs and up onto the roof.

[Skye Thompson]

“Interested? Of course I’m interested! That would be… well just about the most wonderful thing in the world!” Skye’s smile was so wide she thought it might fall off her face. What she wouldn’t give to be able to work on art with Persephone, to be able to use her materials, and have the benefit of her advice and expertise. But Persephone spoke again, reminding Skye that they had something else planned for today, something equally exciting. She took Persephone’s hand, still smiling radiantly.

As the two women moved toward the stairs, Skye looked back at Titus, wondering if he was going to come along. Part of her wanted him to come. She liked him. How could she not? He had saved her life after all. Besides, there was something mysterious about Titus, something that made Skye unbearably curious. Somehow she sensed that he had an interesting story to tell, and she knew that the more she go to know him, the closer she was to hearing it. Yet there was also a part of her that wanted to be alone with Persephone, that longed to have again the kind of intimacy that they had shared the previous day. But then again, Skye thought as she began to ascend the stairs, it didn’t really matter anyway. It wasn’t like it was her choice whether Titus came or not.

[Titus Vere]

Titus watched them walk toward the stairs, not certain if he would follow or go elsewhere. It wasn't as if he had anything urgent to do, but he could certainly think of things that needed his attention. Titus didn't have anything against plants, but he as much interest in them as he did have in zero-g sports or microchips. He was aware of them, but he did not care about them.

But then Skye glanced back at him, and he felt the urge to follow them. He still didn't know why he'd saved her. He still had no idea how he really felt about her. But... he was fond of her, in a way. And he felt like she was worth protecting.

So he followed after them, pulling off his jacket and laying it over the banister, turning to his sleeves and rolling them up, "So, what sort of plants are we experimenting with today."

[Persephone Ruspoli]

Persephone felt shocked to see Titus coming up the stairs. And yet, it would be a lie to say she wasn't deeply pleased to see him following. She was really glad he'd found Skye. Having family in his life seemed to be changing him for the better. Maybe Skye would banish away the worst of the darkness.

"Marigolds." Persephone opened the door when they reached the top of the stairs, stepping out and onto the roof. "I've got plenty of seeds left over from this fall." As well, she had a few plants already sprouted that she could give Skye, so she didn't have to wait so long to see something growing.

Her garden was as it's low point in winter, but with the sun out and the temperature above ten, she had opened up the dome to let in real sunlight. Plants were everywhere, dark green and slowly flourishing, even if most of them weren't blooming. That would wait until spring and summer. For now, they all slept.

There was, however, one place full of blooming plants. In the small greenhouse on the other end of the roof, hothouse flowers flourished, unaware that it wasn't July or August, sunlamps and misters keeping the little glass hot steamed and happy. Persephone took her time wandering through the beds of sedum and the little evergreen trees that didn't care what the season was. Skye would probably find it all equally amazing, even if it wasn't the sea of flowers it would be come May and June.

[Skye Thompson]

So Titus was coming. Despite her earlier ambiguity about the subject, she felt genuinely happy that he was coming with her. Persephone had been so kind to her, had comforted her and shown her sympathy more than any person ever had. Yet somehow, Skye trusted Titus more. It wasn’t that she distrusted Persephone, it was just that Titus had her complete and total unending trust. Or almost so. There was still that small part of her natural human instincts that told her to be wary of anyone who had committed murder. But Skye didn’t like to think about that part, so she tried to put it out of her mind as she followed Persephone up the rest of the stairs and onto the roof.

What she saw there distracted her at once. The first thing that drew her attention was the sky. It stunned her all over again, that great expanse of beautiful blue stretching on endlessly above her. Then, slowly, her eyes became earthbound once more and she starred in awe at the plants around her. Like just about everything else in the Top, they were bigger than she’d expected them to be. But what made her fall instantly in love with them was something much more elementary. The plants were green. She stepped forward slowly and dropped to her knees next to a plant half her size. Reaching out with trembling fingers, Skye stroked the plant’s stem, rubbed the leaves between her fingers. She could almost feel the life pulsing inside the thin green creature. How strange that something alive did not move and speak. How could they live that way?

[Titus Vere]

The garden was nice enough. Titus looked around at the raised beds of dirt, the little trees and bushes here and there, and tried to remember the last time he'd been on Persephone's roof. Quite a while ago, if remembered correctly. But it was nice. The air smelt a bit different, purer in a way.

Skye seemed to be bowed over with some sort of emotion. It took a moment for him to place it. Awe. She was in awe. Titus looked at the plant she was stroking and honestly wondered how something that was nothing but background decoration could be so much more to her. They were just plants. But... not to Skye.

And for a second, he could almost feel her awe before his cynicism promptly slammed back into place, and he glanced away, looking over the roof at the buildings below. His mind idly calculated the best escape route out of habit.

[Persephone Ruspoli]

Persephone couldn't stop smiling at Skye's face. She was getting to see a real plant for the first time in her life, and her reaction couldn't have been more perfect. Today was going to be a lot of fun no matter what. And if Titus did stay around... she had a feeling it would be even better.

For a second, something flashed over his face, shuffling off the bored expression in favour of something far more inscrutable, and then the bored was back. It was just a second, but after knowing Titus for as long as Perse had, she knew how precious that second was.

Persephone sat down on the small ledge, watching Skye connect with the plant. "Isn't it marvellous? Right now, it's eating what you breathe out, and spitting out oxygen for you to breathe in. Isn't that amazing?"

[Skye Thompson]

A gentle wind blew past Skye’s face, ruffling her hair and making the leaves of the plant flap. For one fraction of a second, she thought the plant was waving to her, but then she remembered that plants couldn’t move. She knew that about them at least, mainly from what Adrian had told her, but also from observing the occasional weed found growing in the Below. Still, what Persephone said was beyond her. Yet Skye was not disheartened. Rather, questions were rapidly forming in her mind, her thirst for knowledge awakened once again.

What was oxygen? How could plants spit if they didn’t move and didn’t have mouths? How could plants eat a person’s breath? People didn’t really breath plant spit… did they? Skye turned to Persephone with a quizzical expression. She tilted he head and gazed inquiringly into her friend’s eyes. “I thought you said plants ate dirt... and sunlight… How can they eat our breath too?”

[Persephone Ruspoli]

"They eat a lot of things." Persephone tried not to laugh. She really wasn't trying to confuse Skye, but that was inevitable with teaching anything. Knowledge just lead to questions, which lead to more knowledge and more questions, and so the cycle repeated until you died, because you'd never run out of questions before you ran out of knowledge.

"When we breathe in, we pull in oxygen. And when we breathe out, we breathe-out carbon dioxide. Plants do the exact opposite, and they don't exactly breathe like we do, but the principal is the same." She ran her fingers along the leaves of a rubber plant, thick and flat and undeniably alive. "The plant needs carbon-dioxide, sunlight, and dirt in order to make the nutrients it needs to grow. It's like a recipe. Take away one, and it won't be able to make food anymore."

[Skye Thompson]

Although Skye only understood about half of what Persephone was saying, the part that she did understand was fascinating. So plants ate dirt… they must have mouths underground. But how did they eat sunlight, or carbon dioxide? How could you eat something that wasn’t a tangible substance? Perhaps their taking in of carbon dioxide was more like breathing, but then there was sunlight. How did you take in sunlight? Closing her eyes for a moment, Skye remembered the first time she had arrived in the Top. How beautiful the sun had been, a glimmering ball of light hanging in the sky, infinitely brighter than any lamp. The light had spread over her body, and even now, at this very moment, she could feel it warming her, making her happy and alive. Alive…

Could it be that the sun was giving her life right now, as she sat here wondering about it? She turned, mystified, to Persephone and Titus. “Do… do people need sunlight too?” But as she asked the question, Skye already had an answer. “On no, of course not… or I wouldn’t be here.” Embarrassed, she turned back to the plant, closing her eyes once more. Suddenly, she felt hyper-aware of everything, of her breath going in and out, of the sunlight on her skin and the soft wind in her hair. All of this, everything around her, made up the world. The world. For the first time in her life, Skye was beginning to realize that she was not alone.

[Persephone Ruspoli]

They were really going to have to get her some basic science courses. She could see that it was all still a mystery to Skye, though in this case, a wonderful mystery. But she seemed to get embarrassed every time she was wrong about something, or thought she was wrong.

"No, you're right. Humans do need sunlight, just like plants do." Persephone said, showing Skye her own arm, "When you were growing up, you had to take little grey pills, or maybe some sort of oil, right? But you still had friends who got really sick, who just didn't grow as tall as everyone else or broke bones so much faster than the other kids? That's what happens when you don't get sunlight."

It was a sad story. Persephone had used it as the subject of a photography exhibition. Rickets were common in the Below, and most people over forty has osteoporosis. All because they didn't get sunlight. It got so bad that they started putting vitamin D directly into food sent to the Below and handing out packages of pills for free to any parent, but people just didn't take them. They didn't care.

Someone had taken care of Skye. Maybe her mother before she left. Or that man who'd been her friend. Someone had made sure she took the vitamin-D pills, or maybe cod-liver oil. It warmed her heart a little to think that someone had been kind enough to make sure she grew up strong and healthy, able to fit into the Top where she belonged.

[Skye Thompson]

“Yes I remember.” Skye whispered softly, nodding. “I knew a girl who got really sick when she was six years old. But the doctors gave her some of those grey pills and she got better. After that she always had to take them.” She didn’t mention that the girl had been her. Or that the doctors had not given her the pills, her brother Adrian had stolen them. Because he wasn’t an adult, the doctors weren’t allowed to give medication out to him for free. Some humanitarian officer had figured this would make sure kids didn’t just pretend they had a sick family member to get the pills, which they could sell for a lot of money to desperate unfortunates.

Why they thought adults more trustworthy than children was something Skye would never understand. Of course, she had in her life the perfect example of how ludicrous such a notion was. Her father was older than her brother, yet Adrian was infinitely more kind, caring, and responsible. He, not her father, had gone to the doctor when Skye had gotten sick, and he, not her father, had gotten the medication to help her get better. Skye had never known that she’d been sick from lack of sunlight. It made her wonder what else she didn’t know.