open post: pollen science

[peaklordshen]

After his conversation with Sagramore, Shen Qingqiu had taken a long, hot shower, mainly for the novelty of it, and then gotten dressed again in his robes—although he wore fewer layers than were truly proper for a peak lord, and he'd forgone his guan in favor of just braiding his hair in a thick coil against his neck. He leaves the two looser loops at the front—he still can't find his fan, and it felt wrong to not have any frame to his face at all. He's not thinking about why he feels loath to fully don his Shen Qingqiu persona. He's not thinking about much, about the last few days. Instead, he's thinking about pollen.

He's in the greenhouse, carefully laying out a sample cut from every plant in the place, as well as every plant he can imagine producing pollen of any kind from the grounds. Grasses, flowers, buds, leaves, even a few species of harmless-looking mushroom. He's using a pair of tweezers he found to gentle separate them so he can examine the internal structures. Some he recognizes as entirely harmless - Earth flora; others are stranger, more alien. Some even look similar to plants from Proud Immortal Demon Way, though thankfully none are obviously aphrodisiac in nature. Shen Qingqiu is wearing his gloves and mask again anyway—he doesn't want to breathe in the wrong pollen; normal sex pollen would just increase his normal desires and make him hyper-straight, totally defeating the purpose.

He has his notebook open to a fresh page, and is making meticulous lists.

Comments

[recognizance]

SecUnit was hoping not to encounter anyone else, actually, which is why it's taking this route out of the mansion; it's done a lot of interacting with people in the last couple of days, and it's about at capacity. It does not acknowledge Shen Qingqiu and his plant samples as it heads for the outer door.

Hey, it's worth a shot.

[peaklordshen]

It is worth a shot, and it nearly works—Shen Qingqiu is pretty absorbed in separating out a single gran from a stalk of wheat, just, you know, in case—but he looks up just as SecUnit is about to leave. "Oh!" He says. "Hey! SecUnit, right?"

[recognizance]

Dammit. It slows, then stops. "That's right."

[peaklordshen]

"Um," says Shen Qingqiu, and smiles. "Shen Qingqiu. Sorry for accusing you of being a troubleshooting bot, when we first met. I was... confused about where I was."

[recognizance]

Despite itself, it turns around to stare at him, because what?

"You didn't," it says flatly. "I would remember that."

[peaklordshen]

"Oh," says Shen Qingqiu. "Well, I'm sorry for thinking it, then. Clearly you're not, you're just—" he smiles a little, apologetically. "From somewhere with more advanced technology than anyone else here." He's not totally sure that SecUnit isn't, itself, advanced technology, but he doesn't want to assume, and hasn't figured out how to ask.

[recognizance]

For a moment it just stands there, regarding him with deep weariness. So many of the humans in this place keep reminding it of Ratthi in his more exhausting moods. Except Ratthi is already its friend, so it doesn't have to keep explaining what it is and why it can't just chill out and how incredibly much it doesn't want to talk about its emotions.

This fucking place.

It doesn't let any of its frustration to the surface, however. "Depends what you mean by troubleshooting."

[peaklordshen]

"Well," says Shen Qingqiu, and then stops. "I guess I mean... finding things that aren't working as intended. Or that's what I meant, anyway, before. But in order to do that you'd have to figure out what the intent is." He shakes his head. "I've gotten distracted by smaller problems, for the most part."