milliways_bar | (no subject)

"Asar-Suti! Hallo." Gaspode is heading towards his table with the basket full of herbs in his arms. He takes a chair and sits down. "I had hoped to meet you out in your garden. Gil has made me Herb Procurer for the kitchens and I really didn't want to invade your territory without your permission, but you have not been there. Sorry." All these words rushing out of him, he doesn't have time to think of his new appearance...

"Good morning - and who are you?" Asar-Suti asks.

"I've been here, and in the library. I'm a busy god. Gil hired you?"

[[OOC: OK, this thread!]]

"Oh, I'm Gaspode. Remember? Little talking dog?" He grins broadly.

"You are definitely talking, but you're neither little not a dog," Asar-Suti says, eyeing Gaspode.

"But yes, I do recognise your voice. So you did find somebody to chage you into human-shape?"

Gaspode definitely smelled better. And looked better.

"Yes, Serena changed me. Only temporarily, though. I was not sure I'd like it. It is nice to see colours and drink coffee, but I miss my nose sometimes. What are these for example? I think I never ate them." Cautiously, he pulls a bunch of nettles out of the basket and holds them up. He gets stung nonetheless, of course.

Asar-Suti laughs.

"Those are nettles - they sting! You can make tea from them, but never touch them when not wearing gloves. Here, let me have a look at the basket, can I?"

"Of course." He pushes the basket towards Asar-Suti, smiling. He's glad to learn something, after all. Under the table, he's rubbing his itching hands.

Asar-Suti goes through the basket.

"This is peppermint - you want more of that, the kitchen uses lots of it for tea and drinks," he says. "You want to avoid that - foxglove, poisonous. It's just a flower, unless you make special medicies, but we don't. Parsley and basil - you need more of that, again. This is Herb Peter, a plant from Gil's world - it goes into the herbal tea we offer. But not quite as much."

He digs a bit further, and then cries 'Ouch!!'

"Oh, those are brambles. Please leave them alone; they will produce blackberries later."

"I thought I had smelled tea from those leaves yesterday. Brambles, you said? Well, as I mentioned, my nose is not the same anymore, sorry. And the foxglove is poisonous? It smelled so good. And what's this?" He holds oup something coniferous and woods he has colected only a little of since it smells heavily.

"Oh, that is juniper!" Asar-Suti exclaims. "Did you find that in the woods - I was sure we didn't have any yet. Gil and Gorlim talked about it the other day, and we planted some near the new waterfall. No, you don't want the branches, just the berries, and if there aren't any yet, just leave it."

[OOC: *lol* Should have been rosmarin or thyme, btw- he would be covered in blood if he had collected everything you're assuming ;-)]

"No, it was in the garden, too. Right at the back, under the white trees." Gaspode's smile has faded. "Err... Would you go back there with me and show me what is really needed? I think that would be a good thing." He's smiling again, but it doesn't quite reach his eyes and looks pleading.

[[OOC: Sorry, I tried to make sense of 'coniferous and woody' and ended up with juniper, for potential kitchen use. If at loss, for a word, try asking that site (http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de), it's utterly brilliant.]]

"Gil should really have told you what he wants; he knows much better than I do," Asar-Suti says.

What with the mood Gil has been in lately, there will certainly be something wrog if Asar-Suti briskly assumes what the kitchen needs.

"But I suppose I can show you around, outside, so you know which herb is where," he adds.

[OOC: I'd never gotten this far without this site- and Leo (http://dict.leo.org/?lang=de&lp=ende) but describing was more fun, wasn't it?]

You don't have to have the sight to catch a sad undertone. Gaspode realizes suddenly how far excitement had carried him away. He has not even realized the other doesn't look to happy.

"I thought... you knew each other well?"

"we do, we do - never mind," Asar-Suti says hastily.

He doesn't want to bother Gaspode with all that.

He gets up. "Let's go outside and look at the herbs, shall we?"

Gaspode is a little disappointed that he could not touch on the subject that's his favourite one at the moment, but not too much so, as learning about herbs is quite exciting either.

"Yes, that would be great."

It is not as easy to soothe anyone if you're not sweet and cuddly, anyway. Not that Gaspode has been exceedingly sweet and cuddly as a dog. Anyway.

No, trying the sweet-and-cuddly on Asar-Suti in his present shape might not be a good idea for Gaspode, all in all.

On the contrary...

Asar-Suti leads the way outside. "Over there, around the kitchen door, is the herb garden - nice and accessible," he starts to explain.

"Yes, I've been there. But there are so many herbs and as I have been eating only bacon sandwiches since I'm here, I can't make any sense of most of them. -And that's probably not yet a garden? He points to the unploughed patches where he has gotten the nettles and brambles. They looked too untidy right away, compared to the rest...

Asar-Suti laughs out loud.

"No, those aren't part of the garden. If Vaii the boar ever does damage in the garden again, I'm going to make Teirnan and Vaii dig up that part, too, but until then, that is just natural meadow and undergrowth."

Gaspode remains serious, he's too ashamed to laugh. "Alright. I won't go collecting anything there anymore. But look, over there, that's the thorny scrub we've been talking about. He points at something scrubby and small, that looks as if it wanted to hide behind the rampant brambles.

Asar-Suti wades through the brambles to looks, swears, and walks on.

"Yep - that's juniper. So we have some after all. I must tell Gil," he says. "Under the birches - great!"

Gaspode looks a little happier again. At least, his mistakes were good for something. He's determined to put the little he knows about plants to good use: "We will have to cut back the brambles a little, so that it gets more air and light." He comes closer. "No berries."

"Unless juniper buches like the shade; I honestly have no idea," Asar-Suti says. "Before we cut anything, I suppose I'll look them up in my gardening books."

If in doubt, turn to books. At least if you're this particular god of magic.

"You're right. But don't forget the trees. It's already quite shady as it is, even witout being overgrown." He truns around to look at the herbs again. "What is this one?" He's pointing at a pale green plant with furry elongated leaves and a whole lot of little clusters of violet blossoms. In fact, you see more violet than green. Bees are buzzing around it and the fragrance is overwhelming.

"That's lavender," Asar-Suti smiles. "People like it for its smell, and it's good in herbal teas as well, if you only use a little."

"It is strong stuff, I can smell that even with this nose of mine. What else should I know?"