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After lunch, Rapunzel wants a little fresh air. She goes out the back door, trailing guards and Rolan into the walled garden (subject to the same border patrols as the rest of the grounds, quite safe). There are flowers and topiaries and little water features and -
"Oh! There are magic plants here!" she exclaims, approaching a section of mismatched flora edged with white stones. "I didn't realize there would be. I wonder where the gardener is, I wonder what they do?"
powershines
powershines
Rapunzel has identified six distinct plants in the section of them.
"Hello! Are you the gardener?"
"I am, Princess! What can I help you with?"
"I was just wondering what these plants do."
"Well, the tree fruits once a year, in the spring, and there's no fruit like it. Quite tasty. There's a bit of a party about the fruits when they come in. And that tuft of leaves there has a lot of roots and if you dig it up at all to see them it'll pull itself up and walk somewhere else and bury itself again. The other four, we haven't stumbled on it yet."
"...What, you have four magical plants growing here and you don't know what they do? Are they new, have you not got around to them yet?"
"No, Princess, they've all been here for years, the hanging moss the newest," says the gardener, politely puzzled.
"...I don't understand."
"Hello! Are you the gardener?"
"I am, Princess! What can I help you with?"
"I was just wondering what these plants do."
"Well, the tree fruits once a year, in the spring, and there's no fruit like it. Quite tasty. There's a bit of a party about the fruits when they come in. And that tuft of leaves there has a lot of roots and if you dig it up at all to see them it'll pull itself up and walk somewhere else and bury itself again. The other four, we haven't stumbled on it yet."
"...What, you have four magical plants growing here and you don't know what they do? Are they new, have you not got around to them yet?"
"No, Princess, they've all been here for years, the hanging moss the newest," says the gardener, politely puzzled.
"...I don't understand."
powershines
"...Do most people not know how? It's not even hard, I thought everyone knew and Gothel was only particularly good at finding them in the first place."
"No, Princess, except by accident and rumors and guessing I don't see how we could figure it out," says the gardener, puzzled.
"The flower the queen ate while she was pregnant? No one knew how it worked?"
"This was before I worked here, Princess, but my understanding is they had some idea it might be a healing plant..."
"...but they didn't know how to work it without killing it?"
"I don't believe so, Princess."
"But - but all you have to do is taste them."
"No, Princess, except by accident and rumors and guessing I don't see how we could figure it out," says the gardener, puzzled.
"The flower the queen ate while she was pregnant? No one knew how it worked?"
"This was before I worked here, Princess, but my understanding is they had some idea it might be a healing plant..."
"...but they didn't know how to work it without killing it?"
"I don't believe so, Princess."
"But - but all you have to do is taste them."
hisowninvention
"I've never heard that before," says Rolan. "It doesn't seem to be common knowledge."
powershines
"It has to be while they're alive, obviously, so I suppose the queen wouldn't know either even though she ate the entire flower, but if you just -" She reaches for the hanging moss, checks it for insects, dangles an end of a tendril of it into her mouth, and touches her tongue to it.
Then scrambles backwards from it, alarmed.
Then scrambles backwards from it, alarmed.
powershines
"I'm fine, it's just - it's a - sort of telepathy plant and it spooked me. It only goes one way, at least, it would let me show people what I was thinking but it wouldn't let anybody look in on it if I didn't try to do that."
powershines
"The bush? Yes." She scritches near a crook of its branches and it trills a high birdlike song for a minute, then falls silent.
hisowninvention
"Yes. The other one is slightly adorable too, but I was thinking more about how useful it could be, potentially - if I understand right, I could tell you things while you were talking to people without having to interrupt the conversation or wait until afterward."
powershines
"...well, yes, I suppose it could do that. I was more thinking about the other use case when I squeaked."
hisowninvention
"I guess I can see how you might not like that," he says consideringly. "It doesn't seem so frightening to me."
hisowninvention
"What, do you want me to prove it?" he asks, reaching for the little tangly plant with a laugh.
hisowninvention
"It's just... not scary to me. I'd like to be able to just share my thoughts without words getting in the way - not with the whole world, obviously, but with, for example, you."
hisowninvention
"Okay." He glances at the gardener. "Do you mind if we experiment with the plant? Won't hurt it, I promise."
powershines
"I'm still catching up to the fact that you can just tell what they do like that - why did no one never notice it about the tree?" wonders the gardener.
"Did you ever try feeding a fruit to someone who wasn't expecting to have magical-tree-fruit in particular?" asks Rapunzel. "It's simple enough that it'd be easy to ignore the knowledge if you already had it even in vague terms."
"I suppose," marvels the gardener. He tastes a creeper and laughs.
"Did you ever try feeding a fruit to someone who wasn't expecting to have magical-tree-fruit in particular?" asks Rapunzel. "It's simple enough that it'd be easy to ignore the knowledge if you already had it even in vague terms."
"I suppose," marvels the gardener. He tastes a creeper and laughs.
hisowninvention
Rolan tangles his hand in the little coily tendrils of the hanging moss and gives it a kiss, as directed by mysterious plant knowledge.
He shows Rapunzel: see, it just isn't scary, it's fun and interesting and useful and now he can explain things so much better and by the way he loves her.
(That last part isn't quite intentional - he was using the plant in the way that doesn't hold anything back, to underscore his point, and, well. He loves her. It's part of every thought he has in which she is remotely involved. He doesn't especially regret sending it along, unless it turns out to embarrass her or something.)
He shows Rapunzel: see, it just isn't scary, it's fun and interesting and useful and now he can explain things so much better and by the way he loves her.
(That last part isn't quite intentional - he was using the plant in the way that doesn't hold anything back, to underscore his point, and, well. He loves her. It's part of every thought he has in which she is remotely involved. He doesn't especially regret sending it along, unless it turns out to embarrass her or something.)
hisowninvention
"Sorry," says Rolan. (Slightly sorry, conditionally sorry - she's grinning, so he can't be all that sorry, her grin is just so delightful.) "Should I not?" (He is observing the gardener for reactions that might indicate incipient rumours about the princess and her Ambiguously Close Friend, ready to deflect suspicion with a suggestion that perhaps being thought-sent at by the flower can be a little overwhelming if sudden, but so far the gardener seems thoroughly occupied and not inclined to speculate about the details of this exchange.)
powershines
(The gardener is tasting a magical tall-grass-clump.)
"It's lovely," Rapunzel assures him.
"It's lovely," Rapunzel assures him.