Log with Kirk: Feed Me, Sulu!

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Sulu is hanging out in his favorite place to hang out off-duty: the greenhouse. His little jungle is flourishing, despite the coldness of space and the fact that it was, by Earth's standards, the middle of winter; he's so pleased that things like that don't matter inside a starship.

Anyway, his pet project/straight-up-pet, the strange tentacle monster from the jungle planet, is his current focus. The thing needs to eat, and since its roots aren't strong enough to grasp any kind of automatic dispenser lever and its teeth aren't hardened enough to actually chew anything, it's up to Sulu to feed the thing its little nutrient supplement and freeze-dried grasshoppers. If only he could get some live ones...

Needless to say, he isn't planning on having visitors.

Comments

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"Most plants don't respond to you like this, though." He was more than happy to move on to talking about botany so he didn't have to respond to Sulu's assertion that Jim would make a better woman. After all, that was the kind of statement he could either take as an insult to his masculinity, or he could inform Sulu of the truth -- that anyone could handle the change better than he had. That was a series of hysteric conversations he didn't want to repeat.

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Hey, Sulu was fully aware of how badly he handled it, but come on. It was his first virus. Cut him some slack, bro.

"True, though some have similar reactions to touch. Nothing nearly as... well, sentient as Audrey though." He started talking a little on how evolution might have produced such a strange plant, but trailed off pretty quick when Audrey started making tell-tale "Feed me!" gurgling noises beneath the soil.

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"I wonder if it talks in the wild. To other plants or something, you know? Or if that noise is just to coax animals over." Jim seemed to be seriously considering this as he tried to figure out what Audrey was making the sound for this time. When she started trying to eat his hand, he caught on pretty quickly. "I think it's hungry."

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"That's one thing I won't know until it yields a pod. Or, possibly, I could find a similar plant, but the chances of that happening..." He's already measuring out a supplement with the consistency of baby food, maybe a little more watered down. "Don't worry, it can't do anything." He reached over and grabbed one of the soft-bark teeth, pinching it until it stopped trying to chew on Jim's hand and got it to accept the nutrients instead. "I freaked out a bit the first time it tried to do that, before I realized its teeth couldn't do anything."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

Luckily, Jim was a lot more chill than McCoy could ever dream of being, so he just chuckled as he withdrew his hand, nodding his understanding of Sulu's explanation. "I'd like to see you freaked out by a plant," he teased, "I can't imagine you anything but busy trying to study it." As far as Jim was concerned, the existence of Audrey III on the Enterprise proved his point.

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"The studying came after the 'shit, I might lose my hand' part of the examination process," he laughed. After the glorified bottle-feeding, he gave Audrey III a quick once-over to make sure it hadn't damaged anything at any point in the day - unlikely, but hey, he wasn't going to let his baby be brutalized.

"I suppose I should... let Commander Spock know about Audrey soon, then, huh?" Blaaaah, nobody wants to tell a Vulcan about a potentially lethal baby plant that they're babysitting.

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"I'll go ahead and break it to him gently -- maybe after I let him win something, it'll soften the blow." Or, Jim thought, he could level it with letting him know that it wasn't as bad as what Jim had done - bringing a possibly lethal known serial killer aboard. Repeatedly. He was still iffy on admitting to that one, though, and the guilt was still fresh. He shook it off. "Just don't worry about it, I've got it under control."

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"Just don't make it too obvious," Sulu said, "He'll know something's up if you do." He frowned and took a soft pallet brush to the lure-like flower to make sure it wasn't getting overwhelmed by pollen. "...Not to be a downer but - have you told him about Sylar yet?" He was guessing not, being that Jim was still in one piece, but he was admittedly a little worried. (Not to mention a little annoyed that it was OK for Jim to lie to Spock about this, when it had been a huge breach of trust to lie to Jim about being a woman. But, he was trying to not hold a grudge.) "Have you told Sylar not to tell Spock?"

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

Jim grimaced. He should have seen that one coming, in all honesty. There wasn't really any excuse for him not expecting it. For a moment he considered telling Sulu the reason he was putting it off - he couldn't hide that he knew Sylar was going to kill again forever. But, somehow, this didn't seem like the right venue, and even moreso, he was sure he didn't want to admit it yet.

"Sylar knows not to say anything. I made it clear. I haven't told Chekov to keep it to himself, think you could pass the word along?" Jim sucked in a deep breath. "I'm planning on breaking the news to him soon. It was just ... complicated by Azula outing him." A pause. "The fact that you're alive goes to show that no one was in real danger." There was an implied 'right?' in his tone.

[parked]

Sulu shrugged impassively. "I'll make sure Pavel knows - Azula seemed to be adamant in believing that he was actually planning on killing her. You know, after you vouched for him." That would be silly, though, right? is implied. "And I'd be hard-pressed to say in court that Sylar wasn't a threat. He's impulsive, Jim - that's a good thing, usually, when you aren't impulsively electrocuting people. But I know you think things through before you do them, so I know that if you had thought he was a major threat to anyone on this ship, you wouldn't have brought him up."

He waves a hand. "Either way, what I'm trying to get around to saying is I'll tell him, if that makes one less thing for you to have to admit to."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"No. He deserves to hear it from me." He notices that suspicion still there and sighs. "He's not going to kill Azula. You haven't heard him explain it, it's -- He won't hurt anyone on the ship, I can tell you that for sure." It was hard to keep defending him when he knew that someone was still going to get hurt by him. It was hard to argue something that Jim knew wasn't necessarily positive of himself. But, if he wanted to change the past, he was going to have to be assured and confident in Sylar.

[parked]

"Well - the offer stands until you decide to tell him, either way." Sulu rolls his eyes, "And I'm pretty sure I stopped really believing Azula when she refused to show proof for her accusations." And of course he won't hurt anyone on the ship, since he's not coming back aboard. Right? Right. "If you say you trust him, I'm inclined to trust him too. A bit, at least." He grinned, "You usually show better judgment than I do, after all."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

Somehow, that wasn't reassuring. Somehow, it made him feel guiltier for not being honest, and it made him feel worse for bringing Sylar aboard without first asking Claire for confirmation that he wasn't a murderer. It took him a moment of hard staring to reply.

"Yeah. Making the hard decisions is kind of what I do best." He laughed it off, "Glad to hear you've got faith in me." He wasn't even going to touch on the trustworthiness of Azula's opinion -- after all, she was known for being biased and absurd, as far as Jim was concerned.

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Sulu figured that was dealt with and turned his attention back on Audrey III, which was currently halfheartedly attempting to chew on his hand. He really, really needed to teach it not to do that. "I think," he said finally, "After it learns not to chew on people, I'm teaching it to play catch. You know, since it can't exactly fetch."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"I don't know, I think it could fetch with its ... tentacles, or something." Jim started laughing. "Okay, maybe not, but it's worth a try. Maybe catch is better. I'd like to see that, either way." Again, he played with the tendrils.

[parked]

"It'd be a good way to figure out if it can... see. I'm actually not sure if it has any optical abilities, or if it's purely from touch and motion. And besides - if it tried to fetch and fell over, I'm sure it would start screaming." Maybe. Can plants even scream, outside of fantasy? "I don't want to find out."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"It has to be able to sense somehow, I mean, to catch stuff, right?" Though it wasn't necessarily true, Jim was having a hard time imagining a plant like that snatching people up just based on it stepping on its roots alone.

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"Well, I know that the flower here-" He touches the bright blue lure and the plant's roots immediately seek out his wrist, "-Is a method for attracting prey, so it's sensitive enough. I'm not sure if the roots can feel us touching them, though, for example, and I can't tell where any sight would come from. Right now, I'm thinking something like radar, maybe."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"What about sonar?" Jim asked, turning to lean against he table, crossing his arms over his chest thoughtfully.

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"Honestly, the only option I've ruled out so far is the existence of optical nerves - though, for all I know, there might be some in development. This is... really, really rare. The only two other kinds of plants even remotely in league with it barely ever get beyond four feet in diameter, neither of them actually adapted for hunting large game like Audrey here - they never grew underground, for example, and they more closely resemble Venus flytraps. Audrey... Well, it kind of looks more like an angler fish or something." He shook his head. "I've - to be honest with you, I've been contemplating trying to accelerate the growth process a little to see how it develops, but I'm not sure how it'll affect him."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"It's probably better to let it grow as naturally as possible. There will be time to accelerate other specimens, you know?" It was obvious in Jim's tone that he really had no idea what he was talking about, but all the same, the point of his statement was valid enough.

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"Yeah, that's what I've decided on." Mostly. "I don't want to accidentally kill or otherwise impede the progress of the one living sample I have, after all."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"Good choice," Jim turned to study it over his shoulder for a moment longer, considering this, before he pushed away. "I've got rounds to finish, though. I haven't stopped by engineering -- I've been putting it off. But, thanks for showing me this."

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"Not a problem," he said, "I'm glad you like him." Oh, so glad. He wasn't sure he could part with the thing now. "I'll make sure to update you if anything unexpected happens."

[yeswedo.livejournal.com]

"I appreciate it, Lieutenant." With a mock salute, he pushed away from the table and headed for the door, mind already drifting down to engineering and wondering what to expect of the situation down there. As far as he was concerned, Sulu had the plant under control, and he wasn't going to let it become one more thing for him to worry about.