Green-Thumbs Down (Solo/Shadow Mission)

This was quite the rare occurrence. Richard Lionheart in a somewhat happy state. His buds were plugged securely into his ears, his nose was filled with the scent of lavender, his eyes glued to a book and his fingers ravishing it's pages as he waited... eating a pear from the surrounding area.

He knew little about the man he was waiting upon, save for his oldness and his apparent obsession with plants. Richard was okay with this, having his semblance and his history he had a vested interest in plants. He had been asked to meet the old man around the foot of the tree covered mountain that Syne Academy sat on, it housed a small penned off area that he had never been to... though to be honest it didn't look as though many came around here. The gates were rusty and unpainted, the paths were brimming with life. He could even see a squirrel above the top of his book, searching for-

The short boy sprung forward, nigh tearing his book in half his book in half as he prevented a seemingly dangerous set of scissors from swiping at the little creature.

"Blasted little thing was going to steal my seeds it was."

Richard had a feeling he had badly underestimated this old man.

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"Can never trust those vermin, shame you stopped me," The old man sighed, "Same with rooks and crows, always tearing up saplings... killing them off so young... don't do that again. You hear me?" Her demanded, sheathing his blades and turning from the faunus man.

Richard's retinas burned holes into the balding back of the old man's head. It was rather clear that this man did not view all life as equal, especially not in his garden. Richard had always presumed the point of gardens was to bring in wildlife like squirrels and rooks... but it would seem this man had a rather different motive. To view a radish over a squirrel was quite bizarre... having grown up in a forest community Richard himself didn't even feel this. Trees are trees, animals are animals. The animals fertilise the plants but many eat the plants. Nature had a balance that humans and faunus rui-

"Are you coming then boy, or are you just here to look at squirrels? You're meant to help plant my seeds." The old man taunted... Richard forced himself to follow, dropping the book at the tree's foot and ready to fight the old man should it come to that.

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The short boy growled, forced to wear gloves that would restrict his claws movements... well, they wouldn't, but he was certain he'd be stuck with the bill if he did rend through them. Probably wouldn't even get the pay from this job atop that.

He sighed, watching as the old man bent over and over-delicately placed a seed in the ground for the fifth time. This seemed both tiring and tedious... why ever would he plant seeds in this fashion? The amount of time it must have taken to fill this entire garden... it was stupendous as well as plain stupid. The elderly man wandered over, placing a small sack into his hand in as gentle a fashion as he could.

"So, you think you can handle this bub? Planting seeds in a straight line, doesn't seem to hard does it?... You'll be surprised kid." The man deadpanned, glaring directly into the short faunus hands.

He rolled his eyes, taking the bag and bending down to begin planting. He waited until the old man had turned away, seemingly to collect some boring farm equipment for cutting grass... though it seemed like it would be just as good for tearing apart squirrels, Mr Lionheart began lazily pushing the seeds into the ground. Uncaring for the method he had been shown.

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"Done already? That's impossible!" The old man belched, seemingly amazed at Richard's lazy efforts, "Why, even when I first started gardening I couldn't do it as fast as you... though I guess you're far younger than I was when I first laid hand on a plant. I suppose I'll just have to give you more work then." He conceded, handing the boy what looked to be a long and gnarly scythe, "Just whittle away at the grass for a while, I suppose it'll get you stronger and improve slashing technique as a bonus."

Richard took one look at the scythe and handed it back; "...I think I have a superior piece of equipment."

Without another word Richard pulled his weapon forth, both of it's metal blades gleaming in the sunlight. He lowered his body close toward the ground, eyeing up a bright green patch of unkempt hair,  before he launched his body toward it; slashing wildly until the land matched the area around it.

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"There!" The old man pointed toward another area of raised grass. Richard, begrudgingly, launched himself toward the patch. In less of a second the slightly messy patch of land was flattened, matching that of a majority of the surrounding area. As the man indicated to a bush, it was trimmed; in the most violent and pent up manner a bush could be trimmed but it had been trimmed none the less.

As he gestured toward a pear tree all the ripe fruit was removed, the still growing ones left to hang a little longer. The man let out an annoyed grumble.

"Did you have to let them fall?" He tsked, wandering over and beginning to collect the morsels.

Without a second thought Richard raised one to his mouth and took a chomp... the elderly man looked to him in disgust, attempting to hold the remaining apples as far from the ravenous boy as he could.

"H-How can you do such a thing," He seemed to gag, "In the presence of their father?!"

"Hey... you almost eviscerated a squirrel in front of me... the squirrel probably had a father somewhere, right?" The short man shrugged, "If you're going to attempt that, I'll eat fruit in front of you... I'll plant the seeds but I'm going to eat it of course."

"Ugh... That's really the best I'll get out of you? I had such high hopes when I heard about your semblance," He sighed.

"Yeah... well... there is a food chain for a reason, shouldn't just pointlessly kill but for food and when it's going to die anyway? Eh, whatever." He shrugged, "I wouldn't kill anything without reason, and even then there are things I'd probably not kill but pears... not one of em."

"I see... well, I think we're about done here. You did this work far faster than I thought you would." The old man admitted.

"Meh, whatever. It was tiring, at least take pride in that. See ya old man." The short boy, rather than go straight back to the academy, headed deeper into the forest. Honestly I felt more like a nap on a treestump than in a bed right now.

[exit] 1168 words