2025-06-11 - Dinner with the Flowers

Ravin is wearing flowy black lace pants, a tight pale blue t-shirt and an open, camp-style shirt with a blue-purple-and pink floral pattern. They've got a red and purple rose edged with silver as a boutonniere and a purple and pink floral tiara on their head. They give Aaron a quick kiss on their way in. "Sorry I couldn't help with set up, but the show went well. Everything ready, now?"

Iseul makes her way up the path, seeming perfectly enchanted with the soft lights twined beautifully together with flora to either side, building the atmosphere with every step she takes toward the event. She's dressed comfortably for ground seating, casual enough for a warm-weather picnic in jeans, but the linen blouse embroidered exquisitely with flowers on delicate, leafy branches brings her style points up by a level or two, perhaps. Upon spotting Aaron and Ravin, she smiles brightly and raises a hand to wave, her eyes cradling a tentative note as she looks to the latter, as she hasn't yet met them. "Aaron, everything looks just perfect. I'm not too early, am I?" she asks on approach, as she doesn't see too many people here just yet.

Carmine is the head chef of the nearby newly-opened fine dining restaurant, Into The Woods that opens out over the botanical gardens. His restaurant is not involved in tonight's affair, but given its proximity and its focus on food, he's curious enough to wander by to have a look.

The unusually tall man is not in his chef's whites, though most people who work in food service would recognize him on height alone. He's wearing brown slacks and a floral button-up. The decorations and the place settings get a considering look, though if he's got any critiques, he's not enough of a dick to voice them.

Dodge is off the clock, and she's dressed in dark denim pants and a collared, sleeveless turquoise blouse. She follows the indication of the sign, admiring the twinkling tea lights that illuminate the path and hang from above, and then on to the floral arrangements. She might not have her camera with her, but she still has a phone, and she withdraws her from her back pocket to grab a quick snap of the ambient decor, and another of one of the floral arrangements.

She smiles when she sees Aaron, Ravin, and Iseul, drifting in their direction. "This looks wonderful," she praises warmly. "Well done." She notices Carmine and although she doesn't recognize him, he gets a small wave of a hello.

Herb is here in a black tank top with a black mesh button up short sleeve shirt over it and Purple to gold ombre wide leg harem style pants set to maximum swoosh on his stick figure like frame. While his short blonde hair is gelled the sunglasses make it fan out a bit as his hair is shoved back.

"Awww love this. Are the singing mushrooms around? We didn't put them on tonight's menu did we? They were so polite." There's a warm smile to those gathered with the exclaim of, "My god new faces. Today's a day. Hi. Welcome if I get to say that?"

Natalia has decided that dinner with flowers sounds like a pleasant way to spend an evening. She has no one to accompany her, but that doesn't seem about to stop her from flying solo and enjoying herself, it seems. She smiles brightly as she walks along the tea light lit path to her destination. "Oh, this is so pretty," she says as she passes beneath the twinkle lights. Her voice holds a soft Russian accent.

She is dressed in a green and gold swirled summer dress with a sweetheart top and flared skirt that swishes as she walks, a light green cardigan is draped over her shoulders just in case it gets cooler later in the evening, and a pair of gold flats are on her feet. She gives a warm smile of greeting to Aaron as she approaches. "This is lovely."

Austin looks very stylish... when Wardrobe is dressing him. Left to his own devices, maybe not so much. He's in dark but broken-in jeans that fit just fine, a heathered green t-shirt likewise, and rainbow-checkered Vans, and aside from maybe the shoes is quite definitely well in Herb's shadow tonight despite being over half a foot taller. His hair looks great, though. Albeit not quite as great as the fur on the golden retriever that's padding alongside him on her leash, looking extremely excited to be here. Austin also looks fairly excited to be here, though his eyes widen a bit as he takes in those already assembled. "Oh, wow, everyone looks so awesome. And the place. Hi! Is a t-shirt okay? I can go back and change if you want."

Aaron grins brightly when Ravin comes over, he is wearing the tiara again, this makes Aaron very happy. So many things are going good as of late he is just all sorts of bubbly. He leans in to return the kiss. "You fine babe, I am glad to hear everything went well with the show and yeah everything is all set." he grins as more people start to show up, "Hello, Hi welcome to the botanical garden! Please come find a seat." he holds onto Ravins hand giving it a little squeeze. "OH, I love your shirt, Iseul." he grins more. Spotting Austin he waves, "Puppy!" the young man almost squeaks out letting Ravins hand go to look to Austin, "Your fine, may I pet?"

Ravin grins at Iseul. "We'll have to talk where to get clothing later. I loved your dress at the dance party, too. I'm Ravin, I don't remember if we've been introduced, yet." Dodge, Herb, Natalia and Austin get waves with the hand not claimed by Aaron. Though they laugh as Aaron abandons them for the puppy. They comment to Iseul. "If Aaron ever leaves me, it will absolutely be for a cute animal."

Laughter mingles with delight in Iseul's warm brown eyes as she inclines her head to Ravin and offers in return, "Iseul. And I'd love that — you look divine now, as you have pretty much every other time I've seen you about." She leans a fraction closer as her gaze sweeps toward Aaron and the dog before returning, "You know, you could just surprise Aaron and turn your duo into a trio. I bet the two of you would make great pet parents." She winks playfully, then glances over the others filtering in, casting smiles toward those faces familiar to her and not-so-much, in equal measure.

Sincerely, Herb says to his roommate, "Yes. The t-shirt is very inappropriate. You should do the room a favour and go without it. It's really just for the best; for you, for them." This is Herb trying to help, pray he never has to give a police statement, though the casual made-up facts are delivered well.

Swooshing around he find a seat and leaves room for Pickle, the puppy. "They just call me GrubHerb now. Actually the last name, but I answer to Herb more than anything else. Iseul? This is Pickle," he says of the puppy, "and the big golden retriever is my roommate Austin. Ravin been a minute you look terrif. How are we doing? We're all off the clock finally yes?"

Herb gets a friendly wave and surely Dodge is about to introduce herself when a much more pressing matter presents itself: "Pickle?" she confirms, looking in between Austin and Herb. "Her name is Pickle? That's so cute. Hello, Pickle, I'm Dodge." She offers a wave and a grin to the human companions, too.

"Hey," she supplies in Natalia's direction, indicating her green and gold swirled dress with an uptick of her chin. "Your dress is gorgeous."

Natalia gives Ravin a little finger-wiggle in greeting and a smile. Then she's glancing at the tables which all seem to be set for two. Indecisively, she hovers near the entrance for a moment, and then finally just makes her way over to one and settles into a seat. Not seeing any place tags or reservations, she somewhat uncertainly seems to decide to claim that seat as her own. There's a warm smile for Pickle the Puppy.

When Dodge compliments her dress, she offers a bright smile and says, "Oh, thank you. I've been waiting for it to warm up enough and to have an occasion to wear it. I like the color of your blouse."

Austin blinks at Herb's very sincere reply and his hands have already moved to the waistband of his t-shirt before he registers Aaron's you're-fine and hesitates, looking from one of them to the other, and then another glance at the others to make sure no one's looking offended by his t-shirtedness or anything.

It's the question that interrupts the thought process, and he beams at Aaron. "Sure! This is Pickle," you know, in case you missed Herb saying so and Dodge repeating it, "She loves pets. And people. Wait, that makes it sound like I meant she likes the other kind of pet... but kinda she does so I guess it's still true." Indeed, the dog is already moving toward Aaron with her tail wagging madly, to claim these pets that have been promised. Dodge greeting her has her managing to sort of try to siiiidle into easy reach of her and perhaps Natalia while still aiming for that prime pet position. She can multitask, or at least thinks she might be able to.

"I'm Austin," he says also unnecessarily at this point, "You can call me Oz if you want. Or Austin. Either's fine. Hi, nice meeting you all. Or, like, properly meeting 'cause I know I saw you," Aaron and Ravin, "and you," Iseul, "the other morning with the flower people." He doesn't move to sit just yet; Pickle would be sad if moved away too soon.

Ravin laughs at Iseul's comment. "We've got three snugglebunnies between us, I fully expect we will end up with more animals before we're done, but I'm going to let Aaron choose them himself." They give Herb's suggestion on how Austin should handle the T-shirt situation a grin, then laugh more as Austin starts to comply. "Honey, I certainly won't object to you taking your shirt off, but you're just fine. There's no real dress code beyond 'appropriate for public'. I'm Ravin, our host there is Aaron. I forget if we've met before or if I've just seen you around." They do take their seat with Aaron, but grin at Natalia. "If you want to pull your table over closer, we can act like a four-top."

Iseul's smile brightens as the pupper is introduced, her eyes rising then to Austin. And she double-takes, faintly. "Oh, wow. I didn't recognize you out of costume," she admits with a sheepish little laugh. "Good to meet you. And to see you again," she adds, toward Herb. "It's been a minute since the sleep-over! That was too much fun." As the music begins to flow forth and Aaron speaks, she falls quiet, looking out over the available tables. There's a brief look toward the path they all arrived by, and a press of her teeth into the curve of her lower lip. Then she draws in a quiet breath, re-sunnyfies her smile, and sends Ravin a thumbs-up to mark her approval of the floof situation. Pets are fantastic. Pets are love. She starts to drift, looking for a place to belong for the evening.

When Pickle tries to sidle within easy reach for pets, Dodge makes it easy for her and kneels down to offer them. "You're such a pretty girl, yes you are," she tells Pickle in that pitch of voice that people often reserve for speaking to animals, or maybe very small children.

She beams a smile back at Natalia and playfully pops the collar of the turqouise blouse. "Thanks!" She rises to her feet and gives Pickle one last little scritchy-scratch on the top of her head before she looks around for an empty table and pads over to it. "Iseul," she calls, waving her over. "Come sit with me," she invites. "I don't bite. Well, I bite food," she allows with a hapless little shrug.

"It was!" comes Herb's memory of the first event meeting Iseul. "It has been. I was like I think I remember your style but didn't want to be 'that guy' and be wrong and make it weird. So good seeing you again."

Looking back to Ravin he grins back at the support of his latent mischief. "The rabbits we have are so far just the rabbits that we have." Looking back to Natalia he asks curious, "I know you were here around those times. You get one of the snugglebuns following you home?"

Eyes shift to Watch Pickle soak up all the love which brightens a look reaching for the menu list and jotting his preferences down.

Natalia smiles a little gratefully when Ravin offers for her to pull her table a little closer for company and so she does, getting up and scootching it just a little bit closer so she's not quite so far away. "Thank you," she murmurs. Then she reaches down to give Pickle a couple of pets and scritches as well when there's a moment in the dog's busy dance card, offering a smile. "Hello."

"I'm Natalia," she introduces herself to those that she hasn't yet met or gained introductions from, then she settles back into her seat once more, looking over the selection of food.

"Oh," she says to Herb, "Yes. I have two. The gentleman who had the other had to return home, so I've kept them together. They're very sweet and good company."

Ravin collects food and a lavender-rose iced tea for themself, then comments to Natalia. "That's how we ended up with three. I had one and Aaron ended up with two when the... guy who had the match for his left." Ravin's tone makes it clear that he is not impressed at all by the guy in question, but is also not quite willing to say more out of nowhere. They add a little smirk. "I only bite people when asked nicely... and Aaron gives me permission."

Aaron waves to herb and smiles, "Hey, you look good. Been a min good to see you again." he looks over at Ravin as he tells Austin he wouldn't mind him taking his shirt off and he giggles softly. he hums softly as the music plays then ohs, "No, no, no singing mushrooms on the menu they are too cute I would never!" he grins looking around making sure everyone is finding seats and someone to sit with and the waiters are moving about. He looks to Ravin, "You look great tonight hon." he kisses his cheek hearing Ravin talking to Natalia his cheeks blush slightly.

Iseul's eyes warm at the called invitation from Dodge, traces of relief flitting subtly through her expression as she turns to make her way over to the table. A free hand stretches toward the other woman to offer a squeeze, if wanted. "Thanks," is murmured, low enough that the soft-spoken gratitude shouldn't carry far, if at all. "You look great!" she notes, as she settles comfortably onto the blanket, folding denim-clad legs beneath herself. "Getting any good shots tonight?" She relaxes gradually, half-listening to conversations drifting around and considering the menu options.

Dodge meets Iseul's outstretched hand with her own and returns the squeeze, and at the murmured gratitude, she nods her head once and smiles brightly.

"Thank you, and oh my gosh, look at your blouse, it's so lovely. You dressed perfectly for the occasion." Her grin broadens just a touch. "You know, I am kicking myself a little for leaving my camera at homebecause the decor is so striking, but I got some decent ones on my phone." She takes another glance around at some of the floral arrangements and the twinkling lights and then begins to peruse the menu. "Oh, they have hibiscus tea. Tea from a flower at a flower event feels like a rite of passage, so I can't miss out on that."

Oh, Pickle is thrilled by all the petting! And with options! As long as she can get away with it, she shifts from one petter to another after a good several pets each. Must be fair about this, after all. The wagging is impressive, and there's a definite danger of face licks a couple times before Austin catches it and murmurs, "Pickle, no," which appears to be enough. Today. For now. She IS indeed a pretty girl and particularly pleased that Dodge recognizes this fact.

Austin himself looks faintly relieved at being assured that he is indeed fine in the the t-shirt, and blushes a bit at the lack of objection being noted, as though that aspect of things had only just occurred to him. "Thank you," is quite sincere, whether for either part or both, and as people settle, he moves over to join his roommate, bringing Pickle along. "I don't think we've met properly before," he decides, "but it's nice to now." The way people look at tables and Ravin's comment to Natalia lead to, "We could probably put them all together if we wanted to." He doesn't immediately move from where he's just settled, though, instead leaning to try to also look at the menu Herb has.

Herb says to Natalia, "The bunny distribution system continues to provide. I think I'd really love to see them all together sometime. Ravin got us close." Looking to Iseul and Dodge he says "Around February these pink bunnies that were bad at rabbiting showed up and started sing-calling. Adorable, though a little sad until we wrangled them together again." He considers, "Be nice to do a familiar pet appreciation collection though. Dodge you think the photo team would be interested on that?"

At the low table Herb decides, "I think I want the sushi that looks like a flower arrangement. Fifty-fifty on if the fish tastes like flowers or just looks that way."

Natalia nods to Ravin and says, "Sometimes these things happen." And one ends up with more bunnies than one planned on. "I'm glad that they have each other, though. They seem content and they keep me company." She selects something from the menu for herself as well and her own drink is something light and fruity and bubbly with a pretty blossom settled on the rim for garnish.

Austin's offer to push all of the tables together is met with a soft laugh. "We could, but I'd hate to undo all the careful work that Aaron did to set things up." She looks over toward him with a little smile.

"Oh, is there sushi?" she inquires. She missed that on the list of items. Still, she doesn't seem disappointed by what she chose.

Ravin takes a bite from their salad and then tilts their head and blinks a little at one of the nearby bushes. "Snugglebunnies are very good at snugging, not so great at bunny-ing, but they are cute and cuddly. And mean I need to be careful about locking up any candy in the apartment." This comment seems mostly addressed to Natalia, though they're a bit distracted by something or other. "We could do the Alice in Wonderland thing and all change chairs so end up with other people, but I think we're close enough to chat... did anyone else hear something chitter?"

"Oh, some phones have pretty outstanding cameras built in these days," Iseul comments softly. "I think I heard that the new Samsung has like... two-hundred megapixels, or something ridiculously high like that? I so need a new model, I'm way behind," she adds, with a light laugh. Her attention drifts toward Herb as he relays the buns' origin story, her eyes betraying her delight. "I thought you all were talking about just regular bunnies... now I want to meet them!" She begins to look down at the food options again, but her focus flickers toward the bushes instead, head tipping to one side as she goes perfectly, carefully still. Her request for an Elderflower spritz can wait.

"Yeah, the cameras are powerful and if you adjust the settings a little bit, you can get really high quality images," Dodge agrees with Iseul. She's congenially thanking the server when suddenly she pinches her brow together as her attention snaps to one of the bushes, or more specifically just alongside it. She blinks a few times before she fully reacts. "Oh, what are you?" she asks under her breath, staring at something just by the bush.

Aaron gets his order for food into the waiter and a drink the same as Ravin, once he gets the plate, he is about to eat something and blinks looking to Ravin, "You heard something?" he looks around blinking. "Maybe it's just the wildlife maybe the food is attracting them." he shrugs a little and starts to nibble on his salad.

Austin pinkens just slightly again when Natalia responds to the tables idea, and he gives Aaron an apologetic look. "Oh, right, sorry, I shoulda thought." He brightens a bit at Herb, nodding. "A pet photo-y thing would be cool. SO many bunnies, and there's dogs, cats, horses... Snow isn't exactly a pet but he'd probably come pose. Also now I want sushi too." Which is in fact what he orders, along with several other of the things the menu says are over on those tables, and whatever Herb asks for to drink.

"Hey, look, there's salad with flowers in--" he trails off, brow furrowing, as Pickle starts trying to pull off toward a bush. "Pickle, sit," he instructs, and she does, though she gives him a Look as she does it. Which is about the same time others are also looking toward that bush, and he did think maybe there was a rustle; maybe that wasn't the wind? "...I think Pickle did," he answer Ravin. "We could go look if you want? Me and her, I mean. Not that no one else could come too."

Herb waves a hand, "Well if it's edible I'll share. Natalia, I'm sure the rabbits are winning out. You are lovely company."

Of the rabbits an idea comes to him. "Ohhh you remember that tee shirt I have with the little rabbit pyramid? The Fibonacci sequence with rabbits? Kind of want to see that happen now. Like little rabbit cheerleaders."

He considers and goes with one of the herbal teas because Dodge made that sound pretty good. "Floral salad sounds cute. Turns out you can sculpt a lot out of a rad-" he pauses doing a double take at the leaves, "-dish." Looking back to Iseul he says "I usually have mine on me on delivery runs. Order something and I got you."

"Well no, they are not quite bunnies, though, so that makes sense," Natalia says, but she too is distracted by some sort of noise or movement. She looks in that direction but doesn't really see anything, so her attention returns to those around her. A warm smile is given to Iseul as she says, "Oh, you're welcome to meet mine any time if you like." Then she follows Dodge's look over toward the bush, curious what she's looking at.

Austin gets a reassuring smile, "Oh, it's not a bad idea at all! And very sweet of you." Though now Herb's compliment has her blushing just slightly. "That's very sweet of you, Herb."

"Maybe not going with Pickle," Ravin says. "We don't know what it is and while she seems well behaved either her chasing it or it attacking her could be bad. Dodge, you got a view of what's making the noise?"

The change in Dodge's focus has Iseul trying to match the direction of their gaze, her eyes narrowing as she takes a closer look into the bushes, and when she finally spots one of the teensy critter, she draws in a soft gasp of wonder. "Oh, how adorable," she coos. She glances back toward the table she shares with Dodge, silently bemoaning the fact that her food hasn't arrived yet, and by the time she looks to the bush again, the little leafling is gone. It doesn't take too long for her to catch sight of another, though. "Think they're friendly?" she asks her dinner companion, tentatively stretching a hand out toward the nearest one. "Or should I worry about losing a finger?"

Dodge rises out of her chair and carefully pulls out her phone, pointing the lens at the the little be-spiked critter near the bushes and taking a handful of photos as she starts to creep closer. She indicates to Ravin what she's looking at with an upnod of her chin towards the creature.

"What big eyes you have," she murmurs as she studies one of the shots and then looks up and over the rim of her phone, glancing at the additional sets of eyes staring out of the bushes. "And lots of eyes."

She snaps a photo of the many eyes looking out through the bushes, then tries to get a closer shot of the one that just snatched a bit of food up. "Please be nice, little guys," she requests as Iseul reaches for a nearby one.

"Oh!" Natalia says when she sees the little creature appear and dart out to grab a bit of food, "I've seen these before. They're not harmful. They usually stay away from people. But if you have nuts and seeds or berries, those are better for them than some of the other things that they'll snap up otherwise," she advises. You can take the zoologist out of the zoo, but you can't take take the compulsion to give practical advice out of her. Still, she seems delighted by the arrival of the small green creatures, so much so that she forgets about her own food for a time.

"Okay. She is good about that, though." Austin doesn't seem to be arguing to take her, just feeling that it's important to state, as he starts to rise back to his feet. "Stay, Pickle." She does, though she looks less enthusiastic about it than... well, anything else, so far, though that's not saying that much. And then, there a critter is. "Oh! Oh, that's really cute." He moves slowly toward the bushes and their eyes, trying to get a better look, and looks charmed when Natalia tells them more about them. "What're they called? We've definitely got berries..." He reroutes over to the food tables, checking for Foods Deemed Appropriate.

Herb waits and sits there. One hand rests on pickle to keep himself from running over maybe. His eyes widen, face animating, "Awww sweet salad baby what are yoooou??" More evidence he ought not be allowed to name things. Looking to Natalia he takes a baby tomato out of the nearby salad and hands it to Austin. "Natalia we need to take you on tour with us and point at everything so we can ask huggable or no. Wait are tomatoes okay? We have some tiny tomato halves."

Ravin sips from their iced tea, but decides to not go crowd the little critters now that a couple people are over there. Instead, they go back to eating their salad. "The menu is great, sweetie. This is fun and should definitely be a regular thing." They grin at Natalia. "I'm glad they're a known thing. And they are adorable and not dangerous."

Aaron smiles at Ravin, "I am glad you are enjoying it and like it." he smiles and looks over at the leafkin and smiles, "I have not seen them before, Natalia I like to talk to you if you know about them so I can add them to the library." he leans into Ravin a little sipping his tea.

The first thing Iseul does when her salad is placed before her is pick through to find a pecan half, which is held out toward the leafkin she'd been extending a hand toward before, then tossed in a gentle arc so that it lands closer to the critter than it does to her. Hopefully, that way, it won't feel too worried about her proximity to come forth and claim it. After all, there's a little strawberry vinaigrette glistening on the pecan's surface, so it's undoubtedly doubly delicious! She brings her hand up to quickly lick the traces of dressing from her fingertip and thumb, then returns her attention to her dinner companion, grinning across at Dodge. "I swear, this has to be the most magical place on earth. Disney can't hold a candle."

Satisfied with the shots she's taken of the leafkin, Dodge makes her way back to her seat in time to find her food has just arrived. She sets her phone down face down to resist the temptation to scroll through the photos she's just taken.

At the remark about Disney, she smiles across the table at Iseul and a quiet chuckle escapes her, and she nods her head in agreement. "I don't think any number of imagineers can compete with actual, literal magic. How long have you been here at the park?"

Natalia laughs just a little bit and says, "I work on this island, so I have seen most of the things that live here. I don't know a lot about them, as I study bats, not plants, but they are cute and I've watched them a little bit coming and going around the gardens." She then nods to Herb, "Tomatoes should be okay." As for what they're called? "I'm not sure what they're called. I haven't really called them anything. But yes, Aaron, I can tell you what I know."

She then remembers that she has food of her own and begins to pick through her meal a little bit while watching the others interact with the little leafkin. She's quiet, but definitely seems to be enjoying herself, taking little bites and sips from her drink and occasionally finding a morsel that the little leaf creatures might like and offering it to them under the table.

"I like Salad Baby," Austin decides, which is more evidence he also ought not be allowed to name things, and also that he and Herb probably ought not be left unsupervised where things need naming. "Oh, thanks!" He accepts the tiny tomato, siiiidles over near one of the bushes, gently sets it down on the ground, and siiiidles back away from it again. Which is the point at which Herb asks if tomatoes are okay, and he immediately looks at Natalia with a hint of concern. ARE they okay?

He gives a little sigh and nod at the confirmation, by which point he would have had to try to get into the bush and take it away from the little guy who darted out to claim it, if she'd said no. But there's plenty more tomatoes and other things to be snagged, still! Some of them might even be by him, eventually. That sushi does sound good.

Ravin grins at the others and continues to eat. "Aaron, you mind if we take a few detours on the way home after, I want to go sing at some more topiaries while they sing back. It's my chance to actually live out a magical musical."