Let's Play!

" Sorry, anyway, what do you like doing when strickly indoors?"



Seeing as your kind of stuck......

"Extreme hopscotch."



Darryn stared directly at Ashleigh with a perfectly straight face. In fact, he might not have even been joking.

" That aside, ?"



ashleigh asked, letting that one slide.

Darryn shrugged, thinking for a moment. It was kind of hard to choose, after all he was an outdoorsy person.



"I like building card fortresses. Does that count?"

" You know I have a whole floor green house..."



ashleigh mused, leaving his comments behind as she wondered towards the stairs that would lead her up...

Darryn followed after her, not too concerned that his words had lead to nowhere. It was kind of a dead end question anyhow.



"How does that work? I mean, greenhouses are all about absorbing the sun and whatnot, right?"

" artificial lightening."



she replied simply, looking about the flowers and trees blooming everywhere.

Darryn sighed slightly. It didn't take a genouijikagh;ra smart person to figure that one out.



"Yeah, but where does the heat come from?" He looked around, gravtitating towards some white chrysanthemums.

" it sort of builds up in here from the lighting."

"Oh. Like an iguana cage." The man wandered over to a climbing vine with little delicate flowers on it. His fingertips brushed across the surface of the purple, liking the velvety feel of the petals.

" I love the lemon leaf bush growing over there."



Ashleigh purred, smiling as she wodnered over to the velvety petals, smiling as the fresh lemon scent covered the entire room.

"Hmm..." Darryn looked over the plant with consideration. Then, simply out of curiosity, the man broke off a leaf. Where did it go from there? Straight into his mouth, of course.

" Tastes like sage..."





ashleigh chuckled as he shoved it into his mouth, shaking her head and looking about. that wasn't what she expected.



" the vegtables are that way, and the fruits that way... I think the Vineyard is picked clean right now though..."

Darryn chewed it in what was a quickly deteriorating expression. It. Tasted. Disgusting. Still, rather than spit it out, the man swallowed disdainfully.



"Do you eat them or use them to make wine?" Darryn walked on towards the fruits portion. He wasn't a bit fan of vegetables, but who didn't like a bit of natural sugar factory?

" Both, but mostly eat them, as I don't care for lots of wine, just some."



Ashleigh replied softly, looking about as she lead him to the vineyard, picked clean, then to the fruit trees that were bearing fresh, ripe fruits, and the vegetables not far off that needed to be harvested.



" I have three fields, each ripens at a different time, it makes for a constant supply of fresh food... Except the vineyards, they are tricky."

Darryn shrugged slightly as he looked up the trunk of a massive apple tree.



"I'm surprised you can get them to grow at all. The climate, even in this greenhouse, is a little off." Darryn reached up and pulled himself onto the lowest branch of the tree and then next and the next. In his experience, the best apples were always out of reach.

" Thanks. I'm surprised your still alive with your insulting tongue."



ashleigh replied honestly, looking like she might go up there and smack him.

Darryn rolled his eyes and he dropped a couple apples down to her.



"You know, maybe you just think that I am insulting. Perhaps I was actually paying you a compliment." He crunched down into a bright red apple, juice flying.



"Maybe I was saying that I was impressed because most people wouldn't be able to do it."

" It didn't come across that way."



ashleigh replied, wiping the over spray off her face, lookign about.

Darryn just sighed, chomping off another huge chunk and swallowing it before dropping the core to the ground and reaching for another one.



"I believe you just think that I'm out to get you." Darryn turned so that he was lounging on the branch and his back was to the trunk.



"I could say 'kittens in mittens' and it would be some sort of sneaky attack on your person." Somehow, he didn't seem bothered and his tone wasn't one of any sort of malice. It was like stating a fact.

"Better to think of one's self always under attack, then not be ready for it."



Ashleigh replied, shrugging.



" and I never got the reasoning behind that phrase."

Darryn examined the apple, shining it on his sleeve before going about seeing how big of a bite he could chunk out at once. He chewed thoughtfully.



"'If love is surrender, then who's war is it anyway?'" He quoted simply. Then he cast a glance down through to foliage to her.



"You know. 'Kittens in Mittens'. The nursery rhyme? For tots?"

" That's what I'm getting at, half the rhymes don't make sense."



Ashleigh informed him, smiling softly as she watched over half the apple disappear.

Darryn just shrugged.



"Eh... it's for kids. Half of what they say doesn't make sense either."

" I suppose."



Ashleigh replied, reaching for her oranges with eagerness.

Darryn dropped another core to the ground. Natural compost. hooray!



"So, are there any other people wandering around in here that I should be concerned about bumping in to?"

" Not at the moment. No people here means less concerns for me. "



ashleigh reasoned, glancing up.



" Your the first in a while to grace the halls, other then myself."

Darryn nodded as he dropped out of the tree.



"Figured. This place needs a bit more grime. A manly touch." He stuck out his tongue in jest.

" Men don't typically belong in my lifestyle, period. nothing but trouble. "

Darryn held up his hands in mock surrender.



"All right, all right. No grime. Can I at least have a little dust or some misplaced shoes?"

" Shoes, maybe. Watch it though."



Ashleigh purred, small smile in place.

Darryn threw his arms up in imitated joy.



"YES!" He then bowed low.



"Of course, of course Madam. Anything for the shoes."

Laughing, ashleigh flashed a full of, sweet grin.



" Good boy."

Darryn stood up straight, grinning from ear to ear as he reached over to a pear tree. This was like an all-you-can-eat buffet. And believe you me, Darryn could eat.

" You know, your going to have to get to know how to handle picking all these cores up... I don't like the fruit flies it attracts..."

Darryn looked at her rather blankly.



"Fruit. Flies. ...?" He looked around.



"You live in the tundra for crying out loud!"

" I know, but they appear... I hate it, so much.... It irritates the pretzels out of me."

Darryn blinked a few times and then turned mournfully to the apple cores.



"Well, then what do you do with them?"

" Just bag them up, I'll tend to them later.'



he didn't need to know about the tunnels, not yet.

Darryn looked around. He was kind of tired of having to ask stupid questions, but he just couldn't see what he was supposed to bag them up in. So he used the next best thing. The man simply pulled off his shirt and began to pick up just shy of a dozen cores.