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To say that Occeus Coliad was a Troll who made decisions vastly unnecessarily more difficult than they needed to be would be a massive understatement. Better to eat lunchables on one cracker instead of two to stretch out the plastic enclosed faux lunchmeat and cheese meal last longer? Or use the both of them as is most commonly instructed by the advertisements and packaging? Such decisions he sometimes flip-flopped back and forth on.
Or other times, such as now, as he struggled on the cusp of the elevator to decide on which portion of the floor to walk with this bucket full of fresh earth.
He could simply walk along the solid floor, and not risk dropping any hard to remove dirt particles into the ridiculously long magenta carpet that trailed from a foot or two beyond the elevator to just in front of the golden throne. But then that brought the risk of scuffing the clean, shimmering marble flooring with the steel hammered into the soles of his boots. Though the converse would bring about the aforementioned associated risks. Walk on the carpet to save the tile, or walk the tile to save the carpet? Decisions, decisions.
A ping sounding on his phone alerted him that he might want to hurry up with that decision, so he deliberated only a couple minutes more, before forcing himself to a decision.
At the very least the well pressed carpet rustling under his shoes was much quieter than walking the floor would have been.
Sometimes he did wish he could be as quick and decisive to come to resolutions and decisions as his moirail was. He'd heard others in their friend group refer to him as... well, exactly as he was at times, honestly. Stubborn to the point of deserving the descriptor of severely bull-headed when he'd decided on something in any given matter.
But to Occeus, this trait netted far more positives anything else. Calder did have a tendency to get stuck in his own head in the aftermath of whatever it was he'd chosen, weighing the resulting benefits and difficulties as opposed to the ones he'd imagined beforehand. Something about “better to regret what you have done than what you haven't,” he believed it was. But it was how he selected and stuck to his guns that Occeus admired in his moirail.
Very noble-like, he thinks on occasion.
Though admittedly this known nobility caused him some confusion when Calder suddenly asked for him to acquire a bucket full of the freshest, moistest earth he could find. But when a moirail asks a favor, who is he to say no?
After reaching the end of the carpeting, and a quick trip up one of the staircases, Occeus paused at the landing, looking left and right. This hive was very impressive, but the labyrinthine layout did get confusing at times.
“Calder!! You there?”
“In here!” He could hear his moirail's voice calling from a room to the left, and followed it to what he remembered upon arrival was a bathroom. Where he found said moirail on his knees in there, sitting cross legged on a bath mat with a couple of earthenware pots set out in front of him. “Ah, there you are, Occeus. I was wondering when you'd get here.”
“Sorry, Calder. Took longer than I expected to get down here with this dirt. Your elevator takes a long while to get all the way to the bottom.” Not to mention was indescribably creepy. Seeing all those mutated eyes of the horrific sea life staring one down as they made their descent. (In his experience, turning around and trying to ignore it made it no better at all.) “But here you are, one big bucket full of fresh earth, as requested,” Occeus declared as he set down the bucket.
“Thanks a lot, Occeus. I figured the soil around where you lived would be better than anything around here,” Calder smiled.
“Think nothing of it, Calder,” Occeus grinned right back. “It's the least I can do for my one and only moirail. Think of it as a thanks for letting me borrow some of your blood for my latest round of tests.”
“Oh yeah, that. No problem at all.” Calder resisted the urge to scratch as the skin pressed down by a thin layer of bandages under his sleeve began to tingle around the ghost of a needle mark.
“So, what exactly Did you need this for Calder?” Occeus asked as he dropped onto his knees beside him.
“I'm glad you asked, Occeus. I needed it for... this!!!” With a flourish, he held out his hands and couple of items fell out of his modus and into his palms. He must've had his inventory flipped to them before he arrived just to make that reveal, Occeus mused with some humor.
“Are those... plants?” Occeus stared at what Calder now held. Yes, those were indeed plants. Green and short, with just a couple of tiny leaves no bigger than a rodent's ear poking out in odd places.
“Yes! Trees, no less. I'm going to try and grow them.” Calder retrieved a couple of trowels and proceeded to transfer dirt from the bucket Occeus had brought in to one of the pots. Not seeing why not, Occeus picked up the other and began following suit. Eyeballing Calder's progress as he went just to make sure he kept up to what he was doing.
When the pots were finally three quarters full, Calder picked up the saplings one by one, gently patting them upright into the soil before taking up some more and smoothing it over their roots with his hands. Occeus watched with some fascination at how Calder gently potted them. He'd had Calder help him with delicate lab work before, and knew he was building some ship thing with his kismesis, but it was calming watching him work with his hands.
“Okay, that should be good,” Calder declared certainly.
“Are you sure they'll grow down here?” Occeus questioned.
“They should. Granted the soil is good, the lighting down here is all meant to emulate natural sunlight. As far as I know, they should just need some natural fertilizer and... well, one other thing.” Occeus noted the frown on Calder's face, but his moirail said nothing as he motioned for something else from his sylladex. What fell into his hands made the hair on Occeus's neck stand on end with one look.
“Calder... is that-”
“Yes, it is.” Calder held up the bottle to the light. Sure enough, this was a bottle of water. Crystal clear in its transparent bottle, the blue Corporate logo stamped on the front giving off a faint blue gleam in the light. “I ordered it straight from the aquifers. It was...very expensive, I'll admit. But if it helps them grow.” He retrieved what looked like a couple of semi transparent glass ornaments with long, thin hollow necks on one end. “Supposedly if I use these then they can add water as the trees need it. So I won't need to handle the stuff as often.”
“I see...” Occeus mouth still tightened at the corner, uncertain. Certain the sentiment must be shared, with how Calder was gazing at the bottle he held in his own hands. “... Want to borrow a pair of gloves?” Even if they knew it was all properly purified and disease and mutation free, well... better safe than sorry, right?
“That would be appreciated, yes.”
Without a word Occeus retrieved a pair of gloves from his own inventory and handed them over. He noted Calder's hands were shaking as he pulled the gloves down over them.
“If you'd like... I could try-”
“No, no it's fine,” Calder cut him off. “It's just... Just water. I live all the way down here, and it's clean.” Calder let out a thin hiss of air anyway, and unscrewed the cap for all the world like he was handling volatile explosives. Occeus had to admit to himself he was more nervous than even he initially believed, when the cracking of the seal coming undone made him jump like someone had just shot a gun off by his ear.
Carefully, ever so carefully, Calder tilted the bottle to the lip of the watering ornament, letting the liquid carefully drip into it. Every second it took to fill up the bulb, Calder felt as though another of his hairs was graying. The one time a drip of water got onto the glove, he thought his heart was going to leap out of his chest.
By the time they were both sufficiently filled and the bottle filled, Calder nearly thought he had stopped breathing for the last couple minutes of it. Even Occeus felt the relief sweep through him when the rest of the water was safely stored away.
“So, where are you going to put them?” Occeus asked.
“By the throne, I think. The best lighting is in there,” Calder mused. The two of them sat in silence, feeling an odd sense of accomplishment seeing the two saplings all secure in their pots. “You know, I've heard somewhere that people name their plants things sometimes, helps them grow better supposedly.”
“Is that so?” Occeus had never heard of such a thing.
“Yep, read it in a book once... I think I might name that one 'Occeus'.” He pointed to the plant on the right, a slight shade of magenta now dusting his cheeks. Occeus didn't quite know why, but he felt oddly touched with that declaration of the naming intent.
“Well, that's awful sweet of you, Calder.”
“You're my moirail. It's the very least I could do,” Calder replied with assurance. The two of them smiled at one another. Somehow, Occeus only became aware that he could feel Calder's hand on top of his. The realization only made his smile grow warmer.
“And the other one?”
“Huh?”
Occeus pointed at the other sapling.
“What about the other one? Are you going to name that one something, too?”
To his surprise, Calder's face filled up with magenta once again, but more an embarrassed than a happy one.
“Well, I... I don't know. I'm still thinking about it.”
Occeus pondered the reaction, before a light pinged on in his head.
“Could you, perhaps, be thinking of naming it after your spade?” Calder started spluttering, and Occeus immediately knew he was right.
“I- Well- I-I don't know! Maybe? I'm still thinking.”
“I'm sure she'll be touched, too.” Occeus assured him. Calder just kept blushing.
“All Mother, please don't tell her I was thinking about it! You just know she'll use it for fuel against me!” Occeus laughed aloud, leaning into his moirail gently.
“Okay, okay. I'll keep it a secret for you. Moirail's Promise.” In way of a peace offering, Occeus held out his hand, splitting two of his fingers into a sideways V. The blush fading from embarrassment to a gentler shade, Calder managed to smile back, and made the same shape right back at him. Gently touching the tips of his own fingers to Occeus's.
“Pale for you.”
“Pale for you.”