TIMING: Current LOCATION: Vic's House PARTIES: Anita (@gossipsnake) & Vic (@natusvincere) CONTENT: n/a SUMMARY: Anita put's her knowledge of insects to use and tries to help Vic deal with a curious pest.
Vic was a very clean person. Even for those who slept, she vehemently believed there was no excuse for not keeping an orderly, tidy home, especially where there were children involved. This expectation, unlike her recent indecisiveness on the moral grayness of vampires, was not up for interpretation, nor did it allow for any mistakes on her part. Her tidiness was meticulous, almost to a fault, which is why she knew she wasn’t to blame when the bug problem arose.
At first, she thought it was a yellow apple, which was a bit odd, considering the only ones she and Rosie had picked at the orchard were bright red. It had gone rotten, she was sure, like things in Wicked’s Rest had a nasty habit of doing, so it was in her hand on the way to the compost bin when it sprouted legs. Vic, in such a state of shock (but totally not flustered like some ignoramus), practically screamed, and she tossed the apple into the air as if it were poison and as if she were a pale princess living with 7 very short men. As if. The apple-bug had crawled away, and for days after, the only place Vic could manage to catch a glimpse was in her conservatory.
Ugh, her conservatory. Years and years of careful tending to fabulous flora and fauna were apparently gone to waste thanks to the apple-fuck. Apple-bug. All of the plants in her conservatory were dying, but everytime she got close to the goddamn thing, it rolled away. Winnie had even had her turn at it, chasing the apple-bug around the room for hours and amusing Rosie immensely, but it was all for naught. The exterminators were a bust too, even if she paid an arm and a leg for them, half of them looked at her as if she were insane when she suggested the pest looked like an apple. The other half spent even longer chasing the beast around her house than Winnie did. Fools, all of them.
The entomologist was her last choice to solve the matter, but Vic was nothing if not stubborn. She wasn’t one for mincing words, either, so while her guest was right on time, she barely wasted time on exchanging pleasantries once she opened the door to greet her. “Hello, Ms. Nieves, right? It’s a pleasure to meet you. Are you here to help me murder my fruit shaped enemy?”
___
It wasn’t exceptionally common for random people to reach out to Anita about persistent pests that were either bothering them or infesting their homes but it did happen on occasion. Whenever it did she would try to get a sense of what the problem was - especially since entomologists aren’t usually people’s first contact in these kinds of situations. She found that often she was a last resort and even more often the insects people were seeking help about weren’t the kind your regular exterminator knew how to handle.
So when a strikingly beautiful woman had come to her for help with something she was calling an “apple-bug” that sprouted legs and ran around her home, well Anita simply couldn’t say no. “Dr. Nieves, actually,” she clarified with a coy smirk, “but you can just call me Anita.” She looked around the space, not immediately noticing anything out of the ordinary. “I am fully prepared for some insect murder in the event that capturing isn’t a viable option, which, from how you described this creature it sure sounds like capturing isn’t a strong option. Where did you see it last?”
___
Vic felt herself redden at the faux-pas. Doctor, of course. How could she have insulted a woman of such esteem so soon into their meeting? Would the good doctor simply refuse to help her now? She might have, if the situation were reversed. “I apologize, Doctor. … Anita. You may call me Vic. Can I get you anything to drink?” How fantastical it must have been to be able to demand someone address you as doctor as soon as they started to insult you. Perhaps when Rosie was a bit older, she would get her doctorate.
At Anita’s question, Vic gestured to her conservatory, walking toward it and showing her the inside. “I apologize, these plants are usually in tip-top condition, but…” She looked back toward the woman, embarrassed. “That devil fruit bug has been destroying all the plants in sight. It’s insatiable, and has a particular affinity for hard to grow plant life”, she said, looking forlornly at her poor, dead orchids.
“I’ve had three different exterminators here and all of them were buffoons. I should have known from the start that only a woman could fix this mess.”
___
“No need for an apology,” Anita said with a gentle flick of her wrist, as though she was physically waiving it off. She set one of her bags down near the front door, keeping the other bag with some supplies on her shoulder. “Don’t need anything to drink now, but maybe we can share a celebratory drink after if we’re able to nab this pest.” Her eyes followed towards the conservatory, which was admittedly in rather sad shape.
“I’ve seen plenty of plants in far worse condition. Part of my studies involved an overlap in entomology and plant pathology, observing how invasive species can create chaos in an otherwise balanced environment.” While the description of this devil fruit bug was somewhat vague, Anita had spent enough time outside over her past four years in this town observing the local oddities. She had come across this apple-like supernatural bug before. A nuisance for sure, but not one that couldn’t be handled.
“Exterminators are only useful when they know what they are exterminating. Their job is brute force, not necessarily keen observation.” Anita elected to leave out any mention of her family’s extermination business, for the time being, not wanting to open the door to questions about her personal life. “I certainly hope I’m the woman for the job. I think together the odds are in our favor.”
Heading further into the conservatory, Anita looked around for any obvious signs of the creature. “Do you have any fruit bearing plants?”
_
“I’ll hold you to that”, Vic said with a grin thinking of the bottle of wine that was waiting in the cabinet for such an occasion. The death of the apple-fuck would be a momentous occasion, albeit one that might make Rosie and Winnie a bit sad. They did seem to love their new, silly toy after all. There was a sense of pride that came from Anita’s words, although Vic wondered if she might be just being polite. “So… you’ve seen this thing before, then? Is it an easy fix?” There was a glimmer of hope that flashed across Vic’s features, before a scowl reappeared at her next words.
“That became obvious rather quickly”, Vic said, rolling her eyes at the thought. “And you wouldn’t believe the nerve of them, arguing with me the way that they did. It was almost as if they thought I was stupid.” She had been strangely defensive to their arguments too, more so than normal, but she refused to be treated like an idiot in her own home. Thank goodness Rosie hadn’t been there to witness their rudeness.
“None inside”, she said, stepping aside to give Anita a better view to observe their surroundings. Her conservatory was a large room on the side of her home, the rounded walls covered with windows. Framed drawings of flowers done by a child surrounded the doorframe, a small R in the corner of each growing less rudimentary with each one. “I have a vegetable garden growing outside in the summer that I’ve yet to plant, and some raspberry bushes along the outside of the property, but nothing of the sort in here. I will note that the ugly thing appeared here after a trip to the orchard, though. The first time I saw it, I had assumed it was an apple.” Vic didn’t know if she was rambling or if any of this information would even help, she just wanted the bug gone as soon as possible.
_
“Please do,” Anita quipped back, not missing a beat. If she could flirt a bit and catch a strange supernatural insect? Well that was just a win-win kind of situation. “Never seen one infesting any place inside before, admittedly. First time I ever saw one was a few years back, in the spring and summer they can be found out in the woods wherever there are wild berry patches.” In her experience with these things, which was somewhat limited but undoubtedly more than any of the exterminators who had been through so far, they weren’t any real significant threat to anything other than plants.
The arguing comment seemed interesting, she had heard stories of orchards infested with these critters having an correlative increase in arguments. But that was natural, wasn’t it? For arguments to follow stressful circumstances? Anita’s eyes surveyed the conservatory - it was a beautiful collection of plants. Windows let in natural sunlight that danced across the flowers and the leaves. “I can see why you’d want to protect these beauties from any infestations.” Her eyes landed on the drawings, clearly - or, well, hopefully - made by a child. “Who made these?” She asked, not wanting to make any presumptions.
“It may have followed you in from the orchard,” Anita commented as she continued to try and spot the supernatural insect or at least any indication of where it had recently been. Her focus was on the plants that looked like they were dying, a sign it had been or was being drained of its nutrients. “You ever seen any strange bugs like this before?” Anita had seen these creatures before, there was not much about them that looked normal. This woman seemed unphased by the concept of a bug that looked like an apple with the ability to evade several exterminators. “Always some, unusual things in this town, huh?”
_
Vic wasn’t used to whatever reciprocal energy was passing between her and Anita, but she couldn’t deny that she didn’t hate whatever feeling it produced. Was this playful banter? She wasn’t sure. “I think it’s less of an infestation and more of a… home invasion. Whatever it is, clearly didn’t intend on ending up here, but now it’s too stupid to let us catch it so we can put it back outside.” She paused, turning from the conservatory to look at Anita. “I’m not new to being a pioneer, though. If you end up writing a book about this bug, you should include photos of my poor indoor plants, so people understand the risks.”
If Vic showed any hint of pride at her plants, she practically beamed when Rosie’s drawings were pointed out. She never wanted to bring too much attention to her daughter, and her interaction with Jade in the park told her exactly why that was important, but it was so hard not to practically burst the moment someone asked about her. “They’re my daughter’s”, she said, stopping herself from showing Anita every picture that’s ever been taken of her. “She’s, well, she just turned three. But I think they’re quite advanced. She’s at school right now, but she might be devastated if we rid our home of the bug. She finds it charming.”
Vic crossed her arms over her chest, shaking her head. “Bugs? No. But I’ve seen a ton of unbelievable creatures in town since I moved here about a decade ago. Heard tell of even more. I’m just surprised no researcher has ever come over and declared a whole new ecosystem, since clearly that’s the only way so many strange and unusual species are produced.” Anita must have known the truth about the town, especially with her leading question, but Vic was ever so cautious about the matter. Gloating about her own knowledge on the supernatural wasn’t worth the risk it posed to her and Rosie. In the distance she heard a faint rolling, her heightened hearing picking up the sound almost as instantly as it started. She peaked over to the living room, where Winnie was sound asleep. “I…”, she swallowed, looking back toward Anita. “Something tells me it’s going to make an appearance soon. Do we have any sort of game plan?”
_
“Oh yeah? What kind of pioneering are you used to doing?” It was something Anita had considered before, writing a comprehensive guide to the supernatural world of insects. She would either be touted as the mother of modern entomology or, more likely, laughed out of the profession she loved “You seem like you’ve got a green thumb, quite the loving touch, I’m sure you’ll be able to get these plants back to their former glory once we get rid of this pest.”
It was hard not to smile when Vic talked about her daughter. Anita never quite understood the desire for offspring herself, however, but she never questioned the important bond of family. “And what about your partner?” She managed to casually sneak the question in, “Will they be sad if we’re victorious in our mission today to catch this bug?” Anita hadn’t noticed a wedding band but that didn’t mean anything, she had learned.
Ten years was a long time to live anywhere. It was too long to live in this town and not know about certain things that went bump in the night. There was an intentional vagueness in Vic’s response that told Anita all she needed to know. Her comment, however, made Anita wonder just how familiar the other woman was with the supernatural world. While Anita was tempted to partially shift, allowing herself to use her thermal vision, she felt it was too much of a risk in the off chance that Vic was a hunter. She didn’t need to expose herself like that. Instead, she let her lame human senses attempt to seek out the insect.
Reaching into her backpack, Anita pulled out two devices that had a long sticky pad on attached to a sturdy retractable pole. “So, unfortunately for your plants, I think the best option is to wait for it to settle in for a snack and then quickly try to trap it down on one of these pads. It’s basically like a fly trap on steroids.” She handed one of the contraptions to Vic, then reached back into her bag and pulled out a makeshift trap that used an apple as bait and set it down by the door of the conservatory they had walked through. “If we can’t catch it… maybe it’ll trap itself as it runs away,” she said with a bit of a shrug as she tried to listen for any soft noises that might give away the critter’s location.
_
“Oh, um, just…” Vic wasn’t used to people actually asking her follow-up questions. She could usually just bullshit through conversations without having to worry about providing explanations. What had she pioneered? She wasn’t sure. “I was the first artist in town to paint a minion on a storefront in a santa hat. I believe I was almost nominated for an award and everything.” Thankfully, Anita changed the subject rather quickly in favor of her gardening skills. She smiled shyly. “It’s an easy hobby- I suppose I don’t hate that you see all your work come to fruition with plants, you know? It’s not something that’s worth forgetting about.”
Vic felt her eyebrows raise higher than humanly possible (was that a new vampire trait she wasn’t aware of?) at the mention of her partner. It’s not like it was a question she hadn’t heard before… and it was so refreshing compared to the constant inquiries about a ‘husband’ even as close as thirty years earlier, but thinking about a partner in raising Rosie had never even crossed her mind. It made sense that Anita would assume- most families had two-parent households, but Vic was more than a little proud to admit she was doing it all on her own. “Oh, there’s no partner. There’s just me. I’m alone….-single! By myself, with her, and me.” Winnie huffed from the other room, too deep in her nap to get upset about being forgotten in this small family makeup.
Vic reached out for the trap, grabbing it gingerly with her fingers so as to not get trapped herself. She examined it carefully. Wondering why she or none of the exterminators had come up with this idea earlier. “I knew you were the right woman for the job”, she said as Anita placed the trap down. “So…we leave it there, then…could it stay out for a few days? Am I meant to give you another call if it does end up trapping itself so you can examine it further?”
_
Even though she had an immense amount of questions about this award-nominated santa minion painting, Anita didn’t want to derail the conversation about plants to delve into that topic. “Don’t sell yourself short. A lot of people think plants are easy to care for, an easy hobby, until they really start getting into it. Especially this many plants. They all have their own needs and you clearly know how to satisfy them.”
Five. That was the number of different ways Vic emphasized how single she was and that was not lost on Anita. She nodded, a coy grin spread across her face, “Got it. I love that. Single is quite empowering… or at least I find it to be.” The question wasn’t asked but she wanted to pepper in the fact that she, too, was without any partner.
“I often am,” Antia responded to the compliment with a smile. “The trap can definitely be left out for a few days, as long as you aren’t worried about your daughter or any pets messing with it and accidentally engaging it. If the trap’s closed without the critter inside it doesn’t do us much good.” Her eyes moved around to the different plants in the room, wondering if they would be so lucky to have the malapple appear while they were actively looking for it. “I’d never say no to a call from you. Would certainly be happy to swing by and collect it if it ends up trapping itself at a later date. After all, I can't leave a customer … unsatisfied.” Anita let the pause between her words linger slightly, letting her flirtation be slightly more obvious now that she knew Vic was very single.
Just then, however, a pot fell nearby and Anita quickly turned to look. “Do you see anything?”
_
Vic smirked proudly at the continued compliments, tucking a hair behind her ear. Perhaps she should keep this Dr. Anita around more often, she clearly had a good mind about her. “You flatter me, Anita. You’ll have to let me shower you with compliments one day, too.” Maybe after she finally found the demon-apple. Which, by the way things were going, didn’t look like it would be today.
Yes, it was incredibly empowering being single and raising a child. And that was exactly why Vic was doing it that way, right? Loneliness never crept into her heart, not in 300 years and certainly not with any type of longing, either. Nope, it was all about empowerment for Vic. Thank god for that feminist movement. “Have you been… single for long?” It was an awkward question, Vic knew as soon as she asked it. She hoped it wouldn’t hang in the air for any longer than it needed to.
“I can keep them away from the conservatory”, she said with confidence, knowing all the deterrence either of them needed was some supervision and a baby gate (although either of them were liable to try and climb over it). Okay, she had thought Anita might have been flirting before, with the comments about a celebratory and the compliments, but now, Vic was absolutely sure of it. When was the last time she’d slept with anyone? It had been at least three years, probably longer, considering the spiral she was on before Rosie came along. Was it like riding a bike, or did she forget how?
She cleared her throat and chuckled, trying to sound nonchalant. “I’m sure your bosses appreciate the professionalism”, she teased, letting a smirk play on her lips. In the past, the only flirting she’d done was to pull secrets from vampires to betray them or hunters to get them to trust her. This felt entirely different.
She was about to say something about the lack of customer satisfaction in this town when she, too, heard one of the plants topple over near them. She looked over at Winnie, still fast asleep in the living room. Some guard dog she was. She glanced around the conservatory, trying to find anything amiss, when she noticed one of her Christmas Cacti had fallen to the ground from a top shelf. “There!”, she shouted with a point, just as the apple rolled behind another plant on the shelf. “How the hell did it even get up there?!”
_
Anita shrugged at the question, not taking it personally but knowing that her response had somewhat of a tendency to strike a divide between her and others. But there wasn’t an air of judgment in the question that she often noted from people when it was asked. “Yes, I have. By choice.”
Hearing the other woman clear her throat, watching her try to act completely unaffected, it was rather amusing to Anita. It reminded her just how natural she was at this. “Thankfully this isn’t actually part of my real job. No bosses to answer to. They can be so stuffy and boring. Never want people to have any lick of fun on the job.” For a moment she had nearly forgotten the real reason she was in the conservatory with Vic, only pulled back to the task at hand by the incitement of chaos the insect was causing.
The fact that the plant fell from a top shelf made things difficult given Anita’s short stature in her current form. Had she been a rattlesnake right now she could have easily seen up top, easily spotted and likely caught the critter in her makeshift trap. “They’re resourceful,” she noted in response to the question as she looked around for a step stool or ladder. “It’ll be hard to catch on the move. Might end up accidentally hurting more plants in our efforts.”
Most work with insects, other than extermination, required patience. “I don’t wanna swing for it and trap a plant by accident.” It didn’t take long for the critter to manage to scurry off on its little legs and out of Anita’s eye line. “I know wait and see isn’t the solution you were probably hoping for, but might be the least destructive option here.”
_
By choice. Vic nodded, unsure of what to say. Except, her mouth spoke for her, before she even realized what she was saying. “Me too, actually. I suppose we have a lot more in common than we realize.” Maybe it would be nice having a friend like Anita to relate to. A classy doctor, one who might have been burned by someone she cared about long ago, just like she was. Was this the kind of camaraderie she’d been missing when she closed herself off to the world?
Vic hated working for a boss. When she was working at the slayer bar all those years ago, having to answer to someone who had an IQ about 20 points lower than hers felt like the truest form or torture there was, but she’d always been good at manipulating people. When she wanted to. “It’s nice you can venture off on your own. Perhaps a small business capturing pests is in your future, Anita. Then you could be your own boss. And other people’s.” How deliciously fun it must have been to tell other people what to do.
“I’ll say. Someone should study these things and harness their prowess for good. Do you know how many secret assignments one could complete if they could train one?” It would have been fascinating if it weren’t so annoying. Vic decided that Anita was right, it was better to wait than to risk losing more plants. So, reluctantly, she nodded. “I’m a patient woman. And not an expert.” It was much easier to admit that to Anita than the bumbling oaf exterminators the other day. “You can set the trap, and I’ll call you when it’s captured… But I’m holding you to that celebratory drink once it is!”
_
Anita smiled, wondering how much else the two women might have in common and hoping that she might get to find out some day. “This time of year, when classes are out at the university for the summer, I have an exceptional amount of time for my own ventures. Though, even during the year, I always manage to find time for my own pursuits.” As much as Anita loved bossing others around, being assertive and taking charge, had she wanted to spend her life running a pest control business she would have been better suited staying in Mexico. After all, that was exactly what her father did and was exactly what he hoped she would have taken over from him.
Enterprise was never what inspired Anita, however. She had seen the stresses of business ownership weigh on her father, and her grandfather before him, and never longed for a life of being ‘the boss.’ It was the observation, the curious intrigue, the study that got her out of bed in the morning. “I like being the boss of my classrooms but I don’t think I’d much enjoy being a boss if it involved budgets and customer service. Not all customers would be as lovely as you, I’m sure.”
The comment about secret assignments was so curious, and Anita raised an eyebrow slightly at it, curiosity eating away at her to know more. “Maybe we’ll have to see if we can train one. If we manage to catch it. I’ll get the trap set up, once it does it’s job, you and I will most certainly celebrate.”
