Basil Onasis

         Seeing the whole thing was quite funny and cute at the same time. ❛ Pickle, behave! ❜ She warns her furry pet, as if he understand humans language. ❛ Tell me… Which part of this isle you think could use some good gardening? I know this is a random question, but I do take care of some plants in the park I planted recently. ❜

The little kitten tucked his tail in between his legs in fear, but his fur was still sticking out on all ends to try and poof himself out and prepare for the threat. At Elsa’s reprimand, his ears folded in on themselves. “Well, I know Gatzuni’s Growings sell a few plants if you want to get started on gardening. If you just want to learn about gardening or get a job for it, there are a lotta people in the farmer’s market who would love some help! You can stop by Onasis Farms, if you want to learn a thing or to. That’s my family’s farm.”

     ❛ You think so? Well, I think it is EXHAUSTING. ❜ He points out, seeing the dead all the time can be emotionally tiring. ❛ I guess, so?! Oui. ❜ He scratched under his beard. ❛ I’m okay with talking to them all the time. I mean… It was one of the reasons I didn’t find a family as a child.❜ Childhood memories are fresh so he could think about them. The most recent memory he has trouble recording. ❛ I think, I’ve been dead inside, before I actually die or whatever is it. ❜

“Well, I can only imagine how hard it must be. But I’m sure you’ve met a few nice guys along the way, right? Dead people can’t all be that bad,” he said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “Oh geez, buddy. Did you tell them you could see the dead, or did they think you were a bit troubled? Heck, I was a bit of an oddball kid, myself, before my ma and pa took me in. They’re the sweetest people, and I’m really grateful they put up with me. They’re the reason I’m the man that I am, today,” he said with a smile. “Well, I’m sure we’d love for you to stop by and have a meal with us, one day!”

Doing a piss-poor job of ignoring the horse, Lark shot him a judgmental look when he farted. If she had made an enemy, that was the horse’s fault. “Ew.” Lark was keen on paying the fair price for anything, and was terrible at negotiating. It was a worrying combination, and often led to her being frustrated while trying to shop in certain settings. “I don’t care about working the deal. You set a price. I am going to take the price. You and your family farm clearly put a lot of care into your crops, so why do anything but pay what they’re worth?” She was okay at negotiation in a gaming setting, but got confused when it translated to real life. Bartering was a skill akin to, say, tracking to her.

Baz was oblivious to the whole exchange, and he was grateful when he thought things had simmered down. Sure, Cygnus was a prideful pegasus, but because he thought so highly of himself, he was never really one to hold a grudge on humans. To him, they just weren’t the trouble. He had hoped the creature hadn’t offended his new customer. He grinned as he listened to her. “Why, thank you so much! People like you are truly a gem in society!” He said excitedly as quickly but gently packed her things in her bag, making sure to evenly distributed the weight of the produce while wrapping the more fragile things in recycled paper. “Alright, will this be all? I’ll be throwing in a sample of our new strain of evergreen avocadoes for you to try. We just harvested our first batch, yesterday. Please let us know what you think on your next visit!”

Of course Baz thought something weird was going on with Penelope the gorilla. Though he had never really been in the exhibit except for the time that he had been covering for the normal keeper. Though that was also the time he realized the gorilla hated him for some reason. “I really think she’s pulling on over on you, Baz. Her and Anya like to play pranks together, it’s actually quite terrifying when they are together.” His sister was not the best influence, even on wildlife. “But to answer your bizarre question: no, I am not dating a gorilla. I don’t know why you thought that was even an option.”

“I don’t see why she would lie to me, bud. Maybe she misunderstood the whole situation or something,” he said with a shrug. He couldn’t fault Dexter for not knowing the mating rituals of gorillas, after all. Gorillas were quite simple intellectuals who were very particular about context clues and eating habits. Poor guy probably didn’t even know what encompasses affection and hatred when it comes to the beautiful creatures. “Well, I could go give her another visit and break the news to her. Poor thing’s going to be crushed--maybe then she’ll actually hate you.”

       ELSA HOLDS back a laugh at noticing how clumsy was Baz, but she waves her hand in the air dismissively, as if he wasn’t for him to worry about it. ❛ Don’t worry about it. ❜ Flipping a strand of her hair backward as she waited for him.

He smiled sheepishly as he slowly approached the kitten. The small thing hissed at him, probably already unfamiliar with his scent, so he retracted his hands. “Hey! I don’t like that attitude, mister. I cleaned out your poop while you were here. You’ve got no leverage,” he chastised as he gently picked up the kitten and set him on the weighing scale.

“What? I could say the same for you, Basilton.” Caroline laughed. “Your beard is at least twice as long as the last time I saw it. Very impressive.” Baz was only what, four years older than the twins? But she let him act like the weird uncle. It was funny. “Things are good, can’t complain,” she answered him, the pegasus obviously miffed that she was ignoring him. Caroline reached up and scratched behind its ears. “You are very handsome,” she told Cygnus. “Are you Baz’s owner?” She asked, teasing.

“You’re making my name sound all fancy, Miss Carolinitsa, I’m flattered,” he said, tipping off an imaginary hat and giving her a rather exaggerated curtsy. “Why, thank you. Give it a few more months and maybe I could Gandalf a run for his money,” he said, stroking his beard thoughtfully. “Ma says I need a good trim, soon, so I might stop by the hairdresser’s and say hi to Jasmine,” he said. Cygnus whinnied indignantly at the notion of being owned by anyone, let alone a human before he realized that she meant if Baz was under his allegiance to which he nodded with a grin. “Don’t butter him up. His head’ll grow too big for him to fly,” Baz said with a roll of his eyes.

“Tell me ‘bout it.” Billy giggled and shook her head in amusement. “All three of my kids are so different. I learn new stuff from each of them every day. Think ‘m doin’ alright in the long run though.” She smiled. “I have a sister, she lives pretty far away though. Don’t get to see her much anymore. We were thick as thieves growin’ up though.”

“I like to think that kids can teach us a lot of things, Miss Billy. Sometimes when we get older, we forget about the simple things in life and worry about all sorts of big adult problems that can be solved if we just think like kids,” he said with a chuckle. “I guess that’s why I like working with them. Kids are pretty much a blank slate, so they’re usually really nice people by default.”

With a shake of her head, she started to pull out the dyes from the wall of colors and started to mix them into their containers. She was very careful with people’s hair, always using a mixture of color and conditioner to keep the hair healthy despite bleaching it. “Dropped – what sort of mother just leaves an infant in the woods?!” she said stomping her foot, angry that anyone could do that to a kid. But she nodded her head, “I’m glad they did, that you still had people looking after you, even if your bio mom is horrid.” She huffed and pulled the color from his hair. It was the one thing about her powers that suck no matter what. If she took the color out of something it didn’t come back unless she wanted it to or it got painted. Most of the time when it came to colors she could change something but if she stopped thinking about it it would revert back…. Unless it was white. Then the color stayed away. It was almost as if she absorbed the color and couldn’t give it back. Either way it made it really easy to dye people’s hair because she could actually make their hair true white before adding colors. She started to layer the dye into his hair. “Of course we can trim ya up, make sure your hair looks fly.”

He watched her work with curiosity as she pulled out a few bottles, brushes, bowls and other stuff from the shelf, already wondering how Jasmine would work her magic on his hair. He had only ever gotten a trim and shave here, so he was new to all the stuff that came with getting his hair dyed. It was a good thing he cleared out his schedule for today because he had no idea how long these things take. “Maybe she just thought I was a forest kid and would survive on my own. I mean, she wasn’t really wrong. Pan pretty much raised me for a bit before asking if ma and pa could take me in. I’m really grateful for them, you know. They made sure I never wanted for anything--bless their heart,” he said with a smile, getting a little teary-eyed at the thought. He never really liked to think his birth mother had been that horrible. He believed she might have had her reasons for leaving him in the woods, and they were probably for the best. After all, he did end up in a good family because of it. “Alright, I’ll leave my hair in your capable hands.”

“You’re definitely not wrong. I’m actually kind of glad I wasn’t here for all of that. Talk about traumatizing,” she spoke with a shake of her head, before her smile was back on her lips. “Oh Basil, lets be honest, anything makes those sweet ol’ cheeks blush,” she teased, enjoying seeing him in his usually good mood. She giggled as he talked about his insulation, “Well you should share some of that this way, some of us weren’t as built for all this cold,” she joked, placing her hands down to show off her petite stature. “Oh that’s awesome. Getting a little break from all the kiddos?” she asked.

“If I’m being honest, I wasn’t sure what was going on this whole time. When Zeus popped in, I was wondering if I should make a run for it or snag some devilled eggs,” he said with a hearty laugh. “That is true. You sure know me so well,” he said with grin as Cygnus rolled his eyes. The pegasus was never sure if Baz was just being his silly old self or if he was actually making an effort to flirt with the people around him. “I wish I could, sweetheart. I’m sure we can find you a nice sweater here if we’re lucky. That’s all I can do for ya,” he said. “Yeah, but I’m missing them already. Kids are a lot more fun than fruits and vegetables, if you ask me.”

“Some guy asked me who my parent was, and I told him my mom and dad’s names, but he meant like… god dad. Which makes sense, but he should have been more specific.“ Yona’s confusion was evident on her face. While fiddling with a thread on one of her sleeves, she continued. "Anyway, then he super-duper misheard me because he said it wasn’t very nice to call my mom a Karen.” 

@icariastarters​

Macy huffed as she ran up the trail ahead of them, completely in her element, before glancing back to see if the human who tagged along were still right on her heels. Baz laughed at the story as looked around the forest, listening to the sounds of nature, and quite a few very harsh mating calls. “I don’t think we have a Karen equivalent in Greece, either. Our women are a lot kinder,” he mused, glancing at her to see if she was tired. “Do you want to stop here for a snack? I packed some gyros.”

“Really? Yes, please!” Mari leaned over to look at the pictures on Baz’s phone, smiling at the painted shell - it was always nice to see kids taking an interest in art. Slideshow complete, she turned to look up at Baz again. “You know, I hadn’t thought of it like that! Maybe I’ll ask him after all. Or his mom - or both!” 

“You could always stop by for show-and-tell, if you want! I’m sure the kids would love to have you there!” He said excitedly before putting away his phone. “Yeah! You can learn a lot about someone when you learn their language, not just how to communicate with them but truly get to know what they’re like. You’ll be surprised to find that there’s so much more to language than just words and grammar. It’s the culture and history that really leaves you in awe.”

“ I know, man. Doesn’t stop the guilt though. I saw how much worry it caused you guys,” his lips fell in a small frown before Baz’s contagious grin brought them perking back up at the corners. He turned to Cygnus, “I hope you’ve been keeping this one out of trouble while I was gone,” he teased, nudging Basil in the ribs playfully. Turning to face Basil with a look of mock surprise and slight offense, “How is that new information for you? I got game,” he teased with a huff. He chuckled off his joke as he listened to Basil talking about what he’d been up to. “Honestly all of that sounds good. Can’t say I ate the healthiest in the meadows, thankfully it seems none of the pounds came with me,” he teased as he slapped his stomach. “ Mind rustling me up a bundle of everything?”

“Well, I hope you’re settling back in alright. Hey, the family’s really missed you. Why don’t you stop by for dinner sometime? It’ll be fun,” he suggested with a grin. Cygnus scoffed and chewed at Baz’s hair as if to say, ‘Please, he’d be nothing without me’. Baz laughed and shook his head, pushing the Pegasus away while patting Luke on the shoulder. “I didn’t doubt that for a second, buddy! Of course you got game,” he said with grin. “Yeah, sure. Anything for you, buddy!” He said excitedly. “Did you want these in a box, or did you bring your own bag?” He asked, as he started weighing and gathering up the produce.

“Oh, snail shells are pretty! If you ever see an especially cool one, would you bring it back for me? Or take a picture or something so I can see it?” She liked snail shells better than most things that could be found out in land-based nature, probably because they were kind of like seashells. “Yeah, that makes sense. I always feel like I learn faster when I’m hanging out with my nephew - but I’m kind of worried about turning our time together into study sessions, y’know?”

“Oh, I have a few at home if you want to see them! I haven’t really gotten to take pictures of them, but hold on,” he said, pulling out his phone and scrolling through his gallery just in case. “Right, so here’re a few I’ve found these marbley ones, this cool snail shell--here are a few shells I brought to the preschool to paint with my kids,” he explains with a chuckle as he showed her a picture of a shell with the batman logo on it. “I’m sure he’ll appreciate your interest to get to know him better. You kind of get a glimpse of his world and how he communicates, but I don’t know your cousin, so you should really ask him just in case.”

     ❛ I saw both in my life. I see dead people all the time too.❜ Unfortunately, some dead people he can’t avoid them, they always seem to ask a task to Romeo for the living dears. He knows he can’t pop out of the blue for the living people and deliver their message, otherwise, people would think him of like an insane person. ❛ Or a universe parallel. Hell, I don’t even know. ❜

“Oh, that’s so cool! Does that come with being the son of Charon?” He asked curiously. There was so many more questions he wanted to ask the interesting man, but he just wasn’t sure whether any of them were appropriate for the situation. The man made him begin to question his own existence and reality for a bit. “That sounds pretty rough, buddy. Well, how do you feel right now? Pretty dead?”

Mattie turned her attention towards the man who was approaching her. He seemed nice, maybe he could help. For the last month she had been trying, and failing, to get back to her time period. The problem would always be that Matilda didn’t know why she couldn’t return. It was almost as if her power was pushing against her will and winning. Little spurts of time she could move through but nothing that she needed to. So for now she was going to be stuck 27 years in the future. “Well, abouuut that. I could use a couple of pennies. Apparently I don’t freaking exist in this timeline and no bank will cash my check and I just really want to go home.” His questions startled her and she looked around as if he were crazy. How could one just say that in the middle of nowhere? “That is wack! Demigods don’t exist!” Though unable to completely keep the charade, Mattie’s face fell and she spoke quietly. “Okay so I miiiight be a child of Chronos and very lost.”

He had to admit, that the way this woman dressed was quite like how kids he grew up with used to dress up in gradeschool, and he wasn’t really sure how to make of that. He nodded as he fished into his pocket for loose change and pulled out a few pennies which he handed over to her. It was times like these when the childlike wonder seemed to come out in Baz, and he was always in awe by the people he met, here. The other day, he even met a French guy who seemingly came back from the dead. “Oh, that’s so cool! So kinda like Back to the Future!” He said, not even considering if she’d ever seen the movie. “Don’t worry about it my dude. I’m a son of Pan, and this town was made as a safe haven for kids like us--y’know, demigods,” he said with a grin. “Right, let’s go find you a payphone. What year are you actually from though? Can you remember?”

“Finn Thompson? Think he would be down to attempt to talk to a pegasus?” Though Dexter did wonder why he couldn’t talk to the creature himself. He was able to talk to birds a pegasus was bird adjacent, right? Well, maybe that wasn’t exactly how that worked. “Wait, you think I’m dating a gorilla? Why in the world would you think I was dating a gorilla?” There were so many things wrong with that and Dexter was confused as to why Baz’s mind immediately went there. “She’s been throwing things at me for months. She hates me!”

“I don’t actually see why he would if the pegasus was perfectly healthy, mate, but we could try and ask him,” Baz nodded, smiling at the end. Cygnus said a few select things that he didn’t want to translate, and it was a god thing Dex didn’t really understand pegasi. He whinnied and nudged Baz on the shoulder. “Yeah, that’s what she told me last time I visited the zoo. She said you ate lunch with her that one time, and showed interest, so she’s been trying to get your attention ever since. Did you just lead my girl on?”

   ❛ I plant the other day some flowers in the park. But I’ll keep it in mind. ❜ Now she is waiting to see if they’re going to blossom. She watched Baz taking the boxes and check on her kittens. ❛ Since I’m here I can wait, and you can do this already. ❜ Her agenda is almost null this day.

“Oh, that’s neat! I hope they sprout,” he said with a grin. He loved it when people talked about plants and animals, with him. They were few the only things he was really good at. “Alrighty, then. Hold on,” he said, getting too excited and knocking his thigh on the table when he moved behind the counter. “Whoops, my bad. Big guy, see,” he said with a chuckle as he went around back to get the supplies.