LET'S. GET. GARDENIIIING.

[blessedbyfarore]

Who: Everyone!
What: Gardening!
When: Sunday 14th August, all day
Where: Outside the Welcome Centre
Summary: Finally, the time has come to get Luceti's memory garden on the road.
Rating: ...I sincerely hope this won't go above a PG rating.

Early on Sunday morning, Link can be found outside the Welcome Centre - gathering seedlings and seed packets, setting aside a willow sapling, laying out gardening tools. When it's still fairly early by the standards of most people, especially for a Sunday morning in summer, the following message will go out over the journals:

"Hi, everyone! D'you remember the garden I talked about earlier? Well, all the beds have been dug and I've got lots of plants, so come over to the Welcome Centre today and plant something for your friends that have gone home!"

If anyone heads on over, they'll find Link sitting back and relaxing, keeping an eye on the piles of gardening implements, small pots of seedlings and packets of seeds and a collection of bulbs, and a large sheet of paper and bundle of pencils. Across the top of the paper, the words, 'Leave a message for friends!' is written, and Link has already written the first message - 'Hi Vivi, I hope you like the gardens! Love Link'.

There will be snack runs over the course of the day. And if he can convince certain people, live music. Remembering friends, being outside on a sunny day (refreshing after yesterday's storm!), nice food, and music - what could be better?


((OOC: Forward-dated to Sunday. Open to everyone, mingle away! If anyone has questions or needs help or wants to know WTF is going on, Link will be on hand for the whole day to keep an eye on things.))

Comments

[consultmybooks]

It's during one of these lulls that Giles comes up to Robert. He watches as the scientist reverently plants the flowers in the earth, marveling slightly at a new side to a scientist he thought he'd figured out quite well by now.

When he steps up to sit next to Robert, it's with the utmost care to avoid disturbing any future planting plots. A bottle of water is pressed into Robert's hands. "Here."

[semper_cogitans]

Giles' familiar voice, here in this crowd of people Robert doesn't know, is comforting. He smiles as the older man offers him the water bottle, taking it carefully.

"... Thank you.

Are you enjoying the garden so far, Giles?"

[consultmybooks]

"I'm enjoying it very much, Robert."

Giles looks fondly back towards the river, at the brave little willow sapling and the budding orchids he'd planted to twine around it. Tara probably deserved something as well.

"You certainly seem to be having fun."

[semper_cogitans]

"It is... cathartic," Robert admits, smiling down softly at the latest arrangement of flowers he'd been working on for Ingrid. "And... it is a tangible reminder of them.

... I cannot say I do not miss them still, but..." It fills a void, yes. One that Robert is glad to do something proactive for.

"... I think... I think they would have liked to know that... we cherished their presence, while they were here."

[consultmybooks]

"It's all right to still miss them, Robert."

He still misses Willow, Xander, and Andrew. He misses them because they represent home and he's never going to see them again. But planting something for them - something they might see if and when they ever return, even when he's gone - is indeed cathartic.

"...and I think you're right. Everyone deserves to be remembered."

[semper_cogitans]

The scientist's gaze travels down to the flowers he's planted. There is a ring of pale flowers around a centre darker one, representing a person in a bubble - and then a broken ring, with the same central flowers outside of it.

"... Ingrid deserves... much more than that. I hope her world finds... finds the cure for her soon..." Trailing off softly, he admits something that's acted as a constant, minor torture - even if Ingrid herself had chastened him for it - for months. "Terra already has had it for decades."

He pauses, trailing his fingers through the petals of the soft orange flower that represents Ingrid's freedom. "I could never... do anything for her here..."

[consultmybooks]

"I don't think she ever expected you to, Robert."

It's a nice pattern. It makes Giles feel a bit envious, really - he doesn't know very much about flowers. Herbs, yes. Plants are traditionally quite a common ingredient in spells and charms. But not flowers, not plants that are just to be looked at.

"Her world might not be the same as yours'."

[semper_cogitans]

Robert's specialty isn't with plants, admittedly. Especially not Terran plants. But he knows enough to be able to try to optimize conditions for at least some of the plants on display. Flowers are just another part of an ecosystem, though this garden is far from being natural - but nothing in Luceti is.

"... It was not, even if you discount the time difference.

But I do not think anybody has a world quite like Terra, here..." And it's lonely, sometimes, knowing that.

[consultmybooks]

"Not that I've ever heard of. The closest I've ever encountered would be McCoys, from the sound of it. All of those computers and technology and things I can't understand for the life of me."

He nudges Robert lightly. "I suppose that just means we're lucky to have you."

[semper_cogitans]

"Ms. Daisy, another friend of mine, is from the twenty-fifth century... but her world is significantly different," Robert admits.

He smiles a little at the gentle nudge, though. "I would hope I... did it some justice, though."

In many ways he's a typical Terran. Though, in some, he's actually a little unusual.

[consultmybooks]

"Link tells me this entire project was your idea. For Vivi."

[semper_cogitans]

"It was... inspired by a small hydroponics garden I began on... Vivi's behalf, yes.

But Link was the one who did most of the coordination..."

Robert thinks it turned out well, though. Or at least, it seems to have.