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

[semper_cogitans]

And of course, Robert's world is the opposite. He may have, in a way, renounced many of those Terran principles, but they still linger in his mind, tendrils reaching into his thoughts and trying to instill the centuries-old shame and fear that is almost as comforting as a security blanket. Fighting is inherently wrong, it wants to say.

Robert rationalized with it before. Principle of least harm - inflicting smaller amounts of harm to prevent larger amounts. He can understand this. It is compatible with ethics.

... It still makes some part of him a little sick, a little self-loathing, but in Luceti he realizes that he needs to be able to at least think about hurting others... because there are people who will hurt his friends without warning.

"It - it is d-difficult. And... and I am not in the b-best shape. I... I just..." He trails off, momentarily. Admitting that a small part of why he hasn't done much yet is shame is not easy.

[lostinmyway]

"It's all right to start small. Everyone has to start somewhere."

Robert is looking more and more upset, and so she reaches out a hand with the intent to cover his.

[semper_cogitans]

Hand-touches. They're a poignant, emotional thing for Robert - even now, when he feels safer holding peoples' hands - and he flinches when Grune's fingers sit over his. They remind him of Ingrid's hands, when he first held them - soft and pale, much different from Helios' cool skin or Giles' weathered hands or Don's familiar, pebbly palms. These hands are more like his own.

"... Ah..."

He looks up, surprised and questioning, at Grune. Why are you comforting a stranger?

[lostinmyway]

Grune misreads his reaction to her touch--he mustn't have been expecting it--and she equally misreads his questioning look.

"I could help you find someone to teach you."

[semper_cogitans]

Robert does the misreading thing just as often, so Grune's hardly alone in that regard.

"... I, er... k-know some people.

... But... I would not be a-against expanding the... list of potential individuals..."

... Frankly, he wants to do this self-defense thing like he does anything else - get as much information as possible and then attempt to disseminate the most useful data from it.

[lostinmyway]

Grune thinks for a moment. "Maybe Moses could teach you. Oh, and Fenimore and Stella are taking lessons now." Women-only lessons. "You could ask them."

Really, Robert would do better to ask Link; Grune has a tendency to assume that everyone is like her and would drop everything to help. Understanding that other people have lives and responsibilities is something that comes and goes with her.

All the same, Moses is a friendly sort. He'd probably be happy to give Robert at least a few pointers.

[semper_cogitans]

"Moses...?" This isn't somebody Robert has heard of before. The name doesn't even ping anything for him.

"I... s-suppose Moses is... a friend of yours', then? Has zie -" - and Robert hesitates here, because this is awkward to ask - "- e-ever taught somebody who... h-has absolutely no knowledge of... fighting techniques at all...?"

As in, almost literally none. Robert's repertoire is limited to pure, blind instinct, and his are already dulled through centuries of suppression.

[lostinmyway]

"Oh, yes, he's a very good friend," she replied immediately, a large smile appearing on her face at the thought of him. "I'm sure he could teach you, even if you're starting at the very beginning. After all, Moses had to start there, too."

The only difference is, Moses comes from a village of beast tamers. Robert...doesn't.

This is going to go well.

[semper_cogitans]

...

Very well.

Though, to be fair, Robert might frighten Moses more than the other way around in some ways.

"... I... s-suppose everybody does... but, er, not e-everybody's world is... free of violence.

In fact, Terra is... the only w-world like that I have ever heard talk of..."

[lostinmyway]

Moses isn't easily scared. Thrown off kilter, yes, but not scared. He should be fine.

Once again, much of what Robert is saying goes over Grune's head, and so she fixes on the part she does understand.

"If it's the only one, that means it's special." Of course, all the worlds are special in their own ways.

[semper_cogitans]

This actually makes him smile a little bit.

"... I... I would hope so."

Even now, less xenophobic from months of studying different cultures and being exposed to the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Luceti, he still has a tendency to think of Terra as a sort of diamond in the rough, a jewel amongst stones, a patch of flawless beauty in the maelstrom around it.

... Though it may be he's just never let himself consider the fact that Terra's wars might not be fought with weapons, even when he learned of the possibility from Phoenix Ikki...

[lostinmyway]

Happy to have finally gotten a smile out of him, Grune returns it full strength. "Oh, yes. No other world can be like yours."

[semper_cogitans]

"Well, all the m-multiversions here are quite... d-different. But even with that... it is still a unique world."

Perhaps even strange, considering the fact that most worlds in Luceti have paranormal elements. And violence.

"What is your w-world like, if... if I may ask?" Robert queries, partially out of genuine curiosity and partially because talking about something that isn't himself is easier.

[lostinmyway]

"Oh, it's a very beautiful place." Her smile softens as her gaze goes distant. "Everyone works so hard, and there are all kinds of mountains and forests and rivers."

[semper_cogitans]

"Ah - forests," Robert says softly - admiringly. It's nice to know there are worlds with humans that still have real forests. "Are... are the f-forests treated well, in your world...?"

If these two could bond over anything, it might be plants.

[lostinmyway]

"Oh, yes," she says immediately. "Everyone is very nice to the trees."

…Considering wood is an extremely common construction material in her world, their definitions of "nice to the trees" are not going to match.

[semper_cogitans]

At least Robert is... a little better with the idea of wood now? Somewhat. The idea still touches on some disquieting things for him, but overall, as long as he remembers that different worlds don't have almost entirely demolished forests, it helps.

"On my p-planet, forests are still... quite rare... a-after massive damage from pollution."

It made Luceti jarring at first. Especially with the random tree types jammed together - and ones that were extinct back at home.

[lostinmyway]

Pollution isn't exactly common on the Legacy--in fact, it's practically nonexistent--and so on that point, she's a little confused.

Still, she understands enough to ask, "If there aren't many forests, where does everyone go on their picnics?"

[semper_cogitans]

That is actually a really confusing question. As in, Robert's not even certain how he's supposed to respond to that.

"... Picnics...?" The idea of a picnic is long lost to most Terrans. Going outside into the undeveloped wilderness and sitting there and damaging it? What kind of idea is that?

To be fair, some areas are recovered enough to venture into, but it's still not something many would do.

[lostinmyway]

"Yes, when you take all your friends and pack a nice lunch and go out to spend time together." Surely he knows what she's talking about now.

[semper_cogitans]

Until Luceti, Robert didn't even know anybody well enough to do that. And though he could now, it's not something that often occurs to him.

"... Ah... w-well, that... that is not something I... have done often," he admits quietly.

It feels shameful to admit that, and he glances down and away from Grune. Of course Grune would be one of those people who are open and social and make friends easily...

[lostinmyway]

"Oh, really?" Doesn't everyone go on picnics all the time? "Maybe we should go on one soon, then."

[semper_cogitans]

"..."

He's actually taken aback by this. A complete stranger, wanting to do something like that with him? He can't have been that interesting to talk to, can he?

The familiar anxiety of dealing with new people is threatening to overwhelm him, so he blurts out...]

M-Me...?

Why...?

Grune says thank you for the lovely flower!

[lostinmyway]

"Oh, because it's much more fun to go on picnics with a friend," she says reasonably.

She thinks Robert might be a little shy, but that's all right. Everyone is different.

... And this mun apologizes for that HORRIBLE COMMENT. OW. That formatting... D8 I don't even know

[semper_cogitans]

It's... such a straightfoward statement that it's shocking. Like it's completely normal to consider Robert a friend already after talking to him for five minutes.

"... I... I s-suppose I... would not have expected myself to... have attained the status of "friend" so... qu-quickly."

Seriously, they haven't been talking long enough to warrant that... he barely knows more than her name, what kind of friend is that?