Harvest is Late Again.

[mikangirl]

Who: Nami (sort of) and anyone so inclined to help her out!
What: A harvest.
When: November 5th and 6th
Where: The mikan grove.
Summary: Nami didn't make the call for volunteers this year, despite already running late.  Luckily, Law did.
Rating: Rated PG just to be safe.


[So Nami didn't have a good time on the draft.  Which marks her up there with every other survivor of the damn thing, so nothing special there.  Events were rather shattering for both her and her crew, and she's been up here since her return, working to harvest the orchard on her own fifteen hours a day.  It's mindless and it's something to focus on, and she just didn't have the heart to make a public call out on the journals, let alone ask for help.  Aang and Marco came to help her out some earlier, for which she's silenty grateful.  But at this rate she'll be at least another week.

She hasn't heard Law's entry on the locked community (or anyone else's, for that matter), so when volunteers start arriving, she's surprised.  And not quite sure what to do except sort of...keep going. 

But.  Something tight within unwinds a little.  She might not be good at showing appreciation today, but it helps.  It really does.]

((ooc:  I've had a request for a harvest thread with Nami, so I figured putting this up is a good idea after all.  Nami herself isn't very sociable, though, so just warning ahead of time!  Backtaggable into forever.))

Comments

[fierybluebird]

[Marco is forever going to aim for the high ones. Height and flying and all that. It's not back-breaking work, but it's not something he'd do for anyone who wasn't as close to his family as the Straw Hats have become. So far as he's concerned, that's reason enough to be nearby, to help in any small ways he can.]

[At a later point if he thinks no one will mind, he starts whistling a certain tune. He's normally not the biggest fan of the song, it was one of Shanks' favorites and that's reason enough to get irritated with it in his book, but he's feeling a little nostalgic.]

[calmbeforethe]

[Ororo doesn't leave a tree until it's completely stripped of all its fruit, but only takes to flying when she's left with the ones that harder to reach. It's on one of those flights to the top of the trees that she spies a familiar face.]

Hello, Marco. Hard at work, I see.

[inkdrops]

[During the many long hours that Nami and the others were working, they may come across something a bit strange and, to some perhaps, familiar. It's a little glowing ball of light, gold in color and sparkling just slightly. The glow isn't all that strong, but it's only because the person is fast asleep on a leaf.

Though, of course, some jostling of the branches and fruit is definitely going to rouse her. Don't look twice if she's sudden;y really upset, either, this firefly's got a bit of a temper. But yeaah... Guess who's finally back in Luceti, guys! 8D]

[fierybluebird]

[Scoops up in a careful blue glowing hand of his own.]

Hey there, calm down little one. You okay?

[blessingone]

[As Sophie goes off to deposit her current (tiny) load...wherever the mikans are to be deposited, Fenimore takes the opportunity while she's already up a ladder to reach out for a few for her own basket.

She stops in mid-reach, though, as she notices something...odd. Something is...glowing...? She leans closer, trying to get a better look, not being especially cautious about rustling the nearby branches with her head.]

[mikangirl]

[Eventually Nami is alerted one way or the other that Miyabi has returned to her orchard, and...

...oh, she's sorry, Miyabi. But she comes to the row you're in to see if you're okay-- hopefully while you're not looking-- and then she walks away again. Rather quickly.]

[lostinmyway]

[When an activity is a combination of helping a friend and looking after nature? Grune is definitely going to be there.

There's no real order to the way she picks the mikans--if she sees one, it goes in her basket--and she gets distracted on a fairly regular basis from her task. But she's there and doing her best, so that's what counts, isn't it?]

[fierybluebird]

[Briefly covers Grune's eyes. Don't worry, he will stop joking around eventually. The job will get done. Totally.]

Guess who, eh.

[blessingone]

[...Maybe she'll need to be watching out for two people. Noticing that Grune hasn't made a move to either put more into her basket or deposit her basket for a little while, she comes up behind Grune, leans around her, and taps the basket with her free hand.]

Hey Grune.

[toujourschatte]

[Robin will be there, more for moral support than anything--what little she can give. Though she will move full baskets on little cat paws sprouted from the bottom because that, at least, she can do.]

[fierybluebird]

[Bemusedly gives her a full basket and nods. Saves time and energy. Good system is good!]

Thank you Robin.

[She is also welcome to come chill out on his head if she's not busy and feels inclined.]

[mikangirl]

[Little cat paws on baskets.

Guess that answers her confusion on who the cat is. Of course. Malnosso couldn't give her back the way she's meant to be, could they?]

...Robin.

[idealism]

[After a week like last one, some mindless work is probably what everyone wants and needs. Knowing they don't have much time left before the frost, Tsuzuki shows up with his proper gardening gloves and some well-used tools. He's not entirely sure who is in charge of the harvesting, and so he isn't sure who to ask for permission to help.]

[He ends up going to one of the unattended spots, helping in the best way he can.]

[fierybluebird]

Oh hey! You came prepared. [Marco is definitely not in charge. Nor very prepared looking. He's not even wearing a jacket or a buttoned shirt. And he's wearing sandals. In this weather. But he doesn't seem fazed by it.] Experience with harvesting things before, or are you just the prepared type?

[mikangirl]

[Out of all the arrivals, Tsuzuki is the newest face. Nami vaguely recalls talking to him a couple of times... the fact that he turns up complete with gardening tools is a nice touch, but after she watches him glance around uncertainly before going to a quiet spot, she vanishes into the small storage shed, coming out with a shoulder basket.]

...here. [She smiles faintly.] You're welcome to take home whatever you want, also.

[breezing]

[ Requests for help of any kind tend to interest Ikki, and this one came from Trafalgar and would give her a chance to maybe see Vivi or one of her other nautical friends, so she shows up after class lets out both days, Soren the bird pokemon in tow.

Ikki will be working in conjunction with Soren (and airbending!) to get any high-hanging fruits down, and will be cheerfully racing herself to see how fast she can fill a basket, and then...see if she can do it again, faster. She'd be willing to race actual people, too, of course.

She's not going to be particularly quiet as she goes about her work, but. Hopefully the laughter and chatter won't bother anyone too much. ]

[fierybluebird]

Oh, I'll race you all right. But the hard part is you still have to be careful, eh? The tree can't have a single leaf out of place.

You ready?

[Puffs up his birdie chest. You can't beat him!]

[blessingone]

[Fenimore hadn't actually paid too close of attention to the announcement, but Grune had, so she'd followed her lead for once. It was kind of weird, since the last time she'd helped with a mikan harvest, she had been seven. And also vaguely related to Nami. That had been a weird experiment.

Still, there's still a small child getting in the way helping out this time, too, as Fenimore's brought along Sophie. She may only be four, but it's worth teaching her the virtues of pitching in for her community early. As such, Fenimore's own contribution is going to be somewhat minimized, since she'll be spending most of her time providing as subtle of help as can be managed. After all, while Sophie is stronger than your average toddler, still. Four.

Of course, the help is further decreased that Fenimore's own short height makes her extra reliant upon ladders, but it's the thought that counts, right?]

[calmbeforethe]

[Ororo was just passing by to exchange a basket full of mikan for an empty one when she spied little Sophie reaching for a mikan that is just a little too high up. She pauses to smile at the darling sight for just a second, then notices that she seems to overreach a little. Acting quickly, Ororo sends a gentle breeze to keep her from falling off the step ladder.]

[fierybluebird]

Hey Sophie! Hand me a basket, eh?

[Carries down a wing full of mikan.]

[savedtheworld]

[Aang had originally come primarily out of concern for Nami, to check on her after she had lost so much on the draft. And afterwards, continuing to help with the harvest seemed like a nice, silent way of showing his support.

And he also hoped to be appointed a taste tester of some sort.

But there he is... harvesting them mikans. He might use some of his bending to help, but for once he's mostly appreciating doing the labor by hand. Some good old honest work for this monk.]

[calmbeforethe]

[Ororo was doing much of the same, picking most of the fruit by hand - until she's left with the mikan that grow higher up, of course. Only then does she float up top to reach what she can't from the ground.

She was just preparing to ride a well-placed gust of wind up there when she felt a familiar shift in the air. A brief look around is enough for her to spot Aang in the next tree over. She smiles.]

Hello, Aang.

[mikangirl]

[Nami's long days of working out here probably show, with the fading winter sunburn she's sporting and her thick orange hair left unwashed for days, wound in a bun to keep it off her face and out of the baskets. She's not sure whether someone called for volunteers, or Aang or Marco mentioned something to their close friends, or if people just remember--

--it's strange. And it feels surreal. And after the first person or two arrives, she latches onto some semblance of normalcy; smiles and thanks people for coming, gets them a basket, shows them how to do it if they haven't before (take these scissors, hold the fruit, snip the stem). There's a small feeling of selfishness that sort of wants people to go away so that it will take longer and she has more to do...but Nami knows if the harvest is ruined that would be so much worse. Well, she's not thinking all that straight, admittedly.

In general, she lets people work, and is softly polite and even tries to be friendly to anyone who approaches, not wanting anyone to think she's rude. Hopefully nobody will hold it against her.

On the second day, she's much more withdrawn and keeps to herself. Ragna came by with news last night. Now, she's just tired.

By the late afternoon of the second day, the harvest is done.]

[markofthewise]

[When he arrives, Ikki and others from home in tow, Nami is the first person he sees. Granted, Ikki is still around, but that shouldn't be a problem, right?

Either way, he's solemn when he greets her.]

Hey Nami.

[wise_maiden]

[Helping with the harvest has always been a distracting -- and refreshing -- task. On both days after classes end for the day, Raine gears up in warmer clothing and heads up to the orchard while riding on Noishe. She checks the health of the trees with earth magic as she works, though mostly focuses on filling up the baskets.

She can't quite reach the highest branches, but surely there are enough people around to assist with that, or else she can find a ladder of her own.

She keeps an eye out for familiar faces, particularly those that had been on the draft, just to make sure they're well.]

[mikangirl]

[Nami does have a small two-step ladder that she uses to get to the tops of the trees. Only one, but she's not using it right now-- she stops to offer it to Raine on her way back to the cottage.]

fff suuuper late. it's not like I died or anything >.>;

[sailedfirst]

[Sabo's been going to the orchard with Marco to help with the harvest the day after he got rid of the annoying ghosts he had for Halloween. He mostly kept to himself though, or otherwise, just stuck close to Marco while he worked. Partly in respect to Nami's privacy, but mostly because he's very much unsure what to say to comfort her. Or anyone in the crew, really.

The last few days, however, he could be heard singing while gathering up fruits, to cheer himself up. Mostly pirate songs and sea shanties his brothers shared with him. One in particular gets many repeats in varying volumes, given how the title 'Huckleberry Hunting' seems appropriate with the harvest (albeit with mikans instead of huckleberries).

He obviously thinks there's tickling involved in the song. And some serious sibling-loving. :|a

What's a 'beau' anyway?]

Only a little dying! :P

[fierybluebird]

[At first Marco is just overcome with how cute it is to have a baby bro sticking close by! AH if only Ace was this cute!]

[And then he realizes....]

[... Oh. Sabo's singing that song in public. While sticking right next to Marco... who will have pretty much no deniability in this. Ahahahahaha... oops.]

Remind me to teach you another harvest song... just as soon as I can think of one, eh?

[Why does he get the feeling of impending doom about this?]