Shawls, cleaning, and gardening

[earthandpine]

Who: Rosethorn and anyone!
Open: Open
When: Day 147
Where: gazebo, all around the Bastion, the farm; wherever your character finds her!
What: a gift from home leads to a very homesick plant mage
Format: prose preferred but I'll match whatever!
Warnings: Just the usual, if you annoy her she'll threaten to hang you in a well by your ankles. (Please do this. She's been too nice lately.)

Rosethorn is up at dawn as usual, or as close to dawn as Tris manages to give them in the Bastion. She stops by the gazebo out of curiosity. She doubts anything will be there, since she didn't choose any of the gods, none of them quite closely enough aligned with her own. At first glance, Rosethorn doesn't notice it. Then she gasps, a hand going to her mouth. "Lark." She drops to her knees and picks the shawl up hesitantly, letting it unfold as she does. The socks lay unnoticed as she wraps it around herself, feeling warmth and comfort sink into her as she does. It isn't just sentiment. Lark knitted spells into the shawl, healing, strength, and warmth radiating from it and into its wearer. A shawl knitted by her lover shouldn't come as such a surprise, given Tris's present, but it does.

She's never missed home quite so much, but having something of Lark's means the world to her. Whenever she finally does notice the socks, Rosethorn smiles. Lark would approve of this part of the gift too. It seems fitting.

Later in the day, she helps clean up from the festival with her usual brisk efficiency. She can be found anywhere in the Bastion she notices a job that needs doing. Anyone familiar with Rosethorn's usual dark green temple robes may notice the opal shawl. It's unusual to see her attire change much at all except in concession to weather. Even if her temple and her world are gone, the very earth in which her plants grew, Rosethorn is still an Earth dedicate, and she dresses as one.

As soon as she feels like she's done enough cleaning, Rosethorn steals away. She spends the rest of the day hiding, so to speak, on the farm. She checks on the Navit plants and does some weeding, shawl carefully folded and set out of range of dirt. Hiding is of course not a very accurate description. Where else would anyone look for a plant mage?

She won't leave the plants until clouds shift to block the sun, marking the end of the day.

Comments

[croceamors]

Rosethorn and Saix have no doubt passed each other by throughout the day as they've helped get the Bastion in order again after the festival. Saix is just as industrious- he's not the type of person who likes to be doing nothing. Maybe that's why he ends up wandering through the farm area, carefully looking over the plants there with faint curiosity in his mismatched eyes. He pauses when he sees her.

"Hello."

[earthandpine]

Rosethorn isn't at her most welcoming right now. The farm isn't her own garden, so she has no right to order people out of it and recognizes that fact. If she knew him, he'd probably be told to start weeding.

Saix receives no such dubious honor. Rosethorn looks up, hands still buried in the dirt, her own greeting as short as his. "Hello." She does follow it up with a nod, polite enough.

[croceamors]

That's fine enough, he'll just invite himself- Saix didn't come to gawk or be generally useless. The Festival has left him feeling restless. For a lot of his life now, he's been trying to ignore his past... but maybe this is a sign it's time to get back to his roots. His gaze flickers to what she's doing and then he gestures to the rest of the farm.

"Where have you already been?" He may not be a gardener, really, but he still did his fair share of weeding back in the Garden. There was his own family's garden, for one thing, and it was also simply a good way to make money when you were a young teenager.

[freedom_engineer]

Colin, for his own part, has been keeping busy. Cleanup is important to him. A clean workspace is a happy workspace. And being able to scrounge out of the debris for useful items is a bonus for him. Festivals in his universe make for rich feeding for the reclaimers, and he hopes to get something similar built up in due to time.

However, it's hungry work. By early afternoon, he was positively famished, and he needed some fruit. When he arrived at the farm, he spotted Rosethorn at work, and he smiled. "Rosethorn," he said in greeting. "How're the plants faring today? They enjoy the atmosphere of the festival?"

[earthandpine]

"They never seem to fare poorly here, and I think the gods probably took care of them as well as they did us." She purses her lips at that, gaze darting over to where she set the shawl.

Getting up from where she's been kneeling, she returns to the Navit plants. They all visibly lean in toward Rosethorn as she approaches, the way plants would turn toward the sun, just pressed into a shorter span of time. She sets a hand on the nearest vine and feels the contentment radiating from it. "They're happy. Are you here for fruit?"

[freedom_engineer]

"I could use a few, yes," Colin said, smiling and following her over to the vine. "I've been cleaning like it'll save the world, and I've worked up an appetite."

He wasn't the least bit tired, or annoyed. All he was... was hungry. "I'm also planning to head out onto the skyway a little later, so I'll need some energy to spare," he added.

[earthandpine]

Rosethorn doesn't waste time feeling with her hands to check which fruits are ripe. She goes straight for the ripest three, pulling them down one at a time and handing them to Colin. "I think everyone has today."

"The skyway? What for?" It isn't accusatory, she's just curious what Colin is after at the moment.

[earthandpine]

There's a very brief pause before she answers. The offer took Rosethorn by surprise, but it was a pleasant one. She favors him with a small smile. "I started from that side," Rosethorn says, pointing at one edge of the patch she's currently working through. "I assume you can tell a weed from a crop?"

[croceamors]

"I know that much at least." He promptly moves into place, kneeling down into the dirt. Completely clean clothes are going to be a rarity in this place, he suspects, so Saix doesn't much mind if he gets a little filthy. Making sure the farm is in good shape is more important anyway.

"I grew up in a city where plants were everywhere. It was called Radiant Garden for a reason, really. I used to help take care of individual gardens for money when I was younger."

[freedom_engineer]

Colin took the navit from her gratefully, and he wasted no time in taking a large bite out of the first one. He was positively ravenous, and he gave Rosethorn an apologetic look as he wolfed down the food. It was poor manners, but Colin was hungry.

"Sorry about that," he told her when he finished. "My calorie needs are huge when I've been working, and this is only the second or third time in my time here where I haven't been sedate. Anyway, the skyway. I'm heading out for more salvage, since I haven't been doing as much during the festival as I would otherwise."

He offered her a grin. "I need more shards so I can get a shortcut to Caeldonian reading," he said. "And my workshop always needs more materials. I'm debating whether I want to head to the wharf or the scrapyard. With some of the new arrivals, we're going to have some needs for a couple of things that I can't find in a mountain of scrap."

[orzelbialy]

Most people in the Bastion fell in to the idea of work and labor to keep things running fairly easily. Even if it wasn't something in their personal skill set already, they learned under those that could teach, or by trial and error. Cleaning up, while mild in comparison to what usually goes on around there, is still a needed job and even more so after the festival.

But there are those that just haven't quite gotten in to the swing of physical labor of any sort.

Of course if anyone actually knew Frederic's background, it would certainly make more sense to them.

That's not to say he didn't help - he did, but now he's regretting it, especially after so much partying, drinking and over indulgence in food beforehand.

He passes by the farm while somewhat absently looking for some one specific, but every motion in his body indicates a soreness he's none too pleased with. Groaning, rubbing of shoulders with hands, a slight stumble to his step. His usual heavy jacket has been left behind somewhere, with only his slightly dirty slacks and white shirt with the sleeves rolled up remaining.

Pausing, he watches the woman in the farm with the plants for a moment before speaking up.

"Pardon, but you haven't by any chance seen Viola around, have you? She works with the goats in the ranch normally but I can't seem to find her."

[earthandpine]

"I don't know Viola, but I haven't seen anyone over near the goats. Are you alright?" She may not be a healer, but Rosethorn has spent enough years of her life making and dispensing medicines that she's attuned to symptoms far less obvious than Frederic's. And she doesn't hesitate to point them out.

[orzelbialy]

"Ah... she might be inside then. I'm used to seeing her out with the goats is all."

The question earns a bit of a nervous, awkward laugh from the normally composed man. He rubbed at his shoulder again, letting out a sigh following the noise.

"I'm not used to physical labor at all. Even cleaning up has left me rather sore and slow moving."

[earthandpine]

"No need for apologies. I've seen enough of Briar's eating habits by now that not much surprises me." The criticism comes with at least a hint of fondness. Seeing Briar eat was always a bit of a satisfaction, knowing how hungry he went before he came to her. Her last lecture to him on eating habits was years ago and accompanied by the promise that he might miss a meal or two, but he would never starve.

"Is there anyone who could teach it?" Rosethorn would rather spend the time than spend her shards. She has plans for those. "What things do we need? I admit I haven't done the best job at keeping track of new arrivals." No one puts Rosethorn on a welcoming committee.

[freedom_engineer]

"Actually, the bastion can impart the knowledge into our amulets," he said. "For a cost, anyway. I think I need about three hundred to be useful for anything more than children's books."

He grins and polishes one of the navits on his sleeve, thinking on his answer. "I need stuff to build a stable for some of the chocobo and the horse from the festival, I need some materials for a good heat sink for AZ's flaming turtle, nails and screws and other basic construction implements are always going to be in short supply until I can get my automated construction line up and running. That's going to take a while, still... Suffice it to say? I need everything I can get my hands on."

Yeah, he may be a little greedy...

[earthandpine]

"I'd rather learn it the old fashioned way and save my shards. I don't mind learning languages, and I'm not used to shortcuts." She has plans for her shards. It's frustrating not living on the first floor and having plants right outside. She wants a garden, and a cottage rather than the apartments. "Three hundred would get Briar his shakkan, too." That takes priority over her garden.

Rosethorn can't quite keep the surprise off her face when she asks, "Flaming turtle?" The amount of projects Colin juggles is impressive, but Rosethorn has always approved of productivity. Many of them are for other people rather than himself, so she's not about to criticize.

[earthandpine]

"Are you in a rush to find her? If not, I probably have something that could help with all the pain in your muscles."

Rosethorn generally thinks everyone ought to be accustomed to work, but when people aren't, it's common sense to ease into things. "There were enough people about. You can work your way up to the exertion, a little at a time rather than all at once."

[earthandpine]

"It sounds like the kind of place I'd like to visit." Just mention a garden and Rosethorn is ready to see it.

"What kinds of plants grew there? What was the climate like?" Some worlds have plants she's never seen before, with the Navit as case in point. Rosethorn is interested in plenty of things other than plants, but anything growing is the surest way to catch her attention.

[freedom_engineer]

"Oh, if I had a couple of months and a psionic how-to course, or if I could get the knowledge recorded to a program and uploaded to my brain, I'd prefer to learn it the natural way also. But... right now, Caeldonian language is kind vital to me if I'm going to be messing with their technology," he says. "So the shortcut is the best option."

He pauses for a moment, and he looks at his amulet. "Remind me, one of these nights, to start taking the knowledge I've got in my brain and write a program with it," he tells her. "And yeah, Torkoal. He seems to be a rock-based animal with a very complex internal combustion system... He's very friendly."

He smiles, and looks off in the direction of where AZ had been camping.

[croceamors]

"Climate?" Saix thinks back, remembering the cool winters and brilliant springs of his homeworld. "Moderate, I suppose. It was stationed in the middle of a lake, so we'd get plenty of rain in the spring. There was good soil- I remember that quite well."

A grunt as he pulls out another weed. "I know we had a lot of flowers- more than I can possibly remember. Hundreds of different types. Almost everyone I knew preferred to have smaller herb gardens. They were always useful."

[orzelbialy]

"No, not all. Viola and I are from the same world, you see. I merely wanted to see how my friend was doing, but there's certainly no hurry to do so," Frederic explained with a smile.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble for you, any assistance would be welcome. I'm certain I will grow accustomed to labor eventually... today is not that day, though."