lets go in the garden, you'll find something waiting (semi-closed to the gardening club!)

[mermaidcursed]

WHO: Nene Yashiro, Natsume Sakasaki, Hajime Hinata, Yuzu Hiiragi, Stephanie Meanswell, Crona Gorgon, Lucifer, Turing, Add, Shinobu Kocho... and anyone who might be interested! 
WHAT: Time for the Gardening Club's first meeting!
WHEN: Early June, just after school
WHERE: Room 3-E
WARNINGS: ... None. Yet. It's Yogen, we'll see.

i. INTEREST CHECK! 

( at some point during the first week of june, you might find nene at the bulletin board, putting up a new flyer: an advertisement for a potential gardening club! the flyer itself has a series of lines so that people can note down their names to show their own interest, but since you seem to have caught nene- or perhaps another person also interested- there, you can ask her anything right there! despite the circles under her eyes, she smiles brightly when approached. )

Are you interested in gardening? 

ii. a: the first meeting! 

( a few days later- wow, that sheet filled up fast!- and nene has happily let everyone who signed up- or perhaps were signed up against their will- to meet after school in room 3-E. at some point you'll see her trying to lug around a bunch of equipment to set up... or maybe you'll get there by the time everything's been set up. 3-E has a new shelf installed, and on series of desks pushed together is a few stacks of clay pots, planters, tools, and a bunch of seed packets. left on the ground is sacks of soil and meal. to the side, however, is a little egg carton planter that nene is tending to herself, given that the flowers have began sprouting over the course of may. )

Hi! Welcome to the first meeting of the gardening club! Not everyone has experience, so if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! If I can't help, I'm sure someone with more experience can!

So, we've got a lot to work with... which I think is really fun, because it gives everyone an opportunity to do something different! 

( she's so excited, guys. as she starts setting things out for everyone, it should be clear to see the inventory: 

10 Standard Clay Pots - 1 for each Club Member
5 small multi-plot planters
12 packs of seeds ( American Coneflower, Chamomile, Mint, Daffodil, Lavender, Sage, Strawberries, Cosmos, Basil, Rosemary, Anemones, Jade Plant )
3 Hand Tool sets ( trowel, transplanter, cultivator and weeder )

and she's also made a set of labels for everything with toothpicks, paper and a bunch of markers for everyone to make their own. all in all, a varied and... oddly useful haul? )

ii. b: getting to work

( after helping people get started, nene has turned most of her attention to the egg carton planter. if you pay attention, you can see her carefully cutting the cardboard and transferring different sprouts into a planter. though she seems to be leaving the little labels she's made blank. huh! what's up with that? )

iii. the mingle

( not an actual prompt, just have fun and get to know your new fellow clubmates! some folks might need help getting started, or maybe you recognize some of the seeds! the bloodmeal doesn't activate the void school, thankfully. have fun, don't be a dick, love you all. )

Comments

iii open af

[closewithnewintown]

[god she really needed something like this right now. the health of this lavender plant she's tending is now directly related to her self-worth as a human being, it's fine.

and if you're next to her while she's planting this, well, now you have the full-force of a sentimental child talking at you.]

Back home, all of us kids work on the town garden together. It took a really long time for the first stuff to grow, and it was a lot of hard work... But, I can't remember the last time my uncle had to buy sports candy at the store. We grow everything ourselves. I hope we can do that here, if we have to...

[radnarok]

Wow. That sounds amazing. [ They mean it! ] Do you think it will take us a long time now? I'd like to eat something fresh soon. [ Life cannot be sustained on marshmallow candy alone...this they have learned. And people here are weird about eating the meat. ]

[closewithnewintown]

It depends! On what the plant is, of course; everybody grows at their own speed. This little guy [pats the soil] should start sprouting in a few weeks, and, if I don't water it too much, and I can find a spot for it when it outgrows the pot... it'll be a grown-up in about half a year.

What I'd really like is an apple tree. [sighs] We have so many apple trees back home, but those took years and years to grow like they do... I could stand under one, and he'd hit it out of the tree and right into my hands. That's my favorite stunt.

[crystallomancy]

I hope we aren't trapped here that LONG, to be hoNEST, but it's a nice feeLING.

( he's with you, stephanie... surprisingly, he is. he makes note in his notebook (little bunny - lavender) and, glancing around, decides he can take a break and sit down with her. )

I assume sports candy is what you call fruits and vegetaBLES?

[closewithnewintown]

It's what my friend calls it! I haven't really been saying it a lot here, since nobody would know what it meant, but...

[she's just been Thinking.]

I can never figure out if it's supposed to be a cute little trick for the younger kids [of which she is not one because she is Very Grown Up Thank You] or if it's just because he's not very good with, um, pronouncing Vs. They come out sounding like Ws. Wextables.

[sport had nothing but nice things to say about her in his murdergame and here she is reading him for filth.]

[crystallomancy]

( that's how little girls are: totally ruthless in their innocuous honesty )

No one says it can't be BOTH, especially with how cruel children can BE, even when they don't mean IT. ( imagining poor sport surrounded by children yelling wextables wextables wextables..... tragic. ) What ones would you like to grow FIRST? I'm pleased enough with herbs mySELF, but that's only because I have a variety of uses for them even outside of cooKING.

[closewithnewintown]

Aw, it's not like that! Even Trixie doesn't make fun of people for things they can't help. That's just mean, not funny.

[HMMM...] Stuff that grows fast would be best; if we can show everybody else how much better it could be if we had our own food supply, they'll all want to help on the garden!

... [frowns] There was a whole thirty seconds where I forgot that most of us can't even go outside. It was nice. [pause] I wonder if those of us that can could make a hidden garden in the courtyard... Grow root vegetables without anybody noticing...

[crime radishes]

[crystallomancy]

( SO glad he is one of the people who can technically go outside, but only if he submits himself to the horror of physical activity. )

Now there's an iDEA. ( crime radishes... ) You're turning out to be quite the delinQUENT, Little Bunny, but for the good of ALL... A vigilanTE.

( we should get her a superhero name. the pink knight. )

Provided we can get the seeds and keep it a secret from the teachERS, I don't see why NOT. ( oh, and the gardener... but they're growing things, so maybe he'll be nice about it. ) It'd be nice to have fresh ginger or daikon - they're wonderful pickLED.

[closewithnewintown]

[oh dope her second favorite conversation topic.]

I think I read about those once... That's a kind of superhero, right? They do things that are kinda bad, but it's for good reasons. [considers this] Heroes are supposed to only do good things, but that seemed a lot easier back home than it does here.

... I mean, if it works, that means it can't be bad. Because bad guy plans never work out in the end. [this slots perfectly into her world view and thus it is true.]

[crystallomancy]

( stephanie, you are so sweet and pure, and he is going to protect that way of thinking no matter what. even if it isn't true, he's going to. )

...That's RIGHT. Even if they work out for a little WHILE, villains never win the WAR. ( as the saying goes, or close enough. ) As long as you go into things with the best of intentions for everyONE, and you have the reasons to justify your acTIONS, then you're on the side of "GOOD".

( which is... a little cynical-sounding, but it's fine! it's fine! )

[closewithnewintown]

Exactly! [grins] I knew you'd get it.

[sportacus 11 is gonna be the red hood of sports elves and it's all natsume's fault.]

And I do wanna help everyone. Even the mean people, like Maya, or that soccer team guy. [just casually slotting rokkun under the same category as the girl who supervised a gladiatorial battle to the death.]

[crystallomancy]

( how did i lose this tag.... no...... )

Soccer team GUY... ( he doesn't know rokuro's a JOCK he just knows he's good at forgery and wants extremely lethal bug spray ) ...You're much kinder than I, Little Bunny. If someone wronged ME, I'd prefer it if they just rotted underneath the floorboards or someTHING, out of my sight and out of my LIFE.

( but there's also no fun in not seeing the people you hate suffer.... regardless, he doesn't actually sound that serious about it - he kind of really is, but it's important to get your money's worth when it comes to people, so to speak. )

[closewithnewintown]

[i'm small i slip through the couch cushions.]

It's probably easier your way... But, usually the easy way isn't... [y'know. the right way.]

I don't remember his name. He's some third year, and he must be friends with Komaeda, since I think I saw him at his party... He was mean to me. I was mean back... But, he made me do that! He was hurting me with something I'd said, so I had to hurt him back!

[glances at him, nervously.] You get it, right? He started it.

[crystallomancy]

( his poor little pinkette— )

I get it, don't worRY. ( his party, friends with komaeda, third year... arata-senpai, okay. ) You were in the RIGHT, Little Bunny - don't think too hard about IT. People like that deserve whatever they GET.

( hmmm. he's going to give her a little friendly headpat, most younger people he's met like that. )

...It's okay if you feel bad about it despite that THOUGH.

[closewithnewintown]

I... think I feel bad about not feeling bad? You're supposed to want to apologize when you hurt people's feelings!

... What if it comes back to haunt me, and I end up being the person who forgets the names of everybody I love? I wrote them all down, just in case, but what if that's not enough? [she's basically independently come up with the concept of karma.]

[crystallomancy]

( who's to say that hasn't already happened?

...he isn't going to say that, but the idea is going to sit in his head now, given they don't remember anything before the start of the year. what she needs right now is something to hold onto, and natsume draws a cat on the corner of his notebook page as he thinks about what to say, the words carefully chosen when they come out. )

"What the mind forgets, the heart remembers." ( he lets her have that for a moment, then continues. ) Even if that ends up being the CASE, the relationships you've made will come back to you no matter WHAT. People don't change all that MUCH, not at their core - that's what a soul IS... The parts of you that can't be ERASED, for better or for WORSE, and if you loved those intrinsic parts of people before then I'm certain you'll come to love them aGAIN.

Will your relationship difFER? Perhaps, because some things are entirely circumstanTIAL, but I do think if you can befriend someone ONCE, you can do it aGAIN, if you end up wanting to do THAT.

( ...does he believe any of this himself?

he says all of his mostly for her benefit, because she is distressed and there is no part of him that wants to see that — but maybe, a little, he does think there is some veracity in it. )

[closewithnewintown]

... My friend had his memory taken once. But, that was just... tricks; we always knew we could get him back, if we just tried hard enough. And we did! But, if he'd never come back...

[she shakes her head, as if trying to rid herself of such an awful thought.]

I don't know about any of that... soul junk. I just know that I'm the way I am because of my friends. If I didn't remember them anymore, I'd be... I don't know. Not me.

[crystallomancy]

You'd still be YOU, because even if you forgot those FRIENDS, you'd naturally make MORE. You're that type of GIRL, Little Bunny. You and I share that - it's easy for us to talk to oTHERS.

( she's just genuine about it and he is. he's. anyway, sometimes he's genuine about it. )

Little Bunny, is it because of your friends that you're so friendly and outgoING? Is it because of them that you won't back down from what you believe IN, and you won't hold back when it comes to speaking your TRUTH? ...Or is all of that just who you ARE?

[closewithnewintown]

... I don't know. I hope so. Those sound like nice things to be.

There's no replacing friends, though. Every friend is unique, special. Like, if I escape here and go home, I would never find another Natsume. [a slight grin] Which is probably a good thing, because I know for a fact that you'd hate living in my town. You'd be bored stiff.

[insecution]

[ ‘If we have to,’ Stephanie says, and it hits Shinobu full in the heart like a blow to the gut. Girls as young as her shouldn’t have to surrender themselves to a fate like that. They should be able to look forward to long, fulfilling lives. They should be happy.

If nothing else, she can try taking Stephanie’s mind off the fact they’ve all been condemned to live in a school like this for the forseeable future. It’ll be okay. Really! ]

I’m glad we have someone reliable and dedicated looking after these seedlings. Did you use them to prepare your own meals as well?

[closewithnewintown]

[preens] Thank you!

Uh huh! [nods] My uncle does most of the cooking, but he would let me help! He let me bake whatever I wanted, though. I was getting really good at not using any sugar... I should try doing that again...

[insecution]

I see. I myself have little experience in preparing Western dishes, but a friend of mine was teaching me what she knew before I was made a transfer student.

[ They’re a long, long way from Taisho-era Japan, though, and as far as Shinobu knows, nobody here is any closer to finding a way back home than they were two months ago. She’ll have to make do with what help she has here instead. ]

Would you be willing to teach me?

[closewithnewintown]

[a brief moment where she's like "... is my country west. west of what."]

Of course! Will you teach me stuff from where you're from?

[insecution]

I’d be happy to, but you’ll have to forgive me if any of my recipes call for sugar.

[ For a kid, Stephanie seems weirdly against using it in her baked goods. Aren’t children supposed to enjoy sweets? ]

Do you see anything amongst these seeds that might be usable?

[closewithnewintown]

Oh, that's not a problem for me; I just do it because of one of my friends back home!

[she gives the seeds a look, thinking...] I'm not really sure! I know there's stuff you can do with herbs, and even some of the flowers, but I don't know too much about that.