Gardening and catch-call (Open!)

[gardenerofavalon]

Who: Merlin + anyone!
What: Making a garden, being a bum, and general catch-all for shenanigans
Where: Various, see prompts
When: Throughout the month, any specific timeframes will be mentioned in prompts
Content Warnings: None in initial prompts, if threads venture into iffy territory warnings will be given in comment subject lines!


[General]

If anyone interacted with Merlin shortly after everyone first arrived and the world came to be, he nearly always presented an almost annoyingly cheerful attitude. If someone interacted with him several weeks later, that was more subdued, less with the over the top nonsense and occasionally absent entirely. Lately, though, Merlin's been acting, well, almost emotionless for the most part. There's the occasional display of something or another, and his focus and attention for anything that currently holds his interest hasn't waned in the slightest, but an increasing majority of the time he's just simply not emoting. Weird, huh?


[I. Gardening]

The appearance of the small flower patch in the church-slash-bakery had given Merlin an idea, and the later appearance of the flower fields (even if, admittedly, apparently on fire) within the peculiar doomed structure gave him even more reason to properly pursue it. And while many of the proper tools for such things are lacking, as finding gardening tools in a market that never sees sunlight is a longshot at best, that's far less of an inconvenience to him than having lost proper use of his powers in the first place.

All of which means he's taken the time to painstakingly clear a wide space near where the river flows out from the base of the mountain, even going so far as to retrieve soil from the nearby forest to fill and even out places. Once this is done, it calls for several trips back and forth to the flower fields in the dome to dig up a plant or two at a time, carry it to his dirt patch, and carefully replant it. All largely by hand, given that he's yet to find a proper trowel. At least he can make use of empty bottles and cups to haul water from the nearby river, which may or may not even be necessary for the plants at this point, but probably won't hurt, at least.

Oh, and while some of the flowers ceased 'burning' once removed from the field from long enough, and others Merlin deliberately extinguished the flames, there's still a few that remain stubbornly fiery. These eventually receive their own designated section of the sparse but growing garden, ringed by a low line of rocks.

Needless to say, this is all very labor intensive, and Merlin's spending quite a bit of time with it, so it's probably one of the easiest places to catch him if one happens to be looking for him!


[II. Familiar Companion]

For all his seeming affability, Merlin's never been one to really spend too much time in the company of others, and that's only increased as time's gone on. He certainly makes his presence known often enough when he deigns to, but more often than not he's likely off on his own, whether investigating whatever strange new features the world's developed, or simply avoiding dealing with all the people.

Except that, he's never actually truly alone. One of the small, winged and furred creatures has been stalking following him around since near the beginning as it makes a game of trying to chase and pounce on his long hair. For the most part, Merlin simply (seemingly) ignores it, only occasionally shooing it away, for all the good that ever does. At just this moment, it's running about pouncing on leaves near where Merlin's sitting with his back leaning against a tree, paying it no mind as usual.

Until, that is, the poor thing is struck by a sudden furious hunger, causing it to botch the landing of its latest jump and tumble on the ground, letting out a plaintive cry. Merlin glances over at the sound, gaze utterly expressionless as he takes in the scene.

"Oh, stop complaining, you," he mutters flatly, and looks away again. But even as he does so, his fingers slide briefly into a fold of his robes and, with a brief flick of a wrist, a small piece of giant mushroom is tossed at the critter, which naturally devours it ravenously before resuming its earlier play.


[III. Making Sense of Nonsense]

Of course, not everything Merlin does is full of melancholy and/or solitude. There's still the mystery of this place to solve, or at least figure out how on earth to get his powers to actually work on things here. In fact, while he's managed not to show it, certain aspects of that last bit actually have him just a little bit concerned, for various reasons he's naturally refusing to divulge.

But all this means he simply needs more information, and as he can't simply use Clairvoyance to observe whatever and whoever he wants, that means actually going up to people and asking them.

"Has anything new that you recognize shown up here, since you've arrived?"

There's something nagging at him that he can't quite shake but still can't put a finger on, either.


[Wildcard/Notes]

None of these scenarios work for you? Feel free to hit me up in PM or on Discord (AC#7235) if you want to plot out something else! Or just tag with whatever you have in mind, that works too. The stuff noted in the 'general' section at the top applies to all threads unless otherwise noted, I just didn't feel like repeating it over and over again.!

Comments

[bridge_princess]

"Air." There, have a deadpan, stupid answer to your question, Merlin. She definitely recognized air. It even tasted the same when she breathed it. "The breezes in buildings are new, but I distinctly remember there being a lot of air where I used to be. How about you?"

She's being kind of a bastard here, and she knows it.

[gardenerofavalon]

"Ah, then I suppose you're familiar with water and rocks and such, as well? How remarkable!"

Oh yeah, he's meeting that with sarcasm.

"Well, I'm already aware of your bridge, in any case. One of the latest things to appear here seems to feature part of my garden."

[bridge_princess]

"Those showed up when we showed up. They hardly count. We were here a while when my ears popped because of air pressure." Humph. If he was going to be sarcastic right back, she'd keep it up. Yep. Stubborn, this one.

"If you're asking about things specifically from Gensokyo, just the bridge and shrine so far. I'm counting my blessings, honestly. There's a lot of annoying crap in that place." She frowned. "But I do expect more to appear. From everyone's worlds. The Wall Market in the caves is new, and I think Tifa said it's from her world."

[gardenerofavalon]

"Don't they? So you mean to say you do find a forest that periodically withers and then regenerates familiar, as well?" Speaking of stubborn....

"Exactly. Unless I'm mistaken, everything that's come to be in this place has its origins in the world of some person or another here, something that they personally would be familiar with."

[bridge_princess]

She nodded in ascent to what he was saying. It was coldly observable. Taunt him a little, she'd do but he wasn't wrong about this and the concerns of it made her more...

....

Hmmm. "Have you seen 2B around lately? Pretty robot lady. Perfect body, and I do mean like what women dream of being. Cold personality. Blonde hair. Wears a blindfold or visor or something?" Because she'd been paying attention, but she'd realized that one or two people she'd been watching weren't around anymore, or just easier to find at least. Nobody particularly close, but...

(OOC: Parsee's just starting to notice the concept of a 'drop' since we've only had like five so far, and very few were at all close to her.)

[gardenerofavalon]

Merlin frowns a bit at that.

"I can't say I have, though I've admittedly not been able to keep track of everyone here."

Which is a mild annoyance to him, as ordinarily his Clairvoyance would make that trivial.

[bridge_princess]

"Keep an eye out. Never know if she got jammed into some crevice somewhere and something collapsed on top of her. Can't kill you after all, so she might be trapped." Not a pleasant thought, but it was a reasonable concern. "Wonder where she went to..."

i.

[obscurus_phantasma]

Melinoë has been watching Merlin from afar, idly braiding her dress or feeding the nearby 'Sphinxes'. Thus far, Melnioë hasn't interacted with many of the world's inhabitants, and with Merlin, theirs have been sexual with inquisitive tidbits peppered in, for all that there is to do at present. As her relationship grows with Damien, she's finding herself wanting to know more than just the mage's kinks and sounds.

It's after a recent trip for water that the Goddess waltzes down, standing amongst flame and flora in waiting. Once he's spotted, she teases, "Well, if I'd known you were getting me flowers..."

[gardenerofavalon]

"Ah, but if something's meant to be a surprise, it wouldn't do for you to know, would it?" Merlin jokes right back. But while the words are there readily enough, the smugness that would have accompanied them some weeks ago is largely absent.

Not that he's displeased to see her, of course. Sex may not current carry all the benefits for him it usually does, but it is still a fine distraction.

[obscurus_phantasma]

Melinoë closes the distance to stamp a kiss onto Merlin's cheek, gently chucking him under the chin. She doesn't yet press after his well-being, and instead returns attention to the task at hand. < "And what are we doing, my darling mage?" >

If he'll allow it, she means to provide assistance.

[gardenerofavalon]

"What does it look like?"

Merlin would think it's a bit obvious.

"Seeing if these flowers will take to being planted in a new garden here."

Quite literally by hand, if the dirt on his hands and robes is any indication. Not that he appears in the least bothered by that.

[obscurus_phantasma]

Head cants and eyes semi-squint at the abruptness in his response. She drops the Italian when she says, "Considering this is all unprecedented, I don't make assumptions. Am I also supposed to know why you're seeing if these flowers live through relocation?"

Mel is keeping her tone polite, more concerned than offended by Merlin's reaction.

[gardenerofavalon]

Ah, yes, it's a little harder to express when he's joking when he's not projecting the appropriate emotion, isn't it?

"Well, for one thing, while fire seems to be harmless enough right now, there's no telling how long that will last, given how things have changed so far. And it wouldn't do for the whole field to simply be turned to ash should the flames there suddenly begin burning."

I.

[begetblue]

It was difficult not to notice the burning flowers. Turing's first reaction was panic, especially since the reasonable assumption was that the flame would spread, but the Void itself was hardly reasonable to begin with. Honestly, this place had no respect for the laws of nature. None at all! Even knowing that, Turing carefully sidled around that section of the garden on their way to a spot where they felt a bit safer.

Sparse or not, they had never seen a garden this large before. ...It was also one of the only gardens they had seen in person, but still.

"Your garden is quite vibrant!"

[gardenerofavalon]

To his credit, Merlin has taken care to ensure the burning ones are safely separated from everything else. He doesn't want his entire garden turned to ash should fire start acting like it should, after all! But in the mean time it's a very interesting curiosity.

Merlin glances up from his work when he's addressed, raising an eyebrow slightly at the newcomer.

"It's still rather sparse," he says. He's not even being modest; it continues to mildly frustrate him that his usual influence over flowers and such seems to have no effect here.

[begetblue]

"Well, perhaps... But I still think it's very nice!"

They crouched down, but it wasn't so much so they could see the flowers better. (That was another perk of not having sight like a human's.) It was more so they could be closer to the flowers in general, though they were careful not to step on them.

"Would you like any help?"

Though considering how quick they were to offer, it wouldn't be weird for someone to interpret it as 'please let me help.' Working in a garden would be a new experience for Turing, though they had helped with individual plants before.

[gardenerofavalon]

Merlin's honestly a little surprised at how much interest his little project seems to be attracting. He was aware that at least one or two others here appreciated flowers, but he definitely wasn't expecting so many offers to help.

Mind you, a part of his ego finds the attention quite satisfying, but that doesn't make it any less unexpected.

"Do you know anything about gardening?"

[begetblue]

Oops. That was the real million dollar question, wasn't it? They had enthusiasm and the will to try, but actual experience? Well...

"My knowledge is...somewhat limited, unfortunately," they said, their gaze falling. "If there were gardening resources available I would happily consult them, but I'm unaware if there are any in this place."

They could take care of succulents and some trees! Alas, this was not a succulent and tree field.

[gardenerofavalon]

"Then in that case, you can begin with something simple."

In other words, not yet working directly with the flowers. Merlin's not one to judge people (he doesn't actually care enough for it) and he's quite capable of instructing someone should he be so inclined to do so. He was the one who taught the young future King Arthur, after all.

"The edge over there needs to be lined with stones to prevent the soil from falling down the slope, and then the soil leveled." He points to the area in question, which is indeed just as unfinished as he describes. Mostly because he got impatient and stopped working on it in favor of actually starting to transplant some of the flowers to the section he had gotten ready, but nobody needs to know that. "You can observe how it's been arranged as you do so."

He's not the type to hand hold though. Learn more as you go, rather than have him walk you through every step!

gardening

[anciently]

"Hey, you did it!"

Guess who? Aerith stands a short distance away, face alight, pleased, at the sight of the garden. She surveys it with a few approving nods, taking a moment to absorb the work Merlin had done thus far before offering him a thumbs-up.

"Looks great! Wow... I really think this will help. Maybe give the flowers some more room to spread out, and a space for other varieties, too!" Those in the church had always been white and yellow lilies, but a larger gardening area would make for more opportunities for diversifying the spread.

She hovers for another moment, arms now linked behind her back.

"Need any help?"

[gardenerofavalon]

"I thought this would be enough to start with, and there ought to be room for expansion."

Truthfully, he'd planned to make it bigger, but got bored halfway through and decided he had enough to skip straight to transplanting flowers. He really misses being able to simply make them grow by magic.

"And I suppose there's no reason for me to refuse such an offer, is there?"

There's still plenty to do, after all.

[anciently]

"I hope not!" Encouraged by his indirect invitation, Aerith gets closer and begins surveying the scene with even more scrutiny. "This definitely seems like enough space for now. We can always make changes in the future if we have to."

Because it's apparently a 'we' project now.

"Has anyone else stopped by to appreciate it? I think this will really help to cheer up the others if they're feeling down about something. Flowers have a way of doing that, don't you think?"

[gardenerofavalon]

'We', is it? Well, that's fine for now, as it means potentially more flowers for less work on his part. Who is he to turn that down?

"A few," Merlin answers her first question. "Several of whom wanted to help, actually."

He had them do the grunt work of finishing leveling and edging some of the parts he hadn't gotten to yet.

[anciently]

"Good! Glad to hear people are stepping up around here."

Not that she'd thought otherwise, but it's always encouraging to hear that people are volunteering their efforts unprompted.

"Know any of them? I wonder if I'm met them yet." There are a good amount of people in the void for sure, but she's also made a point of...well, being a bit of a busybody about it.

[gardenerofavalon]

"Melinoë, for one."

With whom there'd been jokes and discussion of the idea of gardening in the nude.

"As well as, ah," what was the name again? He honestly never bothered to ask. "The small robot."