awashlogs | june catchall

[ Truthfully, she's been thinking about this long before it'd even been requested of them.

Anthy's already cleared a little flowerbed in Flavo, just a ways away from a cluster of cottages and near the edge of the forest– truthfully its rather out of the way, a long walk and a great bit of effort required to packmule whatever they'd need from the storehouse to the plot she'd picked out.

And that is precisely why she'd sent the other two and told them she'd meet them here.

Anthy waves from a distance, a smudge of dirt on her nose (but she hasn't broken a sweat, so it's hard to tell if she's actually exerted any effort herself). ]

Have either of you seen Chuchu? I sent him to make sure you'd both be able to find this place.

[ The moment she says this a very agonized and Chuchu-like groaning sound comes from an unopened bag of fertilizer. ]

[ It's a good thing for Uki to get out of the house. Despite how dismal and gloomy her new surroundings feel at times, with the color sapped away, some parts of it look beautiful to her. Bountiful nature and an open afternoon sky are things she's never experienced. Even if the barren landscape makes her miss home, she can't help the tinge of comfort she feels from the small specks of color on the ground.

As soon as she noticed that there were more colored flowers around town, she felt her heart lift, however incrementally - and then immediately remembered what she had asked about on the forums the other day, and been told about the fabled Himemiya that Utena had told her about. Although she's very shy and anxious about a first meeting face-to-face, she doesn't think anyone who is good with plants could be a bad person.

She's all too happy to help out with whatever they needed, and so she brings a small green bucket with gardening tools that she found in the storehouse, spades and gloves and small hand rakes, enough for three people to use. If the sound from the bag of fertilizer is any indication, they might need a fourth set... ]

Ah - Chuchu...? [ She tilts her head toward the bag. She doesn't want to go snooping without permission, but - ] Is he stuck in there?

[ Uki holds her bucket out with both hands for Anthy to inspect, looking down at the cleared patch in reverence. She hopes she's been useful. ]

O-Oh, and, um, I found these... Will they help, Miss Himemiya? Maybe there's something to help get him out.

[Utena, having recovered well enough to move around, is grateful to be outside. Grateful too, to be away from the Bluo district. The spots of color from new growth was nice, and she was always happy to be around Anthy, but she had found that she did not like the eerie stillness of the water, the way it was as dark and impenetrable as ink. It troubled her to look at or ponder for too long.

Flavo suits her better, though the plot Anthy's chosen is quite out of the way, and she has taken to being a pack mule with ill-advised gusto. She didn't want Uki and Anthy to do too much of the work, and moreover, she was a showoff.

She's regretting this when she arrives, dragging her feet in a way that might be just a little melodramatic, out of breath.]

Himemiya, why's it got to be this far out? My legs are gonna fall off...

[She is a little whiny too, but this mood drops almost as soon as she turns to Uki.]

Oh, don't worry about him. He's always getting into stuff like that...oi, Chuchu! If you come out, I'll give you a snack!

You can call me Anthy.

[ She offers Uki a brief smile before her gaze drifts towards the bucket, her own hand hovering mid-air above it, as if she's trying to decide what to use to #FreeChuchu.

Perhaps it's a bit strange to tell a stranger to refer to her by her first name when the friend who'd introduced them both refers to Anthy by her last name– but Anthy is hardly the type to fret over explaining the paradoxes of her behavior to people. ]

I don't recall saying you had to bring this much at once, or on your own.

[ She's speaking to Utena now, obviously. She says it so pleasantly though it's near impossible to tell she's actually taunting.

(And truthfully it's not fair, since she'd known Utena would've taken it upon herself to haul it all her on her own anyway– that's why Anthy had sent her after all. But it's not her fault Utena is a show-off!). ]

I wanted to avoid anywhere with too much foot traffic. Ah–

[ She finally plucks a rather sharp, glimmering spade from the bucket. ]

Thank you! This will suffice- both for our purposes and for Chuchu.

[ She gets up and holds the bag of fertilizer with one hand, tearing it open with the spade– it's a smooth and brutal movement. You'd think she was splitting someone's throat.

Chuchu comes tumbling out with the fertilizer, gurgling helplessly, little X's over his eyes (he's dead).

Anthy wrinkles her nose. ]

Ah, Chuchu you smell like–

[ there is a very large HONKING sound from some distance away that very much drowns out the last word of Anthy's sentence. probably an angry goose in the lake just a short walk from them? How well-timed. ]

[ Uki isn't used to calling people by their first names...! She looks confused when Anthy requests the change, brows furrowing and her hands wavering around the bucket's handle, but she does her best to look in Anthy's direction in nod. (She's still not good at looking into peoples' eyes.) ]

Y-Yes, Miss Himem-- A-Anthy. [ Out of nervousness, she averts her gaze; her eyes end up landing on Utena as she speaks about Chuchu's habit of... wandering odd places. ] He gets in these places all the time? How did he get stuck in there?

But I can help with -

[ Getting Chuchu out, she's about to say, but the honking noise startles her enough to make her jump, spilling the rest of the gardening tools to the ground. Thank you for protecting innocent ears, Sir Goose. Your sacrifice will not be forgotten. ]

I'm sorry! I didn't mean to drop them, I'll pick them up - [ They're mostly centered around her feet, but one of the gardening rakes has ended up right at the bed of soil, ready to be used. Convenient, and at the very least, it makes their next step clear.

She hands out one of the rakes to Anthy, and passes Utena a spade and a rake as well, before portioning out the gloves. She's only seen her big sister taking care of the plants outside her home before, but she thinks this is how it goes? ]

I hope this is enough tools. I can go get more if we need...

W-well, I wasn't gonna make you do it... [Realizing she's talked herself into a corner, she scrambles to explain.] And Uki's our guest! It wouldn't be fair...ah, c'mon, Chuchu. You can't climb into places like that!

[She watches him tumble out of the bag with no small amount of exasperation, and to Uki's question she shrugs in a good-natured sort of way, as if to say, your guess is as good as mine.

Speaking of their guest, the honking does not startle Utena — in fact she takes it so in stride that it's a little odd — but she immediately sets to smooth over Uki's anxiousness.]

Hey, it's okay. [Needing something to do with her hands, she twirls the handle of the spade between her fingers.] You haven't got to go through all that trouble! If there's anything else we need, I can grab it.

[ Anthy lets Utena tend to Uki's nerves, reassurance is more her forte than Anthy's anyway. She takes the tools she's been offered and pulls on the gloves wordlessly, getting to work loosening and preparing the soil. ]

Rest assured, Utena is very good at lifting, carrying, and bringing things to places. One might say it's one of her greatest talents.

[ Again, its a strange but politely delivered compliment. ]

Have you done any gardening before?

[ The question is probably directed towards Uki, though Anthy's eyes stay on her work. She assumes it would be easier to converse this way with how jittery she seemed. ]

You brought everything we might need– I thought someone might forget something, so I was a bit surprised to find that we're so readily supplied.

[ Chuchu seems to have caught his second wind. He's dragging a hand rake across the grass, he takes a shortcut over and across Utena's shoe before finding his way into the flower bed Anthys prepared.

He walks in a circular path creating that looks like... crop circles? How is he even doing that?? ]

[ Utena's reassurance is kind enough that Uki seems to relax all at once, her shoulders dropping their stiff stance and her posture easing. She sets the now-empty bucket down next to her on the ground. ]

Okay. T-Thank you for the help.

[ She doesn't protest anymore, because from both Utena's helpful reassurance and Anthy's corroboration, it would be more trouble for her to keep up her flustered floundering, so she does her best to keep it under wraps. Utena said she really liked sports, so Uki doesn't even question her unique skillset. Maybe carrying things is how you play every sport?

After a moment's more hesitation, Uki settles down on the ground next to Anthy, giving Utena enough space to crouch near the plot as well. She's sitting in the most picturesque formal way, her knees settled right beneath her. ]

N-No, I haven't gardened much. I only have a little plant... It was here with me when I woke up. [ She had mentioned it previously on the forum post Utena wrote - she'd repeat the name schefflera, but it's not that easy to pronounce out loud. ] But I care for it every day as best I can. I don't really know how to plant any seeds, though... I took the tools that seemed useful.

[ Uki slips on one of the gardening gloves, and just sort of... watches as Chuchu makes his patterns. She has a feeling this is something she might have to get used to, especially because neither Anthy nor Utena seem that fazed over his previous antics. Even if watching the circles is making her head spin a bit...

Caught off guard by Chuchu's modern art, she had almost forgotten to ask both of them one of the questions she'd been most curious about. ]

What color flowers were in the garden you had back home?

[ Maybe if she can help them make something like that here, it might be comforting? She doesn't know; she's just hoping she can help them feel more at ease, for helping her relax so far. ]

[Utena spends a good fifteen seconds trying to figure out if Anthy is complimenting her or insulting her, settles on "compliment, but a weird Himemiya-grade compliment," and shrugs before turning back to Uki.]

Sch...f...oi. It's pretty hard to say. I remember how to spell it though.

[She flops between Anthy and Uki, not formal or ladylike in the slightest, and tugs her gloves on, then grabs a stick and writes out the characters slowly.

Chuchu she does not pay much attention to — truly, it seems like this is indeed commonplace for them — but she blinks at the question.]

Oh, all kinds. There were colors I'd never seen before I got to Ohtori. There were the normal colors, like white and red, but blue and orange too, yellow, green...hm.

[She frowns some, going quiet for a second. Contemplative.] There was another one too, I think. Wasn't there?

[Chuchu goes counterclockwise for a second, and Utena watches this, her expression blank, drawing circles in the ground herself with the stick she'd grabbed, and then comes back to herself. She had been going by the duelists, rattling off the colors along with her own, but none of the Student Council had worn black. She's sure she's remembering wrong.

The thought is gone before she can even speak it. Instead:]

Himemiya, how'd you get so many colors, anyway? I never figured it out...could you do that here, too?

Edited 2019-06-09 00:17 (UTC)

[ Anthy's focus stays on her work, even as the conversations bounces around between topics that are harmless and those that would make her brow furrow if there was no one around to actually witness such a shift in demeanor.

Chuchu abandons the mess of circles he's made, and trots over to Uki. He mimics her ladylike posture and gets close to the ground so that he can dig a row of perfect little holes for their flower seeds. He's surprisingly fast, drilling them one after the other with his bare paws. ]

Schefflera.

[ Anthy speaks only after Utena's question has hung unanswered in the air for too long. And even then it's not an answer to what she'd actually asked. ]

You can do just about anything with the right equipment and a bit of patience. The different colors aren't the result of much more than careful breeding– and perhaps, a touch of something else.

[ Anthy does not lift her gaze up and towards either of them even once.

Chuchu seems to have trapped himself, suddenly surrounded by many tiny holes. He looks around frantically, tears welling up in the corner of his eyes. ]

This place seems to have its own ideas as to what colors different flowers should be. I think for now.. I'm fine with letting nature have its way.

[ Chuchu is fully crying now, standing on his toes and reaching towards Uki– begging to be saved. ]

Yes, it's a schefflera. [ She nods toward Utena, as thanks for remembering; it's a lot easier to say when she can copy Anthy's pronunciation. ] It's just a small potted one, but I think... I think it makes my room a bit brighter. Both here and at home. It's not as colorful as flowers, but since not many things are colorful here, I'm trying to take good care of it.

[ Uki keeps her eyes trained on Chuchu while she speaks, which she feels quite rude about, honestly. He's just so fast, like a whirlwind, that it's impossible to look away from him - and then as soon as he traps himself, she feels a pang of sympathy. She reaches out to lift him up by his arms, carefully, but with enough force to pull him away from his self-imposed quarantine.

He's more high energy and dramatic than she's used to, but if someone around her is sad, she's going to do her best to help. ]

I-It's okay, Chuchu. Please don't cry. [ She's going to at least wipe his tears away, if he'll let her.

Chuchu has done quite a lot of work for them already, so Uki stares at the holes he's drilled, a bit of wonderment sparkling in her otherwise nervous eyes. He's clearly an expert! At least more of an expert than she is! ]

Ohtori sounds... pretty. [ Just an idle comment, from what she's heard, as she stares at the ground. She's not going to push, just in case home is a difficult concept for whatever reason, assuming it's out of homesickness than anything else. ] I've only ever lived in the city, so there weren't a lot of plants. But if they're different colors here... I wonder how long it will take them to grow.

[ She wants to see what colors she's planting...! She has no idea how to tell the seeds they've gathered apart from one another, so she's just sort of flitting her gaze between them all, floundering between the choices. ]

[Utena is mostly content with letting Anthy and Chuchu do most of the gardening work, though by now she's leaned over to mimic what Anthy's doing, in part to help and in part to try to make eye contact, which seems a futile effort. She tries not to let it bug her. Sometimes Anthy got far into her own head, and that was okay. Usually.

Instead she focuses her attention on Uki and Chuchu, and smiles some, despite Chuchu's obvious distress. It seems she's used to that too.] Just pat his head a few times. If you've got a cracker or a snack, he'll cheer right up.

And Ohtori was pretty. I mean... [She scratches at her cheek.] Most of the time. I lived in a city before, but I don't remember it too well, and I've never lived out in a countryside like this.

What's city life like, anyway? It must be pretty different from this.

[Noting Uki's indecision, she points, at random, to some of the seeds.] Try those first. I've got a good feeling!

[ Chuchu continues to cry, but now in relief as Uki lifts him up and saves him from himself and the circumstances he has wrought. He lets her wipe his tears as well, but his crying doesn't seem to slow until Utena mentions food. They stop suddenly, and then he's palming at Uki's hands, as if trying to find some snack that she's hidden away somewhere. ]

Was it lonely.. living in a place with so much concrete?

[ Anthy herself has not lived in any city for a very long time, truthfully. She doesn't think she'd want to ever again.

She continues to work as she speaks, and if she notices Utena trying to make eye contact with her she doesn't show it. ]

Even despite how many people you're surrounded by.. I've always felt that in such places, it feels both overwhelming and isolating somehow.

[ Well, at least she's stopped Chuchu's crying, she thinks - and then she realizes that she hadn't stopped it at all, but Utena's words did. ]

U-Um, I'm sorry, Chuchu, I don't have anything to eat right now... But I can give you this.

[ It's not really much of a gift in the traditional sense, because all she does is move her hand and pat Chuchu's head like Utena suggested. Her touch is gentle and warm, like a child wishing away the pain from a head bump, so maybe it'll make him feel as loved as if he actually had been given a snack. ]

I've never really thought of it as lonely... [ She does have to ponder it for a second, though. She had never personally thought of it as desolate, or isolating, but everyone around her had considered her situation lonely. She didn't really understand it. In some ways, she still doesn't. ] I didn't have a choice to live somewhere else, so I'd never considered it. And... I could help people smile where I was, so I didn't mind it.

[ Considering that, her experiences of city life are probably much different than anyone else's. Still, she directs a sheepish smile Utena's way while her eyes search for a place in the flower bed to plant the seeds she'd suggested. She puts one of the seeds in Chuchu's outstretched arms, hoping that he'll help bury it. ]

Where I was... it was quiet. I went for walks at night with everyone, and I was told all the smallest roads to go on, s-so I didn't see many people until I moved to the dorms. And then when I saw the school... there were more people there than I had ever seen before. I-I couldn't imagine going to a school like that every day...

[Giving up on the chance to capture Anthy's attention, Utena pats down the soil around a seed she's planted, and for a moment she goes a little quiet, thoughtful in a way she isn't usually. Perhaps it is the hobby that gives her space for contemplation, or maybe just her present company.

But something makes her ask:]

Why didn't you have a choice?

[She looks up, brow furrowed, more concerned than accusing. She has become more aware of the wording of things, lately. Topics like choice.

It sounds so lonely, she thinks. Even if Uki says it wasn't.]

Did you ever wanna live somewhere else?

[ Chuchu is disappointed by the lack of snacks, but he leans into her touch– momentarily content because he is a spoiled little monkey who thrives off attention and affection. Feeling friendlier now, he moves out from under her palm and climbs up, scaling her arm so that he can sit comfortably on Uki's shoulder.

Anthy, who has been busy planting seeds, finally looks up. ]

What were your classmates like?

[ Anthy follows up with what seems like just as many questions as Utena and without much regard for the fact that Utena has already sprung a few questions on Uki herself. Their own school situation had been.. bizarre, to say the least. Anthy only realizes belatedly that they both can't help but be curious about what it might be like to spend your days surrounded by normal people. ]

[ Chuchu's new position makes it much easier for Uki to work with the soil. She's also very honored that he's perched there - animals have never been her strong suit, so for one to so obviously take to her is both new and exciting.

She covers up the first seed she's planted with the surrounding dirt, her hands coming together like a small blanket of warmth for the seed. Grow up big and strong, flower! Whatever kind it might be, Uki feels an attachment to it now. ]

Well, I... I watched over patients in a hospital. I was told to stay where I was, and there were people I had to look after. So I didn't ever consider leaving. I didn't want everyone to lose a caretaker. [ It's extremely clinical, extremely matter-of-fact; she had simply never considered leaving because if she did, she would be saving herself but hurting another. ]

There is - [ was, she can't bring herself to say yet - ] one classmate of mine... she's like a big sister. She's - much more independent than me, and a lot braver. Most people I know are like that. I'm not very good at talking to people, or being brave, but I... I want to get better at it. [ Which is, really, part of the reason she's glad she was invited to plant flowers - she shoots a soft smile at both Utena and Anthy to convey her gratitude. ]

[Utena listens to this, still puzzled, her focus split between Uki and her own work. She looks as if she's trying to work something out...then as what so often happened with her, she lets the thought go, dismissing it. It still seemed weird that someone who looked and acted so young was some kind of nurse...

But it's none of her business.

(Maybe she'd ask Anthy later.)

Instead:]

I bet there's plenty of stuff you're good at, though. As for me, I'd never be able to be a caretaker, or anything like that. I'm way too impatient!

[She lets her expression brighten up.] It's really amazing that you could do something like that.

[ Between Uki and Utena the ground has been worked and the seeds tucked away into their beds. Anthy stands, wiping the dirty off her knees and pulling a watercan from the mess of supplied they'd gathered. She'd taken it upon herself to fill it when she'd sent the other two off to play packmule.

Anthy stands on the other side of the flowerbed from Utena and Ukki, sprinkling their freshly planted seeds with water. Chuchu seems to have gotten up at some point as well, and he stands below the stream of water with what looks to be a little umbrella fashioned from a leaf. ]

You might surprise yourself– we are often capable of being more than what we think we're destined to be when push comes to shove.

[ She doesn't make a point to specify who she's talking to, and it doesn't seem like she will because she's started humming to herself– mentally checked out of this conversation entirely.

This is the first time she's ever done this with anyone else, she realizes.

The noise isn't so bad. ]

There.

[ Chuchu closes his umbrella, nodding with an approving "Chu". ]

I imagine we'll start seeing sprouts in a few days. But for the time-being we should leave them alone. Flowers are shy– seldom do they show their colors when all eyes are on them.

june catchall

for uki and utena

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