Somewhere, a Garden

[krangke]

Who: Newt & Anyone else whose interested
What: Newt is constructing a garden for the citizens of Hadriel. Hopefully with some help from the citizens of Hadriel.
Where: Somewhere by the lake.
When: March 4-6th ish?
Warnings: Possible mentions of gore, swearing. Pretty tame.

(Newt is understandably pissed. But also incredibly motivated.

To learn that someone had already asked for seeds but then had done absolutely nothing with them grated on him in a way that drove against every part of him that yearned for a structured society. What they had right now was nothing. The people here might be tame and without the craze of an uncontrolled mob but that didn't change the fact that they were weaker apart than they were together. They needed to start functioning as a society. Newt was still fairly convinced that throwing something like this into the lot would help with that. Maybe people would feel communally obligated to some extent. There were good people here, people with talents and skills and the will to help out. Newt was putting his faith in that.

He was also really tired of laying around staring at the wall and hating everything about everything. That was the funny thing about resilient pessimists. They were really bad at staying down for long. Even after everything.

Gathering the supplies wasn't hard. Finding the plot of land (a nice patch of flat ground 25' by 30') was also pretty easy. Not a whole lot in this place, after all.

It was everything else that was difficult. Newt worked relentlessly. Most days he started in a sweater and wound up in a tank top or no shirt at all. His body was filthy an hour into work and his hands destroyed pretty quick on the first day. His own fault for not being able to find good, sturdy gloves. He blamed that on his impatience. He made due with strips of fabric to try and salvage some skin on his hands. The very first thing he did was work with the land.

Some of the garden was going to be raised beds, he had decided, while others would be traditional in ground sections. He didn't row things off. They had to feed a lot of people and rows were only beneficial in plots of lands that went over acres of land. They needed to conserve as much space as possible and get as many plants out of it as possible. He had a sketch pad filled with drawings for the layout of the garden- including fences that would provide shade for some plants and fences that would be perfect for vine plants. He even had some workings of some sort of rough irrigation system drawn out on one of the pieces of paper. Any of which anyone could walk by and see scattered by his work station.

His work station which was actually kind of just a pile of tools. He hadn't found the wood or material for the fence yet but right just then, he was focused pretty intently on digging up the ground and working it in his favor.

This process was tedious. He stopped for water often and to lean off his bad leg every now and then before driving back in. His arms were made for this though so it wasn't as painful as it could be. Sometimes he'd stop and sit off to the side of the garden and work in his sketch book, a focused look on his face as he worked a pencil in hurried strokes over the paper trying to solve some sort of problem or another.)

OOC: This is a suuuuuper open post. Feel free to have your character help him turn up the land, give him seeds, help him find materials for fencing, come in with materials for fencing, come with tips on irrigation. Literally anything at all! Or if your character just wants to bother him that's fine too. He'll appreciate the company either way.

Comments

[mismanagement]

[Truthfully, with all the madness running about, Maketh nearly forgot about her promise to give Newt farming tips. She remembers it during one of her daily walks through the ruins, scouting out supplies and possible changes to the map. And then there was Newt, covered in dirt and working hard.

She thought of her family, for a moment. Trying to make things grow in dust.

The earth seems better suited to crops here, though. Perhaps they have a chance.

Maketh tucks her notebook under her arm and walks over. She's never actually spoken to Newt in person before.] How goes it?

[krangke]

(Newt wasn't holding it to her at the very least. It's not that he had forgotten about the promise but there was so much else happening around Hadriel that he had put it in the back of his mind.

Maketh had only ever texted Newt though and so he doesn't recognize the voice or the woman when she approaches. He digs his shovel into the ground before coming to a stop, glancing up.

It's still a bit of a knee-jerk reaction for him to be a little cautious about adults but he's gotten better enough about it that it's not so obvious.)

Hello. It goes well.

(His eyes cut away from the woman briefly before sliding back to his garden.)

Can I help you?

[mismanagement]

[Maketh blinks. He doesn't recognize her. Why..?] Oh, you wouldn't know my face. I'm Maketh. We spoke.

[krangke]

Oh!

(Recognition instantly flows onto his face. He is really good with names.)

Right! Sorry. Hello, Maketh. It's good to meet you. I'd shake your hand but uh.

(He wiggles a hand. It's filthy and a bit bloody. So, you know.)

[mismanagement]

[She laughs a little, smiling. She likes this child. He's logical and polite. Maketh thinks she can understand him, most of the time. Newt's world might possibly be the most confusing thing she's ever encountered, even second-hand, but New himself is relatively straightforward. Maketh appreciates that.] I understand. I thought I would see how you're doing.

[And maybe offer advice, if any of her knowledge is related. Maketh hasn't been a farmer for a very long time - more than twenty years - but some things are buried deep. Hard to forget.]

[krangke]

(That about sums Newt up, really. And yeah, she wouldn't be the first one to be thrown by his words so there's no being insulted there either. At her inquiry, he gestures around him to the plot of land.)

Truth be told, I was going completely mad.

(He gives himself a light pat on the back for that one. He really was getting better.)

This place really doesn't offer much in terms of ah...stimulation, I suppose. Just lay around mostly gaping at the wall. And after everything- I figured a garden would be a good idea.

(He doesn't bother to mention how he hadn't been so great the past month. Wasn't worth it. He's done with that part of his life now and wanted to move on already.)

How are you doing? Adapting to the lovely cave-home here?

[mismanagement]

Oh. [Truthfully she hadn't thought of that. Maketh has been keeping herself fairly busy here, with all her organizing and endless lists. Plus the whole wendigo thing. She supposes it would be different for a younger person.] The soil here seems rich. Good for planting.

[Better than on Lothal, at any rate. It also looks like he's done this before. Possibly in the Maze? Either way, it's useful here. Maketh shrugs, a casual gesture.] I suppose. It's very different from what I'm used to. Its very strange not to see the sky.

[krangke]

(Newt...would have been keeping himself busy if it weren't for. Certain things having happened. Didn't even have to do with the whole wendigo thing, ironically. He hadn't been in the right place to be busy. It wasn't so much his youth as it was his well-being.) Some people had thought it wouldn't be. Not sure why I ever believed them.

(He sighs a bit, rolling his eyes at himself. That's what you get for banking on rumors. She's right though. He has done this before.)

The Maze had a fake sky too.

(He looks up at the "sky" of Hadriel and frowns a little.)

It was much more convincing than this sky at least. What was your sky like?

(Because the only 'real' sky Newt was used to was a dangerous sort of sky that could burn your skin the moment you stepped out under it. He's got a hunch that's not a regular sky.)

[mismanagement]

There are worse places to grow things. [Not that it had stopped people from trying, either out of stubbornness or desperation. Maketh blinked, surprised at the question.] It was very clear on Lothal. You could see the stars at night. Sometimes there were heat shimmers. Or mirages, I suppose you'd call them. Do you know what those are?

[krangke]

(Lothal. It was strange sounding and he idly wondered if that was the name of her world or what. Either way, he listens with rapt attention almost closer to that of a child rather than a young adult's.)

Yes. I think so. Isn't that when....

(He scrapes into his memories. He knew he knew it. The desert. Heat. He snaps his fingers in conclusion.)

Yeah. When there's 'images' sort of wavering in the heat in the desert or something like that, right?

[mismanagement]

[Smart boy. Maketh gives him a little smile. She likes the close attention that Newt is paying to her words, though she does have to wonder why. Perhaps, with such a strange place for his own home, he's curious about hers. Or at least what she might consider normal.] Correct. Things appear blurred due to the layers of hot air. In more extreme cases, people can see things that aren't there at all. Usually when dehydrated, though.

[She pauses.] It's not always so dire. They're quite beautiful sometimes. I miss them a little.

[krangke]

(It is a bit of a mix of that and the complete lack of memories. Newt is endlessly curious about all of the worlds people come from. Things like malls are entirely exotic to him so it's pretty easy to capture his attention so raptly.)

The human brain is pretty funny like that. I wonder why the brain does that.

(He mumbles that last part. The kid's even more endlessly curious about the human mind.)

It sounds like it could be quite lovely. And you said your family had a farm, right? What was your family like?

[mismanagement]

I'm sure there's an explanation for it somewhere. [If she had her datapad with her, Maketh would have looked it up right there. She liked knowing this and, occasionally, helping others learn things. She rocks back on her heels at the mention of her family. It's not an unpleasant memory, exactly, but --

Well.]

They were kind, I suppose. Stubborn.

[her explanations are uncertain, careful. Maketh doesn't remember very much about her family.]

Lothal is mostly desert. Not good for farming. I left for the Academy when I was very young. My parents died before I graduated, and I had no siblings.

[krangke]

There usually is an explanation for everything.

(It's what Newt likes best about science. And what he likes least about magic.

The look he gives her isn't necessarily suspicious but inquisitive in a more peculiar way. He himself didn't remember his family the slightest but her uncertainty struck him as...Odd, maybe?)

Oh.

(He nods seriously but offers no apologies. He has no real concept of parents enough to feel the typical sense of pity or sympathy but at least he knows death is sad for most people.)

Do you miss it then? Most people seem to miss their childhood homes.

[mismanagement]

There is, most of the time.

[There's comfort in that. The certainty of it. Maketh hesitates, gripping her notepad.] I don't remember them very well. But, well. Lothal--the situation was complicated, back then. My parents were good people. But it was not a good place to live. Do you understand?

[krangke]

Yes. I do.

(And he does at once, his tone completely sincere.)

Personally, I find value in the people around me rather than the place. I've seen all kinds of hellish places but it's never been so bad so long as I've got people to care about.

(Newt shrugs a bit like it's really that simple. For him? It is. It always has been. It's never been the world that's moved him but the people that inhabit it.)

I imagine that can go the same for just about everyone else.

[mismanagement]

[Maketh nods. She supposes he would understand, at least about what it's like to live in complicated times. But having people - well. Maketh left hers behind. In a way she's been doing that her entire life.] I left because, somehow, I thought I could make it better.

[Perhaps a foolish thought, but one she'd believed in. And she might have failed on Lothal, but she's going to try again here. In Hadriel, she'll work harder.

Maketh clears her throat.]

Your garden -- it's coming along. That's good.

[krangke]

Most time when people leave it's because they think they can make something better. Don't feel bad about that.

(They had done a similar thing, hadn't they? Left the Maze into the unknown? It had been hope for everyone. It just also had lead to Newt's death. Which, to Newt, was a strange form of a better thing anyway.

He looks over his shoulder and grins despite himself. It felt good to be working with his hands again.)

Yeah, it is. Someone's bringing me some seeds. Hopefully they'll grow in well.

[mismanagement]

[It's not the intent, really, Maketh doesn't say, but what comes after. Though she supposes her reasons - and the apologies that followed - won't matter that much to Newt. That was then and this is now. Maketh smiles a little.] I'm sure they will. You know what you're doing.