isleofavalon | [Catch-All] Moving Forward

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[Catch-All] Moving Forward

🧙 WHO: Aerith Gainsborough, You
⚔️️ WHAT: Catch-All for August / September
🕒 WHEN: August / September
🗺️ WHERE: Aerith's flower shop, Camelot, and wherever else we need to be.
⚠️ WARNINGS: TBD

[They drop down! Click if you don't see them.]

► [01. Flowers, Flowers Everywhere]

[Aerith's flower shop has seen a lot more activity than she's expected. When she initially opened it, she'd assumed it would be a relatively calm pastime. She's not prepared herself for just how many visitors she'd get.

The upstairs loft painting has finally been completed, though it looks a... little like a child did it in some places. (That's Aerith's masterful painting at work there, along with some help from Nanaki—but the latter's was better.) She's made it less cluttered in most places, creating a nice comfortable little way off to the side where there's some in-house teas available at no additional charge. The patio outside now has a few smaller tables and chairs for those who want to sit in the sun and enjoy the sights. The other portion of the store holds a curtain of hanging ivy and other blooms that pave way for a plant paradise right within, though it can get a little warm and humid in there.

In short, Aerith has been busy.

Today, she's in the midst of writing some instructional cards for some of the newer plants that she's presenting in the front window. She tucks them in all nice and neat and catching the eye of the next passerby, she lifts a hand and offers a welcoming wave and a bright smile.]

► [02. A Real Place]

[Aerith... has never gone house shopping before and realises that as she's begun to look at new residences, she has no idea what she's actually gotten herself into. She's been using her phone to get around to the best of her ability, but with no real idea as to where she should be heading next or what seems to be the most logical course of action in terms of distance, she really spends most of her time wandering from one district to the other, stopping occasionally to examine some of the houses.

In the midst of still peering at her phone on the way to her next misadventure, she lifts a hand to grab onto the person nearest her, tugging on the arm.]

Hi, excuse me. Can you help me find this place here?

[And then she lifts up her phone. It's a nice, small, very modest looking place. Can't be more than two bedrooms at the most, if even that. Definitely bigger than the apartment she's currently stationed in, however.]

► [03. Lending a Hand - Don't Treep, Man]

[It's another moment where she's almost a little envious that she doesn't have green magic. It'd certainly make her growing anything significantly easier. But maybe that's a little too easy. There's something to be said about the achievement of hard work and earned success.

Not part of the green mage collective, Aerith helps around the farmland by doing a little bit of everything that she can get her hands on. Her favourite thing to do, however, is the watering. It's easy to find her going down a line of very small sprouts that have only just begun to pop right up out of the ground, modestly watering them.

And talking to them. Because that's a necessity, you know.]

Oh, look at you! [She croons happily.] You're looking so good! You're gonna grow up nice and strong, right? [In fact, Aerith is probably a little too excited about something as trivial as watering plants. But seriously—talking to them is good for them.]

► [04. Wildcard]

[As it reads on the tin. Wildcard option available for those who aren't looking to use the above prompts. If you'd like to do something special, please either PM, PP at ofthesky, or contact via Discord. We'll set something up!]

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Well, it's very nice to meet you, Barbara!

[Aerith is all smiles. At Barabara's very succinct question, she taps the bottom of her chin. It's very to the point. Disjointed a little. It's the first time she's considered that others from different worlds may not always be completely familiar with whatever the common language is. How complacent she's been.]

Healing plants, hmmm? When you ask that, do you mean plants that can be broken down into healing salves and things like that?

[Oh, good. Now that she's getting a better look at the shop, Barbara wasn't sure that this was actually the kind of place or plant knowledge she was looking for, but Aerith's response reassures her, and she nods.]

Barbara live in woods. Far from healers. Need supplies, in case fight goes bad.

[Because she gets in fights with things, a lot. And her recent encounter with sickness and Yvelon reminded her of things that can happen after you get injured, which she very much wants to avoid.]

[...She lives in the woods? As Aerith eyes her with something that is quite similar to awe and curiosity, she considers that she wouldn't hate living in the woods either, though she suspects that's for a very different reason. This woman is a bit eccentric, isn't she. And a little charming, to boot.]

Oh, I see...

[And all at once, she's reminded of when she and Balthier were attempting to relocate bees. They had to do something similar, though it wasn't for healing. Honestly, where is Aurora when she needs her? This seems like something she'd be more setup for. In fact, that seems like a great way to open the floor up to her, too.

Aerith reaches for her phone and she fiddles with it some moments before setting her gaze back onto Barbara.]

Most of the plants I have here right now are more decorative purpose. Not that I don't grow some for alchemical needs or healing. I think I have some here that would be good for soothing teas. Like if you had a cold or something similar. [So she beckons for Barbara to follow her and she points out at various plants along the way.] Now, that being said, there's a girl who works here with me and she makes all kinds of lotions and salves, and I bet she'd have all kinds of stuff she could share with you. Her name is Aurora. Have you met her yet?

[Ah... so as Barbara thought, these plants are for making things look nice. But a plant that she could use to brew tea for illness sounds useful, especially after last month, prompting a spark of interest in her eyes.]

Aurora? [That's that... thing in the sky, isn't it? Not that Barbara has seen much of them. It works as a name, she supposes. She shakes her head.] Not meet. Want to.

What plants make tea?

Edited 2021-08-27 21:12 (UTC)

I'll make sure you get you her contact information before you leave then. She's a real pretty blonde. Easy to spot in a crowd, I think. She definitely stands out.

[Aerith hasn't quite figured it out just yet, but there's just... something about her.

At Barbara's follow up question, Aerith perks up with a bright and cheery grin.]

Oh, that's pretty easy. Most of the plants in here you can make tea with. Lots of floral teas are great. Of course, there's some that are poisonous, so I wouldn't recommend making tea with just anything. [She takes a moment to assess the different plants in her shop, wondering how to simplify it. Her response, after all, she understands is very... vague.] Rose tea, for example, is a popular choice. Lots of people like it. It's noticeable, the scent and the taste. I personally find it very relaxing.

[Hm... Barbara will have to keep an eye out next time she's in Camelot. Or try and find her at the shop. There are plenty of crowds in the city and while it's usually not difficult to figure out who the other outlanders are, there's pretty and blonde aplenty amongst them.]

Rose tea... from rose hips? [She's foraged those in the summer sometimes, but the fruit takes a little more effort to eat than most and the plant's a literal pain to deal with, so she tends to avoid it unless there's nothing else.] Good for health?

[Aerith nods rather quickly.]

From my understanding, rose tea can be made from both the hips and the petals, but I think the flavour's a little different between the two. [At the second question, Aerith pauses for some moments. She's no expert botanist by any means, but she has been studying the local plants and their uses...] Rose tea is supposed to be pretty good for you, too. I know it's got vitamins in it and is good for keeping the body strong.

[Vitamins... those, to Barbara, are things she's seen in bottles at the grocery store. She heard something about them when she was sick, too, although she was too busy trying to violently clear infected gunk from her sinuses to pay attention.]

Vitamin make body strong--[She takes a closer look at a rose on display. The smell is deceptively sweet; she knows how difficult roses can be to handle.] Barbara try. How make?

[Aerith's expertise is definitely not in tea, but... at least when it comes to roses, she can explain it. Kind of. She hopes she does so in the right way, though.]

Well, with rose hips... those are what are leftover when a rose finishes blooming and loses its petals. There's a bulbous part where the petals were and you remove that. If you're making tea out of just the petals, it's a similar idea. You'd remove the petals from the plant and dry them to preserve them. Beyond that, tea is pretty simple—

[Well, at least it is in Aerith's little world.] —Add hot water and let it steep. Whether it's rose hips or rose petals, it's a similar idea. The longer you let it steep, the stronger the tea is. Mind you, I don't make tea professionally, so maybe take what I say with a grain of salt. To my understanding, most plants work like that. I'd wager you could probably take any plant, dry it, preserve it, and boil it in water. But maybe make sure the plant's not poisonous first.

[Hmmm. She'll have to try that next time the roses are in bloom--next summer, she realizes. That would be a long time to still be here, to leave the calamity frozen out there, still waiting to be undone or to consume.

It puts the thought of rosehips and teas out of Barbara's head for a moment, even as Aerith explains how to make tea with rose hips and rose petals and other things. When the other woman finishes talking, Barbara blinks, a little surprised, and she has to think to recall what was just said to her. Poison, right. No, that would be bad.]

Avalon--many plants. Barbara not know all plants on island. [...] Long time to wait for some plants.

[She nods without even a moment's hesitance.]

There really are a lot of plants. I don't know them all either. I want to say that I've been studying, but I admittedly haven't been. It's a lot to keep track of.

[Her weight shifts and she sets a hand atop her hip before she continues.] And you bring up the other part of that. If it's a seasonal plant, it can be hard to learn about it, especially if you're reaching the end of their season. Then you have to wait until the next one, whenever that is. Part of my goal here is, however, to simulate a plant's natural season, so that I can have even seasonal plants be available most of the time, even during a time it wouldn't ordinarily be growing.

[That comes with its own slew of complications, too.]

[Ah. Well, that sounds useful. A little far-fetched to Barbara, who grew up in a place where there was no way to make plants grow out of season, but probably something easy to achieve in a place like Camelot.

She looks around the shop and then tilts her head a little to regard Aerith.]

Useful. Green magic?

[Aerith is going to start tallying up the number of people who either assume, think, or ask if she has the Green magic. Honestly, the more she hears about it, the more she realises it's just like her to have something like it. So why hasn't she seen fit to learn it?

Maybe because she thinks that might make things too easy. Nothing worth having is ever easy.]

Hmmmmm! No, actually. [Aerith thinks about how to word it.] There are ways that you can mimic a plant's natural environment without relying on the actual environment and that's kind of what I'm trying to do here and even back at my place. It's not something that I think is very easy to explain, but even just changing the temperature or the amount of light a plant is getting can affect its growth. So I guess what I'm trying to do, since I don't have Green magic, is simulate a plant's natural habitat without it being in that habitat.

[Oh, so she has to to it just with her own ingenuity--that's interesting. And impressive, too.]

Plants more complicated than Barbara think. [~~barbara has no idea about the wondrous world of botany~~] Make plant think, summer inside, plant grow like it summer?

That's basically the idea, yeah. You're getting it just fine.

[Aerith smiles fondly. It means she was able to explain it somewhat properly and that's a plus.]

Easier said than done. Plants are smart, but I don't think they're as smart as people. For instance, it's probably not likely that you could make someone think there were somewhere they weren't. Maybe if it's a child, not not someone like you or me. So far, I seem to be successful, though. The real test will come during the colder seasons. I really want to see if I can take a plant that's used to the cold, crossbreed it with a plant used to warmer weather, and try to create a new plant that has the traits of the warm one, but the ability to withstand the cold.

[Complications upon complications.]

[That's a lot to follow, but it does seem to make sense... like when hunters breed the best of their dogs together, or breed the ones who are better at protecting than tracking to make guards. Only, with plants. It'd be easier to manage those than pups anyway.]

Ambitious. [...] Would mean on Avalon for long time.

That's true. It's probably a really long undertaking.

[It's false if Aerith claims she hasn't thought about this, but...]

None of us know how long we'll be here. From my understanding, we're here until we find a way to help the locals with things in Camelot. And the neighbouring kingdoms. I think I've heard that from some of the others here, but I don't know how true that is. I know about as much as you probably do. Frozen home worlds and all. But if I can do something that might help the others here, I don't see why I shouldn't. Besides, it's a great use of my time. Not sure what I'd be doing otherwise.

[Besides running errands for the locals, which is something she's already doing. Aerith is such a busybody that it seems like she intentionally doesn't leave time for herself. It's bound to catch up with her eventually.]

Barbara see Calamity, from edge of island. Strange. [Deeply, deeply disturbing--to see the shockwave, giving every indication of motion into the universe except motion itself.

And she feels a similar feeling. It's frustrating that she can't just go out and fight it, which is her preferred solution to most problems, but she's not going to sit idle on Avalon either.] Barbara not know if trust kings, wizards. But still do things, like Aerith. Always busy.

Did... you just say Calamity?

[Aerith's eyebrows knit together curiously.] Do you mean like... back home? Or are you talking about here in this world? [Because as she's cycling through the various things she's learned about Camelot and the surrounding area, she can't readily recall anything about a 'Calamity.'

That's not a word lacking in weight either. To describe something as calamitous might as well be in the same vein as an 'atrocity.' She's left pondering what exactly she might be referring to, interrupted by the thought of kings and wizards.]

Mmm... I'm not sure what I think about that Merlin guy, but I think King Arthur is probably okay. I might be biased on that, though. It's not as if I know either of them. Most of us probably don't, actually.

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[Catch-All] Moving Forward

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