wedonot | SIXTY SEVEN ✖ VOICE & SPAM

[Private to the Admiral]

May I have a set of keys to the greenhouse, please?

[Public]

Since Ivy's left, [Vanished, really, he probably shouldn't use the euphemism even though it's impossible to know if this is permanent or not.] I've asked the Admiral to give me keys to the greenhouse. I hope no one minds.

[He doesn't... actually know all that much about gardening from a first hand perspective, but he feels like someone owes it to Ivy to make sure the plants are well cared for.]

[Spam for the Garden]

[The problem with this plan is that Charles doesn't really own clothes that are good for gardening in. He's got clothes he wears to run in, and spar and fight in (which is still sort of strange to think about, because he still hasn't really made peace with the idea of being a fighter), and the rest of his wardrobe pretty much screams frumpy professor or at least "I haven't gone shopping for clothes since the 1950's" to any modern observer.

So he's kneeling in the garden pulling weeds after he makes his brief announcement, wearing a borrowed pair of gloves and getting dirt all over an old pair of slacks, but he doesn't really care. It's good, to be outside doing something productive and methodical, and it helps make the recent losses and the lingering presence of the flood easier to bear.

He knows he should be checking in with people - his family especially, because it seems like they've been hit particularly hard recently - but at the moment, it's easier to carefully uproot the weeds and replant them somewhere where they won't choke the life out of the other plants.

Considering how much Ivy had cared about everything that grew here, he doesn't want to kill them if he can help it.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It's been a while since he asked for counseling. That's not out of fear of treatment, it's just the Motorcycle Boy's brain at work: he forgets where he is. Sometimes he forgets who the people nearest to him are. Twice now, he's forgotten he has an inmate (and when he remembered his responsibilities he forgot Harvey's name).

It always comes back in the end, though. So when he walks into the garden and sees Charles he smiles.]

Hey.

[Charles senses his approach, but doesn't look up from what he's doing until he's addressed. He wipes his forehead on his sleeve and manages a smile in return.

He's still sad, but there's no question that this is helping. It's good, to be doing something.]

Hello.

Are you okay?

[He figures he ought to ask that, not just because Charles seems tense, but because psychiatrists probably rarely get any concern about their welfare. Of course, he admits, that might be wrong; he's never known anyone besides his dad who even graduated high school. Maybe with education comes people who give a damn.]

I'm alright. [And it's not actually a lie. He's been worse, and has something to do that's actually productive, so he actually feels pretty okay, despite all the reasons why he maybe shouldn't.] How are you?

Better than most, I think. Seems like a lot of people left all at once. [He moves closer, because if he doesn't he won't be able to hear anything Charles says. For some it might seem like he's invading personal space, but mostly the Motorcycle Boy just seems so detached from the world that it's like he's not there at all.]

You knew most of them?

Edited 2013-09-12 05:16 (UTC)

[It's a little unsettling. Charles is a little weird about personal space, in that he doesn't mind people he knows well intrude on it, but since he's a complete strange, it's kind of uncomfortable. Still, he doesn't move away just yet, trying not to be weird about it.]

When you've been here as long as I have, you know almost everyone on board. [Which is true, and there have been a lot of people who have come and gone in the twoish years he's been here.] But yes, a lot of the people who vanished this month were people I cared for, in one way or another.

SIXTY SEVEN ✖ VOICE & SPAM

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