rakuen | Day 1 | Memory Garden [Open]

Day 1 | Memory Garden [Open]

Characters: Romeo and anyone
Format: Prose/action, you pick I'll match
This log is: open, come join him, paint some stones, have philisophical conversations...
Location: The edge of the forest, near the lake
Summary: People have been disapearing and Romeo is scared that he will forget them, even with some of their memories. So he is making a memory garden.
Warnings: Sadness, but it's Romeo so nothing too heavy

Romeo sat by the forest edge, near to the lake. It was a good place, with a nice view. Around him where a pile of sticks, which he had collected from the forest. A pile of stones that he had gathered from the lakeside, some string and some paint in different colours borrowed from a classroom.

He counted the people on his fingers. The people he had known who had disapeared, to be fed to the tiger or otherwise. Thirteen, thirteen that he had met, and he knew there would be more. But thirteen was a start.

Grabbing some sticks and string he began, soon he had a very messy cross and he stuck it into the ground. Since the school had stolen his memory of reading he could not write the names of his friends, but he took a rock and some paint and began painting. He wasn't a good artist, he had learnt that while trying to capture the blue skies for Angeletta. But soon he had a rough picture of a book.

He placed it next to the cross, For Kuchinawa. He would remember. He picked up another two sticks and wondered what picture he would paint for Molly.

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She eyed the ground sceptically. "I'll...have to get a chair, unless you can help me up and down." Though hearing that he could read made her smile. That was unexpected, really, but it was good to know. It further confirmed that he was cleverer than his status in life let on.

"That was a stupid thing for the school to take away. I'll have to see if I can get a few more tokens and buy you a memory charm. We can but hope your reading will come back with one and not need more." She was letting her mouth run away with her, as she usually did when she wanted to be candid--she found it easier to simply open up and start talking than she did to pre-plan everything. And yet this time she found herself saying the strangest things! What was this?

"Still," she continued. "It's quite impressive to master reading in just a year's time. You must be dreadfully clever, young Mr. Romeo. You should be proud. ...I wonder if you'd have a hand for ergaleomancy if you'd been from my world..."

She let the thought hang in the air and eyed the ground again. She put her bad leg out wide to the side, balancing on her cane, then used it as a pole to slide down and settle on the ground. "Huh...easier than I thought..."

"I can help!" Romeo jumped up to help. He nodded, it was not very nice of the school at all but it was very kind for Miss Buckley to offer to buy him a memory charm. "When I get tokens I will buy you a memory back as well sir! Though they sometimes cheat and make you remember sad things!"

He blushed slightly at the compliments, "I didn't master reading, but I did manage to read Moby Dick! But I'm not that clever, Alfredo was much more clever than I am!"

He sat down when he saw that Miss Buckley had managed to sit and handed her the first stone, "This one is for Kuchiniwa," he picked up another two sticks and started making another cross.

She nodded. She'd expected that, and she wasn't about to turn down a bit of quid pro quo. Romeo was interesting, she liked his company, and it turned out he was useful as well. "Moby Dick is a good story. While we're waiting to earn more tokens, I'll read a few stories to you. Good, proper literature, not children's stories." She didn't mind offering since she loved literature as well, and she knew she had a good speaking voice. It wouldn't hurt to practice it.

She took the rock and the paint and frowned at the foreign name. "I...might mis-spell it. I've never heard names like that until I came here." Still, she thought hard about the way it sounded, and got it mostly correct--writing 'Kucheeneewa' on the rock in large, blocky letters.

Romeo grinned and nodded, "That would be nice sir!" After all he had only ever read some Aesop's fables and Moby Dick, it would be nice to hear some other stories. Especially since Romeo wasn't a child any more!

"Alfredo used to read Voltaire, but I don't know any other books!" As they were speaking he was painting the third rock, he passed the second one to Miss Buckley, "This ones for Molly!"

"Voltaire...now that's not exactly 'story' kind of reading. I was thinking perhaps 'The Doctor's Wife' or something more entertaining..." She felt the fog creeping in at the corners of her awareness again and growled, putting her hand to her temple. "I think...I look forward to us trading memory charms."

Molly was easy to write, so she painted that on the rock for him as well, and set it back in place, waiting for him to finish with the next one for her to write the name on.

Romeo had never heard of that story but he nodded. If Miss Buckley liked it it must be a good story! "That would be nice sir!" He finished paining the yellow hair onto the third stone and passed it over, "This one is for Rapunzel!"

He put together another cross and picked up another stone, slowly thinking of something to paint. He hadn't know Miss Reiko too well but he tried to think of something special to paint.

She took the stone and painted the name on, then put it in place. Then, while Romeo was thinking of what to paint, she picked up some wood and started making another cross. Two hands worked faster, and she'd missed making things. This wasn't her usual brass and mahogany, but...it needed doing, really. Would people remember her like this when she left? No, she'd graduate and leave no regrets behind, say goodbye and go home properly.

This school was strange, and she didn't like it one bit. Perhaps she would get Romeo working with Sherlock. They all seemed to be in this together to do something about the school's sick game. "You're very dedicated, you know..."

Romeo was starting to feel strange that Miss Buckley kept praising him, he wasn't used to it at all but he grinned politely. "Thank you sir," he smiled at the cross she was making before finishing his pattern on the rock. "This one is for Reiko!"

Another stone was picked up, this next person was harder as Romeo had never met them, but he had seen them disapear and he would remember them. "Miss Buckley, what's it like where you come from?"

Theta was used to interacting with people in two ways--being nasty to them, or manipulating them with praise. The only people she interacted naturally with were her parents, and Romeo hadn't impressed her that much. She wasn't manipulating him yet, certainly she wasn't trying to, at any rate, but she didn't really know how to talk to him normally, either.

She took the rock and sounded out the foreign name a few times, then carefully wrote "Rayko" on it. The names weren't perfect, but she was putting her heart into writing nicely.

"I come from London, in a world filled with clockwork machines and run by steam power. It's beautiful, but...it's somewhat...monochrome. The pollution levels are very high, so there's a brownish haze in the air all the time. It makes things look dingy and dim, and it's in vogue to wear very muted colours, as well. ....There aren't any plants in the city, either. They won't grow for a hundred miles in any direction. Still, it's home."

"No plants?" It sounded awful! Romeo imagined clocks, clocks that could move, and steam? Like a train! There were lots of words in Theta's speach that Romeo didn't understand, like Monochrome and Vogue but he understood the gist. It sounded interesting, but Romeo did not think he'd like to go there.

"I heard of London in my world, but I don't think it's run by clocks!" Then again he'd never been to London so it might be, for all he knew.

"If we ever escape you should come to my world, to my village Sonogno, it is so beautiful, a hundred different flowers grow there!" He finished Road's stone and handed it over. "She was called Road."

"Even Milano is beautiful, up on the rooftops and the sky is the bluest blue! Not brown at all." The next stone was for Shoujou, and even though they had got off to a bad start he was someone that Romeo should still remember.

"I don't know whether we're from the same world, but I doubt it. Cities all have that brownish haze in my world, I think." That wasn't true, but Theta didn't realise it. She'd only been in London, Cambridge, or the countryside, so cities were centres of smog and pollution as far as she knew.

"It would be nice if we could visit each others' worlds, though... I don't really care about flowers, but I like bright colours. Colours are beautiful, they mean so much to me." She smiled, sighing fondly as she thought of the French countryside she'd visited when she was smaller.

She took the rock and painted the next name, then went back to making crosses ahead for him while she waited for the next one to name. "I don't think I'd ever get up onto the roofs, though."

Romeo glanced at Miss Buckley before nodding sagely, "Yeah I guess not, you are much too tall to fit up a chimney!" He handed the next rock over, "Shoujou," and put his hands to making another cross.

"Colours are important, my friend Angeletta used to be able to imagine all the colours, and smell the blue skies just from smelling Piccolo's fur." Something that Romeo couldn't remember, something else the school had stolen, the smell and feel of his ferrets fur.

He smiled as he continued painting before handing another rock over, "and Tsuki."

Theta took the rock and painted the name on it, again having to sound out how it sounded. She wrote 'Showjo', still going with phonetic spellings of foreign-sounding names. "I didn't think I was all that tall," she said, laughing softly at the idea.

"I didn't think that colours had a smell... Perhaps I've been away from them for too long. I think...green must smell like fresh linen..." She closed her eyes, trying to imagine it. Then she opened them again, taking the rock to write "Sookey", the worst spelling of all of them, but definitely trying.

Romeo handed over another rock, "This ones for Yuki," another one of Miss Sora's princesses, all disapeared. Miss Kotarou was still here though, Romeo should go and check and make sure she was alright since Miss Sora had gone.

"You're too tall to fit up a chimney, that's why kids have to do it because the adults are too big." He grinned, "They must still have chimney's in London right? Do you have chimney sweeps or do the clocks clean everything?"

They obviously wern't doing a very good job if everything was dirty, Romeo painted the last few strokes onto the other rock. "This one is for Kotorou." He would have to show Huashi, and see if she wanted to paint a rock for her friend as well.

Theta took the rock and carefully painted 'Youkey'. "Some families have clockwork sweeps, mine does. Some places still use children." She thought for a moment, then shrugged. "They say it's too dangerous for children, but I think it's important. It teaches them the value of work from an early age. Perhaps if more learned it, there would be less layabouts amongst the adults of the lower class."

She huffed a bit, but really Theta was being unfair. Unemployment was running high because more and more jobs were being replaced with clockworks. She was only looking at the unemployment rate and concluding that the lower class was getting less and less willing to work.

Kotorou's rock took more thought, but finally Theta painted 'Cotorow'. "So many strange names...I've never even heard names like most of these."

Romeo shrugged, "I'd never heard your name before either, but I guess that's because I only ever met people from Milano and Sonogno."

He passed over another painted rock, "This one is for Sora," his voice took on a tinge of sadness when he said that, the loss was still new.

He blinked at her words but he guessed she was right, "It's not too dangerous, I only broke my leg once!" He frowned, because even though she was right, and it did teach children the value of work until Alfredo had created the Black Brother's no child had survived their time in Milano.

"Often the bosses are mean though, Luini the man who takes children from their villages to sell them to bosses is called the God of Death because hardly any children who he takes ever survives. But it's more because the bosses are mean, and you don't get enough food, and other children are in gangs when you are alone..." He frowned again realising he was drifting into things he'd rather not think about.

He gave a smile spirits up! "We survived though, because of Alfredo."

He thought about what Miss Buckley had said, about how working as children made people not be layabouts and shook his head slightly. "But sir, Doctor Casella says that education is the way to make sure everyone can get a job and survive. So if the clocks do all the work in your world does that mean all children get to go to school?"

Because that would make Miss Buckley's world not so bad at all, despite the lack of colour and flowers.

She blinked in surprise when Romeo spoke of education. She took the rock and wrote Sora's name on it, considering all the while how to answer Romeo. Finally she spoke, but she was unsure about it. "Schools cost money. Not everyone is willing to work a bit harder to afford the fees for their children. They're open to anyone who pays, though, so it's their fault if they won't work hard enough to go."

Theta believed, mistakenly so, that anyone was capable of pulling themselves up if they tried. While that was true to a certain extent, how were the poor to afford school tuition when they couldn't find jobs to begin with and could barely afford food? Partly, her views were based on ignorance. She knew very little about the lower class, as the lower class wasn't something she had to deal with. Also, she agreed with the majority thought on the lower classes as held by people of her own class.

Partly, her views were based on an inherent disdain for anyone who wasn't educated. The fact that the poor couldn't get an education translated in her mind to wouldn't, as an education had been an inherent part of her childhood. Willing ignorance was one of the most disgusting things in her mind, second only to refusing to devote one's self to something.

"Perhaps if more children worked as chimney sweeps to afford their school fees, the lower classes would be better off."

Romeo wrinkled his nose, because Theta was right, schools cost money just like doctors cost money and people couldn't afford either of them most of the time. "But...people cant pay to go to school when they can't even afford food! Anyways Chimney sweeps don't get paid."

"They sell themselves for a price but that goes to their parents, and parents selling their children need to buy food for their other children," Romeo wondered why his parents had sold him, he couldn't remember and it made his head go all fuzzy when he tried.

"But if everyone got an education then they would have jobs, and then their children wouldn't have to sell themselves as chimney sweeps. It's like doctors, Doctor Casella always helped those who couldn't aford to pay him, but other doctors don't and let people die!"

She blinked as he explained about chimney sweeps. That hardly made sense, then again... Really, it rather did. A sickening sort of sense, and she frowned deeply. "That sounds a lot like slavery. That's been banned for a long time where I come from."

She sighed softly as he explained about Doctor Casella, shaking her head. "Doctors are important people, but it's a profession as well, and just as irreplaceable as chimney sweeping. You wouldn't want to sweep a chimney and not get paid for it, would you? Or...whoever you work for that bought you. But if the chimney doesn't work, then there's no fire, and people can die of cold. Did you think of it that way?"

That was true! Romeo frowned as he thought about that surely there were people who wouldn't be able to afford a chimney sweep and then die! But surely if they couldn't afford a chimney sweep they wouldn't be able to afford anything to burn. But people must die of cold all the time!

"If someone asked me to clean a chimney and they couldn't afford to pay I would do it anyways!" He said stubbornly, but he had already thought it through and seen how it wouldn't work. "But Mr Rossi wouldn't have let me I guess... and if Mrs Rossi found out we'd worked for no money she'd flip!"

He sighed, he guessed things couldn't be fair, he was interested that Miss Buckley had said that slavery, and by that he thought she was talking about parents selling their children, was banned where she came from.

"I'm going to learn everything and be a teacher and then I'm going to teach all children even if they have no money! Then everyone will be free and happy!" He had a stubborn glint to his eye but he was still smiling.

"If you teach people for free, how will you afford food and a place to stay, Romeo? It's a nice dream, but it's utterly impractical." This was more familiar. Crushing dreams was something she did regularly. Except this time...she was doing it for his own good? Was that it? It felt like it, but at the same time, Theta was confused. Everything had become confusing since she'd gotten here.

"Or perhaps you'll teach the ones that can't afford it for free, but charge the ones that can. They'll get jealous, you know, and they'll start telling you they can't afford it either. Because why should they have to pay when others don't? How is that fair?"

"I'd get another job! Then I could afford to live and be able to teach people for free." He continued painting his rock, feeling weird, because it wasn't like usual. When people told him he couldn't do things it was usually because he was too small, or too young or not smart enough. But Doctor Casella had told him he could do anything and now Miss Buckley was saying he was unfair.

He didn't want to be unfair! He wasn't to be kind to everyone! To help make a world where children didn't have to be sold as chimney sweeps. "But if I had money, and could afford to go to school I wouldn't be jellous of the ones who couldn't afford it!"

"Utena," he handed the rock over. "Did you go to school sir? I guess you did, you're a noble lady right?"

She shook her head. "Teaching is a full-time commitment, Romeo. It takes eight hours each day in the classroom, plus many long hours at night in grading, planning, and preparation. Unless you magically don't need to sleep, you'd never be able to hold down a second job that would pay enough to live on. Doubly so if you intend to have a wife."

She kept her tone even and somewhat gentle. She didn't want him to think she was being cruel. Even when she was, she never wanted people to think she was cruel. That would ruin her ability to pull this with them. She couldn't crumble dreams if she didn't have people's trust.

"Perhaps you might manage it if you made your wife get a job as well as you, but...women are meant to run the home, nothing more nothing less..."

At Theta's words about his wife Romeo grinned. "You don't know many women do you! You should try telling my friend Bianca that she is meant to only run a home, she's going to be a nurse!" He grinned again, "And if you tried to tell Nikita she was meant to do anything she'd probably knock your teeth out!"

A moment later Romeo's eyes went wide as he realised that he wasn't teasing with the Black Brother's but talking to an adult! His smile faded and he edged away ever so slightly. "I'm sorry sir! I didn't mean to be rude. I'm sure your right, it will be hard." He stared at the ground for a moment. But then his eyes took on a slightly stubborn glint.

"But I promised Alfredo that I would realise my dreams, and the dreams he was not able to fulfil himself. So I have to become a teacher and help make a world where all children run free under the blue sky. Because you should always keep your promises, right sir?"

She laughed brightly when he stood up to her, and she shook her head when he apologised. "It's good to know you're a polite young man, Romeo, but I think I like your spunk more than your propriety," she admitted, reaching over to try to pat his back reassuringly.

"A nurse is a fine profession. Perhaps if you had a wife like Bianca, you might just manage to scrape by." What was she doing? What? She could have smacked herself. This wasn't how it went. She wasn't supposed to offer pointers, she wasn't supposed to back down until his dreams were smoking rubble! Just what had gotten into her lately?

...Oh right. Romeo was the one who dutifully called her 'sir', and every time she heard the word it warmed her icy heart. "It will be devilishly hard, all dreams worth dreaming are. But people are stronger than that, if they try to be. ...Would you like to see my hardest dream?"

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