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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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?"

Romeo wrinkled his nose, "Why would I want to marry Bianca! She's my friend!. But he was glad that Miss Buckley wasn't telling him he couldn't follow his dreams any more. He nodded at her final words, "Yes sir!" Maybe he could help her fulfil it, he liked helping people fulfil their dreams.

Theta had already seized her dream, but she lived with the proof of it every day. Her hands went to the top of her boot on her bad side. "Do you have a strong stomach, Romeo?" She'd dispensed with the formality on his name, seeing him as something closer to a friend.

Romeo tilted his head and nodded even though he was slightly worried about what Miss Buckley was about to show him. He knew she had been hurt because she walked with a stick and he bit his lip worried that she was still hurting.

She pulled her trouser leg up a bit, showing him the boxy mechanism fastened around her knee. As long as she left it closed, it just looked like a clockwork box of some type, with pistons on either side to support it and allow it to move at the hinge.

"My dream has always been to walk," she explained. "If I didn't dream that, then I would probably give in. And it's a difficult dream, every day."

"To walk?" Romeo leant fowards to see the box on Miss Buckley's knee. It didn't look like Grenn's legs and yet it didn't look like anything Romeo had seen before either.

"Does it hurt lots?" He asked, worry tinging his voice. "Why couldn't you walk before?" He dreaded the answer really, because when he had asked Grenn that she had told him a disease had eaten her legs, and that she was lucky because sometimes it ate peoples heads!

She wasn't going to just open it up and show him the inner workings of it. She tucked her pants back into her boot and smiled softly. "I exploded my knee. Most of what's underneath that box isn't there. It holds the bottom part of my leg onto the top part."

But given his concerned expression, she decided to tell him one lie. "It doesn't hurt much any more. Just if I overdo it."

"You exploded your knee!" Romeo's eyes were wide, he remembered the explosion in the prison, Theta had managed to explode her knee?

He looked at the contraption before it was tucked away again, it looked strange and like nothing he had seen before. "It's good that they managed to fix it like that, I'm glad that you can walk now!" It was nice when people where able to relaise their dreams.

She smiled for him, nodding her head. "It's a nice dream. One I have to dream every day or it will fade away again. My other dream...well, that's why I'm going to school~."

Romeo nodded with wide eyes, dreams where like that you had to keep dreaming or you would lose sight of your dreams. "What is your other dream sir?"

"To be the next High Ergaleomancer to the Queen~," she insisted, though she then winced when something triggered a haze of fog at the back of her head. Something was missing again, and she wasn't sure what even was.

Romeo blinked at the unknown word, "Ergaleoman...?" He asked, though he saw the wince and frowned slightly, wondering what was wrong.

"Ergaleomancer," she repeated, pushing on despite how uneasy that sudden realisation of how little she knew made her. She smiled for him, even, but this wasn't a pleasant smile of friendship, rather the polite smile of someone in upper class society who had to save face.

"Someone who makes the clockworks that run my homeland."

"Oh!" Romeo smiled, he had paused in his painting some while ago and was watching Theta with curiosity, "So you wanted to make clocks for the Queen? Do you have a king as well?"

"Mm, there's..." She tried to wade through the increasing fog in her brain, but had to admit defeat. "Another part to what the High Ergaleomancer does, but I can't recall... I suppose I'll tell you about it with a few more memory charms. There's no king any more, Her Majesty is a widow."

She smiled for him. Talking about home felt nice, and she was enjoying sitting here with him. Sure, this was a solemn sort of place he was building, but...they weren't roughhousing or otherwise disrespecting that.

A widow, that meant the king was dead. "She must be sad, if her husband died." Romeo made another silent promise to buy Theta some memory charms.

He went back to painting his rock and handed it out to Miss Buckley, "Tomoko," the rock was painted clumsily with a shoe. They had met because Tomoko had forgotten how to tie her laces.

"I thought you said that in your world women had to stay in doors, if you have a Queen can't she change that?"

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