Day 1 | Memory Garden [Open]

[myblueskies]

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.

Comments

[myblueskies]

"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?"

[ergaleomancer]

"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.

[myblueskies]

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?"

[ergaleomancer]

"He died a long time ago. She's...had plenty of time to grieve," she explained, taking the rock and quietly thinking on the name before trying, getting the spelling right this time.

"Women don't have to stay inside, but...they can't have jobs or businesses, can't own or inherit property if they're married...the Queen doesn't see a reason to change that."

[myblueskies]

Oh, Romeo nodded, he guessed it was a little bit like that where he was from as well. But not always, after all lots of women worked, he wasn't sure about inheriting though.

"Is that why you want to be the Queen's clockmaker? So you can ask her to change it?"

[ergaleomancer]

She laughed at the idea, shaking her head. "Goodness no. It's because it's a prestigious position~. My father is the current High Ergaleomancer to the Queen, and I intend to be the next, that's all. And don't confuse clockworks and clocks. Clockworks are machines powered by winding them, the same way you wind a clock. But they can do nearly anything~!"

[myblueskies]

Romeo nodded still not fully understanding but he guessed that if her dad did something Theta would want to do the same thing, after all before Romeo went to Milano he wanted to be a farmer like his dad, and that was what he was expecting to do.

He nodded again, in his head he imagined a clock but huge and human size, with eyes, and feet and hands. A clockwork person, "Do you think you will be able to make the clock work people for the queen? Like your dad?"

[ergaleomancer]

She laughed at his understanding of clockworks, but nodded her head. "Yes. I've already made several. I'm the best of my generation, they say~. I'm going to graduate school with perfect marks and prove that I'm the best~."

[myblueskies]

Romeo grinned, "I hope that you get to, and that you get to fulfil your dreams sir!" He handed over the final rock, "Sugata," he said quietly. "Does the queen like your clockwork people?"

[ergaleomancer]

She considered the name, thinking on it for a few moments before writing 'Soogata'. So many foreigners!

"She hasn't seen mine herself, but...I'm told they're quite good. They're not always people, as well. Some of them look like animals."

[myblueskies]

Romeo was quiet a moment while his mind tried to create an image of clocks that looked like animals. "What kind of animals sir? Like dogs and weasels?" He remembered Piccolo and once again felt sad that his friend wasn't with him.

[ergaleomancer]

She cringed when he mentioned dogs, but nodded her head. "Dogs, cats, weasels, beetles...anything."

[myblueskies]

Romeo spotted the cringe and tilted his head, "Do you not like dogs sir?"

[ergaleomancer]

"No," she answered, taking a deep breath to calm herself down. Of course, there was that fog again--she couldn't recall why.

[myblueskies]

Romeo blinked but thought that Theta didn't want to talk about that anymore. Romeo placed the final rock next to the cross. There were a few other crosses that he piled at the side, for anyone else who had lost friends to use.

"Thank you for writing the names sir."

[ergaleomancer]

She nodded. "Of course, I don't mind." She smiled for him, then held out her hand. "Get me off the ground? Are you strong enough?"

[myblueskies]

Romeo grabbed Miss Buckley's hands and pulled her upwards stumbling backwards. "Of course I'm strong enough sir," he grinned and looked towards the memory garden that he had made. "There, now no one will ever forget."

[ergaleomancer]

She smiled when she was on her feet again, getting her cane under her and nodding with a cheerful expression. "This is a beautiful garden, Romeo. Thank you for making it."

[myblueskies]

Romeo looked up at Miss Buckley and smiled, "I hope that it makes people less sad, because they can remember their friends."

[ergaleomancer]

"I'm sure it will help," she agreed, smiling back at him encouragingly. "You've got a good heart, Romeo...one wonders what you'd do if you had more opportunities...."

[myblueskies]

[lights pan and show the sky as Romeo and Theta stand looking at the garden before it fades to black]