Thread Roulette: Landscaping

It was a nice day. So nice in fact that Addie was wearing a pair of jeans and a tank top. Most of Hammel’s employees couldn’t get away with wearing the relaxed clothes she wore daily, clothes like tank tops and ripped jeans, but she was maintenance, which made things a little different. The best part of today wasn’t the warm weather though. It was the fact that it had been a few weeks since she first planted her calla lilies. And now it was time to bring them to full bloom and make them more beautiful.

She was one of the few permitted to cross the equipment and signs. After all, she had to tend to the flowers and other plants. Once passed the signs, she went directly to her lilies, kneeling down into the dirt. In passing, she’d noticed a figure sitting on one of the benches. She only looked over to him when she was at the flowers. “If you didn’t see, the signs said people weren’t allowed over here.” But other than simply stating the fact, she made no attempt to shoo the boy away.

Instead though, she took hold of one of the flowers in her palm and concentrated on it. Watching it carefully, she smiled as its petals expanded and the white of the flower became whiter.

Addie liked the pond. It was soothing. The fish, the flowers. It was almost as if they weren’t actually on school grounds, but an area that was just naturally beautiful. Never mind the amount of time and work she put into the grounds, putting even more work into the area around the pond.

The older woman looked up at the boy, her eyebrow raised in a perfect arc. His answer, while not flat out rude, was still curt. It reminded her that kids today were different than they had been when she’d attended school here. But she was older now. She could let things go. Sometimes. Not always. But she could try. And even turn them into a joke. Or least try to do that too. “So you can read. That’s good to know.” She smiled a little, looking back at the flowers.

“So were you looking for a quiet moment alone and I ruined it?” She asked, legitimately curious as to why he was at the pond when it was obvious he shouldn’t be. And if he had been looking for peace and quiet, she would stop talking. She knew if somebody wanted to be felt alone, there was probably a reason. She’d also try to do her work to quickly as possible to let him have his space. Taking another flower into her hand, Black Eyed Beauty, a pale yellow Calla Lily, and watched as it opened up.

Addie’s head snapped up when she heard the boy had called her love. Dear lord. She knew kids today were more spoken about their affections, often calling each other pet names even if they weren’t truly close. But it had caught her so off guard. Because… Well… Nobody had ever called her that. And only on very rare occasion had anybody used any kind of term of endearment towards her. Except Joanne, but that was different. And he was essentially a baby in her eyes. It shocked the hell out of her to say the least.

After clearly being thrown off, she looked back down to her flowers. “Yes well, one expects when another can read signs of warning that they would follow those warnings. Are you the token bad boy of Hammel?” It honestly occurred to her that he might be, but she mostly teasing him though. Because she doubted walking past ‘no crossing’ signs to sit by the fishpond hardly qualified one as a ‘bad boy’. Unless times had really changed that much. Which was just kind of sad if that were the case.

Nodding, she looked carefully at her flowers. “Well, if it’s easier for you to remember, I could come back later to tend to these flowers.” One by one, she was tending to the flowers. It would be a long process. Not that she minded. It was mindless work. But not the least bit tedious. Plus, she liked going home with dirt under her nails and, usually, a splotch or two on her face. “Oh, I wasn’t worried if anything were to be ruined.” She told him reassuringly. “It’s quite easy to replant, wait for them to sprout, and bring them to bloom.”

“Any kind of plant. Trees though… Are difficult. Very difficult.” It’d been a number of years since the last time she’d tried to. But it’d been incredibly draining. She’d poured every bit of strength and focus into the tree and had passed out from exhaustion and dehydration. That was the only thing on Hammel grounds she allowed to on it’s own. Well, trees and grass. “You know what it is I do. Care to share your secret?”

Odion smiled pleasantly as shock made its appearance onto the woman’s face. He was only trying to be polite. He called almost every female ‘love’, and every male ‘mate’. It was just part of his vocabulary, and he often forgot it didn’t always work in every context. He was a social chameleon though, and was enjoying her reaction. It was hard to get staff members to come out of their shell. He really didn’t like their company to begin with, but perhaps this would be different.

The bad boy of Hammel? Odion let out a laugh at that remark, and shrugged. “I can’t really tell you if I am,” he said, a half smile on his face. He would rather say he was the one sneaking in the shadows at Hammel. He didn’t really think betraying Do Not Step on the Grass signs were all that bad. Really, there were far worse things to do here. Like blow things up, or set them on fire. He supposed stealing things from innocent people was pretty bad, but that wasn’t what she was asking about. Odion smiled politely as she blabbered on. He wasn’t planning on ruining her work, he merely thought she thought she was ruining his reverie. No matter, he wasn’t going to try and explain all that to her.

Odion nodded. Yes, after how long it took to rearrange the flowers, he could see why trees would be hard to grow. So she was a plant manipulator. What a truly lovely power. She even seemed to enjoy her work. “It’s nice to know who keeps Hammel beautiful,” he complimented. At least he was being genuine and not snarky. Well, that was until the Gesalt Pair arrived. It was such a pity that that power couldn’t stay hidden. Someone would know what they were dealing with right away.

The ginger sneered. Of course trees were harder to grow because they were bigger. They had more things to manipulate. Idiots... Odi had always found twins annoying. “Bonsai trees might be a different story...” he mumbled through his accent. It was no wonder that Odion liked being by himself. Most teens his age were horribly stupid. A few moments passed, and Odi glanced back to the caretaker. Well, she had asked him a harmless question, and he would answer. But only for her, not for the dynamic dunces. “Time control,” he said, looking at the pond with intensity.

Now if only he could slip back into the shadows.

With their heightened sense of hearing, both twins heard what Odion had muttered, and glanced over to him in unison, though didn't allow their smile to falter. "That's precisely why we were asking. Trees are not only more complicated due to a woodier stem, but can sometimes be bigger. There are big plants though, and small trees. We wanted to verify it was size versus something about the woodier stem."

It wasn't rude, condescending, mean - nothing of the source. Just letting the kid know they weren't daft. Uriel, meanwhile, had stayed silent - Gabriel was better at the 'nerdier subjects,' as he called them, so he just settled back and listened for a moment.

They weren't mean - they weren't trying to intrude or anything of the sort. If either of the two had told them they were intruding, they would've left at a moment's notice. But as no one told them 'oh, we were kind of having a private conversation,' they'd assumed it was public. Odion's sullen reaction to their presence told them otherwise, but they let nothing but cheeriness and politeness show to either of the two.

"Crabapples are delicious. Have you ever had it made into jam? Our mom makes some - it's fantastic." Uriel chose to casually overlook the fact that - naturally - the two boys helped their mom make such jam. And could probably make it on their own - people didn't need to know that.

"Ooh, time control," "Sounds fun! Hows yours work exactly?" And again - they weren't stupid. They understood the basic concepts. But some people could only move forward, some only backwards, some only in intervals, some mode with the time - so when they slowed time, they slowed down as well. It was always something special with metas.