[EP] each has been sent as a guide

[st_oriedqueen]

Even for a witch, keeping track of inventory in a inn that magically resupplied itself on no definable schema, planning for non-magical and magical shortages and disasters, was only about 10% magic and 90% paperwork. For a witch putting the inhabitants of that inn before herself as penance for past evils and in place of her actual victims, it was 100% soul-searing. Especially because of her self-imposed restrictions on telling people what she'd been doing (they had to notice, because if she spoke through actions she wasn't being boastful or attention-seeking), it was also 100% isolating, lonely, and tedious.

Still, Regina persevered, today working on the health and healing aspects of her pencil-and-paper draft of a crisis management plan. The problem, of course, was that while she'd heard rumors of magical healing, no one had exactly jumped up and proclaimed their expertise in that area, and the few people with practical experience had more field medicine and triage. The only real light in that plague-threatened darkness was Henry's medicinal herb garden.

As morning passed into afternoon, Regina stood, stretched, reversing the bow in her back and then stowed her glasses in the drawer of the desk in the officer she'd appropriated in the otherwise unoccupied back office suite behind the front desk. In need of a break, she passed through the front desk area, told the Innkeeper (who scanned magically as human but never had anything useful to say) she still had the towels he'd given her before (which she did, in the beach bag she'd acquired from the shops), and headed out to explore the best locations on the grounds for fruit orchards and what, if any, structures she could appropriate or manipulate to greenhouse them so the magic wouldn't be as obvious.

High sun found her in the Madonna Meadows across the street from the registration and cafe building where she sat on the clean towels the Innkeeper had given her and made planning sketches. It had the advantage of plenty of room, even if it didn't have the 23 acres the hotel brochures claimed (some of the acreage had been lost to scrub desert by whatever planar shift magic had brought the Inn here. As she surveyed it she decided it would do for bulk growth, but in the event of another plane shift might be lost.

After 2:30, and lunch of a chicken Caesar salad, an apple, and cranberry-soda with a wedge of lime, she packed up her bag again and struck out again. This time she went to the "Secret Garden," and began investigating surrounding structures. When she found a useful tool-and-tractor shed, she rolled up the sleeves on her blazer and blouse, then began clearing the apparently unused materials from the shed. She did most of it using her physical strength (penance), but in the case of heavy objects or the tractor without the keys, she permitted herself magic instead.

[ooc: Find Regina anywhere she is in the post. She's not being showy with her magic, but if you're gifted, you'd probably notice. In the last location, she's uncharacteristically sweat-shiny and her hair's a bit of a mess, because she's not using magic to maintain her untouched glamor. I promise no fireballs unless previously agreed upon.]

Comments

[st_oriedqueen]

Of course she noticed the affect on him, but Regina had long since got out of the habit of asking questions that people might answer and she'd be forced to pretend she cared. If things had changed, and she had remembered that she did care, she still didn't ask. Already the weight of his loss pressed in like a heavy morning fog.

Besides, her magic was no gift. All magic comes with a price, dearie. If it was a gift for someone, they'd be like Miss Swan. Which hurt on so many levels.

Instead, she ducked her head away from the emotion in his voice, the hauteur stripped down to simple honesty. "I'll need help with the crops. I'd prefer it be someone who won't be disturbed by how often they've grown."

[st_abby]

Vax took a moment to steady himself, aware at least objectively of how ridiculous and awkward he may seem. It wasn't her magic that had unsettled him, of course, and he didn't want her to have that impression of him.

"My feathers don't ruffle quite that easily," he reassured her, something more wry gradually replacing the melancholy.

[st_oriedqueen]

Regina offered a small nod and lip-curve (not nearly enough of a curve to be called a smile) of Queenly approval. "There may be work between, wedding and planting. I'll give you a portion of each harvest for pay." And he could do whatever he wished with it, whether eat, gift, or sell. For her part, she planned to trade, pickle, jar and store.

[st_abby]

"I don't need any of that," he told her honestly, running the fingers of one black-gloved hand through the tendrils of newly risen grass. "Put it into the group stores, if you're particular about it. We've all been able to eat here, free of charge or labor. I might need repayment, some day, if things should change? But for now I'd be content to keep myself occupied, and if I can do us all a favor at the same time, it will at least have been time well spent."

[st_oriedqueen]

"As you like." Regina would simply keep an accounting, should he ever have need of pay. "I aim to begin planting next week. How will I find you?"

[st_abby]

"Room 204," he told her, picking himself up off of the grass. It sounded like the conclusion of a business transaction, somehow. Regina Mills just seemed like one of those people that didn't do much small talk. "What're we growing, anyway?"

[st_oriedqueen]

"Apples, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, lettuce, citrus, berries, beans, carrots, turnips, radishes, and some kind of grain. Herbs and spices as a secondary, and possibly a patch of prickly pear for the fruit and spines, barrel cactus for the moisture storage," Regina rattled off. "We'll probably add banana and coconut, later, in a different location." She shrugged off the memory of fields she'd destroyed. "If there's something you'd particularly like to add, let me know. I'm experimenting, since some varietals may be too finicky for magical enhancement."

[st_abby]

"What, is that all?" He quirked a smile. "You're an ambitious woman," he determined, with no small note of appreciation in it.

[st_oriedqueen]

I have a lot to make up for, Regina thought, but what she said, with a very small smile, was, "Nothing better to do and no shortage of time to do it in."