strangetrip | [EP] hands in the dirt, head in the sun

After Vax'ildan caught her giving some of the plants a little nudge, Joanna was being more careful and not using magic as she tended the plantings. Getting her hands in the dirt and around growing things was grounding in ways she needed, with or without magic.

"No. Thank you. I have all the towels I need." The staff's obsession with offering towels was beyond Joanna's understanding, but was easier to ignore than the lack of aura and their general vagueness. "The fuchsias could use some attention, though. I was going to get to them after I finished here, but you could take care of them." The groundskeeper looked at Joanna with confusion. "The fuchsias. Bushes... small, carmine-" With no signs the woman knew what Joanna was talking about, she shook her head. "I'm going to clean up this bed today. Maybe you could find another part of the grounds to tend?"

The groundskeeper toddled off to do... whatever it was she was going to do, and Joanna let out a sigh of disbelief before catching the eye of someone passing by. "I had middle school students who were easier to talk to."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Snow blinked stupidly at that. It was more than a little ironic that anyone would talk to her of all people about being unable to have a conversation with someone, and that perhaps made her self-conscious enough to say something rather than staring blankly as the groundskeeper had done. "I... don't know what middle school is."

"Eleven to fourteen year olds, usually," Joanna explained. Younger than Snow, who wasn't much for talking either, but who didn't seem to miss anything. Understandable, given the protective spikes in her aura, and Joanna was glad she normally shielded well enough not to pick up people's emotions except when she needed to.

"They're usually too absorbed in their own little worlds to care about anything else." Their own little worlds, hormone overload, all that kind of thing.

"Oh." Between the ages of eleven and fourteen, all Snow had had was her little world, and her world had grown only smaller in that period as her stepmother entered her life and one by one pruned away the few people she knew. First her governess. Then the maids. The housekeeper and the cook. Until they were the only women in the house.

The menfolk stayed, though, because someone had to fill the milk bath. Ostensibly it was because Mrs. H would not diminish her husband's personal staff, but as Mr. H had been home so seldom, Snow knew all she'd really needed was the muscle.

"Never went to school," she mumbled instead.

"Sometimes my daughters didn't either." Most people would assume homeschooling, which fit with the impression Joanna sometimes gave of a vaguely new agey, granola type. But some lifetimes formal schooling wasn't easily available, or if it was, safe for young witches just coming into their powers.

"I'm Joanna. I'd apologize for not having introduced myself sooner, but you first four had enough with welcoming so many of us when we arrived."

"Snow White," she murmured, though it occurred to her the moment after she said it that Joanna already knew her name. But she hadn't really known how else to respond to that. She had largely been hiding from the other guests as best she could, so it probably wasn't that people hadn't introduced themselves so much as she'd been determined not to be introduced to.

She ducked her head.

"I'm glad I finally got to meet you, Snow." Joanna offered the girl a warm smile, then turned back to the bed of salvia. She didn't think she or her girls had ever been the kind of hurt and skittish Snow was, but Joanna understood about walls and keeping distance for your own protection or someone else's. Not devoting all her attention to Snow as they talked was something she hoped would help.

"If I thought the gardener had any feelings to be hurt, I'd worry about stepping in and taking over some of the work," she explained. "It probably wouldn't stop me, because I feel better when I can get my hands in the dirt and help things grow, but I might feel a twinge of something about doing it. I think we're all trying to find those things that help us, though, now it's sunk in we're stuck for awhile."

This was something Snow understood. She spent whole days with the horses practically because it was just easier to focus on them than the fact that they were effectively trapped here and she felt that much more keenly in such a confined space. She nodded. "Wasn't anybody at all in the stable."

"Just horses needing someone to look after them." Horses, who didn't talk and wouldn't expect Snow to either. Joanna could see the appeal. "And you can ride when you feel the need to move. I remember days like that, saddling my horse and just letting him run until there was no one and nothing around."

Snow perked at that, though she didn't realize she had done. "You ride?" So few people had, since she'd left home. Once technology had replaced horses, horses had become a niche pastime for rich people rather than something everyone with enough money to scrape together strived for.

"Not so much recently," Joanna admitted. "Where I'm from they were much more common when I was younger." Younger in years, at least, since Joanna's body physically reset each time she became pregnant with Ingrid. "Sometimes I miss riding. Not so much having to watch out for droppings while walking down the street.

"The shit's nobody's favorite part," Snow agreed quietly, though the shoveling kept her muscles strong. "But it's good for your garden."

"It is," Joanna agreed. "I may come see you about that some time, if that's all right." Once she had a better idea of the groundskeeper's supplies and routine.

"Or if I get the urge to go for a ride."

Snow fidgeted, shy but not in her usual terrified way. "If I can help..."

"Thank you." Joanna gave the girl an encouraging smile. "The plants will thank you too." She huffed softly. "I'm not sure my arse will, first time I get back on a horse, though."

"You get used to it again," Snow said softly. "If you want to ride again, that is."

"I'm sure I will." Joanna hadn't really thought much about the horses since she got here, but now she had, the idea of riding again was growing more appealing. "I'll find my way out to the stables soon, I imagine."

Snow nodded. It was a line to escape on, and while she didn't dislike Joanna at all, she did mean to take it. "I should be going there now," she murmured.

[EP] hands in the dirt, head in the sun

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject