The Freehold Garden was once entirely ruined, but slowly, bit by bit, some of the Greenies have been working on its restoration. Sophia and Ian had been through working on one small section which now contains much of the sustainable fruit grown here, but there is still much work to do. It is manual hands-and-knees type labor unless one possesses the ability to manipulate plants, but there's something somewhat relaxinga bout it. Therea re tools provided for those who need them, and the current section that is the area around the gazebo and the small leaf-stinking pond and spring. Ian has been working on clearing some of the clinging vines from around the gazebo, bit by bit.
Nathania and Etsy arrive together, with Nat showing the way. "Hi, Ian," Nathania says in her sweet, slow voice, once she finds him. "I'm sorry.... about my weird reaction... at the meeting." And that's all she'll say about it. "I haven't... been here before. Are we just... clearing out... what needs done? Pulling weeds and things?" She has an arm through Etsy's and is leaning lightly on her mermaid-friend.
It's a funny thing to be leaning lightly on someone who looks as thought she is barely -- only barely -- touching the ground at all times. "helloandgoodevenimg," comes the pell-mell of the rote portion of Etsy's speech, her wide, sea-change eyes sliding over the garden, head tilted one side to the other. "Is a wildness of gardens, with much works to do," agrees the Flowering easily; her smile lights her face, tight-lipped but genuine. "Is not an apologies, for a feelings to have."
Ian smiles as Nathania and Etsy arrive, nodding to both of them in greeting. The apology from Nathania is met with a slightly lofted brow and a smile. "Nothing to apologize for," he says, echoing Etsy's sentiment. Then he answers her question. "The garden is a mess and hedge growth has overtaken much of it. We have cleared some in order to plant what we currently have, but we would like to restore the entirety of the garden to fruitful protduction and its former beauty. Today, we're working on freeing the gazebo and clearing out the pond."
Nathania nods with a smile. "Okay. And, I've never... done anything... like this before. I'm a pair of hands, but... I need to be... directed." She admits this freely.
"A ponds! A ponds is works for me," cheerily asserts Esther, and she squeezes Nathania's arm before letting her go and trailing over toward the body of water in question, assessing its depth and how clogged it is with plant life. "Is for cheeroots and oasis plants?" she asks of Ian, over her shoulder, as she stands on the water's edge, shucking off the tatty silk slippers she always wears. Strange little feet, not quite like feet, but like a tightly-folded fan, those.
Ian nods to Etsy when she moves toward the pond and says, "Yes. Please, if you can work with it, do go ahead." He then motions for Nathania to join him in the gazebo. "I am going to work to loosen these vines and give them to you if you can bring them over there. We'll make a pile of them and deal with them later. Then you can help me to repaint it." He begins to work along one side of the gazebo, utilizing some of his ability to manipulate plants in tandem with just old-fashioned grabbing-and-tugging to start tearing free more of the vines from around the structure, passing them to Nathania."
Nathania smiles to Etsy, nodding at her. Then she holds a few more vines than expected, stronger than she looks, while Ian hands them to her. Then she carries them over to the pile and dumps them,
Humming to herself, Etsy rather unselfconsciously pulls off her many, many layers of clothes, folding them on the shore. There's a white, winged sash in that pile, which she sets aside to set on top of the entirety of it. Apparently Esther's current clothing plan is 'wear everything you own so you don't lose anything.' Once she's stripped off, she wades into the pool. Mermaids don't need much of an excuse to get immediately naked and get into the water. It's kind of what they do. There's no lasciviousness to it, rather a childlike enthusiasm. "Is a thing to go to the Hedge and bring back a cheeroot, and an oasis plants. Is an oasis plants is knowed of, here? Is a usefulness. Cheeroots is for healings, oasis for not-a-mermaids."
Ian smiles to Nathania when she is able to carry quite the impressive pile of vines. He too gathers up a pile and carries them over with her, and then begins to work on another section, easily able to talk to Etsy while they work since the gazebo is right next to the pond. He nods to Etsy and says, "Both would likely be useful." It doesn't seem that he has any problem understanding her, or at least the intent of her words, nor does he seem to bat an eyelash when she strips down and gets into the pond. Mermaid. Not that he'd really be surprised by anyone stripping down and doing anything. Spring.
Smiling, Nat nods to Esty. She's used to her friend's weird-to-mortal ways, and Changeling ways in general. "Be safe, please," is all she says. Ever the mother. She holds vines that have been tugged, and waits for more, getting into a rhythm of standing around and using her strength as needed. "What... color are we... painting... the gazebo? White?" she asks Ian.
"If is a sudden disappears, come to gets," Etsy agrees with Nathania, sort of. "Will not on purpose disappear a suddens. Who is for the hunts of a hedgefruits? Is not so good to go of self, even with a mrbl." She sinks down in the water to her waist and starts feeling around underneath the water's edge, looking for the roots of the plants clogging the pond. Like a nursemaid, she begins quietly cooing to the greenery as she pulls its roots up, as if singing to it could soothe its death.
Well, a siren would think that, wouldn't she?
"White, for now, to restore it to the way that it was. But perhaps we will bring more color to it once the initial coat has been put in place. The carvings might look more brilliant if they are highlighted with color," Ian says, glancing to Nathania and then Etsy to see if they have opinions on the matter as he continues to work on freeing another wall of the gazebo. When Etsy disappears below the surface, he glances toward the pond every so often, just to make sure that she can still be seen there.
Nathania glances over at Etsy and nods. "I promise... to keep an eye... open for you," she says, before glancing back at Ian. "Color," she decides, "even... if just... green or... black in the... carvings." And then she carries away more detritus and returns.
The mermaid doesn't seem to have a single feeling about what color the finished product should be. She shrugs her shoulders at Ian and Nathania, cooing at the plants she pulls out as if she's cradling a babe to her breast instead of ripping the roots out of watery plants, making a pile on the shoreline. As she gets more and more into her task, words come burbling out of the mermaid: "Such a pretty house, and such a pretty garden." Because all sirens sing Radiohead, right?
"Perhaps highlights and shadows, hints of color," Ian seems to agree with Nathania. The three of them work for a while, Nathania and Ian working to eventually free the gazebo from its viney prison, and Etsy working her magic on clearing out the pond. It takes them quite some time, but eventually the work has been done and the pond is free of clogging weeds and the little spring can once more do its job of feeding the water, burbling freely. The gazebo remains unpainted for the time being, but it too is freed of detritus and the piles cleared away. Surveying the work that has been done, he turns to each of them and says, "My sincerest thanks to both of you for your help on this project. We will be doing more next time, but I think that what we have accomplished for today is a significant bit of work."
Nathania smiles to Etsy as she sings, and joins in when she knows the words, as she and Ian remove and cart weeds away. "Yeah," Nat says happily, once he signals a stop. "I'm happy... to have.... helped. Thank you. This was... good. Let me.... focus on other things.... for a bit," the dolly says with a smile.
Content now, Esther ducks under the pond's surface, warning Nathania, "Is on purpose!" before she does so, and then comes up with her hair all wet. A very content sigh from the mermaid as she absently spits out a bit of the pond water, and then she slides out of the pond to start dressing again. "Is to go into the woods for finding oasis and cheeroot to go into ponds. Oasis is a specials, for drowning, or for a not-mermaids to have a swims and a breathes." She seems happy to babble about water-specific plants until the work is done, and then float on out with the others when it's complete.
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