chikaidestroyer | ∞ 82: Waiting for the next step [action]

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∞ 82: Waiting for the next step [action]

[Now that things have calmed down around the village and the rain from earlier in the week has dried, Albert is getting around to cleaning up his poor garden. Long-wilted white and blue moonflowers and morning glories litter his garden where trellises are propped up next to them, so he's pruning and plucking them out from between the growing flowers.

His horse is hanging around the house today, eating from a bale of hay.

It's a pretty idle scene on a sunny day. At least he's not closed up in his room, reading old books and drinking wine. That can be saved for tomorrow, when the weather's even warmer.]

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I haven't even started on the weeds yet. [A wry smile.] These are only the dead flowers for now.

[She spreads her hands, bare but eager.]

Well, need any help?

[He is briefly reluctant upon realizing he has no extra gloves.] If you wish. You didn't strike me as the gardening type, though.

Mom kept a garden. [She offers with a shrug.] I tried to keep it up for her, after she passed. I'm not suggesting I'm good at it. I'm really not. But I'm keen on helping.

My condolences. [You learn something new every day.] I'm sure you know how to clip dead leaves, at the very least. [He steps away from the trellises to the edge of the porch, where he's placed some extra tools. He picks up a pair of small scissors.]

[She reaches out for them, one hand outstretched to receive the scissors.]

It was a while ago. [One shoulder shrugs.] Three years. You learn to adjust. [Or you learn how to pretend you've adjusted.]

Learning to adjust makes my words no less valid. [But he gestures for her to follow him back to the trellises.] Are you familiar with these flowers? [He points at the blue and white morning glories twining around the side of the house.]

[She takes a few steps towards the flowers in question, frowning and nibbling her bottom lip.]

They're...umh, pretty? And blue and, yeah. I have no idea.

[A brief smirk.]

Morning glories. These blue ones bloom through the day and die by nightfall. [And then he points at the white flowers, which appear twisted shut.] And these are moonflowers. They bloom only at night.

[Morning glories. The name is nice and Buffy nods, approvingly. But when he mentions the moonflowers? Well, her attention sharpens.]

I'll have to stop by, some night. Check them out.

Yes, feel free. A rare treat for a usually-diurnal society. [He clips some of the heart-shaped leaves that have dried out.]

Diurnal? [She asks, near instinctively. Normally, she wouldn't betray a lack of knowledge so easily...but Albert? Well, she trusts him. And she is also vaguely distracted by how to tell Spike about the night blooming flowers while maintaining dignity.]

[Albert responds in turn without comment.] Active by day. The opposite of nocturnal.

[She reaches far forward, touching the closed up blossom.]

Like normal people, working the nine-to-five.

[It takes a moment for him to place the numbers, but he nods in confirmation.] And asleep by nightfall, unlike the night owls.

[Buffy turns back, crossing her arms comfortably.]

Are they the only ones?

[He makes a faintly amused sound, letting the leaves drop to the soil.]

Hardly.

[But then she remembers the small scissors in her hand. But the smile is left over; after all, it was heartening to hear about night blossoms.]

But me making friendlies with the flowers is not helping, is it?

If you feel there is worth in what you are doing, you are helping yourself, at the very least. But others' perspectives... [He makes a noncommittal sound, continuing to clean up the vines.]

[She snaps the scissors a few times in the empty air.]

Hey, Albert? Where did you learn all these answers. I mean, the big stuff. Like about choosing not to go home and what's worth it...[Buffy had been pretty sure that she had her life figured out moments before arriving in Luceti. This place has upended everything she knows. Everything she thought she knew. Albert, in particular, is a part of that.]

[Albert pauses at the question, but only briefly; he snips one dead leaf.]

Where? I look at what we know, and my own standing in the situation. It isn't a decision that everyone can readily undertake.

[She searches out a dead leaf herself, snipping it carefully.]

At least it's a decision.

Do you feel the need to make a decision now?

Maybe. [Snip. Snip.] It's getting to feel like I need to be doing more deciding and less reacting.

Even if you make that particular decision, you will still do a lot of reacting. That's simply how we are force to function here.