fandomtownies | Covent Garden Flowers, Friday

Whenever Yasha returned here after one of her walkabouts it took her some effort to get settled back in again; not that she ever wanted to get too settled in, of course, but in all the places in Exandria or elsewhere that her wandering took her at least several battles of some sort seemed inevitable. Not that she minded the blankness of her battle rages giving her a break from her own thoughts, but fighting was what she'd been raised to do all her life. Coming back here and just being able to tend to flowers and read and lead a mostly quiet life was jarring -- almost like a luxury she felt that she hadn't really earned.

Still, it was very nice to feel like a normal person, someone who didn't have to kill things for a living, for a while.

Apparently today "being a normal person" entailed concentrating on making a rather large floral arrangement in fall colors while the small but very friendly and very talkative grey and white tabby who'd followed her in to work this morning circled around her legs and purred up a storm.

Yasha wasn't going to complain about that at all.

[[Daytime SP etc. but open!]]

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Lucille was just going to stop by the shop to water some plants when she saw that it was open.

"Yasha, welcome back," she greeted as she stepped through the door. "I hope you are well."

People came and went here, Lucille assumed everyone had their reasons.

Edited 2021-10-15 16:31 (UTC)

Yasha did have her reasons, too! Even if they were sometimes as vague as "I don't want to get too attached to anything."

"Hello, Lucille," she said, a little sheepish and awkward. "I'm... eh. All right, I guess. I'm sorry, I didn't expect to be gone as long as I was. Time between worlds is so weird. I hope you've been...?"

Again with the awkward, as she trailed off uncertainly there.

"I am well, thank you," Lucille said, smiling. "Don't worry about being away. I know how it can be. Have you had the opportunity to read something that you enjoyed during your trip?"

"Not really," Yasha said, her shoulders sagging with visible disappointment. "There was... a lot of mud. No libraries or... much of anything. I don't think it would have been a very good place for books."

She was definitely glad she'd decided to invest in some fancy modern protective gear to keep her book of flowers safe. She'd needed it, as it turned out.

"I've missed them, for sure."

"I have a few new ones that I think you might like," Lucille said. "I will bring them next time."

It was an interest they shared after all.

Yasha's expression actually brightened for just a moment at that.

"I would really like that," she said, and the cat at her feet meowed loudly in agreement. Apparently. "I'm sorry there wasn't anything interesting to bring back with me, or I would have."

Was this a thing she thought about now? Oh, no.

"Oh, no need to worry about that," Lucille said, ignoring the cat. "Do you like to read together with friends?"

It wasn't like she and Tisarwat were exclusive in any way, including that.

"I --" Yes, Yasha was aware of how sad this sounded. "I've never actually... tried that before."

With Zuala, maybe, but she counted that as a separate category.

"I could bring a book next week," Lucille said. "Unless you prefer solitude. I won't take it personally."

She would not be offended by that, of course.

Yasha opened her mouth to say that yes, she would prefer solitude, but realized that she... actually wouldnt.

"I think -- yes," she found herself saying. "I probably have a lot of reading to catch up on."

Solitude was one thing, but lonely solitude was something entirely different.

"Then I look forward to it," Lucille said. "I will bring a few books next week and we will see if you find any of them to your liking."

She turned her eyes to the floral arrangement.

"The colours of the season is beautiful, aren't they?"

"They are," Yasha replied, voice going a little bit breathy with her genuine enthusiasm. "Even in death..."

She faltered just a moment.

"They still find a way to be so beautiful. I didn't know this many shades of red and orange existed for most of my life."

"Even in death." Lucille smiled.

"I grew up on top of a mine of blood red clay," Lucille said. "It stained everything that came near it. What is your home like?"

"Colorless," Yasha said immediately. "It was all marshes and scrub grass and... almost grey, really. There wasn't very much that could actually grow in the wastes of Xhorhas."

"That sounds a little like the moors in Cumberland," Lucille said. "Do you miss it?"

Something being colourless and barren didn't mean you couldn't miss it after all.

"I will always feel a connection to it, I think," Yasha said after a moment, staring at her floral arrangement like it was the most fascinating thing in the universe.

I know that one day I want to go back there. I don't know where she was buried, but I have so many flowers to bring to her.

"But I don't know if I could say I miss it, exactly."

"I suppose I can say the same about my home," Lucille said. "Although I will probably burn it down eventually."

Unless the damp protected it.

"I don't think I would go quite that far," said Yasha, although those dreams she'd had about being surrounded by bodies in the wastelands gave her the vague nagging sensation that she had done something in that time she couldn't remember. "Was it that bad?"

Huh. Beau had asked her the exact same thing on watch once.

"I prefer it to stay in the past. I chose to come here so that my life would be different," Lucille said.

"Do you prefer Fandom too, then?"

Yasha frowned slightly. "I guess I do," she said after a moment. "Here, or traveling with my -- my friends."

No point in denying how upsetting it had been when she thought they'd just left her behind.

"I don't know that I could ever really go back to stay now that I know there are so many colors in the world."

Covent Garden Flowers, Friday

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