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Plants: Thursday first period

Once again Nell had messaged her class to meet her at Portalocity. "Today, in honor of the Olympics - and because it's a beautiful place I've always wanted to visit - we're going to Paris to visit the Jardin du Luxembourg or more simply, the Luxembourg Gardens.

"They have amazing English and French gardens as well as an orchard with a variety of old and nearly forgotten varieties of apples, an apiary where you can learn about beekeeping, a greenhouse with some breathtaking orchids, a rose garden, beautiful fountains, and over 100 statues scattered across their grounds."

She smiled at them. "You'll have plenty of time to explore on your own once we get there and if you want to stay longer, Portalocity has agreed to bring you home whenever you choose."

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In Paris!

Eleanor Zarrin

Gladiolus Amicitia

Portalocity dropped them off just inside the gardens and Nell took a moment to soak it all in before turning back to the class. "The Apiary school was founded in 1856 by Henri Hamet. Without bees, we wouldn't have more than 70% of the plants we depend on for food as well as an untold number of flowers and other plants which is why it is so important to protect them. Take a moment or two to consider that while I hand out maps of the grounds."

She passed them out, only slightly distracted by the depth and richness of the land under her feet calling out to her. "Today is mostly about wandering through and enjoying the beauty of this place. Wander through the gardens and greenhouses, enjoy the fountains and the trees, even take a ride on the carousel if you want. Obviously do not pick the plants or walk on the lawns, but other than that, just go and soak it all in."

Edited 2024-08-01 13:46 (UTC)

Gladio had planned to give Nell plenty of space to do all that communing that he could tell she was probably just itching to do before he went to go bother her toward the end of class, which worked out well for both of them, really, because he'd also enjoyed a little bit of a reflective stroll of his own. But it had a lot less to do with the plants than he'd like to admit; he tried to keep his mind on the reason why they were here, but there were just so many little details of this place that reminded him of certain areas of Insomnia and especially Altissia that it was distracting.

Or maybe it had just been so long that everything was getting a bit fuzzy nowadays, and he was just seeing in the gardens what he sort of wanted to see.

Either way, he did plan to focus a little on maybe chatting with someone at the gardens about all those bees, if anything so he could impress Nell (and maybe the bees, too!) with all the knowledge he'd picked up.

At some point Nell was going to find a quiet spot among the trees and sit down to commune with the land for a bit. The richness and age of the trees was intoxicating.

"Good thing I'm here," Gladio noted, once he felt they'd both had their time to sort of get what they wanted to do personally out of their systems a little (or, in Nell's case, into her system), "to make sure you don't just go up and start planting roots here, huh?"

Both literally and metaphorically!

"These trees!" Nell said. "I think I could grow roots here!"

She smiled up at him. "Aren't they amazing?"

"Yeah," said Gladio, "they sure are something, alright."

It should be noted that he wasn't even looking at the trees. He grinned, and moved to go sit down beside Nell.

"Not sure the people running this place would be down for that," he noted, "though I guess you never know until you ask."

"Might be a challenge," she said. "Pretty sure there aren't any handy guides for care and feeding of an arboreal Nell in their libraries."

Nell leaned into him, content just to be there with him in this beautiful place. "But I think if I was going to put down roots... my heart is in Soulwood even if my body can't be there all the time." That was an ache that never truly went away, no matter how blissfully happy she was here.

"Yeah," Gladio said quietly, looking over at Nell against his shoulder before looking back out at the gardens again, "that sounds about right. And I definitely know what you mean..."

He hesitated, then, wondering if he should leave it there and just enjoy the moment or if he should venture a little deeper into that thought.

Well. Wouldn't hurt any. He hoped.

"You ever think about going back and staying?"

"I... I wish I could," Nell said slowly. It was something she'd thought about so may times. "I can't tell you how many times I've wished I could somehow move Soulwood here."

She sighed and rested her head on his shoulder, "But the churchmen... they sent children to take me in or kill me last time and... I can defend my life against the adults. I may go to hell for it, but with adults if it's them or me I will feed them to the earth and pray for forgiveness later. But children... I just can't. And they won't stop."

Gladio gave a faint, deep grunt in response to that, and he shifted, so that she could put his arm around Nell and pull her in closer. He could definitely think of at least one way to get them to stop, but he wasn't going to bring any of that up. Not here, at least, when she was just trying to enjoy herself. He already felt bad for asking in the first place.

But definitely a conversation they should consider, at a later time.

But for now, he just squeezes her close and rubbed her arm a little. "Well, I'm gladio, then, that you have somewhere else you can go, and that you can still get back every once in a while, too. And know that, since Soulwood's important to you, it's pretty damn important to me, too, now."

His arm around her made everything feel better.

"I'm gladio about that too," she said. "I have Fandom and you, but I still can spend time on Soulwood."

She shifted to look up at him. "Which reminds me. I plan to take the class to Soulwood either next week or the week after. It should be fine, but I'm glad you'll be there just in case."

Thanks to the BBC reel of Tom Hiddleston I saw this morning saying we needed to go to the Luxembourg Gardens! (And eat a Croque Madam and drink a cup of chocolate chaud in Angelina.)

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Plants: Thursday first period

Sign in

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Stroll through the Gardens

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Talk to Nell

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OOC