Gale, shut up before you make another anime x classic literature post.
It's bad enough that I've seeekretly harbored a 5D's x Pride and Prejudice crossover for months that went and a'sploded in my fais last week resultling in me harboring several pictures of Yuusei in a bonnet that are awaiting the time my dad brings my scanner to my dorm room. But now I'm trying to cross it over with a children's classic-The Secret Garden.
If you honestly have no clue what I'm talking about (and you're in America, I don't know how much foreign exposure it's gotten) then you've probably lived under a rock all your life or just don't like reading books. I'll give a brief summary to those who don't know or need a quick refresher.
The book follows the life of young Mary Lennox, who is a sickly and disagreeable British child living in India, who's parents have no interest in her, leaving her in the care of an Ayah/nanny her whole life. After an illness takes the life of her parents, nanny, and several others, she is sent to live in Britain with her only remaining guardian, her uncle, Archibald Craven. Craven still mourns the loss of his wife ten years ago and as a result, constantly travels abroad, leaving the house under the care of his housekeeper, Mrs. Medlock. Even so, the only person who has any time for Mary in the entire house is the chambermaid, Martha Sowerby, who one day, tells Mary about a secret walled garden that was the favorite place of the dead Mrs. Craven. Archibald Craven had locked the garden up and buried the key in an unknown location after she died.
Thanks to the help of a robin, Mary finds the key and the ivy-hidden door to the garden, which has become overriden by weeds and looks forlorn. Enlisting the help of Martha's brother, Dickon, a gentle-natured boy who has an affinity for animals and plants, they plan to work on the garden together in secret and bring it back to it's former glory-particularly to bring back the roses, a favorite of the late Mrs. Craven and as a result were scattered around the garden. On meeting Craven for the first time since she came to the house, she asks him if she may have "a piece of earth" to plant in, if it was abandoned and taken care of-he tells her she can have as much earth as she likes, so long as she doesn't bother anyone. Because of her constant playing outside, Mary starts becoming less sickly and disagreeable.
Mary continually hears wailing from the house at night, and despite being told that she is hearing things, or that it's the wind or a servant with a toothache, she refuses to believe them and finds that the wailing is actually Craven's son, Colin. Colin is an invalid who is shunned by his father because he strongly resembles his mother, and both he and his father are morbidly convinced that Colin shall become a hunchback like his father and die early. As a result, he is raised in isolation from the rest of the world, in a room hidden behind a tapestry. The reason that Mary was not introduced to Colin was because Colin greatly dislikes strangers, and throws tantrums on meeting them. However, Mary is just as ill-tempered as Colin is, and gains his respect after being stubborn enough to stay with him through his tantrums. She becomes his first friend.
Colin starts being jealous, however, when spring comes again and Mary starts spending more times outdoors with Dickon, threatening to ban Dickon from the grounds. However, Mary snaps at him vehemently, calling him selfish and storms out. That very night, Colin has one of his raging tantrums, insisting that he has felt a lump on his back and that he will become a hunchback and die. Mary, however, shouts him down, telling him that he is basically a goddamned whiny idiot and that the only lumps on his back are his vertebra showing because he's so thin and sickly. After that, Colin calms down some, even enough to invite Dickon to come visit him, and the three all become close friends.
Eventually, Colin decides that he too wants to visit the secret garden, and on visiting it, decides promptly that he wants to learn how to walk again, to surprise his father when he comes back. So he begins getting stronger in secret, training himself inside the secret garden while outside still pretending to be an invalid. The three children are discovered in the garden by the gardener, Ben Weatherstaff, who actually tended the garden in secret himself twice a year by climbing the ivy wall despite his old age out of respect for the late Mrs. Craven. He too, becomes part of the secret.
Mr. Craven comes home early, partially because of a dream, and partially because Martha's and Dickon's mother, Mrs. Sowerby (who is also in on the secret) tells him in a letter that "I think your lady would want you to come if she was here." He makes his way towards the secret garden, and quite unexpectedly and unintentionally, his son runs almost straight into his arms, actually beating Mary and Dickon in a footrace. The three children take Mr. Craven into the garden, telling him everything. When the four walk home, the servants are astonished to see two miracles: the young master walking and the master smiling.
Character List
Mary Lennox- Izayoi Aki. Mostly because of how Mary changes over time and the constant theme of roses appearing in the book. Honestly, I'd even put Jack Atlas into the role if I didn't already cast him as.
Colin Craven- Jack Atlas. Just because he's the bitchy little child kept as a recluse from the world by his father. Also, Mary at one point calls Colin the "little Rajah" as a sort of derisive nickname referring to the way he selfishly thinks himself as someone who can always get his own way, like a king. ore wa kingu daaaaaaaaaaaaa
Dickon Sowerby- Fudou Yuusei. Mostly because of his gentle nature and the way that he's the first to affect Mary otherwise.
The little Robin- Crow. Because the robin is portrayed as being rather mischevious, with a little twinkle in his eye, and he's in on the seekrit too.
Martha Sowerby- Aw hell. She can be Crow too. Because she takes care of Mary and Colin, and is actually amused when Mary causes Colin to go into a tantrum, saying that it's actually good for him. I think she's also in on the secret, but I can't remember...
Mrs. Sowerby- Martha. Just cause she knows all and can cook up some awesome homemade food.
Archibald Craven-Rudger Godwin. Just because.
Lennoxes- Rex Godwin and Divine. *shot forever*