Frank Jaeger ✖ 015

[stoicism]

Who Frank Jaeger [stoicism], possible you and maybe your mother
Where Espoir, near the Church of the Roses
Style Either
Status Open

Comments

[beautifulmartyr]

It was more or less a daily occurrence now to see Aerith wandering along these particular streets. Usually with a wagon of flowers and gardening supplies being dragged behind her. She spent more time in the village than necessary when she was constantly stopping to say hi to someone, or to ask an innocent passerby if they would like to buy some of those mentioned flowers. Hey, she did good business that way.

Just as she passed the church, and made sure to take a good long look at it and the roses that surrounded it, she spotted a familiar face coming from the opposite side. Now that she thought about it she was surprised they hadn't met in person before after all those talks they had via dreamberry. Well, she was going to change that now as she started tugging the wagon over to the boy with the biggest damn smile on her face.

"Frank!" She called in an attempt to catch his attention, stopping in front of him with the wagon of flowers. "I didn't think I'd ever see you anywhere over the dreamberry at the rate we were going. How are you

[stoicism]

Frank takes an instinctive step backwards as Aerith approaches him, cautiously watching the flower girl as she makes her way towards him. Awkwardly shifting the bags in hand, he offers the woman a curt nod and acknowledgment and relaxes his posture if only slightly. This is the first time he's truly come face to face with the woman but her presence is not wholly unwelcome.

"Aerith," he replies, remaining stone-faced as his tone holds no inflection. "I am well-" he pauses only a moment before adding, "And yourself? What is your mood today?"

[beautifulmartyr]

Taking the hint; Aerith stops a few feet away, not wanting to scare the boy by being her usually all-up-in-your-face self. Though that smile does not fade in the slightest once he begins speaking. From their dreamberry conversations Aerith already knows the boy talks...oddly, without much emotion and with very blunt statements. To her it's more cute than annoying or irritating.

"That's good to hear." she was going to ask if he had just gotten back from shopping, but that much was obvious with the bags he was carrying, "My mood today? Very happy, actually. It was a good day to go and pick flowers, so I did just that. I was just admiring the roses around the church, too. They're very pretty."

[stoicism]

Although the weather had grown cold and the trees had begun to turn, Somarium's magical properties seemed to keep flowers in bloom until the first snowfall covered them. To imagine Aerith still out picking them is not something that takes any stretch of the youth's imagination (if he truly has any to begin with, of course). "Flowers remain in bloom here for extended time periods, you must feel quite elated over this knowledge," he states before his attention is diverted to the rose bushes around the church grounds once the woman makes mention of them.

"The roses? I tend to them now and again... I would like to ensure their survival for the next spring."

[beautifulmartyr]

"Do they?" She didn't know that, seeing as it was just common for flowers to bloom wherever she managed to plant them. This new bit of knowledge did please her greatly though, "I am quite elated by this," she said in a teasing tone she was certain he might not catch as such. Which only made her smile widen if it were even possible.

"M'hm. You take care of them?" she tapped a finger against her chin in though, "Well I'm sure you do a good job, but I could always come by and help you if you ever need it."

[stoicism]

"Perhaps," he says, his words coming a bit too quickly and dismissively. There's a pause before he continues, as if it's taken a moment to register that such a statement may be perceived as rude. In his time living with other people - other civilians - he'd learned to be more careful with his phrasing, to consider his words before making his statements.

"While I have many skills in many fields, knowledge regarding the care of flora is not an area of my specialty. Advice and a demonstration of proper care techniques would be appreciated on a future date."

[beautifulmartyr]

Ow, Frank. Luckily for the both of them Aerith doesn't seem too upset by the almost-rejected idea. She'd be more than willing to help if he accepted, and if he really didn't want her to...she wouldn't. She wasn't stupid.

"Well then I'm the woman you want to go to! I'll even make up a little guide book or something for you to follow," with badly coloured pictures and everything. "Do you need help with anything now?" mostly asking about the groceries, but whatever.

[stoicism]

The mention of a book causes the youth to clear his throat a bit, casting his gaze away from Aerith a moment. He chooses to ignore the woman's suggestion of a guide book for now.

"If you would like to take a closer look at the roses, I would not raise any objections. As the nights grows colder, I would appreciate being given suggestions to keep the plant life here at the church alive."

[beautifulmartyr]

Just kidding? Maybe not, she would actually consider making a book for him to follow.

"Shall we then?" She motioned toward the church, waiting for him to lead the way so she could have a closer look. "We'll have to get some mulch for them. You don't want their roots freezing over or they'll die, so we just have to find a way to insulate them." If that made any sense to him.

[stoicism]

Her assumption of him not understanding the babble that fell from her mouth was definitely a correct one but all the same, he wordlessly leads her onto the church grounds. Setting his groceries down on the steps of the church, he joins the flower girl by her side as she busily inspects the roses. He watches her work, watching her hands as they inspect both the petals and thorny vines. For being a woman so boisterous, her hands work in such a deft manner that her skill in this field comes as almost a surprise to him.

...Almost.

"Define 'mulch'," he finally says, finding that word to be somehow obscure. "As I have previously stated, my knowledge in this field is limited."

[beautifulmartyr]

Very limited apparently.

While kneeling in front of some of the flowers, she runs her hand over the dirt around them, lips twisting into the smallest of frowns for all of two seconds. Then that smile returns. He's actually been doing a fairly good job at keeping the plants alive.

"Mulch is used as...hm, sort of like a protective shield around the plants. It helps protect their roots from the cold in the winter, or the heat in the summer. And it helps retain moister so the don't dry out as fast."

[stoicism]

He moves in closer to Aerith, watching her as she inspects the roots. He stands by her side, making a soft noise of approval as she explains the concept to him. It's a basic enough idea, as humans must be protected from extreme weather, plants too must find a means of insulation.

"Understood. Where will we obtain it?"

[beautifulmartyr]

"I have plenty of it back at the shop. I'll make sure to bring some as soon as I can." she smiled up at the boy as he drew closer, then pointed down toward the ground around the flowers. "We're going to want to dig down a little bit around the roses to make sure we get enough mulch in there. You can handle that, right?"

[stoicism]

"I can," he said as he squatted down on his haunches next to her. For a moment his eyes darted between Aerith's face and then the base of the rose bush. "Instruct me as to how deep and what technique - I will begin immediately."

[beautifulmartyr]

She looked surprised again. Did he mean right now? "Well we'll need about half a foot down, and then we'll have to fill it in with mulch later. After that we can mound the soil a little bit higher to make sure all the roses are protected. Do you have anything we could put over them when it starts to snow? Like a tarp maybe?"

[stoicism]

Yes. Yes, he meant right now. Aerith would soon learn her error in offering up instructions to a boy as eager to learn as Frank Jaeger. He momentarily sits back up, considering what he would be capable of acquiring for the bushes as a means of cover.

"I would be able to acquire a tarp, though it may take me twenty-four hours," he says, thinking back to the abandoned tarps that were frequently discarded at his place of work. "And I could dig the holes quickly enough, they will be no issue."