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Who: Jefferson and YOU!
Where: Genessia City, near the Bay
When: April 19th
What: The Hatter is here, and he's kind of mad about it.

--

He couldn't stop thinking about it.

Those first moments, seconds, minutes, that he had awoken in this place; they played in his head over and over, making less sense each time. It was as if his brain was stuck in a hopeless pattern like a broken record, reliving it all again and again as if somehow the 100th attempt at recollection would somehow bring meaning to the madness. But nothing did. How he had gotten here, why he had woken up in that strange contraption, what purpose the necklace served, what purpose this entire place served... he just didn't know. None of it registered as reality.

The only solid concept he could grasp was that he already hated Genessia.

Jefferson had so foolishly thought that he would finally get to live his life happily. To have his happy ending with his daughter who he had so long fought to have at his side again, but no. Of course a man like him could have no such ending. Not forever. Only long enough to trick him into thinking it would be.

He sat on the sidewalk outside the Bay for a very long time with his mind in that perpetual state of circular chaos, and he didn't care to pay much mind to what was going on around him. Occasionally he would lift his head and hope that he would see his little girl there, only to curse himself for daring to wish she was ripped from her home again just to be with him.

To anyone passing by, he likely looked a mess. He didn't have a clue as to how he would react to strangers at this point. In fact, there was only one damn thing he did know: again, he was trapped in a realm where he didn't belong, and it made him insane.

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A flower shop. His hint of a smile was barely visible, but it was there. The longer she stood there, the more he realized that she definitely looked the part. The thought of selling flowers reminded him of a faraway past and made him nostalgic in some sense, but the memories that surfaced felt more bitter than sweet in that moment.

"Ever heard of middlemist?" He didn't know why he'd asked. He knew that they only grew in Camelot, and he very much doubted she had ever been to that realm before.

Maybe he was just going to sink further and further into his memories until he ran out of memories to remember.

Edited (typoes, gomen) 2016-04-22 22:15 (UTC)

Terra saw his smile and was happy to see that he might be feeling a little bit better. She didn't consider herself skilled with social interaction though she's slowly been learning since first arriving in Genessia.

"I haven't but I'd be interested to see such a flower." Her expression softened into a fond smile. "One of the beautiful things about this place is that I've been able to grow flowers from all over. Perhaps I can find that one and grow it for you." If it was a piece of his home that he loved she would try her best to find it.

"Will you tell me about it?"

"That does sound nice." He commented, still with a tinge of sadness but his slight smile remained. "I don't think you could find the one I'm thinking of."

He hadn't seen one in decades, and that was hardly an exaggeration. But the way they looked remained in his mind's eye as though he had been in that field only minutes or even moments ago. For better or worse, he remembered everything about them.

"Have you ever heard of a place called Camelot?" He gestured for her to sit beside him. Even if she decided against it, he'd keep talking. "It's a kingdom very far away from where I called home."

He faltered a bit at that word. Home. But he kept going.

"I used to travel, hear about things. Sometimes there would be whispers about the rarest flower in all of Camelot. How they had almost been obliterated, and how magic brought them back." He looked to her, gauging her response. Rather or not she was from a magical land herself he couldn't be certain, but she certainly looked the part of someone who knew the ways of magic as much as she did a flower enthusiast.

"I ended up there eventually. Camelot. And I saw them. A whole field, sprawling for miles." His smile grew just a bit, like he was remembering something. "Do they have roses where you're from? That's what they look like. Pale pink roses. But they're... special. Beautiful. Like nothing I've never seen."

He could have added a lot more detail to his story, like why he had been there in the first place or why he remembered it so fondly, but he had already decided against oversharing.

"I haven't."

Terra took the seat next to him, placing her basket of flowers at her feet. Her shoulders turn towards him, her gaze watching Jefferson's face as he spoke of a memory. She couldn't help but smile when he spoke about it. It sounded wonderful, a place she would have loved to see.

"The chance to travel would be amazing." At least under better circumstance than her own travels. She didn't look to shaken when he mentioned magic, Terra was used to magic, it was part of her linage.

As his story progresses Terra's smile widens. She didn't want to ask for more information but she couldn't deny that she loved the story. "Yes, There are roses here as well."

There was a pause as Terra looked back down towards her basket. "I don't think I have a flower that compares to the middlemist but I have recently cultivated a magical rose."

Regardless of how he poorly had been feeling just a bit ago it felt surprisingly good to see the girl smile, and subconsciously his own smile widened. He hadn't meant for it to, but... somehow he felt like he could trust her. Maybe because she had actually believed his story. Because she hadn't treated him like he was mad.

"You know... middlemist is just the start." He began, a certain look in his eyes. Almost like he was close to enjoying himself. Despite all he'd seen, no one ever much cared to ask him about it... well, except his little girl.

"I get the feeling you would like the birdbark trees. If you rustle the leaves on a broken branch, it flies. And the beanstalk in the forest! It towers so far into the sky that it reaches above the clouds." He gestured upward, as if that would in any way demonstrate what he meant.

But he wanted to hear about what she had to say, too. He lowered his arm and casually crossed them, leaning just a bit closer to hear her better.

"Tell me about your rose." He had heard rumors of enchanted roses, but that was one thing he had never seen.

Terra's gaze remains fixed to Jefferson as he continues. With each new description her smile widens and her blue eyes sparkle with excitement. She's never heard of anything like the plants he described but she'd love to see them. It was nice to see him excited, true he was a stranger, but she didn't like seeing people sad. More so when it was caused by the strange circumstance that seemed to be common in Genessia. She wanted to protect peoples smiles.

"I would love to see it; birdbark the most." She agreed that watching a broken branch fly would be the most amazing.

When he asked about her rose her gaze softened. She wished that she could show it to him but she didn't have it with her. "I was trying to grow a golden rose. There are thorns along it's stem, tipped with a dark sea blue color. The rose petals are an off white with small tints of blue at their edges. When you spin it the petals glimmer with golden specs of light. It makes me think of the stars at night." She tried to describe every part of the flower and her love for the magical rose can be heard in her voice.

"You can come and see it if you'd like. I hasn't bloomed yet, I don't know when it will or if it will." There was very little she knew about this new rose.

If there was one thing Jefferson was good at -- besides portal jumping, general thievery and being extremely peculiar -- it was telling stories. It was something he did often with his daughter. Though sharing tales with this young woman wasn't the same, the way her eyes sparkled and her lips formed a smile made him feel more at home than anything else had.

When her time to share came, he dedicated his attention to her as she had for him. The rose she described was certainly nothing he had ever seen, but it sounded like something he would want to. When she actually invited him to do so, his smile dropped to an expression of surprise.

"You would trust me with something like that?" It was almost baffling. No one trusted him. "We just met. You barely know me. I -- I haven't even told you my name."

He looked perplexed at the last part. How had they talked so long and not even exchanged names?

Terra blinked, looking very confused at his question. She hadn't even considered that he might intend some ill will towards her. When she had first seen him it felt as if his heart was laid out for the world to witness his sorrow: his shoulders had been slumped forward as if his world was crashing around him.

It was hard to think poorly of him.

"I'm Terra." She introduced herself with a warm smile. "Terra Branford."

She carefully brushed a lose strand of mint green behind her ear as she continued. "And anyone is welcome in my shop." It was, after all, a flower shop. "Flowers, while some consider them small, can bring happiness in ways people don't expect. I want to share that."

Which meant that she wanted to share that with strangers as well.

Life had always been on the opposite spectrum for Jefferson. He had learned rather quickly in life that trust was something that was risky to give away so freely, yet here she was doing it anyway. People who could unwaveringly believe in the good of others were special, but sometimes they also needed to be protected. He knew quite a lot of people like that, he realized.

"Terra?" He liked the way her name sounded. It was... calming. "Jefferson. I'm Jefferson."

He thought about her words momentarily, then stood up in a way that may have seemed spontaneous.

"In that case, it would be rude of me to decline your offer." He held his hand out to help her up. "Lead the way, Terra."

"It's nice to meet you Jefferson."

Terra laughed softly as he bounced up. It was unexpected but not completely unwelcome. She stands slowly, picking up her basket and then positioning it beneath her arm. Terra understood that it was dangerous to trust. It came easily to her because the person she feared the most was herself.

She smiled at him and then stepped towards the Attleton archway. "It isn't to far but it's still a decent walk. Are you up for it?" Not that she thinks he's going to say no but it's still about thirty minutes.

Terra lightly tucked a stray curl behind her ear before glancing both ways and crossing the street. It's a familiar path for her, she often goes to the other archways around spring to collect flowers.

He didn't know where the sudden bout of exuberance came from, but he wouldn't take it for granted. Within him the pain and dissonance remained, but for the time being he felt as if he could at least act somewhat normal.

Maybe that little flower had done more for him than he realized.

"I think so. Getting away from this place isn't a bad idea." That place being the Bay, of course. He brushed his eyelid with his fingertips as if something were there, but it was really just a nervous habit.

He followed her, a brief silence settling over them. It didn't last too long before he felt the need to say something.

"Terra?" He shoved his hands into his pockets, not sure how to go about voicing what he he had on his mind. Just go for it? "I feel like I should thank you again. For helping me."

Terra didn't much care for the bay either though her reasoning was most likely different than Jeffersons. She smiled as his demeanor changed; it was infectious. She saw no problem with his sudden excitement, it was nice and it raised Terra's own spirits as well.

When he spoke her name she looked over at him. Her crystal blue eyes shining curiously as he groped for the right words to say. What he said next surprised her though she didn't show it, she only continued to smiled.

"You don't have too thank me again." She turned back towards the road, knowing the dangers of not watching where you were headed. "It's enough seeing you smile."

And smile he did.

Back home, people didn't pay him much mind. They certainly didn't go out of their way to be nice to him. The isolation had happily toyed with his sanity, but once he had Grace again none of that really mattered so much.

Until he ended up in this place, anyway, further from her than he had ever been before. He would never stop missing his little girl until the day he could hold her again, but people like Terra? They helped. They made the pain just a bit more tolerable. He couldn't help but be grateful.

"You know, my daughter would really like you." Why he had decided to share that so abruptly he didn't know, but it was true. And proof that despite himself he was having a hard time thinking about anything besides her. "She'd probably beg me to let her stay at your shop all day."

Terra's smiled widened. "I love children." She didn't know it yet but it would be her love for children that would one day save her from herself. Though she didn't believe that she'd ever have children herself. "And she'd be welcome at my shop." Terra laughed softly, her gaze turning towards their destination.

"As long as she likes cats." And Pokemon.

Terra was used to a life of loneliness but she didn't prefer it. Which was why she had collected pets and friends and a very grumpy roommate.

"You must miss her. I'm sorry." Terra had no one to miss. "Would you tell me about her?" She wasn't sure if talking about her would help or not.

"She loves animals. Rabbits are her favorite." It felt good to remember something happy, but quickly enough his expression turned wistful.

"I do. Without her I don't think I'd have a purpose." He confessed quietly. "But I'm going to get back to her. No matter how long it takes."

Terra's request surprised him a bit, but it felt safe to tell her about Grace. His intuition about people was usually right... and the truth was, he just wanted to talk about her. It helped.

"She's amazing. Has an imagination bigger than you could ever believe. Puts on the best tea parties in all the realms, too." He smiled fondly as he thought of her, his voice nearly overflowing with pride. "I've never met someone with a purer heart in all my life. Sometimes I still can't believe someone like her came from a part of me."

He thought of Priscilla, then.

"I guess it helped that her mom was perfect, too." His smile turned a bit more solemn.

Terra listened with a happy smile. She'd never had the chance to know her own family and it was nice hearing the joy in Jefferson's voice as he lost himself to his descriptions.

"They both sound amazing." He's really lucky, even if he's currently lost his family, he knows the joy of having them. Before Terra could say more they reached the Attleton archway. She paused just outside of the strange portal before gesturing for Jefferson to follow her through.

She stepped over first and then waited on the other side.

"The shop is just down this way."

His train of thought came to a grinding halt when they stood in front of the archway. He'd seen magic mirrors, doors that opened to other worlds, even swirling portals brought to life by magic beans, but none of those were quite like this. He stood wordless as he studied the details of the architecture, part of him wanting to spend hours looking at it.

Oops, Terra was gone already.

He stuck a hand through first, flexing his fingers on the other side. Well, they were still attached. That was good. He put his foot forward and stepped the rest of the way through, eyebrows raised at the sudden scenery change. He wasn't surprised, necessarily -- more like fascinated.

"So you do this all the time?" He questioned, taking in their new surroundings. "You go through that portal every day?"

With all the effort it took to go to different realms where he was from, the simplicity of it was almost astonishing.

Terra waited for Jefferson to step through the archway. Her lips curled into a light smile when he finally stepped over towards Attleton.

"Not everyday but when I go to collect flowers I do." Her expression softened. "I live above my flower shop so sometimes I stay in Attleton." Though she was trying to get out of her house more. She knew that it most likely wasn't healthy staying inside.

"I don't really know how it works."

She admitted before turning and heading to towards her shop. It was only a few streets into the small happy community of Attleton.

"What's it like? Living in Attleton?" He was asking too many questions, but his mouth wouldn't stop moving and neither would his mind.

He studied the city as much as he could as they kept moving, trying to remember notable details. Apparently each archway was different, but he wondered just how drastically so. Did they have anything in common at all apart from being connected to Genessia? He tilted his head slightly as he thought about it all.

"Does anyone?" He spoke up abruptly. "Know how it works, I mean."

"I don't think so." She'd ask though, if only to give Jefferson a better answer. She assumed it was the same sort of magic that brought them to Genessia in the first place but on a larger scale. It was hard to say for sure because it wasn't possible where Terra was from.

"Attleton is nice. It's quiet most of the time though there is a fighting area here." Terra dislikes fighting and stays away from it.

She turned down the street, stopping in front of two oak doors. She pulled the handle and gestured for Jefferson to enter. "Welcome to my flower shop." He'll find a lot of flowers inside. Terra's collected flowers from every archway and has cultured and cared for them. Near the back counter was a selection of homemade teas that Terra had grown and dried in the green house. For the moment there were only three verities on sale thought Terra was testing more. There was a back door behind that and then a door to a court yard to the back right of the store.

"It'd be too easy if we knew." He commented in a somewhat defeated sort of tone, lips pursed slightly as he dug his hands deep into his pockets.

Jefferson didn't verbally respond to to the mention of fighting, though he did offer a small grunt indicating disapproval. He wasn't all that fond of that sort of thing either. For the remainder of their walk he was mostly caught up in studying whatever caught his attention, which was probably for the best considering he may have talked Terra's ears off otherwise.

The moment she opened that oak door, he was completely astonished.

"You -- this is all yours? You grow these?" There was reverence on both his face and in his voice as he stepped past her to stand just inside the store. His mouth parted in amazement before turning back to her, a huge grin spread across his face.

"This is... this is beautiful." He gave a breathy laugh, short and quiet, as his eyes again began scanning every detail he could take in. "You're amazing, Terra."

Terra watched him with a warm smile. She was happy to see that he liked flowers though this wasn't all of them. These were just the flowers she had prepared to sell. She stepped past him and beckoned him to follow her with a wave of her hand.

"The green house is back here. I can show you." It was also where her new flower was. She pushed open the back door leading to the court yard. There was a high brick wall around the yard with a green house pressed against the back far wall. To their left was another set of stairs leading up to Terra's apartment. Howel, her cat and Eevee were playing in the court yard though they both paused and ran over to greet Terra when she stepped out into the sun.

"This way."

"Oh, right." He felt a little sheepish for becoming so enamored that he had briefly forgot about the rose. "I'd love to see it."

Jefferson followed behind at a forced casual pace, trying not to be too overbearingly excited. The courtyard was just as beautiful as everything else he'd seen.

"Those your pets?" He gestured down at the two animals, a lopsided smile on his face. They were cute even if he didn't know just what the fox looking creature was.

"Lead on." He gave an aloof little wave to her pets as he followed her forward. No doubt they were wondering who the weird guy with the hat was.

Terra laughed softly at the small creatures. "Yes. I have a few things that live here with me." It would get awfully lonely if she was alone and while she was used to being alone, it wasn't a feeling she enjoyed.

With practiced ease she steps up to the greenhouse and pushes the glass door open. It takes up over half the courtyard and looks even bigger inside. Towering panels of glass stretch above them which refract the light and absorb the heat from the sun. Along the floor are different sections of flowers seemingly separated by the type of care they need. In the far left corner is the rose bush that Terra had cultivated, it wasn't like a usual bush but like a vine that began to snake up the side of the greenhouse, twisting around any small ledge it can cling to. Along this vine were small buds and one fully formed rose. The rose grew downward, it's stem rigged for a few inches before twisting in with the vine. The plant was a dark green with thorns, tipped in a dark sea blue hue, scattered up the length of it. The rose itself appeared to be an off white with small tints of blue around the edges. Small glimmers of golden light appear to emanate from it, dotting the petals like stars as if by magic.

"Here it is. I have one that I picked but I've let the others grow."

"Looks like a lot of things live here to me." Jefferson casually gestured to the plants around them. Not super good company maybe, but still alive. At least they weren't loud.

Unlike the grapevines in Wonderland. He hated those things.

As they entered the greenhouse, he found himself again caught up in pure amazement, only this time it was tenfold. The way the rays of sun illuminated the flora within, how the gentle aroma of flowers hung in the air... even if it wouldn't last forever, for just a little while it put his tangled nerves and at ease.

Then he saw the rose.

"That -- that's it?" He pointed at it, his expression almost one of disbelief. He wanted to look at it more closely, but he was almost afraid to do anything but look at it lest he do something to harm it.

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greenmagick - 2016-05-17 22:14 (UTC) - Expand

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