✿5 [Action]

[redstringed]

*It's night-time, and outside of Building 6 there is a young-looking gothic lolita vampire and a bed of roses.

Rachel, in an attempt to not get dirty while planting a garden, has been attempting to do the entire thing with spatial manipulation - you might see the dirt itself shift around the roses if you looked long enough. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be going well for her, and the rose "garden" is lopsided and mismatched, and the roses don't look healthy. They're wilting a bit.

And because of this, Rachel is looking all the more irritated and frustrated.

Clearly this is the best time to bother her.*

Comments

[consultmybooks]

[Giles scribbles a note in his journal and holds it up for Rachel to see]

Looks like it's going well.

[redstringed]

...adequately, perhaps. *She arches an eyebrow* You cannot speak, then?

[consultmybooks]

No. I'm sure I mentioned that to you.

[He glances around her at the messy rose bed]

At least they're growing?

[redstringed]

You have. I was confirming it for myself.

They are growing, yes. Given their fragile nature, one must naturally be be very careful when handling them.

[consultmybooks]

"Fragile", I think, is the key point here.

You don't look as though you've been treating them as such.

[redstringed]

What a ludicrous thing to suggest. Of course I have. Do you see me manhandling them like some brutish oaf?

[consultmybooks]

No. And that might be the problem.

You're trying to plant a rose garden, and you're hardly dirty at all.

[redstringed]

I have no fondness for manual labor, Mr. Watcher. I will not dirty my hands when some other method will prove just as effective.

[consultmybooks]

It's the "just as effective" part that seems to be escaping you.

[redstringed]

*The worst part is that he's right.* It is a learning process in its fineness.

[consultmybooks]

Have you tried the library? They must have more than a few books on gardening.

[redstringed]

A lack of knowledge is hardly the issue at hand.

[consultmybooks]

Just a lack of ability, then.

[redstringed]

*A glare. She's really not in the mood for this.* Not at all. Merely a lack of experience.

[consultmybooks]

That's right. You mentioned you normally had servants for this, didn't you?

[redstringed]

Indeed. My butler and steward Valkenhayn is quite skilled in all manner of tending.

His tea is quite exquisite as well. I am quite certain that you have never had anything even close to its level.

[consultmybooks]

I've spent the last five years in California. What do you think?

[redstringed]

I have never had tea in California. How am I to judge its quality or lack thereof?

Though it is ultimately rather irrelevant.

[consultmybooks]

Take my word for it.

I'd offer to help, but gardening is not one my strong suits.

[redstringed]

... that, too, would seem to be irrelevant.

*Was that a comment made at her own expense? Was it?!

...nah.*

[consultmybooks]

But I'm sure there are plenty of others around the village who wouldn't mind helping. [Is he being helpful? Or subtly mocking Rachel again? Or both?]

[redstringed]

And yet, there are very few of them who I would trust with my roses.

[consultmybooks]

"Very few" is still an improvement over "one".

[redstringed]

It means little if they cannot be found. I will not advertise any need for assistance.

If necessary, I will persevere on my own.

[consultmybooks]

Seems needlessly complicated to me.

And the poor roses might suffer for it, of course.