2023-02-17: New Growth
- Log: 2023-02-17: New Growth
- Cast: May Morseland, Milly Ashford
- Where: Tsutsujidai High School
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-02-17
- Summary: Milly pops in on a medical-related trip to Tsutsujidai to look at the rooftop garden, and has a chat with May Morseland, one of Tsutsujidai's students.
<Pose Tracker> May Morseland has posed.
It's was May Morseland's credo to 'never miss a beat' as was her musical colloqiulism.
But in music even a pause, a rest, was still a functional beat.
It was a rarer one in her repertoire for sure, given how endlessly exuberant for approaching life she was, an attitude endlessly undaunted even through enough studying to straight-A her entire year, stay days ahead of external assignments, join and maintain active membership in *multiple* clubs. And all this on top of regular practice/maintenance of her musical interests.
Really, it was somewhat of a miracle that it took the confluence of tumultuous events in Tsutsujidai for her to finally pursue more moments of quiet and calm. She was determined and bright, but ultimately not masochistic, so it wasn't as if she was straining herself before per se, but...
The necessity was clear in the way that she gazed over the view from the rooftop garden, taking a small moment from whatever she had been doing up there to gaze over the surroundings.
It wasn't like she couldn't stop and appreciate a nice view (if anything she did so regularly, albeit at a more lively pace), but there seemed to be a certain...freshness of perspective with which she looked upon the seemingly familiar area.
The skirt of her school uniform shifts slightly in a ripple of the calm breeze. After most of a year's time of needing to experience one regularly, skirts were definitely a 'maybe'/'sometimes' thing for her, she had decided.
Admittedly, she was excited to not need this one soon anyway, so, bias.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
This is likely to be Milly's last trip to Tsutsujidai for a little while; she needs a check-in with her surgeon and her mother insisted on getting it face-to-face. Tomorrow it's back down to Ashford... and that'll probably be one of her last, too. Graduation looms pretty large.
Still, it's not all bad, she thinks as she heads up to the rooftop garden of Tsutsujidai High School. Even if she's parting from the environment she'd done so well in, there's a lot to be optimistic about. ... and, obviously, she helped grow some delicious produce during her time stuck in the tiny city.
She's not expecting someone else to be up there, admittedly; when she spots May, she gives an enthusiastic wave. "Hey there!" she calls, considering her seating options. ... there is a bench, at least, and she decides to take the opportunity to -- well -- sit on it, discarding her cane for now. "I was in town for something else and I thought I'd check up on the garden while I was here."
<Pose Tracker> May Morseland has posed.
May wasn't *quite* as mentally occupied as the last time she was secretly pondering major life things, so this time she isn't caught off guard by the arrival of another familiar face. Besides, she was at school so the expectation of company was sorta assumed really, no matter how much she'd been sitting with the moment.
"Oh, yo!" She turns and gives Milly a wave with approximately twice the energy back, as was the May Morseland Minimum, striding closer in the process.
"Sup Prez." As accurate as it was, it was relatively unusual for a title like to easily slip from May's mouth in a casual setting. Or most settings really. And don't get started on '*Miss* Prez', unless there's something on the line if she doesn't.
"Well, pretty sure we did a good job, personally! At least, I'm pretty sure this is how plants are supposed to look." May casually chuckles, smiling widely. "And if it means we get to see you around again, that's already a win for them!"
She doesn't sit down next to Milly yet, still standing and animated, but is definitely near enough for conversation spacing. She also steals a very quick glance at the cane. Another reason May had to be grateful things could be worse for her.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"I think you did too. You've done a pretty good job of keeping the garden going even after everyone left -- I'm impressed. I'm not exactly the greenest thumb, but I feel like I could pick some of the leafy greens and just eat them." After that one, though, Milly frowns, musing, "... Given how much dirt I'd be eating at that point, that might be pica."
Her delivery is so clean that it's hard to tell if she's joking or legitimately worried.
She doesn't move on it either way, though. "How's prep for prom going around here? I haven't had the chance to check in again with you guys's Student Council, but I'm actually looking for more of an on-the-ground perspective anyway." From what she's learned from the student body, this is actually the first year in a while that Tsutsujidai's bothered having much in the way of school events.
"I don't want to micromanage you, though. Part of GUTS is seeing what every school can come up with on their own, instead of having one school dominate all the planning." Wistfully, she looks out over the landscape and muses, "It's an idea I kind of wish I'd had sooner."
<Pose Tracker> May Morseland has posed.
"Being a musician in my spare time, I like to think quiet, sorta-meditative hands-on work is something of a specialty. Just usually working with nature that's already been harvested and chopped up, as it were I guess." May snorts, shaking her brown hair back a bit. "And not gonna lie, some of them *do* make tempting snacks." Admittedly she mostly means on her budget but...only mostly...
Onto less vaguely concerning topics, May smiles brightly once again as she steps forward once again, leaning by the bench on the other end of where Milly sits. "Oh yeah, that stuff! It's been going pretty well from what I can tell. 'Specially between exams coming up soon and people still dealing with uhhh, the thing," She gestures vaguely around. "Everyone's been real champs. If anything, people are pretty eager to make sure this goes well, which I can't blame em for, I'm one of them!" May giggles. "All the more reason I was free to help out when I could, 'specially with clubs winding down a lil."
May casually follows Milly's gaze, an admittedly natural instinct given what she'd been up here doing in the first place. "Well, better late than never in my book!" She gives Milly an amicable smile. "And I can vouch for it being appreciated, that part included." She idly drums her fingers on the bench a bit, an eratic but subtly purposeful rhythm. "Not that I have much comparison myself, being a transfer for just this one last year, but still!"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"Oh, good. We've been picking up promotion on our end... not everyone at Ashford gets the prom thing. I actually assumed I wouldn't have one, since Ashford's school events are pretty Japanese-influenced." Milly's been wondering about that for a while, but her unique perspective on the school's ebb and flow as a supersenior has gotten her really thinking about it. "We're getting a lot of turnout for voting for prom, at least. People get that part."
Ashford: still a space where people favor-trade and chase their own self-interest. Voting, of course, is just another means of exchanging power.
"Oh -- you're from the OCU, right," Milly says. "I mean -- everyone here is, I think, but... you're from Oceania proper, I think? The accent's a giveaway." Milly would know a thing or two about that, of course -- her own is also a giveaway of her Britannian heritage.
... the Mischief begins to percolate in Milly's thoughts, though. "So. Do you have a date yet~? I do, but I'm curious how things are going on that front for everyone else."
<Pose Tracker> May Morseland has posed.
"Oh yeah huh, that would happen! I was sorta surprised to see it here too, for the opposite reason. We got formals back home," May's casual flow is unbroken, because if it wasn't, Milly would notice any introspection about 'home' May could have obvious in her voice, and *that* was an entire topic in itself for another time. "But less so round these parts yeah. Still, I'm pretty sure the concept of getting together and having a good time is universal enough for people to get the gist in practice!" May chuckles.
"Oh! Yeah!" May's eyebrows raise slightly as she turns to face Milly. "Down south, New Zealand. Sweet as, etcetera," She giggles slightly. "Gonna be real, someone being able to directly call that apart from weird Britannian is fresh!"
May ponders Milly's inquiry remarkably earnestly, tapping her chin in thought. "Oh, glad to hear! As for me uh...to be honest, I got no idea, aha. I've got a pal who I also know is *pretty* likely also free, if I absolutely need someone to go with for the heck of it, but apart from that..." It was genuinely not something May otherwise thought about, much to the chagrin of at least a couple secret admirers.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"Yep! That's part of why I greenlit the party room so fast," Milly admits, on the topic of getting together and having a good time. "There's a lot of people who probably won't get their heads around it right away, so having something to do if you're not dating anyone or don't have a great sense of what prom's about is a good move."
Milly grins as she's praised for noticing the accent. "A lot of foreigners only hear English on HiTV, so they don't really get the ear for it." Milly, of course, isn't far off from this herself with Japanese -- she couldn't tell you the difference between anything but the most flanderized Eastern and Western Japanese dialects. But she's not really thinking about that.
"Well, you've got about a month," Milly encourages, on the topic of having no leads. "And who knows? Maybe I'll come up with a way to ease the tensions on the singlets~" ... there's something devious in that expression...
<Pose Tracker> May Morseland has posed.
"Yeah, that was definitely a good catch! Can definitely tell you've got a knack for this!" May beams. There's a very good likelihood this is something she would've came up with in a similar position as well, but that was for reasons she wasn't entirely privy to about herself yet. "You're a shoe-in for whatever's after graduation for ya, that's for sure! Also not a clue for me on that front to be honest but...I'm definitely excited to figure something out anyway!" May grins to nowhere in particular, thinking about something.
May shrugs and gestures to Milly in a conceding gesture. "Oh yeah, for sure. And we're pretty lowkey in general so, it's whatever. Learning opportunity for people!"
May chuckles, now finally sitting on the bench next to Milly, recling back a bit as she nods to herself. "Yeah good point...ah well, no biggie!" She chuckles good-naturedly. Then raises a curious eyebrow at Milly's followup. She wasn't Devious like the prez was, but she recognized a Notion forming anywhere.
"Oooh?" May inquiringly enunciates. "Yeah I suppose that'd be fun! All the more reason to uh, keep my options open I guess! Since I *am* pretty curious now...I'll eagerly watch that space as it were! Or listen. Whatever. You get what I mean."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly glances off at the assertion she's a shoe-in for whatever's coming next for her. She doesn't press on it, or protest. Then again, maybe it's just treatment-related brain fog that has her trailing for a little bit. (Having the inside of your brain audited for lead once a week for four weeks by tiny robots is a bit of an undertaking.)
She takes a moment to collect herself, before finally standing back up from the bench. "I know this is gonna turn out great no matter what you do. Even if you end up just spending the night in the party room, I think you're going to have a great time. Like you said, no biggie."
Gathering her cane, she starts back toward the roof access at a fairly leisurely clip. "I can't stay too long, unfortunately. I have to shuffle a little paperwork and get ready to head back down to Ashford; I'm not even staying the whole day. But it was really nice to see you! ... I'm really glad this place is hanging together."
<Pose Tracker> May Morseland has posed.
"Oh yeah for sure!" May nods, springing up from the bench herself with characteristic energy. "Hardly gonna say no to a party, aha. Besides, whatever else, will be a big get-together before the last big hurrah, which I'm always down for!" For as short a 'stay' as May had within the bounds of Tsutsujidai...it's been a good one. Important, if one were prone to lofty statements, even.
"Oh yeah, yeah, makes sense." She stretches out a bit, then crouches before the garden, skirt spreading over her legs. Something seemed to catch her interest about the greenery they'd been...contemplating earlier. Or maybe something else entirely.
"You too! Take it easy breezy, Prez!" She gives Milly another enthusiastic wave from her squating position. "And me too. Definitely appreciated the help of pals like you coming in and helping us, especially when things were getting all weird. Always good to know we got friends on the outside, as it were."
Apart from whatever else one could read into that phrasing...
'We'?
It wasn't the oddest time to roll herself into speaking collectively about this topic, but given they'd also discussed...
But regardless, it is a subtlety brushed over as she seems to be content with whatever plant caught her interest, and walked over to resume her view over Tsutsujidai.