voidtreckerooc | Spring Garden Day(s)!

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Spring Garden Day(s)!

Prior to April 1st/next platform day, Elidibus will be aiming to gather a collective of people to turn the rock garden car once more into a seasonal display. Provided nothing about the mission conclusion changes things that is! While not yet discussed with mods, will be requesting this to last about two to three IC days.

Update! Has been approved by mods along with having it run multiple days.

Update II An overview and a list of ideas presented.
The basic groundwork will provided; earth to plant/grow things in, protections to make sure the regular features of the rock garden that aren't converted for the setting will be preserved (memorials, existing crafts and cards, etc) regardless of the 'weather', a pseudo climate and seeds for the desired flowers/grass/trees/bamboo(also a grass iirc?)/etc. Ideas and activities, both pre garden days, during and even post so far offered are listed below. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

Flower pots- People who have personal flowers bringing them for display. Or harvesting some of the flowers to place into pots (if available) for a memory if people like.

Spring Decorations (arts and crafts)

Potpurri/extracts

collecting petals and drying them/making extracts/etc after the three day Spring Day is at an end (or doing it!)

Netting/mesh around the carriage for many of the decorations, etc.

Holographic Displays, possibly to make the garden seem more 'extended' beyond the walls. Or for other things!

Blankets, pillows, picnic atmosphere and food.

A selection of books on a covered table so people don't have to go to the library.

Growing fruit trees (cherry, peach, plum, oranges for example) and maintaining their grow so they go from flowering blossoms to pickable fruit to harvest on the final day. (probably modest amounts given size of car/etc but probably enough that everyone can have a bit of something!)

growing flowers, especially spring-themed ones (daffodils, primrose, tulips, etc)

Garden arrangement/flow/zen! (Suggested by Sanzo with willingness to teach about it!)

Roland is willing to sort of head/suggest/ICly implement egg painting and possible egg hunt, easter style.

The possibility of chocolates and candies being ordered/baked/etc.

Roland's higgledies will be helping to maintain the grounds, etc (so that things like over-traffic don't turn things to mud/etc, maybe collecting fallen petals for later drying/extract?) May or may not be seen.

Supplies for sketching or painting while in the spring garden will probably be brought in.

Music! Either someone bringing instruments from the music carriage and doing impromptu stuff or playing music on devices!

If I've missed something in this list, it's probably my bad memory or I missed it. Please let me know!

Snow Day Garden was something I assembled in haste in a couple days before the Platform Day. This time Elidibus will have more IC time to preplan and I also want to include more people who might be interested, particularly some of our plant ability/nature/weather themed folk!

Edit! Just to be clear, anyone's welcome to participate, not just plant ability/nature/etc themed folk! Sorry if I didn't make that clear earlier! See: Tidus's ideas for folk with nonmagical contributions! There will also be a pre-planning IC log going up post mission if anyone wants to scene something about the preparations.

Because he is still recovering from events during his trip home, he will be doing a more supervisory/assembly role this time. But he will approach the people he knows that can help him set this up and can learn of/network/connect with others ICly.

The theme will be Spring. I have loose notions of fusion of cherry blossoms, picnic spots, fresh new grass, daffodils, tulips, and primrose. A weather 'climate' of 'sun and light breezes' with a hint of rain as if it recently rained or is going to soon (though don't look up at the 'sky' too long, it only diminishes the presence of the kaledioscope of voidspace and its built-in rainbow, not completely covers it.

Also any ideas would be fantastic!

Please reply below if you're interested, what you could contribute, any ideas you have for the theme. Even if you can't participate ICly in the setup, feel free to add ideas of what you'd like to see!

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For the non-magical folks, ideas:

Anyone who has flower pots, lending out their flowers to make it brighter.

Making Spring decorations! This can get the more artsy people involved. Also if it isn't ready by platform, taking part in adding to the decorations can be an open prompt!

If Elidibus has the strength for it, Tidus would recommend they get some netting/mesh that can cover the top of the carriage, and the decorations can be hanged from it that way. Not all of the void roof has to be covered (the centre can be left open), but it would make it more fun.

Seto Kaiba has always been a good source for holographic displays, and might be able to whip up a few fake cherry blossoms trees if asked.

Kumoko/Spider did make a bunch of pillows for when the kids had an arts day in the rock garden, so those can be brought out to sit on, along with blankets. Afaik the rock garden doesn't naturally have grass.

Pot-pourris or something that holds scent to give the smell of Spring. Edit: ohh if any extra flowers are made for this Spring display too, making the flowers into pot pourri once they start wilting.

Edited 2022-03-23 11:31 (UTC)

These are very excellent ideas! I mentioned this on the side but figured for others I'd also put it here.

Elidibus (and Emet-Selch) can shape things with creation magic to make grass/landscape/etc so it can totally be considered that there will be a 'canvas' so to speak, for others to build on. Including grass (to touch).

But having other people contribute (nonmagical) stuff from their own abilities/crafting skills/etc is fantastic! Also noting the comment about a covered table for books to read on Spring Day that you mentioned off to the side here so I remember about it.

People who might read this:

Other ideas are people making 'picnic food', crafted decorations, maybe an 'egg painting/hunting' for those who might have Easter-like traditions; all are welcome ideas! There'll be an IC log prior to platform and unlike the Snow Day version, this will be publicly announced as 'a thing for Platform Day' beforehand so if anyone wants to use points to order supplies, that'll be an option!

I invite you to consider the extremely inept opposition posed by Zetta, who still considers the garden car to be his personal domain and is furious he hasn't been asked, consulted, or paid. In no way will he actually manage to interfere with the event, of course.

Haha. It will be considered! There will also be an OTA post after the mission for anyone who wants to scene about this so feel free to drop in and invoke a strongly worded protest!

Yondu's willing to help with the flowers, especially since it keeps him up on practicing those abilities.

Excellent! There will be an IC log after the mission if you're interested in scene stuff, also!

Nell can make pretty much anything grow and would be glad to help out.

Hooray! Elidibus will aim for plenty of seeds to grow!

Esteban would be down to help out with setting up. He's got a grav-con unit he's ~~stolen~~ permanently borrowed from the armory that should make reaching high places and carrying heavy things easier.

Also, is there any plan for some music? Either through people playing instruments or singing, or maybe have some music wired through the garden for a day? Maybe have people share the lyrics of songs from their worlds beforehand?

He'd also like to suggest sharing childhood games and teaching skills to the younger kids, though his own repertoire is quite short.

Edited 2022-03-24 00:40 (UTC)

There hasn't been music plans yet but there is now! And more games the merrier! I've plans to also have a bit of a paint area up for people that want to paint spring scenes or such.

Someone can ABSOLUTELY volunteer for face painting duties as well, just saying. c.c

Ahahaa, that will absolutely NOT be Esteban, because he has the artistic skills of a fingerpainting toddler. That said, he just realized that he can shift his poi from standard to some very quick-made version of a scarf poi which can be fun to spin, even without training (and Esteban can and will teach a few tricks to whoever wants to try, of course).

Some quick references: Here and here!

This would be fantastic! Because while kites might be able to be used given the height of the cart there's still limited room so something like scarf poi would be a fantastic option! I highly encourage this!

Also I could suggest seeing if the people who have sewing skills, like kumoko/the spider and so on, would be willing to help make those scarves! Well of course you'd neeed to reach out and ask if that's a thing people are interested in but one way or another I'm sure they can be rigged up.

Well, I'm not catching Elle anywhere, so he'll have to make do with his basic poi. It'll look a bit cobbled up, but it's better than nothing!

No worries. I'm sure there's plenty of fabric and such laying around in the art car. Maybe you can put out a call on the plotting discord channel to see if anyone wants to handwave some help with them!

Sanzo is still acclimatizing to his time on Voidtreckers express and is more than willing to find things to do for distraction!

He's a bit lazy when it comes to the physical labor aspect. But he'd be more than happy to help organize tasks and supplies. Since he spent most of his life in Chinese Temples and Monasteries, he knows a lot about traditional aesthetic and decorative choices with such gardens and how to maintain the flow of zen within the space.

AKA, he'd be more than happy to help with raking the stones, doing menial work, and telling people what to do to maintain and organize the overall harmony of everyone else's designs so that it all works together.

Always good to have another organizer.

Sanzo's aesthetic may be appalled (or not, given what I know/understand about Sanzo) to learn that the rock garden will be fairly literally transformed into grass-growing earth and such for the duration. But if he suggests leaving a bit of rock garden amidst the spring this will be absolutely considered and planned for. Or if he wants to recommend stuff for the flow of placement for the spring itself that would ALSO be fantastic. I would definitely like to see some Zen aesthetic thought pulled in. Somehow I'm also imagining Sanzo ironically smoking while lecturing.

Currently aiming for dirt, with new grass grown on top of it, light hills between the flow of the streams. Cherry trees with blossoms fluttering around and whatever flowers folk decide to grow for most of the carriage.

For reference here is the last time Elidibus changed up the Rock Garden. Look for Snow Day: Rock Garden. That was a largely spontaneous thing both OOCly and ICly. This I'm hoping to give more time for OOC planning and more people to participate in setting it up and do things/contribute with. Also it'll last about three IC days.

If he could have some cigarettes, he would 100% be smoking throughout.

Unfortunately, the poor monk is suffering from severe nicotine withdrawals due to the item rules this month.

But grass and trees are something he would be happy to help organize, and although a good rock garden is appreciated, Sanzo is also quite good with traditional garden aesthetics. Spending 70% of his life inside monasteries has made him pretty aware of tending to and caring for such things, and although he will grumble about it the whole way through, he will end up helping if just out of sheer boredom.

Prospering fruit is a good sign of a radiant spring, so cherry trees are 100% perfect. (We can hold a blossom viewing event to get them to grow fast enough!) There are also plenty of other fruits and plants that represent a prosperous spring!

Peach blossoms, in particular, are a preference of Sanzos. (And heck, perhaps if we're growing fruit, we can sort up a small community garden space so the train will no longer have to ultimately rely on what the kitchen gives us for food). Heck, we can even have a blossom viewing event once the garden is done being set up!

Oh thanks for the links. Definitely several would be worked in if Sanzo made insight about them. Elidibus largely does this for morale, not for personal reasons. I also! Like the idea that if over the three day period, the trees were encouraged to grow to fruit-stage and they can be later used. Already had Tidus suggest making potpurri and sachets and the like out of any flowers that aren't kept.

Also since it may not have been noticed, there IS a greenhouse car independent of the Rock Garden car. My character doesn't involve himself much with it but I know there's a small group of folk on the discord that do if you want to reach out to them with your ideas! I've seen Yondu, Persephone and Ryo make mention (I'm sure there's more but I have a terrible memory :( ). Anyway I don't know what they're growing in there right now but if there's no trees/fruit trees it'd be great to get some.

It's great to know about the food garden as well! I vaguely remember browsing my eyes on that but still finding my way around all the links and carts (lol) so pinpointing certain information still takes a bit of searching for me.

If that's the case, then maybe just a focus on fruit plants that specifically create spring blossoms for that beautiful garden aesthetic? Cherry, peach, and plum blossom trees. Get all those lovely flower petals to bloom during the season. And maybe some bamboo, too, just to balance it out?

More than anything, I just think it would be creat to have a blossom viewing event in this garden for the train residents at some point. (laugh) Everyone sits out on blankets and enjoys watching the flowers fall together after spending so much time working together to build it as a group.

Yeah. That's why I tossed a few people to reach out to that I know do a lot with the greenhouse. Figured it'd be easier to reach out and touch base with them as well as look for the specific setting info.

I was thinking that myself. I mean you can only fit in so many types of trees even if they're all spring. Maybe sneak an orange tree in there. But basically max of four trees; it's not a huge carriage all told. I love the additional idea of bamboo too!

Anyway blossom viewing would be an image I imagined too. Since it's allowed to have a three day stretch ICly, a progression of maybe the first couple of days having blossoms/blossoms falling and then the last day bearing fruit if the nature ability folk are willing. So the last day can be a harvest of the fruit which can then be used in the kitchen. Well maybe not the cherry trees if we're going for the more ornamental/flowering ones. Might not be a huge supply but at least everyone should be able to get a bit of something. And collecting the blossoms to use for extracts and flavoring and so forth is also an option. Just about to edit the main post here with a list of what's been suggested so far! Let me know if I got any of your suggestions wrong or missed something.

These are perfect! Ah, I can't wait! All of this has got me so excited. It's so great to see something going on that I know he will actively participate despite his constant sour personality.

And four trees sound perfect since we are still fitting it into a train-cart-sized space, especially since we still want some room for people to sit around and enjoy themselves in it.

Watch him preach about zen and the purpose of blossom viewing in spiritual beliefs. Just sit there smoking with a cup of wine in hand as he talks about meditation and finding inner peace. lol

Roland has higgledies who are basically the essence of natural phenomena given form and life, if that will help the mood! They can basically run around and decorate things, help with chores, and even provide some magic here and there for those who can see them.

Which is the caveat- but their presence will still count even if they are unseen! They make appearances in nature wherever there is positive affirmation and a general pulse of thriving life. Roland himself is good at following orders so he can help with anything involving manpower :3

Of course it will help the mood! If some people can't see them it is what it is. But during the Snow Day, Najaran's wood people were around but were shy of contact so not everyone got to see them (in another sense) either. And for those that can't see them, maybe they can do some magic surrounding that area rather than AT the person (to be noticed but v. confused over)? I think we established Elidibus would be able to see them so for helping putting up decorations or keeping things neat and running ( after all the event will be three days this time and it's a small contained space. Keeping the grass from looking like a squashed into mud mess is a chore on itself!) they would probably be great.

I'll be doing a pre-platform day IC log about all this so there'll be plenty of things for Roland to do there as well if he volunteers. For instance, organizing people who want to make decorations. And oh! I did vaguely have an idea about egg painting and an egg hunt sort of deal if you think that would be something Roland would put forward. (Easter-like stuff is a bit different where he comes from just... don't ask.) You know, as probably US President and all. c.c

Yes! They can definitely do that- they've been helping with dishes, cooking, cleaning, and the like all throughout this time <3

Roland would also love to help out with Easter egg stuff that's more familiar to what he knows from his version of Earth :3 They probably did that in the White House when he was in term. Egg hunting especially!

Excellent! I shall look forward to seeing your prompts! :D There will be an IC post pre-April for folk to interact in and I will soon be updating this TL with a list of contributed suggestions so people don't have to look through all the comments.

Yey! Will tag it, and can't wait.

It's doubtful that Faux would be able to contribute anything natural to the project, but as per Spring Decorations (arts and crafts), he can attempt some poorly drawn artworks for the display.

Of course! Working on the IC post where folk can run threads like artwork creating/arts and crafts, etc. :D

Examples:
Q: What is the base setup going to be like?
A: Like the snow day, the physical size of the carriage won't be changed. But rocks will be converted to earth, the streams will be largely as-is and certain character additions will be safely moved and/or warded to protect them from deterioation (such as weather!). Once the event is over everything will be converted back to 'as it was' e.g. the rock garden's standard description. There will be a climate, a combination of weather and something like a sun ('real feeling' but technically artificial). Basically it will feel extremely close to an outside, sunny spring day with a light breeze. There will be various effects (weather, 'sun', some sort of wall projection perhaps) to diminish, but not completely remove the kaleidoscope of the void. Basically don't look at the sky or walls for TOO long but it's okay to do so for a time. Anything that absolutely can't persist in a spring environment even with warded protection will be temporarily rehomed and restored later. There will be a small protected area reserved for Najaran's Woodfolk who make their home in this carriage.

Q: Timeframe?
A: This announcement goes up the evening of Quicksand 13 (after everyone's been back on the train post mission for a bit). Quicksand 14-15 will be for various preparation and organization but the rock garden will be prepared for additions by morning, Quicksand 15. The Garden will be 'fully operational' Quicksand 16-18 (three IC days, March 31-April 5). Everything will be returned to normal by Quicksand 19/April 6.

Q: Elidibus doing all this by himself?
A: Nope! And he didn't last time either. Emet-Selch will be talked into the lion's share of creation magic and climate conditions this time (setup). Weather provided by someone else. And of course the open invitation for people to become involved if they want to.

Q: What will be provided?
A: Seeds (grass, orange tree, flowering sakura, peach tree, plum tree, bamboo and various spring flowers- daffodils, primrose, tulips). Other spring seeds are welcome, these are just the basis of what's provided for the growers. Fertile soil that's properly packed like it's ground and is lightly hilly (small bumps). The fountain and streams will remain as is (stone fountain in the center, streams travelling to the corners of the carriage). A path or so will still wind around the new setting but some of the path space may be removed to make more room for nature stuffs. As a reminder the rock garden has some artificial weather controls now so rain can be turned off and on if water's needed to help with the growth. But there will be a weather pattern independent of this system too! Other requests will be considered but these are the default things one can expect to automatically be present. Most other items will be sourced from the train supplies/other cars, or the crew's ingenuity.

Super stressed and overwhelmed here, so I will admit I did not read 100% of this. But you can feel free to handwave that Naja agreed and use her Woodfolk again. Planting is one of the main things they are known for, and they love doing it. So have at. :D

Sounds good to me and thanks for slipping in and mentioning!

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Spring Garden Day(s)!

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Questions!

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