A City Garden of Endless Possibilities

[senorita_perfecta]

Who: Isabela and You
What: City walks and brainstorming town garden ideas
Where: Edge’s Town Center
When: The whole month of August
Warnings: Nothing too drastic but there is tons of plant nerding though


Before she had been taken away from her home and family and arrived at Edge, Isabela was in the middle of planning out a community garden for the people living in the encanto to make use of and enjoy the greenery. Now that she got transplanted into a new world, it looks like those plans will be put on hold. Her mind has been preoccupied with thoughts of home and family and of her not so great encounters with the Heartless in the last few weeks.

Now don’t get her wrong, she does enjoy her stay at Edge but she is curious to see what the city has to offer and try to repay the generosity the citizens have showering onto people like her. Then as she goes around the town center, she thinks back on her original community garden plan and wonders if she can contribute to any ongoing garden or similar green space building. She would love to take part of anything city project, especially ones that involve plants, that is her big interest.

Now that would be a great idea as she continues on with her walk, already thinking of suggestions she could come up with.

Comments

[senorita_perfecta]

“That sounds nearly similar to how my family does things for our town. He must be a very good helper, willing to lend a hand without asking anything in return,” Isabela smiles in amazement, she is getting to be interested in meeting this Sephiroth guy even more and have a nice talk with him too.

[icangothedistancetoo]

"Well, it kind of was our job, so we'd usually get paid, but he'd definitely help for free too!" Zack said. "He took on a lot of cases without us actually being hired when he saw there was a need. People all over loved him!"

[senorita_perfecta]

“Oh that is really great to hear about it. You guys must be like heroes to the places you have visited,” Isabela happily notes, “Or better yet, problem solvers! I think that it would be a better term to describe your line of work.”

[icangothedistancetoo]

"Yeah, we were! We were professional heroes back there, but problem solvers works too!" Zack beams. It makes him happy remembering those times. Seph is still everything to him.

[senorita_perfecta]

“I agree as well. Both terms do work well. Anyway, as I said a while ago, I was planning to open up a community garden for the city and I am still in the middle of looking into where to place it on. Even gardens need somewhere to be placed on too.”

[icangothedistancetoo]

“That’s an awesome idea! I’m sure there’s a good place, maybe right in the city center,” Zack offers. “We could go look!”

[senorita_perfecta]

“Zack, that is a really good idea. The city center does sound very promising!” Isabela chimes in, “If we can secure a location in the area, it will be easy for everyone to access it at any time. We should take a good look at it right away and see what we can do with it as a possible garden location.”

[icangothedistancetoo]

"Yeah! I think there's a statue or a monument or something, but that could be the centerpiece of the garden!" Zack says as he heads there.

The center is a large square that could certainly be turned into the garden. The monument, depicting the Lifestream bursting out of the earth to protect the Planet from Meteor, would make a very striking centerpiece.

[senorita_perfecta]

Isabela runs after Zack to find the place that he has suggested for the community garden. She couldn’t believe her eyes to see how simply perfect the square plot of land could be for the garden as much as she dreads that word in question for as long as she has lived.

The monument stands proudly from where they stand and it would make for a great central landmark for the garden as well. She has no idea what the Lifestream is and what is its purposed right now but the design alone is visually striking for sure.

“Wow! This looks really great. That monument will be perfect as a centerpiece for the garden’. That would draw in plenty of people to come over.”

[icangothedistancetoo]

Zack nods enthusiastically. "I can just see it! It'd probably look a lot like Aerith's gardens, with lots of pretty flowers, maybe some paths going up and down, maybe a bench over there...." He gestures to one side of it.

"I wonder who you'd need to talk to about it."

[senorita_perfecta]

“She sure has a thing for gardening, doesn’t she? I think that the two of us have some fun chatting about flowers and plants for a very long time,” Isabela nods, “Speaking of which, there has to be someone in charge of public infrastructure whom we can speak to so we can get the garden project off the ground. Does this city have a town hall we can visit to and ask around?”

[icangothedistancetoo]

"Yeah! I really hope she comes. You guys would be besties!"

Zack looks around. "There should be something like that.... I know I've heard a lot about something called the WRO that's working to make everything nice around here again. I think the guy in charge of that is a ... Reeve somebody? Maybe that's who you talk to!"

[senorita_perfecta]

“Wow! That is one good person we can seek out and talk to, Zack. Then let’s try to go visit this Reeve person at the WRO and ask for permission to start working on the community garden,” Isa widens her eyes in further eagerness, more determined to get her garden project to become a reality.

[icangothedistancetoo]

"Yeah! Now we just ... uh ... need directions to the WRO place," Zack says. He looks around. "Maybe it tells on this thing?" He goes over to look at a city directory. "Yeah! We're not too far from it!" He points to it on the map.

[senorita_perfecta]

“Alright! That is great, we should be able to head over there and ask for more information about the plot of land we found,” Isabela speaks in joy, eager to find out what they can do with the land for the community garden project she is hoping to establish soon.

[icangothedistancetoo]

"Yeah! Let's go!"

Zack leads her over and they speak to the receptionist, who allows them in to see Reeve.

[turncoatcait]

The office the two of them are led to is large, though with the amount of charts and schematics in it it feels much smaller but still well organized. The man at the desk seems like he's spent most of the past decade with far too many things on his plate to deal with and it isn't likely to end up any better anytime soon.

"Ah, hello? I didn't miss an appointment did I?" Reeve blinks, reaching for a mug and grimacing at the lack of anything in it.

"My apologies if so. Regardless, how can I help you two?"

[senorita_perfecta]

The office looks rather nice so far, though Isabela’s main priority is on the garden inquiry and hopes that the person running the infrastructure department can provide any help possible. As she and Zack enter inside, she faces Reeve as he ask them about anything so far.

“Hello sir. A friend and I are wondering about the empty plot of land we found earlier,” she begins the conversation, “I have some ideas to open up a community garden for this city and I was wondering if there is anything we can do to get it started.”

[icangothedistancetoo]

Zack nods enthusiastically. “It’d be just the thing to brighten things up around here! Just like when we did it back home!”

[turncoatcait]

Reeve nodded along, attentive.

"So... I'm not saying no immediately, but there's some problems with that plan." He said, sighing. "One much bigger than the other. First off, which empty plot? There are a few around Edge that have already been earmarked for projects once infrastructure is either repaired or put in.

"Second of all, and much more difficult an endeavor: how are you going to make it work? The land within miles of Midgar is dead, we've tried getting things to grow and... Well, there's no life to the soil, and bringing it in from far enough away presents it's own problems."

[senorita_perfecta]

“Well, Zack here has found a nice plot of land where there is a statue dedicated to the Lifestream protecting the planet and we thought that it could be a good spot to put a garden for the city, a centerpiece for the community garden,” Isabela replies to the first question Reeve asks before realizing that the second problem he has pointed is going to be a big problem for the project to overcome.

“Oh my. I didn’t realize that the soil in the city is currently not of good quality for any plant to thrive in. I really don’t know how we can go about it without causing too much trouble for everyone living in the city. But I am willing to put as much as work needed to make my garden project possible. We can start by doing tests on the soil quality on the land we found so far and see what we can do to make it suitable for plant life. If that means trying to find ways to revitalize the land where the garden could be placed on, then I can try to make the best out of a rough situation.”

[icangothedistancetoo]

Zack wilts a bit, but he’s undaunted. “Yeah! I’m sure we can make it work! I mean, Radiant Garden back home was a mess where things didn’t grow anymore either, but Aerith and everyone got it going again!”

That may or may not be a startling statement, mentioning Aerith.

[turncoatcait]

Reeve took a deep breath and let it out slowly, fingers pressing together in front of his face and rubbing the bridge of his nose in a weary gesture.

"The on in the middle of the city, where every thoroughfare goes through and both vehicle and foot traffic relies on being open in order for Edge to function?" He said carefully. "I'm afraid without solid proof of concept I can't approve tearing up the pavement and underlying infrastructure to make a garden on that particular location." He said as gently as he could, raising a hand to stall any arguments until he finished.

"There are however a fair few smaller plots of land within a short radius of it that I would gladly see this experiement through on and approve a budget for. I can also include in that budget some large pots for the plaza to bring in some plants, but it would be your responsibility to maintain them as well."

There was a shuffle from a doorway, and the sound of small boots before a bunch of rolled up paper moved towards them. A bipedal cat came around a short cabinet, hoisting the diagrams. "Here ya are! Edge's plannin's and the last reports on the wastes ecosystem!"

"Thank you, Cait. As I was saying, if that is an agreeable compromise I can get that approved for the morning if you wanted to start that early."

[senorita_perfecta]

“Oh okay. Understood, I guess that I didn’t think about making one beforehand. I should remember to do that the next time I would try to make something similar,” Isabela sadly sighs, realizing that she hadn’t come up with a solid proof of concept before the meeting with Reeve first.

But when he told her and Zack that he can let them use one of the smaller land plots for them to try out the idea and look after, there is some hope that she can make the community garden project to come to fruition, just on a smaller scale for now.

“Whoa. You’re letting us to try it out on a smaller plot of land? On the condition that we should do the maintenance for it? Oh thank you so much, we’ll take it. Even if it is on the smaller side, we will take good care of it and make sure that it will thrive.”

[icangothedistancetoo]

"Yes!" Zack grinned. "We'll make it work! Isabela's amazing and I've learned stuff from Aerith! You'll see! It'll be a beautiful place!"