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 Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 7:44 pm
 Ikebana was bored.
He had to admit it--his life had become boring. Between teaching, floral arrangement, and... well, nothing, he was starting to become keenly aware of a stagnation that not only had become apparent, it had become annoying. And he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do about it.
Elsewhere, he saw phonies grow, meet others, enjoy their lives. Was he going to grow old and become a silent, boring, stick-in-the-mud? Interested in tradition and nothing else? There were a few shy mares in his class that had given him fluttering eyelashes, and he'd felt nothing. Because, again, he'd become a tremendous and crashing bore.
Trying to wedge himself out of his routine, Ikebana decided... to do something similar to what he always did. Only a little bit different (he couldn't change overnight, after all.) He went to a new community park, with new flower beds yet sight unseen. And he trotted slowly through them, hoping their blooms would manage to inspire him.
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 8:26 pm
On the other hand, Mandrake wasn't quite bored. It was more accurate to say she was restless.
She had plenty of things at her disposal to entertain herself, between her ever expanding family (how had they gotten so big??), adventures with her siblings, taking care of her bird, tending her own garden, and following the whims of stubborn exploration. The latter was what lead her to this particular patch of flowers in this particular park.
Everything smelled fresh here, not that it shouldn't but the newness of the park hung over its greenery like a cloak that made everything a little brighter, a little more fragrant, and a little more exciting. Mandrake Blossom plodded through the grass, curious to see any new strains or species. The colors in the flower beds certainly popped here, which was enough of a distraction that Mandrake missed the big bright cream colored stallion before she before she bumped right into his flank.
"Oof--" she spouted reflexively. Quick as a whip, she recovered and added, "Watch where you're going, Goldilocks."
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 8:30 pm
Ikebana, although at that moment he had been standing fairly still, immediately turned toward the offended party and murmured a quick: "Excuse me." He took a step to the side to allow the mare to pass, although his bulk did take up more than its share of the lane. But although he meant to simply move and be done with the moment, he did not.
There was something about the mare that was strangely familiar, and yet not. He frowned, looking more earnestly at her, as though she would suddenly transform and reveal her secret.
"Excuse me," he said a second time, his deep voice respectful in its distance. "I feel like we've met. Do we know one another?"
The question felt odd coming out of his mouth. Maybe he'd just seen her in passing at the market...?
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:18 pm
There was a frown on her face that read only of impatience as he excused himself. It changed to a pout as she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes when he didn't move entirely out of the way, then again at his question. Mandrake squinted and gave the other phony a dismissive pfff that fluffed a piece of her curly mane.
"That's a really bad pickup line." Mandrake dismissed the idea with a haughty twitch of her tail but, the more she scrutinized him the less she felt comfortable calling him a liar.
Her posture slackened and she leaned back to give the guy a once over, top to bottom. "Hm." She frowned. With another flick of her tail, Mandrake began a slow circle around the drafty stallion to inspect him. There was something familiar about him but she couldn't quite put her finger on it until she got a good look at the white stripes up his back and the cutie mark that all but slapped her in the face.
Mandrake's jaw nearly dropped. "No way!" she exclaimed, volume and pitch raising unnecessarily for how close they stood. "YOU!?"
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:31 pm
Ordinarily, Ikebana would have felt insulted by the jab--but for some reason, he found the corner of his mouth curling upward on one side, despite himself. There was a strange sort of familiarity, a strange sort of good humor, that he allowed the comment. It would have been a terrible pickup line.
Not, he suddenly thought with a clarity that surprised him, that she wasn't pretty enough for that nonsense. She certainly was.
But it wasn't until her sudden explosion of sound that memory came crashing back to him. The girl! The little--the little filly at the park, the one who'd made a popping noise in his ear and nearly expired of boredom watching him arrange flowers!
"You!" he exclaimed back, with less volume but just as much surprise as she. "Marigold--no--Mandrake!" The name clumsily rose in his memory, and he was strangely delighted to remember it.
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:49 pm
She nearly looked offended when he first got her name wrong but the quick adjustment brought such an eager smile to her face Mandrake surprised herself. "Yeah!"
Unfortunately, her recollection wasn't as strong. She thought she had the syllables right, at least to something that rhymed with it, but nothing rung her bell like hers had for him. What was it, something like Ekidona, Hecky Dana? Crap.
"And you're, uh... uh--" Mandrake tried to save face but suddenly found herself like a fish out of water. She looked at the flowers around them as if they might jog her memory. "--you're not still doing those pottery things, are you?!" Derailing seemed like the better option than admit she'd forgotten.
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Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2016 9:56 pm
"ikebana," the stallion interjected smoothly, his smile wide--well, wide for him, at least, which was to say it was a grin. "And I am still doing the flower arranging from natural elements, yes… I am employed instructing and boring people to death with them. Never had anyone expire with your flourish, though."
He allowed himself to look at her directly. Yes, how could he have forgotten? He'd never met anyone with similar coloring to her's. Or that watermelon-striped mane of curls! Impossible to forget. He certainly wouldn't again, now. And he hadn't forgotten the too-loud pitch of her voice, either.
Sadly, she probably only remembered what a serious foal he'd been. Now he was at least a serious stallion.
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 1:28 am
Mandrake's cheeks puffed as he saw past her bluff and introduced himself despite her redirection. It certainly wasn't a name she was familiar with but it wasn't a hard guess as to what it meant, or at least what it was referencing. Her assumption was only confirmed when Ikebana explained his work. At his little jab, Mandrake poked her tongue out at him. "Maybe they all fell asleep. Can't die gracefully when you're already unconscious."
It was her ear that twitched now, though not on purpose; some of her curls were tickling it and, before she continued, Mandrake gave a quick toss of her mane to try and adjust it without the use of her hooves. It was still strange to think about how straight it had been when she was younger, like it just changed its mind one day and poofed up of its own accord during her growth spurt. It did seem to have a mind of its own, with how unruly it was, but she didn't mind letting her hair fall where it may.
"Is that what you're hanging around here for?" she asked with a short glance to the surrounding flower beds.
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 8:40 am
Ikebana laughed lightly, his eyes warming. He was not so stogy that he couldn't see that what he did could be considered a momentous, eye-watering bore to some. Meditation and reflection were not for everyone, after all, and there were plenty who saw his chosen calling as... dated, to say the least.
But there didn't seem to be any disrespect in Mandrake's jabs, and so he replied in turn: "That's possible. Or maybe I fell asleep and didn't notice."
At her next question, he inclined his head, and his mouth opened but no answer was forthcoming. He frowned, gently. "No..."
He looked at her and managed a shrug, still trying to formulate some kind of reply that would explain his being here.
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 11:10 am
At this, Mandrake quirked a brow. She was a little taken aback that Ikebana seemed to have a humor about himself now. As she recalled, he used to be quite the stuffy colt. Still stuffy around the edges, maybe, but that was a welcome change.
"No?" Confusion was so strong in her voice it sounded like offense. Mandrake's head tilted, her ears folded back a moment while she examined Ikebana.
They swiveled back to their attentive position as her expression softened. "Maybe you're still snoozing." She looked down the path, the way she planned to go before they bumped into each other. Normally she did things like this on her own but Ikebana didn't sound too sure about why he was here and that felt a little strange to her.
Actually, it felt a little lonely. "Well, I'm here to look at stuff. I do gardening and I wanted to see if they have anything neat I could plant at home." 'Neat' of course meaning out of the ordinary, maybe even magical. "If you're not doing anything else, you can come with. If you want."
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 11:49 am
He smiled at her assertion that he might be sleepwalking, and in truth, it sort of felt that way. He followed after her as she went, almost as if drawn magnetically. SHE at least had a plan, something she was enjoying doing, a direction she'd been heading in that was purposeful.
"If you're sure you don't mind..." he said, already heading down her path. He looked at the plants as they passed, impressed by the selection in the garden.
"So," Ikebana said, taking a stab at conversation. "Does this mean you're a gardner now?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 11:59 am
Before he even agreed, the seemingly listless stallion followed behind her -- and she took notice. Maybe he was a little more eager for company than she pegged him for but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, not when she was fine with it.
Walking alone meant a lot of silence, anyway, and Mandrake wasn't one to enjoy long stretches of it.
His question made her smile a little and, a bit smugly, she answered, "Uh-huh! Holistics too, sometimes. Most of my family's into plants somehow or another but I think I'm the only one that messes with some of the weirder stuff." That was bound to keep him guessing for a while.
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 12:04 pm
Holistics! His eyes just widened and he smiled in surprise at that. Well, that was cool, maybe even a little cooler than he gave her credit for. Which, he reminded himself, was kind of uncool of [i[himself. He didn't know what he thought she might be doing based on their childhood meeting. Making megaphones?
No. She didn't need those anyway.
"Ah, hah. The weirder stuff..." he repeated, slowing close to a small clutter of toothy blooms. He gestured to them with a gentle hoof, to call her attention. "Weird like these Venus Fly Traps?"
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 12:22 pm
His interested smile gave her all the response she needed to know it had worked. Mandrake grinned proudly.
At his gesture, she stopped to look over the fly traps. They were in very healthy condition, as they should be with their placement in such a big garden. She smiled at them, but the smile she turned on Ikebana was nothing less than mischievous. "Weird like mandrakes."
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Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2016 12:29 pm
Ikebana returned her grin with a faint laugh, his own smile warm and genuine. "Well, of course," he said with an assured nod. "It just wouldn't do otherwise."
He looked over the next row of plants, and added suddenly: "Such a strange plant, the mandragora." He turned slightly to her. "You know. Takes away pain but can also drive you crazy. I don't suppose you ever found a screaming one?"
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