Half a proper gardener’s work is done upon his knees [OTA]

[markwatney]

WHO: Mark Watney
WHERE: Fields and nearby
WHEN: 23 May, evening
OPEN TO: OTA
WARNINGS: Poop
STATUS: Open
NOTE: Please don't feel you have to talk to him about plants. I know how boring it can get.

---

The weather is starting to become a concern.

Now, I really am not a person prone to panic. Things have to be going pretty badly pretty abruptly for me to freak out. But I'm also aware of how nefarious a gradual change can be, and how dangerous to people not paying attention. Personally, I'm not interested in being a lobster in a slow-warming pot.

Then again, maybe I don't have much choice in that.

Point is, it's easier to pay attention to the fact that the sun is taking the opposite path in the sky than that we're getting way too warm too soon for this time of year. (And I could get into why it's implausible that the Earth has actually reversed rotation, including disruptions that would likely end all life, but it's way more boring than it sounds, so I'll just say I'm not buying it.) People are finding ways to cool off, and that's good -- Apart from physical health reasons, we don't get nearly enough opportunities to simply relax and have unfettered fun. The plants we've all been so tending so judiciously, though, don't have the option to take a dip.

The hail was bad enough. The damage was... Well, it wasn't great, obviously, but nothing we couldn't recover from. Assuming, of course, that everything stays relatively predictable. This heat and lack of rain? It isn't predictable.

I've been out in the fields all day today, even longer than normal, taking notes and measurements, doing what I can to ensure the plants are well fed and watered. We really cannot afford to lose a significant part of this harvest, not with the number of people in the village now. It's tedious, back-breaking work, but it has to be done.

And it's honestly probably a testament to how tedious and back-breaking it is that I am tired and distracted enough that I end up covered in shit. Not metaphorical shit; actual shit, courtesy of a poorly-timed misstep while I was shoveling fertilizer. Manure's coated all along the front of my thighs and torso, splashed up to my neck and chin.

"God damn it," I moan, picking myself up with a wince.

Comments

[warriorborn]

Benedict, having taken it upon himself to use his strong arms to start hauling water to and from the rain barrel so that the plants can be watered cup by tedious cup since the clouds don't seem inclined to do the work for them, manages to see the entire debacle start to finish. Unfortunately for Mr Watney, his arms are full with the washbasin from the inn, a washbasin that is thankfully full of fresh, clean water from the fountain. He may not have a cloth or soap on hand, but at least there's water.

"Oh dear," he says mildly, watching as Mr Watney stands there, covered in manure. It reeks to high heaven, and Benedict still finds the whole thing rather appalling — they are to use excrement to feed their plants? How? That's disgusting — but Mr Watney is a botanist, which means he has studied plants extensively, and since Benedict's only experience with gardening is things growing in sterile vatsand, he's decided to bow to others' greater knowledge and just follow their lead.

Luckily, he's not followed them so blindly that he's covered in shit as well. "Well, it'll all come out in the wash. Would you like to trade places? I think I can stand to shovel for a while if you'd like to..." he shifts the basin to prop it up against one hip, using his newly-freed hand to gesture at his front, as if he were the one who'd had an accident.

[thegreatexperiment]

Sam was still trying to get a lay of the land. If she were Avery, no doubt, she would have already mapped out the entire town, with symbols and drawings that would make a cartographer weep with envy. But she wasn't Avery. Frankly, she was still pissed at Avery. So it was entirely possible that she was biting off her nose to spite her face, forcing herself not to think like Avery. Just. Because.

But she figured she might as well play up the part of a tourist. If nothing else, she'd met some fucking weird and wonderful folks, so far. And some of them actually seemed to be nice without a hidden agenda. She didn't really know what to make of that, but she liked it.

She liked it a lot, actually.

Admittedly, she wasn't quite ready to do the whole 'introspection' thing. But she had to admit, there were perks to being surrounded by humans.

Unfortunately, there were drawbacks too. And when a decidedly organic aroma hit her mid-stride, she literally gagged, making a face as she looked up and realized she had no fucking idea where she was.

[3ofswords]

It's too hot for this shit.

Farming is something Kira's only so inclined to do in mild weather, but between telling himself to put in his fair effort after Casey's disappearance, and promising Ravi the plants would be fine to get him out of the storm--he's taken the shears to his scrubs to make a ragged pair of shorts, swapped for one of his off-white tanks, and dragged his ass out into the baking fields to offer some help.

When he spots Mark, he tells Aurora to sit and stay with a hand between her ears, wary of her friendliness rubbing anyone else the wrong way.

Well, someone he respects not to really fuck with, anyway. Kira's making his way over to ask what's already done when he sees Mark literally eat shit. He stops in his tracks for a moment, wondering if he can pass out of view before he's seen abandoning the man downed in his own fertilizer project, but Mark didn't walk away when he was cursing the universe mid-hypothermia.

"This is why I didn't want this job," he says, jogging up to the edge of the shit-pile. "How do you want me to help that doesn't involve touching you."

Establishing boundaries early on is the key to any healthy relationship.

[thenewways]

Though Nerys has no idea what is and isn't normal, she's been and lived in enough temperate climates to be able to tell when the turning of a season is too quick, and certainly when planetary rotation is...uh...askew. The latter seems to bear theories like Peggy's holosuite idea out, that they're all in a simulacrum, but at the same time, Nerys would like to believe that she can tell when things are a holo and when they aren't.

Beings can't live by eating holo-plants, for example, and those plants can't grow in construct dirt, so here she is out watering the garden as best as she's able with the grey water they've managed to collect from communal mealtimes. That is, she's watering the garden until there's a holler and an audible splat.

Nerys is pretty sure shit doesn't stink quite as much in a holoprogramme either.

Unfortunately most of her water is already soaking rapidly into the thirsty ground, so she sets down the bucket and jogs over to where Watney has taken a tumble. "Prophets' balls," she says, looking at him and grimacing. "Well, I'd say a bath is a good excuse for a rest break."

[zomboligist]

If there's anything that can be said for Ravi's growth as a person, it's that he doesn't point and laugh when Mark slips and falls in a large pile of shit. Really, that's just leaps and bounds for him, given that other people's embarrassment has been known to fuel him through some of his worse moments. Still, that doesn't mean he also wants to get close enough to get his hands dirty (not like that).

He may be a good friend and he may be out here to help Mark (especially in the function of 'drink this water before you die' alarm clock), but, well, "I'm sorry to say, but we're not good enough friends yet for me to get covered in shit to help you at this moment in time," he says, even going so far as to take a step back. "You still look pretty?" he offers, like this is a glass half full situation.