#Cold Was The Ground

[loosesodamarble]

I fell down a rabbit hole because of @meo-eiru's yandere character Micah and I had thoughts about a potential plot for Micah and a darling of his. Apologies if it's sloppy or ooc but my brain kept coming up with ideas!

..........

It all begins when Micah is walking through the streets of the town he serves as a priest in and sees an unfamiliar face.

The person in question is a young woman in plain clothes. The colors are faded and faint patches that look like they might've been mud stains could be seen. The woman carts around a wheelbarrow full of flowers still in soil. When people approach her, the woman greets them, smiling, before gesturing to her wheelbarrow.

Micah observes as the woman plucks a few flowers and ties them together with twine before handing them out to people.

"Please come to my family's shop when it opens!" the woman tells the people she hands flowers to.

The woman pushes her wheelbarrow until she and Micah cross each other. She offers Micah some of her flowers. Micah looks over what she has and notices some blossoms that he doesn't recognize and asks for those.

He takes the new flowers back to the church and plants them in his garden. He doesn't think much of the unfamiliar woman aside from the fact that he appreciates that chancing upon her led to him gaining something new for his garden. Unless that young woman begins attending church, Micah doubts he'll see her again.

.....

A few days later, Micah goes out to the church's garden to do some tending. It’s too early to tell how well the new flowers have taken to the soil so he wants to put a little extra effort into their care. When he arrives in the garden, he sees someone there crouching down by the flowers. It is the young woman with the wheelbarrow.

“Ah, it’s you,” Micah says, making his presence known.

The woman is standing up and facing Micah in seconds. Her eyes are wide and her expression bashful.

"Uh, hi?" she says while she waves to Micah.

"What business do you have here in the church’s garden?" Micah questions her.

"Uhp! W-well... I heard this building had a garden and I wanted to see it for myself," she answers after a moment's hesitation. “If I’m trespassing— I probably am, what with the wall…” Her face is turning bright red. “Sorry.”

Micah chuckles. "The church welcomes visitors of all kinds, not only those living within the convent or those of the faith," he explains with a gentle smile. "If you wish to visit the garden every now and again, you are more than free to do so."

"Really?" A smile breaks out across her face. She faces the flowers and bushes again. "Hopefully my family's flowers can bloom just as magnificently."

"If your family's business is to sell flowers, then the best of luck to you in cultivating them," Micah remarks.

For a moment, Micah wonders why he is bothering with this conversation with this woman who seems to not even understand what the church is. But the smile on the woman's face during the brief talk... The sparkle in her eyes as she glances around at the garden... And the way she spoke with Micah, not with any sense of reverence but still showing a gentle cordiality...

Her presence is... it's not a bother at least.

.....

Micah begins to see her more often.

It’s not every day Micah sees her, but she visits often enough that the nuns and acolytes start to recognize her. Early on, the woman remains within the garden. She approaches each flower, bush, tree with such a delicate hand and truly admires Micah’s work in bringing the garden to life. She speaks words of adoration to them like they’re her beloved children. The woman and Micah exchange their experiences with raising plants. Given her profession being the selling of flowers - and herbs, as Micah comes to learn - it comes as no surprise that she takes gardening seriously. She is almost as meticulous as Micah when it comes to the topic.

Almost.

The woman has an air of fancifulness to her methods. She talks of making the plants “happy” and “encouraging” them. She apologizes when she has to trim away diseased parts of a flower. She never disposes of any plant that doesn't grow as quickly or as fruitfully as its peers but instead gives them more time and attention until they flourish. The woman sees her own garden not as specimens to cultivate and prune away as she sees fit, but as individuals to care for as they came into their own.

Micah finds himself amused by how different her view is from his.

The way he sees it, plants are like humans. It is true that flowers can grow in the wild and people can take care of themselves well enough, but without proper guidance and diligent oversight, neither can truly prosper. If human hands don't bring water regularly or cut away parts afflicted with disease, then plants would wither and die in no time. Humans languish in ignorance and let themselves be led astray by temptations. And if one, plant or human alike, fails to meet the expectations set by those around them then they have no right to take space from those more deserving and are removed.

Their ways of thinking are different.

But Micah finds himself wanting to listen to the woman go on about how any flower, any person, can thrive if shown enough love. Her view is so simple... Naive... Pure...

Yet it never leaves Micah's head.

…..

Micah entertains the woman's presence at the church each time she visits the garden. And he uses her to entertain himself. Asking questions and learning more. He tries to piece together what about her he feels so drawn to.

Micah learns that the woman had never been familiarized with the church. She'd met the odd clergyman while on the road but faith, scriptures, and the like were all foreign to her. When Micah explains it all, she apologizes profusely for her lack of respect towards him.

The woman has a beauty and purity to her that was unlearned, something that came naturally to her.

The woman tells Micah that her favorite plant is the ivy. An ironic choice to say the least.

"I didn't realize it could mean so much. I just kind of liked it because no matter the time of year, some form of ivy was there for me to find," she says while helping Micah water the garden one day. "But knowing they mean something to your church makes me love them more."

She is surprisingly impressionable. Taking almost anything she hears to heart. Doing so is sure to hurt her if she's not careful who she listens to.

The family she speaks of, Micah comes to know, is nothing more than a list of people she's met and left. Her parents passed due to disease and from then on, she'd been on the move. Made friends in various places and always left with new seeds to add to her garden.

It's a contradiction. A world widespread and full of people she thinks of with love. Yet she was ultimately alone with only the lives she grew from the ground keeping her company. Micah finds it strikingly different to himself, where he's surrounded by many who adore and rely on him yet he's struggled to think of anyone with affection.

"I'm very glad I moved here. The soil is fertile here. The townspeople are kind. And most of all... you're here, Micah."

The fondness in the woman's eyes is different from what she looks at plants with. She is looking at him not to care for him, but to be cared by him.

Something clicks in Micah's head.

If that is what you wish, Micah thinks to himself as he steps forward and brushes back a bit of her hair. Then let me tend to you the proper way.

The woman had been letting herself grow like one of her plants, with care but no guidance.

Micah will change that. He will trim away all influence that he finds unsavory for her. He will give her a place, confined but cozy, to call home. He will guide her and she will bloom as he sees fit, even if that means hurting her along the way. After all, if she believes love can help both plant and human thrive, then she will have to appreciate the love he will give her to grow.

[celestielbeing]

eddie being just as untethered without buck. a hand used to being curled around a leash will feel empty without it. eddie missing the feel of buck pulling on the end of it. eddie giving the red string of fate a tug all the time in elpaso just to feel bucks weight on the other end.

[gomzdrawfr]

Do you think Price and Nik would fall low enough to make out on the floor of a random toilet

[runnerleckie]

when your pretty princess energy is so strong that david webster decides you must die

[walmartbrandwhatever]

Whatever you do don't think about post-book darry accidentally setting out too many plates after a real long day and his mind is just utterly exhausted. Everyone looking at him all confused because they didn't have that many people left and soda having to softly remind him that Johnny and dally weren't alive. Weren't coming back. Darry just softly responding with 'oh..sorry' as he remembers that they weren't coming back.

[amaranthdahlia]

[kopykunoichi]

This scene lives rent free in my head

[ahollowgrave]

“When people get a glimpse of me I’d like them to feel like it is a good omen.”

-- Jenny Slate, Little Weirds

[ryllen]

summary of me playing love & deepspace

[stiltonbasket]

Awww im touched by how much mu shidi cares about sqht. Shen haitang’s friendships to the other peak lords seem real and true

The rest of the peak lords really care about Haitang!Yuan, and are sick and tired of watching him suffer. When Luo Binghe brings him back to Cang Qiong and announces that he has 1) fixed Without-a-Cure and 2) intends to marry Shen Yuan, the peak lords may or may not throw a party and drink way too much in celebration.

[shirecorn]

Tumblr keeps popping up to sell me ad free dashboard. But what it doesn't understand is that me and the ads have a sort of symbiosis at this point.

The guys from the fake gameplay trailers for a predatory mobile app are my blorbos

[silusvesuius]

the most morally corrupt disney princess of all time

[kedreeva]

There are good things in this world still.

Today, I got to see my mom. She brought me socks and chocolate and a t-shirt with a Tygrammarsaurus Rex on it

Today I played Minecraft with my nephew, who is a teenager now. He built a tavern beside my monochrome house, and asked for help decorating the outside.

Today, Aurora took her meds easily, and ate a lot of wet food. She's not well, so I'm happy to take any win with her right now.

Today, I pet Bug's face with a soft paintbrush and she fell asleep for a few seconds while I was running it over the top of her head.

Today, 4 of my mice found an excellent forever home.

Since I missed it, yesterday, I took Bug outside for play time, and she really made the most of it. She ran Very Fast all over the big pen like a little velociraptor, flipping her wings at me to get me to join in, and hopping when she got really excited. Her nieces saw her doing it and got so excited that they started bouncing around as well, but they were too nervous to actually play with Bug.

There are good things left in this world, however small. This is your opportunity to reblog this and share your good things with each other, or check the notes if you need a reminder.

[tobbogan-13]

i want to kiss whoever made the stardew valley wiki

[seabeck]

Chicken party

[daisies-on-a-cup]

hannibal establishing his therapy practice as one where it seems right and proper to show up wearing formal or business wear, thereby placing a kind of unspoken agreement to present yourself at your best while also revealing to him your certain worst aspects of yourself. therapy becoming something not just gut-wrenching and vulnerable, but something that requires you to dress yourself and confess. one does not rip out their hearts while wearing jeans and a t-shirt. if one must be exposed, do so with elegance and beauty. there is no place for tragedy if it cannot be polished and refined