[MINGLE] Scout's Honor

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Hot Springs
WHEN: 21 Sept, after sunset
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Please warn in your subject line as needed
NOTES: Details found here

---

It's been a strange, rough couple of months for our intrepid villagers — Bunkers, superpowers and clones, oh my! Perhaps the Observers are sympathetic to their plight, or maybe they just have a peculiar sense of humor. At any rate, they've set up a gathering space chalk full of summer camp goodness, no strings attached. Not that anyone knows that part.

Just before sunset, a cheery message pops up on wrist devices all across the settlement and beyond. The instructions seem simple enough, although one does have to wonder at what dubious gift awaits them all after everything is said and done.

Marshmallows are on the house, so grab yourself a stick, strap on a sash and get to roasting, villagers. Skinny dipping, sing-alongs and friendship bracelets optional.

Comments

cw: child abuse and murder

[spoileralert]

No... hmm.

[ She has to think about what kind of story she wants to tell. And considering he's made of plants, she's pretty sure that story is a true one.

She starts to tell a true story of her own, silently apologizing to Cass as she does. It's the story of a young girl raised to be a weapon, who never learned to read or write or even speak. The girl learned to read bodies instead, and became one of the most skilled fighters in the world. She took a life for the first and last time at the age of 8. Seeing a man die, watching the life leave his body on that intimate level, she knew that taking a life was a terrible thing and ran away.

Then she tells about the earthquake 8 years later, an unnamed city all but destroyed. In the chaos, the assassin was hired to take out a major official. But the girl stopped the assassination, and fought her father. Neither of them really won, but she made it clear she was never coming back to him. ]

She'd been in town for tutoring, learning English. And her tutor just so happened to be the official's daughter. The teacher found out about the girl's dad, but she could tell the girl had a good heart. The girl had no name, no family she could rely on, no home... So the teacher took her in.

[ Wait she didn't think of how to finish the story. ]

Aaaand they all lived happily ever after.

[houmaprotector]

[There are pieces of this that sound surprisingly...familiar? Like he'd heard of it, or been told it from the grass or the trees. Plants may spend 90% of their time discussing sunlight and soil (it's a fascinating topic.) but 10% of their time is devoted to the apes they share the world with...

He shakes that line of thought off.]

I'm glad it ends happily.

It is...hard to turn against those who raised you. And you told it well. It's as poignant as one of mine.

[spoileralert]

Thanks! I tried.

[ She smiles brightly. ]

I don't really have any good 'normal' campfire stories. Who needs ghost stories when you live in Gotham, you know?

[houmaprotector]

[Gotham? his eyes widen.]

I've been to Gotham. A few times. [Hell he nearly tore the city apart. At least once. Maybe twice.]

...Perhaps we know the same people.

[his tone and expression is very careful. Very careful. He sticks out like a sore thumb. Perhaps she can make a few guesses.]

[spoileralert]

[ It's an odd question for a plant person to ask a teenaged girl. She doesn't like how perfectly schooled his expression is.

She laughs, just a short chuckle she hopes doesn't sound too forced. ]

You hang out with a lot of high schoolers?

[houmaprotector]

No. [He shrugs, then smiles.]

I can never tell who or what has been affected by the unusual nature of that city. The plants beneath it are...very connected to the green.

[Probably because he's spent so much time there at this point, but even then. It's like Metropolis in that respect.]

[spoileralert]

[ Her smile turns wry, and genuine. ]

Like Poison Ivy? Or just the ridiculous crime rate? I don’t think I know anyone who hasn’t been affected by the latter.

[houmaprotector]

[Ah. Ivy.]

...I know Pamela.

[It's hard to tell if he's fond or if he's vexed. Shrugging his shoulders he waves a hand.]

And I know the crime rate. My father was killed in Gotham.

[Then he killed the guy who killed him but that's another story.]

[spoileralert]

[ She nods soberly. It's a pretty common story. ]

I'm sorry. I lost more than a couple of classmates myself.

[ Oh yeah, and- ]

Plus I was killed, probably.

[houmaprotector]

I'm so sorry-

[Except then her last words sink in.]

You were killed?

[He knows about dying. He's died multiple times as Swamp Thing and as Alec Holland (the latter being a surprise).]

[spoileralert]

Probably. [ She shrugs. ]

Someone told me I pulled through, but I think he was just trying to make me feel better.

[houmaprotector]

[Ah. He sets his hands down on his knees.]

Take it from someone who's died...multiple times - if you were dying, you'd know. If you'd died, you'd remember.

[Unless these observers are responsible for more then they appear. That thought makes him angry and his hand clenches at his knee. No one should have to deal with anything like this. Especially for someone who amounts to a child.]

And even if you didn't remember, death is...not final. Not by a long shot. I mean, look at me.

[spoileralert]

[ She looks away. ]

I remember bleeding out. Nobody knew where I was, and I don't see how I could have made it out on my own.

TW: body horror/Fire

[houmaprotector]

[He was burning. The memory of his skin on fire, his body falling apart doesn't leave him. Death was painful and final and bleak. He was claimed by the rot perpetually.

There was intense pain as parts of him sloughed off, bones charring, world fading to black in more ways then one.

Death in the Green was the same only he burned, but being a tree and burning was different then being a human. Fading away to nothing.

Sitting beside the fire he puts his hands on his knees again and looks to her.]

If you truly believe that then take comfort in the fact that nothing is wasted.

[Human comfort doesn't work so well for him anymore.]

Human bodies decay and crumble, but their proteins, amino acids, fade away and nourish the soil. The roots feed on the remains of the red kingdom's creatures and when they grow they will feed the next generations.

So you live on. In one person and another, and not just in such an essential part of life way - in a personal way. Memories and parts of yourself exist constantly for other human beings.

If that's truly what happened to you, then you've become part of something far larger then either of us, but again.

[He holds out his hand to her.]

Death is not forever. Especially in a world like ours.

[spoileralert]

[ Her smile is a little sad, but mostly tired. She huffs a breath that was probably supposed to be a laugh. ]

Thanks. That's sweet of you to say. But... honestly, I'm pretty okay with it. It's not like I didn't see it coming. And if I did survive... [ She pictures it and shudders. ] I'd be in a lot of pain for a really long time.

[houmaprotector]

I understand that feeling.

[He shrugs.] It's a similar feeling to adapting to my condition. When I took over as Avatar, even if it meant dying, I had to be..."pretty okay" with this.

[spoileralert]

[ She hums thoughtfully, looking into the fire. Then the implications of his words sinks in. ]

You used to be human?

[houmaprotector]

I was a scientist.

[He remembers his skin sloughing off. He remembers his bones charring.]

Well. No. I'm still a scientist but Alec Holland is dead and I'm fully of the green now. I was working for the government trying to end world hunger and after I was killed -

For the first time.

[He chuckles]

- I became what you see before you.

[spoileralert]

Wow.

[ She doesn't really know what to think of that. It's kind of like being told someone's pregnant. She's not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Would it be rude to offer condolences?

She decides to play it safe. ]

So... your name's Alec?

[houmaprotector]

Alec Holland.

[He offers her that big green hand.]

Also known as The Swamp Thing.

[spoileralert]

[ She smiles and shakes his hand. It feels super weird, but about like she expected. ]

Stephanie Brown. Also known as Steph.

[houmaprotector]

Steph.

[He settles back.]

Steph from Gotham City. There's no place like it on the planet.

[He's distant.]

I've never been just to visit. I should do that.

[spoileralert]

I don’t recommend it. One out of five chance there’s some sort of disaster going on.

[houmaprotector]

"I'm usually the one causing a disaster. You might be too...young. Or perhaps unaware. I...once turned Gotham City park into a forest."

He frowns, "Though to be fair the city had arrested my wife."

[spoileralert]

"I think I'd remember something like that." She thinks about it anyway, but no... she doesn't remember that. Of course, it could just as easily have been done by Poison Ivy.

"The whole justice system in Gotham is pretty messed up. Did she beat the charges?"