[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

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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

[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?"

[houmaprotector]

"The charge was marrying me. So I'd say yes."

He stares into the distance, remembering, "We met when her husband fell victim to a curse. He saved her life, but she confessed she'd fallen in love with me."

He shrugs, staring at his hands, "Me."

[spoileralert]

She gives him a sympathetic--if somewhat wry--smile.

"Hey, stranger things have happened. I mean, we're here, right? And both of us should be dead."