[open] Normal guy, forest guy, just like normal forest guy~

[poaceae]

WHO: Fern Mertens (The Grass Boy)
WHERE: Outdoors, etc
WHEN: Mar 10ish
OPEN TO: All, Diego Hargreeves
WARNINGS: Random violence possible

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Village Perimeter

OTA

Fern's been feeling more like himself since a week spent on a mysterious quest, fighting monsters and hunting down rare plants. The warm clothes may have helped some too... He's still not good at not being essentially invulnerable, as evidenced by a number of scratches the color of bruised grass on his arms and face. Today he's opted to change his grass shirt and shorts for real fabric pants and t-shirt as well as a blue hooded cloak he found in the store room that he thought looked cool. The hood stays down so as not to interfere with his own (maybe a?) bear hood.

He patrols the village perimeter, marching along like a toy soldier with his wooden sword and waving it at any animal he sees while yelling "yeah, that's right, you'd better run!"

For once, he actually seems kinda pretty happy.

Village Edge

Diego

But one can only patrol an unthreatened perimeter for so long before getting bored. And when he does, Fern turns to pretend-fighting an evergreen bush.

"You think you can just walk in here and attack this here village? You think you can take me?" he demands of the bush, pointing his sword at it. "I'm Fern Mertens, ya heard? Yeah, you're in for it now!"

He then proceeds to throw himself at the bush, attempting to cut it six different ways. It being a bush, and his sword being made of sharpened wood, he manages only to break a whole lot of twigs and cut some leaves off the thing.

"You're not so big now, are ya?"

Outer edges/outside the village, around the bunker, etc

OTA

He definitely loses focus after a while, forgetting altogether that he was trying to patrol the village and make sure everything is safe, hero-style. Instead he takes to wandering, tugging on the occasional branch, moving the occasional rock with his bare, two-toed foot, generally behaving as one does when looking for a hidden door one is certain is nearby. He keeps this up for hours, days, weeks. He may wear the same white shirt and blue pants every day, but he never does seem to bother with shoes or socks.

Comments

[skyward_eyes]

"That's not a lot of people," Nida cuts in. Sorry, Fern, but he doesn't really need this to go on to infinity. Still, he's thoughtful about this. How do you even deal with candy people?

Actually... "Are they safe from the rain?"

[poaceae]

"Sure it is!" It’s just a lot of exceptions, too. PB controls a lot of territory.

The question earns a startled laugh.

"Yeah, of course! Princess Bubblegum made them, and she’s the smartest person I know. She’s a genius," he adds a little quieter with an extra fond smile.

[skyward_eyes]

Princess? What a concept. His world hasn't had royalty for a while. A long while. So that's sort of a fairy-tale story thing. But he smiles at the fondness on Fern's face. Someone he cared for. Poor kid, being here without her.

"We could use someone like that here. I expect it's better that we don't see her here, though. Let her be a genius for her people, so your home is safe when you go back."

[poaceae]

He’s been without PB for much longer than he’s been here. People were only interested in him when he was Finn.

"They’d be fine," he disagreed grimly. Even without Bubblegum they had their favorite Hero around.

"PB would figure this place out in a second, and she’d find the way home no problem."

[skyward_eyes]

"Sounds like a great lady," Nida agrees, his voice soft. Poor guy, losing someone that important to him, if he was so ready to hold her up as a model. Of course Nida's met a lot of smart people here and they haven't figured this place out yet. But he isn't about to take that belief from Fern.

"Tell me about her?"

Maybe Fern might just want to talk to someone about it, and Nida was willing to be that set of ears.

[poaceae]

"PB?" He hums thoughtfully. How can he describe Princess Bubblegum?

"She's really smart, and really pretty." His cheeks turn the color of bruised leaves. "She made all the candy people, and Candy Kingdom. They all love her, so she must be a pretty good leader too. She knows like everything about science, but she doesn't like magic. Or... she doesn't think it's real? But she still does pretty well with it. Basically, she's the best."

[skyward_eyes]

That is most definitely a crush, isn't it? Nida gets it, and he smiles. There days he really gets it. Right down to the blushing over thinking of someone you cared about.

"Sounds like it. Still, magic is a tricky thing to manage. I get people of science not liking it. It's not always as predictable, even in a world like mine where some forms of magic are formulaic."

[poaceae]

Fern pointedly does not notice that knowing smile. He and Bubblegum are never gonna happen. He's accepted that... sort of.

"I've never had much trouble with it," he answers with a shrug. "Like, Ice King gets his powers from his crown. Knock it off and," he imitates an explosion with one hand, "poof. No more ice."

[skyward_eyes]

"That's a bit weird," Nida admits in shock. Like, the only thing remotely like that is a Sorceress. If they die, even if only for a moment, their magic floats away to the nearest woman. Well... maybe there's GFs. That's a bit similar. "But my own magic depended on bonding with powerful nature spirits."

[poaceae]

He hums thoughtfully, hand to his chin and everything.

"Nature spirits are usually pretty math. If I couldn't use my sword I might just talk to the spirits myself."

[skyward_eyes]

Usually pretty what? The lingo Fern opts for gets a very strange look from Nida, because if you can excuse his thought, that doesn't add up.

"'Pretty math'? Is that some slang where you're from? What does it mean?"

[poaceae]

"Math?" Is Nida really asking what math means? How does one explain math... when one is really bad at math?

"Math is cool." Yeah, basically.

[skyward_eyes]

Oh. Wow. That's... Not really what Nida was expecting from him. But he does nod at the strange comment.

"Well, nothing like I expected."

He rolled his shoulders, though, and nods briefly at them.

"I've got to get back to my patrol. Wanna join me?"

[poaceae]

It turns out it's actually pretty hard to explain one's verbal ticks, especially when you've never been asked to before. Not that anyone else on Ooo seems to use half the phrases he and Jake do.

"Sure," he agrees with some enthusiasm. Killing stuff he knows he's good at, so what can go wrong?

good ftb place then <3

[skyward_eyes]