deercountry | bow down your strong heads to taste the water [OPEN]

(a) Padmé is by no means a florist. She enjoys flowers, but overall, she can't really tell a flower from a weed. Of course, one might argue that depending on the situation, a flower can sometimes be a weed if it is somewhere it is not supposed to be, but that is besides the point. What she has been trying to do is continue to tidy up their residence. Little by little the inside of the house in The Willful Machine is coming together, and today Padmé had been puttering away on the outside.

While the flowers that are sprouting at pretty, they aren't exactly in the right location, poking up on the walk and in between the stones. She's pulled a few already, laying them in a basket to bring inside later. Nothing back there, at least not until she pulls the most recent one. It looks exactly the same, or else Padmé just hadn't been paying the proper attention. It isn't the same, not by a long shot, and it takes a moment for her brain to register what is going on.

One moment she is pulling it free, and the next there is a warmth across her skin. There's plenty that goes on in her mind in those few seconds. A puddle...? Had something peed on it? Left over dew? But it's red and- she gives a surprised yelp, which has her tossing the flower through the air. A small arch of blood rainbows, although the root seems to still be pumping, before the flower lands. She doesn't exactly notice where, too busy at rising and backing away, although there's splatters of blood across her clothing and her face. The squirt slowly dies out, and she stands there, shocked.

[ooc; welcome to get hit by a flower, or just witness the spectacle.]

(b) Padmé hadn't noticed it, although why would she think to look on her own person? She had very carefully gone about gardening, although after another two flowers that had ended up bleeding all over, Padmé had called it a day. She could see no rhyme or reason as to how they worked, or why they were there, which had prompted her to all it a day.

It isn't obvious at first, although she's more driven by the hunger that remains than noticing the vine that's gotten lost at the nape of her neck. That she starts to feel a little woozy she chalks up to the added food intake, attempting to draw out the snacking. Yet that sluggishness remains, day in and day out. She finds it hard to focus, eyes blinking owlishly and scrunching, although she waves off anyone who asks after it.

It's mid-afternoon, and Padmé is trying to make her way back home. She needs a nap. A nap would be nice. Just lay her head down. Yet she staggers again, wobbling, steadying herself against a wall, or what she thinks is a wall. Padmé doesn't really care. There are words though, and her eyes slowly crack open, but it's not the typical eloquent words from the Senator, but a slurred, "Huh?" that is given.

The flower landed in a splatter near Tara's feet. The sprinkle of blood caught the light and her attention, but hadn't stained her clothes and skin the way it had apparently hurt this other woman. Maybe she shouldn't be surprised by a plant filled with blood, but it still makes her heart seize a little at the strangeness and natural horror there.

She took a few steps back, not about to toe the plant in case it moved and wrapped around her, or latched on like a leech or suddenly changed into a giant monster. There were way too many possibilities there and her paranoia after Sunnydale was in full gear.

"Did it hurt you?" She asked Padme, less because of the blood and more because of the sudden shock that made her toss the plant.

Padmé wasn't even certain what to do in that moment. Try to stomp the flower? Clean her hands? Try to grab it and put it back? She had never seen anything like this so far here. Sure, there had been those blood blisters, but it wasn't like it had popped on her or anything.

With her hands still poised slightly elevated, Padmé glance towards the voice, surprised. And oh- oh. "I'm so sorry!"

She gave a flick of her fingers, trying to remove some of the blood, although it didn't do too much. Pausing, she glanced about, before rubbing it on the grass and she rose, with a shake of her head. "No. It- no. It just... Well, surprised me more than anything. I, hmm, was not expecting that. None of the blood is actually mine."

"Oh," that was a relief. That much blood had to hurt, but it was another of the strange occurrences in this place. Glancing back down at the flower, Tara knelt, careful to keep her distance, but carefully turning it with a stick to get a better look. "Strange, it looks like the rest of the flowers."

She had seen them, but never suspected there might be something sinister. It was unnerving, an indication that things might be becoming dangerous again. As though that ever stopped in Trench.

"Don't worry about it. It's not the first time that I've gotten blood on my clothes. I think I'm pretty good now at getting it out." She smirked, looking over to Padme. "You haven't seen others like this?"

"It did... At least until-" She made a little motion towards the area that now looked like there had been a massacre around. Bother... Well, at least there was water in the area although it did put a damper on her mood to continue to try to garden.

There was a quizzical glance given her way, although Padmé didn't automatically go to somewhere nefarious with that statement. For a Senator, she had seen her fair share as well, as least when put into that context. She offered a shake of her head.

"No. That was the first. I'd hope the last, but..." This place did not seem to do things in a singular manner.

It's not exactly comforting to see the blood-splattered around, but, again, she's sort of used to that now. It's not as if she hasn't been around blood and guts; she should just be grateful that the guts didn't factor in now. Probably next month.

Her eyes scanned over the ground, uncertain if there even was a way to tell the plants apart. And was the blood from the flower or a person? Would the plants suck blood? It didn't seem like a good risk to take.

"You might want to wait before trying to collect more. It seems like we're being messed with again. I'd hate for you to end up getting drained by some flower or something. You don't need them for anything do you?"

"I think I will just pass on it all together." She gave a shake of her head though. "No. I was just collecting a few and pruning- or attempting too. Flora and fauna aren't really my areas of expertise."

She could admire plants and animals, but she was wise enough to know better than to try to keep anything too complicated. "Have they done that before? Drained people? I know there was that underground place, and they were growing from my skin, but-" They hadn't seemed to be draining her then.

"Not in the time that I've been here, but who knows before that?" She at least hadn't experienced the growing from the skin thing and she was pretty glad she missed those. "I guess I'm not shocked anymore when these things happen. I just assume that blood will show up every month in form or another."

Which, weird, but that seems to be a theme here.

"If you're prepared for the unexpected, you're not so much caught off guard." Which is a good philosophy in theory, but how often had she been surprised regardless? There were too many strange things, even for a Sunnydale girl.

"The blisters at least were a little more obvious." Although they had surprised Padmé when they had appeared, and when creatures had also fed on them. One could tell where they were, anyway, and avoid stepping on them. Padmé hoped that it was only the flowers, but perhaps she would be cautious with all things.

Padmé gave a laugh though. "Save you cannot prepare for every situation and so are caught off guard regardless. But... It is becoming a bit less so, the longer I am here. I'm still surprised, but at least I understand a little better."

"That's true or are forced into situations that are much, much worse than you pictured." The abyss and all the secrets that came out, that hadn't exactly been something she could prepare for. As much as she wanted to be in control, she had to admit and accept that this place would always try to shock her or hurt her.

"At least when something strange happens, we know right away that it's something to do with the Trench?" She shrugged her shoulders. "It feels a bit freeing to not have to think of logical explanations."

"Hopefully... Otherwise, we think it is the Trench, but it's actually something else completely." An outside force. Which would be a good way to do something, after all. They'd all be looking elsewhere while the slight of hand went right under their noses. Yet, being paranoid all the time wouldn't really let one carry on in life.

"That's true. I guess I'm used to it being something weird because of the place. It was like that where I came from. There was always a supernatural issue, like all of us breaking into song." Padme was very practical, something Tara wished she could be again.

"And where do you come from?" Curious, but not pushy, in case it wasn't something that she actually wanted to talk about. Most had no qualms, Padmé included, but she wouldn't assume that all were the same.

"Sunnydale." That was the only place she ever really called home, despite all the monsters and weirdness. "There's some others from Sunnydale. I'm not sure if you've heard about it or not. It's a bit like here."

"Is that the planet's name, or?" Which did more or less answer her question without actually answering it. Padmé wasn't familiar with the name anyway, but the galaxy was a large place and Padmé knew but a handful.

"Oh, right." How could she forget not everyone would know automatically that she came from Earth? "Sorry, it's a city on Earth." She really needed to remember that not everyone was from her universe.

Leon has been running around pulling flowers out all day. He's had a run-in with something like this before, although those were mushrooms growing out of his skin, and he's learned to recognize the signs this time around. He catches the woman quickly, uneasily makes note of the vine at the nape of her neck, and says, "Hey, miss, you okay?"

...well, that "huh" answers it.

"I was asking if you were okay," he says, a little slower now for her benefit. "Do you know where you are? Do you know your way home?"

"Oh... Mm. I'm very okay." There's that tittered laugh that comes with it as she seeks to straighten herself again, although she fails for the most part. Her head is swimming, leaving that almost weightless feeling within, that seems to send her thoughts spiraling.

She looks about, before she does finally focus on him, or as much as she can. One eyes is slightly squinted. "I would appear to be in your company. Hello!"

Ah, shit.

“Yeah, you’re in my company,” Leon says, before offering a hand for her to take. “Here, lean on me. You drink a little too much lately?”

It’s a lie, he knows damn well what this is. This woman needs to get home immediately, but she doesn’t need Leon telling her she might die if she doesn’t get help soon. He’ll make her panic that way, he’s sure.

“Where do you live? I’ll take you there. Or I can call someone for you.” In her state, he highly doubts she can hit the keys on her Omni.

Padmé gives a glance towards the hand, before she does take it, yet she twirls herself around instead with a soft giggle. "What? Me? I most certainly have not!"

Which, appearances aside, is the truth. Of course Padmé doesn't help her own case by stumbling again. "I've a house, but shh. We like to be sneaky, not that anyone's really tried to kill me here, so I don't think Sabé will be too upset."

She had been Padmé's shadow for the longest time. Heck, they could have been one person at times, adapting that middle ground between the two of them so that they could intermingle. "You know, the Willful Machine is quite like my planet, save it's far filthier than Naboo."

Leon just stands there as she twirls, a little awkwardly. God. Women. He sighs, then moves to catch her again, and this time if she allows him he'll just support her. "Well, did you eat, drink, or touch anything that seemed a little strange to you, lately?"

Willful Machine, huh? "That's not far," he says, encouragingly. "Who's Sabé? She a friend of yours?" Good, a name. He'll call her up, just to make sure that she knows what's happening here. She must be worried sick. "Tell me about Naboo," he says, and starts to try to move them both in the vague direction of Willful Machine. "I've never gone off my own planet before, I'd love to hear about it."

"Aren't most things here both strange and not?" A squid in an ocean and a lifetime elsewhere. Foods that taste somewhat familiar and yet aren't. It's a strange juxtaposition in this place.

"Mm. She's me. She's family." Which won't make much sense, but it's not wrong. They've traded places over the years, pretending to be each other. Padmé does lean slightly against him as she walks. "oh! You'd love Naboo! Well, if you like water. There's plenty of it there. Lakes, ponds, waterfalls, rivers... But plenty of pastures too."

bow down your strong heads to taste the water [OPEN]

PROMPT 3: IMPOSTERS (blood, vine infestation)

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