flowers gleam and grow (open mingle)

[superseding]

[ Throughout the month, there will be a lot of searching, salvaging, and planting of flowers! Rapunzel and Hotaru want to make a beautiful flower field or garden on the new island part of the base!

Inside, there will be some planters with flowers potted to be transferred outside once they're considered stroong enough. Outside, wherever it's been cleared for them to plant, expect to see buds and flowers. Do you want to be a Disney princess? Do you want to help out? Are you escorting while seeds and flowers are being collected? Do you want to encourage or admire the flowers? Do you want to make friends with Snap Dragons? There are as many options as there are types of flowers!

Come and frolic! Turn the island into the backdrop of a Disney movie. ]

Comments

[reversing]

[ what an unusual response, she thinks. the problem wasn't that they were gifts, so to speak, or that they were flowers or hand made jewelry. nothing about the crowns and bracelets that hotaru had offered had been offensive, really, but the idea of wandering outside with glowing things attached to her body seemed like a one way ticket to predatorsville. "useful," she calls them, and homura would agree - at a distance, they are useful. but if she's willing to strap glowing things to her body... she wonders about this girl's safety, momentarily.

...homura's not sure how to interpret that statement, though it's not evident in her expression. well. ]

At a distance, yes. The closer to the light you are, the easier a predator might see you. As such, keeping something like that on yourself... like a beacon, it'll only attract mosquitos. [ of course, there's fish that'll be able to see you regardless BUT SHE'S NOT MENTIONING THAT because apparently this is #rudehour

...she thinks she's being helpful, for the record. ]

[superseding]

[ Hotaru had only been trying for some small talk. Bioluminescence is pretty. That's what she thinks, but what Homura thinks is also fine. Hotaru is interpreting this as concern. It's coolly said, but it's still concern. Why else warn for predators? ]

I'm sorry. That wasn't my intent. I didn't know how far you were planning to go. If you're going to more dangerous areas, then you're right. I was only on the island part of the base.

If I were to go farther away, I'd ask someone to go with me for safety.

[ She's a latent magical girl who doesn't know she's a magical girl yet, and she thinks herself frail enough. ]

[reversing]

[ the conversation can precede appropriately, then. homura considers it a success; communicating isn't something she's historically great at. ]

I'll go as far as I need to. [ a blunt, but honest statement. it doesn't bother her. she'd swim to the edge of the world if she had to.

there's a moment where homura blinks, once, and then tilts her head idly. the hair she'd just flipped slips back over her shoulder. ] You're thinking logically. That's good. [ she means it, even if it's not apparent. you're not bothersome, hotaru. ] What's the farthest you have traveled alone?

[superseding]

[ Hotaru has enough social awkwardness to interpret it from others. Some of the time. All of Homura's hair flips only makes Hotaru think her hair is pretty. ]

By myself? I've only gone to the Floater Island. I usually ask Kon or Mikleo or anyone else if it's more than a half hour away.

[ She looks down at the flower bracelet in her hands, turns it over, looks back up. ]

I hope wherever you have to go that you stay safe. No one will be happy if you get hurt.

[reversing]

[ it isn't apparent, but something about the other girl's words tugs at homura. she can't vocalize it well, if at all, but it sinks into her and reminds her of someone she misses, dearly. from the way she looks up to the flowers in her hands, homura thinks she'd be looking at the spitting image of another girl if it weren't for the dark hair.

funny, really. ]

I can handle whatever comes at me. I'm not weak.

[ maybe she's calling hotaru weak with a statement like that, but her expression is bare, still. ] You don't know who I am, so you have no reason to worry, regardless.

[superseding]

[ Hotaru knows she's weak as she is. She knows she can't do much, but she's been trying to do better, do what she can instead of letting all her doubts and fears weigh her down to doing nothing. ]

Even if you're strong, it doesn't mean you can't get hurt. I don't have to know you well to want you safe and unharmed, do I? We all live here together...

[ She looks a little nervous, a little uncertain. She doesn't think she's wrong for being concerned, but that doesn't mean she is invulnerable against Homura's aloofness. ]

You were worried about me, weren't you? Can't I be the same? [ She doesn't say please, but her tone definitely does. ]

[reversing]

[ HAHA OH NO, SHE HAS ALREADY MESSED THIS UP. homura is slightly panicking, but not by a large, noticeable margin. her fists clench and her jaw squares and again, she thinks of another girl, likely no taller than hotaru herself. ]

It'd be bothersome if we had a death on base. You have to think of the others. [ so yes, she's in agreement, but her words are... harsh? she's not sure. ] Why would you want to worry about a stranger?

[superseding]

[ She notices Homura's fist clench, and Hotaru's brows furrow. She casts her eyes to the ground, much more uncertain now and sad. She thinks she said something wrong somehow, messed up in some way in being a good person or approachable. Homura is rebuffing her because Hotaru was rude or too presumptuous. She doesn't expect everyone to want to be friends with her, and she can take a hint.

But also... ]

It's not bothersome if someone dies. It would be devastating. I'd be sad if you did. I'd be upset if anyone did. No one here deserves to. I like everyone here even if they're a stranger.

[ Everyone on base is a good person even if their words are kind of harsh like Homura's are. ]

[reversing]

[ homura's not sure how to respond to that. again and again, her words are rebuffed with something that sounds a lot like "i care about you", but those aren't words she's used to hearing. her gut reaction, though, is to tell her that she'll cry, then. if she cares about everyone here, then she will absolutely be devastated then. it's better to let go than be sad. ]

If you go down that road, suffering is all you'll find. You're a fool.

[ nailed it. ]

[superseding]

[ Homura nailed something down alright.

Hotaru flinches at her words, but she's not cowed. ]

If it means being a fool, I'll be a fool. It's a road I'll gladly suffer going down. I'd rather have friends to worry about than none at all. What reason do I have to live if I'm alone?

[ Her voice is quiet, but it doesn't waver. She's sure of this. Friendship changed her life. She'd rather hold onto something she can cherish and suffer for love and friendship than suffer in loneliness. Loneliness is far worse to bear. ]

[reversing]

[ there's a sort of fierceness in hotaru's there that makes her nostalgic. she's sure of it; the other girls had shown this side of themselves to her from time to time. maybe she'd even had it at one point. she doesn't know.

it's almost impressive how the word "alone" cuts right through to homura. her jaw clenches further, and it's the closest to angry she's looked on the base thus far, but it's not really anger she's feeling. is that apparent to this girl? she doesn't know, and she doesn't think she cares much. her words remind her so much of other people... there's nothing wrong with being alone, is there? this seems so close to a conversation she could be having with madoka, but there's a coolness to this one that madoka could never hold inside her. ]

There's no happiness in suffering. [ two soft spoken girls arguing about loneliness. any onlookers probably appreciate just how low their voices can get. ] Falling into despair... no one wants to watch that, or experience it.

[ and because this is homura akemi, hair flipper extraordinaire, one of her hands runs through her hair, and it flips in such a way that parts of it end up over her shoulder. with her back straight, she takes several steps forward; it's a conversation that's drained her already, and going as far as coldly admitting she's watched others fall leaves a poor taste in her mouth, something akin to feeling weak. ]

[superseding]

[ Hotaru takes one stop back. Homura's words hold weight she can't ignore, and she can't be insensitive to it. What Homura must have gone through Hotaru doesn't know, but she's not going to invalidate her own experiences.

She shakes her head and clenches her hands into small fists at her side. She's not frustrated or angry, only determined. ]

Of course no one wants to see people suffer or fall into despair, but it's so much worse to suffer alone. People can help each other if they're together. Only if I was the source of despair, then it would be better to be alone.

Then I would deserve to be alone.

[ That's what Hotaru believed until a few months ago, until she found out she was possessed by a heart stealing alien. ]

There's no happiness in being an outcast, too.