Day 47: Greenhouse [4th Shift]

[mitase]

Entering the greenhouse was almost like coming home, and Hanatarou had been looking forward to this shift for that reason. Everywhere else in the building was strange and confusing (and often dangerous) but in here was the familiar scent of soil and sun-warmed plants with the musty sort of enclosed-space smell overlaying it. His expression turned

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[haplesstracker]

Getting to the greenhouse was far more complicated than a simple move next door, and Scourge eventually found himself in the humiliating position of having to cling to a nurse's arm to make it to the greenhouse. Hopefully nobody he knew was watching, after that single wave he hadn't heard anything from Piper.

With his sight gone the smells of the greenhouse were far more pungent. In his normal body he'd rarely had the chance to go anywhere so full of peaceful foliage, they usually stuck to things that the humans had made. The scents here were new and overwhelming, and for some organic reason made him feel sort of peaceful inside.

If he didn't make it back home and it all went as badly as he thought it would, perhaps he would put some of those potted plant things at his human house. To comfort him in his mindless grief.

The nurse pressed a trowel into Scourge's hand and abandoned him to the roil of noise and organic-smell. He stood awkwardly, attempting a step forward and finding his path blocked by the frail pressure of flowers. Even if they only thought that he believed he was blind, exactly what did they expect him to do?

[justanimpulse]

Even if Bart hadn't been looking for Scourge, spotting him wouldn't have been that hard -- he'd nearly walked right into a table, and was now standing there looking completely lost. Bart wanted to help him -- it'd be the heroic thing to do -- but he wasn't sure how to approach a blind person without scaring them.

Trying to be quiet probably wasn't a good idea, but he also didn't want to attract attention from the nurses while he was trying to get Scourge's attention. In the end, Bart just walked up normally, or as normally as he could manage now that he was thinking about it. He stopped a few paces away, in case he did startle Scourge by accident after all and he got a little crazy with that trowel. Bart hadn't forgotten the thing with the knife from the night before last.

"Scourge?" he said, in what was meant to be a gentle, but not especially quiet voice. This felt really awkward!

[haplesstracker]

Hm? Scourge turned, peering towards the sound of his name. It wasn't Piper's voice, Piper was lower. Still, somewhat familiar and not particularly threatening.

"Bart? That you?" Scourge called back cautiously, voice just a little too loud.

He took a cautious step towards the small human, unconsciously holding the trowel in a defensive position. If he'd been sitting with Piper as Scourge had guessed, he'd know all about Scourge's condition. Best to be defensive just in case Bart decided to take merry advantage of him and leave him sitting in crushed vegetables for the rest of the shift.

[justanimpulse]

Eying the trowel uncomfortably, Bart took a small step back. He wanted to help Scourge, but that didn't mean he had to leave himself open to getting hurt!

"I know about...what happened to you," he said, loud enough for Scourge to hear, but quiet enough that hopefully no one else would. "I just wanted to see if you needed help with anything." Like, he didn't know, finding a safe place to sit down or something. Heroing was so much harder when there was nothing you could punch.

[haplesstracker]

"Where's Piper? I know he was eating with you at lunch, Lugnut told me. You and some other guy." The tracker's eyes narrowed suspiciously. Unspoken was 'he's supposed to be taking care of me, not you'.

Scourge took a few steps towards Bart. He tried to maintain some semblance of dignity, but it was hard to miss the way his feet never moved more than a few inches off the ground or his arms spread outward against any unseen obstacles. A progress of ten feet without incident was a step up from this morning's crash in the middle of the cafeteria.

[justanimpulse]

"I don't know; I haven't seen him since lunch." Instinctively, Bart stepped forward again, gingerly putting a hand on Scourge's shoulder. "He'd want me to help you." Piper was good like that. Bart kind of wished he were here, so Bart wouldn't have to take responsibility...He really didn't know what to do, and Scourge's suspicious wasn't making it any easier.

[haplesstracker]

'He'd want me to help you' was not anything like 'he told me to help you'. Scourge barely flinched at the unexpected hand on his shoulder, taking Bart by the arm and trying to make it look like a casual gesture. Just two guys hanging out, holding arms, nothing strange or weak about it.

"So who was he with at lunch? You and some red-haired guy, Lugnut said." Despite not being able to see him, Scourge managed a wary glare. Who was this mysterious red-haired human who Piper seemed so content to spend time with? Were they off perpetuating evil together without him? No, not after this morning, Piper wouldn't be so unfaithful so quickly.

[justanimpulse]

Bart sighed heavily. Scourge just couldn't be a cooperative helpee, could he? Even just a little bit of gratitude would have been nice, but instead all Bart got was an interrogation. But he didn't try to shake off Scourge's arm; if he had to feel like he was the one in control of his own rescue, then Bart would let him think so. It was better than just leaving him alone to trip over a table or something.

"That was Wally. He's a friend of mine and Piper's." Bart was just going to leave out the part about Wally being from a different universe, and he was definitely leaving out the fact that he was the Flash. The first would have just been too complicated to explain, and the second was none of Scourge's business.

"Do you want to sit down?" he asked, looking around for a good, out of the way place. "It might be safer."

[haplesstracker]

Gratitude indicated that he'd needed the help, which indicated weakness. Being as rude as possible while accepting the help was obviously the more mature response. "Safer? Safe from what? It's daytime, there's nothing out here." But Scourge nodded his agreement, giving Bart a gentle shove forward. "But no point standing in the middle of traffic when we can go sit."

Wally was a name Scourge was vaguely familiar with. He'd seen the name up on the bulletin after the big Evil Club post yelling at Piper to tone it down, which to Scourge indicated at least some personal connection. Familiarity. A bit of worry, even, and concerned nagging.

...who the slag was this Wally guy?

[justanimpulse]

"Tell that to the Venus flytraps," Bart muttered, perhaps a little cruelly since he was dealing with someone who was blind, after all, and wouldn't be able to see for themselves that he was just joking. But he really didn't like Scourge's attitude.

But he'd already committed himself at this point, so he led Scourge over to an empty bench, as far as he could get from the nurses and the other patients. He even took Scourge's hand and put it against the bench so he'd know it was there and could seat himself, if he wanted to. If only Max could see this; he'd never lecture Bart about putting people first again!

[haplesstracker]

"Well, we're not on Venus," Scourge pointed out, feeling himself far superior for stating the obvious. He knew all about dangerous plants, but Earth had nothing like that and Landel's was at least faux-Earth during the day. "So there's nothing to worry about."

He groped at the bench, rocked it a bit to make sure it was going to stay in place, then took a careful seat facing out into the rows of plants. The smells were far more fresh than they were in the Sun Room and the glass walls kept in the noise, making the entire experience very organic and intense.

[justanimpulse]

"Venus flytraps aren't from Venus," Bart said, giving Scourge an odd look that, of course, he wouldn't be able to see. He sat down next to him with a small huff, already falling back into feeling bored. What was he supposed to do now? Leaving Scourge alone didn't really feel right, but it wasn't as if he'd need any more of Bart's help as long as he stayed put.

...He'd better stick around to make sure Scourge actually stayed put..

[haplesstracker]

Bereft of anything else to really do, Scourge was going to grumble. "If they were on Earth they'd be called Earth fly traps. Have you even been off Earth?" He sat back, crossing his legs and taking his trowel in both hands. The nurse had handed the thing to him and just walked off, so he still had no idea what it really was. Felt like a pointy flat metal object, too blunt to be a weapon but sturdy enough to be some sort of tool.

Perhaps he could stick it down the nurse's throat when she came back. He couldn't see, but the pained gurgles would be amusing.

[justanimpulse]

"I was on a space station once," Bart said defensively, before he could think better of it. He was bored, Scourge was grumbling, it seemed only naturally to grumble back -- until he remembered that your average junior high school student never went into space. Um. Well, maybe Scourge wouldn't notice?

"Anyway," he said quickly, trying to distract Scourge before he could ask any dangerous questions. "Venus flytraps aren't from Venus. They're from the Amazon or something, I forget where exactly, but they're definitely from Earth. I don't know why they're called that."

[haplesstracker]

"Yeah, a space station orbiting Earth. That barely even counts," Scourge scoffed. He could feel bits of dirt along the edges of his metal device, which seemed to confirm his suspicion that it was used for earthmoving. "Humans have no sense of perspective."

What, were they now being put to slave labor in the institute's gardens? Freaks, they'd do anything in the name of therapy.

[justanimpulse]

"Oh, right. And I bet you've been to all kinds of places in space," Bart scoffed. Who did Scourge think he was?

And what was he doing with that trowel?