Suddenly, Plants! [Active, Open]

[machitobaye]

Characters: Machi Tobaye, Zetsu, Simon the Digger
Setting: Green House, various
Time: Day 002, Mid-Morning
Summary: Machi meets Zetsu again
Warnings: Smiling! This is serious business.

Comments

[weeatbodies]

Zetsu, for his all his love of plants, had spent more than his share of time in the greenhouse recently; it was nice to bask in the sun and look at the rest of the plants. They were almost kin, after all--certainly not brothers, but a group he liked to feel he was a part of, accepted and welcomed by the teeming diversity of flora everywhere. To spend time among them was peaceful and pleasant, but all good things had to come to all end--or at least, be put on hold. Two of the doors here led directly inside, and he wanted to try them.

The melted door was first; he couldn't help but wonder just what had melted it in place so. A fire jutsu, perhaps? Red XIII's materia? Possible.... but unlikely. Nothing else they had done had so much as scratched the walls or windows. But you couldn't build a door so that it was already melted.... So how had it happened and why? Maybe the glass here was susceptible. Either way, Zetsu reached for the knob, hissing in pain and hastily withdrawing almost as soon as he touched it. His hand was already red

[machitobaye]

Machi started, and, recognising the voice, spotted Zetsu almost immediately across the way. He almost ran, shoving his sunglasses up his face and fleeding back the way he came. He wanted to run. It would have been smarter to run, as a matter of fact.

But Zetsu had his gun.

Machi was frozen, conflicted. He had to get the gun back (sooner or later.) What would Lamiroir want him to do? He panicked. Lamiroir would want him to apologise. And he wanted the gun back. Breathing deeply (the smell of foliage and flowers nearly choked him, even though he'd been breathing it for some minutes now), he walked forward slightly. "I... fine."

The pianist swallowed, his expression becoming hard and serious. "I... I am sorry for shooting, earlier." He turned his head aside reflexively as he stumbled over his English, but corrected himself and reaffixed his gaze on the plant man, taking another deep breath. "I... am not being... myself, then."

His breathing was shallow and fast, but he held his ground, unconsciously hiding his injured hand behind him

[weeatbodies]

Zetsu stood where he was, hands clasped loosely in front of him--he recalled it being an innocuous, soothing position for civilians to take, even if it meant someone like him could act quickly while still being relaxed about it. Machi could come to him; the boy had been threatened enough by him approaching earlier that he would rather not suffer through a repeat performance. He took a deep breath as well as he watched, testing the air; besides all the floral scents, he could smell fear, which was rather obvious. But besides that.... Besides that, the smells of blood and gore and rot were all old. Nothing was fresh and not much was Machi's, from the smell of it--it seemed like he'd escaped the night with very minimal harm beyond what Zetsu himself had inflicted on him

[machitobaye]

"I... um, yes." Machi turned his head away again, flushing a little as he focused on something other than Zetsu. There was a plant with tiny red flowers. "Am being help by... man and woman, is... fine." He didn't mention the other woman, the one who had left to get food and never returned. He suspected she was dead

[weeatbodies]

"Good." Zetsu wondered idly who the man and woman were; the only definitely adult male he recalled meeting so far, aside from Sasori, was Rorschach--that, and the man who had tried to hang himself. He supposed the man was a man, though he certainly acted like a child in some respects. Somehow, he doubted it was him--probably Rorschach then, or one of the others in the house. Nanaki could count as an adult male, but he had a feeling that Machi wouldn't have said 'man' about him, instead of 'animal' or something of that nature

[machitobaye]

Machi was so surprised that for a moment he was speechless. Hesitant, he took a step forward, slowly approaching Zetsu with a careful eye on the man. "You... you are fixing it? But... how?" He didn't dare take the gun from Zetsu's hand without pausing a second, but when he did, he loaded the bullets into the chamber quickly and rather deftly for having only one fully functioning hand; he trapped the gun between his chin and injured right hand (safety on) and popped the three bullets into it rapidly before locking it and dropping it back into his free hand

[weeatbodies]

Zetsu didn't move; he didn't have to. Let Machi approach at his own pace; he was comfortable with trying not to alarm the boy. Just give him the gun, possibly heal him, and go. Zetsu didn't much care to do any persuasion beyond the bare facts and an offer; if Machi still didn't want any help once he knew that it was possible, Zetsu hardly cared. He'd done his duty and tried, and that could be held up in defense if anyone ragged on him about this. "Ninja doctors can fix things much faster than normal doctors can." Zetsu let himself slip onto short, simple sentences for Machi's benefit; the boy was obviously smart, but it sounded like he had trouble speaking for whatever reason. Odd, since he'd had no trouble understanding any of the other residents, no matter where they'd come from

[machitobaye]

Machi looked up at Zetsu sans sunglasses (trying not to squint) as the ninja explained. He missed the fact that Zetsu was dumbing down his sentence for him, probably because it was only one sentence and it was an adequate explanation, for its meaning. He didn't really understand how such a thing would work, but he was willing to accept that, given the rest of the house and the past who-knew-how-long he'd spent in fear of his life. Then he looked down at his hand silently, rubbing where it had bitten. He wanted to have his hand back more than anything--now that he had the gun, he had an even bigger reason to need, bigger than playing the piano or being able to do things easily. After all, he could still make food for himself and such with a damaged hand

[weeatbodies]

It probably would have needed dumbing down anyway, or copious amounts of explanation; Zetsu knew his skills weren't magic, but that was the only short and simple answer he could give to someone who didn't know about jutsus. "Hold your hand still, then. If it moves too much, it won't be fixed right." His own hands moved through a few quick seals, and he reached to take Machi's hand into his own, carefully straightening it into its natural position; everything had to connect right for full mobility to be restored, even if the flexing might hurt. The other hand that was pressed over Machi's hummed with a pale blue glow, spreading warmth and easing pain as he worked to repair the damage. Sure, it wouldn't make the scab come off, but Machi could easily pull it off afterwards--it was the function that counted, not what it looked like

[machitobaye]

"I am not seeing them either," Machi told Simon, turning to look at him. A big gun? Machi imagined something like LeTouse's gun, then magnified it several times with a feeling of vague horror. The mental image was strange. Why did he think these people were here? Something was making him blush, but Machi couldn't see anything in what had been said that was blush-worthy. He was confused. "Is large house, though. Why is... where you looking

[dig_to_live]

Simon shook his head to snap himself out of his stupor and shake the image of Yoko's body out of there. This wasn't the time to be thinking about things like that. Yoko and Kamina might be lost!

"I wouldn't check the house" ,Simon explained "They're probably outside, Bro doesn't really like roofs."

Simon thought contemplatively for any other clues "Maybe you've seen a big red Gunman coming through recently? That'd be Kamina's Gurren..."

[weeatbodies]

Zetsu shook his head. "If they don't like roofs, they would probably be in this room--it's the closest you can get. There's no way to get outside." Who knew? Maybe the pair were still lost in the house, if they were even there at all. He did frown in confusion at the term, though. Gurren? Gunman? "If by 'gunman', you mean a large metal head like the sort you have, then no, I definitely haven't seen one." That probably decided it, then; there couldn't be any Kamina here. He definitely would have noticed a giant red metal head walking around the house.

[machitobaye]

...wouldn't check the house? But they couldn't go...

.......oh.

"... Oh," Machi said, his voice losing strength over the course of the single syllable. He had a sinking feeling that this person didn't know... yet...

"You... just getting here...?" He hazarded, feeling uncomfortable suddenly, taking the initiative with a stranger. This guy was really strange (didn't like roofs?), but if he didn't know he couldn't leave... and he thought someone was out... on the cliff? "Because... is, uh, not much of... outside to be going." He didn't think gunman had the same meaning to this stranger as it did to him, or else he wouldn't have used it like that. To Machi, a gunman was a bad thing, someone who shot others and went to jail... like Machi almost did. He eyed Simon warily from behind his sunglasses.