[video - for the good of all of us (except the ones who are dead).]

[purpleknee]

Oh Abeegail, what am I to do? I need to help five people and fill them with hope so I can get something that makes me feel like I have a heart again! Because I don't have a heart inside my body, which apparently means far more to me than it does for most of the people in this stupid cave. Hmn? What's that Beeatrice, this trade is basically impossible for me without the thing I'm trading for? Right you are! How smart, and how quickly you realized it, you smart little bee.

[His faux enthusiasm drops and he glares flatly at the camera.]

Come help a witch help you to help himself help us all. I have healing magic and a temper. If you think this is cheating, I don't want to hear it, and I only want things that will actually help. I'm serious, I'm trying to be good, here.

...Oh, and it goes against everything else I'm trying to do here, but I should let you know that the bees I found can't make honey. Maybe if you tell Delight or someone they can, she'll believe you and the copies will be able to, I don't know. I don't really care.

[He's screwed.]

Comments

[hasitsthorns]

[ Rose has stranger things, actually. She wonders if that's just a... witch(?) thing or. What. Either way, he's free to float as he pleases! It means she doesn't have to lug a ladder over, at any rate.

It might not look like she's doing a lot but she is inspecting the trees to make sure they're healthy. Water and trimming is fine but who even knows what kind of weird cave bugs or diseases might be down here! ]

So, not having a heart... It is just, like, harder to keep your emotions in check? Since you obviously have them. Well. Anger, anyway.

[purpleknee]

[It was more his attitude about chopping things down, but sure, the floating, too.]

That's part of it. [Warrick sighs, a little worn down on this subject, but he did bring it on himself by pursuing this stupid deal...] Typical heartless jokes apply. If I wasn't a mender, there would be a lot more physical side effects, I imagine.

[Like, being super dead instead of just kind of...regular dead but kept alive and well by his spell.]

It's kind of self-explanatory, I don't know why all of you are having so much trouble with it.

[hasitsthorns]

Well. We do call people heartless when they act like you, so. Yeah.

[ She can comprehend it even if she doesn't understand the actual how or - more importantly, in her opinion - the why of him not having a heart. ]

But in a lot of worlds, people die without having a heart too. I can see why it's confusing to some people. [ An afterthought, then- ] What's a mender, anyway?

[purpleknee]

Again, self-explanatory.

[He sighs and sets the tool down in his lap so he can smooth a gloved hand over the tree limb he's working on.]

Most worlds must call them healers. That's what the group on Earth used, anyway.

[Warrick closes his eyes, breathing slowing as he concentrates, and when he looks over his shoulder to Rose a few moments later, he gestures with his free hand to the new, healthy branchling splitting off from one of the more solid points. He assumes she's obsessed with these trees enough to notice it definitely wasn't there before.]

I can heal and shape. Things like this are more difficult... I mostly deal with injuries. My spells keep me alive even without a heart.

[hasitsthorns]

Yeah, we call 'em healers where I'm from. I mean, there's the difference between doctors and healers though. Doctors are clinical whereas healers are spiritual or magical.

[ She's gonna go out on a limb from his work with the tree and assume he's one of the latter. Hah. A limb. Get it? She blinks curiously, smiling after a few seconds at the newly formed branchling. ]

That's really cool, dude. The cousins to my kind can heal, but... Not me. [ She'd always wished she was born one of the benevolent guardian wolves. ]

[purpleknee]

Speaking of which.

[Since she's bringing it up... He looks sideways at her and drops both of his hands into his lap again.]

I noticed you weren't as human as you looked. Mind explaining that?

[hasitsthorns]

[ Hm. She does, but... not nearly as much as she used to. Besides, he's a magic wielder so. It won't be as odd or alarming to him. ]

I'm not! I look human because I like to, but I'm a yokai. A wolf one, specifically. I'm basically like... an animal spirit that's taken humanoid form.

[purpleknee]

[He's also a green heartless dude, so.]

...Huh. That explains the stubbornness.

[He's playing nice and being pretty calm now, but he still doesn't like her very much!!]

[hasitsthorns]

[ ... This is fair. ]

I've been told I'm a bit headstrong, I can't lie. [ 'A bit.' Sure. ]

[purpleknee]

[He gives an unenthusiastic grunt in reply, then moves on to the next tree to start shaping it up with the trimmer.]

It's very annoying. Kind of "wicked lite".

[hasitsthorns]

Well! If that's the most annoying thing about me, I can't really complain.

[ Granted, he doesn't know she also eats people. That's decidedly far more wicked. ]

[purpleknee]

[He grumbles -- that outlook is annoying, too. Admirable, perhaps, when he liked the person and was in a better mood, but now? Nope. Not having it.]

Is this really helping? I can't exactly tell when I'm filling someone with hope, these rules are so stupid... He doesn't have to spend any energy on me at any other time, it's not like I'm the one owing him.

[hasitsthorns]

[ What a sourpuss. ... It'd be endearing if it wasn't downright annoying. ]

Heck if I know! I'm supposed to be collecting hope, too. And sadness! I have no idea how to tell if it's working or not, to be honest... I'm pretty much winging it myself.

[purpleknee]

What the heck are you collecting sadness for?

[Sounds easier than hope, anyway... Hope has so many fingers in so many pies, though. Gross.]

[hasitsthorns]

Just a flower from home. [ Her true home, that is. Not that she thinks it's important to mention. ] I want to make potpourri. And since Sorrow's the man with the plants, he seemed like the dude to ask.

Just gotta' make a couple people sad. Which, I kind of do that already anyway without really trying so I figured, hey, why not.

[purpleknee]

That's ridiculous.

[Hmn. Sadness, huh...]

I have a sister. A twin. We were always together, as children, and then I cast this curse on myself. I no longer have a heart, but it did something to hers as well. We're connected. Always.

[Yeah. That stirs up some kind of feeling, even if he can tell that it takes way too much emotional effort to drag that out. Being heartless was dumb.]

I don't want her to come here. But if she has to, then I want her to be able to be herself. I need control so she can have it, too.

[hasitsthorns]

[ Sorrow had said humans were ridiculous when she'd asked him for the flowers and why. So she finds it far more amusing than she probably should that Warrick is saying 'ridiculous' too.

She wasn't expecting the story, however, of his sister and how his curse had affected her as well. Though that does beg the question of- ]

Why did you curse yourself? [ Did he know it woulf affect her too? Did that matter? It seems to now, at least. ]

[purpleknee]

[He smiles wryly.]

I didn't want to die.

[What a joke, given what he knows now about how it actually worked. Ah, but maybe that's a little too bitter to be considered sadness... Whoops.]

[hasitsthorns]

... I can understand that.

[ After having wanted to die, she understands more than ever the desire to live. ]

Well, I hope you get your heart back. Maybe that'll help your cause? [ She doesn't actually know, but... Hopefully. ]

[purpleknee]

Thanks, I guess.

[For as vague as this hope crap is... Maybe it counts. That'd be alright.]

If you keep me around this stupid orchard, I'm sure I'll think of my family enough that I can generate the sadness you need. That's a fair trade.

[hasitsthorns]

Sorrow said it had to be 'genuine' sadness, so... I'm not actually sure what the entails, but. I appreciate it, dude.

[ He's also instilling hope that he isn't so bad. ]

Which is really kind of messed up, I realize. 'Hey, thanks for making yourself sad for me.' What even is this place?

[purpleknee]

Hm.

[Yeah, that stipulation can be kinda a bitch, huh... He definitely feels like that's some pretty dang bad feelings going on when he dwells on Selva or Chopper family issues too long, but who knows what a god would think of it?]

"Awful", as far as I can tell. But experts have also agreed on "stupid".

[hasitsthorns]

[ It's weird, right? What does genuine sadness even mean? What makes some sadness more 'genuine' than others??? She's not going to try to pretend to understand, but she does want her flowers dangit. ]

Stupid, definitely. Awful... Sometimes. There are worse places though.