this is so sad. king dice, play despacito.

[oh_worm]

[ Well, despite her feelings on the matter, Beth sets up another afterparty this week! It's much the same as the weeks before - salad, some hot dogs and hot dog-related products - and cheetos are conspicuously absent, at least as much as is possible. She can't stop people from bringing them, but she can make sure none are around at the start of things.

In addition, though, she went to the art room and grabbed a bunch of supplies! There's a table set up with a piece of paper labeling it "ART THERAPY ZONE." Another table has some small instruments on it, and is labelled "MUSIC THERAPY ZONE."

The food table is labeled "SALAD THERAPY ZONE," don't worry. ]

Comments

[oh_worm]

[ Ah, this is... ]

... hey.

[treefetish]

Hey.

[carve carve carve]

If you hadn't understood him, I don't think he ever would've stopped. [pause] Thank you.

[oh_worm]

It's, you know... Comes from living in a weird enough galaxy, I guess. But you're welcome.

[treefetish]

This place is weird. Understanding weirdness is a valuable survival skill.

... How are you feeling? [bc she feels like shit and would like to focus on anything but that]

[oh_worm]

I'm... you know. The guy who reminded me of the only decent male adult figure in my life got brutally murdered for a joke by a guy I thought was weird but harmless, and I couldn't stop it despite doing hero junk being literally my job?

[ a beat ]

So... not great, but I'm used to having to push my feelings down.

[treefetish]

Oh.

[pause]

You don't have to, you know. Push them down. I mean, I'm not gonna judge you.

[oh_worm]

I don't know if breaking down and crying in the middle of here is gonna help anyone.

[ a pause as she thinks for a second ]

You wanna... collab on a drawing or something? You know, get feelings out another way?

[treefetish]

I cry all the time. [SO LIKE but it's okay she understands]

I've... kinda ruined this one. [just. pushes the torn paper aside.] What do you wanna do?

[oh_worm]

I live with too many dudes, I usually just go do target practice or something.

[ beth tezuka is totally emotionally healthy

she ponders ]

I guess that depends. Do we wanna do some happy art to cheer ourselves up or moop art to get the bad stuff out?

[treefetish]

Boys can cry too, you know. [ted cries all the time!]

... I don't know. I'm probably just gonna draw trees. I don't know any sad ones.

[oh_worm]

That's what the boys tell me.

[ she smiles ]

You draw some trees you know, and I'll draw some I know. We'll make, like... an us forest.

[treefetish]

Gosh... [well, she knows what her contribution is gonna be. she gets them some fresh paper and markers, and gets to work on some truffula trees.]

[oh_worm]

[ heck yeah! beth is gonna work on some like... oak-looking-trees with big blue flowers ]

[treefetish]

-- Oh, I didn't know they could be that color!

[adding in pink and orange tufts, maybe some yellows]

[oh_worm]

Yeah! Pandoran Oaks have rad flowers. They go from red to blue over time.

[treefetish]

Is there a reason? I read some trees change with seasons... [y'know whatever the fuck those are]

[oh_worm]

The chemicals in the petals break down, so it's... yeah, kind of seasonal! But the seasons are really long there, so it's not a three-month deal like on Earth.

[treefetish]

... Three months? How does it grow back that fast?

[so uh]

[oh_worm]

... Earth has three four-month seasons, right? Pandora has seasons that are like... whole Earth Years long.

[treefetish]

No, how do the Earth trees grow back so fast?

[oh_worm]

I mean... oh! They don't all die in a season or anything, just the leaves dry up and fall off during winter.

[treefetish]

Oh.

[short, slightly embarrassed pause]

The... book I learned from, didn't really go too much into detail about things. Just photosynthesis, really.

[oh_worm]

Ah... yeah, trees do their photosynthesis biz most of the year, then the leaves come off by the time winter starts since that's when the snow and stuff comes in. Except pines, they stay green all year long because they're cool like that.

[treefetish]

[she's quiet for a bit, checking to make sure her truffulas are sufficiently fluffy and perfect.]

... Beth? Thanks for never treating me like I'm weird. [she hopes dan had appreciated that, too.]

[oh_worm]

[ she smiles ]

Everyone's different in some way. Some people like trees a lot, some people wear weird jumpsuits, some people are bugs. The space-time calliope is full of hecka different kinds of peeps, and I think that's super rad. You're super rad, because you like trees so much, you know?