FLU EVENT: They Call Me the Wild Rose [open]

[Autumn Buckland]

It was an entire rarity for Autumn to get sick. She was a hearty girl with a strong immune system and energy to spare. The last time she'd gotten sick it had been a terrible virus that had besieged her body when she was still with her family. That virus had been what had given her away to Hammel, and she still resented that fact. Still, she hadn't had any sniffles or even a headache since then, and she'd been enjoying that fact.

Up until this morning.

Nose streaming, throat on fire and a stomach churning faster than a dairymaid, she woke up to find her pitcher plant stroking her brow with a leaf, and half the other plants in her room growing amok as though she'd lost all control over herself. Peeling herself away from the sweat stained sheets, she'd hurried to the bathroom, removing the contents of her stomach and sitting, shaking in a heap on the floor. Her whole body felt like it was an old creaking tree ridden with wood rot, and she opened up the tap, drinking thirstily as it poured down into the sink.

This was decidedly unwanted.

After another hour of fumbling and aching, the redhead had managed to dress herself and was in the process of staggering outside, pitcher plant hugged tightly to her middle. Her room felt stuffy and horrible and she desperately escaped the indoors, bare feet pattering in awkward gait to the outdoor space. Her body screamed at her to stop, but she persisted till she could feel grass under her feet.

Hearing the light trickle of water, Autumn collapsed down beside the pond, curling up into a little ball, and asking the grass to come about her. "Bother." She croaked, nuzzling into her pitcher plant's gentle hair strokes. "Bother and humbug." The redhead steadily disappeared in the growing grass, till all that could be seen was a bush of flaming hair sticking out in a mess on the ground.

Somewhere, she faintly heard a voice asking her if she was alright, and she frowned.

"Go 'way." She grunted, clamping her hands over her eyes to block out the sunlight - which seemed violently bright today. "I'm resting."

[Christina Byrne]

It was a decidedly boring day, but it was bright and warm outside, so Christina was headed out for a walk. She pulled on a black skirt and a gray, off-the-shoulder top with a black flower sequined on it. She skipped happily out of the room, cell phone in hand because she didn't have pockets. It buzzed with a call from her best friend back home in Georgia, Caylie. She quickly clicked the answer button and put the phone to her ear as she walked down the stairs and out of the building. The conversation went on slowly with Caylie, as always, providing most of the conversation and the information on what was going on back home. "No, I don't have a new best friend... No, I haven't been shopping yet..... Yeah, my classes are fine... Yeah, the people are nice..." Christina sighed. she loved her best friend, she really did, but sometimes the girl could just talk. And talk. And talk some more.

As she approached the pond, her favorite place to spend time around the school as of now. The pictures she could take there were phenomenal. It never got old. She saw an odd mound of grass near the pond and didn't think much of it until she saw the spot of red peeking out from underneath. "Caylie, I gotta go. No, I can't. No! Caylie shut up! I'll call you later! Goodbye!" Christina pulled her phone away from her ear and ran to get closer to the person beneath the grass. Things at this school had always been odd, along with the people there, but surrounding yourself by mounds of grass just was a little too weird, even for this school.

"Oh, my goodness! Are you okay?!" She put her hand over the grass and slowly pulled it away from the person, a young girl's face. The redheaded girl looked pale and sort of sickly. Oh, this couldn't be that odd flu thing that was going around, could it? Christina didn't want to get sick. She hoped she didn't, but at the same time, she couldn't ignore this sick girl. "Come on, we need to get you to the infirmary. Let's go." Christina put her phone on the ground and gently tugged on the girl's arm, trying to pull her up as easily as possible. "I said, let's GO." She tugged a little firmer, determined to get this girl help.

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn was becoming distinctly away that she wasn't alone in the little garden area, and let out a soft groan of displeasure, her pitcher plant covering her ears with it's long silken leaves. The voice gradually got louder and louder till the redhead could no longer ignore it with throaty, scratchy hums. The grass seemed to "look up" at Christina's approach, bristling slightly and mumbling to Autie to try and rouse her from her feverish daze. Pawing at her eyes and looking up with dilated pupils, she squinted over at Christina with a gentle frown. Shushing the grass, which seemed to be adding to her headache, she forced herself upright and shook her head.

Urp. That was a bad idea.

"It's the flu." She croaked miserably, putting her head in her hands. At the idea of going back indoors, she shuddered. "No no no!" She protested, putting her hands on Christina's arms and shaking her head again, pausing to swallow a little bile that rose in her mouth. "I'd rather just sit out here and absorb sunlight, honestly." The redhead wiggled her toes in the grass, then wrinkled her nose as that seemed to ache too. Well wasn't this incredibly annoying? Pushing up off the ground to try and reassure this kindly stranger she was alright, she staggered, and fell backwards, only to be caught in the delicate fronds of grass that had rose to protect her.

"Well, as far as convincing goes I was about as good as a daisy trying not to gossip." Autumn huffed, annoyed at her own weakness and the sting in her throat every time she spoke. "Do you consider my heap of illness to be offensive? I can happily wobble into a hedgerow." She added, finally remembering her manners and managing a painfully shaky smile. "Or roll aimlessly somewhere till something better comes up. Like a nice oak tree. He'd know what to do." She paused, her eyes still looking wild and utterly bleary. Patting her hair a moment to smooth it down, she gestured in a vague manner towards the left. "Take me to Mr. Oak Tree, he'll know exactly how I can get bet-ugh."

Turning her head away, embarrassed, the young plant manipulator threw up.

"... I hope this virus suffers a painful kick to the privates." She concluded, flopping to the side like a dying fish.

[Christina Byrne]

She'd been correct in her assumption. The flu. The girl seemed to be completely stubborn on the idea of not going inside. Christina was not going to have it, though. She would drag this girl kicking and screaming if she had to. She wasn't sure what all the babbling about plants and oak trees knowing what to do was. Probably delusional. The young redhead stood up, trying to prove that she was okay, but failed when she fell backwards and the grass.... wait, what? The grass caught her? No, Christina must just have imagined that. Her eyes were playing tricks on her. Yes, that was it.

The girl stood back up and vomited on the ground. Christina wrinkled her nose in distaste but immediately tried to disguise it, feeling bad because she knew it wasn't Autumn's fault. Vomit was gross. Growing up as an only child without pets, she'd never had to deal with vomit much before. She grabbed the girl's arm again and pulled again. "Come on, you're sick and you have to go to the infirmary. Let's go." She tugged harder. "I'm not taking you to talk to a tree. I'm taking you to someone that can help you. Now let's go."

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn flailed aimlessly as she was pulled, trying to escape the hands that were making her skin feel like it was bruised. "The trees can help!" She protested, frowning up at Christina with her wild eyed expression. The lightbulb only clicked a few moments later, when she realised the girl probably thought she was delusional. Sitting upright, she gently flapped Christina's hands away, and pulled her hair from her face. "I'm a plant manipulator." She eventually blurted out, the pitcher plant beside her nodding serenely.

"So the trees will tell me how to get better. Because I'm more tree than human these days, honestly." Taking the pitcher plant in her arms, she managed to stand, leaning heavily on the blonde girl's shoulder. "I do apologise for my little mess over there." She babbled, trying to feel a little more like herself. "I don't normally vomit at people. Come to think of it I don't normally vomit at all. I don't think plants are meant to vomit." Puzzling over this, the redhead politely breathed away from Christina, trying to keep her germs away from her. Covering her mouth with a hand as she coughed, she pointed again.

"If the tree says I need to go to the infirmary, then I'll go. Horrible stuffy place it is. There's a dead spider plant on the window. It's MURDER."

[Christina Byrne]

Christina pulled more stubbornly the more Autumn tried to pull away. Eventually, Autumn pushed the hands away and said "I'm a plant manipulator." Well that was odd. She'd only been here for a short time, but she'd not yet heard of plant manipulators. She still didn't understand how the tree was going to tell the small redhead what to do about being sick. More tree than human? How was it possible? No person could be more tree than human, even if she did have that power. Obviously her body was human, and the flu was in the body. Didn't it then make more sense for her to get treatment like the human she was? Christina shook her head, deeply perplexed.

"I don't normally vomit at people. Come to think of it I don't normally vomit at all. I don't think plants are meant to vomit." Christina sighed. What was this girl not getting? Sure, she had the power to talk to? Move? Grow? plants, but that didn't make her one! She was still human. Humans get sick. Humans vomit. Human, human, human! The girl was human! She shook her head, not believing at all that anyone could ever really and truly believe that they were a plant. Maybe she was taking it too seriously, but somehow, she just didn't think so. This girl seemed to really believe she was part plant. Wrinkling her nose in distaste at the vomit before her, Christina looked away toward the tree that Autumn was pointing too.

Shaking her head, she sighed. "Fine, I guess.... Let's go talk to the freaking tree..." She couldn't believe she was really doing this. Instead of taking the sick girl immediately to the infirmary, as should have been done, she was taking her to talk to some magical oak tree? Yeah, okay. Good luck with that one, buddy. "I don't understand though. If the plant in the infirmary is dead, can't you do some... I don't know? Magical plant voodoo stuff on it and tada! back to life?" Funny question, yes. But Christina was genuinely confused.

[Autumn Buckland]

"I know it sounds peculiar." Autumn admitted as the pair of them wobbled off towards the tree. "I'd think I was two sandwiches short of a picnic. Perhaps short of an entire picnic. Maybe no picnic at all." The girl babbled, slightly deliriously. As the pair reached the tree, she sunk down and looked up at the tree expectantly, giving a weak wave.

"Good afternoon Mr. Oak." Autumn said, her voice nasally. "I was wondering, what do plants do when they're sick. Or part plants." The tree, indeed, moved down, and seemed to... face her, talking in plant speak to explain himself. The redhead listened to the words, her face steadily turning into a scowl. "Are you absolutely one hundred percent certain? ... Yes? Oh. Alright." Looking over at Christina, resigned, the young girl huffed.

"He said that despite having photosynthesis, I still need medicine." She relayed the information with a frown. She despised the indoors, finding it so stuffy and tight, with nothing she wanted or liked inside. "So I suppose I shall have to go indoors and suffer the terrible plantkilling doctor." Her voice lilted a little, and she staggered back up to her feet, watching the clouds, then wincing at the sunlight again.

"The sun is being offensively bright." She scoffed, closing her eyes to try and stop the impending headache.

[Christina Byrne]

Short of an entire picnic? That was one way to put it... She hated to admit it, but Christina agreed. Autumn seemed to be kind of delirious... Maybe even just crazy... The two walked over to an oak tree and the young blonde was actually slightly embarrassed to be here, next to the small redhead talking to a tree... Ashamed as she was of this, she couldn't stop it. She didn't like being embarrassed of being near people who were odd, she herself was odd, but how could she help it? The girl was talking to a tree for Pete's sake!

Despite having photosynthesis? Okay, this girl really was crazy. Absolutely and completely raving nuts. At least the tree had... uh... told her... to go to the infirmary. At least she was imagining a smart tree and not one that told her that the best cure would be something like get as close to the sun as possible. That just wouldn't be good, because then she would never go inside and get proper treatment. Christina shook her head in disbelief. Of course she'd stumble upon this girl. "That's... great. Okay. Thanks Mr. Tree. Let's go." Laughing at the fact that she just said thank you to a tree, she took the other girl's arm and started walking away toward the building.

[Autumn Buckland]

Allowing herself to be escorted - albeit with a reluctant scowl on her face, not helped by the glow of the sun giving her a terrible throbbing headache, Autumn plodded alongside Christina as though she'd given the girl a death sentence. "Mr. Oak says you are most welcome." She added, slightly groggily.

As the pair of them walked up the stairs, Autumn hesitated and moved to vomit, only to sigh in relief as nothing came up. "I'm Autumn, by the way." The redhead said, leaning a little on the Bannister as they got closer to the nurse's office. "Thank you, I suppose. You did help me move, else I would have turned to compost and probably died." The girl tilted her head, then staggered rather unceremoniously into the wall. "Oh bother." She said weakly, managing to flop against the wall and sit, room spinning, with her eyes on Christina.

"I'm not always like this. This is rather humiliating." The girl said shamefully.

[Christina Byrne]

Christina rolled her eyes and shook her head in disbelief at this girl. The oak tree said thank you? Mr. Oak? If he was Mister Oak, what did she call the rest of the oak trees? Sir Oak? The blonde dragged the girl along. Autumn seemed to be walking as slow as possible, as though walking indoors was the worst thing she'd ever been told to do. Had she never had to clean or anything? There were many things that could be worse than walking into a beautiful building.

As they approached the staircase, Christina let go of the girl's arm, trusting that she wouldn't run. And if she did, confident that she could catch the young, sick girl. It seemed she'd let go just in time, for Autumn moved over and heaved as though she were going to vomit again. Christina wrinkled her nose in distaste and looked away, not sure if she could handle another bout of vomit. The first time, she'd been distracted in her focus to convince Autumn to go to the infirmary. Now there was no distraction. Nothing to keep her from vomiting herself at the sight. Which is why she was so relieved when Autumn stepped away without losing her lunch.

Christina smiled as they introduced themselves. At least they were on a normal subject for acquaintances. "I'm Christina." Her arm twitched as she subconsciously made the move to shake hands but then remembered the flu. No sense in making herself sick as well. She only hoped that the girl sitting down didn't notice the slight movement. "Oh, you're welcome. For future advice, I don't think photosynthesis will ever help you when you're sick. Photosynthesis is for plants, and they don't get sick. Sickness is for mammals, humans, and they need medical professionals to help them." Of course she had no idea what she was saying. She'd made up that statement on the spot, but it sounded right, and she only hoped it convinced Autumn to go straight to the infirmary next time.

"Being sick isn't humiliating. Happens to everyone. Vomiting in front of people, maybe... But it's still okay. It wasn't your fault and I'm the only one that saw, so don't worry about it. But, uh, maybe we should get walking again."

[Autumn Buckland]

Autumn smiled a little bit and nodded. "Nice to meet you Christina." She said, her voice still cracked from the sore throat. "I think you might be right about the photosynthesis, it keeps me from getting sick most of the time but I am still at least half human." She rubbed her eyes and tried to wipe the bleariness from them, frustrated by the lack of fresh air. "Though plants do get sick... Thuja Blight, Blackspot, Bacterial Canker..." She frowned slightly, then offered a small shrug. "I suppose I'm lucky I don't get any of those."

Eventually the girl got back to her feet and headed drearily towards the infirmary door, sinking down as the nurse tilted her head in confusion. Autie said nothing, and instead stared rather sadly at the dead spider plant. Her eyes flickered closed as she wondered why the plant had been allowed to die. The nurse asked Christina a few questions as the redhead tried to revive the plant, ignoring any further protests and rising to touch at the dead plant. "Come on little guy." The girl encouraged, trying to work her magic to get the potted plant to live.

Eventually, it turned green and began to revive, looking around rather blearily. "I really feel rather sick." She said to the plant, before eventually flopping down and reaching for the bin, vomiting into it and groaning. "And please refrain from killing Mrs. Spider Plant again - she has a family." And with that little comment, the redhead's face disappeared back in the bin.

[Event !]

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