The clock chimes. It is My Time.

[turningcolors]

It's a blustery day in the Nexus. A crisp bite has sunk its chill into the breezes as they whip up and die down all across the plaza. Up until only days ago the weather had been oppressively sunny and hot with the grass and trees in full summer green thanks to a certain someone's influence over the place but That. Ends. Today.

Leaves are drying out and scattering all over the plaza today and every tree is in a full myriad of fall colors. Brilliant scarlets, fiery oranges, glowing golds, and soft browns absolutely cover every inch of flora in the Nexus. What were before lush grasses have gone lean and a light brown, bushes have begin to lose their bulk and show off more and more of their twisting skeleton vines and branches. Flowers have died and been replaced by fruits or seed pods ready and waiting to scatter. Acorns roll in time with the dancing leaves across the walkways. The sky has turned a silvery grey though now and again the sun pokes out to warm the area again and bring an even brighter tone to the colors simply everywhere in the Nexus.

In the center of the plaza is Hazel Tasker. While she may be dressed in a red skirt and dark leggings with a sweater pulled on there's nothing Ordinary about her actual appearance. Her skin has taken on a deathly pale hue, nearly alabaster. It makes her hair stand out even more, a thrumming pulse of shifting color in the same reds, oranges, and golds of the leaves around her. Her green eyes are too quick to lock on to anyone who meets her gaze, her smile too sharp to be altogether human. A great pile of wood sits at her back, ready to make a considerably large bonfire once the day draws to an end. It will be lit then and the colors of the fire are her own as well. There will be music and dance and food to be had.

Until then she has all manner of food spread out before her. Planked fish and stripped meats drying to jerky, large pots full of canning equipment set to boil and sterilize while even more work to turning fresh fruit to jams and preserves and fresh vegetables to pickle or preserve all being manned by intrigued volunteers eager to learn how to prepare for the coming winter. To the first person who catches her eye, Hazel turns that smile their way. She has a question to ask after all.

"In a survival situation what's the one thing you'd never go without?"

[Feel free to tag in assuming it's either day or night when the bonfire is lit as there is no difference to the RP aside from setting flavor text. Also of note now that it is Autumn officially Hazel has a list of curses and blessings she can bestow on characters at a player's choosing or if they piss her off. Have fun and DM me if you have questions!]

Comments

[turningcolors]

"And am I not helping them? I am providing everything this place needs to prepare for Winter's coming. They have given me no reason to punish them. To spoil their crops or rustle the dead."

Because she could. Hazel could decay everything in this place as easily as she gives the bounty of seeds and crops to the Nexus. She has already taken away the Swamp Thing's near godlike powers for trying to deny her the right to exist. IF Humanity turned on her...well, they would receive the same treatment.

The same punishment.

Hazel is not cruel. Sometimes lessons must be given. Not everyone survives them. This too, is natural.

"I am only as Good or as Evil as I need to be Johann. Everything I do is for Autumn's behest." Humanity comes after that. For better or for worse.

[fictionings]

“Ah, please don’t misunderstand.” He shows a cheerful, unerringly polite smile. Killing all the crops and letting everyone die would be as “good” as it is “evil” in Johan’s upside down world. But of course he can’t come right out and say that so hence this little game.

“I was only commenting on the hypocrisy of anyone who would call you or Winter evil.”

For what it’s worth, people call him evil all the time. Rightfully so. He really has nothing to say in his own defense, though not from pride so much as amnesia.

[turningcolors]

"You see so much more than your fellow man, don't you?" Hazel has not noticed this before now. Or perhaps she had and just hadn't quite figured out what it was about him that was so different. Now though, taking to him now she's quite sure he's not quite like most other humans.

For one thing, he seems to understand what her purpose is. He does not seem to be judging her for it, as if he knows it is not his place to mete out decrees on things outside his sphere of influence. Once more she is reminded that this one is worth looking out for personally. He is someone she wants to protect.

"Humans couldn't operate without their hypocrisies."

[fictionings]

“I’ve seen enough to know things are more complicated than ‘good’ versus ‘evil.’”

And what has he seen? Many things, nothing. Others in the Nexus have seen just as much, if not more. Is complete indifference to matters of good and evil such a feat? When it comes to morality, he tends to assume others are playing the same game of lies and evasion as him, except with varying levels of self-awareness. It always catches him off guard whenever someone genuinely believes in such childish ideas as “good” inevitably triumphing over “evil.” They are fun, people like that.

“Would you recommend it in a survival situation, then?” he asks, responding to her last statement. “A knife, something with which to light a fire, and hypocrisy?” Because discussing starvation and evil results in a playful, amused Johan. But in between the lines is a real question. One whose answer he can see clearly when it comes to other people but feels abstract and nonsensical in relation to his own self -- or rather, lack of self.

[turningcolors]

"The knife is a powerful tool, yes. Something to start a fire will help keep beasts at bay and you warm." She's pulling away from Johann now, letting her hands fall to her sides. He gives all the appearances of paying close attention to her when she gives lessons and this is yet one more reason Hazel is pleased to be speaking to her friend.

"The hypocrisy...will help you survive among your fellow man. In your case, I would recommend a partner. A reason for you to survive. Someone to protect."

[fictionings]

“A partner?” He tilts his head, eyes slightly narrowing, both skeptical and somewhat fascinated. “I’ve never had one,” he confesses. That is true in every sense of the word.

“Would you consider the Winter Spirit a partner?” It is quite clear she does not need one to have a reason to live, but that does not mean she can’t have a partner anyway. If it makes her happier to be with one than when she was alone. Does she think that would make him happier, too? Since it would give him a reason to live? There were people who loved him -- or thought they did -- so much so they considered him their reason for living. Someone to protect, even at the cost of their own life. They were all very delusional, and he made sure to keep them that way. The extent of Johan’s experience with “partnership.”

[turningcolors]

"It needn't be a romantic partner. A friend or a child. A mentor or a student. Someone you have a connection with. Someone you'd care if they perished. That's all a partner needs to be."

But it is possible that there is no such person to exist in Johann's life that would fit any of those requirements. For as social as humans can be they can also hurt one another so cruelly in ways the young man seems to know about.

"A partner? Winter?" Any other time Hazel would be spitting out her drink, sputtering about nonsense and how much Reynard North is nothing but a menace. More trouble than he's worth, someone she has to babysit constantly. But in Season Hazel doesn't find her human quibbles quite so important. She nods after several long moments. "In a fashion, I suppose he is. He is the test I must prepare for. The most literal entity by which I have a purpose to exist."

[fictionings]

The most literal entity by which she has a purpose to exist. Her words ring clearly, leaving an echo in the form of vague curiosity about how this story of her and Reynard will end. If she were a human, or any kind of mortal, he would be interested in shaping its outcome. But as is, he finds comfort in how ultimately irrelevant his existence is to her, however much she may like him now.

“Do you think another Autumn Spirit will ever arrive here?”

He leaves his follow-up questions, of whether that Spirit would be a welcomed partner in the service of their season or a rival who threatened to make her redundant, unspoken in order to observe her initial reaction.

[turningcolors]

"It's not impossible, but I doubt it will happen. There are so few of us."

Hazel isn't shirking her duties back on Earth to affect the Nexus. The Nexus is remarkably easy to shape though it likes to not stick to those changes readily. Her largest efforts are in assisting the season back home. In all the time she's been walking the planet Reynard is the first other spirit she's ever met in person. The odds of finding another seem so large.

"Regardless, they would find I have this place in hand."

[fictionings]

He nods. Another Autumn Spirit would be unnecessary, although it could happen. Some people have even met their doubles from other timelines. He, however, has a twin. One who hates him.

“I am equally confident I will never see my sister in this place.” He shows a fond, happy expression, not begrudging her and making it easy to infer she is the person he wants to protect. Something those insects from his past in organized crime never failed to try and use against him.

[turningcolors]

"Would that be for the best?"

For a human Johann's posture and expressions give the Autumn spirit little to go on for working out his inner thoughts. Most people are open books. Their past, present, and futures available to read if one takes but a moment to look at them carefully. Not Johann though.

Curious. Ultimately not a concern for her though. The weeks will pass and when she is bound more closely to her meat and bones and this world then she will have time to worry about her friend. For now, it is enough to know he is safe and that he understands her lessons.

"Take from the foods I have being prepared here. A gift of Autumn's bounty to a deserving friend."

[fictionings]

“No, not for the best.” That would be if he died, or better still -- was never born at all. “But it is what it is.”

Acceptance. At least he can’t hurt her anymore, although it is strange. Living and feeling absolutely no connection to that other self. And he thought he knew what it was like to feel empty before. It seems some things one simply never really knows. The darkest shade of black, for instance.

“Thank you, Hazel. I will be sure to do so before I leave.” His glance slides back toward the fire. “I think I’ll stay here for a while, though. You’ve given me something to think about.”