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THE PARLIAMENT OF TREES

[]It happens after most things have been discussed at Elrond's Council, but before anyone has left.]

[It is unreal. Reality warps and trees shoot up from the ground around the meeting area of the council. They don't destroy Rivendell but it's as if Rivendell is suddenly shoved away and off in the distance. Civilization retreats at disorienting speeds and suddenly the squad, Elrond, and his guests, in the middle of the woods, under massive trees that stretch up into the sky. The trees are taller than skyscrapers and thicker than the average lighthouse. Their branches intertwine as they reach up to the sky in a way where the branches seem to form almost a natural cathedral.]

[The ones immediately circling them also have gnarled faces. They chant in an unknown language, in deep musical tones with voices nearly indistinguishable from the creaking of branches, then speak to them in weathered voices.]

You have been summoned by the Parliament of Trees.

[Elrond stands, almost imperious in his expression. Though his voice is calm, he clearly has taken issue with the sudden abduction.]

A summoning we would have answered readily, if asked. It is considered courteous among our peoples, if messengers have been sent, for one to send word of agreement to a meeting first. [A tilt of his head and a slight narrowing of his eyes] But the Green truly does prefer to offer little forewarning when drawing others away from their homes, it seems.

OOC DETAILS
❧ Free-for-all Post: This event will be in "free-for-all" format, meaning that threadhopping is encouraged and that threading should be treated in the same conversational way as network posts with branching threads. This post will only contain the part with Elrond and others. The agents of the Green will be set up with their own Q&A post after they've had time to talk to Elrond and co.

❧ Joint network Post. Due to the magic mirrors having the ability to be widened and set to float, any characters that don't (or can't) attend the meeting will be able to still participate. The mirrors will have been transported too and still broadcasting.

❧ Post in bracketspam format. We're trying to keep a brisk pace and allow a network vibe where speech matters more than action, for some talking heads rp.

❧ NPCing. The mods will handle all the fantasy npcs and some may show up that aren't specifically listed in this post. There are many people at the Council.

❧ It's okay if the conversation gets messy. It's a giant group that's going to be talking here. That means it's natural if side conversations happen, interruptions happen, or things get missed because people are talking over each other and switching conversational partners.

❧ A private discussion will happen later. A crossroads post and private conversation among the squad will happen after the Council, and after the meeting with the Green, so they can decide for themselves what to do next and how to handle what they've learned.

❧ Please only post to the sub-threads below and not to the main post. This allows the mods to add some if we need to.

❧ Please treat each appearance in chronological order. It may be good to spend some time talking to Gaia first or reading her answers before moving on.

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[Utterly unrecoverable.]

...when you didn't like that I took a second to be upset about you getting hurt. When we were sitting outside Rivendell talking. And I needed a second to work through it. You were trying to fix it and kind of shut down after that and thought I couldn't tell.

[But there is no way he'd ask that unless he was hoping it was something else, and all of a sudden Dick telling Kon that face touches are often seen as romantic makes a lot more sense. And Dick trying to get him to imagine what he'd think and what he might feel if their positions had been reversed makes him realize that maybe he knew something Kon didn't, which makes sense when he's Tim's big brother. Even if Tim didn't know something about himself, and hadn't told Dick anything, Dick might have sussed it out even before Tim did.]

[And he thinks about Tim denying a little too vociferously that he was bi, like he really needed Kon to believe him.]

[And he thinks about Tim raiding Lex's lab and trying to clone him just to have even the tiniest fragment of him left, even knowing it'd be false. And about how it was him, not Bart, his dad, or Steph.]

[It wasn't Steph, his girlfriend. Steph or his dad would've been easier to clone because they were human. Even Bart was just a human meta, not a weird alien hybrid, with the alien half being from a species that's notoriously hard to clone.]

[He'd picked the hardest one of them to try to clone. He'd probably been down in some dingy cave somewhere trying desperately to bring him back, not one of the other people he lost, not even his girlfriend or parent or other best friend.]

[And now Tim's ready to lay down in traffic if it means Kon has something to step on to avoid stepping in a puddle and getting his shoes wet, and it makes sense because it's not the action of just a best friend, even a close one. It's someone whose heart bleeds over wanting to protect someone else, because their whole heart is in how they feel, and it could get utterly broken if that person gets hurt again.]

[And he knows that feeling. It was why after Tana died he'd been throwing himself in between Cassie and threats she reasonably could take on and oh. Oh.]

[It's impossible to figure out his own feelings in this moment, because he's only just on the precipice of understanding Tim's first. He can only look inward at his own after that.]

[But he can't ignore it and he isn't the type to not dig into it, so he does, knowing that whatever he finds out will probably require him to turn his focus on himself next.]

[He can't ignore it...especially because...how often has Tim had that kind of hope on his face since Kon got back?]

Were you hoping I meant...other kinds of feelings?

[Unrecoverable.]

Edited 2022-03-23 08:31 (UTC)

[ That… makes much more sense than anything Tim had been thinking.

(For the one thing that he’d been thinking.)

Just general overall emotions and not the more colloquial use of feelings where “romantic” is inherent and understood. The wincing expression swallows up the hope.

Kon wouldn’t be using that meaning of the word with him. Tim really is a fucking moron.

But this is good. This is salvageable, because Kon doesn’t know where Tim’s head was (because he’s still here.) ]

Huh? Oh, no.

[ Tim leans into what he hopes will just bring back some of the annoyance Kon was rocking and dismiss the question. ]

I didn’t want to make assumptions about what’s in your head, like you’ve been doing.

[ Tim is not outing himself on that ridiculous leading question. Leading him straight into a minefield, no thank you. ]

[And of course this is when Elle walks by. She's walking somewhat delicately because, like an idiot, she forgot to dedicate the fucking pink friendship bracelet so it sits above her left paw and mocks her every step. If she could laugh in this form, she'd be poorly suppressing it. But less in a funny way but more in a desperate what-is-my-life way.]

[She just wanted to have her own freak out in peace! Find a nice whole in the ground and cry, maybe have another panic attack. Kon and Tim managed to be in the one direction that goes away from all of this bullshit and now she's forced to overhear two emotionally constipated teenage boys try to figure out their feelings.]

[And Elle gets it. They care about each other. A lot. But right now she's finding it hard to be gracious when every time she's hit with a wave of emotion (which is constant, at the moment) she instinctually tugs on a pack link that isn't there because her pack was fucking ripped from her mind. She feels hurt and betrayed and Kon and Tim have each other and Dick and Elle has nothing and no one.]

[So she overhears the most awkward love confession (and attempted cover-up) known to (Super)man, gets tripped up in her own head and ends up pausing just long enough to show that-- yeah, she definitely heard that-- before she catches herself and keeps moving.]

[Kon doesn't get annoyed again because he's mostly just confused and still working through his own feelings. (Does he want it to be romantic?)]

It's just...

[Oh no Elle is there. Kon isn't embarrassed, mostly just worried that'll set Tim off, so he waits for her to pass because those ears can probably hear their biz.]

[If Tim isn't too caught up in his feelings he'll notice the matching friendship bracelets, what with it being the only thing that didn't disappear when Elle changed.]

Uh. Hi Elle.

[ Tim pushes down his bent leg and sliiiides a good two further along the bleachers. He does it so smoothly and then sits cross legged in a much more open position. Setting the stage for a different scene.

He’s never been so relieved to see Elle.

(This is probably in his top ten relieved to see anyone moments. The top 5 are resurrections. She doesn’t want to be in that group.)

Tim doesn’t smile, because the “discussion” with Gaia wasn’t pleasant for either of them. ]

Hey, Elle. I wanted to thank you, for standing up for Kon. You didn’t have to do that. I didn’t realize that you and he were so… close.

[ Tim’s eyes flick from her bracelet to Kon’s pointedly. ]

You here to keep me company in time-out?

Edited 2022-03-23 09:24 (UTC)

[Oh. My. God.

She has half a mind to turn around and walk away. This is the last thing she wants to be in the middle of right now.]

[Elle returns to Homid and makes eye contact with Kon to try and figure out what he wants her to do here. She's wearing the dress from the party night, the white one that ended up on the floor by the time the poker game was over.]

She hit a sore spot. [She says shortly. It didn't end up being about Kon anyway. Not to Elle. Gaia made sure of that.

She's still shaking a little out of anger and hurt. They can probably feel her Rage in the air.]

It was best if I removed myself from the conversation.

[She doesn't sit down because she still isn't sure what she's supposed to be doing. The two of them were clearly in the middle of something. Tim may be angling for her to save him from the horrific reality of having feelings, but she's dealing with her own shit, thank you very much.]

Edited 2022-03-23 09:37 (UTC)

[Uuuugh the timing is awful and right now both Tim and her are going through a whole Thing and Kon wants to press about what Tim said but he's being avoid-ey and he's genuinely concerned about Elle.]

[Tim is being a slippery little eel and it'll be an uphill fight to rewind the conversation, and it'll work better if he zings back to it anyway, so he temporarily focuses on her. She deserves someone checking in and doesn't have as much of a support structure.]

You okay?

It sounded like you knew each other personally.

Well, like you knew at least one of the Mothers Nature anyway.

[ Tim, in the one actually smart move he’s made in the past 20 minutes, keeps his fat mouth shut when his brain makes the following logic leaps:

That’s couple jewelry, and they might as well both be wearing “I’m with stupid” t-shirts with arrows pointing at Tim.

And, unrelated…

No one could know that Gaia creature personally. Not in the human parlance.

And…

The only people who would be naive enough to think they had a relationship with Gaia are her avatars…

Leading to…

Elle’s an avatar of Gaia who’s finally realizing what a shitty deal she’s gotten.

(Yikes. But it explains why Elle tried to defend Kon. She thought she was working from a better position.)

Tim has other things to interject before Elle can answer Kon’s question. ]

Don’t do that to her. Don’t set her up so that telling you that if she’s okay has to be about if she knows Gaia.

[ (Why should Caesar just get to stomp around like a giant while the rest of us try not to get smushed under his big feet? What’s so great about Caesar, hmph?)

Tim turns to Elle. ]

You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to. I won’t let Kon hit anymore sore spots. I promise.

[ The look he shoots Kon after that is just a silent triple dog dare. Just try to tell Tim that he can’t make that promise either, Kon. See if that doesn’t end in fisticuffs. ]

Edited 2022-03-23 15:18 (UTC)

[What.]

[She's not sure what leaps of logic Tim's making in his head, or even what conclusion he's come to, but Elle is so confused.]

[Kon checking in is... really nice of him. She wasn't expecting that, especially considering he has his own shit he's dealing with (including Tim himself). But now Tim's taking it and making it about whatever else they were talking about before she got here.]

[And Elle's definitely not here to be put in the middle of whatever bullshit drama they have right now.]

Um. Thanks? [What is happening.] It's not a secret or anything. Gaia's a pretty big deal in my world. And I do know her, well. An aspect of her. Multiple, really, but mostly the one.

[Elle's doing what she does best: rambling to avoid talking about her emotions.]

And she hit the sore spots, not Kon. [Elle decides that it'll be better if she actually sits down instead of hovering over the two of them awkwardly.]

Fate and I don't get along. [She shrugs. That's putting it mildly.] And calling you an aberration was out of line. No matter how powerful she is, or is supposed to be, she doesn't always know best. [She says firmly.]

Dude!

[He is trying here. He knows Gaia stomped all over some trauma points for Tim, knows it's really, really bad if he'd been pushed to tears, knows that he can reach hitherto unforeseen lows that he didn't used to before so many people died on him.]

[When Kon had even dropped in on him again in Paris, his quest to find Bruce had been...obsessive. It wasn't that he was wrong, that he hadn't caught a detail others had missed. He totally had noticed something, and even if no one else believed him, Kon'd had faith in that.]

[It was how he'd gone about it that had worried Kon. Sure, nobody had believed him, but wanting to go it alone, even when Kon himself was back and willing to help, even when he believed him. The sense that he was tangling with forces that were...dangerous - reinforced later when Ra's Al Ghul launched his attack on Gotham.]

[He knows this is that, he knows that Tim's been completely tripped off because Kon is vulnerable and someone is hurting him, someone's using him, someone's treating him as expendable - a terrible combination of what Lex and Superboy Prime had done.]

[He knows all the reasons he's acting like this and can't hate him for it, but there's only so much he can take. He's reached the point of wanting to lash out himself, and he doesn't want to say something mean that actually hurts him. He doesn't want to say something he can't take back.]

[Instead his jaw is set in an expression of annoyance but also hurt - and concern.]

I get why you got tripped off [Triggered, more like, but Kon doesn't have the vocab for that] but this passive aggressive thing? Not cool.

I'm walking away before I say anything I regret.

[He stands up.]

Elle, I'm sorry you dealt with that, Gaia's being a jerk. Thank you for sticking up for me. It was nice of you and Tim and Dick to do that for me, even if you all needed to stop.

[He turns back to Tim.]

I'm going back with the others. Talk to me again when you cool your head.

[He's sending Dick over after this, someone not the core focus of Tim's worry needs to be the one supporting him.]

Edited 2022-03-24 04:31 (UTC)

[ Tim, who has already said something that he regrets before Elle arrived, won’t be finding Kon when he calms down.

(If he calms down. It’s humiliating to be caught with your ass showing, emotionally, and Kon’s going to go mull on this. Even thinking about it makes Tim grit his teeth.) ]

Hnh.

[ But that’s all he’ll say, until Kon leaves to go get an earful of Gaia’s poisoned tongue or to tell Dick that Tim’s still a disaster.

He looks at Elle with tired eyes. Tim’s not even mad about the idea of the bracelets; he doesn’t get jealous of the girls Kon likes.

He’s not sure if he should try to befriend her or not, now. It’s a good plan if he and Kon manage to stay friends, but since cooking his head involves stifling his emotions (which he’s apparently also not supposed to do), who knows when that talk is going to happen.

(Never. He can wait it out until Kon forgets about it.) ]

I should warn you I’m not great company. I understand if you need to exit the conversation too.

[ She came over to talk to Kon, anyway. She’ll go after him. ]

[It's cool that everyone is thanking her for standing up for Kon, which she did, but it also stopped being about him pretty quickly and she's not sure if she's relieved or annoyed that they didn't notice.]

[Looks like Kon beat her to leaving because she was about to remove herself from the middle of whatever the fuck was happening there. So she watches Kon go and makes a mental note to check in on him later when she's capable of emotional labor again.]

Listen. I'm told repressing my emotions until I have a panic attack and Frenzy is a bad idea, so I'm going to sit here and cry until I can hear someone talk about destiny without screaming.

[At this point she's too exhausted to bother getting up finding another place to sulk.]

So if you wanna let out some emotions go ahead. I'm not going to be capable of looking anyone in the eye for at least another hour, so I honestly won't notice if you got something in your eye, or whatever.

[She's so fucking tired. And mortified, honestly, but her dignity is already in fucking shreds so why not break down in front of the one person who's already decided that she's not worth his time?]

[True to her words, she brings up her knees, wraps her arms around them, lowers her head and lets out the sobs she had been pushing back while she was talking to Gaia. She doesn't really let go, not fully, but there are some definite audible hitches of breath.]

Edited 2022-03-24 05:33 (UTC)

[Kon stops and gets Dick's attention, pointing him over toward where Tim is. Not much is said, though the chill anger that's still been hanging around him dissipates as he looks over, then offers Kon a nod and a clap on the shoulder before heading that direction.]

[Any half joke he might have had about...anything dies as he gets closer and sees Tim's face. Elle is crying nearby and he's pretty sure that, given what he'd overheard, the two don't have anything to do with each other. He still places an elven handkerchief in her hand as he passes.]

[When he reaches Tim, he sits down but doesn't say anything more. Simply places his hand on his little brother's shoulder as an offer to come closer if he wants to. He almost definitely needs a hug, but Dick knows better than to try to force it on Tim, too.]

[ They hadn’t noticed it had ceased to be about Elle because they were wading into an overlapping conversation. In a perfect world Tim would’ve paid closer attention to her, but… try as he might, he’s not perfect. ]

Thanks, Elle. I won’t tell anyone.

[ It’s quiet and kind - he doesn’t even add “if you don’t”, and he doesn’t take her up on the offer to immediately start crying. Tim doesn’t care if she sees, but he’s still telling himself that he can’t afford to lose it. He’ll never recover from that.

This would be a good time to meditate. Clear his head. But then he’d look like he was screwing his head back on. Who takes a meeting in the lotus position?

The fear is backed up when Dick appears and all Tim is doing is leaning his head back. He’s not even crying or hugging a knee. He’s just trying to exist in this space. He leans away from the hand. ]

I’m fine. I’m handling things my way from now on. And I don’t think Elle wants a hug either.

[She doesn't really care if he does (it's not like they're that far away from the group, and it's not like they all didn't see her almost crying when she was speaking before), but the gesture's nice.]

[She takes the handkerchief with a muffled] Thanks. [She would laugh at Tim's "I'm fine" and "handling things my way" if she wasn't busy crying.]

[Elle would actually love a hug, thankyouverymuch Tim, but considering her one interaction with Dick so far was when she brought him his dying little brother, she doubts that they're on that level.]

We're both fine. [She says. Is she actually going to convince anyone she's okay? No. It's more of "Tim's about as fine as I am, so either we're both great or we're both terrible" type of comment.]

[Yeeeeep. Tim's mad at him. He's pretty used to this, since it's been status quo for the past few months. Which is why Dick retracts his hand without any change to his expression. Which doesn't QUITE say, 'I don't believe you're actually fine', but...]

[Well, Tim can read him as well as he can read Tim. Too many years working together.]

All right. We can talk later, if you want. You know where to find me. [A glance to Elle before he extends the offer.] Either of you.

[He's been the responsible one for the family for a while now. Bruce has always been the core, but Dick's the heart. And he's extended that to so many. It can't be a surprise to Tim that he'd open that up to more.]

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THE PARLIAMENT OF TREES

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