look at the weapon i've made of myself,

"have all of the ideas you want, i'm a creature of reaction. anything i do is always explained by some outside force trying to either help me or take me down." gilmore was his own person, yes, but he knew everything around him could influence him. how he couldn't been insulted by shiv's boredom. she just wasn't on the same brain wavelength though, so he tried to be understanding. "that's good to know. i figured you could make the cut if we really needed someone to slice and ice, but thank you for the confirmation. like you said, good to have around." they were in the middle of a war after all.

"okay yeah, i think that's probably what we all tell ourselves to sleep at night. how many people have been waiting in the wings to take you down? aside from my crude joke just now, i mean." shiv snickered softly at her necessary qualification tacked on the end. "so have you had to do much fighting? in our unholy war? or of any kind?" she was starting to get curious about his hardened background and why he hadn't bragged about it yet. what had made him like this? who hurt him?

not all of them could say they had a connection to the world like shiv. hell, he didn't know if persephone's kin had such a strong connection to the green either. especially since that he'd seen some going around rotting things instead. "that's pretty cool. it's like a cheat cheat for if you're ever stuck on an island survivor style." who needed water when you had a whole island at your fingertips?

"yeah, exactly, that's just what i meant." nodding enthusiastically, shiv scanned the horizon one more time, grinning when she caught sight of the one bright orange vine growing up the side of persephone's cabin, highlighted among the poison ivy green of the others. "i guess the universe knows what it's doing! you walking me home like a gentleman, that's such a you thing to do."

"yes. again, if someone is going to claim to be an expert in something then i'm going to have to think they're doing it on purpose." gilmore wasn't going to let up either. it was life or death nowadays and he wasn't going to apologize for that. "we're not regular people. if we're not okay with a little maiming or killing, then we have no business claiming to be children or champions of the gods in a midst of a war." his expression was almost blank, cold. "then call me mean, but at least i'm alive."

"well.. yes. then that's the mean i mean. i will keep that in mind the next time i get another tricksy idea about you." shiv sounded almost bored, like that's the same point she'd been trying to explain to him this whole time. she had left the on purpose or not argument behind in the dust, now trying to climb on his side for the other. "i don't think it's an insult either, quite the contrary. i would much prefer to live with people who won't hesitate; keeps us all safer. i don't either, by the way, i have an extra mean bone in my body." hopefully they'd all sleep better knowing that.

"yes! i also hear constantly that all of the green is connected. like you can ask a cactus in arizona something and a cherry blossom tree in japan can hear it." not that he knew much about plants or plantspeak for that matter. he'd let shiv be the expert on that. "no you haven't yet, but i'm glad that you think so. it is pretty bright and i did play basketball growing up, so that's a perfect orange."

nodding enthusiastically, shiv snapped her fingers in rapid succession, applauding klay's understanding of her actual religion. she knew the gods had influence, but green was the actual god, and also all of us. "yes, we're all one big family. everyone's included, all share knowledge, and try to help one another survive." she was happy to travel to the basketball as their next stop, where she'd look for more of the pathfinding color.

With a dangerously sweet smile Seph reached out, her hand covering Shiv's as if to select a berry, but instead between their palms the berries began to smoke before bursting into green necrotic flames - all the while Seph's smile never fading. "I think I'll skip sweet poison today."

shiv held her nerve as long as she could, sacrificing her hand as half of the necrotic sandwich now between her and seph. but before she even felt so much as a burn, she dropped her hand out from under and let the smoking berry fall to the ground. "now see of all the ways to neutralize, you're gonna choose nuke. you can't just kill everything that might hurt you. you didn't even have to eat it." aside from her dropped hands, she hadn't retreated, holding her space. "maybe you could have even convinced me to eat it instead, who knows?"

often times, gilmore was equated to a nagging mother or father in conversations. a disapproving tone that only someone close to you could match. he didn't think it was true, but the sins of oneself weren't as easy to spot as the ones of those around them. "i don't think those two have much of a difference. if someone tries to poison me, would i have to be mean to try and kill them right back?" he didn't answer her last question. gilmore wanted to see if shiv saw any fault in her argument before anything else.

"and you just up and assume i did it on purpose? i'm dead before you can find out the truth?" she squints, feeling him trying to pin her down and maneuvering around it. "maybe i fucked up. and even if not..." shiv shifted her eyes away, looking around and down at her hands. "you'd be surprised how difficult for people to do even justifiable homicide." she flashed her gaze back to meet his. "you have to be a little mean, yeah, even then."

was there a bad answer to what color someone liked best? "the brighter the better! green does feel like home sometimes, you know? comforting but not in a boring way." klayton nodded along to shiv's answer, like he was the one that needed to approve. "oh fuck yeah, that's a good one to jam to."

"yes, it's like the symbol of mother earth, right? and what connects us all, and life. the most powerful force there is, i think." not that influenced one's favorite color, but it made her feel powerful and important about it after the fact. "you're very good at agreeing with me, have i said that? okay, orange basketball. is that bright enough?" she pointed at one a ways down one path.

some people needed to get their feelings hurt sometimes.

truthfully, shiv goes through several emotions at the guys spiel, and though none of them are hurt feelings, she is a little offended at the offset that he thought he needed to offer her tips at all. it's the self-important someone like me that really catches her attention, though, and she struggles not to laugh in his face. "and what does someone like you involve exactly? like you're bad enough to do it, or you're mean enough to try? am i supposed to be grateful or intimidated?" she wouldn't be either, but he was saying one thing and seeming another.

❝ if I didn't, this botany degree isn't worth a damn now, is it ? ❞ shiv's test probably would have worked better if a) the person who came along literally just got their bachelor's in botany & b) was, like her, a child of persephone. last that was seen of jordana, their hair was of an auburn shade, a visual sign of autumn's return. now their tresses are almost as white as snow ( platinum blonde to be exact ), and their eyes as violet as elizabeth taylor's: winter is indeed here. ❝ if someone without posion resistance ate two on your left, they'd hack up their insides; if two on your right were eaten, they'd be paralyzed from toxins and would die from cardiac arrest. ❞ unit 6 was a fun section to say the least. suffice to say, they do not take any of the berries. 

"well, yeah. which is why i thought you might just ignore me entirely and go on your merry way. well and because you'd do that anyways." this wouldn't be any fun with jordana, who definitely knew even more than shiv, who hadn't formally studied botany at all. same affinity, but a technical background, rather than self-taught. "do you think a degree would make you more or less of an expert than someone who'd actually poisoned someone?" she let the berries drop into their respective front pockets of her coat and nodded with jordana's assessment, though, had to hand it to them. "i used to grow them in my uncle's greenhouse. it was mostly toxins by the time i left for the last time, with a pretty diverse and unique curation, if i do say so." sometimes she wished she could go back, but never enough to actually try.

"easy! orange. it's very bright and orange." most of the time, he didn't have to think things through. "what's your favorite color and song?"

"good answer!" nodding, she scanned the horizon until she saw an orange mountain bike chained to a nearby pole. shiv pointed and started toward it. "favorite color is green. every shade, but especially the bright ones." she winked as a nod to klay's great taste. "song is harder, but probably lost ones by jazmine sullivan."

"Trying to to pick off the competition with berries Shiv?" She questioned.

"try one and find out." she extended her hands more towards the other. "if you find your vision going black, at least you'll know you were competition. you could take some pride in that, at least."