#prtntious

( KAI YAMAMOTO | @prtntious )

ELLY'S NERVES WERE LOUD and present after the typical camp noises diminished. The further she got away from the populated areas of the camp grounds, the more his words replayed to fill its space. "Wait by the tallest oak in the north…" Easy enough, she said to herself enough times for it to finally be convincing. From any height all trees look the same from the lower vantage point. But for her specifically, her vision couldn't distinguish one mesh of canopies from another.

Under the contact of her palm against any tree, a map of roots revealed itself within a large sweep of the area. She checked her watch as frequently and frantically as she did trying to find the tree with the largest root system. The minutes ticked by faster than she could continue mentally crossing off sectors at a time. The never ending rows of trees turned disorienting quick when mixed with impatience. Desperation settled the more she thought about running late and keeping her friend waiting.

Elly's defeated figure slumped against the nearest tree. Eyes closed and hand pressed against rough bark once more. Please, help me,. she pleaded. Through the white noise of her own anxiety-ridden thoughts, a different note played. It was a low hum, subtle at first until it grew into a choral harmony. "The sun song," she gasped, "oh, my fates. Duh, Elly." Every plant was an endless field of energy converted from sunlight. Each of them sang their own tune. Therefore the tallest tree would have to be the one with the loudest song.

ELLY'S HEAD TURNED like it was on a swivel. Her hands continued pruning the grape vines as she looked up to see why her name was called out. Just about the rest of her siblings looked up as well. The rumors were true. They were a nosy bunch who liked hearing news through the grapevine, a joke they couldn't get enough of. The greenhouse's wall panels were about as opaque as cathedral panes. It didn't take long for everybody to see what the deal was.

She threw down her shears, picking herself up and headed towards the entrance. A snicker emitted from one of the rows between planters. 'Again?' Just as quickly, they were met with a set of garden gloves to the face.

Like clockwork, Elly guided her guest to the garden grounds off to the side. Variations of responses blossomed in her head. One by one, she pruned the ones that came off too accusatory or too blunt to be said in good faith. But something else grew alongside it—something else with a little more thorns. She pivoted around to face him. "Again, Kai?" It was wrong coming from her sibling. She knew him and she treated his wounds, so naturally, she was allowed to say it.

BY AZAR . . . Raven was hitting one obstacle after another. This feeling lodged hard in the back of her throat. It was choking her no matter how hard she tried to hack it up. The memory burned red, a searing iron branding itself onto her passive thoughts. She made her way through the hallways, sticking to the shadows through the turns and straight paths.

Collaborations with new members, Titans or otherwise, were always a test. Regulation during meditation were a given. Low-hanging fruit. A challenge posed at her self-control didn't intimidate her. Until now. She closed her eyes and his face awaited her. Rage settled deep in every line on his face. It felt familiar enough to resemble an unsettling comfort that recognition and nostalgia could only offer. That suffocating emotion reminder her of her father.

Raven determined drawing that line of similarity even inadvertently was a huge injustice to the red lantern. She sought him out, cape shrouding over her body and hood drawn over her head, without a plan in place. Apologies? Interrogations? Neither felt exactly right but an encounter felt like an empty promise that she'd be released from thinking about him.

as she pelts down the street, energy cannons blazing, alice cusses more than she's ever cussed in her life.

"get out of the fucking way!"

okay, so it's not that helpful. nothing she does seems to help.

she'd love to know what she's fighting. scarab has confirmed that it's a tech unit, gears and wires through and through, not a person in a suit. but who programmed it, and whether it's doing exactly as intended or not? she can't get a fix on it. even the shape of it—when she got here, it was a hulking tank plowing through streets at ground-level. now, like a transformer or something, it's flowered open into a figure recognizably person-ish. chromatic, at least a foot taller than anyone she knows, but with a recognizable head and arms and legs.

whether it sees and hears out of the head, or feels, or thinks, she can't tell.

and she's lost sight of it again—crazy, for something so big. she hit it. she knows she did. but the buildings are too close and the people don't stop coming. she can't keep track of them all. when scarab tries, the stream of data makes her brain feel like it's frying.

<< SUGGESTION //: BIRD'S EYE VIEW? >>

fine. fuck it. bracing herself, alice lets scarab's wings extend. her stomach lurches as they take off above the chaos, and the nausea lingers as they stabilize at a hover. scarab scans the crowd below for the tech—

<< IDENTIFIED. >>

—just a moment too late to do anything before it jets into them at full flying speed. they clash in midair.

scarab, what the hell? alice demands. could it fly before?

she knocks herself free with a blast to its torso, goes spinning out, and narrowly misses the side of a building before the wings catch her. she unleashes another, but that one doesn't push it as far back. so on instinct, she goes bigger, firing off faster. more power behind the cannons running up her arms.

the tech unit redirects an attack that should have hit, or maybe absorbs it into itself. it happens so fast. the shock wave impacts the building behind it instead. glass ripples and shatters. screaming joins the harsh buzz of mechanical wings and the blood pounding in alice's ears.

it's learning. they're the dataset.

<< ALERT //: ALERT //: ALERT >>

i know. i saw.

emiko's jittery. not because she's nervous or from excessive caffeine (though she probably had consumed enough to cause palpitations in a horse but that was just the life of an er doctor). it was the kind of jittery that you'd get from an adrenaline rush coming from a busy shift at the er. the kind that would crash as soon as the dust settled and all the emotions from the evening would weigh down on her but she'd pack them up tightly in a box and put her scrubs on the following day to do it all over again.

she clutched the folder of medical data and stats on her lap, fingers drumming as she was waiting for her cue to jump in. "does anyone have anything else they'd want to bring up in this meeting?" emiko practically jumped up before the question was even finished.

"yeah actually i do. hi, i'm emiko. i'm an emergency room doctor and in the last 6 months, i've noticed there's been an increase in incidents involving abandoned buildings in the city. kids trespassing and injuring themselves in abandoned buildings or injuring themselves on used needles, college kids being rushed to my er on the brink of death because they've gone to an illegal rave at one of these abandoned buildings and they needed medical staff but there wasn't any. now i feel like there's no coincidence that this all came around the same time where there several closures of 3rd spaces in the city. kids are bored and when kids are bored, they need an outlet — we were all young once right? and sometimes they do stupid things, we can't stop that. there's studies that show that having an active community centre or a space where people can hang out and is low-cost is beneficial for the city and the community so maybe we can put some funding into that instead of putting up another obscure statue that is supposed to represent something that no one really cares about."