#hemlocks are SUCH untrustworthy trees

[landwriter]

#literally wanted to add a metaphor about stuff growing like mushrooms on a log#and then brain went#‘wait but how logs?? trees? but hollow????’#and then I had to do a deep internet dive

@theuniverseismyaesthetic we were absolutely given the same brain to go through life with

i am sorry i was so close-

[dissonantia-goddess-of-chaos]

"Bramble"/Dr. Lillian "Lilly" Hemlock: [died at 29; immortal after resurrection] Lillian Hemlock was a bright and intelligent young woman who studied to become a biologist, zoologist, and botanist, but when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of 25, Dr. Hemlock decided to put her skills to the test to create a cure. She became so close to curing cancer, her male colleagues became envious of her success, and schemed up a plan to kill her and steal her ideas and documents on the experiment, deciding to ignore the fact that she was trying to keep herself and many others alive and avoid chemotherapy. One late night, when Lilly created a seed that would fight against the cancer once ingested, her colleagues surrounded and jumped her, beating her down and forcing plant food down her throat to poison her—after she swallowed the seed! After they buried her in the greenhouse (and stupidly forgot to erase the security footage due to their arrogant pride), the seed, feeding on the plant food, grew roots and embedded itself in Hemlock's esophagus. The DNA of the seed mixing with Lillian's blood created mutant genes that started to replicate the corpse's cells inside it, growing rapidly...

As a zombie rises from the grave, Lilly burrowed her way out of the ground. When a security guard went about his nightly routine around the laboratory and stopped at the greenhouse, Lillian attacked him; tentacles made out of poison ivy vines shot out of her mouth and down the gullet of the poor man, impregnating him with a parasitic seed similar to the one she had inside of her. Writhing in pain, the security guard exploded into a mess of tangled creeping vines and and roots, loyal and obedient to Lillian's every command. As the ghoulish doctor made her way around the lab, plants grew from cracks and openings, destroying the building little by little, as their master murders every single one of her co-workers—innocent or not—and either infecting them with parasitic seeds or sucking the nutrients out of their bodies. When she got to her office, her flesh was already rotting away from the seed eating her from the inside out. Without hesitation, Lillian forced the tree sapling she had to grow into a gargantuan sized tree, which will be known as the "Mother Tree", housing a new ecosystem of plants and few animals. From within the tree, in a carnivorous plant pod, Lillian's old body dissolved, allowing her plant based body to grow rapidly. She was eventually "reborn" as a new force of nature, a guardian of flora and fauna: Bramble.

Before her transformation, Lillian was a tanned 5"9 ft woman with green eyes and jet black straight hair that went past her lower back. While the seed was growing inside of her, her dead body became bumpy and saggy due to the roots replacing her veins and causing her skin and muscle to loosen. After her transformation into Bramble, she had green skin with vine-like veins popping out of her skin filled with chlorophyll, ivy vines coming out of the top of her head, and her body being able to morph into different plant parts and weapon types.

Her personality is complex: after being murdered, she became very untrustworthy towards other people, being skeptical of their ambitions and would instantly become aggressive at the first sign of betrayal or hostility. But she is also caring and thoughtful of others who are genuinely good at heart, and would gladly provide food and shelter if needed. Unlike Poison Ivy, she is not much of a seductress and does care about animals, not just plants, and because of this, she is willing to sacrifice everything to save the world from total annihilation.

She was inspired by DC's Poison Ivy and Swamp Thing.

Powers:

Shapeshifting (body horror morphing)

Nature/plant manipulation

Botanical communication

Spiritual communication/connection

Absorption

Superhuman strength

Superhuman agility

Charisma (through pheromones)

High intellect

Ability to create lifeforms out of plants

Ability to create new plant species

Can produce parasitic seeds and impregnate potential hosts through mouth

Immunity to diseases

Weaknesses: fire, machinery, highly lethal chemicals, pollution

Healing sources: radiation, water, oxygen, soil, corpses, sunshine, Mother Tree

Links to references:

Poison Ivy 1

Poison Ivy 2

Poison Ivy 3

Hair

Vines and flowers in her hair

Tentacles (attacking) (calm)

Ecosystem 1

Ecosystem 2

Mother tree 1

Mother tree 2

Abandoned research facility/botanical lab - Resident Evil greenhouse level/Resident Evil 2 remake plant room in hospital

[wearecleric]

(IC ask bc boy oh boy my girl needs help) Can you spare some wisdom for a passerby? I’m an adventurer whose regular quests have turned into a rescue mission to rescue my companion’s mentor. Someone is willing to guide us underground, and he saved my companion when we were attacked, but he used fiendish magic to do so. I serve a god of survival and healing. His patron is of chaos and entropy. My instincts say not to trust him, but I also know what it's like to be judged by appearance, having faced prejudice of my own as an orc. My divine and mundane senses of right are at odds. What is the best course of action? Thank you. May the seas’ bounty sustain you.

Brother Andrew's sly smile grows as the cleric before him expresses her frustration.  He nods in agreement with her until she finishes her stories, at which point he answers:

"You know, I really love gardening.  Not just for the beauty of plants, but for their utility.  I prefer a plant that gives me something I can use... aloe for healing, leaves for tea, fruit for eating... I appreciate what each plant produces.  Now, if we found a plant with lacey white flowers and long white taproot that was purple at the top, you would be forgiven for thinking it was hemlock.  That sounds and looks exactly like some varieties of hemlock, but it's also the same as some varieties of wild carrots, parsnips, and other yummy root vegetable that are great in stews.

"It is a really difficult place, to find ourselves in need of the skills, knowledge, or experience of others less... devoted than ourselves.  Or at least, devoted to other things.  But that doesn't mean they are poisonous or dangerous or evil. Sometimes it just takes a little extra care and discernment to tell the bad ones from the good ones, but it is absolutely worth the time.  Evil is what makes people evil, not their appearance, or race, or culture, or background.  It is what they do, the impact they have on the world, that makes them untrustworthy.  But if they have not demonstrated themselves to be evil, let us not hastily jump forward to call them evil."

Brother Andrew prattles on...

(@hauntedpontmercy​)

"You know, speaking of gardening, when I was still a young postulant there was an abbess who loved to say, 'Wearing white gloves while gardening does not make the garden cleaner, it only makes the gloves dirty.'  She used it as an example of how those of us devoted to righteousness and honor were more likely to be sullied by the outside world than we were to have a redemptive effect on those we were around.

"I knew, even at that age, that it was a biased and inaccurate metaphor.  I am not a pair of gloves, and those around me are not dirt.  We are humans..."  

He then stops and looks embarrassed, "Errr, welll, not human, but um, forgive me.... language is insufficient.... I mean... we are all people, we all have value as people, whether we have taken holy orders or not, whether we are human or orc or tiefling, or whatever. We all have value, and are capable of doing good or ill.  But how will others know that they have a choice, unless they are shown people who make that choice?  Unless they see an example of someone living a life of good and self-sacrifice and discipline and honor?  We can show them a better way, but only if we let ourselves be around them, and try to have a positive impact on them.

"So I would like to challenge you, don't look at the world as that old abbess who immediately wrote off anyone outside of her cloister, or anyone no deemed as 'pure' or 'worthy' as those of her order.  The world needs us to be in it, and we need to be around them.  Otherwise, we cannot hope to better ourselves, nor can we inspire them to better themselves, either.  And do not let your conscience be so quick to regret joining with others whose heart you cannot see. Take the time, and you will see the important things, not just the lacy flowers or taproot, but the actual result of their actions.  If you have seen the results of this person’s actions, and they are not evil, then there is no reason to assume they are evil.

"After all, 'No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.' (Luke 6:43–45) "