🌺🌼🌸 [Absalom/Georgina]

Absalom Ottrel

He liked the way the dirt felt cool against the heels of his feet. He’d pulled off his trainers and slipped off the white cotton socks to expose his toes to the dirt of the plant identification station. Even with the dangers of poison ivy and sumac, Absalom braved the low lying false hills and shrubberies to walk with the other children through nature. As fake as the station was, with sprinklers wetting the leaves in a spray each hour and suspiciously preened hedges, he enjoyed the fresh smell of grass and flowers.

When he came across a set of morning glories, he plucked them into a pile in his lap. He took pains to do the same with a set of tulips, and then violets. It became more of a focus than identifying the harmful and edible plans within his grasp, and far more relaxing, too. He reasoned that he would be able to hunt something to eat, to find water to drink, and when he needed to get his hands on something tastier, pray to the sponsors above that they’d have pity on him.

He plucked a few petals off of flowers that lay in his lap and pondered what else there may have been to do. He could have returned to the apartments, and gone back to watching capitolite television. If he was right, the afternoon was reserved for children’s cartoons, and he’d have at least two solid hours of watching robots fight one another. Then again, he knew he had to make a better effort to at least get to know some of the other competitors, lest he find himself totally alone.

As he idled, Absalom began to rearrange his flowers into a circle. He tucked them together with the long grass, slowly weaving all of it together. He tried his best to make each set of flowers equidistant, so that the tulips, violets, and morning glories all appeared every few inches. When the mess of grass and flowers formed a circular shape, he picked the thing up in his hands and placed it atop his head.

“Hey look at me! I'm victor of the plants station,” He muttered to himself with a grin.