Botany Lesson

[frickingguardian]

Who| Rocket and you!
What| Rocket attempts to train a pack of plants. Attempts.
Where| Training gym
When| Pre-Tinker Tailor Hero Spy
Warnings/Notes| None.



Technically speaking, Rocket's plant creations didn't really need training. 'Suddenly become aggressive and smack people with thorny bits' wasn't that demanding of a task, and it was pretty straightforward. But Rocket knew of at least one plant who could be pretty damn clever (when he wasn't drinking from fountains like an idiot, or completely missing important things like don't start the plan yet) and it was enough to make him curious about what his constructs could pick up.

So far, the answer seemed to be 'not a whole lot'.

"Okay, now this is-hey! Pay attention!" he snapped, causing the pack of flowers to stop shuffling around on their roots and perk up their petals instead. "This here's the training room. We're gonna see what you can-quit poking that, what'd I just say?!"

The chastised flower scurried back to the rest of the pack.

Rocket blew out a sigh. "We're gonna see what you can do; maybe do a little teamwork. You guys do good, we'll work on shooting next."

That couldn't go wrong at all.

Comments

[jonesiseverywhere]

Uh.

OK. Weird.

Casey can't help but prod one of the flowers with one of his ever-present hockey sticks with a snicker.

"What happened, your army of caterpillars not work out?"

[frickingguardian]

"I do plant control," Rocket says, looking mildly annoyed at the prodding. "Don't do that, you'll piss 'em off."

The prodded flower attempts to retreat behind its fellows, a few of which snap tendrils at the stick.

[jonesiseverywhere]

Casey puts his hands up in a mock innocent "who me" gesture, using the stick to clear his way through the crowd of plants. A little hard to be intimidated by flowers after fighting a giant man made out of swamp slime and moss, but you never know.

"Flowers though? Why not something cool, like -I dunno- a cactus? Or something poisonous!"

[frickingguardian]

The clearing does nothing to settle the flowers down; a few start hopping up and down, trying to get Casey's attention.

Rocket, meanwhile, rolls his eyes. "I went with flowers because they're easy to get ahold of and ain't too picky in the care department. Plus, sometimes you don't want something big and nasty. Swarm of these little guys could be useful. Thinking I could teach 'em how to trip people up, if nothing else."

[jonesiseverywhere]

He doesn't notice them until they actually grab his clothes.

"Like, what, havin' 'em grab each other's roots and form a rope or somethin'...hey, quit it!" He swats one flower off, but three others have a tiny floral grip on him. "Go 'way. Whaddya want?"

[frickingguardian]

"Rope, bigger thing that can slap somebody senseless, whatever works. I'm flexible." Rocket gives Casey a look. "I ain't an expert in plant-ese, but I know ones that think don't like being poked with sticks much. So maybe put the stick away."

The plants, for their part, just hang on, aside from the swatted one. That one pops back up, flailing its tendrils madly as it opts to take cover behind Rocket.

[jonesiseverywhere]

"Like some kinda combining flower mech?" Casey shrugs and slips the stick in the holster behind his back. "Aw'right, aw'right..." He holds up his hands like he's placating a dog: look, no more stick. His eyes go to the one currently hiding behind Rocket.

"...They're kinda wussy, ya know?"