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"I'd imagine he's—" Richard, dressed newly in khakis, jerks a thumb toward the ravine. You sigh.
Two minutes of scrambling later, you emerge into the garden-space in the side of your manse. Gil's body lies discarded in the weedy grass: Gil's beetles are scattered amidst the spade-shaped leaves and blush-pink flowers and woody, thorny branches of a new bush. Though does it still qualify as a bush when it's taller than you are? "Aw, uh—" Gil's voice comes from somewhere in the branches. "Uh, hi."
"...Hi." You cross your arms. "I didn't know where you went."
"Um, sorry."
He doesn't say anything after that. You uncross your arms. "It's okay, I guess. As long as you're alright. Are you eating my heart bush?"
"No! I-I-I-I'm not— I wouldn't—" With a great rustle, Gil alights. You'll admit the leaves look unchewed. "I-I-I just... like it here... that's all."
"Ah! It's grown." Richard, coming up behind you, deposits the Law-siphon on the ground. "You can have a heart again, Charlie. That'll aid your lofty—"
"Shut up." You've recovered, somewhat, but your patience is in tatters. "How do I get it back? <span class="mu-i">Don't</span> tell me I have to, I don't know, climb up it and have mystic visions— I am <span class="mu-i">done</span> with mystic visions. I'm sick of them. I don't even want my heart back, if that's what—"
"You can eat the fruit. Or I can put a flower back in your chest. Whichever you prefer."
You think. "Um, is there a difference?"
Richard's patience: also in tatters. "How should I know, exactly? Believe it or not, I am not often in situations where my charge <span class="mu-i">eats</span> her own heart and then causes a <span class="mu-i">Class B collapse</span> attempting to retrieve it. Pick one."
"The fruit. I guess." The less Richard messes around in your chest, the better.
"Wonderful." Richard strides forward, slides two fingers around something-or-other, and pulls. He strides back to you and deposits a small round fruit, like a rosehip, in your palm. It isn't glowing, or beating, or anything you'd expect. It's just streaked pink and red.
You smell it. It smells like plant. You touch your tongue to it. It's faintly fuzzy and tastes like nothing. You glance at Richard, who nods you along, and then you chuck it in your mouth and chew and swallow.
(2/3?)
