Replanted Remastered

They n' Them

Alice, Sweetpea, and Ragz wandered along the dirt path, before finally reaching Camp Near-A-Lake. The camp grounds were solemn and peaceful, with abandoned camping gear slowly being reclaimed by nature.

"I haven't been here in ages," Alice mumbled as they walked through the wet grass. "I missed it,"

"You've been here before? Huh. I wonder why I've never seen you, then,"

"I'm assuming you've been here a lot?"

"Yep! I grew up here! Well, I don't live here anymore, but I never really left or anything until yesterday,"

Alice stared at him, bewildered. "You.. uh, nevermind. I'm not gonna ask,"

"That's alright,"

There was an odd pause as Alice searched the camp grounds, with Ragz following awkwardly behind them. He was quite wary of Sweetpea, Alice noticed.

"You're.. uh, their plant, right?" Ragz asked Sweetpea.

Alice sighed. "He can't answer you, y'know. He's a plant,"

"Oh. Right,"

There was another pause, punctuated by the chirps of birds.

"Hey, Alice, why d'you use they n' them pronouns instead of he or she pronouns?" Ragz asked.

"Oh, it's cause I'm nonbinary. It's like.. I'm not a boy or a girl,"

"Nobinry? What's a nobinry?"

"Nonbinary. It means I'm not on the gender binary, so I'm not a boy or a girl,"

"Wow.. I don't even know what a binary is, but that sounds cool. How do you get rid of your binary?"

Alice snickered for a moment. "You don't really get rid of it, that's just kind of how you're born. I didn't realize it 'til I was like eleven, though. That's when I changed my name to Alice,"

"You changed your name? People can do that?"

"Yep! I originally wanted it to be Moss, but my mom wouldn't let me name myself Moss, so that's just my middle name instead. It's like a thing that a lot of nonbinary people name themselves after objects,"

"..I'm named after an object. Does that mean I'm nonbinary?"

"No, your given name doesn't define who you are, y'know? You're only nonbinary if you don't think you're a boy or a girl,"

"..Well, I'm like- a boy, but I also kind of feel like I'm not a boy. Like, I'm a boy and also a girl, but not a girl, and.. I dunno,"

Alice's eyebrows raised a bit. "You might be nonbinary too, then,"

"Really? But- like, I'm also kind of a boy at the same time, y'know? Can you be both?"

Alice paused, thinking. "Oh, there's a term for that, I think. It's called being a demiboy. That's when you're nonbinary, but you identify more with being a boy than being a girl,"

"Woah.. that makes sense." Ragz's face lit up. "That makes sense!"

"You think you're a demiboy?"

"I mean, maybe? I'll think about it. I dunno much about this stuff,"

"That's alright, it takes time to figure yourself out,"

"You're smart. Smarter than me, at least,"

After ages of searching, the sun started to set on the forest, casting an orange glow on the surrounding trees.

"..I don't think I'll be able to make it home before dark," Alice said, frowning at the darkening sky.

"You can hang out here, if you like! All the campers here are like, super abandoned. We can make a campfire or something, and hide in one of those if any bad guys come after us,"

Alice glanced down at Sweetpea, who shrugged. "..Sure. It's not like I have any other option,"

As the evening progressed, the sun had fallen below the horizon, leaving the forest shrouded in darkness. Ragz had lit a campfire, and the small group sat around it. Though.. Sweetpea was a bit more focused on shooting at eerie noises in the dark, which caused a lot of apologies to the Dread Roots to be uttered.

"Those Dread Roots sure are trigger happy," Alice muttered. "At least they get their job done, though,"

"..Not really. Theres always been tons of bad guys here, even with all the roots around,"

"I've heard that theres a ton of zombies in the deeper parts of this place, like where that old broken down Z-Tech factory used to be," Alice explained. "Everyone warned my brother n' I to stay away from over there, and I always wondered why. It's just some zombies, right?"

"Oh, it's prob'ly coz' that's where the cult lives. The Dummy cult," Ragz explained. "Whole bunch of loonies, if you ask me,"

"..Dummy cult?"

"Have you not heard of 'em? Whole racket of zombie lunatics who think some all star zombie's sports dummy is worth makin' a big fuss over. They're all weirdos,"

"Yeah, that's weirdo behavior,"

The two shared stories of their experiences at the camp into the evening. Once Sweetpea had dozed off on the ground, they decided on heading to bed for the night.