When Worm thought back to his past... most of it he wasn't particularly happy with. He had been born to a family with only one member that loved him in it, a pride that he lived in that shunned him deeply, and a record of betrayal that had happened because of him trying to kill Poetking. Ultimately, he felt like his life had really begun when he had arrived at Tanglewood. They had welcomed him warmly, made him feel like he had a true family, and had made him feel less like absolute scum than he had ever felt in the past. Poetking had been the only reminder of what his life had once been like, and now the other male was gone, which struck Wormwood with extremely mixed feelings, but honestly it wasn't full sorrow. He no longer had a brother to watch over and protect, and he no longer had to care about someone who obviously didn't care about him and had decided to leave him to go to someplace awful. Now he had people who he could really call friends, and people he could really call family. He preferred that his past stay in the past now, something that he didn't have to think about anymore, even if it still sometimes plagued him.

Sure, the present was far from perfect. He had lost people since he had arrived in Tanglewood, and they were still in a war with the Pitt that had already ended up with several people being captured and hurt, but he still preferred to be here. He still preferred being around people like Delilah, and he preferred being here, and defending those that meant so much to him now. Beck, Sam, and Red were still hurt, Roy was still struggling with his flames, and Leroy was still slowly dying as a result of his terminal illness, but he would still go through all of those hardships just to be able to care about others, and to ne cared for in turn. Sure, he was constantly anxious these days thanks to his worries about the rest of his clanmates, but that didn't mean that he would trade it for everything in the world. He was still gonna spend every day that he could making sure Beck, Sam, and Red were healing well. He was still going to spend every day spending time with Roy and helping him get his flames down. And lastly, he was still going to spend every moment that he could with Leroy before the other passed away, which he desperately hoped would not be anytime soon. Leroy didn't seem to have much hope in that regard, but Wormwood did, even if it was false hope.

The hellhound had been out on a walk when suddenly the scent of flowers reached his nose, and looked around curiously before heading towards the scent. He had visited Selby's garden a couple of times before, and it had smelled somewhat like this, but he also knew that Selby's garden was in a wreck state right now, both thanks to the medic himself and the awful spore plant that had infected the garden and tried to kill everything around it. He hadn't been aware that Delilah also had a garden, but now he was very aware of it, as he crossed the boundary into the beautiful looking garden with the former medic sitting inside of it, tending to her flowers and humming happily. He blinked at her a couple of times before clearing his throat to make his presence known, barking softly as he moved to sit down near some of the flowers and sniff cautiously at them, not wanting to hurt them, or have them hurt him in return – it might have been a bit of paranoia, but after both the spore plant and Audrey, he had a right to be paranoid, "That was a very nice song you were humming, Delilah... and this is a very beautiful garden. I can't believe I've never noticed it before."

Wormwood had to agree that being alone was never quite as great as people made it out to be. Perhaps Worm was just too much of an extrovert, but now whenever he was faced with an empty room without another friendly clanmate inside, he felt a deep sense of anxiety, because it meant that eventually he would be forced to confront his own feelings and thoughts. Unfortunately, thus far, taking on his own feelings and thoughts was something that really wasn't enjoyable, especially considering that not much positive had happened as of late. The only two things he could really think of was him adopting Roy, and Red finally returning home, but both of those things came with caveats. Roy was still endlessly struggling with his powers and had his own little emotional problems that Wormwood needed to help him with, and Red was still very much badly injured after what had happened in the Pitt. Sure, Worm had been doing everything he could to help with both of those things, but that didn't mean they were both just resolved, and they weren't both weighing heavily on his mind when he was alone. That wasn't even mentioning that if he was thinking about Red... well, that brought all sorts of complicated emotions with it that Wormwood didn't want to confront right now, not so soon after being hurt.

Leroy's illness was one other thing that weighed on his mind when he laid alone in his house, and he wasn't only endlessly worried over the Proxy's health, but also for his own, and everybody else's in Tanglewood. If Leroy could be so suddenly struck with a deadly illness that nobody could even hope to treat, what was to say that it couldn't happen to any of the rest of them? After all, it had already happened to Arrow before him, and he doubted that Leroy would be the last. The thought made his heart heavy, since he didn't even want to think about anybody else in the group passing on anytime soon, but his anxiety made the possibility latch onto his mind, filling it with thoughts of sickness taking every one of his friends around him, until he was the only one left. Those visions alone were usually enough to drive Wormwood to tears, and that was what would usually motivate him to step outside of his home, just to get something done so that he wouldn't go crazy. Usually that activity involved him hunting or patrolling, or doing something else to benefit both the clan and himself. It also, nowadays, involved him going to do his rounds of visiting those who were injured, so that they had some company for a little while.

This time his company was Delilah, who – as far as he knew – wasn't sick at all, which made him quite happy. Not only that, but she was showing him her lovely garden, and he felt a small smile come to his muzzle as he sat down beside Delilah, keeping the faintest bit of distance between them so that Delilah didn't need to feel his coarse hellhound fur against her side. She was one of the few people who didn't know about his form change yet, and honestly he preferred it that way. Sure, she had never actually seen him in his lion form, but at least he preferred she had the handsome lion image in her head, rather than the rotting hellhound he actually was now. When Delilah mentioned why she had planted the garden here, his smile grew even wider, and he said with a little chuckle and a nod, even though she couldn't see it, "They are very beautiful, I will admit. And it's very impressive that they can grow out here thanks to their mutations... I doubt that they had to worry about their mutations hurting them though." He shook his head a bit as he said it, thinking back to when he had first mutated his wings, and remembering the burn along his spine. He would've preferred he could be like the plants, who evidently just had Delilah gently nudging them along and encouraging them.

It seemed, to Wormwood at least, that Delilah was often far more in touch with nature than any of the rest of Tanglewood, despite the fact that they were constantly surrounded by a great deal of different kinds of nature every day. Worm was fairly sure that this was because of the fact that Delilah seemed to be a part of some strange religion that worshipped nature, which he supposed wasn't that strange, but at this point he felt himself questioning practically every religion. After all, if there was some strange power that controlled everything or watched over everything, why would it allow for so much pain and misery in the world. Why was it that whatever super powerful being was around was just fine with Arrow and Leroy dying without anything that the rest of Tanglewood could do for them...? A sigh left him at his depressing thoughts, and he chuckled and shook his head when Delilah mentioned that she was feeling sentimental on this particular day. It seemed as though the two of them weren't that different, but if he was being honest, Wormwood felt sentimental practically all of the time. He was getting to the point where he could probably rival Moth in her title as crybaby of the group.

When she asked him about what had been going on, he opened and closed his mouth and sat there for a moment, trying to think of what he could say without the conversation turning to be very depressing. Delilah had already admitted herself that things were a bit depressing here, but that didn't mean that he wanted to make it worse for her. As he lowered his head to gently sniff at some of the flowers, Worm barked as his tail thumped enthusiastically behind him, "I have been doing... alright. Things have been stressful lately, thanks to the fact that people have been getting injured so often lately, but it seems like things finally might be slowing down somewhat. Things still larent exactly peaceful between us and the Pitt, but at least we have everyone back now..." He glanced in the direction of the entrance to the bunker, his heart aching a bit before he shook his head and forced a smile onto his face, even though Delilah couldn't actually see it if he was frowning – he felt as though she would somehow sense it, "Poetking left. I'm not sure if you were made aware of that, but he did... but, uh, that's pretty depressing... sorry. It's fine that you haven't been around as much lately. I'm sure you've just been taking care of Ren being here, and having your new kid... oh, I guess that's something new with me as well. I have a son now. His name is Roy, and he joined recently... he's a good kid, and I adopted him. It was sort of spur of the moment... but I guess you know the feeling." He chuckled a little as he thought of how similar their situations were, except for the fact that Worm didn't have a boyfriend to provide Roy with another parental figure... but that was fine. The whole of Tanglewood would help raise Roy.