video; un: doublehedgedsword

[laminae]

[Fern is a bit nervous doing a video for the network. He usually prefers text, but he's trying to be a little more upfront about his plantness, and it's pretty relevant to what he wants to talk about. So here he goes!]

Hey, I'm Fern, if we haven't already met, and uh, as you can see I'm made of grass. I wanted to thank everyone for the help with the dirt last month, between that and the composting we've started and Varian improving his alchemical plant solution I should be okay.

[So that's taken care of! He grows a little more nervous before continuing, though, because this next part isn't easy for him to talk about.]

I wanted to talk about something else, too. I got tree senses now too, and I wanted to let people know, 'cause I kinda... picked up on what Cynthia's flowers were putting out. Not just that chill feeling, they, um...

[Geez, where does he even start with this? He runs an anxious hand through his hair.]

I grocked how they were feeling when they died. It was painful which, duh, they died. But they also felt really... sweet? Bittersweet's the word? Like they were okay with it. Fulfilled.

[He has to bite back a shiver as he remembers the punch in the face that was their feelings as the mass die-off happened.]

Anyways, that's a thing now. This works with other plants too, and mushrooms. Those new mushrooms that started showing up? They all feel pretty freaked out. It's - um, it's not great. It works on normal mushrooms too, so if you got some of those or plants or whatever and you wanna know what's going on with them, I can try to understand 'em for you. [He can't guarantee anything good, but it is what it is and the least he can do is try to help people with it.] I can grow stuff, too, like coffee or tea or whatevs. The growing part's easy.

[With that said, he straightens up a little.]

Also, for all you people I'm helping with fighting, we're gonna keep going with our lessons! This place is dangerous, so no slacking off. If anyone else wants to learn how to fight or defend yourself I can show you some stuff, I'm good with a whole bunch of weapons and my fists! [He raises a fist and determinedly punches the air.] I'm even thinking about building a whole new gauntlet here for you guys to test your skills! It'll be sick.

[Death trap obstacle courses are totally normal things to want to build! At any rate, he's said what he wanted to say, and switches off the feed.]

Comments

Video [un: notbatman]

[saltyadam]

[Adam had been in this place, in his new flesh, disoriented and overwhelmed for a very small amount of time before he opened up his feed. It was familiar, and with every other alien thing he was glad for it. He saw precisely what he expected to see, precisely what he saw in Deerington.

What he didn't expect to see was a familiar face in its very first entry.]

... Fern?

[He'd deal with figuring out about the fighting later.]

[laminae]

[Fern hasn't seen Adam around the city. He's seen Shiro, sure, but not Adam, and it's been a few months, so he's equally surprised to see him respond.]

Dude - Adam?? [And quick as ever, his shock turns to happiness.] You're here!

[saltyadam]

[Adam let's put a short laugh.]

And so are you, apparently. I just got here a little while ago.

[He inclines his head backwards.] I already ran into Varian and Takashi. Seems like there's no shortage on familiar faces around here.

[laminae]

Cool! That's great, dude!

[Wait.]

I mean, it's better than being in Deerington! Y'know? There's parts of this place that still suck like the town did, but parts of it are pretty great.

[It's a confusing place.]

... Wait, who's Takashi? [Guess who thinks Shiro's name is just Shiro? This guy!]

un: trienemybest; video

[droptheious]

[He's proud of you, boyfriendo! You did so well today!!]

Is it getting any easier? The plant thoughts thing?

[Because he is pretty worried about that, still. ]

We can definitely put a gauntlet together. It'd probably be a good training set for people here.

[It's totally safe!!!!]

[laminae]

[Thank you! He's trying his best.]

Not easier, but there're less mushrooms around than those flowers. I think that's making all these dumb feelings less overwhelming.

[It'll be totally safe. The safest.]

Right? I bet we could use a bunch of your alchemy in it for traps.

[droptheious]

That's...well, something. I'll figure something out to make it less overwhelming.

[He just needs to figure out what that something is.]

Hah, absolutely. Probably not the exploding ones, but the sticky traps or the ice ones would be interesting.

video; un: yeswestan

[charlastan]

...Guess that makes sense, considering how she went out.

[He doesn't elaborate on that though, since he isn't one of the people who helped her with that one.]

So, what's this gauntlet you're building?

[Should he be concerned? He feels like maybe he should be concerned, but also it sounds objectively cool and he kind of wants to watch.]

[laminae]

Yeah. It still really sucks, though.

[Everything about Cynthia's life just sucks so, so much.]

It's like an obstacle course. Jake and I built 'em back home sometimes for fun, with flaming hoops and giant swinging blades and guillotines. It's a great way to not get rusty when it comes to fights and junk.

[AKA it's absolutely something Stan should come watch be built.]

[charlastan]

[Everything about her life is, or rather was, terrible. But rather than think about that and the fact that he didn't have the guts to mercy kill her, he'll latch right onto the gauntlet part of this conversation.]

Oh, so like a giant and dangerous obstacle course!

[Nothing unreasonable or unsafe about that!]

You need anything for it? These days I've always got scrap around.

[unsheathedfromreality]

[He has a number of questions about this entire post, but the first one past the post is:]

What could make a mushroom freaked out?

[laminae]

I wanna say getting eaten, but I don't know, maybe there's more. Maybe they got whole complicated lives we don't know about?

[He sounds a little frustrated at this.]

I only get what they're feeling, not why they're feeling it. Gotta go with my best guess there.

voice lol bc im a dumdum; un: givemeyourown

[unsheathedfromreality]

Likely they do; why should they not simply for being fixed in one place? Generation thought of them in no less detail than us.

[It makes sense to Illarion.]

You could experiment on it, but you have much else to do that is not torturing plants, it sounds.

What were these flowers you spoke of?

video; un: ushiromiya

[entreats]

[ As Ange listens, all she can think is.. well, that sure is a thing. It's an impression that only grows stronger the longer he speaks, and once he's done, she can't help but speak up with the sentiment that lingered the most in her mind because of it. ]

Are you sure you'll be okay? I can't imagine it's.. exactly pleasant to feel things freaking out and dying all the time.

[laminae]

It's not.

[He had a full-on meltdown when those flowers died, it was bad times, Ange. He makes a noise sort of like a sigh.]

Um, I'm dealing with it, though. Having - having people who know and can help makes it a lot easier. Luz already found out the hard way, and I told Varian, so it's a start. [Baby steps!]

[entreats]

[ At least she was right about it.

And while it's not great to be right about this particular thing - she'd rather have Fern be able to not.. have to endure this, really - at least it makes her feel a little less bad about fussing. At least she's rightfully fussing. ]

.. that's good. I figure you'll usually have one of them near you.. [ So they can help Fern if it ever gets too much. ] Still.. It's a lot to deal with, on top of the stuff this place already throws at us.

[VIDEO]; UN: [USERNAME NOT SET]

[demonicbeauty]

[Ariadne pops on the feed, looking rather curious.]

Do you think you could talk to my trees?

I really hope I'm not...freaking them out?

[laminae]

[Hey, that's not a bad idea.]

Sure! But c'mon, there's no way you'd freak anyone out. [Give yourself more credit, Airy!]

[demonicbeauty]

Well, I wouldn't want to.

[Especially her trees, which are truly precious to her.]

But it can't be easy. Being a tree in Trench.

video | un: agentmothman

[zib]

[Well this is interesting...]

Do you think you could use them to look at some flowers that grew after that thing from months ago, when burying different stuff caused them to spring up? The ones I had look like they're dying, but even after Ange looked at them, we couldn't figure out what it was I was doing wrong with taking care of them.

Plus, I'd also like to see this in action with you growing stuff. It sounds really cool!

[laminae]

[It's very interesting!]

Sure, dog. Varian and I got those flowers too, and they're doing okay. Not sure how much I can help but I'll give it a try.

Oh yeah, the growing part is no prob. Anything specific you wanna see?

[zib]

Maybe some of the new mushrooms that have been cropping up lately? I'm kind of curious about studying them and seeing what they're like.

text | carcinoGeneticist

[klawful]

THREE QUESTIONS:

IS CYNTHIA THIS WORLD'S MOTHERSOURCE?

CAN YOU MAKE BEANS?

WHAT SUPPLIES DO YOU NEED TO HELP BUILD THIS GAUNTLET?

[laminae]

what the heck's a mothersource dude?
not a regular mom right?

yup! beans, whatever vegetables you want

anything dog i haven't started yet
wood and nails for the structure, some rope, blades, anything flammable would be great

[klawful]

I AM TRYING TO BE CULTURALLY SENSITIVE TO THE POSSIBLE LIFE SOURCE OF THIS PLACE. I DON'T KNOW. I FIGURED SHE WAS POSSIBLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF US BECAUSE SHE HAS TENTACLES, WE HAVE TENTACLES, SHE SEEMS PROTECTIVE.
SHE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE A MOTHER GRUB TO ME, SO. MOTHERSOURCE. MOTHER SQUID?

FUCKING SWEET. ONLY THE BEANS. OTHER VEGETABLES ARE DISGUSTING. NO OFFENSE.

I WILL TEAR DOWN SO MANY TREES FOR THE WOOD. I CAN PROBABLY GET THE OTHER SHIT TOO.