i'm not calling you a liar

[ethnobotany]

WHO: Beverly Crusher
WHERE: Starting outside House 20, Inn, hospital, and anywhere outside in both villages
WHEN: March 4-10
OPEN TO: All!
WARNINGS: To be determined. Will update as needed

---

March 4th

Mist isn't usually a bad thing on most planets Beverly has been to. On her home planet, Caldos, it's usually very lovely, especially in the mornings. But if there's anything that exploring the galaxy, and especially being trapped here for so long, has taught her it's that mist is an unknown. Mist can be bad.

So one morning, when she first spots it rolling through the area, she watches it from the front porch of the house with no small amount of wariness. She's suspicious of it and now on high alert. With any luck, it will prove to be simply the good doctor developing a sense of paranoia after all these months of being stuck here.

She makes her normal rounds through the Inn to make sure nothing's amiss and then heads out to the hospital for her normal shift.

March 5-10

It may have taken her over a year to figure it out, but she's definitely avoiding the Inn for a while. At least until she can tell that the effects have worn off. The last thing she wants is to be stuck in there again while she's like this, spewing out the actual truth for all to hear and shattering the Prime Directive while she does. She's got enough trouble trying to juggle it as is; she doesn't need this.

For all that she isn't normally the type of person to keep herself isolated, she's been trying to avoid the vast majority of people. She does still show up for her time in the hospital mostly because she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she didn't make herself available and someone needed her. But she tries to keep to herself and doesn't say much unless prompted. There are far too many ways this could go terribly wrong.

Eventually, she starts avoiding people in the mornings, keeping herself inside House 20 and eventually taking walks around both villages, in an effort to see where the mist has permeated and whether or not she's the only one who's been affected. She still mostly keeps to herself, her arms wrapped tightly around her body and a frown of concentration and worry on her face. If anyone tries to catch her attention like normal, she won't turn them away, but they might find that she has some... interesting things to say.

Comments

March 4 - Inn

[thegreatexperiment]

Sam had read too many Stephen King books as a teenager. The mist had a look that she didn't like, and she found herself standing in the kitchen window, eyeing it like she could just stare it down. A part of her knew that she was being fucking ridiculous. But another part of her knew she'd seen too many things to ever be wide-eyed again. It was an annoying combination.

Stupid or not, she'd spent the whole day indoors, working on her latest iteration of the still. After a lot of trial and error, she'd finally worked it to the point where she was no longer making potato water. But she had yet to come up with a palatable result. It was either too toxic--and made for great silverware cleaner--or just...not enough.

She sort of figured everyone here really needed to drink.

It was the only way to get by.

[ethnobotany]

At this point, it's early enough that Beverly isn't aware of her affliction just yet. Which is why she's not yet at the point of avoiding people when she notices the blue-haired young woman she's spoken with before and decides to head over to see her.

"New project?" she asks warmly. "We could probably all use one."

A drink would likely not go amiss, either, at this point. Especially in the next week for her.

[thegreatexperiment]

Sam turned away from the window, smiling a little when she recognized Beverly. She was, perhaps, one of the few people in the village that Sam could actually tolerate. Maybe because of her scientific background. Or maybe because Sam always had a bit of a soft spot for her fellow gingers.

One or the other, she figured.

"Kind of an old project," she admitted, walking over to the still. It looked more like a Rube Goldberg design than anything else. Rickety and lopsided.

Well. Chemistry had never been her favorite science.

"Potato vodka. I've gone through about fifteen different variations, at this point."

[ethnobotany]

An interesting project, to be sure, and Beverly isn't entirely sure what it's supposed to actually be. Given that she still isn't aware of what has taken hold of her, she isn't prepared to try to fight the first thing that hops onto her tongue. Not that she really could have even if she'd known to try.

"I've never heard of that. Is that vodka that tastes like potatoes or potatoes that have gone rancid?"

And then she stops, almost as soon as it's out of her mouth, frowning at herself. It's been a long time since she trained herself not to speak everything on her mind, so where did that come from?

"I'm sorry. I don't know where that came from."

[thegreatexperiment]

Fortunately, Sam sort of appreciated comments of that sort. She didn't show the least sign of being offended. The corner of her mouth turned up slightly. "Actually, the idea is that the potatoes are an invisible part of the equation," she said. "Vodka gets made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, sometimes fruits or sugar. Since fruit and sugar are non-starters and grains are a little too valuable, I settled."

She was reasonably sure they still had booze in the future. Baldy had mentioned his family owning a vineyard. So she decided not to go science on Beverly's ass.

Sam was all for proving that she was the smartest person in a room.

Back home.

Here, she'd actually lightened up a bit on that front. She figured something had to give.

Path in 7I - March 9

[super_seal]

Steve's noticed that it's been more misty in the mornings but he hasn't been affected by it. Nor has he been into the main village so far this month or encountered anyone else who's been affected. Today that changes on both accounts, he's heading into the main village now, specifically to the Inn to borrow the ax again. They likely won't need as much firewood now that the seasons are changing but it's not too early to start stocking up for next winter.

Seeing Beverly his eyes brighten and after calling out a hello, he jogs a bit to catch up to her. As he gets closer he can see the tightness and worry in her, and his smile turns into a concerned frown.

"Hey, you alright? What happened? Is something wrong?"

[ethnobotany]

Honestly, Beverly doesn't normally mind the company, but she almost grimaces when Steve catches up with her. She knows what's going to happen and if she can't manage to politely shake him off, things might get... interesting.

"It seems the Observers took away my brain to mouth filter," she says with much more brutal honesty than she usually offers. She seems almost annoyed at herself. "I can't seem to stop myself. It's very frustrating." A slight pause follows that, and then she offers almost apologetically, "Sorry in advance."

[super_seal]

At first he frowns, not exactly sure what she means, but it only takes a second before it clicks and he nods. "Right. So no asking you any personal questions. Got it."

He can understand why she would be frustrated, he'd be damn frustrated himself. Especially if someone started asking about his time in the military as most of that's confidential. It's why he'll do his best not to ask her anything as well. If it was him though he'd have found a place to hide away from everyone until it passed.

"With any luck it won't last long. Did it just happen?"

[ethnobotany]

"It started a couple of days ago.Knowing them, it will last a couple of days at the least, a week at most." That seems to be the time frame for most of the Observers' little games. If it's anything longer, she may have to throw a fit over it. "Starfleet is going to have fun with me when I get home. After Temporal Investigations has their debriefing."

She is really not looking forward to all of that. Going home sounds great. Facing Starfleet's debriefings will not be fun.

House 20 - March 5th

[minus1twin]

"Beverly?"

Wanda was getting ready to feed the dogs before heading out for the day. Her days had become habitual; she does her chores around the house in the morning and then heads to the inn around lunch to help prepare and preserve what people have caught that day and then returns back home for the afternoon.

Beverly wasn't usually around in the mornings and seeing her now was a little alarming.

"Are you alright?"

[ethnobotany]

Usually, Beverly has a schedule she likes to keep and even if she takes a gamma shift overnight, like she would occasionally do on the Enterprise, she doesn't usually linger like this. She glances at Wanda briefly, her attention turning towards the window after a minute.

"There's a mist outside. It's unnerving."

And she's being a bit more forthcoming with everything she's been thinking lately, which is also unusual. A frown crosses her face.

"Something's not right."

[minus1twin]

By this point, Wanda was familiar with her housemates. Clint was never changing. Picard was a solitary person but kind and strong. He didn't communicate at all or well and, while Beverly shared some of those traits, Wanda felt like she and Beverly had a good line of communication. They didn't share their uncertainties without purpose and so Wanda took Beverly's warning to heart.

Her light green eyes turned towards the mist, her eyebrows furrowing together.

"What is it?" Her accent thickened as the tension in her shoulders knotted uncomfortably. Was there something like the letters? Something that the overseers were planning? Questions flew through her head but with no answers to follow them.

[ethnobotany]

Wanda has a good measure of Beverly by now, which makes the fact that so many words keep tumbling out of her mouth all the more irritating. And concerning.

"I'm not really sure, but I think it might be affecting me somehow," she admits easily. "I've been saying too much too easily since yesterday and I'm not sure why, but it started after I saw the mist in the morning."

hospital

[notsocommon]

Helen liked when her self-appointed shifts at the hospital overlapped with Beverly's, if only because she enjoyed being able to discuss the advances in medicine from Beverly's era and wistfully hope for some sort of improvement in their current medical technology. It was a pipe dream, certainly, but it passed time while she was folding bandages and making up tinctures to put band-aids on the proverbial bullet wounds.

"How is Jean-Luc?" Helen asked while folding and rolling up towels used for tourniquets. "I haven't seen him in a little while but I imagine you've seen him more recently than I have."

[ethnobotany]

Beverly has always appreciated Helen, not only because of their shared profession, but also because of Helen's experience and personality. The two of them formed a fast friendship and Beverly doesn't see that going away anytime soon. Despite that, she hasn't been very forthcoming about all of the details of her relationship with Jean-Luc with anyone here, let alone the fact that they are trying something more romantic than simply platonic. She doesn't automatically assume that Helen is asking after anything other than friendship.

And yet, she can't stop the words from falling from her lips anyway.

"Oh, he's doing fine now that neither of us is attached at the hip anymore. I love him, but having to spend every minute together is a little ridiculous."

She may or may not be busying herself trying to ignore the fact that she just admitted she loves him to someone else.

[notsocommon]

"You love him?" Helen asked, eyebrows going up a bit at the last. Was this love in the sense that one loves a platonic friend or was this something more? Helen tended to think toward the latter but she hardly wanted to read into it incorrectly (read: was quite invested in that being a reality, thank you kindly).

"And how long have you loved him, precisely? Excepting when you were attached to him against your will, of course."

[ethnobotany]

Damn. She'd known being around people today would be a bad idea. She'd had this feeling it would not go well for her and yet she couldn't stay away from her shift or someone would have come running to find her anyway. The words seem to slip from her mouth unbidden and it's clear that they aren't what she would normally offer.

"I can't put an exact date on it. I don't know when I started. I only know that it's been years." It's the honest, unbridled truth, much more so than might be easily pried out normally. "Which time?" There have been two moments of being stuck together, not that anyone knows about that here. Yet.

Hospital

[zomboligist]

The rats are beginning to get a bit vicious.

It's mainly because Ravi's been giving them less scraps the last few weeks to try and wean them off one diet and move them onto another, but as a result, he's working with some very feisty animals that aren't pleased with him. He's right in the middle of having to change out one of the cages when he feels the nip on his hand and the front door closing at the same time.

"Bloody little rodent!" he snaps, holding back the worse profanity. At least this isn't a zombie-infected rat, because he can only go through that once in his life before he loses his mind. Glancing up, he's in the middle of squeezing a rat with one palm, sucking his index finger with the other, when he sees Beverly. "This looks weird, doesn't it?" he mumbles, yanking his finger from his mouth.

[ethnobotany]

Admittedly, there are worse situations Beverly could have walked in on. Much worse. But this is definitely not one she expected to find staring her in the face when she walked in today.

"I'd say I've seen weirder, but that's only because even this place can't compare to polywater intoxication," is her immediate response. "Or, well, no it could. It just hasn't yet."

She makes a face in frustration at her sudden forced honesty and chooses to focus on the finger he seems to be sucking on. "Please tell me you're not bleeding or dying of some finger injury."

[zomboligist]

"I was just in the fresh stages of fetching a bandage," he admits, which means that there won't be any bloodletting experiments in his near future where he sees what he can do if he just lets himself stop caring about the wound.

Giving her a curious look, he's not about to let that go. "Sorry, polywater intoxication?" he echoes, more than a little interested because it sounds like another clever little futuristic thing that he wants to tease more information out about. "What's that?"

[ethnobotany]

Well, that's a good sign. Beverly doesn't really want to know what would happen if she walked in on one of those experiments, especially with her being unable to say anything but the absolute truth. It's hard enough having to explain polywater intoxication.

Speaking of which, she sighs heavily. "It was an affliction caused by polywater molecules in space and it completely suppressed the infected person's inhibitions. It was spread through contact with bodily fluid, so you can imagine how well that went. Not fun to have to come up with a cure on the fly while intoxicated yourself."

Which implies that she did just that. Not that she's exactly the bragging sort, but she's having a system failure, as far as her brain-to-mouth filter goes. She will, however, move to find him a bandage and something to clean his injury with, because that's a lot easier than dealing with the fact that she's still spewing enough facts to land her in a permanent court martial.

March 5

[enterprisingheart]

For all that Picard has noticed the mist, he's been lucky enough to not be caught out in it all the same. Which is mostly a deliberate choice. Like Beverly, he's not really certain he can trust it, only he doesn't have early morning shifts at the hospital that he needs to make it to.

He does, however, notice when Beverly starts keeping to herself. Especially once she starts showing signs of wanting to close herself off, physically. Which is perhaps not entirely unreasonable - he knows very well that not everything the Observers do is really aimed at keeping people comfortable, and barring anything else, he can only assume that that mist that's been floating through the village is something they're responsible. All the same, he can't help but worry all the same, and it's that very worry which has him making his way over to her while she's out and about one morning.

"Is everything alright?"

[ethnobotany]

"No, not really," is Beverly's immediate response, though she grimaces apologetically not long after. Well, they're off to a great start, aren't they? "There's something in the air, I think. I've been altogether far too forward with what I'm thinking lately and I don't quite know how to stop it."

Which is the reason why she's been hiding and keeping to herself. Also the reason why she's out on this walk right now. Not that she needs to say as much. He can likely figure it out by himself.

"What brings you out here?" she asks in an attempt to change the subject, even as she knows it's probably not going to work.

[enterprisingheart]

He absolutely can figure out that's why she happens to be out on a walk right now. And why she's been largely keeping to himself. If there is something in the air, he's not entirely certain that walking around is the best course of action, but to be fair, it's not as if it's the first time something the Observers have done hasn't effected everyone, and he rather doubts it'll be the last.

"I'd been noticing you'd seemed a little bit more withdrawn than usual."

And even if they hadn't been trying to start a relationship, that's something that he would have found to be concerning enough to want to check up on her. Given that they are, it had only been all the more so.

"I presume it's likely something the Observers have done? Or at least, something that could be assumed to be so?"

[ethnobotany]

If it is something in the air, to be fair, walking so far away from everyone means she won't risk running into as many people as she normally would in her day. Except for the ones like Jean-Luc, who follow her anyway, but he would be nearby even if she were still at the house. In any case, she would rather be around him than most other people at this point.

"I think so," she answers. "It's hard to tell, but it seems to only be affecting me. So far, I just want to keep away from a lot of people. If Starfleet were around, I'd be getting so many debriefings and court martials over breaking the Prime Directive. It's enough to give you a headache!"