[MINGLE] Just don't touch the puffball

[markwatney]

WHO: Mark Watney
WHERE: 6I Town Hall
WHEN: 7 June, after lunch
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: n/a
NOTES: Please note in your subject line if a top-level is to Mark (or whoever)

---

I have to be honest, as a botanist, there's a lot about this new, expanded world to be excited about. It seems like almost every time I go out to collect samples, I find something I haven't seen before, and nearly every minute I'm not working in the fields or greenhouse, I've been in Ravi's lab doing tests and compiling observations. Some of the specimens are pretty spectacular, but for a lot of them, the things that make them impressive are also things that could be a problem for the average villager.

Which is why I'm here now, in the town hall, lining up a variety of plants on a long table at the front of the room, some dried, some placed carefully under glass, many seeded in whatever I could find to use as a pot: Sauce pans, old boxes, tea cups.

Early this morning, I left a message on the blackboard in the Inn in big chalk letters:

Seminar on new native plants
TODAY - TOWN HALL - AFTER LUNCH
IMPORTANT INFO!!

In the old place, I used to take folks out one at a time and give them a crash course on what was edible and what was poisonous, but that's just not going to cut it now.

As I wait for folks to arrive (As I wait, hoping folks will arrive), I lay out labels in front of each plant listing what I've been calling it, whether it's dangerous, and any known properties. Once I'm done running my mouth, people can come up and get a good look.

Comments

ota

[underpinnings]

Owen shoos Kero off at the door, maintaining a hard stance on giant alien lizards and the indoors. If it grew up outside, it stays outside; overpowered badgers who want to dunk him through rooftops notwithstanding. Getting that through the animal's head involves several minutes of physically blocking the door, lifting a leg to prod it back for several attempts of mounting the threshold.

"Down," he slowly intones, drawing it out just as long as Kero's plaintive whine. "If I somehow die learning about plants, you have permission to eat my corpse. Get."

Either cowed or placated, Kero trots off, leaving Owen to move inside and let the next arrivals pass. It is entirely possible for him to die learning about plants: that's the reason to show up in the first place. If the guy who's been growing all the other plants wants to share a warning or two, better to learn the effects second-hand, and not after he--or his weird, excitable lizard--step on the wrong thing in the woods.

Which doesn't make it any more fun to be in a closed space with people who are mostly still strangers. Owen makes for the back of the hall, pushing out the back door in time to see Kero round the corner. He pulls it just as quickly shut, satisfied with another exit, and takes up a place on the wall that gives him a sight-line to Mark, the specimens, and his way out.

[ Grab Owen during the seminar, or get caught at either door while he shoos his croc-dog. ]

for Mark

[underpinnings]

Plans to leave the village behind had been scrapped, week after week, by impossible occurrences and genuine needs for help. The friendliness of certain creatures spoke to other settlers, either previous or distant; they could be transported miles in a single step at someone's whim; the flora and fauna could attack before they understood it.

Mark clearly means to mitigate the latter, but there isn't only the environment to worry about. He'd seen the messages, however glib, about special diets, vampirism. Considering his own circumstances, it isn't hard to believe in some other stretch of the vast universe, some other disease could transform a person like that.

Some of the threats are going to come through the fountain. One of them could live under his skin, even if he's had months to confirm a grip on his own mind. Looking askance at the fungal pod, even under glass, he approaches Mark after the meeting, in a moment where he's stepped toward the back of the hall. "Mark," he greets, easy but to the point. "There was something I wanted to ask you, if you have some time."

[markwatney]

I know Owen in the way I know most people around here — It's not quite right to call the relationships you have with anyone here casual because there is nothing casual about this situation, but I see the kid a lot, have talked to him in passing, but don't really know him. Truthfully, I don't really have as many friends as I probably should have by this point, but my days are long. Apparently Picard and I are supposed to be the village dads, but I don't know where that came from. I would not trust me with children. Just saying.

Anyway.

"Sure," I reply with a nod Owen's way. "What's up?"

During the lecture

[dann_0]

Being a city boy Danny really needs this talk and despite all his arguing, he can't really avoid it. Or he could but the risk isn't really worth it. He makes is way inside and settles to listen to the lecture. At some point he notices Owen and smiles at him, remembering his face from the times they've run into each other. After a bit he comes up. "Hi there."

[underpinnings]

Owen lifts a chin in recognition; his posture picks up slightly, where he'd folded an arm under his opposite elbow and leaned on the wall, holding his cheek. The discussion has been interesting enough--certainly a place to start, and a means to visually note plants that have any effect at all.

Good or bad, he'd rather not deal with the inherent change out in the wilds, without intention, preparation. "Hi yourself," he greets, shifting to make space along the wall, if Danny's after it. "Here to learn?"

[collaronhisneck]

Just after the lecture, Mulcahy makes his way over to Owen, determined to speak to him for a brief moment. Things had been a little too hectic with resettling into the new (old?) village for a proper thank-you in the weeks before, but after the cure for the Puffball illness had been retrieved, he'd made sure to receive a record of who had gone on that search. And it seems appropriate to use this meeting to find as many as he can and deliver his thanks, seeing as it was one of the native plants that had caused the need for that unfortunate trip.

"Mr. Prichard?" he asks, smiling. He'd gotten a set of names and a general description for his questions, but he could still be wrong. "My name is Francis Mulcahy. I just wanted to find you and personally thank you for taking a... rather dangerous journey into unknown territory to help find the cure for that unfortunate illness."

[underpinnings]

The address cuts Owen's eyes to the side, finding the source. That's his father's name, and not one he tended to give out--but he knows it was written in full on the chalkboard, that day, and it likely shows in full on the watches they've been given to communicate with. Still, it's the first thing he addresses, everything else an odd secondary--why the smile, why the thanks--

"Just Owen's fine," he asserts, rolling himself off the wall with both shoulders. With the focus on names, he eventually places the man--one of the sick.

Thanking Owen for making a journey he had little choice in. "It benefits all of us to have supplies on hand," he says. "Nothing to do with thanks, but I suppose you're welcome."

OTA

[fwips]

When Mark's finished talking, Peter's the first up to the table at the front of the room, his eyes round with childlike delight as they sweep over the plants there and the descriptions laid out in front of them. The puffball he affords a wary look, but he grins when he gets to the blue lily, vibrant beneath its glass covering.

"That is so cool," he murmurs as he drops to a crouch in front of the table so the flower is directly in his sightline, his mind already racing with what he could do with a power that let him manipulate electricity. You'd probably have to be really careful until you'd mastered using it, or you could do as much damage as good with it. "It would be like being a living Tesla coil but better because you could control the voltage more consistently."

What if they could use it to power the houses? They'd have to figure out a way to store it, some kind of battery, probably a big one because of how low-tech everything is here.

He glances up, looks one way and then another from where he's still crouched in front of the table. "Has anybody used this? Is it AC?"

[freightcars]

Learning what plants could potentially kill him seemed like a useful expenditure of his time, and so despite not being the most social person on the planet, Bucky graces the event with his presence. He's two plants down checking out the Clematis when Peter starts talking to himself, and he levels the kid with a look before he even starts looking for a conversational partner.

It's an amused expression, maybe a little judgmental, but captain one-arm really shouldn't be judging anybody considering, "I have no idea what that means."

[fwips]

"Oh, AC is alternating current," Peter begins, and looks up with his mouth open, poised to further explain, only to falter and then pop back to his feet, eyes wide. "Sargeant Barnes! You're here!"

...just like Mr. Barton and Black Widow and Miss Peggy and that Starking Guy. Peter doesn't know whether to be excited or worried. One the one hand, the more people who show up, the better they can put their heads together to try and figure out how to get home. On the other, the more people that are here, the fewer there are back home trying to figure out the same thing, and by Peter's assessment, that's more likely to actually work.

Gosh, he really hopes Mr. Stark isn't next.

"Listen, I'm really really sorry about that thing at the airport in Berlin," he hurriedly adds, gesturing with both hands. "I already told Mr. Barton, I don't know if you know he's here, and Ms. Romanoff too, and Miss Peggy— Not that Miss Peggy was Berlin, I just mean she's here." And he really probably needs to stop talking. He darts a look to the mechanical arm and then back to Barnes' face. "Anyway, sorry."

[iron_beneath_beauty]

He a sort of wonder and delight that she has never really seen anyone before. Despite his youth, he reminded her of Maester Luwin, pleased and excited by the simple things in life. It made him seem far younger than he was, which was strange to see, knowing that they were not far apart in years.

Despite herself, she leans closer to look at the blue lily as well, careful to keep from touching it. Tesla coil, voltage, all of these flew over her head, but she wasn't in the sort of mood to ask. She was already learning about plants, learning about technology from his world would be a bit overwhelming.

"I think others have only accidentally touched it. No one has really tried to use it for...AC?" She said, hesitating over the word, making certain she had heard him correctly.

[fwips]

Still crouched beside the table, Peter looks up at Lyanna and smiles. "Hey, you're back." She's probably been back for awhile, he realizes, and he's been too much of an idiot to notice, but at least he's noticing now?

"AC is alternating current," he explains, and pushes himself back to his feet. "Electrical current. It changes direction back and forth, as opposed to DC, which is direct current and only goes the one way. AC is used for the electricity in the houses, like the lights and stuff— Do you know what electricity is?"

In this place, it's so hard to tell, and Lyanna seems really old-timey. Like knights and ladies old-timey.

OTA

[digging]

When Karen hikes out beyond the borders of the village, she typically makes it a point to avoid most of the plant life she doesn't recognize, particularly since the event with the puffballs and two people nearly drowning in their own beds. She's brought one of her notebooks today, though, and takes down detailed notes on everything Mark tells them — Descriptions, adverse affects, where each species is commonly found. Some of these she thinks she can bring back from her nearly-daily forays, and once the formal part of the talk is done, she has a chat directly with Mark about which he thinks they need most, and how to bring them back safely.

After, she wanders the length of the table, sketching out rough drawings of leaf and flower shapes, noting peculiarities, wanting to make sure she's got everything she needs so she doesn't screw up and end up bringing back a bag full of weeds useful to no one.

The goldbells she's seen plenty of times, and she's taking down the list of known effects when she catches a whiff of scent, familiar enough that it doesn't immediately snag her attention as being out of place. Blinking, she looks up, twisting a glance to the group of people around her, none of whom seem to have noticed.

"Does anybody smell that?" she asks, fingers gripping hard over the edge of her notebook.

Gunpowder and, just beneath it... coffee.



[Come play with the forget me nots]

[3ofswords]

The scent Kira catches, now that Karen points it out, starts as subtle as it is strange for the setting: the starchy smell of rice, nearly cooked. Under that, a sharp and peaty soup base. Following his nose to Karen's side, he lifts a curved finger beneath an errant bud, lavender petals moving over his knuckle.

For just a moment, unmistakable, it smells like he's unwrapped a piece of bubblegum and raised it to his own mouth.

"Weird scent for a flower," he comments, eyes narrowing from the bottom. "Is this one of Mark's new herbal remedies? Mental acuity and shit?"

[digging]

"May be," Karen allows with a faint smirk as she glances back up to Kira. They see each other sometimes, but they haven't really talked all that much since that day in the cave, maybe because neither of them really want to think about what they uncovered there but they know they'll feel compelled to bring it up.

Or maybe that's just her.

"Different scents for different people," she reads now off the little label in front of the plant. "Huh. That's weird." She lifts her gaze to Kira again. "What are you smelling?"

OTA

[iron_beneath_beauty]

Given her propensity to spend time outdoors, and the recent panic over the spores, Lyanna cut her hunting short for the day and returned to the inn for Mark's lesson on plants. She was never a diligent student, having normally tuned out her Septa's lessons, preferring to go to the woods with Benjen and play at swords. Coupled with the recent loss of her brother, her attention and mood was not the best.

She wandered about the room, staring at the plants with a dazed expression, trying to force herself to focus for the sake of her safety, but unable to pull free from other thoughts. The puffballs were at least carefully shielded, sparing them from having to breathe in toxic spores again.

It was the blue lilies though that at least drew more attention. "These are the ones that give you the ability over lightning?" That could be as dangerous as the spores, if the person didn't know what they were doing.

[underpinnings]

Of the specimens on offer, these were the ones to catch Owen's interest. None of the information about the spores or their cures was new to him, and he still advocated burning out the pods wherever found, but the blue blossoms had properties even he'd never heard of--and he'd survived an invasive species capable of near sentience.

"I'd like to know who was unlucky enough to find that out," he comments, by way of confirmation. "Mark mentioned it messing with the bands," he adds, lifting his wrist in indication. "I wonder if they can be removed when that happens."

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"Whoever it was, they didn't make a fuss." She would have expected the whole village to have learned about it, but they must have remained home where there would be some measure of safety, rather than going about and shooting everyone with sparks. "They must have told Mark." He would be the best person to speak to about that.

"I doubt it." Nothing had removed them yet. She had grown used to her band so much that she often forgot it was there. It was becoming less of a burden and simply another appendage. "However the Observers put these on us, I don't think anything short of their magic will remove it."

OTA

[notbadcakeboss]

It had taken longer than Peeta cared to admit to gather his bearings. The dreams of the arena and the lingering feeling of being hunted had been slow to subdue. Katniss' presence had helped, but with as many Victors as there were in the village, it made the feeling of being trapped ever present. He'd kept to himself in an effort to get a handle on his emotions, but in the end, it left him isolated. They would need allies here and that meant being social, something he was at least good at.

And it would be a lie to say that he wasn't interested in the plants here, just as he had been interested in the ones that Katniss had shared with him in District 12. They had a project there, listing and drawing the different plants and cataloging their uses. There didn't seem to be anything of the sort here, as this meeting evidenced, so he brought pencils and paper with him, ready to sketch the plants. Colors would have to be listed, as he didn't have the tools to fully shade them.

He stood in front of the puffball, diligently sketching it, unsatisfied with his work, but unsure whether or not he should start again. Resources were dear. "If we find enough paper, I might be able to make enough of these to pass around the village."

OTA

[thekittenqueen]

Margaery had felt more at ease in the former village, having been able to recognize many of the plants in the woods from her life at Highgarden. While she wasn't an expert, she knew enough to recognize what to avoid and what would be edible. But coming here, everything was foreign to her, as foreign as the electricity that powered the inn and several other homes.

If the trek through the woods to find the lichen had given them anything, it was at least exposure to several of these plants. She might not know their names, but she knew what the blue lily did and could recognize both the puffball and lichen on sight. It would at least be useful if she was forced back to the woods, but as of now, she had less interest in going back. It was too unfamiliar and too dangerous for her liking.

She remained at the edge of the crowd, watching the group as they examined the plants, listening as Mark explained their uses. She helped clean up after lunch, lingering longer in the kitchen than was necessary. There was no reason for trepidation, but she felt no great inclination to wander around like the others.

When there was nothing left to do, she found a seat near one of the windows, still on the edge of the crowd, but close enough that she could watch them. When someone else finally came to join her, she gave a small smile. "Did you see enough of the plants to recognize them?"

[collaronhisneck]

Mulcahy had come to the lecture to listen intently - as one of the first victims of the native flora, he had more of a want to know as much as he could than most people. The several days of illness had been the most unpleasant he could remember; he'd been sick before, certainly, very, very sick, but it wasn't anywhere near the level that it had been with this unknown plant.

He did want to thank those who'd helped cure him for their aid, and this seemed like a good time to do it. And at the very least he could stand as proof that a cure for the illness was possible, since Jude had gone a few weeks before. It would likely hearten people to know that just because something was serious didn't mean it was fatal. He'd asked for a list of people who'd made the journey, and was quite happy to see one of them before him now: the pretty young lady who seemed to have a good knowledge of farming, if he was recalling his facts correctly. Margaery, that was it.

Stepping closer to her, Mulcahy smiled and nodded at her as she turned to face him. "Miss Tyrell, isn't it? I was hoping to thank you for your help last month."

[thekittenqueen]

"Margaery," she corrected him gently. Usually it was "Lady Margaery" or "Queen Margaery", but neither of those terms mattered very much anymore. It was easier for her to be called by her name. If anything, it allowed her to feel separated from the circumstances that brought her here. She could simply be the woman that she was learning of, rather than the one she made herself into.

He had been a name on the board, and while she had met him briefly before, it only occurred to her now which name belonged to him. "You don't need to thank me." Did she even deserve gratitude? All she had done was what the Observers ordered. There was no act of selflessness involved, only following their command. Though, she hadn't thought about the aftermath when she returned, her mind had been fixed on losing her brother. She hadn't considered how the others were faring.

"How are you?"

OTA

[pharmakis]

This meeting could not have come at a better time. For the short time that Circe had been in the village, she had avoided the inn, preferring to keep to the woods or her home. While she had been lonely in exile, this was still an unfamiliar setting and there was a part of her that was mistrustful of strangers. They weren't sent here by her family, as a means to mock or torture her, but she knew the stories of what happened to nymphs. It took time for such fears to subside, as there were so many, exacerbated by the situation she found herself in.

But after being in the woods for so long and learning about the new plants, the idea of this meeting pushed away those concerns in favor of interest and curiosity. She couldn't sense the magic in these plants, she couldn't hear them humming or find a way to summon her magic back to the surface. Until it returned, she had to rely on the knowledge of others.

So that meant asking questions and interacting with others. Slowly, bit by bit, she felt her tension ease away and became transported to an area that she felt at ease in. The plants might be different, but it was still a forest, a place that was her own. "Do we know the uses these might have on health?" She asked, glancing at the figure closest to her.

For Mark

[collaronhisneck]

After the lecture, after all the bustling around, Mulcahy is still waiting as the last few attendees ask Mark questions and then leave, one by one or in pairs, talking about what they learned. He'd sat and listened to all of it; he didn't want to be ill again, after all. Briefly he wonders how Mark managed to learn all of this and not place himself in great danger of injury, but that's a question for a later time.

"Dr. Watney?" It's a bit more hesitant than it was with the other members of the operation, but Mark presumably has more to do right at that moment than someone who was free to attend a lecture. "I don't want to take up too much of your time, but I was hoping to thank you for all you did to find the treatment for that... horrible disease."

Re: For Mark

[markwatney]

Almost no one calls me Dr. Watney. I mean, they could, it's not inaccurate; I have a PhD. But before this place, I spent most of my time around people who had a doctorate by default. Some of my students back at NASA used to call me Dr. Watney until I gave them permission to just go with Mark, but it's been awhile.

"Oh, Father, please— No thanks necessary," I reply, holding up a hand. He's in earnest, though, so I don't expect his gesture to be easily dismissed. "It was absolutely my pleasure, and I'm just glad you and Jude came through it all right," I add with a smile, and try to not think about how Jude had been gone almost immediately afterward anyway. "And Mark is fine. Or Watney. I answer to both."