[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

[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."

[underpinnings]

That was true; it speaks to Mark's leadership, or others' sense of it, that such a thing could pass quietly. Or it had happened during some other disaster--enough of them disappeared the other week for unfortunate incidents with lightning to miss a few eyes and ears.

"Is that how you see this place," he asks; if no real answers are available about the Observers themselves, or their methods, seeing how others react to them could teach him something else. "Do you think the bands are magic, or just the way they won't come off?"

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"I'm not certain how I see this place. It feels as if it's some sort of game that the Observers are playing. There are discussions of concepts I don't recognize or understand." He would remember her confusion over spores, it still embarrassed her. "I know there are others who might have better theories about why the bands are stuck to us and it's full of words I don't know. For me, all I can associate it with is magic."

She didn't prefer feeling so simple, but she had to accept her limitations. Electricity was beyond her, appliances were still disturbing and she had only recently grown used to running water. "How is it you see this place?"

[underpinnings]

In a way, Owen understands that point of view. As communication and infrastructure broke down, he grew up with a narrow feed of information--about the world outside and its history, about the way the people he'd been torn away from had lived. Even travelling cross-country, knowledge had to be gained second-hand. Moldering books, the rare combination of recordings, working players, and safety in which to use them. Stories from other travelers.

The still standing billboards and old magazines were mysteries; if his world had allowed much belief in magic, he might have latched onto it.

"They put us down here, they give us cures to chase--sometimes they just put us out on the map without warning. They want us to venture out, for some reason. Either there's something we're meant to find, I think, or--" Rolling in his lips, he considers how to explain the comparison. Better not to introduce a name for the concept at all, and just lay it out. "They want to see what happens to us first; they want us to find all the dangerous plants and animals, they want us to find out if anyone else lives here. That way, if we die trying, none of their people have to."

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"They observe us, that's why they are the Observers." Why they wanted to give them these tests, she didn't know. It seemed that they escalated the difficulties of the trials and varied the horrors to keep them unexpected. She only could recognize that it wasn't about to stop and if there was a calm in the village, it was only temporary.

Right now, they were given time to acclimate to the world around them and explore the different plants. At least it would keep them from having to trek back out for more lichen.

"No one else lives here." She couldn't know for certain, but she felt sure of that. "I have heard some suggesting that these homes were built before we arrived. It's possible this is nothing more than a cage for us. We're rats in a trap and they will tease us until they find what they want."

[underpinnings]

"That's a bold assertion, when we don't even know the borders of this place." It's true, though, that he hasn't found recent signs of civilization in his own travels. He just can't rule it out, until he's been to ever corner, until he's seen where the land mass ends--and then he might simply assume human threats beyond the sea.

His ego doesn't allow him to believe otherwise. His sanity probably wouldn't prefer it either.

"We've found other structures, beyond the villages. Old animal pens, treehouses. I don't think we're the first rats, or that this is the first cage, if nothing else. And the Observers themselves might exist here; we don't know how they watch us." Though, lifting his arm and tapping the band, he can guess. "Then again, why else make these impossible to get off?"

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"We likely won't know the borders. Past attempts to explore were stopped by strange events, birds, bugs and whatever else. I don't think the Observers want us to see how far this place reaches or what might lie beyond. We didn't know what was past the canyon in our previous village until the earthquake."

They were being herded as though they were animals. With that in mind, it was hard to look at this place and think that there was anything else to it beyond this.

"Perhaps, but nothing else was left besides those structures. If there were others here, wouldn't we find something of theirs? It could be small, but some sort of sign that there were other people in this cage." A hair ribbon, a scratched message, something. "Perhaps they are our brand? The way cows are branded?"

[underpinnings]

"Don't we know the one," is the first of his--arguments is a strong word. Challenge might be better. "When those of us were sent suddenly out into the wilds, I heard some people found a beach, south of here. I've meant to follow the river down." Which reminds him: "And I've found arrowheads along the bank, under the smooth stones."

Not having experienced the canyon, he can hardly speak to how it functioned--only that it's gone, and they've been dragged well beyond its borders even not counting the times people have simply hiked out to the plains. Not having experience with--livestock, in any world where they would need branding, he can't speak much to it either. "Don't you usually brand something to tell other people it's yours, not the creature itself?"

It doesn't disprove the idea, but it begs the question: who would the Observers be claiming them against?

[iron_beneath_beauty]

"I didn't hear about that. When I was sent in the wilds, it was to a shrine. After that, we simply walked back through the woods." She's making it sound a lot more simple than it was, as there had been trouble involving foxes, but they were at least safe. It wasn't anything like the canyon in the previous village. "Another beach?" In thinking about it though, it did sound familiar.

"I don't know. I know that sometimes birds are given different tags to tell them apart from each other. This could be a tag of some kind?" It didn't make very much sense in her head. It was the only thing that came to mind. Anything else was a bit beyond her. This was technology she didn't recognize or understand.