[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

[freightcars]

Some of his irritation may overlap with amusement, because he's just... such a god damn teenager. His eyebrows arch, sort of dip into a knit, and he can't help the subtle back and forth shake of his head.

"You got in a fight and you don't even know why?" He observers wryly, but then holds up a hand immediately after to stop that conversation from going down. Grumbles out an uncomfortable: "You know what- that's. Probably for the best."

[fwips]

Now that he considers it, Peter probably should have asked more questions— No, strike that, he should have asked more questions to Mr. Stark, because he asked plenty to Happy, and that got him nowhere.

"Yeah, you know, when you're me and Iron Man shows up at your house out of nowhere when you've never even met before and says he needs you to help save the world, you just sort of go with it," he admits with a slight shrug. "What was going on?"

[freightcars]

He can't exactly knock the kid for that, he knows more than most people do about Tony Stark, his history, his parentage. Knows his reputation, and knows a starstruck kid from Brookyln (or Queens, whatever the case may be) would jump first and ask questions later if Stark came knocking. Especially one trying to find his place in the world with a persona like spider kid.

"Long story," he grunts, tearing his eyes away and fixing them somewhere on the table. Absently, a metal hand reaches out to touch the leaves of one of the plants. "Long and complicated, and totally irrelevant now, considering the bigger issue."

You know, the big purple man with the fist that murdered half of everything? Funny how it puts everyone back on the same side again.

[fwips]

"...yeah," Peter agrees with a slow nod. Not that he has confirmation that Mr. Stark and Cap made up, or would have, but he likes to think that half of everyone in the universe dying, or disappearing, or whatever this is, would override just about anything, including superhero infighting and Spanish tests.

"So, did you..." he asks with a motion Bucky's way, not quite knowing the polite way to phrase 'crumble into dust,' if there even is one. "Some people here say they just disappeared, no... you know."

[freightcars]

Bucky doesn't exactly have confirmation that Stark and Steve are on speaking terms either, nor that were he to see Stark in the wild he wouldn't get a chest full of missiles from that suit of his. He'd like to think Tony would at least wait to murder him until after Thanos has been dealt with, but considering his presence was missed on the battlefield, it's hard to say.

He clearly understands all too well what Peter's asking, because something of a grimness settles over his expression. Yeah, he'd floated away like ashes in the breeze. It had been unpleasant to say the least, watching his limbs disintegrate, feeling the atoms scatter. He nods slowly. "Yeah. No, I know. I did. You?"

[fwips]

"Yeah," Peter replies, glancing down, the memory briefly clouding his vision before he pushes the swell of emotion abruptly away.

"I felt it coming before the others," he says, glancing back up again, steadier relating particulars and facts. "It's a thing I have— Can do. Sensing danger ahead of time. But it didn't really do me any good this time." He sighs with a little lift of his shoulders. "I was with Mr. Stark, but I don't know if it happened to him or not. Was there anybody else, where you were?"

[freightcars]

Quietly, slowly, creeping sympathy settles on him. He may be a little bitter still about the whole airport situation, but- damn, he's just a kid. Not only to experience the disintegration but to feel it coming on? For a second, something long-burried rises up in him, a protective instinct he'd solely had for Steve rears it's head. He settles it back down with a tight purse of his lips.

"Yeah. An entire war." He answers darkly. "Steve. Most of the- you know. Team."

The avengers, he guesses, if they're still called that after the falling out. "I don't know who else... I think I was the first, I didn't seen anyone else go."

[fwips]

"Maybe he was okay," Peter says, his expression sober but eyes soft as he watches Bucky. "Captain Rogers. Maybe he made it, since he isn't here." It's a nice hope, Peter thinks, even if there's only so much Captain America could do about any of this. If Cap and Iron Man are still back home, maybe they've got a chance to fix this.

"The wizard I was with, he had one of the stones, the time stone, before Thanos showed up to take it. He said he'd looked at like 14 million possible outcomes, and there was only one where we beat him, beat Thanos." As statistics go, it's grim. But the whole group of them, they're all exceptions to the rule. They're that tiny, impossible fraction of a percent, the zillion to one odds. The kid bitten by a radioactive spider, the soldier with the cybernetic arm.

"Maybe we're in it," Peter continues. "Maybe for whatever reason, being here is the only way."

[freightcars]

Bucky hopes so, he really fucking does. He's only just gotten to the point that he thinks he can rebuild a stable friendship with Steve, it would be a cruel twist of fate indeed for them to be permanently separated like this. Even worse, for him to find new life only to find his friend dead. There's a clear flicker of concern that passes across his face, but he doesn't press the point.

At any rate, it gets muted behind something incredulous, because Peter did you listen to yourself? The wizard you were with and the fourteen million outcomes he telepathically watched?

It's too serious a subject to be a smart ass about, fortunately.

"Hope you're right," He mutters instead, eyes dropping, clearly doubtful. He shrugs a shoulder, "Otherwise, as far as afterlives go, I guess this one's not so bad."

[fwips]

"Yeah," Peter agrees with a minute nod, and casts a glance to the room around them, his lips pressing thin as he takes in everyone who showed up for this thing, how normal they all seem as they mill about. "It's not what I would've expected, but I guess it could be a lot worse. At least— I mean, we know each other, kinda. Not everybody's that lucky here."

Heaven and hell aren't concepts Peter puts much stock in, but it definitely doesn't seem like the second option. Then again, he knows it's not the first, either — There's no Uncle Ben.

[freightcars]

Another sudden rush of sympathy for the kid floods him; if he's labeling Bucky as someone he knows then he's really grasping at straws for a connection here. Bucky wandered in to having Peggy already, to definitely knowing Clint more than Spider-Kid knows the Winter Soldier. He's alone, Bucky realizes, and a long-dormant protect the kid feeling that never quite went away shimmies to life. He forces it down, but he can't help reaching out to gently clasp Peter's shoulder with the metal hand.

"Yeah," he mutters in a sort of awkward agreement. Lucky. "Well. No hard feelings, then. Maybe we can figure something out while we're here. A way to get back."

[fwips]

So, Peter doesn't want to freak out or anything because they're having a serious heart-to-heart here and that's awesome on its own, but Bucky Barnes is gently squeezing Peter's shoulder with his robot arm like they're pals, and did he mention it was a robot arm, and this is one of the most amazing moments of his life.

"Oh yeah," Peter replies, nodding just a touch too quickly. "Yeah. I mean, all we can do is try. And look out for each other and everybody else."

[freightcars]

Good lord, Spider-Kid, it must be so hard to be in your brain. Bucky tries really hard not to look like he thinks Peter's on the edge of vibrating himself into a bunch of pieces. Instead, he gives Peter one more quasi-supportive pat on the shoulder, and then drops his arm away.

"Alright. Well." How do normal people end conversations non-awkwardly? "I'm gonna go... plants."

He gestures vaguely toward the tables, one eye sort of squinting uncomfortably. Good talk.