Plants are the Worst

[quark_assassin]

WHO: Dustin and you!
WHERE: Somewhere in the northeastern quadrant of Temba and the Hangar.
WHAT: Dustin does not take plants seriously until they make him. Later, he tries to talk to some mushrooms.
WHEN: Where the Wild Things Grow event, August 11th - September 8th.
WARNINGS: Someone needs to wash this boy's mouth out with soap and make him go to his room.

1. Northeastern Temba [OTA]

Dustin had plans. Key word, 'had.' He'd come back from Eorzea with a wealth of new tools, unique chemicals, some potions - hell, even some clothes that were more tolerable in the heat and actually seemed to fit him! It's more of a haul than he was expecting and it leaves him returning to the ship genuinely optimistic about his projects back on Agra-10.

...Well, okay, most of those warm-and-fuzzy feelings end up being constructs of the Agrii and their incredibly effective compulsion abilities, but even after Dustin comes to this realization he finds that they're not totally foreign. For the first time in several years, he has a place that he wants to go back to and improve.

That feeling is what he's trying to focus on now.

It's hours later, back on the surface of Agra-10, Temba. What should have been the road south from the hangar. What it is instead is a miserable slog through too-tall grass and prickly bushes encroaching on just a bare sliver of exposed, cracked asphalt that winds through towering trees blotting out the summer sun, forcing him on a winding route with no static landmarks to speak of. The leatherworking knife he brought back along with his crafter's gloves help him slice through the more onerous vegetation in his way, but it's like he's brought a pocket knife to the heart of the Amazon. The walk is slow, hard, and annoying.

Maybe I can mix up something more effective back at the shop, Dustin considers, grimacing as he pushes aside a blanket of vines dangling in his face. Some of them are as thick as his arm - twitching like one, too. He has to step carefully over their piled-up and tangled mass in the middle of the road. There were a few reagents that had endothermic reactions with each other. If I can isolate the most efficient ingredients and find a way to amplify the cooling effect, maybe I could freeze out some of these irritating plant fuckers from the roots. That'll show 'em.

Something moves next to his ankle. Dustin glances down, just in time to see one of the vines suddenly start to tighten around his leg. He gasps in surprise and hops out of the way--

--Only to feel his feet drop out from underneath him as a mesh of thin roots masquerading as solid ground gives way. This was likely a natural depression made from rubble blocking the road that he just didn't notice under all of the plant cover. Interesting, he thinks, numbly, just before landing in a heap on the leaf-littered dirt at the bottom. The fall isn't far enough to injure him, but the shock and impact still leave him dazed for several seconds.

Then, Dustin looks up. The roots are growing back.

"--H-Hey! Hey!" he yelps in panic, stumbling upright on unsteady legs to scrabble at the edges of the pit. It's about eight feet deep and the sides (or at least, the side he's currently clawing at) are too crumbly to get a good grip with his fingers. "Wait! Fuck!"

2. Temba Hangar [OTA]

Several days later, Dustin returns to the hangar feeling a lot more prepared than when he left it. Not only was he able to make it back to his shop (eventually) and find it relatively unscathed from the storm, but also he has done something he never thought he'd consent to and picked up an expertise. These little mushroom guys - Funfronds, according to the 'Dictionary' - clearly have some kind of negative effect on the overactive plant life around them, and they're intelligent enough to be communicated with so they can discover why, potentially. Dustin feels confident he could have picked up their language with enough patient observation and time, however he is finding himself woefully lacking in both time and patience at the moment. Desperate measures must be taken.

So here he is, sweaty and exhausted from yet another long walk through the aggressive forest, back to where he remembers seeing the Funfronds when they disembarked the ships. There was a crack in the wall, surrounded by glowing moss...but surely he's not the only one chasing this clue here.

Comments

1.

[crystalmaster]

Radley is walking cautiously through the mess, trying to get some idea of what can be done to get rid of it all, when he hears a voice from the ground. He pauses, listening. He definitely recognizes that voice. They got off on the wrong foot, to say the least, but he's not vindictive and he's certainly not going to just leave the poor kid stranded even though he was insulting.

He runs over to the pit in concern. The roots are growing back far too fast. He swipes at them with a machete he'd found, trying to cut them away from covering the hole at least long enough to rescue the guy.

"I have a rope!" he calls. "I'll send it down!"

He throws one end of it into the hole. "Can you reach it?"

1

[kree_soldieress]

Dealing with evil, overgrown plants was, surprisingly enough, something Lauri-Ell was very experienced with. She was, after all, Kree, and served the Alliance. It came with the territory. SO she had been doing her best to make her way through the city, intending to win her way to the Civics Center to acquire her hammer. With that no plant would stand in her way.

Of course her intentions proved to be less pressing when she heard a voice calling out in distress. She moves toward the noise and finds the place the roots are growing back over.

"That is unkind of you," she told the plants before going down on a knee to start tearing them apart. "I shall soon have you free, shouting person."

2 - Look, it's your favorite person!

[nightmare_scientist]

"They are not edible!" Comes a simple, yet very direct comment tossed Dustin's way while Wilson stalks past the waiting teenager.

Wilson is just as fed up with the situation as everyone else. Has he tried catching and eating these strange mushroom-like creatures? Of course he has. He has hunted weirder things in the Constant and at the end of the day food is food. And in his experience different types of mushrooms also came with different effects on a person's health, so there is no reason for him not to try cooking these little fiends.

3(!!!). Temba Mines

[quark_assassin]

You would think Dustin's first day back planet-side would make him more wary of big pits in the ground. And yet here he is, camped out next to this huge hole by Temba's city center as patient as he can be, waiting. He's been hanging around here for the better part of three days now, careful to give himself enough time around dusk to make it back to some kind of indoor shelter, but prompt enough to arrive as soon after the last Thorntooth flower closes at dawn as he can get away with. There's no time to waste. The plants aren't getting any less aggressive the longer he sits here - a fact made evident as Dustin swipes away a large leaf tickling the back of his neck that wasn't there just a few minutes ago.

The rampant overgrowth is a necessary evil in this case, however; it gives him cover so he can spy on the Funfronds. Their 'Dictionary' entry mentioned that they frequented the mines, and as this is the closest entrance to where Dustin's home base is, that's where he's parked. The change of scenery has borne fruit for the past couple of days of careful observation. Combined with his new Communications expertise, Dustin thinks he has a pretty good idea now of how to understand the little mushroom creatures now. More importantly, he thinks he has a good idea of how to talk back.

There's no information on what the Funfronds like to eat, and his watching hasn't filled in that blank at all, but Dustin can guess based on Earth fungus that they probably prefer decomposing matter of some kind. To that end, he's collected a bit of less-offensive old fruits from the Greenhouse and stashed them in a pile near where he sees the Funfronds most often descend into the mines. A peace offering, he hopes. Even if they're not fond of the stuff, Dustin is waiting in a neutral squat several yards away to try and explain himself to any mushroom scouts that take interest.