Spore print??

[sesa]

Good morning! This is Sesa. Vouivre, weapons engineer, DND master, video game wizard, etc etc etc

[There’s a crude drawing of a dragon with little stick legs beside “Vouivre” in case people don’t know what it is.]

I’m to believe we do not have cameras here, so I am going to just have to make do with my impeccable drawing skills.

Can someone identify this mushroom for me? I am foraging on the off chance we have another famine before this wretched cold ceases.

[It is. Well.

A crude drawing of a mushroom. It legitimately looks like a Mario mushroom.]

Comments

[amethystic]

( in contrast, felicity looks. tired. like she hasn't slept in days. enough so that despite being incredibly irritated, she barely even frowns. )

... That's not what you drew at all. That is, in fact, a completely different mushroom entirely. Why did you add spots?

( INHALES. exhales. pinching the bridge of her nose- )

Those are oyster mushrooms. ... They are edible, though. Pretty popular, too, I see them with a lot of pasta dishes.

[sesa]

Why? That’s how I usually draw them…

[This is not, in fact, what you do if you want to IDENTIFY them, Sesa.]

Ah! That’s great news! So it should be okay to harvest these, then?

[amethystic]

... If you're asking for identification, we need to know exactly what we're working with here- you have to draw it as accurately as possible, from the cap shape to the underside if you can. Same with other plants. Otherwise you'll just get the wrong information- what you drew does look like a known species, but it's completely different in appearance, edibility and effect. You followin?

[sesa]

[Sesa nods along, resting his palms on his knees as Felicity explains. At least he’s taking her advice in stride? Unlike some people might have.]

I see…I had no idea there were so many varieties out there. I thought it might be like a cactus, you know? Most cacti look similar…a cactus is a cactus, even if they come in a large variety.

[amethystic]

There are more varieties of mushrooms than there are animals, sometimes, it feels like. They're actually pretty fascinating.

... You're foraging, right? I'll come along. I go foraging pretty frequently for a number of reasons. Don't take too much, though- even without the forest being an asshole, we want to be respectful of our harvests and promote new growth rather than reap and leave nothing behind.

( as she speaks, she reaches over to inspect the cluster- )

Do you have a knife? You don't want to tear the mushrooms off, or you'll hurt the colony. ... Oyster mushrooms grow on decaying trees, so they harvest the rot for themselves and keep the forests clean from dead trees. It's pretty neat. Anyways, you'll want to cut along... ( she traces her finger along the base- ) ... right here.

Also, if you see a mushroom that looks like this, but yellow? Don't touch it. It's a poisonous look-alike.

[sesa]

[Sesa flexes a hand, holding it out so Fel can see his claws.]

No knife, but I assumed my claws would work just as well.

[He’ll have to work slower in smaller cuts, but he thinks he can do it. He does delicate work on weapons and their inner workings, so this shouldn’t be that much different. He’ll follow her instruction, then, carefully cutting off a small cluster at a time to tuck into his bag.]

Yellow…got it. You’re very knowledgeable, mm?

[amethystic]

Mhm. I'm a witch! If I died to foraging I'd be a pretty shit one.

Like I said, we're not gonna take a whole lot. They have a job to do and we don't want to hurt the colony or the ecosystem. But there should be other specimens around as well.

[sesa]

You’re a witch? A real one?

[Sesa sounds genuinely awed by this. Like woah, what?? He’s talking to a real witch right now???? Damn…]

Then I’ve got the perfect companion for this job. [He says, standing back to his feet. He’ll offer her his hand for a hand up too, if she is willing.] I don’t believe I gave you my name, when we last spoke. You saw it on this post, but I will reiterate it: I am Sesa. It’s good to have you.

[amethystic]

By flesh and blood~.

( yes, good, be in awe of her. it even seems to cheer her up a little. )

... Felicity.

( ... seems she's not up for talking outside of educating him on things, though. )

[sesa]

Felicity! It's great to meet you...again.

[Sesa chuckles, his tail flicking behind him.]

Let us walk and talk, shall we?

[amethystic]

Yeah, sure.

( except as they go she's... already pointing things out. like juniper berries and how you can actually use conifer needles in tea, except for the yew tree which is toxic and should not have parts ingested, and... ... oh hold up actually she just rememberd something. )

See those powdery blue berries up there. Those are juniper berries I was talking about. I want some- you can use it as a yeast starter, basically- can you get a couple branches for me?

( she wants wine. )

[sesa]

[Sesa is nodding along as they walk, trying to remember as much as he's able. he has his notebook with him and could be writing things down, but this is the public one...might be best to reserve that for when he can get to his non-magicked book.]

Mm? Oh yes, of course!

[For retrieving the berries, Sesa rolled an 18...which means Felicity will bear witness to his athletic prowess as he scales that tree like it's fucking nothing. It's probably not that high, realistically, but even so...he manages to shimmy his way up onto one of the lower hanging branches, sitting on it as he snaps off a few of the juniper laden branches.]

How many would you like?

[amethystic]

Just a few branches.

( ... honestly, she's a little jealous. though with her magic supplementing here and there, she's still struggling to figure out how to do things with only one arm. climbing, cooking... the latter, especially, since she's always made a point to not blend her magic and cooking, lest she make a potion on accident. )

[sesa]

[With a few branches in hand, Sesa carefully jumps down from where he'd climbed, dusting himself off once he's made it back to the forest floor.]

If you are amenable to the idea, I would like to go foraging with you more often. It would be nice to go with someone who has more knowledge of what is safe and what isn't than I do.

[amethystic]

... I don't mind. But that means you're helping me get ingredients- you can carry wayyy more than me.

( she will take the branches though, gently rolling some of the berries between her fingers, but not enough to pluck them from the twig. )

Oh, also, we have to thank the forest as we leave. Or, well, the Forest. Ugh.

[sesa]

Thank...?

[Hm. Don't exactly love the sound of that.]

How exactly are we meant to do this?