FernStone

A New Generation [Fern & Sky]

Vivienne Nott

Though not particularly fond of sharing rooms with other people, Vivienne managed to get a fairly decent night's sleep. Perhaps it was because she knew this was a place where she belonged, waking up bright and perky ready to socialise. She took her time to get her hair just perfect before getting dressed.

“Ready?” she turned to Maddie, flicking her hair behind her with a smile. “I can’t believe we still have to dine with the other houses, it's truly disgraceful.”

---

Bryn Park
Benjamin Sallow

Bryn woke up full of energy, flying out of bed with excitement at the start of the day. A whole day without classes! To socialise! She couldn’t wait to spend more time with other students… And maybe she could explore, figure out what kind of pranks she could play… not that she was thinking of those on her first day!

“Min, you ready?” she practically bounced around her new friend’s area of the dorm, waiting for her instead of running right out for breakfast like she wanted to. “I’m <i>starving</i>, I hope breakfast is as good as dinner was yesterday. I wonder what we’ll be doing afterwards, since we have no classes… Well, as long as we stick together, it’ll be fine.”

---

Gus Montague

Gus didn’t sleep well during his first night at hogwarts.

He was still groggy when he woke up in the dorm, eyes squinting against the light. He was too used to Archie being around… even when they didn’t need to share a room, they often chose to. The Ravenclaw dormitory was full but it wasn’t the <i>same</i>. The twins were inseparable growing up, and they’d never expected to be split up at hogwarts.

From what he remembered Ravenclaw and Gryffindor didn’t even have that many classes together. How were they meant to spend time together?

He went through the motions of getting ready, dressing and walking out of the dorm without really thinking about where he was supposed to be going, completely disregarding everyone else and following the crowds to the great hall as if on autopilot.

---

Ishbel Maclean
Liqin Zhou

Ishbel had woken up early, a force of habit from living on a farm and waking at the crack of dawn. She’d quietly gotten ready and slipped into the common room to wait for others to wake up, taking a sketchpad with her. She quickly lost herself in sketching the rest of the morning away, not paying much attention when people started to filter in.

“Morning,” Liqin saw Ishbel first when he dragged himself out of the boys dorm, eyes still heavy with sleep and uniform messily put on. His camera was slung around his neck. “Do we go to the great hall for breakfast?”

“I think so,” Ishbel nodded with a smile, putting down her sketchpad. “Let’s wait for the others?”

A New Generation [Fern & Sky]

The rest of the students slowly got sorted, and with that done that feast began.

Vivienne Nott
Thanh Nguyen

“Do you think something’s wrong with the sorting hat today?” Vivienne commented, voice dropping into a sneer, as Maddie joined her at the Slytherin table. Her eyes flickered over to where Thanh was awkwardly sitting, avoiding eye contact. “Really, our parents weren’t wrong about the standards dropping.”

She folded her arms, nose upturned as she put a small amount of food onto her plate.

“Hmph, I can’t believe we’re going to have to live with something like <i>that</i>.”

---

Bryn Park
Benjamin Sallow

“Gryffindor too! Amazing!” Bryn grinned as Min sat beside her, leaning in to nudge the other girl in a friendly gesture. While Bryn found making friends fairly easy, she could already tell her and Min would get on great - she was her first friend at Hogwarts after all! There was something about Min that made her want to take her under her wing, even if they were the same age, so now she got the chance. “Can’t wait to spend the next few years together!”

She then turned to Gus, who was still looking visibly confused. She wasn’t pureblood but she knew that both him and his twin had not expected to be sorted like this - the Montague family was a famous Slytherin one. Well, some traditions changed. She smiled at him. “Nice to have you here too. I’m Bryn, and this is Min.”

Ben looked at the two girls opposite him with a smile, while trying not to look at Archie in shock too much. He was sure the other boy was confused enough without all the looks he was getting.

“Ben,” he said with a smile. “Looking forward to spending time together. We should eat, it’s been a long journey.”

---

Gus Montague
Olivia Janvier

Gus was still reeling from the fact he’d been sorted into Ravenclaw, rather than Slytherin as expected. He barely noticed when Carter sat beside him, only following Archie’s back as he moved to the Gryffindor table. He only snapped out of it when Nadia sat down beside him.

“Fancy seeing you here, huh?” he laughed awkwardly. “Not that I mean you wouldn’t be sorted here! Of course! I was the one not expecting to be sorted… Ah, so strange.”

He trailed off at the end, words barely more than mutters.

Olivia had sat opposite the other three, with no clue why this boy was so confused about his sorting. Did he not think he was smart enough? Well, whatever. She was sad to be separated from Saiorse and Thanh but… Well, they’d see each other again she was sure.

She stuck out her hand to the other three.

“Hi, I’m Olivia! Let’s get along, seeing as we’re in the same house.”

---

Ishbel Maclean
Liqin Zhou

Li was already fiddling with his camera once he’d sat down, though he glanced up with a smile at Eli once he joined them. He quickly went back to looking through the photographs he’d already taken, small smile on his lips and completely disregarding the food that had magically appeared in front of them.

Ishbel glanced at Li, and then at Eli. Her gaze showed a faint bemusement… Ah, were they going to have to make sure this new friend didn’t spend all his time taking photographs? “Nice to see you again. It’s comforting to have so many familiar people here.” She said with a smile to Eli.

She then glanced over at Saiorse who had sat nearby. The girl looked a little out of it, but not unfriendly, so Ishbel waved to her. “Want to join us?”

Deadwood: Hope, Death, & Misery [Closed]

---

---

Traversing the bone desert was no easy feat, especially when one was a three foot tall sentient mushroom.

If Ari felt much of anything, it was out of their depth. They were lucky they had consumed as much rotting materials as they could before leaving, stored in their body and allowing them to safely make it across without needing to eat along the way. It was a sad necessity for them to venture so far out of their natural habitat in the hopes of getting a better, less boring life.

Finally, the gate was in view and they let out a sigh of relief. The two guards at the door gave them strange looks which they ignored in favour of showing the invite they had possibly stolen off of someone. It was easy enough to get in from there and find the tent were the rest were meeting.

”...to discuss the terms of the deal... which means that you will be teleported up into Exusia. However, when you get up there, we will relinquish any weaponry or any materials you can use to cast a spell until your time there is up."

Ari walked into the tent in the middle of what seemed to be an explanation of what was going on, not seeming put out or apologetic at all for how late they’d ended up. Really, set times wasn’t really something they had a concept of beyond the way the sun moved along the sky.

They glanced around the room without a change to the flat smile on their mouth. It was quite a strange look, black eyes peering up curiously from underneath their purple tinted cap at all the much taller people. Many were humans, which they had knowledge enough of. Others, they had little clue what they were. A particularly odd looking one who seemed to be made of armour, bug like with a particularly scary looking pincer, was snickering away. What even were they? Ari had never seen anything of the sort before.

Though, it was likely most of them hadn’t seen anything like Ari either. Myconid rarely socialised among their own kind, nevermind others. The mushroom themself didn’t have much experience in human society beyond a short period of time recently.

“I accept the terms,” Ari spoke up after the strange insect bowed. Their voice was soft, human words not quite properly fitting their mouth, but not lacking in any confidence. After they said that they flashed a grin at everyone else, offering up the small knife (that looked too large in their hands) up to the woman in charge, who’s name they’d missed. “I’m glad I’m not too late, unless there was a cut off, and you’re about to kick me out.” They quickly moved on from that. “Ari, by the way.”

They didn’t know if names had been exchanged, but they had been led to believe it was generally the done thing when first meeting others. They had no qualms about offering theirs easily - it didn’t mean much to them, anyway, and they’d only used it a few months.

Deadwood: Hope, Death, & Misery [Closed]

Ari

_______________________________ NAME: Ari AGE: 17 RACE: Myconid PRONOUNS: Primarily They/Them, but little care what others use HOMETOWN: Rotting forest south of the Sorrowfields HEIGHT: 3’1” WEIGHT: 48lb _______________________________ "Well, everyone else in this place sure is strange."

_______________________________ The Poisoner The Poisoner "I wonder how well I can survive outside of the forests..." ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅ What are you? What are you? APPEARANCE ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I don't really blend in well, do I?" Though tiny when compared to most people, Ari is actually slightly taller than average for their own race. They have a fairly large, pointed cap. This is a light pinkish colour at the bottom and gets darker towards the top, with slight ribs. The underneath of the cap is more ribbed, closer to white in colour than the rest of them. Their body is straight, with little definition between their “head” and the rest of their body. They have comparatively stumpy arms and legs, with stumpy feet and hands without many fingers. Their body is also lightly coloured, getting to a darker purple colour towards their hands and feet. Their eyes are large and jet black, mouth just a slit underneath it with no lips, often twisted into a smile. They have no nose, and no visible ears - just holes in the side of their head. Overall they are unusual to look at, and clearly a humanoid mushroom. CAPABILITIES ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I wouldn’t eat that if I was you." Ari’s main capabilities come from their knowledge and skill in poisons, something learned from being part of a predominantly poisonous race. Ari themselves aren't particularly poisonous, but always had an interest in it, as a result gaining information about all sorts of poisonous mushrooms, both sentient and not, through self experimentation. The few years they’ve spent outside of their original home has added to this through acquiring other ingredients (such as pieces of various creatures), all of which they use to mix their own poisons and similar substances to bring about a variety of effects. Due to their race Ari doesn’t feel pain the same way other humanoid races do, cannot be easily poisoned and can survive a bit longer without eating (if they consume nutrients that fungi thrive off). They also have minimal control over their mycelium, which they use to bury into the ground or similar to absorb nutrients from the environment (if they’re there). Their short stature, light build and general unremarkable presence means that they go more easily unnoticed than others, mostly people aren’t on the look out or wary of the tiny talking fungi. Though this isn’t so much a learned skill of stealth rather than not standing out. Ari is good at surviving in the rotting forests spanning Dead Wood, having done so for many years. Of course she also has all the weaknesses of her race, being smaller, weaker and much easier to damage. Also if something ate Ari, they wouldn’t die, but they would cause muscarine poisoning (increased perspiration ect, abdominal pain, severe nausea, diarrhea, blurred vision, laboured breathing) for around two hours.. EQUIPMENT ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Why would I need more than this?" Ari travels light. They carry it all in a simple sack thrown over their shoulder, clinking with vials of poison and filled with pieces of mushrooms and other such oddities. Most of what they have on their person is various poisons and poisonous ingredients. Along with this they have a medium sized, basic knife used for a variety of purposes.

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

▅▅▅▅▅

Who are you?
Who are you?

GOAL
_{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}
"I’m bored of just surviving."

Ari is tired of the mushroom way of life, of her only goal being to lay down the next generation before waiting for death. Why should she care about others and not herself? She's done with just surviving day to day, waiting to be killed. She's already half way through her life! What she wants is a life without worry, and with some companionship she was never really offered by her own race. Plus, riches are very tempting.

PERSONALITY
_{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}
"Was I not supposed to say that?"

At first glance, Ari’s detached and standoffish nature is clear. Though they are much more social than other Myconid due to a less solitary lifestyle, they never actually get close and form attachments. This comes hand in hand with a lack of empathy, a near emotionlessness in the face of other people’s suffering and death. It’s just the way the world is, and it doesn’t affect them. Their main focus is their own survival, with everything else coming secondary. They’d have no qualms about killing someone if they had to - they’ve killed their own kind before, it wouldn’t bother them at all to do it to other races.

While intelligent when it comes to survival and poisons, Ari is severely lacking in any kind of emotional intelligence. They can’t easily tell what other people are thinking, don’t bother to try, and wouldn’t know if someone was going to betray them until the knife was in their back. That’s not to say that they’re trusting, they have no expectations of others but also no awareness of them. They’re blunt and overly talkative even at the worst of times, as if to make up for all the years they spent alone.

Ari can’t keep secrets, and they have nothing to hide, quite easily talking someone’s ear off if asked. They seem almost too friendly in a world like this, coming from a certain social naivety and lack of care for what other people think of them. If that friendliness is met with aggression? Well, Ari will just shrug and leave.

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

▅▅▅▅▅

Why are you?
Why are you?

"My family? What’s that?"

Unlike many in Deadwood, Ari does not have something they’d consider a tragic backstory. They are a mushroom, and there are only so many bad things that can be done to mushrooms without attachment to even their own kind. They have nearly reached middle aged, which for them is enough to count as having a decent past.

Ari spent the first two years of their life growing in thick piles of rotting wood, before emerging as a much smaller version of themselves. From there they spent time alone, learning how to survive in the harsh environment and having more than a few close scrapes with death. This made them more focused on survival, having a one track mind towards staying alive. It was from this their interest in poisons came, since they themselves weren’t poisonous to scare away everything that might try to kill or eat them.

They spent time learning poisonous mushrooms, non sentient and otherwise, by experimentation - on creatures that might eat it or themselves, since it couldn’t kill them. It was around age six that they gained proper contact with other Myconid, who were normally very solitary from each other. Ari themselves wasn’t particularly against talking to others, but had also seen no reason to seek them out. They were lucky to not be killed on sight by the group of Myconid, mostly of the non poisonous variety and much more aggressive as a result. However they were still relatively young and the leader took an interest in them, so they ended up joining them. Thanks to this her ability to learn about poisons grew: the others in the group would often end up killing poisonous Myconid which gave her something to study.

It wasn’t a great way of life, but it wasn’t bad either. She lived with them, moving through the sprawling rotting forests for Myconid had no permanent home, with the goal of just surviving and finding a good place to set down her spore. Nothing monumental happened to change this opinion, only a sudden realisation that there had to be more to life. This was brought about by no longer having to think about survival 24/7 thanks to being in a group, and having time to consider other things.

This feeling was what caused them to set out, leaving the dead wood forests that spanned Deadwood and found out about the news from Exusia from word of mouth. It sounded like a much better option than constantly living just to survive, so they set off to Exusia to join.

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

▅▅▅▅▅

What else is there?
What else is there?

Ari is just a random name they chose because they liked the way the letters sounded together.
Ari is a type of mushroom called inocybe geophylla / earthy inocybe.

Deadwood: Hope, Death, & Misery [Closed]

Wow finally posting a character its a miracle

Myconid

Myconid

_______________________________________________ LIFESPAN: 30-40 years | HEIGHT: 2’4”-4’ | WEIGHT: 20-80lb | FREQUENCY: Uncommon | MAIN SETTLEMENT: Any Dead Forests |

DESCRIPTION ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ No one knows when the Myconid came into existence, not even the Myconid themselves. It is likely that it happened after the cataclysm when rotting forests were in abundance, but they could have existed in much smaller numbers before. It is not something the Myconid themselves care for and they are a race that tends to keep to themselves in the dead forests that span that land, the few others choose to settle in. The Myconid are small and lightweight, looking how you would expect sentient fungi to look. They come in varying sizes depending on the mushroom that they are, with a cap and fleshy bodies with often stumpy legs and arms. They don’t have hands in the same way humans do, many having a thumb and single finger, like a stump with a thumb. This gives them more difficulty doing tasks that require hand dexterity / multiple fingers. Most are plain and simple browns and whites, with a few with brighter red or yellow caps. Their eyes are set just below this, round and black, and their thin mouth is just a line. They have no noses and thus cannot smell. Myconid don't have a gender, though those that venture out of the large dead forests and into other settlements often choose to go one way or another (though a few remain neutral). The majority, around 80%, of Myconid are a poisonous type of mushroom. This discourages creatures that inhabit deadwood from eating them and is generally the most relied on survival method for the many that don't learn how to fight. They are physically frail and weak, without bones and with an inability to build muscles. The rare Myconid that become warriors do it through training and skill rather than physical advantage. However, they have a very high pain tolerance and the ability to survive much more than most races. They don’t exactly have “vital organs” in the same way others do, though it is very easy to cut up and kill a Myconid. They could have all their limbs removed and survived, seeing as they don’t really bleed, but it wouldn’t take much to cut through their body or cut off their cap (which serves as a head equivalent). They don't feel pain in the same way those with complex nervous systems would, it's rather a discomfort of something being lost. Along with this they do have some form of healing factor - if a thumb was removed, it would grow back in a few days, and a limb could grow back in two to four weeks dependent on how much is cut off. Myconid are short lived and mature quickly. They spend the first two years of their life growing underground or buried in dead wood, going from a spore to a sentient fungus. These two years are the safest, assuming what they are buried in can provide them with enough nutrients to grow. After this is the most dangerous time for a young Myconid when they are maturing and easy prey for anything that may wish to eat or kill them (and much less poisonous than a mature Myconid). Only about 1/10 (at best) survive until the age of six, when they are fully mature and by then well versed in survival. Some young Myconid gather together, but this rarely helps their survival chances. The secret of Myconid not being wiped out as a whole is their often single minded goal of creation of the next generation, and the ability to lay down hundreds of spores. Few reach the end of their life expectancy, but as long as they didn’t die in vain, it is alright. There's not really a sense of unity among the Myconid. While they won't attack each other, they tend to be a solitary race, occasionally forming smaller groups with similar mushroom types. Family isn't a thing to a Myconid since they rarely even know who their parent was. Any grouping is normally circumstantial and often between younger Myconid, as they grow older they feel less ties to others. However there are some exceptions. Where most Myconid are peaceful, there are small groups (often non poisonous types) who form groups. These are much more bloodthirsty and the Myconid most likely to venture out of the sprawling, rotting forests. Myconid gain sustenance in two ways. The first is their preferred method, putting down their mycelium into the ground, or dead and rotting wood, and absorbing the nutrients within it. In the large dead forests of Deadwood they thrive like this, and can store this nutrient on their bodies enabling them to go for almost weeks without eating more. The other, much less efficient, way is to eat like most humanoid races. There is nothing special about this aside from being less efficient and storable, and Myconid’s weird preference for rotting food. Myconid are not the smartest of races. The number of Myconid that have learned to read can be counted on one hand. Adept at survival in tough circumstances but fairly simple minded in other aspects sums them up fairly well. They are spread across the dead wood forests, and there is very rarely one without a Myconid within it.

Ari

_______________________________ NAME: Ari AGE: 17 RACE: Myconid PRONOUNS: Primarily They/Them, but little care what others use HOMETOWN: Rotting forest south of the Sorrowfields HEIGHT: 3’1” WEIGHT: 48lb _______________________________ "Well, everyone else in this place sure is strange."

_______________________________ The Poisoner The Poisoner "I wonder how well I can survive outside of the forests..." ▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅ ▅▅▅▅▅ What are you? What are you? APPEARANCE ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I don't really blend in well, do I?" Though tiny when compared to most people, Ari is actually slightly taller than average for their own race. They have a fairly large, pointed cap. This is a light pinkish colour at the bottom and gets darker towards the top, with slight ribs. The underneath of the cap is more ribbed, closer to white in colour than the rest of them. Their body is straight, with little definition between their “head” and the rest of their body. They have comparatively stumpy arms and legs, with stumpy feet and hands without many fingers. Their body is also lightly coloured, getting to a darker purple colour towards their hands and feet. Their eyes are large and jet black, mouth just a slit underneath it with no lips, often twisted into a smile. They have no nose, and no visible ears - just holes in the side of their head. Overall they are unusual to look at, and clearly a humanoid mushroom. CAPABILITIES ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I wouldn’t eat that if I was you." Ari’s main capabilities come from their knowledge and skill in poisons, something learned from being part of a predominantly poisonous race. Ari themselves aren't particularly poisonous, but always had an interest in it, as a result gaining information about all sorts of poisonous mushrooms, both sentient and not, through self experimentation. The few years they’ve spent outside of their original home has added to this through acquiring other ingredients (such as pieces of various creatures), all of which they use to mix their own poisons and similar substances to bring about a variety of effects. Due to their race Ari doesn’t feel pain the same way other humanoid races do, cannot be easily poisoned and can survive a bit longer without eating (if they consume nutrients that fungi thrive off). They also have minimal control over their mycelium, which they use to bury into the ground or similar to absorb nutrients from the environment (if they’re there). Their short stature, light build and general unremarkable presence means that they go more easily unnoticed than others, mostly people aren’t on the look out or wary of the tiny talking fungi. Though this isn’t so much a learned skill of stealth rather than not standing out. Ari is good at surviving in the rotting forests spanning Dead Wood, having done so for many years. Of course she also has all the weaknesses of her race, being smaller, weaker and much easier to damage. Also if something ate Ari, they wouldn’t die, but they would cause muscarine poisoning (increased perspiration ect, abdominal pain, severe nausea, diarrhea, blurred vision, laboured breathing) for around two hours.. EQUIPMENT ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Why would I need more than this?" Ari travels light. They carry it all in a simple sack thrown over their shoulder, clinking with vials of poison and filled with pieces of mushrooms and other such oddities. Most of what they have on their person is various poisons and poisonous ingredients. Along with this they have a medium sized, basic knife used for a variety of purposes.

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

▅▅▅▅▅

Who are you?
Who are you?

GOAL
_{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}
"I’m bored of just surviving."

Ari is tired of the mushroom way of life, of her only goal being to lay down the next generation before waiting for death. Why should she care about others and not herself? She's done with just surviving day to day, waiting to be killed. She's already half way through her life! What she wants is a life without worry, and with some companionship she was never really offered by her own race. Plus, riches are very tempting.

PERSONALITY
_{▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔}
"Was I not supposed to say that?"

At first glance, Ari’s detached and standoffish nature is clear. Though they are much more social than other Myconid due to a less solitary lifestyle, they never actually get close and form attachments. This comes hand in hand with a lack of empathy, a near emotionlessness in the face of other people’s suffering and death. It’s just the way the world is, and it doesn’t affect them. Their main focus is their own survival, with everything else coming secondary. They’d have no qualms about killing someone if they had to - they’ve killed their own kind before, it wouldn’t bother them at all to do it to other races.

While intelligent when it comes to survival and poisons, Ari is severely lacking in any kind of emotional intelligence. They can’t easily tell what other people are thinking, don’t bother to try, and wouldn’t know if someone was going to betray them until the knife was in their back. That’s not to say that they’re trusting, they have no expectations of others but also no awareness of them. They’re blunt and overly talkative even at the worst of times, as if to make up for all the years they spent alone.

Ari can’t keep secrets, and they have nothing to hide, quite easily talking someone’s ear off if asked. They seem almost too friendly in a world like this, coming from a certain social naivety and lack of care for what other people think of them. If that friendliness is met with aggression? Well, Ari will just shrug and leave.

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

▅▅▅▅▅

Why are you?
Why are you?

"My family? What’s that?"

Unlike many in Deadwood, Ari does not have something they’d consider a tragic backstory. They are a mushroom, and there are only so many bad things that can be done to mushrooms without attachment to even their own kind. They have nearly reached middle aged, which for them is enough to count as having a decent past.

Ari spent the first two years of their life growing in thick piles of rotting wood, before emerging as a much smaller version of themselves. From there they spent time alone, learning how to survive in the harsh environment and having more than a few close scrapes with death. This made them more focused on survival, having a one track mind towards staying alive. It was from this their interest in poisons came, since they themselves weren’t poisonous to scare away everything that might try to kill or eat them.

They spent time learning poisonous mushrooms, non sentient and otherwise, by experimentation - on creatures that might eat it or themselves, since it couldn’t kill them. It was around age six that they gained proper contact with other Myconid, who were normally very solitary from each other. Ari themselves wasn’t particularly against talking to others, but had also seen no reason to seek them out. They were lucky to not be killed on sight by the group of Myconid, mostly of the non poisonous variety and much more aggressive as a result. However they were still relatively young and the leader took an interest in them, so they ended up joining them. Thanks to this her ability to learn about poisons grew: the others in the group would often end up killing poisonous Myconid which gave her something to study.

It wasn’t a great way of life, but it wasn’t bad either. She lived with them, moving through the sprawling rotting forests for Myconid had no permanent home, with the goal of just surviving and finding a good place to set down her spore. Nothing monumental happened to change this opinion, only a sudden realisation that there had to be more to life. This was brought about by no longer having to think about survival 24/7 thanks to being in a group, and having time to consider other things.

This feeling was what caused them to set out, leaving the dead wood forests that spanned Deadwood and found out about the news from Exusia from word of mouth. It sounded like a much better option than constantly living just to survive, so they set off to Exusia to join.

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

▅▅▅▅▅

What else is there?
What else is there?

Ari is just a random name they chose because they liked the way the letters sounded together.
Ari is a type of mushroom called inocybe geophylla / earthy inocybe.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

There was agreement both for and against getting in contact with the cult member.

Though he didn’t exactly explicitly say it, beyond agreeing with one of the more rude Vanburen members, it was easy enough to tell that Justin didn’t agree with Tuyen’s idea. It wasn’t something that should bother her - she wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for his business here, so of course his ideas would make more sense.

But it was enough to fuel the self doubts constantly dwelling in her mind and for the shadow to creep in where she’d held it off for the rest of the day. The voices around her took a slight sinister tint, vision blurring with shadows she knew weren’t really there. Tuyen’s lips twitched downwards into a pained grimace, gone as quickly as it had appeared as she forced herself back to looking as neutral as possible.

She was paying attention to this, not now. As if she could just ignore what was the truth.

Oscar listened to everything Justin said with folded arms and a few nods. He wasn’t surprised when Sabrina suggested going to the police. Of all of them she was the one most out of place with… violence, in his mind. Not that it was something Oscar wanted to rush into. But a chance to see the cult’s Abstractions again, and discover any other tricks they may have? It wasn’t something he could pass up on.

"So, uh, what can you all do by the way? Mine is Pyro-telekinesis. I can move objects with my mind but whatever I control catches fire. Pretty simple, yeah?"

Justin

Tuyen stayed silent, deciding not to say or demonstrate her abstraction like Justin had. For a start, she couldn’t. Especially not right now. They’d already seen all she would be willing to explain, so even if she was asked by any Vanburen, she would only give them the most simplest answer. Even that was as a show of trust and so that they would trust her and Justin.

Oscar’s attention, which had begun to stray, was instantly brought back by the question. It was something he was curious about too. Not all of his siblings were open with using their abstractions and it could be a little less obvious what they did.

Ezra demonstrated an ability to improve objects… and himself it seemed. Oscar nodded as he spoke, committing it to memory to dissect later before flickering his gaze to the next ones to speak. Alexander’s was interesting to him, watching the conjured chains with a quickly moving mind as he tried to figure out how it worked. He wasn’t so interested in Raymond’s… terrakinesis was mundane enough, in that it was described in plenty of superhero films. The weaknesses, though? Interesting.

The new girls were the most interesting of them all, having Oscar’s eyes widen in excitement. He wondered what kind of abstraction it was. An aberration of some kind? That would make more sense, but perhaps she was awakened.

”All very interesting,” Oscar mumbled, mostly to himself. His mind was filled with questions he wanted to ask them all. How long could Ezra maintain his spell? How big of an object could he cast on, how long did Alexander’s chains go, how-

”Why does what I can do matter?” Trisha scowled, pulling herself away from picking her nails and ignoring everything going on around her. It was only when some disgusting phantom tentacle was pointing at her that she was given no choice but to look up.

This was her absolute worst nightmare. Show and tell with their abilities? Please. Like she would ever admit to something so embarrassing. Did they think she was just going to pull out her laptop and demonstrate? As if. She was never, ever letting her family get wind of the fact that she could program… Nevermind that she found it genuinely interesting. She would die before she told them.

”Georgie’s right, I’m not just going to tell you all the details of what I can do. I don’t even know you so you can fuck right off. What I can do isn't that important to anyone here, anyway.”

It was a lie that she agreed with Georgie, because she never agreed with Georgie. It was just an excuse to not have to explain why she didn’t actually want to talk about what she could do. She was glad her sister had left, though. Just her presence was irritating.

”Oh, I can do two things, predominantly,” Oscar said eventually, having once again gotten lost in his own mind. He’d completely forgotten the point of all this and ended up focusing on all the abilities that had been shown. ”On one hand I can create and control water. On the other, I can essentially channel electricity through my hands.” He demonstrated this one, bright sparks jumping from his hands for a few moments. ”Both are simple enough on the surface, but I could keep talking about the nuances of it if there’s interest.”

Trisha snorted. As if there was interest.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

Tuyen was thankful to have had a chance to get changed after their investigation, bundled up in a more practical set of trousers and a thick winter jacket that she’d owned since she stopped growing. The scarf wrapped around her neck was worn and clearly old, but it still did its job.

She wasn’t going to freeze to death again, thank you very much. Though it wasn’t quite as bad as when Farmer’s Hill basically froze over. She shoved her glove covered hands in her pockets, shivering and keeping close to Justin.

Oscar had taken a short break after investigating with his siblings, traipsing through a forest and thankfully getting some information. Now Justin was suggesting going after the cult and everyone was chiming in with their own ideas. Far too many of them. ”You’ve got most of their abilities, though one must also be able to disguise themselves, so add that to the list.” He said to Ray, giving him a nod, having also kept a tally in his head of everything they could do (in hope of investigating it later).

Trisha, unlike the other actively participating, hung back and rolled her eyes. ”Oh yes, let’s just all go galavant in the woods and take out a bunch of weirdos, sounds like a great use of our time. Not to mention that you’re expecting us to work together. That isn’t going to happen. So the plan doesn’t matter, because it won’t work in the end.”

Oscar ignored his pessimistic sister and changed his attention to their new sibling(?) and her somewhat crazy idea that sounded fun but unlikely to work, and then Arabelle with her less crazy idea.

“If this girl is truly against their plans, she may know a way to stop them without violence. She may know about this goddesses weakness too. I think we should try to contact her.”

Arabelle

”Do you think you’ll be able to contact her?” Tuyen asked, eyebrows raised. ”We’ll have to get rid of the Triple Goddess either way, but it will be easier if we can negotiate with the cult itself. Without her, I don’t think they will be a threat to you.”

At least that was what she hoped, seeing as she didn’t have much confidence in the Vanburens fighting against both the cult and the Triple Goddess at the same time. There was only so much her and Justin could pull their weight in a fight, but they also couldn’t go alone. It was bad enough that she was as likely to be a hindrance as a help. She was just a burden, most of the time.

”Either way, I agree with confronting the cult,” Oscar spoke up, tapping his fingers against his mostly broken phone. ”And that if it comes down to a fight, not everyone here is suited to that. I can handle their water and fire at the very least.” Though their water abstractions seemed more powerful than his. He then glanced at Arabelle. ”And we need to make sure to continue to keep the Horned God away from them, right? It’s best it stays with Arabelle, I think.”

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

---

Tuyen frowned as she listened to Justin, arms folded over her chest in an attempt to keep herself a little warmer. Thankfully outside of the somewhat destroyed dining room wasn’t so bad, but she really needed a change of clothes. If there was even a chance for that.

”Magic only came back after we defeated… it, right?” she narrowed her eyes. It was strange. Why did this guy have so many apparitions sitting around? How did he even know about them? ”How did he even find all these apparitions…”

Tuyen shook her head. There was a lot to think about, and a lot that they could pursue. Too much. It was hard for her to get her head around it all. At least in Farmer Hill things there had been a clear way forward a lot of the time… even if everything that happened was horrible.

”Well, I think that it’s no wonder that his children got cursed if he was already messing with all this stuff. It’s confirmed that he knew Thorton Walters… Even if he didn’t give us any useful information, which is the opposite of helpful. Maybe he’s connected to their curse, who knows. Hopefully they’ll find something in all those books.”

She wasn’t hopeful about that, but she figured she didn’t need to say that. It would have been easier if James had stuck around and told them more, but they couldn’t dwell on that. It was a surprise anything useful had come of it anyway.

”I agree with taking things one at a time, though. We should concentrate on the cult first and make sure they don’t release that horned god, and if they have… Well, deal with it. Even if they aren’t helpful for the rest it best to deal with something that might end up dangerous.”

She wasn't confident at all if they had released the Horned God - or that they would be able to take on the Triple Goddess either. She’d already called her shadow once today, something she was regretting now, and would it listen to her again? Unlikely. Why would it.

Tuyen sighed, giving Justin a faint smile. ”We really have our work cut out for us, huh?”

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

Okay, Oscar had to admit he’d been pretty rude.

So he brushed off all of the rudeness that was sent back in his direction without much of a care. He just wanted to get this over and done with and be out of this place. It absolutely stank, and he’d much rather be outside in the cold.

"... I just don't know where I heard that before, it's like it's on the tip of my tongue."

Oscar looked down at the tips cup, and then back up at the woman. Raymond responded first, seeming to play up his accent and continuing along the line of questioning that Oscar had started. Oscar just sighed as he did so and shoved a hand in his pocket, pulling out a crumpled twenty dollar bill and shoving it into the coffee cup.

”Now will you tell us where you’ve heard that name?”

---

---

Thankfully Justin agreed with Tuyen, and after a failed call to Oscar didn’t seem to plan to stick around. Which worked great for her. She was already feeling uncomfortable, both from being around these people and her still damp clothes. Maybe she should ask Justin if he wouldn’t mind using his abstraction so she could dry off from the second hand heat.

And because of all this she needed a new phone. She couldn’t really afford a new phone.

"We're gonna get a move on... but before we go, Tuyen can we have a word?"

Justin

“Of course,” Tuyen nodded as she followed him towards and out the door. She continued quietly, even though she was fairly certain they’d gone out of earshot of the Vanburens. She instantly felt more comfortable the more distance they had from them - she had never liked large groups, nevermind ones like this. ”What is it you want to talk about?”

---

Trisha rolled her eyes as Georgie went on about her power, and the two “experts” headed out.

”Since when were you in charge?” she muttered as Georgie started delegating work as if she was suddenly the head of the family. Fuck, she should just fuck off to her room and be done with this. ”Whatever, I’ll do it.”

She completely ignored the others as she headed to the library, finding the section Georgie had suggested. Instead of starting to look through books she pulled out her laptop, and started typing away.

It would be much easier to have her abstraction look for books too, rather than just doing it herself.

Recollections: Magnanimous (Cancelled)

---

Oscar was initially glad to get out of the cab, though he had a much more pleasant experience that his siblings crammed in the back. He wasn’t so happy when he was hit by the stink of the area they were in, nose scrunching up as he looked around. This certainly seemed like an area that a cult would be in. And the opposite of a place where him and his siblings fit in.

"Are we going to the bar and ask the omnipotent bartender about a suspicious character named Morgana?"

Raymond

“A bar?” Oscar raised an eyebrow. “None of them looked old enough to be frequenting a place like that.”

Still, Shane didn’t immediately shoot it down and Oscar probably trusted his older brother’s intuition the most when it came to these things. And Shane went off to the pizza place - not much point in following him, he’d have that under control.

“Well, I guess it's worth trying out,” Oscar nodded. ”We can check the bar first, and then the convenience store if that doesn’t come up with anything… Unless one of you wants to check that yourself?”

He didn’t really wait for an answer before heading towards the bar, trying not to look too put off as he pushed open the worn door. He wasn’t a frequent drinker in any way, and rarely visited bars - nevermind something like this. However he approached the bar itself with the confidence of someone who belonged there (when he really didn’t). He folded his arms and got straight to the point.

”Have any of you seen a red haired girl going by Morgana recently?”

---

---

Trisha spent most of the time that James was talking picking her nails, only half listening. She really didn’t want to listen to his crap. Was it not bad enough that she’d had to do it while he was still alive? Honestly, good riddance to him. Her lips curled up into a sneer when Junior stopped him from leaving. Because of course!

She rolled her eyes at Georgie’s back as the slightly younger girl left.

”Good riddance, Father,” she muttered as he faded away.

Tuyen was honestly in shock by how all the siblings treated their father. Even if they had problems with him, surely they should have some kind of respect for him? It wasn’t something she could understand at all. If anything she was envious that they’d had a father up until a year ago. How ungrateful could they get? She kept these thoughts to herself, though, face neutral even as the shadow hissed in her ear that she should let them know just what she thought.

That was a recipe for disaster right there.

She frowned as Georgie returned with news that not only was the artifact the witches had looked for was gone, but also another to watch out for.

“You have Oscar’s number, don’t you, Justin?” Tuyen commented as Georgie said she’d text Ocar. ”Surely it would be easier for you to just call him, rather than waiting for him to call you?” As she said this she pulled out her own phone, before frowning. Ah. They’d all been drenched in water. Her phone was completely useless now. ”I doubt that Oscar’s phone is working, considering that we all got soaked earlier. Mine isn’t. I think it would be best for us to follow your lead, Justin.”

She certainly didn’t want to hang around here with all of these rich kids if she could help it.

”There’s definitely no point in us staying here, seeing as there are plenty of you to go through these books and figure out what to do with the artifacts. If the cult does have the Horned God then it’s the worst thing the two of us can do.”

And while Tuyen had always loved reading, she knew she wasn’t the best when it came to retaining knowledge. That was why she tended to let Justin answer all of their questions. Though she was fairly certain that Georgie’s solution wouldn’t work out - considering that one group already knew where to find them, it would be easy enough for others to get that information hidden artifacts or not. She’d let Justin ask that question before they left.

“Well, I’m staying here,” Trisha frowned, even as she glared at the books that she didn’t want to touch. Well, she didn’t have combat magic so she didn’t have to read them. Not that she wanted to go with Georgie’s idea right off the get go. ”I guess I can help figure out where to put the artifacts.”

Her abstraction would help a little with that depending on how big some of the artifacts were, she could get her minions to carry them somewhere safe.