open post: pollen science

[peaklordshen]

After his conversation with Sagramore, Shen Qingqiu had taken a long, hot shower, mainly for the novelty of it, and then gotten dressed again in his robes—although he wore fewer layers than were truly proper for a peak lord, and he'd forgone his guan in favor of just braiding his hair in a thick coil against his neck. He leaves the two looser loops at the front—he still can't find his fan, and it felt wrong to not have any frame to his face at all. He's not thinking about why he feels loath to fully don his Shen Qingqiu persona. He's not thinking about much, about the last few days. Instead, he's thinking about pollen.

He's in the greenhouse, carefully laying out a sample cut from every plant in the place, as well as every plant he can imagine producing pollen of any kind from the grounds. Grasses, flowers, buds, leaves, even a few species of harmless-looking mushroom. He's using a pair of tweezers he found to gentle separate them so he can examine the internal structures. Some he recognizes as entirely harmless - Earth flora; others are stranger, more alien. Some even look similar to plants from Proud Immortal Demon Way, though thankfully none are obviously aphrodisiac in nature. Shen Qingqiu is wearing his gloves and mask again anyway—he doesn't want to breathe in the wrong pollen; normal sex pollen would just increase his normal desires and make him hyper-straight, totally defeating the purpose.

He has his notebook open to a fresh page, and is making meticulous lists.

Comments

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu flips to Tress' entry in his notebook and writes this down. "And the moons release - constants streams of spores, into the seas? Or is it intermittent, like tides?"

[sporesprouter]

"It's constant. The sea level actually rises a bit when you get closer. It's almost like sailing uphill, a little."

[peaklordshen]

Sailing uphill sounds like a metaphor for the absurd to Shen Qingqiu. "Do you have a favorite moon?" he asks. "Is that a strange question?"

[sporesprouter]

"The Verdant. I grew up there. Even though I've seen so much more since then, it still reminds me of home."

[summerdude]

"Oh, easy," Magnus says, squinting at the plants. He brushes his fingers gingerly against the vine. "This one's mistletoe. Makes a mean arrow if you're Loki and trying to kill a god with the only thing in the world that didn't swear not to harm him. I think most people also use it as a sign they should kiss?"

He gestures toward the pale, bushy flower, but does not touch it. He hates that ghostly plant. Even though it does good things, technically, it's creepy. "That is magical heather. From Lyngvi, which is this island that only exists once a year? It's part of Fenris Wolf's prison. Both the island and the flower. He can't tolerate its touch. Gives off a weird silver mist at night, too. It's very good at traps, that heather. I, um. I would avoid it. Personally."

He doesn't recognize the other one, though. "That big pink one... maybe it's some kind of succulent?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu sighs, disappointed. "All from lands familiar to you, then, if not me."

[summerdude]

"Well, not the pink one," Magnus says. "It just has succulent vibes. Are you looking for something specific to this place?" He glances over the samples Shen Qingqiu has collected and points at a couple. "I don't recognize any of these."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu shakes his head. "I know those," he says. "And—yes. I'm looking for something that might be having an effect on—well, the plot, I suppose you could say. I think if we're trapped here it's so something will happen to us. Where I'm from, a lot of things that happen to you are, um, plant-based."

[summerdude]

"I feel that," says Magnus. "Yggdrasil -- that's a tree -- touches all of the Nine Worlds, and when her branches shake, storms are born."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu blinks. That sounds dope. "You've seen this tree?"

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu smiles at her. She sounds so sincerely fond. "What's your home like?"

[sporesprouter]

"Well, home's more my ship now, but that said... it's a little saltrock island in the middle of the Verdant, just big enough for a little town and the duke's mansion."

[summerdude]

"Yeah, dude," says Magnus. "I basically live in it."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu stares at him, fascinated. "You live in a tree?"

[peaklordshen]

"The duke?" Shen Qingqiu asks. "Is he in charge of the Verdant?"

[sporesprouter]

"The duke's in charge of the island. There's a king in charge of the Verdant." She frowns. "I'm not really very fond of either of them."

[peaklordshen]

Shen Qingqiu wishes he'd brought some tea to the greenhouse - this is settling into being quite the juicy lore session. "Why not?"

[sporesprouter]

"Because they thought sending Charlie to die was an acceptable idea to try to placate the Sorceress. It's one thing for the king, because that's politics, but the duke is his father. Just because he didn't want to marry some princess..."

[summerdude]

"Yeah!" Magnus says. "Well, sort of. Hotel Valhalla is built around Yggdrasil, and also it's enormous, so there are branches everywhere, and they're a good way of getting around the hotel and the Worlds. I think pretty much every lounge in Valhalla has an access point? And it's bigger than Valhalla. Like, it's big enough that entire flocks of tiny deer live in it. And Ratatosk." He shudders. "The really mean squirrel."

[peaklordshen]

Ah. Shen Qingqiu nods. Politics, and marriage trouble on top of that. "I imagine we prefer Charlie alive," he says, with a smile.

[sporesprouter]

Tress nods emphatically. "We prefer Charlie alive, and also not turned into a rat."

[peaklordshen]

"Was rat the next step possible punishment? After death, I mean." Tress has mentioned a Sorceress a few times now, and Shen Qingqiu will definitely be circling back to that, but Charlie is the first person he's heard he mention by name rather than by title, so his desire for gossip is overtaking his desire for lore for the moment.

[sporesprouter]

"They sent him to the Sorceress expecting him to get killed. She cursed him instead and turned him into a rat."

[peaklordshen]

"That sucks," says Shen Qingqiu. The casualness with which Tress brought this up makes him think Charlie's probably okay, now, but still. "Did you turn him back? With your spores?"

[sporesprouter]

"We reversed the curse, but not with spores. The Sorceress' magic came from another world, so we needed the same magic to undo it."