tabularasa_rp | (open) Beware the Forest Mushrooms

In early February, before the cases of Overgrowth begin, Bowser sets out from the Merlaut in the morning. He wears a new outfit the void has given him, which is the garb of a doctor, though he’s currently not wearing the head mirror or stethoscope that came with the outfit. Specifically, the berries that grant immunity of fire and heat, and taste very spicy. His plans for them, however, do not have to do with either trait.

Once he has them, he goes to the Heavenly Blanc, using its kitchen to put the berries into bowls, leaving some unharmed, dicing some into small cubes, grinding others to dust, and mashing some into paste. The altered berries are mixed with various other substances, some with water, or lava, or paint, or whatever Bowser thinks will make some kind of reaction. Some are even set on fire. Though Bowser is no chemist of any sort, his hope is that the void, in its complete ignorance of actual science, will allow the concoctions to work anyway.

After all this, Bowser goes to the volcanic region of the Wyndon Simulation Joint. One by one, he drinks each of the potions he has created, and tries to breathe fire.

"Huh? Uh... morning."

Blue blinks, standing in the doorway of the Heavenly Blanc on his way in to a shift to work the bar. He doesn't expect behind the bar to already be occupied by a very busy King Koopa, clearly cooking up a storm.

After a moment, he continues on inside and curiously sits at the bar to watch him, rather than scold him for using the bar without asking. The guy didn't seem like the type who'd be shamed by it, anyway.... There's various berries scattered about, and he recognizes from the scent the spicy whiff of Cheri berries, just like the ones he'd seen start to grow.

"Whatcha making?"

"Fire potions. I think." Bowser continues his work even as he explains it. He mixes some lava from a bucket into some berry paste in a bowl. Then, he strikes together his new silver-colored bands to produce sparks which set the concoction of fire. "These berries are connected to fire and heat somehow."

"I'm betting it'll let me use my fire somehow." It won't actually work as things are, but Bowser hopes that it will.

"Potions, huh." Well... that was a logical start, Blue thinks, although he doubts Bowser knew anything about the medicinal properties of berries where he comes from.

Would they be the same in the void? Blue has no sure idea just yet, even though he's tested using them in drinks. But maybe if they followed some of the logic of his world, they could help out. Maybe not with fire-breathing, buuut... Hey! He's into experimenting for science.

(Maybe not the paint, though.)

"Back home, these spicy berries are actually used to cure muscle paralysis, of all things. You'd think it might defrost you with its heat, right? Nope...." Blue goes rummaging in the cupboards at the back of the bar, and pulls out the strange, yellow-spotted fruits he'd collected, instead. "These sour ones actually thaw out freezing. And it's the bitter, green ones with the curly leaves that can heal a burn, like a salve."

"Maybe if you try experimenting with those, it'll help out?"

"So these are from your world." It was almost surprising, hearing about something from that world that wasn't directly related to pokemon, after he'd begun to associate the two so closely. Of course, it wasn't as if any dimension truly had a single defining feature.

Bowser hadn't actually considered that any berries beyond the red ones would actually be useful to him. But knowing this, he was certainly going to experiment with more types. "Can't hurt to try."

Blue glances at the berries thoughtfully. "Kind of. They're not alive in the same way back home. Um, the faces sort of creep me out, to be honest."

And he sort of felt bad picking them because of that. He'd leave that kind of carnage to those that could stomach it; he'll just prepare them after they're slain! Same as meat, really, at that point... "But back home, berries are a big part of a lot of Pokémon's diets. And their healing qualities make them really useful."

Setting the basket of other berries on the counter, Blue picks up one of the dry Bluk berries. "These ones back home don't have much of a healing effect, but I heard from Raihan they seem to act kind of like an energy drink, here. The storms seem to make 'em real... sparky. Maybe this'll help?"

Blue's first statement surprises Bowser. "Huh? Plants with eyes are normal in my dimension." Many things do, even inanimate objects, but for Bowser, that's just how things have always been. Picking the berries causes him little issue for that reason, along with a general lack of concern over what is considered moral.

Hearing the other berries could be useful, he resolves to see what they can do. "I'll test 'em too, then. Anything that might get my fire breath back."

Vanillite and Magnemite would be just at home in Mushroom Kingdom, wouldn't they? "I mean, me too, but we don't eat them," Blue pouts. "Speaking of plants with faces, you should meet my Exeggutor, sometime! He's a real friendly Pokémon that's like a walking tree. His seeds can explode, but they're not really fiery."

And you should make some more friends, Bowser. Blue will aggressively force this... someday, but for now he's content to just bug him on his own. Maybe he's aware that Bowser is somewhere a mite above just being a jerk, but he hasn't needed to scold him yet.

"It must bug you a lot, huh. Arcanine's been moping about the same thing," Blue hums, chin resting in his hands as he watches Bowser work. "He's jealous cuz Exeggutor and Alakazam got their telepathic powers back."

Suddenly remembering something, Blue lifts his head. "Oh! Other people here told me they can use magic, so maybe magic potions aren't much of a stretch. Hey, if one of these works for you, let me know! Maybe potions for other powers will work, too!"

Indigo's a fan of the spicy berries herself and can be found near a few of the plants, though her plans for them aren't nearly as ambitious. Instead, she holds one up to the lower part of her brand... and there's a crunching sound as a bite-sized and -shaped chunk of the berry disappears.

She looks up as Bowser approaches, taking in the outfit even as she steps away from the plants once she realizes he has business with them. This guy doesn't have the best reputation around the Void, though at least she's not freaking out about his appearance like some others have; the universe is a big place, with a wide diversity of life. In other words... she's seen weirder.

Indigo gestures at the berries, her reverberating voice soft, almost shy:

"Did ya want some o' these?"

Bowser spends a moment wondering how Indigo managed to take a bite out of the berry, but like with Indigo, he's seen people that have looked far stranger and possessed more inexplicable qualities.

"Yeah. I'm gonna try and use 'em for something. You gonna help or not?"

She's almost cowed by his aggressive language... but no, she's stood up against scarier things before, and it's not like he's trying to hurt her. So she straightens up and kind of shrugs.

"Sure, I don't mind." For now, anyway. That might change if it turns out he's trying to do something bad with them. She holds out a basket she's made with a good stock of the berries inside. "This enough, or ya need more?"

Bowser looks at the basket, seemingly unimpressed and without gratitude, but nods. "For now."

"I'm taking the berries to the Heavenly Blanc." Bowser walks to a spot where he's placed a few more baskets of berries, and picks them up. He then gestures for Indigo to follow him as he walks in the direction of the Bar & Cafe.

She nods in return, willingly following (and finishing the berry she started on the way; with a bite missing from it, it's useless, right? At least she doesn't eat anymore). Despite the stereotypes of her race, she has zero interest in alcohol, so she can't be found at the Heavenly Blanc as often as some others.

Honestly, he's got her curiosity piqued; and more science in this strange little world can never be a bad thing. Experiments are how she got concrete working, after all.

Once they reach the Heavenly Blanc and go inside, Bowser sets the baskets on the bar. He sits at the bar for a few minutes, to rest after the trip. As he does so he explains the next step in the process.

"Pretty soon I'm going to start turning mashing these berries. Make 'em into something like paste."

Indigo bobs her head at that, stepping behind the bar and beginning to look through the drawers. "I can help with that." She looks up, a few various utensils like forks and knives in her hands.

"So can ya tell me what yer tryin' ta accomplish here, or is it a surprise?"

"Fire potions," Bowser says with a grin. He picks up one of the berries, tossing it into the air before catching it.

"These berries have something to do with fire, and the world doesn't really understand any kind of science all that well. I'm thinking if I just mix some berry paste with the right stuff, I'll be able to make something that lets me breathe fire again."

"Sounds reasonable to me." Indigo glances down at the Matter Manipulator at her waist; if only they had access to the things she had collected in it from home, they'd have more fire-related things to experiment with.

Then, something Bowser said dawns on her:

"Breathe fire again? So it's somethin' you do normally?" Well, that would make a certain amount of sense; he had to get the idea from somewhere, right?

Bowser immediately takes the oppurtunity to brag about his abilities "Yeah, I can breathe fire. That's basically my trademark! Any Koopa Noble can do it biologically, sure, but not as well as I can."

"So I need to get it back. I need to figure out a potion that makes my fire breath work again."

"If we had one o' my flamethrowers here, maybe that'd help speed up the world's understandin' of it." Or a fennix, or any other fire-elemental critter... take your pick, really. The point is, she's at least familiar with fire breath.

"Koopa? Is that what ya are? Like what yer species is called?"

"Flamethrowers?" Bowser sounds impressed as he asks it.

"Close. But we're not one species. We're a whole bunch of related species. MY species is the biggest and the strongest, so we're the noblity and royalty of the Koopa Kingdom."

(open) Beware the Forest Mushrooms

For Science

omg don't poison yourself Bowser

he's going to eat paint and you can't stop him

noooo

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