Private Fungus Amongus

[Persephone Dashiell]

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Carefully, Persephone entered the ruins. Vegetation was everywhere. Mushrooms popped up all over the ground, overtaking what would have previously been a stone floor. This wasn't her typical haunt. Most days she was busy hunting down Ashlan artifacts or odd things left behind by Jedi. Not a huge fan of them but their artifacts commanded a great deal on the secondary market.

Today was the ruins of an ancient AgriCorps building. Once very grand but clearly lost to time and overtaken by nature. Her Professor at Kalinda University had sent her on this quest. The elderly Ithorian woman had put her in contact with someone who had a specialty of herbs and the like. Persephone didn't know if that meant current ones or ones thought to be extinct.

Professor Aawala had gotten word there may be spores and seed samples leftover at the site. Persephone wasn't so sure they would be viable but she was merely a student. One who needed to pass the program. As such she would follow directions to a tee and dop her best to find where Jedi would keep such a thing. Most would be in a cryogenic vault but knowing Jedi it was in a crusty wooden box, degrading somewhere.

Turning, Persephone looked at the woman who was a expert on this things. Or so she kept being told.

"So....if you were a Jedi in charge of these plants, and trying to perserve them, where would you keep them?"

Xiaoyu​

 

[Xiaoyu]

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Xiaoyu lingered a few steps behind Persephone as they entered the ruins, her attention already drifting away from the crumbling architecture and toward the things that had taken its place.

Plants. Fungus. Growth where there shouldn't have been any.

The air smelled wonderfully damp.

She crouched almost immediately, the hem of her brown skirt pooling lightly around her boots as she leaned down to inspect a cluster of pale mushrooms sprouting from a crack in the old stone floor. Her green top; simple, practical, and tied neatly at the waist; shifted with the movement, its sleeves pushed slightly back so they wouldn’t brush the fungi. Her dark teal hair was loosely gathered behind her head, a few stray strands already escaping as she worked.

Her fingers hovered just above the caps, careful not to touch them yet. A few spores floated lazily in the air where something had disturbed them earlier.

Interesting....very interesting. Her blue eyes narrowed with quiet curiosity.

Persephone’s voice eventually pulled her attention away from the fungi, though Xiaoyu didn’t stand right away. Instead she tilted her head slightly, still staring at the cluster as if it might reveal some secret.

"So....if you were a Jedi in charge of these plants, and trying to perserve them, where would you keep them?"

Xiaoyu hummed softly. It was the sort of thoughtful noise she made when someone had handed her a puzzle.

“I don’t know much about Jedi,” she admitted plainly as she finally stood, dusting her hands against her robe. “Other than they like temples, meditation, and being mysterious about everything.”

Her eyes began wandering across the ruined structure, though not in the way Persephone might expect. Xiaoyu wasn’t looking for architecture or hidden mechanisms. She was watching the plants, watching which ones grew where and which ones avoided certain patches of stone. She walked a few slow steps across the room, pausing beside a thick line of moss creeping along the base of one wall. Her fingers lightly brushed it, testing the moisture trapped beneath.

“Plants tell you things,” she murmured, almost to herself.

A few paces further and she stopped again. Something about the growth here was uneven. Mushrooms clustered thick in some places, yet a section of wall nearby remained strangely bare despite the humidity. “Hmm.” Xiaoyu stepped closer and knocked lightly on the stone with her knuckle. The sound was dull… but not solid. Her eyes brightened immediately. “Oh.” She knocked again, a little more enthusiastically this time. “Hollow.”

Now she finally glanced back at Persephone, the faintest spark of excitement flickering in her otherwise calm expression. “If someone wanted to keep spores or seeds safe,” Xiaoyu said, gesturing at the wall, “they wouldn’t leave them out where moisture and animals could ruin them.” Her hand brushed across the bare section of stone where almost nothing had grown. “Dry. Dark. Cool.” Another knock.

“If I were hiding something delicate…” She gave the wall a small, thoughtful pat. “I’d probably put it behind something like this.”

Persephone Dashiell​