Homies for the Holidays

"blah, blah, blah... Dorien talks talks all educated and such... its pie and it smells good. Shell it out for everyone if you're giving out pieces," Argent adds in. "Thanks for the treats," he adds to Denise, finding a place on a shelf for the package. "You can have your gift after you eat, if you're still interested."

Gen went into the kitchen and cut three decent-sized slices for herself, Dorien, and Argent, and a smaller one for Denise. The pie was still steaming when she cut into it, which was inordinately pleasing to her, considering how cold it had been outside. Having brought the plates to the table she then popped the cork on a bottle of red wine and brought it and four glasses to the table. "Lupper is served," she called to the other occupants of the apartment.

Denise grinned at Argent, before heading to the table. "You bet!" She helped distribute plates and cutlery and glasses before sitting down.

Gen thanked Denise for her help with setting the table, then without even really thinking about it, she turned unerringly to face the One star and offer it her silent thanks for... well, she wasn't quite sure what, but the food was probably a good start. Then she, too, took a seat.

Dorien took the plate with a nod of thanks and immediately dug in, happy for the warm meal, the good company, and life in general.

After a moment he realized something was missing. He put his plate down and got up to get his bottle of gin from the kitchen counter along with a glass and some tonic water from the ice box.

"Anyone else want a pick-me-up with their meal?" he asked, raising the bottle.

"Not a fan of red wine? I'm sorry." Gen smiled apologetically before continuing. "I'll stick with my wine for now, but a gin and tonic would go down nicely afterwards, thanks."

"Bah," Dorien said jokingly as he mixed his drink, "Wine is for people with more class than style. Fortunately, I have none of the former and an excess of the latter."

"So you think I'm classy but unstylish?" Gen joked. "Thanks." She then turned to Denise, who had taken a few mouthfuls of her pie, by the looks of things. "So, does it taste all right, in spite of the acids?"

"Yeah, it's really good! Where's it from?" Denise had accepted a glass of wine, which she sipped a bit suspiciously, given her last experience with wine. It tasted pretty good with the pie though.

Argent will take a glass of wine as well, and settles in to try the pie.

"Us classy people will enjoy our wine and pie, which, by the way, is better paired than your vile gin and malaria medicine," Argent remarks to Dorien. "So does being stylish usually mean having a bad taste in your mouth?"

"I honestly don't remember the name of the bakery... I just happened to pass by it when I was looking for a place to stay, since my landlord's away and nothing will get fixed until he is back. I smelled venison pie and decided to get some, that's all..." Gen was a little embarrassed that she couldn't remember the name of the place. "It was just on the edge of Rhenea... Joussard Street, I think?"

"More often than you'd think," Dorien replied to Argent as he took his seat again, drink in hand, "But at least I need never fear mosquitoes."

Denise nodded to Gen, trying to think if she knew the place. "I think I seen that please yeah!" She turned to the other. "But like, speakin' a Dorien bein' super classy, plus gross things, I talked to Mikel about the mushroom farm stuff."

Dorien raised an eyebrow.

"Who's Mikel and what does she know about mushrooms farms?"

Denise gave Dorien a weird look. Surely she'd mentioned him before.... and who ever heard of Mikel being a girl's name? "He's my brother, an' he a channel. Channels know about all kinds of weird stuff, specially when it comes to the undercity, like."

"Don't leave us in suspense, despite one fool's babbling, what did he say?" Argent urged Denise. "Especially fools claiming to be worried about mosquitoes this time of year."

Denise grinned at that, and took another sip of her wine. "Whelp. He went 'n asked Channel Zia, I guess, an' she said that prolly the little musrhoom people were some kinda fey - Poleviks? Somethin' like that. They like... farm mushrooms on their bodies, I guess." Denise made a face at that point. "And they ain't real friendly. He says Channel Sylvia is gonna go look at the creepy tree, too. Oh yeah - plus Enver said the screamy ones are ones our folks uses to use as like, alarms, which I guess is what they were used for there, too? He was gonna see if he couldn't find out about th' other ones too."

"Concocybe Sonantis," Dorien said, "Shrieker mushrooms. Those I'd seen before, but never that size. The rest of them Were a new one on me. Whatever they are, those Poleviks as you call them were making some weird shit. I should be done analyzing those specimens soon. Hopefully that'll at least tell us what they were doing down there."

"Channel Sylvia? Rionet? She told me she was a 'druid.'" Did they mean the same thing, Gen wondered? "And what's this about a creepy tree? The ones out at the experimental farm?" Gen asked, trying to figure out what the others were talking about.

"Channel's the Rat word; izlaz. Just translated. There's other folks got druids, I guess, but I dunno if its the same." Denise shrugged. "The trees are up in the Shade though! They're all like whisperin' all creepy "oooOOOooo we will rise again!" But like in some weird language. Lathra magiced up what they was sayin'"

"Oh, thanks for explaining," Gen smiled. She always liked learning new things. "Does the Shade tree have blue sap? The ones out at the farm do, but they weren't whispering anything."

"Nope! Just creepy gross mushrooms. Dorien was pokin' at them though." She looks at the alchemist, figuring he could expound at greater length while she finished the rest of her pie.

"No, they weren't anything like the ones at the farm, other than being obviously magically enhanced.That was my first thought as well, but I didn't find any evidence to directly link them. My biggest concern is those mushroom people. It's hard to tell if they're the cause of this mess or a symptom of it."

He shrugged and sipped his gin and tonic.

"Either way, I'm betting this is only a small offshoot of something bigger. That's the thing about fungus. For every mushroom you see there's a whole network of mycelium underground that you don't."

"Seems like a lot of fey are just showing up these days..." Argent muses out loud. "We should find out all that Lathra and Aubrienne know about all of this. I don't mind being the muscle, but I like to be informed muscle. Know what I'm walking into with my eyes open. Right Denise?"

"It's twice that Dorien's been targeted by strange creatures. You think its your style that brings them to you, or your lack of class?" he jabs jokingly.

Gen knew she was probably overreacting, but she hated to hear her cousin criticized. Did his roommate always tease him this way, she wondered? He was a grown man - older than herself, even, so she didn't jump to his defense. What would she say, anyway?  She'd never been any good at defending herself from verbal attacks, let alone someone else. So she just sat back and listened. Quietly listening was one thing, at least, that she was good at.  And maybe there would be more to learn about these weird mushrooms.

She glanced over at Denise and noticed that her plate was bare. "Would you like some more?" she asked, quietly, so as not to disturb the main line of conversation.