shellphones | video;

Type: Video
Sender ID: WitherMarked (Faulkner)
To: Public
Subject: Introductions, and a question
Warnings: trans healthcare/unaffordability thereof, mild references to mood swings/mental health issues, reference to history in a cult

[The video takes a moment to come into focus, before you see a young man wearing an awkward, lopsided grin as he seems satisfied with figuring out what buttons to push. He has soft features, freckles, and messy blond curls in a cut that looks suspiciously like a grown-out mullet. He looks friendly, if more than a bit stressed and sleep deprived. When he speaks he has a notable rural-American accent.]

Hey, folks. Name's Faulkner, and I'm new around here. As you can... probably see, I'm still getting used to all this electronic message business.

You sure we don't have to offer up a hosanna to the Wirebitten Child to keep using this stuff?

[There seems to be some sheepish humour there, leaning into how much he's not from around here, but some genuine confusion, too. He doesn't really believe people don't owe some kind of a higher power for their fancy tech.]

Anyway, I've got a question. Tried askin' uh, a friend here, but they didn't know. Does anyone here take... testosterone? Do you have that kind of treatment, here?

[More genuine uncertainty: there's both more and less technology than he's used to. Beyond being a little awkward, he doesn't seem concerned one way or the other about outing himself.]

It's weird enough getting used to a brand new world—could do without missin' my shot, too.

[A pause. He really would rather avoid that—his mood is shaky enough as it is.]

At least... if I'm gonna be able to afford it? I don't know how these things work, here. Haven't exactly gotten signed up for insurance.

[And he doesn't exactly have the Parish of Tide and Flesh here, with 'uncle' Mason and all his less than above-board deals with local doctors and pharmacies, taking care of the kids who joined the Trawler-man's faith in a way said kids couldn't find anywhere else.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mmm, the fundamental component of magic? It might be different in other worlds though.

[Mushrooms fine. Alright. She might be able to work with this.]

Caterpillar mushroom. I can't promise you I can get the plants I use at home to grow here yet, but I've smelled that one in woods, high on Eltrut's shell.

[A pause.] It is poisonous if you get the dose incorrect. High in arsenic, which I'm told tends to be pretty bad for the living. Best to collect it and take it to an apothecary who can process it for a reduced price.

[He thinks about explaining that they don't have 'real magic' so much as 'divine miracles' where he's from, but decides maybe he shouldn't get into all that.]

Arsenic is pretty bad for stayin' among 'the living,' last time I checked.

[And part of him wants to ask why she specified that, but... part of him doesn't.]

But--if they can take that out--could you tell me where to look, maybe? I don't--I don't have much to trade here, yet, but if you need something I can help with...

[After all, he's not very used to the idea that people would help him for nothing.]

I don't really need anything.

[She pauses for a moment, fumbling at her shellphone, and swaps to video. Don't worry about the very large jackal mask. It's fine. Everything's fine.

She lowers the camera down to show a particular mushroom.]

Here, this is what they look like. [She pauses a while longer.] There was a boy growing poisonous plants, called Khalid. Another riftfarer. He might know how to prepare these safely, he might not, but he'll trade fairly for it regardless, I think, and has a better idea how poisons affect human constitutions.

[He wonders if it's ceremonial, what ~~false~~ faith she belongs to. But he doesn't ask. He doesn't want to get on anyone's bad side if he can help it.]

Well, I'll try him then, if this... seems like the best option.

[He'd rather not eat poisonous mushrooms, but you know, needs must.]

[It's just that masks are terribly comfortable. She thinks everyone should try wearing them.]

Well, it may help to consult with the apothecaries here. What I knew how to do at home may not be necessary or possible floating on the back of a giant turtle.

And I'm not so skilled a healer to simply effect so...precise a change myself.

You would know more about that than me, at least.

[She's been on the giant turtle longer, if nothing else.]

But truthfully, I'm not sure how many healers there are that skilled. Back home, pox monks and the like could take on your wounds for you. Changes were... usually something else, though. Not so precise.

Take them...for you?

[...That doesn't sound like healing!]

The kind of...changes you're talking about aren't easy to come by. But the Black Forest's plants can change the body far more drastically--distilling them down to make a smaller change instead of turning someone into a toad takes patience and practice.

Some of it we send out to those who ask, those in need. Some...people come to the wood to poach these plants. They're lucky if I find them before they cut anything.

[...maybe the arsenic mushrooms aren't so bad!]

That... sounds more like the ones I'm used to, when you use--something with power.

[Even if the changes he's thinking of don't usually come from eating plants, it still sounds like more familiar territory somehow.]

Yes, though. The healers I'm thinking of, they choose to take on burdens for others, and then, from what I understand, they heal faster for them. I've heard a little about other kinds, but I don't know so much about that.

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