#log 129

[travellers-log-lawrence]

I found an.. orb. That is very very loud. It's bright blue and my headset is calling it a gravitrino ball. Gravitino ball.

....I'm gonna touch it.

[rta-alec-blog]

Wandering Eastgate’s Marketplace

Moxon is perhaps not the ideal candidate for "market day," and yet here he is, immeasurably-wealthy scion of staggering privilege haggling carefully over Moxon's choice of select local goods. Not 'everything,' not even 'staples,' but clearly things the Lieutenant thinks (or knows, depending on your faith in his judgement) Arden simply 'does better.' Certain fruit-of-the-forests isn't imported into the City -- others the Lieutenant seems to have a relationship with.

Alec spots the haggling lieutenant and wanders closer, eying the wares before him. "What is that, even?" he asks, gesturing at one of the strange fruits that typically doesn't make its way to Amber.

Moxon wags one in his palm. "We call them Wednesday-fruits? If you pick it, you have forty-eight hours to eat it before it rots. Obviously they don't store or travel well. 'Pick it on Monday, it'll be bad by Wednesday.'" He takes one, all the same.

Alec eyes the fruit Moxon selected and then picks one up of his own, looking it over. "They must either be really good or really cheap, then, or I doubt there'd be much money in trying to sell them," he comments.

Moxon nods. "... they're not bad. Sweet, kinda bland, big seeds. The nutritionists say they're pretty healthy. Won't make ya sick or kill ya outright, which is ... well, rarer than we'd like it to be." He winks, and has a bite.

Alec stares at the fruit a moment longer as he debates purchasing the thing but then finally pays for the one he holds and takes a bite, chewing thoughtfully for a while. "It's not bad," he says after swallowing. "But is the fact that even the fruits seem murderous a temporary thing caused by... whatever's going on in there, or is the forest really that dangerous?"

Moxon shrugs. "How's your study of the forest coming, hm? What percentage of things would you say are edible? Five? Less?" He has another bite. "... and of that five, which ones will bite you back?"

"I'm not about to go wandering the forest putting random things in my mouth," Alec says with a grimace. "That sounds like a good way for me to be killed... And I'd like to assume that more edible animals are going to try to bite back than plants, but I've been wrong before regarding Arden."

Moxon nods agreement. "Still, useful to know which plants will try, yeah?" He grins.

Alec nods back and takes another bite from the fruit. "It would keep me from ending up with a paranoia around trees," he says. "I like to think of Arden as a place I can escape to. Wildlife is so much more predictable than people."

Moxon says, "Less deceitful, at any rate."

Alec nods and grins. "Bears make it pretty straightforward when they want someone dead."

Moxon lists the various plants known to be "aggressive," as he puts it. Vital statistics, ways to recognize them, how to avoid them. "... but you could be right, they could be reaching further like, well, 'everything else.' Hating more. I'd rather not check."

Alec munches as he listens, spitting out the occasional seed. "I thought it was a ranger's job to keep an eye on stuff like that."

Moxon chuckles. "I have my eyes, my experience and my intuition? You'll notice I traditionally go, officially, with a Ranger or trusted associate with 'higher faculties.' Supernatural nature-senses. I can guess, 'educated guess' a lot of things. But to be sure, I'd want confirmation."

"Makes sense," Alec says with a nod. "And I guess that would also be lower on a list of priorities than whatever's going on deeper in the forest, too."

Moxon says, "I am, occasionally, less crazy than I let on."

Moxon has a handful of crickets. Doubt those sell well in the city, either.

Alec eyes the crickets. "To be honest, you seem a lot better adjusted than a lot of the people in the city, though," he says, gaze still on the bugs. "But to be fair, I also used to hang out with Catriona. That's a level of crazy I don't think anyone else will ever reach."

Moxon chuckles. "It's all about perspective -- and I stay in the forest because the forest *gives* me peace. I'm a lot less ... well-adjusted ... surrounded by my kin."

Alec nods. "After having met a lot of them, I don't blame you," he says. "Some are better than others, but still. Arden seems preferable, even with all the doom." He looks about to add something to that though but then seems to decide against it. "About Dirk's theory about the earthquake being caused by one of Benedict's brothers, do you think that might also be behind everything in Arden?"

Moxon shrugs? "I don't know enough to say? Quinlan is who I'd bring along to check."

Alec nods. "I'll talk to him, then. I do still have his trump," he says. "There were a few other things I wanted to ask him about."

Moxon continues to walk the stalls, lazily, talking as he does.