((Expecting; probably not the place for drop-ins.))

Rain penetrated the fungal forest not in the sheets that battered the city, but in drips and trickles and sudden waterfalls. The latter were strong enough to knock Atsumori's lightweight camera drone right out of the air if its rotors clipped one of the bigger torrents; reluctantly, he'd had to recall it and tuck it inside his raincoat for now.

Princess fluffed herself, sending droplets skittering off her iridescent feathers. Atsumori patted the otori's neck reassuringly and glanced sideways at his fellow comrade-in-sogginess. "This look like a good spot to you?"

Chiyoko was used to soggy, more so than most. So she had an umbrella to accompany her held Heavy Assault Rifle, keeping the rain off as she looked for a spot for her to set up.

"It's as good a place as any," she said, only mildly annoyed. Mostly, she kept a wary eye out. These forests were, it seemed, dangerous, and being eaten by a big fuckoff centipede was literally the opposite of things on her to do list. Ruefully, she couldn't help but wonder if she was better off staying poisoned instead of coming here to find more potentially poisonous plants.

"Hope the Asako don't mind if our harvest is a bit wet." Atsumori chuckled as he dismounted and slogged over to the nearest fungal trunk. "Let's see... the book said the purple ones grow into the hyphae of these big pagoda-lookin' trees. Should have brought a trowel to shift this mulch around..." Instead he crouched and produced a utility knife from inside his raincoat, using the tip to poke around at the base of the trunk.

"Do you know anythin' about lichens and fungi and things, Matsu-san?" He glanced back over his shoulder at the watchful Chiyoko. The question seemed to be more social than not, fortunately, since he already appeared to be digging away at a patch of something the right shade of purple. "I can follow a diagram, but if they asked us to look for something in kingdom Animalia I'd be on solider ground, myself."

D4 EA--Mushroom hunting! Looking for the Purple Horn Lichen, Hunting TN20. VP.: 5d10o10k4 34

Fungus get!

She shook her head. "They asking me to come with you means they wanted you to have some extra muscle. I'm an ok hand at arranging flowers, but that's as far as my skill goes.

"What I am good at is making angry creatures what might want to eat your face disappear."

A rather innocent looking iridescent green and cyan butterflies fluttered in the air, their large wings reflecting the sunlight that reached the ground, the large caps of the tall mushrooms shadowing most of the undergrowth. The large insects would land on a rotten piece of fungus and plunge their proboscis into the decay matter.

"Well, can't sell that skill short." Atsumori raised his eyebrows. "'Course, let's try not to make anything angry, hey? Most creatures are tolerant enough if you don't get in their way... there's one fungus on this list I've got that we'll only find at night, though. Might be riskier then."

Atsumori had to pause his mushroom gathering to take some shots of the butterflies. That meant shielding the camera with his coat, which meant getting a bit wet. Totally worth it!



Perhaps fortunately for Chiyoko, the butterflies didn't linger too long, and Atsumori was able to get back to the mushroom hunt.

--

D4 EA--Mushroom hunting! Looking for the Golden Boop-Toot Fungus and Dead Man's Blue Hat (2x TN 15): 2#4d10o10k3 28 46

Apparently he found a LOT of these!