Koseki nodded quietly at the Hare's recollections. "I see. It sounds like a crazy time Usagi-sama. I've only ever fought pirates." It didn't seem like the right time for details.

Looking over at the others he reached for his gas mask. "Well, I've got one. Maybe we should get back in the vehicle if we don't have enough to go around?" He gave the tall mushrooms a scowl. Biology. You can't trust it.

"Gasmask??"

No, he hadn't thought of one of those.

"Old habit. Never know when you're going to open up a gas pocket Kitsune-sama. Mining is a dangerous business." Koseki looked up at the mush-tree and shook his head before thumbing back towards the vehicle.

"Yeah, let's get inside and see what happens."

Filtering out the odd smokes and gases was usually not Mumei's intent, so..."none here."

She gets up, and steps toward the Hare, concern written across her face. "Ujina-san? We oughta go, man." Blinking slowly, but constantly in a vain effort to keep vision clear of distortion coming from inside the house, so to speak, she mumbles. "Sorry, shouldn't've been so flip, sorry."

The winds picked up, more and more spores fluttering in the air. While everyone could still breath easy, they could all feel a slight burning sensation in their mouths, the slightly acidic spores slowly burning their mucous membranes. Not lethal by any means but uncomfortable none the less. The large centipede began to burrow in the ground, tossing moss and decaying fungal matter in the air is it sought cover.

Koseki pointed at the bug. "I think that's our cue. Come along minna-sama, safety first." He walked to the vehicle and opened the door.

Jin stopped his morose...morose-ing, and joined the others.

"Hai. Being dead is not a good spousal prospect usually." He sat in the backseat, allowing someone to take shotgun, and he glanced out. "This is a beautiful planet."

Well if everyone was going back into the ATV, perhaps standing upwind wouldn't be enough. Which was when Izumi realised that upwind of this 'shroom was downwind of the next one. He trudged back through the 'leaf' litter to the ATV cab, shook himself off like a wet vulpine and hauled himself inside.

Once there he pulled out his holorecorder and tried to get a good shot of the falling yellow gunk from behind the windscreen.

Mumei held her breath and spun her way to the ATV in a dancer's bid to shed the sticky dust. Even with the world wavering, she dove through the door without slowing down to stick the landing in her seat with aplomb. "Yeah. Nobody comes to a miai for a ghost marriage...unless it's a Spider miai, maybe?"

As the pollen swirled outside, she settled in to fluffily commune with the active air kami, wanting to pick up their pollen-spreading whispers.

________
*at work, so not actually rolling a commune, just being a bit more out of touch than otherwise.

The winds would blow for a while, great clouds of spores drifting past the vehicle, clinging to its sides and covering the windshield. Besides the howling winds, the woods were quiet, the animals having fled long time ago. Eventually the winds would abate, the fluttering spores gently drifting on the ground like fluffy, sickly snow.

Mumei silently watches the swirls and patterns in the flying clouds of yellow, entranced. The effect might be a bit enhanced in her case.

As it slows, leaving a scene transformed beneath golden snow, she exhales. "phew! Wonder how often that happens."

Normally enclosing the Hyper Fox in a small space would be very bad for it's companions eardrums, but fortunately this time he was distracted as he found the fungal spore bloom fascinating. He recorded as much of it as he could in between using the wipers to clear the windshield.

Jin semed to be doing better, and glanced out his window...what little he could see. "This vehicle does have wipers, right? I can't see too much from my vantage here."

"Justaminute."

Izumi fiddled with the controls, accidentally setting off the horn at least twice before he found the wiper controls for the other windows.

"Therewego."

oooooh! New and rhythmic patterns swirl into the drifts of pollen as the wipers shove them around! Mumei traces the smeared trail in the wiper's wake with one finger.

"Can you imagine a dance performance in that? Swirling everything around and people becoming more and less visible in the heavy pollenfall?" She pauses "fake pollenfall, obv. Can't dance if your lungs are burning from inside."

"Probablyveryslippyunderfootaswell. Morereasontousefakespores."

He sat up in his seat and looked at the outside panels of the ATV.

"Didanyoneseeacarwashonthewayout?"

"Kinda like rock dust. It's coarse and it gets everywhere." He peered out of the view port at the 'forest'.

"Say, does anyone know much about ravagers and drifters? Came up in conversation today. I think they're some sort of big predators."

"Arethosethebiglizards? Ireadabouttheaquaticonesthateatthebigbirds."

Izumi looked out the windows as if expecting to see large predatory lizard right now.

He thought about the context and nodded. Absently it occurred to him that it might be easier to bring a recording device and playback the Fox at half speed. "Sounds about right Kitsune-sama. Packs and lakes were mentioned, so, maybe? I need to give the guidebook another look."

Mumei blinks slowly, taking in the stream of Fox chatter. "There's a guidebook? I should look at that."

"Wonder if they harvest this for use? If all the animals flee from it, seems like you could chase off things like those giant lizards."

She taps the window, shivering off grains left at the edges of the wiper sweeps. "If you drive fast, most of it might blow off, neh?"