04-17-2020, 09:20 PM
[align=center][div style="text-align:justify;width:55%;font-family:verdana;"]ooc. obligatory warning i am an absolute beginner in mycology and any info i share through this character should not be used in lieu of medical/scientific information!!! if you forage, forage with a professional!
"...Sit, then." His blunt words had a tendency to betray the inner workings of his mind, his emotions; after the fact, he would hope that Mallory did not take his firm tone to offense. Most others were used to the gruff nature that seemed to form a wall between the bear and his surrounding peers. Roan, small and bright as he was in both mind and spirit, would take to the wall and pull bricks, stones from it in slow time. Even now, he approached fearlessly to a massive bear who seemed to ease at the sight of pseudo-family. A single eye casts downward, past the covered cups, and falls on the face of the child with a particular softness. "You're here, very good. But where's your mother? I told you about wandering around alone, you know." Roan would always be a kitten to him, no bigger than his paw; he'd think of the baby scuttling up to him on the beach for the first time, darting out from behind his mother's legs, and consider the fact that little Roan might not be so little anymore. A seriousness had fallen over him, a sense of deep concern that burned behind his eyes and fretted his mouth into a nervous line. Whatever Ahab had missed in his drifting, it had changed the child.
He steers himself away from a darker path of what and why and focuses, instead, on what he came here to do. It would require a substantial amount of effort and stamina on his part to make it through in one piece. "This is enough. I'll brief any others as they come along. So..." Filler words pepper his speech as he muddles through an introduction - something about mushrooms and poisons, he'd said at the last minute. Right, he was going to teach them a thing or two about deadly fungi. "Mushrooms, when identified properly, are a source of nutrition for omnivores. To human folk, they are a delicacy. But as a highly adapted kingdom, there are a number of deadly lookalikes that can easily fool the beginner forager. This -" Ahab plucks a reddish fungus from the tray, holding it up in his metal paw for the others to see, "- Is fly agaric. It's a very common poisonous mushroom that can induce severe vomiting and, occasionally, unpleasant hallucinations. There are little to no similar species, but the distinct shape makes agaric a perfect example of the defining traits we should consider when identifying a mushroom."
He's fairly sure he hasn't spoken this much in years - or ever, really. He's already tired. Ahab runs a tongue over his upper lip, pauses, and turns the mushroom over. "The stem grows out from a white sac called the volva. As you approach the cap, you'll see a ring of tissue that appears on most mushrooms, called an annulus. Its shape, size and sometimes color are distinctions that can tell similar species apart. Like the annulus, the gills on the underside of the cap or lack thereof can also define a species. You may see a spongy underside, or deep grooves as we see in the common morel. As for basidiocarps, the gills either run parallel, or connect and form a network. On top of the cap, you can see these little, white spots... Those are scales. And, uh... That's it. Those are the basic parts of a mushroom. Are there - Questions? At all?"
Some part of him is starting to wonder if getting up and talking in front of a crowd was a good idea.
"...Sit, then." His blunt words had a tendency to betray the inner workings of his mind, his emotions; after the fact, he would hope that Mallory did not take his firm tone to offense. Most others were used to the gruff nature that seemed to form a wall between the bear and his surrounding peers. Roan, small and bright as he was in both mind and spirit, would take to the wall and pull bricks, stones from it in slow time. Even now, he approached fearlessly to a massive bear who seemed to ease at the sight of pseudo-family. A single eye casts downward, past the covered cups, and falls on the face of the child with a particular softness. "You're here, very good. But where's your mother? I told you about wandering around alone, you know." Roan would always be a kitten to him, no bigger than his paw; he'd think of the baby scuttling up to him on the beach for the first time, darting out from behind his mother's legs, and consider the fact that little Roan might not be so little anymore. A seriousness had fallen over him, a sense of deep concern that burned behind his eyes and fretted his mouth into a nervous line. Whatever Ahab had missed in his drifting, it had changed the child.
He steers himself away from a darker path of what and why and focuses, instead, on what he came here to do. It would require a substantial amount of effort and stamina on his part to make it through in one piece. "This is enough. I'll brief any others as they come along. So..." Filler words pepper his speech as he muddles through an introduction - something about mushrooms and poisons, he'd said at the last minute. Right, he was going to teach them a thing or two about deadly fungi. "Mushrooms, when identified properly, are a source of nutrition for omnivores. To human folk, they are a delicacy. But as a highly adapted kingdom, there are a number of deadly lookalikes that can easily fool the beginner forager. This -" Ahab plucks a reddish fungus from the tray, holding it up in his metal paw for the others to see, "- Is fly agaric. It's a very common poisonous mushroom that can induce severe vomiting and, occasionally, unpleasant hallucinations. There are little to no similar species, but the distinct shape makes agaric a perfect example of the defining traits we should consider when identifying a mushroom."
He's fairly sure he hasn't spoken this much in years - or ever, really. He's already tired. Ahab runs a tongue over his upper lip, pauses, and turns the mushroom over. "The stem grows out from a white sac called the volva. As you approach the cap, you'll see a ring of tissue that appears on most mushrooms, called an annulus. Its shape, size and sometimes color are distinctions that can tell similar species apart. Like the annulus, the gills on the underside of the cap or lack thereof can also define a species. You may see a spongy underside, or deep grooves as we see in the common morel. As for basidiocarps, the gills either run parallel, or connect and form a network. On top of the cap, you can see these little, white spots... Those are scales. And, uh... That's it. Those are the basic parts of a mushroom. Are there - Questions? At all?"
Some part of him is starting to wonder if getting up and talking in front of a crowd was a good idea.
[align=center][div style="text-align:right;width:59%;font-family:verdana;"][font=verdana][size=11pt][color=transparent][url=https://beastsofbeyond.com/index.php?topic=13462.0][color=black][b][i]LET HIM WHO THINKS HE KNOWS NO FEAR
LOOK WELL UPON MY FACE
LOOK WELL UPON MY FACE