savetheearth | [Video]

[Later at night on the 28th she shows up on the network video feed for the first time. She's standing under a street lamp in the more run down areas of the city, not far from the Dead District for those who recognize the area. She glances around once to make sure nobody's around to see her talking at a notepad.]

I, um, I think I found something.

[And she aims the video feed forward, turning down an alley to aim it at a large patch of some kind of brightly colored fungus spread across the ground and starting to creep up the walls. There are several large mushroom-like growths growing out of it, all covered in splotches of bright colors so it's pretty safe to say that it isn't anything natural.

Even worse, when she zooms in, there are animals caught in it. Birds, mice and rats all covered with the growth and already looking deflated and decayed. Very clearly being eaten away by the stuff.]

Has anybody else seen anything like this?

[OOC: Okay, this is Vanessa's network post before her Mystery Event run-in. All are welcome here to comment or be all "WTF are you doing?! Don't touch that shit, are you mental?!" and I'll put the log up a bit later. Everyone I've spoken to about being involved can come on in. Anybody else who's interested, chuck me a PM so I can try to keep track of it all, just be aware that Bad Things are going to be happening in it so... yeah.]

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Wow, shit. No, I haven't seen anything remotely like that.

I feel like the answer to that is "a flamethrower."

I feel like you're right.

[And she's going to inch a little closer, just to the edge of the patch, to get a closer look. Because what is self-preservation anyway?]

Know anybody who has one?

[ of course this happens the night he's working. of course. ]

First killer birds now killer fungi. Did you do anything in particular to piss off our alien bad guys

No, but I think you should probably back away from the apparently carnivorous fungus.

Google totally just failed me in trying to identify a fungus that eats large creatures like that, bee tee dubs.

Are you saying I started it?

[It's good that they can still laugh about this shit. She's going to get a little closer to it, just to get a clearer picture.]

So... what do I do?

[ hrghh. he's gone into the back of the rig to gain some semblance of privacy since she'd using video, but he still feels wary about talking to her at all right now. ]

No but that sounds like a guilty conscious. [ yeah, he's teasing. ]

What do you mean what do you do get away from it

Wait

Do you have a phone

[ he can't remember ]

Whatever that is, get away from it. I've not seen anything like it, but it's not a stretch to suggest it's something that should be left alone for a professional to deal with.

[Where anyone could find such a professional, he has no idea.]

I'm not going to go stand in it. Besides, it's not moving or anything so I think I'll be fine.

[Okay, what the hell is bee tee dubs? First text faces and now that. Ah, screw it.]

I'm pretty sure this is one of those alien things. I don't think Google's going to help.

Standing near it might not be a good idea, either, though. There are birds in that. Rats and mice might have gotten caught up running over it, but that stuff would have to work to get birds - especially since they'd normally avoid areas with other, you know, dead birds.

[ Non-carnivorous birds, anyway... ]

I will second "flamethrower" being a viable option, though.

[Yeah, but switching to anything else right now would mean taking her eyes off the alien mushrooms and that's not something she's going to do right now.]

I mean should I, I don't know, get a sample of it or something?

[Wait. New question.]

I got one of those disposable ones just in case. Why?

Ew. Okay that can't be a good sign. Don't touch any of it!

We can't just leave it here though. It's not doing anything now but people live around here. We have to get rid of it.

[That's... that's a terrifyingly good point. How the hell did it get birds?

She frowns, glancing around when something seems to get her attention and whatever it is gets her to back up pretty quick.]

Fuck!

[The video swivels around again to focus in on the fungus, where a rat is crawling out into the middle of it. A regular rat... except for the patchy, colorful fungus growing out of its head. It sniffs around for a second then seems to pick a spot and goes ahead and just lays down in it.

And that would be how it got birds.]

[She rolls her eyes.]

Thanks for the advice. I was just about to go stick my face in it.

[She knows he means well. Really, she does. It's just... it's a very stressful situation to actually be there.]

Just as long as you keep broadcasting so we can document the effects! Seriously though there might be spores or something. Maybe it knocks stuff out?

[ Occasionally Aria can be genre-savvy!

There's a little gasp on her end. What the hell. ]

Is that...? Is it controlling that?

A carnivorous alien mushroom? Can't say I've seen that before in that part of town.

How quickly is it growing?

[Five stars, Aria!

Yeah, she's just... going to keep her distance and cover her mouth and nose with her sleeve. Fuck, was that stuff in the air? Had she already breathed it in? Was she already next? Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!]

I-I think so? Does fungus do that?

Take some pics with that. Not on the network. Regular pics

[ they could try an anonymous submission to the paper... ]

Your safety comes before samples. If you see what looks like a SAFE opportunity maybe go for it. Unless those animals were already immobilized the fungus must have a way of catching living things. Or luring them

[ But does she win a prize?

Aria's getting a little worried now. How did it take them over...? ]

Um, not normal fungus. I'd say back off quick - you have no way of knowing if it did that by some sort of, I don't know, airborne pathogen or like...psychic fungal mind control?

[ Or some other form of Syfy Science, what the hell. ]

Anything to be useful....

[Yeah, that's occurred to her now and she's keeping her distance from the stuff.]

I saw a rat just... crawl in there and lay down. I think it's drawing them in or something.

It isn't normal down here either.

I just got here and it isn't... moving or anything so, I don't know, not very fast?

Ugh. I think there's supposed to be a fungus that takes over and mind-controls ants? But those are ants.

[jl;kfsdahrengo SWEET MOTHER OF GOD.]

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