Fungus Among Us [Open]

First, it was painting now mushroom hunting? Why was he getting dragged into this? It's like someone had it out for him and was putting his name into activities he didn't sign up for, but he wasn't about to back out of something he was signed up for. It was like a contract to the young snake and he was obligated to do it. Well, it wasn't like it was bad to explore new things, but he wasn't expecting to do so many things.

Yet he couldn't deny that he was enjoying them. It was nice to play along with his fellow year mates. He hadn't had much exposure to some of the foreign students from other schools, but those from Hogwarts were a lively bunch. Some more interesting than others and some that were just fun to tease and toy with. So being able to experience all the varying personalities was quite inviting to the young kid.

So here he was in this lesson where they were instructed to explore the nearby forest and search for fungus and mushrooms. For what reason, he didn't know, but apparently, it was some sort of activity related to science or something. He didn't pay much attention to the instructions. Fingal found himself a mushroom he didn't know anything about, not that he knew much about any fungus, but its green top with white spots integrated him. He picked it and looked around for someone nearby. Finding a figure a short distance from himself he approached them and asked, "Do you know what kind of mushroom this is?"

She wanted to do everything! Nothing was going to stop Patty from hanging out with her friends and learning as much as she could. Mushroom picking sounded boring, buy it was something for her to try. She would much rather be picking flowers or berries or looking for fairies than scavenging for mushrooms. Oh well....

She barely heard a word the instructor was giving them. She had attempted to pay attention, but found that the skies up above were far more intriguing. "Yes, sir!" Echoed through the group which snapped her back to focus on their instructor. Oh no! She had missed everything! Her long blonde hair bounced around as she looked back and forth tonask someone what he had said, but they were all dispersing.

Well, how hard could mushroom hunting be? She went off in her own direction and started looking around. When she found one, she plucked it and dropped it in her basket. When she looked up, a bright green shroom was shoved in her face. "Nope!" Her focus changed to the boy holding it. Immediately she recognized him as a Slytherin. One she hadn't spoken much to. All of her friends seemed tonlike him so perhaps he wasn't that bad? Hopefully?

Patty leaned in a little with her hand raised to her mouth. She spoke in hushed tones so no one else could hear her secret. "I didn't pay attention. I zoned out when he started talking about what they can be used for." She dropped her hand and offered him a smile as she stood up straight again. Her volume back to normal. "It's pretty though! You should put it in your basket."

Now that she had seen high brightly colored they could be, she was a little mire eager to gather mushrooms. "Say, if we come across a circle of mushrooms, don't step in it!" Her voice sounded almost stern as she told him her cautionary tale. "Don't pick them, sit in the circle, step in the circle, or even touch them! Fairies use those to rest and if you get in it, you're pulled into another realm," she yanked at an invisible rope as she said it. "And lost forever with no way to return!"

 Patty was a vibrant speaker who had great emotion in her voice and her hands were always gesturing along to help with her story. When she finished, her hands crossed in front of her chest and pulled back slowly while her fingers danced. "Ever. You're gone for good."

There had been so many activities that Isis had wanted to take part in that she hadn't been able to decide how to fill her schedule. Some choices had been easier than others - she'd signed up for every dance-related activity going, then a bunch of sports...but that left plenty of sessions to choose from. Did team engineering sound more fun than karate? Would she rather pick choir or candy making? In the end, the twelve year old had made the only sensible choice, closed her eyes, and signed up for whatever she had pointed to first. Which was how she'd signed up for the foraging expedidion in the woods today.

Isis felt very grown up going out into the woods armed with a pencil and ID chart. She hadn't really paid attention to what the object of the exercise was beyond figuring out what things were, but that was good enough to be going on with. Besides, Vermont was close enough to Livermorny that a lot of the plants were similar.  The first thing she settled on were the trees, because they were easy to identify. "Maple...ash...red oak..." she murmured to herself as she ticked them off one by one. She was looking for a beech tree when a voice caused her to spin round, a little surprised.

Initially her face had a delighted smile as she recognised a foreign accent, but the colour drained from her face when she saw what the boy was holding. One thing Mom had always told her right from when she was a little girl was that you never picked a mushroom unless you already knew what it was. At the age of four, when collecting all kinds of leaves and plants as "presents" for her parents was one of her favourite fall pastimes, it had been an important lesson when she'd first learned that some plants could make you sick. And this looked definitely like something that could make you really sick! She was about to say as much when the girl he'd been talking to agreed that it was pretty. Maybe they were already friends and she shouldn't interrupt...but what if they decided to eat it..? She waited until the girl finished telling a tale about mushrooms and fairies that sounded highly improbable, and then walked over to them.

 "Uh...I don't know, but if they're brightly colored that usually means they're poison. You know - as a warning to birds that might try to eat then" she said, eyeing the mushroom warily "Oh - I'm Isis Arceneaux, good to meet y'all". She figured this boy was probably British, so she would have held out her hand - Brits likes to shake hands, didn't they? - but she didn't really want to end up touching the green might-be-poisonous mushroom.

Hyperion had gone reluctantly on this trip, dragged by Patty, and encouraged by the camp leaders to try at least something without Kat. He thought perhaps this would be good, since this was something in his wheelhouse. He'd been looking through the Herbology book before they went out, just in case he'd need some of the knowledge. It seemed not a lot of the twelve-year-olds paid attention in herbology nor the quick explanation given at the beginning of the mushroom hunt. He'd laid his basket out with a separate cloth, slightly damp as to preserve the mushrooms a little bit while they forage. He'd read about it as a footnote in the Fungi section of the Herbology book.

He'd been careful so far as to not pick anything dangerous, mostly looking for button, morel, and chanterelle mushrooms. He'd just picked a few chanterelles when he heard Patty say something was pretty, then a girl's voice he didn't recognize say something about it maybe being poisonous because of its color. He whipped around and nearly yelped when he saw what Finn had in his hand. It was definitely a mushroom in the amanita family. None of those mushrooms were good news, so obviously Hyperion didn't want those to go into Fingal's basket, or in his mouth, as much as the uppity Slytherin rubbed him the wrong way.

He did what any sensible being would do, he slapped the mushroom right out of Fingal's hand, sending it flying across the way. "Fingal! That's a poisonous mushroom! Anything that looks pretty as far as mushrooms is definitely not edible!" He said loudly for all to hear, "It's not even worth bringing back to camp because one of our pets could accidentally eat it and get gravely ill or worse!" He said again, toward the entire group.

However it quickly dawned on him that he just shouted at and probably embarrassed Fingal in front of the whole group. "I'm sorry, Finn. I just don't want people to die." he said flatly, red tinging his cheeks in embarrassment. Rion, the normally chill and level-headed one, had done something brazen and unexpected. Maybe Katerina Masi's Gryffindor bravery was definitely rubbing off on Hyperion, and maybe for the better?

The person Fin ended up asking was Patty the Hufflepuff girl whom he met at the beginning of the year. She wasn't much help though as like him she hadn't been paying attention to the professor. Then she began talking about not standing in a circle of mushrooms. What was she even talking about? Fin couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the girl. Was she ok? Did she hit her head at some point and go crazy? Luckily another girl joined in on their conversation and moved the conversation back to the mushroom he was holding.

She introduced herself as Isis Arceneaux. "Well we aren't-" Fin began when suddenly the mushroom was knocked out of his hand. "Wow, rude," Fin said immediately as he shook his hand from the impact of the slap. Though he had to admit Rion did have a point in his explanation. Fin reluctantly responded, "Thanks." Rion and Fin never got along and Fin wasn't exactly sure why. It wasn't like Fin ever did anything bad to the other boy or at least he didn't think he did.

Well now, what was Fin to do? He didn't want to pick any more poisonous mushrooms. It wasn't like he wanted to kill anyone so maybe it would have been better to have paid attention to the professor. So he would have to ask for help. "Well, Rion would you mind helping me not pick anymore deadly mushroom then?" He might have said this a bit more snarky than he meant, but it was a genuine question for help. Fin then would turn to Isis and ask, "Would you also like to join us? I'm sure the more hands we have the better our haul."

Isis jumped in surprise at the newcomer's reaction and took a step backwards. He was right, but did he have to be quite so...violent about it? She looked from one boy to the other, and decided maybe the crazy one had just had a bad experience with mushrooms in the past, particularly when he said about someone dying. Maybe he'd read a story where that had happened to someone...

Still, she'd been asked to join their group, and that wasn't something she'd expected. It was definitely welcome though, because Isis had come to camp wanting to meet and make as many new friends as possible (though not necessarily the shouty-hand-slapping kind) and this was an ideal opportunity.  "Fin...Rion... and uh..." she realised she didn't know the girl's name, so simply smiled in her direction "what else did you need to find? I've ticked a few off of my list already, but I didn't find a yellow one yet..." it sounded slightly awkward, but she went with it anyway.

She glanced uncertainly at the definitely-poisonous one on the ground. It was really pretty, and if she hadn't known a bit about plants and fungi she might well have tried to pick it herself, and this made a new thought come to her mind.  "Do you think we should tell someone about that?" she asked, looking down at the green fungus "Like, one of the counsellors? In case anyone else thinks they're okay and picks one without realising?" She looked around the small group with a concerned expression on her face.