Vadim Bothers Malva

[Vadim Ironstones]

[May 3rd, 3:04pm]

Vadim approaches Malva in the bunkhouse, as she's sitting at her alchemy workstation.

Before speaking, He looks over his shoulder, seeing if anyone else is around, and finding that no one else is currently in the bunkhouse.

"HEY MALVA," He asks, loudly, "Do ya know where ya can find blue poppies around here? or how about.. uh.. What's the name of that one again..."

His sentence dwindles off as he grabs his recipe book to look up an ingredient, shoving his face into the book to find the words he's looking for.

[Malva]

Malva, keeping her eyes on the potion she's brewing:
"I don't know any place in particular, just go look for them in the woods. They like sunny spots."

[Vadim Ironstones]

"Um, okay then. Sunny spots. Be back in a bit!"

Vadim stomps his way out the back door of the bunkhouse, slamming the door behind him.

About thirty seconds later, he returns.

"MALVA!" He shouts from the door. "It's cloudy outside! How'm I s'posed to find sunny spots with no sun!"

[Malva]

"Wha- Even if there's no sun, you can still tell where the shadows are. Just look for clearings; places that aren't too close to trees or big rocks."

[Vadim Ironstones]

"Malva, I can barely see WITH the sun out. How'm I s'posed to find blue poppies 'n stuffs?"

[Malva]

Malva looks back at Vadim and squints at him, her expression a mix of confusion and frustration. She stops and thinks for a second, then turns back to her potion. "If you can just find one, you can take its seeds and plant them somewhere where you can find them."

[Vadim Ironstones]

Vadim, seeing Malva as a fuzzy brown and peach blob, replies loudly and with skepticism:

"Kay. Be right back!"

[May 3rd, 3:34pm](how did that break?)

Vadim barges back into the bunkhouse carrying (Herbalism 0) A bunch of random sticks, moss, and plants in his arms.

"Malva! Will any a'dis stuff work for makin potions!?"

[Malva]

[Fix your timestamps you time-traveler]

Malva, having finished her potion, starts picking through what Vadim had found. 

"Alright, you seem to have a lot of sticks here... This one's cedar, it's useful for a potion you don't know. Feel how the the needles are actually just little blobs and they're all aligned all flat?"

(The stick in question):

"These are moss; I don't really know any use for them. It's the kind of fluffy plants that you can pull up off rocks in sheets. You can just leave them be for now..."

Malva stops and contemplates how it's even possible that Vadim has ever managed to put a potion together in his entire life if he can't tell the difference between a blue poppy and a handful of moss.

"Now let's look at these other plants..." [Describe plz]

[Vadim Ironstones]

Among the other debris in Vadim's hands, are a variety of plants. There are some yellow flowers, a rather beautiful red flower, some blueberries, some blue berries still attached to a plant which is blatantly not a blueberry bush, a big bundle of needle-covered vines, a twig but it has some little green buds on it, and every now and then some seeds (or pebbles, Vadim can't tell) slip between his fingers and fall to the floor with an audible tink.

"Okay," Vadim announces, dropping the giant bundle of foliage onto an empty space at the workbench. The big bundle of plant matter falls apart as it hits the bench, revealing, among more of the same, a blue flower.

[Malva]

"Okay, it looks like you do have some useful floras in there." She reaches for the blue flower. "And this one..." her voice trails off as she inspects it.

[Vadim Ironstones]

Vadim leans over her shoulder, looking at the blue speck as though he knew what it was.

"Hmm.. It's blue."

[Malva]

"And a flower"

[I don't know, is it blue poppy?]

[Vadim Ironstones]

"Indeed."

[(Herbalsim 0): I don't know, is it?]

[Malva]

(The flower):

"And that's the only blue flower you've found, but it actually is a blue poppy, good job. But there is a little more to it than being a blue flower; it has four big petals and an the other buds are fuzzy. Sometimes they have fuzzy stems too."

[Vadim Ironstones]

"NEAT"

Vadim turns his atrention back to the mess he dumped on the bench.

"What else've we got?"

[Malva]

"Well these blue berries you have here are blueberries, but these other blue berries aren't; we call them poisonberries but I think they just make you a bit sick. Just don't eat any blue berries that don't grow on a bush or tree.
These needle-y vines might be from a blackberry plant. These yellow flowers are dandelions and coltsfoot. They look similar, but dandelions have hollow stems. This red flower you have here is a Dragonflower, and it has its uses."

[Vadim Ironstones]

Vadim, realizing he should be taking notes, pulls out his recipe book and frantically writes down what Malva is saying.

He pauses for a moment to look at each specimen and draw a (terrible) picture of each one, taking extra care to (Geology 2) Illustrate the pieces of quartz he'd picked up, having previously mistaken them for seeds.

"A'right then," Vadim says, quieter than usual, "If ya finds blue poppies in sunny spots, where does ya find glory flower or sticky weeds? Same spots, but different times 'o day?"

[Malva]

"The glory flowers grow up and around other plants. They can actually be quite harmful to them because they can choke them out. Harvesting them is just doing the other plants a favour." She chuckles.
"Sticky weeds are bushes, and they grow with other bushes. They especially like dry, coarse soil. If you ever walk through stickyweed bushes by accident, they'll probably all stick to your clothes."
"Anyways, would you like me to teach you how to get the seeds out of them and plant your own?"

[Malva]

[Also, signing off on Herbalism 1 early so you can pre-pre-log, but this thread isn't done]

[Vadim Ironstones]

Vadim, having tuned out for a while, tunes back in in time to hear the seed-planting offer.

"Sure 'ting!" He replies.

[Malva]

"Right, so what you do for most any flower that goes to seed is you wrap it up like this..."
She grabs a slip of cloth from her setup and drapes it loosely over the Blue Poppy flower.
"...and then tie it off."
She takes a piece of twine and ties a simple bow securing the fabric around the base of the flower.
"Now we hang it upside down somewhere dark and dry and wait for the seeds to fall out."

[Vadim Ironstones]

Vadim strokes his beard, contemplating Malva's words carefully.

"I see, I see. Sounds like somth'n I can do easy-peasy. That goes for p'rt much any flow'r, yea?"

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