public channel | day 67

[dontpokethat]

((OOC: Since Ginko and Tanyuu are both going to be talking in here, Ginko’s voice is indicated in green and Tanyuu’s is purple for readability.

For more details on the plot, please look at the OOC post!))

Hey, guys. Sorry to interrupt the camping trip, but we’ve got something of a problem.

You might have noticed some odd-looking flowers popping up around our campsites; those aren’t native to this world. They’re a type of mushi that have found their way here.

[And now that Ginko has a semi-captive audience--] Specifically, they’re kaoriyoroboki; these mushi blur the lines between people’s minds while they sleep, allowing them to experience and share each other’s dreams. Their presence allows people to sleep more peacefully, as well, which some of you may have noticed.

Unfortunately, long-term exposure to kaoriyoroboki while you sleep will cause the borders between your minds to blur more and more, until your identities and memories start bleeding together irreparably. Tanyuu and I are working on keeping that from happening, but the mushi purge isn’t quite ready yet.

[No one can see it, but rest assured that Tanyuu is shaking her head fondly at GInko’s rambling. Her brother...] It shouldn’t take more than a few days to gather everything we need, but in the meantime try to avoid napping too much. Symptoms usually only start appearing after a week or so, but let us know if you start to feel confused or misremember things.

Comments

[mylastchance]

They're all so different.

Where do they come from?

[fourthscribe]

Hmm...the simplest answer would be 'from our world'. More specifically they are born from a river of life-energy that exists both within the earth of our home and in a plane separate from it. In that sense, they are the simplest and purest form of life possible. That's part of why mushi react with the physical world in the way that they do--the energy they are composed of is incredibly potent, and mushi do not inherently have the will to direct it.

[mylastchance]

So they just act on instinct.

[Like bugs then, or some smaller animals. Still, for them to be able to do so much and not have the intelligence to put it to greater use.]

Are they useful in anyway?

[fourthscribe]

Several of them can be, actually. There is one kind of mushi called uro which burrows holes in space--certain silk-spinners capture them within coccoons, and they will travel between that coccoon and another wound from the same thread, which travelling mushishi carry with them. Uro take anything in the same 'room' with them, so if a letter is put inside the coccoon it will eventually be delivered to the mushishi in question--which is useful, since one is never sure where to send a letter the normal way so that it would reach them.