riverview | 001 ☼ video; un: ginko

[So he's been given to understand this "network" is something like a bulletin board, except people can contact each other in real time, a bit like sending letters through the uro passageways but even faster. Honestly, he's kind of fascinated by the whole thing, but it's still a bit overwhelming, even if the notion of different worlds and planes of existence isn't entirely foreign to him. Hence ... why the video feed is a bit overly zoomed in, and starts out upside down before he realizes his mistake and rights it.]

Ah, it seems some of the creatures from my world followed me through the portal. If you're capable of seeing them, you might have noticed what seem to be ghosts or phantasms floating around--they're called mushi.

They're not sapient, and most are harmless, but some can cause trouble, so if you feel suddenly unwell or notice anyone exhibiting unusual behavior, don't hesitate to contact me. My name is Ginko. I am a mushi-shi, which means handling such incidents was my livelihood before now.

[There's a brief pause. He's not really great at this whole "meet and greet" thing, considering he never really stays in one place long enough for that to be necessary, but...now that he's gotten the business part of this out of the way there are a few things he's curious about.]

Has anyone seen the portal that brings us here? I've heard myths and legends about portals to alternate worlds, but I've never actually seen one.

I'd also like to learn more about these devices, and how they work. Where I’m from, we still communicate through letters, so this is truly astonishing to me. I could tell you some stories about my home, in exchange.

[ooc: Canon never really specifies what makes some people able to see mushi and others not. Believing in or being aware of spirits etc or having a connection to nature in some way probably helps, but honestly feel free to assume your character is able to see them, if that's something you're interested in! They look vaguely like this]

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[Ginko hums noncommittally, at that. Cisco is both correct and incorrect; mushi were interwined into the very fabric of reality, back home--anywhere there was life, there was also mushi. They came from the River of Light itself, the source of all life in the world. And yet, their existence was separate--on a different plane of reality than their own, though there were always places where those realities intertwined, like the Path of Thorns.]

Saa...it's more complicated than that. Mushi are of a different existence than our own. They share our reality, influence it...and are tied inextricably to the source of all life itself. But they are not truly part of it, in the way we are.

[He takes an inhale from his mushi cigarette, then exhales, leaving a cloud of smoke that seems to repel a couple of the mushi that have started to hover nearby.]

They are living, like animals, yet inanimate, like objects.

[ Cisco listens, torn between fascination and frustration. One of the challenging things about being in this place and encountering people from such different worlds is that it's hard to tell when someone lacks knowledge or is using unfamiliar (or in this cause, vaguely mystical) language to describe a phenomenon he knows, and to tell when something is genuinely different than anything he's experienced before. Maybe Ginko just doesn't have the language to describe these creatures scientifically, but they could be understood within the laws that Cisco knows. Or, perhaps, they operate under different rules than he knows, and trying to apply his scientific knowledge to them is a fool's errand. ]

Not sure I really get what that means. I don't get how something can be both.

[ It's just too weird to wrap his head around. Sure, there are some creatures that blur the line between alive and not alive - coral, bacteria, whatever - but he isn't sure that's really what Ginko is talking about. Coral didn't make people start acting erratically, and everybody could see it if they looked at it. ]

You gotta stop by my lab sometime and tell me some stories, and I'll teach you about your phone. Sound good?

Hmm, can't you, though?

[It's not spoken unkindly or with condescension. Mushi are complicated existences, strange neighbors, as he once put it to someone he met along his travels. Even he doesn't know nearly all there is to know about them, only human as he is. The world of mushi is something utterly alien to those who have never experienced it; a sensory experience can never be adequately explained in words, after all. But Ginko has a lot of experience explaining these things to people who become affected by mushi, and he's patient enough to answer questions and offer analogies to at least get onto a common ground of understanding.]

Plants, for example. They're unable to move on their own, or feel the kind of emotions a human might, but none can deny they're as alive as any animal.

It's a similar concept, with mushi. [He offers the other man a smile.]

I would be happy to tell you some stories about them. I have rather a lot of them. Could you give me directions?

That's true. But like, see here's what I don't get... plants don't impact human behavior. Not unless you eat weird mushrooms in the woods or smoke certain leaves or whatever, and even then, that's you impacting your own behavior using the plant, not what you're talking about.

[ Cisco isn't much having difficulty with the alive and yet inanimate thing so much as he is with the 'alive, inanimate, and capable of having a malicious affect on people'. But he's starting to think this is a complex enough issue that they ought to talk about it in person, so he types out and texts over some detailed instructions on where his workshop is and how Ginko can find it. ]

Come on by whenever.

That's not entirely true. Plants can give off chemicals that affect nearby animals even without active consumption.

[His area of expertise is in mushi, sure, but you don't live as a drifter your entire life and not pick up some things about nature at large--especially when such things are often interconnected.]

Certain species of trees, for example, when attacked by caterpillars, will produce chemicals that attract wasps to drive them away.

[The instructions arrive, along with Cisco's offer for him to come by whenever he wants. And really...he has nothing better to be doing, so he asks--]

Do you have time now?

Wait for real? That's kinda badass. I didn't know trees could do that.

[ Clearly, either Ginko's knowledge of flora vastly outstrips Cisco's (very, very possible), or the trees where he comes from are just way cooler than the ones in the little woods outside Central City. As far as Cisco knew until now, the crowning achievement of all trees was their capability of creating maple syrup. Which is still a pretty neat trick. ]

Yeah, I got time, come on by.

[ And with that, Cisco waits. ]

001 ☼ video; un: ginko

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