Flora in the Steppe -- Merlin and Arthur

## Summary

Merlin and Arthur went into the Steppe looking for any interesting flora. In the shade of a rock, they found a flower faintly glowing. Upon inspection, it seemed clear this flower seemed to absorb sunlight during the day and emit it at night, but stuck in eternal sunset, it is also stuck at a bit of halfway point. When touched, it releases glowing pink spores that have some sort of dye-like properties.

This exploration was awarded 10 AP.

## Transcript

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PANDOR.

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Exploration commenced.

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Merlin

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Merlin, as... purposefully silly... as he is, has an endless curiosity - and in this new world, he's very happy to explore it and find out about its secrets. This clearly means he has to look into the flora surrounding it: he is the Magus of Flowers, after all. Guiding Arthur through the Steppe (even though he has no idea where he's going), he stops to look around and watch the scenery, looking for points of interests - from bushes to flowers.

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Arthur

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Arthur is just here to have a good time. In the end if they find something or not he's glad he came. So for now he's just following Merlin's lead around steppe, cause in the end they both have no clue what they're doing or where they're going. He's just gonna stare hard at the flowers.

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PANDOR.

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Across the Steppe are various forms of flowers -- fields of wildflowers, carefully cultivated gardens on the fringes of farmland tucked close by the city walls, errant blossoms peppered around the bases of rocks.

One in particular seems to catch your attention. Tucked in the shade behind a rock about a half mile outside the city is a cluster of something that nearly looks like a rose... or perhaps a chrysanthemum? Its petals are soft and pink and ruffled around the edges, but that's not what catches your attention. Looking closely enough, there's a faint glow coming from the center of the flower, spilling through translucent petals and emanating a roseate aura. It's faint, not quite reaching the outer petals, but you get the feeling a blossom like this was really meant to reach its peak during a night that will not come.

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Merlin

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Merlin is a curious man - he takes long looks at the flowers surrounding him and Arthur, studying them with his eyes and carefully analyzing petals, stems and leaves: until his attention span is taken fully by a singular flower, a pretty pink one hidden by the shadow of a rock. Merlin almost runs to it, excitement clear in his face as he calls out - "Arthur, Arthur, come here! I found a pretty one!" - and kneels in front of the faintly glowing flower. He watches the flower for a moment, its glow almost hypnotizing him, but after a bit he carefully forms a dome over the flower with his hands, in an attempt to make its glow intensify.

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Arthur

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Like father like son Arthur was interested in the flower. It was quite pretty, Merlin wasn't lying. " Yeah....it sure is." He felt the same like it was pulling him in, why he wasn't sure. However unlike Merlin he went right in and poked the flower gently.

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PANDOR.

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Though the glow does not intensify, it is easier to see with the shadow from Merlin's hands hanging over it. Considering his knowledge and affinity for flora, Merlin can tell this is probably a bloom that reacts specifically to sunlight, gathering it during the day and emanating its own bio-luminescent glow when night falls. Trapped in eternal sunset, however, it seems to also be stuck in this middle stage of bloom.

Arthur pokes the flower and in reaction, a few small, pink, glowing spores come from the center of the petals and dance through the air, floating around the top of the petals in gently spinning spirals before coming to rest on his hand.

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Merlin

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Merlin is a bit disappointed that the flower didn't glow more like he thought it would - but he can easily assume its glow comes from sunlight, and the poor thing is stuck in this permanent sunset forever. How sad. Yet, when he sees Arthur poke the flower - when he sees the spores float in the air and then land on his hand - he frowns, leans back a bit like he detects danger. "Son!" He almost scolds, "You don't go around poking every pretty thing you see in nature! What if that flower is dangerous somehow?" He studies the spores in Arthur's hand with his eyes, then covers his hand with his sleeve and lightly (carefully, in an odd show of common sense) touches the spores with a finger.

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Arthur

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"Oh, right." He wasn't sure why that didn't come to mind before now. "Well it didn't hurt me so at least there's that." He held still as Merlin touched the spores. He couldn't help but watch and look at them more. It had been pretty when it laid on his hand, he never thought it would spiral like that. It had been glowing still so he could only wonder why.

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PANDOR.

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The spore crumbles a little under your touch, forming an almost chalk-like substance that still maintains its slight pink glow. The contact leaves a bit of a smudge on Arthur's hand, as well as on Merlin's sleeve. It doesn't seem to be doing anything harmful, just crushing into soft, pale pink powder.

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Merlin

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"It didn't hurt you now!" It sounded like a joke, but... "Who knows, maybe you'll get a nasty itch on your hand later." Hopefully not? Merlin narrows his eyes at the glowy powder. "Hmm..." He's starting to think out loud. "Maybe this powder can create glowing dye for clothing, or... just poison. Who knows! I'll try it." He takes some of the spores into his covered hand and rubs them between his fingers in an attempt to grind them down into more of the powder.

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Arthur

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" Maybe but lets hope now... but i guess i'll learn not to do it again if that does happen." Yeah, lets hope not thought. "That is possible yes, or many people use it for medicine?" It's something to think about of course, who knows, He was interested in more, he also didn't think a bit. He moved his hand up to his face to look closer to it but also see if it smelled like anything,

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PANDOR.

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As Merlin grinds the spores between his fingers, he notices that the powder moves rather smoothly, leaving a heavily pigmented -- and still somewhat radiant -- pink smudge on his fingertips. Should he attempt to wipe it away, he will find it quite difficult to remove the color.

The flower doesn't have a very strong smell, and though the blossom resembles a rose to a certain degree, it spells almost more like grass or hay.

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Merlin

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Merlin can't help but smile at his (minor, almost silly) discovery, and he shows it to Arthur triumphantly. "Look, look!" He calls, showing the smudge to the Saber (and almost shoving it at his face), "Pretty, isn't it? It could be used as... ink? Or paint. I'm not sure." He takes a look at the flower. "I could bring it home and run more in-depth tests on it, but... isn't it just pretty?" Merlin frowns. "I don't want to kill it or anything, so..." He reaches out to take a petal from the flower and pull it off. "Sorry, little dude."

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Arthur

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He turned to take a look at what Merlin seemed so keen on showing him. It was pretty that was for sure. "Hum, it's hard to say but i'm sure if anyone can figure it out it would be you." After all he was the magus of flowers for a reason. "It doesn't smell bad either, quite nice actually." Being a farm boy and knight in training for a good amount of his life grass and hay were more nostalgic than anything.

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PANDOR.

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Though you can't imagine Boryana would be too pleased at you plucking the petals from a wild flower like this, you do it anyway, to little avail. Aside from the glowing spores that are nestled in the center of the bud, the flower is fairly unremarkable. Pretty, though. And the smudge left by the spore's dust on your hand doesn't seem to be fading in glow.

Exploration ended.