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[greenpower]

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Poison Ivy

Text me.

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[pathography]

I could say the same.

[ He's an acquired taste, and lately some people have lost the taste for him. ]

I've been part of an effort to modernize how Whitestone - my home - is managed. And I'm happy to work with whatever expectations you have, though you'll have to tell me what you mean by 'sustainable.'

[ He's not up on the language of modern American environmentalism, unfortunately. ]

[greenpower]

What I mean is that we design our settlement to be as harmonious as possible with nature. We don't poison the land. We don't suck the life out of it to feed our greed.

We give back to the natural world.

[pathography]

That seems sensible enough.

[ He sounds slightly perplexed, as though the opposite hasn't actually occurred to him before now. ]

If we destroyed the land, there'd be nothing to live on.

[greenpower]

[It's not the worst answer he could have. And the reminder that not every culture is defined by a parasitic relationship with the world they inhabit; this isn't the state humankind needs to be resigned to.]

You'd think that, but I've watched rich and powerful industrial types and tech bros poison the air and water, leech nutrients from the soil, and make sure every human being has enough micro plastics in their body that it's amazing we don't shit charge cards.

[Look.

At least it's not directed at him.]

So you get where my priorities lie.

[pathography]

I'm not sure what all of that means - [ microplastics, charge cards - he can guess at tech bros and hopes he doesn't qualify ] - but I'm not interested in poisoning anything that doesn't deserve it.

[ And since it seems like he should probably clarify: ]

The countryside doesn't deserve it, obviously.

[greenpower]

Obviously.

So.

[That out of the way.]

I assume you're not a big fan of the Duchess?

[pathography]

[ Apparently, he's passed that particular test. Onwards to what promise to be more tests. ]

She's made clear that she expects me to fight for her without providing anything I'd value in return. So - no. Not especially.

[ He ought to be more careful than this, he knows, but the way his conversation with the Duchess went has left him annoyed and disappointed. ]

I won't be living in full-time your community, however. Will that be a problem?

[greenpower]

Where you want to spend your time is none of my business.

[pathography]

Then I think we'll work well together.

Have you drawn up any plans for the settlement?

[greenpower]

Not yet. We have some notes, but it was only fairly recently we narrowed down the construction site.

At this point, I'm trying to clear as much space as I can on my own.

[Unfortunately, there will have to be some traditional logging and clearing. Ivy doesn't like it, but if they can keep it to a minimum and make the thinning strategic, she's willing to accept it.]

[pathography]

Ah. Are you a druid?

[ They really haven't run across each other before. >> ]

[greenpower]

Like, new age-y pagan environmentalism?

[pathography]

Er...like druids. People who draw their magical abilities from nature?

[greenpower]

Not magic powers. I have... you could say a spiritual connection to the collective consciousness of all plant life.

[pathography]

...I see.

[ That still sounds like something in Keyleth's bag of tricks, but it's not like Percy would really know, would it? (And Keyleth isn't limited to the plants anyway.) ]

Well - that must be rather helpful right now. Do you need any assistance with the clearing?

[greenpower]

Can you make trees uproot and move to new locations?

[pathography]

No, unfortunately - I don't work with magic.

[greenpower]

I'll focus on clearing for now. I know we'll need to chop down some of the trees, but we can do that after I do what I do.

[Okay, Ivy, play nice.]

Do you have any plans in mind? An idea how much space we'll need to start.

[pathography]

That depends entirely on what you hope to gain from this endeavour - how self-sufficient you expect to be, how many people you'll have with you, and so on.

[ He's content to leave the actual forest-clearing to her, after all - that's nowhere close to his forte. But she has, unfortunately, woken the desire to talk a great deal about the sorts of things he finds interesting, and that is among his strengths. ]

At bare minimum, we'll need shelter, storage for food, and access to clean water. In theory, you could start with a single building and expand from there. But if you've got grander plans than that, we'll want to account for the basic tasks of a small village. I'd imagine a blacksmith's [ of course he would ], stables, a carpenter's, healers of some sort, homes for people living there all the time...and whatever other industries you expect to see. I haven't visited the region, but I understand it's a different sort of environment?

[greenpower]

Very different biomes in almost every respect. Normally I'd say they shouldn't even be next to one another. The village and most of the surrounding region at least seem to be northern mixed deciduous and coniferous forest, and the "jungle" is subtropical and tropical broad leaf forest.

[He's not the only one who likes to talk about his special interests.]

Though both of them have some notable deviations from normal presentation. The environments around here are definitely not entirely natural. A lot of the plants growing side by side here shouldn't be on the same side of the planet in the wild.

[But here it is.]

Clean water is going to be the highest priority.

[pathography]

[ He follows along less out of knowledge and more out of respect for knowledge. Special interest game recognizes special interest game, even if that recognition isn't accompanied by total comprehension. (Total, he decides, isn't necessary. He needs to be able to keep up, and she can be in charge of glancing around an open space and spotting every plant that seems out of place.) ]

Do we have a source of potable water we can work with? Or will we need to locate one?

[ This isn't the first time he's missed Keyleth, but it's the first time he's missed her specifically for her knowledge of the natural world. ]

[greenpower]

There's access to water—there's a stream nearby and the water table is high enough it shouldn't be hard to sink a well if we need, but potable water might be a stretch. I'd say it needs to be boiled if we don't want to get giardia at least.

[Excepting Ivy, who doesn't have to worry about that. Obviously.]

Some kind of filtration system is going to also be on the to-do list.

[pathography]

Hm.

[ He doesn't know giardia, but he does know he'd rather not get horribly sick in the jungle...or subsist off boiled water forever. ]

We'll have to do some experimentation - I've never tried to filter water. Are there methods used where you're from?

[greenpower]

Some. I'd rather lean into physical filtration over chemical for, like, obvious reasons.

[She assumes it's obvious though.]

If there's a magical option, someone else will have to speak to that.

[pathography]

We'd have to solicit recommendations for anything magical.

[ Nothing chemical, he can work with. Make it magical, though, and he'll have to pass the project off to someone else.

Anyway, he's thinking back to home, what little he might know about water purification, but nothing in particular comes up. So he's limited to the theoretical possibilities, ways of ensuring good health in general. ]

If we passed the water through something else - say, charcoal or sand? - that might help. But we'll need a way of testing it for impurities first.