#THE ROOTROT

[salmonid-svckerpvnch]

hi today I’m posting some more sketchy art, but it’s information on a sentient strand of fuzzy ooze called the Rootrot! :3

My commissions are open!

[thelongestway]

Well, there had to be a moment somewhere in a story that turned out to be fucking novel-length where I had to go back and redo an entire chapter because it wasn't working. (Twice, actually. I tried my initial idea, that didn't work, tried to change tacks completely to get around the problem (you saw that attempt); it didn't work either, so I had to go back to my original try and put more work into it to make it work. Yeah. It was as bad as it sounds.)

Still no guarantee that this has worked, but I'll see when I try to continue later today. (Not sure if in the same chapter or in a different one).

And of course, this was a chapter that I thought I had all figured out and it would be really fucking easy before I actually tried it. Such is the writing life!

Chapter 23: Observation

I walked back out onto the station, tapping into Aspen's feed to let them know I was embarking. They returned the handshake and let me link in, but otherwise ignored me, focusing entirely on their job. I could see their little tendrils, darting there and back, fixing some sort of process or checking up on a person, but there weren't many around. Tendrils, I mean, not people. Because the celebration was still going strong, and there were plenty of humans in Aspen's halls, some working, some relaxed. (My humans were back on their respective ships, at least. It was getting late in the station day-night cycle.)

I stopped at the exit to the docks. Normally, this was where I sent Aspen some kind of itinerary, but this time I didn't have one. Would they even let me on board if I didn't tell them exactly where I was planning to go and why? I wouldn't if I were them.

I'm not you, their voice said into my ear. You are free to come aboard.

Threat assessment spiked 12,5 percent as I frantically checked my channels. But no. We weren't connected beyond the fucking handshake. There was no way they could have--.

Or maybe they could. Whatever Dandelion said, they were half-brain-eating-zombie-AI.

What the fuck? Are you reading my fucking thoughts?

They laughed.

I don't need to read your thoughts to know what you're thinking. You're very loud.

What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

Fuck you.

For someone who can't even stand to look at a naked body, you do seem to offer that a lot. But no. You're not my type.

That fucking station.

Aspen continued: It's utterly fascinating to watch how your nudity taboo plays out in the expletives you use. There are so many diverse systems of profanity, but you nearly always choose words connected to bodily functions--specifically, reproduction and defecation, two messy and vulnerable things humans like to kept private.

That's just how humans use expletives. Shut up.

Bullshit, they said, and even though I couldn't see any tendrils hanging on me, I could hear that fucking knife of a grin. By which I mean, did you forget that you gave Iceblink your entire media archive? The corpus you have available to you is so much broader than what you're actually using, even if it did lose 'bullshit' somewhere along the way. You're welcome for the addition to your collection, by the way. Gives you an alternative for when you want to accuse someone of lying.

My organic parts crawled.

Are you going to keep this up the entire time I'm on the station?

That depends. Are you going to keep telling me I'm not doing my job?

I wasn't planning on talking to you at all, I said.

Good, they replied venomously. Do that, and I won't talk to you, either.

The dock exit slid open, even though I'd stopped half a meter away from the sensors.

That fu--. That a--. That--.

Okay. Whatever sympathy I had was gone. I officially hated that sunbleached, fauna-riddled forest of a miserable station. (And I hated that I heard them chuckle when I thought that. I really wasn't convinced they weren't reading my mind at this point.)

But I marched inside, anyway. Because there was no way that--HubSystem could pressure me into fucking hiding on board ART just by watching me. I could take being watched. I was better at being watched than Aspen could fucking imagine.

Aside from the completely private, feed-blind areas such as personal quarters, Aspen probably had the fewest camera and microphones in their recreational areas, so I went up to their topside gardens. I found a spot as far away from any camera or speaker placement that I could see, sat down on the grass and watched.

Nothing out of the ordinary. Just humans and genetically augmented humans mingling, most of them unfamiliar. (The one exception was Haze, who was sitting in a circle on the ground with seven other genetically augmented humans. They waved at me, and I circled a drone around them before moving it away. Haze laughed, and grabbed the smallest human in the circle by hand, pointing at my drone and talking to them excitedly.)

This wasn't helping, so I tapped Thiago's feed.

What exactly am I looking for?

Nothing specific right now, he answered readily. The point is to see what patterns emerge from what you see around you. Just record anything that catches your attention. Try not to make it a log or video dump, if you can--edit it as you go, be concrete about what you found interesting, exactly.

Okay, so Haze. Fine. I knew Haze, at least, so I had a lot of data for comparison.

Except the data was fucking useless, because Haze behaved almost exactly the same on the station as they did on board Dandelion. They weren't any more tense, or weirded out by Aspen's creepy analytics

(Wait, did Haze know the analytics were even there? They were an engineer, so they had to. But in any case, they didn't seem bothered by the idea.)

They did seem happy, but Haze was usually pretty cheerful. The rest of the augmented humans were kind of the same, actually. Their group reminded me of Preservation humans when they were engaged in recreational activities, but with a different adult-to-child ratio than Preservation groups normally had. (Four out of eight were full adults, two were juveniles, and two were children. It was weirdly symmetrical. And the age gap between the adults and the juveniles looked exactly the same as between the juveniles and the children, which didn't usually happen.)

Were they some kind of weird family unit? I wished I had a proper database to match them against, and to get their actual ages.

You're looking at a set, Aspen said. That's a Hylaran type of family unit. The ideal size is eight, but the uptake of new members is normally in batches of two, not six as it used to be historically.

Threat assessment spiked again. I hadn't actually sent that as a HubSystem query, had I?

I hadn't. They were in my fucking head again.

Why are the fuck are you talking to me right now?

Because watching you trying to figure out familial structures is just painful. And, as I said, you're incredibly loud by default, much louder than any human. I have to make an active effort to filter out you reaching for me.

Bullshit! I didn't send you any queries!

Who said anything about queries, SecUnit? I said you reached for me. Directed your attention at me. It wasn't difficult to figure out what you were wondering about.

That took me an entire two seconds to process.

Wait--you could do that this whole time?

If you mean, register your attention being directed at me--yes. I just did my best to ignore it when it wasn't a conscious request. But I am done being courteous to you while you try to make me into a rootrotting surveillance platform. If you want me not to overhear you, you're going to have to actually try and be quiet.

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

Back to your standard profanity, I see. I don't actually know which word you're repeating, but most single-syllable expletives that fit the circumstances we find ourselves in are bodily-function related.

ART, I said on our private channel. (Was it private? I had no fucking idea anymore.) Are they fucking hacking me?

(I didn't think they were. But maybe they were just better at hiding. They couldn't be better than ART, though, ART chewed through a quarter of their fucking firewall in seconds.)

They're not, ART said, tense and angry. According to my analysis, this is just what they're getting from background data.

The fucking number of syllables in the swear words I'm thinking?

That's probably just statistics. You do have a limited profanity corpus.

Fuck you, ART, I said with the satisfaction of knowing it would not fucking twist this into being a sex thing.

If you want to continue with your survey, then I will keep watch, ART said. And the moment Aspen tries to hack you, I will make sure they have something else to worry about.

My threat assessment for that was distinctly low. (Even though I was glad to have ART with me anyway.) But Aspen didn't even hack the hostiles, so they weren't likely to really hack me just because I pissed them off. I was probably safe.

Just being observed. And commented on.

I could deal with that.

[hec-chan]

It breaks my heart how many chicks Sunday has lost recently because of the root rot, but she's still kicking. She's down to just these four, but they are strong. I completely changed her soil today so hopefully she'll take to it and be okay. I believe in her! #sundayandchicks #henandchicks #succulents #succulentplants #plants #plantlife #progress #rootrot

[abandonedalbums]

Girl day

[confusedbyinterface]

If you want to understand Aspen Greaves, imagine someone who really loves gothic literature being stuck in a social circle with like two steampunks, so whenever they try to talk about Frankenstein or Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde everyone's like "Oh, cool, so you're steampunk too?" and they have to go "NO MARY SHELLY ISN'T ROTTING STEAMPUNK SHUT YOUR ROOTROTTING MOUTH"

[feezee223]

Finaly drew my oc rootrot a ref so I can out her on my artfight

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Today on this rootrotting mess of a spaceship: more answers!

[littlewitchygreen]

An Overview of Plants: Cinquefoil

Name: Cinquefoil (Potentilla genus, many varieties)

Description: Often, it has yellow flowers, though some are white with a yellow center, or pink. It always has five heart-shaped petals, with the spaces between looking like a star. It has leaves with spiked edges, and the leaves grow in clusters of five that look like a star as well. Easily mistaken for a strawberry plant.

Cultivation: It is a warm-weather plant that grows best from late spring through fall. It prefers partial to full sun, and can up to grow anywhere between two and four feet. When planting it, plant in the cooler part of spring, with the root balls about six inches deep and three to six feet apart depending on the grown size of the variety. Tolerant to many kinds of soil, as long as it drains well. Yellow leaves are a sign the soil is iron deficient, and are something to look out for. When watering, keep evenly moist during the first growing season - after that they are rather drought resistant. Too much shade, waterlogged soil, and high humidity may lead to fungal diseases or rootrot.

Harvest: The best way to harvest the plant is by pulling the whole thing in June/early summer. Dry it in a shady place. Though, if the stems or wood are needed you can use the trimmings from prunings - prune by cutting back the stems to the wood in early spring before leaves grow, cutting back only a third of the plant at maximum.

Folklore: In Europe, cinquefoil was used for prosperity and love workings, and sometimes as a form of spiritual or magical protection. In some parts of Europe, it has been tied strongly to witchcraft - believed to offer protection against it and as an ingredient in the infamous ‘flying ointment’ used by witches. Romans also believed it had ties to the god Mercury, and would use it in devotional incense.

Magical Properties: Used primarily in luck, love, prosperity, and non-material protection workings. Worn as a talisman, it is said to warn off malicious spirits. Also known for its connection to fae magic, and for its uses when communing with them.

Medicinal Properties: Mainly used to treat mild inflammation, so it has been used for sore throats, inflammation-based fevers, and menstrual cramping mainly. But there is some evidence it can also be used for diarrhea and certain skin conditions.

Recommended Amount: There is no known recommended amount, so be mindful when using, and consult a doctor and/or pharmacist before using regularly. When making tea, one tablespoon is generally enough.

Warnings: Not enough about its interactions are known, so avoid if pregnant or breastfeeding to be safe, and consult a doctor and/or pharmacist for interactions with other medications.

*This is a page from my grimoire. I am not a health professional, nor do I claim to be. This is just a compilation of information I’ve gathered from various sources I trust, and any medical decisions should be made by individuals with the help of a trained professional.

An Overview of Plants - more plants

[the-heckler]

@lost-in-elfhame-heather there may be an infinite number of universes out there but theres still not a single one where you dont smell like an indoor plant with rootrot

[lunod]

You'd think considering my user is rootrot and also my incessant love of plants that I was a Sylvari nerd from the get go but actually when I first started playing GW2 I said that I was Not gonna play the plant elves (IMO elf races in any media are typically overrated) except then they had to give them The Horrors so now I have issues and am abnormal about them.

[homophyte]

i have a short plants update for today.

first up is garlic who continues to worry me :(. the new growth i was so excited about is starting to turn black—not all of it, but a few! so that’s a not a good sign. just in case, i removed the larger dying leaves and did some other pruning (mostly of those trapless leaves) and filled her cup up with rain rather than tap water. there’s not super much i can do at this point? the next step would be check the roots for rootrot and then give less water but that’s pretty drastic and if there’s not any root problems could just damage and shock the plant. so we’re gonna see if this helps first!

next updates for both pitchers and pretty uneventful. the sunburn on the sarracenia is progressing which isn’t that surprising—it can take some time to show up fully and i don’t doubt it’s increased despite the less intense light because it was pretty light starved in the nursery where i got it. as i explained before, the older leaves which are adapted to this low light will die off and be replaced with new leaves adapted to the brighter light. this light is definitely way better for the plant than what it was getting before so i’m pretty confident despite the damage that it’ll bounce back. what’s interesting is as you can see the damage is turning the plant red. it’s really interesting looking! this is part of why i’m so confident: they develop color with better lighting, so seeing color come in, even with damage, is a good sign. you can see it most clearly on the younger leaves, which have turned almost totally red, but what’s really exciting is that the newest of the new growth right in the center is totally red.

so that’s nice. last is a color update on the nepenthes, which is developing just a liiiiiitle bit of red on the edges of the traps and on the little spikes things which i’m sure have a name i don’t know. you can also see it on the nodes of the stem where it’s very deep and rich. so pretty!

cannot believe the nepenthes is the one doing the best of all three i was so (knock on wood) worried about damaging it! i guess we’ll see where things head from here but im optimistic for full recovery (knock on wood again) for each of these.

[dambiex]

my potted plant died from rootrot and now i have trouble sleeping :(

[thelongestway]

Heads up--will be doing a significant rewrite of ch. 2, because the amazing @ultmateragnarok is fucking incredible at space design and has drawn some really cool station schematics!

But luckily, most of this chapter is happening in-feed, so while I work on that, please enjoy...

Chapter 3: Disbelief

If you've never seen a giant station AI outright freeze after hearing just four words, then trust me: it was as weird as it sounds. Aspen's mass of threads went almost completely still for about two seconds, then half of them dropped and re-emerged oriented towards ART. (Well, the threads in our feed space. It didn't look like they dropped anything back at the station, which was pretty impressive for how much of an emotion they were having).

(Wait, no. They weren't even having an emotion about this yet. They were preparing to have an emotion and it was taking actual seconds of processing time.)

(I didn't even know you could prepare to have an emotion, what the fuck?)

Then Aspen rearranged configuration, going from hundreds of tiny tendrils into two enormous processes in an instant, one of which actually tried to loom over ART as they said, You realize that "the Courageous" and its relevant semantic permutations are probably within the top hundred most common names for ships, right? I don't have fresh data from the new worlds at hand yet, but this one can easily be extrapolated from history; in fact, let me run that analysis right now... Right, there, see? You're going to have to be a lot more specific if you want me to answer that query.

(ART stared right back at them. I didn't think it's ever been actually loomed over before and it was stuck somewhere between a "what, really?" and a "you've got a lot of nerve to do that". Which I guessed Aspen probably did, if their neural mass was anywhere close to Dandelion's.)

Aspen's other process, way too quick for something that big, wound its way around Dandelion's feed presence like an indignant vine. My threat assessment almost spiked, but she was...

Okay, no, that was new. Dandelion was laughing. Triumphantly.

I suddenly have the horrible feeling that we've been set up, Iris said.

Agreed, ART said, working through the makeshift analysis the Courageous had thrown at it. (And rerunning the relevant episode of Cold Sleep Explorers for me in the feed. It was one of the more fucked up ones.)

Yeah. I agreed, too. Especially after Note Waveskimmer wisely hung back from the others and said, smirking, Cousin, I think Dandelion wins this round.

DANDELION. Aspen's second vine-like process hissed. REALLY.

I have done nothing, Dandelion said in the worst combination of smug and innocent I'd ever heard, all the while letting Aspen all but strangle her in the feed. (Which they didn't, not really, but they pretended, shaking her a little with each word for emphasis.)

(Just when I thought these ships couldn't get any weirder.)

I. Can't. Believe. You.

You can check the entire half-system-year's worth of interaction logs with Perihelion and crew, if you like, and Dandelion just dumped a ton of log files on the Courageous like they were nothing. That was going to take a while to pro--.

Oh shit. Oh wow, were they pissed. They were halfway through already.

Seriously, Dandelion, that's what you use your data banks for? Aspen said as its ART-facing giant vine-process broke up into tiny threads and chewed through the mountain of data. You realize even having these is a point in--

What? I thought you'd be excited to see the correlations in the training logs--

Yes, yes, fascinating stuff, but also you could have warned me about-- Is that a rootrotting documentary? DANDELION. You could have warned me about the rootrotting--

Query specified. ART said, forcefully poking its half of Aspen's processes to get their attention again. Are you the Javelin Courageous, the only ship of the Javelin program to be considered lost, found, and then lost again together with its colony world?

Aspen's other half swiveled back towards ART, feeding its query into the same hungry data processor and collating it with the data Dandelion had sent it.

Return query one: is "lost, found, lost again together with its colony world" an accurate summary of the known history of the Javelin Courageous? Which I am not confirming or denying is me, by the way. Return query two: is this summary based solely on the Cold Sleep Explorers documentary, or on other sources, too?

You first. ART said stubbornly.

Fine, Aspen said, sounding like a bunch of irate venomous fauna, then pulled at Dandelion for some non-log data, which she provided. They crunched through the data, and then turned back to ART. Return queries rescinded. Answer to specified query: yes. Anything else I can help you with, Perihelion? Or can we start the docking procedure now?

I need to discuss something with my crew first, ART said as it upgraded the internal threat assessment to red. In private.

Go ahead, Aspen said, withdrawing the last of the tendrils they'd been using to stay in touch with ART. We'll be here. TALKING. But also--sorry, you two, one of their smaller subprocesses was suddenly way too close to me for comfort. Then, before I could even react, it withdrew to an acceptable range, while a similar tendril near Iris stayed at the closer distance normally comfortable for her. I didn't get the chance to greet you before this whole thing happened. SecUnit/Iris, welcome to Trellin. May you enjoy, they sighed, Peaceful and safe harbor with us.

---

What's this about? Seth said when ART pulled everyone in the crew into a channel that it had encrypted as well as it possibly could.

I recommend reconsidering disembarking on Courageous Station, ART said.

Seriously? Tarik said. We've come so far to get here, and now you want to go home?

Not "go home." We can stay in orbit and discuss the necessary subjects. But the station is not safe for humans. ART pulled up a summary of the documentary. The Courageous lost two fifths of their crew on their way to a colony world. I don't want them to lose mine.

[hec-chan]

I think I need to take a break watering like all of my plants 😭 I accidentally gave my poor Sunday root rot and had to pluck out a bunch of her hens. I think it was a small blessing so this way she's not as crowded as before though #sundayandchicks #succulents #henandchicks #plantlife #plants #rootrot #progress #swipe

[r-osehips]

#i know dante didn't have the odyssey to go by but seeing my man in the 8th circle of hell was like [jenny slate nasa scream] #whenever i think about it i imagine him leaving ithaca and penelope for that final journey #a stranger if only to himself. rootrot consuming the marriage bed.fugitive resentment. dying at home in a shipwreck on the edge of the world (via @deadpanwalking)

i really love that line οὐ μὲν γάρ τοι ἔτ᾽ ἄλλος ἐλεύσεται ἐνθάδ᾽ Ὀδυσσεύς, "no other odysseus will ever come to you," because he's saying not that he is the true odysseus but that there is no truer odysseus alive on the earth. he doesn't say, 'i am the real odysseus.' he says, 'i'm the realest odysseus you're going to get.'

[the-hacker-news]

China-Linked Hackers Used ROOTROT Webshell in MITRE Network Intrusion

The Hacker News : The MITRE Corporation has offered more details into the recently disclosed cyber attack, stating that the first evidence of the intrusion now dates back to December 31, 2023. The attack, which came to light last month, singled out MITRE's Networked Experimentation, Research, and Virtualization Environment (NERVE) through the exploitation of two Ivanti Connect Secure zero-day http://dlvr.it/T6kVM8 Posted by : Mohit Kumar ( Hacker )