Chapter Text
Ah, yes. My garden.
I sprinkle some more water on my crops, smiling slightly as I watch them all start to grow. I’ve really taken to gardening over the past while; it’s relaxing, compared to all the fighting I used to do before we all met Orange. Not that I don’t enjoy some good sparring with everyone else from time to time, of course! But after so long of knowing nothing but fight fight fight, it feels nice to care and nurture for something alive.
My gaze drifts down to the strange, deep red fungus in my hands. Nether wart, it’s apparently called. I found it while looking through the Minecraft icon for bonemeal, and quickly discovered that this, too, could be planted, albeit on soul sand instead of regular, hoed dirt. I’ve already gathered over two dozen pieces of the stuff, though I’ve been just carrying it all in my inventory since then. Mainly because I don’t know what to do with it—it doesn’t look like any of the other crops; if anything, it resembles some sort of weird, mutated mushroom, with a texture eerily similar to flesh.
I take a little whiff of it, wrinkling my nose a little. It smells, like really smells, almost as if I were holding a piece of a rotting, decaying corpse. Part of me wanted to just throw it all the way across the PC, but curiosity was starting to take over me.
Everything I grew in my garden could be eaten without any issues whatsoever. Sure, the netherwart was very clearly different from the rest of my crops, but the question of whether the fungus in my hand was edible or not hung over my head like a stubborn raincloud.
I cautiously lift the fungus up to my mouth. I hesitate for a moment, almost as if I’m waiting for someone to come in and stop me before I take the leap, slowly nibbling on a corner of the netherwart.
Oh. Oh god.
The flavor explodes on my tongue almost instantly, a huge wave of dopamine washing over my body. It’s a little bit sweet, and meaty, kind of like some strange mixture of steak and chicken. It’s fairly spicy, too, but not overwhelmingly so—it has a good kick, without making my mouth feel like it’s on fire.
Why didn’t I try this netherwart stuff sooner?! This stuff is good! Really good!
I shove the rest of the piece in my mouth, not even waiting to swallow before I dig for some more, grabbing several pieces at once and gnawing on them. This has to be the best thing I’ve ever had, there’s no doubting it.
I glance at the cauldron behind me. I wonder what this stuff tastes like as soup…
“Blue, what are you doing ?”
I glance up at Green, who’s giving me a weird look. The others have similar expressions, their faces twisted in confusion, disgust, and concern.
“I’m…eating?” I gesture to the slice of cake in my hand. “What does it look like?”
“No, I mean-” he points to the netherwart that I sprinkled on top of my slice. “Is that the netherwart stuff you’ve been using in your potions?”
“Yeah!” I chirp. “It actually tastes pretty good! You guys wanna try some?”
“Wait, you’re eating that stuff raw ?” Yellow screeched. “Blue, you shouldn’t be eating that!”
“Why not? It’s totally safe!” I point out. “I used it in all the potions I made, and we’re all fine, aren’t we?”
“True, but it’s been cooked down! We have no idea what raw netherwart can do to someone! It could be poisonous, or—I don’t know, some weird kind of hallucinogen…”
“Yellow, it’s fine ! Everything’s fine!” I interrupt her, waving her off with my free hand. “I’ve been eating netherwart for the past few days now, and I’ve been okay! If I had noticed something bad happening, I would’ve stopped by now!”
“Blue kinda has a point,” Orange pipes up. “If she had gotten sick from the stuff or was acting funny, we would’ve noticed by now. I mean, it kinda smells like rotten flesh, but it doesn’t look like it’s actually hurting her.”
“Yeah! It’s not hurting me!” I echo. “Besides, it’s not like I’ve been eating it for every single meal, it’s just a snack that I like! If I wanted to stop, I probably could.”
“But—” Yellow starts.
“Yellow, let it go,” Red tells her. “Blue’s fine. The worst that could happen to her is her just getting a stomachache from eating too much.”
“I…” Yellow’s gaze trails down to the piece of cake in my hands, before she slinks deeper in her seat, staring at her own plate. “Fine.”
I hum happily, taking a bite of my netherwart-topped cake. It’s tasty, naturally. Netherwart tastes good on its own, of course, but recently I’ve been mixing it in with my food. It brings a lot of flavor, and I like adding more or less depending on what I’m eating, or my cravings.
I don’t know why Yellow’s getting worried. Even now, she keeps shooting me weird looks every few seconds. I don’t think she thinks I notice, but I do. What’s gotten into her? I know that Yellow cares a lot about all of us and just wants to make sure we don’t get hurt, but her reaction to me eating the netherwart was…weird.
It’s just like everything else I grow! So what if it looks like a deformed mushroom and smells bad? It tastes amazing, and it isn’t hurting me! Yellow’s got to be overreacting with this.
After all, I could stop eating netherwart any time I wanted to!
Though then again, why would I even think about it?
The young ones are easy.
They’re dumb. Gullible.
After all, the younger they are, the easier it is to get them hooked.
This one isn’t an exception.
Good thing she’s surrounded by those her own age. They probably won’t even be able to tell when it takes hold of her.
Well…not until it’s too late, anyways.
…the yellow girl might be a problem.
But we can fix that.
Nothing a little netherwart can fix, after all.