#beeparoho

answering this late bc its a big vague so ramblings a lil tricker to start off on but!!! hmm so.

w mushroom benrey, for the most part theyre like. yknow, theyre just...a dude? strange sure, but they do their job and they know what soda is and can count up to fifty and really, thats all you need right? reading and writing and pattern recognition and all that sort of thing--sure, most fungi dont seem to be able to do that sort of thing, generally, but when you have the control and experience built into your entire being from years of growing and dying and living and spreading and singing and falling apart to create--i dunno, i feel like adaption probably comes naturally at some point.

its all just a matter of time, really.

and like...benreys complex. theyre very well rounded, and ingrained, and dont question that phrasing but in many ways its, yknow, literal. most things are. everything is literal if you go about it the right way. dont question it. everything goes to metaphorical when you question it.

lots of things are metaphorical with benrey, too. like. how is a mushroom aware of a multitude? a collection of bodies all centered on the sentience of one being? well. a mushroom contains multitudes. it is grown of a complex structure, a network of cells and complex fractaling and biology and age that live for years or centuries or days, spread out under miles of being or a single piece of bread. not that benreys ever been bread before--bread is very difficult to control and use as a host.

benreys been a lot of things--theyve been a bug, crawling up a tree to settle and die. theyve been a bird, consumed and then consuming to become. theyve been a cat, speed and grace and stumbling over fences because a body once so familiar is now new (to them). theyve been a human. theyve been many humans. theyve been fish and dog and snail and worm and so many humans they can barely keep count. not that they were able to.

they learnt to count when tommy came by--they sat at a desk they only knew from muscle memory (very strange, and quicky being laced with hyphae,) and they were struggling with a phone they recognised but had never used. tommy, also strange and inhuman but in a very different way, gently took them to a different room and offered to help them count. they had puzzled out words and reading (barely) from the parts of the brains that had the right processors, but mushrooms, generally, do not have records of their numbers.

part of why they had been so many humans was, i think, because they had been caught. Black Mesa was a pattern they recognised, and though the scientests did not know this (at first,) Black Mesa was a place they had sung often in. they slowly filled the walls with mycelium during their stay, and by the time the resonance cascade had hit, Black Mesa was being held together more benrey than anything else. after a year, Black mesa became its own mycelium, and used the death that filled it to create life and an ecosystem of its own.

--You’ve selected Option C - Try to get the Nightmare to hit itself with its tail.--

--You maneuver around the Nightmare, and somehow manage to get it to hit itself with its tail while it was trying to hit you. It falls onto the ground, yowling.--

Right, that should do!

-- Forzen moves forward again, swinging his sword back and fourth.--

Alright, Nighty. Lights out for you! 

--The Nightmare stares at Forzen’s weapon, quickly scrambling back to its feet and moving back even more. Forzen darts forward and-!--

--The Nightmare turns and starts running...? Forzen gives chase.--

...

Did that Nightmare just get up and run??

It would seem that the Nightmare is afraid of Forzen!

I’ve never been supported by so many people! Thank you everyone! I’ll make you all proud!