Let's Dance!

[ziggyplayedguitar]

[Continued from here]

The celebration was supposed to be short, sweet and just a greeting. However, with Ziggy and his friends and the family friends all being incredibly social things continued on. He and Mick and pulled out the equipment from the spare room. It was turning into a party by the time it was late afternoon.

As it attracted more people Tom ordered food to be delivered from the plaza, because they would need it, though the Anthean food was still there for the more adventurous. Jack also started a small bonfire in the portable fire pit in yard as it was getting toward evening and would cool to something colder than most humans might find comfortable. It would be good for there to be a place to warm up if the dancing or whatever else went on wasn't enough. Tommy had also finally come from where ever he had spent his time earlier in the day with his wife who, unlike Aletayria, hadn't adopted any human features at all. They were both simply observing from the edges since Etainia had not seen other species, and very few humans. This was a startling situation.

Cords run out front, Mick and Ziggy both with guitars, they were ready to jam with Soundwave. It was sure to attract other people since they were more or less starting a concert on the front lawn of the tiny house not too distant from the edge of the plaza.


[OOC: This is open to anyone who is at the celebration or wishes to amble by. Party style thread... feel free to tag about and mingle.]

Comments

[itmeanscourage]

Isamu thanked Tom again for the tea. But his attention was now firmly on the strange black juice. Tom was a scientist and yet those were both mystical and esoteric concepts.

"Are you stating that it provides perception beyond ordinary sight? A feeling rather similar to, but not to the same extent as, Anthean empathy?"

He stared at the liquid, smelling the mildly fruity aroma. Should he chance a sip? Or perhaps merely do as wine tasters do, swishing and spitting it back into a glass - savoring the flavor without the intoxication. But that ignored the root of this sudden conundrum...

Did he honestly want to feel what Minoru always felt?

[hellomajortom]

"Not exactly. It does have typical alcohol buzz but you can't get drunk on it." Tom paused to try and collect his words. "When I drink it I feel more connected to the others. I'm more open to them and my own physical senses are more intense. It feels like I see and hear more."

He sips his juice and then shrugs. "I feel like I'm connected more to everything which might be how connected they are. We haven't done any specific research and there aren't other humans that have drank it, that I know of."

Tom laughs. "It makes her more attractive to me but I think that has to do with how it increases my openness to her mental abilities."

[itmeanscourage]

“In psychopharmacological literature, that sort of experience fits the description of the effects of 3,4-Methyl​enedioxy​methamphetamine - MDMA.” He recalled, his voice trailing off as he worked through the mechanisms of action in his head. “Which, if it were more similar to how Anthean emapthy works, would suggest greater release of serotonin and norepinephrine than of dopamine, running counter to my initial hypothesis, but certainly worth considering... especially when strenuous exercise releases similar neurotransmitters, in addition to naturally-occurring endorphins. Could there be a link there which would help Minoru?”

Then he sat down the cup and mentally pulled himself out of the rabbit hole.

“Research is definitely needed.”

The plate of food was probably a safer place to begin, he ultimately decided.

[hellomajortom]

"I've taken MDMA before. This is different. It doesn't produce the extroversion. It's more contemplative and internal and doesn't get you all jittered up." Tom thinks about it for a long time and then shrugs. "Maybe the emotional effects of MDMA with the relaxing qualities of opium and a slight intoxication."

That made it sound way stronger than it was but there weren't enough comparisons really. "It's a mild effect. Antheans don't like to be as mentally altered as humans without trauma being involved."

[itmeanscourage]

“Intriguing. Despite recent advancements in the study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for people diagnosed with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder, I would not have imagined that to be a vice of your choice.” He nodded thoughtfully.

Isamu would definitely be taking a to-go cup if that’s allowed. This needed to be studied far more thoroughly and the psychoactive compounds identified.

“Given the Antheans I have had the pleasure of meeting thus far, with Aletayria being perhaps the sole the exception, the implications of the latter statement is... troubling... at best.”

Newton was never without a bottle. Ziggy had overdosed at least once. Jack had many of the same vices as Ziggy. Too small a sample size to draw conclusions, but their species was down to a very small sample size already.

[hellomajortom]

"I've tried everything at one point." Tom admits more easily than he would have a year ago. "Either as a reckless 20 something or in the tornado of hell that was coming back to Earth."

Tom nods. "Humans are no good for them. Not individual humans but our species in general. Our thoughts, ideals, behaviors.. they're destructive to them in ways I still have trouble swallowing."

[itmeanscourage]

“I would not mind a chronicle of causes and effects, both beneficial and destructive - but that is best left for another time...”

Thoughts about the destructive nature of humanity could likely wait too. Already it weighed heavily on the Antheans that were here. And for a moment, he found himself wishing he had his brother’s boundless optimism - just so that he might have a remedy for that bitter pill.

Neither of them had eaten in a while, though. And there were more perishable things right here to be curious about.

It was an appropriate change of subject.

“Tell me more about these vegetables...”

[hellomajortom]

"After I returned I managed to make most things destructive." Tom isn't proud of it but that is the truth of his spiral after returning.

Tom is grateful for the change to the foods. "They dry all of their foods in the sun. It's a cold drying process, not a hot dry. Leaves and roots make up most of their foods but there are seeds and the one fruit on the planet is made into the drink."

It was a basic overview and he could go into individual items as they went on.

[itmeanscourage]

“Fascinating.” Isamu lifted various items on his plate. “Cold dry? As in essentially freeze-dried?”

Unfortunately, he was far more familiar with the process as it pertained to pharmaceuticals - lyophilized powders and the like. But knew Anthean body temperature ran far colder than that of humans, corresponding with an environment that was suited to those temperatures as well. Had Aletayria managed to replicate that environment in her greenhouse?

He picked up one type of leaf, and bit into it curiously.

[hellomajortom]

"I'm not sure the exact process. I know their sun is part of the process traditionally." Tom wasn't too clear on how the food processing happened when it was developed.

Tom reached over the counter and pulled out a glass container that looked like a spice shaker with a mix of things in it. "They add this to some of the food. For a human, use it sparingly it is hot and I find too much makes me feel like the food tastes like poison."

Tom knew that last part was the bitter trigger. On Earth, bitter at a certain level meant a plant was poisonous and humans evolved avoidance. Antheans didn't have that reflex and some of the foods, only a couple he had ran into, triggered that feeling.

[itmeanscourage]

The leaf had a sufficient crunch to it, moreso than he expected. So did several other vegetables on the plate.

“One could almost call these vegetable chips.” He remarked, before taking the spice shaker.

He examined its contents on his own, shaking a little bit into his hand, and tasting a couple of granules on their own. A pinch of that was potent indeed. He crushed a little bit more between his finger and his thumb, letting it fall onto one of the flatter disc-shaped cuts of what looked like a tuber.

“Does it accentuate any particular foods moreso than others?” He asked, taking a careful bite of what he’d just seasoned.

Hopefully that choice wasn’t one of the ‘it’s so bitter, you become nauseated’ variety.

[hellomajortom]

"Stored food loses water over time which is a waste." Tom comments while eating one of the saltier, and now that they were around humans, cider vinegar cured vegetables he was fond of. They were like odd, overly strong salt and vinegar crackers, sort of. "My understanding of the process is that the drying is done in the open under a clear thin sheet material. As the water evaporates from the drying food it condenses on the sheet and is collected for drinking or other needs."

He had read some schematics but Tom had never seen the process first hand. The seasoning has Tom laughing. "You know how they say some people taste cilantro as soap? I get like that with the bitter in some Anthean foods, including that spice blend. It registers as not food for consumption. The Antheans put it on a lot of things; in vodka and gin, on pizza, in soup, on hummus.. which I just discovered they eat like rabid animals... the same is true for sushi. I've never seen anyone eat as much sushi as they can."

Tom is chuckling quietly as he talks. The whole experience of watching how Antheans ate was bizarre. They didn't eat for a day or sometimes days and then ate enough to feed five. Though, in a desert with long distances between food sources, the evolution of this eating style made sense. "And pickled anything. You could sit a 55 gallon drum of pickles in the living room and if all five of them were in here it might last a day or two, maybe three, before the pickles and all the juice was gone."

[itmeanscourage]

Isamu was very intrigued by the process and its efficiency. Given their adaptation to their planet’s environment, efficiency ensured survival - in more ways than one.

“I am fortunate to not be part of the 20% of individuals of east Asian descent that has that particular variation in the group of olfactory-receptor genes necessary to perceive the soapy-flavored aldehydes in cilantro.” Isamu chuckled alongside Tom. He actually found that he enjoyed the flavor profile - of both cilantro and of these new foods. The more things that he sampled, the more he found himself enjoying the salty, pleasantly bitter flavor.

“Somewhat similar to tsukemono...” he mused, “though without the often associated sweet side of tartness. While I would never say such a thing within earshot of Grandma Mikoto, some of these are an improvement upon the traditional flavors I have come to enjoy.”

Granted, he was using the new spice sparingly. But he felt his comments still held true.

“Anthean cuisine is surprisingly delicious.”

[hellomajortom]

"I like cilantro too." Tom shakes his head laughing. "But I have a strong gene for avoiding the bitter chemicals in Earth plant toxins."Except it isn't an accompaniment or garnish like tsukemono. These are staple foods, like noodles or potatoes or rice in human cultures. The bland things in their cuisines are the accompaniment."

Tom looked through the items the had and that Tom had before getting up and going to the fridge. He pulled a tray of thin sliced, pale green disks from the cold. He puts a few out on a plate. To Isamu, they may have a vaguely bland or mild water chestnut flavor and a similar vegetative crunch.

"They use these as a garnish, or maybe we would consider them a palette cleanser."

[itmeanscourage]

"Interesting..." Isamu noted, sampling several more pieces. Indeed, some went from pleasantly bitter to extremely bitter (including a possible root that really didn't need the help of any of that seasoning). The face he made the moment Tom returned with the new dish probably garnered a few laughs on its own.

"I do believe I could use that right now." he nodded, swallowing hard.

The pale green disk was refreshingly pleasant - almost like taking a breath of fresh air.

"Oh! This is superb!" he smiled widely. "I know this is merely a garnish, but truth be told, I could enjoy this as a dish all by itself."

Of course, he could just as easily picture Ziggy and his family wanting to eat the pickled ginger straight from the dish as well as the sashimi that it was meant to accompany.

[hellomajortom]

That face gets a laugh from Tom. "You've found one of them?" He figured every human had a bitter or sour tolerance that fell short of the Anthean somewhere along the line. Their tastes as far as he could tell were either bland or eye burning salty, bitter or sour. He couldn't recall a desire for anything moderately flavored.

"It's the stem of one of the plants. I don't know all the names in Anthean and there aren't human words for most of them." Tom put the rest of them back in the fridge and returned to his seat. "Sometimes I wish I had more of a biology background to see if their classification system integrates with ours."

He took a bite and chewed before speaking more. "I think a lot of their plants would be consider monocots but I really don't have a botany background to do anything with their plants."

[itmeanscourage]

While Isamu enjoyed most sour and bitter flavors, even he had his limits!

One of those limits, however, was not the number of projects he was willing to undertake at the same time. His main reason for coming to the Nexus was to escape the restraints of a traditional doctorate. He had the freedom to research whatever interested him. A couple of his current projects related to Antheans in a way.

"While botany is certainly not my primary field of study, I would be eager to lend my mind to the cause of cataloging flora from a planet facing extinction."

Plant taxonomy wasn't too dissimilar to animal taxonomy. It wouldn't take long to re-familiarize himself with the branches of that particular hierarchy.

[hellomajortom]

Tom had thought about this topic for awhile, both right after the Stardust and since returning to Earth.

"I do know the amino acids present are not the same as on Earth. Ziggy has to take supplements for the amino acids not used by Earth based plants." Tom was answering but also speaking train of thought between bites and eating. "The fats, carbohydrate and micronutrients are different too, plus the reliance on Anthocyanins and minor plant pigments on Earth being the majority of those in the Anthean plants. Most of them are blue and yellow."

Tom paused to think and then shrugs. "I can tell some differences simply by the supplements Aletayria listed that Ziggy would need on Earth."

[itmeanscourage]

“I would certainly be interested in reviewing that list.” He noted, while wondering about the supplements a human might need if they were subsisting on a solely Anthean diet. “And the other way around, if such data exists from your convalescence aboard their craft.”

Though how well each individual specimen matched the various categories of earth plants having the same mixture of chlorophyll, pelargonidin, delphynidin, and the like would make for quite an enjoyable afternoon. Or longer, depending on how complex the results.

[hellomajortom]

"My wife would be better to ask about that." Tom shrugged. "To be honest, I didn't know what they were giving me at first. By the time I was well enough to make coherent choices, I had already been taking things for a month. I just went on doing it without question."

Medicine after all wasn't his forte though he has gotten a little better with it since then. "I do know some of their medications are incredibly toxic to humans. I think it is because a lot of our base metabolic standards are different; temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiration. The same is true for them."

[itmeanscourage]

Isamu nodded, adding that to the ever-growing mental list of questions he had about their species. “A worthwhile suggestion. Though she does tend to be fairly tight-lipped when it comes to specific data regarding her own species, she may be more lenient on research involving mine.”

She certainly had her reasons. Her species was endangered, and her family threatened by many outside factors, among others. Isamu did try to respect them, even when his inquisitive nature got the better of him. Which it often did.

That line of thought was made all the more real upon finding another very, very bitter leaf - and not the pleasant kind of bitter Isamu had been praising so far. He gulped hard. “Wow. Whatever THAT was, it just might qualify as toxic medicine.”

[hellomajortom]

"As giving as she is the biases of her people still linger." Tom had never been the focus of her distrust but others had been. All of Ziggy's partners had faced her intense questions, or would eventually.

Tom laughs at the face. He's been there, shocked by their food in the same way. He just gets the boy a glass of water without questioning it. "You found it, I think."

Tom was pretty sure that was the same vegetable that got to him.

[itmeanscourage]

He took the offered water and drank greedily. “Yes... that would certainly qualify as not for human consumption...”

He also made sure to move that particular vegetable to the empty side of his plate so that he would not accidentally ingest it again. It also warranted a picture and set of notes all on its own.

“The nutritional compounds found in that specimen have the potential to be quite illuminating...” he sputtered, still gagging at the thought. “The spice blend was mild by comparison. Combined, I think it might actually induce vomiting in our species...”

[hellomajortom]

"There are a few." Tom was sympathetic because he had ran into them as well. "I wonder if we'll find the same ones distasteful?"

Tom's scientific mind was kicking in now as they sat together. It had been awhile since he considered Anthean foods.

"I know there is Quinine in some of the plants. Antheans crave it. Coumarins, alkaloids and some of them have arsenic and something similar to solanine. I don't think any of those plants are here in the Nexus, yet."

[itmeanscourage]

Isamu pointed out what remained of the leaf he’d just consumed. Tom would be able to draw some conclusions from that. Especially if he could pick out another on the plate that he’d sworn off eating again.

“Glycoalkaloids?” He blinked, distracted from the extremely bitter taste by the diverse physiological effects of that class of compounds: antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, local anesthetic, hypnotic, psychotropic... the list went on and on. The medical advancements that could be made with those plants could be earth-shattering. So could the risk of toxicity, of course.

On a more basic level, some other pieces fell into place. No wonder the Antheans favored potatoes. And in Ziggy’s case, possibly also cocaine.