Forage in the Pleiades

The autumnal season brings a cozy, agrestic charm to the secluded woodlands of Pleiades. It is Lufi's favorite season, for although it marks the beginning of the end with its natural decay, he has never set foot on a planet with such a beautiful process of death, full of vivid oranges, reds, and yellows. It reminded Lufi of himself. After all, he of all creatures knows that some things have to die in order to be born once again.

. . .

A lone luminite plods along the trail between the skyrise grove, basket in mouth and tail swishing from side to side. He goes over the mission in his head: collect objects of note to bring back to the Discovery One. IBM was very curious about what Pleiades was like, and upon hearing that Lufi would be visiting the planet, he practically begged him to bring back some samples for him to analyze. Well, he called them samples, but Lufi knew that he really meant souvenirs. 

There were sights and smells all around for him to take in. It had recently rained, which only heightened the light fog spreading between the trees and the tinge of decomposition in the air. It was a cloudy day, with the water droplets in the air clinging to his fur making the walk cool and refreshing. It was only the afternoon, and yet the woods were quiet save for a few sounds from unknown animals living there.

Though he could just as easily float through the trees without care, Lufi elected to walk with all of his paws on the ground. He was getting tired of floating in space, and besides, how else was he going to feel the crunch of fallen leaves beneath his paws? It is reassuring to be grounded once in a while. He continued walking, hearing the crisp crackling noises the dried ground made, until he heard a much different softer crack. He backed up on instinct and saw what looked like pieces of broken styrofoam beneath his paw, but upon closer inspection it was part of a mysterious tan-colored plant-like organism.

Curiosity struck him; He wondered what it was that he stumbled upon, and although IBM could tell him later, he wanted to do a bit of… analysis on his own. He was told not to eat any of the specimens, but he didn't have to disclose what "happened" to get "destroyed" in the collection process, right? It was likely edible anyways. He took a bite into his new find. To his dismay, it was despairingly bland and tasted more like dirt than anything else. The texture felt disconcerting in his mouth, and he regretted his short-sighted decision. There were more growing around the one he stepped on, and he quickly plucked them out of the ground and placed them into his basket, along with a few soil samples. IBM would later tell him that they were wild mushrooms, and he would feel even more regret after learning a few species could pose a major risk to his health.

Lufi continued down the narrow path until he stopped to strain his ears at a noise in the distance. It sounded like a low rush of water, perhaps a little stream leading to a pond downhill. He trekked down the slope of the forest towards the sound until he parted the shrubbery, where he was greeted by a glistening pond. Instantly, he felt the urge to dive into the water but restrained himself as he remembered that he was indeed here on a mission. The pond wasn't that deep either, so he reasoned it wouldn't have been too fun anyways– best to save that experience for the oceans of Pleiades. He did however spot some rather remarkable looking stones at the bottom and fetched them from their place beneath the water. Upon closer observation, he could make out speckles of multicolored minerals and a light rainbowish luster on a few. IBM would certainly be pleased at such unique natural formations, so Lufi selected some small ones for analysis and the biggest one he could find to give to him as a gift later, reminding himself to make sure IBM excludes this one from whatever experiments that would destroy it.

He then followed the stream that branched from the pond for a long while all the way up until he came across a large river from where it originated. By now the clouds overhead had cleared and Lufi saw that the sun had gone from a place high up above the sky to sinking further down by the minute. He didn't mind– he was quite thrilled at the idea of getting to see his first Pleiadian sunset, although he wished IBM could leave his ship to watch it with him as well.

Turning his attention back towards the river, he noticed that a tree had fallen across it, forming a bridge to the other side. Basket still in tow, he put one paw onto the bark spanning the tepid waters, careful to maintain his balance all the way across. The bold luminite emerged triumphant on the other side, celebrating his victory with a hearty leap into the air and a few rounds of flying in circles. That was until he realized with horror that he had let go of his precious basket during his display of jubilation and it was nowhere to be seen. His eyes darted about, hoping he'd soon spot the unnatural grey mesh it was made of stand out against the natural colors of the landscape. To his further horror, he spotted it much further down the river than he'd like, and it was quickly getting further away the longer he stared at it. Oh if only he had been more careful! What was IBM going to say about this?!

He launched into the air and raced towards the metalic speck in the distance, but not until a mysterious blue luminite appeared out of nowhere from the banks of the river and snatched the up basket just before Lufi got there. He swore that he even heard a giggle coming from them. He gave chase; Lufi lost them a few times in the woods as the luminite was quite fast, but they eventually reached a clearing where Lufi saw them go into a shack.

He approached the door and prepared himself for the confrontation– what if he couldn't get the basket back or the other luminite got aggressive? Lufi hadn't done anything wrong though, he just wanted to take back what was his. IBM trusted him with this task and he was going to see it through to the end.

To his surprise the shack looked much nicer on the inside. There was even a little bell on the top of the door that notified anyone inside of his arrival. Crates and boxes littered the floor, stuffed with tissue paper and gift wrap and ribbons. There was a row of shelves behind a counter that held items labeled with neon price tags: planetary posters, jars with stars, jars with stardust, and even empty jars (which confusingly cost as much as the filled ones). On the counter was a cash register and… a computer? Lufi was surprised that there was a– what was the species called again– human invention on a counter in a random shack in the Plaeides wilderness.

It was clear that this was a shop of some kind, but there was something weird about it. Lufi hadn't realized it initially, but the other luminite he had been chasing was nowhere to be seen. That can't be right. As he was turning his head, a notification sounded from the computer, causing him to jump in his place. He was about to investigate from the other side of the counter, but the blue luminite materialized out of the computer screen in a flurry of pixels. Lufi was dumbfounded. He'd never heard of a luminite that could travel into digital worlds, much less nearly obsolete human ones.

The luminite had a look of poorly concealed surprise on his face and promptly dropped the box he was carrying. Maybe he didn't expect Lufi to follow him?

"Hi!!! I'm Edgie! Welcome to my user shop!! Wait– why did I say that?" The luminite had a blank stare for a moment, then went back to smiling again. "Anyways, it has been such a long time since anyone visited me!"

He was quite short, but also full of energy. The little bowtie around his neck added to his spriteful cuteness. His pristine white coat stood out noticably against his shabby surroundings, which makes Lufi question whether or not the little guy was a hologram of some sort.

"I have a lot of things here that I think you'd like! For example, if you're ever in need of extra stardust I've got jars full of them!" He motioned to the several vials behind him with his tail. "I also found these nuts and leaves and all these fruits and vegetables from foraging earlier, take your pick!" There were indeed baskets of apples and acorns stacked among the pumpkins and gourds which littered the ground around the counter.

"So? What would you like?"

Lufi decided to play it calmly. Maybe he would find the basket in here with enough searching through the shop's goods. 

"Oh wait! I know what you're in here for! Silly me! I think you're looking for… this super-special-limited-edition-super forest bundle!" Edgie moved the cardboard box he had dropped onto the counter. The box was suspiciously soggy, almost like the items inside were wet… maybe fished out of a river.

"What's inside the box?", he asked, in the hopes that his suspicions will be confirmed.

"Well, why don't you buy it and see! It won't be a surprise anymore if I told you!"

"Can't you at least tell me why the box is wet? I don't want the box breaking while I carry it back home." Ooh that was a stellar lie.

Edgie started playing with his bowtie, taking a noticable pause to think before answering. "It's a new specialty! Fish! In a bag! Freshly caught! They are all the rage these days, lumis love putting them in their water tails and give them all sorts of accessories like rocks and miniature castles and fake plants like they're in a aquarium no wait they ARE the aquarium, portable ones at that, but some of these fish owners are really silly like I know a guy who put a whole can of fish food in his tail because he thought the fish could eat out of it! It's the new radical fad–"

"I'm not interested." Boy this guy was much too chatty for his sake. He was also a terrible liar.

"WAIT!! If you're not going to buy it, could you at least model for my fishboutique?" What the hell was he saying? Where was this even going? Lufi had a feeling that he had lost track of his original point. "Yeah I forgot to mention that I had one actually, and I think your wonderful orange colors would look excellent with the goldfish I got recently because you see, my friend that is also orange colored, well he's more so yellow, doesn't really like that stuff, so I can't ask him you know…"

Lufi decided to entertain him to see how long it would take for him to crack. "Where is this boutique of yours? Do you have a business card or something?" 

"Uhh..!!"

"You know what, I'll take the job. When do I start working? I can start today actually. We can negotiate pay later… but I trust that I will be compensated handsomely for my services."

"I'M SORRY THERE ARE NO FISH!!", he wailed. "I don't have a fishboutique either… I made it all up…" Edgie covered his eyes in shame. "I was just trying to get you to buy your bas– I mean, special box. You're the one who needs it the most. I know it."

"It's… alright…" He looked upon the pathetic figure in front of him. "I would buy it, except I don't have any currency." 

Edgie's face was struck with realization. Lufi could tell that he felt even more remorseful, making up a whole backstory in his head as to how he had not a coin to his name and how much worse he was, not only stealing from a poor soul such as he, but also grifting him in the very same breath. It wasn't that Lufi was poor, he just never had a reason to purchase anything from anywhere as the Discovery had plenty of amenities. He didn't even know what currency Pleiades had, but he figured that was a fact best kept secret.

"I'm so sorry!! The truth is... I stole your basket… and I was trying to make you buy it back… but you have no qubits… sniff… I just wanted some more money to renovate my shop…" Lufi could definitely see how. It was in a sad state of disrepair. "I will give you your stuff back if… you promise to be my friend! My other friend isn't around much, because he prefers space over Pleiades… he also doesn't talk much so I don't know too much about him, but he was the first other lumi I met."

Lufi gave this preposition a thought. "Okay, sure."

"Yay! Here, take the box! If you want to see me just come back and visit meee!" 

"Where are you going?" Edgie was already out the door and in the sky.

"I have things to doooo, bye new friend!!" Lufi hadn't noticed it before, but he had a small pair of blue devil wings on his back. And now he was seeing those meager appendages hold the weight of a creature that much outsized them. It was a comical sight. Lufi stood and watched the little blue fella trail pixels into the sunset until he disappeared beyond the horizon.

He then too flew up and watched the sun slowly sink below the earth as he bathed in the fading orange light. Lufi suddenly realized that he forgot to tell him his name and chuckled at the thought. Perhaps they will meet again some other time. 

. . .

Lufi laid down in a makeshift bed on the floor of the Discovery pod bay, still normal sized from his trip to Pleiades. IBM was reluctant to allow him onto his ship for fear of the black hole he carried, but it turns out that shrinking to a normal size reduces the risk of slow dismantling of his ship and agonizing death by 100%. IBM is thoroughly perplexed by this phenomenon and cached it as yet another object of study.

[ I ran out of foraging stamina so I came back here. Whew, I need to take a long nap! ]

[ The samples you brought back were excellent, thank you Lufi. However, I have not heard of the concept of foraging stamina before. ]

[ You wouldn't get it. ]

He lazily turned around in his bed. He didn't know what that meant either.

[ Were there any events of note that happened on your trip? ]

[ Oh yes, there was this strange luminite who I followed into a shop that he owned, curiously in the middle of a forest. ] 

Lufi decided to not tell him about how he had his basket stolen.

[ Very energetic, that guy. And clumsy as well. ]

[ You should introduce me to him someday, Lufi. ]

[ Hmm. I think I should. You know, a fascinating thing happened with him that really surprised me.. somehow he materialized right out of a comp– ]

His signal was cut off as his attention turned towards a corner of the room. The dust that had settled on the floor started floating, almost as if it was assuming a form. IBM's singular ocular lens recognized the occurrence immediately. Had he come to visit him after millions of years had passed?

No, it wasn't who he was expecting. It was a luminite, glowing an all too familiar blue, but it wasn't him.

"WOW you have such a nice ship!!! Oh! Who's THAT!! He's so tall!!"

[ Speak of the devil. ]