polylogs | Something in the air...

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Something in the air...

✖ The Isle That Blooms

Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
This is the first isle you can smell before you see it rising on the island. It starts with the faint hint of growing things that blossoms into a floral scent that teases you with the combination of familiarity and the unknown. The next breeze seems to carry you closer even as it coats everything in a delicate wash of golden pollen that only the Ferryman seems to be able to avoid.

Do you like your lips to taste the gritty sweetness? Or are you already starting to sniffle? Either way, the island starts as a smudge then turns into a riot of color as it reveals itself.

The Isle that Blooms lives up to its name as flowers vie in a silent war of roots and strangling vines to cover every viable surface with sprays of color and vibrant pulsing life. There are signs of human life in the form of a village built on stilts and full of little anachronisms like a glowing neon sign that hint that the island sees a large number of Travelers come through this place.

And who wouldn’t be drawn to the abundant flora, brightly painted houses, and lively locals?

Everyone seems to be glowing with health as the locals gather near the dock to welcome the latest set of tourists. They come with arms full of flower wreaths and friendly smiles, clearly in control of their faculties and interested in trade. Their clothing is as bright as the paintings on their buildings, as the flowers that surround them, and perfect for the warmth of the day.

Do you notice, though, the absence of any babies or prepubescent children? Or that while there are old people, no one shows signs of the infirmities that come with age? It might be easy to miss, especially as the Isle starts to affect you, too.

The ache in your back from that terrible fall, the craving for that next drink, the trauma that’s too close to the surface, all the petty hurts the build up in a lifetime start to fade as you, too, start to bloom.

Notes:
1. NO GUNS are allowed on this island. The Ferryman will keep them safe for you.

2. These residents of the island are normal humans. Killing them is possible and may affect the color of your Scrywatch.

3. Any type of flower could exist on the island, blooming somewhere, regardless of its real world requirements. Rare ones are difficult to find and magical ones need a check in with the mods.

4. There is nothing preadolescent of any animal species on the entire island, including insects.

5. The island’s ability leaves people as the healthiest, most energetic version of their current selves. Examples: A blind person in otherwise good mental and emotional health would notice minimal changes. A person with a disorder would find themselves having a string of good days. A 50 year old probably hasn’t felt this good since their thirties.

Ⅱ. THE TEMPLE
Orchids in shades of yellow and pink so bright they glow have been trained to grow along the walkways and bridges of the elevated village to guide Travelers to this island’s Temple. The building stands alone at the edge of the Village, extending out in the ocean of flowers that fill most of the isle.

The temple is made of simple stout wood that has been carved and painted in patterns ornate and lovely in a way that speaks of hundreds of hours of creation and maintenance. The same orchids that guided you here gild building and act as camouflage the sleeping porches ring the outside. They are kept private and safe from insects by fine netting, and you will find the bedding soft and fine.

This Temple’s Guardians are a pair of lazing cats with strange spots and scaly wings that regard you with affectionate disinterest as you explore the facilities. There are toilets and sinks, but no baths or showers. The pantries are stocked with edible flowers and fresh fish and the space and tools to cook. If you are brave enough, the Guardians will probably give you practical advice on how to use those supplies. There are new clothes and sandals better suited to the heat, and even practical machetes.

Notes:
1. The Main Temple is still open to those who are brand new to PM.

2. There are paints and carving tools if you want to add to the temple decorations. (Maybe mention it during the Oracle Event if you do.)

3. All fabric items are ridiculously bright and vaguely tie dyed.

4. The marker orchids have a distinctly strong smell of vanilla with a hint of lime.

Ⅲ. THE LOTUS BATHS
CW: fantasy setting drugs.
There’s only so long a person can stand to be covered in pollen, and when you ask the locals, they grin. Oh, you want a bath? There’s a path back to the ground and through the tall flowers to a natural spring. Make sure to head out early, they warn.

It’s always better to be in the village before nightfall, and you are clearly going to take a while.

As you walk the winding path to the baths, the everpresent flowers seem to thin out and even disappear as ground warms and rock rises from rich soil. You can smell the mineral richness of the bright blue pools that form waterfalls over a series of rising ledges. There is life, though, even here, in the form of delicate lily pads that float in rafts around vivid lotus flowers.

If you test the water, you’ll find it’s warm enough to melt the knots out of muscles and make it easy to understand why the few bathers seem to be so languid and relaxed. If you sink all the way in, well, not only will you manage to get clean, but you might find yourself mellowing out even more. So mellow you’ll hardly notice when the pleasant hallucinations start.

You’ll find yourself drawn into visions of your most private joys and of the pleasures you keep to yourself. Maybe it’s a matter of shame or maybe it’s because they’re too precious. There’s one small problem, though. If someone else gets in the same pool, not only will they start to share the same vision, but you’ll start to see theirs too.

Will the fantasies become a nightmare or will you manage to navigate them together? Will you ever be able to look at each other the same way again?

Notes:
1. The hallucinations will end when you leave the water, but only once you and your bathing partner are both out.

2. The flowers are magical and will affect everyone, even robots or super powered people.

Ⅳ. NIGHTBLOOMING
CW: abduction, violence.

You are warned to stay in the elevated village at night. The flower fields are safe enough during the day, but things happen at night. It’s hard to imagine during the day when stingless bees that glitter in jewel colors bumble along and hummingbirds the size of chihuahuas feed from the abundant flowers while squeaking their strong opinions at each other.

But as the moon rises, and most of the flowers close, there’s rustling sounds that make it clear that there are big things moving through that growth. Things that make the hair rise up on the back of a person’s neck. It would take a big prize to make it worth finding out what makes those sounds. A big prize or a reason to face your fears.

There’s a scream in the night. You can ignore it, of course. Not everyone is meant to run towards the scream. It might not even change the color of your ScryWatch.

But if you go to the source of the sound you’ll find a mother weeping openly while other locals gather around to comfort her. It seems her teenager decided that the best way to woo their lover was with glowing flowers that only open under a full moon. The teen has been gone for hours, and the grim expressions on the people around you say his chances aren’t good.

You have a choice to make. Will you go into the dark to face the unknown dangers? Will you offer some other form of comfort? Or will you go back to hide in the safety of the Temple?

Notes:
1. The danger in the flowers consists of six foot tall nocturnal orchid mantises who have the teen pinned in a tree. They are currently singing a human language lullaby to the kid to get them to go to sleep and fall out of the tree.

2. The mantises have a hive mind and will retreat if one of their number is killed, but can also be talked to and negotiated with. They will be willing to trade a regular supply of fish for no longer hunting people.

Ⅴ. SPECIAL EVENT: THE FLOWER ORACLE
In the center of the village, there is a giant flower bud that is bigger than a man is tall. The villagers tell you that you are lucky. You will be here when the Flower Oracle blooms. You will have a chance to speak directly to the Ancient One through the Oracle, and She even answers. All it takes is a little sacrifice.

Notes:
1. During the week of July 12-18, there will be a special event post where characters can choose to interact with the Flower Oracle for a chance to be rewarded, get an answer, get silence, or get punished by the Ancient.

2. Any starter posted during this window will be honored, specifics to come.

3. This event is optional!

Bonus: music to watch the flowers bloom to.

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

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The sudden weight of the giant insect is there and then gone and Carter draws in a shuddering breath of relief, happy to have that pressure off his back. He tries to get up and his shoulder buckles briefly, but eventually he is able to stand up.

The offending mantis is about thirty yards away, sprawled on its back, mewling in pain. The remaining creatures seem to be debating their chances and after a moment there is one of those strange collective buzzing noises and they scatter into the night.

"Guess they decided it wasn't worth getting their butts kicked..." Carter says, gingerly touching the wound on his shoulder.

She gives him the time to get up and a sense of his wound while she keeps looking around for a potential threat. The teen on her shoulder has started to react to the situation again, but Jennifer is actively ignoring him, beyond keeping him in place with a firm hand.

She doesn't trust the retreat, not with Carter injured and the teen unreturned. So, there's one easy way to get everyone moving, and that's by scooping Carter up from his uninjured side and start moving quickly. It's only because she thinks the fall would hurt Carter worse that she hasn't resorted to a classic hulk leap.

The sensation of being scooped up so easily is both strange yet comforting, there's a brief flare of pain in his shoulder as he settles against Jen but then it eases. He closes his eyes as Jen moves through the forest, concentrating on his breathing and mentally running through what he will need to fix his shoulder.

"It doesn't feel too deep, so there shouldn't be any muscle damage..." He thinks to himself but then pauses. "Let's just hope those things aren't poisonous or else I'm fucked."

Jen is quick as a hulk. The mantids could choose to attack, but that last hit was brutal. They are in sight of the village in very little time. Which means them having to deal with the drama and reaction of people to a hulk hauling two injured people onto the elevated village. The reaction is overwhelming and Jen hesitates, uncomfortable and concerned. She sets the child down, but hesitates with Carter, less trusting.

The locals sweep up the teen hurriedly but there seems to be a moment where they are unsure if Jen will allow them to help Carter, who finally opens his eyes and looks at the people around them. The mother of the teen is weeping and thanking them over and over as she embraces her son. He lifts his head up and meets Jen's eyes and shakes his head, grimacing a bit at the stiffening in his shoulder.

"The temple...take me there and I can fix myself up. If things are really bad, the doctor...Frankenstein, he can help me." He says in a hoarse voice and tries to offer Jen a encouraging smile.

Crowds are not good. Jennifer gets restless at the level of attention, even with the positive edge of it. When Carter mentions going to the Temple, she is quick to start pulling away into a retreat into the quiet and dark offered there. Something in her is deeply skeptical about a doctor named Frankenstein, but that can wait until after they figure out what the mantis bite actually did. It's amazing how quick she can be and how few people try to get in the way as she really gets moving.

It seems to take almost no time to get to the Temple, it could be that Jen is just that fast or it could mean that he is loosing more blood than he thought and greyed out. He's hoping it's the former and not the latter...

When they arrive at the Temple the strange cat Guardians stand awake against the night, regarding the pair of them with curious and bright eyes. Carter motions for Jen to take him into the pantry area where he knows from when he was in here earlier today with Chloe that there are a few tools he can use to patch up his shoulder.

"Can you get me a bowl of water and some rags?" He asks and eases himself out of her arms with a grateful smile.

There is the temptation to try and change back after she sets Carter. The big body is not built for this kind of thing. But a bowl and water are things she can get. It takes her a little bit of noise and rumble, but she comes back with both, offer them both to Carter with a wary look.

When she returns he has already stripped off his tie dyed shirt and has ripped most of it up into wrappings, he is rummaging around in one of the drawers muttering to himself until he finds what he's looking for. A very thin and delicate knife used for deboning fish which he places on the counter next to him. He looks at Jen, his face composed and hyper focused.

"I need you to soak one or two of these rags and wring it out over the wound, I have to get a better look at the puncture marks to make sure those things weren't poisonous because if they are..." He pauses and takes a steadying breath. "If they are they I have to make incisions to drain the poison."

This is definitely not her kind of thing. She has to be very delicate not to just shred the fabric, and this is clearly frustrating. Still, he is actively injured and Jennifer doesn't know anyone else that she could dump this back on. She does what is a very difficult fine motor task and wrings the water out over his back.

Normally Carter would be more in tune with the emotions of the other person and would probably agree and almost insist on her skipping out on a process that made her uncomfortable or frustrated. It's in his nature to want to put other people's comfort above his own, but this is different, this needs to get done and he can feel a cold sort of calculation slip over his mind as he goes into work mode.

Back home he didn't just choose to become a nurse as a way to honor his mother, that was definitely a large part of it, but there is also the fact that he is good at the technical side of nursing. He can feel his mind slow down to concentrate on what needs to be done and in what order and that means tuning out everything else while he works.

He watches carefully as the water pours across and into the wound, washing it clean and sending rivulets of bloody water down his back and chest. He motions for Jen to pause with the water, looking at the edges for possible signs of infection and then heaves a mental sigh of relief. It's a nasty gash but thankfully Jen was fast in removing the mantis and the area isn't inflamed or filled with fluid which means he'll be all right.

He looks up at Jen and gives her a small smile, "We lucked out. No incision is necessary and I should get away with not having to do stitches so long as I wrap it properly."

Which he starts to do, taking care to wrap it in a way that will help keep the wound from gaping open and will allow for the area to seal itself shut.

Jennifer is relatively steady when it comes to the actual injury itself. You can't live the life she has without being exposed to some of the more serious side effects of violence. It also lets her appreciate Carter's competence and focus in the face of pain and trauma. Not that she's in a place to speak about it. Putting away the bloody water and rags as Carter begins to wrap up the wound is about the extent of caretaking she can manage with the adrenaline still waning from the fight.

After he is done wrapping up the wound he finally can allow himself to relax a bit, unlike Jen he isn't used to the adrenaline rush that comes with heroics and he feels shaky and a bit light headed from it. The most he's experienced this feeling is working part time at the hospital, which usually is a lot of him cleaning things and doing paper work but there have been a few nights where he was called upon to help with slightly more panicked situations.
But nothing like this, and nothing where he is the one getting wounded.

He can still feel the adrenaline simultaneously buzzing through his body and yet zapping him of his energy, he also hasn't used his telekinesis for anything so focused or combative in years, the result being that he has one hell of a headache forming.

"Jen? Thank you for saving me." He says to her when she is done putting away the bloody rags.

"You're welcome. You did good." Keeping things simple is better right now, even when she's sincere about the praise. He had caused a decent distraction and not been that much of a liability. Not everyone small and squishy can manage that.

On the other hand, he looks like he's about to faint in her estimation, and her impulse control is near nonexistent. She scoops him up again because this is clearly the better option than him falling over at the moment. "Where is your room?"

[ooc: Anytime Jen picks Carter up he's secretly so happy. XD]

"Thank you. I'm just happy that we found that kid and that he's okay." He says and then brings a hand up to his temple, feeling both the tension behind his eyes and in the center of his forehead beginning to throb. He opens his mouth to speak again but a sudden wave of exhaustion hits and he can feel his body shifting heavily to one side, he has about a second to worry about falling but then she is sweeping him up into her arms and he feels his whole body sag with relief. She's so strong and if he wasn't so exhausted it would probably be a bit arousing but right now it's just supportive and sweet.

"Down the hall and to the left." He says softly and leans his head against her, feeling absolutely no shame in how easily she can carry him.

[OOC: Clearly she hates picking him up given the frequent lifting.]

"It's good." Jennifer has mostly forgotten about the kid now. It's enough that she got to hit something and no one died. Staying focused on the moment is easier than thinking about the implications of the sentient human-eating insects.

Besides, she needs to get Carter to his bed where he can rest and work on the slow healing of his body. It's more pleasant to carry him when he settles in becoming a warm and easy weight. She can hardly remember the last time she carried someone who was willing before the islands. Her world became so small and painful before. This is just a soft kind of nice.

She makes it to his room and gently sets him on the bed after pulling the covers back. Then she pauses, unsure for the moment if he should be left alone.

[ooc: Hahaha, oh totally. XD ]

He murmurs a 'thank you' as she lays him down in his bed, his shoulder flaring up briefly at the sudden change of position but is then quiet. He is sad to be away from her warmth but he also doesn't want to be a nuisance.

"I'll be okay." He says, opening his eyes enough to look up at her sleepily. "You don't have to stay if you don't want."

[OOC: XD]

The sleepiness is a mixed bag. It could mean that his body just needs to shut down and heal, or he could be in trouble. The unknown of it is what decides her. She sits on the floor near his bed, reclining against the side without putting enough of her weight on it to cause issues. She can wait until it's clear if he's going to actually sleep or end up in a worse state. "Go to sleep."

[ooc: I'm cool to leave it here if you would like]

Normally he would probably keep insisting that he is okay and that she doesn't need to watch over him but his body is exhausted and his headache is starting to get worse so he just flops back against his pillow with a little sigh.

"Okay, but I owe you for taking such good care of me." He says sleepily, nuzzling down further into his bed. "Maybe another dance..." He mutters as sleep rises up and takes hold of him, carrying him gently into the dark. Soon he is fast asleep, his breath even and slow, his hair spread out under his head like a golden fan and the hint of a smile on his face.

In his dreams he is already dancing.

[OOC: Sounds good!]

She listens, settling in with relatively little discomfort considering the position. He sounds more sleepy tired than like he's passing out, which is enough for her. "Sleep first," she murmurs in confirmation, and it isn't very much longer before she falls asleep herself. Her dreams are much more simple, but not haunted for once.

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Something in the air...

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trigger warning for wounds and blood

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