polymods: (Default)
polymods ([personal profile] polymods) wrote in [community profile] polylogs2021-07-02 03:00 pm

Something in the air...

POLYMYTHOS: THE ISLE THAT BLOOMS

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

necrosavior: (clothes; formal purple)

[personal profile] necrosavior 2021-07-15 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
Gideon gives him a shallow little bow. Mild sarcasm because this is the most fun she's had in a while. Everything's better with a sword in her hand (or something a toddler might mistake for a sword). "I want to do this again with actual swords if we can get them," she says.

With a turn toward Harrow, Gideon motions to her perfectly whole body. "No sewing required." She's not sure if somehow Harrow spoiled the session, but Gideon can't break her machete for a piece of fun when it might be needed. "So, you two... friends? You make friends with cavaliers now?"
necrosaint: (018)

[personal profile] necrosaint 2021-07-15 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
"I consider Camilla Hect a friend," Harrow proclaims, as if this answers the question entirely; she isn't going to be the one to say whether or not she is friends with someone. That's up to them. It's not something Harrow knows how to gauge well on her own.

But someone who says I owe you everything is probably a friend.

"And if you want to keep brawling, do not let me stand in the way. In fact, I very much wouldn't stand in the way, I would stand off the side so as not to be incidentally injured." Not that she would be; a bone cocoon would snap up and protect her, but it runs the risk of bruising all three of them. "Unless you both want a skeleton skirmish."

She can play too.
unkindled_madness: (curiosity)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2021-07-15 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
"We're acquaintances," Sephiroth states, because he of all people isn't going to define something so recent as friendship. Maybe give it a few years. "And I'm no cavalier. Simply a soldier."

He isn't 'simply' a soldier either, but it's more accurate than what is, to him, an antiquated term whose full implications in the context of their world he doesn't yet understand.

"I would prefer proper swords to a brawl as well. However..." He tilts his head curiously at Harrow. "I wouldn't mind a demonstration of one of your constructs."

He doesn't expect it to present any challenge, but it's an opportunity to learn something.
necrosavior: (action; flex (killing it))

[personal profile] necrosavior 2021-07-15 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
"Camilla Hect is a badass," Gideon says. "We are lucky to be her friends." She briefly wishes Camilla was there but retracts that. Maybe Palamedes? She would enjoy seeing him again.

"I wanted to join the Cohort for a long time," Gideon says with a shrug. Nothing wrong with being a soldier. Even if he doesn't have his own personal bff magic user, she doubts he's just cannon fodder. He's outlived that, surely.

Her eyes turn back to Harrow. "No holding back. If it's just one, make it epic," Gideon urges. She's excited, even not being the one fighting it. Harrow deserves to show off.
necrosaint: (036)

[personal profile] necrosaint 2021-07-25 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
Harrow raises an eyebrow at Gideon's urging for an impressive—okay, epic, in her words—construct, but it's an amused eyebrow raise. She tosses a bone shard out from her pocket, and at the same time, says, "Some would consider a soldier more important than a cavalier, all a matter of opinion and context."

She is not trying too terribly hard, but she is definitely not going with effortless construct. The thing that forms is about ten feet tall, a skull head on top of a round and gigantic body that looks like it is made of two shoulderblades stuck together surrounded by a giant ribcage knit together with enormous vertebrae, and has four long legs—constructed of very enlarged human leg bones, complete with knees, though two fold the normal way and the other two backward—coming out from each side of its body.

It also has four arms, each of which have good solid humerus and then ... forearms that look kind of like swords, in a nod to a certain memorable construct experience she and Gideon shared. Similarly to that other construct, its underside also has about fifty tiny little hands, fingers all grasping at air.

"How," she says, mildly, looking from one fighter to the next, "is that. I'm no Cohort construct adept, but I am descended from a number of them."
unkindled_madness: (what does it matter...?)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2021-07-25 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
"We are of considerably different militaries. I require no assurances as to my import." He doesn't really care if they underestimate him for it, but it would be best if they didn't make such assumptions about the similarity of their worlds.

His gaze lifts as he watches the bone construct come together, an appreciative smile coming to his face. He's fought larger, of course, but it looks like it could be dangerous. And it reminds him more of Scarlet's creations than any of Hojo's cobbled-together monstrosities... Though all the hands seem a bit excessive.

"Interesting." His hand settles back on the hilt of the machete. "But you must instruct it in combat?"
necrosavior: (mood; curious)

[personal profile] necrosavior 2021-07-25 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"How very Fourth of you," Gideon mutters. Her eyes are on the construct, running over the bones and returning again and again to the sword arms. Surely Harrow did it both to be kind (in deference to Gideon's preference for swords) and to be cruel (due to Gideon's preference for swords). Sephiroth gets to fight it, lucky bastard. She's light on her feet and hopes without much hope that he needs assistance, and Gideon gets to have her way with it. She is used to fighting constructs, monstrous Lyctor-level ones even.

Gideon assumed the answer is no to Seph's question. Cytherea hadn't had to be near hers, and it had fought like a rabid animal stuck in a room. Harrow's a Lyctor herself now. Use me, Gideon thinks, though Harrow using magic hasn't felt anything like that experiment in the lab.
necrosaint: (028)

[personal profile] necrosaint 2021-08-01 05:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Harrow could respond I don't need to or perhaps I already am to Gideon; either way would be true, either way she doesn't. Whether it's because she cannot hear her cavalier's clear thought or because she just chooses not to is something she doesn't reveal, either. Even odds on whether she's just being a pain, circumspect, or trying to be even kinder.

"Instruct is a bit overly complex for what is required," Harrow says in a professorial tone; she has returned to lecture mode and if Gideon is taking it as a clue to take a nap, she'll understand. "Direct is more accurate. It has a purpose. Currently its purpose is to fight when cued, to a point where either it is temporarily destroyed or its opponent stops." That seemed safe for a relatively friendly little sparring construct. "It will therefore operate to that purpose, and I do not need to suggest, say, an individual motion, because that would be very difficult; I am no skilled combatant or shaped like it is, and am not thus aware of its body in a way where I would be able to determine the optimal movements."

Admittedly, she could be that last part; she could get inside its thanergy and structure, but it still has no photoreceptors.

"It will not, however, do anything entirely on its own, no—a construct needs at least that initial direction or they will merely exist. Currently it is waiting to be directed further; it knows its purpose, but not in which direction to aim."
unkindled_madness: (masamune)

[personal profile] unkindled_madness 2021-08-01 07:08 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hmm." Sephiroth, for one, appreciates Harrow's lectures on her powers, because they really are fascinating. To be able not only to create this thing, but to imbue it with some degree of low-level sentience...

It's an entirely novel sort of magic, and he can appreciate its utility without feeling envious. Why would he want something else to do his fighting for him?

He unsheathes the machete again and draws it into a high stance. "Then by all means, direct it to defeat me, if it can." His gaze flicks aside to Gideon and he adds, rather graciously, "Or us, if you like." While he doesn't need the assistance, this is one instance where he can actually understand: it's no fun being left out.