Something in the air...

[polymods]

✖ 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

Comments

Sephiroth | OTA

[unkindled_madness]

I. Arrival / Temple

[Anyone who came from the previous island might have noticed that Sephiroth did not get on the boat of his own free will. He just appeared there, magically, back in the plain robe and sandals they all started with. He isn't thrilled about it.

The locals do not manage to get a flower wreath around his neck-- partly because of his height and partly because he tears away the first one to get close enough and tosses it into the water. Some flower petals get caught in his hair though. How shoujo of him.

Obviously the first order of business is to escape the crowded dock and explore the village. His distaste for the bright colors and abundant flowers is clear enough, but... it does seem peaceful.

Peaceful enough that by the time he's walking through the temple, he almost feels that he could sleep there. Even if it has been provided for him...

He has no interest in exchanging his robes for any of that bright clothing, but he will be picking up one of those machetes, weighing it in his hand like someone very used to handling a blade. It's still not a proper sword, but it's closer than a knife.]


II. Lotus Baths

[Sephiroth likes to be clean. It's as simple as that. Or, it should be.

While he's skeptical of the villagers' warnings, he does make his first trip out to the baths in daylight. Unconcerned with being seen, he ties his hair up into a loose bun (because washing that really would make this a lengthy process), strips naked, and climbs into the water.

It's... nice. The heat of the water easing the tension from his muscles. He doesn't mean to linger, but he does.

He's actually relaxing for once when the other man approaches--or at least, Sephiroth sees him. Tall but not quite as tall as Sephiroth, with a soldier's build and uniform, black hair and blue eyes and a friendly face. A friendly voice, too.]

Hey, Seph. How's it goin'?

[He's enough at ease that he almost accepts it. There were newcomers on the boat; let Zack be one of them. Even if that doesn't seem quite right, it's not so easy to muster a desire to banish this.]


III. Nightblooming

[You can't just tell a person that "bad things" happen at night and expect them not to be curious. Sephiroth is already on his way out of the village when he hears the scream. He alters his route to head towards it-- but only until he's near enough to see that any attacker is already gone.

He isn't interested in dealing with some sobbing woman. He leaps from the raised platform and into the flowers, intent on finding the source of her distress, and killing it. Hopefully it's a challenge.

Care to join him?]

((Interested in something else? Feel free to hit me up at yinza for plotting!))

( arrival )

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki observes that before speaking up. ]

You have to balance it with your palm.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth actually glances aside as though Loki might have been speaking to someone else he hadn't noticed approach. When there's no one there, he looks... confused.]

Are you... making a joke?

[Surely that's the only reason to give him advice about a bladed weapon?]

[dothelokimotion]

[ his lips twitch. ]

Perhaps. I think you prefer larger swords, don't you?

[unkindled_madness]

...yes.

[He doesn't think he's mentioned that, but maybe Loki inferred it.]

I am accustomed to an odachi, but this is... something.

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki's true power is his ability to perceive and put things together with very little to go on. a stab in the dark is a potent ability. ]

These are too wide to make good throwing daggers, sadly. Serviceable, but poor.

[unkindled_madness]

[There was also that network conversation with that Deadpool weirdo... Well, never mind it.]

Not really an ideal weapon for stabbing, no. [He gives the machete an experimental swing--nowhere near Loki, don't worry.] I suppose daggers are your preference?

[dothelokimotion]

[ he shrugs. ]

They were the easiest to carry and excellent for long range combat without stringing up a bow.

[unkindled_madness]

I used to have magic, for that kind of range.

[A faint frown because he sure doesn't like that "used to."]

Perhaps I'll have to practice my knife-throwing, in the future.

[dothelokimotion]

It's a useful skill.

[ a pause as he asks, gently. ]

Your magic is gone?

[ that sounds horrific, especially to loki. ]

[unkindled_madness]

[That gentleness confuses him, too. Pity?]

...the magic I know requires tools, and draws from my Planet. It would never work here.

[There seem to be plenty of alternatives, but he doesn't know if any of them would work for him, and the idea of asking, only to fail at it... He doesn't care for that.]

[dothelokimotion]

[ a magic that draws from the planet. his brow furrows. there are implications there and none of them good. ]

I see. My experience with magic is that it is internal. You have it or you don't.

[unkindled_madness]

I've heard the same from others here.

I don't quite know what to make of it.

iii | nightblooming

[assemble_the_lovbacken]

[Thor had been hesitant to go against the locals' advice; after all, they knew the island better than he did, especially given his recent arrival. He'd been mostly hurrying around, trying to get to the Temple from his mid-day excursion when he'd heard the scream. It was close, and there was no way in Hel that Thor could ignore it.

He quickly made his way over in time to see someone dive into the flowers, moving at great speed. After ensuring the woman was all right, he followed suit, catching up to the stranger.]

Where did it go? Whatever it was?

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth glances at him, eyes like a cat's in the dark. The stranger certainly has the look of a fighter... He doesn't know that he needs any assistance, but as for seeing what another of them can do, he's open to that.]

I've seen nothing yet, but it can't have gone far.

[Or so he assumes; the scream wasn't so long ago.]

[assemble_the_lovbacken]

The woman. She mentioned something about her son, some sort of glowing flower. I've only just arrived; I'm not familiar with them.

[Thor's eyes scanned their surroundings as they ran, the sound of rustling not their own coming from ahead. He gestures with a firm point of his hand.

Without Mjolnir, he isn't sure he has a right to be the God of Thunder, however criminally seductive the Grandmaster claimed him to be. He wonders what good he'll be able to do without his abilities.]

[unkindled_madness]

I'm no more familiar with this island than you; it's quite different from the last.

[Glowing flowers, though, seem like they would stand out some. He catches the rustling, and Thor's gesture, and shifts his direction.

He's without the magic he knows, and the machete is a poor substitute for his sword, but he has never found any reason not to trust his own strength. He is confident, in action.

There's a treeline approaching ahead; perhaps their quarry seeks to hide in the woods.]

[assemble_the_lovbacken]

[Thor nods, glad to have this stranger at his side. It's clear he's formidable and capable, and depending on what they encounter, his prowess could prove to be quite useful.

He shifts his angle towards the wooded area, hopping over branches and large rocks with ease. If only he had Mjolnir to pull him towards his target.]

There! [Thor points towards 11 o'clock, where there is a faint, eerie glow. It feels wholly unnatural yet normal all the same.

He slows once within proximity, allowing himself to regain his stamina. He crouches, wanting to remain as unseen as possible.] I don't see anything except for the flower.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth crouches with him, though he doesn't exactly have the ideal coloring for going unseen in the dark. His eyes sweep across the area, the night faintly illuminated by the glowing flowers. They were closing in, weren't they?

There. Movement on the far side of the flowers, disappearing back into the dark.]

This way.

[Sephiroth is up again and in pursuit, without care for how he's trampling the flowers (shame on him). But before long, his ears catch the sound of... singing? It doesn't sound like human voices, and the sound is stationary, so he slows his pace again as they near it.]

[assemble_the_lovbacken]

[Thor maintains a position in stride with the stranger, and he is quick to slow at the sound of singing. It is haunting, all together eerie, similar to the glowing flowers.

Being a god with 1,500 years under his belt, he's seen a lot of things, but all of this is a first.]

There, in the tree. Do you see him? [He pointed towards the bough before letting his glance fall towards the ground, brows lifting with surprise.] And do you see them?

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth glances back at the other man and answers quietly:]

Yes. Do you not have insects where you come from?

[His implication being that the natural range of insects includes ones that are six feet tall. These are prettier than ones he's seen, but otherwise not especially remarkable.]

...their singing seems to be taking some time to affect him, so I imagine we'll withstand it. Do you have any magic?

[assemble_the_lovbacken]

[Thor scoffs, though he doesn't look like a model of confidence.] What? Yes, of course. I mean, not on Asgard. We don't have any insects there, but we have fire demons and frost giants and such who invade sometimes. Those are sort of pesky, like insects. [Definitely the same.]

I used to have a hammer that allowed me to be the God of Thunder (and Lightning), but my stupid sister destroyed it, so now I'm just .. Thor. I do have all the rest that comes with being a god, though, if that's what you mean.

[unkindled_madness]

[Well, Sephiroth isn't specifically familiar with fire demons or frost giants, but he'd consider certain dragons pesky so they can go with that word choice. However--]

Asgard? [That draws his attention momentarily away from the bugs.] You're of Loki's world?

[assemble_the_lovbacken]

Oh! You've met my brother! [Thor says this with equal parts pleasure and sympathy, a bit louder than he intended. His next words are back to being a low hush.] I'm Thor, as I said. Loki is my younger brother.

I hope he hasn't caused you too much trouble in the time you've known him.

[unkindled_madness]

[Sephiroth throws a quick glance in the direction of the insects at his exclamation, but they don't seem to have noticed.

So this is Loki's brother? A "god" with family.]

...Sephiroth.

And no. I've heard his title, but we... get on, I suppose.