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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.

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"Not my decision." Jean-Paul steps forward and pulls David into a brief hug before pushing him back.

"Mm, pollen everywhere, ouais. It's awful." He sighs and looks around. "It's not quite Krakoa, but I suppose we've seen a lot worse. The cats are weird."

One of the cats looks at them, yawns, and turns around to sit.

The hug was welcomed, and even if it was there and gone like it always happened to be with speedsters, he was happy for it anyway. So happy.

"What, you've got allergies?" David asked, tilting his head and smirking as he moved to take the piece of clothing Jean-Paul had been looking at. "I think Kyle would say it looked good on you, if he was here. And yeah, it's not Krakoa. I'd be happier there."

"Non, thank god. It's still vaguely irritating to have it everywhere, though."

Jean-Paul makes a face. "If only he were. I get the impression this place thinks it can keep us here." Something Jean-Paul has no intention of accepting in spite of the reality of the situation. "We both would, David. You're alright, though? Not injured or anything?"

"Perhaps," David agreed, but mostly he didn't care as much as he could. "I'm sure there will be times when home is bad too."

Still, he feels a bit awkward for the bringing up Kyle. That had probably been unkind. It hadn't even been something he'd thought of much. Mostly because he was so used to being so far from home and those he loved.

"From my experience? Places like this can and will," he noted. Don't aspire for a home you can't reach yet.

As for the question, David offers a small, sad smile.

"Not physically. But anything else is just part and parcel for a mutant."

"Hn." Jean-Paul privately thinks that everywhere is bad sometimes, but he doesn't want to encourage any pessimism at the moment.

"And what experience is that, David? I've escaped every false reality I've been put in." Often violently.

Edited 2021-07-03 06:39 (UTC)

Really, they're debating experience here? David wants to roll his eyes. Easier to show than explain. He held his hand up between them and concentrated, and on his palm appeared a rose made of golden light.

"Not all places that take people like us are false realities. Sometimes they are just other dimensions, other histories, other echoes of worlds like and unlike our own. And sometimes they leave marks."

He curled his fingers around the rose and was instead holding a knife. The change was quick as a thought and seamless. One second rose, the next a knife. For someone with Jean-Paul's perception it would just be a blink of instant replacement, though he could no doubt time the seconds more accurately. There was no middle ground. Just a change of thought completely changing form. Psionic energy projection was definitely not a power David should have.

"And if we count this as another reality, I've been to a rather high number before even working under you. Never left under my own power, and most I wasn't in long. But I was only kidnapped to one once before here. And I didn't escape. I was pulled here instead."

Jean-Paul is quite clearly surprised by this display of new powers. The rest, however, he flaps a hand at dismissively.

"David, you're so literal. Nevermind that, tell me instead where you were, because the last time I saw you we were on Krakoa."

Krakoa, that helps some. He doesn't have to go over the multitude of other realities he'd known with the Young Avengers. Which he'd already suspected given Jean-Paul had no protest to David calling him boss or bringing up Kyle.

"Have you ever known me to be overly metaphorical?" David countered with a shrug. His fingers opened and the blade was gone.

"It was an Earth where the Cold War never ended. Mutants didn't exist there, and there was a spacial-temporal rift caused by the Greek Fates, pulling people through to try and stabilize it. We didn't know it at the time. Anyone who came through the rift had powers, ones native to them or not. While I was there I experienced a number of different realities, different lives, different existences, all of them as real as this one. I..."

He lived lives there, and he missed them.

"From my point of view I was in that place for almost two years, but I lived lifetimes there. And I could never escape it on my own."

Jean-Paul's lips twitch into an almost-smile. "Non," he admits.

He listens with his eyebrows delicately arched. This sort of thing is not exactly uncommon amongst superheroes, but it hurts some deep part of his closely0guarded heart to hear it coming from someone as young as David.

"Well," Jean-Paul says. "That's because yours truly wasn't there." He puts a hand on David's shoulder. "I'll get us home," he promises with the perfect confidence that has carried him forward for so many years.

Young, oh if only he was still young. He was approaching twenty-five already, and even with Krakoa he figured that was about a third of the lifespan he might expect.

"Really?" he had to chuckle, amused. "I mean, I had Foley, and he couldn't get us home wither. There was a guy whose very dreams could become reality and he couldn't get home."

Though he thought maybe Kavinsky hadn't wanted to go home.

"Maybe just focus on the clothes before you are thinking of grand schemes to get back to Krakoa."

Hearing someone in their twenties consider themselves not young would crack Jean-Paul up, partially because he remembers thinking the same of himself.

Jean-Paul snorts. Foley couldn't find his way out of a paper bag, some days," he says, not unkindly. "They created the word 'himbo' for guys like Foley, David."

He turns back to the clothes available, selecting a loose shirt in shades of blue. "I suppose this will do. I can tie it." Because short and cropped is always a good choice when you have washboard abs.

Die as many times as he had, Jean-Paul, and you really stop thinking one number is inherently better than another.

"He really is," David agreed with a grin. "I got him a shirt, black with mesh words, so that you could see his skin through it and it sparkled. It declared him a himbo. But there are those that would call you that too."

Tie it? David rolls his eyes.

"Trying to impress someone by highlighting your baby blues?"

It seemed a fair tease.

Death didn't impart more time.

Jean-Paul's expression cracks and he laughs. "Ohhh, excellent. David, I knew you had a sense of humour deep down." He waves one hand. "Nonsense, I run a corporation and wrote a book. Nobody doubts my intelligence. Just my empathy for others. Which is fair."

Jean-Paul bats his eyelashes. "I impress everyone, David."

No, but the experience... One can't deny there is that.

"There are people who suggest you had a ghost writer, and that you're the pretty face while Kyle and Jeanne-Marie run the company," David counters with a smirk. Nope, he's going to let you have the himbo title. Wear it with pride, Boss.

Especially since he's not moved by those fluttering eyelashes.

"Really? News to me. I don't remember being impressed."

Jean-Paul rolls his eyes. "Those people are in the minority," he asserts. He actually isn't sure who does and doesn't believe that, but as usual denial is his go-to.

"Hush, of course you were." He turns to select some shorts, hunting for the shortest ones of course. Hey, it's warm.

"Have you looked around much? How concerned should I be?"

"Booty shorts, you are sure you're not a himbo? Because you're basically shouting 'check out my assets."

Looked around? Not the greatest amount yet, but he figured he owed a fair estimate anyway.

"So far, I'm not thinking too concerned. This place has more hippie feel than 'raging monsters' sort of thing. That said, I've heard locals advise you stay up in the night. Not sure if they mean awake or off the lowe ground. So either way, it's worrying."

"If I'm on vacation on an island with nice weather, why wouldn't I?" Honestly, David.

He frowns lightly. "Whenever anybody tells you not to go out at night, that definitely means something is up. Whether it's monsters or people pretending to be monsters, it's always something." He glances over at David. "Anything else weird? I trust that big brain of yours."

"You live on an island with nice weather and wear more than that," David countered quite immediately. He's quick on the draw for those sorts of jokes.

"Yeah, JP, I do know that part," he answered. He'd come to the same conclusion. Something was out there in the night. Didn't mean he intended to go after it right now.

"Anything else? Well, there's the fact that when I first got here I got jumped by a guy in what was like a rubber suit who was all grinding on me and declaring me his bride, so that's weird. But you should know there are people you might recognize here. I have reason to believe there is a variation of Quire, as well as Deadpool. There's also this idea that we're supposed to improve ourselves..."

David gestured to his Scrywatch. The thing glinted yellow, if someone looked at it long enough.

"Reeks of judgement I didn't sign up for."

"...I'm not on vacation there." Check and MATE, David.

It's not easy to shock Jean-Paul, but that description manages to do it. "...great. Of all the mutants in the world to be stuck on an island with, we get them. Chrisse. I'm sorry, I'm still stuck on the rubber monster part."

He glances down at his own wrist. It, too, is yellow. "The only judgement I approve of is my own," Jean-Paul says.

"Only because you accepted a leadership position," David counters right back. "You could be, if you wanted to. Who would stop you?"

Yeah, there's a lot going on, Jean-Paul, and hopefully he can be forgiven for giving the bad news. Still, he's shocked by the yellow the man's watch flashes with. He would have expected something more... adjusted for Jean-Paul. Guess you never know.

"What about those of the people you care about? And ignore the rubber monster thing, it doesn't matter really. Flupper isn't here, so I'm not at risk of being someone's 'bride' for now."

Edited 2021-07-03 23:24 (UTC)

Jean-Paul flaps a hand at him. Hush with the big brains.

The fact that David thinks Jean-Paul is well adjusted is a testament to how good jean-Paul's public mask really is. Although he is better than he used to be.

he makes a face. "Ugh, fine, them too. I suppose. A little bit. Wait, Flupper? Chrisse, David, you get into the weirdest situations."

Big the big brains are why Jean-Paul even puts up with him in the first place. But he supposed part of his feelings that Jean-Paul was better adjusted was just wishful thoughts that maybe he could achieve that balance one day.

"Yes, I really do. You haven't even the faintest clue what I get up to," David sighed.

He wasn't used to anyone coming to the other place who happened to be ahead of him in time back home. He assumed it was the same issue here. So he figures Jean-Paul was probably just from after Aurora was found.

Stupid assumptions.

To be fair, there's probably not a mutant on Krakoa who would score better than a yellow grading. Except Trevor.

"Mm, I have a pretty good idea," he replies dryly. "But being a rubber monster's bride is a new one, I'll admit."

He gestures at the island in general. "Well! You wait here while I'll change, and then perhaps we can walk, non? See if we can't figure out a little bit more about what's really going on."

Yeah, Trevor was probably the nicest guy there was. As for Jean-Paul, he was sure making a vague statement there and David wanted to know. But he was too scared to push. To ask. To know how he might be judged. Which would no doubt be why he didn't tell Jean-Paul quite a lot for a while.

"Hey, I escaped."

Still, he rolls his eyes on the 'while he changes.' Like he couldn't get clothes on before David had any hope of seeing anything. Not that he intended to look Jean-Paul over. He's not a lecherous old man. Geeze.

"Seems like a plan. Just be quick. I might get bored."

"Without having to sign any divorce papers, too," Jean-Paul says, amused by his own wit.

Jean-Paul, like most speedsters, can be quite selective about when they decide to do things at a normal pace. Of course he could change in a blink, but he doesn't feel like it. No, he wants to make this feel like a shopping excursion.

He does return soon enough, though, looking like he's about to embark on a gay cruise.

"Walk with me, David."

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