Eternal Summer

[polymods]

✖ The Isle That Blooms

Ⅰ. ALWAYS BLOOMING, NEVER HARVEST
July flowers bring, well, August flowers.

Another month has come and gone, and you may have noticed things haven’t changed much. Everything is still beautiful. There are still no signs of babies or prepubescent children or young animals.

In fact, if you’re paying close enough attention, you may have noticed there are no fruits or grains or vegetables that have come from the constant riot of color and pollen. Only flowers, always flowers.

You still have access to the city’s temple and the baths. The High Temple’s doors are open to everyone.

Some of you may still be dealing with the unpleasant side effects of the Ancient’s now dead and gone Flower Oracle, but it should wind down before the end of the month. Or maybe you already faced your demons.

Hiding out in the Temples for the rest of the month is always an option, but be careful not to get too stagnant. It would be a shame if your ScryWatch stays stuck on the same color forever because you, too, decided to stop growing.

---

Ⅱ. FLOWER MARKET FESTIVAL
CW: Optional Alcohol/Drug Consumption.
You didn’t think the celebrations would be over just because the Flower Oracle came and went, did you? There’s always a new event, a new thing to do, a new way to make some benefit off the Travelers who pass in and out of the Isle looking to take something away from this place.

This month it’s the Flower Market!

During the days, stalls bloom beneath the elevated buildings and in the empty center where the Flower Oracle once stood. There are flowers, of course, in buckets, arrangements, wreaths, crowns, growing in tiny little pots, made into cakes, salsas, and snacks! Artists will find pigments, paints, inks, dyes, and papers. There are perfumes, lotions, oils, soaps, and more. Spices and herbs are abundant; you’ve certainly never seen saffron this cheap. If you haven’t gotten enough tie-dye from the temple, you’ll find beautiful batik clothing, purses, and even jewelry. Everything is bright, everything is for sale.

At night, the stalls are all folded away and instruments come out. Little stalls sell flowery alcoholic drinks and did you know or remember that cannabis is a flowering plant? The locals certainly remembered to make the edibles. Careful, though, drink or imbibe and you’ll find yourself talking about the things you need that you cannot buy. The things you are aching for.

And you won’t stop until someone acknowledges it.

Notes:
1. If you want it and it’s made of flowers, it’s here. No drugs or alcohol during daylight hours.

2. The Temple gives a small amount of spending money daily. Save up and get fancy, or buy a little bit of everything.

3. There is a tiny group of unknown Travelers that show up for the market. They don’t seem to have access to the same network as PCs, but their watches flash green, blue, or purple. They seem to be avoiding PC Travelers and disappear into parts of the Temples that don’t seem to be open to our group yet whenever they get too close.

---

Ⅲ. POISON GARDEN
CW: Poisons, narcotics, ect.
As you wander the now familiar village, you will notice a new pathway has opened at the edge of the village. It leads to an area with a high stone fence and a heavy gate. A skull and crossbones are painted on the gate in bright white paint, but there’s nothing actually stopping you from opening the gate and walking in.

The garden is beautiful, but surprisingly formal after the chaotic abundance of the rest of the Isle. The paths are wide and there’s space between the plants. Each one is meticulously labeled with a stake in the ground.

Do you read the labels? How long does it take you to realize everything in the garden is toxic or poisonous? There are so many options from hemlock and oleander to aconitum and angel’s trumpet and beyond.

Welcome to a study on how not everything that's natural is good for you as you continue to wander the fractal paths. Of course, not everything that's poisonous has no purpose. By the opium poppies there’s a sign that tells you that you can choose to wander the deadly garden until it kills you or you can own up to a toxic habit or behavior that you need to deal with.

Notes:
1. In theory, a character could wander forever without touching or consuming any of the poisons. For plot/fun reasons, feel free to make it a little more difficult. And remember, some of your characters can be poisoned to death.

2. Acknowledging bad habits or a need for change in an honest way is very likely to result in a shift in a ScryWatch color. Remember, the Ancient is looking for growth and improvement, not moral perfection.

3. Characters can collect poisonous or medicinal plants but will be at risk while doing so.

---

Ⅳ. FLOWERY FIELDS FOREVER
Maybe you need to get away from the fuss at the market or just want to stretch your legs, but it’s time to explore the flowering landscape around the village. The villagers have baskets waiting at each of the outbound trails with the request that you come back with the basket full in trade for the picnic lunch they provide.

Wander the rolling hills and you’ll find a surprising amount of wildlife for an island without offspring. There are hummingbirds the size of chihuahuas, tiny pollinating bats, nectar eating possums, giant stingless bees, and more butterflies than you can shake a stick at. All of them seem entirely unafraid of humans despite being wild animals. If you get bitten or pecked, it’s your own fault.

As you fill your basket, you’ll notice patterns in what blooms. All kinds of plants bloom outside of reason and season and traditional need because the land is trying to talk to you through flowers. What did you need to hear? The villagers can help you translate when you come back from your adventure.

Notes:
1. The giant orchid mantises are still there! Thank Gideon and Harrow for negotiating a truce, so they probably won’t eat you. A mantis might even have a conversation with you if you ask nicely, (Quentin managed somehow,) and they have their own knowledge and worship of the Ancient.

2. Feel free to use any reference for plant/flower meaning. Here’s one to get started!

3. Don’t get too attached to any of the critters, they will stay here at the end of the month.

Bonus: music to watch the flowers bloom to.

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Comments

Flowery Fields

[unkindled_madness]

It's very nice to have pants again, without having to touch those tie-dye monstrosities. He may have even said 'thank you.' But, she wanted more than gratitude, as any rational person would, so it's time he hold up his end of the bargain. If she doesn't want to go out into the fields solo, he can play the part of bodyguard, complete with machete tucked into his belt. He won't actually carry the basket unless she foists it off on him though.

"Do you believe it's any more dangerous now than it was?" He's skeptical, but it's a genuine question. If someone's sighted something besides the mantises, he'd like to know.

[hostile_encounter]

A month of exploring the isle has given Elenore a bit more strength and stamina than when she started, but there are multiple reasons she wants support on this journey. And only one of them is wanting any kind of protection.

"More dangerous? No, but there's no such thing as a straight line out there, and it helps to have another person for reference."

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth shrugs, because it's certainly not something he's bothered with, but he supposes not everyone has a sense of direction. He can hope for some sort of fight, but he wasn't expecting this excursion to be particularly engaging.

"...if that's what you require."

[hostile_encounter]

Elenore has some theories about the nature of this particular Isle and how it responds to her particular brand of poking. Should she possibly mention it to Sephiroth before they head out? Almost certainly. But what's the point of spoiling the surprise?

"We'll see how it goes!" And with a chipper attitude that would shock any of her colleagues from home, Elenore plunges into the undergrowth, clearly not sticking to the path.

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth would probably be good at clearing a path for her, but if she wants to charge ahead, well. He follows after, not understanding the enthusiasm. They're just plants. This entire place is full of them.

"Are you looking for something in particular?"

[hostile_encounter]

"Yes," she answers brightly, "But also no? There's not enough of a pattern to where things grow."

She seems to be plowing as straight a line as the landscape will allow for. Her eyes are constantly scanning their surroundings, and she pauses occasionally to examine specific plants.

At one such stop, she asks bluntly: "What do you use plants for where you come from?"

[unkindled_madness]

She's definitely asking the wrong person. He watches her actions with a detached curiosity, but he doesn't know the first thing about botany. "...food, medicine. Nothing so different from Earth, I expect.

"But I live in the city. Plants are a rarity." Moreso than they ought to be, but even if he realizes that, the notion of greenery in a city is strange to him. Midgar exists in a literal wasteland created by its own pollution.

[hostile_encounter]

"Cities do such a good job of disconnecting people from their awareness of the living world." This is clearly said as an observation as opposed to a value judgment. Elenore is a city dweller herself, for all that she's currently going about digging up this weird little herb by the roots.

"We use plants for medicine, food, pigments and dyes, thermoregulation, environmental modification, cosmetics, production of building materials, bioremediation, production of oxygen, heck, decorative purposes! Plants are endlessly complicated in the ways they fight and support each other and what they are capable of doing for themselves and for us. There have even been evolutionary arguments made that some of humanity's food crops domesticated us as opposed to the other way around-"

She stops suddenly, realizing that she's been lecturing/ranting about plants and their value and she goes a little red. "Sorry about that. I just like plants."

[unkindled_madness]

Well, he doesn't seem bored by her rant. Sephiroth has a complicated relationship with scientific pursuits. The men he both admires and despises most were both scientists, but of wildly different calibers. Where she falls, he doesn't know.

"I may not share your passion for botany, but it's hardly without merit." That's almost a compliment. "Though I wonder... if your interests have any overlap with the study of planet life? I couldn't find anything on the subject on Carcosa."

[hostile_encounter]

She flashes a brief appreciative smile when he accepts her apology before going back to figuring out how she wants to bring the herb. His question gets her full attention, though.

"Planet life? Like a living planet or the combination of living systems on a planet? My background is in multidisciplinary biology," it stings a little to use the euphemism her former mentor had used for their biological super science before he went villain, "but I'm always interested in the larger-scale impact. It's part of why I like botany."

[unkindled_madness]

"I mean the study of planets themselves, as living organisms. I imagine that qualifies as 'large scale.'"

In terms of living beings, it's difficult to imagine a larger one. But he isn't certain whether or not she'll understand what he's talking about. The things he's read, the people he's spoken to... there's nothing to imply even a passing familiarity with the discipline.

[hostile_encounter]

Elenore really has to stop and consider that one. "That's a difficult question to answer. There's definitely a lot of study about how biological and non-biological systems interact and function on the earth as a whole in my world, which could be what you mean but from a different world view? Or it's possible that worlds are functionally more living in your universe. Or that in my universe people aren't aware enough of the nature of their world."

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth shakes his head slightly. "It sounds like one of the latter two possibilities. Although the notion that biological fact could be that different between realities is... somewhat disturbing."

Maybe more than somewhat, but it's only a hypothesis with little basis, for now. Not something with more solid proof, like the differing methods of magic.

[hostile_encounter]

Elenore nods her agreement with his assessment but seems unperturbed by the difference in universes.

"I find it more...fascinating than upsetting?" She packages the plant. "There are always exceptions to the rules in biology, and goodness knows I won't exist long enough to understand any kind of significant portion of anything."

[unkindled_madness]

It's that end of existence that concerns him. If Earth isn't alive, then what happens to its creatures when they die? Where does that energy, that accumulated knowledge, go? Does it simply cease to exist? Does it lie inert, sustaining nothing?

He doesn't elaborate.

"...I suppose not. You are only human, yes?" She looks it, but he might as well check. Not everyone is, and that's a strangeness that's easier to wrap his head around, if disturbing in its own way.

[hostile_encounter]

"Only human," Elenore confirms, "No special powers or magic even." From her point of view, she's speaking the truth, but she comes from a world where superscience and super scientists are a thing. Given limited supplies and sufficient focus, she can achieve things that simply wouldn't be possible in a more grounded reality because of her ability to leverage science concepts. Elenore simply has no perspective to understand that.

Still, none of this seems to have put her in a morbid mood. "Which makes all this a little extra interesting."

[unkindled_madness]

As an unwitting product of his own world's science, and one where science encompasses magic at that, Sephiroth may not have the best perspective on what's considered 'normal' in the field.

"Hm. It's a frustrating way to be confronted with different universes, but... it is interesting."

[hostile_encounter]

"You're not the first person who mentioned being frustrated with the different universes thing." This is not said to poke him, there's an undertone of curiosity. "Was that not accepted where you came from?"

And now she's suddenly aimed at a giant tree and moving with a purpose.

[unkindled_madness]

"I meant that I don't care for being kidnapped," he clarifies as he keeps pace with her. "Although no, it isn't really a concept where I come from outside of science fiction."

[hostile_encounter]

"Ah, yeah, I'm just kind of not thinking about that part." Because it would trigger some strong issues that she's not prepared to deal with. "But we definitely had the knowledge of multiple universes thing. And some weird side effects from it."

[unkindled_madness]

He doesn't know how anyone avoids thinking about it; they're here, and they didn't choose to be. Or does she pretend to herself that she did choose it? Regardless, he's fine not talking about it, because they're nowhere near a solution to it.

"...what sort of side effects?"

[hostile_encounter]

Elenore is an expert at not thinking about certain things when she wants to be. Something becomes a fact and therefore she doesn't have to revisit it. This is more of a survival tactic than a specific strength.

"Oh, you know, the basics? Like evil universe tries to invade, multiple people who have the same identity, weird alternate universe technologies or disease..." She gestures vaguely to imply both that the list goes on and that he can probably fill it in for himself.

[unkindled_madness]

Those are the basics? Those are some definite science fiction plotlines. He's read enough in that genre that yes, he could probably propose a few more in that vein.

"It sounds as though you had not only knowledge, but experience with alternate universes, in your world." But, never with magic?

[hostile_encounter]

"Not directly? Other than the really big scale ones, I mean. But I've known a lot of people who've dealt with the fallout." Has sought them out when she thought she could help with an arrogance that has mostly worked out. At least since she tried to get no attention for it.

"There's some magic, too? But mostly in terms of small numbers of people with abilities." At least as far as she knows. Elenore has an ability to forget or ignore things that don't interest her that can only be considered deliberate.

[unkindled_madness]

Even if it's never impacted her directly, it sounds like a frequent occurrence. Certainly more frequent than it ought to be.

"I wonder if there is something particular about Earth. Whatever boundaries are meant to exist between realities are weaker there. That may be why there are so many of you here."