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

[extrasensory_problems]

"Yeaaaaah when me and Jen found a pack of them we didn't do much talking. It looked like they were going to eat some guy so we just sort of punched first, asked questions later." He pauses, a hint of a smile on his lips. "Well okay, she did all the punching. I tried to help and then got bite."

He sighs and strips off his shirt and then gently peels the bandages away so that David can see the wound.

"Sure. Just no mocking my skills okay? I'm still in school back home...."

[helpdesk_hero]

Jen? Well, David hadn't met any Jens yet, so he didn't press on that. Note to self: Jen could punch. As for David, he worked on dusting his hands off before he leaned in to look the area over.

"Of course I'm not going to mock your skills. Of the two of us you're the one actually trying to learn the skills. I just got them all from McCoy."

He leaned in and took a look. No signs of infection, which was good, because if there were David would have to find something to treat it with.

"It's more that I know it can be hard to deal with your own wounds when you can't see them as reliably."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Yeah but McCoy is a super genius doctor isn't he?" Carter asks as David peers at the wound.

"You're right, it was hard to see what I was doing but Jen was there helping me...well as much as she can when she's in her Hulk form. Doing delicate things when she's like that is kind of hard." He says and points at the deepest part of the bite.

"I'm just lucky those things weren't poisonous."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Indeed he is," David agreed. "And a reckless fool more often than not."

What respect he might have had for McCoy over the years had waxed and waned quite a bit. But then he pauses, hand hovering over the wound.

"Jen. Hulk... Jennifer Walters is here?"

Wow, that was not something he'd been expecting. Then again, he wouldn't have expected Carter.

"You might benefit from stitches. Or maybe we can find someone here who can heal."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter twists his head up to look at David, noting the expression on his face. "Yeeeees? Is that....weird? She's real nice."

He nods in agreement, "I thought stitches would be good but at the time I couldn't find any thin enough thread...or a needle for that matter. So I've just been using bandages to sort of steri strip it together."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Hulks just make me nervous," David admitted. Came from the naming Hulk that destroyed the school and almost killed him. But that's another matter. And it wasn't her that did it.

"I guess we can talk to people and try and find supplies. I would hate to see this treated only with bandages."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Fair enough, I think they make most people nervous." Carter says with a smile, "I might be exempt from feeling like that only because I was friends with the Juggernaught when I was little."

He peers down at the wound critically, and then back up at David with a grin. "But what if I want a huge ugly scar? I was always under the impression that chicks dig that kind of stuff."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Hulkling isn't so bad. And I understand that Cain isn't always so bad," he answered as he gestured for Carter to cover the wound back up.

"Women say that, but do you really want the sort of lady that is in to massive scars? They tend to be, you know, in my line of work."

[extrasensory_problems]

"I know he did a bunch of really awful things but...he was nice to my mom and looked out for us when we were at Xavier's which meant a lot, seeing how not a lot of people were nice to her since she was human."

He takes a moment to re-bandage the wound and then smiles at David. "Your line of work or motorcycle gangs maybe. Oooh or UFC fighters, I wouldn't mind that."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Yeah, I... I get that," David answered. He'd been a mutant, but when he became only human, he'd absolutely felt that treatment. Racism in their case could be a two way street.

"So basically you're saying Jen is your type?"

[extrasensory_problems]

He glances sharply at David and sees that he really does understand, he gives him a grateful smile and is about to ask him about it when David mentions Jen being his type. Immediately Carter's face turns bright red and he ducks his head, letting his hair flop forward into his face as a way of hiding.

"Uh what?! No! Nononono. I mean...."

[helpdesk_hero]

Oh that's definitely the right reaction. So very cute.

"So she doesn't know," David answered as he sat once more.

[extrasensory_problems]

"No, not at all." He replies, still hiding in hair. "I mean, I'm pretty sure she doesn't know. I try not to be like...obvious."

[helpdesk_hero]

"I won't say a word," David assured him as he settled once more into a meditative position. "I know how to keep secrets."

He had a wealth of them.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter sighs and peeks out from under the curtain of hair, "Thank you. You're better than my friend Kyle who all but broadcasted it on these dumb watches. He was all 'unnnh bro, you're so thirsty.'"

[helpdesk_hero]

Oh no. David giggles at that. Actually giggles.

"Yeah, that sounds about right for Kyle. Geez, he has no reserve, does he? He's fit right in back home, except for the whole 'no powers' thing."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter smiles but mock rolls his eyes, "Oh suuuuuuuuure. Go ahead and laugh at my humiliation."

"Kyle's a great guy though, impulsive and sometimes maddingly stubborn but I like him a lot."

[helpdesk_hero]

"It's not humiliation, Carter. It's... God, this sounds stupid but do you know how refreshing it is for there to be people interested in others where it doesn't have to be drama or mine."

He grins. Was it silly.

"It's just refreshing."

[extrasensory_problems]

He tilts his head to one side, "What do you mean? Are you always stuck in like complicated love triangles or something?"

[helpdesk_hero]

"Oh god yes," David answered, folding his hands in his lap and looking out around him. "In a way, this place is giving me a chance to try and find my internal peace and balance once more."

Because he had played his own hard pretty bad. Space wasn't a bad idea. Space and peace.

[extrasensory_problems]

"Oh. I mean I was kind of joking but ....oh. Wow." He says, running a hand through his hair as he tries to wrap his head around the idea of being in a love triangle.
He could barely handle one person so the idea of more than that is a bit staggering.

"Peace and balance are good." He agrees and looks around at the little patch of solitude they are sitting in with a smile.

"So....uh.... Can I ask? What was the last situation you were in? Was it like full soap opera with people being pregnant and coming in and out of comas? Evil twin brothers?"

[helpdesk_hero]

Oh Carter, what a dangerous question to ask. David hesitates for a moment before looking to him.

"It gets dark, Carter. The world I was in where this happened, people got hurt. Badly. Me included. If you really want to know, you're opening up the door to actual drama stories and things that might make you sad. Like, on the scale of 'Welcome to the X-Men, hope you survive the experience' vibes."

And he didn't want to talk to Carter about the way that all went down without, you know, being sure the guy was okay with it.

[extrasensory_problems]

"I don't mind being sad." He says after a long pause where he considers David's warning. "I'm open to listening so long as you don't mind sharing."

And he means it, he hasn't known David for very long but there's a sort of energy that he projects that Carter enjoys being around. Maybe it's because they both sit under the telepath umbrella, or maybe it's because this whole ripped from your reality situation makes people more willing to connect with others. Whatever it is he finds himself curious about the man sitting next to him, curious and concerned about some of the obvious trauma he's been through.

[helpdesk_hero]

There goes meditation.

"Back home I had a team once. When I was at the school. After M-Day not all of them survived for a variety of reasons. One of them, Laurie, was dating my best friend Josh. Laurie passed away at home. But in the world that I arrived in, she was there. She was alive. She was beautiful and good and she'd grown up into the woman we'd always hoped her to be. I was glad to have my friend back. And Josh, my best friend. I hadn't seen him in so long. He was there too. The two of them were dancing around each other again."

It was all so simple at first. Except things had gotten past that, hadn't they?

"I don't know when exactly I fell in love with them. But it was definitely after they started dating. I gave Josh so much grief when we were young for him cheating on Laurie, and I still made the mistake of falling for them."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter listens quietly, nodding when David mentions his confusion at not knowing exactly when he fell in love with Laurie and Josh. He can understand that feeling, it's very similar to his first long term girlfriend. They had started out as friends and then suddenly they were in love, neither of them knew when or how, it just was.

"Did they both show interest in you separately or as a couple?"