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Eternal Summer
✖ 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.
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.
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.
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.
Bonus: music to watch the flowers bloom to.
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.
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.
no subject
When she says his name, he glances at her fully for the first time since popping awake in her presence. However, his perception of her shimmers as he's still hallucinating from his hardcore poisoning. First she was all Mean Girls. Then she was all Game of Thrones.
"....Nore? You're here?" He grips her by the shoulders. "I thought you'd gone to the great retired character heaven in the sky!"
no subject
"I'm not Nore." It's difficult to describe the struggle to say those words if you haven't experienced the betrayal of limbs and body that doesn't mean you're not angry, furious even. But she gets them out.
no subject
"Oh. Sorry. That's...just somebody that I used to know." Somewhere in the background, Gotye plays briefly.
For a moment there, he'd been so sure...but that was the danger of a perception that spanned realities. Sometimes, especially if you just tried to kill yourself with hemlock, it fucks with you.
no subject
"You mentioned that when I told you my name." She's reciting facts in the way she knows people tend to read as forgiveness when it comes from a woman. "My name is Elenore."
no subject
But, on the flip side, he didn't read anything as forgiveness either. Even if he knew he needed to be forgiven, he pretty much never expected it from anybody because nobody ever gave it to him.
"Elenore from the chat?!? HOLY CRAP!!!" He squints at her, as if that'll do anything. "You seemed pretty freaked out that you could have AU versions of yourself. Annnnd...you're wandering around the poison garden grabbing interesting stuff like a mad scientist. Okay, yeah, that tracks if you are an AU you. Well, as long as last name isn't Evans, you're set. There could be lots of blondie Elenores, maybe even lots who are into pushing science to the limits, but lots of Elenore Evans? That'd be too much to be coincidence."
no subject
"My last name is Evans." Because if she's already going to feel terrible she might as well rip all the bandaids off. Deadppol has also finally managed to bridge her inability to understand why multiple universes would be frustrating. Of course, he unkowning poked some of her biggest wounds in his haze near death.
no subject
He paces around her in a circle, checking her out. No, not like checking her out checking her out, but he'd be happy to do that too, but more like exactly how you'd examine an interesting specimen from the lab. In that respect, this one little thing should feel pretty normal to her despite the fucked up situation.
"Did you have some kind of weird explosive experiment at some point? Something that you know should have killed you, that literally just enveloped you and shook the foundations of your lab and reality, and then you got up from wondering how the hell you survived but you seem to be perfectly fine so oh well? That seems like a common story that would explain this kind of thing. Like, all the AU Elenores did the same experiment at the same time and it punched a hole in reality and you all got thrown into a blender and now you're just all trading places constantly. Makes me wonder where Nore ended up. I...I liked her. She was really good people. She actually treated me like a person, and..." And she was one of the very very few who truly empathized with his having been used as a lab rat and thrown out like failed experiment garbage. But that wasn't something he could easily talk about with a stranger.
A stranger? Was an Elenore a stranger? Hmm. She had to be, he guessed. Even if she felt like a friend to him, even if he had that same strong connection he'd forged with Nore somewhere below the surface, she was certainly reacting like she definitely did not have any connection to him whatsoever. When he had time to think about it, that would give him a terrible sad, but for the moment he was caught up in the novel nature of the whole experience.
no subject
Also, just because she's a scientist doesn't mean she enjoys being treated like a specimen.
"I've never been through a massive lab accident, and don't deal in the kind of science that would have done that kind of thing. Also, my timeline is pretty solid. No switching places."
Refuting his description is absolutely necessary. She needs to affirm her identity, but also the information he keeps feeding her is hard to ignore. The repeated use of the old nickname is like when you can't resist poking a sore tooth. Was Nore who she could have been? Certainly the empathy for a person who had been experimented on sounds familiar.
He had been experimented on.
no subject
"Huh. How have I met so many Nores then?" He frowns under his mask. "Unless...I'm just having a really bad case of wrong memories again." Wade puffs out a breath. "Blargh. I'm sorry. I have a bad habit of just treating people like they're who I want them to be."
And just like that, a path opens up to the exit to the garden not too far away from them. However, it's very likely that only he can see it unless she too has stumbled onto obeying the rules of the place. This may be the first time he's actually followed the rules of an encounter of his own volition, even if it was by accident!
"Oh hey, I didn't know we were so close to the entrance."
no subject
It isn't logical to hold it against him.
"We weren't. You apologized and it opened up." She looks him over again. "Are you normally this height or have you been doing other things that damage your body regularly?"
He had mentioned that he was experimented on. Now that she no longer feels trapped, there's space for that revelation.
no subject
Did she ever correct him severely? Or was it just the threat of it that kept him in line? Either way, it worked.
"Oh...this is actually better than before. I was toddler sized with an adult head when I was texting you. This is just a little over a month's growth. Normally I regenerate faster, and I do regenerate the small stuff pretty fast here...but for some reason my large scale regeneration is kinda nerfed. Probably more of that lesson stuff. Blah blah consequences blah blah."
no subject
Her brow wrinkles as he describes the difference in his regeneration ability. "How did you end up a head with a tiny body? Do you always have to go through a birth to adult growth pattern?"
no subject
Hey Elenore, he'd be super happy to be your friend too. He might actually be kinda desperate for it, but you'd never be able to tell unless you interpret the rambling as a desperate need for human contact and connection. But nobody would ever do that.
no subject
"So, how much growing do you have left to do?" Look, she doesn't know if he's short or gigantic by default. "How many times have you had to start from scratch?"
Everything says she should probably get away fast, but Elenore is hyper-aware of her innate vulnerability in an endless stream of islands at least partially aimed at challenging people with powers. Social connections until she gets enough technical supplies are her best chance at long-term survival. Clearly, he has powers, and she is practical.
no subject
At her second question, he rubs his chin in thought. "A lot...? More than I can count. Not all on purpose like this though. Unless you count being reckless because you know it doesn't matter."
no subject
"So, basically the stakes here are pretty low for you?" That is definitely going into her calculations of how much of his weirdness she's willing to put up with. "Were you always able to heal like that?"
no subject
Deadpool glances down at his body. "Oh no. I was a normal guy once. But then I got so much cancer that my cancer had cancer, and that cancer had a family and it went through chemo and the family had to go through that whole ordeal and...well, you know. Signed up for a secret government-but-not-really experiment process, lost everything, got abused as much as experimented on, had some of Wolvie's special sauce shoved inside me, and got a healing factor. But it heals my cancer as much as it heals me, soooo...I'm basically Perma Cancer Man. But that doesn't sound as cool as Deadpool, so here we are."
no subject
"Deadpool sounds cool?" Look at her mouth get ahead of her brain while she's processing his description of his life story. It's innately fascinating to the part of her that compulsively tries to undo the damage done by other super scientists just like it's fascinating to the part of her that is starving for a challenge. One can only imagine the things she'd think to do if she knew she's already met 'Wolvie'. "That sounds like a very painful process."
no subject
He blinks. "You don't think Deadpool sounds cool? What if I tell you the story behind it?"
no subject
"If you have to tell a story to make it sound cool, does it really sound that cool?" Look, she's not trying to be rude. She's just kind of...blunt.
no subject
Wade glances up at her after wandering through his different memory realities. "Anyways, what I'm saying is I don't mean to be a nihilist, but it's hard not to be when you know what I know. But I am good at seizing all the moments because you never know when that reset is coming! You gotta live it up!"
Now he puts his hands on his hips. "Well, yeah. I know you're into the SCIENCE!, and in the SCIENCE! you isolate the variables and stuff, but when you're not developing a SCIENCE!, the context matters! The story always matters! Stories are all we have. Life is SUPER boring without dressing it up and pretending like things matter more than they do."