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

[speed_of_snark]

"Considering that the English are so repressed they need a Valium and a set of long underwear just to take a bath, I think you're right," Jean-Paul remarks. "They can't fuck so they dream of reproduction with bees or whatever."

He leans over to inhale the scent of something besides honeysuckle.

"I don't know what any of the flowers supposedly mean," he says. "I don't suppose your massive brain does either. Well, except roses and calla lilies. One for love, one for death."

[quire]

"Of course I know," he says dismissively. And conveniently leaving out the fact that the only reason he does know is because someone explained this to him not all that long ago. "It's just such useless information that I kind of hate knowing it's taking up valuable brain cells. It's all so juvenile. Just use your words."

He snaps of a sprig of honeysuckle and tosses it in Jean-Paul's direction. "This isn't me. It's you. Causing it, I mean. Did you get that far? That these stupid flowers are trying to tell you something about yourself?"

[speed_of_snark]

Jean-Paul lifts his eyebrows.

"Why just me? Why not you as well?"

he catches the sprig and studies it. "So what does this one mean, then?"

[quire]

"Oh it's me too," he assures him. "But you've been here here long," he says gesturing to this particular path through the posies.

"Look..." he tromps off Jean-Paul's path and a bright trail of pink (naturally) geraniums spring up in his wake. A stark difference in shape and color from the flower Jean-Paul finds himself surrounded with. When he picks one something delicate and white replaces it.

"Ahmmmm," he taps at his ScryWatch a moment. "Honeysuckle. Predominantly viewed as a symbol of happiness, blah blah, notoriously hardy and challenging to kill blah blah often be used to symbolize devotion and everlasting bonds... Ring any bells for you? It's like astrology but via the sex organs of plants."

[speed_of_snark]

Jean-Paul's expression stays more or less the same aside from his eyebrows drawing together and they lifting slightly. Quire, of course, can read people no matter how aloof they are.

Jean-Paul is surprised, and then heartsick.

"Oh," he says simply. "So what the hell are yours?"

[quire]

For a guy who can read people it can be infuriating how little the silent cues of others seem to mean to him. "Probably about your hubs I guess huh? I don't suppose whatever dog catchers they have stocking this place rounded him up too. Bummer."

He points to the delicate little white ones that sprang up when picked the pink. "Woodruff. Humility." He rolls he makes a dramatic face like he's gagging on something. "It's all very saccharine."

[speed_of_snark]

"Mm, you're all heart," Jean-Paul mutters. He makes a face at the woodruff.

"That doesn't suit either of us."

[quire]

"What? You expected a hug?"

He folds his arms like he's considering something that irritates him, but finally he huffs and reaches down to snatch up a few pink flowers. The bold pinks and magentas that follow him turn to delicate white woodruff in their place. "Sure, not on its own. But they're not exactly springing up under my heels like these, huh? Geraniums. Folly, Stupidity. Hollyhock. Ambition. Amaryllis. Pride. Mint flower. Suspicion." he mutters bitterly. "Someone thinks they're funny."

[speed_of_snark]

"Chrisse, no." Genuinely horrified by the idea.

Jean-Paul listens, and as he does he starts smirking. And as self satisfied and smug as Quentin can look? Jean-Paul has had an additional two decades of practice.

"They are, a little," he says. He looks back at the honeysuckle. "Hn. Can't say it's wrong, though. I miss Kyle already."

[quire]

He's done this enough to know just how amusing everyone who knows him finds the choice of flowers this place as picked for him, but Quentin looks like the novelty has worn off— if it ever was in then first place.

"Yeah, hilarious. Keep poking around Romeo, I bet you'll find some less than flattering weeds too," he warns.

"So what you figured out about this place? Any leads on getting us out of here?" he asks as if Jean-Paul's need of someone who's not been brought to this place should translate directly to that course of action.

[speed_of_snark]

"Mm, and I would somehow be upset by this?" Jean-Paul asks, unconcerned. "No garden will tell me anything I've not heard before."

He shrugs. "I know it's collected several of us from one place, and even from the same time, it seems. I don't know if that means anything. As for getting home... not yet. I keep thinking of Mojoworld, you know? There's bound to be some sort of hole in the world created here, we just need to find it."

[quire]

He gives Jean-Paul a long suffering look. "It's not exactly the first time someone's implied I'm prideful either. Maybe the first time a plant has... I'm just saying it's easy to stand there and chuckle at whatever they're trying to tell me while avoiding any extensive gardening of your own."

Jean-Paul's theories at least don't be so far from his own. "I've been looking. Nothing yet. You're right though. It can't be perfect. Nothing is. Maybe we'd know where to look if you knew what they wanted with us first."

[speed_of_snark]

Jean-Paul smirks almost sweetly and wanders to another bush. There are white, puffy looking flowers there: candytuft. "So these are?"

He nods. "Ouais, exactly." Quentin may be insufferable, but he's not stupid. "As to that I'm still not certain. Maybe we're just a human zoo."

[quire]

"Uhhh..." he taps at his ScryWatch again. "Candytuft. Which would be a great name for a strain. But it's suppose to represent indifference. So that could be either of us I guess," he shrugs."

"Entertainment. It could be that. Either way, it's kind of insane how many people I've talked already seem to buy into the altruism of this whole thing. There's no fucking way there's nothing in it for whoever's running the place. Even if it's just amusement."

[speed_of_snark]

Jean-Paul snorts. "You're right, the flowers have a shit sense of humour."

He nods, looking around. "I suppose the next question is if it matters what the motive is at all. If we're determined to get out, we'll find a way regardless. And at least things seem benign so far...? I suppose those mantises were a little dangerous."

[quire]

"Last island there were water-zombies," he says. "And someone told me about this cursed skull thing he found that tried to destroy his brain."

He turns to Jean-Paul before the other man can say anything of death, or fear, or bravery. "You're from Krakoa right? You're like, living it up in the boneyard with your bae, leading X-Factor and shit?"

[speed_of_snark]

"Ew," is Jean-Paul's understated reaction.

He lifts one perfect eyebrow. "I am, ouais. Why?" Because Kid Omega doesn't just ask after your life for fun.

[quire]

"So you you're used to the whole resurrection thing," he says. It's just that confirmation he's after before he attempts to finish his thoughts as he looks out at those smarmy fucking flowers.

"I know we might fight this place to get free of it. I'm not afraid of getting hurt. I've done it enough times now. But I dunno what dying means here. There might not be any coming back. Not here or Krakoa."

It's not often Quentin goes so long without being petulant or antagonistic. Whatever this is certainly isn't that. It's not quite a warning to Jean-Paul either. More like some kind of declaration really. Like he's just saying things out loud to help himself accept them.

Or see how Jean-Paul reacts to them. Northstar isn't exactly someone he knows well, but of all the mutants here he's the one Quentin's most likely to openly respect. It's hard to imagine Quire looking to someone else for guidance but this might be the closest he can come to asking for it.

[speed_of_snark]

He nods, and for a wonder actually shuts up and listens.

"I think," he says after thinking a moment, "that if we die here we probably just... die. Maybe we wake up back home. Maybe. But we have absolutely no reason to believe that, do we? Everything seems to indicate they want to keep us here, but also that they're not going to hold our hands or protect us. I know Wade is gung-ho on testing the idea that we can't die, but I doubt you're going to see anyone without a healing factor rushing to test his hypothesis."

He crosses his arms, hands cupping his elbows.

"I'm not inclined to risk it," he says. "Maybe if I were from another point in my life, but right now I have entirely too much to lose. I want to go home to my family, and I will. I'm not going to get my ass killed just out of impatience."

[quire]

What the Cuckoo's coined his invisible mind can turn him into a bit of a lockbox even for those who are trying to read his thoughts or his face. Quentin's silence can be even harder to parse than his nonstop bickering.

"How long until we stop calling it impatience and start calling it our only option?"

[speed_of_snark]

Jean-Paul considers this carefully. "I personally could not wait more than a year," he decides. "And that if I'm lucky. I'm not known for my patience."

[quire]

Quentin draws a terse breath. He can wait, he supposes.

"Me either. A year from now I don't really want to look back and ask why we spent so much time trying to pull open a push door if you know what I mean. So how about this. If shit starts to get a little dangerous for people, we reevaluate."

[speed_of_snark]

"I do."

Jean-Paul's expression is its usual slightly sour one, but he nods firmly. "Agreed. There's probably a few humans wandering around here that could need help.

"Don't worry, I doubt anyone is at risk of falling in love with this process."

[quire]

He snorts. "I dunno. Have you run into Old Man Muttonchops yet? He's obnoxiously complaisant about it."

[speed_of_snark]

Jean-Paul can't hide a quick grin. "Let the old man have his zen island," he says. "Poor bastard deserves it."