polylogs | Eternal Summer

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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.

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.

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That sulking might be mistaken for apathy by some, but not by Kyle. Oh no, he's far too used to that exact tone.

Kyle stares at Quentin, trying desperately to work through the bald facts he himself has laid out. He's a bright man, but emotions are much more slippery than facts.

It's funny to watch, though. Kyle's considerable brows draw together, his lips part just a bit before closing again, his forehead smooths, and then the process repeats.

"I think you're cute," he finally admits. "The fact that I can talk to you and you actually understand what I'm saying sure doesn't hurt, either." He gestures at the flowers all around them, a sweeping and somehow helpless flail of his arms. "And the whole... wanting to throttle you thing, which okay, fine, Magic Garden, you win, my toxic behaviour is sublimating sexual attraction into bickering. Or something."

He wraps his skinny arms around himself.

"I'm sorry. I understand if you want me to stay on the other side of the island, now."

It's a good thing Quentin's attention tends to be so scattered because when it's all concentrated on Kyle like it is now it errs towards overly intense. Even his plain faced expression is some part suspicious, and some part calculating. But after a rare quiet moment, that self-satisfied grin dominates his expression again.

"I'll take cute," he shrugs. "It's no sexy, but I think I make it work."

When he's done relishing that massive ego boost his attention snaps around to Kyle before the man ca fully distance himself from that admission. "Hey! What? Chill out! I'm not gonna no-homo you or whatever. It's cool. I'm an evolved millennial mutant. I was pan before it was cool," he babbles, hopping a few steps closer to Kyle. "You're cute too, you know? For a guy who wouldn't know a Brogue from a Chelsea if it kicked him in the ass."

Edited 2021-08-10 18:54 (UTC)

That grin causes Kyle to roll his eyes, although it's more force of habit than anything else. Below the surface annoyance he's a little disturbed by how much he enjoys being the focus of Quentin's fierce attention.

That, he thinks, really does jump from cute to sexy.

He looks at Quentin suspiciously. "I'm not cute," he says with the same assurance as someone would say 'water is wet.'

A wry little grin gets pulled from him. "I don't know what either of those are," he admits. He's pleased not to be told to go away, and is mentally preparing himself to resume his place as friend-with-feelings-we-don't-ever-acknowledge-again. It's a bitter sort of relief.

"Shut up. I didn't ask what you think about you," Quentin says flippantly when Kyle denies him any acceptance of that compliment.

"Of course you don't," his bottom lip juts out just a little and he gives Kyle a gentle but intentionally patronizing pat on the cheek. "C'mon. Let's go see if the gate is open," he grabs Kyle's hand and leads them that way without a second thought for the fact that he didn't really cop to much at all. Whatever that means for getting out of here.

As usual, such casual physical kindness from a sort-of frenemy just throws Kyle off of his game completely. But you're MY little monster, he hears deep in his mind.

He nods and follows Quentin along. He's owned up to enough to make it open for him, if he were alone. Whether or not Quentin simply admitting his pettiness is enough remains to be seen; Kyle's not getting out unless it is.

Kyle's bashful reluctance feels silly to Quentin after what was just confessed, but like with most things he thinks are silly, he's perfectly happy to ignore it.

It takes some trying to actually find the gate, but when they do it doesn't budge— much to his consternation. "Oh come on!" he groans "We played the game! We did the thing! What does it want now? Maybe there's another sign..."

"I mean, I played the game," Kyle points out. "All you said was that you're petty. That's not toxic, it's just like... normal. Most people are petty, they just don't admit it. You'd have to be extremely so for it to poison your life."

He studies the gate, then Quentin. "Are you petty out of all consuming envy or something? Because frankly I have a hard time picturing that."

"Hey, I followed the rules! It doesn't say anything about the fucking gravity of the issue! If it wants something specific it can put that in writing!" He complains like there might be some authority listening and ready to address his problems with things.

He wrinkles his nose at Kyle. "Well, you should. Do I look like I'm wildly envious of people?" He huffs. Maybe he should have gone with impatience.

Kyle snorts. "Yeah, I don't think it's going to argue with us, dude."

Quentin's snotty mini tantrum is honestly funny, and Kyle fails abysmally at hiding his amusement.

"No," he says. "You don't. But there's that whole idea that people deride what they secretly covet and shit. So maybe deep down... I dunno. You're an interesting one.

"You definitely are deliberately antagonistic, though. I wasn't wrong about that."

"I know! And that's fucking bullshit too! Cowards!" he gripes almost endlessly. It's enough to make him completely miss the amusement Kyle's taking from his suffering.

"An interesting one? Calm down, Goodall. You're not studying the chimps out here,” he mumbles.

"Maybe I just don't need a bunch of landscapers to tell me about mindfulness or whatever we're supposed to learn from this. The whole things smacks of some insufferable paternalism!" He throws his arms open wide, still sort of talking as much to their invisible keepers as to Kyle himself. "And if that makes me STUBBORN, or ANTAGONISTIC so be it! I'd rather be a thoughtful skeptic than a mindless optimist! I don't care how unpopular that makes me! I'd rather see things for what they are and be hated than end up anyone's beloved chump!"

Kyle giggles. "Okay, okay, sorry. I meant it in a good way."

Watching Quentin essentially yell at the sky is, again, amusing. But beneath all of that posturing is a clue to what Quentin might have once been, or might still be when alone.

"I think maybe you care a little bit," Kyle says carefully. "But you're right. It IS better to be the thoughtful skeptic. It IS better to see things for what they are."

He chews his lower lip a little. "...I like you. For what it's worth. Because of those qualities. Even if they're toxic, or whatever."

He deflates sort of breathlessly and furrows his brow at Kyle. Not out of anger but just because he looks a little grumpy when he's thinking and Kyle has a way of making him think. Which is more than he can say about most humans.

"I'm not blind. I know it chases people off," he says. "I know it makes people think it's like, more trouble than I'm worth or whatever. Maybe knowing that and still doing it is toxic."

A glowing pink glove surrounds his hand and he snaps off a sprig of oleander. "These plants evolved that way because it's useful to their survival. It's their only defence mechanism against specialist insects or disease spreading organisms or even densely populated herbivores. So like... even if it doesn't make life easier for everyone else, toxicity doesn't necessarily mean there's something that needs to be changed about them. They're just doing what they gotta do to keep growing.

"I like you too. Especially the troubling parts."

Is it possible that Quentin is simply providing them both with a convenient excuse not to change? Yes. Probable, even. But it makes sense.

"Yeah," Kyle says. "It's not deadly to the poisoner."

And then he finds himself smiling dopily. "The troubling parts, huh? Yeah, I guess you've seen lots of em."

Probable indeed. But not unfounded. "And you know what? They're not poisonous to everyone. They don't scare away the pollinators they need. Bees can handle them just fine."

With that flower in his guarded hand he heads back to Kyle and the gate they tried earlier. "Maybe a few," he shrugs. "Neither of us are exactly pretending we're someone we're not over here. You're weird. I like weird people. They're mostly honest and they're definitely not boring."

He smiles at the goofy grin on Kyle's face. It's not an expression he thinks he's seen much of before, but makes a chuckle rumble up in his belly. "Maybe people like us don't need other people to like us. Maybe we just need to find some bees."

Kyle follows along, eyes ticking over the oleanders again as he does. He makes a note to himself to ask Elenore what the effects of their poison is. They smell sweet, that he can tell.

Kyle starts giggling. He hates that he does - he knows how incredibly stupid he sounds - but he can't help it. "Oh, Quentin," he says with bogus solemnity. "Pollinate me."

He holds that flower a minute wondering where to put it. None of the culty looking linens this place offered them to wear have pockets so he presses his psionically gloved hand against Kyle's chest —flower and all. The energy shifts to form a little pink square like an intangible pocket that clings to Kyle for the time being and holds that toxic plant on him like a boutineer.

"GOD, you made it weird!" He snorts at the giggling sound Kyle makes and scrunches up his face at those words. "Dork," he laughs and shoves Kyle away from him a little, just to reel him in again.

"I swear to God if that fucking gate hasn't had enough by now..."

Edited 2021-08-11 03:56 (UTC)

Kyle looks down at that delicate, deadly flower. He feels seen in a way he's not used to.

He cackles as he's pushed away, cackling again with surprise when he's tugged back. "It was already weird!" he protests, stumbling close enough that it seems like a brilliant idea to put his hands on Quentin's shoulders.

Utterly brilliant. Means he has something to cling to when he decides that he's already humiliated himself a ton and he might as well kiss the man he was pretty much ready to beat to a pulp earlier.

"It was a perfectly good metaphor to excuse our shitty personalities and you turned it into a cheap pick-up line!" he baulks even through the smile on his face.

A smile that wavers a little in surprise when Kyle comes back to him with his hands on his shoulders. For a moment Quentin's cheeks could rival then color of that oleander in Kyle's pocket. Thankfully he suspects Kyle's too close to him by then to notice.

In an effort not to seem either surprised or unwilling, he reaches for Kyle blindly. Ending up with one hand haphazardly tangled around the hem of his shirt, just for something to hang onto when Kyle's mouth moves against his. Kyle, it turns out, neither tastes nor smells of florals and frankly it's a refreshing change of scenery for his senses. "You don't waste any time," he smiles. "I like that."

"That wasn't cheap!"

Kyle flushes pink, but he doesn't take his hands off of Quentin's shoulders.

"Yeah, well. I learned something: pining fucking sucks. It sucks hard, and I don't wanna do it anymore. And you're hot and you said I was cute and you drive me nuts.

"Okay, let's try the gate, I don't want to like... roll onto poison leaves in a fit of passion."

"Tacky at least," he teases.

"That's a lot of somethings," his hold on Kyle tightens a little. "Go easy. If this place is trying to make us learn things you could lap me and they might split us up. Send you to Valhalla or whatever while I'm stuck here being stubborn."

The sense of anticipation that makes him hold his breath is momentarily distracted by that idea. "Are there going to be fits of passion?" his eyes sparkle curiously, but before Kyle can answer the latch in the gate makes a clung sound when it's pulled and offers them the egress they've been stumbling around in search of.

Quentin's mouth twists up thoughtfully. "This is absolutely some kind of achievement system designed to make us happily compliant. On the other hand, I love video games and will beat this one."

"It is, because I'm a smart guy and I learn a lot." He's not being pushed away. He's not being pushed away, and it's great.

The sound of the gate gets Kyle to tear his eyes away from Quentin. He's relieved that they can escape, but part of him is sad because that little pocket of the poison garden was all theirs. (And God knows what sort of strange fruit might grow from anything started there.)

He heads for the gate. "I do too," he confesses. "And I agree there's a reward system, although I'm not as sure that it's nefarious." As they pass out of the garden his eyes go wide and he looks at his wrist.

Still yellow. Kyle deflates a little. "Shit. I really thought maybe... Well. Whatever. Like it matters."

Of course, he hadn't been paying attention to it while they'd been stuck inside. If he had, he might have noticed its change to green for a moment when he finally acknowledged his toxicity.

But only for a moment.

"You also like to do what your told. That probably helps," he snarks, careless of whether or not Kyle exactly understands that somewhere in his babbling that was a request not to let this place pull them apart.

"There's no way there's not some self serving interest in all this," he insists, looking back at that gate. It is however also the first time he's played along with the demands of their weird, new home and he can't help but notice all that a little cooperation as just earned him. Coincidence? Undecided.

Quentin checks his own ScryWatch. Still orange. No change either, so far as he knows. "You don't need some colorful wearable to tell you what you are," he reminds. "C'mon, I have to wash my hands. I think something back there made me itchy."

"Only when it makes sense to do so," Kyle protests. "Jesus, you really think I'm some kind of goody goody."

He nods and follows Quentin. "Yeah, I know. I guess I just thought like, we admitted to fairly substantial things and that seems important? Ugh, whatever. I'm starting to think there's no logic here at ALL. So fuck it."

He risks a glance at Quentin, who really is stupid cute. Ugh.

"I have yet to see evidence of the contrary," he smirks, "but I'm willing to change my mind if presented with new information."

If memory serves there a fountain in town, and he aims to use it as nearest water source. "Wasn't it you who told me it might be more algorithmic than linear? I'm still tracking with that idea. Maybe you moved the needle, but like, not enough yet. It might be easier to go the other way. If you think about applied ethical spectrums most people think severity matters more in cases of doing bad than doing good. Maybe I can do something shitty and see how easy it is to go the other way."

Quentin ignores the bright and bustling town around them as they come to that fountain. He plunks himself down on the outside seat and scrubs his hands in the water. "You too," he says to Kyle look at him expectantly. "If you're going to touch my dick and you've got poison oak on you or something I'll be pissed."

Kyle rolls his eyes. "I strive to be moral. That doesn't mean following every rule, it means doing what's right."

He nods. "Yeah, that was me. I mean, I'm sure others have come to the same conclusion. But yeah. Yeah, you're right."

It doesn't occur to him that he may have moved the needle by his admission and then moved it in another direction by immediately justifying his and Quentin's toxicity with their poisonous plant analogy.

He blushes hotly but sets to rinsing his hands very carefully. "I'll touch your dick," he says, plowing stubbornly forward in spite of his embarrassment. "I'm kinda easy, I guess."

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