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

[quire]

"Damn. I kinda wanted to see that go down," he admits. And frankly he's still kind of hopeful he might witness this.

He looks at Carter a long suspicious moment and then plainly says, "Nah. There's baggage," he insists. "You're a path and a mutant. Why do something so pedestrian unless there's some strong attachment to it? Even if it's just the joy of being a big fish, there's something going on there." He says with the kind of certainty that neither takes into account his subject's feelings about it nor sounds like he's interested in being convinced otherwise.

"God, these people must fucking hate flowers by now" he says looking at another cart full of colorful blooms.

[extrasensory_problems]

"The joy of being a big fish?" Carter asks, raising an eyebrow and ignoring his comment about him having baggage, he's free to think whatever he wants about Carter's profession.

He side steps the cart of flowers, "They don't seem to. What about you though? You sick of all the different floral scents yet?"

[quire]

"Yeah, you know. A smart person at a community college feels like a fucking genius. Big fish, little pond. Put that person at Oxford at whatever and maybe they feel a little small," he explains flippantly.

"YES! GOD!" he says emphatically. "I'm not really a florals kind of guy in the first place. I prefer the fresh notes side of the fragrance spectrum. Green and water aromas."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Ahhh right, well I'm not in school at Oxford but nursing school and working at the hospital makes me feel more like a medium fish in a fast river. Constantly swimming upstream."

He laughs at Quentin's reaction and nods, "I absolutely agree with you, I love the smell of the woods and the ocean....This whole time it feels like my nose has been stuffed full of like...a grandmother's floral perfume or something."

[quire]

"Up stream? You're a mutant. You're primed for like 20% more efficiency than human beings. You've probably got an above average IQ you know? Most telepaths do."

He sneers at some sort of flower that's pointed in his face by another passing vendor. "Yeah it's got a real aux de grandma's house vibe about it. Gives me a low key headache."

[extrasensory_problems]

"They do? Huhn well news to me, I've never had my IQ tested before but it feels pretty average."

Carter gently moves the offending flower away from their faces and nods, "Yeah same, I also keep sneezing. Want to take a walk down towards the water, get away from the over powering scents?"

[quire]

"You're not average," he says plainly. "Just by virtue of being a mutant you've already leapt the bell curve."

"Ugh yes. Sun and sand is way more my scene. That's some else these islands have had in common so far. Decent beaches. If you can stand the occasional pirate zombie."

[extrasensory_problems]

He could continue to argue with Quire on just how average he is but gets the idea it won't really result in much so instead he smiles and starts to walk towards the beach.

"Those freakin zombie pirate things were gross but not nearly as bad as the jewel skull thing on that same island. Did you see that thing?"

[quire]

Ironically, knowing when not to bother with Quentin probably speaks volumes of Carter's intelligence.

"Jewel skull? Fuck. No. I didn't see that. What was it? What did it do?" The FOMO is instant with this one.

[extrasensory_problems]

"Oh it was fuckin' awful." Carter says, running his hand through his hair. "I don't know if anyone else had an issue with it, maybe it just effected telepaths but fuck. I got near it and it was like suddenly my head was full of thousands of angry bees, just this vibrating sound that drowned out everything else."

"It pulled me in and felt like...like it was trying to bring up the worst feelings in me so it could lick it off my brain like ice cream."

[quire]

"Ah man," he groans. Strangely, it's not nearly as much sympathetic as it is sort of despondent that he missed out on this miserable experience.

"I mean don't get me wrong that sounds shitty. But also kind of my shit if you know what I mean. I'd have liked to go head-to-head with it. Fuck. Maybe I was supposed to."

[extrasensory_problems]

"You're 'kind of shit' is to deliberately bash heads with spooky things?" He raises an eyebrow, "Kind of got an antagonistic streak don't you?"

[quire]

"I like to know where I stand," he says confidently.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter snort laughs, "On what? The spooky food chain?"

"Or is this more of a testing your limits kind of thing?"

[quire]

"Por que no los dos?" he smiles too innocently to look anything but guilty. "Having the right information is the strongest tactical strategy."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter rolls his eyes as they finally step foot onto the beach, he pauses to kick off his shoes. "Tactical strategy? Pfftt okay whatever Junior Cyclops."

"I understand wanting to know your limit though, I've done that with martial arts training. You need to know how far you can push yourself so that you can compete without getting hurt, or hurting someone else."

[quire]

He stops dead and scrunches his face up in disgust. "Uh. One. I'm not talking about doing some fucking charitable super-heroing. I'm talking about getting the upper hand around here. And. Two. Rude."

"I know exactly how far I can push myself. Spoiler alert— right to the cosmic fiery end of the world. What I wanna know is, what it's going to take to crush whatever this place is waiting to throw at and us, and if I do, what kind of power I can grapple back by doing so. That's what's gonna get us out of here eventually."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter takes a few more steps onto the beach and then looks back at Quentin and sighs. "Okay I'm sorry, that was rude of me. The whole Summers family sucks so no one deserves to get called one of them."

"But as for the other stuff, why do you assume that in order to get out of here you have to gain the upper hand and crush something? Have you tried using your cosmic powers to leave already?"

[quire]

"Apology accepted. Also, I had no idea you were so anti-one-eye. We have so much in common!"

"Of course! I've tried about everything I can think of. Looking for exploits in everything it throws at us currently seems like the best way forward. We've got to gain some kind of upper hand to assume control of this situation. Whether that's by bargaining or brute force I don't really know or care, but I haven't exactly found more opportunities for the latter, you know?"

[extrasensory_problems]

"The whole Summers family can suck it." Carter says with a cynical smirk, happy that Quentin accepted his apology.

"Have you ever thought that you aren't supposed to assume control of the situation? Like maybe that's the point?" He asks after a moment, "I mean I don't like it but I've heard that there's like...semi real gods here with us on the island and they can't do anything to change it. So maybe that's an indication that we are missing the point."

[quire]

"You sound like you've been personally victimized by their myriad savior complexes."

"Supposed to according to who? Them? And why should I be interested in cooperating with whatever they've decided for me? That's not how I roll. If they wanna negotiate some kind quid pro quo for my compliance, I'll consider it. Depending on their offer. But they're fucking kidding themselves if they think I'm going to go quietly because they said so."

[extrasensory_problems]

"It sounds like we both have."

He thinks about what Quentin is saying, it makes sense to not just accept what is given to you but the fear that this...force that has them here might be a bigger and badder fish than Quentin is, well it's a lesson Carter hopes Quire doesn't have to learn. Because it might be a very hard lesson.

"Well...I mean, more power to you I guess." He says with a shrug, "I just hope you don't get hurt in the process."

[quire]

"So what'd they do to the Ghazikhanian family? Try to involve your mom in their endless polyamory drama? I wouldn't put it past them."

"It wouldn't be the first time," he admits, "And if they kill me for it then, at least maybe everyone will finally believe me about this place being a lot less altruistic than it seems."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Alex broke my mother's heart and abandoned us." He says flatly, surprised at the anger he still feels about it. "After promising to always be there for us."

His expression softens when Quentin mentions getting hurt, he can't help it. It's one of the reasons he will make a good nurse, he hates to see people get hurt. "Hey no, no one wants that to happen."

[quire]

"Oh my GOD, of course he did." Quentin seems more disappointed in his own inability to guess as much when his instincts were already so close. "I've never met a bunch of dudes who's libido was so directly tied to their messiah delusions as the Summerses. It must be hereditary." He slings his hand supportively against Carter's shoulder. "Hey. On the bright side you're not related to them. Dodged that bullet."

If that's genuine concern Quentin doesn't know what to do with it. In fact he mostly mistakes it for something like charity. "I'm not afraid of dying," he says. "I've done it before. A lot. I know it might be different here, but you can just put 'HE WAS RIGHT' on my tombstone or whatever."