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

[helpdesk_hero]

Well, if it was anyone else he was considering attempting it against, he'd care. But it's Wade and he's complicated.

"I wish you the best."

[unkindled_madness]

"...thank you. Though, I expected you to object."

Maybe he shouldn't have, if this is a friend of (a different) Loki, but David seems... normal. Sephiroth glances toward his ScryWatch. He still doesn't buy into their meanings, but no reason not to collate data.

[helpdesk_hero]

"I'm not objecting because I'm not expecting success. And if you really want to make your time here longer, that's on you, not me."

David expected this could well negatively impact the man's Scrywatch, and he supposed it wasn't his business. As for David's, it was absolutely an unmistakable shade of yellow. At least he was relatively good, yes? He wasn't even trying to hide it.

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth's is also yellow, but if you want to call that 'relatively good'... It's true he's only discussing murder. He hasn't done it yet.

"That's assuming murder really would have an impact. Unless you've seen some evidence of that?"

[helpdesk_hero]

Well, Sephiroth IS really still relatively good, isn't he?

"I suppose you'll be someone to test it. I won't."

[unkindled_madness]

Relatively. For now. As much as he dislikes Deadpool, he probably does need more provocation.

"It is somewhat distasteful, I suppose."

[helpdesk_hero]

"That and my people have a rule. We don't kill humans."

ANd it was as simple as that for him. He was going to follow that law. If he couldn't break it for his own revenge, he wasn't going to do it lightly.

[unkindled_madness]

"Your rule only concerns humans? I thought he wasn't, anyway."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Our law only covers humans, yes," David agreed. "And Wade is something else, but still mostly human at his core."

[unkindled_madness]

Mostly... If it were anyone else, he might be more curious about what that meant, but he's satisfied labeling Deadpool as a goblin.

"And, what are you?"

[helpdesk_hero]

Well now wasn't that a question. Some people might assume that a law against killing humans would mean he's a human who was perhaps spacefaring.

David liked the conclusion the man had come to, and so he smiled.

"I'm a mutant."

[unkindled_madness]

Given Sephiroth's encounters here, the idea of non-humans is more familiar than that of space-faring humans. But, this is something new.

"As in, a mutated human?"

[helpdesk_hero]

"Exactly," David answered. "Except mutated makes us sound like something happened to us, rather than being born the way we are."

[unkindled_madness]

"I see. I have seen mutations caused in animals, but I suppose that is different from being born with them."

In humans, too, depending on how one views the SOLDIER program. As for Sephiroth himself... that's always been the question, hasn't it?

[helpdesk_hero]

"We're not animals," David says, his voice careful and bordering on concerned. "We have powers. For instance, were I to touch you, I'd know how to do things you can do. If you had some skill, like say you were a skilled mechanic, then I'd be one as well. That's how my powers work"

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth blinks at his tone, because he wasn't comparing them to animals. Although, biologically speaking... But at David's explanation of his powers, his own expression grows guarded.

"...you accumulate knowledge through touch." Not that he lets people touch him anyway, but it sounds invasive. Something to be careful of.

[helpdesk_hero]

"I do. Not that I intend to use it here. I've never liked my powers. Back home they work without touch, and it's... Invasive."

So really, Sephiroth was safe from him.

[unkindled_madness]

Sephiroth isn't reassured. As if he's going to take this man at his word after a single conversation.

"Hm. I suppose we should all be grateful that things work differently here."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Perhaps we all should be."

If things worked here like they did back home, well, he'd suffer a lot now wouldn't he?

[unkindled_madness]

"And yet you seem to take some pride in what you are."

[helpdesk_hero]

"When you spend your life being persecuted for your very biology, yes, you learn to take pride in it. It's a defense mechanism," David answered with a shrug. "Do you not take pride in your hair color? I can count on one hand the number of men in my life I've seen with hair like yours at your age. It's not common."

[unkindled_madness]

He does. It's the most obvious difference about him, but even when he was young, he never dyed it. Was it a defense mechanism to take pride in it? Maybe.

"...I suppose I can understand it, when you put it that way."

[helpdesk_hero]

Well, he's glad Sephiroth could understand it then.

"Sometimes the things that make us the most different are what we cling to the most," David answered with a shrug. "Something to prove we really are unique."

[unkindled_madness]

"Do you not have proof enough?"

David's lost him a bit with that part. What Sephiroth has never had is adequate proof to the contrary.

[helpdesk_hero]

Does he not have proof enough? Huh, an interesting thought.

"Sometimes... No. Sometimes it's not that easy. It's not how you look or what you can do. Just the feeling that you are unique enough to love yourself."