August Aftermath: Plants Solidify Sunshine

[lifeaftr_mods]

AUGUST AFTERMATH: OVERGROWTH

Who: Everyone
What: You're back, for better or worse
When: August 19th and onward
Where: The Storyteller's Temple on Ensō, and anywhere else
Warnings: Please mark as you go!

Optimism Doesn't Change the Facts

By the end of the 17th, the last of those suffering from the Overgrowth have either pulled through or succumbed entirely. For the next two days, their bodies will decompose and the flowers will feed on their remains, flourishing into bright patches of color.

If you perished and choked on your flowery words, never fear. Come the 19th, you will be stirring awake in the Storyteller's Temple. You will be experiencing a few...side effects, as it happens, while your body readjusts. It will take something like a week for those symptoms to disperse, though the Storyteller isn't around to inform you of this.

What is around? Aside from your own freshly revived selves, there are a great deal of flowers, and all of them are sickeningly familiar. Scarlet gladiolus. Blushing dog rose. Soft yellow buttercups. Garnet-colored geraniums. Dark nodules of fly orchids. Rich violets. Periwinkle hydrangeas. Peppered yellow speckles of goldenrod. Jade green zinnias. Red spears of snapdragons. Pale begonias. Pink spangles of mountain laurel. The very flowers that killed you are now growing all over the Temple, inside and out, in rich abundance, cloying the air with their perfumed fragrance.

Don't be concerned. These ones certainly aren't going to be spreading to your flesh anytime soon.

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If your character died during this event, please let us know if you have not already. Death penalties have been reduced for this event, but we still need to account for them!

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Comments

[thermalwind]

[Ember the phoenix sails in and settles on his armored shoulder. One wing is extended over his back like a cloak. He reaches up to stroke Ember's neck. He glances around at the flowers with a raised eyebrow.]

...I think there should be some of the lanterns around. I'll rig up lights so we're not having to create a fire.

[He reaches into his pack and produces his well worn lantern, setting it down on the bare floor.]

Do the flowers grow back?

[prettypurpleparlor]

Thank you, dearie.

[Her polite gratitude seems to be directed equally at Keith and the firebird. It never hurts to stay on the good side of someone who can immolate things on command.]

Unfortunately, they do- some faster than others, for whatever reason. I cleared this area as thoroughly as I could precisely because it seemed to have most of the slow-growing ones, so we should have some time yet before I need to deal with that again.

[thermalwind]

I'll deal with it. [He touches the knife hilt sticking out against his back. Destroying flowers will cure all that ails him. For a time.]

...they don't carry the sickness, do they? [He'd have to be very careful how he cleared the flowers out if that is the case.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

Not that I've been able to tell. Hector suggested that this was more in the way of a curse than any true illness, and I'm inclined to agree- quite a few of us simply shouldn't be able to catch a sickness at all, given our biology or lack thereof.

[She gives the flowers a disapproving look, as though daring them to comment. She'll fistfight a plant for disagreeing with her, she doesn't care, it's been that kind of week.]

No one seemed to be affected at all until the newcomers arrived, and we freed them from that underground area, so at the very least we can say that all the flowers left behind on Umui's surface didn't seem to infect us.

[thermalwind]

Arum-25 said we freed the pathogen. ...and some of us burned some of those flowers. I think...we sort of released a lot of strands into the air. [But that's a good observation. He rises to his feet and draws his knife. In a wash of purple light it shapes into a sword. He swings it to the side away from everyone once to warm up his wrist.]

...I've been thinking about why we might have caught it. We all have emotions. The caretakers...didn't until a certain point. It would explain why they didn't get sick at first.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She grimaces, remembering her own role in breaking open the bunker. She does blame herself for her part in that, a bit, but she also knows that they did what seemed most reasonable with the information they had at the time, and dwelling on it instead of trying to do better isn't helpful.]

It seems quite likely, yes. If I recall correctly, it was mentioned that animals were usually the last to succumb, long after any people living in the area- the emotional aspect of the flowers would explain that, too. Whatever emotions they had would be far weaker and less-developed.

[thermalwind]

And once it hit them...there would be cure for them. They can’t confess to emotional dishonesty. Or however they put it.

[He moves to the edge of the circle and sweeps his sword in a smooth motion. Flowers fall like wheat during a harvest.]

Seems like a mix of a curse and a sickness at the same time. It formed specific patterns in some people. [He swipes his fingers over the skin above his nose.]

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She nods grimly.]

Magic and malady bound together into one... truly horrible package. How deeply unpleasant.

[thermalwind]

[He makes a face at that. Magic and curses...he sighs.]

We need to figure out exactly how magic works here. If we know the rules we could possibly find counters. Or at least some kind of shield.

[prettypurpleparlor]

It would help a great deal, yes. I suspect... that it starts with the gods. It might be difficult to define the differences between their own powers and any unrelated magic of this world- if there is such a thing. They seem integral to the way the place functions.

[thermalwind]

If we operate they're the source of all magic in this world...who is bringing us here? It isn't Storyteller. So which one out there is pulling us in?

I know we can't answer that yet. But, laying out a framework of ideas to see if they fit with what we know. We can.

[prettypurpleparlor]

[She nods grimly.]

Another god would seem most likely- but then how would they be doing so undetected? Surely the Storyteller would be having less trouble finding the one responsible if they were already familiar with this power...