UNDYING ASPHODELS (Open to all!)

[coulee]

undying asphodels

tuesday @ burlington, vt

While non-Explorers are usually highly discouraged from entering the Riftlands without a good reason and an Explorer escort — and can even face disciplinary action for doing so! — the station has arranged a trip into Burlington for anyone who wants to see the Undying Asphodels bloom.

IRIS vehicles take participants to the edge of Burlington, where they're divided into groups led by volunteer guides Dr. Lou Sweetapple, Minty Payne, and Noah Moon. They'll have to walk on foot from there as the roads are so broken up and cut through by Asphodels' vines. Please don't wander away!

---

Undying Asphodels are tangles of black vines with vibrant flowers crawl up and wrap around the buildings and break through the pavement. In the late spring and early summer, the pollen from these flowers fills the air like mist, giving the town an ominous atmosphere and making the streets dangerous to explore. The plants are as happy to take root inside a human body as they are anywhere else. They aren't dangerous yet but they will be soon, so anyone who wants to get a gander should get it in now!

Comments

VIBE CHECK

[coulee]

VIBE CHECK - Linus Lowe

[crawlwaller]

This is the opportunity Linus has been waiting for. He also considers it an audition for Exploration, so he's determined to be on his best (not wandering off) behavior. Will he climb some things for a better view, though? Obviously yes.

VIBE CHECK: Rory

[coulee]

any excuse to putter around outside's a good one to rory!!! even though his response to "who would like to lead the groups?" was an immediate "not it." while he mostly sticks with lou's group, he does wander into others from time to time depending on their destinations.

VIBE CHECK: Dr Lou Sweetapple

[loudon]

Lou is in fine form, acting as a tour guide to anyone who'll listen to him! He'll rapidly tell you everything he knows about the Undying Asphodels (which is A Lot, possibly Too Much if you're only lightly curious). He has the uncanny ability to know what's going on in the general vicinity due to his plant empathy (ie. telling you to watch out for a vine that's about the trip you while not even looking at you), and is fuelled by the sun to the point of being kinda hyperactive. Big Dork Energy over here!

VIBE CHECK: Jack

[nolitangere]

Jack is curious about the Undying Asphodels and curious about Lou and Rory, now that he knows they're Mouse's family. He joins Lou's tour group and is uncharacteristically quiet (lol), trying to take in as much as he can. He also feels like he's already a persona non grata to Rory, and is trying to minimize the potential for friction as much as possible. He knows himself, so that means he must keep his awful mouth shut.

When Jack learns that Undying Asphodels can take root inside a human body, he does have a very horrible intrusive thought about What That Would Be Like. This also contributes to his silence today.

VIBE CHECK: Lenz

[lenzpolzin]

Having the ability to go come and go from Burlington in the blink of an eye and having lived at Enodia Station for five years, the Undying Asphodels are no longer particularly interesting to Lenz. What is interesting, though, is seeing how the uninitiated react to the spectacle and the utter devastation. So he comes along for the ride. He's trailing along behind Minty's group, smoking and observing and casually avoiding the vines that snake through the cement.

He'll also offer to take people up to the tippy top of the tallest building if they want to see one of the most unnerving city skylines out there. Tips are appreciated but not required.

VIBE CHECK: Raine Riley

[rainbowfish]

Raine doesn't go out a lot, but it's been an especially long time since he's been to Burlington thanks to the blip, so he's venturing out today. He sticks close to the group the whole time and is particularly quiet.

VIBE CHECK: Minty

[exacutus]

Because I say so, this was before Minty found out leadership results (RIP) so she's in fine form! New people are seeing her in sensible shoes for the first time ever, but returning people likely aren't surprised about how seriously she takes this. She spends as much time as possible answering questions and seems genuinely happy. Minty also 100% does give her group a pop quiz. You don't have to do it, but she'll judge you if you skip.

VIBE CHECK: Crysta

[beautyfull]

Crysta is here! She wants to see what's in the riftlands, and this is (until she can con her way on to the Explorer team, somehow, which she doesn't think is going to happen anytime soon,) the closest she'll be able to get. She actually pays attention this time, and only wanders away a little one time. Because she can feel her mood possibly teetering to morose, she instead uses opposite action and makes more jokes than appropriate about how she wishes she'd get eaten by an undying asphodel and how cute she would still be. (Very, actually)

VIBE CHECK: Rhodes

[quickpickled]

Ah. This is why Rhodes wished to come back at all. Forget everyone else. He is here and didn't really want to lead a tour group, and instead takes his time examining the flowers and compare them from last year. He has always wanted to preserve one of these flowers in their pre-bloomed state just to capture fate but he is not sure this would work and he is just 1 inch too smart to try.

VIBE CHECK: Dorin

[dorinlee]

It took Dorin a long time to decide whether or not he wanted to come out to Burlington and, now that he's here, he feels like he may've made a mistake. Being in the abandoned city, still overgrown and wrecked by the Liminal plants, it's difficult not to think about all the chaos that happened here. Many lost their homes. Some lost their lives. This broken, strangely beautiful place is what's left and it's sobering. But it's also a reminder of how important the work out at Enodia Station is. He spends the outing being quiet and introspective, though he does take a few pictures too. No matter how striking the flowers are, he's not sure he'll ever at to look at them again.

He predictably joins Noah's group and follows his friend around, earnestly listening to anything he has to say.

VIBE CHECK: Hera Vincent-Skovgaard

[burnplan]

Yeah, Hera's here too, skulking along with a baseball cap pulled over her eyes. She sorts herself into Dr. Lou's group and does have some insightful things to contribute as someone with a background in ecological studies. That said, she's not interested in socializing. When the tour lulls, she can be seen carefully taking samples, then exploring some of the abandoned buildings.

VIBE CHECK - Evan

[hulled]

Evan isn't super interested in the plants, but she is interested in the group. Scrap's in one pocket, behaving himself for once. She's followed by a persistent crow until they hit the asphodels and then it's gone. She doesn't seem super talkative, but she also doesn't appear unfriendly.

INTERACTIONS

[coulee]

Parson Takes A Selfie

[emulsify]

Parson "50% Steve Irwin, 50% Skyrim NPC on the verge of T-Posing" Starling climbs halfway up the drain pipe of a single story building to take a selfie with a cluster of blooms that have wrapped themselves around a rotting boutique mannequin like a particularly squishy Jean Paul Gaultier number.

On his way back down, he slips and falls and lands on his butt. This has nothing to do with his powers malfunctioning. :)

Rory & Lunch (Open)

[coulee]

rory pulls a wrapped meal from his pocket and nods to whichever poor soul's beside him, then again towards a sign mostly overtaken by vines. who knows what it used to say — it's been reduced to █I██A██HO█E██.

"that's my favorite," he says simply before he takes a bite of his sandwich, which looks 0% like a sandwich and 100% like a hunk of coffee cake.

Lou & Undying Asphodels (& open)

[loudon]

At some lull in his tour, when everyone is mostly talking to each other or doing their own thing, Lou decides to get a closer look at the Undying Asphodels to see if his powers have gotten any better at dealing with them. They have not (he can move a single vine or flower, but not much else) and empathy-wise, the Vibes Are Off, and the more he interacts with them, the more unsettled he becomes.

He is so focused that he startles when someone approaches him. He shakes his head to snap out of it, then tries to act like he isn't weirded out by these plants.

"Beautiful, aren't they? I don't think they're too fond of us, but they're... " He wrinkles his nose at them. " ...neat."

Jack & Lou

[nolitangere]

Jack is just looking at some flowers a little ways off from the group while they break for lunch. On an academic level, he is interested in the science behind how Undying Asphodels can survive (thrive?) in a human host. Has this been studied before? Should it be studied? Should he be the one to study this interaction? He tries justifying his interest to himself—he's a doctor, so of course he needs to know how it works if he ever wants to effectively treat someone with an Undying Asphodel infection.

He's been standing looking at the Asphodels for quite a bit. He neglected to pack a lunch and he's still trying to keep his mouth shut, so standing and staring is really all he can do until the tour resumes.

Vidalia & Rye

[mxpotatohead]

"Be... jeys?" Vidalia rubs her chin with the barely-formed beginnings of a new left hand and peers into the remains of what was once a storefront. There are vines wrapped around the chairs just inside and knocking at the window, and that just seems so exciting. "Wait, there's an amper—ampa—amprasand there. Be and jeys? Beaned jeys??"

Hm. An intriguing prospect, these beaned jeys. Better get a closer look. "We need to get inside."

Rhodes and some undying questions (open)

[quickpickled]

This is one of the great mysteries of their new universe, these terribly beautiful plants. Rhodes, not particularly interested in oohing and aahing what he'd seen before with everyone else, goes to run his hand near but not on one, preventing himself just barely from seeing if he could rot an undying asphodel. This was not the controlled environment for such a thing. When he hears someone behind him, he blinks up as though they could perhaps read what he was just thinking. "...Don't you ever wonder what they taste like?" He asks, to cover. And because it's a legitimate thought.

Deep Thoughts with Linus & OPEN

[crawlwaller]

By the end of the trip, Linus's buoyant energy has waned. He's sitting on top of an abandoned vehicle, staring down what was once a street and studying the mosaic of cracked cement and vines and flowers. He's unusually still. "It's different," he says, to himself as much as to anyone near him, "Than I thought it would be. Like I knew it would be more ..." he waves vaguely out. "But it's ... In person. It's different."

OOC CHATTER

[coulee]

this is a low-key spot for anyone who'd like to mess around and thread in the riftlands ahead of thursday's plot event. canon is kasey-approved! and half kasey-written.

claim volunteer spots here bc i don't feel like making more headers.

Re: OOC CHATTER

[loudon]

Lou for one of the returning explorers pls?

Re: OOC CHATTER

[exacutus]

minty for a returning explorer svp!

Re: OOC CHATTER

[emulsify]

THANK YOU FOR PUTTING THIS TOGETHER KAS


my characters are just cryptids until i get my shit together