text ❁ keep out of reach of children is an understatement

[roseblooms]

A few brief orders of business:

In the first: a package I retreived from the mailbox recently has afforded me a package of seeds with unusually helpful properties, given the current state of perpetual darkness we've found ourselves in. I've performed a handful of experiments with them and, as best I can tell, they're perfectly normal and harmless plants not unlike dandelions, with the one unusual property that the blossoms are luminescent — while in bloom, they glow.

Mass-producing them shouldn't be altogether difficult for me at my current state of...ability, so for anyone who would find it helpful to have one or several of these as an alternative light source, please let me know. Potting them seems as though it would be the easiest method of transfer, though I suppose if you really had your heart set on my weaving them into a glowing flower crown or somesuch, I could see about obliging.

In the second: in somewhat more alarming news, I also received a secondary package from Retrospec, which I'd like to have examined by...well, someone with some expertise in artifacts of an unusual nature. This request is slightly more...complicated, as I'm not really certain how to explain what it is I'm looking for, other than that if you happen to possess some means of perceiving when a potentially cursed object is actively working its curse, please let me know. I think it's rather imperative that I find out, as quickly as possible, whether this particular object is...operational, or not.

In the third: has anyone felt particularly restless lately, on account of the perpetual darkness or otherwise? I suppose it might just be me, but one never knows with matters including Retrospec, so I thought it prudent to ask.

In the fourth: I'm twenty-four now. Not that that's really an order of any sort of business, of course, but I thought it at least worthy of a footnote.

Comments

[thesettingsun]

Happy birthday, I'm getting you a gift immediately.

I'm a spirit(?) now, but I don't know if I have any particular curse-sensing abilities. If your artifact is a book, I might be able to be helpful.

[roseblooms]

It's a few weeks belated, I'm afraid. My birthday was the 29th of December, so I've been twenty-four for a few weeks now already.

And no, it's not a book, unfortunately. It's an...orb? It's an orb, of sorts.

[thesettingsun]

Doesn't matter, still getting you a birthday present.

I don't think I can go inside orbs, magical or otherwise. Sorry.

[roseblooms]

I would not recommend going inside this orb.

Under any circumstances.

WHATSOEVER.

[thesettingsun]

Okay okay, I won't.

It's that bad of a curse?

[compendiem]

Do the plants require special care, or can the seeds be sown around the city like wildflowers?

[roseblooms]

I suppose it might take me some time to amass a great enough number of seeds, but in theory it could be done. I'm not sure how well or how poorly they might grow on their own in the wild, particularly in winter, but the worst that might happen is they die out — and so long as I keep one, I can always make more.

[roseblooms]

It is absolutely that bad of a curse.

[thesettingsun]

Do you know anything about what it does? It might be good to look for people who can deal with specific effects if you can't do anything about curses in general.

[roseblooms]

Well...yes, that's sort of the problem. I know what it does, when active, but knowing what it does is precisely why I can't in good conscience test it to see if it's active.

[thesettingsun]

What does it do?

[Let's stop dancing around the subject.]

[roseblooms]

It separates people's souls from their bodies and preserves them inside it.

[thesettingsun]

Oh.

Really don't go inside it. Got it.

[compendiem]

Right... It takes months for plants to bloom, mature, and put out seed. Hopefully the dome would be removed by the time spring comes.

I'd be interested in a small flower pot of them, though. How much would it be?

[roseblooms]

Well, I could easily accelerate their growth to have them ready in an instant — that's within my capacity to do. But if they don't take to the environment on their own, I'd have to artificially sustain them, and I'm not sure how long I could manage that for.

...Oh. I hadn't really thought of selling them, given the circumstances, but — oh, I don't know. Ten dollars?

[roseblooms]

I would very much not recommend it.

And now you see why I'm not altogether inclined to work it out through trial and error.

[compendiem]

That makes sense... Are they similar to the glowing blue flowers in the woods? Maybe similar soil properties would help, despite the cold.

Okay.

[thesettingsun]

I understand, I'm sorry. If we're lucky, somebody who already knows what to do about curses will be able to look at it.

[crudest]

remember how many roses i gave you
can i get the same number of glow plants
just wondering!

also what's the curse!!

also also i'm always restless

also also also belated hap bap did you get your free drinks at the inkwell

[alitaba]

if you eat them, will you glow?

i might be able to help?? i don't remember if it works on inanimate objects but yolo i guess

are you trying to say you're a reverse werewolf

so how does it feel being an old man

[reaquila]

-Wow, you're getting old. Isn't 24 the age where people turn into real adults?

Next thing you know you'll be due for retirement.

- Yeah, I've been restless lately without really knowing why. It's not just you.

[smothershadow]

Such a flower would be of use to me, yes. Do they grow as easily as dandelions?

I'm afraid I cannot assist you with possibly cursed objects.

But this darkness has made me suspicious, yes.

[roseblooms]

Well, hope springs eternal. And in the event that I can't figure it out, I'm simply going to try to keep it away from everyone, for the duration.

[roseblooms]

I don't know that I've seen the ones in the woods, actually. Would it be altogether difficult to bring me one, so that I can have a look?

[roseblooms]

I don't see why not, but just as Rome wasn't built in a day, three hundred glow plants aren't just going to spontaneously grow in a day, either. It'll take me a bit to separate and seed them all out, to say nothing of where I'm going to put all of them.

Also the curse involves the stealing of souls from unsuspecting victims.

Also also I know you are.

Also also also I did not, actually, I was a bit preoccupied with other things to do much of anything on my birthday.