The adventures of four creatures, all of whom are varying levels of alive, in a post-apocalyptic world (the Afterworld, to be precise) where humans are gone, fantasy critters are given free reign to roam around, cities are for the most part nuclear-bombed-out/irradiated craters, and where the farty noises a chicken's neck makes are a legitimate source of humor.
Vegetation/animal life is mostly still around, just none of what humans would have to cultivate. At least part of it has mutated into some of the fantasy critters mentioned earlier.
Ash covers enough of the ground to blanket anything outdoors in shades of grey. (The fact that three of the four main characters can't see anything in color doesn't hurt for giving the Grey Bouquet series its name, either.)
What Grey Bouquet is NOT about:
* a religious-themed apocalypse
* a cautionary tale, re: the environment/nuclear weapons
* struggling to survive in the wasteland
* lol it's random, that means it's funny
* lol cruelty to animals/frying ants with a magnifying glass, that's so edgy
* anything from the POV of humanity
* slick societal commentary
* military strategy or plague devastation specifics
* themes above a general 'PG' rating
Notes on our four main characters:
AMNIO
* Child of two of the Riders of the Apocalypse (War and Pestilence, now calling themselves Warren and Lindsey Horsemann). Has only the vaguest idea of why everybody in the Afterworld knows his parents-- doesn't know they gave up their old job as planetary species destroyers and took on a human-ish form, just that they made something called "humans" who used to live there go away
* Wants to be famous, like his Mom and Dad, and figures the best way to do that is to make as many friends as he can
* Doesn't need to eat or drink, though he can if he wants to. Assume his body vaporizes it when it reaches his 'core'
* Is heavily radioactive, enough to poison any organic insects/birds/mammals around him to death within days, and scald any of them he tries to hug
* Looks crusty to the touch, yet if you could ever hug him, he's actually squishy
* Glows in the dark-- specifically, his 'heart,' and the light reflections off his eyes. Otherwise, his eyes are shiny, wet-looking oily black
* Is left home alone with his zombie dog Mister Bitch most of the time. His parents, being essentially alien life forms, have never heard of "babysitting"
* Isn't cruel, but is very, VERY clueless re: empathy, or whether he's endangering others around him
* Loves exploding stuff, and has accidentally vaporized his family's last two or three homes/surrounding towns with the odd spare nuke his father Warren's been able to find. He now recognizes that Mr. Bitch and Nugget would be gone if he tries blowing up anything big again, so he holds off on doing so... begrudgingly
* Can talk to anybody and have them understand him, and he them. This means that he can understand what a headless chicken and a floating mermaid-sockpuppet are saying, among many other creatures
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And because I promised unicorns last week:
These are the three unicorns who live down the street from the Horsemann's house in the suburbs. They're the ones who taught Amnio's parents how to use their TV/DVD player. How the unicorns keep their house's appliances and outdoor hot tub running smoothly, they won't say, besides "Unicorn magic." (SPOILER: they make the tiny one run on a treadmill for their generator in the basement. That's one of the reasons Tiny Unicorn is so angry all the time.)
They're the only ones so far to outright refuse to be Amnio's friend. They won't say why.
Unicorns are kind of jerks.
