JUNE EVENT: CAMP

[sailmods]

early on June 10th, Friday's morning announcements end with a request for everyone going on the latest excursion to meet her in the atrium. she seems in noticeably better spirits than she had been last time, and she leads them cheerfully to the tender. once they are all aboard, and the door is securely shut, the interior fills with gas, and, perhaps, their last thought before they slip into unconsciousness is "oh shit, not again."

passengers wake up on a rickety old school bus, driving down a dirt road surrounded by woods. what is it that they notice first? that, no matter what they were wearing before, they are now wearing a camp t-shirt and legitimately horrifyingly short shorts? the overstuffed backpack between their knees? the words "take one down and pass it around" dying on their lips? the fact that Friday is absolutely driving the bus?

or, maybe the fact that it's already slowing down, pulling up in front of a massive wooden sign, saying:

 

 

 

 

 

CAMP AION

when they get out of the bus, Friday is the one to divide them up into their cabin groups, and she is the one to give the counselors their very official-looking clipboards and whistles. she explains that they are in charge, and that she will be back to pick them up in a week, and... very little else. she responds to nothing outside of whatever is on her unseen little script, and she gets back on the bus shortly after, leaving them there.

welcome to camp. let's make some summer memories!

Comments

[touchofcashmere]

"I mean... you can punch people..." He thinks. "What if there was a sort of...club for fighting. Not beating the tar out each other but learning from each other, that kind of thing. Getting out all that rage and aggression. I think you'd make a pretty good mentor for that." And he might be able to learn a thing or two.

"Or we could learn how to make soap. I heard it's a very soothing process."

[saltwaterlungs]

[ Darcy forces herself to turn around, hoping that actually glaring him down would get Rich to drop it. ]

Then stop it. Leave me alone, and fuck off. I don't need your fucking help.

[ The effect is probably diminished by the fact she sounds miserable instead of angry, her voice wobbling from a kind of pain she hadn't felt since before she died. She can't even really glare properly, not like this, when she's having to stop herself from tearing up. ]

[opheliac]

Yeah, it's been pretty great! I've forgotten how nice havin' friends are.

(she glances down to fio then gives her a very gentle bump of her shoulder with her own.)

It's getting pretty late, y'know. You gettin' tired at all?

[wimdy]

No, I feel that I’d like to try to swim more. [ … to get a little closer to mizuki, but. hmm, maybe that should seem obvious enough?? also oddly enough he feels a little embarrassed he’s kind of bad at it! however the challenge certainly captures his attention, he nearly perks like a bird catching sight of something shiny. ]

Oh you wonder? You do know I was borne of the wind. [ or well, maybe he didn’t say as much but he was a tiny little elemental fairy, he was windborne. ] If you might want to race me… hm! Maybe it’s handy that the barrier may make the lake and the sky so neverending. [ though, of course, it’s frustrating that there’s no exit. ] I would very well accept a race.

What should a prize be for the winner?

[skaikru]

( the fact that something like him is something she has to deal with now... is really actually quite par for the course. a little over a year ago, clarke griffin would have very confidently regurgitated ancient facts about earth like she knew what she was talking about, but the second the 100 had touched down nothing had been like they'd expected. other survivors of the apocalypse, two headed horses and two faced deer; river monsters and murderous artificial intelligences; death waves and acid rain, augmented blood, cults and microchips containing the consciousness of generations of rulers before their time...

would it have really shocked her to learn of something like mizuki in her world? he looks human enough that he could just be another grounder, mutated to be seafaring but — there's no gods in her world so far as she's aware. nothing sleeping at the bottom of the ocean, no one trying to kill it, no one unbreakably bound to it...

if mizuki won't cross the boundary of physical contact here, clarke will. curls her fingers around his and drags his hand back to rest on her knee with a gentle, encouraging squeeze. )

I appreciate you telling me. And even if I don't necessarily understand the weight what you're telling me would have in your homeworld, I understand what monsters are. You're not one, Mizuki, so please don't talk about yourself as if you were.

[opheliac]

Super cool!!

(she totally got it and she will get along with it. jinx wiggles her arm and even brushes her fingertips along the skin.)

Gotta hand it to ya, One-Eye. You're pretty useful. — Maybe you can make this heat a lil' more bearable around here.

[baubled]

It's not like any resort I've ever been to. [ she sounds a little disappointed, a little wistful. wouldn't it have been a nice surprise if they showed up to a resort?? ] Unless they're hiding the spa somewhere.

[ another far more important consideration: ] Do you think they'll have coffee? I was on a military base and there wasn't a drop of coffee to be found.

[ and who knows, with a place like this? ]

[broshaw]

"Oh, like, all sorts of shit! I'm into like, doin' it in public, doin' it in nature, hand stuff, foot stuff, I got a fursuit back home that's, uhhh --" Mmmmaybe that's too much though. For her, not for him. "The point is, like, people are totally fuckin' weird and that's a good thing!"

But like, again, she is totally a newbie and is clearly doing the whole going-steady thing first, so he'll reel it back. Just a touch. "I mean, you are hot, but you're also pretty cool. Super rebellious, got that whole 'fuck authority' vibe that's like, totally sexy. Fuck yeah he likes you! Totally makes sense to me."

Shrug! What, is he supposed to not tell people the truth? Like some kind of liar or something?

[decohere]

"Yeah, he's clearly not all that devil in the detail-oriented. I think he's more one of those bigger picture book thinkers," Ava giggles. "What would you have done differently, then?"

[touchofcashmere]

"That would explain it." He smiles back, though it digs a little bit. It's true though. If he wasn't- and couldn't afford the ship and have a library and a lifestyle that impressed Ed, well, they wouldn't be here would they? But he does and did so what is there to feel uncomfortable about? He should be grateful. And he is.

So it doesn't matter and he just takes in Ed's little smile and resists the urge to touch his face or pull him down for another kiss. A kiss would be nice right now though. Or anything distracting.


"Oh, look, there's a new song..." It seems like a bit of a slow one. "I'm still not sure how they fit all that music in one box, not even a single musician to be found. It's amazing what they can do these days."

[baubled]

[ Effie beams, happy to have made a new friend - one who can teach her some useful skills! ] Thank you. You're very kind.

[ she extends her hand for him to shake. ] I'm Effie. What's your name?

[more_magic]

"I'm Darlington," he says, leading Maeve towards an open spot on the dance floor. The name sounds a little too formal for their surroundings, perhaps too precious given the Care to dance, darling? she'd greeted him with, but it's his in a way that Daniel Tabor Arlington V didn't quite measure up to. "It's good to meet you, Maeve. Have you been on the ship long?"

The question is easy, practiced and polite, even if nothing about their captivity on the Serena Eterna sits well with him at all. But if they were all trapped, they were all trapped together; learning more about one another was the easiest way of getting through the experience. And, possibly, finding a way out of it.

[more_magic]

[It takes work for Darlington to hide his surprise at getting an actual answer, or at least closer to one than he'd planned on receiving. He doesn't trust it, any more than he trusts most of the illusions on the ship, or the ship itself, but it's something. After a moment, he shrugs.]

Call it idle curiosity.

[Call it testing a theory, more like. He's aware that the rules of his world may not govern this one, but interest still lights in his eyes, everything he'd ever read or learned or theorized about demons--even the bitter reminder of that last conversation with Alex--crowding to the forefront of his thoughts before he pushes it back.

God, if only there was Perdition Water at hand. At this point, he'd even settle for one of the salt shakers from the mess hall, but he doubts the captain will stay amenable long enough for him to run back and grab one.]

[more_magic]

"Nothing in that direction," he admits, looking back towards the woods from whence he'd come. "So much for that particular horror trope."

Malcolm's skepticism is as clear as his curiosity, and Darlington can't fault him for either. Whether magic was wholly unknown in his world or merely a secret held by a select few, it didn't entirely matter; he at least doesn't reject the premise completely. "Grave dirt can be used for warding," he explains. "Protective spells. If I scatter it around a cabin, or even mark the lintels and windowsills, I can limit the amount of magical interference that might affect anyone inside."

It's all true, but it also assumes that the rules of this place corresponded with the ones he's followed since joining Lethe. He wishes he could be more certain. "I can try, at least," he amends. "Which is better than nothing."

[more_magic]

"It's probably supposed to be a lot of things," Darlington quips, digging his thumbs into the center of the--still lopsided, but so be it--clay spinning on the wheel in front of him. Slowly, he opens it out again, guiding the walls into what feels like a more or less even thickness. "Relaxing. Fun. Unlikely to make you leave wearing twice as much clay as you put on the wheel."

Hearing the tone of his voice slide back into bitterness, Darlington shakes his head, glad when Max asks a practical question. "You cut the base with wire," he says, reaching over with his free hand to snag the tangle of wire and wood resting with the other tools. "And hope you haven't judged the height wrong and sliced a hole in the bottom of whatever you've made."

He hasn't gotten to that point yet, and he may never, but he's grimly prepared for the inevitability.

[more_magic]

He grins as Fio sinks into the music, tapping her foot and bobbing her head in time, her smile as brightly delighted as he hadn't known he was hoping for. When he finishes, and she claps, Darlington shifts the guitar to one side to bow a little. "Thank you," he says, gracious if amused. "I'm glad you liked it."

[more_magic]

It isn't a joke, and he knows it, but Stede hitting with such dismay on the right answer makes him laugh, if briefly. "My apologies, Captain," he says, "but that's exactly what happened. A declaration of independence, a revolution, colonies no longer colonies but individual states. Whether that was a good thing depends on your perspective."

He pauses, considering the vast span of history since then. "Or your level of cynicism, maybe."

[iattractmushi]

He nods, all understanding and sympathy. Blood, no matter the source, is often a difficult thing to deal with, even without the apparent potential for random killers.

"Not exactly--but you learn a lot of things, in my line of work. Certain herbs, soaked in hot water, make a lovely tea that reportedly helps to ease the pain and other issues of a woman's monthlies. It helps with other things, like certain kinds of joint pain." He smiles at her, trying to be reassuring. "Even if it doesn't help you very much, it won't do you any harm to drink it, either."

[decohere]

That's a lot of information to take in at once, just let her process that for a moment. Hand stuff sounds fairly normal, she's sure hands are meant to be involved. Foot stuff doesn't seem all that far off either. But. "In public? Where anyone could just- aren't you hairy enough already?" Bless her she doesn't know what furries are.

And he's calling her cool so she's pretty sure Sharky just tends to have overly positive opinions and that's okay, just more a reflection of him and his willingness to make out with anyone.

"And he works... worked for the authorities," which really isn't as offputting as it normally would be for her. "Stopping serial killers and all, not just some speeding ticket asshole. So I figure he's dealt with a whole lot worse, right?"

[fonomena]

[And so Jade earns the dubious honor of managing to snap Skulduggery out of the worst of his wardrobe-induced funk, entirely by extremely awkward and embarrassing accident...!

But, yeah, anyway.]

Testing things in rather more random directions, I take it. Not a bad idea either; I debated on doing some aimless wandering myself, but figured I may as well start in something of a straight line first. Perhaps we ought to compare notes!

[And so Jade will be starting to move back into the trees proper, if Skulduggery is amenable to following. From here his earlier paper trail isn't too far, at least; the bright unnatural colors of the torn pieces of construction paper do well in standing out against the ground.]

When you say 'midpoint', I assume you mean the boundary at which the loop is applied and distance becomes warped? ...I'm calling it a loop, at any rate. It's a different take on the seemingly endless nature of the clothing shop, but I do feel the methodology is likely to be very similar all the same...simply in a tweaked structure of setup, here and now...

[saltandpepperbeard]

"Yeah. Don't even have discs this time." Effie had attempted to explain at the first party, but Ed's not sure it really sank in. Somehow the discs had the songs, but they don't have anyone changing out the discs this time. How the hell does it work?

Oh look, is that observation a hint, Captain Bonnet?

He raises their joined hands and turns Stede's palm to where Ed can study it. On the open hand, Ed draws his mark, an X, with his finger. It's probably the least permanent form of his mark he's ever left on anyone's skin, but Ed can almost feel an echo of the touch on his own hand.

"Looks like that's my mark on your dance card," he says, showing Stede the man's own empty palm and then gesturing to the dance floor.

[skaikru]

( a minute or two back, in the middle of the heat of their argument, clarke stomped onto the bus fresh off the heels of her own confrontation with the captain. it'd ended in significantly less bloodshed — who tries to hug an eldritch horror wannabe-god? oh, darcy. darcy does. — but still leaves her in a cloud of conflicting, violent, angry, confused thoughts; admittedly a little deaf to the entire world around her as the swell of ideas buzzes in her ears like furious hornets, sliding gracelessly into the seat directly in front of darcy and rich without even acknowledging them.

but gnashing her teeth and fuming can't block out the repeated sentiments of fuck off and the scramble at her back. she doesn't mean to eavesdrop, but darcy might as well be snarling directly in her ear and the self restraint clarke had employed with the captain snaps. she's twisting in her own rickety bus seat, up on both knees and folding her arms across the worn faux-leather covering of the headrest. )

You don't want his help. That's different than not needing it, so shut up for a second, take a breath, and let him go get you a bandaid.

( or watson, whatever you want to call the man. )

[decohere]

"What line of work is that?" Ava asks, realizing she doesn't know all that much about her cabin mates. Even Steven, who is from her own world, she barely knows at all.

"I do like tea," she admits with a small smile, it's an easy and familiar enough topic to latch onto. "Especially chamomile. And mint. It's all I really have of my long lost British heritage. But I've gone through a... good number of pain remedies over the years. Not for this, but. It's hard to find something that works well."

[opheliac]

(ugh, she really can't stand how slippery he can be. and sadly, she'll just stand there defeated by now with her hands on her hips -- eyes squinting at his direction -- a sort a "i'll get you next time" type of way.)

If I wanted to shoot ya in the face, I would had done it.

(jinx thumbs over her shoulder to indicate her lack of "Pow-Pow" on her because, like ekko, also on the ship.)

'Sides, are ya sure you wanna bring outsiders into this? It's sort of a... "Zaun" thing.

[saltwaterlungs]

[ She's preparing for another round of vitriol to try and ward Rich off when she realizes Clarke is sitting in front of them, and is hearing her attempts to preserve whatever dignity she has left. It very clearly isn't working, and even less so as Clarke tells her to just shut up and deal with the problem. She hisses through her teeth, forcing herself to finally take a breath. It's just pain. It can only swallow her if she lets it. ]

Fine. Get Watson.