come_sailaway | JUNE EVENT: CAMP

JUNE EVENT: CAMP

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!

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[Alas the potential...is always there for her to announce it to any unfortunate listeners...(Rita why are you like this).

Ugh...she can already start to see the headache this guy's going to be... He has to be all responsible and bossy, huh... She's still annoyed, but she reduces her volume to less ear-splitting levels...]

And you're taking all that stuff seriously? Who cares about whatever duties they assigned you?

Marc isn't going to shamelessly grope him -- give him a little credit, c'mon.

Besides, he's making a little bit of a face at that suggested food. That's too British, buddy, but at least one thing a camp would have in abundance is probably beans and bread, so... might be doable. But also just-- a salad, which is less offensively British.

"Bet you can't wait until we get back to the ship, huh? You seemed pretty impressed with that buffet..." And well, everywhere else they ate too.

[He knows it's Clarke long before her head pops up, but like a true friend, he makes no move to help her over the edge. She'll get there. He does, however, moves the flamethrower to make room for her.]

Hm. It's fine, I guess.

[He chose the edge facing the lake, because Sotoba didn't have a lake. "Summer camp" is just a different flavor of prison than "cruise ship", but Natsuno still hates that it reminds him of the village - a settlement in the middle of nowhere, where unknown horrors may be lurking in the surrounding woods and people are one trigger away from tearing each other apart.]

What's up?

[It's obviously not an emergency, so Natsuno isn't concerned, but... well, people don't just climb on roofs at night when everything's okay.]

(jinx is doing her absolute best to not like at rin but it's pretty hard not to with what he is wearing. sure, she's wearing short shorts too but she has the hips and the ass to pull it off. and as for rin? well. uh. he is looking rather weird with it on but in a funny way.

although his mechanical parts are intriguing to gaze on. there's a part of her that wishes she can examine more but she won't. after all, she learned the very hard way and now is very respectful of him.)

You don't gotta tell me twice...!!

(she says this very loud and chipper while bouncing along on the bed with an humongous grin.)

Edited 2022-06-12 17:48 (UTC)

He wants to point out that Steven's always-- lived life without even knowing Marc was around until recently, but he doesn't. No reason to upset the guy even more. "I don't want to either, alright? Couldn't keep me away."

Not if there's an option at least.

"Now, c'mon. Try to relax and enjoy your camping trip. I doubt he'd make us kill each other twice, alright?"

So that means-- lake monster? some guy in a hockey mask? Who knows. "Just keep an eye out."

(deep breaths, right. she can do that...right? jinx nervously thins her lips but she resumes her attention on him and not the rushing thoughts flowing through her mind. breathing out and breathing in, she slowly shuts her eyes as she allows him to lower her backwards into the waters. and it's there silco comes to her again -- his whispers of encouragement and overlapping with "you're strong now/you're perfect".

with his words ringing in her ears and ayato's hold combining together, jinx is finally able to just... let everything go; muscles no longer tensing and any anxiety that was rustling in her bones now fading off somewhere unknown. her breathing begins to come easy and natural -- with no sign or sound of jenny, either. it's just him, her, and the lake with nothing else. it's been a long time coming but now jinx feels in peace again with the water and also feeling her former self washing away through her hair.

the loneliness, heartache, sadness, and pain she felt months back fading off into nothingness. and instead what comes to her are ekko, vi, and fio -- her new family/love ones and alex, lumine, rin, watson, and so few others that now became friends old and new. with this, maybe now she can finally start anew and walk on a different path.)

( fully scrambling onto the roof is only precarious for those precious few heartbeats when her torso is flattened to the shingles but she hasn't managed to get a knee up over the gutter. but sheer force of will and the deeply burning desire not to fall squarely on her ass see her through in the end, and clarke crawls on hands and knees to take over the flamethrowers spot at his side. )

Can't I just come say hi?

( at... 2 in the morning. )

Edited 2022-06-12 17:53 (UTC)

"It's not-- whining." Okay, maybe a little, but Marc doesn't know how to say the man has never actually been alone a day in his life without Marc there to keep him safe and it's stressing him out. It's stressing Marc out too. But talking about how you wish you were back inside your twin is probably not kosher.

But not quite meant in the way most would take it either.

He huffs out a sigh, eyes narrowing slightly. "Fine, but-- it's gotta stay between us."

Can he trust her to do that? Marc isn't one to trust most, so... he's not sure. Either way, it's a fair bet, he supposes.

That'll be pretty sweet if we could!! — Buuuut we'll end up eatin' each other since there's nothin' to hunt.

(a pause for a moment then a teasing grin when she glimpse back over to him.)

And I can't let anyone eat my prey, you're off limits. I call dibs on missin' with ya 'till the very end.

Palamedes slowly looks over his shoulder, half expecting to see some eldritch monster or other new horror lurking in the shadows of the cabin. But the only other thing inside is the unassuming skeleton construct. Having finished its sweeping, it now stands in the middle of the floor unmoving. Somehow, this manages to be even creepier.

Again, he blinks at Natsuno. "...I made it?" Obviously.

Huuuuh... — "Aloe vera"? Gotcha. Guess I'll give that a try before I turn into a crab or somethin'. Thanks for the tip, Dwarf! As an exchanged if ya need a hand on somethin', just ask for Jinx!

(a big grin as she extend out her hand to her for them to shake on it.)

[He's right - Natsuno will not be convinced to leave the risks to adults. First, because he doesn't trust most of them and second, the trustworthy still died before him. Ingo gets some points for leaving him to his own devices...

...only to lose them two seconds later when he asks about supplies. Natsuno is carrying the weapons, the same backpack everyone got and nothing else.]

...of course. I'll be fine.

[The fact he's nigh-unkillable isn't exactly secret anymore, but he's not about to mention it to newcomers just like that.]

"Miss Ava?" He's guessing it's her that did this, considering she's the only non-boy in their group. He knocks on the door a few times.

"Miss Ava? Are you in there?" He tries to peek in through the window but there's only the bedframes barring their entry. He knocks again a few times, this time against the window.

"Will you talk to me? Is something the matter?" It's Steven, bear negotiator. Of course he wants to talk.

Absolutely nothing.

[He sighs, actually moving for the first time. Turns out he's not a statue as he turns to the nearest shrub and plucks a leaf from it.]

Though I don't think the trees are real. They seem the wrong density, and not quite alive.

“Obviously I’m the one responsible.” Palamedes winces as the girls yells, and takes off his glasses to clean off the dust that has collected on them. He isn’t even going to touch the I thought you didn’t do actual necromancy thing, which is honestly a little bit insulting. To echo what he had once told Jade Curtiss, just because he doesn’t resurrect five corpses before breakfast every morning doesn’t make him less of a necromancer thankyouverymuch.

He returns his glasses to his face and goes to inspect the hole in the wall. “It is—was—a skeleton construct. Perfectly harmless, and capable of undertaking only a limited set of tasks. Meanwhile, your thermal explosion could have set the whole cabin on fire.”

"No. I'm very much not." But he doesn't elaborate on that, pulling another yellow sun out of the box and going to sit down across from Murderbot.

"To both of those." He sets down his two little foam suns on top of each other with the pointy triangles of the edges interspersed. "I've spent nearly thirty hours in the woods."

Attempting to become a tree.

[There are surely little telling things in the way Murderbot settles nearby--on the ground, posture curling--paired alongside the morose sort of response aloud. The mood emanating from its person about now runs rather parallel to the mood that had just tried to settle in Jade's own chest about fifteen seconds ago, and so it's perhaps rather unsurprising to find a vague sense of camaraderie promptly filling the space between them.

Still more glad for the distraction than he has any right to be, Jade turns his attention fully in Murderbot's direction, and wonders if perhaps the latter could use a bit of a distraction too.]

Ah, I suppose that does make more sense, in your sort of case. [...The metal parts over there surely do flicker rather clearly with reflected firelight, from here...] Though it does seem to me that perhaps you're having difficulty with recharging, too. ...Or is the frequency needed rather different, for you, than the amount for most humans?

"Wait, when did he say that?" Someone avoided the information meeting and instead skulked about glaring at the Tommy Bahama which was a far better use of his time. "That's the goal?"

That explains Ebalon being here. And Venti too. But doesn't really account for the average normal people or himself.

"Practicing only works if he gets better at it. This forest is the same as the island. Different types of trees but the same complete silence and lack of any 'realness' to it. And he has certainly not asked me for my critique of the experience."

Though maybe that's what the dinner would have been if he didn't take a crab cracker to the head. Summoned another Friday to take notes as he inquired how the trees were.

"Can you simply.. magic it away? Cause this to cease to be?" Sure that would probably put them in some white void of blank reality but, it would sort of be a win right?

Ah yes. Food. I hadn't considered that, is breakfast still being provided here? By the same invisible forces as the ship?

[He'll feel a little better if he knows that the ghosts on the ship also got stuck out here camping. Wearing ghost booty shorts.]

For once in his life, Rich isn't out here to be rebellious. He's a camp counselor now! Got a fancy whistle and everything! It wouldn't do for him to turn to mischief and debauchery! Particularly when he's still wondering if this lake has anything to do with the one in a famous horror movie franchise.

So instead, he's actually out here for an important reason. Someone has to keep the rest of the campers safe. And Watson told him his knowledge here was being rewarded. Maybe he'll be able to survive a first encounter with a hockey mask adorned serial killer out here, and at least get back to warn people.

The sound he hears out in the bushes doesn't quite sound like the iconic sh-sh-sh-ah-ah-ah, but it still gives Rich the creeps as he peers around a tree trunk and spots... a motorbike? Still freaked, but more intrigued by the potential badassery of coming back from his camping trip with a sweet new ride, he approaches to grab the handlebars before it can tear away.

[Oh please, Rita, as if everyone hasn't beheld the positively barbaric way you've been inhaling the camp's seemingly infinite supply of marshmallows ever since you discovered them earlier in the week...it's not exactly a stretch as assumptions go, you know?

--A tangent avoided, all the same. Jade sits up a bit straighter as Rita's features register properly between the gloom and the fire's glow, the bent of his posture shifting to watch as she ends up sitting on an adjacent log. His smile takes on a wry edge on cue--it's a pleasantly easy façade to raise, as the vague impressions of his party dissolve from their phantom positions about the campfire and the odd heavy thing in his chest takes rather longer to do the same. No, it's only Rita over here now...and that's fine. Very fine. (Even if she does still occasionally remind him of at least one of them, sometimes, in the oddest sorts of ways--)]

Now, now! For all you know, perhaps I've overcome all need for sleep altogether, hm? Perhaps I'm drawing my true powers from the night, even as we speak! [Like a vampire, or something!!!! Truly, who could say? Between his paleness and the menacing red of his eyes....!! Oh, but such a joke does fall rather flatter around here, all told. To say nothing of how the cheerily sardonic lilt in his voice promptly gives it away anyhow...before fading, in favor of a rather more somber response to the rest of her words.] ...But it is quite strange, isn't it? How nothing at all has happened here. I'm not sure what I was expecting, on this expedition, but...it assuredly wasn't any of this.

[With a breath of a sigh, Jade leans his weight back a bit where he's seated, hands idly flattening on either side of the wood log's surface beneath him. His glance casts back in the fire's direction, and then over it--to the array of cabins still barely visible through the gloom.]

I don't suppose you've ever done any 'camping' quite like this back home, have you? ...I still don't really agree with calling any of this camping, honestly...

"Oh! Cool, nice to meet you, Parker."

She seems... chipper. More eager than a lot of the people on this excursion, that's for sure.

"I don't think they're a normal part of every camp, but considering what I've heard about these ship excursion things, I'd look out for them here. You weren't worried about signing up or anything?"

[That blood sure has been pretending pretty hard to be tomato juice--hard enough, in fact, that it's at least escaped Jade's initial survey of the kitchen contents. He might have been able to identify something rather off about the consistency and shade of the liquid in that jug, if he ever thought to take a closer look--if he ever even expected blood in here in the first place. But he isn't, to be sure. Why would anyone possibly expect to find blood set right next to the orange juice, after all? It's a very bold move for a fact...

No, Jade's attributing Natsuno's presence here and now as a rather more innocuous result of some late night wander about camp, aware as he is by now of Natsuno's highly sparse sleeping habits. --Look, Natsuno, you ought to know Jade's by now too! A propensity for very late nights at the very least....though admittedly the hour is perhaps rather later than even his usual, at the moment.]

Oh, I'm so very glad you agree! I simply felt obligated out of the extremely pure goodness of my heart, you know. I ought to be getting a medal for this, really! [You know him, just a real paragon of generosity. Who wouldn't trust this perfectly innocent smile, over here? --Jade finds himself very sorely tempted to swat at Natsuno's hand as he zones in on a riceball, for a moment, but--nah, he's practically popping it into his mouth before he can decide anyway. Besides, it's not exactly like he's making these out of an overt sense of actual hunger...and so Jade busies his hands with compressing this newest half-made rice ball between them, instead, the movements carrying a habitual air of someone who's done this a fair number of times in the past already.]

Not that I'd claim this actually counts as anything resembling a proper breakfast. We're still in the realm of midnight snacking, I think... [Even if it's a couple hours after midnight, but eh. Natsuno would find that the rice ball is, Very Decent--nothing special, but nothing horrible either. Not everybody can quite reach the culinary madness of Flynn Scifo, after all.] Which is why you're here, I'd guess--or is this a front for something rather more nefarious, on your end?

[A prank war sure has been ongoing, and Jade sure hasn't been exactly oblivious to it...]

Wow rude, just grabbing a guy's handlebars like that. Kiriya immediately locks his passenger steering as he calls out, "Oi, oi, didn't your parents teach you to keep your hands to yourself?"

Honestly.

[There is a lot to write about camp when you are a Super Responsible Camp Counselor! Or, at least, you're trying to be, which is what Rich is doing. He'd feel like an ass if he shirked his duties, especially if it resulted in someone getting hurt, which he feels is an almost certainty at this point.

Regardless, he's doing very important work, and is very affronted when he's suddenly interrupted.]

Gah! No! Why would I be doing that when we just got here? I'm not a homesick little baby.

[Ignore the fact that he definitely wrote a letter to Johnny before he left the ship.]

I'm taking inventory of the stuff we have around here. In case of emergency.

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JUNE EVENT: CAMP

CAMP AION

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<3

had to do a ctrl+f to find you mixed with all of this chaos lol

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cw: cannibalism.....

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