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

[suddenlybees]

[ Literal deer in the headlights right now, but Kano's spent his entire life dodging the spotlight and he isn't going to get caught in it now, ducking off to the side to get out of the way and contemplates climbing a tree for a hot second before deciding against it because he cannot climb a tree and this isn't the best time to try.

What can he even do against a motorcycle? This is so stupid.

He digs his hands into his pockets and pulls out what looks to be a handgun. ]

Stop right there or I'll... I'll blow apart your windshield!

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano dumps his stuff on the bunk above the one Kiriya claimed, because everybody else seems like Adult adults and he's not too used to that. ]

Same here, but maybe that's why we're on a camping trip? To, like, make friends and memories and stuff?

[lightconductor]

Oh, now he just feels a bit silly.

"Oh, it... it doesn't matter." One of his boyfriends, Holmes, who knows. A moment's paranoia about his relationships and now he looks like a fool. For the moment, Watson wasn't thinking of his own safety in this place.

"I suppose I do appear to be vulnerable and unarmed and alone right now, and that we're not meant to be."

ii....... lmao

[anbruch]

[ diluc, actually, is trying to make what looks like chamomile tea in these horrendous little bags in the mess hall. he'd picked up a bit of knowledge in liyue about how to treat sunburns, which he's freshly started again across his back of his neck, and figured he might as well get this part over with. he'd found an appropriate vessel to fill up with fresh water, heat, and then dunk the whole mess in, but now he's stuck waiting on it to cool. he's also stuck cleaning up all the little corpses of the teabags, because he decided it would be more advantageous to harvest them for their interiors.

he'd known mizuki was there, but he wasn't exactly anticipating him coming into his personal bubble to wave around some arcane device as he throws out the rest of the waste he's generated. thankfully(?) for him, diluc is actually missing the sleeves of his shirt. he'd found them too restrictive and removed them a bit ago. it wasn't a good fit.

he'd normally politely turn that sort of nonsense down, but he's at least a little curious about the object. he'd seen something more rudimentary in fontaine, probably, but this is - well, this is probably worth learning about. ]

... Pac-Man?

[ it doesn't mean he's necessarily impressed, though. ]

[suddenlybees]

[ ...man, he really is bad with people who insist on being serious and honest all the time. ]

Then what are you an authority in? I thought maybe you might be a teacher or something.

[ Teachers conduct fire drills? that should be enough fire experience to give lectures on the subject like this, he thinks. ]

At least there's people like you and the muster guys who care about safety.

[myagic]

[She's about to say that it would probably still take time to heal, but then she's sputtering indignantly at the nickname and pointing at Jinx, rather than shaking her hand right away.]

Wha--hey, my name's Rita, got it?!

[lightconductor]

"Of course. I don't have any immediate plans. All I really need is a place to sit and perhaps something to occupy myself with for a little while."

Watson shrugs, easily. It's an offer he couldn't help but have made, really. A friend needed help, so he's there to give it.

"What sort of place are you hoping for?"

[lightconductor]

"It's good, but it does serve to highlight how... artificial everything here is. I feel a bit like a lion in a zoo."

Watson considers this a moment.

"Perhaps that's not an inaccurate comparison, but on the ship it isn't quite so strong a feeling."

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano laughs, taking the change in conversation in stride, and in exchange for that courtesy he's going to lean over and try to read what's on Rich's clipboard, what do we have in stock... ]

Sounds like a tough job! But someone's gotta do it, huh?

[ Glad he's not a counselor. Whew, imagine having responsibilities and being responsible. ]

Find anything interesting? I sorta figured if there was anything useful, people would take 'em for themselves, and you won't find what you're looking for in an emercency.

[lightconductor]

"Thank you, I have tried to cultivate it."

Watson checks the mirror, turning his face from side to side to check the light. "It will have to do," he says. "We may have to take turns in the spot closest to the door, but I'm sure we're both gentlemen and can handle that sort of compromise. My name is Watson, by the way. Dr. John Watson."

There's only so long you can stand around talking to someone while wearing a towel without introducing yourself.

[suddenlybees]

All he has to do is get distracted once, and even rats can climb over the walls and escape the cage...

[ He's sympathetic, but also... he knows what it's like to put people in bad situations and see how they act just because he was bored... He'd apologized for it, but you know, still. ]

...I heard the Captain likes games. Think he'd be interested in playing with us? Then we're all bound by the same rules.

[opheliac]

Sooo... Rita Dwarf? That's a lil' bit of a mouth full, isn't it?

[broshaw]

Having the option available is the one thing keeping Sharky sane right now. As far as he's concerned, this is either an 80's coming-of-age comedy or an 80's horror movie, and either way there should be beer involved!

"That's what I've been wondering. Like, all of the food and clothes, too? There's no sign of any kinda hydroponics set-up anywhere, so where are they getting the vegetables? And, like, no textile factory, no import ships coming in..."

Ooooh, right. "It's probably just, like, fuckin' magic food. I guess I shouldn't be complaining, considerin' how nice it is to be able to eat whenever I want again, but, like..." He kicks a chair over, which would probably seem more violent if he weren't pouting petulantly while he was doing it. It's a shitty attempt at relieving his frustration, but at least he's not being destructive. (Yet.)

"It kinda feels like, uhhh... Conciliatory? Like, 'thanks for murdering each other, here's some complimentary crab rolls.' Or, I guess in this case, 'thanks for, like, making arts and crafts like a bunch of toddlers' or something? I dunno. So I'm like, not gonna look the gift horse in the mouth, but I definitely ain't sure it's safe to ride."

Meaning: he'll eat the free crab legs, but he isn't stupid enough to ignore the huge asterisk next to the word free.

[opheliac]

Sounds boring but alright!! I'm gonna start prankin' on the other team.

(she's half-joking about the looking around part. jinx will most likely do the same just to be on the safe side but that doesn't mean she can have a little fun with the situation they're in. )

sorta kinda c.

[anbruch]

[ it isn't so much that he chooses to strictly forego the sign ups. more, it is that he hasn't selected a bow yet.

it'd been some time since he last wielded one. when he was young, archery had only been a natural part of his training. for hunting for back up, for precision and patience - it'd never been his preferred, but he was never half-bad at it. it'd saved him more than once on his journeys, fed him when he might otherwise not have been fed. when he led the cavalry, it had been a common practice for him to take a handful of decent bowman. when he left -

the whistle for the one alongside him is what gets him to turn his head. the bow the other has gone to grab falls to the grass beside him, but he doesn't immediately notice. or, more likely, he's opted more not to care.

he recognizes who that is. for all that he is sunburnt and looks as ridiculous as everyone else, there is something that gentles at the corners of his mouth. it's a shame to meet under these circumstances, but: ]

Lumine, [ he calls, with a touch more relief than he himself might have anticipated. he tamps down on that note in the next moment, clearing his throat as he says: ] I didn't think I'd find you here.

[ well, obviously. but, it doesn't stop him from saying it. ]

[light_mischief]

"If you say so." Skulduggery shrugs, the moment as soon as forgotten. The idea that Watson feeling bullied about his romantic liaisons would be enough gossip to keep him fat and happy for weeks, but alas, he's out of the loop on this one.

"And it would be terrible if something happened to you. I mean, our cabin would be left uneven, and who would I sit with at breakfast?" As dry as the bones he's currently standing in. Murder camp or not, Skulduggery is going to mock every aspect of the situation within an inch of its life. It's his coping mechanism.

"Whatever that terrible thing may be, however, it will not be coming from the woods. We can officially rule out bears or homicidal maniacs living in the woods." AKA a copy of Friday wearing a mask, which he's still 50/50 on being a thing later on.

[suddenlybees]

I get to go again? Alright! I'll do my best~

[ Settling back a little, he restarts the game, humming a tuneless song underneath his breath.

He takes the exact same route that he took last time as Pac-Man, but this time... this time, the ghosts freeze a dot away from him whenever he gets too close, letting him nab the dot right in front of the ghost without getting eaten himself, the ghosts resuming their paths after he's turned around and have gotten a safe distance away. It makes for a very very boring and systematic game, but he's still humming; this is still fun to him, somehow. ]

[lightconductor]

"We are certainly out of luck in that department," Watson says with a little laugh, gently thumping Rich on the back.

He's... not good at hiding. That will never be his first choice, even when it probably should be. His fight-or-flight response is too strongly turned to "fight," maybe. "Well. We'll have to be on our guard, at least. See what sort of threat we're dealing with, if it's something external or just ourselves."

[light_mischief]

There are remarkably few truly mundane people on the ship, which makes Steven sort of stick out. Skulduggery isn't going to rule anything out, obviously. The man just admitted to being shot, and even the most normal passengers tend to have led outrageous lives. But it's clear none of this is familiar territory for him. Even with the story about sticking his hand down a mummy's throat.

"I can't say what your situation is back in your reality, but here, you are very surely alive. I was taken from a... nebulous moment in my own life, but I promise you, I was very much alive when I last laid eyes on my home." Alive, but for how long? It's not worth considering right now.

"I'm not sure why we have to be alive, but the captain seems to need us that way. Maybe it's easier to siphon off of our souls if they're attached to a mortal form?" Shrug. He's got no idea. "Or, maybe he's practicing on us. Since he can't make life himself..." Ew. Not a pleasant thought, really, being some crazed magician's guide to anatomy.

NIGHT :CLAPS:

[yanwang]

[ there had been little reason to suspect that the traveler too resided here. but, for those who had come before and followed after, she is least surprising of all. as one who moves through realities, who so readily touches at the seams of the celestial net - how could she have been anything, but expected? how could she have been, when she burns so brightly regardless of circumstance?

it is not planned, coming to join her. but, nowadays, zhongli has learned to take in the challenge of change. when he approaches, quiet on his feet as he so often is, he gives her a moment. perhaps it is to honor the silence of the moment, a respect paid to her need to organize what needs sorting through. he is familiar. he too was unable to rest, once. ]

It is not so uncommon in times of uncertainty to feel the weight of one's challenges. [ he does not sit beside her, but rather with her examines the passage of stars - her stars, that web between the darkness, lick at her golden edge. he settles his arms across his chest, his expression as still as it is sincere. ] Despite our predicament, it is a pleasure to see you again, friend.

[decohere]

"To be fair," Ava remarks with a polite restrain ti her giggle, "I was busy looking at all those... lights masquerading as stars in the sky. Wondering how far they actually are." Nothing can be lightyears away in a place that will only exist for this week. She imagines it like a map on a computer game, only existing in their presence, folding back into code and files as soon as it's offscreen. Nothing else makes much sense. Magic doesn't make sense. She'll just stubbornly cling to her insistence that this is some virtual reality. And that nothing is truly real.

Yet it's all happening. Ava settles down next to Skulduggery, tucking her legs up against her body. Existence is just perception. She has to cling to some sort of meaning, not get lost in the vastness and hopelessness.

Which brings her back to the thought of... "What do you think the purpose of this exercise is? To see how we self organize? To make us dependent on the Captain to give us direction and meaning? To prove how any of us with a shred of power will abuse it?"

[suddenlybees]

[ imagining The Rock coming in to beat Kano up if he breaks the contract—- ]

Hm, okay, let's see... How 'bout, if the contract is broken, the person who violated the contract has to eat an entire tub of ice cream? That's, like, akin to capital punishment in my culture. Real serious stuff.

[myagic]

Rita Mordio! There's no Dwarf anywhere!

[saltwaterlungs]

"Alright," she doubted that anything lurking out here to kill them was going to be sophisticated enough to lie, and tide-cutter returns to its spot on her belt.

"Someone's cocky," Darcy remarks, fumbling with her phone for a moment to try and turn the torch on. Sure, she probably shouldn't have been out here in the dark, but if she could see shit, shit could see her, ruining any benefit of surprise she'd get.

"It's not the weapon, but the skill you use it with, ehn?"

iii

[myagic]

[Rita doesn't know what she was expecting--besides something awful--but this still wasn't it. There's no way there isn't going to be more sprung at them, but it looks like the captain's going to make them wait for whatever that surprise is--and Rita hates waiting, especially for a vague something.

The fact that they're all assigned a cabin together like this... It seems suspicious to her, so while she's impatient to get out and look around, she'll at least exchange names with the others--and see if Lumine has any other information, since she was given a clipboard and all.

She sits cross-legged on one of the beds (she already checked underneath it to make sure there wasn't anything nasty waiting), and when her name's called-]

That's me. Who're you supposed to be? Weren't you...

[She saw very little of the island footage after her own revival, as determined as she was to smash the screen anytime it came back. But she's pretty sure she remembers seeing a glimpse of this girl with Natsuno. Still, even Rita has a little more tact than just outright bringing that up.]

...Are you friends with Yuuki?