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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[ in contrast to jinx's party where venti had been so carefree and happy to dance and invite others to, with him, this time...

he isn't exactly wallflowering, it's not quite in his nature after all. dressed classily (but without the big old harp) he does pay a visit to the punch bowl or other beverages and slams back a few drinks with the air of an alcholic springing hope eternal that there's something he could get a decent buzz from, but unfortunately not! a week of sobriety is such misfortune for him! it's with a rather despondent sigh that he could be found at the punch table staring fixedly at the drinks as if he could possibly turn juice into wine like a prophet from another world, but sadly that isn't his power. if only he could be some dionysius-ian deity of wine!

or he would be examining the boombox with the curiosity of an old-world bard who truly doesn't recognize these modern music players but finds them endlessly fascinating. and would happily sing beautifully along to journey or janet jackson or all of his favorites, and provide harmonious musical accompaniment to those dancing.

anyone who is dancing or even dancing nicely might find him approaching--not to ask for a one, but to compliment. ] Hi~ nice moves! Has anyone ever told you you could be a professional performer?

[ yes, even if you're dancing the robot or something. he'd genuinely admire it anyway! ]

Edited 2022-06-16 08:22 (UTC)

[ Wow, Iva, where's your dedication to being in character? Go out in some puffy shorts and tights and shoot some targets like a real Venti main. Smh.

Mizuki picks up on what he's supposed to do relatively fast. He's always been quick to learn, even back home. It was one of the things he got complimented most on at his jobs. But, he's obviously not a professional or anything. Instead of just letting the arrow go, he tries to slide his hand back off of it, and it disorients the arrow and sends it to a short fall about two feet in front of him. Good job, Mizuki. ]

Oh- [ Well, fuck. He scrambles over to go pick up the arrow. ] Sorry, can you... help me set that up again...?

In the dark it's difficult to make out the symbols upon the stones, wondering what they mean. She tries committing a few to memory, just in case. But they are meaningless to her.

She's not sure what the purpose of the candle is either, or why there's so little of it left. She's not even sure it IS a candle, until Palamedes lights it.

Though she's been silent through all this, Ava holds her breath almost afraid if she breathes out wrong that she might disturb whatever chanting he's trying to perform. So it is a ritual. And it sounds as if he's attempting to call upon souls. Which seems odd, she doesn't think anyone would have died here. Not yet, at least. (She's not holding her breath on that one.)

She doesn't know much about magic, but... "I don't think it worked," she speaks, pale and ghostly herself.

"I might, of embarrassment." It's a rather cute shirt, in Ava's opinion. Her opinion that she politely keeps to herself, because she knows Max has suffered enough. And he's doing her a kindness, with all this. Even dressed in camp wear, he's still the fanciest person she knows.

"I can't make any promises. You know me, Ava, crusher of hearts. And probably of feet."

Sharky's bonfire is, let's face it, pretty sick, all things considered. He's found himself a perfect spot to build up a decent fire pit, one of his own domain. Nobody else is in charge here but him.

There's a dug-out pit circled with chunky-ass rocks, and when lit, it reaches a relatively moderate height. After all, a good bonfire is at least twice as tall as the people enjoying it!

Sharky has plenty of shit to burn, both edible and non-edible, and there are pilfered snacks and such aside. This could very well be Sharky's home for the next two nights or so; this is the nicest fire he's ever made, and he's being like, super-duper careful about it, even! For now, anyway...

Anyway. He told Ava where to find him, he's got stuff for himself and his cabinmates to enjoy around the fire, and he's feeling pretty fuckin' cozy here. Anyone who wanders by, cabinmate or otherwise, is welcome to join and hang out with whoever else happens to be around.

"Oh, man, what if it's like Hook rules? Where the food only tastes like food because we think it should taste like food?" Actually, that was the best part of the movie, so???? They would be winning, in that case.

Probably not, though. "I dunno, it's probably just regular food. Maybe there are like, house-elves or some shit down in the lower decks." That's just as likely as magic, right? "I have no idea how any of this shit works, I'm just fuckin' pissed it's not working in my favor right now."

Thinking about it is burning through more energy than he has right now, so he defaults back to a safer thought pattern. "So, like, you're from Earth, right?" Because he figures, you know, better safer to ask around here than assume. "You and Steven, I mean?"

He hums a little at that--not because he doesn't believe her, exactly, but someone worrying about him is...

Well. He just hadn't expected that.

He'll accept the pinecone without hesitation. "I'm actually very good at keeping secrets, as it happens. And I promise not to judge you." Since she seems to need that reassurance.

[The comment about the sword has Natsuno frowning.]

So... you're more concerned about ruining an antique weapon than the fact you may have to use to hurt someone?

[Priorities. Also, doesn't this guy have a gun?]

Honestly, a solid approach, and one Sharky would toast, if there was any fucking beer to toast with. For him, it's part sugar rush and part fire hypnosis that's keeping him steady. Fire, after all, has always been there for him. Even when he was stuck in the middle of a hellish winter with no liquor, no weed, no party fuel to speak of, there was always a fire to keep him distracted.

And apparently, Jeff's approach is convincing as fuck, because Sharky buys it hook, line and sinker. This dude, he thinks, has it all together. Man, he wishes he could be so carefree and relaxed, handing out friendship bracelets to total strangers.

"Oh, for real?" Guess who is feeling both charitable and ignorant towards quality craftsmanship today? It's this guy. "Hell yeah, man, here, have at! I never was any good at that shit, even before the shakes, so thanks for saving me the effort!"

She's not sure where there are so many people from her own world (or at least one similar enough to share history.) "Maybe you could return, but to a different point in time..." Ava wonders. "Sarge is from my past, and the not-twins are from my future. So theoretically..." Except messing around with time is a nasty, dangerous thing with all sorts of unpredictable consequences.

And sometimes she thinks everyone goes far too easy on her, for reasons she can't quite figure out. But she hums, complaisant. Doesn't want to argue why she's so unforgivable. He's right though, she needs to make it up to them.

Honestly, if she hadn't been invited to the dance, Ava would take her own opportunity to go snooping instead. Go through people's things, look for anything suspicious. Just because they hadn't all been given direction, doesn't mean somebody-

Ava gives out a bit of a squeak of protest, tossing a couple blades of grass at Skulduggery, that harmlessly float back to the ground. "I was hoping you'd figure it out on your own, so you didn't have to embarrass me with such a discussion."

"He was pretty surprised to hear there's a--" he gestures. Skeleton that moves and talks and. Is that rude to point out? Who the hell even knows anymore... "But it is a good idea, right?"

Or a possible option. "We don't have to kill him if we can find a way to trap him..."

Probably need something stronger than rope though.

The beauty of Sharky is that most of the time, nobody has to ask before he's blurting out random details and tidbits about his life. Case and point:

"I used to hate camping. Like, roughin' it for fun didn't make any sense if you got the internet and television and shit. I went to one summer camp kinda like this back in the eighth grade, and I ended up burnin' down the bathrooms and got sent home, which is what I wanted, because fuck the woods. But then the Collapse happened, and I got stuck underground for a couple years... Guess that changed my perspective, huh?"

He laughs, because being stuck underground and developing a newfound appreciation for nature is totally a normal thing, something people laugh about all the time.

Skulduggery follows, trying not to loom too close behind. The silence of the forest is undeniably unsettling, but at this point, he knows there aren't any animals whatsoever. The only thing that they really have to worry about are the other campers. Which he certainly isn't about to mention to Fio! He isn't crazy.

"Ah, you were made a counselor?" When she's one of the few at the most appropriate age to be a camper? Well... it is funny. "That makes sense, I think. Were you able to talk your camper out of their mood?"

He can only hope that it wasn't someone too abrasive. Judging from her attitude, he has a good feeling that whoever it was managed to be affected by Fio's cheerful nature.

To be fair, Fio is a bit small and easy to miss, and aiming at her hadn't been intentional. Ava doesn't even notice that she did so at first, and then gives a bit of a surprised gasp as well.

She puts a twist in the hose to stop the spray, looking both amused and apologetic. "Hey, hey, you're okay. Sorry about that. There's a towel..." and even though Ava gestures towards it, she hurries to grab one from the small pile.

You don't even really need a hastily hand drawn map to track down a fire, the smoke itself is a giveaway. And probably sure to attract more visitors.

They've found the x-marked treasure of s'mores supplies though, and Ava is quite ready to sit down by the end of the hike. She plops down in the grass, digging out her water bottle.

"Wow, that looks great," Ava is sure to compliment Sharky for his hard work of putting this together. "You could burn down the whole forest with this enthusiasm."

Well she does somewhat think of them as her responsibility despite the assignments seeming arbitrary, and she is the one that chased them off to begin with. Of course she worries that she put them in extra danger by doing so.

She nods at the reassurance, still a bit hesitant. And then all at once she mumbles, "Istartedmyperiodanditwasembarrassing." Because it's not like they had bathrooms attached to the cabin. Ava groans and puts her face in her hands.

For as lame as this setup is, there is something terribly familiar about it for somebody like Jeff, who grew up in the 80s and went to a few dances like this before he hit 16 (and with that: the 90s) and decided he was too cool for these types of functions.

So it's kind of comforting, in a way, and since Jeff hasn't been able to get wasted here (though he can be seen making the rounds at the punch table intermittently throughout the night, just to check if it's been spiked yet) he might as well just embrace the lameness and have fun tonight.

His formal outfit is giving Robert Downy Jr. circa Weird Science, and he's embellished the blazer with buttons and safety pins and any other accouterments he could find. There's also about six different inexpertly-crafted friendship bracelets on his wrist, and he's got a pair of sunglasses for when he wants to look extra cool, even though it's way too dark to get away with wearing them.

Time to party.

I. I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY
Jeff's out on the dance floor as much as possible, whether anyone else is or not. It's almost like he's trying to wear himself out by dancing until he can't dance no more. Come on and join him! No matter the terrible, terrible song, he's going to light up with, "Ooh! I love this one!" and look for a ~~victim~~ partner to pull to the dance floor, whether he knows them or not.

Don't worry, it's totally innocent dancing. He won't be grinding or gyrating on anyone.

And hey, if you're the observant type, you might notice that when Jeff sings along to some of the songs, the fairy lights seem to glow a little brighter or-- no, wait, there's just more fairy lights glittering in the room, floating in the air as if by magic.

II. MEETCUTE!!
Inevitably, it happens. Either Jeff's so caught up in his own terrible (but enthusiastic!) dancing that he doesn't notice somebody trying to get past him with some punch in their hand, or he's the one carrying a cup of punch and not paying too much attention to his surroundings.

There's a collision, and suddenly punch is on you, on the floor, and maybe on Jeff, too.

"Fuck!" Wait, can he swear at camp? He quickly looks around to make sure a counselor didn't overhear (unless you're the counselor, in which case he'll look appropriately chagrined). "I mean shit-- damn-- darn! I'm sooo sorry!"

He's not even drunk right now. Apparently, this is just Jeff.

III. NO WALLFLOWERS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS PROMPT
If you're trying to keep to the corners or blend in with the walls, Jeff's going to find you, and he's going to make a beeline right for you, because nobody's allowed to wallflower on his watch. It's a party! It's time to have fun!

So if you're shy, grumpy, antisocial, nervous, whatever, enjoy Jeff coming up to you.

"Hey! Wanna dance? If you're worried about, like, looking stupid or something, I've got you covered. I'll dance so bad, no one will even think about judging your moves."

Or, if it's later in the night, and you're a fellow camper over the age of 18:

"Oh man, I bet the lake's totally empty right now. Wanna check it out?" Skinny dipping? Skinny dipping. He's totally going to try to get a small group together for this.

IV. AFTERPARTY
C'mon, it's time for some POST-DANCE SKINNY DIPPING. There's nothing else to add to this prompt. Jeff's gonna take a dip whether anyone joins him or not.

...please don't steal his clothes.

"I don't need to do anything," Skulduggery points out all-too-glibly, "I choose to worry about you. It's a completely different situation entirely." How? He refuses to elaborate.

"But I suppose if you've already worked things out with them, and it probably was funny..." Which it probably was... "Then I'll keep my hands out of it. Although I am a bit worried about Stede. He's been... jumpy since we got here. Personally, he should have stayed back until he was feeling better, but..." But there's no stopping that man from doing what he thinks he ought to.

There's nowhere in Skulduggery's past he'd like to go back to, and so he only shakes his head at the thought. Besides, just as Ava's thinking it, so is he: messing with time is dangerous, and it's generally best left alone.

"How am I supposed to figure it out? I don't know who you know. For all I know, you could have become deeply infatuated with Maximilien." Wait. "Wait, it isn't him, is it? No, it can't be. Last I saw, he was standing still and trying to pretend none of this was happening, so he certainly isn't up for dancing."

He drops back dramatically into the grass. "I'm sorry, but I think this might be the one mystery too difficult for me to solve without your help." Or the one he's most impatient about. He could literally just wait a few days, and he knows it.

[At least he isn't genre-savvy enough to be genuinely terrified at the sudden appearance of a skeleton rising out of the lake. It's still a genuinely unnerving thing to see, for sure, but at least he's spared the extra anxiety!

Well, until Skulduggery meanders across the surface of the water, humming the theme to Jaws.]

A bit of both. I thought I'd see if there was anything monstrous, possibly lethal, somewhere down below. But, alas! I am empty-handed. [He holds up his hands to indicate so much. Truthfully and obviously, he's glad to have confirmation that the lake is as dead as the forest. Even if it had felt more suffocating than he'd realized it would.] You haven't seen anything more suspicious than me wandering around, have you?

[ If anyone complains about their tiny shorts, Lumine will cry. Why do the counselors get tinier shorts? Why does she have to wear them? Why does everyone keep changing outfits on this excursion? Furthermore, who is changing them? She doesn't want to linger on that thought for too long, actually… ]

That's me. You were at the, er, passenger meeting I set up. [ She recalls some of the stuff he was talking about there, but… ] Sorry I never formally introduced myself. As I'm sure you could tell I was rather... mh... frantic, at the time.

[ There sure are a lot of papers on this clipboard! Lumine's checked through them multiple times by now, half expecting more words to just show up on them, but it appears that's not going to happen. Also, most of the papers are blank. So that's cool. It's a very misleading clipboard. ]

I'm Lumine. [ Makes sense that Rita doesn't know her. She doesn't really recognize Rita, either? She must not have been to the passenger meeting she set up. Then again, there wasn't that many people there to begin with. Kind of a shame, really… ] Sorry, I haven't been around the ship that much. I'm not too sure why I was put in charge, when I don't really know many people here, but...

...

Yes, we're friends. Bad circumstances we became such in, but he's a kind person. Are you also...?

"Well, it's certainly what's got me up in arms. Among other things, anyway. However, I sincerely hope everyone's learned their lessons and is game for cooperation this time around."

Emphasis on the "hope" there. There's no telling, with how varied this group can be. And how volatile some of them are. Lumine's no stranger to letting her emotions getting the best of her, either…

"Semi open? Got the last few glued together, huh?" She laughs a bit. "I guess... you could start with your home world? Knowing where you come from might give some insight on you. If you're willing to share that much, I mean."

"Yeah. Um...I'm really looking forward to it."

That almost sounded like a dismissal from Darcy, but Undine doesn't walk away. She lingers close, without really saying anything else, because...just because. Does everything need a reason?

[ Hey, she maybe doesn't actually have a bow in game, but she's been asked to do that dumb archery commission enough in Inazuma to at least suggest she knows how to hit stationary targets well enough…!!!

Lumine is also very upset about the short-shorts. Especially because they're somehow shorter than everyone else's, sans the other counselors. It's awful. She might go and steal a towel from the showers and keep that around her waist. It'd look better than this, that's for sure. ]

It's a competition. Why would I ever go easy in a competition? The whole point is to win, you know. No using your bow, though, you have to pick one of these out, okay? [ She gestures to the generic ones they use. She's pretty sure it doesn't matter, but they need to be on even grounds and all that. ]

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JUNE EVENT: CAMP

CAMP AION

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BONFIRE TIME (AQUARIUS + OTA) - a party thread inside a party thread!!

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dancing & spilling punch & menacing wallflowers & skinnydipping

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