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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(her whistle is really starting to irk jinx's nerves. is she truly expecting everyone (especially her) to go by the rules and for once they can actually be as wild and as free as they want?! who needs rules or reason?

so while clarke is busy blowing her whistle at someone, up above is jinx in a tree with a pine cone in her hand. she waits just for the right opportunity to chuck down the plant directly on top of her head.)

( at this point in the expedition, that someone is probably one of the blue team teenagers who's engaged in a vicious, all out prank war at her expense. flynn scifo, rita mordio, natsuno yuuki, and maybe even bellamy blake — they're all understated menaces to society, and clarke's very recent dip in the lake is just the most recent in their running list of atrocities this day. she's soaking wet, breathing heavy having chased at least one perpetrator into the treeline, and lays on her whistle.

at least in this moment, it's not even that much about the rules. it's the principal of the matter, and an acknowledgement friendship was dead until they started acting like adults again.

but then she's getting absolutely beamed in the head with a pinecone. it startles an unintentional screech of the whistle from clarke's lips before the silver metal bit falls from her mouth and she's scrambling for partial cover behind a different tree a few feet away. eyes up and fixed in the foliage, clarke can't immediately parse out her attacked against the backdrop of sunshine and leaves, and thus just sorta...

has to guess. )

I swear to god, Natsuno, throw one more thing at me. Bird snares aren't the only traps I can make, and I know where you don't-sleep.

(oh so she believes it's the mouse's doing and not her, huh? good. with that then, she quickly scans around up the tree to see what else she can chuck at her so the two of them can have a little scuffle because that'll be fun to see.

sadly all she can spot near her is an acorn but it should be enough for clarke to notice it's being tossed at her, right? jinx plucks it out of its stem and then glimpse down to her -- closing one eye to try to aim her shot. excited, she bites her bottom lip and gives the small fruit a throw in hopes it'll hit her on the head.)

( the real pits of absolutely zero magical inclination, enhanced senses, or supernatural situational awareness — wires get crossed. threats are still distant and unknown, shadows are scary, and sometimes she gets confused. clarke's whipping her head around in a flowing curtain of drenched hair, looking this way and that, so a target that was maybe the side of her head one moment is the center of her face the next.

the acorn connects just above her left eyebrow, a tiny little plip to the face before the nut plops amidst the leaves scattered at her feet. that's rude as all hell, but at least helps clarke locate the trajectory. she's staring intently at a fifteen-by-fifteen section of tree branches now, and — is that the hint of a grin along the curve of her mouth?

what's a little trash talk between friends, anyway. )

At least come down and fight fair this time.

Yeah, you tell 'em, Princess! Get him for being such a creep.

(she calls out from the trees. jinx should had stay silent buuuuut this display is just all so amusing to her that she couldn't contain herself. but who knows, maybe she can still play off the fact it was natsuno after all and she just so happened to be at the right place at the right time?)

( literally no one is going to buy that narrative, jinx.

in fact, the second clarke registers who's yelling at her from up in the tree branches, any and all traces of playful, aggressive competition — friendly spite, that distinctly teenage urge to crush your friends and make them regret ever knowing you before y'all eventually go off to have dinner together — melt. her shoulders drop, the whistle is left to dangle against her chest, and she's sighing.

barely restraining an eyeroll. )

I told you not to call me that.

But you have such flow-y hair. 'Sides, "Blondie", "Goldie", and "Aurum" are taken. You should dye your hair so I can name ya somethin' else.

(clicking sounds with her tongue, she leans back on the tree branch -- almost appearing she's falling off but she uses her legs to wrap around the bark. jinx views to clarke from up above again but this time, upside down.)

How abooouut Ms.No-Fun? 'Cuz you're always so serious. When are you gonna start havin' some fun?

( dead. pan. )

Probably when the threat of pain, suffering, and death isn't constantly hanging over our heads?

Well obviously it's not happenin' now, is it? I dunno if you've noticed but we're all still alive and kickin'.

(she swings just a little back and forth while hanging upside down.)

— 'least someone's buried in the lake over there. But bodies float so we would had seen it. Or they tied it down with a block? ... Is there a block around here? All I've been seein' is wood.

( dunno jinx, someone who deigned to throw tree nuts at her is literally hanging over her head right now, and — )

Camp's not over yet though, is it?

( they're day five of seven, and all it takes is one second for the mood in the entire camp to switch. clarke is still quietly waiting for some outside influence to force them all into survival mode — a spread of noxious gas, a wildfire, a mass poisoning... just because the captain isn't here doesn't mean she doubts his reach.

off handedly, with a vague jerk of her thumb back in the direction of camp — the red cabins specifically: )

There's a guy that can bust rocks out of the earth if you really need one.

Naaaah! I'm in too good of mood to do some killin'! 'Sides between you and me —

(she whispers to clarke but rather loudly since she's not at all close to her.)

I'm unarmed.

(then she returns back to speaking normally while swinging along still like a monkey germlin.)

No nothin' over here. Just me, myself, and good ol' I.

( jinx in an unquestionably good mood? is this something rare and delightful to be seen, or utterly horrifying? is this the eye of the storm or a calm sort of sailing day? clarke doesn't know how much weight to ascribe to her declarations but...

there's something distinctly child-like in how the other girl is dangling from the tree, pretending to whisper. it's like talking frivolous things with mizuki, in that same cautiously endearing sort of way. )

That's bold of you. What — no hand to hand combat training?

(the goofiness suddenly comes to a very strange halt and she cocks her head to the side at her question. maybe she's didn't hear clarke correctly? did she get confused by what she means by "hand to hand combat"? either way, jinx swings upward to sit up -- her legs also wave around to sit properly for a split moment -- only to slip off the tree branch to meet her on ground level.

still silent, her pinks hold a gaze to her before taking a couple of steps back. and while doing so, she tilts her head from one side to another -- attempting pull all the cracks out of her neck.)

Edited 2022-06-14 07:41 (UTC)

(then she does a little pivot to face away from clarke and to look into the woods. inhaling a deep breath, she holds up her hands -- forming the two of them into fists. jinx gets into a stance; a formation even occasionally rubs a knuckle across her nose and a roll of a shoulder.

what she is doing that clarke won't know is mimicking. the stance and mannerisms aren't hers by any means but of someone else. that if hypothetically, ekko was present, he would be able to pick up immediately who she is imitating. and then she begins to throw a few jabs, crosses, hooks, and uppercuts. occasionally, she ducks down and dodges as if her opponent is striking back but she's evading them.)

(jinx does a few small hops back and forth before doing a roundhouse kick at the air. she finishes it up with one more uppercut with her left fist before turning over to face clarke with a smirk.)

I might know a thing or two.

(but then she raises up both of her hands; wiggling her fingers.)

— Buuuuuuut my hands aren't nearly as fat. So I stick to my guns.

( the air feels like it's shifted between them, and when jinx drops down to the forest floor clarke's already taking a half-step back and tracking an escape route through the underbrush. the last time she'd faced off against someone in a small clearing hadn't ended... well, and the spike of adrenaline here feels like it'll be the difference between bleeding out again and making it back to the camps to rip the likes of natsuno, rita, and flynn a new one. and that whole living to see another day thing has gotten progressively more important within the last month...

but, no. jinx boxes the air, and clarke wills herself to relax and appreciate the display — provided some measure of distance remains between them.

at the end, she half expects the other girl to twirl around and give a bow, and wouldn't be above a polite golf clap if she did. it might not stack up against the polished fighting form of old members of the guard, but carried the same brusque brawler weight behind those punches that the grounders had taught her people. rough, ready to rumble, a rigid right hook and hail mary haymaker from the left. it's efficient, and in the right circumstances clarke can certainly imagine it'd be debilitating. maybe to the point of being deadly. )

So, not unarmed after all, are you?

( this is about as close as she gets to light and joking. absolutely talking about jinx's ability to crush someone's trachea with the right blow, but while arching her eyebrows and nodding in approval. good for her. )

Guns tend to lose their effectiveness in close range though. It's good to be good at both.

Yeaaahh...

(jinx holds her arms over chest; hunching over awkwardly while blowing her bangs out of her face. she's silent for a split moment as she clears her throat -- looking off elsewhere besides her.)

My big sis taught me. H-How to fight like that. She's a pretty good teacher. Ahem...

(she's behaving as if vi is actually here and listening in but it's still embarrassing to admit out loud. and speaking of her, jinx wonders if vi came across the gym yet. she should probably show her when they get back if she hadn't discovered it on her own. maybe the two of them can train together -- not as a bonding thing, totally not. just to... keep in shape.)

( clarke picks up on the sudden shift in jinx's posture, the way the conversation has gone from near-playful to something a little more weighted. or at least fussed and flustered, and the other girl won't even look at her squarely in the face, obviously off somewhere in her own thought. clarke's not above just slinking into the trees if it seemed like jinx was absolutely done with talking and tormenting her with treenuts.

but — )

I didn't know you had a sister.

( something almost soft infiltrates clarke's tone. she comes from a world where it's illegal and punishable by death to have more than one child, has only ever known one set of siblings and thinks very highly of both of them. looks at the relationship between the blakes and tries not to be envious, tries to understand it, and fails at both. )

What's her name?

Yeaaaah well, our relationship's a lil'... unique. (a sniff and again a clear throat because "unique" is one hell of a understatement of how to describe the two of them.)

Her name's Vi. She's, uh, back on the ship.

(and she thumbs behind her shoulder like as if the ship is there but not really, of course.)

She came after the whole sign-up so she couldn't exactly make it. — But I'm not worried. I'm sure she's handlin' herself fine on her own.

(not... that clarke asked. but jinx shouldn't be and from what she's gathered so far, it seems most of the crewmates are here in camp and not on the boat. which means all the ones that were in the killing game are here and not there. so... she should be safe. but she can't help but to be curious how her days are going there -- hopefully not too terrible. not that she cares, of course. just... a thought.)

( just because she hadn't asked didn't mean she wouldn't listen. vi, huh?

it's a near compulsion; catch hint of a sensitive topic, a sore spot — and push on it. but at least in this particular conversation, clarke pushes for encouragement instead of trying to pick at emotional scabs and make old wounds bleed. that softness in her voice persists, and something almost like a smile creeps along the edges of her mouth. that indulgent optimism again, though it'll never fill the pit of perpetual dread that lives in her soul. )

Well, yeah. If she can box like that, I'm sure she's more than fine. Why knows, maybe when we get back she'll be running things.

Pfffftt!!! — Vi, running things?

(just trying to imagine that is a bit hilarious. of course, she was the "leader" of their pack but when they were kids but being the commander of everyone here? but at least her awkward motion from before eased up a bit.)

I mean, sure havin' her running head first into a concrete wall with her fat head. Then yeah, she'd be perfect for that.

(with a smirk, she idly grabs her braid and spins it around in a circular motion.)

My sis is the "punch first, ask questions later" type. Nooooot much of a thinker. I'm sorta the brains in the family.

Edited 2022-06-20 04:26 (UTC)

( clarke takes jinx's (affectionate but rude) descriptors of her sister and tries her best to parse out an image of the woman independent of sibling squabbles (and abandonment issues). what she lands on is that vi can hold her own, box like a bat out of hell probably, punch first ask questions later speaks for itself, and a fat head sounds an awful lot like stubborn and resilient. which they honestly need more of on this ship.

...maybe she'd meet her back on the serena eterna. maybe she'd seek her out.

all while quietly hoping jinx isn't actually the brains of her family, because uh. yikes? )

Bomber and a brawler, huh? Guess every family has one of each, or something like that. But okay, if not running things, maybe running headfirst into walls will at least have left handholds for the rest of us to get a little closer to whatever is happening there. Here.

Well if ya wanna look for her, she's easy to spot.

(jinx then presses her finger on her left cheek -- just a little below her eye.)

Look for a tattoo right here. It's got her name on it and it's also the roman numeral.

(throwing her arms over her head, she gives her back one big stretch and even a small yawn.)

— Just be sure to duck if you irritate her.

( a tattoo, fat hands, maybe a concave skull from smashing it against walls — cool, that's a decent descriptor, she could totally parse that out. absolutely coming for your sister in the near future jinx okok. )

Or I could just try not to irritate her, yeah?

It'd be waaaay funnier if you did.

JUNE EVENT: CAMP

CAMP AION

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