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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[The mess hall's fairly busy throughout the day for a variety of reasons, but at least in the dead of night it gets pretty quiet--a perfect opportunity to properly poke around in the kitchen, as Jade decides at length one night. ...Yes, it sure is approximately two in the morning. Yes, this is perhaps a rather more sleepless sort of night. Even if positively nothing at all has happened on this entire excursion so far...

Honestly, he's not even quite sure what he was actually expecting to find in here, but it...sure seems to actually be a completely normal kitchen, by all accounts? Hardly the fanciest facilities in here--in keeping with the theme of the rest of this 'campground'--but it's actually a bit surprising to find anyway, if only considering the utter lack of anything resembling a kitchen aboard the Serena Eterna. Poking through cupboards, Jade's even more surprised to actually find foods and ingredients stocked too. And then he manages to find a bit of salmon stored in the small freezer, and well.

He hadn't even thought about just how long it's been since the last time he actually cooked anything for himself? The notion settles strangely, and helps the snap decision he proceeds to make while he's here...though it's not as if he actually gets into any particularly intensive cooking this time around, or anything. By the time Jade notices somebody else entering the mess hall and drifting towards the kitchen, there are two or three rice balls arranged neatly on a plate on the counter at Jade's elbow, and he's midway through tucking a bit of salmon into another one as he looks up.

Very cheerfully:] You know, it'd be remarkably easy for someone to come out in the night and poison all the food supplies in here, if you really think about it!

[Sure is a good thing there's nobody skulking around the kitchen in the dead of night, right!! ......Wait--]

Edited 2022-06-11 04:42 (UTC)

[There's blood in the kitchen. He noticed it on the first day, right next to the orange juice. It's pretending very hard to be tomato juice, but of course Natsuno can tell. It's hardly a surprise, considering there are two vampires in Taurus cabin, but to just display it so blatantly without even the disguise of a coffee machine - that's just making fun of him.

Natsuno drank his fill before the excursion, but after four days of using his abilities to scale trees, dig holes and turn rocks in search of animals (and most recently, trying to destroy Clarke Griffin in a prank was), he's running a little low. He decides to try visiting late at night, but of course that Jade Curtiss has to be there as well, curse his stupid insomnia.]

Yeah? How noble of you to sacrifice your precious sleep to keep watch and prepare breakfast for the rest of us.

[The rice ball on the right? Natsuno's totally eating it.]

[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...]

[Decent rice ball. Definitely better than Flynn's cursed marshmallow. Natsuno should probably leave and try again later, but that will look weird and for better or worse, he's long past walking away from interactions with Jade without explanation. Instead, Natsuno starts opening cupboards - might as well make some sandwiches.]

Of course not. [Except Jade's totally right, even if it's not nefarious in the way he suggests.] You're the criminal mastermind talking about mass poisoning.

[Natsuno has no problem throwing strangers under the bus to achieve a goal, but in this case his goal is simple and focused - crush Clarke Griffin. He's not going to mess with the food, but maybe he can take some egg cartons and target her from the trees...]

Even if I was planning something, you think I'd tell you?

[More like cursed mashpotatomallow, huh......

It's indeed true, though, that Natsuno opting to just leave about now would look a little suspicious at the very least; by now he's doubtless well-versed in how Jade sure will take his own readings on such gestures without any explanation provided otherwise, with the bonus of an unexplained action almost definitely coming up again later in the most veiled and obnoxiously knowing way possible. At least in this way...it's not exactly like Jade's about to start judging him for late-night sandwiches, considering the late-night rice balls already happening in the same vein...]

Surely criminal masterminds aren't the only sorts that talk about hypothetical mass poisonings! It's never a bad idea to consider the worst-case scenarios in these ways, you know? [The fourth rice ball is finished, and takes the place of the previously eaten rice ball on the plate. Hm, there's about enough material left to make one more, he's pretty sure...] That aside, though, the best-made plans are often the sort workshopped with others, and I've been told I'm quite good at making brilliant suggestions.

[Jade casts a humored smile sidelong Natsuno's way to couple alongside the very blatantly sardonic preening aloud, even as he adjusts his own position at the counter to create a bit more space for Natsuno's sandwich-making endeavors once they become apparent.]

I've been noticing of late that yourself and Clarke seem to be having something of a disagreement. The petty kind, even. [Not that it's been exactly hard to miss, with all the petulant whistling on Clarke's end and all--] Who started it, I wonder?

[Natsuno's taking out an awful lot of ingredients... seems like he's preparing to make a stack of sandwiches, and he'll keep going until Jade goes away and he can try the blood. He'll just say he's saving some of them for tomorrow or something. Jade's cheerful preening is met with a thoughtful scowl as Natsuno seriously considers poisoning. The week's not over, after all. Maybe the food is already poisoned and tomorrow we'll be told to fight for the antidote? Ugh - !

He shakes his head, more to himself, and moves on. Like overthinking things going to help anything.]

Who cares who started?

[He really meant to stay out of this stupid color rivalry. What's even the point? Just because there hasn't been a catch so far, doesn't mean they need to act the happy campers part in the captain's weird little theatre...

...but a stray pinecone happened, or a misplaced water bucket, or a particularly painful whistle or whatever, and now he's involved.]

The only thing that matters now is who ends it.

[This is war. There are no rules. Friendship is dead.]

[Sorry to bring about the intrusive thought of actual life-threatening poisoning via food happening at some point...! Jade legitimately hadn't meant to worry Natsuno to any substantially greater degree, pointing out the possibility as he does--but the fact also probably shouldn't be completely discounted all the same. Alas, it's a taste of the kinds of thoughts Jade's unfortunate brain tends to throw out on these sorts of occasions 24-7, humored bent often included.

Those are a lot of sandwich ingredients, though, and they indeed probably aren't going entirely without comment for long...though at least Jade couldn't guess what Natsuno's true motive actually is at the moment. No, insofar as he can tell...]

My, so it's that sort of situation, is it? Fair enough! I suppose the one to end it would be the ultimate victor, in these sorts of affairs... [An amused smile and vague nod of his head is indicated at the sandwich components Natsuno starts spreading across the counter.] --And sandwiches are a part of your tactics here, perhaps? Poison wouldn't actually have to be involved in this kind of thing, you know. For example, it'd really be quite easy to swap out cheese for butter instead...lettuce for cabbage...

The only tactic these sandwiches are a part of is "not staying hungry."

[He's a growing boy - okay that's a lie, he's stuck at 15 forever, but still! As far as Jade knows, shiki can have massive appetites! Maybe Natsuno always had late night eating bingers at the ship's buffet.]

Anyway, swapping lettuce for cabbage is lame. They're both vegetable leaves. I know you can do better than that.

[Scouting for ideas? Surely not.]

Well, you're certainly not going hungry anytime soon with the number of sandwiches all that's going to produce...

[True, difficult to really call a bluff here--Natsuno still has all the bearing of a fifteen year old boy for a fact, and those do still tend to be hungry. Even with awareness of Natsuno's more inhuman traits considered at this point, Jade couldn't exactly discount that Natsuno's late-night bouts around the ship weren't being spent in an emptier buffet freer of judgmental eyes or something.....

Natsuno's unimpressed assessment of cabbage deception is met with a short laugh from Jade; turning to lean back against his side of the counter, he takes up a rice ball for a bite of his own now.]

It's not about components, you know--more about expecting lettuce and ending up with cabbage instead, where flavors are concerned. Substitutions that would be difficult to spot on the outside, but affect the tongue all the same, and all that... [Look, he's not exactly the biggest prank hobbyist in the world, here!! Though Jade does get a very vague sense he's being fished for ideas about now, and the notion's bringing an amused smile across his features even as he shrugs idly.] Are you sure you want "better" suggestions from me? Personally I really am rather more biased towards poisons...some varieties of paralytic can be entirely tasteless, did you know? [JADE THAT'S STILL POISON TOO THOUGH........and yes, he's aware of this, as the question tapers off with an airy sigh! Before he casts a glance about the kitchen properly.] Hm, though alternatively...is there any sort of pepper sauce in here? Or peppers in general, perhaps?

Huh.

[ Huh! You don't say!!

Nevertheless, he'd already been seen and can't very well just turn around and walk away— or maybe the smart thing to do is just that, and claim he'd been sleepwalking or something. But he ignores the smart thing to do and instead enters the kitchen properly, pulling his hands out of his pockets and washing something dark red off the palms of his hands before trying them off on a nearby towel. ]

Is that what you're busy doing?

[Jade hums, in a similarly cheery and noncommittal fashion that's probably not actually reassuring in the least, as he tucks the rice ball between his hands into an accordingly rounded shape and idly watches the young man's beeline to the sink in the meanwhile. Hmm, not a very familiar face--he hasn't seen this one about the ship before, he doesn't think. A newer passenger? ...Many of those, lately...]

That is the real question here, isn't it? I wonder! What would you do if I said that I was?

[Still smiling pleasantly, and also not doing much to hide the distinctly speculative glance he's casting at Kano's hands directly after he washes them, about now.]

[ He ignores the glance at his hands— it's fine, he's fine, there's no cut or any sort of wound visible anywhere on his hands when he hangs the towel back up and approaches the kitchen counter, pulling up a chair to sit on to watch Jade do his thing. ]

Me? Oh, I won't get in your way, don't worry about that. Most people probably already expect camping food to give them a case of the runs anyways, don't they?

[There sure doesn't seem to be any wound over there at all! Though wounds aren't exactly.....the only way to get blood on one's hands, are they? (Then again, blood isn't the only substance that can be red and staining either. Hmm...)]

Well, not the most dignified way to describe that, but I suppose you're also not exactly wrong... [Questionable food occasionally cropping up in camping scenarios seems to be a uniting theme even across realities, alas...but, Jade shrugs his shoulders a bit.] Honestly, though, if it were me going through the trouble of poisoning a food supply, I'd be rather more inclined to be thorough about it. Why bother otherwise, hm? There are certain kinds of tasteless poisons that could render death within minutes in fairly small quantities--it's really quite impressive!

[Not...budging...on that cheer. Though at least there's humor to the words, which means he's probably being sarcastic! ...Probably.

Anyway, seeing as the stranger's helping himself to a seat, evidently fairly unfussed even despite the current poison-related conversation--Jade's also promptly offering the newly-made riceball in his hands Kano's way, with a smile to accompany it, as if he didn't just say any of that...!]

All hypotheticals, naturally. [Naturally!!] Care to try your luck in the more conventional sense? It's been a little while since I last got a chance to actually use a kitchen properly like this, I'll admit.

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JUNE EVENT: CAMP

CAMP AION

kitchen (very late night)

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