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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"That," he nods toward the skeleton. "Where did you get it from?"

How. Why. Whose bones are these. Are they sentinent. Natsuno has so many questions and neither of them is kind. His ire is only fueled by Pal's reaction, and he doesn't know if he's angrier about the confusion (like it isn't obvious) or the mild tone (how dare). He's going to resent both, just in case.

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.

"I get that. But how."

It really is creepier when it doesn't move. All the undead he met, from the shiki back home to Skulduggery on the ship, still had their own will animating them.

"It better not be a real person."

"Of course it isn't a real person." Honestly, Natsuno, what do you take him for? Pal sighs, and rubs his temples, and tries to remind himself that not everyone grew up with servitor skeletons wandering around doing menial tasks. "It's an amalgamation of collagen and calcium phosphate that happens to be in the shape of a human skeleton."

And because, for better or worse, Palamedes believes that almost all misunderstandings can be caused via education, he adds, "If you want to come in I can show you how it works."

The invisible barrier around the cabin disappears. Pity it's not one of the red cabin's, specifically Clarke's - in a day or two the prank war will escalate enough for Natsuno to regret not being able to steal her bed and throw it in the lake...

Today, though, is still for stress and suspicion.

"Fine, but don't do anything weird with it."

He enters the cabin - still armed, by the way - and leans against the wall. The look on his face is definitely still judgmental.

"Don't worry, I'm not into that sort of thing."

While Natsuno is coming around to the door, Pal takes the broom from where it rests in the constructs hands and sets it aside. Then, ignoring the sulking, he begins his lesson. "Servitor skeletons can be made in two different ways: one, using the remains of the deceased, and two, growing them from smaller bone samples. This is the latter type." He waves his hand at the still-frozen construct, and the bone collapses into itself until suddenly there's just a little piece of it lying on the cabin floor. Pal picks it up. "They are only capable of doing what they're programmed to do, and to be frank, I'm not a good enough bone adept to make one doing anything but the most straightforward tasks. Particularly not in this environment. The thanergy is even lower here than it is on the ship, and I already have a hell of a headache."

Natsuno listens to the full explanation, watching impassively as the construct collapses onto itself. That's a lot to take in, and he's still suspicious. Programmed servitor makes him think of Friday, and bone adept suggests there's an entire branch of necromancy dedicated to animating skeletons. He wonders what a "good enough" bone adept can do - raise an army of the undead while cackling like a maniac? Ugh, this is stupid.

Pal's comment about low thanergy grabs his attention, but first thing first:

"So where did you get the bone sample?" It had to come from somewhere. Does he just he carry it in his pockets? "That person's essence... it's not there anymore, right?"

It's not the desecrating graves part he has a problem with. It's the not letting someone move on.

As far as Palamedes knows, Ninth House necromancers aren’t in the habit of cackling like maniacs, but other than that? Natsuno is pretty close to being right about bone adepts.

Palamedes holds up the bit of bone between his thumb and forefinger and squints at it. It’s about the size of a marble, shapeless and unrecognizable as any part of a human skeleton. “Biopsy to my right scapula. It was years ago, I barely remember. It’s easier to manipulate tissue if you have a genetic connection to it, you see.”

He pockets the bit of bone and looks at Natusno, going just a little more serious. Pal does remember Rin’s skepticism when he had explained skeleton constructs, all those week’s ago, so it isn't the first time he has been confronted with this particular question. “Bone is just a collection of cells, and servitor skeletons are just skeletons. There’s no person—no soul, no essence—left. They have the sentience of stones.”

Natsuno nods and his scowling face smooth back into a neutral expression. "Alright."

If Pal used his own bone tissue to create it, and it has no sentience, then it's no different than a vacuum cleaner and therefore nothing to get worked up about. Sure, it looks creepy, but to each his own. He's not going to throw a fit over the shape like one Rita Mordio...

"What about the low thanergy? Is it because there are fewer people here?"

It's frustrating, but this place really seems devoid of any other life, just like the island.

The answer seems to satisfy Natsuno, which frankly surprises Pal, but he isn’t about to complain. The grumpy teen vampire has his own moral code, his own beliefs about how the world does and should operate, and slowly, Pal has begun to understand the parameters. There’s an internal logic to what Natsuno considers right and wrong, even the logic doesn’t map perfectly onto Pal’s understanding of the world, and he respects him for that.

“That’s part of it.” Pal goes back to sit on the edge of his bunk and absently rubs his temple. Oh goody, another headache’s coming. “But it’s more than that. I’m sure you’ve noticed that nothing is alive here. Even the plants are suspect. That also means that nothing has ever died here—no people, sure, but also no flora and fauna. Not even any bacteria, at least not until we all started showing up.”

"Yeah, I noticed. Me and Clarke searched the forest more than once." They probably should've quit earlier, but as pointless as collecting soil samples and building snares was, it still felt like better use of his time than pretending this is a real summer camp. "The robot guy said the trees look the wrong density, and not really alive."

He shrugs. Natsuno is a city kid who didn't care about nature until his parents forced him to live in the middle of it, after which he started to hate it on principle. All trees look like... well, trees.

"You said Ody was created when the 'game' started. Is it the same with this place?"

It’s funny to think that the robot guy could be in reference to a few different people at this point, when not long ago, Palamedes had never heard of, or even imagined, a sentient machine. “That’s my assessment as well. The flora are thanergenic black holes. It's not living by any standard I can detect.”

Pal has never seen a forest before, but he knows enough about how plants should act, and this definitely isn’t it. Even the hydroponics bay back on the Library had felt like more of a living, breathing ecosystem than this place.

He nods. “Yup. I checked most of the furniture in here as soon as we arrived. It was less than a day old. Everything else is the same age, too, regardless of appearance. It’s like it all sprung fully-formed from the captain’s forehead right before we got here.”

"I bet that if you check my flamethrower, it will be the same age as Ody."

He makes no move to hand it over, though. It's merely a statement, not something worse making Pal sick over.

"It's set dressing. All of it. All this power and ambitions of godhood, and he's using it to cast us into some weird little theater."

On this matter, Palamedes and Natsuno agree. “And it’s shoddy set dressing at that.” Pal makes a face. Given everything else they’ve been through, this complaint sounds stupid, but the Captain’s indifferent attitude towards his creations makes the whole situation seem even more pointless.

For better or worse, Pal can understand the desire for power, the need to be worshipped, the longing to create and be applauded for one’s creation. But it’s like the Captain isn’t even trying that hard. “He created a whole fucking pocket dimension only to decide at the last minute not to color in the lines. So why do it at all?”

"If the point is make us run around, maybe he just puts the minimal effort so he can sit back and watch. Last time no one had the presence of mind to examine the scenery, so it worked. And even now, more than enough people are going along the whole summer camp bullshit."

Friendship bracelets, macaroni art, playing with the rope course. So stupid.

"Honestly, I try not to overthink his motives. He's just childish and petty."

Palamedes doesn’t disagree with Natsuno, and yet—

“Even children have reasons,” he complains. “Even monsters and madmen. The reasons might be irrational, but they exist.” He sighs and scrubs a hand through his hair.

“This setting, it’s supposed to evoke nostalgia, some kind of warm feelings, right? I’ve never seen anything like it, but I’ve heard people say that ‘summer camp’ is a whole thing where they come from.”

Natsuno nods. "Yeah. I heard about it, though I've never been to one, and I doubt the captain would want to invoke any warm feelings. More likely, it's meant to remind us of horror movies where a serial killer murders a bunch of unsuspecting teenagers in a summer camp."

If last time was based on a book, surely this one is also based on Earth media.

"...Ah. You know, that makes a lot more sense." It also presents a rather unsettling prediction for what might still be to come. "So when do you think the murder will start?"

Pal's tone is light, almost joking, because the whole thing is still so stupid. But the question is sincere all the same. The last few days have been remarkably peaceful. When will the other shoe finally drop?

Natsuno's answer is similarly sincere.

"It's been three days out of seven, so... if anything's gonna happen, I'd say it will be a day or two before we're supposed to go back. Just when we think it's safe this time."

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JUNE EVENT: CAMP

CAMP AION

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