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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There's silence for a moment and then Malcolm can't help but let out a giggle. "So if I hated it, you'd say you lied?" Somehow her nervousness is helping to decrease his. "That's a lot of work to put into a lie."

Malcolm glances down at the letter again. "I don't think anyone's ever told me that they adore me before, at least not anyone that I happened to adore too." A crooked smile. "I um.. guess that's a good thing?"

"Yes, of course. I figured I'd save you the guilt over breaking my heart," Ava claims, and it does sound rather ridiculous saying it aloud. But it was more about deniability than believability.

But she can't help the hopeful little smile of him admitting the same. "Could be a good thing. Or a rather foolish one, given the circumstances."

"Right. Of course." He smiles slyly. "That's very generous of you." They both know she's lying, but he can play along.

Ava is right. This could be good, or it could be foolish. Malcolm shifts nervously from one foot to the other. "Look, um.. I could have written a note back, but it would have taken me too long to do and I was impatient to just say what I wanted to say." He looks up at her. "I like you. You intrigue me and I want to keep getting to know you. I want to know everything about you."

He's already aware that there will probably be some things he learns that he won't like, but he knows that nobody is perfect. His own life isn't perfect. Maybe they can be flawed together.

"I'm very generous," Ava claims, putting her elbow up to try covering that 'NO BOYS ALLOWED' sign she's standing next to.

It's foolish, falling for anyone, getting attached in a place where it's surely going to be used against them both. Where their chances of survival are so low. But she's never allowed herself the opportunity, even back home. Has never dared opened up to somebody. All out of fear. And Ava is tired of allowing fear to control her decisions.

"Everything is a lot," Ava tells him, "But I can start with... I've never done any of this before. So please don't expect me to be any good at it." She reaches out a hand though.

Yeah, he sees that sign, Ava. He doesn't even want to know.

Anything that develops between them could undoubtedly be used against them. Malcolm knows this, and yet... if he has a chance to actually be happy in such a miserable place, he wants to take it.

He slips his hand in hers. "We can go slowly. It's okay." The last woman he was seeing got murdered, after all. Malcolm will always protect the people that he cares about, but at least he knows that Ava is able to protect herself when it comes down to it. "You're just... one of the most fascinating people I've ever met."

It's fine, she'll be taking it down soon enough.

Fascinating is a term she's been on the receiving end of, a lot. But Malcolm's not trying to pin her to some display board like a rare butterfly to add to some exotic collection. He makes her feel like she actually matters, the sort of thing she's not all that great at believing on her own.

Ava traces her thumb over the back of Malcolm's knuckles, gaze locked on their intertwined fingers. "Okay," Ava agrees. "I think you're pretty neat too. But where do we begin?" she asks hesitantly, because if there's supposed to be some sort of step by step process to this whole thing, she has no idea.

As much as he wants to learn everything about Ava, Malcolm has no intention of studying her like a science project. She is much more important than her abilities.

It feels good just to hold her hand, as lame as that might sound. Malcolm is a touch-starved person, and being as stressed as he has been on this camping trip, a little bit of skin to skin contact is bringing him comfort.

He shrugs a little. "Uh. If we were back home I'd suggest we go out for a drink..." Not much of an option for that until they get back to the ship. "There's always the dance, I guess, if you'd like to go?"

"If you weren't going to ask, I was actually going to raid everyone's belongings while they were busy," Ava admits with not much shame at all. "So yes."

"Wow, really?" Malcolm asks, an amused smile on his face. Of course she was. As wrong as that might be... he kind of can't blame her for wanting to spy on their fellow cruisers and he'd want to know if she found anything interesting.

"I'll try to make it more fun than rifling through people's things, if that's even possible," he says.

"You know, in case anyone is hiding something," Ava justifies her intentions to snoop. "Though if anyone is going to go on a murder spree... it'd most likely be at the dance. So finding anything suspicious would be a little late to the punch."

She pauses. "Or they'll poison the punch bowl."

Wait no this isn't what she wants to talk about right now. "Either way, I much rather go with you. As a... it's a date?"

"I hope someone will spike the punch bowl," Malcolm says. He already misses whiskey, which might be a problem. Alcoholism does run in the family after all.

He looks back up at Ava when she says the word 'date'. "Uh.. yes. It-it can be if you want it to be." A smile crosses his face.

"Hard to go a whole week sober?" Ava asks. Alcohol is abundant enough on the ship, for free, so she gets why it's a popular way to pass the time and forget the horrors for a bit. And she's finally getting more used to it now that she's discovered a few drinks she enjoys, even though she's not a heavy drinker herself. Not enough to make a lifestyle of it.

"Yeah. I want it to be," Ava confirms, a shy smile in return. "I'm not sure why I've been so afraid of it."

"It is here," he replies. Malcolm supposes that's why the ship is so well-stocked with alcohol. People are going to drink their stress away. He resolves to not allow himself to fall into that trap.

"I'm not sure either." Malcolm smiles. "You kept disappearing on me in the middle of conversations or when you would put the cards under my door."

Ava turns her back on Malcolm with a quick pivot of her heel, trying to hide her embarrassment and instead making it all the more obvious. But she can't disappear at this moment and prove his point. So she sighs out slowly.

"Maybe I didn't have anything else to say. And other places to be."

"Hmmmm," he says, watching as she tries to hide her face. Malcolm's not trying to make this into a 'gotcha' or anything, because he doesn't want to completely embarrass her.

"Because there are so many other things to do on the ship," Malcolm continues, needing to get his sarcasm out, at least. "Listen... it's okay. I just thought maybe that it was something I did, or that I wasn't a very interesting person for you to talk to."

And yet she kept leaving the cards, so he didn't know how to interpret that.

"There's plenty of things," Ava protests. Although after awhile it all starts to get a bit repetitive. But she's good enough at finding her own entertainment.

Like the coded notes she wrote.

She peeks back around, can see his teasing expression, and pouts just slightly. "It was something you did. Being too annoyingly attractive, with those silly blue eyes. They're unfair."

"Oh," he says with surprise and also laughs. "My eyes were too blue. That's a new one."

Malcolm cheeks tinge pink and he looks shyly down at his feet. "Um, thank you though. I've gotten a lot of compliments on my eyes." 'Annoyingly attractive' is new though.

"Well, how do you think I felt when the pretty girl kept running away from me? I thought I'd offended you somehow."

Of course he has, they're so striking. She wraps her arms around her middle, slowly turning to mostly face him again, still just the slightest bit off. He doesn't offend her, she shakes her head at that. But it seems they mutually make each other nervous.

"Think any girl wouldn't know how to say no to those eyes," Ava comments. "But lucky for me, there just isn't much competition around." Not a whole lot of other women in her age range at all.

"No one could compete with you anyway," Malcolm says, a soft smile on his face. "There's no one else like you."

He hopes she can hear the compliment in his voice, because that's how he means it. Malcolm's interest in her has nothing to do with a lack of other women on the ship.

"Statistically speaking..." Ava begins jokingly, but really, she has no idea. In what aspects he means, how unique a combination of traits she could possibly be. But she's happy enough to be the only her that he knows.

"I do mean it though. About these circumstances, meeting this way. It would have been nice, to know somebody like you. Back home."

"Yeah," he agrees. "I would have liked to have met you there too." Both of them seem like they were pretty lonely before they arrived on the ship.

"I uh... I guess I need to find something to wear to the dance," Malcolm says. Because you know what he's definitely not wearing? His camp counselor shorts.

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JUNE EVENT: CAMP

CAMP AION

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