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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[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?

I haven't quite, nope. How impressive~ let's say you win the Most Suspicious Sight award for the evening, at least to this bard! [ he pats to his own chest, but there's also noticeable relief that skulduggery really is this... thorough, with investigation of this camp realm. he sure is working hard.

and here on the other hand we have a slacker drunkard bard, he too is suspicious and had done his fair share of trying to fly through the barrier to no result but he hadn't been enterprising enough to explore the water. he'd almost drowned once so, there's that wariness. ]

Horror of horrors, if this excursion might actually end with nothing happening besides... camping. I won't complain but I do wonder what's the point, it surely can't be an act of mercy after that first battle royale.

[Skulduggery gives himself a congratulatory pat on the shoulder, the surface of the water beneath his feet rising until he can step directly onto the dry dock a comfortable space away from where Venti's sitting.]

I doubt we've managed to earn the captain's mercy so soon, unfortunately. No... He doesn't need blood and violence to be satisfied. I thought maybe he'd encourage it just because he enjoys it, but... [shrug!!!] Looks like we've been left to our own devices for the duration, and lucky for us, everyone seems happy to play nice.

Mm, it makes me almost a little embarrassed that we sent out a warning for mass death only for nothing to happen... so far, anyway. [ the excursion wasn't over, he could still be waiting for the shoe to drop and weapons to fall out of the sky or something. who could know? ]

By the way, don't you have to breathe down there? [ in the lake...?? ]

Me? Breathe? Ah... not really. [He's a skeleton, after all.] I am generally immune to things that require organs to function. Although I personally dislike staying under for too long. I might prune.

[Ha ha ha. Get it?????]

I think the warning was fair, all things considered. And even if this excursion turns out to be a dud, so to speak, there's a good chance the next one won't be so easy.

[ prune....... pfft. with what skin? he does look skulduggery over once more as if making certain all is well and, say, a hermit crab wouldn't fall out of a gap between bones or anything, but there really isn't wildlife here at all huh. ] 'Immunity' to organ-related functions might be a handy skill to have, maybe you'll be less delicate than us unfortunate organ-havers. But I hope you'll watch out for yourself regardless, imagine if there really was something in that lake and you found yourself in trouble?

I wouldn't complain for a harmless excursion if it gets us off the ship, even if the wildlife and flora are... lacking. Perhaps there are clues somewhere but I'm not sure if I've found any useful information besides the surreality of this scenery.

What, like a sea hag? [He says that like "been there, done that."] I suppose then I'd have woken up on the ship tomorrow morning. Thankfully, we've been spared hags, along with every other living creature. [He's been up and down the entire reality at this point, and it's... well. Dead.]

I wish it were truly harmless. If we weren't being fed off of in some way, I would be having a much better time. But, we can't win everything all the time, I suppose...

I can't say I'm familiar with hags, but perhaps a serpent... such beasts within the sea are stuff of so many legends! But I suppose a lake as this might be more cramped for one, though it seems strangely never-ending.

By harmless, then, that people aren't being driven to murder or suicide. As much as that counts as a baseline, from that very first excursion. [ but what a baseline it is, so many of them have been pretty traumatized by it. ]

What exactly would we provide as 'feed', in a place like this?

Fair enough. [After all, he's right! Compared to the last event, this really is relatively harmless.] It's unfortunate that we had to start with the Battle Royale, but at least it forewarned us against expecting this much peace in the future.

[As for the million-dollar question at hand...] I thought the purpose of things was to generate energy from our deaths. It's a standard habit for necromancers to try and churn through as many souls as possible to build up their strength. But, that isn't the case here. There's no pain and misery. Hell, there isn't even any poison ivy for anyone to stumble through. It can't be marshmallows and friendship bracelets fueling his research, can it?

[Sorry buddy, you're here and asking the questions, so you get a face-full of questions Skulduggery has been stewing on.]

[ well that is what he's kinda here for, musing and mysteries. kind of. he's not a detective, he's a spoony bard, but he's putting in more genuine effort into trying to find what can be done. dying twice and going through these life crises could prompt that much... ]

That's rather the same as my reasoning, too. You weren't here for when Miss Jenny visited, but her ship and the Captain's run on... souls. From the passengers on the previous voyages, while the lucky or unlucky ones may linger on this plane as ghosts to serve us as the crew. But she can also draw on emotions, or memories, to cast spells with sigils and summon items from other realities: our home worlds. Rather similar to how we could occasionally get delivered boxes that contain things from home.

If emotions have power I suppose even having fun at camp could be of value to the Captain. Somehow. [ ... ] But I imagine it's less power than misery would provide.

If their ships are that similiar... [Hmmmmm.] I wonder what you could tell me about Jenny? I know that she apparently won a bet with the captain; that she was seen drawing sigils in the jewelry shop; she took emotions from memories to summon objects; and... I believe somebody mentioned something about her brothers? I'm not sure about that. But I wonder -- what is she? Is she the same thing as the captain? And what was her goal when she came aboard? I know it ended... badly, but that's it.

[He really wants to know what's up with the jewelry store, but he's pretty sure all of the passengers are similarly in the dark, there.]

… It’s a little funny but now that I think of it, so much happened that maybe we really need to find a good way to try to keep newcomers up to date on information we know. [ maybe there really should be a brochure or some kind of write up. it’s a good idea. he’s more of a musician and a teller of tales—which, he supposes, this might actually count as such! a rather dramatic and at times, traumatically tragic story unfolding in real time. ]

Miss Jenny came to the ship as a Pirate Captain and stayed with us about a week or so. She was an alumnus from a previous group of passengers… I didn’t actually hear anything about a bet, but if she did bet against the Captain I assume that’s how she won her freedom. She came to us in her own ship, which was deserted. There weren’t even any ghost crew, unlike ours! However some of us did sneak onto and board her ship, including me. A friend and I found her bedroom, the walls of which were scrawled with her sigil over and over again, and a star chart which I believe charted out… different realities. Miss Friday told me that she’s trying to visit different realities, presumably to find help to take down the Captain. She also told me the sigils on her wall were Jenny’s own personal sigil and symbol, but that it was… flawed, or errored somehow, and that she might be ‘losing’ herself by traveling to so many different realities.

She has, I think, two brothers who I believe the Captain is holding hostage or… [ well, they do know the ship runs on souls. ] I think one of them is already… something must have happened to him, Miss Friday has his phone. After that week, Miss Jenny transformed into a larger form, maybe her true self, a storm goddess who tried to attack the Captain’s door to free her loved ones.

The door wouldn’t open. One of us talked her down, and eventually the storm calmed and she left. But I have hope that we’ll see her again someday.

Edited 2022-06-22 04:25 (UTC)

[Skulduggery has been largely in the dark about the finer points of Jenny's visit, and so he listens to everything Venti has to say on the matter without interrupting.

Her being from a previous group, he already knew, but he hadn't realized her ship and the captain's were the same. And yet she didn't have a crew, which meant she was resisting the temptation to use other people as fuel. That would, then, explain her own sigils becoming harder to remember; she's powering the ship entirely on her own.

He writes off both brothers at first, assuming the very thing Venti doesn't mention -- that they've been consumed by the ship. Yet... why would Friday still have one of their phones, if that were the case? And certainly, someone with knowledge of the situation like Jenny would know best whether or not it was possible to survive the captain for any period of time.

Part of him wonders what would've happened, should the door have opened. Mostly, he's glad they haven't had to find out quite yet.]

You're right. We really do need some sort of newsletter... [But that's a problem for other people, surely!] And I certainly hope she returns. I have so many questions. I mean -- how did she become a god before the captain? That would certainly irritate him... [so he definitely hopes that's the case]

[ a newsletter...... funnily enough he wonders if he can pester ebalon into it, like he'd kind of bullied him into writing a letter. but then again ebalon might just murder him especially after how he'd last left him, so, wait, where's the downside here again?

his look is with a kind of wry amusement that skul also happens to be talking to--well, admittedly an ex-god. probably. things are a little questionable with him after losing his 'godhood' and how shady the godhood happened to be in the first place. ]

Who's to say she became a god? Do you think all or most gods weren't, originally? Well there are tales of mortals that aspire to godhood but how rare or successful they are varies~

But I imagine gods and the rules of divinity might work different between different realities. In the meantime we should try to foil him though, hm?

I suppose I just wouldn't expect a god to be bound by anything less than another diety. But you're right, it's likely another matter of semantics.

[He has absolutely no idea about Venti's backstory, so the wry look is written off as teenage antics. He's just the bard who thinks Friday is a person for some weird reason!]

I wonder... what do you see as the most ideal outcome for our current situation? [It seems as though most people have only thought as far as "defeating the captain," and he's not sure how many of them have given it any thought beyond that.]

[ well he was kinda weak even when he was a god so. yeah. maybe it's still a little embarrassing that he got captured here to this realm but oh well!

the ideal though? ] Hm, maybe...

That we can win over the Captain with the power of friendship, let people go back home if they'd like, or travel through realities on this cruise ship for fun and profit instead of death and trauma! [ yeah!!! what can go wrong! ] I must say, I've never traveled to other realities or worlds before. Even a lot of technology let alone songs and stories were new to me on this ship, I'd love to visit more worlds or even excursions if only they weren't so murderous or... artificial, like this one. It'd be nice to be free to do and go where we will, with what friends we've made across realities.

What about you?

[Skulduggery chuckles, both delighted and relieved by the answer.] Pretty much exactly the same thing, really. Convince the captain to put aside this asinine search for godhood and, with any luck, reorient him so he might try... not turning every living being into fuel for his research. Allow people to come and go as they please...

[Ahhh, if only.]

Realistically, we'll likely have to replace the captain, or somehow remove the role entirely, in order to at least maintain a safe space for those of us who are here now. My only real goal is to ensure those of us who have no safe reality to return to have somewhere safe to stay.

[ oh--

that's an interesting goal, one that had vaguely occurred to him but wasn't really in the forefront of his mind and the renewal of the idea is an intriguing one. though of course he agrees. ] I see...

Are you one of them? Someone with no safe reality.

[It's easy to get too close to the truth around people. He won't get into specifics, but it seems silly to lie at this juncture.]

I think so, yes. Regardless of my situation, though -- I've met too many people aboard the ship who would be happier to stay there if it weren't a death sentence. [Fio comes immediately to mind, and Ava too. Plenty of others died right before their arrival, too; surely they would want the option to remain outside of time and free from death for a while longer.]

Mm, I see what you mean, I think I know a few too. [ and especially those who had died back home--he's exactly the bleeding heart type who wants a second chance for them. actually, he's kind of the bleeding heart who'd want a second chance for anyone and it's why he'd almost extend that sentiment to the captain, as damaged as it is after everyone had been so damaged by that battle royale. ]

For now, convincing or... removing the Captain both seem like almost impossible goals. But we're collecting clues little by little, I think. Maybe not here exactly but the fact that he'd shown himself to us after the first excursion is promising, almost none of us had seen him before then.

[Bleeding hearts of the world unite, because Skulduggery would desperately like to believe that everyone is capable of redemption. It's sort of imperative to how he views himself, after all. N-Not that he has anything to be redeeming himself over, of course! No shady past backstory here. Just a regular skeleton dude with a totally normal history with necromancy...]

It helps to know that he's quite literally searching for himself. If we could figure out what he is before he can, it would be valuable leverage over him. [And, because it seems he might be in sympathetic company, he can admit:] Part of me hopes that if we find out who he was, we can maybe return him to some semblance of a person again. And then, maybe, we'd have a chance at convincing him to put his desires for apotheosis aside.

[ ganbatte Normal Skeleton Dude with no fellow skeletons in the closet or anything...! also, though-- ] He's searching for himself, really? Mm, though it's true someone brought up he had multiple names, didn't he. [ then again, venti does too. or one more, anyway. ]

Though, that rather reminds me about what Miss Friday said about Miss Jenny, that she might be losing more and more of herself simply by traveling through realities. If we continue to do so on this ship, it might be wearing on the Captain as well. Perhaps he's been traveling for so long... time could so erode at the sense of self until it's almost entirely lost.

I think you're right. It's likely that whatever the captain used to be, he gave it up in order to continue his pursuit. The question is, why does he want to become a god? He says it's power for power's sake, but I loathe that answer. It's too simple.

[It's impossible to combat, too. There's no saving a man from his ego, if that's the only thing there to keep him going.]

Of course, if he gave up parts of himself to power the ship... hmmmm. Hypothetically, maybe those pieces are still there? [He tilts his head.] The shades of past passengers are still with us; would it be too much to think the sacrificed pieces of him could also be there, too?

It's simple, but often times ambition might not need a reason. Still, I'd also respect a different one too. [ those who strive for godhood for instance, for the sake of country, for immortality, for their people or principles as eternity or freedom. but he too doesn't have a read on the captain and honestly, thinks it might be wiser to avoid him if possible.

skul's theory has merit, but... ] I think most of the ship has been explored, except for the bridge door where the Captain is. If there are recoverable pieces of him it might be there, but that's where he lives in the first place right?

I don't even think anyone's been inside, except for two people and... well, one girl lost a hand when the Captain confronted them. Needless to say, it's dangerous.

I was thinking more along the lines of the shades that we know inhabit the ship. It could be that somewhere amongst the invisible passengers, there are bits and pieces of the man left behind. But of course, we have no idea how the shades are generated. That might be wildly off base for me.

[Most places have been explored, that's true. But not all of them. The bridge is off-limits, of course. He had already heard about the incident with the girl and her hand, and knows not to try that avenue any time soon. There are the crew quarters, unless somebody has managed to get behind the bulkheads. Not to mention the engine itself. And of course...]

What about the jewelry shop? It's off-limits, isn't it? Jenny was the only person I've heard of that ever took anything from there...

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