JUNE EVENT: CAMP

[sailmods]

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!

Comments

[sabigoe]

Truthfully, there isn't a song that she's able to request for herself. Any fond memories of music from her parents or the ones that she sang with people that she once considered to be her friends, are nothing but a distant memory to her now. If there were any tunes from her own world that she could name, it's highly unlikely to be familiar. And with a high possibility of giving her painful memories.

So, she would rather find enjoyment in Darlington sharing his favorite piece. She mostly tries to focus on others, often avoiding talk of herself.

While he plays, she's smiling the whole while, eventually bouncing her foot and bobbing her head side to side a little. The mistakes she pays no mind. A cheerful tune that allows her to forget what potential dangers they may face. It's been all buried to the back of her mind. Though very young, she's not completely in the dark about their frightening captain.

Once he finishes playing, she claps her hands together for a round of applause.

[more_magic]

He grins as Fio sinks into the music, tapping her foot and bobbing her head in time, her smile as brightly delighted as he hadn't known he was hoping for. When he finishes, and she claps, Darlington shifts the guitar to one side to bow a little. "Thank you," he says, gracious if amused. "I'm glad you liked it."

[sabigoe]

Camping is entirely new to Fio and campfire songs is one of the activities she had been looking forward to. She's glad to be able to catch someone playing music. Other days, it seemed like there was some sort of scary storytelling and she made sure to avoid the fire pit around those times.

"Of course! Thank you for playing it for me. I've never had a musician play a song for me before!"

[more_magic]

"Never?" he says, slightly surprised both by the admission and how matter of fact--if still cheerful--she sounds in saying it. There were vaster differences between his home and the worlds some of the other passengers came from, he knew, but the thought of no one playing a song for Fio still tugs a little at something in his chest. "Well, then I'm all the more honored to have been the first. And hopefully not the last."

Idly, he picks out a few more notes on the guitar, the same improvisational stuff he'd been playing around with before Fio had entered the circle of firelight. "How are you enjoying the camp?" he asks after a moment. "Where I'm from, it's not unusual for kids, even ones a little older than you, to go to a camp like this for the summer."

[sabigoe]

The closest might have been her mother or father humming a song to her when she was very young, but nothing like a musician with an instrument or anything like that. Still, a happy memory like that feels so distant and sad to her now. Only because those people eventually stopped caring for her. The memories that she makes now with other passengers have been far happier.

"I never got to do anything like this with the other kids back home. But I'm having so much fun here and making lots of new friends." At least, that's what Fio would like to think. She's quick to call anyone her friend. "Was camping like this the same for you, when you were a kid?"