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

[iattractmushi]

This is the part she might not believe.

"They're... a little hard to describe. They can look like many things--snakes, flowers, hair, patches of rust, even. Different kinds are able to live different places, so you can find them in nearly any environment.

And while everyone can see the effects they have on the world, very few people can see the creatures themselves. I'm one of those few people."

It's... not exactly something he's proud of or happy about? But it is a fact and he's long since come to terms with it. It helps him help so many people, and he is happy about that.

[decohere]

It sounds unusual, but Ava is aware of plenty of increasingly strange nonsense from her own world. And has heard of even more unbelievable things since arriving here. So she's not going to be overly skeptical as Ginko describes the creatures, as odd as it all sounds. "So they're... Parasites?" she wonders.

"What makes you capable of seeing them, then? Is it an innate ability? Something you developed?"

[iattractmushi]

"Some are parasites, for sure. Others are harmless, or only latch onto the bodies of living things by mistake, or because they have no other food source readily available." He shrugs. "There are a great many different types, so it's hard to put a single label on all of them."

He shrugs again. "I was likely born this way. Most like me are. Very occasionally someone will be so profoundly affected by an encounter they will develop the ability, but that is far more rare."

[decohere]

"I see," Ava finds the idea quite interesting, wishing she could see them to understand better what Ginko was talking about. She wonders if her world has such a thing, just hidden from her view.

"A whole ecosystem of their own, then? Does it feel strange, with them not here?" Ava figures they follow along the same sort of rules with no insects or animals wandering about.

[iattractmushi]

"...yeah, actually. It's kind of... eerie."

He's been trying not to think about it, but he's not upset she brought it up. It's hard to ignore and he probably shouldn't be, really, it's just... he doesn't know how to fix it. There's nothing he can do. So trying to ignore it as best he can is the only option.

"Where I'm from, mushi are quite literally everywhere. There are so many, it's hard to put a number on them. Not seeing them... normally it would be a sign something was very, very wrong, but I haven't been able to see anything obvious yet." There's something else he can try but he's been putting it off for a number of reasons. "They're everywhere life exists. So if they're not here, it kind of implies to me that we shouldn't be, either."

Not that any one of them actually wants to be here in the first place.

[decohere]

She listens thoughtfully, Ginko trying to apply the principles of his own world to this one. "I think it just further proves that this is an artificial environment, right? None of this was created from life. Who knows, maybe we're not really here either." Always on her this is a virtual reality hologram nonsense, sorry. But she's always been able to flit in and out of reality at whim, so it's not like that thought bothers her more than anything else does.

"But I guess ultimately perception is our reality, so we're here and we exist and so does this place and it's real enough that we experience it. Are you familiar with Descartes?"