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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"I'll spare us both my humming along," Ava glances over at Skulduggery from over Max's shoulder, making a face at him. "And I don't think that bag of bones can carry a beat. Look at him." Said so affectionately.

But now that she's not thinking about it as much, focusing on other things, Ava finds the steps do come along much smoother, more naturally. "So can we try one of those spins? Or a dip?"

Skulduggery makes such a face. Oh, wait, no he doesn't. He does, however, say, "Hey," in a highly offended tone. "I have a fantastic voice and near-perfect pitch." Well. Mostly perfect pitch. Well... whatever, he's good at singing but that's not the point here. The point is, "Maybe if you'd have asked nicely, I would help out."

He is going to help out, though, because he's a good friend who is very attentive to his pals' needs. Even though he's literally just like, I assume lying on a bottom bunk with his feet stuck over the end because the beds are too small for him by like, four inches.

"Let's see, the atmosphere seems to scream 80's movie, so..." Oh, he knows exactly the slow song from the '80s! So don't mind him if he just starts humming a straightforward rendition of Careless Whisper, the date-night classic of 1984. Emphasis on the beat, obviously, because it is literally designed for slow dancing.

Like the two of them can't feel that expression.

And Skulduggery can feel Max's because, wow. That sure is a song choice, one he knows which is kind of a miracle because it would be almost a hundred years old in his time. But even in the year 2076 there's nothing quite like the ballad of someone cheating on their partner that still brings out the slow dancing. He's never been to a school dance (or school) but that song is definitely played at every prom in America even a century later.

Humans are so weird, getting all romantic with each other while listening to someone croon about never dancing again because of crushing guilt.

It does make keeping beat a little bit easier though, and he pulls the hand that's on Ava's waist back, "But of course. That's the fun part."

He grasps both her hands, leaning back and then raising one of their linked arms up and over her head. Spinning time! She doesn't have to do much other than follow the lead of his arms and feet and then she's spun around, and Max is on the opposite side of her.

It's a shame there aren't more opportunities to dance because Max is damn good at it.

"I did ask nicely," Ava claims, because she did so in a way that wasn't actually asking so he wouldn't feel pressured to do so, but was more than invited to prove her wrong!

And she's actually a bit delighted once she recognizes the song choice, hoping Skulduggery gets to the sax solo. Obviously the best part of the song.

Spinning is a much easier motion for Ava to follow, a fluid and practiced movement from all her kicks. Even if she doesn't end it with her foot to his face.

"This isn't so bad," Ava finally admits, tries lifting her arm to allow Max to spin too.

For someone who is very reluctant around the word "friend," Max is certainly fulfilling his role, isn't he? It's really a shame there's nowhere more pleasant to dance than the clubs and bars along the promenade; you'd think there would be a ballroom with a phantasmal band playing somewhere. Then they'd be able to enjoy the sight of Max... maybe, possibly enjoying himself???

"You're doing great," he offers, a little sing-songy to keep with the beat. "Malcolm's feet might make it through the night..."

He actually chuckles as Skulduggery makes that last bit match with the song, giving him an amused look as he gracefully spins under Ava's arm. It's nice they're similar heights.

"I have every confidence in you. Plus it will be easier with him when you're not thinking about the dancing part of it." You know, getting lost in each other's eyes or whatever it is humans do when they're out on the dance floor with each other.

"Things like this are easy to overthink, and are strangely more natural and fluid the less you concentrate on them." He moves his hands to her sides for a quick dip, as Skulduggery hums his way towards that sax solo.

Ava makes a tiny miserable groan at the mention of Malcolm, thought she had mostly escaped the scrutiny of her friends over it.

"Don't want a man with weak feet," she claims, right as Max dips her. Ava makes a little 'eep' but he doesn't allow her to fall, so she follows it up with a relieved giggle.

"You met him. Does he seem too... nice, for someone like me?" Because she values their opinions very much!

Skulduggery briefly pauses his musical accompaniment. "Too nice for you?" He scoffs, half-teasing but also half-sincere. "What does that mean in this context, exactly? Are you afraid he'll pull out too many chairs for you?"

Oh no Ava you are adorable. He is definitely laughing in his eyes, without making any noise.

"He was very impressed with the notes and the amount of time it took to solve them." Which may sound weird to Skulduggery because generally notes don't require needing to be 'solved.' But oh well.

He inclines his head towards their makeshift radio, "What he said. Do you think perhaps he may take you out to dinner to many times?"

"Yes, I was hoping they were complicated enough to force you to solve them together. So you could all be extra impressed at my cleverness." Because the real ones took many decades to decode. But that would have been an annoying turn around time for Malcolm to finally ask her out to the dance, so it worked out better in the end.

She gives Max a bit of a look, because she can read that expression well enough, she thinks, but at least he isn't outright laughing at her. Not unkindly.

"What? No, no. Nothing like that. But the first time anyone tried to pull out a chair for me, it was Dr. Watson. And I thought he was trying to take that seat, so I went for the other one..." Ava explains the misunderstanding, a bit embarrassed. Watson had thought it was more of a time period cultural difference, but mostly Ava's upbringing wasn't much focused on manners or how to politely interact with others. Just steal things, and kill anyone that got in the way.

Which is half the problem, but she's figuring it out. She sighs. "I just mean..." what if she's not good enough for him, doesn't deserve all that? Disappoints him? Ruins everything? "Nevermind."

The chair story? Adorable. The "aww" it elicits is only slightly teasing. Ava is an assassin in a state of quantum flux; seeing her worried over something so mundane as whether or not a boy likes her is fantastically charming. If Malcolm upsets her in any way, he's going to shoot him.

"If you aren't willing to tell us," Skulduggery drawls, "Maybe I won't be willing to debase myself with that saxophone solo." A good bargaining chip, honestly.

Wow that actually get a chuckle out of Max because Ava that is precious beyond words. "It's never too late to learn such things. Besides, he probably thought it was endearing and I'm sure Malcolm would as well."

He makes a tsk tsk noise and shakes his head, "You should know better by now that 'Nevermind' is not going to work on us. Especially with such high risk stakes as this."

Meaning the sax solo.

Right, the sax solo is very important and she would be awful to deprive them of it.

"It just sounds pathetic to say your insecurities out loud," Ava admits, but at least she's not worrying about her footwork as she continues along. Decent enough that she's not going to have to come up with excuses for why she can't at the dance itself.

"But I think I'm just waiting for that moment for him to realize I'm a bit of a shit person. I almost kidnapped a child, you know. And don't you but you didn't me, Bill threatened not to help me anymore."

Definitely was going to say but you didn't! But since that's out of the question...

He waves his hands dismissively instead. "Who hasn't almost kidnapped a child before? I've actually kidnapped children." Well, no. He was actually the one kidnapped by the child in question, who then forced him to teach her magic. But Valkyrie would approve of this pep talk, probably! "And I doubt he's so innocent that he can throw stones."

"Also the child probably deserved it," Max adds helpfully.

"While on the ship, what have you done that you think he'll disapprove of? Eat too many lobsters?" He's purposefully leaving off the Battle Royale because that's a little unfair. They all were trying to kill each other, and while Max is starting to realize he's the only one who had a good time doing that, maybe it's best to pretend it didn't happen in terms of maintaining future friendly relations on the boat.

"No, Cassie's actually really adorable..." Ava says miserably. It wasn't like she actually planned on hurting her, just holding her hostage long enough to get her father's cooperation. That's not entirely evil, right?

But Bill had drawn the line at that being unforgivable.

"I kicked all my cabin mates out," Ava admits. "Just for a few days. But they're grown men, they can handle sleeping in some dirt."

The key is, obviously, not wanting to hurt the kid. Skulduggery will err on the side of Ava's compassion and assume that was the case.

"Back in my day, everyone camped outdoors. It's character building." He's old. Also, it was war. Also, it was the 1600s. Still!!! "They'll be fine."

"Oh in that case I'm certain that he will do everything in his power to avoid you because you made four grown men sleep outside during this camping excursion predicated on sleeping outside." His eyeroll is tangible, it can probably be felt all the way at the lake.

"You are not as awful as you think you are."

"That's very hurtful, Max. I'm on the wanted list in several countries for high profile assassinations and espionage. Well not by name, that'd be very sloppy work of me. But he catches killers, so there's that whole conflict of interests. And just because..."

Ava sighs, doesn't realize she's faded enough to give Max nothing to hold onto but continues along with the foot pattern. "Okay fine there are those Battle Royale murders, it's not like my hands are entirely clean, but everyone seems to dismiss those as being forced. But it's part of my nature, isn't it. The only thing that's really prevented me from it is a careful balance of would it accomplish anything that's worth the risk and consequence? Because I rather not play my cards too early. Because I don't have enough of a plan to justify it. Because right now it's a waste of time and energy. Not because I'm... you know, morally opposed. I don't think that's how most healthy people decide. Not that I think there's a healthy soul upon the damned ship anyway."

She pouts. "Can we spin again?"

Skulduggery doesn't want to be the guy who points out the obvious, but... oh, who are we kidding. Skulduggery loves to point out the obvious, especially when he can make it seem like he came up with it himself.

"You're not the only person aboard whose opposition to murder is solely pragmatic. And I doubt Malcolm is going to hold a few non-permanent, necessary deaths against you."

But this is really Max's purview. He is, after all, more morally ambivalent than Skulduggery is. He can handle the pep talk.

"For starters it would be helpful if you were here in order to spin." Since he's looking at a flickery mist right now and is kind of holding his arms in the proper position of where she should be.

"I'm not sure anyone would admit to being so rational with their murders, that's how you give away your plans and cause suspicions. So you don't actually know that others aren't doing the same and preforming cost based analysis on who they should kill. Though I can assure you that there are people on the ship I would kill in an instant if there weren't going to be repercussions."

Mostly to himself because as much as he fights with Ebalon he's pretty sure he can't actually beat him. The others he wants to kill would just make other people pout at him and he'd rather not deal with their feelings.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll think up some clever double entrendres about catching a criminal."

"Oh, sorry about that." Ava becomes very aware of herself all at once, grasping at Max's hands in order to pull her scattered molecules back together.

"You two make it painfully difficult to be hard on myself, you know. Should have left it at nevermind." But she's smiling, because they're very sweet.

"Anyway, he said there's no one else like me. And I imagine he knows all sorts of twisted freaks." She likes being unique!

"We're difficult people in general." Which is undoubtedly why Ava likes them, right? "And you have nothing to worry about. Take it from a skeleton detective and a pragmatically homicidal Omnic."

You know, the two people most qualified to cheer her up.

"Good of you to get that out of your system now. After all, guilty feet have no rhythm."

And yes, when they do indeed spin in corporeal unity, Skulduggery will grace them with an imitated saxophone solo just for them.

Ava chose to be friends with them, she has only herself to blame. "We both are used to getting what we want and are very stubborn, so we would never have accepted 'Nevermind' for long."

Ah good, she's back to being tangible which makes dancing significantly easier when your partner is actually there and it's not Max kind of estimating where she should be.

"You see? 'No one like you' is a very good start. Though I'm sure he's not comparing you to serial killers. Or I hope not anyway." She may be a villain but serial killers are a whole different thing. People who enjoy killing for fun, not as a means to an end. Which in his mind is far more noble, the murders he's committed were justified because he was mildly inconvenienced.

But that's not what he's thinking about now because it is most definitely sax solo time. Now that she's gotten the hang of this, the spins and dips and footwork will be second nature. Especially with such good musical accompaniment.

"Then just know I'd do the same for you," she threatens!

But yes she chose them. It's nice to have people that put up with her, make her feel like a bit less of a disaster. She has no regrets at all.

Until that guilty feet line. Awful. Brilliant. She tries to add a bit more flourish to her spin to properly enjoy the efforts of Skulduggery's sax solo, extending an arm, kicking up her leg, and overestimating her balance to crash right back into Max.

JUNE EVENT: CAMP

CAMP AION

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