lostcarnival | ⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

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⇨ THE LUNAR SOLSTICE

Who: Everyone!
When: Winter Breaks: Day 6 - Day 25
Where: THE MOON
What: The carnival journeys to one of its moons to celebrate the Lunar Solstice. More information here.
Warnings: Winter fun.

MOON WALKING↴

The journey to the moon only takes a blink of an eye, but it leaves the carnival far away beneath you. The second moon can be seen on the peripheral, massive compared to its usual view. At least when the holidays start out, there will be no notable wildlife on the moon, though this is something you can talk to the Ringmaster about if you think it needs a change. It sounds like this is the first time she's used it in quite a while - it probably needs some dusting off!

Claim your cabins, and proceed to... well, do whatever you want! There is no rush and little obligation, besides to enjoy yourself. For real, this time. She promises there will be no vampires. Or, at least, none that don't already work for the carnival.

► CABINS: Living arrangements are character choice for this event, and there are a variety of cabins of various sizes, mostly built to house 2-6 people, though you can fit more in if you squish. They are all made of wood and of a rustic design - no fancy modern furniture, here! Each building is housed with a fireplace and the needed amenities. You can pick up materials to cook with the private kitchens if you like. Theoretically, you could spend the whole holiday sequestered away, watching the snow fall. Some of them also have outdoor hot tubs available!

► ACTIVITIES: Activities are mostly going to be character driven, though there will be some large group games like bingo and maybe a poker tournament happening at some point in one of the festival halls. Otherwise, there is a lot to offer: skiing, snowboarding, hiking, ice sculpting, snowball fights - it goes on! If you'd like to run a winter activity, just let the mods know, and we will get the word out there for you.

► FEASTING: Every day isn't a full-out feast because that would get a bit unhealthy, but there will be a number of specific feast events over the holidays where everyone is encouraged to let out their inner hedonist and stuff themselves. There will be one big feast per week, with smaller but also delicious meals offered in between. The feast dates will be B12, B18, and B24. There's also plenty of alcohol available for anyone who wants it.

► SHOPPING: As mentioned in the planning post, there is a massive market being run by the World Walker Caravan! The Ringmaster has given everyone 1250 credits to spend on items, but there is a caveat - must spend at least 500 of those credits on gifts for other people. And it better be a good one, if you only buy one! (She will ask that you do not buy her presents, however. She appreciates the sentiment, but it seems sort of silly buying her things with her own money! If you'd like to gift her, please have it be something more personal or handmade, but you are not obligated to get her anything at all.)

► TREATMENTS: The beginning of the holidays will also be about the time that the emergency Medical Team will have finalized their treatments for the Prince's poisoning. Watch out for further information on that - and make sure to get treated if you are suffering from petrification or poison induced illness! The holidays will be a lot more fun that way.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good; Rita gets to stay firmly in her comfort zone. She peers around at 9S's hands as he prepares the drug. Did his records show him how to do that, or is he just winging it...?

She shakes her head at Cole's question. "Don't ask me. I don't use recreational drugs." For a lot of very good reasons. She also isn't sure if any knowledge from their worlds would necessarily prepare them for whatever this stuff is. Do they even know what plant it's from? It seems faintly magical, in the way that most things living in faerie realms tend to be.

Please. Nothing could possibly go wrong!

"You should try it sometime," 9S cheerfully says to Rita as he rolls the joint. Why yes, the first dose of the E-Drug that Jackass had given him and 2B, he had almost immediately tested. You know, so they could know the effects of their reward. Yeah.

Man, he'd felt so strong while under the drug's effects.

As for Cole's concerns, 9S waves it off before getting the paper to stick together and sealing the rolled joint. "This stuff helps people relax." Sometimes. "It can help them calm down, especially if they're the kind of person who's always wound up."

But if those YoRHa in the desert are anything to go by, sometimes it can make someone relax a bit too much. Drugs are nice every now and again, but he can't imagine getting so hooked that he'd forget his mission.

...Even now, he can't forget his mission, even though he knows that returning to Earth and YoRHa will probably get him killed.

That's not something he particularly wanted to think about, especially right now. "Do you still want to try it?"

It helps them calm down...well alright, that's good. He thinks he's calm, but perhaps he should be more calm? Maybe that's why 9S gave him the plants.

Cole is still looking at all of this with a little bit of trepidation. Still, he trusts 9S and he trusts Rita and both of them were here ready to help if something went wrong. Not that Cole thinks anything's going to go wrong, of course! But again, he doesn't know if he can even smoke to begin with.

Nodding at 9S, Cole looks over at the android. "Show me how to do it."

Rita simply turns her head away at 9S's recommendation. Nope. Not today, not sometime. Rita's greatest asset is her mind. She can't imagine ever wanting to impair it intentionally.

Still, 9S has a weirdly positive view of drugs. Is that just from the information he has about how humans used them, or...?

"Have you done anything like this before, 9S?" she asks. "I mean... would drugs even work for an android?" Sure, he can eat and drink, but his body must not process those things quite like a human's does. This is as much an experiment for him as it is for Cole... isn't it?

Oh, he's going to go first? Well, he supposes that makes sense, though he was hoping Cole would take the hit so he could see potentially what he was in for.

"Yeah, I have. It wasn't in this form, though." So yeah, apparently drugs work on androids. Granted, those particular drugs were developed by an android for androids. And the drugs were strong, but didn't last very long under a single dose.

He holds out the joint, "Rita, lighter please."

Edited (doing tags with voice activated keyboards is rife with danger) 2017-12-06 14:06 (UTC)

Cole's just sitting here, next to 9S and Rita, entirely attentive to how this conversation is going and what's going to happen next. He doesn't really have anything to add right now so he's keeping quiet, watching them both with wide eyes.

Wait... he actually has!? That gets a surprised look from Rita, both at learning that he used them, and that they actually worked for androids. He didn't seem like the type...

She's too surprised to say anything until he's already holding the joint out to her. With a sigh, she waves a hand, almost dismissively... but the gesture seems to work in conjuring a small flame, just at the tip of it.

"Let me know if either of you feel sick or... something," Rita adds, sitting down in a chair and bringing the video camera 9S gave her. Maybe she can figure out how it works while they're being idiots. "I'll be over here."

She'd offer to call a medic if something happens, but they probably wouldn't know what to do with a spirit or an android. Rita... might, depending on the circumstances.

The drugs were given to him. He had no other choice but to try them!!

9S flaps his free hand at Rita dismissively, turning the joint so the flame can burn the end more evenly before he blows out the flame so the joint is lit. "It'll be fine."

And with that, 9S brings the joint to his lips and takes a drag, letting the smoke flow into him, before exhaling a long, steady stream of smoke. After a pause, 9S frowns. Hm. He's not feeling anything? Is he doing it wrong? Or is it just not a drug that works on androids?

He tries not to let his disappointment show on his face as he holds out the joint to Cole. "Okay, you try now. Inhale slowly and not too much at a time."

These are very clear instructions.

Cole's watching 9S very carefully. Alright, he can do this, he thinks he's got this. Taking the joint, Cole takes a drag, inhales some smoke...and then just kind of chokes on it, breaking into a little coughing fit.

To nobody's surprise, the first time smoker is having issues. Still, that's not stopping him, as Cole puts the joint to his lips again, takes another drag, and inhales slowly. Bringing the joint to his side, he looks over at Rita and 9S, giving them both a small smile.

"I did it!"

Now what?

Rita turns the video camera over in her hands, examining the various buttons and switches on it, experimentally toggling them one after another... though she looks up briefly when Cole starts coughing.

She still can't believe this is happening.

"You probably won't notice a difference right away," Rita offers for Cole's benefit, her eyes back on the camera.

Hooray!

Except... Cole isn't feeling it either? Hm. Rita says that they're not going to notice it right away, but all the drugs 9S has taken hit him almost immediately. It was really obvious, too. Like, colours turned weird and stuff. Hard not to notice the drug working its way through his system.

"Do you feel anything?" 9S rubs his chin thoughtfully. "I'm not feeling any different yet. Maybe we haven't taken enough."

"I don't know what I'm supposed to feel," Cole admits, with a little frown. "But I don't feel different."

But if 9S thinks that they haven't taken enough, then they might not have taken enough. After all, 9S has done this before. He knows what to do. But Rita says they might not notice it right away and Rita also knows what to do. There's an awkward pause, while Cole mulls over what to do next. The dilemma is solved as Cole takes another small little hit from the joint before he offers it back to 9S. There we go! A teeny bit more.

"Don't be stupid and overdo it," Rita casually warns them, her gaze still on her new gadget. In truth, she doesn't know how much is too much, and they're free to make their own stupid choices either way...

"It stinks," she adds after a moment.

9S takes the joint from Cole and takes another drag from it, longer this time, exhaling the smoke in a single long breath.

He still doesn't feel much different. At least, until it takes a few seconds for him to realise Rita's saying something to him.

"What stinks?" he asks, after an overly long pause before he turns to look at her. Strange. Her hands as she works with the camera seem to be remarkably still. He would've expected her to be fiddling with it with more gusto than she appears to be.

"I don't smell anything," Cole helpfully pipes up. But he's starting to feel something. His mind feels a bit...sluggish? Which is odd. Perhaps it's the cold, Cole's only been to places this cold a few times in his life.

Having no idea what the effects of weed feel like in the first place, Cole doesn't think to mention to Rita or 9S that his high's slowly starting to creep up on him.

"I'm talking about the smoke, you dolts," Rita retorts, looking mildly unimpressed at the two of them. Are they less sensitive due to being nonhumans...? Or is it because they've been inhaling the stuff?

The smoke doesn't just smell weird, either. It looks weird, too, with its thin wisps twisting into strange shapes, and hints of pale colors that seem to become more vivid as the smoke grows gradually more dense.

9S blinks slowly at both Cole and Rita, the edges of his visual systems filling with static. Pink static. Well, the merchant was right about it being relaxing; 9S suddenly plonks himself on the floor. That was intentional. Yeah. Sitting on the floor is way better than standing up.

A few seconds after Rita's comment, 9S bursts out into abrupt laughter. "Aw, come on, Rita!" he wheezes between fits of giggles. "You're just upset you're missing out!"

Cole doesn't like this. He can feel himself breathe, can feel all his skin, everything seems to be slowing down and this shouldn't happen.

9S starts giggling, Cole starts getting twitchy. He's wringing his hands together as he looks from 9S to Rita then back to 9S. While 9S is on the floor, Cole starts to pace slightly, walking in a circle. "She shouldn't be upset," Cole murmurs, more to himself than the other two. "This is odd."

Ah. It's definitely working.

Rita watches 9S go down with her eyes narrowed, and sighs. "I'm not upset. I'm happy to miss out on making an idiot of myself." Like 9S is doing right now, and Cole... well, maybe not so much, but he does seem kind of off right now. Rita glances over to where he's pacing, curious.

9S waves the joint in Cole's direction, offering it back to the spirit. Wow his hand's moving so slowly... 9S blinks, green leeching from his visual systems, turning his vision into hues of red and blue. Oh, yeah, definitely working.

He tries to watch Cole, but he finds his attention slipping as he laughs again, wheezing out the words, "Like you did when you cured yourself?" to Rita before he can stop them.

Not that he's even in the right frame of mind to, anyway.

Cole's hands just shoot to his side as 9S offers him the joint. Nuh-uh, no way, he feels weird enough as is, he's not going to smoke it again. Did smoking always make things feel slow, make your heart pound and pulse and push? Why did people do this! This was horrible!

"Beating to break," he mutters under his breath. "Emotions, memories, humanity, scattered to the storm as they learn to adapt. I feel all."

The weed causes magical abilities to misfire in exciting ways. At least for Cole, this means his normal spirit empathy is just turned up to eleven. Add that in with his confusion at the weed's normal side effects and he is just not having a good time in the slightest.

Oh, he did not just say that!

"Hey!" Setting the camera down, Rita jumps to her feet and takes a few stomps toward 9S. She knows she made a fool of herself back there. She knows it and she hates it. "You've got some nerve, bringing that up...!" She clenches a fist and for a moment, it looks like she's about to start a fight with him, but Cole's mumbling makes her pause and, tension fading, she turns to look at the spirit.

"Uh... Cole? You okay there?"

9S just laughs at Rita's irritation. "You thought... you thought...!" He hangs onto the joint with a deathgrip in one hand, while leaning back with the other, wheezing with laughter.

Laughter that buries all his despair, pushing down that deep sense of loneliness.

But there are spots of connection, from people like Cole -- he's a spirit but to 9S he's still a person -- who understand, to the Carnival humans who treat him as if his life means something...

Even though the humans who created him apparently didn't even trust their own creations to not turn on them. Maybe they had a point; the machines killed their creators. But androids are nothing like the machines! But yet, Rita trusts him more than his very own creators.

As 9S gets a case of the giggles, Cole gets a case of the shakes, trembling slightly, ears twitching up a storm as he rapidly looks from Rita to 9S back to Rita again. She's trying, she wants to help, but none of them knew this would happen so it wasn't anybody's fault but Cole just wants it to stop.

The stream of consciousness rambles start up again as, desperate to feel like himself again, Cole pinpoints on the person in the room with the most hurt: 9S. He can help. Right?

"Still the same but definitely different. Of course people trust you. There's reasons for trust. You work and help and try but everything now is so slow, so scary, blood boils and feelings fade. You shouldn't have tried with this one, I don't like it."

This trip sucks.

"It's not funny!" Rita hollers over her shoulder at 9S, a tinge of red in her face. So what if she thought he liked her? Anyone would make that mistake in that situation! It's his fault, anyway!

...And anyway, she should focus on Cole, who... seems to be doing his Cole thing, but in a more erratic way than usual. Who is he talking to...? It doesn't seem like he's hitting on anything Rita's feeling, so... that leaves 9S, doesn't it? Something about being trusted...

Cole's not looking good, and it seems like Rita's the only one in the room with her head on straight, so she takes a few cautious steps closer to him. "Hey, uh... maybe you should try sitting down," she suggests. It looks like their little experiment yielded some clear results... but, yeah, she really doesn't know what to do with this.

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this just in; 9S is the worst

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and thus this group of idiots discovers that huh, weed takes a while for it to hit

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