⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

[ringleaders]

Who: Everybody!
When: Day 64
Where: The Camping Grounds
What: While the Ringmaster attempts to purge the carnival of magical tracing spells and deal with the angry fire fae in her belly, everyone else is getting sent on an emergency camping trip with some unusual local fauna.
Warnings: Camping.

CRYPTIC CAMPGROUNDS↴ You're given about three hours to prepare, after the Ringmaster tells you her plans for the coming week. There is a vast selection of camping equipment at your disposal, and the means to take along enough food for the length of the stay. The wilderness of the planet you're left on is nearly idyllic, but some people just don't like the great outdoors. ► CRYPTOZOOLOGY: As it turns out, the carnival won't be alone here. There is a varied ecosystem of cryptids to be found as well, living in relative peace and mostly reacting to the newcomers with curiousity. More details can be found on the plotting post. You are free to NPC the cryptids as much as you need to, as long as you stick to the behaviours described. ► DREAMSHARING: There is a player plot going on which will allow characters to share dreams! These are specifically more dreams than nightmares, and the mushi-adept characters will be here to help. ► CHILLAX: There isn't any plot twist for this setting, so this is mostly an opportunity to decompress from the last plot and get ready for the future. The Ringmaster will show up occasionally to help with needed medical treatments and check on things, but won't stick around for long.

Comments

[insidescoop]

Tune, pace, and tempo come not quite naturally, but easily enough. She allows the dance and dream to carry her a little, following along with Strange's lead quietly until he speaks.

She has to blush a bit at that. "Ahhh...yeah~ ...It was after Wismuth," she explains, sighing. "...She snapped me out of the Void, even... ...I didn't have the heart to tell her she wasn't the same kind of Star Guardian as the others that Creation had picked though..!" Carly laughs, coughing a little as she explains. "...She was definitely some sort of 'magical hero' but... ...I guess it's like how a house cat isn't a lion, or something like that..."

Just thinking about it makes her sigh though. "...The last time I saw her, she was complaining about the books in the Athenaeum... ...and then, just before everything went sideways, she left..."

It didn't leave her a lot of time to recover, really.

[kingsroads]

How the hell is he supposed to respond to this? Strange looks a little uncomfortable for a moment, like he's put on the spot, before he shrugs.

"Perhaps. If he did, though, it might be for the better."

How many times has Lambert gotten onto him about the fact that he hates running or that he cheats like a bitch on the obstacle course? Strange isn't a good enough judge of himself to pick out if Iggy changed him or not, but if he did, then it must be through the training he went through.

[insidescoop]

That'd be rather tricky- Aslla Piscu was extremely large...it's probably a matter of subconscious convenience that prevents her image of him from towering the trees.

Carly has a rather dry expression, in any case. "And how would it be 'fault' and not just 'how things are'? Glamors aren't something everyone puts on consciously, you know- plenty of people see things as something else, it's what we do at half of our stops, even..!"

She's still wrong, but she certainly doesn't think it right now. Alas.

As it is- "Obviously they could be worse! But the point is, she's given us a small vacation," Carly explains, looking over the photo she's taken again. She wonders, quietly, what she would have to do to make herself see this...Hmm. "So best not to waste that~"

[whattaprick]

Lambert has nothing to say to that, so he simply, for once, doesn’t say anything at all. He’s tired of feeling things, and even anger isn’t quite the comfort he wishes it was.

So no — Strange’s comment is met with a brief look, but that’s all, before the witcher goes back to stomping along with Butcher. By now, they’ve actually come reasonably close to the campsite he and Childermass share.

[betheman]

"Aah! Hopefully the pon will hold out...." He scans the water, before swiping at another fish- it's quite bouncy, and Gongenzaka finds himself holding his breath as he hurriedly gets it into their pot. "HNMN-!!"

[kingsroads]

As the fireball hits the shield and dissipates, Strange can't help but smile. "Impressive." Well, looks like this shield at least has a little bit of strength. Time to see what else it holds up against.

The medium test is even more fire. Strange conjures up two fireballs this time: one the same size as the first one, one a bit larger. He tosses one at Reira's shield and quickly tosses the other at it.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's confident it will. He narrows his eyes as he scans the water, and then with a rapid movement scoops the pon under the water and flips two goldfish straight into the pot at once.

"That's five! Now we can get you some turtles--whoa!" Yuya leans back quickly, standing up straight--and then stumbles backward, teetering dangerously as he moves too quickly.

[soft_focus]

More fire is great- at least, in theory. Reira's shield certainly holds, but holding it the way she is means that Reira herself isn't especially well protected; while both fireballs are successfully blocked, the girl twitches just slightly as the heat washes over the edges and against her arms.

Any normal child would probably have cried out about it- Reira, at least, seems to be made of stronger stuff when it comes to pain tolerance, though it doesn't keep the shield from flickering for a few moments again. That stings.

[kingsroads]

And like the world's most annoying duckling, Strange just continues to follow Lambert. He's quiet as well, mostly due to the fact that he really doesn't know what to say. If this were Arabella, he'd apologize and they'd kiss and make up (and then kiss some more). But where the hell would he even start with this? And would Lambert even make an attempt at apologizing? Because a good chunk of this is still his fault, Strange hasn't forgotten that.

He starts to idly play with his magic, lightly poking at the reflective bits on his chest and shoulder while he follows Lambert to wherever the hell he's going and mulls over what to do next. If Lambert looks back to yell at Strange, he'll find the magician with his hand halfway in the mirror on his shoulder, while Strange himself obviously thinks about something else.

[kingsroads]

Urrrrrrgh. Strange makes an aggravated sigh, from his spot on the cot. It's looking like the towel is his only option. Which again, absolutely sucks. Strange has at least one more option he can ask about before he gives up the ghost entirely.

"Don't you have a heavy coat or something I can lay over the pillow instead?"

[atouts]

"I will," Childermass is quick to confirm that much. He can add it to his own notes, even if the largest part of them are back in his trailer. The ones from the library, however, he can retrieve just fine and he doesn't even have to move far to do so. "Just a moment, Ms. Mordio."

After which he sets aside the jackalope, makes a point to clean his claws and fingers off with a rag set out just for that purpose, and then turns to reach down into his own shadow. He definitely acts like he's rooting around for something, somewhere, and there's a quiet rustle from the tent to match the movement. Then, he's leaning back from his shadow, pulling his arm out, then his hand, and clutched in his talons carefully are one of his little notebooks, a polaroid picture and a few more larger, folder pieces of paper wedged between the smaller pages.

[whattaprick]

And the closer they get to the campsite, the more quickly evident it is that they aren’t alone. Butcher’s ears pricking are the only real warning they have before Baker suddenly bounds out of the vegetation (which between the horses and the dog, is looking thoroughly trampled) to greet them, bushy tail wagging. He’d been peacefully napping when Lambert left, unaware his master was being spirited away too. He’s bored.

It’s Lambert he stops to greet first, the witcher deftly redirecting his doggy kisses with one hand with the ease of long practice while Butcher prances around his father. With what Strange knows now, those grandfather jokes from before may seem all too apt... but soon enough, Baker directs his attention to the magician, head cocking inquisitively.

“It’s Strange,” Lambert says, by way of explanation. And Strange is ... putting his hand through his shoulder? What the fuck?

[scientificist]

"We had three hours to leave the Carnival for a summer forest, no, I don't have a coat." Herbert leans forward in his chair so he can get an angle to give Strange his best withering expression. "With time, you'd probably burn through a fire blanket as well. If, I had one. Which I don't. Would you prefer a pillow of sand instead--I'm sure I can arrange that."

[atouts]

Thankfully, they are friendly. Really, really friendy, at that, which Reira is about to learn when they all realize they aren't alone on the beach anymore. There's a small person. A small person! The nearest ones immediately break off from their own game to charge over and leap on Reira, prodding at her with cold noises and all trying to leap up to lick her face at once.

Hello, small person, hello, is what they would probably be saying if they could talk, but for now, it's mostly excited Growlithe yapping. Soon enough, the rest of them will follow and she'll find herself in the middle of a crowd of orange and cream fluff.

Childermass, however... Well, he does notice it and he is looking, but it's only Reira. Reira isn't about to hurt any of the Growlithes, which means he's free to sip his drink and observe for the time being.

[kingsroads]

Good Lord, this is all so bizarrely domestic. Dad's home from taking the puppy for a walk, time to pet the dog and put his feet up. Strange is so baffled by the sight of Lambert, Butcher, and Baker that he forgets he's idly fiddling with his reflections and just kind of leaves his hand in his shoulder for a moment. It's only when Lambert starts talking, that Strange moves his hand back to his side and makes a small kiss noise in Baker's direction.

Baker makes a little 'whuff' as he looks at Strange. The dog then walks over, sniffs Strange experimentally...and gives him a big ol'doggy slobber kiss right on the top of his head. It is amazing the amount of dog slobber that Strange now has in his hair and on his face. He wipes some away from his eyes with a sleeve while some of Strange's hair relights itself. Obviously, this will not do, and Baker gives Strange's hair another giant slobbery lick.

It's hard to be angry at someone when you're getting puppy kisses and Strange can't help but hold back a little laugh. "Baker, no, stop that." Sluuuuurp. "Call him off, Lambert!"

[atouts]

Considering the riot of color Steven and his motley crew are, Childermass his turning his head to eye them all even before Steven says anything. He makes a low croaking sound, the sort a crow (and not a frog) makes, but before he can do much else—

"Craw!"

There's a bright pink mantis smacking him in the face? Seriously? He makes an offended noise, feathers bristling as he draws back, then lurches forward again to swat Bud away with a wing, from wherever she ended up landing after the karate chop. It's not meant to be much of a blow, but dang, that's annoying.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita sinks back into her chair, her anger seemingly running out... for the moment. It's hard to stay mad at someone while he's telling her how much he believes in her, but she can't shake the feeling that Strange is in denial about the risk he took... or even if he recognizes it, he won't say so to her.

"Idiot," she grumbles after a moment. But any more arguing about that, and they'll just end up going in circles. So now that she's calmed down a bit, she'll try asking about something that's been on her mind.

"...What happened after Ignatius took you?"

[seniorvicejanitor]

[ here's the thing about tyki: he's kind of scary. but, rhys is seeing that he's kind of really useful too? don't get rhys wrong, he never wants to get on tyki's bad side because these useful things can probably be used to beat the crap out of him but rhys wasn't able to produce bug eating butterflies or pitch a tent so...he was impressed. ]

Could have used someone like you back on Pandora.

[ Zer0 was cool and all but he hadn't stuck around and he'd broken rhys' heart when he'd left. would tyki have done that? rhys doesn't know but some of the things he could do would have been cool to have access to. ]

I might have avoided a few death defying chases if I did.

[whattaprick]

“What?” Lambert, unfortunately for Peridot, is staying obstinately where he is, folding his arms and scowling.

“Why do I have to go?” Also? He has no idea how to feel about that “like an actual human brother part” (besides obscurely pleased) so he’s just ... not going to address it. Sorry Peridot.

Anyway, since she apparently isn’t going to tell him jack shit, he’s going to hop into the hole to do some examining of his own, knocking at the walls. “Are you looking for something?”

[hippocarnival]

Yuya isn't even remotely following her line of logic there. It's like she's completely skipped the concept of taking stuff with you when you go places.

"Uh... okay." Well, the day she gets a cold is the day he told her so. "Then you better get to the tent so you can dry off quickly."

[kingsroads]

"Three hours?" Strange remarks, a bit confused. Turns out just how fast the carnival packed up shop is one of the things that's slipped through the cracks in everybody explaining things to Strange.

"Why so fast? And come to think of it, why can't we just go back to the carnival to begin with?"

[kingsroads]

Well this just makes Strange feel intensely guilty. Because had he known then what he knew now? He straight up would have let Ignatius take someone else instead. The torture sucked but, at least in Strange's mind, it was survivable. And a little bit of guilt and shame over the fact that he's a coward would be better than yet another contract from yet another fae on his head.

Still, he is going to lie through his fuckin teeth and not tell Yuya that in the slightest.

"You're welcome," Strange responds, with a little nod. "I'm a nightrunner, after all. It's our job to protect the carnival."

[hippocarnival]

"I know, but--" Yuya shrugs a shoulder, a very faint smile finally ghosting back onto his face. "That means a lot to me. Saving Yuzu was part of my contract, and if Ignatius got her..."

When she had offered herself, well. Honestly Yuya probably would have done something exceptionally stupid to get her back, but he's not going to say that. Instead he glances up to Strange with a little more assurance in his face. "Gongenzaka and I talked to her, and she agreed to go home and finish her contract when the carnival isn't so dangerous. So she's gone now, but she's safer."

[scientificist]

Oh. Well. Fair enough. Herbert actually stands up slightly to inch the chair itself to the better angle so he can stop leaning.

"I believe she was...anxious to clear out any lingering influence of the fae we came into contact with. She doesn't want us in the way of her. Spring cleaning. So. We're camping until she's done."

[periphrasing]

(Really, it's for the best that he doesn't address it.)

This is troubling. She's never had an issue altering her dreams like that before, at least not whenever she's been aware that she's dreaming. What the heck is going on here--?

And then before she can do anything else, he's up in the hole and clomping around it with stupid tall body and heavy feet.

"What are you-- HEY!" She springs back up to her feet, trying to push him away. "Don't touch that-- Out, OUT OUT OUT! You'll compromise the conditions of the exit hole!"

Which, she really shouldn't care about now that she knows this is a dream, but. It's the principle of the thing.