⇨ 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

[prazerbutterfly]

"To each their own. Nines is a rather curious person. When you have an eternity at your fingertips sometimes waiting for time to pass by with simple things helps."

Tyki himself hadn't been alive for long but if nothing hindered him he could live for centuries or longer if necessary. "Just as if someone like you enjoys studying and can provide information for the carnival. Good for you, I guess.."

[prazerbutterfly]

"And yet you look just as young as ever," he teases knowing she didn't mean it as in she was decades older than him. Only time frame wise. He just can't help himself around her. He laughs softly between such gentlemanly sips of his wine. "I guess on the other hand things don't change at all."

He nods, "Yes, I myself understand working with people. I am the public face of my family. What I do often reflects on them both for their livelihood and popularity. It's different for me but not too different. Here, I don't have any hard expectations or obligations."

[stillwinningthehardway]

"Hmmm," she says. Scout vaguely would like to play with something, and hey, here's a grass stem that may or may not have been under her fingers before she moved her hand. It doesn't really matter. She plucks it and rolls it between her fingers and thumb.

Slowly, she says, "That sounds a little like the Force." Not the same, in a lot of ways, but right now it makes sense to her. "I can barely touch it, barely ask anything of it. I'm small, and flawed, and I'm not completely open to it. But when I die I'll open all the way, and I'll dissolve back into it. Like a cup of fresh water into an ocean."

Her tone is oddly wistful. Scout has little fear of dying, though much more of leaving things undone.

[seniorvicejanitor]

I more meant in case something bad happens.

[ you know, like some person eating animals or a storm or something. didn't bad stuff always happen around here? ]

You'd want someone to wake you up if we had to run away, right?

[seniorvicejanitor]

Well, my scans are a little...interesting.

[ his scans were probably affected by jack's presence in his head and the fact that no one took anything seriously on pandora. ]

I think I would have wanted to know about your weapons more than what you're made of. I can prepare for your weapons.

[seniorvicejanitor]

Well, I was the one being hunted for the last little while.

[ not even a lie! vasquez and august were like dogs with bones. ]

I had to make sure I didn't die.

[seniorvicejanitor]

Do you know when that's gonna be?

[ rhys' tone actually softens a bit because between the luck of this guy and what he hopes happens to him when he finishes out almost makes hi a little sad. ]

Are you in pain?

[prazerbutterfly]

Don't worry, Strange. Tyki isn't worried. It'll be a shame if someone is stuck in a puddle and sure, it'll be a wonder if said puddle vanished overnight. The Ringmaster could probably do something about that. He muses for a moment over the potato crisp and then just pops it right into his mouth to chew. He has to no. His curiosity overtakes him. There's a small reaction from the chill of it but it is no different from ordinary. "Hmmm."

While Tyki's poker face is usually undeniably functional 24/7, his eyes slit unnaturally, for a fraction of a second, when Strange talks momentarily about his experience. It's bringing up memories of the Manor, where time stalled and the scent of rot filled his nostrils. No food, no water, no fresh air, time dragging on and on without a clock or daylight to guide him. He would never had known how long he was in the Underbelly without someone informing him later. And while his ears don't bend back nor does his tail lash from that controlled poker face, he is grateful when the conversation returns to mirrors.

"May as well while we have this time on our hands. I can fell a tree or a boulder if necessary."

[dressedtothe]

Busted. Oh well. 9S steps out from behind the tree.

"It's from the Ringmaster." Which doesn't explain anything at all. "All it does is translate my functions that are normally only usable on mechanical beings for use on the organic." He brings his hand to his chin as he mentally reviews his short stint in Strange's head. "Though hacking a human is really different from dealing with a machine."

And he's yet to try the details mentioned in the book he'd gotten from the library. He could start with something simple, like breaking Lambert's mind control magic on someone else...

[soft_focus]

"No." So she agrees, apparently. But she has a good reason to still say what she said- so she feels. Reira still stands there, not completely walking over, but certainly not trying to keep any distance. "...But what you wear can tell people how you feel, because of how different it is," she explains. If she could, she would have simply said, 'it's a way to express yourself'.

That's just not in her vocabulary, however. "Normally you wear plain things- and your feelings are quiet, and 'secret'...but now you're wearing colourful flowers, and things people wear when they're happy!" Or at least, what they would if they didn't wear them literally every day. As far as dreaming-Reira is concerned, a conscious choice was made here. (She couldn't be farther from the truth)

[soft_focus]

It sounds to her like that's how she's been doing it the whole time- thus, there is a sigh of relief, and a small smile. "Phew...good..!" she announces, nodding her head. "I practiced the shield alone a lot...by the time we left the Athenaeum, I could hold it without it blinking, or going away- so that means I didn't waste any time..!"

Such is how she sees it. Better to practice the right thing than the wrong thing, or so she figures. "...If I had food and water and things, would I be able to practice again faster?"

[soft_focus]

"Something I missed..?" At that, she nearly falls from the tent, but catches herself- she's quite surprised either way however. "Ah...Y-You mean it makes pictures of things you forgot..!?"

"Things you can't just think about..!?"

[whattaprick]

Mostly, it means less money for Lambert, since he can’t argue Shima didn’t earn at least some of his keep (by being a distraction, if nothing else). The rest of the sirens seem wise enough to stay away, and he doesn’t feel like sailing all around looking for more.

“Shouldn’t you be somewhere else?” is what he ends up asking, curiously.

[whattaprick]

[ Lambert waves a hand vaguely, the motion slow and easy. Probably indicating he’s already taken a few sips himself. ]

Takes a lot to get me drunk, normally. Drinking something like this is faster.

We’re supposed to relax or something, right?

[chronosynthesis]

"I suppose there are a lot of reasons for emotions to run high..." Syrlya glances aside, taking another bite of the sour fruit and stalling for a moment.

He looks back when he swallows. "You would be right in that assumption, at least." He waves the fruit for emphasis. "I am no stranger to sleeping outside, either." Partly because Sylvari tend to enclose themselves in less artificial walls, partly because Syrlya often finds himself travelling far out of the reach of civilization.

At least it's not the desert.

[kingsroads]

Strange doesn't understand much of what 9S is talking about. Hacking machines? He's got a vague idea, thanks to a visit to a digital world, but that still doesn't explain much. Strange frowns, obviously confused.

"My world doesn't have anything remotely close to the machines you know to begin with," he reminds 9S. "What exactly is hacking?"

[kingsroads]

That worryingly wide grin just grows even wider. If Tyki can fell a tree or a boulder then hell yes, Strange wants to test and see if he can store it in a reflection! This is a brilliant plan!

"The lake would be our best choice," Strange explains, as he gestures towards the lake. "I'll prepare the spell and prime the magic. We push the boulder into the lake, it stays trapped in the reflection for however long we want, and then when the spell's lasted long enough, I release it and it sinks to the bottom!"

It's a solid plan in Strange's mind. He obviously has no qualms changing the topography of this place and messing up the natural environment of camping world. After all, a lot of his time in the peninsula was spent trying to move forests and rivers and occasionally forgetting to put things back. He looks like he's ready to get up and do it, despite the fact that it's night outside and they probably shouldn't be felling trees in the dark.

"What do you think?"

[whattaprick]

The witcher sniggers, but he won’t press Peridot on that point, considering he has other things to wonder about.

Lambert looks, but he’s not seeing it. It’s just a bunch of rock to him. Maybe scenic, if you’re into that sort of thing, but there’s one thing he can definitely say.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he admits readily. “What are the others like, if this is so bad?”

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya purses his lips at Strange's confusion, before simply shrugging a shoulder to deflect his misspeaking. "Yes, of course."

He looks aside, into one of the windows of the shops to regard his own reflection. He's somehow not surprised to find a human face looking back at him, but that still doesn't provide him with a lot of answers. Was he always so confused about who he is?

"How many books do you think there are?" He doesn't expect a realistic answer to that, but it's something to get Strange to keep talking.

[kingsroads]

Strange simply listens. Carly's story is a series of familiar concepts that Strange is able to string together to understand the narrative: contracts, bringing the dead back to life, wars between two factions. As such, he's straight up believing her and paying a lot of attention to the narrative she's telling him.

And man. Poor Carly could not catch a break. Strange keeps his expression fairly steady, but there's something in Strange's frown that just grows more and more horrified by the matter.

It's when she mentions that she thought she was doing it for someone she loved that Strange's expression dramatically shifts. He frowns and doesn't meet Carly's eyes for a moment. That's a far too familiar feeling: Strange is someone who has a large amount of experience doing boneheaded things for the person he loves. He drove himself mad for the sake of bring Arabella back.

"I can see why you'd think it better if, while enthralled, you thought you were doing what was best." Because then you'd at least have a goal or something to fight for. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

[seniorvicejanitor]

I think so but I'm not exactly camping material.

[ his idea of roughing it was wearing shoes without socks. ]

I keep waiting for something bad to happen.

[kingsroads]

"In England total? I don't know. Available for purchase by the public? Probably less than ten—and even then, all of those are probably squirreled away somewhere, hidden away where neither Norrell nor his man of business could find them."

Not that Strange is bitter or anything! Except for the fact that nope, he is so bitter. And he's failing miserably at hiding just how bitter he is. He's choosing his words carefully but there's something so familiar about Syrlya that makes Strange feel like he'd be a good companion to complain to.

"Ill eccentrics passing away are my only chance at getting a magic library of my own without any of Norrell's needless restrictions. And even then, there's only so many dukes and barons conveniently on their deathbed."

[periphrasing]

She snorts. "Not made of red sandstone, first and foremost. It's honestly astounding that this place hasn't eroded into nothing over the course of the last 5000 years. A real, quality kindergarten is made of sturdier stuff, it's organized, it's--" She pauses thoughtfully. "Actually... This is my dream. I can just show you a proper one."

Peridot hops down from the hole and waves for him to follow her, marching ahead with purpose. "Follow me."

[fortuneglass]

"It's such a sad excuse, isn't it?" she asks, but without waiting for an answer merely shakes her head. She's better at reading others than most would assume- she can see that frown, and the way Strange looks away. So she smiles- weakly, painfully, but she smiles honestly at least, which is important she imagines. "I got back at them in the end...when I was certain they really were the worst, that there was no changing a demon," Carly adds.

And shrugs- "...It's why I...changed 'coats', you could say..~" Black feathers to sheer light Is rather dramatic after all.

"...I'm sorry it happened to you," she continues softly. "...Being enthralled...twice, wasn't it? ....You were there at Portland, if I remember."

Not that she'd known that version At all, but she at least caught a glimpse of Strange during the final battle to get out.

[atouts]

"Nice a wish as that is, I'm not sure even the Ringmaster would be able to do something like that," Childermass says after falling silent again for another moment or so. Smoking, thinking. The air around the rock stinks of cigarette smoke by now, though that isn't something he really notices himself these days.

"What happened back on that version of Earth, it was a spell even beyond the High Fae. I doubt we'll see the likes of it a second time."