⇨ 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

hmu if any of this doesn't make any sense, lmao

[kingsroads]

It's easy for Tyki to sink the tree into it's reflection. Once a good chunk of the tree is in the lake's reflection, it remains relatively stable and harder to wiggle. And once there's not enough space for the tentacles to grab onto, a simple push will trap it fully.

The tree sinks into the reflection itself. It doesn't look like it's going into the lake and there's no signs of the tree hitting the bottom, disturbing the water, or anything like that. It simply passes into the reflection, much like Strange himself passes into mirrors when he's traveling between them. Once the tree is entirely in the reflection, it can be viewed head-on. Looking down on the tree looks exactly like what would happen if Tyki were looking down on the tree from above.

In the lake, a few fish swim underneath the reflection. The tree trapped in the water's reflection is still technically trapped in water. Any ripples briefly change the shape of the tree, but it returns it's normal appearance once the ripples disperse.

Strange, still on the shoreline, is super curious to see what it looks like. The main problem here is the fact that he sinks. So, he turns himself into smoke and lets a breeze drift him across the lake, until he's floating next to Tyki, near the reflection.

[alphudo]

Yuusei takes care to step gingerly around the jackalope as he approaches. He pauses for a moment, thoughts still very much stalling as he's caught continuously off-guard by Death's visage, and shakes his head.

"Wh... Oh, no, I mean... I'm part of engineering," he hastily explains. "There's some extra skill involved when you have to fix it."

He pauses once more before gesturing to Hades' general form.

"So, do you... do this on purpose? Or is it something that just happens?"

[fortuneglass]

Carly, ever oblivious, simply shakes her head- though she does disperse her flames, much to her pokemon's chagrin. "I could always help you know...you never know when we'll have to dance our way out of a place~!"

That sounds both horribly fake and horribly likely.

[alphudo]

Despite the near-painfully embarrassing thought of actually having to dance their way out of a location, Yuusei finds himself much more able to at least consider the offer once those flames are gone. And, indeed... he does take a hesitant step forward. "Well...

"...alright." It wouldn't much be in the spirit of things to back down from this, now, would it?

[fortuneglass]

Well her fire is gone, Nuna's sure isn't. But Carly is already eagerly pulling Yuusei to his feet, floating upward to ease any awkward height gaps. "Wonderful~! Now we just do what comes natural~"

Carly that only applies to ONE OF YOU.

[alphudo]

Nuna's fire isn't as Dark Signer-like it's fine--

But oh man Yuusei's really starting to wonder if Carly gets where his current anxiety is coming from regarding the whole actual dancing thing. If he can barely do anything with two legs, please tell him what he's expected to do with four.

(Also YOU CAN FLOAT CARLY THAT'S CHEATING)

"I-I don't..." He follows her closer to the circle but otherwise doesn't do much more than awkward shuffling. Don't get him wrong, he's trying to figure out what feels "natural", but it's not as simple as when Gon requested similar: he knows how walking should feel.

[insidescoop]

"...Don't what?" She is, suffice to say, entirely clueless. She does not get it at all.

"...You've never just danced around for fun? Or run around just to do that, or jump, or..?"

Don't lie

[alphudo]

If she's seen him at any point throughout their camping trip so far, she'll know fully well he can run just for the sake of running.

Yuusei, on the other hand, certainly doesn't seem like he's all too convinced that'll help. His grip on her hands tightens somewhat. "Those aren't the same thing...!"

[insidescoop]

Carly is gripping back, and tugs him to the left. "Of course it is~! This isn't a ballroom! It's for just fun!" she laughs, still a bit giddy from the somewhat glimmering tumbler she had a drink from earlier.

Well this explains SOME obliviousness... "If you combine them all it's dancing for fun~!"

[alphudo]

He could really use a drink right now himself to be frank, but oh well, maybe later. He staggers a bit as she pulls him (and he probably would've staggered more if he was drunk) and overcorrects to regain his balance - twirling Carly around him in the process.

Well this... isn't going terrible so far? What??

[insidescoop]

"WWHWOOHOOO~!" And a spin is exactly what she was hoping for, apparently! "See~! That's a start, isn't it? Just move!" she cheers, beaming brightly. "Whoo!" Have another spin, though that's tricky when she's the one trying to initiate.

[alphudo]

Yuusei has absolutely no idea what's going on. "I-I guess so...!" He spins her around again anyway, getting the general gist of what she wants him to do with her tug against his arm. He tries to move himself more with her as well, his claws stumbling underneath himself but recovering quickly enough afterward. This isn't so bad...!

[insidescoop]

"And I know so~!" Carly sings, 'hopping' backward to tug him along. "Jump with me..~ We can't just spin, you know!" They'll get dizzy! And sick!

Hopefully Nuna isn't jealous, though she seems fine so far...

[pipers_son]

"Try tellin' him that!" Joker squawks, still flailing at his 'strong guardian bird'. "He hasn't stopped for ages now!" What if he just sidesteps this menace to society, or at least his spine-

"Besides, don't his feathers already look like a cape?"

[alphudo]

This is true, Carly is drunk so let's not get the poor bird nauseous, yeah?

This is something that comes more naturally to Yuusei, giving a short "gallop" of sorts to keep up with her, and hey wait naturally--

He leans back to pull her closer to himself before sidestepping, wondering if she'll follow along or if she has her own plans.

[fortuneglass]

"Whoo~!" The answer is yes, she will go along quite nicely! She's giggling quite warmly actually, moving to adjust her arms so she can more comfortably keep hold. "That's more like it..!~ See! You're a natural~" At nonsense dancing at least, but hey, the entire point is nonsense dancing after all, and it's hard not to remain in a good mood when such opportunities to forget the worries of the week are there. "~Most coordinated~"

[pipers_son]

"Of course, of course." Joker laughs softly. "My mistake~. And she's a lovely girl as well." You know, for a given value of lovely, when one is enormous and has a lot of sharp teeth and is covered in feathers.

It's all about perspective, or something.

"What kind of food does she give ya then?" Carefully, he reaches up to adjust a branch so that he doesn't get his antlers snagged in it.

[alphudo]

He snorts at the notion that he's anything remotely close to being "coordinated", but he admittedly hasn't proven her wrong yet, and he breaks out into a grin as they guide each other around the campfire in any which way. This is nice, really really nice... Even if it's nonsense, it's fun nonsense.

When he went into this, he figured he would've stopped after a handful of minutes, but as those minutes tick by, he becomes less and less aware of them. Soon he's following Carly's pace, taking things as fast or slow as she'd like because at this point all that matters to him is the moment and no matter what she does the moment is good.

Eventually, though, Carly will find herself being tugged upward into a spin, and if she catches the motion in action she'll see it's because Yuusei's rising onto his hind legs, and it's only meant to be for a moment, but those few seconds are certainly enough to let the dirt come loose under his claws...

"AH--!"

...as he pitches backward and falls to the ground.

[wild_magic]

Susan frowns when he thinks about it before shrugging.

"I don't know, really. It's... I sort of make it happen, but on accident? That's the only kind that happens without realizing. But I've done some of it for so long that I can do it without really thinking, I just sort of do it. Like walking."

[bananaspeedrider]

Well a break does sound good.

[And with that note of agreement said... whether or not there's more water bottles where the one thrown to Gon came from, Yugo plops down and takes one for himself. The instant after he has it open he douses his face with a bit before chugging the rest of the bottle.]

[kingsroads]

"And it's the magic that you do without really thinking that leads you to burn down a building?" Strange quickly continues talking before Susan can make any interjections.

"Which I'm not judging you for, by the way. Lord knows I've had things accidentally go wrong with my magic before. I'm simply trying to figure out the basics of how your magic works."

Surprise, Lauren gossipped about Susan a bit.

[wild_magic]

He actually shakes his head at that.

"No, the magic I don't really think about is stuff that always works, actually. I can show you some of it. But the stuff that burns down buildings, and stuff, is like..." He thinks for a second before thinking of how to explain it.

"It's like, I make the magic work, by... Pulling the right parts, sort of? But sometimes other stuff comes with it. It's like when you're tying a knot, but sometimes the rest of the rope tangles up or knots too." It's the best he can come up with, so he hopes it makes sense.

[atouts]

"He'll be common knowledge soon enough," Childermass says with a shrug. "And no, it doesn't change anything. Their goal is the Rose, not vengeance against the Ringmaster. Whether they send anyone after Ignatius, however, is yet to be seen. Soldiers die, that isn't new. Who might replace him, though... I might worry about that."

[whattaprick]

“He’d know,” Lambert says, simply. Much like his own second in command is known to him (and god’s, isn’t rhat still a weird thought to have) he’s certain Summer must have their own plans for succession.

“Someone should try asking, assuming he doesn’t consider that too much of a betrayal of Summer to answer.”

[atouts]

"Are you sure this game isn't meant to teach aliens how to recognize other aliens?"

Because that makes the most sense to Childermass right now, if that's the case. He could identify anything human, sure, but humans are, well, human. That's easy. Anyway, he takes the phone back and hits the button, tilting his head some as he holds it up to listen.

That look of concern is never, ever really going to go away so long as they're playing this since there it is all over again.

"Ah." He lowers the phone again. "Do any of the cards happen to include a... squid?"