lostcarnival | ⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

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⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Strange hasn't actually died before. So this entire experience is new and interesting in ways he could never imagine. He's aware of his body first as it starts to regrow and become less disgusting. The mind comes next as Strange becomes more aware of the sensations outside of his comfy enclosure and becomes more aware of himself as a whole. However, Strange's thoughts are still a little bit hazy when he realizes he's got memories and dreams and also realizes there's one very important thing missing.

Arabella isn't here. This sucks, he can't see Arabella if he's stuck like this! He can't see anything if he's stuck like this! With that one thought, Strange has officially decided that the egg is dumb and that he feels enough like himself to try and get out.

He can't move that much, this is getting a bit stuffy, and for someone who's normally as animated and all over the place as Strange is, that's not ideal. Wherever he is, it kind of sucks and he'd like to get out. So, he flexes his body, stretching and trying to move, until his elbow hits something solid. He's still faintly aware of the idea that he's stuck in an egg to begin with, but this is keeping him from being where he wants to be and Captain Impulse Decisions is going to straight up break it.

The egg, which already was weirdly warm to begin with, grows hotter to the touch. At the same time, there's a crack as Strange's elbow smacks into the side of the shell, breaking away a section. It's currently sitting outside of Papyrus's tent so anybody getting breakfast, getting their day started, and so on, can see the egg start to hatch.

Even as Strange is wrecking his way out of this egg, it's worth noting it wasn't eggsactly in eggcellent shape to begin with. At some point in the past few days, a considerate hand has written a get well message and given the egg some googly eyes to give it a more jovial appearance. Another someone has taken said googly eyes and drawn a dick jutting out of them, along with probably more body hair than Strange actually possesses in total. To say nothing of whatever other casual acts of vandalism people have wrought on the poor shell...

Steven has just been in the middle of getting cleaned up for a new day when he wanders closeby enough to get some curiously Strange-feeling emotions drifting in his direction. This has not really been happening at all for the last few days, so it sticks out like a sore thumb.

He runs in the direction he senses it, and finds the egg is starting to crack! He trips over his own feet, which are still clumsily made of crystal but growing opaque on the inside, and lands in the grass.

"EGG!" he yells to no one in particular. He just thinks people should know that egg, right now.

Yuya doesn't give the initial wiggling any thought as he passes to collect breakfast. It's easy to assume in his sleepiness it's just a trick of his eyes.

It's when he's returning with his plate that there's now an elbow sticking out, and he stops.

"Mr. Strange--!" Yuya drops his plate of breakfast and rushes to the egg right past Steven, crouching a little as his hands are outstretched and hover in the air. Should he help, should he not touch it? He doesn't know!

Rita appears too, dressed in her Alolan shorts and tank top and walking from the direction of the tent she shares with 9S. She rubs at her eyes, apparently having only just woken up.

"What are you yelling about..." she grumbles, then sees the egg and stops, eyes wide, before breaking into a jog to join the others. She seems awfully concerned, considering one of the insults scribbled onto the egg ('idiot', of course) is in her handwriting.

Steven crawls the rest of the way over, shock passing into relief now that he has some of the others with him. He's grinning happily to see that Strange in on his way towards staging a breakout, and is looking at Yuya and Rita in excitement.

He moves up to the other side of the egg, pressing his ear to it.

"Mr Strange, can you hear us?" he calls.

Edited 2018-06-10 19:35 (UTC)

The elbow moves back inside the egg. And then, for Steven's trouble, Strange's elbow jams out again, breaking through more shell and getting real close to hitting Steven in the face.

There have been plenty of acts of vandalism. Papyrus even left art supplies outside the tent, in a nice little basket with a note encouraging people to show Strange how they care. Displays of earnest emotions like that could only help!

The expert eggsitter himself isn't right by the tent, but pacing around the clearing and chattering on the radio. It's not like watching his brother, who he felt so intensely responsible for, and besides - eggs don't generally go anywhere on their own. There's still the risks of things falling on them or sticky-fingered cryptids wandering in from the woods, and he's been keeping watch for that, but the biggest concern on the skeleton's mind is that fever Strange's egg is running. He's been calling up Gongenzaka and Sans at random times to quiz them about their eggsperiences, even trying the Ringmaster once or twice to check that it's okay for the egg to be so warm.

But Steven's shouting is attention-getting, and he startles out of the radio chatter to look over. "Is something changing?!"

Steven yelps and falls onto his butt. Thankfully, though, he's already laughing in the next moment. The cracks formed by the elbow strike almost perfectly bisect the heart Steven drew on the egg earlier.

"He's hatching! Do we need anything for when he comes out?" he asks, counting down an inventory in his head.

"He's, uh--" hatching?? That is technically the right term for this, but it feels way too weird to apply to a human being.

"He's coming out!" That doesn't sound much better, but they get the point. As Steven is nearly elbowed, Yuya resolves to curl his fingers around the edge of the opening on his side and pulls at the shell. "I don't know, I've never seen someone do this before. What happened when Sans was reborn?"

Edited 2018-06-10 20:00 (UTC)

"Already?" Papyrus peers down at the egg, and sure enough, those are cracks.

"Phew! Uh, you see..." He hums and struggles to remember. Having been rather inebriated that night, memories of the hatching itself are fuzzy. "Sans broke through the shell... and! needed a bath. Badly. Food is good too!"

"I'm sure he'll figure it out," Rita offers unhelpfully, standing nearby with her arms folded as she watches the elbow jab its way through the shell.

"A bath?" Steven ponders, and then lights up. "Oh, I'll go get him some water!"

Without waiting for commentary, Steven goes running towards the lakeside to fetch some.

Yuya yanking some shell off definitely helps. That, plus Strange attempting another elbow attack, makes the hole big enough to look inside and large enough that some goop spills out. Strange is slightly visible inside the egg. He's naked, groggy, covered in egg goop...and his hair is on fire. The ends of his hair burn like tiny matches: Strange doesn't notice.

"Bell?" he murmurs, with all the coherency of someone who just woke up from a long nap.

"Whoa--" Yuya jerks his hands back and cringes as egg goo gets all over them looking mildly disgusted. Still, he gets right back to it as Strange calls out, peeling more shell away.

"Mr. Strange?" He leans over to peer in, relief washing over his face just for the little bit of proof that Strange is all right (but is there a light in that egg?).

"No, you're in the carnival!" He laughs. "Hold on, we'll get you out."

Rita, being the great friend that she is, doesn't move to help, though her brow furrows as she peers at the egg. "What's that light?" she asks, expecting that someone will investigate for her.

She doesn't lean in for a closer look. Rita knows he's naked in there.

Papyrus, for his part, has ducked into the tent to look for anything else that could help out.

"Where's the light from?" He calls out from inside as he gathers things. Soap? Towels? Surely not that snack that... Oh, the mouse has gotten into those snacks. Terrible.

More shell is broken away, enough where Strange can almost stick his head out. And so, he does, awkwardly breaking more shell in an attempt to stick said head out. Strange's head is covered in egg goop, but his new fire hair is strong enough to burn right through that goop.

He's tired, groggy, and looks like he still needs a nap. But hey, Strange is in one piece and doesn't look decomposed in the slightest!

He looks over at Yuya, Rita, and Papyrus...before letting out a bit of a tired yet annoyed noise. What gives? None of you are Arabella!

Edited 2018-06-11 00:47 (UTC)

Yuya's tail starts to swish with excitement as Strange tries to poke his head out, grinning. He yanks another piece of shell and tosses it aside as Strange finally forces his head through. "Mr--"

He stops, completely, frozen in time for a second.

But just a second. "Your hair's on fire!" Why is his hair on fire?!

That sure is Strange's head on fire. There's a flicker of surprise in Rita's expression, but it doesn't last for long. Weird as it is, it's a trait she's seen before... in some of his other changelings.

"Must be Ignatius' influence," she says bitterly.

His hair's on fire? That sounds like a problem he can deal with later. Strange continues to try and pull himself out of the egg, cracking the shell as he does so.

He's gotten his head, shoulders, and upper chest out of the egg before Strange pauses. This is tiring! So, he looks up at Yuya, gives him a weak little smile, then just kind of falls on the ground, exhausted and covered in egg goop, hair still on fire.

Little help, guys?

"I'm back!"

Steven returns with a pink bubble full of lake water floating over his hands. He was going to use this to give Strange a shower when he was ready, but he was ill-prepared for the sight of Strange being literally on fire.

"Is he - ahhhh, fire!" Steven yelps, impulsively bursting the bubble and letting it drench Strange as he lies on the ground.

Between all the shouting and the splashing, it's almost easy to miss the soft, unmistakable sound of a shutter clicking.

Looking better than he has been -- still rough, but upright and with golden scales starting to peek out from under his bandages -- Lambert lowers the camera, watching Strange. He'd been heading somewhere else, but the commotion was hard to miss, and now he's got a nice little picture of the whole tableau.

Celandine's reaction is less restrained.

"STRANGE!" she hollers joyfully, racing across the damp ground, skidding to a stop beside the damp magician (accidentally kicking up mud on him in the process). "You're back!"

"He's naked," Lambert observes, meandering his way over. "And still on fire."

Edited 2018-06-11 03:45 (UTC)

Oh, that warmth and light were because Strange is part-fire now. No wonder! And, given what monsters are like, it's not alarming. It's certainly not any more unexpected than Sans gaining extra arms, or whatever happened to Gongenzaka after his egg time.

So Papyrus finishes gathering things before coming out, just in time to see Steven dump water all over Strange.

"Oh my god!" He dashes forward, towel at the ready, and drops it on the man. The towel should soak up egg goop, water, and mud alike. Hopefully it's not too flammable.

"...I don't know if I should be alarmed! Strange, does the fire hurt?"

"His influence?" Yuya turns to Rita and gives her a confused look. "You mean it's a change from being under him...?"

That's something he would dwell on longer, had Steven not just popped a bubble of water right on Strange's head (he feels a few droplets hit his face) and then for a moment he just stares stupidly.

There's a building crowd, so Yuya snaps himself back to attention and looks between everyone, and Strange. The fire doesn't seem to be growing at any rate, though it's still a question of whether it's flammable to everything except Strange. Yuya bends over to grab one of his arms. "Can someone help me pull him out?"

There won't be any modesty or clean up as long as he's still halfway in a goopy egg.

early day 67 | group thread! how eggciting

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