⇨ 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

Dreams

[hippocarnival]

Yuya sticks his head through the doorway without even double checking if there was a sign. He's only a little sorry forthe privacy breach.

"Aw, you won't make an exception for me?" He drags his gaze around the room. What really has his attention, though, is the big green rock that just spoke and he stares openly.

"Hey, who're you?"

[anti_nonsense]

At the familiar voice, Rita lifts her head up to see Yuya. "Fine. You can stay," she decides easily, shrugging. It's not like Yuya's likely to cause any trouble.

The big green rock eagerly replies, "My name is Victoria. I take care of this place and everyone in it whenever Rita's away." There's a mature, almost motherly quality to her voice.

It's not immediately clear who everyone refers to, until one of the smaller devices on the floor, giving off a reddish glow from the jewel set in its circular frame, chimes in with a boyish voice, "Hey, we don't need any taking care of!"

"Yeah, you're just bossy, Victoria!" adds a yellow one.

[hippocarnival]

That's enough invitation for Yuya to walk in completely, taking a walk around Victoria. He's careful, at least, not to step on anything.

Including the red jewel, that he stops in front of. That design is much more familiar, and his eyes widen before he grins.

"You're blastia, aren't you?" He kneels down to pick the red one up.

[anti_nonsense]

"That's right!" the red-jeweled device proudly replies. "Most of us were broken before, but Rita took us in and fixed us up! Now we're a family."

Rita, still sitting with her book, pretends to ignore them, but her face flushes slightly.

"You're Rita's friend, right?" asks a blastia resembling a simple blue orb in a childish voice. "She never introduces us to her friends! It's no fair."

[hippocarnival]

"Never?" Yuya outright pouts at that, looking aside to her before turning with the red blastia to find and face the blue orb. "Then I'll just have to introduce myself! I'm Yuya, and I met Rita in the carnival."

His gaze drifts between the four of them again, and he slowly raises an eyebrow. "She's told me a lot about blastia, and how you're all becoming spirits--er, I guess spirits that aren't just in rocks. But she didn't tell me who any of you are."

This appears to be an issue on both sides of the equation.

[anti_nonsense]

"Well... I'm Augustine!" the red one declares. "And that's Catherine." The yellow one glows faintly at the sound of its name. "We were excavated from the same ruins!"

"I wasn't!" the blue one chimes in. "Rita took me away from a bad man who wanted to use blastia for weapons. But when we become spirits, no one's going to use us ever again!"

[hippocarnival]

"That's right. You'll be a lot more free." Yuya says it almost wistfully. "One where you get to live with people. That'll be nice, right?"

And he has no doubts Rita will assure that. She can understand both sides, and that's an important base for peace. Although, maybe with some more diplomatic friends to help.

He circles around to Rita, leaning over. "What are you reading?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita looks up. "It's about those fae artifacts." In truth, Rita had no idea what she was reading until this very moment, but now, she's convinced that's what she's been doing all this time. It makes sense, after all. "We have to find them soon, if we want to help the blastia."

In true dream fashion, the words in the book don't form any coherent, readable sentences. But at the same time, it looks like a dense, ancient text. And in true Rita fashion, she's brought her work with her into her dreams, even though she can't actually make progress here. But she doesn't know that.

[hippocarnival]

Yuya's eyes glaze over the unreadable book, apparently compromising it as difficult instead of just illegible.

"Eh, we do?" He's surprised to hear that connection, however. "What are the miracles going to do?"

Maybe Rita can use them to turn all the blastia into spirits at once?

[anti_nonsense]

"We need them to fight," Rita says, matter-of-factly. "To protect their freedom and ours against those who'll try to take it."

Her gaze drifts upwards, to the ceiling. "This world used to be protected by a barrier... a spell just like the Severing, that kept outside threats away from us. We could try to recreate it instead, but... if we did, we wouldn't be able to meet like this anymore, so..." Her voice grows quieter, seemingly out of embarrassment at admitting she'd like to continue seeing her Carnival friends.

But she does. And the only way to make sure she still can, while preserving the safety of her world, is to defeat their enemies for good.

[hippocarnival]

"What?" Well Yuya immediately doesn't like the sound of that. He shakes his head. "Didn't the Severing do more harm than good anyway? There's got to be a better way of keeping everyone safe."

One that won't force them to lose any friendships, too. Although Yuya's mind doesn't gravitate to plans like 'eradicate their enemies'. "Do you think the miracles will really do it?"

[anti_nonsense]

It's true... Rita doesn't want to go down that path, either.

But his next question gives her pause. "...They have to, right? That's why we're..."

Something isn't adding up, and through the jumbled threads of half-formed thoughts that Rita has mixed around in this dream-logic, there's a moment of lucidity. "What are we going to do with them...?"

[hippocarnival]

"... I want to believe the Ringmaster has a plan." Please, for all this nonsense, let her have a plan in regards to them.

Yuya sits down beside Rita, setting the blastia down beside her as he does. "This isn't what she wanted the carnival to be, you know. Arcadia hurts people when they invade their worlds, but the Ringmaster wants all the visits the carnival does to be good things. She wants to make people happy, too."

Maybe part of this is her doing, maybe part of it is just stuff catching up to her, mistakes from eons ago. He never said she's perfect, he doesn't agree with everything she does. But he does believe, completely, that she genuinely cares and sees them as people.

"Whatever the Ringmaster does, it'll be for us, the carnival."

[anti_nonsense]

Rita watches him, listening quietly. Yuya sounds certain in his assessment of the Ringmaster's intentions. In contrast, Rita's never felt all that sure about her.

"You really put a lot of trust in her, huh."

[hippocarnival]

"Yeah, I guess." He reaches for his pendulum, absently rubbing his finger along the wings. "I think she'd made mistakes, but so has everybody. Her heart's in the right place, and I think she tries to listen. I won't say I'm not scared of what's happening, and I think about wanting to go home... but not because of her."

No, that would just be because of the trauma of watching his friend's repeatedly suffer at the hands of the other Fae. But maybe if Rita saw something in Ignatius after all...

[anti_nonsense]

"...Hmph," is all Rita has to say about that for now.

Augustine, on the other hand, pipes up with, "If you ever want a safe place to stay at for a little while, you can always come here! Right, Rita?"

Rita glances at the blastia, then shrugs. "Yeah... sure. Whatever." The other blastia seem to flicker in excitement at the prospect. "Guess they like you."

[hippocarnival]

"Really?" Yuya, meanwhile, looks all the more excited at the confirmation that the blastia like him as he glances around at their flickering. "I'd like that. I can come back when you're all spirits, and you can tell me your new names!"

And Rita told him before it wouldn't happen, well look at them now!

It occurs to him, though, that while he's asked a lot about Rita's spirits, he's never let her meet any of his. She's never asked, so his expression shifts a little hesitantly as he looks to her.

"Hey, do you want to meet Odd Eyes?"

[anti_nonsense]

Rita meets his gaze with a questioning look, seemingly taking a moment to comprehend the offer. Then, her eyes light up.

"Odd Eyes... the dragon? I can meet him?"

Rita wasn't sure it was possible for anyone but Yuya to really interact with his card spirits. Now, with the possibility in front of her, it's clear that she is in fact extremely interested.

[hippocarnival]

"Yeah, you can." Even just a little interest is enough to get Yuya excited, and he scrambles to his feet. "Come on--he's big so let's meet him outside!"

He grabs for Rita's hands (or arm, whatever he can grab) to pull her up, carefully stepping around the blastia with a wide grin. His intention is to drag her right through that door and into the sunlight.

[anti_nonsense]

Rita feels almost weightless, and there's no resistance as Yuya pulls her toward the door. She turns her head back briefly, taking in the sight of her home with an odd feeling of wistfulness before looking back to see where he's leading her.

Normally, there would be no sunlight past this door, but in this world, what lies beyond is not the subterranean city of Aspio, but instead, it's wherever Yuya believes they'll meet that dragon.

[hippocarnival]

Normally it would be strange for Rita to not resist being pulled around, but Yuya's mind is so focused on this that it doesn't even occur to him. Through the door, they end up in a meadow. It's not exactly like the Summerlands, but it's very reminiscent, warm and bright and full of flowers.

In a dream, his monsters don't have to be bound by solid vision--Yugo's dragon already isn't, so it isn't hard for him to reason a form for Odd Eyes that's already real, permanent, and... apparently scuffling his feet around in the flowers. The dragon is exactly like the card Rita saw, although paper does no justice for his size, being over twice as tall as them. The scale plates shine, and there's the faintest glow to his mis-matched eyes.

Yuya raises one hand high, releasing Rita as he calls out. "Odd-Eyes! Over here!"

The dragon looks up, and then immediately straightens his body as he spots Yuya. And then, with a loud, shrill cry, he charges right for the both of them. Yuya throws his arms wide as Odd-Eyes just barely skids to a stop to not trample him, and instead smacks his face against Yuya's chest, while Yuya laughs and wraps his arms under the Odd-Eye's chin.

[anti_nonsense]

"Gah!"

With a startled cry, Rita jumps back at the sight of the dragon's charge... then watches as he greets Yuya with all the eagerness of a puppy who hasn't seen its owner in a while.

"This is... Odd-Eyes?" she asks, gingerly taking a step forward and peering at the dragon.

[hippocarnival]

"Yeah," Yuya tolerates the nuzzling a little longer, before he gently nudges Odd-Eyes back to point to Rita. "And this is Rita! She's a friend."

It's hard to read a dragon's face, and Odd-Eyes just stares at her initially. Then he cranes his neck forward, right into her personal space as he seems to regard her with curiosity.

And then he moves to playfully bump her side with his nose. Yuya grins. "He likes you."

[anti_nonsense]

Rita jerks back a little in surprise at the dragon's show of affection, seemingly unsure of how to react.

"You think so...?"

Yuya's comment bring a slight redness to her face, and she cautiously reciprocates, reaching her hand out to stroke the creature's face.

[hippocarnival]

Odd-Eyes lets out a trill sound, holding his head still as Rita strokes him while his tail slowly swings behind him. Despite his size, Odd-Eyea definitely isn't the picture of a fearsome dragon. Yuya knows he can be, but he also knows it isn't really his nature.

Yuya's tail is also swishing at the tip as he comes up on the other side of Odd-Eyes, resting his hand on the dragon's neck. He nods once. "Definitely. If he didn't, he wouldn't get close to you."

And he's glad, really, to see Odd-Eyes able to trust someone else after everything that happened in the original dimension.

"You know, I don't carry him around all the time anymore, but even as a card he knows what's going on around him." So in a way, he's already met Rita.