⇨ 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

[dressedtothe]

"Yep. I fished a few times back on Earth. Marine biology was one of the few types of lifeforms still thriving after the ecology got all messed up. We returned plenty of marine data back to the Bunker, but I haven't seen anything looking like this." He half turns, looking at the furry trout. "I wonder what kind of evolutionary advantage the fur serves..."

Anyway! He shoots Rita a soft smile. "Sleep well? You looked so peaceful, I didn't want to wake you."

Compared to how she was sleeping before...

[anti_nonsense]

The furry trout receives a look of confusion mixed with mild disgust before Rita turns her attention back to 9S. Francis, on the other hand, climbs to his feet, stretches, and strides over to get a closer look at the strange fish.

"Actually... yeah." Rita sounds almost amazed at that. She's had nothing but nightmares for the past few nights, but just now... "I had this weirdly vivid dream, but it was also... kind of nice?"

[dressedtothe]

"Oh, really?"

Now that Francis has left his spot by Rita's feet, 9S makes his way over and sits down next to her, pulling his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them.

"Can you tell me about it?"

Meanwhile, Pod 153 hovers a little lower for Francis to inspect the fish. Records state that felines often ate fish. Though whether this sort of fish would be appropriate for the diet of littens is another matter.

[anti_nonsense]

He wants to know about her dream? It’s not the sort of thing Rita normally talks about... but she can’t shake this weird feeling she has about it. Maybe talking about it will help her remember what happened and figure out what’s so strange about it.

“Well... I dreamed that I was back at my old house in Aspio. The blastia were there with me, and...” She cups her chin, seemingly struggling to recall more. “I think someone from the carnival came in?”

Francis, in the meantime, sits under the trout and stares up at it, his tail flicking behind him. He just might be thinking about jumping up and snatching it.

[dressedtothe]

9S hums. "You couldn't tell?" That's not really like Rita to not be able to discern something so obvious.

Guess who's never had a dream before? This guy.

"I did hear from one of the Operators that dreams are supposed to show us what's on our minds. Maybe this is something like that?"

Pod 153 is well aware of Francis' pouncing ways by now. But it doesn't make any move to put the trout out of the litten's reach; 9S didn't have much of a plan for it, other than to show Rita how weird it was. Without a Bunker to send data to...

[anti_nonsense]

9S's first question is met with a confused look. Of course it's hard to tell; it's a dream.

"Well... maybe. It's not that weird for any of those things to show up in a dream of mine, but... something about it seemed kind of different this time." Still sitting up and half-covered by the sleeping bag, Rita folds her arms as she considers why that is.

But she also wonders: "Do you dream, when you're in sleep mode?" It's only now that she realizes she has no idea if androids can do that or not.

As they're talking, Francis suddenly springs up at the trout, latching on to it with his claws and sinking his teeth into it.

[dressedtothe]

9S shakes his head. "Nope. It's just... darkness. There isn't anything to fill the gaps between one waking moment and the next."

Sometimes he wonders how different dying is compared to entering Sleep Mode.

"But..." 9S glances down at his hands. "...Maybe I could share yours?" Returning his gaze to Rita, he explains, "The Ringmaster made me a spell that'll let me use my abilities on organic beings."

It was just as much to try and find a solution to the Carnival brainwashing problem as it was to end his frustration over frequently not being able to use the skills he was made for.

Pod 153 doesn't try to evade, but once Francis latches on, it starts to jostle the trout, as if to try and dislodge Francis from his prey. Is this playing? It's playing.

[anti_nonsense]

Share... her dreams? Rita's eyes widen. It's not something she ever really thought possible.

But as he elaborates, the pieces start to come together. "Your abilities? You mean... hacking?" That must be what he meant when he said he'd figured out a way to do something, a way to be effective even against humans. But is that even possible...?

Francis flails his claws around for a brief moment of lightning-fast movement, and scrambles to find a better grip. He's never letting go of this trout.

[dressedtothe]

9S nods. "Yeah. I'm not sure how it's going to work on biological beings, but if it's anything like hacking androids, I should be able to observe without any problems. I just need to test it."

Pod 153 flies from side to side at first, before finally letting go of the trout. Francis is a fierce and tenacious predator!!

[anti_nonsense]

"You can observe it, huh..." Rita scratches her cheek idly, feeling a little bit nervous about that for a number of reasons. Hacking the human mind? He hasn't tested it yet? And... her dreams? An unpredictable jumble of thoughts, a manifestation of what she knows, what she loves, and what she fears... That's intimate stuff.

But... maybe they should be more intimate?

"What else can you use it for?" she decides to ask while mulling over some of the other questions in her head.

Francis, delighted in his victory, grabs the trout's tail with his teeth and drags the fish out of the tent, presumably to someplace where he can chomp on it in privacy.

[dressedtothe]

"Mmm, well... Most of the time I hack into enemy defence systems," enemies that weren't always machines, "or take them over. The more advanced machines have stronger defences against hacking, but if I take over the simpler ones I can use their system ID to gain entry to other machines."

There's a lot more he could theoretically do, but... Rita doesn't need to know he can mess with memories, too. Not that he would. Not unless asked to, anyway.

[anti_nonsense]

"Then, if those abilities translate to organic life forms... you'd be able to control their bodies?" Rita asks, her brow furrowing as her uncertainty becomes more apparent.

She trusts 9S, of course. There's no reason for her to worry about him commanding that kind of power... but the power itself is still kind of unsettling.

[dressedtothe]

9S nods. "Yep. The Carnival has a real problem with getting mind controlled all the time."

Seriously! All the time.

"I hope I can use this to return people to normal. Or if that doesn't work, I can at least make them stop attacking us."

[anti_nonsense]

"Right..." Rita breathes a sigh of relief. That is a pretty good application of that sort of ability. Maybe she shouldn't have worried...

Still sitting with her legs partly covered by her sleeping bag, Rita reaches out with a hand, blindly seeking his hand while her gaze drifts elsewhere.

"I don't mind," she says after a moment. "Letting you see my dream, I mean... We can try it." Her hand finds his, and she curls it around, lightly holding it. "But... dreams can be pretty weird, you know. Do you know what you're getting into?"

[dressedtothe]

It's basically reflex for him to curls his hand around Rita's. "Nnno...? I've never experienced a dream, remember?"

And he's all for new and novel experiences! He's curious! He wants to know what it's like...

9S shuffles a little closer so that his leg is pressed against hers, the sleeping back acting as half a barrier between them. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

[anti_nonsense]

"It can be," Rita replies without hesitation. "To start with, dreams let you experience all kinds of things that can't happen in the real world. Sometimes it's nice... but sometimes they draw from your fears, manifesting as scenarios far more horrible than anything in reality." And with how many nightmares Rita's been having lately, she can't guarantee something like that won't happen the next time she sleeps.

"Besides that... dreams are irrational. When you're having a dream, you feel like it makes sense at the time, but the actual events don't follow any sort of logic." If 9S has never had a dream before, that part might be especially jarring.

[dressedtothe]

"Uh..." He doesn't quite see the problem here. "But they aren't real, right?"

His gaze drifts down to where he's holding Rita's hand. Sure he has a lot of fears but... if they're not real, then it doesn't matter, right? If he saw Rita hurt, but knew it wasn't really her, then it didn't mean anything because Rita, the real Rita, was fine.

Though... the things that the fake 2B said to him had really hurt... but that's because parts of it were real. Everyone back home really would get infected by a logic virus...

"So even if your dreams gets weird, they can't hurt us."

[anti_nonsense]

Rita turns to face him with a wry smile, one that says she wishes she believed that, but she can’t.

She doesn’t blame him if he can’t understand what there is to fear. He’s never had a dream before, so he wouldn’t know what it’s like to believe it in the moment. But maybe it won’t be like that for 9S if he’s simply observing.

Then there’s the fear that her dreams might reveal something about her inner thoughts that she wanted to keep hidden... Rita isn’t keeping any big secrets from 9S or anything, but there are still some things she’d rather not say out loud.

“Yeah... they can’t,” she agrees despite those thoughts. “I just wanted to make sure you know what you’re getting into. We can try it tonight.”

[dressedtothe]

He doesn't understand :c

But maybe he will after... what was it that humans used to say? Walking a mile in Rita's head? 9S squeezes Rita's hand before he lets go. "Alright." He smiles. "You ready to get out of bed? Or," he brings his hand to his chin, "well, I guess it isn't really a bed, is it?"

...

Later that night, 9S shoots Rita a confident smile as he sits himself down on the ground of their shared tent. "Are you ready? I'll be careful, promise."

[anti_nonsense]

Rita lays out her sleeping bag in front of him and wiggles her way inside, twisting around this way and that to make herself comfortable.

She is nervous... but less so now that she’s heard Ginko and Tanyuu on the radio. If what they’re saying is right, there should be a low chance of having bad dreams tonight. And with 9S’s calming presence... she feels sure that it’ll be all right.

“Ready,” she says, her voice slightly muffled as she sinks her face into her pillow. She gazes up at 9S, giving him one last look, then closes her eyes and tries to sleep. It takes a few minutes, but soon her muscles relax and her consciousness drifts away.

She hopes she’ll get to see 9S there, on the other side...

[dressedtothe]

9S waits for Rita's breathing to draw slow and relaxed as she slips away into sleep. He resists the urge to brush the hair away from her face or grasping her hand -- Would that wake her? He's not sure -- and settles for getting started instead, the usual ring of light appearing around his wrist.

Pod 153 is still activated, a precaution in case something goes awry.

He doesn't know what to expect, not really, but he's not afraid as he hacks Rita and sends his consciousness into her head...

[anti_nonsense]

In Rita’s mind, she sits at a round table made of wood, its surface smooth but its base uneven and twisted, seemingly rooting it into the ground like an old tree. On it is a teapot, several tea cups, and an arrangement of sweets. The stools surrounding the table also look as if they simply grew where they stand, though each of them are currently occupied.

One occupant is, of course, Rita. In this world, she appears fully human and dressed in a yellow sundress. She holds a teacup in one hand and uses the other to gesture wildly as she argues with her company.

“Bogden!? Hah! What a hack. Please, you can’t tell me he’s come up with anything that Miska hasn’t already done better!” she barks at one of them.

The object of her ire, dressed in a top hat and bow tie, retorts with something that sounds like “mrrrowrr!”

For as it turns out, her company is made up entirely of cats. They sit on the stools in the normal way a cat would sit, though their size is such that they stand at the same height as a human adult. The android’s intrusion goes unnoticed for now, as they all seem engaged in this lively debate, though all of their contributions sound like unintelligible meowing.

[dressedtothe]

9S doesn't immediately enter the dreamscape, but when he does, he takes the time to absorb everything. The unnatural formation of the plant life, the human-ness of Rita's appearance, the tea and sweets, Rita's appearance, the cats, and... the fact Rita is talking to said cats as if they're people.

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

9S takes a step towards the table and the company of cats. "...Rita?"

He sounds entirely (unsure). Is that really her?

[anti_nonsense]

Rita glances over her shoulder, her face brightening as she sees 9S. "There you are! Can you believe it? This idiot," she waves her teacup in the direction of the cat with the bowtie, "just said that Bogden revolutionized blastia infrastructure with his containment theory! Sure, he made some distinct improvements to established formulas, but his theories were largely derivative. Everyone knows that." She rolls her eyes as the cats respond with catlike murmurs, then looks back to 9S.

"What are you just standing there for, anyway? You want to join us?"

Something peculiar happens then. When 9S first looked at the table, he would have seen that there were precisely enough seats for the gathered company, with no room for additional guests. But now, as soon as Rita suggests it, a second look will reveal an empty seat conveniently located next to her.

[dressedtothe]

9S hesitates. That seat wasn't there before. How did he miss it? There was simply no way he would've missed that seat. There had only been enough for Rita and the cats, not for him.

"Uh... Sure, I guess."

He walks over and sits down in the seat next to Rita, bewildered. He can't help but be concerned. Of course, Rita talking technical blastia theory is the same, but... he's fairly certain the Rita he knows wouldn't want to be caught dead talking to cats, especially ones that can't talk back.

"...Are you alright? You know you're, uh, talking to cats, right? They can't talk back."