⇨ 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

Hades | OTA

[haides]

► CRYPTOZOOLOGY (Day 64)

[haides]

New life is impossible for him to resist. While he cannot forget his pet rodents, he will strike out from the camping ground to see what else this land has to offer. The old god radiates joy - along with his usual shadows - when he encounters a jackalope. The ears... The antlers... He crouches down amongst the bright plants, holding out taloned hands to the cryptid.

The Jackalope, like the rats and mice, does not hesitate. It jumps into his arms and nestles against his chest. He is home to it, after all, or, at least, something very close to home. Hades is an oddity - there is no question about that - but he isn't bad or terribly cruel. He will return to the camp with the Jackalope, speaking to the cryptid in a low, soothing voice.

"What have you seen? What are your first memories?"

He cannot understand the small creature, but there are clues on the Jackalope's fur and even on his antlers.

"Do you clash like stags over mates? Have a care - once these -" his fingers brush the antlers, "become tangled, there is only one escape."

► CHILLAX (Day 65+)

[haides]

Hades has no problem showing up at random in various locations and making himself comfortable. He can be found lounging in the foliage, oblivious to the biting insects - they do not seem to bother him - and sometimes he seems to be drowsing, his horned head resting on his furry arms. The animals are drawn to him, inspecting him with twitching noses and some of them rest on his back, nestling in his feathers and fur.

Of course what your character sees depends on how they view death. Only the animals and their reactions remain the same, which might seem odd if he looks like a monstrosity.

When he isn't being completely lazy with his menagerie, he is walking about, touching the trees and plants. They are so like what he knows and yet...not. He wants to know them and the soil that has produced them, but he hasn't the heart to dig them up.

[kingsroads]

Strange actually died once and has the self-preservation instincts of a suicidal lemming. As such, there's something oddly interesting about this man—something interesting besides the fact that he's attracted a weird amount of fuzzy animals, that is. He had been planning to go further in the forest, towards the lake, to find a safer spot to train and practice his magic. But this is interesting and alluring enough that practice can wait a little.

"How did you get them to like you like that?" Strange asks, with genuine curiosity in his voice. "The only thing that seems remotely interested in me are those moth things—they keep flying at my head at night."

Granted, the reason the mothmen kept swooping at Strange probably has something to do with the fact that his hair's on fire: the tips of his curls burn, like someone lit them all with matches. And while there aren't lightbulbs in the forest, apparently Strange is the closest enough thing for the mothmen to bother.

[haides]

Fuzzy animals understood the cycle of life and death; they were under no delusions that, somehow, they might live forever. Humans were curiously set apart in that way. Hades admired humanity, but when he wished to distract his mind from endless questions, he sought out the beasts.

"Tis an understanding we have; nothing more." he rubs the head of a bird gently, keeping his talon far from their eyes, "Do you have a bright mind?"

Come on, someone had to make that joke. Hades looked amused at himself - though that was generally the case with him. He was not a god who took himself too seriously and that was why it was very difficult - nigh impossible - to offend him.

[kingsroads]

Strange can't help but smile a little at Hades's joke. "More than most," he'll admit. And not just because his hair is literally on fire: Strange is far too arrogant and thinks way too highly of himself.

He takes a few steps closer, trying not to frighten or spook any of the animals. "Would you mind explaining what sort of understanding it is to begin with?"