⇨ 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

[whattaprick]

Lambert isn’t fully cognizant this isn’t his dream, yet. It’s just a dream like any other, even if it’s an unfamiliar, nonsensical landscape. That’s the sort of thing you just recognize in dreams — like he recognizes Peridot, even if she looks different.

“Hey, Peridot.” He waves jauntily and jogs over. Like her, he’s been stripped of all his features — though the sharp golden eyes remain, taking everything in with open curiosity.

“What is this?” He asks. “What were you doing just now?”

[periphrasing]

"Lambert--!?"

In contrast, Peridot picks up on the fact that this must be a dream almost from the moment she sees him. It's just how her mind tends to work, overly analytical and detail oriented as she is. Lambert being in this place, this place having Lambert in it-- It's not an impossible scenario, but it is a rather improbable one. Trying to contextualize why he might be here has her trying to recall how she even got here herself in the first place, and when she can't do that... The whole setup falls apart pretty quickly.

"...I'm dreaming?" she exclaims out loud, looking up at the ceiling of the hole she's in, out at the kindergarten, and back down at Lambert. Then she narrows her eyes at the witcher. "Ohhh no. No no no. Lambert, I love you like an actual human brother but if this is my dream, I am not having you here in this horrible sham of a kindergarten to pepper me with questions. Go. Go away!"

And she sticks her nose up in the air and tries to shoo him off with a wave of a hand. She definitely thinks that, since this is a dream, he must be another figment of her own imagination, and absolutely not some kind of interloper granted access to her head by the power of mysterious psychic ghost bugs. So, she's attempting to lucid dream him away.

[whattaprick]

“What?” Lambert, unfortunately for Peridot, is staying obstinately where he is, folding his arms and scowling.

“Why do I have to go?” Also? He has no idea how to feel about that “like an actual human brother part” (besides obscurely pleased) so he’s just ... not going to address it. Sorry Peridot.

Anyway, since she apparently isn’t going to tell him jack shit, he’s going to hop into the hole to do some examining of his own, knocking at the walls. “Are you looking for something?”

[periphrasing]

(Really, it's for the best that he doesn't address it.)

This is troubling. She's never had an issue altering her dreams like that before, at least not whenever she's been aware that she's dreaming. What the heck is going on here--?

And then before she can do anything else, he's up in the hole and clomping around it with stupid tall body and heavy feet.

"What are you-- HEY!" She springs back up to her feet, trying to push him away. "Don't touch that-- Out, OUT OUT OUT! You'll compromise the conditions of the exit hole!"

Which, she really shouldn't care about now that she knows this is a dream, but. It's the principle of the thing.

[whattaprick]

Lambert’s consciousness pushes back against Peridot’s, asserting his own solidity and making him all too real to the touch.

“‘The exit hole’?” he echoes, bemused. “What’s so special about some hole?”

[periphrasing]

"It's not just 'some hole', it's--" She's distracted for a brief moment, grunting with exertion while trying to keep pushing him. It's no use, though; he's too solid, both in literal tangibility and in comparative build.

Something very fishy is going on here indeed.

Peridot eases off and slumps back against the wall, defeated. She folds her arms and glances away, grumbling her explanation sourly: "It's the hole that Jasper emerged from, when she was first created."

Why she was wasting her dream time examining it so closely, Peridot isn't exactly sure.

[whattaprick]

“This is where gems come from? Holes?”

Lambert looks around dubiously, even as Peridot surrenders to the limitations of her body mass (or lack thereof).

“Does that mean you have a hole too?” Unlike Peridot, it’s harder for him to grasp he’s dreaming; he rambles on, undeterred— “I guess if you think about it, we all come from holes. Maybe Gems and humans have more in common than I thought.”

[periphrasing]

"Oh my god," Peridot groans, dragging a hand down her face while sounding more like her Portland self than she has since the day they left that realm. "There is a world of difference between clawing your way out of a hole in the ground, and being pushed out of a vagina," she says, gesturing with both hands like she's indicating two separate items on an actual table. "And gems don't come from holes, they make the holes when they form after they're finished incubating!"

[whattaprick]

The more Peridot goes on, the wider Lambert's grin grows. He's not really sure what's going on, but--

"I didn't think you even knew what a vagina was," he answers, the answer slow and drawled out. It's really not the most important thing here, but it's kind of fascinating to learn more about Gem biology this way. A nagging sense of 'this isn't right' is starting to sink in, though, looking around curiously. Now that he's looking for them, he recognizes the holes upon holes around them, lining all the canyon walls.

"Is that what this is? Where gems are incubated?"

[periphrasing]

"Of course I know what a vagina is!" she snaps, blushing fiercely. Jeez Lambert, what kind of lesbian do you take her for!?

Peridot exhales and flops down to sit with her legs out over the edge of the hole, and stares out at the scenery beyond. "But. Yes. It is." She makes a sweeping gesture with one arm: "Welcome to the Beta kindergarten: The place of Jasper's origins, and the most shoddily maintained, sorry excuse for a kindergarten on our version of Earth."

[whattaprick]

The witcher sniggers, but he won’t press Peridot on that point, considering he has other things to wonder about.

Lambert looks, but he’s not seeing it. It’s just a bunch of rock to him. Maybe scenic, if you’re into that sort of thing, but there’s one thing he can definitely say.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he admits readily. “What are the others like, if this is so bad?”

[periphrasing]

She snorts. "Not made of red sandstone, first and foremost. It's honestly astounding that this place hasn't eroded into nothing over the course of the last 5000 years. A real, quality kindergarten is made of sturdier stuff, it's organized, it's--" She pauses thoughtfully. "Actually... This is my dream. I can just show you a proper one."

Peridot hops down from the hole and waves for him to follow her, marching ahead with purpose. "Follow me."

[whattaprick]

"Your dream?" Lambert asks, faintly amused, but looking willing to humor it. "What would I be doing in your dream?"

Not being much of a lucid dreamer, Lambert can only take it in stride. He follows Peridot without protest, after a last look around.

[periphrasing]

Peridot pauses. "Well... I was assuming it was because you were just a figment of my imagination generated by my subconscious, but now I'm starting to question that," she hums, rubbing her chin as she sizes Lambert up again. The inability to influence him in any way would be one thing, easily explainable simply by token of the fact that her control over her dreams isn't necessarily 100% perfect. But the fact that he's questioning why he's here at all is... Well, no other dream construct has done that to her before.

[whattaprick]

Lambert just stares back at Peridot, then looks down at himself, patting his chest down.

"I don't feel very imaginary." And then, though they'd just established Peridot's relative solidness, he leans forward and taps a claw square in the center of her gem. Tak-tak.

[periphrasing]

Peridot makes an indignant noise and swats his hand away with both of her own. Touching a Gem's gem: Extremely rude and invasive!

"You haven't picked up any astral projection or dream walking abilities from the Ringmaster recently, have you?" she growls suspiciously, both hands now clasped over the center of her forehead. That seems like a stretch, but if this is the real Lambert that she's dealing with, she would really like to know...

[whattaprick]

Lambert is rude and invasive! Peridot shouldn't even be surprised anymore! The question, though, has him making a face.

"What, like Steven? I don't think so."

[periphrasing]

"Well I certainly didn't either," the gem growls, finally lowering her hands. "Hmmnn. Well... If I haven't changed, and YOU haven't changed, the only variable that leaves is... the location we've both presumably fallen asleep in."

She taps her foot a moment, mulling over the likelihood of this being some sort of unusual dream sharing scenario versus Lambert just being a particularly stubborn figment of her own imagination. After a moment's consideration, she comes to a conclusion, scoffing loudly and putting her hands on her hips: "Whatever! I've been meaning to share this information with you anyway. And if it turns you aren't real... Then none of this matters, and there are no consequences anyway."

Peridot grabs the witcher's hand and starts pulling him over towards a nearby platform, talking as she goes. "I'm going to conduct an experiment while we do this. We should come up with some kind of code word unique to this situation. When we both wake up, I can give you the code word in the real world, and observe whether or not you remember what I'm referencing. Human brains are notoriously bad at retaining the information of what they dream about while deep asleep, but if I am interacting with your true consciousness right now, perhaps the code word will act as a trigger and bring this all back to you. And if you don't recognize the code at all... That will lend evidence to the idea that I'm actually just absolutely crazy, and I'm talking to myself inside my own head."

[whattaprick]

O ... kay, well. Lambert tuned out of that entire screed somewhere around 'conduct an experiment,' but when Peridot finally stops talking, he thinks he gets the gist of it.

"So ... basically pick a word neither of us would normally use and we'll both know this was real?" That sounds weird to Lambert. Asking is straightforward enough, isn't it? But if that's how Peridot wants to do it...

"Fine," Lambert decides. "The code word's 'vagina.'"

[periphrasing]

Peridot stops mid-stride, pausing while still holding Lambert's hand, still facing away from him. Which is unfortunate, because it means he's missing out on the kaleidoscope of expressions that she goes through for a few moments while she processes his choice.

Now that she thinks on it, she's really not sure what she expected.

"...Fine," she growls wearily after this moment's consideration, and starts moving again. She could demand he pick something less immature, but it doesn't seem worth her energy, so, she'll just heckle him instead! "You sure you don't want to just go with 'boobs' or 'titties' instead? Oh, or how about penis?"

While she's ranting she leads Lambert the rest of the short distance to the kindergarten's crystalline warp pad and waits for him to stand next to her on it. How do YOU feel about portals, Lambert?

[whattaprick]

"That's a good point," Lambert says, sincerely, though he's grinning like a shithead as he goes. "You are probably a lot less likely to say 'cock.'"

How does he feel about portals? Well, after having a boyfriend who pulls him through the shadows on a regular basis, Lambert's a bit used to being teleported all over the place by now, although he doesn't recognize what they're standing on as a device for that. He does come to stand by Peridot, finally looking a bit more alert as he looks around.

[periphrasing]

Rather than responding to that, Peridot rolls her eyes and activates the teleport. The pad glows, and then they're both swallowed by the pale teal-green beam of light that erupts from the base and whisks them away. Technically they don't even really need to travel by warp pad, since with enough focus Peridot could probably have just changed the scenery to reflect what it is that she wants to show to Lambert... But making a warp pad and taking it there is just what feels right. It's how things are done, and she misses this technology sorely.

Travelling this way is like the exact opposite of Childermass's shadow travel, which is something Peridot noted back during the Space Olympics when the two of them were working together to fix that demonic haywire bathroom. It's loud and full of light, following a vertical pull from one point to the next. When they arrive they literally, physically land on the connected pad at their destination, and whether or not Lambert sticks that landing or falls flat on his face is very much dependent on those witcher reflexes of his. Peridot sticks it because she's used to it, and also just because this is her dream and she can do what she wants.

"Here we are," she announces, gesturing broadly with one arm and already sounding more upbeat now that they're away from Beta. "Now this is a REAL Kindergarten. Way better conditions, MUCH higher quality gems produced here... I present to you: The Prime Kindergarten!"

Their surroundings are similar to the place they just left in a few ways, and yet so very different in every other aspect. They're in another canyon, but this one is well than twice the size of the other, both in terms of it's visible expanse and in the height of it's walls. The same vaguely humanoid shaped holes line the walls here as well, but in this place there are hundreds, if not thousands more of them, and they're all rigidly aligned in a neat and orderly grid pattern, rather than being tilted and skewed by the shape of curving sandstone.

Perhaps the most drastic difference between both kindergartens that Lambert may notice is how much more gloomy it is here. In Beta, the lack of plant life and anything else could easily have been attributed to it's desert location. Not so, here in Prime: the land gives off the distinct vibe of some place that should be verdant and full of life, but instead it's full of nothing but gray dead rock and dirt.

[whattaprick]

Given the height difference between them, Lambert has had to crane down a little to let Peridot comfortably hold onto his hand, following along behind her like a big, reptilian balloon. The sudden zap through the portal has him tightening his fingers on hers reflexively, though fortunately witcher balance wins out in the dream so he doesn't end up falling flat on his face when he's dragged through.

He looks around -- it's huge on a scale his mind almost struggles to comprehend all at once, and it takes him a moment to even come up with the words to respond.

"Why the fuck is it so dark here?" is probably not what Peridot wanted to hear.

[periphrasing]

On the contrary, Peridot seems to expect that kind of input. There was as much disdain as there was pride in her introduction of this place, a two-faced combo of admiration and loathing. She sighs, sagging her shoulders with a frown.

"Realistically speaking, it's probably just because the canyon walls are so high that the sun can't easily reach down here," she sighs, tackling the more literal definition of 'dark' first. "But... If you're wondering why it's so depressing? It's probably because the production of gems in this area sucked all the nutrients out of the ground and left it a lifeless, barren husk."

[whattaprick]

Lambert considers that.

“So making gems sucks the life out of a planet?” He hazards at a guess. “What happens when it runs out?”

Because it must, inevitably. As they know all too clearly, a world’s resources can be terribly finite.