⇨ 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

[atouts]

"Something to do with their head?" Childermass can only make a wild guess since he has about as much an idea a Shura does. That phone, though, he eyes suspiciously. So that's a part of the game?

"Maybe your dream alien is Ybb after all... What now? Is there another step or do I listen to that thing?"

[exaomori]

"He ain't the worst I've seen." Considering that some of the handsome and available specimens on the board had pincer-like appendages for mouths, Shura couldn't be picky about her alien beau.

"It's your turn now, yeah. Hit the button and listen for the clue." Shura holds out the phone to him, looking back over the pictures on the board. Baloral ridge, maybe she should call Four-eyes and see if he knew...

[atouts]

Childermass suddenly doesn't want to know what the worst she has seen is, to be quite honest, and so he doesn't ask. Nope, just taking the phone far too soberly for a game this stupid and holding it up to his ear. He triggers the button and listens, brow furrowing and perpetual frown only growing at what he hears.

"His favorite pastime is ejecting people into space," he says that slowly like he isn't really sure what that's about. Mostly because he isn't, considering his follow-up happens to be, "That sounds dreadful." Probably. "Is it?"

Being on a space station does not equal understanding that space is, in fact, a vacuum.

[exaomori]

My, that is concerning to see a grumpy faced man look concerned. She has to wonder just what's worrying him so, but she doesn't have to wonder long.

"Yeah, that ain't too nice." Shura glances over the board and cards, trying to see if that narrowed down the searches at all. Nope, it's completely unhelpful. Maybe that would have been a cue to alien tweens, but it's remarkably useless to someone who's only has worked with the supernatural before. "Anything like a human would die pretty quick since it's a vacuum 'n all."

[atouts]

"I see." So, yes, very dreadful. Childermass gives his head a small shake and hands the phone back over to Shura, assuming it's now her turn in this odd little game. "I don't suppose the game has any rules in it that allow me to pick someone else entirely, does it?"

[exaomori]

"Don't worry, I'm sure he likes you too much to send you into the depths of space ♥. He'll probably take out his anger out on his in-laws, you just be careful during the holidays." Did this guy have family? Well, surely he'd probably get the joke.

She takes the phone back, quick to take her next clue. This one is a little vague, but not exactly helpful. "Well, apparently he only has two eyes." It isn't much, but at least she knows which bachelors it knocks off of the list. Unless-- "Nya, y'think any of these guys are hiding something like an extra set of eyes?"

[atouts]

Yeah, it's hard to tell if that joke hit its mark or went over his head because all Childermass does is quirk an eyebrow at Shura once she makes it. In theory, he's at least heard of people hating their in-laws, but who even knows.

"Hm." After her next clue, though, he looks down at the cards on the table. "If the were hiding them, that wouldn't be a very fair game. You'd have to expect anyone playing to know what these all are already."

Unless the game is unfairly marketed at the very slim margin of teenage aliens who are really into space biology.

[exaomori]

Did it fall flat? Ugh. Well, she can roll with it. If he wasn't obviously offended, then it wasn't too bad.

"Pretty sure they know what a Baloral ridge is, so they prolly know what's hidin' where." And Shura means all of it. At least a general idea. She offers the phone back to Childermass. "Maybe your guy will be worth dealin' with his temper if he has somethin' extra nice hidin' for ya~"

[atouts]

"Are you sure this game isn't meant to teach aliens how to recognize other aliens?"

Because that makes the most sense to Childermass right now, if that's the case. He could identify anything human, sure, but humans are, well, human. That's easy. Anyway, he takes the phone back and hits the button, tilting his head some as he holds it up to listen.

That look of concern is never, ever really going to go away so long as they're playing this since there it is all over again.

"Ah." He lowers the phone again. "Do any of the cards happen to include a... squid?"

[exaomori]

GRumpy and overly serious or not, the important thing is that he's still playing along with her. "A squid?" Was that about the bachelor's favorite food or a reference to their home planet being from the ocean? Shura peers over the cards, but no one seems to be proudly displaying any kind of squid, and she nearly gives up until one particular card catches her eye. He does look a little aquatic, but most importantly, his mouth is just a mass of tentacles. She pauses, picking up the card and looking closer.

"This guy--was that clue about squid, or was it about somethin' else?"

[atouts]

"It was about..." Good lord, he's beginning to regret playing along with this even if he is adamant to stick it out until the end. "Having the most luscious tentacles in the quadrant."

It's something he says with a tinge of distaste. Only a tinge. Not because he doesn't find it weird but because he isn't all that prone to overreaction.

"I wasn't aware tentacles could be luscious."

[exaomori]

Luscious? Luscious. Shura glances between the card and Childermass, back and forth a couple times, then back to the cards. There's a vague sort of revulsion washing over her as she tries to process just what the implications of luscious tentacles might be. It's okay if Childermass has a restrained reaction since Shura is going to make a terrible face.

"Ughh. I've seen plenty of tentacles, but ain't nothing I'd ever call luscious." If her stomach was any weaker, she'd be gagging, but she holds back, only tossing the card back on the board. "That's too much for me, but it's your man, not mine."

[atouts]

Childermass will reach for that same card, if only to pick it up and confirm the alien does, indeed, have tentacles. An aquatic alien as a space pirate makes sense to him, too, if only because he thinks of sea pirates when he imagines pirates at all.

"The people of Atlantis might disagree," he says, at least finding some humor out of this awfulness. Still, it is only a card. "I do think this one might be him."

Is that how the game works? Does it matter? Let's find out.