lostcarnival | ⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

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⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

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.

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As hard as she's trying to sleep, closing her eyes is nearly impossible. Not because she's outside, exposed to the elements, and laying on the ground-- the content of the dream is still clinging to her back and showing up over every thought and prayer she has about just falling asleep and not thinking about it anymore. Her mind won't let it go, it's too fresh.

But she hears Joker start to move in his tent, grumbling about moths, and coming towards the entrance. Doll raises her head in a panic, trying to wipe her face dry and only succeeding in smearing dirt over her cheek. No-- she has to get up and leave before Joker sees her, she's wasting time trying to look presentable! But... so what if he sees her sleeping on the ground next to his tent? She's allowed to do what she likes, isn't she? Well. Maybe right next to his tent isn't such a coincidence, though.

...Yes she should move.

After that lengthy internal battle, Doll drags her legs under her and tucks her hands under her arms again for warmth and shuffles around to the other side of the tent, hiding.

No glowing eyes, no fluttering wings... but as Joker presses his head out, Feathers practically bearing down on him from behind, it doesn't escape him that there's the sound of shuffling rather close to his tent. As in, directly around it. Joker bites back a sigh. So Feathers really did pick up on something... but if they're too loud and obvious, then it'll just scamper away before they can even see what it is and thus how they need to keep it away for the rest of the night if only so Joker can get some sleep again.

So, keeping quiet, he creeps out of his tent and gestures for Feathers to go one way around the tent. That will leave him to take the other and, hopefully, that means they'll at least get a glimpse....

Or Feathers could see it and flip out. Joker has to admit that's a possibility too, although he hopes not.

Feathers is the least careful about being quiet, so by holding her breath and really straining to listen, Doll can hear some shuffling coming from one side. He's onto her, she needs to edge around and head for the cover of the next tent over if she's going to escape notice. Why did she have to have a nightmare while she and Joker aren't on speaking terms? Moreover, why did it have to be so real, and so unsettling, that she's ended up crawling on her hands and knees away from her brother in the dead of night?

Or towards him, apparently.

Doll freezes as Joker comes into view-- damn, damn, damn, what's shuffling behind her then? In a panic now, she starts crawling backwards and flips around the corner suddenly, right into Feathers, and shrieks.

Holy sweet baby jesus in his bloody manger.

Doll screams, Feathers screams, and Joker yells because what the fuck. If anyone was having a nice rested sleep, well, they sure as hell aren't now. Then again, considering what Ginko and Tanyuu have had to say about the pale white plants cropping up about the place, that's probably a good thing.

Jolting backward, Joker almost falls onto his back before remembering he has a spare hand, and uses his left to clutch at his heart. As his vision adjusts to the darkness and the ringing in his ears fades, he blinks at the sight before him. "...Doll?"

Thank god, it's just Feathers and not something else sneaking up to impale her. He's just so much bigger now, and Doll isn't quite used to it just yet, so the sudden appearance of a giant bird was rather startling all things considered. That's the only relief Doll feels at this point, though, because now Joker knows she's there.

And now what's she supposed to say?

She looks up at Feathers and he's no help of course. And she's not going to fade into thin air, unfortunately, so she either has to walk away or talk to him. Ultimately, it comes down to what she thinks will make her feel better. Doll turns around to face Joker, struggling not to start crying again and failing.

"I had a nightmare I was killed. It felt so real..."

It really is her... Joker pushes himself up, wings flicking and fluttering for a little more balance. As Feathers catches his breath, one wing curled against his chest, Joker takes in the situation. For the last- god, too many days than he would have liked, they've been avoiding one another. Him, because he's been trying to settle his anxiety and take in surprisingly good sleep while he's been able to calm it all down before he could even dream of talking to her. And her, well... She's been angry. He knows that. He just didn't want to get angry right back.

But she's here, now, hanging about his tent, and a part of him wonders if it actually had anything to do with him. Maybe she was just passing by, sneaking out like kids do, or going to see someone else-

She's not. Not with the look on her face as she turns to him, and sure as hell not when she says those words. Immediately, Joker pushes himself forward, voice hitting that soft comforting lull of at one that comes so easily to him when it concerns family. "Oh, Doll, s'alright. C'mere, s'alright, ya aren't dead. A nightmare is all in yer head, alright? Yer here right now."

Doll turns and propels herself into Joker's arms. 'All in your head' seems to not be doing much to calm her down, but maybe clinging to Joker and crying for a little bit will do that.

"It felt real!" she insists into Joker's chest, shaking and crying openly. "I was cold, I could feel how cold I was. And when, when she impaled me I was struggling to breathe, it felt-- it felt like I wasn't me, but I was!"

A good thing he was prepared for that. Joker grunts at the impact, yet stays his ground against the weight of her. He carefully adjusts his wings, folding them around himself and her for a feathery cocoon. Outside, he can feel Feathers shuffle closer, his own wings adding to it. There's not much light, that way, but that's fine. It's fine. His right arm is light enough, filling with space with a shifting pastel glow.

"Can ya feel this, Doll?" he asks, pressing the gentle warmth of his hand to her cheek.

This is what she's been missing-- comfort and contact. Doll hadn't sought it out after Ginko talked to her about her fight with Joker, maybe to punish herself for being so uppity with her beloved brother. Maybe because she missed Tamaki too much to think about being close to someone again. She doesn't know, really, but she does know that this feels good and right.

Her face tilts up when Joker cups her cheek, and she leans into the warmth she feels. It's been a while that she hasn't felt rough wood when he touched her, and she's happy for him. Really. It's just hard to find the words to comment and congratulate when she feels so shaken up.

But it's clearly helping, because Doll blinks the tears out of her eyes and nods to him. It's a good contrast to how cold she'd felt earlier, and does help drive the memory back.

There. He lets out a slow breath, creating a smile for her. It's all he can think to do in situations like this- make things okay again by acting like they are, even if the opposite is true. Still, he's always been the one his family looks to... So he needs to do this.

"S'warm, right?" Just slow and steady. Patient. He can do this.

"Yeah..." she sniffs and leans her cheek into his hand, still miserable and shaken, but perhaps a little less hysterical. "N' between th'two 'a you, this is like a quilt made'a feathers."

"Good." He moves his hand away from her cheek, just to shift it lower, right over where he can feel the frantic heartbeat in her chest that's gradually slowing. "And yer not hurtin' here, right? Not bleedin', or anythin' like that?"

"Not bleedin', no..." But it hurts for reasons she's pretty sure are entirely in her head and not based in reality at all. "Haven' had a scare like this in a long time, 's prob'ly why it feels off."

"There." His hand thumps reassuringly against her back. "Then yer not bleedin', and ya can feel how warm we are. So..." Well. He can't say it doesn't matter, because it clearly does, with her to tears as she is, but...

"Yer here. Just try ta tell yerself that, until things start feelin' right again."

"Yeah... yeah alrigh'..." Doll clings to Joker's front and repeats over and over in her head that she's there, that she's not bleeding, and she's warm. It's helping, though maybe what's helping most of all is finally talking to Joker again.

"'M sorry, 'm sorry Joker, b'out before, I was jus' scared for ya. I didn' mean ta bark at ya."

If all anyone ever needs from him is just to be a warm body, Joker is more than glad to be that. It's an easy thing to be, especially when you don't care about personal space. Maybe he can't talk, or be honest, or offer anything good... but this much, he can do. So he stays where he is, rubbing her back and listening to the soft almost-purrlike trilling deep in Feathers' throat.

Silence doesn't last, however, and his hand pauses in surprise at what she says. After a second, he heaves out a sigh, his breath rustling over her hair. "S'fine," he says quietly, staring blankly somewhere at Feathers' chest. He really has become a huge bird, all from the situation that him and his sister were arguing about in the first place. "I'm sorry for worryin' ya. S'just not easy, tryin' ta balance watchin' out for everyone else under me while also thinkin' about how it effects ya. And this was one thing where I figured it'd be alright if I got involved. It was all performance, after all. I didn't have ta be good at fightin' or magic or whatever else."

"It's not easy tryin' ta stay away 'n be safe while wonderin' if yer comin' back, if I could help, if I should go against ya'nd follow.

"I coulda been useful too, if it wasn' fightin' or magic." She looks up at him, wide eyed and silently pleading for him to agree. She can't say she's sure he will, but it feels to her that even without the shift away from how the carnival used to run, something has to change.

"You coulda," Joker agrees softly, none too happy even with that small concession. Doll is empathetic, and agile, and her and Gongenzaka and Yuya could have all been a good bunch of kids working together. Yet it doesn't soothe him any, and the words take a little while to come out to the surface. Not because he doesn't know them, but because they're selfish little things, and it feels a little bit like peeling back a rock to show all the things crawling underneath it.

"But... Nothin' has ever made me happier than the idea of you- and just just you, but everyone back home, too- not ever havin' ta deal with nasty unpleasant things. Like gettin' hurt, or gettin' scared." He lets out a slow breath, forcing his body not to quake. Why does talking about the truth get him so frazzled, body pumped full of adrenaline? "S'why I just wanted ta do all this work on my own, and have us all end up somewhere nicer. I mean, I'm the big brother, ain't I?" And big brothers are supposed to protect their family, even when they get hurt.

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⇨ CAMPING GROUNDS

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in which the inbox, once again, devours tags

WELP, MAKES TWO OF US....

LMAO WHUPS

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