⇨ 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]

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.

[periphrasing]

"The planet loses it's ability to sustain any sort of organic life, and the shriveled lifeless husk that remains gets terraformed and developed into a proper colony," Peridot says sullenly, like she's reciting the explanation from a script. She has her arms wrapped around herself, staring at one of the busted up injectors here with a frown. "And..."

She starts to trail off, and then cuts herself off with a harsh hiss through her teeth, expression hardening "...And I have no idea why I'm even telling you all of this," she say suddenly, growing agitated with herself. "Ugh. Why am I even dreaming about any of this crap in the first place!?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert can safely say he still doesn't entirely understand what's going on here, but he does know one thing: Peridot is being far too serious about all of it.

Which means he's reaching out, with a shitty little smirk, to plant a hand firmly in her hair and give it a good ruffle.

"Stop thinking about it so hard," he says, good-naturedly. "If it's your dream, shouldn't you be able to make it something you want to dream about?"

[periphrasing]

Peridot looks up at him with bright, ever-so-slightly watery eyes; she doesn't often shed tears, but Lambert's concern is touching in a way that she sorely needs right now, hair ruffling aside.

But it also hurts. It hurts because she's trying to reveal something horrible about herself and it doesn't seem like he's understanding it. Or at least, he's not reacting in the manner she would expect? And somehow that disparity is distressing.

"W-well normally, yes, but--" Peridot pauses and tries to swallow, her throat tight. She's trying to follow up his good-natured tone with something similarly rational, but the pressure of holding back her fears makes something snap in her. All of a sudden, she ducks out from under Lambert's hand and looks up at him, babbling anxiously as she gesticulates wildly at the holes that are surrounding them on all sides.

"Lambert are you even understanding what I'm telling you? This place-- This is what I was made to do! I was created along with thousands of other slightly-less-intelligent peridots to I manufactured other gems. For THOUSANDS OF YEARS, this was my entire existence! Making soldiers that the stupid cloddy Diamonds could take and use to invade EVEN MORE PLANETS, so we could make EVEN MORE GEMS to keep growing our cruddy stupid empire! I personally contributed to the destruction of untold amounts of organic life in the process! I'm-- I'm no better than a court fae!"

[whattaprick]

Perhaps it’s because this is a dream that things are just a bit more difficult for Lambert to react to like he normally might. It’s not that he’s insensible to Peridot’s distress, but he also isn’t really sure what sort of answer she’s expecting.

The last, though, has him frowning, though it’s in thought rather than disapproval.

“Well,” he says, slowly. “You decided to change, didn’t you?”

[periphrasing]

She blinks at him. She still kind of looks like she's on the verge of tears, but she at least seems to relax a little bit.

"...Yeah," she says softly, glancing away. Almost involuntarily, the scenery starts to shift around them, no warp pad required this time. The kindergarten fades away, the scene of a sunny barn with a massive vegetable field out front taking it's place. Peridot is still nervous, but she has relaxed enough to shift locations to somewhere more comfortable. She flops down to sit on the ground just outside the barn door, before the scenery even finishes resolving itself.

"The Ringmaster told me the other day that court fae are actually a lot like gems," she mutters, sounding melancholy. "The colonizing, the world destroying, the whole 'being made to serve an express purpose' thing... I guess I just haven't been able to stop thinking about it. I never talked about my past before because it just didn't seem relevant, but. The more similarities I found between my species and the fae? The more it felt like I was lying to you all."

[whattaprick]

Lambert considers Peridot's words, thumbs hooked into his belt, and cocks his head. Suddenly, something occurs to him.

"Was this why you were asking about making amends in Wismuth?" Lambert's already mostly forgotten that conversation, having had other things on his mind at the time, but in the way of dreams, the memory is easy to retrieve. The scenery around them doesn't change, but an echo of Peridot's voice from Lambert's recollection, uneasy and wavering:

Do you... Believe that it's possible for someone to make amends for something that they did in the past that was really, really bad, by doing something really really good?

[periphrasing]

Ooooh that's weird, hearing her own voice when she hasn't opened her mouth at all. She looks alarmed, straightening up and glancing around for the source with widened eyes before hunkering back down.

"...Affirmative," she groans, voice wavering slightly. She feels incredibly stupid all of a sudden, realizing just how much this has been bothering her... and then to have Lambert around to witness that shame? Ugh.

TWO WHOLE WEEKS LATER

[whattaprick]

The witcher scratches his fingers through his scruff of a beard. Hard to know what to say to that, really. He gets the feeling that his Portland self might have had something better to say, at this point -- the right words to cheer Peridot up again, or something more meaningful to get at the heart of the problem here.

So in true Lambert fashion, he reaches down, a little farther this time now that she's sitting down, to ruffle Peridot's hair again ... and changes the subject.

"This is a nice place. Home?"

No worries ALSO SORRY I HIT POST BY ACCIDENT BEFORE I WAS DONE,

[periphrasing]

"...Yeah," Peridot replies, surprised but eager to latch on to the subject change. "This is the barn where Lapis and Pumpkin and I live. Our little home away from Homeworld..."

She's still wary, but some of the tension in her shoulders is already ebbing away as she explains and starts to realize that this maybe isn't going to be as big of a deal as she was making it out to be. She's not getting shouted at, she's not getting peppered with a ton of accusatory questions... She feels like she knows Lambert well enough to proceed with confidence that he's not likely to change his tune just at the drop of a hat. Her heart, or whatever passes for one in a gem, is still be beating a mile a minute... but Lambert's rather calm reaction is taking the edge off her nerves.