⇨ 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

Sounds good o7

[hippocarnival]

"There's a lot of room to run around and do that." Climb some trees, for however long they'll be camping, he doesn't recall the Ringmaster specifying that. But he understands wanting to be active especially after extended bedrest.

"I'm doing better. I didn't really get hurt when we went to save Steven anyway, and the Kaoriyoroboki make it really easy to sleep." Maybe too easy. But it's better than sitting up because his mind won't settle.

He looks at Lambert curiously. "Actually... I think one was about you."

[whattaprick]

Yeah, Lambert's not even going to try pronouncing that. As far as he can tell, Ginko's gotten the problem handled -- or at least, he doesn't remember what he's dreamed about anymore.

Yuya mentioning him in his dreams, though? That gets his attention, and he grins.

"Oh yeah? Anything good?"

[hippocarnival]

"Eh... maybe?" He sounds uncertain. "We were talking, mostly... and Childermass showed up, but he looked more like he did in Portland."

He's looking for any recognition in Lambert's expression as he says it--there's parts that don't make sense even if his imagination was running wild, but it's the same result if Lambert doesn't remember it anyway.

[whattaprick]

The recognition Yuya is looking for isn’t immediately evident. Lambert looks at him in confusion for a moment or two, head cocked... and then clarity dawns.

Seeing Lambert flush in real life is surprisingly true to the dream, though he’s also much less eloquent. He doesn’t remember everything, but he remembers enough to know it was embarrassing. But he doesn’t know how much Yuya remembers, so it’s best to play it cool for now instead of reacting violently.

“Weird thing to dream about,” is what he manages to choke out. “You didn’t even talk that much back then, did you?”

[hippocarnival]

Yuya mirrors Lambert's confusion when he finally speaks up. Not because it wasn't a weird dream, because it kind of was if only for its clarity compared to other times he's dreamed. "What do you mean 'back then'? I'm not untalkative..."

He's average talkative. But since Lambert hasn't been present for his history, he's not picking up on when he's referring to.

[whattaprick]

Lambert shakes his head.

"I mean you never even spoke to Childermass in Portland. At least, not that I know of." Still doesn't, really. Who Childermass talks with on a regular basis beyond is a mystery to him, but's it's kind of strange to realize how much Yuya knows about their relationship even with that.

[hippocarnival]

"Oh--no." Yuya shakes his head, furrowing his brow as he recalls the details. "I saw him at the animal fair back then, and when we invaded the Rose Queen's realm." So no, they really weren't well acquainted at all. Yuya just shrugs, though.

"I think he was there for you anyway." And if it was all just some excessively prominent dream in Yuya's head, he's not going to mention how close they were getting to making out on the couch. "We were talking about him, kind of, so maybe that's why he showed up?"

[whattaprick]

Damn mushi and their damn influence ... Lambert makes a face, but he won’t otherwise confirm anything, at least not right now. His own memories are patchy; are Yuya’s? He doesn’t recall all of what he said, but now that they aren’t dreaming, he’s a lot less loose-lipped too.

“Or because you were in my head,” he grumbles, at last. “There really isn’t anywhere private in this place, is there? Not even your own skull.”

[hippocarnival]

Yuya laughs sheepishly. "I think maybe we were in each other's head? I don't think anyone expected Mushi to show up here."

They don't usually seem to follow Ginko into other worlds, so they may have been present here from the start. "It keeps happening to me, but least they're not dangerous so far. Uh, do you remember any of it?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert, who distinctly remembers mushi stealing his voice and Childermass's vision the last time they were around, only grimaces even more.

"Some of it," he admits, grudgingly. He isn't sure if Yuya is thinking of anything specifically, so he'll pre-empt him.

"You ended up running off with a couple of people. One of them was a girl I remember seeing around the Carnival." Not since they got here, though. "The other..." He frowns. There'd been something familiar, but. Hard to say for sure. "Big guy. Couldn't place him."

[hippocarnival]

Yuya, luckily, does remember, and his expression lights up with recognition. "Yeah, after I left... uh, I think it was a basement?" Whatever dingy place Lambert was gonna hole up in with his boyfriend.

"That was Yuzu and Gongenzaka." You know, the even bigger furry guy. "Yuzu's not at the carnival now. I don't remember much of it after that, but I guess it was a good dream."

[whattaprick]

It was definitely a good dream, but Lambert's pretty sure he and Yuya aren't thinking about the same definition of good here. He rubs at his jaw, stubble rasping over his fingers as he nods.

"That's where he lived, in Portland. He was a changeling, so..." He trails off, shrugging, not sure if Yuya will understand the implications and not sure it's his place to tell, anyway. But more importantly--

"That was Gon?"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya picks up on it, mostly because he remembers the state of a lot of changelings that he helped during the month they were there. They really didn't have it easy.

He laughs. "I told you, what he looks like now isn't how he really is!" Not that Gongenzaka doesn't still have the size and bulk that's unreasonable for a 14 year old, and would be easily taken as an adult. But he's not a 9 foot tall taur beast, at least.

"That's all changes from being with the carnival."

[whattaprick]

"He still doesn't look like any fourteen-year-old I've ever seen," Lambert says plainly. Is it some kind of condition? Genetic weirdness? Yuya clearly doesn't have it, whatever it is.

"Just how long was he with the Carnival, anyway?"

[hippocarnival]

"He signed a contract for a second year after we left Wismuth... I think he just has bad luck." Some sort of Fae magic magnet even besides the whole dying thing.

"He got like that after dying the--first time, I think." His expression twists uncomfortably. "I guess that was before you joined?"

[whattaprick]

"It was," Lambert confirms. "Lemme guess -- the vampires?"

[hippocarnival]

Yuya nods, but doesn't look like he wants to talk too deeply about it. That's partly because there's only so much he can say simce he wasn't there.

"Yeah, but he had one of those eggs, so..." Obviously he's still with them. "I think it's slowing down, I don't know how much more he can keep changing."

[whattaprick]

"When I was new, someone told me the changes fade, after you go home. If you don't want to keep them, anyway."

Never mind that that real big, lingering if over that question is the if you go home part. It's looking like their chances of that aren't the best, though Lambert wonders what Yuya makes of that himself.

[hippocarnival]

"That's why I'm not that worried about it." He gestures to his own tail as it curls to the side of him. He doesn't, outwardly at least, seem worried about not being able to go home either. "And he's been taking it well, as long as I've seen him here. It's definitely not the worst part."

No, the constant kidnapping and death is.