[closed] So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road

[reconnaissance]

Date & Time: forward dated: Friday 22nd – Sunday 24th March
Location: a fair way into the Outlands
Characters:
Asami Sato chittybang, Cedric Diggory theboywhodied, Collette whatsupcroc, Ellie Linton reconnaissance, Fi Maxwell burnsinvisibly, Katniss Everdeen accidentalrebellion, Mitsuki Ishikawa drowns, Peter Parker arachnoid, Steph Brown controlledvariable
Summary: Nine teenagers with varying degrees of trauma decide to go camping.
(Actually, eight teenagers get bullied into going camping by Ellie.)
Warnings: Not sure yet; I'll add them as they come up. At the very least some language, and fallout from PTSD.



Ellie had found the place once before on her wandering into the Outlands; a dilapidated old barn, with stone walls and a roof that was, by some miracle, completely intact despite all the evidence of nature clambering up its walls and trying to reclaim it for the land. There's a hill leading down to it, and if you follow that hill down, you meet the woods, a big lake. It's beautiful, she thinks. Nowhere near so wild as Hell, but that was better.

Finding that place had been how it started, before thinking about getting some of the others together had kicked in. A way to unwind, after the body swap. At the very least a chance to get some decent people all together in the same place (and maybe a way to apologise to Asami for pointing a gun at her that one time).


OOC: Party style, adventures everyone.Just go wild, if you want it to be set at a particular time, maybe specify in the subject line? I'm doing some starters just... in case that helps but do whatever you like tbh. YEAH. There's also the ooc plotting post so chuck folks in there and scheme and let the madness and CR unfold.

Comments

[reconnaissance]

Yeah? What are they like? ( She likes hearing about people, and settles down, getting comfortable. Sure, she is peeling bark off some of the firewood pile, and tossing it into the flames, but she's listening. )

Don't even. They're disgusting, and I'm a 'rough as guts' rural girl. There's no shame in hating leeches. My best mate, Corrie, she'd have thought your display was too quiet. ( Stop talking about Corrie. ) Besides, it could've been worse. Imagine if they'd been giant mutant leeches.

( That is so helpful, Ellie. ) You're doing all right. Fi, she's a townie, too. Don't tell her I said anything, but she handles herself pretty well.

( Maybe do tell her that Ellie said that, she makes Fi feel awful regularly enough )

DUN DUN DUN

[reconnaissance]

Lollies, candies, sweets.

( She's frowning a bit as she tries to figure out what to do, listening to Collette, and-- oh, Christ. Rustling foliage was never good. It meant something was reckless, confident, and probably had a lot of firepower. Or a wombat, that had happened before.

As it is, it's... )

Oh, Christ. Guys! ( Yelling a warning to the others. ) You're gonna want to get moving!

( It's not one of her throwing knives, but at least Steph has been training her, and she's been practicing. A lot. Even as the giant mutant-- bear? Did they even have bears in England? lurches towards her with a roar that makes her bones rattle, she hurls her knife into its chest.

Where it sticks, dug deep. She'd feel pretty pleased with herself, if it had slowed the bloody thing down at all. )

( ooc: I'll share this on plurk with the others, so if they want in on the mutant bear adventure they can hop in, but we can totter on in the meantime? c: )

[theboywhodied]

[Cedric hears a yell and startles awake. He'd been settling down for an outdoor nap, but no more. He races to where they are, logic be damned. And the cause of the distress is soon apparent.]

I'll try blinding it!

[He takes a leaf out of Krum's book and starts flinging Conjunctivitis Curses, but it's tricky to hit the eye.]

[theboywhodied]

That sounds too familiar.

[He nods solemnly.]

I was worried for a while, but people are used to magic here. I still intimidate some people, but it's not as bad as I expected it to be.

[controlledvariable]

[Steph has Opinions about how good the Initiative trainers are, but that's coming from someone who's learnt from... literally the top martial artists in her world, so she knows she's probably just fussy.]

I'm teaching Ellie krav maga, if you wanna come along one day to give her someone other than me to beat up. [She's grinning, so that's probably a joke.] And yeah, it's good to change things up sometimes.

[Tennis is also good practice for hand-eye coordination. Maybe she should take it up.]

[controlledvariable]

Better than knocking me unconscious and leaving me on a rooftop in the middle of the night.

[She says it with a grin but that's actually a thing that happened.]

[theboywhodied]

Krav what now?

Uh...I mean sure, I'll make a good punching bag.

[reconnaissance]

Sometimes the examples you use are worryingly specific, you know that, right?

( Etched with concern, fading out that smile and the effort at false cheer to try and force them back into a comfortable zone. )

[controlledvariable]

[No, Ellie, don't make that face.]

I have a specific pool of experiences to draw from. [She's still smiling, but there's something a bit pleading in it, a silent it's okay, please don't worry.]

[reconnaissance]

( She's Ellie, of course she worries. She also protectively stalks her friends, and goes after people that hurt said friends. All in a day's work.

There's a comment on the tip of her tongue about if Vanadi ever, but she bites down on it and keeps the thought to herself. )

Better than-- ( No, this is a bad game to play. She grinds to a halt with that game, too, and idly tosses a marshmallow into the fire. ) Feel like mutant deer for dinner?

( Subtle, Linton. )

[controlledvariable]

[She frowns, part of her wanting to ask better than what? but mostly she doesn't want to linger on this, in case in brings back the awkwardness from before.

So she just wrinkles her nose.] Do we even know if that thing's safe to eat? I have a geiger counter, maybe we should check it.

[reconnaissance]

I've eaten the stuff from out here, before.

( Things she hasn't told Steph about her camping out: experimental meat decisions. ) Not the deer, mind you. Worst comes to worst, I eat a whole let of venison and wake up in the infirmary tomorrow.

( Ellie. )

[controlledvariable]

[Ellie.

Steph looks a little bit mortified]

I didn't know you were eating the stuff out here! [God Ellie she can't take you anywhere.] I'm pretty sure the resurrection tech isn't there so you can eat radioactive deer.

[reconnaissance]

Sometimes. It's good. I was thinking I'd start hunting more often, bring meat back and stuff. It's fresh, and free - better than the stuff you'll get at the shops.

( She shrugs, a bit guilty. ) It just reminded me of back home. We never bought meat, we always slaughtered it ourselves.

[chittybang]

I know, it's hard to believe there are so many things people are capable of. I almost feel abnormal here.

[Not that she resents her normalcy. She rather likes being able to hold her own around her friends the way she is.

At the lake, she dips her toe in the water to test its temperature. Chilly, but manageable.]

[theboywhodied]

Hey, don't. You're an excellent mud-slider.

[Cedric tests the water with his fingertip and nods. He'll deal with it.]

It's not so bad getting off to a quick start in the water.

[He shakes his cloak distastefully, sheds it, then rolls up his sleeves. Laundry time!]

[chittybang]

[Asami grins at him before walking into the water, and the first thing she does is submerge herself to wet the gunk in her hair. She comes up with a shake of her hair, wiping her eyes of water.]

It's probably not all going to come off, is it?

[theboywhodied]

[He follows her with an enormous splash, laughing as he flings about. After about 30 seconds of warming up, he starts vigorously scrubbing his hair. It stands out in all directions.]

Probably not, but it was worth a shot.

[controlledvariable]

[She hums, thoughtful, but there's more silence for a while, her hands busy with the second braid as she goes over it all in her head, the offer that must be inherent in Collette mention it. She doubts she'd bring it up with someone, if the option wasn't there for them to go I'm coming, and that's where Steph is - a little stuck.

Stephanie Brown is apparently trust worthy enough to be told about this plan, but Batgirl is who would be really useful.]

That's not gonna be an easy trip.

[It's not a criticism. After talking with Collette on the rooftop, she knows better than to underestimate her, to think she won't know how dangerous doing this would be.]

How are you planning to get across the channel?

[whatsupcroc]

Nawh, hurt's the wrong word. It feels weird, but none of it is really pain? I'm not sure what it's like. A little like being squeezed but it doesn't hurt, it's just this weird shifting pressure.

( She tries to encapsulate what she feels with words and hand motions, ultimately failing. )

Which word? There's so many good ones I could use!

( She's joking -- mostly. )

Could you pass me my pack?

[whatsupcroc]

( Her grin turns cheeky. )

I figured you'd feel more at home hearing we've got other Twilight Zone human-alien types around! That's me, looking out for human interests since, uh, '97.

( She gives a firm nod of her head, like what she said wasn't totally ridiculous. )

I like the census thing. I'd way not want to run it for like, real census purposes, but getting an idea would be kind of fun!

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette listens to Ellie, lips quirking up into a smile that doesn't reach her eyes. Her eyes look serious, a look she's adapted to more and more over the months.

She's changing, but she's not noticing the ways she changes. )

Right here!

( Punctuated with tone, she holds out her hand to Ellie. Palm turned up, hand held flat, it's not precisely a handshake -- but it's not precisely anything else, either. A blank contract to sign? Collette's whimsy?

Or the serious step to getting on to a mission that had started out as impossible, and through cultivation, was coming to a point? )

[whatsupcroc]

< Woah, wait, what do you mean blinding it? >

( Collette dodges around to the backside of the beast, going in and nipping at it's hind legs and hamstrings, looking for her change to latch on and tear out chunks of skin. A wolf morph would be better right now -- more biting power -- but she was quick and mean and working on not getting in the way of whatever everyone else was throwing at the monster, and what she herself was doing. )

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette falls back into the silence along with Stephanie, curious if there will be any answer, or if she'd change topics and leave it as an oddity brought up under companionable circumstances. Perhaps a flight of fancy by the girl who could literally sprout wings and soar off into the sunset.

The work on her hair is lulling her while she waits, even while her attention remains on Stephanie. She mmms at what Steph first says.

It's the question that makes Collette's eyes open again. )

Boat. I can think of a dozen different ways to go on my own, but that's not what this is about. Next to relying on magic, our best bet is a boat. I'm not sure where Caesar wants us to go to land yet, that's all.

( She has a feeling that will tell her what sort of boat will be most necessary. )

[reconnaissance]

( Deadpan: ) I'm from '94.

( But Ellie grins, nonetheless, even as she casts another look over the perimeter. She could loosen up a bit, but she never really unwound all that much. Especially not on sentry duty: under all the jokes and teasing there's a lot of tension. Idly, she checks the safety on her rifle - off. Good. ) I'll remember how considerate you've been when your birthday rolls around. When is that, anyway?

( not that she cares about birthdays. Well. It was hard to celebrate birthdays when you had no idea of the month, so you'd just kind of sit up one day and go "huh, guess my birthday happened" when you realised the season for it had passed. That's how it had been for most of them, but it felt so strange, after celebrating it for all those years. And birthdays seemed like the best way to observe Corrie and Robyn and Chris' deaths, to remember them, even if she couldn't remember exactly when his birthday was. )

Yeah. I wonder how many people would really be honest, though. There seems to be a whole lot of complicated people in Exsilium. If it were anonymous, maybe they'd go for it.