[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

[whatsupcroc]

Please, touch away! I don't get anyone playing with my hair anymore.

( She pulls her expression into a mock pout, laughing and ducking her head down right after. )

Yeah, braiding saves on all kinds of trouble. So would cutting it all off, I guess, but I've never really wanted to!

FORGET ABOUT YOUR WORRIES AND YOUR STRIFE

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette flicks an ear back toward where Ellie speaks. )

< I'm not sure. It smells... musky. Wild! Which out here, probably means dangerous. >

( Her hackles slowly stood on end, her head dropping down. The snuffling and grunting starts to sound like coherent, individual noises, followed by heavy footsteps that leave more of an impression in their immense silence than in all the other small noises that come traveling to her ears. )

< It might just be passing through! >

but peter

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette was about prepared to go flying for Stephanie having to confess her accidental almost murder of a mutal friend when Peter turned out to be the world's most nimble, gravity defying acrobat.

Holy toledo, he was as good -- or bad! -- as a Robin!

Wings still partly open, ready to fly, Collette's laughter spills over and from her mind across Thought Speak to his -- or the impression did. Thought Speak has nothing to do with sound, and everything to do with impressions, words, and emotion. It just ends up feeling a whole lot like hearing someone speak. )

< Pete, that was awesome! I swear I'm beginning to thiink like every single teenager I meet from some other Earth is secretly a vigilante, superhero, or tactical genius! Oh, or a wizard. That's something I've seen, too! >

( She's half teasing, beak open and head craned to one side so she can watch him better with one golden eye. Slowly, she turns her head sideways, so that she's examining him from the same angle he's perched at. )

< So which are you? >

but

[arachnoid]

[ The bird thing was distracting enough for him to forget about the whole superpowers issue, but her commentary brings that crashing down pretty quickly.

He should lie. Right? Except this isn't New York and half the population here isn't even human, and the other half apparently has powers or doesn't but does the superhero thing anyway, and he's talking (except not talking??) to someone who can turn into an entire zoo, so-

What the hell is the point, really? It had been to keep others safe, keep it out of his private life. He doesn't really have one of those here. Same for the people he was protecting.

So there's a long, slightly awkward pause, and then: ]

I'm Spider-Man.

[ Also somewhat awkward, because it feels a bit like putting a sweater on backwards to say that without the mask on. Plus tons of people here don't even know who that is, so it could mean absolutely nothing anyway. ]

shh (i'm so sorry for this)

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette is expecting to hear he's some other sort of bird. Or maybe Salamander. Oh, wait, he could have been Bushbaby. No guy would want to be called Bushbaby, but someone, somewhere, ran around calling himself Batman and training a bunch of teens and pre-teens to fight crime in one of the scariest sounding cities she'd heard of outside of fictional settings. Waaaay worse than Oakland, up in the Bay Area!

So Collette settles her wings back in and waits for any answer, or a denial. What she gets cause her to blink, processing the name. Spider-Man.

She blinks again. )

< No way! >

( Her laughter returns, and she lifts her head up, hopping along her branch to get closer to Peter. She spreads ehr wings out, balancing, pleaesd and happy in a way that's hard to define. She knew who Spider-Man was. She knew him! Well, not him him, but a him that was written about, and it was a little like learning Remy was part of the X-Men.

You know, one of those life altering, extremely happy moments where Peter's subjected to a sudden enthusiastic, tangibly happy stream of consciousness babble heading straight into his head from her own: )

< I know you! Okay, so I know you here, but I know you from back home! Or something like you, you're in comic-books, and I think you're older, like in your twenties, so it's not you you but it's someone like you and isn't it so cool that the things you do cross whole worlds? You're like -- the best superhero ever! Or at the very least you have the best sense of humor, you always made me laugh, even with all the sad stuff! Man, I can't believe it's really you. You're real! You're here! That's -- that's amazing! You're amazing! >

( Made all the stranger when the eagle observing him seems more upset than pleased, unblinking gaze predatory rather than friendly like the voice attached to the dialog. )

< Okay, maybe second best sense of humor, I'll give Al that one, but it's just good to know that somewhere out there really had you around to help. Man, you guys are something else. Superheroes! I don't know how you do it, it seems so scary and I think that's why I liked you more? Most the time you were on your own, and unlike Superman, you weren't perfect and sweet and also totally alien because if that's not a cop-out then I don't know what is! Were you really bitten by a radioactive spider? That can't happen here, can it? No, the UE just uses good old fashioned gene tinkering, I'm being silly -- >

[chittybang]

[Asami isn't much for trekking on foot; but while her feet are sore, she opts to make herself useful at Collette's request. She may have a minute compulsion to display her worth to any group. More than that, she wants to enjoy this reunion with Collette, because she was one of the first people around with whom she got along in Exsilium.]

Here, I gotcha. [She takes one of the packs in both arms and carries it off of Collette's back.]

You know, I can't believe I didn't know you could do this before. [She looks her up and down, gesturing her form of a horse.]

[chittybang]

[Asami wanted to see how this mudslide was going to work out, but she didn't have very good judgment in terms of distance away from the end of the slide. A bark of startled laughter escapes her as mud flings her way; and although she doesn't mind it on her deliberately worn clothes, her hair is another issue.]

Looks like it works! Did the sled make it? [Her own congratulations while she picks out the mud caked in her damp locks. She tilts her body a little sideways, fingers still picking, to inspect the sled from where she stands.]

sitting on rooftops and talking to yourself is camping right

[arachnoid]

[ Peter could be off exploring the great outdoors, but instead he's sitting on top of the shabby old barn. There's a book sitting near him, but he's not reading; he's got his (also shabby and old) camera out instead. The aim was to take some pictures of the group, but that gets derailed when he notices a spider crawling around and tries to take a picture of it instead.

For scientific purposes, obviously. It could be a crazy future mutant spider, it's hard to tell. It'd be a lot easier if his camera had remotely decent zoom, though. Or if the spider would sit still. ]

Hey, come on. Just quit moving for a second, would you?

[reconnaissance]

"Count me in." Of course Ellie is there, staring into the water as well, as she crouches down to drag her fingers over the surface. "You got a spell or something for this, Ricco? Or just showing off that you can hold your breath really well?"

She's pretty sure he's just joking about the giant squid, but then again... "What do we do if there is a giant squid?" She has a hunting knife, but she's not sure if she'd want to have to get close enough to make use of it. And she's not really trained in under water anything.

[reconnaissance]

Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot how much experience you had with campfires.

( She shoots him a grin, betraying the good humour beneath that grumpy tone. And, as she looks over, she catches sight of whatever That Is Supposed To Be. ) Hey. We've got some good grub that'll be ready soon, if you want? I mean, when you're done with whatever that used to be.

( Hah. )

I've proved pretty hard to set on fire, so far. I think maybe the flames just don't like me.

[reconnaissance]

It's just a barbie stripped down to basics. I got in the habit of this, trying to switch back to regular cooktops is the difficult part.

( A hopeless shrug. Asami and Lenny should be happy she hasn't just made a pit fire in the kitchen. )

Yeah. I mean, growing up on the farm, there was always stuff to do. I could read and stuff and just veg out, but usually there was a lot to get done. I kind of associate not doing stuff or planning things with not being able to do stuff, I guess? Either 'cause of hiding out or when I was in solitary.

( That's not something she mentions often, and she almost regrets the word as soon as they're out. ) Doing stuff makes me feel like I'm living.

totally reasonable tbh

[reconnaissance]

( What's that, you say? She saw someone climbing and had to go going them/practice her climbing?)

Hey.

( Some people would say popping up behind someone sitting on a roof was a bad life choice. )

Just Ellie being dreadful lbr

[reconnaissance]

( At least hanging out with Steph she got a chance to make use of all that practice in being stealthy, moving through the bush silently, without making the barest impact or alerting anyone to her presence. It was a pain in the arse that her ability to actually catch Steph off guard seemed practically non-existant, but sometimes opportunities presented themselves, and when they did, Ellie would be prepared.

In the meantime, it didn't hurt to practice. That would be why she has been prowling about in the bushes, and why she is so effectively out of sight.

It might be why she has a shot of catching the poor soul she just crash-tackled off guard before they both hurtle into the lake and a whole lot of mud. )

[chittybang]

[Asami knows they're bound to be collectively due for a dip in the lake sooner or later, and insofar has been a process of getting herself acquainted with the mud and water. She has nothing against mud or getting dirty or wet, but she needs to have a plan.

She squishes her toes in the mud, brushes her foot against the seaweed and combs her fingers through her hair while she's tiptoeing around (raking her hair comforts her). The question of what she's going to wear in the water is certainly on her mind and oh spirITS NO WHAT IS ELLIE—]

No!

[SPLOOSH

Asami grabs a tight hold of Ellie as they fall, yelp gurgled with a full gulp as cold water rushes up her nostrils. She gasps for air as soon as she can reach it and begins lunging her legs in the direction of land, spitting water out along the way. The water might be clean, but she can't mentally make the distinction.

Anyways, congratulations on making her the least graceful she's ever been around here. At least the time she zapped herself was hidden from the public eye.]

Spirits, Ellie!

peter get down from there

[controlledvariable]

[So. Steph may or may not have been watching Peter a little more closely than she's ben watching the others. There's just something familiar about him that she can't quite place, which is frustrating.

It's why she's ended up standing at ground level near the barn he's perched on - it's not stalking if you just happen to wander by the same place, right? - and why she's calling out to him.]

I like your camera.

[Photography has never been her thing, but it was Tim's, so she's picked up some things by osmosis.]

[reconnaissance]

( Ellie hadn't planned this far ahead. She gets a mouthful of water herself, and weeds are tangling around her legs, mud splashing up her body. )

Oh my God, Asami, your face.

( That's it, she's done. She's so done. Ellie Linton has not laughed this hard in a really long time. )

Come on! You're in, now. What's the point of getting back out?

SENTRY

[reconnaissance]

( Much as she'd love to just kick back and relax, some habits die hard. And when it was her idea to come out here, to get together a bunch of people that she thinks are more than halfway decent, then there's no way in hell she's going to slack off and not have a sentry. Just in case.

So it's some stupid hour, and while there are others gathered around the fire, Ellie is up on the roof, keeping watch. She yawns, rubs her eyes, and wipes the rain out of her eyes. Logic said you shouldn't sit in the rain to keep sentry, but right now the rain feels refreshing, like her skin is too hot and prickly. )

[controlledvariable]

[There's a brief moment where it seems like Ellie might have actually managed to sneak up on Steph, who's facing the water with her back turned to the bushes. She's not actually planning to go in the water, so she's hardly dressed appropriately for it, and it would probably be rather unfortunate were Ellie to catch her off guard and drag her into the water.

So it's lucky, then, that the brief moment only lasts until Ellie gets within reach. It's then that Steph springs into action, grabbing Ellie, flipping her over, and throwing her into the water.

Then she goes back to watching everyone else muck about in the water, as if nothing happened.]

[reconnaissance]

What--

( She was so convinced that time. And it's perfect, until she's suddenly soaring through the hair, smacking back-first onto the water with a painful WHUMP as the air gets forced out of her. )

Steph!

( This most indignant face. )

[controlledvariable]

[Steph takes a step towards the water, looking almost dainty as she avoids the muddier patches, then she looks down at Ellie with her head cocked slightly to the side, the picture of innocence.]

What's wrong?

[reconnaissance]

That's so unfair!

( She literally cannot think of another reason, wading closer. Her eyebrow is arched - someone does not buy that innocent look at all, Stephanie. ) Did I even get close to getting you, that time?

[controlledvariable]

As opposed to you tackling other people into the water, which is totally fair?

[She still sounds genuinely curious, as if this is all a mystery to her. She even raises an eyebrow right back at Ellie.]

Oh, that? I heard you when you were about eight metres away.

[Look at that, she even converted to metric for you, Ellie.]

[reconnaissance]

Completely. ( She pushes her hair out of her face, plastered down with water. Looking annoyed would work better if she could stop grinning. )

You did not! Come on, I was really quiet!

( huff huff huff excuse her as she half-heartedly splashes at Steph. )

[controlledvariable]

[Steph sidesteps the water, lazily tucking her hands into her pockets like she isn't bothered at all.]

You were pretty quiet, but you'd also given away what you were up to by practicing on everyone else.

[Don't think she didn't realize what you were up to, Ellie.]

[reconnaissance]

I could have gotten bored after getting Asami. I mean, her face was pretty priceless.

( Ellie is dreadful. She's still laughing about it. ) Are you going to come in?