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

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

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.

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Geez, you people who know how to cook on open flame are amazing. I've barely got the oven figured out!

( She grins when Ellie flops down next to her. )

You big on keeping yourself busy?

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.

Edited 2013-03-20 08:57 (UTC)

( Collette gives her a strange look at barbie, not making the immediate connection to the barbeque. She listens, nodding as Ellie speaks about there being so much around to do. Collette had access challenges, but there was always something to occupy the mind, or hands, or both.

Solitary is a word that she blinks at, regarding Ellie with that perpetual curiosity. )

I get you there. Doing things is like... aah, like a breath of fresh air! I hate having to wait for things to happen just so I can get out there and be, you know? Though around here it's not as big of a deal. You just plan enough, and you can make things happen...

( She grins. )

Like a camping trip with friends, or like getting an idea about what the UE is doing, or finding out what the mystery meat is at the meat-bun shop near the Hold.

Mm. And reacting is like-- you're getting your hand forced. Reacting puts you in a dangerous position. Acting is harder, but in the end it puts you on the back foot. It's not on your own terms.

( Considering they're just talking in casual terms, her language is pretty dramatic, but it's the war tactics talking. Still, she echoes Collette's grin. )

I dunno, getting a bit presumptuous aren't you? Friends, phew.

( She just chuckles a little, peeling some bark off a piece of firewood and tossing it into the fire pit. ) What do you think the UE is doing, anyway?

I don't know. Which is why I want to know, since I don't trust people who are desperate to win. They might stretch what they know because they need us to be firmly on their side.

( She shrugs, lips still turned up in a faint smile The flames jump upward toward the sky, burning into her retinas as she stares into them. Collette closes her eyes, then looks off to the side. She wants to start regaining her night vision back, but she'd need to turn her back to really adjust.

it's all idle thoughts, too, for the moment. She turns back toward Ellie. )

I don't want to see my friends -- ( here she winks, her smile going lopsided ) -- get forced into reacting. i want to know what the Initaitive says is true. I want to see how the UE is getting to our worlds, if they are at all.

( Another time, Ellie might have flinched. She knows it's not personal, so she holds steady. ) It can push them to doing some pretty out there things.

( Certainly she can concede that, though she's happy to lapse into silence for a little bit. So many worlds and so many possibilities that it makes the mind boggle. )

Me too. ( Everything Collette is saying makes sense. ) I want to know just how the UE is buggering things up for the rest of us, too, or if it's some Initiative spin, like you say. It's impossible to pick out any propaganda when we can't see the other side.

( Her voice is rough, but not angry, just the faintest edges of frustration peeking out before she restores the calm. ) Maybe we should just break out of here and take a look for ourselves.

( She's being flippant.

Mostly. )

( Collette sounds almost as flippant in return, one hand brushing over the blanket covering her thigh. )

Maybe I know some people intending to do exactly that.

( She smiles, looking off over the fire. She was almost being subtle. Betcha wouldn't believe this, Caesar! )

Sound interesting to you?

( For a moment, she just stares at Collette, disbelieving. Only a moment, because in the next her mouth is caught up with a grin that can only be described as dangerous. There's been too much sitting around and waiting in this bloody place, but in these few seconds her entire posture has changed, shifted into being curious, alert. Focused.

There are brief considerations: danger, risk, but these are all things she's used to. How safe are they in this city? She hardly knows, patrolled as they are, and even if she likes the people here, it's not like a normal civilian life.

And besides. It's not like Collette is handing her a pile of explosives. Just gauging interest. )

Pretty interesting, yeah.

( Ellie has a whole different energy read, following what she says. Collette glances back her way again, her grin spontaneous, unaffected by the thrill that shoots through her thinking that here might be someone else who finds it as important as she does to know what's going on.

It's a debate of a few seconds to decide do or don't. Do, of course, is what she prefers. And so it is she talks in the end, opening up a door if Ellie feels like stepping over the threshold with her to see what might lie beyond. )

I mentioned Caesar to you before, didn't I? Caesar Silverberg?

Sounds familiar, yeah. ( She can't remember the context, exactly, but that hardly is a major focus for her, at the time being. Picking apart her memory can wait for later. ) Is anyone else interested in this idea, then?

( Ellie watches Collette intently, tilting her head, trying to work out where this might be going. She has an idea or two, but couldn't be certain. )

Theres a few. Out of those who I'd want to have interested. I know there are more than that in general, but...

( She trails off. The general population isn't what interests her. People she trusts working together, achieving something? That matters. )

It'd involve a lot of camping. Traveling, dealing with mutated wildlife, working undercover...

( Sounding unconcerned with all of what she lists, Collette watches Ellie, a half smile on her face. )

You know, danger, my closest friend, that sort of thing. And we might get nowhere.

Camping? I hate camping! ( Smartass. She bumps Coll's shoulder, giving her a grin. )

Danger and I are old mates, we go way back. ( Don't try to be cool, Ellie. You aren't an action hero.
Except for how she is, a bit. )

My dad had this saying he liked a whole lot. It was important during the war, we wouldn't have gotten far without it: "time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted." Even if we get 'nowhere,' we can start ruling out possibilities, and we'll know more than if we just sit about this place. We have to do it.

( She's in. All in. ) Where do I sign up?

( 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? )

You're doing it wrong, if you're trying to get me to 'high five' you.

( Instead, Ellie is going to go with the handshake option, even if it seems... weird to be so formal with Collette, even if she can catch that seriousness in her gaze, is intrigued by it. Someone so full of brightness and laughter and good cheer being so serious-- she wasn't sure if it said good things, or bad. It was a shame she couldn't just have all the brightness and leave the serious stuff to people that were already too broken down for other things. )

Is there anything you need me to do?

( She laughs, shaking hands with Ellie. It feels nice, like a good kind of progress, to connect over something important with another person of her age. She already knew she was level with Caesar; Al probably would have been the same. But it's the people here now who have to matter most.

So she smiles, and this time, it makes it to her eyes. Seriousness needs to be a swift passing wind, lest she actually get bogged down in a mindset she doesn't like to embrace. )

Other than be you? Keep an ear open for this, and wait for me to talk to Caesar. Which is going to be when we all get back, but that's more so he knows I've talked with you. He's the real brains behind this!

( A fact she's entirely at peace about. )

We're still figuring out the exact time. He's real big on being prepared and stuff, so it's not moving as fast as I'd like. Which probably means it's going to be a lot more successful than anything I'd do on my own!

Done. Being me and keeping ears open are two of my best traits.

( Ellie just nods, mulling all that over. ) I'm a big fan of being prepared, but sometimes there's only so much you can lay down and you just gotta get moving. ( Her tone is not dismissive, though. This Caesar person is just sounding more and more intriguing. )

Can I ask who else is going, or... ( Is that secret? Still being worked out? Her eyebrows just raise a bit, because she's not too sure where to take that sentence. ) Were you using this camping trip as an auditioning situation?

( A bit of a grin, yes, because it feels good to have a plan, working towards something. Her mood is lifting already. )

( She makes an expansive gesture with her hands and arms. )

Welcome to the live auditins!

( Her laughter following is light; she's semi-serious, but mostly not. )

I had a few people in mind, but it kind of worked out where a lot of them are here. Go figure! Steph and Asami... Like, I know Caesar knows Asami, and Asami can fight, even if camping is kind of new to her. Steph seems to get a lot of stuff, so... besides, Gotham city sounds like a way crazy place. Not that it needs to mean much, but I kind of think it does in this case.

( She folds her hands back into her lap. )

I know all sorts of people here. Adults, teens, littles, the whole gambit. ( Snorting, she shakes her head. )

But there's a lot of people I don't think would be right for this, you know? It makes it harder! I'm not used to having to actually think about who'd work with this.

Really? Asami struck me as more of a lover, than a fighter. ( But it's only a little bit incredulous; Asami's tougher than she seems, with all that hair flipping and-- no, okay, mostly the hair flipping. But she had a few things in common with Fi that probably had her marked as someone for Ellie to underestimate. She'd impressed Ellie with how she handled herself when she moved in, though. She was hardly one to argue the choice.

Steph, though, she is more familiar with. Sworn to secrecy she might be about Batgirl, but Gotham being off the chart with intensity and crazy goings on wasn't something to keep under the cone. And besides, Steph had helped her out a lot. ) She does. You need someone with insight like that, for stuff like this. She used to work in a clinic, too. It won't hurt to have someone trained to patch us up.

( Suffice to say, she approves of those two. )

Work with this, work with each other. Team dynamic is important.

Team dynamics?

( She warms at those words; Ellie could say nothing that would more firmly garner Collette's support. )

Oh yeah, team dynamics are the most important! Being able to cover each other and know each other and compensate and everything like that, it's super important. You need to know you can trust people to be watching your back, you know? That's a big part of it all.

( And a major component of why Collette looked to her own general age-group. )

Yeah. Fi and I, our lot back home, we got pretty bloody good at working together. ( Even if they could've throttled each other, some days, even if Corrie's death had destroyed any positive bond she and Kevin ever had, even if she and Lee could barely understand each other some days.

She was the one to be counted on, who would step up for the terrifying missions no one else could do. That was what she did. Except for Homer standing alongside her, for Robyn that gave more than Ellie ever had. Her mouth twists, and her gaze drops. )

I can do that. I got your back. You and Sami and Steph. ( And the rest are implied, but those three first of all. )

Same here, in case you were wondering. I've got your backs too.

( Said with a smile, and a firmness around her eyes. She laughs afterward, nothing to mock it, not taking the sentiment lightly, but because that's what she wants to do. )

By land, sea, and air!

( She can't help a laugh at that enthusiasm. )

That's called being a show off, for the record.

( But she's glad for it, and Collette's ridiculousness. It's a nice relief from everything. )

( Collette shrugs, grinning. )

Maybe!

( Holding up her fingers, she indicates a distance of about a centimeter. )

Just a little bit.

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

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and that's a wrap just because i wanted to say A LITTLE BIT ok ok