[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]

"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.

[theboywhodied]

"No, it's a spell. Back at school I had to breathe underwater for an hour to rescue my girlfriend from the merpeople taking her hostage."

Cedric waggles his eyebrows. It's a true story---sort of---but he's starting to really enjoy telling weird tales. He starts preparing, sitting to take off his shoes and socks.

"If there is, I've got spells. I had to fight off all kinds of creatures to rescue her."

He looks a little too pleased with himself.

[reconnaissance]

"Oh, come on." She scoffs, but that creeping doubt becomes evident a couple of moments later. "You're pulling my leg." Right? Not that 'good old Cedders' really seemed the sort. That eyebrow wagging does not make him any more convincing, but-- geez. Way to throw a girl.

She decides to settle it by punching him in the arm.

"You boys really love a good damsel in distress story, don't you?" Ellie does not approve.

[theboywhodied]

Cedric flinches and rubs his arm. Well, this isn't going over well. He decides to back down and tell the truth in its proper context. He leans back a touch, his jaw tightening with conviction.

"I'm serious. I wouldn't head down there if I didn't think I could handle it. And I really did pull her from the merpeople, but...it was an organised competition for school. What happened was that the closest person to every champion was put to sleep and taken hostage---our partners, siblings, or best friends. It was our job to fight any lake monsters we came across and pull them out. And I fought past the grindylows on my own. They're nasty, they're like people-sized squids with too many tentacles and horribly sharp teeth."

Cedric takes a deep breath and ponders the surface of the water. Whatever he faces down there could be terrifyingly mutated, but he's confident. "I've been training every day. My magic's stronger than it ever was, but in an emergency I can pull us out with a water evacuation spell. Plus with the bubbles around our heads we'll clearly see what's going on."

[reconnaissance]

Oh, aw, Cedric. She actually feels a bit bad: she was mostly just screwing with him. Is it possible to elbow someone apologetically? Because that's what she's doing now. "Hey, don't stress. I was just winding you up. I know you're one of the good guys."

And she means that. Maybe she hasn't known him all that long, but he's painfully genuine. Upright, honest kind of guy. "I wouldn't have invited you if I didn't think you were a solid guy to have around, magic or no magic. But it is good to know who I need to yell for if there are grindy-things about. I mean, that competition sounds... intense, kind of crazy. A lot of people would just pack up under pressure like that."

So, despite him being far taller than her, she ruffles his hair. "Come on, Ricco."

[theboywhodied]

"Believe me, it was."

Cedric understands her perfectly clearly and smiles again, nudging her back with a soft expression on his face. He laughs again. "All right. I'll go if you promise not to laugh at my undergarments."

He could just swim fully dressed, but it's not the warmest out here and he doesn't know the drying spell as well as he'd like to. Shaking his head at himself, he strips down and reveals his shameful secret---black boxer briefs with a small stitching of a winged golden ball on his hip.

Oh the things he did to reach compromises with his overzealous teammates.

[reconnaissance]

"Your what? Come on, they can't be that bad."

But, well. They do have a golden winged thing embroidered on, and she arches an eyebrow. "Is that some wizard fashion designer thing?" Because it's ridiculous, Cedric. At least he seems to realise that. Ellie just shrugs, drags off her heavier clothes, but sticking to her shorts and singlet. If there's a chance of anything monstrous, she doesn't want to die in only her underwear.

She clears her throat. "I'd get down to mine, too, but they don't have any cool wings sewn on."

[theboywhodied]

Cedric smiles gratefully, then has a bit of a self-conscious laugh at himself. How he wishes he'd packed layers to wear right about now! He rubs at his arm as he explains.

"It's called the Golden Snitch. In Quidditch, the Seeker who catches it just about always wins the game for their team---it's worth a lot of points. I'm a Seeker and a team captain, so my teammates tried to get me to have one tattooed on my arse. It was a nice thought, but I chose this instead."

With that cleared out of the way, he raises his wand. "I'm casting the charm now. You'll be able to breathe and see for as long as you need to." And so he does, first on himself to show the effect---a little distortion around his head that makes it look like he's in a fish bowl.

[reconnaissance]

His explanation makes her snort, but she nods approvingly. "You made the right call. And, hey, one day you're gonna have to draw a diagram to explain all the stuff in that game. Maybe we can improvise a magic-free version." If only.

And, paying attention as he casts the charm, trying not to look surprised by how... weird it looks, she just nods, bracing herself. Even as she walks towards the water and wades in, gets ready to plunge under, she holds her breath and shuts her eyes - some habits are just too difficult to break. She disappears under the water, and... opens her eyes.

Everything is weird, but amazing, and she's not entirely sure how she feels about it, but she grins and just starts examining everything with this new underwater vision that she's not used to.

[theboywhodied]

Once they're all ready to go, he happily dives in beside her. He moves quickly---he'd clearly trained quite a bit for that hostage rescue exercise. But today he's having fun. He twists every which way, looks all around, and even does his best attempt at a fish impression, flapping his bent-elbow 'fins' before making another graceful twist in the water. It's like he thinks he's a merman.

The chill disappears after that minute of intense swimming, and when he's sure that she's okay he accompanies her into the wider waters, hand tight around his wand.

They soon have their first wildlife encounter: it's some kind of mutated fish with too-sharp teeth. Cedric casts a warning blast of hot water at it, and it races off, but he stops and makes a surprised face to Ellie.

[reconnaissance]

Just as well she's one of the stronger swimmers of their group back home - it makes this a whole lot easier. She kind of wishes Homer was here, he'd love this. And, in the meantime, Cedric is being hilarious. It feels so weird to laugh underwater. She keeps on trying to hold her breath and then remembering she doesn't have to, and wondering if this is going to make swimming normally difficult later, when she has to go up for air.

Her hand is on the knife strapped at her waist, drawn and brandished, but Cedric has already taken care of it. She grins at his expression, pouting, and presses her hand against her stomach in a but I'm hungry gesture. This could make for an interesting way to go fishing.

She shoots him a wink and keeps swimming, knife in her hand, heading down through the weeds - and pointing towards a large, hollowed out log. Something interesting could go hiding in there, right?

[theboywhodied]

All is going well. Cedric's happily twisting through, but he never stops looking in every direction he can for threats.

He watches Ellie's face, trying to figure out what she's trying to say. She wants to hunt with that knife? Well, all right. He nods once and propels himself backward, hovering behind her with his wand at the ready. He's curious about her skills.