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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[The lack of any return gesture is enough of a hint for Steph to let go, but she does appreciate the attempt at a joke.]

Surprisingly, that thing isn't permanently attached to his face.

[It's still obvious that something is wrong, but she doesn't know what, and she trusts Ellie enough not to push. Ellie will talk to her when she's ready to.]

Just as well for you, then. ( She tries to give Steph a grin, nudging her gently, even if the smile is a bit shambolic. Sharp and raw, the way it used to be before it started softening off.

Moving quick, she heads for the food store, grabbing a bag of marshmallows and tossing them at Steph's head. The few moments that she's not next to Steph, she tries to shake it off, grabbing a couple of skewers and dragging them back over.

She doesn't feel like sugar, but buggering off into the rain doesn't appeal, either. )

Yeah, masks are really only my kink if they're dominoes.

[Today in Oversharing With Stephanie Brown.

She's watching Ellie a little closely, trying to figure out her mood, but still catches the marshmallows despite the distraction.]

Huh?

( I'll take Not Getting It for 500.) what are you on about?

( ha ha ha no she is actually asking. This isn't deliberate obtuseness, alas.

Ellie couldn't pin her own mood down, and ever since the war began, disappearing into herself to try to wrestle with the opposition of her logic and emotions has become progressively more common. That becomes harder when you aren't living in the wilderness and there are more people to worry when you just up and disappear (even just emotionally) for a little while. Her expression is hard to read, but there's bewilderment and guilt and frustration all slammed under that lid of needing to figure it out. Dissect and pick apart, like a scientist. She wishes her mind could be more like architecture, created just so and complying to her plans and designs. )

Domino masks, you know the ones. [She traces a finger around her eyes in the outline of a domino mask.] My ex used to wear one, I kind of have a thing.

[Also Nightwing. And man she has got to stop thinking about how attractive Dick is when she has to spend time with the teenage version of him.]

Unless you meant the kink part in general, in which case we're going to need a while for me to explain.

[A grin, gently teasing, as if she trying to test out whether this will make Ellie stop being weird.]

Oh. Like in The Princess Bride?

( Look at her, up with her pop culture references. Yeah. ) Ah. Okay.

( Why doesn't that make her feel any better? She's fairly sure she should find something in that to make fun of.

She does try to shrug, leaning back, and grin. It's tricky. ) I am just an innocent country girl.

Kind of, but ours a little more form-fitting.

[She smiles, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes, and there's uncertainty in it, too. The words are right, for how their interactions go, but there's - something wrong underneath it. Steph genuinely doesn't want to push the topic until Ellie is ready to bring it up, but she doesn't like this strangeness.]

I'm sure you have kinks even out in the country. I've heard things about sheep, after all. [It's still that familiar territory, mocking Ellie for being a rural kid, while Ellie will make fun of Steph for being from the city. But it's still lacking.]

I'm still just thinking of those eye packs my mum used to wear to bed, sometimes. ( Ellie does not appreciate the finer points of vigilante wear, apparently.

And, quite matter-of-fact: ) I know girls that swear a shearing shed is the best place for a bit of mucking around, but I don't think there was any actual sheep about. Just a bed of highest quality Merino wool.

( Finally she opens the packet of marshmallows, skewering a couple and offering them to Steph, before grabbing the other skewer, more marshmallows.
It doesn't feel right, she knows it. She's got an inkling Steph knows, and probably then Steph knows that she knows, and none of these things are good. ) Better than tents, anyway. Getting a rock sticking into your back can kind of ruin the moment.

They're not like that at all. [She rolls her eyes at Ellie; it's still strange to talk to people who aren't as used to vigilantes as she is.

The Merino comment earns a genuine smile, and Steph has to admit she's impressed by Ellie not rising to the bait and managing to turn it around.

It's still weird, but at least she can pretend it's not.]

I'd definitely take a shearing shed over a rock in the back. Even a gear stick in uncomfortale places is better than rocks.

[Steph that's what the backseats of cars are for.]

I bet they are. You can't pull the wool over my eyes. Or the mask, for that matter.

( Eyebrow: set to arched. ) Backseats, Steph. Or trailers. The back of the ute wouldn't be discrete, but if you can go remote enough it doesn't matter.
( Not that she and Lee ever did it in the back of the landie, let alone a ute, but the practical side of her is presenting itself. Practicality, thinking, her favourite distractions. )

Location doesn't seem that important, really.

I really am gonna make you meet Robin one day.

[She starts to look sheepish, but it gets replaced by a confused look]

What the hell is a ute?

( Ellie shrugs, noncommital. it sounds good, she'd like to meet them, but from what Steph has said, Ellie doesnt have too high an opinion of the other vigilantes she deals with back home. Somehow another Robin seems like a usurper, even if she knows that all emotion, a protctive gut reaction about how Steph got screwed over.

The latter is easier to discuss. All business. )

Utility, ute. Is like a big truck but it has a big tray on the back for moving heavy stuff. You need them on a farm or you're stuffed. Usually they just have a couple of seats. Means you don't get hay or feed in your truck, or can fit something big on there, like an... Arga, or something. ( A brief grin, a private joke. ) Geez, Steph. You're such a townie.

Oh! [She makes a face at being called a townie, now that she realizes what Ellie is talking about] We just call them trucks. Or pickups, if you wanna get specific.

You Australians are just weird.

[That is clearly the problem here.]

Hah. Pickups.

( ... what? They were just talking about sex! )

Yeah, well, 'ute' is quicker. ( Than another one syllable word, Ellie? )

Us Aussies like things quick and easy.

( Innuendo and self mockery and teasing? Whatever, she's going to roast her marshmallows. )

[Things are getting a little easier, and maybe the awkwardness was just Ellie processing the new information.

She even grins at the innuendo, grabbing a marshmallow; though she pops it into her mouth instead of roasting it.]

You should learn to slow down and enjoy things.

I like my adrenaline kicks. That doesn't happen with slow anything.

( Her marshmallow catches fire, making Ellie grin as she brings it back out and blows out the flame. ) This is the best part.

( She's dragging off the caramlised sugar skin, chucking it in her mouth and then inspecting the melty bit. )

It does if the slow part is a build up. [She grins, raising her eyebrows in a bit of a suggestive look. Though a few seconds later she's rolling her eyes at Ellie's burnt marshmallow.]

You're gonna burn your tastebuds off.

Maybe one day.
( She laughs, elbows Steph, and ignores that uncomfortable knot in her gut: Ellie is an efficient kind of lady. )

Nah, pretty sure my mouth is heat-proof, at this point. ( But she turns the stick around, offering Steph the melted part. ) You know you want it.

[Steph grins, but decides to leave that part of the conversation where it is, not wanting to push on that particular topic.

Instead, she eyes the marshmallow.]

I have a friend who could eat molten lava, if she wanted. [Kryptonians] And I think even she'd hesitate on that marshmallow.

Did it taste good? ( Morbid curiousity. She's trying not to double take over all the weird shit from people's worlds, anymore. It gets exhausting, being bewildered all the time. )

Your loss.

( And yep, she's dragging the marshmallow off with her teeth. It might be a little too hot, but like hell she's going to let that show. )

I didn't ask. I'm sure it just takes like rock.

[She watches Ellie eat that marshmallow, amused.]

Somehow, I think I'll survive.

You know what your problem is? No sense of adventure.

( A wicked grin, yes. If she keeps trying to joke around and ignore that she feels weird and off kilter, it might get to the point where she tricks herself into forgetting. Think brave, right? Now it was think happy.

That sounded really stupid, even in her own head, but it was worth trying for the sake of not making Steph regret coming camping.

Meanwhile, idly tossing a marshmallow at her isn't going to make her regret being there at all.)

[That gets a genuine laugh, even if it's just a brief one, as she plucks the marshmallow from the air and pops it into her mouth.]

Yeah, that is definitely my problem. I don't have a sense of adventure.

[So deadpan.]

Yep. And you're really boring, too.

( : D )

Well. [she feigns a bit of a haughty look, as if she's protecting injured pride.] At least I know how you really feel about me.

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