[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]

( Ellie smiles a bit, but glances down, as if she's somehow a bit embarrassed by it. Only a couple of seconds, and then she's sweeping her gaze over the horizon again, keeping watch for any movement in the dark. )

This Caesar guy sounds pretty interesting. ( And vaguely reminiscent of Homer. Not that Homer wasn't a hard worker, he was, but he'd have been sitting by the fire and letting everyone wait on him hand and foot, if he could get away with it. Thankfully, between her and Robyn, they'd made sure he never got in the habit of that. Homer could get his own bloody tea and slippers, if he wanted them.

Ellie laughs at the metaphor, terrible as it is. ) Yeah. Too bad so many of you are American, but.

[whatsupcroc]

He really is.

( She doesn't bother disguising the warmth in her tone, fairly nonplussed on the subject of Caesar. She turns toward Ellie, laughing. )

Hey! I'll have you know that we're of the very finest quality of American stock. Even if none of us are from the heartland of our great country. Though seriously, I don't think I've met anyone from the midwest! You'll have to settle for a bunch of us from Jersey and California. Clearly the best of the States.

( She grins, winking. )

Caesar's not from Earth, if that's any comfort.

[reconnaissance]

You could do a poll on the network when we get back, see what that brings up. We could run a mini-census.

( Ellie, that was a bit of a jump. ) It could be good for those record things. ( God, she's neglected that idea. There's been too much other stuff. )

Oh, thanks. Australia's equivalent to being from another planet, is it? You're a real pal.

( Huff huff huff no she loves you really, Coll )

[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!

[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.

[whatsupcroc]

If we go anonymous, I vote someone who isn't me put it up. Barnaby and like everyone I know can spot my anonymous tries from a mile away! It's very terrible, to be obvious when you're trolling on the intranet.

( She nods, tone light as her eyes scan the area and she taps out a quiet tempo on her thigh. The cold's finally getting to her; Collette shivers. )

Aah, birthdays? Mine's during the winter. December 24th and all.

( There's a half shrug and a half smile, still considering the last thing Ellie had said about complicated people in Exsilium. She sure has that part right. )

[reconnaissance]

Steph might be a good one, or Mitsuki. They both know their way around computers. Mitsuki was trying to teach me some filters and locks and stuff, but I don't know how interested either of them would be in our genius plan.

( Call it her protective streak: Ellie hauls off her jacket, strap of her gun hung about her neck, before she's dropping the jacket around Collette's shoulders, hooking her gun back up in her arms. No comment, no fuss. Collette getting sick would be a bigger disaster than if she did, and Ellie's put up with worse. Besides, there's a fire downstairs for when she finishes watch.

If she finishes watch. She's not too sure she wants to, yet. )

November, for me. Then I'll finally be old enough to vote.

( Because there's so much of an Australian government left for her to vote in? At least she doesn't sound as harsh and bitter as she did when she first arrived. )

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette looks mildly surprised; rather than saying anything, she flashes Ellie a thankful smile. Oddly, this reminds her of meeting Batgirl. )

Thanks, Nightowl.

( What else is deadly, quiet, and watching at night? Cassie... Cassie who she hasn't seen for almost a year. )

Hey, cool! November what? That's eighteen in Australia, like it is in the States, right?

[reconnaissance]

Aren't all owls nocturnal?

( Don't be obnoxious, Ellie, accept the amusing nickname. She grins back, even as she wrinkles her nose a bit, self-deprecating. )

Nineteenth. And yeah, it is. I'll finally be an adult. ( Phew. ) Guess I better start acting like a grown up. What about you? How old do you turn?

[whatsupcroc]

( Collette snorted, lips quirked up in a smile. )

Seventeen. This December, I turn seventeen.

( For the first and only time. She wrinkles her nose, returning to the topic of owls. )

They're totally diurnal, too! They're just way better night hunters. Flying silent does that for you!

[reconnaissance]

Seriously?

( That makes her sad, almost. She remembers when she was sixteen, before the war, when turning seventeen seemed so exciting. ) We gotta throw you a party. Owl themed.

( Huh! She didn't know that, raises an eyebrow. ) You do see the occasional tawny frogmouth during the day. I guess I never thought about it.

( She wishes she could move silently, but she says nothing.
Abruptly, perhaps, but-- she feels the need to ask it: ) Are you happy here?

[whatsupcroc]

Yeah.

( She avoids the sibilance of yes, head canting to one side as she looked outward, feeling a general ease somewhere close to her belly. It'd tightened at the mention of a party, in a mixture of intruige and awareness of how singular it'd be right now. One birthday, one celebration, the second one away from when she...

But she focuses on the warmth. )

I'm not happy about the war, or what the Initiative does, or what the United Earth does, but I'm happy here. It's the people, you know? Plus I'd be lying if I didn't say I enjoyed the excitment every once in a while.

( Left unpunctuated by a rise in tone, Collette makes it a statement instead of an exclamation. An honest statement over something not quite so delightful in the end. )