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 plan was for them to leave early on Friday, but of course it didn't happen quite that way – they don't get going until mid morning, and probably don't get there until into the afternoon.
Collecting firewood, throwing down sleeping bags, revealing the embarrassing amount of sugar that makes up their food supply? YES.

They're there for a couple of nights, and campfires are always awesome. Yes. Marshmallows and playing with fire and idk card games and scrabble.

There's a LAKE YOU GUYS and you betcha there's a giant rope swing that Ellie put up so they can dangerously throw themselves into the water from great heights
Didn't bring a swimsuit? TOO BAD.

Who spends money on meat
LOSERS IS WHO YEAHHHH delicious mutant deer mmm

Who else misses hot showers

( Ellie's that special pain in the backside who's always playing with fires. Even when they're fine she's trying to fix them, prodding the embers around and trying to get stuff settled down just so. And if she's not playing with the fire, then it's with the wall of stones around it that they piled up to help keep the fire less visible, more contained.

It's more concerning when she reaches in to grab hold of pieces of wood already burning to rearrange them, though. )

Cedric looks up at the rope swing with an excited gleam in his eye. He's made sure it'll always swing back by now, so it should be a good time to head in, right?

Not quite. He watches the water with a suspicious expression on his face, pondering the secrets that might lie beneath the surface. He's seen a few lakes in his time, and often they're more dangerous than they first appear. No better person than him to clear it out, right?

"I'm giving it a look underwater to make sure we haven't got any giant squids waiting for us," he announces. "Anyone want to come diving with me? We can stay underwater as long as we like."

[Steph, knowing teenagers, assumed that there'd be an oversupply of junk food and a lack of anything actually filling, so she'd pre-made a few assorted meals that are reheated in a pot over the fire each night. If any of the hunting trips bought back edible meat, she'll cook that, too.

Which means she's by the fire most of the night, partly to cook, but mostly to make sure no one is messing around with the open flame. She brought her first aid kit, but she'd rather not have to treat any third degree burns.

Later in the evenings, when the marshmallows and cookies come out, she'll happily stay with everyone around the fire and offer to braid people's hair. She even brought a hair brush and a comb, much to Ellie's eyerolling, but these sort of things are important. Sometimes it's nice to pretend to be a normal person.]

Edited 2013-03-19 02:54 (UTC)

( Collette trots along in coyote morph as they make their way back from where everyone had gone swimming -- or more bathing, this time of night. She slows however as a strange scent catches her attention. Grunts off to the far left make her go still, and she calls out in Thought Speak to anyone near her: )

< Houston, I think we have a problem! >

( Collette loved her eagle morph, partly for how much detail it could make out, even if the eye didn't rotate like her own human eye did. She felt powerful, like she was a master of the fickle winds, and her feathers kept her warm as she sat up on this section of her own part of sentry duty. Keeping track of any possible approach toward their camp at any time feels smart, and also gives her an excuse to watch her friends from a distance.

Because that's healthy and not creepy at all.

Shifting on her perch up high in this rugged, old tree, Collette watches the world go on around her.

The only question is, what exactly is going on in that world? )

< Fine weather we're having, wouldn't you say? >

( Rhetorical question, meet rhetorical audience. )

By any chance, are you part phoenix?

( Collette is perched on her own rock at a distance close enough to the fire to feel the warmth, far enough away not to have a spark alight on her lower legs and start trying to burn something before she or someone else notices. Just a minor situational inconvenience.

She smiles at Ellie, watching her try to rearrange the fire for the fourth time so far tonight. )

Is that a brush?

( Collette asks from the opposite side of the fire, seated primly (for her) on the rock she'd claimed as hers after they'd first arrived. She has her horse blanket over her lap, partly for warmth that she doesn't feel, partly to keep her legs out of sight. She peers at Steph as she leans to one side, hand planted on the side of her seat for support. )

I knew I forgot something!

( Being the pack-mule was how she figured she was a useful part of this expedition. She had a few plans, as she considered the people she'd come out here with, but those would actually need to wait for now.

Yeah, as of this moment? Collette's major goal was shedding her load by the building they'd decided looked like an opportune camp-site. She has no idea what makes this one better than the last three they considered; none of them look all that more defensible, which made her pause and consider if she's been spending too much time with Caesar.

Her mind balks at that thought, and she reaches around, using her teeth to worry the strap keeping her packs on close to tight. World's only horse to load and unload herself on cue! )

< Anyone got a free hand? >

I think everyone forgot at least one thing. [If she hadn't had the foresight of offering doing things like braiding hair, she probably wouldn't have even brought one for herself.]

But yeah, it is, wanna borrow it? I promise I don't have cooties.

[Or like, head life or anything but she's not gonna say that outloud because it'll inevitably make everyone itchy.]

Insect free, too?

( She grins, impressed that so far no one's made a flea joke at her own expense. )

If you don't mind, that'd be great! My hair's still drying, but if I catch it now it might not be a total frazzled mess. Only partial!

Edited 2013-03-19 06:21 (UTC)

Of course.

[She briefly presses a hand to her chest, mock offended, before standing up to make her way over to Collette, sitting down near her and offering the brush.]

I figure frazzled hair is a necessary part of camping. [Especially if there's swimming involved.] If you put it into a braid it might dry into waves instead of frizz, though.

It does the waves thing all on it's own. But you're right! They fall nicer if you braid when my hair's still damp.

( She accepts the brush, rolling the handle between her hands. She looks sideways at Steph... then slowly grins. )

Are you offering?

It took me way too long to realize how much simpler life was if I braided it bfore going to bed.

[In her defense, it wasn't until she started doing things like staying up until 5am and having to get up at 7am for school, that wasting time on things like drying and styling her hair became an issue.]

If you want me too. [a grin] I know some people don't like anyone touching their hair.

[Like... herself, though it only extends to strangers.]

[If anyone thought that a three day camping trip would be an excuse for Steph to take a break from training, they would be wrong. She goes easy on Friday, but she's up on Saturday morning, dressed in leggings, an oversized sweatshirt and a pair of sneakers. It's been a while since she's gone for a run in anything approaching nature, so she goes slow, taking her time to admire the scenery; she does a lap around the lake, makes her way through some nearby woods, before finding a clear space. It's near enough to the campsite that she'll hear if something terrible happens, but far enough to give her a little privacy.

The sweatshirt gets hung from a nearby branch, leaving her in a t-shirt as she starts stretching, partly to cool down from the run and partly to warm up for what's next, and then she moves into a series of acrobatics, something between yoga and gymnastics. The rain makes things a little slippery, but it doesn't seem to bother her too much as she goes through the motions.]

Edited 2013-03-19 07:24 (UTC)

( Whenever Collette is in coyote morph, or whatever she calls it, Ellie justs wants to throw a stick for her and play fetch.

... Perhaps that isn't the sort of thing you're meant to think when someone just sticks thoughts in your head. It's weird. Without hesitating, she's moving out of the shallows, wringing the water out of her hair. )

What is it?

Huh?

( She looks from the fire to Collette, and smiles sheepishly. ) I'm just fixing it.

( Again. ) Besides, when the carcass is done cooling, the coals've gotta be perfect so dinner cooks right.

( She is just making excuses, of course. Moving away from her immediate task of fixing, she flops down next to Collette. ) Hey.

You know you can kill it by messing with it too much.

[ He's sitting at a reasonable distance away from it, thank you, cross-legged on the ground and eating one of the whatevers he brought from one of the food booths. It looks a bit like a gyro, or like it was a gyro at some point.

But the critique is casual and friendly, as is the one that follows. ]

Or you might just set yourself on fire.

[ Half of Peter's never really done the camping thing before. His parents obviously never got the chance to take him, and then Uncle Ben and Aunt May had too much work and not enough know-how, and it was just the sort of thing that hadn't seemed like a priority.

The other half of him - the one that came neatly packaged in a spider bite - loves everything about it. The outdoors and the freedom, anyway. Not so much the other people and the strange noises that make him a bit more fidgety than usual. So while the others are distracted, he takes the chance to slip away and vault to the top of the highest trees he can find. It's a whole different experience from climbing in the city, the rough bark and the branches, and it entertains him for the better part of an hour before he ends up settling in at the top of the tallest one he can find.

He's actually almost dozing off when his senses kick in and tell him there's something here - just a bird. Actually, no, that's a bald eagle, which is kind of weird considering this is not-England. He's about to comment (talk to himself, naturally) when the bird talks instead. ]

Wh-

[ He barely manages a startled noise when he jumps and tips right off the branch, but instincts kick in before he even reaches the next branch down; he grabs it and swings around to the side to avoid hitting others, landing smoothly on the trunk.

Which is completely vertical, but that doesn't seem to be causing much of an issue; he might as well be crawling around on the floor for how easy it looks. But more importantly, talking bird - he'd seen Collette doing her thing around camp, and shapeshifting was becoming pretty standard here, but that hadn't been his first thought. After a second to process it, however, he offers a veeery tentative question. ]

Collette?

[Cedric has been out in the rain for quite a while, working on his greatest idea ever. His hair's been plastered to his neck for quite a while, his clothes are soaked through, but he doesn't care. He's too busy giddily smoothing a path down the hill. Look, it's a mud slide!

He pulls forth a giant wooden sled he's tied together, rests it on the edge of the hill, and takes a flying leap. He's racing down, no way to stop! Not flying, but the closest he's going to get. If anyone is standing anywhere along the path or near the crash point at the bottom, they're probably getting splattered. Cedric sure is, but he's laughing all the way, wiping mud from his face once he skids to a stop.]

It's perfect.

Edited 2013-03-20 02:24 (UTC)

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?

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

Getting there/Setting up

Campfire

Swimming

Hunting

Heading home

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Diving

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THINK OF THE BEAR NECESSITIES

UP A TREE

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→ a little way from the campsite; come run into Steph doing flips and shit

THE SIMPLE BEAR NECESSITIES

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collette no

The Mud Slide

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