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Madeleine Cadrasteia     The warpgate station you arrive at looks more like a bus stop than an interplanetary transit hub - a large awning over a brick arch containing the natural gate, with a few benches and a meagre parking lot. Rural Wisconsin must not get many multiversal travelers. It's around seven in the evening, the mostly-clear sky turning a deeper blue as the sun begins to set. Madeleine's sitting on a bench, chewing some kind of gum and reading a newspaper.

    "This everybody?" She asks as the last of the Elites arrive, and does a quick headcount, mouthing the numbers to herself. "Okay, good, we've got room for everyone. C'mon." She tosses and catches her keys as she walks to a pair of grey-green minivans with Concord plates parked in the lot.

    When Madeleine said "room for everyone", that meant "room for everyone, but someone's holding a camping stove on their lap". The vans are packed full of supplies, some of obvious utility for camping and others of more esoteric nature. "It's a company car," the huntress explains as she passes a second pair of keys to whoever's driving the other car. "MCRD just opened an office up in Rhinelander, near where we're headed."

    The hour-long drive from the gate is largely uneventful, and the sun is fully set by the time the caravan turns onto an access road marked by a "STATE NATURAL AREA" sign. On the way Madeleine does chat some, eager to share facts about hodags and about the ongoing meteor shower ("It's a full moon, so the visibility won't be great, but we might get a shooting star or two!"), but when she runs out of things to say twenty minutes in she puts on her darksynth playlist and focuses on the road.

    It becomes apparent that this is not land on which camping is normally permitted when Madeleine abruptly pulls to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere and cheerily announces, "Here we are! Everybody out. It's a short walk to the campsite, so everyone's gonna have to haul something. Honestly, I'm glad I got more folks than I expected, or we'd have to do more'n one trip. There's some headlamps in the other van, for those who can't see in the dark." There's a small clearing in the spruce trees a few minutes' walk into the woods which Madeleine proudly announces will be your home for the next twelve to sixteen hours. "Well," she says, "Let's get set up! Once we've got the stove up I'll start on dinner. Lay out some tarps, get the tents up, I'm sure you can figure it out."

    Madeleine arranges the propane tank, stove, folding table, and cooler. Dinner, it turns out, will be bratwurst in pretzel buns, with some vegan sausages for the meat-averse among the gathered elites. Sauerkraut and mustard for toppings, deli coleslaw on the side. Madeleine insists on plating up everyone's brat before serving, and has places set at the long folding table by the time the tents are up.

    "Let's dig in!"
Ozhira     'Room for everyone' really does mean 'room for everyone'. The Beast finds itself holding a small propane-heated camping stove in both hands and seated properly rather than finding a way to ride in the cargo compartment or the undercarriage or the roof rack. Which seems to suit Ozhira just fine-- they spend most of the drive staring at the item they're holding, fiddling with little metal bits that rattle or squeak.

    When the vans are pulled off and offloaded, the creature slinks out into the shadows. Those who are quick enough with their lights or who can see in the dark can see the girl-shaped creature ascending *rapidly* into the trees, hauled up by a series of ropy red pseudopods emerging from their torso. They don't climb with their hands or legs at all.

    After a moment, similar red tentacles hang down at regular intervals. The one closest to the vehicles reaches for cargo. Once it acquires something, it swings-- passing the item to the next in the chain, moving camping gear along the Devourer's dangling body like an organic conveyor. All someone has to do is get stuff out of the car and give it to Ozhira, who can rapidly ferry it to the campsite.

    Best not to think too hard about how they learned that trick. It was probably a lot messier the first time.

    Once the vehicles are unloaded, those tendrils retract one by one. The very last one extends down to the ground, building a scarlet mass that glistens in the campfirelight. Like extruding the contents of a toothpaste tube, Ozhira's full biomass eventually plops into this one place and the creature's human disguise rises out of it.

    "We feast? What has-- been hunted?"
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna Shinmyoumaru Sukuna was personally invited and she agreed before she really knew exactly what they were getting into. Fortunately, it's the kind of thing she really enjoys, so no harm done.

She arrives at the bus stop early, riding the same lacquered bowl people have seen her in before. Owing to the fact that she is camping and she hasn't done that before, she appears to be sitting on some supplies she put in the bowl; owing to the fact that she has a perfectly good Miracle Mallet the supplies are a lot smaller than they should be, which means she has a lot more in there than you'd think.

Shinmyoumaru does not attempt to put the bowl inside either van. She pulls out what looks like thread, scaled up to match her oversized sword-needle, and with a quick bit of work attaches it to the roof; little shining bits of energy are in places where her needle couldn't pierce, but the net effect is that it's sewn on like a button with no apparent damage to either the bowl or the van. Then she just kind of hops down to take a ride.

She can load some additional stuff from other people in the bowl, too. There's room, when she's not in it. The whole assortment appears to be more or less weightless while it's tied in place - well, it is a floating bowl after all.

Shinmyoumaru herself is wearing red and black, as usual, and still vaguely kimono-like, but more practical and less over-ornate; no long trailing lengths behind her today, though the sleeves are still pretty long. She clearly did not know what to expect.

And whether Madeleine can keep up a conversation for an entire hour, Shinmyoumaru absolutely can and will. She asks questions about the hodags, and about what else Madeleine has hunted or keeps an eye on, and about Wisconsin (which leads into asking about the States in general; she apparently knows very little about America) and really anything else that crosses her mind. If there's anyone in her van she doesn't know, she gives (and requests) introductions. She seems excited.

She's still energetic when they get to where she's going, and the bowl helps with unloading too, because even with other things thrown into it she can tug it along after her like a cork on a river with those threads. Shinmyoumaru does not know how to put a tent up, precisely - or, rather, she's never done it - but she's a quick learner. Her own gear mostly remains in the bowl for now.

Shinmyoumaru is, however, intensely wary of Ozhira, and never gets too close. She refuses to give any of her items to them to ferry. They make her uncomfortable.

But that doesn't stop her from replying, "Bratwurst," she says, firmly, and just because she doesn't know what kind of meat that is doesn't stop her. "Obviously."

Shinmyoumaru takes a huge bite from it, and immediately regrets doing so - it's hot!
Aidan Proudpick Two hours ago.

Aidan packs a bag, putting together a healthy supply of dried rations of nuts, mushrooms, seed cakes. He forgoes dried fruit for whole fruit since it won't be a long hike. A couple bottles of a thick hoppy local brew. A canvas cot made to hang in trees. A set of binoculars. One deck of cards. One canteen. Cold weather gear. He'd been getting some thick cloth gloves and boots made, so those will do. Perfect. His tail is aflicker. His eyes shining bright. His energy at top of its game.

NOW.

Be nice and calm for Madeleine, just be nice. Everything will go great.

But, once he's in the car, he's zoned in again, happy to load a pack on his lap. Happy to look outside at the setting sun. A general 'just happy to be there' vibe washing out for him in sheets. He eagerly asks everything he can about Hodags from Madeleine, soaking up every little fact with glee. "How big is a Hodag? What do they eat?" "Oh, meteor showers mean good luck on the Continent, this'll be great!" It's a little hard to get him to just sit and vibe, thankfully, Shinmyoumaru has his back, eager to talk about anything that crosses her mind or his own.

At the site itself, Aidan can at least manage his own pack and a few other things. He's been exercising!

It's on a trip back when he finally settles his eyes on Ozhira moving around like goop. Slowly ferrying things back and forth. Aidan stops, leaning back away from the mass as it slowly bubbles through the forest. It's not quite terror, but a distinct worry and disgust as the ooze moves past him. Once it is fully past him, he returns to the camp site.

Being tree obsessed, Aidan has a tree tent. It's really just a sort of hammock that zips up, requiring him to scurry up a tree, spend a few minutes tying it to some thick limbs, then back down again. He pulls open his pack and immediately starts a little circle of his various objects, grabbing out the binoculars. "Oh! You- Thanks Madeleine! I brought all my own food just in case, but that's great of you to remember!"
Ivy Carrow     She arrives to the warpgate with the others with a skip in her step, a large pack strapped to her back. "Ho there!" She called out to the other elites, raised a claw in the air in greeting. "Who is ready to brave the wilderness?"

    Outside her role as Gate-Captain, Ivy looks a little different. Heavy boots, cargo shorts with a pair of leggings in a camoflague pattern that stopped just below her knees and a sleeveless shirt with two dripping fangs, just below words in red; DRINK UP. She's still wearing her cloak and one arm remain a clawlike prosthetic, but she's left her sword and sidearm home.

    Ivy can get to and from more or less anywhere with a flicker of will and a tear in reality. But, for some reason, she doesn't seem to feel like that today. She doesn't even suggest it. She packs her bag into the trunk, and sidles into a backseat, a big smile on her face. "I'm not crowding you am I? Good." She doesn't wait for an answer. "You know, most people see these kinds of woods as boring. Because the only thing they ever see is the pavement of the road." Anyone in the car with Ivy is subjected to her talking about a time where her warprunners had to camp under the stars, watching three moons cut through the sky above them, under the shadow of great spided stone spires that grew like trees--thirty minutes from a highway on a remote world.

    When the time comes, she orienteers her way through the woods with ease, even carrying her pack. She offers her hand to someone who stumbles over a root, deftly stepping over them herself, happily set on the task of navigation.

    When they get to the campsite, Ivy puts together her own tent with learned ease, and begins to unpack. Then, vanishes into the woods, without a word. Just as Madeleine is beginning to finish up, she returns, carrying sticks in her arms, setting up the bones of a campfire for that night.

    "Brauts!" Ivy laughed. "What a treat." She piles her plate, settling down next to Madeleine. A little closer than she had to. "You've really outdone yourself, haven't you, Maddie?"
Ozhira > "Bratwurst. Obviously."

    Shinmyoumaru's answer prompts the human-shaped creature to lean closer to Madeleine and the food she's preparing. Despite Ozhira's disguise, it bears more of a resemblance to an animal smelling food than a person's curiosity.

    "Made with real-- brats?"

    The innocent, inquisitive tone doesn't help much.
Petra Soroka <B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "Jesus Christ I am not driving Petra to summer camp."
<B-anter> Petra Soroka says, "I could drive if it h-has... legs?"
<B-anter> Petra Soroka says, "Or-- or if it flies, probably."
<B-anter> Madeleine Cadrasteia says, "I mean, Petra could be in the van I'm driving if that's an issue, Dame Commander."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "Put Petra in the van, count how many times she kicks your seat, and I'll discipline her accordingly."
<B-anter> Madeleine Cadrasteia chuckles. "Will do."
<B-anter> Petra Soroka says, "W-wait, but I-- I'd rather...."
<B-anter> Petra Soroka whines. "Not fair. I-- I need to learn how to drive, I think."
<B-anter> Angela says, "So you could drive Lilian?"
<B-anter> Petra Soroka says, "Well-- so, so this kind of thing doesn't, so the logistics are easier; and it's kind of-- kind of just a better feeling to be a useful resource instead of needing to be planned around, so--"

    The drive up is spent doing intense calculations. This is a rare, low-key social gathering with Lilian, in a pleasant environment besides the other people attending, so there's very high pressure on Petra to make sure it goes well. Among many other tasks, one of the most treasured ones that Petra has taken on herself for Lilian's sake is attempting to facilitate situations where she feels casually loved and safe-- which is already tenuous, again because of the attendance.

    So from her very first moments on the drive, even before that, when preparing, Petra has to consider: *should* she kick the seat??

    It's juvenile. And kind of demeaning. But being demeaned is pretty normal. And 'discipline her accordingly' sounds, affectionate, right? Not like she'd be angry. And it's something to think about-- but not think about *too* hard, or the sin comes back-- that this could be an enriching camp activity. But then on the other hand, it's not like Lilian *needs* the justification *anyways*. And if Petra gambles *wrong*, then she ends up stirring up unneccessary trouble and disappointment, and even disbelief, that she'd be that pathetic, and Lilian would probably just sigh, or maybe point at her and laugh, and she'd be out in the woods with nowhere else to go, and Lilian could--

    Petra does not kick the seat.

    Qetra is given the duty of packing tons of extra materials that *Petra* would never consider using on a camping trip. She's brought a sturdy little hiking backpack, sans tent, for the supplies that she'd feel are personally important for 'camping', which includes a level of comfort that can't be described as 'roughing it', but also is far from luxurious. A pillow, but not a cot, and so on.

    What Qetra has is a range of supplies extending up to the point of practically being able to construct a cabin in the woods-- *including*, if necessary, a set of extra robotomized hands to do the constructing. Portable generators, stay-warm containers of non-camping food, blankets and other comfortable sleeping accoutrements, and so on. Embarrassing for a Texan-born-and-raised tomboy, but only proper preparations to stave off any dissatisfaction that might crop up.
Petra Soroka     Since Petra is not riding with Lilian, that means Aidan-- the source of most potential annoyance that she's aware of-- is going to end up in one of their cars. So it has to be *Petra's* obviously, and she strongly contemplates shoving him out the door onto the highway in between bouts of staring intently at the back of the drivers seat. She can imagine slamming open the door-- she's even got the reach from the morphmetal to make it easier than that one time in Emma's shitty sedan in highschool-- and then watching him skid and roll across the asphalt as the car speeds away... the idea that, certainly, he'd survive, but it'd be another day where he realizes that he can't tolerate being near Petra, so he'd leave in a huff, and the problem would be solved.

    It's a nice dream. But Petra can kill him in the woods if she really wants. Instead, she goes for a gentler approach.

    "Proudpick. If you fuck up the vibes, they're never finding your body. I'm dead fucking serious. I'm more serious about this than your entire fucking home. Don't fucking ruin it." Petra lounges rigidly with her fists clenched, and then when they start piling out of the car, she wheels around and punches Aidan in the face.

    She doesn't follow up with any more blows though. "Sorry. I thought about it too much not to do it. Be fucking normal, though." What??

    Petra is capable of carrying plenty, as long as she's got an array of morphmetal accessory limbs to do most of the heavy lifting. Like shimmery quicksilver tentacles, originating from the bottle on her hip, she's got more than enough strength and hands to carry two people's worth-- and does, if the other person if Lilian, and she wants her to.

    Despite having resorted to physical violence as what seemed to purely be a pressure valve release within five minutes of disembarking, she actually seems to be in a great mood. "I can do a lot of setting up tents! I'm good at that." Backpack shucked off, Petra wears her bomber jacket over a flannel shirt and black tank top, jeans and boots for proper skin coverage in unfamiliar wilds. It's warm enough out right now that the third layer is unnecessary, so the bomber is tossed to the side while she sets out pre-dinner arrangements for paper plates and condiments, cheerily doing the meal prep while Madeleine cooks.
Lilian Rook     Unfortunately, Lilian thinks a little brick arch with a gravel parking lot in the middle of ~Wisconsin~ is actually a fascinatingly exotic locale. Seeing things like 'wild grass and trees' has eventually lost the bulk of its novelty (despite how often she's dispatched to huge cities or weird dungeons), but states she can't find on an unlabelled map of the exotic land of ~America~ are still fascinatingly quaint. She arrives at the platform looking around the place as if she expects to find an ancient burial mound or a civil war site at any moment.

    The heap of gear is dismaying, because she's already rush-bought some wildly overprinced bougie tent based off its review score offhand, and came carrying the branded duffel bag over her shoulder, adjacent to her actual backpack. The instant she sees the vans, she curls her lip and throws the entire tent into Petra's arms. "A company car." she repeats, in vague disbelief. She certainly looks like the sort of person who understands a company car to be a vehicle that has a minibar.

    She passes the hour: reading a book, actually. For all of her internet poisoned opining on the lawless danger of buses, it's still her habit to be poring over some Tome or another to fill time, even after having graduated from school; the habit is older. The only indication she isn't just tuning the world out is that she keeps participating in asking Madeleine about hodags while the subject is warm.

    Once the group is out of the car and into the woods, Lilian throws on an unusually 'kind of cute' fur-collared green zip-up jacket (she already has the thermal tights on), winds the back half of her hair into celtic knotted ponytail, pulls on slim fit black leather gloves, retrieves a thermos from her bag, and tosses her backpack to Petra to carry too, only gesturing to a particular space in the clearing after, not even having to verbally communicate that Petra is to set up her tent for her there.

    Her opinion on dinner is politely taking what she gets while mumbling about perfectly grilled sausage being 'overcooked' somehow. She snaps out a folding chair, crosses one leg over the other, places her open book in her lap, and finishes her chapter while eating, with utter confidence she will somehow not let slip a drop of grease or mustard. She eats things a normal way.

    "How exactly do you plan to lay eyes on one of these things if we're beginning at sunset and staying until noon?" Lilian asks Madeleine in the process of biting and swallowing with too brief of an intervening step. "If they sleep at night, we could have come here during the day. If they're nocturnal, then it'll compete with sleep." she says. "I understand that camping means forgoing certain things, but surely there's no point if everyone is exhausted."

    'Made with real-- brats?'

    "No, Petra is not in the sausages." Lilian drones offhandedly. "Though they might be a little too small for her." She's not paying enough attention to make it sound terribly scathing, which is honestly actually kind of meaner. "Oh, come to think of it, are they not attracted by the smell of food? Is the squirrel here as bait?"
Aidan Proudpick Aidan, surprised, turns slightly to get clocked in the face. There isn't a moment of thought, as soon as he is over the initial blow, he slugs her back.
Madeleine Cadrasteia Madeleine is still walking around the front of the minivan when Petra punches Aidan, so she doesn't see it. She does, however, come around in time to catch Aidan's fist as he swings at Petra. Her grip tightens on the squirrel's hand, enough to make some uncomfortable popping noises. "Not here, and not now." She looks to Petra. "I mean that for both of you. This is a camping trip, not a battle royale."
Petra Soroka There isn't a moment of thought, as soon as he is over the initial blow, he slugs her back.

    Somehow Petra didn't expect this.

    Caught off guard as she's explaining her reasoning and turning away, Petra staggers and nearly loses her balance, wheeling around with a scythe of morphmetal condensing in her hands midway through the arc towards Aidan's neck. Involuntary tears and mucous on her face, red swelling promising a black eye before the morning, Petra narrows her eyes and glares at him, blade tensed and frozen before making contact.

    "Fucking. Fine. But say it out loud. Promise you're not going to start shit tonight. I swear to *fucking* god. You *don't* get to ignore me. Say it."

"I mean that for both of you. This is a camping trip, not a battle royale."

    Petra doesn't look over at Madeleine, lips curled in a unflinching (but kind of messy) sneer at Aidan, but she does respond in her direction. "Yeah. I-- *genuinely*, *seriously* mean it, that I don't want him to give me any more reason to fuck his shit up tonight. Okay?"

"Though they might be a little too small for her."

    Petra is fixated on setting up Lilian's extremely elaborate tent, which has easily ten times as many steps as anyone else's, while slowly developing a bruise around her eye. This means she does not get to eat until after everyone else. "Do you think they're not big enough? I brought extras if I'm really not satisfied with that, but I think I'll be fine. Eating too much more than that might strain me, honestly."
Meika Kirenai     Meika has, in fact, brought waterproof boots. Bright red galoshes, that don't squeak as she walks. That, and a handheld flashlight meant for power outages, are maybe the only real bits of campout-appropriate preperations she's had the chance to make- not like she's ever really been on one before.

    Meika arrives pretty early- without really anything much else to do, and nobody who'll care that much if she's gone, there's not much difference between being in her room at home, or sitting on a bench at the bus station-esque warpgate outlet- so that's where she is. Quietly, she kicks her legs back and forth, humming quietly, and holding her bag in her lap. She might seem patient if not for the dull stare at the closest clock her posture is fixed into.

'MCRD just opened an office up in Rhinelander, near where we're headed.'

    "... Em-see-ar-dee..? Is that... some kind of government thing?" Distracted for a second from being relieved about van space, Meika mumbles out a few fragmented guesses as to whatever it could mean, before giving up. Seeing how full they are of *stuff*, though, causes a different slight worry: "... Oh. Um. Miss- Madeleine..? It's a little late, but... is it okay if I didn't bring a tent? I mean, I've got a coat, and it's not *that* cold out. I-," Hands stow themselves safely in pockets, "I haven't ever gone camping before, like this."

     In a quiet sort of effort to take up as little space as she can, still, she clambers into the back row of one of the vans, amongst packed up materials and supplies. Everytime her motions cause the stacked objects to shift, she winces- but it's comfier back there, knowing she's mitigated that.

'You know, most people see these kinds of woods as boring.'

    "Have- have you been out here, before, Miss... uh, Gate-Captain..?" She's totally forgotten Ivy's last name. "... Do people really say that? Or do they just sort of... say that people say that? It's normal to like the woods, isn't it?" There's a small vinyl-fabric scratching sound, as she fidgets with something in one of the stored bags at the back of the van, awkwarly synthetic.r
    "... I'm excited to see shooting stars," She half-blurts out, unprompted, in a moment of quiet.

    Unloading a van is a weirdly nostalgic feeling for Meika- granted, they're little vans, and it's camping gear, not sports equipment, but the feeling is much the same. In the already-night darkness, despite not really needing it, she's sure to have her flashlight on, humming quietly as bag, cooler, et cetera get brought out of storage- and *freezing* in horrified place as tentacles start to pick up and ferry the contents out and away.

    "-Um, Miss Madeleine- is... is this one of your monsters? Is that- is it supposed to-" She's shaking in her bright-red boots, fixing her eyes up at the treetops, not that she's looking through them. Her flashlight doesn't point anywhere but the ground. Quietly, she reaches for her messenger bag, not yet ready to pull out the handgun within.

    The fear is only half disarmed by the time Ozhira has coalesced into human-ish shape, and Meika gives them a very wide berth. She doesn't stop staring their way, nervous, throughout most of the mealtime. It's easy, considering the magical girl is just picking at pretzel rolls.

' If they're nocturnal, then it'll compete with sleep.'

    "... That's still a lot of hours, right, Chevalier Rook? It's- how much of it would even need to be sleep..? It's pretty early." Meika is a walking pile of sleep deprivation and caffeine reliance. She fidgets with her messenger bag, and- whispering now, "... I have an extra energy drink if you need it..?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia     "... Em-see-ar-dee..? Is that... some kind of government thing?"

    Madeleine straightens up and puffs out her chest before replying. "The Multiverse Cryptozoology Research Division. It's a Concord thing. We're kind of a big deal there? Got our own lab at Grand Dorado, not to mention posts all over the multiverse. This planet's kinda newly Unified so there's not much presence here yet - hence the need for a survey. We don't even know for sure there's hodags where we're headed, it's just our best guess as to where they'd be. As for tents, yeah, it'll be alright. There's three to a van in the standard-issue equipment, and I'm *pretty* sure these vans are freshly stocked."

    Shinmyoumaru's bowl is appreciated - with her mallet's ability to shrink supplies down, there's room enough in it for most of the extra stuff brought by the other elites. On the drive, Madeleine eagerly entertains questions from the inchling and from Aidan about hodags. "They're about seven feet long, 200 pounds. They like fish, fresh from the lake or fried - they actually prefer cooked for whatever reason, so sometimes they'll give campers a good scare by running into the middle of a site and stealing dinner! They also collect golf balls that folks hit out into the woods - I reckon it's because the balls look like little eggs. Like a teddy bear or baby-doll for cryptids I guess."

    "-Um, Miss Madeleine- is... is this one of your monsters?"

    Madeleine drops the propane tank on her toe when she sees Ozhira *unravel*, and curses and hops up and down on her good foot while watching the grisly display. "Oh my goodness, what ARE you?" she asks them when they finally come down from the trees. "Hold on, let me get my notepad before you answer." The huntress pulls out a small pad of paper and immediately begins taking sketches and notes on the Devourer's show of ability.

    As dinnertime rolls around, the smell of cooking meat attracts a curious Devourer. "Like Shinmyoumaru said, this is bratwurst. It's a kind of pork sausage? Guy at the deli told me it's a state specialty. I didn't hunt it, mind you. But tomorrow for breakfast I've got some venison bacon that I did catch myself." She hands a plate to Ozhira. "I'm guessing you won't need any coleslaw? That's mostly cabbage. If I'm wrong, help yourself anyway."

    "You've really outdone yourself, haven't you, Maddie?"

    "I u-uhh-" A hint of a blush creeps onto Madeleine's pale cheeks, visible even under the propane lamplight, as Ivy sits next to her. "Yeah! Thanks! I uh, usually don't make much of these little outings but I thought it'd be worth going the extra mile, so to speak, for company's sake." She brushes her hair back awkwardly. "So uh, you seem like you go camping often - I mean, I'm sure you do, you're a warprunner - but this is probably your first time you've had other Elites around for it, yeah?"

    "How exactly do you plan to lay eyes on one of these things if we're beginning at sunset and staying until noon?"

    "Well, I can see in the dark, for one." Madeleine taps the outer corner of one of her eyes with her free hand while heaping coleslaw onto her bratwurst. "If you can't, there's a night-vision scope in each van... although those do tend to go missing quickly. I guess they're worth a bunch secondhand. And two, I slept in today. Strictly speaking I don't need folks to stay up the whole night with me, but if you want to see one you're welcome to pull an all-nighter or thereabouts. The hodags will be out of their dens starting around one or two in the morning. Food does attract them, but not bratwurst so much - what they really like is fish. I've got some on ice in the cooler to put out as baits later."
Ozhira > "-Um, Miss Madeleine- is... is this one of your monsters?"
> "Oh my goodness, what ARE you?"

    "We are Ozhira," comes the simple reply to Madeleine's question and Meika's concern. They do recognize the mahou from Lobotomy Corporation, that one time, though it was a while ago and also got pretty crazy.

    > "No, Petra is not in the sausages."

    A plate is provided to them and the creature accepts it, lifting it to eye-level to examine the sausages on it. Red eyes slide slowly from the plate's contents to the girl still busily setting up Lilian's tent, "We understand. The smell is-- different."

    From their open mouth, a tiny keratinous harpoon shoots out. This spears one of their sausages, then reels it into the beast's waiting mouth. There is no chewing action and no sign of swallowing. It just... kind of disappears.

    "We will decline-- cabbage. Thank you." Lowering the plate, Ozhira chirps without moving their lips at all, "We are-- carnivorous."

    As the subject shifts towards Hodags and their habits, the creature listens intently, eyes tracking each person who speaks or asks about the target cryptid. Eventually, as the discussion peaks, they speak up, "We will hunt this. 'Hodag'. Is it-- tasty? Can we, bite? Or should we not?"
Aidan Proudpick "Not here, and not now."

A wince from Aidan's face as he feels his fingers popping. He's not exactly a physical powerhouse. The urge to say 'she started it!!' rises up in his throat, but he just looks at Madeleine, anger still up, but contrite. "Sorry. I don't wanna to ruin this for you, really."

"Fucking. Fine. But say it out loud. Promise you're not going to start shit tonight. I swear to *fucking* god. You *don't* get to ignore me. Say it."

He stares at Petra, something seeming to click in his head. He pulls his fist back from Madeleine and speaks quietly, anger slipping out of his voice, not out of submission or fear, but just so it doesn't travel very far. But, even if it's fucked up, if there's one thing Aidan can respect, it's this. He has had a similar thought, directed the other way, and it shows up clear on his face. "If you leave me alone, I swear on my honor, I'll do everything I can to not ruin this night for you and-" He just nods his head back towards the campground, but doesn't say anything else, making his way to the camp to join everyone.

"Do you think they're not big enough?

Really... really fucked up.

He gets his vegan brat and puts his own fare out on the table. A few apples, dried mushrooms, a sack of peanuts, already shelled. Mustard goes heavily onto his. He listens intently to Madeleine, some of his good energy returning. "That's huge! I looked up some of the pictures ahead of time and, wow, I didn't think they'd be so big. I was thinking maybe," he gestures about four feet with his hands, "this big based on the pictures."

"Is the squirrel here as bait?"

Not a response to Lilian, but he does grin over at Madeleine, "They wouldn't be able to catch me. But I probably don't taste as good as fish."

"Have- have you been out here, before, Miss... uh, Gate-Captain..?"

Once they are at the table for a bit longer, his gaze falls on Ivy. A big grin spreads over his face, "You are Ivy Carrow!" His tail is doing possibly the squirrel equivalent of wagging, his eyes suddenly bright. "You are a Warprunner! You're amazing! You must see all sorts of new things!" Aidan's eyes flicker to one side to notice Ozhira. Flash backs of sea beasts. Monsters and human chum. Aidan's smile falters into one struggling to stay on. It's a good excuse to suddenly busy himself with fetching the beers and put them on the table. Only four of them, since he didn't think many people would be here. The sort of sour hoppy swill that reminds someone of homebrew in a barrel in a shitty town beer. Maybe as a peace offering?
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna "I want to see the shooting stars too," Shinmyoumaru admits to Ivy and Meika, as they load. "Where I live - I guess they happen? But they'd be hard to see from my home, there's stuff in the way." Like a big ol' rock. "I can only see them when I'm out, and I don't have a schedule... So I'm hoping!"

They're gonna fight! Shinmyoumaru straightens up and cranes her neck so she has a better view of the punches, but they're broken up pretty quickly. She's not sure whether she's disappointed or not. It's exciting to have a battle, but it's not really what she came here to do today, so she's not broken up about it when the impending fight gets broken up in turn.

Later on, Shinmyoumaru starts to reply to Ozhira about the sausage, but as she has a too-large mouthful of too-hot bratwurst she does not successfully do so.

And then Lilian says something else and Shinmyoumaru starts choking on her sausage. She waves off offers of help - she's not in any real danger, but she does go through a coughing fit before she manages, eyes watering, to swallow properly.

"'m okay," she gets out, taking a very long drink of water - which she comes very, very close to snorting out when Petra responds to Lilian.

So it takes, all told, a rather long time for Shinmyoumaru to recover enough to be fit for conversation again, but she manages it, eventually, clearing her throat a little loudly. Ugh. "If they like fish, maybe I'll go fishing. It's a full moon, so night-fishing works pretty well... I guess I'd have to find a river! I didn't see one on the way in. I can stay up late, no problem." She's got enough energy that a long night won't hurt her any.

Most of the camping food is new to Shinmyoumaru. She likes the pork sausage, clearly isn't quite convinced about the vegan version (she swiped one of those too), and enjoys the sauerkraut a lot. "I'll eat yours then," she says to Ozhira, and will happily steal it if it isn't given to her in the first place. "How much energy does an energy drink give you?" she asks of Meika, when she brings them up.

"Yes, what do we do with the hodag? You wanted to... count them, right?" Shinmyoumaru was listening, honest; she just didn't remember.
Ivy Carrow     "... Do people really say that?"

    "They do!" From her tone, it was clear she imagined this a tragedy. "Because all they ever see is the road. No shops to visit, no people. They'd pave it over to replace it with shopping malls, parking lots and packing plants."

    "People like that don't take these kinds of trips." She said, confidently. "They drive through the woods, but don't spare them a thought. They'd rather all their focus and their lives run through cramped cities and depressing suburbs. They'll celebrate when its torn down to make room for a highway, or to widen the road, because maybe it'll get them to wherever they need to go a little faster."

    "It's so sad, isn't it? I hate that. They don't know what they're missing!" Ivy grieved. "We're not meant to live in carefully curated little boxes. We need stimulation!" She pumped her fist into the air.

Some passing animal caught Ivy's attention out of the corner of her eye, shifting her thoughts to something else for the rest of the drive.

|                                      ---                                      

    "Right on both counts," Ivy responded to Madeleine. Her voice wasn't quite a purr, but it was a near thing. "I couldn't always open these portals, could I? We spent a long time roughing it, like this long before I was Gate-Captain. Before I was ANY kind of captain. Hunting and foraging for our own food, cooking it over a fire, setting up camp in strange worlds, under unfamiliar stars..." There was an ache in her voice, a longing. This was just what she wanted, and she longed for so much more.

    "I hope you won't mind, I brought a little something myself." She reached into her bag, pulling out a set of long metal forks, an oversized bag of mashmellows, several packages of crackers and an tub full of chocolate bars. "Smores are a classic, aren't they?" She winked, finish off her brat before pushing to her feet, sparking the campfire to life with a few sparks of flint and tinder.
Petra Soroka "-Um, Miss Madeleine- is... is this one of your monsters? Is that- is it supposed to-"

    "Oh, that's--" Petra is familiar with Ozhira, and she recognizes on a gut level that she *should* know them, but when she gestures to them for Meika, the word suddenly isn't on her tongue anymore. She freezes, the silence drawing out longer while she desperately plums her brain for this person's name, and fails.

    "That's... a bunch of people-eating bugs in a skinsuit. They're fine. I-- I think. At least, I don't remember them causing any problems."

"They like fish, fresh from the lake or fried - they actually prefer cooked for whatever reason, so sometimes they'll give campers a good scare by running into the middle of a site and stealing dinner!"

    For some reason, this is a topic that Petra knows about-- at least, approximately. While clattering her way through setting up the common room of Lilian's tent, complete with a set of personal folding table and chairs, Petra babbles a bit about the Hodag's alleged eating habits.

    "I heard they have that whole thing with the... what was it, white bulls? It's some color specific thing, I don't remember exactly. I mean, I guess it should've been obvious that they'd be real *somewhere*, but I never really imagined cryptid stuff would be... relevant to me, I guess. Like this."

    A pole clicks together to support the central skylight, and Petra starts threading the string pulley that unfurls the tarp cover together. Her expression twists the longer she goes on, and it's hard to tell whether it's from working on the tent or from the conversation she invited herself into. "Seven feet though, huh. Never would've thought." Oh, it's definitely from the topic, though *why* isn't clear. She practically looks nauseous. Must've been... must be really, uh... only two hundred pounds? I thought they were kind of chunky."

"... I have an extra energy drink if you need it..?"

    "Lilian actually only sleeps two hours a day!" Petra volunteers this fact without Meika particularly asking for it. This has been your daily fun Lilian fact! Come back in fifteen minutes for another.

A hint of a blush creeps onto Madeleine's pale cheeks . . .

    Is this interesting to Petra... it's hard to say. She likes Ivy, insofar as the vague impression she gets from the girl's vibes read approvingly to her. Madeleine is someone who says and does things, which is a step up from average, but Lilian did go on a tirade about her once, so there's a baseline level of mistrust that Petra is willing to reassert herself to if Madeleine throws up any warning signs.

    But beyond those secondary considerations; things as silly as whether she *likes* them as people or not: is it an *exciting* pairing? Is there *content* in it? Ivy seems promising, at least. But promising enough to meddle, or get excited about...? No, not yet. But she does at least keep an ear out.
Meika Kirenai     "Oh. Right. A Concord thing." Despite having existed out in the multiverse for roughly a year, Meika still has only a hazy idea as to what the Concord is really like. L-corp comes freshest to mind, and she shrinks into her jacket, slightly. Do you act like they all do, or something? Capturing or poking at- A small cough. "... That's kind of neat. And- um, I'm glad I can borrow a tent. Thanks. I'm sorry I didn't ask earlier, or... yeah."

. . . . .

'It's so sad, isn't it?'

    "... I guess it's- sort of sad." With how much Meika is fidgeting with van-stored knicknacks, it's kind of clear the topic and awareness of how normal people view the wilderness, is not something she's hugely aware of. Meika is a city girl, and the most experience with nature-opinions she has are overheard comments on camping trips, highwayside scenery oohs and ahhs, and the occasional sermon advocating for environmental stewardship. She likes it, she likes animals, she likes the far-from-home places she's read about, and doesn't quite understand too much distaste for it.

    "Who would cheer on a *road*, though..?" She mutters. "... Ah-? Boxes? Why- why would you say it like that..?" Meika raises an eyebrow, genuinely uncertain. "Everything's curated anyways. That's how the world is."

. . . . .

    Quietly, and at first, silently, Meika mouths Ozhira's name. Freaky. Horrible. Why- She flinches- worse than she did at Maddie's dropped propane tank. "Why don't you have bones?" Meika's comment might make more sense to anyone aware she doesn't just percieve by sight, and that sound bounces slightly less off soft flesh than hard bone. She barely realizes she asked.

'That's... a bunch of people-eating bugs in a skinsuit. They're fine.'

    "... The bugs are fine? Oh. Um. Okay. I'll just-" Another awkward glance at Ozhira, and she tears her eyes away. "Yeah. I won't worry more."

    Her stomach still does a small flip, though. That's mostly fine- she's not trying to eat much, anyways. Bread is easy enough to pick at even when she feels a little bit sick.

'Hunting and foraging for our own food, cooking it over a fire, setting up camp in strange worlds, under unfamiliar stars...'

    "... Do stars ever get that familiar, Miss? I- I know people used to navigate by them, there's all the constellations, but..." Quietly, Meika tries to look up through the treetops, view spoiled a little bit by the proximity to gas lamps. "... Um. Sorry. I know it's just a phrase, I just... you know about that all, right?"

    A quiet pause, and Meika looks over towards Madeleine, still a decent way away. Is she cold? I thought she was used to this.

    Meika is surprised, for a second, as Aidan of all people plunks down beer on the table. "... Oh. Can I have one of those, Proudpick?" She doesn't like Aidan. She isn't of-age. There's only four of the bottles, and a lot more others here. Really, there's no reason she should even bother asking, already figuring the answer is no- but she does, anyway. Rubber rainboot heels click together, as she passively swings them a bit under the table.
Meika Kirenai 'How much energy does an energy drink give you?'

    "Huh? Uh... mostly it just- I don't know how you'd measure it? They make you less tired. If you... hang on, I'll-" Meika fumbles with her bag, and pulls the can out, squinting at its label in the lamplight. "... Two-seventy micr- miligrams? Yeah. That's how much caffeine, I guess." A lot, frankly.

'Lilian actually only sleeps two hours a day!'

    "Ah-? Huh? Two hours?" Meika blinks- and blinks a second time. "Is that... do you really..?" Confused, she looks at Lilian for confirmation, as ridiculous as that sounds, until-

    "... Oh. It's... that's just something with- with how you do magic, right..?" She sounds resigned into the preemtive expectation the answer will be a brushed-off 'it's complicated'. "... Um. If you still want the can, you can have it. If you don't..." She shrugs. "I think it's cherry flavored?"

'Well, I can see in the dark, for one.'

    "Is that why your eyes are like that, Miss?"
Lilian Rook     'Well, I can see in the dark, for one.'

    "That isn't quite what I--"

    'And two, I slept in today.'

    "Ah." That seems to answer Lilian's question satisfactorily. "Well, far it from me to criticize. The number of times I've stayed up all night studying or training and had a long nap afterwards would make me somewhat of a hypocrite." Which is to say nearly every night until she started cohabitating, and also only not really cheating with her sleep schedule when given a good reason. Something Petra instantly narcs about, to a twitch of irritation.

    'So uh, you seem like you go camping often -'

    Lilian snorts, without looking away from the page. It's a little mean. But not too mean. It's alloyed with a tiny bit of understanding.

    "... I have an extra energy drink if you need it..?)]

    "That's very sweet, Meika, but I'm trying not to." Lilian says, comfortably distracted. "They're a bit of a bad habit. I've used them before, but they interact poorly with my regular prescriptions." she says, saying 'used' like she's being politely offered a merely hospitable amount of cocaine.

    'That's... a bunch of people-eating bugs in a skinsuit. They're fine. I-- I think. At least, I don't remember them causing any problems.'

    "How unusual." says Lilian. "Ordinarily you seem to have nothing but criticism for--" She pauses a moment in dramatic recollection, but only for effect. "Oh, you meant literally."

    'Do you think they're not big enough? I brought extras if I'm really not satisfied with that, but I think I'll be fine. Eating too much more than that might strain me, honestly.'

    Oddly, there is no snort of amusement for this. Just a dry, practiced straight-man tone to Petra's ambiguous comprehension. "Who knows. I'm not precisely certain of your usual. Only your attitude. You always complain that something is going to be too much for you, but then you're greedy for more by the time you're partway through."

    'I'm okay,'
"I'm glad to hear that, Princess." she says to Shinmyoumaru's reassurances of not choking to death. Despite her horrid tent, Lilian actually appears more prepared to '''rough''' it than Petra might be giving her credit for, given the reasonably modest size of her backpack. She does, after, all, live somewhat sequestered in an old forest. She always has that clover and cherry and petrichor and blood air on her when she doesn't wear perfume. There's still enough in there to sound heavy when she drops it, though.

    'They wouldn't be able to catch me. But I probably don't taste as good as fish.'

    "Of course they would. I'd just tie you to a tree." says Lilian, gesturing at Petra over from the tent, to come to her. "I suppose we wouldn't know the latter until we cut you open, though." she adds, pointing at the dirt in front of her chair to indicate that Petra should kneel.
Lilian Rook     Setting aside another paper plate, Lilian reaches into her bag, and upacks-- her slightly more bulky Paladins rescue-issue medical kit. Once she has Petra obediently still in front of her, she leans over and begins delicately treating her bruise, using the high-end stuff; including one of Tamamo's talismans slipped in; to make sure there'll be no hideous black eye. It'd seem dotingly affectionate, if her gaze weren't so focused and her fingers weren't so light on the task, as if she were mending cracked pottery.

    "Ah, jokes aside, though." It didn't sound like a joke.
    "Be much, much more afraid of me, Proudpick. If you mistreat Petra again, or Meika even once, then the things I will do you will far beyond anyone's power to stop. If I so choose, no one will even notice."

    'Is- is that... do you really..?'

    "It's called a polyphasic sleep cycle." says Lilian. "I adopted one in order to keep up with my studies while pursuing my other goals, and now I suppose it's just habit." she says. "I loathe the feeling of wasting time." This is normal. Everything is normal.

    Lilian finishes up with her treatment, meaninglessly pats Petra on the cheek, retrieves the paper plate, and starts feeding Petra as if she thinks the poor, poor girl might be too injured to get up and sit in a chair herself. The spell is only broken when someone else notices how weird this is, causing Lilian to shove the plate off on Petra.
Madeleine Cadrasteia     Madeleine watches Ozhira harpoon their bratwurst with obvious interest, but says nothing of it. Only when Ozhira asks about biting hodags does she speak up. "Hmm... I don't think so. Even if they get aggressive we're just supposed to scare 'em off til there's a real population estimate. But I'll tell ya this - if I do have to come back here and bag a couple, I'll invite you along so you can get a taste. Sound good?"

    When Aidan gets out his drinks, Madeleine reaches into the cooler and pulls out a few bottles as well. "It's a local brew," she explains. "Deli guy insisted I buy a six-pack for going camping. They've got a little cow on the label! I think it's cute." She passes a beer to anyone who doesn't take one of Aidan's.

    Shinmyoumaru's choking draws Madeleine's attention immediately. She pats the inchling on the back, not really hard enough to be physically helpful, but enough for moral support. "Yeah, counting 'em is as far as we're going tonight. If we get more than just a couple of the critters there'll be reason enough to send a team to do the grunt work of a larger population survey, after which they'll call me or another specialist in to do some hunting if necessary. They don't usually send me on this kind of job, but it's a new planet so we don't really know what we're gonna get - and I wasn't busy, so I kinda volunteered for this one. In part so I could bring some of y'all along, honestly. Which," a glance to Ivy, "seems like it was a pretty good idea."

    Ivy's camping tales would have Madeleine starry-eyed, if she weren't *always* starry-eyed. Even so, the interest is clear on the huntress's face. "Wow," she says, a little breathlessly. "That's real dedication." As Ivy brings out the smores supplies, Madeleine snaps her fingers. "Oh! Dessert! I knew there was something I forgot. I was gonna pick up some caramel corn at the deli but it slipped my mind. Thanks, Ivy, you're a real gem."

    "I heard they have that whole thing with the... what was it, white bulls?"

    "Bull*dogs*," Madeleine corrects. "But yeah. A lotta these critters have very specific diets, it's part of why they can be so rare. Thankfully hodags can eat fish too, or there'd be a lot less of them. As for their weight, a good amount of that seven feet is just their tail, which tapers off a bit." A pause. "Want a hand with that tent? Your dinner's getting- oh." Madeleine stops herself as Lilian summons Petra away from the tent and tends to the girl's black eye.

    "Is that why your eyes are like that, Miss?"

    Madeleine looks at Meika, thoughtfully. "I don't think so... most Excrucians still need light to see, as far as I know. I think I got good eyes on account of being a huntress. But we all have eyes like this. I've probably talked about this on the radio before, but you may not have been around. Excrucians used to have all sorts of shapes, once, but when the 'creators' of my 'home' world showed up, they fixed us into the image of their ideal adversaries. So the eyes are symbolic of like, the end of the world?" Madeleine smiles a little, looking almost proud of being a harbinger of apocalypse. A star falls across her eyes... and her gaze shifts upward, to where a similar light streaks across the star-speckled sky above. "Look!" she says, pointing heavenward. "The meteor shower's visible after all! Oh, this is a real treat. Remember, don't tell anyone what you're wishing for."
Ozhira > "Why don't you have bones?"

    Ozhira looks blankly towards Meika when questioned, blinking slowly. The gesture is entirely performative, as many of the creature's behaviors tend to be. The head tilts slightly with a sourceless, curious chirp entirely different from the noise made before.

    Distressingly, the sound profile of Ozhira's human disguise changes. Utterly silently, there are shifts in density all throughout. Within about half a minute, there is a picture-perfect representation of bones arranged in an utterly ordinary fashion, "Is this-- better?" The tone is earnest, not mocking, and it's not like anyone else here would even know what they just did.

> "That's... a bunch of people-eating bugs in a skinsuit. They're fine. I-- I think. At least, I don't remember them causing any problems."

    "We are... more picky. About what we eat now." It's the closest thing to an objection the beast has offered so far. Another sausage is speared and reeled in, though it's nowhere near enough to interrupt their ability to talk.

    "We are many, though. As she says. That is-- correct."

> "But I'll tell ya this - if I do have to come back here and bag a couple, I'll invite you along so you can get a taste. Sound good?

    Ozhira responds to this offer by trilling. It's a clearly happy, high-pitched sound not unlike what one might hear from a parrot or cockatiel, "We would-- like that."

    A star streaking across the sky prompts another chirp from them. Performatively, the creature's head tips back, red eyes shifting skyward. Without looking, the third and final bratwurst is speared and reeled in to its doom.

    "Don't tell.. anyone...?"
Ivy Carrow     "Everything's curated anyways. That's how the world is."

    "Not all worlds, and not all places. Only the places people have been before." An exhale. "Untouched. Unshaped. Untempered." She stared out the window. "Places like that, where no one's decided what the world's supposed to be, where no one's decided what the constraints are, are the most beautiful."

    . . .

    "I- I know people used to navigate by them, there's all the constellations, but...

    "There's a lot of alternate earths in the multiverse," Ivy grinned, as ever eager to talk about her work. "But sometimes it's not obvious. The stars are one of the easiest tells; if we're on an earth. WHERE we are on an earth, if we can find the constellations, we can tell. Especially out here..." She gestured around her, into the wilds. "No city lights to dim them...They'll be a treat tonight." She murmured, conspiratorially. You'll love it.

    She took one of the forks, a marshmellow, crackers and bar, from the table, lowering herself to a squat by the fire. "The trick," she said to anyone who was listening. "Is to rotate it over the fire until it turns a golden brown. Too much more, and it'll char."

    The rest, she didn't feel the urge to narrate, squeezing into into a messy little smore, spilling partly out of the side. Ivy certainly didn't seem to mind. She took a bite, as a star began to fall. She looked up, resting a hand on her palm, a bitter nostalgia flowing briefly over her expression. I want to be what she was. A bit of her smore drip-dripped onto the ground, by her boot.
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna Shinmyoumaru's choking was mostly caused by simultaneously inhaling, laughing, and swallowing. She'll be fine. Madeleine hitting her back doesn't make much of a difference one way or another.

Though unsettled by Ozhira, Shinmyoumaru has seen a lot of weird things lately and it's not like *she* can see a distressing lack of bones. She looks up at Ozhira again at Meika's comment, but fails to notice anything (new) wrong.

Instead, she responds to Ivy. "You're lucky! You got to travel..." She sounds envious. "Until recently I couldn't even leave the castle where I was born. It's..." Shinmyoumaru typically doesn't talk much about her home castle, if only because it's safer when it's obscure, but this time she does after a moment. "It's up in the sky, so it's hard to get down if you can't fly. Or up."

"But now I can. So I'm going to go to the wilds of..." Shinmyoumaru has a moment's hesitation where she almost fails to remember the name of the state she's in. "...Wisconsin?"

Shinmyoumaru knows, in a vague sense, how much a milligram is: very small. She has no real way to convert that to or from drug dosing. "That doesn't sound like a lot though," she says, thoughtfully. "Well, maybe I'll remember to get one if I get tired later."

Nobody needs to deal with Shinmyoumaru on that much caffeine, but fortunately she is quite likely to forget about it - or at least not ask for Meika's. That's an issue for later though.

Right now: "Maybe it *would* be a bad idea to go fishing," because she doesn't know where a river is. "I'll stay here instead." The beer bottles and cans get some interest, and she will eventually take one despite looking underage, unless someone makes her not; she picks one with a cow on it.

She also takes a marshmallow and sticks it on her needle, which really does seem to be multipurpose. Fortunately, she knows how to do this; she learned how to do it at Roy's camp. "I feel bad! I didn't bring much food to share. I brought a little, but... it really is a little." It wouldn't be enough for everyone here; Shinmyoumaru brought enough for herself, because she didn't know sausages and smores were occuring.

Once it's over the fire: "I was going to ask you about your sword," Shinmyoumaru says, to Lilian, once she's not feeding Petra. "You said there was a story..." Her eyes do not literally sparkle. Next thing to it, though.

Though, some of that glitter might be the shooting stars. "Oh, look at that!" Shinmyoumaru also comes from somewhere with no light pollution - but she lives in an inverted castle under a rock. She can't see the sky right overhead unless she leaves it. It's a sight she doesn't see often.

Make a wish, huh...

"Heh heh. I'm already going to make one of my wishes come true! I guess I'd better wish for another." She doesn't say what it is - out loud, in any case.
Aidan Proudpick "Be much, much more afraid of me, Proudpick. If you mistreat Petra again, or Meika even once, then the things I will do you will far beyond anyone's power to stop. If I so choose, no one will even notice."

"... Oh. Can I have one of those, Proudpick?"

Anger wells up underneath Aidan's skin again at Lilian, but he DID swear on his honor. He quickly turns away from the kneeling display, digging into his palms with his claws, then slowly puts a hand over one of the bottles of beer, sliding it away from Meika. Whether or not she gets one from Madeleine is up to her.

"You can ask the Dame Commander on that one."

He takes one of his own, using his claws to pry it open. As one of the ones staying up, he takes his drinking slowly. He is also entranced by Ozhira. Getting over the initial shock is hard. But Ozhira is also... interesting. But in that way when you see a REALLY weird bug and you are first grossed out by it and then you just want to watch it do more.

"Yeah, counting 'em is as far as we're going tonight. If we get more than just a couple of the critters...

Pulling himself away looking at Ozhira, he turns back to Madeleine, eyebrows lifted. "Really?" He scratches along his cheek, "To be honest, I kind of thought we'd be..." he shakes his hand in the air, "I dunno, doing all sorts of weird stuff? Like putting down weird traps or turning around three times to attract them." A big smile crosses his face, "I'm still excited to see them. I guess I didn't realize there's so much little work in this." He has to think about it, tapping along his cheek. "But that makes it extra interesting, you know? That it's science and math."

"You said there was a story..."

Acting almost of their own accord, Aidan's ears perk and rotate. It is hard to not get excited about a good weapon story.

"The meteor shower's visible after all! Oh, this is a real treat. Remember, don't tell anyone what you're wishing for."

A couple of wishes race across Aidan's mind as he distractedly looks up before it just falls on, 'Please, don't let me fuck up everything I'm going to try and do in the next few months.'
Petra Soroka "You always complain that something is going to be too much for you, but then you're greedy for more by the time you're partway through."

    Petra occasionally gets into a mindstate where she focuses wholly on the exact stimuli placed in front of her, to the exclusion of anything else. This allows her to navigate steps 204-210 of building the tent, but it also makes her type-immune to euphemism. "That's true. That's why they give you appetizers at restaurants." She nods. Good restaurant lore, Petra!

"... Oh. Can I have one of those, Proudpick?"

    Petra ruminates on the nature and usage of names in the Sector Zero Elite community while dutifully dropping everything she's doing to kneel in front of Lilian. From all the way back when she mimicked the habit from Lilian in the first place, repeating until it became natural, until the shift from Lilian to Rook to Lilian again was given intuitive weight, to Angela's usage of 'Tachibana' and Hibiki's knowing flinch. Meika had picked it up from Petra, hadn't she? It goes down the social staircase bit by bit, all originating from Lilian, until the entire linguistic environment of the community is altered by her presence. Lilian is so cool.
Petra Soroka "If you mistreat Petra again, or Meika even once, then the things I will do you will far beyond anyone's power to stop."

    There's also another mindstate Petra gets in.

    To see Petra react to it, there's no difference between doting affection and focused toymending. Folding her knees to adjust herself to the exact height so that Lilian's leaning over her is angled to evoke a shelter or privacy curtain, but not so low that it's straining for her-- for obvious reasons, she's already practiced the motion. She holds herself totally still except when Lilian guides her head to turn, hazily inattentive to anything else and only responding belatedly if at all.

    And sometimes, the soothing cotton daze of being carefully handled greys out important aspects of conversational context, like the fact that Aidan still exists and that Lilian is addressing him. Blearily, eyes fixated on Lilian and nothing else, she mumbles, "... Does it count if I mistreat myself...?"

"So the eyes are symbolic of like, the end of the world?"

    It's a lot easier to remember that other people exist when she's being fed, instead. It's almost unnatural to see Petra being this compliant and unbothered with the public performance, but having been pampered and doted on a bit for the small price of getting punched, she's in a very good mood, and the atmosphere of camping naturally appeals to her. She leans forwards into Lilian's hand gently bracing her chin to get a bite of hot dog, chewing serenely and swallowing while considering Madeleine.

    "That's... cool as hell. I hope they're afraid of you." Idly, Petra makes the connection that her right now, collar-clad and bitten, on her knees being hand-fed by Lilian, is somewhat comparable to the image of the end of the world too.

    "Oh! Shooting stars!" Petra joins the general burbling of awe and delight at seeing the meteor streak across the sky, and is about to say something further before Lilian shoves the plate towards her, and lowering her head down from the stars to look at Lilian, Petra's face is planted directly into the coleslaw and condiment mixture. "I-- buh--."

    Unbruised and newly seasoned, Petra is forced to get up and wander over to grab some napkins, and also smores materials. Joining the group around the fire to roast her marshmallow, Petra's cheeks very belatedly start heating up, and she takes the chance to hide fron scrutiny for a moment by focusing up on the shooting stars.

    ... I'd kind of feel way too selfish, asking a star for a wish. I'm owed giving one back finally, I think. So that's what I'll do. A promise instead of a wish.

    It's a little corny, but there's comfort in it even though Petra's feelings on astrology and other sorts of things had long since withered away. Petra closes her eyes and tilts her face up for a few seconds, as if she's wishing, or praying, or just indulging in the atmosphere.
Lilian Rook     'Excrucians used to have all sorts of shapes, once, but when the 'creators' of my 'home' world showed up, they fixed us into the image of their ideal adversaries.'

    "Well then. At least that's one thing I recognize." Lilian murmurs just above the threshold of audibility. "I wonder how long you'll feel the same way about being so free with that information."

    'You can ask the Dame Commander on that one.'

    Lilian flicks her wrist, and a beer can sails through the air into Meika's hands. Another falls into §her§ own hands, where she thinks about popping the tab, looks at the gorgeous job she's done with her nails (the same design as Persephone came up with for her), and snaps her book closed on top of the folding table instead (the title is in kanji, unexpectedly).

    She starts to shotgun the can with her teeth instead, except she ends up instincively tilting her head left instead of back. A flash of enamel instead of the kiss of aluminium, and a triangular gouge wide enough to push a plastic straw through. Thinking absolutely nothing of Petra shuffling away to wipe the goop off her face, Lilian pulls her chair up by the fire and pours the beer out into a paper cup, unscrewing her thermos and adding a drizzle of something else into it, then tosses the lightly lipstick-printed can over for Petra to also deal with.

    "This is nice." she says, in the crackling radius of warm firelight. "I'm sort of surprised. I expected it to be uncomfortable, but it's really just spending time together in the woods, isn't it?"

    'Remember, don't tell anyone what you're wishing for.'

    Ostensibly missing the forks, Lilian snaps off an especially suitable stick from a tree, draws a five year old military-grade knife from her jacket, seats herself in her newly moved chair, flips the blade around her fingers into position, and flenses away the final third into a razor sharp point with only a few smooth gestures. Skewering a marshmallow the old-fashioned way, she says "Well, everyone knows mine. I already §granted/received§ it, after all." without apparent notice.


    "So." Lilian says, over the faint hissing of her marshmallow, planting her elbow on her thigh and resting her cheek on her curled fingers. She locks eyes on Ivy, tilting her head with a little smirk. The fire renders a reflective ember in one pupil, catching in her hairpin until it glows. "I hear that there are such things as fans."
Meika Kirenai 'Is this-- better?'

    Quietly, with a quesy expression on her face, Meika puts her picked-at pretzel roll down, and doesn't pick it back up.

'They're a bit of a bad habit'

    There's a tiny wilting little wince. Meika knows it's not a *good* habit, but the blatant reminder of that tastes a little bitter. "Oh. Yeah. That makes sense." ... Is she sick with something? It's small, but Meika's expression shifts a tiny bit worried. "... It's cool that you sleep like that," she says, unsure how anyone could manage it, physically, for how much she herself winds up not sleeping much at all.

    Quiet, she exhales, and pops the tab of the energy drink, now that Lilian's turned it down. "... Wasting that's kind of awful," she agrees, mostly whispered.

'You can ask the Dame Commander on that one.'

    "Huh? What's she have to do with-" Meika looks over, confused, between Aidan and Lilian. "I don't get it? She's not responsible for me..? I- Forget it. I don't want it from you anyway."

    A half second passes. Meika bites at the inside of her cheek. "... Is it- okay? For me to have one, Chevalier Rook-"

    Twitch reflexes just fast enough not to fumble it, Meika catches the can. Something between a gasp and a giggle crack out of her before she realizes. "Um, thanks- that's..." She twists at the tab, not quite opening it yet. "... Nice throw."

'Yeah, counting 'em is as far as we're going tonight.'

    Oh. Right. The monsters. Meika quietly pulls out a little sketchbook- new, not a used one, not hers- that one is sitting empty of all value, shoved in a dresser she doesn't want to look at. "... Does light scare them? I was hoping to try and- you know." She holds up the sketchbook a few inches. "If- if it does, I'll just... do it from memory, later, or something, but... I thought it'd be kind of nice to practice..."

    Awful red eyes try not to glance towards Petra and Lilian, as she's not sure how normal that is or isn't for first-aid bruise treatment. She's pretty sure it doesn't involve feeding anyone. Instead, a bottle gets cracked open for the shielding idea of intoxication within it. Maybe it's a bit concerning how quickly she's drinking it. Half of her wishes it was easier not to hear things.
Meika Kirenai 'I think I got good eyes on account of being a huntress.'

    "... What does a job have to do with-" A pause, and an inhale. "... I don't get it. Um. I guess if it's- if it's some sort of magic, that's just that. Nevermind."

    "... Does the end of the world really look like a night sky? That's nicer than I thought it'd be. Night skies don't feel lonely."

'The stars are one of the easiest tells; if we're on an earth. WHERE we are on an earth, if we can find the constellations, we can tell.'

    Meika balks, just a little, and asks, "Do you have to memorize *all* of them? Is- is that something you Warprunners do..?" It's interesting! And it seems like an ungodly amount of work, for slight navigation guidance. Still, as slightly off-putting as being grinned somewhat-at is, Meika is put a little bit at ease by how eager Ivy seems. "Are you sure it's going to be a good one tonigh- Oh!"

    Somewhere between listening and talking, as the lamplight dimmed, Meika's eyes drifted upwards, to catch the streaming sparkles through the treetop branches and out of the endless velvet-black expanse of the sky. She gasps- properly gasps, no tidbits of magic masking it over. "They really- they look like little fireworks. They really do... and they're so much *faster* than I thought!" Sharp, bright- there's an excited little giggle out of her. It's kind of childish, and she's captivated enough not to flinch at that.

'Remember, don't tell anyone what you're wishing for.'

    Meika takes a sip from her energy drink, and sets it down with that dull aluminum rattle. That's stupid. Things you can't tell anyone fade and die too easily. I don't like that at all. I'm sick of it. Quietly, under her breath, but still audible, "... I wish I could have another night like this. I want to share it with more people."
Madeleine Cadrasteia     "Don't tell.. anyone...?"

    "Yeah!" Madeleine says, with enthusiasm. "If you make a wish on something and tell someone else about it, it won't come true. At least, that's how it's supposed to go... I've never been the *best* at wishing, exactly."

    Ivy's offer of smores supplies seems to be a hit. Madeleine takes a chocolate bar and sticks a marshmallow on one of the forks; by the time the marshmallow is toasted, the chocolate bar's halfway gone. The huntress puts what's left between a pair of crackers with the marshmallow and takes a big bite. "Oh, these are good," she says immediately, before remembering her manners and taking a minute to chew. "Thanks a bunch for thinking of this, Ivy." She looks up at the shooting star, then glances to Ivy for a split second before returning her attention to dessert.

    Madeleine turns her attention to Shinmyoumaru at the mention of a flying castle. "A flying castle? How did they get it to stay up there? Was it magic, or do they have a bunch of big propellors... I've seen some airships since I Unified but nothing like a whole *castle* up in the air."

    "I kind of thought we'd be doing all sorts of weird stuff? Like putting down weird traps or turning around three times to attract them."

    "Oh, the weird traps come later. And hodags don't really have a 'trick' to them like hidebehinds or some other cryptids do. They're honestly pretty close to normal wildlife, if it weren't for the whole..." She makes a vague wobbly gesture with the hand that isn't occupied by a smore. "Along with reproducing 'normally', they can come out of the ashes of cremated oxen. Something about incarnations of suffering. Spooky stuff. But yeah, tracking cryptids is a full-time job, and not all of it's especially exciting! Good thing I've got friends to invite along, eh?" She gives the squirrel a friendly punch on the shoulder.
Madeleine Cadrasteia     "That's... cool as hell. I hope they're afraid of you."

    "*Deathly* so," Madeleine says, her voice swelling with pride. "And with good reason. I won't blow my own horn, and I didn't bring Drogrung tonight" - indeed, her spear has not put in an appearance - "but the stories he could tell you... Oh, I'll have to remember that for next time. Ghost stories! Who doesn't love a good ghost?"

    "I wonder how long you'll feel the same way about being so free with that information."

    Madeleine raises her eyebrows at Lilian's remark. "Should I not be proud, of defending my homeland?" She sounds genuinely curious, without even a hint of indignation. "I'm- Not everything I did in service to the Host was good, but that's not because Excrucians are *wrong* to fight the invaders. They may paint us as aggressors, but the creation of the world was the first crime. And besides," she says, assembling a second smore, "it's only that one world I was trying to destroy - and it didn't even come with me into the Multiverse. For all I know we succeeded, and this is just what 'after the war' looks like."

    "I'm sort of surprised. I expected it to be uncomfortable, but it's really just spending time together in the woods, isn't it?"

    "So it is." Madeleine nods as she chews on her second smore. "There's a lot of value to be had, in just getting away from things for a little while. Even if it's just one night."

    The huntress nods as Meika pulls out her sketchbook. "Light shouldn't be much of an issue. Hodags can be a little skittish if they think you're bigger than them, though, so loud noises are more likely to drive 'em off. You can't see in the dark then, I take it? Or do you just need the light to draw either way?"

    "... Does the end of the world really look like a night sky? That's nicer than I thought it'd be. Night skies don't feel lonely."

    "I guess it did to our enemy," Madeleine says with a shrug. "They were real organized types, every star in its place in the heavens, everything right in the world. They wanted creation to be tamed like a garden, instead of a wild place. Stars falling out of the sky was practically their worst nightmare, heheh." The huntress smiles as Meika gasps and laughs at the shooting stars. She pretends not to hear the magical girl's wish, but can't help but frown slightly at the implication.
Ozhira     Meika's disgust is clear, though it seems to confuse Ozhira. Their head tilts again with a different, quizzical chirp-like sound. That doesn't seem to be the response they were expecting. The creature does not understand.

    After a moment, their attention shifts back to-- Aidan is staring at them. They stop, eyes resting on the squirrelman. He isn't addressing them, just...watching. When he looks away, they do as well, attention returning to Madeleine.

    "We understand. Wishes." Their eyes lift to the sky again, to the streaks of light cutting across the night, "Our symphony cries. Of many wishes. Many dreams. Aspirations. Goals. Unfulfilled. Beyond reach, for the individual."

    As if to illustrate this, the Devourer raises one of their hands overhead, reaching towards the sky with fingers spread just a bit too far to be normal, "Now we are one. No longer alone. Many solo songs have united. Become-- a chorus. Maybe these wishes, can be granted now. Reached now."

    After a moment, their hand drops back into their lap, though their eyes remain on the dazzling starry sky.
Petra Soroka "I'm sort of surprised. I expected it to be uncomfortable, but it's really just spending time together in the woods, isn't it?"

    Petra catches the lipstick-stained can, and automatically disposes of it by flipping open her compact mirror and dropping it inside. This is because Petra loves to recycle, and hates to litter. It would be irresponsible to leave a can out here in the wilderness, or to throw it in a typical garbage bag. Petra is responsible.

    She's also bubblingly happy for once, joy incremented up by a further tier when Lilian says she's having a good time too. "It *is* nice. I should get more time to go camping like this. With Cinder, and I could bring a tablet for Angela, and..."

    Petra was about to say 'Rita', but something stops her. Is it because Rita seems too delicate for this kind of activity? No, Petra *knows* what Rita's home world is like; she's definitely more sturdy than she seems. Then there must be something else about being alone with Rita in the woods that feels so taboo, but Petra can't quite figure out what. Well, besides the obvious, but Petra is accustomed to the creeping dread of being a creep.

    Even after being fed and getting a smore, Petra leaves the mostly-finished tent to its mostly-finished state for a little while longer. Lingering by the fire and tumbling down into a comfortable sprawl against a log for support, Petra sighs and watches the streaks of light across the night sky. Her hands fidget aimlessly between a few positions, laced in her lap, crossed behind her head, and then she murmurs without directing the comment towards anyone but herself.

    "... I wish I had my uke. Or a guitar. It feels really nice out here. But that's what's missing."

"If you make a wish on something and tell someone else about it, it won't come true."

    "That's dumb." Maybe the second foremost expert on wishes here tonight, from a different-but-not-too-different angle as Lilian, Petra joins in rejecting the common wisdom and shakes her head. "A wish is something you want. You should just want it. How's it supposed to come true if no one knows about it?"

    Hypocritical, though, and not just for Petra's naturally high Justice stat and strong attunement towards performing Repression work. Even though diving into her mind and the circumstances around the Beauty of Ash forced her to reveal it more, it was less than a year ago that Petra admitted to Lilian that she was the first person to ever know about her wish. And that was *after* it already stopped becoming true.

"*Deathly* so,"

    "Good." Petra's hand twitches, wanting to reach for a cigarette, but her jacket is still dropped on the tarp supporting the complicated tent. Even if she had it, it'd feel a little wrong to smoke out here with everyone. So instead she just repeats, "Good."

"... I wish I could have another night like this. I want to share it with more people."

    Petra was scolded for thinking of Meika's imminent personality obliteration as being similar to death, but... it's hard not to feel it, when she talks that way. Petra has absolutely no experience with treating grieving after death with care, and even less with treating grieving before death with care. Without noticing, her eyeline has fallen from the dark sky to the treeline and to the ground.

    There's at least one unambiguously positive thing she can do to help, though. "... I'm glad you're here, Meika."
Lilian Rook     '... It's cool that you sleep like that'

    Lilian laughs quietly. "It's impressive, but I don't know how 'cool' it is. Doesn't it sort of advertised how unsatisfied I am with the way things are?" A beat goes by for a warm sip. "If it's about waste, then I don't mind. Actually, I suppose it's not really my problem what drinks you like at all." she says, after having handed Meika bootleg alcohol. "Not anymore at least." Her eyes flick thoughtfully to Meika, the back. "Don't worry about me. It was touch and go for a while, but I'm fine these days."

    '... Nice throw.'

    Lilian glows with soft self-satisfaction.

    'and they're so much *faster* than I thought!'

    "Aren't they just?" Lilian says. "You'd imagine from movies that it's like watching a plane cross the sky, but beautiful to look at. But in reality, they're less solid, more . . . magical than that." Searching for words with little effort, Lilian says, "The way they just glint across the sky; it's more like the light catching on a blade, not coming off a flying ball of fire."

    'Should I not be proud, of defending my homeland?'

    "I don't mean . . . That has nothing to do with it." says Lilian, still looking at the sky. "I meant that telling everyone what you are is very brave, and it's nice if you're proud of it, but there's only so long you can go doing that until it trickles outside of the people who don't know to react to it." she says.

    "It doesn't matter if you're wrong or right. You're not supposed to be here. The creator hates you for it. You're only like us against your will. So you're either a pathetic failure at being like us, or you're a contemptible monster trying to fake it. Most people think like that. They will when they realize what you actually mean."

    Lilian glances over to Madeline, without turning away from the stars. "It isn't as simple as 'that one world'. You can't escape that easily. Even the Multiverse has 'a way things are supposed to be'; it can, and will, kill you too." Her gaze slowly drifts away again.

    "That's why the others like you don't admit it; they won't expose themselves just because you do. The more world they've destroyed, the more true that is. So, I can tell that you're probably a decent person, that you're very new, and the amount of danger you're in will start increasing very soon."

    'I was going to ask you about your sword'

    Lilian pulls her eyes away from the night sky, and finds her marshmallow starting to burn. Plucking it off the end of her stick, she pops it into her mouth anyways, sets the skewer aside, pulls down the zipper of her jacket a few inches, and then retrieves the black pendant from within, dangling between her fingers. Closing her eyes, Lilian flicks her wrist as if pulling a sword free of its sheath, and the chain comes free of her neck the instant before it is swallowed in a roiling vortex of umbral fog, billowing along the axis of her arm.

    The swirling darkness vanishes into thin air like ink diluting in water, and Lilian is left holding a five foot long sword by one hand. It doesn't waver the slightest bit as she turns it back to rest it across her lap. She strokes one hand fondly across the flat of the blade; jet black, without grain, reflective like a mirror, minutely etched with the tracery of innumerable knotted vines and hanging flowers. The edges sharply fade to the translucency of gossamer. A red glow wells up from the etchings under her fingers, and fades as they pass.

    "Ceoíche Marfach. The killing night mist. It's been in my family for centuries. The whole story is one I've heard a thousand times, and I've heard it differently, but I can tell you only what I know for certain." Lilian says.
Aidan Proudpick It is endlessly fascinating to Aidan, on so many levels. But he keeps his head forward to keep his vow, only glancing at Petra when she hoves into his line of sight. To see a change almost like a drug overcome Petra, that anything can be that powerful on anyone. To mull on the various reasons for that, to try and truly pull it apart like a blacksmith's puzzle. Aidan brings his bottle up to his lips to chug a good portion of it. He mutters "Fuckless" at himself, turning his gaze intently on the fire.

"I don't want it from you anyway."

His mouth works several times to open and say something to Meika, instead his mind working out the trail of events that would follow. 'I tell her Lilian might kill me, it becomes a whole thing, I've ruined the night for everyone.' Instead, he just shrugs it off with a forced smile. Though his ear twitches towards her at the whisper.

Shinmyoumaru gets him to smile. Everyone in the multiverse is broken, Aidan had realized at some point. Some more shattered than others. And it's just nice to be able to focus on someone who is simply happy to be, their cracks and lines not visible, or perhaps, just small and thin, having not formed into deep lines.

"Oh, the weird traps come later."

The punch brings Aidan further out, pulling a warm grin on his face, reminding him why he came here in the first place. "I like it. Not every job is exciting. Sometimes you just need to get out a slate and do some arithmetic, you know? And you are so devoted to it!" There is that honest admiration back in his face, an appreciaton for the minutae and dedication. "What are friends for? If you ever need help again, you call me, and I'll bring a couple more beers." Aidan's beers are, notably, fairly sour, hoppy, and weak. It took a lot of reddit searching to find just the right one. They remind him of home. And just getting a chance to listen to Shinmyoumaru talk about a flying castle, and even Lilian talk about her sword, it's enough to at least stare into the camp fire and listen and feel at least something of a warm comfort.

"...and this is just what 'after the war' looks like."

A lift of his bottle. "Cheers to that. And if it's not, you got friends."
Lilian Rook     "The sword began with my great ancestor Aodhán. In the days he was young, the Dé Danann still freely came and went from mortal Earth. They were a fact; rightly praised and feared. So, when his wife and his children fell ill, and the healers of the time refused him, he turned to them. The 'faerie', I suppose." Lilian nearly breaks from the telling just for the correction, but immerses back into it easily.

    "They offered, of course; and they certainly had power to do so, but Aodhán was especially wary of them, and argued through the night and the day to the night after, to settle on terms he felt left no room to be exploited. But when he returned from Tír na nÓg with his cure, he found his family long dead, for one day in the land of eternal youth is a hundred in our world."

    "Furious with the lords of the land, who had thought him dead, sold his things, and turned him away in his need, and disillusioned with the favoured children of the gods, who had ensured he was alone and forgotten, he turned his thoughts towards only retaliation. He bartered a suitable piece of lodestone from a Norse trader, as 'cold iron' was called 'nort iron' in that day, and fashioned himself a crude dagger. Putting his entire being towards revenge, even he was surprised when he successfully killed one of Dannan's people, and he took from the faerie its holdings and few earthly treasures, and . . ."

    "Well, he bought more lodestone. He refashioned the faerie's hearth into a forge, fed its bones to the fire, quenched it in blood, and made something more of his dagger. The next of the Tuatha he killed, he repeated the process, and so on and so on, until the faerie began to fear him. By the time he had finally ended each of those he had bargained with, he was well-aged, but many more years had passed around him. He was versed in their magic, soaked in the substance of their world, and a sharp rock had become a sword almost of its own will. It's said that he reforged it each time in a trance, seeing visions of the future, since this design wouldn't come into use for centuries more."

    "With his only driving purpose fulfilled, Aodhán decided to settle, instead of end his life, to pass on what he had experienced, so it would be remembered. Marrying to a woman-- a seer, in particular-- years later, he opened his doors to others who were abandoned by their towns and their lords, and took in many apprentices. Near the waning of the Red Branch knights, he formally entered into a pact with other successors of the old ways-- the Ring of Solstice-- and embraced the seclusion while seeing that generations of warriors would protect humanity from monsters they had begun to doubt ever existed."

    "When he died, he passed it on through a certain ritual initiation, which has carried on since. I underwent mine years back. It's been barely used for centuries, of course. The last person to wield it was my older brother, fifty years ago, under great duress, but the sword was too much for him, and he sealed it again within one year's time. Most of the wielders before him aren't of much note, using it for insignificant things, and for short times. The last to hold it as long as I have was my ancestor Aobheil, from the expulsion of the Romans, to the second Crusade, where she grew tired of the state of the world, and went on to watch over the sword as its guardian ghost."

    As matter-of-fact as if this were entirely normal, Lilian says "She was my first mentor, actually. She unsealed the reliquary for me when I was six. I've yet to hear a full explanation for why."
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna Shinmyoumaru was told not to tell her wish, so she's not! It doesn't slip past her lips. She's *thinking* it as hard as she can, of course, but that's a whole different thing. She's already going to make one of hers come true in the Desire Grand Prix, anyway. She's sure of it.

"They really are so fast!" she agrees with Meika. "No wonder you can't always see them if you're not looking for them. They just don't last long enough... I figured they'd come down slower. It's a long way to fall, right? So you'd think you could see them for a long time."

'They can come out of the ashes of cremated oxen. Something about incarnations of suffering.'

"They really *are* youkai!" Shinmyoumaru interjects. "Youkai animals, not youkai people, but..." She makes a face. She's really not a fan of youkai in general; at least dogs are better than cats to her, but that's a pretty low bar to get over.

By her request, Lilian tells a story. Ceoíche Marfach... it's not a name Shinmyoumaru knows, but an impressive name, the 'killing night mist'. But she listens to all of it. Some of the history is lost on her; she doesn't know when the Romans came, or when the Crusade is. But other parts of it strike a chord. She understands revenge. Her mouth opens in a little O, enthralled, and she doesn't say a word until it's over.

"I've never heard a story like that," Shinmyoumaru says. "No wonder it's so important to you! My ancestors kept things, too, and sealed them away." She pulls out a small wooden mallet from up her sleeve, which becomes a larger wooden mallet in her hand; painted with abstract designs that could make the viewer think of trees, with greenish tassels dangling from the handle.

"This is the inchlings' greatest treasure! It doesn't work for anyone else, and even we sealed it away - I'm the first in generations to use it! - but the Miracle Mallet... it holds all our dreams." She looks over at Lilian. "That's what *my* ancestor took from the oni, after he fought them with a needle-sword. My sword isn't his, but that's why I taught myself to use it. That's why I asked about yours... even if I've never met a faerie or anything like that, I can tell it's powerful, and since it has a story too, I wanted to hear it; history's important. Thank you for telling it to me!" Shinmyoumaru even rises so she can deliver a slight bow, polite.

Having already chosen to share a little about her castle, Shinmyoumaru is more willing to continue to do so: "It flies," she explains to Madeleine. "Actually, it flies upside down! It's a whole story... but since Lilian told hers I'm going to tell mine." Shinmyoumaru takes a moment to spin the marshmallow around, then pull it from the fire now that it's nice and brown. It kind of ties in with what she said to Lilian anyway, and what Lilian told her in the story; she'd feel wrong if she *didn't* tell it at this point.
Shinmyoumaru Sukuna And then she starts the story of her own. She is, perhaps, not as practiced in telling them. "Once upon a time, the inchlings weren't forgotten like they are now. Their leaders - the descendants of Issun-boshi, he's my ancestor!" Which is why she's a princess, apparently. "They ruled wisely and well and used the power of the Miracle Mallet to build the Shining Needle Palace in a night." Shinmyoumaru's tone of voice is more of a recital at first.

But her voice becomes a bit more heated: "Except the youkai of Gensokyo were jealous, and they had the oni with them, who the inchlings had defeated once before. So they pulled it to Gensokyo, the place where forgotten beings go, where the youkai live, and turned it upside down as an insult because it didn't rule anything anymore. And since we were dragged down to Gensokyo, everybody in the Outside World forgot about us, except Issun-boshi, who's in a story... and in Gensokyo, everyone just overlooks us, because we're small and weak."

Whatever the details of that time are, Shinmyoumaru speaks with the intensity of pure belief. She *knows* this to be true.

Shinmyoumaru huffs. "Except me. I hate it! I'm going to make them remember us. *All* of us. A world where we can't be overlooked, and not just the inchlings! A place where the oni can't just throw us around, or the youkai use us as toys or tools..." Just like she wants people to know her name here. To not live, forgotten and ignored.

There's a pause as Shinmyoumaru shoves an entire smore in her mouth, making her cheeks bulge out comedically. It takes her a while to swallow and speak again. "I don't want to talk about that tonight," she says, sounding as serious as she ever can. "I want to see the shooting stars and the hodag and anything else in Wisconsin. I just want to *be* here."

She finally pries open the can of beer, and says with a good deal more of her usual energy and humour, as she leans back slightly with the Miracle Mallet in her lap, "This whole trip was a really good idea...!"
Meika Kirenai 'If you make a wish on something and tell someone else about it, it won't come true.'

    Oops.

"I can't see in the dark. Not more than, y'know, normal, at least. Can't draw in it either." Meika fidgets with the sketchbook, flipping through a couple of its page corners with the signature zwip-noise nails on paper edges makes. "... I get around fine without light, though. You don't have to worry, or- or whatever. I've had a lot of practice. But I'll... if it's not an issue, I'll bring my flashlight."

    "I'm- I'm real quiet, too. You know that. So I'll... I won't scare them off." She seems a bit nervous, saying that- a weird tinge of protective avoidance of animals, assuming they'd be scared, or otherwise worsened by her interfering. She doesn't really have anything she needs to prove, but it sure sounds like she's asking for approval. A quiet motion- she's chewing at the inside of her lips, and- "... I'll show you if I get to draw one."

    Meika has retreated, just a bit away from any picnic table, to sit closer to the fire and away from any harsher gas lamps. It's not really easier to see the stars, there, and she's not about to join the smores-making- but it's warm, and it's soft, and it feels easier to melt away into the ambient energy of the night. It feels nice. That's something to hold onto.

'They were real organized types, every star in its place in the heavens, everything right in the world.'

    "... Isn't that just kind of how it is? The world is just-" She fidgets with the beer can she's holding. It's not really a pleasant taste combination to go back and forth between it and the energy drink she's also nursing. On a still mostly-empty stomach, the magical girl isn't sure which is making her head spin more.

'You're not supposed to be here.'

    Overheard, not directed at her. Meika twitches nontheless- It's kind of unfair. She gets to be made to be that, something wrong on purpose. She's still got that purpose, that place in being. Why do I feel jeal- For a moment, she pouts, before biting at the inside of her lip to cut the expression off. A handful of leaves get tossed into the fire, as she stares at the rocks surrounding it. Stupid. I shouldn't even be thinking about it. Won't help.

'Don't worry about me. It was touch and go for a while, but I'm fine these days.'

    A half little nod pulls her out of the quiet not-really-a-pout, before Meika pauses, and startles. Did I say something about that-? Guh. Probably.

'... I wish I had my uke. Or a guitar. It feels really nice out here.'

    "... Music really would fit it all, wouldn't it. I think that's- that's cool, that you play." A stick gets picked up off the ground, shuffled lightly through dirt and pine-needle detritus lingering near campfire rings. She tosses it into the fire, and watches sparks crackle up and float into the sky from it. More shooting stars. It's oh so easy to keep her eyes locked on the heavens, when her gaze drifts upwards once again.

    "The sky feels so full, out here. It's... it's weird that it's like that, even when you can't see it the right way. Hard to imagine." A little pause, and a gasp- another star shoots by. "Ahah... guess it's nice not to have to."
Meika Kirenai 'But in reality, they're less solid, more . . . magical than that.'

    "Yeah... Isn't that funny? Something that's- that's real, gets to be more magical." The smile she wears is wide, as firelight dances across her face. "Like glints, like- like sparks, or... streetlights through raindrops. Or fireflies as you drive past on the highway!" Absentmindedly, she sticks a hand up into the air, as if she could pinch one out of the sky. Her hand comes away empty.

'... I'm glad you're here, Meika.'

    Loosely, lightly shaking out the hand she feigned catching a star with, and putting it back down to her side, her breath feels like it catches in her throat. "... Yeah. Me too."
Ivy Carrow     "Are you sure it's going to be a good one tonigh- Oh!"

    "Just enough stars to put together what we need to know. But, after a while, it starts seeming familiar anyway..." Ivy was grinning more openly now, while the girl marveled at the sky. "That one's called Lyra; a lute." She pointed at something up in the vast expanse of the dark sky. It didn't really matter if Meika found the right one; just that she knew it was there. "It's only visible in the northern hemisphere; you'd never catch a glimpse of it below the equator. It'd just never be overhead, at night."

    "I hear that there are such things as fans."

    Lilian knocks Ivy off her stride almost entirely. She coughs into her clawed hand, the general aura of mystique she worked so hard to preserve threatened by the nervous gesture. "But of course there are, Dame Commander." She said, with a flourish. "A young woman, taking on the multiverse, making her mark. Surviving. In spite of everything?"

    "It's..." She took a breath buying herself the time to find the word. "Inspirational."

    Ivy's eyes focused on Lilian, the cocky smile falling from her face, replaced with a line of rapt attention, as she took another bite of her smore, leaning forward.

    "The sword suits you." Ivy said, seriously. "Wronged by something terrible and dark. Determinedly seeking retribution against everything that hurt you, until everything about it lays broken at your feet. And only you remain standing." She bit on her lip, to try to keep it from curving up. "Amazing."
Madeleine Cadrasteia     "Maybe these wishes, can be granted now. Reached now."

    Madeleine nods. "Maybe! Especially if any of them involved biting hodags," she says with a chuckle. "But more seriously, if you think any of those wishes are worth reaching for, let me know! I've had a good time with you here, maybe I can lend a hand."

    "A wish is something you want. You should just want it. How's it supposed to come true if no one knows about it?"

    "Hm." The huntress taps her chin. "Maybe, maybe. I've never been the best at making wishes come true, so maybe my advice is wrong." She shrugs and takes another bite of her smore.

    "You can't escape that easily. Even the Multiverse has 'a way things are supposed to be'; it can, and will, kill you too."

    Lilian's words give Madeleine pause. She chews her smore thoughtfully, taking in the advice. "I... yeah. I should probably be a little less open about it, shouldn't I. Nothing awful's come of it yet, but that's hardly a guarantee."

    Madeleine raises her bottle to Aidan's little toast and takes a drink. Then she stands and oohs softly as Lilian draws her sword. As the bearer of a legendary weapon herself, Madeleine clearly appreciates a good sword-story, listening attentively to the knight's tale. "Revenge... yes, I see where he's coming from. They didn't even bother explaining their laws before imposing them on him." Something in that clearly resonates with the huntress and her own war against the gods of her world.

    One story leads into another, and Madeleine nods along with Shinmyoumaru's resolution to make something of herself. "I bet you can do it, Princess. With that conviction of yours... not to mention the mallet, aheh."

    "... I'll show you if I get to draw one."

    "I'd like that, Meika. I've got plenty of photographs but it's always a treat to see how the world looks through someone else's eyes. Especially bits of the world as interesting as hodags," she says, unabashed excitement creeping into her voice.

    Ivy begins to regale the group about constellations; it's information Madeleine's heard before, but there's comfort in the familiarity. As she leans back in her chair, another shooting star flicks across the night sky. High above, the Lyrids are burning in upper atmosphere. But down here? Down here, the huntress thinks to herself, there's just good food, good drink, and good company. Not a care in the world.