Logs:Camp Scare-A-Lot In Action
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| RL Date: 14 May, 2011 |
| Who: Devaki, Emmeline, Riorde |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Emmeline, Riorde and Devaki take the children out camping. |
| Where: Western Islands |
| When: Day 1, Month 10, Turn 25 (Interval 10) |
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| Dusk hasn't quite fallen, so there's still enough light for the set up of a makeshift campsite. A weather shelter of some kind needs to go up, in case it rains again, though the weather seemed to be calm at the moment. And of course the campfire pit, which what Emme's working on right now. Digging an area that wood and reed can be used to fill, and then ringing it with stones. Her expression is distant while she works, her mind obviously on some other thing while doing the mindless work. But that's only because she awaits her co-conspirators. Riorde comes tramping down the beach with arms full of provisions, toting baskets in either hand. Enlisted kids will come bearing more; she is just the forerunner. "Emme," she calls out once in shouting distance, her gruff tones almost cheerful. "Don't think it'll rain, do you?" "Hey Riorde!" Yep, Emme would recognize that voice near anywhere, and doesn't even have to turn around to do it. So she waits until she has a small armload of rocks before turning towards the forerunner of supplies. "It better not rain. The air isn't think enough right now, but it can always change through the night." the girl admits, making a bit of a face. "Im so glad you made it. I am seriously sore in places I had no idea existed from doing that work in the afternoons. I'd never be able to set all this up myself." "Your own fault," Riorde grumbles as she nears the campsite. She drops the baskets; the contents aren't fragile. "I don't know what possessed you to volunteer for it." Riorde's conscience remains untroubled. "Oh come on." Emme retorts, brushing back some hair and tucking it behind an ear tightly. "Ani's never done anything to deserve hard labor. I'd hoped to get her out of it entirely by confessing that I went to Raum. But..." another guilty look creeps up onto her face again. "If I hadn't argued with Dev, I imagine I'd have just taken his advice and then I wouldn't be worried about this at all." So in other words, of course it's her own fault! Just not quite the way Riorde means. "What ticks me off about the whole thing is that it's obvious Raum played us. Least Tom is learning a lesson. How to do real work." The girl approaching has nothing against Ani; it's the man named that draws her displeasure. "Raum." Riorde drops the name with a hint of the ominous in the way she extends the vowel. "Just wait til I get him alone." The threat is better when unspecified. "We should've just done it ourselves. What's he up to, anyway?" This apparently interests her more than the lesson Tom's supposedly learning. "I was thinking the same thing. But then, is it worth it?" Emmeline wonders, her tone laced with just a bit of venom and more of concern. "We both still owe him a favor too. I'm tempted to tell him that my favor isn't just kicking him right in the balls for setting things up the way he did." A huff of air and a flash of ire in her eyes before she clamps down on the temper. "Last thing I need is to get all worked up before the kids arrive. And whatever he's up to, I want no part of it. Not that I ever trusted him to begin with, but I didn't expect this." She then holds up her hand with a pause, glancing towards the way of the settlement. "Are they far behind us? I thought I heard something." "Favour for what?" Riorde makes her dismissiveness complete with a derisive snort. A low laugh follows, appreciation for Emmeline's own threat. She sobers slowly, starting to unpack the hampers she's brought: omnipresent fish, this time skewered on kebabs, and seaweed cakes that gain a smoky flavour when buried beneath coals. "Aye. I'd just like to know why." The young woman says little else, glancing back when prompted. "I told the kids to bring stuff." So presumably not far off; it's late enough to start getting hungry, and everyone loves an outing, even on an island everyone practically knows back to front. "Never trusted whom?" Devaki's voice announces his presence before he's visible. That's the downside of an island full of hunters -- you just never know when they're sneaking up on you. It's apparent he's caught at least the tail end of the conversation, though it's not clear how much of it he actually /did/ hear. He's carrying some of the dried materials that they use for their fires, and strolls casually into the midst of the area they've chosen for their campsite, kneeling to begin setting up a makeshift pile that will hopefully soon be a bonfire. The sounds of screaming and chatter is distantly audible, indicating the children aren't far behind, indeed. "Exactly." Emme kind of just snorts at first, and nods at the rest of what Riorde has to say. Maybe it's fortunate that she hears Devaki's question before speaking more on the matter. "Nothing you need to worry about." she adds, forcing a cheerful note into her voice when Devaki makes himself known. And when he starts on the bonfire, she gives Riorde a small nod. Her quick steps then take her on towards the path so she can meet the kids herd them all to the campsite. One after another soon skip their way towards the camp-in-progress. "Spread out in a circle around the fire! Don't pull her hair... watch those rocks there." Poor kids. Isn't this supposed to be fun!? "Xoami." Riorde overlaps with Emmeline in her response to Devaki, blithe enough not to be taken seriously. "All that nervous energy; he's up to something." The arriving kids are Emmeline's specialty, not hers, so she's happy to stay out of the way as they settle into places around the fire with the steady buzz of their excited chatter. "The funny thing," Devaki muses as he continues to arrange the bonfire material, canting a glance briefly at Emmeline, "Is that when most people say that, it's exactly when I /should/ be worrying." He's silent for a short time as he begins striking a couple of rocks, finally leaning down to blow life into the slowly burgeoning fire. He leans back to study his handiwork a moment, then quirks a brow, gaze shifting between Riorde and Emmeline, then as Emmeline moves to greet the children, focuses on Riorde. "Just what've you two gotten yourself into?" he asks in a low voice, as he rises and steps in her direction, a snort escaping him as she mentions his best friend. "Try again; Xoami and I tell each other everything. And you totally wrinkle your nose a little when you lie," he adds, true or not, wiggling a finger like he's going to touch her nose. All Emmeline can say, without saying, because she didn't hear anything... is that Riorde better not tell! But with that /not/ said, Emmeline busies herself making sure tha the children all get themselves gathered around the fire in a semblance of orderly conduct. Older kids mixed with younger; she's preparing for the scary stories part. "We want to start with food or stories? Anyone have a preference?" She casts her glance at her her storytellers, eyebrow arched as she waits. "Stop interrogating the woman, Dev." "That's what /you/ think," Riorde retorts in the tones of a good-humoured challenge, her smile containing the assertiveness of a smirk. She doesn't answer the question he puts to them, a brief glance towards Emmeline perhaps betraying her. "Do I?" Riorde lifts her hand and touches her nose before she stops to think. "Food," she declares, happily distracted. Devaki's grin deepens at Riorde's response, perhaps more at the challenging tone than the answer. "No, but, now I /know/ you were lying," the blond man says, with a knowing sort of laugh. "I'm hardly interrogating her," he adds, defensively, holding up his hands. "And, definitely food!" he agrees on the heels of Riorde, giving up further inquistiveness in favor of examining one of the containers of food closest to him. He grabs a handful of the kebabs, then seats himself close to the fire, leaning in to begin cooking, winking at some of the nearby kids.
Devaki remains completely oblivious to the plotting kids. Well, actually, he /pretends/ to be completely oblivious. Which is harder than it seems: he focuses on the fire, totally /not/ looking at them any more. OF course it helps to act distracted when Riorde slaps the back of his head, and winces a bit more excessively than he probably needs to. It does mean he's watching Riorde when she gets fish in her hair, and he can't help but to laugh -- it just escapes him. "Don't think anyone's going to want to eat it after that, Emme," he adds to the teachers attempts to bring the kids into line. "Alright, we'll put you in charge then." Emme decides, when Devaki puts in his two cents. "Have at 'em, kids!" she declares cheerfully, choking back a snort of laughter at Riorde's hair problem. This is when she gets to ignore the sudden onslaught of skewer leavings that winds up suddenly launched at the mindhealer. At least Riorde only had to endure one. So far. That there are a couple of young ones trying to creep up behind the teacher herself goes entirely unnoticed by the intended victim. "-I- think none of you are even hungry. You just want a food fight." Rather than toss her hair over her shoulder after a cursory combing through, Riorde meticulously tries to pick out the individual specks of fish flesh, evincing a vanity for her hair. "Not my problem if everyone goes hungry," she declares, smug that she's not the only one targeted between the kids flinging food at Devaki and tose sneaking up on Emmeline. She manages to contain her smile to a reasonable poker face; only dimples escape her control. Devaki does what any forward-thinking islander would do: he drops his own kebabs and attempts to dive for cover behind the nearest person, namely Riorde. He's already pelted by several bits of food until then, anyway. "Hey, /I/ was hungry," he protests, looking longingly at the kebabs he discarded in order to seek protection. And then his gaze is distracted by Emmeline's imminent targeting. "You.." Emme points out archly, "... are always hungry." Riorde's threat to make everyone go hungry is simply met with a chuckle, though when the teacher starts to speak again, whatever she's going to say is abruptly cut off by two tackling toddlers that knock her onto her side and dissolve into a fit of laughter. "Alright, alright! I give!" Sprawled on the dirt of course, she nudges first one child and then another off to the side so she can sit again, though it's not without some retaliatory tickling. "New plan. Devaki eats, because if not he'll whine. Riorde gets to start telling a story so that she doesn't have to deal with food. And the rest of you quiet and calm down or else you'll /really/ be in trouble when it's dark out." she threatens, making the dumbest scary face ever. "I'll clean up after you group of little monsters." Riorde isn't willing shelter. She whirls, trying to shove Devaki back into the line of fire. "Hiding behind a girl, that's low," she accuses in the confusion of who can hide behind who. "Oy!" she finally yells at the kids, voice pitched assertively. "Eat your food or I will /make/ you!" Unlike Emmeline, Riorde actually looks fierce when she glares at one child after another, trying to silence them with the force of her stare. "And you'll all end up like the boy who wouldn't listen." She steps towards the bonfire, picking up a stick along the edges with a glowing tip. She pokes the fire, sending up a tower of sparks towards the fast-darkening sky. "All started on a night like tonight," she says, reflecting, glancing towards the harper for confirmation. "You remember Emmeline, don't you? He was just about their age." "Hey, I'm completely non discriminatory!" Devaki exclaims, as Riorde shoves him back into the way just in time to take several more hits of meat. "Oh, ow! You guys got me!" he mimics being hurt, stumbles, then flops to the ground in an overly dramatic manner that makes the kids squeal with laughter. "I'm a growing man," Devaki returns just as adroitly to Emmeline, pushing himself up onto his elbow as he quirks a brow at Riorde's story. Reminded of food, he hastily scrambles to his feet and dives to retrieve his kebabs -- they're mostly burnt, and he blows some air over them to cool them, apparently intending to eat them, overcooked or not. "That's right - he'll hind behind any girl, not just you." Emmeline jokes, tossing a handful of dirt at dramatically acting Devaki. Riorde's efforts at cowing totally work, too; as the kids look first at their teacher who just purses her lips and doesn't defend them at all, then back at Riorde and immediately scramble into place and hush up right quick so they can hear the story. "Oh yes, I remember." she agrees. "He was a mouthy little thing." she adds, walking 'round the circle of kids in a relaxed manner. "Juuuust like some of our boys here." "It was his eyes," Riorde reflects, sounding abstract as she teases on the strands of the story she's beginning, crouching down near the fire with her hands outstretched for warmth. "It was his eyes that gave him away. Everyone told him to stay by the fire, but he wouldn't listen. He went wandering away and came back late, and his eyes had this unnatural glow in them even though the fire had died. He wouldn't say anything either, which was particularly strange since usually he gave his teacher such a hard time. Just sat and stared and didn't say a word when they asked where he'd been." Devaki certainly doesn't try to defend himself against Emmeline's accusation -- joke or not -- because it's probably entirely correct. She manages to hit him with some of the dirt, though he also manages to spare his food earning the same fate. Shaking his head, trying to dislodge some of the dirt from his hair, he gives up after a short time and settles down to listen -- just as raptly as the kids -- to Riorde's story, chewing thoughtfully. Hey, Riorde's story is even creeping Emmeline out a bit! The children start to whisper amongst themselves and other glance back and forth to check ey status. Anyone glowing? No? Good! So for now, the harper settles herself on one of the nearby rocks to watch over and listen. That the children are having a good time was her only concern, and it seems that they're so engrossed in the story they're thinking of nothing else. "So one day Devaki decided to follow him." Riorde pauses dramatically, looking at the man in question for confirmation. "It was his best friend - they'd practically been brothers, born a handful of days apart. So when the boy wouldn't say say a word about where he was going when the sun went down and dusk fell, Devaki decided to follow along behind - at a distance of course. All the way to the tip of the island, way round the point to the north where the current gets dangerous, pulling people's feet out from under them and carrying them out to sea. Tell them Devaki - tell them what you saw." Devaki's in the midst of chewing another mouthful of food, and coughs as Riorde dobs him in. "Huh? Oh. Yes." He straightens, though the dark look he shoots Riorde is probably visible briefly. "What I saw, was... movement. Out in the water. Some of you have heard me talk about a sea monster, and that's what I saw. My friend stood on the longest point of land, and the monster approached. At first, all I could see was the movement of the water, the sound of the waves slapping against the rocks. And then--" he pauses, and there's the sound of something sharp scraping across a rock. He's got his hands behind his back, so the clueful will undoubtedly be able to determine the source, though for everyone else, it is a scraping, screeching noise ringing out in the night, and he straightens, peering around in the night as if looking for the source of the noise, too. "Did you hear that?" The children are far too interested in the story to be wondering if the hands-behind-the back routine is creating the noise. In fact, some of them are even leaning forward eagerly, trying to hear more of the sea monster tale. A few others pull back, inching closer to each other. Solidarity and all that. And being that Emmeline is perched up on a rock close to but not part of the campfire circle, it might be hard to notice the handful of pebbles she's scraped together that are suddenly thrown into the water to make a splash magnified by the hushed atmosphere of everyone listening. At least one of the youngsters lets out a squeak, and dives towards Riorde for protection. She's obviously the tough one here. Riorde has to contain her smirk since she's still a focal point for the kids round the campfire, but the wide-eyed look she sends towards Devaki briefly narrows into amusement. All that's gone with the noise as the girl bolts up jerkily, looking out at the dark towards the water. "What was that?" Riorde makes a good show of sounding frightened with her tense, theatric whisper. She drapes her arm round the shoulders of the kid who coming towards her, but it's not comfort she gives when she whispers, "It's here." Devaki shakes his head slowly, as if dismissing the noise, and picks up the story. "It was sleek, black -- I could only see the outline until it rose completely out of the water and the moon's light reflected off the creature's glowing eyes, just like my friend's eyes. It was like it had him entranced. He stood there as it creeped closer, not running away. I felt like I was rooted in place -- I wanted to cry out and warn him, but I couldn't move!" He takes a deep breath, his gaze scanning around the fire. "And then the creature made a noise. It was -- I can't even describe it. It made the hair on my neck stand up on end. It was like a high-pitched screetch. And quick as you could think, it'd picked up my friend and disappeared back into the water with a splash!" His voice rises as he nears the end of the tale. "And I never saw him again..." he trails off, and there's a moment of silence, and then, somewhere in the distance, a noise not unlike that Devaki describes is audible. Xoami has his timing down to a treat, it seems, the flicker of Dev's satisfied smile brief as he feigns alarm, rising to his feet. Emmeline just becomes more amused as the story goes on, the dramatic acting skills of her friends have her eyes just dancing with suppressed merriment until we get to the part where someone goes into the water with a splash. Not another splash - where's she gonna get a rock big enough to simulate a person going under!? And wherever Xoami learned to do that high pitched screech? No, she really doesn't want to know because it makes her cringe and squinch her eyes shut. As if somehow closing one's eyes will make the awful sound go away. Fortunately, his 'entrance' causes a riot of shrieking children to clump together while others run for the far end of the camp site. Riorde is on her feet in a flash as the noises out in the dark lend credibility to Devaki's tall tale. Cue her ditching her tough-girl act to screech, "It's here! I /told/ you we shouldn't have left the island!" Devaki only adds to the furor, by making a loud roaring noise and leaping to his feet to chase some of the screaming kids around the bonfire. The screams turn to giggled laughter and soon enough it's hard to tell whether Devaki's chasing them, or they're chasing Devaki. Even those that ran away to the far edge of the campsite creep back in and join in the screaming, laughing mob around the bonfire. These kids are /definitely/ not sleeping tonight, of course that's not the mind healer's responsibility, so he just continues to whip them into a screaming frenzy. Emmeline has to clap a hand over her mouth to stop her giggle at Riorde's screech. But Dev's antics... palm, please meet face. /She/ will be responsible for getting all the monsters to sleep. So she's sure to cast him a pained sort of look. Nonetheless, she doesn't interfere with the cavorting around, just claps her hands together in encouragement of their fun. That's what they're here for at least. Maybe once they start to tackle him and generally cling to him like a barnacle he'll regret whiping them all into a frenzy. The other woman of the group, however, she eventually sneaks over to. "That was great, Riorde." The kid who was clinging to Riorde's side soon abandons her to join in the cavorting around the fire, leaving her alone to watch and eventually turn towards Emmeline when the other girl heads for her. "Yeah?" she can't help but sound a little pleased. "There's one my father used to tell about a thing made out seaweed that'd drag you down the river - maybe I'll tell it later. If they ever calm down again. We could make something up about how Devaki's doomed to die an early death, too." Whether Devaki sees Emmeline's look or not is kind of moot, since it doesn't stop him either way. Some of the kids get wise to his around-and-around the bonfire, and run in the other direction to waylay and pile on top of him. Despite being hidden under a pile of giggling children, he's still making roaring noises. Eventually, he caves, "I give, I give!" he calls, then drops his voice to share: "I think it's time for the monster to attack Ri and Emme, don't you?" He points in the direction of the talking pair and, with another roar, spurs the kids to swarm towards Emmeline and Riorde. Yeah. I mean, heaven forbid Emme actually have any influence on anyone. Pssht! "I think your father shared that one with mine, cause I heard that one a lot too." the harper muses, eyes narrowing a bit. "Maybe this early death tale could include two women who hold him underwater because he's being a pain in the ass." she suggests, looking a little concerned as the kid-pile on top of Dev starts to make noise and motion in their direction. "Uh, I think we want to flee before we get tackled." To which she encourages her partner in crime by doing a totally fake shriek of fear before they make a run for it. Not that they'll be able to escape. But it's the pretend effort that counts. "I bet they gag him first," Riorde reckons. "So he can't even protest when he manages to come up to gasp for air. Slow and painful." The words are gradually pitched louder and louder over the excitement of the kids. There's no escaping their enthusiastic swarm, however, and Riorde sets off with a yelp of her own, disappearing down the beach with a good number of the kids heading after her out of the ring of firelight. She'll be back soon enough, but in the meantime leaves Devaki and Emmeline alone to their fate. } |
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