[MINGLE] Scout's Honor

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: Hot Springs
WHEN: 21 Sept, after sunset
OPEN TO: ALL - MINGLE
WARNINGS: Please warn in your subject line as needed
NOTES: Details found here

---

It's been a strange, rough couple of months for our intrepid villagers — Bunkers, superpowers and clones, oh my! Perhaps the Observers are sympathetic to their plight, or maybe they just have a peculiar sense of humor. At any rate, they've set up a gathering space chalk full of summer camp goodness, no strings attached. Not that anyone knows that part.

Just before sunset, a cheery message pops up on wrist devices all across the settlement and beyond. The instructions seem simple enough, although one does have to wonder at what dubious gift awaits them all after everything is said and done.

Marshmallows are on the house, so grab yourself a stick, strap on a sash and get to roasting, villagers. Skinny dipping, sing-alongs and friendship bracelets optional.

Comments

Killian Jones | ota

[seekingcrocodile]

Campfire Storytime

This isn't exactly like the previous life he's used to (campfires weren't a common occurrence on board a ship, after all), but some aspects of it are close enough. When they were on land, they sometimes would end up around a fire; the time spent on Neverland was mainly one extended camping trip. But it's the camaraderie, the spirit of the group gathered around the campfire, that has him in a mood to tell a story.

He's foregoing the marshmallows (not being familiar with them anyway) and while he's not expecting anything to come of the sash, he's got one on anyway. He's in a festive mood, and he likes decoration. He'll go with it.

"That reminds me of a situation I will never forget," he says as he shifts in his seat and picks up the thread of what someone's just said. "There we were, on a stretch of sea we'd never been on before, no land in sight, when we heard the eeriest singing coming across the water. We knew it was nothing good, of course, because it could only have been a mermaid trying to wreck the ship on some rocks. But that's the thing about mermaids. Even when you know that's where the singing is coming from, you're powerless to resist.

"So there we were, on a course to assured destruction on some jagged rocks, when the lookout calls a warning. On the other side of the ship is a kracken, or at least the tentacles of one, reaching out for the ship. The largest any of us have ever seen, too, and also certain destruction. If I hadn't known better I'd have said that the kracken and the mermaid had worked together to lure us into that situation, but neither of them wants to share their prey.

"Destruction on one side, destruction on the other, and us unable to turn away from either while the mermaid sang her song. In the distance, a storm brewing, strong enough to bring us down on its own. Out of options, death certain...there was only one thing to do."

Assured of an audience now, he pauses in the telling. That's the best way to keep them hooked. Leave them waiting. And wondering.

He won't make them wait too long. Just long enough.

[nonstopnarcissist]

"That is a rather extreme example of a rock and a hard place." A kraken and a mermaid? Fuck it, magical spring water, swamp thing, wizards. Mermaids can be a thing. A pirate with a hook for a hand that already has Tony itching to design something more useful. After the story. He loves nothing more than a good, scrappy, swashbckling kid of tale of adventure and he hasn't ever had a chance to hear one from a literal pirate before. So he's sitting forward, elbows on his knees, eyes dancing in the firelight as he toasts another marshmallow, waiting for the big reveal. "How'd you get out of it?"

[seekingcrocodile]

"I am a hell of a captain," he says with the kind of charm he usually reserves for women, but likes to bring out when there's an audience enjoying the story he's telling. Besides, there could be ladies listening to the story right now.

Anyway, he just likes telling stories.

"All it really takes is knowing your enemy." Enemy might sound a bit extreme for a sea creature and a mermaid, but either one of them could have wrecked the ship and doomed the whole crew. "Hear enough mermaid songs and you learn what they're up to. Once I was able to fight off her influence and regain control of the situation, a little tricky navigating lured the kraken close enough to the mermaid to make her the target instead."

He pauses for effect. "I hadn't known until that moment that the mermaid's song worked on the kraken too, but she lured it into the rocks as surely as it pulled her into its maw. They doomed each other, and we were free to sail on."

[unraisehell]

"I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going," slurs Wynonna. She's only somewhat tipsy, which is impressive given how much moonshine she's imbibed, not to mention the half-finished joint between her fingers.

She grins semi-apologetically. "No, no, seriously. I take it you were out of harpoon guns and oxygen tanks."

Two pop culture references in a row to the fairy tale pirate. Great dialogue tree choices there, Wynonna.

[seekingcrocodile]

He doesn't know what any of that means, but he'll go with it. He has an attentive audience, and that's his preferred way to spend an evening. Well, one of them, but the other hasn't been likely since Emma left.

"If by that you mean did the mermaid find herself wrapped in the kraken tentacles instead of us, then you are correct. All it took was the skill to aim the kraken in the right direction. And a little luck."

Skill and luck both have gotten him this far. They'll get him father still.