(no subject)

[ruin_mania]

[Good evening, explorers! After departing from Cair Paradisa, the path was south at first, but turned west fairly early on. Skirting well south of Eldritch Forest, the travelers had camped near the edge of the Amber Steppe, not quite within sight of the forest that marks the Totem Coast. The grasses are parched brown by the heat, though greener patches mark the presence of water. It's near one of these - a small, bubbling stream leading west that Raine has chosen to follow as it will almost certainly run into the river marked on her map - that the travelers have made their camp.

The carts and wagons are arranged in a defensive circle, though the campers are free to set up their tents outside them as well as inside wher ethe rest of them are. There are small cooking fires scattered around as well as a large bonfire in the center for socializing.

Play music? Sing? Teach those poor non-Earth kids how to make s'mores? Or just sit around and socialize with others.

Or hide in your tent and ignore everyone, if you really want to.]

Comments

[whichwayyoulean]

It's a shame Henry didn't tag along, he'd be having kittens about now. [Aww yes, pride for his work] Thanks. And it took me a couple of weeks. It's pretty basic, compared to the one I had back home. I had to comprise a few things for extra space.

[What could POSSIBLY go wrong?]

[whichwayyoulean]

That's my dear buddies for you. They're all the crazy adventuring type, y'know? Boldly marching into the unknown.

[ino]

[she'll laugh a little at that] Aw, come on. I don't think anyone even brought handcuffs. [a pause] Did they?

[ino]

Everyone has flaws. [a little grin]

You think so? Gale helped -- I think it tastes better than what I usually make.

[whichwayyoulean]

I wouldn't put it past some of the people here. I mean, look at that guy [Gesturing in Cloud's direction] He looks a complete closest handcuff guy.

[ino]

[LMFAO HAHAHAHA she can't help but snicker a little, and she elbows him ... gently-ish, she doesn't want to break him]

What if he heard you! Outing him to the whole camp like that.

[persequor]

[ A warm bubble of pride spreads in Arya's chest at the words. She'll never be a proper lady. Some days she doesn't think she makes a very good daughter or sister or friend. A wolf she can be. A wolf she wants to be. ]

That's how it's supposed to be Beyond the Wall. Bran the Builder raised the Wall thousands of years ago to protect the realms against everything beyond. It's wildlings what try to invade really, but Old Nan liked to scare us with stories about the White Walkers and the Long Night.

That's where Nymeria's mother came from. Before her, no one had ever seen direwolves south of the Wall in hundreds of years. She was dead when my brothers found her, but they brought her litter to Winterfell. Six pups, one for each of us.

[psych0p0mps]

[Aradia bursts into giggles. Yesss, exactly the reaction she was going for!]

What? Did I scare you?

[psych0p0mps]

[Nods, but waits to swallow her current bite before answering.] Delicious! My compliments to the chef.

[wilder]

White Walkers and the Long Nights? What are those?

[oh wow great so they gave even more direwolf pups to kids. What a brilliant plan] Huh. I wonder how she got past the Wall.

[persequor]

[ She's been asked that a few times. Always, she never knows how to begin. Should she start with the grey walls, solid even after so many years and warm even in the depths of winter? The godswood with its hot pools and carpet of moss and leaves that always hush your steps and the heart tree with its red face and red leaves stretching to the sky? The summer snows she and her siblings played in that could blanket everything in white in a night? The whistling of the northern wind in her shutters, the soft whickering of the horses in the stable, the crackling of fire and banging of metal from Mikken's forge? Her father's voice and her mother's smile and her brother's games and Sansa's castles and Jon Snow's warm embrace?

I'll never see Winterfell again. Her eyes are suddenly stinging with unshed tears. She blinks them all away. ]

A dream.

[whichwayyoulean]

[He chuckles, arching an eyebrow and dropping his voice into a sneaky whisper]

Oh please, like he isn't screaming it already.

[whichwayyoulean]

[He falls silent for a moment, mulling about his own home. How it was before he willingly destroyed it. It's an answer that seems to suffice, he notices that blinking, young lady. But...he doesn't pry further. He understands, in his own way]

The sort you only get once in a lifetime, huh?

[persequor]

I don't know. The Wall is supposed to be impassable except through the tunnels the Night's Watch carved in the ice. Mayhaps she found an old, forgotten tunnel. And it's the Long Night not nights.

It's supposed to be a time when a terrible winter came. It lasted a generation. The Sun never rose. Entire families froze in their homes. Food ran out. People would kill each other for what was left. Some even ate each other. That's when the White Walkers came. Old Nan called them the Others. They're cold dead things that hate life. They wield swords of ice so cold they shattered steel. And they could raise the dead to fight for them. Anything, it didn't matter. People, animals, so long as they were dead.

[persequor]

Yes.

[wilder]

Hmm...that does sound like a pretty scary story. I'd hate to run into guys like that.

1/2

[persequor]

[ She shrugs. ]

It's just an old wives' tale.

[persequor]

You're not scared, are you?

[wilder]

[He snickers, reaching over to lightly poke her in the side]

Alllmost, my darling. Almost.

But I went to school on the edges of the Gaoracchia Forest. Now that's a place you get lots of old wives' tales about so I'm used to stuff like that.

[whichwayyoulean]

Well...you'll get to go back to it, after this whole Paradisa mess is over, right?

[kidwiththeleash]

I would, if that is alright!

[Last (and the very first!) time she had one, it was delicious, if not a little bit messy.]

[mentors]

Have any thin spots I can help with?

[Much like Zack, Angeal is use to this sort of thing as well.]

[persequor]

No. It's gone.

[not_mafia]

I wonder if that's why Paradisa does the things it does... Like the losses. Maybe it's because it has to.

[courageous_wit]

[she smiles a little] Nothing wrong with that, but it should be your choice to follow them.