Camping: Part II!

[kingtyrantranger]

Jason didn't exactly sell the new world well. Stepping through the Threshold Gate, the Legionnaires find themselves on a landing platform overseeing their new vacation hotspot. The first thing they'll notice is that everything feels slightly heavier. Nothing dramatic, but if they were carrying a hundred pounds of stuff, now they've got twenty more pounds weighing them down. The planet, Futuro's Folly, is as advertised, hollowed out with the entire ecosystem on the inside. Outside, if they'd bothered to look, there was only a barren, crater-pocked surface of a dwarf planet about half the size of Pluto. Inside, however...

While they're standing in the midst of what was surely once a base of some kind, the criminal resort according to Jason, it doesn't stretch out very far. Just about three quarters of a mile out, the 'settled' area ends, taken over by a vibrant jungle of dense violet and orange foliage, with gigantic red and blue mushrooms filling just as much area as the trees. More, in some cases, as some of them seem to be miles high off in the distance, just when the earth seems to start curving in on itself. An orange sphere that seems to be the size of a silver dollar hangs in space above their heads, with something rotating in the core of it. If anyone were to watch it, the orb flickers rapidly as rings blur around the sphere itself. After about 8 in the evening, the fields that the rings generated would turn slightly opaque, bringing darkness to the entire planet at once.

The former crime resort itself isn't exactly in the best of shape. By 31st century standards, the technology is centuries out of date and finding people who are capable of repairing it without ruining the 'historical significance' is increasingly difficult. There are six main buildings other than the small spaceport they're standing in:

• The main building. The top three floors were once dedicated to administration, communications, and security. The bottom two floors are dedicated recreational areas, with infonet hookups (reception's not a problem when you can turn your entire planet into a signal amplifier), a variety of holographic games, and a bar/lounge area with some futuristic gambling machines tucked into a corner. Jason has turned on the parental controls, however.



• Behind the main building is the storage center. There's a vast array of vehicles, furniture, and machinery that can be asked for, and it's all stored underground. Simply type in a command and the robots underground will shove the requested item into the gravity tubes, shooting them up to the customer's level.



• The food court has the option to make your own food as well as an outdated and slightly buggy robo-chef that can make a variety of meals. Meat is on the menu, but if anyone asks for meals that require it, they'll have a long wait. The larder hasn't been stocked in centuries. However, it does have coffee. STRONG coffee. And just about any vegan meal you could ask for. It's open air, but can be covered with a dome at the push of a button. The dome has controllable transparency and can be programmed to display any number of things as a ceiling.



• Standing roughly three hundred yards apart are two convertible athletic fields, each about a half-mile in distance. In the old days, they'd hold races or gladiatorial bouts in them. They'll form just about any field needed, however, from obstacle courses and splatterball to golf to the now-illegal slaughterball rings or laser tag arenas. However, most of the gear needed to play is in the storage center.



• Finally, there's a single public bath house. Rather than the sonic showers of Legion World, these use real water. The bath house holds rooms for spas, saunas, massages, public bathing, and showers. Jason has assured everyone, however, that there are private bathing arrangements. He neglects to mention the cameras that subtly fill the rooms, though they are now sporting brand new Legion of Super-Hero stickers over the lenses to keep everyone's privacy intact.



• About a quarter a mile off in the distance, there's about fifty luxhabs. Small cabins built for two people at most, with private bath rooms, small kitchenettes with freshly stocked food, personal computers, and a communications system to contact other luxhabs or make orders from the main house and kitchen. Food can be delivered by small drones if it's called for. The beds are made of a oxygenated memory gel, capable of taking nearly any consistency and shape requested, from a pudding to rows of gel-blades. Climate controls, down to programming the inhabitant's favored atmosphere or filling the luxhab with water, are in full effect. The outsides are programmable ferroliquids, so the guest can customize their vacation home's exterior, even going as far as to add porches.

When the Legionnaires approach the border, heading to the wilderness, there's a small, almost decorative-looking wall. Even those with normal hearing will pick up on a ringing tone as they get closer to it, like a bad case of tinnitus. Walking through the gates is almost like walking through an actual barrier, but once they've done that, the noise fades the further they get from it. The sonic barrier covers the resort in a dome, meaning that they'd run into the same thing if they flew straight up.

Immediately outside the wall, the jungle starts abruptly. And, compared to the relative silence of the resort, the noise of life is practically deafening. Bugs clicking, birds calling, animals screaming at one another, it all slowly fades in the deeper they get. There are trails through the jungle, but they're slowly becoming overgrown as the resort's popularity slowly fades.

As they go deeper, it's not hard to find the first actual animals. Totally unused to humanoid life, they show more curiosity than fear. Small, chicken-sized dinosaurs roam in packs, sloth-like creatures hang from the ceilings, and there are trees that have been knocked over, and recently, in some huge brawl between titans. Every now and then, a small batch of overgrown buildings can be found, mechanical parts pushed out of them by growing vines, or torn out by wild animals. Slow, crackling noises that sound like drawn out thunder echo in the distance as something snaps trees, some of them several dozen feet in diameter, like twigs in the pursuit of prey.

The only thing that Jason's marked on the maps, beyond the default markers that the resort gives out, is a lake about five miles outside of the resort. Set in a clearing, it's over a mile long and several hundred feet deep, with a cave system connected to it underneath. The data regarding the caves is corrupt, the maps refuse to include them. A river feeds into the lake by a waterfall, and a number of small creeks seem to spring up near it. It's not uninhabited, there are several fish in there. And, possibly, something living in the caverns underneath. It's rare, but someone might see animals drinking from time to time, from the small dinosaur packs to titanic mammoths... with weapon mounts that alarmingly track anything that move too close, too fast.

There's a lot to work with, and Jason's rented the place for several days. Hopefully, everyone will find what they need to relax and recover from their recent traumatic events. Or just socialize and meet new people.

[[Okay, so there's some generic activity headers up right now. Feel free to pick one up and run with activities running in any of those areas. For those of you who wanted action, I'll have a separate top-level for that. However, I won't be running any of that chaos, so feel free to take it in the direction you'd like.

If you want to do anything, anything at all, and it doesn't fit into one of my toplevels, feel free to make a new thread entirely! Go wild with it, y'know?]]

Comments

Food Court Hangouts

[kingtyrantranger]

[goddamngrenades]

Asking for a burger, apparently, means lifetime in food court purgatory. But York is determined to have one before the day's out and as long as he's got this pretty damn good coffee and somewhere to sit and flick through puzzles with Delta? He's fine. It almost feels familiar, settled at a random, nondescript table, D pinging through possible solutions in the back of his head, coffee at his elbow, fingers dug deep into a holographic mimicry of an encrypted lock.

If not for the foliage and the giant glowing not sun, the warmth that doesn't come from recirculated air on a ship? He'd feel right at home like he's back in the MOI.

Up till he can't fidget anymore and he rolls back over to the robocook (weird) and asks for an ETA on the burger. "Please, man, can you at least get me fries while I wait?"

Failure brings scorn and pouting not befitting a space marine but, hey. Who cares? he stretches back out on his bench, puzzle in hand, flicking through holographic puzzles, hand reaching up now and then for his coffee. Or, uh, your drink.

His bad, bro.

[prettycoolguy]

Who has two thumbs and always stakes out an empty table with all the exits in his line of sight? It's this guy. It's not that the Chief's antisocial, he just doesn't like to intrude in spaces he doesn't belong. Like casual conversation. Yeah.

This is a bit of a weird vacation for the Chief, partly because he doesn't do vacation and partly because the mission-assessment part of his brain expects something to go wrong. They're inside a heavily modified world full of bizarre life with an artificial sun. The whole thing screams Forerunner bullshit, even though he knows this universe just doesn't have that. He's not afraid, exactly, he's just prepared.

...Which is making it hard for him to deal with mission objective number one: relax. Right. Doing that. Forcibly. It's fine.

At least he didn't order meat, he's been casually keeping an eye on the unfolding waiting drama over in that direction. He's content with well-prepared vegan and strong coffee as he checks the news on the comm.

If anyone drifts this way looking for an open seat, especially as things fill up, he nods a little. He's not exactly brooding in the fortress of solitude over here.

Swimming

[kingtyrantranger]

Laser Tag

[kingtyrantranger]

[unrecovered]

The laser tag arena is a huge, sprawling, surprisingly impromptu construction, all black walls streaked with bright neon glow-in-the-dark paint in array of colors, towers and balconies with holes in the walls and wide-holed grates in the floors, a tangle of partial and low walls weaving through the expanse between the five towers, and enough open space to fly in if you're were dumb or crazy enough to make yourself that conspicuous of a target - all enclosed, of course, because laser tag in broad daylight is an exercise in missing the point. What excites Wash the most is the erratically shaped mirrors inlaid at random intervals in the walls and ceiling, because what better way to bank a laser shot than with a mirror?

They've all donned their vests with sensors at the front, back, and shoulders (all less cumbersome than he remembers, but evidently even laser tag technology advances a lot over centuries of refinement) and headed into the arena, waiting for the countdown to end and for their laser guns to activate. The first game is a free for all, and he can't wait.

Exploring the Jungle

[kingtyrantranger]

[thewildflower]

It doesn't take Rebecca long to decide that she should do some exploring.

Okay, maybe exploring is the wrong word for it. Rebecca is all about hunting. What's the point of pretending to camp if they aren't even going to hunt? Where she came from, one day would be all about marching and setting up their base camp, and the next would be fighting. Even between all of that, she found time to hunt and help provide food...and she still hasn't gotten over the lack of meat.

The deafening sound of the wilderness? The presence of bugs? They aren't that distracting to her. It's a different kind of forest, but with a little precognition she's able to avoid standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. She moves through the bushes, between trees making her own trail as she goes.

Maybe she'll run into someone she knows while she's readying an arrow in an attempt to catch a sloth, or maybe she has company with her or looking for her. She's not going to advertise she's heading off to explore, okay? Of course, if someone is being attacked by a tiny lizard or finds themselves afraid of bugs, Rebecca will walk right over and swat or shoo anything away.

Or someone could catch her separating from the group, to which her only response will be: "I'm just going to take a look around! I'll be right back, I assure you."

[ooc; It's a little hard for me to come up with something without knowing who will tag in, but if you're interested, we'll make it work!]

Campfire Tales

[kingtyrantranger]

Re: Campfire Tales

[bachido]

Kubo had this one on lockdown, ready and waiting with his paper and shamisen both to provide stories and illustrate the stories others have to tell.

"I've never been on a trip like this," he said, looking around the fire. "What sort of stories do you tell? Anyone else want to go first?"

Party Games

[kingtyrantranger]

Karaoke

[rushing_by]

Barry was looking through the games in the main room. Card Against Sapients was out until the younger Legionnaires went to sleep. So was Trivial Pursuit, because being from an alternate universe made the game more-or-less unplayable. Monopoly was definitely a no.

"Ah," he said, as he looked over the program set on one of the the holographic systems, "karaoke. My old nemesis."

That was probably an exaggeration. It wasn't like Barry was bad at singing. In fact, he was actually pretty good. He just wasn't a big fan of performing in public.

Trust Falls

[kingtyrantranger]

[goddamngrenades]

Part of what destroyed the Project was a lack of trust- of real trust. Sure you can't tell if someone will have your back for the moment, the hour, or the battle with falling exercises but- it can't hurt to get a foot in the door. It's only logical and reasonable to try to expand his pretty limited social circle and take a few risks. After all, they've already died. What's the worst that could happen?

Delta running through equations in the back of his mind as a soothing wash of white noise and alleviating the worst of his knee jerk paranoia, York falls in line, signs up to be paired up, and does his best to be charming. He can do that at least. Be friendly, be open, only lock up a little mid fall so he can catch himself with a huff of laughter if he lands on dirt rather than in hands-

And absolutely not drop anyone he's assigned to catch.


Unless that person is Wash. Because fuck him, that's why. Or. Fine he'd catch Wash too, but only after letting him hang for like, thirty seconds. Christ being a rational and reasonable adult is hard.

[isthisapidge]

Pidge has had some problems with trusting her team in the past, she can admit that to herself. Why not take a little time out of her vacation to work on forging her bonds with the rest of the Legion, form friendships, work on her relationships, especially in light of the harrowing experience of Murderworld.

But they're doing trust falls.

You know what are really hard to do when you come up to most people's waist?

TRUST. FALLS.

She's going to end up crushed under someone, isn't she?

Obstacle Course

[kingtyrantranger]

[notthatjason]

It wasn't Camp Halfblood, but Jason's nostalgia factor was heightened here. As soon as he'd heard there was an obstacle course he'd made up his mind to check it out at some point. The heavier gravity here would make for a fun challenge, though he somehow doubted it would be as intense as Camp Jupiter's war games or Camp Halfblood's lava wall or weekly capture the flag games. He somehow doubted death was a possibility and this was confirmed when he saw the obstacle course.

Sure, it looked like fun and like a challenge for the average camper -- but somehow it looked tame compared to the most recent events in Murderworld and Jason's own past camp experiences. That wasn't actually a bad thing though. Jason honestly preferred something tame right now as a bit of a break. He studied it for a moment before looking around to see if anyone else was hanging around or passing by. When he did catch sight of someone he called out, "Hey. Interested in a friendly race?"

[ooc: I'm basing the course off of this but if someone has a more creative idea let me know!]

Being Hunted

[kingtyrantranger]

Out exploring beyond the boundaries of the resort? Well, good for you. Being cooped up in that all day, when there was this weird and glorious new area to explore, couldn't be good for you. Unfortunately, you're strange and new to these creatures. They might not have ever seen a human before. Everything's open to be tasted at least once, and the only real warning you get as everything goes silent around you, is a quiet huff of breath from some large beast crouched behind you.

[[And here's your actiony post! Feel free to change things up or invent your own details, but the general starter is that something big, and very hungry, thinks you look delicious. Fight or flee, however you want, but the only truly safe place is inside the resort's walls.]]

Wash

[unrecovered]

1. Luxhab

There's something about porches that Wash has always found appealing. It's a little open-air room - security concerns aside, what's not to love? He's delighted when he finds out he can change the shape of his luxhab and wastes no time adding a porch. (And there are no security concerns here, he keeps sternly telling himself, so long as he stays within the sonic walls. It's fine.)

He's requisitioned some alien board game and a beer and has taken them, along with a coffee table and small chair, out to the brand new porch. The board game is the kind that can be played by one or more people, so he's got it laid across the table and is trying to puzzle out the arbitrarily complicated rules well enough to start playing the single player version. At least it's more entertaining than solitaire.

2. Main Building, Lounge

There's something to be said for privacy. Then again, there's also something to be said for watching ridiculous sports on a couch on the biggest screen available. To that end, Wash has taken up temporary residence in the lounge area of the main building, beer in hand, blanket around his shoulders, and a game of splatterball playing on the almost obnoxiously large screen. He's only half-watching it; right now, he's too comfortable to bother with just about anything else, and he's not terribly invested in learning how to play the game, especially since he's fairly certain that nobody on the screen knows how to play either.

3. Bath House

Wash hadn't realized just how badly he'd missed actual honest to God water showers until he gets the opportunity to take one again. He stands there, letting the water beat down on the back of his neck and his shoulders, for far longer than he probably should, but it's nice and he doesn't know when the next time he'll get one of these will be. (After the camping trip, at least. He can shower as often as he damn well pleases while he's here.)

The sauna is his next stop, because that's a luxury he hasn't had in pretty much forever. He settles in on a bench, towel wrapped around his waist, and just leans back and relaxes. He's never really been able to turn his brain all the way off - not since Epsilon, at least - but here, the steam helps.

(The fact that he's dismantled the cameras entirely before settling in also does wonders for his peace of mind.)

1

[bachido]

Kubo's always wanted to be able to stop by and play board games with a neighbor, and now he can!

"Hi, Wash!"

His own luxhab was empty, given that Kubo had a LOT of exploring to do, a lot of new animals and environments to commit to memory in case a really good story happened here, or another story just needed this extra alien touch later.

"What are you playing?" he asked, looking curiously from the little road, waiting for an invitation before barging onto Wash's porch. He already had twigs in his hair and dirt on his face from his morning's explorations.

Jason! The Grace-less one.

[kingtyrantranger]

Just because it's a vacation, it isn't an excuse for Jason to give up on his exercising. He was still up at an obscenely early hour for a jog, though he had to cut it embarrassingly short given the higher-than-normal gravity. And later in the morning found him running through his martial arts katas.

It was harder than he thought. After a few hours here, he hadn't really noticed the extra gravity when he was just moving around, but when actually trying to move faster or do any sort of prolonged exercise, he definitely felt the added weight. It wasn't even an hour before he was dripping with sweat, but it still wasn't time for him to quit.

An unfortunate factor was that he'd taken Karate Kid's advice. Normally when practicing, he went bare-footed. However, during a conversation, Val had suggested wearing these little slippers for superior grip on the floor when twisting or kicking. Less chance of slipping on untrustworthy terrain. Jason had decided to test out the advice here of all places, and it took some getting used to. With the sweat, the back kept trying to slip off of his heel.

It was probably inevitable, really. The fit, slightly wrong. Sweat making the material slip. When Jason goes for another crescent kick, it's just too much and the slipper is flung from his foot, arcing over his shoulder and flipping through the air towards some innocent, probably unsuspecting party. About the only warning, unless he's being watched, is a cry of "Oh shoot!"

[unrecovered]

For what it's worth, Jason isn't the only one up and about at an absurd hour for a workout. He's also not the only one realizing that increased gravity, while good for a long-term training regimen, is murder on your stamina when you're just starting out. Wash pushes himself to the end of his jog, but no further - he's supposed to be on vacation, and the last thing he needs to do is completely wreck himself at the beginning of the day, especially if he wants to have energy for laser tag later on.

He's slowed to a walk and is enjoying the view when he hears someone - Jason? - yell. He shifts into a combat stance, ready for anything just in case, turns to face the source of the yell-

And receives a shoe smack in the face for his troubles.

He stumbles backwards for a step or two, wiping his face off with his hand. Well. That was fun. It takes him a moment to find his bearings and another to see Jason, several yards away and lacking a shoe. "I think you lost something," he says dryly, making no move to pick up the shoe.

time 2 reap

[fantasmaniac]

Reaper can be seen sneaking around. He's not doing anything malicious, but after that fiasco of a trip to Murderworld, he's not content just sitting around and relaxing.


——————————
I. ｆｏｌｌｏｗ  ａｔ  ｙｏｕｒ  ｏｗｎ  ｒｉｓｋ
——————————
In the main building, he stops by the rec area to test the infonet hookups. He has a device that allows him to connect with it, after all, and he does a little bit of researching. The universe is vastly different from what he knows, every piece of news both alien and unsettling in ways he's not sure how to interpret. It's beyond him, too big to wrap his mind around, his way of thinking much too narrow for this sort of thing. He's lived through some bizarre stuff, but for some reason, it's the little details that strike him as the most jarring.

He leaves that area as soon as he's finished, not letting anyone notice him and catch him in the act of being stationary. They may see him in the corner of their eye as he slowly dissolves into mist and disappears around the corner. If you want to try and catch him with your super speed or whatever, then by all means, try. Just be warned that the moment you try and sneak up on him, he'll lash out on impulse, the feeling of someone trying to pull a fast one on him usually met with Great Disdain.


——————————
II. ｎｏｔ  ｆｏｒ  ｆｕｎ
——————————
Behind the main building, he checks out the storage center to investigate their inventory. A lot of the items available are things he's never seen before, and he works those robots for all their worth as he requests anything that catches his interests. Only to send them right back down as he's finished inspecting them.

A strange golf-cart looking thing, various sports-like equipment from a sport he's never seen...though he doubts sports equipment vary all that greatly anyway, unless they're accommodating wildly different alien body-types. He's curious about the sports here. He very briefly walks past the athletic fields, but doesn't stick around.


——————————
III. ｉ＇ｍ  ｈｅｒｅ  ｔｏ  ｍａｋｅ  ｉｔ  ｍｙ  ｏｗｎ
——————————
The luxhabs catch his eye. Isolated enough, he finds the appeal in occupying one of these cabins to wait out this stupid trip that he didn't intend on going on but here he is. He has no use for things like kitchenette or freshly stocked food or comfortable beds, but he is curious about it all the same. The level of tech is always worth checking out, anyway.

He's flickering through the different exterior options, adding porches, removing them, adjusting window sizes and shapes, adding a dark tint to them (leaves those on), and without even realizing it, he's turned the luxhab into a cold and unwelcoming presence among the other quaintly decorated ones around him. How typical! Come and poke fun of his penchant for dreary edgy design.

——————————


He completely avoids the food courts and bath house.

time 2 time

[turntex]

Camping and the great outdoors are cool and all, but Dave is a modern teenager and so of course he wanders back to the rec area eventually. Space internet is as distracting as the normal/past internet, as it turns out. He's just stepping through the doorway when he catches glimpse of a strange shadowy mist disappearing around a corner.

Well. That sure looks like a suspicious thing right there.

As much as he has certain complexes over the whole hero-ing thing and personal issues about fighting and whatnot, Dave is still quick to leap to action when it appears necessary. Compartmentalize that shit and deal with it later, there's potential trouble afoot and no one else around to do anything about it. So there's barely a moment's pause before he's making a brief quantum leap forward to tail the shadow around the corner, hand moving for a shitty sword he doesn't actually have here. Shit, really gotta do something about that soon.

A wild Pidge appeared!

[isthisapidge]

Pidge really just wanted a moment of peace. Away from the possibility of running into people for just an hour or two. Even the Luxhabs required sharing it with someone else. She grabbed a book off the shelves, some ancient thing about physics that she isn't really absorbing.

She went maybe a little farther in than she meant, but the sounds of the jungle are actually pretty soothing to her. She could lie down on a log and take a nap right there, see if her unconscious brain might dream up a solution to some problem she's been chewing on. Or she might have nightmares about everything that's happened up until now.

Hopefully not that one. But it is safe to sleep out here anyway...

That's when she hears the sound of...something coming through the bushes. She snaps awake and snags a branch right off the log she lay down on. She's going to beat the stuffing out of whatever it is that's coming at her.

Bar/Lounge

[justicecrusader]

This may not have been the kind of bar Reinhardt was used to, what with its post-modern look, and variety of drinks he's never even heard of. But at the same time, it didn't mean he wasn't enjoying himself, given the way he held up his stein, and took a swig of it while recounting stories to some of the strangers sitting beside him. He was more used to the tavern-styled bars that were common in Germany back in his world, which even to those standards, were pretty dated. But to Reinhardt, that was just what a bar felt like. A crappy building, packed to the brim with lively patrons. Everyone smashed off their ass, sharing nonsensical stories, and waking up in the morning in absolutely no recollection of how they ended up there.

It just wasn't a bar otherwise.

The future was a little different, but it didn't mean Reinhardt couldn't bring some of that here. If nothing else, he could drink everyone under the table, and he had more than enough stories to pass the time if anyone wanted to sit with him. Of course, some times, he was perfectly content to drink alone, and simply wait until the next patron took a seat next to him. Whatever the case, whoever sits beside him will find that he has no shortage of things to talk about.

[mylawn]

The sad thing is that Jack needed to psych himself up for this. He can guess that Reinhardt would make his way to the bar eventually, and a quick peek inside confirms that fact. He withdraws for a short time, but it's only to finally rid himself of his tactical gear, steeling himself for a conversation that he knows is a long time coming.

He owes Reinhardt this much, no matter how difficult it is.

When he slides into the seat opposite Reinhardt, it's without the mask and gun and jacket. He looks uneasy and jumpy, like he doesn't want to be here and is half expecting to be caught off-guard, but it's clear this is his effort to present like an actual person. It's for Reinhardt's benefit, of course, which he hopes comes across when he settles himself at the table.

"What are you drinking?"

He'll have what you're having, bro.