( camp ) [week 7] thursday night

[lovecolored]

[ Oh damn, it's getting close to curfew. The last thing Marisa wants is a repeat of no-alibi-night (well. the last thing she wants is to be supermurdered and coralified, actually). She puts her book and pen back in her trunk, leaving a tin of...something plant-y and liquid to sit out for the night on top of it, and starts heading out with the intent of going to the rec room.

Though she sees someone dawdling in the clearing, she takes a detour. ]

Hey, Lenka. Got any plans tonight?

Comments

[soylentprotag]

[Lenka's head comes up from where he was seemingly examining the grass and undergrowth with great care, and he brightens a little when he sees her -- he'd been planning to either head back to the cabin or find someone in passing, because despite his state of distraction lately (this and last week, in particular), he tries to be conscientious about alibis. If nothing else, he can at least make sure other people are covered at the same time.

So Marisa's a great help here, both in being good company and in being pragmatic company, at that.]

Marisa. I was just looking around for the fireflies. I think they're around here all summer, but... [the clearing seems to be deserted, at least] I was going to go to the field, next.

[There's something a little bit sheepish about the way he explains himself, since he's essentially just chasing bugs.]

[lovecolored]

Fireflies, huh? I haven't seen any around here...but I guess that's 'cause I've been inside at night most'a the time.

[ a smile ]

Sounds like fun. Mind if I tag along? [ of course, even if he gave a non-answer or said no, she'd probably come anyway, but ]

[soylentprotag]

I've seen them a couple of times. I've never seen them before this camp, so...

[He scratches his head, still a little sheepish and a little awkward in the wake of everything when they're alone and he actually remembers to be, but eventually he nods. As if he'd turn her down tonight of all nights. It might be a tad selfish, but he wants them both to make it through this week no matter what.]

I thought Sol might not have, either.

[He starts leading the way across camp, tapping at a small bag he's carrying. There's the muffled clink of glass.]

Maybe we can catch some for the altar.

[lovecolored]

There's no fireflies in your world? Or have ya just not gotten the time to go lookin'?

[ Marisa floats beside him, riding her broomstick side-saddle. She seems genuinely curious, given that fireflies are there 99% of the time during summer nights back home. ]

I hope this effort to reach out to Sol is makin' a difference, ze. Paintin' the cabin, givin' him offerings...

[soylentprotag]

I don't think so. Not where I am, in Japan. And no moose, or raccoons, or cats... I think the Doctor said most of them were eaten when the Aragami came.

[He doesn't remember the exact percentages of ye olde mass extinction, but spoilers: it's 70% of all flora and fauna on Earth. The world is a big ol' desert -- except, ironically, for the places where the Aragami have learned to make it something else. It's possible there's firefly Aragami somewhere, but it's also possible nobody wants to deal with fireflies at 100 times their natural size. Hm.

He glances back at the lodge as they leave.]

... I don't know if it's part of the solution. But I talked to Ren. When Floe tried a prayer last week, it helped.

[He's not sure if that's the entire reason Sol is much more helpful this week (in his own... unique way), but it's definitely part of it.]

[lovecolored]

Wait, really? So you guys are halfway to an apocalypse, or somethin'?

[ She looks genuinely concerned. Lenka she knew your world was in dire straits but fuck. ]

How? Did it give him more juice to work with? [ that is most of Marisa's understanding on how gods work. Give prayers = god gets more powerful. ]

[soylentprotag]

... I don't think Sol eats prayers. [for one, they probably wouldn't have souls and bodies being consumed, were that the case] If they're a child, and act like a child... it might just have calmed them down.

[Kind of like the coral dead do, with their weekly singing, though he's not sure how much of that is something for the sake of Sol's growth and how much of that is... the god attempting to sing to itself. The relationship between the dead and the altar is still a bit of a mystery, aside from the food thing.

It takes a few more moments of thought to sort out her question about his world, since even he isn't completely sure of the state of it at the moment. But...]

Back home -- we already had an apocalypse. I think it was twenty years ago? When the Aragami first appeared.

[He mostly sounds thoughtful about it, it's more of a fact of life for him, since he was born into it.]

[lovecolored]

That's a really inefficient way to get energy, if that's the case...

[ .... ]

Is that how they wiped out all the trees?

[soylentprotag]

[It is inefficient, but if Sol is somehow still at a child's level of maturity in their awareness of themselves and their place in this world -- and their grasp of their powers -- then it makes a perfect and messy kind of sense. He's not sure if it's a good thing or not, not at this point.

Knowing this place, they'll probably have to find out firsthand.

Lenka shakes his head a little. Refocuses.]

Ah. Yes. Something like that. The plants and the animals... And the structures. It was because no one knew how to fight them. [at least in part, anyway; the other part is just...] And there were too many, I think.

[He's quiet for a moment, contemplative.]

It was weird, when I first got here, that there weren't any.

[lovecolored]

[ One of these days she'll realize the gods she's used to dealing with are old ladies, despite them all looking 25 and under, and Sol is...decidedly not. That does make thinking about their situation easier when she thinks of them as literally a little kid.

But today's not that day, and she still looks confused about it. ]

So it was just somethin' you got used to. [ For a second, she looks a little sad. Getting used to the total eradication of plant life doesn't sound like something she could handle, with how much she likes the forest. ]

Say, s'that why you've been gardenin', here? [ Is Lenka mourning the plants back home... ] They're nice, by the way. The stuff you put around the cabin.