Camping Trip [Party Post]

[smithnjones]

[OOC: I'm sorry for the delay! This does take place Friday evening. This is a PARTY POST, which means feel free to tag around as much and as often as you like. Make multiple threads or tag into multiple threads would be better. The entire time slot from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon is open to play in. Etc.]The camping trip has gone off

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[therebelruns]

Lola has taken the Camping Trip as an opportunity to do two things. She feels homesick. She misses nature, the Spanish woods and the earth in between her toes. Being in a city all the time is not good for her, and while Grant Park is a haven for her - sometimes it's not enough.

Secondly, the Camping Trip is a chance to get her brain out of thinking that she's not in the middle of a resistance any more. There is no need for fighting or stealth tactics or plans. She's not in 1940's Spain any more. It's time she started to think that way.

So Lola is having fun just being a teenager. She's climbed on top of rocks and waded through the stream. Now, she's currently running through woodland barefoot - no longer to escape from enemy threats, but for fun. She's also consumed a great deal of sugar on the bus trip up. Chocolate was almost unheard of back home during a war and now there's enough to sink a ship with. Yup, there is a massive sugar high going on right now

[arrowblessed]

Lola isn't alone in the "homesick and missing nature" category; Kenzie's right there with her. She bolted out of the bus as soon as they arrived at the campground, eager to 1) get on solid ground again (thanks, Martha), 2) get away from the people staring at her because they've clearly never seen a girl with a bow and arrow before, and 3) locate a suitable area for bathroom purposes.

Now, she's hunting.

Or was hunting, before someone ran into her from behind and knocked the arrow in the wrong direction and scared off the doe she was watching. She whirls around with a huff and stares at Lola, lips pursed and eyes narrowed. "Excuse you."

[therebelruns]

Lola stumbles back and lands on the ground with a soft thump. She rubs at her head with a frown for a few seconds before she looks up to see who she's ran into. "Oh! Lo siento!" she apologises quickly with a shocked look before she clambers to her feet and brushes herself down.

She quickly checks that the rifle on her back is alright and that nothing has broken in her satchel. She knows she could have left her things back at Kashtta or even in her tent, but she's grown attached to the only belongings that she has left.

"I am sorry," she apologises again, this time in English. "I was not looking where I was going,"

Lola notes the bow with interest, "Are you hunting?"

[blazetodefine]

Lola will actually be running directly into someone that she's already met before. He's been walking through the wilderness with his journal in his hand. It's easier to write out in the wilderness in some ways.

The noise of the city clears away, and he's only aware of the woods, the breeze, the trees.

He grunts a little, but she's not strong enough to knock him down even though he hadn't been paying attention. "Woah, hey, what's the hurry?"

David, who is always looking down, notices the bare feet. "What happened to your shoes?"

[therebelruns]

While she wasn’t quite able to knock over David, the force in which she knocks into him sends her stumbling back a few paces. She manages to catch herself to stop her from completely falling over. She rubs at the side of her head for a few moments before looking up to see who she’d knocked into.

“Hello David!” she greets him with an embarrassed smile. “Sorry, I was just running! I just like to run sometimes and through this forest reminds me of home and it is actually really fun!”

The rate in which she reels off her words is fast that she barely has time to breathe. It’s obvious she’s on a sugar high. Lola finally pauses with a giant gulp of air and leans forward to catch her breath.

She frowns slightly at his question before remembering that she’s not actually wearing any shoes or socks. “Oh! I decided to take them off. They are back at the campsite,” she tells him with a nod of her head. "Are you having fun?"

[blazetodefine]

"It's okay," David assures her once he's figured out what she has said in that fast mess of words, sliding his hand through his hair and wincing because she did tumble back a bit. "Are you okay? You fell back... far."

Sometimes he is a stater of obvious things.

He nods.

"Barefoot in the woods." Hey, if that's her thing that's her thing. "You're not afraid of stepping on a snake or something?"

She is the strangest, bravest kid that he's ever met. It's a compliment in the end.

He doesn't know if fun is the word he'd use for it but he nods because he is having a good time. "I don't get to go out in wilderness like this much. It's nice." It's a good place to clear out muddled thoughts and focus on words, stories, ideas.

[therebelruns]

Lola just grins at him and nods her head. "Yes, fine! Just easy to knock over sometimes," It's an entirely plausible explanation, she's a tiny skinny little thing. Doesn't look like it would take much to knock her over.

"Snakes? No, not really," The girl frowns at him, tilting her head to the side, "Why? Should I be?" she asks him. She doesn't fear much. Fear's a feeling she tries her best to push away to the very back of her mind. It never helps in a difficult situation. Although, even sometimes - Lola can still be afraid. It just doesn't happen that often.

Her smiles returns again when he comments on liking being out in the wilderness. "It is very strange living in a city for me," she tells him, "I lived in a forest for a few years back home, and I miss being surrounded by nature. The Park is nice to be in, but it is not the same, you know?"

Lola rocks back and forth on the heels of her feet, her hands behind her back as she looks around the woodland, "I hope we do more camping trips. I like being here,"

[blazetodefine]

David nods right back at her. "Makes sense," he says, and he is thinking just that. "You're... small

[therebelruns]

"I do not like being small," she wrinkles her nose, gently toeing the earth, "I would rather be much taller, like you!" She doesn't like being a tiny girl, it's often impractical for her. She dreams of being as tall as her mother one day.

Lola shrugs and shakes her head, "Ohh, I do not mind. There are poisonous snakes in Spain too and I still went about barefoot. But it was not very often," There was no time for having fun back home. It just didn't happen. The only fun she had was the quite times late at night where she could sit in a corner and read. It was the best fun she could ever have.

There's a bright smile at her lips, "I hope so! I would really like this!"

She notes the journal in his hand and she peers curiously at it before looking at him. "Are you reading? Or writing?" she asks him. "I love to read stories,"

[sophicsulphur]

Iris doesn't really mind if Lola runs into her. To be fair, she isn't expecting it; she was caught up in thought, gazing up at the sky and watching the scudding clouds. She's usually more social than this, but something about the great outdoors is making her want to lose herself in it.

Not too long ago, she'd have known why: it's a slice of home, these woods and outcrops, in a world whose spaces are mostly anything but what she's used to. But increasingly, she's becoming less sure whether it's home that she sees, in this expanse of sky, or a longing for something else.

In any case, she's paying basically zero attention when Lola hurtles into her, knocking her flat on her back into the dirt. The girl may be tiny, but she was moving fast, and Iris is no heavyweight herself.

"Heh, hi there," she says breathlessly, looking up at the newcomer and shooting her a smile. "Having fun?"

No, Iris doesn't take these things personally at all.

[therebelruns]

Iris isn’t the only one who ends up on her back in the dirt. Lola winces and instantly sits up, rubbing the back of her head where she hit the earth. There’s a stream of mild curses and moans in Spanish before she looks across at the girl she’s run into. “Oh, I am so sorry, I was not looking where I was going,” she smiles awkwardly.

She scrambles awkwardly to her feet, rubbing slightly muddy hands on her knees to clean them. She then stumbles forward clumsily to help pull the girl up. “Here, let me help you,”

Once pulling the other girl back onto her feet, she leans forward panting, trying to catch her breath again. “I was running and I had too much chocolate,” she explains, “So I am not looking where I am going,”

Lola tilts her head to one side, “Are you okay?”

[sophicsulphur]

"Oh, don't worry about it!" Iris says, smiling brightly. She means it, too. She wasn't going to be mad anyway, but she just can't get upset at a girl who's being so polite. And going out of her way to help her, too, even though she fell over herself.

She's even smaller than her, this new girl, but Iris doesn't need much help getting to her feet. With just the little extra support, she's back up and brushing off her own clothes in no time.

"I'm quite fine. A little fall'll hardly kill me. What about you?", she asks, looking the other girl over. "I've got healing potions on me if you got scraped anywhere. They'll fix it up real quick."

[therebelruns]

Yep, Lola is tiny. The narration would like to say that she probably has all the tiny.

Lola checks herself over for a few moments before she shakes her head, she doesn't feel hurt at all. Probably just a little stunned, but that's about it. "No, no. I am fine," She frowns at the mention of the word potions, like it's something out of one of her stories. "Potions? Like medicine?"

She pauses, a thought suddenly appearing in her head. Looking down, she reaches into her satchel and pulls out a small leather case. Unfolding it, it reveals a very basic 1940's medical kit. There's a few needles, syringes and bandages. Tiny glass jars of medicines that Lola doesn't know what they are and last but not least, small glass capsules of what it probably morphine. She takes one out and shows her it.

"You mean like this?" Lola asks, "I was given these by my Mama for an errand because men were hurt. But I never got to them. I still have them, as you can see,"

[sophicsulphur]

Iris watches Lola unfasten the case with fascination, glancing over the array of items displayed therein. "Whoa," she breathes, softly. "You're an alchemist?"

She reaches out her hand towards them, running her fingers lightly over the bottles; not touching, quite, just holding them an inch or so above the surface of the glass. She's feeling out their energies. "No, these-- not the same," she says, eventually. "They don't feel like alchemy. It's different."

Like Jim's pills, she remembers. Yes, they have a different kind of medicine here. But this girl-- also doesn't seem like a regular Chicagoan, with her strange speech and her little glass bottles that look more like what Iris herself would use than most of the medicines she's seen around. "I'm Iris. A Wanderer. Are you a Wanderer, too?"

[therebelruns]

The word 'alchemist' is lost on her. She doesn't really understand that one. As far as she knew, she's just a girl and soon, an angel. Lola shakes her head, "No, these are just Doctor's medicines. I do not know what they all do," she motions to the pills, she's no Doctor, "But they just make people better,"

She watches as she runs her fingers over the vials, curious as to what she's doing them. It's like she's trying to get a feel for them, "Are you some kind of witch? Like in the stories?" she asks her, half-curious and half-excited.

Lola stares at her for a few moments when she introduces herself, "Iris?" her eyes widen for a few moments. She remembers someone called Iris speaking to her over her journal, but had yet to actually meet her in person. The girl looks around the age of sixteen, so she's just going to jump to conclusions.

"Oh yes," she grins brightly. "Iris, it is me! I am Lola! Remember?" Without hesitating another moment, she lunges forward and hugs her. "Hello!

omg I was commenting from email and only just saw Lola's icon. THAT IS ADORABLE.

[sophicsulphur]

"Lola!" Her expression turns bright as well, and she eagerly returns the other girl's hug. She doesn't mind the spontaneity in the slightest: it's nice to get affection, and it's nice to give it back. "I remember, yes! We were talking about becoming angels on the journals! It's good to finally meet you."

Eventually, she pulls apart, still smiling. "Mm, I'm sort of a witch," she says, with a shy little dip of her head. "We didn't use that word"-- well, except as a cultural slur, but she doubts such a friendly girl means it like that --"but where my friend Hermione's from, that's what we're called. I do magic. Like this," she says, pulling her own vial of potion out of her pocket and handing it to Lola. It's a pale, opaque, solution, glittering faintly in the light.

"Maybe if you open your heart, you can feel it. It can heal almost anything."