[OPEN] RV Park Party

[eirs]

WHO: Any and all OUTSIDER personnel that wants in and their respective campervan companions. Or maybe you wandered out away from your group and found this commune.
WHAT: The gang parking together at night to swap information about the things they've found in their investigations, night watches around a fire, ghost stories......? General tomfoolery in the desert where there's no one else for miles. Cooking their hunts in successes and mishaps?
WHERE: The Mojave Desert
WHEN: Mid to Late May
WARNINGS: Will be updated or tagged in the thread as needed!

Comments

[ignoreher]

If you think it is from your spot, come lay down with me. Everything else just...

[ hmmmmmm. netzach might understand better, and she plays with the end of the blanket she'd thrown down across the sand as she flops back unceremoniously. ]

... Fades away? The sky's a lot larger when you're on your back for some reason.

[ she doesn't know why. maybe it's an optical illusion. but from one edge of her vision to the other it's simply the night sky, with peeks of light from the edge where the RVs are parked and the others whittle the hours down until sleep claims them. malkuth has to remind herself that she can't linger out here either. the very person who might fuss at her about it is watching the same sky as she is. ]

[penaltypoints]

[ The invitation isn't unwelcome — on the contrary, Yesod feels relieved then, he finds. Curious, he soon crosses the stretch of sand between him and Malkuth's blanket, stopping near its edge to unfold his own, smoothing it flat and straightening each corner. Though he hadn't intended to lie down, only seated on a clean surface to avoid getting more sand inside of his body, he arranges himself on his back now in order to look up from that position.

The sky fills his field of vision, like plunging into its depths. Malkuth is right.

He remains conscious of her presence nearby, however — there is nothing but that and the stars while everything else fades away. ]

[ignoreher]

[ it was a world all her own, just her and the stars above, but she's perhaps too aware of yesod close enough nearby. there's a sense not unlike the cogito, almost floating as she connects one star to the next, making her own constellations and seeing the ones others have made in centuries -- in millenniums past. a sense of disconnect, far more pleasant and painless than the last time she'd been this way sober, and malkuth exhales slowly.

relaxed, even. almost able to drift away completely into her own thoughts if it wasn't for the grounding presence nearby. malkuth finds that there's no need to speak, no restless urge to find a topic to fill the air, and breathes out a soft laugh -- she definitely missed this, though the quiet shuffle of books and pages has been replaced by murmured conversation and the brief, rare breezes of the desert.

malkuth does turn her gaze from the stars for a little bit, once she's certain yesod's has been captured by the sky, so she can observe him in return.

thinking about how well the cloaking does its job, turning a metallic box into a finer profile. sharp golden gaze concentrated on what lies ahead, mouth set into a soft line, not quite a frown but not quite a smile, something neutral in his observing state... her fingers play with the blanket's hem again, twisting it around them.

something younger about him, just a little. not exactly young, but younger. the way he takes in the sky as a whole, maybe drawing lines as she had, maybe not. a different yesod than she's known, just like... the one that had drawn her into the alcove, close (but not close eno) and protective (possesi).

... maybe he'll be too taken by the stars... ]

[penaltypoints]

[ He hears Malkuth release a breath, a hum of laughter not long after that, and he wonders what expression accompanies both soft sounds, but he resists looking away from the sky for now. The silence stays unbroken — it isn't tense. The rest of the world recedes into the background altogether.

Little by little, lately, some ever-present shadow has begun to dissipate. Yesod thinks he remembers this feeling, a fleeting first brush of it, from long ago. And he remembers anticipating moments spent in a friend's company, too.

Like Malkuth, he eventually raises one hand, splaying its five fingers until their ends are aligned with a cluster of bright stars, as if to reach out and dip them into the inky expanse of the sky to trace these dots of light and the links between them. The thrum of countless thoughts grows quieter. This peace is one more novel experience.

When Yesod lowers his hand, letting it sink down onto the blanket beside him, he turns his head in Malkuth's direction, gaze coming to rest on her once more. The cloaking device responds; the movement leaves his hair tousled against the fabric beneath him. His mouth curves slightly, forming a microscopic smile, but a smile nonetheless, something appreciative that tints his expression a touch warmer. ]

...Thank you.

[ Yes, Malkuth was right. Although he will advise her against falling asleep out here, if he must. ]

[ignoreher]

Hm?

[ for what, she almost asks, the soft, inquisitive hum thankfully the only dumb noise coming out of her for a moment as she decides to commit this sight to memory too.

ah, right. for inviting him down. since it was a better sight, or just as memorable. something like that. malkuth smiles wider and then turns onto her side, picking at the blanket's edge between them. since she's been caught. it sucks to feel her neck warm as humid as it can be even at not, but it's such a footnote she barely registers the feeling.

more than that, seeing him experience something new was... good. it's good. yeah. that's what this feeling can be. her voice remains hushed, as if anything louder would break the night's tranquility. ]

Oh, yeah, I mean-- you're welcome? Netzach's enjoying himself too.

[ the same way, enamored by stars and the indescribable urge to try and touch them. it's almost funny, the way they all did it; it's sad too, the way they all wished they could. ]

We'll be seeing it a lot from now on, I think... but I don't feel like I'll ever get bored of it. Not when we've been missing out on so much for so long.

[penaltypoints]

[ The experience is indisputably more memorable from this spot, but it isn't because of the starry sky alone. It's this as well, heightening the knowledge that his colleagues are enjoying it, if not without an inexplicable ache, a pang of implacable longing. Yesod takes in the way Malkuth smiles now, the shifting of her fingers where the edges of their blankets almost meet. Her hand doesn't cross that boundary line.

His own hands are relaxed, his arms not crossed. Malkuth wasn't looking at the sky just then, he notes. ]

Yes... I agree. Each time, the sight may reveal more still undiscovered.

[ignoreher]

Did you know there's stories for all of them? Well, for the pictures people have seen in the sky.

[ it's hard to differ them all right now, with a stream of stars above them... but-- ]

There's a legend about the riverish one up there too. Sort of. It plays a part in one, anyway -- I read about it when I looking into the kinds of things they celebrate here. There's a lot more than what we have back home, that's for sure.

[ some things are the same. christmas.

...

christmas... ]