[Public Channel | Day 143]

[hippocarnival]

[ The radio comes on to the sound of creaking wood and a familiar voice that is, for once, not sounding all that agitated, though it’s a little distant. ]

“--just burn us out of this.”

“Then you’re just going to burn us with it!” [Yuya’s tone, comparatively, sounds snappish.] “Don’t--don’t do anything, I’m going to get us help--”

[The radio clicks off. And then immediately clicks back on.] “Hello?”

[The anger’s been smoothed out of his voice, and instead Yuya is sounding fairly composed.] “Is there anyone available right now who doesn’t mind coming to the Summerlands? We’re, uh--we’re stuck.”

“In a tree.” [ Lambert contributes helpfully. That’s not super specific or anything, and that’s is why burning things would help! There’s another creak of wood, something shifting and shuddering, and his tone doesn’t change a jot as he continues. ] “Which may or may not be trying to hug us to death.”

[Yuya is just going to ignore Lambert’s fatalism.] “We don’t really know where we are, but we were drifting… east of the city? Do these things have GPS?” [Does half the carnival even know what GPS is?]

“We’re going to get out of the tree!” [He pipes up confidently, despite it.] “But help would be appreciated.”


((Red = Yuya, Green = Lambert. Replies are separate, threadjacking is free and wild. These boys are dumb.))

Comments

[whattaprick]

The treelover here doesn't want me to burn us out.

[ Which is exactly what he'd do if he was alone. ]

I still think that's the easiest way to get out of here.

[kingsroads]

Probably because I'd imagine the treelover is still a bit winded from Portland.

[ Yuya got stabbed in the soul, let's try and not add a heart attack on that as well. ]

I'd offer my help but it seems like you've plenty of people responding already.

[whattaprick]

And here I thought you were going to talk it into coming to the Carnival with us, since you love sentient trees so much.

[kingsroads]

[ must you bring up his mortal enemy? :| ]

Speaking of Coco, a word of advice: don't toss a rock at your tree.

[whattaprick]

[ Teasing goes two ways, buddy. But hey, the more people distract him, at least the less room for getting impatient he has! ]

No rocks in here, so no worries there. Maybe I'll toss out Pig, she could probably kick this thing over.

[ He's just entertaining himself with increasingly improbably ways to get out of this thing, all right. ]

[kingsroads]

Does that horse of yours even listen to you in the first place?

[whattaprick]

Of course she does. She's been easier to train since she grew up.

[kingsroads]

And you've trained her to kick things?

[ of course, considering the fact that a kick from Pig could probably shatter a man's spine in two if placed correctly, kicking things miiiight not be so stupid. ]

[whattaprick]

She already knew how to do that.

[ Mostly, she kicked Lambert, but that was before she turned into a two-ton beast, thankfully for his bones. ]

But she will kick things I ask her to.

[kingsroads]

[ There's a pause, as Strange mulls things over. ]

Well, it can't hurt to try. Just be careful that Yuya doesn't get hurt in the process.

[ to say nothing about Lambert's delicate witcher ankles. ]

[whattaprick]

I'll give 'em an hour to get here, but if this thing starts squeezing...

Though this would make good practice for nightrunners, wouldn't it? Search and retrieval. Maybe we should make that a regular thing.

[kingsroads]

It would be better if we do that when we're at a new location. There's only so many places in the carnival that would be useful for hide and seek.

[ because that's what it is. Search and retrieval his foot, it's hide and seek. ]

[whattaprick]

Here would be a good start. Makes more sense to do it where we know there aren't too many things that could kill you.

[ All too cheerful. ]

[kingsroads]

We'd have to come up with a set of rules, of course. Perhaps a time limit as well?

[whattaprick]

Yeah, there's an idea. And some kind of signal to let people know when you catch someone.

'Course, to be proper practice, you'd need people to play the part of the kidnappers.

[kingsroads]

A signal flare would be easiest for that! Half of us can cast the magic ourselves and with the other half, we'd simply give them matches and a portable flare.

As for your other point, call it something else and I'd be happy to be the first person to be found. [ because even though he's playing 'let's pretend it didn't happen', Portland still happened and he still kind of tried to kidnap a child. ]

What about 'the target' instead?

[whattaprick]

Do we have those? Why haven't we been using them?

[ The more you encourage this, Strange, the more you're going to be the one who has to put it together... ]

Not catchy enough. How about 'the mark'?

[kingsroads]

We might? I don't see why we wouldn't. A signal flare's something easy to make. After all, it's just a firework.

[ right, let's get the slightly forgetful eccentric to organize everything, that'll go GREAT. ]

'The mark' it is.

[whattaprick]

Not exactly convenient if we don't want anything else to spot us, though...

[ That's just him thinking out loud, though. But hey, it beats contemplating arson, right? ]

Anyway, I guess we can talk more about a game later.

[kingsroads]

I'll be certain to think up some ideas while you're stuck in the tree.