bursts into tears

[oversea]

Comments

[oversea]

We should start getting set up.

[ it's still early enough they have some light to get everything prepped... before night forever. ]

[transmit]

Have water first.

[ hands thorns a canteen. ]

I'll start unpacking our equipment.

[oversea]

[ thorns takes the water...




docybara wanders over to head butt their legs. ]

What are you doing? You can't help us set up camp.

[transmit]

[ he wants to help… read: be given busy work…

elysium once again thinks their child is too spoiled but with thorns here he does not think there is helping it. he already considers it a win that they'd gotten him off of his drug problem.

he gets up… and raps his knuckles against docybara's cheek. ]

… C'mon. You can help me move things over to the other side of camp.

[ docybara whines a little, but that's mostly because he wants to help thorns. all elysium has to do is tug and he will tearfully part from mother… ]

[oversea]

[ thorns watches them go...

it is such a warm, domestic feeling seeing all of this. when elysium said they needed to leave right away he was worried that this would be disrupted immediately.

... admittedly, it probably would have, if they decided to get involved. ]

Don't have too much fun without me.

[transmit]

[ it is always justified to pick fambly over morals…

elysium just snorts as he throws a hand over his shoulder to wave. ]

I won't treat your child poorly. Don't worry.

[ as they work from afar, (afar being like several metres away at most) he'll make sure to stop to wave over to thorns setting up camp every so often. he makes sure docybara waves, too. they are having fun… all together. ]

[oversea]

[ that's also your child... thorns waves back.

he will also use this time to check things out with the corazonix. he manages to locate one of the groups from earlier... they seem to be moving away from the town, but thorns can't tell if they're actually leaving the area or if they just found a more secure location to wait at. what concerns him is that the group that was very close to the town aren't at their previous position. does that mean they infiltrated?

...

he sighs and just gets their tent up. ]

[transmit]

[ him and docybara are in constant competition for thorns' attention… they have a complicated relationship. (literally only elysium thinks this.)

but after they both finish securing their perimeter, they toddle over to thorns with an eerily similar likeness. they are waiting for their praise… ]

[oversea]

[ FATHER AND SON....

thorns gives elysium a smooch and docybara some pats. good boys... ]

Thanks. Camp is up.

[transmit]

[ docybara is sooooo happy he tries to bat his front paws at thorns. it is the equivalent of a force of a hundred kilograms, probably. ]

Good work. How long did you want to camp for?

[oversea]

... I want us to be as well rested as we can, since we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

[ there is always the chance they might get attacked, so it's better to have some sleep than not. ]

[transmit]

Half and half. If you don't swap with me, I'll start training the Doctor to bite you on command.

[ … if there's one thing they've gotten better at, it's this, returning thorns' kiss before motioning back. ]

Be good.

[ (thorns voice) ]

[oversea]

[ he would use his own son against him...?

but thorns just snorts before settling down. ]

Okay. Sleep as much as you can, then.

[transmit]

[ weaponised children… ]

… Yeah. Catch you later.

[ sleeping alone… is hard… truly one of the few and only downsides to being insanely codependent. ]

[oversea]

[ yes. there are definitely like no other downsides to this at all, of course.

thorns will keep watch then, while routinely checking to see if he can learn anything new. the problem is that the general area they're in is so large that trying to pinpoint where people are when you don't have an idea of where they could be is more distracting than not, and he can't really be distracted while on watch.

...

he finds another one of the groups though. nowhere near them, so it's fine, right? but that still leaves a few unaccounted for. ]

[transmit]

[ is it fine… if one of their sensors gets triggered? elysium has the alarm itself on his person, and it doesn't matter whether they're months or years removed from active service—he jolts awake all the same, immediately poking his head through the curtains. ]

Thorns.

[ thinks about how they've discarded their names but we're still too much of cowards to use them. he says it quietly enough not to wake docybara. ]

Do you sense anything?

[oversea]

[ the way we can't ever fully commit to no code names until we find out what elysium's real name is because it would be insane for only him to legal name thorns and not the other way around. ]

Where was it tripped?

[transmit]

[ i keep joking around that it'll be diego watch it be diego and we go back to pretending it doesn't exist

go diego go ]

Northeast from here. It could be wildlife…

[oversea]

Give me a second.

[ ...

a moment passes, ]

... It's a person. Adult. But only one.

[transmit]

What do you want to do about it? We could get the preemptive strike and knock them out.

Or if you didn't want an altercation, it's still possible for them to miss us.

[oversea]

... We can see if they move anywhere.

[ ugh the chances of them getting involved grows if they move... ]

[transmit]

[ all they want to do is live their blissful marriage life but the world won't give that to them for some reason? crazy.

but he will nod… and then flit his gaze over to docybara…

…

he has one of those snooze bubbles. ]

[oversea]

[ at least SOMEONE is going to be super well rested. ]

... Go back to sleep. You still have time.

[transmit]

[ HELLO ]

It's better that I'm fully alert if something happens. What if there are people behind him? Or if something else gets triggered?

[oversea]

[ thorns is so mad he wants elysium to have his beauty rest so bad. ]

... Fine. At least close your eyes though.