fh_trips | Indiana Dunes State Park- Saturday evening

Indiana Dunes State Park- Saturday evening

After a day of hiking, it was best to get back to camp by nightfall. It was a chilly 41 degrees, but there was no real chance of rain, and cold was why fires were invented. And hey, if you hated it, it was the last night!

So hang out, get dinner, make some friends, and yes that is still sand if your shoes. You're not fully getting rid of it for a while.

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In case you just want to hide out in here.

Sparkle had made himself comfortable in front of the tent that he and Cosette were sharing tonight with what was quite possibly a bottle of Coke, and was quite probably not-actually-a-bottle-of-Coke. He was wearing a dark hoodie, and after a morning spent texting Atton, his phone just barely had enough battery life left in it for him to play a few rounds of that tower defense game with the balloons and the monkeys before the whole thing went dead.

You rough it your way, Sparkle would rough it his.

And sometime in the evening, Eliot, Parker, and Hardison came rushing back to their tent, skirting the campsite.

Just, you know, to attempt to avoid having the students catch sight of one of their teachers in his underwear carrying a similarly dressed guy around and bitching about hypothermia.

Where the fire is. And where someone may have fixed the electricity by now?

Electricity was fixed! Which was why Hardison was coming out of his tent, holding up ice cream cones and calling out, "Who wants ice cream?"

And then later, he'd set up the sound system for a camping dance party! Because this is what camping was supposed to be like, right?

Ignore how he was sniffling and occasionally coughing into his elbow. He was fine.

And here Eliot had been whipping up some nice soup for you, Hardison. Hot, fresh made soup! And you show up talking about ice cream.

"Seriously, man? You're supposed to be huddled under a blanket with Parker right now."

"I'm fine," Hardison insisted. "I got all warmed up. Now I want ice cream."

And to share the ice cream. And have a dance party. And--hold on, he had to sneeze.

"You really don't," Eliot said, after waiting a moment for what he thought was the inevitable whining about allergies and fresh air trying to kill Hardison after that sneeze. He reached over to press his hand against Hardison's head. "You should be taking it easy."

"You're the one who insisted we come here to rough it," Hardison argued, no complaints in sight. "Now you want me to take it easy?" He fought off another sneeze. "Is this cause you don't wanna go to the dance party later?"

Eliot rolled his eyes. "Yeah, man, I made you sick to avoid that damned roomba. That definitely sounds like me."

Well, at least Hardison's body temperature wasn't low anymore.

"I told you I'm fine," Hardison glared. "I'm a little tired and I feel kinda rough, but it ain't nothin' a good night's sleep can't fix."

"Which is why you're out here yelling about ice cream and dance parties, right." Eliot sighed. "To get a good night's sleep."

"Would you rather I started invitin' everyone in for the X-box tournament instead?" Hardison asked. "Look, people just wanna have a good time an it's not like they can go hikin' or somethin' after dark."

Eliot would rather throw the X-box in the lake. "That ain't even true." Eliot loved a good night hike. "And I know it ain't your strong suit, but sitting quietly is a good time."

Especially with a campfire! Did you see the campfire, Hardison? They could tell stories and watch the flames and occasionally set marshmallows on fire just to watch them burn!

Which was almost certainly how the cavemen had spent their time, in between hiding from sabre-tooth lions and trying not to starve in between woolly mammoth hunts. But ever since man evolved and started walking upright, they'd been looking for other ways to entertain themselves.

"I'd sit quietly durin' an X-Box tournament," Hardison grumbled. Then turned away to cough, a thick, wet sound.

TOTALLY HEALTHY!

"For the love of -- I've seen you play video games, Hardison, you bounce all over the damn place." Eliot found a nice log by the fire and grabbed for Hardison's shirt to drag him over to it. "Now sit down before you start hacking up a lung."

"I may, like, get into it, yeah, but I don't bounce," Hardison said, dragging his feet over to the fire and being forcibly sat. "I just, like, you know, groove! You'd understand if you ever sat down to play something!"

Well, at least he was sitting. Eliot checked on his soup, looping his arm over Hardison's shoulder to keep him there. "You kidding? Between you and Parker it's like hanging out with two of those cartoon bouncing bears." ~~Meta for~~ Gummy Bears was probably before Hardison's time, wasn't it. "And I have played. We did that fishing game, remember?"

And Hardison had bounced in his seat while Eliot hated it.

"You did it!" Kitty said.

[On SP but I had to.]

"I wasn't gonna leave the campsite hangin', yo," Hardison said, grinning. "Never get between a man an' his wi-fi, you know what I'm sayin'?"

He offered Kitty one of the cones. "Hope you like chocolate. I was gonna make strawberry, but Parker insisted."

"Thank you," she said, taking it. "Strawberry's good, but chocolate is always a crowd-pleaser."

If Hardison knew Kitty a little better, he'd make a joke about always being popular. But the day after an introduction was probably not the best time to be testing out people's sense of humor.

"You an' my girl Parker got that in common. We ended up sendin' her to a Chocolate Festival one time for a job and tryin' to keep her on track was damn near impossible."

He'd said it was like "sending a crack addict to a cocaine convention" at the time. And hadn't really been wrong.

"What kind of job?" If it involved a chocolate festival there was no bad there.

Kitty was bundled up in a sweatshirt, occasionally trying to roast a marshmallow that was doomed to self-immolate.

Aka bug bathroom at night, mwahaha.

Mara didn't shriek (...much....), but there was very definitely a vibroblade neatly skewering that cockroach on the floor.

"Ew ew ew EW."

Up earlier than I intended but I need to leave in about ten minutes and my hair's half done.

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Indiana Dunes State Park- Saturday evening

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OOC