fandomtownies | The Park, Lunchtime

After a stop at the Perk to pick up lunch, Isabel and Charlie headed over to the park to enjoy the fall afternoon and figure out how to play Jumanji.

Sitting cross-legged on the blanket, Isabel read the instructions for the game "Jumanji. A game for those who seek to find: a way to leave their world behind. You roll the dice to move your token, doubles get another turn. The first player to reach the end wins." The drumming chose that moment to start up again. "Oh yeah, definitely a Fandom game."

There was a small pocket on the side of the board and Isabel opened it to reveal the game pieces. "What do you want to be? An elephant, a rhino, a monkey, or a lion?"

	"Hmm. A rhino," Charlie decided, reaching for the little carved token. "May as well be something a little dangerous, right?"
	Isabel picked up the lion and set it on the board. "I like him. He looks fierce."
	Wyatt had talked to Isabel the night before and she'd told him about the game. "Hi, ladies," he said, walking up to them in the park. "So how does this work?"
	"I'm the fierce lion," Isabel said, smiling up at him. "You have a choice between a monkey or an elephant."
	"Awww, I want to be the lion," Wyatt pouted.
	She held her hand over the lion possessively. "It's mine. Monkey or elephant?"
	Wyatt made a face at Isabel and took a seat on the blanket. "Monkey, I suppose," he said, putting the piece on the board.
	"You don't want to be huge and able to trample things?" Charlie teased, dancing her rhino on the board. "Not a show-off?"
	"Monkeys are ninjas," Wyatt said. "Brute force isn't everything. Climbing up trees and throwing things can be more dangerous."
	"We'll see just how dangerous," Isabel laughed as she picked up the dice and rolled. Green writing appeared in the center glass of the game board. A journey here that was not planned, just pay attention and don't stick your head into the sand. "That's odd," she said, reading the words aloud.
	Odder yet? The five ostriches that came from behind a tree and ran past them.
	They ran past Peter, who was just coming up to join them. Now? He was staring. "...those are new, right?"
	"Yeaaaaah," Wyatt said slowly, watching the ostriches run, and not just because looking at the large birds meant he wasn't looking at Peter.
	Charlie was still staring after the ostriches, eyes wide. "Um. That's a lot more than drums, Isabel."
	"You think?" Isabel turned away from the ostriches and smiled at Peter. "Hey. It's a new board game. Fandom style apparently. I can't wait to see what comes next." She'd live to regret those words. "Want to stick around and watch?"
	Peter glanced at Isabel and Wyatt, then shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"
	"Yeah, you can be the elephant," Wyatt said, hoping he didn't sound as awkward as he felt. But after his recent scrapes with Johnny, he certainly didn't want to act like the flaming dick.
	Charlie looked from Wyatt, to Peter, to Isabel, and stopped herself from gulping. "I'll just roll then. 'kay?" She picked up the die and sang, "Come on, six," before throwing it.
	She got a five and her piece slid forward as new words appeared in the glass. A tiny bite can make you itch, make you sneeze, make you twitch A buzzing noise could be heard getting closer.
	"Attack of the killer ragweed?" Isabel wondered, turning around an looking for a source of the noise.
	A half dozen swallow-sized mosquitoes suddenly dive bombed at the game players.
	Peter hit the deck - or ground as the case may be - in order to get away from them.
	One determined mosquito tried to make a kamikaze run at Peter's head.
	Peter tried tossing a fireball at it.
	Better then any bug zapper.... Zzzzppptttt!!!! Crunchy, dead mosquito.
	Peter glanced around to see if everyone else was okay.
	Wyatt dodged as well. "Dude, what the hell?" he said, wondering if his shield could work as a bug zapper.
	He might want to find out as a rather determined mosquito attempted to land on his arm.
	No way was Wyatt going to let the little bloodsucker take a drink. He used his TK to try to redirect the mosquito to zoom into a tree.
	The mosquito slammed into the tree and dropped to the ground. A few seconds later it started to fly again. Only much more slowly and in erratic circles. The other mosquitoes zoomed around it and herded it off towards town and hopefully easier meals.
	Happily unstung, Isabel and Charlie looked up from where they'd been swatting flies away. "The hell?" Isabel said. "I'm not sure I like this game."
	"I think we better quit and go get those mosquitos before they hurt someone," Wyatt said. "Probably should herd up the ostriches, too. Not sure where we can put them, though."
	"I'm not arguing. We squash the mosquitoes and herd the ostriches into the preserve. The teal deer would like the company," Isabel agreed. Reaching for the game board, she tried to scoop the pieces up. They refused to come off of the board. "Oh this isn't good."
	Charlie tried to move her little rhino, and the following words appeared: ADVENTURERS BEWARE. DO NOT BEGIN UNLESS YOU INTEND TO FINISH. FOR THE EXCITING CONSEQUENCES WILL ONLY VANISH WHEN A PLAYER HAS REACHED JUMANJI AND CALLS OUT ITS NAME. "Uh-ohhhh." She looked up from the board and nervously said, "Guys? I think we're stuck with this."
	"Its name?" Peter asked. "What name?"
	Isabel flipped over the lid of the game box to show Peter. "I'm going with Jumanji for $500 Alex." Joking aside, she had a feeling this wasn't going to be pleasant. "Well it doesn't look like it should take too long. Let's get this over with. Wyatt, you're up."
	"We have to keep playing this?" Wyatt said, eyeing the board. "Yeah, right. I think we can handle some giant mosquitoes and a few large birds instead of accidentally releasing anything else from there."
	"Do you really want to leave it? Where anyone could pick up the dice and roll?" she asked. "I mean at least the four of us are capable enough of handling whatever might come out of there." Silly, silly Isabel...
	Wyatt looked around. "True," he said. "We've got some impressive fire power here, more than enough to handle anything." Famous last words. He picked up the dice and tossed them on the board.
	The dice landed and new words appeared in the glass. In the jungle you must wait till the dice read five or eight. A green mist oozed out of the board and surrounded Wyatt. Then, in a blink of an eye, sucked him into the game.
	That? Would be Isabel flailing just a bit.
	"Oh my god!" Charlie made a futile grab after Wyatt, but he was already long gone. "Give him back!" she yelled at the game, then looked at Isabel, starting to get really scared. "What do we do?"
	Isabel took a deep breath, drawing on the same inner strength that helped her lead a rebel team on Antar. She collected the dice off the board and held them out to Peter. "We play the game and get him back."
	"Can I just take this moment to say I'm glad you guys weren't playing Risk?" Peter asked. He gave the dice his best roll.
	Unfortunately Peter's best did not come up to the numbers five or eight. At night they fly, you'd better run. These winged things are not much fun.
	High-pitched screeching filled the air as a flock of bats burst out of the trees and over their heads. Even though she knew it was an old wives' tale, Isabel still covered her head. "I've played Risk here. The stupid cannons never tried to shoot us."
	Charlie ducked too, and used her telekinesis to send the bats careening away from her and into each other, some of them splatting to the ground. "Keep playing! Who's turn is it!?"
	Isabel was already reaching for the dice, still half hoping that Wyatt would just orb himself back from wherever he was. "I'm going, don't worry."
	She rolled an eight. This will not be an easy mission, monkeys slow the expedition.
	Speaking of monkeys, Wyatt suddenly reappeared in mid-run, leaves in his hair and a vine tangled around one arm. "What the hell?" he said.
	Not hell. Not unless monkeys were suddenly agents of Satan. The picnic lunch they'd gotten in town was suddenly the target of a tribe of boisterous monkeys.
	Isabel could care less about lunch. She was focused on Wyatt. "Are you okay? Where were you?"
	"I was in a jungle," Wyatt said, still a little dazed. "I couldn't orb, so I was running around trying to find a way out."
	Charlie swatted away one particularly obnoxious monkey and called, "Welcome back, glad you're okay! And I think it's my turn!" She grabbed the die and rolled, hoping and hoping that it would be something nice and innocuous. Frogs, maybe?
	Charlie's rhino slid forward a few spaces. They grow much faster than bamboo. Take care, or they'll come after you.
	The ground suddenly started to erupt underneath them as large vines started to grow rapidly, spreading out towards the game players.
	"Look out!" Peter said. He tried using TK to push the vines away.
	Some of the vines were pushed away. But there were too many of them, with more coming up every minute. One slithered towards Charlie's leg.
	Charlie screamed, shoved at it with her TK, and when it kept coming, glared at it, concentrating, trying to start a spark.
	Wyatt orbed out of the way of the vines grabbing for his ankles. "Anyone got a weed wacker?" he said as he reappeared.
	"No weed whacker," Isabel said, doing a little TKing of her own. She grabbed the board. "I thinks it's time to get out of here and finish this somewhere else."
	"Right behind you!" Charlie was up and still shooting fire at the vines, glad that it seemed to make them back off a little. "Run!"
	"Go, go!" Peter said, indicating the others should go before him. He couldn't exactly tell them he had self-healing now. But that didn't mean it didn't come in handy to help protect his friends.
	Wyatt moved backwards as quickly as he could, ready to use his TK to deflect the vines from the girls. Not that they needed him watching their backs, but it made him feel better.
	Isabel was doing a little watching of her own. Which meant she grabbed Wyatt's hand and tugged him along with her. "Come on, I know where to go."
	Once everyone had run from the area, the vines quieted down although they still kept growing. Only more subtlety. They were waiting. For lunch…

[OOC: Not for interaction. OOC comments more then welcome and will be fed to the hungry vines. There will be a post up in a bit if you feel like running into Audrey II's magical cousins.]