The Causeway, Monday Morning

[not_of_the_nora]

They were leaving a day late, because the school authorities hadn't wanted to leave while anyone might have remained in the middle of a tragic reunion. Go figure.

They'd put that message out there. Aloy had been annoyed by it: it was just another reminder that her mother, whoever she was, hadn't just magically appeared on island and divulged all her truths.

She dragged her one bag of supplies to the causeway that morning, in an irritated mood, and sat down by the causeway. Now for everyone else to arrive.

[[ gather up for the trip, folks! ]]

Comments

[not_of_the_nora]

Aloy was fine.

Aloy was fine and whittling away at a sharp stick while she waited.

Sometimes you just... had to have a spear on hand. While on vacation. To Greece.

[in_sidon_we_trust]

On the one hand, Sidon didn't exactly need to pack much for trips, but, on the other hand, he almost wished he did, because it would have given him something else to do other than trying to figure out how he could possibly enjoy a trip in light of everything that had happened and what he knew was happening again.

He almost didn't want to go. If he was going anywhere, it should be back home, back to his people, back where he belonged. But Mipha would want him to go; she'd pretty much said so, pointing out how his time here was brief, he needed to make the most of it.

So he would go, though there wasn't a single ounce of his usual enthusiasm in it. He might try to wrangle some up for the benefit of everyone else, but for now, he stood as he waited, quietly just watching the water and trying not to be too sullen about it.

[bookbeltof_love]

Despite appearances, Nina wasn't actually stupid and she knew good and well what had happened over the weekend even though a) she wasn't thinking too hard about it and b) it was really, really weird.

And c) how did people decide to come back anyway? Did they, like, have to know them? Was that why...

Whatever, it wasn't even important.

But her big sibling was looking kind of... like, totally not like himself, and Nina didn't really have any words for how absolutely garbage it would be to have someone dead show up and then leave again.

But, hey, she was just going to stand by him, and watch the water too, in a show of support? Or something? Telling him to cheer up--her other option--really didn't seem like it fit, so, okay, reign in that excitement about the trip and just... be.

She could do that.

[in_sidon_we_trust]

And it was hard not to take note of the fact that his little sibling was also being quite uncharacteristically unlike herself. Sidon figured it was for his benefit, too, and he greatly appreciated it, more than he would have expected, so he was just going to take a moment longer to linger with his thoughts, using his gratitude to help inspire him to feel a little more like himself again.

He took in a breath, held it for a moment, then sighed, before turning his head and looking down at her with a soft smile.

"Excited for the trip, Nina?"

If the answer was anything less than yes, he was going to think she might have been replaced by something that was Nina in appearance only.

[bookbeltof_love]

She beamed up at him.

"Yes!!!!" No chance of thinking she was an imposter! "I wasn't really sure, like, what to bring, so I just brought basically everything!!!"

Out of, like, consideration for him she wasn't quite as exuberant as normal.

[white_oleander]

By now, Astrid should have figured that a school like this one would do something like a whole big trip to somewhere else, but it still made her boggle a little. It was pretty cool, though, that she was getting the chance to mark another location of her travel list, and she almost felt excited . Greece! She'd even picked up a small pocket dictionary to help her out, having spent a good portion of the weekend studying it, because she liked being able to communicate when she was in a new country.

She was pretty sure I grid had never been to Greece, either, so there was another thing, other than freedom, she'd have over her mother. She was excited to write to her about it, too...even if it seemed Ingrid no longer had any interest in writing her back anymore.

[hashtag_chocobro]

It was Prompto's dream to one day be the sort of person who showed up to the beginning of a trip like this lugging a ludicrous amout of luggage with him, which was totally a worthy dream, why you gotta hate on a man''s dream like that?? But, alas, he didn't have nearly enough clothes or worldly possessions to pull off such an arrival; he barely had enough clean underwear to get him through the week...

But he did manage two suitcases, and one of them, to his credit, was a big one, big enough that he could flop down on it to sit as he realized he was not only on time , but it seemed he was actually a little early .

"First time for everything, I guess," he said, mostly to himself, as he looked a little proud of himself and hoped the wait wasn't too long.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina had, like, totally no idea where Greece even was (okay, that was a lie, she'd poked at an atlas to get a vague idea of where it was but given how little she knew of the world... she basically knew nothing) but she was pumped and ready to go.

Normally, she didn't pack that heavily, but since she and Vette were still basically sharing wardrobes, Nina was dragging her trunk with her, just in case.

"Oh my gosh????" she said, collapsing on her trunk. "Is bus guy late again?????"

[studyingfear]

"Dark Nation, heel," Rufus said as his dog, all long legs, swinging tentacle, and bouncy glee bounded up to the causeway. Rufus came after, to all appearances unencumbered with anything more than a leash.

His dog bounded back to him eagerly and Rufus smiled faintly, running one hand over Dark Nation's head.

"We'll get leaving soon," he said easily.

[white_oleander]

"You're bringing your dog with you?" Astrid noticed, tilting her head slightly at Dark Nation as if still trying to figure out his strange extra appendage, as well as her own strange uneasiness around dogs. Though that strange extra appendage was exactly why she wasn't going to feel too bad about feeling uneasy around this particular dog.

Dog. σκύλος. Pronounce skýlos...

And while Astrid wasn't quite holding out her hand for Dark Nation to come sniff, she was at least thinking about it.

[studyingfear]

"He's better company than most," Rufus said, a touch dryly.

Also they hadn't said he couldn't bring his dog, so Rufus was. Dark Nation would enjoy running along the beach.

Dark Nation was also going to wiggle hopefully between Astrid and Rufus, but stayed in place, for the moment.

[white_oleander]

"I guess so," said Astrid, shrugging a shoulder and watching Dark Nation a little longer. He did seem pretty well-behaved; excited, maybe, but wouldn't most dogs be excited about a trip? So she held out her hand a little, wiggling her fingers at him in an invitation.

"So, you ever been to Greece before?"

Greece. Ελλάδα. Pronounced Elláda...

[hourtohour_notetonote]

Greece!

Simon was... a little oblivious to what had been going on over the weekend, although he had noticed that there seemed to be a few more people around again, just like Parents Weekend the week before. So he was just kinda happy to be heading off with everyone, with the chance to explore a whole new country.

... He did spare a passing thought to how the school handled everyone who wouldn't have, uh, appropriate passports, but concluded that it was probably a Fandom thing.

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette didn't really have much to bring along with her or anything like that, but the school was sending them somewhere warm and tropical on vacation, and all humans or not, she wasn't going to miss out on this.

So yeah, one Vette, ready for vacation.

... Mostly by just showing up. She'd totally crash Nina's room to steal clothes for this trip if she needed them.

[always_someone]

Having learned from his trip to China, Norman had actually packed probably more than was strictly necessary for Greece. Including, yes, clothing that leaned closer into the 'winter' end of the clothing spectrum.

He probably could have googled what the weather was going to be like, but this gave him an excuse to bust out a suitcase, and a suitcase meant he was obligated to fill in the extra space with comic books, just so nothing would be rattling around in there, right?

He was set.

[built_fjord_tough]

Fjord looked maybe the faintest bit bemused as he stood on the Causeway, overseeing the other folks as they gathered. He wasn't entirely sure what 'Greece' entailed, no, but he was here for it.

... In his armor.

With his falchion on his back.

You do vacations your way, and Fjord would do them his.

[mages_suck]

Fenris was also wearing his armor and his sword, but he had a small rucksack with 'modern' clothing in it as well.

"If there's any singing like there was in the movie, let's get some sword practice in," Fenris said mildly.

[built_fjord_tough]

"Now now, Fenris, that would be rude to our hosts," Fjord protested, smiling faintly. "Unless, of course, some of those lyrics make a repeat appearance."

If that happened, all bets were off, and someone was probably going to lose a hand or something.

[mages_suck]

"I didn't understand most of the lyrics," Fenris admitted, "I think I'm glad of it. None of the people in the movie treated the others very well. It just struck me that perhaps it was some tribal custom of the people of the place we're going."

Grease, Fenris. Not Greece.

[died8yearsago]

Well. Rosa was here, and not exactly looking thrilled about it, with her arms crossed in front of her, a mostly untouched travel mug of coffee, sunglasses on her face and suitcase at her feet. She was sort of regretting this whole chaperone thing once she was actually there, looking at the students that she'd have to maybe spend a smidgen of her time pretending to be supervising.

Ugh.

[special_rabbit]

Did the fact that this was Amaya's second time helping to chaperone one of these trips mean that she'd officially settled into the whole teaching thing? She thought it did, which was a little strange still, but not nearly as strange as it had been the first time, which only really seemed to seal the deal.

She was a bit later getting to the causeway than most, probably, but thankfully not too late. She just had to make sure the shop was all closed up properly before heading over, making sure to put out a sign letting anyone still on the island know they were closed for the break, but if they needed anything, she put the phone number there. If she had a cell phone, might as well put it to work, right?

[mylandmyrules]

Nell had all but had to be shoved to the Causeway, needing multiple assurances that it would be okay - even expected for her to not be at work. She had very little to her name here, so all she had was the bag from when she'd been given a few things to get her through till she started making some money.

Currently she was torn between being ridiculously excited and absolutely terrified.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Um, like, are you okay???????"

Nina figured it was best to, like, check because worried wasn't how most people ready for holidays looked.

[mylandmyrules]

"I'm s'posed to work on Mondays," Nell explained. "But they said it's okay 'cause it's a school trip, but I'm not so sure."

Nell had never actually been on a holiday before.

[bookbeltof_love]

"Oh my gosh, don't worry about it," Nina said, smiling. "It's like, totally, a great mark that you're concerned about your job!!!! But they understand holidays, here, it's no problem if you're a student!!!!!! If you'd like, look at it this way: being a student is your job!!!!!!!! So it's really important that you go on this trip with the school!!!!!"