Duncain Summer Camp PV Closed

Roleplaying as Phylicia Stanwood
@Opeila Winters [Theodore Duncain] and @Wyatt Starkey [Miles Parker]

Summer was a pretty cool time of year. The weather could get kind of hot--too hot, sometimes--but it was a time free of homework, days open to do whatever. The lame part was probably that the vast majority of her friends were from school and school being out meant they weren't all in the same place, except for the wonderful time that was summer camp. When her closest friends lived in Arizona and Alaska and her house was in the decidedly eastern part of Canada, they couldn't just casually meet up. So of course she was thrilled by the idea of a camping trip, more than happy to pitch in and help Theo afford the cool tent he wanted. Her family was stupidly rich anyway, those galleons might as well go toward something worthwhile.

And so, after a short few days at home that had honestly been far too long away from her friends, she'd pestered her mother to get her to Alaska and now she was here, climbing into a motor vehicle. It was kind of a first time. She'd been in carriages and trains and all that, so it wasn't completely new, but her very traditional pureblood parents definitely didn't own a car.

It was loud in the car, any quieter moments filled by the hum of music, and Phyllis loved it. The Duncain family was so cool, honestly. Going home for the summer wouldn't be so bad if she had siblings to make noise and chaos, maybe. But she wasn't thinking about that, wistful wishes for a sibling, because that would detract from living in this moment. It was a good moment, the Duncain twins asking interesting questions--she was more than happy to share magic stuff, it was always so fun when people taught her Muggle stuff--and friends at her side, Theo who she would do anything with and Miles who she was looking forward to getting to know better.

Camping was also a thing she hadn't done a lot of. Like, summer camp, but that wasn't really the same thing. She thought maybe she remembered going camping with her father once, but she must have been like five at the time. That said, she wasn't 100% sure what to do when they arrived at the campsite, but that was fine, she'd just roll with it. Choosing somewhere for the tent and getting their things out of the car seemed to be the first orders of business.

"Yeah!" she agreed, Theo having directed them toward finding a spot. Did she know what to look for in a tent spot? Absolutely not. It didn't seem like you would need anything specific, but she couldn't say for sure. Phyllis was, however, perfectly confident in her ability to follow everyone else around enthusiastically, so this would be great.

Something that had made Theo nervous and excited at the same time was his magical friends meeting his family. Having grown up in a no-maj family with no knowledge of magic before he was eleven years old at all meant that from the moment he entered Ilvermorny for the first time, he had two lives in two different worlds. One was the school, this fantastic magical place where they made things happen that were usually just parts of movies.

On the other side his no-maj family. Returning sometimes felt like (pleasantly) waking up from a surreal dream. Theodore loved coming home. Loved seeing his parents and siblings again and yes, loved the attention that automatically accompanied his return after months of absence. His parents were always unusually nice to him, his brothers would always go crazy telling him all their unbelievable stories of the past year, Ana would always seek his company, his mother would cook his favorite meals more often, all of that made him hold his childhood home in fond memory when he was gone.

Now this camping trip had just blurred the line. Suddenly, in the middle of all this chaos that was his family, sat Phyllis and Miles.
But seeing Phyllis chat with the twins made him very happy, it made him worry a lot less if they would all get along- while Ana was still a bit shy and reserved in the presence of the two strangers, the twins naturally included both his friends in their conversations and Theo had never been more grateful for it.

While the twins had already claimed their spot for their tent, Theo would now get his friends and sister to search for one of their own. Grinning at Miles who he would beckon to come closer, he would put an arm around both Ana's and Phyllis' shoulders, giving all three of them a playfully serious look. "Alright, now listen up, warriors. You can't know it yet, but camping with my family is war."

Ana, who had probably figured out where his little speech was going by now, had visible difficulties to keep a straight face. "What's the plan, commander?"
Theo's grin broke the serious mask for just a moment. "We need to find a strategically convenient place for our fortress. Surrounded by enough trees and bushes to shield it so we do not run the risk to get ambushed by rogue one and two." He looked over his shoulder, at the twins who were busy setting up their tent already.

Oh, he could already tell this would be fun.

Roleplaying as Phylicia Stanwood
@Opeila Winters [Theodore Duncain] and @Wyatt Starkey [Miles Parker]

So, Phyllis had kind of been picturing a casual look around. Checking out the area, admiring that patch of flowers, whatever. Finding a spot that didn't have, like, trees, and going, yep, this works!

Objectively, going to war was much cooler. And way funnier.

Phyllis joined in the huddle, and she couldn't say she was taking this completely seriously, because it was Theo talking and she'd just had a whole conversation with his little siblings, who were perfectly wonderful human beings. But she pretended to look engaged, leaning in and nodding where it seemed appropriate.

Her straight face slipped too when Theo did, because she was fairly certain she did not have that kind of control over her facial muscles when her friends were grinning. Strategy, yep. Phyllis was so good at that. Something like tank was a better role for her, honestly. Really she was just here to... mildly stab children. Lightly punt them, maybe. Probably actually just whack them over the head with a pillow or something, who knew how aggressive the Duncains were, but if she had to guess Theo probably didn't want legitimate harm coming to the so-dubbed rogues one and two. Which, fair. Phyllis didn't really have a record of attacking minors outside of Quidditch anyway.

"Aye aye, Commander Theo!" She broke out of the huddle and gave a two-fingered salute that would surely make any actual military person cry, but that sounded like a them problem. Her orders were to find a place for their super epic fortress of doom, so that was what she did. She was such a great soldier, or scout, look at her go. Such top-tier seeing skills.

Phyllis had spotted it, something that seemed to fit Theo's description. She ran over, red hair bouncing behind her, to confirm that yes, this was a blank patch of land surrounded by plant stuff. "Commander Theo, sir! I've found a spot that meets your specifications." Phyllis was pretty sure she'd never once used the word specifications in her life, but it felt appropriate. She was like 90% sure it made sense in this context.

In case the twins- rogues, overheard and decided this was indeed a fabulous spot, and therefore tried to take it, Phyllis was ready. In athletic stance, all fancy, ready to... Okay, she didn't know what she would do if they actually tried that. Could she tackle them? Legally? It was fine, hopefully it didn't come to that and the rest of their hastily formed army would get over here with the tent before they suffered their first attack. And just to be safe, she crouched down, pulled her pointer fingers through the dirt, and then across her face to make those line things people did when they were going to wars or sports matches. Those were intimidating, right? It being summer, the soil probably wasn't super wet, and so it might not have been the most effective of attempts, but the thought had to count for something.

The grin on his face didn't even begin to express how delighted he felt at his friend's participation in this little war game. Everything was always a competition with the twins and he always expected a trap, but it was always funnier, the more people joined in. When Phyllis called out that she had found a spot for the tent, Theo grabbed the tent. "Perfect! Come on Ana, wanna build a magic tent?"

Ana, who had still been a bit reserved the entire journey, also finally brightened up a little. "Let's do it!" Oh yes, easier said than done for sure.
Theo had only managed to drop the tent bag on the spot Phyllis had found, when something heavy, loudly yelling jumped on his back, effectively making him stumble and fall backwards with a groan. "One man down!" Dramatically, Theo rested the back of his right hand on his eyes. "The commander is wounded!"

His hand blocking his view, he did not see Ana arming herself with pine cones and also offering some to Phyllis before throwing them at the twins. "Begone, villains!" Theo sat up again as she giggled at the twins retreating and tried to brush the dirt out of his hair. In the distance he could hear his father calling the boys to help set up the tent. "I think we have a few minutes of calm, let's do this!" Quickly he jumped back onto his feet and emptied the tent bag on the ground. "Right, so... we need to connect the poles with the tent, somehow... right?" Puzzled, he grabbed one of the poles, and tried to find a hole in the fabric.

"There!" He held the pole out to Ana. "You hold that. Phyllis, there should be another hole for the second pole somewhere over there, if you can put those together and hold it like Ana, I can fixate the whole thing... I think." Was that how one built a tent? Hell, if he knew.