here lies kevin tran

[vates]

Who: Kevin Tran and YOU.
Where: The Oregon Trail obviously.
When: All during the event.
Rating: PG probably.
Summary: Kevin only makes it to Day 2 before he breaks his leg, which rapidly gets infected, leading to his death on Day 3. And after he dies? What else does he have to do except heckle and critique everyone else?
The Story:

Day 1: Kevin spends the first part of the day grappling with the weird nostalgia that is being plunked down in apparently Oregon Trail Town, combined with the fear that they're about to go and live out, he guesses, the Oregon Trail. How screwed are they? And how many pounds of food is it per person again? How do you even prevent dysentery? Do they sell bottled water anywhere?

Day 2: They have to cross a river, and Kevin votes to caulk the wagon and float it across, all the way, thouh the guide is tempting, honestly. He never did it that way in the game because he has some self-respect, but maybe that's different in person.

Even though Kevin survives the river crossing, he manages to trip and break his leg, and it promptly gets infected. The infection's actually moving pretty quickly, and by the end of the day, he's not just in pain; he's shivering with a fever and chills and not able to keep any liquids down.

Days 3-5: Overcome with infection, Kevin passes away soon into the third day, and mostly he's just really freaking annoyed. At least he has some experience at being a ghost, and he figures out the new rules of ghostdom so he can visit his friends and survey (and critique) their attempts at traversing the trail. Actually, being a ghost is pretty fun. It's sort of like playing the game, except he doesn't have to make any actual choices and he just gets to heckle people to their face instead of to the computer screen. Though it does suck watching people actually get dysentery.

Comments

Day One

[no_eels]

This is all new to Toothless, and just as perplexing as the mansion that's... nowhere to be found. He's not certain what to think about that. How does a house just get up and wander away? Or is it that he's woken up on a different island altogether? Why are things here so confusing? Why can't it just be normal?

The Nightfury sticks close to Hiccup, at first, but as the day goes on he finds his 'sea legs', and begins to branch out on his own to have a look around. He finds Kevin looking just as confused as he feels, and trills from a few feet away.

He gets it, viking.

[vates]

He doesn't remember that part of Oregon Trail, but he does, suddenly, miss his dog.

Kevin was trying to talk to anyone around here to figure out if he was starting out as a teacher or a blacksmith or anything, but he wasn't getting very far. Now he's holding a bunch of clothes that he's not sure he's really going to need, but maybe in real life Oregon Trail, these won't be as useless as they seemed in the game.

"Um. Watch out for them rattlers? I think you might be okay, though."

[no_eels]

Blinking, Toothless glances over at Kevin with a mildly startled expression. What are rattlers, he wonders? Are they a kind of dragon? Or are they something vikings make? All of this is terrible confusing for the Nightfury; nothing makes a lot of sense.

The Nightfury takes a few more steps closer to Kevin and sniffs at the bundle of clothes he has. It's awfully thin. No one's picking up any armor, it seems, and he's not certain if any of the vendors are selling any. Why wouldn't they, with so many potential dangers out there in the grass?

He hasn't seen anything alarming so far, but that doesn't mean it isn't out there. This is Wonderland, after all.

Probably.

[vates]

Um... Cool. Kevin can't help but be a little, um, terrified? Because this is a freaking dragon or something, right? He glances around again, looking for some kind of sign that this is Dungeons and Dragons and Oregon Trail or something, but this guy really sticks out like a sore thumb.

"You're supposed to have 20 sets per person," he offers, a little unsure. "Though I guess, again, you don't have to worry about that... You might need some extra pounds of food. Sometimes the hunting is scarce. Unless you eat people, I guess..."

Please don't eat people.

[no_eels]

That seems like a very poignant observation, and Toothless doesn't want to leave it hanging in the air. He doesn't eat viking, and he doesn't want anyone to get nervous about that in a survival situation. Someone might point one of those boomsticks at him.

So the Nightfury shakes his head, firmly, and snorts.

Nope, no viking dinners.

Vikings are his friends. And besides, if the dragon's feeling honest, vikings don't have much on them. (It's a good thing such observations can't be heard out loud.)

[vates]

Well, that's settled then. Not only does he know for sure that this guy doesn't eat people, Kevin also knows that he understands what he's saying, at least he thinks so. Enough that he feels a little less ridiculous to be talking to him.

"Are you from the Mansion too, then? I haven't met you before." Kevin nods toward the wagon he's loading up, and then leads the dragon to it.

"I'm guessing you don't really know what this whole thing is about."

[no_eels]

Toothless follows Kevin, tail swinging slowly behind him, like a giant dog. He sniffs at the wagon curiously, particularly the wheel, before looking at the viking and snorting again. This is all a great, big mystery to the Nightfury. Now, loading up ships, that would be a different story. But wagons?

And why do they have cloth tops, he wonders? That seems terribly unsafe, somehow.

[vates]

Sure, he's having a conversation with a dragon. The other day he met Snow White, and he's currently living the Oregon Trail, so it's all kind of a big "why not" at this point.

"We have to stock up on enough supplies that'll get us across the country until we get to this place called Oregon. It's pretty likely people are going to get hurt or die of dysentery or drown in the river, or you run out of supplies and can't fix your wagon for a few days. But the goal is to get as many people in your party to the other side."

[no_eels]

At the words get hurt and die, Toothless' eyes grow large as he stares at Kevin and listens to his explanation. This all had seemed dicey before, but now it seems two hundred times as bad. So many of the vikings gathered here are his friends, and he doesn't want any of them to be hurt.

But getting sick, there's nothing he can do about that.

He whines, quietly, a high and almost squeaky sound.

What if Hiccup got sick? This is all completely unfair.

[vates]

He pauses in loading and looks over at the dragon, and it takes him a minute to realize that he's worried. Like really worried. But it'll be fine, right? Sickness is almost like a joke in Oregon Trail anyway.

"Hey, it's okay. It'll all be over in a few days, right? And then we'll be back to normal, like we always are."

[no_eels]

Toothless' expression shifts to one of doubt, though, deep down, he knows that Kevin is right. Things don't last too long around here, when they turn particularly strange. In a few days, he'll be sleeping by Hiccup's bed as he always does, and none of these smelly creatures will be around.

Finally, he hefts a sigh, and then decides to occupy his time by sniffing over what Kevin has left to load in the wagon.

There are some interesting smells...

[vates]

"Do you have a wagon?" He hasn't totally figured out his situation yet. Part of him feels obligated to ride with Sam and Dean and Cas, but then the other Sam who has his face and Simon have room in their wagon for him, too.

Suddenly, he misses Abigail with a little pang, but it goes away.

[no_eels]

He nods slightly. Whichever wagon Hiccup picks, the dragon will trot next to. He knows he's too large for any of them, and none of the oxen really deserve to have to pull a dragon. Even if Toothless thinks a wagon nap would be nice, right about now.

At least no one's tried hitching him up to a wagon.

Now that would be insulting.

[vates]

"Oh, good." He glances around and wonders what friends the dragon must have. How do you make friends with a dragon? What do you do with a dragon friend? He guesses he has the chance now to find out.

"Can you fly? I wonder if you could fly to the end and save yourself from this whole mess."

[no_eels]

Toothless turns his head to nudge at the leather harness around him, pointedly, before looking up at Kevin. He can fly, but he has to have a rider. Some dragons might be too proud for that, but Toothless prefers the company of his friend to flying alone, now. Flying together takes a lot more coordination and knowledge, but it's far more satisfying.

Even if it does, occasionally, get a little irritating, if Hiccup is busy a lot. As is the case right now.

[vates]

Kevin hadn't been sure what to make of that, though now he guesses he has his answer.

"People actually ride you?"

That seems like an undignified thing for a dragon to do, but at least that answers some questions about how domesticated he seems to be.

[no_eels]

Instead of looking ashamed, or resentful, Toothless puffs out his chest and stands just a bit taller, rumbling. Only Hiccup and Astrid have ridden him successfully, and they're the only two he'll allow. So far, at least; a few people in Wonderland have seemed interested at the prospect of a ride.

As long as it gets him in the sky, soaring, he'll withstand quite a bit. A winged dragon's true place is in the air.

[vates]

"So it's a big deal, huh?"

Well, Kevin's not going to ask. He guesses he should probably wait for an invitation; besides he's fine with riding in a wagon, though come to think of it, these things are supposed to be pretty terrible, very bumpy. He wonders if this place has aspirin and if he wants to risk getting it. When was aspirin even invented?

"Well, good luck with everything. Try not to hunt too much buffalo."

[no_eels]

The Nightfury isn't sure what a buffalo is, but he looks forward to seeing them, whatever they are. Hunting them, apparently. But not too much. He'll try to remember that. Unsuccessfully, in all likelihood. Toothless trills quietly in the back of his throat and then gives Kevin's side a gentle nudge, which seems to be a farewell. It's time to get back to where Hiccup is. If he leaves the viking alone long enough, who knows what might happen.

With one last, friendly trill, the dragon trots off into the crowd, most of which readily and quickly parts for him.