Where are the trust building, bonding, getting to know each other, agency camping trip/survival trial headcanons? 🌲🛶⛺
in the interest of not stepping on others’ canons, i tried to keep these somewhat brief, fairly vague (and easily contestable, just in case). i love hearing canon from the agents’ themselves best, but before you go, there are a few things i like to think about…
- survival skills outside of relying on tech is a part of every agents’ training. with how often we’re tasked with tramping around deserts, mountains, coasts, it’s important to learn how to adapt and improvise with whatever materials you’ve got on hand. that is, everyone except iuniore, whom wendigo’s pretty insistent is not sent on missions into super rural areas, especially not alone. (“lil’ are you serious? she’s like barely four-eleven, what are you thinking? look, i could punt her across the yard right now, okay, she needs to stay close to home.”)
- naturally, some agents take this all on a bit better than others. seraphim and succubus are two of those agents, but they have the absolute worst luck out of the entire cast. if anything can go wrong, it’s going to go wrong when they’re the ones out camping. (“oh shut the f—oh, forget it, you’re right.”)
- on the flip side, the dynamic duo of the #devil bois, that is, jd and chimera? things fall into place for them so well on their missions outdoors that even lilith is impressed.
- whiskey may not be able to change appearance like houdini can, but he’s exceptionally adaptable when it comes to urban vs. rural environments. houdini—from what i recall—didn’t have the usual rough-and-tumble roanoke trial because she was with statesman, initially. but she’s still capable, still knowledgeable—whiskey taught her everything he could.
- lycan, similarly, didn’t really need a lot of survival training, having experience with taking care of herself out in the wilds of the world (obviously). it’s a well-known fact (“do you mean rumor or something?” “absolutely not.”) that she’s a good luck charm if you’re going out into the boonies. she can smell and see everything a lot of things you can’t, after all.
- everyone also knows that if you’re heading out more to relax and less for work, you always always go to the scribe downstairs. she knows all of the classic campfire stories, even ones not belonging to this century. she credits lilith with half.
- sprite’s main specialty is weaponry and defense, but she invented a laser pointer essentially for starting fires wherever you aim it. this is a fantastic invention, but the downside is that they’re roughly the length of a nail polish bottle and nearly impossible to keep track of. we started off with like ten and we’re down to six. where the other four went, who the fuck knows.
- specter’s been on enough trips with seance and crowley that she can safely tell you “i don’t—i don’t think they process temperature quite like mundane beings do.” cold? what’s that? hot? never met her! it’s hella convenient when shit happens way up north but it can be a little—unsettling to newer recruits.
- ondine’s been trying to figure out a way to, somehow, have a campout on the ocean floor. underwater. she hasn’t quite fit the mechanics together but damnit, there’s got to be a way!
- i wouldn’t say that agency camping trips are really a thing across the organization, since we’ve got to keep so many agents and officers around (you never know what could happen). but i will whole-heartedly endorse the idea of ‘family’ trips in the context of groups of people collectively asking for a long weekend to go into the mountains, or down to the beach, or into the dunes. rougarou, elfin, annabelle, hood and thorn take the absolute best group pictures on those trips, and seraphim knows because she sees them framed on desks, hung on walls. cherished.
- arizona and phoenix are also fans of getting out of dodge for a bit, but their activities to venture towards the uh—explicit. (oh, you two adventurous devils!)
- cherub’s one of the medical officers that tends to stay back around the estate, mostly out of a sharp loyalty to the people in the bay who she needs to watch over. but zed and roxy always bring her back a flower crown. turns out roxy’s an expert on flower weaving, who knew? she always insists on making them for zed (“you—make it feel like the sun’s in my chest, when i see you wear them, z.”). cherub magically preserves them so they stay just as fresh as when she got them.
- sentinel’s another agent that likes to bring back gifts. pressed flowers, crystals, herbs—his presents are all over archivist’s quarters. they help her pull through when he’s got to be out for weeks at a time.
- nova and charlie honestly have the most bizarre camping stories that i’ve ever heard. what do you mean there was a sandworm? you mean like in beetlejuice? wait were you somewhere like where beetlejuice is? is anyone surprised? anyone? no? okay, moving on.
- princess tilde’s not… a huge outdoors person. and pru is physically sturdy enough to withstand a lot of natural forces. but her visual feeds are full of flower gardens, white-painted gazebos and images that judas would easily describe as ‘aesthetically idyllic’—along with tilde’s unabashed grin. and pru decides that yes. this is just as wonderful. just as important. just as good.