Captain's Log, Day 86: Imaginations running amok--now with squids!

          "We have to engage the engines! Nemesis, take over the helm--I'll go down into engineering and see what I can do!"
          Nemesis was SUPPOSED to be on helm duty anyway, but I had sent him up to the observation deck for a moment to check on the status of my sister, Lieutenant Quill, who was having slight issues keeping the crewmen in line. We had two visitors to the lava boat today: the sisters Princess and Chipmunk, who were good friends of ours. All of us were positive that my sister Squirrel and Princess's sister Chipmunk were twins or something; they liked all the same things, sounded exactly the same, and got into trouble the same way. If we heard one of them yelling throughout the house, we only had a 50-50 chance of correctly guessing who it was.
          But I digress.
          We were visiting a park that day...well, several parks, and since we'd already played 12 games of tag, it was deemed time for a new game. This one was called Lava Apocalypse by me and simply the Lava Boat by everyone else. Basically, we had a boat that could float on lava (the lava was composed of the ground), and we spent the day inventing impossible problems that we somehow managed to solve, saving humanity from the erupting volcanoes. Or something like that.

We were banned from playing any sort of lava-related games in the house after this incident.  Actually, we were banned from playing any games in the house, period.             Picture source: http://xkcd.com/735/

          "Look! A lava flower!" Quill pointed.
          "OOH!!!" Squirrel and Chipmunk raced down to the front of the boat.
          "We're almost out of supplies," Quill informed me.
          "And you still have my camera," Princess noted.
          "No pictures on the lava boat," I snickered. "We need to check the status of--"
          "SQUIRREL!!! Get OUT of the lava flower!!" Quill yelled.

Squirrel in the "lava flower." Yeah, we have overactive imaginations.

          Princess, Nemesis and I cracked up. Squirrel had apparently jumped off the boat, miraculously missing all the lava, and landed smack in the lava flower, which appeared to be spinning her around preparatory to eating her.
          "Quick! Jump out!" I yelled. Even as I was laughing, I was poking random buttons on my camera. "There! I opened a force-field to you! Come back quick!"
          "Don't worry!" Squirrel announced, still spinning. "My lava squids will save me!"
          "Lava squids?" everyone asked incredulously.
          "Of course," Squirrel announced, as if it were obvious. "I'm the official squidmaster."
          I rolled my eyes. Chipmunk collapsed dramatically. I took the opportunity to declare her sick, and Princess and I began to use the cameras as "medical scanners" to diagnose her with at least 12 types of illness, along with squid-related injuries.
          "Hey, I found the problem with the engines!" Nemesis announced from the engine chamber.
          "Excellent," I grinned, jumping down to the command deck, slipping, and falling halfway down the slide.

When one doesn't HAVE an engine chamber,
a climbing frame and a good imagination are essential.

          "AAAAA!! A SQUID GRABBED ME!!!" I yelped, in an attempt to make it appear that my clumsiness was scripted. Princess and Quill helped pull me back onto the boat as Squirrel cheered. "Good squid!!"
          "Control the squid! And get out of the lava flower!" I stuck my tongue out at her. Princess snapped a picture of her.
          "Should I start the engines now?" Nemesis asked patiently.
          "Sure, why not," Quill agreed affably. Chipmunk wandered off the ship, disregarding lava, squids, and illness to discuss proper squid maintenance with the soon-to-be-digested Squirrel.
          "Yeah, they're definitely twins," Princess mused.
          "Hey, is that a lifeboat?" Nemesis suggested, pointing at a teeter-totter.
          "It looks like a human-powered one, yeah," I nodded. "Shall we go get it?"
          A few minutes later, the girls had control of the boat and were cruising serenely through the lava, while Nemesis and I shot frantically up and down as we pretended to sail alongside.
          "Hey guys, we should go explore that valley," Quill suggested.
          I paused and wiped my forehead. "Real life or imaginary?"
          "Real life," Princess clarified.
          Nemesis and I looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure, why not?" Nemesis agreed.
          "Where's Squirrel and...oh boy," Quill groaned as she saw Chipmunk exchange places with Squirrel.
          "Let's leave them to get eaten," Nemesis suggested.
          "Squirrel and Chipmunk! Grab your squids and come on!" I yelled. "We're going to check out this valley over here!"
          Princess and I held a camera war the entire way over to the valley, much to the disgust of Nemesis and Quill, who were already annoyed by the constant squishing sound effects of Squirrel and Chipmunk. I'm assuming that's why they tried to push me into the creek we found...