gooseberryhigh | A Sorting Ceremony

Sorting Ceremony 2012

September 1st 2012. It seems like forever ago, now. A simpler time. Here, now, a moose is just a moose and aurors aren’t looked upon with suspicion. Mr. Pennywise still teaches Potions and the Anonymous Entry is relatively new.

It’s a hot and humid high in the Utah mountains and a heavy haze hangs in the air. Students have been fed and oriented and the day is getting long. The lights along the trails are flickering to life. It’s time for the sorting ceremony to begin. Students new and old make the trek from the lodge to the cave, not a one of them aware of what they will experience – what they will endure - in the years to come.

A fire crackles in the center of the amphitheater where Gooseberry's faculty and staff have gathered to greet the students. Headmistress Bloom delivers an enthusiastic speech, as she always does, promising an exciting year ahead. Gooseberry is your home for the next ten months. Here, you'll find new friends and family, learn about yourself and the world around you in exciting new ways. Here, you will grow. As she speaks, something moves beyond the treeline. Perhaps you caught a glimpse of it – or maybe it was nothing at all. Before you know it, Bloom’s speech is over.

With that, the first name is called. Step up to the cave and be sorted. It’s dark inside, drafty and full of strange sounds.

Take a deep breath before you head inside and remember to be brave.

HOW THIS WORKS

This is taking place on Sept 1, 2012, the academic year preceding year 1. So, super seniors would be juniors, seniors would be sophomores, juniors would be the incoming freshmen and sophomores are nothing more than an ominous cloud on the horizon.

This is SUPER LOW PRESSURE. Just have fun playing your kids as babies!!

The sorting ceremony takes place not long after dinner this year.

Freshmen and any students who were new to Gooseberry in the 2013 school year would be getting sorted.

New kids spent the bulk of the day unsorted, it's possible older kids may've tried to recruit you to their house!

SORTING CEREMONY: Students are called into the cave one by one in alphabetical order. Inside, the emblems of each house assess the student about why they should join their respective house. Their goal is to convince the student that they're a good fit with them, but ultimately the student is allowed to choose where they'd like to go. If the sorting takes more than five minutes, a teacher will go in to hurry things along. After your character is sorted, they go to sit in their house's section of the audience, often to excited cheers.

After the ceremony, students head back to their campsites with their new classmates for the evening.

Blah blah blah...

» Before the Ceremony: Today was a busy day! Everyone arrived this morning by 11am. There was lunch and orientation, a bit of free time before dinner. What did you get up to?

» The Sorting Ceremony: Students gather in the amphitheater outside the sorting cave to see the newest members of the Gooseberry family learn their new houses.

» After the Ceremony: It's well past sunset, now. Time to head to your campsite and settle in!

» OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ok I should do it right;

Addy is a sophomore disaster who learned what alcohol is frankly too quickly and is coming back from a summer of being grounded and her biggest current goal is macking on cute juniors at the back to school grotto party.
Ferdie is a newly minted prefect who’s frankly terrified of spending his year in such close proximity to Rosy Stoker
Leo is a junior and a beater and totally sucking up to the senior captain this year. I want him to have a girlfriend at this point for max weird but that’s a possible handwave
Jade is planning to conquer this school like she did all the others. She’ll pick out the biggest threat and tear her down. And then Azurcrest will throw her for a loop
Ira won’t talk to a single person or he’ll get in a fight, maybe both.

I would also like to thread with you