A Sorting Ceremony

[bubblewrapped]

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!

Comments

Baby Bearents

[heyitsnia]

Several seconds tick by, the only sound passing between them ambient noise - other students, Casper's headphones - Nia stares, flat, until her lips curl into a grin and she rolls her eyes.

"Nothing. Hey, I've got something you might like?" She ticks her finger toward Casper's headphones. "I'll put it on a USB stick for you. Just don't listen when you're on rounds because, like, you won't be able to hear shit. Not that it'll be a problem for you, huh, Stormy? Gonna knock 'em dead out there."

Baby Bearents

[casperkim]

Casper doesn't smile back but he does dip his hand into his pocket and turn off his iPod, silencing the noise blaring out of his headphones. A skeptical look crosses over his face at the mention of a USB and sharing music but he doesn't argue. Instead, he shrugs stiffly. He doesn't give a shit about people breaking curfew. Not really. But he'd agreed to be a prefect and he intends to do what needs to be done...even if he isn't entirely certain why he'd agreed at all.

"Don't call me that," he returns flatly, then continues, "And no. It won't be a problem. This isn't anything I can't handle." He pauses, looking at the girl and tilting his head enough to make some of his dark hair fall across one eye. Last year, he'd still been growing it out; it looks better now and it suits him. He pushes it back. "...What about you?"

Baby Bearents

[heyitsnia]

"Not Stormy," she says low enough to make it sound like a mental note that she's not really making. (Even though, for what it's worth, she'll never try calling him Stormy, again.)

Nia quirks her chin up, looking ever so slightly offended by the question, and wraps her fingers around her pigtail braids before she responds. "Me? I was made for this stuff. Rules are easy." Her delivery is remarkably confident, given she isn't so sure she believes it, herself. She tosses a quick glance and a lifted brow toward the older prefects nearby. "I'm more worried about getting babied by the higher ups."

Baby Bearents

[casperkim]

Made for this stuff? A faint, wryly amused huff of breath escapes Casper but he doesn't say anything. She didn't question his proclamation of confidence and he has no interest in questioning hers. Besides. How hard can this be, anyway?

His dark eyes follow Nia's toward the junior and senior prefects, then turn back and he shrugs again. He's had the same thought. "That only happens if we let it," he points out, "Apart from the Head Boy and the Head Girl, we've got the same authority the rest of them do. We can do this the way we want; we answer to Ms. Rhee, not them." He doesn't give much thought to the fact that he's now speaking in terms of we rather than I, us versus them, but he hadn't expected to be on the same page with her either.