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

Rosemary Stoker was made to be a prefect. Arms crossed, resting bitch face on, she narrows her eyes at all these unruly freshmen and honestly everyone else around her. Maybe she can be the first prefect to take points this year. That seems like a nice goal to have.

"Spot any troublemakers yet?" she asks her new co-prefect, the yin to her yang, the scrawny kid she called Fergie for at least the first six months of last year. They've moved through half the alphabet by now, they've definitely had enough time to properly judge these kids.

Ferdie is trying to stay one arm's length away from Rosy at all times. She looks like she could punch him. Maybe if he just let her boss everyone else around, she wouldn't. And besides, this way they could conquer more ground? Or something. Not for the last time by any means, Ferdie Ayers feels like he may have bit off more than he can chew, and swallows it anyway.

"All of them?" He hazards a guess. Even the kids in their house looked a little unfriendly, especially the boys. Or maybe that's just some kind of new-prefect bias. But he tries to play to house loyalty even when he's not feeling it. "Ours look law-abiding."

Rosy surveys the line of children less than a year younger than her. "Law-abiding just means they haven't been caught," she says, lips pressed together in a straight line. "Yet." Because apparently the formidable duo of Stoker and Ayers is the only thing that's going to keep the Honorable House of Ribbonfin from descending into lawlessness.

"If this job gets us into trouble, how's your right hook?" She might be joking. It's not clear.

Oh, god, she's strict. He could never be that strict. Could he? Maybe he'll let her hide behind him. Figuratively. Literally. Not entirely in control of his own arm right now, he punches the air and then pretends like he absolutely hadn't just done that. "Deadly?" He hazards.
It sure isn't.

The sorting of yet another Azurcrest and the resulting hoots and hollers are all that save the entire amphitheater from hearing Rosy laugh at Ferdie's punch. It's not a mean laugh—or, well, it's not meant to be a mean laugh, she's just pretty sure Ferdie made a joke there.

Because, like, people don't actually punch like that, right?

"We're gonna kill this, Ayers," she says, and lightly knocks her fist into his shoulder. She thinks it's a light, joking punch, like he just did. It's probably not quite that. "And maybe a couple freshmen along the way, but there has to be a margin for acceptable losses."

A Sorting Ceremony

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