gooseberryhigh | TREE DECORATING PARTY

TREE DECORATING PARTY

Bright and early in the morning, Outdoor Exploration and Equestrian Club have breakfast and pack up camp, so they can make it back in time for the annual Tree Decorating Party. Fir and pine trees are hitched to sleighs or the strongest horses, and the campers make good time through the forest, arriving back at school in the early afternoon.

At 6 PM, the whole school gathers in the huge, maze-like Gardens for the party. The winding paths have been swept free of snow, and the leafless trees and hedges have been dressed with magical lights. Dinner is set up on long tables in the courtyard at the center of the Gardens, and charmed lamps bathe the area with warmth, so students can enjoy an outdoor winter buffet featuring all kinds of holiday favourites. Vegan and kosher options are provided. Choir Club mounts the risers to sing carols for their classmates, and there's enthusiastic applause when Antonia Papadakis performs a stunning solo of Silent Night.

At 7 PM, tree decorating officially begins. The courtyard is the only safe area. At the north, east, south and west ends of the Gardens, four trees have been raised for the four houses. Scattered throughout the Gardens' maze-like paths are waterproof boxes containing various tree ornaments, and everyone is given the go-ahead to rush out and claim boxes for their house. Houses are allowed one hour to create the Best Christmas Tree in Gooseberry.

At 8 PM, the teachers will vote on a winning tree, and that house will be rewarded with bragging rights and a wizard cracker for every member of the house.

TREE DECORATING RULES

Anything goes for tree decorations, so long as no one gets hurt. Over the years, the "anything goes" rule has translated into students staging raids to steal ornaments from rival houses, but you are no longer allowed to destroy anything, after the calamitous Tree Decorating Party of 2008. (Mr. Elmasry could tell you stories, but he's afraid of giving you ideas.)

Prefects will be trusted to maintain order and judge what is or isn't an acceptable tree ornament. Staff is present in the courtyard, although ever since the disastrous Tree Decorating Party of 2010 when Ms. Rhee and Mr. Merrill got way too competitive, teachers are strictly forbidden from contributing or telling students what to do.

Anything that makes sense as a Christmas tree decoration can plausibly be found in the supply boxes, e.g. magical lights, tinsel of every colour, ornaments shaped like corgi dogs. With caveats: there won't be any electricity, and the boxes were filled by the teachers, so you're not going to find NSFW things either. However...

Students are permitted to bring or craft their own tree decorations. Please use your best judgment on what is actually practical for your character to bring to school with them.

Magical ladders are provided to help people reach the topmost branches of the trees. What does magical mean? It means ladders which are magically less likely to let you fall and break your neck. Please, children, don't die.

People who currently have detention will served it in the hours before dinner, so everyone can be present for Tree Decorating! The event isn't mandatory, but if you want an excuse for your character to take part, you can say their Head of House urged them to join.

How is the winner calculated? When a participating character posts to their house's tree, a mod will RNG a score between 1–50 for each character. A house’s score is the total score of all their participating members, and the highest house score wins. You have until Monday, December 12 at 11:59 PM MT to post to your house's tree and have your character be counted.

» Dinner: Everyone gathers in the garden courtyard for a delicious feast and a performance by Choir.

» South Tree: Ebonhide

» West Tree: Ribbonfin

» North Tree: Azurcrest

» East Tree: Coppertale

» Gardens: The winding paths of the Gardens create a maze, and boxes of Christmas ornaments have been hidden all over.

» Courtyard: In the center of the Gardens is the courtyard. During Tree Decorating, this is the only safe zone, i.e. no one can throw snowballs at you or steal your ornaments.

» OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

POINT TOTALS
EBONHIDE	RIBBONFIN	AZURCREST	COPPERTALE
516	547	468	521

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Were they also involved in the SABOTAGED ORNAMENTS????

It would be 100% like Reece to swiftly avoid detention for sledding only to immediately get in trouble for blowing up a Christmas tree so yes

were they also the ones that put it out??

LMAO YES they should be, like, "OH FUCK, WE DIDN'T ACTUALLY MEAN TO DO THAT, ABORT, ABORT"

Like, I'm so petty that I legit might not have Jesse check in

Honestly azurcrest being in last seems like their rightful place anyways

Wes isn't competitive unless he really cares about something, and unfortunately, this is not quite one of them. He does however feel compelled to bring one family tradition to the house tree - a popcorn garland, with each popped kernel in a very house-appropriate red.

However, the red color comes from a heavy dusting of a very cayenne-heavy Cajun seasoning salt that he brought from home and puts on nearly everything he eats, so anyone who tries to nibble at the decorations better have a heavy tolerance to spiciness.

...I fake-rolled a 47 for him but he's not coming out SORRY AZURCREST. DIEGO IS ONCE AGAIN THE UNKNOWING ARCHITECT OF YOUR MISFORTUNE.

muffled sounds of panic coming from behind the hedges

This is Cricket's favorite Gooseberry event, by far, and she prepares for it all year. Each year she picks a new theme and, this year, it's a sort of Farewell to Gooseberry. She arrives with a large, neatly packed box of handmade ornaments, similar to this. Except, instead of stationary little dolls, inside each snowglobe is a different 3D moving scene (sort of like a hologram). They're all charmed from magical pictures of Gooseberry students and staff that Cricket has collected over the years. Students from every house are represented, though most globes feature Ebonhide upperclassmen (she had to work with the pictures she had)! Feel free to comment what your character's lil snowglobe might have contained. (Y'know, because they're essentially gifs). I know there is DEFINITELY one of Mina cuddling Pancake.

She worked really hard on these and they're extremely sentimental artifacts, so when the Ebonhide tree catches fire, gets doused with water, and dumps a bunch of her ornaments onto the ground (shattering them into a million little pieces), Cricket starts to tear up. She tries to brush it off and regroup, but it's a lost cause. Her chin is trembling and her breathing is shaky by the time she makes a hasty exit out into the maze to hide and collect herself.

RNG RUINED CHRISTMAS

Trixie, of course, has some of her own supplies and totes along a small bundle of tiny gears and such that make little sense until she starts to make one move. Each one is a small clockwork star that lights up golden when the circuit is completed. Basically she made small golden and black flashing clockwork stars that tick quietly. They are something she's been working on off and on because why not, plus she wanted to add something awesome that wouldn't blow up or bite anyone's fingers.

Katya shows up and happily helps decorate, she isn't the most creative of people so really it'll be her helping other people with their grand plans. She might be a bit more useful than just throwing glitter around and is super pumped to be here! Katya has a little Russian flag to add to the tree as well.

Ras is, let's be real, not a lot of use here. He's pretty awful at decorating but is incredibly tall so if anyone needs help reaching the top of anything, Ras is your man. He's just happy to be included.

Ferris does not care. Ferris wants to burn the tree. Ferris is not interested in trees. Ferris will add a carved bear to the tree created from a piece of wood she picked up around school a few days ago. Ferris will not tell anyone nor speak to anyone about the bear. Ferris disappears.

Ennis rolls a 14!

Wes rolls a 21!

Cricket rolls a 36!

Trixie rolls a 12!

Katya rolls a 35!

Ras rolls a 12!

Ferris rolls a 28!

Iiiiin case people still want mod input:

1) Yes, totally OK with the tree catching fire and getting doused, and
2) Riley and Reece can be the saboteurs! As per the rules, the teachers are not taking part, so Riley and Reece will be getting away scot-free unless a) one of the Ebonhide prefects catch them and punishes them, or b) Reece turns himself in.

If Ebonhide is feeling bitter enough to escalate this to detention, the Head Girl CANNOT give detention to other prefects, but a word to Ms. Rhee would definitely get Reece in trouble.

Essie loves this event and Ree has definitely made sure no one in the cabin forgets it's coming up. Essie arrives with three delicate metal ornaments that have been charmed to move: Luna, the hedgehog ornament, rolls into a ball when someone touches it; Lola, the owl ornament, twists its head and hops along the branch it's resting on; and Pancake, the bunny ornament, wriggles its nose and hides it face.

Other than that, she spends most of her time investigating the tree for any ornaments she thinks would be fun to charm extra effects on.

(okay i really just needed to share that video that marin sent me with everyone because it's so cuuuuute. ♥)

Sun-mi is ALL OVER THIS MAZE and hunting down supply boxes for her sweet, gentle fishies to work with. She's ready to play rough with the Coppertales if she needs to, but she's more interested in actually delivering supply boxes than messing with other people.

Once all the boxes seem to be collected, she'll defend and maybe toss a few ornaments on the tree.

Come help Vee reach stuff! Help the enemy ;)

Page 15 of 20

TREE DECORATING PARTY

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Wes

no subject

no subject

Cricket the Crybaby

no subject

Trixie

Katya

Ras

Ferris

SCORE

SCORE

SCORE

SCORE

SCORE

SCORE

SCORE

no subject

Essie!

Sun-mi

Re: Ras