TREE DECORATING PARTY

[goosemods]

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

1. 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.)


2. 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.


3. 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...


4. 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.


5. 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.


6. 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.


7. 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

Comments

GARDENS

[goosemods]

Wilde

[destructobot.insanejournal.com]

Wilde is "lovingly" pressured encouraged to spend time at this event by Ms. Rhee, but he takes one look at the trees and all the happy warm feels going on and takes a sharp left into the maze instead, where he wanders around with a vaguely pissed off expression for maybe five minutes before giving up and going back to his cabin.

Re: Wilde

[neattrick]

"DECORATE THE DAMN TREEE, JONATAHAN" - Clementine, while collecting ornaments

[destructobot.insanejournal.com]

"FINE. (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/gooseberry/191766.html?thread=12670486#t12670486)"

[neattrick]

After she wanders off from her tree, Clementine lurks around in the garden with handfuls of snow and tries to get it down people's shirts if they're non-Ebonhides who look like they're heading for the Ebonhide tree. Which is everyone who's not in her house, and a few people who are that she just misidentified. SORRY, GUYS.

[bambae]

Okay but when she does this to Chris, he's encouraged to retaliate and probably turns it into an actual snowball fight.

[neattrick]

BRING IT ON, PARK

Ennis & Teo

[sheepish]

Ennis walks up to Teo and lightly brushes his fingertips against his shoulder to get his attention. "Do you...?" he half-asks in his soft voice, briefly looking in the direction of the maze before smiling sheepishly back at Teo. "I've never been? And I'm a little curious?"

Ennis & Teo

[sheepish]

Combining this from here~ Just cut out the "I've never been? And I'm a little curious?" part since TEO'S MIND-READING ENNIS'S-AWKWARD-BODY-LANGUAGE-READING SKILLS ARE ON POINT.
--

Ennis is relieved that Teo knows what he's going to ask before he has to ask it, and he lets out a soft, breathy laugh to show it. He follows after Teo until they enter the maze, and tries to walk side-by-side with him but Ennis always seems to stay just a quarter-step behind.

"Have you done this before? The maze?" Now that they are somewhere a bit more private, his voice is a touch louder than its usual mousey softness. Almost a normal volume. Almost. "I've never."

Ennis & Teo

[thewakingstate.insanejournal.com]

Teo nods sagely. "Last year. I went for christmas ornaments and got lost." Teo admits it shamelessly, as if that is no longer a concern this year, now that it's already happened. Or perhaps he just doesn't fear getting lost again. "It was very euphoric. Being completely lost, isolated, free. I feel like I've bonded with the maze. Now there is nothing to fear here."

Ennis & Teo

[sheepish]

Coming from Teo's mouth, this line of logic sounds incredibly reasonable to Ennis. He trusts in Teo's sage wisdom because everything he says just comes out sounding deep and wise beyond his years.

Ennis is a sheep. But now he's a sheep with a bit more confidence in his step and he ups his pace to walk right beside his friend. "I feel like that when I walk through the forest. Like it always leads me to where I need to be." Or maybe because he knows the paths like the back of his hand. Whatever. It's mystical.

Bailey.

[cyrano.insanejournal.com]

As stated in her Ebonhide comment, Bailey was: Bailey stole a lot of the decorations that she brought back, mostly by throwing things so that the bushes on the opposite side from where she was began to ruffle and then, when the people she was stealing from looked that way or came closer to her to avoid imaginary her, ambushing them with tickles until they dropped their decoration and she could run.

Who wants to be a victim or a survivor?

Garrett.

[isolate.insanejournal.com]

Garrett didn't steal anyone's decorations, but, if you were a friend of his, you got pelted with a snowball in this garden. It's a bad time to be Garrett's friend.