MONTHLY BONDING: CAMPING

[goosemods]

MONTHLY BONDING: CAMPING

It's a windy October day, and the entire school is packing up to go on a camping trip. This month's monthly bonding is going to force even the most indoors-loving students out into the wilderness for one night.

There's a rumor going around that the trip is clearing out the students so that MACUSA agents can search campus without the students around. This will have to remain a mystery, however, as nothing interesting happens before the hike gets underway. Quentin Youngblood sets up some magical audio surveillance in their cabin, but when they get back the most interesting thing they recorded was the sound of two raccoons fighting outside. However, they do hear footsteps on the walkways outside the cabin. It could just be staff doing patrols.

Natalie Prince struggles on the long hike and ends up lagging behind, but on the bright side gets to walk with Mr. Covington who's bringing up the end of the group. As everyone's setting up camp, Dinah Dixon suddenly shouts either in fear or excitement: it's Brother! ... Oh, wait, no, that's just a normal moose. False alarm.

CAMPING RULES:

• Dress appropriately for the weather. It's autumn up in the mountains, and it's beginning to feel like it.
• No large electronics of any kind. Alas, Mr. Thorn has been overruled during this particular trip, since it's not actually an OE event. You may bring your gadgets.
• Buddy system at all times. Do not go off on your own.
• Don't leave the trail.
• Respect your tent-mates. If Thorn suspects there's a problem, he's stepping in.
• Lights out is 10:00 PM. All students must be quiet with lights off after this hour.
• You must help carry the group's equipment.
• Clean up after yourself.
• All the rules that apply on campus apply here, kids! The only things you're escaping are your uniforms and classes.
• If you act up, you're being sent home early with Mr. Covington and will face IC repercussions.
• Thorn is serious about making sure you kids learn how to survive in the great outdoors without your wands, and therefore insists all the set up and take down be done without magic. He doesn't humor any arguments about wandless magic, either. "Those are the rules. Now get to it!"

HOW THIS WORKS

• Students will leave Friday afternoon and hike out to a large camping area. The trip is about a an hour and a half long hike, but it's low impact and everyone takes a break in the middle for snacks.


• Upon arrival, tents are set up. It's two or three people to a tent!


• Tent assignments were made with a combination of student requests and random assignments. You can choose whether your characters asked to be put together, or if staff assigned them by chance.


• Couples are not prevented from being in the same tent. However, the tent walls are awfully thin, and the campground is crowded. Hanky panky at your own risk.


• Each year has its own campground and fire, but you can wander and mingle with other years.


• No magic is allowed when working on setting up camp and survival skills.


• Students will return Saturday morning. Ebonhide will have to miss their Quidditch/Cheer time on the pitch, but Mr. Thorn will arrange with their captains to give them some choice extra practice slots next Saturday.


• Students who don't have sleeping bags, pillows or camping gear will be provided with school loaners.


• Students may bring their familiars so long as they're able to travel safely. Familiars that remain behind will be tended to by staff.


• Staff will come through and do a head count at curfew (10:00 PM) when everyone must be in their tents or at the fire pit. Midnight is quiet time, and everyone will need to be in their tents with the lights off.


• If your characters want to sneak around and trade tents, there's a chance of being caught if it gets too widespread. Chances are, though, you can get away with it.


• Assume that the locations of the tents and campgrounds correspond to the layout of the table that's just below this list.


• EACH YEAR WILL EXPERIENCE A UNIQUE SUPERNATURAL EVENT. There will be places to react below.

SENIORS:

Veronica & Riley	Iliya, Ulysses, & Mackenzie	Avery & Sofia
Saira & Phoebe	Ferdinand, Reid & Cameron	Phineas & Yancey
Adeline & Sybilla	Reece, Jonathan & Sylvester	Lachlan, Jaime & Ennis
Oscar, Dominic & Webster	Roxanne & Rosemary	Olivia & Clementine
Casey & Casper	Kurt & Chloe	Antonia & Ursula

JUNIORS:

Ariadne & Jade	Joanna, Samantha & Evangeline	Sebastien, Lucas & Ramon
Fern & Charlotte	Gabriela & Victoria	Madison & Ruby
Calvin & Micah	Milo & Bianca	Cole & Austin
Regan, Isabelle & Paige	Estella & Jefferson	Zachary & Solomon
Hazel & Susana	Todd & Spencer	Heathcliff, Cassius & Ira

SOPHOMORES:

Archimedes, Hieronymus & Griffin	Natalie & Antigone	Peyton, Grace & Corrigan
Violet & Carolina	Rupert & Quentin	Concordia, Marie & Tuesday
Nisha & Dinah	London & Paris

» THE HIKE: Although it takes an hour and a half, the hike is low impact without many hills, and it's very scenic. The mountains are full of fall colors, and it's perfect scarf and sweater weather.

» SETTING UP CAMP: Mr. Thorn encourages everyone to participate! Help dig a fire pit! Learn to put up a tent! Prepare dinner!

» EVENING: Everything's winding down, and many students have retreated to their tents. Others linger by the fire. Mr. Covington makes some (non-alcoholic) hot apple cider or hot cocoa for anyone who's still up.

» IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: SENIORS: A beautiful teenager in a tattered suit, lace shawl and what looks like a mask from last year's masquerade wanders through your campground, leaving newly bloomed violets where his bare feet touched the ground. If you're awake (one character per player), you can come out and meet Anon in person. He will answer the first 5 questions asked, but... it's Anon, his answers may not be useful. Staff are exasperated by this news, and MACUSA agents will want to interview you. Anon needs to be reminded to keep his distance.

» IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: JUNIORS: Pearl visits your year's campground, and wanders through the tents at night. If you're awake, she will trade with you through an opening in the tent flaps. Give her something valuable, and she'll reward you with something of hers. (One trade per player.) Later in the evening, Peter can be heard coming to collect her. In the morning, members of staff insists all students who made a trade give up their items to MACUSA... unless you hide your prize.

» IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: SOPHOMORES: Late at night, everyone remembers Mr. Merrill coming through and checking on them individually now that he's finally caught up with the group. Sheesh, that's a long walk, kids! He's a little too quick to tease them, but it's easy to assume he's tired and that's why he's not his usual gregarious self. However, in the morning, he's nowhere to be seen. Mr. Merrill never arrived last night. So who was that..?

» MORNING: The staff are tired and a little frustrated by what happened last night, but this is just what happens at a magical school, right? This is Gooseberry now. Time to pack up and hike back to campus.

» OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

Comments

IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT: SENIORS

[goosemods]

ENNIS MEETS HIS IDOL

[sheepish]

Ennis can't sleep. Choosing to share a tent with Jaime was already a bad idea, but then choosing to sandwich himself between two beautiful boys was an even worse idea. He thought Lachlan's non-threatening brand of handsome would make this easier than sleeping beside Jaime in the middle, but right now he feels trapped between Scylla and Charybdis. It's overwhelming. At this rate, he'll sweat right through his sleeping bag.

Careful not wake the other two, Ennis sits up in his sleeping bag and slowly unzips himself from his humid prison. He allows just the slightest opening in the tent to slip his body through and crawls on his elbows toward freedom before collapsing on the grass to savor the cold breeze. It wouldn't be so bad to sleep out here instead...

From the corner of his eye, he sees movement and he's sure he's been caught out of his tent by the staff. When he turns his head to look, though, the sight of the figure makes him gasp and he quickly scrambles to his feet, brushes the dirt off his pajamas, and runs his fingers through his hair to neaten it. This must be the boy Sam saw last night... The one she thought might have been Anon himself. His eyes well with tears of joy and he presses a hand firmly over his heart to keep it from leaping out of his chest. He's afraid to blink for fear that Anon will disappear again.

Ennis waves shyly at the being and gives the campground a quick glance-over before padding over to meet him. It's happening... IT'S HAPPENING.

"Hi," he greets breathlessly, dark eyes wide as he tries to soak in the sight of him. He never wants to forget. Ennis gestures toward the suit and shawl, giving a light yet awkward laugh as he tries to make smalltalk. "Are you going to the dance again this year? I heard you were practicing."

Re: ENNIS MEETS HIS IDOL

[anonymooses]

He shakes his head, but the movement's not quite natural. A sticky sadness falls over the group, like annoyed disappointment. It's the feeling of being denied something you wanted... or maybe being grounded.

"I'm not allowed inside." His voice sounds like wind through aspen leaves, but you feel the words more than you understand them as actual language.

Nia

[heyitsnia]

When the soft sound of footsteps on grass pass by outside, the front of Nia's brain says staff doing checks, but she finds herself sitting up, anyway. She fumbles for her glasses. Shoving them on her face. Smudging the lenses in the process. Not that it matters in pitch darkness.

Antonia pokes her head out the tent's flap and finds herself nose to petal with a cluster of purple flowers that most definitely were not there before 10PM. Curious, she extends a finger and touches them, as though they might not be real. But they are. And that's when she notices the trail of them and how they lead to a teenager in strange old clothes.

She disappears back inside, sitting with a heavy, anxious wumph of air. She should stay in here. She should not engage ghosts or...forest entities. But, Nia supposes, if anyone should be out there, it's the Head Girl. To make sure no one else goes out. Gets hurt. Or taken. "Ursula, I'll be right back," Nia hisses, patting what she assumes is her tentmate's foot before crawling out and into the open.

You shouldn't be here is what she plans on saying as she stands and brushes the grime from her knees. Or Jesus Christ, Ennis, get back inside when she spots him out of his tent. But the closer she gets the more she thinks about flowers and being angry and lonely and her stomach ties itself in sad knots so tight that all she can think to say when she's finally close enough is, "it's good to finally meet you."

She presses her lips into a flat line, afraid to let silence linger long. "Are they treating you and the... other children well? The MAC-- our parents?"

Re: Nia

[anonymooses]

Talking to the creature isn't easy. Every time he has a reaction, you can feel it crawling through your brain. You know exactly how he feels about everything, because it's projected onto you. This time: cautious curiosity, optimism, a little anxiety. The faint anxiety is especially hard to shake, and will stick with Nia for a couple hours.

"They ask a lot of questions," he not-really-says. "But they can't hurt us. Or them."

Kurt

[puphart]

Kurt's excuse isn't even a good one: a respite from the tent, despite it being Chloe-filled, to stargaze alone. It's something he does when he can't sleep, and guess what — our intrepid boy's having a little bit of trouble snoozing beside his girlfriend. He's only completely partially worried that magic will cause him to spontaneously combust due to the perpetual repeat of 'should-I-or-shouldn't-I' in his head, and then there's his classes, and the fall play, and the faint ticking (yes, even here, and even now) of a certain timepiece secreted away in the pocket of his vest. His favourite game of devising new interpretations and names for constellations is cut short when the soft sound of someone walking snaps him back to the present, and with it, his head in the direction of the noise. It could be a student on their way to powder their nose, but it... might not be. And it isn't.

He knows the figure thanks to the stories, and he's face to face with Anon; The Entity; The Thing in The Woods That Isn't a Bear. Even out here? He pauses because, of course it's out here. Why wouldn't it be? But why is it wearing a suit? They aren't really that far from campus, only a mile or so, and Anonymous's territory could stretch far beyond what they ever think about.

"H-h-hi," Kurt stammers quietly, offering a little wave. How is he supposed to react? Samantha Sweeney encountered it without a problem. He isn't scared so much as nervous. Which, let's be honest, is nothing new. He coughs to clear his throat and bites his lip, waiting for an response, but gets the impression that that isn't happening.

A pressing question has been on his mind, though, every time he sees a MACUSA agent or a Buddy System sign-up sheet, and for someone who used to be timid as a mouse, sometimes it can be hard for him to stop the barrage of words once he opens his mouth. "I'm, um, I'm Kurt. It-it's nice to meet you." Another pause. "C-can I ask you a question? I've, um, I've been wondering if there's anything... if we can do anything to keep ourselves from–" he gesticulates as he speaks though it's more like waving his hands unhelpfully. His question feels stupid, so painfully stupid, but he carries on because he still thinks it's important. "S-sorry. Um. To keep ourselves from interfering with anybody else's territory while we're at school?"

Finally, he wrings his hands, and bites his lip again. "I-i-in the woods, but also in our cabins, and the school and lake, and... everything. I know that we're already sort of encroaching, and– and..." Kurt shrugs.

Re: Kurt

[anonymooses]

The confusion spreads from the boy like a thick wave. Beneath the mask, his features twist in a facsimile of thinking very hard. "I," he says in the voice he's been using so far, but it fails him and whatever else he says falls apart, rustling leaves and wind. He tries again, this time in several voices. None of them are his own. They're fragments of things Kurt's peers have said, but this time there's less emotional bleed.

Unfortunately, the resulting sound is unnerving. "This is. All my. Territory. You. Are. Part of. The forest. Now!" A pause, then he says crystal clear in a perfect recording of Kenzie's voice: "Does that make sense?" And then Bash's: "I don't get it." Then Chloe's: "I'm sorry."

Rosy

[browbeats]

Tents unzip outside, footsteps follow, quiet, hushed whispers in familiar voices are heard, and Rosy's fear spikes. The last time the Anonymous Writer hadn't posted an entry on the New Moon night, he had Pied Pipered a bunch of kids from their beds. Brother's reassurances on that front felt thin and meaningless in that moment, in the whole beat that it took for her to fumble for the tent flap and unzip it.

Her heart hammers in her chest at the sight of the flowers, the figure at the front of them, at others approaching him. At least one of them is Ennis. She could have guessed that, even if she didn't hear his familiar accent. Grabbing her sweatshirt, Rosy scrambles to get out of her tent. It's calm now, there's no excitement, no mass exodus, but the urge to grab each and every student and throw them in their tents pulls her forward. God help her if anyone tries to follow this teenager anywhere, for even a step.

Rosy + Olivia

[datasstho]

Sleeping out in the vast wilderness was probably not a great idea to make mandatory, given the history of what these kids have had to endure in the great outdoors. Haphazardly pulling on her jacket, Olivia stumbles out of her tent. It's not a clusterfuck of motion outside of the tents. But there are gathering students and flowers and this kid - a kid Olivia has never seen before, but a kid she recognizes with a sinking feeling.

She falls into step beside Rosy, just staring, half on edge waiting for the boy in the circle of gathering students to lead those same students off into the trees like some Moses. "You ever wonder how the staff feels and if they realize yet that they've lost control of this ship?" She asks Rosy because she's also not asking the anonymous writer a question. She's just going to make sure he doesn't kidnap anybody else.

Rosy + Olivia

[browbeats]

Rosy holds her wand in her pocket, her thumb running over the handle as she walks. "This was never really their ship to begin with," she says, her voice low. She didn't want to wake up more people. If the entire camp woke up, this could turn into a Thing, and Things rarely ended in everyone getting a good night's sleep.

She slows to a stop, several feet from those trying to speak to this kid. "God I fucking hate camping."

Rosy + Olivia + Roxie

[uponawire]

Roxie sleeps lightly, so the scrape of the zipper and the draw of their tent flap is enough to tug her eyes open again. She steps lightly too, drawing even with the other girls quickly enough, one arm crossed over her chest and the other hand combing her hair back and out of her face.

Her voice is quiet, "Fairly certain this doesn't happen on most camping trips."

This is getting to become a familiar arrangement.

Chloe

[cmdrchloe]

Even in a comfortable bed, Chloe doesn’t sleep regularly anymore. Long periods of insomnia are book ended by long, deep sleeps that even Rosy had a hard time waking her from. Out here in nature, surrounded by strange sounds, in a sleeping bag on the ground, there wasn’t much chance that she was going to be able to sleep through the night. She brought her 3DS so she could play Animal Crossing while Kurt slept, anyway.

Surprisingly, she must have fallen asleep, because she wakes up with a start, confused about where she is and thrashing at the inside of her sleeping bag. It takes her a moment to reorient herself. Camping, tent, sleeping bag… Kurt? She pats the space beside her, feeling a brief flash of panic at being alone in the woods. Of course, she’s not alone, every single student was required to come on this trip, but in the empty tent, it doesn’t feel that way. She decides to look for Kurt. He wouldn’t have gone far, he isn’t the type to wander off into the woods in the middle of the night.

Chloe is crawling from their tent on hands and knees when movement catches her eye. She expects to see one of the other students when she looks up, but instead sees someone she doesn’t know at all. Unless… maybe she does. “Hi,” she says, eyes wide with surprise and awe and no small amount of fear. “I’m Chloe, we’ve talked on the journals and…” And you kidnapped me that one time, remember? She rises to her knees, then her feet, shifting her weight back and forth from foot to foot. “I like your shawl.”

“The kids,” she blurts, the thought coming to her mind suddenly. She desperately wants to know - Are they in pain? Are the MACUSA agents being nice to them? Are they lonely? Are they scared? “How… what can we do to help the ghost children?” she asks, voice soft even in the quiet. “It must be hard for them and… there must be something we can do?”

Re: Chloe

[anonymooses]

His first reaction is embarrassment, then guilt. He turns away from Chloe and paces a little, making an extra thick patch of violets in the dirt. "They're dead." If they're in need of help, or if anything can be done for them, he doesn't seem to know the answer.

🚨 Woods Cop Reece 🚨

[peanutbuttercup]

Reece is slow to wake, and even as he was climbing out of his tent to see what the middle-of-the night commotion was about, he wasn't really sure what was going on. As the growing group of seniors had stood, watching the strange figure and occasionally asking it questions, he'd hung at the back of the group, half-convinced he was having some very strange dream.

He's not sure what jars him out of the trance-like state, but once he's awake, he's awake, and he pushes through the group of students to reach the front, ushering them backwards as he goes.

"Everyone take a step back," he insists, tugging someone in front of him back by their elbow. It's not his usual move to manhandle people, unless they're Ulysses and they're trying to walk into the forest, but this seems like a good time to start. And as he reaches the very front of the group, he finds himself face-to-face (face-to-mask?) with the other entity. He'd already met Brother, and had felt unsettled then - but there's something even more intense about this one, and he immediately feels queasy.

So, in the end, his question is kind of a dumb one. "Where's your brother?" he asks. Because - didn't the older moose man promise stuff like this was going to stop happening? Sure, they're out in the woods and not in their cabins, but it's just... standing out here. And it was in their campsite last night, and-

He looks right up at the thing and his mind goes uncomfortably blank again.

Re: 🚨 Woods Cop Reece 🚨

[anonymooses]

The boy points unerringly into the woods, back towards the school. "He has to watch the visitors. I promised I would watch you."

Ulysses

[ulixes]

It's dark, dark, dark, and Ulysses' eyelids flutter open all the same. Just like they always do. Sleeping may essential activity, but it has never been his strong suit, and by now he's no stranger to the feeling of bobbing back to consciousness at some unholy hour. A few minutes pass. Sleep remains elusive.

He'll go for a walk. A short one, not the kind that makes his roommates worry. No one will notice he's gone. Carefully, he crawls over Iliya and Mackenzie and unzips his tent. The fall air is crisp, and it cuts into the warmth of little space as he does so. Shit. He hopes it doesn't wake them.

There are a few other students outside already, but Ulysses is one of the very first. So, it's not hard to see why they're starting to gather. Oh. Huh. Would you look at that?

Vaguely, distantly, Ulysses understands what's going on here. He knows who this boy must be, under the shawl and mask. He has opportunity to talk, to ask one of the questions that keep pulling him awake in the middle of the night, and yet... he doesn't. His mind feels like a frozen lake, smooth and perfect and completely opaque. Any intelligent thoughts he might've had stay trapped below the surface; uncharacteristically, he finds he has nothing to say.

Instead, he watches. The boy is ... beautiful, and that's a funny thing to notice. He is beautiful, though, and there are flowers blooming in the grass beneath his feet. How strange, innocent. Ulysses takes a few steps in his direction and then bends down to pluck one of the violets that are now growing in the slightly damp grass. He half expects the whole scene to melt away when he does, like instead of a flower stem, he was pulling on a bathtub stopper and now, the illusion would all go swirling down the drain. It doesn't. He stares at the violet, then, after a small while, back at the boy. If the teenage entity catches his eyes, he'll smile.

Re: Ulysses

[anonymooses]

The boy smiles back, brilliant but unnatural, and meets Ulysses' eyes. Under the mask, his own are as deep and dark as the lake at night. And then recognition hits him, and there's that guilt and embarrassment again, this time tinted with affectionate concern. "Are you still sad?"

Ulysses

[ulixes]

It's easy to understand this creatures feelings. Maybe he shouldn't be surprised; after all, if there was anything Ulysses knew, it was that being in the woods made you feel strange — all full up on someone else's emotions. Still, there was a twilight eeriness to it, the juxtaposition of something so human and familiar as embarrassment with the alien expression on the boy's face, and it enhances the dream-like feeling of the whole encounter.

Then, he speaks, and Ulysses' smile, which had grown bright (if a little uncertain) to match the boy's, drops away.

"I–I'm not," he replies, eyes darting left. "I was never–" This is not his most eloquent defence, but he's caught off-guard as his own mess is unexpectedly spotlighted by those preternatural black eyes. "I'm fine," he says, and there's a half-beat before he remembers how to be a gentleman. "Thank you for asking."

Casper

[casperkim]

Casper rarely sleeps well and, despite being out here in the woods he hates and separated from the roommates he so doggedly guards and stuck in a tent with Casey Patterson, he'd somehow managed to drop off quickly and deeply once the camp had gone dark. This makes coming awake in the middle of the night all the more disorienting and he lies awake listening to the sounds of zippers and footsteps and distant murmurs for a long moment before it occurs to him that this isn't right. He tenses and sits up, trying to force himself to wake up as much as he can as quickly as he can. Then he grabs the wand out of his jacket's pocket and glances briefly at Casey before slipping out of his tent and into the night.

The number of people already outside gives him a sharp, uncomfortable start and he moves forward briskly to reach them so he can figure out just what the hell is going on. It isn't until he's joined the others that he can see the strangely beautiful figure in the suit and mask. The figure that his classmates are talking to. The spark of protective anger is immediate; he wants to lift his wand and make threats and tell the entity to get the fuck out of here. But he can't wage war on Anon no matter how much he'd like to. The others won't let him. And he'd be willing to bet that Brother won't let him either.

Instead, he clenches his jaw and remains a still, silent spectator ready to act at a moment's notice if anything strange should start to happen. He makes note of the faces in the crowd (he has to fight the urge to grab Ulysses and force him back into his tent when he sees the strangely content expression on his face) and listens carefully, trying to commit all of this to memory as well as he can. He's certainly not half-asleep anymore.

Ms. Rhee asks Anon to leave

[goosestaff]

Most of the heads of house stayed behind, but not Ms. Rhee, who rarely ever goes on camping trips, but just this once, figured having a giant bear along might prove useful. She's on two legs now as she stalks across the camp, a fuzzy purple robe wrapped around her, and there's no fear in her eyes as she approaches the Anonymous Writer.

(Of course she's afraid. But she knows her students are watching her.)

"You're not supposed to be here," says Ms. Rhee, with all the authority of a woman who's spent ten years watching over Gooseberry's most emotionally intense students. "We had an agreement that you'd stay away from the children."

Re: Ms. Rhee asks Anon to leave

[anonymooses]

The boy takes several steps back, and everyone can feel his objections. He was asked to be here, he knows he's misbehaving, he's leaving, he'll go, he's sorry. "Sorry, sorry, sorry," he repeats as he retreats to the treeline. As he passes through the shadows, the silhouette of the young man loses its shape, and instead you see antlers and the outline of a young moose, startlingly white.

For the rest of the night, keen eyes might spot the white moose standing guard at a polite distance.

Ms. Rhee asks Anon to leave

[casperkim]

Casper's relieved to see Ms. Rhee; her presence seems to bring control and sense back into the world even before the entity retreats back into the woods. He exhales a breath and pushes back his dark hair but waits to see if she and the prefects will need to take any action in getting everyone back to their tents.

Addy

[addytives]

The murmur outside causes Addy to stir, too, and that's a miracle. She sleeps the best among the stars and wind, and has always loved camping trips for that. They soothe her. She's woken from a very peaceful slumber, and it's with a soft smile that she goes, almost automatically, to see what the fuss is. Maybe someone brought a flask. Maybe it's a party now.

It is, and it isn't. She crawls quietly past Sylla, who might want to stay asleep, and stands in front of her tent. Addy's sure she's still dreaming, wrapped up in the night and the spectacle of this beautiful boy in his lace shawl. Her arms are bare, but she doesn't seem to notice that she's cold, and reaches a hand out to wave. Her fingertips stay extended, reaching, for a moment too long, and she's just awake enough to draw her arm back.

Re: Addy

[anonymooses]

Right before Ms. Rhee approaches, the boy spots Addy. His smile is relieved and affection pours off of him, easily leaking into the thoughts and dreams of the rest of the campsite. He waves, but the greeting is short lived.

Re: Addy

[addytives]

The affection hits her like a warm wave, and all the night air in the world wouldn't chill her anymore. It's all very brief. Ms. Rhee's right in sending him away. Of course she is. Addy looks down, rubbing her toe in the dirt like she's responsible in some way for encouraging this rulebreaking. She goes quietly back into the tent when requested, but bends down to pick a few violets to tuck away, maybe to press for later. She'd like to remember this.