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

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.

Rosy + Olivia + Roxie

[browbeats]

Rosy chews on the tip of her tongue as she watches her fellow students approach the figure. This is wrong. This isn't right. The second Brother isn't watching him, Anon charges into their campsite. What does that mean for the rest of the year? For the New Moons to come?

"He shouldn't be doing this," she says, lowly, through clenched teeth.

Re: Rosy + Olivia + Roxie

[datasstho]

Olivia frowns as she watches kids approach him and ask him questions. Maybe some of them had been sleeping last year. Maybe some of them hadn't been as seriously fucked up by it all as she had. But how fucking easily they forgive this guy. MACUSA and the staff here had started the year by explaining the situation. The hosts were getting counseling. Anon was banned from pretty much everything. There was some kind of understanding with Brother. But ever since they got back, the ghosts had been fucking with them with benign, but increasingly bothersome pranks and anon had been ... unsurprisingly himself. Not enough had changed. And they were expected to what? Get complacent again right up until they almost got killed again?

"The second a kid even looks like they're about to follow him, I'm punching him in the dick," Olivia muttered. Did he have a dick that still hurt when it got punched? Olivia was happy to find the answer to that question.

Rosy + Olivia + Roxie

[uponawire]

There's something understandable about the desire to want something astounding to turn its eyes in your direction. There's no fault in wanting to be special and the not-boy is beautiful in a way that could definitely be considered astounding. But it's dangerous too - there's no doubt of this when it's been dangerous before - and the distant tug of foreign feelings makes her shiver where she stands far more than the cold does.

"I'm not sure if he's going anywhere," Roxie says, eyes trained forward and flitting around the growing crowd. "It's like a visit."

Rosy + Olivia + Roxie

[browbeats]

"It's too soon," Rosy says quietly, her voice tight. Maybe they could find a path to forgiveness this year, maybe they could heal their wounds, move past that whole kidnapping business, but some of them were still too angry. Rosy, for example, was still too angry. She needed about ten more months before she would consider forgiving him. "He hasn't earned our trust."

Re: Rosy + Olivia + Roxie

[datasstho]

Olivia shared in Rosy's sentiment. You don't fuck with someone's family and then come around like a chastised child. If she were being honest, she wasn't sure Brother had earned her trust either. She could do without that whole damn family. "What's his gain here?" She asked. Why's he still fucking with us more like. "Why go against the staff for a visit? Isn't that counter productive for him? If he's actually trying to earn our trust, doing the opposite of what they tell him isn't a great way to do it."

Rosy + Olivia + Roxie

[uponawire]

"Because we all come."

It isn't approval or sanctioning the behavior, just observation.

"The staff - MACUSA, they ask questions and expect things. They want to tell him what to do. But we're curious. Maybe stupid." Her head tips, the shrug of her shoulder indicating the gathering of their classmates. "The more familiar a strange thing is, the more you think you know it."

Rosy + Olivia + Roxie

[browbeats]

Rosy glances back toward the tents, to see who else was joining the party, who else needed to be protected from this familiar strange thing.

"I don't know how to protect them from curiosity," she says. "They think it's a right, and..." Ms. Rhee's arrival on the scene makes her feel mildly better, reminds her that adults and authority figures still existed in this world. They weren't always completely alone.

"And, of course, he's curious, too." He has a job to do. He can't be distracted by talking to kids. He has a job to do.