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

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[casperkim]

"I know what y-" Casper's jaw clenches hard before he can finish this statement, though, and he gives his head a terse shake. If he had to, he could explain that beneath the familiar scents stirred up by the Amortentia there had been the fucking AXE body spray and that it had become the strongest scent in the room in that moment between when the effects of the potion had gone and when he'd had the sense to pull away. But he certainly doesn't want to. So he continues quickly instead, hoping the other boy won't have time to realize what he'd almost said. "It doesn't fucking matter, all right? I didn't know the circumstances and I misunderstood the intention. That's all. End of story."

He pauses long enough to push back his dark hair and then presses, wanting to turn the conversation in another direction if he can, "Did you ever figure out why you smelled lavender?"

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[sunsoutgunsout]

Luckily for Casper, the Coppertale doesn't pick up on much unless it's shoved in his face. He would have muttered Sick apology, bro if Casper hadn't also distracted him with a way to talk about himself, which has been scientifically proven to be his favourite topic of conversation.

It's his turn to sigh-huff and flop onto his back, book abandoned between the two of them. There's a few moments before he replies — not because he's debating over whether or not he should say something, but because he, ah, maybe hadn't thought about it since warding Spencer? The junior had given him a couple of options, neither of which he believed, and then Casey got distracted by Taylor Swift. It's a classic tale.

Eyes off Casper, he glares at the tent ceiling. "Not yet. I ask–" Nope, never, Casey did NOT ask for help from ANYBODY. "I've got names 'n I'll figure out who the fuck was there, I've just been, like. Distracted. 'N shit." Because, what, the current options were Rosy or Ennis? No. No, no thank you, neither of those people were in the weight room lockers, and it wasn't Casper, so it had to be some mysitcal fourth figure. Maybe he should be reading murder mysteries instead of bodice rippers.

(Go ahead and tell Casey he smelled them in the potion, I dare ya.)

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[casperkim]

Casper can't stop a vaguely exasperated expression from surfacing on his face. He'd thought that Casey's mention of the love potion as a reason for not recognizing his definite lack of floral cologne had been an acknowledgment that the lavender had been from his own Amortentia but it hadn't been. "I didn't smell any lavender, you know," he points out dryly, edging up to the familiar argument without actually pointing out the obvious. That Casey was, and apparently still is, too dense to figure out his feelings for whoever it is he associates with the floral scent. Let the Coppertale consider that conundrum for a while. If it doesn't go in one ear and out the fucking other.

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[sunsoutgunsout]

"Well, DUH." Casey rolls his eyes for the umpteenth time, still not looking at Casper. "You were probably smellin, like... Krum, or Stamps, or like," he gestures to his own body as though what he's about to say is the most reasonable thing in the world, "this. An' you were too busy shovin' me against the fuckin' lockers to smell whatever the fuck was goin' on in there." His tone isn't even taunting this time, which is less 'credit for Casey!!' and more 'hinting at potentially unhealthy views of personal intimacy practices!' but, like... whatever.

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[casperkim]

How Casey doesn't see the contradictions in this positions is both baffling and vaguely infuriating to Casper but...he clenches his jaw before he can express either. There doesn't seem to be a point to arguing anymore. No matter how tempting it is. "Don't remind me," he returns sourly, pointedly not thinking about that intense and satisfying kiss as he opens his book again, "And I know all of the smells in my Amortentia; none of them had anything to do with anyone here."

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[sunsoutgunsout]

The sound of rustling paper makes Casey move back onto his side. He could claim that he's just looking for his book, but to do that he'd have to pick it up, and he... doesn't do that; he's all too aware that he's about to lose an audience, and that's U N A C C E P T A B L E.

He lets out an 'uuuuugh' as he shifts to support his head on his hand. "Wow, bro." He chooses to ignore Casper's holier-than-thou all-knowing remark about the scents so he can focus in on, you know, the important shit. "Way to boost my self-fuckin'-esteem. Can't you just agree that it was a shit-ass situation but the outcome could've been, like, TEN times worse?? I could've been makin' out with Princess Tally 'n you could've been mackin' on Stamps or some shit."

No offence, Riley.

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[casperkim]

"Your self-esteem doesn't need boosting," Casper responds curtly. He does look back at Casey, though, so the Coppertale hasn't lost his audience just yet. He scowls at the other boy. "I don't like being forced to do things against my will. There's no silver lining."

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[sunsoutgunsout]

"Oh, yeah, 'cause the rest of us fuckin' love it." Every time Casper says something about himself it sounds like he's talking down to the rest of the school. Instead of getting defensive like he might uusally get, though, tonight Casey sees it as a teeny victory — Casper Kim, talking about things he does and doesn't want to do? Yeah. Yes. Sick.

Casey meets the scowl with indifference and forges on. There's a lot of shit he has difficulty articulating; what he says next is not one of them, and he might as well be discussing the weather. "I keep wonderin' what it'd be like without the potion fuckin' everywhere, though."

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[casperkim]

Casper's on the verge of snapping back that Casey had seemed to enjoy himself. After all, on the same fucking day he'd offered to go for Round 2. The other boy acknowledging this willingness again, though, cuts the point out from under him and renders him momentarily silent. So does the fact that, however much he hates himself for it, he's wondered the same thing. Once or twice.

His jaw clenches and returns flatly, "Shit, probably."

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[sunsoutgunsout]

Casey lets out a loud laughs (is anything he does not loud?) and reaches up to scratch the mound of cat fur behind his head. "Maybe you're the one that needs a self-fuckin'-esteem boost, bro. Pretty sure that wouldn't be on me."

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[casperkim]

"Shit because there's nothing between us," Casper clarifies tersely, "And I don't want to kiss you."

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[sunsoutgunsout]

Casey doesn't understand the concept of not wanting to kiss Casey. He's jacked, he's pretty sure he's hot af, and he's kissed, like, a LOT of people. He groans. "I donno who the fuck said people have to have some shit 'between them' to make the fuck out. Like, fuck, it's just kissin'."

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[casperkim]

"I'm not a romantic, Patterson. That's not what I meant," Casper answers flatly, tone calm but hard as he looks back at Casey. The implication is clear: that there's no attraction or spark or interest. It's not entirely true. But the Coppertale doesn't need to know that.

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[sunsoutgunsout]

Yeah, sick, but Casey doesn't really pick up on subtext. Or, like, anything? As far as he's concerned, Casper's just pausing so Casey can nod that yes, he got it. So he does, and gestures for the Ebonhide to continue.

Casper & Casey Get Intense

[casperkim]

Casper waits, eyebrows expectantly raised and expression unimpressed. When comprehension fails to appear on the Coppertale's face, he heaves an exasperated sigh and rakes his fingers back through his dark hair. "Without the potion, there's no attraction between us. No pull. I don't want to kiss you. End of story."