POLAR BEAR PLUNGE

[goosemods]

POLAR BEAR PLUNGE

Bright and early, 9:00 AM sharp, the students participating gather at the docks. The morning is bitterly cold, 15°F/-9°C, with an unfriendly wind coming off the lake. Even before hitting the water, most kids are shivering. The crowd is full of nervous giggles, posturing, and bragging as Healer Mufferaw gives the jumpers a quick once over. A few freshmen with bad head colds who wanted to join in are quickly turned away. "I'm not letting any of you da—I mean, darn kids kill yourself over this."

Mufferaw takes this seriously every year. He's going to be on hand in case anyone needs medical attention, or is just being stupid. "Which means, yeah, you all do need standbys. You're teenagers. You're not even half as badass as you think you are. So partner up. If you don't choose, I choose for you." Harsh words aside, he shuffles together kids he's pretty sure are friends, family, or couples if he can.

No one is allowed in the water until Mufferaw blows his whistle, so get in your good luck hugs and kisses, because at 9:30 everyone who signed up stands at the edge of the dock. Mufferaw raises his hand and brings a whistle too his mouth. One... two... three... JUMP!

HOW THIS WORKS

• Students must accept help from a standby. After they get out of the water, they're likely to be shivering pretty badly, and will need the help.


• Standbys wait on the dock with warm towels and boots, and are tasked with looking after their partner's robes/coat/etc they walked down in.


• Dry your partner off completely as quickly as possible, and then escort them into the lodge, where more blankets, hot drinks (coffee, tea, hot cider, and hot chocolate) are waiting.


• No one is allowed in the water before Mufferaw blows his whistle.


• If you stay in too long he's dragging your ass out.


• Bring dry clothes to change into when you're in the lodge.


• If you're not a jumper or a standby, you have to wait and watch on the shoreline. Don't crowd the docks.

CLICK HERE FOR JUMPERS AND STANDBYS

Name

=

Took the plunge.

Antonia ❆ Adeline
Archimedes ❆ Hieronymus
Avery ❆ Kurt
Casey ❆ Webster
Charlotte ❆ Ursula
Cole ❆ Zachary
Clementine ❆ Veronica
Dinah ❆ Sylvester
Dominic ❆ Ramon
Estella ❆ Sebastien
Hazel ❆ Todd
Heathcliff ❆ Phoebe
Isabelle ❆ Tristan
Jade ❆ Ariadne
Jaime ❆ Ennis
Jefferson ❆ Lucas
Jonathan ❆ Casper
Karen ❆ Oscar
Lilika ❆ Corrigan
Marie ❆ Natalie
Micah ❆ Calvin
Miguel ❆ Quentin
Nisha ❆ Reid
Pandora ❆ Cassius
Noel ❆ Carolina
Phineas ❆ Rupert
Rosemary ❆ Ferdinand
Roxanne ❆ Reece
Ruby ❆ Madison
Spencer ❆ Ira
Sybilla ❆ Iliya
Tobias ❆ Griffin
Tuesday ❆ Paris
Ulysses ❆ Mackenzie
Yancey ❆ Lachlan

» Before: Psych yourself up, wish your partner good luck, or maybe laugh at your ridiculous friends for taking part in such a silly tradition!

» The Jump: Mufferaw blows his whistle, and the foolish brave participants all take the plunge! The water is freezing cold, and is an immediate cold shock!

• COLD SHOCK: On jumping into cold water, cold receptors in the skin cause immediate physiological responses, the first of which is a “gasp” reflex. Next, you begin to hyperventilate, and within seconds your heart begins to race, and your blood pressure spikes. After a minute or two, the muscles of your limbs are affected. Neuromuscular activity slows and body fluids literally congeal in the muscles. You feel the effects first in your hands and fingers. Then the deeper tissues in your arms and legs cease to operate properly. It becomes more and more difficult to perform any tasks requiring manual dexterity, such as drying yourself off or getting your boots on when you finally climb out.

» Audience: On the docks or on the shore, the students who wisely chose to sit this out but still want to observe or watch their classmates jump into the water.

» The Lodge: Standbys and friends on the shore usher their frozen classmates inside to warm them up. ♥

» OOC - Questions, Comments & Concerns

Comments

BEFORE

[goosemods]

Heathcliff & Open

[heathclifflacey]

Despite the frigid temperatures and the fact that he's stripped down to basically nothing in preparation for the plunge, Heathcliff is in good spirits! He smiles and jokes with those around him, encouraging his fellow-jumpers (especially Spencer and Pandora!) and teasing the standbys for wussing out and refusing to shiver. His body doesn't seem to have gotten that message completely, though. It's very cold out here, guys.

Hazel & Open

[lilwitchhazel]

In this moment, Hazel feels like she's hit a new level of stupidity. She's jumping into this lake. The lake that she's been petrified of. She'd convinced herself for a very brief moment that surely Florence wouldn't be around, given that it's so cold, but then she remembered. Oh yeah. Ghost.

She might die here. Hell, she convinced Cole to jump, so he might die too. Maybe they'll all die. Not from the cold of the lake, mind you. That's peanuts compared to Florence. Maybe she just needs to accept this - hadn't she just been making jokes that death was inevitable, anyway?

Bikini-clad and wrapped in a blanket as she stands waiting, Hazel searches for a familiar face. Maybe they can talk her out of it!! No, no... maybe they can just distract her until she has to jump in. She's looking a little pale, but it's probably just the cold, right?

Archie & Open

[cherubic]

Born and bred in the cold, Archie is more or less unperturbed by the chilly air. He's dealt with cold water before, but in a different context. Some of his best memories of home involve running out of the sauna and plunging into cold water, feeling his heart race. This is a little different though. Archie lays on the edge of the docks and experimentally dips his fingers into the dark water.

Rosy + Open

[browbeats]

Rosy just might be losing her mind. Every year so far, she's watched others do this, called them dumbasses, felt superior, and moved on with her day. So why the fuck is she in an outfit much more appropriate for a California beach, aside from the jacket tightly wrapped around her as she already tries not to shiver?

Oh, because she's a dumbass. Because she's trying a new method, and that method is pretending to like things in an attempt to fool people into thinking she's capable of liking things.

She already does not like this. For fuck's sake.

Micah!

[stclair]

Micah didn't do this last year, because it's stupid, and it always seemed more fun to sit on the sidelines with his camera and watch all of his classmates strip down to their swimsuits. He doesn't like being coddled like a frozen, idiot baby. He doesn't like the cold. He doesn't like winter.

But Micah's trying a new thing this year, a new thing that is definitely not just "deleting self-preservation instincts from your brain one by one now that you're a super cool Azurcrest junior." He's fun and fancy free. Carpe diem, you know. Fuck.

"I can't believe I'm missing out on this prime opportunity to get shirtless photos of everyone," Micah laments.

JADE! (+++)

[odder]

Jade still has her swimsuit from last year, and that's all she's wearing. Her hair is, for once, brushed, but falling down in waves over her shoulders instead of sensibly tied back. She's going for the romantic corpse look, and she's certainly got one half of that down. Her skin is all goosebumps and her lips are threatening to turn the same color as her suit. But honestly, she doesn't seem to be noting any of that, as she smirks at the grey water. "This would be better if it was also snowing." She laments. She tilts an eyebrow skyward as though to tell the heavens she was just kidding.

Karen & Open.

[inksy]

Karen is kind of bopping from one side to the next with nervous energy. She is not entirely sure she is ready to do this, but she is gonna do it. In her mind you gotta do this at least once. She looks around at the fellow jumpers and shivers a little. She looks back to Oscar and the other standbys. Boy is she glad she decided to do this, this year when her brother can be her standby. Yes, she is thinking that she is a little crazy.

Avery & Open (to multiple!)

[un_kept]

Avery is SUPER excited. This is a traditional thing she's watched everyone else do - both with disgusted fascination and pure envy. This is the first year she's comfortable enough in her skin to don a bathing suit in public and make the plunge herself, despite being a stand-by so many times.

Wrapped up in a blanket and waiting for the go, she's already starting to question her life choices.

Isabelle & Tristan (As well as open!)

[cant_even]

"Why am I doing this again?" Isabelle was all kinds of different this year - she had more confidence, and she cared a lot less what other people said when Tristan was around. Maybe that's why she got caught up in the excitement of some really, really dumb tradition that involved being half-naked in front of other people (not her forte) and jumping into a freezing lake (also a bad idea) and then trying to get out before you die of hypothermia.

But she was totally ready, okay? She was standing in a one-piece bathing suit which did little to disguise how thin she was. The cold was already seeping into her skin and she was shaking a little, though honestly she was sure that was probably nerves more than the cold. "Don't get distracted and leave me to die in there okay?"

THE JUMP

[goosemods]

Fill out the following form and post it to this comment if your character is masochistic enough to compete over who can stay in freezing water the longest. We will RNG a unique number between 1–100 to determine how well they do.

<b>Character:</b> <b>Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?:</b> Y/N <b>How little do they fear death?:</b> <b>What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?:</b> <b>Anything else?:</b>

(If your character is jumping and not an idiot, you can still use this heading to describe their icy plunge, if you want!)

Spencer Sweetheart

[bitterlysweet]

Character: Spencer Sweet
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: Y, because everyone else is. He's an ice skater, he can do cold! This will be a cinch!
How little do they fear death?: It only occurs to him when it's too late to take it back. Spencer is an invincible teenage boy! Death will never catch him!!!
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: I Have Made A Mistake swiftly followed by Ira Save Me I'm Dying.
Anything else?: He's going to forget how shitty this was by next year and do it again.

Ruby Othergemname

[patineuse]

Character: Ruby Oberholtzer
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: Y, because there's no better way to prove her mastery over her soft physical form.
How little do they fear death?: She doesn't have a death wish, it just doesn't occur to her 16-year-old brain that it could happen. Sometimes she gets flung around on the ice with her face inches away from the newly sharpened blades of Spencer's ice skates. They do that for fun.
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: Oh shit. I really don't have ice water in my veins.
Anything else?: UGHHHH SPENCER ARE THEY REALLY STILL GOING TO BE STUCK AT THIS SCHOOL NEXT YEAR

Dinah Danger

[dinahdanger]

Character: Dinah Dixon
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: Yes!! Because it seems SUPER IMPORTANT to her captain for some reason SHE'S A BADASS. She's been cold water scuba diving before!! A LOT of times before!! In... admittedly warmer temperatures and in wetsuits, but STILL.
How little do they fear death?: Dinah doesn't realize her squishy mortal form is capable of death.
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: It's bad when it gets COMFORTABLE, right? THEN I'm about to die?
Anything else?: She has no body fat, this is a bad choice.

Lady Stokes

[browbeats]

Character: Rosy Stoker
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: This question is an insult.
How little do they fear death?: She will greet death like an old friend just so she can stab him in the back.
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: I cannot fucking believe Sy wussed out this year, what the fuck.
Anything else?: Rosy tries to understand Fun, Take 1.

Haze Keats

[lilwitchhazel]

Character: Hazel Keating
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: Y because she won't pass up challenges even when she's scared.
How little do they fear death?: She's only scared of drowning via ghost and not via cold so it's kind of a mixed bag here. The longer she's in, though, the more invincible she feels.
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: SUCK ON THAT GHOSTS, she's going to die from FREEZING!!!!
Anything else?: Everything is fine.

Jade Originalgemname

[odder]

Character: Jade Otterwell
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: Yes. If Ruby Oberholtzer can stay in freezing water, JADE OTTERWELL sure can.
How little do they fear death?: She wants to marry death. Well. She says she wants to marry death. Being faced with all its very grim, somewhat real, presence is kind of another thing entirely.She's not sure, in this moment, why she needs to prove she's not scared of it so very often.
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: None, she's too busy laughing to fool this water into submission. There's a glint of insanity to it, but what else is new.
Anything else?: Indoor skeleton children, don't try this at home.

Heathcliff Lacey

[heathclifflacey]

Character: Heathcliff Lacey
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: Y! This is a competition, right? So he wants to WIN.
How little do they fear death?: Death's nothing to worry about. He's young! He's tough! He's invincible! And besides, Phi's got his back. So he's, like, double invincible!
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: Mostly just incoherent renditions of Oh god and FUCK IT'S COLD. It also occurs to him that he encouraged his baby sister to do this. :| That was maybe a bad idea.
Anything else?: This is the worst birthday present he's ever given himself.

Tuesday North Pole

[tues]

Character: Tuesday North
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: YUP.
How little do they fear death?: Not much, but usually that's air related, not sea related.
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: This is a little like the time her dad took her ice fishing! She wondered how those fish felt! This must be how those fish felt! She hates fish! She hates This. Oh god, does her hair look stupid?? Who's watching her?? Is that Casper? Does he think this long is a Too Long waste of time??? Can anyone hear her teeth?
Anything else?: If she fails at this, she's going to do something stupid on a broom to feel worthy again.

Nisha Liquid Nitrogen

[godzillabutworse]

Character: Nisha Lewis
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: Y because there's no other option.
How little do they fear death?: There is only one god, and His name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: "Yes, today please."
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: I bet my insides taste like meaty gelato
Anything else?: let her die and I'll put a hold on Malachi Vogelsong

Cole Moss

[colemoss]

Character: Cole Moss
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: N. Once the initial shock has passed, he's swimming to the dock.
How little do they fear death?: Cole's not worried. Hazel said this is nbd and he went to bed early like Calvin told him to, so it'll be fine! He will change his mind about this as soon as he's in the water.
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: For a moment, he thinks about the unfinished painting back in his cabin. That bothers him.
Anything else?: Cole still trusts you Hazel. But. :(

Sweet Baby Jeffy

[racingstripe]

Character: Jeffy Key
Are they trying to stay in the water longer than anyone else?: No! Jeffy doesn't have a competitive bone in his body and he's SUPER IMPRESSED with everyone who wants to stay in here for a long time!
How little do they fear death?: He never has! It's unfortunate! Maybe he should learn to!
What thought is going through their head when their body fluids are literally congealing?: Oh man, I bet Lucas has a BUNCH of really cool facts about how many people die from hypothermia each year. I can't WAIT to hear them!!
Anything else?: He can live.

AUDIENCE

[goosemods]

Sofia + Open

[sovain]

After no search party was sent to rescue her furry self the night before, Sofia's feeling particularly bitter and standing at the side of the lake in hope to see people drown.

Okay, she doesn't REALLY want to see anyone hurt, but she won't currently admit that.

GETTING OUT OF THE WATER & THE LODGE

[goosemods]

Archie & Hero

[cherubic]

Archie clambers out of the water, but he can't quite feel his arms or legs. He'd been in a long time. Longer than most. Getting out isn't a relief, though. The wind reignites how cold he is, and his teeth are chattering so hard he can't even say something casually derisive to Hieronymus. Critisizing his warming charms or... saying he smells like... or...? He can't even put together a sentence.

He walks straight into Hieronymus' waiting towel-laden arms. Or maybe his not-so-ready chest. Whatever's there will have to do.

OOC ❄️ Questions, comments, concerns!

[goosemods]

Re: OOC ❄️ Questions, comments, concerns!

[prophesie]

these types of ice water jumps are genuinely one of my fave activities :> probably the best part of tough mudder