peckenpaugh | MAY POCKET PARTY

pocket's tv land party!

what's up? Pocket is throwing a party tonight and you’re invited! There’s about an hour after dinner to get ready for the big event, and though curfew is tighter tonight than it has been in a long time, somehow attendees find their paths unobstructed. It’s a warm, wet night, but the path up to the waterfall caves is clear as ever.

In groups and pairs, students pass beneath the falls and into the caves beyond. Tonight they needn’t walk far. A thin electric hum meets their ears, the walls dimly illuminated by a pale flickering light. Just a few steps take them to the door to Pocket’s party: a single, large television that in bright candy technicolor beckons students to EXPERIENCE POCKET!VISION!

Students who step up to the screen will find it permeable, and passing through changes everything at once...

visuals!

volunteer slots! On their way up the side of the hill, [CHARACTER A] finds a sign post discarded in some bushes. Hastily painted on the front is an approximation of Pouch’s face, circled with red and struck through with a single line. It looks like Pocket has decided not to disinvite her brother from her party.

pairings list!

Claudia Vega
STB #1: Howdy
STB #2: Uriah
7MIH: Trudy

Echo Ellerby
STB #1: Tybalt
STB #2: Gemma

Felicity Deverill
STB #1: Presley
STB #2: Winter
7MIH: Kermit

Gemma Zhao
STB #1: Scarlett
STB #2: Echo
7MIH: Willow

Howdy Stoppelbein
STB #1: Claudia
STB #2: Trudy
7MIH: Uriah

Kermit Creekmore
STB #1: Wyatt
STB #2: Tybalt
7MIH: Felicity

Presley Mondragon
STB #1: Felicity
STB #2: Wyatt
7MIH: Winter

Scarlett Hatfield
STB #1: Gemma
STB #2: Willow

Trudy McGilliguddy
STB #1: Winter
STB #2: Howdy
7MIH: Claudia

Tybalt Zettler
STB #1: Echo
STB #2: Kermit
7MIH: Wyatt

Uriah Hatfield
STB #1: Willow
STB #2: Claudia
7MIH: Howdy

Willow Quackenbush
STB #1: Uriah
STB #2: Scarlett
7MIH: Gemma

Wyatt Webberley
STB #1: Kermit
STB #2: Presley
7MIH: Tybalt

how this works! ⬥ Welcome to Pocket’s party! Pocket always wants to hang out with the students of Peckenpaugh, and she uses her unusual magic to give them a fantastic new place to visit and play with her. This is Pocket’s domain, and she’ll block or (safely) eject anyone who is dangerously disruptive or threatens the safety or secrecy of her party.

⬥Pocket Parties are pretty much old hat for Peckenpaugh's students, provided you've been here for a year. What's not old hat is the party itself. Pocket's parties are always reliably wild and imaginative, bending the limits of magic and reality!

⬥Tonight’s party starts at 8PM and stretches on indistinctly. Before the party, every student on campus could hear Pocket asking them if they were coming. It seems she really wants everyone to attend! Usually, when you leave the party, it’s precisely at 11PM, but tonight things are going to get a little strange…

⬥It’s TV Land! Tonight’s party has some fun surprises for students:

For the duration of the party, your wands have been transformed into television remotes. You can use your magical remote to punch in a number and change your look ⁠— or your friends’ looks! We’ve provided a list of “channels” below in the comments to give you outfit inspiration.

There’s a live studio audience in just about every part of the party that will react to student’s actions with laughter, applause, soft gasps, cooing and even boos.

Each area is bordered on one side by a giant television with a single dial and a set of large rabbit ears ⁠— not antenna, literal rabbit ears. Pocket’s still not 100% on muggle stuff.
- Students can tune the knob or adjust the rabbit ears and jump through the television to proceed to a different part of the party.

Each of the subheader locations at this party has a different small effect that may or may not complicate your character’s life. Be sure to read the descriptions for each to see what you’re working with!

THE INFORMERCIAL GAME:
- As part of the final party, you the player can opt your characters into The Infomercial Game.
- If you’d like to play, title your thread with the words (IG). So, for example, “Adrian & Mary Grace (IG)” or “Winter (OPEN++) (IG)”
- At any point during your thread, we may interrupt you with something like “Oops!” or “Oh no!” or “Watch out!”, and the next person to tag has to catastrophically mess up whatever it is they’re doing ⁠— just like a ridiculous infomercial.
- We won’t hit any threads that haven’t opted in, so you can carry on normally, if you’d like without fear of being interrupted.
- This is just a fun way to mix up scenes and add an additional prompt to whatever you’re doing.

locations! ⬦ WHAT'S UP: It's the last Pocket Party of the year! How're you feeling? What're your plans? Gonna sneak out and partake in a little breaking and entering later? What part of the party is your character going to spend the most time in? Let us know here!

⬦ CHANNEL FIVE: The Family Sitcom: There’s something strange about the look of this room ⁠— aside from the mid-century modern furniture, that is ⁠— light, delicate colors, almost pastels, contrast with heavy shadow, giving everything the look of a colorized photo. Otherwise, it seems like a standard 1950s living room, if one that is particularly spacious. A fire gently flickers in the marble hearth against the center wall. There are plenty of places to sit comfortably or stand and mingle while a jukebox plays peppy music from one side of the room. That studio audience is particularly attentive to your actions here and will react to most things you do. Additionally, this is a family show so if you curse, you’re getting bleeped!

⬦ COMMERCIAL BREAKS: Occasionally on your way to another part of the party, you may be intercepted by a commercial break! These rotating scenes can be just about anything: a surrealist car insurance commercial, a heart-string tugging feminism-baiting commercial about girls’ empowerment that turns out to be for gel shoe inserts, an alarmingly horny coffee commercial or even a political ad. You can run through these scenes as people move and peddle products around you, or hang out and cause some trouble. The one thing tying these strange liminal spaces together is that everything advertised is Pocket! brand.

⬦ CHANNEL THIRTY-SIX: The Anime Adventure: Everything here is hand drawn, bright colors and bold lines, even your peers look different: big, flowing hair in neon colors, gigantic sparkling eyes. No, you aren’t tripping balls (well, you might be, but this is unrelated) ⁠— it seems Pocket!Vision has an all anime channel. This Ghibli-esque field bears a passing resemblance to the meadows around Lake Peckenpaugh, though far more densely packed with flowers that sway attractively in the sweet summery breeze. A stream lazily winds through the area, and an idyllic cabin sits off to the side. Mostly, there’s a lot of room, a few strategically placed picnic blankets and plenty of cute mushrooms to look at. If you show up looking like the Rose of Versailles, a Saiyan from Planet Sadala or a student at U.A. High School, you may also find that there’s more than adequate space for some overwrought battles. Whenever you speak, English subtitles appear in front of you at chest level. And yes, they are annoying.

⬦ CHANNEL TWELVE: The Rom-Com: The sun is shining on this quaint little street where stone storefronts hug a rain-drenched sidewalk. Every once in a while, a sunshower dumps water on the students passing through this area, but there’s just enough space for two or three to shelter together under a narrow overhang. Everything on this little small town block is purpose built to cause meet cutes ⁠— busses are running ahead of schedule, cute dogs will lead you to someone else, and the chances of tripping and falling into a classmate are extremely, extremely high. The only real store is a bookshop-slash-coffee shop where students have gathered to play kissing games.

⬦ PARTY GAMES: The Meet-Cute Cafe: Students have moved comfortable chairs and ottomans into a loose circle in the middle of this bookstore-slash-cafe. Between smooches you can grab a cappuccino or disappear into the shelves. If you’re playing seven minutes in heaven, there’s an elaborate but tiny castle made from old books on one side of the shop where you can go for a bit of privacy.

⬦ CHANNEL SEVENTY-TWO: The Cooking Competition: Partygoers in search of snacks have their work cut out for them tonight, spilling out from the television barrier onto an arena where several kitchen work stations are set up. Harsh lights cast a somewhat unflattering glow on everything, and blind those on stage from seeing the faceless crowd surrounding them. Each workstation has a stove, a minifridge, a sink and a large basket of miscellaneous ingredients. Each time one item is taken from the basket, a new strange item appears in its place. So if you’re specifically hankering for strawberry ice cream, you may have to remove crabapples, scrapple, and a bag of squid chips first. Every once in a while, Pocket’s disembodied voice will announce a new secret ingredient, and once she’s called “Allez cuisine!” faceless commentators will narrate everything you do on stage.

⬦ CHANNEL EIGHT: The Puppy Bowl: It’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen: a little football field covered in soft pink carpet, strewn with catnip mice, rubber balls and tug-of-war toys. This channel is playing The Puppy Bowl, pitting kittens and puppies against each other in … well, hanging out in a well lit space and just being cute. Hang out and cuddle for a while.

⬦ END OF THE NIGHT: Something wicked this way comes.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"She's fine," he replies, completely ignoring the chosen direction of Patrice's words. He folds one arm up under his chin and extends the other, fingers scritching under the puppy's chin. "Ain't pickin' on her."

He shrugs, motion overdone just enough to jostle the other boy. "And I got another one anyway."

Whining as he jostled, Patrice sets the kitten down so he can roll over onto his side, his own motions purposefully exaggerated so that he manages to lightly elbow Desmond in between the shoulder blades as he's getting settled.

"You're a bully, don't pretend otherwise. You're bullying me right now." He sighs heavily, considering, before adding. "Did you come here just to sleep in a pile of baby animals?"

A snort. "Y'real sensitive."

Des hums, thoughtful sound stuttering slightly with the impact of elbow to upper spine, letting the puppy lick his eye before nosing its way under his chin, swiping his hand out to collect the kitten Patrice abandoned. "Maybe," he concludes. "Why else you coming here?"

"You're just mean."

Patrice watches as Des takes a hold of the kitten he'd set down, a childish part of him wanting to reach out to try to steal the feline back. He refrains though, instead sighing again and reaching out a hand to try to coax another nearby kitten over to him.

"Probably just that, I guess. This 'channel' is probably the least jarring too. The other ones have way too much of a 'being watched' vibe."

"If you insist."

The kitten lets out a small, offended hiss and falls over onto its back - tiny claws extended and valiantly wrestling with Desmond's fingers. He grins, obliges to turn his hand over into a passable claw and lower it slowly.

"Yeah, it's -" he agrees. "Don't much like being looked at."

"It likes me better than you," Patrice says after a moment, satisfied. The kitten he's wiggling his fingers at just stares at him, though, so he's apparently only winning one popularity contest here.

"Really? Had no idea. But yeah, we have enough stuff creeping around without weird disembodied voices. Wonder if this party'll end in a mess like the last one."

Rather than disputing the point, Des hums an affirmative, seemingly content in letting the kitten continue to savage his fingers. Won't draw much blood with claws that tiny, anyway. No point in ruining a good time.

"You can't say you like it neither. That ain't the same as getting attention." And it's true. He just isn't going to elaborate on why it's true. "Long as it ain't messin' with me."

Patrice tries for a few more moments to coax over the other kitten before giving up, curling his arm to his chest and shifting again to get comfortable. It's nice to talk to Des, but it really was more comfortable when he was a dog.

"Yeah, it's not the same." He won't admit outright to not liking it, simply to be contrary. "You're here, so it'll probably be at least a little bit your problem if it does. Unless you cut out early, I guess."

Lot of things are better when you're a dog. Never really cold much, for instance. Things smell different. There's yellow and there's blue and there's nobody expecting you to make polite conversation.

Not that Patrice ever really expects polite conversation from him. So that's well and fine.

"I ain't the wizard cop here," he says, and the puppy burrowed under his chin yawns. "That's fashionable, right? CUttin' out early."

It's true - Patrice has never really expected polite conversation from Des, and he's not about to start now. He will continue complaining about half the things the other boy says, though. He groans.

"Ugh, I know, I should be looking out for people and watching for vines or whatever but this party is weird and no one listens to me so there's only so much I can do." A tragedy. His method of asking people to do things surely doesn't factor into that at all. "It is. Are you suddenly fashionable?"

“Stand down, wizard cop. Y’ain’t responsible for nobody but yourself.” Nobody is. Lot of the reason why there’s no sense in arguing when people want to make themselves bad decisions. They’re going to make them anyway. People do what they want.

He huffs out another short breath through his nose, skeptic. “Could be.”

Patrice whines, loud and petulant, as he turns to bury his face in Desmond's back for a moment. He often fluctuates between feeling like he should feel responsible for other people and not wanting to waste his energy, so it's nice to have (unnecessary) permission to, at least temporarily, disregard the more difficult impulse.

"Nah, I don't think you are. You can still leave early, though. I'll allow it."

Look, thing is? When it comes down to it, nobody's worrying about you more than they're worrying about themselves. It ain't mean. It's just people. So sometimes you've got to worry about just you.

He shrugs, flattens his palm over the warm expanse of the kitten's belly. "Didn't think so neither, but didn't hurt to try it."

Patrice thrashes (gently) around a few more times on Des's back in frustration before he finally fully settles on his side. He reaches a long arm out to hopefully at least graze a finger along the kitten's soft fur.

"You're doing alright, in any case."

MAY POCKET PARTY

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate

Desmond Savage, Professional Jungle-Gym, and His Very Annoying Roommate