ADVENTURE CLUB CAMPING TRIP!!

[peckishmods]

adventure club camping trip

what's up?

Bright and early, Ms. Min, Mr. Trullinger and Mr. Berzelius assemble the Adventure Club and all amateur hikers on the shores of Lake Peckenpaugh. This early, it’s downright chilly, with temperatures today not looking like they’ll soar much higher than the upper 50s °F. With that in mind, Ms. Min takes a moment to review warming charms with everyone before they set off. The first leg of the journey takes them up Lake Peckenpaugh by canoe in groups of three or four per boat. The whole excursion carefully avoids known siren territory as they paddle north, deeper into the valley.

The scenery is beautiful, with the angled autumn sun casting long shadows over the trees, coated with vibrant fiery reds, bright yellows and golds, dense enough to look like a heavy quilt tossed over the hills. A couple hours of canoeing take campers well into the Appalachian wilderness and eventually to a simple docking point, where students break for lunch before the hiking half of the trip begins. Mr. Trullinger indulges in a bit of fishing, and is happy to show any interested students the ropes.

After eating, it’s up into the hills, another two hour journey up sometimes precarious (but still marked) dirt paths until students reach the campsite, a modest clearing not too different from Thorntrail’s House grounds, with a creek bed cutting through. While it may take a bit for some camping novices to assemble their tents, there’s still enough daylight to go on a nature walk, hike further up or play some games, and students are asked to meet for check in at dinner.

Even the night isn’t too dark with the full Hunter’s Moon high in the sky tonight. Students are expected to check in one more time by 10PM, and will have most of the morning to explore the camp grounds before packing up to head home again after lunch.

visuals!

volunteer slots!

Poppy winds up sharing a canoe with Mr. Trullinger and Mr. Berzelius. It’s kind of like boating with a couple of children, since the two teachers spend the whole time goofing around. Mr. Trullinger and Mr. Berzelius keep insisting that Poppy paddle faster!! They’re losing the race!!!

While students are allowed to set up their tents using magic, Ms. Min awards anyone who does so manually with a homemade mini apple danish. 💯 Merlin gets theirs assembled fastest, and earns 5 points for their House! Trudy and [CHARACTER D] are so bad at it, they need Mr. Berzelius to come by and put their tent up for them.

After setting up camp Valkyrie decides to go on a short nature hike. Their wandering takes them off the dirt and mulch trails, onto one more pebbly. They walk for a few minutes before the pebbly trail becomes inconveniently rocky to traverse, and here they notice these aren’t rocks and pebbles but chunks of asphalt. Something glinting in the late afternoon sun catches Val’s eye: a chunk of a road sign, reading ‘aw 11 mi’.

tent assignments!

• Tent 1
• Aristotle
• Harrison
• Uriah
• Gertrude

• Tent 2
• Armani
• Chanel
• Laszlo

• Tent 3
• Audrey
• Jupiter
• Freya

• Tent 4
• Bijou
• Scarlett
• Wyatt

• Tent 5
• Cedar
• Valkyrie
• Lydia

• Tent 6
• Edgar
• Imogen
• Mary Grace

• Tent 7
• Felicity
• Poppy
• Presley

• Tent 8
• Maverick
• Merlin
• Pax
• Tony

how this works!

⬥ Students set out from the docks near Deeplurk at a little before 10AM, the canoeing portion of the trip is a fun and relaxing hour and a half adventure that deposits them at the start of their hiking trail. After lunch, the hike is two hours to the campsite, mostly because breaks are frequently taken to ensure everyone's doing okay!

⬥ Students are allowed to roam, but must meet set check ins taking place roughly every two hours while not actively traveling.

⬥ All of this is taking place within the anti-apparition zone, which seems to extend far into the wildnerness north of campus.

locations!

⬦ CANOEING (MORNING): It’s a brisk, beautiful morning and though clouds are moving in, the sky is clear for now and the sun is warm. If you keep your eyes on the shoreline, you may catch sight of some local critters and cryptids. Mr. Trullinger points out the sounds of woodland crooners beyond the treeline at one point. “Don’t worry, guys! We’re passing their territory up! It’s the White Ones we’ll have to worry about tonight!” To which he gets an exasperated, “Oh my God, Georgie.” from Ms. Min.

⬦ HIKING & LUNCH on the SHORE (LATE MORNING/EARLY AFTERNOON): Students and chaperones sit down on the pebbly shore for a lunch of fruit, sandwiches and potato chips. There’s enough time to explore the riverside, take some pictures or do some drawing, before the second leg of the journey begins. A two hour hike up through the hills to a campsite. This is clearly a trail regularly used by hikers and is well tended to.

⬦ CAMPSITE (MIDDAY): Set up your tents and get settled in! There’s plenty of space to relax, explore or play games. With a soft bed of mulch underfoot and a lazy little creek cutting through the campsite, it’s very picturesque. Ms. Min takes a few experienced students to do some more demanding hiking and rock climbing further up the trails. Mr. Berzelius organizes an afternoon nature walk for anyone interested. He may not know the critters and cryptids like Trullinger does, but he has valuable insight into local potions ingredients. Hey juniors, pay attention, you might get a hint on that assignment of yours.

⬦ EVENING & NIGHT: Tonight is the Hunter’s Moon, and though it’s small it’s shining bright tonight. Mr. Berzelius and Ms. Min prepare dinner over a large campfire, and as the sun sinks low, Mr. Trullinger leads a second nature walk to try and spot some local nocturnal fauna. After dark, there're marshmallows to roast, ghost stories to tell and a few students get together and play lumos tag on the edge of the treeline before it’s time to turn in.

⬦ The Trip Back: The next day, after lunch, students break camp, hike back to their canoes and paddle back to campus. Even with some complications, the return trip seems so much faster than the journey out.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Comments

CANOEING (Morning)

[peckishmods]

CANOEING with CHAOS

[circuitree]

"I GOT IT!" Cedar calls out, leaning way too far over the edge of the canoe to reach their paddle. They don't got it. It's still just beyond the reach of their fingertips and the canoe is tipping perilously. "ALMOST."

They throw their hand out to Bijou. "Lemme use yours to scooch mine closer."

HIKING & LUNCH on the SHORE (Late Morning / Early Afternoon)

[peckishmods]

Ophelia by John William Waterhouse (Open+)

[teratophilia]

All his rose quartz jewelry and LOVE ME vibes he's been sending out into the universe are finally paying off!!

Armani spends the lunch break in picturesque locations, posing like the women in Waterhouse paintings: delicate, sensual, and Lightly Depressed™. He perches on a log and brushes his fingers through his hair, wanders the woods to gather flowers in his arms, and spends some time lying in the grass and looking sexy yet haunted.

If his future entanglement wasn't already overwhelmed by his beauty, now they definitely would be!!!!

CAMPSITE (Midday)

[peckishmods]

Twinzlo rescued from Tent Hell by their handsome, symmetrical nemesis

[teratophilia]

Armani has been on lots of camping trips with Adventure Club before!! He's camped! In a tent! In the woods! This should be easy!!

Okay, so maybe he's only ever watched other people put up the tent while he fawned over their survivalist skills. But he watched them VERY closely! And he read a wikihow article yesterday! He's confident in his ability to put this tent together!!

The ground cloth is on the ground! Tent stakes? Staked! Poles are IN PLACE!! The tent is UP!! -- But what's this extra joint piece? Probably just a spare, right? Yeah, it's probably just a spare in case one breaks. He pockets it before climbing in and turns around to beam brightly at the other two, gesturing for them to join him. It's holding up!! See?? It's fine!!! He did it!!!

Valkyrie and the Road To Nowhere

[sugarnspite]

It's nice to be alone sometimes. Valkyrie doesn't often get the chance to strike out on her own, which is fine. She doesn't mind being busy. And on top of that, she has a lot of friends that want her company. Soooo many friends. That's what happens when you're popular.

But it's a relief to briefly escape the eyes of the school and not think so much about popularity or who likes her and how much. No need to worry about Homecoming and dating and feelings when it's just her and the trees. It smells like pine and earth out in the woods, and the little meandering trail is easy to navigate. A perfect respite.

Or it was at first, anyhow. She's not surprised when the terrain gets rough; it doesn't seem like the trail is used often. The sudden steeper incline doesn't deter her. She climbs, searching for the most solid footholds until she crests the hill.

For a second it's hard to reconcile the familiar things in front of her, just because the context is so wrong. Slabs of broken asphalt, the painted traffic lines fading and incomprehensible. Chunks of it have replaced the rocks and gravel under her feet, and there, lying among the debris, is a road sign.

She looks both ways, like waiting to cross, or trying to see where the stretch of road might have extended. How old would it need to be for nature to have completely taken over? "Weird," she whispers to herself, and picks up the sign fragment.

EVENING & NIGHT

[peckishmods]

Tent Three Time!

[andpoke]

It's quiet and cool outside, but not too quiet, and not too cold. Audrey really likes it out in the forest. Everything's alive, but peaceful, and all they have to do is match that vibe for a sense of quiet contentment. Audrey's perched herself in the middle of the tent so she'll have body heat opportunities from both her roommates, which she feels she'll need even with the double sweater layer she's sporting. It's dark, but not quite time for sleep yet.

"Don't you feel like we should be playing MASH or something." She murmurs to her tentmates, not wanting to disturb the night noises too much, "Or do either of you know what ghosts are supposed to be around?"
Although she'd never been camping before high school, there was an automatic nostalgia. She assumes that's the kind of thing one did at sleepaway camp.

Tent Six, Late Night

[bigbruise]

Imogen is wearing earbuds, but the thrash of her music is audible within the tent.

She also stole away some marshmallows from earlier and has quietly but carelessly rested the bag on the edge of her closest tentmate's sleeping bag.

Tent Four Time!

[wrencredible]

Bijou isn't a regular member of Adventure Club. If that wasn't apparent from her disasterous attempts at pitching a tent, it definitely was when unpacking her 'survival essentials utility kit' revealed a pink marabou feather trimmed sleep mask and a 12 step skincare regimen.

Every night at boarding school is like a slumber party, but this one's extra special since it's out in a woods! With big plans for a night filled with boytalk manstertalk with her two besties for the evening, she holds up a tube of deeply glittery deeply pink peel-off face mask and chirps, "Who's ready for some fun?"

Watchin' for Weird Things with Jup (Open++)

[gasgiant]

A bag of jumbo marshmallows sits open on the ground beside Jupiter, who reclines in the dirt with her hands back behind her, one leg crossed over the other, bouncing her foot. She stares out into the darkness, watching in silence.

Is that something moving beyond the trees? A cryptid? A deer?? A freshman??? A trick of the light????

She leans forward, scooping up the bag of puffed sugar. As she squints into the forest, she pops two of them in her mouth, stuffing either cheek overfull. Overall, excepting the chipmunk cheeks, she gives the impression of a cat getting ready to pounce.

Armani tries to impress everyone by feeding them (Open++)

[teratophilia]

"Try my s'mores?" he offers sweetly, holding out his skillet of s'more nachos with chocolate chips and syrup aesthetically drizzled across. It tastes just like the s'mores everyone else is making right now, except it looks like a food blogger mommy made it to one-up Karen at the bonfire party.

Uriah & Presley

[negligently]

Uninvited (because he's always uninvited) Uriah claims the spot in front of the fire, right next to Presley. He squeezes himself in on the log, making space where clearly there wasn't enough. Like this it's easy to move in close, one hand on the seat behind Presley, and whisper in his ear:

"Now's your chance to make a move on MG," he croons, "starry skies, crackling fire—"

Tent One

[negligently]

Uriah rolls over on his side and grins brilliantly at his unfortunate tentmates. "Who's gonna hold me when I get scared in the middle of the night? I'm real scared a White Thing's gonna take me."

He does not sound scared at all. Rather, he looks ready to burst into laughter at the slightest provocation.

Tent Five is Alive

[circuitree]

It's dark out. Of course it's dark out, it's, like, the middle of the night and everyone should be asleep by now.

But Cedar isn't. Cedar's mind is racing, with every noise outside, every shifting shadow in the moonlight. It isn't like they've never slept in the West Virginia wilderness before. It's that every time they have, a tree branch fell on a tent or a sheepsquatch wandered in and ate all their potato chips, or that one time their aunt just walked off a mountain trying to find a place to pee???? She didn't break anything but she lost a finger to frostbite!! What if that happened again????

"Hey," Cedar whispers into the dark tent, at the sleeping forms of their temporary roommates. Then again, more forcefully. "Hey." They try to wait for a response before continuing, but there's a howl outside and Cedar can't remember when snarly yow mating season is and— "HEY."

Tent Seven, Early Evening

[infamously]

The evening quiet is broken by a sudden loud yelp, and the shaking of Tent 7 as someone scrambles out and lands hard on the dirt in his rush to escape. "Don't touch me," Presley snaps at the first person who approaches, then seems to belatedly realize where he is. On a stupid camping trip, surrounded by his classmates, who can see him making a scene.

Dammit. "I'm fine. It's fine." Despite his adamant words, Presley covers his mouth with one hand and stares at his tent with a look of quiet dread. He makes no move to return inside.

THE TRIP BACK

[peckishmods]

OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[peckishmods]

sup I think all campers are accounted for please let me know if we missed you or your group. Thank you!!

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[teratophilia]

oh my god tent 8 is going to burst in the night

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[merlinpletcher]

...Can I get Character B for Merlin? He doesn't care about points much but very is sweets-motivated.

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[sugarnspite]

E for Valkyrie??? She was getting in tune with NATURE when MAN'S HUBRIS showed up.

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[bratsquatch]

Felicity is here and I'd love to do some scenes. Going on a hike to find a cryptid? Tent 7 stuff -- setting up or settling down? Campfire stuff? I dunno, anything really! She loves the outdoors and camping.

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[teratophilia]

also i want threads pls ps ls pls plsls

would any characters be willing to canoe for him while he stares at cryptids?

meggie: ENTANGLEMENTS???

rin, lyss, meggie: harrison tent rescueeeee????

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[sugarnspite]

Val is her, looking cute and ready to take in the wilderness. Between hikes, she's doing a lot of meditation and connecting with nature. Quodpot players are strongly encouraged to join here. uwu

Laszlo has NO idea what he's doing but he IS having fun and is incredibly curious about everything. He likes the plant-based nature hike with Berzelius a lot. He IS taking samples.

Uriah knows his way around a campsite but he's only helping put up the tent if you make him. Catch him basking in the autumn sun instead of going on a hike. If anyone would like to ditch afternoon activities to make out, he's your man. (He's also going to hit on Trudy and Harrison so... sorry about that.)