peckenpaugh | HOMECOMING DANCE 2019!!

homecoming dance

what's up? It’s raining tonight, which would make an outdoor dance inconvenient if this weren’t a school for wizards. The Central Green is the site of tonight’s Homecoming Dance, and Student Council and Homecoming Committee made extra sure everything above was watertight. Any loitering students are kicked out of the area by mid-morning today so dance setup can begin. While decorative malfunctions and diva meltdowns from freshmen slightly complicate things, it all comes together in the end and things are ready to go with plenty of time left before the dance is set to start.

Cardboard walls painted with magical sci fi murals ⁠— animated scenes of aliens, robots, giant radioactive ants and other cosmic horrors ⁠— have been stuck up at all park entrances, filtering students in through Central Classrooms. Overhead, rain drops splatter against magic shielding. The cloudy sky is supplemented by black cloth canopies painted with glittering galaxies. CDs and other swag bag goodies float in the air just beneath, made to look like planets and comets against a starry sky. Throughout the Green there are robots and aliens crafted from cardboard and covered in googly eyes. The existing flagstone patios have been expanded with temporary wooden platforms for attendees to dance and mingle without getting their shoes dirty.

visuals!

volunteer slots! An extremely brave little Muscheron asks Armani for a dance. You'll probably have to hold them in the palm of your hand, Armani.

In honor of the newest interstellar visitor, Mr. Hobgood is dressed as a comet tonight. It's a great look but the tail is quite cumbersome, and [CHARACTER B] trips over it on the dance floor.

Willow Quackenbush discovers the pod people pods are big enough to climb into and crawls inside one intent on spooking any canoodling couples. Their plan goes awry though when they get stuck and need to be rescued by Lionel Lovelace.

how this works! ⬥ The dance starts at 7PM and goes until 10PM.

⬥ There's an RNG game — test your shooting skills and accuracy in a Men in Black style shooting gallery. We will roll up to three times.

⬥ Here is a playlist to dance and get abducted to for your listening pleasure.

locations! ⬦ BEFORE THE DANCE: The Central Green has been blocked off since this morning, and the first attendees aren’t allowed in until 7PM. What did you get up to before the dance? Were you helping to set up or perfecting your costume make up? Student Council and Homecoming Committee members definitely had a bit of a panic this afternoon trying to make sure everything was water tight. This is a great spot for dorm or house/year prep threads. Tell us what you were doing!

⬦ ENTRANCE: CRASHING STARSHIP: With the Central Green blocked off for the dance tonight, the only convenient way to get in is through Central Classrooms. The lobby of Peckenpaugh’s main academic building has been transformed. Students enter into a narrow starship hallway, gunmetal gray and lines with pipes and knobs, blinking buttons and flashing lights. Upon closer inspection, the whole thing is crafted from cardboard, CDs and office supplies painted or charmed to look like spaceship parts. Streams of foggy mist shoot from the pipes intermittently. Periodically, the walls shudder and a series of pre-recorded sound clips play: clanging sounds, explosions, faint screams, animalistic roaring, and every two minutes a freshman voice fills the narrow path to announce: “DECOMPRESSION IMMINENT. PLEASE PROCEED TO EVACUATION PODS.” There are three ways to go: left or right take you to the restrooms, straight leads you out into the Central Green and the dance proper. Right at the sliding door entrance, there are bins of bubble guns that look like ray guns.

⬦ RNG GAME: ALIEN SHOOTING GALLERY: Veer down the left hall once you enter central classrooms and the starship hall will lead you straight to one of the first floor club rooms, which has been made into a dark room shooting gallery made up to look like a harried city street in the midst of an alien invasion. Toy laser guns will track your score as you fight off Alien Overlord Doug Bobson and his minions (and try to avoid hitting civilians!).

⬦ DANCE FLOOR: ABDUCTION CENTRAL: Looking to dance? A large low wooden patio has been set up, painted green with crop circle-like patterns across the width of it. Fog spills out over the floor and an eclectic selection of danceable tunes thrum from all around. The dance floor is bathed in green lights, bordered by street signs warning of UFO ACTIVITY, E.T. CROSSING and ABDUCTION ZONEs. Overhead, little UFOs made from frisbees fly around. Some of them have tiny toy cows made from stress balls floating beneath them as though being abducted. All of them shine beams of light down on dancers.

⬦ SNACK BAR: ALIEN GARDEN: One side of the large flagstone patio near the Central Classrooms entrance has been made up to look like an elaborate alien garden complete with a bubbling stream of green punch that gathers into a basin on the table’s far side. Nab extraterrestrial themed sweets and finger foods from bowls and plates made to look like strange plants, flowers, rocks and hatched alien eggs. Opposite the snack bar there are a few sleek metal tables seating two to four easily.

⬦ THE SURLY STUMP: CLASSIFIED UFO CRASH SITE: The Surly Stump has been given a wide enclosure tonight to protect it from rambunctious teens, the space is made up to look like a cordoned off government investigation site. It gives the Muscheron a bit of a platform to observe the festivities, and they’ve gotten in on it, firing off occasional clouds of colorful pollen and spores. Not far off, most of a large UFO crash landing site has been built from paper mache and repurposed balloon letter frames. It’s great for a photo op, or just fooling around on.

⬦ THE PARK: ALIEN HATCHERY: If you're looking for a secluded spot, a short wander off the path will bring you through dense fog to a clearing filled with rows and rows of lightly glowing alien eggs and the occasional person-sized pod person pod. A few benches dot this eerily beautiful spot. A great place to give your date the creeps.

⬦ END OF THE NIGHT: The dance wraps up around 10PM and students can head back to their dorms for the night. After tear down of the dance, Ms. Gunzenhauser invites any interested Student Council or Homecoming Committee members to get a late night snack at Dez's, her treat.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Felicity came prepared tonight. First: her costume. Black robes and sexy alien face paint... which is just green face paint with smoky eyes. But since it's been applied by someone who rarely wears makeup, the result is just as much "alien with two black eyes" as it is "alien with smoky eyes." Perhaps this makes her look unintentionally spooky, and therefore, on-theme.

Second: she brought allergy pills. So, the Muscheron and their pollen clouds won't give her a massive reaction again. "Oh... oh no," Felicity covers her mouth as she approaches the crash site. "My ship."

She turns to Pax. "I guess I can't show you my home planet after all."

"Well butts."

Pax actually manages to sound slightly disappointed as she crosses her arms tightly across her chest, but she can't keep the smile from threatening at the corners of her lips.

"That's like the only reason I came to the dance with you. I'm a very large microscopic hanger-on. I hope you have some wrecked sweet alien goods in there, or we're through."

"No no no no, I've still got the goods," Felicity tells her date before trudging into the mess, hoping to find something to support her claim. "Aha!" She turns, holding one of the letter balloons, a golden C.

"This is... an alien magnet!" She cocks her head: impressive, right? She lets go of it momentarily and it starts to float upward. She snatches it again before it gets away. "Oooo, there must be something metallic up there!"

Edited 2019-10-29 19:05 (UTC)

"Phew." Pax wipes a hand across her brow and nearly knocks off her bucket-hat-mouth, which brings out a small fit of giggles. Get it together, Sweetapple. You're acting here.

She composes herself in time to start giggling again about the alien magnet, actually a little impressed by Felicity's ingenuity. "If I weren't a weird bug-bear, I could use my wand to try to get whatever metallic thing was going on. But, alas, I am. What do you think it is? A part of your ship? Some weird alien tech? A bigger magnet?"

Edited (we are having two VERY different threads Ben aidngasd) 2019-10-30 03:36 (UTC)

Felicity's eyes go wide at Pax's last suggestion. "A bigger magnet," she repeats with real gravitas. "Of course! That would explain everything." But before she can explain what this explains, Felicity starts to float away. More accurately, she slowly rises up onto her tippy toes. "Oh no! My belt! The big magnet has got my belt!"

She'd sound much more scared if she weren't fighting back giggles of her own. She reaches a hand out to Pax to save her from being pulled into space. "Help!"

Edited (I originally wrote 'pacemaker' instead of 'belt' but I need to read up on cardiovascular health in the wizarding world) 2019-10-30 12:12 (UTC)

There's a normal way to approach this 'problem,' which would be taking Felicity's hand, and then there's the fun way. Pax, of course, opts for the fun way. She does reach out for the other girl's hand, but instead of simply taking it she just tries to pull her down to the ground.

"I'll save you!"

Edited 2019-10-30 12:59 (UTC)

Felicity is initially caught off guard by Pax's pull, but she quickly goes with it. She rolls onto the ground and attempts to bring Pax down with her. Felicity ends up on her back, looking up at the stars. "What's your home like?" she asks Pax. "Think I might need to start looking for a new one."

Pax goes down without much fight, because there's no reason to say upright when there's a perfectly good floor here. She sighs, content, and stretches out her actual human limbs.

"Well, normally I'm really small, so my home is a speck of space dust. But like, cool space dust. With nachos."

"You come from a home made of nacho dust?" Felicity asks, slack-jawed. For a moment she's forgotten that they're playing make-believe.

That actually wasn't what Pax meant, but it's funny, sooooo....

"One hundo percent. Certified cheese dust denizen right here."

"Yum." Felicity makes a peace sign and puts on her best alien voice. "Hello, we come in cheese." The bad pun gives her another round of the giggles. After a moment her laughter subsides and she falls silent.

"You know, Tony and I don't live together anymore," she says quietly. She assumes everyone already knows, but it's the first time she's actually told somebody.

The laugh Felicity earns for this joke can probably be characterized as a guffaw.

Of course, it's quickly quieted when the conversation shifts, and Pax turns her head a little to look at the other girl. She definitely knew already, but pointing that out wouldn't be helpful.

"Yeah? Do you miss him?"

That's a complicated question. Which Felicity realizes she's brought upon herself. "Not yet," she evades. She turns her head to look at Pax. "I mean, I see him every day. Wonder if he misses me, though. Big softie."

She smiles. "That was nice of you to ask."

"Ok," Pax says initially, because she's not going to argue with Felicity about how she feels, or how she thinks she feels. "But yeah, that super helps I bet. He's hard to miss. And maybe he does - he is pretty soft."

The semi-thanks is initially received with a little shrug and her own smile. "It's just a normal thing to ask, dude."

"Yeah, well I didn't think to ask it, dude," Felicity volleys back. And then realizing she still hasn't asked it, she adds: "You miss your siblings?"

"Maybe next time you will," Pax says with a mock sagely voice. She doesn't care - Felicity can do whatever she wants.

"Yeah, sometimes. But I feel like they're off living their own lives and stuff now, so summers aren't the same anyway."

Felicity nods along as Pax speaks. She's had enough people come and go from her life that she's unconsciously developed a whole worldview out of dealing with it.

"Ehh we don't need em," she says flippantly, channeling some real 'You can't break up with me, I broke up with YOU' energy.

HOMECOMING DANCE 2019!!

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax

Felicity & Pax