peckenpaugh | BOWLING CLUB OPEN HOUSE!

bowling club open house

what's up? Those thunderous crashes aren’t heralding an unseasonable storm. No! What that rumbling and crackling means is it’s Bowling Time, Peckers! The lights are low and the lanes are hot — some of them literally — and Peckenpaugh’s Bowling Club is having itself an open house. All students are invited tonight to snack on sorta stale pizza and bowl a few frames in the name of supporting a classic Peckenpaugh Club. If you think it’s as simple as rolling a ball down a lane, boy are you in for a surprise. Kermie Creekmore and Lir Liu have rolled out wizard bowling for tonight’s event, and like everything with the word wizard at the front of it, it’s wild, exciting and probably dangerous!

visuals!

volunteer slots! After the events have concluded, Kermit, Jupiter, Fred and Audrey stay behind to help clean things up. Unfortunately, when they head down to the basement to get supplies, the door slams shut behind them and they’re trapped…

Hustler or bowling prodigy? [CHARACTER C] claims they’ve never played before, but they bowl a perfect game!

how this works! ⬥ The event runs tonight from 7PM to just before campus curfew, so there's plenty of time to get a game or two in.

⬥ The event is open to ALL Peckenpaugh students, not just club members. This is a chance to come check out what Bowling Club gets up to. And also other things. 👀

⬥ There are four different flavors of bowling available, suitable for bowlers of all skill levels, so pick your poison!

WizBumper Bowling. Even easier than non-magic bumper bowling. It’s almost impossible to avoid hitting at least one pin.

Vanilla Bowling. Roll the ball and hit the little guys at the end, no Wiz about it.

Wiztraction Mode. Try not to get distracted! The pins flash, smoke, make loud bangs, and will generally try to throw the bowler off their game.

Survival of the Sentients. Less bowling and more live-action hunting game. These pins will do whatever they can to avoid being hit, including shouting “helpful” hints (or insults) at the bowler, crying and begging for mercy, and running away. Sometimes they’ll knock themselves over in the process.

locations! ⬦ THE LANES: There’s SIX, count ‘em six full lanes of bowling action here at Elflock Lanes—though only five are available right now, as Elflock Falls’ local women’s bowling league, the Ladies of the Lanes, have reserved the first lane for their weekly practice. Lace up those shoes and roll a few frames while you’re here! Kermit is more than happy to help out anyone who wants tips on their form or follow-through, but he’s equally as happy to let everyone figure it out for themselves if that’s what they want. Pick a lane and get rolling!

⬦ THE GAMES: There’s a clunky old Ms. Pacman machine shoved in the corner, away from the bowling action, and a clunky, slightly less old Dance Dance Revolution machine shoved right next to her. It’s not a bad place to sit and eat, people-watch, or play video games, I guess. Just don’t spill that free root beer, Ms. Pacman’s controls are sticky enough as it is.

⬦ THE SNACK BAR: Kermie promised free pizza and soda to anyone who showed up tonight before clearing it with Lir, but that’s probably fine, right? Come up to the bar and claim what’s rightfully yours. Mr. Youngblood spends most of the evening at the bar drinking cheap beer and chatting with (or maybe just at) Lir, and not even Kermit knows whether or not he’s here in an official capacity.

⬦ COMEDIC STYLINGS: Those who fancy themselves comedians can try their hand at getting the stone-faced proprietor to crack a smile. They’ve been at this for three months and no one’s made him so much as breathe slightly hard through his nose. His mother thinks you’re all hilarious, though.

⬦ THE BASEMENT: It smells, appropriately, like old musty basement down here, and perhaps less appropriately like stale plasticky cheese. The door slams shut and just won’t budge ⁠— won’t even give for an Alohomora. Looks like they’ll be down here for a while. It’s about as creepy as you’d expect: big, dark and packed with old bowling alley equipment, pins and broken bowling balls, smelly old rental shoes and setter parts. There’s a broken Snoop Crupp-themed pinball machine amid shelves and shelves of old decorations and boxes of flyers and ads for past events. Poke around. Maybe there’s a buzzer you can use to contact the office upstairs. Or, maybe, there’s another way out...

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

All right. A bad idea. Audrey is flung against a box and blinks skyward in shock. She has the self-possession to pocket her wand for plausible deniability, later. Of course she didn’t do anything. Only then does she dust herself off. “The....light?” (This was all she saw.)

Kermie lands on a box of semi-sentient bowling pins, who immediately start screaming.

They can hear voices, muffled and barely audible over the screaming pins. Someone is swearing. Someone else is laughing. Are they coming from the sub-basement? Is the Bob Dylan fan trying to find the source of the commotion?

There's a loud cha-chunk from the door at the top of the stairs. A few seconds later, a shaft of light streams down the steps, and Lir Liu and Mr. Youngblood stand in the doorway.

"Shit, whatchy'all doin' down there?" Mr. Youngblood shouts down at the totally innocent teens. "The beer's up here!"

"Talkin' shit about you," Jupiter calls up the stairs, instantly recognizing Mr. Youngblood's voice. When she speaks, a bit of smoke billows out of her mouth. Then, more quietly, just to her friends, almost proud, "I saw my life flash before my eyes. Is that what you mean?"

"NO, we're NOT!" Fred immediately yells in horror. Near-death experiences in the basement are nothing compared to back talking a teacher. "We were TRAPPED down here," she continues, and then just to be clear, "and it's NOT our fault if we broke CURFEW!"

She's already marching for the stairs, but she does wave her hand behind her in exasperation as she goes. "No. The thingie. It lit up."

Audrey scurries up the stairs, behind Fred. "Thingie?" She murmurs behind her shoulder. But she's not distracted enough from their rescuer to not stop abruptly when she's in front of him. "We get beer?"

He'd strongly implied they get beer.

"Do you mean the bowling pins??" Kermie hisses in his best approximation of a whisper, climbing the steps toward Lir and Mr. Youngblood. "And do we have to PAY for the beer????" The important questions.

Edited 2019-12-06 02:27 (UTC)

"He drank it all," Lir says simply, jabbing a thumb at Mr. Youngblood.

"Shit, guess that means it's time to go home." Mr. Youngblood holds the door open for the four teens, and squints down at the mess they made below. He doesn't seem that concerned about it. Ain't his problem. "This all y'all or we leavin' someone behind?"

"Just Bob Dylan," Jupiter says with a shrug as she brings up the tail, sufficiently sarcastic as to sound like she's just being a weird smartass.

"No, the thingie with the lines," Fred hisses back at Kermit and Audrey. And then, equally important, addresses Lir as she passes him, "If my dad asks, make sure you tell him that I didn't ask for beer."

There's probably more to be said about this. But Audrey just shakes her head to signal no, no she had not seen the thing with the lines. But she's curious.

"Also, she rescued us all." She adds, feeling a little bad that she hadn't listened to Fred before. Maybe it's paying it back a little, to talk her up secondhand to her dad, now.

"I basically deserve a heroes parade," Fred agrees, "And like, free bowling forever."

BOWLING CLUB OPEN HOUSE!

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS

THE BASEMENT KIDS