SKI WEEKEND! Day 1

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to helvetia!

what's up?

It’s frigidly cold this morning when students gather in town to load onto buses for the big ski trip this weekend. After boarding and a final head count, everyone is off, chased by a light snow that ramps up the higher into the mountains they climb. Out of the holler and headed southward, Peckenpaugh’s students are in for a bit of a bumpy ride as flurries give way to a total white out. It’s two hours of wintry driving before the buses arrive in the magical half of Helvetia, West Virginia.

The view is gorgeous, a winter wonderland spilling out across the hills. A shop-lined cobblestone street winds up into the hills to the main resort, a tiny hamlet of swiss chalet houses unto itself. Around all that? Acres and acres of hills, slopes and even ramps for winter recreation. Snow-capped and decorated for the season, Helvetia is so breathtaking, it takes a minute to realize: the seniors never arrived...

visuals!

volunteer slots!

While unpacking Uriah Hatfield opens a drawer and a dang boggart pops out, revealing their greatest fear to their roommates. Great start to the trip (Happy Friday the 13th). Their roommate/chalet-mate 💯 Presley Mondragon steps in and banishes the creature with an expert Riddikulus. Mr. Purcell hears about the fiasco later and awards Presley with 5 points to their house.

💯 Tony and 💯 Adrian each lose 5 Points for their House(s) for decorating the balcony of their chalet with an anatomically correct snow person. Honestly worth it.

Well, Elflock Liquor might’ve been closed, but thank god the wizards out here in Helvetia have a liquor store, too. This evening Wyatt Webberley and [CHARACTER F] head on down to stock up at the liquor store. The moment they walk in, an age line at the door causes them both to grow beards, but Wyatt kind of works it. (If they can get a thread to six replies, consider the trip, somehow, a huge success.)

roommates list!

CHALET 1

• Adrian
• Eddy
• Skip
• Tony
• Wyatt

• Armani
• Chanel
• Honey
• Laszlo

• Elijah
• Harrison
• Lionel
• Nico

• Desmond
• Patrice
• Presley
• Uriah

CHALET 2

• Claudia
• Holland
• Maisy
• Merlin
• Val

• Felicity
• Fiona
• Lydia
• Pax
• Scarlett

• Constanza
• Echo
• Magnolia
• Ramona

CHALET 3

• Bijou
• Cedar
• Hawthorne
• Willow

• Mary Grace
• Trudy
• Xenia
• Zadie

• Atlas
• Gideon
• Josh

CHALET 4

• Audrey
• Freya
• Fred
• Jupiter
• Kermit

• Imogen
• Poppy
• Viola
• Winter

• Aristotle
• Fitz
• Maverick
• Tybalt

how this works!

⬥ Students left Peckenpaugh bound for magical Helvetia, West Virginia at 10AM. With the snow, the bus ride should take about two hours.

⬥ Juniors and sophomores (and freshmen) arrive at the resort at ~12:00 PM. They're able to settle into their rooms, claim a bed, and explore a little bit!

⬥ The first day of the ski trip leaves most of the afternoon and evening open for students to explore the grounds. After you've gotten your stuff set in, get some skiing and sledding in if you want, hit the shops or grab a bite to eat.

⬥ A second post will go up on Saturday featuring a day on the slopes (with RNG games for sledding/skiing and more emphasis on that portion of the resort, so don't worry if you want to get up to some serious winter sport threading) and then a cozy evening party with an ugly sweater contest. Day three is our return trip, plus another surprise.

⬥ Curfew is 10:30PM so get back to your assigned chalet by then! Head counts are done shortly after that.

⬥ What about the seniors?! The seniors will get to the lodge eventually! After a spot of bad luck on the ride in (Happy Friday the 13th), the senior class is currently stranded on the side of the road and needs to figure out how to get out of this jam.

• No matter what, seniors will arrive safe and sound, just a few hours later than everyone else!


• This is a bonding experience! We’ve split the senior class into groups and given each group a prompt. This prompt is not a puzzle or task that needs to be solved/completed, but rather something specific for your characters to thread or discuss over the journals.


• The group that has the most activity relating to the senior stranding by Monday, December 16th will be awarded with a spook in the pcal in January. How are we calculating activity? Well…
  • Throughout this weekend, any narrative tags made under the Trouble header on this IC/OOC by seniors within their group will be worth 5 points.
  
  
  • For Friday, December 13th only, any journal posts made by a senior, pertaining to the senior stranding and tagged with "* event: senior stranding" are worth 5 points.
  
  
  • Throughout the weekend, any comments made by seniors on a seniors stranding tagged post will count for 1/2 point. Reaction icon comments will not count for points.
  
  
  • We'll tally the numbers up next week and announce a winning group.
• Click here for groups and prompts!

  GROUP 1: Fred, Freya, Josh, Kermit, Maisy, Tony
  PROMPT: Group 1, you're on tire duty! Staff needs help digging the bus out of the snowbank. Listen to Mr. Stirling curse under his breath as he fiddles with the engine. Watch Ms. Kwan find it highly amusing.
  
  GROUP 2: Elijah, Imogen, Mags, Merlin, Val
  PROMPT: Mr. Trullinger's taking Group 2 out on a "nature hike" to figure out just where they are. Turns out, y'all are in Lepidopterite country. There's a settlement nearby — that explains the anti-apparition. The Lepidopterites are not open to outsiders, so Mr. Trullinger leaves the kids outside the town to go in and ask for assistance.
  
  GROUP 3: Claudia, Constanza, Echo, Harrison, Nico, Trudy
  PROMPT: Group 3 fixates on survival, gathering blankets, casting warming charms, accounting for food. They're in the middle of discussing where to find water and build a camp fire when Ms. Kwan wanders over and suggests that it'll only be an hour or two at most, why don't you kids quiz your friends on their upcoming midterms?
  
  GROUP 4: Audrey, Holland, Jup, Lionel, Xenia
  PROMPT: Group 4 swears they just saw something HUGE moving in the forest! Ms. Dorkins won't let them investigate any further. Maybe they can distract her and sneak past. Maybe they can convince her to join them.
  
  
  

locations!

⬦ PACKING & BUS RIDE: Peckenpaugh is using four standard magic buses to move its kids from Elflock Falls to Helvetia, one for each year. These enchanted vehicles move a bit faster than normal, passing by muggle traffic with ease, but with the weather it still takes about two hours for the first buses to arrive at their destination. Rows of seats comfortably sit two to three students, and the back of the bus is always wilder than the front. Grab a window seat if you can, the snow and scenery on the drive is lovely.

⬦ SENIOR STRANDING: Elflock Falls is barely out of the rear view when the snow starts to really pick up and before long it's dumping on them. For the most part, aided by magic, this just means it's slow going, but the senior bus hits a patch of bad luck and black ice. The magic school bus swerves right off the road and into a big fluffy snow bank. Thankfully, everyone is unharmed, but with no cell service, no GPS, and (as Mr. Stirling learns the hard way) finding themselves in an unknown Anti-Apparition zone, everyone's going to have to pitch in or sit tight to get this bus back on the road.

⬦ THE LODGE: The centerpiece of magical Helvetia’s ski resort is its lodge, a massive wood structure with Swiss-influenced architecture. Upon entry, visitors find themselves in a warm and warmly lit lobby decorated with boughs of pine and wintry garlands of berries, fitted with furniture fashioned from old ski lift parts. The front desk is alternately staffed by a harried-looking college aged witch and an extremely low key sasquatch throughout the weekend, both of them happy to help with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Adjoining the main lobby is a restaurant and bar — you can spot the staff at the bar in the evenings, but you have to be over 21 to sit there. Sorry kids! Beyond the restaurant is a cozy reception room with tall windows and a fenced-in balcony overlooking the slopes and an absolutely massive fireplace fashioned from copper, iron and stone. There’s a basic amenities shop, in case you forgot deodorant, and a heated indoor pool, hot tub and sauna also host to a fantastic view of the mountains.

⬦ CHALETS: Four chalets have been reserved for students, large wood-and-stone buildings in the Swiss style with wrap around balconies on the second and third floors. Each one is decorated in Peckenpaugh colors with string lights and large banners welcoming the teenage guests to their homes for the weekend. The interiors are all roughly the same, three floors with five total bedrooms (each with its own bathroom!), vintage and antique alpine furniture and ski lodge equipment repurposed into more modern furniture and decor. The common area on the first floor of each chalet features a comfortable, cozy seating area with fireplace, kitchen and dining area.

⬦ THE SLOPES: Helvetia's magical ski resort spills out across acres and acres of tree-dotted hills and mountains. It features slopes rated green circle (easy) to the expert-level double black diamond. Magical ski lifts lit by bobbing magical lanterns carry skiers up from the bottom of the slopes. There's even a fenced in area specifically for large donut-shaped sleds that seat up to four. Once you ride to the bottom of this sled hill, the sleds are enchanted to carry you right back up again for another go.

⬦ AROUND HELVETIA: The magical side of Helvetia is a great deal bigger than its teeny tiny muggle counterpart, but it’s still comparable to Elflock Falls. The area is considerably more upscale than Peckenpaugh’s home town, with expensive outdoor supply shops, a couture boutique and a couple of very fancy looking restaurants. Not the sorts of places that like teenagers poking around, but there’s still plenty for students to do and see! Magical Helvetia has many shops that are kid friendly, a chocolatier/cafe, a restaurant known for its raclette dinner and street carts peddling warm rosti. Roads are cleanly shoveled and the streets are lit by both lanterns and string lights. Despite the cold, a live goblin band is playing outside one of the taverns, filling the tiny town with music. The snow has slowed to a light flurry by late afternoon, and the big fluffy flakes hold steady well into the night.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Comments

PACKING & BUS RIDE

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BUS RIDE: Presley & OPEN

[infamously]

A ski chalet isn't really Presley's idea of fun, but it would've been pure self-punishment to try to stay behind. He grabs the first empty seat he finds, and opens a textbook in his lap to review. But the swirling snow outside keeps drawing his attention away, and he stares at how white accumulates on the roofs of the Peckenpaugh buildings. This place is now more familiar to him than his own home.

He's still staring out the window when he feels someone sit down beside him. "That seat is taken," Presley informs them without looking.

SENIOR STRANDING

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SENIOR STRANDING: GROUP ONE

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SENIOR STRANDING: GROUP TWO

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SENIOR STRANDING: GROUP THREE

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SENIOR STRANDING: GROUP FOUR

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SENIOR STRANDING: BACK ON THE ROAD!

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Despite some initial chaos, eventually the bus is returned to the road and Mr. Stirling is able to repair the mechanical mishaps that Friday the 13th decided to bestow upon Peckenpaugh's senior class. Once everyone is accounted for, the students are loaded back onto the bus and they make it to Helvetia with a couple hours of sunlight left.

THE LODGE

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THE HOT TUBS: Armani... is Armani (Open++)

[teratophilia]

Armani feels very Cool and Sexy. He sits at the edge of the hot tub, posing beautifully with a breathtaking view of the mountains as his backdrop. He nurses his Welch's 100% Grape Juice out of his silicone wine glass (no glass in the pool area please!) and gazes out at the view, but only in a way that makes him appear serene and... dare he say? Adult.

THE LODGE: Presley and Patrice

[shoulderdevil]

By some miracle, Patrice has been sort of behaving for a few hours - but that can't last. Despite new surroundings that are beautiful and have amenities they definitely don't have at school, he's bored. He doesn't want to study, he doesn't want to wander around, he just wants... something? He's not sure what. But it's probably a bit of attention at least. That's pretty easy to get, at least. He's crawled onto one of the couches near the fireplace and, spotting Presley, lobs a few tiny balls of paper from a nearby notepad at his roommate.

POOL: Tybalt Does a Tradition(Open++)

[princeofcat]

He may not do this to every body of water he is in.
But the boy probably wasn't raised right, so he does this to most bodies of water he is in.

It's too late to ski, so he has to flit about entertaining himself in other ways. And there's a pool. This is either a christening or a compulsion, but as soon as he gets into the room, Tybalt flings himself into it, a graceful leap, enjoying the way the water bursts up around his ears, and he lets out a loud laugh. He'd tried to pick a people-free place, but he sends a large enough splash that he sits under the water for a few seconds. If people think he's drowned, maybe they'll forgive the noise.

FRONT DESK: Bijou is a Menace (Open)

[wrencredible]

"And where would I find the hot tub?"

"By the pool."

"And where would I find that?"

"Over there."

"Would you mind–" Before Bijou can finish chirping her question, the front desk squatch points a hairy arm across the lobby. They've been going in circles like this for about five minutes now. It seems Bijou just can't wrap her head around any of the geography here!

"Ooooooh, thank you," her eyes light up, making a show of looking in the gestured direction. Then she turns her attention back to the lodge brochure in her hands, "Now can you tell me where I would find–"

THE CHALETS

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Girly Spa Night

[gold_digger]

Given that it's Friday the 13th, Holland had already been preparing for a good spa day once they'd arrived (bad vibes = bad skin), but the earlier excitement of the day has made it even more necessary. A tiny part of her just wants to curl up and nap, but the draw of a bit of relaxing fun and the need to keep up with her self-care routine got her moving enough to at least set out everything she'd brought along. She's come equipped with various gold things (everything needs a theme, though no one else was informed), and she currently sits with a mask on as she paints her nails with gold polish.

"We should all go to the sauna later. Sweat all that stress out."

OUTSIDE THE CHALETS: Snow Baseball

[wildchild]

In an open area of snow outside the chalets, there's a "game" that's about to start. The rules of snow baseball are simple - one person has a very large stick, and everyone else just pelts them with snowballs and they try to defend themselves with said stick. When you trade off appears to be arbitrary, just as there appears to be no way to win, but... that's fine, right?

Pax definitely thinks so, judging by her level of excitement as she kicks a stick towards Tony and then immediately throws a snowball at him. "Merlin and I are gonna wreck you!" she yells out very non-aggressively. She had to make this feel like it had some sort of a challenge in it or Merlin wouldn't be out here, probably.

THE CHALETS: Presley rescues Uriah

[negligently]

It's the surprise that makes him scream, really. You don't open a drawer expecting a whole man to crawl out of it, limb by limb until he's escaped that impossibly small space. So yeah, Uriah screams. He trips over his own feet, falling backwards onto the floor of the chalet. Only then does he realize what the man is, in his green robes with a menacingly long syringe. He smells way too familiar, both sickly and sterilized. It's so exaggerated, so childish, and the fear's now twinged with embarrassment, but he still can't move.

Reading Hour

[lionellovelace]

It's good to finally be off that bus. And even better to be in fresh woolen socks with his feet kicked up on an ottoman and his body sinking into the welcoming embrace of an arm chair. On the side table next to him is a steaming mug of herbal tea, steeped for the recommend six minutes. There's more in the kettle for his roommates to have, if they so choose. From somewhere nearby, Christmas music softly wafts in.

Lionel re-opens Frankenstein, sets aside the bookmark, and picks up where he left off with a small, satisfied sigh. This isn't bad, he thinks. Not bad at all.

THE CHALETS: Ramona & Echo

[lockit]

Leave it to Ramona to be studying on the school ski trip, but that's what she's doing. And even if she'd been talked into coming on the trip last-minute by her Thorntrail cohort, no amount of peer pressure is going to separate her from her meticulous note-taking. Plus, her roommates are all seniors, which means she has a few blissful hours of solitude in her chalet.

But of course, that can't go interrupted, and Echo turns up eventually.

"I was hoping you died," Ramona says, dryly and unaffected, without looking up from her textbook.

THE SLOPES

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AROUND HELVETIA

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AROUND HELVETIA: Winter Shops in the Wrong Store & Open

[damnnearkilledem]

The wizard behind the counter is leering at the teenager wandering around his boutique. What does she think this is, a Wiz-H&M. This isn't fast fashion, missy. It's clear from the glare he levels across his shop at the back of the blonde's head (is that...a twig? In her hair??) that he is trying to psychically will her out of his store.

Whether she's oblivious or delighting in being an inconvenience, Winter is smiling. She lights her fingers curiously on a cashmere scarf draped on a coat rack and, enchanted with the feel of it, pulls it off to examine it more closely. As she turns, scarf still in hand, she bumps into someone and quickly tries to make it seem like her clumsiness was purposefully. "What do you think of this?"

AROUND HELVETIA: Viola at the Goblin Show & Open

[tristfully]

The snowflakes are just beginning their turn from sugar-fine to cotton-soft as Viola steps out from the cafe and follows the alluring sounds of live music to the courtyard encircled by shops and taverns. Instinctually, she hugs the shadows between the street lamps and hovers on the edges of the crowd, enviously observing the dancing couples. When she spots a classmate, she smiles to herself and breathes a silent sigh of relief. She weaves through the dancers, twisting her shoulders to avoid jostling anyone and pops up suddenly at her peer's side. "They're very talented," she pushes up on her toes to lean in close and inform her new companion.

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner (Open to Nerds++)

[necrodanseuse]

There's several ways to experience a fun weekend in beautiful snow-covered slopes. There's people everywhere outside, adrenaline-rushing down a hill. But she'll do that tomorrow. There's other people canoodling in hot tubs, and others in a charming town eating some charming cheese.

But as everyone's so kindly pointed out, it's midterms next week, and Chanel has a plan. If she studies tonight during dinner, she can ski at least a little tomorrow. So Chanel, who is also picking at raclette (it's French so she thinks she should like it,)is really nose-deep in her Hermeticism book. The word searches inspired her. When she hears someone approaching, she doesn't even look up. "If you spill anything..." she warns, absently, yet somehow still fervent. She cannot have greasy flashcards.

OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[peckishmods]

Re: OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

[gasgiant]

hope y'all mfers ready to get cozy

except the senior class they get to eat shit for a few hours

Jup is stranded! Will totally be pro-hunting tree critters. I have an absolutely worthless shitpost planned for her that I'll toss up eventually, and will probably get a starter going for her group here soon.

I would love to do some scenes, but am kind of sleepy right now. Need to wake up a bit more/untangle brain before I write any starters but, some ideas:
- bus ride scene with either of my juniors or hawthorne
- shopping in helvetia
- eating in helvetia
- anyone wanna hit the heated pool