SKI WEEKEND! Day 1

[peckishmods]

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

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner Cheese Dinner

[necrodanseuse]

It's all right, there's plenty of bread. And when Eddy is looking in literally any other direction, Chanel scrapes off a little piece of cheese and makes the baby mouse her very own raclette dinner. They all deserve to celebrate. She covers for herself poorly by taking a dainty forkful into her own mouth.

"Not entirely." She reassures him, tapping at her planner for proof. "I'm going to stop studying at 8 tonight, and I'll get up early tomorrow, but nothing after that until at least after the party. I'm having fun." The way she intones this suggests that fun, too, is a chore.

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner Cheese Dinner

[quidditched]

Funny how Mickey somehow keeps adding more to her little feast. The corners of Eddy's mouth quirk with amusement, but he doesn't say anything. Chanel's treats are rewarded with a tiny excited nose sniffing around her fingers and when the waiter swings by, Eddy's sure to order enough to make up for the tiny bottomless pit.

"Well if it's penciled in, you gotta," he agrees, leaning forward to inspect her planner, everything carefully laid out. "Should I come back at 8?"

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner Cheese Dinner

[necrodanseuse]

Chanel considers it for a moment. But. She really hasn't seen Eddy one-on-on for a few days. Whether she's been avoiding it, or him. And this is a vacation. Technically. A very small one. So, with a small, resigned sigh, she shakes her head. "No, no." She says, closing her Hermeticism text, dramatic. "I read a lot on the way up." (She didn't,) "I can go without making this a working dinner, I suppose." And then a little smirk, "Unless you wanted me to quiz you?"

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner Cheese Dinner

[quidditched]

Eddy leans back as Chanel makes of show of the horrible sacrifice she's making and drums his hands softly on the table. "Wouldn't want to completely ruin your plans," he says with a light shrug of his shoulders. Honestly he'd agree to whatever she suggested. He hasn't seen her enough lately. His own fault. Feelings have always been confusing to face head on, even ones that didn't come about naturally. Especially ones that don't seem completely crazy, once everything's settled down. Easier to have unexpected feelings about a worst enemy, than a best friend.

He meets her smirk with a small self-deprecating one in return and pushes the word search back towards her. "Can wait on the fun. Lots of trees around. Could get real wild later touching them."

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner Cheese Dinner

[necrodanseuse]

"Darling. You'll never ruin my plans." She's quick to point out. To prove it, she stacks all her books and turned them all over.

And then she cringes, but in an exaggerated way, so he'd know she was just playing. She doesn't know how to navigate honestly any of this. And honestly she'd hoped to pretend nothing had happened at all, but she knows that it's not quite as simple as that. She owes Eddy a lot more than that.

"But that's absolutely not a solo activity. Please find someone cute to touch trees with."

Too soon? Well probably.

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner Cheese Dinner

[quidditched]

Maybe, but he'd set himself up for that one. He ducks his head and reaches out to brush his fingers over Mickey's fur, momentarily disrupting her feast and earning a small nip at his invading fingers. A small sacrifice to soothe his nerves, even briefly.

Navigating high school is hard enough without poisoned cupcakes involved. And absolutely zero poisoned cupcakes need to be involved to make this turn of conversation 100% embarrassing. Tried is at the tip of his tongue, but teasing about that seems like a surefire way to bungle everything up again. "Not a cute soul in this school," he insists, instead, hunching up his shoulders. A total lie, but. He figures Chanel would say the same if the tables were turned on her.

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner Cheese Dinner

[necrodanseuse]

It is very literally exactly what she'd say. So much so that she feels that she has to play along with it. She instantly reads his discomfort, and instantly regrets taking it this far. Ah, well. It's too late to apologize, now.

"You're right." She concedes instead. "Every one of us a horror. It's amazing they let us into public at all." She grins at him, hopefully. Is it Better yet?

AROUND HELVETIA: Nerd Dinner Nerd Dinner Cheese Dinner

[quidditched]

It is, a little. It's difficult not to smile when Chanel's looking so pleased with herself, even if Eddy mostly smiles on the inside. She crackles in a way that both draws Eddy to her, and somehow sets him at both ease and unease. No poisoned cupcakes required. He looks back at her, silent a moment, but shoulders relaxing.

Everything. Is confusing. But that's okay.

"We're the worst of them," he agrees. "Absolutely ahorrable."