peckenpaugh | LIGHT UP THE NIGHT FESTIVAL

light up the night festival

what's up? When the sun sets tonight, the town lights do not go up to compensate. On the contrary, all but a few street lights, enough to show the way on roads, stay out and for a time everything is bathed in darkness. It may seem like something is amiss in Elflock Falls, but this is just the start of a celebration.

Students gather at the Peckenpaugh bridge, marching band members and cheerleaders in uniform, and as soon as it’s completely dark, the band starts to play. A procession of students led by the marching band and their bright, brassy sound heads south toward the main drag of Elflock Falls. As the music reaches the town, lights start flickering on in time with music. Buildings, street lights, trees and signs all flicker to life. Overhead, bright lights twinkle and glow, creating scenes like crescent moons and falling snowflakes. Townsfolk join Peckenpaugh’s students as they make their way to the city hall plaza where the night’s festivities really take off...

visuals!

how this works! ⬥ Welcome to Elflock Falls’s Light Up the Night festival! This one evening winter solstice festival is a send off for Peckenpaugh students with food, drinks, entertainment and a tree decorating competition.

⬥ The lights illuminated by tonight’s parade will remain up until New Year’s Day.

⬥ Christmas Tree Competition

This no holds barred game of magical mayhem is an Elflock Falls tradition beloved and dreaded in equal measure.

Four trees, representing Peckenpaugh’s four Houses, are set out in the City Hall plaza to be decorated by students and locals. It has become something of a tradition for folks to align themselves with a particular House and compete to have the most beautiful tree. It is also tradition to sabotage the other trees to ensure your own bragging rights later.

To participate, respond to the appropriate header using the form below. You can decorate or sabotage any tree. This is chaos.

Each character gets up to 10 total rolled interactions with the trees.

The trees each have a base “Decoration Value” of 200 points. At the end of the festival, the tree with the highest decoration score “wins.” The reward is bragging rights. And possibly a bonfire, depending on how wrecked the other trees are.

Here's the form:

220

203

188

216

locations! ⬦ THE PARADE: The marching band and cheerleaders lead a crowd of Peckenpaugh students in a procession from the campus bridge to the heart of downtown Elflock Falls. The parade path takes them down the town’s main drag, zig-zagging through the business district until finally they reach the city hall plaza, filling the air with sound and light the whole way: along the way, as the band plays, lights of all colors flicker to life around them in time with the music. It’s a breathtaking sight!

⬦ ELFLOCK FALLS: SPARKLING STREETS: Elflock Falls is bathed in warm glow tonight. Almost every inch of the main drag illuminated by delicate little points of light shining from storefronts or hanging in the air. It’s a lovely sight, and plenty of folks just walk up and down the main drag to look at the displays, many made to look like impressive scenes: starry moonlit nights, a shining aurora, Santa on a sleigh pulled by sparkling reindeer, dancing familiars, glimmering presents, and shining mistletoe ⁠— don’t forget to smooch when you pass under that one!

⬦ CITY PLAZA: GOOD FOOD & WARM DRINKS: You can get free cups of warm mulled cider or hot chocolate from one of the small booths interspersed throughout the city hall plaza. Around them are food stalls serving up street-friendly hot eats that are easy to scarf down while you wander. Most of the fare is dessert-y ⁠— elephant ears, bright shiny red candied apples and crepes loaded with all sorts of goodies ⁠— but you can stuff your face with all manner of fried food, as well.

⬦ CITY PLAZA: THE STAGE: Live performances begin with a set of poppy holiday hits sung by Peckenpaugh’s performing arts club choir. In the cold night air, their combined voices make for an enchanting, clarion ring. After the club has finished their performance, a number of other locals take the stage to perform music, including Bruno Ellerby, rocking the accordion proper, and the Local Dad Band. There's ample opportunity to grab someone for a dance, if you'd like!

⬦ CITY PLAZA: THE STAGE: One massive, twinkling tree is flanked by four smaller but no less impressive pines. Now that the parade is done and the choir’s sung, it’s time for a tree decorating contest! Each House gets their own tree to adorn with lights and ornaments as they see fit, selecting from boxes of garland, lights and ornaments set around the city hall square.

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

This suggestion is almost as offensive to Ramona as having a melting chocolate apple in her hand, but she doesn't say anything. She can wash her hands later.

"Not a big fan of things that have been in other people's mouths," she corrects.

At this, Pax laughs brightly, finally going to take the apple back, the coins she'd pulled out tucked neatly in her palm. "Alright, can't fault you for that I guess. Do you want me to buy you something? For your troubles."

Ramona continues to hold out her sticky hand awkwardly even after Pax takes the apple back from her, like a dog with a hurt paw. She doesn't want to accept charity from her classmates, but she is a little short on pocket change, and she hasn't gotten anything for herself yet. She shuffles her feet for a second as she considers the offer.

"I'd take a cider," she concedes.

Pax watches Ramona curiously, putting the last bit of her elephant ear in her mouth even though it's a little too big for that. She has the sense to finish chewing before she starts to talk again, at least, but she does reach to take the other girl's sticky hand.

"Can do. We can get some napkins too or something."

"Okay!" comes Felicity's immediately reply. She doesn't wait for Pax to finish her bite and instead presses her own mouth on the opposite side of the apple. This is inefficient and unnecessarily difficult, but of course, that's the fun of it. "Wahn, tooo, thfreee," she counts, words muffled by the apple, and then tries to bite down in unison with Pax.

Edited (a casual two weeks later) 2020-01-03 01:36 (UTC)

"Husband, I've been waiting!" Jupiter half-yells in response, scooping Kermit up into a cheek-to-cheek tango. Or, whatever Jupiter thinks a tango looks like. This close, it's easier to conspire, "We should watch and see if Altizer and Berzelius take the same portkey home."

Page 6 of 6

LIGHT UP THE NIGHT FESTIVAL

Pax & Ramona

Pax & Ramona

Pax & Ramona

Pax & Ramona

Pax & Felicity

DANCIN': Kermie + Jup do the Gossip Tango