( MINGLE ) WILDERNESS FAIR!

[officialnotice]

WILDERNESS FAIR

For as long as anyone can remember, Wayward Pines University has maintained a steady reputation as a sleepy little university with a fairly high quality of education but entirely too much building for the number of students who learn there. Classes are cozy and personal, scattered between dozens of vacant classrooms just waiting to once again be filled with education. The landscaping is well-kept and green, even in the hottest weeks of summer, with just enough natural trees to keep from looking too manicured. On a given day, the campus is downright peaceful. Oftentimes, students can even be found napping in the grass of the university's central quad.

But they might just have to find a new spot to catch some shut-eye between Anthropology and Medieval Lit, because today the quad is all but bustling with activity.

1 PM - 4 PM

AN EXCHANGE OF SKILLS

Pop-up canopies have been pitched in a variety of muted colors, forming two rows straight down the center of the quad. Each canopy has a table and a handful of chairs, ready to be folded up and moved if need be. Some canopies even have their 'backyards' taped off with warning tape, presumably for more dangerous lessons that others shouldn't wander in front of. Many of the tents are already occupied by various lessons in progress - some by folks you might recognize, like a couple of Sheriff Griffith's good policemen walking people through basic gun safety, and others who you get the creeping impression may not even live in Wayward Pines at all. (Are these the Ortech representatives that Rousseau mentioned? It seems likely.)

Do you have skills to impart? Lessons that might keep someone alive beyond the safety of the fence? It's as simple as claiming a tent and getting started. Within a couple of minutes of claiming your tent, a boy in his late teens with a clip-on tie and a whole head of tidy dreadlocks tied up in a bun sidles in, clipboard in hand. He asks if you need anything for your lesson - weapons, targets, supplies, anything - and notes down any requests before disappearing off through the tents. Within a half hour, someone's back to drop off your supplies in the good faith that whatever you've requested won't be used to do anything drastic. And while all weapons are technically supposed to be returned after the survival fair comes to a close, they aren't too persnickety if you just so happen to keep one or two.

Or maybe you're here to learn. Your peers have many a skill available for the teaching - or maybe you and a pal (or even a stranger) are both learning from a townie or an Ortech rep. Just make sure not to cross the yellow tape, or you may end up with a bullet where you're least expecting it!

4:15 PM - 6 PM

A SURPRISE GUEST

Meanwhile, observant souls might notice good ol' Sheriff Griffith showing his face at a little after 4 PM. Despite the prevailing calm of the fair, he's all eyebrow-furrows and tense jaw. He strolls down the rows of tents, looking back over his shoulder every so often... Almost as if he's watching for something.

And that's exactly what he's doing. At 4:12 PM, a pick-up truck backs through a line of tape and into one of the unused taped-off areas, the tail end visibly weighed down by the large tarp-covered rectangle in the bed. Through various gashes ripped in the tarp, you might spot something moving. Something large. In fact, it may not come as too much of a shock when the driver throws it into 'park' and hops out of the truck, strolling around the back to unceremoniously pull the tarp off of none other than a caged aberration.

The abbie's eyes dart around, drinking in its surroundings, then it opens its mouth to unleash a furious and entirely-too-human scream.

"Now settle down," scolds Sheriff Griffith, his dry tone suggesting that this particular fussing is pretty old hat by now, but he's also pretty plainly giving the cage a wide berth as he steps over to thank the driver, then turns to tell anyone who may or may not be gathering that this is an aberration. A lot of the folks in attendance have already had the misfortune of being acquainted, but never in a safe, contained environment.

He goes on to explain what they are (humanity with a bad case of hyper-evolution), what they can do (basically anything listed here), and the precious few ways to kill them. Of particular note is when he pulls out a bullet, clearly made for a rifle if anyone's savvy. But they're not just any bullets. See these slits right here at the tip? These are specially designed to stop an abbie in their tracks, using a bastardized version of their own neurotoxin. (This is probably the first you've heard of the neurotoxin.)

(Don't worry - they only seem to use that particular trick on their own kind.)

Folks are encouraged to come look at and even ask questions about the abbie, though Sheriff Griffith takes care to enforce a six-foot perimeter around all sides of the cage. Any closer than that and it's liable to claw the hell out of you. Hell, it'd probably be premeditated. They're about as sharp as they are ugly.

6 PM - ??

THE AFTERPARTY?

Though the wilderness fair officially ends at 6 o' clock, that time comes and goes and most of the tents remain. But instead of hosting valuable lessons in staying alive, they've been repurposed by a host of college students and everyone their social connections and pocket change could call in.

From a good handful of the tents come the delicious aromas of various forms of cuisine, with live upbeat music from a local band called My Comical Romance (a name the bassist spit out after faculty informed the lead singer that they couldn't perform on campus if they stood by the name Decent Girth). They're pretty decent, and a couple-dozen people are milling around or even dancing in front of the picnic tables they're playing on top of.

It's not exactly a party, but it's not not a party either. If nothing else, you can kick back in the canopy that someone filled almost entirely with bean bag chairs.

MOD NOTES

If your character is teaching a skill, consider putting it in your subject line! ("Linda Robinson | Teaching: Insert Useful Skill Here | Open" or something like that.) If your character is learning, feel free to handwave an NPC teaching whatever you want to thread learning or practicing (within reason, of course).

For more IC information on this mingle log + expeditions in general, see the network post.

There was no OOC write-up for this event, so if you have any questions regarding this event, feel free to ask them on the FAQ or on the modplurk announcing this log!