pineslog | ( march event ) mad skillz

EVENT: MAD SKILLZ

The flyers were everywhere. Slipped into mailboxes and taped to windows, these yellow sheets of paper are more than ready to catch a few eyes. That parking ticket you thought you got, tucked under your wiper blade? Nope, that's another flyer. (It goes without saying that each public trash can holds at least a few.)

Honestly, it's nearly impossible to live in the town of Wayward Pines and not know of the Skills Fair being hosted in a park north of where most of you live on this upcoming Saturday. Whether or not you choose to attend is entirely up to you.

Venture toward the park on 3rd and Alder anytime between 11 AM and 5 PM, and a colorful assortment of tents will greet you, from which drifts the buzz of conversation and a small assortment of downright delicious smells. The first few tents - the largest by a decent margin - are the food court and the sign-in desk for anyone looking to teach. It's far from mandatory, but a volunteer from the tent makes a lap every so often to make note of those who didn't sign up, for a full list of skills that newcomers can show up and learn. The food court hosts your typical limited variety of BBQ and pseudo-cultural foods, good for a quick bite and respite from a long day of sharing skills.

The rest of the park hosts a scattered grid of smaller tents and booths in varying colors. At first glance, they seem to be free for use - even since you've arrived, one or two people have strolled in off the street to set up one booth or another with relevant teaching supplies. Feel free to claim one for yourself, or maybe just stroll through the park and see what there is to be learned.

Taped to a tree or tent every so often is a request for those offering to teach any excessively loud or alarming skills (like firearm proficiency) to take their pupils to the makeshift shooting range set up two blocks north for the occasion. It's nothing special, a series of near-pristine targets in an unnecessarily large area taped off with bright yellow safety ribbon, but it's more of a shooting range than the town had before. Any other skill in need of some sort of target is also welcome to use the range, if they need it. In fact, it may be a wise alternative to trying to teach knife-throwing or archery in the park; below the request is a warning, stating that in the case of any injuries sustained at the Skills Fair, deliberate or accidental, the individual who caused the wound will be held responsible as if they committed assault. If that's not incentive to be a little more careful, what is?

Additionally, on the side of the sign-in tent and pinned to a tree facing each of the surrounding streets is a copy of the Official Notice, framed and enlarged at 1.5x, in case anyone might forget.

Might want to keep it in mind. You never know who might be listening.

MOD NOTES

This is a catch-all for any and all threads pertaining to the Skills Fair!

PLEASE INCLUDE IN SUBJECT LINE: Character Name, Skill Being Taught if applicable, and Open or Closed, to help keep things a bit more organized. (For example: "Joe Biden | Teaching: How to become a meme | Open!")

If you have any questions regarding this event, feel free to ask them here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

booth:

[He's not exactly much of one for teaching, but even in the month and a half he's been in town (a number he's careful not to mention out loud, but one that he keeps very firmly in his mind) 10K's noticed some embarrassing incidents coming into the hospital. There's clearly a need for this sort of thing, not to mention the fact that if you have the right knowledge, you could probably survive for a while in the woods outside of the sheriff's surveillance. At least for a day or three.

So here he is, set up at a booth with some photographs and some plant samples clearly labeled in messy block capitals, leaning his elbows on the table and watching the crowd while he waits for anyone interested in what he's got to teach. There's a sign on the table, too, in that same messy lettering: "IS THIS POISON IVY? HOW TO RECOGNIZE DANGEROUS PLANTS". He'll stick around for probably an hour or so before he wanders off, leaving his booth in search of other things.]

range:

[10K was born with a gun in his hand. Okay, not really; he didn't learn how to shoot until he was like ten, and even then he really didn't like to do it. It's been a necessary skill, though, and one it's turned out he's pretty good at, and now...well. Shooting gives him a zen feeling a lot of other things don't. When he's got his rifle in hand, or his slingshot, it's just him and the target. Everything else doesn't matter as much. Which is why when he hears about a range, and something about marksmanship lessons or a sharpshooting competition, he can't resist. You can find him on the line with his slingshot in hand, hitting a string of easy bullseyes or close enough to count. Showing off? No. Not him, never.]

food tent:

[Every growing boy needs food, and he still eats like he doesn't know where his next meal is going to come from. Judging by his lack of regular employment, he might not be wrong. But hey, it's mostly pretty good, if you ignore the congealed macaroni and cheese over in the corner. He's in good enough spirits to even offer some advice:]

You should definitely try the barbecue.

( after an hour at his booth (where howard hangs upside drinking vodka pretty much the entire time), he calls for an intermission. howard stumbles through the disappointed crowd and promises them that act ii will begin... as soon as howard stops seeing four of everything. his stomach overpowers his brain and guides him towards the smell of food. without knowing it, howard soon finds himself in a line, paper plate in hand and being served spoonfuls of potato salad and baked beans. a stack of brisket plops down on his plate by a guy wearing sunglasses (even though they're inside). next to him, someone says that the bbq is worth trying and, before howard can even get a good look at the food, he mutters, ) I would. If the tire marks weren't so obvious.

( bbq pancakes. groovy )

It's not that bad.

[Actually, it mostly...just looks like generic barbecue that's been sitting out over a warmer for several hours, which probably isn't the most appealing thing to most people, but the sauce is alright. Probably. Whatever, it isn't poison and it's hot, he'll take it. 10K shrugs, heaping his own plate of seconds.]

Most of this stuff's pretty alright, actually, especially if you put enough sauce on it. I wouldn't try the jello salad, though. Trust me.

[Who knew gelatinous desserts could look that ominous?]

( oh 10k, you innocent, naive baby. you don't know of the horrors during the cold war: that's right, gelatin cookbooks. filled with recipes that include tuna in gelatin, vegetables in gelatin, pineapple and tuna in gelatin. shudder. not that howard knows of these horrors either (or would remember the beginnings of it), but if howard did, he could tell you of the horrors of a fish shaped gelatin and its olive eyes staring into his soul.

he pokes the jello salad with the serving spoon and looks at the guy next to him, flashing him a wicked grin. ) How much would you bet that I could eat?

( look, howard is just drunk enough to think eating spoonfuls of this gelatin shit is a good idea. feel free to take advantage of that drunkenness. )

[Thank god for small favors. His world might be full of terrible things but at least it does not have molded tuna jello salads.

10K eyes the spoon and Howard both with a very dubious look, wondering just how far he can get before the inevitable jello that goes down comes back up again.]

I don't know, how strong is your stomach?

[And/or how much do you hate yourself? Relevant questions, oh gentleman smelling strongly of vodka.]

[Wandering the fair, Jiaying smiles when she spots 10K and comes over to take a look at the photographs. She picks one up, studying it for a moment before saying]

This is fireweed, correct?

Hey, you've got a good eye.

[10K offers her a grin, moving a little closer to look at the picture.]

Yeah, I wasn't too surprised to see it here--it pops up a lot in areas like this that get pretty dry during the summer. You know a lot about plants?

Thank you. [she sets the picture back on the table] Only superficial knowledge. I recognized it because it can be used for tea.

That's right. My mom used to make tea from it. You can eat the sprouts, too, boiled, but they don't really taste fantastic--it's good for when you're out in the wild, though. If you're looking for food. Or foraging, eating wild. Do you do a lot of, uh, tea-making?

I do. Though my choices here are limited. I prefer Chinese tea but French only carries pu-erh tea.

I don't think we had anything but Lipton after my mom...[Let's just gloss over that sudden silence, shall we?]

Anyway, I don't know much about it, but I know some plants you can use. The woods around here have some--wild roses, dandelions, I even saw a couple raspberry bushes out there not too far from town.

Would you care to show me when you have the time?

[It doesn't hurt to branch out with her tastes. And she definitely notices that glossed over silence. How interesting.]

Yeah, sure. It's no trouble at all. I'd be happy to.

[It's not like he's doing all that much. The occasional odd job around town, just enough to keep him fed. His next words come with a slightly awkward pause, but they're well-meant--and carefully phrased.]

I...didn't catch your name, last time we talked, but I'm glad to see you're feeling better.

It's Jiaying. I wouldn't have made it home without your help. Thank you.

[She's grateful, truly.]

What should I call you?

( march event ) mad skillz

10K | Teaching: plant identification | open

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