( march event ) mad skillz

[officialnotice]

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.

Comments

[smudging]

[ For the most of the day, Noah hasn't done much teaching rather than just holding the hands of small children while they balance on his skateboard and occasionally showing off a few "more advanced" tricks (in reality, a kickflip isn't really a difficult thing to master, but he allows the townsfolk to remain awestruck each time he does the simple movements.), which typically causes an uproar of childish squeals and applause.

It loses its luster fairly quickly and by the middle of the day Noah isn't doing much more than standing around holding his skateboard, idly spinning the wheels with his fingers while waiting for someone -- literally anyone -- to show up to his booth again. The literally anyone that he gets is Howard -- who looks a little wobbly despite not moving very much where he stands and slurs a few of his words together.

Well, there was a table of beer, after all. Maybe he'd just knocked back a few, Noah's not judging. ]

Uh.... [ Were there really people talking about it? ] Yeah! This is it. Ever rode one before? [ Because who knew, right? Skateboarding wasn't exactly a new thing, as far as he knew. He tosses the board to the ground, wheels clattering as they hit the concrete and one of Noah's feet lands on top of it soon after. ]

[inventor]

( well, of course the townsfolk are awestruck by that trick. word travels quick. it's not every day that something goes slo-mo. ( — what do you mean it wasn't actually in slow motion? it totally was, a drunken howard says!)

skateboarding is actually a new concept for him. sure, he's seen teenagers ride down main street on them, but howard isn't sure he's ever saw one before that. he's still grasping at straws for what he does and doesn't know and, right now, skateboarding is something he doesn't know. but something he's eager to rectify! )

No. ( he shrugs and he seems oddly blasé about riding on a tiny little board with wheels while soused. )

[smudging]

[ Both of his brows lift high on his forehead, the teenager clearly surprised by the answer. Most of the adults who have stopped by had all come armed with some arsenal of stories about their glory days on a skateboard ]

Never? Really?

[ This guy certainly seems a little tipsy -- maybe a little more than tipsy and well on his way to comfortably drunk -- and while Noah knows very well that he shouldn't be inviting him to get onto a skateboard (very few would argue that being intoxicated made one better at the task.), it doesn't seem to stop him.

That's the point of this whole skills fair right? ] You wanna learn? I'm giving lessons today for the low price of... free! [ Thankfully, Noah's skill was not comedy. ]