#12signsfallfestival

[desmondbeaumont-blog]

@faye-westaway

The festival was supposed to be fun, a university tradition full of friendly competition and some silly activities. Des wasn’t having fun though. His face was too tight from dried tears, throat sore, and still a bit shaky all over. At least, he had his sign off now, and he didn’t have to kiss anyone for the time being. He walked aimlessly through the festival, just trying to keep his mind off the earlier events--unable to breathe, sobbing like he just witnessed someone die. It was a fluke, he told himself repeatedly. He just didn’t get enough sleep the night before.

A booth finally peaked his interest, one for a gin tasting. Drinking was a rubbish idea in the moment, knowing how he was when he was drunk lately, but he really needed a drink. “Gin and tonic?” The attendant offered and Des gave a curt nod, taking the drink when it was handed to him. After taking a long sip, he realized he wasn’t alone, spotting a blonde he knew well. “Faye?” He asked in surprise, not expecting her to see her at a booth dedicated to gin. “What are you doing here?”

[faye-westaway]

Dancing

The festival was bursting with activity. It was difficult for Faye to keep track of everything that was going on around her. There were people laughing and people screaming. There were fairy lights strung up from one booth to the next, twinkling softly against the dark night’s backdrop. There was colour - so much colour all around her, from the elaborate patterns of the performer’s costumes to the trinkets sold by the wayside. She loved every minute of it, even if was, at times, overwhelming for her to process.

The dancers were definitely her favourite performers. They moved with fluidity and grace, like they were walking on air. She watched in amazement as their bodies moved to the rhythm of the music, each step in tune with the song that was pumping through the speakers on stage. How could they remember all the steps? How did they get their bodies to twist like that? Faye knew how difficult dancing was. She had tried dancing with her father at her cousin’s wedding three years ago. Her father had been kind and patient with her despite the fact that she kept stepping on his feet. She was not the most coordinated of people.

Finally, the song ended and the crowd that had gathered around the stage broke out into applause. Faye clapped her hands eagerly together. She had wanted to be a ballerina when she was a little girl, but the nearest dancing school had been three towns over. It was too far of a commitment, her mother had explained to her. Faye had been crushed, but she had never lost the desire to dance, no matter how terrible her untrained feet were.

@alexxxpapi

[oocodee-blog]

Grease Lightnin’

@desmondbeaumont

Alex wiped the sweat from his brow. That had been his second performance tonight. Between his ballroom show with his partner and this one that showcased half of his group’s hip hop moves, the only break he’d gotten was when the ballet team had taken over for a song so that he could very quickly get out of his pinstripe suit and into the saggy denim-like pants and loose tank that he wore for his hip hop routine.

Now, as the crowd clapped and whistled for them, he grinned from ear to ear, skin shining with sweat, and took a dramatic bow. Blowing kisses to the crowd, he noticed one face in particular that had been watching from pretty close by. Oh, hey. Desmond was here. Good. Alex needed to speak with him.

After high-fiving his fellow teammates and making way for the free stylists to jump on stage next, he descended the stairs quickly to make his way over to Des. And in the process, he either forgot how sweaty he actually was, or he simply didn’t care, racing up and practically launching himself at Des in a glomp.

“Tell me you were watching my sexy ass up there.”

[artisticfade]

the lies i weave are oh so intricate

@eltoromagico

the thing about sam is that despite his stubbornness and just overall thick-headedness, he can sometimes be quite astute and observant about certain things, especially when it comes to other people. his natural vibes have been in haywire for the last few months, ever since these powers began manifesting, but he still prides himself on being able to read people to a certain degree, which might actually have a hand in why he’s been so out of whack lately, now that he thinks about it. still though, despite his latest transgressions against those he considers friends, he is pretty sure he can still sort of see through them.

if only he would use his powers for good instead of evil.

something in him stirs when he realizes jude has brought the locket with him to this event, and at first he thinks that’s odd, because this is a school festival and what in the world would jude be doing out here with that thing, if it’s as powerful as jude and imogen and everybody seem to want to think it is? but then after watching jude a few moments from across a field, sam sort of wonders if it’s because of him. jude had seemed more or less interested in repairing their communication back to normal while they’d been playing laser tag earlier, so maybe… is jude trying to be sneaky?

well, two can play that game. sam starts across the field, towards the other, hatching a plan he’s not entirely sure the ending of just yet, but when he gets to jude, he’s smiling a little nervously. “hey…” he greets him, hoping he sounds meek enough. “you got a minute, jude? i, uh… i want to talk to you… i guess i wanna apologize…” his eyes scan around for something to break any sort of awkward barrier between them, when he spots the gin-tasting set-up. perfect. “care to join me in my office?” he gestures towards it, chuckling.

[twelvesignsrp]

Once upon a time…

students at a prestigious university decided to give back to their community. and thus, the durham university fall festival was born- a time to celebrate the autumnal equinox and raise money for various charities in the area.

every year at the dawn of libra season, the student associations and clubs of durham band together to put on a massive celebration, featuring everything from craft booths to hay bale mazes. this festival is a big deal! your character has almost definitely participated every fall they’ve been at durham. there’s a big, ridiculous competition on opening night between the school’s student groups which students and alumni care about wayyyyy too much. it’ll be a busy, busy weekend, but it’s all for a good cause!

THE DURHAM UNIVERSITY FALL FESTIVAL

the festival will take place on the durham uni grounds, with markets, games, and events happening around the clock. daytime events will be mostly oriented toward young kids and their parents (think apple bobbing for kiddos and wine tastings for their parents, etc). there will be plenty of booths selling food, art, jewelry, crafts, and all kinds of souvenirs, as well as performances by musicians, artists, theater groups, and storytellers from the school. there will even be some very early halloween festivities, including a haunted house. nighttime events will be more oriented toward the college crowd, including pub crawls, club nights, and other good times.

all characters will either volunteer (or be volun-told by a member of some student group they’re a part of) to work at least one or two things for the weekend- so, for example, your character could serve apple cider for a few hours on friday and be a ghost in the haunted house on sunday. any time your character isn’t working, they’re welcome to wander the campus as a guest and participate in any activities.

there are a few events for which all characters will be present- you do not have to write about these events, just know that your character was there, whether by their own will or by being forced:

thursday, all day (21/9) - SET UP - while there will be lots of setting up all week leading up to the event, thursday will be all-hands-on-deck, with organizers scrambling to make /sure all the last-minute disasters are taken care of. in addition to things like setting up tents and hay bales and putting up decorations, this includes last-minute tests of rides, equipment, and other complicated elements, as well as final rehearsals for performers, and last minute cooking and baking for concessions.

thursday night (21/9) - OPENING CEREMONIES - a competition between student groups to kick off the event and establish a “monarchy”. this is an old tradition at the school and people take it way too seriously. A post will be coming soon to explain what our characters will be up to!

friday morning (22/9) through sunday afternoon (24/9) - THE FESTIVAL - characters will be volunteering for their various booths for a while and visiting other peoples’ booths the rest of the time. this part of the event is very open to interpretation- for volunteering, is your character playing a set on one of the performance stages? did they get volunteered for the kissing booth? did they get stuck picking up litter off the grass? perhaps they’re selling their homemade art? when they’re not volunteering, are they brave enough to step into the haunted house? do they discover their friends’ hidden talents by visiting their stands? it’s all up to you!

sunday afternoon (24/9) - TEAR DOWN - when the public starts leaving around noon on sunday, students will spring into action to put campus back in order.

sunday night (24/9) - CLOSING CEREMONIES - buses will come to shuttle students to newcastle, the nearby town where students go for an actual nightlife. to celebrate the end of a crazy weekend, there will be a mixer held in a newcastle ballroom. there will be music, dancing, food, and a cash bar. the end of the mixer is when the monarchy’s reign officially ends (the game post will explain the monarchy, don’t worry), so traditionally they go all out, turning up in plastic crowns/tiaras and giving really ridiculous orders to the other students. traditionally, teachers excuse all monday absences.

the event itself will be a dashboard event, for ten days all activity should be based around the event. you may have threads from any day/evening during this event, but please make it clear when each thread or starter especially is taking place. please do not reply to non-event threads until after this time period, we’re aware that it is a long time to go between replies without losing muse, so you may wish to wrap up threads before it starts or wait to start new ones. you’re welcome to do shorter chats than usual if you think that writing a tonne of paras is going to be a bit much for you! make sure you still stick to our rules, include everyone in everything, etc.

SO the dashboard will be all about the event from

- Wednesday, 20/9 TO Wednesday, 30/9 -

hopefully this gives everyone the chance to participate.

please tag all starters with #12signsfallfestival. outfit posts are welcome, as are anything leading up to the evening, texts about being ready, etc. all excitement around the subject is highly encouraged!

if you have any questions feel free to contact admin s or elaina!

[wherescleo-blog]

Wine tasting

Cleo was exhausted, but she promised herself that the wine stand would be her last stop before she went back to the flat, and to bed. She'd been meaning to call by all festival but had ended up doing extra shifts at her own stand while some of the other girls went for more stock. Now that she's done her last shift, though, she made her way over and traded her money for some white that they were promoting.

"Oh, it's lovely," she said after a sip.

"Isn't it?" The boy behind the table grinned, handing her a card. "It's an independent winery, they just started stocking over here. Here's some info about where you can buy it locally."

Cleo took the card and examined it, knowing full well she'd never be able to afford a bottle from the name alone. "Ah, that's brilliant. Thank you so much for that..."

She paused when she spotted Des nearby. They didn't know each other very well, but he seemed quite nice. Not to mention they were both mixed up with that nonsense from the beach. She wouldn't blank him in a million years. She gave him a little wave.

@desmondbeaumont

[desmondbeaumont-blog]

it was only a kiss

@eltoromagico

Des frowns down at his sign, furrowing his eyebrows as he counts the tallies he has so far. There’s only four. Four. How has he only kissed four people when it feels like hundreds? Sure, he’d like to win fan favorite, but ever since it was announced they’d be doing the kissing booth, Des has wanted to just crawl into a hole. Maybe, he just doesn’t like kissing strangers anymore. Old Des loved it. Maybe, he just needs to be with the right person. It still doesn’t seem like it’s normal to feel like he’s choking on a lump in his throat after every kiss, but he doesn’t let himself think about it for too long.

A bloke steps forward, a smirk on his face as he places a pound in Des’ hand. The smirk causes a shiver to roll down his spine, but he pockets the coin and leans forward to peck him on the lips quickly. He winks before walking off, but Des ignores him in favor of adding the fifth tally to his sign. “What number are you on?” He asks Jude, trying to keep the amused edge to his tone as he glances over at his best mate. 

Jude’s popular. He’s had a steady line ever since they put their signs on. Des would be a little dismayed if he didn’t want to leave so badly. He looks around for an activity they can do for a break. There’s the fortune teller booth, but Imogen wants nothing to do with him right now, so that isn’t a good idea. The haunted house could be fun, he always loved a good scare. 

[oocodee-blog]

Where Have You Been

@imogenxsong There she was. Standing there like nothing was amiss, enjoying the festival with the sun shining around them, leaves falling gently to the ground, the smell of pumpkin and apple spice in the air... totally unconcerned with the fact that she had left Alex to play beer pong with total losers for the last whoever knew how long. Selfish girl. Hmph. He frowned, the area between his brows wrinkling as he stood in the middle of the busy path, his cardboard sign in his hands. He was one of the delicious men that had decided to join this silly “Fan Favorite” competition, but Alex was finding that he actually enjoyed it. People thought he was funny, sexy, clever - or at least he thought they thought that. That’s all that really mattered, right? He’d gotten enough tally marks on his cardboard now, he thought, to show Jude, but that wasn’t what he was thinking at the moment. No. At the moment, he was staring down the girl who obviously had not seen him looking like a total creeper in the middle of the fair, evil-eyeing her, yet. Alex narrowed his eyes and huffed. A balloon somewhere to his left popped and the child owner immediately began bawling. Ugh. Kids. She hadn’t forgotten about him, had she? No, she couldn’t have. He was entirely unforgettable. But she didn’t look sick or injured either. So then what the fuck, Imogen??? Did she become a nun all of a sudden??? He stomped over, keeping out of her eye line until he was riiiiight up on her, a wicked grin playing on his lips as he leapt into her line of sight, his cardboard sign outstretched. “IMOGEEEEEN, KISS ME BABY.”