Summer Camp Truth or Dare Group 3 Closed

@River Jemari | @Pericles Dralt | @Martyna Romero

Earl could breathe again.

A smile, a real one at that, had bloomed on the young boy's face as the color faded from his hair. His galloping heart had slowed to a steady thump, allowing the spiraling thoughts to take flight, away from our wizard's mind.

No, he wasn't going to sit there and cry. He was Earl frigging Gray, and a butchered haircut wasn't about to stop him from enjoying his summer. Straightening his back, Earl made a mental note to trade a few chocolate frogs for some scissors and look around for needle and a thread. If he could change his bloody bone structure and the color of his skin, he could learn how to sow a shirt.

Pulling a pair of glasses from his back pocket (where they definitely shouldn't have been), the metamorphmagus took a deep breath before placing them back on his nose. They looked strange when mixed with the corpselike pallor and his splotchy blue and white hair. But it was a step. A step to feeling better. A step to not allowing one bad thing from tearing him apart.

Sitting down at one of the tables, he plucked a cookie from one of the towering plates and started nibbling prettily on it, eyes closing in delight as chocolate melted on his tongue. This. This was what made life worth living. This was why he couldn't allow himself to sink, the way his dad had. Because of good food, and laughter that warmed him all the way to his core, and the euphoria he got from tailoring. Breathing in a lungful of fresh night air, Earl leaned backwards against the table with a smile, watching those around him. Laughter and screaming, and a few tears. One of the second years in particular was getting pummeled by dares left and right, got everything from getting licked to kissed to shaving his eyebrows. Earl felt a little bad for him, but not bad enough that he was going to get up and disturb the show.

Then, one of the most beautiful people he'd ever seen approached him. She was a god amongst mortals, with a smile which she could have used to bewitch anyone who spared her a second glance, and a voice which would have won her a reputable place amongst sirens. And Earl? Well he was staring, and being very obvious about it as well. "Wow hi you're beautiful" he blurted out rather than saying hello. "Like you're so pretty oh my god." He wanted to sit and look at her for hours. To try and capture the shade of her skin and the curl of her heir. To get the exact color of her eyes and the cadence of her voice down. Every freckle on her seemed to have been placed by saints; she was perfection, pure and simple.

"Can I copy you?"

The question hung suspended in the air between them. He'd pulled away at the last second, noticing the look in her eyes. She didn't want to be doing this dare. He was fortunate no one had given him anything ridiculous as of yet. But the thought was fleeting, slowly sinking to the bottom before being replaced all together. "Haha, no you don' have to" he heard himself say.

It was hard to wrench your gaze away from Earl. Even on days like these, he had an eerie beauty to him. Fragile. Like a wind chime or a glass bubble. Unsettling with the too skinny frame and the discolored hair. And yet he was smiling. A smile that reached his eyes and gave life to the bones which didn't quite seem to be his own at the moment. "Oh wait," he giggled, noticing her name was written atop his own piece of paper. "I can just dare you t....hm. No. That will take some time. Uuuh...."

He paused, scanning the crowd. There had already been far too many kisses handed out. Too many tears had been spilled as well. He needed something cute. Wholesome. Something that would bring a smile on her face, allow her to calm down after the drama. "I dare you to give everyone you talk to a compliment. Has to be something they have control over. And uh....it has to be everyone, not just people you like. You can tell them it's a dare though, if you want to..."

And then it was his turn to do a dare. This one was hard. He was thrown slightly off balance by a very simple fact. Most of the teachers he'd grown to love had vanished. There was nearly no left for him to copy that he could say for sure he could get right. All the people he'd spent hundreds of hours staring at had left. Ms. Pendrast, Ms. Lian, Mr. Vernatis.

He repeated their names one by one, faces coming into slow focus and then disappearing, fading from his mind like paint in water. Out of all, he'd loved Ms. Lian the most. The sarcasm and witty remarks, the on-point out fits and how she was always one step ahead of them. His mind hadn't wondered during her class, he hadn't found himself looking blankly at a piece of parchment with no idea how much time had passed.

But she was nowhere near in sight, and he wasn't good enough to replicate her from memory. Instead, he fixed his eyes on River. The man was hovering near the teacher's table, sipping away at a goblet of pumpkin juice.

Scrunching up his nose, Earl begun with his hair. Trying to get the mousy shade right, the way strands curved over his forehead, to straighten the curls he'd given himself out of habit. He skipped the stubble, too much work to make it grow. Next came the way he was standing. Feet shoulder width apart, head tilted slightly upwards, fingers balancing the goblet precariously as he talked.

His eyes afterwards. Earl's glasses didn't resemble the goggles which could usually be found peaking from underneath Mr. Jemari's hair, but he pushed them upwards anyway, pretending they were used as eye protection rather than aesthetics. He'd have to sneak closer to get his voice down though.

Lurking forward, Earl hid behind the taller people in the crowd, moving a few meters at a time until he was right behind River. From there, he started finessing some of the details on his face. Added wrinkles near his eyes, changed his skin a few shades, made his lips thinner and darker. It wasn't a perfect illusion by any means. Our boy was two feet shorter than his muse, and the face didn't look quite right. The shape of his jaw was off, the set of his eyes. Earl worked with broad shapes, like an artist trying to get the rough sketch of a drawing down before starting on the line art. Still, ever so slowly, River was being copied. He was tall and skinny, built like an English teacher tumblr teens fell for.

It was maybe ten minutes later that he found the prefect again. "You ready?" he asked, tapping him on the shoulder. Draven had let him borrow his broom after a lot of groveling and the promise of three chocolate frogs.

So he was back behind the prefect now with his brother's broom, sitting on it as it hovered two feet above the ground, wearing a cloak which draped dramatically down his shoulders. "Today!" he announced, one hand on the handle of the broom, the other held up in front of his face as if to block the sun. "We will be discussing a simple way to get ahold of your broom!" he squinted against the invisible blinding sunlight. "No you shall NOT be flying. In fact, in this class you will do everything EXCEPT fly! You see, we need to talk about s a f e t y first." He took a dramatic pause. "The broom," he drawled. "Is like a puppy! You shall be riding a puppy! While I hover over all of you!"

Interacting with @Earl Gray and @Phaedra Stavrou
Mentioning Pericles, Winnie, Levi and Mathias (not enough to tag I don't think)

Thankfully, it soon became clear that Earl wasn't actually possessed, only acting in accordance with a dare that someone had given him, and with a pair of thin spectacles placed back upon his face, he almost looked human again. Almost.

"Wow hi you're beautiful."

"Huh?" Okay, maybe she'd overestimated him. Taken aback by what she presumed to be an attempt at some mean joke on Earl's part, Tina paused where she was bending, staring up at him with a furrowed brow. Defiant in returning this stare, Earl raked his eyes over her face, continuing to talk about how 'pretty' she was all the while. Perhaps he truly was under some sort of mind control? His dishevelled look certainly told that story - eyes remaining dark and hollow even in the absence of those frightening, dilated pupils, skin deathly pale, moving in a way that was ghost-like and floaty: she contemplated slapping him in an effort to snap him out of whatever was controlling him. "Um, are you-"

Are you joking? That was one option. 'Are you okay?' was the one what sprung to mind most readily. "Can I copy you?" Earl asked after a moment.

"Can I copy YOU?" Tina parroted. She had no idea if that was what he meant, or if he was implying something more cryptic, but childish mimicking was the conclusion she liked most and so it was the one she went with. The solution was always to out-copy the copier until they got frustrated enough to stop. Perhaps noticing that she was no longer moving towards him, Earl snapped his hand away from her face, catching a curl of her hair as he did so due to the proximity between them. "Unless you like, mean something else... Oh- yeah, I was going to ask!" Looking like she meant serious business, Tina straightened herself out, puffing out her chest and placing her hands on her hips. She knocked one fist against her ribs to aid clearing her throat. "Ahem... Are you okay?"

Tina looked at him expectantly through wide eyes. She was referring to a few things here:

1. His general appearance, because what the hell?
2. Him acting like a crazy demon before she'd properly made herself known.
3. Him telling her that she was pretty. Had he meant that..?

At that very moment, another piece of paper was spat by the enchanted goblet in her general direction, gliding through the air and into her hands.

===============

Phaedra Stavrou TRUTH

===============

Those who picked truth falsely believed they'd escaped the worst that truth or dare could offer. Tina smiled wickedly: she was ready to disprove that. She recognised the name of the prefect who'd organised a trip to Hogsmeade last Christmas, although still wasn't all that sure how to pronounce it, so avoided shouting for 'Pedra' in order to summon her as she might usually have done. Earl had gotten her name from the goblet anyway, so she couldn't stray from his side just yet. Now that things had settled between them and she wasn't utterly horrified by him, she actually felt quite comfortable. Moreover, he gave her what had to be one of the most wholesome dares she'd ever received.

Compliment... EVERYONE.

"Oh my gosh, that's way too cute!" Tina squeaked, jumping up and down and clasping her hands together in front of her. Thank you, deity above, for not pairing her with someone who would insist she defile her face this round! "Okay okay, I'm actually gonna be so amazing this! You first, then..." Tina took a big step back and inhaled, as though to analyse him more thoroughly from a distance. Yeah, he looked rough at the moment, sure, but she could turn that into a kind, well-meaning, and thoughtful compliment. "...You look extremely good with pink hair." As if it wasn't obvious enough, she added, "That's a hint, by the way. You should totally dye it back."

And with that, Tina was off to find her partner. Earl was already being given another dare by Pericles by the time she was leaving, and chaos was erupting between Winnie, Mathias and Levi over in their little corner, as anticipated. Once she had located the elusive Phaedra, Tina rounded other girl and positioned herself in front of her, just as she had done with Levi before, arms folded. This might have been intimidating if she wasn't an entire foot shorter.

"Hiya! You have very straight hair." She nodded in sincere approval. Perhaps this was a confusing comment to make out of nowhere, but it was one that was complimentary in Tina's mind nonetheless. She was taking Earl's dare very seriously, it seemed. "So! The question I'd like to ask you-" She flashed the paper ticket, which bared Phaedra's name and the word 'truth', "-is what question would you like to be asked least in, sayyyyy..." Tina trailed off, eyes glancing off to the side, glittering with mischief. "...A hypothetical game of truth or dare?" When the thought of potential loopholes occurred to her, she added quickly. "Not including this one."

Perfect.

Action: Take on Earl's dare, give Phaedra her truth

Interacting with @Martyna Romero & @Serena Bowen | Mentions Pericles Dralt & Earl Gray

Answering Pericles went smoother than expected. He seemed satisfied with her truth and Phaedra lightened up a bit, the tension in her shoulders melting away. She couldn't restrain the giggles at Earl's display of demonic possession; though her appreciation for his performance went short lived when another commanded her attention. An underclassman, one of those seemingly short-but-mighty types, introduced herself not with a name, but with an objective statement on her looks.

How was she to respond to that? Uncertain if Tina was complimenting or not, Phaedra's hand shot up to drag her ponytail over her shoulder like some sort of security blanket. “Yes. Yes, I do.” Not really, her hair was naturally curly; the complete opposite of what it appeared. Its increased manageability now was credited to an array of hair sleeking products, but trends were dynamic, ever-changing. Straight couldn't be in forever. “Not something...wrong with it, I hope.”

The second-year's question was met with a sharp raise of the brow. Phaedra knew well where this was going, but she wouldn't lie. “Probably anything to do with boys,” she admitted, crossing her arms. “And to further answer your little hypothetical before you can get any ideas—no. There is not one here I'd lower myself to snogging.” The teen smirked, fully confident that Martyna couldn't get the jump on her if she exposed herself instead. “Not even if my life depended on it.” Okay, that was an exaggeration, but the situation called for it.

With that out of the way for now, it was time for Phaedra to honour her part in the game. Flipping the goblet-provided slip between her fingers, she allowed her eyes to wander for the shirt matching the name. It proved close to where she stood with Martyna. “Please excuse me,” she said to her Truth-giver, attention shifting to the blonde. “Serena Bowen? I have a dare for you.” Of course a dare. That was her second one today. Hogwarts was rife with very brave or stupid people.

“The staff haven't been shown enough appreciation for feeding us this summer, wouldn't you agree? As a sign of your gratitude, I dare you to eat four spoonfuls of your least favourite condiment.” No matter what her giddy rocking back and forth implied, this was entirely for gratitude and not at all for her personal amusement, of course. Although there was no way for Phaedra to ensure that Serena was honest in her choice, the Hufflepuff girl likely knew the risks of picking dare, and if she were any fun, she'd play fairly. Phaedra nodded her head in the direction of the food tables. What would she pick? “Go ahead. Let's not be wasteful.”

Action: Answer Tina, Give Serena her dare

August 12th, 2021

Irina had been quite excited to see Mathias sing a song to Levi and wasn't that disappointed. He sang a song and it really wasn’t that bad. She was almost impressed at him for completing the dare but then remembered that he had dared her to lick the face of the other guy. The song did seem a little bit familiar though and Irina just brushed it off as Matt not knowing how to come up with his own song.

Turning away from the odd group, she noticed Serena from earlier walking towards her. This was the girl who she had totally not tricked into causing a little bit of chaos. “Hey again Serena! Nice work on completing my dare and I’m excited to see what you have in store for me!” she happily said.

Finally the date was given and Irina had no idea what to do. It was that she had to show off her best dance moves and to be honest, she was not a dancing type of person. Sure she was invited to almost every party but that didn’t mean she knew how to dance. “Oh, that sounds a little challenging. I don’t really know any dances.” Irina said thoughtfully with a smile. At least the last dare was straight forward in instructions, this one left a lot up for interpretation.

Nevertheless, she wasn’t the type of person to not attempt a dare. Before doubting herself again, she spoke once more. “Okay, don’t judge but here goes.” Now it was time to dance and before she could really think on the move she was going to so, Irina got into a squat and started her favorite move. It was her favorite because it was one of the only ones she knew and also doubled as a workout. In the squat she started kicking her feet one at a time and left her arms horizontally out to keep her from falling over.

When she did it for a decent minute or so, Irina got up from her position and was glad that she had successfully done the dance. At least she hadn’t fallen over because that would have been embarrassing.

Action: Attempting Serena’s dare and choosing dare for next round.

Interacting With: Irina Afanasyeva @Lavinia Cloven and @Phaedra Stavrou

Serena watched as Irina did her dance.

“No judgment here; those were some nice moves!” She said with a smile, clapping her hands.

Then, an older girl came up and gave her a dare.

Oh wow, four spoonfuls of her least favorite condiment? That would be interesting. Serena walked over to the nearest picnic basket and began looking for the sauces. At first, she found a ketchup bottle, but Serena liked that, so she put it aside. Hmm, mayonnaise and mustard were also in there. She didn’t mind those, but if that was all she could find, then she might have to pick from there. However, then Serena saw a bottle of hot sauce. She let out a grimace. She was definitely more of a sweet tooth kind of girl than a lover of spicy things.

Serena debated on not being entirely truthful and going for the mustard, but that didn’t feel very in the spirit of the game. So, reluctantly, Serena picked up the bottle of hot sauce and a plastic spoon.

Squirting a dollop onto the spoon, Serena swallowed the first spoonful. Immediately, her eyes began to water, and her mouth felt like it was on fire.

“Wow, that stuff is spicy!” She exclaimed.

Grimacing, she quickly took the next three spoonfuls, wanting this to be over with as soon as possible. Serena began to cough, and she felt snot start to dribble out of her nose. Her face felt warm too.

“Ugh, I am never doing that again.” She groaned out as she grabbed another water bottle from the cooler and wiping her nose with her arm. She opened the water bottle and took a big gulp, hoping that that would help get rid of the effects of the hot sauce.

Serena thought that she was done with dares for now. So she walked up to the goblet and wrote her name down again, only this time she wrote ‘Truth’ next to her name.

Action: Attempting Phaedra's Dare and Choosing Truth for the Next Round

Last Moderation

There was no shortage of drama in the group - without naming a few very specific names, cough. They had pulled their truth or dares from the goblet, relishing in the joy of annoying and embarrassing each other. It even looked like a few of them fighting over the same person! As the day carried on, they likely realised that... they could just give each other their truth or dares, without waiting for the goblet. It was a perfect chance to ask someone if they were brave enough to answer a question truthfully in front of everyone or do something they were dared to do. Not everyone would want to step up to the challenge though - running away was definitely a viable option.

Would they continue to give each other dares until someone gave up or was it enough for the day? Either way, this might be a good time to get a little bit of revenge if someone bothered you throughout the day or made you do something embarrassing!

Players -
@Mathias Pride - active
@Pericles Dralt - active
@Winnie Harper - active
@Levi Drakos - active [chooses truth]
@Lavinia Cloven (as iNPC Irina Afanasyeva)
@Serena Bowen - active
@Earl Gray - active
@Phaedra Stavrou - active
@Martyna Romero - active
@Rhea Miller - did not post
@Percival Rainwood - did not post

Players that are still in the thread can give each other truth or dares (their target's choice) if they wish to - as long as they have OOC permission to do so. Please make sure you have OOC permission before doing so. The thread will be locked in September, otherwise.

| @Winnie Harper | @Earl Gray | Mentioning Paige, Irina

For first-time player Pericles, who preferred to present himself as more or less staid for civility's sake, Truth-or-Dare was a whiplash of excitement. Some questions and challenges were wholesome, others pocked with the type of teenage drama he did his very best to hide from. Winnie, who seemed to be wrapped up in the latter, called his name, and Pericles turned about with wariness in his eye. Despite his kneejerk trepidation, the Truth she posed was perfectly innocent. ”Mr. Pericles! If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what book would you pick? Think about it and get back to me!" Pale eyebrows arched upwards. Slowly, a smile formed, sparked by fascination for an especially challenging question. "Alright," he consented quietly. He would need that extra time; this was a tough one.

Meanwhile, Earl had been busy prepping for the Dare he had been given, and when he tapped Peri's shoulder to ask if he was ready, the residual smile spread into a smirk. Something about the way Earl spoke suggested this was going to be a good one. "Let's see it," he encouraged with a bob of his head, eyes curiously considering the cloak dangling from the Hufflepuff's shoulders, as well as the broom on which he sat. The Ravenclaw resumed a seat with arms loosely folded, assuming an attentive audience as Earl dramatically covered his face. It was a show he wouldn't soon forget.

"Today! We will be discussing a simple way to get ahold of your broom! No you shall NOT be flying. In fact, in this class you will do everything EXCEPT fly! You see, we need to talk about s a f e t y first. The broom, is like a puppy! You shall be riding a puppy! While I hover over all of you!"

The smirk was a rare all-out grin, then came a soft series of wispy huffs, partially concealed as Peri raised pale fingers to cover them. His airy snickers weren't heard so much as seen, a glow of pure delight in his eyes. He shook his head and applauded at the end, clapping his hands a few times as he spoke, a laugh ringing at the edge of his tone. "Thank you for that, Earl. I was class-sick for Flying lately, but I feel as though I've just been through an actual lecture." An eye was wiped. "That was brilliant." Earl went on to give a wholesome dare, a Case of the Compliments to Paige. A Koldovstoretz girl (Irina) was doing an interesting dance. Things were carrying on and winding down, though it seemed Pericles had his fill. He rose to a stand and looked around, attempting to make eye-contact with those he'd interacted with that night, saying to not one in particular: "This was good fun, but I think I'll be heading back to the cabins now. I forgot my... cat." Yes, a sound excuse to dip out. But before he went, he had his end of a turn to uphold.

"Winnie...?" Peri paused while passing the redhead, a decisiveness about him. It was hard to pick just one book. At first he'd supposed maybe a manual would make sense, or a book of poems, or a geography log, so he could memorize their contents and make use of them somehow. But he was finding Truth-or-Dare was less about long-term consequences and sensibility, more about the heat of the moment. In that moment, which book would he want to read? That made the deciding factor far simpler. "I would read The Valley of Fear, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There's a line I like a great deal, something to the effect of... there should be no combination of events for which the wit of man cannot conceive an explanation." The truth was, those were the exact words. They had become something of a mantra to the young heir, a reminder that no matter how absurd or horrific an occurrence might be, there was always a reasonable explanation to soften its blow. His mellow smile was worn as Pericles explained, "It helps me through uncertain times. A lot of those at Hogwarts, I'll admit." The eagle's smile was a mite sad at that, but he shrugged off the implication, nodding a good-night and drifting out from the social circle.

Exiting the thread, thanks @ all for the fun

Mathias leaves the topic.

Interacting with: @Levi Drakos | @Mathias Pride Mentioning:

Date: August 12th, 2021 Outfit Personalized T-Shirt | Skirt | Sandals | Hairpins

Accepting the invitation of a date directly in front of your boyfriend could have been perceived as ill-mannered, cruel even, but Winnie barely considered Levi's invitation to be a valid date. No, the boy was likely attempting to strum her heartstrings, tuning and playing them to his desired song. Was that all she was fated to be? A mere instrument that was carelessly toyed with for a week before being tossed into the back of the closet to collect dust. In Winnie's mind, Levi's true goal was to recapture the heart of Mathias Pride. How he planned to accomplish that, she was still uncertain of.

"Hannibal? You read muggle novels, Matt?" Yes, because that was the important information she had gathered from his quip. His knowledge of the fictional antagonist was almost... Attractive to Winnie. Despite her lack of practical intelligence, she was a bookworm at the end of the day and having that shared connection was exciting.

The redhead's next comment caused her train of thought to crash, and she was quickly shaking her head, "W-We're not a thing, Mattie! I don't know what he's talking about, I've only ever kissed you. He's lying!" She reached out to try and grab the boy's arm, her face still red in hue from Levi's prior comments. Her voice came as a desperate sound, exasperated from the figurative game of monkey in the middle the trio seemed to be playing.

"Don't ask me that, Mattie. Of course not, I'm with... Wait! Mattie!--..." A call of her boyfriend's name, her arm reached outwards to try and grab his shirt and stop him. Her fingers caught the fabric of his personalized t-shirt, but he slipped away and the inky tendrils of the unforgiving darkness would envelop him, swallowing the boy into the night. "MATTIE!" She would try again, the desperate call bursting from her lungs as she ran forward in an attempt to catch up with the boy. "I... I dare you to stop!" Did that count as a dare? She wasn't sure.

She would turn on her heel, copper locks whipping to the side from her sudden movement. Her gaze was now fixed on Levi. Silently the girl would study his features in an attempt to decipher the boy's plans. Unfortunately for Winnie, a childhood of little to no social interaction had rendered her social skills notional. "I'm uncertain what you hope to accomplish with this date, and I don't know why you can so easily quote my poetry, Levi Drakos, but if you do anything..." She took a step forward, needing to gaze up at the boy regardless of his own short stature. She straightened her posture in an attempt to look more threatening, but she was still a mere preteen and stood half a foot shorter than the boy. "And I mean anything, to hurt Matt... I will not sit idly by. You and I... We can be friends, or we can be enemies. I'll let you decide, but I would suggest you do not underestimate me."

Interacting with: @Phaedra Stavrou
Mentioning: Winnie Harper

At the odd reaction to her compliment, Tina nodded furiously. She didn't want anything to be misconstrued: Phaedra's hair was like a silky sheet of paper, and she liked it very much. Despite what appeared to be some initial reluctance from her upperclassmen in answering the truth, Tina absolutely delighted in the response she received. A cheeky grin split across her features, unable to contain the gleeful giggle that erupted from the mention of boys. Before the Hufflepuff could burst into an excited follow up question, however, Phaedra cut her off.

It wasn't exactly surprising that no boy in the group had caught her attention. She was very visibly the eldest among them, which narrowed her options to a significant degree (not yet considering the two boys who were occupied with Winnie). Still, the casual remark about 'snogging' caused Tina to screw up her face and making a belching sound. What a revolting word. "Eww! Yeah, okay, I believe you and that..." she finished with a resigned smile as she composed herself, before briskly adding, "Uhm- Me too, by the way! Like, that'd be so weird. And gross."

Once Phaedra had slipped away, Tina took some time to mark her next compliment-receiver. It seemed like the group they'd formed was rapidly dispersing, (Probably tired of dares involving the opposite sex, Tina thought sagely), a fact which left her a little disappointed. Still, this meant she was free to venture into other groups and dole out some well-intentioned words of kindness to unsuspecting Hogwarts returnees. With a renewed spring in her step, Tina skipped over to a group of kids her age, telling one girl that she passed that she, 'looked like she'd be great at rescuing ladybirds'.

Action: Leaving the thread