holding his belly "Do I look fat... no it only hold wot you put in, and i got all this camping stuff ciz dad want's to camp in sherwood forest over x-mas, and i got it at a shop in DA "

The holes? There were holes in their plastic blanket!?

Great. She picked the holey one. Hehe...holy...

Connect the things!? They had to connect stuff now. "Are you sure?" she asked uncertainly, picking up part of the blanket thing and trying to find a hole. Oh, there were holes in them. Haha, who would've known!? So, they were supposed to stick the holes onto the poles? Omg, that sounded so weird.

Well, if that's what they were supposed to do though...

Lifting it up, though having slight trouble since it was so heavy, she finally got the little hole thing to the pole. Wooot! It went on. "So that's it? And there is no way I'm drinking from the lake water Destiny. Just....gross."

"My badger looks like a less graphic form of roadkill." Sabel chuckled, offering a hand to help Arya up. "And no. We let it dry first. Otherwise we're likely to smudge the paint when we are tying it. Hopefully it won't crack, but the paint seems decent, so we should be good. In the meantime, it's probably best we finish setting up our respective camps." While he wasn't foreign to sleeping out under the stars or on the hard ground, he was pretty sure a tent was a necessary component of this exercise, and one that was actually erected.

Di nodded. "Certainly, Josephina," she said. She was not a fan of the latter idea - Josephina walking back to the castle barefoot when there were flats available - but if that was what her colleague wanted, so be it.

Jo? Fina? Di frowned, slightly. She tended to avoid nicknames. Merlin knew how much she disliked being called 'Vina.' That nickname made her sound like... some sort of exotic plant or foreign perfume.

"Fina," she said, after a moment's pause. Fina sounded better. Less boyish, more ladylike. "You may call me..." Davina. Yes, that's the name. "Di." Better than Vina, at all rates. "I'm going to set down these logs... Fina." She patted a small pile of them. "Could you please place the pile next to it on top of them?" Two wands are better than one, yes?

Di levitated four logs, each five to six inches across, into the air and one by one, gently lowered them to the ground as she spoke.

Di blinked at the... pitched tent? "Good job," she said. "Let's give the others a few more minutes to finish."


OOC: One and a half hour, to get the tent!pitching participation points. =] Though if you see this thread after the allotted time and have missed role playing your character pitching up a tent, you may pretend your character did pitch one. ^__^

"Okay" Brittany said thinking to herself. "We have the pillos we brought from the class and the sleeping bags that mikey gave us." Hmmm What else could they do?

"we could see if Eyny and get us some more bean bag chairs for sitting around the fire, cuz i got the fire pit ready"

"It still looks good though." She poked her tongue out at him. Taking his hand, she glanced back at the two paintings, proud of what they had done even if they weren't the best badgers in the world. "Cool beans." The girl probably wouldn't be sleeping in her tent, but they would need it for class so she poked her tongue out at Sabel once more before skipping off to her tent, and helping her teammates finish it off.

Was she sure?

WAS SHE SURE!?

No, Destiny was not sure, but what other reason would the blanket thing have holes in it if not to connect it to the poles? It made sense, and what would be the worst that would happen if it was wrong? Actually, a lot of things could go wrong, but she didn't want to think about that right now. She just wanted to put the tent together, climb inside and fall asleep. The Professor would never know, since it is RUDE to just barge themselves in someone's tent without knocking.

Looking over Evelyn's shoulder as she tried to find the hole, she smiled as the hole fit right on the pole. HUZZAH! Destiny was right for once in her life. "I told you so." she said, and moved to the other side of the blanket and started connecting the holes to the poles on that side. "That is it. And if you're thirsty enough, you'll drink it."

Enya decided that her tent should be silver and red zebra striped, and painted it that way, and then covered it with glitter and drug her couch and beanbag chair inside. She laid the sleeping bag on the couch and built a magical fire in front of her tent. She smiled and waved toe professor over. "Professor, will you check my tent?"

Shaking his head with silent wonder, Sabel turned back to his own tent, hands on hips. "Alrighty then. Let's see what we can do with you."

It took a few minutes to find a suitable patch of dry, flat ground under the tarp and pack the dirt down with his feet. Once that was done, he went about popping the tent poles together and slipping them through the tent flaps, smiling at the familiar sound of friction between metal and fabric. Laying the tent out on the ground, he hoped around it, hammering pegs into the ground and locking the poles onto them. He could feel his wand digging into this thigh, almost asking for a peice of the action, but he ignored it. This, was what he had been raised to do all his life. It was as natural as breathing and he felt no need for the wand.

Once the tent was erect and stabilized after a few adjustments, he slipped down to the riverbank to find a selection of flat, large stones. Several trips back and forth from camp to water, and a broken sweat, and he had all the rocks collected about in a circle a good few feet away from his tent. He spent a few minutes digging a small dip into the earth at the center of the stone circle, lining it with flatter stones that would prevent any stray grass or dead leaves and twigs from catching fire.

Then, came the fun part. Searching through the multitude of supplies, found a sac about the size of a pillow. This, is where he needed his wand, and heading back to his developing campsite, he unholistered it and pointed it at the rougher fabric. A quick incantation of transfiguration sent the bag growing to the length of his body; perfect for potato sac racing in had the occasion called for it. Moving into the forest, he searched out the conifer trees, browsing around beneath them for fallen pine needles which he gathered up and filled the sac with; enough so that it would be a firm, but compact-able body cushion. After gathering a few pine-cones for the sake of it, he slipped back into his camp and lay the make-shift bed within his tent. It definitely didn't have much aesthetics to it, but at least his tent would smell wonderfully in the morning. He really did hope they were camping out.

Emmaleigh watched as Enya arranged the furniture around her tent. "Hey Enya," she called over. "could you help Brit and me with some furniture? we don't know how to conjure any up, or anything."

"you forgot your pillow" tossig it at her 1 sec befor he calls to her so it lightly hits her then gives her the who me look

Unlike Sabel, her tent was already partially pitched. Well......at least the poles had all been connected. The tarp, however, was still rolled up and resting beside everything else that she had picked up to camp with. Picking up her tarp, she spread it out on the ground and began to connect it to her tent. It only took her a couple of minutes to connect the tarp to the poles.

Her tent pitched, she figured she better add some sort of luxuries for the other girl she would be sharing the tent with. Arya knew that Ivy would probably sleep out under the stars with her. It took her a few more minutes, but she finally put together a makeshift sofa on the inside of the tent for the girl, and layed out two sleeping bags on the side of the tent facing the lake for her and Ivy.

There, she was done. Taking a good look at her handy work, she smiled before turning towards Sabel's handy work. "Looks good, Sabel."

Enya picks up a nearby pillow and smiles. "Is that a pillow duel challenge sweetheart? If so you're on!" She swings her pillow and bobps him upside the head with it.

She turned over to Ems and smiled. "Be right there Ems, just gotta take care of a little light work first!" She smiled and bopped michael once more. Then she headed over. "Well most of mine I grabbed from the boxes and stuff, but you could maybe summon some of your favorite things from the dorm. The summoning spell is "Accio" Like this, "She pointed her wand at the slytherin dorm, "Accio Teddy Bear!" She smiled as her teddy bear came soaring to her.

Glancing over his shoulder from rolling the pine-cones around in his hand, he blinked at the Hufflepuff, then at his tent. "A little rugad around the edges, but I could get used to calling it home." Turning around fully, he considered her camp and nodded in approval. "Yours looks much more homey. If I get a sore back sleeping in mine, can I crash in yours?"

Well, it seemed that this thing was getting lighter and lighter now that they were connecting it. Though it kind looked wonky. Did they place the poles in the right place?

Who cares. I was getting up and that was that.

Finally putting the last hole on her side onto a pole, stretching it as far as it would go so it's fit onto the thing, Evelyn stood up and wiped the invisible beads of sweat off of her forehead. That was hard!! But, they did it. They built a tent!! WOOOOOOOT!

"Well, i think it looks..." Like crap. "It looks okay." So not like Patroclus' tent which she WILL be invading sometime sooner or later. "Does it look okay to you?"

Branwen had been sitting with her equipment watching the other students set up their tents. When she thought that she had the entire process memorized she started in on her tent. There were a few...mistakes, but after a little trial and error she had accomplished her task. She was so proud of herself. She then began decorating it. She wanted something pretty but not girly, definitely not girly, so she decided on a nice pale sky blue. She then went on the inside and began painting it a midnight blue with glow in the dark stars. "What's the point in sleep outside when all you can see is a tent roof" she said to herself.

Sophrina spotted one of her new friends, Alice. The older girl had a look of disapproval on her face and it was probably because of the task they had to complete. Sophie walked over to her side, "Hey, Alice." she then looked down at the pile of things Alice was looking at. Oh, no! This all looked so...so confusing. Sophie's heard of tents, but never really seen any. Her family were purebloods and they hardly visited to muggle world. But, oh well, this could actually be kind of fun. "Come on, let's get what we need." Soe said, picking items that looked somewhat familiar.

After connecting the last hole to poles that were on her side, Destiny hurried over to Evelyn's and peering right over her friends shoulder, she watched as the very last hole was connected. They. Were. Done!

They had just proved themselves that they would TOTALLY survive in a muggle wilderness! They knew how to pitch a tent, and that was all they needed to survive. Of course, being Destiny, she thought the tent was already supplied with food. Lucky for her she wasn't even a wilderness, because everyone knows what would happen to her.

When Evelyn stood up, Destiny backed away, so it was like she was not right over her shoulder. Placing her hands on her hips, she admired their tent. It was..HIDEOUS! Hobos wouldn't even want to live in that. "Well, at least it looks like it will hold." Until someone walks by. If the tenting committee were in the area, they would be sure to put one of those.. "I know what it is missing!" she called, making her way over to the paints and supplies. Arriving back at the tent, she once again dropped to her knees, dipping a paintbrush into the black paint she grabbed.

"Do not enter!"

Not that anyone would want to enter.

"Sure." She replied with a small giggle. "But I won't be sleeping in it. I plan on sleeping outside the tent in sleeping bags. Maybe make some smores." Definitely make some smores. A person couldn't go camping and not make smores. Not if said person was Arya. "It'll be easier to swim in the morning if we sleep by the lake. Do you think we'll actually sleep outside?" Could a class last that long?

Alice heard a vaguely familiar voice greet her. She looked down and saw the first year she had recently met. Why was it that this girl didn't fear her? Was Alice going soft? It didn't matter, though, this girl, Sophrina had a positive energy Alice liked. Plus, Sophrina was like a little sister that wouldn't go away.

"Hey, Firstie." Alice smirked, playfully. Sophrina started grabbing different items Alice wasn't familiar with, so she decided to get the paint. Hmm...green was a nice color...black too, you can't go wrong with black...and silver. Okay, maybe she was basing it on her house colors, but they were just too awesome pass, hehe. "Okay, I got the paint." Alice informed. She walked over to an empty spot not too far nor to close to the lake...erm river. "Let's set up camp, here." She grabbed a few of the poles, she guessed were for leverage. Eh, Alice didn't know about tents, but she was smart to figure out what things were.

Scratching his chin, he glanced about the growing campsite, still turning the pine-cones in one hand. "S'mores are definetly a must. As for how long we will be staying out here, I'm not sure. I would hope all night. Maybe there is some protection spell or space spell that can be worked up with the Runes. I find pitching a camp a strange, but mind you excellent, way of starting off a class."

Which reminded him. "Speaking of protective spells. Well, kind of not, but at the same time yes...anyways." He held up the pine-cones with a wide grin. "I was thinking, since we are done setting up, we paint them. Maybe a few rocks too. Welcome 'cones' or 'stones'. Draw little eyes and faces on them, maybe a few animal ones to represent the houses and put them around. Mascots for our Runes class." Whatever they would like to call them. "If they're going to be mascots though..." he tapped one of the cones against his chin, "probably best we paint stones..."

After some arguing, whining and accidents the tent was finally up...well kind of. It looked more like a green christmas hat that was a it tilted. Sophie dusted her hands on her uniform skirt, not caring if it got dirty, and happilly sighed. Her first tent, well with the help of Alice. It was green with a silver door and black on the edges. They even managed to add some sort of weird looking windows on it. The inside had black couches that looked more like blocks and the flooring was green with a giant snake on it. The walls were silver with intricate green designs and it had a fire place. This tent was definately a Slytherin's tent.

Sophrina looked over at Alice, "You like our tent?" she smiled, proudly.

Hehe yea, Destiny thought it was crap too. She could tell. Pretty much by the fact that she was not totally whooping for joy?

And apparently it was missing something!

Raising a brow, Evelyn crossed her arms and stared at their hideous tent. Merlin it was awful. How was it even holding up?! A fly could land on it and it looked like it'd fall. Or...if a fly flew by, it looked like it would fall. Taking a step back however when Destiny came back with black paint, the Slytherin paused and decided to take the few steps forward instead to see what she was doing.

Do...not...enter.

Bahahaha! "Well, I think it's perfect now." No, not really, but it was the best they could do.

"Mm," she nodded. "Da said to write to him if I hadn't reached five feet a few months before my birthday." She left the inside of the tent plain, quite satisfied with it just being a tent, and began writing runes on the outside of it. "I'm not sure why that's important. Most girls tend to grow until they're in their early twenties. But maybe he knows something that I don't."

She took a break after the first few runes and looked at him. "What about you? Anything interesting happened over the summer?" Then she paused, looking a little embarrassed. "Sorry, we just met... you don't have to answer that if you don't want..."