Winter Formal Introductions

## Premise

Things have been wild for the heroes of Wellspring City lately, from discovering a new ally in Lina to Brittney cutting all contact with the group. But that’s all off the record! In their civilian lives, the only big event in the teens’ lives is the high school dance; will they be able to play nice, keep their secrets, and hopefully have a fun time?

## Cast

* Zen (DM)
* Brittney Megan Bronson (Talatala)
* Kat Afka (Lordlyhour)
* Carolina "Lina" Noticia (kt)
* Nikola N. Change (Authorticity)
* Shaun (Verl)
* Tailwind (Tallestnull)

## Notable NPCs

* Perspicuity Witt (Chaperone at the dance)
* Thesis (new mutant enemy)
* Alison (works on the school paper)

## Plot Summary

### Part One

It's a Saturday near the end of November, the day of Wellspring City High School's winter formal dance, which is a masquerade ball. Nikola has been suffering from overhearing everyone's thoughts of drama about the dance, but has prepared a mask for the dance with the help of Lina and his grandparents. Since Brittney is no longer talking to anyone in the group, she and Nikola can't gossip about the other students' thoughts anymore. Nikola offers to help Shaun prepare for the dance, which he accepts. Nikola pulls out vintage outfits from their grandparents' school dance days for both of them to wear. Brittney went shopping with her popular friends and coordinated outfits with them, and went to one of their houses to get dressed and ready for the dance. She changes in the bathroom to make sure no one sees the big scar she got after Media Blackout. Lina did a lot of prep for the dance in the days leading up to it, but on the day of, foists preparations off onto Tailwind so she can go home to get ready for her date with Nikola.

Nikola wears a Sentry-themed mask that is canine shaped with feather/cloud designs carved in and a large feather boa. Lina is wearing a bright pink and black suit with a very decorated butterfly mask. Brittney is wearing an all-pink dress with a flowery headband and a butterfly mask simpler than Lina's. Shaun wears an all-green vintage suit and a plague doctor mask.

Meanwhile, Tailwind is hanging up lights on the ceiling of the school gym. They try to get a spotlight hooked up to a remote control, but do a kind of janky job and it winds up being a fire hazard without them realizing. After they finish setting up, they head to a utility closet and fall asleep on a hammock of discarded wires. Tailwind got a dress and shoes ready, but forgot it was a masquerade and didn't get a mask.

Lina shows up early to check on the decorations and Tailwind, and immediately heads for the closet Tailwind is in. She then fetches Kat, who also showed up early, to help her get Tailwind ready. Kat is wearing a fairly normal but nice white suit and a domino mask instead of his regular mask. Lina and Kat work together to get Tailwind dressed up and make their outfit fancier, putting them in a ballgown and phantom of the opera style mask. Nikola and Shaun arrive while Lina and Kat are in the middle of getting Tailwind dressed. Kat and Lina wrap up with Tailwind and Kat scurries into the vents to give Lina and Nikola some space to be "lovebirds". The two go into the gym and note the fire hazard lights; Lina speculates that it might not be so bad if the school burns down, and Nikola gently scolds her and gives her a kiss on the cheek. Nikola asks if he can help Lina, and Lina asks if he has powers that can do anything about the punch being spiked; Nikola says he doesn't know of having any powers like that.

Lina makes a joke about spiking the punch with marmalade, and Kat pops out of the vent to say that sounds gross. The two joke for a bit about Kat watching people from the vents and the surveillance state that is Wellspring City; Tailwind wakes up and walks into the gym to join the conversation. Tailwind realizes they were dressed up in their sleep and tries to figure out what anime Kat is cosplaying (even though Kat is not intentionally cosplaying).

### Part Two

The Winter Formal starts, and Lina immediately tries to put marmalade into the punch, but is stopped by Nikola. Tailwind sticks to the side, keeping an eye on the wiring to make sure it doesn't catch fire. Brittney shows up twenty minutes late with the other girls that make up the mean girl trio at school, Veronica and Catherine, and starts mingling. Nikola sets a goal of dancing with all their friends, though not Brittney.

Lina lets Nikola pick her up to dance with her. Kat turns out to be an incredible dancer and a bunch of the other students gather to watch him dance. Shaun initially doesn't want to dance, but Nikola bumps him onto the dance floor to give it a try, and he dances pretty well. Nikola asks Brittney's friend Catherine to dance, ignoring Brittney who is right next to her. Catherine takes a moment to agree to the dance, then the two small talk a bit as they dance and Catherine has a fairly nice time.

Perspicuity turns out to be one of the chaperones for the dance. Brittney and her friends are making fun of him. Nikola asks him for a dance, and he agrees, doing a very outdated dance. Nikola trips and almost falls, but Perspicuity catches them, and then goes back to chaperoning. Lina and Tailwind dance together, but Tailwind is awkward wearing shoes, and Lina encourages them to take off their shoes. There's a corner of the gym set up for taking photos, and Nikola drags everyone except Brittney over to take a group picture. They take both serious and silly pictures, with Kat and Nikola picking up Tailwind and Lina for the second.

About an hour into the dance, Shaun notices the wall shaking, and Nikola and Tailwind hear a banging noise from outside the gym. Nikola telepathically tells everyone but Brittney that something is up. Kat is trapped in the dance circle, but Lina, Nikola, and Tailwind head outside to investigate. It's dark outside, and Tailwind pulls out a flashlight. Nikola notices the noise is coming from around the corner of the building, and lets the others know telepathically. The three sneak around the corner of the building and see a large paper mâché goop monster trying to break through the wall of the gym. Nikola telepathically tells Kat and Shaun about the mutant, and is able to discern that the mutant's name is Thesis and it's here because the party is too loud. The group discusses possibly luring it back to Endsville or into the river, or trying to give it headphones, but Nikola discerns that it was instructed to come here rather than doing it of its own accord. While the group discusses what to do about Thesis, he lands a strong hit to the wall and almost breaks through.

Tailwind reflexively hits Thesis with Firebolt, and Nikola follows up with Toll the Dead. Upon hearing the bell from Toll the Dead, Thesis looks up and catches sight of the group, but returns to punching the wall and opens a small hole into the gym. Lina throws a shuriken at Thesis, which he doesn't seem to mind. Inside the gym, Brittney, Kat, and Shaun catch sight of the new hole in the wall. Kat uses a "smoke bomb" (Fog Cloud) to escape the dance circle and run into the vents, simultaneously distracting the partygoers from the mutant breaking into the gym. Shaun slinks out of the building to go help the others. Everyone outside starts changing into their hero outfits, and Kat cuts Tailwind's dress to a more manageable length. Tailwind and Lina have the hardest time changing.

Meanwhile, Brittney debates whether to leave dealing with this up to the others, but doesn't want to deal with the fallout if they fail. She excuses herself from the gym and transforms in one of the school bathrooms before heading outside. She finds the group suiting up while Thesis tries to break into the gym. Brittney tries speaking to Thesis telepathically, but he ignores her. Lina fails a Wis save and is frozen at the sight of Penumbra.

Despite being scared, Lina is the first one to run up and attack Thesis, and hits him with a dagger then disengages. Nikola casts Hex on Thesis, giving him disadvantage on Strength checks, then hits him with Eldritch Blast, drawing his attention. Tailwind uses a slingshot to shoot Firebolt at Thesis and realizes Thesis is made primarily of papier mâché with just a slime coating. Tailwind asks how Penumbra has been doing, but she ignores them. Kat moves in to hit Thesis with his swords and give Lina flanking advantage on the next turn. Brittney casts Suggestion on Thesis, telling him to walk away from the building, but he's immune to being Charmed and thus ignores her. She then tries to telekinetically push it away from the wall, but it saves and maintains its position. Slime oozes out of Thesis's papier mâché core and fills out its body again, then it tries to hit Kat but misses. Shaun attacks Thesis with his claws and gets a couple good hits in, drawing its attention.

Lina darts in to hit Thesis with her dagger and disengages. Nikola hits Thesis with Eldritch Blast and deals a bunch of damage, and Thesis roars in pain and frustration. Tailwind fires another Firebolt and Thesis catches on fire for a few seconds before its slime puts the fire out. Tailwind says they need to get rid of Thesis's protective coating of slime. Brittney hits Thesis with Dissonant Whispers. She uses Silvery Barbs to make sure it hits and gives the advantage from it to Nikola. Thesis roars and starts walking towards the river, falling apart as it goes, and hits Kat and Shaun as it goes. Kat hits Thesis with an attack of opportunity as it passes. Shaun chases after Thesis and claws at it with Reckless Attack, ripping out a chunk of it, and it roars at him.

### Part Three

Tailwind and Kat hear that one of the school gym's doors is opening and a few people seem to be coming outside to investigate. Lina rushes in to stab Thesis and then retreats. Nikola reads Tailwind's mind and finds their panic over the people coming. Nikola drops their mutant transformation and telepathically warns everyone that people are coming, then heads towards the door to try to throw people off. Tailwind runs around the corner of the building so they won't be seen. Kat runs closer to Tailwind and casts Pass Without a Trace, which manifests like fog, to help himself and everyone else (except Nikola) hide. Brittney uses Misty Step to teleport onto the roof, then peeks over the edge to watch and help distract the students walking over if necessary. Thesis continues walking towards the river, and Shaun drops his mutant transformation and hides in a bush. Lina hides under a bush, and Kat hides behind a lamppost.

The four students that came outside round the corner, seeing Nikola and Thesis. Nikola pretends that he only just came outside from another door and acts very surprised to see Thesis, and also telepathically reaches out to Perspicuity and asks him to come out and help. Nikola asks if one of the other students can take a picture; one of them, Alison, works on the school paper and is holding a camera, and she takes some pictures before Thesis disappears into the river. Nikola asks someone to go get a chaperone, and a student runs in and returns with Perspicuity. While Perspicuity takes a look around, Nikola asks Alison to ask around for anyone else that might have noticed anything that happened; Alison is confused but agrees, saying she would have gone looking for witnesses anyway for when she writes an article on this. Alison takes some pictures of the destroyed wall, then perspicuity herds all the students back inside. Nikola hangs back to hold the door open for those who were hiding.

Everyone sneaks back in; Brittney stops at the bathroom on the way in to change back. Nikola tells the rest of the group (telepathically) about what they got from Thesis's head, and the group speculates about why he came to the school. Lina points out thesis was ordered to come, and Tailwind says they'll have to find Yllwyll again. Brittney returns to her friends, ignoring the group. Nikola telepathically thanks her for helping, which Brittney also ignores. As time goes on, students start talking about the afterparty at Bronson Tower. Tailwind, Shaun, and Lina are invited, though Kat and Nikola aren't. Lina invites Nikola to come with her as a plus-one, which Nikola agrees to.

## Notes

Lordly lives in Australia and can't relate to the winter weather in Wellspring City

Brittney and her friends dressed with a butterfly theme for the dance, and Lina coincidentally dressed with a butterfly theme

Brittney has a pink color scheme, and her friends have yellow and cyan color schemes

Someone named Darryl is the school's primary weed dealer now

Brittney has done weed at a party before but only once

Both Lina and Kat bring cosplay repair kits to the dance in case anyone messes up their outfit

Over the break, Tallest jokes that the high school principal is nicknamed "Principal Bootlick", and Zen speculates the vice principal is "Vice Principal Suck-Up"

kt types a roll as r/d20 instead of /r d20 and Zen jokes that "this isn't reddit"

Even when his mask isn't on, Kat's face is never visible to the audience. People in-universe can see it, though, and the other members of the party know what his face looks like

Kat has six fingers on each hand

The players who know Homestuck claim there has been a Homestuck joke in almost every single game played

Lina compliments Tailwind by calling them electric, but they're oblivious to the pun

Lina plans to convince Tailwind to try wearing stilts at some point

The high school's mascot is Welly the Well

Kat and Lina both do school sports; Kat does kendo and Lina does swim team

The school has cameras at the exterior doors, but not elsewhere

Alison accepts that Nikola doesn't know much about how the news works because Nikola is from a small town

## Session Recording

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

## Art Gallery

The title card, drawn by ktNikola's outfit for the dance, drawn by ktBrittney's outfit for the dance, drawn by talaBrittney's outfit for the dance, drawn by ktShaun's outfit for the dance, drawn by ktTailwind's outfit for the dance, drawn by ktLina's outfit for the dance, drawn by ktKat's masquerade outfit, drawn by ktThe new mutant Thesis, drawn by Whirlwind Gale