This is the time to remember, though they will not last forever...

[mansionstaff]

Who: Everybody! Yeeaaah!
What: Graduation and Prom!
When: The evening of June 8th.
Where: The Stadium.
Warnings: Everything. Everyone. You know who you are. You Know Who You Are.

Whether you've been here every year for what seems like eternity, or this is your first time, nothing quite compares to the feeling of Graduation Day.



The Stadium was decked out in school colors and the lights were bright. The stage was simple, classy and bereft of decoration barring the happy, smiling faces of your Headmasters and Teachers. (Those of them who do smile, at any rate.) Congratulations on your impending steps forward, those of you who made it through the school year! Hope your gowns are clean and your hats are appropriately be-tassled!

Of course, such pomp and circumstance can't go on forever. Once all the formalities and diplomas and congratulatory Hand shakes are out of the way, we have Prom! There's tables and chairs set up at the other end of the Stadium, and a huge table covered in all manner of finger foods guaranteed not to dribble or splatter on your rental tux or beautiful dress - so long as you're careful, anyway. And don't forget the dance floor and the plethora of music picked just for all of you to dance to! Tonight should be a night to remember!

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[[OOC: Hey there, Smashies! You know the drill, right? It's Graduation! Here's last year's if you need a refresher on how this works. The basics go like this - Graduatiuon itself is broken into several parts. Once the last part, Dismissal, is posted up, that's your cue to make your own top-level threads for Prom! But please don't hesitate to continue tagging Graduation stuff.

If you have any problems, don't hesitate to ping a Mod!]]

Comments

INTRODUCTIONS!

[mansionstaff]

[[Arrive here and find your seats, mingle, get pumped for that sweet, sweet diploma action or commiserate with your fellow non-graduates!]]

[rivalkidneypunch]

Welp, gotta be a Responsible Teacher Type and put on an appearance for the student body. It'd been years since he'd walked his smug ass across that same stage -- it still felt a little weird to be standing on the other side of it.

Still, teacher guy, here to applaud the graduates and all that noise.

SPEECH! SPEECH!

[mansionstaff]

Headmaster Hand, as he had done since Time Immemorial, took the podium and made his speech. It was familiar to those who had been here for more than one of these. This school year had been somewhat quieter than the last, even with the Island looming up there in the sky, and so there was no talk of having thwarted infestations or giant chicken monsters... But everyone had their own challenges to face. And today was a recognition of that amongst everything else.

"...and so to our Graduates, I say once again congratulations and thank you. Whether you chose to stay here or travel far away, know that your contributions to this Academy and what she stands for will remain within these walls, never forgotten."

DIPLOMAS!

[mansionstaff]

[[That's what we're all here for, right? No? Well come and get 'em anyway. Yoooouve earned it!]]

Re: DIPLOMAS!

[monotreme_101]

Someone was sitting there in the audience looking kind of miffed.

Welp. That's what happens when you fail every class that doesn't involve punching things.

OPEN MIC NIGHT

[mansionstaff]

[[Got something to say? Lay it on us! One of the Academy's most hallowed traditions - step up and let us know what's on your minds!]]

DISMISSAL!

[mansionstaff]

[[Go on, get out of here, you! Prom is waiting for you, now! Get your dance on and enjoy your food!]]

[tempus_fixit]

As soon as the class of 2015 had been announced, Lucca sprung into action. That back-mounted blunderbuss of hers chugs to life and she aims it high, and lets lose a blast of confetti and glitter that showers the audience! Yeah!

And another! Yay!

And... and... more and more and shower is now becoming a FLOOD and where the hell did she store all that confetti in there anyway--

"UHOH!" Uhoh? "I can't shut it off!" Uhoh!

[iamtheeggman]

Well, ONE of the chaperones looked very pleased with himself. It was hard work being such a dick constantly, but at least he looked snazzy in a black formal version of his standard uniform. Did the Eggman Empire have a dress uniform? Apparently.

[mohawk_tomahawk]

Keeping. His eye. On you.




Forever.

[rivalthunderbolts]

Grad over, now it was time to party. In a snazzy black suit with a yellow tie, Jolt was ready to dance the night away like his life depended on it.

[trustycrowbar]

Gordon lingers after the caps have been thrown, the chairs moved and the music started. While he isn't security anymore (and his perennial date gone...), he still feels the need to stick around. If nothing else to help defend the students in case some weird and violent shit goes down. After all, it's happened before.

Still in his awful suit, he lingers by the coffee and at the periphery of the dance floor, hand in one pocket, watching.

[mohawk_tomahawk]

Looked like they both found something else to hold on to. It would take Connor a while this time, but he always picked himself up and moved along. He had a far stronger nature for it.

Though, in his worst of times, he had people around him still. When others left, some stayed. While Connor knew what being in solitary felt like, the companionship of others was something you couldn't ever put a price on.

But that was all a given.

Connor was just in his robes, and was simply keeping watch. When he noticed Gordon, he moved to his location, nodding at him. Connor was happy to see him.

[megabuster]

Disaster averted, Rock was ready for the dance. Granted, compared to the monster last year, this disaster was a lot easier to deal with. He hoped Lucca was okay after the incident...

[tempus_fixit]

She was okay, and beyond the stained, torn mosaic of confetti her dress had turned into, she looks a lot better! Having discarded the shell of her invention somewhere, she seeks out Rock now. She eventually catches up with him under a balloon arch, peering over his shoulder.

"Hi Rock! I wanna thank you again for saving me..." Now she gets an eyeful of his suit. "You look really nice, by the way." She adds sincerely.

[babylonmechanic]

Wave had been to parties before, but never a high school graduation prom. School was one of those things she just never had the chance to partake in, given her lifestyle and the company she kept. But she had a date, so the last thing she was going to do was look anything less than her best. An elegant white dress was the attire of the day, and she just... waited, hoping she didn't look awkward in the process.

[crystal_ballin]

"Wow," said a man wearing formal kimono. "Are you some sort of really big, purple chicken?"

Hagakure liked chickens.

[givemeyouranswerdo]

Daisy didn't have to look far to get a lovely dress for the prom. She owned enough yellow dresses to last from now until doomsday, and she was decked out in a lovely gown for the dance. She was looking to party, and that's exactly what she was gonna do.

[thishereismonapizza]

"Princess!"

The first of Mona's breathers away from the photo booth had rolled around, so the woman took the break as an opportunity to seek out a few familiar faces attending prom. Spotting Daisy right off the bat, Mona hiked up her bulky dress and made a clumsy beeline for the princess as fast as her high heels could take her.

"Hey girl, having fun so far?"

[vela_nova]

This was the first year Blaze had been to the prom with an actual boyfriend, and she wanted so badly to make a good impression. Perhaps her dress might have gone a little overboard, but it was too late for that now. Just take a deep breath and relax...

[mach_n_roll]

Blaze will probably be able to tell when Sonic notices her. The breathless gasp is audible even over the music.

"Ghh. Bh."

Unfortunately that's all he can say right now because of the sight of her in her purple regalia. She's pretty much jammed his brain into neutral.

[magicdancer]

Shantae was ready. She had a slinky red dress, she had her dancing shoes on, and she was ready to let the music move her.

[trustycrowbar]

From his location over on Wallflower Way, Gordon can't help but find himself watching Shantae on the dance floor. She was compelling, to be sure, a whirling dervish of red silk and purple hair; not to mention the fact that she was obviously skilled in her art.

Of course, to the outside observer, it would likely look like Gordon were just ogling her. Which he wasn't.

Not really.

[mach_n_roll]

Sonic and Knuckles had both run off to change after graduation was over, and after some frantic tying and buttoning and straightening and wait-I-forgot-my-cufflinks, he steps out in a pretty nice tuxedo.

His date was Blaze, but as usual he can be found anywhere. He could be raiding the snack table, on the dance floor, playing with the decorations, anywhere.

[monotreme_101]

Knuckles, likewise, had gone with a white tuxedo. But he'd opted for a red vest to match his date's dress.

"Man. This is so crazy - who ever would'a thought we'd be at a thing like this?" he asked Sonic, looking around. "Last party I went to was your Birthday. It was outside, and I got eaten by a black hole and turned into a statue."

He took a sip of the punch.

"...Hopefully that doesn't happen here."

[tempus_fixit]

After the confettipocolypse, Lucca had scarpered into the bathroom. With Daisy and Shantae's help, she cleaned herself up as best she could with new makeup, groomed hair and freshly hosed-off glasses. However, her dress was still a disaster of burn marks, grease stains and colorful paper bits.

She wasn't going to let that bother her, however. Heck, she already got herself blown across the room by a rambunctious primal dimension portal. Things had no where else to go but up!

please explain portals to robots

[awakeningwill]

Okay, Zero was back, and he'd managed to get most of the confetti cleaned up. Well, except for his hair. That stuff was probably going to be stuck for another century. Thankfully, he looked considerably less annoyed than he was before, and back to his usual stoic demeanor.

He wanted answers though, because despite being stuck in the middle of it, he still wasn't quite sure what had happened with that portal. "So... what was that?"

one last dance [closed]

[icequeen_aran]

[Another year, another graduation. Samus has been through... what... seven of them now? Eight? She's reached that limit of where she's sure she's starting to lose track. Every year she watches new students come and go, old ones come and go; even this many years later she still considers it an unusual change of pace compared to the many years of her life prior to coming here. The only thing that promised to remain constant in her life was that she was destined to spend it alone.

Coming here changed all that. And yet, in a way that reigned true here too, with all the coming and going... spare the man in the suit and tie she'd convinced to come here. Both of them took sanctuary from the party and graduation ceremony itself at the very highest part of the stadium; an outcropping of what could best be appropriated as a segment of roof while the stadium ceiling remained open to a clear starry sky.

She'd been thinking about this for a while. She'd been thinking maybe she and he should be one of the ones that comes and goes, too.

Before she did wanted to watch the ceremony, just one last time.]

Do you think any of them can see us up here?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1TcDHrkQYg

[boostpower]

I hope not.

[Falcon is looking to avoid any interaction with the student and faculty populace, if possible, mostly because this is his last night here, and he isn't very good at those kinds of conversations. He supposes that he could just be cryptic or not imply anything at all, but when push comes to shove, he'd just rather avoid seeing anyone entirely.

Hence the rooftop camping--but the truth is, he's got the Flyer ready and waiting. All they have to do is get inside.

But there is something to be said for watching the ceremony one last time before the quite literally space eloped.]

Unless there was anyone you wanted to say goodbye to.

[awakeningwill]

Zero had left to shake the majority of confetti particles out of his more important joints, but there was still flecks stuck to his clothes, his skin, and especially his hair. You know how hard it is clean glitter out completely? Yeah. He was going to have to do some thorough maintenance tonight.

But for now he was back, overseeing the dance hall and grumpily leaning against a wall. Every so often picking out another fleck of sparkly paper and flicking it into the air. Good thing he went to all that trouble to wear a suit tonight, thank god he didn't look ridiculous at all.

[lovesthepain]

Harpuia was a lot of things, and that included being immaculately neat and intensely attentive to details. Zero hanging around looking like a cupcake had thrown up all over him deeply and thoroughly set off that need for order. It was his turn to do a whole lot of staring, though his motives had much less to do with resemblances to anything and much more with a growing irritating urge to pluck the offending glitter off.

Finally, his itch got the better of him, driving him to head over and speak up. "Glitter isn't usually meant to be part of a formal outfit, you know. Are you planning on keeping that all night?"

Photobooth!

[thishereismonapizza]

The flurry of confetti blasting down gave Mona the perfect opportunity to sneak out of the ceremony to prepare the final touches on her photobooth back in the dance hall. Beating the glances of those nearby, Mona stalked off and quickly changed out of her summer dress into a decorative red dress for the evening's festivities. Her look completed with a pair of matching gloves and a silvery-white tiara sitting on top of her head.

True, a photographer decked out in full prom gear might have been an oddity to one's eye, but the ever eager Mona wanted to make the night special for the cute couples in search of her service. Besides, there would be hardly time for her to undress and redress between photo sessions and her breaks. Might as stay in one outfit and stick with it for the rest of the night. On the plus, Mona didn't mind wearing the bulky dress behind the camera. It wasn't like she was going to be running a marathon that night. And thank goodness for that, the red heels she'd chosen for the dress were by no means proper footwear for active sports.

When set up, her booth appeared with a graceful elegance and obvious signs she'd gone all out to make the most of the photos memorable. The backdrop was a painted garden, laid in serenity with a waterfall cascading down into a pond of blooming lilies, lined by smooth rocks and various colorful flowers. An almost mimic of the gardens you'd find in large city parks or even in Tokyo. In front of the background, a white arch spanned the area where couples could pose, covered in vines and intertwined with white crepe fabric. Not quite a gazebo for the pond backdrop, but if one used their imagination, it was close enough. Of course, beyond the scene Mona had her photo lights set up and her camera at the ready.

All she needed that were missing from her booth were the prospective customers!

[drawin_on_trees]

That gorgeous painted backdrop was just BEGGING for some crayon scribbles.

Oh god somebody stop him before he ruins it.

[fightingfeffers]

Standing against the wall, looking very uncomfortable in a red suit that they seem to have given up on buttoning and tying quite right, is Fefnir. He's overlooking the dance, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, and, despite his somewhat disheveled suit, is looking pretty nice... Except that, well. He's still got his cannons, wearing them on his arms. It's kind of ruining the look.

He doesn't seem to be bothered by that.

[lovesthepain]

Of course Fefnir had his guns. Of course he did. "I'm really not surprised you brought those," Harpuia remarked. Ridiculous as they looked, Fefnir was here as security first and foremost, and he could understand not wanting to be without them.

...It did sort of make for a strange aesthetic, though. Harpuia couldn't help but feel perhaps Fefnir had missed the point of Rock encouraging all of them to embrace Ordinary Civilian Human Formal-wear.

"I hope you're enjoying yourself so far, at least."

[rivalsolarbeam]

It was time to celebrate. Given the amount of relevant grads this year, there was a lot of reason to do so.

Bulba was usually easy to pick out as he flitted between people at the party, despite the rather ordinary dress shirt and green-vest combo he wore (like he did every other year). The sunshine hair was hard to miss, especially now that it was in a maximum floof stage. Not long enough to pull back, but too long to leave on its own on such a fancy night. A few fancy bobby pins had apparently been the answer, dotting his hair with tiny, pink blossoms. Good.

And if you came up to him, there was a grin waiting and a cheery, "Hey!"

[flowerofmtsilver]

Would you look at that: Vinnie was actually wearing a new suit. Gosh, how sharp. He trotted over with a bit of a bashful smile on his face, still feeling a bit odd to be wearing such new, stiff formal wear.

"Hey." The Venusaur planted a quick smooch on Bulba's lips by way of greeting, before stepping back to take a better look at him. Those little pink flowers were definitely additions he did not expect - they were too nice for him to want to muss up. "Who did your hair? You should wear it like that every day," he chuckled.

Punch spiking and general shenanagins.

[golonghorns]

It was still strange to Joel to think he'd been here long enough to have attended TWO of these, now.

He was chaperoning, again, and being a surly wallflower, again. But this year... this year it was his turn to do something that was apparently an annual tradition.

Punch Spiking.

Falcon (Where the hell was that guy tonight, anyway?) had used some of The Good Stuff last year. Joel was not so generous. You all get six dollar plastic bottle 'scotch' in your tooty-fruity punch kids and you will like it.

Of course, this only went into ONE bowl and he stood there as punch monitor over it so that if anyone who was way too young to be drinking went for that one, he could safely steer them towards the unspiked version, because although he was a terrible person, he didn't want to make little kids ill with alcohol poisoning.

Re: Punch spiking and general shenanagins.

[ihateplumbers]

Bowser watched Joel dump a bottle of something into the punch.

"You put something into the punch," he said simply.

BUT WHAT'S THIS

[mansionstaff]

The night was in full swing. The punch bowl was spiked, the dance floor was full, and graduates were making memories at Mona's photo booth. Aside from the earlier confetti mishap and Eggman's little 4kids dubbing of everyone's diplomas, grad could not possibly have gone smoother.

So clearly nothing was going to happen, right?

Well, mostly. No explosions happened and no sinister masterminds put their plans into motion, but as the hour grew late, the ground began to rumble. It started out as barely-noticeable ripples in the punch, a vibration so subtle that it was hard to distinguish it from the pounding bass of the sound system. Then, it grew, building up just enough to climax with a few of the glittery prom decorations being knocked loose from the walls and rafters.

Then, just like before, absolutely nothing. Perfect stillness for the rest of the night.

Huh, that was odd.

Re: BUT WHAT'S THIS

[babylonmechanic]

Wave may have thought this whole security business was stupid, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to do her job. As someone who made a living out of exploring caves and ancient ruins looking for treasures, she knew an ominous rumbling when she felt it. During a lull, she went to round up Zero and Fefnir. They were here to work too, after all, why should she be the only one distracted?

[vela_nova]

When the night started to wind down, Sonic and Blaze left to go outside. So much had happened in the last year, and Blaze felt overwhelmed trying to process it all. Her friends had returned, an old friend left and came back, she had finally confessed her feelings to Sonic, she broke Jon's heart... All things she never imagined would mean anything to her a while ago. She took a deep breath and looked up at the starry sky, letting herself get lost in thought for at least a few moments. Graduation was a time of endings and beginnings. And for once, she had no idea what the future would hold.

[mach_n_roll]

"It's a nice night, huh." Sonic chimes in, staring up at the sky himself as they find a place to linger in the school courtyard. After a few long moments of silence, his ear twitches and he glances at her.

"Hey, everything okay? You... look a little down."

[megabuster]

Rock had the night of his life. He danced. He played. He posed for fun and cute pictures. And sure there was a bit of investigation and a minor earthquake, but that wasn't going to spoil his mood. Not when everything else was so perfect.

He still had energy to go on, but as the night went on, he reminded himself that Lucca was flesh and blood, and perhaps needed a bit of a break.

"How are you hanging in there?" he asked her with a big happy smile.

[tempus_fixit]

"I'm great!" She replies, one arm around his back. Her dress was still a mess, but she didn't care. She liked it better this way anyway.

"But would you like to head off somewhere?"