[OOC][PLOT] The Fifth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[Labster]

I was planning on writing a sort of prologue, where someone - probably Kaname - asks if they celebrate Halloween (because she'd like to have something like a festival experience).  Ben says sure, they can go ahead and put together a fun little party... though with just them in such a big courtyard, it'd be kind of... boring.

At which point he'll go ahead and call up the other apartment managers, and they'll begin to hash out plans.

Benjamin being Benjamin, he goes all out on it.  Not the decorations, though he does do one of the empty units up as a "haunted apartment", but in the sense that it has all the trimmings - music (both live and recorded), food, drinks, swimming, volleyball, games, a trick-or-treating expedition for the younger ones (EDIT: and two units done up as theaters for showings of Halloween appropriate movies - one for the younger ones and one for the adults)....

We should probably have a bit in there for a costume contest.  Best Idea, Best Costume Overall, Most Elaborate, etc.

Oh, a how many awards can Tomoyo win contest?  Sounds fun!  (Yes I know in real life people tend to spread the winning around.)

But all good ideas, write 'em up!

A "reach-ahead class" is a class in next year's syllabus, instead of last year's syllabus - Chiyo-chan is getting ahead of her course load instead of needing to take a re-do class. If it's called something else in California, feel free to change it.

Well, given that they're all high school graduates, if Chiyo is taking any kind of coursework, this makes her ineligible for admission to UCLA the following year.  Actually quite a lot has changed since I went to school in the UC system, back in my day they did winter and spring admissions.  But they only do Fall admission now, and they only admit at Freshman or Transfer level -- the latter being third year or above in credits.  Well, I shouldn't say "only" -- being a university there are exceptions to everything.  The other problem is what kind of coursework she could be taking.  The Santa Monica (community) College semester begins in late August and run to December; The UC schools' quarter start the last week of September and also run to December.  Unless Belldandy hacked the admissions system again, I'm not sure how she can take take a real, for-credit class at this point.  Even if the state passed a emergency law requiring that she be a student, because the UC system is constitutionally autonomous, that still wouldn't make her a student.

The original plan was to have Chiyo somehow get into UCLA ahead of her classmates but this plan isn't working.  I guess there's USC.  The private schools are better about admissions. But that's a bit farther away, you know?  Or Cal State Northridge, but I mean like, unless you're doing Geology, why bother?  Farther afield is Tech and Oxy and Long Beach and C-Sushi, but any farther away, and well, they sort of leave the story. Given the timing, I don't see any other option than a full ronin year or committing to the community college path.  An internship, maybe?  Or that hacking idea again?  But if I were there (and my SI is), I'd push anyone I could into could into community college given the lack of academic records for displacees and the fact that the teaching is actually better there.

Enough of that.  I think I've finally sorted out scheduling, with only minor timeline retconning.  I don't think anything on my finished stories will change.

Oct 3-5 "Adrift in Time"; or "Clock Like a Pirate Day"
Oct 14-16 - A Serotinal Frolic
Oct 18 - Twain - Sakura's Arrival (shifted earlier)
Oct 20-30 - shopping for costumes, sewing costumes
Oct 31 - Halloween, all Aria House residents arrive by portal
Nov 1 - the Cardcaptor cast returns.  Aria and Azumanga cast begins Southwest tour --> to Carlsbad NM
Nov 2 --> to Albuquerque NM
Nov 3 --> to Grand Canyon
Nov 4 --> to Vegas
Nov 5 --> return
Nov 6 - gondolas delivered to Venice
Nov 7 - gondola service begins
Nov 10 - Dredging up the Past; or Channeling Mana (no change)
Nov 15 - Matinee Ojou-san (no change!)
Nov 20 - Akari's Completely, Perfectly Ordinary Day
Nov 24 - Ai yori Aoshi arrival - Thanksgiving (US)
Dec 1-5 - A Day at the Races (tentative schedule)
Dec 13  - Wreathed in Light (tentative title)
Dec 25 - Christmas
Jan 1  - New Year's (dreams and first sunrise)

Although my SI would have appreciated if he had didn't have to guess who's was coming to dinner on Turkey Day... Rob.  At least there will be enough food for them all.  Perhaps not enough beer, though.