Pecari Prefect Planning Powwow on Pecari Commons

Saul Pierce

December 16, 2008 7:17 PM

Pecari Prefect Planning Powwow by Saul Pierce

OOC: I'm taking a couple of liberties on the preliminaries, but hopefully I'm not stepping on anyone's toes. BIC:

After the larger Prefect meeting in the Cascade Hall, the three Pecari prefects had conferred briefly to set a time for the follow up meeting where they'd go over the particulars for the issues - primarily the concert acts, but it sounded like Connor had one other thing to discuss about the dude in Flatt's class - that affected Pecari specifically.

Saul arrived for the powwow right on time - the alarm clock in his room had been set to remind him and he'd gone pelting down the stairs to the common area when his Aunt's voice shouted "Aren't you supposed to be somewhere, Boy?" at him. He snatched up the previously readied back pack sitting prominently in front of the door on his way out (placed there intentionally so that he couldn't possibly forget about it without tripping on it).

When he reached the common room seconds later, he took a seat on one of the brown couches and started spreading out papers and other objects he'd gathered on the coffee table in front of it. In the days since the first meeting, Saul had found out the dimensions of the stage and built up a small scaled model of it (Saul being a very visual person, he thought this would be immensely helpful in planning out their acts).

He also had several parchments worth of lists, one with the names of the people who had actually signed up (The Volunteers - which also included Elly and Connor by default), one with the names of people Saul planned to badger into joining up (The Draft List - which pretty much included everyone in Pecari who wasn't on the Volunteer list, some of which had comments beside them that indicated what Saul thought the person in question could bring to the show), and one with a list of responsibilities they (the prefects) would have to take care of before the show could be put on (Things to Get Done).

Other pages were largely blank but had titles written out across their tops like Props and Scenery, Lighting, Sound, and Effects, Group Elements, and Solo Act. Everything was on written in Saul's new DictaQuill's penmanship and lacked the spelling errors his manual handwriting invariably contained.

He had clearly put a lot of thought and work into the Concert already. To be perfectly honest, both the Things To Get Done list and the Draft List were already on their third or fourth drafts and had been what he'd been writing up during his classes when most of his classmates had been taking lecture notes. Neither had he done any of his homework yet.

This was ever so much more interesting.

"Hey, guys," he greeted Connor and Elly when he'd finished putting out the materials he'd brought along. "We still just have the three signed up so far, right?" He hadn't checked the list in twenty minutes. It could have changed. The first thing on his Things To Get Done list was, of course, casting and recruitment, so this was an important thing to know before they could go any further.

1 Saul Pierce Pecari Prefect Planning Powwow 82 Saul Pierce 1 5

Elly Eriksson

December 18, 2008 11:32 AM

Good alliteration by Elly Eriksson

Just a couple of minutes after Elly wrote her name on the concert sign up sheet, Saul came racing down into the commons with a whole load of papers and what-not. Elly smiled to herself as she headed over; Saul really took this prefect thing seriously. And all joking aside, if this was how he would be in all his endeavours, she thought he would be an ideal Head Boy next year. "Hey," she said as she joined him for their casual meeting.

It was weird; Elly had been in the same House as Connor for over four years and never even spoken to him (apart from maybe a 'thanks' or 'sorry' in corridors). At least now they had a good excuse to know something about each other.

"Well I just signed up," Elly said in reply to Saul's first question - it looked like he had the situation under control - "but other than us there's just Meredith and Holly." Elly didn't know the younger girl apart from by name as the only female Pecari in third year, but she was pleased she'd signed up. "I'm guessing we need more people to make this work."

0 Elly Eriksson Good alliteration 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

Connor Pierce

December 24, 2008 4:18 PM

I'm still alive, I promise. by Connor Pierce

Connor wasn't quite sure what to expect from a Pecari-only prefect meeting. He knew neither Saul nor Elly well, but a generally accepted fact was that they both belonged to the group he thought of as enthusiastic Pecaris. He, on the other hand, was more of a serious Pecari, which was probably why he knew relatively little about them. His free time was usually spent in the library, fielding funny looks from Aladrens.

"Afternoon, y'all," he said, glancing at the papers spread in front of Saul as he sat down. He was apparently getting into this concert idea. Connor, for his part, dreaded what it might entail even more than he had the Ball. Since he'd not known how to dance or, once Gwen turned him down, what to do about a date until the day before, that was saying a lot.

The first matter of discussion was the sign-up list. "I reckon so," he said when Elly proposed that they'd need more people to pull off the act. "I'm in by default - " he'd seen no need to sign up when, as a prefect, he was involved already - "but I promise, we'll be the joke of Sonora if I try performing much of anything."

Part of the reason he had been so awful at Transfiguration was the lack of creativity he brought to the table. It was something he normally didn't consider a loss, but thinking of ways to get people to join the group and coming up with nothing made him feel the full weight of unimaginativeness as he seldom did. "If we can get more performers, I can do a lot of the backstage stuff, though. Haven't got anything else on the schedule." Except his RATS, but there was only so much time a person could safely spend on those.

0 Connor Pierce I'm still alive, I promise. 68 Connor Pierce 0 5

Saul

December 29, 2008 2:30 PM

That's good. So am I. Really. by Saul

Saul grinned at Elly when she said she'd signed up (not that she'd really had a choice, but Saul doubted she would have missed it in any case), but it dimmed slightly at the news there hadn't been any other sign ups. It was going to come down to aggressive recruitment then. There was no way Echo, Matt, or Caedence were getting out of this. Neither would Brett or Irene. Raoul and Kyler were likewise doomed. None of those would be able to avoid Saul indefinitely. He knew their habits and where to go to stalk them. The rest of Pecari might prove slightly more challenging, but he doubted they stood a chance either.

The grin returned when Connor disavowed any performance skill. "I'm sure you'd do a rousing rendition of Man In Crowd Number Four, but I'm pretty sure we can round up enough people to keep you backstage. I hereby volunteer the entire Quidditch Team. If nothing else, we can do a synchronized broom routine." Of course, three of the team were already on the list, but seven people were seven people.

"So that's nine, with you and Holly," he concluded with a nod at Connor. "And Echo, Matt, and Brett can be convinced, I think. What about Danae, Elly? Think you can convince her? I bet she dances." It was probably stereotyping to assume a Dupree would dance, but the pureblood families were into that sort of thing, right?

"And Adam, Connor? Would he join in if you asked?" He had no idea what Adam Whitney might be able to bring to the stage, but if nothing else, he could help Connor with the behind the scenes stuff.

That covered everyone in the upper three years except the only other sixth year besides him. "I'll try to talk to Morgaine after class," he volunteered for one of the two recruitment attempts that ran a risk of bodily injury - if he didn't get his head bitten off for even suggesting it, he would be surprised. But neither was he going to leave her out just because he didn't like her as much as he did most of the Pecaris. Besides, it was entirely possible she wasn't as anti-social as rumour said.

"And then Jae shouldn't be too hard to convince either. Elly, you're pretty good friends with him, right? And that leaves," Saul looked over his list of Draftees, "Cissy, Talen, the Coopers - Ronen and Hannah, Ark, Finley, Indy, Mike, and Dana. And Aeon, but he's kinda on the Quidditch team, so I already volunteered him. I can get Ark and Hannah, if they're still around." He hadn't seen them around yet this year and younger kids did tend to vanish after their first year. "Do either of you know any of the rest of them better than I do?" He doubted Connor did, but Elly might, and it didn't hurt to include them both the question.

1 Saul That's good. So am I. Really. 82 Saul 0 5

Elly

December 30, 2008 1:07 PM

Likewise by Elly

"Great. So that's three non-performers," Elly chuckled at Connor's comment. Which meant their concert so far consisted of Meredith and Holly. Elly did not want Pecari to suck - she was very proud of her House - so she listened attentively while Saul reeled off all the other possibles. She even managed not to laugh when Saul volunteered the whole Quidditch team. Caedence would love that.

"I'll have a word with Danae," Elly nodded. Danae was by far the most naturally graceful girl in the dorm, but that didn't necessarily mean she liked performing. And Saul was right; there was no way Echo, Matt or Brett were getting out of it.

"Jae?" Elly repeated. She'd barely spoken to him. "I'll give it a go." No harm in trying, right? As for the rest, Cissy hated her, Elly was almost positive of that. If she had her own way, she certainly wouldn't be encouraging the other Pecari to join. But this wasn't her deal, it was a House effort and, as much as it grieved her, Cissy was in Pecari. "I can ask Talen," she said, only knowing the boy by association but he seemed approachable enough, "and I'll take on the first years, if you like. Um, I think one of you two should ask Cissy," she said, glancing between Saul and Connor.

Even if any, or all, of these potential performers signed up, they would still need something to perform. "A broom routine has to be absolute last resort," Elly said. "No doubts the team could pull it off but, let's face it, flying routines are pretty lame. But I guess until we have more people we can't decide on a show." This last sentance was voiced as more of a question, inviting comments from the other two.

0 Elly Likewise 0 Elly 0 5

Connor

December 30, 2008 8:42 PM

Good to see we're all still around. by Connor

Connor wasn't quite sure what Saul was talking about - he'd never heard of it - but decided to assume it was a song. On the topic of a man. Who was in the fourth crowd. "Good," he said. "'Cause my skills end at acting like a famous picture of George Washington."

Saul's grasp of the situation was impressive. "No idea," he said about Adam. "I'll ask, though. Can't hurt anything." A guess said Adam wouldn't be interested, since it would mean spending the last really big school event of their day away from Crotalus Nicoletta, but he'd ask anyway.

He winced a little when Saul said he'd ask Morgaine. Better Saul than him - Saul had no connection to Gwen - but it was still not a nice-sounding job. "Your funeral," he said.

Connor glanced at Elly when she suggested that someone else try to recruit Cissy Tarwater, but nodded. He didn't know a lot about Cissy, but it sounded kind of like she might be a party in a Morgaine situation. "I'll do it," he said.

Whether or not broom routines were lame was a topic he knew little about, so he decided to take Elly's word for it that they were and move on. "Concert makes me think music, but I don't know of any musical Pecaris," he said. "Meredith's on the list as gymnastics, but we probably don't have too many of those, either. I guess we'll have to - I don't know what you'd call it - mix and match talents, somehow."

0 Connor Good to see we're all still around. 68 Connor 0 5

Saul

January 07, 2009 2:36 PM

It's very auspicious by Saul

At Connor's comment that he could act like a famous picture of George Washington, Saul's expression took on a thoughtful look and he noted down this skill on one of his pieces of paper. He could work with that.

He grinned a little at the comment his volunteering to talk to Morgaine elicited from Connor, but it might have looked a little weak. His other recruitment assignments were taken accepted easily enough, though Elly seemed a bit surprised to get Jae, so maybe the Charms club wasn't as tight-knit as he'd assumed. Elly volunteered to take on the first years, and Connor even offered to talk to Cissy. As Saul noted these down, he gave Connor a wry look of his own. "Good luck." Marking himself down as responsible for talking to the ones who were left, he tabled the topic of recruitment and they moved on to the performance itself.

He nodded at Elly. "Yeah, we'll avoid a broom show if we can. We've got some pretty creative people in here," by which he mostly meant himself, but that would sound egocentric. "I'm sure we'll work out something fantastic. Right now, I'm leaning towards letting Mere take the solo because her talent will be harder to mix and match with the rest," he gave an acknowledging nod toward Connor as he borrowed the older Prefect's term for the conglomeration of talents that was going to be their group act, "but we'll have an actual audition in case Holly or one of these other people we might pull in are really awesome."

"So when we do our recruitment, find out if anyone plays an instrument. We can have any instrument players to do our soundtrack. Maybe set Holly up as vocals. And if anyone's really good at spell work, they can do special effects. Echo and me can maybe write up a script that incorporates everything we've got to work with." Echo because Echo was into writing and stories and stuff. Himself, because he knew what to include and not include in a play. Echo didn't really have an option to refuse.

"We'll aim to finish the script by the end of midterm. When we get back, we can start rehearsals and get final casting done, though I think we're going to write everyone's part to their abilities, so there probably won't be a lot of debate for who plays what." He grinned at Connor. "Don't worry. The George Washington portrait is definitely yours. And Holly, Matt, and Danae and anyone else we've got who can dance can probably help with choreography. Echo and me'll consult with them as we write so it can get worked into the script."

"Once we've got rehearsals going, we'll also know what we need for props and scenery and we can get the backstage folks busy making those. And we're going to need to decide what spellwork effects and lighting we can use to make it more dramatic. And then, costumes. We'll need costumes. If we don't have anyone who can make them, Simon's a master at transfiguring them. We can either rope him into helping out or he can teach some of us how to do the transfigurations ourselves. Holly and maybe Danae can do make up. Does Danae use make up?"

"Questions, comments, concerns? Anyone else want to volunteer to help write the script?"

1 Saul It's very auspicious 82 Saul 0 5

Elly

January 08, 2009 11:40 AM

Makes this rather easier by Elly

Considering she didn't have to approach Cissy or Morgaine, Elly felt she'd gotten off lightly with recruiting. She didn't even have to talk to the entire first year, because Saul had already agreed to handle the Quidditch enthusiasts.

"Yes, audition anyway," Elly agreed. She too favoured Meredith as a solo performer, not just because it didn't mix well with other talents (and they couldn't be sure on that since they hadn't found out what the other victi- um, volunteers could do yet), but because Holly would still be around for the next concert, so could do solo then. Though it wouldn't be fair at all to just pick Meredith based on this alone. Elly knew her friend was good, but so might Holly be.

Then it seemed like Saul found his niche as he got really specific about what they could do with these hypothetical volunteers. "And if anyone's really good at spell work, they can do special effects," he said. Elly grinned - she might just know someone who was good at theatrical spells. True, it took her long time to pick them up and get them perfect, but if she could make potatoes dance and sing then a little smoke and mirrors wouldn't be difficult. She also managed a brief moment of pity for Echo. Though, if he'd considered it for even a moment, he should have known that he would be involved in the concert one way or another.

"Um, yes, I think so," Elly said about Danae's make-up. "So does Caedence... most of the girls do," she said. Elly didn't herself, not at school, anyway, but she thought she was among the minority of girls in her year in that respect.

Elly only noticed one flaw with Saul's plans so far. "Well, maybe have a vague idea before the end of midterm," she said, regarding the script. It did sound like some sort of play with various talents involved would be their best option - maybe along the Cirque du Soleil lines. "We might not have time to talk to everyone and do auditions for the solo before midterm. Maybe have the audition the first week back, and then we can cast roles in the group performance after that? It'll still leave us with a few weeks to rehearse," she suggested, looking to the other two for their reactions.

"Oh," she added one further point, "and that reminds me. We need to find somewhere to practise." Elly had intended to investigate this at the prefects meeting with the Headmaster, but had been so amused and impressed by Saul's huge stream of questions that she had simply forgotten.

0 Elly Makes this rather easier 0 Elly 0 5