It would have been very unhelpful if it was on Cascade Hall

Hmm... could this be another of those odd notes?

November 06, 2007 10:00 AM

Second Verse, not the same as the first... by Hmm... could this be another of those odd notes?

It looked a lot like the parchment from the noticeboards in the common rooms.

The was a student from Sonora
Who had a terribly shiny aura
Learning was key
On the subject, you see
Just ignore the guy in the fedora.

Take note - the first part of the directions is: Two lefts make a right.
To get the next steps the limerick is the key.

The ghost of a man wearing a fedora, standing a little to the side of the parchment and seemingly enthralled with an examination of one of the Cascade Hall's cascading waterfalls, looked up in surprise at the sudden attention given him. He looked carefully to each side to be sure that his actions weren't being noted by anyone other than the note-reader and then indicated another waterfall with a quick wink and a tilt of his head in its direction. Half a second later he shook his head and went back to being incongruous in the background.

Behind the waterfall indicated was a stash of candy canes and another little sign.

One is nice.
Two even better.
Take more than that...
All you'll get? Wetter.

OOC: You can reply to these, folks ;)\r\n\r\n

Subthreads:

It would have been very unhelpful if it was by Chrissy Mathers with Elly Eriksson, Chrissy, Zack Dill, Alderaanian Seeker, Mia Kerova

Killing time? by Stephen Baxter and Geoffrey Spindler

39 Hmm... could this be another of those odd notes? Second Verse, not the same as the first... 0 Hmm... could this be another of those odd notes? 1 5

Chrissy Mathers

November 06, 2007 7:49 PM

It would have been very unhelpful if it was by Chrissy Mathers

Chrissy was growing hungry. She was one of the few to remain during the Holidays at Sonora in the Crotalus house and Chrissy was finding it hard to figure out what to do to keep herself busy. She was still too angry at her mother to even think about going home. That dog of a woman had destroyed Chrissy's broom and threatened the worst of things if Chrissy didn't behave and become more 'ladylike' and banned her from Quidditch. Even banned her from allowing her to stay with her uncle in D.C.

It was all ridiculous. And because her mother couldn't force Chrissy on the wagons to go home, Chrissy stayed at Sonora.

Wandering into Cascade, Chrissy paused when she noticed another one of those weird sign things that she had first seen in the commonroom. The first one hadn't really caught her eye long enough to read it and then walk off, but it never hurt to be curious. Walking over to the notice, Chrissy read it through once, glanced at the ghost man next to her, read it over a second time before finally resting her gaze onto the guy. He seemed startled by her attention, but eager to share whatever it was that he knew.

She turned to where he was indicating, raised an eyebrow and returned her attention to the limerick. Such an odd sort of game. Chrissy stared at it for a long moment, her mind picking and choosing anything that might have been connected. She wasn't necessarily good at this sort of thing, but she hadn't anything else to do either.

Frowning in thought, Chrissy made her way to the waterfall the guy had indicated and found a thing of candycanes. They weren't her favorite, but Chrissy was never one to turn down sweets. Taking one and only one for fear of getting wet, she found herself a seat and started eating.

It wasn't until she was nearly done with her meal that she let out a quiet "Aha!" of glee when the answer to the limerick came to her. Well, what she hoped to be the answer. Obviously, she'd have to check to be sure...well, if she really cared too. Chrissy had no idea why she was letting this game get her so interested.

0 Chrissy Mathers It would have been very unhelpful if it was 0 Chrissy Mathers 0 5

Elly Eriksson

November 09, 2007 8:31 AM

We'd have been going round in circles by Elly Eriksson

OOC: continued from Pecari commons

BIC: Still feeling resentful and undeniably out of spirits, Elly arrived in the Cascade Hall to find out why the directions on the board in the commons had led her there. The Hall was more populated than the commons had been, but was a far cry from its usual fill of students, and lacked the familiar buzz of conversation.

Pulling the sleeves of her green hooded sweatshirt over her hands, which had become chilly in the walk to the Hall, Elly began searching for whatever it was she was looking for. Before long she noticed the strange ghost and the next note nearby. Having located the stash of candy canes behind the waterfall, Elly took one, and felt something akin to cheerfulness for the first time since the other students had left for the holiday. Yet she wasn’t the only one who’d discovered the treasure – sitting nearby was an older student, one of the Crotalus prefects, Elly thought, who also had a candy cane. Shrugging, Elly pushed her orange curls away from her face and headed over.

“Hi,” Elly greeted the older girl, taking a seat opposite. “You followed the notes, too,” she said, nodding towards the two candy canes. “Does this stuff usually happen over midterm?”

0 Elly Eriksson We'd have been going round in circles 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

Chrissy

November 10, 2007 7:38 PM

Would have been amusing to watch, but not participate. by Chrissy

Chrissy had finsihed eating and pushed her plate aside. This was to be a long midterm with nothing for her to do. She would start her RATs studies soon enough and her prep work would have to begin, but Chrissy wanted to put that off for as long as possible. It was hard enough trying to get through her regular school work, but trying to do the extra work with the added pressure of deciding what it was she wanted to do for the rest of her life just turned Chrissy off completely.

Not that it really matter. According to her mother, her life was already all planned out for her. Chrissy will marry after Sonora and have a family. That was her only job in this world. Disgusting. Chrissy didn't even want kids.

Thinking about all of this only made Chrissy miserable. Just when she decided that it was time to head back or else stay in the Hall and sulk (which meant, pig out on the available treats the elves would inevitably prepare. Chrissy didn't need her mother on her back for another diet.

The greeting forced Chrissy to look up from her candy cane to find a red-headed girl sitting across from her. Confusion rested on her pale features for a moment while she tried to figure out if maybe the girl had her confused with someone else, but that wasn't likely. Maybe she was looking for some help and since Chrissy's a Prefect, she was the obvious choice.

"What?" Chrissy responded, not quick catching onto her question before realizing she was talking about the candy cane. "Oh, no, not really. I just happened to notice it." She answered after a moment's pause. "Figured out the clue though, so I was thinking of checking out the next clue. But, no, these don't usually happen during midterm. I mean, there are usually things going on like sledding and stuff, but not actually riddles like this." Chrissy explained to the girl.

0 Chrissy Would have been amusing to watch, but not participate. 0 Chrissy 0 5

Zack Dill, Alderaanian Seeker

November 10, 2007 9:42 PM

Watch this by Zack Dill, Alderaanian Seeker

Zack arrived in the Cascade Hall and looked around, spotting the second note without much difficulty. He approached the small paper and read through the second poem. A limerick this time, he identified it. He thought it rather described himself to a T. He was a student from Sonora, and he rather thought he must have a brilliant aura. Not to mention, the part about learning surely indicated an Alderaanian was supposed to follow these clues.

He had no idea who had set them out or what the end goal was, but he was well and truly hooked now. Seeking out the next one (and it was quite obvious now that this was only the second in a possibly long series poetic hints) seemed as important as getting perfect scores on all his tests. It was a challenge and he was up to it. He was, after all, a certified genius, incredibly brilliant, and a strict believer that learning was key.

The instructions, on the other hand, made him frown. Two lefts did not make a right. Two lefts made a U-turn.

He looked around and spotted the ghost in the fedora. The poem mentioned him so it was clearly obvious that he wasn't actually supposed to ignore the guy. Zack pretended not to notice him though even as he took note of the waterfall he indicated.

Passing Chrissy and another girl eating candy canes, Zack approached the waterfall and found behind it another poem inside the holly lined border. Four lines, but Zack couldn't recognize the form this time (poetry wasn't really his forte).

One is nice.

Two even better.

Two lefts don't make a right, but they are right.

Zack took the two candy canes closest to the left.

1 Zack Dill, Alderaanian Seeker Watch this 40 Zack Dill, Alderaanian Seeker 0 5

Mia Kerova

November 10, 2007 11:10 PM

Confident, are we? by Mia Kerova

It was just one of those mornings. Mia couldn’t get back to sleep after waking up far too early for holiday break. She loved the holidays and the lack of work, but that wasn’t what kept her awake. She just couldn’t sleep anymore so she got up and dressed. Now she was sitting in Cascade Hall dressed in her sweater and jeans and pondering over the second note she had seen that morning. Well, she had been earlier. Apparently somewhere in Sonora was ‘the place to be,’ but it had to be found first. Mia figured in the holiday spirit, she would try to find it.

Already she was stumped though. For a minute she thought she had something, but then something else threw her off. Mainly the right and left bit. Otherwise it seemed sort of obvious. She wasn’t sure how long she sat in Cascade Hall eating breakfast, reading a book, letting her cat sleep in her lap, and thinking of the riddle. She didn’t doubt Silk already knew where ‘the place to be’ was since she seemed to know her way through Sonora as well as the veteran staff.

Mia had probably let her book distract her too much since she hadn’t noticed what few students were left coming in or out of the hall and she had given less thought to the riddle than she probably should have since picking up her book for a break. She figured she should take one since her thoughts on the note were going in circles. She heard one of the students at the table behind her ask a question. She looked over her shoulder out of vague curiosity. Chrissy, a fellow prefect, and Elly, one of her younger Pecaris, were talking. Mia wondered how many other people had seen the notes and already figured them out. She turned around to see Chrissy clearly.

“You figured out the clue?” Mia asked her, genuinely impressed. “I guess riddles just aren’t my strongest suit.” She shrugged good-naturedly. “Congrats though.”

And then Zack walked into Cascade Hall and almost immediately went to the note and the ghost. She didn’t doubt it would take him all of three seconds to know where to go next. Mia turned back to her book and placed her bookmark in before shutting it. When she turned back around Zack was at the waterfall with the candy canes. He took from the pile. She saw Chrissy and Elly had taken candy canes from the fedora ghost too. Then why put that part in the riddle? She inwardly sighed. Riddles could be fun when they didn’t make you feel dumb. Mia knew she wasn’t dumb and yet riddles had a knack for making her question herself.

“Leave it to Zack to know exactly what to do the second he’s read the note.” Mia shook her head with a small grin. Her tone held amusement, but she meant what she said. That was one smart kid. She gave Silk’s ear another scratch while watching the prefect at the waterfall. She didn’t know if he’d be willing to share his knowledge, in fact she was more on the lines of doubting it. Maybe Chrissy would be more willing, but she was sure curiosity would nag at her relentlessly if she couldn’t figure out the clues.

0 Mia Kerova Confident, are we? 0 Mia Kerova 0 5

Zack Dill

November 11, 2007 12:33 AM

Always by Zack Dill

Nothing happened. Zack frowned. He looked around. No new notes. No secret passage. Nothing. Just candy canes and a waterfall behind him.

He was sure he'd interpreted it right. Two lefts. He must have missed something. He turned left. He turned left again. He was facing the way he came.

Backtrack. Dead end.

He went back to the second note and read it again.

He huffed in self annoyance. Ignore the guy in the fedora. Of course. It said right there that it was a wrong turn and you'd have to turn back. He was such an idiot.

Okay. Look at the limerick and ignore the ghost in the fedora. He read the first four lines again.

"Ha!" he exclaimed in triumph after a few moments thought as the pieces clicked together. "Got it," he stated in smug self-satisfaction. He had to go where students learned about auras.

OOC: Continued in the **EDITED***. [Giving answers away makes Prairie Elves very sad :'(]\r\n\r\n

1 Zack Dill Always 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Chrissy

November 11, 2007 12:58 AM

Anyways... by Chrissy

Chrissy's attention turned to Mia, who decided to chime into the conversation. Chrissy didn't know much about the other girl and the only thing the two of them had in common was a friendship with Tally. Not that Chrissy had anything against Mia, she was almost positive the girl was friendly and nice, but Chrissy wasn't one to go out of her way to chat with people or make friends and right now, she was currently in a conversation with two people she would have otherwise ignored. Still though, the other girl's tone of voice caused Chrissy to feel rather embarrassed now about the whole riddle thing. She wasn't used to getting compliments on anything and getting it from someone she hardly knew made her feel awkward.

"Er...thanks." Chrissy replied, clearly uncomfortable with everything. "It wasn't too hard, I don't think. It just sort of came to me. Here." Chrissy pulled out her wand and pointed it at a nearby fork. Within moments the the fork turned into a small leaf of parchment. She then pointed her wand to her candycane and watched it turn into a quill. Transfiguration had always been her better subject. She jotted the riddle down on the parchment and turned it so that both girls could see it.

The was a student from Sonora
Who had a terribly shiny aura
Learning was key
On the subject, you see
Just ignore the guy in the fedora.

"The clues for the next note are obviously in here, the hardest part is picking out what is important and what isn't. What's the current theme?" Chrissy looked up at the two girls before pointing out some words in the limirick. "We see student and Sonora. Those are fairly obvious and then two lines down we have learning and the next it has subject. There's the connection. Sonora is a school for learning. Now all you have to do is figure out which subject the riddle is specifically pointing out about learning at Sonora. The answer is right in there once you can figure out the rest of the clue." Chrissy paused and waited to see if either girl could figure it out.

"Do you see? It's a classroom where students learn. The ghost was just there to point out the treats. I don't think that had anything to do with anything. And, I'm not really sure what the two lefts equals a right deal is, maybe that has to do with the waterfall too. Either way, the next clue is the classroom. Do you guys want to go check it out together? It already looks like Zack's headed that way." Chrissy indicated to the two girls.\r\n\r\n

0 Chrissy Anyways... 0 Chrissy 0 5

Elly

November 11, 2007 7:27 AM

Onwards... by Elly

The Crotalus prefect explained to Elly that the notes were not a usual midterm occurrence, which only helped to fuel Elly’s excitement about what she was becoming increasingly sure was a treasure hunt. She nodded her understanding as another prefect, Mia, joined the two of them. Elly didn’t know the Pecari prefect very well, but she’d seemed nice enough from their few encounters. Mia commented on Zack, who had also come into the Hall and collected a candy cane, and Elly couldn’t help but feel somewhat insignificant, surrounded as she was by three sixth year prefects. She also felt rather useless, as she hadn’t been able to figure out the next clue. Luckily, though, the Crotalus prefect (Elly was having great difficulty trying to remember her name) was helpful enough to explain her reasoning to the two Pecari girls. Elly felt as though it took her an eternity to catch on, but she eventually understood the reasoned explanation.

“Oh, I see,” she said at length, after what’s-her-name talked them through the limerick. “So Divinations, right?” Elly hoped that’s what the aura part of the clue had been referring to, and that she hadn’t just made a complete fool out of herself. “I’m Elly, by the way,” she casually introduced herself, with a hope that the other girl would do the same and put Elly out of her poor memory misery.

“Do you guys want to check it out together?”

Elly smiled widely. This was excellent – three heads (or four if Zack was willing to collaborate) were definitely better than one when it came to figuring out these odd little clues. But more than that, the skinny redhead was thrilled to have been invited to join in with the prefects – they could have snubbed her completely if they’d wanted to, rather than offer to hang around with a third year. “That would be great,” Elly enthused.

OOC: Continued in the classroom.

0 Elly Onwards... 0 Elly 0 5

Mia

November 11, 2007 7:43 AM

To adventure... by Mia

Mia watched as Chrissy explained the clue that still had her puzzled. She might’ve given kudos to the spells, but she seemed to be one of those people who didn’t take compliments well. It was okay though. Mia was just thankful for the help. None of the notes said you couldn’t work with someone. You were all getting to the same end, right?

Mia tried not to feel too dumb as the riddle was made plain for her. Well of course it made sense when it was broken down that way. She supposed she had gotten caught on the learning aspect rather than the ‘students learning’ aspect. Her guess would probably have been the library. So which subject the riddle was pointing towards was the new question. Mia frowned a little as she tried to break down the clue the way Chrissy had. If learning had to do with the where, then which word had to do with the ‘what’? There was really only one word left, but what did aura have to do with anything…

“Oh, I see. So Divinations then?” Elly asked.

Mia wanted to smack her forehead very hard and again tried not to feel touched in the head. Divination. One of only two classes she hadn’t taken. No wonder she had trouble connecting the aura part. Well now she knew she had to keep her mind open to anything. All she needed was a nudge in the right direction.

“Yeah, I don’t know what the left and right stuff is about either, but I don’t think it’ll make a difference. I’m game too. Let’s go.”

OOC: Just wanted to get my agreement in. Moving right along. Maybe we can catch up to Zack before the note writer wakes up. *grin*

0 Mia To adventure... 0 Mia 0 5

Stephen Baxter and Geoffrey Spindler

November 24, 2007 8:54 AM

Killing time? by Stephen Baxter and Geoffrey Spindler

Neither Stephen nor Geoffrey had returned to Stephen's house for the Christmas holidays. Stephen refused to talk about his reasons for choosing not to do so (although there was definite suspicion as he'd gone quiet again) and his younger cousin felt awkward returning to his Aunt and Uncle's house on his own.

Which meant they were both stuck at school.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't have been so bad, but with Stephen being reclusive and a great many other people having gone home for the break, Geoffrey found himself somewhat bored rather quickly. Within a day he'd had just about enough of his own company (which was a bit unusual as he had plenty of practice at being lonely, but then he'd always had something he could do. And he'd already got his holiday homework all done, and had made and charmed some Christmas cards which he sent off to the Baxter household and to his smaller cousins on the Spindler side) when the note on his house noticeboard had caught his attention.

He wasn't entirely sure what it was about but figuring that it looked like it had to be interesting, and with any luck it might be enough to get Stephen out of whatever funk he'd fallen into, he'd set off firstly to find his cousin (not an easy task) and then set to convincing him to come to the Cascade Hall (it seemed a bit obvious).

A bit of fast talking did the trick and the two boys entered the Cascade Hall together.

"So, we're looking for what exactly?" Stephen asked, not seeing anything exciting in the hall at first glance.

"I'm not sure exactly," Geoffrey replied, also looking around. "It just said... er... that there was somewhere that's 'the place to be' and that 'Cascade' was the start. Which means here. I think."

"Ok," Stephen said. "Oh, hey, what's that?" He headed to the piece of parchment that had caught his eye and even as he came up to it noticed that there was actually something else new in the room. There was a ghost. Some guy wearing a hat.

The ghost looked up, and noticed him standing next to the note.

"Hey Geoff," Stephen said a little loudly before he realised that his cousin had followed closely behind him and was even now peering over Stephen's shoulder to read the note. Stephen half-grinned an apology and, noticing that the ghost was trying to point something out to them on the sly, poked his cousin and pointed the ghost out. "I'm gonna check out whatever he's pointing to," he said.

"Alright," Geoffrey said after glancing up momentarily and then moving his attention back to the note.

Was it a joke? Dodgy rhymes, bad word choices... bizarre poetry. It had to be a joke, surely. Except the last line said that you had to... Geoffrey looked up at the ghost again.

"Steve-"

But he was already too late. Stephen was peering behind the waterfall that the ghost had indicated and, if the whoop was anything to go by, had found something. Putting aside his better judgement, Geoffrey darted over to see what was going on, reaching Stephen's side just as the other boy was drenched head to toe and pulled back spluttering.

Geoffrey jerked away and then burst out laughing.

"You're supposed to ignore the ghost," he told Stephen.

Stephen pulled a face and reached up to push his wet hair back off his face. "You didn't see what's back there," he said.

"Yeah? Well, whatever it was it got you a midwinter shower."

"Ha, well... maybe. Aren't you going to look?"

"No way. I've already had a wash today."

"Ha ha. Chicken."

"I'm not a chicken. I just learn from your mistakes. And I can read."

"I can read too... what was I supposed to read?"

"The note." Geoffrey pointed back in the direction of the parchment.

"What, does it say that the candy- oh, go on Geoff. Worst that'll happen is you'll get a little wet. You wanted me to come along for this, least you can do is join in."

"Join in being an idiot?"

Stephen grinned at him as he reached down to try and wring some of the wet out of his clothes.

"Fine." If it had Stephen acting like a human being again and cheering up, maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.

Geoffrey shoved his cousin aside, stuck his tongue out at him and then had a look himself. He was surprised to find a pile of candy canes sitting there, but paused when he read the sign and then started to smile as he picked out two and backed back out.

"Reading the sign in there might have helped as well," he commented as he handed one of the candy canes to Stephen. "I'm not a chicken, but you're a pig," he teased. "Come on, I want your opinion on the clue back here."

Squelching with every step and already eating his candy cane, Stephen followed Geoffrey back to the note where they put their heads together and read it (again, in Geoffrey's case).

"It looks a bit... silly," Stephen said. "Silly, but fun. What's the drying charm?"

"Search me, we haven't covered that yet. And yeah, it does. I'm thinking it means we've got to look in the Divination room next though. Aura's are those things you're supposed to be able to read with that stuff. Mom used to like that kind of thing."

"Sounds right to me," Stephen pulled at his wet shirt and pulled out his wand. After a couple of attempts he managed to get himself mostly dry. "Let's go then."

39 Stephen Baxter and Geoffrey Spindler Killing time? 0 Stephen Baxter and Geoffrey Spindler 0 5