Headmaster Brockert

November 03, 2017 5:12 PM
Coming back to school after midterm was always a relief. The holidays were always jampacked with parties being crammed into a tiny two week space. It was a social whirl and Mortimer hated social whirls. Or being social period. If it weren't for the flow of drinks, it would have been intolerable. It felt like hardly a vacation at all.

At least so far, this year was going much better than last year. No catastrophies major or minor. No staff quitting though Professor O'Malley was on maternity leave and they still hadn't found a permanent Defense Against the Dark Arts. No dealing with any violent unruly students-though Mortimer still couldn't entirely blame Joe Umland for wanting to hit his brother, he didn't want to have to deal with such thing. The good news was that, he really hadn't had to deal with any students who weren't his granddaughters.

He hoped the second half of the year would go just as smoothly. Mortimer sat at the staff table in his usual place as the students filtered in. Once everyone seemed to be present, he stood up. "Welcome back to Sonora. I hope you had a good break." Hopefully that was starting to sound more believable and less forced and awkward. Truth be told, he could have cared less if they realized he didn't care one way or another about how their breaks went, but he had to give the impression that he did because he was supposed to act like he cared. Why he didn't know, but that was what was expected of him,

But then Mortimer was a pureblood and used to having to do what was expected of him. Whether he liked it or not, such as was the case in dealing with dull functions with dull people when all he really wanted to was read or make models of torture devices. In fact, he'd gotten an actual Chair of Torture, a chair covered in spikes as a gift from his wife for Yule this year. That was the highlight of the entire break. He'd actually felt something akin to excitement.

Mortimer continued. "There are no announcements at this time." With that he sat back down and began to eat.
Subthreads:
11 Headmaster Brockert Returning Feast 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

Dorian Montoir

November 05, 2017 4:35 PM
After a Quebec winter, Dorian had had more than enough snow. Over the Christmas holidays, Matthieu’s range of torture expanded to include firmly compacted snowballs, snow down the back of his neck… Generally all the snow-based pain one sibling could visit on another. On arrival at Sonora, one of the first things Dorian had witnessed were some rough, older Pecaris getting into a snowball fight. Whilst Ben and Tess probably hadn’t intended to look particularly threatening, the fact that they were much bigger than him and armed to the teeth had been enough to send Dorian promptly fleeing for the safety and security of the school building, and the much more pleasant activity of hot chocolate and a catch up with Jehan. He had brushed aside any mention of Matthieu as quickly as possible. His older brother had, of course, been a source of constant antagonism. Jehan’s name had made its ways into a few of their fights, with Matthieu mocking their friendship, and the fact that Jehan was as big a freak as Dorian. Used as he was to his brother’s taunts, it had especially hurt Dorian to have his friend dragged into it. Of course, once Matthieu realised this, it had only pushed him to twist that particular knife more. And when Dorian fought back verbally, Matthieu would switch to fighting that physically. Dorian did not want Jehan to know how he had been part of their fights, to sully their friendship with the taunts Matthieu had made, or for his friend to feel bad that his correspondence and affection had provided fuel for the fire. He didn’t want Jehan to change, and it was Matthieu that was the problem. ‘Matthieu was Matthieu’ was all he had said about his brother, and then talked about the enjoyable elements of his holidays instead. He’d taken a fair share of punches and friction burns over the holidays, but he always had a good supply of bruise balm on hand. They could be gone within hours. And this made it easier to write off, to pretend it hadn’t happened, or didn’t matter. It was easy to be casual towards it when the evidence of the violence could be cleared up in a matter of minutes.

Whilst seating wasn’t strict for the returning feast, Dorian knew he should spend time with other people too. Easily as he could have indulged in spending the whole evening with Jehan, his father had pointed out that having a Brockert at his fingertips was not an opportunity to let slide. He parted from Jehan with a warm smile, glad to be back with him, before taking his seat at the Teppenpaw table.

The Headmaster’s speech was very brief, and then the hall burst into life with food appearing and conversation breaking out. He helped himself to some sweet and sour chicken. Something the Americans and Canadians categorised as ‘Chinese food’ much to the chagrin of his mother. Her own cooking was nothing like what North America deemed to be Chinese food, and all such substances were banned in their house. This was something of a shame for his father, whose love of Chinese food, as he knew it, had been part of the inspiration for him to undertake the trip on which he had met his future wife. Whilst he adored her cooking, and saw the clear differences between it and what the Canadians produced under the banner of Chinese food, that hadn’t stopped him liking the dishes he had grown up with too. On the rare occasions when Dorian’s mother wasn’t around for dinner, his father always ordered in Chinese, and he had grown fond of this not-Chinese food too.

“Do you know anything about the event for end of the year?” he asked, his English heavily accented with Quebecois French, which accounted for any errors in his speech. He believed something had been mentioned at the start of the year, but there had been a lot going on at that point, what with it being his first day at a new school and being totally submerged in a one hundred percent English-speaking world. He felt that, unremarkable as it might be for the headmaster, he could have done with a bit of a reminder about what it involved. “There is the big fire?” he asked. He thought he had heard people mentioning that - there was a specific name that sounded a little like ‘big fire’ but he couldn’t remember it now.

OOC - god-modding of Jehan approved by his author
13 Dorian Montoir Glad to be back 1401 Dorian Montoir 0 5

Ruby Brockert

November 11, 2017 8:34 PM
Ruby loved everything about the holiday season. The decorations and the food and time spent with family. She liked presents too, and received many lovely gifts. Fine clothing and jewlery. Perfumes and bath salts and other stuff that just make her feel...good. However, that was hardly the main thing. Family was the most important thing about the holidays, and Ruby had been pretty excited about seeing her parents and younger siblings. Yes, even Topaz.

And cousins too! Baby Olaf was getting so big and so were all the other little ones. Pretty soon they wouldn't be little anymore. But maybe there would be more little ones instead! There would be at least one eventually. Emerald had figured out what Uncle Ben and Aunt Shannon were doing and pointed it to Ruby. Allegra. Esme. Isla. Olaf. A,E, I, O.....there was sure to be a U eventually. Plus she had two other uncles who didn't have children yet, so there was that possibility too! The Teppenpaw hoped so, she loved babies and her own parents were probably done.

Plus there would be cute little Owen and Jemima babies eventually too and maybe she'd get to babysit! She was pretty sure Owen would ask her before he asked Emerald as Ruby liked babies and Emerald....had far less enthusiasm for them. And despite that Owen, like her, saw the best in people, she didn't see him asking Topaz. Granted, Cory often ended up the defacto babysitter, at least he had for Ruby and her siblings.

Her dad's cousin's wife-Cory's sister-in-law- was expecting her second one too. It was all so exciting! And then there was Professor O'Malley's baby as well. The Teppenpaw was going to have to make sure to ask Peyton about it.

Obviously, Ruby hoped to have a fairly decent sized family of her own someday. Of course, that depended on finding that special someone. Okay, she knew it didn't always work that way. That her marriage could just end up being some business deal more or less but she refused to think that way! True love could happen like with Owen and Jemima. If they could have it, so could she!

She spotted Dorian sitting at the Teppenpaw table and sat down across from him. He spoke before she could say anything. Ruby nodded, eager to help. "Yes, a bonfire. It's basically a big fire and we all camp out on the pitch in tents." She had mixed feelings on this. On the one hand, it was sure to be a great bonding experience. On the other....Ruby wasn't terribly outdoorsy.
11 Ruby Brockert Me too 1405 Ruby Brockert 0 5

Dorian

November 12, 2017 12:06 PM
“Bonfire… Bonne fire” he repeated, partly to himself, and then more brightly to Ruby. ”Bonne fire” Bonne is ‘good’ in French,” he explained, in case she didn’t understand, “So, maybe I can remember like this. We hope we have the good fire, yes? And we sharing the tents together with our room-mates?” he asked. “Or together with more people?” At first, he had assumed they would be with their room-mates because that seemed logical - it was how the school organised them, after all - but there were quite a few people who didn’t have roommates, including Ruby herself. He knew this was something she had been rather sad about at the opening feast, so he hoped for her sake there was some different arrangement at the fire.

“How is your holiday?” he asked. It wasn’t his favourite subject but he thought it might be rude not to ask. He could always just avoid going into too much detail about his own. And there were good things to relate too, things like seeing his sister, and all the amazing food they had eaten. Speaking of amazing food… He tucked into his dinner whilst Ruby answered. It was delicious! Not that he would ever dare admit that to his mother.
13 Dorian A Bonne Fire 1401 Dorian 0 5

Ruby

November 21, 2017 9:04 PM
Ruby nodded in agreement. "It's a large fire and it's supposed to be a good time. I'm not entirely sure what we do." Just because her grandfather was the Headmaster didn't necessarily meant she knew what was going on. "From what I understand, events are different in some way everytime except for the ball. Those are usually just....balls, but like, not the same exact kinds held by society."

The ball was actually the Midsummer event that she looked forward to the most. She would get to wear a beautiful gown, and as it was next year, Ruby was already starting to look. One of her favorite things in the world was looking at beautiful clothes and jewelry. And hopefully she'd have a date. Not everyone ended up with one as there were usually more girls than boys.Of course, often in the younger years, very few people would have a date and as she'd only be a second year next year that would be so super disappointing. But she'd have a ball sixth year too! And maybe Ruby would get a date for that one! Unless of course, she was already betrothed to someone outside of school, and then she couldn't. Unless she was prefect. The she'd have to dance the opening dance and it would be so utterly mortifying to do that by herself!

She went over the list of guys in her year and the one above. Okay, so Gary and Parker weren't purebloods-though would be still suitable enough to do the prefect dance with if need be, there had once been a time when Brockerts and related parties didn't become prefects and Head Students much but those days were over so it could happen-and Vlad was her cousin. Ruby thought Connor Priory might be too. She wasn't sure about Ryder Knight's family, as she thought a distant cousin of hers had married someone whose last name was Knight awhile back. And Brett Newell's family had a scandal very recently. So.....Dorian or Jehan were her best choices. Hopefully one would ask her. Next year too.

"Oh no, you don't have to share with your roommates." Ruby assured Dorian. "I mean, you can, my sister probably will, but like some people don't like their roommates or don't have any. Just so long as everyone has someone to share with. People usually share with their friends." What had happened at the last bonfire was still rather a sore point with Angelique. She and Tasha had been left out while the other girls in their year shared a tent and were now the best of friends. While Ruby felt really bad for her cousin, she hoped things would work out more like they did for the other fifth year girls for her.

"They were great!" Ruby exclaimed. "I love the holidays, they're my favorite time of year. Especially now that I'm at school and the only people I see the rest of the time are Emerald and Grandfather. How were yours?"
11 Ruby Hopefully 1405 Ruby 0 5

Dorian

November 25, 2017 2:29 PM

Dorian could not think of much one would do at a fire either, except simply enjoy it, which to him sounded more than enough, and perhaps nicer than a fancy ball. He liked the way that flames danced. They were a living sort of poetry, and held an expression of beauty that transcended language. And already his mind was occupied with how he could share these thoughts with Jehan, knowing that they would be safe with him. Perhaps they could look up some poems about fires in the weeks beforehand, to get into the spirit and mark the occasion.

“I like my roommate,” he assured her quickly, when she mentioned that people might not want to share with their roommates, due to not getting on. Not that she had implied that he didn’t, but he wanted to make sure that point was clear, seeing as his roommate was Ruby’s cousin. Vlad was always kind to him. He had a certain gentleness about his nature which Dorian appreciated. “But maybe we can join together with Jehan. That will be fun. Who do you like to share with?

“Yes, I have nice time with my sister, and my parents,” he nodded. He thought he had mentioned Matthieu’s existence to Ruby before, in which case he might at this point be conspicuous by his absence from that sentence… “Émilie decorates for me a picture frame, and I get some books, new clotheses. And we have many nice food. What presents did you had?”
13 Dorian Let's get planning 1401 Dorian 0 5

Ruby

November 29, 2017 6:43 PM
"Oh good! I'm glad." Not that Ruby thought that Dorian didn't like Vlad, but she was glad to hear it anyway because she generally wanted people to get along and be happy. She nodded in agreement to his suggestion to invite Jehan. She didn't know the Aladren boy, but he seemed...like someone she wanted to. Not just because he came from the right sort of family,he just seemed...sensitive and kind. Sort of like Dorian, which is probably why they were friends. Anyway, Ruby didn't think she'd want to associate with anyone who wasn't kind regardless of their family name.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure yet. I mean, I don't really know any of the other girls very well but it would be nice to be friends with them and share a tent." The Teppenpaw very much wanted a friend who was her very best friend in the whole world. Someone she could share secrets with and giggle with. Ruby had Emerald but she wanted....well, she didn't know how to put it. She didn't want to say someone else because that made it sound like her sister wasn't good enough and of course, she was even if she was extremely practical where Ruby was fanciful and a tad saracastic. The first year supposed what she wanted was the bond of friendship which was different than sisterhood. And of course, she didn't want to be ostracized. Plus, Emerald seemed to have her own friends and was generally a more solitary person.

Ruby grinned. "It sounds nice." She noted that the other Teppenpaw hadn't mentioned his brother. "What about your brother? Was he away with friends?"

She continued."I mostly got clothing and jewelry. Like this bracelet." She showed Dorian her wrist. It was beautiful, made of blue topaz and silver with one sparkly diamond. Ruby couldn't believe it! An actual diamond! "Also, some perfume and bath salts and lotions."

OOC-I'm going to assume by your post, that Dorian told Ruby about Matthieu but didn't go into details. Ignore that bit if I'm wrong.

11 Ruby To have fun? 1405 Ruby 0 5