Glad to be back on Cascade Hall

Headmaster Brockert

November 03, 2017 5:12 PM

Returning Feast by Headmaster Brockert

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:

Falling back on old faithful by Winston Pierce

I wasn't staring by Kir McLeod with Ben Pierce

Glad to be back by Dorian Montoir with Ruby Brockert

Looking forwards (tag a seventh year) by Ginger Pierce with Lauren Song

Keeping it real by Jozua Sparks with Joe Umland

Trespassing (tag Georgia) by Zevalyn Ives with Georgia Kirkly

Good mood by Jasmine Delachene

Asking the usual questions by Isaac Song with Kyte Collindale

Coping. by Lily Spencer

A Bird Fish? by Parker Fitzgerald - Pecari with Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

11 Headmaster Brockert Returning Feast 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

Winston Pierce

November 03, 2017 9:46 PM

Falling back on old faithful by Winston Pierce

Winston went right up to his room after getting off the wagon. He had seen enough snow at home in New Hampshire that the white blanket covering the Gardens held little appeal to him. He just wanted to get inside where it was warm and maybe convince a prairie elf to fetch him some hot chocolate. The flying wagons weren’t exactly well heated.

After he had emptied his mug that one of the elves had indeed been happy to provide and reconnecting with his roommates, he opted to take a short nap, knowing from past years that the time difference from the East Coast was enough to make staying awake until the end of the Returning Feast a just little bit difficult. His clock woke him with enough time to freshen up and make his way down to the Cascade Hall without rushing, and he took a seat at the Crotalus table out of habit rather than necessity. The school was not strict about seating arrangements, but most of his friends were also Crotali, so most times Winston didn’t venture much beyond the table he’d been sent to after his sorting two and a half years ago.

Tonight, for the return feast, he particularly felt it was more appropriate to sit amongst his housemates, as that seemed to him the thing to do in a semi more formal dinner. Not that the headmaster seemed to think it was anything special beyond announcing there were no announcements. That was a bit disappointing. He could have at least thrown in a token reminder that the midsummer event was a bonfire, but it didn’t get even that much of a mention.

Which meant there wasn’t much else to foster easy conversation besides the obvious midterm activities and Winston had been hoping for a marginally less overdone topic than that. Nothing for it though. “Did you have a good break?” he asked his neighbor as he began to fill his plate.

1 Winston Pierce Falling back on old faithful 370 Winston Pierce 0 5

Kir McLeod

November 05, 2017 5:53 AM

I wasn't staring by Kir McLeod

Kir rarely regretted his sorting. He liked Teppenpaw, and the qualities it represented, and he liked sharing a room with Sawyer, who was a really cool friend and someone he might not have otherwise been as close to. But he felt that it had been a close run thing for him between Teppenpaw and Aladren, and he was currently regretting the sorting potion’s ruling somewhat, over the very un-Aladrenish and unintellectual reasoning that it was where all the really hot girls in their year were. Well, most of the girls in their year were pretty nice looking actually, but Aladren contained the only female members of the species in their year who he thought likely to give him the time of day, as neither Amelia nor Zevalyn came from Pureblood families. And it was where Kit was who, whilst she came from that kind of family, he couldn’t fully give up hope on….

Even though the returning feast permitted mixing between the tables, he had chosen not to go and sit with the Aladrens. He thought it might be safer to play it cool. Potentially so cool that none of the girls actually noticed his existence, much less his interest. Although, if any of them happened to look over, they might have noticed his gaze drifting rather frequently over to the Aladren table…

He snapped to when he heard a voice beside him asking for a dish. As if it needed it, but to emphasise the point that he’d been miles away, it took him a moment of confused scanning their immediate surroundings to locate it.

“Um, here,” he smiled sheepishly, handing the requested dish over. “How were your holidays?” he added, hoping to divert attention from his diverted attention.

13 Kir McLeod I wasn't staring 366 Kir McLeod 0 5

Dorian Montoir

November 05, 2017 4:35 PM

Glad to be back by Dorian Montoir

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

Ginger Pierce

November 06, 2017 1:45 PM

Looking forwards (tag a seventh year) by Ginger Pierce

Ginger hurried into the Cascade Hall just in time to grab a seat before the Headmaster began his . . . greeting, she supposed was a better word for it than ‘speech’ was. In any event she only barely made it in time to not miss it entirely, and her brown hair was still damp from her hot shower. Being from a family that literally migrated each winter to the Mexican border to avoid cold weather, snow was still a novelty to the seventh year Californian. She’d spent the hours after her wagon arrived out wandering the Gardens and had needed a good long scalding shower to get feeling back in her extremities.

“Hi,” she greeted her nearest table companion as the food appeared. She was pleased that it came out sounding normal rather than breathless after her hurry to get here. “Weird that this is our last returning feast, huh?” she added with a touch of melancholy. She was ready to be done with school, but she was going to miss this place and the people she met here.

First year seemed forever ago, but she alternated between thinking the last stretch until June was racing closer altogether too fast or dragging along much too slowly. Mostly it seemed to depend on whether she was enjoying time with her Sonora friends or missing Jake. “Do you have any plans for after graduation?”

1 Ginger Pierce Looking forwards (tag a seventh year) 302 Ginger Pierce 0 5

Jozua Sparks

November 07, 2017 1:25 PM

Keeping it real by Jozua Sparks

Jozua’s midterm was a bit surreal. While he’d been away, his parents had finished restoring the house after the summer’s explosion. Everything looked the same as it had before, except idealized because all of it was new and showed none of the wear and tear it had previously had. His family was reasonably well to do, so he hadn’t realized there was wear and tear on the carpets, the furniture, the curtains, but now he could see in vibrant technicolor how it it had faded slightly, gotten crushed under the weight of people’s feet and rear ends and never sprung back quite as high or cushy as it had been when new. It was new again now.

Even his own room looked, on first inspection, to be a perfect rendition of what had been lost. It was only when he looked closer at his bookshelves that he saw the books there weren’t the same ones he had thumbed through in past years. Many of the titles were the same (though some were missing and others hadn’t been there before) but they were new books with un-cracked bindings. Never read. His desk drawers were worse. Where his notebooks and the detritus of eleven years of home schooling had been, there was just fresh parchment and empty notebooks. He tried not to look in there too much.

It was almost a relief to come back to Sonora where, despite the elves best efforts, the tables had an occasional scuff marks and the rugs might have a small hole or some mud tracked through them (especially today, with so many people coming in out of the snow where the wagons let them out). It felt more real here.

Headmaster Brockert was also comfortingly real in his total brevity. Jozua appreciated that. He just wanted to eat and go to bed and wake up fully immersed again in Sonora Life, and forget that Home Life was still stilted and weird. Noticing his neighbor looking like they were about to speak, Jozua got there first, hopefully averting any discussion about his break. (It was possible they just wanted the potatoes he was dishing in large quantities onto his plate, but this was Teppenpaw and he couldn’t risk it.) “Think Professor O’Malley had her baby yet?” he asked, having noticed the potions professor wasn’t at the staff table tonight. Gossip wasn’t his normal choice of conversation, but he thought this topic would at least divert thoughts away from midterm.

1 Jozua Sparks Keeping it real 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Zevalyn Ives

November 07, 2017 2:57 PM

Trespassing (tag Georgia) by Zevalyn Ives

OoC: I am making wild unsubstantiated assumptions about characters who are no longer active. If these prove to be false, I apologize. BIC:

When Zevalyn first arrived at Sonora a year and a half ago, she’d briefly shared a room with Madeleine Dautin before the French girl transferred to some French school that sounded like Blue Batons but which was, presumably, actually some French word with an x in it. (She knew it had an x in it, as she’d seen some papers with the school name written on them; she was only guessing it was a French word.) There had apparently been another girl named Arianna the year prior to that (but a different Arianna to the one that was still in Crotalus) but Zevalyn never met her. Then Madeleine left at midterm of Zevalyn’s first year, and since then, Zevalyn had the room of (nominally) fourth year Aladrens to herself, though she herself wasn’t technically a fourth year yet. It was, however, her final destination and she thought, by next fall, she might be close enough to the academic classification of her room assignment to finally count herself one of them. Certainly by the end of next year, Zevalyn planned to take her CATS with the rest of her actual age group.

The problem with all that meant she had very few people in her intended year that she knew very well. Now that she was finally taking classes with the current fourth years, she was also aware that Aladren didn’t even have any boys in fourth year. So even after the wagons began to arrive that afternoon, she had no close friends to catch up with, no roommate to help settle in after her break.

The Hall was fuller than it had been the last two weeks, but most of the people she knew from her House were only second years and Jen wasn’t exactly a scintillating conversationalist. So while she took a seat at her own table at first, mostly through habit, her eyes darted over the other tables as people took their seats and the Headmaster declined to give a speech.

Instead of filling her plate and staying at the Aladren table, she decided to get up and transplant herself to Teppenpaw instead. They were supposed to be friendly. She’d caught Kir’s eyes watching her briefly. Maybe feeling sorry for her that she was sitting all alone. The Teppenpaws would probably welcome her onto their turf, and Georgia had come to sit with Zevalyn on the Aladren side last January so it seemed only fair to return the favor.

She considered joining Kir, as they’d made eye contact earlier, but he had just looked away and started talking to his neighbor, so she chose a different person to approach. “Hi, Georgia,” she began, uncertainly, putting her hand on the back of a chair near the fourth year she considered more of a friend than most. This wasn’t really saying a lot. The near constant studying she was always doing didn’t leave a lot of room left over for socializing and right now, she was starting to regret her self-imposed isolation. Georgia had made an overture of friendship to her a year ago, and she hadn’t followed up on it nearly as well as she probably should have. “Mind if I join you?”

1 Zevalyn Ives Trespassing (tag Georgia) 380 Zevalyn Ives 0 5

Joe Umland

November 07, 2017 9:04 PM

Adding some speculation. by Joe Umland

Joe knew his siblings very well, so it had not come entirely as a surprise to him when Julian had taken the first opportunity to corner him and interrogate him about what he’d heard from their sometime-prodigal brother. It had come as more of a surprise when Julian’s first question had been to ask whether Joe knew John had taken to living in a tent (he had not) and then when she had demanded that Joe make this situation change (because he, the sixteen-year-old, was clearly more qualified to make John, someone whose whims were about as predictable and easily steered as the weather, do anything than Julian herself, who was at least John’s elder).

As John had not looked any the worse for wear, however, and had in fact seemed more like his old self than he had at any time in the past year and a half, Joe had made no effort to do this. One of his siblings was living in a small castle, another was living in a tent, and he was in boarding school. This was how his life was going. At this point, it was just easier to go along with it all and make as few judgments about it all as possible. He'd just enjoyed having them all together again, even if it had been brief and Julian had gone to sleep somewhere else.

Now, he was back at Sonora and John was presumably back in New York and Julian was back in her unplottable little fortress more often, he had gathered from the others in the family, than not. They could all be worse off, he guessed.

Brockert was as loquacious as ever, and that was all to the good, as it resulted in food appearing faster. Joe began serving himself and was about to say hey to Jozua when Jozua got there first, asking about Professor O’Malley.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said. “And why else wouldn’t she be here? Unless she quit,” he added fairly. “But I think Professor Carter would be having a nervous breakdown in front of us all right now if anyone had quit.”

16 Joe Umland Adding some speculation. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Ben Pierce

November 08, 2017 11:47 AM

The Teppenpaw invasion continues by Ben Pierce

Ben loved being a Pecari, he got along with nearly all his housemates. Kyte was his best mate, and Tess could now cheerfully be classified as his girlfriend, and basically he had no reason at all to venture beyond his own House table for the feast, but somehow he found himself walking along the Teppenpaw one.

He greeted Raine as he passed by her, and wished her a Happy New Year, but he kept walking. It was only when he saw Natalie Varth that he realized that who he’d unconsciously been looking for wasn’t around anymore. He made a mental note to write to Gabe later, tell him he’d be missing the bonfire again this year. That must have been what made him think of Gabe again; they’d hatched the idea of the Sports Club together at the last bonfire. Or at least, that was how Ben remembered it.

He was about to head back to Pecari when his eye landed on Kir. He was the kid of one of Aunt Bel’s friends. He wasn’t as involved in DISCUSS as others in his family, but you didn’t grow up as a Boston Pierce without doing some fundraising for groups like the McLeod Foundation. On impulse, he dropped down into the seat next to the younger boy . . . who seemed to be staring at a pretty Aladren girl instead of paying attention to who was claiming the seat next to him. Ben grinned in amusement.

The food appeared after the briefest of greetings by the Headmaster and Ben saw some delicious looking roast beef on the other side of Kir, “Hey, can you pass the beef?” he asked.

It took Kir entertainingly long to figure out where the beef even was before he passed it over, and Ben wasn’t even trying to hide his grin. “Thanks,” he said when the platter of meat did make it him. He speared a few thin slices onto his plate and gave it back so it could return to its spot. “I had an excellent midterm,” he declared cheerfully. “Christmas parties, got to see the family, went skiing. It was awesome. How was yours?”

1 Ben Pierce The Teppenpaw invasion continues 339 Ben Pierce 0 5

Jozua

November 08, 2017 12:32 PM

half and half by Jozua

Jozua shrugged, not really being on top of the habits of pregnant people. “She looked ready to bust before midterm,” he agreed, “she probably had it by now. But if she didn’t, she’s probably close enough she didn’t want to pop it out in the middle of a beginner’s lesson so she just took the whole term off to keep the paperwork simple.” Jozua also knew very little about administrative paperwork, but he thought this made logical sense, and minimizing paperwork always seemed to be a goal of the school judging by the number of times professors had told him to try not to blowing anything else up because the paperwork was a bear, and thank Merlin nobody got hurt or it would be even worse...

Unfortunately at that point, with no additional data to sustain the conversation, the topic of Professor O’Malley and her baby seemed spent. “Though I’d guess Carter will be covering for her either way. I don’t see any new faces up there.”

He also noted Nash was still present so even if they didn’t have a permanent DADA professor yet, they at least had a consistent one for a while longer.

“So this is halfway,” he noted suddenly. “Returning feast of my fourth year,” he added by way of explanation. “I have exactly as much time at Sonora ahead of me as I do behind me. Three and a half years in both directions.”

1 Jozua half and half 348 Jozua 0 5

Jasmine Delachene

November 08, 2017 3:12 PM

Good mood by Jasmine Delachene

The sledding was exhilarating and she had enjoyed getting to know Tatiana better, but Jasmine was very glad to be inside again where it was, above all its other advantages, warm. She had changed into her warmest clothing just to ward off the chill that had set into her, and gotten a mug of hot chocolate more to absorb its ceramic warm into her fingers and breathe in its steam than to actually drink it (though she did that, too).

She made it into the Hall with some time to spare. She gave a wave to her Uncle Daniel, and smiled at Professor Xavier, who she assumed was responsible for the sledding adventure she’d recently had, then took a seat at the Crotalus table.

Soon enough another student sat down nearby and she smiled warmly (everything was better warm tonight) at them and greeted formally, “Hello, welcome back.” She had no idea who did or didn’t stay at the school over break, so until told otherwise, she was just going to assume everyone had gone home, as this was the only choice she could imagine making in that regard. “Was your holiday pleasant and wasn’t that snow in the Gardens today wonderful!”

She wondered idly if maybe her hot chocolate had been laced with a cheering charm, but then dismissed the thought. It was all good. She’d had a great time at home and a great time sledding. She was allowed to be happy and show it.

1 Jasmine Delachene Good mood 1397 Jasmine Delachene 0 5

Georgia Kirkly

November 08, 2017 6:28 PM

Trespassers will be welcomed by Georgia Kirkly

If Zevalyn had felt uncertain about coming over, Georgia’s reaction should have dispelled her worries pretty quickly. As soon as it became clear that it was her that the Aladren was coming to see, Georgia greeted her with a warm smile.

“Hi,” she returned. “That’d be really nice,” she nodded, scooching up to make sure there was room for Zevalyn to take a seat beside her. “I like the way people move around more at the returning feast,” she commented, more thinking about how she’d swapped seats last year, which she was pleased to see was now paying dividends, but there seemed to be a couple of others following Zevalyn’s lead now.

She surveyed the food in front of her, but as usual fell back on choices that represented comfort rather than exploration. Food should not, in her opinion, be challenging or surprising. Food was more like a reliable friend. Something you should be able to trust in, and a great comfort when everything else was changing or stressful. Getting used to magic being real and her parents being divorced had never been going to have a positive influence on her waist size. She was vaguely aware of this tendency, and that it wasn’t a particularly helpful or maybe even healthy trait, and she was incredibly aware that most people at Sonora were a lot thinner than her (though in the general population, she felt she pulled a solid ‘average’). But her own dissatisfaction with her body never outweighed the pleasure she got from food. She guessed she could stick to salad and be thin, and she sort of felt like being thin would be nice, but it was just so much easier not to. If there was a magic ‘make me thin’ spell, of course she’d take it - who wouldn’t? And was there? Maybe that was how all the Pureblood girls stayed so stick thin, or maybe there was but it was a closely guarded Pureblood secret, part of their plan to keep people like her down, by making sure they actually had to work on looking attractive and weren’t likely to lure away good Pureblood boys, unless they happened to like a bit more booty - but she wasn’t really going to try for it. She helped herself to pizza, even though she’d had it a couple of times whilst at her dad’s. Who could get fed up with pizza though? She was pretty sure that was literally impossible.

“How’s it going? Seen you in class,” she smiled, which was a clear sign that Zevalyn was catching up. “Did you at least get your Christmas this year?”

13 Georgia Kirkly Trespassers will be welcomed 346 Georgia Kirkly 0 5

Joe

November 08, 2017 7:35 PM

On traditions. by Joe

Joe’s knowledge of American business practices was limited, so he shrugged and accepted Jozua’s proposition as possible. “Could be,” he said. “It sounds like it would work better for everyone.”

Which didn’t mean that was actually what happened, but without further data, it was impossible to speculate further. Jozua did make a good point about Professor Carter, though, one which Joe had not caught. “Good point,” he acknowledged. “Maybe she’s just so tired she’s stopped thinking more than one class ahead at this point.”

Joe grinned when Jozua abruptly noted that he was exactly halfway through his time at Sonora. That was, he guessed, either the good part of fourth year or the worst part of fourth year. It was awkwardly in the middle of everything – right before things started getting Important for the college applications, but after one learned the basics and stopped blowing stuff up…though he thought Jozua might still be working on that part. “Any resolutions for the second half?” he asked. “It’s new year and halfway, so it’s a good time for it, I guess.” Joe had never really made New Year’s resolutions, so he didn’t mean that entirely seriously. The difference between January and December had never seemed so great to him – both were cold, it snowed a lot at home in both, and since the church calendar began at Advent, his mother had gotten it into his head long before Sonora that things actually started over in early December or late November, not early January, which was just something that happened and resulted in everyone getting the date wrong for a bit.

16 Joe On traditions. 329 Joe 0 5

Zevalyn

November 09, 2017 10:13 PM

Oh, that is much better than the alternative by Zevalyn

Georgia showed no hesitation in inviting Zevalyn to join her, and demonstrated no evidence of hard feelings that Zevalyn hadn't made much befriending effort until now. On the contrary, she seemed quite glad Zevalyn had come over. "Yeah," she agreed about the House mingling as she took her seat. "Is the House thing pretty common in magic schools? My high school didn't have anything like that and cafeteria tables had no specific designations. But we went home every night, so maybe it's a boarding school thing?" She shrugged, having no other information about schools besides here and her old school, which was a pretty useless sample size.

She began filling her plate, taking first some salad, and then a piece of pizza because Georgia's looked really tasty and the aroma must have some kind of magic involved in its scent which made anyone who smelled it want some pizza of their own.

"Yeah," she confirmed that she had moved into the intermediate level classes. "It's going alright, but I did stick around over break again this year. I at least met up with my folks on Christmas - they're just over in Phoenix, so a teacher took me over for a few hours - then we came back. Hopefully next year, I can just go home like a normal person. I should be mostly caught up by then." She grinned a little self-deprecatingly, "And then, by sixth year, I might have time to actually join clubs! Are you in any?"

1 Zevalyn Oh, that is much better than the alternative 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Kir

November 10, 2017 1:33 PM

We'll show you! (Our wonderful hospitality) by Kir

His Teppenpaw diplomacy skills were coming in pretty handy. They had saved him from blurting ‘I wasn’t staring,’ when his attention snapped back from the Aladren table - an assertion that would have been very incriminating, given that the main subject under discussion was beef - and they also prevented him greeting the Pecari next to him with ‘What are you doing here?’ He only looked mildly surprised.

“Hiya Ben,” he smiled. Ben was one of those people that he would have liked to know better - his aunts often asked after him (to which Kir could mostly give uncommunicative shrugs, or mention that he ‘seemed to be doing fine,’ if he was feeling like putting it into words). He was, by virtue of his name, definitely the Right Sort of Company - a notion that amused Kir in how he could phrase it to parody the Pureblood notion. The Pierces at school fell into three categories: Friendly Pierces, Unfriendly Pierces, and Our Pierces. Ben was one of theirs, and Kir thought his aunts and his parents would have liked him to make more effort to foster that connection. However, Ben already had a solid set of friends, and he was a whole two years older than Kir. Where, for adults, that gap was fairly negligible, at this age, it seemed awfully big. Ben ran a club and would be sitting exams this year and had a girlfriend. Kir wasn’t convinced that he wanted to hang out or hear about what the Foundation was up to. And yet, here Ben was.

“Kind of similar,” he nodded, when Ben asked about his holidays. “All the way up to Christmas is completely mad with everyone doing fundraisers - some of those are fun, like they’ll do coffee mornings, and there’s always good cake, but it’s everything from fancy big events to standing in the street shaking collecting tins - and guess which ones they find they need our help with more. Family time over Christmas, then the Foundation’s New Year party which is always a laugh - has your aunt ever told you about them?” he asked. He could not truthfully remember whether Ben’s aunt had ever been to any of them. He knew she was frequently invited to such things, but everyone had such busy schedules over Christmas that she may not have made it, and he got introduced to so many grown ups at these things that it was hard to keep track. He knew he hadn’t had a specific conversation with her this year, but that wasn’t to say she hadn’t been there…. “And then yeah, once all the madness settled down, we went skiing too. Where do you go?” he asked.

OOC - see paths thread with Amelia for description of said parties.

13 Kir We'll show you! (Our wonderful hospitality) 366 Kir 0 5

Lauren Song

November 11, 2017 6:40 PM

With trepidation... by Lauren Song

Lauren was already sitting in Cascade Hall when Ginger hurried inside. She smiled at her roommate before turning to pay attention to the Headmaster's very brief spiel. The weather outside was both ghastly and fascinating. For the Californian girl, the only snow she'd ever experienced was at Sonora and in the mountains. Now that she was a seventh year, the snow outside wasn't such a novelty, but she still enjoyed it more, she assumed, than her Midwestern or East Coast peers.

"It's so weird," she agreed. Lauren honestly didn't know what she was going to do after Sonora. Her mom had pressured her to apply for college while her dad had asked her to live with him for awhile. College wasn't super appealing to her right now, but neither was living in a foreign country. She only had one more semester left to decide what she was going to do. For this next year, she had only applied to two universities, both magical because she couldn't figure out how to transfer credits from a magical university to a muggle one.

"I turned in my last college application during winter break, but no real plans yet. I don't know if I told you yet, but my dad asked me to come to Korea and possibly work at his company with translations or something. I don't speak Korean that well, but I guess he wants me to learn. Plus he's been so far from my family for so long he wants to get to know us better." Lauren's parents weren't divorced and they loved each other, but it was just easier for both of them to pursue their passions and responsibilities in their home countries. Lauren just didn't know what she wanted. "I want to get to know my dad better and my little sister lives there right now with him, but I also don't want to leave the comfort of home and my family in California. And I don't know if I really want to go to college either..."

Lauren shrugged, not wanting to get super anxious over it right now. She wanted to enjoy her last semester. "But I'll figure it out eventually, I guess. What about you, any plans for after graduation?"

19 Lauren Song With trepidation... 303 Lauren Song 0 5

Isaac Song

November 11, 2017 6:53 PM

Asking the usual questions by Isaac Song

Isaac loved the snow. He also loved Southern California, but he wished the four seasons were a little more apparent. On his annual snowboarding trip with his best friends, he had been a little disappointed by the lack of snowfall and the sleet that had ruined their trip a little, but here the snow was abundant. He just wished he had his snowboarding gear here and that there were huge hills to go down. Before going into Cascade Hall, Isaac used his suitcase as a makeshift sled and zipped around the gardens for a little bit and any hills he could find before returning to his dorm room drenched and very happy.

With a mending charm, he had fixed up his belongings and took a quick shower before going to the Returning Feast. His short black hair was still wet and he wished he knew an effective charm to dry it faster. He'd probably learn it later this semester in Charms now that he was in intermediate classes.

Isaac felt a little awkward walking in right when the Headmaster started his speech, but he quickly took his seat at the Pecari table, though by the time he sat down Headmaster Brockert had finished. He liked how terse Brockert was at times even though he was scary-looking.

The food appeared and Isaac took no time in piling food onto his plate; he was voracious right now after so much exercise. He hadn't really looked at who he was sitting by, but he pretty much knew of everyone in his year by now. "The bonfire's the midsummer activity, right?" he asked, just to confirm. "I'm stoked about that. I love bonfires especially during the summers, so it'll be a great way to celebrate the end of the school year. Did you do anything fun over winter break?"

19 Isaac Song Asking the usual questions 375 Isaac Song 0 5

Ruby Brockert

November 11, 2017 8:34 PM

Me too by Ruby Brockert

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

A Bonne Fire by Dorian

“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

Kyte Collindale

November 13, 2017 2:11 PM

Potentially unusual answers by Kyte Collindale

“Yeah,” Kyte grinned, as the younger Pecari beside him talked of his excitement about the bonfire. “Fire is great. I love fire of all kinds.” This, perhaps, would have been a cause for concern to many people, but in Pecari house it probably passed for a relatively normal remark.

“It was pretty cool. Midterm is a lot of work - my family are circus performers,” he explained, as he wasn’t sure the third years knew that about them, “so Christmas is a real chance for us to catch up on skills. There’s a lot of corporate gigs - jugglers and stuff for parties, but no shows, and they don’t really let us do the parties because then the child labour people get onto them. Means a lot of the adults are out New Year’s Eve,” he grinned. “That was pretty sweet. My cousins know how to party.

“How about you?” he asked. Whilst he spoke, he piled up his plate with a wide assortment of food, without much mind to whether it went together. A bit of roast chicken, hot dogs, mashed potato, roast potatoes, tortilla chips and salsa… Kyte rarely met foods he didn’t like, and was oblivious to suggested ‘rules’ against things like double carbs. Partly because who didn’t want double, or even triple carbs, because carbs were delicious, and also because he didn’t necessarily know what carbs were. He added a liberal dose of barbecue sauce to the whole meal before tucking in.

13 Kyte Collindale Potentially unusual answers 335 Kyte Collindale 0 5

Isaac

November 13, 2017 4:33 PM

Tell me more by Isaac

"Same here," Isaac replied. He remembered almost lighting his house up once at eleven because he was trying to build his own fire in the backyard. His mom didn't enjoy camping in the outdoors much and would never let him touch the fireplace in their house, so he decided to take matters into his own hands. It had worked well enough, but he just hadn't considered the Santa Ana winds or how easily flammable the rest of his yard was. Luckily, his older sister was an expert with the garden hose. It was a secret he and Lauren had sworn to take to their graves. Except he'd told his best friends, so there was that.

"What, that's so cool! I've never met someone who's family was in the circus. Actually, I don't think I've ever been to a circus. That's super cool though. What do your cousins do when they party?" Isaac imagined adults who drank a lot and went clubbing like he saw in TV and movies. Typical New Year's Eve parties looked like a lot of fun and Isaac couldn't wait till he could join that scene.

"I feel like a lot happened this winter break. A lot of changes, anyway. My friends and I go on a snowboarding trip once a year between Christmas and New Year's. It wasn't that great this year cause it was raining more than it wasn't, but we had a great time together. One of my friends just got a girlfriend so we talked a lot about that. He wanted to bring her, but I didn't think it was the best idea since they just started going out. It was also the first holiday season my little sister wasn't with us, so that was kind of sad. She started school in Korea to be closer to my dad so she's with him during the holiday seasons now I guess."

Apparently he'd had more to say than he'd realized and Isaac stopped to take a breath. "That was a lot, sorry. I can talk a lot sometimes." One thing he loved about his house was how everyone seemed to just get each other, and he didn't feel as bad knowing that there were other people in his house that also liked to talk.

19 Isaac Tell me more 375 Isaac 0 5

Kyte

November 13, 2017 6:43 PM

It's all pretty awesome by Kyte

“Thanks,” Kyte grinned, when Isaac exclaimed that what he did was super cool. It was. He never got why Raine was so self-conscious about the whole thing. She was worried people would name call or make fun of them - this was something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as she, being more self-conscious, and children being able to sense this weakness came in for far more flack, whilst Kyte had always had the easy knack of laughing at himself which stopped other people doing it, plus the added bonus of being male, which made it easier to get away with being goofy. “You’ve never been?” he asked shocked. “What town are you from? We can totally sort you out next summer.

“They bring booze and stuff to smoke,” he answered, when asked about partying with his cousins, “We do tricks until people are too wasted. It can be like… crazy, or you can just find space and make it chill, depends what you’re into.

“You’re cool, man,” he shrugged off the apology. “Raine - my twin, Teppenpaw - says I talk too much too, but she hardly says anything, so I figure one of us has to. And how can someone talk ‘too much’? Talking’s fun. It’s nice. It’d suck if people sat around in silence. And you snowboard? That’s pretty rad! What’s the best trick you can do?” he asked. “And lucky your mate…. I wish the girls here were a bit more willing to get casual.”

13 Kyte It's all pretty awesome 335 Kyte 0 5

Isaac

November 14, 2017 1:49 AM

Sure sounds like it by Isaac

"What sorts of tricks can you do?" he asked curiously. Isaac had never tried to learn how to juggle or do magic tricks on his own, but he thought it was super cool when someone else could do it. "I sometimes see one of my neighbors ride a unicycle sometimes, but that's about as close as I get," he laughed. "I live in Los Angeles. You'd think there'd be a lot of circus performers in Hollywood, but I guess I just don't see them. My mom's never taken us to the circus either, even when we were little. It would be so cool to see you guys perform this summer!" Isaac was stoked he was making friends with really interesting classmates. Some of his peers seemed pretty pretentious--definitely not his style.

Kyte's cousins did sound pretty wild. Isaac raised his eyebrows in wonder. "That sounds cool," he said. "I've only seen people do that kinda stuff in movies, and my dad likes to drink a lot. I caught him smoking too, but only when my mom's not around to see or smell it. I'm always down for crazy." Isaac grinned. "Have you ever tried that stuff or do you just do tricks for people?"

"Hey, my sister's in Teppenpaw too. She's a seventh year though. When she's comfortable she can talk a ton, but she's not always super comfortable with everyone. Glad we can relate on that level though." Isaac grinned. Kyte was pretty cool in a number of ways and Isaac was enjoying the older boy's company.

"Probably the hardest thing I know how to do right now is ride a rail. It was hard to learn and keep my balance, but I finally got it last year. My favorite thing to do is just go off jumps as high as I dare to and do method grabs. I wish I could go snowboarding more often, but I don't always have a ride. I can't wait to learn how to drive my mom's car and learn how to Apparate so I can get there on my own. My friend Drake always rents a cabin up there in the winter--he's the one with the girlfriend--and knows how to do a ton of cool tricks since he practically lives there in the winters."

Isaac took a breath to drink some juice, but he had a lot to say about Kyte's next comment. "I know what you mean, the girls here are super pretty, but a lot of them are pretty stuck up." Sometimes, when Isaac thought a girl was super pretty, he felt things he'd never experienced before. Sometimes, even if he wasn't doing anything, his thoughts would wander to pretty inappropriate things and he felt embarrassed about it. He guessed it was normal with all the memes he'd read about being a teenage boy, but he never ever ever wanted to talk about it with anyone in his family, even his mom.

"But if you had a choice, who would you date from here?" Isaac asked as he started stuffing his face again. "I mean, if you're not dating anyone already."

19 Isaac Sure sounds like it 375 Isaac 0 5

Jozua

November 14, 2017 11:18 AM

on resolutions and green beans by Jozua

“No, not really,” Jozua denied the existence of any resolutions for either the new year or the remainder of his Sonora career. He considered the possibility of rectify the lack but couldn’t think of anything he really wanted to change. The dueling club was doing well. His grades were decent. His Quidditch skills were still quite awful, but he didn’t think a resolution would change that. He hadn’t blown up anything in a few weeks, but there had been a major holiday cramping his style. He’d fix that soon enough. It was getting harder to make the explosions look accidental these days, and he figured it would only get worse as he advanced into the ‘older half’ of the school where he’d be expected to ‘know better’, but getting away with it was half the fun and most of the challenge anymore.

“Can’t think of anything to resolve to do,” he admitted. “I think I’m pretty well set already. What about you, any New Years Resolutions for you?” Turnabout was always fair play, so he figured there was no harm in asking, in case Joe had a bright idea Jozua hadn’t considered yet.

He had by now finished filling his plate with as much food as he thought he could handle and still have room for dessert, and took a moment to plan his attack on the contents of his plate. He’d start with the green beans, he decided. He’d taken just a few, to assuage the voice of his conscience (which sounded a lot like his mom’s when it came to vegetables), and he wanted to get them over and done with as quickly as possible. He managed to get a third of them on his fork, for his first bite, and anticipated two more such forkfuls would be the end of that unpleasantness. Not that he disliked green beans exactly, they were better than most vegetables, especially with browned butter like these had, but relative to everything else on his plate, they were the weakest link.

1 Jozua on resolutions and green beans 348 Jozua 0 5

Georgia

November 14, 2017 5:53 PM

Welcome to Teppenpaw. It's pretty huggy. by Georgia

“I’m not sure… My mom didn’t go here, but she doesn’t share a lot of school stories,” she’d mentioned to Zevalyn before about how her mother, in spite of being a witch, had not really told her much “I think she had houses at hers… But I’m not sure if it’s more of a wizard-thing or a boarding school thing. I guess it’s kind of nice… Like, going into Teppenpaw or going into my dorm feels a bit like having a home, or a place that’s mine at least. Kind of. Mine and Juniper’s anyway… But I’m not about to be a fully signed up member of any like… house pride squad. But maybe that’s a Tepp thing, seeing as we want to get on with everyone. It doesn’t exactly go with being like ‘hey, we’re the best.’ How about you? Feeling like waving that Aladren flag?” she smiled. She got the impression that Aladren could be a lot more like that about itself. Not that she’d met any who were in an obnoxious way.

“Ouch. Poor you,” she sighed as Zevalyn said she’d given up most of her holidays again. At least she’d been able to see her folks though. “Hopefully you’re all caught up in time to help me through the exams,” she grinned. And then worrying how that sounded - she didn’t want Zevalyn to think she was stupid - she added, “Joking. Mostly. I mean, I do ok, but when I hear some of the assignments the fifth years get, it goes over my head. Hopefully by the time I’m an actual fifth year though I’ll get it. Though what is up with the grading system here?” she groaned, revisiting the common theme that made her feel at home around Zevalyn - the oddities of the wizarding world. The first time she’d got an ‘A’ she had been super delighted, never having got one before, until she found out that it wasn’t what she’d thought… “Would it really have hurt them to use the alphabet in like… the same way as the rest of the world?

“Um. I’m in the choir,” she admitted, with a little embarrassment. She was still sort of self-conscious about that fact, as if it might lead to immediate demands that she sing. She decided not to mention that she’d half joined the Quidditch team, because it seemed like it wasn’t going to count for this year, and she was pretty sure that last year at the feast she and Zevalyn had decided anyone who wanted to play must be crazy. She was still pretty sure that was true in spite of having checked it out, but she didn’t need her friend to think it about her too. “What would you join?” she asked.

13 Georgia Welcome to Teppenpaw. It's pretty huggy. 346 Georgia 0 5

Lily Spencer

November 15, 2017 3:30 AM

Coping. by Lily Spencer

Lily slipped into her seat at the Pecari table, quieter than usual, hair tucked away under a cap and her coat still on. There were still bits of snow resting on her shoulders. She didn’t say anything as the Headmaster gave his speech nor did she say a word to anyone else as she began tucking into her meal. All she wanted was soup and it was soup she got. Lily rubbed her nose against her arm before she ladled some hot chicken soup into a bowl. It took her a bit longer since not all of her spoonfuls were free of those horrid vegetables.

Something had come over Lily over the holiday, something strange and frightening. She had tried to ignore it for the past week since it'd happened, but there was no use. It was like an enormous, black, wretched creature hanging onto her back and not letting her go.

She was also ill.

The soup was hot and she burnt her tongue with her first sip. She exclaimed an expletive, and then apologised. “Burnt my tongue, see,” she said without bothering to be friendly about it.

As she sipped her soup, soothing as it went down her scratchy throat, she glanced around at her house-mates. She tried to figure out what they all might be thinking, chatting as they were. What they thought of the school, of the professors, of each other, of her. Lily closed her eyes and let the steam caress her face for a moment. What she really wanted was to curl up in bed and have someone hold her, preferably a wizard. She took a deep breath and started drinking her soup again.

This past holiday was the last time she’d chatted to the guys. They’d drifted apart from her since she was gone for most of the year at her elusive boarding school with no contact. They hardly seemed to even think of her until she rang them using one of the telephone booths. She'd tried to ignore it when she started to feel the division during the summer, but now she wasn’t and couldn’t be one of the guys anymore. Yet Lily was fine with that. She didn’t want to think of the incident that had happened to sever that contact between them for good. Lily was glad to be back, even if it was cold and snowy here still. Here, at least she could forget about it and be surrounded by friends. If they even considered her a real friend.

“You’re cool, Lily. Good to have around for a bit, anyway. It’s just a bit, you know, childish now, innit? Having a girl hang around with us. What’d our girlfriends think?”

Lily squeezed her eyes shut for a second to dispel those awful words from her thoughts. She took a deep breath again and an acute, brief pain made her wince. As if her sore throat wasn’t enough, her entire body was aching. She was most certainly not looking forward to classes tomorrow.

“I don’t think you should hang out with us anymore, Lily. You're just—"

“Corking weather, isn’t it? Weather charms are brilliant,” she blurted out to her neighbour, then immediately regret it. “Sorry, I’m a bit ill, but I don’t think it’s too contagious.”

40 Lily Spencer Coping. 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Ben Pierce

November 15, 2017 1:31 PM

It’s like a warm cozy fire at a ski lodge by Ben Pierce

Ben nodded in understanding and acknowledgement as Kir talked about his holidays. They sounded pretty similar to his own, though Ben hadn’t been recruited for bell ringing this year, thank Merlin. He’d also missed the fancy fundraising shindigs - he thought Aunt Bel and Gramelia might have gone to a couple of those, too, but it wasn’t really Ben’s immediate family’s scene. Mom was too busy doctoring most of the time, and Dad was just glad to be disowned so he didn’t have to go to those things anymore. Ben was quite happy to avoid the suit wearing.

“Yeah, I think so,” Ben confirmed Bel’s presence at the New Years party tentatively. “She said she’d take me when I’m 21 and not a day earlier.” He grinned at Kir, “Some people get all the luck.”

“Seriously though,” he added, “that’s when Uncle Four takes me out to the mountains, though, so I get a good New Years party at the ski lodge. My aunt Reggie’s dad has a cabin in Colorado they like to rent together for a week over New Years, and they know I love skiing so they invite me along, too. Do you do your skiing mostly in Vermont, or do you travel, too? When I was younger, we’d ski in New England more, but now I only have two weeks at home in winter, so I’ve just been hitting the Rockies lately. Reggie and Four haven’t been making it out much either, because my cousin is still too little for it. So out in Colorado, we swapped off playing with Cole and skiing. There were enough of us to make that work out. Do you have any cousins?”

1 Ben Pierce It’s like a warm cozy fire at a ski lodge 339 Ben Pierce 0 5

Ginger

November 15, 2017 2:32 PM

Me, too, a little bit by Ginger

Ginger nodded emphatically to close the circle of mutual agreement that this being their last Returning Feast was weird. For seven years, this had been a staple of her January, every bit as important as the New Years fireworks at the Hernadez hacienda. And from now one, she’d never have one again. It was an end of an era, and sometimes Ginger worried all the ‘lasts’ happening this final semester might tip her into mild depression. How did seventh years do this every year without breaking down? And she wasn’t even a person who had particularly liked school. How did the Aladrens deal with this? Well, she guessed, they were probably planning for college.

“Nah, not really,” she denied having any post Sonora plans. “Catch up with Jake. I’ll probably be visiting him up in Portland a bunch next year - he’s starting college up there - but I’m done with school, I think. I’ll probably take a bigger role in the family business. Figure I’ll eventually have a kid, but no rush there. You think you’ll have a family of your own someday? Longterm, obviously. If things work out for that.” She smiled wryly, to show she wasn’t trying to rush her friend into any important life decisions.

“I can’t even imagine what we’ll have going on in our lives twenty years from now.” She laughed and looked at Lauren. “Our kids could be sitting right here.” She shook her head wonderingly. “If we do fall out of contact, and I’m not planning to do that at all, but sometimes life just gets away from you, especially with kids, you know? But let’s promise at least to send each other long letters about what’s going on in our lives with our Christmas cards, so we’ll always be friends.” Ginger tried her best not to tear up at the idea that time might weather away the bonds they’d built as roommates here.

1 Ginger Me, too, a little bit 302 Ginger 0 5

Kyte

November 15, 2017 5:48 PM

Whiskey, women and... more women. And boys. by Kyte

“My main thing is stunt broomstick riding,” Kyte explained when Isaac asked about what tricks he could do, his mind already jumping away from the fact they’d been talking about the tricks going down at the party, where he’d mostly juggled. “So, like acrobatics… I can handstand on one, and jump an obstacle - like the boom goes under a hoop, I jump through it. That kind of thing. It’s pretty much as cool as it sounds,” he grinned. Kyte loved what he did, and saw no reason not to enjoy it, and all the glory that came with it. “I think one of my cousins brought a unicycle round once…. It’s a Muggle thing, right?” he asked, “It was funny. Ours is an all magical circus. I mean, there’s a lot of overlap between the two, and we’ve got nothing against Muggles, just sometimes I don’t know the equipment they use.

“More than tried,” he grinned, when Isaac asked whether he joined in with his cousins. “New Year got pretty messy. It was awesome.

“That’s cool! Does the MARS room do snow, or is that too complicated? Maybe you can show me some time if it does, and get some more practise too,” he suggested. He didn’t fully understand all the tricks Isaac mentioned, but that kind of thing was always easier to show than tell, and maybe they could trade some ideas. “Rails are to do with trains, right?” he added. Although he lived pretty much full time in the magical world, he moved around so much and mixed with so many people it was impossible not to cross paths with a few elements of the Muggle world, and learn a bit about it.

“If personality wasn’t a factor, Tasha is pretty hot. And I’ve seen Nevaeh in a swimsuit and that is not something you’ll forget quickly,” Nevaeh’s curves had definitely been something to keep a mental picture of - one that might, perhaps, have got slightly exaggerated over subsequent uses... “She’s pretty cool too. And she has no idea what I look like, which I’m starting to think might be a plus,” he grinned. Kyte wasn’t self-conscious enough to think about or care whether he was ugly, but he was well aware that he wasn’t exactly mainstream attractive. “Oh, and someone was saying that Louis is either gay or not exclusively into Purebloods. Maybe both. Guess it can’t hurt to ask which it is… Who’d you get with if you could?”

OOC - permission obtained from Nevaeh’s author. Scurrilous gossip about Louis at least 50% invented, like all good high school rumours.

13 Kyte Whiskey, women and... more women. And boys. 335 Kyte 0 5

Isaac

November 17, 2017 1:43 AM

I like to think we're on the way to manhood by Isaac

"Dude, that's dope." Isaac had stopped eating for a second to awe at his older housemate. Even though he liked to think of himself as pretty athletic, Isaac had never tried acrobatics or parkour or anything too different from "normal" sports. Kyte lived a pretty interesting life. There was the child in Isaac that wanted to ask if he new friend was famous, but he didn't want to seem dumb or starstruck.

The fact that Kyte had tried the stuff his cousins had was also crazy! Isaac was thoroughly impressed. "You live a pretty cool life," he replied. "Mine seems less interesting when you compare." Isaac liked his life a lot, but Kyte's was so different it fascinated him. He really wanted to know what it would be like to be in his shoes for a summer. It sounded so free-spirited. He knew that much freedom wasn't really his thing, but he still liked the sound of it.

"I have no idea if MARS does snow, it's never done it when I've gone in. If it did, complete with snowy hills and all, that'd be so awesome! Yeah, the tricks look cooler in person. These rails aren't like train ones, they're more like...like stair rails. You know, handrails I guess. Except these ones are straight instead of tilted. I skateboard too, but I'm not as good on cement as I am on snow. I should be though, if you think about it, since it doesn't even snow in L.A." Isaac tapped his chin and decided as soon as he got back home he'd start working on skateboarding tricks this summer.

Talking about girls was something a little bit new to Isaac, but he really enjoyed it. There were so many pretty girls here and at home to appreciate. Isaac's eyes drifted to the girls Kyte mentioned, still a little too innocent and shy to imagine girls in swimsuits or other skimpier wear himself.

At Kyte's last bit of gossip, Isaac's eyes snapped back to his housemate. "Really? That'd be kind of a surprise. I thought he'd be straight and into purebloods. Guess you can never tell, huh?

"I think Nevaeh is pretty hot and some of the girls in Crotalus, like Arianna Tate or Cecilia Carey. Arianna Valenti is super cool too and she plays Quidditch. I'm kinda into older girls; the younger ones seem a little more annoying to me." Isaac glanced over at the Teppenpaw table and cracked a grin. "I bet my sister would kill me if she heard me talking like this. My little sister too even if she might not know that much."

19 Isaac I like to think we're on the way to manhood 375 Isaac 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald - Pecari

November 17, 2017 4:49 AM

A Bird Fish? by Parker Fitzgerald - Pecari

Parker felt glad to be back at school, or at least he thought so. It had been awkward at home. His parents seemed to be quiet because of a lack of knowing what to ask both of their sons, both back from schools neither of them knew much about.

Parker wasn't allowed to really talk about magic with them, but he did try to discuss how he had made a sports team with his father. His father had listened intently and quietly while Parker explained Quidditch to him and the game he had played. His father then responded with: "Flying brooms? Like any old broom can fly?" Parker had tried to explain that there were special brooms, but his father’s face showed one of confusion so Parker had stopped talking about it, and about Quidditch.

Then, when he was talking to his mother about Cleo and how the Garden club, trying to think of something his mom might understand. She had asked how they met though, and Parker had made the mistake of talking about meeting in Potions class, and his mom froze, uncertain of what to do with that information. It saddened Parker, because his mom had usually taught him helpful techniques for classes, and now he was in areas she had no experience in.

Parker realized that he was already drifting a bit away from his parents. He was experiencing things and learning things that they would never understand and he didn't quite know how to process it. He was used to sharing things with his parents, but now they really couldn't help him.

His brother was there as well, and though not angry or mean, he was cold and quiet. He spent a good deal of his time in his room, and at dinner sitting quietly at the table. It was an improvement in someways, but in others it unnerved Parker. His brother had always been loud and when in the presence of adults lively. Now it was like something had been taken from him, and that not only scared Parker a little bit but made him sad.

His sister though, was still chatty. She wanted to learn more about the gardening club and hear Parker’s stories. She told him all about what had happened since he left that she hadn’t put into letters and talked about how quiet the house was now that she was there alone.

For Christmas he hadn’t known what to ask for exactly, as he knew his parents couldn’t buy him any of the things that he needed or wanted for school. And he also couldn’t bring them magical items for gifts so it had been difficult to figure out.

Parker had been able to go with his mother on her rounds like he had been planning to the day he found out he was going to Sonora, and was finally able to see the old man on the reservation. Parker explained why he hadn’t been there for a while and the old man had just smiled and nodded.

The old man had told Parker about the Bird Fish. The creature had been born into the world of fish without knowing it was also a bird, but once it found out also found they couldn’t be accepted into the world of the birds. Yet knowing both worlds gave the bird fish more power than either as the bird fish could do things those in one world or the other could not.

Parker had left the conversation more confused than before, and had stayed confused all the way to school. So as he got off the wagon and saw the snow on the ground and some people playing with snowballs he smiled and to his surprise found some tears at the corner of his eyes. Parker had jumped off the wagon and enjoyed the snow with everyone else before going in to eat.

As he sat down at the Pecari table looked around smiling at the rest of his house. They weren’t all bird fish, or even fish birds, but those he had gotten to know in the house were comfortable with the in between. These wild boars, were more like his fish-bird self and he felt more at home.

He turned to the person next to him smiling and asked, “Any good stories from break?” reading to tell the story of the Bird Fish if asked in return.

41 Parker Fitzgerald - Pecari A Bird Fish? 1402 Parker Fitzgerald - Pecari 0 5

Kir

November 18, 2017 7:17 AM

With hot chocolate by Kir

“Well, I’ll look forward to seeing you then,” Kir grinned, amused at Bel’s ruling on when Ben would be allowed to attend their New Year gathering.

“That sounds fun. We’ve been all over. My dad and aunt only moved to the US when they started school, and then they were back in Scotland every holiday. Well until... until Auntie Catriona ran away with Aunt Lola, and then my dad followed a few years later,” it felt comfortable talking to Ben. Not that Kir hid his family details or background from other people, but he didn’t always feel he could be so direct about it all with some people. “So, anyway, they’re pretty keen to see lots of different parts of it, and Canada too. And no, no cousins… I guess Auntie Catriona and Aunt Lola could adopt, but they have the foundation, and they have me and Nessa - my sister. And my mum’s an only child. I mean, I guess I might have second cousins or whatever they are back in Scotland, but not ones that would acknowledge our existence. Sometimes it’s great - we get all the attention. And sometimes it’s a bit much - we get all the attention,” he smiled wryly. “I guess it’d probably be nice to have cousins,” he acknowledged. He sometimes was a little envious of other people’s families, but he had what he had, and it was awesome in its own ways, “but we get the company of other kids by coming to school,” he shrugged, “Or hanging out with other foundation people’s kids. And my parents know some pretty cool adults. Is Cole your only one?”

13 Kir With hot chocolate 366 Kir 0 5

Lauren

November 19, 2017 3:45 PM

The real world is scary! by Lauren

The first day Lauren had walked into Cascade Hall, she had been a tiny eleven-year-old scared by all of these new people and afraid she wouldn't be able to find good friends to hang out with. She would never forget how happy she'd felt when she and her roommates bonded over decorating their dorm room. After that, she always looked forward to that tradition every year. It was one of the best parts of the year. "Oh, good for Jake! That'll be exciting for him. I've never been to Portland, but I do hear it's rainier than the Los Angeles area for sure."

It was a little comforting to hear that Ginger was done with school too. It didn't seem as common to go to college for magical folks compared to non-magical ones. Maybe moving to a magical community would be better for her. The high pressures and fast-lifestyle in Los Angeles just wasn't really her scene. Besides, it could be cool being able to be really open about her magic.

Lauren smiled, imagining life twenty years from now. "That's crazy," she agreed. If she managed to find "The One" and have kids, maybe that was possible. The thought made Lauren smile again. "I'm not planning to lose contact either," she said resolutely. "But even we get super busy and can't talk as often, you and Jemima will always be my best friends no matter what. I think long Christmas letters will be perfect. At least then we can keep each other accountable. Yeah, I definitely want to have kids someday. I'd love to be a mom. It would be crazy, but I think I'd love it. I just need to find the right guy." Lauren hadn't really dated much, barely at all, but she'd never been as crazy about it. It was just lucky that both Ginger and Jemima had found their significant other here. Lauren suddenly gasped.

"Oh! I almost forgot I brought you and Jemima Christmas presents." She dug into her bag and then felt a little shy. "Well, it's not much." She handed the small wrapped package to Ginger. Inside was a rose gold infinity bracelet with a little circle charm that had a 'G' engraved on it. Lauren had a matching one, except her charm had an 'L' while Jemima's had a 'J.' Once Ginger opened the package, Lauren would lift up her sleeve and show her hers with a big smile. "Friends forever, right?"

19 Lauren The real world is scary! 303 Lauren 0 5

Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

November 21, 2017 6:45 AM

Probably more on the bird side by Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

Christmas had been a little strange. It had been getting quieter for years. Now that Barnabus worked, he wasn’t around for all the parties in the run up, but that was pretty normal by now. But now Francesca was married. She had come to them on Christmas Eve but spent the actual day with her in-laws. And that was only going to get worse. Owen Brockert hadn’t put a ring on Jemima’s finger yet, but it was surely only a matter of time. The boys… the boys she wasn’t so sure about. Theodore never mentioned anyone. Jemima had pointed out the way that Barnabus talked about his secretary, and that it seemed like he was decidedly fond of her in more than an employer/employee kind of way. Ingrid had to take her sister’s word for that, she wasn’t big into subtlety. If people liked each other, she thought they should just say it, not sit blushing subtly into the china when questioned by their families. That didn’t get you anywhere.

At the feast, she found herself next to Pecari’s newest Quidditch recruit, which she guessed was sort of a good thing in terms of team bonding, and making him feel at home and stuff, but she wasn’t particularly convinced that she had much common ground with a first year, Muggleborn boy. At least they did have Quidditch in common.

His question was a slight variation on the usual ‘how was your holidays’ and did prompt her to think a bit more.

“My brothers, my oldest sister and me had a broom-back snowball fight. We do most years, but it’s pretty much my favourite bit of the holidays. And it’s nice cos normally Theodore is Mr. Serious about everything, and they’re all quite grown up now. I’m glad they still want to do it. How about you?” she asked.

13 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte Probably more on the bird side 322 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Ruby

November 21, 2017 9:04 PM

Hopefully by Ruby

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

Ben

November 22, 2017 11:21 AM

And cookies by Ben

Ben grinned back and agreed, “Absolutely,” to Kir’s encouragement to come to the Foundation’s New Years party when he was 21. He suspected he could probably cajole Bel to take him once he was graduated from Sonora, but Bel could be a bit of a prude sometimes and an auror always, so maybe not. If he drank even a sip of alcohol as a minor and her guest, she could get in trouble, so he supposed he understood her reluctance.

He nodded in sympathetic understanding to Kir’s woes of not having cousins. Cole was only a year and a half old, so he’d been in the same boat when he’d been Kir’s age, and he hadn’t had the advantage of a sibling to share some of the attention with. And he had three grandmas to be tutted over by. Four, if you counted Great-Aunt Lauren, which he did. Three, if you didn’t count Gramelia, because she didn’t tut.

“Yeah, Cole’s my only cousin,” he confirmed. “Uncle Four and Aunt Reggie might have more later - Cole’s not even two yet, but for now he’s an only child. Aunt Bel . . . thankfully has no offspring.” He grinned wryly, though that would surely come as no surprise since Kir probably knew her well enough to realize she rarely dated (and when she did, it was with girls) and wasn’t exactly, ah, good with kids. "And Mom's an only child."

1 Ben And cookies 339 Ben 0 5

Joe

November 22, 2017 9:41 PM

On international cuisine. by Joe

“In a manner of speaking,” admitted Joe when Jozua asked if he had jumped on the New Year’s Resolution bandwagon. “It’s not so much resolving to do something as to avoid doing something. There’s a little voice in the back of my head which says I could do as well on my CATS as my brother did if I made myself completely miserable for the rest of the year, so I’m resolving to ignore it.”

He did hope he could do this, as the exercise would not only be painful if attempted, but stupid. He had already lost that game, because even if he pulled off the exact same scores, he wouldn’t do it as easily as John had. He also thought pulling off the exact same scores would be next to impossible in the first place, and exhausting himself might even prove counterproductive. So there was that, though he hadn’t thought of it as a resolution until just now.

He turned his attention to his own plate. “Logically I know the cooking here is no better or worse than my family’s,” he observed, “but I always miss what I have there when I get back here – I don’t know if it’s in my head or if it’s just American ingredients or something.”

16 Joe On international cuisine. 329 Joe 0 5

Dorian

November 25, 2017 2:29 PM

Let's get planning by Dorian

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

To have fun? by Ruby

"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

Parker Fitzgerald

December 07, 2017 10:21 AM

Birds of a feather by Parker Fitzgerald

Parker always felt a bit awkward next to Ingrid for some reason. He felt like he was being held to some standard that he didn't fully understand. Still, she always seemed nice, and she had let him borrow that great broom he was able to fly.

Parker listened to Ingrid's story. A broom-back snowball fight! That sounded like a lot of fun, and explained why she was so good on a broom. Lots of practice. Something he hadn't been able to do while he was home, or at least he had been told he wasn't allowed to. He still did, just as far away from anyone as he could find.

Parker didn't know who Theodore was, but it seemed that Theodore was an older brother who probably wasn't at school anymore so Parker wouldn't be able to put a face to the name.

"That sounds like a lot of fun!" Parker said. "Why doesn't the school do something like that for first years to practice their flying? It would work so well, and be a lot of fun."

Parker then thought about how to begin his story about the old man.

"My mom goes on nursing rounds to a Native American reservation, and I got to see my friend there who is an old medicine man. He told me that I seemed different and told me a story about the bird fish. A fish born in the fish world who could fly like a bird. So was caught between both the fish world and the bird world, realizing in the end that both had things for the other. I liked the story, but still don't fully understand everything. Either way, I thought it was cool. He also gave me an eagle feather, he said to help me be more of a bird.”

Parker pulled out the eagle feather from his pocket.

“I know it’s stupid, but it was a nice gift,” Parker said placing it on the table.

41 Parker Fitzgerald Birds of a feather 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Ingrid

December 07, 2017 11:57 PM

Play Quidditch as a well bonded team by Ingrid

“Maybe we can include it as a training exercise,” Ingrid agreed, when Parker mentioned how much fun a broomstick snowball fight sounded, and that they should do them at school. To her, it was one of those goofy things you just did in the holidays with family but she supposed it was all useful flying practise, and probably team bonding and stuff like that. Stuff that she’d be responsible for next year. She would have to bond with people like Parker, and make sure other people did. Not that she didn’t have to do that now - they were on the chasing team together, and had to work well together - but it hit her how much she’d be responsible for team dynamics. She knew she had the Quidditch part down, but that part hadn’t really occurred to her before. She didn’t have anything against Parker. Not really. Not as a specific human, so much as a type, anyway. But she felt like there was this huge chasm in terms of age, and life experience. Plus she was the youngest of five. It was weird to suddenly be the big kid who was supposed to look after all the little ones and make sure they got on or whatever. People had always done that for her, not the other way around.

Parker seemed to have a fairly long story about his holiday. Ingrid listened whilst loading her plate up with food.

“Like you,” she commented, when he finished his story about the birdfish and it living in two different worlds. Ingrid wasn’t the most bookish person but it didn’t take much to see the symbolism at work there. She wasn’t quite sure about the birdfish finding out that both worlds had things to offer. She didn’t think that part translated very well to the wizarding world, which kept itself secret from the Muggles who would only want to take advantage of it owing to its vastly superior resources. Personally, she thought it sounded kind of sucky and confusing being a birdfish. She twirled a piece of spaghetti on her fork trying to think of something else to say but it was really difficult. She didn’t get what Parker’s life was like, and couldn’t imagine. She knew that Muggleborns couldn’t really help it, not like halfbloods whose parents had made them occupy both worlds on purpose, but it didn’t make them any easier to handle.

“It’s not stupid,” she assured him. At least that part was easy, and it was true. When she had been Parker’s age, she had been into collecting pretty feathers and nice rocks. She still did sometimes. And the old guy obviously meant it from the heart, and there was the whole nice story to go with it. Whilst those might have been reassuring things to tell him, Ingrid wasn’t much of an open up and express your feelings kind of person. Unless that feeling was anger, and the person was Louis. That was easier. She glanced across at the Aladren table, where her yearmate was sitting... “So, how is it being back up in the air, birdfish?” she asked, returning her attention to Parker. She wished Jemima was here. Her sister was much better at people and all that feelingsy stuff.

13 Ingrid Play Quidditch as a well bonded team 322 Ingrid 0 5