Up, up, and away! on Quidditch Pitch

The Coach

December 27, 2019 6:33 PM

Flying lessons for first years! by The Coach

The first year class had, as a group, responded to the Quidditch sign-up sheet with considerable enthusiasm. No fewer than three of the girls had signed up for the team, and they ensured that said team would be able to form this year.

Before that could happen, though, those three first years - along with all their classmates - needed to master the basics of flying on a flying broomstick. This was where the Coach came back into their lives. While the second years enjoyed a free period, the first years were gathered on the Quidditch Pitch.

"Welcome to flying lessons, everyone," said the Coach. "If you don't have a broom, you can get one from the broom shed over there. If you have your own, then start the line and put your broom beside you on your wand-hand side. We're going to begin all together, with everyone demonstrating that they can get their broom in the air."

Once all the first years were in line and standing next to a broom of some description (the school brooms were nowhere near new, but were well-maintained, without broken twigs or cracks in the wooden bodies - the coach had seen to this personally during the staff prep days leading up to the new school year), the coach called them to attention. "Getting a broom in the air is fairly simple," said the Coach. "Extend your wand hand over the broom and say 'up' in a strong, firm tone. Then, once your broom rises to your hand, mount the broom.

"When you have done this, I'll check your grip, and then you may kick off. Once that is done, experienced fliers may go enjoy some free flying time while the rest of us work on hovering and moving back and forth." Scintillating material, no doubt, but it was what it was. Everyone had to start somewhere. "Any questions? If not...begin saying 'up'."

OOC: Welcome to flying lessons! As with all classes, posts will be scored on length, relevance, and creativity, along with adhering to all site rules. You may godmod the coach approving your grip and hovering if your character is a more advanced flier. Add a tag if there's something dangerous going on, and ask any staff member in the OOC or Chatzy (as the Coach is a shared character) if you have any questions out of character. Be realistic and have fun!

Subthreads:

Up, up, and away! by Mara Morales with Mab

It's not working [Tag The Coach] by Joanna Rose-Turner with The Coach

Lessons, check! Brooms, check! Flying, uh, please hold by Josephine Clyde

16 The Coach Flying lessons for first years! 0 The Coach 1 5

Mara Morales

December 28, 2019 11:50 AM

Up, up, and away! by Mara Morales

It was a fact universally acknowledged that witches flew around on broomsticks, which was why when Jessica had told her that P.E. at Sonora constituted a single course of learning to fly on a broomstick, Mara had laughed. She had even suspected for a moment, anyway, that perhaps her sister was pulling her leg. Mara had spent her fair share of time looking at the sky, after all, and all the flying objects she had ever seen had been very definitely identifiable. If there were enough wizards to form a school, there had to be enough for a few of them besides just Jessica to live in Atlanta, because there were a few of everything that existed in Atlanta. So why had she never seen anyone on a flying broomstick outside of a TV or movie screen?

Apparently, though, there was an explanation, because here Mara was, in an even smaller class than usual, standing beside a broomstick which looked very weird (what the heck was up with its broom end? Who was going to try to sweep a floor with sticks? Plus that handle didn't look like it had an ideal grip either) and acting as though she thoroughly expected it to rise up in the air when she said 'up' firmly enough.

She listened to the teacher, her dark eyebrows nearly touching. Everything else said they needed the wands to make the magic go. They could not just say the abracadabra words and make stuff happen, at least not very well - they had to have the wands. They were like lightning rods that made the magic follow a path instead of just setting the house on fire. So why did the brooms work without the wand to make them go? Was it because they were both made of wood? Was wood some kind of...magic super-conductor? Could she do other spells without a wand on random wooden objects?

She made a mental note to cut a pencil in half later (an unexpected advantage to being actually expected to have a knife in her possession on campus, something which was in its way more alien than anything else about Sonora, because a student at her old school in Atlanta would have been in the YDC in a heartbeat for that) and try some stuff on the wood part. For now, flying was interesting enough to direct her attention to it, if only she could get the broom to go up.

"Up," she said firmly, her accent only slightly softening the edges of the word. The broom did not move. She frowned and tried again, this time trying to imitate her mama when she was trying to get Mara and Lola to pick up their things. Her brain skipped a step, though, and it came out..."Subida!" she commanded the broom sharply, and it did leap up from the earth - only to fall again before it reached her hand. It was, however, a result, and seemed to be close to the result she had wanted. She looked at it, tilting her head a little. "Interesting," she remarked, to nobody in particular.

16 Mara Morales Up, up, and away! 1472 0 5

Joanna Rose-Turner

January 03, 2020 10:50 PM

It's not working [Tag The Coach] by Joanna Rose-Turner

Broom shed, ok.

Jo couldn’t keep in all of her excitement, she had lost sleep just thinking about starting to learn how to fly and how amazing it would be. She couldn’t wait to get up into the air and finally see for herself what birds, bats, and insects saw.

All she could do to steady herself was take in the instructions of the coach, so she did as she was told and started making her way to the broom shed.

Despite how excited she had been when her parents told her about the prospect of flying with the quidditch team, they had not relented when she begged them to buy her a broom. She knew it wasn’t something they could have easily afforded, sure, but there was nothing else she had wanted quite so much in her whole life. Even when she had begged them for the newest Nintendo system, she felt no where near as strongly. It was a “rite of passage” they kept saying to her.

Whatever, she’d get to fly now no matter what.

The shed and its brooms actually looked nicer than expected. Everything was nicely organized and clean. Thankfully there also weren’t too many others who were taking brooms from here, so she mostly had her pick of the lot. She picked a broom with the tidiest end and the smoothest grip, before hauling it back to the pitch.

Now for the good part.

She did as instructed and placed the broom beside her right hand on the ground. There was a huge smile on her face, her dreams were finally about to come true. In one command, it’d all start coming together into reality.

“Up!” she yelled.

The broom didn’t budge.

“UP!!” she yelled louder.

And still, the broom did not budge.

Excitement turned slowly into panic, as Jo tried to call the broom three, four, five more times without a single result.

What was happening? What was wrong with her?

Tears started to well up in her eyes.

She tried two more times, still unsuccessfully.

She hoped desperately that the coach would just come by and help upon seeing her crying. She felt too humiliated already to ask for help in front of everyone else.

By now, no one else would really notice her being on the verge of tears, but if she spoke her voice would give it away to everyone, and the tears would start rolling down her cheeks.

She looked intensely over at the coach to get their attention.

43 Joanna Rose-Turner It's not working [Tag The Coach] 1478 0 5

The Coach

January 05, 2020 3:30 PM

Easy does it. by The Coach

The part of class where the students worked on getting their brooms into the air was one of the more relaxed ones, for the coach. For the majority of the class, the coach had to be on high alert, watching everywhere at once to make sure that students didn't fall from dangerous heights or attempt dangerous stunts or do anything else exceptionally foolish, by design or from ignorance. Either could result in serious injuries and therefore required discouragement.

Even in this part of the class, though, there was a certain amount of watchfulness which was necessary. Any student could get their broom in the air and do something foolish at any moment, after all. Slightly less likely, it was also possible that a student could start to have a breakdown and require attention, both for their own sake and the group's.

Today was a case of the latter happening. Seeing one girl beginning to cry, the coach approached her.

"Everything ok?" asked the coach. "Broom not cooperating? If you're too upset, then it's less likely to respond," said the coach, noticing that the girl's broom was on the ground still and imagining this was likely part of the problem. "Do you need to take a minute to catch your breath?"

16 The Coach Easy does it. 0 The Coach 0 5

Mab

January 07, 2020 3:40 PM

Something is lacking in ‘up!’ as a spellword by Mab

Mab stared down at the strange contraption that only technically met the definition of a broom. This was not the item traditional halloween witches carried around or people used to sweep the dirt off their front porch. This was the aerodynamic high-performance sporty fourth cousin twice removed from that broom. Mostly it looked like the sweeping bristles were what got removed, but the shape of the handle was warped as well.

The instructions for what she was supposed to do with the thing were every bit as unexpected as the thing itself. Up? Just up? She’d been in a few classes by now, and weren’t magical words supposed to sound vaguely latin-ish? If Fey did have their own secret language, she was beginning to suspect either it had a Latin base, or maybe the causality was the other way around and Latin evolved from it.

‘Up’ was very clearly straight up boring old English, however. Who got away with making English spell words? Weren’t there censors or quality spell police to stop that sort of cross-over with vanilla humans?

Well, at least her Boston accent shouldn’t get too much in the way of it this time.

She put her hand out over the broom. “Up!” she declared to no visible effect. Well, this was supposed to be like gym class, right? She tried to put some arm muscle into it. “Up!” Still nothing.

She glanced to her neighbor just as the other declared a word other than ‘Up!’ and it actually moved.

“I knew it!” Mab declared, pointing at the other girl. “English isn’t as magical!”

1 Mab Something is lacking in ‘up!’ as a spellword 1473 0 5

Mara Morales

January 17, 2020 10:20 AM

You aren't wrong. by Mara Morales

Mara had always been slightly conscious of having an accent, to one degree or another, in one direction or another, but she thought that Sonora was probably gonna cure her of that real quick. Quick, fast, and in a hurry, as Dad would say, at this rate. For one thing, Morgan sounded a lot more like a stereotypical Southerner than Mara did (though Mara had to assume, since the other first year had both got into the smart people House and so far refrained from calling Mara 'a Mexican', that Morgan was also not a true stereotypical Southerner), and for another, her neighbor was so clearly from Boston that Mara was slightly startled. She had always assumed the Boston accents she'd heard on TV were at least a little fake, but possibly, in light of this development, not.

"I don't know if that's it," she replied, noticing how slowly she said her words compared to the other girl. "That was just Spanish," she explained. "What I said, I mean. Just...regular Spanish. I just was thinking about the way my mom sounds when she's getting fed up with me or my little sister not doing something she told us to." Mara frowned at the broom. "I wonder if...like, Mamá, she's from Colombia. She learned Spanish first. She can't do any magic, but if she could, would it work better if she said 'up' in English?"

Mara didn't like that thought. She did not like it at all. It implied this was all a little...spooky, a little airy and bendable. Mara did not like energy sources that were not utterly predictable. The world would go to pot real quick, fast, and in two hurries if one day, people could just stick forks in light sockets without any clue whether they would get shocked or not, or if it depended on who had first used the fork in question.

"Maybe if we point our wand-sticks at it and say 'up', it'll do something?" she hazarded a guess. "I read that wands are, like...lenses or something, they focus the magic in one place, but in class we're all speaking Latin or something. It's weird. To me, anyway," she amended. "You new to all this, too?"

16 Mara Morales You aren't wrong. 1472 0 5

Josephine Clyde

January 18, 2020 2:21 AM

Lessons, check! Brooms, check! Flying, uh, please hold by Josephine Clyde

Wands and potions were something she’d been expecting at Sonora. They fit with being a witch, but there were no pointy hats or cackling laughs and black cats, though she did see some cats, none of them were black. But brooms. Brooms she’d been expecting because her father wouldn’t stop talking about his glory days in Quidditch whatever that was. He had been a Beater. Whatever that was.

Josie marched over to the broom shed, still a little shocked that people actually owned their own brooms, and pulled out a sturdy looking one. She’d been expecting them to look like the one she had at home, but these were sleeker. It was like comparing a fish to a dolphin. Sleek dolphins they might be, but a broom was a broom and it was still thin. Would something like this really be able to fly with her on it?

Placing it on the ground she held her right hand over it and, “Up.” She didn’t not whisper at it, but she definitely didn’t say it strongly, firmly or with any kind of tone. Ugh. What was wrong with her? It was just a pile of wood. Might as well be a book.

“Up!”

And the broom came all but rocketing up into her hand. Well. Okay then. Josie looked around and saw some of the other students were still shouting at theirs. She waved the Coach over and, after making some adjustments, approved her grip before moving on to the next student. The next step had been to mount the broom and hover. Josie swung a leg over the broom and hesitated. Strong. Firm. Sure, that was easy in theory, but she wasn’t so sure about in practice. Call her a baby, but she wasn’t crazy about the broom literally letting her down, leaving her with bruises. To someone else Josie probably looked ready to take off, but she sat on the broom a little frozen. What should she do now?

44 Josephine Clyde Lessons, check! Brooms, check! Flying, uh, please hold 1477 0 5

Mab

January 23, 2020 8:46 AM

You may be on the right track with the mom-thing by Mab

Mab raised her eyebrows in mild surprise when the other girl admitted that she’d simply been speaking normal everyday Spanish. Huh. She still thought it sounded more magical than the English word, but that was probably just lack of exposure.

Her surprise turned to a faint grimace at the suggestion of using her wand. Mab didn’t really like her wand. It just felt awkward and in the way to her. And she wasn’t quite sure how the logistics would work, catching a broom if there was already a wand in your hand. “Maybe save that for last resort,” she suggested.

She nodded in agreement that this was all new. The ‘too’ at the end of the question made her feel a little more comfortable. It was reassuring to know she wasn’t the only one coming into this world mostly blind. “I am a changeling,” she confirmed. “What they call, ahm,” she hesitated, dredging up the strange word she’d heard her foster mother use to refer to her on a few occasions, “a muggleborn.” Well, she assumed she was. She hadn’t exactly been able ask her family directly.

Mom almost certainly wasn’t magic. She’d thought Mab was just entertaining a childish flight of fancy whenever she mentioned the fairies. She had to be a completely vanilla human or she would have asked more questions about that.

And Mom had certainly never suggested her father was a wizard, directly or indirectly. (Mom’s words to describe Mab’s deadbeat father were invariably the opposite of magical.) He’d gone to the same public high school as Mom, though, not some fancy magical boarding school like this, so she guessed the chances were pretty close to zero that she had any other fey in her immediate family tree.

Mab wondered how normal changelings - the ones who didn’t learn about the wizarding world by getting arrested by aurors - were introduced to the idea that magical fey lived in secret all around them. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure how to ask without needing to explain why she didn’t know already.

She went for a more general comment instead. “This is all pretty stunning, isn’t it?”

She noticed the Coach glancing their way, so she put her hand out over her broom again and gave it another go. Taking a page from her companion, she tried to channel her own mother - or better, Bel Pierce - telling her to stop lazing about in bed. “Up!”

The broom jumped half a foot in the air, then fell back to the ground. Well, that was progress. “Good idea, about copying your mother, by the way. Seems to help.”

1 Mab You may be on the right track with the mom-thing 1473 0 5