Sylvia Mordue
May 26, 2020 6:31 AM
Breakfast with one of the girls (tag any Gardenia) by Sylvia Mordue
Sylvia was, naturally, outraged about the head boy results, as any decent and upright moral person would be. There were two possibilities for how this travesty had occurred; either this school was totally utterly failing and its leader was powerless, or she was. She knew which interpretation she preferred by far.Still, it felt odd. She had done her best to build up a good, solid group. She had thought the trouble with this school might be that there were too many Purebloods. Certainly that had been the problem when the McLeod boy had won; Winston and Simon had both been equally deserving and it had split the vote of sensible level headed people, leaving the idiots to elect their chosen clown. Part of the reason she had wanted a group like the Gardenia Girls was so that wouldn’t happen again. They could make tactical decisions to ensure the right people got elected.
How had that failed? It should have been easy, given that there was only one suitable candidate, and thus they hadn’t even needed to debate it. Had the group been too dense to know what was going on? Did they not listen to what everyone was saying around them? If there was a weak link in that chain, she suspected it was Katerina. Sylvia wondered whether it was enough grounds for a re-vote - it could be argued that certain voters had not been privy to all the information about the candidates. For all that (surely-by-now-ex-)Montoir had flaunted his unnaturalness in Tumbleweed, it hadn’t been fully apparent and blatant until the ball. Conveniently after the head student vote.
Of course, if… he (what were they to call someone who didn’t deserve the intimacy of first name acquaintance but presumably had no last name now?) was - for reasons utterly unknown - so very beloved by the populace here, it would never do to take a blow at him. She would feel out whether any of them had been unaware, but primarily she had to make this year count, with her own support circle and perhaps beyond it. After all, this year, her own name would be on the ballot.
Networking was everything, therefore. The charity event at the end of the year would also be a good chance to showcase her skills both at being well-organised and altruistic. It made sense that, as the head of their group, she would be heading up their efforts to run a booth. Probably something neutral would be best. Wounded kneazle kittens or the like. Something that no one could object too, even if she much rather would have supported something that emphasised traditional Pureblood values. Obviously anyone proper wasn’t in need of charity handouts, but there were certain organisations that had more proper politics at their core. However, that obviously wasn’t the winning ticket to ride on right now.
Seeing one of her girls enter the hall, she waved her over with a cheerful smile. They spanned almost all houses (not Pecari) so got scattered about a bit at the feast, but obviously they were all welcome at Crotalus table for breakfast. Sylvia went and visited too, of course. It wasn’t good manners to insist on being hostess all the time, but obviously Crotalus really was the most comfortable of the tables and the one most likely to ensure reputable company. Plus most of them were in Crotalus, so it made sense for them to sit there more often than elsewhere.
“Good morning,” she smiled brightly. She had briefly caught up with ‘how are you’ and ‘how was your summer?’ to each girl when disembarking and in the pre-feast time, and of course had corresponded with them all during the vacation. “Are you excited for this charity do?” she asked, as she buttered some toast, “I’ve already written to mother and father to have them send some leaflets for suitable organisations,” she added with a bright smile. It was a risk, playing this card soon enough that they could get the idea of doing the same and competing, but it was riskier to leave it and look like you were the copier if someone else announced their intentions first. “Do you have anything you’d particularly like to see us supporting?” she added.
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Sylvia Mordue
Breakfast with one of the girls (tag any Gardenia)
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Katerina Vorontsov
May 26, 2020 12:00 PM
I'm more than happy to join you today. by Katerina Vorontsov
A battle was coming. They both, Katya thought, knew this. It was inevitable at this point. There was no way to avoid it. The only question was when and where, and how bad the fallout for everyone around them would be.Stepping into the Cascade Hall, Katya glanced around hastily, not sure if she wanted to get it over with or dreaded it. Before she could decide, though, she saw another hand waving from the Crotalus table (where she doubted her sister would be) and took the opportunity to go over and join less contentious company. She didn't want to sit at the Teppenpaw table right now anyway, despite feeling she probably should - Nathaniel Mordue was apparently not going to die after all, but that still left Teppenpaw with only one decent prefect.
For now, though, she pushed that to the back of her mind as well and walked over to the Crotalus table with a smile, where she sat down with Sylvia.
"We do charity things at home," she replied. "We sew, we sell them at...it is like a fair. The gold, it is for the village, though. I do not think the headmaster has care about my village. I will help you if I can. What..." she concentrated on pronunciation. "Or-gani-zations do your mama and papa like?"
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Katerina Vorontsov
I'm more than happy to join you today.
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Sylvia Mordue
May 28, 2020 6:12 AM
Excellent! I'm happy to have you. Today. by Sylvia Mordue
OOC - xenophobia/tokenism“That sounds lovely,” Sylvia smiled when Katerina explained that they sold handicrafts to raise funds for their village. She wasn’t sure what that would mean, exactly, but it sounded good and patroness-like - fine ladies like Katerina and her sisters (the respectable ones, anyway) doing and selling their pieces. Presumably there were people of similar status who liked to buy them. And then the money went to… somewhere worthy. It could maintain the less fortunate, if there were any. Whilst there obviously were within the magical community of America, there were no such people in Sylvia’s direct circle, and the magical society she operated within had no such direct link to the lower levels much less, in most cases, any desire to finance them. Most likely, these proceeds just kept the buildings and the floral displays and whatever else well-maintained. If Katerina’s family lived in a historical building that was worthy of note and protection they might even be able to benefit themselves from such sales. That was what Sylvia would have understood from such an arrangement, but Katerina had always been a little bit different.
In many ways, Katerina had been a shaky investment. She was an obvious outsider, but that in itself had proved useful more than once. People here did like to bang on about diversity and inclusion, like they were the only marks of a good person and, well… Sylvia passed then, didn’t she? Here was her diverse friend. And Katerina seemed loyal and willing to listen, and to respect Sylvia’s authority. Like now, when she had an idea but recongised it wouldn’t be quite right for these circumstances and deferred to Sylvia for advice. She gave her a more or less genuine smile as she answered.
“Yes, perhaps we will do better choosing something a little more local,” she acknowledged. “There are plenty of worthy causes. A lot of cultural assets like historical buildings or old magical districts need upkeep. Most people are usually willing to help animal charities, so that’s always good. There’s also lots of organisations dedicated to promoting proper and traditional family values, which I think is very worthwhile, and perhaps very relevant right now,” she suggested.
“What sorts of things do your art sales help with at home?” she asked, mostly to make sure she had an accurate measure of what kinds of things Katerina might get into her head to go on about unless corrected.
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Sylvia Mordue
Excellent! I'm happy to have you. Today.
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Katerina Vorontsov
May 30, 2020 7:42 PM
Ah, the different punctuation can make. by Katerina Vorontsov
One of the most important things, Katya had learned early on, to fitting in as well as she could here was to always remember not to look as intently focused as she was on what people were saying as she processed it. With much practice, she had managed to cultivate a deliberately mellow, pleasant resting expression, which her face slipped into almost of its own accord when she was in conversation. For a moment, though, her eyes sharpened as Sylvia mentioned how some causes were more relevant than others right now.Proper, she had learned from reading even before she came to Sonora, was a word which American witches liked to use a lot. It was a great shame not to be seen as proper. Tradition was more neutral - lots of things were traditional, and the rich man and the poor man, the Muggle and the wizard, the man and the woman, even, all hurried to the samovar after any trip outside in winter - but proper, that was a very specific word. A word that they used in their Society. A word that was not, in short, applied to the kind of behavior her sister was leaning toward right now.
If she wrote to Mama or Papa about Tatya's behavior, she had been assured that she would get cursed. She wondered if she should make her own ultimatum to go along with Tatya's - that if Tatya disgraced her, she would curse Tatya, at least as well as she could. She was admittedly not as strong in Defense Against the Dark Arts as Tatya, and did not expect that she would continue the subject after this year, but she thought she could get her point across if forced - if, Dolya forbid, she ever was forced...!
"For things to help us all," she said, putting that unanswerable question aside for now when asked more about what they did at home. "I do not know if you know...there were...bad times, in Russia, long ago. Volshebnaya Derevnya - we could not go to Russia anymore, could not talk to Americans or Kanadtsy - not the ones on our side." The ones who spoke French were better - generally - but not all of the western ones seemed to do so. "So we take care of us. We build things. We have hospital, little school for reading and writing, we have a...I do not know the word. It is where you put death," she explained awkwardly. "The gold, it is to make all these things work - we give it to teachers, to Healers. Is this what is done here also?" she asked curiously.
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Katerina Vorontsov
Ah, the different punctuation can make.
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Sylvia Mordue
June 11, 2020 5:50 AM
Oh. You noticed that. by Sylvia Mordue
“Cemeteries,” Sylvia supplied helpfully when Katerina put the place in rather blunter terms, “And Canadians,” she reminded her, as that word had slipped too. That one seemed like it shouldn't have been so hard for Katerina to learn.Things in Katerina’s home sounded very provincial and simplistic. They really did seem cut off from the wider world and just helped themselves. She wondered where the money came from that Katerina’s family, and the other wealthy families who acted as patrons of the arts, used, but it was vulgar to talk too much about such things. Presumably they conducted some business with the outside world, but poured that money back into very narrow channels.
“Things here are on a larger scale,” she explained. “Some things you can buy yourself, privately. If I were to get sick, Father could call a healer, for example,” she was sure it was the case for Katerina too - the discussion was more how other people, people who weren’t like them, accessed such things, and frankly Sylvia didn’t really know or care. “We also pay money into the government, who run public services - such as maintaining public portions of the Floo network,” she stated a less controversial example than healthcare, although even the Floo could get awfully politicised. Even putting aside the debate of whether Muggleborns should be allowed to connect or not - it seemed risky to Sylvia but it was becoming rather outre to say so - it still had its controversies. Because now that connection was being seen as more standard, they, of course, wanted more. That was the problem with giving such people an inch - they then felt entitled to take a mile. Programs to help Muggleborns get their homes connected and what not, as if it wasn’t fair and equal to just expect them to fill out the right forms or pay for their connection like anyone else. They’d spout off with something about that being harder for them, or the system being stacked against them and all that boohooing. Of course the forms were in a magical government building - it was a magical service. If they couldn’t be bothered to go there, that was their problem. Why should Muggleborns have a special person holding their hand through going and collecting and filing paperwork, or bringing it to their house for them?
“But there’s also charities for some things that are worthwhile but can’t be prioritised by the government - or which the opposing side tries to interfere with because they don’t think it’s a good idea. Sometimes it’s easier to raise money privately than to rely on the government to prioritise an issue. People have differing opinions after all,” she stated, in a tone that suggested that was a rather distasteful problem.
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Sylvia Mordue
Oh. You noticed that.
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Katerina Vorontsov
June 16, 2020 8:31 PM
What can I say? I have talents. by Katerina Vorontsov
Cemeteries. That was…a word. Katya nodded, glad Sylvia had told her. She hoped that she wouldn’t have a lot of opportunities in life to use the English word for the place where dead people were placed, but it was good to know anyway. She grimaced a little, though, when Canadians came up.“Canadiens,” she repeated. “I know this one, but – sometimes when words sound so close, then I forget to switch the part that is not the same as Russian,” she explained. “This time I did it to Americans but not Canadians. Thank you for reminding me,” she said politely. She thought it was a bit less cut and dried polite for Sylvia to correct her here than it had been with the issue of cemeteries – she had, clearly, been quite comprehensible – but, well, one didn’t have to be strictly polite between friends. That was the difference between friends and everyone else.
She nodded at Sylvia’s explanation about her father calling a Healer, with only a momentary mental image of Monsieur Mordue waltzing into a shop and literally purchasing a Healer due to Sylvia’s expression about buying things privately before giving Healers as an example. She knew what Sylvia meant, of course, but it was amusing to picture the phrase literally anyway.
"We know these things also," she said. "For me, my family. Not for all the village. So, we have places for others. Like what you say about Floo." Katya knew that the issue of Floo networks had caused problems for the village early on. The village had been formed by people fleeing the situation in the far west, so it had been a long time before they had had much to do with their own government. There had been the issues of one or another Muggle government in Russia selling Alaska to the Americans. Who had a substantial portion of Canada between them and Alaska. It had caused, she had gathered, many, many headaches. "But these causes - which you think good. What are they?"
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Katerina Vorontsov
What can I say? I have talents.
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