Reporting for duty! err.. tryouts on Quidditch Pitch

Captain Jose Hernandez

June 23, 2011 10:17 AM

Pecari Try-Outs/Practice by Captain Jose Hernandez

Jose stood in the center of the Pitch, his school broom already collected from the broom shed and placed to his right. To his left was a chest full of Quidditch balls, and a small selection of Sonora's best school brooms lay beyond that. He'd only brought out about five, but many of his players had their own brooms, and there were definitely days Jose kind of wished the California Pierces also bought things like high end Quidditch brooms. But the school ones were terrible. It looked like there were even some in his pile that were manufactured within the last couple of years or so.

In his hand, he held the sign-up sheet. Despite the lack of graduations, Starbuck had still left the school over the summer, he hadn't been able to find Neal and could only assume he'd left as well, and Delilah had apparently decided to skip it again this year (he hadn't been able to catch up to her, but at least he knew she was still in the school). Fortunately, he'd had three first years step up to fill the vacancies and he still had a full team.

"Hi, guys," he greeted them all pleasantly when it looked like everyone had arrived. "Glad you could all make it out today. I'm Captain Jose Hernandez for those who don't know already." Despite the name and his appearance, he lacked any kind of Hispanic accent and he pronounced the H in his surname. He was a born and raised Californian and he hadn't even started to learn Spanish until after he started to learn magic.

"Our Assistant Captain is Demelza Eagle," he pointed out the tallest person on the pitch, which, sadly was not him by at least half a foot. Not only was Mel tall for her age, Jose was short for his. Having a year on her did not help.

"Dana Smythe," he pointed to the only person on the pitch older than him (she wasn't any taller than Mel than he was, though), "has kindly agreed to be our reserve again."

Next he pointing at the second-youngest returning player. "Sophie will be taking over for Starbuck as Keeper," she'd tried out for the spot before and had been training as backup Keeper all of last year, so that placement wasn't even in question.

"Demelza and Demetra are our beaters." He pointed at Mel again, and then at Demetra who was the youngest returning player. The second year girl didn't look as much like a beater as Mel did, but she was good at it.

"So that leaves Chaser and Seeker for the rest of us. Did anyone here not put their name on the sign-up sheet?" He waited for a few moments for any walk-ons to make themselves know, then continued, "We're going to start with chaser. Sophie's going to be guarding the goals and we're going to try to throw the quaffle past her. We're not going to start right off with the bludger-dodging, but I'm giving Mel and Dem some soft balls to hit around and if they get you, pretend it hurts."

He pointed over to the small pile of bludger sized nerf balls. He'd given them enchantments to make them fly sort like real bludgers did, but not really because they just didn't have the mass and density to be quite as effective. It would be a new challenge for the beaters.

"First off, though, could I have the new folks just say their names so I know who's who?" He'd already met Jhonice at the feast, so he could probably guess the only other boy besides himself was Dusk and the remaining unfamiliar girl was Mellie, but it was still good to get confirmation that the names on his sheet matched the people on the field.

"Okay, great," he said once they were done, "Everyone get a broom if you don't have one already, and we'll get started." While the people without brooms got one from the pile, Jose tried to secretly release the snitch from his trunk of quidditch balls without anyone noticing (his plan for Seeker try-outs was to see if anyone noticed it was out there), and then much more obviously grabbed the Quaffle.

"Let's give Sophie a few seconds to get to her post," he said once the players had all gathered around again, and nodded for the blond Keeper to take off, "then I'll throw the Quaffle into the air like the Coach does to start the match. Pass it between yourselves, avoid the nerf bludgers our beaters are going to hit at you, and try to get the Quaffle passed Sophie and through one of the hoops. Dana and I will be trying to intercept you. If we get it, try to steal it back when we pass between ourselves. Any questions on what we're doing?"

"Okay, on three. One, Two, Three." He threw the Quaffle into the air and wished he had a whistle.

OOC:
I'm not sure if anyone here is brand new to Quidditch, but this runs sort of like a real match would. Whoever posts next builds off of what what already written. We've got a three person Chaser team (Jhonice, Dusk, Mellie), two beaters hitting at them, and Sophie guarding the goal hoops. Beware god-modding. You do not determine if your pass/attempt at the goal was successful; Sophie, or the person you passed to, or the person intercepting you determines that. You can aim it, but once the Quaffle is out of your possession, it's up to the next poster what happens to it. Any questions, drop me an OOC note and I'll try to clarify.

Keep your posts long and detailed for the most OOC points, and detailed so folks know exactly what you're doing and can react properly to it. Also, in a game, Seekers don't catch the snitch until you have the coach's permission but feel free to notice the one flitting around practice if you want to be considered for Seeker. I think that's it, so post and have fun!

Subthreads:

Reporting for duty! err.. tryouts by Jhonice Trevear with Mellie Goodwin, Assistant Captain Demelza Eagle

Seeking to belong! *tad bit of Arista* by Amira Thornton

0 Captain Jose Hernandez Pecari Try-Outs/Practice 0 Captain Jose Hernandez 1 5

Jhonice Trevear

June 23, 2011 7:11 PM

Reporting for duty! err.. tryouts by Jhonice Trevear

Jhonice was excited, this was it, her way into the elite of the school! Once she had made the Quidditch team she would have near unfettered access to all those people! She didn't even pause to wonder what the rules of the game were, or how it was actually played. She knew flying on brooms was involved, which is why she mastered that skill under the incredible tutelage of Matriarch and Coach Amelia Pierce. Now it was just a matter of putting those skills to the test and impressing Captain Jose. Once he saw her in action... she just grinned as she ran across the field to where Captain Jose was waiting for them. She was a bit early in hopes of catching him alone before the other showed up, but no such luck. That 'Mel' girl was with him. Again.

She smiled and greeted Captain Jose, as the others arrived. He began talking and tried to make mental notes of everyone's names. She was glad to hear that two of the people already had the beater positions. She wasn't entirely sure what the 'beaters' did, but she got the feeling it wasn't for her. Whenever Andrew had talked Quidditch (she really probably should have payed more attention), he always seemed to get a little annoyed. He was a chaser, so when Jose assigned her and the others in her class to that role she felt confident. If Andrew could do it, she'd have no problem.

She cheerfully volunteered her name when Captain Jose asked, the she went to get a broom from the pile. She inspected them carefully, making sure that one she had for flying lessons wasn't amongst them. That one had been defective. Once she had one that was safe, she went back over to the Captain, he had some kind of ball at this point. She assumed it was the 'Quaffle' that he was talking about. The game was all starting to come together now, the 'Chasers' worked together to get the 'Quaffle' through those ring things way up in the air. That explained the flying part... wouldn't it be easier if those rings were closer to the ground? the blonde girl, Sophie, flew off to those rings. Okay, the 'Keeper' worked to keep the 'Quaffle' out of the rings, like a guardian. But if you got points for getting the ball, Quaffle, through the rings why would someone on your team want to stop you? This was an odd game.

She took a position around Captain Jose and waited for him to throw the ball... Quaffle. On the count of three she shot into the air on her broom, she missed the ball and continued her upwards climb. "No! No! No! Down! Stop!" She shouted at her stupid broom, why did she always get the defective ones?! She reigned it back under control and tried to get a look at where the ball-thingy was.

2 Jhonice Trevear Reporting for duty! err.. tryouts 209 Jhonice Trevear 0 5

Mellie Goodwin

June 23, 2011 7:39 PM

Me and you both. by Mellie Goodwin

On the morning of, with the reality of just how not-awesome she could be sometimes in front of her, Mellie had considered just not going to Quidditch try-outs later and hiding out in the infirmary in case anyone noticed and asked, but then she’d sort of run into her cousin. Alison had been sitting in a corner of the common room, somehow projecting an air of holding court despite the lack of devoted followers, with her very nicely-shoed feet perched on the very edge of a table and a textbook open on her lap, but had glanced up whenever someone came or went from the common room, and when she’d seen Mellie, she’d vaguely waved one hand in her direction and said, “good luck, kid.”

Those three words had promptly and neatly derailed any thoughts of dropping out. Mellie had never tried, but she guessed she could probably count the number of times in her life where Alison had really seemed to approve of her. She was the awkward, tomboyish baby who got underfoot, not someone on Ali’s level, and even if she didn’t care about that as much as she had once, they were both still Pecaris and her cousin almost certainly still had certain personality traits. She’d never, despite what she suspected was Alison’s total lack of interest in the sport, hear the end of the teasing if she chickened out and didn’t go to the Quidditch try-outs.

She refrained, with difficulty, from bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet during the welcoming speech from the captain. When the new people were asked to introduce themselves, she said, “I’m Mellie. Um, Goodwin,” but refrained also from saying anything else, both because it wasn’t required of her and because she knew it would probably come out sounding stupid when she was this wound up and nervous.

When the Quaffle went up, she thought for a second that Jhonice was going to get it, but then it started falling and her roommate was still going up. Panicking, Mellie shot forward and got it…and then kept going. It took a few seconds to get her broom totally back under control and turned a little, and as she was doing that, one of the soft Bludgers whacked her ankle. She did her best to act like she’d really just broken her ankle, though she wasn’t sure how effective of a job she did on a broom without dropping the Quaffle, and cursed herself. She could do better than this at home. It was just stupid nerves. Not all of it, but some.

Focusing on flying as best she could to make up for it, she got what she thought was close enough to one of her yearmates – a definite advantage of the arrangement was that she was in little danger of panicking and forgetting which was which, since she saw Jhon and Dusk in classes and not Jose the captain or Dana the Alison’s roommate – and tried to pass, almost sure, even as it left her hands, that she’d thrown it too hard and it was going to go right on past.

16 Mellie Goodwin Me and you both. 206 Mellie Goodwin 0 5

Assistant Captain Demelza Eagle

June 25, 2011 8:44 AM

I like this title I get to add to my name by Assistant Captain Demelza Eagle

Mel felt like her whole world was spinning when she found out Starbuck and Jude had left. It...it was awful. She lost one of her closest friends and her crush. Mel considered writing them, asking where they went. She relied on Delilah and Jose so much these days. They were really good friends too. She didn't want them to leave as well. Sadly, she knew that Jose was going to be leaving the year before she did, but at least there was a positive to that: she'd finally become Pecari's Captain.

Mel liked the idea of power. She didn't exactly like the idea of her in power, mainly because that meant responsibilities and things of the such, but she liked power. She liked that sense that everything relied on you, and that you had to prove yourself. Being the third youngest of eleven children, Demelza knew all about that. She was constantly overshadowed by her older siblings. They were all excellent Quidditch players, so why should she stand out? Her parents tried their best to give all their children attention, and they did do a good job. Mel was their special flower daughter. Her mom said that she knew Mel would be special, that was why she gave her an unusual and distinguished name. The Pecari liked to be special. Special made you stand out, and to stand out was good, and to stand out for being good was even better. She took pride in standing out.

"Hey, Jose," She greeted her captain and friend, a little less enthusiastically than usual, as she had been thinking about how Starbuck wouldn't be playing this term. It would be so weird. Niether was Delilah, which was kind of sad, but her playing was never a solid fact. The only people who Mel knew on the team besides Jose were Sophie and Demetra, and she wasn't close to either of the girls. Mel had plans for Demetra this year to improve both of their playing. She needed to be extra awesome this year, especially with three first years joining the team. It wasn't that Mel was going to automatically assume that they were no good, she was just worried. She was pretty sure the other teams had more experience. However, Pecari had done well before with relatively young teams. Sophie was an excellent player, and since Keeper was the position she always wanted she'd probably be an excellent one. Demetra was a good beater and was definitely going to be better after Mel dealt with her, and she never doubted her and Jose's talents. Mel doubted many of her abilities, but Quidditch was not one of them. That was where her heart was--where she totally dominated.

She may have been depressed about all the early graduations, but at least there was always Quidditch.

The tall fifth year gave a wave to her fellow teammates and a bright smile as Jose introduced her. She tried to match the new first year's names with their faces, but Mel had always had trouble with names. She had been a bit better before her amnesia, but after she suffered from that she just had a terrible time remembering people's names.

Mel bent down, grabbed her three year old broom and new beater's bat (her brother got her a new one every year for her birthday), and grabbed one of the soft bludgers. Boring. At least, for once, she didn't have to criticize Jose on his try-out. Last year he automatically nominated Demetra beater, which had turned out to be a good thing, but at the time Mel was wary of it. He hadn't even seen her play, and he could also totally play beater. This year, however, he didn't make any rash choices concerning first years and positions, although Mel could find a predicament that was totally not his fault. He would have to choose between having three first year chasers or an inexperienced seeker. Both positions were highly crucial to the game because they got all the points. Mel would let that be his choice: she honestly had no idea what to do about that.

Mel flew up in the air and offered a grin to Demetra. "Brace yourself for this season," she warned the younger girl, grinning. Her green eyes then focused to the chasers... including the one who lost control. That was not promising. "Hey umm," Mel sad trying to remember the girls name. "Oh! Jhonice! Lean forward and down!" She offered, trying to help the poor girl. Hopefully that wasn't her fault, just the old broom's. She really ought to get her own broom. Mel could possibly provide the whole team with their own (second hand) brooms, although not as of late. The area where she lived was going through bit of a recession since the hurricane that occurred over the summer. Her dad wasn't getting nearly as much business in his wand shop. He made quality wands, so they were a bit pricey, but it was important to have a good wand so he totally could raise the price of them!

Jhonice finally got her broom under control, so Mel took one of the soft balls and shot it at another first year, who must have been Mellie. She hit it hard, but not hard enough. Power was key with these balls. With bludgers, accuracy was just as important as strength, but with these light things strength matter. So, she grabbed several of the soft balls and whacked all of them, as hard as she could (which was pretty dang hard) toward the chasers, a bit like a mad woman. There, she thought, that'll give y'all something to deal with for now. Mel liked to cause problems.

0 Assistant Captain Demelza Eagle I like this title I get to add to my name 0 Assistant Captain Demelza Eagle 0 5

Jhonice

July 06, 2011 7:39 PM

Wheeee! by Jhonice

Jhonice wobbled on her broom as she reigned in in under control. The suggestion of the... of Mel's helped. Okay, she was getting the hang of this now, it wasn't so hard, she could handle this, easy. Yeah. She nudged her broom forward again and it responded, this was awesome! She looked up towards Mel to thank her for the advise, and her face drained of all color as she watched the storm of oncoming bludgers. Oh, that's what 'beaters' did. Now this game was just getting downright ridiculous. First your own teammate is stopping you from scoring points, now they're trying to beat you up with balls? What did Andrew see in this game? She could understand why he didn't like beaters though.

As she focused on the balls hurtling towards her, she noticed that they were getting farther away. That was good. Mel was getting farther away as well, everything was getting farther away. Except for the ground, that was getting closer. That wasn't good. Regardless of the weird rules of this game, she was really quite certain that contacting the ground at this speed wasn't good. She kicked at her broom, but it seemed to have become a normal, everyday, clean the floor by itself broom. "UP!" She shouted without realizing she said it.

The broom kicked back into action and rocketed around the pitch, Jhonice held on for dear life. She pulled herself up and in the process angled the broom upwards. It took her high up in the air, with the wind ripping all around her. Despite the sheer amount of terror coursing through her veins, she grinned wide and let out an enthusiastic "WHOOOOO-HOOOOOOO!!!" At the peak of her climb she spotted it, a small glint of gold. What was that? Another ball? Captain Jose hadn't said anything about it. After those last few balls... this one would probably explode or something. She pushed her broom forward and down. She had to get away from it! Glancing backwards she didn't think she saw it following her, but she wasn't taking any chances. She dove and twisted all over the pitch, some of it was even intentional.

2 Jhonice Wheeee! 209 Jhonice 0 5

Amira Thornton

July 07, 2011 9:45 PM

Seeking to belong! tad bit of Arista by Amira Thornton

Amira wasn't nervous at all! In fact, she'd been thrilled to bits when she learned that the Pecari Tryouts were coming up! She couldn't sleep too well the night before, instead, she sent a note to her sister Arista in Teppenpaw House.

Ris! Tryouts are tomorrow! I'm so excited! What should I go for? she sent it with the family owl, who had just brought her a box of sweets from home, with a note inside saying that the triplets were getting some tests done on them to check out her worries, as well as that she should share her sweets with her sisters. Oh! And here's a note from Mom that came with a box of sweets, I'll share those when I see you later! And tell Addi that I miss her! (Don't tell her that I'm trying out too! It'll drive her mad!)

Amira sent the owl out the window and it flew up to Teppenpaw and right into her older sister's room. Arista looked at it in surprise, but opened the letter nonetheless. She read it and a smile crept up on her mouth. Amira was going to try out too! This was awesome, but also awful! She may end up having to play her little sister! Though she knew that the time would come where she would end up playing at least one of her sisters, she didn't think it would be so soon! However, taking into account her sister's size and speed on a broom, she knew the best position for her right away! Writing two words on the back of Amira's letter, Thanks! Seeker! she sent back her sister's note with their owl right out the same window as it had come in.

Amira got a not back and read it with a smile and a nod. "Me? Seeker?" she said aloud, though she had only truly been thinking it. "Yeah..." she said and lay down on her bed, dreaming of the golden snitch!

She woke up with a start the following morning, and threw her clothes on, a pair of jeans and a long sleeve white shirt. The first year knew that if she flew fast and hard she may get chilly, so she wanted to be sure that she wouldn't shiver and lose sight of the golden colored snitch! Forgetting breakfast altogether in her excitement to get to Tryouts, she ran out to the Pitch and saw Jose there in the center of the Pitch. She smiled at him and waved as the others appeared around her. There were brooms on the ground, and a large chest which she knew held the balls for the game and she looked at it longingly.

Walking over towards the brooms, she picked one up out of the pile and set it down next to her. "Up." she said to it, and it flew up right into her awaiting hand.

Smiling, she put it back down as Jose started talking. Introducing himself, she smiled again. She thought that was who this tall older student was, and she was proven right! He went on to introduce his Assistant Captain, Mel, and Mir smiled to her as well. The first year couldn't wait to get to know all these people better! Going on, he introduced the others who were already on the team, Dana, Sophie, Demetra and he said that Chasers and Seeker was what was left. Asking if anyone hadn't signed up on the sheet, she shook her head, she was on there, though way down at the bottom!
They were going to start with Chaser, which wasn't what Arista had suggested she do, but 'why not do that too?' she thought as she nodded.

He asked the first years for their names, and she let Jhonice and Mellie go first. Then she spoke up. "I'm Amira Thornton." she said as someone else spoke too. Then they were going to get started! Happily, she watched as he opened up the trunk, though she pretended not to see what he was doing and faked messing around with her broom instead. He let out the pretty golden ball and her eyes watched as it darted left and right and then up into the sky. Her eyes watched the snitch and she realized that her sister had been right! THIS was what she wanted to do!

Eyes following the golden light which flittered around the Pitch, she left the others in the dust, not caring that one of the nerf bludgers had hit her in the arm. Mir was determined not to lose sight of the little golden prize! She wasn't sure if Jose had been watching her or not, but she didn't care! 'I'm going to catch the snitch and Jose will know who I am!' she thought as she realized how close she truly was to the Snitch and she reached out for it, ending up in a spectacular dive to follow the Snitch, and actually caught it in a simple sideswipe with her hand. "YAHOO!" she called out, unsure if anyone heard her, but she didn't care!

Gliding right towards Jose, Snitch flitting around in her hand, she spoke to him. "Got it!" she said to him, thrilled to bits, as she held it out to him.

0 Amira Thornton Seeking to belong! *tad bit of Arista* 208 Amira Thornton 0 5