Telling my story [McLeod Foundation] on Quidditch Pitch

Selina Skies

September 18, 2020 9:42 PM

Charity Fair by Selina Skies

Selina surveyed the Quidditch pitch with pleasure and pride. The students really had done a wonderful job in putting together a range of wonderful booths for a range of wonderful causes. It hadn’t been the easiest year for a lot of people, and it was nice to be reminded of the goodness in the world. She hoped that the fair would serve as that.

The students had, with staff supervision, been busily setting up their booths during the morning. That, of course, meant that many of them had already caught a glimpse of what was out here, although they had gone back to the school building for lunch and a chance to freshen up if they needed it. Now they were all gathered back at the pitch, the students who were staffing their booths first already standing in place, with everyone else assembled at one end of the pitch. A little white picket fence surrounded the area where the fair was taking place, and a large arch stood behind Selina, currently sealed off with a ribbon.

“Welcome to the Sonora Charity fair,” Selina addressed them, amplifying her voice so that everyone could hear her, whether they were waiting at the archway or staffing a booth, “From what I’ve seen and heard of the preparations, we have a huge range of wonderful causes and a lot of very creative ways to support them. I’m so impressed, and I am looking forward to getting a chance to see them up close. I hope you’ll all take the time to make your way around and support each other’s stalls. As well as the booths run by your peers, we have some snack vendors on site, though there’s also free water at the first aid tent, and snacks as per usual up at the school.” They had brought in a couple of fair-related food stalls, checking their students’ plans to make sure none of them competed directly, to add to the ambience, and with the vendors each advertising a charity that they would donate a portion of their profits too. Still, it was a bright sunny day (thankfully - not always a thing guaranteed by the mock Irish weather, even at this time of year) and Selina didn’t want anyone getting dehydrated or feeling like they had to choose between that and supporting their friends.

“Without further ado, I hereby declare the fair...OPEN!” she stated, pouring as much sense of occasion and a big, and genuine, smile into her words as slashed her wand across the ribbon, cutting it in two and allowing the students inside.

OOC - welcome to the charity fair! I have set this up like a class meaning anyone can reply directly. This means you can post about your booth and what it's doing, or post someone making their way around, investigating a particular booth or meeting up with a friend. Feel free to use any of the information provided at meetings or in people's intro posts to know what options your character has for things to do, or check with people in chatzy. If your post is at a partcular booth, please mention it in the subject line to help keep track.

Subthreads:

Telling my story [McLeod Foundation] by Dorian Montoir with Vladimir Brockert

It's a-MAZE-ing [MFECA] by Peyton O'Malley with Evelyn Stones, Anya Delachene

Action for Boston Community Development: Craft Sale and Blanket Fort by Mab with Alexander Pierce-Beales

Helping the less fortunate [ABCD] by Esme Brockert

To the fair! by Sophia Priory with Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Step right up! [AAAAAA] by Ruby Brockert with Gary Harper

This looks familiar [Ness] by Gary Harper with Ness McLeod

Everything's all right, perfectly normal [AAAAAA] by Bridget Ferguson with Zara Jackson

Preserving our history [Magical House and Garden Preservation Fund] by Caitlin Pierce with Valentine Duell

It's not a secret by Ellie Alperton with Freddie Zauberhexen

Fairly Charitable [Bringing Back the Light] by Heinrich Hexenmeister

A Piece of Culture [Socios de la Comunidad Mágica (Magical Community Partners)] by Leonor De Matteo

I'm here. by Quincy Wright

Please buy something [MHGPF] by Allegra Brockert with Stanley O'Malley

Missing the point by Beau Tate

This is a disaster by Osvaldo Alamilla

Watch out for sand fleas! [Bringing Back The Light] by Gabriel Wilson

A worthy cause [MHGPF] by Topaz Brockert with Philippe Delachene

Doing my duty [MFECA] by Sophia Priory with Valentine Duell

Stay hydrated by Jean Wolfe with Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Take a spin [AAAAAA] by Esme Brockert

13 Selina Skies Charity Fair 26 1 5

Dorian Montoir

September 19, 2020 12:06 AM

Telling my story [McLeod Foundation] by Dorian Montoir

CW - contains descriptions of discrimination against the LGBTQIA+ community including homophobic violence. The relevant part of the post is italicised for easy skimming over.

Dorian was going to be seeing rainbows forever… A thing which, he thought, he might not really mind. Still, they were such a prominent theme of their booth that he thought the colours might have permanently stamped themselves onto the back of his eyeballs by the time they were done setting up.

He wasn’t sure whether ‘fundraising’ versus ‘charity’ had ever been specified, and that most people had assumed the former was the only way of supporting that. If it was a requirement, their booth would be fulfilling it by selling home-baked goods, and various rainbow stock provided by the McLeod foundation, but it really wasn’t the focus. Education was. They could sell dozens of cupcakes or rainbow pins, and he was sure that money would help people who needed it, and that felt good. It also felt very abstract, and it didn’t feel like enough - not if he didn’t leave this school a better place. Not that it was terribly bad to start with. Sonora had long been his little sanctuary, the place that nurtured and protected him, whispering in his ear that it was okay to be himself until he believed it too. He supposed what he wanted was to turn that whisper into a voice. To take it out from behind closed doors, so that it was on everyone’s lips all the time. So that anyone coming into first year with just as little clue as he had had didn’t have to worry and wonder, because none of this was a secret.

That, he knew, was probably beyond his power. The rest of the gays had, it turned out, already thought about all this, and been doing it for quite a while. He probably wasn’t going to be the one to change the world overnight, even though when he saw his head boy badge gleaming next to his little rainbow flag pin, it almost felt like he might. Still, he could join a proud legacy - he could take his place as a voice which pushed for justice and fairness, for kindness and understanding. And he could start doing it here and now, in a place that he loved, so that it could do even better for the next scared little kid in his shoes.

The booth was something of a cross between a large and very open-plan living room, and an incredibly fancy picnic area, depending on whether you focussed on the fact that it was carpeted or the fact they were outside. Bright white latticework enclosed the space, a variety of informative posters attached to the inside, balloons and flags flying from its outside. ‘Inside’ the area was dotted with bean bags in all colours of the rainbow for people to sit on. They could read the posters, chat to volunteers, or read leaflets.

The posters covered everything from basic definitions to how and where to get help. One whole wall was titled ‘How to be a good ally - creating a supportive school.’ The information on this wall was bold, short statements, easily read at a glance, so that even without coming in, people could take away important lessons. ’Don’t use ‘gay’ as an insult. Ask for pronouns. Challenge other people’s attitudes. Don’t assume people are straight and cis. Believe people when they’re sure. Accept people when they’re unsure. Each of these had a more detailed explanation underneath, talking about why the behaviour was helpful, giving examples if needed. In the centre was a large piece of cardboard titled ‘I will always listen to and support the LGBTQIA+ students of Sonora.’ Bright colourful pens were stuck to the sides of the board, and any of the volunteers helping with set up had already been invited to sign their names. This, more than anything was what Dorian wanted people to take away from today. It had taken him so many years to convince himself that he was not alone. That the people who mattered to him would be on his side. Of course, it could backfire, if the board remained relatively empty, but his own experience bore out the theory that this school was full of far more love and tolerance than it was hatred…

There was a heavier side to the education too. The back wall of the area was sectioned off by white curtains. In front of the gap where they could be pulled back to enter, a small notice hovered in the air.

Content Warning:
This part of the display illustrates why the work we do is so necessary, even now. This display contains stories from members of the LGBTQIA+ community in contact with the McLeod Foundation and within this school. It documents the difficulties they have faced, and contains descriptions of discrimination, and verbal and physical abuse.

Inside were short stories, no more than a paragraph each – some only a sentence. Some with a name, many by ‘Anon,’ all with an age. The stories had been selected to be appropriate to the audience, both in terms of avoiding overly graphic detail, but also in the ages of those selected. Everyone who had a story to tell, whether it was of being kicked out by their parents, or being bullied, or facing institutional discrimination such as constant barriers to medication or the rights to use the correct bathroom – every one of them was within the same age range as the students of Sonora.

If people cared to read through all of them, or if their eyes were just good at picking out names, they would find, somewhere in the middle of the selection…

‘My brother and I never got on. He always thought I was ‘too girly.’ He would call me names and push me around, sometimes he’d even hit me. I tried not to believe him, or to hate myself but when I realised I liked other boys, it felt like everything he’d ever thought about me was right.

He walked in on me kissing my boyfriend last Christmas. He broke my nose and tried to put my head through the wall, telling me he’d rather I was dead than what I was. This was how I was also forced to confront the issue and come out to my parents.

I was lucky to have friends and teachers who took the thoughts he put in back out of my head, and who have always made sure I have someone to lean on.

Dorian Montoir, age 18.’

Back outside, Dorian sprawled on a yellow bean bag. The sun shone down and he smiled and waved people into the booth, looking the picture of confidence. It had been strange to write his story down, but mostly because of how hard it was to end it. It had been a moment in time – a deeply horrible moment, but that was it. There was no neat and tidy ending to it because it wasn’t the end of anything. It was a moment that had passed, and he had a whole bright and brilliant future which stretched out in spite of it – and because of all the other people who he had let be the ending of his poster, but the continuation of his story.

13 Dorian Montoir Telling my story [McLeod Foundation] 1401 0 5

Vladimir Brockert

September 19, 2020 3:25 PM

How does the story end? by Vladimir Brockert

Vladimir picked Peyton’s booth. He didn’t really think he could give as much time to two as they each deserved, and Dorian’s was… well, just too hard, so he chose his cousin’s instead. Child abuse was also a decidedly worthy cause, obviously, so he tried not to feel too bad about it, and he offered Dorian help where he could, but he didn’t go to the meetings, and he wasn’t a public team member. He was too afraid to be.

So he helped Peyton with her anti-child abuse petting zoo. It was much simpler, a front everyone - he would think - could unite on. Who didn’t like animals? And who was for child abuse? Only the perpetrators, probably. Vlad knew that there were things of that nature in his family’s recent memories, even if it wasn’t in his. But Aunt Jamie and her children from her first marriage had been through some things, and so had Ryan. Mama didn’t tell him details, but he knew that something bad had happened to them. It was something that needed to stop, and in the meantime, the victims needed their help.

He promised Dorian to come by his booth, though, so he stepped away from his own and made his way over, doing his best not to think about what little time they had left together. Their days at Sonora were drawing to a close. They were adults now, as far as legal age went, and they had new plans to make, new futures to follow through. And how much of the ending here was wasted - Vlad had been so distant this year. But how could he not be? Dorian knew why. He knew how much of him was hurting. There was a damaged ache that just refused to mend. Vlad had loved him last summer, and damn it if he didn’t still love him just as much now. The younger Teppenpaw wished it wasn’t true, but even now, he was completely in love with his best friend.

The booth was nice and felt very cozy and welcoming, an intentional design to be sure. He passed slowly by the reading material and stumbled upon the section that came with a content warning. Vlad wasn’t sure he really wanted to go in, but the drop in his stomach somehow compelled him, and he entered.

Vladimir read every single bulletin, every posted story. But it was one in particular that did him in: Dorian’s. His struggles with Matthieu, with his family… It just broke him. Dorian was gay, and Vlad was gay, and while Mama had been nothing but kind, who knew what their futures looked like. How often would this cycle repeat?

And there, in front of anyone else who might be touring, he finally reached his breaking point, and he burst into tears.

12 Vladimir Brockert How does the story end? 1400 0 5

Dorian Montoir

September 20, 2020 3:14 AM

To be determined... by Dorian Montoir

Vlad had come! Dorian couldn't deny how deeply happy that fact made him. Vlad had chosen not to volunteer for his booth, and he understood there were probably multiple reasons why. Still, this year it had felt like his roommate was, as much as possible given that status, pushing him out. It made him fearful for what was going to happen next, once there weren't four bright and cheerful yellow walls compelling Vlad to continue acknowledging his existence. But now Vlad was here, seeking him out and supporting him voluntarily. Or coming to learn more about himself, which Dorian thought might do him good. He hated that Vlad's felt like he had to struggle through this alone, when someone who was ready and willing to help him was only an arm's reach away.

He found himself holding his breath as Vlad ducked into the less than pleasant side of the booth. It wasn't like he was learning anything he didn't know already about Dorian, though he was pretty sure the impact of that section for anyone queer was overwhelming horribleness. It had been pretty draining reading over the posters and putting them up... He watched the curtain anxiously, wondering - as had been the constant theme of the year - whether he should get involved or just leave Vlad be. He did, he reasoned, have responsibilities as booth co-ordinator, to check that people were okay, and to encourage them to talk... And Vlad had chosen to come, which meant something.

Dorian crossed to the curtain, pulling it back slightly to try and gague how Vlad was doing, and whether he wanted company, and saw immediately that he was crying.

"Hey," Dorian said gently, hurrying over to Vlad, wanting to automatically envelop him in a hug. Because he was crying.. Any established new normal of distance was right out because this was an emergency. He swished his wand so that the content warning notice outside changed to 'PLEASE WAIT.' They had discussed how to handle people having Feelings about this part of the exhibit. They had discussed useful and not useful things to say, and the limits of what to talk about and when to defer to adults for help. Those stirred sleepily in his brain, crashed over by the instinctive reactions that said just wanted to act because this was not some stranger ready to receive well-rehearsed lines, this was Vlad. But then, once the impulse to put his arms around him had been satisfied, the logical part of his brain said that he wanted to say the right thing. The impulse to treat Vlad as Vlad was only the heartbreaking urgency of it being personal, not actually a different set of actions. Perhaps a little more intimacy than he would have allowed himself with anyone else, but the rolling force of emotion allowed itself to be put aside, with deep, calming breaths, as he tried to think through everything he had learnt about how to support someone else.

His first impulse was to 'shh' but he fought it back. He didn't want Vlad to shh, he wanted the opposite. He wanted to soothe though. He wanted to tell Vlad it was alright, but clearly right now, it very much wasn't.

"It's going to be okay," he told him, the one thing he knew he was allowed to promise and which, after a very long time in the dark, he was finally starting to believe the truth of. Yes, it hurt sometimes, and no one could promise when that would stop, or that it would never happen again. But if you kept going, it would get better. "Talk to me," he... suggested? Requested? Demanded? His tone was gentle, but really it was all three. It clearly didn't work for Vlad to just shut him down and shut him out, and he really wished he had taken any other option but the hard way.

13 Dorian Montoir To be determined... 1401 0 5

Vladimir Brockert

September 20, 2020 6:10 AM

I wish I could just skip ahead by Vladimir Brockert

Dorian.

Of course.

Vlad almost smiled, despite himself. Of course Dorian would appear now. Of course the only person he wanted and the only person he couldn’t bear to see would show up now, ready and willing to just wrap him up and try to make everything better. But it wasn’t better. And in fact, Vlad was crying about Dorian. Nothing could ever just be easy anymore, could it? Everything was so hard. So despite the initial inclination to smile, Vlad just cried harder.

His feelings were all such a mushy mess right now that it did him no good to make any attempt to dodge physicality. Vlad just let Dorian hug him, the first warmth of its kind in so long he couldn’t remember. He chose the comfort over the discomfort and let Dorian hold him, trying and failing to block out all the reasons he had been avoiding this type of contact for so long. At this moment, it didn’t bother him so deeply. He was already overflowing.

He appreciated Dorian’s sentiments, but Vlad couldn’t help but immediately disagree. “It’s not going to be okay,” he replied, not quite shouting but decidedly firmer than his usual Vlad-style. “It’s going to be over.” His shaking chest forced him to pause briefly. “Dorian, we’re leaving and we aren’t coming back this time. And there’s so much, just… unresolved. It’s all broken and I can’t fix it this time. We’re losing this place and everything we know, and I won’t get to see you anymore. I know you’ll miss me too, and that’s easy to say, but you’ll have him and it’s not the same. I’m losing you. I’m… I’m just losing.”

His head drooped, exhausted. Once again, he was certain to have said the wrong thing, and far too much of it. But time was of the essence, and Vlad was losing control exponentially now. Only Dorian and Mama knew that Vlad was like everyone else whose stories hung before them, and it was a weight he thought he’d have to bear forever now. With that topped off by the pressure he felt to be around Dorian and being isolated from his mom, it was all just too much.

12 Vladimir Brockert I wish I could just skip ahead 1400 0 5

Peyton O'Malley

September 20, 2020 11:06 PM

It's a-MAZE-ing [MFECA] by Peyton O'Malley

Peyton was a little nervous about the fair. Yes, they'd all put in a lot of work and it seemed to have turned out nicely, but she couldn't help but feel slightly anxious anyway. What if people weren't interested in her booth and they didn't raise any money for MFECA? It was such an important charity.Probably, in her opinion, the most important one of all the ones represented at the fair, though she'd never say that to anyone. Other charities, like Lyssa's and Heinrich's were important too. Actually most of the ones that were here were pretty important, it was just that this one was near and dear to Peyton's heart. One of the most important people in her life ,Ryan,had been affected by it, both as a survivor and as a social worker who saw abused and neglected children every day and she'd like to think that ending child abuse-or at least putting a serious dent in it-beat Muggle culture and historical buildings. Not that Peyton had anything against either of those really, it's just that,well, children were being abused and that needed to stop !

In the end, they'd gone with Jasmine's idea for the maze. It was what most people seemed to like best and several others were pretty amenable to either that or the petting zoo but in all honesty, as Sophia had pointed out, this was easier than trying to deal with the animals, even if they did have to build it. The other thing about the maze instead of the zoo was that Peyton could post child abuse statistics on the walls of the maze and educate people about these terrible things that were happening to helpless innocent children.

So, in a way, it was like....a haunted maze. Like a scary Halloween thing. Except that instead of ghosts and monsters and spooky things....it was haunted by the specter of evil people doing bad things to kids and a system where some people tried very hard but were underpaid-thankfully, Ryan came from a rich family, but lots of other social workers needed the money-and overworked and kids sometimes getting returned to their evil abusive parents and people who used necessarily overzealous tactics getting reprimanded for doing something very good and abusers getting little to no jail time-though Sophia had told her that Wisconsin apparently had some tough laws regarding child abuse, even "mental harm" which seemed to be emotional abuse but surely other sorts of abuse caused mental harm too , so yay Wisconsin but it still sucked in other places.

Bottom line, the system needed fixing and child abusers needed to be punished super severely. At a bare minimum they needed to be put away until their children were all grown up and wouldn't be returned to them. As of right now, Ryan-who felt very strongly on this topic and wanted way worse things to happen to them then that bare minimum-considered it a win if an abusive parent had their parental rights terminated and the child never had to go back to them. Even if the abuser got no jail time. Unfortunately, in some cases, the abuse was hard to prove especially if it was emotional. Even in Wisconsin where you could get twelve and a half years for it. There, the child in question had to be showing signs of anxiety and depression and there...were other causes for that. For example, Wally often seemed anxious and he came from as warm and loving a home as one could imagine....and Peyton herself occasionally felt anxious-like right now -and she came from just as loving a home as her nephew.

Anyway, they had managed to construct a maze that for a small fee-one hundred percent of which went to help MFECA in it's goals for stricter child abuse laws in all states, not just Wisconsin, better funding for social services, education and better programs for helping people who were impoverished-people could try to find their way through, while learning statistics about child abuse and understanding why it was such a big problem that needed to be eradicated ASAP. There were also prizes at the end of the maze because it was sort of a game and this was a fair which should be fun -Connor's cousin, Beau, had stressed this to her at one point which was his sole contribution to the charity fair at all-and, considering all the depressing statistics that would be in their faces, people needed something to cheer them up at the end. So there were prizes and baked goods.

Deputy Headmistress Skies stood up and welcomed everyone to the fair. Peyton gulped nervously, wishing Jasmine or Vlad or Stanley was with her. She was certain her nephew had the capability to get people interested in their maze and Jasmine or Vlad would be great for moral support.

Or Connor, she wished he was here with her.

Then Peyton noticed someone approaching their booth. She pasted on a smile and said "Hello, would you like to try going through the hedge maze? It's only a small fee, and it's for a good cause." She had to do this right, make money for MFECA and make Ryan proud.

OOC-I have no idea what the child abuse laws are in most states and places aside from Wisconsin might have strict laws. I only looked up Wisconsin and Colorado because that's where Sophia and Peyton are from, respectively.

11 Peyton O'Malley It's a-MAZE-ing [MFECA] 1403 0 5

Mab

September 21, 2020 7:21 PM

Action for Boston Community Development: Craft Sale and Blanket Fort by Mab

The plan, as they'd discussed early in the fall term, had been to raise money by selling whatever things they could make. Alexander could draw. Mab taught herself to crotchet. Sadie did some pretty amazing things with pressed flowers. Val made dolls. Esme knitted. Other students who weren't directly involved with the booth donated a variety of things from finger puppets to lacy shawls. The Art Club had even agreed to dedicate a meeting to providing crafty and practical items for the sale.

Alexander had also suggested a blanket maze to add something fun to draw people in. That had seemed like a good idea up until she learned one of the other groups was also doing a maze, and theirs was the main focus of their booth. So at the last minute, Mab changed their blanket maze to a big blanket fort. She figured this would, at minimum, attract Theo and Anya if not anybody else. Normally, they were not people she particularly wanted to attract, but today she wanted anyone who might donate something.

Their main set of tables held the craft items for the sale, and behind those was the blanket fort. It started with a large enclosed area where people could comfortably stand or sit in some beanbag chairs. This part was made with the largest of the blankets they had. The ones that didn't come off their beds and had been crocheted or knitted or quilted for selling had auction pouches beside them where people could bid on how much they were willing to pay for them and winners would be contacted at the end of the fair. Auction forms asked for the bidder's name, house, and bid amount, and were available beside each collection pouch. Mab herself had made four of those, each one a slightly better quality and more complex pattern than the previous one. She'd made one for each House, with the red and silver colored one being the nicest, since she'd done that one last. A beautiful quilt made by Allegra was also featured prominently. Off the main room were some blanket tunnels that people could crawl through, but they just went in rectangle and could in no way be called a maze at this point. Still, a blanket tunnel was a fun thing to crawl through, if you were into that sort of thing. The Entrance and Exit were clearly marked so people didn't cause traffic jams inside.

At least two people would be running the booth at any given time, so that everyone always had someone around as back-up and company. Mab had chosen first shift and designated Alexander as her partner. The others could either use this first shift to enjoy the fair themselves, or help out with another booth. Or if they didn't want to do either of those things, they could stick around and help out, too.

"Hello," she greeted one of the first visitors to approach the booth. She smiled. She hoped it didn't look forced. "This is the booth supporting Action for Boston Community Development, or ABCD. They help fight poverty in Boston, aiding the homeless, the hungry, and the poor get jobs, education, support, and the opportunities they need to break the cycle. You are welcome to look at some of the brochures, browse our craft sale, or enjoy our blanket fort. Prices are marked on the crafts. Blanket fort is by donation." She pointed at the decorated can sitting next to the ABCD pamphlets that she'd put out for straight up donations. She and Alexander also had a more organized money box for collect the sale proceeds and making any necessary change. "Do you have any questions?"

1 Mab Action for Boston Community Development: Craft Sale and Blanket Fort 1473 0 5

Esme Brockert

September 21, 2020 10:58 PM

Helping the less fortunate [ABCD] by Esme Brockert

When picking charities, Esme had had to make some difficult decisions. Doing her cousin's booth had been a no brainer of course because of family loyalty to both Ruby, who was leading it, and Miles, who was more or less why the Teppenpaw had picked that charity in particular and because it made her feel bad that Miles-and to a lesser extent Owen-was affected by the conditions that AAAAAA supported.

As for the rest of the charities, well, of course there were a few that the second year was automatically going to pass over. There were a few things that she didn't feel she could afford to publicly support and was indifferent to or didn't quite know how she felt about anyway. Besides, one of which was ran by Theo, who while Esme felt quite couldn't help how he was, still was kind of irritating and probably would not...be very organized when it came to his booth. Then there was Sylvia Mordue's historical buildings charity, which Esme believed in, but which involved Topaz and the second year's concept of family loyalty did not extend to the Aladren. She'd donated some items for sale though.

And, of course, there was no way Esme was going to help Leonor De Matteo. Besides, she didn't speak Spanish.

A lot of the other things though, were things she felt were very important causes, such as victims of violent crime and abused children. In the end, however, she had chosen to help Mab with ABCD which helped poor people. As Esme was, well, rich, she felt that it was probably a good idea to help the less fortunate. After all, there were a lot of reasons why they ended up in situations that they had through no fault of their own. The world was full of things that weren't exactly fair-and this fair was helping her see that. The Crotalus honestly felt lucky to have ended up with the circumstances she had, even with Topaz being around.

Besides, as Pecaris went, Mab was...different. Not very Pecari-ish, something that Esme meant in the best possible way. She was not loud and irritating like Stanley and Anya or even Theo, whom the Crotalus had occasionally thought didn't really fit Pecari either because he was.... also very different-in a completely different way than Mab was- and the sort of person people like Uncle Eustace would bully relentlessly and should not be in that house for his own good but was still sort of loud and annoying and drew attention to himself.

Nor was Mab like Uncle Eustace who was an arrogant, sexist jerk who bullied any boy who didn't fit in with traditional ideas of masculinity, in particular not liking or being good at flying and Quidditch, even though he was the reason Jasper and Chris hated it. They might have been interested in it if he'd left well enough alone. Even though she was female and didn't play Quidditch, Leonor was similar to him in that she had a ridiculously high opinion of herself-and for possibly even less reason. Uncle Eustace was a monster, but he genuinely had been a great Quidditch player in his day, even though that didn't negate any of his flaws. It was generally something unimportant, but he'd had skills that he could reasonably be proud of. It was just that-among other things-his skill did not deserve the level of arrogance he portrayed. Nothing did.

But Leonor didn't even have that, she just seemed to think she was great because....well, Esme wasn't sure why, that was the point. That's why it was-slightly-more disgusting and even less legitimate than Uncle Eustace being like that. Not that she assumed the other second year was like her uncle in other ways. She had no evidence of that, so she wasn't going to put those characteristics on to her classmate. That would not be fair.

Mab, however, was....quiet. She did not seem to like being the center of attention. Therefore, her sorting was super puzzling to Esme because it seemed that that was a characteristic of most Pecaris. And they generally weren't a quiet bunch. So, Mab was different and therefore, all right.

Esme had spent the earlier booth shifts checking out other booths, including a turn through the MFECA booth's maze. That had been....enlightening in a completely horrifying way. It made her feel so...appreciative of her own parents. Her dad was a bit strange-of all the themes you could choose for naming your offspring, vowels had to be one of the least common-but both her parents were kind and loving. However, the end had delicious brownies and she'd picked out a stuffed dragon as a prize to give to Uriah.

Now, it was her turn to attend to the ABCD booth. Esme joined her partner, taking over from the previous pair. Before too long, someone approached. "Hello, welcome to the ABCD booth. ABCD is an organization that helps the poor and homeless of Boston get jobs and education and improve things for themselves and their children. We have some brochures you can look at," Which seemed to be the case with a few booths. Ruby had brochures as well as the MFECA booth. "We also have handmade crafts available" Esme herself had knitted some items, mostly scarves, hats and mittens of various sizes. "And a blanket fort which you can tour for a donation." Okay, a blanket fort was a little childish but it really was...impressive. "The blankets inside are being auctioned off so you can bid on them as well." Her sister had a quilt displayed inside so hopefully it would go for a high amount of money. Allegra wouldn't get any of it herself, but she'd be happy if someone liked her quilt that much.

11 Esme Brockert Helping the less fortunate [ABCD] 1479 0 5

Sophia Priory

September 22, 2020 8:13 PM

To the fair! by Sophia Priory

One thing that Sophia loved about fairs was the food which was similar to that at the Quidditch match minus the specifically Quidditch themed things. As this was not the sort of fair that was usually associated with wonderful things like nachos, the Aladren had not been entirely sure that they would be served. After all, this was a charity fair, which meant doing things to raise money for good causes, not the sort of fair where one went on rides and ate junk food.

So, Sophia had been pleasantly surprised that food vendors had shown and gotten her favorite food first thing. And she didn't even have to go to Quidditch game! While a part of her sort of wished the fair was like the one they'd had four years ago, the year before she'd attended Sonora, the Aladren definitely preferred charitable causes to sports. Although, Sophia did understand-and was sympathetic to-why Josie liked it, and thought no less of her for it. Honestly, she still did not understand why Mr. Clyde had told his daughter nothing else about the magical world. While it didn't quite qualify as abusive-as she was now unfortunately well-versed on that particular topic-it had definitely done the younger Aladren no favors and Sophia considered it a tad neglectful. Just not the kind of neglectful one could get their kids taken away for.

The one criticism that the fourth year had about this particular fair was that it was kind of depressing-and admittedly, the booth that she had participated in was probably one the worst in that respect. Sophia had helped her fellow MFECA participants with building their maze earlier and seen all the horrific statistics that were involved. The thing was though, that-and the fact that her brother's girlfriend was running it and she was his proxy because he'd already graduated and couldn't help Peyton himself- was precisely why the Aladren had chosen that charity. Child abuse was like one of the worst evils in the world and had to be stopped. Period.

But even though MFECA had to be the worst offender of making people sad, the other booths weren't immune to it. People suffering from allergies and asthma who had to worry about getting sick from thing they ate or things in their environment, people who were victims of violent crime and sexual harrassment, gay people and werewolves being treated terribly. Honestly, the only non-depressing charities were the Muggle culture thing and the historical buildings one. Even the ABCD booth which was about uplifting poor people stil sort of could make a person sad that people were poor and suffering.

And it seemed to be a thing that called attention to the Haves and Have Nots and make the former feel they are Bad People for Having.....and Sophia was obviously a Have. She knew there were people who thought she was terrible for being lucky enough to be born into the situation she was. As if she'd deliberately chosen it. Granted, of course, had Sophia had that choice, she would have but so would everyone else.

Plus, it wasn't as if her life was completely perfect. Even Haves had problems thank you very much. Her mom had issues with back pain from a Quidditch accident-another reason to hate the sport-and a quack doctor-a reason to hate alternative, experimental non-mainstream medicine-and her dad had anxiety issues. They babied her sister, who'd been a preemie, and it was quite irritating. Of course, these were minor compared to most of the issues that the participating charities were raising money for but still irritating.

Sophia finished her nachos and was heading off to look at the booths when someone approached her. "Hello." She greeted them.

11 Sophia Priory To the fair! 1447 0 5

Ruby Brockert

September 22, 2020 9:23 PM

Step right up! [AAAAAA] by Ruby Brockert

In the end, Ruby had decided to go with the fairly simple idea of playing a carnival game and getting one of the small toys that her brother had suggested. It wasn't favortism towards Jasper that had made her decide on this particular idea but the fact that it was a fair, and they should incorporate fun in order to not completely depress people. Even though having allergies and/or asthma was not a pleasant thing.

Of course, there were definitely worse afflictions out there as well as variations in how affected people with allergies and/or asthma were. Owen's asthma was pretty moderate.He couldn't engage in intense physical activity but he was not...the total invalid his mother, Annabeth, had sometimes treated him as. For example, she had never let Owen get a pet because of the fear it would trigger his condition. However, his asthma was not triggered by animal dander.

On the other hand, Miles was allergic to most foods. There was very little he was able to eat. For him, a going to a buffet would be like walking across a booby-trapped floor. Ruby feared for him attending Sonora feasts at the future. They'd have to set up some system so he'd know which foods on the table were safe. Fortunately, with Grandfather being Headmaster, there would be the advantage of telling him ahead of time what the system was. And, hopefully, her booth was going to be the start of an allergy friendly food initiative here at Sonora.

Unfortunately, Ruby would not be around to see it through. She was going to be graduating. Her time here at Sonora was coming to an end and she'd be leaving it forever, though with the concert next year, she'd be able to come back and watch as she still had siblings here. Not that Sapphire or Topaz-or Allegra, unless it was a thing where prefects had to- would be participating in it.

But she didn't want to think about that. It made her too sad. And there were enough things at the fair to make her sad, but with regards to all the terrible suffering of people, Ruby preferred to think about how all the people here were helping them. That was what mattered. And when she felt sad about leaving Sonora and seeing Dorian and Jasmine last, she had to think of all the positive things in her future. Dean. Wedding. Marriage. Babies. Just the fact that she'd be seeing her boyfriend more often was a thing to look forward to.

Anyway, the game they'd decided on was a fairly simple one. For a small fee that went to support AAAAAA, people could spin a huge wheel. The wheel had numbers that corresponded to what prize someone could pick from. The booth also had pamphlets about allergies and asthma and, of course, free copies of the cook book with allergy friendly recipes as well as samples of a few of the foods inside it.

Ruby sat waiting for someone to come by the booth. Spotting someone, she smiled widely. "Hey, want to spin the wheel to win a prize? All proceeds go to support allergy and asthma awareness and advocacy!" Which was what exactly what AAAAAA stood for.

11 Ruby Brockert Step right up! [AAAAAA] 1405 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

September 23, 2020 4:31 PM

I'm proud of you, sis. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander was actually pretty excited about the charity fair, for a number of reasons. He was eager to have the opportunity to just chill for a hot minute, and any time he got to spend with Mab while doing so was a perk. Summer was coming which meant he'd be seeing a lot more of his foster sister, but summer also meant family stuff and life stuff and Bel would be there (when she wasn't working) and so it was different. School Mab was the one he'd first gotten to know and she was pretty cool.

They were on first shift together for ABCD which was nice, and the first few guests came and went smoothly. The blanket fort was a popular choice - Alexander was glad that Mab had changed to that plan and he was eager for a turn inside himself to be honest - and he even got to overhear a few appreciative comments about his art, which was great. Gave him hope that there might be something in his future for that since very little was both interesting and sensical in this world. But then, he was a kid still and had plenty of time to decide.

"You did good," he told Mab when there was a lull in visitors. "Don't let anyone know I said this, but you're pretty amazing," he added playfully. It was nice having a sister because he didn't have to worry about how to say the right thing to her. He would never have complimented Valentine so naturally. "And you're doing good work. Is charity stuff something you're really into? Or just something you are secretly good at and rolled with for this year?"

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales I'm proud of you, sis. 1475 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

September 23, 2020 5:32 PM

Zur Messe! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

CW - Some cis-sexism.

This was a weird year and Johana Leonie was glad it was over. She wouldn't repeat it for the world. It had been nice to get closer to Malikhi, but things on that front still weren't super clear for her and she wasn't sure if she wanted them to be different than they were, although she thought maybe she did. It was hard to say. Things with Friederike Albert were also not super clear and she was sure she wanted that to be different, but wasn't really too sure what that was meant to look like either. How could she just accept her brother's oddities? At the same time . . . it seemed like she was one of the few who didn't and of the others who didn't, or wouldn't, she was pretty sure she didn't want to associate. She and Hilda hadn't really talked about it, but it was nice that way. It was easy to be friends with Hilda because they both had parts of their lives they didn't want to talk about. Not that Johana Leonie was about to say she could understand what Hilda had gone through, but still.

Unfortunately, Hilda was not directly around when Johana Leonie arrived at the fair. Her next target, naturally, was someone who spoke enough German to help her get by. While Hilda's English had improved dramatically, Johana Leonie's had stalled out some, partly due to the fact that she was more focused on what her brother was doing than anything else. When she spotted Sophia getting some nachos, Johana Leonie was sure she'd found the right person. Unfortunately, this booth did not have nachos the way they would have at home, with spicy sausage and beer cheese dip, but they would do.

"Ich auch," she told the vendor with a grin, pointing at her friend's nachos. "Me too, please." Turning to Sophia as the girl acknowledged her, Johana Leonie copied the comment. "Hello. I am glad finding you," she smiled. "Wie geht's?"

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Zur Messe! 1432 0 5

Gary Harper

September 23, 2020 5:53 PM

This looks familiar [Ness] by Gary Harper

Gary wandered about the fairgrounds without any real objective. His time at Sonora was pretty much at an end, and all things considered, it hadn't been a terrible run. He had survived, so he'd count that as a win. The question of whether he was a wizard, or technically a sorcerer meandered slowly through his brain as he took in the scenery around him. He didn't cast from a spellbook and need to re-memorize and prepare everything each day, but at the same time, he was pretty sure he wasn't using his charisma to power his magic.

It was amid these musing when he spotted his main target for this event, Ness. It had been four years ago when he had first met Ness, at the previous fair. Now things seemed to have come full circle. He grinned slightly as he made his way over toward his fellow Aladren, prefect and friend. He had one more 'going away' present to give out. He really hoped Ness liked it, one way to find out though.

"Hey," He said to announce his presence, "Fancy meeting you here. Having fun?" He was doing his best to adopt a carefree and relaxed attitude and posture. For some reason he was suddenly as nervous as a medusa in a room full of mirrors. Huh, interesting analogy. "I found something that might interest you while I was starting to clean up my room the other week." He pulled out small notebook that looked like it had seen better days and handed it to Ness. It was mostly game ideas and notes from four years ago, but he'd marked a place to note the pages of interest.

On the page or two at the mark, the writings were scribbled notes about experiments and analysis of some magical fun house mirrors. "I still have no idea how those things worked." He commented, "My going theory at this point is they have some similar charms to that of the MARS rooms. Something that takes whatever you're thinking about that and uses that to effect the changes necessary for the thing to function."

He shrugged, dismissing the thought, "Anyway finding that," he indicated the notebook, "Reminded me of all the stuff you've helped me get though over the years since then. So..." with a practiced flourish, Gary swung his wand around in the practiced motions of the 'accio' spell, and a wrapped box then lay in the palm of his hand. He offered it to Ness, "Thank-you, for everything."

Inside the box, Ness would find an ornately decorated hand held mirror. The back of it emblazoned with a dragon. Around it is the inscription 'Perspectives may vary, but truths do not.'

2 Gary Harper This looks familiar [Ness] 1404 0 5

Bridget Ferguson

September 23, 2020 8:43 PM

Everything's all right, perfectly normal [AAAAAA] by Bridget Ferguson

CW-Mentions physical, emotional and magical abuse and alcoholism.

Despite her decided lack of interest in things lately, Bridget had decided to sign up for two booths at the Charity Fair. Each of which concerned a cause that affected one of her parents. The Teppenpaw had selected MFECA because of how Grandfather Ferguson had treated her father. Growing up, Grandfather would insist that her dad wasn't his son, criticize him, call him names, hit him, hex him and probably other things. That was why Dad drank as much as he did, to deal with the pain of how he had been abused by his own father.

That was why Bridget could not blame him for it. She definitely understood wanting to escape, the be numb, to not think about how unwanted you were. Not that the Teppenpaw was necessarily unwanted, her parents had never treated her with anything but kindness and love. It was just that they had so many problems of their own that sometimes, they just couldn't handle all those normal things that parents were supposed to do. But at least they didn't beat her or hex her or ridicule her or place excessive demands on her or any of the other terrible things that the Teppenpaw had had the displeasure of learning about.

Then Bridget had also signed up for the AAAAAA booth because Mama had seriously bad asthma as well as chronic bronchitis. She also seemed to have something wrong with her immune system because she picked up whatever was going around. It actually made the fourth scared that she'd bring some horrible disease home that her mother would catch and possibly die from. Not only would Mama be dead then-a thought Bridget could scarcely bear-but it would be her fault then! And her dad would be so devastated. Would he still love her if that happened? He said he'd love her no matter what but if push came to shove would that still be the case?

Actually, this was another way her life had never been normal. As a small child, when Bridget had been sick, she had never been able to have her own mother tend to her because she could get Mama sick and that would have potentially been a disaster. And her dad....well, he wasn't much more capable of taking care of her either so instead, it was the house-elves who did. However, Dad did come in and check on her. Besides, Bridget was sure this happened in other pureblood households and the difference was that her parents would want to take care of her but couldn't. She knew full well that it hurt Mama inside not to be able to read to her sick daughter and give her her potions. And Dad had tried to read to her when she was ill-or actually when she was well too- it was just that he would eventually get to a point where he lost track of the story, devolve into unintelligible speech and/or just plain pass out. At least passing out meant she sort of got to cuddle with him, right?

Besides, that was just when Bridget was sick . And unlike her mother, she wasn't sick that often. Which meant she could spend time with Mama. In fact, sometimes it was Mama who was sick and the Teppenpaw read to her.

Anyway, Bridget had decided on these two organizations to help people like her parents. Or, possibly more accurately, helped people like Mama-although Ruby seemed more focused on the allergy aspect of AAAAAA, food allergies in particular, so presumably someone in her family had this issue, but it wasn't as if the fourth year was going to ask about it-and help people not end up like her dad.

Now it was , her turn to attend to the AAAAAA booth. Bridget had no sooner sat down than someone approached the booth. "Hey, would you like to take a turn on the wheel and win a prize? It's only a small fee." The Teppenpaw asked. "Or you can try one our allergy friendly snacks." Who didn't love a free sample? Bridget knew Sophia did. She'd been with her cousins plenty of times checking out the farmer's market that was held on Captiol Square in Madison every Saturday during the warmer months. A person could eat good there, honestly. Free samples were abundant."If you like them, the recipes are in the book we have here for free."

11 Bridget Ferguson Everything's all right, perfectly normal [AAAAAA] 1448 0 5

Zara Jackson

September 24, 2020 8:26 PM

Big mood by Zara Jackson

Zara was probably going to spend most of the fair behind her stall. She was the organising party, after all, and a lot of people had multiple commitments. It was also easy. She had practised being spokesperson for the Center so often that it was an easy and familiar role. It felt nice to be in her comfort zone after everything that had happened.

Also, whilst Felipe was staffing the stall with her a lot, it wasn't exactly an atmosphere for a serious conversation. She could spend time with him without having to dwell on the bad stuff, much like they did when making out. Not that they hadn't ever touched on the subject during the year. Zara had tried to let him know he could talk to her, and was trying not to yo-yo between ‘you must tell me what you think/feel’ and wanting to push back against knowing that. It was a bit challenging, given that that was how her feelings on the subject moved…

The stall itself had quite a bit of merchandise from the Center - little science kits, bookmarks and card decks featuring famous people. Fun pocket money type educational stuff. That had been a fairly easy set up, and she’d been really tempted to just leave it at that, plus information leaflets. It wasn’t like her family didn’t have a lot of fun ways to raise funds too, but a lot of them were super hard for her to recreate at magic school. She couldn’t exactly host a drive-in movie, and a lot of the games consoles and entertainment tech, whilst they could magic-proof it for a couple of hours, were not going to stand up to being here for a whole day. In the end, she had opted for a non-magical photo booth. People could pay a small fee to pose with different non-magical tech, or just in cute settings cos she was pretty sure those from non-magical families would not be enthralled by the idea of posing with a phone. Polaroid cameras didn’t love being powered by magic, but things that used batteries were a lot easier to stabilise than things that needed direct sources of electricity. And it gave off enough warning signs if it was getting unhappy that it could usually just be rested for a bit and then recover, rather than reaching the point of explosion. Hopefully.

Right now though, she was browsing the other stalls. She was going to do some time at the ABCD booth later. Ideally she would have liked to contribute to prep but she was seriously not crafty. She had also stopped by and bought some hand crocheted coasters or something. They weren’t her taste but it was full of little knick-knacks that she could use as gifts.

She also made sure to swing by the stalls her roommates were involved in. Right now, that meant going to say hi to Bridget at Aaaaaaaargh. Which, it turned out, wasn’t some super anonymous level of alcoholism, but something about sneezing. Zara couldn’t really say she cared. Like… take a hayfever tablet and get over it. Allergies were a thing that was pretty much managed, and she wasn’t sure why they needed a charity. Given some of the other problems on the pitch - both in the form of the booths, and the people behind them - it was just sort of hard to care about something that seemed so minor. But, hey, it was friendly to give everyone (except Sylvia) a bit of patronage.

“Sure,” she smiled, as Bridget tried to engage her with the booth stuff. Bridget was pretty quiet, and it was cool to see her selling her thing, even if Zara hoped that she was someone Bridget felt comfortable around by now. She took one of the something-or-other-free cookies, pleasantly surprised that it was not awful. She gave Bridget a thumbs up as she swallowed, and handed over the fee for the spin the wheel. “How’s it going? Been busy?” she asked.

13 Zara Jackson Big mood 1444 0 5

Caitlin Pierce

September 25, 2020 1:00 AM

Preserving our history [Magical House and Garden Preservation Fund] by Caitlin Pierce

CW-Anti-Muggle sentiments, vaguely implied homophobia

It was the day of the fair and Caitlin had two booths she was participating in, AAAAAAA and Magical House and Garden Preservation Fund.Two causes that she found incredibly worthy even though some people didn't agree about the latter. Which was...rather messed up. Did they not care about their history, their heritage? Although Caitlin supposed it didn't compare when up against things like child abuse, but it was the sort of thing that proper ladies discussed during coffee mornings and whatnot.

And she supposed it was not technically some people's heritage since they'd been born into lesser circumstances but it was the world they were now part of, whether Caitlin wanted them to be or not. They needed to adapt and respect that, not inflict their culture on people like her! Of course, she did not have to go see the booths that offended her so much, but the fact that they were there was as big an affront to those like her with proper morals and behavior as some of the clothes people wore to the ball last year.

Another thing that she could say about the Magical House and Garden Preservation Fund was that at least it wasn't depressing . Pretty much all the other charities were-and yes, Caitlin did find the Muggle Cultural Center depressing, as having the culture of an inferior people trying to spread and possibly even infiltrate their own definitely was upsetting to her. She'd seen signs of it occasionally in classes, like Professor Skies trying to incorporate Muggle science in with magic. The nerve!

Which was why preserving historical houses and gardens was so important. Muggles couldn't just let magical people have their nice little society apart from them and leave well enough alone. Oh no, after persecuting witches and wizards throughout history, those of Muggle backgrounds had to come in and push their culture on the magical world. Admittedly, Muggleborns had to come to schools like Sonora so they could control their powers, but they didn't have to make the magical world more Muggle-ish. They were already the dominate culture in the world and in any other situation, a dominate culture forcing their values on a subculture was considered wrong. It should be here too.

It was even fine with Caitlin if they did their Muggle things personally, just so long as she didn't have to! Especially as their culture would criticize her for her more traditional feminine ways. She wasn't going to be this more "modern" sort that the Anns were, she genuinely wanted to find a husband who loved her and have babies. Having that special sort of love was important to her and she definitely wanted to be a mom. Although she'd always ignored Thaddeus and the Other Alicia's brats, spending time with Emerald's younger cousins was enjoyable. They were so cute!

And the Crotalus liked things like needlepoint and playing the harp. She did not want to play sports and work. People like Nessa McLeod did not seem to get that.

Anyway, Sylvia's booth for the Magical House and Garden Preservation Fund was selling beautiful works of art. They had paintings and needlepoint pictures, and other various items made by a lot of the students at Sonora, including many of the pureblood girls. Allegra had contributed many doilies and an even better quilt, in Caitlin's opinion, than she'd given the ABCD booth, Ruby Brockert had made floral arrangements and even Topaz managed to do something other than taxidermy, which nobody would have bought other than possibly Headmaster Brockert. There had also been an Art Club session devoted solely to making things for this booth.

It was honestly wonderful though that a lot of the art they were selling had indeed come from pureblood girls who were practicing art forms, many of them traditional feminine art forms, that they'd been raised to do to raise money for a worthy cause. It proved that they weren't silly useless ornaments doing pointless activities. They were proving themselves as capable-a point she was going to raise with Allegra later, as the younger Crotalus seemed to suffer from a low self-image-without having to sacrifice and do things that were unladylike. Honestly, what they were doing here today, was more important than playing Quidditch ever could be. It didn't matter what their charity was one that a lot of people thought didn't matter either-although the sixth year obviously thought it was an important one-it was that they could do it.

Caitlin smiled widely as someone approached the booth. "Hello, would you like to buy one of these lovely pieces of art for your home? They were all made by students here at Sonora and the proceeds go to the Magical House and Garden Preservation Fund, which preserves magical history."

11 Caitlin Pierce Preserving our history [Magical House and Garden Preservation Fund] 1415 0 5

Dorian Montoir

September 25, 2020 6:21 AM

The other chapters matter by Dorian Montoir

Dorian was supposed to know the answers. He was supposed to be calm, and collected. It was his booth. He was head boy. He was out… But his firm truth had just been rejected by Vlad. He supposed that wasn’t totally unexpected. He thought he might have done the same – at the very least, he certainly hadn’t immediately believed that anyone assuring him of how it would all be okay had properly grasped the complexity of the problem. He thought he had clung to the promise like a life line instead of denying it though. But it wasn’t just Vlad’s rejection of the light at the end of the tunnel that had him reeling. They were leaving. This wasn’t news, of course. It wasn’t like the thoughts of their impending graduation hadn’t been constantly sending him off kilter all year… But it was no easier to his own thoughts echoed back to him than it was to listen as they did laps of sleepless brain of a night. He was terrified. And for more or less the reason Vlad had just stated.

I won’t get to see you any more.

Dorian forced himself to think very carefully about each and every English word in that sentence, even as he felt his own eyes overflowing, his own heart racing in panic. It sounded, on the surface of it, like Vlad was confirming what Dorian had been feeling all year – that Vlad was going to keep pushing him further and further away, until he could close the door on him completely. He’d already, effectively, done it once. Mrs. Brockert had made it clear that Dorian was welcome. She had half extended the invite to Jean-Loup, even. Whilst he hadn’t quite been given permission to be there if he needed to be the way that Dorian had, she’d said she would love to meet him. And maybe it would never have come to anything. Maybe Jean-Loup’s lack of a place to go would have always been Dorian’s problem too, because of course they were in this together, of course he wanted to see him – but when Dorian hadn’t been able to go home, he’d been forced to rule out that offer because he didn’t think Vlad wanted him any closer than he had to have him. Because Vlad wanted a break from him, when he could get one. And now it felt like he was threatening to make that break permanent.

Except Vlad was crying over it, like it was totally out of his control. Vlad had said ‘get to’ not ‘have to.’

“You’re the one who holds the cards,” he told Vlad, his own voice thick with emotion. “I would never cut you out of my life,” he stated, straightening up because he felt self-conscious holding Vlad as he was reminded of the very real fact that he didn’t seem to be wanted. “I’ve been trying and trying to talk to you because yes, I know we’re leaving. It sucks. It scares me too,” he stated, tears streaking his own cheeks, because how dare Vlad not think that Dorian was in danger of losing things here? He’d been at home here when he hadn’t been able to feel that anywhere else. And now it was all going away. And he’d already had his friend push him out once, when it mattered to both of them. “Are you saying you won’t see me- you will refuse?” he asked the question that had been plaguing him all term. The one that, from what Vlad was saying, sounded like it had a definite ‘no’ as the answer – but from how he’d been behaving could only seem like a ‘yes.’

13 Dorian Montoir The other chapters matter 1401 0 5

Ellie Alperton

September 25, 2020 8:08 AM

It's not a secret by Ellie Alperton

Pale blue, pale pink and white crepe paper streamers fluttered out from the lattice of the McLeod Foundation booth. They matched the feather on Ellie’s t-shirt, and the border of her volunteer name badge which held her name, her pronouns, and in those little stripes of colour, her identity. Of course, it was only a signal to people who knew to look for it, otherwise she was just a girl with a bunch of pastel coloured things on her, but that felt like a pretty comfortable place to be. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be a secret.

Ellie had had quite a few stomach aches this year, and she was pretty sure that was the root cause of them. Well, maybe it was more accurate to say that a whenever she thought of a certain friend, and how that certain friend had done a bad thing for a good reason but that it was still a bad thing but it was ages ago and said friend was graduating and if Ellie said anything it might all blow up into a big fight that there wasn’t time to resolve- it might have been fair to say that those thoughts and her tummy aches happened quite a lot at the same time. But she was an Aladren, and correlation was not causation. Still, she thought it might be easier if it was something that was more open. She wasn’t about to go up and start debates with people who wanted to question her right to exist, but for those who were willing to be here, to be in this booth and to listen, she was willing to be visible. Then this problem simply wouldn’t exist, even though this kind of thing really didn’t work retroactively…

The problem that didn’t exist and which wasn’t giving her stomach aches meant that she’d contributed something besides the trans flag streamers to the booth. On the wall about being a good ally was ‘Check before telling’ the explanation underneath it detailing ‘If someone comes out or confides in you about their identity, check with them what they are comfortable with you telling other people. It should always be their choice (unless you suspect there is an immediate threat of harm from themselves or from others, in which case speak to a responsible and safe adult).’ She was trying not to sit directly under it because that might have looked a touch too obvious. She wasn’t even sure if she wanted Jasmine to see it, and to have to deal with that. They had a whole big going away Disney sing-a-long, hair-braiding, nail-painting evening planned, and she didn’t want to endanger that. Jasmine had done so much for her, so much to keep her safe and make her feel welcome and happy and like herself. And Ellie didn’t want to take any of that away, or risk it in any way. She just wanted people to know better.

13 Ellie Alperton It's not a secret 1456 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

September 25, 2020 6:47 PM

Fairly Charitable [Bringing Back the Light] by Heinrich Hexenmeister

At the first meeting, Gary had suggested, and Evelyn has seconded a dunking booth. Heinrich . . . was not keen on the idea. This was in part because he did not want to be dunked, and in part that . . . well . . . 'Dunking the Dark Wizard' to him meant two very specific people and dunking them in water was hardly the thing he most wanted to do if he ever saw them again. And since Heinrich had final call on what the booth was doing since it was his booth, dunking had gotten replaced to something a bit more in line with the charity's purpose, which was to re-build.

So they had a big sand pit. Visitors were invited to build castles, dragons, whatever they liked, either by magic or by hand. When they were done, a picture would be taken, and then it would be crushed and ruined, and someone else could build something fresh and new in its place. As each picture developed, it would get hung up on the wall behind the sand pit so people could see what had come before.

Playing in the sand was free. They were getting their income through a suggestion Evelyn had made, where visitors got to cast lumos into dark globe for each donation they made, and a special potion coating the inside of the globe retained just a little bit of that light so it would get brighter and brighter as the day went on. That way visitors could literally help bring back the light with their money.

Booth staff would be responsible for encouraging people to build in the sand and/or pay for the privilege of casting lumos, collecting the money, and taking the pictures of completed sand masterpieces and sticking them in the vat of EZ-Developing Solution, then hanging them up when they were ready. The photography part was a little tricky, so Heinrich had arranged the schedule to make sure all the younger kids were paired with someone older to help with that part of it. But they'd had a practice run last week with both the lumos globe and the picture taking, and Heinrich had gotten some tips on the most foolproof ways to do photograph development during one of his prefect patrols with Nathaniel. so he was pretty sure everyone involved could handle their parts for today's event.

"Hello," Heinrich called out to a passerby about half an hour into the fair. "This is the Bringing Back the Light booth. We support a charity that helps rebuild communities after they have been affected by dark magic. A few knuts will help light up the globe," he indicated the still pretty dark globe hanging over the table with all their pamphlets and literature, "or you can help rebuild the sand community," he pointed at the sand box full of lumps and footprints that were suspiciously the same size as Heinrich's feet. "It's been wiped out by a terrible disaster, but in minutes past, it used to look like that," he pointed at the photographs of two creations that had happened earlier in the day. "You can try to rebuild it like it was or make it better."

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister Fairly Charitable [Bringing Back the Light] 1414 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

September 25, 2020 7:02 PM

A Piece of Culture [Socios de la Comunidad Mágica (Magical Community Partners)] by Leonor De Matteo

Death was on Leonor's mind pretty often, although she tried not to admit it to herself. It varied between morbid curiosity and the active desire to murder people, although she doubted she'd ever act on it. Her booth had not struck up interest with anyone (literally at all) and she was sort of wanting to throttle most of her classmates at this point. Still, she wasn't one to be shut down and she was actually pretty proud of what she'd come up with all on her own.

She didn't plan to have the booth open all night, since she would eventually want to look around at other people's stuff probably, but she figured that she would start open, close down for a bit, and then maybe open again later in the evening. Besides, her game was facepainting. She wasn't great at it, but she wasn't bad, and she was able to make pretty good sugar skulls, which she'd found to be a hit among United States youth. She thought it was ridiculous considering the point of sugar skulls in her own culture, but still; if it drew people in, that was good. Besides, the point of Socios de la Comunidad Mágica was tutoring youth and giving people the chance to travel, which seemed to go along with an intercultural perspective to some extent. A more interesting intercultural perspective than Jackson's booth, if nothing else.

Felipe was helping Jackson and not his own sister. He was helping Muggles. If that didn't say everything anyone needed to know about how messed up he was, she didn't know what would. The reasons to be disappointed in him were piling up, but she knew they weren't supposed to because Dr. Greene said she needed to knock that crap off. Not like that, but that's what it felt like. Leonor was pretty sure she knew which one of them had crap to knock off though.

In any case, Leonor begun the night with her booth decorated with sugar skulls and a Mexican flag, pamphlets she'd asked her parents to send about the charity - organization? - set up on a table, and herself ready to paint. When she shut down, she'd just leave the pamphlets out. Face painting was by donation since Leonor was pretty sure she'd be too bored to actually require anyone to pay for it of course. But she could do faces, hands, whatever people wanted. It was sooo flexible. Ugh.

"Help give people the chance to learn, travel, and grow in culture!" she called a little more softly than some of the more exuberant booth staff around her. "Support the international mission of Sonora." That was a stretch but whatever.

22 Leonor De Matteo A Piece of Culture [Socios de la Comunidad Mágica (Magical Community Partners)] 1471 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 25, 2020 7:52 PM

But also it's not at all. by Evelyn Stones

CW: Some stats about child abuse and reference to Evelyn's abuse.

Evelyn was helping at enough booths tonight that she didn't have to do anything else. She could have very easily spent the evening on shifts with Heinrich and Ness, passing out flyers, helping with sandcastles and pictures, and otherwise enjoying being part of things bigger than she was. The problem, however, was that some things that were bigger than she was weren't that enjoyable and one of them was staring her in the face in the form of a booth she had quite intentionally not signed up for. Heinrich's booth was one thing - that was meant to help victims of dark magic, to help people who had been hurt at the hands of really horrible people - but this was a different beast altogether. It had taken Evelyn a long time to accept that she was a number in a whole lot of classrooms teaching future social workers and lawyers and therapists how to deal with people like her, and she still wasn't sure how she felt about it. But the MFECA booth reminded her that she was also a statistic on a piece of paper in a maze meant to raise money for her. There were charities for her. She hated that thought. She wanted to burn down the whole booth.

She also knew that the reason she had any money to donate to the booth was because of the booth itself, and because of organizations which worked to make sure that children were taken care of when their parents stopped doing that job. Ms. Heidi and the McLeods' work was all supported by this sort of thing. Evelyn's survival was supported by this kind of thing, even if a snake had done her more good than most of the justice system. Or, if Heinrich's fears were right, a hermit wizard in Utah who had taken in some children after the sort of things that Heinrich's booth was looking to help with had done more for her than the justice system. She still wasn't sure what to think about that either.

Heinrich had offered to go through the maze with her and she did really want him to, but she was like 95% sure she was going to cry and stomp and be angry and she thought that maybe she should do that alone, or with the unfortunate run-ins that would naturally occur in a maze where she might bump into any fellow classmate. Besides, she'd rather save their shared non-staffing time to do something fun, like get food or walk around together. Not go through this maze.

Evelyn walked back and forth by the booth a few times before finally getting the courage to go for it. Approaching with a tightness in her shoulders that she hadn't felt in a long time, she resisted the urge to rock up on the balls of her feet and also the urge to run away. She wasn't about to tell Peyton why this was all such a hard time for her, although she thought that the signs were probably all there if the older girl felt like noticing them.

"Hi," she said, her voice a little higher than normal. "Yes, please." She gave the money to Peyton and swallowed, glancing at the maze. She wasn't sure what to say. She didn't want to say anything. She wanted to sprint through there and not think, just so she could say she'd done it. But she wouldn't. She owed it to each person behind the statistics in there and she owed it to herself to honor those stories. She would read every single one. "Thank you," she managed before making her way to the entrance of the maze and stepping inside.

It was distinctly quieter here and the only sound was her own crunching footsteps as she approached the first sign.

It's estimated that at least 1 in 7 children in the US has experienced child abuse and/or neglect in the past year. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse, followed by physical abuse, sexual abuse, and psychological abuse.

Evelyn's mouth was dry. It didn't take her a lot of math to figure out that that meant she was truly not alone among her classmates, even for all that she felt like she was. Her throat was thick and her reflexes were slow, so she didn't notice at first when someone approached from behind. That was unlike her and she practically jumped out of her skin when she realized someone was there.

"Oh sorry," she stammered, regretting not bringing someone with her now. "I was just reading and didn't hear you."

22 Evelyn Stones But also it's not at all. 1422 0 5

Quincy Wright

September 25, 2020 8:06 PM

I'm here. by Quincy Wright

Quincy was not thrilled to be going home because Christmas break had sucked and summer break was way longer than Christmas break. He was also not excited because he wouldn't get to do magic all summer or see most of the pretty cool people he'd met at school. He and Bertie were going to get together at least once, which was great, and he was sure he'd exchange letters with his roommate, but what he do the rest of the time? Who was going to have stimulating conversations with him? He'd come to Sonora thinking he'd rather have just stayed at his Muggle school and now he was convinced he was in the right place, only in time to leave. Sure, he could probably hang out in his dad's shop or something, and he could probably find some fun Muggles to talk to if he hung out in town, but it wasn't the same anymore. He missed talking about science when he was at school, but he missed talk about the real world - the one he belonged to - when he wasn't. After all, the main witches and wizards he knew at home didn't want to talk to him that much anyway. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case. Hopefully he could at least hang out with his dad, because his dad was pretty cool when he wanted to be and people didn't read as much during the summer so maybe they wouldn't sell as many books and his dad would have more free time. Maybe he'd even look into the Ren Faire that Janis had mentioned all those months ago.

Tonight, those thoughts were pushed aside in favor of the moment. There were a myriad of smells, tastes, sights, and sounds to take in. And... feels? Touches? This was a thing he had become more aware of since working with Theo the past while and he was surprised by the strength of his urge to run his hands through the sand he saw at one booth just for the sake of seeing how it felt. Although he was pretty sure that Theo wouldn't like sand. Maybe he could feel it and then report back on whether it was the nice kind of sand or the bad kind of sand.

He glanced around, hoping to find Theo somewhere, but he figured his new friend would probably be meaning the booth first shift anyway so he didn't look too hard. He could just as well occupy his time with Bertie, although it would be a quiet evening that way, or maybe Mara, who he remembered her name now. The main priority at the moment was food anyway, so he made his way to the vendors until he found elephant ears. They were staple fair food in his opinion and he always had to share at home. Here, he could get butter and brown sugar on half, strawberries and whipped cream on the other half, and enjoy the whole mix up that that was going to be as it started to run together. It was basically the best thing ever and if he could have these all summer, he probably wouldn't mind if he didn't get to have any stimulating conversations at all the whole time.

Conversation tonight, however, seemed impossible to avoid, as someone approached him and he turned to see who it was, a mouthful of elephant ear making it impossible to greet them properly until they'd already spoken.

22 Quincy Wright I'm here. 1495 0 5

Freddie Zauberhexen

September 25, 2020 8:16 PM

Secrets suck. by Freddie Zauberhexen

Freddie was feeling much happier than he'd been in a long time. Or at least, he had been feeling happier for a while than he'd been in a long time before that. Was that right? In any case, things had been on the up and up since Christmas. He and Hana talked sometimes and he found that he needed her less and less anyway. With makeup and hair nights, friendships with people who were much nicer to him than Hana was, and the fact that school was easier to focus on when you weren't scared of your secrets coming out, Freddie had enjoyed spring term. A big part of that was Ellie, so he went to find her as soon as he could do so.

He still thought she was one of the prettiest girls he'd ever seen, and he tried to make sure she knew that without being a total creep about it, but that was it. He wasn't sure what else to think. He wasn't sure what else he wanted to think. His sister's continuing amorousness - or whatever it was - with Malikhi Hill made him less sure of whether he was thinking about this stuff because he wanted to or because she wanted to and butterflies were contagious. Besides, Ellie wasn't the only one who made him feel fluttery sometimes, so who was to say whether it was because he was friends with people who made him happy and fluttery and they just happened to be girls, and who was to say whether it was more than that? Also, why did it have to just be girls? It wasn't something he'd ever thought about before but now that he'd been a little more involved with Dorian's booth and learned more stuff, he was at least up for finding out what he thought about stuff.

But not right now. Right now, his pretty brave friend was wearing pretty brave colors and he wanted to acknowledge how awesome that was. He approached with a wide grin, which dimmed some when he realized she looked less exuberant than he did. Of course, most people looked less exuberant than he did most of the time, but still. He cocked his head. There were lots of words all over on pamphlets and signs and one sign had a whole lot of words all by itself. He thought that if it was all in German, he might have looked around for contextual clues, but there was no way he could read this all fast enough to do that in English and it would be weird to approach and then stop for five minutes to catch up on the signs, assuming he could even understand them. "Hey," he said. "You feel not cool?" he asked, hoping the slang would make it a little less direct feeling.

22 Freddie Zauberhexen Secrets suck. 1452 0 5

Allegra Brockert

September 25, 2020 8:35 PM

Please buy something [MHGPF] by Allegra Brockert

Allegra had to admit, she was super nervous about doing her shifts at the fair booths today. She was not...very outgoing and selling things or encouraging others to do something was not something she was especially good at. She was more of the in the background sort of person. The Crotalus actually worried that her being at a booth would make people not want to visit it. And then Sylvia would be mad at her and while Ruby probably wouldn't be, Allegra would have let down Miles somehow. Although,with him being a toddler, he wasn't probably going to be too upset with her either but the fifth year genuinely wanted to raise money to help people like him and like Owen. (Who also was unlikely to get angry with her for a fundraising failure, because he was a kind understanding empathetic sort who didn't really love trying to get people to do things either.)

Even Topaz would likely be able to do better at this than her because while the other fifth year was scary and evil and all that....she tended to hide it from the general population.The only person who knew what a monster the Aladren was besides her siblings and cousins was Ness-and possibly anyone Ness had told about how Topaz was an evil psychopath-and Allegra doubted she was scared of her.

Which meant others would not run away in terror when Topaz was running the booth. They might actually buy from her. Not that people were going to run away in terror from Allegra either obviously. Nobody would ever be afraid of her. No, it was more likely they'd ignore her-especially as not a lot of people, admittedly, probably cared as much about historical buildings and gardens as they did other things, not that Allegra would ever tell Sylvia that-or, worse, laugh in her face if she tried to sell them something. Especially because the odds were she'd sound like a total idiot when doing so.

Not only that, but the Crotalus had pieces displayed inside this booth. Unlike the ones she had for sale (and auction) in the ABCD booth, she had to sit here and feel bad if nobody bought the things that she'd made. Even though Allegra knew it wasn't about her,it was about preserving magical history, it still really wasn't going to help her self-esteem any if nobody bought anything she made.

Plus, well, fundraising, helping out charities, was something pureblood women did and right now, she felt like she was going to fail at basically that. First, the fifth year had failed at party planning two years ago and now this! She was going to be a terrible socialite and was quite glad she'd never have to get a job, because she'd probably be fired from it. Allegra hoped other things that girls like her grew up to do, like motherhood, would come more naturally to her.

Unfortunately, that meant someone would have to marry her first and considering how awkward she was, the Crotalus was not all that optimistic. She sighed to herself, all she wanted was for this night to be over.

Someone approached, and Allegra felt butterflies in her stomach. "Would you like to buy one of these beautiful, handmade, works of art to decorate your home?" She asked, hoping she didn't sound too ridiculous. She was terrified that if someone failed to buy something, Sylvia would get mad at her, not want to be friends with her and kick her out of Gardenia Girls, so she'd have to spend the rest of her time at Sonora friendless and alone, a complete social pariah.

11 Allegra Brockert Please buy something [MHGPF] 1426 0 5

Beau Tate

September 25, 2020 10:50 PM

Missing the point by Beau Tate

Beau had been....incredibly disappointed when he'd found out what this year's fair was going to be. However, he had to admit that at least most people were trying to make it fun the best they could. A few of the booths had some rather juvenile activities, in particular, the blanket fort and playing in the sand, but then again, when else was Beau ever going to get to do things like that again? Maybe when he had children but that was a long way off.

However, legally, he was an adult, and while that got him access to some adult pleasures, it also meant in a year, he'd have to potentially deal with icky adult responsibilities. If he couldn't find a way out of it and for all Beau was a total slacker, he was capable of success when he put his mind to something. It was just that he didn't do it all that much. However, this being an adult thing scared him just a tiny bit-not that he would ever admit that out loud-and that meant, that really, the Pecari was all too happy to play in the blanket fort and sand. He'd also contributed to the light up globe thing. Because Beau really did want to help poor people and victims of dark magic, now that he'd been forced to think about them.

That was the thing though. He did not want to think about how people were suffering. He just wanted to have fun . The sixth year felt like he might only have a year left to enjoy himself before having to give over to the daily drudgery of work . And some of that year was going to be spent dealing with classes complete with dreary magical theory. Yuck.

And, to be honest, some booths had missed the point about this being a fun event. Okay, it was reasonable enough for Sylvia Mordue and her friends to have a booth selling handicrafts-the ABCD booth did this too, but they also had the blanket fort, which sort of counted as a "ride" and had been kind of cool anyway- as that was actually a thing that happened at fairs even though they had no other fun activity. After all, at the last fair, there had been plenty of booths doing that and competitions for the best quilt and whatever. Also, to their credit, it was one of the only two not depressing causes along with the Muggle Cultural Center.

However, Dorian's booth....well, what was the fun activity? They had some baked goods and some rainbow stuff but mostly it was just these stories about how much it sucked to be gay. That was super depressing . It wasn't as if Beau hated gay people or anything though he really hoped nobody ever thought he was one. It was just that his priority here was to enjoy himself .

And you could still educate people on horrifying, bleak subjects in somewhat fun manner, the way Peyton and her booth had. Yeah, Beau didn't want to have child abuse statistics shoved in his face which was literally what the MFECA maze was doing, but at least...he could try to navigate his way through the maze. That was at least sort of fun. Beau didn't know another way that Dorian could have done his differently, but well, it wasn't really his responsibility to do so. Maybe some game with prizes, like Ruby's? Ruby had, like, information about allergies and asthma along with a game. Or a fun house with stories about how it sucked to be gay up on the walls. That was similar to Peyton's but not exactly the same because it would have been a fun house and stories about how it sucked to be gay rather than a maze and child abuse statistics.

Oh well, Beau had bought a cupcake from them anyway. Now he was going to head off to get a corn dog.

11 Beau Tate Missing the point 1416 0 5

Osvaldo Alamilla

September 26, 2020 6:30 AM

This is a disaster by Osvaldo Alamilla

Osvaldo was tempted to wander into the school again during all of this chaos. With nearly everyone out here working to turn the pitch into a disaster, the school was almost empty again. However, if he disappeared for to long someone may get suspicious. Also something may come up that needs his attention and that would not be a good time for people to not be able to find him. So, he was forced to stay and watch the horror unfold.

He circled around the outskirts of the 'fair grounds' taking in the sheer amount of destruction that had taken place. He'd known this was going to happen, the pitch was a mess. The children's booths were bad enough, but then there were the food stalls as well. The grass was getting trampled into bare earth pathways and he could just imagine the amount of fair related garbage that would be strewn about the place by the time it was all over. Hopefully his preparations would work in restoring the field to its former glory, or else he would be working all summer to get it ready for next year again.

Fortunately some of the stands were not to bad. The one he had 'sponsored' was just doing some face painting. But some of the others... One of them though had grown an entirely new hedge maze! Another one of the children had a literal huge box of sand dumped on the grounds! That was going to be a nightmare to clean up. Yes, the prairie elves were going to need to do it, but he was going to have to manage them. Which meant listening to their inanities for an extended period of time. He had heard rumors of one of them thinking about setting up a petting zoo. Thank goodness that hadn't happened.

At least his tinkering with the weather charms seemed to be working. They were a bit unstable, as weather charms needed to be to work properly, but he had been able to 'nudge' them into the state of 'sunny'. There may be a few extra rainy days afterwards to make up for it, but he didn't see that has a problem. The last thing he wanted right now was a rainstorm. Not because it would ruin the fair mind you, but it and the children would quickly churn the field into an even bigger muddy disaster area. That was something he definitely did not want to deal with.

It occurred to him that maybe this was the sort of thing he should have inquired if he was to bring Manola and Edu. The small boy would have probably enjoyed himself helping the other children ruin all of his hard work keeping the pitch in proper order. Oh well, if he thought about it perhaps he would bring some fair food back to them once the event was nearly over.

2 Osvaldo Alamilla This is a disaster 1503 0 5

Ellie Alperton

September 26, 2020 8:06 AM

Well... I'm not one. So, I'm cool? by Ellie Alperton

Did she feel not cool? Well, that was a heck of a question, in any of the multiple ways it was possible to interpret it. The most obvious one to her mind was ‘Do you (not) feel like you are cool?’ like in the minds of her peers or whatever. And the honest answer to that was, she realised, ‘shrug??’ ‘Coolness’ didn’t seem to have such a massive currency value at Sonora as High School Musical and its sequels had led her to believe was normal for their age group. Of course the HSM franchise seemed to be firmly on the side of dismantling that mentality - in ‘Stick to The Status Quo’ you were clearly meant to side against the chorus, and this was reiterated with Chad giving into his true desires in the second film during ‘I Don’t Dance’ (and becoming Ryan’s boyfriend, and anyone else who said otherwise was just wrong because the gay subtext was pretty clear - if you made a whole big number out of how you don’t sing and dance whilst doing both of those things, then clearly it was actually meant to represent something else. Especially if the two dudes singing it swapped clothes at the end). Anyway, Ellie was pretty sure that she wasn’t cool by the standards of people who had standards about such things, but she also wasn’t sure that it really mattered.

She also wasn’t sure it was what Freddie was really asking. He had asked about her feelings. She wondered if she’d been looking more pensive than she meant to.

“I feel okay,” she confirmed, and it was true. Sure, there were things on her mind, but that was true of every single moment of every single day. She wondered if there were people who went through their days just able to switch their minds off and enjoy quiet, or at least just gentle ambient humming for hours at a time. If there were, she was probably looking at one of them right now… But she was pretty fond of him. She offered Freddie a sincere smile. “A lot of this stuff,” she gestured around the booth, “is fairly serious. So, I guess it might be a serious kind of day. But I’m okay. You?” she asked.

13 Ellie Alperton Well... I'm not one. So, I'm cool? 1456 0 5

Vladimir Brockert

September 26, 2020 8:28 AM

The plot's off the rails. by Vladimir Brockert

To pour out his soul, whether it was for better or for worse, just to be misunderstood was so frustrating that Vlad almost wanted to scream. But English wasn’t Dorian’s first language, and they were both in distress, and also, Vlad was sick of yelling. He felt like he’d snapped too many times in the last year, especially at Dorian, who had done nothing to earn it. Still he felt angry, though, and wanted to scream frequently. He just wasn’t the person to let it out - he wasn’t afraid of loud sounds, but he hated making them himself, hated the way his vocal cords burned - but it was absolutely eating him to keep it all in. Yet when he tried to get it out, it always came out wrong. Vladimir was always wrong anymore and it was exhausting.

He took a deep breath. “Of course I wouldn’t refuse,” Vlad answered, finding himself somewhere in the middle - his frustration and his sensitivity were both detectable, but they melted somewhere into one another, almost like they were the same. That thought alarmed him, but he pressed on. “Dorian, you don’t need me anymore. You’ll be happily off with him” - he couldn’t bring himself to say Jean-Loup’s name - “and I’ll be somewhere else, far away, and you won’t need to seek me out because you’ll be happy without me. I know I’ve wasted our last year here, but it’s just been so hard. I’ve never had these feelings before and it’s so confusing and frustrating, and I don’t know what to do. Maybe because there’s just nothing to do, and that’s the worst part. I can’t stop myself. I can’t stop being in love with you.”

Somewhere in there, his tears had dissipated, stilted by the honesty he poured instead. “I know you wouldn’t actively cut me out, but… it’s just inevitable, isn’t it?”

12 Vladimir Brockert The plot's off the rails. 1400 0 5

Stanley O'Malley

September 26, 2020 9:51 AM

One Something, please! by Stanley O'Malley

Despite his best efforts, Stanley could not tear Wally away from his post. Wally absolutely insisted that he needed to stay at the Ly-CAN booth for the entirety of the fair, which was super lame, because obviously Theo would’ve let Wally take a break to go hang out with Stanley. And Stanley himself was on a break from his group’s set-up, so there was even precedence from a responsible adult: Aunt Peyton! But whatever, Wally was a big ol’ dork anyway. (That was only partially true, of course; Stanley often told Wally he was a dork, but it was loving and in a brotherly way. Right now, Stanley was a little bit miffed, but he would never stoop to slandering his twin.)

Thus, he wandered, a mere half of a duo. Stanley took a glance at pretty much all the options as he went by, although he didn’t spend too much time at any single one. At the MHGPH (side note, all of these booths were alphabet soup in his brain), somebody spoke to him as he came up, and he offered that somebody a grin. But then he processed that she was peddling art, so Stanley decided he needed to sound more like a Big Smart Art Man, so he stuck in his chin and put on a funny voice. “Ah yes, one Art, please,” he said in his deepest, most sophisticated voice. But then he realized maybe she thought he was making fun of her, so she laughed himself back to normal. “Just kidding,” he added. “Whatcha got? And what’s your charity all about? Gimme the scoop!”

12 Stanley O'Malley One Something, please! 1491 0 5

Valentine Duell

September 26, 2020 10:29 AM

I'm looking for something special by Valentine Duell

Valentine was in the market for something really nice. She was so excited and had been since she'd gotten Mama's letter that Aunt Giselle was back home again! Now she had the perfect opportunity to get her newly recovered aunt a special 'welcome home - don't you ever leave us again' present. Since she was working at the ABCD booth, she'd examined what was available there first. Nothing quite called out to her there. She had very momentarily thought about trying to get Alexander to draw a picture... but as quickly as the thought had come she realized it wouldn't be that great of a gift for Aunt Giselle. What with the whole blindness thing and all.

So she continued her shopping excursion around the other booths. Her eyes were drawn to the MHGPH booth, there were some really pretty things on display there. She caught her train of thought there, eye-catchingly pretty wasn't going to do much for Aunt Giselle. She needed something else... but what? As she approached to see what else they might have available, the older girl at the booth smiled and gave her opening pitch.

Valentine smiled in return, "Maybe," she replied, "I hope so anyway. I'm in the market for something for my long-lost, recently returned then disappeared and now got home again Aunt Giselle." She paused very briefly after that summary description. "Something that says I'm glad you are home again, don't even think about leaving us again like that or I will have to hunt you down and drag you back home." She kept smiling at the girl but her eyes began to wander over the things they had on display.

"The tricky part is," Val continued, "she's blind, so I'm not sure paintings and such will work well for her. Maybe something more fragrant or tactile?" She turned her attention back upon the girl at the stand, "Do you have any suggestions?"

2 Valentine Duell I'm looking for something special 1490 0 5

Anya Delachene

September 26, 2020 11:28 AM

It's weird. by Anya Delachene

Anya walked by two prefects on her way into the maze - the worried looking blond guy hovering back a bit who looked like he was trying not to worry and hover, and Peyton who was running the thing. Anya gave her sister's best friend a galleon of her parents' money and walked into the maze. Jasmine had talked it up a bit, but then made her promise not to climb over the maze walls and what kind of fun was that? Still, it was good to support her sister's booths, and this was an admittedly good cause. She'd be working in the werewolf booth later and hoped her siblings would be likewise obliged to visit, even if werewolves weren't exactly high on either of their lists of causes to support. She'd have her shift at Dorian's booth after that, but felt pretty sure that she didn't need to count on family loyalty for their patronage there. But for now, she was free to explore the fair herself. So first Jasmine and Peyton's maze, then the allergy one, then she'd get some food, maybe play in the sandbox she'd seen on the way here, then finish off her free time with the blanket fort before heading over for her shifts.

She wasn't allowed to climb over the walls, so instead she closed her eyes and spun herself around a few times, then made a few blind turns to get herself thoroughly lost before trying to find her way out. She mostly tried not to read all the statistics and things posted around the maze, because they were all terrible, but a few she couldn't help seeing and reading.

Emotional neglect is when a parent fails to see, know, or understand their child as they really are, rather than through the lens of what the parent thinks they are or wants them to be.

Anya backed away from that one, shook her head to try to dislodge it from her brain then closed her eyes, spun in place, and made some more blind turns to lose that poster. When she opened her eyes again, she found she had run into her third prefect of the hour, standing in front another sign. Good thing she hadn't been climbing the walls.

It's estimated that at least 1 in 7 children in the US has experienced child abuse and/or neglect in the past year. Neglect is the most common form of child abuse...

"Gah!" she exclaimed in annoyed exasperation, which apparently alerted Evelyn to her presence.

"No, you're fine," Anya promised, when the older girl apologized. "Just . . . did they have to make this maze so depressing? I mean, is it trying to make people wonder if they're one of the one in seven?" she gestured irritably at the sign Evelyn had been reading. "Mom's in no danger of winning any Best Mother trophies from me any time soon, but how do you know if it's neglect or just normal favoritism?"

1 Anya Delachene It's weird. 1453 0 5

Gary Harper

September 26, 2020 8:38 PM

Steps up Now what? by Gary Harper

Gary strolled about the fairgrounds as he entered the pitch with the rest of the students that didn't have first shift assignments. He'd be helping out at Heinrich's and Lyssa's booth later, but for now he was seeing what was around and keeping an eye out for Ness. He had some important plans on that front. Until then, he was checking things out and something from the food area smelled amazing.

As he walked, he jingled the coins in his pocket trying to figure out where his best options were to spend them. Some would naturally need to go to the booths he was helping out with, some would have to go to whatever was making that smell from the food area, but what to do with the rest? Not that there was a lot to start with, he wasn't exactly rolling in the wizarding money and getting dollars converted over was a pain in the behind.

Then Ruby Brockert called out to him as he passed her stand. That caught him a little off guard, he was pretty sure she hadn't talked with him outside of school based requirements. To be fair though, he hadn't exactly initiated any interaction himself. He'd gone to school with this girl for seven years, and he really only knew her name and a rough estimation of her class-work capabilities. Eh, what's the harm at this point?

Sauntering over, he smiled in return, "Maybe, what's the catch?" This was a fair game, fair games were supposed to be rigged that's what made them proper fair games. Otherwise they'd just be.. games? He looked over the things setting around the booth and his eyes caught on the cookbooks setting on the counter. That got him thinking a bit. Did Korraline have any allergies? He didn't know it hadn't come up in the few letters they'd exchanged this term. Illvermorny had things going on, and she was prepping for RATS as well, strangely enough the subject of deadly foods hadn't arisen.

"Cookbooks?" He inquired, "How common are food allergies? For example, if someone hypothetically met someone else they liked and both were graduating shortly and going to the same school after graduation. Would it be a good idea for one of those people to have a cookbook like this, just in case they wanted to make food for the other one at this common higher educational institution?"

2 Gary Harper *Steps up* Now what? 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 26, 2020 9:00 PM

It's something. by Evelyn Stones

Anya's response to the maze and the fact at hand made Evelyn grimace a bit more openly than she would usually have preferred to do but she couldn't help feeling raw right now. She also wanted to be snippy because snippy was easier than vulnerable, but that just wasn't her most of the time. Of course, Ness might disagree . . . She wondered what her friend would think of this moment. Of Evelyn indulging in some amount of masochism just to feel worse about herself as some weird form of honoring her tragedy. What would Ness think of Evelyn thinking of it as a tragedy? She didn't really appreciate the thought that her life was just so depressing that Anya couldn't stand to read about it, but that wasn't really what the younger Pecari was saying anyway, and she knew that. Besides, the rest of her comment made Evelyn practically double take.

"I-- I don't think most people wonder that," she admitted a little awkwardly, surprised by Anya's bluntness. It wasn't that Anya wasn't always sort of blunt anyway, but the girl wasn't one Evelyn would have called open about her feelings or experiences. "Like I think most people don't have to wonder about that. Like six out of seven people," she added, nodding at the sign. She paused, considering the different forms of abuse that were on there. It was easy to think of them as varying degrees of bad, but that wasn't strictly true; someone could be in a very volatile, dangerous environment emotionally and someone else could be in a low-risk, occasionally violent environment physically. It wasn't like physical violence was always worse. But it also wasn't better. There was some abuse that was worse than others though, for sure. It felt weird to acknowledge that. "I think there are degrees of abuse or neglect though, too. And parents can probably neglect their kid sometimes but not other times, or neglect them and still love them."

Did she believe that about all those kinds of abuse? She wasn't really sure whether her dad had loved her in any way that a dad should. Or her mother, for that matter. That was the problem with these things; you had to either accept that your parents didn't love you or that they loved you and could still do those things to you, which sort of made it feel more like your own fault. "My parents aren't winning any awards either," she said. "Do you . . . wanna talk about that?"

22 Evelyn Stones It's something. 1422 0 5

Freddie Zauberhexen

September 26, 2020 9:16 PM

I think so. by Freddie Zauberhexen

Freddie nodded, having suspected as much. Ellie seemed pensive maybe, but she always sort of did. He wondered what that was like. He was rarely pensive, even when he had things to be pensive about. That aside, Ellie was referring to the same text he hadn't gotten through yet. He squinted at it as if that might help, but it definitely did not. "What does it say?" he asked, not one to be embarrassed about these things. "Oder I can read it. I will many questions be having and take much time," he warned her with a grin, knowing he was lousy at this sort of thing.

When he'd acquired the information, he nodded mostly to himself. "Why..." He paused, not sure if he was going to get the sentence right. "Warum tun Menschen so, als ob Ihr Leben ihre Sache ist?" he asked himself, nodding his head when he was satisfied with what he meant to ask. "Why come people doing like . . . like your life is people's life? Like people can know all things and have opinions?" he asked, grimacing a little. Normally he didn't mind his English mixups but he wanted to get this right. "Like if you are you or I am me, why other people . . . care? Why matter to other people?" He ran a hand through his recently re-dyed hair. "Entschuldige. English is not having the words I need. Or I not be having the English words I need."

This mattered. It really mattered. And he couldn't get the words out. He wanted freedom and liberty and love and kindness and bravery and safety and he didn't know how to ask why those things were not things to be taken for granted, especially for people who were different. Maybe that wasn't exactly what Ellie was talking about or thinking about or why she was only doing okay, but it was a topic that had been heavy on his mind and he didn't have anyone to get it off his mind with. Perhaps that's what it meant to be pensive? "Sorry," he groaned with another grimace.

OOC - No promises about that Google translation.

22 Freddie Zauberhexen I think so. 1452 0 5

Anya Delachene

September 26, 2020 10:06 PM

I'll go with something. by Anya Delachene

Anya wasn't sure what she felt at the assertion that six out of seven people - the opposite set of those who were abused or neglected this year, as was made obvious by Evelyn's nod toward the poster - didn't wonder if they were part of the statistic. That just . . . seemed weird to her. She'd always known Jasmine was the favorite. She figured it was normal for every parent to have a favorite. Even Dad had a favorite, even if he wasn't as blatant about it with Philippe as Mom was with Jasmine. Parents had favorites, and Anya was just unlucky to be the one who wasn't picked by either of hers.

But when Evelyn implied that Mom loved her, she couldn't help a disparaging snort. "Can they not neglect you but not love you?" she questioned.

And when Evelyn asked if she wanted to talk about it, Anya discovered that she did. The words started and kept coming and . . . it felt good to finally get it off her chest. "See, Jasmine is everything Mom wanted in a daughter. And then she adopted me so she could have two princesses to coddle, but I'm nothing like Jasmine, and she doesn't know how to cope with that. It's always 'Jasmine this' and 'Jasmine that' and 'Be more like Jasmine' and 'Oh, my God, Anya, you're the reason I'm on anxiety meds! Jasmine would never do the things you do!' and 'Stop jumping off the roof of the stable! You're driving me to an early grave!' - even though I've done it like a million times and never got hurt - well, just the once, but I figured out what I did wrong and it's fine now. And she never rides with me like she does with Jasmine because I'm 'bad for her nerves', and I don't remember the last time we had a civil conversation. And she calls me Anastasia all the time even though she knows I hate that name, and she doesn't like what I wear and she fusses like I committed some heinous crime if I don't brush my hair. And I heard her tell Dad she was glad I was finally going to school because 'now I'll be Sonora's problem.' But, I mean, like, I've got a nice room, I get to go to gymnastics when I'm home -as long as I'm passing all my classes. All my necessities are covered and I get basically anything I ask for. I can go where ever I want. I'm not neglected in the usual ways. Mom just . . . doesn't like me. And I don't really like her either." She crossed her arms and glared at Evelyn, challenging her to argue that all kids had to love their mothers.

1 Anya Delachene I'll go with something. 1453 0 5

Gabriel Wilson

September 26, 2020 10:53 PM

Watch out for sand fleas! [Bringing Back The Light] by Gabriel Wilson

CW-Mentions types of violent crime.

There had been many options for Gabriel to support at the Charity Fair. A lot of them were really good causes, though there had been a few he'd steered clear of. Not so much because of out and out disagreement with them, but because well, he was rather terrified he'd say the wrong thing by accident. In the case of the Muggle Cultural Center, which was Bertie's family's thing, well, Gabriel obviously didn't understand Muggle culture very well and it was best he do something else. As for the McLeod foundation, he was going to give anything involving Ness-other than DnD-a wide berth, even though it was Dorian Montoir running it and Gabriel would probably go look at it when Ness wasn't there.

Honestly, the second year was a tad apprehensive that the older Aladren was going to be in charge of Dungeons and Dragons for the next few years. True, the game Ness ran had been really fun and she hadn't really said anything to Gabriel much since that first session. Of course, Gabriel had kept his mouth shut and saved any questions for Gary later. And Gary had tried to reassure him that he shouldn't be scared but he couldn't help but continue to be a bit worried, even though he completely trusted the seventh year.

Truthfully, Gabriel was going to miss Gary a lot. He really looked up to the older Aladren boy. Gary had been so incredibly helpful to him explaining things he didn't understand like computers and guns and how elves in DnD were different than the house elves that Gabriel was familiar with. And the seventh year had been polite and understanding and didn't make the younger Aladren feel like he was dumb or a bad person for not knowing. Honestly, it wasn't fair to expect Gabriel to know everything about every single culture in the world. He doubted Ness did, and also doubted that she'd be as polite and understanding as Gary had been if he asked questions. So, who was he going to ask them to now that Gary was leaving? Maybe Val. She was nice and seemed knowledgeable about the game and probably Muggle things since he didn't think she was a pureblood.

Anyway, there were many other good causes that Gabriel had been able to pick from. In the end, he'd chosen Heinrich's booth for helping victims of violent crime, particularly those who had been affected by dark magic. He'd basically decided on this because not only did he hate violent crime and dark magic but because it was Heinrich's booth. Heinrich was in the Gaming Club too, and while Gabriel didn't feel he knew him as well as Gary-because the sixth year was quiet which was totally okay and also because Gary was the one Gabriel went to with questions on all things DnD-Heinrich also seemed pretty cool. At least, he didn't make Gabriel feel like he was walking on eggshells.

And in the end, their fair booth was totally awesome. There was a light up globe thing that people could donate to-which he had-and sand pit where people could make like, sand castles and stuff. A really interesting thing about sand was that it was defined as any material made up of grains within a specific size range so sugar and salt qualified as such. Which meant when people put sugar or salt on their food, they were eating sand . Gabriel had thought only people with pica, an eating disorder which meant people ate non-food items, ate sand. Although obviously, only some of them ate sand, they all seemed to have different non-food items they ate. However, the sand people usually thought of was silica, made of quartz crystals that have broken down about as far as they will naturally, to about a millimeter in diameter.

What was really freaky though and totally tied the sand to the anti-violent crime focus of this booth was that there was sand mafia in India that was notorious for using violence, bribery and coercion in the course of illegally collecting and selling the material.

And then there were the sand fleas that lived in sand. They were nasty parasitic insects that burrowed into people's skin and stayed there for up to two weeks, eventually spewing hundreds of eggs. Gabriel really hoped that didn't happen to anyone here.

He stood waiting as someone approached. "Hi." Gabriel greeted them "This is Bringing Back The Light, which helps victims of violent crime and rebuilds communities after dark magic attacks. A violent crime is one when someone physically hurts or threatens to hurt a victim, and also includes crimes where a weapon is used. Assault, murder and manslaughter, gang violence and domestic violence are all regarded as violent crimes. We have a globe you can help to light up for just few knuts or you can play in the sand pit for free, rebuilding the sand community that got wiped out."

11 Gabriel Wilson Watch out for sand fleas! [Bringing Back The Light] 1481 0 5

Sophia Priory

September 27, 2020 12:48 AM

Let's go! by Sophia Priory

CW-Brief mentions of alcoholism and eating disorders.

"Hallo" Sophia greeted Johana Leonie, smiling . She wasn't sure how to respond to the other fourth year being glad to find her. She was happy about it, of course. Johana Leonie was someone that the Aladren liked being around, but any response to that would have sounded weird and awkward. Of course, Sophia was the sort of person who felt awkward expressing affection. She wasn't sure why exactly, her parents were loving and affectionate enough. Her mom was the sort of sweet, kind stereotypical Teppenpaw that was very... huggy. Mom saw the best in people and loved most of them. Which was not Sophia at all. The Aladren was cynical and pessimistic. Sometimes she wondered if she had been switched at birth. Then again, Uncle Adam was also cynical and pessimistic so perhaps she took after him.

However, he hadn't always been that way. As a child, her uncle had been painfully shy but he'd felt...rejected by the majority of students at Sonora and snapped and became bitter and sort of misanthropic, though he was always kind to his nieces and nephews, though Sophia did get the impression he had less than kind thoughts about Arianna. Still, Uncle Adam had an excuse for being this way, she was just like this naturally. Having a whiny spoiled little sister was not really something that would cause her to be like she was.

Actually, thinking about why people were like they were was fascinating.Psychology was an interesting subject all around. Sometimes, why someone behaved a certain way was obvious, like Bridget's father drinking so much because he'd been abused by his father and he had painful memories. Which in turn was causing Bridget issues, as was other decisions made by family members of hers on both sides. On the other hand, there was her cousin-her grandpa's cousin's daughter- Autumn who had severe anorexia. It was sort of a wonder neither Autumn nor Marshall was dead, not to mention Bridget's mother, Harmony, who had chronic health issues that just...existed. Not that Sophia would say that to the Teppenpaw who had a serious and probably justified fear of being an actual orphan.

"I'm glad to see you too. I'm not doing anything much, just eating nachos before checking out some of the booths. I have a shift later over at the MFECA maze but I'm available to do some other things for now. " She had to admit, she was sort of curious to see what other booths had thought of doing to raise money for their chosen causes. While Sophia wasn't quite as much gung-ho about everything having to be fun as her cousin Beau was, she kind of thought that the Pecari had a point.Like, she could see both sides. It was good to give back and help others but it was also the end of the term and who wanted to go into summer break thinking about violent crime and child abuse? Weren't the Midsummer events supposed to be this celebration of...something? The end of the school year, maybe?

Then again, not all the events were all that fun. Like what was fun about being at the ball when you didn't have a date or even friends to hang out with, either because all your friends had dates and you didn't or because you didn't have friends to start with? Or you were prefect or Head Student and didn't have a date so you had to face the shame of opting out? Especially since you weren't allowed outside dates, unless you were Dorian and somehow found deserving of special treatment.

Or the concert. If you weren't participating, it was...basically nothing to you. She had to agree with Beau on this one, watching other students perform wasn't terribly interesting. On the other hand, making everyone participate would be cruel. Some people were shy, like Uncle Adam was or just not terribly talented in any way that would work in the concert. Of course, it might be fun to watch them perform if they did a play or something.

She addressed her friend "So, do you want to hang out? Any particular booth you're interested in seeing?

OOC-Italics are words said in German as usual.

11 Sophia Priory Let's go! 1447 0 5

Dorian Montoir

September 27, 2020 7:53 AM

I think it has been since day one by Dorian Montoir

"I need you."

It had been a challenge to hold back the words which had wanted to burst out of him the second Vlad had spoken. He had forced himself to wait, to hear Vlad out, but that remained the most important point.

"I need you, and I want you, and no, I will not be calm and happy and contented without you," he answered, his breath hitching around his tears but his voice clear and confident on all of those absolutely indisputable facts.

He reached out, stroking a few stray tears from Vlad's cheek, trying to understand... He knew that feelings and secrets and pressure could make you see things that weren't there. He had often taken that to be a symptom of his own slightly screwed up tendency to overthink. He wasn't sure, therefore, whether to take this as evidence that everyone else felt like that sometimes too, or whether it indicated he had done something wrong, something to break Vlad. To make Vlad feel sad and lonely and abandoned. Besides the obvious thing of dating Jean-Loup... He knew Vlad wasn't happy about that but there was a difference between unhappy and what was in front of him right now.

"I'm sorry," he stated softly. He had always apologised a lot. He had spent half of his life apologising without knowing why, apologising for even existing... He had, with effort, broken those habits, and he didn't want to get back into them now, so he clarified with the solid things that he could, right now, be sorry for. "I'm sorry if anything I have done has made you feel abandoned, or made you feel like I wouldn't want you in my life. I do. I absolutely do. Forever."

He considered Vlad’s other point. He thought about the world beyond the curtain, the world represented in all the little stories around them. There was also the fact that he couldn’t imagine Vlad wanting to be around Jean-Loup, but that was more on the side of Vlad cutting him out than the inevitably of Dorian leaving him, and he wanted to focus on that, at least to start with. He didn’t want to lie and say it would be simple, even though he felt like it should be, if the world had had any proper order to it. It felt even somewhat strange to argue so hard against the thing he’d been fearing and believing for months. But he’d always believed in his friends more.

He took a deep breath, taking a seat on the floor, nodding to Vlad to indicate that he was welcome to join him. His back was against the drape that made the back wall, the lattice beyond it just about touching and providing a fragile support. He looked to the closed gap in the curtains, imagining the world outside.

“I will always want my friends,” he reconfirmed, “I have come too close to losing too many people already. I-I just can’t imagine-” he explained, his composure threatening to crumble again at the thought of giving any of them up. “It isn’t going to be the same,” he admitted tearfully. “But do you imagine… You imagine Tatya, going off and her life meaning that she never sees us?” he asked, trying to stick to examples that were less complicated. But even if they saw her, even if they saw each other, it wasn’t the same… He wasn’t sure where between those two extremes Vlad wanted their lives to lie - there were so many things between things staying exactly as they were (impossible) and never being part of each other’s lives again (equally so). And he had no idea which ones would be satisfactory to Vlad. He had no real idea what Vlad wanted. Vlad had told him, twice now, that he was in love with him, but his own reaction to that seemed to be to push Dorian to arm’s length, or further if he could.

“My life’s going to look a bit like this, I suppose,” he nodded to the world beyond the curtain. He was certainly hoping to leave what was in here behind. “I’ve gone too far to go back and I don’t really want to. And so, I don’t suppose I’ll be seeing you and Tatya as much at parties as I once did,” he admitted, searching Vlad’s face for a sign he was mad about that. Yes, Dorian had made decisions which had consequences which affected their friendship. And that sucked, and he hated it. He found he wasn’t inclined to apologise for it though. It wasn’t something he regretted, nor saw as his fault. “I’m not going to be part of that world, and that’s fine with me. I can’t keep wondering who in the room knows and hates me for it, who I’m still a secret from - and they never liked my non-white face all that much anyway, you know,” he added. In so many ways it was a relief to close those doors. There was only one small thing he wanted to take from them... “I never really cared about the parties. I cared about a few special people at them but… But I would be excited to see you at a party because you would be its saving grace. I’m just as happy to see you when we’re eating lunch, or doing nothing, or going-” going to sleep. Maybe not the best example. Because that would be changing. He thought about the nights he’d spent in Greece over Christmas, falling asleep in Jean-Loup’s arms. It had been… different. It had been temporary though. He had known he would be back at school at the end of it.

“What do you want it to be like?” he asked. “For real.” Because he didn’t mean in an ideal world. In an ideal world they would stay here forever, or no one would care who anyone loved. Those things were easy to say, but they did nothing to help, because they didn’t live in an ideal world. They lived in this one. And they were going to have to decide what to make of it, and where to fit into it.

13 Dorian Montoir I think it has been since day one 1401 0 5

Ruby Brockert

September 27, 2020 8:05 PM

You could spin the wheel by Ruby Brockert

Ruby had never really spent any time with Gary Harper-and she felt sort of bad about this. She should have made more effort to get to know more of her classmates and now it was too late. She even wished she had gotten to know Jasmine sooner. Still, the Teppenpaw had nothing against him or any of the rest of them really although the reason she had called out to him because he was passing by and she wanted people to donate money to AAAAAA.

"Catch?" Ruby asked. "There isn't one at all. I mean, this is one of those everyone gets a prize sort of games." Jasper had suggested that as well and the seventh year had agreed it was a good idea. She wanted everyone to leave with something nice. The could have just sold the stuffed animals and other small toys but again, it was a fair. Therefore, they needed to make the appropriate games and whatnot.

" I mean, the higher the number you get on the wheel, the better the prize but there's no real catch. " And anyway, better was a subjective thing. Someone might think the smaller stuffed animals were cuter than the larger ones, for example, though Ruby thought that most stuffed animals were adorable. "There is a slightly smaller chance of getting the bigger prizes in order to make things more interesting, but you'll get a prize no matter what."

Then Gary apparently seemed to notice the cookbook and started...giving Ruby some hypothetical. "Well, they're pretty common. Around five percent of adults and eight percent of children are affected and those numbers are going up." Actually, that didn't sound like that many people but that was the wording the literature on the topic had used. Also, that made it sound like only three percent of children outgrew their allergies, which meant Miles probably wouldn't.

However, there were also some allergies that didn't develop until people were older, like fish allergies. Miles, not even being three years old yet, was not allergic to fish at this point-however, if he later developed an allergy to it, it was going to be really awful. Actually, it was really awful now as it was.

"The thing is," Ruby stated "while that doesn't sound like much, it's actually about fifty million people and it can be truly horrible for the sufferers. Like if someone is allergic to wheat or dairy or eggs" All three of which her cousin could not eat "those things are in a lot of different foods sometimes even ones you wouldn't think of like ketchup. Apparently, ketchup contains wheat." Honestly, the more she learned these facts, the worse she felt for her cousin. While there was definitely more to life than food, Miles was going to have severely limited options in this respect. And everyone had to eat. "Any allergen can cause anaphylaxis which basically makes a person unable to breathe and can kill them. "

Plus,having so many allergies would possibly give him a complex. Especially considering Uncle Eustace was around and had managed to give complexes to Jasper and Chris who were perfectly healthy and contributed to lowering Owen's self-esteem when the Teppenpaw alum was around him less than Miles probably would be and wasn't as...limited with regards to his health issues.

She continued"And, I guess that would depend on if either of the people has food allergies. I mean, not everyone does. So, the odds are neither person involved is allergic to any kind of food. However, the cook book is free, so you can take one if you want. There are some samples of here of the recipes within if you want to try them" Ruby paused. "And I'm sorry to give you so much depressing information. Would you like to spin the wheel and try to win a prize?"

11 Ruby Brockert You could spin the wheel 1405 0 5

Caitlin Pierce

September 27, 2020 9:46 PM

I think that can be managed. by Caitlin Pierce

While Caitlin was never all that thrilled to talk to inappropriate people, the point of this whole booth and the fair in general was to raise money for people's chosen causes. Basically, anyone's money was just as good in this case. Well, so long as it was wizarding money. Caitlin did not know all that much about Muggle money.

That was because she personally tried to know as little about the Muggle world as possible. There was no reason to ever know anything about them and their culture. They were not interesting or special and definitely not superior to magical people. Magical people could do all sorts of things that Muggles could not. Why would they ever need or want to incorporate Muggle things into their lives?

After all, the Statute of Secrecy existed to keep wizards and Muggles apart. Some people, like Zara Jackson and her family, seemed to want decent magical people like Caitlin and her family, to be exposed to Muggle culture-and that was just a slippery slope towards repealing the Statute of Secrecy! Which would be a disaster ! Did those people not understand that before the Statute, when wizards were known to Muggles, they had been persecuted even though in many cases those that had been hung and burned as witches were actually Muggle misfits. Which clearly showed both as nasty sentiment towards the use of magic-the attitude that being a witch was a bad thing- and as much a problem with those who were different as they accused people like Caitlin of being. Even if people weren't persecuted for being magical, in that horrific scenario, they would still be treated as second class citizens because there were more of the Muggles than there were of them-and that would definitely include even Muggleborns and half-bloods.

And anyway, Caitlin wasn't even saying that they had to not do Muggle things that they enjoyed, just that she wanted nothing to do with it.

That was why it was so important to preserve magical history though. To keep their cultural heritage alive. And it wasn't as if historical buildings were something that were like, offensive in themselves, like there was no reason to be against buying something and having your money go to preserve historical buildings and gardens. Literally the worst anyone could ever say about it was that there were better causes, something Caitlin herself had acknowledged.

Anyway, she kept a polite smile on her face as the first year launched into a spiel about her aunt who apparently kept coming and going. The Crotalus was about to start telling the younger girl about all the wonderful items they had for display when she was informed that this aunt was also blind which did make things considerably more difficult since art was a largely visual thing. At least the kind that could be bought and sold in object form.

Then it hit her "Oh, we do have some quilts for sale. I mean, she might not be able to see them but they can still keep her warm." Caitlin suggested. She was certain Allegra would be thrilled if someone bought one of her quilts. "There are pillows too." Also sewn by the fifth year.

11 Caitlin Pierce I think that can be managed. 1415 0 5

Valentine Duell

September 28, 2020 5:05 PM

Super! by Valentine Duell

"Oooo," Valentine's eyes widened at the suggestion of a quilt. That might be perfect! It would keep Aunt Giselle warm and snuggly, and she could tell her that whenever she wrapped herself up in it, she could imagine it was Val giving her a big hug! That would be great, it would always remind her that she had people at home that loved her. "The quilt sounds great! How much is it?"

Mama and Papa had sent her some money to spend at the fair. She wasn't really sure how far it would go. She did want to get some food, and spend some at the ABCD booth, she should probably try to spend a little at all of them, they were all good causes. This one supported magical history? That was a good thing. From what she had learned over break, forgetting the past could have negative consequences.

The older girl mentioned pillows as well. Those were nice and could also maybe work. Instead of being hugged by a quilt, she could hug a pillow and pretend it was Val. She wasn't sure it would quite be the same, but it could maybe work if the quilt was just to expensive. She hoped it wasn't though, but it was to late to beg Mama and Papa for more money for a present for Aunt Giselle. She would just have to make do with what she had.

2 Valentine Duell Super! 1490 0 5

Gary Harper

September 28, 2020 6:09 PM

That is an excellent suggestion by Gary Harper

Five percent!? That was huge! Gary shook his head, "No, five percent is a considerable number." It was the chance of either rolling a crit or a crit fail. A one or a twenty had a five percent chance of coming up every time that d20 was rolled, and they came up a lot. Usually ones for him. Thankfully he'd rolled well enough at character creation and didn't have any.. at least that he knew about. He could, in theory, be allergic to some strange foreign dish that he's never tried before.

He picked up one of the cookbooks and flipped through it. "It may not be a bad thing to have on hand." he commented, "Plus I'm moving out on my own this summer, so I guess I'll need a few of these things anyway. Do you have any recommendations?" He asked indicating the samples.

"Sure," he responded her her question about spinning the wheel. According to her explanation, it wasn't a win or lose game, it was a 'how good of a thing can you get' game. "Sounds good." He handed Ruby the money and spun the wheel. He watched it as the numbers raced past and it finally settled upon the number 2. That seemed about right for him and his luck with random number generation. Still, it wasn't a one, so that was good. "Well," he gave Ruby a grin, "looks like I got a two. What options do I have with that result?" On the plus side, he may have won Korraline a fair prize, as mandated in the unwritten courtship ritual laws. He wasn't sure if she was technically supposed to be present to see his incredible wheel spinning skill in action. If she was, this whole exercise may be invalid. Plus there was the minor fact that they weren't actually dating. Maybe that would change. He was going to have to ask her when she was getting to Colorado in his next letter to her.

2 Gary Harper That is an excellent suggestion 1404 0 5

Topaz Brockert

September 28, 2020 8:29 PM

A worthy cause [MHGPF] by Topaz Brockert

Topaz was obviously so not thrilled about this whole charity fair thing. It was downright nauseating and also pretty much against all that she honestly stood for internally and every one of her instincts to help people . Not to mention there were those who wanted to make her feel guilty and like she should apologize for her very existence-and not her relatives either. Not apologize for the actual bad things that Topaz had done to people but the fact that she was white and straight and pureblood and rich and important...which meant she was obviously a bad person responsible for vicitmizing anyone who was not her.

Okay, arguably, Topaz personally had done just that but just not...those people for those reasons. The people she actually had terrorized were also rich and white and pureblood and all that because they were mostly her relatives. And Snotti-Ness, but that had admittedly little to do with the other Aladren's sexual orientation and more because of the self-righteous judgemental hypocrisy, and the whole getting prefect over Topaz thing.Although Snotti-Ness was definitely the sort to play the lesbian card for why Topaz was "picking on her".

Come to think of it, maybe that explained why the other girl had gotten prefect over her. Grandfather voted for Topaz, the Brooding-Hawthornes picked Snotti-Ness because she was a lesbian and everyone else who voted for the other fifth year picked her because they didn't want to listen to her whine and cry about "discrimination" even though Dorian Montoir had previously gotten it which meant that obviously wasn't the case. Though Topaz supposed they hadn't known the Teppenpaw was gay when prefects had been picked for that year group.

Anyway, if she was going to be called a monster and evil and a psychopath and "bad"-Miles literally always followed her name up with the word "bad. It totally made her want to feed him a peanut butter sandwich-and all those other things Emerald and Esme threw around about her, she wanted it to be for the right reasons.

That was the thing though, other people didn't know about the kinds of things that Topaz did to her siblings and cousin. People like Allegra and Sapphire were too terrified of her to let others know about all the things that the fifth year had done to them over the years.

And however much supporting charities and helping people was everything Topaz was against inside, she rather wanted others to see her doing so. Plus, she'd been bored and needed something to do prior to her shift at the MHGPF booth so while there were some booths she avoided, as she was not about to support anything with Snotti-Ness's name on it or Muggle culture or werewolves and something about supporting Heinrich's booth seemed too hypocritical to her-and it was hypocritical to call Snotti-Ness a hypocrite and be one herself- she'd gone through the MFECA maze,which Topaz had decided was not hypocrisy because while technically she'd abused children, they were not her children and her victims had been around her age and she was an emotionally neglected child herself according to their booth,

Although her parents not seeing her as she was totally worked to her own advantage most of the time, because if Father knew the sorts of things she did to her siblings and Allegra, she couldn't imagine how much trouble she'd probably be in. Really, Father should know better ,-she had doubts Mother would actually care- given how Uncle Eustace was, but then, Topaz was very much not like her uncle, thank you very much, minus a shared tendency to be harmful to others that they arguably shared with poisonous snakes, alcohol, and,in the case of Miles, pretty much life in general. She was pretty sure she'd stuffed things more evolved than her uncle. If there was a person that Topaz had as much contempt for as Snotti-Ness, it was Uncle Eustace.

Still, there were some ways that Mother's failing to see her for herself were irritating. Like all that pressure to find a husband and be polite and proper. Ugh. Not to mention the fact that Topaz was the third failed attempt for a boy when she was far better than her brother could ever be! Never mind that Mother ignored Jasper too.

Anyway, it was now time for the fifth year's shift at MHGBF. Topaz sat and waited for someone to walk by. "Hey!" She called out to someone walking by,"Would you like to buy something? All proceeds go to preserve magical history." It was probably the most worthy cause represented here tonight. After all, some people wanted to tear it down and infiltrate it.

11 Topaz Brockert A worthy cause [MHGPF] 1427 0 5

Bridget Ferguson

September 28, 2020 10:13 PM

And now a sort of Gabriel one. by Bridget Ferguson

"Actually, I literally just got here." Bridget replied "How about yours?" Honestly, she really didn't find Muggle culture objectionable at all. While it wasn't something she talked about much-as she tried to talk about her family and her general background as little as possible-her step-grandfather was a Muggle and Mama had grown up going to a Muggle elementary school. Which had been horrible for her based on being poor, sickly and illegitimate and no picnic for her mom's half-sisters either even though by that time Grandma Cora had married Grandpa Clayton and they were totally healthy. However, Aunt Patience sucked at sports and Muggle children were less than kind towards the unathletic. Also, her grandma and step-grandfather had done her aunts no favors by naming them Patience and Strawberry.

Still, at least Bridget supposed that being a Muggle wasn't so bad, considering her biological grandfathers were a philanderer and a sociopath. And everything, all that her parents went through, except her mother's actual physical health problems, and all the shame and embarrassment she felt, was their faults.

And that didn't mean that Muggles didn't have other positive bits of their culture. It was just unfortunate that none of those bits were anything Zara could bring on campus aside from Muggle literature because they wouldn't work at Sonora.

Bridget was sure, though, that there were quite a few people who either objected to her roommate's booth, because they came from those sorts of magical households that didn't want or had little interest in it because they came from Muggle households, and already knew about it. Even her aunt Patience, who was a half-blood, had been super annoyed by her own school's attempt to incorporate Muggle culture into the curriculum. Probably because it was mostly science and because of her negative experiences in a Muggle school. Aunt Patience, while her father was a Muggle, was a witch and identified as such and had felt that if she couldn't do the things about the Muggle world she enjoyed-such as watch television-she didn't want to do things she didn't.

Of course, Bridget hadn't been all that enthralled with Professor Skies' own attempts to incorporate science into their lessons. The Teppenpaw generally had no desire to figure out why her magic worked or how bridges worked. She just couldn't bring herself to care . She needed to save whatever interest she could dredge up for things that matter. Bridget only managed to care about the two booths she was involved in because they were things that affected her parents directly.

Well, she supposed that wasn't completely accurate either. She definitely would have cared about child abuse anyway and even allergies and asthma weren't always minor. Apparently, food allergies affected around fifty million people in America and could be lethal. Plus, the more foods you were allergic to, the more limited your options in terms of things you could eat. It would have been more accurate to say that she only cared enough to get involved with these two booths because they affected her parents directly. "Well, go ahead and give the wheel a spin." Bridget said. "Also, if you like the cookie, there's a whole bunch of recipes in the free cookbook there. Apparently, food allergies are a big problem and about thirty-eight percent of kids who have them have a history of severe reactions. And around thirty percent of kids who have them are allergic to multiple things. Hence the cook books. Anaphylaxis is apparently really scary and potentially fatal. Like ninety to one hundred people die from allergy related deaths every year. Though some are from insect and medication allergies. "

Some of the facts about asthma scared her even more. Of course, that was probably because Mama had severe asthma and not food allergies. Ten Americans died from asthma every day. Women were more likely to die than men. Adults were more likely to die than children.

11 Bridget Ferguson And now a sort of Gabriel one. 1448 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 29, 2020 6:50 PM

Alright, that's Something for $1200, Alec. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn nodded a little grimly. "I think there's probably some in-between," she agreed.

She hadn't really expected Anya to talk about it but it was probably good that she was. Evelyn well remembered the first times she told anyone anything and it felt like she was risking a lot and gaining a lot all at once. Like the world was still big and scary but at least she wasn't the only one carrying it now, and if it crushed the other person than at least she had a little more reason to feel big for just a minute. Maybe that was different for Anya - she hoped the situations were different at least - but it was still clear that the girl needed to talk. She also had a lot to say that made Evelyn want to smack her mother. You shouldn't treat your kids badly but especially if you adopted them; it was maybe even less their fault that they got stuck with you than if you'd birthed them yourself and it wasn't like you could adopt a kid by accident.

"I don't really like my mother either," Evelyn admitted, agreeing again with Anya's assertion, although she was hesitant to seem like she was making this about herself. "It sounds like maybe your mom doesn't neglect you in like . . . she doesn't starve you or something and she makes sure you're alive, but she's sort of being awful. Like if a friend said that stuff to you, you wouldn't be their friend. And adults are supposed to behave even better, although they almost never do. But like. You shouldn't blame your kid for you being a worry-wart," she frowned, all of it coming out a bit grumpier and less sympathetic than she'd meant it to. "Why do parents have to go and be sort of not great at it anyway?" she demanded softly; this wasn't Anya's fault and she was asking the girl to commiserate more than anything.

She took a breath. "Sorry. It's a rough topic for me. For what it's worth, I think you seem really cool the way you are. Jasmine's probably cool too," she added as an afterthought, not sure she thoroughly agreed with it after hearing Gary say that the older girl had suggested that they could date throughout the year just for practice or something. "But you seem more like my kind of person. And even if you weren't, there's nothing wrong with you. That's gross to make you feel like that."

22 Evelyn Stones Alright, that's Something for $1200, Alec. 1422 0 5

Caitlin Pierce

September 29, 2020 8:44 PM

Glad you're pleased, I guess by Caitlin Pierce

The younger girl seemed to like the idea of a quilt. Which was great and Caitlin couldn't wait to tell Allegra that someone was enthused about something she made. The older Crotalus didn't know why her friend had such a low opinion of herself and was so anxious a lot of the time, though she'd heard rumors from her sister-in-law that Topaz wasn't always nice to the other fifth year. Caitlin felt puzzled to this because while the Aladren certainly had her faults-for example, she was incredibly self-absorbed and she did have some odd hobbies-but she'd mostly found her to be fairly pleasant.

Then again, family dynamics could be odd. The Pierces were admittedly a perfect example of this fact much as Caitlin loathed it being so. They'd already had two disowned offshoots that she preferred to think of as never having existed and being totally unrelated people that unfortunately had the same last name as her family. However, then there were Thaddeus, the Other Alicia and their spawn who still had yet to be gotten rid of. By which Caitlin meant disowned and forced off the mountain rather than anything violent as violence was generally distasteful.

Of course, she'd also grown up thinking that being sent to Boston was a fate worse than death. This was why she'd always tried to be a good girl, a proper lady. Of course, she'd never had the interest in doing the sorts of things people like the Anns did, such as play Quidditch, either. Not that that was a disownable offense for girls but Caitlin had always been incredibly careful to be the perfect young pureblood lady.

She had needed to. She had needed to be as close to the ideal model of conventional pureblood propriety as humanly possible. To never do anything even remotely scandalous. Never mind the horrifying idea of being sent to Boston, Caitlin had also always tried to help her grandfather, father and brother "win" the New Hampshire Pierce patriarchy. Never mind that a conveniently placed Brockert girl-though, let's face it, there was almost always an available Brockert girl of appropriate age-that got with Winston had done more for their side than anything she had done.

Still, Caitlin had always done her best to be a credit to her family. She was sure to make a good marriage too though it was important for her to find someone who loved her as well. It was just unfortunate for her that her own options here were so lacking. However, it could be worse, poor Sapphire was the only pureblood in her entire year! And when it came to options, Jasper would have to fight three other pureblood boys for the affections of one girl. And that girl, Julius Astley's younger sister, had been unfortunately sorted into Pecari so she might not even be worth it. Caitlin was sure there would be girls outside Sonora who'd be interested in him though. Jasper was very much a little gentleman.

And she was sure Sapphire would be able to make the right friends outside school too but that was a little more difficult since she had to be here .

"Well, prices vary from quilt to quilt. Same with the pillows." She told the first year. "But they're well worth it and a real bargain compared to what such things usually cost." Of course, to someone like Caitlin, price tended to not be an issue but that wasn't the case with everyone. It made more sense to make their products affordable so they would actually raise money for MGHPF.

11 Caitlin Pierce Glad you're pleased, I guess 1415 0 5

Allegra Brockert

September 29, 2020 11:04 PM

One Something coming right up! by Allegra Brockert

Even though Allegra felt as anxious as she could be without Topaz being around her, the first year almost made her chuckle even though she thought this might be the Pecari boy that her sister found Very Annoying. But then, Esme found most Pecaris Very Annoying aside from possibly the girl running the ABCD booth since she'd been willing to sign up to help that one. The second year definitely didn't like the other Pecari girl in her year.

Still, Allegra was not at all picky about who she was going to sell to. The point was to raise money for the charity that Sylvia had selected and anyone's money would do. Besides, she really, really wanted to sell something. Otherwise, she'd have let her friend and the charity down. "Well, we have paintings and pottery and sculptures and quilts. Oh and needlepoint pictures and embroidered handkerchiefs." Granted, that was not the sort of stuff that an eleven or twelve year old boy was interested in. Jasper wasn't. "You could get a gift for someone." She added, hoping that would entice him since she didn't think he'd have much use for any of this stuff otherwise.

Allegra continued with her spiel which probably sounded forced and unnatural and rehearsed. Nothing about this part of helping out with the fair came naturally to her. She had been far better at making things for them to sell than she was at actually selling them."All our proceeds go to the Magical House and Garden Preservation Fund. It's about preserving our magical heritage and culture." Okay, it wasn't the most exciting cause, not when there were booths about abused children and victims of violent crimes, things people might rather spend their money supporting. However, it wasn't really a controversial thing that people could be completely against.

And, hopefully, the first year boy, Stanley, she thought his name was, thought that preserving magical culture was worthwhile. He was, after all, a wizard and a pureblood. Allegra knew who the purebloods were in the younger grades partially based on her sister bemoaning the lack of potential suitors. There weren't many and all the pureblood boys around Esme's age were related to them. Although, the fifth year didn't think the younger Crotalus would go for someone younger anyway. Especially not a Pecari whom she thought was Very Annoying.

However, Allegra was not annoyed by Stanley. She was too anxious to feel annoyed by a potential customer. She really hated every bit of attending to the booth and trying to sell stuff and she had to do Ruby's later too! The Crotalus sincerely wished she could have just put her foot down and refused to do anything but make stuff for sale. Yes, she knew helping with the fair would be good for getting on the Head Girl ballot but she wasn't even sure she wanted to be Head Girl given how Topaz would probably react if that happened. This year had not been pleasant on that front and Allegra hadn't even beaten her cousin directly! She figured it would be horrible enough even if she got on the ballot and the Aladren didn't.

Honestly, she wasn't quite sure why Topaz hadn't gotten it given that the other fifth year hid her psychopathic ways from the vast majority of people and Ness failed to hide her fairly abrasive ones. And, honestly, Allegra didn't understand why she'd gotten it either since Julius had started the paper and all she'd done prior to this year when she basically felt she couldn't refuse Sylvia when it came to participating in this booth and a desire to help both Ruby and Miles when it came to the AAAAAA one, was attend Art Club to support Katerina. Plus, Allegra was super reserved and nobody other than Grandfather thought that was a good quality and he was going to go with nepotism and vote for her anyway.

Anyway, what was done was done when it came to prefect and Allegra had to suffer the consequences and hope Head Girl didn't make matters worse when the time came. She turned to Stanley. "So, what appeals to you?" It might have been self-centered of her but she really sort of hoped he picked one of her quilts. "Or what do you think someone would like for a gift?"

11 Allegra Brockert One Something coming right up! 1426 0 5

Valentine Duell

September 30, 2020 5:40 PM

Shouldn't I be? by Valentine Duell

Valentine's heart sank as the older girl showed her the quilt prices. She was certain that the girl was telling her the truth, they were not nearly as much as she had feared and sort of hoped. Val had been afraid they were going to be ridiculously expensive, it was a hand-made quilt, those were really pricey, right? As much as she would love to get one for Aunt Giselle, and she really did, it would have been a disappointing relief to sadly tell the girl that she didn't have sixty galleons on her at the moment. Then she could just get a pillow and having succeeded in her mission, continued on with her fair day.

That was not the case however, the quilts were very, very reasonably priced. Valentine had enough money to buy one. Just about exactly enough. Now what should she do? She could buy it for Aunt Giselle, and then she wouldn't have enough money for anything else at the fair. This would be the only cause she would be supporting, she also wouldn't have any money for food. The aromas wafting over from the concession stands were already making her mouth water.

What were he other options? She could just get Aunt Giselle a pillow, then she would have some money left over for other things. Then she could get some of that yummy fair food, she could buy something at the ABCD booth, and give some to the other charities as well. But... she looked at the pillows, they were nice, but the just didn't give the same message. She really wanted to give Aunt Giselle the quilt, but she also wanted to do some other things that required money. What was she supposed to do? She couldn't even take time to think about it, by then someone else may have come by and bought them all.

Huh, that would be a lot like if they were just priced to much. 'I wanted to buy you a big fancy quilt Aunt Giselle, but it was to expensive' and 'someone else bought all of them' were reasonable excuses for getting her a pillow. That was assuming the pillows weren't all bought out as well by that point. She might end up not having anything left to buy for Aunt Giselle! Then what would she do?! Plus if they were still here at the end of the fair, and she had spent her money on other things... that would be a really bad thing. 'Sorry I didn't get you anything because I waited until the end of the fair to see if the quilts would be gone so I'd have a reasonable excuse to get you something else, except everything else except that was already bought out and I didn't have enough money left to get it for you by that point.' She shuddered at just the thought of the situation.

Nobody would really know if she just got the pillow now and had fun at the fair. Nobody would think it had been the wrong choice, right? They would probably all be happy. Aunt Giselle would at least say that she liked the gift. Mama and Papa would like the little things she found for them. Oh, she could maybe buy a Crotalus and a Teppenpaw house drawing from Alexander for Mama and Papa. They would like those, right? It was all for a good cause and it would make more people happy, right?

The girl was looking at her, how long had she just been standing here looking at these things that taunted her? Val gave the girl a weak smile, "Sorry, I'm just... trying to decide." Her eyes looked over the pillows again, they were nice. A breeze blew the food aromas her direction again and her stomach rumbled quietly. Aunt Giselle would like a nice pillow. "I'll take..." her hand began to indicated one of the prettier pillows when her conscience stabbed her in the heart. She would know. She would always know that she put her own enjoyment ahead of others, ahead of her own family! "The fancy quilt!" She finished triumphantly.

Valentine emptied her coins onto the counter and smiled. Aunt Giselle would love it, she was sure.

2 Valentine Duell Shouldn't I be? 1490 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

September 30, 2020 7:26 PM

Food is good. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Sophia said a whole lot of words in English but it was fine; Johana Leonie was pretty used to this from people by now and sort of expected that she'd only get half or less of what people were going on about. It did help that something like the fair provided pretty stable context of course, and she had learned about "booth" and "shift" and such. "Nachos is good," she grinned, holding her own up before taking a bite as Sophia went on. She thought that she'd rather like to see some of the booths and would rather not like to see some of the others. In any case, doing her own shifts and eating her own nachos would have been good enough for her. "I have shift at Heinrich's booth," she said, pointing to where he'd set up a sand pit. "But not yet now."

Johana Leonie almost sighed with relief when Sophia switched to German. Granted, it wasn't great German, but it was better than what most people could manage, and Sophia worked hard apparently because she wasn't half bad either. "Yes! Let's hang out," she grinned, happy not to be left out. She glanced around at the question about booths. "Honestly, I don't really know what booths there are. We could just see them all?" It wasn't her favorite suggestion and she hoped she could pull Sophia along quickly when there were booths she especially didn't want to stop at but she doubted that would be a problem. In any case, there were only like two booths like that so it was probably fine anyway. Maybe they could miss them altogether. Maybe Johana Leonie could excuse herself for the restroom. It would be fine. "If you don't care where we start, maybe over there?" she asked, pointing to one end of the row of booths.

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen Food is good. 1432 0 5

Sophia Priory

September 30, 2020 9:31 PM

Doing my duty [MFECA] by Sophia Priory

CW-Emotional abuse briefly mentioned.

Sophia had had a good time hanging out with Johana Leonie-even though initially she'd been interested in the other fourth year because she wanted to practice her German, she genuinely liked her-but now she had to work her shift at the MFECA booth.

She had to admit, she was not all that thrilled about this now that it came to doing it. Obviously, Sophia wholeheartedly supported the cause of eradicating child abuse and she'd been totally all right with going to planning meetings and putting the booth together. However,now she'd been having a good time, despite all the attempts to make her feel bad about how people had it difficult and were victimized that existed simply by being mentioned and it wasn't easy to stop doing that. Sophia had to admit, she was glad that she'd only signed up for the one booth.

Of course, she also didn't believe in over-extending oneself. The idea of constantly needing to busy was baffling to the Aladren as was the idea of needing to be involved in everything. In the case of the latter, she tended to suspect it was people who needed to be the center of attention or who needed to have their nose in everyone's business.

Then there were those who tried to be involved in everything, not because they enjoyed all or any of it-Sophia very much believed it was impossible for someone to genuinely be interested in every activity a school had to offer-because they thought it would help them get prefect or get into a better college. Or get prefect so they could get into a better college. Honestly, weren't people-whether it be the Sonora staff or a college admissions department-aware of these tactics by now? Did they actually believe people were interested in all these activities?

Meanwhile, people were giving up valuable free time and sleep-things essential for one's physical and mental well being-just for what? Bragging rights? Sophia was sure one could get a good education at a less name brand school. And anyway, her older brother had gotten into Pumine and had only been involved in Gaming Club, a school concert and been Head Boy. He'd gotten into a good school without breaking himself. Then again, Connor was the great-great-grandson of Clifford Brockert. People either wanted the Brockert family to donate money to their school or were afraid of them.

Or, more horrifyingly, people were trying to do all these activities because their parents put this insane pressure on them. Which definitely fell into the category of emotional abuse as one factor in determining it was unreasonable expectations .

As for wanting to be busy at all times, Sophia could not fathom this. Okay, yeah, she wasn't like Beau who was completely hedonistic and basically thought work was a dirty word, but continuously doing something sounded exhausting . Especially when it was something you had to do. Like not even because your parents made you or because you wanted prefect or to go to a particular school, but like, it was something you wanted to do but just not right now , because you wanted to do something else right now.

For example, Sophia wanted to keep hanging out with her friend, not run a booth. Still, one had to honor commitments, and anyway, in this case, it was a booth run by her brother's girlfriend and if she didn't do what she'd signed up for, she would hear about it later. Therefore, the fourth year said goodbye to Johana Leonie and joined the MFECA booth. "Hello." Sophia greeted someone who approached. "Would you like to go through our maze? All proceeds go to helping eradicate child abuse by advocating for harsher punishments for perpetrators and more funds for social services." It was probably a good idea to let people know how MFECA planned to get rid of child abuse. Or make a dent in it, anyway.

11 Sophia Priory Doing my duty [MFECA] 1447 0 5

Jean Wolfe

October 01, 2020 12:44 AM

Stay hydrated by Jean Wolfe

High-vis vest? Check! Tiny paper cups? Check! Such was the glamorous and sexy job of first-aid volunteer/hydration captain. Okay, perhaps it wasn't the most thrilling occupation, but he had to remind himself that wanting his day to be any more exciting involved actively wishing for kids to hurt themselves, so an unthrilling day was probably best. On the plus side, he was pretty sure he looked super hot in flourescent yellow. It was such a winning colour.

Anyway, the stupid Irish weather was behaving itself. Did their manipulation of it include guaranteeing a perfect day for the end of year event, he wondered - from what he'd heard of the real thing, and given the general caprices of weather, it seemed much more likely to offer brilliant sunshine throughout the exam season and then be miserable for this. He was certainly appreciative of the bright sun, and even sitting around outside the first aid tent was a pretty pleasant task, and any negative effects of the vest were probably counteracted by the fact he was wearing it over a slim fit t-shirt and shorts.

He was due a break anyway, though he kept the vest on because there was probably a limited point in remaining highly visible only when at the very obvious first aid tent.

He would have to check out Dorian's booth, though he wasn't sure he wanted to linger too long in a place for educating about them, and telling people the darker side of things. He'd already lived that, and once was enough. Dorian had asked if he wanted to contribute anything to the hall of horrors but he didn't want to be a sob story on a wall. Even if it was anonymous, even if Dorian cleaned up his English so that it didn't stand out... That wasn't how he wanted to get the subject off his chest or tell Dorian about it, and he didn't feel the need to make an example of himself.

He took a stroll around, though didn't investigate too closely, hoping he would be able to bring Dorian around later and do this together. In some ways, a throwback to the last fair they'd been at wasn't an entirely positive thing, as they'd started that day barely speaking. But Jean-Loup thought that, in spite of everything, he might be some stupid kind of optimist. He definitely saw that cauldron as more than half full, looking back at it. It had been the start of him and Dorian being properly what they were. It seemed appropriate to end Dorian's time at Sonora on the same note, and maybe it would cure a few of his graduation blues, and let him see it as the start of another chapter. He wondered whether there was anywhere he could win him another toy...

For now, something sweet was catching his nose. The... He had learnt this. Fluff candy? The fluff of many names in all the Englishes. Cotton Candy. It was written on the stall, which was the hint his brain needed. Sure. Why not? For all Killian teased him about being Mr. Healthy, he didn't mind a treat now and then, and today was a special occasion. This was also another thing which, in spite of being pure sugar, had bittersweet associations. Again, ones where he was inclined to lean into the good side... Tiny Healer and her good intentions.

He ordered a large puff of cotton candy, wondering if he'd see her and get to pay her back in the appropriate currency. And if not, he could go face Dorian's booth and know that he had the right cure if it stirred up bad memories. And that, he hoped, was all they would be. Then he could squish his cute little boyfriend into his pocket, go win him a cuddly whatever, and they could get on with the rest of their lives.

13 Jean Wolfe Stay hydrated 1506 0 5

Valentine Duell

October 01, 2020 6:22 PM

Duty is important by Valentine Duell

Valentine's stomach rumbled, and she needed to empty her bladder. All of the food smelled so good here, and she couldn't buy any of it. She'd tried to make her stomach stop complaining with water that Medic Arceneaux was making sure everyone had for free. It hadn't worked, now it was just making other parts of her insides join in the revolt. There was snacks inside the school, like always, but this was the fair... she would have to miss out on it to go back inside again. She'd already done that once to deposit Aunt Giselle's fancy new quilt somewhere safe. If she had thought about it, she probably should have grabbed something on the way back out, but she hadn't been all that hungry at the time.

Both problems were going to force her away again, but she wasn't about to give in any sooner than she had to. To accomplish that she was touring the grounds and distracting herself any way that she could. Unfortunately most of those ways involved reminding her of her troubles. The allergy booth had been nice though, it had free food samples. Although it had worked more like an appetizer than anything else and her stomach had complained all the more that nothing else had followed that morsel.

Playing in the sand had been fun, but she hadn't been able to help light up the dark sphere. That had made her sad as well. Maybe she hadn't made the right choice? Now that sphere would ever remain just a little bit darker than it should be, because she couldn't afford to help it. In the end she wandered over towards Peyton's MFECA booth. It wasn't quite time for her shift yet, but it was getting close. Actually, she should probably run inside quick and take care of a few things before her shift started. Maybe she'd check in quick, let them know she had to run inside quick and then she'd be back.

As she approached the stand, Sophia greeted her. Val had helping to with the ABCD booth during setup time so she hadn't gotten a chance to try out the maze. That would be fun! Her heart sunk as Sophia reminded her that they were charging to go through it. She grimaced momentarily before doing her best to turn it into a smile. "Maybe later," she replied as cheerfully as she was able to at this point. "My shift is beginning in a little bit, I just wanted to check in before I ran inside to the little witches room. Anything exciting to report?"

2 Valentine Duell Duty is important 1490 0 5

Philippe Delachene

October 01, 2020 7:04 PM

Good, I like worthy causes by Philippe Delachene

Philippe wandered about the fair, he'd never quite gotten around to joining anything himself, and he promised himself that next year he would make more of an effort to be involved in the school goings-on. If he recalled correctly from what Jasmine had told him, it was supposed to be a concert next year, so that could be fun.

Mom had sent all of them a purse of galleons to distribute, along with a note (it was only the second note he'd gotten from Mom all year) that encouraged him to be sure to give some to the booths his sisters were working in but the rest could be donated or kept as he saw fit. He saw fit that money given to him to donate to charities should all go to charities, so he intended to give at least a little to every booth.

He'd already provided a galleon each to the LY-CAN one Anya was doing, and two to the LGBTQ+ one that both of his sisters were involved in. He'd reserved two more for AAAAAA and MFECA. That would cover his brotherly duty to support his sisters. The rest were his to give out as he saw fit. The guy at the Light booth had only asked for a few knuts, so Philippe had handed a couple over readily and got to cast lumos at a globe that then lit up just a little bit. He figured he'd swing by again with a bigger donation and another go at the globe and build a sand town later, but he'd save that for his last thing as he planned to do it right and it could take quite a long while.

So he had a bunch of coins burning a hole in his pocket as he walked around the Pitch. He was on his way to drop a galleon on spinning a wheel and winning prizes (Aunt Molly's kids would probably enjoy each getting something) when someone called out to him.

"Sure," he agreed to her pitch, and moved closer to look over the items for sale by the Magical History group. "Magical history is good," he agreed. Well, that was maybe an oversimplification. He was sure nobody was eager to revisit the vampire wars or anything. "My uncle's birthday was last month, so I need a gift for him before the next time I see him. Do you have anything good for a former Aladren? Professor Nash. Did you have him when he was teaching DADA here?" He'd taught Jasmine but not Anya and he thought this older girl fell somewhere in that range, though he wasn't sure exactly which year groups had met his uncle.

1 Philippe Delachene Good, I like worthy causes 1489 0 5

Caitlin Pierce

October 01, 2020 9:39 PM

Strangely enough, yes, I want you to be pleased. by Caitlin Pierce

At the first year's selection, Caitlin's typical polite smile, the one she wore daily to deal with her inferiors and all the associated indignities inherent in that, became more genuine. First of all, the younger girl buying the quilt meant more money to support historical buildings and gardens, and while she didn't think that was the main reason Sylvia had chosen to have a booth at the fair, she was sure the other Crotalus would be happy to raise money for the selected cause-and, of course, Caitlin wanted to raise money to help preserve magical history.

More importantly though, this was one of Allegra's quilts. The sixth year knew how good that would make her friend feel. Although Caitlin didn't get the impression anyone ever criticized the younger girl's quilting abilities. She'd always felt that people seemed to like Allegra's quilts. Of course, there were those who would criticize the fifth for having quilting abilities rather than something more...unladylike. Honestly, Caitlin would never get this weird parallel universe some people lived in where anything girly or feminine was inherently bad and to be ladylike was this terrible flaw.

And she didn't want to get it either! In this strange world, people like her and her friends would be considered bad for being who they were and someone like Allegra wouldn't do very well at all if she was supposed to be some bold athletic type. It would be one thing if those people just wanted to do their thing and would let Caitlin and her friends do theirs, but these people also had a heaping help of scorn for someone like Allegra.

Of course, the sixth year also had a heaping help of scorn for those people but some of that obviously came from a place of mutual distaste where she hated them partially because they behaved horribly-such as at the ball last year- but also because they wanted to make people like her be more like them. If they left well enough alone, Caitlin might be able to tolerate them slightly more, like she did the Anns. Of course, the fact that the Anns were designing beautiful gowns that the sixth year got custom made for her did help improve her opinion of them. Besides, fashion was a feminine domain and since they were too weird and codependent on each other to ever marry, they might as well do what they were doing.

Anyway, the point was that it raise Allegra's self-esteem somewhat to have her quilt be sold. Well, okay, the main point was to raise money for the Magical Home and Garden Preservation Fund, but Caitlin, much as she cared about preserving magical history-and she cared quite a lot-she cared about how her friend felt more.

In the end, everyone would be happy. Money would be raised for magical homes and gardens, history would be preserved, Allegra would be happy one of her quilts had sold, the first year's aunt would have a lovely quilt and the first year...would be happy her aunt was happy. Caitlin normally wouldn't care that much about those last two things, but if they helped out with the previous goals so much the better. She handed the girl the quilt she had picked out. "Thank you for buying and have a nice day."

11 Caitlin Pierce Strangely enough, yes, I want you to be pleased. 1415 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

October 01, 2020 9:59 PM

Water is boring. by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel was not sure whether she could say she was glad the year was done, nor could she say she wasn't. She was aware that time was passing but had very little opinion on the matter. Each day was a chance to learn something new, but it was also a chance to shove a little bit more of herself down into the abyss and that wasn't really going well. She thought that maybe it would be nice to throw a tantrum like Patience would have but it wasn't really appropriate for her age so she didn't. Instead, she just walked through life at a steady pace, doing her best to pretend it didn't totally suck.

Cotton candy caught her eye at the fair - it was one of the few things that did so in any sort of positive way and there was one booth she sure as heck would not be visiting - and she made her way there, only to find Jean-Loup doing the same thing. "You are about to have a great time," she announced in her heavily accented French as she approached, grinning at him. "The healer got his candy fix, huh? How is it?"

It was odd that it was so easy to grin at this boy, but it only served to underscore exactly how much suck life had to offer; how was she ever supposed to experience any sort of meaningful relationships if everyone that was worth her time just went off and disappeared? What was she supposed to do now, be vulnerable and transparent with her emotions? Hard pass. Still, for tonight, he was still here, and she was still here, and life could suck a little less.

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer Water is boring. 1454 0 5

Sophia Priory

October 01, 2020 11:07 PM

Generally speaking, yes. by Sophia Priory

"All right." Sophia replied. "Nothing out of the ordinary to really report." Had she noticed a grimace on the first year's face for a second there? What could that be about? Val usually seemed pretty cheerful and smiley and just all those other things that the fourth year typically personally wasn't.

Maybe it was just that the Teppenpaw didn't really want to go through a maze full of child abuse statistics that were literally staring her in the face. Sophia couldn't necessarily blame her for that. Once again, it occurred to the Aladren how the whole concept of a charity fair could be completely depressing .

It wasn't just this particular cause either, which had to be one of the most disheartening of the lot, but basically...charities in particular unless they were things like historical buildings were all about helping some disadvantaged group in some ways, people who'd either been treated badly-and in some of these cases, it tended to get blamed on those who weren't, like all of them, even if an individual had done nothing wrong, they were somehow inherently to blame just by being not a member of the stigmatized group-or had a horrible medical issue. Admittedly, allergies and asthma, an example of the latter which had a booth here tonight, could be managed but in some cases, these conditions could be quite debilitating.

Now, thinking about these problems had a time and place but Sophia wasn't entirely sure that Sonora's midsummer fair was it. Like, maybe Beau was right after all. Granted, her cousin might be looking at it from a purely selfish viewpoint, but it looked like thinking about all the suffering in the world might have wiped the smile off of Val's face for just a moment-and the first year was very cheerful.

Of course, that might be why it was more likely that the Teppenpaw would be saddened by seeing the myriad of ways people suffered than someone like Sophia who...either tended to get angry instead or be less affected. That is, when she felt she wasn't being blamed for the suffering of others that she didn't personally have anything to do with. Which she supposed also made her angry, just in a different way.

Then again, it might have been completely unrelated. The first year could have had a fight with someone or been annoyed that she had to stop having fun and take her turn at the booth the way Sophia had been. Or an upset stomach from too much carnival food. Or it could have been the fourth year's imagination.

She stood there, wondering if she should ask Val about it. After all, if it turned out the younger girl hadn't been grimacing at all, Sophia might feel silly and it would be awkward. Or she could get a long list of all that was wrong which would be awkward and possibly make her mad. Not at Val but at the stupid fair for being depressing and at the fact that there were terrible things happening that made there need to be charities for them.

Then again, Val had said she needed to go to the bathroom. Duh! That might be the reason she grimaced. "All right, why don't you go before your shift starts?" Sophia waved her on. She really wouldn't want the Teppenpaw not to make it.

11 Sophia Priory Generally speaking, yes. 1447 0 5

Jean Wolfe

October 02, 2020 4:31 AM

UTIs are worse by Jean Wolfe

"I am the healer, I must get essential medical supply," Jean-Loup commented with a wide grin. "You are in need of any treatment?" he asked, waving the cotton candy in her direction.

He supposed it was not surprising that someone who had given him cotton candy would now be drawn to a booth selling it at the fair, but it felt like a pleasant little twist of fate that Jezebel had shown up. He was not naive enough to think that what they had built would survive beyond Sonora - he lacked the adult connection that Killian afforded him with Bonabelle. He wasn't even sure he could ask Killian to let him know how she was doing because of confidentiality. But perhaps he could pass on to say 'hello' from him, and ask Killian to keep an eye on her for him.

He smiled at hearing his own language, and at having a chance to balance the scales. Not that he suspected she needed looking after the same way he had, but he could at least offer something, even if it was just the cotton candy. And perhaps some company. It seemed like she was on her own. Perhaps a friend was waiting just out of sight whilst she went on a cotton candy run. But perhaps not.

"It is nice to see you before I go," he stated sincerely. "Do you enjoy the fair?" he asked, feeling it would be rude to ask, but he could at least spend his break keeping her company, if need be.

"I have a little break. Maybe you can advise what I should do?" he asked, figuring she could offer to show him or send him off in a given direction as she wished.

13 Jean Wolfe UTIs are worse 1506 0 5

Jezebel Reed-Fischer

October 02, 2020 4:55 PM

You're not wrong . . . but still. by Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Jezebel cocked an eyebrow and considered the offer before fake coughing into her elbow. "I think I do need some attention," she agreed. There was a second meaning in there - or maybe the primary meaning - that wasn't what she really meant but that she thought that she maybe also meant. In any case, she accepted a cotton candy with a quiet 'thank you' before digging in.

She blushed a little, surprised by his happiness in seeing her. She wasn't one to make an impression like that in any real way and it had never crossed her mind that Jean-Loup might be glad for another encounter. That was the sort of thing she thought that people should say more often, so no one ever had the chance to think they didn't matter. Of course . . . maybe they did say it exactly as often as they thought it and Jezebel just didn't hear it because she didn't matter.

"It's nice to see you too," she said a little sadly, knowing it would end and he would go and she'd be alone again. She'd been mostly alone anyway but it had been nice to know that she'd made a connection with someone, even if she was finding out it was mutual a bit late. "The fair is okay. A bit . . . well, I just don't want to think about all this stuff. I'm helping with that one," she added, pointing to the AAAAAA booth.

She looked up at him again when he said he had a break, very tempted to offer to walk around with him. But he had a break and the last thing he wanted probably was for a kid to be sticking on him. Of course, he'd said it was nice to see her. "I have a break too," she said, not having a shift at the booth for a while yet. "I was going to get food. But there's also some booths with games and stuff down there," she added, nodding this time to a few of the other ones. What he did, what she did, was up to him and she just hoped that maybe she wouldn't have to be alone for another few minutes.

22 Jezebel Reed-Fischer You're not wrong . . . but still. 1454 0 5

Jean Wolfe

October 02, 2020 5:52 PM

You can have sweets too. Just drink up. by Jean Wolfe

"Take as much as you wish, or need," Jean-Loup offered. It wasn't often healers said that about either medication or sweets, so he hoped Jezebel recognised the uniqueness of the opportunity she had there.

"Mm," he agreed, surveying the causes within sight, and knowing from his experience with Dorian's planning that much of this was less than cheerful. He guessed that was a natural effect of a charity fair, and it was all worthwhile but he was perfectly happy to eat cotton candy, win toys and just pretend that everything was fine.

"Very good choice for tiny healer," he smiled, nodding his approval of her chosen booth.

"Okay. Let us get you snack and get up your energy for games," he nodded seriously. She had nodded to two different directions but she also hadn't mentioned being here with anyone else. He thought it better to stick by until told to go away.

"Any more?" he held out the cotton candy, wondering if she really was taking it as medication. He did not wish to pry but he also didn't want to neglect... "You can, if you want, tell me symptoms and causes, if you want that I choose better medicine. Or we can just..." he gestured onwards.

13 Jean Wolfe You can have sweets too. Just drink up. 1506 0 5

Esme Brockert

October 02, 2020 8:12 PM

Take a spin [AAAAAA] by Esme Brockert

It was almost time for Esme's shift at the AAAAAA booth. She had not scheduled it back to back with her other shift because she did not want to worry about being late. She didn't think all that much of tardiness and it would not have been fair to whomever was working at Ruby's booth ahead of her. The Crotalus knew full well that if she had to be kept waiting into when she was supposed to be done to leave that she would be seriously displeased.

And historically, Esme being displeased, common as it was, had not been something people wanted to risk because she'd had an awfully nasty temper. Of course, Topaz being Topaz didn't seem to care and risked it anyway. Because the Aladren liked for people to make people mad. This was not something that Esme really understood in general, as it was puzzling as to why one would actively seek confrontation and discomfort, but she was pretty sure that in her cousin's case, it was all about power. The power over someone and to make someone feel something.

The power that Topaz didn't seem to have over Aunt Opal. The second year might have felt sympathy for her cousin-and she did for the rest of them-but the Aladren had made it nearly impossible to feel anything but hatred for her. She was just too much of a monster. At a certain point, the way a person behaved was on them and it didn't matter what factored into it. Besides, Topaz had five equally ignored siblings that were not total psychopaths. Although arguably, the fifth year still had more excuse for how she was than how Uncle Eustace did for how he was.

Anyway, it had always been very easy to make Esme angry. Come to think of it, it was still rather was. It was just that now she tended to express her anger in a much more quiet and polite way instead of yelling at people. It was not ladylike or proper to go around yelling at people and anyway, her doing so had played its own part in traumatizing Allegra.

And she felt bad about it. Even though Topaz was obviously the one who really should take most of the blame for Allegra being so anxious and having such rotten self-esteem. However, it seemed that was unlikely. Well, others could and did blame her but Esme knew her cousin would not feel guilty about anything. Ever.

After a bit of a break, in which the second year looked around at the other booths-speaking of stuff that made her angry, the anti-child abuse maze in particular, she couldn't believe people did things like that to children-it was time for her to go for her shift at the AAAAAA booth. As she took her place there, someone approached and she smiled at them. "Hello, welcome to the Allergy and Asthma Advocacy and Awareness booth. Would you like to spin the wheel and win a prize? We also have a free cook book using allergen free recipes and some free samples of some of the foods within."

11 Esme Brockert Take a spin [AAAAAA] 1479 0 5

Topaz Brockert

October 02, 2020 8:56 PM

I suppose we have different definitions on that one most of the time by Topaz Brockert

Topaz suppressed a groan as a child she thought might have been her younger brother's roommate began to talk at length. Something about buying his uncle a birthday present. This was a puzzling concept to the fifth year. First of all, buying something nice for another person was just not...something she saw herself doing. Especially not for at least one of her uncles. Secondly, why did a child have to buy an adult something? Adults were the ones with money. What sort of screwed up family was this kid from?

Of course, as the point of this whole thing was to relieve people of their money and give it to charity-another concept that was alien to Topaz, honestly she really did not understand people sometimes-she was not going to inform him of this fact. Besides, he'd agreed magical history was good and that-despite the fact that he talked way, way, way too much, a fact that while annoying right now pleased her to think of Jasper having to put up with-put him ahead of some people.

Then again, pretty much everyone was ahead of those people. It was hard to be worse than Snotti-Ness or Uncle Eustace as the latter was a total neanderthal who thought someone's worth was based on their athletic ability and that women were inferior and the former was about as self-righteous and judgemental as could be.

And honestly, what did this kid mean gifts for Aladrens? They were obviously selling art, not books. Some of it might have hawks on it or something. Or be heavily black and blue. It was just too bad Topaz had been encouraged to do something besides taxidermy. A taxidermied hawk would have been perfect. Especially one that would fly around the room! Although, she was unsure where she would have specifically gotten a hawk. It wasn't as if there was some dead animal supply store she ordered from. Now that would be a cool idea come to think of it. "I am pretty sure we have gifts for people of all houses."

"No, I can not say I have." She replied when the first year asked if she'd had his uncle for Defense Against the Dark Arts. She'd only ever had Professor Brooding-Hawthone....and substitutes when the woman was failing to meet the commitments she'd made when she had agreed to teach the class, none of whom were this kid's uncle. Honestly, how did that woman still have a job? Was she being favored because of her sexual orientation like some of the students were?

Anyway, Topaz needed to get this kid's money somehow so she asked "Is there anything in particular he likes?" Again, an unnatural question to her. Unless she wanted to know what a person liked so she could do the opposite. For example, the Aladren was pretty sure Allegra disliked being terrorized. That's why she did it. Snotti-Ness didn't like anything girly so therefore , earlier this year, Topaz had dyed her socks pink and rolled them around in glitter.

11 Topaz Brockert I suppose we have different definitions on that one most of the time 1427 0 5

Vladimir Brockert

October 09, 2020 9:49 AM

Let's go back to the start and check. by Vladimir Brockert

“I need you.”

It wasn’t I love you, but it was close. Vlad felt his heart skip a beat, palpitating in rhythm with the waves in his stomach. He had thought long and hard on whether it was better to be needed or wanted in life, and he hadn’t yet come to a conclusion, but somehow this scooted him a little closer to a decision. To be needed felt so urgent, so important. Dorian couldn’t live without him? Why? He couldn’t stall that thought. Why did Dorian care so much about him, but not want Vlad the same way Vlad wanted him?

And that was so frustrating. He knew that Dorian wanted him in his life, really, but the younger boy wanted so much more. He had always found the phrase “just friends” as oversimplified and sort of demeaning to the value of friendship, but dang it he didn’t want something other than friendship from Dorian. He wanted everything. His friendship, his company, his patience, his… his love.

That was what it boiled down to, he supposed. Dorian asked him what he wanted it to be, and Vladimir just wanted everything. “I want to be at the parties,” he said, “but I want you there too. I want you to go with me. My parents… my parents wouldn’t care. My mom knows, and she doesn’t care. And everybody else…. Well, I don’t… I don’t know,” he admitted nervously. “Maybe that’s selfish of me. I’m not usually so self-absorbed. But I can’t see it any other way. I can’t picture my life without you. I don’t know what happens after we graduate, but I just… I want you there.”

12 Vladimir Brockert Let's go back to the start and check. 1400 0 5

Dorian Montoir

October 11, 2020 8:56 PM

Day one, I met someone at orientation and this whole thing went off the rails by Dorian Montoir

“Your mom knows?” Dorian repeated quietly, searching Vlad’s face for confirmation that what he was saying was really what he was saying. “About the general idea or… about you? About you, um, liking me-” it felt so, so weird to acknowledge that out loud, like he was still somehow being incredibly egotistical to assume that could possibly be the case even when Vlad had flat out told him that he was in love with him. Twice. “And she’d still let me come over?” he checked. He still wasn’t sure that Vlad wasn’t going to slam that door in his face, or at least want some space from him - something he could see was fair, even if it hurt and made his own life more frightening and complicated than it might otherwise have been. But he hadn’t been able to imagine being under the Brockerts’ roof and living with the fear, yet again, that there was something to be Found Out. That once it was, everything could get destabilised. That he could get rejected and kicked out all over again.

“I want you there too,” he stated, focussing on the parts they agreed on, and wishing that Vlad would just come sit down and wrap his arms around him so he knew it was true that neither of them was going anywhere. As for the rest of what Vlad had said… It was complicated. He didn’t think it was possible. And he couldn’t decide whether Vlad was being braver than him, wanting to face the world and try to force it to change, or more naive. The thought of being in society had always come, in his head, with the burden of being a secret, and that was a weight that had become so stifling that he knew he couldn’t bear it. He had chosen to run as hard as he could towards a world that promised more freedom. But that was still running. He tried to picture Vlad’s version, them in each other’s arms twirling through the society balls. But if that had been remotely possible, he wouldn’t have had half the problems he had done.

“I don’t think you’re selfish not to want to lose anything that’s important to you,” he answered. “But they won’t let us,” he told Vlad as gently as he could. “We’d constantly have to deal with… With Merlin knows what. With all this,” he gestured to the walls around them. “I’d have to worry every single time we went anywhere about what someone might do to you for- for being in love with me.” He said it very quietly. He took a deep breath, trying to work out how he himself would answer the question he had posed Vlad. The world outside suggested he was ready to take it all on, and to fight anyone who didn’t believe in equality for people like them. But that had been a lot easier to get behind as the idea of fighting the faceless evil of politics and structures and ideas. It was easy to say he wanted to go Pride and to wave his flag there. The thought of stepping into a room of all the kinds of people who had made him miserable and just deciding they had to be freaking okay with it... “Some days I feel like I want to go out and turn the whole world upside down. But mostly, I just want to curl up in a little ball, and be in constant touching distance of the people I can trust, and to stop worrying that I’m about to lose them,” he admitted.

13 Dorian Montoir Day one, I met someone at orientation and this whole thing went off the rails 1401 0 5

Vladimir Brockert

October 12, 2020 4:45 PM

Wait, tell it slower. by Vladimir Brockert

If he hadn’t known about what Dorian had been through over the last few years, Vladimir might have not understood Dorian’s reaction to Lilac Brockert knowing. Dorian and his mother had always seemed close, but she didn’t quite seem to accept her son. Not like Mama did. “About everything. She knew before I did,” Vlad admitted with the hint of a laugh. Mama was good like that. “She doesn’t mind at all. Actually, she likes you a lot. Nothing I’ve said or felt has changed that.”

In a lot of ways, he knew how lucky he was. This very room was full of tragic stories, of “coming out” as they called it, just to face a new reality where yes, they were their authentic selves, but now they had to do it alone. Vlad wasn’t sure what was worse, honestly. To be loved dishonestly or truthfully alone. The split in Dorian’s family was a worst case scenario, and one that Vladimir would never face. Maybe some of his more elite relatives would reject him, if they knew - Grandmama’s head would probably spin around, he thought - but he was safe where it counted. Mama loved him, and he thought his dad would be okay with it too. He had almost told Ivy a couple times now, but he thought he would over the summer maybe. Likewise Tatiana. Maybe Peyton. But he didn’t want everyone at Sonora knowing, like Dorian had done. Dorian was braver than Vlad was.

Dorian said people wouldn’t let them live the way Vlad described, but while a part of him disagreed, he didn’t argue. It wasn’t the point right now. But Vladimir had a naive hope that lived on somehow, despite his age and despite his heartache and despite all the reasons the world told him to grow up, and he just had to believe that everything would be okay.

At the end of the day, they were in agreement: no one wanted to lose anyone, and everyone was scared of the change and the world that might not accept them. Vlad wanted to say something, to offer Dorian comfort, but his words were hollow and his mouth was empty. All he had left was action. He stepped closer and pulled Dorian close again. “I’m sorry,” he said, nearly a whisper. “That’s all I want too. I’m so sorry.”

12 Vladimir Brockert Wait, tell it slower. 1400 0 5

Ness McLeod

November 01, 2020 4:49 PM

And yet so different by Ness McLeod

The fair was pretty familiar territory for Ness, given that fundraising in general wasn't a new experience, and that the McLeod Foundation had been chosen in particular. It was a little novel being the serious authority in the room (though not a thing that Ness minded in the slightest) and being bossed about in a French accent (by someone who didn't actually seem to know how to be bossy) but both of those were working out well. The booth looked good, it felt like it was doing good. It was definitely doing brownies, and that was bound to be a winner, although for Ness the real success was less about the financial side and more about the wisdom they could hopefully impart.

The Aladren was on a break, and getting to enjoy the rest of the fair, when Gary approached. Gary, the graduating seventh year, for whom this would be the last school event... That was still way too weird to think about. It had been a fair when Ness and Gary had first met, and admittedly that did feel like a very long time ago. Ness had become quite a different person, and been several different people/warforged/potatoes in order to get there. But Ness had done all that without getting too big to stay at Sonora, so why couldn't Gary?

"Absolutely not," Ness stated with a broad grin when Gary asked about having fun. "I'm working, remember? All terribly serious stuff for a very important cause. I am having cake, however, so close," Ness acknowledged.

It seemed like fun might be on the cards though (for a very Aladren value of the term) as Gary pulled out a notebook! Yes! When was it ever the case that doing that failed to get the party started? Never, that was when. Ness eyed it eagerly.

That expression shifted slightly upon opening it, and realising what it was. It was a Gary notebook, and though that much had been obvious from the fact that it was Gary presenting it, it felt symbolic of so much of their friendship - theorising, sharing ideas, Ness always desperate to impress by being Sufficiently Intellectual and having Cool Theories. That was even before opening it, and seeing the particular musings that were recorded there. Their first fair. When Gary had been Kir’s friend, and Ness had been some weirdo dork desperately trying to get his attention, and it had somehow worked. Letting people draw a moustache on you in the name of science didn’t often win you friends, but when it did, they were clearly the ones worth hanging onto. Ness could probably have spent days eagerly reading everything in this notebook, and the thing that really sucked was that option wasn’t available. There weren’t plural days left.

“Interesting theory,” Ness stated, managing to just about swallow down the lump that was in the way of forming those words. And then… then there was flourishing, and a brightly wrapped box, and Ness was just staring. Not so much at the box but at Gary.

“What do you mean?” Ness asked. Gary had just thanked Ness for helping him? This was met with a headshake. Maybe Ness was sometimes an equal - the sixth year liked to think that, they sometimes theorised together, and Ness was interesting and stimulating to talk to. But helping? “You’re the one that teaches me stuff,” Ness pointed out. “Or lets me bounce ideas off you.”

Curiosity won out though, and Ness took the box, lifting the lid carefully. It was a mirror, at least it appeared to be from the back. A pretty bomb-looking, not-girly mirror with dragons so that was okay. And given what Ness had just read in the notebook, it seemed likely there was more to it than that. There was a cryptic message on the back too… Ness contemplated that within the context of the original funhouse mirrors. They could show you different things but who you really were was a truth that could not be altered? That was an uncomfortable assertion in some ways - it sounded far too close to some of the right-leaning, anti-trans rhetoric. But of course, Ness’ side would argue back that you could say what you wanted and think what you wanted - have whatever perspective you liked - but it didn’t ever outweigh what someone knew was the truth about themselves. And Ness had taught Gary enough to know that this mirror was not about to react to some underlying biology like it was the one and only fact that mattered. Still, the idea of turning it over and seeing The Truth was a little scary, given that Ness had only the fuzziest grip on what that might be.

“Sounds dangerous,” Ness grinned, pretending everything was normal and that there wasn’t just one well-chosen comment between where they were now and a flood of tears, even though Gary might know Ness’ voice well enough after all this time to recognise the difference between genuinely cheerful and putting on a brave face. “What do I find if I examine it?”

13 Ness McLeod And yet so different 1419 0 5

Gary Harper

November 04, 2020 4:53 PM

Where does that leave us? by Gary Harper

"You can't go wrong with cake," Gary responded, his own carefree grin responding to Ness' broad one. "Enjoy it while you can, there's plenty more hard and serious work ahead of you today." He paused just a moment, "Maybe I should get some as well. I'm scheduled to help over at Heinrich's booth in a little bit."

He watched in amusement as Ness' eyes eagerly devoured the notebook. Then something shifted in the mood. He wasn't really surprised, that was after all most of the reason behind this meeting. His grin shifted to a mild smile when Ness asked what he meant.

He shook his head gently as well. "It's a two-way street Ness." He replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "You've helped me become the person I am today, and will be in the future." His grin returned, "For example, without you I never would have participated in a drag show." His mind drifted very briefly to events that had transpired there that wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for Ness. "And frankly, that's just the tip of the iceberg."

He watched as his fellow Aladren opened up the package and inspected the contents. When Ness asked about it, Gary noticed the change in voice. It sounded way to much like the change that had happened at the opening feast. He mentally backpedaled and started to panic. Now what had he done? Ness was trying to conceal the emotion, and not doing a bad job of it, maybe it was all in his head? Either way he considered his next words carefully, and slipped once more into his old defense mechanism.

"Upon examining the artifact further, you find the Truth that it holds is one you already know." Gary narrated. "It reveals that you are you." He couldn't help but smirk just a little. "It doesn't matter what guise you wish to take, or may have put upon you…." his voice faltered and he shook his head with a sigh. "Sorry," he apologized in a bit of an embarrassed tone. "I took so long to get it working right, that I ran out of time to make up a proper introduction for it." He sensed his improvisational abilities taking him towards a cliff he'd best avoid. Bailing out was most likely the best course of action.

"It's a modified version of the fun house mirrors," He explained, hoping the loss of the dramatic introduction wasn't going to upset Ness. "I couldn't figure out the mental bit, so you'll just have to tell it what you want to see yourself as." He gestured for Ness to give it a try, "Just look at it and say, 'rogue' or 'astronaut' or 'elf' or whatever else you can think of, it should modify your reflection to match." Hopefully it would anyway, it had been working alright for him last night, finally. That interpretation matrix had been a bugger to get the kinks out. He hadn't really had anyone else to try it on, so hopefully it didn't just shift to an image of him in whatever guise Ness chose.

2 Gary Harper Where does that leave us? 1404 0 5

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