Captain David Wilkes

April 14, 2012 11:24 PM
David bit down on the inside of his mouth as he glanced at his wristwatch for what felt like the hundredth time, but which he knew to be only really about the fifth or sixth. When it came to presentations, he was ready to concede already, before he even really tested the theory out in this circumstance, that Annabeth was right about the wait being the worst part of it and no doubt about it, because if the actual performance was any worse than this, David didn’t think he would make it through the damn thing. All the adult women in his family that he and his siblings were on familiar terms with mocked him and his sisters for making mountains out of molehills that everyone in the world had to deal with, but he was pretty sure that even Anna had never quite had performance anxiety like this. Hard to say for sure, of course, but he was pretty sure that the people evaluating his sister had never been the children of the oligarchy.

He looked at the watch again. Five minutes, and someone was approaching. How was he supposed to make conversation for five minutes?

He didn’t, he thought, do a very good job of it between then and his next glance at his watch, at which point he stopped attempting to talk in a voice a bit higher than usual from the sheer horror of realizing that showtime was just about two minutes away, and realizing that now he wanted those two minutes to drag by at the speed of depressed snails, but that they were starting to speed up. His religious life had been a topic David had sort of mentally avoided since arriving at Sonora, but he found himself mentally praying to get through this without making a complete fool of himself.

It did calm him down a little, though the thought of a literary parallel almost made him laugh. Then he drew on reserves of courage he had not previously been aware he possessed and got started.

“Hey, everybody,” he said, looking around and reminding himself that he knew these people. That did not make him feel better, so he thought instead about how he knew these people had never yet attempted to bite him. That worked a little better. “Welcome to, er, Aladren…tryouts.”

He looked around again and then decided to just throw it down on the table for everyone to see. “So, last year, we lost,” he said bluntly. “The final. We had to have bad luck one time, and that was just the day. This year, we’re going to win again, right?” Oh, that was wrong. He shouldn’t have said ‘right.’ It should have just been a statement, not a question. Oh, well, it was too late to do anything about it now. He kept on plowing forward. “The first thing we need to sort out is who’s going to be our new Beater, so if you want to do that…” Okay, he knew where he was going with this…. “We’re going to start practicing, so anyone who wants to do that, talk to me for a minute while Sam goes in as our Keeper, then we’ll just run a normal practice.” If one thing was going his way, it was that Samantha had come back, and they had a good turnout this year in general. It meant some problems, since he’d have to work out who got a slot and who didn’t and worry about how that could come back to haunt him, but in matters of Quidditch, it was always better, he’d concluded, for his team to Have rather than Have Not, just as it was better not to show how worried he was about it already. If he didn’t seem to be the one running this show the whole time, his new assistant, not to mention the rest of the team, would eat him alive. “So let’s do that.”

OOC: Welcome to Aladren try-outs. Have fun, give me good, detailed, creative posts following all the rules, site and Quidditch, here – good practice for that game! I’d like at least one post from everyone.
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16 Captain David Wilkes Aladren Quidditch Try-Outs 169 Captain David Wilkes 1 5

Thad Pierce

April 15, 2012 1:46 PM
Thad looked around at the gathered group of Aladrens and realized that he might get to be on the bench again this year. Not only had everyone except Edmond returned from last year, but two others as well.

There was a new older student he recognized as both a Prefect and a Library Monitor. She was a girl, though, which Thad had sort of gotten used to with Kitty last year. (There was a difference, he had decided after a few weeks worth of acquaintanceship with the tiny Chaser, between a lady and a girl, and some girls were just not fit to be ladies.) He would have given Miss Hamilton the benefit of believing that she could be a lady, but she apparently wasn't in agreement if she was here. Besides which, she only wanted Keeper or Reserve, so she wasn't really in competition with Thad anyway. Thad liked Keeper, too, but he had already written it off as impossible, since that what what Captain Wilkes was.

The other newcomer was another second year, like Thad was. She was also a girl, which was starting to get disconcerting; one girl was an anomaly (and Kitty made an excellent anomaly), having two girls was still unusual (and Thad would not speak against a prefect even if he'd been inclined to publicly denounce girls in Quidditch), but three was moving toward a trend he couldn't entirely approve of.

Still, he'd been on the team last year (if only as the reserve - a position he had come to understand their new captain had held for a few years himself), so he figured he should at least try for first string. It would look bad if the second year girl got in but he didn't.

"I'll try for Beater," he told David as the team began to break apart after the speech finished. He held his broom in one hand, and he had even brought along one of the school's bats from the broom shed in anticipation of trying out for this slot. If he got it, he'd probably have to get Father to buy him one of his own. "I worked with Edmond and Preston on that a little last year, and I know some of Derry's tricks if we go against Teppenpaw."
1 Thad Pierce Trying-Out 213 Thad Pierce 0 5


Preston Stratford

April 16, 2012 3:50 PM
Edmond was gone. Edmond freaking Carey was gone, and Preston was left alone in the Beaterdom of the Aladren Quidditch team. One part of the redhead was happy that he was now the most experienced beater of the team, but the other was scared, because Edmond had been an incredible beater, and now he had to take that place. That for most part he felt was too big for him. The Aladren was quite conscious that he was good, but Edmond had been great. And bigger. And scarier. The fourth-year had gone through a growth spurt during summer, but he was still on the shorter side and he didn’t have enough muscle...yet. Preston had never been too worried about appearances, because at end the brain was what counted. However, he couldn’t deny that practicing for Quidditch had some positive effects, and he liked the way his body had been shaping. It wasn’t enough.

Preston was going to train a new beater, and he wasn’t very happy about it. He didn’t like change too much, and he was sure he and Edmond were a good beater team. It had ended, just like when Daniel left, leaving him in a team he hadn’t liked too much. That had changed, and now Preston was happy he could balance sports and academia...and a new girlfriend. The thought made him smile.

It was the day of Quidditch try-outs, and the Aladren was somewhat nervous about what would happen now that there was a new Captain and Assistant Captain. He knew that growing up was part of life and everything, but it was going to be interesting to see how David and Arnold handled things.

After getting ready in his room, Preston entered the Quidditch Pitch a little early like it was his habit. He hated being late for things, so he usually arrived 10 to 5 minutes before the actual time. His punctuality was something his mother found a tad bit irksome; especially when it was time for parties and such, since fashionably late was something in vogue with the Pureblood society.

Preston was the first one to arrive. The new captain seemed to be anxious, but that could be due to a numerous of things not necessarily about Quidditch related stuff. He nodded to him in greeting and stayed silent until the rest of the people arrived. They finally did and David began talking to them. His speech was somewhat erratic in his very humble opinion, but Preston decided that confidence in the new captain was a must, so he stayed quiet. It would be unwise to talk right now.

The Beater looked around and when David was finally done, he took out the Bludgers and left them free to fly around. He mounted his broom and began circling the pitch in pursuit of them. The redhead began smacking the bludgers without a specific target in mind waiting for the New Beater hopeful to join in.
0 Preston Stratford Just returning for my spot 0 Preston Stratford 0 5