Back on Championship Road. on Quidditch Pitch

Captain David Wilkes

September 13, 2012 1:53 PM

Aladren Quidditch Try-Outs. by Captain David Wilkes

David felt surer of himself starting tryouts than he had last year, but he still wasn’t completely at his ease as he stood before the gathered Aladren team. Joining the group in his second year, as a reserve, had been something between a joke and a pathetic example of the class nerd just wanting to make friends, and given his own way, he never would have left the bench, a fact that he knew set him philosophically far apart from his teammates. They were, or at least he thought they were, serious about the sport; a few of them, if they kept it up, he thought could maybe go pro someday, or at least obtain local fame playing college ball, though he knew he was probably the last person qualified to comment on what was required to play post-high school Quidditch. His attempts at wizarding world immersion had not yet gone far enough for him to read up on college or professional Quidditch during his increasingly limited free time.

“So,” he said. “Welcome – or welcome back, guys. No one else is going to welcome us anywhere all year, but that’s the price of being the best, right?”

Honestly, they had never gotten as much of a negative reception from the rest of the school as David thought they could have (he had yet to finish his argument with himself about whether or not this indicated that wizards had better perspective than people back home or if just living together kept inter-House rivalries from turning as nasty as inter-school ones seemed to, even if it didn’t make him think the House system was actually a good thing for anyone other than Aladrens), but he knew that their winning streak, even briefly broken as it had been by Pecari, was not as popular outside of Aladren as it was within it. It really couldn’t be, he guessed. Human nature. No one was going to like the guy who hit him in the gut year…after year…after year….

But that was getting ahead of himself. “Now we’ve just got to keep that up,” he said. “Arnold, I’m going to turn the Snitch loose for you. Please do not lose it. I do not want Coach Pierce to be the one who kills me. Anthony Carey of First Year – “ he knew that had probably not been a wise decision, but he couldn’t help himself sometimes – “are you guys related, by the way? You mentioned reserve Seeker, so play against him, yeah?” It wasn’t his problem, since he was a year older than Arnold, but he guessed it would be in the team’s long-term interests if they went ahead and started getting their Seeker’s future replacement trained, so David made a mental note to switch Anthony and Andrina – what was it with his team and names that started with A? The Careys were a set, but still – out between Seeker and Chaser every other practice, so they would have some idea which of them was better. “Russell, Arthur, Kitty – you do your Chaser thing, and Jay and Andrina – “ that name was weird to say out loud – “you two pretend you’re the evil Crotali and try to steal from them and get to the other end.” It didn’t have a Keeper, but he seriously doubted the first string Chasers were going to let them get that far. “Preston, Thaddeus – “ another name it was weird to say out loud – “You can have the Bludgers.”

He hoped he wasn’t going to live to regret that statement, since he didn’t think he’d be the staff’s favorite person if he floated in a row of bodies at the end of practice every few days, but he knew the spell to mend not-too-majorly-broken bones, so maybe that wouldn’t happen. Plus, his Beaters had, as far as he knew, no reason to have too much anger, particularly toward their teammates, so he doubted they’d play as viciously as they would in a real match, when the opposition was wearing the wrong color. “Okay, guys, let’s do it. Go Aladren!”

Personally, he’d always disliked that kind of cheer, but it seemed to be a popular thing, and if it worked, well…Well, honestly, even if it didn't, the worst-case scenario was that they went back to their rooms and wrote in their diaries about how the summer hadn't improved him much, and David had decided to accept that kind of thing as a badge of honor. It did so much more for his self-esteem.

OOC: Welcome to Aladren Quidditch try-outs! Walk-ons are welcome; feel free to join in as the Third Reserve Chaser, Reserve Keeper On The Other End, or, if we get that many people, extra Seekers harassing Arnold. Nice, long posts, everybody, show me what you'd put in a game and have fun!

Subthreads:

Back on Championship Road. by Russell Layne with Andrina Thornton, Jay Carey, Arthur Carey

A mild case of Careys by Arnold Carey

Returning for my spot by Preston Stratford

16 Captain David Wilkes Aladren Quidditch Try-Outs. 169 Captain David Wilkes 1 5

Russell Layne

September 25, 2012 1:21 PM

Back on Championship Road. by Russell Layne

Russell knew it was probably a little sick, and also that it would win him no favor with his roommates, but when David made his comment about how this was the last place they’d be welcomed all year, he chuckled a little. The price of excellence was indeed very high.

His roommates hadn’t been as bad about him being prefect as he had feared, not by an incredibly long shot, but he still found he felt a new sympathy for the guy who was possibly the least popular captain in recent Aladren history. Russell didn’t consider himself nearly as much of a dark horse as David had been – he really didn’t see what could top going from reserve to captain in one fell swoop; David would probably win minor fame among school history geeks for that one – but still, he knew he would not have been surprised at all if he had spent the first days of school, as he had spent the first four years of school, completely badgeless. Now, he had his eye on Head Boy in a few years, but he knew the competition for that would be fierce, too, and that his roommates would most likely underestimate him right up through the announcements, no matter which way things actually went or even what the indicators were ahead of time.

He looked over the team’s newest addition with everyone else, thinking that he did not look much like the twins. Russell was pretty sure that Jay, who didn’t look like them either, was their cousin in a degree that most people would recognize as a cousin, and that they had mentioned a brother named Anthony before, so maybe the Careys had a few types. He found it weird, but that was because most of his family looked very alike; the occasional blond wasn’t unheard of, but Alicia’s shiny dark hair and brown eyes were why he’d initially been skeptical of her claim that they were related. He and her sister Kate, though, looked enough alike that people might insert a ‘first’ on their own if he told them she was his cousin.

Another Carey was a little weird, at this point – the entire family seemed to land in the same House, which made him wonder how they raised their kids there – but another player was always good, so Russell smiled in greeting, though the expression became a little more twisted as he regarded the stand-in evil Crotali. He wasn’t sure if David had made the best possible move in basically confirming that they had a rivalry with Crotalus and that was who they should concentrate on, but it was true, and it did make for an amusing visual, since he was pretty sure there weren’t any Careys or Thorntons in Crotalus, or that Crotalus, determined to beat them, would even let third years on their team.

He took the Quaffle, tossing it up in the air and then casually pulling it out of the air again as the Pennifold charm made it drift leisurely back down, before turning to his fellow Chasers with a grin. They could, as far as he was concerned, save being Quidditch-crazy for when they were actually playing Quidditch, rather than when they were just having a friendly pick-up game. Or at least until they got further into the friendly pick-up game. “They’re shorter than the real ones, but I guess they’ll have to do,” he said of their opposition. “Don’t you like being on the team with the most reserves?”

He flew toward David, assuming he was also an evil Crotalus today. After about a minute of flying, he feinted left and passed right, getting things started.

16 Russell Layne Back on Championship Road. 183 Russell Layne 0 5

Andrina Thornton

September 26, 2012 1:42 AM

Is it a road of yellow brick? by Andrina Thornton

After spending an awesome summer with Gracie and the kids it was now time to get back in the swing of things at school. Sure, the third year Aladren had been learning the whole summer through, but now it was time for actual classes for her grades. Andri found herself signing while she talked, which she was sure confused other people around her, but she didn’t care. The last thing Andri wanted to do was forget anything she remembered at that point so she was going to keep it up regardless of what other people thought.

She’d gone to bed early the night before to prepare for the tryouts. She was really nervous. Knowing how the rest of the team had played in years gone by made her nervous. They had played a game where there were a lot of injuries and that scared the girl, but she’d played football before, not to mention rugby. A little pain didn’t bother her normally, so what was the problem now? She had no idea.

In either case, she walked up to the Pitch for tryouts and walked to the other Aladrens there. David welcomed them and she nodded at his comment about being the best. She knew the team was good, she wasn’t sure if she was, but that was to be figured out eventually. If given the chance, she would rise up to the challenge and do her very best, that was a promise.

David told them what each of them would be doing and Andri listened well to hear her name. Andri had put that she’d do anything on the team, so she was up in the air about what she’d end up doing, and what he really needed. Andri like all of it, though she wasn’t the best beater in the world, none of the Thorntons were it seemed, but not everyone was.

“Jay and Andrina – “ she heard him say, so she looked back at him. It looked like he was having a bit of trouble with her name and she made a mental note to tell him that he didn’t have to call her the full name if he didn’t want to. “you two pretend you’re the evil Crotali and try to steal from them and get to the other end.”

Chaser it is then today? Andri thought to herself as David told Preston and Thad that the bludgers were theirs.

“Okay, guys, let’s do it. Go Aladren!”

“Let’s go Aladren!” she added to the fray before she mounted her sister’s newly aquired broom. She’d borrowed Brielle’s new/Arista’s old broom for tryouts, knowing that if they were playing in the same game, she’d need to use a school broom. That didn’t matter to her. Andri was the kind of person who didn’t care what the tools to do anything was, it was what she had inside of her in order to get whatever it was done that mattered.

It seemed to her, that most of the Aladren team were Carey’s. She wondered what the kids in that family grew up knowing, seeing as her siblings were all over the place in houses there at Sonora and they all grew up in the same house at home… It wasn’t top priority in her mind that day though, so she put it on the back burner.

Since she’d been told to be a stand in Crotalus Chaser, she pulled out her wand and changed her robes to red to show that was what she was supposed to be doing. She wasn’t a huge fan, but it was what it was. Russell took the Quaffle, tossed it in the air and pulled it back out of the air again. He turned to them all and grinned.

“They’re shorter than the real ones, but I guess they’ll have to do. Don’t you like being on the team with the most reserves?” Russell said.

“Sure do.” Andri replied, knowing that was a challenge from the older boy. She watched Russell fly towards David, feinted left and passed to the right. Andri was right on his tail and pulled the ball out of the air and into her chest for safe keeping as she flew on one-handed away from the masses, and towards the unmanned goal hoops.

0 Andrina Thornton Is it a road of yellow brick? 214 Andrina Thornton 0 5

Jay Carey

September 26, 2012 6:28 PM

It could be paved with good intentions by Jay Carey

Jay’s broom had been purchased secondhand, but his mother had spent so much time polishing the handle that it shone like new even after several years of use by a previous owner and one by him, and he only felt slightly inferior to the other boys on the team as he stood quietly near the back and listened to David’s speech to the team. His broom, by his reckoning, was only slightly inferior to those the twins told him had been donated by their second-to-last captain a few years ago, and it got him where he needed to go well enough, and he was reasonable enough to know that was as much as he really needed. A little envy was inevitable, but it wasn’t enough to distract him, especially since he knew he was just an alternate and infinitely preferred the idea of being one anyway.

The first words out of the captain’s mouth reinforced that idea, since from his position, anyway, Jay had never seen anyone that emotionally invested in Quidditch. He knew that some people cared more than others, and that being a Carey probably helped shield him from some unpleasantness that might have otherwise come his way, but really, not welcome anywhere? It was, he thought, a joke, but the kind of joke that didn’t exactly sound like a joke.

Unless, of course, he was just taking it all too seriously. Most of his siblings would, he knew, have happily agreed with that theory. Brandon and Diana were not serious about much of anything, and Theresa really wasn’t much better, at least at home, when she forgot to try to be all grown up and dramatic because there weren’t any adults or marriageable boys around to see her acting like she did when it was just them.

Thinking of that wasn’t really a factor in it, but he did smile a little when he and his fellow returning reserve were described as ‘evil Crotali,’ despite the fact that his brother had just been Sorted into that House and was, Jay knew, none too happy about it. He even considered putting on a villainous manner as they separated into ‘teams’ for the practice, though he did finally decide that doing that would be a little too much. That was fine at home, but at school, they were supposed to maintain a certain level of dignity, represent the family, all of that. He grinned at the banter between the Chasers and Andri.

“We’ll show them,” he said to the third year. They weren’t friends, but they were friendly enough on the bench, he thought, and right now, the point was unity. That was why he cheered a little when Andri got the Quaffle, even though it was his cousin she had intercepted a pass to, and then went to position himself better for a pass from her. They were teammates at the moment, and the other three interacting with the Quaffle were the enemy, at least for the space of an hour.

0 Jay Carey It could be paved with good intentions 0 Jay Carey 0 5

Arthur Carey

September 26, 2012 6:31 PM

If you can bottle glory, can you make it a paving material? by Arthur Carey

So far, Mr. Wilkes was the only member of the Quidditch team whom Arthur had not yet deemed worthy of a first name. Nothing the captain had done had offended him personally, exactly, since they seldom interacted off the Pitch; it was just more a general feeling that David Wilkes was not the sort of person of whom he would approve if he did deal with him more regularly, and that he had gotten a position that should have, by all rights, have already belonged to Arthur’s brother. Arnold was no leader, but he was no worse than Mr. Wilkes, and he had actually been a contributing member of the team since he had enrolled at Sonora, which could not be said for its captain. Arthur did not think of himself as an overly harsh person, but he was much slower to forgive a slight to Arnold than one against himself, even if Arnold deserved it, which Arthur was not sure he did in this.

A valid point, though, was whether or not Mr. Wilkes was the appropriate party to blame for the situation, and what it meant even if he was. If he’d just been appointed because of staff politics or something like that, then he was most likely as unimportant as Arthur had always considered him, but if he had actually conned his own way into the position…in that case, he might actually be useful. Infuriating, yes, but smart enough to be useful. So Arthur watched with some curiosity as he greeted the Quidditch team for the year.

Nothing interesting, however, happened – at least not where David was concerned. Russell’s unusual confidence was another matter. Arthur looked at him, mildly amused; it seemed power was going to his head. Or perhaps he had gotten a date, or was merely having a very good day for no particular reason. People were complicated.

“Indeed,” he said, a slight smile tugging on the corner of his mouth after he looked for a second at the redheaded girl – another Thornton; from what he gathered, they were all siblings, which made them worse than his family, since even all six of Uncle Donnie’s children would never be at school at the same time – who agreed with the statement despite being one of the alternates. He thought the implication that they were going to wipe the floor with the alternates had been fairly clear…. “It makes for slightly more interesting practices, anyway.” They were two extras short of being able to have a proper mock-game, after all, and only four short of having another whole team in the wings. He did not know how the other teams got in any decent practice at all, with their numbers; he wasn’t even sure if Teppenpaw had any alternates.

He followed the Quaffle, first with Russell, then with Miss Thornton, who pulled off a neat enough interception. Seeing Jay cover her and her show no signs of passing, he decided to try to force her hand, speeding up to fly across her path, hopefully making her go off-course by instinct and pass the ball.

0 Arthur Carey If you can bottle glory, can you make it a paving material? 182 Arthur Carey 0 5

Arnold Carey

September 26, 2012 11:03 PM

A mild case of Careys by Arnold Carey

He didn’t notice it at first, his mind somewhere else, but as he crossed the Pitch, Arnold realized that he was feeling lighter and less stressed than he had since he’d come back to Sonora. Here, at least, there were no complications; everything was the same way it had always been. He had a job to do, and he was good at doing it. There was no more to life than that when he was on the Quidditch Pitch.

David’s opening remark confused him – why wouldn’t they be welcome anywhere else? They were Aladrens; teachers tended to like them well enough, or at least the ones who weren’t him, and they didn’t even dislike him, they just didn’t like him as well as they did other Aladrens – but he grinned when Anthony’s relationship to the rest of the family came up. “He’s our kid brother,” Arnold answered for him, messing up Anthony’s hair, much to his sibling’s annoyance. Arthur, beside him, made a muffled wheezing sound Arnold took for suppressed laughter, and Arnold smiled, deciding to qualify it as a family moment.

Not, of course, that Quidditch practices weren’t rapidly turning into one of those anyway, if they had gotten Henry then they really could have had more bonding time than any of them had ever wanted. He wondered how Hen was doing in Crotalus, and if Fae knew they were cousins, maybe looked out for him – though he wondered it only for a moment, since thinking of Fae reminded him of life off the Pitch and he was here to forget about as much of that as possible. He knew he’d have to deal with it eventually, but…not right now. It was too awkward.

He was distracted again when Anthony was assigned to play Seeker with him. “Awesome,” he said, though he frowned a moment later, too, at the remark about evil Crotali. He had family in that House, after all, twice over, even, and then there was Fae even if she didn’t fit into family category, which he still wasn’t sure about. Dismissing it as a joke, though, he grinned again at Anthony. “Ready to lose?” he asked, though he was more than half-inclined to let Anthony win once or twice, just to help him get some credibility on the team. He didn’t doubt that he could beat him in a fair race, but he didn’t have to.

0 Arnold Carey A mild case of Careys 181 Arnold Carey 0 5

Preston Stratford

September 27, 2012 10:10 PM

Returning for my spot by Preston Stratford

Preston had been ignoring Russell since they had been back from the break. Well, as much as he could without being completely rude. He was somewhat upset, but not enough to be a complete barbarian when it came to the manners department. He had been raised right, so passive-aggressiveness was more his cup of tea. Not completely rude, but enough to make his point known. Russell Layne was a charity case of the staff, and he didn’t like it one bit. He didn’t have enough credentials to sport the badge that was constantly pinned to his school robes. The redhead was sure he did it just to spite him.

But now it was time to forget about his daily personal hell to focus on Quidditch. The sport had become a rather important part of his school life. It was helping him become a more rounded individual. It was great to be intelligent, but one had to work on the body, too. Pres had grown a few more inches during the summer and his physical appearance had been enhanced by exercise. The redhead had to admit that he rather liked how he looked. The sport had its perks.

He grinned at his reflection and straightened his glasses before grabbing everything that he needed for try-outs. He entered the pitch with his beater bat and new broom resting comfortably on his shoulder and the knowledge that no matter who tried out, his spot would be there for him. He had come a very long way since he had been a newbie in the Quidditch Pitch. He now had experience and muscles to make it work. He felt unstoppable.

The redhead tried to ignore Russell’s stupid aura of arrogance and concentrate on what their captain was saying to them. He looked around while he was talking at the hopeful players. There were a lot of Careys in attendance. He was slightly surprised by that, but ignored it for the time being. He doubted anyone would be replaced this year. They had become a well-oiled, unstoppable Quidditch machine. Daniel would be proud of the reputation they had among their peers. The last captain had made something big out of a bunch of people that just wanted to play.

Preston cracked his neck before getting on his broom after David ended what had to be a good speech. The Aladren thought that their current captain felt out of place by being in that position. He had to be, since he had been an alternate before taking the responsibility of a team that already knew what they were doing.

Of course the bludgers were his. They always were.

The Beater flew and relished the sense of freedom that flying gave before chasing one of the elusive balls and smacking towards one of the chasers. If the chaser happened to be Russell, then the more power to him.

0 Preston Stratford Returning for my spot 0 Preston Stratford 0 5