Aimless wandering on Quidditch Pitch

Selina Skies

May 27, 2022 8:20 PM

The Fair by Selina Skies

Familiar faces were flooding back onto campus, and Merlin, it was lovely to see them. Some of them were from so long ago that even Selina didn’t know them. Some of them seemed like they’d only be gone for the blink of an eye, and couldn’t possibly have grown and become adults with so many life experiences to share. Not that the fair was strict on meeting any kind of standard. They’d asked for alumni to share something that was important to them, be it a career or a hobby, and to try to make something fun out of it—to make sure it was more of a booth than a presentation.

Selina had to admit she’d been skeptical about that, or at least had struggled to see how most careers could be turned into something fun and interactive. Luckily, the alumni were much more creative than she was when it came to that. There was a huge range of fun and interesting activities. Evelyn Stones was working on becoming a play therapist, and (accompanied by Heinrich Hexenmeister) had a tie dye booth which included both magical and non-magical options—and a fancy little explanation about using different methods to achieve the same results, and integrating different parts of your identity being therapeutic, which Selina was sure most students would ignore in favour of just making loud, obnoxious shirts. Andrew Duell had some kind of ride where all the pieces were mechanically joined together—nothing floated, or appeared and disappeared, and the whole thing made strange grinding noises. Selina was well aware that theirs was a culture that encouraged children to play a game where metal balls flew at their heads, so she wasn’t quite sure why she distrusted this machine quite so much. She was telling herself it was educational, and keeping a wary eye on it. Nic Sawyer had hoverboards. That was it. Just straight up hoverboards.

Some of the booths were more obviously career-related, or educational. Jhonice Trevear had kids scrambling around to bring her the best headline from the fair. Dorian Montoir, who had gone into translations and museum archiving, had a booth demonstrating the evolution of various Chinese characters, and the opportunity to try out some calligraphy.

There were also people whose jobs or hobbies naturally fitted in with a fun fair. The Anns’ business was fancy clothes, and they were showcasing that very well by letting people get dressed up and have their pictures taken. Holly Delachene was running pony rides. Alessa Jacobs was giving tarot readings. Jozua Sparks had a fun house that Selina trusted somewhat more than Andrew Duell’s ride, because by the end of his time at Sonora, she had the feeling that Jozua actually exploded things on purpose, and so many of them happened around him because he wanted them to. She was trusting that he had enough sense not to explode her students. At least, not very much.
For entertainment, Saul Pierce was doing magic tricks. Selina wasn’t entirely sure whether these were the novelty non-magical ‘magic’ tricks that some people enjoyed, or fancy stunt magic that the students would still be impressed by in spite of having spells up their own sleeves. He had just said ‘magic tricks’ and she’d said that sounded fine, and moved onto the next thing that needed arranging. There were even some refreshments, as Peyton Priory had baked goods.

The students had all been given tokens to spend, in order to ensure an equal fair experience for everyone. They would have a few hours to look around and enjoy. After they had finished up and been put on the wagons home, the alumni would be treated to a celebratory dinner, which would give them more of a chance to mingle with each other and their former teachers—though Selina was sure they would find plenty of chances for helloes and catch ups throughout the day as well.

OOC: Welcome to the Fair!

You may post your character interacting with any of the booths mentioned. You may assume normal interactions, e.g. having the alumni give you equipment/turns/let you onto the ride etc, but beyond this, please do not write for them.

You may talk to and interact with the alumni, or post with other students.

All alumni activities were submitted by their authors. If you have alumni and would like to post them with a description of their booth, you are free to do so.

Those with alumni here are welcome to post them running their booth, taking a break to catch up with friends, or enjoying the after party.

Subthreads:

Reunion by Liesl Brockert

Temple of Doom by Jozua Sparks with Constance Melcher

Not again by Osvaldo Alamilla

Just trying to get through by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher with Lenny Pierce

Aimless wandering by Iris Cobb with Ian Malone

Baked goods by Wally O'Malley with Valentine Duell

Some of this seems fun. by Esme Brockert with Valentine Duell

Quietly hopeful by Sapphire Brockert

Leggo my LEGOs? by Cole Pierce with Christopher Brockert, Yaniel Ayala Velez

The ride of your life! by Andrew Duell

Me brain hurt by Stanley O'Malley

Nostalgic (Gaming Club member) by Gabriel Wilson with Phil Carson

Almost gone by Anya Delachene with Theo Spurn

Ending on a high note [tag Jasmine] by Ellie Alperton with Jasmine Delachene

Roommate bonding (Tag Rosalynn and/or Lorena) by Isla Brockert with Rosalynn Tellerman

Aftermath by Lavender Brockert

Transitions by Amethyst Brockert

13 Selina Skies The Fair 26 1 5

Liesl Brockert

May 28, 2022 3:28 PM

Reunion by Liesl Brockert

Liesl could not be more excited! Today was Sonora’s Midsummer fair and Uncle Cory was going to be here. He was going to play his guitar for people and have a simple introductory lesson to the instrument. He was also bringing information on wand making which was totally unrelated to anything having to do with the guitar.

However, since Uncle Cory’s main job was to sell wands that Adam Brockert made, it made sense for him to bring something relating to his actual job as Adam was unlikely to come to Sonora and talk to people. Adam could be semi-reclusive. Hence why Uncle Cory did the selling, as he was obviously pretty personable.

The second year felt bad for Gwendolyn though. Even though the Aladren had seemed to accept that her dad was not coming and understand why, Liesl got the impression that she really wanted him to be here. Plus, wand making was like a super cool career as and much as she loved her uncle, Adam was honestly more the expert on it. Of course, Uncle Cory must have picked up something on the subject given he’d been selling them for awhile. Still, people who wanted to learn about wand making should talk to the wand maker. If someone wanted to sell wands, then Uncle Cory was the guy for it.

Still, Liesl was super happy and excited that her uncle was here. She was looking forward to seeing him and introducing him to all her friends. Honestly, it was just too bad though that Hans’ dad wasn’t an alumni. He could have had, like, a snake exhibit. Like a snake petting zoo! Of course, for some baffling reason, most people would not have necessarily been into that. A lot of people were scared of them and she supposed it was probably for the best that people not feel uncomfortable. Besides, the second year would get to meet Mr. Hexenmeister and his snakes soon enough anyway.

Anyway, Uncle Cory wasn’t the only relative of Liesl’s that was here today. Her father’s first cousin, Alessa was here reading tarot cards, Allegra had teamed up with some of their distant relatives to do a crafting booth which included quilting, knitting, crocheting, sewing and simple crafts. Owen and Jemima were doing some sort of writing and illustrating thing. All of these were things Liesl totally wanted to check out along with all the other things that the alumni were doing but seeing her uncle was most important to her so that was what she planned to do first. After that, she’d periodically switch between checking out other things and hanging out with him. Hopefully, Uncle Cory would be able to go on some rides and stuff with her.

She scanned the pitch until she found the man that she was looking for. Once she spotted him, she took off as fast as her shoes would allow her-the sort of shoes that went with her chosen style really did not allow people to run -and threw her arms around him in a big Teppenpaw style hug. “Hi Uncle Cory!” Liesl greeted him.

“Hey pumpkin!” Cory replied, returning his niece’s hug. He had honestly been looking forward to coming to the fair. He knew how much it meant to Liesl for him to be there and he really wanted to spend time with his niece and meet her friends, particularly Hans whom the second year talked about quite a bit. Cory was also hoping to see people from his own school days, although of his friends, only Neal was there. Raúl had pointed out the fact that it would be completely weird and possibly inappropriate for him to come since he was the examiner for the CATS and RATS tests and felt he probably should maintain some professional distance. Also,Raúl hated public speaking and was hypersensitive to pollen which was likely a threat. Obviously Cory didn’t want his friend to do things that made him anxious or put himself in a place where he was going to get sick.

As for Adam, well Cory was his proxy, so to speak. As he often was. Adam didn’t like public speaking any more than Raúl did. So, Cory had brought along brochures and other materials on wandmaking and wandlore in addition to his own guitar stuff. The sort of things that talked about what a person’s wand said about their personality, that kind of thing.

Neal, however, was setting up next to Cory. His booth was basically his collection of desk toys that he’d put enlargement charms on. On the other side of Cory was Alessa and her tarot readings. Liesl waved to Neal and said “Hey Neal,” before turning to her cousin and hugging her too. She turned back to her uncle. “Do you need help with anything?”

“Nope. I’m good.” Cory replied.

Liesl sat down on one of the huge pillows that her uncle had put out, as he began to strum on his guitar. “All right.” She decided to stay there and hang out with him until someone happened to come by for her to hang out with.

11 Liesl Brockert Reunion 1537 0 5

Jozua Sparks

May 29, 2022 7:03 PM

Temple of Doom by Jozua Sparks

When Jozua Sparks had first stepped onto the Quidditch Pitch of Sonora Academy to set up his booth, it felt like a lifetime had passed since he last stood here. In some ways it had. He'd graduated six years ago. In that time he had attended and graduated University and gotten a Masters in Curse Breaking. He had asked Lily to marry him and she had said yes, and then she'd even said I do a couple years after that when he was about done with schooling. They'd already done a lot of traveling and seen a bunch of the world, and Sonora just seemed so . . . small now.

Still, he was glad to be back (temporarily) and even more excited to get to run a . . . well, he'd called it a 'fun house' in his pitch, but it was basically a cursed temple. On the outside, it looked like two story structure with just enough Greek columns and mythology motifs to make it look vaguely temple-like. From the outside, people could see the inside had a maze on the bottom floor, a treasure hoard on the top, a ricketty staircase connecting the two, and a really fun looking slide into soft mat to get down from the treasure room.

Over the top of the entrance, the primary sign read, in large creepy lettering: The Temple of DOOOM! Then, below that, in the same creepy print face, but in a smaller size and in black ink rather than red, it added, Enter At Your Own Risk

Jozua was pretty sure he was making a muggle pop-culture reference to something vaguely appropriate to his career path of curse breaking and adventuring, but he didn't actually have any idea of what that muggle thing was. He just thought it sounded cool, and it also struck the right aesthetic he was looking for.

There were two secondary signs on either side of the entrance to the structure.

The first sign, on the right, read: Not Recommended for students with high anxiety or sensitivity to loud noises, bright flashes, hot bursts of air, beetle swarms, snakes, or fire. Then there was a space and a disclaimer in slightly smaller print: Most effects are illusions only, but they are quite realistic.

To the left of the entrance, the other sign read: Jozua Sparks. Curse Breaker. Graduate of SA32. Teppenpaw. Founder of the Dueling Club. Jozua himself sat in a chair next to the sign listing his qualifications as an alumni, and smiled and waved at anyone who made eye contact with him or seemed interested in his booth.

When someone did approach, he gave his spiel. "Beware the cursed temple of doom! The floors are trapped, the walls are enchanted, the stairs are treacherous, and by Merlin, do not touch the treasures!"

Should anyone actually give him the token to enter, they would find it started with an uneven wooden flooring. If the wrong panel was stepped on (it was marked with an X, but so were all of them, so that wasn't very helpful, and the panel changed when it triggered to one of the other ones, so even Jozua didn't always know what one to avoid without doing some actual curse detecting), a burst of hot air would rush up between the boards. It was harmless, but somewhat startling if you weren't expecting it.

After the trapped floor, there was a maze. If at any time, the explorer happened to touch the walls of the maze, the whole panel would flash a bright light like a mirror catching the sun before fading back to a normal wall. It was dazzling for a moment, but again, harmless. If the same person touched three walls in the maze before making it through, a loud boom of thunder would resound through the whole structure, shaking it ominously, but Jozua was quite sure the whole thing was entirely stable.

Once they passed through the maze, there was a spiral stair well that led up to the second floor. The stairs were treacherous, and would transform into a spiral slide every twenty seconds with no warning, dumping the climber back to the bottom floor if they hadn't made it up all the way to the next floor when it changed. When the did make it to the top, as they passed through the threshold into the treasure room, flames would burst out around them, but they were cold, illusory flames, and they'd go out quickly if they were just calmly patted at, or after ten seconds, whichever came first.

In the treasure room, touching anything that looked treasury - gems, gold statues, coins, jewelry - would result in the item temporarily vanishing and being replaced by an illusion of a coiled snake, or a swarm of beetles, or something equally nasty. After a few seconds, the illusion would poof away and the item would return where it had been. At the other end of the treasure room, there was a fun slide into a crash mat to finish the fun house on a high note of fun.

"Congratulations! Few survive the cursed temple!" Jozua would call out as they land on the mat that is on his other side from the entrance. "You are one of the lucky ones!" Then he'd point to his table of pamplets, and invite, "If you're interested in curse breaking, I've got some information from my university over there." And if they actually took a pamphlet, he'd ask, "Any questions about the coursework or the prerequisites to get into the program or what I do?"

1 Jozua Sparks Temple of Doom 348 0 5

Osvaldo Alamilla

May 30, 2022 6:26 AM

Not again by Osvaldo Alamilla

This was worse than he had imagined it. If he were a weaker man, he would want to cry. Osvaldo walked slowly through what had until recently been a perfectly conditioned Quiddtich Ptich. He had worked hard throughout the year to make sure the prairie elves had done just the right things to keep it pristine, despite what the kids playing the game did to it every single time there was a game or practice. Now... there was an utter disaster all around him. Why couldn't they have had Tumbleweed host the fair? He was going to have to spend the entire summer again making sure the elves fixed this all up right. That meant no time over the summer for his own experiments.

Each and every stand that he passed made it all that much worse. As if the children running amok, tearing up the ground were not bad enough, the 'adults' were making an even bigger mess with their 'contributions' to the fair. Most of them looked to be fairly simple affairs, but would still cause havoc with the grass and ground. Some of them were monstrosities however, monstrosities that he wished he could curse off of the face of the planet. Unfortunately he could not.

The only thing he could do at the moment was to wander about the pitch and grumble under his breath at all the damage that was being caused. It was a terrible curse and he wondered if it wouldn't be better for his overall mental health to just lock himself in his study until this was all over. Unfortunately the weather charms had been acting up again the past few days and it had been made clear to him that they wanted a nice day for the fair. While the thought of this debacle getting rained out was a nice one, it would only make things worse once the pitch turned to mud. Plus, he would look incompetent and that would not do.

2 Osvaldo Alamilla Not again 1503 0 5

Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

May 30, 2022 12:11 PM

Just trying to get through by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

Since the school had taken a field trip to a zoo, Mom had decided not to attend the fair as an alumni career representative. The students had already been able to get somewhat up close and personal with zoo animals, so that probably would have made Mom’s presence a bit redundant. That was fair, but Lazarus was a bit disappointed. Obviously he wasn’t going to say that, though, because what self-respecting almost-thirteen year old would tell their mommy that they missed her? But it was true. He missed his mom and his dad and his brother.

For the most part, Laz had managed to keep to himself all year. He preferred it that way, truly, but it was also kind of sad. Watching everyone else around him forming friendships, having conversations, laughing… he couldn’t help but envy them, at least a little. Lazarus didn’t even know how to laugh anymore. Just like speech, he could not make the sound, and his magical communication book did not have a button for that. He knew he could have his speech therapist add one, but it just felt insincere.

At least there was a pony ride booth. Again, not a sentence a near teen would say out loud, but animals were something of a safe haven for him. They didn’t expect a conversation. So he headed over to that station to get in line.

On his way, though, he bumped into someone. There were just too many dang people at this event! Lazarus knew he was the one at fault, so he quickly flipped to one of the front pages of his book and tapped “SORRY!”, which the book made audible.

12 Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher Just trying to get through 1548 0 5

Constance Melcher

May 30, 2022 12:29 PM

Not sure what you expect if you ask questions [Tag: Mr. Sparks] by Constance Melcher

Connie’s curious little face lit up under the red lettering of the “DOOOM!” experience. It can’t be that scary if they let children do it, she reasoned with herself. Nonetheless, since there was a disclaimer warning for those who may have sensory issues, she determined immediately that, despite her hope to spend much of the fair time with Theo today, this one was one adventure she would need to go alone.

So she tied up her hair and took one step forward. As she approached, the man stationed there gave caution, possibly a generic be-scared message he had worked on. But like most things, this statement did little else but raise questions in Constance’s mind. “Why can’t I touch the treasures?” she asked. “Isn’t that the whole point of adventuring into a treacherous temple?”

She went in boldly regardless of any answer that may have been given and paused to analyze her surroundings. A floor pattern with this many x’s was both tacky and thoroughly unhelpful, she decided after some length of time. When she stepped on what was evidently the wrong one (no warning, quite unfairly), she became immediately glad that she had chosen to venture solo, as the air that rushed from below caught her skirt and ballooned it in an entirely inappropriate manner. She gathered herself, adjusted her ponytail, and carried on.

The maze was a bit less eventful - she felt no inclination to touch the walls around her, so the lightning and thunder effects were quite lost on her. The spiral stairs which decided not to be stairs were at first frustrating, then kind of fun, and then frustrating again, but eventually, she reached their peak.

Here was the treasure! The Aladren reached to touch a particularly shiny trinket, hoping the texture would be smooth and it might make for a nice souvenir for Theo, but alas, it turned to a snake before her, or at least the illusion of one. Connie was not scared of snakes - in fact, she was hardly scared of much anything - and so she flatly pulled her hand back. When the artifact returned, she tried again and was disappointed to receive the same result. So no souvenirs, then. Deciding she was quite finished with this tomfoolery, she exited via the (admittedly super fun) slide down to the crash mat.

The man seemed quite enthusiastic to see that she had escaped, but the effect was slightly lost on her as she reasoned that he must say it to everyone, unless he was comfortable leaving children lost inside his temple indefinitely. She did, however, eagerly reach for a pamphlet, as additional information was Connie’s absolute favorite thing. “Yes, so what exactly do you do then? I can’t imagine it’s all like this, right? What is your typical day like?”

12 Constance Melcher Not sure what you expect if you ask questions [Tag: Mr. Sparks] 1523 0 5

Iris Cobb

May 30, 2022 6:18 PM

Aimless wandering by Iris Cobb

So far, Iris was enjoying the fair. She hadn't actually done anything yet, just wandered around taking in all the sights. The one sight she liked best so far, not that she'd admit it to herself or anyone else, was that of Liesl hanging out at one of the booths without Hansel in sight. Iris had nothing against the girl, she was nice and friendly and such. It was just the amount of time she spent with Hansel, it bothered her.

On a completely unrelated thought, she hadn't actually spotted Hansel in her wanderings either. She wondered mildly where he was and what he was doing. She tried to tell herself that it didn't really matter, but some part of her still really kinda wanted to know. However she firmly told herself that it didn't really matter, and that if she ran into him it would be nice, but if she didn't that was fine as well, and she really totally believed herself.

Upon completing her circuit of the grounds, Iris decided she'd really better do something to distract herself from... things. The question was what to do? She knew darn well she wasn't getting anywhere close to that 'DOOM' place. Billy would most likely be there and this was her last bit of time that she'd have free of him. She was going to make the most of it.

There was some weird contraption that she wasn't going to get close to. Billy would probably be around that floating board place as well at some point, best avoid it. There were pony rides which didn't look bad, but kinda reminded her of home to much at the moment. She'd be getting plenty of home soon enough. The thing that drew her attention the most was the fancy clothing booth. Now that could be fun, it'd be like the ball all over again. Plus, Billy wouldn't get within 100 feet of the place. Well, unless Ray wanted him to, but that seemed unlikely.

She was making her way that direction when she heard someone call out her name.

2 Iris Cobb Aimless wandering 1526 0 5

Wally O'Malley

May 30, 2022 7:19 PM

Baked goods by Wally O'Malley

OOC: Approval for Wally to hang around and help Peyton given by her author. BIC:

Despite a fairly loud and strong predisposition from his mother’s side of the family - as most things were on that side - Wally was not much of a fan of Quidditch. It was violent and scary, and he didn’t like heights. So really, he found the Quidditch Pitch overwhelming on a good day. But this fair was like anxiety to the max. There were way, way too many people buzzing about.

His primary comfort was, at least, the sheer magnitude of how many of these alumni were probably related to him somehow. Dad’s family was huge and almost all came to Sonora, so he tried to reason with himself that most of the alumni faces, even the ones he didn’t know, were probably family and therefore probably okay. Of course, there were names of the family tree that were definitely not safe and not okay, but they didn’t really talk about it too much, and it was understood that it wasn’t a present concern in their lives now.

Anyway, Wally’s primary plan was to just pick a spot and station himself there, so he picked Aunt Peyton’s booth. He knew she was coming but forgot to reach out in advance to volunteer himself, so he hoped she wouldn’t mind him just kind of loitering there and asking if he could be of any use. That was the better use of his time, anyway: being helpful, rather than in the way. Then he at least had a mental script in his head for when someone approached.

Like now, for example. “Hi,” he greeted. “What can I get for you?”

12 Wally O'Malley Baked goods 1492 0 5

Esme Brockert

June 01, 2022 3:01 PM

Some of this seems fun. by Esme Brockert

Esme was sort of looking forward to the fair. It was often one of the better events that Sonora put on. She admittedly enjoyed it better than the ball, to be honest. While of course the Crotalus loved dressing up and dancing, any ball that was put on by the school paled in comparison to the sort that she would be attending for the rest of her life.

Especially since the ones that Esme would attend outside of school were with, well, people more like her. Last year, it seemed like everyone of a certain age was paired off and her and her relatives were left out. So it wasn’t just that they didn’t have dates-which was to be expected given the current lack of purebloods of their social status-it was that everyone else had been busy with theirs, and that left nobody to really talk to or dance with or anything. So, what fun was that?

Besides, the fair had a certain…novelty to it. Esme would attend many balls over her life but she may or may not get to go to any more fairs. Plus, they weren’t even the same as the previous ones. The last school fair had been a charity fair where the students raised money for various causes and had put together their own booths for it. This one seemed to be more of an alumni career and hobby fair so students hadn’t had to put anything together at all. Esme could see the benefits of both, depending on what someone liked to do.

Although both did seem a little…cobbled together in terms of the type of activities involved. This one seemed to have as many sorts of making or doing things as it did games and rides. Some of these activities appealed to her more than others. For example, the sixth year was naturally more interested in the booths where they could do crafts than, say,the fun house type thing with that had the word doom involved. Generally, she preferred more refined things and besides, nobody needed to do anything involved with doom when Topaz Brockert was their cousin. They got quite enough of it, thank you very much!

Esme headed off towards where her sister Allegra was with some of their distant relations, at a booth that involved quilting and sewing and embroidery and other similar crafts. These were generally the sorts of things she enjoyed and of course, she wanted to greet her sister, before going on to say hello to Cory and Alessa. However, before she could make it there, someone approached her. “Oh, hello.” She greeted them.

11 Esme Brockert Some of this seems fun. 1479 0 5

Valentine Duell

June 01, 2022 5:39 PM

I'm enjoying it more than last time. by Valentine Duell

It would be a while before Val learned how she had done with her CATS, and longer still before she graduated and started doing life things. Still she knew that proper preparation was key to having a plan work out favorably. To that end, she planned to meet with the Alumni at the fair that sold wands and see what she could learn.

The fair itself was a bit of an odd experience for her. It had been her first end of year event, and now it was here again. She could remember the terrible problem she'd had as a first year. All of the charity money Mama and Papa had given her had gone to buying a quilt for her newly rediscovered Aunt Giselle. She hadn't even had any money left over for snacks. It had been terrible! Now she could laugh at the memory of her own poor first year antics, even though it hadn't been much fun at the time. Aunt Giselle had liked the quilt, and still had it on her bed, so that was good.

At the moment, Val was seeing what this particular fair had to offer, and who was about enjoying it. She knew Papa was around somewhere with some sort of mechanical monstrosity of a ride. She'd need to find him and try it out at some point. He'd started designing it as soon as he'd heard about the fair. While she was anxious to see her parents again, she would have all summer with them. Now was the last chance she would have to see her school friends for a while, so she was looking for them.

Valentine spotted Esme strolling through the fair as well and it occurred to her that she hadn't interacted with the slightly older girl in quite a while. It was well past time to fix that. In a moment She was by Crotalus with a friendly smile in response to the greeting. "Hi Esme!" She cheered, "How are you doing? Anything here catch your eye yet?"

2 Valentine Duell I'm enjoying it more than last time. 1490 0 5

Sapphire Brockert

June 01, 2022 5:43 PM

Quietly hopeful by Sapphire Brockert

Sapphire’s time at Sonora had come to an end and she could not be happier. She was finally free of this place once and for all. She never again would have to see any of these people who made her feel so lousy and unwanted. Nor would the Crotalus ever have to try to deal with dry,boring, complicated magical theory ever ever again. She wouldn’t have to sit there and try to listen to something that bored and confused her and made her feel like a complete idiot, at least she really hoped not.

Not that that meant Sapphire was not still worried about how she had done on her RATS. True, she had made it through without having a seizure or vomiting on anyone-which was good, considering that her RATS examiner was not nearly as nice as Mr. Barba had been- but that did not mean that she had done well on them. The practical part had gone fine-minus the part where she’d had a less than pleasant examiner- but there were a lot of questions that had been…difficult on the written part.

Although, not as many as she had expected. There were more questions that Sapphire understood than she had thought that there would be. Of course, that would likely have been the case if there had only been one question that made sense to her. Her expectations on this matter had been pretty low.

Which arguably was the story of Sapphire’s life. She generally did not expect things to go well for herself, even though she always secretly hoped they would. Emphasis on secretly, because she was much too paranoid to allow anyone to know that she felt hopeful. Sapphire had been conditioned ever since she could remember that if she let on that she was, Topaz would do her very best to make sure that Sapphire stopped doing that.

Still, right now, she couldn’t help but feel things might improve just a little. In fact, she actually knew that was the case because regardless of whether or not she ever found a place where she belonged and people who might accept her, there was at least that possibility now and at least she wouldn’t have the daily struggle that she felt when it came to academics.

And for now, Sapphire was going to focus on that.

11 Sapphire Brockert Quietly hopeful 1459 0 5

Lenny Pierce

June 01, 2022 6:34 PM

Get through what? by Lenny Pierce

Lenny had lost Cole somewhere in the crowd, but they hadn't exactly been trying to stay together. His 'twin' had wanted to find his Dad (one of the Derries, Lenny knew by previous conversation, but he'd never met a Derry before, and it might give away the fiction that he and Cole were brothers if 'their' dad greeted Lenny like they had never met before in their lives and was only now being introduced to his own son), and Lenny wanted to find his (which would have had the same problem if Cole had still been around), so when something had caught his attention (The Temple of DOOOOM) and he'd wandered over to look at it, without telling Cole where he was going, he wasn't too surprised that when he turned back, Cole wasn't behind him anymore.

The Temple had eaten one of his tokens, and the slides had been totally worth it, but now he was looking around trying to find his family. Dad was supposed to be doing magic tricks somewhere around here - they'd said booths not presentations, but he suspected Dad was doing short performances any time he had an audience of at least one (whether or not they handed over a token). It wasn't going to be anything Lenny hadn't seen before - and he could do most of the card tricks and some of the vanishing ribbon tricks himself already - but he did want to at least say hello and see if Mom or Jose or Ginger had come along with him. Ginger had been debating it, he knew, and if she was there, juggling was a thing that would happen and Lenny wanted to impress some of his friends with his ability to do that.

Before he found the California Pierce booth though, someone bumped into him, and he caught his wide brimmed sun hat before it could fall. It was basically summer and very sunny out here, so he'd thought it was a good idea to wear a light bit of shade to go with his pale lavender sundress.

"Oh, no problem! No harm done!" he promised when the mute kid in his class used his book to say sorry. "Have you seen the magician yet? He's my dad, and I'm trying to find his booth. Awesome muggle slight-of-hand tricks, and he's got some really cool spells, too, that look very fancy! Should be a good show!" he encouraged, used to drumming up interest in passersby for the family's Renaissance Faire shows. He doubted they were getting paid by the token, but you never knew.

1 Lenny Pierce Get through what? 1547 0 5

Esme Brockert

June 02, 2022 3:59 PM

I'm glad to hear it. by Esme Brockert

OOC: CW-Briefly mentions abuse BIC:

Esme smiled at Val, whom she considered one of her closer friends at Sonora. Not that Val was as close to her as she was to other people but the sixth year was generally okay with that. In all honesty, it was amazing to her that the Teppenpaw was able to keep up with so many people. She sort of wondered how Val did it.

It was something that Esme would probably have to do when she left Sonora, because she was bound to become a socialite and while she didn’t have that many friends at school, and nobody besides her relatives, and somewhat Val and Sadie really, she really did believe she was going to be decent at being one-and, while it felt somewhat mean to say it, probably better at it than her sisters. Allegra was painfully shy and was pretty much an abuse victim, and Isla was…Isla. She was different. Esme loved them both dearly but neither of them was really the socialite type.

Actually come to think of it, this was true of a lot of her relatives.Sapphire was very similar to Allegra for the same reasons. Emerald wasn’t exactly a social butterfly.Topaz…well, Esme supposed that Topaz could pretend and act like one if she needed to. Actually, now that the Crotalus thought about it, Topaz could probably play the society games quite well, being what a rotten manipulative little monster that the Aladren alumna was. Aside from that though, the only ones Esme thought would make decent socialites were Amethyst-Amethyst seemed born for that more than her siblings-and possibly Alma and Liesl’s younger sister Krisalyn. Ruby also seemed to do well enough at it. Esme was still unsure about Libby and it was much too early to figure out how well Ella and Lorelei would do. Liesl was possibly worse than Isla.

And the Crotalus had her doubts about the boys. Christopher was damaged by how vile Uncle Eustace was, similar to Allegra and Sapphire with Topaz. Miles was extremely shy and Olaf was like a mini-Grandfather.

However, Angelique was the best at it of all of them. Angelique had pulled herself up after her “disastrous”-her words- time at Sonora, which was totally not her fault at all. She had just been in a “bad situation”-also her words. Angelique could be more than a tad dramatic about her “absolutely tragic” (yes, also her words) situation at Sonora. In a different world, maybe she would have been an actress.

Val, the sixth year thought, was a little like Ruby. They were both really nice and friendly, and quite social. Okay, her cousin was “quite” social, and Val was extremely social. Val, if she was a pureblood, might do well at being a socialite as she was possibly the most social person that Esme knew.

“My sister Allegra is over there doing quilting and my cousin Ruby is doing flower arrangement with some of our other more distant cousins at some sort of combination crafting booth. It has various forms of activities such as knitting, sewing, embroidery, crochet and some simple crafts.” Esme replied, smiling at the Teppenpaw. “It might not be as exciting as some of the other things, like that…doom thing, but it’s more my style. Plus, of course I want to say hello to my sister and cousin.”

“I also should go over to say hello to some of my other cousins too. My father’s cousin Alessa is doing tarot readings and his cousin Cory is over there playing guitar and giving small introductory lessons. I think he also has information about wand making since his actual job is selling wands for the Brockert family heir, Adam who makes them.” She looked at Val. “ Do you want to do any of that? If you want to hang out we can do both that and something else you want to do. I’ll even try the activities I’m not that interested in if it’s what you want to do” Even though Esme was generally okay with the fact that Val was hanging out with others often, that didn’t mean that she didn’t relish a chance to hang out with the Teppenpaw. “Oh and my cousin Owen and his wife Jemima have some sort of writing and illustrating thing that I want to try.” She really wanted to support all her relatives that were here.

11 Esme Brockert I'm glad to hear it. 1479 0 5

Cole Pierce

June 02, 2022 7:09 PM

Leggo my LEGOs? by Cole Pierce

Cole had been following Lenny around the fair for the first little while but then between one moment and the next, his ersatz twin brother was gone. He spent a minute or two looking for him, but the longer haired Pierce was nowhere to be found. Cole shrugged and decided Lenny would turn up again when he wanted to be found. In the meantime, he went riding on a flying horse around the pitch, and that was definitely not something you got to do in Boston.

Soon after that, he discovered the booth his parents had set up. Dad was a first grade teacher and Mom was a potion mistress, and together they had a booth decorated with posters of the alphabet letters paired with different potion ingredients. (A is for Aconite! B is for Bezoar!)

Dad wore a name tag that read, *Hi! My Name is Derry! Teppenpaw, Muggle School Teacher*. Mom's said, *Hi! My Name is Reggie! Teppenpaw, Potions Mistress*

"Hey, kiddo!" Dad called out as he spotted his son. As Cole got closer, he looked at the colorful items that covered the booth's surface and raised an eyebrow. Dad shrugged. "Since everyone here already knows how to read, and you're all taking potions as a class, we didn't think brewing or a reading lesson would go over as particularly fun. So. LEGOS. It uses building blocks and improves cognitive development and fine motor control for first graders, and you're adding ingredients in a particular order to get a final product like in potions."

"You want to make something? We've got a few different recipes," Mom tempted, holding out a few instruction booklets on how to make some LEGO creations of varying levels of difficulty.

"Sure," Cole agreed, accepting the one that would give him a biplane by the time he was done. "Are these my LEGOs?"

"Well, yes, most of them," Mom admitted. "We didn't think you would mind. And we didn't know how many people we'd have at a time, so we did get some more. You'll get to keep those, too."

"Cool."

He was partway through building his biplane when he saw someone he knew walk near the booth. He waved the plane over his head to get their attention and called out, "Hey, have you played with LEGOs before? This is my Mom and Dad."

1 Cole Pierce Leggo my LEGOs? 1546 0 7

Christopher Brockert

June 03, 2022 7:28 PM

You don't want me to use them? by Christopher Brockert

OOC: CW- Brief mention of misogyny and toxic masculinity BIC:

Chris was never sure if he was happy to be going home or not. Of course he wanted to see his parents and little sister again but at school, regardless of whether or not he was completely comfortable with anyone but his cousins and decidedly Verdillia, he did not have to worry about being around Uncle Eustace. At school, even though he was wary of most people,nobody actually bothered him the way his uncle did. Even the very sporty Pecari types did not because Christopher did not seem to be on their radar.

Also, even though he was still incredibly wary of them, he did not want to assume they were completely like his uncle. That would not be fair. Uncle Eustace was a complete monster and to be honest, Chris wanted to believe that there weren’t a lot of people like him. Still, he was afraid that people with similar traits would still make fun of him. Although, it did not seem as if any of the Pecaris or the Quidditch players around his age were all that mean. Well, of the third years, Ray was someone who gave him extreme pause but Xavier seemed to be in his own little world where nobody seemed to matter to him except possibly Oz and Alexei was actually all right. He and Amethyst were friends and if he was a Pecari that Amethyst liked, he could not be too terrible. Chris wasn’t exactly sure what to make of Tissena either but Fortune and Xander didn’t really seem mean so maybe he didn’t have to worry about them too much, although they probably did not have much in common.

So maybe school was the better place for him. Most of the people that the Crotalus was most inclined to be afraid of were either not terrible bullying types or he wasn’t on their radar. Which was how Christopher liked things. Well, sort of. He truly did want to make friends but he was generally terrified to put himself out there. He still didn’t want to be the center of attention. He was never going to be the flashy type. That just was not him.

Still, he needed to suppress his anxiety over having to put up with his uncle at least for today. Chris very much wanted to just enjoy the fair, it sounded like it was going to be a lot of fun. Some of his relatives were here, including his cousins Allegra and Ruby at a crafting booth. Which he might try just to support them even though it was “girly” stuff like quilting. Christopher didn’t think they would tell Uncle Eustace as they both preferred not to talk to him. In fact, Allegra was completely afraid of him even though Topaz was the one to torment her. The Crotalus alumna was possibly even more skittish around horrible people than he was.There were just people out there that made you shrivel up inside yourself and both he and Allegra (and some other relatives of his) were especially sensitive to that.

And anyway, their uncle was the sort who didn’t think women or children should speak to him unless he spoke to them first-and of course, if he did, they must respond. Fortunately for the girls, he rarely felt the need to do so. It was likely horrible for Aunt Helena though and would someday be so for Honora too.

There were also a few other relatives there that he would go over to support and say hi to as well.

However, before Christopher got the chance to do that, Cole Pierce waved him over to a booth…where there seemed to be sets of blocks. The Crotalus couldn’t help but grin. This seemed to be right up his alley. He approached the first year. “Not exactly, I’ve worked with something similar though.” He assumed that these LEGOs were similar to some of the magical brands of blocks that he had played with.

Christopher remembered his manners then and turned to Cole's parents. "Hello, I'm Christopher Brockert, of the Western Brockerts. Pleased to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Pierce.

11 Christopher Brockert You don't want me to use them? 1539 0 5

Valentine Duell

June 04, 2022 6:16 PM

How about you? by Valentine Duell

Valentine was glad to see Esme smile at her in response to her salutation. To be fair though, Val was usually glad when people smiled in general. Real smiles anyway, fake smiles were terrible things. She listened attentively as Esme went through her list of relations that were here contributing to the fair. This was only a small part of the Brockert family, the other year she had tried to map out the family tree and had gotten awful lost and confused along the way. The Teppenpaw readily admitted she was rather envious of such an extended family. Her own was only three aunts (only one of which she got to see regularly) and one tiny baby cousin. There was also potential for a semi-unconfirmed uncle... but not really? Aunt Jhonice was here as well, maybe she would have to ask her about it if she remembered. Papa hadn't been very clear when she'd asked him last, she suspected he wasn't sure what to make of the situation either.

"That sounds fine to me." Valentine responded. "At the last fair I bought a quilt from the booth that Allegra and Caitlin were running. It was really nice, I gave it to Aunt Giselle and she still has it on her bed." Val nodded in agreement about Esme saying hi to her family. "I'll need to see some family as well. Papa's got some sort of ride contraption that I'll need to go on, Mama is there helping him. Aunt Jhonice has some sort of journalism stand set up, and Mr. Sawyer has some of his hoverboards here." She still wanted to figure out how he exactly fit in, 'Mr. Sawyer' just seemed like an odd way to refer to her cousin's father. Waitaminute...

Val turned to Esme with an excited gleam in her eye. "Aunt Jhonice and Mr. Sawyer are both here, that means Ramona probably is as well! Do you want to meet my baby cousin? She's adorable!"

"You know the wandmaker? Or.. the wandseller?" Val asked as Esme mentioned Cory and Adam. "I had heard they were going to be here, and did want to talk to them a bit." She sighed a small sigh, "Assuming my CATS come back okay, I'd like to pursue wandmaking, and it sounds like I need to find someone to apprentice under. I thought talking to someone that had gone through the process already might be nice."

OOC: Mama's (Marissa's) actions approved by her author

2 Valentine Duell How about you? 1490 0 5

Andrew Duell

June 04, 2022 7:04 PM

The ride of your life! by Andrew Duell

Andrew was quite excited about this whole Alumni fair idea. The moment he'd heard about it, he had gone to work on designs. It had been a bit since he'd had a 'fun' project to work on that wasn't work related. He was officially in spell development with an unofficial focus on 'finding better ways of doing things that Muggle devices did.'

His initial plan for the fair had been a hybrid version of the tea cup ride. However that had proved rather difficult and was better suited for bunches of small groups of people. He suspected that instead he might get single riders or small groups. So he needed something smaller and simpler.

Andrew stood at the fair with the loveliest assistant in the world, Marissa, in front of a bit of a mechanical, magical monstrosity. The stand had the full schematics, diagrams and spell formulas that made up the ride. While it naturally wasn't approved by any government body, it was perfectly safe. It had to be, his daughter would probably ride in it. He was happy to go over any aspect of the machine’s design; how the charms were put in place, how the muggle motors worked, how he got them some charms to run them instead of gasoline, all of the safety charms in place, gearing ratios, or anything else about it.

It was, in the simplest terms, a bench for two to three people encased in a metal safety cage. The cage was attached to a short arm that connected to a pivoting central drive that would spin the riders around in a circle. There were a few charmed control levers the riders could move to adjust the speed of rotation, height from the ground, and length of the arm. That way the riders could control the type of ride they wanted, from nice and calm or wild and crazy.

"Come on over and give the latest sensation a whirl! If you'd like to ride, my lovely wife will help get you seated, strapped in and explain the controls. If you'd like to learn more about it, feel free to examine the diagrams I've got here and ask whatever questions you have."

OOC: Marissa's assistance approved by her author

2 Andrew Duell The ride of your life! 145 0 5