Mortimer Brockert
September 10, 2022 9:25 PM
Returning Feast by Mortimer Brockert
As usual, Mortimer was glad to be back at Sonora after midterm. Yes, teenagers were irritating but he didn’t actually have to interact with them all that much. As opposed to the forced inane small talk with the general population of nincompoops that tended to attend parties. Or that was the majority of the human race. Not that he was hoping for or expecting deep conversations but really small talk was more mind numbing than any alcohol could ever be.Even worse was,of course, Eustace. Mortimer knew that saying that his son needed to be satisfied with the child he had and deal with it-especially given that Honora was two now-was advice he should take about having Eustace for a son, but the difference was that the child was only two and hadn’t done anything to deserve the disappointment had in her while Eustace had done plenty to make Mortimer disappointed in him.
Honestly, he did not understand how his son had turned out so awful. There were times that he’d almost wished that Vivien had cheated on him and that Eustace was not his son after all. However, then Gene, who was Eustace’s twin, wouldn't be either, and Mortimer was happy enough to claim him.He didn’t seem to have much of a backbone but the Headmaster supposed if he had a twin like Eustace, he wouldn’t either. Eustace probably ate his brother’s backbone in the womb.
And to make things worse, it was all so completely tedious-and not just in the way parties and small talk inherently were. It was also the same bloody thing every year. Mortimer was so completely bored by it all.
At least at Sonora, there were The Challenges going on. That was at least different. He’d always been weirdly fond of them, mostly because they kept everyone busy and busy students were not going to make as much trouble. Although, Mortimer supposed the most hard core of the troublemakers would find a way. Hopefully they would not do so during a particular Challenge event and ruin things for their teammates. Especially considering that one of those hard core troublemakers was on Olaf’s team, somehow. He sincerely hoped that Miss Thorn would confine her most obnoxious and vile behavior to the free time that she had left if she absolutely must do it at all. Either way, it was too bad that Mortimer’s grandson had to put up with her at all.
Still, the general population of the school, most of whom were admittedly not huge troublemakers anyway, would be less inclined to cause problems when, between the Challenges and their regular schoolwork and in some cases, preparing for the concert, they’d be too busy and probably too tired to cause problems.
Of course, Mortimer supposed they could end up having disputes around the Challenges themselves. Either because people on the same team did not get along-and they did not put known enemies together, for the most part, they didn’t put people together who had any sort of relationship whatsoever-or because people got competitive with those on other teams. However, Mortimer had not heard of that really ever being a huge issue, so he wasn’t worried about it. Besides, disputes between teammates, unless they were really out of control should be dealt with by the team leader and it would have to be pretty bad before it came to his attention,unless one of his grandchildren mentioned it in passing. Rivalries between those on different teams were likely pre-existing things where someone wanted to trounce their enemies.
The students entered and Mortimer stood, casting a quick Sonorous on himself. “Welcome back, I hope you have all had a nice break.” Of course, he didn’t actually care any more than he did every other time he had said that. It was just what people said. Despite the fact that he’d never really understood why people said those things that were just what people said. Still, as much as he never felt the need to say too much, he supposed he had to say more than just welcome back and people expected others to want them to have a nice break. Why they felt entitled to that, he did not know. After all, Mortimer did not expect them to care about his holiday. If one of the students said that they hoped he had a nice holiday, he’d probably be highly suspicious that they were up to no good. Or wanted something. Which was arguably worse.
“As a reminder, the school Concert is at the end of the year, so please continue your concert prep.” Honestly, he didn’t understand why people would want to do an extra concert performance when they already had the Challenges and schoolwork but at least Isla would get to put on her puppet show. And the concert was supposed to have Challenge highlights so he was just picturing a bunch of puppets running into age lines. Honestly, Mortimer had been shocked over just how few people had been able to figure that out and that it was mostly relatives of his that could. He could understand how a Muggleborn first year could miss it, since they had not been in the magical world that long, but really, others besides the purebloods had been in the magical world long enough that they should know about such things. Maybe it was a gap in their education and the knowledge that these things existed at least should be on curriculum, regardless of when they should be taught how to do them.
Mortimer sat back down and took the Sonorus Charm off himself, as the food appeared on the tables.
Subthreads:Aladren
I feel older now. by Phil Carson
Ugh, why? by Nausicaa Scapetello
Teppenpaw
Nothing happening here by Philippe Delachene
Continuing on by Valentine Duell
Crotalus
Home again by Lyla Holland with Iris Cobb
Two challenges down by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Pecari
It's weirdly good to be back by Oz Spellman with Billy Cobb
End of an era (tag Mab) by Xavier Lundstrom with Mab
Staff
11
Mortimer Brockert
Returning Feast
6
1
5
Phil Carson
September 11, 2022 5:55 PM
I feel older now. by Phil Carson
Phil sat down at the Aladren table, feeling like he was all but grown up. Over break, he'd gone to a wedding of a person he wasn't related to. Granted, he did not actually know Gary or Korraline Harper beyond the brief introduction he'd gotten at the wedding itself, but he'd been invited (well, Gabriel had been invited and Gabriel had invited him, so it was close to the same thing) and he'd even gone to the event without any adult supervision (unless one counted Gabriel who was seventeen and legally an adult by wizarding custom and that argument had actually worked on Dad when Phil used it). He gotten to meet and put faces to many of the legends of Past Gaming Club Members that he'd heard stories about over the past three and a half years, and he almost felt like he had completed some kind of achievement now that meant he wasn't just the Gaming Club Baby anymore. All those legendary people - Gary, Ness, Evelyn, Heinrich, Zevalyn, Kir - had now seen his face and heard his name (he doubted many of them remembered it two minutes later, but they'd now heard it once at least).He could officially pass the Gaming Club Baby torch down to Xarryn now. He probably could have already, of course, what with being two years older and having a bunch more XP than the newer new kid, but it had still felt more like they were both Gaming Club Babies, while everyone else was Gaming Club Veterans, and getting to go to the Gaming Club Founder's wedding was the quest he'd needed to move up to the next tier.
Phil sat a little taller in his seat at the Aladren table as he waited for the Headmaster to start the Feast. (Taller both literally and in posture, because he was pretty sure he was going through a growth spurt judging by how starving he was.) The speech was mercifully short (as he had come to expect, though given how much his stomach was growling, he wouldn't have put it past Murphy to make tonight the day Headmaster Brockert decided to become loquacious).
Murphy was not out to get him though, and the food appeared readily, and Phil set to filling his plate with rather larger portions than was his norm. He apparently needed to work on getting his body leveled up to Gaming Club Veteran size, too.
Phil smiled at his neighbor. "The food looks really good tonight, doesn't it?"
1
Phil Carson
I feel older now.
1536
0
5
