Selina Skies
November 13, 2022 12:34 AM
Challenge Results and Party by Selina Skies
The third and final challenge had involved an impressive array of projects, and the scoring had been a real challenge. Selina could see that all the teams had put a fantastic effort in. They were all creative, all featured contributions from the whole team, but at the end of the day, some were more creative, or better executed, or had a more balanced effort from everyone involved. There were a lot of different factors that could contribute to a successful team, as shown by the very differing captains that had headed them. Although the one thing she felt they might have in common was that no one would have pegged them as natural leaders…A notice had gone up asking all the students to meet in MARS for the results and a celebration. The room had snacks arranged around the outside. In the middle were currently rows of chairs, though these would largely vanish to be replaced by more informal seating arrangements once the announcements had been read out. There would be beanbags and some arm chairs around the edge, but most of the space would be open for mingling, or even dancing if the teams wanted to. A large banner hung across the back of the room reading ’Congratulations All Teams’ and below it were a gold, a silver and a bronze flag with the words ‘First place’ ‘Second place’ and ‘Third place’ The spaces under those numbers were currently blank, but would be filled in soon enough.
“Hello, and welcome,” Selina smiled, once all the students were assembled. “I’m happy to see you all here, and I want to congratulate each and every one of you. Regardless of where your team finished, you all showed a huge range of skills—magical, musical, creative, as well as things like leadership, co-operation and kindness, which are no less important than fancy spells in making something like this work.
“After the results, you will have time to mingle and celebrate. You don’t have to stick with your own team. The party will go on until six. You’re not required to stay for the full time, but I’m glad everyone is here to show a sporting attitude by celebrating our winners, and to take pride in your own achievements during this challenge.
“First, we will begin with the results of the last challenge. Once again, I was impressed by the range of skills on display, and this was a very close run thing.” She waved her wand, and a glittering list appeared in the air beside her, filling in from the last placed team to the first.
=8. Team 2 - 13 points
=8. Team 3 - 13 points
=6. Team 7 - 14 points
=6. Team 1 - 14 points
=4. Team 5. - 15 points
=4. Team 4 - 15 points
3. Team 9 - 18 points
2. Team 8 - 21 points
1. Team 6 - 24 points
She allowed some applause, and a tiny bit of quiet murmuring, but she didn’t want to allow too much time for mental maths, and the spoiling of the final reveal.
“We will now announce the overall winner. As we announce the top three, I would like all members of the team to come up and receive your awards. You will be able to keep the large trophy for the length of the party, after which it will be returned to the school to be displayed in our awards cabinet. Each team member will receive one these miniature replicas to take home.
“When the results of the final challenge are added to your existing scores, this is how our table looks…” she said, waving her wand, to bring up the leaderboard. Again, each team appeared one by one in glittering green writing in the air beside her, filling in a little more slowly than the challenge three results had, and stopping before the crucial top three, which would fill in as she announced them, in bronze, silver, and gold glitter respectively.
9. Team 1 - 35 points
8. Team 7 - 41 points
=6. Team 2 - 42 points
=6. Team 3 - 42 points
5. Team 5 - 43 points
4. Team 4 - 46 points
“In third place, with a total of forty-eight points is…. Team nine, led by Theo Spurn.” She beckoned them onto stage, announcing the rest of the team members as they made their way up, and offering Theo a handshake as she presented him with the bronze trophy.
“In second place, with sixty points is… Team eight, led by Mab Pierce-Beales.
“And finally, last but very much not least, and probably not coming as much of a surprise given how they have dominated in every single challenge, our first place winners are TEAM SIX lead by Sadie Chalmers!” Although she had remained unbiased throughout, Selina couldn’t help but be a little pleased that it was one of her own house who had captained the first place team. She gave Sadie a warm smile as she shook her hand and presented her with both the large gold trophy and her own miniature copy.
“Congratulations to our winners, and to all of you regardless of where you placed. Please enjoy the celebration.”
Subthreads: It's over and that's the real reason to celebrate by Olaf Brockert with Nausicaa Scapetello
Good...um...thing...all (tag Jasper) by Xavier Lundstrom with Jasper Brockert, Oz Spellman
Well, that's done now by Lenny Pierce with Piper Wilson
I...what? by Sadie-Lake Chalmers with Lyla Holland
Hurra! [tag: Liesl] by Hansel Hexenmeister with Liesl Brockert
I guess it's over. by Esme Brockert
13
Selina Skies
Challenge Results and Party
26
1
5
Olaf Brockert
November 14, 2022 12:43 AM
It's over and that's the real reason to celebrate by Olaf Brockert
It was finally over, thank Merlin! Olaf would now be able to leave this inane activity behind him and be able to do what he really wanted to with his free time outside of class- read . He would have all summer to just sit around doing exactly that given that his parents thought that twelve was much too young to go to balls-and he absolutely loved them for that since going to a ball was basically akin to torture for the Aladren. All those people making small talk. Yech. Olaf despised small talk with every fiber of his being.Even the Challenges were preferable to that. After all, at least some of the activities used brains and problem solving and magic and his teammates had mostly been bearable. At least as much as other human beings could be.
He was still glad they were over though. However, Olaf was admittedly curious about the results. He was pretty sure Isla’s team was going to win overall since they had been in the lead all along and he was happy for her. Hopefully, Esme would move up too. At this point, the first year doubted that she would finish in the top three but you never knew. After all, stranger things had happened, like, oh people without any musical talent being third in a musical competition?
That still rather bothered him. The idea of having to perform in front of the entire school again, as well as everyone’s families, irritated Olaf to no end. He had better things to do, he’d had better things to do all year long. Although, the initial performance at the end of second Challenge had not bothered him any more than anything else he’d had to do during them. Probably because he had assumed they had no chance of being in the top three. Unfortunately, Olaf had been wrong about that.
Still, if they could be successful in that, well, maybe they had done well in the last one as well. He waited with everyone else to find out the results, rolling his eyes as Professor Skies got all sappy and mentioned things like cooperation and kindness-as if those actually figured into point totals-and celebrating the winners. Honestly, that was what was ridiculous about this party-not that parties weren’t in themselves ridiculous, not to mention boring and annoying-only some of them had any reason to celebrate. Unless they were celebrating it all being over. Olaf hated parties, but that was indeed a valid reason to be happy.
Before they could find out the overall results, the results of the last Challenge were announced. And they made him scowl. Granted, he was pretty much usually doing so, but this actually rather annoyed the first year. How on earth had they tied for last place? Their museum had been amazing.Or at least pretty good.
It had certainly been better than their playing of junk instruments. It was just Olaf’s luck that the one and only event they’d done well in was the one where doing well led to the punishment of having to perform at the stupid Concert. He would have much preferred for it to be this one or even the first one.
Then Professor Skies announced the overall scores. Olaf really wasn’t expecting much here. Not after the abysmal results of the final Challenge.
Yup, there it was. They had tied for sixth with Amethyst’s team. Oh goody. At least Esme’s team had gone up to fifth place, right in the middle of the pack. It was what he knew that she was aiming for after ending up tied for last after the first event. Olaf was honestly happy for her.
And he was extremely happy for Isla too. Well, maybe not extremely happy being so was just not something that Olaf did but he definitely was glad that she won since he hadn’t. Although he had not really cared about doing so and still wasn’t really all that unhappy about how his team had placed-although the Aladren still thought they deserved better in the last event- he was pretty sure it was just human nature to want to win when engaged in any sort of competition.
Of course, when Olaf stopped to think, instead of being caught up in the frenzy of a competition, he remembered that the two most competitive people that he knew were Topaz and Uncle Eustace who were both also the two most revolting people that he knew. And that made him absolutely willing to be a gracious loser and be happy for his sisters,as well as his cousins who had also beat him.
Olaf headed along the outskirts to the refreshments and wondered just how long he had to stay. Of course, he had a book with him for when things inevitably got boring but he did much prefer to be on his own than around a group of people and if the entire school was here, including the Pecaris, well, the first year was sure it would be noisy and chaotic which was completely not his scene at all. Olaf strongly preferred places that were quiet and full of books, such as the library or his dorm room or his bedroom at home.
He took his plate of snacks and cup of pumpkin juice and sat down in one of the armchairs. The minute the noise, which was inevitable considering how many people were there, started to get to be too much, he was out of there.
The first year was just about to take out his book when someone sat down by him…
11
Olaf Brockert
It's over and that's the real reason to celebrate
1564
0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
November 14, 2022 2:28 PM
Good...um...thing...all (tag Jasper) by Xavier Lundstrom
By the time they had finished their haunted house exhibit, Xavier had to admit that it looked pretty cool, and that he might even be having fun. Like a lot of things these days, there was the initial shock, the flight or fight response, but when nothing leapt out at him, he was able to peel back the layers, and get towards the person he had been before all this. That person had loved dressing up for Halloween, and going to funfairs, and if he tried to tap into that instead of the thought of magical jump scares it was... easier. It would have been easier if he had just been with people like Mab and Oz, who he could pretty much be that person with all the time. He still had to be careful around Jasper and Liesl, checking what he said, being on guard against things that could reflect badly on himself or his family.His contribution, besides fetching books, had been to make a group of fake spiders scuttle across their exhibit when a certain line was crossed. Charms of motion, in their most basic form, was beginner stuff. But 'motion' was a big topic, and it had never gone away. Motions could be complex, and interlinked, and they came up just as much on the intermediate curriculum. Xavier had made the spiders scuttle very realistically. In transfiguration, similarity between two things made it easier, but he was pretty sure realism was a mark of finesse when it came to charms. It was maybe the kind of transition task that a third year would be given to bridge them into intermediate charms, though they would be working on a single spider in that scenario. Xavier had had a bunch of them. Once the finesse of the spell, and the number of spiders was taken into account, it was a task appropriate to a fourth year. A typical fourth year would probably be able to wave their wand and send the group of spiders scuttling in one go. And yes, his record for getting the spell to work on multiple ones at a time was three, and yes he had had to cast the spell multiple times, looking closer and closer to swearing or blowing a gasket as he went, but he had done it. Borderline grade appropriate magic.
The trigger for the trap was an advanced spell. Jasper had volunteered to do it, and Mab had given him… Well, Mab didn’t exactly do nods of approval. More like eyebrows of ‘if you think you can do that without killing each other.’ It hadn’t really involved a lot of actual working together. Once Xavier had finished enchanting the spiders, Jasper had to do… whatever fancy pants things he needed to do to make the enchantment timing-specific. Xavier had quickly excused himself when his own part was done to go to the bathroom and splash some cold water on his sweating face, and to escape whatever backhanded compliment or outright judgement or comment about how it would be easier if he’d got them all in one go that Jasper might heap on him.
Now it was time for the results. Hans' team was probably unsurpassable, although if anyone had a shot at it, it was Xavier's team. But a second and fourth didn't add up to two firsts... They would have to have excelled in the final challenge (which he thought they might have) and Hans’ team would have to have bombed (unlikely given their placements so far). Still, holding their own in second place seemed plausible.
As Professor Skies got up to announce the results, he crossed his fingers, balling his fists into his lap to hide the fact. If they had slipped, would it be considered his fault? Would the team assume it was the number of tries he’d taken to do the spiders that had let them down? He was sure Liesl and Jasper would find a way to make his fault. But more than not being gossiped about by horrible magic-is-the-centre-of-the-world types, he wanted to come out on top. He knew he had contributed, and finally the idea of working hard and giving his best was actually starting to mean something in this school, versus his previous experience of pouring all his energy into a gaping void with limited to no results.
The results of challenge three went up. Unsurprisingly, Hans’ team was in first. But Xavier’s was in second. That had to mean they were keeping their position on the ultimate leader board, right? He didn’t dare to smile, waiting until Professor Skies pulled up the final results. The teams ticked in without his appearing. That meant they had placed! He was already grinning well before she called Theo Spurn’s team up. It wasn’t a surprise when his was next, rather than first, but it was enough. More than enough. He was part of the second place team in a magical challenge! He knew all the speeches about teamwork sounded kind of phoney, and most of the time it was about who could power through, but he also believed they couldn’t have achieved this if they hadn’t all put some work in. Hopefully everyone else believed that too. They would see him up here, and know that he had to have done something to pull his weight. Maybe he wouldn’t be the useless boy with stunted magic any more.
They hustled off the stage, Xavier still with a grin on his face and a spring in his step. In the course of the cluster of people trying to get themselves out of the way of each other, he found himself face to face with Jasper. Over the course of the challenges, he had got very used to steeling himself against Jasper’s presence. He knew he was going to be there, and could gradually add in his layers of armour over breakfast and the walk to the library until he could sit there, only screaming on the inside. Logically, he should have expected Jasper to be around as they went off stage. He was, in fact, hyper aware that he was there. He just hadn’t expected to come face to face with him.
He flinched.
Just a little. Just for a second, he was a rabbit in the headlights—or whatever equivalent magic people used. The easy, victorious smile faltered, but was quickly replaced by a tight edged approximation that didn’t reach to his eyes.
“Hey. Good job,” he managed, his voice not quite on an even keel yet. Oh gosh, why had he tried to open his mouth without being ready? “I mean, us—all, we all did—” He gestured vaguely at their trophies, wishing he could just dive sideways to avoid this, but there was currently a wall of people. He considered barging straight into it to make this end, but it was probably ninety percent composed of Brockert relatives who hated or pitied him as much as Jasper and then would add shoving to his list of faults.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
Good...um...thing...all (tag Jasper)
1529
0
5
Lenny Pierce
November 14, 2022 5:56 PM
Well, that's done now by Lenny Pierce
Dressed in a pink skirt and his favorite glittery unicorn shirt, Lenny gathered with the rest of the school, and mostly around his own team to hear the results of the three part challenges that had dominated the talk of the year. Coming out of challenge two, they'd been tied for fifth, and he thought their arcade had been pretty awesome, though from what he'd seen of the other groups, the other attractions being created were also pretty awesome. The Haunted House had been terrifyingly creepy and tea room had been sophisticated looking and the water park just looked so amazing he kind of wished it was a real place, and Lenny really didn't know how the teachers were going to grade this.As it turned out, it was by putting the arcade tied for last. For just one second, he thought they'd come in first, with their team listed at the very top, and he'd drawn in breath to cheer, but no, it was in descending order, and he let the breath out in a huff of disappointment. As he looked over the range of scores he saw it was another close call for everyone but the top three. He hoped that meant they wouldn't fall too far from fifth, though they would probably fall a few places after coming in last. He held his breath as the overall results went up from ninth place to fourth, and yup, there they were Team 2, tied for sixth, so they'd only dropped one place after their worst performance, which was good.
It was a poor note to end on, though, with each challenge getting worse and worse for them. He checked the line up again, looking for Cole's team, and there he was in fourth, so go him. Lenny made a note to offer congratulations later to his twin and roommate. He'd done the best of the four Teppenpaws in their year, with Levi and Piper both behind even Lenny. (Leviosa's team seven only being one point behind, and Piper's team had been cursed from the start.)
The top three teams were called up. He didn't know anyone on team nine very well. Lazarus and Samara were both in beginners with him this year, but he wasn't close to either. "GO LAZARUS!" he shouted and cheered anyway, figuring the other second year deserved some kind of acknowledgement from him just for being in the same year group as Lenny.
In second place was team eight, and for that one, Fortune and Alexander had the same distinction as Lazerus for being second years, and Liesl was in his house and only one year up, so Lenny cheered loudly again, and yelled, "GO LIESL, FORTUNE, and ALEXANDER!" with a pumping arm gesture. "WHOO!"
In first place was, of course, team six, because obviously it was team six after they placed first in every single challenge. "ALL RIGHT, GWENDOLYN!" Lenny shouted to the second year in that group. "YOU ROCK!" She was a pureblood, so he had no idea if she even knew what 'you rock' means, but he felt it was pretty obviously a compliment given the "WHOOO!" he added after it.
Satisfied that he had cheered the winners sufficiently that he could not possibly be mistaken for a sore loser, he shrugged at his teammates, and offered, "Well, good working with you folks. We did all right, I think." Not fantastic. They would have gotten trophies if they'd been fantastic, but he felt all right was a safe claim to make. "I'm hungry!" he announced suddenly, and darted away to get some food. Hopefully there was something vegan up there.
Apparently other people had the same idea, and he had to wait in a line to get to the table of snacks. "Hi," he said cheerfully to the person who lined up behind him, figuring he may as well chat with someone while they waited. "The challenges were pretty cool, right?"
1
Lenny Pierce
Well, that's done now
1547
0
5
Jasper Brockert
November 14, 2022 8:36 PM
We were amazing. by Jasper Brockert
OOC: CW-Typical Eustace related warnings. BIC:
It had been a long year and the Challenges were finally over. Part of Jasper was actually a little relieved. He no longer would have to spend so much time in the company of someone who disliked him for his lack of athletic abilities. Well, okay, he was about to leave school for the summer and Uncle Eustace would probably be around somewhat and his uncle was far more obnoxious than Xavier had ever been. After all, at least the fourth year didn’t say anything nasty out loud. He was far more polite than Jasper’s uncle, the Teppenpaw would give him that.
And he was not without sympathy for the fact that Xavier was not all that great at magic. After all, at the beginning of the Challenges-and really right before each event, at least the first two-the sixth year had been utterly terrified that he was going to have to do something using athletic ability, of which he had none. In particular, that he would have to fly which was something that tended to make Jasper freeze up. When faced with doing so, he felt exceedingly anxious, hearing his uncle’s nasty voice, mocking, bullying him, calling him cruel names, insulting his masculinity and what not.
He had been terrified that Xavier-and possibly the others too aside from Liesl, after all Mab and Fortune were also Pecaris-would do the same. Of course, in Mab’s case, she had made it very clear that she would make sure that they didn’t have to do something that they had a hard no, and Jasper absolutely appreciated that about the seventh year.
Not that it meant that she wouldn’t have been judging him for being so anxious about flying had it come up. He wasn’t even sure what he would have been criticized for more harshly, the lack of ability in athletic skills or the anxiety he had around them. Uncle Eustace was hard on him for both, never mind that he was what had caused Jasper-and Christopher too-to become anxious around Quidditch and flying to begin with. However, according to his uncle, boys should both be naturally gifted at and naturally enjoy anything physical. And they weren’t even supposed to experience anxiety, let alone display it at any moment.
The Teppenpaw knew, intellectually, that his uncle was absolutely full of crap. However, Jasper did tend to be involuntarily triggered around certain things, primarily when faced with having to fly. He might very well have been the worst flier in his year, since Flying Lessons had obviously caused him great difficulty. Jasper had gotten his broom up and managed to fly just enough to barely pass. Afterwards, he had vowed never to so much as look upon one ever again.
Fortunately, the sixth year had not been faced with having to fly during the Challenges. Even though Mab would have made sure he didn’t have to, he was still glad not to have to deal with the potential judgment. However, Jasper knew how hard it would have been for him to do something or be faced with doing something that he wasn’t good at or comfortable with. So, even though he had felt nothing but disdain from Xavier, he still managed to empathize with how overall difficult a set of magical Challenges had been for the younger boy.
However, despite the tension with the fourth year, Jasper had, in the end, grown to like the rest of his teammates. Fortune seemed like a very nice kid and the Teppenpaw had really grown to respect Mab. And of course, he had gotten to bond with Liesl. Also, since no flying or sports had been involved, he had even found the activities they’d done interesting.
Today they would find out the results. Jasper was feeling pretty optimistic about the whole thing. He didn’t think they would win first place since Isla’s team was absolutely dominating but they stood a good chance of second, which was where they had been all along.
Although, in all honesty, Jasper hoped that, even if they got second place overall, that they got first place in Challenge Three, for Liesl’s sake. She had put so much into the haunted house. They all had but this had been her special thing, her chance to shine and she deserved to have it. To feel good about herself.Jasper did not know if she would get another chance for her talent for spookiness to be rewarded. It was not a skill that usually got much glory and he wanted her to have a chance to feel good about herself.
Professor Skies began to speak and the results of the final Challenge went up first. When the sixth year saw them, he frowned. No disrespect to Isla and her teammates but really, his team should have won that. After all, it was the creepiest spookiest house and Liesl really deserved to win. He knew she needed that.
He did not have much time to dwell on it though, because the overall rankings were being announced. As he didn’t see his own team among the bottom six, he figured that meant…top three.
The third place team was announced, and Jasper applauded, happy for his roommate, and for Theo too. The seventh year was…well, he seemed to be the sort of person that the Teppenpaw hoped to work with in his future career, although Theo was obviously more functional than the people Jasper was planning on teaching or taking care of in the future since he was in a regular school. Still, it was nice to see someone with Theo’s…limitations be successful.
Then Professor Skies announced second place which was them , and he joined the rest of his team on stage, finding himself between Mab and the crowd. Jasper had learned enough about the older student to know that she was likely not terribly comfortable right now, so he was happy to oblige.
As they hustled off stage to make room for Isla and her team, he found himself face to face with Xavier. Jasper felt his stomach clench. He didn’t hate the fourth year, he realized this because he could feel empathy for him and he never could for Uncle Eustace or Topaz, who he knew he hated, but he felt like the Pecari hated him . (And Liesl).
However, Xavier looked just as uncomfortable as Jasper felt. Arguably, not the behavior of someone who looked down on him, Uncle Eustace never looked uncomfortable around him. So, the fact that the younger boy did was mildly confusing.
And then, the Pecari spoke. Stammering out a compliment. Which actually made Jasper feel slightly more at ease. He replied, sincerity evident in his voice. “You too. Your spider idea was great and your idea for the charm we used was excellent. My cousin even gave it her stamp of approval.” When Liesl liked it, you knew it was appropriately creepy. “We really should have won the last one even if we didn’t get first overall. Our haunted house was amazing . I know that a lot of the ideas were Liesl’s but we couldn’t have done it without all of us, you included.” There was no doubt in Jasper’s voice that he meant everything he said.
11
Jasper Brockert
We were amazing.
1496
0
5
Piper Wilson
November 15, 2022 12:01 AM
Yup. On to the next thing? by Piper Wilson
The Challenges had now come to an end and Piper, who was usually a person who was brimming with optimism, was not even remotely optimistic about their chances of even getting second to last place. They had been at the bottom throughout and she just did not think, short of some miracle, that things would improve. Regardless of how cool their waterpark had been, all of the other attractions were amazing too.She knew that someone had to be last. That was the way competitions worked. Piper wished that it hadn’t been them, but she had to accept that it likely would be.
Honestly, it bothered her more that she hadn’t gotten as close to her teammates as she liked. She had honestly really hoped that she would make new friends. And while she had liked her teammates, the Teppenpaw didn’t really think they would be interested in hanging out with her much, aside from hopefully Wally since he was her cousin.
Still, she had her friends, the other Teppenpaws in her year, and now that the Challenges were over, Piper could get back to spending time with them more often. She hadn’t gotten to do so nearly enough this year. The Challenges had taken up a fair amount of time, and obviously since she had to study and go to classes and stuff, they had affected the amount of time that Piper would have spent with them.
And maybe they would hang out together at the party for the Challenge results. That would be fun. She was glad they were Teppenpaws too, so they wouldn’t give her a hard time about being in last place. It was one thing to lose, it was quite another to be mocked for it. Good friends, real friends did not do that. And Piper was pretty sure that Levi, Lenny and Cole were real friends. That was what mattered most of all. That was far more important than winning any competition.
Which was good since she and her teammates so obviously had not done so. The second year did hope that she had done her best to use the skills that Professor Skies had mentioned. She didn’t have much for musical skills and leadership was meant for their Team Leader to display, but Piper had tried her best magically-she was good at magic, but she was still just a second year, so there wasn’t much that she had learned yet-and creatively and she was sure she’d been cooperative and kind. Professor Skies had just said those were important things, so she could at least feel good about that, and about trying. More importantly, she had really had a good time regardless of how they had done in terms of scores.
That was what mattered most of all, having fun, doing her best and having good friends even though that last one had nothing to do with the Challenges. It was still nice to have them though.
And someone had to lose, that was just how it worked. She accepted that it was going to be her and her team. She did worry about Wally though and how he would feel about losing to his brother, even though she didn’t expect Stanley's team to rank all that highly either.
However, when the results of Challenge Three appeared, Piper’s face lit up. They had not gotten last place in it! Their waterpark was tied for sixth with Levi’s team. They had done it! They had actually beaten someone! Unfortunately the two teams that had done worse were her brother’s and Lavender, Stanley, and Lenny’s but still. This was the only time they hadn’t flat out been last. Piper would take it.
Then it was time for the overall rankings-and yup, her team was last. But that was what she had expected after all. Then Levi and her team got second to last and Lenny and her cousins’ and their team tied for sixth. Cole had done the best out of all her friends and close relatives taking fourth. Piper applauded for them all, as well as Gwendolyn, Liesl and Samara who had finished in the top three.
She looked around for one of her friends, spotting Lenny first and joining him in the food line, she was hungry anyway. “Yes, they were!” Piper agreed. “Did you see that my team’s waterpark didn’t get last place? I mean, I’m sorry you did, I’m not trying to make you feel bad about it, it was just that, we finally didn’t get last in something” She honestly did not know what the strategy was to a successful Challenges. Even Ryan, who had led his team to second place, had felt like he blundered into it.
Nor did Piper know what they could have done differently. She thought they had worked all right together although there was a bit of tension with Oz and Iris, with the latter seeming…unimpressed with the former.
“Your arcade was really cool though.” She added. It was, all the projects had really been pretty amazing. “It was too bad that everyone couldn’t win, but I guess that wouldn’t be much of a competition then.” Piper looked at the other Teppenpaw. “Still, even though we didn’t do well, I mean, it was really fun and I’m a little sorry to see it end. At least we’ll get to spend more time together now though, you, me, Levi and Cole. With the Challenges we didn’t get to do that as much.”
11
Piper Wilson
Yup. On to the next thing?
1556
0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
November 15, 2022 5:59 PM
All of 'we'? by Xavier Lundstrom
Jasper was saying nice things, and sounding like he meant them. What was going on? Where was the catch? Perhaps he was just swept up on the excitement of winning. That could make people feel more generous of spirit. Now that Xavier's presence demostrably hadn't ruined things, maybe Jasper was fine with him.Jasper was complimenting his ideas, he noticed, not his execution. And felt they should have come in first in the last challenge. Were either of those subtle digs at Xavier? A week ago, he wouldn't have doubted it for a second, but now bundled in with all the 'we' and the obvious compliments... It was harder for his brain to make those kinds of arguments.
"I did my best," he said, half a modest shrug off of the praise and half a line of defence, though his tone leant mostly towards the first. "And...thanks?" In spite of his best efforts, it came out like a question. When he had time to prepare, he could perfect the slightly shut down state that let him keep people like Jasper at a distance. But when he was here, apaprently complimenting Xavier... It was a lot harder to erect those defences mid-conversation. He wanted to be calm, and detached, like he didn't care what someone like Jasper thought of him, because it was bound to be nothing good. His tone reached for the compliment like it was a handshake that might be snatched away as a joke, or a cupcake that might be poisoned. He wanted to take it but there was a risk in doing so. "Um. You too," he added, hoping that throwing words into the void would give Jasper fewer opportunities to laugh in his face, and because it was just what you said. And then he immediately regretted it. "Not that you need someone like..." he muttered, his voice trailing into the inaudible before his sentence was finished.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
All of 'we'?
1529
0
5
Nausicaa Scapetello
November 15, 2022 6:14 PM
I concur. by Nausicaa Scapetello
Nausicaa did not enter the MARS room with high hopes of sweeping the competition and coming out on top where she belonged. The last challenge had gone fine, but despite her best efforts, she didn't think she had been able to pull her team far enough out of the hole they had dug themselves. She had no intention of associating with her teammates any more than was necessary, so she found a seat away from them.The room was decked out in what somebody must only imagine parties were supposed to look like, downright garish. Nausicaa guessed that Ms. Tellerman would most likely approve. Her seat happened to be next to Olaf Brockert. That was at least one small bit of fortune. He was a house and classmate, he was as close to 'proper lineage' as America came, and he seemed to be one of the few sensible people in the school. He might even make a decent associate.
Her estimation of him went up a slight notch when in the process of rolling her eyes at the Deputy-Headmistress' mention of 'kindness' and 'cooperation', she caught him rolling his eyes as well. Sensible. From that point onward she kept a discrete eye on the boy, his scowl was just perfect as well. The results did not surprise Nausicaa in the least, her team had tied for fourth place in the last round. She blamed those unicorns. And they had gotten fifth place overall. This is why 'teamwork' and 'kindness' were ridiculous. If they had been allowed to trim out the members of the group that had dragged them down, her group would have easily placed first. She allowed her expression to muted displeasure, nothing so dramatic as Olaf's scowl, but it matched it well.
Finally the announcements were over and they were allowed to disperse a bit. Now it was apparently time to 'party'. Whatever that meant. How long was she required to stay? While it might be a good opportunity to socialize and continue her campaign of slow domination, nothing would be talked about except the challenges. Any other topic would be pointless. There would be better opportunities later, except... a thought crossed her mind and her head turned to look for her target.
Olaf was indeed an interesting person here. It seemed as though he might share some of the same thoughts on this farce of a party and the challenges in general. He'd just finished the food table and was wandering towards the seats on the outskirts of the room. Nausicaa smiled a small almost predatory smile. She whisked a cup of something from the refreshment table and strolled casually over to him and gracefully took the seat next to him. "What a lovely party," she stated, her voice dripping with soft sarcasm. For the first time she looked at the drink she had picked up, thankfully it was pumpkin juice. Not the most elegant or refined of things, but it wasn't some ridiculous fruit 'punch' concoction. She took a sip. "How long do you think we need to stay?" She then noticed the book that he was beginning to produce. "I see you came sensibly prepared, which one is that?"
2
Nausicaa Scapetello
I concur.
1561
0
5
Jasper Brockert
November 16, 2022 1:46 AM
Yes. All of "we" by Jasper Brockert
Xavier seemed to shrug off Jasper’s praise. Maybe coming from someone like the sixth year it didn’t mean that much to him but it came across as him…actually being modest. Which wasn’t at all what Jasper would have expected from him. Perhaps he’d actually been wrong about the Pecari this entire time.Although he still did not understand why there had been the tension there was if Xavier really didn’t look down on him. He supposed that acting modest-which was, of course, something that neither Uncle Eustace nor Topaz would even pretend to be, not that he’d ever really thought Xavier was half as bad as either, but he had sort of thought the Pecari was more similar to his uncle than, say, Mab or Fortune was-and thinking he was better than Jasper were not mutually exclusive but in the Teppenpaw’s mind, they were fused.
So it was kind of confusing. Maybe Jasper had proven himself somehow. Even though there weren’t athletic challenges and had there been any, he would have been more likely to humiliate himself than anything else. So maybe Xavier had decided there were other ways of being valuable after they had done so well. Which absolutely was not like Uncle Eustace at all. Amazing how Xavier could learn something at age fourteen or fifteen that Jasper’s uncle still hadn’t learned in his fifties.
Of course, the sixth year also felt sort of guilty for comparing the Pecari to his uncle at all. Obviously, Xavier had compared favorably but just the fact he’d placed them in the same category-which wasn’t just because of his house, although Jasper had initially done so with Fortune too, but he had proven that he wasn’t like Uncle Eustace pretty quickly and Jasper had known Mab wasn’t because Esme didn’t hate her-had most likely been extremely unfair.
Maybe Xavier was feeling guilty too about acting like he was better than Jasper. Maybe they’d both been wrong about each other and felt bad about it-the Teppenpaw absolutely did-and that was why this was so awkward right now. Had it been one of his other teammates, they’d probably be celebrating.
“You’re welcome.” Jasper replied automatically to Xavier thanking him. “And you really did do very well.” Part of him really did want to apologize, but since what he felt bad about was a weird internal trauma programming that the Pecari most likely wouldn’t understand, he wasn’t exactly sure how to say that he was sorry for comparing the younger boy to his monstrous uncle. If he apologized, Xavier most likely wouldn’t understand why he was doing so since he was pretty sure the Pecari wasn’t a Legilimens.
Something else occurred to Jasper that he probably should specifically mention “And you did good on the motion charm for the spiders too.” He added. This was more likely something that Xavier needed encouragement on than his ideas. There was absolutely no hint whatsoever of condescension in his voice. Being condescending was not really something the Teppenpaw generally was anyway. Even with Topaz and Uncle Eustace, he wasn’t, and they genuinely were people he thought he was better than. However, he didn’t dare be that way to them. That would be an utter disaster. With his uncle, it would lead to horrendous verbal abuse and anger and with Topaz….well, he liked being alive and would prefer to stay that way.
“And thanks.” Jasper assumed Xavier meant that they couldn’t have done the haunted house without him too. He supposed that was true since he and Mab had to do most of the advanced level magic. Which the fourth year would not have been able to do even if he was better at magic overall. “Like I said, we should have won that last Challenge. We were absolutely spectacular and the judges should have seen it.”
Then Xavier said something that Jasper didn’t quite catch. Something about not needing something? “I’m sorry.”The Teppenpaw said. “I didn’t quite understand what you said.” He did not think it was an insult to him, since they were sort of making progress here.
11
Jasper Brockert
Yes. All of "we"
1496
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
November 16, 2022 3:18 PM
I...what? by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Sadie had dressed nicely for the party. She was trying to tell herself it was just because that was a thing one should do, and not because she expected to be called on stage. That seemed presumptuos. She was wearing a white and pink floral tea dress, and glittery pink pumps, her make up mostly subtle neutrals, and one of the tinted lipbalms from Arvale that Jessica kept her in a constant supply of. The little sunshine necklace from Dathan was rarely absent, but it sat clearly framed by the neckline of her dress. Thus, with her closest people with her in spirit, she went to find out the results.Her stomach was doing backflips. Her team had led throughout. They were almost certain to place, right? But what if they had slid down to second or third? Both of those were great achievements, but if they had slid from their prime spot, people wouldn't see it that way. What if they had slid so far they hadn't placed at all? She didn't think many people had gone into this with high expectations of her. She had pulled herself up past that. What if they were now confirmed to be right?
She thought their park had been great. It had combined so many elements, but without seeming like they'd just thrown everything at it. Lyla's excellent idea had allowed them to tie disparate elements together, whilst pruning down their original list in a way that wasn't one person's opinion against another. They had done what they did best - been themselves and put together an impressive display, all without anyone's feelings getting hurt (she hoped).
Professor Skies took forever announcing the results, drawing it out on purpose like they weren't all already super tense. They started with challenge three. Her team had come first again. That had to mean they were untouchable, didn't it? But what if there were secret twists or bonus points? She wasn't going to assume until she heard their team name called.
Or, she supposed, until they ran out of other team names to mention. Because hers wasn't on the main list. And then Theo's was called (which was a surprise) followed by Mab's (which was less of one, and good for her) and yet she still held her breath until Professor Skies made it official.
She walked up, glad her team was around her to share the attention, feeling like she wasn't quite inside her own body. It was all tingly and her mind was blanking on things like how normal people walked and what they did with their faces. Her own face was definitely misbehaving. There were tears in her eyes which she blinked back. Professor Skies handed her a huge gold trophy, and her own little replica, and she managed to not drop either of them.
As she started making her way down, the spell of the stage began to wear off. There had been the performance and the surrealness of standing there to push her tears back in. Now those were gone, and she was back in a room of her peers but holding a giant gold trophy because her team had won. Not just one challenge, not just two challenges but the whole entire thing. Someone said something nice, and that was it. She burst into tears. She was grinning through them enough to make it clear they were happy tears, but they were more than just a few sparkling drops on her cheeks. They were big, ugly, red faced sobs.
"Thank you. Excuse me, I should get a tissue," she said, forgetting for a second that she could either conjure one or summon it from the snack buffet.
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
I...what?
1480
0
5
Hansel Hexenmeister
November 16, 2022 5:59 PM
Hurra! [tag: Liesl] by Hansel Hexenmeister
Hansel stood with the rest of his team, holding his breath. Professor Skies talked for a long time and he had to let it out and hold it again a few more times before she finally put up the rankings for challenge three."Whoo!" he let out the breath he'd been holding (repeatedly) in a rush as he saw they were again listed for first place of another individual challenge. He was pretty sure the clinched it. Their worst showing for the whole set of challenges was the one time they tied for first instead of solidly winning it, so surely first place overall was also theirs.
Ninth place through fourth place came up next, and sure enough Team Six was not there. Team Nine took third. Team Eight took second. And yes, there they were!
"Hurra!" Hansel cheered, still relieved to hear it called officially. He joined the rest of his victorious team up on the stage, got his own little first place trophy, which he was absolutely going to brag about to Heinrich (because Heinrich also had one) and Hilda (who had only been in second year and barely spoke English at the time so her team's midrange placement had been an achievement in its own right).
Interestingly, Heinrich had been team six, too, and he'd been exactly as old as Hansel was now.
They came down from the stage, Hansel sharing congratulations with everyone else on the team, but took the rare opportunity to seek out someone not on his team for a challenge related event. It wasn't hard to spot Liesl. She didn't exactly blend into a crowd, and that was one of the many things he liked about her. "Hey! Great job with your Haunted House! That was awesome!" he congratulated her to start with then tapped his trophy against hers, "And great job with a second place finish!"
1
Hansel Hexenmeister
Hurra! [tag: Liesl]
1524
0
5
Lenny Pierce
November 16, 2022 6:28 PM
Great, what's that? by Lenny Pierce
Lenny grinned at Piper, glad she'd at least had fun even if her team had bombed in the rankings. "I did see you did better!" he exclaimed when she brought up their water park, which she had every right to be proud of. He shrugged off her concern about his own team's low score in the last challenge. "Don't worry about it. The only thing I'm mad about is that your water park doesn't exist in the real world because I wanted to go on that slide!"He grinned again, to show he wasn't really mad about even that (though he definitely did want to go to their water park and it was a real shame that it didn't exist). "Seriously though, I'm glad you did well the last challenge, and that we all had fun even if our teams didn't do so good. And, yes! Everybody's attractions looked awesome! I don't think I could have judged that and picked just one winner. I think it must have come down to the logs and figuring out who had the most ridiculous ideas that didn't make the cut or something, because every single one was great from what I saw."
"Yeah, it'll be good to have the Tepps together again, though it was pretty cool teaming up with new people we wouldn't normally get to work with though. I got to meet Cole's friend Yarielis, so it was good to interact more with someone he talks about so much. She seems pretty shy though. She didn't say a lot. Did you make any new friends on your team?"
1
Lenny Pierce
Great, what's that?
1547
0
5
Olaf Brockert
November 17, 2022 12:11 AM
Great minds think alike by Olaf Brockert
Olaf raised his eyebrows at the sound of Nausicaa’s sarcastic tone. Apparently, someone besides him thought this whole thing was ridiculous. He smirked. “Lovely party is an oxymoron.” The Aladren boy replied. He absolutely loathed parties, in all their forms. They were so full of…people. And noise. And small talk. All such abominable things.Honestly, he had never quite understood the purpose of parties. Allegedly, they were to celebrate things, but some of the ones that the adults in his family went to seemed to have no discernable reason for their existence. Olaf had heard Grandfather complain about this on more than one occasion and had found those opinions to be very sensible ones.
And even if there was a valid reason to celebrate something, why would anyone want to do so in a crowd full of other people, some of whom you didn’t know or didn’t like? And have to make small talk with them? Which as far as he was concerned was a mind numbing waste of time, and the last thing that the first year wanted was his mind numbed. He very much valued intellectual pursuits.
Now, it seemed as if he was going to have to spend time talking with his classmate. Oh joy. It was nothing personal against Nausicaa, in fact she might be one of the more tolerable people around. After all, she was an Aladren and one that appeared to lack any of the…eccentricities that Isla or Phil or even his father possessed. And right now, she seemed to have as much enthusiasm for the current gathering as Olaf himself.
Furthermore, she had just asked an absolutely valid question. “I don’t think we actually have to stick around at all.” He replied. The first year was accustomed to, when he was at any sort of gathering, essentially being stuck there. After all, when you were a child, you really did not get to make the decisions about when to leave a place. Not that Olaf considered himself to actually be a child, especially since he was considerably more mature than most people older than him-Uncle Eustace came to mind- let alone people his own age.
The point remained though that at his chronological age, people thought of him as incapable of making the decisions or thought that they had the right to be in control of him and his time. Sometimes, it was reasonable stuff like telling him that he had to go to class and when the classes would be held. His classes were necessary to learn all that Olaf would need to learn in order to be a successful wizard, and he generally enjoyed them and wanted to be there.
On the other hand, there were all sorts of things that the Aladren was forced to do, places that he was required to be, and activities that he was given no choice about doing whether or not Olaf wanted to do them and whether or not they had any real purpose. The Challenges had been one such activity and having to play instruments transfigured from junk in the Concert was an even more bothersome one.
He still did not understand what on Earth had possessed the judges to score his team so high in that one while giving them a much lower score in the last one. Their ability to make and plan a museum had far surpassed anything they’d done in Challenge Two. As in they had some ability to do it instead of absolutely none whatsoever. Quite frankly, nobody on Team Three should be doing anything with music beyond listening to it.
Granted, Olaf was not entirely sure their entry into Challenge Three was the best of them all, which was probably Jasper and Liesl’s team, which incidentally had not gotten first either, but nor were they the worst. He wasn’t sure which was, but definitely not them.
Interestingly enough, the Challenges themselves were an area where Olaf’s opinions differed from Grandfather’s. Grandfather actually approved of the event since it-supposedly-kept the students busy and out of trouble. Never mind that the students like the Aladren actually did not make trouble in the first place and the most hardcore troublemakers would find a way to do so no matter what.
Of course, Grandfather wasn’t a student who actually had to do the stupid things and deal with people instead of reading or worse, perform in the Concert as the result of somehow placing well in one of the events. If Olaf was the school Headmaster instead of a student, he might not mind them either.
“I actually think I already saw a couple of people leave.” He told his classmate. “And yes, I bring a book everywhere I go. This one is ‘The History of Dark Wizards’” It was hardly the most creative title for a book, but it was one that was either going to get him sent to a therapist or keep people away from him if they saw it. Obviously, Olaf was hoping for the latter.
OOC: The students he saw leave are two of mine
11
Olaf Brockert
Great minds think alike
1564
0
5
Liesl Brockert
November 17, 2022 3:29 AM
Yippee! by Liesl Brockert
The Challenges had now come to an end and Liesl was curious to see how they had done. Especially in the last event. She had put so much of herself into that haunted house. It had been her chance to shine, to do the one thing that she might actually be better at than anyone else or that she could do that most people couldn’t. Liesl might not be as academically brilliant as her little brother and she couldn’t talk to snakes like her best friend but she was better at being spooky and creepy than anyone else. It was something she’d always thought of as more of a personality trait or an interest than a talent but in this case, it was definitely something that had come in handy.And it never might again. This might honestly be Liesl’s one and only chance to ever be special in some way and show it to others. Normally, it was just who she was as a person. She was different but not special. She didn’t have something that made her someone to be…admired? Praised? Valued?
The Teppenpaw didn’t know exactly what words she was looking for, though valued might come the closest but the point was that she didn’t generally get a chance to feel good about herself. Usually, she felt the opposite. Like she was a major disappointment. Liesl was never going to be who her mother wanted her to be and she wasn’t ever going to be as smart as her brother, even if she did get good grades.
Plus, Desmond was going to get to lead a Challenge Team too, and with her luck, he’d probably lead them to victory. Not that she wished bad things for her brother, regardless of how he basically treated her like she was going to grow up to be a serial killer, instead of just someone who enjoyed reading about them. Which was completely unfair since Olaf also liked reading about such things and Desmond didn’t treat him like he was some psycho.
Anyway, even if they placed exactly the same in the Challenges-and Liesl had a feeling that they would do quite well because they had been all along and to be quite honest, she would likely be devastated if they didn’t do well now, because they had been second all along and if they faltered now, it would be because they didn’t do in the last one which would mean that their haunted house wasn’t that good and Liesl would not have her chance to feel proud of herself-her parents would think her brother’s placement would mean more because he was the Team Leader. She even wondered whether him leading a team to third would make her parents more proud than her being on a team that got second.
Still, no matter what, the Teppenpaw would not and could not change who she was. She was always going to be more of a skull girl than a unicorn girl. She would always be more into dark and spooky than pink and sparkly. Liesl was okay with being that person, she just wished that others liked and accepted her the way she was.
Well, okay, she had a few people who did. Uncle Cory and Hans both did. So did some of her cousins and even her sister and her grandparents.Mab even seemed to appreciate her talents in the last Challenge. The third year supposed that she mostly meant her parents and brother.
And she very much wanted this chance to shine, for people to applaud her creepy abilities. Winning first place overall in the Challenges did not matter that much to her but winning the final Challenge really kind of did.
Liesl found a place to sit, feeling a tiny bit nervous. What if they really had tanked the last Challenge and tumbled down the rankings? Her team had been pretty consistently second. On the other hand, this might have been their big chance to overtake Hans and Isla’s team. Would her teammates blame her if it didn’t? Or for that matter, if their team did terribly in Challenge Three and they didn’t even get second place? In the latter case, she would absolutely blame herself.
The third year didn’t have to wait long to see the results of Challenge Three. Her spirits crashed to see that they’d only come in second place. She hadn’t cared when they’d gotten second place in the first Challenge or even when they’d gotten fourth place in the second one-in fact, given how Mab felt about performing and the fact that only Henry really knew how to play an instrument, that had actually been for the best-but this? This was her one and only moment in her entire life where being spooky would be a beneficial skill! Liesl would never ever have another time when she would get to be special.
What would have put them over the top? Did they need more eyeballs? More blood? She was pretty sure there wasn’t nearly enough blood and as for the eyeballs, well Mab hadn’t wanted them in the model and Liesl had to respect that, regardless of whether or not she actually could understand such a thing.
She didn’t have much time to ponder the problem though because the overall rankings were going up. The bottom six came up and she scanned them quickly, not spotting her team among them, not that she expected to.
Third place had gone to Theo’s team. Liesl did not know most of them that well, although she’d spent a little time with Samara, who, like so many people at Sonora, was some distant cousin whose exact relation she could not remember and Claire was in her year. She applauded for them all.
Then it was second and-as she admittedly rather expected now-her team was called. And while it wasn’t all that surprising and she was disappointed that they didn’t win first place in the final Challenge, Liesl couldn’t help but grin as she went up with her teammates to get their trophies.
Besides, how upset could she really be when Hans was on the only team to beat hers? And Isla too? Their park had actually been really nice and fun and quirky. Okay, so it didn’t have headless dolls carrying axes and looking for a head or talking, singing, biting skulls or eyeballs or blood but it was still cool.
So when her friend found her, Liesl grinned. What he said about her haunted house was exactly what she most needed to hear. “Thanks! Congrats to you too. Your park was pretty neat too. And it’s awesome how you guys stayed in first place the whole time!”
11
Liesl Brockert
Yippee!
1537
0
5
Lyla Holland
November 18, 2022 1:45 AM
You won! by Lyla Holland
Lyla shifted from foot to foot, waiting for the results of the last challenge. She was surrounded by her teammates, and despite having won the past two challenges, she felt anxious. Was her idea of a four-season park enough to win? Would everyone be upset with her if they had gone with her idea, and it was a total bomb? Lyla thought it had turned out awesome, although if she was being objective, they could’ve brought more magical elements to it. The model wand trees had been her favorite part, with the leaves all different colors, but maybe they could’ve charmed up a breeze to make them rustle?She always did this, doing a decent job and then second-guessing herself afterwards. She always thought of better ideas days later, wishing she could go back in time to fix it. However, as Professor Skies announced the outcome of the last challenge, Lyla felt her chest tighten up. They’d gotten first, again.
It was unbelievable. It was preposterous. Had they even seen the haunted house? Lyla hadn’t, not past a quick glance, because creepy crawlies made her stomach churn, but it was obvious Team Eight had pulled out all the stops.
Or, Lyla mused, had their park actually been that good? The haunted house was fantastic, but Lyla’s team had incorporated a bunch of really different ideas and interests into one cohesive attraction. Everyone had a piece of themselves on the table, and it worked. Maybe that’s what the judges were looking for all along; the ability to bring everyone together. Lyla discarded the idea almost immediately, as it sounded cheesy and made her feel all mushy inside.
It didn’t occur to Lyla that they had won the whole enchilada until Professor Skies started listing off the teams at the bottom. They’d gotten first every round, and barring some sort of twist, it made sense that they’d win overall. Despite the accomplishment, Lyla found herself…not caring much. Even if they had come in last place, she still would have had a marvelous time. She knew that it was important to the other students, and maybe when she was older, she would appreciate it more, but for her, at least, the trophy just didn’t seem as important as the fun she’d had.
That also felt mushy, but Lyla remembered sitting on the covered wagon for the first time, full of anxiety about fitting in. As it turned out, while Lyla had friends that weren’t on her team, like Robyn and Samara, having a built-in support system comprised of six older students that probably didn’t hang out with each other normally, let alone with a little first year, had been fantastic. It had showed her that she didn’t need to fit in, that she could be herself and still have meaningful friendships with people who were wildly different from herself.
Lyla heard the expected announcement of their victory, and as she went up front with her team, she felt a sudden rush of melancholy. It was over. The awarding of the trophy seemed to go in slow motion, and as Sadie accepted the prize, Lyla realized that while she could still spend time with the rest of Team Six, Sadie would be gone at the end of the year. The only other Crotalus on her team and one of her House Prefects, Lyla had seen the older girl more often than most of her other teammates, and Sadie had always made certain that Lyla’s quiet voice was heard.
Lyla’s lip trembled as she sucked in a long, slow, breath, although whether it was from preemptively missing Sadie or just the sheer overwhelming feeling of being in front of everybody because of their accomplishments, she didn’t know. Probably both. She hid behind Hans as they made their way back into the other students, hoping nobody would notice that her nose was just a little bit pinker and sniffly-er than before. Her teammates spread out, presumably looking for their regular friends, and Lyla approached her team captain.
“Sadie?” she said, catching the older girl’s attention, surprised to see that Sadie’s nose was looking a little pink, too. She cleared her throat quickly, wanting to say what she had piped up to say before her eyes started leaking like they were threatening to do.
“I’m really glad you were our captain. You are a really nice person, and a good listener, and I want to be like you when I’m older.”
Sadie burst into tears, and for a brief moment, Lyla thought something was wrong. However, once the older girl started smiling, she knew it was alright. Lyla wiped at her own cheeks.
“Uh…yeah, me too,” she said, realizing too late that her sleeve was not an appropriate tissue. Luckily she hadn’t wiped her nose with it.
64
Lyla Holland
You won!
1559
0
5
Piper Wilson
November 18, 2022 6:30 AM
Uh, the Concert? by Piper Wilson
Piper laughed. “I know. Pretty much all of them would have been fun. It’s too bad it’s not the Fair this year instead of the concert. Maybe we’d be making them as exhibits. And I’m glad you liked the slide. I, um, I came up with it.” She said shyly, blushing and looking down at the ground. The second year did not want to come across as the least bit full of herself, but the compliment made her feel good. Not that Lenny had known that it was her idea.Still, Piper worried that her saying that she’d come up with the idea that her friend liked and wanted to ride would come across as bragging. Even though, to be honest, she really had come up with a lot of the ideas for the waterpark. Oz and Iris had seemed sort of over it all. Not that the Teppenpaw had really blamed them for feeling that way. Being last the entire time was probably fairly discouraging.
She nodded. “Yeah, I agree. I have no idea what I would have picked either. If you put all the ideas together, it would have made a really fun amusement park.” Honestly, Piper had no idea how things were really judged. “It’s possible that some of the winners used more complex charms and advanced spell work.
The second year actually did have another theory about why they had finished so poorly overall, but she didn’t really like to think about it because it was not very nice. The thing was, two of her teammates, Oz and Iris, were not only so over the whole thing by the time they reached the final Challenge, but did not seem to like each other or work well together. And that…might honestly have been why they had not done very well. Piper hated to blame them, and really, she wasn’t mad or anything and she actually did like them both-she did like most people, unless they were really horrible like Aunt Jillian or Aunt Pearl or Piper’s cousin, Aunt Pearl’s daughter Carrie, the latter two being people that Piper did not recall ever meeting-but the Challenges were supposed to be a thing that was at least partially about teamwork and if people could not work well together, how could they succeed?
It wasn’t as if they were bad people or either was the one that was particularly at fault. Some people just weren’t meant to be friends. They just didn’t mix well or have any common ground. Piper was glad that she had not really met anyone that she felt that way about. She was glad to have her Teppenpaw friends.
The second year shrugged. “Probably not. I mean, Wally is my cousin, like, my first cousin once removed” Brockert relations needed to be specified as such. Gwendolyn was her cousin too, but they had only recently met and spent time together during the last few years whereas Wally was someone who Piper had known while she was growing up.“ So hopefully we’ll spend more time but like, mostly they’re older than me. It’s not as if I would mind spending time with them, but like Morgan is going to graduate,though she’s friends with my brother, so maybe I’ll see her again if they stay in touch, but Oz is going to be a sixth year and Iris will be a fifth year, so they probably won’t want to hang out with me.”
She looked at Lenny. “But that’s cool about Yarielis. She seems really nice. Just because she’s shy doesn’t mean she’s not a person that would be pleasant and fun to spend time with.” Piper didn’t really know how much she would have in common with the other second year, who seemed fairly sporty and tomboyish. So it was interesting that Yarielis was described as shy and was pretty quiet since Piper sort of thought of those types as being loud and boisterous. She guessed she had learned a valuable lesson about stereotyping people but those traits were just fused together in her brain, and while she could remind herself that she shouldn’t do that, it would take time to unfuse them in her head.
Piper grinned. “But it will definitely be cool hanging out with the four of us again, even though it was pretty cool meeting other people. Honestly, I wish I had gotten closer to my teammates.” Even the ones closer to her age, she just hadn’t bonded with like she wanted. But at least they hadn’t…not gotten along like Oz and Iris. “But at least I have the three of you.”
“So, “ The Teppenpaw girl asked. “Are you looking forward to our Performing Arts act at the concert? I have to admit, I’m sort of glad I don’t have to play a junk instrument, I’d much rather do the act with puppets.” While Piper and Levi had the roommate thing, she and Lenny had the Performing Arts club that was theirs.
She really needed to find a thing that was her and Cole’s.
11
Piper Wilson
Uh, the Concert?
1556
0
5
Esme Brockert
November 19, 2022 6:53 AM
I guess it's over. by Esme Brockert
OOC: CW-Toxic masculinity, misogyny, bullying, emotional abuse. Yup, that's right, Eustace rears his ugly head once more. BIC:
Today they would be finding out the results of the Challenges and Esme was feeling..well, she
didn’t know how to feel. She knew that, because of what had happened in the first Challenge, when they had tied for last,they were unlikely to place in the top three, which was what she had wanted at the beginning of the year. In fact, it was what Esme had wanted since she was ten years old. Okay, what she had actually wanted was to win but since she didn’t want to be like Topaz and be all about planning world domination and what not.
So, yes, she was disappointed. She hated to admit to being so because she was worried it would seem like she was blaming her teammates and she wasn’t at all. They had all done their best, and clearly they could work well together since they had taken first-well, tied for it anyway, but still-in the second Challenge. The one, incidentally, where they were actually all together as opposed to the first one where they were all separated and had to find each other.
Therefore, it absolutely was not because of Esme’s leadership that they’d placed at the bottom in that one because she had not been there. She did not know why they had done poorly in the first Challenge but it was absolutely not her fault. The seventh year honestly wished she could blame the format of it. Not the fact that they had apparently not as much luck finding each other, because that sounded like Esme thought they needed her to lead them which was not really true but more, because she wanted to blame the obstacle course as being something physical, but all the obstacles could be solved with magic, so she didn’t know what the issue had been.
Still, the seventh year had to at least be able to feel good about how they’d gone from getting last in the first event to tying for first in the second one. She did think that spoke to her leadership abilities and their skill and cohesiveness as a team.
Although, it was kind of weird that a team far less cohesive than Esme’s had been doing so much better than hers. After all, Jasper had mentioned to her how Xavier seemed to have nothing but disdain for him and Liesl both, presumably due to their lack of athletic abilities. Never mind how most of the Challenges focused on other skills that both of her cousins were better at and that they were surely an asset to their team. More so, from what she understood about Xavier’s own magical skills-or lack thereof-than the Pecari was.
But then, some people only valued athletic ability, such as Uncle Eustace. To him, anything else, except presumably magical skill to a certain degree, had no value at all. He firmly believed that a person’s worth was based on their athletic talent and actually belittled boys who were creative or intelligent such as Esme’s brothers and cousins. And woe be to the boys who were caring, nurturing types! That was decidedly unmasculine in Uncle Eustace’s exceedingly messed up world view. Her cousin Miles, had always been extremely sweet and caring with Honora, and Uncle Eustace had belittled him for being so gentle towards her, Now the young boy was terrified of caring for his little cousin because of how her father reacted.
And never mind that as far as the Crotalus could tell his views on women were strictly utilitarian, arguably similar to those he might have held about house-elves.
Esme had no time whatsoever for that sort of person, and presumably Jasper didn’t either. Honestly, who wanted the approval of the sort of person that Olaf referred to as a Neanderthal. Maybe the fourth year wasn’t quite as toxic as Uncle Eustace, after all, her cousin had said he didn’t seem to have a problem with women and was much more polite.
Arguably, that meant the contempt that Jasper was worried about was all in his head, the vestiges of trauma from years of exposure to their uncle and his venom. That the Teppenpaw was-understandably-paranoid about sporty Pecari types even though he did not seem to feel that way about Fortune Ardovini, but then there was a considerable age difference there. However, Esme was inclined to give her cousin the benefit of the doubt. Even though, considering how well they had been doing overall, lent more credibility to the idea that Jasper was imagining things, because obviously if they were issues, they couldn’t be working together well enough to be in second place.
The results of the final Challenge went up first. Quickly, she scanned it, finding that they had tied for fourth place with Christopher’s team. It was a perfectly respectable and decent place to end up, given that there had been a few teams that seemed to really know their stuff. According to Chris, Bertie had been really knowledgeable about codes and escape rooms and obviously Liesl was an expert about all things creepy. Really, while the latter wasn’t to her personal taste, they probably should have been the winners. After all, those were things that were Liesl’s and Bertie’s specialties .
Meanwhile, Isla and Sadie’s park, while absolutely lovely, had come across as them just throwing the things that were them into the venue that they happened to have. It was probably for the best that they’d had a park, because Esme didn’t know how they would have managed that with a tea room-presumably, the servers would have been puppets and they’d have murals of snakes rather than unicorns, although a Chinese version of a tea room would have been very nice-or a waterpark. However, Sadie would have done amazing with a petting zoo. Although, they had done amazing anyway, and the seventh year really was happy for her sister and roommate.
She just wished it was her.
Then the overall ranking went up and Esme held her breath. Fifth place. Which had honestly been the best that she could have hoped for after the disaster of the first Challenge. It was definitely a comeback and better than how the team they’d tied for last with initially had ended up doing, which was…staying in last place. Though they hadn’t gotten it in the last event, so good on them for that.
Anyway, Esme was genuinely happy for Isla, Sadie, Jasper and Liesl. Really. They all really had done quite well and deserved a win.
But she really really wished it was her.
11
Esme Brockert
I guess it's over.
1479
0
5
Oz Spellman
November 19, 2022 9:21 PM
Yeah? by Oz Spellman
Oz one hundred percent did not want to go to the party for the challenges. Even the lure of free food wasn’t a significant enough one, given how steadily Sonora fed him. He knew he had to, and in her speech Professor Skies reminded him that he was there to be pleased with his non-existent achievements and to be a good sport. He wasn’t sure how being forced to show up and applaud showed that he had good sportsmanship. He was happy for Henry and Xavier, who were inevitably going to do well, but he would have rather expressed that behind closed doors, rather than in a room of people who were now aware what a confirmed loser Oz was.He watched the results go up without much enthusiasm. There was a momentary beat of surprise when his team didn’t flicker up in last place on challenge three. The challenge that he had brought the least to… Sure, he’d done some work because it was mandatory that everyone did, but he hadn’t brought his ideas or his enthusiasm like he had done for the first two challenges. And they had finally scraped up from the bottom of the pack. What did that say?
Unsurprisingly, they were still dead last overall. He wanted to leave. He wanted to get out before his team could start blaming him, or before he had to make awkward small talk with people about how they’d placed. There were only two people he was interested in talking to, and they deserved this moment to shine, without having him drag them down. He was pretty sure Henry was going to make a beeline out of there as soon as he could. Parties weren’t really his thing. Maybe they could do something, just the three of them? He went and grabbed some cupcakes from the table, and scooped up a cup full of chips, and looked around for either his brother or Xavier.
He clocked Xavier. Talking to Jasper Brockert. And rather than looking triumphant and happy like he had done on stage, Xavier now looked stiff, awkward and fragile. The last thing Oz wanted was to be in firing range of someone like Jasper Brockert, when he had the perfect thing to take a shot at Oz with—namely that Oz had just lost catastrophically. But whilst he had a perfectly good opportunity to make Oz feel like crap, he shouldn’t have been able to do that to Xavier right now. He deserved better.
“Hey. Congrats,” he said, as he stepped into Jasper and Xavier’s conversation, directing the remark solidly at Xavier. He could just ask him to go… He had more of a claim on Xavier’s time than Jasper, and he could pull him out by suggesting they go hang with Henry. It would be like… subtle, or something. Except if Jasper thought he could push Xavier around and make him feel like dried turd when they’d just won a challenge, then he’d try again. He’d keep thinking he could do that. “Is there a problem here?” he asked, directing the remark at both of them.
13
Oz Spellman
Yeah?
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0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
November 19, 2022 11:07 PM
Yes! by Xavier Lundstrom
Jasper was… still being nice. If anything he was being nicer. Everything that the rational part of Xavier’s brain could see about the situation was telling him there was no danger here, and he could relax. Unfortunately, it had to make itself heard over the baseline static fuzz and pounding heartbeat of his anxiety, which meant screaming to make itself heard. The feeling of his own brain yelling at him to RELAX, JUST RELAX was not that conducive to actually following that instruction, which meant that it kept screaming, which kept making him feel more anxious, and then also fed in frustration with himself for not being able to stop.“Thanks?” he said again. “And, uh…” He was just wondering how to answer Jasper’s question about what he’d said, when he’d deliberately abandoned said sentence for being useless and redundant, when Oz appeared. Sounding… if not confrontational, then worried? But given that Oz didn’t really let people see his feelings, probably confrontational.
“It’s fine,” he assured him, laying a hand on his shoulder. He appreciated the attempt at heroics. He knew from how Oz talked about looking after Henry that he absolutely wouldn’t blink at stepping into the firing line for someone he cared about. Which meant he cared about Xavier. And, even though theoretically he knew that, the demonstrable proof made his heart feel warm and squishy. Except, it felt like things with Jasper were actually…. fine(?). Not great. Xavier still couldn’t work him out, and had still been planning to dive out of the conversation as quickly as possible, but they were fine. And he would like to keep it that way. Oz had not yielded at all to the hand Xavier had placed on his shoulder. “Really,” he said a little more insistently, “he’s being nice. I’m fine.”
13
Xavier Lundstrom
Yes!
1529
0
5
Jasper Brockert
November 20, 2022 8:45 AM
Yup. Everything's great. by Jasper Brockert
OOC: CW-Eustace BIC:
“You’re welcome.” The sixth year replied. Before they could continue this awkward conversation, Oz Spellman walked up and congratulated the younger Pecari-and only the younger Pecari. Which was kind of rude, honestly. Yes, obviously he was Xavier’s friend, not Jasper’s but well, like, he was right there. He had been on the team too. Like if he went to go congratulate Isla and one of her teammates was standing there with her, he would include them in it.
Still that really wasn’t a big deal. However, then Oz asked if there was a problem.Jasper felt his stomach clench. The fifth year was one of those loud sporty Pecari types, even more so than Xavier. Xavier, right now, was clearly showing some vulnerability, and Jasper even felt like they were making progress. The odds were that they probably would never be close friends because they did not have all that much in common but Jasper had realized that maybe he wasn’t any more like Uncle Eustace than Mab or Fortune was.
Oz Spellman, however, was a different story altogether. While the Teppenpaw doubted that he possessed the worst traits of Jasper’s uncle, he was still rather that type. The sporty alpha male Pecari type. And now he was in Jasper’s face, asking if there was a problem .
There hadn’t been, at all. One seemed to have been getting fixed, at least a little. Now there might be one though. Of course, Jasper did not want there to be, he had no intention of being in an actual fight or a duel or anything. He might have imagined turning Xavier into a toad if he was mean to Liesl about Headless Heather or of course, standing up to Uncle Eustace. He could never ever actually do those things. Especially not the latter.
And right now, he was honestly a little worried. It was not entirely Oz’s fault, of course. It was just the years of terrible abuse-Jasper had come to realize in the time since the charity fair that it was abuse, something that Christopher had understood all along-from Uncle Eustace. It was probably terribly unfair to assume these things about people like Oz and Xavier-and he was getting somewhere with the latter-but there was just something in Jasper that flinched , not unlike what would happen if he was faced with having to ride a broom.
The anxiety. The terror. The sound of his uncle’s voice-a sound that the sixth year had developed a strong aversion to-berating him. All the ugly, nasty, horrible things that Uncle Eustace spewed at him and his male cousins. All the things that Jasper had been worried that Xavier agreed with and was still worried that Oz did.
It all would have been bad enough under normal circumstances, but now the fifth year was there, in his face, antagonizing him like he had somehow done something wrong and was the reason why Xavier was not…overjoyed at how well they had done in the Challenges. Which Jasper honestly wasn’t sure about, but he was pretty sure it was not his fault. And he really no longer believed that the fourth year was upset that they didn’t get first place.
His mouth went dry and his heart was pounding. These were exactly the same things that happened around situations as riding a broom or being around his uncle. He was freezing up the same exact way, and was not even sure how to respond to Oz.
And Jasper needed to, he knew he needed to say something. Otherwise they might-or at least Oz might-see him in exactly the same way as Uncle Eustace did. A wimp. A weakling. Unmanly. Because he had shown weakness and anxiety in front of them. They’d probably make fun of him later. At least he hoped it would be later so he wouldn’t know for sure that it had happened. So he wouldn’t have to hear it and have Oz’s voice morph into his uncle’s.
The Teppenpaw knew he shouldn’t care what people like that thought of him, the way that Olaf didn’t care. However, the first year hadn’t been abused the same way. Uncle Ben had protected his sons in a way that apparently hadn’t occurred to Father. And Father really should have known better. He should have known what his brother was like. Uncle Gene should have too, but Jasper understood that slightly better. Uncle Gene was Uncle Eustace’s twin and their dynamic was not unlike that of Topaz and Allegra.
Not that Uncle Ben-and Uncle Elmer too-protecting their sons had stopped Uncle Eustace from picking on Olaf, Uriah, and Miles, but Olaf just seriously did not care. Jasper really shouldn’t either, but he just could not help himself.
Thankfully, before it could get too ridiculously obvious that the sixth year had frozen up, Xavier stepped in…and said Jasper was being nice . Granted, it was confusing to him that anyone would think he wouldn’t be but still, this was progress and meant a lot. He flashed the younger Pecari a grateful smile. “That’s right. I was just congratulating Xavier on some of his contributions to the final Challenge.”
11
Jasper Brockert
Yup. Everything's great.
1496
0
5
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
November 20, 2022 2:48 PM
We won by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
A mere 'Congratulations' would have been sufficient to tip Sadie over the edge, but it was so much more than that. It was about her, and he good qualities as a captain. Someone had noticed the kindness and the quietness, and found them to be good things."Thank you," she said. She wiped at her eyes a bit with her hand, her sleeves being too short to use, but there was going to be a gross snot-mergency if they weren't careful. "Let's grab some tissues," she suggested. She walked over to the buffet table, leaning in through the end of the line to grab a bunch, and passed some to Lyla.
"I wish I'd been a little more like you at your age," she added. "I don't think I would have dared speak up in front of a group of older students to share my ideas. I still find it hard enough now when I am the older student! But I'm glad you did. You had some amazing ideas. And your theme really helped tie things together on the last task. Without that, I think it would have just been a big, muddly mess with so many things going on. Or we would have had to throw out a lot more ideas." They had had to get rid of a few, but it had been light pruning rather than a massacre.
13
Sadie-Lake Chalmers
We won
1480
0
5
Lenny Pierce
November 21, 2022 6:33 PM
Oh, right. That. by Lenny Pierce
"Really?" Lenny asked, impressed, when Piper claimed that she'd been the one to come up with the idea for her group's demo slide. "That's great! You were brilliant! And that would have been amazing if we could have done these for the fair." It was a shame the yearly rotations hadn't worked out that way this time. Musical performances clearly hadn't be a strength for either of their teams, or honestly, pretty much any of the teams. Rosalynn's group hadn't been terrible, but he wasn't sure even they had qualified as good after only having two days to make their own instruments and arrange original music, never mind practice. Lenny and his immediate family were not musically inclined, but he had enough musicians in his family branch to know that music acts didn't work like that.Lenny nodded along as Piper talked about her teammates. He was pretty sure he'd known she and Wally were cousins before, but he probably wouldn't have been able to swear to it had anyone asked him. He also wouldn't be able to swear to it if anyone ever asked him which of the other students Wally even was. He was one of the older kids, so Lenny hadn't crossed his path much.
Other than Yarielis, though, he understood her doubts about the other -older- students on their teams wanting to hang out with them in the future. The next youngest on his team had been Amethyst in Fourth, and while they'd share intermediates next year as third and fifth years, it was still a pretty big age gap and the only time they'd ever be in the same class group. "Well, maybe if there's classwork next year where the third years have to work with a fifth year, you could team up with Iris and I can team up with Amethyst, because we already know each other because of this, and that'll be easier than if we never got teamed up like this." Though maybe Yarielis would prefer teaming with Amethyst, since she was quieter than Lenny and the two girls were from the same House. Well, if it came up, they could work it out then.
"Cole says she's definitely pleasant and fun to be around," Lenny confirmed. "I didn't say being shy was a bad thing," he added a little defensively, because he knew he was kind of from the opposite end of the spectrum and it might seem implied even if he didn't mean that at all. "I just meant the group format made it hard for her to speak up and for us to get to know her very well.
I'll try to catch up with her one-on-one sometime. That might make her feel more comfortable."
"Yeah!" Lenny agreed, holding out his hand for a high five when Piper cheered the freeing up of Challenge time to hang out as Tepps again.
He nodded emphatically with a big grin when she brought up the concert. "Absolutely! The puppet act is going to be epic! And, to be entirely honest, I'm kind of glad we don't have to do the junk instruments either. I didn't sing so I don't think I'm the reason why we placed in the low tiers, but music was never something I was any good at. I'm much better at juggling and acting with puppets, and that's way more fun, too."
1
Lenny Pierce
Oh, right. That.
1547
0
5
Piper Wilson
November 22, 2022 12:14 PM
Yes. That. by Piper Wilson
Piper’s cheeks turned pink.”Thank you.” Actually, she had been kind of proud of her idea for the slide. “And yeah, that would have been really cool. Although I’m not sure how we would have made full sized versions of them for the fair, I mean, we would have had to get the materials and that doesn’t work as well when we have to make them actually big enough to use since we couldn’t just..make them out of materials that we have around the school. There would probably be all sorts of safety issues.”She paused. “Of course, we do allow students to play a game where they’re flying around while people try to lob metal balls at them, but still. It would still be kind of difficult to make things like that ourselves for the fair.” Another thing occurred to Piper though. “But there’s the water room. We could imagine my team’s waterpark there and go down the slide there!.” That would be really cool. “We could even reimagine it as one of those slides where multiple people go down at a time, so the four of us could go down it together.”
Piper nodded. “Perhaps” That would make sense rather than teaming up with someone random, but it wasn’t as if they would get to spend a lot of time with their older teammates. Which was unfortunate, since she had really hoped to bond with her team. Making a new friend would have made it all worth it after losing but at least she had some great friends already.
She heard the defensive note in the other Teppenpaw’s voice. “I’m sorry.” Piper apologized. “I didn’t really mean that you were saying that. It’s just that some people think that being shy means someone is boring and it’s kind of an instinctual, automatic response for me to defend them in that way. “ Of course, Lenny would never look down on anyone like that. Piper felt bad that she had made her friend think that she thought that he had. She would never want to insult anyone, let alone one of her closest friends.
The second year continued “And you’re right, a group format is absolutely more difficult for some people. Approaching her one on one is the best way and I’m glad you’d want to reach out to her” After all, as far as Piper was concerned, when someone was shy, they needed others to do just that. Everyone needed at least one friend and it wasn’t fair to expect someone who was shy to make the first move. “Maybe next year, she can share a tent with Levi and me for the Bonfire, since we can’t have just two people or share with you and Cole.”
Piper returned her friend’s high five before responding to what he said about the Concert. “I know. I never learned how to play an instrument.” Contrary to what some believed and expected, not all purebloods of her social status had to learn how to do so. Certainly they had that opportunity if they wished and she was sure that in some families everyone had to-Amity and Chaslyn had, of course,been required to learn several by their mother=but it wasn’t like a thing that was the case with the Wilsons or the Brockerts or her parents. Her parents would actually never force her and Gabriel to do anything extra that they didn’t want to do.
Although,it was far from the worst assumption people made about people like Piper. Some people thought they were snobby or mean or downright evil. She would much rather assume that they thought she played an instrument, even though she actually didn't. "And I totally agree. I at least know more about what I'm doing there. And I enjoy acting." Piper paused, thinking.. "I don't think anyone actually wants to play junk instruments. The Challenge itself was kind of a cool idea, it's just that part of it that wasn't...great."
11
Piper Wilson
Yes. That.
1556
0
5
Oz Spellman
November 24, 2022 5:41 AM
Alright then... by Oz Spellman
“Yeah?” Oz confirmed with Xavier, when Jasper claimed to be congratulating him. Something seemed way off about this whole thing. But if neither of them was going to admit to anything going on… Oz wasn’t stupid enough to pick a fight with a Brockert over absolutely nothing in the middle of a party. Given time and space to consider what made good choices, he would have said that he shouldn’t pick a fight with a Brockert at all, but even when thinking with his brain instead of his instincts, he would absolutely find a few exceptions to that. He could rationally be argued down that he couldn’t protect Henry and Xavier if he got expelled, which would be about the only compelling reason not to do it, but if he ever suspected anyone was hurting one of them…He turned back to Xavier. He wasn’t about to call out a weakness in front of Jasper, so he just tried to telepathically communicate You looked freaked out and check for secret signals in return that ‘I’m fine’ was code for ‘I’m not fine.’ However, Xavier hadn’t cracked telepathy the same way Henry had, and just stared back like he wanted to know what Oz was staring at him for.
He wasn’t sure he’d totally impressed on Jasper Brockert the need to not hassle Xavier, but if that message needed reinforcing at any point, he could find a quieter place to do it, once he’d checked in with Xav.
“Speaking of congratulating… You, me and Henry?” Oz nodded to the cupcakes in his hands.
13
Oz Spellman
Alright then...
1514
0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
November 25, 2022 4:30 PM
Absolutely by Xavier Lundstrom
“Sounds good,” Xavier agreed. He had wanted to get out of his interaction with Jasper since the second it had started, and even though it hadn’t been as bad as he had feared, the flight or fight response had still been hammering solidly in his ribcage. And, if Oz kept tuning into that, he was probably going to pick a different option than the one Xavier would have chosen. “See ya,” he managed to Jasper, suspecting that would be true only in the sense that they lived in the same very small school and had mandatory events to attend from time to time along with the possibility of choosing the same meal times. What he meant was that he would continue to see Jasper from across various rooms, not infrequently. He doubted they’d really have a reason to speak to each other ever again.He gave Oz a long side long glance as they stepped away, trying to work out what was going through his head. But a crowded room full of people probably wasn't the place to ask.
That hadn't been the smoothest way to get out of his conversation, but at least he was out. He could feel his jaw unclenching, and his heart rate slowing, letting the more rational parts of his brain come back online. Jasper had been perfectly complimentary. He had denied having a problem with him. And, admittedly, that was the smart move when you were being asked by a ticked off looking Beater but he hadn't thrown any attitude in either of their faces. Did that mean Xavier had been a stammering, anxious mess for no good reason? It had to be obvious where that came from, right? So now, Jasper knew… Which wasn’t the most comfortable thing to deal with. Except Xavier had felt like everyone had always known why it might be uncomfortable for him around his more magical classmates… It was just that it had been made so much more blatant now. His default reaction was to expect that Jasper would laugh and talk about it behind his back. But if not… Well, Jasper knew where he was at and why, if he wanted to prove him wrong.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
Absolutely
1529
0
5