Selina Skies
November 18, 2022 7:45 PM
The Concert by Selina Skies
The concert was easily the most stressful event for Selina as a staff member. The ball and the bonfire probably came with the most interpersonal drama, some of which ended up as her responsibility to deal with the fall out from, but the event planning mostly took care of itself. The fair required organisation, which was sometimes up to the staff and sometimes up to the students, but the concert always relied on the contributions of the students, to be showcased to families. They had approached performance generation in different ways over the years, such as having prefects lead groups, or having house acts, and sometimes it was just a free-for-all. It was always a worry in the latter case that they wouldn’t get enough acts, and in all cases about whether they’d be fit to present. The staff kept an eye on things, helping students to develop rehearsal schedules, and checking in that they were progressing, but it was a lot more work than sticking some tents on the school field and setting something on fire. Especially this year, when it had fallen in line with the challenges.But, as ever, Sonora’s students had risen to the occasion. There was a suitable number of acts, showing a diverse range of skills, and the challenges had actually provided a further opportunity to generate acts.
The other part of the concert that was stressful—the fact that it was presented to families—was also what made it so enjoyable. Sonora didn’t have a lot of opportunities to have families visit, and it was (almost) always a delight to welcome them to campus. The school had reached out to the families of Muggleborn students to help with travel arrangements, and had the option of a pick up in town. The car involved might stretch their limits of what a car should look like on the inside and how it ought to behave, and there was really no way around just having to sort of… whoosh at some point when entering an itinerant magical school, but it was still gentler than any of the other options. The welcome station was located in the gardens, lined with fireplaces for Floo travellers, and temporarily placed outside the apparition limitations. A number of portkeys had been arranged from major travel hubs, and the school had signed off on any for families large enough and magical enough (and rich enough) to arrange their own. The welcome station was also stocked with water, an anti-nausea potion, and some chairs should anyone feel the need to recover from their journey. There were also sticky labels on which people could write their name and relationship to the students they were there to support.
The faculty were present to greet families, after which they were allowed into the main hall for snacks and mingling and taken on a tour if they wanted to see the school.
After that they were let into the Cascade Hall, which had been rearranged as a theatre for the evening, with rows of chairs facing a large stage. Whilst it might have been easier to use one of the MARS rooms, the hall did have such a sense of occasion.
“Hello, and welcome,” Selina addressed the assembled families. “We’re so pleased to have you here for our concert. The concert is part of an events rotation which occurs every four years, and is a chance for our students to show some of the skills that they have outside of their classes, and sometimes a few of the ones they’re using in them. We have a great range of acts for you tonight, which you can see listed in your programme.” The acts ranged from puppetry to comedy to a… band(?) which was playing some Muggle rock songs in what Selina had deemed a passable enough way to allow in. “The majority of these were devised by the students in their free time or through student-led extra-curricular activities. In addition to this, we have three musical performances from our schoolwide challenges this year. In our second event, students had to use their transfiguration skills and their imaginations to turn junk into musical instruments, conventional or otherwise, and to compose a piece for performance. The three winning teams from that challenge are showcasing their pieces tonight.
“Without further ado, let us welcome our first act…” Selina had asked each set of performing students for a brief introduction for both the program and her intro speeches. She had tidied them up as necessary, and used them to welcome each act onto the stage.
Once the final group had performed, she took to the stage to invite one more round of applause, and then asked the audience to stand and to mind out as the furniture rearranged itself. With the audience off to the sides, several tables trotted in from the lobby, and the chairs gathered around them. At the back of the hall, a buffet table stocked itself. After that, parents and students were free to mingle. Students could leave that evening with their parents, although there would be one more night at school and the wagons in the morning for any whose families hadn’t attended, for whom travelling back together wasn’t practical, or who just wanted one more night to spend with their friends and one more trip on the flying wagons.
OOC: Welcome to the concert!
Some house-keeping:
- Please use the 'other' box and specify the lead POV character if writing a family post (e.g. 'Monica Spellman').
- If a post writes for more than one character, please mark this using 'What of thread is this?' and selecting 'This whole post is mine but writes for more than one character.' Any thread that includes dialogue or actions from another character that wouldn't be within reasonable god-modding limits (e.g. having someone let you into an office, invite you to take a seat etc are defined as reasonable) should be tagged this way. A good rule of thumb is... If they weren't your character, would you need more than a head nod from someone in chatzy to approve the actions? If so, you're probably writing for multiple characters. The purpose of this tag is to keep such posts out of the running for 'longest post' where they would obviously have an unfair advantage.
- Posts with a Sonora character as their lead POV are added to their page/stats for the term even when using this tag. Posts with a family member as the POV aren't automatically added (cos computers cannot understand) but may be included towards a character's activity total at the discretion of the admins.
- Please include a time frame [pre-concert, concert performance, post-concert] in your post title to help others stay organised. Your post may cover more than one of these time frames - go with tagging where it ends.
Subthreads: [Pre concert] (Magical?) Cookie! by Joel Lundstrom
[Post concert] Looking for moral support by Leviosa Scurlock with Christopher Brockert
[Post Concert] Dashed hopes by Nausicaa Scapetello
[Post-Concert] That's my daughter! [tag Adam] by Wendy Holland with Adam Brockert
[Post Concert] Things begin to draw to a close once more [Amethyst] by Iris Cobb with Amethyst Brockert
[Pre-Concert] The anniversary of our engagement by Bel Pierce with Monica Spellman, Deidre Beales
[Pre Concert] Date night! [Marissa] by Andrew Duell with Marissa Duell
[Post Concert] That’s my boy by Camden Bavol with Catherinre Scurlock
[Post concert] TWIRLY HUGS! [tag Anya] by Theo Spurn with Anya Delachene
[Post-concert] So hard to say goodbye (Phil) by Gabriel Wilson with Phil Carson
[Post-concert] I just can't stay away. by Allegra Brockert
[Pre-Concert] Touring by Flo Carbondale with Jana Wilson
[Post Concert] Brother to Banjo Girl by Sullivan Quincy
[Post-concert]The End by Esme Brockert
[Post Concert] This is terrible [Wally] by Valentine Duell with Wally O'Malley
[Post-concert]Forgiveness rather than permission (Karl) by Cory Brockert with Karl Hexenmeister
[Pre-concert] Reuniting with an old friend (Hilda) by Sophia Priory with Hilda Hexenmeister
[Post concert] Nevermind by Constance Melcher
[Post concert] Well, it's half the family, anyway. by Mara Morales
[Post concert] ...so, mom talk? (Sophie) by Marissa Duell with Sophie O'Malley
[Post-concert]One of these days I will just type random words for a title by Ian Malone
[Post-concert] Glad it's all over. by Lydia Priory
[Concert Performance] The Middle by Oz Spellman with
[Post-concert] I really don't want it to be over. by Isla Brockert
{Post-concert] by Piper Wilson
13
Selina Skies
The Concert
26
1
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[Pre concert] (Magical?) Cookie! by Joel Lundstrom
Joel stepped out of the weird magical car, making sure not to frown. His parents had eased up a little on their whole ‘wizards are judging our every facial expression’ paranoia, but he didn’t want to appear rude to the magic people, or set his mom off. She was already… well, she was kind of in a walking Xanax coma, but given how many times he’d seen her jumping at small noises during the week, he was trying not to do anything extra to freak her out.But yeah, the car was… like, Joel was currently breaking his brain every weekend cramming for high school physics finals, and the car just made that seem pointless. Though maybe not for his non-magical self. Xav and Robyn could go around turning into cats and making things fly or having boxes be bigger in the inside or just… whatever else, but Joel was probably stuck obeying the laws of physics.
They made their way quickly through the welcome area. He was glad his parents’ whole obsession with fitting in with the magical world had waned enough that they’d been able to take the not hideously violent space travel options. He wrote ‘Joel Lundstrom’ on a sticker but didn’t bother to specify who he was related to and how, figuring that was obvious to anyone who knew the name, even if he didn’t look exactly like his siblings. He and Xavier had similar faces, but Joel being a blond made people say they didn’t look alike.
He’d been to the school before, in spite of this being the first concert Xavier was involved in (or Robyn, but… obviously) because they’d all come to visit him here over Christmas during that whole thing where the government had kidnapped Xav and refused to let him see them and called their parents cultists. The school had been on their side though, and so whilst setting foot back here did bring back a bunch of chest-tightening memories, it was more a reminder of a terrible time than anything that anyone here had done… When they had visited Xavier over Christmas, they’d only been allowed into limited parts of the school, due to other students staying and the visit needing to be on the down low, because the magical authorities still hadn’t really agreed with it. Therefore, Joel agreed to go on the tour. The library brought back memories of watching Professor Wright make Robyn’s UNO cards dance for her, and his mother trying not to flinch both at that and her declaration that she’d be coming to school here. The classrooms were new, and the plants were weird and the potions lab smelled like feet. It was good to put a scene to the things he heard about and… well, who’d pass up the chance to walk around looking at literal magic? He wondered what life would have been like if he’d gone here. Parts of it looked fun, but so was programming robots in design class, and getting to like… actually leave his house and stuff. It was cool to look at, but he wasn’t sure he’d have traded. The only thing that bugged him was how it might have fallen out differently for Xavier if he’d come here. Judging by how Robyn was doing, and the whole Seer revelation, sucking at magic was a Xavier problem, not a Lundstrom one. If Joel had come first and done okay, even just perfectly average, would things have been different? It would have meant that when Xavier showed up and was all wonky and full of misfiring magic and migraines, then the school and the authorities would have already had evidence that it wasn’t caused by his home environment… If Joel had just been magical too, maybe none of that would have happened.
There wasn’t much to do with that thought except feel sad and guilty about it. Some days he could shake it off as being silly. Today it was a little harder to.
As they came back into the foyer, he glanced around for someone to talk to, as that usually lightened his mood. There were a fair few people who looked to be around his age. He wondered if any were actually like him, or whether they were all graduated older siblings with just as much magic as the people they were here to see. The snack table had double chocolate chip cookies, which seemed a safer bet for a serotonin boost than someone who might not think he was worth speaking too. He went to collect one, and was just getting some juice to go with it when someone approached him.
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Joel Lundstrom
[Pre concert] (Magical?) Cookie!
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Joel Lundstrom
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Leviosa Scurlock
November 18, 2022 11:47 PM
[Post concert] Looking for moral support by Leviosa Scurlock
Levi was feeling all sorts of nerves about the concert. Some of those had to do with performing, although she felt like she and Xarryn had given enough to their rehearsals, and she was expecting it all to go smoothly. In fact, she was super excited for it, and she had resolved to join Rosalynn’s performing arts club next year, even if it would be four years before that became concert-relevant again. Maybe there’d be some chances to do other small stuff.Whilst she was on stage, she didn’t have time to feel much of anything except excitement and adrenaline at the possibility of meeting her untimely demise. Yes, the swords they were using were blunted, and all the moves were choreographed, but it still required absolute concentration to make it look good, and there was nothing wrong with adding a little drama in her own head. Plus she had to concentrate on not smiling, since this was a serious battle to the death, and that was not a skill that came naturally to her. The piece did, in fact, end with her dying horribly. However hard they’d rehearsed, Xarryn obviously had the upper hand, as he’d been raised on this stuff, and the disparity showed. She had suggested that they work it into the piece by having him disarm her, and the piece ending with her dramatic death, including squeezing a pack of fake blood so that it squirted spectacularly from her wounded soon-to-be-corpse.
It. was. great.
It was the most fun she’d had ever, and she thought she’d done an excellent job of holding her own and faking her death, and she was excited that she’d got to do something with Xarryn outside of the challenges, meaning they might actually be friends for real now.
That excitement lasted until she made her way off stage and started changing from her pirate costume back into her regular clothes. The signal that she was becoming Levi again, not her on stage persona, came with the crashing realisation that whilst her on stage death had been fake, her mother might now want to kill her for real.
Obviously, she’d known her mother was coming, and that theoretically she wouldn’t approve of sword fights, but that had been distant and hypothetical enough for her to say ‘yes’ to it, and to think it would be future Levi’s problem to handle that. Now she was future Levi, and she felt like her past self could have made better choices… She had checked with Piper that she didn’t think doing a staged swordfight was terribly disgraceful or awful or anything, and Piper had encouraged her to go for it. That had been before they added the pirate costumes and the fake death…
Still, there was nothing to do about it now except to make sure the fake blood was very thoroughly cleaned off her hands and face, and to go face the music.
Unless she went to meet her friends’ parents first? No, that was probably a bad idea. It was only delaying the inevitable and was probably rude, which would add another black mark next to her name. Plus her ‘twin’ friends would have four parents showing up between them, unless any were busy or sick, which sounded like an awkward situation to involve herself in. They had never asked her to actively lie, but she felt like the secret was on perilous ground which made her feel responsible, and worried that people would be mad at her, depending on what happened. Verdillia already knew because she was enough of a nerd to have looked up the Pierce family trees when Levi hadn’t been able to tell her the branch, but had just rolled her eyes and declared Levi impossible when she’d explained it was a game/secret. That presumably meant her own parents knew, so introducing them wasn’t going to reveal anything, but it was just one of those moments where it seemed more complicated than fun.
Just like her own interactions with her mother were about to be… Levi was excited to see her parents after so long, but she was sure mum would want to socialise with fancy people, and improve their standing and all that stuff, all of which Levi found embarrassing. And then the fact that Levi didn’t want to play along, and wanted to introduce her weird friends who played with clippy blocks and ignored perfectly good genealogy and that she probably hadn’t done her hair as well as expected would all mean mama would think she was the embarrassing one. Not to mention the melodramatic sword fight and faked death…
She had followed all of mothers’ hair care rules for the last two weeks, hoping it would hide the weeks she’d forgotten, and had asked Verdillia to give her a coronet braid with a small amount of her hair, leaving the rest loose. She was pretty sure that even if her hair was flawless, which it most definitely was not, she would still be in trouble.
She weaved through the crowd still hoping to see her own friends, either to introduce or to say ‘hi’ to their families or just to hang out before they went their separate ways for summer. And only a teensy bit to try to impress her mum and avoid a dressing down for her behaviour.
She didn’t feel like luck was on her side when she spotted Christopher Brockert, because he was one of Verdillia’s friends. But then Verdillia was soooo much more adept at making the right kind of friends than she was that he would be exactly the kind of person mama was pleased to see. Maybe pleased enough that she’d gloss over the whole sword fighting thing? Or at least not mention it until they got home?
“Hi Christopher-Mister-Brockert,” she said, correcting herself halfway through his name. “Uh, how’s it going?” It was lucky her mother couldn’t hear her right now because that was not how one addressed a Brockert. “Did you enjoy the concert?”
13
Leviosa Scurlock
[Post concert] Looking for moral support
1545
0
5
Nausicaa Scapetello
November 19, 2022 12:07 PMNausicaa Scapetello
StudentHouse: Aladren
Year: 5
Written by: Gami
Age in Post: 11
Birthday: August 5th
[Post Concert] Dashed hopes by Nausicaa Scapetello
Nausicaa hadn't been nervous about the concert. That would have been ridiculous, what would she have had to be nervous about? She had signed up to perform a violin solo, because this was a concert and musical performances are what happened at concerts. She also felt the need to do that after her team had won the second challenge and would thus need to perform their act. She had to show everyone what actual music sounded like, untainted by the noise of the banjo.None of that made her nervous, because she wasn't nervous. The very mild sense of unease that flitted about her was caused, as best she could reason, by a strand of hope that she knew would be crushed. She hoped that Mother and Father would come to the event, she hoped they would witness the torment to which she had been subjected for the past year, she hoped they would take her home and perhaps raze the school behind them as they left.
However, Nausicaa knew that wouldn't happen. She had already received word that they would not be able to attend, but that Uncle Franklin would be there and whisk her home. To his home, his cramped and miserable little residence, for the summer. From the sounds of things,
Mother had nearly completely recovered from the accident, and if she was feeling well enough would come to visit over the summer.
It was illogical and irrational, and she mentally chided herself for the action, but now that the performances were over she looked around for her parents. No such luck. She did spot her Uncle, tall and tanned in a good (but certainly not exquisite) suit. His dark hair and mustache were both trimmed neatly, both just shy of falling into the 'bushy' category. He was chatting just a little bit too amicably with some of the other adults present.
Nausicaa quickly shifted out of his line of sight. A slight wave of expected disappointment washed over her. No parents, no razing the school to the ground. Should she just tell him she was ready to leave, or was there anything she wanted to do before she left?
2
Nausicaa Scapetello
[Post Concert] Dashed hopes
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[Post-Concert] That's my daughter! [tag Adam] by Wendy Holland
When Lyla had written to ask her to meet her friend's parents, Wendy hadn't thought much of it. Apparently the other girl was also based in Colorado, so a summer visit was what her daughter was aiming at. Wendy had no problem with that, but there were two things that made her pause.The first were the words, Please don't embarrass me , which Wendy would normally laugh at, but coupled with the next thing, made her frown.
Gwendolyn Brockert.
Wendy knew she hadn't ever met this girl, and she probably hadn't even met the girl's parents when she was in school, but any pureblood worth their salt knew of the family. The Brockerts were one of the most prominent pureblood families this side of the Atlantic. And Lyla didn't want to be embarrassed by her dear old mom in front of her new friend? Like Wendy was an embarrassment.
Given that Wendy had been disowned by her parents for daring to fall in love with a man who was decidedly not a pureblood, it had taken a day or two for her to work her jaw out of its tight clench before agreeing to her daughter's request. Not all pureblood families were dirtbags that didn't care about their daughter's feelings, and she had no reason to think that the Brockerts were that way, either. She would just have to wait and see. She absolutely would be an embarrassment, though, just to prove she could.
Wendy declined to go on the school tour, instead getting Lena a cookie so the five-year-old wouldn't cause too much of a fuss for the performance. It was almost uncomfortable to be back here; it made her feel like a student again, and it wasn't in a pleasantly nostalgic way. Not for the first time that day, she wished that Russell had been able to get out of work for this. Since he couldn't, Wendy twisted her wedding band around her finger, letting the action distract her mind.
By the time the concert started, Lena was four cookies deep and singing quietly to herself. Wendy was just happy she wasn't trying to crawl up onto the stage. After Lyla's group had finished their...interesting performance, Wendy jumped up from her seat and cheered at the top of her lungs, startling the man seated next to her.
"That's my daughter!" she shouted, pointing to Lyla. Lyla's cheeks turned bright red, and Wendy whistled. She sat back down and waited through the rest of the performances.
As she gathered up the cookie crumbs that Lena had left all over her seat, she asked the man she'd startled, "So, which one's yours?"
64
Wendy Holland
[Post-Concert] That's my daughter! [tag Adam]
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Wendy Holland
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5
[Post Concert] Things begin to draw to a close once more [Amethyst] by Iris Cobb
Well, it was all over and there hadn't been any terrible incidents. For that, Iris was immensely relieved. She'd been afraid that her stupid brother was going to do something really stupid at the concert after the success of his transformation attempt. Thankfully he had not. She attributed this largely to the warnings that animagus status is one of those things that the government likes to keep track of. The Cobbs and everyone else back home up on the mountain generally had no great regard for the usefulness of any sort of government interference. Their particular local culture had lived apart from any sort of excessive government meddling for as long as anyone could remember, it was mostly an inherent, ingrained sort of thing.As much as Iris was one to follow the rules, she was with her family on this one and followed theirs more so. What kind of reasonable rules could some far-off government folk give you when they had no idea of what your situation was or how you lived? Some of them, she had to accede to though, the Statue of Secrecy was one they would and could enforce. She could also see the rationality behind that one, so it was fine... if not really annoying and made life difficult for everyone. Such was life though.
Once the concert itself had wrapped up, she'd found her parents. This was their second time at the school, and they had opted to take the car instead of portkey this time. She couldn't blame them. The car ride had apparently been interesting as well, but much better than the portkey. Iris chatted with them a bit then went off in search of her friends to say farewell for the year before heading home. Pa had parked his truck in town to meet the car, so they'd still have a bit of a drive once they got back.
It wasn't long before she found her roommate. "Hi Amethyst!" she called out. "We are probably going to head home soon. You will keep me posted on all of your exciting summer adventures, right?" Amethyst was most likely going to be doing some traveling and maybe some parties over the summer. While she was going to.. well, she wasn't entirely sure what she was going to be doing. Other than trying to keep Billy out of trouble anyway.
2
Iris Cobb
[Post Concert] Things begin to draw to a close once more [Amethyst]
1526
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[Pre-Concert] The anniversary of our engagement by Bel Pierce
Bel stood in front of their fireplace, floo powder in one hand, Reilly’s hand firmly held in the other. Deidre stood on Reilly’s other side, holding the six year old’s other hand. Four years ago, they had taken a portkey from a public transportation station as barely civil strangers. They’d come back engaged to be a family. Now, four years later, they all shared an apartment and had their very own floo to travel through.On one hand, Bel didn’t think this concert could possibly be as life changing as the last one. On the other hand, she hadn’t imagined the last one would be either and look what happened. She was, as a consequence, just a little bit hesitant to throw the powder into their family hearth. She liked where her life was now.
“Happy anniversary of our engagement,” she offered.
Deidre snorted. She’d come a long way from being the timid woman who seemed simultaneously afraid of confrontation with Mab’s legal guardian and irritatingly determined to break apart Bel's little family. Part of that, of course, was just that they were no longer in the middle of a custody battle, and they'd grown a comfortable familiarity and trust between them, but Bel thought Deidre had grown more generally in self-confidence and spunk over the four years of their married life.
Marriage had been good for both of them. It wasn’t without miscommunications and arguments and discomfort and moments where one or the other did something that absolutely infuriated the other, but Bel wouldn’t trade any of it. She kind of liked the tumultuous nature of it.
Nothing was more endearing than Deidre's eye rolls and sighs of exasperation. Nothing fired her up more than a good argument and, with her Irish temper, Deidre was perfectly capable of arguing with the best of them, even if she lacked interest in physical fighting. Kissing it out was almost as good, Bel had discovered, to her own surprise. In past relationships, she'd tolerated kissing as a necessary part of dating, but when it was done with the passion of anger it was a whole lot better than when it was done as a disgustingly sugar sweet expression of fondness.
Bel had always figured she was asexual. She had assumed Deidre was heterosexual. She'd figured their bed would never be for anything but sleeping, but somewhat by accident and somewhat by trial and error, they'd found physical compatibilities that Bel had never thought she'd experience with another person. Even better, Deidre was happy and satisfied without any risk of further infants invading the house.
Bel loved her three children very much, but she liked that they had mostly all arrived in her household already potty-trained and verbal, thank you very much. (Reilly hadn't quite been either, having only been two at the time of their wedding, but Deidre had been the one who dealt with most of those issues. Bel definitely preferred teenagers to toddlers.)
"Not sure 'here put this on' counts," Deidre remarked dryly. "Anniversary isn't until tonight when we get home."
That was fair. That was when she'd proposed properly. But it would never have happened without the concert playing out like it had first. "We'll celebrate properly later, then," Bel promised. Deidre smiled back.
"Can we go now?" Reilly asked, rolling his eyes, entirely missing the innuendo and not yet grossed out by his moms flirting. Bel would never be this blatant in front of Mab and Alexander.
"Right. Poof!" Bel declared dramatically as she threw the powder into the flames, turning them green. "Let's go!" They stepped in to the fire together, as she didn't quite trust Reilly on his own yet and since Deidre was a muggle, she could use the floo but she couldn't operate it. "Sonora Academy of Magic!" Bel called out loudly and clearly and they were speeding and spinning across the country through the floo network.
The stepped out into the Gardens' welcoming center, and they took a few moments to reorient themselves. Both Deidre and Reilly had used the floo going back and forth from Amelia's house before, but that was a much shorter trip and less disorienting. Still, the practice had helped, and neither of them looked ill and they both stayed on their feet.
The went over to get name tags and she filled them out the same way she had last year:
Bel Pierce-Beales, Parent: Alexander Pierce-Beales, Mab Pierce-Beales
Deidre Pierce-Beales, Parent: Alexander Pierce-Beales, Mab Pierce-Beales
Reilly Pierce-Beales, Sibling: Alexander Pierce-Beales, Mab Pierce-Beales
They moved out among the other guests, Bel on edge now that there were pure-bloods about, but none of them were Wesley Pierce, so there was no need to be publicly affectionate with her wife and son just to make the homophobic bastard squirm.
"Snacks?" she asked, and the family agreed, so they made their way over there.
Bel tried not to actively scowl as Deidre smiled at another person and greeted them pleasantly, "Hello." As a fifty-three year old woman who barely reached five feet tall, Bel was not physically intimidating, but she could radiate menace without even trying. Taller, but softer looking, and only thirty-four years old, Deidre was the far more approachable looking of the two of them. Reilly was more interested in the cookies than the people.
OOC: I am making wild assumptions on muggles and the floo network because the internet could only tell me that Jacob Kowalski was able to take the floo but not whether he could do so alone.
1
Bel Pierce
[Pre-Concert] The anniversary of our engagement
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Bel Pierce
0
7
Andrew Duell
November 20, 2022 2:59 PM
[Pre Concert] Date night! [Marissa] by Andrew Duell
This was his second, and probably last concert to attend back at Sonora. Andrew wondered a bit if this was going to be his last time to see the inside of that school. It probably would be, unless they invited him back to teach a random alumni class again. That had been sort of fun, but he'd learned something about himself. He wasn't cut out to be a classroom teacher. On occasion it wasn't bad, but it wasn't something he would want to do on a regular basis.The last time he'd gone, he had decided it had been his job to embarrass his daughter. This time, he decided to go the other route. Mainly because she wouldn't be expecting it. Also, she was a full, grown-up, adult... according to the magical rule-making people. That made something of a difference for some reason that he couldn't quite adequately explain. She wasn't just his little girl anymore, well she was and always would be, but yet she wasn't. His mind worked in these circles as he dressed up in his fanciest attire.
He complimented his beautiful and wonderful wife once she was ready and they took to the floo to arrive at the school. Upon arrival at the welcome station he breathed in the garden air and smiled. "it's always fun to come back, isn't it?" He gave his wife a wink, offered his arm and found the name tag stickers. Not being able to resist, he wrote 'Andrew Duell, father of Valentine' and dotted the 'i' in her name with a heart as she had used to do all the time.
Once in the main hall and presented with the option, Andrew turned to his wife, "What do you think, do you want to go on the tour or just mingle?" The same mischievous twinkle of the eye that Val inherited sparkled in her fathers'. Then in a conspiratorial whisper, "I'm mildly tempted to take the tour, just to break away from it and see if I can still get into the Teppenpaw common room." His face sobered a bit, "But I suppose the current Tepps might still be in there finishing their preparations for the show." He sighed a bit melodramatically, "It's so difficult being grown up and responsible now."
Dang it, that brought his mind back around to his previous musings, which prompted him to bring up the same topic they'd been discussion on and off since February. "I still can't believe our little girl is an adult now." He shook himself free of that sentiment when another thought took hold of him, "While we're here, do you think it might be good to check in with some of her profs? We know she's fighting tooth and nail in her classes here, maybe they've got some ideas of what we could do over the summer to help her?"
OOC: Marissa accompanying Andrew on this venture has been approved by her author
2
Andrew Duell
[Pre Concert] Date night! [Marissa]
145
0
5
[Post Concert] That’s my boy by Camden Bavol
Camden Bavol had arranged the Wind Harness’ travel itinerary to pull into port three days before the Midsummer concert. That gave him one day to see about doing most of his captainly duties in port before delegating everything else to his officers, then two days to get out to Arizona with Marian. That shouldn’t be difficult, they were already in San Diego, California. Even in a mode of transportation as slow as a car, that should only take about five to six hours, depending on number of stops and traffic.The sticking point there was ‘number of stops’ and it had been, oh, approximately twelve years since Camden and Marian had gotten to spend any time together kid-free, and they were going to make a mini-vacation out of it.
One where Camden was not the tour guide. He wasn’t even in charge of transportation. Marian was the only one of them who had a driver’s license. He’d never had any need for one of those when as a wizard and a sea captain. Being a muggle bartender on the other hand, Marian did find having one to be useful.
Marian was … now vaguely aware that magic was a thing. She was not legally married to him, so he’d never been allowed to talk to her about it because the Statute of Secrecy was a pretty big deal, but with her son starting at Sonora, she’d finally been deemed close enough family to be let in on the secret.
She was still mostly convinced it was another one of Camden’s cruise tricks that Xarryn was gullible enough to believe, so even if they weren’t having some couple time together, he wouldn’t have wanted to try apperation or floo or a portkey with her because that would probably break her brain and that would make both Camden and Xarryn sad.
So they drove to Phoenix and took the vehicle that looked fine to Camden but seemed like it came close to doing exactly what he’d been trying to avoid by riding in a car all this time.
She recovered, though, and they made it to Xarryn’s school. Camden had attended Ilvermorny in his day, but with a home port in California, and most of their lives spent on the Pacific Ocean, he had decided Sonora was the better option for Xarryn. (Which was undoubtedly for the best, because he couldn’t imagine he’d survive riding a muggle car clear across the continent if they’d ever had to go to a parent event over there.)
Camden applied his nametag to his shirt (he was not in costume- or maybe he was because he looked like a muggle tourist rather than a pirate, which is how he usually dressed), identifying himself as Captain Camden Bavol; Father: Xarryn Bavol. Beside him, Marian affixed her own which declared she was Marian Brandey; Mother: Xarryn Bavol.
The took the tour, and he was reasonably sure Marian was starting to believe this wasn’t all stage tricks, and when the Deputy Headmistress explained about the three challenge events, Camden leaned over and whispered an explanation of what transfiguration was. “Xarryn isn’t doing that though. He’s in one of the other acts.”
Xarryn’s letters (there had only been three all year - he clearly hadn’t started to like writing any better while he was away) had mentioned his team had never done very well but the challenges had been fun, and had said he was going to be performing though the details of his act had been scarce.
As it turned out, he’d found another student to do a mock swordfight with, and Camden thought his form was quite good. He and Marion both clapped quite loudly as Xarryn and the other child took their bows.
After the show, Camden mingled among the other families, idly on the lookout for his son, but giving the kid time to hang out with his friends before if he wanted to do that before being separated from them for a whole summer.
“Good show,” he remarked to another adult. “My son was one of the sword fighters. Was your child in it?”
OOC: If anyone want to lay claim to being Xarryn’s sword fighting partner, it’s wide open. Go for it.
1
Camden Bavol
[Post Concert] That’s my boy
0
Camden Bavol
0
5
Theo Spurn
November 21, 2022 2:50 AM
[Post concert] TWIRLY HUGS! [tag Anya] by Theo Spurn
Theo was super excited for the concert. Not the on stage stuff, which he was sure would be fine and which he would try to watch politely, but for the visitors! He listened to everything that happened on stage and he watched when people were actually doing stuff, but during several of the things that were just talking, he twisted around to scan the crowd.Once they were released, he found his parents first because they were absolutely the most important people ever and that was the right order, but they understood his desire to be elsewhere and let him go after a quick hello and a look at his miniature trophy. He had decided that it was better than the big one because it fit right in his pocket. It wasn't even soft but it had rapidly become one of his absolute favourite things.
He wove his way through the hall, looking for his other visitor. She technically wasn't there to see him but he was pretty sure he could go say 'hello' because her brother would get her all summer and she was his best friend. He had a height advantage compared to a lot of people in the hall, but a height disadvantage, in that the person he was looking for small. But after a minute or two he spotted her.
"ANYAAAAAAAAAA!" he screamed, dragging it out for the length of time it took to dive across the (thankfully open) space towards her. "Twirly hug!" he declared, picking her up and spinning. They hadn't seen each other for so long, that there were a lot of twirls to catch up on. Theo had a high capacity for spinning, and he twirled Anya multiple times before returning her to the floor.
"We came third in the challenges! Did Philippe tell you? LOOK!" He pulled the little bronze trophy out of his pocket.
OOC: Theo would stop if Anya protested the number of twirls at any point
13
Theo Spurn
[Post concert] TWIRLY HUGS! [tag Anya]
1476
0
5
Adam Brockert
November 21, 2022 8:56 AMAdam Brockert
AlumnusHouse: Crotalus
Written by: Allegra Brockert
Age in Post: 48
Birthday: March 5
Send lawyers, guns and money, they'll get me out of this! by Adam Brockert
OOC: CW-Brief mention of substance abuse BIC:
Adam could not say that he was all that happy to be returning to Sonora after all this time. Some people might feel nostalgic about going back to their old school but those people were either ones who had been well-liked and popular or those who were seriously deluding themselves. Or maybe people like his cousin Marshall who were so out of it that they didn’t remember how badly it had sucked. Although, he didn’t think school had sucked that bad for Marshall, and his alma mater was no longer open anyway, but he meant those who tended to abuse substances to the same level that his cousin did but would have had bad memories of school, like Adam did, had they not obliterated them, probably on purpose.
Last year,the Crotalus alum had managed to avoid having to come here for the alumni career/hobby fair, and did what he did on a daily basis-have Cory do all the horrible people-related things that Adam did not want to do. In fact, it was not just that he simply didn’t want to, it was more like the idea filled him with horrific anxiety. That he would do or say something that would not only make people dislike him, as had been the case when he was a Sonora student, but that it would cost him business. Adam very much wanted to be judged on his wand making abilities and not his social skills. The former was by far superior to the latter. Granted, his abilities in just about anything else were superior to his social skills.
So Cory, who was generally less off-putting to people than he was-not that that was saying much, he was pretty off-putting-did things like sell the wands that Adam made and handed out brochures about wandmaking and wandology at school alumni fairs. There had been absolutely no way that Adam had been about to give talks to teenagers about his job. There was way too much potential for him to make a fool of himself.
However, Adam’s older daughter Gwendolyn was a student here-which, incidentally, was another reason why he absolutely hadn’t wanted to attend the fair, he could have embarrassed her and caused others to bully and exclude her, which was the absolute last thing he would ever want for his daughters-so he had to be…unselfish and put what was good for him aside to make his daughter happy. Although, arguably, much like last year, the best thing that Adam could ever do for anyone was to stay away from them so they weren’t associated with him.
But Gwendolyn was going to actually be performing in the Concert tonight. Apparently, she and her Challenge teammates had ‘won’ the dubious honor of performing tonight on instruments transfigured from random junk. Honestly, this was another reason why Adam was supremely glad that they had not had the Challenges when he was in school. The idea of being forced to perform on stage in front of every student in school and their families made him queasy. He was just glad Gwendolyn did not have this same issue.
And hopefully, Adam would not have to speak to anyone besides his own relatives. And hopefully, not that many of them either. Although Gwendolyn had said something about meeting her friend’s parents because they both lived in Colorado and wanted to meet up or something. Even though he really felt that him having to meet someone new was extremely unnecessary. Adam would give them the benefit of the doubt that they weren’t some sort of violent criminal if it meant that he didn’t have to talk to someone and potentially make a fool of himself.
On the plus side, he was glad that Gwendolyn had made a friend and that he didn’t immediately recognize the name of the friend and have to worry that the friend’s parents were people he knew and never wanted to see again. So, there was that at least.
Although Adam had spent some time chatting with his sister Kaylie and her husband Ian, they had gotten separated and he found himself sitting next to a woman that he thankfully didn’t know. In fact he’d made sure to avoid anyone he recognized that wasn’t a relative and purposely sat next to someone unfamiliar, with no plans whatsoever to speak to them.
A decision that Adam realized was a wise move, after the woman stood up after Gwendolyn’s performance and cheered, pointing out her own daughter. He felt nothing but pity for the poor girl. Did she not know that her daughter was likely mortified? That this was a place where her daughter would be surrounded by her fellow students for-judging by the presumed age of the girl she’d pointed out-for quite a while? Maybe the woman just had some issue with impulse control and couldn’t help herself.
Wait. The age of the girl she’d pointed out. The fact that Gwendolyn said that her friend was one of her Challenge teammates. Oh no . Oh dear Merlin help him, no .
Not that it meant he would forbid his daughter from being friends with this woman’s. Adam would never judge someone by their relatives, seeing as he would not want that himself. He definitely was not the same as some of them.
As the performance ended, Adam wondered if he should try to escape or if he was going to be forced to talk to this woman soon enough so he might as well stay there and face the music, no pun intended.
Before he could make his decision,or indeed, actually escape,the woman addressed him, asking him which child was his. Adam smiled nervously, and scanned the room for Gwendolyn. “That one.” He pointed, spotting her. “She was in the act with your daughter.”
He really really wished that this was a moment where he could have Cory stand in for him.
11
Adam Brockert
Send lawyers, guns and money, they'll get me out of this!
78
0
5
Amethyst Brockert
November 22, 2022 9:49 AM
It's been a long one by Amethyst Brockert
So the year was over. The Challenges were over. They had been…interesting. Of course, Amethyst had wished that her team had done better. She and her team had ended up tied for sixth with Olaf’s. Which was the worst any of them had ended up doing. Still, she guessed that it was okay, it wasn’t as if she’d been in last place and anyway, most teams had been within points of each other.Although maybe that made things worse, because if they had done just a little bit better they could have placed higher. However, Amethyst did not know what exactly they could have done differently. They had actually done very well in the first Challenge and then it was all downhill from there. Which, admittedly, had been kind of discouraging.
Maybe that was why Lavender had seemed so down by the time of the final Challenge. Amethyst supposed that the fact that they hadn’t done well in the previous one when the sixth year actually played an instrument might have made the older Crotalus feel sort of bad, like she really wasn’t very good at something that she had been doing for Merlin knew how long. Amethyst would feel pretty crappy if she’d had a skill that she had been developing for years and then was in a competition involving that thing and not placed all that well. Especially when a lot of people who had no skill in that thing at all did much better than her.
Still, there had been other components to the second Challenge and the rest of their team had not been all that musical, Lenny in particular. Although the Teppenpaw’s rhythm was better than his singing. As in, it did not sound like an animal being brutally tortured. Come to think of it, Topaz might actually enjoy his vocal talents.
The point was though that Lavender should not be so hard on herself if that was why she’d been so grumpy during the last Challenge. It was not her fault at all. In fact, if it weren’t for her oboe playing, they might have done even worse. The fourth year really hoped the older Crotalus did not think they blamed her for falling in the rankings.
Besides, Amethyst was not all that broken up about not playing bizarre junk instruments in front of everyone at the Concert. She really did not think anyone was-and Olaf was annoyed that he’d had to. Not that she’d had an issue with performing in itself, but it was much better to do something that she actually had talent in. Even though it was acting in a puppet show which was more Isla’s thing.
And now the Concert was over too. The Performing Arts Club’s act had been excellent and soon, they would all be leaving school for the summer. Amethyst was glad to have a break from classes and studying after what had been a busy year. Especially since next year would be another big one, with prefect announcements and CATS. Not that the Crotalus was really all that worried about the latter. She actually was pretty smart and pretty good at magic. Besides, as Amethyst had zero intention of ever having a career, there wasn’t really any pressure on her to get a particular score.
Prefect, however, well, of course she hoped that she got it. If she managed to get it, she would be the only one of her siblings besides Emerald to do so. For some reason, the staff did not think they were worthy of the honor. Which was kind of irritating, though of course Topaz really hadn’t deserved it.
However, Amethyst was up against Iris, who would be an excellent option. On the other hand, if Alexei didn’t get it, she might actually demand a recount.
Anyway, after spending some time talking to various relatives, she heard Iris call out to her.”Hey!” She replied. “Of course I will.” She was well aware that her summer might be more interesting than her friend’s “I’ll miss you. But I am really really glad for the break.” Okay, Amethyst’s summer was likely not going to all be relaxing. After all, she would be attending a lot of balls and parties, but at least some of the time she would be hanging out on the beach. “It’s been sort of a long year and next year probably will be too.”
11
Amethyst Brockert
It's been a long one
1532
0
5
I wish that wasn't my girl by Catherinre Scurlock
Catherine Scurlock had done her best to raise her daughters right. Right, in her eyes, meant so thoroughly magical that no one could fail to be impressed by them. That had started with their names. No one hearing either of their names could mistake their magical heritage. She had also done her best to immerse them in magical culture, with frequent trips to concerts, and the kinds of magical stately homes they could aspire to living in if they married right. She had also made sure they were well tutored in magical history, and had the kinds of suitable, ladylike skills that would make them attractive prospects, such as painting, dancing, and playing musical instruments.The concert had illustrated to her that maybe more than fifty percent of her efforts had been in vain. Verdillia's contribution was neither terrible nor of own volition, so she could be forgiven. Her piano playing wasn't even bad, and they could blame any irregularities on the junk approximation she was working with. She had, thankfully, not attempted to do a solo performance or playing the violin. Over the years, Catherine had had to fire several violin teachers for failing to recognise or bring out Verdillia's talents. Whilst she maintained that it was their fault entirely, she supposed it might have put her daughter rather behind where she should be, and that she might not yet be ready for an audience of this scale.
Leviosa was an entirety different matter. She had always tended towards the childish, and towards silliness of one sort or another - be it grubbing about for bugs in the garden or playing at being an explorer in the non-magical world. Catherine had hoped that sending her to school full of sophisticated people would force Leviosa to grow up in order to fit in. It seemed to be having the opposite effect. She had gravitated towards people who either shared her propensity for silliness or were influencable enough to be dragged down to her level.
A sword fight. Really?
Perhaps if it had been a controlled demonstration of the art of fencing, she could have passed it off as appropriate. The pirate costumes would have made that challenging, if not downright impossible. The melodramatic death scene and copious fake blood had really pushed it over the edge.
Could it qualify as theatre? Had any of the blood effects been enhanced by magic?
Catherine was mentally running through the ways she could spin the event to make Leviosa come out more favourably. Though judging by the first person she ran into, that wasn't going to be necessary. He seemed proud of his son, the presumable instigator of the incident.
"Yes, that was my daughter he was fighting," she said. She was not as enthusiastic as him, but she also didn't display her disapproval in her tone. It didn't do to make negative impressions, even when one suspected there wouldn't be much common ground or a desire for future friendship. "It was certainly dramatic," she added, her smile becoming a little fixed-looking.
13
Catherinre Scurlock
I wish that wasn't my girl
0
Catherinre Scurlock
0
5
Gabriel Wilson
November 23, 2022 5:02 AM
[Post-concert] So hard to say goodbye (Phil) by Gabriel Wilson
This was it, this was his last night here. Gabriel was graduating from Sonora and going off to college. And he did not feel like he really wanted to leave. Oh, leaving for the summer would have been one thing, but for good ? That was another thing entirely.It wasn’t as if he thought everything about college itself would be bad. After all, Gabriel would be learning all sorts of new things and that was very exciting. Still, though, the social side of things was different. He wouldn’t have his family or the Gaming Club or Phil at college. He had made friends at Sonora and that wasn’t something that Gabriel really found all that easy. He knew he was weird and had a tendency to spout off trivia spiels at the slightest prompt, whether people really wanted him to or not.
Although he honestly didn’t know why people wouldn’t. After all, who didn’t want to know that trypophobia is the fear of closely-packed holes. Or more specifically, "an aversion to the sight of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps." Or that the diameter of Australia was larger than that of the moon. Or that the unicorn was the national animal of Scotland. Gabriel actually wondered if the team who had done the tea room where unicorns featured prominently had known that. Although probably not since none of them were Scottish or trivia fanatics.
Speaking of the final Challenge, he had been a little disappointed in their placement. It wasn’t that he was mad at his teammates or blamed them, it was more that Gabriel thought their placement was unfair. Like, that the judges were wrong for marking them in last place. Their museum was amazing, and Phil’s water table idea was fantastic. They had presented many facts and ideas for their exhibits. Even Olaf seemed pleased with the results of their project and Gabriel didn’t get the impression that the younger Aladren was pleased with much.
However, apparently, the judges had not been that impressed since they had tied for last with Lavender’s team. Gabriel still did not understand why exactly but at least his sister’s team had one event that they hadn’t scored the lowest, so he was happy for Piper anyway. Even though the slide that she came up with was super awesome and also deserved to score better than it had. Granted, maybe he was a little biased towards both teams as it was his own team and he liked museums and his sister’s team and her cool slide idea.
Yet, somehow, Gabriel’s team had lost with their cool water table and otherwise awesome museum…but won-well, taken third-with their junk instruments and terrible musical skills. Even though it was-thankfully- over now, he was still tremendously baffled by this. He supposed they must have just come up with more interesting and creative uses for the junk. Plus, well, Gabriel was pretty good at Transfig so that probably helped them. Although he used the word helped loosely.
Anyway, it was over now, and they’d gotten through it. The seventh year had other things on his mind. Soon he’d be gone and he had some goodbyes to say. After the performances ended, Gabriel looked around for Phil. Spotting the younger Aladen, he made a beeline for him. “Hey.” He greeted his friend. “So, it’s…well, um…” He really did not want to say goodbye and leave forever and not see Phil or Morgan or anyone else anymore. “I’ll definitely keep in touch. I want to hear all about Gaming Club and all the adventures you guys go on.” Merlin, was he ever going to miss Gaming Club! Gabriel really did not want to leave.
11
Gabriel Wilson
[Post-concert] So hard to say goodbye (Phil)
1481
0
5
Allegra Brockert
November 23, 2022 7:53 AM
[Post-concert] I just can't stay away. by Allegra Brockert
Although she had only graduated a few years ago, this was already Allegra’s second time returning to Sonora. Last year, she had joined some of her female relatives at the alumni career and hobby Fair, at their needlework booth, where she demonstrated how to make small baby blanket quilts and now she was back to watch Esme, Isla, and Olaf at the concert. As it had turned out, her younger siblings had been very successful at one of the Challenge events that involved transfiguring random junk into musical instruments and playing them. Since none of her siblings played musical instruments-and it sounded like most of their teammates didn’t either- Allegra figured it was more the former that they had succeeded in. Also, Isla was doing a puppet act with the Performing Arts club.She was just glad that her siblings had had a better experience with the Challenges than she had. As in, they weren’t completely traumatized by it, Olaf’s feelings about having to perform in the Concert aside. She didn’t really blame him, as she never wanted to either, granted, for very different reasons. The idea of getting up in front of people and performing in any manner sort of made Allegra feel sick to her stomach. Never mind the judgment of others that would be inevitable,which would have been bad enough, Topaz likely would have found some way to sabotage her and make sure she was humiliated. Not that she would have needed her cousin’s help for that.
At least Allegra did not need to worry about her cousin being here tonight. Ever since they graduated,she had seen much less of the Aladren alumna. Which she thanked Merlin for every day. She wished she could say that she hadn’t seen Topaz since then, but they were still cousins and they were at least somewhat stuck with each other.
Of course, Allegra owed some of the improvements in her life to her fiance Josh. Not only did he make her feel loved and wanted and special, he also protected her from her cousin. Josh was just the right combination of strong and gentle. He was kind and caring with her but tough enough to stop Topaz from bothering her. Although, sometimes, Allegra did worry that Topaz would do something to him .Which terrified her. She would never ever forgive herself if something happened to Josh because he fell in love with her.
And then there was the fact that they would be getting married in just a few weeks. Topaz, for reasons completely understandable to everyone, was still single. Which meant that Allegra would beat her cousin to the altar. She had never been allowed to beat her cousin in anything, and while she was eager to be married to Josh, she still couldn’t help but be terrified of repercussions. Topaz was like a fairy tale villain, both horrendously evil and exceedingly petty. As had been the case when Emerald and Ruby married their husbands, there would be strict instructions to keep Topaz away from everyone’s food, not just Miles’s. Granted, that was probably common sense anyway
The Concert ended and Allegra laced her fingers through Josh’s. Technically, since they weren’t married yet, she didn’t think he was supposed to be here, but they were close enough. “Let’s go get something to eat.” She said.
They made their way to the buffet table and got in line. "I'm so proud of Isla." She told her fiance. "I mean, she won and they were winning all the way through. And her puppet act was amazing as well." It was true. Even though Allegra's own Challenge experience had been horrid-even though the boys on her team had actually been very nice people-she in no way wanted that to take away from Isla. Or her other two siblings either, but Isla had won and she deserved her triumph, her moment.
Because Allegra was pretty sure the Aladren was in for a rough summer. Being one of her bridesmaids would be fine-the Crotalus alumna was naturally more bothered by the fact that she'd been obligated to ask Topaz, just as Emerald and Ruby had even though it was the last thing she wanted-but then there would be all the other balls and events, and while there was quite the difference in their Challenge experiences, she worried that their social experiences would be quite similar, albeit for different reasons.. While Allegra was shy, and seriously traumatized, Isla was just a bit odd. And she loved that about her sister but others might not.
But Josh did. He seemed to get on great with everyone in her family, except the obvious people. He even got on with Olaf . Josh nodded. '"She was amazing. So were the others." Amethyst had been in the puppet show too "I mean, Esme and Olaf-and Isla too-sure did their best for people who don't know how to play instruments."
Allegra chuckled. "I am sure Isla will focus her energies towards her puppets." Which was what the fifth year had always done.. Something that Allegra really always had understood because she knew despite how Isla generally seemed okay with herself, she knew others didn't get her and bonded with her puppets.. "And Olaf will just keep reading and Esme will be a perfect socialite." Everyone would just keep on being themselves.
Everyone would..
And that was what she was most worried about.
11
Allegra Brockert
[Post-concert] I just can't stay away.
1426
0
7
Marissa Duell
November 23, 2022 10:19 AM
Back where it all began. by Marissa Duell
Valentine was an adult now, and her mother had, for the first time, been glad that Valentine had been sequestered at school on her birthday. This had spared Marissa the task of trying to be uniformly upbeat and not at all weepy on her daughter’s birthday. It had been quite enough to not end up in a…complete spiral of Acting Like Stereotypical Parents with her husband on the day itself, anyway. A bit of such a spiral had probably been inevitable, but not a complete one. If Val had been around, it was not outside the realm of possibility that she could have at least briefly convinced her forty-two-year-old parents she had a point about younger siblings being a good idea, and while Marissa imagined they’d have come to their senses before such siblings actually existed…well, better not to risk it.“It is,” Marissa agreed, though unable to keep a straight face as she did so, when Andrew bemoaned the downsides of being a grown-up and expected to be responsible. “Still – it might be nice to walk around the old place one more time…even if it’s just to see if we think we’d get lost now on our own.”
She added the half-joke as a barrier to getting too sentimental, though she was half-curious about that issue, too. It felt like she should have been able to walk around the school on her own without getting lost, just on the strength of how long she had spent living here, but…she was past forty, and had been a few years short of twenty when she’d stopped living in this building. In the years between, she’d gone through the ups and downs of any long relationship – gotten married – had and raised a child – lived for a while in another country – buried her mother – gone through all the drama of rediscovering the existence of her sister-in-law, who she had to remind herself sometimes wasn’t actually another daughter, and dealing with the fallout from Giselle’s past….Was she even anything like the same person she’d been when she had been Valentine’s age? In her head, it felt like she had been, for the most part, but she was also fairly certain that seventeen-year-old Marissa Stephenson would have had a nervous breakdown even before she got to Greece. Growing up was an odd thing, and she wasn’t sure it was possible to pinpoint the moment she’d done it. Maybe when Andrew’s parents had died? When she’d had deal with the pure terror of the responsibility that came along with being sent home with this helpless little creature which relied on her for everything when Val was born? Some point in between…?
None of which, of course, logically had anything to do with the part of her memory that would presumably contain floor plans, but then, magic wasn’t always logical. Neither were people. She suspected this fact had something to do with why some of the Aladrens were a tad neurotic.
“I know,” she sighed, hugging Andrew’s arm to her when he remarked on Val’s alleged legal status; she wasn’t even sure she’d bother denying it was partially to comfort herself as well as him if confronted about that. “Shouldn’t she still be about…I don’t know…five?”
Marissa nodded when Andrew had his revelation about a possible practical function of their visit. “That’s a really good idea,” she said, nodding. “Goodness knows anything that could take some of the strain off her next year would be a good idea, poor baby. I don't know how she finds the time to do so much now." Marissa didn't even think to add that she was fairly confident Val would have even more to do next year; she had enough sense to not mention it to Valentine, because she didn't want her to think she was in any capacity letting Marissa down if it didn't happen, but she thought it extremely probable that Val would end up Head Girl on top of everything else she had to do.
16
Marissa Duell
Back where it all began.
147
0
5
What's one of those? by Monica Spellman
Age-gap lesbians. In spite of herself, it was the first thought to flash through Monica’s head once she’d read the name tags that ascribed both these people parental roles over two children named Alexander and Mab. Age-gap same sex couple she mentally amended. Given that she was bi, and that she had a strong suspicion that her older son was, she ought to not make assumptions about labels. It was amazing how hard it was not to do that though—not to leap to the automatic conclusions that the world had taught her about how families looked, and what labels went with that, regardless of the fact that she didn’t exactly fit the mould either.In some ways, she thought she might blend in better than she had at her first concert. At that point, she had looked suspiciously young to have any child eleven or older. Four years provided a bit of a buffer, in that if people didn’t know the ages of her children, she wasn't such an outlier for the lower years. The younger of the two women looked to be about her age, maybe. It was hard to tell. She always defaulted to assuming people were her age-ish only to find they were in their mid-twenties or were well-kept for their forties. Monica herself was hard to place. Given that life hadn't always been kind, she felt she had more lines on her face than most thirty-five year olds, but in times of stress, her skin still tended to break out like she was a teenager. Not that she was stressed at the moment, no more than usual, and she'd even had time to do her hair and make up before coming. She wasn't sure what direction that pulled her appearance in. Her cover would be blow when two great, galumphing fifteen year olds came running at her (okay, one great galumphing fifteen year old, and one quiet and well-mannered but still decidedly taller than her - and they were still fifteen until the day after tomorrow and she absolutely refused to round up). But, until that happened or someone asked, she could pass for a relatively reasonable parent and adult type person. Given the age of the younger child, and the fact she hadn't heard of Mab or Alexander, she was going to guess these women's children were beginners. Although she thought ther was something familiar about the older woman... And Monica wasn't sure the woman actually liked her, even though she hadn't done anything so far.
"Hello," she smiled back at the younger woman, Deidre. "I'm Monica," she added, indicating her name tag, which read 'Monica Spellman, Mom Oz + Henry.' "Which way did you get here?" she asked, mostly to make conversation though she realised it would give her a bit of a read on them too.
13
Monica Spellman
What's one of those?
0
Monica Spellman
0
5
[Pre-Concert] Touring by Flo Carbondale
Flo Carbondale like to think she was adventurous and willing to try anything once. So when the muggle liaison officer explained the ways she could to Sonora for her son’s concert, she’d opted to try the item called a ‘portkey’. She arrived at the transportation center where Phil boarded the flying wagon twice a year (Steve took care of pick-ups; she had drop-offs) and touched the snowglobe that was supposed to whisk her three states south.She felt a sensation not unlike freefall, or like when one of those amusement park rides launches straight up a hundred feet in one second, or when a roller coaster comes to an abrupt stop, or like when a car rearends into yours and you’re jolted unexpectedly into your seatbelt and airbag, except it was all four of those at the same time.
Flo stumbled forward a step and saw she was was now outside in a hedge garden. She laughed in delighted surprise and then her rational brain and stomach conspired together to say ‘nope!’ and she threw up.
One of the staff rushed over, used a wand to clean up the mess, and asked if she was ok. Promising she’s just gotten a little portykey sick, she accepted some nausea medicine and water to wash away the taste of the bile and the medication. Well, she’d give magic points for instantaneous travel and easy sanitation. The medicine was surprisingly fast acting, too. She was still glad she had a few hours before she needed to make a return trip, though.
Thanking the staff member for their help, she headed over to the nametag table and made one for herself.
Flo Carbondale
Phil Carson’s Mom
She slapped it onto her khaki polo shirt that she was wearing with blue jeans. Looking around, she wondered if she should have dressed up a little more. She hadn’t been sure what the dress code was for this and wasn’t sure anybody else had either; there seemed to be enough of a range that a dominant style didn’t really exist, other than maybe ‘robes’ (even those seemed to come in a mix of formal and less formal) but she didn’t have anything like that unless you counted the sleepwear kind. Well, there wasn’t anything to be done about her attire at this point anyway. It was the low end of business casual, but she didn’t think she was the most underdressed parent here.
Nametag complete, she made her way inside the school. She joined one of the tour groups and found herself walking beside another person through the hallways, getting to be tourist for once instead of the guide (not that she regularly lead tour groups; she mostly just patrolled and made sure the guests weren’t doing anything dangerous to themselves or the park, but occasionally she had to lead a lost group back to the parking lot). “It’s nice to see where the kids spend most of their year, isn’t it?”
1
Flo Carbondale
[Pre-Concert] Touring
0
Flo Carbondale
0
5
Sullivan Quincy
November 23, 2022 7:05 PM
[Post Concert] Brother to Banjo Girl by Sullivan Quincy
At thirty seven, Sullivan Quincy was more likely to be grouped among the parents (albeit, the younger ones, at least) in attendance than the siblings. Consequently, he made sure to write BROTHER on his nametag even larger than he had written Sully above it or of Rosalynn after it. He wouldn’t swear to it, but he’d guess, at 64, his step-father Simon Tellerman was probably the oldest person who had “Dad” written on his nametag. Mom was not significantly younger (Sully knew better than to ask or even do the math to get a number), but he’d wager she was up there on the ‘Mom’s, too.He took the tour, because that seemed to the thing to do, and it was cool, because he got to point out things to Mom that she’d never gotten to see that had been important to him for seven years of his life. He also got to hear some of Simon’s stories, too, and by the end of the tour, he’d collected a small army of prairie elves who were excitedly talking to him and catching him up on everything he’d missed in the last thirty years since he quit working as the groundskeeper here. Apparently, the current guy did not hand out impromptu promotions and special missions and they wondered if Simon would come back.
Simon let them down gently that no, he was a successful performer in Vegas, and he would not be returning, but maybe he could talk to the current groundskeeper about reinstating the First Order of Janitors and the special missions. They seemed satisfied by that and slowly dispersed to return to their duties.
It was the most weirdly heartwarming and yet vaguely discomfiting thing Sully had ever seen. He was strongly reminded of Gru with his minions.
As they took seats together for the concert, Sully leaned over to whisper, “Were you a supervillain before you married my mom?”
Simon’s bright grin and the cheery, “Yup!” might have been meant as a joke, but Sully was not convinced.
Rosalynn was in three acts. Her team had tied for first in the second challenge and were punished by needing to perform the act at the concert. He wasn’t sure how they’d only tied for first, though, given their competitors. Ros and Violin Girl carried the act very well and it was easily the best sounding of the three junk bands.
Simon stood up and whooped and twirled a cowboy hat he hadn’t been wearing until that moment as the act finished. “Nice banjo, Ros!” he called out and Sully tried to hunch down and pretend he’d never met Simon before in his entire life.
The puppet act was cute and actually funny, and Ros and Lenny did a good juggling act together. Some of the other acts that didn’t include his baby sister were pretty good, too, including Violin Girl’s solo, but Sully was of the totally biased opinion Rosalynn’s were the best.
“Gonna see if there’s anyone here I know,” Sully told his mom when the show was over. “Have Simon use his minions to summon me when you’re ready to go.”
With that he took his leave of his parents and wandered among the crowd looking to see if there was anyone here he recognized after almost twenty years. He didn’t think he’d changed much. His hair was still blond, still cut in the same short style he’d always worn, and his glasses were the most prominent feature on his face. He’d even worn a green robe to help people out by seeing him in the same color he’d almost always worn at school.
OOC: He says he’s looking for someone he recognizes but that is not a requirement for whoever ends up approaching him first.
1
Sullivan Quincy
[Post Concert] Brother to Banjo Girl
207
0
7
You're not wrong by Iris Cobb
Iris nodded in agreement, "Next year will be busy as well." A thought occurred to her and she had to smile. "However, it will be the second time that I won't have classes with my brother. So that will be fantastic." She could put up with RATS and whatever else the next year would bring if she didn't have to put up with Billy in her classes. Someone else would have to make sure he stayed out of trouble. He wasn't going to be her problem.But that was next year. First they had summer to deal with. Iris was really quite jealous of Amethyst's situation and everything that went with it. Her roommate had fancy clothes, and would get to do exciting things. She was going to have to spend her break up on the mountain, pretending to not be a witch while trying to reconnect with her cousins and do whatever work that Ma and Pa and the others had lined up for her. That line of thought reminded her of something.
"Oh," Iris added a tad reluctantly, "If you send me some owls... it's best not to do it to often. Last I heard some folk back home were getting a bit suspicious about them." Although perhaps.... she wondered if Ulrich had some sort of solution. "I'll let you know though if anything changes over the summer."
2
Iris Cobb
You're not wrong
1526
0
5
Esme Brockert
November 24, 2022 6:42 AM
[Post-concert]The End by Esme Brockert
The Concert was over now and so was Esme’s time at Sonora. She couldn’t help feeling a little...disappointed. While she had done great academically and she had even made a few friends...she hadn’t gotten prefect, she hadn’t gotten Head Student and she hadn’t led her team to victory in the Challenges. They hadn’t even made it to the top three. The best that Esme could say was that she led them out of the last place pit they’d been in after the first Challenge and succeeded in the dubious honor of having her team perform in the Concert on transfigured junk instruments.So yeah, Esme was just so proud. Okay, maybe she should be a little since they actually sounded as decent as possible with the materials they were given and the fact that she, the Team Leader, and therefore, oldest most advanced student on the team, was a Brockert and therefore, probably one of the two best students in the whole school at Transfiguration.
Which also explained why Olaf’s team had done well in that event and now had to perform, as Gabriel was captaining it. She was sure that her brother was cursing the fact.
Anyway, the seventh year couldn’t help but feel like she’d failed . Although, she absolutely could not stand to think that. Esme Christabel Brockert was not a failure! Still, she had not succeeded in basically any accolade that would win her respect. Not getting things like prefect and Head Student, had made her feel like she didn’t have the respect of staff and students. True, the latter was nothing but a popularity contest, but still, even though Esme had not done as well as she wanted in the Challenges, she’d done better than Morgan and Gabriel, which meant she was probably a better leader than they were.
Of course, going by that way of thinking, Sadie and Mab should have gotten Head Student, although Mab wasn’t on the ballot and neither was Theo, so should it have been Sadie and Alexander? Which, she guessed, meant her roommate deserved prefect over her. Not that she’d ever thought Sadie was a bad choice, it just…felt bad that she’d been chosen over Esme. Like, it was a sign that someone thought someone else was better than you. And that…hurt.
Then again, it had always seemed like people either resented pureblood girls or thought they were inferior. And she didn’t mean like how Uncle Eustace thought women were inferior. The seventh year meant that people thought they were silly and spoiled and useless and snotty and mean. This was most likely why people like her didn’t get badges. Some people were anti-them. After all, literally only Emerald and Allegra had gotten it among them.
Although, obviously, there were good reasons why Topaz didn’t get prefect. Well, sort of. Topaz with that power was obviously a terrible idea but the thing was…she hid that to avoid detection, but her roommate had been abrasive and pretty much openly anti-certain types of people, that included Esme. So, logically speaking, from the point of view of people who didn’t know what Topaz was, it would have made more sense to give it to her cousin.
Also, in Isla’s case, Rosalynn was genuinely probably more worthy given the two clubs she ran. Esme had been really impressed with the fifth year’s performance in the Challenges. She just hoped that Rosalynn had gotten prefect for the right reasons.
Anyway, Head Student was a popularity contest,not a measure of who was truly best for the job anyway. And the people who had voted in that election had not…really been Esme’s constituents. She, like Angelique-although her time at Sonora had been better than Angelique’s-was going to be far more successful outside of school.
She had to tell herself that. She had to make herself feel better. And it was probably the truth anyway.
The Crotalus looked around, a lot of her family was here, but she had some goodbyes to say, because despite feeling bad about being beaten out for being prefect, she really did like Sadie. And she wanted to say goodbye to both her roommate and Val before she left Sonora for good.
11
Esme Brockert
[Post-concert]The End
1479
0
5
Valentine Duell
November 24, 2022 7:31 AM
[Post Concert] This is terrible [Wally] by Valentine Duell
This was not what Valentine wanted. It was all wrong, she had been agonizing over it since Gary's wedding, and still hadn't come up with a solution she liked. She had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to talk to Wally about things, but none had conveniently presented itself. Now they were here in the last hours of school and she just had to do something. She would feel terrible if this continued over the summer, but she was going to feel terrible now as well.Valentine liked Wally, he was great and nice, but... she just... she just didn't know. She just always got the feeling that he wasn't quite sure of the relationship they had going. Like he wasn't entirely comfortable with her and Bonabelle and him. They needed to talk about it, like really, really talk about it. The post concert event was hardly the best time to have such a talk, but it was the last chance they would have to talk until next year and that just wasn't good enough. If he didn't think this would work out (and she wasn't sure herself), she needed to make sure that he knew that they didn't have to continue as they were.
She really, really, really, really didn't want to break up with Wally. Or anyone really, Stanley's note still pierced her whenever she thought about it. But at the same time, she didn't want to keep on perpetuating a relationship that wasn't going to be everything they wanted. So to that end, she reluctantly but determinedly hunted the hall for Wally. She found him and her insides rebelled against her plans, but she pushed forward.
"Hey Wally," Val opened nervously, "Do you have a few minutes?" She looked around trying to find some quieter out-of-the way part of the hall. Spotting something close, she took his hand and led him over to it. Now that she was here semi-alone with him, her stomach churned again, "I'm sorry... I don't really know..." she stopped and rethought her approach again. It wasn't like she hadn't thought about this conversation a million times before, but none of them were any good. She took a breath and tried again, attempting to give Wally a smile in the progress.
"This is our last chance to talk for a little while, and I've just got to know... tell me honestly now Wally, what do you think of our arrangement? You, me and Bonabelle? Is it what you want?" Something of a guilty expression crossed her face, "I'm... I'm not..." she wasn't sure if she could say it, but she had to. She asked Wally to be honest she had to be as well. "I care for Bonabelle a lot, and I like you a lot as well. But... If I'm being honest, I want the boy I like to care for Bonabelle just as much as I do." She sighed, "I just wanted to talk and see what your thoughts and feelings were by now."
2
Valentine Duell
[Post Concert] This is terrible [Wally]
1490
0
5
[Post-concert]Forgiveness rather than permission (Karl) by Cory Brockert
Cory was not supposed to be at the Concert, which was for parents,guardians, siblings and siblings-in-law of current students. He had been informed of the fact that he wasn’t supposed to be here several times by his brother, his sister-in-law, and Adam given that he fit in none of those categories.He was here anyway. Even though his niece, Liesl, was not even performing in the Concert, Cory still wanted to be here. He knew full well that he was the person that she wanted to see more than anyone, just like at the Fair last year. Although, he’d also been there to give out brochures about wand making and wand lore and performing and teaching guitar, but mostly for his niece.
And tonight, Cory was only there for her. Her parents, brother and sister were there as well, but he knew…well, he was sure they did care about her but Liesl didn’t always feel like they did. Or that they liked Desmond and Krisalyn better or that they didn’t get her. The last of those things was absolutely true.
Although it was not as if Cory was super into spooky stuff either, but he loved and accepted Liesl for who she was. He tried to do that with most people. Some made it hard though. Sometimes his brothers did. Toby had never done anything but torment him relentlessly. Judah and Alfie, had always treated him like an annoying little pest, and he kind of felt that the latter and his wife, Jacqueline, who were Liesl’s parents, did that to her, Jacqueline-whom Cory had to admit that he did not especially like , which was pretty bad since he tended to see the best in everyone, the only other person that he’d admitted to himself that he didn’t really like was his cousin Eustace -was especially bad this way
Which Cory felt was awful and a way that nobody should ever treat their kid . His older brothers doing that to him was one thing, siblings were like that to each other sometimes-though it still had really sucked for him-but parents? Parents should love and accept their children no matter what. He always made sure that his own children felt wanted and loved. Alfie and Jacqueline did not do that, at least not with their oldest child. It didn’t seem this was the case with the other two, but that was probably because they fit whatever mold that their parents-their mother, in particular-wanted.
And Cory knew how bad it really hurt Liesl. That she felt like they didn’t want her, that she was some weird prototype that they’d screwed up badly. Which, arguably, they absolutely were screwing up and making mistakes with her, but they were the problems not her.
Which was why he had to come tonight, regardless of the rules that said he wasn’t supposed to. Besides, the odds were that the third year would be coming home with him anyway, before going on to visit her friend Hans at his snake ranch. Liesl wanted to be at his house and he wanted her there and her parents seemed to want her there too. So everyone won. Except that his niece felt rejected by her parents.
Honestly, it made Cory kind of angry-and he typically didn’t get angry much. Except when he saw someone mistreated, especially someone he cared about. Not that he would end up confronting Alfie and Jacqueline, he really never had confronted anyone, but he would just…offer emotional support to Liesl.
Anyway, tonight, Cory also hoped to meet the father of Liesl’s friend, Hans. Who was his uncle actually. The third year seemed to think it was pretty cool that the two of them both had super close relationships with their uncles. From what Cory understood though, Hans’s uncle was the only father he’d known while Liesl only wished Cory was her dad.
He scanned the room for someone who fit the description his niece had given him and spotting a person who did, made his way over, reading the man's name tag in order to double check“Hi. I’m Cory Brockert, Liesl’s uncle.” He introduced himself. Which was exactly what his own name tag said. Despite that he was not supposed to be here and probably should have lied on his like Allegra's fiance Josh had, he had no idea who else he would pretend to be. It wasn't as if Cory could say he was Liesl's dad when Alfie was actually there.
11
Cory Brockert
[Post-concert]Forgiveness rather than permission (Karl)
0
Cory Brockert
0
5
Phil Carson
November 24, 2022 9:44 AM
Should we say 'see ya later' instead? by Phil Carson
Phil was pretty excited about the concert. He hadn't planned to be in the concert, but then his team did well enough in the second challenge that they won a spot in it. He was pretty sure most of his team didn't agree, but Phil thought it was great. Now all three of his parents (including Tanya) had decided to come out to see it, which meant Dad and Tanya could meet Gabriel (Mom already had when Gabriel had served as his responsible adult for the Harper wedding) and all of his immediate families could see where he lived most of the year. He wasn't sure all three adults would have taken off work to come if he wasn't actually in the concert.Of course, the downside was that Loki had come, too.
Consequently, when the concert was over, Phil went looking for Gabriel before his family. The effort was apparently mutual because the seventh year headed straight for him, too.
"Yes! I'll owl you a lot and keep you up on the Gaming Club adventures!" Phil promised when Gabriel reminded him that his friend was old enough now that he wouldn't be returning in the fall. That was saddening, and Phil was definitely going to miss him, especially since they'd been on the Challenge team together this year and gotten to spend even more time than normal together.
"Oh!" he said suddenly, as if he'd just thought of it, "I want you to meet my other family. You met my mom, and she should be around somewhere, too, but Dad, Tanya, and my little sister should be here, too. They live over in Helena, and they're the ones who always brought me to the museum with the water table!" He'd explained when they made arrangements for the wedding that his parents were divorced and had split custody, and they'd agreed to meet at Mom's because there weren't any people around her log cabin in the woods who might notice somebody appearing or disappearing from or into thin air. Dad, Tanya, and Loki lived in a city apartment and there were a lot more muggle witnesses around.
1
Phil Carson
Should we say 'see ya later' instead?
1536
0
5
Gabriel Wilson
November 25, 2022 6:28 AM
Absolutely by Gabriel Wilson
Gabriel managed to smile, though it was tinged with a touch of sadness, when Phil confirmed that he would write to him telling him all about Gaming Club activities. “Great. I will tell you all about college and all sorts of new random facts.” The older Aladren promised.Honestly, this was terrible. What if he never got to do gaming again because nobody at Dofmore played it? He could attempt to get one going himself, but Gabriel wanted to play not be the GM. And, admittedly, he was worried about the fate of the Gaming Club at Sonora too. Val, Bertie, and Phillipe would all be graduating next year, Morgan was graduating along with him. Gabriel was going to have to say goodbye to his year and housemate later too.“Do you think that Gaming Club will continue once Val leaves?”
This worried him terribly, even though the seventh year would no longer be here. Gaming Club had been so important to him. It had given him so many good times and fond memories. It was where he had made his closest non-related friends. Gabriel had looked up to Gary and,really, Heinrich too, and then had, seemingly, filled a similar role for Phil, who was now like a younger brother to him. So, the club was extremely special and important and needed to keep going. Sonora without Gaming Club just would be wrong .
And hopefully, Phil would pick out a protegee too.The legacy needed to keep going.
Meanwhile, Gabriel was going to be…alone. And it bothered him. A lot. Much more than he would have thought, to be honest. Which reminded him of an especially appropriate and poignant random fact. He looked at his friend and asked “Did you know in Switzerland that it’s illegal to only own one guinea pig because they’re social animals and get lonely?” Hopefully, Phil would understand what he was trying to convey with that bit of interesting trivia. While Gabriel went into trivia spiels all the time for no reason at all, he especially sought comfort in them when he had to deal with unpleasant sorts of emotions. There was no more Gabriel-ish way to say goodbye or express his feelings than that.
He nodded “Sure! I would love to meet the rest of your family. And I still say our water table should have done better. Does it make any sense to you that one of the best ideas that our team came up with got last and our worst skill got third place? Was everyone else just that good at the last event and that bad at the previous one?” The seventh year was still excessively baffled by this, and while Gabriel hated being confused, it was still preferable to dealing with sadness and anxiety.
11
Gabriel Wilson
Absolutely
1481
0
5
Sophia Priory
November 25, 2022 8:03 AM
[Pre-concert] Reuniting with an old friend (Hilda) by Sophia Priory
In all honesty, Sophia probably would have skipped the concert. After all, Lydia wasn’t even performing, although Gwendolyn was. Still, she had come more because Hilda would be there than to support her sister. After all, there was nothing to support, really. It wasn’t as if she and her sister had a close bond to begin with and Sophia really could not give the Teppenpaw the level of support she apparently needed.It wasn’t as if she didn’t care about her sister at all. It was just that it was hard sometimes to deal with that level of neediness.Plus, well, she sort of resented it just a bit that her parents had babied her sister so much. Like, they had created this whiney fragile being, and while Sophia was glad not to be that way, she still sort of felt like her parents had favored her sister over her. And while that was not really Lydia’s fault, she couldn’t help but resent her just a little, and find her neediness overwhelming and just more than a little than she could actually handle all that much.
Not that Sophia had an issue with shy anxious types in general. She actually had empathy for her dad-even though he was part of the problem with Lydia, Dad had a lot of his own anxiety problems- and Uncle Adam and others as well as for people who had other issues like Bridget and her parents. Sophia wasn’t just generally a cold unfeeling person like her cousin Arianna, it was just her parents expecting her to coddle and fuss over her sister the way they, and to an extent, Connor, did.
And, of course her parents had put pressure on her to attend-and of course Sophia had responded with the absolutely valid point that her sister was not even performing. The fourth year did not need her there. In fact, had Lydia’s group done well enough in that particular Challenge in order to have to perform, which would have been the only way the Teppenpaw would have ended up actually being in the Concert-something that Sophia actually did feel was perfectly fine and did not judge Lydia for at all-the Aladren alumna’s presence would absolutely not have helped anything much. And she certainly was not about to sit and fuss over Lydia because the Challenges had stressed her out. After all, they were over and the Teppenpaw did not have to perform in the Concert and Sophia’s team had been last when they’d done them.
Anyway, normally, she would have refused on principle to come at all.However, her friend Hilda’s brother Hans was performing tonight in the same junk instrument Challenge act that Gwendolyn was and Hilda was coming to see that. So, Sophia had come to hang out with her friend and maybe just a bit to see her cousin. It was pretty cool that the second year’s team had won and dominated throughout. Aside from Uncle Evan, whose team had also gotten first during the first time the Challenges had been held.
Once they arrived at school and Sophia got her name tag and everything, she scanned the room. Spotting her friend, she walked over. “Guten abend!” She greeted the former Pecari.
11
Sophia Priory
[Pre-concert] Reuniting with an old friend (Hilda)
1447
0
5
Wally O'Malley
November 25, 2022 10:48 AM
That's... not promising. by Wally O'Malley
Wally went with Valentine willingly, as he went with her everywhere. She didn’t seem like herself, which gave him a bad feeling about where the conversation was going to go (a concern which was soon proven right), but despite the heavy feeling in his stomach, he made no indication that he didn’t want to go. For two reasons, he went: 1) because it seemed important to her and he wanted to make sure she was okay, and 2), Wally remained completely and utterly enamored with her. Despite the.. general weirdness to their relationship, he maintained his deep devotion to her. He loved her.He resisted a flinch as she referred to their “arrangement” - it felt like a clinical way to refer to something so emotionally driven as a relationship, but it wasn’t like this was anything simple. Dating Val was complicated, because she was also dating Bonabelle.
And that was what she was asking about, although Wally wasn’t positive if he fully understood the question. “Are you asking me if I have feelings for Bonabelle too?” he clarified cautiously. “Val, I… I don’t think I can do that. I like spending time with her, and I don’t mind if you date her too, but…. I don’t think I’m wired like that. I can only like one person.” He paused briefly, hoping what he had said was good enough. “Is… that okay?”
12
Wally O'Malley
That's... not promising.
1492
0
5
Constance Melcher
November 25, 2022 11:01 AM
[Post concert] Nevermind by Constance Melcher
Connie was happy to be reunited with her family, but she had excused herself briefly to go locate someone else. She would have all summer at home, but this was the last day of the school year, and it was Theo’s final year at Sonora. She wasn’t sure what she was going to tell him, or how to reorganize her thoughts to strip away the facade of intellectual fancy behind which she disguised herself, but there were some… trickier messages she needed to convey prior to his ultimate exit. Feelings, as it were.She spied him across the way before he seemed to see her. She smiled authentically and pulled out her hair tie. Mother had already chided her for having it up, but she kept it despite the nagging. She dropped it now in the hopes it would perform in the opposite direction. Perhaps it would… slow down her mind to let some other part of her shine. And also, maybe it would make her look prettier. A little more feminine.
But Theo saw someone else - an alumna Connie recognized as a friend of his - and from the display, the Aladren thought that perhaps she was… mistaken. Theo was an affectionate person in general, but Constance allowed this visible display with a girl to shake her resolve and justify her brewing cowardice. So she did not approach any further. She turned on her heels and returned back to her parents, returning her hair to its ponytail and accepting her mother’s disapproval. It was normal. It was known. It was better that way.
12
Constance Melcher
[Post concert] Nevermind
1523
0
5
Valentine Duell
November 25, 2022 1:59 PM
I know, I'm sorry by Valentine Duell
She couldn't do this... she couldn't. Wally was being perfectly Wally and she was once again not sure at all what she wanted. Wally liked spending time with Bonabelle, and didn't mind them dating as well. Did he mean that? Was he being honest, or just telling her what she wanted to hear? She'd always gotten the feeling that Wally would throw whatever he wanted aside to make someone else happy. Was he doing that now? He didn't say that he wanted to date Bonabelle as well, so it wasn't everything that she had said she wanted... but maybe there were some lines that he couldn't cross? This was silly though, it wasn't like she was testing him or anything. Was she? Now she wasn't even sure about that. She didn't want to be. She just wanted to know what he wanted and to see if they were on the same page.This was why she had wanted to talk to him about this before now, before it was moments before they had to part for the summer. It could have been a much more casual, all-encompassing conversation instead of some rushed exchange. Naturally at that moment a random thought crossed her mind. She recalled some notes Gary had scribbled into the side of his GM manual, he had been doing some sort of research on the magical manipulation of time at one point. It had just been a few random notes, it didn't look like he had gotten anywhere. It was a shame, that could be nice. Even if she could just freeze time for a bit so she and Wally could chat for as long as they needed.
Valentine looked in Wally's eyes earnestly, "I''m sorry Wally. I just... I'm not sure. I've been busy and we haven't really gotten a good chance to just talk and check in with each other all term." She hesitated a moment before dropping her gaze and continuing quietly, "I'm not a great girlfriend. I spend a little more time with Bonabelle... but that was mostly 'study dates' where it was pretty much only studying." Relationships had seriously taken a backseat to everything else this year, and that had made for a not-much-fun year.
She shook herself free of that line of thinking and took his hands, "It is okay Wally. I don't want you to change yourself based on what you think someone else wants. I want you to be you. I'm still figuring out my future, and I don't entirely know what I want. I do know that I don't want you to ever think that I wasn't open and honest and misled you. And I don't want to think that of you. At this point all I know is that I'm going to do my darndest to be a wandmaker after school, and Bonabelle will be there with me. I want a shop somewhere eventually, matching up people with their new wands. I want a husband and kids and Bonabelle with me." There was a slight blush in her cheeks as she added a bit more quietly, "Perhaps a bunch of kids..."
Finally pausing to catch her breath again, she finished off her rushed speech. "Ideally, we'd all just be one big family. So I guess what I'm asking, is can you see yourself in that role?" There was definite hope in her eyes as she asked the question. She was well aware that Bonabelle was not a big people-person and knew her ideal was most likely a fantasy. Still she could not allow herself to lead Wally on. "Where do you see yourself? What plans do you have for the future? Are our dreams compatible?"
2
Valentine Duell
I know, I'm sorry
1490
0
5
Wally O'Malley
November 25, 2022 7:29 PM
I'll try to make it better. by Wally O'Malley
He had to admit one thing, she was right about having not seen each other much this year. That was more on him than her, though. The year had just… gotten away from him somehow. He didn’t know where the time had gone, or how they were now seventeen years old and preparing for their final summer break. Valentine was busy because she had a lot of friends and two partners and also needed time for clubs and homework - and he was proud of her for how hard she worked to maintain it all, so it broke his heart to hear her blaming herself for it all now. He was almost certain he had told her before how proud he was, but obviously he had not done so enough. He was going to now, but she kept going, so he resolved to remind her later.It struck him all at once as she talked about the future, how not far off all those things were to them now. Careers and marriages and children were all so close. Hers were so real and concrete, but Wally didn’t really know what he wanted to do. A lot of people in his life had always known what they wanted, just like that. Mom’s love of Potions was in her since childhood. He thought he remembered knowing it took Dad a bit longer to decide, so maybe he was just more like Dad.
“Valentine,” he said gently, giving a small squeeze to the hands she had placed in his, “I wish I had a plan, but I don’t really know yet. I’m still trying to figure out a lot of that grown up stuff. But I know that I’ve never known a “you” without Bonabelle. She’s, like, part of you, kind of. So I guess when I try to look ahead and I see us, I still see her there too. And I think the three of us and a bunch of kids sounds… pretty nice.” He wore a slightly crooked grin, and a rosy tint filled his cheeks. He was a respectable and polite boy, but a boy he still was, and part of his brain couldn’t wholly separate a particular implication of the child-having process.
It was an unorthodox way to raise children, maybe. But wasn’t the saying that it “takes a village”? The Crotalus was from a fairly “conventional” home, but there were still atypical factors. Mom grew up with no mother and received some extent of parenting from all over: Grandpa Jamison, Serapes, Theo’s parents (first separately and then together), Great Aunt Cecily… The list went on. And Wally considered himself raised by Serapes as well, to an extent, as he had lived with them for many years now since his decline in health. So Wally was at least somewhat familiar with an unusual set of adults, and in his experience, the only thing that mattered was the adults provided unconditional love and support. And that was what he was prepared to do, whether a hypothetical child was his and Valentine’s, or Bonabelle’s and someone else’s, or any other imaginable combination.
12
Wally O'Malley
I'll try to make it better.
1492
0
5
Valentine Duell
November 26, 2022 6:25 AM
Don't forget about yourself in the process by Valentine Duell
Valentine had crushed herself against Wally before she realized it. Her arms wrapped around him and her head was pressed tightly against his chest. She could hear the warm, comforting sound of his heartbeat and it was heaven. That all sounded 'pretty nice' to her as well. "You are wonderful Wally O'Malley," She murmured in his general direction. It hadn't just been the words, she had seen it in his eyes and in that cute slightly crooked grin of his. He did want this as well, or at the very least was honestly okay with it.There would naturally be details and things to work out, but they had time. The daytime was easy enough to imagine, everyone doing things for mealtimes and working and such. It was the nights that concerned Val a little more, she didn't want to have to pick where to go each night, or set up something as ridiculously impersonal as a schedule. She'd much rather be snuggled in between her two favorite people for the night. But she knew it wasn't fair for everyone else to make sacrifices so that she got her way. She could make sacrifices as well. They would work it all out.
Valentine slowly loosened her grip on her boyfriend and pulled back a little bit. Her eyes now danced with relief and a playfulness that hadn't been there at the start of the conversation. "Well now that you know what you are in for, you will need to figure out what you want to do with your life. I need to know what I should do to help and support you as well." She placed a finger over his lips, just in case he tried to come up with something on the spot for her. "You've got the summer to work things out, no pressure." She gave him a wink. "I'm not sure how close I'll be in communication this summer, I'm going to be traveling with Lavender a bit." Bringing up Lavender's name sunk Val's spirits just a tiny bit. Val knew that Lavender just didn't quite understand her situation and that made her sad. How would that relationship work out in the future? Would she not want to do things with the three of them (not that she was all that interested in doing things with Bonabelle at the moment) as they got older?
Hopefully these concerns were not as dire as she was making them out to be, and she wasn't about to worry Wally with them if they could maybe get sorted out. So she did her best to stay positive, because this was a good moment. Val gave him another smile, "Now you behave this summer and I'll write when I am able to." She gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Now I've got to go find Bonabelle yet to say good-bye." Her arms tightened around him and she gave him a quick kiss on the lips this time. "I'll see you next year."
2
Valentine Duell
Don't forget about yourself in the process
1490
0
5
Amethyst Brockert
November 26, 2022 6:38 AM
Good. I like being right by Amethyst Brockert
Amethyst laughed. “Well, that’s always good.” Honestly, she was extremely happy that Jasper was nothing like Billy. Okay, Billy was not really a mean and horrible Uncle Eustace type Pecari, but he was still loud and annoying and she would rather have Jasper a million times over. Her brother was kind and quiet and really cared deeply about them all.And to be fair, Billy had nothing on Topaz. While Amethyst was obviously glad to have Jasper as a brother instead, she would have probably traded Topaz for even someone like him. After all, her sister was an evil sadistic psychopathic monster, she didn’t think someone could ask for a worse sibling than that.
“I’ll never be in a class with any of my siblings again.” Amethyst said. “In fact, after next year, I won't even have any of them in school with me.” She had never actually been in school with Emerald or Ruby and thankfully, she had only put up with Topaz at school for a year. However, when Sapphire graduated, the fourth year had actually felt sad. She had been happy for her sister, who was eager to leave academics and a social structure where she was ignored, but Amethyst still missed her. And she would miss Jasper too when he graduated. It was
“Although I do have cousins, though only Christopher will be in class with us.” She added. “Oh, and Liesl.” Liesl was the daughter of her father’s first cousin, so by Brockert standards, she was a fairly close relation.
What Iris said next reminded her of the…differences between their lives. And that also made Amethyst feel a bit sad and guilty. While she was off to a fun and glamorous summer of parties and beaches and travel, her roommate would have to go back home where she and her brother were the only ones with magic.
That had to suck quite a lot. Amethyst could not imagine how hard that would be to be the only magical people in what seemed to be a tight knit community. And the only other person like you was your annoying brother!
It was something that made Iris different . And people who were the different ones were never really accepted regardless of the difference was being the only magical person, the only non-athlete, the only one of your gender-poor Jasper-or the only pureblood. The Crotalus felt lucky that it had never actually been her. Although there were differences obviously between herself and her roommate, which was never more apparent than when they left for the summer, Iris was still her best friend. So even though the other Crotalus wasn’t a pureblood-and Amethyst actually wasn’t the only pureblood, because there was Alexei too, and she was even friends with him-they still had always had each other.
And she was sorry that her friend ever had to be that person,even for the summer. But maybe, just maybe. “Hey, maybe you could come visit me?” Amethyst suggested. Okay, so Iris wasn’t a pureblood so maybe she would fit in there either, but at least she’d be with other magical people besides Billy, whom she really did not seem to ever be around.
If Amethyst had been feeling really generous, she would have maybe suggested Billy could come too, but she wasn’t that generous. And the Pecari definitely would have a hard time fitting in with fancy pureblood types. Iris could probably though and maybe she could talk to Alessa about that Cobbson thing she’d mentioned. Alessa might have heard of them.
11
Amethyst Brockert
Good. I like being right
1532
0
5
Christopher Brockert
November 26, 2022 10:15 AM
I think I can manage that by Christopher Brockert
OOC: CW-A little talking about trauma BIC:
Christopher had done it. He had survived the Challenges. They were over and done with and he never ever had to do them again. Truthfully though, they had not been that bad. He had decidedly been fairly lucky with both his teammates and the events they’d had to do. Chris was even pretty sure that he could consider Cole his friend now and the rest of them hadn’t been bad either. He even liked the two Pecaris well enough. They hadn’t been mean and horrible and belittled him as unmanly for his lack of ability in flying or the even greater lack of desire to do so.
And the events had even been…not as terrible as what they sounded like last time around. Like, Christopher had not been super into the first two events, but the first one, even though it had involved obstacles, had not been that bad. A crucial difference was the fact that they had been alone and looking for each other. When his older cousins had done the Challenges, their obstacle course had been together. Therefore, if there was some task that could be done athletically, but could instead easily be subverted with magic,that Chris physically could not do, he didn’t have to show that in front of others, including Pecaris and Quidditch players and humiliate himself and end up being bullied.
Even though none of his teammates had not been like that, the third year still had this paranoia about that ingrained in him. Something that had been programmed into him since childhood was hard to overcome even though he knew it was unfair to just assume things about people. After all, Christopher didn’t want people to think he was snobby and awful because he was a pureblood.
Still, some things were just different. Like Sortings were based on a personality type. People who grew up with their family going to a particular school had…stereotypes of them. Growing up, Christopher had only known one Pecari, and that was Uncle Eustace. Who had abused and bullied him and his male cousins over Quidditch and flying and what “real men” were supposed to be. So, because of the trauma that the third year had over this, he…worried about others, especially athletic alpha male types, bullying him for the same reasons. And while Alexei and Billy were perfectly nice, Christopher had been initially worried. Well, maybe not too much with Alexei because Amethyst liked him and she didn’t like Pecaris much. However, now he liked his teammates fine, he didn’t know if he’d remain close but at least they hadn’t been awful.
Anyway, regarding the events, he would also have to say that transfiguring and playing junk instruments in front of everyone was not his favorite thing either. Well, okay, coming up with ways to make the junk into instruments and doing transfiguration on them was sort of fun. Chris actually liked building, designing, creating and problem solving and he was a Brockert, so while only a third year,he was still pretty good at transfiguration. It was just the playing and performing that had been completely awful. He might not have even minded the playing bit in itself, if he had known how to play an instrument, but Christopher would rather eat something that Topaz had made than get up in front of a crowd.
Granted, playing an instrument even when he did not know how was better than, say, giving a speech full of his own opinions in front of people who might make fun of him, judge him or be confrontational towards him. The idea of someone getting in his face made him feel sick all over. The more invisible Christopher made himself, the more likely that he wouldn’t have to deal with one.
Although,it could just…happen. Not just with Uncle Eustace either, who obviously, the third year went out of his way to avoid, but others too. Jasper had been doing absolutely nothing at all but chatting with Xavier-making up to a degree from the awkwardness between them during the Challenges, from what Christopher understood-and Oz just came over and got in his face. For no reason whatsoever, he just assumed that Jasper was doing something wrong. Chris had made a mental note to avoid Oz almost as much as he did Uncle Eustace.
Anyway, they had ended up in a three way tie for fourth place in Challenge Two, although Olaf’s team had only beat them by one point. Christopher was glad that they’d narrowly avoided it. They had also tied for fourth in the last Challenge and then got fourth overall. He did not think that was so bad at all.
And the final Challenge had even been pretty fun. So, overall, better than an obstacle course with teammates present and being humiliated by admitting that you did not want to fly or didn’t have the muscles to climb a wall or a desert survival Challenge which was would have also involved admitting he was not physically very capable or even party planning when he was extremely awkward and shy and did not even like parties.
Now it was all over and while maybe it hadn’t been that bad, he was still relieved. And the Concert was over too and he was going to get to go home. Although, a part of Christopher really did not want to. School was a nice place with no Uncle Eustace and no Topaz, so he felt considerably safer here. He’d take school work over his uncle and cousin any day.
Still,he had to go and find his family, most of whom he did like and wanted to be around. On his way to find them, however, he heard someone call out his name. Chris looked around, spotting the source. Leviosa Scurlock. Verdillia’s sister. Cole’s friend. Teppenpaw. Probably safe. “Hi. Christopher’s fine. All the Mr. Brockert stuff gets super confusing because there are so many of us, plus, I’m like only a year older than you.” He reassured her. “Yeah, it’s pretty good. Concert was nice. You did really well.”
11
Christopher Brockert
I think I can manage that
1539
0
5
Hilda Hexenmeister
November 26, 2022 12:01 PM
Yay! by Hilda Hexenmeister
Hansel’s team had done very well in the challenges, having easily claimed first place after winning every individual challenge. It was a far cry from Hilda’s experience, but she’d been young and barely able to communicate with the rest of her team. She hadn’t expected to do well and hadn’t. They hadn’t been last or anything but there had been no challenge trophy for her. She wondered if they would do better now if they could do a rematch, with her being older, stronger, and better able to communicate in English.‘Better’, of course, was a relative measure. She and English still hated each other with a mutual passion.
Anyway, having tied for first, Hansel’s team had qualified to perform in the concert, during which he would be playing a self made version of a Hümmelchen.
Hilda would not miss this for anything. He might have a pretty trophy, but she never needed to play bagpipes in public with no training.
Of the three of them, Heinrich had done the best, having been on a first place team as well but, unlike Hansel, Heinrich was smart enough not to tell people he knew enough about bagpipes to try to make and play them in front of an audience.
Knowing she’d be attending the concert, she’d written to her friends who still had younger siblings at the school, too, to arrange a mini- reunion. Having arrived at Sonora, apparating in on her own from her college, she got her nametag (Hilda Hexenmeister: Schwester von Hansel), and found Sophia almost immediately.
“Guten Abend!” she returned to her friend, smiling widely at being greeted in her native language. “Ich bin wirklich aufgeregt!” she exclaimed. “I see you! Und Hansel wird urkomisch sein!” She grinned in anticipatory glee. “This be terrible und funny!”
OOC: Ich bin wirklich aufgeregt! - I am really excited.
Und Hansel wird urkomisch sein - and Hansel is going to be hilarious
1
Hilda Hexenmeister
Yay!
1433
0
5
Leviosa Scurlock
November 26, 2022 5:18 PM
Excellent by Leviosa Scurlock
On the plus side, Christopher seemed neither offended by the way she had spoken to him nor the fact that she, the recent participant in a bloody swordfight, had spoken to him at all. Things were looking up.“Thanks,” she said, as he said she could call him Christopher. He phrased it as a practicality, but the way he said it was soft enough that she also thought it might be out of kindness.
“Thank you,” she said again when he complimented her, a smile breaking through the puzzled look that had been on her face as she tried to work out what best to do. That look threated to return now, as she calculated her next move. She was sure you weren’t meant to say what you were thinking directly in these types of situations. Or really, almost any situation. Except that bugged her because she always liked knowing what was going on inside people’s heads. And the other side of it involved pulling other people’s strings, which didn’t sit well with her either… What she was supposed to do was steer Christopher over to her mother, and lightly tap the conversation around so that he ended up saying exactly what she wanted him to without him realizing she had made him do that. She had no idea how to do that, and it also felt manipulative. “It was a lot of fun,” she added, slightly like she was pleading a case. “Did you really actually like it and not think it was too… gruesome and terrible?” she checked. Christopher might have just been being polite, given that most people tended to congratulate performers regardless of their actual thoughts, and she wouldn’t want to push him into defending something that he actually thought was vile or indefensible. Not that she knew how or wanted to push him into doing anything. This was why mother’s way of doing things was so frustrating. If everyone could just have fake sword fights and then say nice things about each other and really mean it, it would be a lot easier.
13
Leviosa Scurlock
Excellent
1545
0
5
It is nice. by Iris Cobb
Iris wasn't sure, but she was almost certain that she had heard just the faintest wisp of disappointment at Amethyst never being in class with any of her siblings again, and not having them in the school. Iris tried to imagine what it must feel like to be sad at something like that. She couldn't, it was just to bizarre of a thought. "Well, I wouldn't wish him upon anyone else, so I suppose I'm stuck with him. Oh well. Hopefully next year will be as nice as our second year was." That had been the last time they hadn't had Billy in their classes.It was then that Amethyst said something ridiculous, wonderful and ridiculous, but ridiculous nonetheless. Iris' face brightened instantly at the invitation. Her? Visiting Amethyst's? Balls and parties and nothing but wonderful elegance all around? That would be the most fantastic thing in the world. Her expression dropped almost immediately after the initial rush. Her brain began listing all of the reasons why that just wouldn't work and couldn't happen. For one, her among all of those fancy folk? She'd do nothing but embarrass Amethyst the entire time. Iris had needed to borrow a dress from Amethyst's world for one night at the ball. To visit she would need to commandeer an entire wardrobe just to attempt to not appear out of place. She still wore her school robe, even when it wasn't required just because it was the nicest thing she had.
Another reason that she couldn't go was everyone else back at home. She already wasn't there enough and still nobody quite understood why. What excuse could they come up with as to why she was missing for some of the summer as well? It wouldn't work, it just wouldn't work. Then there was the next reason, Billy. Well, Billy and the house and Ulrich and who knows whatever else he might get into. Also Billy and him not turning into a wolf now where someone would notice. Ma and Pa would need to know about that as well.
Iris sighed downcast. "That would be wonderful Amethyst, thank-you..." she paused as she forced the words out, "But I can't." She wanted to, she wanted to so bad. But it was impossible, and she didn't even know if she could explain why to her friend.
2
Iris Cobb
It is nice.
1526
0
5
Good luck with that by Karl Hexenmeister
Karl walked through the doors of Sonora Academy for possibly the last time. Hansel had three more years here, but there was no guarantee he would be invited back for any of the remaining midsummer events. The concert was the only one he had consistently been invited to through Heinrich, Hilda, and now Hansel's school years. It was hard to believe Hansel was now more than half done. With Hansel starting the first year after Heinrich had graduated, there were going to be a total of fourteen years that he was a Sonora guardian, and now the end of that time looked like it was just coming into sight.Three years left, eleven years done. Which also meant it was eleven years since he had taken in his brother's children. It seemed both like it couldn't have been that long already, and also like he'd always had them.
Heinrich was still very much his father's son. He had some of the same mannerisms, the same habits, even similar personalities, though obviously a very different moral compass. Karl had no worries that Heinrich might do anything dark or illegal. Hansel might be Teppenpaw of the three children he had helped care for, but Heinrich was the one who would analyze the morality of a situation to the tiniest detail and examine every possible repercussion before taking any action.
And that was Karl's brother's fault, too.
He felt he'd had a little more influence on Hilda but, like with her elder brother, he could still easily read the imprint her parents left on her. Also like her elder brother, when she left Karl's ranch, she was self-sufficient and independent and hardly seemed to need him at all.
Hansel was Karl's though. When he'd attended the concerts for Heinrich and Hilda, he had felt like a substitute parent, a stand-in for his brother and sister-in-law, just the guardian who had custody during the summer months when they couldn't be at school. Today, for the first time, for Hansel's concert, he felt like he was the parent. Partly because it had been eleven years now. Partly because Hansel had been so young when he arrived. Partly because he had clicked so much better with the youngest of his brother's children. Mostly because Hansel called him Dad more often than he called him Uncle.
He apparated to the school, finding himself confronted with a series of fireplaces with people stepping out of them, tables with water, a recovery station, and a table with sticky labels. Karl went to that first, filling out a tag that read, Karl Hexenmeister, Father: Hansel Hexenmeister. He would have written guardian for either of the older two, but for Hansel this felt more accurate. Even the snakes at home referred to Hansel as his hatchling.
He stuck the tag onto his brown desert robes, and swiped his long wild greying hair behind his shoulder so it wouldn't conceal his label. He'd gotten tours of the school before, so he skipped it this time and just waited to see if he could spot his elder two children. He did see Hilda come in, but she immediately caught up with one of her friends and he let her be. She looked happy.
Heinrich arrived a little bit later, and they came together, exchanged polite greetings, and shared a few pieces of news that had happened in their respective lives since they last saw each other, though Heinrich's college graduation had only been two weeks ago, so there wasn't exactly a lot to impart. He had started his summer job, though, which would help him pay for his apartment with Evelyn until his graduate studies began and he started his teaching assistant position.
They sat together for the concert, winced through Hansel's rendition of whatever song they were supposed to be playing, and Karl wondered how bad the other acts must have been for this to tie for first. He wasn't sure if the other first place team sounded better because it had more forgiving instruments or because Hansel's team had earned all of their points on 'originality' and 'creativity' rather than 'performance quality'. The third place time also seemed to have the same flaws.
Karl and Heinrich still clapped politely for all of the acts regardless of the performance quality in question. Sitting with her friends, he could see Hilda clapped rather more enthusiastically, but she'd laughed through the whole thing, too, so she might have been enjoying aspects that Karl lacked the perspective to appreciate. He'd never had much understanding of the arts.
After the concert closed its curtains for the final time, Heinrich excused himself to 'go meet up with some of my gaming club friends' and Karl was left at loose ends. Hilda was still with her group and Hansel probably had some goodbyes he wanted to make before finding Karl, too.
He wasn't alone long, though, before another man approached and introduced himself.
"Yes!" Karl exclaimed, glad he recognized the names so he didn't need to pretend his children talked about the other's child when he really had no idea who they were. "Hansel is quite fond of young Liesl," he said, his words somewhat accented but easily understandable. "She visited last summer and we have plans to host her this summer as well." He paused for a moment, then added his own approval of the girl. "She likes the snakes." Anyone who liked snakes got all the good marks in his book. Plus her name was Germanic, so Karl found her a bit easier to see as a regular visitor than, say Evelyn, when Heinrich had first started to bring her around.
Evelyn was, of course, very welcome to come by whenever she wanted to now, particularly as he expected small Hexenmeisters from those two at any time, now that they were living together. Heinrich was responsible enough that Karl would probably hear about an engagement first, but that, too, could come at any moment, by Karl's estimation.
Hansel and Liesl probably had a lot more time before that would come up, but he wouldn't be surprised if it worked out that way eventually. Hansel took after Heinrich in a lot of ways, and Heinrich was now living with the girl one year his junior who was the only person he ever brought home from Sonora, and he didn't think it was a stretch to believe Hansel might do the same thing one day.
1
Karl Hexenmeister
Good luck with that
0
Karl Hexenmeister
0
5
Sophia Priory
November 27, 2022 12:48 PM
Whoo! by Sophia Priory
Sophia laughed. “My cousin Gwendolyn is in the same act. It’s absolutely hilarious.” Okay, maybe she didn’t feel the need to laugh at her cousin in general. She genuinely liked the young Aladren, who was more like her than Lydia was and the existence of both of Uncle Adam’s daughters had always had the nice benefit of keeping the fourth year occupied so Sophia wouldn’t feel pressured to do so by her mom.Still, the idea of people who did not know how to play instruments having to play instruments that they transfigured from junk was pretty funny. “I think the whole thing seems more like a comedy act of sorts than a serious musical performance. Does Hans even play an instrument? Gwendolyn doesn’t and from what I heard, most other people don’t either. I don’t know how anyone can possibly take it seriously.”
Granted, there were definitely people who took everything seriously. Sometimes much too seriously. There were people who utterly lacked any sense of humor. Like Arianna, for example. Sophia’s cousin was so uptight that it was actually understandable why Beau, Arianna’s younger brother-who was the polar opposite, never taking much of anything seriously at all-seemed to not be all that fond of people who were too Type A.
Sophia personally believed there should be a healthy balance between the two extremes, as with most things, but honestly she sort of felt like taking things too seriously could be detrimental to one’s health. Like Arianna was merely unpleasant, but like she had seen people like her dad and Uncle Adam get super anxious over things and how miserable that made them both.
And the anxiety of both of her parents contributed to how fragile Lydia was.Because she was fussed over and coddled and babied, she was basically terrified of her own shadow, something that basically kept not just Sophia away from her, but others. And her away from them Like, Hilda’s brother Hans, was the other Teppenpaw in Lydia’s year, but because he had a snake, and Lydia was afraid of snakes, the two of them weren’t as close as they maybe could have been.
The good news though was that Lydia did have at least one friend, a girl with the interesting name of Verdillia Scurlock. Admittedly, Sophia was a tiny bit impressed with the level of patience this girl must have had.
Although, admittedly, the Aladren alumna might have been more patient with Lydia too if she wasn’t her little sister who her parents had tried to make her fuss over the way they did while never fussing over her-or Connor-quite as much. Verdillia did not have the same experience with the fourth year.
Sophia continued. “Gwendolyn definitely isn’t doing so. I think she’s honestly just thrilled that they won.” She paused. “Aren’t you glad that we didn’t have the Challenges the same year as the Concert and have to do something like this though?” Just because she found it amusing and didn’t think they should take it seriously, didn’t mean it would have been something she would have especially wanted to do.
Granted, some of the stuff they did have to do was actually more unpleasant. Like desert survival. Although, it was probably best that they’d done that last time rather than this one. Sophia could not imagine what a disaster it would have been if her sister had had to do desert survival. Lydia’s team hadn’t done all that great with the Challenges they’d had, and that would have made them come in last for sure. Then Sophia would have had to put up with her parents babying the Teppenpaw even more because she’d faced the trauma of a desert survival challenge.
She thought for a moment. “Do you think if we had different events, like maybe if we had the ones that they’d had this time around, the scores would have come out differently?” Her team had been last after all.
11
Sophia Priory
Whoo!
1447
0
5
Mara Morales
November 27, 2022 4:36 PM
[Post concert] Well, it's half the family, anyway. by Mara Morales
Mara was a fairly reserved person by inclination and habit, and it was a sort of solemn occasion. Somehow, she had managed to pass seven years in the wizarding world without ever really figuring out how she felt about it - if it was a place she remotely belonged or not, and what its role in her life after tomorrow would be. Naturally, with the end of the period of her life where that ratio was mostly determined for her was so close, she was in a subdued mood, enough so that, in the face of Morgan's grating...Morgan-ness, she almost regretted the slightly sentimental decision to stay here one last night instead of just going home after the Concert, and she certainly wasn't at her most expressive as the acts went on.At the end, though, she spotted two people among the strangers and automatically smiled as she approached them. Dutifully, she kissed her mother on the cheek, and then turned to hug her sister.
"And now the whole crowd's been here," she said, beaming at the tall, slight girl. "So, what do you think of it?"
Lola Morales - who, had she not been ten years old, might well have looked enough like Jessica Hayles for anyone Jessica had been a particular headache to to comment on despite Lola's much darker hair and eyes - grinned back at her. "I'm surprised, it's kind of cool," she said. "Jezi always made it sound like being stuck in the Dark Ages."
"Eh, that's just because she's a poet," Mara said. "She has to make everything sound...something, I don't know. Don't pay attention to Jessica, there you go, that's the moral of the story."
"Yeah, but you never say anything about anything, so what else did I have to go on?" said Lola, grinning as Mara scowled at her. "But yeah, I could get used to these digs."
Their mother smiled thinly - an expression which did nothing to camouflage the flash of apprehension in her eyes at the thought that Lola, too, might yet turn out to be a witch. "Well, I suppose we'll find out if you must," she said. "Perhaps not."
"Yeah, the universe has to let Dad have one kid he can talk about in - oh, wait, shoot," said Mara, and her mother looked scandalized as they started moving toward the buffet. "While we're talking about that side of the family, though - am I crazy, or is Jezi?" Lola looked almost confused. "From what she writes every now and then, it almost sounds like she's moved in at the Senator's or something."
"Yeah, no," said Lola. "I mean, she goes out there, but there's no Neiman's or Saks in...wherever that hole in the wall the Senator pretends he's from is. Did she tell you what we did when I was on spring break?" Mara shook her head. "Ten thousand dollars. On bags. In one weekend."
Mara raised an eyebrow, trying to remember how prices worked, out there in the world of dollars. "Well, if they weren't on sale, that's still, like...more than ten bags, though, right?" she hazarded a guess. Jessica had a lot of stuff in the five hundred to a thousand dollar range, she thought, so assuming prices were more or less the same... "Takes a while."
"It was six."
"Oh." For a long moment, that was all Mara could think of to say, and was grateful for the distraction of the buffet. "Is she trying to outdo the Louboutin collection or something? Like...some reverse Oedipus complex where she has to out-shop Mrs. H. ASAP?"
"Mara," Carmela scolded her at last. "And you, too, Lola - we did not come to gossip about Jezi and Rosalie."
"Sorry, Mamá," said Mara. "So, what's up with Dad?"
"I think he's in Austria," said Lola. "Austria or Australia...."
Jessica would have known, Mara thought. Mamá and Lola, though, had never found trips they weren't on worth paying attention to. An awkward silence descended as they put things on their plates and all tried - and failed - to think of something suitably decorous to say.
16
Mara Morales
[Post concert] Well, it's half the family, anyway.
1472
0
5
Marissa Duell
November 27, 2022 6:07 PM
[Post concert] ...so, mom talk? (Sophie) by Marissa Duell
There were some good things about how small the wizarding world was. With relatively small social circles, friendships could last for lifetimes. Everyone knew everyone. People married their high school sweethearts (which...well, one saw magazine articles and such which advised against it, but Marissa was perfectly happy with how it had worked out for her). In some ways, it could, at least, be lovely.Whether the part where the wizarding world was spread out over long distances was good or not...Marissa took a neutral stance on that. On one hand, she couldn't show up at the homes of Bonabelle and Wally with a pie to get her in the door so she could interrogate their parents. On the other hand, her husband also couldn't show up at anyone's home unannounced, and...well, Marissa suspected she and Andrew would have been the protective sorts anyway, in their respective manners, but after Greece....
Well. To the extent that she could judge, limited though that extent was, Marissa thought it was probably better that Andrew wasn't neighbors with Val's partners and their families. Especially now that Val was old enough that they couldn't legally tell her she had to keep curfew. She did, however, really regret the part where she didn't get to know these people who might well be important to her daughter for life, given the propensity for marrying high school sweethearts in this world.
In the lead-up to the Concert, Marissa had thought about whether or not she wanted to attempt to make contact with the potential future in-laws, watching the balance tip back and forth several times. When she saw Val slipping off with Wally while looking unusually serious (oh God, Val couldn't be planning to...to elope or anything strange like that before she even got out of school, could she? Marissa would have credited her with more sense than that, but...Valentine was awfully romantic in her thinking sometimes, and certainly not a slave to orthodoxy....) and then spotted who she was fairly certain was Wally's mother, though, the scales tipped for the last time. Before she could think the better of it, she extricated herself from the mingling she'd been doing with a murmured 'be back in a minute' to Andrew and approached the other woman.
"Hi," she said, with her best overgrown-Crotalus-head-girl smile. "You're Wally and Stanley's mom, right? I'm Marissa Duell - Valentine's mom," she added, though she suspected the surname was a dead giveaway if these people noticed their children at all. 'Duell' was hardly common, after all, and...they were...all right with Wally seeing Val because they were just...okay people, weren't they? Not because they didn't actually know their son was dating a girl with a Muggleborn mother? Surely no-one who Val liked that well would put her in that kind of a position....
16
Marissa Duell
[Post concert] ...so, mom talk? (Sophie)
147
0
5
It's a commemoration of a comedy of errors by Deidre Beales
Four years ago, Bel had put a ring on her finger to annoy her cousin. A few hours later, she'd proposed. A few weeks after than, they'd been married. Now four years later, the concert that started it all rolled around again, and Deidre couldn't help but feel grateful for it. She had never felt this stable and secure in her entire life. She'd had the housekeeping job with David since before Reilly was born, which paid much better now that it no longer covered room and board, and she felt like she was finally a contributing member of society, even if all she did was look after Bel's rich uncle. She had a spouse and three children, two of which were graduating, one of which was doing well in Kindergarten.And yes, she was still one of the youngest parents here despite having two of the oldest students, but since Alexander wasn't hers biologically, and she was paired with Bel who was probably one of the older parents, it would be very easy for others to assume that those two were Bel's from before they'd gotten married.
Which, technically, they were, even if Mallory was as biologically Deidre's as Reilly was.
The point was, though, that she was a married woman with a stable job, a solidly middle class home, possibly even high-middle class, and successful children. Mallory had even led her school team to a second place finish, which both surprised her because Mallory did not seem to be much of a teamwork and people person, and didn't surprise her at all because Mallory was quite competitive and rather ruthless in pursuit of her goals.
Deidre frowned slightly at the nametag Bel handed her, but didn't quibble over being a 'parent' rather than a 'mother' or even over Mallory's name (they'd had that discussion last time and Bel's points were still valid). She even agreed on the alphabetical ordering of the names even though Mallory was both older and part of both Bel and Deidre's lives first. Alexander was the one who would likely be more sensitive about the order in which their names appeared for precisely that reason, and they didn't even need to discuss it to understand it was important to make sure he never had any reason to doubt that he was just as important to them as Mallory was.
At Bel's suggestion, they made their way over to the snack table, and Deidre smiled at another woman who was about her age and greeted her. (And belatedly hoped it didn't come across as flirty to either the woman or Bel. That Bel looked like she wanted to frown but was attempting not to was probably a good sign. Bel wouldn't let a little thing like social etiquette get in the way of a good grudge and scowl if she wasn't genuinely trying to be nice. Bel just wasn't very good at it, and Mallory seemed to take after her in that respect.)
The woman smiled back and seemed to be a friendly sort of person so Deidre let out a small internal sigh of relief that this mild social interaction wasn't going to blow up in her face and somehow lead to another major life change.
"Deidre," Deidre responded to the woman's self-introduction with the same gesture toward her own nametag, even as she squinted a little to read the names of Monica's children. "Oh, Oz," she said in recognition before she could stop herself and immediately metaphorically kicked herself for doing so. Now she would be expected to explain how she knew who Oz was without explaining that her daughter had nothing good to say about him. (Not that Mallory had a lot of good things to say about anyone, other than her own brother. Oz didn't even get the worst huffs following his name when she said it, but there were definitely huffs.)
"Mallory - Mab, that is, my daughter, she's a prefect in Pecari," she offered, referencing their common House, and Mallory's leadership position in it, as a likely reason for them to know each other. She wasn't entirely clear about what Houses and prefects were all about, but she understood it was kind of like a safety patrol sort of thing in the living spaces? "Alexander is a prefect, too, but he's in Teppenpaw, so he doesn't mention Oz and Billy as much."
OOC: As an aside, maiden names are being used so all character posts track together on the NPC profile page.
1
Deidre Beales
It's a commemoration of a comedy of errors
0
Deidre Beales
0
5
Sophie O'Malley
November 27, 2022 7:11 PMSophie O'Malley
Former StaffHouse: Pecari
Subject: Potions
Written by: Casey
Age in Post: 39
Birthday: December 25th
Mom squad, roll out! by Sophie O'Malley
Every trip to Sonora brought a wave of new and old emotions back to Sophie, memories of days as both student and staff. She remembered growing up here, and then watching other kids grow up here, and now watching her kids grow up here. She had been thinking a lot about the passage of time this year anyway. She and her husband, friends since their first year, had entered their forties, and their sons were now of legal age. And next year, Charlotte would be joining them here. Sophie had been dreading their empty nest for a long time now, and she was pleased, at least, to find her fears were pushed off for now - it would be a long time still that there would be little people in her house, a fact which she planned to tell the boys when they returned home with the rest of the family for their final student summer.For now, she was just happy to be here, and happy to be recognized as Stanley and Wally’s mom. Or Wally and Stanley’s mom, as the case here was. That was how she was greeted, which filled her with a subtle relief. If Stanley was listed first, it was usually a less favorable follow up. It was Valentine Duell’s mom who approached her, which… realistically still could’ve meant anything, depending on which O’Malley boy she wanted to discuss. Sophie tried not to get involved in the boys’ romantic lives, but she had heard about some things there regarding Valentine. Sophie also knew vaguely of Marissa from their student days, although Marissa and her husband had been a few years ahead of Sophie and Ryan, and now offhand, Sophie couldn’t recall Marissa’s maiden name.
“Oh, yes, yes!” Sophie beamed. “We love Valentine, by the way. She’s such a sweet girl.” Sophie had only met her once or twice, but there really weren’t a lot of sour Teppenpaws, and her Wally was such a gentle boy, she could only imagine the type of girl her son would fall for would have to match that kind of energy. It was still odd, imagining her baby boy with a girlfriend, but the boys wouldn’t stay babies forever, no matter how much she tried.
OOC: Mentions of Sophie having met Val discussed and approved in chatzy as "probably briefly here or there and we don't need to think about it too hard".
12
Sophie O'Malley
Mom squad, roll out!
34
0
5
That sounds... interesting by Monica Spellman
“Ah,” Monica said, when Deidre elaborated on who Mab was, or rather her role in the school. The simple syllable contained recognition and acknowledgement of information received, but it was accompanied by a flash of something like sadness across Monica’s eyes. If Mab was a prefect, she could easily guess at the meaning behind the earlier ‘Oh, Oz!’ It wasn’t how he always looked out for his friends, or was a first-string player on the school sports team, or had been really, really trying and actually doing a decent job on his academics here. Not if Mab was a prefect. Prefects were ‘the stick-up-their-butt kids who care too much about rules (but not you)’ according to what Oz had told her (whilst Henry had been there). She wanted to jump to his defence. He’s not a bad kid. He doesn’t watch his mouth as much as he should, but he has a good heart. He’s been doing to well since he came here. It’s not his fault, it’s mine… But Deidre hadn’t said anything, not out loud.“Your kids are in… sixth or seventh then?” she guessed. She tried not to let her eyes rove too curiously over Deidre’s face as she said it. Her original guess about her kids’ ages had been wrong. It was possible that she was just mis-guessing Deidre’s age too. It was notoriously hard to work people out, and she got the feeling magical folk aged slower. Still, it was comforting to see someone who looked like a potential peer and not be the one quoting a bigger number. “Mine are in fifth,” she added, a lot less guardedly than she might have done at first.
She also felt slightly safer around them, in spite of Bel’s less than warm demeanour, because people with less conventional relationships were less likely to jump in with ‘Couldn’t their father make it?’ or similar questions. If either of them was observant, they would notice the lack of a wedding ring. Not that that meant anything. It could have meant that Monica was actually an incredibly high-powered brain surgeon who couldn’t wear her rings on a daily basis and just hadn’t got around to putting them back on when jetting here from the ER, and that she would be reminded to do so when her utterly wonderful spouse arrived from their own equally thrilling and definitely grown-up job.
But it didn’t mean that. And that was okay too, and maybe people like Deidre were a little more likely to accept that.
“Henry’s a prefect too,” she added, in the search for common ground. “And Oz is on the Quidditch team,” she added for balance, because it was a twin mom habit that if you said something nice about one, you had to say something good about the other too. She thought that might be true with all siblings, but it was especially true with twins. She also wanted to slip a few of Oz’s better points into this conversation, so this woman had more than a prefect’s report to go off. Not that it should have mattered. They were strangers. She would never see them again. Oz probably didn’t care. Except, underneath his silly faces and his tough guy attitude, she knew he felt it all. He pretended other people’s attitudes slid off him like water from a duck’s back, whilst he absorbed every criticism until he believed the ‘bad kid’ label that other people gave him. She knew because he was far too much like her. She always missed the boys when they were away, but she wanted nothing more right now than to be able to scoop them both into a hug and tell them she was proud of both of them. “I think the school suits them—they’ve both done well here,” she added, her jaw firmly set like she was willing to fight that point if need be.
13
Monica Spellman
That sounds... interesting
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Monica Spellman
0
5
Thanks. I'll try. by Cory Brockert
Cory grinned. He was so happy to hear this. “That’s great! She’s fond of him too, she says he’s her best friend.” Honestly, it seemed like Liesl liked Hans as much as she liked him . And since Cory and Liesl had always been super close, that was an awful lot.Which could not have made the Teppenpaw alum any happier. Friends were so important. To this day, the friends that he’d made at Sonora were some of the people that he was closest too. They were like brothers to him…and much better than his actual ones. Though that was admittedly a low bar. Cory had no idea why his brothers had turned out as they had since both their parents were nice people who were warm and welcoming to everyone. They not only treated his wife, Amy and their other daughters-in-law like daughters, but treated his friends like sons. Raúl especially said that he was sometimes more comfortable with Cory’s parents than his own.
That was the kind of person Cory wanted to be too. The kind of person who made others feel the way his parents made his friend feel. Given how attached to him that Liesl was, he was apparently very successful so far.
Anyway, he felt that friends were especially important for people like his niece who was…just a bit different and while weird and wonderful in so many ways, others often didn’t appreciate those who were like her. After all, her own parents didn’t.
Not that Cory said this to Liesl. He didn’t want to make her-or them-feel like he was trying to turn her against them. He wasn’t. Even if he’d wanted to-which of course he didn’t-he wouldn’t have needed to. They were doing a fine job on their own of making her feel like they didn’t want her. To them, it seemed that Desmond was this brilliant son that Alfie, the smart one himself, the Aladren, connected with and Krisalyn, was the girly-girl who would be the perfect pureblood young lady that Jacqueline wanted while Liesl was this weird being who they looked at, sighed and shook their heads.
It really did sicken him. She was a sweet, kind, funny, interesting person with a lot to offer and Cory was glad that she had Hans who appreciated her.
He chuckled. “That she does. Liesl has always liked snakes and bats and skulls and eyeballs and all that spooky stuff. Apparently, for the Challenges this year they had to design attractions and her team got a haunted house. She had a good time with that.” And more importantly, Liesl got to do something that made her shine, where she had a niche special skill that just this one time came in handy. They had ended up in second place, rather than first, but honestly, second place wasn’t bad at all and Liesl seemed pretty proud of it.
Cory was glad, he knew that the third year had started out the year panicking about how she didn’t have anything special about her in terms of talents. He had done his best to reassure that she was great just as she was and she was a good person, who like his parents and him, treated others kindly and with respect. That was far more important than a special talent or winning a competition.
Still, Liesl and her team had done exceptionally well throughout the Challenges and she had been especially helpful on the last one so he really hoped her parents congratulated her and were proud of her.
“I suppose I should congratulate you on your son’s win. Liesl said they were winning the entire time. That’s pretty impressive. “ Cory told Karl. “I met Hans at the fair last year. He’s a great kid and he’s been so good to my niece, so I really appreciate that. And while I don’t know about my brother and sister-in-law, he’s certainly welcome to visit Liesl at my place, if they want. I don’t have snakes though.”
11
Cory Brockert
Thanks. I'll try.
0
Cory Brockert
0
5
Christopher Brockert
November 28, 2022 2:07 PM
I hope I'm helping by Christopher Brockert
OOC: CW-Eustace BIC:
“It’s no problem.” Christopher assured Levi. Obviously, whoever had decided the rules of social etiquette did not have a large family where there were a lot of people who had the same last name. It was completely confusing to just call someone Miss or Mr. or Mrs. Brockert and then have to explain who you meant. It was just plain easier to use first names,although it was fairly reasonable to address someone much older than you and in a position of authority by a title. Like Christopher would never suggest Levi refer to Grandfather as Mortimer but he lacked such a position himself-and also, actually preferred to be called by his first name. He didn’t even mind when people shortened it to Chris.
The thing was that, even though the Crotalus supposed that he had…a higher social status in some places, he honestly did not feel like he was better than most people. Okay, he was morally superior to Uncle Eustace and Topaz, because they were vile excuses for human beings but generally speaking, he just did not look down on people.
Maybe it was because of how his uncle had treated him and that he felt like he knew what it was to feel like he was less than. Honestly, it was not a great feeling and Christopher would feel terrible if he made someone feel like that. It was entirely possible that he might without knowing it but he really tried not to. It was also because he did not want to be like Uncle Eustace who thought that others were beneath him because they didn’t fit into his exceedingly narrow world view of what people should be.
So, Chris generally thought, in most cases, people should be who they were, so long as that person was not harming others. Because his uncle had made him feel like who he was was not okay. However, Uncle Eustace absolutely should stop being like he was because who he was, was a misogynistic, aggressive, toxic, abusive bully.
The problem was that Christopher was generally worried that people wouldn’t be nice and accept the third year for who he was. That they would think like Uncle Eustace did or judge him for something else entirely. So he kept to himself for the most part, at least until he knew someone was safe to speak to. The Challenges had forced him out of that briefly but that did not mean that Chris was going to start being comfortable with those whom he was unfamiliar with.
Levi, however, seemed…maybe like she wanted his approval. Although he could not imagine why she would care about his opinions. He was friends with her sister, but he didn’t know why that would make a difference. “Okay, I admit I’m not into blood and gore and violence much personally , though I’m sure Liesl loved it. But it was well acted and that you had fun was the most important thing. I’m pretty sure the fact that you were enjoying yourself added to the overall quality. “ Christopher absolutely did not see anything wrong with the Teppenpaw doing a mock sword fight even though there might be some that would. Having been on the wrong end of that, he certainly wanted to encourage her.
11
Christopher Brockert
I hope I'm helping
1539
0
5
Marissa Duell
November 28, 2022 7:02 PM
Where are we heading? by Marissa Duell
Sophie was someone who'd been at Sonora at the same time as Marissa - a few years younger and in a different House, so not someone she'd crossed paths with a lot, but definitely there, and Marissa was fairly sure that the gap wasn't even anything like as far as the one between a seventh year and a first year. They were contemporaries, close enough contemporaries that it was entirely proper that they had children who were the same age. This was, however, all hard to reconcile with one of their appearances, because either Marissa looked plainer and older than she should have, or Sophie looked far too young and pretty to have (technically) adult children.Any twinge of jealousy vanished, however, when Sophie praised Valentine and Marissa smiled proudly. "She is," she agreed. "And everything she's told me about your Wally makes him sound like a wonderful young man, too." She decided it was more prudent to just not mention Stanley at all; Marissa, while she was not overly inclined to like people who'd ever hurt Val in any way, didn't think that either the beginning or the ending of some handholding as twelve-year-olds was something to hold against the boy for the rest of his life, but she wasn't sure Andrew quite agreed. "I know it's a cliche, but it really doesn't seem like six years since Val started here," she admitted. "I was a mess on her birthday, first time I've ever been glad it falls during the school year. It's hard to believe she's officially seventeen now. Are your boys going to try for Apparition licenses before school starts back up?"
Marissa hoped the answer was 'no,' since that would benefit her in a number of ways. For one thing...well, she couldn't say she objected too much to the thought of Val staying around the house a lot for one last summer. It was more likely than not that Val would still mostly be around next summer, too, but...it wasn't guaranteed. Marissa hadn't been much older than her, after all, when she'd heard about what had happened to Andrew's parents and had dropped everything and crossed the country to help him through it as soon as she'd established that doing so might be more helpful than harmful (perhaps Val didn't get...all of her romantic streak from her father's side, after all). And for another, more practical, thing, Wally not knowing how to Apparate for another summer would mean Marissa wouldn't have to find an excuse to remind Val exactly how security enchanted the house was (in theory, everything from Greece and Giselle's unfortunate childhood was behind them now; in practice, Marissa slept better knowing that as much as they could afford had been done to prevent any loose ends from wandering their way now) and how important it therefore was that any guests come in through the door and only the door.
16
Marissa Duell
Where are we heading?
147
0
5
Cookie crumbs and meaningless musings by Wendy Holland
So, this was a Brockert. And not just any Brockert. The one whose daughter Lyla had befriended. Belatedly, Wendy thought that perhaps she ought to have dialed her enthusiasm down a few notches. It wouldn't do for Lyla to have her mom ruining her friendships before she even got started.On the bright side, this particular Brockert hadn't immediately turned a snooty nose up, so she took it as a lesson learned and tried to smooth it over.
"Oh, you must be Gwendolyn's dad! Lyla's so excited to have her as a friend. She's being very gung-ho about summer plans, but of course I told her I would have to meet with you first. I'm Wendy, by the way, Wendy Holland."
She stuck out her palm for a handshake, then took it back when she realized her hand was still full of cookie crumbs.
"Sorry," she muttered, vanishing the crumbs quickly and re-extending her hand. Lena, thankfully, was curled up under her chair pretending to be a sleeping cat, which looked a little strange, but as long as she was being both still and quiet, Wendy was happy to let her be.
"Kids," she said by way of explanation to the man beside her, shrugging, "Yeah, it's weird, but I hate to tamp down their creativity, you know? They're only little for a little while."
Gwendolyn's dad was older than Wendy, although Wendy knew that she would be hard-pressed to find a parent her age with a child Lyla's age. She was feeling less and less intimidated by the man, realizing that even though he was one of the legendary Brockerts, he was just a regular guy. He was even a little on the quiet side. Okay, a lot on the quiet side. And maybe, Wendy admitted to herself, 'legendary' was a little too over-the-top for a family that was, in fact, made up of regular people. 'Prestigious' or 'prominent' were closer. However, vocabulary had never been Wendy's strong suit, and she dropped the line of thought the moment another thought zipped past.
"I don't suppose you have a camera? I didn't think to bring mine, but I'd like a photo of the team, if we can scrape everyone together," she pressed her lips together, thinking, before letting out a disappointed sigh.
"Never mind, it'll be too hard to get all of them in one place, and I wouldn't know who I was looking for in the crowd anyway."
"So," Wendy continued, barely taking a breath, "We should at least go find the girls, yeah? I know Lyla will be first in line for refreshments."
64
Wendy Holland
Cookie crumbs and meaningless musings
0
Wendy Holland
0
5
Leviosa Scurlock
November 29, 2022 1:36 AM
I hope you can... by Leviosa Scurlock
"Thanks," Levi said, her tone faltering slightly as Christopher admitted that the blood and gore may have crossed a line. She wondered whether she might be better off going to find Liesl, who would maybe vouch for the whole entire thing being awesome, but mother would probably be skeptical of that. Plus Christopher was Verdillia's friend, so mother would care much more about what he thought. At least he had found some nice things to say about it. She also made a mental note to try to say hi to Liesl more next year."I should probably go and find my mother, and I think she wanted to meet our friends, so you could come with me?" she suggested. "Because you're Verdillia's friend," she added, lest he thought she was trying to claim him. "If you could mention that you found the sword fight well acted, that would be really great. If you don't mind," she added. "But not the other stuff. I think she probably figured out that it was gory and not to everyone's tastes on her own..." she added with a grimace. "I did clean all the blood off okay, didn't I?" she asked, angling her face for him to check.
OOC: Permission to have them move over and start talking to Catherine if you wish. I imagine that her conversation with Captain Bavol could have happened during table moving/students being let out.
13
Leviosa Scurlock
I hope you can...
1545
0
5
Ian Malone
November 29, 2022 8:52 AM
[Post-concert]One of these days I will just type random words for a title by Ian Malone
Ian was extremely glad that this year was over. It had been exceedingly stressful between the Challenges and CATS, and the fact that he had been extremely worried that he didn’t get enough time studying for the latter due to the former. Actually, he still was. Although the written portion had not really been all that bad and Mr. Barba had pretty much done his best to reassure the Teppenpaw that he was done fine on the practical parts.However, Ian being Ian could not help still worrying that he had gotten something wrong. Like DADA had never been his strong suit. He was good at identifying dark creatures and dark magic and the injuries and illnesses caused by them and treating said injuries and illnesses. However, actually fighting something-or someone-was both something that went against everything that the fifth year stood for and something that he wasn’t very good at. He could do the spells fine,he just wasn’t athletic or quick on his feet.
Thankfully, dueling had not been on the test. Ian was glad, because well, he wasn’t good at it and that would have affected his score and kept him from taking Advanced DADA, and while he did not especially want to take it, it was required to be a Healer. Furthermore, Ian would have really had a problem, ethically, if he had to duel his examiner, who had not been in any condition for that.
Of course, he imagined that there were others examiners who would have been superior duelists, and that also wouldn’t have been a fair fight. Probably they would have had them duel a dummy if that had been on the test. The Teppenpaw could not imagine that they would put fifteen and sixteen year olds up against much older, presumably more experienced duelists. That would not be right any more than it would be for Ian to have dueled someone who wasn’t well. Even though he was terrible at dueling.
Though, Ian was now worried that even if he had managed to scrape by on his DADA CATS, and had to take Advanced DADA, he would have to take the DADA RATS, and that they would have to duel for it and then Ian would fail and not be able to get into a Healer program.
Tonight though was the Concert…and the fifth year had to say that he was extremely glad not to be in it. Of course, he never would have voluntarily done so since the idea of getting up in front of all those people was something that sounded excessively unpleasant. However, since one of the Challenge “prizes” was that the top three teams in the second event had to get up and perform on their junk instruments, Ian was extremely glad his team had not made it.
Once the performances were over for the night, he looked around for his family and spotted his mom talking to Uncle Ryan. The Teppenpaw headed over to them and gave both of them big hugs.”Hi Mom, Hi Uncle Ryan.” He greeted them both.
Valerie smiled, happy to see her son. She had heard all about his stressful year and was glad that he was now going to get a break for the summer. Although knowing Ian, he would probably spend a good deal of time studying and fretting about his CATS ”Hi sweetie.” She was also glad to have Ian around for the summer, she missed him terribly when he was at school. Valerie was just glad it would be a few more years before Olivia went off to school.
However, she still couldn’t believe that her firstborn was sixteen. Next year, he would be an adult. She could barely believe she’d been able to get married and have babies, perfectly healthy babies-though her son really did need to watch his stress levels, something as a future Healer, Valerie was certain he knew-let alone that she was still alive to see one to almost adulthood.
“Hey Ian.” Ryan greeted him. “Congratulations on getting third place in the Challenges.” Other than actually finding someone who loved him, his own second place result in the event had been his greatest accomplishment of his time at Sonora. He knew his own sons had not done quite so well, but that did not really matter to him. They were his kids and he was going to love and be proud of them no matter what.
Although, he did hope Wally was all right. Ryan worried about the younger twin. In addition to the fact that his team had placed last in the Challenges, which he worried that the Crotalus would take poorly-Wally was the most like Ryan of his children, and Ryan knew that he would have felt terrible had he placed last, although there was the fact that he had been Team Leader so there was an additional factor-there was also the thing with Val. She seemed like a nice girl, and all, but there was the fact that she also had a girlfriend. Ryan didn’t have an issue with people being gay or bisexual, but he really did not think it was best for Wally to be with someone who was also with someone else. Never mind the fact that things with this girl had driven a wedge in between the twins-granted, the way Stanley had broken up with her was not the Pecari’s finest moment-and that Uncle Seth had mentioned that Lavender thought Val’s girlfriend was “toxic”.
“And congratulations on CATS.” Ryan added. From what he understood, Ian had been far more worried about that than the Challenges. Still, third place wasn’t bad at all.
Ian gave Uncle Ryan a weak smile. “Thanks. On both. I mean, the congratulations on CATS might be a little premature since I don’t know the results yet.”
Valerie gave her son a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “I’m sure you did great.”
“Where are Dad and Olivia?” Ian asked.
“Your dad went to the bathroom.” Valerie replied “Charlotte took Olivia over to the buffet to get something to eat.
“I think we should join them.” Ryan suggested. He wasn’t at all worried about his daughter going off on her own with Valerie’s. After all, she might very well need the practice at looking after a younger child. Still, right now, he was hungry.
The three of them headed off to stand in line for their meal.
11
Ian Malone
[Post-concert]One of these days I will just type random words for a title
1522
0
7
Adam Brockert
November 29, 2022 1:17 PMAdam Brockert
AlumnusHouse: Crotalus
Written by: Allegra Brockert
Age in Post: 48
Birthday: March 5
Just being awkward by Adam Brockert
“That would be me.” Adam confirmed. “Adam Brockert.” He decided to forgo all the pureblood propriety with his greeting since it seemed to somehow be off putting to people who weren’t part of the upper echelons of pureblood society. Of course, if Adam was around other purebloods of his social status, he had to introduce himself that way…or people would be offended. These were rules that just seemed to…reinforce differences between them and everyone else because there were differences in the way they were supposed to treat different people.Although there were those who wanted it that way. Whom Adam generally disagreed with because he honestly never felt like he was better than anyone. In fact, he’d spent his time at Sonora feeling that others generally looked down on him for his shyness. So, it had been extremely weird for him to go from that to people acting like he was anyone special. To this day, he still got extremely confused by people being deferential towards him. Like Cory’s friend Raúl when they met had called him Mr. Brockert even though Adam was a few years younger than him and they were about to be hanging out on a guys night. Adam had pointed out quickly that was unnecessary, especially given Cory was there and also a Mr. Brockert. Apparently that was just Raúl’s personality to defer to others but it was still odd for Adam when others had once treated him like garbage.
Anyway, if people not of his social status wanted to be equal to those who were and be treated as such, then they shouldn’t get all bent out of shape and consider people like him pretentious when they introduced themselves the way they’d been taught to.
Of course, Adam felt that he could personally best avoid such situations by not socializing with people from any walk of life much at all. Although there was a fat chance of that given his future as the Brockert family patriarch. Fortunately, he didn’t think that would be for a really long time. After all, he was pretty sure the Grim Reaper himself was afraid of Great-Grandfather and then there was his grandpa and his dad to go through before Adam had to do anything himself. Not that that truly prevented others from pressuring him to socialize.
Still, Wendy had not introduced herself like a pureblood so Adam, who tried very hard to not be offensive and off putting, albeit probably not with much success,didn’t either. “Nice to meet you.” He shook the offered hand “ Yes, Gwendolyn did mention that. I’m glad she made a friend too.” Honestly, he was just glad his daughter was doing better than he had socially. Adam had had friends, even a girlfriend, but he always felt like everyone else looked down on him.
Honestly, while he was glad not to have had to do the Challenges while in school, because that would have put him with a bunch of people who he didn’t know doing things he wasn’t good at-after all, from what Gwendolyn said, almost nobody in the whole school played a musical instrument, which based on those acts, was pretty apparent- and who probably would have made fun of him and blamed him if they had done terribly, it seemed like it had been a positive experience for Gwendolyn, and he was glad.
Of course, Adam wanted his daughters to have positive experiences and not...end up like him, bitter, with a chip on his shoulder and a bit of a misanthropic streak, while also being terrified of getting hurt and rejected every time they talked to someone. He wouldn’t have thought any less of his girls if they ended up that way, but he wanted them to have an easier time than he did. Plus, if they had bad experiences at school too,Adam would end up even angrier at the world and he was sure that would kill him.
So, for more than the usual reasons that most parents would want their kids to succeed in a competition and make friends, he was glad that Gwendolyn had.
“Oh, no problem. I understand kids.” Adam assured Wendy. “I mean, having kids. And not wanting to stifle their creativity. I mean, I have another besides Gwendolyn. Misty. She’s going to be coming to school next year.” He looked over at Lena. “So, it’s been awhile since they’ve been that age but yeah.” Oh, Merlin, he sounded like a complete and total moron. Adam hated meeting new people and now he was sure this woman thought her daughter’s friend was raised by a total idiot. He really hoped he hadn’t ruined things for the Aladren.
“Um, I don’t, but someone in my family might.” Adam replied. There were enough of them around that odds were that at least one of them had. “And if you really want a picture and if our daughters do as well, it can probably be arranged.” So long as he didn’t have to get in any of them. “They would know who to gather up.”
Adam nodded. “That sounds like a great idea.”
11
Adam Brockert
Just being awkward
78
0
5
Amethyst Brockert
November 29, 2022 4:32 PM
It is by Amethyst Brockert
Amethyst nodded. “Yeah, I definitely don’t want to switch brothers with you.” She made a face. Billy was better than Topaz, but that was a really low bar and just because there were worse people than the Pecari, it didn’t mean that she would enjoy having a relative like him. Well, actually, she did have a relative like him, because Stanley was her cousin, but people would not automatically associate them with each other as they weren’t that closely related and did not have the same last name.“That’s true. It will be more…peaceful without him.”The Crotalus did not want to say too much about her friend’s brother. Sometimes, people did not like when you insulted their relatives, even if they were doing exactly that. Of course, she would not mind a bit if someone said something bad about Topaz or Uncle Eustace, but fortunately, most people here at Sonora, outside her family, did not know either of them.
Still, because of her less acceptable relatives-although, to be fair, at least Topaz knew how to behave in public, it was just in private that she showed her true colors, Uncle Eustace, however, did not seem to realize how horrible and wrong he was so never bothered to his hide what he really was like-Amethyst would never judge anyone for who they were related to. Like, just because Billy was a bit on the uncouth side, she never would have held that against Iris or assumed that she was like him because Amethyst would not want someone to think she was a psychopath just because Topaz was. And the themed names of the fourth year and her siblings made it all the more difficult to distance herself from the Aladren alumna and claim she was a distant cousin.
For just a second, Iris looked absolutely thrilled about Amethyst’s suggestion but then…she declined. True, there were reasons why that might be for the best, as to be honest, now that she stopped to think for a moment, she was not entirely sure that Father and Mother would have been all that okay with her friend visiting. Mother would probably talk about their busy social schedule but really Amethyst wasn’t entirely sure her mother wanted someone like Iris to come and stay with them, even though that was completely unfair.
And then there were the two dark blotches in her family. It was probably for the best that her friend did not meet Topaz or Uncle Eustace who would do nothing but embarrass her at a bare minimum. Amethyst didn’t trust either of them not to do worse.
Still,it was really too bad that Iris had to go home to a place that she didn’t belong. Even though she probably wouldn’t fit into Amethyst’s pureblood society world either. “Well, just a few more years until we graduate. Then you’ll be able to come visit me if you want.” She assumed that Iris’s parents, for whatever reason, just wouldn’t let her visit Amethyst.
However, when they graduated, Iris would be able to get a job-Amethyst could certainly pull some strings to help her-and be a part of the magical world. Maybe not high society, but at least other magical people. She couldn’t imagine that her friend would want to stay in a world where she didn’t belong and couldn’t even be honest about who she was.
11
Amethyst Brockert
It is
1532
0
5
Trying very hard not to be weird but there's a cat under this chair by Wendy Holland
Wendy was actually starting to like Adam, despite her reservations. He seemed very down-to-earth and not at all like the sort of purebloods she'd come from. And he didn't mind that her five-year-old was curled up under a chair, fake-snoring.She was glad that Lyla was making friends, too, and even happier that Lyla hadn't seemed to inherit her rebellious streak, having been sorted into Crotalus. Wendy knew there were outliers in every House, but overall, one of the things Crotali were known for was their respect for rules. Her daughter's time here would no doubt go much smoother than Wendy's had.
Refusing to allow herself to get dragged down into a cesspool of bad memories, Wendy chose to focus on Adam and what he was saying...which wasn't much. His other daughter was just a year behind Lyla, so they would most likely end up being friends as well, as long as everything with Gwendolyn went well. Not that she had any reason to think it wouldn't, but sometimes what looked like promising friendships simply didn't work out.
"Oh, no, don't trouble yourself, really," she replied to Adam's comment about sourcing a camera, "Sometimes I just get harebrained ideas, and besides, I'm sure the other families want to spend time with their kids without my silly interruptions."
He agreed that finding the girls would be ideal, which was a relief to Wendy- if only to give her something to talk about other than the inner workings of her scattered brain- and she set about teasing Lena out of her spot.
"Come here, kitty, kitty," she tutted in a singsong voice, "It is time for your supper!"
When she got home, she was going to thank any deity that was listening that Lena had chosen today to behave, because the little girl faked a wake-up yawn and stretch before crawling out into her mother's waiting arms. The last thing she wanted was for Adam to think she was a poor parent who couldn't control her kids, especially if Gwendolyn was going to come and stay with them for a while.
It's not that Lena was bad , by any means, but that rebellious streak that Lyla had missed out on, had caught Lena full-force. It was an endless game of reverse psychology and sticker charts, and it was exhausting. Wendy took the hard days with the easy days, but since today was supposed to be about Lyla, she was glad today was an easy day so she could focus her attention on her eldest daughter.
Lena-kitty safely on her hip, she tilted her head in the direction of the buffet.
"After you."
64
Wendy Holland
Trying very hard not to be weird but there's a cat under this chair
0
Wendy Holland
0
5
Adam Brockert
November 30, 2022 11:33 AMAdam Brockert
AlumnusHouse: Crotalus
Written by: Allegra Brockert
Age in Post: 48
Birthday: March 5
I try not to be weird either, but it doesn't really work by Adam Brockert
Adam had to admit that this woman was not nearly as terrible as he’d initially been worried about. Of course, he didn’t agree with her calling out and probably embarrassing her daughter during the performance but she was probably just proud of Lyla. After all, he was proud of Gwendolyn for winning and the performance…well, Adam was proud of the fact that she could get up on stage, especially doing something that she didn’t know how to do very well. He would have panicked even doing something he did know how to do. The idea of being in front of people who might make fun of him later made him feel nauseous.He just hoped they didn’t do that to his daughter. The thought of his children being bullied or excluded just made him really angry. So, he was glad that Gwendolyn had Lyla. She had also mentioned a boy named Eben who’d been on her Challenge team and was only a year older and a boy named Fortune that she’d hung out with on a field trip last year. Hopefully the second year would be able to cultivate those friendships more as well.
Honestly, Adam was just glad that Gwendolyn wasn’t like him when he was her age. He had been painfully shy, even more so than now, and incapable of standing up for himself, more like his niece Lydia was. On the other hand, while she didn’t go looking for fights or want to be in them, Gwendolyn wouldn’t take anyone’s crap. She was way stronger than he had ever been or was even now while still having compassion and patience with those who weren’t as tough.
Adam nodded. “All right.” It probably wasn’t worth it to try to hunt down some relative, asking everyone if they had a camera and then try to round up all of Gwendolyn’s teammates. Besides, some people didn’t like having their picture taken in the first place, he was one of those people himself. Which was possibly why he didn’t think to bring a camera. Adam didn’t think Gwendolyn would care about taking a picture either way but for all he knew some of her teammates were more like he was about it.
“I actually don’t think it’s all that harebrained though” Adam added. After all, when he came up with an idea and actually had the rare courage to suggest it, he needed to be reassured that it wasn’t terrible. “Wanting to take a picture of your child and have a record of some accomplishment or good memory is reasonable, so long as your child doesn’t mind. It’s not as if you’re part of the paparazzi.” Merlin, did Adam hate the paparazzi. Family pictures were one thing, though he still usually hated how he looked in them, but those weren’t usually seen by the public. The last thing that Adam would want was to be photographed by some tabloid reporter and end up the subject of a scandal.
So he tried very hard not to do or say anything that would put him in such a position. And, for the most part, he was very low key and there was nothing juicy or questionable about his life, even though Adam could be blunt at times when he was comfortable enough with the people around him. However, there was the small problem of him being incredibly socially awkward. It was bad enough to have someone you were talking to judging you, it would be even worse if they printed stories about you acting foolish and saying stupid things for everyone to read. “Wait, you’re not right?” Adam asked. Hopefully it could be laughed off as a joke if need be but if so there was no way summer visits would be happening. “It’s just that it would probably take a bit to find a camera and get everyone together.”
He waited as Wendy coaxed her younger daughter from beneath the chair. Once she had the little girl in her arms, he took off towards the buffet, assuming that she would follow. Adam really did want to find Gwendolyn since she was the one person here that he wanted to see. Well, of course, he wanted to find Serenity and Misty too, and he didn’t mind seeing his sister Kaylie and her family or his cousin Cory, who had come despite not technically being supposed to, but Gwendolyn was the one he hadn’t seen since the holidays.
11
Adam Brockert
I try not to be weird either, but it doesn't really work
78
0
5
Lydia Priory
November 30, 2022 8:48 PM
[Post-concert] Glad it's all over. by Lydia Priory
It had been an absolutely terrible year, and Lydia was very very very glad that it was over. The Challenges had been awful. The last one had been less terrible than the first two, but they hadn’t done very well. They had tied for sixth and then got second to last place overall. The Teppenpaw couldn’t help but worry it was all her fault and that her teammates blamed her. That they all hated her now because she’d been nothing but a burden the entire time. Maybe without Lydia, they would have been more successful.The thing was she didn’t really care that much about winning herself, she just didn’t want to be hated. She knew that she was weak and pathetic although there were a few things that Lydia was good at . However, they hadn’t come in all that handy so she really did not know how she could have done anything differently or better. Would it have helped if she expressed her idea for a petting zoo theme? She doubted it. Fairy tale themes were not all that original and everyone probably would have thought it was babyish. That she was babyish.
That was, after all, what her sister thought. Lydia knew that Sophia was actually coming tonight, but not because of her. She was coming because Hilda would be here and maybe a little bit to watch Gwendolyn perform. True, the Aladren alumna would not have been allowed to come if Lydia wasn’t a student, but had her friend not still had a sibling here, Sophia would never have bothered. Nobody had told the Teppenpaw that, but they really did not need to. She knew how it was, that her sister thought she was a tiresome little crybaby.
It wasn’t as if Lydia could really change who she was though. She could not just say she would be stronger and then be so. She would still be shy, sensitive and anxious, she could not help it. It was just how she was wired. Not everyone was tough.
At least her parents and her brother loved her just the way she was. In fact, sometimes Mom even seemed frustrated with Sophia for not being more caring and compassionate towards the fourth year. She was often after the older girl to spend more time with Lydia, to be softer and kinder towards her, but usually to no avail. The Teppenpaw did worry that Mom being on Sophia’s case made her sister want to do the opposite of that even more than she would have otherwise while Lydia just wanted her sister to like her for who she was instead of seeing being around her as a chore.
Anyway, this year had been very hard on her. She had spent most of it feeling more anxious than usual, worrying about whether or not her teammates would like her or blame her when they did poorly. The fourth year was absolutely exhausted now and she just wanted to go home and rest. Next year would be another stressful year, with CATS and all. Even though that would hopefully not put her in quite as difficult of situations. She would fail DADA miserably if she had to duel or deal with another boggart. Not that she planned to keep taking that class anyway.
The Concert was over now and Lydia scanned the room for her parents, Connor and Peyton. However, before she could find them, someone else approached her.
11
Lydia Priory
[Post-concert] Glad it's all over.
1533
0
5
Maybe I'm actually starting to get things right by Wendy Holland
Wendy was impressed. She had come today thinking that the concert was something to endure, not enjoy. Instead, the vast majority of the acts had been exceptional; a testament to the environment that Sonora cultivated. She hadn't appreciated it as a moody teenager, but coming back a decade later had shifted her perspective. She was glad that Lyla was here and was making friends, and although her own parents had been snooty, stuffy purebloods and had insisted that Wendy only socialize with the snooty, stuffy purebloods they were friends with, Adam's halfway decent attempt at humor showed Wendy that they were not the norm.As she followed Adam through the crowd, Wendy let out a quiet sigh of relief. He hadn't seemed put out by her concert companion's meowing, and she hadn't seen any sign of Gwendolyn not being allowed to spend some time with Lyla this summer.
They found the girls with little trouble, and, after introductions, Wendy gave Lyla a hug.
"You did great, kiddo! I really liked the...um...oboe?"
She wasn't quite sure what instrument her daughter had played, as it had looked like a hybrid between a woodwind and a brass instrument, but she was proud anyway. It had been fun to watch the group perform, as they all had clearly put their personalities into the music.
Lyla was quick to correct her mother, telling her that actually , it was a clarinet fashioned from a silver candlestick. Wendy smiled at her daughter's precociousness, resisting the urge to silly-sass right back at her like she normally would when Lyla got mouthy. It was plain to her that Lyla had really begun to come out of her shell. Whether it was due to the built-in team she'd had to talk to all year, or the atmosphere of a supportive, stable environment, Wendy didn't know, but she felt better than she ever had about Lyla being at Sonora.
Not that home wasn't a supportive environment, but the 'stability' left something to be desired. The frequent moves had uprooted friendships for Lyla on more than one occasion. Having a home base like Sonora, where her friends would be a constant- at least for the next six years- would have a much better influence on Lyla's self-esteem than military life could offer. Wendy and Russell didn't regret their decisions; they understood that a life of service was a life of sacrificing family dinners and special events.
"Where's dad?" Lyla looked behind her mother as though he would suddenly appear.
"Daddy couldn't make it, darling, but he sends his love, and he should be home next week."
A life of service was a life of qualifying your statements- Dad should be home, but if he's not, that's just life. Wendy had learned early on that she couldn't count down the days until Russell returned from wherever he'd been sent, because too many times she'd run out of buttons or rings on a paper chain only to be told that his trip had been extended. Instead, she and the girls started counting up. One ring for each day he was gone, inscribed with something happy that had happened that day.
The look on Lyla's face broke her heart.
"So," Wendy hurried to change the subject, addressing Lyla and her friend, but glancing over at Adam to make sure she wasn't overstepping, "How about we figure out some summer plans?"
64
Wendy Holland
Maybe I'm actually starting to get things right
0
Wendy Holland
0
5
Christopher Brockert
December 01, 2022 12:44 PM
Me too by Christopher Brockert
OOC: CW-A little toxic masculinity, courtesy of you know who. BIC:
Levi sounded a bit disappointed and Christopher felt bad. He hadn’t meant to insult her, he just wasn’t into blood and guts and sword fights that much. It didn’t mean that she had not done well or that others wouldn’t enjoy it. It didn’t mean there was anything wrong with her being in a sword fight.Well, not a pretend staged one anyway. Chris didn’t think her or anyone else getting into a real sword fight was a good idea, for obvious reasons.
He wondered though if it had been wrong to admit that he wasn’t into violence. After all, he was a boy, and according to Uncle Eustace, he probably should have been into it. He doubted this was what disappointed the Teppenpaw though. Never mind the sword fight performance that she’d just been in,the girl was friends with Lenny Pierce after all, so he doubted that she subscribed to Uncle Eustace’s views of traditional gender norms.
Still, it was just the way that Christopher was programmed. When you put up with years and years of exposure to these ideas, to the idea that you are not okay, you wonder if others agree with these ideas too even though you really don’t personally. You wonder if others will also judge you in a negative way and sometimes, it took you a moment to realize that probably didn’t make sense. Some people still might, and Chris still worried about them. For example, between getting in Jasper’s face and the fact that Isla disliked him, Oz Spellman was someone that he would be afraid might make fun of him-or worse-and should be careful to avoid.
Levi, on the other hand, was a Teppenpaw, who was friends with Lenny Pierce, so she probably was not going to judge him and think him unmasculine for not being into violence. He was pretty sure that the reason she sounded disappointed was because she thought he disliked the performance. “Hey. I”m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.” Christopher apologized. “I really do think you did a good job.”
Although he still didn’t understand why his opinion would matter to her so much. Maybe Levi was just sensitive to any sort of…criticism. Something that the third year absolutely understood. After all, he specifically tried to avoid being around people until he was sure that they would not pick on him or look down on him or say anything mean to him. Chris now really wanted to make the Teppenpaw feel better. “Just because the subject matter isn’t to the personal taste of one person doesn’t mean you didn’t do well or that others didn’t enjoy it.” He knew this from personal experience “ And I did enjoy your acting abilities. Ever think of joining the Performing Arts club?”
The next thing Levi said puzzled him even more. Not the part about meeting his friend’s mom, that was the sort of stuff that happened at a concert when relatives were visiting Sonora. It was more that he was confused as to why her mother, a fully grown adult, would care what a teenage boy thought of her daughter’s performance.
‘
Or maybe…Mrs. Scurlock was more into traditional gender roles than her daughter, and she would think there was something wrong with a boy who wasn’t into blood and gore and violence. Well, since he did not know her and he was always worried about expressing his opinions in front of people he did not know, this would not be an issue. He appreciated the heads up.
However, he could certainly comply with the request to tell Mrs. Scurlock what Levi wanted him to . “I can do that.” Christopher confirmed. He looked over her face for traces of the fake blood. “Yup, you’re good.”
11
Christopher Brockert
Me too
1539
0
5
Adam Brockert
December 01, 2022 4:59 PMAdam Brockert
AlumnusHouse: Crotalus
Written by: Allegra Brockert
Age in Post: 48
Birthday: March 5
If I can get out of here without doing anything wrong, it'll be a miracle by Adam Brockert
As they walked away to find their elder daughters, Adam realized that Wendy…had not actually answered his question about being a reporter. He was just going to give her the benefit of the doubt that she wasn’t and that she had interpreted the question as a joke. After all, if she was she would have likely said yes, right? Also she had not asked him any really uncomfortable questions or anything, just who his kid was and if he had a camera-and if Wendy had been planning to get photos of him or anyone else for the tabloids, she would have brought one. So Adam was going to guess that she actually wasn’t one.They found Gwendolyn and a girl that he assumed was Lyla fairly easily. “Hey.” Adam greeted the second year with a hug. “Good job.”
Which was what she expected. That her dad would greet her with more physical affection than actual words. The Aladren was honestly just happy that he had shown up at all. She knew that last year, with the alumni fair, he had not been at all willing to come, sending Cory instead to hand out information about wand making. Gwendolyn understood, her dad was not the sort of person who wanted to speak to others and tell them how to do something and do what was basically public speaking.
Still, Cory could not stand in for her dad. Maybe Liesl wanted him to stand in for hers, but that was different, that was her uncle and the third year was super close to him. Gwendolyn knew Cory since he’d always worked for Dad selling the wands that her father made, but he was not her dad.
“And mine was a suona ” A suona was a Chinese trumpet. “Made from a funnel and an old pipe.” The second year added. “Isla did the more complicated bits of transfiguration.” Honestly, being a second year sort of sucked when it came to the Challenges, because she had known how to do the least amount of magic besides Lyla. Even though Gwendolyn was pretty sure she was at least as good at Transfiguration as most of the third years.
Adam nodded. “Impressive.” He had to hand it to them for creativity if not musical skill.
Lyla asked where her dad was and both of the Brockerts felt bad for her. However, Gwendolyn was glad to have her dad there and Adam was glad that his daughter didn’t feel bad the same way her friend did.
The Aladen looked at her dad. “Are Mom and Misty here?” She asked. She assumed that they must have been because if anyone wasn’t going to come, it would be Dad. Coming back to his old school was not an easy thing for him, even if he was just sitting in the audience, so Gwendolyn absolutely appreciated how hard this was for him, and appreciated him so much for coming despite it.
“Of course.” Adam replied. He turned back to Lyla’s mom, glad that the somewhat awkward situation was being sidestepped. He felt bad for the girl, but he really was unsure how to deal with another family’s issues. Also, he was glad that he had not caused the awkward situation. If he could get out of here without embarrassing himself, his daughters or the Brockert family as a whole, he’d be very proud of himself.“I suppose we should. Any time that especially sounds good or bad for you?”
11
Adam Brockert
If I can get out of here without doing anything wrong, it'll be a miracle
78
0
7
Hilda Hexenmeister
December 01, 2022 6:44 PM
So bad it is good by Hilda Hexenmeister
Hilda smiled as Sophia shared that her cousin was in Hansel's group, and she was equally excited to watch them do terrible things to instruments. "I love mine brother, naturally, but this is sehr funny. He is good with everything! But not music!" she chortled gleefully. "He also plays nothing!" From the beginning, Hansel had picked up English so easily, and his grades were better than even Heinrich's had been in Beginners and early Intermediates, if only because he hadn't had the language barrier, he was Karl's favorite (though, admittedly, that was partly her and Heinrich's fault for not wanting a new parent at their more advanced ages), he was a perfect natural at snake care on the ranch, and now apparently his team had breezed through at the top of every event, though the concert performances would be viewed from a rather different perspective than however they had ended up tied for first place.Hilda was going to find it very satisfying to watch him struggle at something for a change.
It probably wouldn't be so funny if she'd thought he was truly nervous or anxious about it, but he'd been cheerful and upbeat in his latest letter to her and hadn't mentioned having any concerns about performing in front of everyone. He was just going to try his best and it was going to be so awful the only option would be to laugh at it. Nobody should be taking this seriously, and Hilda had no intention of doing so if Hansel wasn't.
When Sophia asked hypothetical questions about how their own challenges may have gone differently if they'd had different events, Hilda shook her head slowly. Her problems hadn't been with the events. If anything, she was better suited to the ones she'd had than the ones Hansel told her about. "I think events matter little to me. I did not know what was happening in my challenges. I had so much problem with English that early. I just try do what everyone else do and I did not understand the purpose. I wonder if scores are different if we try again now we are older. I still spreak English bad, but I understand more." She laughed, remembering trying to carrying around Professor Schmidt. "And I need drag no giant portrait around everywhere I go now!"
1
Hilda Hexenmeister
So bad it is good
1433
0
5
Anya Delachene
December 01, 2022 7:32 PM
Theeeeeee-ooooooo by Anya Delachene
Anya had watched the concert with her sister and parents. She had come mostly because Philippe was doing a dramatic scene with Morgan, but also because she was only one year out past her own graduation and she still knew a lot of people who would be performing. She was excited to see the whole thing! And even more so to get to see Theo and Stanley and Alexander and her other peeps who were still here!Also, she got to feel really old and grown up as she sat with Jasmine and her parents in the audience as a graduate. As a college freshman, particularly one that still lived in her parents' house because she didn't want too much of a head start on Theo and Alexander (and also because she didn't want to figure out how to feed herself yet), it wasn't often that she got to feel old but as the first few acts performed, she realized there were baby first years on the stage that she'd never met and probably never would. Being eleven abruptly felt like a really long time ago.
She clapped for every act, cheering and calling out the names of the people she knew best, and eventually the curtain closed and the last Delachene concert of her generation was over. Philippe would graduate after last year and then Anya wasn't sure she'd ever get invited back except as an alumni. She didn't really plan on having any kids of her own. She'd be happy just being the cool aunt to Jasmine and Philippe's. (She assumed Philippe and Freddie would adopt or something.)
As her friends were freed to escape into the main audience, Anya rushed in, looking to catch up in person in what felt like far too long. Philippe had passed on a hug from Theo but it really wasn't the same.
Speaking of . . . she squealed in delight as Theo found her and lifted her up and spun her around. This was definitely not the kind of hug Philippe had delivered to her, either from himself or from Theo. (Which was fair. Philippe was heavier than her and might be harder for Theo to lift up.)
When her feet touched the ground again, she grinned back at the taller Pecari. "He did!" she happily confirmed her brother's ability to communicate good news. "Ohh, very nice," she admired the trophy he showed her. "I didn't get to see one of those yet! Very pretty. That's awesome! I'm so proud of you guys! Proud hug!" She warned and then threw her arms around him again for a quick squeeze.
When she pulled away, so added, "I missed you this year! Did you have fun without me?" she grinned teasingly.
OOC: She would not hug if he protests.
1
Anya Delachene
Theeeeeee-ooooooo
1453
0
5
Oz Spellman
December 02, 2022 6:16 AM
[Concert Performance] The Middle by Oz Spellman
Oz spent the first half of the concert in pumped up anticipation. He wasn’t nervous because it wasn’t like he minded people looking at him. He’d spent enough time playing the class clown (even if he didn’t so much any more) to be used to it. Heck, it wasn’t even his first time in front of a crowd, seeing as he played Quidditch. He had even been in a fairy tale skit in their first year because it would have super sucked for their mom to take a day off work and come all that way to see them only for them to be trees or nothing at all. He’d had an awesome stage fight with Freddie, although looking back, he questioned how he had worried that Freddie’s character being called ‘babe’ would seem gay but he had enthusiastically wrestled another boy on stage without questioning it.This was the first time he’d sung in front of people though.
That had seemed like it would matter a lot less when he’d first come up with the idea than it did right now, even though by all logic his singing was way better now than when they’d first started rehearsing. He’d had actual advice from the portraits, even if most of them weren’t really familiar with rock music in general, and ‘The Middle’ by Jimmy Eat World specifically. They still knew what a key was, and when he was off it. Now, as he stood at the side of the stage, it occurred to him that Henry’s guitar wasn’t going to spontaneously detune itself, and the drums he’d persuaded Xav into learning weren’t going to… explode or whatever (probably) but his voice could get all nervous and shaky.
Throughout the intro, he could feel his palms sweating. But he’d rehearsed so hard that the first ‘Hey’ was muscle memory by this point, and he hit it cleanly. That was the springboard he needed to get the rest of the words flowing, just like he’d practiced. And the song always got him pumped. He thought he was sick of it, after they’d rehearsed it so many times. He’d gone into practices thinking he couldn’t possibly care about it all over again, but it got him, every time. There was a good reason why it was their mom’s favourite. It was rock solid advice, and by the time he got to the middle of the first verse, it was like someone who cared about him giving him a pep talk. Every. Single. Time.
And now he got to give that back. Hopefully it was a nice message for everyone to hear or whatever, but he wasn’t really thinking about the other students, or how many of them might feel how he did sometimes, or how they might be surprised to hear him singing a song with such a positive message (or just singing in general, seeing as he wasn’t known for that)—but he got to give it back to his mom, as a ‘thank you’ for all the ways she’d supported him over the years.
He also got to have fun, with the two people at school he loved the most. Being the singer was the best not only because you were the absolute front and center-of-attention rockstar (especially when your lead guitarist was Henry, who absolutely did not want to share the limelight), but he also had the bridge to just bop about the stage enjoying himself. To dance without caring what he looked like. To turn and watch Henry shredding it (he was pretty sure that was the right term—it was a term, anyway) on the guitar, and just beam at him doing his thing. And to turn and appreciate Xav… managing on the drums, which he had only picked up to help them out with this, because how hard could it be to just learn one song if you had months to do it (moderately hard, it turned out, was the answer to that). Making sure his back was fully to the audience, he threw a kiss and a wink Xav’s way.
He almost felt like he could kiss him in front of everyone. He felt like he could do anything.
The song finished, and he high fived Henry and threw an arm around him, and then Xav scrambled out from behind the drumkit to take a bow with them. Oz pulled him in on his other side. This was awesome. The cheering crowd and dreams of stardom were only part a small part of it. He had two of his best humans right here, and he’d hopefully just something to put a smile on his other best human’s face. Not only that, but to add to the small collection of moments she had where she could be proud of him.
Much like his first concert, he then spent the remainder of the time just willing it to be over so he could go throw his hyped up energy at his mom and hear what she’d thought of it.
13
Oz Spellman
[Concert Performance] The Middle
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5
Isla Brockert
December 02, 2022 11:14 AM
[Post-concert] I really don't want it to be over. by Isla Brockert
The year was now completely over. Not just the Challenges, but the Concert and CATS as well. Not that Isla really minded being done with her exams. They hadn’t been awful-honestly, she was pretty sure they were worse on Mr. Barba than on her, though not because of anything that she had done, just because of his allergies, the Aladren knew how bad they were on Miles, so she could not imagine that the examiner had had a very good day-but at the same time, it wasn’t as if she wanted to take exams and thought it was a really fun time. Isla might have been an Aladren, but nobody actually enjoyed taking tests the way that she liked to do puppetry. Not even Olaf.However, the other two events, well she really was sorry for them to end. She understood that her brother was really not sorry about that at all, and that Allegra had had a terrible time with the Challenges, but so far, they had been one of the best, proudest moments of Isla’s time at Sonora. The Concert had been a lot of fun too, although she had to admit the puppet show was more fun than the musical act of course.
So she was not especially happy that this year, which had been amazing, was over but at least next year was the Bonfire, which was pretty cool though. At least Isla wouldn’t have to worry about the drama of finding people to share a tent with, since she had her roommates who were her best friends. Unfortunately, her seventh year would be the Ball again and the last one had not been any more fun than she expected the pureblood balls to be this summer. There was nothing fun about standing around by yourself while your friends had dates and nearly everyone else did too.
It had also kind of bothered Isla that it was mostly people in her family who didn’t have dates which seemed like they were being excluded on purpose. Which felt horrible, like there was something about them that made everyone dislike them. Like everyone thought they were gross and like they were outcasts. Isla knew that she had friends and others in her family did too, but the way the ball had gone, had not felt good. Also, it had been boring. Hopefully at the next one though, she would have Lorena to hang out with while Rosalynn was with Tommy.
She didn’t really expect the parties this summer to be fun either. Of course, not everyone would be paired off and the Brockert name would have significantly more clout than it apparently had with other students at Sonora, but still. The Aladren didn’t think that parties and dancing was really her thing whether it was a pureblood ball or a Sonora one. She could dance fine, she just really wasn’t interested in it.
Another thing that was bothering Isla about this year ending was that Esme was going to graduate. Next year, it would be just her and Olaf among her siblings that would be here at Sonora and Olaf was, well, Olaf . She loved the younger Aladren to bits of course, but he was a little grump. At least she would have her cousins though and, of course, her friends. Isla really did get on well with Jasper, Chris and Liesl and she and Amethyst were getting closer through Performing Arts Club.
Isla looked around for either her family or her friends. Spotting someone, she approached. “Hi.” She greeted them.
11
Isla Brockert
[Post-concert] I really don't want it to be over.
1521
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5
Sophia Priory
December 02, 2022 1:02 PM
Hilariously so by Sophia Priory
Sophia laughed again. “I know. It’s great. Gwendolyn is good at things too, but she’s never really been into playing an instrument.” She had to admit, she was sort of glad her cousin was the one performing and not her sister. Lydia would have freaked out and despite Sophia’s lack of patience with her little sister or desire to dote on her, she didn’t necessarily want her to suffer.And had it been the fourth year who had to perform rather than Gwendolyn, she wouldn’t have been able to laugh at her because it would seem cruel. Like she was laughing at her rather than with her and that would make her feel like a bad person. Just because Sophia didn’t want to baby her sister and wholeheartedly resented that her mother both did and expected her to, did not mean that she thought it was okay to make fun of people who were fragile.
She was pretty sure that if Lydia was just fragile and it wasn’t something that her parents had reinforced and tried to make her and Connor reinforce, she might be more sympathetic and protective. It was just that when you felt forced and pressured to do something, it made you not want to do it. It didn’t matter what it was. Anything you didn’t choose was a burden and a chore. “I’m just glad that Gwendolyn has a sense of humor about it.” Sophia added.
Hilda’s response made her feel a little bit bad. Of course it was because of her friend’s struggles with English. Which was obviously not an issue that Sophia had, although she had been on the same team as Katerina Vorontsov, who might have struggled with it a bit more. “I suppose you’re right.”She replied. She probably would not have fared all that well in a musical challenge either, since she also did not play an instrument, although she probably could have done just fine coming up with ideas for how to craft them and making an attraction did sound more fun to her than planning a party or desert survival.
However, given that Hilda was a really talented Quidditch player and fairly athletic, the Challenges that they’d done had probably suited her better than the more recent ones. Even though it annoyed Sophia how some people tended to place so much value on that area of skills, she still supported her friend.
“To be fair, I speak English just fine and I didn’t understand the purpose of them either.” She added with a chuckle. “And yeah, it probably would be easier without lugging a portrait around. Think his portrait is still here?” Maybe Hilda would want to go say hi on the tour.
11
Sophia Priory
Hilariously so
1447
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5
Introductions by Jana Wilson
Jana could not believe that her son was graduating from Sonora-and she definitely could not believe he was performing tonight. Piper was doing something with Performing Arts Club but Gabriel had never been interested in such an area, And she was definitely surprised it was a musical act. Jana knew that this had been due to the results of the Challenges, but she was as surprised as her son was that his team had done well enough to perform in the Concert since Gabriel did not know how to play an instrument, but then, apparently most students didn’t.She had to admit, the whole thing was probably going to be very amusing. Jana could definitely see the humor in people who were bad at instruments playing ones that were transfigured from junk. Of course, it might have been different if Gabriel had been anxious about performing. And even though he wasn’t, she still did not necessarily agree with anyone being forced to be on stage in front of their peers, their families, and their peers’ families, despite seeing the comedic value of the specific acts.
Unfortunately, while that wasn’t bothering Gabriel, he seemed kind of sad about leaving Sonora. Jana understood because it was always hard to face changes. Although he never had seemed all that bothered by them before, she understood that he had found a nice activity that he enjoyed doing and a group of friends that he enjoyed spending time with. She knew that was something of value and not to be just taken lightly.
Anyway, she was proud of the seventh year, even though his team had not done very well overall in the Challenges. Jana was generally proud of her children no matter what and she was sure that what Gabriel’s team lacked in musical ability, they had made up for in creativity, intelligence,magical talent and problem solving skills, leading to their third place finish in that particular event. Plus, the Aladren had also been made prefect and Head Student, which meant he had the respect of both staff and students. So yeah, she could definitely understand why he would be reluctant to leave and go out into an environment where that might not happen. Jana didn’t know why someone wouldn’t, because of course there was nothing about her children that wasn’t one hundred percent likable and respectable, but you never knew.
She entered the school with her husband, Barry, and some of her other close relatives, all of them writing out name tags. Hers said Jana Wilson, mother of Gabriel and Piper. . Barry wrote out a near identical one with his first name in place of hers and father instead of mother, both of them foregoing writing out the names and relationships to all her other family members because the name tags just were not big enough.
They joined the tour group, and a woman next to them spoke. “Yes.” Jana agreed. “I mean, I went to school here, but it’s been awhile. Well, actually, it’s been four years because our oldest is a seventh year. Still, it’s nice to visit the place.” She noted the woman’s name tag. “You’re Phil’s mother? I’m Gabriel’s. My son talks about yours all the time. I know they went to that wedding for their club founder.” She held out her hand to shake. "Jana Wilson." She gestured to her husband. "And this is my husband Barry."
Of course, their name tags spelled that out and she was pretty sure this woman-Flo-would be able to read them but this was just good manners. "It's so nice to meet you."
11
Jana Wilson
Introductions
0
Jana Wilson
0
5
Piper Wilson
December 02, 2022 5:43 PM
{Post-concert] by Piper Wilson
Piper’s second year at Sonora was drawing to a close now. The Challenges were over and so was the Concert. She had to admit that she was sort of glad to be getting back to normal though. The Challenges had been a fun experience, but admittedly, they were kind of a let down. They had gotten last place and she hadn’t really made any new friends among her team.At least Piper still had her Teppenpaw friends and she was glad that next year, she would get to spend more time with them again. And she supposed that it was okay that she hadn’t made new friends,because now she could give the ones she had more attention. She would hate to feel like she had let any of them down, simply because they didn’t spend enough time together. The Teppenpaws not spending as much time together during the Challenges had been out of their control but now they would be able to hang out with each other more. Piper would never want to neglect them or stretch herself too thin, even with friends.
Not that if someone wanted to be friends with her, she would turn them away and she would never want to be rude to anyone or hurt their feelings, it was just that she would not want to make one of her friends feel like they never got to spend time with her. Especially if they had nobody else. Piper knew that not everyone had an easy time making new friends, although her friends both were friends with each other and did not seem to have that issue. Which did make things a bit easier.Still, she hated the idea of them feeling like they didn’t matter to her and she wanted to make sure that they knew that they did.
Anyway, even though some things would go back to normal, next year would still certainly bring some new changes. Gabriel was graduating and Charlotte would be starting her first year of school. The second year would miss her brother but she was excited her cousin was going to be here. Piper would do her best to look out for her and see that she adjusted well to Sonora life.
Actually, Charlotte would be here tonight since her brothers, Wally and Stanley, were students. The Teppenpaw hoped to introduce her friends to her cousin, as well as her parents and any other fairly close relatives that happened to be here. Most of them couldn’t come because they didn’t have children, siblings or siblings-in-law at school, but in addition to her parents and Charlotte, her cousin Ryan and his wife Sophie-Charlotte’s parents-and Uncle Seth, Aunt Lilac,Ivy and Vlad might be here.
Piper looked around seeing if she could spot any of the people that she was looking for. When she did, she approached and greeted them.”Hi!”
11
Piper Wilson
{Post-concert]
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Oz Spellman
December 04, 2022 2:42 AM
[Post-Concert] But moving towards the end by Oz Spellman
As soon as they were released to find their families, Oz wasted no time in diving off to look for their mom, keeping a hand around Henry’s wrist so that he didn’t lose him in the crowd/his own inevitable tendency to rush.He caught sight of her, and was just about held back from running by his Henry-anchor (another advantage of tethering himself to his twin). He didn’t even have to ask what she thought of the song, because the first words out of her mouth were “You were fantastic! I loved it!” as she gave them both enthusiastic hugs. “Your idea, and your execution?” she said, checking in first with Oz and then Henry. Oz nodded. Henry wanted to do things for mom, but he would never have ventured the idea of them going on stage to perform a song, whilst Oz would never have had the organizational skills to get in enough rehearsals without Henry nagging him.
“Go team,” he grinned, offering his brother a fist bump, trying to remember the last time they’d got a compliment for how well they worked together. There were times when sharing every milestone moment with Henry got frustrating, especially as Henry usually did better than him. Oz’s own, independently earnt compliments were fewer and further between, and all the more prized for it. But this was different—this wasn’t them doing the same but Henry doing better. This was them doing something they couldn’t have done without each other. Oz wanted to make more of those things happen.
“Absolutely,” Monica smiled. “Though I don’t know who gave either of you permission to keep growing,” she added, looking over them. The height was something she’d got used to jumping up at startling intervals without her permission, but Oz… Oz had always been sporty. And underfed, and a child, all of which meant that however much running around he did, he was still just as scrawny as Henry, who spent all his time indoors reading books. Between a full plate and puberty, the effort Oz put into his sports was starting to show.
“We look the same as we did at Christmas,” Oz rolled his eyes.
“No.” She shook her head. “You look different,” she said, meaning both to how they’d been when she’d last seen them and to each other. They always had, in her eyes, of course. There had only been a brief phase as newborns where she’d obsessively colour-coded them, and she was like…. eighty percent sure that she’d never mixed them up for longer than a few minutes. But now it was more than just the hair and the mannerisms that would make other people notice which was which. It wasn’t bad, per se. All the twin blogs said things about finding their own identity—something which Oz had been particularly aggressive about establishing during their middle years. It was good to see that manifesting in a healthier way, alongside them working together. All signs pointed to them not having turned out too terribly screwed up, in spite of everything.
13
Oz Spellman
[Post-Concert] But moving towards the end
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0
7
Oz Spellman
December 04, 2022 2:47 AM
[Post-concert] But there's still a few growing pains to go by Oz Spellman
Oz was filling mom in on the end of their year, when there was a soft “Excuse me?” from behind them, and he turned to see Xavier, family in tow.Oz felt his stomach do a backflip. One that he could tell himself was nerves at meeting Xav’s parents, and the person who would be responsible for absolutely creaming Oz if he ever hurt Xavier (he presumed that was Joel’s take, seeing as he himself would have assumed that role with anyone who spent extended periods of time with Henry). But, anxious as he felt about that, the sick feeling for that was in his throat, making it hard for him to swallow. The backflipping stomach was Xav himself…
It was ridiculous, given that he’d seen him a few minutes ago. But Xav was like the song. Oz thought he knew what to expect, and that he was over getting giddy, but every time he saw Xav, all those feelings that he was pretending not to have came rushing back to the surface. Xav made him happy, in a way he hadn't expected other people to. It wasn't the superficial rush of barrel rolling a broom through the air but like... this actual... feeling. Like it was inside his heart or some absolutely cheesy crap like that. He felt his feelings for Mom and Henry there, of course, but outside his family, he'd never had anyone who did that. Friends we're people you chased thrills with, and juggled knives with, trying to make sure you said and did the right things to walk that careful line of keeping yourself 'in' with the right people (according to playground law) but not falling so deep that they led you into screwing up your life. But Xav was different. He wanted the stuff that was on the inside. He needed Oz's protection. He forgave him for his mistakes.
And now Oz had to meet his family.
He tried to swallow down his ball of nerves, and dissipate all his squishy feelings, though the latter still showed in his eyes as he greeted Xavier with an awkward side hug.
He reigned all of himself in, trying to do his best Henry impression, because responsible adults always liked Henry better. He'd never been very good at pulling it off for more than a couple of minutes. Henry wasn't that great at pretending to be him either - when they'd tried the switcheroo as much younger kids, it was a fairly even split as to whether they got rumbled by 'Henry' suddenly having far too much energy or ‘Oz’ being suddenly too well-behaved.
There were a couple of moments that were occupied with helloes, and names, and everybody shaking hands, all of which was hard to mess up, although Oz got thrown a bit of a curve ball, as he got to “And this is our mom,” and his mom went with “Hello again.”
“We met before the tour,” she explained to Oz.
“You did?” Oz asked, trying to read his mom for clues as to how that had gone.
“Aw, does that mean I missed the part where you share embarrassing stories from his childhood?” Xav asked.
“Er, excuse you? There are none. I have always been awesome,” Oz retorted, though his eyes darted to his mom seeking confirmation on what had been shared.
“I wouldn’t do that to you,” she assured him.
“We’ll be happy to do it to you though, if you keep teasing,” Xavier’s father warned him with a wink that said he was just kidding. “So far we’ve only heard good things about you,” he confirmed to Oz.
“And about Henry?” Oz confirmed, placing a hand on his brother’s back and exerting a slight amount of pressure. There wasn’t anything as overt as an outright scuffle, but the moment was sorely reminiscent of someone asking for volunteers and everyone inching backwards. “They were teammates on the challenges, and did really well,” Oz added, insistently channeling the focus onto Henry in a way that he was sure he would be silently resented for both now and later. But Henry was the better twin. If he could sweet talk the adults and seem reasonable and responsible, maybe they would then assume that Oz was much the same, which would be better than if he tried to make his own impression. Little as Oz liked the subject of the challenges, it was better than trying to navigate this based on his own good points.
“Oh yes, we heard a lot about those,” Mr. Lundstrom said, focusing on Henry for a few moments as he chatted about the challenges. But whilst Henry was polite with adults, he still wasn’t talkative, and it didn’t take long for the conversation to dry up.
“We’re glad Xavier has such a good friend too,” Mr. Lundstrom added, swinging the spotlight back to Oz. It had been very easy to take the literal one on the stage, but the metaphorical one made him squirm. His default defence was to be as cocky as possible, but that worked better with his peers than with adults. And at Sonora, it didn’t even work that well with the former… “It sounds like you really look out for him.”
“Thanks,” he said, wondering if Mr. Lundstrom would say that if he knew about the literal look out duties Oz had undertaken when Xavier was doing stuff he wasn’t supposed to.
“We’re glad Oz has Xavier too. They seem to bring out the best in each other,” his mom added, and Oz realised he should have said that sooner.
“Yeah. Xav’s great!” he said, though he wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to add to that. He felt Xavier poke him in the ribs, and turned to find him smirking. Oz tried to convey What? with widened eyes.
“Have you gone shy or something?” Xavier asked, looking very amused at the idea of Oz being such a thing.
“I am not shy—get lost,” he said, as Xav made another poke for his ribs. Except he didn’t say ‘get lost.’ He went for something that made his mom say “Oz! Language!” His face flushed red, as his argument that he was just being polite—which he probably wouldn’t have pointed out out loud anyway—evaporated into thin air.
“Sorry,” he said, turning to the Lundstroms. They didn’t look completely appalled, and he hadn’t said the absolute worst word he could have, but he still wished the ground would open up and swallow him.
“Don’t worry about it,” Mr. Lundstrom said kindly. “Xavier, we told you not to tease your… friend,” he said, and Oz wondered if that pause was as blatant as he felt it was.
“Thanks,” he said, just as robotically as before.
“Xav said you skate together?” Joel said. “What are you working on?”
Oz turned, grateful for the rescue, and a subject that he finally didn’t feel awkward getting into. He wasn’t sure everyone was super into it—he was pretty sure Henry, mom and Mrs. Lundstrom glazed over fairly quickly—but he could talk about it, and compare notes, finding relief and laughter in Joel admitting to falling down almost as often as he did, even if what he was working on was more complicated. There were a couple of times when he got a compliment or a ‘Nice!’ in reaction to something he shared, and he felt like someone had thrown something under his wheels, but it didn’t make him totally lose his balance… With skating, he tried, and he did achieve things, and so the compliments on it didn’t feel as awkward as when someone tried to tell him he was a basically decent person or something. Especially given his tendency to immediately provide evidence to the contrary whenever that happened.
13
Oz Spellman
[Post-concert] But there's still a few growing pains to go
1514
0
5