Mortimer Brockert

February 24, 2023 4:09 PM
Midterm was every bit as dull as usual for Mortimer. He would never quite understand why he was required to attend parties. They were painfully boring and served no real purpose. Allegedly, they were meant to be celebrations. However, he was not quite sure what exactly was being celebrated, most of the time. Occasionally, it was something like a wedding or a birthday or at this time of the year, the Winter Solstice. Why, precisely, this last thing was important in this day and age was beyond him, although he supposed it being dark longer was a positive thing. Sunlight was overrated. However, Mortimer did not understand why this was something that required him to spend time with a bunch of people making small talk, which was a far worse torture than any medieval device that had been designed for such a purpose could hope to inflict.

The other thing about this particular time of year was that there was disturbing…wholesomeness about it all. Mortimer had never trusted wholesome things. Like there was something fake, a dark undercurrent about it-and the more wholesome something seemed, the darker said undercurrent was. If something seemed ideal the more likely it was to be a cover for severe dysfunction. If someone seemed too good to be true, then they probably were because nobody was really that…perfect. It had to be an act. Like the families on those sickening holiday wireless specials where the problems were minor at best, everyone got along and the parents had all the answers.Nobody was like that, and if someone seemed to be, they were pretending. Period. And probably covering up something awful. Like a “concerned” parent who was really overbearing and controlling.

Mortimer preferred for darkness and dysfunction to be upfront. It was far less insidious that way. He supposed, in this respect, he could even give Eustace credit for the lack of subtlety in his obnoxious behavior. While completely vile in every way, at least it was honest.

Anyway, between the inane small talk of parties and his son’s honest but still completely deplorable ways, Mortimer was glad to be back at Sonora, where he could at least ignore most of the most irritating aspects of the people around him. The students entered the Cascade Hall and he stood up, placing a Sonorus charm on himself. “Welcome back.” He stated. “I hope you have all had a nice break.” Still didn’t care. He sat back down and began to eat.
Subthreads:

Aladren

Teppenpaw

Crotalus

Pecari
11 Mortimer Brockert Returning Feast 6 1 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

February 25, 2023 11:13 PM
Rosalynn was now halfway through her sixth year. One and a half left before RATS and graduation. It seemed altogether too soon, and yet still comfortably distant. She didn't need to worry about college applications quite yet, and she was only just getting into the swing of her Advanced courses. The most immediate major event on her calendar at this point was the Bonfire, and she was mildly disappointed that Headmaster Brockert didn't even give it a passing mention in his eleven words that he said to them before the feast began in earnest.

Still, she'd had one before, so she figured she knew what to expect. Turning to Isla and Lorena, who she'd chosen to sit beside tonight, she smiled at them. "Short as always," she remarked with a vague gesture toward the Headmaster. "Shall we make it official that we plan to all share a tent together for the Bonfire this year? I think it's up to four people; is there anyone else we want to add to ours for the night?" Her two roommates were her closest friends at the school and she couldn't really think of anyone else she might want to include, except maybe Verdillia, who she was training to take over the Visual Arts Club, and who had been a good challenge teammate last year, but the younger girl probably had other friends she'd want to share with.

She supposed there was also Constance, in the year below theirs, who Rosalynn knew through prefecting, and who probably didn't have a large circle of friends to choose between. "Constance, maybe?" she suggested, "Or one of your cousins?" she wondered with a look toward Isla.
1 Rosalynn Tellerman Looking forward to the Bonfire (tag roommates) 1520 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

March 05, 2023 9:52 PM
Be it Opening Feast or Returning Feast, the best part of coming back to Sonora was definitely always getting to see Rosalynn and Isla again. When Lorena first came to Sonora, she’d just been hoping at a minimum to blend into the background enough to not be made fun of, but she’d really exceeded her own expectations over the course of the last five and a half years. Really, from day one, she’d been very fortunate to settle in with some great roommates, who instantly became great friends.

Like Rosalynn, she had been hoping for more information about the upcoming bonfire, but Headmaster Brockert was a man of few words - really, the fact that he hit double digits for a Returning Feast was pretty good - so she really shouldn’t have been surprised. She was glad to see Ros’s mind was in the same place as she began talking about their arrangements for the bonfire tents.

Lorena had forgotten in the years since the last bonfire that they could have up to four people in their tent. Rosalynn suggested Connie Melcher, who Lorena kinda thought was weird, or one of Isla’s many cousins, if she wanted to do so, and Lorena nodded along. “I’m fine with any of those,” she said. She wouldn’t want Connie to know she thought she was weird, having been the weird kid herself in elementary school, although Connie wasn’t especially perceptive in that regard anyway. “Are we allowed to just do three? Maybe we just sorta plan on the three of us and then if anyone else needs a tent, we can let her in. Unless you’ve got a strong opinion, Isla,” she added, opening it up to their other friend. Really, Lorena's only concern overall was that whoever joined them might feel a little left out, since their group was pretty tight, although all three girls were pretty welcoming and nice, so it wasn't like they would do anything intentional to exclude anyone. But it was probably pretty well known that Lorena, Rosalynn, and Isla were a package deal.
12 Lorena Abernathy Same here! 1510 0 5

Isla Brockert

March 13, 2023 3:36 AM
Midterm had really been mostly okay for Isla. She’d had to go to a party but she was sort of less bothered by that-even though it had actually not been at all fun-because Liesl’s mother had forced her to go and to wear a very not Liesl like pale pink dress and otherwise, just things that did not suit the Teppenpaw at all such as a matching manicure. Ugh. It would not have been Isla’s style either. It was more Esme. Which was fine-for Esme . It was so wrong for Liesl. One thing that Isla was eternally grateful for was that her parents were understanding and at least she could wear what she wanted, within reason.

Anyway, she had actually felt the need to go to that ball in order to have her cousin’s back. After all, this was a situation that she understood most of anyone. Other members of their family-such as Grandfather and Allegra- disliked going to balls but the Aladren was the one going through the same reasons for disliking them as Liesl. So, the two of them had spent the ball together. Which might have been fun, except that the fourth year was barely keeping it together. Jasper had spent time with them too, consoling the younger Teppenpaw, but he was very… eligible , so felt obligated to ask girls to dance, not that guys didn’t ask Isla or Liesl.

It was a bit bothersome though because these boys were not seeing who Liesl truly was. As much as Isla felt the need to stifle herself and not talk too much about puppets, at least people were seeing something of the real her. The Teppenpaw might as well have been dressed in a costume, which, depending on said costume, might have actually suited Liesl better.

Honestly, Isla felt that there was a boy here at Sonora who was just perfectly well suited to her cousin. Hans absolutely saw Liesl for who she was and liked her. That was something rare and special, especially for someone like the fourth year, like Isla herself, who was not exactly…mainstream. And Isla was pretty sure that he was even a pureblood. Maybe Alfie and Jacqueline would decide that the fourth year should take what she could get. It would be mean for them to think of it that way, but that was like them where their eldest was concerned, and would work out best for Liesl anyway.

Other than that though, Midterm hadn’t been that bad. The Aladren had had to put up with Topaz and Uncle Eustace at times, which was never fun, but at least there had been plenty of times where it had been just Isla, her parents and siblings. And Josh. It would never be just the seven of them, the “complete family”-as in her dad’s idea of his complete family- they’d been since Uriah was born, now that Allegra was married. Not Isla disliked her brother-in-law, he was really great. He treated her sister super well and stood up to Topaz for her.

Which meant the Aladren alumna absolutely despised him. Josh had been made well aware that he needed to exercise an abundance of caution around her, and use such common sense practices as not accepting food or drink from Topaz or allow them to go unattended around her. These weren’t just rules for Miles, it was just that the eight year old was easier to poison than everyone else.

Anyway, it wasn’t so much anything against Josh personally as it was that his presence meant things were different now and they’d never be how they were again. And they’d probably just change more when Esme got married and then Isla and her brothers-although the idea of Olaf marrying was extremely odd to her and not because he was her little brother and the idea of little brothers marrying was weird in general-and then they’d all have children with their respective spouses. Isla just felt a little…wistful about it, even though she liked her brother-in-law. Hopefully, she’d like the rest of her siblings-in-law too someday.

And speaking of things that she knew in the long run she would feel all sad and nostalgic about, now she was back at Sonora with her roommates. Her real friends. The sixth year felt super lucky to have them, especially given Topaz’s experiences-which, after all, had of course been inevitable when Topaz was involved but still, Isla was glad to have a much better one. Sometimes even normal non-sociopathic people did not get on with roommates and there was always the possibility, outside of Teppenpaw, that someone would be the unpleasant version of their house’s traits. Like, Isla could think of some Aladrens that were less than pleasant, aside from Topaz, and she felt lucky that she’d gotten roommates who were the good kind of them.

Isla nodded at Rosalynn’s remark. “That’s Grandfather for you. Short and not so sweet.” Although she loved her grandfather and he was always fairly decent to her and his other grandchildren and had not said anything offensive-which arguably might be a reason he kept things short so he didn’t end up doing so-sweet was not an adjective she would ever apply to the man.

She considered what both her friends had to say. “Actually, there is a three person minimum.” Isla left unsaid why they needed at least three people. It was pretty much the same reason as the new bed rule, although for whatever reason the spells on their beds in the Bonfire tent were less strict. They could at least sit on the beds in their tent together and she did wonder why the ones on their regular beds were stricter. Isla thought it was really sad that she and her friends couldn’t sit together and talk on their beds like they had previously. She understood that they didn’t want anyone…doing inappropriate things but the wards were a little extreme. She did not want to have to sit on the floor to be able to have intimate conversations with her friends or study or play games. Nor did she want to sit in the common room where any of the Aladrens could hear what they were saying. Granted, that wasn’t quite as big of an issue since Topaz graduated, but still, it was reasonable to want privacy when talking to your friends and it was reasonable to want to sit on their beds to talk and whatnot.

“It used to be four to a tent, but they changed it because people were being left out.” Isla continued. “Like, imagine every girl in your year was sharing a tent with each other except you. That would totally suck.” Which was more or less what happened to Angelique. Although she did have Tasha, another distant cousin, but it was, like, really hard to feel like you had nobody but your family to hang out with. Like, you were grateful to have family, but it hurt not to be accepted by others. Although Angelique often mentioned how she just did not fit in with her overly sporty year group. However, not being accepted by others was exactly what Isla was worried about happening to Liesl-and herself -at society balls. These situations made her all the more grateful for Rosalynn and Lorena. “So, it’s three minimum, and no max.”

The sixth year went on “I actually do agree with Lorena. That we should plan on it just being us. And it’s not so much because I want to leave someone out, but because well, we’re sort of a unit and like someone else might feel left out because we’re such good friends” Isla would hate being in such a situation personally, although she supposed it was better than, say, having nobody at all. As it was, she was a little worried about some of her relatives, Liesl-whose best friend was a boy-and Olaf-who was a giant misanthrope-in particular“Although we could take in a pair who can’t find a third if need be.”
11 Isla Brockert Ditto 1521 0 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

March 13, 2023 9:39 PM
Rosalynn nodded along as Lorena and Isla both expressed a preference to be just the three of them, and Isla confirmed that was allowed. She'd forgotten that was the case, and it explained why she couldn't remember who their fourth had been last time. Sully or Dad must have said something about there being four to a tent and she'd just held onto that number.

"Okay, cool, that sounds good," she agreed readily, as the two of them were easily her closest friends and she didn't need anyone else to join in for it to be a good time. Being in a tent was different enough to make it special and not like their normal sharing of a room. "Just the three of us unless a pair of girls we like need more people for a tent." It sounded like a good compromise to her between the comfort of their usual configuration and being welcoming to others.

"I can't believe we're coming up on our last two midsummer events already!" The last one would be the Ball, which would be more about couples than friends, though she'd definitely make sure to spend at least some of the time with Isla and Lorena and not just hog Tommy the whole night long, but this one was definitely designed more with friends in mind, and she was really looking forward to it. "I wonder if they're going to do some kind of theme with it?" From what she'd heard about Sully's experiences and what Dad told her about when he worked here, the staff usually seemed to do something a little different from one bonfire to the next, though the main points all remained the same. "I wonder if the Performing Arts Club could do a campfire puppet show or something?" she wondered aloud with a grin and glance at Isla. "Or some dramatic story telling, or lead a sing-along?"
1 Rosalynn Tellerman Great. We're all on the same page here. 1520 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

March 16, 2023 9:05 PM
Lorena was relieved that her friends were pretty much on the same page as her. It was nice having Isla around for talks like this: whether she wanted to or not, Isla probably knew everything about the school, what with the Headmaster being her grandfather. That was definitely something that would have intimidated Lorena if she had known it before she had met her.

Rosalynn mused over it being their second to last midsummer event, which Lorena did not want to hear because that was entirely too close to sounding like getting close to graduating and being adults and Lorena just had absolutely no idea what to do with that. But Ros mostly kept positive, wondering what kind of themes might be announced as the bonfire grew closer. “Ooh, that would be so cool!” she grinned in agreement.

Because of the rotation of the events, their senior year seventh year would be another ball. That was a bit daunting as a final send off, but that was the reality of it. Rosalynn always did a good job balancing between hanging out with the friends and hanging out with Tommy (and Lorena was still pretty proud of helping Tommy with his last promposal-style display). She did wonder for herself and Isla, though. Lorena went to the last one with Oz, and that had been kind of like dating for a while, but it didn’t really work out for too long. Dating at fourteen was hard, unless you found yourself with… well, with a Tommy.

There weren’t a ton of boys in this school for options, though. Maybe this time Lorena would see about going with Henry, so she could compare. Although Henry had always seemed more mature, so really, maybe the better gauge would've been going with him before and then Oz next time. In any case, she had a whole year to worry about that stuff, so she pushed it from her mind and instead tuned back into the conversation with her friends.
12 Lorena Abernathy I like this page. 1510 0 5

Isla Brockert

March 20, 2023 9:41 AM
So it was settled. It would be the three of them together, just them. “I mean, I guess if someone by themselves really needs someone to share with, they can join us, and then we can try to make sure they don’t feel left out among us.” Isla added. She really didn’t want someone to feel like the odd one out like Angelique had been.

Or like she had been when her friends had boyfriends and she didn’t.The Aladren had felt different in a way that she wasn’t comfortable being. Rosalynn’s mention of them only having two more midsummer events only reminded her of the fact that next year would be the ball and that time when she’d felt a bit left out.. “I wish we had a different last event.” Isla wrinkled her nose a bit at the thought.. It was absolutely her least favorite of them all. She not only found them inherently not much fun, but even though Sonora’s balls weren’t like the pureblood society ones at all, the last one had really left a bad taste in her mouth. And she wanted to spend the end of her time at school hanging out with her friends, not standing by herself with nobody to talk to while her friends and literally everyone else had dates except the younger students and her own relatives.

That last one especially stung. It wasn’t just leaving Isla out, it was largely leaving her whole family out. Okay, a few of her distant cousins had dates, if she remembered correctly, Lavender went with Graham and Gabriel with Morgan Garret. And Amethyst had sort of a date, because someone had asked Iris so that had left the fourth year to hang out with Alexei on her own.

However, for the most part, it was everyone else paired up, which felt like…people disliked them as a whole. Like there was something inherently wrong with the lot of them. At least at society balls, people wanted to be around them. Like, there being a Brockert was a big deal. Not that Isla especially cared about such things, she would much prefer to be liked for herself than for her family but yes, generally she did prefer feeling wanted to being left out.

And she just knew there were some-not Rosalynn and Lorena, of course, but definitely some people– who would definitely paint it as them being the ones who were stuck up and wanted nothing to do with people who weren’t purebloods. Which was so not true. Off the top of her head, the only people in her family who had a close Sonora friend who happened to be purebloods were Amethyst-who was also friends with her Muggleborn roommate-and Liesl who was friends with Hans but he wasn’t even a high society pureblood. Oh and Desmond might be friends with his roommates, Isla wasn’t sure.

Granted, there weren’t that many purebloods of the Brockert’s social status around Sonora now, but even if there were , it definitely wouldn’t have changed anything. Isla still would have been friends with her roommates. Generally speaking, other than Amethyst initially probably zeroing in on Alexei for those reasons-Isla was pretty sure her cousin did genuinely like the Pecari now-most of them didn’t pick their friends that way.

Although, it did suck that there was nobody around Sonora for her to date. She knew that she would likely have to marry a pureblood boy and even if there had been anyone left for her to go to the ball with last time, it would have had to be as friends. The sixth year wasn’t about to spend time dating someone when they would inevitably have to break up. Isla wouldn’t want to hurt anyone-or get hurt herself and besides, she genuinely felt that there was no point in something that couldn’t end up being serious in the end.

Admittedly, that also sucked,because if she had met someone that she liked at school that wasn’t a pureblood…it would just be complicated. Isla might be disowned and she loved her family way too much to risk never being able to talk to them again. Hopefully, eventually, she would meet a pureblood boy who liked her for who she was and whom she liked back for who he was. Isla knew that it could happen, she knew not all pureblood boys were horrid and snobby. Not even all the ones she’d met at balls.

The problem was, however, that people didn’t necessarily feel that they could be themselves there. She didn’t. Liesl didn’t. And Liesl’s mother definitely did not feel Liesl could, apparently. So, how was Isla truly supposed to get to know the real anyone there?

As for the Sonora ball next year, what if what happened last time happened this time too? Who would Isla talk to? Even with her relatives, all the close ones would be gone. Esme had graduated, Jasper would be. And while Amethyst and Liesl wouldn’t be, hopefully, they would have actual dates with Alexei and Hans. Isla wanted that for them, and she did want her friends to be happy too, but she really really didn’t want to be standing around alone, both because it made her feel bad about herself, and because it was quite frankly boring.

Still,while she knew Rosalynn never neglected them, she would want to spend time with Tommy at the dance. It was a given and made perfect sense, but still, Isla really did want more than anything to spend her last night at Sonora with her friends. Not standing alone by the punch bowl or talking to some random younger student who also didn't have a date. Maybe one of her Challenge teammates would be available.

At least it was still a year away though. This year was the Bonfire and that would be fun. Especially if they did the things Rosalynn suggested. “Those are great ideas. I mean, maybe this can be sort of…I dunno, a festival of sorts. Although that might be too much like the Concert but we could still have Performing Arts Club entertain people.” That was, after all, sort of the purpose of the club, although arguably they didn’t have to actually have an audience, and could just enjoy having camaraderie with like minded people, which was just such a rare thing in life. “I suppose I could ask Grandfather.” Who, to be honest probably would not care.
11 Isla Brockert Well, it's much better than the next one 1521 0 5