Staff on Cascade Hall

Mortimer Brockert

May 29, 2023 7:11 PM

Opening Feast by Mortimer Brockert

Last year had ended as badly as it had started. Well, not quite ended , since the Bonfire itself had gone without incident as far as Mortimer knew and was concerned. He was sure that there was the usual drama about who was sharing a tent with who but that was…not his problem though he would have been sympathetic towards his own grandchildren, had it been them. Nobody had been horribly burned, or got food poisoning from improperly cooking something over a fire, and that was good enough for him.

The thing that had happened had happened slightly before the Bonfire. There had been an…accident. At least as far as Mortimer had ascertained, what had happened had been an accident and not something that Mr. Lundstrom purposely tried to do to himself. It was tragic, of course, Mortimer was not completely heartless contrary to popular belief. However, given the parents of the student in question, he had also been seriously worried about a lawsuit. The mother certainly seemed the type who would blame the school for not watching her children at all times in order to keep them “safe”. After all, she’d already made it abundantly clear that she didn’t think Sonora was good enough for her offspring prior to this.

Still, it wasn’t as if there wasn’t access to mental health services. This was a thing that even Mortimer would not object to, basically because he understood the need for them, as he had family who seemed to suffer from these issues-he wasn’t quite sure why Allegra had such a nervous disposition, but she had one and Eustace was clearly a raging narcissist, not that he’d ever get help for a psychological problem-and because they were a thing that having access to did not impose authoritarian rules on the student population or inconvenience him personally. The thing was though, students had to be willing to seek help, which was a problem because there was always a stigma, a fear that others would find out and mock and/or reject them, or have a staff member refer them.

Which meant that the staff members had to be aware of there being a problem. And there was no way they could be monitoring all the students constantly without violating their privacy and not respecting them as maturing young people. Nobody wanted to be watched twenty-four hours a day.

So, he hoped to Merlin that this did not mean more restrictions would be placed upon the students and their personal freedoms. Mortimer knew Amethyst had been pretty disappointed about her petition, which as far as he was concerned should have been successful. Never mind that he agreed with it and had assumed when he’d very grudgingly agreed to spells on their beds that they would work the same as the ones in the Bonfire tents, there was the simple fact that once another student started a petition, had gotten far fewer signatures than Amethyst had, and had still gotten what she wanted. Therefore, Amethyst who had more should also have.

So between that and a falling out with her friend, his granddaughter had also not had a good ending to last year. Not as bad as Mr. Lundstrom’s or his sister’s obviously, but still not a good one. And, of course, the Crotalus was his granddaughter, so Mortimer was a bit more concerned with her.Which led him to doing something he rarely did, and expressing positive feelings. He had actually told Amethyst that he was proud of her. Of course, he was unsure if that had pleased the sixth year or completely confused her. People tended to get weird looks on their faces when Mortimer did things like laugh or smile.

Once the older students were assembled at their tables and the first years entered the room. Mortimer cast Sonorous on himself and rose." Welcome to Sonora for the new first years and welcome back for all older students. First years, you should have received a blank badge at the end of Orientation. You will dunk the badge in the Sorting Potion and it will turn the color representing your house which are blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw, red for Crotalus, and brown for Pecari. Afterwards, you may join your house table."

After the first years had been settled, Mortimer continued. “Would Rosalynn Tellerman and Thomas Jamison please come up and get your Head Student badges." He continued. "In addition, I'd like to call up Phillip Carson, Liesl Brockert, Verdillia Scurlock and Tissena Randall to receive their prefect badges. Congratulations.” Honestly, other than being disappointed that Isla and Christopher hadn’t won, this was otherwise…not a terribly objectionable group. Of course, his grandchildren were the best choices which nobody ever seemed to understand, but it wasn’t as if Mr. Jamison, Miss Tellerman, or Miss Scurlock were horrible. And he was glad that Liesl had won and hoped it would, if not make Alfie and that harpy that he’d married proud of her, at least boost the Teppenpaw’s self-esteem.

Once the prefects and Head Students were back in their seats, Mortimer continued. “ Our midsummer event will be the Ball.” Dreadful event that it was. Though at least they didn't have to come up with something unique for it.

“Now for the singing of the school song.”Lyric sheets were passed around and the song began.

Every day we strive
Learning to survive
Life’s hardships and to solve its mystery.
Learning to defend
Our honour and our friends,
Flying high to meet our destiny
We will stand and face those who want to harm us.
We won’t let the world transfigure, jinx or charm us
I won’t fight alone, as long as you are with me.
Sonora be my home, my tutor and my spirit
Vasita quoque floeat; Even the desert blooms.

That done, he dug into his steak and bourbon.

Subthreads:

Staff

Aladren

Seven years have come and gone. by Lorena Abernathy with Rosalynn Tellerman

Proud big sister moment [Tag: Mathias] by Constance Melcher with Mathias Melcher

So far, so bad by Violet Calhoun with Nicholas Pierce

Oh! I earned treasure! by Phil Carson with Eben Sosna

Perhaps I will finally start learning something by Nausicaa Scapetello

Teppenpaw

Bittersweet, but sweet nonetheless. by Tommy Jamison with Patience Reed-Fischer

I guess I just carry on by Robyn Lundstrom with Edu Alamilla

...Can we just eat already? by Leo Lyons with Cole Pierce

Crotalus

Now we've got a full set. by Cecily Welles with Lyla Holland

Okay, back again. by Ida Stanford with Alexander Pierce

Yay... school... by Iris Cobb

Pecari

Perhaps there are new things yet to discover. by Tissena Randall with Alexei Vorontsov

What are these gangly things? by Donovan Peters with Xarryn Bavol

Not hungry by Oz Spellman with Otto Xavier

11 Mortimer Brockert Opening Feast 6 1 5

System

May 29, 2023 7:11 PM

Staff by System

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System

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Aladren by System

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System

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Teppenpaw by System

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System

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Crotalus by System

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Pecari by System

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Tommy Jamison

May 29, 2023 10:20 PM

Bittersweet, but sweet nonetheless. by Tommy Jamison

It was different this year coming back to Sonora. Tommy still boarded the wagons from his sister Sophie’s house, where he’d spent the final week of summer so he could adjust more easily to the time change rather than coming straight from England. But this time, when the wagon arrived, it was only him and Charlotte getting on. Tommy loved his niece dearly, but it was so odd, not having the guys. Wally was already moved into his dorm room at his college, and while Stanley was still home, he was not getting on with them but rather waving from the pavement with his parents. The Teppenpaw did his best to put on a brave face - mostly for Charlotte’s sake - but it was hard to deny the strange sense of loss that he felt.

He sat with Charlotte and tried to make good conversation with her, as well as anyone else who sat near them, but in his mind, he couldn’t help but imagine the year ahead of them. What was he going to do all year? He had Rosalynn, obviously, and he was generally well-fitting and well-liked in her friend group (as far as he could tell), so he was welcome with them aside from Girl Specific things. But with the boys gone, it was only now that Tommy realized he didn’t really have any friends of his own. He got along fine with his roommate Ian, but not the way Rosalynn and the girls were. It was going to be an interesting year, for sure.

He didn’t seek Rosalynn out right away, since getting settled and catching up with Isla and Lorena in their dorm room seemed to be fairly traditional at this point. He just took a little time to himself to stroll through the halls he knew so well by now but had so often seemed so much bigger. He was a lot taller now, although he’d given up on catching up to Dad by now. Tommy was encroaching upon that coveted six foot mark, but his dad still had another half a foot on that, and at this point, it seemed unlikely if not painful to experience a burst of growth to make up the difference.

When he finally saw Ros in the Cascade Hall, Tommy really only had enough time to say hello and offer a quick peck before it was clearly time to settle down for the Feast. As he seated himself at the Teppenpaw table, it was then that a carry-over anxiety from the previous year resurfaced: the Head Student vote. In all his years at Sonora and all that he had immediate access to, there had never been a tie and revote like last year. Sophie couldn’t remember anything like it during her time here, either, and she’d spent more than just seven years at Sonora, since she came back as a professor for a while. And honestly, Tommy did really want to be Head Boy, but he knew too that Henry Spellman was also a solid choice and probably really wanted it. All he knew for certain before this moment was that one of them would get it, and one of them would not.

Once the Sorting was through and it was time for the announcements to begin, the seventh year held his breath until… Wait, what? Was that hisname?! And Rosalynn’s! He felt a crooked grin spread across his face as the other side was still too shocked to react, and he stood up somewhat abruptly to go get his badge. He took Ros’s hand in his on the way up and gave it a joyous squeeze. As his badge was pinned, he glanced instinctively at the Pecari table, thinking about Stanley’s outburst during the election. Had that helped? Either way, Tommy was so grateful. But Stanley was not there.

He also glanced at the Crotalus table, looking for Wally’s support. But Wally was not there either. Tommy’s face fell slightly. Then he noticed someone else at the Crotalus table: Henry Spellman.

On his way back to his table, Tommy made the bold decision to approach the Crotalus table. He did not stay long, but he offered a handshake to Henry out of respect for the closeness of the election. Not wanting to hold up the Feast, he did not stay much longer than that took, but before going gave Henry a nod of respect to finish out the gesture.

Once seated again, he did his best to listen, but Tommy was a bit distracted by the badge now pinned to him. He did catch the part about a Ball, but he wasn’t too worried. He’d take Rosalynn, obviously, but he did set the bar kind of high when he asked her last time, so he would need to do a little brainstorming for something fun. Maybe he could borrow a unicorn or something. Eh, he had time to think about it.

The song came and went, and the food - as delicious-looking and smelling as always - appeared before them. But Tommy didn’t notice at first, still absentmindedly running his fingers over the physical representation of his new status. He didn’t notice when someone spoke to him, either, or at least not enough to make out what they said. “Sorry, can you try that again?”

12 Tommy Jamison Bittersweet, but sweet nonetheless. 1518 0 5

Patience Reed-Fischer

May 30, 2023 12:11 AM

Guess I'm sitting with fame now. by Patience Reed-Fischer

Patience was feeling very impatient. She wasn't prefect. She wasn't anything. Indeed, she rarely seemed to be more than a side thought. Perhaps that was of her own doing - she'd spent a lot more time staying out of trouble than getting into much of anything else and her friend group hadn't dwindled so much as plateaued: Patience Reed-Fischer, party of one. The idea of engaging with people outside of her own House was appealing to Patience, particularly since her roommates were fine but not exactly her best friends, but she wasn't sure she'd ever have the guts to do what Tommy - ew, and his girlfriend - did when he went up to retrieve his new Head Student badge.

Henry Spellman looked as unreadable as ever, although he was perhaps surprised at Tommy's gesture and he took the new Head Student's hand with a respectful nod. His eyes glanced for his brother at the Pecari table, but Patience couldn't see what the other twin thought of the interaction from where she was sitting. The other twin, Oz Spellman, was a wild card in her mind and she'd done her best to avoid all the drama that had gone on with him and his boyfriend the previous year. The two boys were in the same house but different years and neither was in Patience's year, which made it fairly easy to ignore them; she'd even been in a different class section than they had been last year.

When Tommy sat down and the old grouch at the front of the room finished up his speech - dropping big news like a school ball on them like it was nothing - Patience tried not to side-eye the new Head Student. She was curious about him after that sort of display, especially because she'd generally seen him in the company of much more raucous types than that of Henry Spellman. After a moment of contemplation and a few bites of roast potato, Patience decided to speak up.

"Congratulations," she began, nodding at his badge. "I'm sure you'll hear that a thousand times tonight. Although maybe not from everyone... are you and Henry close?" she asked, eyes wide with sincere curiosity.

OOC: Henry's response to Tommy written with his author's permission because it's me, I'm his author.

22 Patience Reed-Fischer Guess I'm sitting with fame now. 1535 0 5

Tissena Randall

May 30, 2023 12:21 AM

Perhaps there are new things yet to discover. by Tissena Randall

Tissena was the very unexciting housemate of a fifth year who was even less active in campus life than she was. That was the only reason, she was sure, she'd gotten the position of prefect. Indeed, she was so unexciting as to have barely registered the possibility of her name being up for the role until she heard it being called from the front of the room. Her eyes were round as she processed it. Horrorstruck wasn't the right word, but there must have been something similar. Gobsmacked perhaps. Dumbfounded. Even flabbergasted.

She stood, tying her hair up as she always did at the start of a new project, and made her way to the front of the room. She couldn't have said whether her schoolmates were clapping or silent, focused as she was. It had been a long time since she'd been that clear-headed and she could feel the cobwebs of another life being brushed away from her weary mind as she accepted her badge - and accepted the role - and returned to her seat.

Perhaps there were new adventures yet ahead of her, even on this side of graduation. Perhaps there was a life for her to make for herself still. Realizing too late that she hadn't even thought of her brother yet, she spun around to make eye contact with him at the Crotalus table, only to find he was looking at the Headmaster. She wondered idly whether he'd looked at her and she missed it, or whether he hadn't looked either. Winston was not prefect. Winston was not her friend. Winston just was.

She looked away, choosing to focus her own eyes on the Headmaster, and didn't realize she hadn't pinned her badge on until the song was done and she went to address her silverware. She stuck the badge on without looking much, only ensuring it was reasonably straight by use of feel, and then gathered a roll and some butter; it wouldn't do to fill her plate before she knew if she could stomach dinner. A gravied roll did sound good though... she glanced around, only to find the gravy out of arm's reach. For a moment, she thought to dismiss the desire and be satisfied with only the roll and butter instead. But she was prefect now. She had to be better.

"Could I have some gravy please?" she asked to no one in particular, glancing at whomever looked her way first to confirm that she saw them too. "Just a small bit on the side there," she added, holding her plate aloft for the other student.

22 Tissena Randall Perhaps there are new things yet to discover. 1534 0 5

Cecily Welles

May 31, 2023 8:56 AM

Now we've got a full set. by Cecily Welles

It was not, Cecily thought absently as she entered the Cascade Hall, very nice of the staff to have them arrive so long before the Feast. She’d had enough to eat at Orientation that she was only in a mood to eat more now, not ravenous or anything, but after spending so much time in the Gardens and then on the school tour, she was afraid that she might look less than her best for the most important part of the evening.

That, of course, was the Sorting. She would have a whole year (in theory, short of some unspeakable disaster, a whole seven years) to get to know her way around the building, but she’d only get Sorted once. She didn’t want to do it with bags under her eyes, or wrinkles in her clothes, or with her hair going all frizzy….

With an effort, she resisted the temptation to try to smooth down the top of her dark blond hair, just in case. Now she understood why Mamma had insisted that she wear it braided today. Whatever else went wrong, it was at least a fairly durable hairstyle...the kind of hairstyle to wear on an extremely important occasion that was going to take absolutely forever to get to.

What’s going to happen? Where am I going to go?

Cecily had grown up hearing stories about Sonora, of course. Her mother and Uncle Joe had been in Teppenpaw, and John had been in Aladren, and Aunt Sammy had been in Pecari. With three of the four Houses represented in her closest family, she thought she probably knew at least as much about the school as anyone else in the first year group and maybe more than most. The one thing she didn’t know, though, was which of the Houses she belonged to...and now she was going to find out. In front of everyone. And, because of whatever stroke of bad luck had made someone decide that the letter ‘W’ should come very close to the end of the alphabet, she was probably going to be the last or very close to the last to do so, and thus couldn’t even blend in at all with the crowd.

She kept her smile on as the line snaked forward with torturous slowness, but it had started to hurt a little by the time her name was called – though she was so nervous that, since the Deputy Headmistress called her Cecelia, she almost didn’t realize it was her name. Dad was the only person who ever called her Cecelia, and he didn’t do it often. There wasn’t another Welles, though, and Cecelia was technically her name, so, with a stomach full of butterflies, she took a deep breath, plastered on her best politician’s-daughter smile, and stepped forward to dunk her badge.

When it came out, she just looked at it for a moment in mild confusion. She’d known there was a fourth House, of course, besides the three she’d heard all about, and she had heard at Orientation about what its colors were, but somehow it had not occurred to her that she could end up there.

Now we’ve got a full set, she realized, and bit the inside of her mouth to keep from giggling, even though nothing was especially funny. It was just sort of...anticlimatic, wasn’t it? Not only was the whole procedure over in an instant, but nothing terribly interesting had happened even when she had been Sorted somewhere unexpected. No lightning bolts, no dramatic background music...nothing.

Except, of course, another chance to look foolish. Quickly, she made the ghost of a curtsy in Professor Skies’ direction and then went to her table, trying not to hurry, flushing almost as red as her new badge as she slipped into a seat.

Thankfully, by the time the Headmaster’s speech (brief as it was) and the song were over, her face felt like it had had time to cool down properly. She thought she looked fairly normal as the Feast got started. She selected foods absent-mindedly, not really paying attention to what she put on her plate, and then checked one more item off her list of Extremely Important Moments for tonight.

“Good evening,” she said politely to one of her new Housemates. “I’m Cecily Welles. Wh – how do you do?”

16 Cecily Welles Now we've got a full set. 1578 0 5

Lyla Holland

May 31, 2023 4:11 PM

That is exciting news by Lyla Holland

Lyla checked into her dorm room before heading to the feast, dropping off the prerequisite cookies -butterscotch, this year- to share with Samara upon their reunion. She fluffed her pillow with a sense of contentment, happy to be back in the hallowed halls of Sonora. It had been a weird summer, and Lyla was glad to get back to a sense of normalcy.

As per usual, she was one of the first to arrive in Cascade Hall, choosing a seat towards the middle of the table, so she would be surrounded by her fellow Crotali. This was one of her favorite parts- total immersion in the sea of green robes, steeped in a tradition that had seen generations of students through their formative years. Lyla herself had changed so much since she’d started. As far as the obvious, she now sat almost a full four inches taller than just two years ago, and her once-cropped hair had grown past her shoulders once again.

The changes one couldn’t see were harder to pinpoint. How could she quantify how her confidence had grown? She didn’t get nervous walking into class anymore (okay, maybe a little bit this year, since she was going into Intermediates, and they were supposed to be more difficult, but still…), her anxiety surrounding friends had all but disappeared, with Samara and Gwendolyn and Robyn. She may not have a ton of friends, but the ones she had were great.

After the Sorting, the election results, and listening to the Headmaster- a BALL? Like a fairytale-Cinderella BALL? Lyla was instantly excited to dress up like a grown-up and dance all night. Her head filled with fanciful images of twinkling lights, poofy dresses, and tiny little chocolate cakes.
Bouncing slightly in her seat (she had mostly curbed that habit), she turned her attention to the table as the feast appeared. She grinned as she served herself some roast chicken and mashed potatoes.

“What do you think of having a Ball?” she asked her neighbor, thinking about what color she wanted her dress to be.

64 Lyla Holland That is exciting news 1559 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

May 31, 2023 5:14 PM

Seven years have come and gone. by Lorena Abernathy

This summer - finally - Lorena had grown up.

Mom was reluctant to concede it, since in the Muggle world, the magical (so to speak) age was eighteen. But Lorena was a witch, whether Mom liked it or not, and in the magical world, it was seventeen. So finally, Mom let her do some more grown up stuff.

In tandem with her older brother’s girlfriend, she got to learn things about being a Woman. Like how to do makeup and straighten your hair. There weren’t exactly outlets readily available at Sonora, so she would have to figure something else out later if she wanted to continue the finally tamed look of long, straight hair, but until then, today would be her last day free of her frizzly, curly disaster of a head. Combined with the Victoria’s Secret undergarments which covered very little (and which Mom did not know about) and the new attention from the boys in her hometown, Lorena returned to school for her final year feeling - and looking - very different.

She was excited as always to catch up with Isla and Rosalynn, but she was a bit more distracted, knowing the Head Student results were ahead of them. Because of the tie-breaker, she knew one of them was definitely either Tommy or Henry. Somehow, she couldn’t really imagine the other one was her or Isla. Despite being her initial two votes, they were way less outgoing than Rosalynn, at least in Lorena’s perspective.

Momentarily, she was distracted from the thought by the Sorting ceremony. It grew stranger and stranger every year to imagine herself as one of them. Why, she was practically an entirely different person then! So little, and so alone. Sonora had been the first place she had ever had a real friend. And lucky her - she had two!

And one of them was Head Girl! Lorena felt a twinge of predicted sadness not to hear her own name be called (or Isla’s, for that matter), but it was severely outweighed by her excitement for her friend. And to be Head Girl with her boyfriend - what a love story! Rosalynn and Tommy had always lived such a fairytale romance. She hoped they had a lot of kids someday to tell their story to.

Speaking of fairytales, she had totally forgotten that this year would be another Ball. The last one had been pretty good - dating Oz hadn’t ultimately worked out, but it was still fun and a good experience. Lorena wondered who would go with whom this time (and also if she’d get to help Tommy plan something cool for Ros again).

As they were released to eat, she began filling her plate, finding she was hungrier than she realized. “Can you please pass that bread?” she asked a neighbor. “And while you do that, how was your summer?”

12 Lorena Abernathy Seven years have come and gone. 1510 0 5

Cecily Welles

June 01, 2023 2:34 PM

Oh, yes. Now we shall be invincible. by Cecily Welles

The girl next to her was clearly older than she, but Cecily didn’t so much as blink. She was used to dealing with people who were older than her – in fact, she thought she was probably more used to dealing with people older than her than she was to anything else, since her family was full of adults: Mamma and Dad sometimes, Uncle Joe perhaps more often, and, of course, always Mrs. Lennox and Marylaud, whose whole job was to look after Cecily and her two little brothers. Those two little brothers, in fact, were usually the only other children around, and neither George nor Kenneth was very interesting. It was much more sensible to talk to grown-up people.

It did not, somehow, quite occur to her that an older kid might think of her the way she thought of George and Kenneth. She was the oldest, after all – the only one old enough to go to school, the only one old enough to carry her own wand, now, and so forth. She was not, therefore, troubled by it being an older student who asked her what she thought of the school having a Ball.

“My parents like Balls a lot, I think,” she said. “Mamma's hosted a few small ones before, and of course she goes to all the Ministry things with Dad – he works for the Canadian government,” she explained proudly, remembering that Americans called their magical government something else. “A lot of my family does, actually. Three of my uncles do. But anyway – they’ve never let me attend a ball before, so I don’t know what I think of them yet.” She took a sip of her drink from her goblet. “What do you think about having a ball?” she asked back, since fair was fair. “You weren’t at Orientation, so you’ve been here longer than I have – have they had one while you’ve been here? I know they have them every few years – Mamma and my uncles have...stories about them," she added, with a gleam of amusement, "since they came here, too, a long time ago.”

16 Cecily Welles Oh, yes. Now we shall be invincible. 1578 0 5

Alexei Vorontsov

June 01, 2023 4:25 PM

There's always more to discover somewhere. by Alexei Vorontsov

Alexei was not reluctant to return to school, exactly. Or at least, he didn’t think he was. Nor, however, was he especially enthusiastic about coming back this year. There were at least three situations looming over him, and he had no way to know how they would go until they started, well...going.

Item One: Xavier. This was, beyond any shadow of a doubt, the most serious problem. He did not quite understand what had happened to his roommate at the end of the previous year, and he was sort of afraid to find out. Was Xavier even alive? If so, was he terribly ill? And if he was terribly ill, was he going to come back to school anyway? And if he did, then...what did that mean, exactly? What in the world was Alexei supposed to say or do in such a situation?

Item Two: Advanced Classes. This was perhaps the least serious problem, but it was one he’d thought of nevertheless. Tatiana and Katerina had both been anxious about going into the Advanced class, he knew, and Tatya was smarter than he was and Katya was far more diligent than he was. Intellectually, he knew that he certainly wrote the best English of the three of them, which was the essential thing for exams – but he still worried. Hopefully the difficulty of Advanced classes involved more of the calculations necessary and the magical ability necessary to complete the spells, and not so much that the books were going to be harder to read than they had been before.

Item Three: Katya, or rather, Katya’s future. Alexei had been eating porridge, quietly minding his own business, when Tatiana had burst into the room talking very fast about stupid Americans, and while this was not completely unfamiliar behavior with Tatya, he’d realized she was too animated about it this time. It had turned out that – whether because of Papa’s enthusiasms or through her own efforts or both – Katya had gotten engaged while Alexei was away at school, and her fiance was an American. He was part-Russian as well, which was good, and that side of his family seemed well-connected enough, which was also good, but he did not seem to be close to them – in fact, from what Alexei had gathered, Martin Crosby did not even speak Russian. Martin Crosby, therefore, could not even talk to Anya or Sonia, or their husbands and children, or, perhaps most importantly, to Mama. That was not at all good. How was he to be part of the family when less than half of it could communicate with him? Would they all be stuck with nephews with stupid American names like 'Bob'? How had this happened?

At least, he thought as he took a place at the Pecari table, he wouldn’t have to endure…all of the suspense for very long, anyway. He’d know something about the situation with Xavier tonight, and he would get a taste of the situation with his classes tomorrow morning. He also, maybe, could ease some of his anxieties about his sister...maybe. Martin Crosby, as it turned out, had only one sibling - a sister - and this sister was still at Sonora. This meant there was a possibility of finding out what sort of people his sister was associating with...but if he handled that badly, then who knew what could happen? It could cause all sorts of trouble, and then his sister would be angry, and Papa would be angry, and maybe even Mama, considering she was just happy to think of Katya or Tatya marrying at all, considering how they had grown up here and not among a more appropriate pool of prospective sons-in-law....

None of these problems, however, could be worked on at the Feast, and so he tried to put them from his mind as the food appeared. He had noticed that the new prefect-girl had sat down beside him, so he turned to speak to her when he had filled his plate, only to find her speaking to him instead.

“Gravy. Yes,” he said, and suited action to words by serving her some gravy. “Say ‘when,’” he instructed, not caring to guess what someone’s idea of ‘a little’ was and thus pouring it slowly. Once that task was taken care of, he returned to his original errand. “Congratulations on prefect,” he said. “It isn’t too bad, being prefect.” He pointed to his own badge to illustrate why he knew. “Sometimes very boring, but we get nice places the others do not have, so that is a good trade, I suppose.”

16 Alexei Vorontsov There's always more to discover somewhere. 1531 0 5

Ida Stanford

June 01, 2023 9:35 PM

Okay, back again. by Ida Stanford

Ida was glad to be back at school. It was neat being a second year now and got to wander around before the opening feast. So naturally she got back to her room and made sure her luggage was delivered and everything was in order. She took some time to write a letter back to Aunt Lucy to let he know she had arrived okay and to let her parents know when she could. With all of that being done, it was about time to head down to the feast.

The hall was filling up with returning students and she found her way to the Crotalus Table, smiling and waving to her friends along the way. She hadn't made a lot of friends last year, but she didn't need a lot. A few were just fine with her, she did look around to see if she could spot Alexander though. He was probably spending what time he could with his brother before they had to part ways for the feast.

So Ida settled down and it wasn't long until the festivities began. She watched as the new first years got sorted like she had last year. She cheered for the older students who had won positions for the year, and wondered if she might get to do that as well when she got older. The prefect position would come down to her or Alexander; and while she thought she might be good at it, the idea of taking it away from him if he wanted it didn't sit well with her. There was time to figure things out though. The news of the Ball was exciting, she hadn't ever been to an official ball before. Her parents had... but it was usually for work, so she wasn't sure if it really counted. She wasn't sure if she had anything suitable to wear, but it was logical to think that such things would be taken care of somehow. She sang along with the song, and then the food finally appeared.

The food smelled delicious and Ida put some potatoes and broccoli on her plate since they were close to her. Then she turned to her neighbor, "So, are you glad to be back? Would you like some broccoli?" She offered the serving dish to them.

2 Ida Stanford Okay, back again. 1571 0 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

June 01, 2023 9:51 PM

Oh! That's me! by Rosalynn Tellerman

After arriving at Sonora to begin her final(!) year as a student, Rosalynn had headed right up to her room in Aladren. The Birds of Prey book had been right where it always had been, and pulling it to open the bookshelf into the common room gave her both a sense of comfortable familiarity and a sense of wonder that hadn't really diminished even after six full years as a student. She still had one more full year left ahead of her, but she was starting to feel the days starting to dwindle. For the first time, she had the sense that this wouldn't be her home for much longer.

She could hardly imagine not spending most of her year living in a room with her two best friends behind a secret bookcase passage, so she tried not to think about it yet. Luckily, arriving in their room gave her two friends to catch up with - and new looks to exclaim over - and some unpacking to keep herself busy, and she was in a cheerful mood again by the time they got down to the Cascade Hall for the feast.

There wasn't much time for a reunion with her boyfriend, but she diverted over to at least say hello and accept a quick peck of a kiss before she returned to her roommates to find a place to sit.

The first years looked tinier than ever, and she was having a hard time remembering that Lorena, Isla, and her were ever that young.

She didn't know any of them, but she checked with Isla to see which ones she was related to. The Brockerts were a much larger family than the Pierces and there seemed to be a few in every new crop, though obviously some were more closely related than others. She herself was definitely one of the 'distant relations' to the main Pierce group. Even Lenny, who was from her own branch, in as much as she belonged to one, wasn't any more closely related to her than the second years Nicholas and Alexander were, though at least Lenny and Cole would both readily admit she was kin to them. She doubted Nicholas and Alexander would, being from the more conservative New Hampshire branch. The Tellermans had been mixed blood even before her dad married her muggle mother.

She held her breath as the Headmaster stood again to announce the new Head Students. She knew Tommy had a good shot at it, having been one of the two in the tie breaker (she'd obviously voted for him) and let out a little squeal when both of their names were called.

They clasped hands together and collected their badges as a unit. This was amazing! It was going to be their best year yet, she was sure! Head students together and with a ball at the end of the year! What a way to enter into adulthood!

She gave Tommy another quick peck before veering apart again to return to the Aladren table.

Rosalynn sang loud and proud for her final rendition of the school song. Lenny was doing the same, over at the Teppenpaw table, but Rosalynn was actually good at it, so she was trying to mitigate the damage. Her first duty as Head Student, perhaps.

The food appeared as the song sheets vanished, and she picked up the basket of bread to pass over to Lorena upon being asked to do so. "Sure, here you go!" she said cheerfully. They'd talked about bits and pieces of their summers earlier, but as Lorena asked about it, she realized she hadn't given a grand overview yet. "Oh, it was good. I turned seventeen in March, so I had all summer to do as much magic as I wanted! At home!" Within reason, of course, she did live in the middle of Las Vegas, but you could get away with a lot of weirdness in Vegas, especially when your dad was in Show Business, so as long as she didn't go for a broom ride through traffic or wave her wand around turning tourists into rabbits, she was entirely safe doing regular magic in the privacy of her own home. " And I got my Apparation license! Dad and Sully both helped me practice, and I got to do stuff with my brother without needing to side-along! It was great! What about you?"

1 Rosalynn Tellerman Oh! That's me! 1520 0 5

Lyla Holland

June 02, 2023 4:14 AM

Invincibility is the best superpower by Lyla Holland

Lyla liked chatting with the younger students, especially the brand-newbies like the one beside her. It made her feel Very Mature and Leader-ish. Maybe someday, she'd be called up to receive a prefect badge. She'd sat with Alexander last year at the opening feast, although the first-day jitters didn't seem to be affecting the girl beside her as much as they had Alexander, thank goodness.

"I'm Lyla, by the way," she said, realizing that she'd allowed her excitement about the ball to trample on her manners. Many of her fellow students introduced themselves with their family name, and sometimes family location. It had thrown Lyla off the first time she'd heard it, but after a few times (and through pestering Samara with questions) she came to the understanding that it was mainly a formality among purebloods, and she didn't need to follow suit, since nobody would know who the Hollands were, anyway.

"I think it will be fun to dress up all fancy and...stuff," she answered her mirrored question, realizing after she'd started talking that she didn't actually know what went on at balls other than dancing. Her parents had gone to the Air Force Ball a couple of times that Lyla could remember, but they always got home far past her bedtime. "I haven't actually been to a ball, either," she admitted, "My first year, the event was the concert, and last year, it was the bonfire. We actually did the Challenges my first year, too. Those were pretty fun, but they only come around every seven years, so you only get to do them once."

It hadn't ever occurred to Lyla to wonder how many midsummer events there were, and thus what the rotation would be. She resolved to ask Gwendolyn later. If her Aladren friend didn't know, she would know where to find out.

"What does your dad do in the government?" Lyla asked, grasping onto a glimmer of common ground. After all, her father technically worked for the government, too, albeit a completely different system. Her dinner companion didn't seem like a military brat like herself, but Lyla tried hard not to judge books by their covers.

64 Lyla Holland Invincibility is the best superpower 1559 0 5

Cecily Welles

June 02, 2023 8:20 PM

It definitely widens your options for solving all your other problems. by Cecily Welles

“It’s very nice to meet you,” said Cecily when her companion introduced herself, and she committed the name to memory for future reference. Lyla. That was a pretty name.

She nodded enthusiastically in agreement when Lyla said that she was looking forward to dressing up fancy. Uncle Joe had a firm theory that the more formally one had to dress, the worse an event was going to be, but – odd as the thought was to articulate – Uncle Joe wasn’t right about everything, after all, and everyone looked so much better dressed up! Well – almost everyone. John, admittedly, did mostly just look very peculiar when he put on a suit, but that was John. He was her favorite uncle, but he didn’t count for statistical purposes. It was just one of those things that went along with being at least as much like a crow as like a human-person.

Lyla went on to talk about events and Cecily listened carefully, nodding at the appropriate points to indicate that she was following each point and maintaining the correct level of eye contact as much as Lyla would allow. Her fork and knife had been abandoned on her plate so her hands could be folded in her lap, and under the table, her legs were hooked together politely at the ankle. It wouldn’t be good to fidget with anything or seem occupied with something else while someone was talking; even the members of her family who didn’t participate in Society agreed on that, for the most part.

“I think that means there will be a Fair next year,” she said once Lyla concluded her remarks on school events. “That one’s strange, though – Mamma and John and Aunt Sammy and Uncle Joe all went to them, but I couldn’t really figure out what goes on there? I think it...that each Fair might be more different from the last Fair than the other events compared to each other.”

She wanted to grimace at the awkwardness of that sentence – it was so hard to put things into words sometimes! Normally she never quite understood why John said it was difficult to talk to people, when he talked just fine as long as he knew everybody around, but she supposed he had a bit of a point sometimes – but she suppressed the urge. Helpfully, she was also quickly distracted with the question about her father.

“He’s in the administrative division of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement,” she said. “It’s a very important job! He gets to talk to the Minister for Magic all the time, and the Minister came to my baby brother’s christening, even, if you can imagine that. Everyone says Dad will be the Minister someday,” she added, even more proudly than she’d first mentioned the nature of her father’s work. “But not yet. What do your parents do?”

16 Cecily Welles It definitely widens your options for solving all your other problems. 1578 0 5

Alexander Pierce

June 02, 2023 10:37 PM

We are indeed back by Alexander Pierce

Alexander was more or less glad to be back at Sonora. There were pros and cons to both arrangements - home and school. Home's best points were sharing a room with Nicholas as was right and proper, mother and father being present, and the variety of lessons and enrichment activities mother especially liked to provide for them to do. Alexander was pretty sure he enjoyed those more than Nicholas did, but they were usually both very interesting and potentially useful should he ever want to take over the world. School's best points were having more people to play chess with, being on an actual Quidditch team, permission to actually do magic (not that he necessarily followed that particular rule 100% at home, but one did need to be careful about how one sidestepped around it), and Ida.

He spent most of the pre-Feast time with his brother and the other Aladrens, but they parted company with time enough for him to visit to his room to freshen up for the feast and make sure the elves hadn't missed any of his luggage. All seemed to be in order, and he headed back down to the Cascade Hall for his second Opening Feast with his hair brushed, his robes fresh and clean, and he'd even shined his shoes a little for the occasion. Opening Feasts only happened once a year and he wanted to make a good impression on both the new arrivals and the people he hadn't seen since last spring.

He found Ida without too much trouble and checked to make sure he was welcome before sitting down opposite her. "Do you mind if I sit here?"

She confirmed that this was fine with her and he smiled at her as he took the indicated seat. "I hope you had a good summer?" he inquired politely.

This was, unfortunately, when the first years arrived, and by the time the school song was done and the food had appeared, he'd quite forgotten he'd asked anything, and she picked up the interrupted conversation with a pair of questions of her own.

"Yes, I'll take the broccoli," he agreed to the easier question first, taking that off her hands so she didn't need to hold it aloft while he expounded upon the advantages of school. He spooned a little onto his plate (enough to satisfy nutritional requirements and no more; broccoli was fine but there were other foods he much preferred even in the vegetable category), as he said, "I'm looking forward to Quidditch this year. I am hoping I might get Seeker now that Miss Valentine has graduated." He passed the bowl of broccoli down the table to someone else who was giving nonverbal cues that they wanted it next. "Also, it is good to return to the friends I made last year. It is mostly just Nicholas and I on the mountain at home for kids close to our age."

He nodded up toward the staff table where the Headmaster was now eating some steak. "Also, the ball should be interesting this year." It occurred to him that this was an invaluable opportunity to ask for a ball companion before anyone else could, and he was sure Ida would have many suitors because who wouldn't want to go to a ball with her?

"I wonder, Miss Stanford, would you like to attend it with me?" he asked hopefully, fearing he might be rushing it, but neither did he want to pop the question too late by spending too much time plotting and strategizing, only to find she was already going with Nicholas or Desmond or Quillan or someone.

OOC: Ida's author confirmed she would welcome his company.

1 Alexander Pierce We are indeed back 1566 0 5

Robyn Lundstrom

June 02, 2023 11:04 PM

I guess I just carry on by Robyn Lundstrom

Robyn was convinced the stares had started since the second she got on the wagon. Alone. That was, in some twisted sense of the word, ‘fair.’ It was surprising, and surprising things got people’s attention. She had buried her nose in a book and feigned sleep, whilst her stomach twisted over how many times she was going to have to answer the same few questions, and what she should say. Even the innocuous ‘How was your summer?’ was a minefield.

The Teppenpaw killed the time until the feast hiding alone in her room. Every time footsteps sounded in the corridor, her stomach contacted with nerves in case it was someone coming to wish her well or check in on her. She wondered whether hiding out in the ‘friendly’ house was a terrible mistake.

But it wasn’t.

Because no one came.

And a tiny part of her felt worse about that than the thought of facing their questions and concern. Especially as she would now have to do that at the feast. Why hadn’t she sought out her friends for her first, awkward back-to-school conversation? At least they’d care more about her for her own sake than just as the conduit of hot gossip on what had happened to her brother. But she couldn’t go sit with them. She was stuck with her housemates, who would surely care enough to ask, but who hadn’t cared enough to check in on her…

The only good thing that happened during the feast was that Henry Spellman didn’t get Head Boy. She felt a little bad taking spiteful pleasure in that when he had been so nice to her at Xavier’s birthday party, but she wasn’t naive enough to think that connection was going to last now that Oz had cast Xavier out of his life—right when Xav was at his lowest and needed someone the most. What kind of low down, dirty pig did that? Maybe this was the universe paying Oz back. It was unfair and unfortunate that Henry had to be collateral damage, but Oz had clearly so wanted for his brother to get head boy, and judging by the way he was slumped onto the table after the announcement, it hurt him right to his core that Henry hadn’t. Robyn was in favour of anything that made Oz Spellman feel like trash, given that was what he was.

Her eyes swept around the Pecari table, noticing Xavier’s glaring absence, and wondering whether other people were doing the same… Or if they weren’t. Because their own lives revolved around something else entirely, and he didn’t matter enough to them for this to be something they noticed. It wasn’t like he’d had a lot of friends other than Oz, and the now graduated LGBT seventh years.

Robyn grabbed a taco shell because it was the food on the nearest platter, and because filling a taco was something she could do on autopilot. Almost. She scooped up a spoonful of beef, jamming it into the shell with far too much force. The shell shattered, the beef streaking her fingers with grease and sauce and it tumbled onto her plate. Her shoulders slumped in defeat.

OOC: Can be edited if anyone would have stopped in to check, but I imagine most of the girls feel they don't know her well enough to pry/didn't think of it as a first priority.

13 Robyn Lundstrom I guess I just carry on 1558 0 5

Constance Melcher

June 03, 2023 8:28 PM

Proud big sister moment [Tag: Mathias] by Constance Melcher

As Connie entered the Cascade Hall ahead of the annual feast, she tied her hair up and began to perform mental calculations and variable assessment. The question: where would be best to sit? Usually, she scanned more quickly and took whatever was available at the Aladren table, but this year, she had priorities, and certain requirements needed to be met. Where would have the best view of the Sorting? Where did she think she could most easily acquire not only one chair for herself but save another?

This year was not like other years. For once, she cared about the Sorting, and that was because she was no longer alone. She had filled Mathias’s head with all the stories and information regarding Sonora which she could remember - many of which were likely redundant, since their father had come to Sonora before them and knew everything that Constance knew about the place, albeit the detail of names she could give was more up-to-date - in order to best prepare her younger brother for his time here. And she knew with absolute certainty that Mathias would be without a doubt joining her in Aladren. Like their father before them (and like Mother, in spirit, as a Hogwarts Ravenclaw alumna), it was where Mathias belonged.

Perhaps most sixteen year olds would not have been so enthusiastic to force their eleven-year-old brother to hang out with them, but truthfully, Connie did not have many friends. Or really, any. Not since Theo had graduated, anyway, had she felt a true connection to another student. Professor Wright was, as she had told Mathias, the most intellectually stimulating and worthlike conversation partner at the school, and she was quite eager to introduce the two.

As others began to arrive, she defended her second chair from any of her Housemates who might have sought it, preserving it exclusively for her little brother. The doors opened, and the first years were led into the room. Connie remembered her hair and immediately pulled it down. (Mother did not like it when she wore it up, and she was not confident Mathias would not have a reason to tell at some point.) She made eye contact with her brother and gestured to the chair for him even before his turn to dunk the badge, but she was thrilled and delighted - both because he was in fact joining her and because she was right - to see his badge turn blue and his path begin to approach her.

The rest of the introductory formalities hardly mattered after that, and she gave Mathias an affectionate pat on the head. As soon as they were permitted to talk, she beamed to him, “Welcome to Aladren!”

OOC: Note for Mathias and Prof. Wright's authors: when the feast ends and it's time for firsties to go with their HoHs, Connie will personally introduce her brother to Professor Wright.

12 Constance Melcher Proud big sister moment [Tag: Mathias] 1523 0 5

Tommy Jamison

June 03, 2023 8:51 PM

That might be a stretch. by Tommy Jamison

For a moment, Tommy blinked at the question asked by Patience. He didn’t really know her very well, but he was the kind of guy to try to learn everybody’s name, especially in a small school like this. Maybe that was just the Teppenpaw niceness in him showing through. Where he and Henry close, though?

“No, not really,” he answered just as his brain synapses started firing and he connected the dots on why she would ask something so seemingly random. “Oh, because of that?” Tommy asked in a remarkably non-specific manner. “I mean, the handshake?” he clarified. “No, it was just… a gesture, I guess, of good will. The election was really close. We had a tie-breaking revote at the end of the year last year,” he added, not sure how many people in the lower, non-voting classes may have heard or not heard about it.

“Henry would’ve made a great Head Boy,” Tommy stated honestly, “but I am really glad to get it, so thank you for the congratulations. My dad’s going to be so proud.” His parents were both very supportive of him in general - he had a really good home life, honestly, and recognized his privilege in both stability and wealth - but this was going to be a great source of pride, just like when Sophie got Quidditch Captain.

“Sorry you didn’t get Prefect, though,” he added, feeling bad suddenly to talk so much about his successes when she was in a year of significance as well this Opening Feast. The seventh year didn’t know her or Liesl Brockert well, but they were probably both good options. After all, they were Teppenpaws. “If it helps, you know, I never got to be Prefect either, but I still got this one. So it doesn’t count you out for anything else ahead.”

12 Tommy Jamison That might be a stretch. 1518 0 5

Donovan Peters

June 04, 2023 2:22 AM

What are these gangly things? by Donovan Peters

Donovan's summer had been somewhat anticlimactic. Anticlimactic being a word that he had learned from Leo last week when the Teppenpaw had been cramming his brain full of facts. That was all his friend wanted to do, ever since frogging it up in Potions last year. Donovan didn't much understand the reasoning behind it, but if Leo wanted to burn his brain out by the time he hit five feet tall, Donovan knew there wasn't anything he could do to stop his stubborn friend.

Still, he'd regularly managed to drag the overzealous scholar out to the back forty to toss the Quaffle around, if only to keep his own brain from turning to mush. Away from prying eyes (minus the occasional very startled deer), Donovan worked hard to beat Leo in their scrimmages. He'd never quite won; the last match of the summer ended in a tie, but Donovan was pleased with his progress and couldn't wait to show the team what he'd learned.

He hadn't noticed much physical difference in himself until his mother had started fussing over him on the platform. His robes were too short, she lamented, what would the school think? Donovan just shrugged. Kids grew all the time, it's not like he'd be the first kid with short-ish robes. They were actually falling looser on him, seeing as he'd lost some of his baby fat from all the sports-ball. He'd blamed his ravenous appetite on running outside all day every day, although he did think it was weird that his mom's casseroles were becoming more palatable. Puzzling enough as it all was, it all clicked into place when he went to tell his parents goodbye and a weird squeaking noise came out.

Ugh, puberty.

It was inevitable. It was weird. Looking back on his summer, it wasn't a surprise. He hadn't been home two days when a small basket of hygiene products had shown up in his bathroom. Donovan supposed the subtlety was better than having to have a big family conversation about his smelly pits, but it had been a little embarrassing, all the same.

Donovan made sure to layer on deodorant before heading to the feast. The last thing he wanted was to subject his housemates to stinkiness right before dinner.

He and Leo arrived at Cascade Hall at the same time, giving each other a fist bump before heading to their respective tables. Donovan scanned the Pecari table, steering clear of the Advanced-class students. There had been some sort of drama with one of them last year...or it might have been a few of them, Donovan wasn't sure, but he wanted to steer clear.

Normally, Donovan appreciated that the Headmaster was a man of minimal words. It meant you got to eat sooner. Today, however, he would have liked some elaboration on the whole Ball thing...did he have to dress up? Was he supposed to find a date? He thought he was a little young for dating, but he was experiencing that 'P' word, so was he really too young? Who would he even ask?

Well, Misty, obviously. She was fun, and pretty, and although Donovan wasn't sure that he wanted to date in general, if he did, he couldn't do much better than Misty. Plus, she would probably actually know what to do at a ball.

Feeling settled on that matter, Donovan reached for a plate of sausages, nearly elbowing his neighbor with an arm that seemed longer than it did yesterday.

"Sorry!" he said quickly, "'Scuse my reach."

OOC: Leo's also mine-no godmodding here!

64 Donovan Peters What are these gangly things? 1569 0 5

Oz Spellman

June 04, 2023 3:49 AM

Not hungry by Oz Spellman

Xav would be back in a couple of weeks. Professor Carter-Xavier had pulled him aside when he arrived to update him. Because he and Xav were ‘such close friends.’ It carved a fresh wound into his already broken heart. At home, he’d been allowed to grieve his relationship with his boyfriend ending but now he was back, no one except Henry would understand. He would probably be expected to welcome Xav with open arms and prop him up because that was what friends did. He still felt like a jerk for ending their relationship, and he was pretty sure people would be in two camps over that if they knew the truth. But they didn’t. As he’d always feared, having a relationship gambled his and Xavier’s friendship. They weren’t going to be able to go back to how they’d been, which meant this giant chasm was going to open up between them when Xavier got back, and no one would really know why. But Oz would be the bad guy for sure.

At least he didn’t have to confront that issue for a couple more weeks. Though part of him just wished he could rip that bandaid off and have it over and done with. Still, he could focus on the feast and like… pretend to enjoy it or something. Maybe. He hadn’t always sat with Xav for them, so it wasn’t like it should feel so alien to be sitting here without him. If Oz focussed on the people around him, then Xav easily could be at another seat, just out of his range of vision, and everything could be normal… Except it wasn’t.

He pushed that thought to the back of his mind, channelling his attention to the main event of the feast. He could forget about Xav in order to think about Henry, and they would be announcing Head Boy this evening. It had been close, they already knew that. So close that it had needed a run off. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? It meant that Henry hadn’t won it outright but it meant he was really in with a shot. Had all of Oz’s campaigning paid off? Maybe people had listened to him, and he had—for once in his stupid, pathetic life—actually helped and lifted Henry up.

Oz was on the edge of his seat as Headmaster Brockert droned his way through the prefects. Oz was almost hovering, butt off the chair even though there was no chance of his own name being called. But he dropped with a groan as the wrong name was announced.

Tommy Fricking Jamison.

Oz slumped across the table. How he could he have done more or tried harder? Or should he have just kept his mouth shut the whole time? He liked to think he was well-liked, but he wasn’t exactly known for being sensible. Why would anyone listen to him about who should be head student? Was this his fault? As ever, when he thought he was helping, was he really just making things worse for Henry?

It wasn’t fair. Not only was Henry better, he needed it more. Not that anyone cared about that stuff when they voted. Most of them probably didn’t even think of it. But the more accolades Henry had, the better the scholarships he’d be able to get. Something like Head Boy might help him grab on by his fingernails and pry open the doors that had been open to Tommy, by virtue of his last name and his bank balance, since he was born. Oz fully believed in Henry’s ability to get a scholarship, with or without the head boy badge, but would it have hurt so much for the universe to give him this one tiny thing? Apparently, it would. The fact that the world was not a fair place and that he and Henry were not on an even playing field was not brand new information. He had known it since day one. But it still stung like a slap to the face, especially coming on top of everything else.

Around him, the feast materialised, but Oz didn’t lift his head from his crossed arms on the table, even as the smells washed over him.

Here it was, his last opening feast, and he wasn’t even hungry.

13 Oz Spellman Not hungry 1514 0 5

Ida Stanford

June 04, 2023 8:36 AM

And things are going well? by Ida Stanford

Ida was unmistakably happy when Alexander asked if he could sit with her. Of course he could, they were house-siblings after all, and she very much enjoyed the company of her 'brother'. He looked nice, but she couldn't quite picture Alexander going anywhere while looking slovenly. She had cleaned up a bit, brushed her hair and such. But looking at his efforts, she wished she had done a bit more with herself. Next time, she thought.

She tried to think of the best way to answer his question while the opening ceremonies were happening, and didn't particularly like anything she came up with. It all sounded… petty in her head.

When Alexander took the broccoli and began answering her question, she was glad and listened intently. She nodded along, "You will make an excellent Seeker." She had been keeper last year, and had enjoyed it. Ida could also well understand the desire to come back to friends and peers of her own age. She decided it was time to answer his earlier question.

However, before she could do more than open her mouth to begin, he brought up the ball. Well it would be interesting, yes, she thought. But he didn't stop even there. The slight pause that he left wasn't enough for her to get proper thought together before he Asked Her a Question. It was formal and proper, just as she would expect from Alexander, and for some reason it caught her completely off guard. Her handsome, high-class house-brother wanted to take her to the big, fancy ball?

She hadn't even had time since the Headmaster's announcement to come to the conclusion that she could possibly find someone to go with. On the occasions when Mother and Father had gone, they had gone together naturally. Mother had looked so beautiful, and Father had been the picture of handsomeness. She couldn't help but smile at the memory of them going out like that, with their arms linked together. "That sounds wonderful Mr. Pierce. I would be honored." She had a lot of work to do.

Hopefully this ball didn't go the same as her parent's had. They had been quite disheveled upon their return. Chasing and apprehending dark wizards in fancy clothes apparently doesn't work great. Still if there were dark wizards there that needed to be stopped, they would need to try.

"Have you been to many balls before?" She suddenly realized that there was a lot she didn't know, what were the rules? How was she to behave? How do you dance? Was it a bad sign that those questions unsettled her more than the possibility of dark wizard attack?

2 Ida Stanford And things are going well? 1571 0 5

Iris Cobb

June 04, 2023 11:13 AM

Yay... school... by Iris Cobb

Iris slouched at the Crotalus table when no one was paying attention to her, which seemed like most of the time. She put on a pleasant enough facade when anyone wanted to interact with her, but that didn't seem like it happened often. She was now in her sixth year, starting advanced classes, was a prefect and was in charge of the gardening club. Yet it seemed like she didn't have any real friends.

Amethyst had been her friend, but had clearly shown last year that she wasn't worth even pretending to sympathizing with. It seemed like such a betrayal after she had worked to get Amethyst and Alexi together. When it came to her though? Nope, sorry tough luck. Someone better than you took priority. Iris didn't know how that was going to work out this year. She wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

Rey was still her friend, but as usual seemed rather preoccupied with her brother. Iris hadn't even gotten the chance to say 'Hi' to the girl before she dragged Billy off somewhere for things she didn't want to think about.

The girl's eyes drifted towards the Teppenpaw table. Hans… Hans probably wasn't giving her a second thought. She was sure Liesl had gone to spend time with him over the summer. Again. While she… ugh. No, she did not want to think about that. She was thankfully back at school and it wasn't something she had to think about now.

She took in the new appointments and wasn't surprised by them. Liesl getting prefect did not make her happy, but why wouldn't she get it. Then the Headmaster pointed out that there was a ball this year. That just reminded her of her previous ball, and how thankful she had been to have had a friend like Amethyst. Things had changed.

The food appeared and she just stared at it dully for a few moments contemplating if she was actually hungry enough to eat anything. She didn't much feel like it.

2 Iris Cobb Yay... school... 1526 0 5

Otto Xavier

June 04, 2023 12:35 PM

Me neither. by Otto Xavier

There were a lot of things at Sonora that, despite living here, just went right over Otto Xavier’s head. It wasn’t really his fault, of course. He tried his very best to listen, but there was only so much that the adults would say in his company, and even some of that, he just couldn’t understand. After all, he was only six years old: a number that felt Very Big and Important, in his personal opinion, but he knew by comparison to everyone else around that he was still kinda small. His big sister Dora wasn’t a student yet either, but she was a lot closer, so her smallness was a little less obvious than his.

But Otto really did try. And this year, he knew immediately that something was going on. Dora went with their dad to do Orientation, so he stayed with their mom, but there was a little bit of time where Mom asked him to stay put a little distance away (and under the watchful eye of the prairie elves) while she had some kind of Serious Chat with one of her students. Otto knew this student: Oz Spellman. Mom liked him a lot, and he heard her talking to Dad about him often.

He looked to Mom for guidance after that, and while she tried to keep her composition, Otto knew that she was worried about Oz. And even now as Dad and Dora rejoined them at the Staff table, she still looked a little strained, with her eyes often darting over to her House’s table.

Mister Brockert finished his speech, and when the song was done, Otto looked to Isis once more. “Mama?” he asked. She looked at him, and he gestured toward the Pecari table, asking for permission. His mom smiled, and as she nodded, he knew that he was doing good.

Otto got up quietly from his seat and even pushed in his chair behind him. Then he scurried over to the Pecari table and squeezed into an open seat next to Oz. “Hi,” he said. “Can I hang out with you?” In a hushed voice too loud to truly be a whisper, Otto added, "You look like you could use a friend."

12 Otto Xavier Me neither. 1582 Otto Xavier 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

June 04, 2023 12:53 PM

It sure is! by Lorena Abernathy

“Wow!” Lorena admired audibly. Rosalynn’s summer sounded so cool! Doing magic at home? “That sounds amazing! My mom doesn’t even let my dad do magic at home.” The crux of her blooming mother-daughter relationship really depended on talking about girl stuff and not magic stuff, which still didn’t feel great, honestly, because Lorena wished she could talk to her mom as easily about potions and spells as she could makeup and boys. For now, though, she just wanted to take what she could get and enjoy the ride.

“I didn’t get to do Apparation stuff, but I did get my driver’s license, though. Last summer I got my temps, so this year I got to take a summer driver’s ed class and get my license. Admittedly, if she had any Muggle friends at home, that would’ve been a far more useful skill. As it was, she was still going most places with her parents, but at least it gave her the freedom to do so if she wanted to. She had once or twice driven herself to the mall just to walk around on her own. And of course, more often, to the library.

“Congratulations on Head Girl, by the way!” Lorena chirped abruptly, realizing she hadn’t said it yet despite how loudly she had been thinking it. She hadn’t voted for Ros - she voted for herself and Isla originally - but only because she knew Rosalynn probably didn’t need their votes, whereas for either of the other two to be in the running, they probably needed more of the help. “How exciting for you and Tommy to get to do it together! That election sure was close for the guys, huh?”

12 Lorena Abernathy It sure is! 1510 0 5

Violet Calhoun

June 04, 2023 1:26 PM

So far, so bad by Violet Calhoun

Violet was pleased to see that, as usual, she was correct. The Sorting ceremony process was different now than it had been back in her father’s day (seriously, who thought changing people’s skin color on their first day was a good idea?), but the ultimate result was the exact same for her as it had been for him: blue, i.e. Aladren. “Hmph,” she uttered to herself in a congratulatory manner.

As she passed to the Aladren table, she spotted Charlotte O’Malley at the Teppenpaw table and gave her a little wave. Charlotte was her cousin and therefore more deserving of her time than the likely irritating squadrons that occupied the rest of the space. Although as she understood it, Grandma Jamie’s marriage to Grandpa Jeffrey had connected them to a quite wide-reaching extended family, namely because of Charlotte’s dad’s biological mother’s family. Everybody here named Brockert could therefore technically be traced to her through a myriad of marriages, but Violet was less inclined to participate in their fancypants society. She found it too droll and mentally stifling. Mom was not the right “type” for them anyway, and Dad had kept her far away from it all thus far.

But of course, there would be a Ball. Greaaaat. From the variety of looks on her new classmates, Violet had the feeling attendance was mandatory for these events. Hopefully, she could at least bring a book and find a corner or something. Or maybe she’d be familiar enough with the school by then to find a way to sneak out unnoticed and find something more interesting, like an abandoned classroom in a secret wing. Their walk in the Gardens had definitely piqued her interest about the place; anything known for being a Labyrinth sounded like it had potential for an adventure. Maybe she’d “accidentally” get lost out there the night before the Ball was to take place.

“Do they do these Balls often?” she asked a neighbor once the singing (seriously, singing?) was completed and they were free to mingle.

12 Violet Calhoun So far, so bad 1575 0 5

Edu Alamilla

June 04, 2023 9:28 PM

Sometimes that is the best option by Edu Alamilla

Edu was excited to finally join the school as a student. He'd lived on campus with Madre and Padre for nearly as long as he could remember, but had generally been kept from 'interfering' with the students. Now he was one. He'd watched the wagons take off empty and return filled with older kids of all shapes and sizes. This year was much the same, but this time he stood with his parents and Professor Xavier and Dora when the wagons returned, and then waving to his parents, followed the Xaviers with the other first years into the gardens. He didn't learn anything new from the orientation, or the following tour about the school. He did however, learn some about his new classmates.

They arrived at the Hall and this was the exciting part. He hadn't been to a feast yet, and he was going to get sorted. He knew Padre liked Aladren, and didn't care much for the Pecaris. Madre seemed largely indifferent and had assured him it didn't matter. When the time came and the Headmaster called them forward with their badges, he was ready. He dunked his badge into the potion (which Padre still had some sort of issue with), and it came out yellow. He was in Teppenpaw! A grin broke out across his face, that was good. It wasn't Pecari, and Aladren sounded like a lot of work.

He found his way to Professor Xavier's Teppenpaw table and took a seat. The new student officers were appointed. In preparation for this year, Edu had taken some efforts last year to learn some about the other students in the school. He wondered if Dora was doing that this year. As such, he was vaguely familiar with the students who had been called up front. The announcement about the ball came as no surprise either. It was the end of the year event that Padre disliked the least, and so there wasn't a lot of him complaining about it.

He sang along to the best of his ability, and then the food appeared. Ooo.. they had tacos. He watched the girl next to him get to them first and planned on waiting for her to finish. She was... he searched his 'older student' knowledge for a moment, Robyn? That sounded right, oh yes! She was Xavier's sister. Once could not have lived at Sonora the past year or so and not have heard some things about Xavier. There were some other students on that list as well, but for the moment Xavier was the relevant one.

Apparently though, Robyn wasn't entirely familiar with how to put a taco together... or something else was bothering her. He quickly grabbed his napkin and offered it to her while plucking another taco shell from the stack for her. "Here," he said gently with a friendly smile, "Sometimes those things can be fragile. Why don't you try it again?"

2 Edu Alamilla Sometimes that is the best option 1579 0 5

Nicholas Pierce

June 04, 2023 10:50 PM

Bad? What's so bad about it? by Nicholas Pierce

It was something he wouldn’t have dreamed of saying to anyone, ever, except maybe Alexander, but as much as he’d missed his home and family during it, Nicholas had still been a little nervous about the end of the school year. Sure, they’d already gone home from school for Christmas the previous year, but that had been Christmas. Christmas didn’t count, because it was, by design, not a normal time. It had its own rules and rituals, of course – except that more red than usual had clearly been deliberately integrated into the decorations, it had been essentially like every other Christmas he could remember – but that holiday had been short enough that there hadn’t been a lot of time for settling into a regular routine. Summer, on the other hand...well, their birthday was in August, and that was important, but before school, summer had just been another mostly unremarkable part of the year. How, he’d wondered, would it go, when he and Alexander were used to completely different routines? When maybe even his parents could have developed different routines?

It hadn’t taken him long to dismiss all those worries. Oh, there were random little moments of exasperation, and – despite all the letters he and Alexander had dutifully written while they were away – some parental and grand-parental interrogations about everything they’d been doing since January, but for the most part, it had seemed pretty natural to him to pick up where they had left off: losing at chess to Dad and Alexander, going to the greenhouses or on long walks on the mountainside with Mom, regular afternoons with their grandparents…Greek lessons and jasmine tea, though Nicholas thought he could have done without either of those. Still, though, they were both familiar and hadn’t been too difficult to readjust to.

Now, though, the summer was over, and he guessed it was time to find out if it would be as easy to adjust back to being at school as it had been to adjust to being back at home. Somehow, he was pretty sure that he and Alexander were going to have a few rough nights again, what with being separated when this was most unnatural and had just been set right again for a few months at home, but maybe everything else would just come back to them easily, like being at home had done.

School was, after all, a pretty cool place. They had friends here, now, and they were over all the hurdles that just came with being a first year: getting to know everyone, learning to work with so many different teachers, learning how to get around a great big magical building, learning to handle a wand without it backfiring...that kind of stuff. Stuff which, this year, would be the province of the new first years, whoever they might be. He tried, as they were all Sorted, to tell himself that they definitely looked very small compared to himself and Alexander, but he couldn’t really quite manage it – sure, he was taller than he had been this time last year, but he still wasn’t tall, and neither was Alexander. As for being more grown up...well, maybe Alexander was, though Nicholas privately doubted this. He still felt pretty much like himself, that was to say, like the same person he’d been when he’d been in that line, praying to go into a House he had absolutely no business going into just because that was where his brother had just been sent.

One of the new people sat down near him, and Nicholas offered a cheerful smile of welcome before the speech started. He clapped for their new prefect and Head Girl (House pride was important) and more or less sang along with the school song before the food appeared and promptly took up most of his attention.

Others, however, had other topics on their minds, it seemed. The new first year wanted to know about the Ball – or rather, how often it occurred. Nicholas smiled again as he finished filling his plate and said, “I think it’s only every few years. My parents only went to one together, when they were here.” He was quite confident of this figure; he’d spent a not inconsiderable chunk of his life paging through his mother’s Sonora photos, and there was only one time when those oddly familiar-looking kids who had, apparently, been his parents’ past selves had looked like they were at a ball. “Last year, we had a bonfire instead, and I know they do that one every few years, too. We all made wishes for other students we could put in the fire, and then we camped out on the Quidditch Pitch! That was fun, but next year I guess it’ll be something else completely, though. Oh – welcome to Sonora, by the way.”

OOC: For reasons unknown, I seem to remember there being two Balls during Thad and Alicia's tenure at Sonora, but I can't make the math line up quite right unless I've forgotten which year they were in for the one I'm surer of. Will edit that if fact-seeking later proves my hunch more accurate than my math.

16 Nicholas Pierce Bad? What's so bad about it? 1565 0 5

Oz Spellman

June 05, 2023 7:04 PM

Then why are you here? by Oz Spellman

Oz half watched Otto buzzing about the hall, as it was easily the most unusual and therefore distracting thing going on. It was entirely whatever... Until he came over to Oz.

Oz narrowly restrained his automatic eye roll at the kid's less than subtle, less than helpful comment. Urgh, was this what he got for being friendly and offering Otto exploding fist bumps when he saw him? (The kind where you spread your fingers after bumping, not any weirder, more literal wizard definition...).

Oz really didn't need this. He needed to be alone right now because he didn't know how to be a capable human at anyone, but especially not a little kid. What did you even talk to them about? Definitely not adult relationships and addiction. Not that he necessarily wanted to talk about those things with anyone. He felt more like, if he opened his mouth, screaming was gonna come out, but he didn't want to take that out on a little kid. Oz might have been a terrible person, but he wasn't a monster. You couldn't tell a six-year-old to get lost, at least not in the terms that we're springing to Oz's mind. He really didn't want to drag Otto down with him though.

"You shouldn't," he cautioned. "You'll get in trouble."

13 Oz Spellman Then why are you here? 1514 0 5

Phil Carson

June 05, 2023 9:55 PM

Oh! I earned treasure! by Phil Carson

Phil was glad to be back at school. Sure, he'd had fun at Mom's home, and even Loki wasn't as bad as she used to be - still a force of chaos, of course, she could not change her nature, but it was starting to be a more fun kind of chaos rather than merely destructive - but he missed the relative quiet of the Aladren dorms and the opportunities to actually do magic (even coming into his fifth year, that still sounded as much fantasy to him as the Pathfinder games Val led them through).

It seemed strange, too, that Val just wouldn't be there this year. Nor Philippe, nor Bertie, but especially Val. Val seemed to embody Sonora, breathe its breath, pump its lifeblood through her heart, and she . . . would be gone. Sure he'd lost Gabriel to graduation, it wasn't a new concept to him, but Gabriel had been important to him. Val was important to everyone.

Despite that, he looking forward to the new year. He was going to be a club president! The responsibility was a little daunting, but he had help, and an idea for a short super hero campaign - he was really curious to see what the more wizardly raised gaming members would come up with or think of that - and he thought they had enough non-seventh year students join last year that there was some continuity and it wasn't like he had to start over fresh with a whole new group. That had been one of his bigger fears, but with Eben and Fortune and Xarryn and Gwendolyn having all played last year, he felt they had a pretty solid group already going into his first year leading the club.

He arrived at Sonora via the Rocky Mountain wagon as he did every year, and made his way up to the library. He spent a little time reacquainting himself with the space and the librarian - as the Gaming Club advisor, Mr. Fox-Reynolds was an important person to maintain a strong relationship with - and then headed into the Aladren dorms to unpack and settle in for the year.

Now at the Feast, he watched with limited interest as the new first years got sorted. He knew none of them personally and they were far too young for him to ever share classes with, though some of them might be potential gamers, which was probably the only reason he'd have to interact with any of them.

Of course, with the thoughts about the gaming club running so strongly through his mind, he'd all but forgotten that this was the year his class was up for prefect appointments. He'd luckily been paying attention, so he at least knew what was going on when his own name came out of the Headmaster's mouth and people started looking at him.

He stood, and collected his shiny new badge, wondering idly if it was the same one Bonabelle had worn last year or she'd gotten to keep it. He guessed he could ask Gabriel. Gabe had been prefect, too, in his day. Phil couldn't wait to write to his pseudo big brother and tell him this news! Prefect! Him!

Not that he didn't think he was qualified. He'd idly hoped to wear the badge some day on more than one occasion. He was more surprised that some day was now this day. He'd just been thinking the first years were mighty young now, but with the weight of the badge pulling at his robe, he was second guessing that conclusion. It hadn't been that long ago that he'd been the baby of the Gaming club, had it?

They were all gone now though. He was the older student now.

He dropped back into his seat feeling both ancient and like a child who was abruptly expected to be an adult. Sure that was a transition that took most of the teen years, and he'd started moving in that direction long before now - there was a shaving kit in his luggage this year, and his voice was definitely much lower than it had been five years ago; the robes he'd worn back during his own Sorting ceremony might not even come down to his knees now, and both Mom and Dad were willing to leave him alone without a babysitter for hours at a time (sometimes even leaving him in charge of Loki which made him the babysitter) - but this was the first time he really felt like, yeah, adults really trusted him to be responsible and adult-like because he'd earned it and not just because it was easier to say 'Watch your sister and don't burn down the house. I'm going to be gone for one hour. Call me if there's any trouble.' than it was to try to pack Loki into her booster seat and not lose her in the grocery store.

He looked down one final time at the shiny badge after the school song, then grinned at his neighbor as he reached for the platter of roast beef to start filling his plate. He suddenly noticed he was famished. "Glad to be back?" he asked cheerfully.

1 Phil Carson Oh! I earned treasure! 1536 0 5

Nausicaa Scapetello

June 08, 2023 9:47 PM

Perhaps I will finally start learning something by Nausicaa Scapetello

Nausicaa still, to this day, could not understand why she was still subjected to those horrid wagon rides like the rest of the rabble that attended this miserable school. She well knew that Father could arrange other transportation, and yet here she was jostled about mercilessly. He was testing her, as was Mother. She had a mission, and she would complete it with all of the grace, dignity and ruthlessness within her. It would just be nice to not have some of that tested so much. If she could prove herself even in such terrible, adverse conditions, it would truly be a win beyond question.

Upon arriving at the school and quickly leaving the wagons. Nausicaa proceeded directly to her room to ensure that all of her belongings were delivered promptly and properly. This was her year to begin her actual operations, and she did have to admit to herself that she hadn't been nearly as successful as she would have liked last year. She had not acquired a following of adoring minions or potential co-conspirators. She had played very cautiously, and as such had not made the progress she would have liked to achieve her goal. Well, it was the sort of thing she really shouldn't trust to other hands anyway. But having a few lackeys would be nice, just in case she needed some work done with plausible deniability.

The big change this year that would let her officially begin her campaign, was her graduation into her third year and thus access to the optional classes like Divinations. She was not looking forward to it, the 'discipline' was a ridiculous one, nobody of sound mind took it seriously. Why it was even taught was beyond her comprehension, but it was the reason she was in this miserable place, so she had been required to sign up for the class. Apart from that, she hoped that since she was now out of the 'beginners' classes, she would actually start learning things.

At the proper time, Nausicaa made her way down to the hall for the opening feast. She found a seat at the Aladren table and waited for things to begin. Her disposition to avoid the majority of the student body had hindered her search for underlings, and she heavily debated the merits of attempting to be more social. Thankfully, the Headmaster began the event before she reached a solid conclusion.

As usual, there wasn't much of a ceremony. The new students were sorted and she watched each of them in hopes of perhaps finding a new minion. The student positions didn't interest her yet, it was not her time. She would claim it then when the time came, how could she not? She had inherited the debate club, so she did have that going for her in the eyes of those making such decisions. Until then she didn't see how it concerned her. She knew the announcement of the ball was coming, the school worked in an obvious pattern. For the most part, the boys here were unworthy of escorting her to such an event, however.. the matter would require some consideration.

She did not sing. Once that bit of nonsense was done and the food appeared, she perused the selections. Her mind returned again to the concept of interacting with these people in order to further her mission. It was an ongoing battle and not one that was going well, but she was not one to admit defeat. Ever. To that end, she turned to the person sitting closest to her, "Could you pass the spaghetti?" she asked while indicating the dish, "How was your summer?" She added attempting to sound interested.

2 Nausicaa Scapetello Perhaps I will finally start learning something 1561 0 5

Xarryn Bavol

June 08, 2023 10:05 PM

I think they're called 'Limbs' by Xarryn Bavol

Xarryn was going into Intermediates this year, which was kind of exciting, but also kind of terrifying because keeping up with the reading assignments had been hard enough in the beginner classes and now it was going to get even harder. The practical bits came pretty easily to him, and he even understood the theory more or less, he just . . . couldn't explain it, not verbally and definitely not in writing for the essays, so his grades were nothing to write home about. Which, sadly, had not stopped his teachers from writing home about them, and Dad gave him some extra work sheets to do this summer to 'help him catch up to the rest of his class'.

Not that they really had a whole lot of time for doing worksheets in the cruise industry during the summer, so he'd picked out the ones that looked the least onerous and just did those and Dad seemed pleased enough by that.

Mom, being a muggle, didn't have class related worksheets for him to do, so during the couple of days he stayed with her, she made him work on his reading skills, which probably targeted the actual problem better, but that just meant he had to actually work on what he wasn't good at. She tried a few different approaches from just reading to him out loud, to putting the subtitles on the TV, to playing games that required some level of reading or writing to win, but the problem with all of those things was that (a) it still involved reading, and (b) it almost always involved sitting down for an extended period of time, neither of which were things Xarryn was particularly skilled at.

He loved his mom and she was trying to help, he knew, but by the time the wagon came to pick him up, he was glad to be leaving San Diego and heading inland. Sonora had some faults, too, but it at least didn't keep him cooped up inside so much. There were gardens to roam, Quidditch to play, and with Pecari being located where it was, he literally needed to go outside everyday just to feed himself.

After two years, he was mostly used to living on land most of the year and sleeping in a bed that didn't move with the ocean swells, and he'd had the few days living with Mom to get his land legs back, so he didn't anticipate any trouble readjusting. He was eager to see his Housemates and classmates again, take to the air on his broom again (flying near his Mom's home in San Diego was a big Statute of Secrecy No-No, and flying around the Wind Harness was a big Safety No-No, so he hadn't been able to practice much since the Spring and he was very much looking forward to rectifying that), play the adventure game with his adventuring buddies, and even learn some more magic stuff.

He spent the time between when the wagon dropped him off and the feast flying around on the Pitch (fortunately there were other people doing the same, so he knew when they headed inside it was probably close to Feast time) which was fun, and got the kinks out after riding the wagon. Heading inside when the other kids did, he plopped down into a seat at the Pecari table.

He clapped for the new first years as they got sorted - too young to share a class with him this year, but close enough in age they'd all be together in Intermediates the one year they were his age and he was a fifth year. (Which brought him around to the realization that this was the only year he'd share a class with the current fifth years, which made the Prefects getting awarded a bit more interesting because, this year, they were his classmates! How weird was that??)

A bare mention of a ball and school song later (Xarryn sang it with enthusiasm, of course), the food appeared, and as he reached for the bowl of potatoes, he had to pull back quickly to avoid running into an elbow reaching for the sausages.

"No problem!" he promised when the arm's owner apologized. "You can make up for it by trading dishes with me when you're done!" he suggested, claiming the potatoes and adding a heaping of spoonful or two onto his plate. "I love sausages!"

1 Xarryn Bavol I think they're called 'Limbs' 1560 0 5

Robyn Lundstrom

June 12, 2023 2:41 PM

Sometimes stopping or shutting up also works by Robyn Lundstrom

Robyn was stuck next to some first year, who probably had no clue what was going on, and who was offering her napkins and a misplaced, overly sympathetic lesson in how to hold tacos. Only one of those things was necessary. Robyn took the napkin, wiping her fingers and managing not to roll her eyes even though he was talking to her like she was five. An easily spooked five at that.

"Thanks," she said flatly.

“I don’t actually care what I have to eat,” she told him honestly, though maybe that just made things worse. Was it more pathetic to back away from the terrifying challenge of trying to eat a taco than to be schooled on it by a first year? Either way, her response was the truth. She was only eating because that was automatic, so if it didn’t go automatically she was done. At least with that particular food stuff. There was terrible pasta that her mom would have had at least three opinions on. In its favour, it was both next to her and looked like it had no natural defences. She spooned some onto her plate, and sprinkled parmesan onto it.

“Welcome to Sonora,” she added, because that was what you had to say to first years and this was the friendly house. She didn’t say it with much enthusiasm but she was pretty sure she deserved points for effort given the general circumstances of her life and the specific circumstances of how he’d already talked to her.

13 Robyn Lundstrom Sometimes stopping or shutting up also works 1558 0 5

Leo Lyons

June 14, 2023 3:52 AM

...Can we just eat already? by Leo Lyons

Sonora was the same as last year, though Leo didn't know why it would be any different. Some people might call it timeless, others would say stagnant, but if Leo had stopped to think about it, it didn't really matter. Sonora was, and it wasn't trying to be anything else.

It was cheering to realize that he wouldn't have Nausicaa in his classes this year, although it was a bummer that he'd only realized on the wagon ride back. He'd spent his whole summer studying, trying to make himself smarter so he wouldn't have repeat of the dumb frog situation. He hadn't minded the detention so much, but it seemed that many of his classmates were slightly more uptight than the class at John Henry Elementary, where gross things in desks were a regular form of entertainment, and a welcome distraction from the mundane.

Unfortunately, with the exception of a few, the perception of the Beginner's class last year seemed to be that Leo was That Kid Who Plays Pranks All The Time. It wasn't particularly fair, in Leo's mind, at least in the sense that one prank hardly equated to being a goof-off, and in the sense that he'd learned almost immediately that the change in environment had come with a change in values. His course-correcting hadn't done terribly much for him the rest of the year, but he was beginning to feel better about maybe not being everybody's cup of tea.

All of that aside, he was feeling pretty hopeful this year about continuing to build his reputation back up to "cool guy" instead of "class clown". They had a fresh crop of newbies to impress, and Leo was going to put his best foot forward and be an excellent role model.

He clapped for the new prefects and Head Students, offering Tommy a high five on his way past. Tommy was a cool guy-effortlessly, it seemed, and a Tepp to boot. He deserved Head Student just as much as any of the candidates had.

Once the announcements had been made- or rather, the singular-sentence-worth-of-announcement- the feast appeared in on the tables. Leo's stomach growled loudly as he loaded his plate from the bowl of beef tips in gravy. He'd been hungrier lately, but he wasn't anywhere near able to out-eat Donovan. His Pecari friend had grown a hollow leg over the summer, and was constantly snacking on something. No doubt he'd be stuffing anything that wouldn't spoil or stain into his pockets for later.

Noticing that the person beside him wasn't talking to anyone, he struck up a conversation with an age-old question.

"How was your summer?"

64 Leo Lyons ...Can we just eat already? 1568 0 5

Cole Pierce

June 16, 2023 11:45 PM

Sure! by Cole Pierce

Cole arrived back at Sonora for his fourth year feeling pretty good about things. Yaniel was working through his difficulties, so maybe, hopefully, he could come back and play Quidditch again this year, but if not, Cole would continue to practice with him in their free time. Lenny was reprising his role of Cole's twin brother, and it would be good to have him back again after a summer apart. Leviosa and Piper were both great friends, and he'd missed them, too.

For academics, he was in that sweet spot where he was starting to learn real magic, the middle of Intermediates, where they were past the basic boring stuff, but not yet into the terrifying advanced stuff. He done well in his third year and felt confident in his ability to tackle the slightly harder classwork assigned to the older Intermediates. And he still had another year before he was one of the people the teachers kept looking at when they talked about the impending CATS exams.

He also had another year before Billy and Oz graduated, making him and Yaniel the senior beaters on the Quidditch team, so he was definitely going to need to work hard to improve enough to fill those shoes. (He was kind of looking forward to his shot at getting onto the first string team, though. Maybe the coach would let him play a few games this year, against some of the easier schools, to get a little experience with it.)

But first! There was the feast.

Cole arrived with Lenny and took seats at the Teppenpaw table, saving seats for Leviosa and Piper to sit with them, too.

The first years came in and, having reached the middle year of his Sonora career, Cole was starting to think they looked a bit small. None of them were people he knew, nor was he aware of any relation to any of them either. Two, he vaguely recognized as staff kids, but he hadn't interacted with either of them very much.

He cheered as one of the staff kids and a girl he didn't recognize at all joined his Teppenpaw family. He also cheered for Liesl getting prefect, and Tommy getting Head Student. He was distantly aware that it was his class up for prefect positions next year, and it would be cool if he got a prefect badge like his mom had, but if he didn't that was okay, too. Dad hadn't gotten one either and he had been very happy for Mom getting hers, and Cole was sure he'd feel the same way if Piper, or Leviosa, or Lenny got it instead. The badge he did kind of want was the Quidditch Captain one, and with Billy and Oz graduating and not a lot of other older players between him and them, he thought that one might be in reach next year, too, if they didn't give it to Fortune instead. His Pecari yearmate was already leading the Chasers.

The Headmaster briefly mentioned the ball (Cole was going to need to figure out a date for that probably), and then Cole sang the school song, and then there was finally food!

Ignoring his friends for the time being because hadn't eaten much since he was still in Massachusetts, and he was probably going to die of starvation at any moment, Cole loaded up his plate. He enjoyed the first couple of blissful bites of roast beef, and then the kid sitting to the side that didn't have Lenny spoke up.

Cole smiled at him. He was one of Fortune's Chasers, which made them teammates as well as housemates. Leo. "Good!" he answered the question posed to him. His summer had been good, even if it lacked his Sonora friends. "Got to go home to Boston, play some summer league baseball, see the parents, catch up with my cousins. Reilly's seven. Mab and Alexander are nineteen. Ben's twenty. . . something, twenty-seven? Twenty-eight? So we're pretty spread out, and none of them are at Sonora now except me and Lenny." He hooked a thumb sideways at his roommate. "Well, unless you count Nicholas and Alexander. I think they're in your year? They're from a different branch of the family, though. Same great-great-great?-grandfather? So pretty distant." Technically, they were more closely related to him than Lenny was, but Cole didn't need to acknowledge that. At Sonora, they were twins. And Lenny's branch at least admitted that Cole's branch existed.

"What about you? Have a good summer, get to see any extended family?"

1 Cole Pierce Sure! 1546 0 5

Edu Alamilla

June 17, 2023 10:47 AM

If that is what you want. by Edu Alamilla

Robyn didn't seem happy, but he guessed that was understandable. Oh well. He shrugged as she selected some pasta over the tacos, and filled the taco shell in his hand for himself. That done, he scooped some rice onto his plate which had been near the tacos and the looked around for what other options the feast provided. Madre would want him to eat some vegetables, and he doubted she would count the lettuce on the taco. There were some green beans not far away, so he snagged some of those for his plate as well. It would do for round one.

"Thanks," he responded to Robyn's rather toneless welcome. It seemed best to take it as 'Welcome to being a student at Sonora', since he'd been living here nearly as long as he could remember, and didn't really know anywhere else. It didn't seem like Robyn was in a mood to get corrected, but at the same time he wondered if she found out later that he wasn't 'new', would she feel like he had been lying to her or something? It wasn't her fault of course to not know him, he'd largely been kept away from bothering the students. Something some of the other kids around the school hadn't dealt with as much, he thought as he remembered Dora at the orientation and now Otto wandering around the feast. Oh well.

Edu wasn't sure if Robyn wanted to talk, she hadn't been very vocal, but she had volunteered a welcome sentiment. He bit into his taco and made a face. It certainly wasn't one of Madre's tacos, but it wasn't horrible. She may need to give the elves a lesson or two though. A glance towards the staff table, caught Padre's eyes and he indicated the taco. The groundskeeper was not one for wild expressions, but Edu caught his father's small smirk and head shake of understanding. Padre didn't think much of the school tacos either. Comforted that he wasn't alone in his opinion, Edu finished the taco and moved on to better things on his plate.

He had questions he'd like to ask Robyn about being a student here. What were the classes like? What sort of clubs could he do? What were the dorms like? And so on. Edu glanced her way trying to gauge if she wanted to talk, or really didn't want to.

OOC: Osvaldo is also my character, so no godmodding is happening.

2 Edu Alamilla If that is what you want. 1579 0 5

Donovan Peters

June 20, 2023 3:46 PM

They are all over the place! by Donovan Peters

Careful to keep his elbows in, Donovan slid a couple of sausages onto his plate- there was plenty of time for seconds- and traded dishes with Xarryn. The potatoes smelled both herbaceous and delicious, and Donovan topped them with a pat of yellow butter before shoving a forkful into his mouth.

"So," he said, covering his full mouth with his hand-he had some semblance of manners, after all, he was just hungry! "Do you think any of the newbies are going to want to join the Quidditch team?"

They had been frustratingly close to having two full teams last year, and while the coach had done a fair job of setting up scrimmages, being able to play a full-on game of Quidditch right on their own pitch whenever they wanted was an exciting prospect. They'd lost their Seeker, Valentine, to graduation last year, which was disappointing, although Alexander was coming along just fine to fill the position. This year, though, Billy and Oz were both leaving, so that was two more replacements that would need to be found between this year and next.

There were a couple of possibilities; one of the new Tepps was the groundskeepers kid, who Donovan thought probably spent a lot of time outside, possibly zipping around the Quidditch pitch while his dad maintained the field. The other new Tepp was Quillan's sister, so maybe she would want to join to hang out with her brother? Donovan didn't know the dynamics, although it seemed that siblings either went one way or the other-being super close, or being rivals. Being a singleton himself, he could only speculate.

He spotted something tasty a few plates down.

"Also, could you pass the shepherd's pie? Thanks."

OOC: Quidditch roster pulled from the sign-ups last year, I feel like I'm forgetting somebody, though. Let me know and I will edit!

64 Donovan Peters They are all over the place! 1569 0 5

Mathias Melcher

June 22, 2023 11:32 PM

Aw thanks! by Mathias Melcher

Mathias was thrilled to be at Sonora finally. He had heard so much about the place from his dad and sister, with the latter’s information being a bit more relevant. Well, the basic stuff, like what the houses were and their traits and well, basically the information that Professor Xavier had gone over at Orientation. Although he did not think that Dad had had to take Herbology as a required class. That was added later. Not that Mathias minded an additional class. He was looking forward to it. Herbology was a fascinating topic and he loved to experiment with plants. Plus, Professor Xavier seemed cool enough.

However, Mathias had been a tad disappointed that it had not been Professor Wright. Connie had talked him up quite a bit so the first year was eager to meet him. He sounded awesome and maybe, just maybe, he knew some of Sonora’s greatest mysteries and secrets. Maybe he even had figured out the current identity of the Impostor and Mathias could go tell his dad’s first cousin, Kirstenna.. Although the first year was ninety-nine percent sure that was a figment of his cousin’s imagination-though he never dismissed anything out of hand-and it might be for the best not to tell her any dark terrible secrets that Sonora had been hiding and freak her out more. After all, she seemed convinced that the Impostor was going to kidnap her daughter Prisca and either stash her in some hotel room in Gallop, New Mexico with at least two corpses stashed under the floorboards or raise her as an evil minion who also shape shifted into other people, and somehow gave her immortality. It might be one of those situations that he should try not to make worse.

Still, Mathias was certain that there was something that the school was hiding. Because he did not trust everything to be nice and normal. Especially in an institution that had been around as long as Sonora had. There had to be at least metaphorical bodies buried somewhere and Mathias wanted to find them. Maybe Professor Wright knew something. Maybe not everything, but something . After all, someone as brilliant as Connie made him sound was definitely going to figure that kind of thing out.

Of course, Mathias had to interrogate all the professors about this.Possibly including the Headmaster and the Groundskeeper. After all, Headmaster Brockert had to be in the know, being the Headmaster and all. If Great-Grandfather knew everything about the school the Melcher family ran-and Mathias was certain that he did, he sure seemed to make it sound like it-then Headmaster Brockert knew everything about Sonora-and he was also sure that, similar to Grandfather, that Professor Skies also was in on it. As for the Groundskeeper, well, they usually knew a lot more than most people, because, awful as it sounded, people tended to ignore them and when people ignored you and forgot that you were around, you learned stuff.

Unfortunately, Mathias was the sort of person, like his father and Kirstenna before him, and possibly his sister too, at least as far as Professor Wright was probably concerned, that was…not especially good at keeping a low profile. That was absolutely fantastic but sort of a huge drawback as far as investigating secrets went. People were likely to notice him. So, interrogation was his only option.

Of course, this particular interest of his was pretty much an additional reason why Grandfather and Great-Grandfather did not want him to attend the school that his family ran. Usually it was due to not wanting to end up accused of nepotism-or in the case of his sisters and Kirstenna and other girls in the Melcher family, it was because they were girls and it was an all male school. And the nepotism bit was sort of ironic given that Sonora was run by a…cousin of theirs. He couldn’t remember exactly how he was related to Headmaster Brockert, he thought Great Great Grandmother was the sister of the Headmaster’s grandpa.It was all very confusing .

However, in Mathias’ case, he got the idea that they wanted him to go to Sonora because they didn’t want him prying into the secrets of their institution. Which was a bit ridiculous given that he’d probably be running the place someday. Maybe they just weren’t ready to initiate him into the whole thing yet. But they were definitely hiding something and that they seemed to want him to go away to school more than they had wanted, say, Dad to do so just sort of made him think they had something to hide. Also, all institutions from schools to hospitals to governments-be they federal, state, local, magical, muggle, any country- had something to hide. It was just a fact.

And he wanted to know all about them, because, well, Mathias was the super curious type. He had been raised with the belief that asking questions was a good thing. Okay, he knew to respect the privacy of individuals, as if he had some deeply personal secret, he certainly would not want others to know, however, institutions…well, they weren’t people with feelings. The students and staff at Sonora had feelings, the institution as a whole did not.

Anyway, now it was time to be Sorted. Which was like a defining moment of one’s life, pretty much literally. Because while there were different types of people in each house, with a variety of personalities, each house had its own traits and which one you went into told people something about who you were. Mathias had once heard about a school that sorted randomly and he thought that was terrible. Not because you might be with people different than you-which was likely in his case anyway- but because it was basically meaningless then. Why bother having a house system at all? You might as well just separate people by gender and pair them off into rooms.

As he entered the Hall with the rest of the first years, he made eye contact with his older sister who gestured to a second chair by her. Mathias caught her meaning, she was saving a seat for him. So he really hoped he got into Aladren because otherwise, well, that would be for nothing. Although he didn’t really think Connie would mind sitting alone since she didn’t really connect with others,evidenced by the fact that the person at Sonora she was closest to seemed to be Professor Wright. He had never really thought that she was all that bothered by it though.

Of course, Mathias wanted to get Aladren anyway, since his sister was there and his dad had been and basically almost all Melchers who’d attended Sonora had been other than Kirstenna and Great Uncle Jethro, who was Kirstenna’s father and Grandfather Melcher’s brother. And Mom had been in Ravenclaw, an equivalent house at Hogwarts. Plus, he wanted the legendary Professor Wright as his HoH.

Finally, it was his turn to dip his badge, a tradition that had been updated since his dad’s time, something about all the first years drinking out of the same cup being unsanitary. Mathias could certainly see the point there. Why they didn’t just have separate cups for each of them, he was not sure and he kind of thought there might be another reason that they were keeping secret, and maybe he could find that out but right now he was being Sorted .

He put his badge into the potion and it turned blue. Mathias beamed and headed to the seat that Connie had saved for him. He could always meet other students later. He felt it would be good to make friends since Connie was only going to be here for two more years and Hallie wouldn’t come until his last year. However, tonight he was going to celebrate with his older sister.

Prefects and Head Students were announced, though the names basically meaningless to him, other than Liesl Brockert being a distant cousin of his. He did take note of the Aladren prefect, Phil Carson though and applauded for them all.

Then Headmaster Brockert announced the Midsummer Event would be the Ball, which honestly sounded like the least interesting one overall, and they sang the school song.

After that was over, Mathias turned to his sister and said. “Connie, listen to my new poem!” He knew better than to ask people if they wanted to hear his poems, because they might not. It was like asking people if they had a partner in class. You weren’t just asking them out of curiosity, you were asking to pair off with them.

Mathias cleared his throat and began,

“Oblong octagon, squash.
Sausage book,
Orangutan
Kidney puppy.”

Finishing up, he looked at his older sister. “What do you think of my poem?” Again, just asking what someone thought-and he mostly knew people who thought a lot- could bring up unrelated thoughts when he wanted to know specifically Connie’s thoughts about his poem.

11 Mathias Melcher Aw thanks! 1581 0 5

Alexander Pierce

July 09, 2023 9:45 PM

I certainly think so. by Alexander Pierce

Alexander held his breath as Ida processed his question. She was surprised, he could tell that. Had he asked too quickly? Should he have worked up to it more? But no, she was smiling, so he smiled, too, tentatively, hoping this was a good sign.

It was! She said yes! He refrained from doing anything improper like jumping up out of his seat and shouting Yes! but if he was a lesser being, he might have been tempted to do that. Instead, he just smiled, a bit wider than his norm, a bit warmer than his norm, and a lot more genuinely than was his norm. She said yes! And not only had she said yes, she had said she would be honored to go with him, and that it sounded wonderful.

Rejection was difficult at the best of times, but Alexander had no idea who else he could have possibly wanted to take, and they were twelve now, practically grown-ups, so they should probably have dates to a proper ball, which made this a fairly major victory. The most beautiful, smartest girl in the whole school seemingly wanted to go with him.

"Not many," he admitted to his relative inexperience. "There have been some family Christmas parties that have been similar to miniature balls, and I've been to some weddings, which also have commonalities, but Grandmother thinks we need to be a little older yet before we can go to proper society balls. Soon, though, I think," he added in case that made him sound too juvenile for her. Yes, they were the same age, more or less, being in the same year group, but maybe her family was more aggressive at getting the children out into wider society?

"What about you?" he asked cautiously, to see which tract was the right one to take in this situation . . . enthusiasm for trying something new, or insisting the experience he did have was enough to make this ball a success for them.

1 Alexander Pierce I certainly think so. 1566 0 5

Eben Sosna

August 04, 2023 12:11 AM

Indeed, well-done! by Eben Sosna

It had been years, now, since he had learned that he had always been both half-right and completely wrong about the way the world worked, but in a lot of ways, Eben still felt vaguely surprised every time he got back to school. How did they pull this off, year after year? Sure, he and his brother had pretty definitively established, at this point, that the whole ‘only wizards can see certain stuff’ thing was correct, but – still. The sheer scale of this operation was both impressive and terrifying. The best argument against conspiracies – the one that he’d never been able to come up with an adequate answer to back home – was, after all, that people were notoriously bad at keeping their mouths shut. Someone always spilled the beans, and sooner or later, it happened enough times for everything to kind of...pile up, right? But somehow, the wizards had laid low all this time.

In other ways, though...it was a lot different than it had been. Sure, there was still the wait, this is real life? moment, coming back each year – but it was a little less surprising every time. For his first two summers at home, it had all been fine – but then he’d learned to do a Summoning Charm, and life at home had been...kinda frustrating ever since, since he knew how to find what everyone had lost this time, but just couldn’t...actually do anything about it. Even though he knew how. Which sucked. Especially since he, his brother, and his parents were all really, really good at losing things. Coming back to school had its ups and downs, but one of the ups was that he didn’t lose everything from socks to books with appalling regularity. And that was to say nothing of the things he had to keep up with as a wizard – sure, he had once made himself look incredibly stupid when he’d tried to Summon an inkwell he’d left somewhere in the common room, a procedure which had ended with said inkwell first bopping him in the head and then spilling its contents everywhere, but hey – he hadn’t found it two or three years after the fact, and that...was worth something?

It was an...interesting realization to have/dwell upon, but not a particularly comfortable one, which was why he wasn’t sorry to promptly have an excuse to forget about while clapping for his roommate’s achievement in becoming the new Aladren prefect.

“Great job,” he congratulated Phil when he got back to the table.

“Uh – yeah, actually,” he said once the food appeared, in response to the question asked. “I think I am.” It was kind of weird to realize, but he...thought he was actually getting kind of comfortable, here. Which was not something he’d ever really conceived he might be outside the company of his immediate family. Which was another weird one to think about…. “The more magic you know, the worse it is to not be able to use it, I guess. What about you?”

16 Eben Sosna Indeed, well-done! 1538 0 5