Killian Row
July 09, 2023 10:49 PM
Tumbleweed Trip by Killian Row
Killian was on clipboard duty today. He did try to take any jobs he could off of the deputy headmistress'/his boss'/his basically mother-in-law's hands and clipboard duty seemed like a small thing to take but it was time consuming. He had run through the usual spiel - those who were comfortable and wished to do so could travel to Tumbleweed by portkey, others were welcome to use the enchanted vehicles which could fit too many students and drive too fast and suddenly warp into Tumbleweed - and was now waiting to check off names and shout over heads to ensure no one snuck off on their own."Please know that shop owners have been forewarned of our trip today and any reports back to the school of inappropriate behavior will be taken seriously," he had reminded students before they warped away and now that they were arriving, many of them horribly motion sick, he was glad he hadn't waited until they arrived. He was only reminding them periodically of things like "stay with a buddy," and "there will be staff and faculty around town if you need any help."
The town of Tumbleweed was unplottable because it physically didn't exist any singular place, but Killian would have sworn that the actual layout of the town was unplottable too. An ice cream shop that had been there a few decades previously was a coffeeshop now, and the old Quidditch store had moved up the lane a ways. Robes and gowns were glimmering in the windows of an apparel store and cauldrons gleamed even brighter beneath hang-drying herbs in the window of the apothecary. A man with a hippogriff on a lead was making his way through town when he caught sight of the students, stopped quickly, and led the hippogriff away from any possible people for it to bite.
Students would have to use their own funding to supply any Ball accoutrements, although there were usually a few odd relics around the school if anyone truly had no way to acquire something suitable. Class supplies were abundantly available at the school but some students preferred higher quality or less worn versions and he was sure the apothecary and bookstore both would be earning their coin today.
The Quidditch pitch was empty today, no exhibit or game occuring, but there was always the possibility of a pick-up game if enough people were interested. In fact, Killian had even seen wizards and witches in towns like these take up games of foot Quidditch - functionally the same as football except they punched each other since they didn't have bludgers and the snitch was a guy in his skivvies running away from the seeker - but he doubted that would happen today with so many minors about. At least he hoped not. Merlin, if he saw a single pair of skivvies today...
He returned to checking off names on the clipboard, doing his best to make his boss/basically mother-in-law/friend proud.
Subthreads: Tagging Hans by Liesl Brockert with Hansel Hexenmeister
Shooting my shot (tag Iris) by Henry Spellman with Iris Cobb
I'm not here, do not look at me. by Winston Randall with Xavier Lundstrom
Shall we? (Tag Charlotte) by Quillan Arcadius with Charlotte O'Malley, Ursula Arcadius
Let's make the best of it. by Claire Osbrook with Verdillia Scurlock, Lydia Priory
Tumbling into Tumbleweed [Tag Misty] by Donovan Peters with Misty Brockert
Options, or lack thereof by Ian Malone with Tommy Jamison
*sigh* (Tag Alexei) by Amethyst Brockert
At least we haave today (Rosalynn and Lorena) by Isla Brockert with Lorena Abernathy
Can't be bothered to think of a clever title by Christopher Brockert
22
Killian Row
Tumbleweed Trip
1450
1
5
Liesl Brockert
July 11, 2023 6:33 PM
Tagging Hans by Liesl Brockert
Liesl could not believe that she’d gotten prefect. Unfortunately, nobody else could either. Well, not so much Uncle Cory or Krisalyn, of course, or even her grandparents. Just everyone else, in particular, her parents and Desmond. And that hurt. It really did. Like, because she didn’t fit into their narrow definition of normal and, therefore, acceptable, they didn’t think anyone else would think her worthy either. Like she was somehow less capable of things like being prefect just because she didn’t dress conventionally, liked creepy things and wasn’t a “genius” like Desmond was. Like nobody would want Liesl at least not as she was, regardless of the fact that she actually did have people like Hans and Uncle Cory who did.And apparently, the majority of the staff. True, the Teppenpaw didn’t know how large said majority was or which staff members it included. She might have only won by one vote. Nor did she know exactly which staff members picked her either,aside from probably Uncle Mortimer. It still felt really nice to be chosen, to be wanted .
Which reminded Liesl that there was another thing she very much wanted to be chosen for. And someone she wanted to be chosen by. This year was the Ball here at Sonora. She didn’t think much of the society balls she was forced to go to, though that was largely because she was not allowed to wear what she wanted and be herself.
However, she also did not like them because Hans wasn’t there. It wasn’t as if boys didn’t ask Liesl to dance or talk to her. She was a Brockert and, unlike at school where some people assumed they were snobby and stuck-up-an apt description of her brother, actually but it was a Desmond thing,not a Brockert one or a pureblood one-that was something that was highly valued.
The thing was though it was not these boys she wanted to talk to and dance with, especially as they weren’t seeing the real her. In fact, Liesl was under very strict instructions not to be herself. Which probably made her come off as stiff and awkward, which was also not good. Anyway, that was not the main issue. The main issue was that it was Hans she wanted to spend time with, talking or dancing or whatever.
Because Liesl felt a real connection with Hans that was based on actually liking some of the same things and a true friendship along with things like the whole accepting her for who she actually was thing. There were probably others who would, but they were accepting because that was just a personality trait of theirs like with Uncle Cory-being his niece might play into that, but if parents couldn’t be depended on for unconditional acceptance, why would uncles? Not to mention, like, how Eustace proved that they didn’t because of how he was towards his nephews-or because they themselves were different like Lenny probably would. And if you were different in some way, you had to empathize with someone else who was also different even if it wasn’t the exact same because it did not make sense that you would want someone to accept your differences or be sensitive to them but not return the favor.
So while acceptance was hard enough for Liesl to come by, a real bond based on not only that but actually common ground? Now, that was special. And she felt that with Hans. And she probably would not find that with anyone else. Not just because she couldn’t be herself at society balls and probably came off super awkward, both of which were hindrances, generally speaking, both for what was supposed to happen and what Liesl personally actually wanted, but because well, that was just something special and maybe it was even like Owen and Jemima had.
However, that did not mean that she wasn’t worried that maybe Hans did not feel the same. That he would ask someone else to the ball. And that idea bothered the fifth year so very much. First of all, there was the practical consideration of who else would she talk to? While she’d had the other then Beginner Tepps to talk to last time, other people in her family hadn’t had anyone. (Also, no offense to Patience and Lydia, this time she would really rather like to have Hans to herself at the ball. Not that she normally wanted to monopolize him completely but like, this was a ball).
More importantly though, well, she just…the idea of Hans asking someone else to ball, as a date, bothered her to her very core. Like sort of the same kind of bothered to the core that she felt when she had to go to society balls wearing what her mother wanted instead of what she wanted, but not exactly the same. Both were soul-destroying and this might actually be worse.
And it wasn’t as if Liesl really had anyone to talk to girl stuff about. Uncle Cory was a guy and Krisalyn was too young and Grandma Imogen was too old and Isla was too close to her in age and she certainly could not talk about Hans to Hans, at least not in this sense. Nor did she have that sort of relationship with Mother. She guessed she could talk to Aunt Amy or like one of Uncle Mortimer’s older granddaughters if she needed someone older and wiser and more experienced but not…as old as Grandma, but Aunt Amy was the one who talked to her about other…things that happened to maturing young women.
Today, though, was a trip to Tumbleweed, presumably to find ball gowns. And Liesl probably should do that, because Merlin only knew that she did not want Mother making the decisions there and that if that happened, then Uncle Cory was going to have to buy her a second gown as usually happened when Liesl wanted something that she actually liked. However, she wanted to hang out with Hans, not only for all those reasons that made her soul hurt at the idea of him asking someone else to the ball but because she had to walk around with a partner and obviously, it made sense to ask her closest friend because that was what people did instinctively did when they went on school trips.
And he most likely wouldn’t be interested in looking at ball gowns. Some boys did, but much like the make-up lesson in Potions, it would not be the vast majority who were into it. Although Hans might also need clothes for the ball, it was more likely that they could find something more fun and interesting, like look at the bookstore, eat ice cream, or hunt for local snakes for Hans to chat up and both of them to befriend.
Once they had arrived and received instructions for the day, Liesl turned to her friend. “So, what do you want to do?”
11
Liesl Brockert
Tagging Hans
1537
0
5
Hansel Hexenmeister
July 27, 2023 8:45 PM
Oh, look, that's me by Hansel Hexenmeister
Hansel was excited about another Tumbleweed trip. Sure, he'd been there a few times already, and seen most of the stuff there at least in passing, but it was a fun to have a change of scenery once in a while, get out of the school for a day. He had a few things he wanted to do today, first among them was to formalize his ball plans, but he already had plans with Liesl to spend the day together, so that should be pretty easy to drop into the conversation at some point over the course the trip.Probably not first thing right off the bat, though. Hans didn't really have a problem with portkeys, but there was some disorientation even for him, and it was probably better to actually be somewhat settled doing something before springing a question like that on a girl.
So when Liesl asked what he wanted to do, he shrugged casually. "Figured we could maybe watch the ghosts do one of their reinactments first?" Ghosts were pretty low on the creepy scale, given how prevelant they were in old wizarding buildings, but they were on the creepy scale, so he hoped Liesl would enjoy watching them. Plus those sorts of educational events were much less crowded than the ice cream place or the clothes stores, especially during a ball year. "Maybe find one out in a field, sit out in the grass, and see if we can find any local snakes to tell us what they think of it, too?" he added with a smile.
1
Hansel Hexenmeister
Oh, look, that's me
1524
0
5
Liesl Brockert
August 17, 2023 9:51 PM
Yes it is by Liesl Brockert
Liesl grinned. There was nothing better than hanging out with Hans. Honestly, over the past…year or so, she had decided that she liked his company better than anyone’s though Uncle Cory was still a close second, but she… obviously felt much differently about her uncle than she did about Hans.And it was okay for her to like the older Teppenpaw more than…well, anyone. It wasn’t disloyal to her uncle or anyone else. (Although, some people obviously didn’t deserve any loyalty, of course.) It was a perfectly normal thing to…like someone in a special way that you didn’t like anyone else including and especially your family that was also more than you liked anyone else. And that was pretty much how Liesl was feeling about the sixth year.
Of course, she was terrified that Hans did not feel the same way about her. Although he had given her the bracelet, that she wore pretty much every day, and said that she was pretty, due to years and years of conditioning ,Liesl was never quite sure that she was wanted, liked and good enough and was usually pretty sure that she wasn’t. Even when she did something good, like getting good grades-which now that Desmond was at school, she was compared to him unfavorably, as she had been able to sadly and accurately predict without the aid of anything they used in Divination-or getting prefect-which only led people to think unkind things about Patience and her suitability, if Liesl beat her-or got second in the Challenges-which was of course down to the abilities of Jasper and everyone else on the team despite the fact that Xavier hadn’t been especially good at magic, Mab didn’t exactly scream natural leader, and that the last event had Liesl written all over it. Not that they did not all make good and significant contributions but…so had she. But no, all because of them, and Desmond would surely lead his team to first. Also, being good at making a haunted house was not a skill that Mother thought that she should be proud of-it just wasn’t enough, there was always some explanation, some fault of others-in the case of prefect-or skill of others-such as the Challenges.
So that someone would like her best, like her in a special way that they didn’t like anyone else and it was even the person that she felt that way about? Well, this was a confounding concept for Liesl to say the least.
“Ooh, that sounds fun!. Both the historical reenactments and finding some snakes to see what they think.” At the very least it seemed like Hans wanted to make her happy, since while ghosts were a bit more normal to magical people than to Muggles, they were still sort of creepy. After all, they were dead people. Even though Liesl had this distant cousin, Duncan, who was a therapist specializing in working with ghosts and helping them transition to their new status-a pretty cool job, really-and he insisted that they were just people who….happened to be less solid than people like Liesl, they were still dead . And that was a bit creepy and therefore, something that interested her.
11
Liesl Brockert
Yes it is
1537
0
5
Hansel Hexenmeister
August 30, 2023 10:13 PM
And I like you by Hansel Hexenmeister
Liesl liked his idea, which was a good start. So he tracked down a map and a schedule of events and looked for something happening soon that met their criteria. "Here," he pointed out a spot on the map. "Looks like there's going to be a square dance in about ten minutes." There was also a showdown out by the shooting range, but he figured he could work the school ball into the conversation a lot easier at a square dance.It took them about five to find the spot as the town had apparently tumbled a bit since the map was drawn up and it wasn't quite where they'd thought it should be, but they found it and settled out in the grass to watch. He called for some snake company to join them, but wasn't too disappointed when nobody showed up.
"Looks like it's just us for this show," he said when no rustling answered his summons. "Dancing is not exactly something snakes get anyway. Not having legs, you know." There was still a couple minutes before it started. Now was as good a time as any, he guessed. "What about you? Do you like dancing?" he wondered. "Maybe with me? Maybe at the ball? Maybe as a date?"
1
Hansel Hexenmeister
And I like you
1524
0
5
Liesl Brockert
September 08, 2023 4:50 PM
Really? I like you too! by Liesl Brockert
“Sounds great!” Liesl replied. Honestly, basically, it didn’t matter what exactly they did. It was the time together that mattered. Not that she didn’t spend a lot of time with Hans, but, for example, they didn’t have classes together this year, and that sucked. They might not even have all of them together next year either since, while there were some classes that she knew that she was going to keep that Hans was in, such as Transfig and Charms-classes that most people seemed to keep-she was unsure about the others. Liesl really enjoyed Divination, which Hans didn’t take but also, the other ones he did take, were DADA and COMC, which she might also want to take. Dueling and the other physical parts of the former weren’t her favorite but overall it was the class with the most creepy, spooky things. She would have dropped COMC but then she realized that if she took it, she could help out more with the snakes when she visited Hans.And then that would have been five classes. Most people who took that many either were those who needed specific classes for a career, like if they wanted to be a Healer, or they were giant show-offs, people like her brother who wanted to show off how brilliant they were. (While Desmond was only a second year, that definitely was the sort of thing she expected him to do. Once again, she did not need Divination to predict the behavior of her family.) She…fit into neither category, and certainly didn’t want people to think she was an intellectual elitist like her brother.
Which might sound like Liesl was judging him just like he judged her. However,while she did not want to be a hypocrite,the thing was that being an intellectual elitist was not a good thing whereas the things he judged her on were not inherently bad. And while taking that many Advanced classes did not make someone that, her brother would do that because he was one and the Teppenpaw worried people would think that about her if she took that many too.
More importantly though Liesl wasn’t sure she could handle doing so. Because she wasn’t Desmond who she’d always been led to believe was much smarter than her. And that might very well be the case, but the implication was, as always, that she wasn’t as good. That certain things were only for the very highest of intellects, a category that Desmond belonged in and she did not. Four classes were doable for someone of her intellectual ability, five were not. As usual, she needed to stay in her place and not try to show that she was as good as her brother was
She supposed she could always just…have Hans teach her about snake care, Liesl really didn’t need to know how to care for any other creature, aside from her cat, which she already knew how to do, If she just took Charms, Transfig, Divination and DADA, then she and Hans would still have three out of four classes together.
Her last year was really going to suck though, since Hans wouldn’t be here at all. Liesl was sure they’d still see each other after he graduated-at least she really really hoped so, she believed Hans at least wanted her around as a friend but she would not put it past Mother to put a stop to her spending time with him. Although Liesl would be an adult and she would leave - but she’d still be here without him and that would be awfully lonely. Though that was the only year that Krisalyn would be at Sonora with her, which would be nice, but not the same. When it came down to it, the older Teppenpaw’s company was preferred above all else.
They made their way to the square dancing, which was a bit of a challenge. Honestly, for all magic was wonderful and could make life so much easier-she had no idea how Muggles managed without it, how much time was lost to doing chores and looking for lost items and just traveling from one place to another-a town that moved and shifted so the streets and buildings were not where they were before was sort of a pain. And she wasn’t exactly wearing the best shoes for walking. Just because Liesl wasn’t the same sort of girl that Amethyst was did not mean that she dressed in super casual attire and the sort of shoes that were comfortable for walking did not go with her clothing choices.
Finally though, they made it. No snakes came to join them, but that was okay. It was nice just for it to be the two of them.
Then Hans began to speak and it was as if time basically stopped and the Earth stood still. He was asking her to the ball? He was asking her to the ball!As a date ! “Yes. yes! I would love to be your date to the ball!” Liesl exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear. More than anything in the world she wanted that! This had to be the happiest moment of her life!
11
Liesl Brockert
Really? I like you too!
1537
0
5