Mortimer Brockert

February 18, 2024 3:28 AM
Whomever had decided that holidays were more relaxing than the school year was quite frankly wrong. And insane. Maybe the summer break, but Midterm was anything but, it was a bunch of boring parties and socializing. Mortimer had no idea why anyone would prefer that to learning and studying. Even if you weren’t even that into learning and studying-and being an Aladren, he very much had been as basically when he’d been a teenager, he’d been exactly like Olaf-it had to be the lesser evil. Education had value, and aside from some expensive bourbon, he found little of that at society balls.

Interestingly though-and it was interesting more due to the contradiction than actually being interesting as a subject-nothing happened at all. Like, there were too many parties and events, both familial and societal, but nothing…of note happened at them. Society parties were people distilling themselves down to the most inane, banal surface facets of themselves, talking about topics that also fit those parameters. Of course some people really were that dull. Most of them probably were or at least better at faking it than Isla or Liesl. Hence why Mortimer, like Olaf, always had preferred books.

Honestly, he could see the inherent flaws in this system. You couldn’t talk about anything interesting or deep for fear that it would reflect poorly on you or your family so it became this dreary chore. Not that Mortimer really cared what people thought about him anyway. Which he had made abundantly clear both at parties and regarding life in general.

As for family events…Eustace was obnoxious and obviously missed the memo about not being yourself. True, that was for society balls, where he absolutely acted like himself too. Fortunately for him, he had his cronies. Which was unfortunate for everyone else since that meant there were more people out there who shared at least some traits with the man.

Of course, Mortimer also supposed that being a Brockert was a factor and that was why both he and his son got away with behaving in ways that would be unacceptable from others.

Anyway, as the standards for family events were a bit lower, that meant that Eustace acted like himself there too and everyone sincerely wished that he would stop. However, terrible as Eustace was, it wasn’t really as if anything new or different happened. It was the same old crap and never ever changed. Which was why the holidays were both very eventful and completely not eventful at all.

Fortunately, now the holidays were over and school was back in session. Arguably, this was Mortimer’s favorite time of year because it was the longest amount of time before it was Midterm again and he had to put up with so many parties crammed into a short amount of time and also, before everything got all saccharine again.

The students entered and took seats at their house tables. Or at least, he assumed they did. They tended to be less strict about that than at the Opening Feast and obviously he really didn’t care where anyone sat. For example, hypothetically speaking, if Amethyst wanted to sit with Alexei, instead of sitting at her house table feeling bad because of what happened with her roommate-which obviously Mortimer did not know the details of because he was not…a person who discussed emotional teenage girl things, even with his granddaughters who he actually cared about-why shouldn’t she? That said, he absolutely did not see Amethyst sitting at the Pecari table. Being friends with Alexei was one thing, eating at a table full of them was probably a step too far for the prim and proper Crotalus girl.

Once everyone seemed to be in attendance, Mortimer stood and put the Sonorus charm on himself. “Welcome back everyone, I trust you have had a nice break.” At least, the ones who didn’t have crappy families or have to attend a bunch of parties anyway. “Before we eat, I have an announcement. As you all know, this year’s Midsummer Event will be the Fair. This year, we are doing passion projects. Essentially, this means you will pick a magical topic or practical project and showcase it. You may work alone, in pairs or in groups. More details will follow. “ Mortimer sat down and removed the charms as food appeared on the table.
Subthreads:

Aladren

Teppenpaw

Crotalus

Pecari

Staff
11 Mortimer Brockert Returning Feast 6 1 5

Phil Carson

February 25, 2024 9:06 PM
It was his second to last Returning Feast. Phil loved the challenge and depth of this year's coursework, but being in Advanced classes just seemed to put a spotlight on the fact that he was Almost Done here at Sonora and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He wasn't sure it would have been so noticeable if he'd been at a normal high school and wasn't sharing lessons with the graduating class every day, but every time the teachers mentioned RATS or college or Life Beyond School, he was hit with the understanding that such remarks would be aimed at him in just one year's time and that didn't seem so far away anymore. Last year, he'd had to cope with becoming the Gaming Club Elder, and now he was an Advanced Student, and time just seemed to have sped up absurdly fast all of a sudden.

At least Headmaster Brockert gave him a distraction. The Fair would be 'passion projects' which almost sounded like . . . the magical equivalent of a science fair? He hadn't said whether or not it was mandatory, but even if it wasn't, Phil doubted something like this was something an Aladren could opt out of without losing a few points of House Cred.

He tried to think of something he might want to do a project about, but while a few ideas occurred to him, none of them really stood out as a particular 'passion' of his.

He turned to the person sitting beside him curiously, and was glad this gave him a more interesting starting question than 'how was your break?' "Passion projects, huh? Anything leap to mind for you right off the bat?"
1 Phil Carson Interesting 1536 0 5

Gwendolyn Brockert

March 24, 2024 6:44 PM
So it was the second half of Gwendolyn’s fifth year at Sonora. Which meant CATS. Truthfully, though, she wasn’t that worried about them. Academics were one of her strengths and even though she did need specific grades in specific classes so she could be a criminal psychologist, she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be an issue.

Lydia, of course, was having issues with RATS. Gwendolyn didn’t quite understand why. She knew her cousin had inherited Uncle Ian’s anxiety issues and had been sort of…babied, which seemed to have had a negative affect on her confidence. Still, realistically, the Teppenpaw had literally nothing to worry about, at least regarding the exams since she wasn’t going to have a career-Gwendolyn was more the exception than the rule for girls in her family, most of them had no career plans, and she probably wouldn’t have them either except that she’d found something that interested her enough-and had actually had never had an academic issue other than freaking out during some practical lessons in DADA, though Lydia was apparently very good at remembering everything they learned in the class that scared her, and doing make-up work when she was sick. And Lydia was just fine in terms of magical skill.

Of course, professors did have a tendency to make CATS and RATS sound like life or death, much to the apparent chagrin of one of the test examiners. Her dad was sort of friends with the head examiner, Raúl, who had done his very best to counteract the…level of anxiety-inducing pressure their teachers made people feel. The thing was though that Gwendolyn wasn’t all that worried to begin with, but she was still going with what he said rather than her teachers. After all, the man was a bonafide examiner, an insider to the exams.Not that he’d give her the answers or anything, as he was way too ethical but he probably knew more about what he was talking about.

And it was not that the tests weren’t important at all-Raúl had said that he had to believe that or his existence was sort of pointless-but they weren’t the doom and gloom you’ll be relegated to manual labor or on the streets if you fail sort of thing that was sometimes the impression Gwendolyn got from her professors given how much they stressed CATS prep. Even if it wasn’t explicitly said. She especially felt for Misty and the other third years who were in class with them and had to hear about CATS review two years before they’d have the exams. Of course, those boys in that class-with the exception of Misty’s friend Donovan and his friend Leo-had probably been prepping for all things academic including CATS and RATS since birth. Gwendolyn was unsure about Quillan Arcadius, but Desmond fancied himself a genius and from what she knew of the Pierce twins’ mother-Cory’s first cousin once removed, Emerald had married one of the New Hampshire Pierces so this was how Gwendolyn knew this, plus the twins’ parents were classmates of Uncle Evan’s and their dad had been his roommate and good friend-really stressed academic achievement and Alexander seemed especially ambitious from what she had observed in class.

Personally, though, Gwendolyn was happy to have the parents that she did have, ones who encouraged rather than pushed. Like, if she wanted to be a criminal psychologist and Misty wanted to pursue figure-skating, their parents were supportive but they weren’t going to get mad if, for example, Misty didn’t win. It was much more likely that they’d comfort her if she was disappointed than yell at or punish her. And Gwendolyn wasn’t pushed to excel academically, she just did.

Of course, that did not mean Mrs. Pierce actually was completely unreasonable and pushy-Uncle Evan generally had nice things to say about the twins’ parents so they both were probably nice people-, it was just that there were parents out there that were and Gwendolyn was glad that hers weren’t.

She took a seat across from Phil and Headmaster Brockert began the Returning Feast. The fifth year was surprised when he said more than he usually did at the RF. The Opening Feast had the Sorting and prefect and Head Student announcements, the RF usually was much less eventful.

However, she was glad to finally know what they’d be doing at the Fair, and it sounded awesome! “I’m thinking of something with criminal psychology, since that’s what I’m passionate about.” Gwendolyn answered her friend’s question. “I’m not sure exactly what yet, maybe a profile of a famous dark wizard or something. Are you planning to do anything?” She returned the question, genuinely interested in Phil’s response.
11 Gwendolyn Brockert I suppose it depends on the project but it's an interesting Fair concept. 1555 0 5