Gamemaker Pye

December 16, 2015 2:17 AM
For some odd reason or another, instead of acting like a recluse and trying to separate himself out from the rest of the staff and the student body, Alfie had decided it was a good idea to continue to get more involved. And so, in addition to dealing with first year orientation he had also volunteered to help out with the team challenges which had been suggested as a way for the school to come back together after the Satori incident of the previous year. Alfie was still slightly kicking himself for not having caught it earlier but had been reassured by a drunk ex-colleague over the summer that there was really no reason for him to suspect that a Satori had infiltrated the school system. It had been a tough break, but the department didn’t hold it against him and did wish he could come back though they’d heard that the extent of his injuries really wouldn’t allow that.

The comment, from the ever glib, perpetually jealous Jeremiah Williams sent Alfie, in a glowering mood, over to Cecily’s where he had been giving a firm slap on the head and a cold glass of water because apparently he reeked of bourbon. Which, Alfie thought, was not necessarily a bad thing. It was summer time and he didn’t really have any obligations so he figured he was allowed to reek of alcohol all he wanted—no young minds to corrupt and all that. Cecily had not been pleased with him the next day and she’d told him in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to work together to figure out the bigger issue at hand then he really couldn’t be getting piss drunk over anything Jeremiah Williams said.

Now, though, Alfie was paying for not having caught the Satori before it spread the multitudes of vicious rumors and secrets around the school which he had spun—to any concerned student who had thought to ask the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher about the Dark powers of a Satori, as mainly rumors and lies. It wasn’t that he particularly cared about the feelings of his students, but he had found that on edge students tended to produce less than satisfactory results and if a small white lie every now and then (like assuring them that in addition to truths Satoris also liked to spread rumors and blatant lies in order to stir up feelings of resentment) meant that his students were more at ease in his classroom and performing to the best of their ability then he was all for it.

As he walked up to the Quidditch Pitch, he sighed. He wasn’t a fan of the challenges and had always enjoyed watching the Quidditch games even though the outcomes were rather predictable—that Clark Dill really was an absurdly talented young man, so he was kind of disappointed with the change of events. Nevertheless, he had a challenge to lead and so he put on his best friendly face, nodding welcomingly to the students as they past him—he was in no hurry to get there, the Pitch had already been set up, all he needed to do was announce and explain the first challenge and then sit back and watch it unfold. He hadn’t even needed to gather the students there that day--signs had been posted around the school and in all of the common rooms telling the students to meet on the Pitch at a designated time and to bring along their wands (why they wouldn’t have them, he didn’t know) and other useful “problem solving sundries.” He supposed he might be required to announce the point record, but it was also a Saturday and so that meant there would be live music at the Quill and Whale which had become his new favourite place to have a drink and wind down. Something about the odd decorations soothed and pleased him in an aesthetic manner he never would have thought possible for himself.

“At least it’s good weather,” Alfie remarked quietly to Tallec as he stood and walked forward to explain the first challenge. He raised his wand and cast a Sonorus charm on his voice so that it amplified over the length of the Pitch and a little beyond so that any student who was lagging behind or who thought it prudent to whisper while he talked would be able to hear everything he said. “By now I’m sure all of you have met or at least know who is on your teams. The theme of this challenge is water. With the holidays coming up, I think the staff thought it would be fun to put a little festive twist on things, and so…”

He waved his wand again and a disillusionment charm lifted to show the layout of the Pitch. There were fifteen sleighs filled with colorfully wrapped boxes with bows and ribbons on them. A fairly large river ran through the length of it, separating the sleighs with their glistening gifts on one side of the bank from the students who were on the other near the teachers and the podium. “The point of this challenge is to bring the gifts over from that side of the river to this side of the river. The gifts must never touch the ground or the water and must arrive on this side in it’s original condition. Sound easy?” He grinned. Making things challenging was his favourite part of the job. He liked to push his students to be creative, he wanted them to work hard so that when they graduated their everyday use of magic was superb.

“Additionally, every member of your team must cast at least one spell that significantly aids in the process of the gift movement.” It was this point that Alfie stressed heavily as he explained the challenge to the students. Every member had to participate, even the youngest ones who’d by now not even had a full semester of learning under their belt. The challenges were all about team building and school unity—though why the others thought splitting the school up into fifteen different factions was a sure fire way of bringing them all together, Alfie didn’t know. He supposed there was inter-house mingling now but it still promoted competition. “You will be scored on timeliness, creativity, and resourcefulness.” He smiled, personally believing that the last was the most important aspect before continuing. “And then, there’s just one more catch,” and Alfie waved his wand again and ice began to form, holding the sleighs steady in place and beginning to creep up the side, small pieces covering the gifts. “For bonus points you must also bring the sleigh over—separately from the gifts. You may begin!”

OOC: So, a quick recap in case you missed something in my mess of words:

-Signs telling students when to come to the pitch were placed around the school including the common rooms. These signs asked students to bring their wands and other "useful problem solving sundries."

-The challenge is Christmas themed--sleighs full of presents on opposite side of the river, students must collaborate to bring them over in their original condition. Each student must cast at least one spell.

-Teams are scored on timliness, creativity, and resourcefulness.

As usual, please write minimum of 200 word posts, be creative and realistic! Additionally, since some of you might not have had a multiple person thread, the usual "courtesy" is that we take turns in the order of posting. However the challenges are posted in Quidditch game style. Basically you reply whenever you can so that your team can have the most posts and therefore points. Have fun, good luck, and happy posting!
Subthreads:
10 Gamemaker Pye This is SPARTA! (Challenge 1) 0 Gamemaker Pye 1 5

Scarlett Brockert

December 26, 2015 12:59 PM
Scarlett was excited about the challenges. Like many Pecaris she was always up for new things and this sounded like a lot of fun! She knew it was something her older cousins had done way back and Ryan and Arabella at least seemed to have had a good time. Amity hadn't but she didn't like to do anything more than necessary and Scarlett didn't know or care about Carrie's opinion-other than she knew that her older cousin had had to go through the mud-which presumably Carrie did not enjoy and Arabella had very much enjoyed Carrie not enjoying.

She was with a bunch of people that she didn't really know either, but she was okay with that, Scarlett liked meeting people. She'd been in classes with Gia Donovan and Barnaby Pye though the latter didn't seem the most pleasant and was related to her arch-enemy Professor Pye. Related to didn't meant the same, but the Pecari didn't see Barnaby as being any closer to being a sweet yummy treat than his relative was. The elder Pye-loathe as she was to admit it to herself-was at least pleasing to look at. Gia, on the other hand, seemed to be a perfectly all right person from Scarlett's limited impressions of her. Of course, she could be wrong about both of them. She was sure she was going to know by the end of the year.

Same with the rest of them whom thus far seemed all right.Fabian thought Louis Valois was stuffy, but he didn't like Aladrens other than his dad, Aunt Jana and Amity anyway. Basically because he had the impression of most of them as stuffy aside from those three. Scarlett didn't necessarily feel the way about the whole house that her younger cousin did. Clark Dill, for example, seemed like a perfectly nice person. She'd never really talked to him but Savannah had worked with him and she thought he was and of course, her twin's judgement was good enough for Scarlett.

The fourth year rushed to the pitch in order to make it on time. She'd gotten up a little later than planned this morning but still had managed to take a quick shower and eat a good breakfast. It's just that her omelet had tasted so good that she'd wanted to savor it so that had taken Scarlett a little longer too. And she'd decided she wanted another one too. Which unfortunately she'd had less time to savor, but still managed to eat like a lady and not a pig. Those two reasons however were why she'd had little time to do much other than grab her wand and grab some random stuff off her dresser and pick a few items up that had fallen near by it. Scarlett had never been the neatest person in the world-who learned to get down and clean when you had house elves and could some day use magic to clean if you didn't- and didn't even know what she'd managed to grab, but whatever it was, it could all surely be charmed and transfigured.

Fortunately she arrived a few minutes before Professor Pye began to speak. Scarlett had to admit that he was really really hot, a thought that rather confused her. It had nothing to with his lack of appropriateness-inappropriate because of his age and status as her teacher, not in the sense of not being from a good family-but because she'd always really disliked him for his harsh in-class demeanor and giving daily quizzes.

Then again, the quizzes were basically always the same and he didn't give homework and other lessons she disliked could be dismissed as being part of the general coursework of the class rather than the person teaching it.

And he was an utterly gorgeous specimen of man. A sweet yummy treat for the eyes.

Scarlett shook off her thoughts and turned to her teammates. "So how do we do this? I got all sorts of things that can be charmed and transfigured to help?" She dug her hands into her pockets. "Hm, let's see....a ribbon, a barrette...here's a sock. I suppose we could enlarge that and use it as a bag? Okay, a necklace, something that came off one of my earrings....the rest of the earring..." She continued to dig. "Unic-well, I guess it's a horse statue now.Oh and it's horn. And a bit of lint."
11 Scarlett Brockert Team five,look alive! 293 Scarlett Brockert 0 5


Gia Donovan

December 27, 2015 8:30 PM
Intermediate classes were a little more difficult than she had originally believed that it was going to be. She still enjoyed the classes and the challenges that they brought to her every day. It was just taking her a bit longer to process than it had before. Even with all the reading ahead she was doing, the actually spells and practicals were new for her and she struggled on a couple of them.

On top of that, they had these challenges. Gia wasn’t with any of her friends or with her brother. She didn’t like it at all because she was stuck with Barnaby. Why him of all people? Jax hadn’t been too happy about the team list either. He didn’t want Gia alone with his roommate because he didn’t trust him and Gia was tempted to believe him. She was usually quite friendly with people, but after Barnaby kept calling her names last year, she wasn’t a big fan of his. She would rather have Sammy with her or Laila or anyone else rather than the Aladren third year.

The good thing about her team, however, was that the Head Girl was on it. Gia wasn’t sure if Ji-Eun was their ‘leader’ since they had very little information to go on or if everyone was equal and she just happened to be the oldest one, but Gia liked having her on the team because she was supposed to be smart and respectable. She didn’t really know anyone else, but did recognize Louis and Scarlett from classes. She didn’t hear anything bad about them, so she was going to look at having them on her team in a positive light. Jax kept telling her that she needed to be more suspicious of people, but Gia didn’t see the point of that.

She made her way to the pitch with the rest of the school. Gia was nervous. She had no idea what the challenges were about and being only a third year worried her. What if she wasn’t able to assist in the challenges? She knew the spells but she wasn’t very quick on her feet just yet. And Gia wasn’t at all athletic. She had a small build, but that was about all she had. Jax was the athlete of the two of them. Gia really hoped she could be helpful.

This first challenge was provided by Professor Pye. Professor Pye was always nice. Sure his lessons and exams were strict, but since Gia did all her readings, she never really felt upset about the work. She wished the younger Pye was more like the older Pye. It would make being on his team a lot easier. The challenge in itself seemed doable, Gia just had to make sure she had the confidence to pull off whatever spell that she was given. She looked to the older students for guidance, but it was Scarlett who started talking.

She watched in awe as the older girl began to pull things from her pocket. Were girls supposed to be having items like those in their pockets? The burette, Gia could understand, she had tons of those to help hold her long black hair back, but a sock? Trying not to show her confusion over the items in Scarlett’s pocket. “Should we figure out a strategy before trying anything?” Gia asked. “What we should do and which spell each person will do, etcetera?”
6 Gia Donovan Yes, let's not look dead. 308 Gia Donovan 0 5


Barnaby Pye

December 29, 2015 6:16 PM
Gia Donovan. There was something curious about the sister of his roommate that set Barnaby on edge. He didn’t know whether to be happy or to be frustrated that she would be on his team. There was just a sort of aura about her that forced Barnaby to abandon a portion of his logical thought. It was the exact opposite with her brother—Jax caused Barnaby to be hyper-aware of everything. Every move he made, the slightest gesture, everything. It was a different sort of tension that he felt with each sibling and he both liked and disliked each sort. In both cases he felt a pull away from everything he and Tarquin had strived so hard to accomplish, those outer walls they had painstakingly built together to keep from every getting hurt again. He could almost hear Tarquin’s voice in his head now as he watched the back of Gia Donovan’s head while his older brother made the speech on the set of challenges.

“You’re weak,” he was saying. “You were never this weak. Can’t you feel the exhaustion trying to consume you? You can’t give in, you don’t know what that would do to you, what that would do to us. Everything we’ve wanted, gone in an instant because of one stupid, little emotion. You can’t let emotion control you like that, you can’t be weak like our mothers, you can’t be weak like her. Weakness only kills, Barnaby.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting Tarquin’s voice steep into him. He breathed out slowly, letting his emotions slowly seep out of him, like a tea bag draining. He felt at peace as he settled into his new mind frame. Everything that had been so cloudy only moments before became clear, it was like putting on his glasses for the first time. Before he’d gotten the owlish spectacles he had been a quite half-blind kid who didn’t know down from up but once he’d put on the miraculous item he could see even the details in the leaves across the way. It had been an experience that rivaled none.

Feeling strangely serene, Barnaby allowed a calm smile to settle in on his face, taking care not to let any worries or sarcastic attitude touch it. Their group leader was the head girl, to cause trouble for her would be to cause trouble for himself and he didn’t want to have to explain the situation to Tarquin who likely would not find such a situation very amusing. “Gia makes a good point,” he said, expression unchanging as he agreed with his roommate’s sister. “Quickness is not the only thing we are to be graded on and while Al-Professor Pye makes his own rather stupid, rather rash decisions…I know he values thoroughness.”

As much as it pained Barnaby to admit this, his older brother (when on the job) was a great wizard. He made some complicated life choices that made Barnaby despise him and think very lowly of him but as far as magical accomplishments went he could not fault his half-brother in the same way he could fault many other adults he had met over the years. Even Tarquin who disliked Alfie so had nothing bad to say about his magical abilities. “And he did say resourcefulness…”

Barnaby allowed himself a look around the pitch to see what the other students were doing. He had been taught from a young age that his peers were a valuable resource—even if he didn’t agree with them or find them to be of any intellectual value extra bodies were always nice to have when trying to get things done. Extra bodies that could think for themselves, on the other hand, that was a different story. Since each group was still in the early stages of bringing the gifts over he wasn’t sure what he could gain from observation just yet other than what spells would most likely be used.

“Broomsticks, accio, and wingardium leviosa are likely to be the most used spells though they may be fastest,” he thought aloud. “What spells do we know that produce similar results but can gain us points in the creativity section? Tarquin and I—” but no, even if it was for the sake of the group could Barnaby really divulge that portion of the research Tarquin and he had done over the summer when snooping through their fathers’ things? Neither had been able to perform the spell on their own, but there were older students there with more training. If Barnaby wrote the spell down perhaps they might be able to try it…but no, he couldn’t give that up just yet and so, instead, he said (quite stupidly because Gia was listening and she had that sort of effect on him)

“Would anyone happen to be able to transfigure then enchant a carpet, for example? Or know how we might all work together to do something like that?”
10 Barnaby Pye Why does everyone vilify death so? It’s a natural part of li 298 Barnaby Pye 0 5

Ji-Eun Park

January 01, 2016 2:07 AM
The challenges were really the last thing Ji-Eun needed. This year she had enough on her plate with being Head Girl and her exams, not to mention trying to navigate the impossible task of pleasing all of the people, all of the time. Balancing her mother and Arnold had always been a tricky enough task, but now things weren’t right with Chloe either. Her friend had so much going on and it was so hard to know how to help. Not to mention the fact that her mother would be disappointed if she didn’t place well in the challenges but she had no real desire to make things awkward between her and her friends. She knew Emery was still upset with Arnold over the badges. What if this became another reason for everyone to fall out with each other?

Wearily, she made her way to the pitch, her satchel over her shoulder, fixing a bright smile on her face. The description of what they had to bring had been so vague, and she’d spent a long time vacillating between fretting over what to bring and angrily abandoning the problem, fed up with the vague instructions and the amount of her time and energy was going into something she didn’t even care about. In the end, she’d bought some bits and bobs for transfiguring or charming, along with generally useful things like string.

The first challenge seemed straightforward on the surface of it, although she was sure they’d start hitting snags once they started. The staff weren’t stupid after all, and the whole point of this was not to make it easy for them. Her team seemed enthusiastic, and she listened as they began to venture their contributions. One girl seemed to have put no more thought into it than what was naturally in her pockets, as the items seemed to come as something of a surprise to her. But Scarlett wasn’t head girl or a team leader, and would probably do well enough in life however little organisation or effort she put into it. Gia’s plan was… to come up with a plan, and Barnaby wanted them all to be as creative as possible rather than just get it over and done with, though at least he had an idea to go with this request.

“Coming up with a plan first definitely seems like a good idea,” she smiled at Gia, “I brought the things I usually practise Transfiguration and Charms on,” she added, opening up her bag and indicating that they could rummage. She supposed the collection was no less random that Scarlett’s. It was just that she knew how much effort and frustration had gone into choosing them. “A flying carpet is definitely very creative. I’m not sure I’ve got anything big enough to work with but we could shape it out of snow, or make a small one - I have parchment. We don’t necessarily have to travel on it ourselves, and loading it up from here will give us a chance to use some more spells.

“Enlarging the sock is also a good plan. Who’d like to do that?” she asked, looking a little more to the beginners even though she’d addressed the whole group.

OOC - knowledge of Emery/Arnold's fallout approved by Arnold's author.
13 Ji-Eun Park Cut off in your prime there... 268 Ji-Eun Park 0 5