Well, it's a start. on Quidditch Pitch

Captain Clark Dill

October 22, 2016 1:11 PM

Aladren Tryouts! by Captain Clark Dill

Clark held the list in his hands, reading it over for maybe the billionth time. Eight names, so his worst fears for his captaincy year had been cleanly avoided, and he hadn't even needed to beg anybody to join them (though he did wonder a little bit if maybe his verbalized worries to Lena had influenced her name's appearance on the list). They'd even have a reserve for once, which was kind of nice, and might even let them start training up the next seeker to take over after Clark left.

More interestingly, Louis and Jack were now the minority as pureblood boys for the first time since Clark joined the team. The ratio of girl to guy was dead even for possibly the first time ever in Aladren Quidditch, and between himself, John, and Arianna, those with muggle relatives made a good showing even without knowing the family background of Kit Reid.

A billion and one. The names hadn't changed, but they still made him smile. John, his best friend and now his assistant captain. Lena, his girlfriend, new to the team but very welcome even if she wouldn't be on it long enough to help John fill out his numbers next year. Jack, Louis, and Arianna, loyal returning teammates. Amelia Layne, the niece of some guy who Dad went to school with and Clark was supposed to be nice to (not that Clark didn't normally make a habit of being nice to most people). And Kit Reid, who he knew nothing about at all except that she wanted to play Quidditch which was more than enough to make Clark happy to see her name.

He looked up from his sheet, and found that most of the names on it had materialized on the pitch during his moments of introspection. "Hi! Grab a broom from the shed if you don't have one of your own and come gather over here!" he called, before anyone got too far past from the school broom shed. "Should be unlocked!" he added. He'd gotten that sorted earlier, but there was always the outside chance the door had relocked itself. Magic places like Sonora had those sorts of quirks sometimes.

Once everyone had a broom and they had joined him in the middle of the pitch, he started with an introduction. "Hello, I'm Clark Dill for those of you who don't know me. I'm your Quidditch Captain this year, and John here," he indicated John Umland, "is the Assistant Captain. We're who you go to if you can't make a practice - I know Sonora's got a lot of activities going on, so we try to be accommodating, just let us know if you have conflicts - or feel ill before a game, or have any questions about Quidditch, or anything like that."

He tucked the list away in one of his robe pockets (he didn't always wear his Quidditch robes to practice, but figured it looked more official for running tryouts than just wearing jeans and a t-shirt) and clapped his hands together, beaming at the collection of people before him. "So we've got a full team, and even someone extra in reserve! Now we just need to figure out who gets which position!" As all of the new people were non-specific, and even Louis had offered to change if necessary, they had a lot of wiggle room for sorting out who would be best where.

"Let's start with three laps around the pitch to warm up, then we'll get into the Quaffle positions, taking turns as Keeper and everyone else as Chaser trying to score." Personally, he was leaning toward putting Lena in as Keeper, if for no other reason than because she had a longer reach than the first years, but he'd see how tryouts went and keep an open mind. "Then we'll try some Seeking - we're going to pick one of you to start training for that so Aladren isn't left without one next year." Plus, that seemed the easiest way not to hurt anybody's feelings when they weren't chosen to be part of the first string team. "Then, we'll conclude with some beating drills so John can pick out his partner in keeping us all safe from bludgers during the game. If anyone develops a preference while we are going through these exercises, please let me know; people tend to do better at things they enjoy doing so it's in everyone's best interest to match our players to their favorite positions whenever possible, and I don't know what you like best unless you tell me. Any questions on any of that?" He gave them the opportunity to voice any confusion, then concluded, "Then let's start flying!"

OOC: As always, walk-ons are welcome. And I know that's a lot of stuff planned. If you most want to be a keeper, you can just write a slice of that part of your tryout. If you want to be a seeker or a beater, you can skip right to that part. If you don't care and just want to reply to someone who already posted, then yes, please, by all means, do that. If you want to be an overachiever, you can write about all of it. It's writing quality that earns points and positions in Quidditch so it's not so much what you write as how well you write it that we're interested in. Welcome to the team!

OOC2: I have confirmed with her author that Arianna means to sign up.

Subthreads:

Well, it's a start. by Amelia Layne

Hopeful by Kit Reid

Let's get down to business. by John Umland

1 Captain Clark Dill Aladren Tryouts! 277 Captain Clark Dill 1 5

Amelia Layne

November 02, 2016 2:21 PM

Well, it's a start. by Amelia Layne

It was secondhand, but Amelia did have her own broom and so only had to follow the second half of Captain Dill’s first instruction. Holding it tightly, she went to gather over there, looking for Kit in the hopes of standing next to her roommate instead of being surrounded by people she didn’t know. Most of their faces were actually at least somewhat familiar – Aladren wasn’t a huge House and Amelia was good at remembering faces – but she didn’t know names for all of them and had only really spoken to her roommate before. The other two girls, both older, were both beautiful enough to automatically seem a little intimidating, and three of the guys were prefects.

One of those prefects was also the Assistant Captain, though, and Amelia was cheered up by finally knowing which John was which. Somehow, though, she didn’t think she was going to work with the one indicated too much, as he seemed to be a Beater. Amelia didn’t have a huge amount of Quidditch experience, but she didn’t think she was going to discover an unexpected innate talent for Beating. Luckily, though, she wasn’t to begin the try-outs on a bad note, because they started with Quaffle drills.

This, Amelia expected, was where she was going to, if not shine, at least perform adequately. Most of her broom time in her life had consisted of throwing Quaffles around, so she could catch and throw while flying, keep her seat even when a Quaffle hit her in the face, and so forth. She was not, however, that brilliant at scoring, as it turned out. Amelia thought her aim was fine, but her throw just didn’t seem to have the force to get to the hoops at a distance that didn’t allow the Keeper to sail right into her path. Biting her lip so she wouldn’t tear up in disappointment (she wasn’t that upset, really, only a little, but was bad about tearing up at the drop of a hat. Granddad and Grandmother had often chided her for it, Granddad because it was useless and Grandmother because it was undignified), she took her turn as Keeper and fared a little better, but she missed as many goals as she intercepted.

Seeking, to her surprise, didn’t totally suck, either. She wasn’t as fast as some of the older players, but she could spot what she was told to and didn’t throw up when she dove after it even when she couldn’t catch up. Maybe, she thought, being the Seeker-trainee wouldn’t be so bad, even if it meant she wasn’t first string, and she told the captain that – or, rather, that “that was fun!”. She could not, as predicted, say the same to his Assistant after Beater training, though; the urge to run from the Bludger was strong, and while Amelia did finally, with some coaxing from John the Assistant Captain, give it a whack, she started shaking her wrist out as soon as she did because it had hurt. Maybe she could do this job, but she didn’t think she really wanted to.

Finally, she returned to earth feeling tired, achy, and ambivalent. She didn’t feel utterly triumphant, but nor did she feel overwhelmingly disappointed. In fact, she was kind of proud of herself for not being horrible at anything. Not too proud, as she hadn’t been brilliant at anything, either, but it was a start.

16 Amelia Layne Well, it's a start. 360 Amelia Layne 0 5

Kit Reid

November 03, 2016 6:49 PM

Hopeful by Kit Reid

With Kir’s help at flying lessons and practicing every chance she got, Kit felt a lot more optimistic that she stood a shot at making the Aladren Quidditch team. Excited, she had gotten up early and picked out the perfect outfit. She wore blue leggings with a blue and white horizontal stripe shirt. Over top, she had on a black vest that she left open. Along with black knee high boots, Kit felt confident that she looked good as well as showed house spirit.

Standing with previous players and the hopefuls, like herself, Kit listened to the Captain talking. She appreciated that they were accommodating for other activities, which was good for her since she wanted to be involved in everything. Of course, there was the possibility that she wouldn’t even make the team and if that were the case, it wouldn’t matter, because then there would be no conflict. Though, she didn’t really want that. She wanted to make the team. But as he continued talking, it sounded as if everyone pretty much made the team, even if one were a reserve. That was positive.

She did the laps like everyone else before they started their turns as Keeper and Chaser. She was glad that she got to be a Chaser before she had to be a Keeper. She didn’t think that she would make for a very good Keeper simply for the fact that she didn’t think that she would be the best at guarding the posts. When she had the opportunity, Kit took a shot at the right post and was so absolutely thrilled when it almost went in. She knew it was cause she had her lucky pink ribbon tied to the broom. She just knew that she would make it next time.

0 Kit Reid Hopeful 363 Kit Reid 0 5

John Umland

November 04, 2016 12:40 PM

Let's get down to business. by John Umland

Kit Reid was, apparently, a Katherine or variant of same. John was not yet sure which of the two new girls (technically three new girls, but he knew who Lena was already) Kit was, so for the moment, he was thinking of her and her roommate as Pink Ribbon and Little Mouse.

The attributes he used to assign them these names did not fill him with confidence for the coming season.

Still, though – they were here, which meant Aladren could play. For the rest of it…well, it was in no small part his job to make them people who could inspire confidence. The lead Beater not only had to train his younger counterpart, he also had to make sure everyone else was both good at dodging and, even more importantly, knew how to take a hit when a hit was unavoidable. His culture had taught him that Pink Ribbon’s ribbon meant she was probably the kind who would flee the Pitch in terror the moment she found out the game contained Bludgers, but his culture also held that love of mother, church, and learning were about as un-masculine as the girl’s broom ornament. John did not consider himself particularly effeminate and yet was devoted to all of those things, so there was no reason why Pink Ribbon shouldn’t prove a tough-as-nails natural athlete who just…happened to like pink ribbons.

He did not approve too much of how accommodating Clark made them sound – they had a reputation to regain, after all - but ‘never argue in front of the kids’ was, he’d gathered, one of the first rules of shared group leadership, so he just stood there trying to assess the new recruits while Clark talked. He was tempted to take Louis (who, whether he was a long-lost heir to the throne of France or not, John rather liked, though he was pretty sure he shouldn’t) up on his offer to switch positions, but he knew it would be good to keep the Chaser team as stable as possible, too. For one thing, Chasers had to work together the most closely of any players, so continuity was good, and for another thing, trained Chasers would infinitely reduce John and Clark’s workload. The final decision there depended, he guessed, on what aptitudes (he doubted any of them had any skills yet, but aptitude was a good start) Pink Ribbon, Little Mouse, and Doe-Eyes showed during the trials….

Pink Ribbon did, he noticed, fairly well as a Chaser. Little Mouse (who he was going to have to call something else – that moniker didn’t seem to fit, exactly, after he heard her speak a few times) might eventually make a Seeker, but John, who had asked the recruits simply to hit a practice Bludger (about the same weight as the real thing, but less aggressive) in a straight line toward a dummy for the first exercise just to test their aim and strength, knew within seconds that she was unlikely to ever make a Beater. She seemed reluctant, and he hoped that she and the other girls he didn’t know that well were not the sort who had moral qualms about Beating. John raised his wand to freeze the ball for a moment.

“Go on,” he said, doing his best to sound patient, encouraging, and to keep the delivery of his words happening at an even speed. “Even real Bludgers won’t kill you if they hit you.” Well, the odds were exponentially low, anyway, and John had picked up somewhere that he ought not get too technical with significantly younger people or non-Aladrens unless he actually wanted them to flee his presence. Many times he did, but at the moment he didn’t. “And it’s less likely to hit you if you give it a good whack,” he added helpfully before flicking his wand to allow the ball to move.

She gave it a decent whack, but was shaking her wrist afterward. Probably not a Beater, then, unless absolutely no-one else could even remotely competently play the position….

Clark had implied at the beginning that John could just pick who he wanted, but he thought he was going to have to discuss the candidates with his friend in some detail later to figure out who was to do what. Every option, from what he had seen, was going to come with some weaknesses, so they were going to have to figure out how to balance them as well as possible with benefits. There was, he thought, something to work with here, better material than he had feared at the beginning of practice. Now it was just a question of how much work it was going to be to develop it before their first game.

OOC: Mild use of Amelia (who’s also mine) to illustrate the sort of interactions John might have had with others.

16 John Umland Let's get down to business. 285 John Umland 0 5