Captain Alistair Johnson
November 29, 2015 12:24 PM
Crotalus needs YOU! (Quidditch sign-ups) by Captain Alistair Johnson
Alistair’s initial excitement at a brand new term full of Quidditch training and matches had been thwarted quite quickly when he had realized the ratio of new Crotali to new Teppenpaws. The numbers did not look favourably upon his best interests at all. He hadn’t paid much attention to the sorting process, uncharacteristically caught up in his merry post summer bubble, but once he had scanned the table for red-faced eleven years and found very few, his heart had sunk. The third year hadn’t let on at the time, of course, not wanting to put a dampen on his conversation with Caelia Lucan.When he returned to the common room afterwards, he was instantly reminded of the hopeless prospects for the Crotalus Quidditch team. The thought of having to continue as part of ‘Teppalus’ for the third year in a row was depressing as it was but the knowledge that Liac Reinhardt had a chance to get a team of his own and leave Ali lying in the dirt, metaphorically speaking, was far less appealing. Whilst he was feeling like a very despondent realist, Ali knew that he should at least try to gather new recruits for his team, if not because of how badly he wanted it then because it was a his duty as Captain.
He needed to make the sign up sheet stand out so no one could miss it if he had any hopes of drawing in new recruits. Unfortunately artistic creativity had never been a strong point of his so he found himself sitting at his desk staring at a blank sheet of paper, quill unmoving in his hovering hand. Alistair Johnson didn’t like the idea of asking for help but if it only involved admitting he wasn’t all that great at something as petty as aesthetic paper-decorating, he supposed he could do so just this once. Who to ask was the bigger question. Ginger Pierce instantly sprang to mind as someone who was probably pretty creative and good at this kind of thing but she was a Teppenpaw so he could hardly ask her. Joella being Pecari probably made her a ‘no’ too so Ali quickly concluded he’d have to find someone in his own house.
He wasn’t entirely sure whether Caelia would be into art but it was worth a shot. He was of a rather ridiculous opinion that art was a girl thing anyway which made no sense, considering how most of the paintings in his house were done by men. It was probably just his excuse for not being particularly good at it.
Alistair left his dorm and headed down to the common room, relieved when he spotted Caelia. He was rather fortunate that she hadn’t already disappeared up to the room she shared with Kelsey because he thought sending an owl was a little too much effort for the task in hand, and he wasn’t stupid enough to test the warnings against going up the opposite sex’s stairs.
“Caelia,” he strode forward, lightly touching her arm to get her attention as he reached her, before shuffling away from the nearest group of people to make the conversation a bit more private. “I’m sorry to bother you but I could really do with…” he began once he had her attention. His words seemed to fail him when it came down to asking for ‘help’ and he hesitated for a moment as though summing up the courage before continuing, “...with your assistance. You see, Crotalus’ prospects for getting together a full team aren’t looking that great but Teppenpaw’s are. Therefore I need to make joining look as appealing as possible which probably requires more creativity with the sign-up sheet than usual. It doesn’t need to be ridiculously bold or anything crazy, just enough to stand out and interest our housemates. Would you mind lending a hand? I have to admit I lack ideas when it comes to decorating paper.”
Caelia agreed to help him out and soon came up with suggestions. The final product was a neatly designed Quidditch sign up sheet with his words and her drawings, which he proudly pinned up to the common room notice board.
Calling all students with an interest in Quidditch and keen to make sure that Crotalus can make a full team this year! Please give your name, year and desired position(s). Try-outs will be held this Saturday afternoon, on the pitch. Walk ons will be welcome - see you all there!
Okay, so the writing wasn’t overly persuasive or different from the previous year but he thought that Caelia’s charmed sketches made up for that. She had drawn Alistair leaning against the edge of the paper as though it were a wall with his arms crossed and then enchanted the figure to lean forward to point at the reader and back again. It wasn’t as though he had doubted whether or not Caelia Lucan was up for the job he had required her to fulfil, but even so he had been pleasantly surprised by her creative suggestions and how effective they looked once carried out. The rest of the sheet was bordered by a number of delicate little illustrations of brooms, goal hoops, Quaffles and the like.
He added his own name to the sign-up sheet as an example, hoping but not expecting many others to follow.
OOC: Apologies for the lateness. Try-outs will be up on the Pitch soon.
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Captain Alistair Johnson
Crotalus needs YOU! (Quidditch sign-ups)
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Captain Alistair Johnson
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