oh nein on Labyrinth Gardens

Nathan Xavier

January 19, 2018 1:32 PM

First Year Orientation! by Nathan Xavier

Nathan Xavier, the school’s heavy set middle aged Herbology professor, greeted the students as they disembarked from their wagons, helping anyone with the last big step who needed it, and telling them to leave their luggage for the elves.

If the student was a first year, generally identifiable as someone he didn’t already know, he pointed them toward the signs that led through the Garden paths to where the Orientation was taking place. For second years, he welcomed them back and told them the library and Cascade Hall were open for use until the feast later that night, or they could go to their dorms. Prefects or staff should be in the Hall if they needed a password. Everyone else presumably knew the drill so he just welcomed them back and hoped they had a good summer.

Once the last of the wagons arrived, he followed the first years through the Gardens, collecting the "Orientation this way ->" signs along the way. He also told the staff members and prefects who had been posted at key path intersections to prevent unsupervised wanderings through the Gardens that they could go and enjoy the rest of their afternoons. The designated path led into a large clearing with a fountain and a banner exclaiming "Welcome to Sonora Academy!"

There were tables beneath the banner laden with snacks, both healthy and unhealthy, sweet and savory, light and filling. Cupcakes, cookies, breads of several varieties, pretzels, potato chips, cheese, crackers, fruits, vegetables and dip, small sandwiches, small meatballs, and more were all available. Cups of water, pumpkin juice, and fruit punch filled another table.

An additional staff member was posted within the clearing, encouraging new arrivals to get some food and collect a packet, and prevent anyone from wandering away or or swimming in the fountain or otherwise causing trouble. The packets the students were told to grab were thin green folders, the same shade as their uniform robes, that contained useful things like the first year class schedule, a map of the school, and a list of school rules they would be expected to abide by. Most of the later would be covered by the Head of House speeches later, but it never hurt to have it in writing.

He gave the students from the final wagon time to get food and mingle a bit before he cleared his throat to get their attention. It wasn't a notably large class this year, so he didn't bother with a sonorus charm to amplify his voice, but he did motion for them to gather closer so he wouldn't need to project to the far corners of the clearing or compete too much with the splashing of the fountain.

"Hello and welcome to your first year at Sonora Academy. My name is Professor Xavier and I'll be your Herbology teacher this year, and your orientation guide today. First, I'm going to tell you a bit about your new school," it wouldn't be anything novel or exciting for anyone who read the school brochures sent out with the acceptance letters, but there was no guarantee those had been read. "Then you'll have some time to meet your fellow yearmates, get more snacks, and ask questions if you have any. At five thirty, we'll start a tour of the school which will finish at the Cascade Hall, where you will all be sorted into your Houses and then the Welcoming Feast will begin."

The first few times he'd done this, he'd had a whole speech planned out, memorized, and rehearsed in front of his cat. As this was now his sixth time running Orientation, however, and since he'd become more comfortable talking in front of large classes over that time, and it had worked out well enough the year before, he was mostly winging it today. Though honestly, with as many times as he'd practiced in previous years, it was probably going to come out about the same as always. It would be new for these students anyway.

"Sonora Academy of Magic is a seven year secondary school. You're expected to already be able to read, write essays, and do basic math. If you can't, or you have trouble with those things, we do have an academic support program run by Professor Skies, which also includes language help for anybody who doesn't speak English fluently. Also, every professor will hold office hours a few times a week in case you need a little extra help with their specific subject."

"As first years, you will be taking beginner level classes. Unless told otherwise by the professor, uniforms should be worn to all classes. Beginner classes will also include the second year students, so you’ll be able to get to know and work with people who were in your place last year. Your core classes will be Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, and Defense against the Dark Arts. As first years only, you’ll also be expected to take Flying Lessons, to become competent flying on a broomstick.

“In third year, you will move up to intermediate classes and be allowed to pick up elective classes and independent studies if you so choose, in addition to those core classes that you had taken at the beginner level. These courses will all continue through fifth year, at the end of which you will take your first major exam called the CATS - the Critical Assessment of Talents and Skills. Depending on how you do on those tests, you may move into advanced classes for your sixth and seventh years. At that point, you may drop the courses that are not of interest to you or for which you did not score well enough on the CATS. At the end of seventh year, you will sit your last major exam, the RATS - the Ridiculously Anal Testing of Skills. You need to pass two RATS to graduate, and most colleges will require a minimum of three."

He took a breath then continued, "Obviously, that's still a long way off, but that's the overview of academics here at Sonora. You should have your schedule for beginner lessons in the green folders you picked up. If you didn't get one, they are over there," he pointed to the appropriate table.

"Extracurricularly, Sonora has a number of student led clubs, including a Dueling club, an Orchestra, a Choir, a Gardening club, a Sports club, an Art club - maybe, the two girls running that graduated last year- and, I think, the Baking Club may still be around? If none of those tickle your fancy, or if the one you thought sounded good ceased to exist, you can always make your own. Depending on participation rates, we may also have House Quidditch teams competing for the Quidditch Cup. Quidditch is a wizarding sport played on broomsticks. If we don’t have enough players for individual House teams, last year we had two combined House teams that played against each other.”

That was the bulk of the information he was supposed to disseminate right now, so he began his wrap up, "As for living arrangements, you will be sorted into Houses, each of which values certain positive personality traits: Aladrens value learning; Teppenpaws friendship; Crotalus believes in respectability and responsibility; and Pecaris are often adventurous. There are other traits each House seeks, so this is a bit of a generalization and not everyone fits neatly into one or another, so try not to put too much stock into House stereotypes. But you will be sorted into one of them, and you'll share a room with anybody else sharing your House and gender. Your Head of House will look out for you and serve as your adult guardian while you're here. Each House has three prefects who are also appointed to help you with any trouble you may encounter. And each student has the opportunity to gain House points for good behavior and exemplary class work. Likewise getting in trouble can lose your House points. The House with the most points at the end of the year wins the House Cup to display in their Commons the following year. Teppenpaw will be hosting it this year,” he added, trying not to sound too pleased and proud about that.

He mentally ran through the important topics one more time and thought he'd hit most of them. "That's about it, the Cascade Hall serves breakfast from 6:30 to 8:30, lunch from eleven to one, and dinner from five to seven. Those times should also be on your schedules. Between those times, you can get light fare like sandwiches and snacks. It opens at six and closes at ten. Ten PM to six AM is curfew and you should be in your House areas during that time. Unless there are any questions, you are free to mingle until the tour."

OOC (Out of Character):
Welcome first years to Sonora! You can post a reply here to ask staff questions or meet your new classmates. This thread is intended for first year students to have a chance to try out posting and get acclimated to the site before we throw you into the big Opening Feast, which is open to the entire school population and can be a bit overwhelming.

Please remember that anything that happened in the Sandbox was just practice and did not actually occur. (You are welcome, of course, to use any background information you generated about your character during these exercises such as pets, accidental magic, etc, but they have not yet spent any time at Sonora, or interacted with any classmates.)

Also of note, entering your email address when you reply will mean you get notified when someone responds. This is optional but can be useful for helping to keep track of posts. Please do NOT check the box that says 'show email address,' as this will make it public and may result in spam.

Now, go forth, new first years of Sonora! Post, enjoy, have fun! Everyone here is happy to help out, so if you've got a question, put it on the OOC board or try to catch somebody in the Chatzy and we'll try to get you an answer as quick as we can. Have fun and we’re glad you could join us!

Subthreads:

oh nein by Heinrich Hexenmeister with Sylvia Mordue (with a little bit of Nate), Leilani-Alana Akau, DH Skies

Why am I here at all? by Masha Adin with Leilani-Alana Akau

1 Nathan Xavier First Year Orientation! 28 Nathan Xavier 1 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

January 20, 2018 11:50 AM

oh nein by Heinrich Hexenmeister

One month ago, Heinrich Hexenmeister had been living in Zauberstadt, Germany with his parents and two younger siblings. Three weeks ago, he'd been uprooted from his home country and installed, along with his siblings, in the home of his uncle, Karl Hexenmeister, in Utah. Uncle Karl had resigned him from the German school he had been expecting to attend, and enrolled him instead in an American school one state south of his new residence. Which would be fine, mostly, if they spoke German, or Heinrich had ever spoken English to anyone but his English tutor before in any context other than English lessons. He was good at English, as he was at most of his lessons, but it was a lesson. He had never expected to actually need it for anything but directing a British tourist to the town's inn.

Instead, he was on a flying wagon, crossing the foreign environment of the American West, which looked nothing at all like the old forests where he'd lived his life up until now, surrounded by people talking in a language he could follow some of, but which mostly just sounded like gibberish unless he was really concentrating on it. He kept to himself, which would have been normal behavior anyway, and read his book - Learn to Read English With Fairy Tales! - and hoped he was ready for this.

He got off the wagon in a greener area than what they'd been flying over, but it still looked foreign to him. Hedges were no substitute for towering dark trees in his opinion. The professor guy pointed him to signs he could decipher, so that was promising, so he followed the arrows, got some food, and looked at intimidating blocks of English text in the folder hand-outs. He sighed and closed the folder and promised himself he'd try to read it later, as an exercise in learning English if not for its own sake. The guy from the wagons joined them some time later, and began talking a lot. Like, really a lot, and Heinrich got some of it, but he fell behind and got lost and stopped trying after a while. This was not promising at all. At least he had German versions of the text books, so even if he couldn't follow the lectures, he could at least read the books and follow the curriculum that way.

Eventually, the guy stopped talking, and everyone else seemed to be just talking amongst themselves, so he figured that was probably what they were supposed to be doing. "Hallo. Ich -" Oh right, English. "I am Heinrich," he introduced himself. "How goes it to you? No," he frowned in concentration. They said it differently in English, "How are you?" That was it.

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister oh nein 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister 0 5

Sylvia Mordue (with a little bit of Nate)

January 20, 2018 4:39 PM

Oh yes! by Sylvia Mordue (with a little bit of Nate)

Sonora was going to be a success for her, Sylvia was sure. This belief was partially founded on the fact that Simon, her older brother, was doing relatively well here. Part of that was the dumb luck of having fallen into a yeargroup that gave him good roommates - the right people, Society types, so he had easily fallen in with a good crowd. However, that was to her advantage too. Not only did she have her big brother here, but there were at least two older students who knew who she was and who had at least some interest in her happiness in order to maintain their harmonious living arrangements. If Simon could crack this whole school social scene thing, she was more than confident of her own ability, which exceeded his in almost every area. The rest of the belief came from force of will. She was going to be successful here because she willed it to be so, and she was very used to getting exactly what she wanted.

As the wagon began its descent, she pulled a compact mirror from her pocket, checking her dark brown hair was still picture perfect. She had opted for a French braid - it was always in style and so travel-proof - and simple, elegant make-up. She had been allowed to get made up for special occasions for as long as she could remember, and was proud to say that she had applied the light foundation powder, mascara and hint of grey eyeshadow (which made the green of her eyes pop) and clear gloss with minimal supervision from her mother, as she would have to do every day now that she was a boarding school student. All in all, she was feeling very grown up, especially as she hadn’t even got teary when she had had to kiss all of her stuffed unicorns goodbye (because society ladies did not have stuffed toys on their beds) although the promise of a special going away to school present had helped. The matching bracelet and necklace, set with green sapphires (sapphire because they symbolised September, but green because they did so much more to bring out her eyes) were very pretty, and if each passing occasion now meant something new and sparkly, starting a collection of jewellery like her mother’s, instead of a new stuffed unicorn, she thought she could handle being an adult.

She was arriving with her cousin, and she allowed Nate to step off the wagon first and then take her hand to assist her down. She had decided that it was best that they stick together at orientation, so she could help people form the correct ideas about Nate, which were that it was not at all his fault that his father had turned out to be a scoundrel, and that this absolutely should not be held against him. Sylvia came from the principle line of their family - the wealthier, more prestigious and scandal free main line - and therefore felt her continued endorsement of her cousin lent him credibility.

The two of them followed the signs towards the orientation area. She put on her Polite Listening Face whilst the nobody herbology professor told them all the things that Simon and the brochure had already told them, and then he set them to the important task. Mingling! Sylvia had been raised to know how to work a room and make small talk, and she relished this first opportunity to put these skills to use in her new environment. If she could meet the right people from the outset, everything would be so much easier. She and Nate were bound to get into Crotalus, of course, which would help with meeting the right sorts, but if she could get a headstart on that with her own yeargroup, she could use the feast to effectively network, or butter up her brother’s friends a little more.

The first person who greeted her and Nate was a foreigner, which was less than ideal, because she wasn’t well read on the foreign families, other than those who were already known to be attending to Sonora. He hadn’t introduced himself in the proper American style, but that was because he clearly wasn’t a proper American. However, he might easily have been a proper something else. He seemed to be rather out of his depth with the English language, so he was a good opportunity for practising patience and compassion (which, apparently, were important ladylike virtues, though Sylvia really failed to see the point of them, unless she supposed someone happened to be incredibly dull but also incredibly rich and well-connected) even if he proved to be good for nothing else.

“Good day,” she greeted politely, enunciating very clearly and slowly, “I am Sylvia Mordue of the Oregon Mordues, and this is my cousin, Nathanial,” no one else was allowed to call Nate ‘Nate,’ that was her special privilege. “We’re very well thank you. How are you?”

OOC - permission to god-mod [write for another person’s character] obtained from Nate’s author

13 Sylvia Mordue (with a little bit of Nate) Oh yes! 1413 Sylvia Mordue (with a little bit of Nate) 0 5

Leilani-Alana Akau

January 20, 2018 7:40 PM

Mingling... by Leilani-Alana Akau

Just barely a month ago, Leilani-Alana Akau had been in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach in the shade whilst watching her older brother tackle her father into the sparkling water. Now, however, she was in the desert — which, unsurprisingly, was quite hot — and attending a new school, with new kids whom she didn't know. How hard could it be?

She beamed around the flying wagon at the other new students, who were either studiously ignoring her or didn't see her, and then peered over the edge. The ground was sure a long ways away, she thought, then scoffed quietly. Of course it is, she told herself.

As the wagon started getting closer to the ground, she looked around the mansion and the surrounding grounds. It was quite beautiful, and it matched perfectly to the descriptions her older brother, Kai, had sent her. Alana sighed. She wished that he was here with her for her first day. But Kai was old, quite ancient, really, and he had already graduated.

She quickly patted herself over, making sure that she was in top shape after the ride. She wasn't a vain girl — far from it, in fact — but she did like to look presentable. She wore her wavy blonde hair in a long fishtail braid to the middle of her back. Her mother had done it for her for years, but Alana had finally decided that she didn't want her mother to brush and braid her hair anymore. She was a big girl, now. Her mother had also allowed her to wear a bit of makeup, and Alana had chosen a touch of gold shadow along the base of her eyelids, a brush of light blush to accentuate her cheekbones (or so her mother had told her), and tinted red lip gloss. She gripped her special necklace that Kai had given her before she left — a hibiscus flower. It was her favorite.

She followed the students to the orientation place, and listened quietly from the sidelines as the Herbology teacher told them about the classes. She really wanted to learn Care of Magical Creatures. Then he 'allowed' them to mingle. She sighed. Talking to strangers had never really been her thing. She had learned that quite quickly when she and her family had traveled to Europe for her 10th birthday. It just wasn't her thing. She was more of a 'fire, hot chocolate, and thick book' kind of girl.

Glancing around, Alana finally decided on a group of three — a beautiful girl holding the hand of a boy, and another boy who seemed to be introducing himself. The girl appeared to be a Pureblood, and Alana drew upon her courage and plastered on her most polite face before approaching them.

"Aloha," she said in her refined tones (which she had worked on for hours with her mother, who was also a Pureblood). "I am Leilani-Alana Akau. I am here from Hawaii." She inclined her head gracefully, not quite sure what the proper and expected greeting was.

OOC — is there some sort of order for posting? And was I allowed to interrupt?

18 Leilani-Alana Akau Mingling... 1408 Leilani-Alana Akau 0 5

DH Skies

January 21, 2018 7:09 AM

OOC answers by DH Skies

Hi Alana,

Just to answer your questions. Yes, multiple people are allowed to join the thread so it's fine that you joined us, and yes, there is then a posting order - the same order is maintained, with everyone taking turns, so this thread now goes Heinrich, Sylvia, you. Nate might choose to jump in with a separate post at some point, or his author and I will joint write posts on Syvlia's turns.

In a big group situation like this or a class, you can either join an existing conversation or start a new conversation (by posting under the teacher's original post and waiting for a reply, see this class for an example). Both are acceptable, though I would advise that other people to start their own new conversations rather than join this one, as having a lot of people can get difficult.

0 DH Skies OOC answers 26 DH Skies 0 5

Masha Adin

January 21, 2018 12:11 PM

Why am I here at all? by Masha Adin

Masha couldn’t wait to get out of the flying wagon. It didn’t strike her as safe.

Why can’t they use planes or helicopters, like everyone else? she thought as she stepped to the ground.

There was a man that pointed her to the direction where she should go. She grabbed one folder with information and she was ushered towards the tables full of food. Trying not to draw anyone's attention she debated with herself should she take the food. Her stomach was still upset from the flight, she purposely didn’t want to think of fear. Finally, Masha took a plate and placed few pieces of pear, cheese and something that looked like a dried meat. She found a spot, secluded enough from others.

Masha was used to jumping from one culture to the other, but this was terrifying. So many of her classmates were from different cultures if she could judge by their appearance. And some of them didn't speak English well, judging by the way they looked around, confused. Or maybe they did but just didn’t like the place? Masha wrinkled her nose

Why am I here at all? Shouldn’t I be in school where I could speak my language?

Her English was passable but far from good, and that worried her. How good will she understand them? How well will she learn on foreign language?

The man that greeted them started to talk, and she focused her attention to what he was saying. Masha nearly sighed when she realised that she can understand all that he was saying just fine. Taking a small pencil she smuggled in her pocket, she opened the folder and took some notes from that speech, scribbling on the margins of the brochure.

The introduction of the school was...unnecessary... The brochures offered same information, if not more. When Professor of Herbology, the only useful information so far, mentioned brooms and flying Masha frowned. Imagining the images from muggle cartoons - a witch with a mole on her nose, black pointy hat, black cat and mad cackling. Sure, her father told her about flying but...she never believed him truly, convinced that he was joking. Apparently, he was not.

She scribbled

“Professor Skies - English”

Frowned again when Professor started to talk about cats and rats. All mentioned clubs sounded boring to her, but it did sound like they are mandatory, she made another note

” Do we have to be in the club?”

He finished his long speech with mentioning of the houses, except she didn’t know in what house she is placed so at the moment it was irrelevant. However, information about house points was important, except she wasn’t sure what they saw as good behaviour and what as getting into trouble. She will have to ask that.
When he finished no one asked a question so she packed her pencil back in the pocket, unsure if she might get in trouble for bringing it. They didn’t ban muggle thing, and everyone was dressed in muggle clothes, as far as she noticed.

Kids around her started to talk among themselves, so she quickly took her plate pretending to eat. They apparently knew each other if they catted so openly. It would be smart to stay away and observe until she figure out how to talk with all of them.

0 Masha Adin Why am I here at all? 1410 Masha Adin 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

January 21, 2018 4:54 PM

Anxious by Heinrich Hexenmeister

The girl he had approached seemed to take many more words to answer his introduction that had been used in his Conversational English unit. He’d gotten Good Day, that was easy enough. And then he gathered she was specifying her state of origin. Then she introduced the boy with her, who was her cousin. Then she was back to the Conversational English script, so he felt he was doing quite well with the whole Understanding His Peers thing.

However, while he was still trying to figure out a good answer to her reciprocal question - he could say that he was well, or very well, or happy, or sad, or even angry, but none of those were entirely accurate. But ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘anxious’ and other such words which would be accurate, were outside his current vocabulary - a fourth student came up and joined them, who also introduced herself along with her state of origin. Heinrich guessed that maybe this was just a thing people did when they lived in such a huge country.

“Hallo,” he knew the English word was hello, but he felt it was close enough that he’d be understood, and the second girl had used a greeting that wasn’t English either. “I am Heinrich Hexenmeister,” he repeated again, in case the newcomer had missed it, and both Sylvia and Leilani-Alana had both offered surnames, so he added that, too, to expand everyone’s knowledge about him. “I am from Germany.” He considered mentioning Utah, but wasn’t sure exactly how to explain, and he certainly did not wish to get into why he had moved, so he just left it at that he was from Germany.

“I am a little,” he stopped, trying to find the word he needed. He still hadn’t remembered ‘anxious’ or ‘overwhelmed’ but he thought he could remember one word from the fairy tale he’d been reading on the wagon that might work, “scared about Sonora. My English is not very good.”

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister Anxious 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister 0 5

Nathaniel and Sylvia Mordue

January 22, 2018 12:10 PM

Being soothing. by Nathaniel and Sylvia Mordue

Oregon, Hawaii, and Germany. Nathaniel supposed Sylvia would be pleased; they were networking with the whole globe within minutes of landing at Sonora.

“It’s nice to meet both of you,” he said politely, with an inclination of his head instead of a bow just to be on the safe side. He did not want to do anything that could reflect poorly on Mama or Sylvia or Uncle Alexander or Aunt Avery or Simon, but particularly the first two. Mama had been humiliated enough by his father and Sylvia was more like a twin to him than a cousin.

If he had to make a decision, though, he thought he would conclude they were also purebloods. Leilani-Alana seemed to hold herself as confidently as Sylvia did, and why would a family of German Muggles send their son to school here? He’d read that being able to travel quickly was one of the advantages of being a wizard, one of the things that had helped them survive despite the Muggles’ greater numbers before the Statute of Secrecy was devised. It would only be a bit of a headache for wizards to go to school where they wished, but he had read that Muggles had to get about on non-winged horses and some mechanisms that didn’t move much faster. He thought it would take a long time to make a sailboat travel from Germany without any magic to pick up the slack when the wind was low.

“You’re doing very well so far,” he said when Heinrich admitted to being afraid of Sonora because of his English. Mama always tried to be encouraging when Nathaniel or his brother Jeremy were anxious, and Nathaniel had learned to do the same for her after his father left them, so it was almost reflexive to do so now.

"Nice to meet you," Sylvia lied to Heinrich and Alana. She had been willing to give Heinrich a pass on his introduction given that he was clearly foreign, but what kind of boy admitted to being scared about starting school? It was lucky that Nate was there to offer soothing remarks, as he was much better at that sort of thing than she was. She suspected it came from being an older sibling - Jeremy was certainly whiny and annoying enough that they both got rather a lot of practise at being soothing and conciliatory, but Nate much more so than her, and either this practise had benefited him, or he just had more natural aptitude. She often felt like strangling her youngest cousin when he was being a brat.

"We are Sylvia and Nathaniel Mordue of the Oregon Mordues," she added, for benefit of the other girl, who she didn't think had heard this the first time around. Not that expected that information to be particularly meaningful to someone who greeted people with the word 'aloha,' which seemed terribly casual. Although she understood it was a dialectal variant, and she supposed Hawai'i was foreign enough, in spite of technically being American, that it might have different rules. Drat. She had spent so long learning etiquette and customs, and now she was being faced with these two challenges who, whilst they were most definitely not sticking to her rules, might have reasonable excuses for having a different set to her. She knew the one thing she couldn't just outright ask was 'So, are you Purebloods or not?' because that was, irritatingly enough, considered rude and vulgar, even though it really would make life a lot easier.

"I'm sure we'll all have fun here," she added, trying to run with the whole 'reassuring the scared German' thing, though without directly referencing his deeply unmasculine and unbecoming discussion of his private and pathetic emotions, or without contradicting him directly about how it should feel to start school. "My brother says Sonora is a great place - all kinds of excellent people go here."

OOC: Co-written with Sylvia's author.

13 Nathaniel and Sylvia Mordue Being soothing. 1413 Nathaniel and Sylvia Mordue 0 5

Leilani-Alana Akau

January 22, 2018 10:35 PM

Trying to remain in character by Leilani-Alana Akau

Sylvia Mordue of the Oregon Mordues introduced herself, and Leilani-Alana forced a smile. She knew a lot about body language and tones of voice, and she could tell that Sylvia was wondering what blood type she was. Unfortunately, she was only a half-blood, although her mother, Jessica, was a Pureblood, from the Filipino Santos line. Jessica had been disowned for marrying beneath them — a half-blood. That would make Alana something like three-quarters blood. She shook her head. Blood status confused her.

"Indeed," Alana said, smiling. "I hope to learn as much as I can while I am here. My older brother, Makai, recently graduated from Sonora, and I hope to make Mother and Papa as proud as they were when he did."

She coughed delicately. "Perhaps I will take my leave and go greet some other students. It was lovely meeting you, Sylvia, Nathaniel," she lied through her teeth, and inclined her head to them briefly. The nod wasn't long enough to show that she was hiding or scared, and not short enough to be considered disrespectful. She nodded to Heinrich, smiled at him warmly in an attempt to calm his nerves, and spun on her heel and walked away.

OOC — I just barely made the word count! 200, exactly, not counting this.

18 Leilani-Alana Akau Trying to remain in character 1408 Leilani-Alana Akau 0 5

DH Skies

January 25, 2018 3:52 AM

OOC by DH Skies

Okay. The thread will carry on between us without you. As Alana is now free, may I suggest you reply to Masha, as she's still waiting for someone to talk to?

0 DH Skies OOC 26 DH Skies 0 5

Leilani-Alana Akau

January 25, 2018 8:16 PM

Socializing... by Leilani-Alana Akau

After walking away from a few other first-year students, Alana searched the crowd for someone else to introduce herself to. She wasn't by any means a social butterfly, but she had enough Pureblood training from her mother and tutors to know that it was rude to just stand in the corner all by herself. Even if that's what she really wanted to do.

She looked around. There were so many people! She had been homeschooled all her life along with her two brothers, so she was amazed at the number of students here. She spotted a girl with a plate of food, and smiled. The girl was all by herself, watching everyone else, so Alana guessed she was either very shy or from a foreign country. A perfect candidate!

She hoped the girl was friendlier than the Mordues. She looked nice enough, but Alana had long-since learned that looks could be deceiving.

She walked over and smiled, a bit nervously. "Er, hello," she said, leaving off her usual Hawaiian greeting in case the girl actually was a foreigner. "I am Leilani-Alana. I just moved here from Hawaii. You can call me Alana if it's easier. Most people find my whole name a bit long to say every time they want my attention." She laughed lightly. "Anyway," she continued, "what's your name?"

18 Leilani-Alana Akau Socializing... 1408 Leilani-Alana Akau 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

January 26, 2018 8:08 AM

Right then by Heinrich Hexenmeister

"Danke," Heinrich said in response to Nathaniel's compliment of his English skills, then grimaced and repeated, in English this time, "Thank you." The easy phrases like that, he knew how to say in English, but they were almost harder, because the German was so reflexive a response.

Then Frauline Akau took her leave of them, and Heinrich blinked after her, and hoped he had nothing to do with her abrupt departure. His parents' arrest was big news in Zauberstadt, and had even splashed briefly across the national Wizarding German news, but he'd be really surprised if their disgrace had made it as far as Arizona - this being why he was now enrolled in an American school instead of the planned German one - never mind Hawaii. Weren't Hawaii and Germany on opposite sides of the globe? What would they care about a local murder happening in the middle of Europe?

She had smiled nicely at him as she left, but she had left his name out of her 'pleased to meet you statement' so he wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole thing.

He turned back to the Oregon Mordues. "My . . ." he hesitated, trying to remember the word, and found it this time, "siblings are younger from me." He wasn't sure he was using the right preposition there, but he had hopes that they could figure out what he meant anyway. "I am the first to come here. My parents and Uncle learned magic in Germany. Uncle lives in Utah now. I stay with him for short breaks." All breaks, really, even the long summer one, unless charges got dropped against his parents, but he didn't want to talk about that, nor was he even ready to think of the whole thing as permanent yet.

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister Right then 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister 0 5

Masha Adin

January 26, 2018 8:41 PM

What do I do now? by Masha Adin

Masha focused on her plate, and that was a mistake. She managed to lower her eyes long enough, when she raised them again she noticed the girl approaching. For a brief moment, she hoped that the girl was just going in her general direction and not to her. But, she wasn’t that lucky.

Masha shuffled nervously, girl's features looked familiar or was it something in her stance. It wasn’t that Masha knew the girl, but something. If Masha was honest with herself, she would admit that she felt like hiding under the table. It was late even for that, the girl approached her and started to speak.

Hawaiian! At least I know how to speak to her.

The wave of relief washed over her. Of course, another hurdle, much more difficult to overcome was her natural shines. She felt her face burn, while her brain worked fast. It would be customary to greet the girl with ‘Aloha’ but since the girl used English form of greeting. Maybe the girl didn’t like strangers, then again she was here. Finally, Masha decided to go for the middle solution.

“Hi” she tried to smile, not quite sure if she succeeded in that. Masha stretched her hand making a ‘shaka’ sign, but pulled it back almost instantly, clenching it into a fist and hiding behind her back. This was not going well.

“Ummm, sorry. I..I’m Masha. Masha Adin. Nice to meet you, Alana. I ummm… well, I was on Hawai, well, one of the islands anyway, Kauaʻi, but not for long.” she breathed out as an apology just in case she offended the Alana with the hand gesture.

Well, if the girl just moved, she probably didn’t know anyone here as well. Through, she did notice her talking to a group of kids. Finally placing her plate down she gripped her hands in fists and took a deep breath

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t know what...ummm...how to...It seems like there are too many people from different cultures and I don’t want to offend anyone.”

She noticed that Alana did say she is from Hawaii, she heard some other kids introducing their origin as well. That worried her, her family never had a permanent residence. She was almost afraid to look at the girl, and by now she was probably ridiculously red in the face.

0 Masha Adin What do I do now? 1410 Masha Adin 0 5

Sylvia and Nathaniel

January 26, 2018 10:45 PM

No great loss by Sylvia and Nathaniel

Nathaniel glanced at his cousin when Leilani-Alana suddenly left them, wondering what that was about – afraid it was That Matter, and assuming Sylvia would have figured it out and have had some kind of reaction in that case – but he decided not to say anything. Not saying anything was always the best option when it came to That, so if no-one else said it outright, he wasn’t going to.

“Bye then,” Sylvia smiled as the other girl abruptly chose to leave their group. For a glorious moment she could only assume that her suspicions were correct, that the girl was non-s, and that she had sensed that she didn't belong. That would mean that she, Sylvia, had the power to repel undesirable company without having to get into messy or unpleasant confrontations. Then a less pleasant possibility occurred... The thought of Uncle Nicky's reputation preceding them. But no... Alana Akau was not on The List of people she was supposed to care about. Occasional surprises showed up at school, sure – people outside of the range of the Society Bee, who were nonetheless important, but there was no way Alana was both important enough to look down on her for something her uncle had done and someone she had never heard of. She caught Nate's eye and gave him a reassuring smile.

“I hear a lot of European families are doing that right now,” Sylvia nodded, when Heinrich explained that his family came from Germany but he was staying with an Uncle in Utah in order to attend Sonora. There had been a boom in French and French-speaking students a few years back, so she supposed it made sense that Germans wanted to expand their social horizons too. Her statement carried much more of a questioning intonation than her diction tutor would have permissible but, for all that it was on trend, it was still curious that he should choose to come here. “Why did you choose Sonora in particular?” she asked, really meaning 'why did you come to America?' but knowing that was far too blunt to be considered polite.

Letting Sylvia do most of the talking in general seemed like the smartest option for him, so he looked on as she delicately asked why Heinrich Hexenmeister was here, specifically. It was a valid question, but not one Nathaniel would have asked. He was sure at some point, someone who didn’t know – maybe even Heinrich himself, not being from around here – would ask why he always mentioned his mother, but never any father. It was just easier to ignore that kind of thing, though of course Sylvia was right not to do so – they couldn’t go making friends with the Wrong Sort, after all. He was lucky, he thought, they were the same age; he would have made a mess of it on his own, and then everyone would have murmured about his father, and maybe even his mother.

13 Sylvia and Nathaniel No great loss 1413 Sylvia and Nathaniel 0 5

Leilani-Alana Akau

January 27, 2018 7:08 PM

Deep breaths. In...out... by Leilani-Alana Akau

Alana noticed that Masha seemed very nervous, so she smiled to try to calm her nerves — both hers and Masha's. "Ooh, Kaua'i is nice! My family is from O'ahu, but I've visited all the islands at least once."

Then Masha said something about all the different cultures. Alana nodded in complete agreement. "I know, right? I'm constantly looking over my shoulder, hoping that I haven't accidentally done something that might be a compliment in one place and a very rude insult in another!"

She laughed nervously. "Mum's a Pureblood from an old family, and she's spent hours — literally! — drilling boring conversation starters into my brain." She quirked her lips to the side, hoping her mother never found out she had spoken ill of her.

Masha's cheeks had bloomed a bright scarlet and her face was turned away. Alana tilted her head in confusion. She wondered what the other girl had to be embarrassed about.

"What about you? Muggleborn, half-blood, or Pureblood?" She spoke with no derision in her voice, and no tone change between the three. "I'm half — Papa is a Muggle." She had no qualms about telling Masha her blood status, because Masha seemed much more friendly and open to these sorts of things than the last girl she had talked to.

18 Leilani-Alana Akau Deep breaths. In...out... 1408 Leilani-Alana Akau 0 5

Heinrich

February 01, 2018 12:29 PM

Because Sonora. by Heinrich

Why Sonora? There were other words in Frauline Mordue’s question, but he thought the question word and the school’s name caught most of the meaning in her query. At any rate, that was the question he understood and the question he was going to answer and if it differed from the one she actually asked, she could rightly chalk it up to her original intent being lost in translation. That was always a danger in conversing with somebody who was not fluent in the language being used, and he’d made no secret of his own shortcomings there.

He wished he was better in English, that he’d had more time to prepare for this, but he had heard the best way to learn a language was to immerse yourself in it, and he guessed he was getting that now, wasn’t he? If nothing else came of this whole disaster with his parents, at least his English would improve.

The blond German boy paused a long moment before answering, gathering the foreign words and trying to remember the right order to say them in. This was the first statement he was being asked to give that hadn’t previously come up in his English lessons and example conversations. “My Uncle studied many schools in America,” he said, speaking slowly, and watching to Mordues carefully to see if they were understanding him through his accent and the words he was only mostly sure were the right ones. “He liked best the classes and campus here. Good learning place. Good for less fluent speakers. My parents want me learning Englisch well. Important language. Important people spreak it. Good for meeting important people.” Which was true as far as it went, but until recently some language tutors had fulfilled that requirement of their just fine without sending him across the globe. Though, to be fair, obviously that method of learning was clearly subpar. After four years of purely academic lessons, he was barely getting by in a real English speaking place. He was just glad he’d always been such a good student or he’d really be lost now.

1 Heinrich Because Sonora. 1414 Heinrich 0 5

Masha Adin

February 02, 2018 8:08 PM

Pureblood? Muggle? by Masha Adin

Alana was nice. That was relaxing. She told her from which island she is and Masha was relieved, she didn’t insult the girl.

She was glad that she wasn’t the only one concerned about different cultures in this place. Masha even though

Nice to know, usually, I’m the only one

But then the girl started to talk about her family and she tried to smile in order to hide confusion.

Pureblood? Muggle? What language is that? What about my blood?

Her first impulse was to say how she did all mandatory check-ups, including the blood-work when they applied for entrance into the country. That wasn’t anything new. And somehow didn’t seem that Alana wanted to know that.

Frowning she tried to decipher what was she asked.

Maybe she wants to know if my parents are wizards. I hope that she does. Or maybe she wants to know from where am I.

That was another reason to frown. Finally, deciding on what she thought middle solution she attempted to smile to Alana

“Ummm, my parents are from Russia, but I wasn’t born there. I was born in Egypt. But we don’t live there either! Ummm we sort of move around. A lot.” she tried another smile, it wasn’t going so well in her opinion “Ummmm. I don’t know what Pureblood or Muggle is, sorry” blushing she added fast “Only my papa is a wizard, mama isn’t. But papa never talked about Purebloods or Muggles. What are they?”

0 Masha Adin Pureblood? Muggle? 1410 Masha Adin 0 5