Team 5 (nm) on Labyrinth Gardens

DH Skies

August 09, 2019 10:35 AM

The First Challenge by DH Skies

There had been an introduction, of sorts, to the first task, posted a week in advance.

‘The first challenge will require a combination of physical skills and ingenuity. Whilst speed will be of the essence, Professors may award bonus marks for use of their subject, and groups will be graded based on everyone participating. You are allowed to prepare resources in advance and may bring whatever supplies you feel may be necessary.’

Selina had to admit she’d sort of had fun writing that. In some ways, it was so obscure as to maybe not be particularly helpful, but she looked forward to seeing what the students came up with - and, as noted, there was a certain amount of credit availability for the ingenuity with which they solved the challenges put to them, thus she thought there might be some interesting results from seeing how they applied their ready-made solutions to the problems, rather than working the usual way round - though those who just opted to throw themselves in would no doubt yield fun of their own kind.

On the day of the challenge itself, the teams were given an approximate time at which to come to the Cascade Hall, as sitting around waiting didn’t seem like it would be much fun for the latter numbers.Selina doubted that many who had completed the challenges would be likely to pass on information, though she supposed there might be some with a loyalty outside their own team who might. The bigger problem was probably them trying to psych out other teams. Thus once teams had completed the challenge, they would be escorted to the MARS rooms where they could get snacks, amuse themselves and trade stories with the other survivors, with the art room designated as a quiet zone for anyone who wished to study.

There was a section of the gardens that had been closed off since the previous evening, and so it probably came as no surprise when they were led out there. As they assembled at the start, they were given the additional information that they would be facing an obstacle course, and that it had four parts - meaning that they should aim for some collaboration or multiple spells on at least one part if they wanted to get marks for all their team members making meaningful contributions.

The first obstacle had a small sign in front of it reading ‘Get to the other side.’ There was a climbing wall of approximately ten feet. It leant away at a slight angle to improve the ease of getting up it, and was dotted with a number of hand and footholds. ‘Dotted’ was an apt word. These were well spaced, and some of them were exceedingly small, or otherwise in shapes that did not offer a good deal of purchase. It was probably scalable as was, but only to someone who had both strength and dexterity, and/or a decent amount of experience in bouldering, as it would be a fairly technical climb. The wall was bounded on either side by dense patches of vegetation, including poisoned ivy and and venomous tentacular. There was a substantial crash mat on either side, for anyone who fell on the way up, and to offer an easier way down on the other side.

On the other side of the wall was a small platform, in which a sign reading ‘stand here’ was posted. Once all the members of a team were on it, it would raise itself to a height of fifteen feet. This no longer represented a safe height for any human being to fall, and this time there was no crashmat available. The students would have to work out to make it safe for themselves, because the sign now read ‘Get down.’

The plus side of their new position was that it gave them an overview of the next two obstacles - there was a forest ahead, and beyond that just the slightest glint of water was visible. Anyone who tried to take a shortcut across the top of these would find themselves hitting an invisible barrier, and a large, angry arrow appearing - the sign had been very clear, after all; from the platform, they were to go down. Predictably enough, the direction for the forest was ‘get through’ - a task which would be made more challenging by the trees’ tendency to push them back or grab at them. They were not as fierce as Whomping Willows, and no student was likely to meet serious harm at their hands (or rather branches) but their behaviour definitely suggested they preferred not to be disturbed by the pitter-patter of human feet.

The river’s notice read ‘get across.’ The staff had at least been kind enough to provide some support - there were various materials, such as planks of wood or plastic tubs, but nothing that was in a good enough state of repair to support a human being. The river itself was deep enough that no one was likely to keep their head above if they tried to wade, but it didn’t seem to be moving very fast or present any obvious dangers. Once the students finished it, there was a simple finish line marked on the ground, and once they had crossed this, their time would be noted and they would be escorted to the MARS rooms.

OOC - welcome to the challenges! These will be marked in accordance with the guidelines above. As per class posts, each team member’s best post will be scored from 1-5, with each of their other contributions receiving a point - so, getting as many members in as possible is important, but being active and vocal within your team will help too.

As per Quidditch, you do not have to stick to a given posting order.

Bonus points may be given for being extra brilliant, or if a team shows particular use of a subject area over and above what other teams do.

Subthreads:

Team 13 (nm) by DH Skies with Allegra Brockert, Gary Harper, Connor Priory

Team 12 (nm) by DH Skies with Johana Leonie Zauberhexen, Beau Tate

Team 11 (nm) by DH Skies with Winston Pierce, Jeremy Mordue, Topaz Brockert

Team 10 (nm) by DH Skies with Ivy Brockert, Zara Jackson

Team 9 (nm) by DH Skies with Sylvia Mordue, Katerina Vorontsov

Team 8 (nm) by DH Skies with Tatiana Vorontsova, Ness McLeod

Team 7 (nm) by DH Skies with Jessica Hayles, Hilda Hexenmeister

Team 6 (nm) by DH Skies with Dorian Montoir, Heinrich Hexenmeister , Isaac Song

Team 5 (nm) by DH Skies with Nathaniel Mordue, Kir McLeod, Parker Fitzgerald

Team 4 (nm) by DH Skies with Anya Delachene , Cleo James, Lyssa Fitzgerald

Team 3 (nm) by DH Skies with Jasmine Delachene, Ellie Alperton, Ruby Brockert

Team 2 (nm) by DH Skies with Amelia Layne, Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Team 1 (nm) by DH Skies with Freddie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw, Caitlin Pierce, Nicolas DiCaprio, Emerald Brockert

0 DH Skies Team 2 (nm) 26 DH Skies 0 5

DH Skies

August 09, 2019 10:44 AM

Team 1 (nm) by DH Skies

0 DH Skies Team 1 (nm) 26 DH Skies 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

August 12, 2019 10:48 AM

Here, with minimal bells on. by Tatiana Vorontsova

Coming prepared was a vague concept, so much so that Tatiana had initially worried she was missing something in the notice. After reading it about five times and consulting with others, though, she had concluded that no, it really was just that vague.

She had her wand, of course. That would probably be useful. She refused to be old enough to put her hair up, but she had tied it back with bright red ribbons, for luck, and had donned a smaller variety of jewels than she was used to wearing: diamond studs in her ears, nothing dangly or easily damaged, no bracelets or rings, despite feeling fairly well naked without them, and only two pendants (a star sapphire her parents had given her on her first day of school, and a pretty enamel pendant Dorian had given her) on the same long chain tucked under her robes. She had added a pair of enamel collar pins shaped like swans and connected by a silver chain to her front out of desperation, though, reasoning that these were sharp (and therefore potentially useful) and that she had to have something.

She was still alternating between rubbing her bare fingers, which had visible marks where her rings usually rested on most of them, and touching her wrists to feel for bracelets that weren't there when she went down to the Hall to meet the others. "What we do?" she asked someone else. "You know?"

On her shoulders, she had a small rucksack containing other odds and ends: the bruise balm and comb and brush set Katya had recommended, more ribbons and some very light scarves that could be used to tie things together at need, her Potions gloves and silver knife, and, crucially, her Anglo-Russian dictionary. All this was packed up tightly and the sack Featherlighted before she had fastened it as tightly as possible to her shoulders, not wanting it to slow her down if the first thing they were told to do was run. That was one English word she thought she'd understand pretty well, and if she didn't, the actions of those around her would probably give her a quick clue.

Instead, though, the first thing she was told to do was 'get to the other side', with a climbing wall right beside the sign to make it absolutely clear what she was supposed to do. "Ah, blin," she muttered. "I need bring broom." Technically, that would not have constituted a violation of the rules, after all. It didn't specifically say 'climb this wall,' it just said 'get to the other side.' She glanced in the direction of the Quidditch Pitch and wondered if Summoning a broom from the cupboard there would a) work and b) not get her in trouble for knocking people down as it zoomed across the grounds without a rider if it did work....

"Maybe we do switch spell?" she suggested. "Anyone else do switch spell? We move - " she didn't know the word for 'handhold' or 'foothold' offhand - "tiny stair to good places? Then use engorge charm, make big, so none fall?"

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Here, with minimal bells on. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Freddie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw

August 12, 2019 3:38 PM

Let's DO THIS! by Freddie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw

Freddie was PSYCHED. He had been temporarily afraid that he wouldn't be able to sleep the night before the challenges, but he'd slept like a baby with dreams of adventure and show time on his mind. This was the whole reason he'd come to Sonora: to develop skills and abilities that would prepare him to travel the world with a small band of intrepid friends. Now, the time had come.

He was bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet as he waited for the rest of his team to gather. Team one. Number one. This was going to be great.

In his pockets, he didn't carry as much as he probably should have. To be fair, preparation was hardly his strong suit. He was more prone to just . . . run at stuff. Or climb over it. Or punch it. Or hug it. That was easier than trying to think up some potions or something. All he had was his wand, some snacks for his teammates (he hadn't known whether the pre-game snacks would be any good and he was prone to get peckish on the way through the first challenge anyway), and a pamphlet he and Hana had worked on together to help with identifying plants that could help with allergic reactions or poisons. Finally, he had one small jar of a salve that his parents had taught him how to make. It was good for burns, cuts, scrapes, and other abrasions, although he wasn't exactly sure how it worked. Professor Brooding had said it was similar to a Healing Draft, but not precisely the same. Then she said some other words he didn't understand and he tuned it out.

"Hey!" Freddie called to the first student of his team who approached. "Are you ready? I am very excite!"

22 Freddie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw Let's DO THIS! 1452 Freddie Zauberhexen, Teppenpaw 0 5

Dorian Montoir

August 12, 2019 9:17 PM

Can we just... skip it? by Dorian Montoir

Dorian was starting to feel that the challenges were being constructed in such a way as to thoroughly ruin his life and cause him continuous anxiety. Why did they keep having to announce things in advance? Things which he had no control over, but which then hung over him like a spectre? First, it had been the team lists, being told in the morning that they would find out at dinner, and having to spend the whole day worrying about who he’d be with. Now, for the first challenge, they had given him a whole week to fret over the fact that it was physical. Dorian couldn’t do physical challenges. He was shorter than half of the fourth years, and even some of the younger students, in spite of being a fifth year. He had the physique of a twig that had been left out in the rain, and the strength to match. And he had a week to somehow try to deal with that, so that he wasn’t dead weight to his team, three out of the remaining four of whom were Quidditch players. He had hopes that Julius might be as pathetic as he was. The boy edited the school paper, which was about as athletic as any of Dorian’s endeavours, but was two years younger than him. On the one hand, having two of them who were utterly useless wasn’t going to be great or get the whole ordeal over with quickly, but on the other, it would be nice not to be the only stringy little nerd who held everyone back. The worst way he could see of it backfiring though was if Julius did prove to be quite inept and pitifully weak, but just not quite so much so as Dorian. He was fine with Heinrich, a fourth year Quidditch player, outdoing him. He wasn’t great with the idea of Beatriz, a second year girl, being better than him but had done his best to make his peace with the fact that she might be. He not fine with being the most pathetic member on a team where there was an almost-equally-but-just-not-quite-as pathetic third year.

One week’s worth of physical exercise was not likely to yield much improvement, or do anything except hammer home the point to him that he was a useless weakling and that all sport was painful, and so he had turned to a much more reliable source of preparation instead - the library. There were all manner of spells and potions that could be used to transform one’s abilities, after all.

As they gathered in the hall, waiting for their allotted time, he figured he may as well talk through what he’d brought, so they were prepared.

“I am not so good at physical things,” he stated, figuring he may as well get that out of the way up front. He was fairly sure it came as no surprise to anyone who could actually see him, but perhaps they had been harbouring delusions that behind his quiet bookish exterior there was… something other than someone quiet and bookish. If they had been, they were very wrong. “But I brewed a strengthening solution, for any of us," he stated. "I got Professor Brooding to check, and it is correctly done,” he added. He hadn’t been sure if that would be considered cheating, but the poster had said any preparation he thought was necessary, and he felt that checking that his potions were not going to poison himself or anyone else counted as ‘necessary.’ She had confirmed both that this was allowed and that his potion was safe to drink. He had to do quite a bit of research to find the right kind of 'strengthening' - there were a lot of charms and potions that reinforced objects, making them more durable. These were not fit for human consumption, and were really the opposite of what they wanted for the obstacles, though that had opened up a whole other avenue of research for him; not just what they could do to enhance themselves, but what they could do to reduce the obstacles in their path. "I made also a shrinking solution, so that perhaps we can remove an obstacle from in our way, and a weakening potion - you can apply to things to make them easier to destroy. I also practised reducto for this.”

Potions and Defence were not his natural fortes. He much more excelled at Charms, especially the pretty ones. However, as he’d been all too painfully aware of for the entire week, they were not in his comfort zone. Potions seemed to offer the most in the way of things that let you become a better version of yourself, at least in terms of physical prowess, and a few well placed hexes were always useful to have up your sleeve. He was normally far, far better at defensive than offensive spells, but 'reducto' had been the lesson where Simon had been openly xenophobic to Tatya, so Dorian had found himself surprisingly adept at blowing large chunks out of statues, especially Crotalus', and it seemed to be a knack that had stuck. It probably also helped that it was a spell that he wasn't required to use against people, which was generally his main issue with hexes.

They made their way out, Dorian feeling his stomach twisting in knots as they approached the course. He just about held his groan on the inside as the first thing they faced was a climbing wall. He really hoped no one suggested just climbing it. It looked hard. He had made a substantial amount of shrinking solution, on the assumption that inconvenient obstacles were likely to be large. He wasn't sure quite how much it would reduce the wall by, but any degree of 'less wall' was a good thing. He was also pretty sure that he, Heinrich and Isaac could blast a hole through it if they so chose. But he wasn’t in charge, and he’d already explained what he had to offer. He just very much hoped the chosen solution involved the wall just not really being there any more.

13 Dorian Montoir Can we just... skip it? 1401 Dorian Montoir 0 5

Jessica Hayles

August 13, 2019 6:27 PM

Let's get this over with. by Jessica Hayles

Ingenuity.

That was the word from the challenge announcement which had stuck in Jessica's mind. Ingenuity. That trait was the hallmark of a successful leader of a business. That trait was useful enough in a poet, too. That trait was the thing that made Jessica's stomach clench and her temples tighten whenever she thought about it too long, terrified that she didn't have enough of it.

Somehow, though, she suspected that Skies didn't mean the word the same way Daddy or English teachers did, and not just because of the mess these people made of the English language. She occasionally found something more interesting in her private reading from the library, but the tasks here were being set at a level that first and second years should at least, in theory, be capable of contributing to solving with only what they knew from classes. Therefore, they were unlikely to be anything that required much ingenuity to sort out the answers to.

Therefore, when she showed up at the assigned time and place, she was making minimal effort to keep her impatience off her face. At least, she thought, she could wear normal clothes; her old tennis uniform of a dark blue polo shirt tucked into a dark blue skort with a diagonal slash of sky blue across it (the alternative had been her swimsuit, which hardly seemed appropriate) was not exactly what she'd choose to do a non-tennis activity in, but it beat the robes simply by being from home. Her copper-colored hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, which nevertheless brushed her shoulders every time she turned her head and additionally emphasized the narrowness of her face. Normally she kept time with a tiny clock inside an enamel locket on a long chain around her neck, but today she had traded that in for a wristwatch with a second hand on it, and she wore white sneakers and white socks instead of anything nicer. She had also taken the time to take off her nail polish and redo her nails the night before, so that the ten neat pale pink oblongs all glittered under the Arizona sun. Her lips also shone with matching pink balm; in lieu of bringing her little handbag, she had tucked a thin tube of her namesake tinted balm into her left sock.

In the end, she felt more like herself than she thought she had at any other point in her brief career at Sonora Academy. Or at least, more like one version of herself, one she had not been for some time. They didn't have tennis lessons or swim teams here, and those had been the sports she had always planned to follow in high school, so it had been a long time since she had had any reason to be sporty in front of others.

"Hi," she greeted one person. "Hello," she said to another, and then, "This should be fun, right?" And so on through the members of the team. Because they were a team, and you had to be nice to your teammates and psych each other up for games and stuff.

Looking at the climbing wall, however, she was forced to conclude that a positive attitude might not be all they needed to finish this so she could get on with her day. The grips looked useless, and the way around it was slightly...obscured. Jessica looked around at the others.

"Did anyone think they meant industrial amounts of weed killer when they said that about supplies?" she said, more as a joke than anything, though she didn't rule it out. Wizards liked to pride themselves on being so much better than normal people with chemical stuff, so why wouldn't they have tiny bottles of weapons-grade Round-Up in their pockets?

16 Jessica Hayles Let's get this over with. 1442 Jessica Hayles 0 5

Winston Pierce

August 14, 2019 10:28 AM

We’ve got this by Winston Pierce

Winston was ready for this. The note had said speed was of the essence, and they could bring whatever supplies they wanted, so he brought his broom. Flying was a class, right? Maybe they’d get bonus points for that. As such, he’d told Jeremy and Malikhi to bring theirs as well, and he’d brought two spares for the girls (his own smaller one that he had grown out of for Topaz, and the nicest one he could find in the Quidditch supply shed for Loren - Coach had said he could borrow it). They’d both had to take Flying lessons as first years, so they ought to be able to handle at least the basics, especially since Loren was a Pecari (because Pecari) and Topaz was an Aladren (and therefore incapable of accepting a failing grade).

He had shrunk all three brooms and stuck them in his Quidditch robe pocket (Quidditch robes being a bit more agreeable toward physical activity than the normal school uniform). He, of course, had his wand as well, which meant Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense spells were all available to him. Without mor details, he hadn’t been able to guess how potions might be useful in any way that Charms couldn’t duplicate, so he wrote off potions as unnecessary. He also brought along his dragon hide gloves, just in case those proved necessary for either a creature or a plant. Those were likewise shrunk down and tucked into the pocket opposite the one with the brooms.

As the five of them stood in front of the first obstacle, Winston couldn’t help but laugh. It was almost too easy. “We’ve got this,” he said, pulling out the brooms and casting a finite to return them to their normal sizes. “Everyone should be able to just fly over this, right?”

1 Winston Pierce We’ve got this 370 Winston Pierce 0 5

Anya Delachene

August 14, 2019 11:04 AM

Best Day Ever!!!! by Anya Delachene

Anya had whooped in excitement when the notice first went up about the first challenge. She was SO ready for this. Anya had physical skills in spades, and she was quick, too, so this first challenge sounded right up her alley. She disregarded the part about bonus points, figuring that was just there so those less skilled than her had a fighting chance. She did not ignore the part about bringing supplies. She had a blue My Little Pony bookbag (naturally featuring her favorite: Rainbow Dash) filled with rope, pitons, and a belaying harness. She was also dressed in jeans, with sneakers, and an almost too small T-shirt that wouldn’t get in her way. Likewise, her hair was tied up into a very messy ponytail. She had gymnastic grips on her hands, and chalk in one of the backpack pouches. She also had her broom braced over her shoulder as she walked into the Cascade Hall at Team Four’s appointed time. (She wasn’t actively flying it only because she’d already lost House points for flying it through the halls earlier in the year.)

She waited impatiently to be allowed to start but when she saw the wall she whooped with unrestrained joy. Dropping her broom for someone else less climbing savvy to use, she scrambled up the wall.

It was the best climbing wall ever! The holds were tiny and sometimes utterly useless, but that just made it more fun, more challenging. The incline, though, made it doable, even with the handhold being as they were. Anya scrambled up, squeeing and laughing the whole way. She made good time, and reached the top after only a couple minutes, despite some very interesting and difficult bits that required every bit of her climbing skill to overcome. Hoisting herself up onto the top edge and straddling it, she turned back and looked down at the rest of the group. “Do you guys want me to drop you my rope or can you make it up yourselves?”

1 Anya Delachene Best Day Ever!!!! 1453 Anya Delachene 0 5

Jasmine Delachene

August 14, 2019 12:09 PM

My lasso is not going to be helpful, is it? by Jasmine Delachene

Jasmine was not overly thrilled by the sparse details offered by the first challenge notice, but neither was she particularly dismayed by them. She was more of a forest person than a trees person, and she didn’t really need an overabundance of details for most things. A challenge was coming. Speed and physical skills were important. Be prepared.

That was basically what she would probably take away even from a note that detailed every little thing about what they were about to face.

Jasmine was not a sporty individual. She didn’t watch Quidditch matches - she didn’t actually even know what Quidditch was other than something that involved brooms and balls and was reportedly violent and therefore nothing she wanted to know anything more about. She’d watched a couple gymnastic meets that Anya competed in, but that was about the breadth of her athleticism.

But that did not mean she was without physical skills. Jasmine grew up on a horse ranch. She’d shoveled hay since she could lift a toy pitch fork and she had a small amount of skill in the use of a lasso. (Her confidence in that skill, however, had taken a hit when it proved unequal to the task of catching a runaway gingerbread man.)

As most of her experience in doing physical things was related to ranch work, she showed up to meet her team in the Cascade Hall wearing pink cowboy boots, her best looking pair of ranch jeans, a rhinestone studded belt, a pink cowgirl shirt, and her brown hair tied down in pigtail braids. She had considered wearing her pink cowgirl hat, but eventually decided it would probably just get in the way, so she left it off.

Her fingernails were adorned with shimmery polish that matched the same shade of pink as her shirt (her boots were a bit darker, but in a complimentary way rather than as if she had tried and failed to match them to the rest). She’d decided to keep her makeup simple so her lips just had a clear gloss on them.

For preparations and supplies, she’d brought along a good lasso and her wand. She’d spent the last week brushing up on her lasso skills, and while she wasn’t able to catch gingerbread men sized targets more than 50% of the time, this rate of success was much higher than it had started at.

Once the team was brought out to the gardens and told they were up against an obstacle course, with a climbing wall as part one, Jasmine just stared up at the barrier in dismay.

Her lasso practice was unlikely to prove useful today.

That left her wand. “Can we just, like, transfigure it into a wall with a door?” That was inanimate to inanimate which should be fairly simple, especially since a climbing wall and a wall with a door had a whole lot of things in common.

She just hadn’t ever transfigured anything that big before. “Is that even possible with something so large?”

1 Jasmine Delachene My lasso is not going to be helpful, is it? 1397 Jasmine Delachene 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

August 14, 2019 1:48 PM

ja und schnell, also gewinnen wir by Hilda Hexenmeister

‘Bring whatever supplies you feel may be necessary,’ the sign had said. So Hilda had asked, but she was told Heinrich was not a supply she was allowed to bring, even though he was completely necessary. What she had instead was a portrait. It was large and bulky, and she wasn’t entirely sure she was allowed to take paintings off hallway walls for this, but she needed it because this portrait of some early professor spoke both German and English. So she had portrait swiped him. He wasn’t another student with his own team to worry about, which was excuse she was given for why Heinrich couldn’t come with her.

“Das ist Professor Schmitt,” she told her teammates when the two of them arrived in the Cascade Hall. The others could probably mostly just see the bust of an elderly gentleman in dark teaching robes enclosed in a gilt frame, with legs, fingers, some braided blond hair, and a pair of blue eyes poking out from behind the frame. “Er wird heute für mich übersetzen.”

“I am Professor Schmitt,” the portrait dutifully conveyed, “I will be translating for the young lady today.” His German accent was faint, significantly smaller than even Uncle Karl’s, but he had one. It was reassuring to Hilda, to know that even this guy hadn’t completely lost his German roots, despite years and years teaching in an English speaking school.

One of the other second years greeted them politely, and Hilda returned the greeting, and she didn’t even need Professor Schmitt for that exchange. It buoyed her spirits. They were communicating! And when it inevitably got harder, Professor Schmitt would be there.

Professor Schmitt would be there, being huge and bulky, as they stood in front of a ten foot tall climbing wall at the beginning of an obstacle course.

Hilda did not regret having him, though, because he was the only reason she even knew that was what they were doing. ‘Obstacle course’, unsurprisingly, was not among her initiate level English vocabulary.

After he translated Jessica’s - that was the other second year’s name - initial comment, Hilda just shook her head apologetically. “Ich habe nur den Professor mitgebracht. Und mein Zauberstab. Natürlich.”

“Miss Hilda says she only brought me with her. And her wand, of course.”

Lacking weed killer, and assuming nobody else thought to being any either (not even Heinrich had planned to bring that), Hilda rested the portrait on the ground in front of her and leaned on it slightly as she considered the wall itself. “Wir könnten diese Dinge einfach größer machen und klettern.”

“She suggests making the handholds larger and climbing it,” the portrait translated, and Hilda wondered if he was translating what she said literally or if he had supplied an actual descriptive word for the items she had imprecisely termed ‘things.’

“Ich kann gut klettern,” she added, as it seemed relevant.

“She is good at climbing,” Professor Schmitt told the others.

She wasn’t quite sure how to bring up the issue of getting the portrait up and over, as she didn’t want to insult the good professor by implying he was making things difficult for them.

OoC: German dialogue is courtesy of google translate. Thanks, Google.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister ja und schnell, also gewinnen wir 1433 Hilda Hexenmeister 0 5

Jessica

August 14, 2019 5:22 PM

I hope 'winnen' means 'winning' and that we do that. by Jessica

"Naturlich," repeated Jessica after hearing that Hilda had of course brought her wand, getting the sounds more or less right, after assuming that there was at least one word of the German that she could safely guess the meaning of. It was going to be hard not to listen to what Hilda said, then try to square it with what the painting said and figure out if she could learn German....

Hilda was good at climbing. This meant she had an advantage over Jessica, who...well, she couldn't say for sure that she wasn't good at climbing. She had never really tried, with the exception of climbing the occasional footstool or flight of stairs. Neither of those, however, was really the equivalent of a climbing wall, unless they could magic the handholds so big that they essentially became some wonky stairs - which was actually a pretty good idea.

"I think that's a good idea," she said with a smile for Hilda and the professor, remembering to add the 'I think' as a mark of deference to the older students among them. It was odd, this wondering if it was appropriate to act like a leader in a room which had her in it and did not have any of her family members in it. She was more accustomed to worrying that she wouldn't play the part well enough. "Does anyone know if we can make them big enough to just...walk up? It is kind of at an angle, so we don't have to climb at all if we can. But if we do, I can, um, fly the professor up for you before I go up, if you want, Hilda," she added, feeling the need to add an idea of her own to the table and fumbling to think with magic. She could make objects fly, so if Hilda could get to the top, Jessica was reasonably confident that she could get the painting up to her without one of them having to carry it. "And if you don't mind, Professor," she added politely to the painting, despite it still feeling really strange to consider the emotions of a cross between a picture and, in this very specific case, Google Translate.

16 Jessica I hope 'winnen' means 'winning' and that we do that. 1442 Jessica 0 5

Amelia Layne

August 14, 2019 8:39 PM

Let's go Team Two! by Amelia Layne

It was, she thought, probably too optimistic, but Amelia thought her team had a chance to place really well in the team challenges. She was good enough with a wand. She knew Eden to be rather competent at Seeking, which was a job which required a lot of attention to detail and physical dexterity. Peyton O'Malley was less of a known quantity, but she was also a prefect now, which meant it seemed safe enough to regard her as competent too. Three prefects on one team - regardless of how the younger students worked out, she thought they ought to at least put on a respectable showing.

The only thing which was a bit regretful, if probably inevitable, was not being with her roommates. "Good luck, guys," she told Emerald and Flo before breakfast, and meant it. She just hoped she had slightly better luck than at at least one of them. Not too much better - that could lead to the weird tension that was not unknown between Aladrens when they had to work against each other - but maybe just a smidge.

Her team was the second up, and she greeted them all with bright smiles. "Hi, hi. Ready to get started? Great. Let's do this!"

Whatever 'this' is, she added silently in her head.

'This', it seemed, was a wall. A big wall with some rather...inadequate...looking handholds. She guessed she should have known, and also should have predicted this far enough in advance to try to wheedle some climbing lessons out of her cousin who actually did this kind of thing for fun over the summer. Too late for that now, though. So. How to get them all around it?

They didn't have the supplies - ropes and helmets and things - to climb it traditionally, she thought. Not unless she could duplicate a few things and Transfigure some, but then, would anyone know how to use them? She and Eden could try throwing people over the wall by using flying charms on said people's clothes, but that was dicey, what if seams ripped and send their teammates falling to the ground, to unclothed injury? Not good. She guessed they could start blasting the surrounding plant life, but that would take time; blowing up the wall itself was an option, but would make a lot of mess, and could get them hit with shrapnel....

Could she shrink it? Maybe. It would be a massive piece of work, and she didn't think of herself as particularly magically powerful. There was no real way to quantify that, that she knew of, of course, but just comparing the range and quickness of her own spellcasting with that of people she had seen around her over the past seven years, she thought she was no more than at the upper end of the middle of the pack. Still, shrinking charms were pretty simple - if one of them even got it started, then another could pick up if necessary, or maybe they could all try casting the spell at once...

However, there was another thing to think about here, and that was the teachers. They were going to be watched for teamwork as well as completion. This meant they were being watched, even if they couldn't see the watchers. Therefore, she couldn't just bark orders, however much more efficient that might be.

"Okay, guys," she said. "I might have an idea for how to take this down, but does anyone else? Anyone could have the best idea, don't be shy," she added, principally to Evelyn and Isabella so they would know they could speak up around the big kids.

16 Amelia Layne Let's go Team Two! 360 Amelia Layne 0 5

Nathaniel Mordue

August 14, 2019 9:07 PM

Jumping straight in. by Nathaniel Mordue

Some people, Nathaniel had gathered, found the idea of being told to prepare for a challenge they knew nothing about fun. Some people, Nathaniel had concluded, were, therefore, idiots.

He showed up at the team five meeting far too early, the better to check his supplies one last time to make sure everything was in order and fastened up so it could not break. He had brought his Potions kit (despite having no idea what he could possibly use it for), his wand, a potion to treat minor scrapes, several spare handkerchiefs, and the good luck card his mother had sent him. Since he had mentioned his own skill at photography in the first group meeting, he had also brought his camera and a small supply of developing potion and photography paper. All this filled the bag he had shrunk to fit in a pocket to the brim, but it still didn't feel like enough, and he wished he had felt able to ask his relatives what they had thought to gather, or at least that he had thought there was a chance in hell that either Simon or especially Jeremy would have answered that question if he had posed it.

Since he hadn't, though, he just made a point of telling his cousins and brother each good luck, and also of doing the same with his Teppenpaw neighbors. He knew the point of this exercise was probably partially to encourage people who didn't know each other all that well to get to know each other and work together and whatnot, but he didn't see why that should interfere much with the relationships he already had. And truthfully, he doubted that he had enough of a relationship yet with Dorian or Vlad for rankings to matter much there, or that Simon was insecure enough to blame Nathaniel if Nathaniel's team somehow placed above Simon's. Between him and Sylvia, of course, it simply didn't matter. Jeremy, though....

He had to do something about Jeremy. He would talk to Mama about it at midterm - well, maybe Uncle Alexander. Mama didn't need the stress, not when she seemed happier and less frail in her letters lately. He would talk to Uncle Alexander, when he could. For now, though, there was what was before him to deal with.

He rolled his tense shoulders as he looked at the first obstacle in their course. "Here we go, I guess," he said, and, not thinking to ask for better ideas, went to the wall and started to grab at hand and footholds. Their sizes and inconvenient placements, however, quickly got the better of him, and he slipped; unable to catch himself on the tiny holds, he tumbled the still relatively short distance to the ground.

"Ow," he complained, holding a hand up to the left side of his head, which had just whacked the ground. He felt something went. "Good thing I thought to bring this," he added, rummaging in his pocket for his bag, thinking of the ointment.

16 Nathaniel Mordue Jumping straight in. 1412 Nathaniel Mordue 0 5

Kir McLeod

August 15, 2019 9:50 AM

That's one approach.. by Kir McLeod

OOC - fyi, there are crash mats on both sides (this was edited from the original when I realised it was a bad idea not to, and mentioned via chatzy). Though, speaking as someone who climbs, it's definitely possible to catch yourself on the handholds on the way down, especially if the wall is inclining forwards and thus encouraging you to lean into it, so I'm in-head-editing to assume that's more what happened.

IC
Kir possibly didn't seem like someone who was taking the challenges all that seriously. As he waited for his team to be called, he was dancing slightly in his seat, clearly bopping along to whatever was stuck in his head. Occasional refrains of this escaped under his breath, although not loudly or clearly enough to be distinguishable unless you happened to be sitting very close by and paying specific attention. He was still doing his best to not alienate and annoy his team members and so was holding himself back from suggesting a rousing sing song to get them in the spirit.

In spite of this outwardly casual/bizarre exterior, he was actually quite well prepared. He was aware that he was, at all times, in competition with Winston and his ilk, and that beyond personal pride, there was the small matter at stake of centuries' worth of institutionalised racism. He wasn't naive enough to think that Winston was going to change his mind about the value of blood if Kir's team beat his. There would be some kind of excuse - teachers playing favourites, or claims that Nathaniel Mordue had steered them through the whole thing. It wouldn't change Winston's political views if Kir won, however, it would sure as heck confirm all of Winston's stupid biases about alleged Pureblood superiority if he was the one who came out on top, not to mention making him unbearably smug. Kir was currently winning at life, seeing as he was both headboy and had a girlfriend, and he wanted to keep it that way. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to beat Ness or not. On the one hand, Ness would be annoying if team eight came out above his. On the other hand, Ness would be annoying if team eight came out below his, and winning was fun. Which he guessed was two reasons for wanting to be the better McLeod.

Kir had spent the week compiling a thorough list of charms and transfigurations, divided by age group. Transfigurations were, he thought, the most likely to be useful, so that they could adapt the obstacles they were facing. So many transfigurations also depended on knowing the precise words - charms were a bit broader, in that a floating charm floated whatever you wanted it to, whereas transfigurations often involved the names of either the object you were starting with or what you were aiming for, and both of those were unknown quantities. He thought that this might put many people off using transfiguration, and thus it made sense as a tactic for trying to earn bonus points, as well as being incredibly practical. He had aimed to find as many spells that referenced the target object rather than the source, because they did not know what they would be working with. Of course, they didn't know what they would be needing either, but he had brainstrormed all the types of physical activity he could think of - there was getting up, down and around things, there was balance and dexterity, there was endurance… All of those could be made easier by changing the thing you were having to scale, balance on or endure. He knew how to conjure ropes, flatten round things into nice flat, even surfaces, and he figured that for anything heavy using a switching spell rather than a featherlight charm was more likely to show they were thinking outside the box. He had looked up the source spells for 'transform rock' 'transform wood' and 'transform plastic'. That was, of course, incredibly vague and would take a heck of a lot of imagination to make up for its lack of verbal specificity. However, Kir was quite imaginative, Parker was a DnD player, and Nathaniel did photography as a hobby, so he thought they might manage to wrangle something out of those spells. He had also brought all his textbooks, because - thanks to featherlight charms - why the heck not? They could look up something more specific if needed. He was treating it like an open-book exam - it would be useful to have his texts available but he also needed a thorough knowledge of them because looking things up took time. He mentioned the presence of his textbooks to the team whilst they waited, as well as subtly sharing the list around so they could get an idea of the spells, but he didn’t do any extra revision from his books because he didn’t want any other teams accio-ing their own if they hadn’t thought to bring them, even though it seemed pretty basic to him. He had also brought chocolate, for morale, and his glitter rainbow DnD dice. He supposed they might come in handy for decision making, but mostly it was because they’d been a gift from Zevalyn, and he thought she’d approve of taking them out questing.

“Okay,” he grinned, when they were called, “To echo the wise words of Olivia Newton-John, let’s get physical!”

The first obstacle was a wall. Kir surveyed it, a new song springing to mind…

Can’t go over it, can’t go under it, can’t go round it - oh, no, we’ll have to go through it!

Which was funny, because it was a wall, though also entirely feasible. None of the options was really ruled out because they had magic, and they could probably make any of those happen. He tried not to be distracted by thinking up every single option for fun. He could do that later. And/or set it as a puzzle-by-letter to Zevlayn. Right now, the clock was ticking. Nathaniel at least seemed keen to just get going. Kir was quite surprised by the fact that he just… tried climbing it. It would have been a great bit of lateral puzzle setting for the teachers to give them something that was very challenging to solve by magic but easy to just… do. He wouldn’t have thought that a Pureblood would be the one to see it that way though. However, this was not such a puzzle (another fun one to think about later). The wall was deliberately hard to climb, and they probably did need to make a solution.

“You okay?” he checked with Nathaniel, though it seemed evident that nothing more serious than a scrape had occurred, for which the other boy was well prepared. “Okay, we can probably go over, under, round or through…” He weighed up the merits of the various solutions, ruling out ‘under’ just because he didn’t have a solid plan for it yet, he just was sure it was theoretically possible. There was also the question of making sure they used all their teammates. “I reckon the latter two would be quicker. And I reckon this is one where you could do the wandwork,” he added to their beginners, “Round, we’re going to need bluebell fire, which you should be able to do but it’s going to be… problematic if it goes wrong. Those plants like to attack,” he pointed out, “We wouldn’t let that happen, obviously, but if you’d prefer to use spells under less pressure… We could just make all the handholds biggish and flattish. Those are beginner transfigurations - you’re just changing the shape. The material, the function, everything else would stay the same. Or if you have a spell you’d really like to use, let me hear it,” he added to Parker and Nathaniel. “There’s going to be multiple ways to solve all of these - that’s the point.”

13 Kir McLeod That's one approach.. 366 Kir McLeod 0 5

Heinrich Hexenmeister

August 15, 2019 1:26 PM

The rules don’t say we can’t by Heinrich Hexenmeister

Heinrich was as ready as he was going to be for the first challenge. He had spent the week leading up to it preparing a bag of supplies. These included books - most of his textbooks, an English-German dictionary, as well as a few German how-to survival books in case they needed to build a raft or survive on meals cooked over campfires or something. With that in mind, he was also supplied with rice, lettuce, spices, fishing hooks, and a large canteen of water. He also had a sewing kit, some paints and brushes, and a deck of exploding snap cards (as vague as the challenge announcement was, he was not putting it past the staff to mean fine motor activities instead of gross motor activities when they said physical skills would be required).

With the bonus points up for grabs, he naturally had his wand, of course, but he also had gloves and shears for herbology, some favorite treats and lures for various creatures, and a variety of premade potions, including calming draughts, cleaning solutions, and sleakeazy hair potions (in case they needed something slick and greasy).

More things were added as they occurred to him - some parchment, quills and ink, a cooking pot (which could double as a makeshift cauldron if they needed to brew anything on the fly - so his whole potions kits was in there, too), a fork, a knife (he’d debated the legality of that one, not sure if weapons were permitted or not, but if they were going to cook fish or prepare potion ingredients they’d need some way of slicing them, of course, so he left it in, carefully wrapped so nobody could hurt themselves rooting around in the bag), a broom (thrown in almost as an afterthought after practice last night), and a pillow. Because you never knew when you might need a pillow. And then, in a last flurry of panic, he added soap, shampoo, a towel, his toothbrush, toothpaste, a pair of pajamas, a change of clothes, and a blanket because nobody had promised this wouldn’t be an overnight trip.

He couldn’t even lift the bag without featherlight charms on it, and he’d needed to make it much larger on the inside to fit it all (and also shrink some of the larger items), but he was in Cascade Hall, on time (barely), and totally prepared for anything.

He put the bag down with a great loud clunk and greeted his teammates. “I have much things,” he told them once enough hellos had been exchanged. He risked a smile, the expression unfamiliar and slightly unnatural on his face as he joked, “I hope we not need the kitchen sink, because I have not only that thing.”

Heinrich had not expected Dorian to be hiding a weightlifting champion under his skinny frame so the older boy’s admission evoked little surprise, though his selection of potions to offset his lack of natural ability was less expected and entirely welcome. “Good idea,” he approved. “I have not those either.” He decided not to mention the sleakeazy in his own bag unless they actually needed it. Compared to strengthening solution, it seemed kind of useless.

They waited a little while, and he blinked in baffled confusion when he saw Hilda walk in carrying a large painting that he was reasonably certain did not belong to her, but he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to go over and ask her about it, being on different teams and all, so he didn’t. Soon enough though, his team was escorted out and he promptly forgot about Hilda’s apparent art theft as they were told they had a four part obstacle course ahead of them.

He knew what an obstacle was, and he knew what a course was, but he was momentarily thrown by thinking of a course as a school subject instead of a path to take, but the climbing wall before them set him back in the right direction and he soon grasped what the two words together were supposed to convey after only a slight delay.

“Ah,” he said aloud as realization dawned. He was carrying a lot of things they would probably not need. This was for the best. He didn’t actually know how to use fishing hooks (though he had a book), nor did he particularly want to sleep on the ground tonight.

“Get to the other side,” Heinrich read aloud. “It say not climb, or go over,” he pointed out. “Dorian has shrinking solution. I have gloves and shears. We can make smaller wall, not so wide, cut plants, go around?” He eyed the ominous looking fanged plants with violently lashing vines doubtfully. “Know anyone what that is?” The more Heinrich thought about getting close enough to use his shears, the more dangerous it looked. He wondered if stupify worked on plants.

1 Heinrich Hexenmeister The rules don’t say we can’t 1414 Heinrich Hexenmeister 0 5

Allegra Brockert

August 15, 2019 3:36 PM

Absolutely impossible by Allegra Brockert

Allegra had been anxious about the Challenges to begin with and the fact that they'd been told that the first one would involve physical skill only made things worse. The Crotalus had no physical skills whatsoever. She wasn't fast and she wasn't strong and she was a terrible flyer.

She was going to make a fool out of herself and her teammates were going to hate her and probably make fun of her for being weak and unathletic. They were going to do terribly and she was going to be to blame. It didn't matter what the specific task was, Allegra was not going to be capable of it. Period.

And what if they thought she was being ridiculous and prissy when she genuinely couldn't? What if they thought that because she was weak and inferior because she was a girl, the way Uncle Eustace did? Her uncle generally didn't pick on her specifically and was indeed much harder on boys who unathletic, such as Owen but Uncle Eustace generally thought women were inferior because of their lack of athleticism. Even though some girls were, just not ones in Allegra's family as none of the Brockerts other than her uncle particulalry valued athletic ability in general. Of course, Uncle Eustace would say those women were acting unladylike.

However, the fact that some girls were athletic and that Gary and Teo were not purebloods meant-as it seemed non-purebloods overvalued sports,according to Angelique-that they might not tolerate Allegra's lack of skill. Or they just might not tolerate that because they wanted to win. And Connor and Felipe being pureblood didn't mean they would.

The thing was though that Allegra being female wasn't why she wasn't good at physical stuff. It was just...that she wasn't good at it. She just wasn't.

Anyway, there was absolutely nothing in the world that would help her prepare for or succeed in a physical challenge. Allegra brought her wand of course, but that was it.

She arrived at the required time. When she saw the wall they had to get to the other side of, her eyes grew round with horror and she felt sick to her stomach. There was no way she would be able to climb over it. They would have to come up with another way. One that involved the least amount of physical ability possible.

11 Allegra Brockert Absolutely impossible 1426 Allegra Brockert 0 5

Parker Fitzgerald

August 15, 2019 4:06 PM

That's Pretty Brilliant Approach Actually by Parker Fitzgerald

Parker didn’t know how to prepare for this and that excited him. He was sure he could probably do some of the physical activities, but he wasn’t sure his whole team could, and this was a team event, not a single player one.

So he thought what would his DnD character do. What might a Dwarven Priest need upon leaving on a quest. He’d want his magic item, some healing potions, books, food, some rope, a weapon of some kind, at least two seemingly odd things, which always turned out to be handy and something to carry them all in.

So Parker had brought these things. He brought his wand, a burn healing paste and Burning Bitterroot Balm both of which he had due to… former issues. He brought his Herbology book and Potions book not knowing what to expect, but figured they’d do and he didn’t want to carry all his books with him. He’d found some rope in a storage closet near the quidditch field while practicing and had taken it back to his dorm room. In terms of a weapon, he didn’t feel comfortable with an actual weapon so he brought the pocket knife he’d gotten as a gift years before that he still had with him. He made an extra two sandwiches at lunch. But what he’d been trying to figure out what his two seemingly odd things would be. These were things that would come in handy in someway… or they wouldn’t, either way he wouldn’t want them to be too big. In the end he brought his eagle feather with him stuck in the shoulder strap of his backpack and his gardening gloves. The last part had occurred to him when he saw that part of the Labyrinth had been closed the night before. He felt no matter what gloves might end up being a good thing to bring into the gardens. Though it might all be for not.

Parker laughed at Kir’s joke. He was excited when they got to the wall and took a beat to try and figure out what to do. In that moment he saw Nathan run at the wall. Though Nathan wasn’t necessarily un-athletic, Parker was surprised.

He was less surprised as Nathan fell to the ground. Parker ran over without thinking about how he was supposed to dislike Nathan. He took his backpack off his shoulder and took out the Burning Bitterrot Balm and handed it to Nathan.

“Take it from someone who falls a lot, this will help.”

Parker listened to Kir. Go around. That’s not a bad idea. The idea about Blue Fire was also kind of ingenious. Looking at the plants Parker immediately recognized poison ivy and then kind of recognized the vine. He felt like he’d read about it in Herbology. The only class he routinely did the reading in. Since he already had his bag open he pulled out his Herbology book. A few seconds later he looked up. His finger marking the page.

“Actually I think going around might be a good idea Kir. After all the sign just says the other side. One of us using Blue Fire while the rest of us use...” Parker looked down at the book, “Severing charm.” Pointing to the point in the book he said, “It says it can stun the plants or sever the vines.”

He put the book back and pulled out his gardening gloves and his wand.

“We all ready to use our biggest muscle?”

41 Parker Fitzgerald That's Pretty Brilliant Approach Actually 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Evelyn Stones, Pecari

August 15, 2019 7:11 PM

Can we do it the muggle way? by Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Evelyn stared up at the wall facing them with some sense of betrayal. She was entirely confident that she could climb it, whether or not that was meant to be possible, and that just didn't seem fair at all. Even the magical people - not just magic itself - seemed to be daring her to choose between her magic and herself. Two sides of the same coin, except that she could only have an imprint from one side, and never the whole coin.

She knew some of the people on her team, but no one particularly well. She'd had classes with Isabella the year previously and the others by face - it was a small school, after all - but wouldn't have called any of them friends. Perhaps that was for the best; no use hindering her friends' teams.

Evelyn sighed inwardly; she found her entire inner monologue entirely exhausting. Something about it made her want to scream, but she was getting better about that recently and her hands weren't even smoking when she turned when an older girl - Amelia? - began talking. Teamwork time.

"I've got one idea," Evelyn said quietly, feeling utterly ridiculous. "But I'd need help, and we'd still have to climb . . . You know Herbivicus? The one that makes plants grow real fast? I can't do it but I've read about it . . . I've got some plants that we could grow much bigger and that would be easier to climb than the wall."

As she spoke, she lifted the front flap of her bag to reveal a tiny makeshift garden rack she'd made. In tiny pods, basic plants were resting. Truth be told, Herbivicus was one she'd be practicing now as an Intermediate, and she was mostly just embarrassed to try it in front of others. She'd had reasonable success in private, but now that she'd admitted to needing help, the whole idea of bringing tiny plants seemed stupid.

"I've got a Wiggentree sprout and a Walking Plant sprout."

OOC - Plants and spell found on the HP wiki and based on what 3rd-5th year students would learn about and/or have access to according to the wiki.

22 Evelyn Stones, Pecari Can we do it the muggle way? 1422 Evelyn Stones, Pecari 0 5

Ellie Alperton

August 16, 2019 8:19 AM

It's better than what I've got by Ellie Alperton

Ellie was as ready as she could be for the first challenge. Which was 'not very.' It was a physical challenge, which definitely did not play to her strengths. The week long preparation window didn’t feel like much help either. The only way she knew of rapidly improving over a short space of time was for there to be an inspirational background song and to engage in a training montage. This method worked best if you a) knew specifcally what quest you were required to complete and b) actually lived inside a movie. Seeing as neither of those applied to her, it wasn’t going to happen. Most of her knowledge of the types of challenge someone might face came from movies and fairy stories. She wasn't sure how well any of those applied both to real magic and to the term 'physical challenge.' You had to watch out for poisoned apples and cursed spindles, but even assuming those were likely to be involved in something described as 'physical' the only antidotes to poisons she had found were very complicated to brew. The general warning seemed to be that most magical food was a no-go, judging by everyone from Alice to Merida, though maybe growing to be ten feet tall or turning into a bear would help, depending on what they were facing. So, if she encountered magical food during the challenge, she supposed she might give it a bite, but equally it might be safer not to, and she definitely didn’t know how to make grow-you-ten-feet-tall cake or become-a-bear pie, so she was still firmly stuck at square one. In terms of the skills princesses brought to the table, there was getting forest animals to do your bidding by singing sweetly... She also thought you could put savage animals to sleep with music, and music was one thing she was good at. She wondered whether this worked on dragons too and what the odds were that they were facing one. Her reading about dragons didn't suggest this was the best technique - staying far, far away seemed better, or being about a level one million badass with a wand if you couldn’t avoid them. She was also fairly sure she would look very silly bringing her viola with her, and she didn't want to risk breaking it. Her preparation therefore amounted to going around her own head in circles, with occasional trips to the library to check if something really was possible, and to find out that either it wasn’t or that it was, but only if you were a lot older and more experienced than she was. She sort of figured that the notice was more for the captains and vice-captains, and that if any of the older students wanted her to do something, they would let her know. They hadn’t. She had thought about asking Jasmine but didn’t want to bug her too much.

‘Preparation’ had, for Ellie, also included choosing an outfit, although in some senses this hadn’t really been very difficult. She was aware that physical activities needed practical clothes, and that pants might have been better, but she simply didn’t own any. Nor did she have the desire to write home and get any, even if a week was long enough. She had gleeful shoved every pair of pants she had owned into goodwill sacks at the end of the summer, because that was over. She wasn’t sure what happened at Christmas, or summer. She knew she most likely had to go back to the place where she had been known as someone else. But she wasn’t going back in terms of who she was willing to be. It scared her, thinking about running into her old classmates, and she was honestly really relying on her parents managing to move before she had to risk that - they were talking about doing so but that was never simple - but she had made a decision and drawn a line, and donating all the horrid boy clothes she’d had to wear to her last school had been a way both of promising herself that was done with and making herself stick to it. Of course, there were nice girl pants. She had been very tempted by some, but it just felt nice to not own any. Her mom had insisted she buy at least one thing that she could do athletic activities in, just in case, and given her paranoia about the thought of people seeing up her skirts, this was a compromise that had been easily agreed, and thus she did own a pair of culottes. She might have preferred a skort, but it had been hard to find one that was ruffly or a-lined rather than tight fitting and very short, and the latter two were not things she was comfortable in. So, by default, the culottes were what she was wearing. She had still spent a very long time trying to decide what went best with them, and hoping that Jasmine would approve, and hoping that they would be deemed practical enough too, and just… generally worrying. The culottes were floral, with a pretty bow at the waist, and they had pockets! They would have looked better with bare legs, but it was starting to get too cold out for that, and so she had colour-matched a pair of leggings with one of the shades that appeared in the floral pattern - a nice light mauve. This was paired with a long sleeved grey top with a large purple butterfly on the chest, which was currently mostly hidden under a lightweight pink hoodie.

There was also her hair and jewellery to manage. Ellie remembered girls at school had to take their earrings out for gym class. She had been physically unable to do that. Not because they were stuck or anything, she had been very careful to twist them twice a day since getting them pierced to make sure that didn't happen, as well as swabbing them with alcohol to keep them clean. She just couldn't bring herself to do it. They were part of the magic spell that made everyone believe in Ellie. Rationally, she knew that taking them out should change very little about her appearance, maybe most people wouldn't even notice, but on some days she felt like a carefully spun illusion, and she wasn't willing to risk breaking that. She also couldn’t remove her necklace, the little key charm which hung around her neck at all times and ensured she was able to enter the right dorm. She supposed, like her earrings, she could technically have taken it off for the challenge, and put it in a pocket or something, but the thought of losing it was unbearable. So, she had tucked it into her t-shirt, and left her earrings in, and just hoped and prayed she wasn’t going to get accidentally strangled or rip a hole in her ears and that those were just things gym teachers said. They were probably just things that gym teachers said. Still, it was hard not to think they might be a little bit of a risk. Especially if they were facing a dragon and they liked shiny things.

She had struggled with her hair. She was still getting the hang of brushing it thoroughly enough to not be tangled, and she was worried that a physical challenge was going to put a lot of knots in it. Braids seemed the best protection, specifically French ones. This was something she could do with ease on other people, having practised longingly on her dolls and on her mother’s shining locks, but she was still getting the hang of doing it with all the backwards and behind that doing it on yourself in a mirror involved. Her braids kept being lumpy or wobbly. She hadn’t wanted to draw attention to her own insufficiencies at styling her hair, but she’d been able to pull Jasmine aside earlier in the day and get her help, and now every time she looked at the perfectly symmetrical pair of braids in the mirror, she felt ready for anything; her hair was flawless, it wasn’t going to get tangled, and she would have a friend with her. Even if she hadn’t been able to do much else in the way of preparation, that helped her feel ready.

That was, until she saw the wall. Her brain immediately jumped to just climbing, back to gym class. She had never been any good at gym. A lot of other girls hadn’t been either, but they’d got a lot less flack for it than she had because everyone else acknowledged that they were girls, and thus being unable to climb a rope or whatever wasn’t such a big deal. If you were a boy who couldn’t do those things, you got laughed at much, much more. That had always stung double, because it was bad enough that they all insisted she be a boy in the first place, but then she was being laughed at for being bad at it when there was a perfectly good reason for that! Jasmine suggested a door though, and Ellie remembered that this was a magic challenge, and of course they were expected to really… avoid the wall, more than anything. That was a relief, even if she couldn’t think of much to offer. She had learnt to float things, and was working on magic carpets but that was still very much a work in progress. She could levitate her t-shirts now, and had tried making one of her teddy bears sit on it, but the second she let go, the bear’s weight had pulled the garment back down to earth. Or bed. But either way, nothing she was floating would get them over that wall. She liked Jasmine’s idea, but she definitely couldn’t make a door because even Jasmine seemed to think that would be difficult, and she was a fifth year, so she didn’t even nod or anything, just in case anyone thought she was saying she thought it was possible, because she actually didn’t know, and just trusted that the older kids would figure it out and let her know if she could be at all helpful, which still seemed doubtful.

OOC - braiding approved by Jasmine.

13 Ellie Alperton It's better than what I've got 1456 Ellie Alperton 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

August 16, 2019 10:00 PM

I can do the help. by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie was excited for the challenges for two reasons. First, she was generally pretty comfortable with physical challenges, so the first one seemed like a really good starting place; she spent a lot of time in physical activities at home, so this would be a nice way to revisit that at school. Secondly, she could bring what she wanted, which meant she could focus on helping her teammates. While she wasn't in any way qualified to really help with anything serious, she could watch. Physical challenges almost always came with their fair share of cuts, scrapes, sprains, and breaks, and those were all things she was used to seeing. Either she would be able to help with her bag full of basic healing potions, bandages, etc., and a week of preparation practicing Cushioning Charms and the like, or she'd be able to watch in the Hospital Wing afterwards. She almost hoped she'd break a bone or something tragic so that she could watch how they would heal it here. Of course, she didn't really want to break any bones.

She met her team in Cascade Hall and made her way out with them when it was their turn. She didn't understand most of their conversation, but she didn't try. Nerves had replaced the excitement as they drew nearer to the Gardens, and she was beginning to think that she should have gotten something suitable for calming nerves.

Then, they had to get around a wall. How in the heck was she supposed to help with that?

"Ich hätte ein Seil mitbringen sollen," she muttered to herself, disappointed for not thinking of bringing a rope. "I think not that we can . . . do like the . . . " She mimed climbing. "I think not that we can walk it up."

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen I can do the help. 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Cleo James

August 17, 2019 8:02 AM

It's certainly not the worst by Cleo James

‘Prepare for a physical challenge.’ What did that even mean? Cleo had broadly assumed that it meant not to show up wearing high heels and a miniskirt, and as she owned neither of those items, there wasn’t much danger of that. ‘Bring supplies.’ Again, what supplies? She didn’t know what she was working on, so how could she be prepared? Teachers could be very annoying sometimes. It was like revising for exams and being told you should practise everything. You literally couldn’t, so how did you choose?

Cleo had opted for sensible, protective clothing. She wore jeans, a t-shirt, and a long-sleeved flannel shirt over this. Her idea of physical activities was influenced by her hobby, and she’d leant towards what she needed for a day in the allotment, minus the radio and any specific gardening tools. Her gardening gloves were tucked into one pocket because she thought they might be useful as protection, and in the other was a tube of sunscreen and an empty water pouch. She could conjure water that was safe to drink, so figured there was no point weighing herself down but having something to put it in might be useful. Even with featherlight charms and undetectable extension charms on her pockets, she could still feel the items pressing against her legs, and didn’t have any desire for a full water bottle to be amongst them. She had rubbed sunscreen across her nose whilst they waited and offered it to her teammates. She generally spent a lot of time outside, but her skin didn’t tan easily, and the light bronzing she’d got from summer gardening had already faded back. She wondered if it was a part veela trait. It was certainly something she didn’t have in common with her daddy.

Their first obstacle was a climbing wall. They didn’t have time to do much more than stare before Anya was throwing herself up it. Cleo was pretty sure they were meant to use some kind of magic, and it was probably too difficult without and- oh. She was at the top.

Cleo’s ability to be team-oriented was fragile at best. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about others, it was just not something that came naturally. She was an only child, which had probably not helped much in the whole process and gave her a solid streak of selfishness, and of expecting to be put first. That impacted her ability to work well in a group if there was disagreement. In terms of negotiating solutions though, it was more a tendency not to put herself forward. She preferred just to let people do their own thing and didn’t see it as her business to get them doing something else. She had been stepping slightly outside those boxes by running gardening club, which required her to delegate roles and to try to match things to people’s skill level, but her style tended to be letting people do what they wanted and check in with her if they needed help. Therefore, Anya breaking ranks and just trying to solve the problem her way was all it took for any notions of having a discussion to fade to the back of Cleo’s mind. She followed Anya’s lead, figuring that if a first year could climb the wall, she could. She wasn’t the most athletic but she’d climbed on things in playgrounds as a child, and she was decently toned because gardening was a pretty physical activity. Admittedly, it didn’t have to be with magic on your side, but they couldn’t use too much of that at home without drawing attention. Even at school, Cleo often gardened by hand. There were different types of tired - using too much magic left you feeling drained, but doing something physical… it wore your muscles out but it also strengthened them at the same time. Maybe there was some theory that said it was the same the more you practised hard magic, but Cleo preferred the feeling of having used her muscles. She also found that she slept well after she’d been active.

She got about halfway up the wall before finding that her toes were really scrabbling, struggling to get a grip on the tiny projection beneath them. She looked up for another handhold because the one she had a grip on wasn’t helping much and found they seemed very far away. She dropped to the crashmat.

“A rope might help,” she admitted to Anya, surprised that the first year had managed what she couldn’t. “As would making some of these a bit bigger,” she added, taking out her wand and casting ‘engorgio’ on a couple of the worst hand and foot holds.

13 Cleo James It's certainly not the worst 389 Cleo James 0 5

Jeremy Mordue

August 17, 2019 9:07 AM

Yes, I- we so do by Jeremy Mordue

’I was going to, had been Jeremy’s response to Winston’s direction to bring his own broom. A swift smile and a ’I guess great minds think alike. Captain,’ had followed when he realised he had sounded much more blunt and petulant than he’d meant to. It wasn’t that he thought it was a bad idea. It was just he didn’t want Winston to think he’d been the only one to think of it or that Jeremy was an idiot who couldn’t work out what a simple notice meant. Obviously, if it was physical, then it was going to be related to the skills used in Quidditch, and how could a broom possibly not come in handy for that? At least Winston seemed to know and respect the fact that he was a good flier though. That had been a cornerstone of Jeremy’s introductory speech about his strengths, and whilst he had cheerfully acknowledged that obviously he’d got beaten onto the school squad by the more experienced player, he did actually hold several state records actually. He thought he’d done a decent job of making it clear that he was a really excellent player without crossing any lines about what it was okay to say given that the school’s actual Seeker was sitting there. One of those assumptions was accurate.

He arrived for the challenges dressed in the robes of his favourite team, although they had been customised to have ‘Mordue’ on the back instead. It was a shame he couldn’t wear any of his real uniforms. He had several under-11s uniforms from county level but obviously those didn’t fit him any more. His school strip wasn’t such a point of pride. It didn’t say ‘reserve’ on it, but everyone knew that was what he was. He managed not to glare at the word ‘Seeker’ glowing on Winston’s back, but it was a close thing. His broom was slung casually across his shoulder, the golden letters that marked it out as the most recent model in a very well respected line of racing brooms tilted outwards. Broomstick speeds hadn’t improved much over the last five years - there was only so fast people could go and still be able to keep an eye on what they were doing. However, cornering was where it was really at, especially for Seekers, and reducing weight without impacting on safety and quality. It was the lightest broom that could withstand the Quidditch Federation Gold Standard of two Force Five Bludger Impacts simultaneously. The handle material was also carefully selected based off the wizard’s wand wood in order to ensure maximum compatibility. These facts were now ones of which all of his teammates were aware, as they’d had some time to kill whilst they waited to be called.

Now they were lining up, ready to take on the physical challenge. When the first obstacle was revealed, it was almost laughably easy. In fact, it was actually laughable because Winston was laughing at it, so Jeremy threw in a satisfied chuckle of his own. Even the Mudblood didn’t seem that likely to hold them back. Normally it irked him that they were allowed on the Quidditch team, but right now that turned out to be to their advantage, seeing as it meant the boy knew how to handle a broom. He had no idea what Loren Aalto was good for, but he thought it was pretty pathetic if anyone got to her age and couldn’t manage the simple task of riding a broom.

“Piece of cake,” he assured Winston. He took that as an order to get going, given that they were against the clock, and kicked off. He glided easily over the wall, throwing in a barrel roll just because he could, before descending almost vertically. It was barely even a drop, hard to get any real acceleration going, and so he landed softly in spite of the angle, dismounting with practised ease.

13 Jeremy Mordue Yes, I- we so do 1443 Jeremy Mordue 0 5

Beau Tate

August 17, 2019 4:27 PM

Good by Beau Tate

Beau was less than thrilled about the school Challenges. They seemed like a lot of work and if he put in less than one hundred percent effort, the way he usually did, people other than his parents would be annoyed at him. He seriously did not want that kind of responsibility.

The thing was that Beau really wasn't into competition in general. He wasn't incapable and didn't fear looking inferior, as he knew that if he put effort into something, he'd probably succeed or at least not look stupid. It was that people got too competitive and sucked all the fun out of things. It was that they got mad when you didn't give it your all. It was the responsibility of having others depend on you. All of that had put him off of, for example, playing for the school Quidditch team.

Besides,competition was for those with something to prove. Beau had nothing to prove. He was rich, important, good looking, decently magically powerful and reasonably intelligent. When he didn't ace something, it was because of lack of effort not lack of ability.

And a forced competition that he had no choice about participating in was especially galling given that the fourth year wasn't fond of being told he had to do something.

Still, a physical challenge wasn't going to be an issue for him. Beau may not have been a Quidditch player, but he was strong. The Pecari had spent the summer lifting weights, because he wanted to be muscular. It was all part of the image of coolness that he wanted to portray along with carefully gelled hair and a pair of designer sunglasses. That, along with bringing along his wand and his broom was all the preparation that Beau had done for the first Challenge.

He could not, however, say the same for all of his teammates. The fourth year could tell by the look on Sapphire's face and her general pallor that she could not make it up.

"Don't worry about it." Beau told Johana. " We'll find another way." He thought for a moment. "What about blowing it up with the exploding charm? The maximum version. " He looked at Simon. "The two of us should be able to provide enough strength with them all helping. And it's probably charmed to reassemble for the last team if we destroy it."

11 Beau Tate Good 1416 Beau Tate 0 5

Caitlin Pierce

August 17, 2019 5:42 PM

If we have to by Caitlin Pierce

Caitlin was not the least bit happy that the first challenge was a physical one. She was a proper young lady and athletics were not a skill that it was appropriate for her to master. She did not fly or climb or run, the only physical skills that she had came from dancing as she'd taken ballet as a little girl along with the requisite ballroom. Which admittedly was something that did help with her core strength.

She was also not exactly thrilled to be on the same team as Brett Newell. Or the two first year boys either, but her objection to the Pecari was that he was from a family mired by scandal, something Caitlin could not allow to touch her. That meant not associating with those who were connected to such things. And really, she didn't want to risk coming into contact with non-purebloods either.

But she had no choice. And she had no choice about having to do a physical challenge either. The only silver lining was being on a team with Emerald. It would be nice to get to know the seventh year better. The Crotalus couldn't help envy Sylvia and Katerina who had not only each other but a team full of purebloods in good standing. Though she had to admit grudgingly that Mr. Newell might be an asset on this particular activity. Pecaris generally tended to be athletic.

When she saw the climbing wall, Caitlin wrinkled her nose in disgust. Even for people who had experience with this kind of thing, this looked extremely difficult. And young Mr. Zauberhexen was not helping with his....enthusiasm. She had to fight the urge to hex the Teppenpaw. "I can tell." Caitlin replied dryly.

She turned to Emerald. "Do you have any ideas for getting past this which involve more ingenuity than physical strength or flying?" She would have liked to have done well in these Challenges-at least second, if Winston's team got first, her brother needed this win after the disappointment of not getting Head Boy-but not at the cost of her dignity.

11 Caitlin Pierce If we have to 1415 Caitlin Pierce 0 5

Ness McLeod

August 19, 2019 9:07 AM

But with ribbons....? by Ness McLeod

The notice had said to make whatever preparation they felt was necessary. Ness had made even more frequent trips to the library than usual, if that was possible, and if it wasn't then the Aladren had made just as many as normal but of longer duration and with redirected focus. Kir had been there a lot too. Ness had sort of wanted to know what he was up to but also didn't because a) if they were doing the same kinds of research, Ness wanted the credit for doing it all independently and b) if they weren't, Ness didn't want to have to choose between leaving work undone and copying. The Aladren had hoarded books like a dragon, keeping well out of Kir's sight so that he couldn't even get a hint from the titles, though periodically made sure he noticed this behaviour so he would know that Ness had ideas, and to see if he would be the one to break and to ask. He had not.

Coincidentally though, they had hit upon much the same methodology. Perhaps it wasn't a surprise, given both nature and nurture worked to make them similar. They were both inclined to look to books for answers, although where Kir had taken an overview of what everyone on his team might manage, Ness was slightly more focussed on things that were personally achievable. The Aladren had briefly revised first year topics, more skimming the indexes to check that nothing struck a new chord in the face of this new context, but mostly trusting all that to be mentally filed already. After that, it had been a case of identifying the most useful intermediate spells and practising them repeatedly, even if they hadn't studied them in class yet. Banishing, summoning and switching all fell into that category. They were on the curriculum, but obviously as third years, they were going to be expected to do limited amounts with them. Ness had tried to train across distances and with bigger and bigger objects. Without knowing what they were facing, it was hard to know what to study. Ness was capable of spinning a scenario under which almost anything would be useful, and which just about met the various definitions of physical. A few basic jinxes had been included, with practise for speed and accuracy against increasingly small targets, until Ness had realised that essentially meant training for something very fierce but very tiny, which seemed less likely. There was also cutting with diffindo and exploding with reducto. Ness had given less attention to the latter because it seemed so Malikhi to want to just blow everything up, and the Aladren wanted to solve smart, rather than just resorting to crass tactics like that. With only a week to practise in, and homework on top of that, it had been mostly book revision, with a couple of practical sessions. And, with so many possibilities, it had more been a skimming of a few things than a solid gain in one particular area. Still, it made Ness feel better. Preparation had been asked of them, and preparation had been completed. Big fat check mark.

“Privet," Ness grinned upon seeing Tatiana, this greeting word having been substantially easier to commit to memory. Not that Ness disliked the idea of mastering the harder one - the Aladren kind of wanted to use it just because it was harder - but it had not stayed in there. There was plenty of time to learn though. This learning opportunity was one of the reasons Ness was willing to assume that Tatiana wasn't all bad. Admittedly, the fifth year did not receive academic credit (cashable at the Bank of Ness) for learning Russian, because that had happened to her naturally. Ness wasn't even particularly inclined to credit learning English, as the most obvious reason for that seemed to be circumstances forcing Tatiana rather than active academic desire. However, it did mean that her head was just chock full of stuff Ness did not know. That made being on a team with her relatively interesting, and so long as she didn't turn out to suck at everything or be too prissy to get her dresses dirty, maybe this would be okay. However, Tatiana had showed up wearing ribbons, which was odd, and asking if they knew what they were doing, which was also odd, because there had been a notice. Presumably they had all read the notice because who didn’t read notices? And they wouldn’t know any more than Tatiana. Ness decided it was just conceivable that there could have been more information given to the first person to arrive, and that Tatiana might mean that, and not that she hadn’t read the notice. If she didn’t read notices, there would be no hope for her.

“We know what it said on the notice,” said Ness, deciding to gauge Tatiana’s reaction to this, “Nothing more yet.”

Once they were led outside, the first target was a wall. It was a not-climbing wall because climbing was obviously what you were meant to think and this was about thinking of new ways to tackle what was in front of them. Tatiana mentioned how they should have brought brooms, which would have been somewhat helpful, but a bit of a boring solution that didn’t really need their brains. However, Tatiana had some further ideas. Further ideas which actually sounded workable, and also used spells that Ness knew, but might require two people to do some magic, which was good for getting all their points.

"That's actually a good plan," Ness nodded approvingly as Tatiana made her suggestions. "You should listen to her," the Aladren informed Luke, just in case he had not been going to. People often didn't listen to girls and they needed their voices amplifying to make it happen. Whether having a third year tell him to listen was going to do much than amplify the degree to which they collectively came across as bossy and annoying was another matter.

"You could try summoning brooms while we work on it," the third year pointed out helpfully to the oldest student. At least, Ness would have put that descriptor on it. Ideas were helpful, after all. Telling seventh year boys bluntly what they ought to do maybe wasn't a way to make them particularly like you, but this had not occurred to Ness, who knew that the goal was to reach the finish line collecting as many points as possible, and thus felt that anything contributed towards this goal was going to be regarded by others as a good thing.

"Hmm, what would we switch them with?" the Aladren asked Tatiana. As, having gone across to the wall, wand at the ready, there was suddenly a flaw visible in that plan.

13 Ness McLeod But with ribbons....? 1419 Ness McLeod 0 5

Isaac Song

August 19, 2019 6:02 PM

I like the idea very much by Isaac Song

Since the labyrinth had been closed last night, Isaac knew the first challenge was going to be right outside his common room. It helped prepare him mentally for some kind of outdoorsy challenge. The outdoors always made him think of physically-demanding obstacles or something, so he made sure he got a good night's sleep. He liked his team even though he didn't know the younger years too well. Dorian and Heinrich, he felt like he could count on. Hopefully Julius and Beatriz would prove to be really helpful too.

The first challenge, as Isaac had predicted, was a physical one. He was pretty athletic and didn't doubt that he could be the muscle of the group especially after what Dorian admitted. The challenge itself was going to be an obstacle course that also required them to be creative in coming up with solutions. That was just a given. Luckily, it looked like both Dorian and Heinrich had come prepared with more than just their wands. Isaac was surprised by Heinrich's bag of supplies, and he was curious as to what the German boy had brought. It sounded like a lot of stuff.

Dorian's idea of shrinking the obstacle was brilliant. Isaac smiled. "That's great. Thanks for bringing those potions." Isaac wished he'd thought a little harder about what he could have brought. He hadn't really taken it that seriously, and it wasn't like he knew what to bring or prepare for anyway. A physical challenge to him mostly meant using his body, and he was pretty good at climbing and jumping off stuff and balancing. At least that was an asset he could bring to his team, though it was nothing compared to potions or gardening shears. Surprisingly, those were going to come in handy.

Dorian and Heinrich had come up with an awesome plan, and he told them so. "You guys are great. Sounds like a perfect plan." He shook his head when Heinrich asked what the plants were. "I don't know, but it doesn't look safe. I never took Herbology." Maybe that would be something he'd regret after this challenge when the plants tried to eat them.

"Alright, so if everything goes to plan we'll cut down our time by a ton. I might not look it, but I'm pretty strong so I can do whatever physical things need to be done. I'm also great with spells." He turned to the plants again. "I could try to stun the plants or freeze them and Heinrich, you could cut into them as soon as they're immobile." He raised his wand and pointed it at the freaky-looking plants. "You guys ready to win? Cause I am."

19 Isaac Song I like the idea very much 375 Isaac Song 0 5

Sylvia Mordue

August 20, 2019 9:58 AM

This should go swimmingly by Sylvia Mordue

Sylvia was pleased for her own sake with how the challenge teams had fallen out. She had a team comprising entirely of respectable people, and captained by one of her brother's highly competent and eligible roommates. Admittedly, she would have preferred the chance to prove herself stunningly brilliant and capable to Winston Pierce, but as he was her best friend's brother and her brother's best friend, the chances of seemingly casual encounters were far higher. Hopefully they would also all compare notes, and though she suspected her brilliance would be downplayed so as not to overshadow the captain (because if she’d been a seventh year boy she certainly wouldn’t admit to having had a fourth year girl running the show), Winston would still get a positive impression of her. The reverse - that if she should fail, at least it would not be in front of Winston - did not occur, both for the reason that she was sure Victor and his roommates would talk about the challenges afterwards, and because failure was simply not an option. She thought the bigger issue might be not stepping on Victor's toes. She was well aware that girls with ideas were often regarded as bossy, and the actual challenge was going to be making sure she came across as intelligent and capable without crossing that line. It was highly frustrating because she was simply better at most things than both Simon and, though she would have been gentler and more hesitant to admit it in his case, Nathaniel. Obviously, she was better than Jeremy, but that was easy to handle because no one expected her to be worse than him at this stage given that he was both younger than her and, even if no one wanted to say it directly and out loud, an idiot and a liability.

She was working on Winston in her freetime though, and so this was a good chance to get to know Victor. He was, in spite of also being Simon’s roommate, somehow more of an outlier in that group. Perhaps it was because of his sibling. If there had been a sweet little Callahan girl to room with her and Caitlin, it would have been just perfect, and all of them would have been well-connected to each other. But instead, there was Jehan. Sylvia wasn't sure whether he had always been a bit peculiar or whether being absorbed by the strange clique of overly-emotional foreigners had done it, but Sylvia couldn't say she found him particularly worthy of her time and attention (a loss that would have no doubt been devastating had he had the faintest idea it had ever occurred). Still, regardless of his slightly weird brother, Victor was nonetheless rich, handsome and, as far as she knew, available, the first two of which were how she liked boys to be and the third of which was only negated once both parties had a ring on.

In everything that it had gifted her in a team though, the universe seemed determined to take it back out on poor Nate. Nate had no one on his team with whom she would ever expect him to associate outside of a mandated school activity. The worst part of it being that his captain was the illegitimate head boy - the fact that Kir had been born inside wedlock and won the vote of the student body fair and square did nothing to assuage Sylvia’s feeling that that title applied to him twice over. His family was beyond disgusting and clearly the vote shouldn’t have counted because it was wrong. Now Nate had to be associated with that. Simon and Jeremy had both fared reasonably well, getting the mixed bag that seemed to be the standard. Jeremy had Winston though. She wasn’t sure which of them, if any, Jeremy was capable of listening to but she had made sure that Simon knew to make sure Nathaniel knew to make sure Jeremy knew that if he did anything to embarrass them, her father would be severely displeased with them.

The challenge had said to be prepared for something physical. Sylvia always was. She swam regularly to keep herself toned and physically fit. She studied hard because it was important to be intelligent and well-accomplished. She wasn’t sure what more could be needed of her other than dressing practically and bringing her wand, because obviously she would be able to match any obstacles that the school saw fit to throw into the path of first year Muggleborns. She was a fourth year Pureblood. The idea of letting people bring supplies was just another of the pathetic panderings by the school to the liberals, and their misplaced ideas about ‘levelling playing fields.’. It was a competition. It was meant to be competitive. The best people were meant to win, and having grown up around magic naturally meant she would be better at a magical challenge than those who had not. Why set challenges if you were just going to try to make it so that everyone could do the same? She wondered whether there would be pats on the back and participation trophies for everyone so that no one’s little feelings got hurt. How was any of that supposed to prepare people for the real world? In the real world, there were winners and losers. The winners were the strong and the capable. What use was it turning out a bunch of adults who couldn’t stand the idea that sometimes they wouldn’t be first?

When they were put into the obstacle course, she surveyed the first item. A wall. Clearly, they needed to magic that out of the way because there was no way they would be scrambling over it. She wondered whether Victor was powerful enough to vanish it. He was rather on the short side, and Sylvia wasn’t sure if he had it in him or whether she would really be able to wear heels if they dated. She had some experience of using ‘reducto’ and he presumably had even more. They could also just obliterate the weeds around the thing and squeeze around. Sylvia considered how she ought to go about making suggestions at all, and how to make the proposition of destroying everything in their path with fire sound appropriately ladylike.

“As the notice said, we do better if you utilise all members of your team,” she pointed out diplomatically. “It seems to me that we would certainly be equal to the task of clearing some of those weeds and thus making a path around the side,” she indicated herself and Katerina principally for the ‘we’ though she supposed Ms. Priory might manage a bit as well. “Incendio would certainly do the trick and be very fast,” she laughed, because naming a spell and making it sound like a joke certainly sounded more delicate than just proposing they set everything on fire. “But diffindo might be neater.”

13 Sylvia Mordue This should go swimmingly 1413 Sylvia Mordue 0 5

Nicolas DiCaprio

August 20, 2019 5:10 PM

Putting out an idea by Nicolas DiCaprio

As if getting to know his fellow classmates wasn't hard enough, he was being thrown into these challenges with a brand new group of people. Only one of them was in his year, but Nico could see that they were very different people. He appreciated Friederike's enthusiasm though. It helped pump him up too and made him excited for the competition.

The first challenge was physical, and Nico dressed accordingly in lighter and more flexible clothing. He had been one of the fastest runners in his grade back in elementary school too, so if speed was a necessity, he could carry the team. As for supplies, Nico really didn't know what to bring besides his wand. He had filled his backpack with some things that might be helpful in an obstacle course, like water, a really long rope that he'd had Mikey transfigure for him (and he hoped that wasn't cheating), and extra socks. He would have brought his multi-tool pocket knife, but Dad told him to leave it at home since weapons weren't allowed at school.

Nico perceived his team to be split by proud, fashionable girls and, well, boys. He didn't know Brett or Friederike well at all and the girls even less. He just hoped that they'd be able to pull it together enough to win some challenges and stay number one not only by name but by rank. Nico could get pretty competitive when he started getting invested in something. At least this challenge wasn't all about social graces and stuff. He was good at physical things and thinking on his feet. He hoped it would be enough to help his team a lot.

In the gardens, his eyes widened at the climbing wall. It looked like the wall at the rock climbing gym back home. He and his family had gone bouldering a couple times, but Nico usually preferred scaling a higher wall with the climbing rope securing him. He glanced at his other teammates to see how they were feeling about this. Friederike was super excited, but Caitlin seemed less than enthused by both the other first year and the wall. She asked the other girl, Emerald, if she had any ideas, so Nico kept his own thoughts to himself.

As he looked at it, he thought about using the rope, but he doubted it would be helpful here. His knowledge of spells was greater than some of his peers because he had an older brother who liked to talk about everything he was learning. Nico's skill level was still average for a first year though, so he couldn't perform the spells himself. But if Emerald or Brett could use a spell to cut through or burn all the vegetation and shrink the wall, it would make it much easier to climb or hurdle over. With two of them shrinking the wall together, Nico thought they'd be able to shrink the wall much easier and faster. The other idea was flying, but Caitlin seemed opposed to it.

"Um, I have one idea," he piped up quietly. "We could cut through all the vegetation with the Severing Charm and use the Shrinking Charm on the wall so we can all get over it easier." His heart was beating fast just from talking out loud like this, but he kept pushing through. "I can't do the charms myself cause we haven't learned them yet, but if someone else knows how to do it..." He trailed off, trying to read the expressions on the faces of his teammates. Was it a good idea? Horrible idea? Maybe he was being too naive. He thought his idea was pretty great, but maybe someone had one that was even better and easier. He shifted the backpack on his back, waiting for someone to say something.

19 Nicolas DiCaprio Putting out an idea 1458 Nicolas DiCaprio 0 5

Ivy Brockert

August 20, 2019 7:09 PM

And we're on the board by Ivy Brockert

Ivy had had a rough time last year but now, she wanted to put that behind her. She couldn't change it, she had to just move on...and hope she got Head Girl. Of course, being Head Girl wasn't the same. Head Student, while sounding more impressive, was basically a popularity contest at Sonora whereas being prefect meant the approval of her teachers.

Of course, most people would probably care more about the approval of their peers. Natalie was sure happy enough but that was more because getting Head Girl was something Kelsey had not done than a desire for the approval of her classmates. The Pecari had beaten her sister and Ivy understood how much that meant to her. Kelsey was a lot to live up to and the sixth year couldn't imagine how hard that had to be on Natalie and Ivy was really happy for her-and Peyton- though felt bad that she didn't have the kind of relationship with her sister that Ivy had with Vlad or even Lavender.

However, for now, Ivy was going to focus on the Challenges. It was just unfortunate that the first one tested physical skill, which wasn't one of her strong points. She could fly if she had to, but it wasn't something she especially shined at. Ingenuity, however, was something that was more up her alley. At least, she hoped so. She would rather like to win. Ivy really felt she had something to prove.

In preparation, Ivy had written her cousins who'd all done the Challenges before, particularly Ryan and the twins whose teams had done especially well. They had written back detailing their own events but the overall message was that the Challenges were different each time and what worked for them might not help her a bit. Ryan in particular wasn't even sure how his team had so well but that was Ryan, always confused by success. Aunt Pearl-and Carrie-had done a real number on his self-esteem.

Anyway, in the end, Ivy had ended up bringing her wand, an old broom of Tristan's that was still in good condition, her textbooks, and some potions that might come in handy.

She arrived in the Gardens at the appointed time. Ivy looked up at the wall. She wasn't experienced in climbing but she didn't get the impression that they were supposed to climb it. "We could use descendo to knock the wall over." The Teppenpaw suggested "Or diminuendo to shrink it." She looked at her teammates. "Does anyone else have any ideas?"

11 Ivy Brockert And we're on the board 394 Ivy Brockert 0 5

Freddie Zauberhexen

August 20, 2019 7:12 PM

I like it! by Freddie Zauberhexen

If Freddie noticed any signs of distaste from Caitlin, it didn't register with him. He wasn't entirely sure what all her words meant, but her tone was short and she turned away from him almost immediately. Instead of letting it bother him, he wrote her off as mostly a lost cause and moved on. If she wasn't having fun, he wasn't going to try to force it. That wasn't nice at all.

Then Freddie's own classmate spoke up and Freddie understood a bit more. He grinned at Nicolas and retrieved some corn nuts from his bag, offering some to the other boy before taking some for himself.

"Shrink," Freddie agreed, recognizing the odd word from his textbooks and some of his classes. It was also a spell he'd seen his parents use, although he wasn't sure how they used it. He popped the nuts in his mouth and stepped away for a moment to crunch them - they were terribly loud - as he considered the wall.

It was very high and shrinking it would take a lot of effort, even if the whole team was able to contribute. Since they couldn't all contribute, and since he wasn't sure whether Caitlin was just grumpy at this particular activity or if something else was bothering her, he wasn't sure whether it would be feasible. Still, it was their best idea so far. Actually, their only idea so far. Unfortunately, the Severing Charm was also above his own level and he would really be very little help in that department.

However, climbing was a strength. "Other idea also," Freddie began, trying to decide whether this was worth proposing since it wasn't great on the teamwork aspect of this whole thing. "I would climb - I climb at home and this would be . . . I think that I can do it - and if we have rope or vine . . . but I could not pull everyone up." He grimaced, realizing that he'd only had half an idea. "I guess that maybe would not work."

22 Freddie Zauberhexen I like it! 1452 Freddie Zauberhexen 0 5

Ruby Brockert

August 21, 2019 3:54 PM

I'm sure you have something by Ruby Brockert

Usually, Ruby was a very positive person who always saw the best in everyone and everything. However, she didn't really like sports and physical activities. She had only ever done anything physical, other than flying lessons her first year and the ballroom dancing that all purebloods took, when she'd done "boy things" with her brother Jasper because he usually had to do "girl" things due to the fact that he had five sisters and only one male cousin to play with as the other boys were too little yet. Though Olaf was getting to an age where he might be able to play more.

And an age where Uncle Eustace would start putting him on a broom and try to make him into a Quidditch player. As much as Ruby didn't like to think badly of anyone, odds were more likely that her uncle would bully Olaf to the point where the young boy wanted nothing to do with the sport as he had Jasper and Christopher. Ruby's younger brother was much more interested in knights and chivalry since he usually ended up playing one who defended the princesses (herself, Sapphire and Amethyst and occasionally Allegra, Esme and Isla though not Esme so much anymore and sometimes Isla liked to play the good sorceress who helped Jasper)from the evil sorceress (Topaz who was generally unaware what they were doing). Now Jasper wanted to protect people from evil. The fifth year generally saw this as a positive thing even if she didn't like that they were characterizing their sister as such.

Anyway, most of Ruby's preparation for this Challenge had involved transfiguring various articles of clothing into ones more suitable for physical activities and attempting to soothe Allegra's and Sapphire's anxieties. As for what she'd brought, she just had her wand.

When she got to place in the Gardens where the Challenge was taking place, she realized that maybe her sister and cousin had good reason to worry. That wall looked impossible to climb. "That's not a bad idea." Ruby replied to Jasmine. "Or we could try conjuring a door. Maybe all three of us together can do it." She indicated Flo, before turning to the two younger girls. "I'm sure there's things you guys can help with too." She added, even though Ruby was unsure of what those things were. The Teppenpaw was used to taking care of people and doing things to help them so she wasn't accustomed to knowing how they could help. "I mean this isn't going to be the only obstacle." Obstacle course indicated that there was more than one thing they had to get past, much to her distaste.

Not to mention she was worried about how Allegra and Sapphire were handling things. "I'm open to other ideas but preferably ones that don't involve having to climb that."

11 Ruby Brockert I'm sure you have something 1405 Ruby Brockert 0 5

Lyssa Fitzgerald

August 22, 2019 9:10 PM

Need to get by Lyssa Fitzgerald

"What would Parker do?" was how Lyssa had oriented herself when she went to prepare for the challenge. Or she guessed, "what would Parker do if they were home and he was going out on one of his alone time in nature adventures?" After all, there had been very little information to work on and simply saying a "physical challenge" and "supplies" made her think of Parker.

This in itself annoyed her a bit. She had sat on her bed for an hour trying to think of examples of women she'd learned about or knew who might fall into the outdoor adventure category and the only one that came to mind was Annie Oakley. She'd made a note in her notebook to remedy that after this challenge. Then she got down to preparing making lists her notebook, crossing things out, adding them as the time presented them.

Still as she stood waiting for their turn it didn't seem like she'd brought that much. Dressed in jeans, a T she was willing to get dirty, and hiking shoes, she'd only brought her wand, her notebook, sunglasses and her brothers broom. He'd said he wasn't planning on using it, and it seemed like the best thing to bring, so she'd borrowed it from him... without really asking.

"Thanks." she said to Cleo when offered sunblock. Though Lyssa did tan, it was only after turning bright red, and she didn't want to do that today, or more importantly, didn’t want to experience that tomorrow.

The first obstacle was a wall surrounded by some nasty looking plants.

“So what…” Lyssa was unable to finish her sentence as the young girl who had been upset about her name ran at the wall. Lyssa, who liked to think herself fit was impressed with the speed and agility Anya had getting up the wall.

Then she saw Cleo go for the wall. Lyssa could feel the oil from the sunscreen on her hands and new that she would not be climbing the wall. At least, not like Anya. Lyssa squinted one eye closed knowing what was going to happen next. As soon as she saw Cleo slip Lyssa moved to help her off the ground where she’d land.

“You ok Cleo? Anything" Lyssa looked at Cleo on the ground "… hurt?” She moved out of the way quickly as Cleo waved her wand. Lyssa bit her bottom lip. She hadn’t thought about making the hand holds bigger, then again she was still getting used to all the things she could do with magic.

“Any spell to make our hands less oily?” Lyssa asked Cleo softly before turning up towards Anya. “You have any rope on you or something to tie it to up there? Or were you thinking we use the mean looking vine over there?” she said pointing her wand nonchalantly to the left of the wall where she could see poison ivy and something… meaner.

41 Lyssa Fitzgerald Need to get 1421 Lyssa Fitzgerald 0 5

Zara Jackson

August 23, 2019 9:04 AM

And I'm on board with this! by Zara Jackson

Zara was pretty intrigued by the whole challenge thing that school had going on this year. She had wanted to come to school because she had thought it would be something of an adventure and give her opportunities to do things she wouldn't get the chance to at home. This was definitely ticking that box. She was also pretty pleased with her team - she didn't know enough about most people in the school to have strong feelings about where she ended up, but she'd been keen to get know Jezebel since noticing her in class. Also, fond of Felipe though Zara was, it was sort of fun that they'd got put on different teams so they got to meet new people.

The super vague notice of vagueness had told them that the challenge would be physical. Given that they were allowed to bring whatever they wanted, Zara had looked into non-magical options. Technically, Muggle studies was a class, so they might get subject specific points, but that was a lesser consideration than just proving a point.

She wasn't sure that point was going to prove that easy to demonstrate though. When she thought through the kinds of science kits they sold in the gift shop at the Cultural Centre it was all things like potato clocks or mini solar panels. It was science you could do on the kitchen table, the kind that made you go ‘Wow! Look! Science!’ It introduced ideas and made them simple and fun, but that wasn’t the same as making it actually useful. There was a lot of cool non-magical stuff that would have helped clear obstacles, like dynamite or high powered lasers, but obviously she couldn't get her hands on those. The most applicable thing she could think of was moving stuff. She had written home and got hold of some pulleys and ropes. She had a stick they could enlarge and strengthen to make a good lever. Her mom had some non-magical tools like drills and hammers, and they got a fair use too because her dad was always enthusiastic about having a go the non-magical way but she knew they were slow. She had pocketed a screwdriver set anyway, just in case, because that seemed to be the thing that came in handy most often. However, unless there was a bike riding competition, she wasn't sure her non-magical knowledge was going to come up.

The first obstacle was a wall, which definitely wasn’t going to be leverable out of the way, and the pulleys and ropes she had were more for moving things than people - she wasn’t sure how you would rig them safely for this, or whether it was even possible to. Ivy started giving out ideas. Those were both quick if they worked. But it was an ‘if’ - on a target that big, it’d probably take some co-ordination and a few attempts. Zara glanced at the discarded broom. Flying each of them over and then having one of the older kids summon it back would also work, and probably more consistently because summoning should have been pretty easy for the two oldest. There was that saying ‘slow and steady wins the race’ - but then, making multiple attempts to shrink the wall, and getting a bit better each time would sort of fit that. Maybe. And Zara had never been the most patient person anyway.

“Shrinking it might make most sense. We should be able to see whether it’s working, whereas isn’t knocking it down kind of all or nothing? Also, we’ve done shrinking charms, so we’d be able to help, and it’s more likely to work if we all hit it all together. Or some of us could start flying over whilst you,” she gestured at the older students, “try shrinking it - that way, if it doesn’t work, we’ve started moving people.”

13 Zara Jackson And I'm on board with this! 1444 Zara Jackson 0 5

Dorian Montoir

August 23, 2019 10:02 AM

Phew by Dorian Montoir

Dorian was intrigued as Heinrich’s bag went down with a distinctive thud. It made him feel reassured to know that someone else had prepared, and by the sounds of it pretty thoroughly - both because prepared was what they were supposed to be and because his own had felt like he was striving to make up for inadequacies; he did not feel Heinrich had such inadequacies, and therefore the fact that Heinrich had seemed to feel the need to prepare was somehow reassuring that his own preparation was merely logical and not just a sign of him being dead weight. Or something. Maybe it was because he just like preparation. It made him feel safer. He didn’t know what was coming but he knew they had plenty to throw at it.

Heinrich seemed to be in a more cheerful mood that Dorian had seen him before, and Dorian made sure to return his smile, and give an appreciative little nod to show that he had both heard and enjoyed the fact that Heinrich had made a joke using his less confident language, and in particular using the idioms of that language to make the joke. Dorian knew how much it could feel like putting yourself out on a limb to try and get non-literal in English. He joked with his friends, but not much outside of that.

He continued to very much enjoy Heinrich’s contributions as they faced the first obstacle. He was staring at the wall, wondering whether brute strength from a bottle was going to be enough for him to get up it when Heinrich pointed something out. Other side. Not necessarily over.

“This is true,” he confirmed, with a relieved grin. And the best part was, Isaac seemed okay with this too. Isaac, in fact, was thanking him for bringing potions. Isaac had used the word ‘great’ about his and Heinrich’s contributions twice.

“You’re welcome,” he managed reflexively in response to being thanked. “It’s not… I was just…” he wanted to say that it wasn’t a big deal, and that he’d just been making up for what he lacked, but he was aware that any kind of rambling wasted valuable time, and he was very bad at not just going off on a tangent, especially when he was feeling awkward, so he just sort of shrugged at the ground, but looked sort of pleased that Isaac seemed pleased with him.

“It can bite,” Dorian stated when asked the plant’s name. He recognised it, but he had only ever read its name and was hesitant to attempt pronouncing it out loud. What it was going to do to them was probably more relevant than what it was called anyway. “And the bite is… like a snake. It will put poison in you.”

For a second, he was almost feeling good. They had a plan. A plan in which, by some complete fluke, he was actually useful, and in which he didn’t have to go too near the venomous tentacular, and no one was yelling at him to get over the wall or just toughen up and be able to do it. And then Isaac asked if they were ready to win. Dorian’s baseline for this not being a disaster was that he didn’t die, either due to the obstacles themselves or the sheer humiliation. Getting through it was the goal. Being anything but dead weight seemed like a dizzy and unattainable height. Now Isaac wanted them to all be winners.

“Um, I’ll try,” he stumbled through the words, and knew as soon as he’d said them, his voice sounding awkward and deflated, that he hadn’t sounded committed. Hadn’t sounded like a winner.

“Anyway… wall…” he mumbled. He fumbled, feeling like he took an embarrassingly long time to unfasten his satchel strap (though in reality it was barely noticeable - it was just his fingers felt clumsy all of a sudden). He extracted the shrinking solution and dropped it experimentally on the nearest bit of wall. It buckled, drawing inwards, the grain of the wood visibly distorting as if someone had pinched it where he’d dripped the potion. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he just poured the whole thing down the wall at once - whether it would shrink as much as it was possible to shrink it and then whether there was a risk that excess would be wasted. He had expected they would face fairly big things, and so he had brought quite a lot of potion but he didn’t want to waste any, just in case. He reached higher, pouring a small stream down. That part of the wall seemed to knit together. When he poured more potion down the same part, it seemed to have less effect. Perhaps that part was already as shrunken as it could be. He placed the bottle as close to the edge as he could get without getting too near the plants and poured, dragging the bottle in a horizontal line as he did so, and watching with satisfaction as the wall visible contracted, like a fan being folded, a gap starting to appear at the side.

13 Dorian Montoir Phew 1401 Dorian Montoir 0 5

Anya

August 23, 2019 12:33 PM

Two steps forward and one step back by Anya

“I got rope!” Anya called down when asked. She opened her bag and pulled out the climbing rope and harness. Oh! That might help the others, too! “Hey, have any of you used a climbing harness before?” she asked, holding the item in question up for them to see. “There’s also my broom down there,” she added, pointing at it.

She took out one of her pitons and drove it into the top of the wall. Looping the rope around it, she dropped both ends down. She gave a tug to assure the piton and rope were secure enough to hold a climber’s weight, then carefully rose to stand on the top of the wall.

Pausing only long enough to make sure that Cleo was clear of the crashpad, Anya jumped off, doing two flips along the way because why not? She landed safely, the way her gymnastics instructors taught her to land when hitting crash mats from great heights. She grinned at her team with a bright smile of perfect joy and scrambled up, grabbing her bag from where it had fallen, and pulling out the harness again.

“Here, we have two brooms,” she said, nodding at the one Lyssa was carrying, “and one climbing harness, and I can just climb it without gear, and there’s the rope now, if someone wants to try climbing with just that and magically bigger holds to help, so that should get all of us up and over, right? I can belay the harness climber from down here so they don’t fall, and then follow you all up.” She grinned and bounced in eager excitement. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.“

And okay, true, her mountain climbing experience was mostly self taught, aided by internet how-to videos, but she wasn’t dead yet, and neither had she killed Philippe, so she thought that counted for a lot. And the only time she’d broken a bone climbing was one of the times when she hadn’t been using the proper gear, so it should be fine.

Besides, this little wall was small potatoes next to the cliffs at home.

1 Anya Two steps forward and one step back 1453 Anya 0 5

Jasmine

August 23, 2019 1:26 PM

We’re all fabulous by Jasmine

Jasmine nodded in agreement to Ruby’s assertion that ideas that did not involve climbing were preferable. The idea of climbing mostly gave Jasmine flashbacks to seeing her sister falling from one cliff or tree or another. This wall at least had mats, so there was that cushion of safety, but she’d rather avoid falling altogether, thanks just the same.

She was pleased that her idea seemed well received, but she belatedly realized the problem with it. “I don’t suppose anyone knows what the spell word for transfiguring or conjuring a door into the wall would be?”

It wouldn’t be as clean or pretty, but there was another option that she did know how to do. “Or we could just blast a hole through it using reducto, if we don’t know how to do the door thing,” she put out tentatively as another alternative.

“Have you learned the severing charm yet?” she asked the younger girls, following Ruby’s lead in trying to include them. She was pretty sure that had been a beginner charm, but Ellie was only a first year, and hadn’t gotten very far into the curriculum yet. Cristabel, in second year, had probably seen it by now though. “That could maybe help us by making weak spots in the wall. Or,” she looked back to Ruby and Flo, “we could all do severing charms and just slice a door shaped hole into the wall that we could just walk right through to the other side.”

1 Jasmine We’re all fabulous 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Heinrich

August 23, 2019 5:08 PM

Standing here by Heinrich

They bite, like snakes with poison. Wonderful. But Isaac was going to immobilize them, so he could chop their heads off. Great. He was so going to wind up in the infirmary today. But he nodded in agreement to the plan. Isaac was a seventh year and great with spells. Maybe it would work out all right. “Yes. Immobile then cut. Yes. I do this.” He flexed his shears to show he knew he had the cutting half of that plan.

Heinrich smiled a bit at Isaac’s rallying cry. Dorian’s response wasn’t quite as inspiring, but Heinrich chimed in, “I am ready to win!” He played just enough Quidditch to know this was the appropriate response regardless of accuracy. “Let us do this!”

And they did. Dorian started shrinking the wall, Isaac cast at the plants, immobilizing them, and Heinrich darted in with his shears, chopping off plant bits with fangs before quickly retreating until Isaac froze the next one. And then, between the wall shrinking, and plants getting sheared apart, Heinrich abruptly realized it was clear enough for his next retreat to be toward the other side of the wall. He was a bit smaller than Isaac, so another few darting snips were necessary before the opening was big enough for him to pass through, but soon enough they had a clear path, and Heinrich’s only scratch was from a sharp spot along the wall rather than one of the plants. “Watch out there,” he cautioned before the others came across. “Sharp.”

He also thought he must have brushed through the poison ivy - he’d been a lot more concerned about poisoned plant fangs than he was about the itchy weed so most of his chopping had been in regards to the more immediate threat and the rest he just trampled over - but usually the itch could be avoided if it was cleaned fast enough, so he cast Scourgify on himself and on each of his teammates’ legs as they reached his side of the wall. He cast it one more time on his shears before returning them to his bag.

Once his bag was closed and secure again, he turned his attention to the next obstacle, wondering was kind of open ended vagueness might confront them next.

“Stand here,” he read, and there really didn’t seem to be terribly much room for misinterpretation or creative alternatives to that so he stood there. He liked the simple directness of it.

1 Heinrich Standing here 1414 Heinrich 0 5

Topaz Brockert

August 23, 2019 6:03 PM

rolls eyes by Topaz Brockert

Topaz was not really pleased with the idea of a physical challenge, not because she was completely incapable like Allegra and Sapphire but because it was a stupid thing to challenge them with. Challenges should be about things that worthwhile, which meant intelligence and magical ability. To make a challenge athletic was to appeal to baser, cruder ways like those of Uncle Eustace. Let them play Quidditch and not force everyone else to stoop to that level.

However, ingenuity was also mentioned and to have ingenuity one also had to have brains. Of course, the problem was that on her team only she and Winston and possibly Jeremy had any. Slimey had none obviously and Loren probably didn't either being that she was a Pecari. Topaz had never known any of them to be bright. Of course, she was mostly going by the two in her year and Uncle Eustace. Odds were that the third year was the smartest person on her team, but that would have been the case no matter who her teammates were.

As for preparation, Topaz had brought her wand, her textbooks (which she'd shrunk to be able to carry more easily) and several poisons she'd concocted, as one never knew when a good poison would come in handy and a knife she used to chop up things in Potions. Topaz also had vials of Barufflio's Brain Elixer to hand out to her teammates so they'd be smarter.

She joined the rest of her team in the Hall at the allotted time and went with them to the course. The first thing she saw was a large wall. Her lips curled into a cruel smile. While Topaz wasn't exactly excited to do this, Allegra was going to hate it. The other third year would probably freak out. Maybe she'd even cry and humiliate herself in front of her team and she certainly wouldn't be able to climb it. Allegra's team was going down . Ditto Sapphire and hers.

As she took the broom from Winston, Topaz rolled her eyes. Figures a team with three Quidditch players and another Pecari would want to fly."I certainly can, but wouldn't it be more impressive to use a spell? I mean, it's a large wall, so it might be difficult to say vanish it or transfigure it into something smaller. We could try gouging a hole in it or shrinking it." She looked over at the plants on either side. "I also have some really good poisons that would kill those plants and we could just walk around."

Unfortunately, while she was speaking Jeremy had taken off and flown over the wall.Topaz sighed. It was going to be a long year.

11 Topaz Brockert *rolls eyes* 1427 Topaz Brockert 0 5

Ellie

August 24, 2019 12:05 AM

Okay! by Ellie

Ellie nodded, giving Ruby a small smile as she said she was sure the two tiny Aladren girls would come in useful later. She wasn’t super convinced but maybe. After all, the school wanted them all to participate, so maybe they would throw in some easy stuff for the first years to do. She appreciated that Ruby was being nice, and no one seemed too worried about having beginners along for the ride.

“Yes,” she responded quietly when Jasmine asked about the severing charm. “On some small things.” She could cut paper. She could cut paper pretty darn well. She had read that variations of it could be used for improving the speed and precision achievable in making paper decorations, and had practised by trying out her first string of paper dolls in what felt like forever. They had been substantially wonkier than she was capable of doing by hand but she was making progress. She was pretty sure that anything she inflicted upon the wall would be a surface level wound at best, and would not even achieve Jasmine’s goal of creating a weak spot. It would probably be better to leave it up to the big kids, for this one. Hopefully, like Ruby had said, there’d be something for her to do later. Though, of course, if Jasmine really wanted her to scratch at the wall with her severing charms, she would do it.

It seemed the main work of defeating the wall was going to fall to the older students, so Ellie looked around, trying to think of other ways to be helpful. The crashmat was sort of amusing, given that they were talking about smashing the wall out of the way. Which begged the question, why was it there? She supposed other students might try climbing but it felt more like a red herring than anything. It also reminded her of some fairy stories she’d read, where the heroines collected useful things as they went - combs that sprouted forests, ribbons that turned to rivers and so on. Ordinarily, they were gifted these things by a wise parent or for being good, but the more recent Disney films had taught her that it was perfectly okay for a princess to make her own luck.

“Hey,” she asked Jasmine, when the older girl didn’t seem busy, “Can we take this?” she nudged the crashmat with her toe, “We did shrinking, but not on anything this big. It might be useful though, right?”

13 Ellie Okay! 1456 Ellie 0 5

Cleo

August 24, 2019 12:39 AM

We still have one person on the wall by Cleo

“I’m fine,” Cleo assured Lyssa with a smile. The crashmat had been perfectly adequate to break her fall and it wasn’t like she’d got a long way up the wall anyway.

“Yeah, there’s the noble and ancient spell of wiping them on your pants,” she laughed, when Lyssa asked about making their hands less oily. “I mean, I guess tergeo or maybe scourgify would do it too,” she offered, pretty sure that the third year would have covered at least one of those charms, “But I’m always hesitant to use spells on my own skin unless I’m sure,” she added, wiping her hands against her clothes instead. “I’m also pretty sure that’s not the only reason I fell.

“I don’t recommend trying to get help from a venemous tentacular,” she added, when Lyssa nodded towards the vines. She was probably joking, but better safe than sorry, “Even if you cut it and stop it being able to bite, there’s still plenty of poison in its thorns.”

Luckily, Anya seeed to have actual ropes. Cleo blinked in surprise as she pulled out a bunch of climbing gear and as she also came back down on their side of the wall, which seemed like a bad idea to Cleo given that the goal was to get everyone over. She wasn’t sure what ‘belay’ meant and although the climbing harness looked pretty self-explanatory, it seemed overkill for a small wall. Anya had said something about using the rope for grip and the magically bigger handholds, which were things that made sense to Cleo. She gave a few more waves of her wand to make sure all the holds were chunky, and began to climb, trusting that the options listed meant there was something for everyone.

There were a couple of dicey moments - the holds were still pretty far apart, and she had only made them bigger, not necessarily easier to grip or stand on. But with a rope to help, she made it to the top. She perched astride the small flat top of the wall for a moment, contemplating how to get down, and also surveying any team mates that were still on the first side.

“Anything I can do from up here?” she asked.

13 Cleo We still have one person on the wall 389 Cleo 0 5

Kir

August 24, 2019 1:27 AM

Maybe with a few caveats? by Kir

Parker was checking on Nathaniel. Parker had textbooks. Kir smiled at him fondly as he did both of those things. He was a special Pecari.

“Our hearts?” he joked, when Parker asked if they were ready to use their biggest muscle. He knew the saying Parker was alluding to, but technically the brain was not a muscle, it was an organ, and that saying had always kind of bothered Kir because it was really factually inaccurate. The heart was possibly not the biggest but it was made of cardiac muscle, and if you put your heart into something, it also meant you were doing it well - or at least enthusiastically, so therefore that was funny. At least, if you were Kir.

“Does it actually mention fire?” he asked, leaning over Parker’s shoulder to consult the book, “I, uh, might be mixing it up with other squeezy plants,” he admitted. Kir liked nature and the outdoors, but more in a wholesome ‘we go on family camping trips’ and ‘let’s hike!’ kind of way. He had, at best, had to learn the tying technique to fashion a tripod out of sticks and make a cauldron stand. And ‘had to’ was probably pushing it. The McLeods had not exactly dragged their kids on near death experiences or thrown them into patches of killer plants that they had to fight their way out of, and the only times he had battled such things were in choose your own adventure books or DnD. “Like, some plants dislike flames so producing heat will help us keep them at bay - but I don’t actually want to set the plants on fire,” he clarified. Fire would, admittedly, get rid of a lot of problems, but it was a pretty terminal solution. “If this is meant to replicate Herbology class, we need to keep them alive whilst not letting them hurt us.

“Okay,” he nodded, consulting the book, “I mean, it does say that the severing charm can stun it. Which seems odd. I would think that the stunning charm would stun it, but like… maybe it’s not strong enough. Or it’s too strong and it just kills it,” he added, deciding that thinking aloud was both helpful for teammates to bounce off and because this was sort of like an exam of some kind, in that they were being marked by the staff, so they ought to show their working, “I guess it’s okay to cut them, and that the nasty bitey bits can grow back, because this is in a book on how to manage these plants.” Cut it all up still didn’t sound like the nicest thing for the plant but it was literally in the Herbology textbook.

“Aim to stun, but if in doubt cut them, I guess, but only with the charm recommended in the book. Sorry plants,” he added. “Protego,” he tried, casting a shield charm and edging nearer. The plant reached out, grabbing at him with its tentacles but it couldn’t penetrate the barrier. That made sense, given that they protected against both physical and magical attacks, so whichever one this counted as was covered. “Shield charms will come in handy too,” he added, though as he said it, a final poke from the vine shattered his defences, “To a degree,” he added, jumping back.

13 Kir Maybe with a few caveats? 366 Kir 0 5

Gary Harper

August 24, 2019 8:15 AM

Always be prepared by Gary Harper

Gary read the notice and considered what it could mean. It didn't give any details at all, but that was as it should be. According to the notice, speed was going to be of the essence and they could bring things to help. Having what was necessary would help with the speed aspect, he could just bring raw materials and transfigure what he may need as they go but that would take time. So by having the necessary equipment ready to go he'd save a lot of time. However he had no idea what kind of equipment he might need. So he'd just have to cover all his bases, and he had a week to prepare.

When he arrived a the starting line with his team he was wearing simple jeans and a t-shirt. Along with that, he had made himself a sturdy pair of boots, gloves a large backpack and a wooden pole about 10' long. Never go adventuring without your standard issue 10 foot pole. After carefully considering his options, he had started with a dungeoneer's pack as a basis and then made a few adjustments. It contained a crowbar, a small hammer, ten pitons, two torches, a waterskin, 50 foot of rope, a grappling hook, a magnifiying glass, and some rocks to use as base materials if anything else comes up. Also his wand, he had nearly forgotten it amidst his other preparations. He was ready for adventure... unfortunately he may have also hit his encumbrance limit.

He gazed at the first obstacle along side his teammates, then he grinned and shrugged off his pack. After rooting around a moment, he pulled out the rope and grappling hook. "This should help, who has a good throwing arm?" He asked the group as he tied the rope to the hook and then started putting knots into the rope every foot to make it easier to use to scale the wall.

2 Gary Harper Always be prepared 1404 Gary Harper 0 5

Allegra

August 24, 2019 5:14 PM

I am...for failure and humiliation by Allegra

As Gary brought out the rope, Allegra felt like she was going to cry. She was sure that she physically couldn't climb the wall, she didn't have the upper body strength. However, she was afraid to say that, because they would probably laugh at her or call her prissy or weak. Well, okay, she was weak, in so many ways, but she didn't want them to make fun of her for it.

And because she literally could not climb a rope-even with the knots Gary was putting in it, it would be slow going-they wouldn't be able to complete the task and they'd definitely be in last place and it would be all her fault. Her teammates would hate her and probably be nasty to her for the rest of the Challenges. They'd likely write her off as being unable to contribute anything. Topaz would give her a hard time about it too, even though the Aladren hated things like this too.

Allegra was sure there were other ways to get around, ways that didn't involve, well, climbing a rope, such as shrinking or lowering the wall or even destroying it somehow. Still, she was afraid to speak up. She had never been very good at giving her ideas, in fear that they'd be shot down. Allegra had learned long ago that giving suggestions led to ridicule. In fact, she couldn't remember ever being able to give them. All her ideas were bad.

But she knew that this was not the best way to complete this obstacle. Not with her on the team.

11 Allegra I am...for failure and humiliation 1426 Allegra 0 5

Emerald Brockert

August 24, 2019 6:10 PM

So do I. by Emerald Brockert

Neither Emerald's sisters nor her cousin were happy about the first Challenge involving physical abilities and neither was she. Allegra had been freaking out about it and Sapphire wasn't overly happy either. The Aladren had comforted Allegra some, but left most of the soothing them up to Ruby who was much better at it. For her part, well, it just wasn't something Emerald enjoyed.

When she saw the wall they had to get over, she was less than thrilled. And she knew that when Allegra and Sapphire saw it, that they wouldn't be okay. Sapphire in particular couldn't even fly that high and neither was going to be able to climb it. Most people wouldn't. Emerald included.

Freddie, on the other hand, seemed very thrilled. Emerald winced slightly. She was glad that while she had five younger siblings, none was that hyper. It would drive her insane. Still, she supposed even that would have been better than Topaz. And she supposed Freddie's positive attitude was a good thing in general.

Speaking of which, she honestly wondered how Winston was going to fare with the third year. Initially Emerald would not have minded a bit if her friend won or at least beat her but now...he was on the same team as Topaz and the seventh year simply couldn't root for her . She'd be insufferable.

Unlike Freddie, Caitlin did not look the least bit happy. Emerald was unsure if this was because she was annoyed with the first year or just hated physical challenges. Or both, though her question to Emerald suggested the latter.

Before the Aladren could reply with an idea, the other first year, Nicolas, spoke up. And actually had a pretty good idea. Freddie, however, suggested that he could climb. That wasn't happening. Well, he could but she wasn't about to and she could tell Caitlin would seriously rather not. "That would be unnecessary." Emerald told the Teppenpaw. She turned to the other first year."Nicolas, that's a great idea." It wouldn't hurt to encourage him. "And I can shrink it, but it's big so I might need your help, Brett. And Caitlin, do think you can do the severing charm?"

11 Emerald Brockert So do I. 358 Emerald Brockert 0 5

Winston

August 24, 2019 10:43 PM

Moving on then by Winston

Topaz could fly. That was the take-away Winston was getting. She was making some valid points about impressing the staff, but frankly . . . brooms were just faster and required less discussion, and could therefore be implemented faster as well as just being faster. And Professor Skies had said speed mattered.

Jeremy understood that and took off over the wall.

"We'll impress them on the next obstacle," he promised Topaz. "We'll just fly over this one, get a bit of a time lead."

As the seventh year leader, he kicked off, but waited until everyone else was up and over before crossing to the other side himself, to ensure nobody had unanticipated difficulties or delays and provide assistance if they did.

Once on the far side, he looked toward the next piece. It was very straightforward and hardly needed any direction from him to get the whole team standing on the platform as instructed. It then abruptly rose up into the air, giving them a good overview of what was coming, as well as changing their instructions.

Instead of standing there, they were not supposed to get down. They still all had brooms, which would do the trick, and quickly, but Topaz had made a good point about the teachers and the bonus points. They didn't want to fall behind for not being creative enough.

"Any brilliant ideas for earning bonus points this time around, or do we just stick with speed and fly down on our brooms?" he put the question out to the team. "Some options I can come up with immediately are a softening charm on the ground which even the younger ones should be able to handle, or we can transfigure ourselves parachutes to slow our decent. Any other ideas?"

He'd give them one minute for discussion and if they didn't have a plan by the end of it, they'd just use the brooms.

1 Winston Moving on then 370 Winston 0 5

Dorian

August 25, 2019 12:05 AM

Careful, it might be a trap by Dorian

Unsurprisingly, Heinrich was also in the ‘yay, let’s be winners!’ camp. Great. It wasn’t like Dorian didn’t like the idea of winning - who didn’t, after all, want that? - it just seemed fairly impossible, and he felt that he was likely to be the reason they didn’t. And if you took a bunch of people who desperately wanted to win, and then the one person who was the reason they hadn’t… Well, it was generally not a good combination. The amount of desire they had to win was directly proportional to the amount they were going to hate his guts if they didn’t.

The gap was getting bigger, and Heinrich was able to squeeze through. Given that Dorian was on the small side, that probably meant it was big enough for him too. Still, he gave the wall a few more doses of shrinking solution, which he could say was to make it big enough for Isaac but was really to increase the distance between him and the venomous tentacula. He cast a shield charm as precaution on his way through too, just to be on the safe side.

Stand here. That was neither obstacle nor challenge.

“Let us keep wands ready. That is not an obstacle, so it is maybe a surprise,” he observed. He really did not want to stand there. He did not trust it. It practically screamed that something was about to leap out at them. Still, he shuffled obediently over to the platform, trying not to be the one to hesitate, because it wasn’t like he could avoid whatever was about to happen, and he would just be losing them precious microseconds by being a sissy about it.

Once they were all assembled, he felt a jolt beneath his feet. He steadied his posture, but there didn’t seem to be much he could do, and the movement was over before he had had time to think about any spells to fire. So, he had been right about the surprise but not the need to tackle it, because now there was an obstacle.

“Get down,” he read. He was standing solidly in the middle of the platform and did not move to the edge to look. It was obviously going to be too far for that to be easy. The shrinking solution was probably not going to work here; if he applied it to the part they were standing on, it would just most likely reduce the area of that, which did not seem desirable, rather than bring them closer to the ground. He stared forward.

“We have also a forest and a river,” he observed, looking over the next two obstacles.

13 Dorian Careful, it might be a trap 1401 Dorian 0 5

Connor Priory

August 25, 2019 2:09 AM

Trying to prevent that. by Connor Priory

Connor had spent the previous week wondering what, exactly,the first Challenge would entail. They had been told that it involved physical skill and ingenuity and to bring any supplies they might need. However, it was hard to figure out what he'd need when he didn't know what the exact task would be. And he didn't want to bring too much stuff because then he'd have to carry it around all day. That could only be a hinderance.

They arrived at the course to find a large wall. Connor could tell by looking at Allegra that she was upset. She was pale as a ghost and her eyes were as big as saucers. He had a feeling that she was panicking about having to get over the wall and his heart went out to her. Not everyone was an athlete. He himself really wasn't. The Crotalus was an all right flyer and had climbed easy things as a kid but he was never going to be one of the best at it. In fact, Sophia was a better flyer than he was.

Allegra, however, seemed to be more like Lydia. Well maybe not quite as delicate or girly but definitely not the sort of girl who was capable of climbing a wall. And besides, this wall looked....pretty advanced. Surely, they were meant to find another way, one using magic, things they had learned in class. There were bonuses for using different subjects well. Plus, as this was a magical school, everyone...could use magic to varying degrees or they wouldn't be here. On the other hand, not everyone was a rock climber.

Gary pulled out a rope and began to knot it while Allegra looked like she was about to throw up. "That's a thought, Gary, but maybe we could try something else? Like a shrinking spell or something. We could also try to transfigure it into something else. Or we could transfigure the plants or cut through them with a severing charm.. Or we could use Partis Temporous to create a temporary gap in the wall."

11 Connor Priory Trying to prevent that. 395 Connor Priory 0 5

Ruby

August 25, 2019 9:12 PM

Sounds good by Ruby

Ruby was pleased that Jasmine seemed to agree about finding a way to get past the wall that didn't involve climbing, Not only was it generally nice to be on the same page when working as a team but well, she really did not want to climb it. She didn't think she was capable of it. Ruby had never been climbing, not even to humor her little brother. Not that Jasper had been climbing either, other than trees. The fifth year hadn't even done that though. She liked looking pretty and didn't have any clothes practical for such endeavors. Hence having to transfigure things.

And it was nice that the other girls weren't jocks who were insisting on them climbing or belittling the ones who didn't want to. Not that all jocks would do the latter but some might. Angelique insisted this was the case though. Ruby could practically hear her cousin saying how that just by including an athletic competition, they were glorifying those skills above others. Weirdly enough, this was something Topaz agreed with the Crotalus alumna on.Still, she could only hope that Sapphire and Allegra were having similar luck to her.

Unfortunately, Jasmine's words made Ruby think of another problem. "It's not so much not knowing the spell, but conjuring is an advanced spell. So unless you can do it, Flo, we might have to try something else. Blasting would work as well as anything." And better than some things, including climbing.

As she looked at Flo, to see if she was going to try conjuring a door, Ellie asked Jasmine about the crashmat. "It might."Ruby told the first year helpfully. "We might want to shrink it first so it's easier to carry."

11 Ruby Sounds good 1405 Ruby 0 5

Hilda

August 25, 2019 9:38 PM

Ja, es tut und wir werden by Hilda

Hilda smiled as Jessica tried to repeat one of her words. Perhaps the good Professor would help even more than she expected him to by teaching some German to the others. Or, at minimum, he might at least help identify other students with a possible interest in learning it. Hilda immediately liked Jessica more than she had before the other second year had attempted speaking German, so maybe he'd even help her make new friends. Johanna Leonie was a wonderful friend and Hilda didn't really need any more than her, but more certainly wouldn't hurt. Maybe she could collect one from each house.

Jessica was a very promising lead on a Crotalus. First she tried to speak in German, and then she complimented Hilda's idea. Hilda understood that even before the professor translated that Jessica thought she'd had a good idea. The professor continued speaking in German, explaining the continuation of her idea that Jessica had added, as well as her solution to the Professor problem, so Hilda could follow those parts. Hilda really wasn't sure how she would have gotten through this without the portrait along.

Initially, Hilda was a bit baffled by how Jessica would fly the professor up, firstly because she didn't see the other girl carrying a broom, and secondly because even if she'd had a broom, the professor was too bulky to manage flight while carrying him (this was why Hilda had not brought hers). But then she realized she meant a spell, probably wingardium leviosa, and she nodded in relief and agreement that this should work.

When he finished translating, he added something in English, even though Hilda had not actually said anything. Then he spoke again in German. "I just told them that I did not mind this plan, and this is more excitement than I've seen in at least a century. I am quite enjoying myself."

She smiled, feeling a little embarrassed but also a bit pleased. "Sehr gut. Ich bin froh." Very good. I'm glad. The professor did not supply a translation of that to the others, since it wasn't directed at them.

"So, um, will Engorgio work for creating makeshift stairs, or is there a better spell for that?" she asked in German.

The professor spoke in English, passing on her question. "She wonders if Engorgio is the best spell for that or if anyone knows a better one?"

1 Hilda Ja, es tut und wir werden 1433 Hilda 0 5

Jasmine

August 25, 2019 9:56 PM

Great idea! by Jasmine

"Great idea!" Jasmine enthused, smiling at both Ellie and Ruby. She meant it two-fold. Having the mat on hand might very well come in handy if physical activity and/or heights ever couldn't be entirely avoided, and shrinking it would make it much more portable. "I can shrink it," she told Flo so the older girl could concentrate on the current obstacle at hand.

"Reducio!" She cast the shrinking charm on the mat immediately, figuring they didn't need it for this obstacle at all. Their current options were currently all some variation of going through the climbing wall, rather than over it, so a large mat was not a necessary safety precaution for them. There was no point in waiting, and it might even get in the way or get stuck if there was blasting or conjuring going on. Best to shrink it and tuck it away now.

It took a few tries before she got it small enough carry easily, though it was still too large to fit into her jeans pocket. She regretted not bringing a bag. "Did anyone bring something we can put this in?" she asked hopefully. She was already carrying her lasso, and while that was looped over her shoulder and didn't take up any hands, she was pretty sure if she was in charge of just carrying around the crashmat, she'd put it down somewhere and forget to pick it back up, and they'd be on the last obstacle and need it and everyone would be like, so where's that crashmat, and Jasmine would be like, oops, I left it at obstacle two.

1 Jasmine Great idea! 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Heinrich

August 25, 2019 10:14 PM

It's a trap. Sort of. by Heinrich

Of course, 'stand here' was not much of a challenge and naturally there was more to it than that. Dorian realized that quickly and warned them to have their wands ready. Heinrich drew his and took a wary stance, fully believing he'd probably need it.

They didn't. At least, not for self-defense.

Heinrich involuntarily reached out a hand to steady himself against Isaac as they shot fifteen feet up into the air without any kind of warning. It wasn't so fast that he was in any danger of actually flying off the platform, or even really falling down on the platform, but the instinct to steady himself when the ground under him moved was not one he was able to ignore.

It stopped moving and Dorian read their new instructions. Get down. Right. Well, that was certainly more like a challenge than standing where they were told. And, in keeping with the tone for the rest of this challenge, appropriately vague.

He took a brief look out over the forest and river that would be coming up, but focused most of his attention toward the immediate problem at hand.

"I have a blanket," he offered carefully. "We can transfigure it into something?" he suggested uncertainly. The uncertainty stemmed in part from the variety of options that might be helpful but which he could not decide which would prove more helpful, and partly because he wasn't sure he wanted to admit to bringing a blanket and making them wonder why he'd thought that was necessary to have along. "Or we can make it bigger and slide down?"

1 Heinrich It's a trap. Sort of. 1414 Heinrich 0 5

Katerina Vorontsov

August 27, 2019 3:15 PM

And you can't swim in fire. by Katerina Vorontsov

Katerina also felt strange and slightly uncomfortable without any jewelry on her hands or arms, but she had not attempted to compensate for it in any other way, and sighed when she saw her sister's collar pins. Tatiana would, she thought, always be Tatiana; there really was something a little strange and unhealthy about Tatiana's love for her jewels. Katya privately agreed with her that sometimes Westerners looked a little plain and severe - but aside from the times when they instead looked elegant in their simpler fashions, there was also the small problem of how they were all participating in an athletic event.

Consequently, Katya did not wear any of her own jewelry, and tied her hair back as simply and severely as possible, without flowing ribbons that could get caught in things. She had brought almost identical supplies to her sister. She felt very practical, except for one thing, and that was the problem of bottoms.

She did not own a pair of trousers, and had never seriously considered the idea of doing so. Tatya had occasionally stolen some when they were younger, but the reaction when Mama had caught her at that had put Katya firmly off the idea, especially once she had observed that Tatiana could generally keep up with their brother and male cousins in skirts anyway (if occasionally to the extreme detriment of said skirts, which had ended up torn and muddy a lot when they were younger. Which Mama had not liked at all, but had still liked better than Tatya wearing the wrong clothes). Katya was not sure if she would even know how to behave in trousers. Since Papa and Grisha and Alyosha did not often have to walk through thick snow before paths were cleared, even the men around her did not frequently wear trousers, at least not as primary garments - they all wore trouser-shaped long underthings in winter, as part of layering up enough thick garments under their long winter robes to stay warm, but Katya certainly was not going to run around in the Gardens in her winter underthings! So she wore the plainest skirt she owned, one without any lace, and a thick pair of stockings, and hoped for the best.

Faced with a wall, though, she found it difficult to remain optimistic. Wanting to climb things was what had gotten Tatya in trouble a lot when they were small; it was not good for girls to climb, as it invariably meant a high risk of showing an indecent amount of leg, or even up their skirts! That would have been bad enough only with other girls, but there were boys on the team, and it was very indecent to show one's legs in front of boys.

Perhaps Sylvia Alexandrovna thought so, too, because she seemed to be suggesting they go around the wall instead, despite the intimidating plant life blocking the way. She nodded. "I can do both of these spells," she said carefully. "Diffindo is less...messy," she added. She knew the word for 'dangerous,' but was not sure it would fully express her concern about how unpredictable fire could be. Plus, she did not want to come across as putting down Sylvia's idea or as afraid of something everyone else was fine with, if everyone else was fine with it.

16 Katerina Vorontsov And you can't swim in fire. 1418 Katerina Vorontsov 0 5

DH Skies

August 27, 2019 7:52 PM

--* CLOSED for points --- by DH Skies

The challenge ended as of Sunday 25th for point scoring.

Social posting - for fun, to show how your characters solved things, to bond with your teammates etc - is still allowed.

0 DH Skies *-*-* CLOSED for points *-*-*-* 26 DH Skies 0 5

Gary

August 27, 2019 9:01 PM

Let's try something else then by Gary

Gary considered Conner's comments and nodded. Right, they were wizards not common adventurers. Plus this was a challenge set up by a magical school, they probably should use magic to solve it. Well, not week-old transfiguation magic anyway. He dropped the rope and grappling hook by the bag and went to stand with Conner to assess the situation with him. As he fully looked over the obstacle, a thought occurred to him that made him grin. "Those would probably work and are most likely the best course of action, but where I come from wizards have a saying... 'Every problem can be solved with the proper application of fire. Every. Problem.'"

Ahh, the internet and D&D wizards. He wondered how the teachers would react to such a 'scorched earth' policy. He also kinda wondered how long it would take them to burn down the wall, and then the next obstacle and the next and so on until they found the finish line. Sadly he wasn't sure he quite knew an actual wizard's version of the ever popular fireball spell.

He shrugged and turned back to Conner, and the rest of the team. "Making the gap would probably be the most efficient way of getting to the other side, what do you think?"

2 Gary Let's try something else then 1404 Gary 0 5