Captain Sam Bauer
April 01, 2012 5:06 PM
Crotalus Quidditch Sign-Ups. by Captain Sam Bauer
Last year had not, for the Crotalus Quidditch team, been a good year, and that was even by the standards of the past few years. Because they had played Aladren first, and the Aladren-Crotalus game was always a big, messy, and usually close affair, they hadn’t even made it to the Finals, as they had before falling to Aladren for two years before last year. It had hurt, especially with it being Marissa’s last year, when she’d been their Seeker since forever and, at that point, their captain all year while Sam had been her Assistant for just as long. Not a good end for her or beginning for him.That, though, was last year, and now it was a new day. Aladren and their wonderboy, Arnold Carey, had finally lost last year – and to Pecari. Losing to Teppenpaw would have been one thing, he thought, somehow, but Pecari? They had been playing an alternate Seeker, for goodness’ sake, and an alternate Beater; the only way Sam thought it had even happened was that Edmond Carey must have underestimated the alternate Beater boy. Either way, though, it looked pretty bad for Aladren, and that left the door wide open for Crotalus to either step into Aladren’s place as the number one Quidditch team at Sonora or to lose their spot as number two to Pecari, and Sam was very clear in his mind about which option he wanted them to take. This was going to be their year. The Crotalus Rattlers were going to rise again, and do so so dramatically that the school officially renamed them the Crotalus Phoenixes. It was going to happen.
Anyway, they weren’t going down during the first round again.
First, though, he had to find a new Seeker, deal with all the organizational issues that came up with a transfer of power and especially one from one of the singular positions, so after he finished his meal at the Feast and got back to the common room, he only waited long enough for Coach Pierce and the firsties to be gone before he took out a folded piece of parchment from his pocket, used his wand to smooth out the creases, and then stuck it up on the bulletin board so everyone would be able to see it when they came down for breakfast in the morning. He wanted to get as much sign-up time in as possible so everyone could make up their minds or just have more time if they forgot about it at first. They needed every warm body they could stick on a broom , at least as an alternate. By the time he was done, if all went ideally, he didn’t think there would be much that could happen on a Pitch that the reformed team wouldn’t be ready to tackle.
But first, they had to get a team, so he made sure to dramatically color his header in with red and black and gray to get attention and post it prominently on the board, so no one who looked, however casually, for the password could say they hadn’t noticed something was there, anyway. Then he put the matter aside and went to bed. Being up all night worrying about it wasn’t going to help this, just make classes miserable tomorrow.
Crotalus Quidditch
All and one are welcome to sign up for this year’s Crotalus Quidditch team. Just put your name, your year, and your desired position below between September 1 and [date] and come to tryouts on [date] to be considered.
All who want to play need to sign up, since positions from last year are not guaranteed. Let’s make [16 SA] a year to win in.
Beneath this message, composed with some help from his mom, he had artfully scrawled in his signature, the neatness of the rest of the words contrasting with the flair of the words ‘Captain Sam Bauer.’ Beneath that bit of fancy, he had written his sign-up down, too, as an example to everyone else, in case they had any first years who were going to turn out to be all-stars and wouldn’t otherwise put anything down:
Sam Bauer, Sixth, Chaser and Captain
Subthreads: Fulfilling my obligation by Gareth Whitebriar
A chance is all I need. by Cepheus Princeton
Keeping Keeper by Nic Sawyer
This Is Our Year by Renée Errant
One more! by Topher Calhoun
I'm not sure this is my calling by Linus Macaulay
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Captain Sam Bauer
Crotalus Quidditch Sign-Ups.
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Captain Sam Bauer
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Gareth Whitebriar
April 01, 2012 7:53 PM
Fulfilling my obligation by Gareth Whitebriar
Just as Megs was bound by the will of the family, so too was Gareth. Even though every moment spent on a broom made him feel sick with the fear of heights, when he saw the signup sheet for the team he dutifully added his name:Gareth Whitebriar, 2nd year, Beater
He had to wipe his palms on his robes after signing to get rid of the tingle of fear and his face didn’t reflect his discomfort in case anyone was watching. Being afraid of heights was a foolish fear, and one he refused to acknowledge. It was ridiculous and had no place in him, but no matter how often he flew, it never went away. It doesn’t matter, I will do my duty to see that Crotalus wins this term, we will succeed, fear or not. he thought resolutely as he gave his signature one last lingering look.
At least this term his roommate would have an opportunity to get his chosen position. Gareth knew that Cepheus was disappointed with just being an alternate, and Gareth was sure now that the prior Captain graduated that his friend would get the position. Though Gareth would have been satisfied with being an alternate, but even though every moment in the air was terrifying, he couldn’t help but admit that he wasn’t bad at his chosen position. The team needed him, and he had no choice but to fulfill the obligation that every Briar male was expected to achieve. Not that everyone made the team but it was expected of them to try, and failing was considered a sign of weakness.
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Gareth Whitebriar
Fulfilling my obligation
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Gareth Whitebriar
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Cepheus Princeton
April 01, 2012 8:25 PM
A chance is all I need. by Cepheus Princeton
Cepheus was feeling good about the upcoming Quidditch tryouts. Their former captain and seeker had graduated, leaving a very open spot for him to take. Last year had been rather disappointing, but he was confident that he would do better. He hadn't played much Quidditch during the summer to be honest, but he had trained up during the last couple weeks before coming back to school. His father was adamant to get him a real position on the team for the name of Princeton.Cepheus hadn't grown much during the summer, maybe only half an inch or so. It was disappointing, seeing how tall his father was, but the twelve-year-old still had hope. However, his light frame and small body size was the perfect body for a seeker, so his father had told him. He would make the team this year. After all, wasn't it an obvious transition from being the reserve to the real player?
Cepheus smiled when he saw the sign-up sheet and walked over to it straight-away. His friend and roommate had already signed up, and Cepheus dutifully wrote his name and information under his.
Cepheus Princeton; second-year; Seeker
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Cepheus Princeton
A chance is all I need.
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Nic Sawyer
April 01, 2012 8:29 PM
Keeping Keeper by Nic Sawyer
Nic did not have a great many social obligations at Sonora. He had already deftly avoided both Captain and Prefect (both of which went, instead, to his roommate who had somehow managed the unfortunate disaster of being looked upon favorably by the staff). While a dearth of other sixth year boys would again assure the Head Boy position stayed in Crotalus next year and force his name onto the ballot, he felt confident that the student body would again decide Sam should collect the school's final badge.Despite his lack of shiny badges, though, he did feel a sense of growing responsibility toward the Crotalus Quidditch Team. Specifically, he felt a personal duty to prevent Quaffles from going through the Crotalus goals. Now two inches over six feet tall, he had a wingspan well equipped to doing so.
So this year he barely hesitated before putting his name onto the sign-up sheet.
Nic Sawyer, 6th, Keeper
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Keeping Keeper
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Renée Errant
April 03, 2012 1:46 AM
This Is Our Year by Renée Errant
Failure was not an option. Renée sucked on a lollipop, the cherry flavor staining her tongue red, flushing her lips. She dipped her quill in ink, tonguing the treat until it fit snuggly into the side of her mouth, poking the inside of her cheek, and began to write her name in a quick cursive.Renée Errant
Fifth Year
Chaser
She let the Assistant Captain stuff drop for now. Assistants didn’t really do anything. The title was a formality that lacked meaning, and in her case acted as an insult. For one, it assumed that Sam Bauer as Captain had more Quidditch talent than she did. For two, it assumed that one day she’d take the mantle as Captain and lead the pathetic motley crew of “players” that had become the Crotalus team. There’d been a time when they’d been great, but that time was long past. It belonged to an age where Crotalus reached the finals and Pecari was a stain often overlooked and forgotten. Renée wasn’t really sure she wanted to lend her name to such an age of Crotalus where they had sunk lower than Pecari’s capabilities in Quidditch.
‘On the other hand...’ She suddenly envisioned herself astride her new broom, the sun gleaming across the shine of the unused wood, a breeze rustling through her curls, and behind her rose CROTALUS in full glory. A seeker aching for the hunt, a keeper ferocious in his saves, two chasers flanking Renée as she feinted toward one goal and passed to her fellow teammate, a loud cheer bursting from her throat as he scored. Beaters charged through the air, bludgers fearing their wrath, dutifully slamming into enemies of Crotalus. Besides her own face the players were free of discernible features. She had three more years left at Sonora. ‘Enough time. We can do this. We can find a team... mold this team into something great. Something memorable.’ Reluctantly she allowed her mental team faces, watching Sam, Linus, and Nic fill in. So far they were the only ones who’d convinced her they held any hint of talent pumping in their veins.
She savored more of the cherry flavor, rouge painting the corners of her lips. She brushed a loose strand of dark hair out of her eyes and leaned in toward the sign up sheet once more.
Assistant Captain Renée Errant
Fifth Year
Chaser
“Much better.” She pronounced, smiling with almost affection at the list of names already printed beneath her own. She could commit to this, dedicate herself to this cause. She would help make Crotalus great again. Failure was not an option.
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Renée Errant
This Is Our Year
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Topher Calhoun
April 07, 2012 12:47 PM
One more! by Topher Calhoun
Topher still wasn’t sure how much of a joke it had been when he said at the Feast that the Aladrens might want to break his arms after the games of the past few years, but when the Quidditch sign-up list made its way onto the board, he made his way over to it in good time to sign up. He liked the game, if maybe because he was usually the one hitting the Bludgers instead of being like everyone else and having to deal with them, and it was a habit by now, and besides, they were probably playing Aladren first this year again. He would never be able to live with himself if he wasn’t there the day they finally beat Aladren.It might be this year, but then, it might not. Aladren had to be off-balance from their wonder boy finally losing something, but who knew how they would react to that? Especially since they’d had the whole summer to think about it. They might come back like a pack of wild coyotes. So Topher, anyway, wasn’t going to put any bets down about how the inevitable game between them was going to go, though he wouldn’t too strongly discourage any of his wealthier housemates who wanted to; losing both Arnold’s illusion of invincibility and Edmond’s actual presence meant Aladren was probably as vulnerable as they were going to get for a while.
It was, he thought as he put his information down, going to be weird, having a dude as the captain, almost as weird as seeing what Aladren was made of when they didn’t have the single most dangerous Beater in the school on their side. They’d always had a girl as the captain, first Charlie and then last year Marissa, as long as he’d been at Sonora. Now, a girl was their Assistant Captain, but she was also the only girl on the list, so it was a pretty sure thing that they’d have another guy after Renée left, too. Weird stuff. Maybe it was their year after all.
He guessed they’d just have to wait and see. They didn’t, after all, have a Divinations professor to ask for help right now.
Topher Calhoun, 4th, Beater
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Topher Calhoun
One more!
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Linus Macaulay
April 11, 2012 5:57 AM
I'm not sure this is my calling by Linus Macaulay
He couldn't miss the bright red banner at the top of the Quidditch sign-up sheet as he passed by the noticeboard, but Linus pretended not to have seen it, just the same. He had devoted at least a couple of hours - in total, not consecutively - over the summer to pondering his return or otherwise to the Crotalus Quidditch team. He had, truth be told, messed up quite badly in his debut game. He had been at least partially responsible for the destruction of one of the school's brooms, and been more than partially responsible for at least one of the goals going in. He could put a certain amount of his poor performance down to nerves, being a beginner, and poor luck, but essentially Linus would have to admit that he hadn't really been all that good at Chasing. In his defense, the position he'd signed up for was actually Keeper, but then Nic had surprised everyone by being a better Keeper last year than ever before (according to rumour; Linus himself hadn't been around to see it), and with the older student's much greater height, Linus knew it wouldn't be sensible to swap him out of the position for a third year who'd messed up in the only game he'd played.On top of that, it was simply difficult for Lionus to accept that there were things in life he just wasn't good at. Sports had never presented him with a problem before, and while he'd taken a little time in his first year to adjust to the practise of casting spells and mixing potions, he'd come a long way in a short space of time in his magical education, and felt releatively confident he was above average in ever class. It wasn't in his experience to fail, but then it wasn't in his nature to give up. It presented quite the conundrum. Either he would have to improve rapidly, or he would have to find a decent excuse to give up the pasttime that, in all honesty, he had very much enjoyed, despite his ineptitude.
Therefore, after a couple of days' further pondering, Linus did eventually add his name to the existing list: Linus Macaulay, third year, Chaser. Perhaps he would succeed in developing his skills over the next couple of years so that he would feel comfortable playing the position in the future, or perhaps when Nic graduated he could give Keeping a go, instead. Both of these possibilities, of course, rested on him actually being able to make the cut in the first place. Tryouts weren't that far away; maybe he would head to the pitch later and schedule in some practise flying, just so he didn't feel painfully out of shape when he flew in front of others again after such a long absence.
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Linus Macaulay
I'm not sure this is my calling
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