Figuring out my talents on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Linus Macaulay

December 19, 2013 4:20 PM

[Music Room] Group One concert meeting by Linus Macaulay

Alphabetically, Group One for the mandatory Midsummer concert (did the numeration of the group indicate they would be first to perform, or was this merely for administrative purposes?) comprised Leonidas Bennett, Isaac Douglass, Brianna Japos, Valerie Lennox, Linus himself, Lucrezia Renaldi, Ariel Thornton and Viktor Volkov. It was a motley crew, and Linus wasn't even familiar with a couple of the constituents, but as the requirement for the concert was to simply perform an act, with no strict restrictions as to what that act would entail, he surmised they would get through the ordeal tolerably well.

Linus had originally planned on gathering together the concert group before midterm, but he had been incredibly busy, and, as a non-essential item on his agenda, it had been pushed back to after the holidays. However, it was during the first week back at school that Linus advertised the first meeting. He held it in the music room at MARS, just in case they required the equipment supplied therein, and to allow a little more privacy than some of the other potential venues.

Once everyone he had been expecting was present, and sitting in one of the chairs he had arranged in an informal circle, Linus gave a very brief introduction: "Hello everyone, this is your group for the midsummer concert. I'm Linus Macaulay, Crotalus seventh year and Head Boy. You either sign up or were assigned to this group, and the point of this first meeting is to get to know each other and to come up with the outline for our performance." He hoped to meet as infrequently as possible, considering his already full schedule, and so the more they got sorted today, the better. "Let's just go 'round and introduce ourselves," Linus gestured to the person seated to his left to begin. Brianna and valerie he already knew, obviously, and he had a passing familiarity with Lucrezia (due to sharing intermediate classes a couple of years ago), Viktor and Isaac (due to Quidditch), but Leonidas and Ariel were practical strangers.

Then, once the essential introductions had been completed, Linus brought forth his notebook and self-inking quill, and briefly reminded himself of the notes he had already made. Despite the fact that three of the group members were on the Crotalus Quidditch team, Linus hadn't envisaged a physically-based performance, considering Brianna and Valerie's respective handicaps; he also was not intending on doing anything that required him to act or make a fool of himself in any fashion. Beyond that, however, he was open to suggestions, and the strong Crotalus bias in their group encouraged him that nothing too frivolous or ridiculous would be put forward. "I have given a little thought to what sort of act we might portray," he said. He had grown up in Las Vegas and was no stranger to the variety of performance, "but this was complied without knowing anything about the strengths of everyone here. My ideas include a living art demonstration, potentially something along the classical music lines, depending on the groups' musical inclinations, or maybe something like classical dance." He knew that Brianna could dance if she had a partner to lean upon, and wouldn't mind dancing in public so long as it was refined and traditional. "Basically I'm aiming for something cultural or educational, not something brash and unpolished," he summarised. "Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas they would like to share?"

Subthreads:

Figuring out my talents by Brianna Japos

Can I just forget this whole thing? Please? by Ariel Thornton

0 Linus Macaulay [Music Room] Group One concert meeting 205 Linus Macaulay 1 5

Brianna Japos

December 22, 2013 5:45 PM

Figuring out my talents by Brianna Japos

Brianna’s holiday had been one of celebration and change. She had spent most of her time packing up her belongings. Her parents would be shipping them to her aunt’s house out in Ohio while she was away at Sonora. Her parents were packing up their own things to be gone before the end of June, before her graduation. Brianna had spent her last Christmas in that building. She would never have to see any of them ever again. Well, except for Attoria but Brianna would only have to see her until she graduated and most of the time it was only at night when they had to sleep. Another celebration for her was that she was accepted for Early Admission into University of Irvine, California. This was one of the top ranking schools for Criminology. Getting into this school was the first step of many to getting into Law School. She worked hard for this and she wasn’t going to let anything ruin it for her.

Now that she was back in school and finishing up her final year at Sonora, things were escalating quickly. The work was going to get harder, she had her projects to finish, she had her RATS exams to study for, and, of course, the Concert. She already was on schedule with everything else and after Linus let them know when he wanted to meet, she now had the Concert on that schedule too. Her Christmas gift to Linus had been a pocket watch. It wasn’t anything fancy; Brianna’s budget was limited, although much better than it had been in previous years. She assumed the building residents were still worried that her mother would spill all their dirty secrets out into the world, so their tips and bonuses to her parents were very generous. But she picked out one that she thought he wouldn’t be too repulsed by. It was magical and showed different time zones since they were on different ones. She had their initials engraved in the back. They were small and in the corner of it, but she wanted them to be there. It was her way of leaving something with him to remember her by in case he ever became sentimental once they had moved on. She had done something similar for Valerie’s gift. Last year she had given her a best friend charm bracelet, Brianna hadn’t been too sure on how she could top that, so she gave her a locket charm to add to it. The locket had a picture of the two of them in it from when she went to visit her over the summer. It was one of Brianna’s favorite pictures.

Brianna took a seat near Linus as that seemed like the appropriate thing to do, she waited for things to get started. At her turn for introduction, Brianna gave a polite smile, “Hi, I’m Brianna Japos, Crotalus Seventh Year.” She stated before letting the meeting continue on. This felt like group therapy to her, at least with the introductions. She had no idea on what sort of talent or skill she could really provide for them. She didn’t have the same sort of tutoring sessions most kids seemed to have that dealt with music lessons, language lessons, or dance lessons. She grew up poor, had parents who only had basic education levels, and studied her butt off to have even a remote chance at a decent future that was usually just handed over with a bow on it to anyone with money. Linus knew most of this though and wouldn’t likely ask her to do something she couldn’t.

“I don’t really have specific ideas, but if we do go the route of a music number, I’d be better with dance. I have never played a musical instrument and my singing is not the greatest.” She wasn’t an amazing dancer either, but her leg muscle was far stronger now than it had been when she danced with Linus in the ball. She could keep herself up on her own, of course, doing so and moving would be an issue, but that was what a partner would be for.

6 Brianna Japos Figuring out my talents 203 Brianna Japos 0 5

Ariel Thornton

December 26, 2013 12:54 AM

Can I just forget this whole thing? Please? by Ariel Thornton

Ariel spotted the notice from Linus about the concert meeting and groaned aloud. They don't really expect me to participate in this nonsense...do they? she had wondered to herself as she debated whether or not she was even going to go. The less interaction she had with the other inmates in her forced prison the better. It was bad enough being reminded at home of how much of a freak she was thanks to her genetic line, but to be trapped in a semi-confined space with others who were as cursed as she now seemed to be just felt like adding insult to injury. Ariel paced the floor of the Crotalus common room as she decided on her course of action. She knew this stupid concert thing was going to make her do something she despised with people she barely knew. There was no way she was going to embarrass herself in front of a group of strangers with another group of strangers. She had just about made up her mind about the concert meeting when two words floated through her mind making her actually growl aloud, Mandatory Attendance. Ariel shook her head sadly and headed out of the common room to the appointed MARS room for the meeting. If it wasn't a mandatory issue, the eleven year old would not be caught dead anywhere near the meeting or the concert. Since it was she had no choice, but to show up. She had no idea what she would be forced to do once she did show up, but she would show up.

Ariel rolled her eyes and sighed as she made her way up to the MARS room. She pulled the door open and silently made her way inside. She shook her head slightly and arched a brow as she noticed the half circle of chairs in the room. Groovy...share time she thought to herself as she took a seat in one of the empty chairs. Crossing her arms over her chest, Ariel turned her attention to anything in the music room except the other inmates in it. She gaze fell upon the piano in the corner of the room and she sighed. If she never saw another piano again in her life she would have been happy. If her mother knew that they had one here at her “school” Ariel would be subjected to practice sessions again and that was something she could not go through again. Ariel found herself silently praying that whatever this Linus guy had in mind didn't include them having to play instruments or dancing. Ariel watched through very bored eyes as the other members of their group arrived and found seats. Ariel continued to look bored as Linus introduced himself and asked that they all do the same. She frowned when he mentioned something about wanting to know what kind of strengths they all seemed to have. Ariel almost laughed aloud. The only strengths she seemed to possess was the ability to hate everything around her and the piano. Thanks to her mother's constant practice sessions, Ariel had gotten fairly decent at playing the horrid thing. She was no concert pianist to be sure, but she could play it well enough to where people weren't trying to cover their ears when she did so.

Ariel's frown deepened and she silently cursed her rotten luck when Linus continued on with his speech. Why do the gods hate me? the eleven year old grumbled in her own head as she listened to him say something about them maybe doing a musical piece or dancing of some kind. It was like the universe was trying to tell her that it hated her as much as she hated it. It wasn't bad enough that her family were a bunch of magical freaks and she had been branded as one of them or that she was being forced to spend the next seven years of her life in a prison designed for the magically freaky...nope. Now the gods had to step in again and say “We're going to make you play music again or dance with two semi left feet”. It was completely unfair! Why did the gods have to hate her soo much? Why couldn't they have just left her alone? She had been semi happy with her existence until the freak bomb had been dropped on her. Now her only desire was to run away from it all and forget it all ever happened. No dice there, but it was a nice torturous dream. Ariel kept her comments to herself as Linus finished his introductory speech and had the person sitting to his left start the other introductions. Ariel halfway paid attention as Brianna introduced herself and said her preference. Ariel felt her mouth twitch slightly at Brianna's comments about her own singing ability. It seemed to Ariel that the people who were always claiming not to be able to do something so well were usually the people who could do it very well, but didn't really want to do it so they claimed to not be able to so that they didn't have to. Ariel wondered curiously that if she made a similar claim if she might be excluded from having to participate entirely. The idea of such an endeavor actually appealed to her, even more so than actually performing. It was worth a try at any rate.

Ariel noticed her seat in the line up and realized that she was sitting in the next chair for introductions. Silently cursing her bad luck again, Ariel slowly stood up her hands automatically tucking themselves into the back pockets of her jeans. She sighed irritably as she began her introduction. “Umm...Hi...I'm Ariel Thornton, Crotalus first year,” she said, waving one of her hands slightly before tucking it back into her back pocket. “I can't dance to save my life, I hate singing with a passion and I would rather gnaw my own arm off than play any instruments. That's not to say that I can't play any, I would just rather gnaw my arm off than to play them if given the choice,” she said openly. She realized her statement wouldn't win her any friends and she really could care less. At least she was being honest about it. Deciding to end her introduction as gently as she possibly could (thanks to the reminder she was given about her confinement) she added, “Since I've been trying to avoid having to have anything to do with this whole thing to begin with, I have absolutely no idea what we could do for this concert thing to be honest,” she concluded. Outside of coming right out and saying she'd rather not do it at all, Ariel felt she made her position pretty clear. Ariel took her seat again and crossed her arms back over her chest. She stayed completely silent as the other members introduced themselves, offering no other commentary other than the one she gave during her own introduction. She figured her only course of action now was to sit back and wait for the verdict to come in on what they would be doing for the concert. Ariel knew that if they assigned any part of it to her she would do what they said to because that's what any good little Crotali would do. She just didn't have to like it or be nice to anyone about it. At least that's how she figured it anyway.

0 Ariel Thornton Can I just forget this whole thing? Please? 0 Ariel Thornton 0 5