Returning without the heavy heart on Aladren Commons

Thaddeus Pierce II

October 13, 2013 10:16 PM

Quidditch Sign-ups & a greeting for Jay by Thaddeus Pierce II

The Headmistress's owl arrived a few days after term began. He'd been watching the bulletin board for the sign-up sheet, and when it hadn't appeared, he'd started watching for Kitty to remind her it was her turn to it up now that Arnold had graduated. Before he found her though, the owl found him. He was surprised and a little sad and disappointed that Kitty would not be returning this year, but he could not truthfully claim that he wasn't secretly pleased that he would get to be Captain for two years instead of one, especially with the Head Boy vote coming up at the end of the year.

Though with as many graduations as the Aladren team had suffered, replacing Kitty as well might be tough. Fortunately, there had been reserves last year and some of the seventh years had left the team before graduation so new people had gotten to play and that would surely help with team continuity.

"Thanks," he told the owl, which he was still a little surprised wasn't the familiar eagle owl he associated with Quidditch correspondences. Not that Boomer had ever carried one to him, but the bird was large enough that it had been pretty obvious whenever it had delivered letters to Arnold or David. "No reply."

There were only two things left to do. Confirm his assistant (he had no objections to naming the recommended Carey) and write up the sign up sheet. He opted to start making up the later while waiting for the former to appear. He wasn't quite finished when the younger player made his appearance.

"Jay," he called out, waving to catch his attention. "Come here, would you?" he asked. Once the boy was closer, he held out the Headmistress's note. "Kitty's not here anymore. I'm captain. Congratulations, you're the assistant now. You want the position?"

After that conversation finished, he completed making the sign-up sheet and posted it on the bulletin board, which his name listed first.

Aladren Quidditch

Aladren House has a long tradition of Quidditch prowess. We need you to help Professor Fawcett keep his office decorated with the Quidditch Cup! Sign up below with your prefered position(s) and keep an eye out for the try-out announcement.

Name, Year, Position(s)
Thad Pierce, 6th, As Needed but Not Beater

Subthreads:

The I in Team by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

Returning without the heavy heart by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

Back and ready to win by Lucian D'Alesandro

Accepting the duty by Jay Carey

Most likely not making my smartest decision ever by Anthony Carey VIII

Joining the team by Leonidas Bennett

This is for Kitty! by Andri Thornton

1 Thaddeus Pierce II Quidditch Sign-ups & a greeting for Jay 213 Thaddeus Pierce II 1 5

Theodore Wolseithcrafte

October 16, 2013 5:21 PM

The I in Team by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

Theodore knew which position he wanted but he also knew that he wasn't the only one. He knew that both the other students who wanted it had seniority over him. At best., he hoped to be put on the bench and get a chance to ease himself in to the role before one of them moved on.

He was surprised, therefore, when he saw on the list that Thaddeus Pierce had not specified a desire for the role. He knew from Francesca that it was what the older boy wanted. He wondered whether he should specify it on his own sign up. It seemed somehow... cheeky, when Thaddeus was clearly considering the good of the team as a whole. He didn't want to be insubordinate or selfish. However, he really didn't want to be anything except a Keeper. Thaddeus hadn't specified and wouldn't necessarily know that Theodore knew what he wanted... If he had known that the older boy had just been named captain, that might have stayed his quill but the news had not yet reached him.

'Theodore Wolseithcrafte – (Reserve) Keeper.'

He felt that was a suitable concession and acknowledgement of his lack of experience, whilst minimising his risk of having to take on something for the greater good that he didn't really want to do.

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Francesca Wolseithcrafte

October 16, 2013 5:35 PM

Returning without the heavy heart by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

Francesca's feelings on singing up for Quidditch this year were vastly different to the previous one. Last year, it had felt dramatic, like an act of transgression, and one which might dramatically alter her fortune at Sonora. Thankfully, that had not proved to be the case. Her life had continued in much the same fashion – she had consolidated her friendships and kept them. If anyone thought ill of her for joining the team, they had kept it to themselves, and she had been allowed to participate fully and happily, without feeling judged or unwanted by any of her team mates. And they had won, which had been the icing on the cake.

This year, the only reason to worry was the lack of Arthur and Arnold, which was going to dramatically alter the make-up of the team. But the worry about what other people would think of her was far from her mind. She never thought they would be gone completely - it was possible that WAIL supporters would rear their ugly heads at some point during her time at school. However, she felt safe that she wasn't going to be totally loathed. That she would be able to not just sign up to the list without being attacked but would be able to play and enjoy the game. Her step was light and she smiled as she signed the list, adding her name under her brother's (which was another reason to feel happy about the team this year).

'Francesca Wolseithcrafte, second year, Chaser.'

OOC - I forgot to put Theodore's year on his sign up. Please assume that he did not forget.

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Lucian D'Alesandro

October 16, 2013 10:29 PM

Back and ready to win by Lucian D'Alesandro

Lucian was surprised to see the Quidditch sign up sheet posted in the Aladren common room. It was surprising only because it seemed like he just arrived at school. With everything that happened over the summer, Lucian’s mind seemed to be everywhere except the present moment. This caused him to lose track of time and almost forget about Quidditch. However, that was a big almost, for playing was one of the few things he looked forward to that helped clear his head as well.

He liked playing Beater last year, and thought he was pretty decent at it. Lucian ran a lot of drills and played as many sports as possible during his summer in hopes of improving his Quidditch performance even more. There was a temptation, however, to sign up for one of the other positions. Seeker was up for grabs this year since Arnold was no longer Captain, but Lucian didn’t really see himself as being patient enough to chase the Snitch around. He definitely did no want to be a Keeper. That left his past position as Beater, or perhaps playing as a Chaser. He assumed the Chaser spots would be filled, but decided to leave it as an option and signed his name:

Lucian D’Alesandro, 5th, Beater or Chaser if needed

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Jay Carey

October 18, 2013 4:42 AM

Accepting the duty by Jay Carey

By the time he was finished talking Henry through a Charms lesson and had completed - in one of those moments which did make him wonder if trying for the same or at least a similar level of competency the more important heirs in his family possessed was really such a good idea - some homework from two classes and a longish translation from Ancient Runes on his own, Jay's brain was very nearly completely numb. It wasn't quite complete enough for him not to feel a little guilty about deciding it was a good reason to call it a day instead of chasing down Brandon to check on how his classes were going one more time, but it was close enough for him to ignore the guilt and take at least a short break. As he trudged back to the Aladren common room, he thought he understood why so many of his Housemates were borderline - or in some cases outright - caffeine addicts for the first time. Even his own workload would have been enough, this year, but with his family to chase around, too, he felt at last quite like the typical Aladren overachiever.

Wearily, a word he still thought it was far too early in the year to be using, he tugged the book and stepped through the wall, thinking vaguely of cold water, only to immediately hear his name and determine that the speaker wasn't Anthony. Shaking his head a little to clear it, Jay walked over to see Thad Pierce.

"Yes, Thad?" he asked, assuming it was something about Quidditch.

Arthur, he was sure, could have come up with some lengthy explanation for how it could be something else, complete with very complicated analyses of how Jay and Thad stood relative to each other both in general society and in Aladren, for all that, for the moment, Jay was pretty sure the two measures would come up to essentially the same thing. He could, he guessed, have come up with all that kind of thing himself, if more slowly and with less pleasure in it, but not before the older boy handed him a note and made it all unnecessary. The only unfortunate part was that it being just about Quidditch after all didn't really, this time, improve things that much.

He did not want it. He had enough on his plate for the next three years already, and from what he had seen last year with the twins, the assistant was probably the one who actually had to juggle schedules and arrange spies on the other teams and things. He couldn't be totally sure, since those had actually been things Arthur, rather than Arnold's actual school-sanctioned AC, had done, but it seemed likely enough. In spite of all that, though, he knew he couldn't refuse. You didn't just pass over honors and official positions, not in his family, anyway. They wouldn't disown him or anything over it, but he would have a lot of explaining to do that he'd rather not when he got home if he did.

"Sure," he said, then, after reading, with a smile. "Sounds great."

After that, he went to the dorms and washed his face before getting back to work. Later, seeing the list up after he had accosted Brandon, he quickly signed himself up - James Carey, 5th, Chase/As Needed - and then went back to the dorm to study more, shaking his head only once as he passed the twins' old room.

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Anthony Carey VIII

October 19, 2013 2:05 AM

Most likely not making my smartest decision ever by Anthony Carey VIII

As he looked at the sign-up sheet in the Aladren Common Room, Anthony had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from smiling at the irony. Aladrens were noted for independence and strength of will to the point where it made the official literature - some of the commentaries he had read, finding the organization systems of schools around the world an engaging leisure interest and in some cases as good a use for the languages he'd been made to learn to read as any, seemed to feel that these were even more defining marks of the Aladren than logic or intelligence, though the point was debated, especially since 'intelligence' was such a vague word, anyway - but their Quidditch team seemed prepared to proceed in a most Teppenpaw-like spirit of cooperation, or Crotalo-Teppenpaw one of some mix of self-denial and indecision. Or perhaps even Pecari-ish flexibility, the trait which would seem most at odds with strength of will translated into stubbornness - though not with intelligence, or reasoned problem-solving. Truly, theirs was a House of great variety.

Whatever the ideologically suspect causes, though, the fact remained that it was sort of funny to see that only the Wolseithcraftes - both younger members of the team, one plainly new - had been specific in their ambitions. Everyone else was hedging his bets, including the new captain and assistant captain, all trying to cover all the bases.

All, he was afraid, probably the fault of his brothers. Arnold, Arthur, Preston, and Russell had been the backbones of the team for six years, everyone else just fitting in around them. Last year, it had sort of gone sideways when Preston and Russell withdrew to focus on their RATS, and for whatever reason - Anthony had his theories, most of them touching on Arnold's reluctance to see things change, or confront that they inevitably would, but he kept them to himself - the twins had not taken advantage of this wake-up call to really plan for the future. Now, with Kitty gone and the whole structure which had kept them on top for so long just completely gone in an instant, well...no one really knew what to do.

With that in mind, Anthony was sure he was doing something very stupid as he picked up his quill and did what no one had yet ventured to do: offered to take his oldest brother's place. he did it anyway, but wavered enough at the last second to hedge his bets along with everyone else and give himself at least the chance for an out, and so signed himself up as Anthony Carey, 4th, Seeker or as needed.

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Leonidas Bennett

October 24, 2013 9:08 PM

Joining the team by Leonidas Bennett

After his discussion with Theodore at the Welcoming Feast, Leo had come to the conclusion that he had to join the Aladren Quidditch team. On his own, he might have put it off for a few years, but after all he had said about Paul, making his brother sound far more invested than he had meant to, and witnessing Theodore’s obvious enthusiasm for the sport, he really did not see a way around it. He would just have to do his best and hope the team was not really in as much need of new blood as they all thought it was.

Looking at the list, though, he saw that it did not seem he was going to have that kind of luck. They were not doing as poorly as Gemma said Teppenpaw was, but they were not up to seven yet, either, by the time he decided he could no longer dawdle and had to actually put his name down on the list. Six, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been – they couldn’t make him be a Seeker, or probably, in spite of his most likely not being the smallest of the first years, a Beater.

He hoped, anyway. There was only one volunteer for each of those positions, so he knew there was a chance that he could. That was what he didn’t like about this, though at least Seeker – the position most likely to get hurt on purpose, and the one everyone was looking straight at, the one in charge of winning or losing the game. Some people could deal with that, but Leo did not think he was one of them, at least not today – was almost sure to go to a volunteer. Especially one from the same family as the famous last one….

He forced aside a little bit of irritation over that. It was nothing personal, and he didn't even want the silly position. He signed himself up as Leonidas Bennett, First Year, Chaser or Other, since being willing to take on whatever was needed seemed to be in the Aladren team spirit, and then went to breakfast.

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Andri Thornton

October 25, 2013 6:13 AM

This is for Kitty! by Andri Thornton

Andri hadn’t seen Kitty at the Feast, and Headmistress Kijewski-Jareau’s remark of Angel not returning to school had made Andri feel very uncomfortable and seriously unhappy. Sure, Henny was still around, and her sisters and cousins, but the new sixth year felt like she was all alone again. I’ve gotta throw myself into classes, studies and Quidditch… I have to… For Kitty, and Angel… she thought as she walked from Cascade Hall to Aladren House.

Her days were a blur after that. When she saw the Sign Up sheet on the board in Aladren House with Thad’s name underneath, Andri realized that Kitty hadn’t just not been seen by her, but that she wasn’t at school anymore… A tear fell down from the corner of her eye and her resolve steeled. We’re going to win… For Kitty… she said. She added her name to the list of other Aladren hopefuls.

Andrina Thornton, 6th year, Keeper

She wrote, and walked away from the sheet and up to her room. Andri wasn’t happy and she wasn’t sure what she could do about it, but she took the moment to open up her textbooks around her on the bed, closed her eyes and put her finger down onto one of them. “This is the one I will start with…” she said to herself, glancing down at her Defense Against the Dark Arts book. “Right… Lets start from the beginning…” she added to herself as she opened to the first page.

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