Three is a magic number on Aladren Commons

Captain Anthony Carey

January 09, 2015 10:31 PM

Quidditch Sign Up Sheet! by Captain Anthony Carey

After a year as Assistant Captain, Anthony had known the chances of him not being made full captain in the new year were very slim unless he went out of his way to make it happen, so he did his best to come to school ready. His year was, with all the badges he held and classes he was registered for and general things he had to do, going to be extremely busy, so anything he could do to get ahead seemed like a good thing, even if it was just going ahead and presuming to write a sign-up list, only waiting for Professor Olivers’ owl as a formality before he posted it.

Quidditch Sign Ups

Anyone who is interested in joining the Aladren Quidditch team is welcome to sign up below! Please put down your name, year, and the position(s) you would like or be willing to play. More information about tryouts will be made available soon

Anthony Carey, 7th Year, Captain and Chaser.

He had thought about trying to go ahead and book the Pitch for tryouts and a regular practice time before posting the sheet, but wanted the rest of the House to have as much time to sign up as possible and knew that a time for regular tryouts might require knowing ahead of time who the members of his team were. It was not at all unusual for Aladrens to be involved in multiple activities, so he might need to work around other people a little. Gone were the days where a Quidditch captain could be too picky about such things; they might come again, but Anthony really didn’t think it would be before the end of the year, even if the new Teppenpaw class did make him think the season might include at least three teams this time around, which was at least an improvement over last year.

Subthreads:

Two can play at that game by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

Three is a magic number by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

Four is a square number by Clark Dill

Five is an odd number. by John Spencer

Six is one number short of perfection. by John Umland

And Seven is really hoping to see Eight by Leonidas Bennett

0 Captain Anthony Carey Quidditch Sign Up Sheet! 0 Captain Anthony Carey 1 5

Francesca Wolseithcrafte

January 11, 2015 2:35 AM

Two can play at that game by Francesca Wolseithcrafte

It was a formality, really, signing the piece of paper, seeing as she had already assured Anthony she would be taking the job as assistant captain. And, after five years of playing Chaser, she wasn’t inclined to shake things up by giving something else a go. She’d been getting good at her position. Adapting to having a different team around her was enough of a challenge to keep her on her toes, and there was always more to learn. Still, she was pleased to get her name straight in under the captain’s. It always looked sloppy, she thought, when the assistant captain wasn’t on there until three or four names down.

Francesca Wolseithcrafte, 6th year, Assistant Captain and Chaser.

A little smile crossed her face at seeing the title officially down on paper, although she already had a solid reminder of it pinned to her school robes, next to her prefect badge. She turned from the sheet, hoping for decent first years. Although, as they were down a Beater, she was sure it would be a concern either way… Still, the first priority was to get five more names, and she thought that there were four she could rely on re-appearing.

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Theodore Wolseithcrafte

January 11, 2015 2:48 AM

Three is a magic number by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

Theodore had two good reasons for not abandoning the Quidditch team this year. The first was the same as it had always been - it was the most convenient way to construct a social identity. So long as he was on the Quidditch team, he had a clear set of people to whom, in the eyes of the school, he belonged. It enabled him to indulge his hobbies of running and swimming, which people normally deemed anti-social, with impunity. It was part of his training, part of him being a good team member. He avoided being labelled a loner, or - God forbid - told he should socialise more because people perceived him as having an adequate amount of human interaction by the fact he dressed up in the same uniform and periodically exercised with other people around. It even gave him a convenient excuse to speak with people he might have had no legitimate reason to speak to otherwise, such as John Umland, whose year and social class placed him otherwise outside of Theodore’s sphere. He was not quite sure whether he owed the younger boy an apology for some of the things he had said to him last term… He recalled their conversation, in its all idiotic and illogical rambling, with painful clarity, although he was quite sure there had been some sort of magical influence involved, as it did not feel like him who had said it. He felt he had treated John with less tact than he might have done otherwise, for which he felt ashamed, though given the amount of nonsense they’d both talked, he felt the best way to proceed was to assume something strange had occurred and to never mention it again.

His second reason for joining was much more succinct; his sister was the assistant captain. He would have died before letting Francesca down, though thankfully had not extended this brotherly devotion to randomly punching Jay Carey at the ball last year, though the thought - for reasons best known to itself - had definitely occurred to him as something he was supposed to do.

Theodore Wolseithcrafte, 4th year, Keeper, he signed, a little disappointed that he had to ruin the perfect countdown Anthony and Francesca had started but quite aware that, with no fifth years and with two fourth years on the team, it was bound to have happened sooner or later.

13 Theodore Wolseithcrafte Three is a magic number 270 Theodore Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Clark Dill

January 11, 2015 11:25 AM

Four is a square number by Clark Dill

Clark's summer had been distinctly lacking in snitches and flying brooms, so he was anxious to start practicing again so he could prove last year's triumphs had been due to his superior knowledge of the snitches' alien habits rather than a lucky fluke. Knowledge or no knowledge, it wouldn't do him any good if he lost the flying skills to back it up and keep ahead of Annabelle Pierce's amazing broom.

With an undefeated record so far backing him up, he felt confident in adding his name beneath Theodore's with no ambiguity about his position, even if he had grown almost two inches since this time last year and was definitely growing past the ideal proportions. He wasn't that much taller than Dad as yet, though, so he thought he'd be okay for another year or two before it became a problem. He was still skinny anyway, so there was that in his favor.

Clark Dill, 3rd Year, Seeker

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John Spencer

January 12, 2015 7:55 PM

Five is an odd number. by John Spencer

Jack didn’t know quite yet what role he wanted to play on the Quidditch team, only that he wanted to play. He didn’t have much experience playing the sport, though he knew exactly how the game was played and watched matches whenever he could. The sign-up sheet was on the noticeboard the next time Jack went down into the common room, and he was pleased to see that there were still spots open. According to Adam, Aladren was the reigning champion of Quidditch and Jack hoped to be a part of that legacy.

He brought out a quill and thought for a moment about which position he ought to write down. If they had enough players, then Jack would undoubtedly be put aside as a reserve which he wanted to avoid. If the lacked players, then it didn’t matter what the open spot was, he would be placed into it if he was indecisive. However, this didn’t make his decision any easier. Finally he decided to put down both options and see where the captain placed him or which position he fit better during try-outs.

John Spencer, 1st year, Chaser or Beater

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John Umland

January 12, 2015 8:55 PM

Six is one number short of perfection. by John Umland

When John first looked at the Quidditch sign-up sheet, his eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed in a frown when he saw his own first name already there, worried for a moment that he was losing it. Quidditch was not an Important Thing, but analyzing his options about it, making a decision, and acting on that decision should have required enough of his attention for him to at least remember doing it when something (like seeing the sign-up sheet or a team member in the common room) triggered thoughts and memories related to the sport. A second later, though, he realized that neither the handwriting nor the surname belonged to him and he relaxed, though he did wonder how he and John Spencer were going to be told apart for the rest of the year while sharing a House, classes, and a team. All surnames all the time, or would someone else familiar with Dr. Seuss dub them Thing One and Thing Two? ‘Primus’ and ‘Secundus’ wouldn’t work at all, it would be too confusing when their years were exactly the opposite of the order of their arrival….

He shook his head a little. Not relevant, though he should probably introduce himself to John the Younger sometime, and the other first years in the House. That was friendly. He removed the flat bookmark ballpoint he kept hooked to the elastic on the front of his pocket notebook, deeming it the best of his pens to write on a vertical surface with, and wrote down his own name, John Umland, and his year, Year 2, and then hesitated.

Last year, he had played Chaser. Badly. He understood both the game and how to fly as well as anyone, he guessed, having devoted more of his time than he should have in his first year to studying them, but there was something about the chaos of the actual field that made him do stupid things when actually playing, a tendency not helped by him using a school broom rather slower than the fancy personal models used by his more affluent colleagues. He doubted very much that Francesca and Anthony would welcome him back with open arms, if at all.

Then there was the old captain’s now-empty position, that of a Beater. John was not exactly the image of a Beater, either, but he was reasonably strong - occupational hazard of spending his free time climbing trees and buildings and bicycling everywhere at home - could aim, and even if he couldn’t actually help, he could do less damage to the team’s chances than he had last year if it turned out John the Younger was a half-decent Chaser - which, given the kind of backgrounds Aladren attracted, there was a good chance he already was. There was a chance he’d be shunted into the position by default, but he might save face if he volunteered for it. Also a chance it would be strongly suggested that he decide to spend more time on book club and archery club, but -

He shrugged and wrote down Likewise, with an arrow pointing to John the Younger’s positions. He usually wrote things in the shortest form possible, the better to keep up with the pace of his thoughts, though he didn’t think he’d ever really be able to get everything down until they figured out a way to translate the neural impulses that registered as thoughts directly to a keyboard. In the meantime, Anthony could sort out positions.

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Leonidas Bennett

January 22, 2015 10:04 PM

And Seven is really hoping to see Eight by Leonidas Bennett

The Quidditch team had always been a little bit of a disappointment to Leonidas. He had seen it as a short cut to making connections, friends he could use in the real world, only to find that the team didn’t seem to socialize much off the Pitch. He guessed it was a natural consequence of most of the members being related to others; if Jay Carey and Francesca Wolseithcrafte had really gotten together instead of allegedly just going on a date of convenience to the last ball and that getting together had ended in marriage, then Aladren Quidditch team reunions and family reunions might have become very neatly combined. Even as it was, most of them had little reason to mix, though, because the ones who weren’t cousins or siblings were...well, Clark Dill and John Umland, who nobody really wanted to make connections of.

Admittedly, Leo had seen his roommate sitting with Umland at the Midsummer Ball, chatting and seeming like they were having a good time together, but the Midsummer Ball had been...strange. A lot of people had not seemed quite like themselves, and Leo suspected someone had somehow managed to tamper with food and drink. After spending an evening listening to his sister babble like even more of an idiot than usual, Leo wanted to kill whoever was responsible, but only after shaking his or her hand in admiration. Just getting the resources must have been a neat trick, and actually meddling with the food without being detected must have been harder yet.

Probably not, though, as hard as dealing with the least competent person on the team while sober. Leo looked at the sign-up sheet in horror as he considered the sign-ups of the two people apparently willing to replace Jay Carey. New John at least had a familiar surname, but as a first year, he was probably even smaller than Umland. Which meant their new Chaser Captain might decide he had a legitimate excuse to make Umland someone else’s - namely, Leonidas Bennett’s - problem.

He could just not sign up. He seriously considered it. The problem, though, was that he lived with a Wolseithcrafte, who might take it as Leo having a problem with Francesca becoming Assistant Captain. Theodore might not take it that way since one of Leo’s eldest sister’s conditions when she got married had been that her husband let her have her job at the bank openly, but he might, and that would make the next three years uncomfortable. He then seriously considered telling Dill’s roommate that he could either join the team or get hexed every day until he did, but the problem with that was that it might have political repercussions outside the school that weren’t worth it if Ferguson was the type to go cry to Mother and Father over his every problem. That left him with praying as his best option for avoiding having to put up with Umland, and Leo wasn’t really the religious type. It was not with a cheerful heart that he became the last of the old team to sign back up for his old position again.

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