Duncan Brockert

September 05, 2015 4:02 AM
Duncan had never really felt before that he was the sort who made things happen. They just...happened to him. Even getting prefect was something he hadn't tried for. He actually sometimes wondered if the decision hadn't been pro-him, but anti-Serena, something for the life of him couldn't understand really. There was nothing wrong with her. She was a sweet caring individual who was perfectly responsible and got good grades and he quite frankly didn't see anything spectactular about himself over her.

But this was the hand he'd been dealt and besides, while Mother was overly pleased with his social progress-none of which he'd felt he'd sought, he'd become friends with Araceli and Liliana by chance and Jake by...the actions of the other boy wanting a roommate for some unfathomable reason- Father was so ecstatic to have Duncan follow in his footsteps and the fifth year was happy to have made him proud. So he was going to be the best prefect he could be. That meant not only signing up for the Concert-something Liliana had done, but Theodore and Isaac had not and Duncan couldn't say he was too bothered by the latter because he was worried that Jamie Park was going to be bad enough-but taking on a leadership role.

Because that's what prefects did. He really wanted to believe there was a positive reason he'd been the one chosen rather than Serena being somehow found inadequate, which was a hit to not only his own self-esteem but offended him on her behalf.

So, he wanted to prove that he could do it. To himself as much as anything. Therefore, he'd sent out owls to those signed up-aside from Jake, because they were roommates and Duncan could just tell him-to meet him in the Water Room and contacted the school elves to help him set up a spread of snacks and beverages.

The Teppenpaw arrived at the meeting early, the room showing a beautiful lake with a long picnic table nearby for them to sit at, with all the snacks set out. He took a seat to wait, and when people had mostly arrived, Duncan stood up and cleared his throat.

"Welcome to the Intermediate Concert Group meeting.For those of you who don't know, I am Duncan Brockert of the Western Brockerts-"the regular traditional pureblood introduction just fell out of his mouth as he'd been doing all his life,"and I've arranged this meeting to brainstorm ideas. As you can tell, there are refreshments here for you all to enjoy. Can we all introduce ourselves and mention what are skills we have that we could put to use for the Concert?" He turned to the person sitting to his left, implying they should go first. Duncan kind of needed to think about what he really brought to the table.
Subthreads:
11 Duncan Brockert Intermediate Concert Group Meeting. (Room 1) 271 Duncan Brockert 1 5


Liliana Bannister

September 06, 2015 6:34 PM
Though she was a prefect and likely should have helped Duncan in setting up the Intermediate group for the concert, Liliana’s mind had been elsewhere over the past few weeks. Things had happened and things were happening in her life that were leaving her in a weird place.

Firstly, there was the whole family drama regarding her favorite pastime, then on top of that there was the new baby that would be coming by the end of the year, something which was extremely frustrating for the girl who had spent most of her childhood wishing beyond anything that she could have a little sister or something similar to that, anything except yet another stinking boy.

Then, her hormones were all of of whack, causing her to do and think things that she had never suspected would be things she would do or think. Not that she minded, they were just things that she knew no proper pureblooded witch ought to do or think and therefore yet another thing that she had to keep in check.

So, when Duncan took charge on the concert project and organized the whole first meeting Liliana’s first reaction was sad. She felt left out as though he didn’t think she was good enough to help him. And then, once she remembered it was Duncan who was probably one of the nicest people she knew, she felt relieved that he had taken charge because she just had way too much on her plate to deal with trying to organize a group of student from over three years especially when one of the students was Jamie Park.

After thinking it over a little bit, Liliana decided to show up to the meeting a little bit early so she could thank Duncan for putting that together and for taking the leadership position. When she arrived she was pleased to find that he had done better than she thought she ever would have been able to. The only over “event” she had planned was a Quidditch team party and she’d had Atlas’ help for that plus her life had been a lot calmer that previous year.

“Hey,” she said with a smile as she entered the MARS room. “Nice choice, it looks really good,” she complimented him on the picnic tables and calming lake. The environment was relaxing enough and exactly what Liliana had needed to take a break from everything else in her life and to brainstorm ideas for something that was supposed to be fun. “Thanks for setting this all up, by the way,” she continued, taking a seat to Duncan’s left. “If you ever need help with anything just let me know, I’m quite good at being an Assistant Captain, oh Captain, my Captain!” She mock-saluted in a friendly manner, poking fun at her position of Assistant Captain on the Quidditch team.

“But seriously,” she said, letting her mirth settle a little. “I am glad you decided to take charge on this one!” Being the only other prefect in the group meant that if Duncan hadn’t done it Liliana would have felt obligated to and as much as she liked to hear herself talk she knew that Duncan was probably the better choice than herself for something like this as she was, quite frankly, slightly too disorganized.

After Duncan gave his introductions, Liliana gave the group one of her large, signature smiles “Liliana Bannister of the London and now Connecticut Bannisters,” she replied cheerily mixing where she had grown up and felt truly was her home with the place she now legally lived. “I suppose that most skills I have are of the Quidditch variety however I did do a pretty amazing fairy godmother for my first year concert and did take ballet for about six or seven years. Which is something I’m definitely trying to get back into as those of you in the Dance club know.” She turned, smiling to the person to her left to allow the introductions to continue on.
10 Liliana Bannister Thankful for your leadership. 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Jake Manger

September 08, 2015 2:38 PM
Jake was actually super excited about the concert meeting today. Everybody who signed up was, in his opinion, pretty cool (although Jamie Park still made him a bit uncomfortable, something about his sincerity in offering to beat up Uzume Shinohara so that Jake could play Seeker), not to mention that his buddy Duncan was in charge of their group. Or, well, not officially, but Duncan was a Prefect, and he was the one arranging today’s get-together, and that was enough for Jake.

He wasn’t quite ready to go down when Duncan left their shared room (having a roommate was awesome!), but he did manage to get to MARS fairly early. When he arrived, he only saw Duncan and Liliana Bannister, whom Jake did not know too well but seemed to be pretty good friends with Duncan. “Hey, guys!” he greeted cheerfully. “This is gonna be so fun!”

Always a polite listener, as the introductory stuff began, Jake sat quietly and let Duncan, then Liliana speak. As he had ended up to her left, he figured that meant it was his turn next. “Hi everybody, I’m Jake Manger,” he introduced merrily, foregoing the formal stuff Duncan and Liliana had both presented with because he always felt way too stuffy doing it and also because he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to say he was of the Rhode Island Mangers or the Colorado O’Malleys since he was technically sort of both now, living with his O’Malley mother and step-father but sharing the last name of his Manger father.

“I’m a pretty quick learner, usually, so if you guys want to do something I don’t necessarily know how to do, no worries, I’ll catch up,” he smiled. “Although I do play a mean piano, so if we want music, that could be an option.” Jake turned his blue eyes on the person to his left, nodding to them to signify that he was done now and they could take their turn.
12 Jake Manger Ditto 280 Jake Manger 0 5

Makenzie Newell

September 23, 2015 4:58 PM
Although Makenzie was genuinely excited for her concert group things, she arrived rather late, almost time that they were meant to begin; fashionable lateness could have been the tagline to her memoir, but she did push it to technically be on time because showing up partway through this would not only be unfortunate but awkward as well.

She ended up seated next to Jake Manger, which meant that as he concluded his introduction, she was expected to go. “Makenzie Newell,” she introduced politely, leaving off formalities because, while Duncan and Liliana had provided branches, Jake had not, and she hated to make him feel like the odd one out. “And fortunately, I have similar talents to these two,” she added with a polite smile.

“I learned the basics of several instruments, but I’m best at the violin and maybe the cello, if we want to do something musical,” Makenzie elaborated. “Or if we want to go with Liliana’s dancing, I did a lot of ballet before school. So unless most of you aren’t inclined to do either of those, I think we’re off to a pretty good start.”

Makenzie couldn’t wait to hear what everyone else had to offer. It occurred to her that Duncan hadn’t actually offered any of his talents when he began the meeting, but she supposed he would have a chance when everyone in the circle had spoken and focus made its way back to him. He was, it seemed, unofficially taking the lead, which was fine with her and in fact seemed rather fitting as he was a Prefect. Until then, she would happily listen to everyone else’s ideas and skills, as she, presumably along with the rest of the group, turned to the person beside her.
12 Makenzie Newell I concur. 291 Makenzie Newell 0 5

Duncan

September 26, 2015 2:24 PM
Duncan listened as the assembled group-and there was a decent amount of them-introduced themselves and gave their talents.As he assessed the list he had written down, he noted that his cousin Chaslyn was trained in an amazing amount of things. Serena had not been kidding when she'd told him that. No wonder the Crotalus looked so exhausted. Poor girl.

On the other hand, his other cousin Scarlett had merely said that she was "funny" and that she was trained in "the usual pureblood things". This actually made Duncan feel a bit better. He was rather struggling to come up with his own talents. He'd never taken up an instrument or anything. The Teppenpaw was trying to be a good leader but he didn't really know if he actually was. "Well, I suppose I know a lot about history and good at Transfiguration. I also have spent a fair amount of time riding horses.And" he went on with a sidelong glance at Scarlett, "I've been trained in the 'usual pureblood things.''

He took a breath. "So, does anyone have any ideas? It seems like we have some musicians in the group but it's not...everyone. I would really like to incorporate everyone's talents the best we can." This had been why Duncan had asked about them in the first place. He wasn't exactly sure what they could do with some of them such as anyone with primarily athletic talents. Or Scarlett's. Or his own. He knew full well that they could not bring in horses for example. Maybe he could put on a Transfiguration act to violin music? Of course, being that he was taking on the leadership role, he'd really prefer not to be the main focus of the show. It was not all about him.
OOC-I'm skipping ahead because the concert is supposed to go up on Friday. Just assume that you introduced yourself and Duncan wrote down your talent. And we really really need ideas.
11 Duncan Aw, thanks. 271 Duncan 0 5


Liliana

September 29, 2015 3:49 AM
Once everyone had gone round and introduced themselves, Liliana thought over what it was that they could do. It was hard to organize a group of students who had varying talents into one show that would prove to be at least someone entertaining to the general student body. “The first time we did a concert my group did a play,” Liliana said absentmindedly as she tried to stall for time.

“I mean, it was a Muggle fairy tale I think, so not a lot of people knew it which I guess made it kind of unique…” She trailed off. Everyone at the school knew that despite coming from a proper family Liliana’s best friend was Muggleborn and that she was fiercely protective of her friends, but in her early years she had still been skeptical of the Muggle world and having to perform in that play had been kind of an uncomfortable experience even though looking back on it she thought it was a good experience to have.

“You know,” she started again, rather slowly, letting the word linger so that it seemed as though she was saying more than she actually was. “What if we put on a short play or series of skits that were comedic? After the rough year that everyone’s had because of that awful vandal we could use some cheering up. We can write one or go talk to Professor Olivers about selecting a couple funny stand alone scenes."

She looked around the group of them hoping they would like her idea or that it would help the others come up with a better one. Though she wasn’t an uncreative person, Liliana didn’t really consider herself to be very artsy and had really only signed up for the concert because she felt it was her duty as a prefect to do so.
10 Liliana You're welcome 274 Liliana 0 5

Scarlett Brockert

September 30, 2015 6:30 PM
While people talked, Scarlett nibbled on a sandwich and some gourmet potato chips. This was practically lunch. No matter how else things turned out, Duncan had had done a good thing there.

She noticed Chaslyn seemed to be awfully interested in the food too, which was good. Sometimes, she didn't think her cousin got enough to eat. The fourth year's weight loss was honestly kind of noticeable. She'd sounded rather nervous when listing her talents which was not really surprising because Scarlett knew her cousin to be a rather shy, insecure person. Honestly, the Pecari could understand why. If she'd had Aunt Jillian for a mother, she'd have had issues too.

Of course, even though her aunt was a totally unreasonable human being, she had to admit that at least Chaslyn had something to offer the group. Scarlett was caught a little off guard when asked her own, even though she'd been given lessons in "extra stuff", she'd never really had the interest or the patience or the drive to become really good at any of it and after trying several things-at different times-she'd basically given up and luckily her parents didn't mind as long as she could do the things that she had to do.

They were such good parents.

Of course, she couldn't tell them what she was really good at, which was sneaking around the school unseen, even though she suspected John Umland knew and he couldn't tell on her without admitting he'd done the same thing. Possibly her roommates had figured it out too. Still, Scarlett was not an idiot. It was not something she'd want people to know. She hadn't even told Savannah . So she'd merely gone with being funny, because she'd gotten that in the yearbook and was immensely proud of it, then returned to her sandwich while the rest of the group went.

It got her attention though when Liliana mentioned doing a skit, even though nobody mentioned talents in writing or acting with the exception of Chaslyn having had lessons in the latter and she was not especially good at it.Her cousin was a terrible liar. However, an idea suddenly came to Scarlett as she looked at the array food on her plate, eyes falling on a deviled egg.

"Eggs!" The third year bluted out. "We can be eggs. We can be in a carton, and since there are ten of us, two eggs won't be there and we can like imagine what happened to our buddies and talk about the dreadful things that happen to things being cooked from the point of view of the food. Or we can be like, on the run from a crazy cook that's trying to cook and eat us and outsmart him." Scarlett smiled, pleased with herself especially when she noticed the amusement in Duncan's eyes.
11 Scarlett Brockert Idea! 293 Scarlett Brockert 0 5