Headmaster Brockert
May 18, 2014 11:50 PM
Returning Feast by Headmaster Brockert
Over midterm, there had been an ongoing investigation into a local charms research facility and quite frankly, Mortimer hoped the incompetent morons would get shut down. He expected his family would end up getting involved in it too. They always did. Clifford Brockert seemed to think he had to be in anything that happened on this side of the country.However, for once, Mortimer did not truly mind the holidays, even with all their fake cheer. He didn't hate his employees and felt for the most part that they knew what they were doing in terms of their respective disciplines. It was just all the....togetherness of last semester. He had very much needed to be away from them before he completely lost it, which was not something Mortimer ever wanted to do. To have anyone see him show any emotion-not that it was something he normally had to put much effort into, as he was naturally unemotional-was unacceptable. He had to maintain the idea of a strong leader, even if he came across cold and unfeeling.
Once the students had settled in, the Headmaster adressed the crowd. "Welcome back to Sonora. I would like to thank the prefects and Head Students, and anyone who stepped up last semester." Really, he was just surprised that Sonora was still standing. Kids and even young adults-and even some full adults-were not known to be responsible. Mortimer had even come back over the break just to check everything over again to make sure. "They are to all recieve a special award for their special service to the school." It felt incredibly awkward and uncomfortable to give people praise, being that it was not something that he was used to doing. However, said students had been invited to sit at a special table in front of the staff's.
"This year's Midsummer activity will be the bonfire. Details to follow." Mortimer announced. He felt they should go ahead with the usual festivities, even though he was not, by any means, a festive person. However, this would hopefully raise morale. If the students were happy, that meant fewer angry parents-even though it wasn't the school's fault-and that meant a happier Board.
"For those of you worried about CATS and RATS, two options have been negotiated. You may choose to either sit your exams open book and use your notes or if you wish, you may go to summer school to finish catching up and sit normal, closed book exams at the end of it."
He sat back down, releasing them to their meals and idle chatter, having said all that was of any value to say. Mortimer did not address the investigation or last term's situation beyond what he'd said. He was not the one who had to do the explaining for that one.
Subthreads: Avoiding reality for a bit. by Cepheus Princeton, Crotalus with Jade Owen, Cepheus Princeton
Returning for the last time. by Evan Brockert
Out of the frying pan... by Portia Dobson
In the home stretch. by Waverly Canterbury with Neeka Campbell, Waverly
My life stinks. by Eleanor Vandenberg with Tristan Spaulding, Nellie Vandenberg
Eating my weight in macaroni. by Ava Fletcher
An awkward return. by Alicia Bauer with Thaddeus Pierce, Thad
I've returned, to great relief by Willow Collins with Keme RunningBear, Keme
Here we go again by Anthony Carey VIII
Mixed sentiments by Jake Manger
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Headmaster Brockert
Returning Feast
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Headmaster Brockert
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Alicia Bauer
June 10, 2014 3:33 PM
An awkward return. by Alicia Bauer
There was too much food, and no matter how many times she reminded herself the crisis and her responsibility for what was on the table were over, the sight of it all made Alicia uneasy. She could look over her shoulder from the special table (hard not to do; she didn't like them being there, watching the back of her head) and see the teachers, look at the other students and gather thing were close to back to normal, but the presence of a feast was still...jarring. She’d started thinking of the dressing down the idiot who’d authorized this extravagance was going to receive and the term of self-punishment she was going to set the elves for being stupid enough to follow the direction before she remembered the kitchens were now out-of-bounds for her and that such a display would make people think she was out of her mind if the teachers were still here tomorrow morning. Before that, her first thought during Brockert's speech had been that he was out of his mind if he really thought she was going to permit a bonfire on the grounds before realizing that for one thing, if nothing else happened, they would have access to safety resources in June and that for another, her permission didn’t really count for much anymore anyway. She had been back an hour and the dissonance of that kind of thing had already come up enough that she expected to spend a lot of the next few months very irritated.That last one, admittedly, was a particularly sharp bone in her throat. She fingered the edge of her robe and tried for an extra-bright smile.
She had been rehearsing variations on I am no longer in charge, it is no longer my problem for weeks, trying to get used to the idea, but it wasn’t sticking. Any trust she’d ever had for the staff had evaporated by her birthday, and now, she almost wanted to put them back in their box. The only thing to do, though, was keep smiling, lest someone more important than her father suggest she see a doctor. No one could make her now, but Momma, at least, had devoted the past few weeks to letting Alicia know she could still at least cause her problems. Alicia had had to bring up her age before Momma stopped insisting she could tell Alicia whether or not she could come back to school, and even that hadn’t stopped attempts to persuade her not to on the basis that Momma knew better than she did.
Momma had surprised her, really, keeping it up as long as she did, even to the hour Alicia left again. Usually her mother was the easiest to extract whatever she wanted from. Alicia had been a little impressed, though more busy worrying about why Jeremy always sat back and watched the arguments as though they were tennis matches. The only comment he’d ever made about anything was to remind her that he could probably have even her mother’s will changed if she ever annoyed him enough to make him really want to.
Parents, she thought. Worse than teachers. It was enough to make her understand why some people would want to leave and try to make their own way, though she thought it was too impractical to try it out herself.
Don't think about it now. She took a few bites of her supper with more enthusiasm than she really felt. "This is a pleasant improvement," she remarked to one of the others, then took a sip of her pumpkin juice, making a face against the rim of the glass before putting it down again. It was almost cloyingly sweet, and she wondered if anyone would object if she Vanished it and replaced it with some cider.
16
Alicia Bauer
An awkward return.
210
Alicia Bauer
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5
Thaddeus Pierce
June 13, 2014 12:03 PM
Either making things better or making them much worse by Thaddeus Pierce
Thaddeus walked up to the special table reserved for the upper years who had helped out over the last term. During the course of that walk, he checked, not once, but four times that the staff were actually seated where they should be. Though they disappeared over night after the Welcoming Feast, he couldn't quite shake the premonition that this Returning Feast might herald another vanishing act and he wanted to know the moment he and Alicia were in charge again to prevent the confusion at the beginning of last term.They were still there when Thad sat down beside Alicia, and they were still there when the food - the volume was jarring after last term's rationing but it was truthfully the variety that still took him by surprise; many of the ingredients on display tonight had run out by the beginning of December - appeared. Avoiding the foods he'd seen too much of last term, he filled his plate with perishables that the Sonora grounds did not produce themselves.
"I agree," he confirmed when Alicia declared the current circumstances a pleasant improvement. "And welcome back," he added. Almost unconsciously, he turned his head to check the staff table again. Still there. "I don't think I'll trust that it's permanent until I see a professor tomorrow, though."
He thought about asking her which RATS option she was going to go for - with the cutoff from the outside world, they had missed the best window for college applications, so he was thinking he might stick around for the summer, travel a bit next year, then start university the following year. However, before he asked that, he did have another question he thought might hold a bit more weight and may alter her RATS plans. Plus, he had thought of little else since returning home back before Christmas and he wasn't sure how much trivial conversation he could handle before he just blurted it out.
Thaddeus looked around to make sure nobody else was listening and lowered his voice as he ventured, "I spoke to my family this midterm. I told them I would like to seek your hand. The last time I did that, they discovered an unfortunate relative in your ancestry and said no, but that was before we ran a school together. This time I was given provisional approval. It may cost me the patriarchy, but Grandmother will probably outlive all of us anyway, and if she doesn't, it's got to go through Derwent and Father, and possibly Marcus, first, so it may not matter and will give us plenty of time to prove ourselves and wrangle our way back ahead of Wesley in the heir ranks. I just need to know if that's something you want before we start betrothal arrangements with your stepfather?"
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Thaddeus Pierce
Either making things better or making them much worse
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Thaddeus Pierce
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5
Alicia
June 18, 2014 1:21 AM
They're more interesting now, anyway. by Alicia
Alicia smiled when Thad welcomed her back, but it faded a bit when he looked over his shoulder to check for the teachers. “I’m not sure I’ll trust it’s permanent until it’s no longer my problem,” she said, and her attempt to insert humor into her tone didn’t work as well as it might have. “Still, though, try not to look at them now. People will think you’re nervous.”"I spoke to my family this midterm,” Thad began in a lower voice, and Alicia turned toward him to hear better, only to freeze when he continued with I told them I’d like to seek your hand, and when that was followed by a mention of a last time and an unfortunate relative….
She tried to think, but it was just too bizarre to account for, enough that she had to bite her tongue to keep from asking stupid rhetorical questions. Thad knew and didn't seem to care. In what universe did that happen? She'd been half-convinced she'd have to talk fast just to avoid being cursed until she had tentacles if she ever had to tell him, never mind doing anything to improve, or even maintain, the status quo....
It occurred to her that it could be a trick, meant to get her to confirm that said unfortunate relative existed. In that case, the whole thing was irrelevant. If it wasn’t a trick, though…well, what was the angle? Who, besides her and maybe either Cousin Wesley or, if he didn't succeed in taking Thad's place, Cousin Wesley's son benefited enough from this for Thad to want it and his family to permit it? It didn't make any sense.
Alicia realized he'd stopped talking and she was staring, not smiling, her attention fixed on his expression. “Sorry,” she said. “I’ve just spent two years trying to figure out how I’d ever…explain…so you didn't immediately try to curse me if you ever…if anything like this ever happened.” She felt a tiny bit bad about knowing she would have kept manipulating him right through her confession, but it was a very tiny bit. “And now you know anyway.”
She picked the juice up again just for something to do with her hands. “You never do bore me," she concluded, smiling a little ruefully. He had known for at least a year without her knowing he knew. She didn't know what it was, if he was just that good or if she was just so used to thinking of herself as the one with the most information that she had let something slip past her, but points to him either way. "And we’re compatible and we have similar goals. But….”
Coward. It's the best time, you won't crack in public. Just do it. “You’re sure?” she asked, then lowered her voice further yet, though she remembered at last to throw in a smile for the audience so people wouldn't think they were whispering over anything very important. “Never mind your cousins - it might take a few years, but we could handle them. But knowing…that? You've thought it through - how it might be for a while - and the fact I never mentioned it - " that part was the hardest to spit out, and she had trouble keeping her tone even - "and you're all right with that?”
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Alicia
They're more interesting now, anyway.
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Alicia
0
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Thaddeus
June 18, 2014 10:15 PM
I don't mind interesting by Thaddeus
"Right," Thaddeus agreed when Alicia cautioned him against turning to look at the staff again. It immediately made him want to, one more time, just to be sure that they were still there, but he made himself refrain from doing so. He was not nervous, exactly, but he was still the Head Boy and did not want anyone to think he was unsettled about anything.Well, at least, not anything about the professors.
As he finished talking and Alicia just sort of . . . stared . . . at him. For someone as skilled as Alicia normally was at keeping up a bright and calm public face, she was visibly, well, he supposed 'dumbfounded' seemed a good word. He wasn't quite sure what he had said that was so shocking either.
Okay, yes, that had been essentially a marriage proposal popped at her unexpectedly during dinner, so some surprise was fair enough, but she didn't seem particularly happy about it, which was not really a good sign and made him a bit nervous that he'd read her completely wrong for years.
When she did speak, he blinked a bit in surprise himself, having forgotten that he'd never told her he knew. He'd kind of thrown that secret into to the same category as he did Henny's parents. Something that was known, that was supposed to matter, but ultimately was never spoken of to retain good relations with people he liked and respected and had to live with for seven years.
He started to smile as she began to list his virtues - not boring (something he didn't hear too often but he was pleased she thought so), compatible, similar goals - but it faltered as she trailed the listing off with the word 'but'. He had to lean in as she dropped her voice to a lower volume than even he had used.
She questioned whether or not he had actually thought this through.
He suspected, through many unrealistic fairy tales and pieces of literature he had read in his life, that most women in this circumstance would want to hear that they were more important than all of the cons, that it wasn't even worth comparing and contrasting, that their feelings for each other trumped all. Alicia, however, he did not believe was one of them. Which was part of the reason why he liked her so much. Why he thought she might actually be a good person to bring into the Pierce family.
Alicia would want to know he wasn't being rash. He did feel mildly insulted that she thought he might not be living up to his Most Logical title, but their entire futures stood on the line here, so he supposed he could forgive her need to be certain.
"I'm sure," he confirmed. "I've known since third year," he admitted. "I assure you, I went through all of the pros and cons multiple times since then. At first the cons were ahead, then about even when I asked you to be my date for the ball, and now . . . Well, now I've seen you in a crisis and I would very much like it if I had you to accompany me in all future crises."
It was, perhaps, not the most romantic declaration of love ever uttered, but Thaddeus felt it was the best he was capable of. Emotions were not his strong suit and talking about them was even worse. He thought and hoped Alicia might understand what he meant, though.
And since it seemed to bother her, he added, "And I don't blame you for not mentioning it. I never did either. It's not exactly something that comes up in normal conversation. I'm sure I never told you Coach Pierce was my biological sister, either, and you don't hold that against me, do you? Everybody has awkward family relations they can't do anything about except pretend they don't exist." He felt sure - especially now that he knew she'd been trying to figure out how for two years - that she would have told him if it had ever become relevant.
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Thaddeus
I don't mind interesting
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Thaddeus
0
5
Alicia
June 23, 2014 1:11 PM
I'm glad to hear it. by Alicia
Four and a half years was, Alicia had to admit, a long time to think over anything. It was longer than she had been thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong, and she thought she had hit the high points of that subject pretty thoroughly. As thinking was one of the things Thad was also rather good at, she would insult him if she assumed he’d thought about it for that long and not gone over all the angles, from inheritance issues to how hard it would be to not react at the time and only extract revenge years later, in a way that couldn’t be traced back to him, if people made unpleasant comments about his taste, intelligence, morality, or politics because of her.Though that last part could be something he assumed would be her job. He hadn’t, after all, done anything, as far as she could tell, to get revenge for being made to look like a bit of a fool in front of his parents the last time, and in his place, she was fairly sure she would have wanted to pretty much drive the other person to become a recluse. Revenge might not be his thing.
Or he just hadn’t been very surprised. Evan could have betrayed her; she had always assumed their yearmate didn’t pay enough attention to know, but that vacant, eccentric appearance could be just that – an appearance. Or perhaps he'd just been impressed instead of angry. The day before, that would have seemed ridiculous, but he had just established he knew as much about her as anyone did, more than most, and that he still liked what he saw. He was not only okay with the idea of being permanently attached to someone he knew was personally ambitious and a self-serving liar, he wanted to be. Not enough to do anything truly stupid over it, admittedly, but then, she’d have thought less of him if he had. And the words he’d used – our way, accompany me – made her think he was proposing an actual partnership with her instead of just expressing a desire to use her.
What she heard him saying was that he valued her. That he thought she was a good investment on her own merits. She wasn’t sure she could have kept from smiling if she’d really wanted to, and had even worse luck with not starting to blush at the compliment.
“That’s true,” she said when he pointed out how everyone had some relatives they just had to pretend they didn’t. For most people, that wasn’t basically every relative they had, but….”So…" She bit her lip, trying to reassure herself that she was not about to ruin his life and that he wouldn't despise her in a few years for it. "Okay, then.”
She grabbed onto the first practical thought which occurred to her to prevent herself from saying or doing anything stupid in public. “Okay. We’ll have to think about how to – how to play it….’Quietly’ might be best for now, you know?” She hoped he would understand this meant ‘Evan has no need to know this discussion happened yet.’ Much better for everyone if they left Evan in whatever geometrically-unlikely corner of the dark he was in for as long as possible. “Spend college…Next year..." She was thinking about how to build her social profile in that time, but it wasn't coming together. "Well, we’ll talk about it – later. Somewhere else.”
The rest of the table would start listening in soon, after all. They didn’t really need to hear her asking for detailed lists describing all the quirks and relationships of his family members or speculating about how much magical reinforcement Cousin Wesley might want put into a deal (the simplest solution, it seemed to her, would be to cut a deal with Wesley where he stepped aside in exchange for his son being named as Thad’s heir, but she’d like it if they still had the option to betray Cousin Wesley once all the elders died and they had a firm grip on the upper hand) or whether thirty or fifty more years was a more reasonable estimate of how long Druscella Pierce would live so they could draft a selves-proving schedule. He might appreciate some of her more practical traits, but the world at large probably didn't need to know about them just yet.
Besides, she didn't feel near top strategic form at the moment. It wasn’t every day that her world was upended in the space of five minutes, and she thought she was going to have to spend a long time on the rock wall to think her way through it – just the thought was too much in the moment, especially in public.
“This may be about the third time in my life when I have no idea what to say next,” she said, grinning, wanting to laugh, and wishing she could stop both. “I can't think when I'm happy anyway, and every book I’ve ever read with something like this in it cut off after that part. Even the manners ones.”
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Alicia
I'm glad to hear it.
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Alicia
0
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Thaddeus
June 23, 2014 8:59 PM
I'm glad you're glad by Thaddeus
She was smiling now, and that made Thad smile, too. Alicia smiled all the time, even when things were going poorly, but this one was brighter and happier than her normal one, a good smile. She didn't have nearly as many good smiles, and he liked it when she used one. Plus, she was blushing, which she never did. This, he thought, was unfortunate; he found it downright cute. He was fairly sure Alicia would never be as text-book beautiful as Ephanie Lucore, but she definitely had her own special Alicia-charm.Perhaps she was pleased about his proposal after all.
His own reflexive smile bloomed greater as she said yes. Well, she said, "Okay," actually, but what she meant was "Yes" and he had to work hard at containing the whoop of joy or jumping up and down. That would not have been dignified behavior for a Head Boy sitting at the special table. Alicia herself seemed to be having some trouble with dignity, too, as she stuttered through a few false starts at several different but probably related sentences. She did get one together eventually, though, if only to delay a discussion that covered most or all of those false starts.
"Later, and elsewhere," he promised, still gripping the table to keep himself in his seat. He glanced down at his setting to make sure he had laid down his silverware neatly rather than dropping the utensils in his anxiety or excitement. Good, they were laying properly on his plate in the etiquette position to indicate he had finished his meal. He hadn't, really, but at least they weren't on the floor, and he wasn't sure he could eat anything more right now anyway, even if his plate was still mostly full.
That would a waste of a feast and of food, though, and wasting food still made him mentally cringe, so he forced himself to release the table and take up the fork and knife again. To further show how dignified he was, he casually continued the conversation, attempting to dispel some of his pent-up ebullience by making a joke. "Pity. One would think the manners books at least would specify that 'Please pass the salt' is the wrong thing to say next. Yet, they didn't, so would you, please?" he asked, nodding toward the shaker. He did need some, after all, and it evidently wasn't forbidden by the etiquette books.
"Seriously, though," he added, to show he wasn't making light of what had just happened, "I did want to check with you before making formal arrangements. The traditional forms are a bit outdated," the Cepheus and Meghan fiasco being a prime example of how horribly wrong such traditions could go, "and I wanted to be sure this was something you wanted, too. Having a matriarch, our family is a little," he held his thumb and forefinger close together, "more inclined than most pureblood families to not have the fathers and husbands make all of these sorts of decisions nowadays, and I didn't want you to be completely blind-sided by it either." Especially with that bit of unseemliness in her genetic line, she might have started to panic if her step-father got the letter without Thad explaining that he already knew about it. He was sure neither of them would have enjoyed that awkward conversation.
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Thaddeus
I'm glad you're glad
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Thaddeus
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Alicia
June 24, 2014 11:05 AM
I'm glad you're glad I'm...glad you're glad. by Alicia
She wouldn’t do it, personally – no matter how likely the other was to accept, there was always the chance of rejection, which in such circumstances would be rapidly followed by abject humiliation – but Alicia could see why so many people, at least in stories, thought it was appropriate to propose in the middle of parties. That way, if the proposal was accepted, they could just alter the purpose of the party and start taking congratulations instead of trying to figure out what the right thing to say or do after such an important moment took place in front of a lot of people was, particularly when the people were mostly people she still thought of as her responsibility.Only a little, though, and very distantly, at least for now. Right now, she couldn’t seem to stop smiling, and Thad was smiling, too, and not much seemed to matter beyond that, enough that she didn’t even really care about not having the perfect line to say. She wondered if this was what perfect happiness felt like.
Alicia gave not laughing up as a lost cause when Thad asked for the salt. “Since we agree it's not forbidden, I think I can manage that,” she said, passing along the desired saltshaker.
What he went on to managed to sober her up, at least a little. “I’m glad to hear that,” she said. “I would have been kind of annoyed with you if you hadn’t asked me first.” Talking about her honest feelings with him, or really anyone but Cepheus, was an unfamiliar sensation. She wondered if she should try to get used to it. “I probably would have agreed in the end anyway, but…” she lifted one shoulder, figuring that while they had never exactly discussed her feelings on old people disrespecting the intelligence and autonomy of people she liked (she still had no aversion to the idea of some of Ceph's relatives being cursed into things at least temporarily resembling sea urchins even though he was no longer in the undesirable arrangement, because it being made in the first place was enough), Thad could probably guess about how happy he'd be to find out someone had gone over his head that way, especially over something this important.
"Anyway. I hope you don't mind if I warn my stepfather, too." She didn't care if Jeremy lost his own shirt because he was too shocked to think straight, but she'd rather he didn't lose hers, too, and unfortunately, what he'd given with one hand last year he'd held onto with the other. She wouldn't be able to get him completely out of her finances until she was twenty-five.
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Alicia
I'm glad you're glad I'm...glad you're glad.
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Alicia
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Thad
June 24, 2014 3:13 PM
Gladness all around then by Thad
He salted his meal - not because he thought the elves had done a less than stellar job at flavoring it, but because he simply preferred his vegetables extra salty - and smiled as she laughed. This was a good day, a very good day, he decided.Chewing a forkful of green beans when she requested permission to warn her step-father as well, he nodded as he took a moment to swallow the food in his mouth. "Certainly," he agreed when a verbal reply would not risk spraying partially chewed organic matter on his almost-fiance. "I see no reason why not. These things aren't normally supposed to come as surprises anyway. Often, families have been discussing terms for months like it was some kind of business deal before anything formal comes out. I . . ." he hesitated, uncertain of his own family's intent in this area, "am not sure if my father intends to open that way as well or not."
All he had been concerned about to this point had been who his father would betroth him to, rather than any other terms to go along with it.
1
Thad
Gladness all around then
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Thad
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Alicia
June 24, 2014 7:48 PM
As much of 'around' as is currently interesting, anyway. by Alicia
Alicia considered his lack of information. Could his father be planning a more subtle way of handling an undesirable situation than either disowning his son or else taking the already-cleverer route of letting Thad think he was getting what he wanted before engineering a scandal (or, if he thought they were really that attached, a terrible rock climbing accident) for her? Easy enough to invoke traditional forms, then try to be as disagreeable as possible with Jeremy, or else try to provoke Jeremy into being the disagreeable one....“Well, don’t worry about it," she said cheerfully. "I don’t think Jeremy will be difficult or anything.” More like delighted to be rid of her, but he’d be surprised by the opportunity, and if the conversations they’d had over midterm were anything to go by, suspicious at first as well. Their conversations over midterm had confirmed for her that he had very little faith in her; his first thought might well be that she’d lied about having more important things to do during the shut-in than get in trouble and his second that she’d started practicing the Dark Arts. So little faith.
Or at least a serious lack of understanding of her, of why she did...almost any of the things she did that he hadn't taught her to do, especially in her studies. Jeremy, she thought, saw magic as a tool. It guarded his home, made his life easier, established the order of the society he belonged into so he knew which box everyone belonged in under normal circumstances – she had always thought of him as a bit of a Crotalus, though he hadn’t gone to school here. He had no imagination. Finding the limits of what could be done, just for the sake of knowing, wasn't something she thought had ever interested her stepfather much at all.
Maybe, she thought, with a grimmer sort of glee than the other, he’d reconsider that now.
“I just think it might be better if he hears from me first, knows we talked…that you know…things.” And there was a topic she dearly hoped they never discussed again, though she supposed it might come up if the other aspect of the inheritance issue ever did. The only way she could see to avoid that was to become so powerful before having kids that no one would dare say a word against her, and that was easier said than done. “Nothing too serious. ‘Warn’ was probably a bad word to use,” she acknowledged.
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Alicia
As much of 'around' as is currently interesting, anyway.
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Alicia
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5