Re: Let's cause mayhem, Intermediates. on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Professor Hawthorne

November 10, 2018 8:14 PM

Let's cause mayhem, Intermediates. by Professor Hawthorne

Tabitha had warned her Intermediate class at the end of their previous session that today’s lesson would be taking place in one of the MARS rooms and she also left a reminder notice on her classroom door for those few who would undoubtedly forget. It was in the lobby area of MARS that she stood, waiting for her students and the door behind her would lead into the temporary classroom that she had set up for the occasion. She was a little early, having made sure that she’d had plenty of time to organise the room and be prepared for the day’s lesson.

Her thoughts turned, as they often did, to Mary and one corner of her lips twitched upwards into a slight smirk. Mary Brooding, a woman of surprises. Tabitha had not forgotten the heart-stopping moment in the Mirage Chamber that Mary’s well-aimed Full Body-Bind spell had very nearly hit the Defence professor. While Tabitha had known that Mary was a proficient and talented witch, having brains to go with her beauty, she had perhaps underestimated her. It had been a mistake which had cost her the duel and Tabitha had been spending a lot of time working out and practicing, using the things that she’d learned from their duel to improve and become better.

She’d been attempting to strengthen her senses, particularly when she had to make do without one of them. She’d started with sound, challenging herself to battle beasts and wizards in the Mirage Chamber in complete silence. It was incredibly disconcerting and had caused her to land on her backside more than once and, in a real life situation, cause her to be injured. Doing without sight was even harder, forcing her to strain her ears for every tiny sound and making her unsteady on her feet. It was hard and at times, frustrating but Tabitha had to admit that she was enjoying the challenge. It gave her somewhere to put all her energy and made her less itchy about staying at Sonora.

Her duel with Mary had also given her an idea for today’s lesson. She was going to have to duel with the woman more often.

She blinked and looked up as the door to the lobby opened and she smiled as she saw her Intermediate class beginning to file into the room. It was early in the morning and a few students were stifling yawns and still looking very much like they’d rather be in bed. Admittedly, Tabitha felt very much the same but being a teacher came with things like sacrificing sleep to teach first thing on a Monday morning. Maybe she could barter with Selina over the class times…

“Good morning, class,” she greeted, with a smile. “I know it’s early and some of you will barely be processing that you’re in DADA but I do have a lesson that is definitely going to wake you up. Please leave everything here in the lobby except for your wands.”

Her smile became an excited grin as she spoke and, once everybody was ready, she turned and opened the door to their temporary classroom for the lesson.

The room behind the door was very big, much bigger than Tabitha’s classroom, but it was mostly empty with the exception of four stone statues in each corner of the room, one dedicated to every House in Sonora - a hawk for Aladren, a prairie dog for Teppenpaw, a rattlesnake for Crotalus and a wild boar for Pecari. In the centre of the room, there was a chalkboard for Tabitha to write on and, as it was also on wheels, it could easily be pushed out of the way once the practical of the lesson started. Tabitha moved to it and beckoned her class to follow her and gather round.

“Okay, we are here in MARS today more for safety than anything else as today, I will be teaching you the Reductor Curse, which each of you will be using on the statues around the room. You can make your own choice as to which statue you practice on but I would like each group to be more or less equal - no crowding of one statue, please.”

The fact that each statue represented a different house actually had no bearing on the lesson that Tabitha was going to teach. She just hadn’t been sure what else to use. She just hoped that this wasn’t going to inflame any house rivalries.

“So, the Reductor Curse is, in theory, a relatively simple spell to cast. The difficulty comes in controlling it. You use too little power, you’ll barely make a chip in stone. Use too much and you’ll reduce it to nothing. If you don’t concentrate, you can also end up casting the spell on the wrong object. If you get it right, however, it can mean the difference between living and dying. From personal experience, I have found it to be extremely useful and it is a very good spell to have under your belt.”

She flicked her wand in the direction of the chalk and it obediently rose to write on the board behind her.

“So, why is the Reductor Curse so useful? Well, it is excellent to use to create a distraction, cause a diversion. For example, you can aim it at a wall and bring it down. Not only does it cause the potential to knock your opponent out with flying debris, the dust alone will obscure their vision for you to move to another and better location to continue your assault. You can take your opponent by surprise with it, creating extra precious seconds to think of your next spell. It buys time.”

The words ‘distraction’, ‘diversion’ and ‘buys time’ were all underlined by the chalk on the board. Tabitha turned and moved towards Crotalus’ statue, her wand raised and ready. “Your incantation for the spell is Reducto and you move your wand in a sideways ‘v’ shape to the right.”

She performed the spell then, speaking sharply and her movement fast. An electric blue light shot from the end of her wand and hit the snake statue squarely in the middle. It instantly exploded into chunks of stone, unrecognisable as the statue it once was and leaving only the base it had been sitting on. For a moment, nothing further happened. Then, the pieces began to crawl towards each other and reassemble themselves, returning the statue to its previous state. Tabitha turned back to her class.

“Once the statue has been destroyed, it’ll reassemble itself for the next person. Make sure that those of you who are not casting the spell, stand well clear. I would like to avoid sending anybody to the infirmary. There is to be no messing around and I would like everybody to be aware and stay focused. When you’re ready, you may begin.”

Subthreads:

Demolishing Pecari('s statue). by Simon Mordue, Crotalus with Dorian, Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari

Hitting the Hawk by Winston Pierce, Crotalus

I hate snakes by Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus with Gary Harper, Aladren

Take that! by Emerald Brockert, Aladren

Re: Let's cause mayhem, Intermediates. by Natalie Atwater, Pecari

Indecisive by Connor Priory,Crotalus

20 Professor Hawthorne Let's cause mayhem, Intermediates. 1417 Professor Hawthorne 1 5

Simon Mordue, Crotalus

November 28, 2018 10:53 PM

Demolishing Pecari('s statue). by Simon Mordue, Crotalus

There had been coffee at breakfast, and it had even been fairly decent coffee, but Simon’s green eyes were still shadowed, lids heavier than usual (or at least his pre-fifth-year usual), as he trudged into Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Last year, he thought wistfully, had been paradise, though he had not realized it at the time. Last year, he had started noticing it was harder to wake up in the morning, but he had been able to crash on weekends and catch up enough on his sleep. This year, however, was different. Weekends were times for catching up on homework, not sleep; the major exception was when they were times for frantically cramming in homework around traveling for Quidditch. Even when he did get caught up on homework and Quidditch, though, and gave up on his CATS review book and went to bed instead, he still felt tired and, of all things, grubby most of the time. He felt most like himself when training or in the shower, but those were comparatively small fragments of his time. Often, it was like he had an energy-sucking parasite attached to him.

It was frustrating. He had never been the most energetic of people, to his shame, but he thought he was getting worse. He kept it to himself, though, unable to imagine anyone in his family expressing sympathy for such a problem. If anything, he’d get a lecture on how idleness was a horrid character flaw, complete with obligatory not-quite-references to his not-quite-uncle and how said not-quite-uncle had disgraced the family….

”...definitely going to wake you up.”

This should have been good news. In many contexts, Simon supposed it would have been. A context involving Professor Hawthorne was not such a context. A context where Professor Hawthorne was grinning seemed cause to bolt from the room at once.

Instead, he followed her obediently into a room, which...did not look alarming. This should have been a relief, but remembering the fact that Professor Hawthorne had grinned kept Simon from relaxing much - even once she had explained the lesson and failed to mention the part that was definitely going to wake him up. He knew there was something wrong with one of her statements, something he didn’t understand why she’d said it, but he really had not slept well the night before and it was eluding him. He rubbed his temple and tried to figure out which statue was least politically problematic to blow up, and also most satisfying, and also thinking that if he ever had to blow something other than the other person up in a duel, it would either be to block an entrance to stop someone chasing him or to send a cascade of heavy stone down onto that person’s head to crush them. Recreational dueling was not something he really understood, any more than, deep down, he understood why Bludgers were in Quidditch. There was nothing much fun in his mind about pain. Pain was bad and to be avoided.

He frowned when Professor Hawthorne blew up the Crotalus statue, made a guess as to which House she would be in, and decided it was probably Pecari and that Pecari’s statue was also the least politically problematic anyway, which worked out beautifully, if he did say so himself. He had to suppress a laugh when she said she wanted them alert, though. If wishes were fishes, the whole world would stink. A lot. Simon wanted to be alert, or else unconscious, but that wasn’t really how it worked, was it?

He trudged toward the Pecari statue, suppressing a yawn, and to his surprise reached it first. Well, then. He could get this over with and then stand around, an expression of bland attentiveness on his face while his mind was a peaceful, barely-awake blank, for the rest of class. He was pleased with himself for this. Seeing another student threatening the plan, however, he said, “I would like to go first,” in his best imitation of his father’s most commanding tone.

Having an audience did, at least, make him a bit more alert. Blinking, he focused on the statue. So he was to turn it to rubble. Smash it like a Bludger. A very big Bludger. That was an idea. Pretend he was hitting a Bludger at a Pecari, even.

“Reducto!,” he said sharply, moving his wand as indicated.

The bottom of the statue did not react in the slightest, but about half the head exploded with more violence than he had expected; he only just ducked fast enough to avoid shrapnel. And then, as his heart also behaved with more violence than usual in his chest, it occurred to him what he had forgotten.

“Shield Charms,” he said, a touch breathlessly, to nobody in particular as the statue began to reassemble.

16 Simon Mordue, Crotalus Demolishing Pecari('s statue). 369 Simon Mordue, Crotalus 0 5

Dorian

November 30, 2018 9:24 AM

Not as weak as I look by Dorian

Dorian was not sure what to make of the fact they were going to MARS for Defence class. He was fairly sure that the rooms had certain limitations on them and could not call forth anything particularly dangerous - that sort of thing was what the Mirage Chamber was for. Therefore, there was a limit to the danger the room itself could throw at them, but it did not necessarily follow that there was limited danger, as there was still what Professor Hawthorne could throw at them, or incite them to throw at each other. By this point, the range of offensive spells they (as a collective whole, including the fifth years) knew was wide ranging and contained plenty to be wary about. His best guess was that she was going to pit them against each other in some kind of game requiring stealth and use of the environment. Her promise that they would be sure to be awake by the end of it did little to reassure him, and nor did the opening of the sports room door onto four statues representing their houses. He was sure they were in for some kind of team game, and the combination of painful curses with competitive sports was ticking a lot of boxes in making this his personal idea of hell. He also did not relish competing with his friends in general, nor the fact that he was pretty sure that Teppenpaw was going to be at a collective disadvantage given that it was the cuddly house. He had never been sorry about not sharing classes with Jozua, the scary captain of the duelling club, but Dorian had to admit that right now it would have been extremely handy to have him here. The best he could say for team Teppenpaw was that Kir was disturbingly tall, though he was also fairly skinny so maybe not a super effective human shield, and not infrequently wearing nail varnish so possibly not all that tough. Although perhaps that spoke to having enough strength to get away with said act without worrying about the consequences… Perhaps in a fight between Winston and Kir, his money would be on the Teppenpaw. In a fight between him and Tatya though…

He was therefore surprised, and relieved beyond belief, when Professor Hawthorne explained they would simply be blowing things up and that she was allowing them more space to do so. He wasn’t quite sure why they had house statues rather than anonymous plinths. He felt mildly pained about blowing up anything with a face, even if it was stone. The fact that it would immediately put itself back together helped a little though. He also thought it was rather impolitic that they would be destroying each other’s house symbols. He certainly was not sure which to pick. He felt guiltiest at the thought of turning his wand on Teppenpaw’s own friendly little prairie dog - it was also easily the cutest and thus the hardest to want to hurt. Aladren’s mascot wasn’t exactly cute, but it was Aladren’s and he felt almost as fond of that house as his own, given that he felt he easily could have ended up there, and it was Jehan’s. He did not feel particularly sentimental towards Pecari, but he did towards Tatya. That left Crotalus. He had no firm allegiances there, and thus it was the one he felt least personally conflicted by attacking. However, Crotalus had a reputation for being the stronghold of society values. It seemed like the boldest political statement to charge in and blow it up. Maybe that was just his paranoia, his knowledge of how little he valued the established order - something that only Jehan knew anything about - and perhaps no one else would read a thing into it, except for the fact that he didn’t have any particular friends there. But he definitely did not want enemies from that house. The fact it was Victor Callahan’s house, and that the fifth year boys were all heirs, made it an intimidating prospect.

He decided to find Tatya, as it had been some time since they had worked together. Strictly speaking, this was not a pairs class, but there was no reason not to be somewhat sociable. And then he could also force the decision onto her.

“Nǐhǎo, shénqí shēngqì,” he greeted her with a little smile. The nickname had arisen due to her mixing up the words, but was one he used rarely, seeing as he thought calling Tatya ‘magical angry’ too often might encourage her to be so. However, it felt far too fitting to let go entirely. “Today’s lesson suits you, I think. Which statue you wish to attack?” he asked. Tatya seemed to have no particularly strong feelings, but did not seemed disinclined to attack her own house emblem when he floated the possibility, and so they made their way over to the Pecari statue, where Simon Mordue seemed to be stepping up first.

“Excuse me whilst I channel my rage,” Dorian whispered to Tatya whilst they waited, a small smile playing across his lips as he did so. Because it was a joke. Because he was Dorian, the sweet and cuddly Teppenpaw, and he was sure Tatya could not imagine him having much of that emotion. Admittedly, she had seen him get angry, which was more than many people had - the case in question being when Professor Wright had wrongly accused her of cheating and Dorian had done what any proper brother would do, and gone and Sorted It Out. Well… had tried. Professor Wright had not really budged on the issue, although either the fact it had been accidental magic coming to light or the fact that Professor Wright himself had got sick had spared Tatya being punished for the incident.

He closed his eyes, trying to find the right emotions to channel into the spell. Emotions were a tricky thing when it came to magic, and were both Dorian’s strength and his weakness. On the one hand, spells often thrived on emotion - there were some, like the patronus charm, which required you to be able to tap into a strong emotion, one that was in complete contrast to what you were most likely to be feeling when you needed it. Dorian went through life really feeling things, allowing his emotions free range, and thus he had plenty to tap into when he needed them, and a strong awareness of how each one felt, and what triggered it. However, magic required emotional control - it required one’s range of emotions to be present, ready at one’s fingertips, whilst the person in question remained master. Dorian was frequently at the mercy of his emotions, they could often be seen, barely contained, rippling under the surface. When he was sad, it weighed him down like lead, and his spell casting was lacklustre. When he was jubilant or excited, he sometimes overdid things. His spells were often fuelled by his emotions but without him having sufficient control.

Today, he felt, might be an exception, though. He had plenty of anger, plenty of frustration, to tap into, but he was not really feeling it right now. It was an example of a time he could use his emotions properly, draw on them, rather than letting them run away with him. It was also a rare chance for him to do well with an offensive spell, seeing as they were targeting a lump of stone (he kept trying to think of it in such terms, rather than thinking about the animal or the house it represented). He exclusively paired with his friends in most classes, and absolutely stuck to this as a rule in Defence, unless forced not to by some particular direction, such as mixing year groups. But there were enough times when they were on display that he felt people must be forming an overall impression of him by now. And, if they were judging him on his offensive spell casting, other people were pretty quickly going to pick up the idea that he was weak. Heck, they would probably form that opinion without watching him in class, just from his stature, his Teppenpaw badge and… well, just… all of him. He did not want people thinking he was weak. That, in itself, was enough reason in some people’s books to prey on him. He also couldn’t help but feel he was in for a lifetime of having to fight his corner, and the fewer people who thought he was going to be easy to beat down the better.

He waited for his turn at the statue, trying to feel every bad thing that had been done to him. It started with the mild irritation of the casual racism. The way people generalised using the term ‘white people,’ or made comments about ‘outsiders’ in his presence. Up to those who noticed the difference and made accidental missteps - ‘nice tan.’ To the outright hostility. The anti-immigration types, the ones who made fun of his family’s differences. On top of that there was Matthieu. Every snide and spiteful thing his brother had said. Every kick, every punch, every friction burn. The unfairness of all of it. That was the resounding thing that still caused him the most anger and the most pain. It should not have been like this, and yet the universe had decided that all of this had to happen to him.

He stepped up to the statue. He did not quite imagine his brother there. He did not wish to inflict this kind of violence, even on Matthieu. It would make him as bad as his brother. But he felt him, at his shoulder. Imagined him looking on, ready to mock Dorian for his weakness.

“Reducto!” he cast. The head of the statue burst open, a large crater blown out of the middle, the pieces flying far and wide. For a third year, and one who had only just exceeded the dizzying heights of five feet tall, it was an impressively large blast. Dorian squared his shoulders, walking to the back of the line and hoping that sent a clear signal to anyone who was considering it that he might not be quite so weak as he looked.

OOC - Tatya’s agreement to work at Pecari approved by her author.

13 Dorian Not as weak as I look 1401 Dorian 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari

November 30, 2018 4:57 PM

You look just fine to me, medvedozhnok. by Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari

Mornings were not things Tatiana found particularly vexing, as a rule. At home, after all, the only reason one was allowed to take a lie-in was if one happened to be ill; short of verifiable illness, she was expected to be up by seven every morning at home, to get dressed and then help her sisters and Nadezhda tidy the Girls’ Rooms and then report to breakfast with Papa before going off to begin her lessons for the day. In the winter, Nadezhda generally brought them each a glass of tea to aid the getting up process, but this was the extent of the indulgences Tatiana was accustomed to being accorded. In winter she missed the glass of tea, but since Sonora was always much warmer than her bedroom at home even at its coldest, she could not truly complain about the need to walk to the Cascade Hall to get one - or the closest approximation possible here, anyway.

Professor Hawthorne, however, was not a subject to bring a smile to her face. Dorian had somewhat softened her attitude toward the professor, but still - perhaps babbling that boys could turn into girls if they wanted and girls could turn into boys if they wanted was fractionally less stupid than babbling that Tatiana and Dorian ought to be other than they were simply because they happened to be a girl and a boy, but to her mind it still quite missed the point and also didn’t excuse all the babbling full of words that weren’t in the dictionary which had preceded that one bit Tatiana had processed more or less correctly. Wariness was about as friendly as she got where this class was concerned, and as a consequence, she looked about as grim as the sleepy people as they gathered outside MARS.

Reducto. Tatiana found this one easy to remember, as the Latin word sounded like an English word. Neither was a Russian word, or even close to a Russian word, but making the link helped just the same, which made her sometimes wonder if she was starting to feel comfortable in English. At about the point she wondered this, however, she would somehow catch sight of Kir McLeod, think unkind things in Russian, and realize she was not….

She turned her eyes back to the professor. Focus.

A smile did appear at one of Dorian’s nicknames for her, though. “Privet, Dorya,” she said. His question was difficult, though. He was a Teppenpaw, and it just felt wrong to think of attacking their mascot, and the Crotali, except Jasmine, seemed to her mainly a clump of Teppenpaws who didn’t talk much…. ”Aladren or my,” she said. “I do not like mine - eto nekrasivyi.” Not pretty was putting it perhaps mildly, but it was objectively, she thought, true to most non-pig-things.

A Crotalus boy must not have liked it much, either, based on his tone when informing Dorian and Tatiana he was going first. Tatiana made a face at his back and bit the inside of her mouth, thinking Dorian might not like it if she laughed at the spectacle, when he nearly got hit in the head with shrapnel.

“Ty idi, velikii voin,” teased Tatiana after Dorian asked to be excused in order to channel his rage. It was hard to imagine Dorya feeling real rage; he got angry because he was a human person, but rage? This seemed out character. To her mild surprise, though, he took a considerable chunk of the statue out in one go - and without nearly hitting himself in the head, either.

“Ochen’ khorosho!” she exclaimed, clapping and beaming proudly at him.

She took her turn, hitting the boar square in the chest because she remembered Papa once saying this was a good idea if any of them ever found themselves being rushed by a dangerous animal they could not get away from quickly enough, and then followed Dorian back to the end of the line.

“You do good,” she repeated, in the broken English she still lapsed into easily with him. She struggled more with her grammar talking to other people or teachers, but they understood each other well enough. “Khoroshyi i sil’nyi!

She had all but forgotten about the Crotalus boy, and did not notice the unfriendly look he, also near the back of the queue, was giving them.

OOC: Translations:

“Hi, Dorian(made-up diminutive form)”

“It is not pretty.”

“You go, great warrior.”

“Very good!”

“Good and strong!”

In the title, Tatiana refers to Dorian as "little bear," another throwback to the cheating-not-cheating episode. Also, Simon and Tatiana share an author, so no godmodding involved in him being a tiny bit of a snot at the end there.

16 Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari You look just fine to me, medvedozhnok. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova, Pecari 0 5

Dorian

November 30, 2018 9:48 PM

And yet, someone has a problem... by Dorian

Dorian was not quite convinced that not being pretty was a fair reason to attack something, but he supposed it was a good enough reason if asked to justify their choice for this class. He had had no particular designs on going first, and gave Simon the polite incline of the head that passed for a bow in class, making a point of stepping back. Dorian caught the look Tatya gave his back and felt a little stab of something like affection and pride.

He didn’t catch all the words Tatya said to him - ‘warrior’ was beyond his vocabulary, but he got that she was encouraging him, perhaps in a somewhat teasing way, and he would worry about the details later.

“Spasibo, Tanushka,” he beamed, as she rejoined him at the back of the queue, full of praise for his attempt. He felt warmed by her obvious pride in him. He struggled, sometimes, to see the good things in himself as strongly as his friends did - he felt, fundamentally, that he was a good person, but he did not always think of himself as special, the way they seemed to. But he had fairly objectively done well with the task, and he was enjoying the credit. He was not quite sure of ‘sil’nyi’ as that was not a frequent adjective, and was about to ask when he glanced up and found his eyes locking onto Simon Mordue’s, who was looking less than pleased.

Dorian’s brain did not begin to bother analysing why Simon Mordue might be evincing a strong dislike for him. It was just conditioned into Dorian to find older boys looking menacingly at him an entirely expected reaction. He had been more surprised not to find himself on the receiving end of much dislike up until this point, much more so than he was surprised to find it now. His brain, instead, worked out how best to deal with the situation. His preference would have been to ignore it entirely, but he had seen that Simon was looking daggers at them, and that did not make it feel safe to turn away. But Dorian did not want to directly call the boy out, or start a fight. And so, there was simply a shift in his body language. Subtle, mostly done subconsciously, through years of practise. Years of holding back, but trying to be ready in case something nasty was about to come his way. His grip on his wand, which had relaxed, tightened slightly, although he did not raise it - that would have been rather too dramatic and aggressive. As Dorian had returned to the end of the line before Tatiana, he was naturally between her and Simon. That was not about to change. He had been side on to both of them, and he turned ever so slightly, so that he had a clearer line of sight on Simon, and so that more of his body was between him and Tatya. Not that Dorian assumed that Tatya was at all the source of the look on Simon’s face. He assumed that he himself was the problem.

“Good morning, Mr. Mordue,” he said with wary politeness, unable to avoid acknowledging him seeing as they had locked eyes.

13 Dorian And yet, someone has a problem... 1401 Dorian 0 5

Winston Pierce, Crotalus

November 30, 2018 9:54 PM

Hitting the Hawk by Winston Pierce, Crotalus

Winston, ever since the Cleo Revelation, had not much cared for DADA. Not that Cleo being a veela had anything to do with it. Rather, That Teppenpaw did, and more importantly, the professor's response to That Teppenpaw's leading questions. Prior to then, he hadn't disliked it. He had, however, never particularly enjoyed it. This was in part because he hadn't much cared for Professor Nash either, but mostly took its root in the fact that it was a very wide ranging subject that he thought probably could be covered just as well by the other subjects. COMC could probably handle the creatures, even if vampires and lethifolds were hardly something anyone would ever want to 'care' for, and the offensive and defensive spells could be folded pretty easily into charms, even if they were nowhere near as harmless as the word 'charms' usually envisioned as a general concept. The two classes would just need to have their names tweaked a bit, and it would be fine.

Of course, that would require restructuring the entire CATS and RATS curriculums, so he didn't see that happening anytime soon. But that didn't stop him from thinking DADA was kind of all of the place; the subject united only in theme and not in what the class actually did. So while he was quite good at most of the spell casting, he lagged a bit in the creature units, which brought down his overall grade into the merely E range.

He was confused about the switch of venue to the MARS room. On the one hand, the syllabus had them firmly in a spell casting unit today, but why would they not be in their regular room for that? On the other hand, the Mirage Chamber was usually the go-to for demonstrating dangerous creatures, and they were going to MARS instead, so he didn't understand the room choice if the syllabus was being ignored in favor of some kind of special demonstration. Though if Professor Hawthorne had brought in a real vampire to the school . . . well, maybe the board would be more on board with firing her over that kind of student endangerment since going on about unnatural proclivities apparently wasn't a termination offense.

It wasn't a vampire. Winston wasn't sure if this was a relief or a disappointment to him.

What he did have, though, was something of a dilemma. Which House symbold did he want to attack? On the one hand, there was The Pecari as a constant thorn in his side at every Quidditch practice, and going after the wild boar might be satisfying as a veiled attack against him. Also, Lily Spencer, also from that House, was a bit irritating, though he found her less so now that they'd been teammates and co-Chasers together for most of the year. The fact that they'd both lost out on Seeker and Captain kind of made him almost sympathetic toward her. Which brought him to the Prairie Dog. Eden had gotten the spot he really wanted on the team and he hadn't entirely forgiven her for that. He didn't normally have violent urges against her though. He did have them against The Teppenpaw, though, so he could envision that guy as he blew up the prairie dog. It wasn't a bad choice, really.

But then there was the Hawk. And while there was a The Aladren in the school, it wasn't her/him/whatever-that-kid-was that would fuel his attack on that House symbol. Partly because he had no personal animosity toward her(?) and it felt a bit unsporting to level that kind of distaste on an eleven year old when he was all but sixteen himself. Mostly, though, it was because there were two other people from that House who he did actually despise on a very personal level.

He found himself lining up against the Hawk, scowling at it as if it had actively wronged him. He could never strike out in violence against the two it represented to him - they were family as much as he hated to admit it and still had some favor with Great-Grandmother - but he could and would gladly strike out against a symbol they cared about deeply.

So imagining the look of horror on Thaddeus and the Other Alicia's faces when he destroyed their precious Hawk, Winston smiled and raised his wand.

"Reducto!" he cast. He was a fifth year. Spells were his best practical academic skill. He'd already practiced this spell a little when he'd seen in the syllabus that it was coming up in this unit (he often did practice spells ahead of time, when he knew they were coming, so as to better to impress his teachers and earn higher grades and so be able to compete against Thaddeus's nearly perfect academic record - another good reason to go after the Hawk).

The Hawk exploded. Well, exploded was a bit strong of a word. It fell apart and was utterly unrecognizable as a Hawk. But his spell lacked the violence and destructive power of Professor Hawthorne's demonstration against his own House's Rattlesnake. (Yet another reason not to like her.) What he had done was more like . . . crumbling than exploding. Like a sand castle falling apart under its own weight rather than any apparent concussive force destroying it by outside means.

Still, he had ended the Hawk - even more completely than Professor Hawthorne had destroyed the Rattlesnake, if he did say so himself. She'd left large chunks of rubble. He left an unrecognizable pile of small pebbles. Okay, fair, it probably wouldn't cause as much distraction for an enemy, having a statue crumble into tiny bits instead of having massive chunks fly about endangering everyone nearby, but he had obtained his objective. The Hawk was no more. And that pleased him far more than it probably should have.

He turned his back on it and made his way to the end of the line, not wanting to see it reassemble itself.

1 Winston Pierce, Crotalus Hitting the Hawk 370 Winston Pierce, Crotalus 0 5

Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus

November 30, 2018 11:29 PM

I hate snakes by Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus

On the whole, Jasmine loved being a Crotalus and had no arguments against her sorting. She knew she would never survive as an Aladren. She liked the idea of Teppenpaw, but couldn't really see herself there. Pecari was the house of both of her parents, but she was kind of confused as to how her mother got in there and she didn't think it suited either of them. The one problem she had with Crotalus was its House symbol. As a girl who grew up in the deserts of California, she was very aware of exactly how dangerous a rattlesnake was, and she really wished her House was represented by basically anything else. She hated the things.

So when Professor Hawthorne offered statues of a Rattlesnake, a Prairie Dog, a Hawk, and a Wild Boar as targets in a destruction spell, Jasmine had nothing but approval in her choosing the rattlesnake as the one to go after. Jasmine herself lined up for that one, too. She didn't even have to think about it even a little bit. None of the other three had ever endangered the lives of herself, her family, or her horses.

Of course, it wasn't an actual snake - it was huge, and not slithering in the dirt - so it didn't invoke any kind of panic just looking at it, but that just made it easier for her. Faced with a real snake, she'd shriek in terror, turn tail, and flee as fast as she could. If there was any magic involved at all in that scenario, it would be accidental. Merlin knew that was how she first learned she was a witch.

***

Jasmine was five. She was riding Wendy. Wendy was an ancient old muggle mare, and Mom's favorite. She was the only horse on the ranch Jasmine was allowed to ride unsupervised, because Wendy was calm and steady and probably couldn't trot or rear up anymore even if she wanted to. Today, Jasmine had taken the old girl out into the hills for a bit of exercise.

Jasmine didn't see the snake at first, but Wendy did. She stopped moving and whinnied in fear. That was when Jasmine heard the rattle. She screamed.

Jasmine knew all about rattle snakes. She knew they could kill a girl her size easily, and while most of the horses on the ranch would be okay if they got bit, Wendy was old. Like really old. Older than most muggle horses lived. While Mom used healing spells and potions on her to counter the worst of age's infirmities, she was still nearly as old as Mom herself. There was no guarantee she would survive a venomous snake bite.

At the sound of the scream, the snake lunged for Wendy.

Terror filled Jasmine. She loved Wendy nearly as much as Mom did. Wendy couldn't get bit. Wendy, and Jasmine, were suddenly back in the stable. One of the stable hands let out a shout of startled surprise. Jasmine dismounted, crying, but checked Wendy for bites through her tears. Wendy was okay. A bit freaked out. (Which was fair, so was everybody else.) But okay.

***

So while 'flight' would normally be Jasmine's go-to response when faced with a real rattler, the lack of genuine panic did let her choose to go with 'fight' instead.

"Reducto!" she shouted with heartfelt intent.

Of course, she was still only a third year, and honestly not a very talented witch when it came to offensive magics. So while she successfully managed to smash its face (and most importantly its teeth), most of the statue remained after the dust settled.

1 Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus I hate snakes 1397 Jasmine Delachene, Crotalus 0 5

Simon Mordue

December 01, 2018 9:01 PM

I'd say it's you two. by Simon Mordue

If he ever had a girlfriend, Simon through grumpily, he would tell her not to make so much noise in public. Or rather, would not acquire one tasteless enough to do so in the first place.

Montoir and Vorontsov confused him. Montoir was a suck-up, the charming little teacher’s pet, who hung back at the end of class and whose English was so close to right. Vorontsov, on the other hand, appeared to have two moods, so far as Simon could tell: looking the very stereotype of a grim Russian, always looking as though they all bored her, or else being loud, as she was right now. Not exactly a likely couple, to his way of thinking, but there was no doubt in his mind that they were one – how often did the whole of the school really need to see egregious public displays of affection? Simon shuddered to think what they’d be like by the time they were in fifth year; he didn’t think he’d even really thought much about girls in third year.

He also didn’t think he was showing his distaste for Tatiana’s behavior – really, did she think nobody but Montoir the Wild Boar Slayer could hear her, or did she just not care that it was obviously rude to speak privately in public like this, throwing it in everyone’s faces that she could say whatever she wanted without any of them understanding her? – but was startled into thinking otherwise when he suddenly realized Dorian was looking straight at him. He flushed, flustered, and was prepared to drop the whole matter when the other boy actually spoke to him.

“Good morning, Mr. Montoir,” said Simon automatically. “It looked like you put a good dent in the statue after I left it – I do hope she wasn’t scolding you for it,” he added with a sketch of a nod toward Tatiana, who had the same emblem replicated in stiching on her robes.

16 Simon Mordue I'd say it's you two. 369 Simon Mordue 0 5

Dorian

December 01, 2018 9:45 PM

I don't think I'll be listening much to you then by Dorian

Simon was saying friendly enough words, on the surface of it. But he did not seem friendly whilst saying them. His words also felt rude because it felt a little bit like he was speaking as if Tatya was not there. Dorian supposed it was merely because he, Dorian, had been the one to address Simon but it felt awkward to reply to because then it would definitely be a conversation about Tatya, and in front of her, but not with her. That was impolite to anyone, and he knew Tatya especially disliked being ignored. He was also puzzled by what Simon was saying - or rather, why he was saying it. Even without speaking Russian, Tatya’s conversation could not have been mistaken for a scolding. Which meant that they were playing that age old Pureblood favourite of talking without saying at all what they were meaning. He suppressed a sigh, grateful yet again for the year group into which he had fallen, with friends who spoke openly about their thoughts and feelings, and who did not play these silly games with him.

“She does not do this, do you Tatya?” he replied, trying carefully to segue things into being a three way conversation. Although the question was mainly rhetorical, and his overall aim was to make it a two person dialogue again, preferably far away from Simon Mordue. “Though if you like, we can for fairness go and explode the Teppenpaw statue,” he offered her.

13 Dorian I don't think I'll be listening much to you then 1401 Dorian 0 5

Tatiana and Simon

December 03, 2018 9:25 AM

Tatiana also votes against it. by Tatiana and Simon

Tatiana was surprised when Dorian suddenly spoke to the Crotalus boy, and for a moment looked at him, not sure what to say about or how to react to this. Dorian never ignored her. Dorian listened when she indulged the impulse to go on about the details of her jewelry. Dorian suddenly beginning to speak to someone else when they had been having a conversation was unusual, slightly alarming, even.

However, the Crotalus boy promptly drew her attention instead, her eyebrows drawing together. On the surface, there was nothing wrong with it, what he was saying - but something about how she was referred to as ‘she,’ a topic for conversation even though she was standing right here. It irked her even with adults. With someone not that much older than her, it irked her even more.

“This is not...necessary,” said Tatiana when Dorian offered to go blow up the Teppenpaw statue in the name of fairness, speaking much slower as she focused on her grammar and enunciation now that this non-friend was involved. She knew him and his cousin to a point - they were both on the Quidditch team, and Nathaniel had been in her classes last year - but not well. Even her best English, however, was still produced with a thick Russian accent. “And I do not scold. Dor-ian did a good job.”

Simon nodded. “As I said,” he said. “It was hard to tell, you know, though, what on earth you were saying - it’s a bit disconcerting, not knowing what someone is shouting in this class, of all places.”

Tatiana could tell there was subtext in this, but her primary focus was on decoding. Dis, that was a structural element which meant...going away? Disapparate, disappear, these were English words she knew. So….

“It was not a concert for you,” said Tatiana, shrugging. “It is for Dorian - he understood me - yes?” she asked, looking back at her friend, unable to shake the thought that she was missing something here.

16 Tatiana and Simon Tatiana also votes against it. 1396 Tatiana and Simon 0 5

Dorian

December 04, 2018 8:20 PM

Looks like it is two against one by Dorian

Do you want to go to Teppenpaw? Subtext: I am uncomfortable here and wish to leave. Tatya, of course, had repeatedly demonstrated that she was thoroughly immune to such nuances - whether by virtue if having to work in her less proficient language or by virtue of her character. Dorian was disappointed by the lack of a quick and painless end to the encounter but not entirely surprised. It felt increasingly uncomfortable though, Tatya's forced and careful use of his proper name feeling very strange and poignently underlining the fact that they had been forced out of their comfortable space.

As Simon revealed what his problem was, Dorian felt a burning wave of anger wash over him. He had assumed that he was the source of Simon's dislike, for whatever irrational reason. And he had not been pleased about this, he was anxious at the prospect of being disliked or picked on. Finding out, however, that it was Tatya was a million times worse. By extension, he supposed, Simon's dislike extended to him too, if it was a dislike of foreigness, and those who dared display it. But that was not Dorian's main issue. His main issue was simply How dare he? Simon was not the first person of his kind that Dorian had encountered, not by a long shot. This did not make his attitude any easier to endure. Far from it. Every snide remark he had overheard in his youth replayed in his mind. The suggestions that his mother needed to speak French, made by people who assumed she did not understand them - or simply did not care whether she did and was offended. Simon had no right- he had no right, whatsoever. He felt heat pulsing in his hand, though he managed to breathe deeply enough to avoid making his wand spark.

And Simon's excuse was pathetic. Everything about what Simon said irked him; the thinly veiled nastiness, attempting to justify it, or pass it off as something else. Dorian wasn't having it. He understood that there were, supposedly rules, about being polite and blah blah blah. As far as he was concerned, Simon had broken those first. And Dorian saw no reason why he was supposed to treat anyone with a respect that they refused to show him, or in this case, his friend.

"Of course," he assured Tatya when she asked if he understood. Eighty percent, anyway. And he was not about to ask for clarification in front of Simon. His eyes had flicked very briefly to his friend and he offered her a strained hint of a smile, but he wanted to keep his eyes on the threat in front of them.

"I think that most internediates can tell what is the difference between someone speaking with enthusiasm and a geuine danger to their safety, even though the person is not using English," he replied coldly to Simon. He did not raise his voice but nor did he trouble to keep it down. If Simon felt his points had any kind of validity then surely he wouldn't be embarrassed to have them overheard. Dorian certainly was not embarrassed by what he was asserting. He was fairly sure that, by now, his and Tatya's foreigness had been noticed. Simon was not pointing out anything that other people did not know. Perhaps he would attract other idiots like himself and they would band together. Fine. Well, not fine. Vaguepy terrifying. But still, Simon could not talk about Tatya like that and get away with it. If peopke sided with him then at least Dorian would know who to avoid.

"And, as Tatya says, she does not speak to you. She is allowed to use which language she like when speaking to her friends and her family."

13 Dorian Looks like it is two against one 1401 Dorian 0 5

Emerald Brockert, Aladren

December 04, 2018 10:55 PM

Take that! by Emerald Brockert, Aladren

Emerald was still taking into consideration which classes she wanted to continue after CATS. She wasn't at all worried that she wasn't going to make adequate grades to continue in a particular subject so she would have options. However, as she didn't need anything in particular for a career, things weren't really narrowed down either.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was one class that Victor had mentioned that he was probably keeping which was a vote in it's favor, but Emerald wasn't convinced yet. After all, he had mentioned taking three other classes as well, none of which were Transfiguration which she was certainly taking. And the Aladren certainly didn't want to take too many classes. Advanced classes, of course, were harder than Beginner and Intermediate classes so to take too many was, in addition to showing off, likely to make one overworked and therefore making them not do as well overall. People didn't function as well one they were tired, and Emerald knew from the mistakes of others that too much of something was not a good thing, whether it be the amount of classes one took or the amount of children one had. Perhaps her mother would have been a better mother if it were just herself and Ruby.

Then again, Mother was a flaky human by nature and it likely wouldn't have helped matters. Plus, Aunt Shannon seemed to do fine with her children as had Grandmother. Of course, Emerald had never seen her grandmother when her father and uncles were young and Uncle Eustace hadn't turned out so well. As for her aunt, better spacing had to be part of it. Still, the fifth didn't want to be overworked, down time was important and unlike her mother sending them off in the care of others in order to get it, she couldn't make someone else do her homework. After all, she was an Aladren and this would go against what she stood for as well as the obvious fact that it was cheating. Anyway, if she mailed her homework off for Cory to do, as Mother had placed them in his care on occasion he probably wouldn't do as well on it as Emerald would herself. Her father's cousin was a lovely person, kind and caring, a real Teppenpaw just like Ruby and Owen, but that didn't mean he'd do well on RATS-level theory.

Today, Defense was being held in MARS which only piqued Emerald's curiousity. She took in the four statues and wondered if this was going to be some house-based exercise considering that the statues were of their house mascots and briefly took in the other Aladrens. Which, she suddenly realized, wouldn't be quite fair considering there were no fourth years in their house.

She was a bit relieved, however, when Professor Hawthorne began the lesson and she found out that all they were doing was the Reducto curse on the statues. Emerald didn't even have to think about which statue she wanted to destroy. Pecaris were loud and obnoxious and more importantly, Lily Spencer was one.

So after Simon, Dorian Montoir and Tatiana Vorontsov took their turns-Tatiana going for her own statue did puzzle the fifth year slightly, but then again, if she were a Pecari, she'd probably find her housemates irritating too. Of course, if she were a Pecari, that would also mean that she herself was probably loud, obnoxious and irritating.-Emerald stepped up to the statue of the wild boar. However, in place of the creature, she pictured another one, she pictured Lily's smug, arrogant face, it's cocky little smirk. She took aim. " Reducto ."

The statue blasted apart, rubble shooting everywhere, only the base still left mostly intact but cracked.

11 Emerald Brockert, Aladren Take that! 358 Emerald Brockert, Aladren 0 5

Simon and Tatiana

December 05, 2018 8:25 PM

So it seems. by Simon and Tatiana

Simon was surprised by the level of pushback from the pair.

“Privately certainly,” said Simon, thinking fast. “But it’s distracting to everyone else when she’s jabbering out that loudly in class and the rest of us can hear but not understand. I don’t know how things are - wherever - but here, it’s rude.”

Tatiana stared at the Crotalus like an exotic carnivorous plant in Herbology - something slightly appalling, but so novel she couldn’t quite look away. No-one has ever spoken to her like this before - the closest she could think of was when Anton Petrovich sometimes mocked her errors, and that was different, he was teaching her. Mama did not speak English, but she didn’t snap at Grisha and Tatiana and Katya if they did - at most, if it went on too long, she might say “po-Russkii, pozhaluista,” but in good humor. This was new and Tatiana did not like it.

“Not my fault, you not smart to speak Russian,” said Tatiana, flushing as her English grammar deteriorated under stress and consequently somewhat undercut her point. “ Dorya, poidem kuda-nibud eshche,” she added, looking Simon dead in the eye as she deliberately put let’s go somewhere else into Russian.

Simon flushed. “I am at least smart enough to know which languages I do and don’t speak, Miss Vorontsov,” he snapped, feeling he had somehow lost ground and wanting it back. “Good luck with her, Montoir.”

16 Simon and Tatiana So it seems. 1396 Simon and Tatiana 0 5

Dorian

December 07, 2018 8:34 AM

Voting with our feet by Dorian

Dorian had been raised in a household that spoke three languages, in varying combinations. He knew a lot about what was considered rude and what was not when deploying them. And he was not going to be lectured on that by some snobby, presumably monolingual white boy. Or rather… he wasn’t going to be happy about being lectured about it. He couldn’t actually think of anything suitable to say.

As well as not giving Simon the requisite impression that he could take a massive hike and, if there was room for it next to the extremely large rod that was presumably already there, jam his opinion back up his backside, this had the unfortunate side effect of giving Tatya a chance to get in there first. He suspected rational arguments were not going to work on a bigot like Simon, but he felt equally sure that trading insults was never the way to go either. Simon’s retort was subtle enough that he almost missed it - he only caught it because he assumed from context that Simon was bound to say something insulting.

There were a lot of things he wanted to say. He wanted to tell Simon that he was, so far, the only person to have a problem with them. He wanted to say that perceived rudeness did not justify rudeness in return. He wanted to call Simon several insulting words in a variety of languages. But he did not. The moments had passed for the first two retorts, they were now just in the territory of hurling insults, and he was not going to be part of that, however tempting it was. Besides, Tatya had requested to leave.
“I think I have luck already, in the group of people I get to be part of,” he replied, thanking whatever little lucky star it was that at least somewhat had his back, that was trying to make up for the misfortune of being stuck with Matthieu by giving him friends like Jehan and Tatya. For not landing him in a year group with people like Simon. “Good day, Mr. Mordue,” he added, the title emphasised pointedly, given that the person receiving it had dared to lecture him on manners.

“Pognali, Tanushka,” he nodded, confident enough that Simon would not be able to distinguish the second word as a pet name to risk its use.

As they walked away, his adrenaline ebbed slightly. His hands were sticky with sweat, and he could feel them shaking. He knew he would have felt much worse had he not defended Tatya, but he didn’t feel great. Why was the reward for bravery, more often than not, feeling sick to the stomach? Yes, he had done the right thing, and he could console himself that he was a good person. But being a good person had never helped him much up until now. It had never saved him from being hurt. And he was now, potentially, a good person with an older and more powerful enemy, and that was an uncomfortably familiar and unpleasant position to be in.

“He - he or anyone - says bad things to you, you tell me,” he said softly to Tatya.

13 Dorian Voting with our feet 1401 Dorian 0 5

Gary Harper, Aladren

December 08, 2018 12:03 AM

Yaun-ti as well? by Gary Harper, Aladren

As usual, Gary had arrived early for class. It was a good thing to, because he had forgotten all about meeting up at MARS today. After seeing the reminding note, he 'raced' (as much as you could call speed walking racing), to the MARS rooms. Luckily he still managed to make it on time, but didn't have any time to delve into his notebook before class began. That annoyed him a little bit.

Then Professor Hawthorne wanted him to leave his bag out here, unattended! Where anyone could come by and... well, he wasn't entirely sure on that front, but anything could happen. What if one of his players found it, and took out one of his game notebooks? They would learn all of his plans for the game! Assuming they could decrypt his terrible handwriting, and sort out his stream of thought organizational system. Nope, that was just to risky. He'd have to do something.

As the rest of the class filed into the room, he pulled the most critical notebook from his bag and jammed it into the back of his pants and under his shirt. Safe and sound. He was at the back of the students getting into the room, and had to fight his way to the front. After all, you can't learn anything from the back.

He listened to the professor and his fingers twitched, trying to take notes without the proper equipment. Once released to choose a target, he was drawn to the snake. He had been thinking about working the Yaun-ti into his adventure, the evil snake/human people always made great antagonists. So that was how he had found himself in line behind Jasmine.

There was something about the girl that he liked. He still kicked himself for chickening out and not asking her to the ball when he thought about it. Which apparently was now again. He sighed as she attacked the statue and blasted it's face off. He made a mental note not to get on her bad side.

"Nice shootin'" he drawled in what he considered a pitiful attempt to casually compliment her."Right between the eyes."

2 Gary Harper, Aladren Yaun-ti as well? 1404 Gary Harper, Aladren 0 5

Tatiana

December 10, 2018 6:54 PM

And being baffled. by Tatiana

Tatiana’s bravado lasted a moment longer than Dorian’s after they walked away. Then she turned to her friend, her pale eyes wide with hurt and confusion.

“Ya ne ponimayu,” she said. I don’t understand. Dorian often heard these words, though she tried not to even say them in Russian around many other people in general. It was safe with Dorya though; he wouldn’t assume she was incapable of understanding just because she happened not to understand right now. “What I did? Why he say I - “ she struggled to find a word in any language she knew to summarize, as Simon had never actually called her anything. It had all just been...implied. The hostility specifically toward her had seemed unmistakable to her, but she doubted she could point to anything actually wrong if she had been the sort to go whining to an adult about her little troubles.

“It sound to me as if he say I am - mauvais personne - but does not say?” She tried, but then ran into the problem again - being unable to figure out what the original problem had been. The thing he and Dorian had been on about had been speaking Russian, but why would he assume she was a bad person because she spoke Russian? It was frustrating not to understand what someone was saying, she knew this well, but she didn’t get angry with specific people for speaking English, especially if they weren’t even speaking to her. Plus he had acted like he thought she was going to hex him in the back. “But why? Chto ya sdelal?” What did I do?

16 Tatiana And being baffled. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Dorian

December 12, 2018 8:45 AM

Some people are baffling by Dorian

Once they were a suitable distance from Simon, Dorian slowed a little. When Tatya began talked he stopped. He turned gripping her shoulders and making sure she was looking at him properly.

“You did nothing wrong,” he told her firmly and clearly. He wished he could leave it at that, make it that nice and simple, but he knew that Tatya would keep wondering what had just happened. He recognised the feelings she was having right now. He had had them too. He still did sometimes, though they were generally angrier these days. Why did some people just have to be horrible? Why was this happening to him? Why, why, why? He still wondered sometimes what he had done, but much more on the scale of why the universe was treating him like that than an individual person. The answer to the latter was simple, much as he hated to be the one to tell it to Tatya.

“Some people are just unkind. Especially when someone is different than they are. Different languages. Different skin. Different… whatever way. It does not mean - it does not ever, ever mean - that you did something wrong. Any problem he has… It is his problem. That he is… thin-minded?” he grasped for a phrase in English, not sure if they expressed the concept in the same way, “Keeps out what is unfamiliar. Is ignorant. And rude. His opinion is unimportant.”

13 Dorian Some people are baffling 1401 Dorian 0 5

Tatiana

December 13, 2018 8:21 PM

And boring. by Tatiana

Tatiana was atypically silent as Dorian talked, explaining that she had not really done anything except - be. That the problem was, in fact, that she had spoken Russian, and that Simon was, in Dorian’s opinion, not so much opposed to her speaking Russian because he didn’t understand Russian himself, exactly, as so much because the language she was speaking was just not English.

“But then he dislike you too,” she said slowly. “And this not possible.”

This was more or less facetious, because obviously people could be utterly stupid, as Simon had just demonstrated. However, emotionally, she really could not figure out how anyone could dislike Dorian. Yes, he looked a bit different from most of the rest of them. Yes, he did not speak perfect English or perfect Russian - though his Russian was versts upon versts better than her Chinese, as she’d readily admit. But he was Dorya. He was the ideal person….

Her brow furrowed as she thought, her head half-turning; the thin gold tubes hanging down from the amber buttons in her ears swayed with the movement, the small golden beads at their bases chiming together softly. The amber came from somewhere in the Baltic, probably; they were more similar to Russians than Dorian, but still not Russian. Meanwhile, Papa had bought her two little baroque necklaces for her at the gem show in Hong Kong; the pearls themselves were from Japan, as had been the person Papa bought them from. Japanese people were not like Russian people physically, but - well, what of that? This did not change that Tatiana very much liked her necklace. When Tatiana thought about the rest of the world, she mainly thought of how it had many interesting and pretty things in it; she found the English a bit plain, now that she lived among them all the time, and still liked Russian things best, but Chinese things, for instance, were also beautiful, in their own way. She would not know this if she had taken it into her head to dislike Dorya simply because he was not Russian. And so much of what was Russian had come from Greece and Rome; Katya knew more about that than she did, but she knew something….

“He very boring,” she concluded, glaring in Simon’s direction over Dorian’s shoulder. Another thought occurred to her, though, and her eyes snapped back to her friend. “Katya tells me, Tatiana, do not speak Russian, speak English,” she said abruptly. “Does Nat-aniel say these things to her, to you?” she asked. “He is family to Simon. He says this?”

16 Tatiana And boring. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Dorian

December 14, 2018 9:22 AM

And mean by Dorian

Dorian felt like his heart had just melted when Tatya declared the impossibility of anyone disliking him. He knew she tended towards hyperbole in her speech, but it still was such a sweet thought - so sweet, and so very innocent of her - to presume that it was not possible to dislike him. He felt so grateful to have her as a friend.

“Spasibo. Ty khoroshaya sestra,” he smiled at her. “But sadly it is possible. Simon is… he is not the first one I find like this,” he sighed, shrugging the issue off. The important thing was how Tatya and his friends saw him. He had wonderful people in his life who liked him.

“Yes, I think so too,” he agreed, when Tatya declared Simon to be boring. The next second though, the softness was gone and Tatya was looking at him sharply again, full of worry - the source of which soon became apparent.

“No. Never. I think… not judge people about what their brothers be like. Brothers can be very different,” he added pointedly. His references to Matthieu were few and far between but all of his friends knew that the two of them had little in common. “Never to me. And.. I cannot imagine any Teppenpaw to be this way. But Katerina says this… I mean, it is a recent thing for her to be concerned this way, or always she has told you do like this or not like this - maybe not for speaking Russian, but it is her nature to worry for you?”

13 Dorian And mean 1401 Dorian 0 5

Natalie Atwater, Pecari

December 16, 2018 6:25 PM

Re: Let's cause mayhem, Intermediates. by Natalie Atwater, Pecari

Defense Against the Dark Arts was a really awesome class and Natalie couldn't help but be excited about the fact that they were having it in MARS instead of the Defense classroom. Even though it was a class she generally liked, there were times that she didn't really want to go. She got tired of studying and CATS coming up this year just made that worse. It felt like teachers wouldn't let them forget about the test coming up as if it were a life or death matter.

Sometimes Natalie even had dreams of a giant cat who was giving her a test and if she didn't pass, he was going to scratch her to death. She kept hoping a dog would come by and save her but it never happened.

Anyway, that meant she was bored and tired and frustrated and just sick to death of hearing about how important these tests were. The thing was, Natalie honestly didn't have to worry about taking enough RATS level courses when she was just going to end up being a socialite anyway. Even though that sounded boring too or at least that was certainly how Kelsey made it look. Just like studying for CATS, being a "proper young lady" was dull and dreary and complicated and irritating.

That was the thing though, just because she didn't have to worry about a career, because she was privileged, people thought she had it made. They truly did not understand that her life had challenges too. That she had expectations that she had to live up to. Big ones. Society's rules were supremely complex and her sister made it worse on her by being so blasted perfect all the time.

And the thing was, Natalie really did not want to be like that. As far as she was concerned, Kelsey had pretty much no personality whatsoever. However, that was what was expected of her.

So to have to hear teachers go on and on about CATS, on top of everything else, was fairly grating.

Fortunately, Professor Hawthorne seemed to have gotten the memo because she didn't bring up the tests once, probably for the sake of the younger students who had to be sick of hearing about these tests that they didn't have to worry about yet.

Once they were released, Natalie looked over the four statues before making a quick decision. She approached the Crotalus statue and tried only to concentrate on it and her annoyance at her sister's perfection. " Reducto " The snake on top of the statue blasted apart and satisfied, the Pecari walked back to the end of the line.

11 Natalie Atwater, Pecari Re: Let's cause mayhem, Intermediates. 371 Natalie Atwater, Pecari 0 5

Tatiana

December 18, 2018 4:25 PM

And not smart. by Tatiana

Tatiana relaxed as Dorian explained that Nathaniel Mordue could go another day without facing her wrath. She nodded absently at the comment that brothers could be very different.

“This true,” she acknowledged. “Ili sestry.” She and Katya proved this to an extent; she could never remember to be good, whereas Katya almost never forgot….

“Katen’ka…Katen’ka is not…worry for me?” She strained her brain to try to think of words in English or French or Chinese or the amount of Russian she thought Dorian would be familiar with which could explain what she meant. “Not like you have in brain – is different. Katya is like malen’kaya ptitsa – cheep, cheep, Mama would not like you to do this-that, Tatya, cheep.” She doubted this was actually clearing anything up. “Amerikanskii do it like this, Tatya, I read it, you must do so – she is always remembers to be good. I, not so,” she finished, dropping the impression of her sister with a shrug, sure Dorian knew this about her already, even if he was far too sweet and polite to ever say it to her face. Teppenpaws, it seemed, were often very, very good, whereas the rest of them…well, it was more varied elsewhere, anyway. “So she remind me. But I do not know if she thinks we must be like Amerikanskii, or if someone tell her this.” Which was an important distinction - there was a world of difference between Katya taking a notion into her head and someone else putting one there for her. This, however, was something she assumed was even more self-evident than how often she forgot to be good.

16 Tatiana And not smart. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Connor Priory,Crotalus

December 18, 2018 6:02 PM

Indecisive by Connor Priory,Crotalus

Connor entered MARS and listened as Professor Hawthorne mentioned that this lesson was something that was going to wake them up. Which sounded kind of ominous to him. He personally was awake already but the kind of things that would "wake people up" were usually highly active and he couldn't help but feel concerned for the less athletic people in their class.

The four statues representing the Sonora houses only made him more worried. He could only imagine that they were going to play some highly competitive game that pitted people from different houses against each other. Was that even fair? Did they have the same numbers in each house? Quickly, Connor counted. Pecari had eight and Aladren had only had five whereas both Crotalus and Teppenpaw had seven so....yeah, it wasn't fair. Especially since the house that seemed most predisposed to athleticism had the most.

The Professor Hawthorne began the lesson and the Crotalus was relieved. Kind of. He couldn't help but frown when she chose the Crotalus statue to demonstrate on. Yes, he knew she had to pick one but he couldn't help but think it was a statement that she didn't like Crotali, or at least liked them less than she did the other houses.

The thing was though that Crotali were so misunderstood. It was like, people thought there was something wrong with being respectable or that they thought all Crotali were like Arianna. That wasn't really fair. Connor's house had been a house that plenty of nice people had been in.

And this whole lesson seemed like-even though the Reducto curse was a valuable thing to learn-something that was going to create tension between houses and people. Like people were likely to see whomever attacked their house statue as not liking them for being in that house.

To make matters worse....he wasn't sure what statue to destroy. Connor had family who'd been in each house and furthermore, he didn't want anyone to think he hated them because he destroyed their statue. He supposed it was less of a hostile gesture towards others if he destroyed his own, like Jasmine and Tatiana had but then again if he did that, people in his own house might think he disliked them.

He stood there, puzzled and trying to figure out what to do, when someone approached him and spoke.

11 Connor Priory,Crotalus Indecisive 395 Connor Priory,Crotalus 0 5

Dorian

December 21, 2018 4:12 PM

We're well shot of them then by Dorian

“Ya ponimayu,” Dorian nodded. Tatya’s explanation was not only laced with Russian but also analogy, and it was clear she was struggling to find words in a language that they shared to explain the exact nature of the situation. Emotion and relationship words could be complex because there were important subtle differences. Luckily, he understood what she was getting at because it sounded rather familiar.

“But maybe you do not understand so much Katerina if you call this not worried,” he teased, a little smile playing over his lips to show that he was not serious - he would not really claim that Tatya did not understand her sister. “This sounds much like me and Émilie. No mess your clotheses, concentrate when you do your calligraphy, you untidied your hair again, I fix it... This is worrying,” he informed her.

He mused over Tatya’s worry, about whether these were Katerina’s own feelings, or a pressure she was receiving from elsewhere, well understanding the significant difference between those two things. He thought he could shed a little light on it.

“Before Simon, no one suggested like this to me. Katerina… She likes to practise French with me. She seems pleased when I try Russian for her,” he told Tatya, hoping this would help set her mind at ease. “I know she is too polite to tell me if she did not want, but she seems happy and not embarrassed by me. She does not try to be Amerikanskii,” he reassured Tatiana. “Maybe she does a little more for the Amerikanskii themself but not… not that she wants to lose herself. But anyway, I will regard closely, even though I think it is unlikely that a bad thing will happen in Teppenpaw.”

13 Dorian We're well shot of them then 1401 Dorian 0 5