Of Christmas, coconuts, and Victorian literature. on Cascade Hall

Headmaster Brockert

May 19, 2017 9:23 PM

Returning Feast by Headmaster Brockert

The school year had not started out on a good note. First of all, there was the fact that some students had withdrawn, which could reflect poorly on Sonora as a whole. More importantly though, it meant some badges had had to be reassigned, including Head Boy and after actually interacting with John Umland, Mortimer wasn't sure he was a good option in the least as he was an impudent little twit and how he'd gotten more votes than Tobi Reinhardt-as after Aiden O'Neil withdrew, he'd had to give the badge to the person with the next most votes-the Headmaster had no idea. It was just a testimony to the failure of the system that allowed students to vote on who recieved the honor.

Not that it mattered as Mr. Reinhardt had also left school.

Then Professor Perrault had quit abruptly. This annoyed Mortimer to no end. With Professor Pye leaving and Coach Grase on what seemed to be neverending leave, they were already short staffed. In particular, Professor Carter was exceedingly overworked. Of course, she would have been less so had she not insisted on teaching Muggle Studies. Especially because, thanks to Professor Perrault's departure, the Intermediate class had overlapped with Beginner Charms. It didn't take a genius to figure out which one Mortimer thought was more important.

To top that off, the substitute Quidditch Coach had left Professor Carter to officiate the first Quidditch game!

Fortunately, they'd been able to scramble up a couple of substitute professors for the following term. Unfortunately, one of them was his nephew Cory's friend Neal whom Mortimer felt would possibly be a pain in his backside. Despite Neal being older than the other substitute, Daniel Nash, another Sonora graduate as well as some of the other staff members, Mortimer couldn't help but judge him by the company he kept and see him as an overgrown teenager. And Neal was going to be involved in shaping young minds, including Emerald, who was probably smarter and more mature than he was.

Once the students had filed in and sat down, Mortimer stood. "Welcome back everyone, I hope you have all had a good break." He still didn't really care if they did. "Before we begin the feast, I have one announcement to make. Please welcome our new professors, Professor Nash who will be covering Advanced Charms and Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts and Professor Davison who will be covering Beginner and Intermediate Charms. I trust you will all treat them with the respect befitting their position." Blatant lie, that was. Like Mortimer trusted teenagers to be respectful . "Enjoy your meal." He sat and began his usual dinner of Returning Feast meal of steak and bourbon.

OOC-Permission granted to say Isis insisted on continuing to teach Muggle Studies.

Subthreads:

Hey, I'm back again, Sonora. by Substitute Professor Daniel Nash II with Tarquin Reynolds, Aged Librarian

Bah, humbug. by John Umland with Aislinn Nicolls

Of Christmas, coconuts, and Victorian literature. by Joe Umland with Jozua Sparks

But....but(t).... by Scarlett Brockert with Lauren Song

A much needed breather by Zevalyn Ives with Georgia Kirkly

We're going on a friend hunt by Cleo James with Amelia Layne

Tagging Jemima by Owen Brockert with Jemima Wolseithcrafte

Trying something new. by Lily Spencer with Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Lily

Still Quietly Intrigued by Jen White with Kir McLeod

Needing a favour (tag Ben) by Kyte Collindale with Ben

Returning by Tasha DuBois

Midterm Sucks by Kira Spaulding with Simon Mordue

11 Headmaster Brockert Returning Feast 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

Substitute Professor Daniel Nash II

May 20, 2017 9:59 AM

Hey, I'm back again, Sonora. by Substitute Professor Daniel Nash II

It had been about fourteen years since Daniel Nash left Sonora for the last time. Walking into the school now, he was surprised by how much was the same, and how much it . . . wasn't the same. The building and halls were comfortingly familiar, like returning home after a long absence. The people though . . . he wasn't sure he'd seen a single person he recognized, even among the professors. It was like walking into an alternate dimension. Though an alternate time period was more accurate, really.

Daniel wasn't the same anymore either. He was thirty-two now, not eighteen. He was comfortably distanced enough from his time as a child actor that even if any of the muggleborns or half-bloods here had seen any of his old TV shows or movies, they wouldn't recognize him, except possibly by name. Dan Nash, Daniel's father, still acted, though, so even if someone knew there was an actor with his name, they might dismiss the connection as Dan Nash was too old to be Daniel.

The family resemblance between them was strong, though, so there was a good chance anyone who watched any Prime Time detective shows (dad currently played a police chief on one major network show and had done guest appearances in a lot more, and even Street Beat still played in reruns from time to time during afternoon line-ups - Daniel might have matured passed being recognizable as the main character's son in that show, but now more than ever he looked like Dad had back when he played that lead role) might ask about the senior Nash, but he did enjoy some attention and recognition, after all. It was much more manageable just being Dan Nash's son, though, rather than famous in his own right anymore.

That was why he'd gone into accounting in the first place. It was a nice, quiet, anonymous career.

Unfortunately, it had been just a bit too anonymous, too monotonous, too unappreciated. He'd found he didn't actually like the quiet life as much as he thought he would. He realized he did like to have people paying attention to him, to walk down a hall and have everyone know who he was.

So he went back to school for teaching. He'd been an Aladren, once upon a time, so it seemed a good compromise between performing and doing something more academic. He hope to go into a college professorship - where he could both teach and get involved in some research projects - but most colleges wanted professors with some classroom experience and the only people he'd taught anything to were his nieces and nephew.

Sonora needed a substitute to cover some vacancies, though, so here he was, ready to teach the Advanced students Charms and DADA. It wasn't quite college level, but he was only responsible for the RATS level courses, so it was pretty close. It would work for the time being, until he either found something closer to what he'd been looking for, or Sonora hired new permanent professors for those subjects and didn't need him anymore.

In the meantime, here he was, sitting at the staff table (which was kind of weird) and being introduced as a professor. As the feast began, he turned to his neighbor, and introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Daniel. Former Aladren."

1 Substitute Professor Daniel Nash II Hey, I'm back again, Sonora. 130 Substitute Professor Daniel Nash II 0 5

John Umland

May 20, 2017 12:15 PM

Bah, humbug. by John Umland

Most years, the two annual feasts were events to at least mildly look forward to – not too much, of course, as they began periods of separation from his family, but still. After being away from Sonora for a bit, the Feasts were pleasant enough occasions if John was in at least a moderately social mood, and even when he wasn’t the food was good. So there was always that.

This year, however, that was a very minor consideration indeed, as John hadn’t left Sonora for the holidays. He had planned to spend almost all his time holed up in Aladren, reading and working, but the lure of the almost empty school building had proven too much for him. He had spent a lot of time reading and working, but also a lot just wandering around, enjoying the peace and quiet and the finally feeling comfortable going wherever he liked because there was no-one else there. The price, of course, was feeling guilty about enjoying himself when he was hurting his mother by doing it, and now being horribly annoyed by the very prospect of everyone else coming back.

Well – almost everyone else. Pye was gone. This was not, however, helpful. There were still enough people pouring into the building to make him want to shred something. If Aiden hadn't decided to bail and land him with the Head Boy badge, John didn’t think he would have even gone to the Feast this year, his last time, but since the Teppenpaw had, he supposed he had no real choice in the matter and so decided to get on with it.

As everyone settled down, he looked over the Teppenpaw table several times until he saw Joe. Joe did not see him; John could not say if this was unintentional or not. It was possible Joe was ignoring his existence just to stay out of detention, as he suspected his brother was royally angry with him right about now, but it was also possible he was just…being a Teppenpaw. That John’s absence had not been enough of a problem for anyone at home to upset Joe and that Joe was therefore just having a nice time with his friends. That was what John had wanted to happen – for the family to realize they were better off without him and start acting like there were just three brothers with one sister in the family – so why, now that it was possible that it had happened, did the thought make him completely miserable?

Pure selfishness, of course. Mom always cautioned against Pride – she didn’t realize what the real problem was. I do what I do not want to do, and what I want to do, I do not do. For God’s sake, I just want to know – Mom, Dad, Paul, Joanie – Julian – I just want to know if they’re all right – couldn’t he decide to be a sadist just this once and rub my face in how nobody gives a damn that I wasn’t there? Should I ask? But I can’t ask.

Irrelevant data. Feeling sorry for himself wasn’t going to help anything. Brockert was talking, talking about things that were relevant. He glanced over the new Pye, who evidently preferred to be called Nash but who John suspected he was going to keep thinking of as New Pye unless he proved a lot more interesting than people usually did in the one semester John was going to know him from a hatrack. New Pye was even better-looking than Old Pye, so John was instantly disinclined to think there was much of a chance that he’d prove interesting enough to warrant becoming Nash in half a year instead of just remaining New Pye in John’s head, though something about the man’s real name did ring a bell…where had he heard it before? It was a remarkably common-sounding name, of course, but he was sure there was some specific association….

Probably not relevant. Especially now that the food was out. John poured himself a cup of tea, then took a sip. He only just remembered to mentally compare it to the tea at home and deem it inferior. He had, if he was to be honest, almost forgotten what tea did taste like at home, but honesty – dreadful habit, that. Nothing but trouble that way. Even the project he was working on to secure his future involved a number of lies, lies he’d had to tell to have any chance of having a nice life after June. He noticed someone was looking at him and assumed it had something to do with him sitting there drinking tea with an empty plate in front of him. “Hello,” he said.

16 John Umland Bah, humbug. 285 John Umland 0 5

Joe Umland

May 20, 2017 8:37 PM

Of Christmas, coconuts, and Victorian literature. by Joe Umland

Christmas could have been worse, Joe supposed. Certainly it had been better than he had feared it would be. Mom hadn’t said anything to him about trying to knock some sense into John back in September and had not even really reacted to his absence, though Joe had noticed she looked teary during midnight Mass at Christmas instead of smiling as she usually did – of course there had been readings from the Gospel whose name matched his delinquent brother’s, he’d thought at the time, and thought now, actually. Since she hadn’t actually said anything, though, none of them had, either, and so they had all just gone on with the holiday, trying to ignore the fact that there was an empty seat where one shouldn’t have been and the fact that Mom had actually, for whatever reason, bought John Christmas presents even after everything….

When he’d realized she’d done that, Joe had, for one moment, wondered if he had been right to defend his mother’s sanity to Julian. Then he’d thought of his own behavior of a few months earlier – specifically, remembering to tell John that Mom had sent him sweaters while they were in the Headmaster’s office digging themselves an ever deeper hole to kick around in – and had shrugged and let it go. It was the only practical option, particularly when he’d kind of, after a little more reflection, understood, or thought he did. Between Julian having nothing on her mind anymore but her upcoming wedding and John pulling a Heathcliff (…well, except for the part where it was over wanting to marry his adoptive sister. Joe was pretty sure John did not actually want to do that. He also sincerely hoped John wasn’t going to show up again in three years and decide it would be fun to psychologically torture the entire neighborhood into madness and be a major contributing factor to the deaths of half of it), he had been forced to realize, really realize, for the first time that his family was really never going to be the same again. Even if John came home without any particularly psychotic desire to make everyone pay for Julian impulsively doing something John didn’t happen to like, even if John and Julian patched it up one more time…everything that had happened had still happened, and Julian was still leaving them. Logically, Joe knew that wasn’t the right way to put it – Steve and Paul had both moved out, and while Joe had missed them at first, he’d kind of gotten to like having more room and he still saw them all the time and he had never been under the impression they were abandoning him – but emotionally…moving out was one thing, marriage was another. Julian wouldn’t use their family name anymore. There would probably be times she went to William’s family events instead of theirs. It was different, and it made Mom’s behavior, frankly, a lot more understandable to him, even if he couldn’t explain it to Julian. How was Mom supposed to take this abrupt abandonment by two of her children at once?

So Christmas had been less than ideal. It had been their last chance to have a semi-normal one and John had ruined it back in July. It could, however, have been worse. He thought about that very firmly as he entered the Cascade Hall. He had no desire to have another cozy chat with Headmaster Brockert while John admired the man’s collection of torture devices.

He looked over the new temporary Charms teacher with some mild interest, wondering again what on Earth had been in the water last year which had made so many people apparently decide that Arizona wasn’t the place to be all at once, but was quickly distracted from the man by the appearance of the food. He really wanted to skip the meal altogether and just go straight to desserts – he was for some reason craving coconut, really craving it, and there was a decent chance that some kind of ice cream or coconut cream pie or winter cake (coconut, he had discovered, was often a winter flavor in America, or at least the southern half of it; it apparently soured too quickly to be a practical ingredient to work with in many dishes in their miserably hot summertimes) would present him with the chance to address this – but he knew that wasn’t how it worked, so he looked around for something to tide him over.

“Is that fruit salad over there?” he asked a neighbor, indicating one dish. Something fruity might be good to start with, might even hit the same spot which wanted coconuts on the off chance that he could not obtain any real coconut-based products during dessert.

16 Joe Umland Of Christmas, coconuts, and Victorian literature. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Aislinn Nicolls

May 20, 2017 11:00 PM

Is it really that bad? by Aislinn Nicolls

Aislinn stared over towards the Pecari table at her sister. She was worried about Sutton. Yesterday, her sister had looked like her sister, but today, she looked like someone else. She was dressing completely different from the short skirts and high boots to the red lips and dark liner. She had started acting like a stranger before that though. She had begun locking herself in her room and skipping meals. When Aislinn had tried to talk to her, Sutton had been sullen. She didn’t know what was going on.

Now that they were back at school, she had hoped that Gia, whom Sutton had grown closer to, would be of some assistance, but Aislinn was disappointed to find that Gia, among others, had left the school. She wondered if that had anything to do with Sutton’s mood. She knew that her sister didn’t have many friends. Aislinn didn’t either, but she didn’t find it to be of much importance. She preferred the solitary world of knowledge. However, there was one person that interrupted that world.

Shifting down the table, Aislinn sat in front of John. She was going to say hi to him, but he seemed lost in some sort of thought. They had had a few interesting conversations regarding things like transfiguration, however, she still didn’t have a clue past what he was willing to reveal. He was an enigma all his own. Titling her head slightly, her curls bouncing to one side, she stared curiously at him. He was certainly like no one else.

Somewhere among the last few moments, John’s entrancement had turned into Aislinn’s, as he was now talking to her. “Oh, um, hi. How was your midterm?” She asked, hoping that he hadn’t noticed that she had been staring. “It’s weird that so many people have left, doesn’t it?”

OOC: I'm assuming their conversations, however, feel free to ignore or add to said occurrences as you see fit. :)

0 Aislinn Nicolls Is it really that bad? 297 Aislinn Nicolls 0 5

Scarlett Brockert

May 22, 2017 1:05 AM

But....but(t).... by Scarlett Brockert

Scarlett stared at the staff table. Professor Pye was gone? How could this be ! The whole reason she was taking DADA in the first place was so she could ogle him. What was the point of the class now?

She knew she shouldn't complain. What Savannah had been through was so much worse. Her sister had lost everything she'd planned for and now had to start from scratch to find a betrothal. And Scarlett knew she wasn't over Aiden himself. The whole thing made the Pecari want to hex someone, wanted someone to blame. Her twin sister had been hurt and Scarlett wanted to make someone pay for it.

Still, whose butt was she going to stare at now?

Okay, yes, she had Marco, her very recently betrothed who had an extremely nice backside. That was sort of a deal breaker with her. Scarlett had wanted to wait until Savannah was doing better, but neither Marco's family, the Bianchis, nor Uncle Clifford did. After all, she was going to be eighteen in March and Marco was twenty-two. He had waited long enough and considering when her cousins had been betrothed, it was time for her too.

Still, he wasn't here .

The headmaster finished speaking-not that that ever took long-and the meal began. Scarlett noted a plate of enchiladas next to her and put one on her plate. Then she addressed the person across from her. "Did you have a nice holiday?"

11 Scarlett Brockert But....but(t).... 293 Scarlett Brockert 0 5

Zevalyn Ives

May 22, 2017 12:41 PM

A much needed breather by Zevalyn Ives

Zevalyn had stayed at Sonora over midterm. Her parents lived right in Phoenix so she did see them (briefly) on Christmas when she was escorted to the city for Church. Otherwise, though, she spent her 'break' in the library or the offices of those teachers still around trying to learn as much as possible during those two weeks without class obligations. She really wanted to close the gap between her and the other students her own age and she only had half a year left to learn the rest of the beginner coursework if she wanted to skip her second year.

She did regret that she was spending so much time studying that she wasn't really making many friends or getting involved in many extracurricular activities (except dueling club which actually had a professor teaching DADA related material - or it did until Professor Pye apparently left over midterm) but it couldn't really be helped.

The returning feast was a both a blessing- it was a good excuse to take a much needed breather - and a curse - as it signaled the end of her opportunity to plow through the material at her own breakneck pace and heralded her need to make time for class assignments and homework now that followed the slower-paced schedule of everyone else. At least she thought she was ready now to tackle most of the second year assignments now when they differed, so that was progress.

She took a seat at the Aladren table, trying to position herself near an intermediate student so she could at least try to make a connection to someone in those years. She was pleased when the Headmaster announced a dedicated Charms professor for Beginners but noted that the sam was not offered for DADA. Maybe the advanced guy would let her pick his brain.

"So does the school always have so many staff vacancies or is this year just special?" she asked her chosen neighbor as the food appeared and she began to fill her plate. It was as good a conversational opening as she could come up with on the spot short of the obvious question about midterm. She didn't want to make a boring or predictable first impression. "I'm Zevalyn, by the way," she added in case they didn't know already.

1 Zevalyn Ives A much needed breather 380 Zevalyn Ives 0 5

Jozua Sparks

May 23, 2017 12:10 PM

Of Christmas, Dueling, and, um, more Dueling by Jozua Sparks

Jozua was normally a pretty decent student. He'd grown up in the town called Aladren after all, and his mom had been from the Sonora House Aladren, so some things just rubbed off. The last two or three weeks before midterm, though? Not so much. He had been super excited about the new year, when he could not only go to a Professional Dueling Tournament (which he got to do every summer for his birthday) but this time he could invite Lily and Finn to watch it with him.

Even Christmas had been barely a blip on his radar, though he'd gotten a new chess set, a bunch of cool books, and a pair of new beater gloves (which he'd asked for as a practical request not because he wanted to be Beater any longer than absolutely required).

As the Duel had been just the day before the wagons brought them back to Sonora, his friends caught the wagon back with him and he got to spend the whole ride with them. As such, his social meter was already at full when he arrived at the feast, so he said goodbye to Lily to let her catch up with her Pecari friends and adios to Finn so he could catch up with his other friends, which left Jozua a bit at loose ends about who he should sit with.

He spotted Joe sitting already when he arrived and decided his intermediate classmate and Quidditch teammate was as good an option as any other and took the seat across from him. "Hey," he said, but his arrival was timed such that there wasn't much chance for conversation before the Headmaster began what - for the Headmaster - was a decent sized speech. It was, like, four whole sentences.

Jozua was dismayed to discover Pye was gone. Who was supposed to teach at Dueling Club now? He eyed the Advanced DADA teacher speculatively. It might work, even if the guy was part Charms professor too. Of course, Perrault had been his second choice if Pye had declined, so the new substitute would probably work from either of his subjects' perspectives. But that would require approaching a person who wasn't even one of Jozua's teachers. Maybe a second opinion was in order. Joe was right there, so Jozua asked him, "D'you think that guy would agree to be the Dueling Adviser? The one teaching Advanced classes? Or would Carter be a better one to ask? Substitute you know and all that." Presumably Carter would be taking on their DADA lessons since no Beginner/Intermediate DADA substitute had been specifically mentioned.

1 Jozua Sparks Of Christmas, Dueling, and, um, more Dueling 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

John

May 24, 2017 7:09 PM

Yeah, pretty much. by John

The person observing his distraction was Aislinn. John did not know if this was better or worse than someone else doing it. On one hand, she seemed not to mind his strangeness in general, but on the other, he was a bit uncomfortable with her catching him off-guard. With Mom and Joanie just gone, now, and even Clark difficult to access, John had (by his own standards of such things) allowed himself to start really expressing ideas to Aislinn much more quickly than he usually did, and when he thought about it, that felt...strange. A little dangerous, even, ridiculous as that was. Aside from Mom, who he was reasonably sure he had adored within a day, John usually preferred to thoroughly evaluate people before he ever said anything of consequence to them.

Now, though...it wasn’t just the stimulation he wanted, though he couldn’t deny that Aislinn - for lack of a better term - snapped into sudden focus for him when she provided that in conversation. It was, he was ashamed to admit even to himself, the sense of some connection to another human being. And so he said more than he meant to, then withdrew into himself - intellectual intimacy and trust was, after all, no small part of what had gotten him into this mess - and then started the whole thing over again….

Wrong, of course. Ought not do it. He wished he could just ignore the fact that no matter how he tried to reason himself into believing differently, he still knew Right from Wrong. He didn’t want to anymore. It wasn’t reasonable to continue doing so, really - he’d get much further in this life if he could just convince himself that there wasn’t another one. He was already behaving as though there was not - he had now missed church on one of the holiest days of the year, and did not even know why. So he hadn’t gone home, because it was better for his family if he stayed away from them - so what? Aside from the school grudgingly accommodating its Catholic population for at least some of the holy days of obligation, he was of age. He could probably tell the staff he wished to leave at such-and-such a time and return at this-or-that and they might well permit it whether anyone had time to escort him or not. Certainly they had no right to keep him here if he did not wish to stay, just the right to refuse to let him come back if he left without permission. And yet, he had not even inquired with anyone about church over midterm. Why had he done that?

“Weird,” repeated John, trying to bring to mind what Aislinn had actually just said while eighty percent of his thoughts wandered off-task. While I stood rapt in the wonder of it, messengers came to me from the king and all-hailed me Thane of Cawdor, by which title these weird sisters had saluted me, and gave me earnest of success in the coming on of time with hail, king that shalt be. “Yes, it’s...strange. So many at once. They’ll be missed. I missed you,” he concluded abruptly. “Over midterm, I mean - I was here. I had a lot of work to do, so I stayed here. Did you have a good time at home?”

OOC: John misquotes Macbeth’s letter to Lady Macbeth from the Shakespeare play about them, jumbling it a bit with one of the soliloquies.

16 John Yeah, pretty much. 285 John 0 5

Cleo James

May 24, 2017 9:22 PM

We're going on a friend hunt by Cleo James

Cleo stared around the Cascade Hall and realised, with a sigh, that it was in fact possible to be both incredibly impressed by somewhere and to simultaneously wish you were elsewhere. Their little flat, which sat above their shop, could have fitted into the room several times over, and it wasn’t awash with flashy magical decoration, but it was home and this was not. It had been so nice to be back over Christmas. For several days their tiny home had felt crowded and busy, what with the tree taking up one corner, and her grandparents coming to stay. The four of them had had a wonderful time exchanging presents, playing games and listening to the radio. On Christmas Day, they’d cooked up a feast with a glazed ham and vegetables from the allotment. All wonky and perfect in their utter imperfection, Cleo was proudly able to point out which ones she’d dug out of the ground herself in some cases. Even after her grandparents had gone home, and life had returned to normal, that had still felt like a treat after months away at Sonora.

Cleo took a seat, not minding which table it was at - apparently, the returning feast was not so strict. She inspected her nails whilst listening to the brief announcements. Grandma had bought her some nail varnishes for Christmas, and then helped her to paint her fingernails a shimmering shade of pink. The polish had chipped a little since but she was still pleased with how they looked. She was also excited to show Adrianna. She still wasn’t sure that she and her roommate were quite on the same wavelength but Adrianna seemed a very girly girl, and hopefully this could provide some common ground. Maybe they could paint each other’s nails - Cleo wasn’t sure she’d be very good at doing it by herself.

As the feast materialised, she took more careful note than she had before of the vegetables, knowing that many had been grown here at Sonora. She took a moment to appreciate their lack of uniformity, before helping herself to some pumpkin soup. Winter comfort food still felt like a good choice.

“Did you have a nice Christmas?” she smiled at the person next to her. Sonora people had been nice enough so far but she wasn’t sure she’d truly clicked with anyone. Her mission for the term was to find a best friend.

13 Cleo James We're going on a friend hunt 389 Cleo James 0 5

Joe

May 24, 2017 11:53 PM

...Y'know, I get the impression you like dueling. by Joe

Joe had realized there were going to be a lot of headaches until the teachers got themselves sorted out and replaced and whatnot, but the logistics of extracurricular activities were not things he had considered before. After Jozua’s question, he looked between Pye’s replacement and Professor Carter, looking for something that might help him compare their relative virtues and weaknesses for the role Jozua needed one of them to play.

Their appearances proved unhelpful, leaving him with only regular reasoning. “Well, this Nash guy...he’s a substitute, too,” said Joe reasonably. “And he probably has more - well, there’s a good chance he knows more about it, if he’s teaching the Advanced classes.” Of course, Professor Carter taught Advanced classes sometimes at need, Joe was pretty sure. Hopefully Jozua was not Aladrenish enough to point this out to Joe now that Joe had noticed it himself. “Plus it might make him feel welcome,” he added.

Joe finished that sentence in his head with so he doesn’t bail as soon as he meets the Advanced classes, deeming this the kind of thought one did not express in Teppenpaw. He had also had to edit the words ‘trait’ and ‘specialization’ from his reasoning for approaching Nash over Professor Carter for the job, at least temporarily. What Julian had said when he first came home - that Joe, besides whatever it was with Joanie, was starting to talk like John, dressing himself in borrowed robes now that John himself wasn’t around for Joe to contrast himself to - had struck a nerve, and struck it hard.

“It can’t hurt to ask anyway,” he concluded. “If he says no, then ask Professor Carter.” It wasn’t as though Professor Carter, anyway, seemed inclined to leave. She had been here for years, taking on something different all the time. She seemed unlikely to be too offended that Jozua offered another job to someone else first. “How was your midterm?” he asked.

16 Joe ...Y'know, I get the impression you like dueling. 329 Joe 0 5

Georgia Kirkly

May 25, 2017 10:34 AM

Sit back, relax, enjoy by Georgia Kirkly

Weird was the new normal. It wasn’t the first school holiday that Georgia had spent shuttling between her parents. It wasn’t nice, she still didn’t like it, but it had actually been the status quo for long enough that it would have been weirder to see them together. Kinda sad as that was as a milestone, it definitely meant dealing with the festivities a lot easier. She almost thought they even had a routine now. She split Christmas Day down the middle, sharing it between them, and had gone to her mom first last year, so she’d got Christmas Eve, followed by her dad, so he’d got New Year. This year, they had swapped, with only a small amount of no-pressure-just-do-whatever-you-want type talks in the lead up, and now she knew what she’d do next year too and, she hoped, so did they. She tried to ignore the possibility that one of them might shake up this new and happy equilibrium by dating, because that thought was just beyond gross - they were parents. It was barely acceptable for them to have been romantically or sexually attracted to each other, let alone anyone else.

Coming back to school still felt weird without her friends though. Just when she’d adjusted to all the changes at home, her life at school had to turn upside down. Tess had been super nice to her in Care of Magical Creatures, but it still wasn’t the same as having her own actual friends. This was why, as she entered the hall, she actually took some time thinking about where to sit and made, instead of the Teppenpaw table, for the Aladren one. She felt mildly self-conscious, especially as she quite often felt a bit thick when talking to Aladrens, but she had one specific target in mind; the transfer girl. The transfer girl was an amazing blessing. She was someone actually of Georgia’s age who was new and completely alone, which basically shouldn’t have been possible. Georgia also felt she was probably deflecting quite a lot of attention away from her at the moment - a transfer was even more of a social oddity and potential freak than a girl who’d just had all her friends transfer away. Not that she thought anything nasty of the new girl, but it was just so much more gossip-worthy than she herself was. Sure, she was sticking her neck above the parapet a little in courting the transfer’s attention now, but at least they could be losers together, and the benefits seemed to far outweigh the risks, given that she had basically no social standing to lose.

“I don’t know, but I wish it would stop,” Georgia sighed, when the girl asked about all the staff changes. To be honest, they didn’t bother her so much, but the general whirlwind of change feeling was getting old super fast. She definitely didn’t want upheaval and people leaving to become mainstays of Sonora life. “Cool,” she smiled, glad of the introduction, because all she’d been able to remember about Zevalyn’s name was that it was something weird. “Is that… Greek or something?” she guessed. She wasn’t sure why she’d picked Greek, but it seemed as good a guess as any. She couldn’t recall specific brands, but she was sure there were loads of Zs in that square, liney font that was meant to denote Ancient Greece and was used to flog yoghurt and dips. Zevalyn. Zevalyn. Zevalyn, she tried repeating it a few times in her head to commit to memory. “I’m Georgia. I’m a third year. You’re moving up to my grade at some point or something, right?”

13 Georgia Kirkly Sit back, relax, enjoy 346 Georgia Kirkly 0 5

Amelia Layne

May 25, 2017 9:23 PM

Not the kind that ends with heads on walls, I hope? by Amelia Layne

Upon leaving the wagon in South Carolina, Amelia had maintained the attitude of a poised young person with some sense of dignity for approximately three seconds before squealing in delight and doing (he had complained jokingly) her level best to knock her brother down. She had been only slightly less enthusiastic about reuniting with Granddad and Grandmother, who had both exclaimed over how well she looked and laughed as they tried to keep up with the rate at which she’d answered questions. It was always funny to her how much she only realized she missed them when she got home, but it had, she thought, been worse this year than last year, just because last year Lionel had been here.

Her family was not, aside from occasional rumors of Aunt Helena (who Grandmother and Granddad had not mentioned much) and Alicia (who, to everyone’s surprise, had sent presents this year and then turned up at Aunt Emily’s on New Year’s, looking hugely uncomfortable in her own former home and prompting Lionel to speculate that she was getting a divorce), very interesting. Even Lionel was already steadily progressing toward being as boring as the rest due to accepting a job with Uncle Geoff, a job Amelia worried was responsible for Lionel not looking as well as he might have – he seemed tired and less happy than she remembered, and had definitely been more given to sarcasm than usual. On the holidays, though, this uninterestingness of her family seemed not to matter much at all, or even to be a desirable trait. The ordinariness of everything seemed comfortingly familiar, and the only way she thought the holiday really could have been better would have been if Mama had actually dropped in on Christmas again like she had last year. She had sent a postcard from, of all places, New York, there was that, but it wasn’t the same at all.

With or without Lionel’s company or a visit from Mama, though, coming back to Sonora was still easier than it had been last year – at least at first. The departures among the older students were not something that would have registered much on Amelia’s radar – maybe some mild surprise over John, who still sort of frightened her even now that she’d decided that she trusted his assurance that he wouldn’t hit her hard enough to cause any permanent damage, being Head Boy now, he was so different from Clark that Amelia could hardly believe the two had been best friends, much less John doing the same jobs Clark had done, but overall, the older students were people who minimally impacted her life. The teachers were another story, and after Professor Perrault had already left, Amelia was distressed to hear that Professor Pye was gone as well. Who was going to be Head of Aladren now? Admittedly, Amelia had never needed her Head of House, and suspected nobody in Aladren really went out of their way to find a shoulder to lean on very often (Amelia suspected her own occasional desire to do so was, in fact, the sort of thing many of her classmates would view as a character flaw; goodness knew she couldn’t imagine Uncle Geoff or Alicia seeking out friends for moral support), but still….

She was still a bit disturbed by this as the feast began, but she smiled at Cleo, who she recognized from classes – not an Aladren, she was pretty sure, but that was all right – when the younger girl asked if she had had a nice Christmas. “I did!” she said, helping herself to some of the first dish which came to eye. Amelia had no idea what it was and hoped it wasn’t something so bizarre and alien to what she knew as food that she spat it out before she thought in front of everyone. Fortunately, she thought the odds of this humiliation actually occurring were minimal. Even if it was strange, it was probably going to be tasty, and she thought she recognized shrimp in the mix of many things the thing appeared to be. Amelia liked shrimp. “I don’t think I even thought about how much I’d missed my brother until I got home, you know? He was here last year, so I didn’t think about it then. The only thing was that we don’t get any snow at home, and I know it happens here, so I was kind of sorry I had to miss that. But I’d rather see Lionel.” This was probably more information than Cleo really required, but Amelia was used to relations lamenting her tendency to ramble and hardly even noticed it unless someone commented on it anymore. “Did you, too? Have a – nice Christmas.” She had started to say good time at home, but of course she didn’t know who’d gone home and who’d stayed here, much less why each person had done that, so making assumptions really did have the potential to turn things awkward.

16 Amelia Layne Not the kind that ends with heads on walls, I hope? 360 Amelia Layne 0 5

Jozua Sparks

May 25, 2017 10:21 PM

You picked up on that, did you? by Jozua Sparks

Jozua nodded in agreement that teaching solely Advanced classes suggested a higher base knowledge in the subject, which would probably be a good thing in a person trying to keep a bunch of 11-18 year old students from killing or maiming one another in an extracurricular dueling club. And Joe's second point was worth considering as well, though Jozua felt fairly confident that 'it might make him feel welcome' was not something that would have come up in a discussion with anybody from any other House but Teppenpaw.

"Good idea, it's always good to have a backup plan," Jozua agreed. He'd kind of been leaning that direction anyway, so having Joe come up with it independently made him feel more confident in that course of action. "Nash first, then Carter."

That settled, the conversation naturally fell to the obvious question for the Returning Feast. Fortunately, he had a more interesting answer this year than 'fine' and he'd actually been hoping, for once, that someone would ask, since his two main friends had been there for the highlight and so had no need to ask him about his break. And he was nigh on near to bursting in his desire to tell someone.

By asking this fairly innocent-seeming question, Joe was unknowingly opening the floodgates. As a rule, Jozua didn't talk much. He was generally a polite person, and he wasn't shy precisely, but he just had a fairly taciturn nature. One of the reasons he and Lily worked so well together was that Lily could carry 5/6-ths of a conversation all by herself.

This was not the case when the topic of dueling arose.

"It was great!" Jozua enthused, his entire person basically glowing as he dropped his club worries and picked up his recent glorious memories. "For Christmas, Dad bought me tickets for myself, and Lily, and Finn to go the New Year Dueling Championships in Aladren! It was so good -" and here he began to speak Duel-ese, which was very similar to how some fervent sports fans talked about Quidditch, with name dropping and stats and signature moves and so forth.

"It was soo good," Jozua breathed out in conclusion two full minutes later. "Best midterm ever. How was yours?" Which wasn't a fair question at all, because, really, who could have done anything that could have remotely compare favorably to his? But he thought it was Joe's turn to talk now and he didn't know what else to ask to shift the conversation back that way.

1 Jozua Sparks You picked up on that, did you? 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Owen Brockert

May 26, 2017 6:52 AM

Tagging Jemima by Owen Brockert

As usual, Owen was glad to be back at Sonora. While he loved his family very much, he missed being with Jemima. He had seen her during the break as usual but that was never the same as seeing her every day. Even if they did separate things for the better part of one, Owen still made time to see her. Nothing and nobody was more important to him than Jemima was. His writing was the only thing that could compete and he tended to consider the two completely equal.

Which made being in the second half of his sixth year kind of...unpleasant. True, he had a year and a half left-albeit with the dreadful summer months situated in there-to be with her every single day. Eventually though, Owen hoped they would get married. Still, even if they did-if her family thought he was good enough-they might still end up being apart for awhile because they probably wouldn't be able to live together without being married as it wasn't proper. This was a painful thought.The mere idea of being separated from Jemima for a long period of time made his heart ache.

And Theodore had suggested that it would happen that they would go to different schools, though in truth Owen didn't know why he would have to go to school to be a writer or Jemima to be an artist. Wasn't creativity something that couldn't be taught? And he'd learned grammer and stuff from one of his childhood tutors, though as the premises of his stories were sort of...childlike, he tried to not use words small children-who weren't Topaz or Emerald when she'd been younger and he'd entertained her with his writing-didn't understand. Of course, Cookies and Cream got into situations that maybe slightly older kids would think were interesting. Uncle Mortimer's grandchildren were basically his focus group for what children liked even though Topaz could be awfully harsh and unnecessarily mean.

Of course, she was...kind of different from most kids. She didn't really act like a seven year old and seemed to think stories featuring animal protagonists were beneath her. It still hurt to hear her criticisms however even though Owen had been assured by Emerald that it wasn't that his writing was bad but that Topaz was a brat-Emerald's word- who thought herself too mature for children's tales.

Fortunately, the rest of them-aside from Christopher and Amethyst, who were too little to understand-seemed to love them though. Actually, Isla might have been too, except that she was apparently advanced for her age. At least that's what Emerald said. Emerald, despite trying to ignore her siblings the best she could, had picked up some knowledge about children and their development. Owen, having no siblings and only some experience with Uncle Mortimer's grandchildren-and now Uncle Ichabod's granddaughter Liesl-took her word for it.

Anyway, he had more important things to think about right now. The sixth year was back and school and back with Jemima's constant presence. He sat down across from his girlfriend and once Uncle Mortimer was finished speaking Owen addressed the other Teppenpaw. "So, what should we try tonight?" He knew how much Jemima loved new foods. "Hopefully there's still something new." He didn't really want to think they had already done it all. While Owen could still be uncomfortable in new situations, this didn't apply to eating different things.

OOC-Permission given to mention how much and when Owen and Jemima see each other

11 Owen Brockert Tagging Jemima 300 Owen Brockert 0 5

Cleo

May 26, 2017 9:27 AM

That would seem to lack longevity as a friendship by Cleo

Cleo nodded along politely to Amelia’s rhetorical ‘yknow,’ even though she actually had no idea what it would be like to have a sibling at school, and then to fail to miss them, seeing as she was an only child. She appreciated Amelia’s chattiness. Cleo could chit-chat but she wasn’t instantly forthcoming and it helped to have the other person get the ball rolling.

“We got a little bit of snow, though not actually on Christmas Day. More around New Year. I heard they get like… a real snow fall here. It’s still kinda weird to think that this is the middle of the desert.” Cleo tended to forget where they actually were, due to the strangely seasonal variation of the weather. Every time she had cause to remember, it surprised her.

“I did,” she smiled, in response to Amelia’s question. “I really missed my daddy during the first part of the year. And our shop, and the allotment. There wasn’t so much to do with the allotment - just a few winter vegetables to dig up, but it was nice to do that and just… be back for a while. I guess it gets easier, huh?” she added. Amelia, after all, hadn’t even really noticed her brother had gone this year, so presumably she was well settled at Sonora.

13 Cleo That would seem to lack longevity as a friendship 389 Cleo 0 5

Lily Spencer

May 26, 2017 9:30 AM

Trying something new. by Lily Spencer

After losing last term's Quidditch match, Lily had cried like a baby. She couldn't help it, but at least she'd been able to wait until the locker room to let her tears flow. She'd been miserable the rest of the term, but returning home for the holidays to see her parents and siblings again was lovely. And of course, it wasn't Christmas without a spat between Lily and her mum. Mum had insisted she get her ears pierced this year, but Lily adamantly refused. Luckily she won that one--after all, they were her ears--but she knew Mum was determined to turn her into a lady, and, from Lily's experience, determined Princeton women were scarier than the men.

Soon after Christmas, with her parents' tentative approval, she went to join Jozua and Finn for New Year's and the Duelling Tournament. That was easily her favourite part of the whole year and she'd forgotten all about her miserable defeat.

Lily thoroughly enjoyed the trip back to Sonora. Though she and Jack were fighting less and less, it was nice not feeling like she was being supervised by him. Though intermediate courses were difficult, she felt like she was actually learning something more useful now and didn't mind the extra work that much. It was getting a bit easier to balance schoolwork and Quidditch.

Unfortunately, it seemed like things weren't going very well for Sonora. So many staff members had disappeared. Maybe some sort of spell had gone wrong and taken half of them over the holiday. Or maybe they were a part of some sort of secret service and they were caught or called away on business. The possible explanations were endless and only became more and more dramatic and interesting in Lily's head. Though she hadn't built a real relationship with any of the professors, she'd felt comfortable in their classes. Now things were going to be different and Lily didn't like that. She looked over at Jozua, wondering whom he was going to ask to be the new Duelling Club advisor. She hoped the club wouldn't disband for lack of professors. Maybe if they couldn't find anyone, they could have an "underground club". That would be thrilling, participating in a secret like that.

At the Pecari table, Lily decided to try a new dish. She usually stuck with noodles or some sort of Indian curry, but not today. She picked up a bulging tortilla wrap filled with something. It had to be some sort of Spanish or Mexican dish. She examined it, but nothing gave away of what was inside. "Do you know what this is?" she asked her neighbour. "There are so many different kinds of things here it's difficult not to try something new."

40 Lily Spencer Trying something new. 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Zevalyn

May 26, 2017 9:41 AM

Is there lemonade? by Zevalyn

"Greek?" Zevalyn repeated, momentarily confused by the question before she dismissed it as nothing more than a wildly inaccurate guess as to her name's origin. "No, my parents made it up. Well, my mom did," she corrected the technical accuracy of her statement. "Dad just liked it." The fact that it had been the name of Mom's role playing character at the gaming convention in the Pathfinder session where they met was a large contributing factor to that, but that was a little too nerdy of a detail to share on first contact with a potential new friend, particularly one who wasn't an Aladren and who was therefore not necessarily predisposed toward nerdiness.

Her knowledge of what the current third years were like was limited. She'd shared a room with Madeleine so the French girl was her closest contact to the group, but she had her own friends already so she hadn't been around the room too much. Aside from rooming with Madeleine, Zevalyn did take Intermediate Astronomy since there weren't any prerequisites for that, so she did kind of know the intermediates taking that course, but other than that, she had mostly been surrounded by the beginner students so far.

So she was grateful when Georgia offered her name and year in return because Zevalyn hadn't known either until they were offered. "Yeah," she agreed, "that's the plan. I'll move up into intermediates next year with the second years if I can pass my placement exams, then by your fifth year, I'm hoping I'll be all caught up and I can take the CATS with the rest of you. This year, I think, is going to be the roughest one, trying to cram two years of lessons into just one."

She waved a hand to encompass the whole of the Cascade Hall and, by extension, all of magical society, "To say nothing of acclimating to the idea that magic is real on top of everything else. At least for intermediates, I'll have two years to cover three years of material, and I'd guess it gets easier to accept the impossible with practice. Are you muggleborn, too?" she asked hopefully, hoping for confirmation that her assumption that accepting magic as a part of reality did get easier over time.

1 Zevalyn Is there lemonade? 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Joe Umland

May 26, 2017 3:46 PM

I am a master of observation. by Joe Umland

Joe nodded his agreement about back-up plans, glad they were thinking similar thoughts. “You know it,” he said.

The question about breaks was, by definition, a boring question. Everyone asked it and everyone usually gave the same answers. Goodness knew Joe was planning to give his standard answer when Jozua inevitably passed the conversation-starter back to him - maybe with a few selected details, amusing things, added in to prevent Awkward Silence from falling upon them, but not the truth under any circumstances. He was surprised, then, when Jozua - who he’d never noticed was all that talkative in general - far from giving him a boring answer, launched into a passionate ramble about dueling.

Joe sat back in his chair as he listened, genuinely impressed. He’d known Jozua was running a dueling club even before the other Teppenpaw had asked him about his thoughts on a new advisor, but he had not known the other boy was this into it. This sounded like John talking about rare crows or Mom rare copies of Margery Kempe, with the main difference being that the bits Joe could understand were actually interesting. Joe found this heartening, as it indicated that maybe the Sorting Potion hadn’t been quite broken the year he had consumed some of it.

“Probably not the best midterm ever,” he said when the question was passed back to him, amused. “Not the worst, of course - “ this was what Joe believed the vernacular would classify as a lie; Joe himself just thought of it as a carefully qualified statement, as things could always be worse. This year, it had only felt like the whole family had been hit by a train; since no actual trains and death and such had been involved, he had to acknowledge that Christmas could have been worse - “but it was...pretty normal. My sister won’t shut up about her wedding and my mom wanted to go to church even more often than usual, but we had a good time.” Okay, that was an outright lie. He’d deal with it when he went home for Easter. “You said this tournament was in Aladren? I have to ask what that town’s like.”

16 Joe Umland I am a master of observation. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Jozua

May 26, 2017 9:37 PM

It is an excellent trait to possess by Jozua

Jozua nodded in sympathy when Joe predictably admitted his midterm had lacked the glory and wonder of Jozua's. Not everyone could have The Best Midterm Ever, and Jozua had surely claimed it this year, so that left Joe stuck with his sister's wedding plans and stuff.

"Congratulations to your sister," he put in politely, as was expected when weddings were mentioned, then he shrugged in response to the question about Aladren. "I grew up there," he explained, "so I don't really know what to compare it to. It's a town where everyone's magical, so we're pretty free with magic, I guess. I mean, almost everybody gets around by broom or Apparition, so everywhere you look, there's someone flying or appearing out of nowhere. And like," he gestured around them toward the waterfalls flowing down the walls of the Hall, "magical folks tend to enjoy flashy but pointless magic to show off how magical a place they have, so there's a fair amount of that going on, too. It's a decent place though, I guess, even if everybody is always in everybody else's business and the old folks call you by your grandfather's name and hold his childhood pranks against you." Jozua reconsidered that last line, and amended, "Though, I guess you wouldn't have that problem if you visited."

"What about you?" he asked, feeling it only fair to turn the question around. "Are you from a small town? And are there muggles about? I was always kind of curious about how that works. I mean . . . they don't have magic. How do they even get to the second stories of shopping plazas without brooms?"

1 Jozua It is an excellent trait to possess 348 Jozua 0 5

Lauren Song

May 27, 2017 1:49 PM

I know! by Lauren Song

Though Lauren usually sat at the Teppenpaw table during the welcoming feasts, she decided to branch out a little. It wasn't like it really mattered at the Returning Feast, anyway, and she was hoping to make some new friends. Her roommates were usually preoccupied with their boyfriends and there was only so much lovey-dovey stuff Lauren could tolerate. It wasn't their fault, she knew that, but she would catch up with her best friends later on in their room.

The Headmaster looked a little more peeved than usual today and Lauren imagined it was because so many professors had up and vanished. She scanned the staff table for her favorites and breathed a sigh of relief to see Professor Skies still there. She was curious how they'd managed to snag new professors for this term, but that was good for them. So she thought.

It's not like having new professors was really going to affect her at all. They came and went all the time here. Maybe magical professors had better things to do than teach a bunch of teenagers how to use their magic.

"Yeah, I did," Lauren replied. She knew of Scarlett from classes, but that was about it. "Dad came and spent Christmas with us and we were supposed to go skiing, but it didn't end up happening. That's okay though, we had a great time together anyway. It wasn't the most exciting holiday, but it was fun." Lauren hardly ever saw her dad since he lived in Korea, so the time he was able to get away from his business and see them were precious.

"Did you have a nice winter break?" she asked as she put together a salad for herself.

19 Lauren Song I know! 303 Lauren Song 0 5

Jen White

May 27, 2017 3:35 PM

Still Quietly Intrigued by Jen White

The only thing really that was better at home than at school was that Jen still hadn’t convinced her Mom to let her bring her own board. She’d had a great time skating in midterm. It sucked that her Mom had found the board Jen had tried to smuggle with her in her luggage. She could grudgingly admit that her Mom was also a bonus to being home, but then she also didn’t let Jen bring the one thing that would have made her life at Sonora better, so she could overlook that fact with Machiavellian ease.

Feeling all the hype of the new year affect her mood, Jen had actually opted to wear a purple hoodie rather than her usual black to the returning feast. Her grandparents had given it to her as a Christmas gift, and it was completely plain, which she usually preferred to any kind of motif. Her t-shirts often featured the logos of punk or ska bands but she liked her hoodies devoid of decoration. Aside from the splash of colour, Jen looked very much as she had for her first Sonoran feast, with her mousy-brown hair short and choppy about her head, and her black rectangular framed glasses perched on her too-small nose. Inwardly she was calmer, but still quietly intrigued to discover what the second half of the year would have in store.

Having scooped some refried beans onto the handful of nachos on her plate, Jen added a dollop of salsa before dunking a chip. “Hey,” she voluntarily engaged a person seated nearby in conversation, not for the first time in history, but it was a relatively rare event. Apparently the company of just her mother was sufficient to prompt her latent social skills to emerge.

0 Jen White Still Quietly Intrigued 388 Jen White 0 5

Jennifer White

May 27, 2017 3:45 PM

Still Quietly Intrigued (full post this time) by Jennifer White

Coming back to school after midterm felt like coming back home. As she was intending to spend the next six and a half years there, Jen was satisfied with this outcome. The few kids she’d interacted with at her Mom’s home in Phoenix before the Aladren had attended Sonora didn’t welcome her home for the holiday with any enthusiasm, and Jen had not missed a single one of them. Although, she supposed, that couldn’t be the reason for Sonora feeling home-like, because she didn’t have any friends there, either. She liked Zevalyn more than she would admit, and definitely more than she had at the start of the year, but the older girl wasn’t going to be in her classes forever so Jen hadn’t made any efforts to develop a friendship; there didn’t seem to be any point. She also liked Ryder and his skateboard, but she hadn’t discovered yet whether they actually had anything else in common. She could tolerate him, and she appreciated his generosity in letting her borrow his skateboard. Jen had, eventually, discovered that she could ride a board in MARS (why didn’t they put that sort of thing in the welcome brochure? It would have saved her a lot of unnecessary angst) but she couldn’t bring them out into the grounds to ride.

The only thing really that was better at home than at school was that Jen still hadn’t convinced her Mom to let her bring her own board. She’d had a great time skating in midterm. It sucked that her Mom had found the board Jen had tried to smuggle with her in her luggage. She could grudgingly admit that her Mom was also a bonus to being home, but then she also didn’t let Jen bring the one thing that would have made her life at Sonora better, so she could overlook that fact with Machiavellian ease.

Feeling all the hype of the new year affect her mood, Jen had actually opted to wear a purple hoodie rather than her usual black to the returning feast. Her grandparents had given it to her as a Christmas gift, and it was completely plain, which she usually preferred to any kind of motif. Her t-shirts often featured the logos of punk or ska bands but she liked her hoodies devoid of decoration. Aside from the splash of colour, Jen looked very much as she had for her first Sonoran feast, with her mousy-brown hair short and choppy about her head, and her black rectangular framed glasses perched on her too-small nose. Inwardly she was calmer, but still quietly intrigued to discover what the second half of the year would have in store.

Having scooped some refried beans onto the handful of nachos on her plate, Jen added a dollop of salsa before dunking a chip. “Hey,” she voluntarily engaged a person seated nearby in conversation, not for the first time in history, but it was a relatively rare event. Apparently the company of just her mother was sufficient to prompt her latent social skills to emerge.

0 Jennifer White Still Quietly Intrigued (full post this time) 388 Jennifer White 0 5

Georgia

May 27, 2017 9:36 PM

Probably by Georgia

“Oh. Wow,” Georgia blinked, in response to the fact that Zevalyn’s name was made up. That was weird. She was pretty sure she’d never met anyone with a made up name before. Between that and being a transfer, Zevalyn was definitely seeming more than a little strange. Transfer kids usually fell into one of two groups… They were either instantly cool because they were new and exciting, or weird and outcast-y becasue they’d been rejected by somewhere else. Had Zevalyn been at a different magic school before here, one where she’d been bullied? Perhaps the same school Georgia’s mum had been to… That was enough to make Georgia at least feel sorry for the other girl, even if she was concerned about dubious social status. Although that didn’t really gel with why Zevalyn was in first year here.

“Yeah, that sounds crazy tough,” she sympathised, as Zevalyn explained her schedule. At least she was an Aladren. She probably kind of liked studying. It would absolutely have killed Georgia, and she doubted she’d have been able to do it. She had enough trouble keeping up with her regular homework load, though she wasn’t going to share that fact, given where they were sitting.

“I’m a halfblood, actually, but I know where you’re coming from. My mom… kinda kept pretty quiet about the whole magic thing,” she said, trying to work out how to explain without really going into the whole big thing that had come about as a result, although her tone betrayed that this had definitely not become one of those funny family stories, or been an exciting surprise. “So, yeah, I had to get used to all this being real too. I guess I am,” she shrugged. “Sometimes there’s still… like an ‘oh my god, why would you invent that spell or that potion’ moment. Some of the ideas are freaky or just plain stupid. But it’s not like I’m walking around in a permanent state of shock. And there’s nice bits too. Most of the animals are kind of fun, and a lot of the spells make life easier. So, this is all new to you?” she questioned. She guessed that was why Zevalyn was only in first year, although the real question then became how it was possible that this was all new to her, because the school was surely meant to sort that stuff out. “Did your letter get lost in the post or something? Or aren’t there like… people who are meant to come and tell Muggleborns in person, or something?”

13 Georgia Probably 346 Georgia 0 5

Jemima Wolseithcrafte

May 28, 2017 8:47 AM

Searching for new things by Jemima Wolseithcrafte

Jemima knew that she was very lucky. She had Owen, and he was her soulmate. Not every Pureblood girl even got to marry for love, let alone true, fairy story love. And she and Owen were in the same year. She wasn’t sure what Ginger and Jake planned to do in the future, mostly because it seemed they themselves weren’t sure, but right now they were still together but having to spend all their time apart, and it sucked for Ginger, who missed him terribly. She definitely was lucky. Which made her wonder why she felt so distracted, and at times restless about being with Owen. When other boys asked her to dance at parties, she found it sort of exciting, wondering what they might be thinking about her. At Sonora, she would loyally, and truthfully, say that Owen was the most attractive person to her in the whole school. But he wasn’t the only one. She was glad that Olivier Westley had graduated. He was distracting and confusing. Although, as soon as he had gone, she had noticed that Liac Reinhardt had really nice eyes. She didn’t want to date Liac. She didn’t think she had much in common with him, and he wasn’t society. She knew that wanted to date Owen. But she could see why someone would want to date Liac, or to run their fingers through his hair, or stare into his eyes, and that made her feel confused and guilty. It was also the first feeling that she’d ever had that she felt unable to share with Owen. It got worse when they had to be apart. Her mind would wonder, and these thoughts would build up, and she’d go around in circles in her head. Seeing him made the world kind of snap back into focus. It made her remember how good everything was between them, and that she didn’t need to worry about anything else. When he was around, there was no space in her head for other boys. It was just when he wasn’t that she felt it was a problem. And so, as she took her seat opposite him at the feast, and they started to plan their meal, the rest of the world went away again, and sond everything made sense and felt right.

“Hmm, good question,” Jemima scanned the table. “I see plenty of things I want to eat… Cajun shrimp, mashed pumpkin with garlic…” she helped herself to the dishes as she listed them, before passing them across to Owen. Whilst the food at Sonora was always good and varied, there was never anything like the choice there was at the feast, ame dishes only came out on these special occasions. Whilst she was keen to find something new, she wasn’t going to pass up old favourites, especially if she might not see them again for sixth months. “Ooh, I tried olives again over the holidays, and I like them now. My mother always said they’re a food you grow into. Is there anything over your side with olives, and does it count?” she asked. Owen already liked them, so they’d tried a lot of the dishes that had occasional olives in them, with her picking hers out and putting them on his plate, which meant she had tried most of the dish, and it definitely wasn’t new to him. Still, it was a good starting point, and the feast was far from over.

13 Jemima Wolseithcrafte Searching for new things 304 Jemima Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Tarquin Reynolds, Aged Librarian

May 28, 2017 9:30 AM

As am I by Tarquin Reynolds, Aged Librarian

Christmas had been a little different this year. It had been something of a milestone. He and Danny were no longer the parents to whom the little chicks returned - they were the aged and visiting parents/in-laws that descended on their daughter and her boyfriend. Henny and Niall had been living together for almost two years, but only one Christmas, prior to this one, for which both had returned to their own homes. This year though, they had reached the point where it seemed silly and unnatural for them to spend the day apart, so both sets of parents, plus Charlie, had been invited over. Niall had a sister too, but she had a family and was with her in-laws, which helped, as otherwise it might have got beyond the point where it was physically possible to cram everyone into the couple’s tiny apartment. Niall’s mother had spent much of the morning fretting that it was too much, that she didn’t see how Henny and Niall could turn out a roast dinner for seven people from that tiny kitchen, and were they sure they didn’t want any help? Henny had gently but firmly kept her in the living room. Niall knew her secrets, but it wouldn’t do for his parents to find out. He conducted the more public elements, such as laying the table, which couldn’t be done by magic, as Henny secretly pulled improbable numbers of potatoes out of the cupboards, and set the knife to chopping them. It had been a little strained, pretending that magic didn’t exist, and somewhat hard to know sometimes what to talk about. Gifts had been problematic too. They had had had to consider their purchases carefully - slippers, pyjamas, calendars without moving pictures - and had had several additional parcels which they’d given Henny after Niall’s family had left. It left Tarquin feeling rather complicated… He wasn’t prejudiced. He believed there was nothing wrong with Henny loving Niall, and he himself liked the boy. But it did make life hard. These occasions were going to be hard work, and his daughter was signing herself up for a million other unnecessary problems… Except of course they weren’t unnecessary, because this was who she loved. He just wished it could have been easier for her. But she had been happy with how her first Christmas as hostess had gone. She was happy, in general. And that was the main thing.

He had returned to Sonora for a second term as emergency librarian. The staff situation seemed to be getting worse though, as there was now another substitute professor on board. Dan Nash. It was a familiar name. Dan Nash… It was hard to place people’s ages, but he wondered whether the man had been a student when Henny had been here? Not someone she was close to, but perhaps he’d seen the name in one of her yearbooks? That was a strange thought. Whilst he knew his daughter was theoretically old enough to be a teacher, it didn’t seem right in the least. Especially not when it felt like the tail end of their cohort was still passing through the school, the siblings of their friends still studying here. The man’s introduction confirmed that he was, indeed, a former student, and from Henny’s house.

“Tarquin,” he introduced himself. “When were you an Aladren? Your name’s very familiar.”

OOC - fyi, I worked out that Tarquin’s original period of librarianship overlapped with Daniel being a student by at least a year, maybe two. However, he didn’t run a library monitor scheme, so he wasn’t super familiar with the students, especially the younger ones.

13 Tarquin Reynolds, Aged Librarian As am I 1464 Tarquin Reynolds, Aged Librarian 0 5

Kyte Collindale

May 28, 2017 10:27 AM

Needing a favour (tag Ben) by Kyte Collindale

It was lucky that fourth year didn’t really count. Kyte had formed this opinion pretty early on in the term - he was over the step up and difficulty that came with transitioning to intermediates, but he didn’t have major exams to sit. The fact it was a doss year was pretty well timed for a number of reasons. First off, he had discovered several new things to do with him time that weren’t conducive to getting a lot done. Over the summer, his cousins had been impressed with his stories of attempting to transfigure hallucinogenic slugs, and had introduced him to their best available substitutes. Mostly, this involved smoking. He had had some good, lazy summer days, stretched out fields, thinking about… stuff. He wasn’t sure now, but he was pretty sure it had been deep stuff. His cousins had even fixed him up with a bit to bring back to school, which he’d eked out during the first term, leaning out the window of the Pecari dorm. On top of this, there were girls to think about. Girls were hot. He thought some guys probably were too, although no one really at Sonora - he just hadn’t ruled them out, as an idea. There were definitely loads of hot girls though. It wasn’t like he had acted on this, and tried to get with any of them, but just thinking about girls could be pretty fun, and fairly time-consuming, and it was very easy to put off things like Transfiguration homework in favour of either of these activities.

The first term had passed in a sort of pleasant mild fuzziness, but Christmas had been a bit of a wake up call. The family was in down time for the winter, but already putting together the summer tour, and for the first time since starting Sonora, their mum had thrown out real concern about his and Raine’s performance. She’d always fretted, they all had, about how being away from the family and having their time taken up with useless essays would impact on them learning their circus skills, but it had really hit crunch point over Christmas. She had their parts planned out for the summer show, but they were way, way off target if they wanted to achieve them and move up the bill, rather than repeating last year’s performances. She and the rest of the family had thrown as much advice as they could at them over the holidays, and they’d worked hard, but it was working hard to work out what they would have to do over the coming months, how they could guide themselves through it alone at Sonora. Their family had talked them through the next five or six steps for each of their acts, making them memorise techniques, and trying to troubleshoot the problems they didn’t have yet - ‘if you find you’re losing balance on the backwards flying, it probably means you’re over-doing the turns, it’s a common issue.’ It was a lot to take in, and it was going to mean a heck of a lot of practise. Probably more than there was really time for, if you took school work into consideration. Luckily, Kyte had a simple solution to this.

“Hey,” he grinned, taking a seat by Ben at the opening feast. “How was your Christmas?” Kyte wasn’t really much of a letter writing person. He’d scribble occasional letters over the summer when it was much longer between seeing his friends, but the short Christmas break wasn’t really enough to motivate him to pick up a quill.

“I have a favour to ask,” he began, once they’d caught up a bit about the break, “Can I copy your homework this term? I’ll change it, and make it bad enough that it looks like mine,” he promised. Given that they studied together a lot of the time, and Ben was the much brighter student by far, this new suggestion probably didn’t really mean much of a shift in the division of labour, just the fact that it wouldn’t be happening in real time made it a bit more apparent, “but I really need to do loads extra circus stuff if I want to be properly in the summer tour with my family. Like, my mum said multiple hours a day. I’ll pay you back. Circus tickets, lessons, whatever.” None of these was exactly a new offer - Kyte had been hooking Ben and his other friends up with show tickets since first year, and was always willing to teach, or to share anything else he had going. He’d even offered to share what his cousins had given him with Ben, but it apparently wasn’t his bag. Even though he had nothing really new to bring to the deal, hopefully the fact that he had always been a kind and generous friend was enough to make this a fair trade.

13 Kyte Collindale Needing a favour (tag Ben) 335 Kyte Collindale 0 5

Kir McLeod

May 28, 2017 11:08 AM

Same... by Kir McLeod

Kir loved his family, and he loved what they did. The McLeod Foundation, started by his aunt and her wife, provided a place for people to go when they didn’t have many other options. It was mostly Purebloods - or, he supposed, by the time they came to them, ex-Purebloods - who had decided not to follow the path laid out for them, for one reason or another. Usually because they were in love with the wrong person, be it someone Muggleborn, or someone who was the same sex as them, or both. It was something to be proud of, something he was happy to have his name attached to. It also made Christmas rather manic. Firstly, as a charity, they had to fundraise, and Christmas was a great time to do that. There were fairs to attend, raffles to organise, coffee mornings… The centre always had a big Christmas party, which was half fundraiser, half celebration, well attended by the LGBTQ+ community in general, and specifically those that they had helped in the past. But on top of this, Christmas was a stressful time for a lot of people. It was a time when a lot of people reached crunch point about the choices in their life, or realised they didn’t want to keep living a lie - couldn’t face another season of every relative asking them when would they find a nice girl, settle down.

The day before Christmas Eve, they’d had a young witch show up. She was supposed to get married in the the New Year. The date, when they’d set it, had seemed so distant. She had been sure something would change, but it hadn’t… She didn’t know what she wanted, it was hard to know when she’d been told all her life what she should want, but she knew it wasn’t to get married to that man. His aunts had spent Christmas at the centre, instead of with his family so that she wasn’t alone.

Kir was returning, post-holiday, with some new reading material, a nice warm dressing gown, the trading cards from the chocolate frogs that he’d already eaten, and rather a lot of introspection. Beyond the gifts he’d got, he had been reminded again that he had a family that loved him no matter what. He was sure it would sound hokey to a lot of other people, that his Christmas had been about that more than the presents, but other people didn’t frequently meet those who had run away from home. It gave you startling amounts of perspective, as well as general fear. Not for himself, he was always going to be safe, but just because the world was so messed up and hateful. He loved what his family did, but he was quite glad to get back to Sonora, where day to day life was a little less heavy.

The returning feast was less formal, and house tables weren’t a must, so he made his way over to sit with Jen. She was kinda quiet and he still didn’t feel he’d figured her out, but he’d enjoyed working with her on their Clabbert poster.

“Hey,” he smiled, when she greeted him. “Nice sweater,” he added. The colour was certainly eye-catching. Having mostly seen Jen in her school uniform, he didn’t know that it was super unusual as far as clothing choices went for her. He did notice how new it looked though, and figured a compliment was always welcome. Plus he genuinely thought purple was nice. “Christmas present?” he guessed. He was wearing a shirt and jeans, the former of which did happen to be new, but as most of his clothes were along very similar lines and usually incredibly neat, it probably wasn’t very noticeable. His blonde-brown hair had been given a fairly substantial trim over the holidays, so that it wasn’t in danger of getting in his eyes any more, and would hopefully continue in that state until someone could take a pair of scissors to it again.

He glanced around the table, and noticing dishes of rice and chilli began helping himself. His family, for all their liberal values, still had fairly conservative eating habits, something which was intensified by it being Christmas. He wasn’t sure he’d eaten a non-potato-based carbohydrate in the entire time he’d been at home, and - whilst it had all been very tasty - it was definitely time for a change.

“Guess we hit the Mexican section of the table,” he added, noticing Jen’s dinner of nachos.

13 Kir McLeod Same... 366 Kir McLeod 0 5

Joe Umland

May 28, 2017 12:47 PM

Thank you, I quite agree. by Joe Umland

“Hm, probably not,” agreed Joe when Jozua got really specific about a drawback of life in Aladren. “Unless you’ve got immigrants of a certain age from Saskatchewan. My granddad might know them. I doubt it, though. He’s kind of a hermit.”

Plus, Joe looked nothing like him, so being called by the same name was unlikely. He supposed he had biological grandparents somewhere in the world who might have pranked people in high school severely enough for a grudge to be carried several generations later, but he had not the slightest idea if any of them had been wizards. That, however, was all sorts of complicated and not something he thought really advisable to have a deep discussion of at the dinner table. For all he knew, it could lead to places neither of them really wanted to go, like realizing they were long-lost cousins and this causing major rifts in both their families. It was unlikely, but at this point, Joe was sort of over assuming that things that were statistically unlikely in general were also unlikely for him. His sister was the Snow White of northwest Calgary and one of the seven dwarfs was dabbling in anti-royalist activities. Joe’s life was weird just by association with those two.

“They have...machines,” he said of Muggles. “It’s all metal and wheels - I don’t know much about it. My brother could tell you more. But that’s how Muggles do things, and yes, there are lots of them where I live. Which is Calgary.” It occurred to him that this might not mean anything to Jozua. “It’s a city in Canada. We don’t live in, you know, apartment buildings or anything - we’re sort of near the edge, and our neighborhood, I think it’s kind of like a town. My mom can kind of drive - that’s, uh, what they call using the machines that take you places - but most of the stuff we use is close enough to walk to, and we know everyone around us. Mom volunteers for a lot of stuff, and we all grew up in a homeschool support group with Muggles.”

Joe took a drink of the milk he’d decided to have with supper tonight. “On one hand, I don’t have to worry about anyone holding stuff Grandpa did against me, but on the other, sometimes you find yourself sneaking books out of the kitchen under your shirt and hiding them in the laundry hamper because the neighbor had an emergency and begged your mom to watch her kid, and then you’re kind of like - what am I even doing? Who thinks it’s normal to sneak books out of the kitchen and hide them in the laundry hamper, you know?.” Joe grinned, amused by it even though it was a genuine complaint of his. “I’m lucky I’ve got three brothers and the sister, because none of us could ever really have friends until school.” He’d once thought John was the exception to this, but...it turned out he wasn’t. “I mean, Mom kept us in as many programs as we could afford so we could learn stuff and get socialized, and she liked having her students ‘round for tea, but everyone knew - Mrs. Umland’s a little bit weird and doesn’t like a lot of company, and that automatically made all five of us weird kids you couldn’t really be friends with, too. So the five of us, we pretty much hang out with each other at home.”

As soon as he said that, he became acutely aware that he was probably still the owner of a tiny bit of fame for being that Teppenpaw who had referred to his brother as the offspring of the formal term for a female dog and tried to hit said brother on the first day of school. Hopefully Jouza would not do what Joe or John would have done, which was at least think a sarcastic remark about how well that seemed to have worked out for Joe’s family. “Do you have brothers or sisters?” he asked, partially out of curiosity, partially to distract from the fact that he really had said more than he thought, in retrospect, he had really wanted to.

16 Joe Umland Thank you, I quite agree. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Amelia

May 28, 2017 12:52 PM

Yeah, the Aurors would catch up with us sooner or later. by Amelia

Amelia nodded her agreement as Cleo remarked on how difficult it was to believe they were in the middle of the desert. “I know,” she said. “I just wish we could do something like...whatever’s going on here...at my house to keep out the heat in the summer.”

She caught herself short of rambling her way through her next thought, which was that, well, on the other hand, the magic did apparently have its downsides. As far as she knew, the thing that had happened in Lionel’s first year had never happened to the school before, but it had still been quite a thing. Lionel maintained that Alicia had gone about half-crazy before that year had ended, and Amelia hadn’t missed the fact that Sonora now took gardening seriously, seriously enough that Herbology had been routine vegetable-gathering before Halloween this year. Amelia had enjoyed that, but she had a really hard time imagining Alicia digging around in a garden at all, never mind enjoying it.

Amelia wasn’t entirely sure what an allotment was, but nodded along with that bit and decided to make an educated guess based on the mention of digging up winter vegetables. “I guess so,” she said when asked if it got easier, coming back and leaving the family. “I don’t think the time difference is as bad as it was last year, anyway. I nearly fell asleep in my soup at my first Feast.” And her second. And she had felt sort of cruddy this year, actually. The one she was at now was probably the least bad she’d felt at a Feast, but the nap she’d taken between arriving at school and coming down for the Feast could have had something to do with that, putting off the inevitable until in the morning. “Your family has a shop? That’s cool. What kind is it?”

16 Amelia Yeah, the Aurors would catch up with us sooner or later. 360 Amelia 0 5

Tasha DuBois

May 29, 2017 7:53 AM

Returning by Tasha DuBois

Tasha had had another great midterm. This year, after visiting her father's family in France-always a more peaceful and less dysfunctional time than spending the holidays with her mother's family-they had gone to Poland. Currently, her parents were taking her to all the countries from the fair last year, save for France and Brazil, given Tasha had spent enough time in both of those. Though, she supposed she had gone to France too over break, but that wasn't exactly the same thing. She wasn't a tourist there, although sometimes she totally felt like an outsider among the other members of French society.

Truth be told, she honestly didn't want to marry one of the noblesse anyway. Tasha had heard that French men often had mistresses, and she didn't really...like the idea of her husband having someone else that he cheated on her with on a regular basis. It also made her paranoid about her own parents. Except that she disliked thinking about her parents that way in general.

Anyway, Poland had been wonderful. As usual, food was the highlight of any trip and Tasha had had the most amazing pierogis. She'd had them in other places, but food always tasted better when it was cooked by people native to the country that it was from. Even if it was, say, a Mexican restaurant that was located in the U.S. but had food cooked by actual Mexicans it was better than Americanized Mexican food. Not in the least because they were more likely to offer things like pork stomach as a meat option.

She was back at school now though. Tasha had felt like an outsider a bit here too, but now she thought she was starting to make friends. Well, okay, technically, only Joe was really her friend but she felt like she'd made some progress with the other girls from last year's fair group. Of course, they were all closer to each other-and Natalie Varth-than her. It was probably why when they were working on the fair last year, she'd gravitated more towards Joe. They were both the odd ones out working with a group of friends. Plus, Joe liked cooking and Tasha liked eating so they had at least complimenting interests.

And then there was orchestra. She simply lived for orchestra while at school, not that classes weren't enjoyable too. Along with traveling and trying new foods though, playing the trumpet was Tasha's greatest passion. It also made Louis Valois the one French student at school she was really interested in getting to know, because he had started it. The ones in Juniper's class came across a little snobby to her.

The Aladren took a seat and listened to the speech. She looked at the new substitutes with interest, though Professor Nash wasn't going to be teaching her year group at all. Still, Tasha couldn't help but be curious about Professor Davison and what his teaching style would be like. And unless they got someone to teach Charms and DADA on a permanent basis within the next year and a half, she'd have Professor Nash as a professor too, most likely.

Once the Headmaster was finished speaking, Tasha surveyed the table. She spotted some tamales down the way, but couldn't reach them. She turned to her neighbor and asked. "Could you pass me the tamales please?"

11 Tasha DuBois Returning 323 Tasha DuBois 0 5

Kira Spaulding

May 29, 2017 9:47 AM

Midterm Sucks by Kira Spaulding

This year, Kira had come to a decision about midterm-she absolutely loathed it. The holidays had used to be an all right time minus the part where she was not technically supposed to be using magic, even though she did anyway with the "practice wand" that her father had given her before school. And it was a real wand too, belonging to some long dead ancestor.

But on the other hand, she got to see her family-not that that was too special given most of her maternal cousins were still attending Sonora and her other cousin's wife was teaching there and her father's family basically ignored her after a few perfunctory holiday greetings-and got presents. The Spauldings did not forget to give her those, even though Kira felt that her mother's family did give her more personalized gifts. Amity-seeing Amity was honestly the best part of midterm-had given her both a book of Norse mythology and the newest American Witch doll, the latter of which had been in secret because Amity was the only one who knew she still liked them. Her parents probably wouldn't even notice a new one with all her old ones, it wasn't as if they came into her room much or would be terribly observant if they did. And they probably wouldn't really care.

Along with that Serena had gotten her a book of Livilian folklore. It was much appreciated. She couldn't wait to share both that and the Norse one with Winston.

That was the nice part. Unfortunately, most of midterm had been taken up by balls and parties. Kira hated them as they combined two things she was absolutely abysmal at-dancing and socializing. She honestly didn't know what to talk about most of the time, afraid that if she talked about anything she was interested in, people would judge her harshly for being interested in it. Nor was Kira comfortable stating her opinions, especially if it contradicted that of the person she was talking to.

Plus, Kelsey was at these same parties so the fifth year's inadequacies seemed that much more pronounced. She usually ended up hiding in the corner or escaping to the library out of boredom and anxiety. She honestly hated being on display.

And she couldn't even go back to Mississippi with Amity and Phillip because of this though they had stayed with her family instead. Because she needed to find a betrothed. Never mind that Kira felt that was impossible for her to do. Who'd want her ? She should just let her parents pick someone out for her. It would be simpler. Though, odds are anyone would just refuse her parents' offer anyway.

Or Kira might end up married to one of the Wolves. She didn't really think that was a good idea given her distaste for Quidditch. Sometimes the Crotalus went to school games to support her friends as Daniel and Winston played for Crotalus and Sammy for Pecari or was forced to go to games as a social obligation because her father's family owned forty percent of the Wolves and her mother's family owned the other sixty percent. Because like the Brockerts would ever let anyone else own more than them. Even though they weren't passionate about the sport like the Spauldings were, they thought it was a good financial investment. At least that was what Kira had overheard at various points. When people didn't pay attention to you, you ended up knowing all sorts of things that you probably wouldn't otherwise.

Anyway, school was better. The fifth year had friends and was at least fairly used to most of the people around her age, aside from Sterling, even if she wasn't comfortable with most of them. She was also glad to see they'd found at least a temporary full time Charms teacher. Well, two of them actually, but one was just teaching Advanced and while Kira most likely knew how to do some Advanced spells, she was still a fifth year.

She took some spaghetti for her plate and began to eat. Kira probably should have picked something less fattening and with less potential to be messy but this was what looked best to her. She began to eat when she heard someone address her. The Crotalus swallowed the bite she was eating and looked up. "Um, hello." She greeted them.

11 Kira Spaulding Midterm Sucks 320 Kira Spaulding 0 5

Owen

May 30, 2017 10:41 AM

Um....I have some ideas. by Owen

Owen, though already in a pretty good mood, perked up a bit more when Jemima mentioned mashed pumpkin with garlic. After Jemima and writing, garlic was one of the things in the world he loved best. Of course, because of it , Owen had to usually go to the bathroom after meals to down a potion that made his breath smell better so he wouldn't have garlic breath when he kissed his girlfriend.

And that was something he found himself wanting to do an awful lot. Among other things that were massively inappropriate at this point being that Jemima was a good girl from a good family and they weren't married, or even officially betrothed. Besides, he was a gentleman who tried to be respectful to women. However,the Teppenpaw was still a sixteen year old boy and sixteen year old boys thought about...certain things and thought about them quite often. Even though it made him feel like a creep.Owen had to be satisfied with kissing-which he seriously enjoyed-and fantasies. Fantasies that could potentially lead to seriously awkward moments.

He tried not to think about it right now, or he was going to have to "go to the bathroom" for a reason that had nothing to do with garlic breath. Instead, the sixth year had to focus on...something else. No easy task with Jemima right in front of him. "We have to have to have that. The pumpkin with garlic I mean. Or at least I do."

Garlic, try to think about garlic. . Something that stimulated his tastebuds as opposed to other things.

Owen looked up and down the table for olives. "Yes, but mostly appetizers,dips and salads. There's some bread here that looks like it has some black ones and I think there's some that are stuffed with something over there. Oh, and there's a dish of black olives that are probably meant for tacos, but we could always try them on other things."

11 Owen Um....I have some ideas. 300 Owen 0 5

Scarlett

May 31, 2017 7:25 AM

Right? by Scarlett

Scarlett was slightly surprised to hear Lauren Song mention her dad visiting her-and presumably her brother, as she had said "us"-over midterm. Okay, actually Scarlett was surprised to see Lauren over here in the first place since she wasn't in Pecari. True, at the Returning Feast it tended not to matter too much where people sat. Actually, quite frankly, the seventh year didn't think Headmaster Brockert would care or notice where anyone sat during the Opening Feast either. Still, she wondered if Lauren had mixed up her and Savannah when she'd sat down.

As for what the Teppenpaw had said about her dad, Scarlett wasn't all that used to hearing about people getting divorced. It wasn't all that common in pureblood society. Aunt Pearl and Uncle Jeffrey had gotten divorced, but that was an exception and had been treated as something of a scandal.

So, she didn't want to call attention to that and ask questions.Nor did she allow herself to look surprised as she didn't want to hurt Lauren's feelings or make her uncomfortable. After all, Scarlett didn't think Ryan would want to be asked about his parents' divorce. Of course, Ryan didn't really like to think about his mom-with good reason, nobody wanted to think about Aunt Pearl but especially Ryan- so that might have been the bigger issue there.

Instead, the Pecari said, "It still must have been nice to see him though even if you didn't go skiing. I mean, I enjoy seeing my family over the holidays. I'm glad you had fun with him. So what did you guys do instead?"

Scarlett went on to add. "And yes, it was quite nice. I got officially betrothed, so that was the biggest thing that happened." She figured that despite Lauren not being a pureblood, she probably had picked up by now that purebloods did that so she wasn't too worried about that sounding odd.

11 Scarlett Right? 293 Scarlett 0 5

Daniel

May 31, 2017 11:00 AM

Is it weird for you, too? by Daniel

Tarquin. Daniel was reasonably certain he didn't find that name familiar but he had not really been on a first name basis with any of the Sonora staff when he'd been a mere student. Tarquin was probably old enough to have been around back then, and he maybe looked vaguely familiar, but Daniel could not say with any degree on certainty that he'd ever known this guy. Even Daniel's name being familiar to him was no indication that they'd met personally before, especially if Tarquin watched television.

The only reason Daniel was even entertaining the possibly was because he asked when Daniel had been a student. "I graduated fourteen years ago," he answered. "Class of SA14. Head Boy. My sister was Holly Greer? She was class of SA12," he offered, in case that name was memorable, too. In Sonora circles it likely would have been, especially given her propensity to faint during History of Magic. He'd guess that probably came up in staff meetings. If Tarquin didn't know Holly, then it was far more likely he recognized Daniel's name from TV.

"What subject do you teach?" Daniel asked, curious. If he knew the man's subject area, maybe he could more easily place him if they had, in fact, met before. "Have you been here long?"

1 Daniel Is it weird for you, too? 130 Daniel 0 5

Lauren

May 31, 2017 12:22 PM

Woes of a teenage girl by Lauren

Lauren enjoyed talking about her family, though explaining her family situation got a little complicated. Not many people really asked, though, so she didn't really find herself in that situation often.

"My brother Isaac was on his own trip to the mountains with his friends for a good chunk of the break, but my parents and I spent a lot of time at the beach. We went to this place called The Grove in Los Angeles for Christmas Eve where there were a bunch of Christmas decorations. I have a younger sister too, and she loved seeing all the Christmas lights.

"I like the holidays 'cause we get to spend time together as a family. We don't really get it that often." Lauren didn't think it was odd; since she'd grown up with her parents married, separated, and happy, it had never really bothered her. Her parents worked really hard to make their marriage work despite the distance, and somehow they were both independent enough to have lasted this long. She just knew that wasn't what she wanted when she had a spouse.

"Wow, congratulations on getting betrothed!" That was something Lauren had only heard of in history books about royalty and the great-grandparents on her mom's side of the family. She couldn't imagine how Scarlett might feel about it, so she decided to ask. "How do you feel? That must be exciting for you." She wanted to pepper her with questions, but knew they might sound stupid and uneducated so she held back. "What's he like?"

19 Lauren Woes of a teenage girl 303 Lauren 0 5

Ben

May 31, 2017 1:27 PM

A counter proposal by Ben

Ben had a great midterm. He'd gone skiing with his aunt and uncle and that was always a good time. And Christmas was loads of fun with the new baby to make it interesting. Cole was six months old and creeping already, so he had to be watched constantly to make sure he wasn't gnawing on presents or pulling ornaments off the tree. And of course, Ben loved the presents that came with the holiday. He'd gotten a good haul of Red Sox clothing and sporting equipment.

Now at the Returning Feast, he was decked out in his new ball cap (the old one had been held together by spell-o-tape and chewing gum at the end, so even he'd been able to admit it was ready to be retired, though he has still felt a pang about leaving it home when he left for Sonora) and a red jersey with the number 13 on it.

He sat at the Pecari table, eager for the food to arrive. It had been a long trek from New England and he'd run out of snacks somewhere around Pennsylvania. He was famished.

"Hey," he greeted Kyte as his roommate sat nearby. Kyte had begun to concern Ben this year. He was beginning to suspect Kyte might be that proverbial 'bad crowd' his elementary school DARE program had been trying to warn him about. Ben had dutifully "Just Said No" as he'd been instructed by his muggle teachers and his mom (who was a doctor and had scared the bejesus out of him as she told him in unrelenting detail what drugs did to a person's brain and body) and declared he 'had to go practice Quidditch now' whenever it looked like the other Pecari was going to light up, but the whole situation made him kind of uneasy and nervous. He was badly torn between telling Professor Carter for Kyte's own well being and not tattling and getting his friend in trouble.

So far he'd kept mum, suspecting that Kyte would not forgive him if he told and worried that it might be an offense that could lead to expulsion. Getting Kyte expelled was the last thing he wanted. He wanted his friend to stay healthy, not get sent away permanently.

But it had led to him spending more time with Tess and less time with Kyte over the last few months, tipping the balance over to give Tess the current title of Ben's Best Friend, so the rift was already starting even without tattling, as the common interests grew between him and Tess and shrank between him and Kyte.

He didn't think Kyte held it against him. Not wanting to talk about the main problem, Ben had fallen easily into the joke that 'Tess is prettier than you' and he was half sure Kyte thought they were dating. Actually, Ben was half sure himself that he was dating Tess, but they hadn't clearly worked out that detail yet, so it wasn't official or anything.

He was, in fact, staring in a besotted fashion at Tess, seated conveniently within line of sight of Ben's position, when Kyte spoke up after the Headmaster's comments.

"Christmas was good," Ben answered easily, smiling. "Got a good haul. My baby cousin doubled in size, I think, and Four took me skiing! Yours?"

Kyte answered then asked for a favor. Ben tried not to let his expression look too dismayed. Doing their homework together was one of their remaining comfortable rituals.

"Well, what if I read the assignments out loud to you while you practice?" he suggested. Kyte would probably tune him out as he concentrated on his tricks, Ben had no illusions about that, but at least he'd feel less like he was condoning blatant cheating. "Then I can truthfully tell anyone who asks that we did study together."

OOC: Ben's suppositions on Kyte's beliefs regarding Ben's dating status are entirely of Ben's invention and do not necessarily reflect Kyte's actual opinions on the matter.

1 Ben A counter proposal 339 Ben 0 5

Zevalyn

May 31, 2017 2:25 PM

Awesome. I love lemonade. by Zevalyn

"Worst part was that I couldn't go home for Christmas," Zevalyn complained when Georgia offered her sympathy for the scheduled madness she was going through with her lessons. "I can't practice at home and I couldn't lose two weeks of free study time." She grimaced and shrugged, letting it go. "Though after this long away, I'm starting to become afraid of how much smothering I'll be in for come summer."

Zevalyn nodded, mildly disappointed that Georgia wasn't a muggleborn either - surely such creatures were not so rare that she was the only one in this school, were they? It did help to know that Georgia had come into Sonora magic-blind, too, though, and she smiled in total understanding of the 'why would you invent that??' sentiment.

"I'm from Pheonix," she shared, "and the first thing I thought when I walked in here was 'What were you wizard folk on to think waterfalls were a good decor idea in the desert?'" She giggled at the absurdity of it.

Zevalyn nodded in confirmation that this was all totally new to her. "Yeah, there was," she admitted, flushing guiltily as she remembered their treatment of the initial muggleborn liaison officer. "We tossed out the letter as a hoax and tried to have the guy who came to talk to us arrested. We thought he was some escaped mental patient who was stalking me. I had a police detail guarding my street until he finally stopped showing up. After that, another one moved in across the street and kept an eye on me and her daughter - who was a squib - tried to break down my resistance to the idea that magic was possible as a more long term project. See, my parents are scientists. We're very practical and logical people. Magic doesn't compute."

Zevalyn shrugged, "Eventually though we realized we were ignoring data just because it didn't make sense to our world view and I was actually using it untrained. However, this only happened when no other possible explanation made sense. I mean, I'd done Apparition. You just can't explain that without magic. We finally listened to the crazy people and learned what I was doing was very dangerous and getting more dangerous the older I got, and I really needed to learn to use magic properly. So here I am."

1 Zevalyn Awesome. I love lemonade. 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Simon Mordue

May 31, 2017 2:52 PM

I concur. by Simon Mordue

Balls and parties were far from Simon’s favorite occasions in the world, but this winter, he had discovered that there was, in fact, something worse than having to stand around and try to look interesting at an occasion aimed mainly at people ten years his senior and with ten times his average degree of social confidence. This something was huddling in his house with his family, attending only limited social occasions and acting in general as though they were in mourning.

His uncle had…left. Simon did not know the details, nor, he had decided after taking a second glance at his father’s face when Father had explained the situation to him, did he want to. Uncle Nicky had disappeared – that was what Mother had warned Simon about discussing with his classmates in the autumn – and they had apparently worried he might be dead for a bit, but then (Simon had put together from the bits and pieces he’d heard and been told) he had contacted Aunt Cynthia to tell her he didn’t want to be married to her anymore. This was why they were all now acting as though Uncle Nicky were dead and that had ruined the holidays, even the parts which were not usually on public display. Even when Aunt Cynthia (he must, he had been told, still say ‘Aunt Cynthia’; they were treating her now as though she was Father’s sister, or at least Uncle Nicky’s widow instead of whatever it was she really was) and her boys managed to conduct themselves more or less normally, Grandmama did not – she was furious with Father, even though he was the one, Simon thought indignantly, who hadn’t done anything wrong, and had refused to even come over to their house for lunch and present-opening on Christmas. Father acted as though he were really just very annoyed by it all, but Simon had seen him sitting alone after a spat with Grandmama and had been forced to come to the terrifying realization that his father was actually capable of experiencing sadness.

At the time, the thought of returning to Sonora had seemed highly appealing. At school, he didn’t have to see everyone wandering about, still half stunned and confused by what had happened, everyone angry on and off, and none of it making a lot of sense. Now that he was back, though, listening to the new staff introductions and looking around the Crotalus table, it occurred to him that he had overlooked one critical factor when he’d longed for a return to the orderly world of his classrooms: the fact that Sonora was also inhabited by other people.

What was this going to mean for his social standing here? He had always, he thought regretfully, taken a certain measure of pride in coming from a family with fewer scandals in its recent past than Winston did. Now his family was the one with a scandal sort of happening right now. Would his roommates distance themselves from him? Would everyone? Mother and Father had told him that if he was asked anything about Uncle Nicky, he now was to say ‘he is no longer with us’ and no more, letting people assume he was actually, physically dead if they liked and using a tone which intimated that further questions were unwelcome. Gravitas, however, was not one of the things Simon thought he possessed in abundance. What if they didn’t pay any attention to his tone? What if they knew more than he did, even? That wasn’t likely, Mother or Father would have told him if it was, but….

He was, not for the first time, deeply jealous of Nathaniel and Sylvia. His cousin and sister had a relationship he had with no-one. He had to be the responsible heir even with them, so while they could at least stick together, there was not a living soul he could express all his confusion and worries to. He just had to get on with it.

He picked his first conversation partner of the new year with some thought. Miss Spaulding had been in the Fair group with him last year; she had been more friendly with Winston than with Simon, as they had worked together on a display, but Simon thought the whole group got along. She was also, it seemed, rather shy, not the type to confront him about anything even if she knew the whole story and realized that he didn’t. Accordingly, he put on his composed heir face as the food appeared and then spoke to her.

“Good evening,” he said.

”Um, hello,” was not the most enthusiastic response he’d ever gotten from a potential conversation partner, but it wasn’t actually the worst, either. Simon decided it was safe enough to continue.

“There’s a lot of new teachers, isn’t there?” he asked. “Did you hear if the headmaster said anything about who was going to cover our Defense classes?” Simon had not, and was pretty sure this was because nothing had been said about the topic, but it couldn’t hurt to confirm it and put the conversation on a school-related path.

16 Simon Mordue I concur. 369 Simon Mordue 0 5

Jozua Sparks

May 31, 2017 3:27 PM

Continuing to overshare by Jozua Sparks

Jozua twisted his expression into uncertainty and wiggled his hand out in front of him. "We've got immigrants," he admitted. "I know of one from the Netherlands in the form of my mother, but," he shook his head, "you may be out of luck in the Saskatchewan hermit-knowers category."

Joe's explanation about wheeled machines did not really make much sense to Jozua, but that may have just been a misunderstanding of Jozua's question. Little involving muggles made much sense to him anyway so he just dismissed the whole idea and stuck with his personal theory that muggles simply didn't have plazas with more than one level of shops. Wheeled machines wouldn't get anybody up to the second level of anything so Joe maybe could not comprehend a shopping plaza with more than one floor and so just told him how they got to the plaza as a whole.

"Ah," Jozua said when Joe stated his origins. Jozua was from Oregon and his family traveled a lot so he knew perfectly well what country Calgary was in, but he supposed not everyone had as good an education in geography as he did so he tried not to hold it against Joe for thinking Jozua needed the clarification.

This was forgotten a moment later when Joe continued talking about the the drawbacks of his own hometown and Jozua's eyebrows beetles together in baffled confusion, "You - uh. Why would you hide a book in a hamper just because you're suddenly babysitting?"

He was missing something, he knew he was missing something important in there, but he could not figure out what it could possibly be.

"Oh-" he said suddenly, getting it. "It was a muggle kid and a magic book." Wow. Yeah. The idea that a muggle- not even a muggleborn, an actual muggle - might knock on his parent's door was entirely anathema to him. The person would have to be obliviated just for stepping on the property nevermind anything they might see inside.

He shook his head, still a bit shocked by the idea of unexpected muggle encounters happening at Joe's home, and said, "No, I'm an only child. And aside from some Dutch parties with my mom's family, where I could beg language barrier excuses, my folks never much worried too much about getting me socialized. The Sparks have a long history of eccentricities and, um, disasters, that date back to the town founding, and nobody has forgiven us for the Angry Sinkhole of 1791 or the Blue Fire of 1816 or the Explosion of 1866 or the Dancing Fires of 1923 or the Laughing Fire of 1982 - that was my aforementioned granddad that people hold against me - so we mostly keep to ourselves whenever possible and try to be invisible." Jozua was quiet a moment, letting that sink in then added, "'Sparks' was an earned surname."

1 Jozua Sparks Continuing to overshare 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Joe Umland

May 31, 2017 5:03 PM

Continuing to ask questions. by Joe Umland

Jozua’s mother was from the Netherlands*? Well, that was not something he thought one heard every day. Joe knew this was probably not interesting if one was used to it, but he still considered this more interesting than being from Canada, or even being a Canadian whose grandmother was American. The distances involved were considerably smaller in his family, after all. Marrying across a border was a lot more common, he thought, than marrying across an ocean.

“I’ll keep that in mind when I pick a place to settle down,” he said. He was not sure if settling in the States was something he would want to do even if it proved possible, but all things were possible, he supposed. A magical town where no-one knew his family did have a certain amount of appeal, at least as an idea, right now, at this point in his life when his family was…really something that was causing him more headaches than happiness. He loved them, of course, would never want to just cut them off and become an American hermit altogether, but…right now, he was kind of glad to have some distance, honestly, even as he was angry with his brother for having a greater degree of the same thing.

Joe had thought he was fairly clear about why the neighbors were sometimes inconvenient to have as well, so he had to stop for a moment to think how to explain it further without saying something which either implied his teammate was stupid or that Joe himself was politically incorrect. Before he had to explain himself further, though, Jozua caught on.

“Yeah, that was our problem. Mrs. Baraheni…might have been kind of freaked out if she’d seen a potions book. Muggles…I mean, it’s not totally different, they have these laboratories that blend things together for them to use for medicines or cleaning product or whatever, then you can buy them in the shops, plus you have some of them who want to use herbs for everything, so that’s even closer to what we do, but…I don’t think they’d see if that way if they just saw one of our books,” concluded Joe. “At least not fast enough to not start yelling a lot and attracting even more attention from the neighbors on the other side and all.”

Joe knew it was rude of him, but he couldn’t help but stare a little as Jozua began listing all the disasters his family was apparently responsible for in the history of Aladren, Oregon. “I am not surprised,” he said when Jozua added that ‘Sparks’ was an earned surname. “What is a laughing fire?” Blue fire he could guess at, dancing fire just sounded like one that moved aggressively (or only attacked dancers, he guessed), but what was a laughing fire? The bit of Joe which felt at home with Aladren the House needed to know what this thing which had apparently been unleashed on Aladren the town had been.

16 Joe Umland Continuing to ask questions. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Jemima

June 01, 2017 2:44 AM

Making things harder by Jemima

“Olive bread with olive dip,” she grinned, “In at the deep end.”

She took the dishes Owen passed her, applying a cautious layer of the dip to the bread.

“Oops,” she said, as she caught the edge of her finger, coating that in dip as well. She licked it off her finger, giving Owen a slight grin as she did so. A Teen Witch article that she’d read over the holidays had included a number of tips on how to flirt, and apparently eating in general could be used to great effect, especially licking things off one’s fingers, although she wasn’t really sure why that was meant to be sexy. Even though she didn’t exactly think she needed to draw Owen in, she wasn’t opposed to putting these tips into practise when the opportunity presented itself. She knew that Owen loved her but, whilst it was the most important feeling, it was different than him, or anyone else, finding her sexy or desirable. Not being in possession of a male teenage brain, she had a limited insight into just what effect her behaviour might have on Owen, or anyone else - to her it was just a bit of fun, to flirt, to be wanted, a trait that could be added to anyone’s catalogue of things they liked about her.

“Mm, it’s good,” she grinned.

13 Jemima Making things harder 304 Jemima 0 5

Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

June 01, 2017 3:39 AM

Spoken like a true Pecari by Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

They had lost the first match of the season. It sucked, especially for Lily, who had to have felt it as Seeker. Ingrid had seen her crying after the match and done her best to comfort her. She didn’t blame her at all, she was still glad to have her - way more so than Jamie, even if he could have guaranteed every match - and had been sure to let the other girl know this.

At the returning feast, she noticed Lily, and went to sit with her. Ingrid remembered how she had looked up to the older players on the team like Liliana and Joella, and how cool it had been when they’d started to be more like friends. She knew Lily had a bunch of friends in her own year, but Ingrid sort of hoped she was that cool older student for Lily. It was nice to think that someone might think of her the way she’d thought of her older team-mates.

“Um, a burrito?” she guessed, when Lily asked her about her food, “Or an enchilada, maybe. There are a lot of wrap things in Mexican food. I’m not sure what the differences are,” she admitted.

“Yeah, it’s pretty good for that,” Ingrid nodded, at Lily’s assertion that it was hard not to try something new. That said, Ingrid had often found that ‘new’ meant spicy… Mexican food was often spicy. Indian food was definitely spicy. Thai and other Asian food too. Even though Ingrid was the Pecari of the family, it was Jemima that had the adventurous taste buds. Ingrid prefered her food not to attempt to assault her, which was why she’d already opted for a salmon fillet accompanied by Greek salad. “I figure this is the closest I’ll get to actual Greece for a while,” she added, in an attempt to make her food choice seem slightly more exotic than it really was, “Man, I wish I was old enough to go travel. That’d be the best.”

OOC - I hope the reference to their interaction in the changing room is ok. As you'd said that was where Lily had done her crying, I figured it would be something other team members might have witnessed, but if not just let me know and we can say it didn't happen.

13 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte Spoken like a true Pecari 322 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Tarquin

June 01, 2017 4:51 AM

It's fairly strange by Tarquin

Holly. Maybe that rang a bell. But it was hard to tell from where. It wasn’t a terribly unusual name, and there were all the various children that Henny and Charlie had known at primary school to compete for the very limited space his brain reserved for remembering people who held no particular relevance to him. Tarquin certainly hadn’t been around at the time Daniel had graduated, but - if he was correct in his ability to subtract seven from a given year - he presumably had been here when Daniel and his sister had been students. Holly. Maybe. A vague association of histrionics came to mind.

“The numbers line up,” he nodded, “I think I would have been here during your first year, at any rate. But then my husband and I adopted, and I decided that this wasn’t the most compatible job with being able to ever see my children,” he explained. Although, since returning, Tarquin had felt much more able to be open about disclosing his sexuality in front of his fellow staff members, it felt slightly strange to drop Danny into conversation with Daniel, in that - for all he didn’t actually remember him properly - it did still slightly feel like discussing his personal life with a student.

“I’m the librarian,” he replied, when Daniel asked him what he taught. “Though I think my successors made more of an effort to engage the student body. I mostly hid in my office, hoping you wouldn’t want too many things,” he explained, a hint of a smile visible beneath his salt-and-pepper beard. “I’m slightly better about it now,” he added. “And no, not long - like I say, I left when the kids were small. I just came back at the start of this school year, actually. They needed emergency cover.

“So,” he said, feeling like he’d talked quite enough about himself - something that he was rarely in the habit of doing but which new people and small talk seemed to make necessary - here is my potted life history in five minutes, “How about you? What have you been doing since Sonora, and what brings you back?”

13 Tarquin It's fairly strange 1464 Tarquin 0 5

Cleo

June 01, 2017 5:01 AM

Being on the run together could really bond people though by Cleo

“So, I guess you’re from somewhere with hot summers, reasonably far from here,” Cleo sleuthed, as Amelia mentioned both unbearable summer temperatures and a substantial time difference. She herself was only an hour out, so it wasn’t really super noticeable for her, and really wasn’t the problem in adjusting to life at Sonora. Still, Amelia was being friendly enough that it helped, even if she didn’t have direct cures or worldly wisdom on the subject of homesickness.

“It’s a general store,” Cleo smiled, glad that Amelia seemed impressed by the shop. Perhaps a general store was not about to live up to the glamorous vision in the other girl’s head, but Cleo couldn’t feel anything except love for their little shop. She’d spent her whole life stacking its shelves, sweeping its floors and greeting their regular customers. The shop was an extension of her home, but it was also an important place to other people - they were needed and relied on, and that made her feel proud of it, and like it was important, even if it was just a little to shop to anyone else. “We live in a pretty small town, so it just tries to supply most everyday things. What does your family do?” she asked.

13 Cleo Being on the run together could really bond people though 389 Cleo 0 5

Georgia

June 01, 2017 5:15 AM

Maybe we should get cookies too? by Georgia

“What? That’s so awful!” Georgia sympathised, when Zevalyn reported that she hadn’t been able to go home for Christmas. She had thought her Christmases kind of sucked, being shuttled between and fought over by her stupid parents, but at least she got Christmas, and got to see her family, albeit in the weird fragmented way that represented the new normal for them.

“I know, right?” she agreed, when Zevalyn mentioned the waterfalls. “My mom’s super fond of this saying ‘Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,’” she intoned in a voice which sounded little like her mother but which was the standard voice of the teenage mocking the wisdom of the elderly. “I keep thinking that should be our school motto. I still can’t get my head around Quidditch. Just because you can patch people up in about five seconds doesn’t mean you should have metal balls try to knock you out of midair. I mean, it’s not like it stops that from hurting in the first place. How is it worth it?

“No way!” she laughed, as Zevalyn said they’d had the guy arrested. Although her face fell as Zevalyn’s story went on. The rest of it seemed a lot less funny… She nodded vaguely to the science stuff, although phrases like ‘ignoring data’ didn’t make a whole lot of sense to her. They gave her a mental picture of Zevalyn and her family going over lists of numbers whilst wearing spectacles and labcoats, until they hit upon the startling discovery that - eureka! - she must really be a witch. Georgia was pretty sure Zevalyn wasn’t being quite that literal, but she didn’t have enough of a scientific mindset to follow the phrase in any looser or more metaphorical sense. “Wow. That’s crazy. Sorry I laughed… And you apparated? That’s… Wow. I’m kind of impressed that your brain hasn’t exploded several times over. Like, between that and trying to cram two years into one. Guess that’s why you got Aladren.”

13 Georgia Maybe we should get cookies too? 346 Georgia 0 5

Kyte

June 01, 2017 7:32 AM

Negotiations by Kyte

“New hat, new shirt?” Kyte guessed, as Ben mentioned a good haul of presents, “Very nice,” he complimented. He still neither fully understood the rules of baseball, nor why these people mattered so very much to Ben, but he had always dutifully noticed the relevant and important things, such as additions to Ben’s collection of merchandise (so long as it was glaringly obvious, like now, as quite a lot of it looked more or less the same to him) and knew to look happy when the team had won and sad when they had lost.

“Christmas was pretty good, apart from the whole ‘you aren’t where you should be,’ thing. That was kind of a downer. We got a good solid block of instruction and practice in though,” Kyte probably worked harder over Christmas than he did when he was at school, but it was doing what he loved, and so he didn’t feel hard done by. He missed good quality practice when he was at school. Then it felt like work - fitting it into his schedule, working through it with only help from Raine, who didn’t know any better than him. At home, it was just a way of life. “And, y’know, presents, food, stuff like that. My mom got me Jellyhands Jenga. Maybe we can play later,” he grinned. The game induced a slight shake in the players’ hands for every block successfully removed. Playing stupid games seemed like a nice area of common ground for Pecaris, one he hoped Ben wasn’t about to outgrow. He knew that Ben didn’t want to join him in his new found recreations but didn’t really get that it had pushed him out. He and Ben had always had different interests, and it had never stopped them being friends before. Plus smoking was so normal in his life - even his parents did it from time to time - that he couldn’t imagine it being something that would freak someone out, rather than just something they didn’t happen to have in common. He’d noticed that Ben wasn’t spending so much time with him this term, although he had taken at face value the assertion that it was because he was either making out with Tess or wanted to. He was happy for him, and only a little jealous, but it made sense. Ben had that wholesome American boy thing going on, that seemed to gel with what the population of Sonora liked. Kyte didn’t think he himself was massively unattractive but he suspected his appeal was higher amongst the kind of girls who had tattoos and facial piercings (or would, when they were old enough to be allowed) and who hung out at festivals. He was broadly fine with this being his demographic, it was just a shame there weren’t more of them at Sonora. In spite of these differences, and because Kyte was generally a loyal person, he still would have called Ben his best friend, and would have been hurt and surprised to know that the feeling was no longer mutual.

“You’d be happy doing that?” he asked. “I mean… I’ll be practising. It’s not the most sociable thing. Like… I can’t promise I’d exactly be giving your lectures much attention,” he admitted. He was pretty sure that Ben already knew this, given that he’d had plenty of chances to see what Kyte’s attention and retention rates were when he really was trying his hardest. Ben also knew what he could be like when he was focussed on a trick. The times Ben had come with him made it a lot less like proper training, as he goofed off and tried to help Ben learn a few tricks of his own, but even then he thought there were moments where he got into the zone and Ben got left hanging a bit - not confident to do too much by himself, but no longer in receipt of Kyte’s attention as he focussed on his own trick. It seemed like the arrangement was to soothe Ben’s conscious as much as anything else, something that made Kyte feel a little bad for putting it in need of soothing in the first place, but he wanted to check he wasn’t drawing Ben in on the false pretence that this would be really any kind of quality time. “And I will pay you back,” he reiterated.

OOC - Kyte's pretty good at taking things at face value, sometimes to his detriment.

13 Kyte Negotiations 335 Kyte 0 5

Jozua

June 01, 2017 11:07 AM

Continuing to answer by Jozua

Jozua nodded in understanding as Joe explained the dangers of hysterical people who didn't slow down to think about things before jumping to wrong conclusions. He might not know any muggle mothers who may randomly drop her muggle child off at his house, but sudden onsets of stupidity and false conclusions were not limited to the muggle parent demographic. "Right," he agreed with sympathy.

He was reasonably sure Joe wasn't going to fall victim to the same following Jozua's recitation of his family's, erm, more catastrophic mistakes, but by the look on the older boy's face Jozua wondered if maybe he should have kept those historical footnotes to himself. But Joe just asked for clarification about his grandfather's contribution to the family legacy.

"Um, grandad could tell you more about the exact specifics - this was all before I was born, you know - but as I understood it, he was trying to create a heliopath. I mean, obviously not an actual heliopath creature like in legends, but enchant an bit fire to act like one. It . . . kind of worked a bit too well. So he made this weird little fire fiend sprite thing - not actually sentient, but the next nearest thing - and it ran all over town laughing madly, evading capture, and setting things on fire. They eventually managed to disenchant the thing, but not before it caused a lot of damage. Granddad spent a little time in prison for reckless endangerment, but Inventor's Insurance kept him from going bankrupt paying for all the repairs. His and dad's premiums are both through the roof now, though, which Dad is very bitter about, because he was only an apprentice at the time."

1 Jozua Continuing to answer 348 Jozua 0 5

Amelia

June 01, 2017 6:44 PM

Fair point. by Amelia

“South Carolina,” confirmed Amelia. “Right on the coast. The East coast. My brain isn’t going to accept anything the clocks around here say for the next three days I bet. I hope John doesn’t feel like practicing before then, because I will not be up to dodging Bludgers.”

Amelia had noticed that she didn’t seem to get hit as often as she had last year, but she wasn’t sure if that was because her skills had increased or because John’s had…taken a leave of absence, at least. He didn’t seem quite as keen as last year, though that was probably to be expected – enough to have what she had gathered was a pretty extreme courseload, as he sometimes scheduled parts of the team for practice at different times because he couldn’t make the full team’s time work for his schedule, but then he’d unexpectedly become Head Boy as well. Amelia didn’t know exactly what she thought of this option, though. She liked getting hit less, but she wanted to become a better Seeker. A distracted captain who wasn’t at his best could not help her with that.

“My grandparents work for the transportation department,” said Amelia when asked about what her family did. “Granddad’s in something about Apparition regulations, and Grandmother’s in something about Portkeys. My uncle Geoff doesn’t live with us, but he’s in Potions and he gave my brother a job after Lionel left here last summer. Oh, and Mama’s an artist,” she added as an afterthought, remembering her mother at the last moment. Mama was really more often a waitress than anything, but art was what she actually liked doing. “So we do all sorts of things. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. Do you think you’ll run your store one day? Uncle Geoff says I can have his potions stuff when he dies because I got into Aladren, but I don’t know if I want it and plus I think he was joking.”

16 Amelia Fair point. 360 Amelia 0 5

Joe

June 01, 2017 7:04 PM

Contemplating the future. by Joe

“I see your dad’s point,” said Joe, amused, as Jozua continued into his family’s insurance woes. “I’d be mad if my bills went up because John set something on fire.” Not quite the same thing, of course, but going to prison for creating a cackling fire sprite from Hell was pretty much exactly the sort of thing he had expected to happen to John someday even before he had learned about John’s actual, expressed tendency toward social non-compliance.

“Still, though,” he added. “That sounds like some impressive magic on your granddad’s part, so there’s that.” Magic going too well could be as bad as magic gone horribly wrong, or even worse in some cases, but Joe still had to have some respect for someone who could make it go that much too well. “Are you planning to stick to the family business?” he asked, partially out of genuine curiosity and partially to tell if he ought to start trying to find spells to fireproof his worldly possessions in case Jozua accidentally incinerated the entire Teppenpaw boys’ wing one of these days.

The future was still a long way off, but Joe had to admit that he had started to think about his own sometimes. He had probably blown any chance he’d ever had of Prefect when he’d lost his composure back in September, but Head Boy and Quidditch captain were still real possibilities, and…well, he wanted to crawl under a rock just imagining the looks on Mom and John’s faces if they could read his mind when he thought of it, but it was possible Julian might be able to nudge a door or two here or there open, too. All of this together meant he’d probably have options when he left here, and next year his CATS would determine some of them, but if (as he assumed he would) he passed all of them, he had no idea what he wanted to do when he grew up. If he didn’t figure it out in the next year, he was going to have problems, because he was not stupid enough to try to take all the RATS.

16 Joe Contemplating the future. 329 Joe 0 5

Cleo

June 01, 2017 9:38 PM

In the days we sweat it out on the streets by Cleo

“Oh, that is far!” Cleo sympathised, when Amelia described where she was from. “I promise not to take offence if you start yawning. You must be exhausted.”

Amelia’s family sounded interesting, and very wizardy in what they did. Her own dad was a Muggleborn and had done his best to keep in touch with his roots. He used magic to help clean up the shop and night, and to make it extra secure, but he didn’t have a magical job. It was interesting to think about all the different things one could do with their life… She also noticed that Amelia had mentioned everyone except a father, and that there seemed to be an Uncle Geoff in his place. Whilst hoping nothing horrible had happened to Amelia’s actual father, it was sort of nice to meet someone else here who didn’t come from a perfect, nuclear family. No one had said anything snide to her about her lack of a mother so far, and she was perfectly used to being an odd one out - coming from a small town, there weren’t very many single parent families - but it was nice not to have to feel it sometimes.

“Maybe,” she answered, when Amelia asked if she’d run the shop when she grew up, “I mean, I see myself doing that when I think about the future, but maybe because that’s the only thing I’ve ever known, not cos I’ve really thought about what I want to do. But there’s only me and daddy, so if I didn’t, it would probably have to be sold, and that’s kind of sad to think about. Are you going to take up a career in Potions?”

13 Cleo In the days we sweat it out on the streets 389 Cleo 0 5

Amelia

June 01, 2017 10:25 PM

Sprung from cages out on highway nine. by Amelia

Amelia grinned gratefully at the promise of forgiveness if she started yawning at the table. “Thanks,” she said. “I took a nap before the Feast, so I might be okay, but…yeah, thanks,” she laughed.

She listened, nodding, as the other girl discussed her possible future. Even with as much variety as there was in her set of family occupations, Amelia still thought of a future being one of her older relatives, not adding more variety to it. If it was just her and Mama – or really, her and Uncle Geoff would be a better comparison – she could only imagine it would be even easier to imagine just following in someone else’s footsteps. Her brother seemed to be doing so, after all, and it wasn’t as though she could really follow in the footsteps of her cousins – well, Alicia and Rachel, anyway. Winston Pierce was (if her assumptions about his willingness to not kill her if she mentioned to people that their cousins were married to each other were accurate, anyway) extremely unlikely to marry her and she didn’t think she’d like Rachel’s job at all. Maybe she could be a mediwitch like Kate, she didn’t know if she’d like that or not.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, it always looks kind of boring, what Uncle Geoff does. Potions class isn’t that bad, but I don’t know if I’d want to just sit and have to concentrate like that all the time forever, you know? Plus Lionel already is there, and Uncle Geoff could still have kids, plus Aunt Anne has a baby now – so I’m not the only one there is, anyway, so he shouldn’t be too disappointed if I don’t go into it.” Maybe. It wasn’t always easy to tell when Uncle Geoff was joking, but she did think he really did sort of favor her and Alicia over the other nieces and nephews for being Aladrens like himself, and while it wasn’t impossible that Thad and Alicia would see the sense in taking on Uncle Geoff’s business interests when he died, it didn’t seem too likely as they presumably would have plenty of their own by then. On the flip side, though, there were still Aunt Helena’s kids. Amelia didn’t even know them. There was nothing stopping one of them from being the equivalent of an Aladren, moving back to America, and taking over for Uncle Geoff someday.

“I guess this is going to sound…really Aladren-y,” said Amelia, almost apologetically, “but it’s just – there’s so much in the world, I don’t even know how to pick something!” She thought for a moment. “Or maybe it’s Pecari-y. I don’t know. Lionel was in Pecari, though, and he’s really laid back. Have you had anyone else come here for school before?”

16 Amelia Sprung from cages out on highway nine. 360 Amelia 0 5

Cleo

June 02, 2017 4:06 AM

So, you wanna be Bruce or Wendy? by Cleo

It seemed like Amelia had a fairly extensive family, and there were plenty of potential apprentices to take up her Uncle Geoff’s profession if she declined. Cleo often wondered what it was like to be part of a big family, although in the same idle way that she wondered what it would be like to go to Peru, or to have been born a mermaid. She was curious about these things because they had not happened to her, not because she desperately wanted them to. Her family unit of two did her just fine.

“I’m not sure it’s house-specific. I’m a Crotalus, and I don’t know either. I feel like I’m only just starting to see all the things I could be - I definitely wouldn’t want to choose right now.

“Not as far as I know,” she replied, when Amelia asked about family. “My dad is a Muggleborn only child, so that really limits the options there. I don’t really know much about my mum’s side of the family,” she shrugged. That was putting it mildly, given that she didn’t even know basic biographical information about her own mother. “She and my dad weren’t together when I was born,” she explained, because people usually asked, as they seemed to find it incomprehensible that she didn’t know her own mother, “And she couldn’t look after me,” this was what her dad had always told her because the truth, that her mother hadn’t wanted to, seemed too harsh. “So, she left me with my daddy, but he’s never really said much about her. I have to really push. It seems like you had a lot of relatives go here?” she added, wondering whether she’d find out what had happened to Amelia’s unmentioned father.

13 Cleo So, you wanna be Bruce or Wendy? 389 Cleo 0 5

Jozua

June 02, 2017 9:37 AM

Uh-oh, Cleo and Amelia are catching up by Jozua

Jozua laughed, "Well if you're learning your trade from him and he just set the whole town on fire because the spell he was inventing did exactly what it was supposed to do, they might be justified in raising your rates, too. Dad's a bit more sensible, though, so he's mostly upset that they seem to think he'd burn down a town by mistake, too. And, you know, it's expensive, but mom's family is rich so we don't really want for anything. He doesn't like depending on her money though. It's a pride thing."

"It was impressive magic," Jozua agreed with conviction. "Granddad's a really powerful wizard and very smart, if lacking in some basic common sense and contingency planning. And he has invented some pretty interesting enchantments. He's best known for an improvement in the floo system that made it easier to hook in new fireplaces to the network."

When asked if he would be an inventor, too, Jozua shrugged. "Well, I was born to the wrong time to be a knight, so my alternate plans failing the invention of a time portal are professional duelist, auror, or maybe jungle explorer, but I'm keeping my options open." He grinned a bit impishly, "It's not for nothing that I am annually the winner of Most Likely to Cause An Explosion for my class in the yearbook. Grandad is very proud." This was said without irony. Grandad was proud. Mom sighed, and Dad shook his head in exasperation, but Granddad was proud of him, and this pleased Jozua.

"What about you?" Jozua asked curiously, "Do you have any vague and glorious ideas for what you're going to do when you graduate?"

1 Jozua Uh-oh, Cleo and Amelia are catching up 348 Jozua 0 5

Ben

June 02, 2017 10:37 AM

I think we've reached a deal by Ben

"Yep," Ben agreed, grinning and adjusting his ballcap as it got mentioned, "still getting used to this one," he admitted. It would get softer and more comfortable with use, though, and the fact that it was not in immediate danger of disintegration more than made up for its unfamiliar newness. "The jenga sounds cool."

Kyte then reiterated what Ben already knew - that reading the chapter aloud would, by no means, mean that Kyte was actually listening to it. "I'm cool with that," he confirmed. "But my mom's a doctor and my uncle is a teacher, so I feel like at least one of them would yell at me if I just let you copy my homework without at least making an effort to help you learn the stuff. And Hamlet would frown so bad..." he added with a shudder.

"Did I ever tell you about Hamlet?" he asked suddenly, unsure if he had or not. Ben wasn't close to him like the Derries had been, so he usually forgot about the guy unless ghosts were the specific topic of conversation. "He mostly lives up in New Hampshire with that branch," he frowned slightly, eyes drifting toward the Crotalus table where Winston sat, then shook his head and laughed, "well, as much as a ghost lives anywhere, that is. But he's fond of Dad and Four, so he comes to visit sometimes. As he's dead, he's not bound by the rules forbidding contact to disowned people, I guess. And I think his haunt is attached to the bloodline, so he's not stuck to the mountain or anything like that. Anyway, he was a super strict tutor and he'd make such a face if he heard of anyone in his family cheating..."

1 Ben I think we've reached a deal 339 Ben 0 5

Owen

June 02, 2017 11:21 AM

Um, that's...really accurate. by Owen

Oh.

Dear.

Merlin.

As Jemima licked dip off of her finger, Owen felt...well, something that despite his abilities as a writer he was at a loss of words to describe. This wasn't something he ever ever wrote about. Especially given that his stories seemed to be aimed at children and this was so very very much not appropriate for young kids. He didn't even feel comfortable with it entirely and he was sixteen!

But it was happening, oh it was happening. Owen's mind raced as it happened. He wanted to take Jemima somewhere private and he wanted to go hide somewhere until it stopped. Except he couldn't do either of those things, as the former was not appropriate and the latter would require him getting up. Actually they both required getting up and he didn't dare move and lest anyone notice. That would be totally mortifying. Especially if Jemima saw. She'd probably think he was a total cretin and he couldn't have that happen.

Owen took a deep breath and tried to calm down but it was just so hard . "So, I take it the dip is, um, very good then." He grabbed some bread out of nearby bread basket and dipped it in. "Oooh, that is delicious." The sixth year stated, trying desperately to take his mind off of other sensations that he was constantly feeling by concentrating on this one instead.

11 Owen Um, that's...really accurate. 300 Owen 0 5

Zevalyn

June 02, 2017 11:24 AM

In that case, I'll forgo the lemonade and get milk by Zevalyn

Zevalyn goggled a little bit as Georgia told her about what Quidditch was. She'd heard of it, of course, Aladren had been pretty desperate in its recruiting this year, but she'd been too busy with catching up in her lessons to give a mere sport any attention at all. "That's what Quidditch is? I'm doubly glad I didn't let those boys convince me to join their team, not that I've got the time for it right now, anyway."

"No, it's okay," Zevalyn assured when Georgia apologized for laughing. "The guy probably doesn't think so, but now that I know he wasn't a deranged stalker, that part is kind of funny, looking back at it from a safe distance of three years. But yeah, apparition. I've been given lectures enough now to know I could have seriously splinched myself, so that's still scary to think about, but I really don't think anything less would have cut through the blinders and observational bias. But, yeah, Aladren's a good house. All the teachers automatically think I can catch up, so I at least don't need to fight for it."

"So," she glanced at Georgia's house badge, "Teppenpaw for you, right?" She smiled a bit self-deprecatingly, "Is that why you're over here making nice with the new girl?" Realizing belatedly that may have come out wrong, she hurried to add, "I mean, I'm really glad you did. It's hard, breaking into established clicks and I just haven't had time to make many friends yet, since all my classes are with the beginners."

1 Zevalyn In that case, I'll forgo the lemonade and get milk 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Lily

June 02, 2017 1:11 PM

Bold and proud. by Lily

Lily was happy Ingrid was sitting with her. After the devastating Quidditch match, the older witch had done her best to comfort her. Lily hadn't been consoled at the time, but now she appreciated it very much. Outside of the pitch, she loved chatting with her older team-mates and house-mates, but didn't know if they were always keen on getting to know a younger student when they didn't share any classes together.

Lily appraised her meal. "Burrito or enchilada. I've never had Mexican food before so it all sounds the same to me." She bit into it and tasted beef, black beans, and cheese among other vegetables. There was a bit of a spicy kick as well, but wasn't too difficult to handle. Though Lily enjoyed spicy food, she had a very low tolerance for it.

"It's good," she told Ingrid, pleased. "I'll have to remember the name and look it up later."

Lily nodded in agreement. "Does your family not travel very often? My family travels here and there on holiday sometimes, but I've never been to Greece. I think the farthest I've gone with my them is the south of France where my mum's family's got a summer residence. I took my first trip on my own to Oregon this summer, actually, to visit Jozua and attend a Duelling Tournament for New Year's. It was loads of fun, being on my own like that for the first time. Where would you go if you could?" she asked before taking another large bite out of her meal.

40 Lily Bold and proud. 299 Lily 0 5

Daniel

June 02, 2017 1:26 PM

Glad to know I'm not alone by Daniel

Ah, librarian. Now that he said that, Daniel could maybe place the guy - he had checked out a good many books even just in his first year - but it had been a long time ago and a fairly inconsequential encounter, so he was sure he would have never come up with it on his own. So a tenuous past connection, but still basically strangers. That was perhaps for the best.

The more interesting part was his casual mention of his husband. Daniel's eyes widened slightly and he immediately upgraded Tarquin from 'basically strangers' to 'acquaintance with common ground.' Not because Daniel had a husband - he was still blessedly single - but because his dad did. Well, his dad had Barry, which was basically the same thing, but without a ring or a certificate or a public acknowledgement that he was gay.

Due to that last bit, Daniel did not share this common ground with Tarquin. He didn't think the guy would spread more rumors that Dan Nash was shacking up with his favorite screen writer, but you never knew who was eavesdropping.

Instead he just answered the question, though with more details and friendliness than if they'd still just been basically strangers. "I went to school for accounting then went to work as an accountant. My parents are both Hollywood actors - Mom's in movies and Dad started there then switched to television- so the stability was appealing at first, but then it got boring. So I went back to school for a teaching certificate. I hope to eventually get a college professorship so I can do some research, ideally in mind magics, to treat psychological disorders, but this is my foot in the door until that happens. I've got the psychology coursework, and did my thesis on the long term psychological affects of Cheering Charms, so I could go into straight up research right now if I wanted, but I still need some classroom teaching experience if I want to do it at a college and be a professor. So here I am, teaching advanced Charms and DADA, which are both tangentially related to my field of interest. I'll probably do some private research in the meantime time, just to shore up that part of my resume."

"So how many kids do you have? My sister adopted two of hers, sweet girls, but terrible to tutor. I assume yours are grown now then, if they were little way back when I was starting Sonora?"

1 Daniel Glad to know I'm not alone 130 Daniel 0 5

Amelia

June 02, 2017 1:35 PM

No idea, I just Googled your title yesterday. by Amelia

Amelia smiled happily as Cleo said she, though a Crotalus, was also aware of the enormity of the number of things one could do in life. She didn’t really wish the feeling of the world being overwhelmingly huge sometimes on anyone else, or in fact for herself either, but it was nice to know she wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

It was a little harder for her to relate to not having a truckload of relatives who’d preceded her to the school and built up a thousand expectations for her to live up to, but she tried to imagine it. It helped, of course, that she knew something about not knowing about one side of the family – she rarely thought of it, as it just wasn’t relevant to her day-to-day life and she felt she had perfectly adequate father figures in Granddad and Uncle Geoff, but she knew nothing about who her father was or had been.

“I think pretty much all of Mama’s family has – well, except Mama, anyway. She’s a Squib.” Amelia saw no particular shame in this, and besides, a confidence deserved something in return even if Cleo also saw no particular shame in her family situation. “Granddad and Grandmother and Uncle Geoff were so happy when me and Lionel got our letters – we live with Granddad and Grandmother, you see. Mama…I guess was like your mama, she couldn’t take care of us.” This did make Amelia slightly uncomfortable. “She was really young when Lionel was born,” she added, not sure if she was really trying to defending her mother or herself with that. “But that’s all right. The way we were born, Lionel was just in time to inherit Uncle Geoff’s room when he moved out, and then I got the one that used to be Mama’s and Aunt Helena’s.”

This made a reasonable defense of her situation in her head. “Did your daddy come here, or go somewhere else?” she asked, remembering that Cleo had not noted this detail while talking mostly about her mother.

16 Amelia No idea, I just Googled your title yesterday. 360 Amelia 0 5

Joe

June 02, 2017 3:10 PM

Can't allow that to happen. by Joe

Joe was not as touchy about money and politics as some of his siblings were, but he still wasn’t quite sure what he thought of Jozua’s blunt statement that his mother was rich and that high insurance rates were therefore Not Actually A Problem. On one hand, he supposed, it was good that Jozua was honest – fake-modest rich people really were annoying – but on the other…Mom was dreadfully old-fashioned, and intellectually Joe knew this, but he had still been raised to consider it distasteful to actually talk about money when it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

He decided to focus on the bit where Jozua was honest, and where his father had some pride. That made him like Julian; his sister had come by a windfall, but she hadn’t stopped trying to support herself as a result. It still, though, had to be nice, just having loads of money to fall back on….

“Cool,” said Joe, ignoring all this in favor of the fact that Jozua’s grandfather was apparently actually the appropriate level of good at some neat-sounding stuff.

Jozua’s future plans made Joe smile more than the comment about being Most Likely To Cause An Explosion. He shrugged when asked about his own glorious future plans. “My mom’s a royalist by politics and a medievalist by training, so I didn’t actually realize until I was about ten that John and I probably weren’t really going to have an opportunity to be knights or two of the Great Explorers,” he said. “We had plans, though. Did you ever hear about that charms facility incident that happened here a few years ago, before our time? My sister was here then, and John honestly believed we were going to find enchanted swords just lying around a motel in Arizona and go rescue her, like in a book.” Joe took a swallow of his milk. “Of course, I believed it, too, but I was…several years younger than he was.” Obviously. Joe was, now that he thought about it, a little embarrassed that he hadn’t been more skeptical a month after his eighth birthday, so he chose not to divulge that he had passed that milestone before gaining an iota of brains. “I haven’t really come up with a good replacement plan, honestly. I need to work on that. I think I'd still like something that lets me travel, though. Might as well use all that atlas-reading I did back then for something, right?”

16 Joe Can't allow that to happen. 329 Joe 0 5

Jen White

June 06, 2017 6:07 AM

Cool by Jen White

Teppenpaw Kir was probably one of those habitually nice people. Jen was in awe of anyone who seemed always to be in a good mood - she lived a sheltered, well-provided-for sort of life and even she knew the world wasn’t actually that great a place; it took some serious glass-half-full positivity to be happy all the time - while simultaneously privately thinking them a little ridiculous. She wasn’t exactly the poster child for demonstrating a wide range of emotions, but she preferred basic apathy to unnatural cheer. That aside, she didn’t have any objections to being in Kir’s company. That was the thing with those habitually nice people - they were, well, nice.

His first comment was about her sweater. Jen celebrated her decision to wear it, then instantly berated herself for giving a crap what someone else thought of what she was wearing. That was so cliched and unnecessary she almost lost her appetite. “Yeah, from my Grandparents,” she latched onto his question with fervour, happy to move along from her vanity. “We always spend Christmas there.” Jen and her mother were both only children, so it just made sense they would always see her Nana and Pops for the holidays.

Her answer finished there. She was content for Kir to talk about his holidays if he wanted to, but she didn’t need to share anything further about hers. Unless he asked. Which he might, because he was one of those habitually nice people, probably. It wasn’t like she was necessarily adverse to sharing details about her life, but she assumed most people just wouldn’t care- her own interest in other students’ holidays was limited. She wouldn’t mind hearing about them, but she wasn’t curious enough to go around asking everyone just to make conversation. The first year had never been particularly loquacious, and she had a meal to consume. It tasted pretty good, too.

Kir took some chili, and commented on their similarly-rooted dish selections. “I love Mexican food,” Jen admitted, with something dangerously close to enthusiasm. “Or American Mexican food anyway. I’ve heard it’s different actually in Mexico but I’ve never been.” She’d never left the country in which she’d been born and raised, but had traveled a fair amount within its borders.

0 Jen White Cool 388 Jen White 0 5

Tarquin

June 08, 2017 10:55 AM

Glad to assist by Tarquin

Tarquin just tried to nod at the appropriate points in Daniel’s narrative. He was aware of television, and he thought that being an actor on it was considered a profession of some status in the Muggle world, but he didn’t know a great deal about it - Daniel’s implications suggested it was, perhaps, not as good a profession as he’d supposed, seeing as he had gone into accountancy. However, Tarquin didn’t feel like going down a tangent of having Daniel explain the relative social statuses of specific Muggle jobs to him - he expected it would be tedious for both of them, and he got the sense that such conversations, even if well-intentioned, served to make Muggleborns (as he now supposed Daniel to be) feel somewhat out of place - something he did not wish to do.

“Very interesting,” he commented on Daniel’s field of study, a much more promising area of conversation. “Interesting subject, both the actual mechanics of it all but the ethics too. What did your dissertation uncover?” he asked.

“Two, a boy and a girl - Charlie and Henny. Well, Charles and Henrietta to give them their full names, except we never do. ” he answered, when Daniel asked about his children, “And yes, rather grown up now. Both absolutely wonderful of course,” he added, a slight ironic nod to the fact that he was about to fulfill the parental cliche and treat Daniel to a very in depth answer. Whilst moments ago he had seemed polite but reserved, his face was now happy and animated, lit up by the invitation to discuss them - an effect that was only known to be produced by two other sentences, namely ‘So, let’s talk about 1800s poetry’ and ‘Would you like some tea?’ “Henny was an Aladren too, she’s studying for her PhD now - shared tropes of Muggle and Wizard literature in the 19th century,” he added, very proudly. “Charlie’s a former Teppenpaw, and is studying fashion design - his teachers seem very pleased with him” he explained. He didn’t speak with Charlie with any less pride, but perhaps with a slight sense of mystery, and the suggestion that he was having to take his teachers’ word for it.

“Your nieces are a bit younger, I assume?” he returned, offering the floor to Daniel.

13 Tarquin Glad to assist 1464 Tarquin 0 5

Scarlett

June 08, 2017 2:08 PM

Not feeling too woeful myself. by Scarlett

Scarlett listened as Lauren talked about her holidays and tried to hide her confusion.Not at the mention of Christmas as the Pecari knew that a lot of people had sold out to the more commonly celebrated Muggle holiday and the younger girl wasn't a pureblood anyway. The Brockerts celebrated Yule but it seemed to all basically be the same thing for the most part.

No, it was that Lauren's parents still apparently got along even though they weren't married. That was nice. They put aside their differences for their children. Uncle Jeffrey and Aunt Pearl never spoke. Not that she blamed Uncle Jeffrey who she supposed wasn't actually her uncle anymore. "That sounds like a good time." Scarlett replied. "It's too bad your brother ditched the whole thing for his friends. I mean, we don't see our families much unless they're here too and it sounds like seeing your dad happens even less than normal for those away at boarding school."

The Pecari couldn't imagine not having family time during midterm, as a first cousin group they were super close-well, except Carrie, whom they didn't see and tried to forget about. Though of course, they didn't spend the entire break together with having to see the other sides of families and then there were all the balls and parties. She didn't understand how Lauren's brother could give that up. Wasn't Lauren's father hurt by that after all the effort he put in to see them?

"So how old is your sister? Is she going to be coming to Sonora?" Scarlett still had some younger cousins who had yet to attend and maybe one of them would be in the same class as Lauren's sister.

The subject changed to Scarlett's betrothal and she beamed. "Thank you!" She exclaimed. "Yes, I sure am! He's pretty cool. His name is Marco Bianchi and he's really good looking." Especially where it counted. "He's from New York City and he's a bit older than me. Enough to be exciting and have experiences without being like, old enough for it to be gross."

11 Scarlett Not feeling too woeful myself. 293 Scarlett 0 5

Aislinn

June 09, 2017 10:57 AM

Tomorrow's another day. by Aislinn

If Aislinn didn’t have amazing self control, she probably would have been sitting with her mouth hanging open in shock for the fact that John had stated to some form that he had missed her. She hadn’t been expecting him to say that at all. Her brain was racing in an attempt to come to some conclusion as to what was he had exactly meant when he said that, which just wouldn’t work since he was awaiting a response. “Home was…complicated,” she stated tentatively. Her fingers twirled together while she collected her thoughts.

“Sutton is worrying me,” Aislinn confided to John. “She’s not acting like herself. And now Gia is gone. I was hoping that being around her would help Sutton.” She frowned as she glanced back over to the Pecari table. Her blue eyes flicked back to John. “I’m glad that you didn’t leave. I mean that you weren’t one of the ones to leave. I missed you too.” She looked down to her hands before abruptly putting them to her sides and turning back to him. She was rambling. She only did that when she was nervous and revealing anything about how she felt was always a challenge. It was easier to stay within intellectual dialogues.

“Uh, but, yes, midterm was good otherwise. I received some rare ingredients for my Potions kit from my dad and my mom got me a few books I wanted. Plus, it was nice being able to spend some time with them.” She had missed her parents, even if she had only gotten to see her father for a few hours. Being a mediwizard, her father was often called away to the hospital. The holidays were an even busier time of the year since people tended to do things they ought not to do. One day, Aislinn hoped to be working along side her father.

“You’ll be graduating soon,”. Aislinn said with a note of sadness in her voice. His mention of having a lot of work led her down this thought track. John only had a semester left, this semester, and then he would be gone. Trying to act a little more enthusiastically towards the idea, she added, “Do you have any prospects lined up yet?” She couldn’t imagine John not having a clear plan, but one never knew. She used to think that she knew Sutton, her own twin, but now, she felt like she didn’t have a clue.

0 Aislinn Tomorrow's another day. 297 Aislinn 0 5

Jozua

June 09, 2017 2:00 PM

I think we won by Jozua

Joe had already been moving up out of the 'acquaintance' circle and into solid 'friend' territory, but learning he had also been disappointed to learn Great Explorer and Knight were no longer viable career paths in this day and age sealed it. "We're friends now," he told Joe, to make it official.

Of course, then he went and mentioned the Charms Facility Mishap and for a moment he started getting defensive before he realized Joe was talking about a different charms facility and a different mishap and he slumped a bit in relief. "My family had nothing to do with that," he denied with perhaps just a bit too much pleased conviction, like being able to deny involvement was something he didn't get to do nearly often enough when this sort of thing came up, before listening to what Joe was actually trying to tell him.

"Well, enchanted swords aren't exactly common, but they do exist and one might have helped depending on its properties -" he began then realized Joe was trying to suggest believing such things was ridiculous. "I mean, not that a hotel is really a good place to look for one."

"But traveling is good. I want to travel, too. Just the travel, or start with some advanced schooling? I'm still undecided whether I want to set out as an amateur or get formal training in something professional first."

1 Jozua I think we won 348 Jozua 0 5

Kira

June 10, 2017 3:38 PM

I have mixed feelings on you concurring. by Kira

Kira had been very involved in eating her spaghetti as neatly as possible when addressed which was probably why she didn't seem more enthusiastic when she greeted Simon as she was pretty concentrated on what she was doing. That and the fifth year usually had some trepidation about conversing with anyone who wasn't on a very short list. Simon, however, did rather fall under the maybe not that threatening list based on him being someone she'd worked with on the fair booth-in hindsight she was glad she'd done it because now she had a new friend-the fact that he was a second year, and the fact that he seemed a bit less confident then he let on. Kira wasn't great with people that way but she could recognize a potential kindred spirit.

Which, of course, might have been wishful thinking on her part as she had yet to find one. The Crotalus had people who liked her and even had stuff in common with, Winston, for example, shared her interest in folklore and mythology and wanted to spend time with her discussing it which was nice. But she still didn't have someone who got her, whom understood being uncomfortable in social situations. Most of her friends were more social and confident than she was, not that that took much.

Still, Kira was more than happy to talk to Simon if he was happy to talk to her. It was kind of weird. The fifth year was definitely an introvert who needed me time but at the same time she wanted to have friends, wanted to be liked and generally shyed away out of fear of rejection and judgement. Especially with people who knew Kelsey and could compare. As a second year, Simon was unlikely to know and compare her to her cousin, even though odds were that he knew Natalie.

She considered Simon's question. "Well, I assume Professor Carter will. She is the official on call substitute. I'm glad we have an actual Charms professor now even if he's just temporary." Kira found this to be essential. "And he'll probably stay-both will probably stay-until we get full time professors. At least I hope so. I mean, it's not terribly fair to Professor Carter to have to do so much." She knew very well what it was like to see someone overworked. Aunt Jillian had done that to Amity and Chaslyn both leading in the former running away and developing a deep seated pathological hatred of anything that could be considered work and the latter always seeming on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Kira didn't know how things were with Chaslyn now exactly, but she hoped that being married and away from Aunt Jillian meant her life was easier-and that she was a happier and easier to get along with person. She hadn't exactly spent much time talking to her over break.

"Plus it's better for us to get complete educations in all our subjects too. A run down professor is going to have a harder time doing an adequate job." Honestly, what Professor Carter needed was a nice restful vacation. Or at the very least, a trip to the spa or something. Kira kind of wished she could make that happen but she just wasn't the sort of person who was capable of doing so. At best, the fifth year could look for some sort of spell to make her feel more relaxed. More so even than her educational concerns-honestly, she was just going to marry some pureblood man anyway, eventually-Kira felt bad for the professor.

11 Kira I have mixed feelings on you concurring. 320 Kira 0 5

John

June 11, 2017 12:23 PM

Here's hoping it isn't worse than today. by John

Complicated. That was a loaded word if John had ever heard one. The sensible thing, he knew, to do whenever someone mentioned that things were complicated was to run screaming in the opposite direction, at least if slipping away quietly before the Complicated One noticed wasn’t an option. Unfortunately, however, flight was not really an option for several reasons right now, which meant he was stuck Dealing With Someone’s Feelings.

Please be easier to follow than Julian and Joanie. Please be easier to follow than Julian and Joanie. Please be easier to follow than Julian and Joanie, he mentally implored her. Usually, he had discovered, the thing Julian and Joanie were talking about was not even the thing they were really angry about, and half the time he honestly had no idea why they were angry with him. He missed them both desperately, but not the part where that happened. Luckily, though, Aislinn’s problem was actually something he could relate to. He knew what it was like to be worried about one’s sister.

“That’s good,” he said when she spoke about the rest of her midterm. He hesitated, then added, “I don’t have anything helpful to say about your sister,” he said, figuring it was better to get that out of the way up front. “My sister worries me sometimes, too, but….” He shrugged uncomfortably. “Whenever I’ve tried to help her, it just made things worse. I hope that doesn’t happen to you.” He contemplated how nice it would be to duck under the table and let various classmates kick him in the head until he forgot he’d decided all that constituted a good set of things to say, or else how nice it would be to flee into the desert for a few decades like St. Mary of Egypt. “But, so, uh, potion ingredients, eh?” he said, latching onto a more agreeable topic. “Got any experiments planned?”

He shrugged when asked about his prospects. “I guess I’ll know soon enough,” he said, waving vaguely toward the high windows where owls entered the room with the mail every morning. “Here’s hoping I wasn’t too ambitious in my applications.” John was not in doubt of his abilities, but he was concerned about other people’s willingness to acknowledge them, as he didn’t Know People. “I’m considering staying in this country, if anywhere makes it, uh, something I can afford. I’ve applied to a few schools in your east. And a few in my east. The geography’s more interesting than I’m used to either way.” Calgary was not that far from the mountains, of course - he had gone to the mountains almost every summer for as long as he could remember, house-sitting with his family while his great-grandparents went to visit family in Ontario- but it was still, itself, undeniably pretty flat. Maybe it was because of how well he’d always liked the mountains when his family went on holiday (there, he thought absently, in the mountains, you feel free. I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.), but he couldn’t deny finding the idea of living somewhere more visually interesting, at least for a while, appealing. “What about you? LIke one part of the continent more than the other?”

16 John Here's hoping it isn't worse than today. 285 John 0 5

Joe

June 12, 2017 11:43 AM

Looks like it. Go us! by Joe

Joe was not sure he’d ever had anyone ever announce they were friends before, but he could see the advantages of the approach. He nodded. “Very good,” he said. “We failed knights of the world have to stick together, y’know.”

It was, he thought, interesting, talking to someone whose life was entirely conducted on the Other Side. Of course, he did so often enough, but usually about lessons, or with Tasha about places foreign to both of them on both sides of the Line. Looked at from Jozua’s perspective, he supposed John didn’t sound quite as out of touch with reality as Joe thought his brother had been by that point. “Not that one, anyway,” he said. “Sorry – I forgot, it was a Muggle place. Mom’s Muggleborn, so she’s more comfortable there anyway, plus the exchange rate – galleons to dollars – we buy a lot of stuff from the Muggles, we can get more for the same amount of Dad’s money.” Of course, Mom was paid in small amounts Muggle money for the work she did outside their house, but she was in charge of finances for the whole house and so could convert Dad’s galleons to dollars whenever her income wouldn’t cover something or she otherwise saw fit. “Anyway, a magic sword definitely would have been useful on a rescue mission – if, uh, either of us could have figured out how to use it – but someone would have been in deep legal trouble if someone had found a magic sword there.”

John hadn’t thought of that. Probably because, from the timeline Joe had managed to piece together over the past year, by that point he had already started treating the Statute of Secrecy as more of a helpful guideline for people who weren’t John Umland, who could do whatever the heck he liked. On some level, Joe knew this wasn’t fair – eleven-year-olds were not known for their brilliant ability to spot every conceivable flaw in a plan, and any kid raised with a foot in each world and stable footing in neither could have missed the same problem – but he had just remembered that he was still mad at John and therefore not currently inclined to fairness.

“I’ll probably start with more school,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to be the only kid in the family without some, and plus – if there are still any adventures out there, I’d rather have them after I learn as much about how to survive them as I can. I don’t think I’ll go all the way through all the degrees, though – I think at that point, it’s more theory and research than anything, plus specializing that much in one field wouldn't be very helpful for the goal.”

16 Joe Looks like it. Go us! 329 Joe 0 5