Returning in style. on Cascade Hall

Headmaster Brockert

March 29, 2019 9:04 PM

Returning Feast by Headmaster Brockert

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.Except that things were basically all the latter. Mortimer was honestly glad to be back at Sonora where socializing wasn't required of him on a regular basis. Parties might have been tolerable if people had more interesting things to say. He didn't care about the weather. He didn't care about Quidditch. He didn't care about people's work. Unless they had an interesting job but most people did not.

Nothing else was really going on. Shannon was pregnant and huge and stumped on what to call the baby if it was a girl. She and Ben had a thing where he named the boys and she named the girls. Hence why their daughters had relatively decent names like Allegra, Esme and Isla and their son was named Olaf. And U was such a difficult letter too. Mortimer honestly didn't think there were any decent U names out there for either gender. Of course, Ben wasn't constrained by decency on this topic and he had a name all picked out for a boy.

Uriah.

And to top it off, they were going to have the middle name be after him. Uriah Mortimer Brockert. Thank Merlin that the kid's last name would be Brockert. Being rich and powerful it would be easier to get away with naming a child something strange. Zeke and Opal had proven that with Topaz.

He had to admit, he was somewhat honored. Emerald's middle name was Vivien, after his wife, but Jasper's middle name was Vincent (to go with the theme his parents had going on, their kids were all named after gems or rocks and their middle names all started with V) Christopher's and Olaf's middle names were after their fathers.

The students filed in and sat down. When it looked like everyone was here, Mortimer stood up and said "Welcome back to Sonora. I hope you have all had a nice midterm." And sat back down.

Subthreads:

Wow, that was quick (tag Lily) by Jozua Sparks with Lily Spencer

Sticking with my own kind (tag Jasmine) by Cleo James with Jasmine

I don't hate you, so that's good enough. (Tag Jeremy) by Felipe De Matteo with Jeremy Mordue

True colours (tag Zevalyn) by Georgia Kirkly with Zevalyn Ives

I have friendliness! (Tag a Tepp) by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen with Bridget Ferguson

Returning in style. by Tatiana Vorontsova with Hilda Hexenmeister

Silly kids, Trix are for rabbits. by Katerina Vorontsov with Dorian Montoir

Returning and feasting. by Simon Mordue

Post-Feast Announcements by DH Skies with Evelyn Stones

11 Headmaster Brockert Returning Feast 6 Headmaster Brockert 1 5

Jozua Sparks

March 30, 2019 3:54 PM

Wow, that was quick (tag Lily) by Jozua Sparks

Knowing it was his last semester at Sonora, and therefore his last Feast, Jozua decided to buck tradition and go sit at Pecari with his best friend and girlfriend. He had friends in Teppenpaw he liked and would miss in future years, but he'd shared previous feasts with them, and a school feast was the one Sonora event he hadn't yet shared with Lily. And she was a prefect while he wasn't, so it made sense for him to be the one to abandon his House. So he waited until he saw her sit down, then came over sat at the Pecari table next to her. "Hey," he greeted.

For a Teppenpaw, he had a relatively low tolerance for public shows of affection, but he was willing to make allowances for Lily if she demonstrated any kind of desire for a hug or quick kiss after the two weeks apart. Fortunately, she wasn't a super mushy sort of girl anyway. It was one of the many things he loved about her.

The Headmaster soon stood, basically just said hello, and then sat back down. Jozua's eyebrows rose in disbelief. "That doesn't even count a speech," he declared. "I mean, I've always appreciated the Headmaster's brevity, but that's gotta be a record even for him."

He shook his head to clear off the topic. "So, how was England? Send out any university applications? I got three out and my wrist was sore for days filling out all those forms." It was an exaggeration, of course, but he really didn't think the application forms really needed to be that long, or include essay questions. "Kinda hard to believe we won't be here much longer."

OOC: If you want, you can assume they've already talked about Jozua's intent to go into curse breaking and then exploring the far reaches of the world, and coordinated their future plans from there, or if you'd prefer, this can be the first the topic comes up. Whichever works better for you.

1 Jozua Sparks Wow, that was quick (tag Lily) 348 Jozua Sparks 0 5

Cleo James

March 30, 2019 11:48 PM

Sticking with my own kind (tag Jasmine) by Cleo James

Cleo made her way over to the Crotalus table. A part of her had been tempted to go and sit at Pecari, seeing as it contained the two students she probably got on with best. However, that seemed a little bit complicated… Obviously, if she went to Pecari, she would sit with Parker. He was her best friend, and always had been. Also, whilst she liked Isaac, people defecting house tables for someone was usually seen as a pretty serious move. She would happily have sat next to him at dinner or something, but for a feast it seemed way too bold. But the thought of sitting next to Parker but with Isaac in her eyeline was concerning. What if seeing Isaac gave her butterflies, and what if her getting butterflies messed with Parker’s head again? It had, after all, been Isaac that she’d been thinking about when she made Parker go all wobbly in Potions. Much as she liked both boys, keeping them to very separate parts of her life seemed safer.

Instead, she took a seat next to Jasmine. Part of the temptation to defect also had to do with how little she felt like she was part of her own house - the concert meeting having served of an amplification of that point - but Jasmine had been really friendly to her after the whole veela reveal thing, and Cleo thought that it might be a good idea to cultivate that friendship a bit more. It was nice to have an ally in her own house, and to have a friend who she wasn’t going to accidentally enchant. Girl company was starting to be more interesting than it had been before. Before, Cleo had just enjoyed grubbing about in the dirt making her flowers grow, and had been happy to have the company of whoever wanted to do that with her. It hadn’t mattered if they were boys because the way boys and girls felt about each other hadn’t been a thing. Now it was, and a very complicated thing at that… She had visited Anna once over the holidays - the witch she had met the previous summer, who lived one town over. They did things like paint their nails, and Anna let Cleo try on her clothes. She had painted her nails with her grandma before but it was different doing it with a friend. Anna’s clothes were also more interesting. Cleo’s tended to be plain and practical, whilst Anna’s had more frills and bows. Anna had asked her about boyfriends and crushes… It had been sort of fun to talk about that, although she hadn’t told Anna about the veela thing yet, which meant she couldn’t really explain all her feelings… But maybe she and Jasmine could talk about that properly.

“Hi,” she smiled, once they had been welcomed back and the feast had appeared, “How was your Christmas? I hope you don’t mind me joining you?” she added.

13 Cleo James Sticking with my own kind (tag Jasmine) 389 Cleo James 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

March 31, 2019 12:42 AM

I don't hate you, so that's good enough. (Tag Jeremy) by Felipe De Matteo

As usual, the Headmaster's speech was . . . underwhelming. Felipe found it an admirable quality in a speaker, and was happy to begin the Feast with a great level of promptness than they'd done at the start of the year. He was still trying to be nicer, largely on account of Zara's endless kindness towards him, and the effort had paid off at home; his father had been quite satisfied with the sort of person who'd returned from Sonora and even Leonor seemed proud of him. He was trying to keep up the attitude at school, starting with an approving nod and civil smile towards the Headmaster as a thank you for the man's great oratory skills. Or at least his practicality.

Nice people were supposed to be grateful, after all.

The next order of business was the meal itself. It held very little appeal after experiencing home cooked meals all of break, and he wondered what Zara would think of his holidays . . . would she still want to visit sometime if she knew that they spent most nights either preparing a meal for the local community, or partaking of meals in strangers' homes? It was meant to foster community relationships, appreciate the talents and wealth of residents there, and provide a safe environment in which to check on the overall health and wellness of those who fell under the De Matteos' purview, but that didn't mean Zara would like it at all. Perhaps he'd be better off never to have anyone come home with him for break.

Pushing aside thoughts of what he would do when his life turned towards marriage if he wasn't ever going to bring anyone home, Felipe turned to his roommate. In all fairness, many of the students at the Crotalus table would likely understand Felipe's predicament. With so many of them heirs themselves, he didn't have to feel alone in his upperclass problems.

At the same time, that was precisely why he couldn't talk to any of them. Anyone who had tried to talk to a Mordue, an Astley, a Brockert, or a Pierce, all families Felipe had done his research on since first arriving at Sonora, knew exactly how unhelpful they were likely to be on matters of feelings or burdens of the uppercrust life. Still, they weren't all bad, and there were a number of other things they could talk about than feelings. If he got really desperate, he could probably ask Zara herself. For now, Jeremy would do for conversation. He considered turning to Jessica instead, but decided that a little "bro time" (as he'd overheard a few Americans saying) would be a better start.

Delicately scooping a spoonful of hominy onto his plate, and choosing a few roast chicken breasts (at home, he would've taken the legs to enjoy and show his gusto for his host's meal, but he was sure that such displays would be frowned upon among his acquaintances here), Felipe caught Jeremy's attention.

"Good evening," he said. "I hope your break was well and your family is in good health?"

22 Felipe De Matteo I don't hate you, so that's good enough. (Tag Jeremy) 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Jeremy Mordue

March 31, 2019 2:44 AM

You can get by even when you do hate people by Jeremy Mordue

“Yes, it was excellent, thank you. Really excellent,” Jeremy nodded, as Felipe asked about his break. After all, who didn’t love Christmas?

Jeremy didn’t, actually. Christmas four years ago had been the last point at which the answer he had just given - the answer one had to give - had been true. It had been the last Christmas father had been there. Jeremy remembered it so well. He didn’t know whether it really had been bigger and better than all the Christmases that had gone before, or whether it was just the combination of being the right age to have been building to a fever pitch of excitement for the day, and the contrast of every crushing disappointment that had followed since, but it had seemed more full of presents and sweets and laughter than any Christmas that had come before, and very definitely any that had followed since. They’d got this really excellent game with miniature racing brooms, not to mention proper real new ones for themselves, and father had spent the whole afternoon playing with them, giving them miniature races and even real ones - a few around the yard, and then he’d got Jeremy practising his dives down the stairs once they got too cold to be outside. The only sour note in all of that had been how mother had really not been amused by the last part.

Four years on, he still had never recognised that day for what it had really meant - what most of his father’s parenting had been; overcompensation. Overcompensation by a man who lacked the responsibility to be a proper parent, and dispensed it instead at erratic intervals involving fun and laughter and presents. And mother’s killjoy attitude actually being that of a woman who recognised she was fighting a losing battle.

Since then, Christmas had taken on the same pattern as all other family occasions - they all got together and pretended nothing was wrong, even though the glaring asymmetry of their family structure was brought into sharp focus whenever they visited Uncle Alexander’s. The first year without Jeremy’s father had also been the year that Nathaniel, Sylvia and Simon were quarantined at school due to the illness going around the magical world. Their absence had been mourned. It had been allowed to be a strange and solemn Christmas because they were missing. The Christmas after that had been falsely joyful, as they got to be reunited. Everyone together again. They had all fussed over them, recalling the misery of the previous year, and pretending that was the only thing that had been wrong and that now it was all fixed. This year, he himself had been the main event. Of course, everyone else had had their achievements fussed over, and been given plenty of time in the spotlight, but the main subject of how this was A Really Excellent Christmas had been him. He had been away. He was back now. He must have so much to tell them. He had to keep providing news because if at any point they ran out of things to say they might all be forced to acknowledge that actually someone was missing and this wasn’t all that freaking great. Sometimes Jeremy wanted to just yell at - well, not all of them, because you couldn’t yell at Uncle Alexander or Aunt Avery or Sylvia, and even Simon had never really done anything wrong - but at mother and Nathaniel, certainly, and point out that no, this wasn’t all fun because it was supposed to be a time for family and they didn’t have a proper one any more.

And, as usual, however hard they all tried, mother inevitably went off by mid-afternoon to rest, claiming to have a headache or whatever. Like she was the only one who was upset. Like it wasn’t her constant fussing and headaches that had driven father away in the first place. He’d heard people say it at parties - if she’d been a better wife, he wouldn’t have got bored and left them.

“My family are all well, yes,” he answered the second question. “I trust yours are too and that you also had a pleasant break?”

13 Jeremy Mordue You can get by even when you do hate people 1443 Jeremy Mordue 0 5

Lily Spencer

March 31, 2019 1:44 PM

It certainly was. by Lily Spencer

Lily couldn't believe how quickly time had passed. There hadn't been anything exceptionally different about this year, except that she and Jozua were a couple now and she had fewer courses to take. But being here at the last feast, the reality of leaving was finally coming to her. Now that Tod was no longer waiting for her to return home, she didn't have any plans post-Sonora. She laughed at the idea of applying to university, and working at her extended family's hospital seemed dull. She thought it would be fun travelling around the world, but it wouldn't be fun by herself.

When Jozua joined her table, she smiled and greeted him with a hug and a quick kiss. She hadn't seen him for two weeks, but she wasn't really a witch who counted down the days till she saw her beloved again. That was more of Charlotte's prerogative. Lily had missed him though, and she communicated that by briefly squeezing his hand when he sat down. She did like physical touches here and there, but she wasn't really the mushy sort.

"I imagine that was less than twenty words. Definitely a record," replied Lily, nodding.

"I know, I can't believe we won't be here next year." Not knowing where she would be next year didn't frighten her; she believed something would work out for her. "No applications for me," she continued. "I can't imagine torturing myself by studying more. I'm hardly staying afloat this year as it is." It wasn't that she was stupid either, she just didn't care about the history behind spells. However, she could admit she might be a bit stupid with theories.

In any case, more education was not in the plan, though she knew Jozua was certainly interested in it. "You set on attending university, then?" she asked. Though they had talked about his desire to go into curse breaking, they hadn't really broached the topic of where she fit into that, or what would happen after university as well. "Are you planning to send out more tedious applications? If your poor wrist can take it, that is."

OOC: Lily and Jozua could have that conversation about their future now, and I'm assuming they've only talked about his intent to go into curse breaking and not about exploring the world afterwards.

40 Lily Spencer It certainly was. 357 Lily Spencer 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

April 01, 2019 1:52 AM

But really, it's best if you don't hate them. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe nodded in acknowledgment, sincerely glad that Jeremy's break had gone well. He supposed that was a good sign of his own developing personality. He thought that "really excellent" was sort of a weird way to describe nearly a month off school, but supposed that if Jeremy didn't want to say any more than that, then he didn't have to. How excellent could it have really been? Somehow, Felipe suspected that Jeremy spent most of it attending stuffy parties and looking down on people. He wasn't that far off himself, and couldn't quite imagine the Mordues focusing on community service, or hearing their people's needs.

He didn't say any of this, only smiling a polite social smile.

"I'm glad to hear that," Felipe replied. "My family are well, too. Break was good. The holidays are a very busy time of year for us, and it was a pleasure to spend such time with loved ones."

He doubted that Jeremy was interested in the Christmas traditions of his people, and wasn't keen on expanding them. Still, he didn't want to shut down the conversation by offering nothing noteworthy. Besides, he was curious to see how far Jeremy would go to try to impress.

"You have a very big family," Felipe suggested, enjoying the game of pushing Jeremy's family name to the front of the conversation. It was almost boring for him by this point, though, and Zara's disapproving face appeared in his mind, much to his surprise. He'd been planning to comment on how well Jeremy must understand the challenges of an important family, but realized then that yes. . . . Jeremy did understand those challenges.

"Were you able to relax at all?" he asked instead, letting some of his friendly concern, if that's what it was, appear in his eyes, and pausing his dining to give his roommate his full attention.

22 Felipe De Matteo But really, it's best if you don't hate them. 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Jozua

April 01, 2019 9:01 AM

If brevity is the soul of wit, he must be a genius by Jozua

Jozua nodded as Lily admitted to her complete disinterest in furthering her education. Being Aladren born - both from the town in question and to a Sonora House alumna - it wasn't quite a stance he could entirely understand, but he got that Lily did not come from that kind of background, so it probably wasn't in her blood the way it was in his. He had actually been enjoying Advanced level classes this year, and was kind of looking forward to taking multiple Defense classes next year.

"Nah, I think I'm done," he admitted in regards to the college applications. "Those were my top three picks, and if I don't get into any of them, I guess I'll just take a year off school, pick up some life experience, and try again next year. I mean, you don't need a college education to explore the far reaches of the world. It just helps if you want to get paid for it. I mean, Gary's game this year is basically what I want to do professionally. Just . . . with more magic." No fewer monsters though. He wanted to fight monsters. Disarm traps. All that cool fun stuff. And get paid for it. That would be just about perfect.

As long as Lily was there with him, too, sharing the adventure of a lifetime. "Have you considered becoming a pilot and mechanic?" he asked, half-joking, half-serious.

OOC: Works for me.

1 Jozua If brevity is the soul of wit, he must be a genius 348 Jozua 0 5

Jeremy Mordue

April 01, 2019 9:28 AM

Try harder then by Jeremy Mordue

You have a very big family.

The jug from which Jeremy had been pouring jerked abruptly, spilling juice on the table. A nearby napkin leapt to attention, mopping it up.

What was that supposed to mean? Was it just small talk, or did Felipe know and was trying to dig at him? Jeremy was not sure his family, had it been complete, was all that large. Two was a fairly normal number of children to have - in fact, it was more like a minimum. And even when they met up with their cousins, it wasn't like there were dozens of them. Some people's families were much much bigger. But if he disagreed that his family wasn't that big, it felt like he was drawing attention to the gaping hole that none of them were supposed to mention. But if he said ‘yes,’ Felipe was going to know him for a liar. If he Knew. Which, maybe he didn’t. Which obviously meant that Jeremy had to react like totally nothing was wrong because if he didn’t and Felipe didn’t Know then he would find out and it would be Jeremy’s fault.

Simon had said school was alright. Simon was, of course, too tasteful to mention Jeremy's father directly but he had said people tended to stay out of each other's business. It was vulgar to drag up things that might make someone uncomfortable. It was Nathaniel who had said it was hard. That you had to watch what you said and all that That had been more as a tool to lecture Jeremy about keeping his temper than anything, or at least he had thought so. He had mostly believed Simon instead of listening to Nathaniel though. Simon was older and knew best, and Nathaniel worried far too much about everything. Or so he had thought. Now he was sitting here, unsure whether his roommate was laying a deliberate trap for him and, if so, how to avoid it.

He had also stated it. It had been a statement not a question. You have a big family. Well, if it was a statement, that meant he didn’t have to comment at all, and he took a long slow drink of juice instead. Felipe’s question needled him though. Had he been able to relax? It was hard not to find that pointed. It was a weird thing to ask. And Felipe was giving him a weirdly intense look that made him feel like the question was meant to be Significant. He sort of wanted to tell Felipe to go shove his wand somewhere very uncomfortable and ill-advised. If Felipe wasn't going to play by the rules, why should he? Except he didn't know for sure that he was being mocked. He hated Felipe. He hated him for backing him into a corner, and almost certainly mocking him about his father, and for proving Nathaniel right.

“Yes. Very relaxing,” he snapped, with all the evidence of someone who was wound as tight as a spring, a hot red flush creeping up his neck. “How about you?” he asked, his tone still savage, “Are you relaxed?”

13 Jeremy Mordue Try harder then 1443 Jeremy Mordue 0 5

Jasmine

April 01, 2019 11:53 AM

We can be like glitter by Jasmine

"Hi," Jasmine smiled at Cleo as the older girl sat down in the empty seat next to her. Her sparkly pink purse still sat in the chair on her other side, saving the spot for Peyton in case her roommate wanted to join her for the feast, but so far she hadn't seen her best friend. Peyton had relatives at the school, and they hadn't made prior arrangements, so Jasmine wasn't sure if her best friend planned to join her or not, but if she did, she'd have a spot waiting for her.

The Headmaster stood and spoke briefly, then the food arrived, and Cleo addressed her with about as many words as the Headmaster had addressed the whole school. So Peyton was either sitting somewhere else or she'd missed the speech - but you could have blinked and missed it, so Jasmine wasn't holding that against her if she'd needed to use the toilet before the Feast.

"Oh, no problem, I was only saving this one," she indicated the purse occupied chair, "but I'm not sure Peyton's coming at this point. She might have found a seat somewhere else by now."

"Christmas was fine," she continued. "We had Christmas Eve with my Delachene grandparents at the Ranch, and on Christmas Day we went to the Greers after lunch. The Delachene visit was pretty low key, but the Greer party is getting kind of insane. Uncle Luke's oldest has kids of her own now, and it's just getting kind of wild with four generations. And my grandparents' generation on my mom's side is complicated to begin with, because my mom has three siblings and none of them have the same two parents. And they're all there in one house - the four siblings, and all of their parents, that is, plus their kids, and in Luke's case - he's the oldest - his first grand-kid. Granted, Grandpa Greer's a rich lawyer and has a mansion, so we're not really crowded or anything, and there's plenty of room for avoiding people you don't want to spend time around, but it's still crazy. It was a bit of relief to be back home with just my two siblings and our horses for the rest of the break, though Mom let me come to one party with her friends, so that was pretty neat, and the French Embassy had a ball one night that I was old enough to go to this year, too, and that was really fun."

"So, how was your Christmas?"

1 Jasmine We can be like glitter 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Cleo

April 02, 2019 5:34 AM

Get in everything and annoy people? by Cleo

"Wow. I can't imagine spending time with that many people," Cleo laughed, "Are there even that many people at school?" she joked. She thought Sonora probably just about edged it on numbers but then it wasn't like she was expected to know and want to socialise with absolutely everyone here. Admittedly, Jasmine had just talked about avoiding people, but still... they were all related and connected somehow. It made her head spin a little bit. As did the casual mention of mansions and horses... She knew that Jasmine's life was pretty different to hers, and it felt like almost everyone at school had a lot more than she did, but even though it seemed to be the norm here, it was still strange to her, and was hard to imagine.

"I was also around my whole entire family but that's like... four people. We stay with my grandparents for a couple of days over Christmas itself. The big bonus there is TV, so we watch a lot of Christmas stuff. The rest of the time, I helped daddy keep shop or did my homework. Rock and roll lifestyle," she laughed, "I made a friend at this magical summer fair last year and she lives a town over, so I saw her a bit.

"How old are your siblings?" Cleo asked, realising that she didn't really know basic things like this about Jasmine.

13 Cleo Get in everything and annoy people? 389 Cleo 0 5

Georgia Kirkly

April 02, 2019 8:35 AM

True colours (tag Zevalyn) by Georgia Kirkly

Georgia’s break had been fifty-fifty - in the usual sense, of fifty percent spent with mom and fifty with dad, but also in the sense that one of those things had been a lot more fun than the other. Her mom was getting seriously into her stride on the ‘what are you going to do with your life?’ track. She was definitely the less chill parent, and worried about like… literally everything. Georgia had a theory it was because she’d made such a hash of her own life, but that was no reason to constantly be on her back about whether she was applying to college, whether she saw her future in the Muggle or the magical world and all the other questions she’d had fired at her. Georgia didn’t know. Her main goals right now were to make the concert performance amazing, and in the long term, not turn into her mother. It had been pretty tempting a couple of times to give that answer when her mom went on about needing a plan or Georgia’s lack of direction and blah blah blah, but she had kept her Teppenpaw cool, and eventually promised to at least talk to the guidance guy and work out some options, which had done a bit to stem the relentless flow of ‘I just want to make sure you’ll be alright’.

At Dad’s, the concert had been treated like the big news that she felt it should be. This wasn’t surprising, as he’d been the one to really encourage her to join, and stick with, the choir, and to improve her singing. This had mostly been done in the most excellent and acceptable format of binge watching ‘Glee’ and all the ‘Pitch Perfect’ movies during her previous vacations. They had revisited the latter, plus picked a few favourite episodes of the former during the Christmas break. This had only fuelled her perhaps somewhat unrealistic expectations for Teppenpaw’s concert performance to not only be absolutely flawless but also totally epic in every way. She wanted to make her dad proud of her.

She also felt like she had a bit of a point to prove… Some of the first things Georgia had heard about the wizarding world had been why her mother had been so badly bullied as to not have wanted much to do with it as an adult. Thus she had come into school expecting The Whole Blood Thing to be an issue. And it was. It wasn’t possible to deny that blood mattered to people, even if it had never been as overt in her interactions with others as it had been for her mother. Therefore Ruby Brockert being made the head of the choir had not surprised Georgia exactly - because of course those type of girls were going to promote their own - it was the whole point of families like theirs that you helped push your own relatives ahead, and pushed other people down. Whether it really was because of blood or something else didn’t even matter. It hurt to have been overlooked after working hard to be a part of something for so many years - only to have it confirmed that, as you had suspected all along, you weren’t really valued the same way as everyone else, and to have someone assume that a fourth year would do a better job - and also that she, as a seventh year, would be happy to do what she was told by them. That wasn’t happening. It had irked her that Ruby had pushed the fact that she was running the choir at the meeting. What happened to having Teppenpaw diplomacy to shove that in Georgia’s face during a meeting that she was chairing? Plus it had been clearly stated that the prefects were in charge, and Georgia was more than qualified, seeing as she had been a member of the choir for as long as she’d had the opportunity. So, she would be leading this. She was not going to be bossed around by a fourth year, and was so freaking glad that the concert - which she had been looking forward to coming around again so much - had nothing to do with the choir, a place where her voice had never felt like it mattered.

And now she was back, for her last Sonora feast. As she had stepped off the wagon into the cold December air, the summer had still felt like a long way away, but stepping into the hall, there was a sense of the beginning of the end… She had thought a bit about how this would be the last one, during the wagon ride, and how she wanted to spend it. Over the years, she had mostly sat at the Teppenpaw table, in spite of the freer reign at the Returning Feast. She and Zev had gone visiting once each. In some ways, she felt like that was nice and neat, and maybe she should just stick with Teppenpaw because that was an identity that mattered to her. But that of being Zev’s best friend mattered more and she wanted them to spend their last feast together (and heck, if that wasn’t showing Teppenpaw spirit, then she didn’t know what was). The thought crossed her mind that they should do something crazy like both abscond and sit at Pecari table - or split up and take Pecari and Crotalus, just so that between them they’d sat everywhere for a feast, but she didn’t really consider those ideas seriously. And so, she made her way over to Aladren table.

“Mind if I invade?” she asked Zevalyn with a smile.

(OOC - Georgia’s reasoning is coloured by her experience and her mother’s and may not be reflective of what other characters really think of her).

13 Georgia Kirkly True colours (tag Zevalyn) 346 Georgia Kirkly 0 5

Jasmine

April 02, 2019 10:37 AM

No. Be shiny and fabulous! by Jasmine

“Oh, it’s not that big,” Jasmine quickly corrected when her Mom’s family was compared to the size of the whole school. “The size of Crotalus, maybe,” she conceded, “but not the whole school. There’s just over twenty of us. The Nash group is small since Uncle Daniel is single and childless, so there’s just the three of them. Us Delachenes are the second largest contingent after Uncle Luke’s group, but he’s the oldest so he had a head start. We were tied before my oldest cousin had her baby.“

Jasmine blinked a little the idea of only having a grand total of four people in her entire family. There were five in her immediate household, and while adding in the Delachene side only added two, that was still seven people, which was basically twice that size. Jasmine was therefore able to conclude that Cleo had no siblings and only a single parent.

The fact that Cleo was half-veela was not something Jasmine had read into enough to have really made that connection earlier. But while math wasn’t exactly her greatest strength either, 4 minus 2 was pretty basic arithmetic, even for Jasmine. So with two grandparents, and Cleo, that only left room for one parent. And she kind of remembered Cleo talking about her dad before so he must be the one still in the picture. Again, the presence of a veela in Cleo’s immediate lineage failed to compute as relevant.

Jasmine felt sympathy go out to the older girl. She’d been spared single parenthood - Mom and Dad had a pretty good working marriage, possibly because Dad was the easy-going adaptable sort of Pecari and Mom was good at only seeing what she wanted to see - but there was enough divorce in the Greer-Burbridge side of her family that she knew it wasn’t easy, and her oldest cousin with the kids wasn’t married either. And that wasn’t even considering whatever situation Jasmine herself had been born to before Mom and Dad adopted her.

Fortunately, Cleo asked about her siblings before she had to say anything about these conclusions. “My sister is Anya - Anastasia, if you want to be formal, but only Mom ever calls her that, because Anya is never formal if she can help it.” Jasmine sighed the sigh of the put-upon older sister and rolled her eyes a little. “If I didn’t already know we were both adopted, I’d wonder how we could be related. Anyway, she’ll turn eleven this May. So she should be starting here at Sonora in September. She’ll be a Pecari,” Jasmine added with confidence.

“My brother Phillippe is two years younger than her, so he’s eight, going on nine. If I did my math right, he should start when I’m a seventh year.” She remembered then that Cleo was older than her, and a disappointed look came over her face. “You’ll miss him by a year.” She brightened up again. “But he’ll come see the concert.”

OOC: Size of Crotalus estimated from Student List, not active character list.

1 Jasmine No. Be shiny and fabulous! 1397 Jasmine 0 5

Lily

April 02, 2019 5:32 PM

I wouldn't go that far. by Lily

"I doubt you'll get rejected," said Lily adamantly. "You've accomplished so much here. Not everyone's got the same initiative that you have." Though he hadn't been Head Boy or Prefect, he'd shown how hard you could work throughout the years, something that Lily thought ought to be acknowledged. "That's true," she added in reference to exploring the far reaches of the world. If she'd needed a university education to travel, she'd rather stay in England for the rest of her life.

Lily shook her head at his question. "I wouldn't know the first thing about flying or fixing an aeroplane, or those heli-things. I'm having a hard time imagining it for the game as it is." She licked some of the thick soup off her spoon. "Anyhow, I haven't really thought much more of what I want to do after graduation. Maybe travel around Europe, or go to Egypt or something."

At this point in her life, Lily was not an avid traveller. She loved adventure, but preferred to stay close to her family and loved ones. "My mum wants me back home to help Charlotte open her art gallery, but what would I do with art? I suppose I'd be good at marketing it. But she's got a partner to help her with that stuff." Lily loved her sister, but they just had such vastly different interests.

40 Lily I wouldn't go that far. 357 Lily 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

April 02, 2019 9:06 PM

I have friendliness! (Tag a Tepp) by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie's winter break had been perfect. She hadn't really realized how homesick she was until she went home again, and seeing her brother, her parents, and everyone in the community was enough to make her knees feel wobbly. She'd missed the homemade food the way her mother and father prepared it, the teasing and playing and staying up all night talking about nothing important with Friederike Albert. It had been perfect. Sad as it was to see more than a few holiday burns, it was nice to get to help with the family healing practice, too.

New Year celebrations brought one of her favorite traditions as well: Bleigiessen. While the Muggles in town could hardly be expected to find anything of truth in their melted materials, there was something to be found for the magical population. This year, Johana Leonie had found two identical shapes in her molten metal, and hoped that meant she would soon find a close friend at school. She'd bonded some, sure, but she didn't yet have anyone she'd call a close friend, and hoped that would change with the new year.

With that, and her continuously improving English, Johana Leonie felt well-equipped to face her housemates at the start of term feast. She'd been keeping up her practice of the language over break, although she still used German more at home than she did at school, even with Hilda and Heinrich around, and was excited to try again now that she was more relaxed. Reaching for whatever food was closest (long since having decided that the best way to learn a new culture was to just go for it), Johana Leonie turned to the nearest Teppenpaw and greeted them with a smile.

"Hello," she said, proud to have finally figured out that word. "Did your break go good?" she asked happily.

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen I have friendliness! (Tag a Tepp) 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

April 02, 2019 9:25 PM

I was trying quite hard, thank you very much. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe withdrew slightly, replying the last part of their conversation to review whether he'd said something wrong. As near as he could tell, which was pretty near since he was pretty good at this whole English thing, he'd not said anything odd. He wondered what part of it was setting Jeremy off? This wasn't any fun at all if he hadn't meant to push buttons, and Jeremy's usual cocky, self-sabotaging self was replaced with anger, which was much less fun anyway.

Jeremy had spilled the juice, and Felipe took a moment to help mop part of it up, contemplating what to say.

"I'm glad," he said, fighting to keep his voice steady. "My family is small; we don't have any cousins or extended family nearby, and I wondered whether you'd gotten to spend much time off or whether you were busy with social affairs." Even to his own ears, the explanation sounded ridiculous. Hi, I'm Felipe, I'm asking a normal question and you're losing your mind, let me just explain this basic moment here for you. The thought made him more frustrated and he did his best not to be short with Jeremy as he continued talking.

"I'm not terribly, no," Felipe said, hoping that admitting to the tension in the situation would make it go away. His mother liked to remind him of the virtue of honesty, but he doubted that more honesty than that would go over well with this odd, wound up boy. "Like I said, my break was busy. It was nice to be home though."

He was quiet for a moment, debating whether he should apologize, or at least ask what was wrong. Before he could make a decision, Jeremy spoke again.

22 Felipe De Matteo I was trying quite hard, thank you very much. 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Cleo

April 03, 2019 8:32 AM

Can I do that from a corner without attracting attention? by Cleo

Sharing your childhood, with someone you had very little in common with sounded strange, and complicated, and like hard work. She guessed it was a bit like having a roommate, in that same sense of being forced to share your life with someone you had no guarantee of getting on with and being supposed to care how they felt about everything even if what they wanted was stupid or annoying. She was quite glad hers hadn't lasted – she was aware that she was possibly a bad person for thinking such things (or that it was, in fact, evidence of her being a non-person and maybe she should try to have kinder gentler thoughts if she didn’t want to be a monster) but that degree of forced companionship had not suited her. Cleo had occasionally wondered what it would be like to have a sibling but on the whole was glad she didn't - she had also sometimes wished to know more about her mom, and looking at how that had turned out was pretty much an embodiment of the phrase 'be careful what you wish for.' Still, for Jasmine that was normal, and she probably couldn't imagine it any other way any more than Cleo could.

"How do you know?" Cleo asked, when Jasmine stated with certainty that Anya would be a Pecari.

"Oh yikes, the concert,” she grimaced, “I’d almost managed to forget about that. Hopefully just quietly sitting in a corner or running whatever errands I’m given will do in terms of being an organiser.”

13 Cleo Can I do that from a corner without attracting attention? 389 Cleo 0 5

Jeremy Mordue

April 03, 2019 9:56 AM

Ok then.... by Jeremy Mordue

“I see,” Jeremy replied evenly, when Felipe claimed only to be talking about the presence of cousins and such like – apparently something he lacked. “Well, with Nathaniel and Sylvia being the same age, we practically grew up in each other’s houses. It doesn’t feel like ‘visiting relatives’ or anything like that.” He stopped short of saying anything sappy, like that they were one big family, or that he felt perfectly at home at Uncle Alexander’s, partly because it was simply too ghastly a thing to say, like something out of an overly wholesome novel, and secondly because that point did his Uncle a disservice – home was a place of claustrophobic anger, silent recrimination and maudlin headaches. Uncle Alexander’s was a welcome escape.

“Sorry to hear it. That sounds like a drag,” he acknowledged, when Felipe said he’d been kept busy. The admitting to a real feeling might have surprised him but griping about one’s obligations seemed to be borderline acceptable. So long as one didn’t actually feel overwhelmed – one could not feel so laden down that one was not coping, but you could acknowledge the tedium in the same way that one could express a dislike of having to do their homework whilst still ensuring one straight Os.

Felipe seemed to be contemplating something. Jeremy wasn’t sure what… But he definitely was going to steer this conversation away from Christmas if he could.

“So, back to classes for a bit of a rest then?” he joked. “How did you find them last term?”

13 Jeremy Mordue Ok then.... 1443 Jeremy Mordue 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

April 03, 2019 12:41 PM

Glad that's settled. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe bristled at Jeremy's words. He was well aware that the Mordue cousins were close in age, and that they spent time together outside of school. Did Jeremy think he was a moron? It wasn't like he didn't know how family worked just because his own was rather small these days. Then Jeremy went on to say what a drag it must've been to be busy. Considering Felipe was busy with festivities and community service, he would hardly have described it as a drag. He thought of the faces of those who only had anything to eat for the holidays because of his family's work and suddenly felt rather violently angry towards his roommate. Those people were not a drag.

He did have to acknowledge that he hadn't explained why he was busy or what he was doing for the break, but Jeremy hadn't asked either. What if he'd been busy with social engagements? He doubted the pureblood snotface would've been so keen to call those things a drag. What if he'd been busy caring for his sick mother or something? Where did Jeremy get off calling his busy home life a drag when comments about his own home life set him off?

Luckily, Jeremy turned the conversation. He did so with a joke, which seemed rather impolite, but Felipe was beyond expecting better from him at this point in the conversation. He wasn't quite sure whether he was asking about classes being a rest because it was an easy transition, or because he thought that Felipe's academic performance left something to desire in the effort department. He did seem to be trying to cool off, though, and Felipe wasn't interested in prolonging the more heated part of the conversation.

"Classes were good last term," Felipe assured him, ignoring the joke altogether. He mentally ran through his classes, both the highs and lows, and remembered Zara again. Darn it if that girl wasn't going to be good for him. He sighed to himself and made a point of letting his anger go. "It was really nice to meet new people. I feel very welcome here, and it's been a pleasure to learn so many new things in such a positive environment." Nodding as if that titled his experiences here sufficiently, he turned the question to Jeremy.

"How about for you? I've found that the castle grounds are particularly suited to study. Were you able to enjoy them at all?" It struck Felipe then that he'd hardly known what Jeremy did with his spare time, and they'd lived in the same room for the past several months. Guilt washed over him as he was sure that his father would be disappointed. Zara probably would be too. "If you'd like to study together this term, I'm sure that would be good."

22 Felipe De Matteo Glad that's settled. 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Tatiana Vorontsova

April 03, 2019 1:51 PM

Returning in style. by Tatiana Vorontsova

Many students - and staff, come to that - would have been surprised to hear it, but Tatiana had actually hesitated for a few moments before wrapping a wide belt, elaborately embroidered in gold thread, around the waist of her green robes. She used such devices, along with her jewelry, to add some relief to her stark green uniform often, and always had, but now it concerned her somewhat, made her worry for a moment that emphasizing her waist might in some way clue the rest of the school in to the notion her mother had taken - the notion that Tatiana had somehow developed A Figure.

Experimentation, however, had thankfully proven this not to be the case; the fabric, meant to be worn rather loosely, bunched so that she looked more or less the same as she always had in it, without any clear indicators showing of the uncomfortable new apparatus beneath. Her slip kept the damned thing from actually cutting into her skin, but the pressure was constant and annoying and she hated it and wondered if she could get away with not wearing it at all at school or if that would just make it that much more uncomfortable when she got home and had to do so to placate Mama.

The rest of her additions to the uniform, however, had caused no such hesitations, and so, as was her custom, she arrived at the Feast decked out as closely as she could to how she would dress for a feast at home. Her hair - still loose past her shoulders; at least Mama was not pretending she was marriageable! - was held back from her face by a wide velvet ribbon tied around her head, its width also embroidered and studded with seed pearls. Her diamonds flashed at her ears and, since it was a special occasion, had aquamarine drops hanging down from them; more aquamarines and diamonds glittered at her throat. Her wrists were encircled in links and bands of gold, two clinking softly together every time she moved on one wrist and three on the other, and she had five rings spread across her two hands, all intricate, tiny pieces of filigree punctuated with sapphires and emeralds and one narrow row of rubies in a setting which almost reached the knuckle of the longest finger on her right hand. And on her shoulder, partially obscuring her House badge, opals blazed from a new brooch. Even for her, even for a feast, this was a bit much, though perhaps only her closest friends would realize this.

She touched the brooch absently from time to time as the Hall filled up, people greeting friends and roommates and the like and chatting in mostly English. Tatiana understood more of it at a distance, without concentrating specifically, now; she was not quite sure when that had begun, or why once, answering a question over the holiday, she had started to give her answer in English, then fumbled when she realized that what she wanted to say did not have, so far as she knew, a direct Russian equivalent. Touching her jewels, so unlike the plainness of the Americans around her, was soothing; it reminded her who she was, undergarments and parties and English or none.

The headmaster had always earned a certain degree of approval from Tatiana with his speeches, which tended to be short and not use much vocabulary that she hadn't known even before she came here. He did not disappoint her by deviating from pattern now, and so she was able to quickly get to her food, which she was more than eager enough for.

All her life, Mama had told her that she would get fat and have to go for runs if she gobbled the way she was often inclined to, but Tatiana liked runs, and had not gotten fat (in her opinion, anywhere) yet. She filled her plate, then, with anything that looked appetizing, or which she knew from past experience was good to eat. There were thick slices of beef, a dish of narrow beans with some kind of crumbly white cheese and slivers of some form of nut in them, a strange root vegetable which looked almost like a potato on the outside but which was bright orange and sweet on the inside, bread almost as light as kulich and, if nothing like as sweet as kulich, still sweeter than most western bread, and bright slices of fruits on her plate, with a grape already between her fingers on its way to her mouth before her other hand ever reached for anything to drink.

"Good new year to you," she said politely to her neighbor. "And many years more."

16 Tatiana Vorontsova Returning in style. 1396 Tatiana Vorontsova 0 5

Jeremy Mordue

April 04, 2019 9:29 AM

Yup. Good. by Jeremy Mordue

Jeremy tried not to raise his eyebrows in sheer disbelief at Felipe. Ok, yes they all had to put on a face and say proper things but he sounded like he’d swallowed a school pamphlet. Jeremy only came out with such trite bull when it was going to get him somewhere - when it could curry favour with a tutor or with his uncle. He might have assumed Felipe was being sarcastic if he wasn’t so overly earnest and wholesome about just about everything. Plus the fact that Jeremy had nothing to give Felipe in return for sucking up to the school board, all of which indicated he might possibly genuinely mean that. What a loser. Although he didn’t make any truly obvious facial reaction like raising his eyebrows or rolling his eyes, the corners of his mouth twitched in amused smirk which likely told Felipe all he needed to know about what Jeremy thought of his response.

“I mostly do my studying in the Common Room,” he replied. After all, why would he venture outside it? Crotalus was where all the best people were. “Sometimes the library, so I can work with my brother,” he added. “It’s pretty convenient having someone on hand whose done all the homework before,” he added. Nathaniel seemed determined that Jeremy wouldn’t fail. At the moment, that mostly involved being on his case and nagging him like mother. But Jeremy was gradually working out how to push Nathaniel’s buttons to get him to give more of the answers. Not that Jeremy couldn’t work them out for himself, just why bother when there was a ready source of information on hand?

“Outside of that, I’m mostly on the pitch,” he added, “But yes, it would be pleasant to study together,” he added, not because it actually would be - if Felipe was annoying and sanctimonious in daily conversation, he would probably be insufferable during any kind of academic pursuit - but because clearly he was expected to agree to that and it would be rude not to.

13 Jeremy Mordue Yup. Good. 1443 Jeremy Mordue 0 5

Katerina Vorontsov

April 04, 2019 11:57 AM

Silly kids, Trix are for rabbits. by Katerina Vorontsov

It was peculiar, Katya thought, watching other girls around the room as they entered and took their seats. At home, a woman wore jewels, or displayed them in her home, as a show of wealth and taste, to let everyone know what she was; sometimes, you could surmise a great deal about how another woman's position related to your own at a glance. In America, however, girls who at home could have been mistaken for prosperous seamstresses walked with the dignified grace of a tsaritsa in her palace, while Tatiana, sparkling from head to waist...bounced.

They had argued again over midterm, Katya finally getting in severe trouble for throwing a cup at her sister in exasperation. Tatya just refused to stop acting like a child, or else moaning when she was compelled to do otherwise, and tonight she looked like one who had been playing in her mother's wardrobe instead of like a young lady of importance. Meanwhile, Katya was still treated like a child, even though she had done little to nothing to deserve it. It was all so unfair!

Unfair or not, however, they were sisters, and had ended the holiday back on good terms. Seeing her sister look silly - yet again - did, however, bring back some of the exasperation. If not enough to throw anything. She was not going to forget herself that far again any time soon, that was for sure.

Headmaster Brockert, however, arguably looked just as silly in the opposite direction, saying one sentence and then sitting down again. That just called attention to him, which clearly he did not want; it was all very puzzling to her. He could have either made the food appear without speaking - in which case hardly any of them would have been bothered to notice him at all - or he could have said something to make drawing attention to himself worthwhile. Now he just looked awkward, to her mind. Though Nadezhda had chided her over midterm also for being too critical whenever Mama and Papa weren't around. In any case, food was more interesting than whatever he had to say, so Katya set herself to gathering up some and giving an American smile to her neighbors to show that she knew how to show good manners here. She, at least, would not look silly tonight, even if everyone else in the Hall decided to do so.

16 Katerina Vorontsov Silly kids, Trix are for rabbits. 1418 Katerina Vorontsov 0 5

Simon Mordue

April 04, 2019 12:50 PM

Returning and feasting. by Simon Mordue

Midterm had, as far as Simon had been concerned, been satisfactory. They had seen and been seen, his aunt had not behaved too cringe-inducingly in public, and there had been gifts and lots of good food. What else did one need for a good holiday, really?

A good second half of the term might, however, prove more difficult to obtain. He didn't have major exams this year, thanks unto the stars, but regular examinations promised to be just as unpleasantly difficult as the rest of Advanced classes, and he knew his father would not accept anything less than excellence. Well - that was a misstatement. His father would obviously have to accept whatever marks he came home with, as there was no alternative, but he could certainly accept them in whatever spirit he liked, and say whatever he liked to Simon as a result. He supposed he would have said Nathaniel was almost lucky to have no father in that regard, if only that regard.

Not, of course, that it would have been an issue for Nathaniel - Simon found many things to criticize in Nathaniel's character, including his strange mix of arrogance and childish dependency on his mother's mercurial moods, but there was no denying that his cousin had a work ethic. He thought at times that Nathaniel was too hard on Jeremy for the least complaint or failure to maintain a fixed mask of everything-is-just-fine-here, even in private. Of course they all had to maintain a facade in public, but in private, among themselves, Simon didn't think it was nearly as necessary, especially for less important members of the family like Nathaniel and Jeremy. Simon had to maintain a level of dignity in front of all the younger ones, so he could control them later on, but Jeremy arguably mattered the least of the three and Simon thought it was rather unfair of Father and Nathaniel not to allow Simon and Jeremy to remove the mask in the few moments they had where such a thing was even thinkable.

Not, of course, that he would ever express that thought to Father. There was taking off the mask in private and then there was disrespect and insubordination, and even Sylvia, despite her status as their father's pet, knew there were lines.

He barely had time to arrange his face into an expression of polite attention for the headmaster's speech before it was over, which was all to the good as far as he was concerned; he was hungry. Manners, however, had to be observed, so he nodded formally, with a slight smile, to one of his neighbors. "Good evening," he said, though his fingers were already moving toward his fork.

16 Simon Mordue Returning and feasting. 369 Simon Mordue 0 5

Zevalyn Ives

April 04, 2019 3:13 PM

Shining through by Zevalyn Ives

Zevalyn would never take Christmas home with her family for granted again. It was not the first one she’d had since she started at Sonora, but it still felt fresh and almost unexpected that nothing had prevented her from returning to her parents for the whole of the midterm break.

There had, of course, been RATS to study for, and compulsive checking of the mailbox to see if any of her early admission college applications came back with positive news, but there had been turkey and presents and carols and games and chocolate to break up the academic worries that might have overwhelmed her if she’d stayed at school.

Now she was back, refreshed and optimistic about her last semester. As a prefect and the Head Girl, she took a seat at her own House table so if anyone needed her, they’d know where to look. She was a little surprised, though, when the first person to seek her out was not a first year with some concern about something, but Georgia.

“Invade away,” she invited with a warm smile, gesturing to an available seat. “I’ll be glad for the company.” She did not, after all, really have all that many friends in Aladren. She was the only one in her own year group, and while she didn’t dislike any of the sixth years, neither was she close to any of them, and it was a bit late in her Sonora career to start cultivating a closer friendship with any of them; they chances that they’d ever see each other again after this June were very slim. Gary was probably the closest she came to having a friend in her own House, and he was only a fourth year, so it was not exactly socially common for them to just hang out together.

“Did you have a good break?” she asked, aware that Georgia might not have, given the split nature of her family, but it was polite to ask. “Oh! I have a present for you!” she remembered after the Headmaster’s very brief remarks.

She reached into her robe pocket - with magically enlarged interior space - and pulled out a small but festively wrapped package and handed it to her friend. “Merry Christmas!” It wasn’t anything fancy, just a simple, relatively cheap, necklace with a witches’ hat charm that she’d bought two of so they could have matching jewelry, but she thought Georgia would like it. She was wearing hers, but it was under her shirt so Georgia wouldn’t see it too soon.

1 Zevalyn Ives Shining through 380 Zevalyn Ives 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

April 04, 2019 4:24 PM

und Sie sind schön by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda entered the Cascade Hall wearing a frown. Heinrich had strongly suggested that it would be advisable for her to sit at the Pecari table for the Feast rather than with him or Johana Leonie. She did not like this plan. Nobody in Pecari spoke German, and after two weeks at Uncle Karl’s, she had just been getting used to having everybody understand her again. (As all three of her relatives - even Hans - were prone to breaking into English without cause or warning, she could not say she had gotten used to always understanding those around her, but at least she knew they could comprehend her input to the conversation and it was nice not getting blank looks of incomprehension every time she opened her mouth.)

Still, Heinrich was the one who knew about Sonora’s customs the best, so she dropped huffily into a seat at the Pecari table. It was with great reluctance that she noticed Heinrich was right and there was less House cross over than normal during this Feast. However, she was quicker to notice, it was apparently not forbidden either, because she did see some people doing it.

The Headmaster’s words passed over her, barely noticed, though she was surprised to find she’d grasped the gist of the short greeting even without concentrating on it directly. She felt an irrational stab of anger that English had invaded her life so completely that she could do that against her will.

The bejeweled older girl sitting next to her said something that was less readily translated, though Hilda wasn’t sure if that was because of the words themselves or the heavy accent that definitely wasn’t German that they were delivered in.

The only ones she was sure of were ‘good’ and ‘more’ and given this was a feast, Hilda’s first guess was she was talking about food and wanted seconds already, despite that Hilda had been too engrossed in her sulk to have collected any food at all on her plate. Unfortunately, the older Pecari was making no gestures to indicate which dish she was expecting to be passed over to her.

“Was more?” Hilda asked, confused, her own words half German and half English as she blanked on the question word for ‘what’, and deeply accented so even the English ‘more’ could have been easily understood as ‘mehr’ by any German. “English hard,” she added, hoping that would encourage the shiny girl (who - between the accent and the accessories- Hilda was ninety-nine percent sure was the one Heinrich had pointed out as the Russian girl, Tatiana) to speak slowly and as clearly as possible.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister und Sie sind schön 1433 Hilda Hexenmeister 0 5

Tatiana

April 04, 2019 5:45 PM

Danke. by Tatiana

Tatiana did not quite understand the first year's accented English any more than the younger girl understood hers, and drew a blank in how to answer the question she thought she heard. More was...more. In Russian it was bol'she, and in French it was plus and in Chinese, she could say gèng, but none of those could help her now, not with one of the German-speaking first years.

Her eyes flicked toward the Teppenpaw table, but Katerina - who could stumble through a bit of German - couldn't help her now. At least the next statement was crystal clear and very understandable, not to mention relatable.

"Ja," she said, one of the German words she knew from Katya's insistence on reciting German to her after Katya had discovered there were German-speaking girls in the special help class Tatiana was still forced to attend, apparently in the vain hope that her Latin spelling would magically standardize before she had to sit the big exams next year. "English very hard." She began dropping extra words without really noticing in conversation with another non-native. "Tak mnogo slov! So many words! But Deutsch, also many words." Belatedly, it occurred to her that she was possibly not being very polite in pointing that out. "Ich sprech...Russkii, and...Frankreich. Ich nicht sprech lots Deutschland." Perhaps the girl knew some French; it was a more widespread language, it seemed, than either German or Russian, at least in this part of the world. In Russia, Tatiana thought, German was a popular enough second language - her mother spoke it - but Tatiana had always struggled to get a grip on it and they had given up trying to teach it to her in any systematic way fairly early, especially after she had started sitting in on Grisha's English lessons. The tutors said it was hard to learn German and English both; Tatiana truly felt for the girls and for Heinrich Hexenmeister.

"Bist du...sestra?" she asked, taking a gamble that the word for 'sister' sounded similar in German. It seemed to be unusually common for it to sound the same in different languages; Russian sestra, English sister, French soeur - or, as Dorya called her sometimes, soeurette, but she thought that was more a pet name for her particularly than something a French person would regularly say, rather like his diminutive was one she had more or less made up for him.

16 Tatiana Danke. 1396 Tatiana 0 5

Bridget Ferguson

April 04, 2019 7:40 PM

That's good, I like friendliness by Bridget Ferguson

Bridget had been glad to go home for midterm. Mama was doing a bit better-she had gotten better from what she had when the Teppenpaw had left for Sonora, then gotten sick again, then got better again, though was still not at all healthy-and both her parents had been super happy to see her. She'd had her birthday too, a party with just her family. Which was all that Bridget had wanted.

Besides, it wasn't as if she'd really made any friends at school to invite. Her roommates were nice enough but the first year had been rather withdrawn so hadn't gotten very close to them. She wasn't the most outgoing of people anyway but worrying about her parents made it harder to deal with socializing.

So now she was back at school and lonely. Bridget had Sophia but they were in different houses which left her on her own at the Teppenpaw table for the Returning Feast. Which she guessed wasn't quite as bad as being on her own at a different table.

She took a seat across from her roommate, Johana Leonie as Headmaster Brockert gave his greeting. Honestly, Bridget couldn't blame him for making it so short. First of all, he was addressing a room full of teenagers who were probably cranky, hungry and tired and so didn't want to listen to a long speech. Secondly, if he didn't have anything really to announce, why bother prolonging things?

Johana Leonie addressed her as Bridget took some meatloaf. "It was good, thanks. How was yours?"

11 Bridget Ferguson That's good, I like friendliness 1448 Bridget Ferguson 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

April 04, 2019 7:49 PM

Great. by Felipe De Matteo

Ah, yes, because there's no one in the world more interesting than the rest of Crotalus. Felipe heartily regretted being the sort of boy who would be placed there all of a sudden. He wondered whether he could be resorted once he learned to be a more decent human being than his housemates. Of course, that very attitude was part of the problem. He stifled the shame that rose when he realized that Jeremy had only said he preferred to study in the Common Room and not why. He was exactly as guilty as his roommate was; perhaps he just found the more quiet environment better suited to academics.

Then Jeremy mentioned his brother and Felipe decided that it was much more a matter of status than anything. "Yes, that sounds convenient," Felipe agreed, masking the disbelief that someone would admit so blatantly to not doing the work he was getting credit for.

Felipe couldn't figure out what his own problem was. Why was he coming back from break and feeling so sour, so quickly? It's not like time at home had suddenly made him a better person. Had it made him worse? Was he just judgmental now? The worry continued when Jeremy mentioned Quidditch (presumably) but he latched onto it regardless.

"Yes, we both enjoy spending time outside," Felipe smiled, glad to have finally found something reasonably in common. He could bring in the sport, bring in their common interests, and bring in Jeremy's family legacy. All would be well and Felipe could go on eating his dinner without the nagging sensation that he was exactly the sort of person he hated. "Quidditch is in your blood, yes?"

22 Felipe De Matteo Great. 1434 Felipe De Matteo 0 5

Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

April 04, 2019 8:06 PM

I like you! by Johana Leonie Zauberhexen

Johana Leonie was thrilled to find that her greeting, the most standard, cliche thing she could've started with, had worked! Now she was going to have a conversation with a new person. Well, sort of new. Bridget was her roommate, but they hadn't talked much. In all honesty, that sort of made Johana Leonie like her more. Zara was nice but she was the sort of friendly that made people better, rather than just sort of letting them be who they were. She was good at encouraging people to improve, but Johana Leonie was trying to improve so many things at once that she was pretty sure she was constantly letting the girl down.

Bridget, however, didn't have those sort of expectations and was easier to talk to because she didn't need to talk much.

"Good! My break was good also. I like to see my Familie und I like to eat mama's food," Johana Leonie smiled, following after her roommate and taking a slice of what looked like a sort of Hackbraten. She doubted this variation would have boiled eggs inside, but took some all the same. "What are your . . . Weihnachtstraditionen . . . Weihnachten . . . traditionen . . . traditions? Right?" Ah, and here she'd been doing so good. "Christmas traditions?"

22 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen I like you! 1432 Johana Leonie Zauberhexen 0 5

Dorian Montoir

April 05, 2019 9:56 AM

On behalf of rabbits, I object by Dorian Montoir

Professor Brooding's wedding had quite possibly been the best eight hours of his life. It had been so perfect, and he had found it hard to keep the promise he had made to his mother that he would come home by a pre-arranged portkey. He had wanted to stay forever. Everything had been so lovely, the whole day had been infused with gentleness and warmth and happiness. He was also quite in love with the professors' friend, Evangeline - or at least with the fact she spoke one his languages and had kept feeding him. He was fifteen, and thus there was a fine line between romantic attraction and being given delicious food. Beyond that, it was the furthest from home he’d ever been, especially without an kind of parental supervision, and the taste of freedom he’d got had been thrilling. It had been so easy to imagine a life outside that which was planned out for him, but one which was happy - full of friends, and warm sunshine, and good food…

And then he had stumbled back onto the terrace in Québec, and barely touched down before there was a cry of ’Nǐ huíláile’ - you’re back, relieved, as if he had been somehow late. And he had leant on the low stone wall, feeling slightly more sick and dizzy than he usually did from a portkey, and she had dropped the warming charm that usually bounded the terrace to let him take sharp lungfuls of cold air, and had gently brushed a hand through his hair. And when he straightened up, feeling better, he realised she was shivering with cold. For his sake. Too focussed on his well-being to cast a warming charm on herself. And they had taken each other inside, where she had a pot of tea waiting - somehow the exact blend he hadn’t even known he wanted, and he’d felt guilty at any thought of abandoning her.

It was still the biggest conflict. He wanted to run away from home, and just take Jehan away to live in Greece with him, and be fed by Evangeline and not have any worries. And he wanted never to leave his mother or make her sad because she was wonderful and she loved him and he loved her. The little taste he’d got of a different kind of life had only made that schism run deeper. It didn’t feel like one side was going to win out against the other - like he was going to ever know how to choose or to deal with this - it felt only like the split between the two halves of him was getting bigger, and the most likely outcome was that it would grow and grow until he ripped clean in two. And the amortentia-laced flowers at the wedding had only served to underline it. Because they smelt of three things to him; they smelt of Jehan’s sweaters (of course they did) and of old books, but also of jasmine tea. They were different kinds of love, but the comfort of home pulled on his heart as strongly as the boy he loved. Almost. Or as much? He didn’t know.

He had thrown himself for the remainder of the holidays into being a good son. Into making his mother smile, and spending time curled up at her side reading, letting her fuss over him. He wanted to say his motivation was just enjoying it, but he couldn’t help but worry, let other thoughts creep in... Was he was putting on a show to compensate for how he was going to fail later? Was he making the most of it in case it got snatched away if he got the other half of what he wanted? It didn’t feel simple and uncomplicated to just enjoy being loved any more, and that sucked.

Outside of this, the rest of the holiday had gone as he predicted. When he wasn’t around his mother, he was subject to trip jinxes, or the books he was reading suddenly jumping up and pinching his nose or hitting him over the head. He had got good, over the years, at dodging and diving, of staying out of Matthieu’s reach, but now that his brother could use magic at home, it had shifted things, and the range for being a target had become much wider. He had found himself thinking a lot of a certain someone coming to his rescue… It had been interesting to meet someone back home who seemed wholly opposed to everything his brother represented, and he could not help but drift into the occasional daydream where Jean-Loup swooped in to save him from Matthieu. They were not romantic fantasies. He did not kiss imaginary Jean-Loup. First and foremost, he was in love with Jehan, and it would have felt like a betrayal of that to go around kissing other boys, even if only in his own head. Secondly, he was pretty sure Jean-Loup would not want Dorian to imagine doing that with him, and thus it felt a bit rude. That logic had once applied to Jehan too, but somewhere along the way he’d just given into the fact that fantasising about making out with Jehan was impossible to avoid.

All these factors combined to make him feel rather down on his luck as he entered the hall. However, he threw Professor Brooding a cheerful smile nonetheless as he suspected she was still happily riding high from the time in Greece, and he didn’t want to spoil that. He’d been getting better and better recently at smiling convincingly even when he didn’t feel like it. It had been something that he needed more and more often. Close up, he thought his friends might notice the cracks, but from this distance, it would pass.

He found himself watching Tatiana as he waited for everyone to settle - she was especially eye-catching this evening. He had tried to draw a correlation between her jewellery and her moods but had never reached any definitive conclusions; the three moods in which Tatiana wore above and beyond her usual level of sparkles appeared to be 1) when she was feeling down and wanted to cheer herself up 2) when she was feeling exuberantly happy and wished to display this and 3) when she had new sparkles. Given that this covered, essentially, almost all of Tatya’s spectrum of emotions, it was a little hard to divine from. He hoped it was option two or three.

He didn’t particularly notice the headmaster’s speech. Rather, he noticed the scent of food and everyone around him starting to move. He found he was sitting next to Katerina, who was smiling. She did this more than Tatya. He was unsure whether this because she was happier (or amused) more often or simply trying to be more American (Tatya having educated him on American over-smiling). Still, when someone smiled - whatever the reason - they usually expected one in return. He gave her one that would pass for cheerful and friendly.

“Good evening. Our Tanya is especially shiny tonight. Good news, bad news, or simply Christmas gifts?” he asked.

13 Dorian Montoir On behalf of rabbits, I object 1401 Dorian Montoir 0 5

Katerina

April 05, 2019 6:57 PM

Oh? I thought Trix were what rabbits wanted most. by Katerina

Katya was not precisely pleased to have everyone else also noticing Tatiana, but neither was she surprised. Dorian was not, after all, blind, and neither was the rest of the student body.

"Some Christmas," she said, glad he had used the English word first so she didn't slip and say Rozhdestvo instead. "She gets - what she wears here for Christmas," added Katya, pointing to the spot above her own House badge as she realized she was not quite sure she knew the English word for a brooch.

Privately, Katya thought the opal brooch a bit ugly, and certainly ostentatious - the two not seeming so far removed from each other to her as they might have to some. Tatiana was awfully fond of opals, though, so her latching on to that piece when Papa had had a selection laid out for her to pick her own big present from had not been surprising. More surprising had been Papa letting her have two things this year, when she had wavered between that brooch and the strand of comparatively small but quite exquisite peacock-black sea pearls from Polynesia. Tatiana's liking for irregular sea pearls had its precedent in her baroque blue strands and the earrings she wore with those, but those were only Japanese - more valuable than the freshwater strands they all had for everyday wear, but rather less valuable than anything from the south seas. Katya considered this latest acquisition a bit ridiculous, at least for a fourteen-year-old girl, and she knew Mama agreed with her.

"Did you receive good gifts this year?" she asked.

16 Katerina Oh? I thought Trix were what rabbits wanted most. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Georgia

April 05, 2019 10:25 PM

And that's why I love you by Georgia

“Christmas was pretty good,” she smiled. The whole ‘Christmas at separate houses’ thing had stung for the first few years but now she was just used to it. She had felt for a long time that magic had been the reason behind the split which had put a lot of pressure on her relationship with her dad, but having found out that it was actually the lying about the magic had put a different spin on things. Aside from her mom being a pain this year, she had a pretty decent relationship with them both. Just… separately. “My mom is getting seriously into her stride on ‘what are you going to do with your life?’” she added with an eye-roll. Just because she had a good relationship with them did not put her above complaining about how annoying they were. She was a teenager, and that was her prerogative. “Like… apparently if I don’t figure this all out I’m gonna like… I dunno, die or be destitute or miserable or something. The consequences were not actually specified but seem to be pretty dire from the way she was going on about it,” she explained, sounding utterly unconcerned by this impending doom. “Dad’s was more fun. Binge watching show choir things and all the usual Christmas stuff. How was yours?

"Ooh, thanks," Georgia smiled, taking the present from Zev, "I got you one too," she smiled, pulling a cube-shaped parcel in sparkly blue snowflake paper from her pocket. Inside was a mug which read World's Best Study Buddy in shimmery blue text. Georgia had also added one of those luxury chocolate thingies that you could stir into hot milk to make really good hot chocolate. Not that the elves here ever let them down on that front but a mug gift had felt incomplete without something to go in it.

"Aww," she squealed when she unwrapped Zevalyn's gift, "This is super cute," she enthused, putting the necklace on. "It'll be a fun way to claim my witchiness wherever I am," she grinned happily.

13 Georgia And that's why I love you 346 Georgia 0 5

Dorian

April 05, 2019 10:59 PM

You are not saying that we play tricks? by Dorian

”Brosh,” Dorian shrugged with a slightly apologetic smile, showing that he knew the Russian rather than supplying the English. “You can say to me jewellery words in Russian. I will understand,” he assured her. This was an issue that was becoming more and more apparent in all his languages… They were all a bit patchy. There were certain subjects where he had the vocabulary in one but not another. For school things, it was far easier to talk about them in English, and he worried that he wouldn’t be able to have a suitably intelligent conversation about magic, or about the things he discussed with Jehan such as art and literature, with anyone back home. And yet, at times, he still felt like he was struggling to articulate himself as smoothly as he would have liked in English. He enjoyed speaking multiple languages, but he didn’t want to end up with a smattering of each, and no one language in which he could truly express himself.

“Yes. Many foods, clothes and books,” he smiled, in response to her question about Christmas gifts. He decided not to elaborate on the books he had received, even though they had often shared reading material. He had finished one of his gifts already - it was set in the near future, where non-magical people had discovered the existence of wizarding kind and were trying to destroy/exploit it. It was down to a plucky band of teenagers to preserve magical knowledge and fight back. It was sort of a fun adventure, he supposed, but it wasn’t really his type of thing. He was more interested in a book that Émilie had received but he had already borrowed, about a girl dying of Vanishing Sickness who falls in love, and which promised to be wonderfully heartbreaking. “And my sister bought me some nice stationeries, for doing plans for the concert,” he elaborated, a little sliver of optimism finding him as he thought about that. The concert was something he was looking forward to, and which might manage to replace wedding planning, now that he no longer had that to lift his spirits.

“And you?” he asked.

13 Dorian You are not saying that we play tricks? 1401 Dorian 0 5

Katya

April 05, 2019 11:47 PM

No, I am saying you have a right to choose your own cereal. by Katya

Katya knew her sister rather well. Katya knew that her sister and Dorian were very close. Katya even knew that men ought to have some interest in baubles, if only so they knew the value of their wives’ collections, or at least could avoid a bad bargain when buying gifts for sisters and wives and daughters. Even so, even with all that knowledge, she was still startled for a moment when Dorian casually identified the item she was trying to explain- and did so in Russian.

“Tatya is impossible,” she said matter-of-factly. It hardly seemed to her like a subject worthy of debate, at least at first glance. At second glance, she paused and added, “or do your family make jewelry?”

This was said with a slight note of teasing in her voice, but it was possible. The best metal charmers - or at least, heads of the houses which employed the best metal charmers - were often wealthy and respected. Tatiana had come home from a party Mama had dragged her to and reported that she had danced with a son of such a house. It had never occurred to Katya to think of marrying a merchant, however prosperous, but some did rub shoulders with the same people her family did, and she and Tatiana were younger daughters. If Dorian was destined to become a jeweler one day - well, Tatiana might enjoy marriage to him, but Katya doubted his house would enjoy her. She’d be terrible for profits. However, there was no reason to rule out one of them marrying him or the young man at Mama’s party or any number of people, regardless of what answer Dorian gave.

Food, clothes, books, stationery. These all sounded familiar. She and her siblings were each given a few coins to spend on small gifts for each other, and so Katya had a full new supply of note paper, embroidered handkerchiefs, hair ribbons, lace gloves, a really beautiful cut glass inkwell with a silvery stopper elaborately embossed with images of birds and flowering vines, and a few bags of sweets, along with her proper gifts from the adults.

“My brother - “ Alyosha was too young still to take part, though Katya expected by next year he would at least be expected to knit little things for Papa and his unmarried sisters - “and sisters give me gloves, stationeries, ribbon,” she said. “I also have books from Mama and Papa, in French and German.” There were three people here who spoke German, which made her want to improve hers. “And this,” she added, remembering, holding up her wrist. Several lengths of golden mesh encircled her wrist, and the links between segments were attached to three emeralds. “I think this is bracelet - “ her accent thickened, prouncing the word as the Russian brah-slet in place of the American English brayslet - “in three language,” she observed, trying to be sure of her memory of French.

16 Katya No, I am saying you have a right to choose your own cereal. 1418 Katya 0 5

Dorian

April 06, 2019 12:47 AM

Oh. That sounds much more reasonable. by Dorian

“No, I learn from Tatya,” Dorian confirmed, when Katerina - if he understood her correctly - asked whether he had learnt such words due to her sister or a family business. He knew some of them in Chinese as well because they were Mama Words but he had not brought this up because it was not relevant, Katerina not speaking any of this language, and he did not wish to seem to like he was showing off or drawing attention to her lack of knowledge in something (especially something in which it was entirely reasonable and expected that she knew nothing). “Why does this make her impossible?” he asked. Although her tone had been neutral enough, it was a far from positive comment, and he didn’t understand the problem.

“That is very impressive,” he commented regarding her acquisition of novels in different languages - or rather, he ability to read such things. “Have you become well acquainted with any of the German-speakers here?” he asked. He had never really connected with Heinrich, who was the closest to him in age, and he felt a little bad about this. He felt the non-native speakers should offer each other some solidarity. The other boy was rather silent and almost stand-offish though. As someone fairly quiet himself, Dorian knew not to automatically equate the one with the other but it made Dorian wary of intruding if his company might be unwanted.

“Yes, correct,” he confirmed. In French, the pronunciation was different enough to have an extra syllable but it was recognisable as the same word. “Or, at least three languages,” he added, as given the prevalence of the word, it was possible that it was the same or similar in multiple more European languages. He wondered about the etymology of jewellery… Who had invented each piece, and how had names spread so that in some places they were so similar, and yet the names for other items diverged so widely? He wondered whether the library could tell him, and whether Tatya would be interested in the answers if he found them. She generally seemed less inclined to make an academic study of her passions than he was, but it tied into two areas of her interest, and just because she didn’t want to do the research herself did not mean she would be uninterested in his findings. He added to the mental list of reasons to cocoon himself in a pleasant corner of the library as soon as possible. “Vash braslet ochen' krasivyy,” he added to Katerina. It might have been a bit of an exaggeration to say that the names of different bits of jewellery and ‘is very pretty’ had been amongst the first sentences he had learnt in Russian, but he didn’t think it was much of one…

13 Dorian Oh. That sounds much more reasonable. 1401 Dorian 0 5

DH Skies

April 06, 2019 8:45 AM

Post-Feast Announcements by DH Skies

As the crumbs faded from the feast, Selina stood. Post-feast speeches were not a common occurrence but she felt that one was warranted on this occasion, as there were a few points the headmaster hadn’t mentioned and which it was important to communicate to the students.

“Good evening,” she called, her voice magically amplified, “I’m sure you’re all very full and keen to get your beds, but before that, we have a couple of announcements.

“As you all know, Professor Taransay left us at the end of last term,” as this had not been a sudden departure, he had had time himself to tell his students. Selina did not dwell on the reasons - the opportunity to work on a kelpie reserve in his native Scotland, and being closer to his mother, who was not well - trusting that he had communicated whatever he wanted to about that. Selina had also had time to look for replacements for the two roles he had had at the school. “Professor Wright will be taking over as Aladren Head of House,” she informed them, pausing to allow a polite round of applause for his promotion. There had been a decent amount of interest from the staff, and she was pleased to see she had a dedicated team who were keen to take on more responsibility, but Grayson had been the logical - pun fully intended - choice, as both the longest serving of the junior staff members and an Aladren alumnus. There was no hard and fast rule regarding that, of course, but it felt right.

“We have also hired Professor Marsh as our new Care of Magical Creatures teacher,” she informed them, although there was no new face at the staff table - she thought that might not have gone unnoticed and unremarked upon even by Headmaster Brockert, “He will be joining us before the end of the week,” she informed them. “I hope you will make him feel welcome.

“That is all. Sleep well and we look forward to seeing you in classes tomorrow.”

OOC - details about other staff provided or approved by their authors. This does not signal a close to this thread and people may continue to post here as long as they like - just wanted to make sure the staff changes had been officially passed on to students before we started posting classes.

13 DH Skies Post-Feast Announcements 26 DH Skies 0 5

Katerina

April 06, 2019 11:23 AM

Naturally. I am very reasonable. by Katerina

Katya did not know if she knew how to explain the issue with her sister in such a way that it would be comprehensible to someone who, to her surprise, seemed to genuinely think it was something that required explanation. She would have expected any teenage boy to be less than interested in Tatiana showing off her pretties....

"Tatiana is like malen'kaya devochka," she said - a little girl. "She...says the ocean to fill the tea glass." She was beginning from a saying that referred to something else entirely, then translating that into English, so she wasn't sure how well it was going to work. Oh, well.

She flushed with pleasure at being called impressive, but had to shake her head when asked if she knew the German speakers well. "No," she said. "This is why I must practice. German is hard." Katya prided herself on her skill with languages, but the 'h' sound was truly difficult. The girl sitting with Tatiana - when Katerina tried to say her name, it sounded like she was accusing her of murder in English. Khil'da - that was what Katya came up with. The surname almost gave her a headache just looking at it, never mind trying to say it, though she thought the 'kh' sound was difficult for English and German speakers too, along, possibly, with 'zh' and 'ts' and 'zn.'

Remembering the difference between formal and informal forms of 'you' in different languages was also difficult, so Katya didn't correct Dorian for addressing her as though she was an adult or someone who stood above him in rank. Perhaps he thought he ought to address all females that way; she had read that some English and French had an elaborate idea of how to treat women that involved virtually treating any lady as if she was at least a princess. "Pozhaluista," she said, and smiled. "So. The - kon-tsert. How do you plan for it?" she asked.

16 Katerina Naturally. I am very reasonable. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Dorian

April 08, 2019 9:30 AM

Except towards your sister by Dorian

Dorian was rather taken aback by Katya’s comments. Having spent his whole life having his sibling complain that he behaved in a way that didn’t fit his gender, he wondered what was wrong with Tatya behaving like a girl, given that she was one. This also did not mesh with her own complaints about the unfair hands life had dealt them as these had revolved around her failure to behave how girls should. Had he confused the words for girl and boy somehow? Was she complaining that Tatya behaved like a little boy? Perhaps, had he not been trying to process a remark from his least familiar language, the connotations of ‘little’ would have struck him more - but then again, perhaps not, given how Katya’s remark clashed up against all his his issues with the world.

The rest of what she said was equally confusing. Dorian took advantage of the food on his plate, taking a couple of mouthfuls to give himself time to puzzle over what Katya had said. An ocean into a teaglass… That was too much. He was not sure why Tatya would talk about oceans filling tea glasses. Clearly it was an idiom… It either meant talking nonsense, or overflowing… He felt a slight stab of guilt at finding himself not really able to rule either out….

“I… I do not confuse my words. Tatya is devochka, yes?” he asked, clearly puzzled. “And… oceans into teaglass… She says that an ocean can go in a teaglass, meaning she says silly things, or she talks… the amount of an ocean, when there is only a teaglass to fill?” he asked.

“I… I am not sure,” he confessed, when she asked how he would plan for the concert. “Well, as with all plans, I will go to the library,” he reasoned, “I do not yet know much about what the prefects want, or how the songs are. But hopefully, I find this out, and the library will have helpful books.” He was not sure that the library would have an extensive section on the backstage magics of the theatre industry, but he was sure that there would be information that he could put to good use - scattered perhaps through different volumes of Charms - and as Sonora’s library had never once let him down, he felt quite confident asserting that it would assist him now.

13 Dorian Except towards your sister 1401 Dorian 0 5

Katerina

April 08, 2019 6:38 PM

I think I'm being fair to her as well. by Katerina

"Tatya is devochka," confirmed Katya. "But she should be big one now. Instead she is like - " she struggled with words - "she like the girl who - oh, what is word?" she asked, snapping her fingers with impatience with herself. "A false baby? Small girl plays with it."

Not that Tatiana had ever had much interest in baby dolls, on the whole. She had preferred dolls that looked like people who were big enough to walk, anyway, even if they clearly were not adults, dolls which Tatiana could use beads and thread to fashion necklaces and bracelets and hairpieces and belts for and then send on 'adventures' which had often been rather too adventurous for girls at all, much less ones with strings of 'pearls' wrapped around their waists. She had sometimes agreed to play teatime with Katya in exchange for Katya writing down the adventures for her, but even with her toys she had never been exactly proper, at least not of her own free choice.

"She says the ocean of words about her, when all we needs is the tea glass. If I go to samovar, I do not want the ocean in the spout!" She smiled at that, amused by the joke she had made. "And Tatiana shows her shiny to all, like the little one shows its toy-baby, wants you to - " Katya mimed rocking a baby back and forth. "Though it is only a toy-baby. Impossible. You have great - " she could not remember the word for patience. "Good manners," she finished instead.

She nodded to the plans for concert preparations. "I am sure it will," she said. "If I see the book that will help, I will tell you," she promised.

16 Katerina I think I'm being fair to her as well. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Dorian

April 08, 2019 9:11 PM

I am inclined to disagree by Dorian

Ah. Tatya behaved like a little girl. Not Tatya behaved like a little girl. Dorian tilted his head curiously, appraising this assessment. This was never something he had much considered. He suppossed he felt that he acted a little more grown up than she did, if he thought about it, but he never really had. He was generally inclined to think of her and Vlad as the little ones anyway, because they had summer birthdays. And Tatya was his souerette, and was so like Émilie, to the extent that he was perhaps inclined to consider her younger than she was. On top of which, he tended to forget how much Émilie herself was growing up... All in all, 'maturity' had never been a value which he had particularly measured either of them by.

He also thought jewellery was more for grown-ups than for children, but given that he was talking to a girl, he was not going to attempt to have any kind of authority there. He supposed the way Tatya wore it was more obvious and more ostentatious, but this was something he had always attributed to either culture or personality, neither of which he was keen to stamp out or correct. Even Katya's more muted appearance had done little to change his perception - she was either less interested in jewellery than her sister, or had more desire to blend in. It had never prompted him to think of the way Tatya wore jewellery as being incorrect. Just different.

"Don't be unkind about your sister," he requested gently. He was disturbed by how annoyed Katya seemed. He knew that the sisters squabbled sometimes but she seemed to be taking exception to the very fact of who Tatya was, and that was different. "A Tatya who does not talk and sparkle so much sounds not much like Tatya," he observed. "Can she not be a big person who is still herself? I do not listen to her from good manners," he added, taking exception to the idea that Tatya was somehow to be put up with, or endured, " I listen because I like when she is happy. People are more interesting when they are enthusiastic." Admittedly, there were exceptions to that rule, such as Matthieu's blow by blow accounts of Quidditch matches. But then, he suspected a large part of that was how inherently unpleasant Matthieu was as a person. Could he listen to Jean-Loup detailing a Quidditch match? He thought it might be bearable, at the very least. He might even be ~~cute~~ interesting to watch, if he was really excited about it. Perhaps, it was more a fondness for the person that made their personal enthusiasm interesting. He was not sure he could have listened to a lecture on jewellery, however passionate the speaker, from someone other than Tatya. It also worked the other way too, in that he thought he could listen to Jehan recite paint colours and find it fascinating (actually, paints did have some rather poetic names, but... well, that wasn't the point. He wasn't sure he could come up with anything more archetypally dull... Lists of Quidditch players was, he supposed, the peak of dullness, as far as he was concerned. And he could definitely think of more interesting things Jehan could do with his mouth... He would rather shut him up by kissing him, but.... but he had had a point when he started that thought, even if it was gone now).

"We like her as she is really, no?" he checked with Katya, forcing his attention back to the topic at hand.

13 Dorian I am inclined to disagree 1401 Dorian 0 5

Evelyn Stones

April 08, 2019 9:15 PM

Thank you for everything. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn was not thinking about anything of any weight when she was eating her meal, she was just eating her meal. It was nice to see everyone again, and it was good to be back at Sonora. It had been so nice to see CJ again, but he was a baby and she could only play with a baby for so long before he needed to nap or poop or something. She'd changed more diapers than she really wanted to over break, and couldn't help being a little glad to be back.

When Professor Skies stood up to make an announcement, another thought - undoubtedly borne of nostalgia - crossed Evelyn's mind. She waited for the woman to finish her announcements and then approached, feeling very small.

"Excuse me," Evelyn said, trying to remind herself that she was a big girl. "I just . . . I wanted to thank you."

A lump formed in her throat and a hot flush of shame made her cheeks rosy. She pushed both aside. "I know I talked mostly to Professor Carter-Xavier about this, but you were involved and you were a really big part of everything and I just really want to thank you." Evelyn took a steadying breath. "You know that I couldn't go home last year for Christmas? Of course you do. Well, I couldn't. And this year, I got to go home for Christmas. You sort of fixed everything."

She didn't feel it was necessary to qualify that with "almost" or "mostly" or "most of the time." Her life at home was so many times better than it had been before, and she'd only seen her father get angry once or twice over all of Christmas break.

"Thank you for everything," she said again.

22 Evelyn Stones Thank you for everything. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Katerina

April 09, 2019 8:27 PM

As is your right, of course. by Katerina

Katya could have screamed. Of course he would take Tatiana's part in this - of course her sister was the one who must be in the right, always. Even at home, it was really only Mama who routinely saw things the same way that Katya did, and....

Well, of course Mama was very important. She ruled their home. But really, at the end of it all, she was not that much more influential than Katya herself. Men were the ones who had all the control, and Tatya seemed to have...some peculiar power over men, or at least the ones they both knew, at least for now. It must change, as all things had to do, but for now, they listened to her sister, indulged Tatiana's selfish, often capricious whims, if Katya was ever so forward, she could hardly imagine....

She smoothed her face over. Mama said that Katya could be too sharp, too critical, when she let her tongue go free. No one wanted to hear that, least of all a young man - it was not pretty. She had to be tranquil. Serene. Pleasant.

"Yes," said Katya. "Of course we do. But she must learn to be dama. None can stay as malen'kaya devochka."

The question disturbed her more than she let on. Did she actually like her sister? She had never really thought about it before. They were sisters, so they loved each other, but this didn't mean they had to like each other - the two things were very different. One would put up with things from a family member that would get an outsider banished from one's company in perpetuity and think nothing of it. The difference between public and private had a great deal to do with it, along with the importance of family. She knew that even if they had just had a blazing argument, Tatiana would instantly forget it if Katerina needed something, and Katya would do as much for her. All this, however, was beyond her English, and beyond polite dinner conversation as well.

"Tatiana makes some effort, though," she allowed, then had an idea. "She goes to party in the holiday. Danced with a big jewelry-man's son," she added, glancing sideways at Dorian to see what reaction that nugget of information got from him.

16 Katerina As is your right, of course. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Dorian

April 10, 2019 12:22 AM

And it's probably yours to be annoyed with her by Dorian

Dorian was relieved to hear Katya admit that, underneath all this, she loved her sister. As she explained that Tatya would have to grow up (something he thought she herself might be rather opposed to) he wondered whether more of her complaints came from concern rather than bitterness or anger towards her sister. Katya was a Teppenpaw after all, and was probably just wanting the best for Tatya. He found himself softening towards her again, reassured that there was nothing hostile in what she was saying. Of course, that did not mean there was nothing harmful... Pressuring someone to grow up into what you wanted them to be, instead of what they were, could hurt a lot. But that was definitely projecting, and there was no reason why he shouldn't give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Oh, really?" Dorian asked, with mild curiosity when Katya mentioned Tatya dancing with some jewellery boy at a ball. When he pictured Tatya at home, he pictured her amongst her family, playing and eating, as those were the things she talked about most. She was too young for many of the parties, and had always seemed to regret the loss of a chance to wear a pretty outfit more than the loss of a chance to meet boys. It was strange to think of Tatya dancing with boys, but equally he could not imagine that this meant much. He and she had danced together previously, after all. And she was so against marriage that it was hard to imagine Tatya losing her head over a boy. That was much more his style... "That is nice for her. I suspect she enjoys this meeting."

13 Dorian And it's probably yours to be annoyed with her 1401 Dorian 0 5

Katerina

April 10, 2019 6:35 PM

It is in the Sister Contract, yes. by Katerina

Dorian seemed prepared to accept Katya's explanation for her faux pas, and so she breathed a little easier, muscles in her shoulders coming back down to normal from positions she hadn't realized they had assumed. Crisis averted, for now.

That was, admittedly, not altogether a surprise to her. What was more interesting was his lack of any real reaction to the news that Tatya had been dancing with other boys over the holidays, and ones theoretically in positions to give her things she valued, should she marry them. Either they were as good as engaged, and so he wasn't threatened at all, or - or Katya simply didn't know enough to know. It was possible Dorian was simply very self-controlled (which seemed to be a fact) and so wasn't going to react in front of Katya, and it was theoretically possible that he simply thought Tatya had too much dignity to lower herself to marrying into a merchant family, though Katya found the thought that someone might think that incredible. It might or might not be a good match, depending on how one looked at it, but who would think that Tatiana would think long enough at one time to think of that?

"I did not hear this much," she admitted, and then sighed glumly. "I am too young. No party for me. I stay home, I only hear from others." She bit her tongue before she went on too much and seemed to be whining. Whining was not pretty. Nobody wanted to hear that, and it just made her seem sillier. "Do you have parties in winter?" she asked, wishing to both direct attention away from her own youth and to learn more about life outside the village.

16 Katerina It is in the Sister Contract, yes. 1418 Katerina 0 5

DH Skies

April 11, 2019 8:14 AM

I didn't do much by DH Skies

Selina was surprised to find a student approaching her at the end of the meal. And a non-Crotalus student, at that. Though one with a penchant for disasters in Transfiguration, and a fairly turbulent homelife. Which meant she could possibly shift that feeling to ‘surprised/apprehensive.’

It proved to be more the former though. And a very, very pleasant surprise. Not only were things going better for Evelyn, but… but she was taking the time to thank Selina for it. The deputy headmistress felt a lump rising in her throat, though obviously bursting into tears in front of a student was not an option. She sort of wanted to hug Evelyn, but that was also inappropriate, and sudden, unexpected behaviour of any sort from an adult would probably be rather unnerving, even if it was well-intentioned.

“I really didn’t do much,” she assured her, quite truthfully, her voice rather different from the usual steady authority that it carried. “I just know the right people to Floo. Thank you for coming to us in the first place. That took a lot of courage. I am glad things are better now. Very, very glad,” she added, swallowing hard and managing a smile to reassure Evelyn that she not only meant that but was delighted to have been told.

13 DH Skies I didn't do much 26 DH Skies 0 5

Dorian

April 11, 2019 9:23 AM

Is there anything about unconditional love in there? by Dorian

“Yes. Some parties, and also some events, for example there is always a classical music concert, and many people attend,” he answered doing a good job of sounding neutral-to-enthusiastic. He liked the concerts themselves, much more than parties, but there was such a feeling that people went in order to Be Seen and that irritated him. He swore half the time people weren’t listening to the musicians because they were too busy eyeing up other audience members, critiquing in their heads the outfits they would later fawn over to the wearers’ faces, and carefully constructing the whispered put downs they would offer behind the person’s back. It was all so superficial, and a waste of talented musicians, who were, after all, the reason they were supposedly there, and who were by far and away much more interesting than somebody’s hat choice, or who was sitting with whom.

He refrained from mentioning that they had hosted a party, because that involved mentioning he Matthieu. He refrained from mentioning that he had attended a wedding between two women in Greece because well… that involved, well, mentioning that. It also wasn’t the kind of party Katya was really asking about.

“I think you do not miss so much,” he assured her, willing to admit this much, “I think I would prefer to stay home. At home you can wear your fuzzy robe, you can cuddle with your sister, you can drink bowls of hot chocolate the size of your face… I like these things more than parties.” Perhaps if all parties were like Professor Brooding’s wedding, he would feel different - parties only of people he liked, he thought would be alright. Dancing was, in itself, pleasant, if you could do it with someone you wanted to. And fancy food was always welcome. It wasn’t really the parties, he supposed, that were at fault - as with everything else, it was the people involved in them.

13 Dorian Is there anything about unconditional love in there? 1401 Dorian 0 5

Katerina

April 13, 2019 10:04 PM

It's mentioned in a few sub-clauses, I believe. by Katerina

Katerina's eyes lit up at the mention of a classical concert. She did love music, and was fascinated by the exotic, foreign sound of music from outside her own culture, but she was also enchanted with the idea of an elegant outing to hear music. That was the sort of thing that happened in novels, where sophisticated society ladies passed handkerchiefs which were sewn together to conceal the letters to their lovers. How did they dress for an outdoor event this deep in winter? At home, it would have been dangerous to go sit and listen to music - someone's nose would have frozen off, or else they would have suffocated beneath the weight of wrappers required to prevent it. Vigorous movement was just possible outdoors, and Mama and Anya sometimes went for very short rides around the grounds with a special screen in the front of their sleigh to help keep the wind off, but sitting for a concert would have been quite impossible.

“This sounds beautiful,” she breathed.

His next words were, after that, a bit of a letdown. Katya thought back to her holidays at home – the same place as always, and the same people, too, all of whom thought of her as malen’kaya and most of whom called her that, too. The same fairly unluxurious little bedroom she shared with Tatiana, at this time of year turned into a pretty prison by the heavy colorful tapestries hung on the walls and especially over the huge shutters covering the windows to keep out the chill. The chill that crept in anyway….

There were good memories, of course. She and Tatiana had had the same winter hangings all their lives, so looking at the images, when she was not already in a bad mood, did bring up recollections of playing, making up stories about the figures stitched into the fabrics. The girls’ sitting room was also very cozy and comfortable; when the weather was bad, it was very pleasant when they all drew close around the fire and each sat with her feet up, absorbed in her own book or letter-writing, perhaps, or most of them stitching while one read aloud. And there were similar associations in every room of the house. When she was in a mood to recall them. Such moods were simply so much easier to come by when she was not boiling with frustration over being left behind, and moreover, left behind by Tatiana, who didn’t even really want to go out at all.

“These things are nice, too,” she agreed with Dorian politely. “But it is hard, when all others go outside, and I stay.”

16 Katerina It's mentioned in a few sub-clauses, I believe. 1418 Katerina 0 5

Bridget

April 14, 2019 7:24 PM

Aw thanks! I like you too. by Bridget

"Oh that sounds nice." Bridget replied. She couldn't imagine how hard it was going to school in a different country that spoke a totally different language. Especially since she didn't actually speak anything but English herself. It must have been wonderful for Johana Leonie to go home where she didn't have to worry about whether or not she was saying things right.

She paused and thought for a moment. Her traditions? "Well, we...don't have a lot. I mean, I get presents and stuff like that and we spend time with family but I'm too young for balls yet." Her parents being like they were made it hard to do too much out of the ordinary. Mama was sick and Great Great Grandfather found Dad embarassing so they didn't really socialize that much. Eventually Bridget would probably end up going to balls on her own or with Sophia or other family members.

The Teppenpaw went on. "We also had my birthday. It was on December twenty-sixth so....basically that means I just get more presents than everyone else. Except my dad's cousin Evan whose birthday is on the twenty-eighth. We basically celebrate all week, I guess." Okay, Mama didn't have the stamina for it, but all the rest of the adults joined her father in getting wasted.

"What about you?" Bridget asked. Surely Johana Leonie must have more interesting traditions than she did. "What sort of food does your mama make? Mine doesn't cook really, we have house-elves doing that." Bridget didn't actually know that many people who could cook.

11 Bridget Aw thanks! I like you too. 1448 Bridget 0 5

Jasmine

April 24, 2019 12:31 PM

No. That defeats the purpose of fabulousness and glitter by Jasmine

“I mean,” Jasmine backtracked slightly when Cleo questioned her certainty of Anya’s sorting, “anything is possible, but I’d be really surprised if she got anything else. She’s just . . . really Pecari. I mean, both Mom and Dad were Pecaris, too, that’s how they met, but Anya is . . . moreso. Like, she’s the sort of person who climbs up vertical cliff faces without safety gear because it never occurs to her that she might fall and the whim took her that she wanted to see the view from up top and she couldn’t be bothered to go fetch a broom or a flying horse first, so she just . . . climbs.“

To be fair, though, Jasmine wasn’t entirely convinced gravity worked on Anya the same way it worked on everybody else, but she didn’t know how to explain that to Cleo without sounding like she didn’t know what gravity was. If Jasmine tried to do some of the stunts Anya pulled, she was sure she’d spend weeks or months in a hospital, if she survived at all, but Anya almost always walked away unscathed, other than a couple scrapes or bruises, none of which seemed to bother her nearly as much as Jasmine thought they should. The best explanation she could come up with for this was that the Earth’s hold on Anya was weaker.

“The concert will be fine,” Jasmine promised loyally when Cleo expressed her concern about her part in organizing it. “You’ll do a great job running errands.” She paused, then added, as if offering sage advice, “But sitting quietly in a corner probably won’t be much help to anyone.”

1 Jasmine No. That defeats the purpose of fabulousness and glitter 1397 Jasmine 0 5