DH Skies

July 20, 2019 7:26 AM
There seemed to be a lot of talk about both the upcoming challenges and the possible team combinations. Professor Skies had assured everyone at breakfast this morning that, this evening, the waiting would be put to an end, and had advised everyone to be punctual to dinner, as it would be a good opportunity to get to know their teammates. She had also given a brief rundown of the team selection process - they had been able to divide the number of students at Sonora exactly, in a way where it worked out that they could let every seventh year lead a team, plus one sixth year. Said sixth year had been a random pick from a hat. They had drawn the rest of the school at random too, with an occasional adjustment if too many of one age group ended up on the same team (there had been an occasional veto too, for families or sworn enemies, but on the whole the idea was that it would just be a case of suck it up, buttercup). The challenges would be designed to be accessible to a range of grade levels, and scored in varying ways to take into consideration the different skill levels of the participants.

That evening, as the students entered the hall, they would find that the usual layout of house seating had been abandoned in favour of thirteen smaller tables, each with a number displayed prominently in shining green light which hovered just above the centre of each. The team lists were posted at intervals along the wall, so that all the students wouldn’t be clustered around the same small piece of paper, and each team’s members were also listed at their table, just to make sure everyone found the right space.


Team One
Emerald Brockert
Brett Newell
Caitlin Pierce
Nicolas DiCaprio
Friederike Albert Zauberhexen

Team Two
Amelia Layne
Eden Manger
Peyton O’Malley
Evelyn Stones
Isabella Harrington

Team Three
Florence Newell
Jasmine Delachene
Ruby Brockert
Christabel Davidson
Ellie Alperton

Team Four
Gwen Fintoc
Cleo James
Lyssa Fitzgerald
Anastasia Delachene
Ahria Wells
Elizabeth Smith

Team Five
Kir McLeod
Parker Fitzgerald
Nathaniel Mordue
Jake Daniels
Dathan Fischer

Team Six
Isaac Song
Dorian Montoir
Heinrich Hexemeister
Julius Astley
Beatriz Coulthon

Team Seven
Natalie Atwater
Vladimir Brockert
Jessica Hayles
Hilda Hexenmeister
Emilia Lewis

Team Eight
Luke Powell
Tatiana Vorontsov
Jehan Callahan
Michael DiCaprio
Ness McLeod

Team Nine
Victor Callahan
Sylvia Mordue
Katerina Vorontsov
Sophia Priory
Martin Crosby V

Team Ten
Salali Bly
Ivy Brockert
Zara Jackson
Bridget Ferguson
Jezebel Reed-Fischer

Team Eleven
Winston Pierce
Loren Aalto
Topaz Brockert
Malikhi Hill
Jeremy Mordue

Team Twelve
Simon Mordue
Beauregard Tate
Johana Leonie Zauberhexen
Sapphire Brockert
Nerida Sound

Team Thirteen
Connor Priory
Gary Harper
Allegra Brockert
Felipe De Matteo
Theodore Flores


OOC - these posts will not be scored but we thought it would be fun to have a chance to mingle and get to know your teammates, and to get that out of the way before challenge 1. IC the selection process was ‘random’ but OOC we have tried very hard to balance teams, in terms of frequency of posting, as well as provide combinations that may be interesting/enjoyable/fun.

I have checked and double checked, but if you see any glaring errors such as missing people or anyone doubled up, please let me know asap.

Subthreads:
0 DH Skies Team Challenge Lists 26 DH Skies 1 5

DH Skies

July 20, 2019 7:29 AM
 
0 DH Skies Team 7 (nm) 26 DH Skies 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

July 24, 2019 12:43 PM
Hilda was hesitantly optimistic about the challenges. The idea of them, as Heinrich explained what little he knew, sounded interesting. If she could know Heinrich would be on her team, she’d be really excited. The problem was that there was no guarantee Heinrich would be on her team. There was, in fact, a better chance he wouldn’t be, and that made her nervous. She’d had basically no idea what was going on in the concert last year but had somehow blundered through it anyway, but she wasn’t sure activities actively meant to be challenging would be so forgiving.

There were, at least, other German speakers in the school. Johana Leonie or her brother would be good team mates, but they were a bit more like the very near sighted leaded the blind. And Katerina knew enough that she could probably help, and Evelyn was at least trying to learn German, so she might be a comfort if not any better at German than Hilda was at English.

But when the team lists came out, Hilda was alone. She stared at team seven’s roster in dismay. None of other names were on her short list of people she could communicate with.

This was going to go so badly. She wasn’t going to understand anything. So much for a fun year.

She made her way over to Table Seven as though walking to the gallows. She was a beginner and barely spoke English. She was going to be the weight the rest of her team had to carry.

And Hilda was quite large for her age.

She hated being a burden, but she didn’t know how to fix it, short of becoming fluent in English and she been trying to do that. English just happened to be her nemesis and was proving very difficult to overcome.

She sat down at the table. Last year, she would have just accepted defeat and held up her flashcard that said ‘I don’t speak English,’ but she’d already decided to try harder this year. Yes, not having any kind of net was going to make the challenges nigh on near impossible for her, but they were supposed to be challenging, right? She was just playing in a higher league than she was ready for. But that just meant she’d need to double her efforts and not give in to hopelessness. There was always a chance she might surprise herself and everyone else.

At minimum, she could try to at least do her best to at least try to assist the others rather than giving up and guaranteeing she’d be nothing more than deadweight for them to drag around.

So by the time the next person arrived, she had pep talked herself back into something like grim determination, which was a much better frame of mind than her earlier bout of fatalism, but was still a pretty far cry from the eager excitement she’d wanted to have as a part of Heinrich’s team.

But Heinrich wasn’t here. Heinrich was one table over meeting his own teammates, which was what she had to do too. Here goes. “Hallo, I am Hilda,” she stated in very heavily accented English that obviously came out only with great difficulty. “Mine Englisch ist not goot. Spreak slow?” She was concentrating too hard on her words to remember to smile.
1 Hilda Hexenmeister Das ist definitiv eine Herausforderung 1433 Hilda Hexenmeister 0 5

Jessica Hayles

July 30, 2019 1:21 PM
There was something surreal about finding her name on an assignment list, going to join a project group, and then realizing that yes, she was still at Sonora. It wasn't, however, quite as surreal as sitting down with a project group and struggling to suppress the urge to pick up the enamel locket dangling near her stomach to check the watch concealed inside it, impatient to be gone.

Group projects were not her favorite thing. They were difficult and involved letting other people put their fingers in the pie and possibly messing up her grades or standing in the class. They were, however, important. A CEO had to delegate; a CEO had to work with others constantly. Therefore, group projects were important training for her future, and therefore, she had always been expected to throw herself headlong into them, throwing everything she had at them, working twice as hard and twice as long and twice as enthusiastically as everyone else.

Now, though...what was the point? This couldn't go on her resume. It couldn't even, with so many older students in the way, do much for her as a training scenario. Therefore, it was just a waste of time and every moment was a moment she could have spent doing something actually useful. Therefore, she fiddled with her watch chain, then reached up to touch the Art Nouveau ivy pendant closer to her neck which she had gotten for her birthday from her grandparents, then fiddled with her watch chain again, struggling not to look as impatient as she felt.

It became easier to smile, mostly by reflex, when another girl started to introduce herself, her words far more accented than any of Jessica's. Jessica's accent was a regional one. Hilda's was that of a non-native speaker.

"I'll do my best," she promised, enunciating carefully, upon the group being asked to speak slowly. Their Northern associates said that she and Daddy already spoke very slowly, but she wasn't sure that they meant the same thing Hilda did. "I'm Jessica," she added, smiling, the perfect warm, personable Southern lady. "It's great to be working with you all."
16 Jessica Hayles ...Uh-huh! Totally. 1442 Jessica Hayles 0 5