Fancy meeting you here (Tag Winston) on Cascade Hall

Sylvia Mordue

August 17, 2019 9:29 AM

Fancy meeting you here (Tag Winston) by Sylvia Mordue

Obviously, Winston Pierce was outraged at the decision the collective student body had taken regarding Head Boy, and Sylvia could well understand that. It was utterly ridiculous. The badge should definitely have been Winston’s. Or, she supposed, Simon’s. In some ways, she would have very much liked the associated power and status that would have given their family - it might have shown they were well-respected enough for Winston to take more notice of her, but equally she was aware how rivalry worked, and that if Winston had been resentful over Simon besting him, it would not have worked in her favour. Complimenting Winston at the Crotalus meeting had gone over well last year, and she thought he might regard her as more than ‘Simon’s little sister.’ Not to presume he held her in particular regard or anything of that nature, but she felt he might be getting an impression of her as an independent person, and not merely an accessory to his roommate’s existence. She was keen to further that. Their mutual displeasure over the outcome of the head boy ballot should have been a perfect opportunity, but it was rather hard to know how to approach that subject. She could not outright commiserate, stating that clearly Winston would have been the better candidate - obviously he was better than the individual who had won, but it opened up the whole question of him versus Simon. Implying she would have chosen Winston over her own brother was disloyal against her family, which would not reflect well, whilst stating that she would have chosen Simon would curry no favour with Winston. There was also the fact that it was just a distasteful subject concerning a distasteful person, and an event that Winston no doubt wished to forget.

Sonora, however, continued to disappoint, and so she was easily presented with another opportunity of allying herself and identifying herself to Winston as a person who was On The Right Side. This was not a fact that she suspected he was in any doubt over but it was always nice to reaffirm it. Her own challenge team was actually pretty perfect, at least in terms of the company she was expected to keep. She was mixing entirely with people whom she did not object to. Victor was her team captain too. He wasn't as powerful as Winston, and his brother struck her as a very wishy-washy sort of person, so she would have preferred Winston. However, getting a chance to know Victor better wasn't a bad thing. So, she could get to know Victor better via the challenges, and Winston better now, as the subject provided a rich field of small talk.

"Good morning," she greeted, finding herself side by side with him as he entered the hall for breakfast by virtue of the fact she had specifically engineered it to be so. She had a fairly good knowledge of his typical morning routine from Simon, and had kept an eye out for him leaving by using a periscope charm - a little compact mirror, affixed to the door leading up to the girls’ rooms with a temporary sticking charm, had been paired with another she kept in her possession, allowing her to keep watch. She had had to put a disillusionment charm on the one in the common room, and though this was easier than doing it on a full scale living target such as herself, the result had been that the image she got was rather foggy, which she thought might not happen if she could do it better. She would have to work on those spells, they seemed like they might be rather useful for just happening to be in the right place and running across a person. Still, it had been clear enough for her to recognise Winston, and thus she had been able to follow once she saw him leave, unsticking her spare mirror on the way and cancelling the spells on them before she slipped them into her bag. Giving herself a brisk pace meant she naturally breezed into the hall just after he did. “I’m glad to see we have our tables back,” she smiled, falling into step beside him as they headed to the Crotalus table. “Last night was certainly interesting, don’t you think?” she asked, a delicate emphasis on the word ‘interesting’ suggesting that it was open to any number of interpretations.

13 Sylvia Mordue Fancy meeting you here (Tag Winston) 1413 Sylvia Mordue 1 5

Winston

August 23, 2019 11:20 AM

Fancy that. by Winston

Winston arrived to the Cascade Hall the morning after meeting his team and was glad to see all the tables returned back to their normal configurations. This had more to do with his sense or normality than any major problems with his group, though in truth he probably would rather spend time with other Crotali than the other students on his team. Jeremy wasn’t bad, but he was twelve, and therefore a bit younger than Winston was really inclined to spend his free time with.

And speaking of the young Mordue, here came another one, arriving at the Hall at about the same time he did. Simon’s sister, who was the same age as Caitlin, was not so horrendously young as Jeremy, but quite frankly, if he was going to sit with a fourth year girl, he’d rather it be his own sister rather than his roommate’s. But saying so would be impolite so he didn’t.

Instead, he smiled back. “Good morning to you as well, Miss Mordue.”

She made the same observation about the table arrangement as he had made internally, and his smile edged a shade more genuine. “I am, too,” he agreed, and pulled out one of the Crotalus chairs for her, as was proper, before seating himself across from her, since they were already in conversation.

“Interesting is one word for it,” he confirmed regarding the team meetings of the night before. “I’m glad to have your cousin with me,” deciding a little familial flattery wouldn’t go amiss, “but some of the others leave a little to be desired.” He tried to remember the other teams, and asked, “You were on Victor’s team?” he as much guessed as recalled. He knew she wasn’t with Caitlin and Emerald, nor had she been so unfortunate as to be put in with either The Aladren or The Teppenpaw, but he knew he’d seen her name with someone else he’d taken particular note of, and none of the Mordues had been together. That basically left Victor.

“I wish your team good luck,” he added politely and truthfully, though he wished himself more luck, of course. He would not begrudge Victor and Sylvia a high ranking. He just hoped his own would be even higher, though if he wasn’t, there were certainly worse people to lose to.

1 Winston Fancy that. 370 Winston 0 5

Sylvia

August 24, 2019 5:36 AM

We should make the most of this happy coincidence by Sylvia

Sylvia happily took the seat Winston pulled out for her. He was the perfect gentleman. She levitated a rack of toast from the centre of the table, setting it down gently enough that the contents barely quivered.

Winston also had something nice to say about Jeremy, and Sylvia hitched a well-practised social smile in place instead of the look of surprise which her face naturally wanted to register. The chances were Mr. Pierce was just being polite, but he really wasn’t obliged to say anything, so hopefully that meant that Jeremy hadn’t put them all to shame. Yet.

“I hope he’ll be useful to you. I suppose the younger ones might not be able to help out so much, but he is at least quite athletic,” she acknowledged, trying to subtly manage Winston’s expectations without sounding like she was discrediting her cousin; Winston should not expect too much of Jeremy just because he was young, not because he was a clot. That sounded alright.

“Yes, I’ve been very lucky,” Sylvia acknowledged when her own team’s composition was mentioned. “Though I think you’ve got more experience leading teams, so maybe Jeremy’s a bit luckier than me in terms of captain,” she added, offering Winston a smile of perfect even white teeth. “I wish you luck too,” she added. “I feel they could have offered you better though. Just because you’re perfectly capable of making up for those other two doesn’t mean you should have to. Mathematically, I wonder whether it would have been possible to just have us on teams with each other. I suppose it would be awful if there were just one or two left over. Maybe that’s why they didn’t,” she suggested. It would have been unladylike to complain after all, especially when things had worked out in her favour. But she was interested to know what Winston thought about why the school would allow such a situation to arise. Or at least start him thinking over the complications involved in its politics.

13 Sylvia We should make the most of this happy coincidence 1413 Sylvia 0 5