Scurry and his midterm minions
January 01, 2009 1:19 PM
Continuing the fun in shiny new ways! by Scurry and his midterm minions
Scurry arrived on the Quidditch Pitch with what was starting to look like a legion of elves behind him. Clearly a lot of talk had been happening, and elves who were supposed to be continuing to clear paths or clean or cook breakfast had abandoned their tasks in a most unelflike fashion.Apparently this snow thing was fun.
Scurry reviewed his troops before having them smooth the surface of the pitch, in preparation for the slightly ambitious idea that had started to sprout in his head on the way to the pitch. Many hands made light work, and the task was done in a fraction of the time that it would have taken him. He wondered briefly what Master Paul Simon would think if he realised that his elves had all disappeared (unless he looked in at the pitch) but decided that this would definitely be alright.
Midterm was important. Scurry understood this to the very fiber of his being, for all he had never quite got the hang of having a holiday himself.
Once the surface of the pitch was almost smooth enough to be an iceskating rink again (although far too snowcovered) Scurry had half the elves undo that by making a jagged line across the pitch, and lowering the snow on one side, in a very choppy fashion. On the other side, he had the elves make a couple of higher spots - one very tall and craggy while he climbed up to the top of the stands and occasionally shouted directions for improvements down at the others.
This was much easier with people to do the work for him.
Once it was all done to satisfaction, Scurry and the elves cast a spell to make sure that, even if it didn't stay quite the same, the basic shape would be retained. And then they set to their real task.
A group of elves to one side worked together on something quite large, while some smaller elves to one side worked on smaller projects. The rest worked individually, gathering snow from the stands and creating more creatures to inhabit their newly formed ice world.
When it was all complete the pitch was quite something to behold. There were at least two colonies of penguins - or, in many cases, approximations of what penguins probably were based on the hazy ideas of the elves - waddling around and floppy eared bunnies hopping around or digging small burrows in the snow. What was definitely supposed to be a polar bear wandered around, occasionally pushing penguins off the 'land' part of the snowscape when too many of the penguins tried to use him for rides. The snow penguins appeared to have little difficulty treating the choppy part of the snowscape as water, and occasionally even returned with snow in the shape of fishes.
It was about this time that Scurry realised that they had been joined by Scrappy.
It was probably the shark that ripped one of the snow penguins in half that gave him away. Scurry frowned.
"Scrappy," he said in stern tones. "Does Grandmother Tuppy know that you is here?" He took Scrappy by one ear and marched him towards the way off the pitch. Some of the other elves relieved him of the job there and Scurry brushed his hands in a dismissive gesture. "Scurry is thinking we is done here," he said to the crowd of elves. "Scurry is thinking that it is time we got back to what we was supposed to be doing."
The elves nodded and murmured among themselves as they collectively headed for the exit, followed by some of the more excitable almost-penguins. Scurry stood at the entrance, watching the other elves file past and giving the snow creatures perplexed looks. Finally, as the last elf passed, he set up one last small spell. It prevented anything made of snow from passing the entrance in either direction.
As he scurried off towards the main school building a small group of penguins attempted to waddle after him in vain. After a little while they turned around and settled back into a more normal routine, although they remained terribly interested in any visitors who came to the pitch.\r\n\r\n
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Scurry and his midterm minions
Continuing the fun in shiny new ways!
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Scurry and his midterm minions
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Ian Grimm
January 07, 2009 5:44 PM
Hardly the place for a shark attack. by Ian Grimm
Ian was not pleased.His scheduled date for the inaugural opening of Sonora Academy's chapter of Grimm Inquiries had been pushed back. His father had explained the delay as necessary due to some end of the year fiscal issues; the fact that there was no overhead involved with the proposed chapter of Grimm Inquiries was ignored in said explanation. Ian was not pleased with the hedging. He was equally as not pleased to find himself spending his winter holidays at Sonora once again. The excuse this time had been something about business trips and Christmas parties.
So deeply wrapped into the glowering embers of his displeasure was he that Ian failed to recognize the location his feet had carried him. Bundled as he was in a thick wool jacket and scarf, he still felt the sting of the enforced winter. Snow crunched beneath his shoes and the sun dazzled his eyes; his sunglasses were uselessly sitting beside his bed in the Aladren dorms. His displeasure deepened and childishly, he kicked.
He did not expect for his foot to meet a solid object. Nor did he expect to see what could only be described as snow bunny (the animal sort) making a slow arch into the air. He gaped after the thing, watching with disbelief as the entirety of the Quidditch Pitch came into focus. Snow bunnies, snow penguins, snow waves (at least, he thought they were waves), and- he blinked twice, still uncertain whether or not he was suffering from a hallucination of some sort- a snow polar bear. As if to cement whatever remaining skepticism he might hold regarding the sight, one of the penguins hobbled forward and smacked the back of his knee in seeming well-meant cheer.
Ian retained his dignity by noting that the abusive penguin was decidedly misshapen and at best, a mutant.
After a few minutes of staring and adjusting his glasses, he gave into his curiosity and stepped forward to inspect the various creations. Clearly, the charms work was top-notch, even if some of the designs seemed slightly off. The recurring swimming motions the penguins made while flouncing through the snow waves was particularly masterful, and he couldn't help but consider who in the school had pulled it off. He didn't think it could be students- at least, not students alone. Maybe the Charms Club with help from some of the staff members?
"Maybe. . ." he mused out loud, barely avoiding tripping over a snow bunny that dove under foot. He was not as lucky with the second bunny, though, and down he went, face first into the crest of a snow wave. "Fantastic," he griped, wiping snow from his face and reaching out to retrieve his glasses. Only, he couldn't move. He tried stretching further, the tips of his fingers just barely grazing the frames. Impatient, he yanked on his leg and upon further inability to move, he twisted around and froze.
A shark- a snow shark- had hold of his leg and seemed to be pleasantly smiling back at him. There was no pain and certainly no damage to his leg, but the snow shark had him fast and seemed unlikely to let anytime soon. Ian stared and the shark smiled, several rows of shining snow teeth glittering. He considered his choices and decided upon the obvious: he was a wizard after all.
Except- his pocket was empty. He twisted back around and spotted a slim bit of blur near his glasses. Slowly, Ian lowered his face into the crook of his elbow, unable to decide whether his situation was laughable or infuriating. He was without his proper vision, without his wand, and his foot was caught in the mouth of an overly precocious shark made of snow.
Ian was not pleased.
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Ian Grimm
Hardly the place for a shark attack.
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Ian Grimm
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Amelia Smythe
January 13, 2009 12:19 PM
You've made my day by Amelia Smythe
She could never have imagined it happening, but Amelia had chosen to stay in school over midterm. Crazy, right? Yet no matter how she looked at it, it was far better to be at school than to be at home. Her mother was obviously going mad because hse had invited this and that relative to stay throughout the entire winter holiday. A large proportion of these relatives were those Amelia saw on a daily basis at school anyway. She was getting pretty good at ignoring Cynthia, but if she had to share anything with Dana she might just have to scream.Cecily had obviously gone home to fawn over her ridiculous collection of pets, and Milly had been delighted to learn that Cynthia had opted to go home too (although her reason was harder to fathom). Lucas and Dana were such wet blankets they always went home to Mommy, so Amelia rejoced in managing to avoid the whole lot of them for these glorious weeks. Besides, she had provided herself with an excellent opportunity to write articles for the paper on anything and everything that happened at school during midterm. That Jenkins character hadn't been spotted yet, but he might just be hiding out in the staff room - Amelia had already begun contemplating ways to lure him out. Until then, however, she'd taken a stroll out in the snow. Usually Amelia wasn't an outdoor sort of person, but hey, there was snow.
In fact, there was much more than snow. There was something quite abnormal going on at the Quidditch pitch. Well, Amelia assumed it was abnormal, seeing as this was the last place she would normally be found, but snow animals didn't strike her as the norm. As she got closer, Milly even started to smile - but it wasn't the snow scultpures that had her amused. Someone had been clumsy enough to get involved with the oddities and seemed to be having some sort of trouble. How delightful.
The closer she got, the more Amelia smirked, until she was near enough to recognise the unfortunate student as that very strange and quite rude yearmate of hers, Ian Grimm. He couldn't reach his wand or his glasses. Milly so dearly wished she had a camera.
"So what are you going to do for me if I help you out?" she said loudly, her voice riddled with amusement.
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Amelia Smythe
You've made my day
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Amelia Smythe
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Ian
January 14, 2009 12:27 PM
Fantastic. That was my intention, after all. by Ian
The figure appeared as a moving smudge of color against the landscape of white. Ian could not discern the smudge's gender, age, or house affiliation- there was nothing beyond a fuzzy shape that he could apply to the smudge. Had it been someone recognizable (an impossible feat without his glasses unless the smudge was all but six inches from his face), he might have considered calling out for assistance. He did not, however, speak until said smudge spoke first, and once it- rather, once she did, his reticence disappeared.It was only Amelia. Granted, it being Amelia meant that he was bound to encounter some resistance, as was already readily obvious from her greeting. Her tone sounded far more pleased than he might have wanted, considering his situation. He sat up as much as was possible,his left leg acted much like a stick in the mud, and squinted. Her face gained some semblance of recognizable detail, and dully, his head began to pound from the effort. His hand rose from habit to adjust his absent glasses; he sighed. “Hand me my glasses and we can discuss options.”
Ian knew better than to ask for his wand; for all he knew, she might kick it even farther away. He gave a backwards glance to the shark who grinned and wiggled in response. He really did not like animals- snow ones or otherwise. “Why are you here anyway?”
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Ian
Fantastic. That was my intention, after all.
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Ian
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Amelia
January 21, 2009 10:36 AM
It worked by Amelia
"Hand me my glasses and we can discuss options," Ian said. Amelia raised an eyebrow, despite noting the unlikelihood that Ian could see her if he was requesting his spectacles."That could be considered helping," she said, yet she took a couple of steps closer, carefully avoiding potentially dangerous and humiliating snow sculptures, and picked Ian's glasses out of the snow. Giving them a careful wipe with her glove, she said, "Say please," in as patronising a tone as possible before she passed them over to Ian, delighted to be furthering his irritation.
"Here, where?" she sought clarification of his question, but proceeded to answer without waiting for his response. "I'm at school because I didn't want to spend the winter with my relations. I'm at the Pitch because I was bored," she gave him the short version of the story. Then she sighed. "Thanks for your temporary relief but the amusement has worn of now." Frowning, Amelia cast a heating charm on the shark's nose. Predictably, the snow creature let go in a hurry and left the students alone, presumably to go find some snow creatue to feed on, instead.
"You owe me. How about we just leave it at that?" she offered Ian a winning smile. "What are you doing here, anyway? And how did you let a snowball attack you? That's on the 'very' side of pathetic."
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Amelia
It worked
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Amelia
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Ian
January 22, 2009 2:47 PM
Bait taken; activate Grand Master Plan- go! by Ian
Impatiently, and with as much of a glare as he could summon while simultaneously squinting, Ian spat out the requested word. "Please, would you hand me my glasses?"To his unexpressed relief, Amelia handed them directly over, and nearly forty percent of his annoyance disappeared with their return to his face. The headache, apparently psychosomatic in its birth, vanished instantly, and with a far more pleasant feeling, he propped himself up on his knees, his back almost resting on the snow shark's snout. He listened, not particularly interested in her answer beyond that of having satisfied his curiosity. He really didn't understand the pull of large families; at the same time, he had no real empathy for those who complained of them. Families were built of people, and the only real thing connecting them was shared genes and the intangibles of memory and common spaces.
Which made what had been bothering him of late, more so than the delay in the opening of his branch, all the stranger. From all growing appearances, logical and otherwise, he had a living cousin. She was unaware of it; his parents were unaware of it. Ian, however, was convinced that there was someone other than himself who was aware of it. Which could very easily prove problematic if he chose to come forward with his convictions without direct proof. He really only had two ways to go about it. The Muggle method would involve some small amount of stalking, no easy matter as he was neither in the Crotalus house or a female. The Wizard method would entail a brief kidnapping. He leaning toward the latter, having little patience or desire to creep about waiting to snatch a spare strand of hair or used glass.
"Thanks," he said shortly, his mind more concerned with his internal ponderings than expressing gratitude over his release. Amelia's next words brought him back to the present, and irked, he explained, fastidiously straightening his coat and scarf. "I'm here because my parents are involved with things-" His tone left no question as to his feelings on that. "- and I didn't properly expect a shark made from snow to leap out from the ground."
He made a small wave, as if dismissing all further conversation regarding the snow, the shark, or his previously laughable position. He bent briefly, retrieving his wand; an instant shiver of comfort skirted down his back, which he steadfastly ignored. He paused beside his classmate, giving her a considering glance. It was not so much a question of trust as it was a question of ability. There seemed to be just as equal a chance that Amelia would grow bored with the task and quit, as there was that she would take it to an undesirable extreme.
Perhaps it was the cold, something he was well used to from winters in Massachusetts. Perhaps it was that he rather did feel grateful for his release from the snow shark. Perhaps he had hit his head, unbeknownst to himself, and was suffering from poor thinking skills as a result. Whatever reason there might have been, Ian decided to be reckless.
"Incidentally, what would you say to doubling that owed favor? Making me twice in your debt?"
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Ian
Bait taken; activate Grand Master Plan- go!
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Ian
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Amelia
February 04, 2009 11:46 AM
I didn't forget about this thread... honest... by Amelia
Teasing Ian made staying at school over midterm completely worth it. The fact that she'd managed to get him to owe her a favor, while at the same time she could let everyone in their year know he had been temporarily held prisoner by a glorified snowball was just excellent. Yet to her great surprise, Ian then offered to place himself in her debt twice over.Amelia didn't trust Ian in the slightest - that much she knew without even having to think about it. She didn't like him very much either. He was rude to her, his coutenance was completely unpredictable and he was in Aladren, which didn't help matters. Yet somehow he still managed to amuse her - she doubted it was intentional - and he had given her some lovely things earlier in the year (though again she wasn't foolish enough to think there was any meaning behind this other than necessity). She was incredibly tempted to have such an easily manipulated person in her debt, but Amelia knew Ian well enough to know there could be metaphorical some small print involved.
After assessing him through narrowed eyes for a moment or two, Milly said, "You know that very well depends on what you want in return." She shivered, and the whim to be out in the snow completely vanished. "Let's go back inside before my toes actually become blocks of ice and you can tell me all about it."
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Amelia
I didn't forget about this thread... honest...
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Amelia
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