The Coach

December 14, 2019 8:22 PM
Sonora’s Quidditch fortunes had been so-so for the past handful of years. The sport was rarely gaining enough interest to support full house teams but since the introduction of the full school team, things had been going a little better. Pooling their resources worked out in their favour, and gave them a strong-ish side. It was challenging to compete against schools where the ‘whole school team’ was a best-of-the-best scenario, comprising almost exclusively of older players, but they had found some teams of a similar enough standing to themselves to make matches fair and interesting. They had won some, lost some, and they were leaning.

It was something the coach hoped to build on this year, particularly as there was an exciting event coming up in Tumbleweed, the nearby town, towards the end of the term. Details were still a little fuzzy, but it looked to be some sort of Quidditch day – probably with exhibition flying, but maybe also workshops or the like. It could prove an interesting day out, anyway. Thus, ready to greet the students as they arrived for breakfast the morning after the opening feast, an encouraging, brightly coloured notice had appeared in Cascade Hall.

Quidditch Sign Ups!

Our school-wide team is looking for enthusiastic players. No prior experience is necessary.
The team travels throughout the year for friendly play offs and coaching sessions with other small school sides.
Try outs will be held on Saturday on the pitch.
Please sign up with your name, year, house and preferred position or positions (if known) below.


In order to encourage those who might not know the sport well, a handy list was posted next to the sign ups, detailing the basics of each of the positions, although the coach was perfectly open to people just trying their hand and seeing what would suit them.
Subthreads:
13 The Coach Quidditch Sign Ups 0 The Coach 1 5

Nathaniel Mordue

December 19, 2019 1:53 PM
OOC: Some internalized ableism regarding mental illness, along with descriptions of some symptoms of depression.

The Quidditch list had appeared, and Nathaniel had not noticed at first. Once he had, though, it had seemed almost as if the thing was looking at him. Taunting him.

He knew he needed to sign up. For one thing, it would be expected of him. He had played before last year, after all, and thus should play again. For another thing, it was another place where he could keep an eye on his brother. He could not in good conscience let Jeremy wander off to other schools with no supervision whatsoever from a member of the family, someone who could help keep Jeremy in line. Nathaniel was the only candidate now that Simon had graduated, so therefore, Nathaniel should play again. It shouldn't have even been a question.

But.

These days, there was always a but. No more simple calculations, no more certainty about what to do, what was right and what was wrong. Everything was complicated now, and far too much of it was completely out of his control.

The...heaviness, as he called it, still struck him unpredictably. It wasn't as chronic as it had been at one time, but it hadn't gone away either. Just walking for any length of time was exhausting, and sometimes he almost had to consciously think just to put his feet in the right places and keep moving instead of forgetting himself and standing still and staring off into space. How, exactly, the hell was he supposed to play Quidditch like that? He remembered, vividly, one time when he was supposed to have been talking to Doctor Greene, and it had been like he was suddenly trapped in a fog. He had not been able to lift his hand, to speak, or even to understand what she was saying. It had been like sleep paralysis, only while he was fully conscious - at least in one tiny corner of his brain, which had been screaming at him that this wasn't right, while the rest had actually found the idea of sinking into that fog at worst unobjectionable and maybe even appealing. If something like that happened while he was a hundred feet off the ground, with Bludgers rocketing around, that could be as bad as if he blacked out again. Which was also a possibility. It had only happened once, but there was nothing saying it couldn't happen again, and that terrified him almost as much as the actual incident had at the time.

Then there was the other thing - specifically, the state of his relationship, to the extent he even had one, with Jeremy.

He doesn't trust me anymore, and I can't blame him. Not while I'm actively lying to him every day and he doesn't know why things last year - went the way they did, or what's going on now....

Some of that, of course, could not be discussed, but...he had thought about being honest about his own more bizarre behavior over the summer, or at least doing so to the extent he had with Sylvia, explaining that apparently he had managed to make himself ill. He hoped he had managed to imply to Sylvia that stress had made him physically ill - that it had broken something in his health - instead of having something wrong in his mind.

The doctor said it was his mind, but that this didn't make it any less of an illness. Nathaniel truthfully didn't know what he thought of that. He felt ill, to be sure, and the world looked so different, compared to how it had...before. Either his mind was wrong now or it had been before; they couldn't both be true. He just didn't know which one was true. What he did know, though, was that he could not let Sylvia or especially Jeremy know he was apparently not well in the head. All they would think of was Mama. And why should Jeremy listen to anything he said if he was a head case? So he had to keep that as far under wraps as possible. Which would be hard if he cracked up a hundred feet in the air.

There was also the question of whether the staff would even have him. For one thing, he was a prefect - he had obligations on campus. For another thing, the staff...he didn't know if his uncle had informed the school that he was now officially a person with mental problems, but he assumed that if his uncle had, it was only a formality. The staff had watched him fall apart last year. They had seen his grades go from very good - thanks to intense effort on his part - to barely getting through his fourth year. It would be utterly humiliating to put himself out there and then get turned away.

But knew he needed to sign up. For one thing, it was expected of him. He had played before last year, after all, and thus should play again. For another thing, it was another place where he could keep an eye on his brother. He could not in good conscience let Jeremy wander off to other schools with no supervision whatsoever from a member of the family, someone who could help keep Jeremy in line. Nathaniel was the only candidate now that Simon had graduated, so therefore, Nathaniel had to play again.

I must, therefore I will. He signed up.

Nathaniel Mordue, 5th Year, Teppenpaw, Keeper.
16 Nathaniel Mordue This is a terrible idea. 1412 0 5