Now what? (Tag Killian Row) on Elective Hall

Gary Harper

March 01, 2020 6:02 PM

Now what? (Tag Killian Row) by Gary Harper

Gary stood in front of the door to the office of the school's guidance counselor, Mr. Killian Row. He was here after a brief chat with his head of house had indicated that Mr. Row would be much better qualified to answer Gary's questions. So, here he was. Standing before a door, that potentially held the key to his entire future. Yup, he was standing here. Looking at it. Yeah.

He sighed, now what was making him hesitate? Was he scared... eh, a little maybe. Was he embarrassed? Hmm.. that might be it. He had messed up, and being here forced him to admit that. He had try and fix the disaster he had made, and that was hard when he really wanted to just sweep the whole thing under the metaphorical rug. Unfortunately he was past the point of doing that, he may be past the point of fixing the problem, and that was the part that scared him a little. Then what would he do?

There was nothing for it. He steeled his resolve and moved to knock on the door, the he hesitated again. Was he supposed to have made an appointment? What if Mr. Row was busy? Well, he could maybe use this to make the proper appointment. What if someone was already in there with him? That would hardly get them off on the right foot. He didn't see any 'Do not disturb' sign anywhere. Although there were probably magics that would accomplish the same effect better than a sign would. One way to find out. He sighed accepted his inevitable fate and knocked on the door.

2 Gary Harper Now what? (Tag Killian Row) 1404 1 5

Killian Row

March 03, 2020 1:45 PM

Wait what? by Killian Row

Killian was as bored as he could be, which wasn't very bored. Still, looking over student questionnaires and going over correspondence with businesses and schools was much less exciting than actually working with students. Working with students was his meat and potatoes. Few things in life made him as happy as seeing a student grow into themselves and get a new idea for who they would be someday. It was beautiful. And it wasn't happening enough.

He did not doubt that he was helping people, but he had lofty goals and feet on the ground. That was the danger with jobs like this; there were always more opportunities to seek out, more internships to nail down, more applications to fill out, more students to get to know. This was not a job that ended and it wasn't a job that was constrained by terms or years the way some of the more academic classes at Sonora were. Or at least, he thought they probably were. Lord knew he would have made a terrible teacher, not least because he wasn't qualified for anything like teaching children how to magic.

When a knock sounded at his door, he practically jumped across the desk to open it. Instead, he remembered that he was an adult, and he merely called out for whomever it was to come in, shoving his things out of the way as he did so and the door subsequently opened.

He was surprised to see Gary Harper standing there, but also not that surprised in some ways. Gary was coming to the end of his Sonora career soon and that almost always meant that thoughts of careers and futures and things were coming to mind. The unfortunate thing for Killian was that he rarely had any context. If students hadn't spoken up in his sessions with them or left some note or something on one of the projects they turned in, he wouldn't know what they were thinking or going through. Often, what he got from students was limited to "all of these sound stupid" on career exploration assignments, or "I like school" on assignments about educational pursuits.

Gary looked . . . well, it was hard to say. It was always hard to say with students, and so Killian generally tried not to guess. What students said was as important as what they didn't say, and what they said with their face often had as much to do with puberty as it did whatever was coming out of their mouth.

"Great to see you," he smiled, gesturing at the seat across from himself. "Come for a chat? Would you like any tea or cakes or anything? Sandwiches?"

22 Killian Row Wait what? 1450 0 5

Gary Harper

March 05, 2020 6:21 PM

Yeah, that. by Gary Harper

Gary gave Killian a half-hearted smile as he shuffled into the office and sat in the indicated seat. "No thanks," he replied to the offer of refreshments. This was it, he had to admit to his mistakes and suffer whatever consequences were forthcoming. It was not going to be easy. Unfortunately, judging by his invitation, it didn't look like the guidance councilor had any pressing matters to attend to and as such he couldn't just use this to make an appointment at a later date. So he sighed and considered how to begin. A few moments later and he had decided just to plunge in head first.

"Mr. Killian," He began slowly, "I believe I've made some terrible mistakes." that was out at least, "Now, you need to believe me, none of this was done intentionally, rather more through inattentiveness and omission than anything else. However, I still need to fix this... assuming it can be fixed at all. I think you're the only one that can help me." He paused to take a breath again before continuing, "I fear we may need your full power of divinations and whatever other magics allow you to peer into the future to manipulate and guide the futures of those in this school."

Gary held up his hand to forestall any objections by what he figured must be one of the most insidious wizards at the school. Not that is was being used for evil purposes, such machinations could do wonders of good, they must for the wizarding community to thrive in the manner that it has. Simply put, the wizard in charge of guiding the students of any school must be of the highest ranking wizards in the society. A muggle guidance councilor is one that will try through research and other means to help someone to their best outcome. Now, give that person access to future knowledge, subtle environmental controls and goodness knows what other sort of supernatural manipulation, and you have a true mastermind capable of shaping the future towards definite ends. The trick was to remain nondescript in the process and let everyone suspect the headmaster or someone else along those lines. Killian Row was a master of this role. So long as his power was being used for good, Gary had not problems with it.

"I'm sorry for the necessity to draw back the curtain, but the facade is not necessary. We may well need every power you can draw upon and we can't have such distractions getting in the way." He took another breath, now that that was out of the way, "As for my problem..." again he hesitated then out it came. "I neglected to consider future plans after CATS last year and selecting classes for this year. What am I to be doing after graduation and how badly have I messed up preparations for such a role?"

2 Gary Harper Yeah, that. 1404 0 5

Killian Row

March 09, 2020 1:15 PM

You think I'm... What??? by Killian Row

Killian had mastered his poker face, and it was good he had as he couldn't tell at all whether Gary was joking or not. He was pretty sure he was serious, in which case Killian needed to remember to explain himself better to future cohorts. There was also some amount of respect for Gary if that's what he thought of Killian and yet he was still coming to him for help. Shame that Killian would be inevitably disappointing in that regard. He wasn't particularly good at Divination, but wasn't about to tell Gary that.

He did enjoy the mental image that cropped up of Selina sitting in the room, hearing this conversation. Or Tabitha. Or any of the professors at Sonora. Killian was certainly a skilled wizard, whether or not his profession required much wandwork, but he would be transfigured into a teapot faster than he could say "please don't hurt me" if he came to a head with most of the professors on staff.

There was something more pressing though, and that was the thoughts that ran through his head when Gary said he'd messed up. It was hard to out a word to the sorts of fears that made Killian's stomach churn for a moment, and he was glad when it seemed to be a matter of shortness of foresight more than anything more serious. Well, interpersonally more serious. Killian had to agree that not thinking ahead could cause a problem; it was in his job description to do so.

"First, I want to confirm for you that I am not actually able to pull any strings in the future, just help you shape things right now in favor of a better future. I couldn't do what I do without the work of all of the amazing students here, and I'm excited to work with you on this!" He had been told before that he was too chipper about things, but he couldn't help it. Even when he tried to start out serious, he was generally pumped by the end of his thought. The exceptions were the sorts of conversations he was glad this hadn't turned out to be.

"Can you tell me more about what sorts of things you are hoping to have access to in the future, career wise or in terms of education?" he asked as he leaned down to retrieve Gary's file so they could review his classes and grades together. "And how are you feeling about your testing overall? Are you wanting some study help?"

22 Killian Row You think I'm... What??? 1450 0 5

Gary Harper

March 09, 2020 6:14 PM

Absolutely! by Gary Harper

Gary gave Killian a long, cool look before responding. "Alright," he said slowly, "If we need to play the game and stick to the rules, so be it. I have little choice but to believe you know what you are doing." Inwardly Gary sighed, of course Mr. Row would need to stick to the script, to do otherwise would throw the whole system into chaos. At the very least it would introduce an unstable variable into the carefully laid equations and lines of fate. If the situation wasn't dire enough for Mr. Row to come clean, then the charade must be sufficient to accommodate his errors.

Now that he thought about it, it had to be, otherwise Mr. Row wouldn't have allowed him to err in such a grievous manner. There had to safety margins built into the system to allow for the pretense of self-determination, and this just must be one of them. If the system was to tightly regulated, it would be obvious, and therefore collapse from renegades fighting that system. It was a very clever system indeed. He had to hand it to Mr. Row, although the regulations may be prescribed to him from whatever higher powers have designed the system, his execution of it was nearly flawless.

As such, Gary would play his part. Let's see how this works. "Honestly, I'm not sure. That is the crux of the problem. Having grown up Muggle-born, I'm not sure what all the options are out there." Time for a little test,"I know there are teaching positions, and magical government jobs... and guidance councilor positions," he allowed a little smirk and a quick wink before continuing. "Other than that, there are aurors, and wizard shop keepers?" His mind tried to grasp at any other sort of magical jobs he'd heard about during his time at the school, one other popped into his head, "Magical horse ranchers, but I'm not sure I'm suited for that. I dropped Care of Magical Creatures because most of the creatures didn't like me much."

"As for testing and studying?" Gary waved his hand semi-dismissively, "Grades and such are doing fine... I think, but again, I'm not sure what all the requirements are for whatever positions are out there. I'm definitely doing the best in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Charms and Transfigurations are fine, Potions is okay. Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures weren't great, but I only dropped Creatures because I was getting tired of getting bitten and scratched." He sighed, "When we got to pick classes for this year I didn't really think about requirements for future plans and just signed up for what I was already doing." He shrugged. "What can I do with what I've got, and what should I be setting up for next year?"

2 Gary Harper Absolutely! 1404 0 5

Killian Row

March 15, 2020 2:20 PM

You're kidding. by Killian Row

Gary was not kidding. He also wasn't convinced, which worried Killian to some degree. He had seen posters up about Gary playing Dungeons and Dragons - a game that Killian himself had enjoyed before - but he hadn't thought anything of it. However, if there was some amount of that that was trickling into Gary's reality, then maybe there was cause for concern. Or perhaps it was only giving the lad the language to use to express himself, even if that language was a little unusual. Perhaps he merely thought less of himself than he thought of others, and so, by comparison, he thought Killian was amazing? That was a sad thought.

"I do," Killian promised about knowing what he was doing. "Most of the time," he added with a conspiratorial wink, hoping he didn't absolutely break the poor guy's brain.

In any case, as Gary went on to answer Killian's more temporally based questions, he seemed to have a sense of humor himself, and that was comforting. Killian nodded along as Gary laid out where he was so far, and glanced over the file before him to confirm what Gary was saying. He was definitely a visual person, and seeing it on paper was helpful.

"So, many jobs in the Muggle world have a wizarding world equivalent," Killian began, hoping 'computer engineering' wasn't the first thing to come to Gary's mind. "Authors, translators, medical practitioners of varying sorts - chiropractors, dentist, nurse, etc. - athlete, daycare workers, therapists, early-intervention specialists . . " He paused, and cocked his head. "Did you have anyone come to your door to tell your family you were magical and sort of explain things? The Muggle world has intervention specialists for children with disabilities, which the wizarding world has as well, but there are also sort of wizarding intervention specialists who are the ones that Muggle families can go to during this transition. I guess it comes back to what your interests are outside of the classroom."

He looked over Gary's grades, confirming again that the boy was right - his grades were just fine and that DADA was his best. "Do you think you'd like to work with people? Helping them? Leading them? Or do you think you'd be more interested in working on problems or puzzles, like construction or something? Let me know if I'm throwing too much at you at a time," he said, smiling. "I know this can feel like a lot. You're doing great so far though! I'm not worried about you; we can definitely identify some next steps from here."

22 Killian Row You're kidding. 1450 0 5

Gary Harper

March 17, 2020 1:11 PM

It makes sense... by Gary Harper

Gary nodded along as Mr. Row listed out magical equivalents of the muggle jobs. He could see where that would be necessary, Wizards were people had the same needs, on some levels, as muggles but would need their own version of it. Even if the only difference was the fact that the person doing it was aware that there was magic. That seemed terribly inefficient. What was the alternative though? To fuse the societies so that such barriers and duplications weren't required? Gary couldn't imagine any way of accomplishing that without a massive upheaval, and a lot of problems. Which is why the barrier existed and people like Mr. Row needed to be very good at their jobs. His respect for the guidance counselor took another step up, he was part of the first line of defense against global panic and world-wide disaster should anything go wrong with the veil between the worlds.

"We did," Gary answered Mr. Row's question about someone coming to visit and explain things, "It was when I was first accepted to the school, and admittedly we really didn't know what to make of it at the time. Our idea of wizards was a little different back then, so we took things... with a grain of salt. I think that's the expression."

Gary shrugged at Mr. Row's next question, "Games I guess." he responded as Killian started shuffling through papers, "Outside of class, I run the role-playing games for whoever wants to play. That's about it..." He struggled to think of anything else that he did outside of class, and nothing really was coming to mind, "I've got a date for the ball, that's something outside of class that I'm interested in... but I'm not sure it's relevant here." His mind wandered a moment to the last conversation he had with Jasmine and the preparations for the ball, dance classes were going to need to happen.

He grimaced just a bit at Mr. Row's next question, "I'm not a big people person, working on problems and puzzles sounds more fun." Were there actual adventuring wizards that needed to delve deep into long forgotten vaults of lost lore? Did they need to bypass arcane locks and traps and such? That could be fun. "Figuring out the next steps sounds good."

2 Gary Harper It makes sense... 1404 0 5

Killian Row

March 18, 2020 2:39 PM

Not much. by Killian Row

For all that he seemed to have a very severe misunderstanding of Killian's abilities, Gary was a cooperative, polite young man. He didn't sound particularly interested in the muggle liaison that had come to visit, so perhaps that wouldn't be the right choice. Plus, if he didn't like working with people, that would undoubtedly be tiresome.

But he liked games. He liked roleplaying games. That meant he was a good storyteller. He liked puzzles. He liked somebody! That was exciting. Killian grinned, excited for Gary and whomever his partner was going to be. "That's a good thing to be interested in," Killian confirmed.

Several ideas came to Killian and he took a moment to ponder them, put them in order, and plan how he wanted to get them all out before he spoke next. He had a good thinking face; he was very obviously considering something, but he was still open and friendly. He didn't close his eyes or scrunch up his face. He was just thinking. Finally, he leaned forward again, ready to really start being helpful.

"If you're really open right now, then some things come to mind that might be a good starting place. You had mentioned government-based jobs, and some of those include things like curse-breaker, residual magics remover, etc. That is very much a problem solving, puzzle type career. You'd be working with other people but mostly in terms of brainstorming and you'd be working together on projects rather than you being the person trying to help others in a customer service type role. So that's an option. There are also . . . I guess you'd call them archaeologists? Anthropologists?" He shrugged, feeling like he should probably have a better idea of what professionals in those fields were actually called.

"There are magical folk who spend time reading through old documents and trying to sort out how people in ancient times lived. An area of need in that field is particularly related to your own experiences because magic and muggle people lived together in very different ways than we do now way back in ancient times. There's a lot to study there and there's the option to travel if you're interested in that. But if you like problem solving and stories, that might be a good thing to consider. That is something you'd need higher education to become a professional in, but we can do some career exploration stuff first and if you are interested, then we can start looking at programs or schools you may be interested in. If it seems like you wouldn't enjoy that, then we can look at other things.

Does that sound like a good start? Does anything else come to mind for you? I don't want to put a limit on your creativity and this is all about you, but I also want to help provide some structure if that's what you're looking for." He raised an eyebrow playfully at Gary, wondering what the young man's response would be and wanting to make sure he knew that Killian was both competent (not that he seemed to need convincing in that regard) but also human; if Gary hated that idea, Killian would not be offended and they could do something else.

22 Killian Row Not much. 1450 0 5

Gary Harper

March 21, 2020 4:55 PM

How so? by Gary Harper

Gary grinned back at Mr. Row's comment about him being interested in his date. Naturally Killian would know who his date was, following the social development of the students would naturally be just as important as following their academic progress. Both would need to be guided to place each person into their necessary place in wizard society. Admittedly, there had been a few second thoughts going through Gary's head about this date with Jasmine. Nothing serious, but nearly every conversation they've had since she'd agreed to go with him has been on some level about the ball, and it was beginning to get a little monotonous. Either dance lessons, attire, etiquette, more attire... etc. Hmm..

That made sense now. From Killian's perspective, Gary needed to be fully indoctrinated into wizarding society to be a proper and productive member of that society. What better way than to have a beautiful girl coach him? Very clever Mr. Row, very clever. How he had managed it, Gary couldn't even begin to guess, but it was effective. At this point, with only a year to go, Gary was sorely in need of a crash course. Well played.

As Mr. Row explained some possible job routes, Gary listened and nodded along. "Interesting," He replied, "Both of those sound like they could be worthwhile. At a base level being a curse-breaker sounds pretty cool, that was the subject of class when I got my date," he stopped himself before he added 'which you know all about.' "Your other idea I think would fall into the Anthropology category, which some consider Archeology and branch of that focus more on the physical aspects rather than just historical records." He shrugged, "Sorry, I ran a modern 'Indiana Jones-esqe' archeology adventure the other year for the roleplaying club and had to look up a bunch of that stuff. That being said, it also could be really interesting," Again he stopped before adding 'and maybe answer a bunch of other questions I've been collecting over the years.'

"I'd definitely be interested in learning more about those, and trying to figure out which you think I'd be best suited for," he resisted giving Killian a wink, they were playing this by the 'rules' after all. "Also, what I'm going to need to do with my schedule to aim for whichever one I want to aim towards."

2 Gary Harper How so? 1404 0 5