Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
July 26, 2020 8:18 AM
Preparing for a Baby [Selina, Staff Room] by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Mary and Tabitha weren’t the only couple on staff with a child and now they weren’t going to be the only ones on staff with a new child. When Isis had mentioned that she was expecting, Mary had jumped at the opportunity to plan a baby shower, and she wasn’t the only one there either. It was unsurprising that Tabitha was less interested, but Selina had been excited and Mary was eager to work with the woman on a fun project. She was also eager to try a variation on the the potion used for the sorting ceremony. In this case, when Isis dropped a strand of hair into the cauldron, it would erupt into a very safe, very beautiful display of fireworks that matched the gendered color norms of western society. Mary was not thrilled with that part of the idea but she was glad for the chance to try out this potion, and she knew that gender reveals mattered a lot to other people. So long as Isis was supportive of her kiddo if the kiddo turned out not to be the gender doctors thought they were upon birth, then that was fine. She was also well aware that most people were cis, so as long as that was kept in mind - at least for herself - then she’d be okay. Truth be told, gender non-confirmation was new to her. While she’d been an obvious advocate for LGB rights for a long time, the T had evaded her notice for most of it and she was just recently beginning to see the harm in that.This, however, was not the point of a baby shower, and so she focused on the task at hand. Which, at the moment, was prepping. Mary was not one to go underboard(?) and Selina, she knew from experience with her own quarters, was not either. This was going to be a very exciting party. It was the sort of occasion that called for magic of the literal and figurative variety, and Mary had dedicated a lot of work into greenery and growth as a theme, both because babies were things that grew and because dear dad was the herbology professor. Isis’ own career lent itself a bit less well to baby shower themes, so Mary hadn’t worried so much about that.
Mary and Selina made plans to meet in the room where the party would be hosted early enough to get everything together, and so Mary made her way there with an extra bounce in her step. Upon finding Selina already there, she grinned and greeted the woman with a gentle hug. “I’m so excited!” she cooed. There had been one moment wherein Mary had been jealous; if she and Tabitha had been able to adopt as they had wanted to, then this could have been a party for them at some point. But babies and toddlers were not the same and she supposed adoption wasn’t the same either, especially in her own circumstances. Today, in any case, was about Isis, Nathan, and baby Carter-Xavier. “Are you ready for this?”
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Preparing for a Baby [Selina, Staff Room]
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Selina Skies
July 26, 2020 8:19 AM
All the tiny things and duckies! by Selina Skies
Selina was excited about the growing families at Sonora. They came with their share of things to sort out, but it felt like the arrival of the second Carter-Xavier child proved that the plans for Sonora to be a family friendly workplace were working. Not that all children were planned, and that was something it was not her business to speculate on, but the fact they had staff with families, that those families were able to grow and people weren’t having to choose between that and their jobs… It was good and healthy and it made her happy.Plus they got to throw a baby shower and buy tiny things and everything was cute.
They didn’t know the sex of the baby, which meant pink or blue colour schemes were right out, but she had a feeling her co-party planner would have vetoed some of that anyway. Her first go to for a gender-neutral colour was yellow but the trouble was it wasn’t particularly house-neutral, even if the pale yellow usually used for babies wasn’t really the Teppenpaw colour. She had liked Mary’s green theme though, both in terms of the colour it leant the party (Sonora’s colour too, which was helpful) and the theme.
The task ahead of them was to make the staff room look lovely. Something that perhaps seemed like a bit of a feat, given its usual appearance, but something she was confident they were more than up to. She was already working on the food when Mary arrived. She smiled, returning the hug, surprised but pleased by the gesture of affection. The elves had, of course, done a wonderful job in catering - there was a range of simple finger foods like canapes, sandwiches, chips and dips, and cakes, and now Selina was just attending to some little finishing touches, like transfiguring the sandwiches into teddy bear shapes.
“Do you think leaf patterns and flowers for the plates to go with the theme or something cuter like duckies?” she asked.
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Selina Skies
All the tiny things and duckies!
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
July 26, 2020 8:32 AM
All the duckies! by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Mary grinned when Selina offered two options. The professor's work was always incredible to see and it was one thing that made Mary the most jealous on staff. Sure, she could brew a potion better than the majority of them could, but they could do... everything else. Charms didn't escape her by any means, but she had nothing on Grayson, and Selina could transfigure her way out of a paper bag just by transfiguring the whole stinking paper bag. Even Tabitha, who had a uniquely interdisciplinary subject to work with, was better at wand work across the board than Mary was. She supposed she wasn't the only hands-on professor, with Lawrence and Nathan on staff especially, and she could only imagine whether Killian ever felt the same way. She respected and admired all of her colleagues for their specialties and she had to imagine they felt the same about her. Plus, potions were just fun."Duckies all the way," Mary said. "A little bit less Herbology, and we are already toeing the line," she laughed. "I made these," she added, waving her wand. She'd set down a trunk near the door when she'd come in and it floated across the room to her now, popping open to reveal glass orbs filled with flowers, immersed in clear liquid. "It's luminescent," she explained. "But I wasn't sure if flowers was too much leaning on plants and growth?"
She levitated one of the orbs to demonstrate, waving her hand nearby and watching as dozens of tiny sparkles blossomed and moved around the flower inside - a purple crocus in this case - before fading. "It responds to proximity and I thought it might be a fun way to add some sparkle and movement to the room as people mill about." Glancing down at the trunk, she counted fifteen total. Crocuses, tulips, daffodils, daisies, and hyacinth, all preserved and kept floating inside glass orbs as if they were dancing for silent crowds, just waiting to sparkle. Mary blushed a little when she looked back up to Selina. "I love this but I've never actually been to a baby shower before, so I wasn't really sure whether I was overdoing it."
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
All the duckies!
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Selina Skies
July 26, 2020 5:39 PM
All the small humans by Selina Skies
Selina smiled, pleased to be granted permission to duckie. She transfugured the plates, adding little fuzzy yellow ducklings to all their borders and setting them in motion with a range of her wand."It's starting to feel like the challenges last year," she laughed, admiring her handiwork, "Perhaps we should have asked your boy for help - erm, the bigger one. I seem to remember a colour-coded project file." She toyed with her wand, considering whether real ducklings would be overkill and deciding that they might be. "He's okay?" she checked.
Mary revealed her decorations and they got an actual 'ooh' from Selina, though her admiring noises were cut slightly short by the admission that Mary made. It wasn't like that hadn't been on her mind, worrying that this somehow wasn't fair or was going to hurt Mary. But she had thrown herself so enthusiastically into the preparations.
"They're wonderful," she assured her about the globes, "You really are very talented," she inspected on close up, thinking of the gently glowing sunset orb that still sat in her granddaughter's room. "Rather your signature move, isn't it?" she smiled, her tone conveying that was in no way a bad thing.
She hesitated slightly, wondering how to bring up the other subject, but it felt like it was rapidly becoming the erumpant in the room.
"You know I would have done the same for you, don't you?" she checked. "If... circumstances had been different," she stated, then realised how awful that might sound, "I don't mean not Tabitha - obviously," she hoped that was obvious. Maybe it was so obvious it should have gone without saying and she sounded odd for thinking she needed to, "I just meant...everything was so sudden, and you wanted to tell people yourselves so..." So a surprise party had definitely been a good thing to avoid, and then the term had got into full swing and it started seeming odd to have a 'Welcome Zeus!' party when he had already been living there for what, to him, must have felt like quite a while. "I don't think of him as..." what was the way to say 'any different' or 'any less' that didn't sound awkward? "He's just as much a Sonora baby as they are." And she hoped the nursery had helped make that point. That she had had to welcome Zeus differently but that he was no less welcome or valued because of it.
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Selina Skies
All the small humans
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
July 27, 2020 10:56 AM
For real, though. by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Mary smiled, appreciating the callback. "We should do one for staff," she teased. "I think you and I would win this round for sure." The ducks were precious and wholesome and a beautiful way to tie the more adult themes with the more child-like themes. It was beautiful and simple and Selina was brilliant. Which Mary already knew, of course. She started with some surprise at realising that Selina was referring to Dorian as her boy, as the oldest of her two. It felt wildly inappropriate to assume any sort of parental ownership there but at the same time. . . . well, Mary was aware that she'd had an influence and been a support for Dorian in ways that his biological mother had not been. Still, she was just trying to separate the professor-student roles into more of a peer-type relationship for Dorian's pending graduation and it was a bit sad to realize that that may never happen. Perhaps she could be relegated to the fun aunt position? Then there was part of her, a growing part as she realised that Selina meant no ill by her comment, that was proud. Proud of the man Dorian was growing into, proud of the loving relationship she'd fostered with him that even others knew of and considered in terms of something more like family than anything untoward. It was heart-warming and made Mary feel all sorts of feelings about Dorian graduating all over again."Oh terrible," she said sarcastically, her voice thick with emotions and laughter. "I think you should fail him so he doesn't graduate and we get to keep him around another year." Her eyes sparkled with amusement for a moment before she sighed. "Dorian has been through a lot and now he's grown up, and it seems so silly to be sad about that. Makes me anxious for raising Zeus. Someday, probably about when I'm getting used to him being around, he'll grow up and leave, too." She wiped her nose with the back of her hand, surprised to find that she was tearing up. With a laugh, she shook her head. "Sorry," she said. "One of those 'beginning of the ending' things I think."
She basked in Selina's complimentary sounds, appreciating it. "Thank you," she grinned, letting herself be proud. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it, eh? I suppose I do have a signature," she laughed.
She was surprised when the woman cut off. Mary hadn't actually meant any sort of sadness over not having had a baby shower herself. It amused her tremendously to think of what this sort of party would have looked like for her and Tabitha, but that was about it. Parties, she knew, were more fun to throw than have thrown for you, unless you were Isis who was going to enjoy this tremendously and be the belle of the ball.
At first, she smiled at Selina's consideration. Then she smiled at her awkwardness. "I do," she promised, reaching out to pat Selina's shoulder kindly. "And it means a lot. Zeus' bedroom was perfect. We couldn't have asked for anything more than that and I don't think we would have been ready for more than that. I felt about as ready for a baby shower as I did the funeral," she admitted. "I don't either," she added when Selina said she didn't think of him as any different, and a warm blossom of pride filled her chest again. "Over break . . . things were a bit rough with Tabitha's parents. But Tabitha called him her son," she smiled. "You know she's had a harder time with everything . . ." She was going to say than I have, and until she'd gone to say it, she believed it. But then she wasn't sure. Tabitha had certainly had a hard time with adjusting and with printing and with accepting their new little baby that wasn't a baby, but Mary had done the same things while grieving the loss of someone she felt wholly unallowed to grieve for. It had been a terrible time for Mary and Zeus' beautiful face had been one of the only things that had gotten her through it. She hated to acknowledge that, but Tabitha hadn't been there for her throw any she would have wanted, and she knew she hadn't been there for Tabitha the way her wife needed her to be either. Communication, it seemed, was ever their struggle, and it was as true with this as it had ever been. She didn't blame Tabitha for their disconnect surrounding Zeus and she didn't hold it against her now, but she couldn't fail to acknowledge it either. It was a failure on both their parts, perhaps an inevitable one, that had led to both of their increased suffering. Now, all they could do was move forward and learn what it meant to be a family in a new way, as they had hoped to have been doing from the beginning. "This definitely is not the little family that I had ever wanted, but I think it's the right one. All the ways you've supported us have honestly made such a huge difference, Selina. I can't thank you enough for that."
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
For real, though.
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Selina Skies
July 29, 2020 6:38 AM
Even when they get big by Selina Skies
“We are fairly formidable,” Selina agreed, as Mary stated they would wipe the floor in a staff competition. “I bet there’s some surprise hidden talents out there though - for all you know, Killian’s some secret dab hand at origami napkins or something.”Selina might have been concerned about the term Mary used about Dorian, though the tone made it clear she was joking, and the cause of that quickly became apparent. Good. If they were joking around hopefully that meant nothing more serious was going on. Hopefully.
“Mm, I have noticed one or two sloppy homework assignments, not up to his usual standard. Almost like he gets distracted certain days of the week…” she played along. And then Mary was… well, living up to her last name. “Oh absolutely,” she returned Mary’s poker face, “As soon as they turn eighteen, that’s it,” she snapped her fingers, “Fully self-sufficient and never bother you again. It’s not the same when they leave home,” she admitted, “But it’s a different sort of lovely, watching them be adults. And a different sort of scary, or frustrating at times. But they don’t stop being yours. I suppose Dorian could, but I don’t see that happening.”
She smiled, reassured that she had made the right choices regarding welcoming Zeus. It also sounded like things were moving in the right direction, although she was less than thrilled to hear that Tabitha’s parents were not behaving themselves. She wondered what her reaction would have been in the same situation. Krissalyn never would, of course, but she couldn’t say she would put it past Ema… She couldn’t say that she herself would have responded all that well to half of the things thrown at her in the last five years had they been thrown at her by family instead. She suspected she still had a lot to learn about several things too.
“I’ll add them to my list of people to have a stern word with,” she stated, pursing her lips, “Should go down well with Tabitha. She’s so good at accepting other people’s help,” she quipped. She remembered the down-on-her-luck Tabitha that she’d interviewed, and the very shabby hotel room that she had pretended not to notice. Since then, as she’d got to know her stubborn streak, she’d wondered how big a part that had played in the situation. Now she softened slightly on that idea. Perhaps, if they weren’t all that bad, that explained it, and where the attitude of looking out for herself had come from… “I’m sorry they’re being... however they’re being. Families can be rough,” she acknowledged, leaving a space for Mary to expand on that if she wanted, but not wanting to force the issue.
“You’re welcome,” she said, “Feels a little funny to take the praise, I don’t feel like I did very much,” she admitted, not to try to extract further reassurances but because it was something she’d learnt through years of battling imposter syndrome, and hoped she could give her staff a shortcut on realising for themselves, “It often very much feels that way whilst looking radically different from someone else’s perspective,” she added, smiling warmly at Mary, to show that the complement was being accepted. “Though I still hold that you’ve done most of it yourselves. You’re rather good at being you,” she smiled, rather pleased that that was both singular and plural.
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Selina Skies
Even when they get big
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
July 29, 2020 9:19 PM
When did *we* become big? by Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
Mary snorted, loving the idea of the guidance counselor sitting in his office, stacks of operahouse napkins all tucked between rows of student files. "You know, I wouldn't even be that surprised with him," she chuckled.She smiled when Selina played along and then grinned when she gave even more. "Okay, okay, so maybe they won't just up and leave. I dunno. I like to think Dorian would keep in touch, but I'm just a teacher and I don't know that I ever kept in touch with any of mine," she pointed out. Of course, she also recognized that her relationship with Dorian wasn't like her relationship with all of her students (which was good; she loved them but by Jove that would be exhausting) and maybe it would be different after graduation too. It wasn't like he was the first of hers to leave, or the last. Soon Heinrich would graduate, too, and Amelia already had. Assistants, close students, and all her wee wizards and witches, all off to live their magical lives. Hopefully.
The conversation had turned a bit more serious and Mary was surprised at the very funny not-joke about Tabitha, causing another burst of laughter. "Ooh, don't I know it," she replied, grinning with a well-humored, affectionate head-shake. "And thank you. You know, I miss my family a little bit more and a little bit less when we have to go see hers. There's pros and cons," she smiled.
Her lips twitched with amusement at Selina's reassurances, in part because they were so good. Selina was so good. She was a brilliant woman who knew exactly how to be sincere and authentic and also say exactly what needed to be said. It was rather refreshing after spending so much time inside her own head, and Mary wondered whether she ever came off that way to others. "I'm glad," Mary replied. "I'm not sure I could pull off being anyone else. But I think you're good at being you, too, so I don't have to worry so much about being anyone else; all their roles are already taken."
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Mary Brooding-Hawthorne
When did *we* become big?
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