Mortimer Brockert
December 18, 2020 1:30 PM
Returning Feast by Mortimer Brockert
Mortimer had to admit that he really hated the holidays. First, there was all the socialising, something he had never liked, preferring to unwind with a good book and a glass of bourbon. Secondly, it was all just so nauseatingly sappy. All that holiday cheer made him want to throw up a bit. Everything about the season was disgustingly saccharine. It was all happy and cheerful and joyous and a lot of other things that were the opposite of him. In short, it was a time of the year that he didn't feel all that comfortable and not just at parties either. In some ways, he totally understood his brother Ichabod's granddaughter Liesl and her preference for Halloween. While Mortimer was not as passionate about it as his grandniece, he too felt more in tune with that season.Heck, even the entertainment on the wireless was crappy this time of year. All that bland, mushy romance stuff that lacked any substance whatsoever. And, for some reason some of his daughter-in-laws and at least one of his granddaughters, Ruby, liked it. In Opal's case, it did not really surprise Mortimer since she had the IQ of a flobberworm. And Helena was just damaged. Her, he had some sympathy for, considering all the miscarriages and being married to Eustace, whom even he, the man's father, had to admit was probably not a great husband. Therefore, Helena was likely trapped in little girl fantasies about having her Prince Charming that those programs fed.
The rest was family friendly kiddie stuff. Which was great for the little kids, but not so interesting to a man his age with slightly darker, more serious interests.
So, as much as any teenager not directly descended from him was annoying, Mortimer was glad to be back at Sonora. And glad the holiday season was over. Although the next holiday coming up was even more irritating and nauseating and saccharine then the Yuletide season was. Valentine's Day, yuck.He planned to ignore it. Vivien knew not to expect gifts for that day because it was an idiotic holiday that he didn't believe in. She knew that he cared in his own way and Valentine's Day was not part of his own way.
The students filed in and Mortimer rose and put the Sonorus Charm on himself. "Welcome back. I hope you all had a nice break." He still didn't actually care. "Before we eat, I have one announcement. We will be starting workshops regarding the Midsummer Concert. However, participation is still not mandatory." Mortimer was never going to enforce mandatory participation in any non-academic thing other than the Challenges.
With that, he sat back down and began his usual feast dinner of steak and bourbon.
OOC: Apologies to anyone who likes holiday movies, romantic or otherwise
Subthreads:Aladren
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Crotalus
Definitely not having a minor crisis. by Martin Crosby V with Jezebel Reed-Fischer
Yup guess this is still a thing. by Henry Spellman with Samantha Cinth
Pecari
More schoolin' huh? by Billy Cobb with Evelyn Stones
Nothing to think here. by Leonor De Matteo
Teppenpaw
Staff
11
Mortimer Brockert
Returning Feast
6
1
5
Freddie Zauberhexen
December 20, 2020 10:16 PM
I'm here! by Freddie Zauberhexen
Ellie said that Freddie could just talk to people. And that he could be brave. So naturally, he'd just made his way to Cascade Hall as early as possible and taken a seat and tried to ignore the idea that anyone might sit with him or not. If he sat first, then at least he knew he wasn't the one making the decision and it would be fine.He'd spent most of the holiday break trying to decide what it looked like to just be cool about stuff, and he'd almost even talked to Hana or his parents about it before deciding that it would be way too weird either way. It wasn't like him to feel like this or to want to keep things from his family (other than the whole dress thing, but even that wrapped itself up neatly!) and it made him think that maybe he was wrong. Maybe he wasn't supposed to like a boy. Or maybe he was fine liking a boy, but he was just not brave enough or something. That certainly felt true.
Freddie did his best to focus on the Headmaster today because he hadn't done so at all at the last feast - although that conversation had gone well and it had been fine, but that was not the point - and he felt a bit bittersweet at the length of it. It was short enough for Freddie to understand basically all of it which was great, but not long enough to keep him occupied. As such, he kept his eyes on the Headmaster and then on his food and then, only hesitantly, did he look around to see who had sat with him.
22
Freddie Zauberhexen
I'm here!
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Valentine Duell
December 27, 2020 6:53 PM
Me too! by Valentine Duell
Valentine swirled into the Cascade Hall, as cheerful as ever. The holiday break had been wonderful, no one had vanished due to an inexplicable ritual, she'd gotten to see everyone again, and she'd gotten some lovely presents! The only thing that she wasn't entirely happy about was the fact that she had to wear the school robe over her new dress Mama had gotten her. At least she could show off the pendant necklace that Papa had gotten for her.She did not rush to her table upon arrival. Val had people to meet with first. She waved and chatted a bit to whomever she could find, and when the time came to finally find a seat... she actually thought about sneaking over and sitting with Stanley! She didn't though, she was a Teppenpaw and should sit at the right table for the feast. She'd promised Mama that she'd be good, and she'd promised Papa to 'be careful' around Stanley, whatever that meant. He didn't seem as enthused by that news as Mama had been, even after they'd told him very gently. Papa was really just being silly again, everything was great. There wasn't anything to worry about.
So she found her way over to the Teppenpaw table at nearly the last minute and found a seat next to Freddie. She sat with Freddie a few times last term, but not much last year at all. He was nice, but sometimes his English was difficult to understand. That was alright though, he was doing great with it, way better than she was at learning German. Somehow that didn't seem quite fair for him, maybe she should go learn German. Plus that would also help her talk to Hilda as well. Maybe she would have to go talk to Professor Xavier or Mr. Row about language courses. One of them would know something.
The headmaster, as usual, didn't say much. However, he did mentions something about a workshop for the Midsummer Concert. That was coming up! When he'd finished talking, the food appeared and she saw Freddie look her way. She flashed him a friendly smile. "Hi Freddie!" She started cheerily, "How was your break? Are you doing anything for the Concert?"
2
Valentine Duell
Me too!
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5
Philippe Delachene
December 30, 2020 5:55 PM
So am I! by Philippe Delachene
One year ago today (more by Feast day than calendar day, but in Sonora terms it had been exactly one year ago) had been the first time Philippe really met Freddie. He'd handed out a random candy cane creation Jasmine had pushed on him to deliver to all the people he knew (with extras for new people he hadn't met yet), and Freddie had in turn offered to dye Philippe's hair sometime. Philippe had taken him up on that twice - once in orange (his favorite color) and once in green (for spectating during a Quidditch home game) - and had since grown a strong appreciation for Freddie's own hair which colored so nicely and didn't have the unruly curls that Philippe found difficult to tame on his own head.Tonight, he had more candy cane creations - Santa elves this time, not reindeer - and he'd snagged the seat directly across from Freddie so nobody could blame him for looking at the older boy because where else was he supposed to look? - but Freddie wasn't looking back or meeting his eyes or anything. He was totally focused on the Headmaster. Oh, the Headmaster was talking.
Philippe tuned in and caught enough words that it was simply inconceivable that he could have missed much of anything. The Headmaster was not exactly known for being verbose, so two full sentences had to be the majority of the new year's announcements.
Concert workshops seemed interesting. He was already signed up and eager to get started, so he was looking forward to that.
He startled slightly when he heard Freddie's name come from one of their other neighbors. Val had taken the seat next to the fourth year, and now she was talking to him. For just a moment, Philippe felt a flash of irritation, but then he remembered he did not have a crush, and Freddie was a cool guy lots of people were allowed to find cool.
Besides, Val had a boyfriend already, so she wasn't a problem.
No, no, that did not matter at all. There was no crush. Anya was a ninny and that was not what was happening here.
Still, he found it weirdly hard to speak up and join the conversation, so he just listened raptly to hear what Freddie would tell Val about his break and concert intentions.
1
Philippe Delachene
So am I!
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Freddie Zauberhexen
December 30, 2020 7:21 PM
Three's a . . . something. by Freddie Zauberhexen
Philippe had sat with him. Philippe had sat across the table from him. Freddie hadn't noticed until the headmaster had stopped talking because he was Not Noticing Anything, and when he did, Philippe was not looking at him. Not sure that if it was going to be weird for him to just launch into some conversation, and not even really sure what to say to start, he glanced to his side to see who else was in earshot if he did go full awkward dorky here in a second and smiled naturally when Valentine greeted him. Her exuberance outshown even his own and, although he hadn't been looking at her to start a conversation, he didn't really mind it. He wasn't sure he could trust his peripherals when he thought he saw Philippe look up too though. And he was fine and his face didn't get red."I submit story," he told Valentine, nodding a little proudly because he'd done a great job remembering the Paul Bunyan story. "But I know not when-- if school keep," he added, remembering that weird conditional thing that English did with ifs and whens and ugh. "I mind not to play too," he smiled, happy to take the chance to dress up whenever it was presented.
He glanced at his food, trying to see if Philippe had looked, but his bangs had gotten long and fell in his eyes and he couldn't tell. Pushing them aside, he looked back at Valentine. "Break was Ok," he said, slipping into German for the cognate. He brightened some as he thought of gift-giving. "Mein Vater, he gibt me more of hair coloring. Now all bottles have full," he said happily.
22
Freddie Zauberhexen
Three's a . . . something.
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Valentine Duell
January 02, 2021 5:51 PM
A party! by Valentine Duell
"You did?" Valentine smiled encouragingly at Freddie after he told her that he'd submitted a story for the concert. "That's great!" She wondered briefly it if was a story she would recognize, or if it was some neat German story. "What story did you pick? I was trying to think of a good one to suggest," she shook her head a little sadly, "but I couldn't think of any good ones, that would probably work well on stage." There were any number of stories she could think of, but she wasn't sure how well they'd play out as a short story type of format. Maybe she could brainstorm with other people at the workshop thing the Headmaster had mentioned.She nodded, "I signed up to act as well on the sheet last term." She assumed that's what he had meant with his mildly wonky follow up statement. At that point, she noticed Philippe on the other side of the table, he seemed to be listening in. "How about you Philippe? Did you have any plans for the concert yet?" She was generally unconcerned whether or not Philippe wanted to be a part of the conversation. If he didn't, he'd sat at the wrong place, and he should know that by now.
Freddie looked away briefly before answering about break. She was momentarily terrified that she'd asked the wrong question. What if he'd had a terrible break? What if bad things had happened? She shot Philippe a quick, panicked look but Freddie was looking back at her and she quickly buried the look under a super friendly smile. His response took a few moments to process, as she wasn't all that used to German, she hoped the words meant what they sort of sounded like. "That's neat!" she responded cheerily, "Do you have big plans for them?" It looks like things were okay.. hopefully.
A thought struck her, "Did you turn Philippe's hair green for that one Quidditch match?" She looked back at Philippe in case confirmation came from that direction. "That was pretty cool!"
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Valentine Duell
A party!
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