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
Home again, home again, again. by Lorena Abernathy with Rosalynn Tellerman, Isla Brockert
One Last Feast by Heinrich Hexenmeister
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
Lorena Abernathy
December 18, 2020 2:32 PM
Home again, home again, again. by Lorena Abernathy
Wow! Being home was a wonderful change, and it was nice to see her parents again, but Lorena was pretty glad that break was over. She loved them, but she felt so divided there. Mom had never wanted to talk about Dad’s magic, and now she wouldn’t talk about Lorena’s, either. So she did her best to edit and amend her stories, sharing only the relevant details. But Lorena wasn’t great at that, and it hurt to know that Mom didn’t want to hear about her life. The greatest moments were when she got some time alone with Dad and could share openly and candidly, but then she felt bad for only really enjoying her time when her mother wasn’t around.Back at school, she felt this pressure alleviate, or at least procrastinate. She would deal with it in the summer. Maybe. In any event, she decided not to deal with it right now. For now, it was time to readjust to school life. As much as Lorena was a chatter, she hadn’t really talked very much about her family. She wasn’t afraid to mention the situation with her parents, but she didn’t really go into detail when she could help it.
There was so much more to think about here. Every day was something new. A new lesson, a new spell, a new adventure. And Lorena wanted to know them all. The only drawback - if it could be called that - was that she hadn’t read quite as much lately, or at least nothing that wasn’t assigned. She didn’t have to escape anymore. She had friends here, in the real world. She liked Sonora.
“Hi!” she smiled at her closest fellow Aladren after the Headmaster had stopped speaking. He hadn’t spoken long, but Lorena felt like bursting the whole time. “Are you excited to be back? I hope your break was good!” she added as an afterthought.
12
Lorena Abernathy
Home again, home again, again.
1510
0
5
Rosalynn Tellerman
December 23, 2020 7:22 PM
Welcome back by Rosalynn Tellerman
Rosalynn had been a little sad to leave Nevada. She liked Sonora quite a lot and the new friends she was making here, but the break had seemed too short, and too busy, and she felt like she'd barely been home at all before she was climbing back aboard the wagon to return to school. Holidays were always like that, but it seemed somehow worse this year since school wasn't just down the road and she didn't get to come home after classes anymore. She hadn't really realized how much she missed her mom and dad until she saw them waiting to pick her up at the transportation station, and then - quite to her mortal embarrassment - she had burst into tears and run into their arms.Leaving hadn't been quite as tearful, but there had been a lot of hugging and promising to write more. She knew she would probably fall back into the patterns she had created during the first half of term pretty easily and forget she was supposed to be missing mom and dad again, but that hadn't had time to happen yet, and she was still acutely feeling their absence, even moreso than she had in the fall, when she'd been too caught up other concerns like making new friends, not getting lost, and figuring out who she was when she wasn't Simon The Magnificent's daughter, for homesickness to have really sunk in.
"Hi," she returned to Lorena when her roommate spoke to her after the Headmaster's announcements. She tried to smile and drum up some enthusiasm for her friend. "I wish break had been just a little bit longer, but I'm glad to be back," she admitted, and it wasn't a lie either. She did like it here, and she was eager to pick up their classes again. "Break was good. A bit too busy, maybe. I feel like I didn't get to relax at all. First, we ran off to see my mom's family, then my dad's family, then my brother, then my sister, and I might have slept in my own bed twice? How was yours?"
1
Rosalynn Tellerman
Welcome back
1520
0
5
Isla Brockert
December 31, 2020 3:13 PM
Also back! by Isla Brockert
OOC: CW-This post discusses Isla's Uncle Eustace, a walking talking definition of toxic masculinity and pretty much almost everything else bad so similar CWs to every other post where he's discussed. BIC:
Isla's break had been great. She had gotten to see her parents and little brothers again. Although most people would not be enthused about the latter. Little brothers were supposed to be horribly annoying creatures but hers really weren't. Uriah was adorable and it was hard to find someone who usually kept to themselves and spent all their time reading the way Olaf did irritating because they didn't do anything obnoxious. Isla didn't have the loud obnoxious sort of little brothers. She supposed she was lucky that way. Though she did have an uncle like that, which meant her dad had had that kind of little brother.
But then, Uncle Eustace went beyond being just loud and irritating. He was such a monster that it was sometimes hard to decide whether he or Topaz was worse. True, the older Aladren had scarred Allegra and Sapphire for life and was resentful and nasty towards Isla herself at times while Uncle Eustace basically ignored her and his other nieces, which was a good thing, though obviously they were included in his negative comments about females in general. Even the ones that obviously wrong, like when he implyed women were less intelligent with three Aladren girls-whatever else Topaz was, she was very smart-sitting right there in front of him. In fact, Isla would have bet all his nieces as well Grandmother, Mother and her aunts-except maybe Aunt Opal-were smarter than he was.
However, he did not ignore his nephews. The first year got the impression that Uncle Eustace had given Jasper and Chris complexes every bit as much as Topaz had to Allegra and Sapphire. Jasper had this hang-up around flying that lead to him having trouble last year in Flying Lessons with getting his broom to even get off the ground, because one had to want to and he very much hadn't. The Teppenpaw was so super delighted not to have Flying Lessons anymore. Isla didn't really blame him a bit. She could take them or leave them herself. As for Chris, he was very conflict adverse to the point where now when Uncle Eustace tried to round up the boys for Quidditch-like activities, he tended to not be anywhere to be found.
And as far as the three younger boys went, Dad and Uncle Elmer had put their foots down-and Olaf was perfectly capable of telling Uncle Eustace no on his own, as was Jasper at this point-but that didn't stop Uncle Eustace from belittling Olaf, Uriah and Miles as a"nerd"-Isla personally did not get why this was a bad thing, being one herself, but her uncle definitely meant it that way-a "fatso" and a "weakling", respectively.
That last one had caused additional trouble this year. Libby did not take kindly to her younger brother being called names and, upon hearing him referred to in such a manner, she had started smacking Uncle Eustace, which was admittedly amusing in some ways. However, what had happened next was much less so, because naturally, her uncle had reacted to this by pushing the four year old off him roughly and calling her the sort of name that Topaz tended to call her roommate. Aunt Madeleine was even more displeased than she or her daughter had previously been-and then things deteriorated. Again. In addition to all his other flaws, Uncle Eustace had a knack for ruining holidays.
On the plus side though, Isla had gotten lots of new puppets! And books!
She walked into the Cascade Hall and looked over the Aladren table, taking note of where Topaz was sitting and where her roommates were. Thankfully, this time, they were not in close proximity so she joined the other two first year girls. "Hi!" Isla greeted them cheerfully as Grandfather began to speak. Surprisingly, he had an actual announcement this time. When he was done, she listened Rosalynn talked about her break. "That sounds...." Isla tried to be dipolomatic, which was not necessarily a strength of hers, she had a tendency to say what was on her mind even though she tried not to hurt anyone's feelings. This might be why she was in Aladren rather than Teppenpaw. "rather hectic. I hope it was at least nice seeing all of them." She wondered why they didn't all meet up in one group. Well, at least the siblings. Obviously, one's mom's side and dad's side wouldn't. Isla had seen her mother's family and the cousins on that side too, but she was generally closer to the Brockert side. She would say though that, thanks to Uncle Eustace, things on her mom's side tended to be a lot more peaceful.
Isla was about to tell her friends a little about her break-intending to omit the parts where Uncle Eustace ruining everything again-but it seemed that Rosalynn had specifically asked Lorena, so she patiently waited her turn.
11
Isla Brockert
Also back!
1521
0
5
Lorena Abernathy
January 03, 2021 9:34 AM
The gang's all here! by Lorena Abernathy
As nice as it was to go home again and return to the familiarities she had grown up with, Lorena was immediately reminded of all the things she had missed about Sonora, namely, her friends. It was nice to have another spectacular feast on the tables before them, but even nicer to spend it with Rosalynn and Isla, her two best friends and roommates. Lorena had never really fit in at home, but here, she finally felt like she belonged.Rosalynn talked about her crazy break, and Lorena commented, “I bet those two nights in your own bed were the best nights’ sleep ever! Definitely hectic,” she added in agreement with Isla. “Mine was…. Okay.” Lorena didn’t feel like she needed to hide anything from her friends, but she didn’t really want to get into the whole magical issue between her parents over their returning dinner. If it was particularly bothering her, they could all discuss it later, but there was no need to get into detail now. “Nice to see my family again, but not especially interesting. We didn’t do very much. What about you, Isla?”
“It’s so nice to be back,” Lorena stated after the discussions of winter breaks were done. “Ooh! I have little gifts for you guys, but I left them in my bags, so we can do that when we get back to our room later.” Mom and Dad let her use a little money to find some small things for her roommates, which was super exciting. She’d gotten Isla a sock puppet making kit - not nearly as fancy and exciting as Isla’s usual puppet stuff, but Lorena thought maybe it would be a fun craft the girls could all do together. Likewise, for Rosalynn, she got a little beginners magic kit for Muggles - all that fake stuff, of course, but since Rosalynn’s dad was a stage wizard, Lorena thought maybe she would like it. Plus, it was also something they could learn together, perfecting card tricks and vanishing coins. (But not real Vanishing, which Lorena heard was a thing, although pretty far above their class level for the moment.)
12
Lorena Abernathy
The gang's all here!
1510
0
5
