Selina Skies

February 14, 2021 8:13 AM
The concert was probably the most complicated of the Midsummer events. It required input and preparation by the students, and it involved inviting their families onto campus. Selina hoped they would have something good to show them. On the plus side, they had a clean and safe school free of strange manifestations. Whilst she was very, very pleased about that, and whilst it marked a step up from the recent situation, she was aware that was rather a minimum standard that was expected. She hoped they would have a decent performance too.

For some parents, it was their first real exposure to the magical world outside of the visit from their Muggleborn liaison officer, and the subsequent shopping trips. The school contacted all the families with detailed transportation details, but took extra care to make sure the Muggle families had things fully explained to them. There was also the option of being picked up by something that was more or less a car (just with far more capacity inside, and the ability to drive itself) from the nearest town. The welcome area, which had extra Floo connections and space for apparition, was set up outside the school, staffed by Selina on welcome duty, and Katey, in case anyone needed medical attention.

As the families arrived, she greeted them all cheerfully – some by now familiar faces, some new, some ex students, some future students, and a small handful in the middle of those ages who presumably were non-magical siblings. She directed them through a door that was standing on the edge of the raised area, that was not attached to any form of wall but would lead into the foyer of the school, where there were refreshments, along with any of the school staff who had drawn the lot of supervising the parents instead of the students, and a place for the family members to make name labels so people would know who was who. Once everyone was gathered, there was an optional tour of the school. Those who didn’t want to come could stay in the foyer and mingle with the staff or each other, and those who did would still have a chance to do that both before and after the show.

And, in the Cascade Hall, props were being put in place, actors were getting ready, and tales were going to be told…


OOC: - If posting as families/multiple people please use 'other' as the author and select the appropriate post type from the drop down menu.
- Posts can be set before or after the concert, but students will not be available to join families until after, even if they are not involved
- For the concert itself, there will be a separate starting post. We do not have a set plan of what is happening - feel free to talk about what your student contributed in their posts with their families or by writing at the concert. You can use information from the prep threads, or other ideas you have, and/or check in with people in chatzy as needed
Subthreads:
13 Selina Skies Telling Tales - The Midsummer Concert 26 1 5

Gabriel Wilson

February 19, 2021 5:56 PM
Outside of one mandatory workshop-the initial meeting didn't count, as it was just the announcement of what the concert was going to be-Gabriel had not participated in the concert at all. Although he enjoyed myths and folktales, he just wasn't really a theatrical type. That seemed to be more Morgan's kind of thing, as she was the one who'd gotten really into acting out her parts in Gaming Club. Gabriel tended to be more trying to figure out what he was going to do on his turn even though it was nearly always some kind of spell when they were in combat. He wished he was better at the building up his character part although he had had fun with the bargain seeking feat of Erezan's, his wizard merchant, which was, of course, not something that Gabriel had ever needed to give much thought to in real life.

Still, he was looking forward to his parents and sister coming to the Concert tonight anyway. Although the third year did initially wonder why it was called a concert since there was no music involved and a concert was defined as a musical performance that was given in public.He knew in the past that some of the acts had been musical in nature but it had never been a requirement for this particular midsummer event. Which made Gabriel wonder why they didn't call it something else such as a production or performance. That would be like if they had the bonfire next year without an actual bonfire.

However, the Aladren had learned some interesting facts about concerts such as that the first one had been in the seventeenth century and that they could also be called shows or gigs.Given that shows could also be any sort of public performance regardless of musical content, calling tonight's event a show would have made a lot more sense. Calling it a play this time around would be even more precise but calling the event a show in general would be the way to be the most accurate-and he did like accuracy.

Gabriel spotted his parents and walked over to them. "Hey, Mom, hey Dad." He greeted them. "Where's Piper?" He asked.

"Oh, Ryan is watching her and Charlotte." Jana Wilson replied. Gabriel's cousin, who was Stanley and Wally's father, Ryan was really easy to talk into child care duties or almost anything that wasn't completely unethical.

"Oh." The Aladren replied. Then he spotted one of his fellow Gaming Club members with their parents. "Hey, there's one of my friends, let's go meet them." He lead his parents over to the other Gamer.


OOC: For anyone whose attended any gaming club meetings, even if you're not a regular member ie Bertie, Phillipe
11 Gabriel Wilson Being pedantic (Gaming Club member) 1481 0 5

Morgan Garrett

February 20, 2021 7:01 PM
In a way, Morgan was glad that she hadn't known that her mother was going to be present. If she had known, she thought it would have completely screwed up her performance in the Concert, and she didn't know what she would have done if that had happened. Her whole career would have been ended right here and there, and that would have been awful.

Unfortunately, though, this meant she now had to live with knowing her mother had seen her going all-in, make-up and costumes and exaggerated mannerisms and all, and now Morgan could never un-know that. Which meant she could never stop thinking about it. Because she was completely sure that Mom must have totally disapproved of everything, but Mom wouldn't say so as such, and Morgan wasn't going to ask, so....

"This place is very interesting," her mother remarked, looking at the waterfalls that defined the room. She sounded stiff, but that could just be because she was a little uncomfortable in a magic place, couldn't it? And because she was being forced to hang out with Dad? It was definitely because of Dad, and she totally didn't think that just because it wasn't her fault that her parents kind of hated each other, whereas it was her fault if Mom thought she had been acting a fool.

"It's nice," agreed Morgan's stepmother, who had diplomatically placed herself in the middle of this. Sage was such a Teppenpaw, thank God. That, and, as Dad put it, the grown-up in the family. "I'm a little jealous now, actually. I went to a newer school, so the buildings didn't have much character."

"I can't imagine the water bill, though," said her mother. "Not exactly what I'd choose to spend my half of Morgan's tuition on...."

"I don't think the tuition goes toward the waterfalls," said Dad. He definitely sounded a bit awkward, too, addressing her mother directly. He definitely didn't care about her acting a fool, had even congratulated her and seemed pretty enthusiastic while handing her flowers. So it was all good. "Magic. Probably the same as in my day."

To Morgan's surprise, her mother actually looked interested a little. "Is it like an illusion, then?" she asked.

"I don't think so," said her father. "At least, they weren't back then. You definitely did not want to walk into one of them," he said in a deadpan that clearly indicated that he had done that, at least once, probably more than once. Morgan laughed.

"You still don't," she said, and then spotted someone walking toward her odd little group of people. "Oh, there's our wizard!"

"You're gonna have to be more specific, kid," Dad advised.

"From the gaming group," she explained. "He likes to play people who can cast spells in the game. I can do a few, too, but - hi Gabriel! Mom, Dad, Sage, this is Gabriel, from my Dungeons and Dragons party. And these are - " she grinned awkwardly, having already announced who two of the three others were. "Mom, Dad, and my stepmom, Sage."
16 Morgan Garrett Bring it on. 1470 0 5


Gabriel Wilson and parents

February 21, 2021 3:51 PM
"Hello." Gabriel greeted Morgan's family. "These are my parents, Jana and Barry Wilson.Mom, Dad, this is my friend Morgan. It's nice to meet you." He said to his classmate's parents. Jana and Barry both shook hands with the other adults and greeted them and Morgan both. For purebloods, they were surprisingly unfazed by the fact that Gabriel's classmate had a stepmother as Jana's own sister had been through a divorce. Not that she assumed one of Morgan's parents was at all like Pearl. At least, she hoped not. For Morgan's sake. Pearl had been a terrible sister and a worse mother.

Gabriel grinned at the fact that the other third year introduced him as part of their Dungeons and Dragons group. After all, the Gaming Club was his main social group here at Sonora and he truly enjoyed playing even if he wasn't as good at it in some ways as Morgan was.

His parents, for their part, didn't quite understand the game but they thought it was pretty harmless despite being a Muggle thing. They were generally pleased that the game made their son happy, and that he was playing a wizard and solving problems using magic. After all, magic was what they wanted him to learn. Even though the magic in the game was mostly different from real life. Which was also a good thing in their opinion because it meant that the Statute of Secrecy was working.

Plus, they were happy that Gabriel was making friends, even if they weren't purebloods. After all, their son was a bit...unique. While they loved his intellectual curiosity, kids weren't always that nice to those who were different and the third year had a habit of spouting off trivia at great length, which some people might find boring. Of course, the people who would find Gabriel boring were people they would find boring themselves. Still, they were happy that he had a group that belonged to and that there really hadn't been any instances of him being bullied.

"You did really well." The Aladren boy told his friend sincerely. Acting seemed to be Morgan's thing, like trivia was Gabriel's.

"Are you having a nice evening?" Jana asked Morgan's parents, in the interest of making conversation.
11 Gabriel Wilson and parents Okay. 0 Gabriel Wilson and parents 0 5

David Wilkes

February 23, 2021 7:57 PM
David preferred interacting with his ex-girlfriend as little as possible, but as they were introduced to Morgan's friend and his family, he wished that he had thought to make up some hand gesture or other signal to tip Amanda off to people or situations she might want to be careful during. He had taken one look at the other family and immediately been pretty sure that they were talking to purebloods. Half a glance at his wife was as good as confirmation of this. If Amanda said the wrong thing, or admitted that she was a Muggle....

Still, Morgan was almost Muggleborn herself, for all practical purposes - his fault - and the Wilsons' son was friends with her, and the two adults were willingly shaking hands with him and Sage and Amanda. They were probably not too actively prejudiced, then, at least as long as Gabriel and Morgan refrained from falling into a turbulent love affair or anything like that. He smiled politely, then, and hoped for the best.

"David Wilkes," he introduced himself. "My wife, Sage - and Amanda."

Hopefully, he thought, they would assume he and Amanda were divorced, or that there was something polygamous going on involving Sage as the senior wife and Amanda not being explicitly acknowledged as a wife in public for legal reasons, or something. Remarkably, the truth might actually be more awkward to explain, if they knew Morgan's last name was Garrett and asked how that had come to happen - he hadn't thought of it until after he had said his own name. Why had he done that? They had not needed to know that information!

He glanced at Morgan, worried, but she seemed utterly unbothered. She had always seemed like that, as far as he knew. Had they ever actually discussed it, though? Should they?

"Thanks!" Morgan said brightly when Gabriel complimented her, beaming. "It's been so long since I did anything in public, you know - I used to do some tiny bits of community theater when I was little, but that was a while even before Sonora, so I was totally nervous...."

For now, at least, she seemed to have other things on her mind. He'd just go on hoping for the best.

"It's good to be back at Sonora," said David. "And show them around - they went to different schools. I went here. Aladren," he added, with the ghost of pride. "Are either of you alumni?"
16 David Wilkes I'm a lot warier than she is, but you seem okay. 169 0 5


Gabriel Wilson and parents

February 24, 2021 7:51 PM
"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Wilkes" Jana replied. Wilkes...that sounded vaguely familiar and not because of Morgan. Actually, she thought her son's friend might actually not have the same last name as her dad, if she remembered correctly.Gabriel had mentioned a lot of names regarding those who participated in his game but she didn't think he mentioned a Wilkes. Of course, Gabriel had been more inclined to mention first names as she'd raised him and his sister never to call people by just a last name without putting a title in front of it. It was either first names or the names of the characters they played. And there were a lot of them and it was hard to keep track. All Jana remembered was that none of them were other purebloods. There weren't a lot around Gabriel's age and most of the few that there were were related to him somehow. It was going to make it harder for him to find someone when he was already at a disadvantage due to him being, well, a bit different.

Still, trying to place the name Wilkes was going to bug her.

"You're welcome." Gabriel replied. "Have you ever considered starting a theater club? I mean, you clearly enjoy it and are good at it." To him, this made a lot of sense. You should do what you enjoy so long as it doesn't harm anyone else. He would start a trivia club, but he wasn't exactly sure how that would work. Or if anyone would join.

Well, Val might. She seemed to be a big joiner.

"I am." Jana replied. "Also an Aladren. Barry went to the Melcher Academy in Iowa." She smiled at this man, a fellow housemate. "I was before your time obviously." Mr. Wilkes appeared to be quite a bit younger than her, closer to age to some of her nieces and nephews.

Then it hit her. "Actually, I think my nephew Ryan might have been in school the same time as you. And some of my nieces too. Arabella and Amity Brockert?" She thought David Wilkes might have been the guy who beat her nephew out for things twice, not that Ryan really cared. His self-esteem was low enough to not think he deserved Head Boy and he was pretty proud of second place in those Challenges."And Ryan O'Malley?"

Of course, Jana wasn't about to hold it against Mr. Wilkes now. That would be silly, especially since Ryan never had. The friendship between their children was more important regardless of Morgan's blood status. Jana cared a good deal about her children and while them being social butterflies didn't matter, she did want them to have friends and be liked. However, she was still curious about a potential connection here.

"Ryan is Stanley's dad." Gabriel added, for Morgan's benefit. Stanley had shown up one night for one of the games they'd been playing. It was one that Val was running and they'd had some people there who weren't regular members, like Phillipe and Bertie. Honestly, Gabriel had enjoyed that one quite a bit and had been more relaxed than usual. And he'd really enjoyed having his cousin there and sharing something with him, even though Stanley was there because of Val, not him."And Wally's." He continued, not wanting to leave the Crotalus out either. "He's over there with my sister and theirs, talking to Valerie and her family. She's a cousin of some kind and her son is a first year."

"Her dad is my first cousin." Jana informed her son. She looked at Morgan's family "Sorry, our family is huge and complex." She apologized. "I don't mean to get into it. It can be rather confusing."

11 Gabriel Wilson and parents We do try to be okay 0 Gabriel Wilson and parents 0 5

David Wilkes

February 25, 2021 6:15 PM
Morgan’s eyes widened slightly at the thought of starting a theater club. And at being told she was good at theater!

“Thank you so much!” she bubbled over, smiling as widely as her face would allow. “I’ve always wanted to be an actress when I grow up – that’s actually kind of why I joined D and D,” she admitted, tucking her hair back and feeling her cheeks redden as she mentioned her dearest ambition out loud. “It sounded a little like acting, yeah? I pretend to be someone else, right? But to start my own club – “ She could hardly even imagine that. “Do you really think that anyone would join?” she asked. “Or, like, listen to me trying to organize anything?” she added with a self-deprecating giggle, smoothing her hair again.

“We’re a very Aladren crowd then,” said David upon hearing he had just met another former Aladren. “Melcher, though – that sounds familiar, too – I think I went to school with a Melcher! Quentin, yeah, I think that was his last name – he was a few years ahead of me. Small world, huh?”

Then Jana mentioned more names, and David nodded. “Ryan, yeah, I remember him, we were in the same year. I think I remember your nieces being at school with me too.”

Morgan looked between her father and the Wilsons, now even wider-eyed. “Very small world,” she said in a tone of faint awe.

Sage Wilkes laughed when the Wilsons apologized for their complicated family tree, followed by chuckles from the rest of her party. “Believe me, David and Morgan can follow,” she said, smiling. “I remember when I met David’s younger sister – I could hardly understand anything they were saying, they kept calling so many different people ‘our cousin,’ and they hardly ever meant the same thing twice….”

“David’s family tree does resemble a briar patch in a few places,” said Amanda dryly.

“Yours isn’t that much better,” he protested. “We’re from the same town! I think my great-grandma’s half sister might have been married to one of your great-uncles, actually….”

“They all understand,” said Sage. “I think I’m starting to get the hang of it, after all these years. At least it put all the memorization I had to do while I was studying to be a mediwitch into perspective! What do you do?” she asked, before David and Amanda could start arguing about either or both of their great-uncles.
16 David Wilkes We do, too...but sometimes we kinda fail a bit. 169 0 5


Gabriel Wilson and parents

February 26, 2021 4:34 PM
"You're welcome." Gabriel replied, pleased that he'd made his friend so happy. "I mean, you never know. Some other people might really enjoy it too. People signed up for this concert so they might want to do more acting. And the Concert only comes around every four years and isn't always a play, or a bunch of plays." He wondered why Morgan wanted to pretend to be someone else, since as far as he was concerned, there was nothing wrong with being Morgan. She was a nice, fun person. Still, he supposed that acting and doing things like Dungeons and Dragons were socially acceptable ways of playing pretend once you got to a certain age. Gabriel hoped that was the case and it wasn't that the other Aladren hated herself or something. "People would be more likely to join a theater club than a trivia club, which is my thing."

"Oh we know Quentin." Jana replied. "He's related to us too, albeit distantly."They didn't know him that well, but Quentin Melcher was not exactly what one would call forgettable. Gabriel could be a tad pedantic but he had nothing on the Aladren alum. Still, Quentin was pretty decent person, a nice guy and very intelligent too. Not that intelligence and decency necessarily always went hand in hand. She knew there were Aladrens who could be completely ruthless. Her nephew Fabian disliked the type immensely but there were plenty of good ones too including her son, her brother Tim, her niece Amity and, she wanted to believe, herself. Quentin seemed to be in this category too and Gabriel definitely seemed to think both Morgan and another Aladren girl, Josie were nice as well as a boy who ran the gaming club before his graduation.

"Yeah, Amity was in our house too. We don't have quite as many on our branch of the family." Jana added. She chuckled lightly at Morgan's reaction and said. "Indeed. Ours is much the same. It's hard to keep track of just how everyone is related. Most of us think geneology lessons are a pain." She found it interesting that she found some common ground with these people who were from a different sort of life than her. It was nice.

"I didn't mind them." Gabriel added. He was the sort who enjoyed that kind of memorization and detail and was better at keeping track of who was related how than some of his cousins were but it still usually took a minute to figure it out. Still, facts and memorization were sort of his thing.

"Well, I don't work outside the home." Jana responded. "But I'm involved in charities and such." She hoped the Wilkes wouldn't judge her for this. This was what rich pureblood women did, but some people who weren't like them thought there was something wrong with this. Even though she was doing things with charities that helped people, including ones that helped abused children-the same one Ryan's sister had been involved in last year-and victims of domestic violence. "Plus, I homeschool my daughter." Normally pureblood families hired someone for this purpose, but Jana was a former Aladren and she'd wanted to do it herself. "A mediwitch though is a very admirable career."

Barry added. "And I'm a financial analyzer. It's not the most exciting job in the world but it pays well enough. You?" He asked David and Amanda.
11 Gabriel Wilson and parents At least you try 0 Gabriel Wilson and parents 0 5