I'm deciding this for myself. on Cascade Hall

The Coach

March 14, 2021 5:43 PM

Quidditch Sign Ups by The Coach

Sonora's Quidditch fortunes were on the up. It was a small school, and the decision some years ago to merge into one whole school team and seek outside competition was really paying off. Instead of scraping teams together, half comprised of students who didn't entirely want to be there, they had a solid squad, with plenty of reserves who could work their way up the ranks, improving their skills to conpetition level by the time their older counterparts graduated. That consistency was paying off, and with each year they were creeping up the rankings in the small league that they played in.

The Quidditch sign ups were one of the first notices to go out in the new school year, so that there would be plenty of time to try out new players, or even those who were totally new to flying. They were unlikely to end up in a real match, but the school sometimes had enough players to run mock games, giving new players a feel for what it was like to play in a match and in front of a crowd, and giving the rest of Sonora a chance to cheer on their friends.

Alongside the sign up sheet was a notice explaining each of the positions in brief, for anyone who was new to the game. The notice itself glowed with bright, flashing green letters, and little brooms zooming back and forth.

SONORA QUIDDITCH TEAM!

Sign up below for our whole school Quidditch team. New and experienced players - all are welcome.

Try outs will be held on Saturday XXth, 11am on the Pitch. School brooms will be available for those who do not have their own.

Please sign up with your name, year, house, and preferred position (if known).'

OOC: Although your character is just writing their name, house etc, the 200 word minimum still applies. Their sign up should include some narrative around how they feel about Quidditch, why they are signing up etc.

Subthreads:

Never give up! by Valentine Duell

Sign me up! by Billy Cobb

I'm here. Again. by Felipe De Matteo

Beater by Hilda Hexenmeister

I'm deciding this for myself. by Leonor De Matteo with Jeremy Mordue

Still Seeking by Anya Delachene

One last time by Ness McLeod

13 The Coach Quidditch Sign Ups 0 The Coach 1 5

Valentine Duell

March 15, 2021 5:08 PM

Never give up! by Valentine Duell

Valentine glared at the sheet of paper before her. She glared at it with all of her might. Val was not particularly good at glaring, and her efforts may look less than intimidating from any outside observer. Ordinarily Val didn't like glaring, it wasn't very friendly, but this year had not started off on the best foot and the paper in front of her reminded her that parts of last year hadn't been all that wonderful either. But... it wasn't the paper's fault, she knew that and instantly felt terrible. "Sorry," she murmured in apology to the paper as she cast her eyes down to the floor.

She sighed and did her best to compose herself before looking up again. The paper still hung there, apparently satisfied by her apology. At least it didn't seem to be holding anything against her. That was good, she wanted to sign up, to play again this year, but could she? She would be taking harder classes with more work. There wasn't any way she was going to be able to keep after her studies, and still do all of the other things that she loved to do. Something would have to go... should it be Quidditch? She didn't want to give up Quidditch, she loved flying and she still wanted to claim Mama's old position officially. She knew she'd make a better seeker than a chaser... but could she make a better one than Jeremy or Anya?

She had been training so hard it had almost literally killed her, or so some people thought. Her broom had survived, but it wasn't quite the same. It seemed to drift to the left now if she wasn't paying attention and it's response time seemed a little more sluggish than it used to be. She wasn't about to ask for a new one. Hers still worked, and it was her fault. She would just need make do. It was fine, she would manage. Maybe she wouldn't even make the team this year and she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore.

No! Thinking like that wouldn't get her anywhere. She was going to win tryouts and claim Mama's old seeker position! She could do this! Valentine pulled out a quill and wrote her information on the sign-up sheet.

Valentine Duell, 3rd year, Teppenpaw, Seeker.

Did she still want to be on the team if she wasn't a seeker? Her hand wrote or Chaser. Yes, yes she did. She would find something else to not do if she needed more time. Maybe the gardening club? The art club? Dueling? She loved them all... what was she going to do?

2 Valentine Duell Never give up! 1490 0 5

Billy Cobb

March 15, 2021 5:33 PM

Sign me up! by Billy Cobb

Billy spotted the sign up sheet for Quidditch and grinned. It had been great playing last year and he was pretty keen on playing again. For one thing, it was the best excuse to have to get outside this place. For two, flying was dope and he'd gotten not to shabby at smacking around them bludgers. He'd tried to get a non-flying version going on with his cousins over the summer, but it just hadn't been quite the same. It wasn't the strangest game they'd made up over the summer though. He searched around his pockets until he eventually found a quill and then scrawled his information on the sheet.

Billy Cobb, 2nd year, Pecari, Beater

He paused as he lifted his writing utensil away from the paper. Would his sister sign up? Nah... that didn't seem like her sort of thing. He tried to picture Iris flying around on a broom whacking at bludgers and nearly burst out laughing. Nope. Maybe she might play seeker if she did anything, but there seemed to be some stiff competition for that position. Also he still wasn't sure he could see her dodging bludgers then. Oh... goodness, he hoped she didn't try out. Quidditch was something of a rough sport at times, and if anything actually happened to Iris while Billy was in charge of protecting her... well, he didn't like to think about what Ma and Pa might do about that.

2 Billy Cobb Sign me up! 1519 0 5

Felipe De Matteo

March 15, 2021 6:22 PM

I'm here. Again. by Felipe De Matteo

Felipe was pretty sure that his world was not going to implode just yet, so he was trying to be normal again. He didn't feel normal, but that was normal. He'd thought long and hard about getting back to normal though because normal meant Quidditch. And now even the word 'normal' just felt . . . abnormal. He'd thought about it too many times, turning it over like a rough stone until all the jagged edges had smoothed into an amorphous blob of a concept, too slippery to hold onto and too neat to be familiar by touch alone. Quidditch had, at first, been something he was eager for, but the more he thought about the fact that his preferred position revolved around violence, the more disgusted he felt with himself. It wasn't until he expressed this fear to Leonor and watched her face light up with a horrifyingly mischievous smile that he'd been reassured this was not something to worry about; violence wasn't inherently bad and it could be a tool, used and honed correctly under careful discipline. Discipline that some De Matteos - possibly several of them - lacked.

With this in mind, and feeling secure in the fact that his apparently innate sense of Crotalus values meant that it was the discipline that drove him to the position, not the violence, Felipe had made up his mind. He was going to sign up again for Beater. He was going to do everything he could to be better than what he'd been taught to be, and when he graduated Sonora, he was going to go on with his life as a new man. And hopefully he'd get to not totally screw things up with Zara in the mean time because he'd already put her through a lot and she was just really pretty and he didn't want to keep screwing stuff up. He thought of her and smiled a bit as he put his name on the sign up sheet.

Felipe De Matteo, sixth year Crotalus, beater

22 Felipe De Matteo I'm here. Again. 1434 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

March 15, 2021 6:23 PM

Beater by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda looked at the Quidditch sign-up, her eyes scanning over the words and managing to wrest meaning out of most of them. She did not need Heinrich around this year to translate for her. She did not. She could do this on her own. Maybe in another month, she might even believe it, but for right now, nerves danced in her stomach that had nothing to do with whether or not she would make the team. She had the skills. She knew she was undoubtedly Sonora's best beater, now that Nathaniel was no longer present to challenge her for that title.

She had just never played on an English-speaking team without Heinrich there, to make sure she wasn't misunderstanding instructions. Even if Hansel played, it wouldn't be the same. Hansel was her little brother. She was supposed to look out for him; he wasn't supposed to look out for her. That was only Heinrich's job as the oldest, as the one who'd navigated through this school first. Hilda was Hansel's guide, not the other way around, even if Hansel's English was as fluid as a native speaker's. It would not be right to rely on him.

Still, there was no question that she would sign up, so she did without any further hesitation.

Hilda Hexenmeister, 6 year Pecari, Beater

It felt kind of wrong, just heading over to the Pecari table instead of stopping by the Aladren one to make sure Heinrich knew the Quidditch sheet was posted and he needed to sign up.

It was kind of wrong that Heinrich wasn't at Sonora at all. He'd started at the school just a few weeks after they moved across the world to live with Uncle Karl. Sonora and Heinrich in this post-Germany, post-parents life were linked in her mind and now that link was broken. He'd left and she didn't like it, and it was wrong.

Almost as wrong as the fact that Hansel was here. When had he gotten to be eleven anyway?

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Beater 1433 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

March 15, 2021 6:29 PM

I'm deciding this for myself. by Leonor De Matteo

OOC: Leonor's opinions of men are maybe possibly just a bit extreme. BIC:

As it turned out, men liked to go around making a lot of decisions for Leonor, and indeed for most women. There had once been a time when she'd hoped that her mother might stand up and be different, but she'd only ever been disappointed on that front. Felipe was different but he was far too pompous and bossy to really not feel like every other man Leonor had had the displeasure of meeting so far. Theo was really the only one who wasn't totally awful. Jeremy was awful. He was absolutely awful. And Leonor loved it. But she'd blown that, all because of a different stupid boy and his stupid friends and her stupid father. Because of men. The one time she'd been down for some of the nastiness the opposite sex seemed to have and it had blown up in her face. Well, now she was going to blow up in his face. In all their faces.

All it had taken was her father trying to marry her off to Jeremy friggin' Mordue to push her over the edge and she'd spent the summer being absolutely perfect. At least, perfect by the book. She'd read everything she'd been told to, she'd learned everything she'd been told to, and she'd done it all like a man. She'd worn trousers. She'd worn a glower. She'd worn her heart on her sleeve before and it hadn't gotten her far so she'd ripped it off and sewn it away. And now she was going to play Quidditch. She'd sure as heck heard Felipe and Jeremy talk about it enough to know that she at least knew how it worked, and she'd flown with them both enough to know she wasn't awful at it.

The competition would be stiff but so would her anger and there was a lot that a girl could do when she was angry at men. There was a lot Leonor could do. And when she was old enough to fully take over Los Jardines de Plata, then she'd get a dozen cats and dogs and she'd never need another man ever. Maybe she'd kick them all out! So with a twirl (one that was mostly demonstrated in her attitude and her hair since she wasn't wearing a skirt now), Leonor signed up for Quidditch tryouts.

Leonor De Matteo, fourth year Pecari, Chaser. Or Seeker.

22 Leonor De Matteo I'm deciding this for myself. 1471 0 5

Anya Delachene

March 15, 2021 6:58 PM

Still Seeking by Anya Delachene

Anya had been thinking about it since the feast, and she had eventually and hesitantly come to the conclusion that maybe the staff had decided to give her a badge because she'd been a good team player on the Quidditch team for several years now. She doubted that would have counted for much had there been any other Pecari fifth years, but maybe that was why they decided that she could be trusted enough to wear one at all. There were definitely people who should never be given a badge, even if there was no other choice, but apparently the Sonora professors thought she wasn't one of them, and she had to assume maybe Quidditch had something to do with that.

So she was going to continue to prove she could handle working as part of a team and show good sportsmanship, and otherwise demonstrate that default prefect or not, she could be a good example to others.

And if that meant showing off that she had a shiny on her robes that Jeremy didn't . . . well, that wasn't very prefectly either, but she could hardly be blamed for wearing something the Headmaster himself had given to her. She tried not to grin too maliciously as she put her name down on the sign-up sheet.

Anya Delachene, 5th year, Pecari, Seeker

1 Anya Delachene Still Seeking 1453 0 5

Jeremy Mordue

March 26, 2021 7:36 PM

Yeah right by Jeremy Mordue

OOC: CW homophobia, misogyny, entitlement BIC:

Jeremy let a few days go by before signing up to the Quidditch team. He thought (based on the fact that he hadn’t been able to get in there first) that signing up straight away looked sad and desperate. Playing it cool was important, so he let a few lesser names build up on the sheet, let them wonder where their star player was, before deigning to make his way over to the board.

One of the lesser names on the list made him do a double take.

Apparently, Leonor was like a frigging lesbian or something now. She was dressing like a boy and now she was signing up for Quidditch? Whilst that made it make sense that she had ~~broken up with him~~ been weirdly okay with him breaking up with her, it was still sort of a dent in his pride that everyone was going to think that the only girl who’d ever shown interest in him was interested in other girls. Plus she was stepping on his turf. He wasn’t annoyed, of course. He knew she did things just to annoy other people, because they’d used each other to needle Felipe. So, if she was trying to wind him up now, it wouldn’t work. It wasn’t his stupid fault that her father wanted them to get married. He wasn’t really sure what to think about that. Sometimes, the fact that he thought it would annoy the heck out of her made it pretty tempting, but there was a difference between messing around for fun/spite and being shackled to someone for the rest of his life. He had thankfully been able to put any visits around that off until Christmas.

He drew his wand, siphoning Leonor’s sign up off the sheet. That made a nice convenient space to move Anya’s name down into, and then he signed his name at the top of the sheet, where it belonged. Just because he didn’t need to be first didn’t mean it wasn’t nice, now that the opportunity had presented itself so easily.

Jeremy Mordue, sixth year, Seeker.

13 Jeremy Mordue Yeah right 1443 0 5

Ness McLeod

March 26, 2021 8:08 PM

One last time by Ness McLeod

Ness glanced over the sign-up sheet, glad to see Val’s name. And kind of Hilda and Anya’s, in that they’d been around long enough for Ness to be comfortable and familiar with them, and they both generally seemed like okay people. It didn’t feel like a team full of friends any more though. It was going to be weird, playing without Heinrich. It was going to be much nicer being free of Nathaniel Mordue. It was a shame Ness’ career wouldn’t last long enough to be rid of Jeremy, who was even more unpleasant but… Well, that was Quidditch. People left. New people came in to replace them. Some people were jerks. None of it would ever stop Ness wanting to be a part of this. The coach was also pretty good at stopping certain people’s toxic attitudes from ruining the fun for everyone.

Ness pulled out a quill, wondering whether anyone would stand looking at this sheet next year, thinking about how Ness’ name wasn’t on it. Or whether they’d be happy about that, or indifferent to it… Val would notice, and would care. That was a comforting thought as, for the last time, for better or for worse, on it went.

Ness McLeod, 7th year, Chaser.

13 Ness McLeod One last time 1419 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

March 30, 2021 1:23 PM

Like you'd know anything. by Leonor De Matteo

Leonor was definitely not checking to see if Jeremy had signed up yet. She absolutely was not. But if she happened to wander close enough to the sign up sheet on her way to and from her table and if she happened to glance over at it and see the names as they were added to the list . . . well, that was just a coincidence. And it was a coincidence that she noticed her own name suddenly absent and other names suddenly in places she was pretty sure they hadn't been before. Not that she noticed.

She approached the sheet on legs that carried her there without permission, cocking her head and wrinkling her eyebrows up in confusion as she examined the paper. Anya's name was where her name had been and . . . the name at the top had definitely not been there before and definitely not at the top. It was hard to pretend she didn't know who might've been responsible for such a change to the sheet, especially when the new name at the top of the list belonged to someone she'd seen throw a tantrum the previous year. The temptation to cross his name out now, not even half so subtly as he'd done to her own by removing it entirely, was strong, but she resisted. She was the bigger person. Instead, she added her name to the list again, hating that it was at the bottom but enjoying that it was there at all. If she didn't get the position, at least she might be able to find a way to casually whack Jeremy over the head with her broom on the way out. Stupid boy. Stupid stupid boy. Messing with her was definitely not the wisest thing he'd ever done.

22 Leonor De Matteo Like you'd know anything. 1471 0 5