Killian Row
March 26, 2021 11:16 AM
What is your compass? [Study Hall, Advanced] by Killian Row
Over the course of a summer, Killian had traveled the world and found a place to live with his gorgeous girlfriend. There was something distinctly adulty feeling about all of it, although he still wasn't entirely convinced that he really was an adult. Still, it had put into perspective some of the challenges and adventures facing his advanced students. While these sorts of adventures were still on the horizon for all of them - some were closer to the horizon than others, as advanced classes were for both sixth and seventh year students - there was still a sense of looming that he well understood, even if his own senior years of school had featured very different challenges than he thought any of the students at Sonora were facing right now. Which was good. He touched wood anytime he thought of it, hoping to maintain that particular feature of the status quo."Hiya," he greeted the advanced students when they'd taken a seat. Study hall was not a class per se, but more of a guided study time and opportunity to turn their eyes a bit towards that horizon. Often in younger grades, Killian provided some activities and things to work on to help with study habits, homework, time management, and other more academic skills. For older students, he had to hope that they'd already acquired such skills and that, if not, they wouldn't need them much longer anyway. Since some students would continue to need those skills though, Killian waved a wand to distribute the usual bundles of pamphlets and informational sheets about various colleges, universities, trade programs, and general information about those programs in general to each student. "You'll use these throughout the year and can peruse them as you wish," he explained.
Taking a breath, Killian smiled. It was his usual expression and everyone was probably familiar with it by this point. In fact, everyone here should be familiar with him in general. The students who had been first years the year he'd joined staff at Sonora were now in their sixth year. Graduating students had only been second years when he joined. Soon, they would be leaving and he would not (hopefully; he didn't anticipate Selina firing him anytime soon) and he would no longer seem like a new feature of the school, but simply a part of it. It was a bittersweet milestone.
"You have all come so far and I want to first say how proud I am of all of you. It's been a pleasure to work with you and get to know you over these past several years. Over the past few weeks of this year, you've been beginning to ask questions about your future through a few of the activities we've done in class, and you should have an idea of at least which questions you're most interested in pursuing. Things like 'what's the difference between a trade school a and university' will be answered with those pamphlets I've provided, but other questions aren't so easy to answer. Based on what you find in these pamphlets and what you know from any research you've done so far, I'd encourage anyone who is working on guidance counselor activities today to make a pros/cons list with some basic ideas for some of the options you're considering for life after school. Go ahead and discuss those with whomever is at your table, but remember to talk quietly as some folks will be studying.
Seventh years, you did something similar last year probably, so if you are working on these activities today, consider adding more specific logistic questions or practical considerations. What are your uncertainties? What are you excited about? What do you need more information about? This will help guide your thinking as you get into the new year, your last year at Sonora." And Killian smiled again, even though he also felt a bit like hugging everyone instead. "Let me know if anyone needs to speak with me today, otherwise go ahead and get started on whatever you're working on."
Subthreads: Broken, probably. by Martin Crosby V
I've been told I lack a moral one... by Topaz Brockert
I had one, then you people took it away (tag Mr. Row) by Jessica Hayles with Killian Row
What is the point is a better question by Bridget Ferguson
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Killian Row
What is your compass? [Study Hall, Advanced]
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Martin Crosby V
April 11, 2021 2:23 PM
Broken, probably. by Martin Crosby V
Martin was doing his best not to think too much. As a fairly internally-driven individual, this was a bit of a challenge for him. But lately, whenever he let his brain wander, it landed on unbridled panic regarding his rapidly approaching adult years. What did he want to be when he grew up? The lack of answers was quickly beginning to frighten him. For the first time in his life, he almost envied the girls. They didn’t have to make such stressful decisions. All they had to do was marry a man, supply his children, and host his parties. Easy. Martin would have to actually provide for them, both in terms of wealth (added, technically, since their starting point would be above the norm) and esteem. He had to go out and do something. He had to work, to support them.So he was basically just ignoring that as much as he could for now, but the college pamphlets provided by the guidance counselor were not really helping him much on that front. The sixth year was completely incapable of suppressing an eyeroll as the man went into some speech about being proud of them. That was foolishness on its nose, because Martin knew damn well that this man could probably not have cared less about him. They hardly knew each other, and their relationship was strictly professional, as Martin preferred all relationships to be.
He just waited for Mr. Row to stop talking and then pulled out his Defense textbook to do some studying for the upcoming assignments. Taking all core classes at the Advanced level was already beginning to show signs of stretching him a bit thin, so he really needed this additional time to work.
12
Martin Crosby V
Broken, probably.
1439
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5
Topaz Brockert
April 19, 2021 5:03 PM
I've been told I lack a moral one... by Topaz Brockert
OOC: CW-Slut shaming. Opinions on Ness's reaction are taken from lines at the OF that say she was blinking back tears. Also, Topaz might be exaggerating and post is her opinions only. BIC:
Topaz had not gotten Head Girl and needless to say, she was not happy . She couldn't complain too much about Katerina-after all, she'd voted for her for the second slot-but Clown Lips? Really ? They might as well have elected a parrot or one of Isla's puppets! In fact, the way things were going, Topaz would not have put that past them actually. The Pecari didn't have the brains or the sense of the average flobberworm as evidenced by her allegience to Snotti-Ness. Not to mention her questionable morals.
Of course, that would make her all the easier for Topaz to destroy. A few well placed bits of graffiti here, a whispered rumor there and the evidence was clear already. Clown Lips had never really been what one would call a girl's girl, the way she was dating Heinrich while also throwing herself at Nathaniel Mordue as if she had a chance with someone of his status! Not to mention Julius Astley and Slimey,the former of which, like with Nathaniel, spoke to the girl's social climber nature as well! The other seventh year even flirted with Profesor Wright . The only girl that Clown Lips seemed to be friends with was Snotti-Ness and well...Honestly,Topaz might have even felt pity for Heinrich, but he'd done this to himself. Also, the seventh year was really incapable of feeling pity for anyone, of course.
The only silver lining was that Snotti-Ness hadn't won. Topaz's nemesis had looked absolutely devastated, near tears, at the loss. While this delighted Topaz, or as delighted as she could be at that particular moment, it only served to highlight the other Aladren's hypocrisy. After all, Snotti-Ness always seemed to show nothing but contempt for those who weren't tough and strong, yet here she was being upset about not getting Head Girl. Yes, Topaz was upset about not getting it too, but she was neither about to cry nor portraying herself as this super badass sort.
Anyway, it served Snotti-Ness right,after her stupid petition. Topaz was not at all happy that the staff was seriously considering something that not even close to most students wanted and would only breed inequality between male and female students. However, the good news was that she would no longer be around to suffer it. Topaz would soon be free of Snotti-Ness and her hypocrisy and judgement and all around insanity once and for all. She could hardly wait. And when she went to college, she was definitely getting a single.
Of course, Topaz, whether or not she really wanted to, was going to be procreating someday. And her offspring would likely attend Sonora and she wouldn't want them to experience gender discrimination either! And unlike some, she could certainly see how a policy favoring girls wasn't any less discriminatory than one favoring boys.
She also was glad that Allegra hadn't gotten Head Girl. True, the Crotalus would have been better than Clown Lips, but still, being bested by her cousin in direct competition would have been humiliating.
Topaz rolled her eyes when Mr. Row mentioned how he was proud of them and how it was a pleasure to get to know them and other sentimental garbage like that. First of all, he hadn't gotten to know her, which had been her choice anyway, but still made what he said completely untrue and secondly, well, in some cases, she couldn't imagine that getting to know the person was a pleasure at all!
Anyway, once the guidance counselor finally shut up, Topaz opened up her Charms textbook and began to study.
11
Topaz Brockert
I've been told I lack a moral one...
1427
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Jessica Hayles
May 03, 2021 4:07 PM
I had one, then you people took it away (tag Mr. Row) by Jessica Hayles
OOC: For the record, Jessica's perspective is...skewed by too much time around rich executives and too little exposure to the broader world, and by having spent too much time reading admissions pages from super-elitist high schools as a kid. Her appraisal of what constitutes a career worth bothering with should not be regarded as factual. BIC:
Jessica was, indeed, familiar with Mr. Row – far moreso than she wanted to be, in fact. She had had minimal direct interactions with him in the past five years, but his role in her first year was one of those things she couldn’t forget, no matter how hard she tried to. This probably would have been the case in any case, but it didn’t help that this year, he kept kind of rubbing it in her face….
Objectively, she knew that probably wasn’t true. He probably barely remembered that awful meeting in her first year. It was just unfortunate bad luck that he’d been part of one of the top five worst moments of her life and that she could not look at him without remembering it, not something anyone had engineered. Knowing this, though, didn’t make her a bit happier about being stuck in a room with him now, listening to him talking about doing exercises and making lists for deciding their futures.
Once, before she’d met him, Jessica had had plans for a future. Her parents had drawn them up for her in detail before she’d even been born, and there had never been any question in her mind that she’d go through with them…until her second day here, the day it had all come crashing down. For a long time, though, she had still expected that once the shock wore off, they would come up with a new agenda…a plan that hadn’t panned out at all, as they had been far more concerned with hiding the fact she was gone, and also, she’d realized, had no real reason to bother. She wasn’t sure when, but she thought at some point, her parents had started half-believing that she really was sick or something – that she’d never be more than a burden on them and society for the rest of her life.
It had all just…gone wrong, somewhere. They could have fixed the problem with the original plans, but Professor Skies had dug her heels in and forbidden Jessica from taking the extra hours she needed. Jessica had started to accept that her life as she knew it was over, and to wonder if she might not figure out a place here – but then
Therefore, she didn’t start writing a pros and cons list, but instead jotting down words, forming an idea for a poem about someone buying diamonds and having nowhere to wear them, until a thought formed. She went over to speak to the counselor.
“I just realized there’s something I don’t know that might have a pretty big effect on my future,” she said. “Am I still going to be subjected to the whole constant surveillance thing from your government after I get out of here? Or have any other conditions I have to meet from them?” She'd been forced into an institution against her will and without the free uncoerced consent of her parents all those years ago, so she couldn't say she really had very high hopes that the fourth amendment was suddenly going to start mattering all that much to the wizards once she was an adult, by their standards or anyone else's, but the extent to which she was to be treated like a criminal on parole was something she needed to know. Her parents had been sort of making it work with her away all year, but she'd never be able to live at home full-time unless the hounds were called off in a major way - it would be impossible to stay within psychic-signal range of her father for any length of time and not someday compromise trade secrets. It was, she thought, frankly a miracle it hadn't happened already.
16
Jessica Hayles
I had one, then you people took it away (tag Mr. Row)
1442
0
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Bridget Ferguson
May 04, 2021 2:53 PM
What is the point is a better question by Bridget Ferguson
OOC: CW-Mentions alcohol briefly BIC:
Last summer had been very hard for Bridget with her mother being so ill and her dad being...rather out of it. The thing was though, that she had been out of it at times as well. She was either feeling very bad or very good.
And it wasn't just her dad
Of course, she always came down and remembered and start worrying again. But then well, something else would come along and the whole cycle continued.
Now, fortunately, her mother was out of the hospital. For the time being. And Bridget was back at school, where the harshness of reality was a continuous thing. Or maybe not, she was, after all, pretty good at Potions and could probably whip something up to make her feel much better. Draught of Peace,for example, was not exactly an elicit substance and was probably pretty popular when exams came around.
Right now, Bridget was trapped in mandatory study hall.She too rolled her eyes as Mr. Row mentioned how proud of everyone he was. Did he even know most of them all that well? Yes, she came in for every study hall, though there had many a time when she'd been tempted to skip it altogether, so he probably could attach a name to a face and probably knew her grades, but did he know anything really important about her? Bridget honestly hoped not, what with own freakish background and depressing home life. Not to mention things that would make no guidance counselor or any reasonable authority very proud.
Plus, her future wasn't really something that people like Mr. Row would find very admirable since the Teppenpaw absolutely wasn't going to have a career. As far as Bridget could tell, nobody was more scorned by certain people than pureblood girls. And she wasn't even that prim and proper personally. In fact, she was apparently very much not. There was still the whole attitude some people had towards girls who'd rather marry than work. No wonder people like her sometimes preferred to stay exclusively in pureblood circles. Even though Bridget hadn't exactly when it came to friends.
She sighed to herself as Mr. Row began down this very road. College was something Bridget was undecided about, as it wasn't absolutely necessary and she wasn't exactly enthused about school or much of anything. It looked like it was going to be another working on homework kind of day, tedious as that sounded.
Bridget sighed again as she looked down at her schoolwork. She really didn't want to do this. Maybe she could kill the time by speaking with one of her classmates." Hey, what are you working on?" She asked her neighbor.
11
Bridget Ferguson
What is the point is a better question
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Killian Row
May 06, 2021 8:46 AM
A whole new world. by Killian Row
Killian had been asked lots of questions over his relatively short tenure at Sonora and some of them were more or less cringeworthy. Some of them were straight laughable, but it wasn't professional to acknowledge that in the face of a student when they were being serious. Some of them were sad. The point was that there was a variety and Killian had gotten good at thinking and answering first, and reacting later. He was also pretty used to some degree of smart talk directed towards him, either because he wasn't a proper teacher, because of his accent, or because of his personality. Students had the right to think whatever they liked of him though and so long as they were at least respectful on the outside, he didn't care that much what they thought of him. He thought thoughts about some of them too. In any case, it was good that he'd gotten used to student questions of varying types because when Jessica Hayles approached, he rather thought that she needed a hug more than anything else. Also, she probably was on the list of students who didn't like him. He couldn't quite blame her for that, although he didn't think it was exactly reasonable either. In any case, think and answer now, react later."There are a set of laws by which you'll be expected to abide," he began, not wanting to exactly say no, "but so long as you do so - don't go firing off spells in front of non-magical folks, for example - then you have the freedom to choose where to live, what to do, what career to pursue or not, etc." He explained this with a neutral expression (as neutral as a generally cheerful person ever is) until he gave in to a small smile at the end. "And it's your government too now," he added. "You might even consider government work. You're passionate, smart, and driven to see change and improvement. I think you'd be good at it."
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Killian Row
A whole new world.
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0
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Jessica Hayles
May 06, 2021 7:15 PM
Boundless and bare/the lone and level sands stretch far away. by Jessica Hayles
OOC: Title borrowed from Shelley. Also, given how little we know about the details of these things, this can easily be just a "where's Jessica's head canonically at" post rather than one really calling for much of a response. BIC:
Government work. Her. For the wizards. Clearly, Row had been hanging out with Professor Duell and her possibly mildly psychedelic herbs too much, or something.
Or, if she was being fair, he was just doing his job, and might not know that much better anyway. She assumed that when he’d come here from Ireland, he’d had some kind of welcome-to-America speech, wherein people had been obliged to tell him the same lies he now was required to tell to children – all the fol-de-lol about the government deriving its power from the citizens (probably untrue from the beginning, definitely from Andrew Jackson on, Whiskey Rebellion could also be argued as a departure point, too) and how anyone could be anything they wanted (explicitly legally untrue in more cases than one would think, the issue of immigrants, even those adopted or brought in as tiny children, being completely barred from the presidency just being the most well-known). It was frustrating, but she of all people should understand about having to toe a party line even when one knew it was…selectively shaded, if not outright untrue. The fact she associated him with what amounted to the erasure of her entire identity was irrelevant here, factually speaking.
“Thank you,” she said politely instead of voicing any of her thoughts, much less asking why she was apparently supposed to be flattered to be told that she would be a good fit for work that took people away from their families, violated their rights to privacy from birth, and served a culture where people felt comfortable being openly prejudiced. She even smiled as she said it, always the proper lady. “My grandfather used to say I might make a good lawyer. That…wasn’t exactly what I meant, though. I’ve read a lot about your history” – which had also helped her get an idea how well being a reformer might go down in this world – “and the pamphlets I could get about civics, and it seems to me that there’s no way for them to know if I’m following that rule or not. If they care enough about it to have a system ready to register exactly what magic I accidentally did within twenty minutes of me doing it when I was in first year – which happened - it seems…hard to believe that they’ll just let me have that kind of freedom after February. I’ve read about these…somehow compulsory magic binding contracts wizards have, though, and I’m not signing anything without aid of counsel, ever,” she added firmly, even though she could see no real way to prevent herself from being forced to do so in the event. “So is there anything like that, or having to check in with an officer of the courts, or…?” She left that open-ended.
“And there’s also the issue – do I still have political rights at home, or did I lose those, too, with becoming subject to another government?” It would be hard to mount the defenses that felt natural to her if the U.S. and State of Georgia Constitutions no longer applied to her, but she couldn't really see how it was possible she still had those rights and protections, now that she thought about it. People could slip through the cracks, but still - it seemed more likely that she'd just been erased from the System and its computers altogether.
Maybe she could get Daddy to buy her an island, she thought. Forming a micro-nation wasn't a great solution, but it was the best she could think of offhand.
16
Jessica Hayles
Boundless and bare/the lone and level sands stretch far away.
1442
0
5