That's my name on Cascade Hall

Mortimer Brockert

August 29, 2021 3:40 AM

Opening Feast by Mortimer Brockert

This year had started out on an interesting note. Usually, staff meetings were routine but occasionally there was something different , something out of the ordinary that happened. Often, when that happened, it was something Mortimer disliked or was uncomfortable with. However, this time, he was relieved. Xavier Lundstrom's condition was not something that was going to affect him or his grandchildren.

Oddly enough though, Mortimer was not without sympathy for the boy, though he'd probably never admit that. Although the idea of someone being resistant towards their own magic was rather offensive, he did have two grandchildren with medical conditions, Sapphire had epilepsy and Miles was allergic to practically everything.The former didn't need too many accommodations, she just needed to take her medication and avoid stressful situations-Mortimer had been quite concerned about her last year before CATS-although the Crotalus seemed to think herself stupid and incapable, and insisted that she needed help with theory work. Even though he knew that Sapphire was not dumb at all. Mortimer wondered if it was because Topaz was brilliant that the sixth year felt inadequate in comparison.

Anyway, for the most part the Crotalus was able to participate normally in classes and life at school. Miles was the one he really worried about. He was pretty sure that once the boy arrived at Sonora, he was going to need accommodations. They already had allergy friendly cuisine served but there were also probably going to be issues with certain classes. Miles was allergic to a lot of plants and animals, so that was going to cause problems with Herbology and COMC. Potions was also going to be difficult as there were potion ingredients that Miles was allergic to as well.

And yes, there were other students that had problems that they made allowances or special accommodations for-there was at least one student who didn't have to touch anything he didn't like and Selina had said that they were putting "specialist measures" in place for Mr. Lundstrom-but Mortimer was slightly worried that they wouldn't be as willing to do so with his grandson. He was afraid they would say Miles was whiny and privileged and spoiled and just trying to get out of stuff if a lesson happened to involve something that would make him sick. Yet, Theo Spurn didn't have to touch anything he didn't like. Which, was fine, since the Pecari boy clearly had some sort of condition but if that was the case, then Miles shouldn't have to handle something that could set of an allergic reaction. Mortimer was willing to fight for him, but that would likely come off as nepotism somehow.

Fortunately, that was still seven years in the future and there was no need to worry about it much right now.

Once the older students were assembled at their tables and the first years filed in, Mortimer cast Sonorous on himself and rose ."Welcome to Sonora for the new first years and welcome back for all older students. First years, you should have received a blank badge at the end of Orientation. You will dunk the badge in the Sorting Potion and it will turn the color representing your house which are blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw, red for Crotalus, and brown for Pecari. Afterwards, you may join your house table." He watched as his grandson, Christopher dunked his badge and headed for Crotalus, making it ten for ten on Mortimer guessing where his grandchildren were Sorted.

He also noted that his niece Liesl, his brother Ichabod's granddaughter had been sorted into Teppenpaw. Well, that was an interesting...defiance of stereotypes. He usually associated the house with people who liked things like unicorns and teddy bears, not skulls and eyeballs. Liesl appreciated both his medieval torture instrument models and Topaz's taxidermy. He hoped her roommate was more understanding about those things than his granddaughter's had been.

After the first years had been settled, Mortimer continued."Would Jessica Hayles and Hilda Hexenmeister please come up and get your Head Student badges." He continued. "In addition I'd like to call up Gabriel Wilson, Alexander Pierce-Beales, Sadie-Lake Chalmers and Mallory Pierce-Beales to receive their prefect badges. Congratulations." He was considerably more pleased with these choices for prefect than he had been last year. Well, three out of the four anyway. And actually, he did not think that Miss Chalmers was a bad option, just that Esme was a far better one obviously. Mortimer never understood when his grandchildren weren't picked for these things, even if the person who won wasn't terrible, as he really only thought that Topaz had lost to someone who was completely undeserving.

The Head Student choices were...well, not as bad as some. Miss Hayles had showed signs of mental instability and Miss Hexenmeister was a Pecari, but both had done a perfectly adequate job as prefect and besides, far worse people had been chosen in the past. He didn't love the fact that it was two girls, because Mortimer genuinely did feel that favoring girls wasn't any better than favoring boys which if it happened was something people would complain about. Plus, the whole need for both male and female students to have someone to go to so in a way, it was a good thing that there weren't any fifth or sixth year girls in Teppenpaw and that Mr. Wilson had gotten prefect. Though that didn't help male students in Crotalus or Pecari if they didn't want to go to people outside of their house. As for the idea that they could go to staff members or friends, sometimes young people would rather talk to their peers-and Mortimer was definitely not someone who wanted to deal with the students' personal issues- and some people didn't have friends, sad fact of life that that was.

Still, this time the male options for Head Student weren't great. Well, okay, Mortimer still thought Mr. Crosby had been a perfectly good candidate-and certainly would have been his choice, along with Miss Priory- but since Head Student was something of a popularity contest, he could see why the Crotalus boy hadn't won. Though Mortimer wasn't looking forward to dealing with Tawny or Uncle Clifford, which was admittedly a large part of why he would have selected those particular students had it been his choice.

Once the prefects and Head Students were back in their seats, Mortimer announced. "This year's Midsummer event will be the ball.Details will be forthcoming." Usually, not many extra details were needed regarding this event the way the fair and the concert often did, however, sometimes people wanted themes or something, like some years ago they'd had an outer space theme.

"Now we will sing the school song." Well, they would anyway. Mortimer did not sing . Lyric sheets were passed around and the song began.

Every day we strive
Learning to survive
Life’s hardships and to solve its mystery.
Learning to defend
Our honour and our friends,
Flying high to meet our destiny
We will stand and face those who want to harm us.
We won’t let the world transfigure, jinx or charm us
I won’t fight alone, as long as you are with me.
Sonora be my home, my tutor and my spirit
Vasita quoque floeat; Even the desert blooms.

That done, he dug into his steak and bourbon.

Subthreads:

Teppenpaw

I am very responsible. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Now wait just a moment. by Valentine Duell with Patience Reed-Fischer

Crotalus

The End(?) by Martin Crosby V

Back once more by Iris Cobb with Amethyst Brockert

That's my name by Sadie-Lake Chalmers with Sapphire Brockert

Pleased to be here by Verdillia Scurlock with Winston Randall

Pecari

Surprise by Hilda Hexenmeister with Xavier Lundstrom

I hope you didn't want this. [Leonor] by Mab with Leonor De Matteo

This is getting Advanced by Anya Delachene with Billy Cobb

Glad to be back. by Alexei Vorontsov with Reighleigh Mae Thorn

Aladren

Staff

11 Mortimer Brockert Opening Feast 6 1 5

System

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Aladren by System

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Teppenpaw by System

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Crotalus by System

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Pecari by System

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Staff by System

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Martin Crosby V

August 29, 2021 10:32 AM

The End(?) by Martin Crosby V

This was it.

Martin could not say that he was surprised. After all, the passage of time was simply inevitable. Yet despite his best efforts, he found himself here and woefully unprepared. His final year at Sonora had finally come, and for all his prior years spent wishing he were anywhere else, he wasn’t quite ready to make his departure. Adulthood approached ever nearer, and he had yet to decide on his path. He needed to choose a career, set his sights on the future, but he found himself failing at each and every turn.

He was by no means the most sociable candidate and therefore had not especially put himself out there for a popular vote by his peers, but Martin had hoped to secure the Head Boy badge, if for no other reasons than the prestige and the distraction. But to his surprise, the two names called did not include his, or even a boy’s at all. He rolled his eyes. It was one matter to have to select two Head Girls if a year group had no boys - Sonora was a pretty small school, so it was definitely not outside the realms of possibility - but there were adequate options. Like himself, for example.

This appeasement of the up-and-coming “girl power” movement was, in his opinion, just another example of the things he didn’t particularly love about this place. Sonora had grown increasingly liberal over his time here, normalizing the types of people who did not fit in society so firmly that at this point, Martin was practically the odd man out. It made no sense. He was beginning to question whether or not his life after graduation would feel as tumultuous, if this trend was indicative of a growing change in the culture everywhere. He certainly hoped not; Martin hated adapting.

It was just another reason that the Crotalus had always been so eager to graduate. But now he felt he had nowhere else to go, nowhere he could fit. Martin felt lost and without direction.

And oh, God, it was a ball year. He had completely forgotten about that. He had taken Katya last time - Katya, who had considered proposing a post-education arrangement with for familial reasons, but whom he had let slip through his hands with his indecisiveness - but had no idea this time around what to do. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. There was a girl that he actually considered good company, but… he was starting to suspect he was enjoying her company a little too much. Jezebel had absolutely enchanted him (metaphorically speaking, of course, as he suspected no magical foul-play), but her background made any development beyond chess associates entirely inappropriate. But wow, those soft green eyes….

He did his best to shake the thought from his consciousness but had a feeling that he was unlikely to succeed. If not her, he did feel obligated to take someone - the boy to girl ratio tended to be a bit skewed at this school, such that even his company was probably something of a commodity - but he was at a loss as to whom he should ask. He would have to go through and weigh his options… and tell that stupid little voice in the back of his otherwise very smart head to kindly stuff it.

As the song concluded, Martin produced a book from his robe pocket, but instead of opening it, he stared at the cover for a moment and returned it to its keep. “How was your summer?” he asked a neighbor instead. Martin hated small talk, but it was the last Opening Feast of his academic career, so he might as well put in minimal effort. Plus, his own mind was currently the enemy, and reading might not have been as focused as his normal ability provided. Perhaps an external force would operate as a more efficient distraction.

12 Martin Crosby V The End(?) 1439 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

August 29, 2021 1:39 PM

Surprise by Hilda Hexenmeister

OOC: Das war unerwartet: That was unexpected BIC:

Hilda selected an empty seat at the Pecari table, choosing one that had other empty seats around it. This was largely because she arrived earlier than most of her Housemates rather than because she wanted to avoid anyone, either specifically or in general, though the thought occurred to her that she should try to save at least one of the nearby seats for a first year, in case they had questions for a prefect. She had not understood most of her own orientation speech, but she guessed the prefect system would have been explained in it, and if Pecari got an inquisitive one, she was almost confident enough in her broken English to try answering their questions. She thought she had done alright with Xavier at the previous returning feast anyway.

As her Housemates began to fill in, some of those nearby seats were taken, and she politely said hello to these people she had not seen since the end of last year. As the only seventh year in the House, and one of only two Advanced students, she did not have many close friends in Pecari, but the age difference between her and the rest might actually be to her advantage. She was easily the most obviously mature Pecari currently in the school, being the only one legally of age, having nearly a foot of height on the next oldest, and the next oldest being, well, Anya. She thought it gave her some respect and authority that she may not have earned if she’d had more older students to be compared to. She had a good mentor relationship with Billy; Anya herself seemed to think Hilda was capable and intelligent despite Hilda’s difficulty with the English language; Xavier had reminded her of her own little brother; and the others were easy enough to think of as her people and her responsibility now that Evelyn had graduated and left her as the senior Pecari prefect.

She managed to keep one empty chair available beside her by the time the first years were led into the Hall. She made no effort to encourage any of her newest charges to take it but sat in a way that would let them see she was wearing a prefect badge so they would know to seek or avoid her depending on their opinion on that sort of thing.

Her thoughts on the first years were abruptly disrupted once they were all seated at the Headmaster called her name to come up front. For a moment, she just gawped in shock. She hadn’t even voted for herself, who the heck had thought this would be a good idea? More than two people must have, to overcome her own vote for Sophia.

At least her vote for Jessica had gotten her a co-Head Student she was comfortable working with.

“Whoooooo, Hilda!” Hansel’s shout (followed shortly by Billy’s) reminded her she should not just be sitting there in stunned disbelief, so she got up and made her way to the front to collect her second badge, sending both boys looks somewhere between appreciation and mortification.

She gave Jessica a smile and offered a bilingual salutation, “Glückwunsch! Congratulations!” She extended the sentiment to the prefects as well with nods of acknowledgment.

Returning to her seat, she dropped down into it heavily and had trouble focusing on the rest of the opening speech, though it was about as short as she had come to expect from Headmaster Brockert.

She didn’t hear a word of it, though. Instead, she found herself looking down at the new badge on her robes. “Das war unerwartet,” she said, much more to herself than to her neighbor. She was Head Student, after all. Talking while the Headmaster was, was frowned upon.

It was unexpected. But not entirely unwelcome. She felt … acknowledged for all the hard work she had previously thought had gone unnoticed.

OOC: Hansel and Billy shouting out approved by their authors (one of which is me).

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Surprise 1433 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

August 29, 2021 4:22 PM

I am very responsible. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

OOC: CW Allusion to adult activities. BIC:

As it turned out, girlfriends were one of the ways people made babies. He had known that intellectually before, and it remained purely an intellectual thought now that he had a girlfriend, but not everyone knew that about him it turned out. Bel had seen fit to give him a talk about such things when he'd revealed that he and Anya were dating (even though that was a confusing word and a confusing concept and they were basically just hanging out as close friends, which was also weird since they didn't know each other that well but she was pretty cool so this was fine, everything was fine, totally fine, no stress here). As the child of a married man and his girlfriend-for-the-weekend (who was married to someone else and whose next two children were now at Sonora), Alexander was well aware that girlfriends weren't strictly required for baby making but still. The whole of it was enough to make Alexander's wave of a greeting to his girlfriend happen with a red-tinged face and he sat down before Anya could do anything that threatened to be cute or something.

Then he had to stand back up again because he was prefect apparently. That wasn't a thing he had thought about and even though he'd gotten it by default, he was still having big feelings about it as he accepted his new badge, but he had enough wherewithal about him to grin at his sister as she did the same. Then the headmaster announced that this would be the year of the ball again. That meant it was four years this year since he'd been taken into Mab's family and gotten a home. It also meant he'd need a date because he was a prefect now. It also meant he had a date probably because he was pretty sure that if Anya didn't dump him by then, they would go together. It was bittersweet, the idea of not going with Mab again. But also, he was pretty sure it made you a loser if you went to the ball with your sister and they hadn't been siblings yet last time.

His mind was whizzing about fretfully (and also a bit confusedly because he was fretting over his relative social success it seemed) when the food appeared. Remembering the way Nathaniel had been basically the best thing ever to him, Alexander wondered if he might step into the same shoes a bit now as the new Teppenpaw prefect. He turned to a nearby student and managed an awkward smile.

"Want some--" he look darned for the nearest food item, realizing he hadn't planned this far ahead. "Uh. Liver?" he asked, grimacing at the old school dish.

OOC: Bel, Anya, and Mab talks approved their authors.

22 Alexander Pierce-Beales I am very responsible. 1475 0 5

Iris Cobb

August 29, 2021 8:53 PM

Back once more by Iris Cobb

Leaving the mountain this year was a little different than it way last year. There was an odd sense of unease as they packed up to go down the mountain. She said good-by to everyone, but the responses she got seemed rather more formal than usual. Billy told her not to worry about it, which really didn't help. She brooded most of the trip back to school, because it was either that or try and talk to Billy, which she didn't want to do 'cause he was just playing with Archie and that dumb coin he'd found.

She'd like to have something to work on for this year. Some sort of project, but she wasn't sure what. She had joined the gardening club the second half of last year and that had been fun. She was planning on doing that again, and probably joining the art club. Billy got to do elective classes this year and that would be fun to figure out. Not that he seemed interested in them at all.

Upon arrival at the feast, she found a place at the Crotalus table and listened to the Headmaster's speech. She clapped politely at the new head students and winced as her brother shouted out accolades for Hilda. Then he mentioned that the event this year would be a ball. There was going to be a ball. A real, live fancy ball with dancing and everything? She stumbled through the song and then as soon as she was able, turned to the person next to her. "We are going to have a ball here? How will that work? Do you know anything about it?"

2 Iris Cobb Back once more 1526 0 5

Valentine Duell

August 29, 2021 9:53 PM

Now wait just a moment. by Valentine Duell

Valentine Duell hopped off the wagon with a bright smile on her face. This was going to be a good year, she just knew it. Especially if she could keep her courage up. She had grown a bit over the summer, as if her some of her biological processes had been trying to match up with her mindset. No more was she the sweet and innocent, confused little third year girl. Now she was a grown, mature, fourth year young woman. Her attire hadn't really changed that much, a nice blouse and long skirt all completely hidden by the school robes. Her hair was back in its traditional braid, safely tucked out of the way, just in case. However, she was adorned with a mild amount of make-up to accentuate her features. She could get away with it since opening feast was a 'special occasion'.

She greeted everyone she knew that she passed in the cascade hall before the feast started. There was someone she had to find before things got underway. It didn't take long for her to spot Bonabelle, Now or never she thought to herself. She summoned up what reserves of courage she had and went to meet her friend. Things had not been as wonderful after the cafe discussion and Val knew it was all her fault. Even their correspondence over the summer had not been what it had been previously. Maybe, now that she had time to process some things, she was ready.

"Hi Bonabelle!" She greeted her oldest friend warmly and cheerily with the traditional hug of welcoming embrace. "I missed you over the summer. We'll meet up tomorrow morning like usual, right?" She asked as she pulled back. Then, without really waiting for a response, she did it. Val darted forward and planted her lips upon Bonabelle's. She pulled back again, her eyes twinkling. "I'll see you then!" And once again without waiting for a response, she darted off towards the Teppenpaw table. She'd done it! She'd done it! She'd had her first kiss! There was a mirth bubbling up inside of her that she could not explain nor barely contain. The plan was to be all casual and not make it seem like any sort of big deal, but she just couldn't help turning around again to smile at Bonabelle quickly. The feeling of the hug and the tingling that was fading quick from her own lips, just wouldn't allow it. Bonabelle looked a little stunned, she hoped her friend wasn't mad.

As she approached the table she spotted Alexander and she thought she might sit with him and talk and... well, you never know. Except he was waving at Anya. Oh. That was fine. Those stories about them were true then. Alexander and Anya were dating. That was good. She was happy for them. Absolutely. If Anya make Alexander happy, that was good. He should be happy, and so should Anya. She tried to shake off the feeling as she found a seat elsewhere along the Teppenpaw table just in time for the speech to begin.

Val wasn't really able to focus on the speech very well, but she did welcome the first years that came over to the Teppenpaw table. She applauded Hilda and Jessica getting head student, it was odd now, knowing who the new head students were. Then the prefects as well. Gabriel, Alexander, Saidie and Mallory? Oh! Mab! Right. She knew all of them and added her accolades to the others. Alexander seemed to be taking his new role seriously, that was really sweet and good of him.

Then the Headmaster made the announcement about the ball and Val's smile returned gleefully. She and Mama had prepared for this. Now she just needed to convince someone to ask her to go. She was a fourth year now so.... wait. Then fifth, sixth and seventh.... as a fourth year she only had three more years after this. This was her only ball. No.... that wasn't right was it? That wasn't fair. Everyone else (outside of her year group) got to have two balls! She (and everyone else in her year group) only got one! That wasn't fair!

"This ball has to be perfect and wonderful." She murmurered out loud as the food appeared to her unseeing eyes. Thoughts of an experimental and subtle approach started to give way to the realization that this was now serious business.

OOC: Bonabelle interaction *mostly* approved by her author. Let me know if anything should be tweaked. ;)

2 Valentine Duell Now wait just a moment. 1490 0 5

Bonabelle Row

August 29, 2021 11:59 PM

I don't know what just happened. by Bonabelle Row

OOC: Start of post written as a response to Valentine's feast post. BIC:

The summer hadn't been that exciting but Bonabelle hadn't been totally honest about that. She tried to just sort of act like she was busy so she could reply a little slower to Valentine and not have to worry about it. Except delaying replies meant that she was actually just more stressed, so then she had to find stuff to do to keep her busy. While summer in Ireland - and the requisite trip to London with her uncle - was vaguely exciting, it hadn't really been enough. Bonabelle had spent an uncharacteristic amount of time hiking and wandering. Since her grandparents were old not quite able-bodied enough to enjoy some of the more strenuous of those activities, she'd spent most of her summer alone. All that time alone had given her time to think and the conclusions she'd come to scared her.

Her conclusion was that she wanted to be reckless. She wanted to makeout with people just because she could. She wanted to go to parties and events just because she could. Being alone had always been intended to protect her but all it had done was make her susceptible to caring too much and being too disappointed and too hurt by people. If she didn't cast a wider net, she'd be getting herself stuck in the same helpless cycle of caring too much about people who cared about everyone. So she'd only written to Valentine between hikes and now that she was back to Sonora, she wasn't sure what she'd do. But she knew she'd make friends, be social, and try something new. She was going to make a new Bonabelle out of herself. Heck, maybe she'd just go by 'Belle' now or something. Paint her nails black, wear red lipstick, and cut her hair short. For now, she'd settle for a more subtle makeup look, some new hoop earrings, and no more bows.

Valentine found her before she could find - or avoid - the Teppenpaw and Bonabelle was halfway through responding to the girl's greeting when her mouth was suddenly preoccupied with something it wanted very badly. Talking, she had always thought, was rather overrated. Her shock at the sudden kiss - her first kiss! - and the moment it took to dismiss her uncle's warning of 'ask before you kiss someone!' weren't enough to stomp out her more instinctive urges and so, instinctively, she leaned into the kiss, pressing back into Val's lips. Her hands were half way up, reaching forward to embrace the Teppenpaw when the girl ran away.

Bonabelle remained in a daze well after she took her seat and the headmaster started speaking. She briefly registered Uncle Killian raise his eyebrows at her but she couldn't be sure if she did anything more than blink at him because he cocked his head a bit and kept his eye on her throughout the rest of the meal but didn't do more than that. Of course, there were a number of things she might've done to garner such a response, so she couldn't be too sure. The headmaster had announced the ball. It was the year for the ball. Did her recent interaction with Val mean. . . . no. Val couldn't possibly want that. She had been clear about that. But then . . . she'd been clear about a lot of things that suddenly seemed very, very hazy.

Not entirely sure what to think of anything or what even to think about, Bonabelle didn't really come to her senses until a cold, wet sensation on her elbow clued her into the fact that she'd managed to stick it in a bowl of tapioca pudding. She gasped a bit and reached for her wand to do one of those spell things she knew all about when another student said something to her. She blinked to clear her mind a bit before responding.

"I'm sorry, what? Could you say that again? I wasn't listening."

22 Bonabelle Row I don't know what just happened. 1488 0 5

Amethyst Brockert

August 30, 2021 10:11 AM

Welcome back by Amethyst Brockert

Amethyst was so happy to come back to school...largely because Topaz wouldn't be here. Okay, it would be nice to see Iris again and she even hoped to get to know Alexei better and possibly Connie and Lydia too, seeing as they were her cousins and the latter was even friends with her roommate, but the best part was that Sonora was now a Topaz-free environment and Amethyst felt every bit as much freedom to be rid of her older sister as Topaz herself had felt about being away from the roommate she despised so much.

Although home was now Topaz-free too, since the Aladren alumna was now at Dofmore. The second year hoped it stayed that way, that her sister met someone whom she could marry and move far far away from all of them. Of course, Amethyst would pity the man who married Topaz. Pity or fear since either she'd torture the poor guy or he'd be just like her. And there being two of them made her shudder.

Anyway, at least Topaz was no longer at Sonora and right now, that was good enough for the Crotalus. Instead Chris was now here, and Amethyst found him way more agreeable. Not that that was saying much since pretty much almost anyone was more so than Topaz was but still, the first year boy was completely conflict adverse and that made him far easier to get on with.

Her second cousin once removed, Liesl was coming to Sonora this year too. Unfortunately, Amethyst wasn't especially close to her as Liesl had more in common with Isla. In that they were both strange while the second year was decidedly...not. Although she did agree with Liesl about robes, which the new first year had seemed rather depressed about. Amethyst herself would like nothing more than to wear her pretty, expensive clothing for all to see. Still, it was just her luck that the cousins closest to her in age and degree of relation were two oddballs and a boy. Although even that could be worse.

She took a seat next to her roommate at the Crotalus table and watched the first years be Sorted. Chris quickly joined her and Liesl absolutely beamed as she sat down at the Teppenpaw table. Amethyst was genuinely happy for her since she seemed to want that so much and personally didn't mind having Chris in the same house as her.

Then Head Students and prefects were announced. The second year was disappointed that Esme hadn't won but for the most part they weren't people she knew well though she thought it was most likely a good thing that Mab had won it seeing as she was a Pecari who was actually not objectionable. Amethyst sneaked a quick look at her cousin who seemed as stoic as ever about her own loss and the younger Crotalus decided to take that at face value.

Then there was the announcement about the ball. Amethyst was sort of excited about this event. She doubted that anyone would ask her being that was was literally one option that was at all respectable but she would get to dress up all fancy in a beautiful gown.

After the school song, Iris spoke to her. She nodded. "Yes, we get to dress up in fancy clothes and look all pretty. Then hopefully, boys will ask us to dance." Iris probably had more options for that than Amethyst did at this point. "Of course, maybe we'll get dates." Again, the odds were not in her favor. She had no idea if Alexei would be interested in going with her and she certainly would not do the asking."And there's usually refreshments and the Hall gets decorated nicely."

11 Amethyst Brockert Welcome back 1532 0 5

Iris Cobb

August 30, 2021 9:24 PM

The same to you. by Iris Cobb

Iris listened intently as her roommate described the upcoming event. It sounded quite wonderful. She had seen pictures in their book of fairy tales at home of fancy balls. Large open rooms with shining decorations. Ladies wearing big fancy elaborate dresses and men in ornate uniforms. It always looked so.... regal. Now she was going to get to go to one of them! She loved this school!

Naturally she had more questions for her roommate. "Where do we get the fancy dresses?" She took a mental inventory of the few dresses she had and the even fewer 'nice' dresses. None of the even came close to qualifying for a big fancy elaborate dress that one would wear to a big fancy ball. If all else failed, could she make one? She wasn't great at sewing, but she could do it. What materials would she need and where would she get them?

"Boys? Dates?" There was a hint of uncertainty at that thought. Naturally she would need a proper dancing partner, again that was how these things worked. "Boys... Hmmm..." she murmured again as she began to look around the room. Who would work? As they had become accustomed, the found their way to the Pecari table first. She nearly laughed at the thought of Billy wearing a fancy ball getup and dancing nicely. She passed quickly past him and his friends. Xavier was there, he was nice and maybe had some potential. Winston was at her own table, and a new first year that seemed to know Amethyst. She thought this might be Chris that Amethyst had talked about before. Over at the Teppenpaw table there was Ian and Hansel. They were both nice as well, and had potential. "Do you have any thoughts on which boy you'd like?" She asked Amethyst.

OOC: I'm assuming Chris came up at some point during talks of family and such. If not, I can edit.

2 Iris Cobb The same to you. 1526 0 5

Mab

August 30, 2021 10:14 PM

I hope you didn't want this. [Leonor] by Mab

Mab had learned not to arrive too early to Feasts or classes. You had more control over who you ended up sitting near if you got to chose your neighbors rather than hoping for fate to deliver you safely from those you would rather avoid. Consequently, she arrived to the Opening Feast only a minute or two before the first years, looked around the Pecari table, and made her choice of which ones she could risk sitting near. Theo, Stanley, and Anya were the ones to avoid the worst, but the third year boys definitely ought to be given wide berth as well. Likewise the second year punk with the tiara.

Her roommate was looking like the lesser of the available evils tonight, so she took an empty seat near Leonor. "Hi," she said, shortly, but not unfriendly-like. Mab would not say she was close to Leonor, but she wasn't someone Mab was actively avoiding either, which was more than most Pecaris could say.

Just then the first years did make their appearance, and Mab was distracted by defending the empty seat on her other side by looking as unapproachable and intimidating as possible in the general direction of each of the new Pecaris, because she'd picked this spot because it was safe and she didn't want to introduce an unknown factor into it.

The new Head Students were called up, which didn't really interest her much either as she didn't know any of the seventh years very well, though she was pleased to see the new dueling club president had made the cut. It was the only club Mab was in, so the faint connection almost made her feel represented or something.

Then the prefects started getting named, and Mab was almost happy and almost smiling for Sadie and Alexander when she abruptly went still and pale. The last of those four names was hers. Her True Name.

The Headmaster called her Mallory in front of the whole school, and not just Mallory, but Mallory Pierce-Beales. Before she had trained her professors to call her Mab, she'd gotten True Named during attendance, but then her True Name had changed, and she'd thought she'd been safe. And now he just said it in front of everybody.

She almost didn't want to get up and claim the name or the badge. She could hardly be called friendly or social at the best of times, so whose bright idea had it been to name her prefect? Granted, she wouldn't want Theo as prefect either, but Leonor would have been a perfectly fine option, wouldn't she? Mab gave her roommate a slightly panicked look like she was hoping the other girl would get up and prove Mab had misheard and it hadn't been her name at all.

But she'd been True Named. True Names had power, and she found herself standing and walking to the front of the Hall almost against her will. This was exactly why she insisted on a nickname! If he'd called up Mab, she could have just crossed her arms and sulked and pretended he hadn't been talking about her.

As she got closer she saw Sadie and Alexander, though, and she remembered this was supposed to be an honor and not a punishment. Mab wasn't totally convinced, but Alexander, for one, looked happy and grinned at her like this was a good thing, so she returned the expression, though it maybe looked a little bit forced.

When she dropped back into her seat, she wanted nothing more than to disappear, and a few years ago, she thought she maybe would have made that wish and convinced the fairies to do it, but it was pointless now. The damage was done. Her Name had been spoken, and her robes bore the badge that meant she had been bound into a fey contract by accepting a gift, no matter that she hadn't really wanted it.

She especially didn't want it this year, with a ball going on. Prefects led the first dance, and she wanted nothing to do with that. Maybe she could do the disappearing act then.

"I hope you didn't want this," she said to Leonor as the school song ended, almost like an apology, but more like she was recognizing that it would be the epitome of unfairness to both of them if she got something Leonor wanted when Mab didn't want it at all. In the best case scenario, the one where none of them wanted it (and as little as she knew him, she could guess Theo didn't), she would at least be taking one for the team. But if Leonor did, that would just be cruel.

1 Mab I hope you didn't want this. [Leonor] 1473 0 5

Patience Reed-Fischer

August 31, 2021 11:39 PM

What are we waiting for? by Patience Reed-Fischer

Patience had crossed herself multiple times so far and by the time she did it on her way into Cascade Hall, she was starting to accept that she didn't have to. Her mother couldn't see her. Her sister, brother, and cousin could but she doubted any of them cared whether she crossed herself or not. As such, she was smiling tentatively when she put her hand back by her side for what she hoped was the last time for a while. At least, the last time for religious reasons; she was soon using her hands again to get herself sorted and to brace herself on the table as she leaned out to see around her classmates and watch the headmaster, and then to get food. She wasn't sure whether it was news of the ball that made her appetite suddenly vanish or whether it was just the nature of being basically terrified of everything that was happening all around her, but she certainly wasn't feeling hungry just then. She didn't seem to be the only one.

An older girl was sitting nearby, looking a bit glazed over herself. She was probably around Dathan's age, Patience thought, and she wondered whether the two knew each other. Considering the size of the school, the size of the House subgroups, and then the smaller still year sizes (or class sizes for that matter), she suspected it was nearly impossible not to know each other. Still, she wasn't about to go asking about that, if for no other reason than sometimes people looked at her funny when she pointed out her very white cousin as a blood relative.

"I'm Patience," she said in a squeaky voice that betrayed her nerves. "What's your favorite food?"

22 Patience Reed-Fischer What are we waiting for? 1535 0 5

Anya Delachene

September 01, 2021 12:14 PM

This is getting Advanced by Anya Delachene

OOC: cw: Abuse of Capital Letters BIC:

Anya could no longer deny that she was probably not a kid anymore. That 'probably' snuck in there because it was a hard perception to lose about oneself, especially when one didn't really want to grow up. She'd always kind of liked the concept Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up, and not only because he could fly (the movie itself had a lot of things wrong with it, but the basic premise of a secret island where kids could always be kids and fly around fighting pirates and doing whatever they wanted was one she liked).

Unfortunately, the secret magical place she did go to wasn't one that halted the progress of time. (Or taught them how to fly around just by thinking happy thoughts, mores the pity, because Anya could have totally gotten into that.)

What it did have was CATS and Advanced Class Placements and Choices About Her Future. It even had a boyfriend and a ball at the end of the year and a prefect badge on her robes, but those weren't nearly as frightening as the first list, except for that one day over the summer when Mom and Dad had gotten all serious and plopped both her and Philippe down for a downright mortifying discussion about Boys and Good Touching and Bad Touching and Being Smart^TM and Where Babies Come From (Mom actually seemed like she thought Anya didn't know that already but Anya really hadn't wanted to admit to secretly watching the movies and TV shows that had broken the news to her well before now, and neither had Philippe, so they'd had to listen to it in its entirety) and Boundaries and Consent and Going At Your Own Pace (preferably, Mom had implied, that pace should very slow; which was honestly one of the very few points Anya and Mom actually agreed about something though Philippe had kind of rolled his eyes at that suggestion) and Inappropriate Behavior and Do NOT By All That Is Holy Get Expelled For Being Caught With Your Pants Down (most easily accomplished, Mom was very clear about, by keeping your pants up at all times - not that Anya had any intention of getting anywhere close to that point with Alexander anytime soon; Philippe wasn't there yet either, she thought, but he and Freddie were far more likely to reach that stage long before Anya and Alexander were). (Also, what was up with them each finding a boyfriend who had a name that was alliterative with their own?)

Other than that one afternoon, though, it was nicer than she'd expected to have a boyfriend. Not that they really did traditionally couple-y things. Mostly they just hung out and had fun, and that was what was so great about it! She'd always thought dating sounding kind of boring, really. She was glad Alexander had proven that it didn't have to be that way. And she guessed he was kinda cute, too, especially when he gave her one of his smiles and looked like he was really enjoying himself.

The other Summer Afternoon of Trauma had been the arrival of her CATS scores, though she supposed it could have been much worse. She had done better than Jasmine had, after all, and that was the bar she had set for herself. It wasn't a high bar, though, and she'd exceed it by more than she'd honestly expected to, so that had been kind of awesome, but then it meant she had Decisions to make, since there were more than three classes she qualified for to continue on at the RATS level. Truthfully, though, the worst part wasn't even the letter with the scores, but the worry that came before she actually looked at them. The act of reading the scores had honestly been kind of amazing.

Care of Magical Creatures had been listed first, alphabetically by class, and she'd gotten an E in that, which didn't really come as too much of a surprise because CoMC had always been one of her best classes. She grew up on a Flying Horse Ranch, after all. Caring for magical creatures was kind of what she breathed during the summers. Plus it was more interesting that just about all of her other classes, which helped a lot. She was maybe just a little disappointed she hadn't gotten an O. That had been her best shot at getting one.

Charms had been listed next and she'd gotten an E, which seemed about right because it did exceed her expectations. Professor Wright was one of the harder teachers to pay attention to, but he must be pretty good at his job if she got an E after only absorbing about half of anything he told them on any given day. Maybe she had developed a talent for listening only to the relevant half? She did think he used twice as many words as he needed to in order to say anything.

Defense came after Charms, and she'd gotten another E. This one she felt was exactly on target. DADA was the second most interesting of her classes, and the teacher (when she was there, but the flip flop between Professor Brooding-Hawthorne and Professor Carter actually worked to Anya's advantage because it kept the class from becoming too routine all the time) wasn't a longwinded nerd. Plus with the dueling, it was a little more physical and exciting, so Anya tended to do well in it. Not top of her class well, but well enough that the E for her CATS was neither surprising nor disappointing.

Divinations had come next, and Anya had nearly shouted when she saw the O standing next to that one. (Actually, there was no 'nearly' about it - she had jumped on the couch, waved the paper around, and shouted for the whole house to hear that "I GOT AN OHHHHHHH!!")

When she calmed down enough from that, she'd looked at the rest of her grades, but Herbology, Potions, and Transfigurations had all been the As she had been expecting to dominate her results. Muggle Studies had been another E (she probably should have gotten an O in that one, too, but she hadn't taken it seriously and hadn't studied for it at all and there were some muggle things they covered there that a half-blood couldn't just pick up through Disney movies).

So that was, at final count, three As, four Es, and an O. Not a bad showing at all. Then she'd needed to fill out the form to pick her advanced classes. She'd always assumed she'd go with the recommended minimum of three like Jasmine had, but she had five options to pick from that had scored an E or better. She'd marked off Care of Magical Creatures and Divinations off right away as being her favorite and her highest mark. Deciding between Charms, DADA, and Muggle Studies had been harder than she'd thought it would be, and had ended up opting to continue both Charms and DADA, which almost made her feel like an over achiever, going for four RATS.

Still, it did cut her class load in half, so she was glad for that and thought that just maybe she could manage this. If Charms got too rough, she could always drop it later, but Charms was kind of the most obvious class to continue on with if you made the cut because it was Charms.

She still didn't know what she wanted to do after graduation, but she figured with a spread like CoMC, DADA, Charms, and Divinations, she could figure something out. Div was probably the least practical of the four, but there was no way she was dropping a subject she got an O in.

She sat up abruptly when she realized people had filled in around her at the Pecari table while she'd been thinking too hard about Stuff and there were first years currently being sorted. She cheered in the new Pecaris, and then applauded loudly when her top pick for Head Student won (Hilda and Evelyn had both been great, helping Anya to figure out how to be a Prefect, so she was sure Hilda would make a great Head Student), and Alexander made Prefect, too! She wondered if he'd be into linking elbows and doing patrols like they were following the Yellow Brick Road?

She belted out the school song without looking at the lyric sheet (she did not get all of the words right, but that wasn't the important part) and then there was food and fellowship with her Housemates. "Hey," she greeted cheerfully to whoever had chosen to sit near to her. "Have a good summer?"

OOC: Casual relationship details between Anya and Alexander were discussed with his author.

1 Anya Delachene This is getting Advanced 1453 0 5

Valentine Duell

September 01, 2021 9:09 PM

Reality to re-evaluate its choices and make better ones. by Valentine Duell

A voice near her snapped Valentine out of her reverie. She'd really never been very good at brooding, and an unfamiliar voice was all it took to shift her back into her traditional mindset of 'Oh, a new friend!'. She smiled once again at the girl whom she'd welcomed along with the other new Teppenpaw first years after they'd been sorted. She looked nervous, which was completely understandable. She herself was nervous about this year, but probably for difference reasons than Patience.

"Hi Patience, it's good to meet you. I'm Valentine," she responded in her normal cheery, friendly voice, then added, "or Val. Either is fine." All thoughts of the unfairness of the universe and such were left behind for the moment. They went to go mingle with all the thoughts of Alexander and Anya that they had pushed aside which had been crammed next to the thoughts of the wondrous moment she'd shared with Bonabelle which Alexander and Anya had shoved aside. She'd have to unpack that mess later, for now she had a new friend to make.

"Hmm..." she thought for a moment considering Patience's mildly out-of-the-blue ice-breaker question. "Are we talking favorite food of all time, or out of the options on the table at the moment?" Her eyes swept over the ample offerings this year and saw they all looked wonderful as always. "Overall, I would have to say... Loukomadies. They're a Greek doughnut." She paused a moment reminiscing and maybe getting an idea before pulling herself back to the present. "As for what's on the table..." her eyes alighted upon one dish in particular. "Ooo... the Mac and Cheese is wonderful here!"

It was time she thought to turn the question around on Hope, it was only fair. "How about you? What is your favorite?"

2 Valentine Duell Reality to re-evaluate its choices and make better ones. 1490 0 5

Billy Cobb

September 01, 2021 9:36 PM

Nah, just Intermediate by Billy Cobb

Billy was now an Intermediate student, which was fantastic 'cause he didn't have to have classes with Iris anymore for the whole year. It'd be kinda like first year all over again, 'cept he knew what he was doing now. Mostly. He sauntered his way off of the wagon, leaving Iris to go her way while he went his. He found his way to the hall for the feast, and it was about time. He was hungry!

He kept his eye out for his room mates as he made his way towards the table, but didn't see them. The thought of them stirred up some memories of last year, and he wasn't quite sure how they all actually stood at the moment. Well, he'd seem 'em tonight and maybe they'd figure stuff out. In the mean time he sat down at the table next to Anya.

New kids were sorted out, people were awarded stuff. Hilda was and after Hansel called out to her, he naturally followed suit. Hilda gave him some sort of look, and he just grinned back at her. He'd either have an easier time at the next Quidditch practice, or much harder. He sang along with Anya to the school song and then when it was over she asked about his summer. Heh.

"Yeah, it weren't to bad." He grinned and dug around in his pocket for a moment. "I even got me a souvenir." He flipped a glinting golden disk in the air and caught it again before showing it to Anya. It was an old and very weathered Galleon, still a little encrusted with dirt. "Me 'n some cousins went exploring and we found it. I got to keep it though 'cause they ain't wizards and ain't supposed to know 'bout it." He gave Anya a conspiratorial wink. "How 'bout you?"

Then another thought struck him, "Did the Headmaster say we were getting a ball this year? Is that like a new Quaffel, or some new Bludgers?" It seemed kinda strange to make that into an event, but sometimes these folk were kinda weird.

2 Billy Cobb Nah, just Intermediate 1519 0 5

Amethyst Brockert

September 02, 2021 8:10 AM

Of dresses and dates by Amethyst Brockert

"My brother-in-law, Winston has cousins who are fashion designers and last time, they made gowns for my sisters and cousins, as well as Winston's younger sister so I'll probably have them make me one too." Amethyst replied. Where Iris would get a gown was a good question. She had never gotten the impression that her roommate had anywhere close to the access to things like that she did. Not just not having a close connection to fashion designers-something Amethyst personally relished-or even not having the financial means, the Crotalus wasn't even sure that Iris had access to stores .

And it truly wasn't fair. Iris was someone who genuinely deserved to have a nice gown for the ball. She would hate for the other Crotalus to end up having to wear something that wasn't as good, just because she didn't have funds or access. One had to wear appropriate clothing in any situation and in this case, that meant dressing in something fancy and formal. Amethyst sincerely hoped people understood that as she'd heard last time, some people had missed the memo. Iris was not like those people. The other Crotalus seemed very much like she wanted to belong and fit in and do things the right way, rather than thinking she was above social norms and could do whatever she wanted. It wouldn't be right that Iris would be denied the ability to have a really nice gown.

Still, maybe there would still be a chance for her roommate to buy something appropriate. "Last time, there was also a school trip to Tumbleweed and there are a few boutiques there where people can buy ball gowns." Amethyst was not at all above asking Grandfather to lobby for this to happen again. Although she knew that what her grandfather wanted was not always what happened, as if it was there wouldn't be two female Head Students and Esme would be prefect, as Ruby, Topaz and Sapphire would also have been. Of course, at least one of those not happening was a good thing though the alternative hadn't really been any better beyond probably not being a psychopath.

However, why would anyone object to a Tumbleweed field trip? Especially since it would benefit people who might not otherwise be able to get nice clothing for the ball. Surely, the rest of the staff had to love that since aside from Grandfather, who only cared about his grandchildren and possibly Liesl, as he'd always seemed to like her better than the rest of his brothers' grandchildren and possibly Professor Xavier, who probably really did care about all the students, they only seemed to care about the downtrodden or otherwise somehow disadvantaged students. And if Amethyst could take advantage of that as well as her relationship with the school's Headmaster to benefit her roommate, she darn well would!

Okay, so maybe that was manipulative and wrong and potentially Topaz-like when the second year really wanted to be better than that. However, it was hard to break old patterns of doing what she had to do to get what she wanted and anyway, this would be for a good cause. Amethyst wouldn't even be doing it for herself at all, since she would likely be able to get a gown from the Anns and wouldn't need to get one in Tumbleweed. It was only for Iris and Topaz would never have done anything for anyone else unless it possibly somehow benefitted her so wanting to do something for her roommate that only slightly did anything for herself-a trip to Tumbleweed would probably be fun in general-was totally not Topaz-like.

Thinking about boys in this context was...slightly on the depressing side. Amethyst really did want to meet someone special but Sonora was seriously lacking in options. "Well, I mean, not everyone will be able to get one." She said diplomatically. "There's like, never enough people to go around. I mean, our year is pretty even on boys and girls but like, there are three girls in my brother's class and three in the year above ours. Which would be great odds for Isla, except that there are other...considerations for people like me." Although the third year probably would be willing to go as a friend with whomever asked her." I mean, it's um highly preferable that I go with someone of my blood and social status although there would be exceptions, like if I was prefect and needed a dance partner for the opening dance. I could dance with whomever in order to avoid humiliation." She continued. "So, to answer your question about which boy I would want to take me to the ball, I guess I would pick Alexei." He might be a Pecari, but he didn't seem like a very Pecari-ish Pecari and more importantly, he was a pureblood boy from a good family and in their previous interaction, Amethyst had found him decidedly pleasant. Unfortunately, there were other pureblood girls and he could ask Connie or Lydia or Liesl or even Isla.

11 Amethyst Brockert Of dresses and dates 1532 0 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

September 02, 2021 12:15 PM

Neither do I, but that's because I wasn't there by Rosalynn Tellerman

Rosalynn could not have called her summer 'quiet' when she lived in Las Vegas and lived with her father who was a dramatic performer even when he wasn't on the stage, but it had been as quiet as her home life ever got. She had sent letters to Tommy with enough details to prove her days were not boring and she had things to do, but nothing really stood out as especially exciting. There had been a few visits to California, of course, to see various relatives, and there was even one day they went to Disneyland, and another day they took a hike around the Grand Canyon, and those were definitely fun highlights, but it was not the first time she'd done either of those things, and nothing had gleamed out as a novel experience.

What was new was that this year she was coming into Sonora as an Intermediate rather than as a Beginner. She felt quite grown up being one of the middle students now, and being officially a teenager. She'd put on some lip gloss for the occasion and just a little blush. Her hair had gotten longer since she started at Sonora, and she'd put it in a braid for the wagon ride so it wouldn't get in her face from the wind, but in the time between arrival and now, she'd gotten to visit her room, take the braid out, and brush it. It had a bit more wave to it now than it usually did because of the former braid, and she thought it looked nice.

She smiled and waved at Tommy when she spotted her boyfriend, but stayed at her House table. There would be loads of time to catch up with him soon enough, starting probably with breakfast tomorrow, but for the Feast tonight, she was an Aladren.

As such, she clapped for the new Aladren first years as they got sorted a few minutes later, was mildly disappointed that neither of the new Head Students were Aladrens (not that she knew any of the seventh years very well), and cheered for Gabe when he went up for his badge (even though her pick would have been Morgan if only because Morgan was the only fifth year Ros had ever spoken with).

The news of a ball was welcome information and Ros beamed at the thought of being able to go to one. She tried to catch Tommy's eye and mime 'me and you, yeah?' (this included a back and forth pointing, a thumbs up, and a nod with raised eyebrows to make it a question) because they'd been dating more or less since their own Orientation so it was basically a given and there was little point in delaying the formality until they could do so with verbal words. This was going to be a fun event.

She sang her way through the school song, with better musicality than most of her peers if she did say so herself, and then the food appeared. Ros filled her plate with a pasta dish and spotted some rolls just out of reach. She was about to ask Bonabelle (who she knew from the debate club) to pass them along when they both noticed she had her elbow in some pudding, and Ros tried very hard not to giggle at the misfortune of others.

"Everything okay?" Ros asked gently, and then cursed her timing when it seemed she had interrupted a cleaning spell. She waved a go-on gesture at the drawn wand, not wanting to delay that fix because having tapioca pudding on your sleeve couldn't feel good. "Clean yourself up first. I can wait."

When she felt she wasn't interrupting anymore, she spoke again, choosing to go a route that maybe would feel a little less intrusive. "I just wondered if you could pass me a roll," she said, pointing at the basket on the older girl's other side. "Is everything okay?" she then asked, now that she felt the ice was at least a little broken in. "You seem a little . . . distracted? You can tell me to mind my own business; I won't be offended," she added quickly, in case it was a very personal topic that Bonabelle wasn't comfortable discussing with relative strangers.

1 Rosalynn Tellerman Neither do I, but that's because I wasn't there 1520 0 5

Patience Reed-Fischer

September 02, 2021 11:45 PM

...................oh. by Patience Reed-Fischer

Patience had a funny name. She knew that about herself. But now here she was, first night at school, and she was meeting a girl named Valentine. She felt a little bad for thinking it was a funny name and wondered idly whether it was for the saint or the holiday. Or maybe magic people didn't do holidays? At least not Valentine's day. Jezebel said they were sort of weird; maybe Valentine's parents just saw the word on a greeting card or something and thought it sounded nice. But then, why would they be getting greeting cards about Valentine's Day if they didn't celebrate it . . . it was sort of a lame holiday anyway, and not at all like what the saint was for so. . . . anyway, here was a real live breathing human who was also magic and also had a name that was not really a name and that was exciting no matter what.

"Val," Patience repeated, glad to have been given permission to say something else. Her expression fell some when the girl started saying words that made no sense to her, but she found out quickly that it wasn't because she didn't know about magic stuff, just because she didn't know about Greece. Jezebel and Gus had said the school had students from all over but she hadn't expected to meet someone right off the bat like that. Maybe that was why her parents picked the name Valentine? There was no reason for her to dwell on that but it was really sticking in her head as, weirdly, the only thing that made sense at this magical place.

She responded to the much more understandable part of Val's answer by smiling gratefully and scooping some mac and cheese onto her plate. It did look delicious. She was saved from the embarrassment of shoveling it into her mouth in front of this girl by the conversation clearly being made to continue. Patience hated eating in front of people and she would've been really embarrassed if she'd stuck food in her mouth and then been asked the question; at least this way, she could try to answer.

"Of all time," she pondered first, glancing around the table to pick out what she thought looked good to answer that part next. "I really like this stew my mom makes," she said, her mouth watering at the thought. "It's called cachupa. I also really like the pretzels we have at Lent." She admitted the second part a bit more tentatively although the whole of it came out with some trepidation; she'd now outed herself both as a foreigner and as someone from a religious family. She wasn't sure how magic people felt about religious people but if the way religious people seemed to feel about magic people was anything to go by . . . She figured the foreign part probably wasn't so bad, especially since technically her mom was the foreigner not her, since Val had just admitted much the same but she couldn't be too sure. Better to say the right thing than the true thing sometimes. She took a bite of the mac and cheese and gave a thumbs up. "And this is my favorite food from here so far!"

22 Patience Reed-Fischer ...................oh. 1535 0 5

Bonabelle Row

September 02, 2021 11:51 PM

To be fair . . . I'm glad you weren't. by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle didn't really appreciate being interrupted just to pass some bread to her Housemate but she also had to acknowledge that this was mealtime at a big table and that's basically how this stuff worked. That part was still weird to her although she was more used to it now than she had been; eating was basically a solitary activity growing up, or one that took place with one other person at most usually. Why so many people would want to just sit together and eat together was beyond her, but it seemed to make most of them happy so she usually let them interrupt her solitude when they pleased. Unless they were annoying, which was pretty often, but even then she tried to be open-minded about it.

She passed the rolls to Ros and then paused, her mouth half-forming the words yes, I'm fine as she wondered whether she wanted to say something else. She wasn't all too sure that she was fine even. Perhaps that was why it was so difficult to say; usually if she said she was fine, it was because she knew she was and was telling the truth, or she knew she wasn't and was trying to avoid vulnerability. Now, however, she couldn't tell if she was fine or not. Her eyes glanced against her will at Val before returning to Ros.

"Yeh, prob'ly," she managed around the questions in her throat. "Uh, I'm probably okay. I mean yes, I am okay. Not that I'm probably distracted." She blinked several times, having confused herself. "Are you okay?" she asked.

22 Bonabelle Row To be fair . . . I'm glad you weren't. 1488 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

September 03, 2021 8:03 AM

That's my name by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

It would be a lie to say Sadie had not thought at all about becoming prefect. She had had several daydreams wherein she had been one, and thus been given a cosy, semi-private shared space and regular time with Dathan. The actual duties of being a prefect occasionally entered into these musings, but only really as something to force them together against a common adversary, and give him either a reason to admire or rescue her, thus building their growing feelings to the point at which he would have to sweep her off her feet and kiss her.

She really hadn’t spent any time thinking about the actual moment of the badges being awarded, other than maybe vague ideas of Dathan cheering for her, because that would have meant she was entertaining the possibility of it really happening. She was quite convinced that any image of herself with a prefect badge was nothing but a daydream, and one that mostly wasn’t about the badge anyway. Still, she tuned back in for the speech, both because it was polite and because Jessica was in the running for head girl. Or head student. Whatever it was now. When her friend’s name was called, she beamed widely, and joined in the applause with enthusiasm. She suspected that, and some applause for the prefects, to be her entire involvement with proceedings.

And then her name was called.

Her full name. Not just the role-call version of her full name but her full full name. She stood, the surprise and any chance at identifying some (positive?) feelings about being prefect instantly drowned out by the sheer horror of that. She could already feel that her face was going red. Mab’s full name had also been announced, and whilst it was less weird than her own, it was so much more distant from what Mab was known by that it was possible it stood out much more. Or perhaps it only drew added attention to the air of ‘hey, wait, that’s not what I thought that person’s name was.’

And now she was blushing in front of everyone and Dathan, which probably meant people thought she was embarrassed about being a prefect or called up to the front, which would obviously make her a terrible prefect, so even before she had the badge in her hand people were probably thinking she was doing badly at it. All of which only served to make her face go even redder.

She did her best to believe she was either utterly invisible or sinking into the floor. It was a pretty mean feat whilst standing on stage being handed a badge, but she found a spot on the ceiling that she was fairly sure hadn’t noticed her and did her best to stare at that and pretend that either she or everyone else or both simply weren’t there.

After approximately three thousand forevers of being stared at whilst bright red, she was released back to her seat, where she did not give into the urge to throw her head down against the table, as that would only have attracted more attention. Instead she sat as absolutely normally as possible, then mouthed her way through the school song. When it was time to eat, she started by pouring herself some water, concentrating on drinking it slowly so she didn’t end up choking on it.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers That's my name 1480 0 5

Iris Cobb

September 03, 2021 6:31 PM

And all sorts of important things. by Iris Cobb

Iris nodded along as Amethyst talked about her dress plans. There was nothing out of the ordinary there, this was the point of family and community after all. Each person had a job and so naturally when you needed clothes you went to the people that made them. It did make her think of her own option along those lines. Aunt Molly and Uncle Bert were the clothing experts back home, but she wasn't sure they'd ever made anything like a ball gown before. She could check with Ma though when she wrote tonight.

Then Amethyst mentioned the possibility of a trip to Tumbleweed and the existence of what she assumed from context was some sort of store where you could buy dresses. There were only a few problems with that plan. The first was that from what she had learned, Tumbleweed was a ghost town. With actual ghosts. Iris did not care for ghosts, they creeped her out. It didn't really matter how friendly they seemed,they just gave her the willies. The idea of an entire town of them did not sound like a great time. However she didn't much like the idea of showing that she was scared. She'd managed to make it through last year by avoiding the ones around the school as much as possible. "That sounds like it could be fun." She managed to get out with what she thought was an even tone.

Granted, that led to the other problem of going to Tumbleweed to buy a dress. She didn't have any money. Even if she somehow convinced Billy to part with that stupid coin he'd found and kept playing with the entire wagon ride, she suspected one Galleon wouldn't be enough. Still, looking would be fun. It'd be like her school shopping trip, but without Ma and Pa following her around everywhere. She couldn't contain her curiosity though, "How much are ball gowns?" It really didn't matter unless the answer was 'free'.

As for the boy situation, Iris did have to agree with Amethyst. She wasn't terribly worried, having a boy to go with would be the right way to go to a ball, but she certainly didn't need one. She gave Amethyst an inquiring look at her 'people like me' comment, but then gave her friend a smile when she explained. "Well, if I get the chance, I'll suggest to him that you are by far the best choice for ball dates."

2 Iris Cobb And all sorts of important things. 1526 0 5

Alexei Vorontsov

September 03, 2021 9:55 PM

Glad to be back. by Alexei Vorontsov

Summer had started out well enough, with a trip to visit Tatya and Anya in time for the birth of Alexei's second niece. Anya and Rodya had been obviously disappointed about having a girl this time - he thought they had hidden it better with Anastasia - but had done their best to put on bright faces about the baby, who they had called Olga, after Anya and Alexei's mother. All of that had been enjoyable, mostly, or at least novel (Alexei could not in good faith claim any real interest in infants, but he had only seen Anya and Rodya's home twice before, which made it essentially a new place and therefore more interesting. After that, though, Katya had stayed on with Anya and Tatya - apparently, Katya and Tatya were going on a trip together this autumn, to Japan, of all places - and Alexei had promptly spent the rest of his summer bored out of his mind at home, rattling around a house far too large for its remaining number of inhabitants.

It had surprised even him how difficult he had found it to entertain himself. It was not, after all, as though this was the first time he'd been left alone. Ever since Katya had gone to school, he had spent most of each year living like an only child. Over the summer, he had even had lessons in his old subjects again, so that a lot of the time, it was as if he had never left Alaska at all. The rest of the time, though....

He had gotten too used to being around other people, he guessed, which meant it was good to return to school. It had been nice hearing Russian spoken around him all the time again, but he was happy, he realized as he worked to convince his ears to regard English as a normal background noise again in the midst of the hubbub of the Cascade Hall, to be back at Sonora.

He applauded politely for the people called to the front, adding some extra enthusiasm for Hilda Hexenmeister. Not only was she from his House, which he assumed added prestige to the condition of being a Pecari, but she was also someone else who spoke with a pronounced accent and didn't always understand the kinds of idiomatic speech that his roommate used, which meant she was also representing the outsiders well. The prospect of food, however, was the major thing on his mind throughout the announcements, and he was glad to get to it once the song was over.

"I had forgotten we sing after the announcing," he remarked to a neighbor as they began to serve themselves. "Maybe next year I will remember."

16 Alexei Vorontsov Glad to be back. 1531 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

September 03, 2021 11:12 PM

Life's full of 'em by Xavier Lundstrom

Did he want to go to the feast? No, not really. But only in as much as he didn’t actually want to be here at all or around any of these people. And that wasn’t an option, he had to stay in the magical world. Coming to the feast had been a choice. Professor Skies had asked him. The thought of being in a room full of happy, functioning, magical people was horrific, but so was sitting in a room by himself, or perhaps with just his teacher for company, and it would only attract attention to the fact that there was something wrong with him.

So. Here he was.

He hadn’t really worked out whether or how to talk to anyone about what had happened over the summer. He kept being told it was ‘up to him.’ Funny how all the things he was actually being given control over - coming to the feast, talking about his diagnosis - were the things he cared least about. Okay, so maybe he didn’t want that second one announced to the whole school, but still… It was like being told they were going to lock you up in the lunatic asylum but you could choose what colour you wanted your padded walls to be.

He slid into a seat. The world continued spinning, the water sliding down the walls, people greeting their friends, badges being called… Everyone else’s life continued around him, without anyone seeming to notice that his had ground to a dead halt.

He only took hold of the song sheet because it flapped persistently in his face. There was no way he was singing. Firstly, as a general mood. But also like heck he was going to sit here glorifying this stupid place and the idea of belonging and flourishing and all that other crap which applied to everyone except him. It was like salt into what was very much an open, agonising wound. And after the song, it would be the same question reverberating around the table again and again.

Hi, how was your summer? How was your summer? How was your summer?

He could already feel something like a scream building in his throat at the thought of even being asked that. He tried to push it down. His feelings were bad for him. They were wrong and dangerous. It was impossible not to feel the sting of injustice and fury though. The fact that every time he didn’t feel in control, it felt like he was proving Them right only added fuel to that fire, pushing it round in a vicious circle. He didn’t want to hurt anyone. But when he looked around the room at the happy, singing faces all around him he wanted to be the discordant scream that rent the air because it wasn’t real for him and-

He let go of his song sheet abruptly as it caught fire.

It fell on his plate, and before he, or anyone else, had much time to do anything beyond notice there was suddenly something on fire, the paper had consumed itself and blinked out again. Even most of the ash faded from his plate when the rest of the sheets disappeared.

He folded his arms onto the table, flopping down on top of them.

OOC: I'm aware this isn't very responsive to Hilda, but a) Xavier is in a moody place and b) I also figured that having had something catch fire next to her might have changed her actions slightly, so I didn't want to take it too much further forward. Let me know how you want to handle that.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Life's full of 'em 1529 0 5

Sapphire Brockert

September 04, 2021 10:59 AM

Yes it is. by Sapphire Brockert

While all of her siblings and cousins currently attending Sonora were glad that Topaz was no longer here, herself included, Sapphire was just glad to be back herself. Not because she loved school-she very much did not love a place where most people ignored her and she felt intimidated by the complex magical theory that some professors so loved-or that things were bad at home-Topaz was off at college right now, so home was also Topaz free-but because that meant she had not flunked her CATS and been forced to leave school because of it. Sapphire could hold her head up, and so could her family, nobody had to be ashamed of her.

And, admittedly, it had been quite satisfying to shove her results in Topaz's face and make the older girl see that she'd been wrong about that. Even though the Aladren alumna had gloated excessively about her own RATS scores. Still, while Sapphire hadn't gotten Es in everything,she had definitely exceeded her own, and her sister's expectations. Which admittedly had been a very low bar.

Although, the Crotalus actually had gotten a few Es, thank you very much. Of course, she had gotten one in Transfig, thankfully, as a Brockert getting less than that would be...particularly embarrassing and Sapphire was certain that she could attribute that to the practical parts. She had also gotten Es in Charms, Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology though she got As in DADA and Potions. Most surprisingly of all though, her scores on the written part hadn't been all that bad. The sixth year supposed that academic support had paid off along with the help she'd gotten from Allegra, Jessica and Esme. Sapphire was going to continue with Charms, COMC and, of course, Transfig, just like her original plan.

Of course, she was still dreading Advanced level theory, and she was sure that both Professor Skies and Professor Wright would be teaching a lot of it. In the case of the former, the Crotalus sincerely hoped there wasn't too much science stuff, because it was difficult to understand and extremely unnecessary for anyone living in the magical world. As for Professor Wright, he also talked a lot about stuff that wasn't technically necessary. Sapphire didn't think either came from a place of wanting to torture people, Professor Wright was an Aladren alum who seemed to find this extraneous stuff genuinely interesting and Professor Skies seemed to be wanting to incorporate things from the Muggle world to help out the Muggleborn students.

To be honest, the sixth year slightly resented the latter, because it was happening at her expense and while she wasn't normally as upset about these things as some people were, this time she was because this really was a case of a teacher deciding one group was more important than another and genuinely making things that were already difficult even more so. Also, it was based on the idea that all Muggles inherently loved science and that Muggleborns all wanted to continue learning about it. Based on her own experience with the topic, Sapphire absolutely could not imagine that was the case.

The first years filed in and the feast began. She watched as Chris was Sorted and joined the Crotalus table. Which was fine with her since the first year was very easy to get along with. Then prefects and Head Students were announced and Sapphire applauded for them. She felt that they were good choices, although she did hope Esme wasn't too disappointed. She remembered how she had felt last year, which was completly rejected. Still, she liked Sadie too and felt she was also good option. Sometimes there were no bad choices, just like sometimes there were only bad choices.

The younger Crotalus looked a tad stunned though, like she was genuinely surprised that she had won. Sapphire supposed she would have felt the same in Sadie's position as she would if she actually won Head Student next year, something she was completely not at all optimistic about. Her classmates had never paid her any mind before, why would they vote for her? It had been made abundantly clear to her that she wasn't really liked or wanted by most of them. That she wasn't good enough.

Anyway, once Sadie sat back down and Grandfather finished up, Sapphire said to the fifth year "Hey, congratulations. Are you okay?" She should have been, she should have felt happy and liked and good enough, feelings Sapphire could only imagine, but the younger Crotalus seemed just confused and mortified and those were feelings that the sixth year understood very well.

11 Sapphire Brockert Yes it is. 1459 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

September 04, 2021 11:18 AM

Yours is not so good by Hilda Hexenmeister

OOC: I made minor edits to the previous post, ending it just before the song. BIC:

If Hilda had been surprised by her election to Head Student - and she had been - it was a pleasant and low-key surprise that had not affected her heart-rate or injected adrenaline into her bloodstream. The same could not be said when Xavier’s song sheet burst into flame next to her. Her wand was in her hand before she made the conscious decision to draw it, but there was nothing to do. The fire had burned itself out already and Xavier himself seemed startled rather than hurt. She did not know where her own lyric sheet had gone. Presumably, she dropped it when she drew the wand, but she didn’t see where it fell to. Not that she wanted to mumble her way through the rest of the song now anyway.

Instead, she kept her eye on the second year in some concern. She made a mental note not to ask about his summer directly. People coming back from good summers did not incinerate their lyric sheets. She wondered briefly if Heinrich had ruined his at the start of his second year, but Heinrich had been such a repressed, emotionally stunted Aladren back then, she couldn’t imagine it. If he hadn’t met Evelyn later that year, he’d have been a candidate for implosion not explosion.

Hilda was glad she’d had that year in the quiet isolation of Uncle Karl’s home. She couldn’t imagine trying to pretend everything was fine so soon after the conviction. There had definitely been fires in Utah. Maybe it was a Pecari thing.

She really hoped it wasn’t anything as bad as that in Xavier’s case but the fading smears of ash on his plate and the way he collapsed over it when the song did end were not encouraging.

She did not fill her plate with food. She was too busy trying to figure out what, if anything, she should say to him. ‘Are you okay?’ was right out. He obviously wasn’t. Neither did she want to open with anything too personal on either her part or his. Heinrich had made it very clear that Not Telling Anyone Anything was the policy he expected her to follow and at this point it was ingrained habit. She wasn’t against breaking that policy, as it was one she did not entirely agree with, but it was something that needed to be eased into rather than crashed asunder with all the subtlety of a bludger.

She also fumbled with how much physical contact was appropriate. If Xavier had been Hansel, she would have at least put a hand on his shoulder if not pulled him into an outright hug. The later was definitely out of the question (even Heinrich had a better that fifty percent chance of hexing her if she tried that unexpectedly) but was the former? For now she decided not to risk it. There had already been fire once tonight.

Which meant any comfort she could provide had to be verbal and since moving to America, doing anything verbally had never been her first choice. This was going to be hard. She wouldn’t back down from it though. She was brave, and she had only just been voted in as Head Student. She had to prove worthy of that trust.

She eventually decided on her approach. “You have questions?” Hilda asked gently and cautiously. There were always questions when bad things happened. Most started with ‘why’ and few had answers, but voicing them could get them into the world and out of the choking internal miasma. “I cannot answer maybe,” she warned, “But help to say?”

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Yours is not so good 1433 0 5

Valentine Duell

September 04, 2021 6:45 PM

We may be waiting a while. by Valentine Duell

Valentine took some of the mac & cheese after Patience had finished with it and listened to what the other girl had to say. "Cachupa?" She repeated curiously. She hadn't heard of that before. "That sounds interesting, what kind of stew is it?" She knew that naturally anything made by ones mother was far superior to anything made by anyone else. Although, she had heard rumors that food crafted by a grandmother was even better. Sadly, she had no real experience on this front.

Patience's second item seemed to come out with some hesitation. Lent..? Lent..? That sounded familiar. Oh! That was the thing where Grandpa didn't eat his daily candy ration for a while every spring and was really annoyed by it! She didn't recall him saying anything about pretzels though. Oh well, if she liked the pretzels, that was good.

Val smiled at her new friend. "You'll have to let me know if anything beats it out as you keep trying new things." She put a few more various things on her plate; some turkey, a pile of green beans, and something new that she hadn't seen before. "Like this," she indicated the new food on her plate. "I haven't tried this before, maybe it'll be better than the mac and cheese." She scooped up a bite and stuck it in her mouth. Oh. Oh no. Her face scrunched up and she slid the empty fork from between her lips. Her left eye twitched just a bit, she swallowed with difficulty and reached for her water. Once everything had been satisfactorily washed down she grimaced at Patience. "That is not better than the mac and cheese."

With the ice now properly broken, Val felt it safe to delve into deeper topics. "Are you excited to start school here? I'm not a prefect, but I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Is there anything here you are looking forward to? Anything you're worried about?" The last question was asked in as kind a tone as she could manage. She then took a mouthful of the wondrous mac and cheese to completely obliterate any remnants of whatever that other stuff had been.

OOC: Grandpa tidbit from Marissa's author

2 Valentine Duell We may be waiting a while. 1490 0 5

Verdillia Scurlock

September 05, 2021 5:59 AM

Pleased to be here by Verdillia Scurlock

Verdillia’s Sonora career could scarcely have gotten off to a better start. Right off the bat, she had met a Brockert. Liesl seemed friendly too, and had complimented her on her name, and been made to clearly understand that Verdillia was from a very magical family.

The tour of the school had been exciting. Not that a magical environment was new, of course. Mother had made sure to take her to as many historical magical sites as possible, so it most certainly wasn’t the first time she had seen moving paintings or stately libraries. Their homes in London and Wales were also crammed with all kinds of magical trinkets, and all of their photographs moved, even if they hadn’t quite got up to the stage of portraits yet. Mother was definitely working on it. Still, this was going to be her school, and the books in the library were ones she would be permitted to check out, rather than admiring the spines of on a guided tour. She would wave her wand and brew her potions in the classrooms she had seen.

Now it was time to be sorted, and she wasn’t quite sure what to do with herself. Partly because being sorted was nerve-wracking, and also because she was very suddenly about to be sitting at a dinner table whilst wearing a large hat, which weren’t two actions that she thought went together terribly well. She took it off, tucking it carefully under her arm and smoothing out her hair, which she had pulled into a French plait that morning so that it wouldn’t be too noticeably dishevelled by her hat wearing. She had stopped the braid with a good few inches left to go, so that some of the curliness of her hair was visible. There was an old superstition Mother had read about which said curls were a sign of magical potency, so she liked to show hers off, even if they’d had a little bit of a helping hand from Mother’s wand.

When it came to her turn, she dipped her badge, careful not to get her sleeve in the mixture, and grinned when it came out bright, Crotalus red. She took a seat with her new housemates, chest swelling with pride. It was a little bit of a shame that Liesl didn’t join her, but Verdillia would have plenty of other proper people to talk to, and now she had a friend in another house, which could only be a good thing (so long as it wasn’t Pecari, which sounded a little rough).

She bit back surprise and delight at the way the feast appeared. She had been to magical stage shows, and seen quite spectacular illusions, but in those situations you were allowed to gasp and cheer, whereas at dinner you really oughtn’t. She also still had her hat, and did her best to tuck it under the table by her feet, hoping it would be alright there.

“Good evening,” she smiled at her neighbour. “Or, as we say in Wales, noswaith dda.” She barely said that, even when she was in Wales rather than London, because she couldn’t really do much beyond the basic courtesies, but it let her emphasise her accent and place of origin. Wales was a very magical place with historical connections to Merlin, and whilst she would never do anything like claim any direct relation (everyone knew that was tacky), it didn’t hurt to let people know she was from somewhere with a deep and rich magical history. “I’m Verdillia Scurlock.”

13 Verdillia Scurlock Pleased to be here 1541 0 5

Sadie-Lake Chalmers

September 05, 2021 8:00 AM

...yay by Sadie-Lake Chalmers

Happily, Sadie found herself sitting next to Sapphire. She was one of about three and a half people in her house that Sadie was comfortable with, and was one of the two she would have actually chosen to be around right now. Esme was someone she had had to become comfortable with by default, but having just beaten her out for prefect, Sadie would have felt nothing but awkward sitting next to her. The half was Felipe… Sadie knew that he wasn’t actively hostile towards her, and he generally seemed to mean well. Unfortunately, he managed to continually do so in a way that made her want to curl up and die on some level. Given that was her reaction to most people, it probably really wasn’t his fault, but she couldn’t exactly say he was someone she would seek out.

Sapphire started with ‘congratulations’ which was fairly normal, but her follow up question confirmed for Sadie that she had looked every bit as red and awkward as she had thought.

“Oh. Um. Yes. And, thank you,” she added, both for the congratulations and the query about her well-being. She wasn’t quite sure how to answer it, given that the truth was she had been mortified by something that she had no desire to draw further attention to. Sapphire had probably noticed the use of something that wasn’t quite her name but would hopefully be too polite to mention it. And if she didn’t, Sadie wasn’t going to. “Just a bit surprising,” she mumbled, not really sure that was going to explain how red she’d gone.

“How was your summer?” she asked quickly, hoping to move the conversation onwards.

13 Sadie-Lake Chalmers ...yay 1480 0 5

Winston Randall

September 05, 2021 8:27 AM

Not pleased to be here. by Winston Randall

It was incredible the speed with which Winston could be made to feel inferior to people. His sister was sorted into Pecari, where exciting people who were not at all like Winston went to live exciting lives. His half-brother was given the role of prefect, where responsible people who were not at all like Winston went on to live responsible lives. And now, as the meal began and a new first year student greeted him with a little Welsh razzledazzle (a phrase he'd learned from his sister), Winston found that there were people younger than him, newer than him, and Crotalus-er than him who lived razzleydazzley lives.

Awesome.

"Winston Randall," he replied, extending a hand and a dull smile to his new housemate. He was pretty sure his smile looked more like a grimace, because that seemed to be about right for him. He considered where to go from here for a minute because he really didn't have anything interesting to say. He could ask about summer but then that would be weird because he hadn't known her beforehand and she might ask about his summer and that wouldn't be any good because he hadn't had an interesting summer so he'd have to talk about Tissena getting ready for school and then Verdillia would know about Tissena and go be friends with her but that was fine because Winston didn't really need to have friends and-- Even his brain took a gasp of breath coming out of that trainwreck of thoughts. "You uh... like stuff?" he asked, gesturing vaguely around so she could answer about whatever she wanted.

22 Winston Randall Not pleased to be here. 1527 0 5

Reighleigh Mae Thorn

September 05, 2021 8:49 AM

Saaaaame. by Reighleigh Mae Thorn

Wow, summer sucked a ton. It had always sucked but now it extra sucked because Ray almost had the chance to forget how much it sucked before she had to dive back into the suckage again. Ugh. Her mom had surprised her upon her arrival home with the announcement that there was a pageant taking place in August that hadn't already filled up yet and she'd gotten the sweet little Reighleigh Mae a spot in it. Ray was less than thrilled about this, especially since it meant all sorts of primping and plucking. That was always awful but now she had to worry that the kids at Sonora could smell it on here. Could they tell that she'd just dyed her hair black again? Or that this was the first time she'd worn black eyeliner for a while? She hoped not. She kept her expression extra wicked just in case, actively booing when the ball was announced. She didn't do it too loud though because she didn't actually want the whole school to notice her, just for those around her to know that she was edgy. Super edgy. So edgy. Totally cool. She glanced towards Billy, wondering what shenanigans might be possible with such a fancy event on the horizon, but was spoken to by somebody closer than he was before she could throw anything at her friend.

"The key," she told her housemate as she scooped some potato salad onto her plate, "is to sing so badly that they regret making us do it. It's totally awful, right?" she asked, loading her question with enough amiright energy that hopefully the boy would take the hint that agreeing with her was the best thing to do.

22 Reighleigh Mae Thorn Saaaaame. 1525 0 5

Amethyst Brockert

September 07, 2021 10:22 AM

And good things by Amethyst Brockert

Amethyst nodded. "It's a fun thing for us to do as a change from being at the same place for the better part of a year. I mean, we otherwise never go off campus. I've never been there." Her family tended to go to more exotic places for vacation, places like Europe and of course, St. Berylla's. "But they have shops and tourist attractions and again, it's nice to go somewhere different."

Then Iris brought up the exact thing that Amethyst was worried about regarding dresses-the cost. Well, obviously, she wasn't worried for herself given that price was no object for a Brockert but she was definitely worried about it for her friend, given she would hate for the other girl to have to go in something inappropriate for the occasion. "It....varies. I mean, there's a huge difference in, say, a one of a kind gown made especially for you and something second hand that you might get in a thrift store." Not that Amethyst had ever been in one of those, but she knew that was where poor people shopped. "And then there's a lot in between those two. I'm pretty sure that's where the Tumbleweed boutiques fall in terms of price." Surely, Iris's parents had like, muggle money, that they could convert into magical currency.

Although, Amethyst did have a sinking feeling that might not be the case. She was more than happy to help Iris out financially but she wasn't sure if that might not come off as somehow condescending. She'd generally been raised to think that charity and helping one's friends were good things that made one a good person. The problem was that some people got all defensive about it and refused help and made the person who was trying to help them out to be somehow a bad person just for having the means to help someone.

Which made being a good person all the more difficult, because the rules kept changing and varied depending on who you were dealing with and given that Amethyst was not a Legilimens-something that was ethically questionable its self-she could never be sure what exactly the right thing was to when it came to a particular person. It was all quite exhausting and honestly, it made the Crotalus think it was easier to be like Topaz and just not care about doing the right thing. People like that didn't ponder ethical dilemmas because they didn't matter to them.

Still, Amethyst wanted to be better than that, even though it would be easier not to be. She knew in her heart that while she could personally be selfish, shallow, or manipulative, she could not resort to doing the sort of horrid things that her sister did. Which unfortunately meant having to figure out what the right thing was to do when. Even if that was extremely difficult and frustrating.

Her gut reaction though was still that Iris needed and deserved to have a nice dress and short of stealing her one, what could be unethical about any other method of that happening? It was just that...she didn't want to make her friend mad if the other Crotalus was somehow insulted by Amethyst offering to help her. She opened her mouth anyway and said. "Um, I could help you out. Like if you see a dress you like that you can't afford, I could pay the difference." She had another thought too."Or my sisters and cousins have gowns they've outgrown, some of them not too out of style."

She grinned when Iris said she'd tell Alexei that Amethyst was the best choice for a ball date if she got the chance. "Thanks!" The second year genuinely appreciated that. Having loyal friends was such a good thing and a good reason to try and be a good person. You really did reap rewards for it.

11 Amethyst Brockert And good things 1532 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

September 08, 2021 5:06 AM

Great deduction by Xavier Lundstrom

It did not escape Xavier's notice that an authority figure had just drawn her wand at him. His shoulders would have tightened if they hadn't already ratchetted up to maximum at the fire. Even as he flomped onto the table, he kept half an eye on Hilda. He did it out of the corner of his eye, not daring to full on look at her because he suspected if he did, he would find she was staring at him.

She took just long enough deciding what to say that Xavier was starting to question his assumption. Maybe no one cared. His eyes flicked onto her, just long enough to realise that yes, she was looking at him, before she spoke.

He opened his mouth and then closed it again, looking away from her. It was lucky that what Hilda said took a moment for him to process, as it meant he actually had to think before answering. She also had pre-empted most of the first things he might have said, such as 'You can't help' and 'leave me alone.' She had admitted she might not be able to help. Mostly, he wasn't thinking about whether or not he wanted to yell. Part of him did, but he wasn't sure he wanted to yell at Hilda. Some small part of him also clung to the idea of blending in, at least enough for self-preservation. He would have said that things really couldn't get much worse, but starting his year with a public meltdown didn't sound good. He wasn't convinced he could get through the meal without shouting or crying, but if it had to come to it, the latter might be less attention-grabbing.

I want to go home. It sounded immature, given that she didn't know the context.

He thought of Hilda's suggestion. Why can't I see my mom? Why did they take me away? Both of them were a touch too personal...

He pulled himself up off the table with effort, keeping his head on his balled up fists, staring at the table.

"When can I go home?" he asked.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Great deduction 1529 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

September 08, 2021 12:01 PM

Thank you by Hilda Hexenmeister

When can I go home?

If Xavier had attempted to slap her across the face, she would have flinched less. It would have hurt less, too. Oh no. The emotion behind the words meant he wasn’t just asking to leave school and go back where he came from earlier this morning. No, this was the ‘When can we go home?’ Hilda had asked Karl repeatedly early on; the question for which she had never received an answer she liked.

In the Hexenmeister case, the answer to that question had turned out to be ‘never,’ at least in how she had defined home when she was still asking it. The meaning of home had morphed over the years, and now the word brought visions of open desert and snake habitats to her mind before it conjured the cottage at the edge of a dark forest with a lovely duck pond in the back yard. To get to that scene on the first try these days she needed to add an adjective in front of the word. ‘First home’ or ‘old home’ or even ‘our home in Germany’ would work. But after eight years, ‘home’ now meant Uncle Karl’s place, or even her dorm in Pecari, well before it meant what she had once longed to return to.

This was not an answer Xavier would want to hear. It may not even be his answer. Maybe he could return home eventually. Maybe he was luckier than she and Heinrich had been. Or maybe returning home would be a curse like it had been for Evelyn. She didn’t know his details. She couldn’t make guesses or judgements about which was better, which was a loss.

He seemed to mourn the loss of his home, so it probably wasn’t a situation too much like Evelyn’s.

It could be like hers. Where home had seemed fine, had seemed safe, but there were hidden things lurking in the basement, in the garden, in the parents, that made it not.

“I am sorry,” she said sympathetically, in lieu of an answer to his question. “I live with my uncle. It is hard to loosing home. I was nine. Good news: you speak English already.” It was probably not helpful or funny, her little joke, but maybe, just maybe, it would help him appreciate something he did get to keep, something most people tended to take for granted. “I hope you soon go home can.”

1 Hilda Hexenmeister Thank you 1433 0 5

Iris Cobb

September 08, 2021 9:30 PM

And... nice things? by Iris Cobb

Iris hadn't really figured Amethyst as a wandering adventurer like her brother. That surprised her a little bit. Iris wasn't one to travel much. However, now that she thought about it, up until she had to come to school, there really hadn't been anywhere else to go. Naturally she'd wandered around the mountain some with her cousins, but not as much as some. She was fine with not being attacked by a giant bear. But she had gone to town on a few very rare occasions, and she went shopping for school things. Still she didn't find staying at the school unpleasant, it was plenty big enough for her.

Still the trip seemed like it excited Amethyst, and Iris wasn't about to make her friend unhappy. "That does sound like fun." She did enjoy those school shopping trips, even if most of what she wound up doing was window shopping. Which is what she would end up doing in Tumbleweed if they went... well, assuming she wasn't to busy avoiding the ghosts.

Iris listened to her roommate as she tried to explain dress cost without using any numbers. She got the feeling that wasn't a good sign, even if she actually had any money to spend. She did know about the thrift shops that Amethyst talked about, there was one or two of those in town and Uncle Bert made the occasional run there to get some new things for people. Iris was about fourth in line on the girls hand-me-down chain of the things that came from there.

When Amethyst spoke again, Iris wasn't sure how to respond. The first feeling that flashed through her was one of indignation, she'd been brought up properly to work for and earn what she got. Sure she may not have piles of money, but they did alright, she wasn't just some sort of charity case..... Next came the shame fueled anger. Iris realized that she was a charity case to someone like Amethyst. Someone with 'special considerations', someone who hadn't worked at all to get what she had. Someone who'd just had everything handed to them... Then some realization crashed over her.

Iris was about to make a potentially unkind remark when it happened. Some cursed, logical part of her mind had hammered it's way through everything else to try and make a point. She'd been lied to. She knew Amethyst and her family had wealth far beyond what she could imagine, how much had they worked for it and how long ago? Iris, Billy and heck all of her family worked nearly ceaseless in a well ordered society, and they survived... but not a lot more than that. At home she'd never thought there was more, but there was. Even if 'Work and earn your living' was a valid rule, there were others that she didn't know about. There must be. Amethyst was proof of that. What were they?

Unfortunately, until she found out, she was still bound by the ones she knew. Iris took a calming breath and tried to relax and tried to give Amethyst a smile. Amethyst was her friend, and she knew the other girl wasn't trying to be mean or anything. "Thanks," Iris started slowly, "But I don't think I can accept that. There's no way I could ever repay you." Debts had to be repaid, that she knew, and the 'difference' would be the entire cost of the dress. Plus, the though of spending piles of money on a dress she would only wear once didn't sit right with her either. She couldn't wear the thing at home, and no one wore ball gowns around the school on a regular basis. At home, it'd just get passed down the line when she outgrew it anyway to someone else who would never wear it.

Wait... Iris had been so intent on the first bit of what Amethyst had been saying that she'd nearly missed the second part. She gave her roommate a slightly confused look, "You mean you don't..." No, of course not. She shook her head to dismiss the silly question. They were Brockerts, they didn't hand down clothing. Could she borrow a not being used dress? She'd been wearing hand-me-downs her entire life, was it any different? She spoke slowly, carefully, as if considering the solution to a tricky potions problem, "Maybe I could borrow one? If they don't mind, and it's not to much trouble..." It wasn't a perfect solution, she would still be greatly in Amethyst's debt, well even more so than she already was. But favors were usually easier to pay off than money. She could maybe figure something out. Hopefully. Still maybe it'd be better do some more research first. "I don't want to be a bother. Let me see what I can work out on my end first?" She tried to give her friend a reassuring smile, but she wasn't convinced it came out to well. This was getting complicated.

2 Iris Cobb And... nice things? 1526 0 5

Verdillia Scurlock

September 09, 2021 4:53 AM

Oh dear, why ever not? by Verdillia Scurlock

From the way Winston Randall introduced himself, he was not a Pureblood. That was more or less fine, as Verdillia couldn't claim that for herself either, so long as associating with him didn't make other, more proper people look down on her. Judging by his house placement, he was at least somewhat respectable. Judging by his attempts at conversation, he left a lot to be desired.

Or he was an incredibly respectable person who had recognised her status in some kind of tell and was now only willing to bear her the grudging-most dose of civility. She didn't think she had read of any well-to-do Randalls, and he didn't sound un-American. Though he could just have been Canadian, or had an accent tutor. Maybe her hat had been the give away?

"I'm sure I can find something here that I'll enjoy," she stated, deciding to assume he had meant the feast, seeing as he had broadly gestured to that, and hoping he warmed up a little. "I'm very fond of pumpkin dishes. Though my understanding is that over here, it's more often used in sweet dishes?" As she had already specified her nationality, she hoped it would be obvious that that was the difference she was referring to, and not suggesting that she was new to the magical world. "The salmon next to you looks rather good. Do you have any other recommendations?" she asked.

"Do you have family at the school?" she asked, once they each had something to eat.

13 Verdillia Scurlock Oh dear, why ever not? 1541 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

September 09, 2021 7:09 PM

You don't know about sarcasm then? by Xavier Lundstrom

The bland platitude was expected, and all it did was needle Xavier. 'Sorry' didn't help him. At Hilda's next words however, his head snapped up off his hands. He hadn't expected anyone to be able to really empathise.

"Wha..?" he half formed the question but his brain was still processing. The remark about English twisted something in his gut, something that had been taught what 'privilege' meant, but it got quashed under the anger that this was his pity party, and he would be the one to cry if he wanted to.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled in return, because he had been raised with enough manners to know he had to say that. And because, on the very edge of his feelings, he was having feelings about Hilda's feelings. He just didn't have much room left around all the space his own were occupying.

She had said she lived with her uncle. That meant it sounded different to what he was going through. But how common was it for the magical government to come in and break up families? From his own, protected middle class bubble, that was a thing that never happened in his world. You heard stories in the papers sometimes about children who should have been taken away, after they had slipped through too many cracks and it was too late. He wasn't sure whether he wanted to hear she was exactly like him or not. On the one hand, she was head girl and clearly comfortable with her powers. If they were alike, there was hope for hoepless cases. But if the price was being removed from his home forever...

"If I tell you, will you keep it a secret?" he asked, wanting to know if their stories bore any similarity to each other.

13 Xavier Lundstrom You don't know about sarcasm then? 1529 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

September 09, 2021 9:18 PM

I know. I ignore. by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda nodded in acknowledgement of his expression of sympathy. It had very little impact on her emotional well-being either for good or for ill, which was probably an improvement over even just a few years ago when it might have brought everything back in all its terror and grief or made her angry. She must have finally reached the stage of acceptance, which in many ways was a good thing, but in a couple just made her sad all over again and grieve her grief, which was stupid and cyclical and entirely unhelpful. She crushed it away.

She nodded in promise to his question, and used the wand - that she had lowered and tucked out of sight but hadn't properly put away yet - to cast a spell to keep the Pecaris around them from eavesdropping. If his circumstances were anything like hers had been, he would not want rumors that started based on incomplete snatches of conversation, or worse, the whole story. She really did put the wand away then, as she explained, "Privacy charm. Others can not hear us. I keep secret. I promise."

She did not need to know. She was certainly curious, but she could mind her own business. She had plenty enough empathy to not go pushing her nose in where it wasn't welcome. But he might need to talk, might not have anyone else to talk to. Hilda had at least had siblings. She didn't know how any of them would have made it through the upheaval without each other. Well, maybe Hansel could have. He'd been so young. He hardly remembered Before at all. But even he had clung so much to Heinrich, and then to her once Heinrich was sent off to Sonora, as if afraid they too might disappear. Heinrich had at least come back. Their parents never had. Not that they could have. Not that they would have been welcome.

Even if their situations were different, they might be just the same enough that she could fill some of the void of feeling like an entirely misplaced foreigner, even if he hadn't left America. The unfamiliar language hadn't been the worst part, or the most alienating part. It had only been the part that it was safe to rail against. She had loved hating English. She still did. It was the perfect scapegoat because it was absolutely awful and she didn't even have to feel guilty about blaming it for so many of her problems.

"I promise also," she added, the reassurance she would have wanted, the reassurance Johana Leonie had given her. "I blame not you." She wasn't sure she said that right, so she tried it one more way as clarification. "Bad things happen. You are not the bad thing." She grimaced, still not sure she was expressing it in a way that didn't come across as insulting. "English is hard," she grumped, hoping he understood she wasn't being intentionally horrible. "I try reassurance. Tell you, you are person. I respect person you, whatever you me tell." She hoped that got close to what she wanted him to understand.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister I know. I ignore. 1433 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

September 11, 2021 10:34 AM

Fine. by Xavier Lundstrom

Xavier tensed as Hilda waved her wand around them. The look lessened slightly when she explained, although it was replaced with one that suggested she’d just done something akin to sprouting an extra head. Xavier’s eyes carefully moved over the air around them, both as if he was trying to detect a difference and trying to decide whether to trust it.

“Hello?” he said to the neighbour on his other side. “Excuse me?” He raised his voice a little, in case they just hadn’t heard the first time, but they continued on, oblivious. Right then.

He turned back to Hilda still looking more surprised than comforted. And that just left the actual telling part. He fiddled with his napkin, and apparently the silence was either enough for Hilda to start talking again, or she’d had more words and just been thinking how to get them out. Judging by her many revisions, she wasn’t entirely sure.

He wasn’t a bad thing. He would still be a person, whatever he told her.

He nodded, finding it was really hard to look at her after she had said that because he was too busy reaching for some water to try and push the lump in his throat back down. He fiddled with his glass. Her reassurances helped, but he still really wasn’t sure what he actually wanted to say. Professor Skies had picked him up knowing what was going on, leaving him to just rant and rail about it. He hadn’t actually had to explain it to anyone else.

“I’m not good enough at magic,” he said quietly, addressing his own fingers which were twisting his napkin again. “I’m so bad at it that they took me away from my family.” He wiped at his eyes a couple of times before giving that up as futile. He took a look at Hilda, trying to read whether she was about to go back on her promise of not being horrified, or whether there was any sort of recognition in her face of what he was talking about.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Fine. 1529 0 5

Sapphire Brockert

September 13, 2021 2:56 PM

You don't sound all that thrilled by Sapphire Brockert

"You're welcome" Sapphire replied. Honestly,even though Esme was her cousin, she was happy for Sadie. That was, after all, part of being friends, you were happy for each other when good things happened, when you succeeded. Or at least she assumed that's what happened. Not only did she not have much for friends, Sapphire also didn't have much for success.

Still, books and wireless dramas had given her this impression that this was part of being friends and Sadie was her friend or at least she hoped that was the case. Sapphire was someone who genuinely needed to be reassured that she was liked. Between the fact that she was yet another girl when her parents had wanted a boy and the fact that she was basically invisible to her classmates, she had a really hard time believing that anyone really wanted her around. Add to that, Topaz's bullying and abuse and the sixth year's self-esteem was sorely lacking.

"I think you'll do great." Sapphire added, wanting to both encourage and reassure the younger Crotalus since Sadie honestly seemed like she needed it, and oh how Sapphire knew what that was like! She had gotten very little of either in her life.

She did feel slightly bad though, like maybe she was being slightly disloyal to Esme. Loyalty to one's family was important, so long as that person wasn't horrible. The Crotalus felt no need to be loyal to Topaz or Uncle Eustace but the fourth year was someone whom she'd always been fairly close to and who had done things such as helping her out with schoolwork when they'd been in the same class and studying for CATS.

Which brought her to another problem. Who was going to help her this year, now that she was in Advanced lessons? Allegra had graduated and none of her other siblings or cousins were in Advanced classes. She was now the oldest person in her group of first cousins at Sonora. Sapphire didn't even have a second cousin (once removed) the right age to help her given that Liesl was only a first year and Owen and Angelique had long graduated! Maybe Jessica would be willing to help her out again, but she worried that might be asking too much out of the seventh year, whom while Sapphire was sure was capable of helping her was under no obligation to do so.

Still, her loyalty to her cousin aside, the sixth year thought Sadie's appointment to the position of prefect was a positive thing for quiet reserved types, a category that Sapphire herself fell into. Traditionally, people didn't seem to think they were worthy of such positions. Which arguably, she could see why they wouldn't get Head Student given how that was sort of a popularity contest and extroverted types often seemed more popular and they had their friends to vote for them, though that wasn't always the case as with Angelique. Still, it was sort of offensive that even most of the staff-except Grandfather, of course- thought of quieter people as less than.

Honestly, it sort of made Sapphire wonder what they had against her cousin....and herself. Because arguably, Sapphire and Sadie were similar types, both could be described as quiet, shy, reserved etc, while one could also say that Esme and Jezebel were similar in some ways, including also both being reserved, but also being organized responsible types.Yet Jezebel had beat her while Sadie had beat her cousin. One could make an argument that Esme, to those who weren't closely related to her wasn't all that approachable, which was fair enough....except that Sapphire didn't think Jezebel was all that much so either! Therefore, she couldn't help but take it personally and think there were other factors at play. Of course, Gabriel Wilson getting the position kind of negated some of those theories. So, therefore, it was either they were so anti-nepotism that they didn't want the Headmaster's grandchildren to get the position-or at least wanted to look that way-or they just disliked her and Esme for some reason. Seeing as how Allegra and Emerald had both been prefect, and not really by default, Sapphire was leaning towards the latter.

How was that for logical reasoning by one so intellectually inferior? She could only hope that Esme wasn't too upset by it.

Still, Sadie was her friend-or least, she hoped that the younger Crotalus considered her as such-and Sapphire was still happy for her, just sad for her cousin....and yes, a tad bitter about her own failure. Feeling like not only did your classmates not like you but that the staff didn't either was not a pleasant feeling and maybe she would have been better off flunking out than being in a place where she wasn't really wanted.

Of course, then Sapphire's family might have been ashamed of her and Topaz might have actually killed her.

On that note, she replied to Sadie's question "It was....all right. I got my CATS scores and they weren't too bad. Better than I expected." She had expected all Ts except possibly Transfig. Truth be told, she sort of wanted to let people know her scores, just to show them that she had managed to do well. Yeah, she was never going to do as well as Topaz academically, but hey, that was a fair trade off for actually having a soul. Still, spouting off her scores might come across somehow as bragging and Sapphire didn't want to do that either so instead she asked."How was yours?"

11 Sapphire Brockert You don't sound all that thrilled 1459 0 5

Alexei Vorontsov

September 17, 2021 8:33 PM

Is that Sarcasm, too? by Alexei Vorontsov

It was not, exactly, that Alexei didn't notice when people around him were using doublespeak or adding unusual inflections to their words or stuff like that. His English had always been quite good, if he did say so himself, and over the past year, it had improved significantly purely through overwhelming use. He caught on, then, that the girl with the difficult name and odd coloring was adding Something to her words beyond their literal meanings.

The problem wasn't, therefore, that she had added Something. It was that it sounded like it was a...not so good Something. That was the part where it all started to get a little tricky for him. Alexei could recognize what was going on, but it was a little more hit and miss whether he could figure out what the best thing to do about it was, in terms of how comfortable he felt responding to what he observed. Negative connotations were one of those areas where he was unsure of things, and so was any conversation with someone he didn't know - well, all right, at least didn't spend a lot of time around. Confronted by both together, he automatically assumed the blandest smile imaginable.

"I think maybe it is to be more like family," he observed. "With family, when we sing, I think it is not about sounding good, is it? More about sounding some way together." He helped himself to more food with a thoughtful look in his grey eyes. "Though then maybe it would be better to have four songs, one for each House," he added. "Or perhaps this would sound bad, do you think?"

16 Alexei Vorontsov Is that Sarcasm, too? 1531 0 5

Amethyst Brockert

September 22, 2021 5:08 PM

Nice things can be necessary by Amethyst Brockert

Amethyst nodded. "My sisters had a good time when they went." It wasn't so much that the Crotalus was an adventurous type, she tended to think adventurous types were the types that liked doing dangerous, risky, and uncomfortable things. However, there was a huge difference between those things and say, shopping in Paris and staying at the best hotels. And while that was not Tumbleweed, it was still getting off campus for the day and a nice break from the monotony of studying. Schoolwork came fairly easily to Amethyst, but she didn't find it all that interesting.

She held her breath while she waited for Iris to respond to her offer. It wasn't a reaction that the second year usually had, because she was generally pretty confident and not usually nervous about anything that didn't involve Topaz. It was just that, well, she genuinely did not want Iris to be mad at her, both for pragmatic reasons-they had to live together-and because the other Crotalus was a good friend to her, probably arguably the person closest to her-Amethyst was, admittedly, mostly close to Isla and Liesl out of a sense of family loyalty-and she didn't want to spoil that. Of course, to her own way of thinking she was doing something kind and didn't exactly understand why some people would object to that.

It was just that, she really wanted to help Iris. The second year had heard tales of the last ball and the things that people had worn. Some of which were not acceptable ball attire. Although, in Amethyst's opinion, only one person had wore something that was completely wrong, showing up in a leotard , the rest had dressed in fancy enough clothing-although Topaz had mentioned her roommate dressing as a...woman of ill repute- but not...really what she would have thought was okay. Especially since it was genuinely baffling to her that a girl would not have wanted to wear a big fancy gown.

Plus, one had to dress appropriately for an occasion. Amethyst liked wearing fancy ball gowns, but she wouldn't wear one to class or anything. And it was important that Iris not...look out of place at the ball either just because she couldn't afford a dress.

She nodded when her friend said she couldn't accept Amethyst's offer to pay for at least part of a gown. She didn't quite understand why Iris felt she would need to repay her when she was really wanting to do this out of the goodness of her heart but all right.

Fortunately, Iris responded more positively to the idea of borrowing a dress. Amethyst would have been good with her keeping one of their old gowns but this might be better as she really didn't have the right to give away things that technically didn't belong to her even though she was certain some of them wouldn't really object. "Of course you can! It wouldn't be a bother at all. I mean, you do need to wear something fancy of course, you can't show up in just any old thing." Amethyst was incredibly adamant about this,partially because she didn't want Iris to be embarrassed if she was dressed inadequately and partially because she very firmly believed in wearing clothing that was appropriate. It was bad enough she had to worry about whatever weird thing Liesl would end up in.

11 Amethyst Brockert Nice things can be necessary 1532 0 5

Iris Cobb

September 22, 2021 9:11 PM

They can? by Iris Cobb

Iris tried her best not to show her worry about the potential visit to a literal town filled with ghosts. If Amethyst's sisters had a good time there, and the teachers let them go, it had to be alright. It was fine, there wasn't anything to worry about. Just an entire town... filled with ghosts. She fought to suppress a shudder at the thought. "I'm sure we will have just as good of a time as they did." Iris tried to say convincingly. Mostly to convince herself, but if Amethyst was convinced as well, that wouldn't be bad.

As for the dress situation. It looked as though Iris was going to end up owing Amethyst one way or another, but she couldn't see another option at this point. A fancy dress was a requirement for going to a ball, and she didn't have any, nor did she have the ability to get one on her own. Amethyst seemed excited about the idea, but she honestly wasn't helping that much. 'You can't show up in just any old thing.' echoed about Iris' head. Iris generally spent most of her time around the school in her school robes, even when they weren't required. She'd seen plenty what the other girls wore when they didn't need to wear the robes, and knew her own clothes were not great. She hadn't given it much thought until she came here... no body back home cared, so long as you were wearing something, and she'd always tried to make her things look as nice as possible. Around here though... they were barely one step above rags. As her roommate, Amethyst knew her 'any old things' more than anyone else.

Iris sighed silently and tried to hide her thoughts. She smiled at her roommate, Amethyst was trying to be nice and helpful. Then another thought struck her. "We'll need to dance at the ball, won't we? Do you know how to do ball-type dancing?" It was probably a silly question, but while Iris knew some dancing things from back home, she seriously doubted those would be featured at a fancy, sophisticated ball.

2 Iris Cobb They can? 1526 0 5

Leonor De Matteo

September 28, 2021 3:57 AM

I don't need a crown, a ring, AND a badge. by Leonor De Matteo

Leonor De Matteo. It was a name she'd never really been too sure of because she hadn't originally been the one meant to inherit everything that went with it, but now it was worse than that; she was the one set to inherit everything that went with the De Matteo name, except the name itself. She supposed she could do what so many people in Mexico did and be Leonor De Matteo Mordue but she was pretty sure Jeremy wouldn't return the favor and it really was quite a mouthful. She could also keep her name, but that seemed like a good way to cause problems for herself. So it would be Leonor Mordue. Cuidad de Matteo may just become Cuidad de Mordue. The thought made her ill, even though it was a whole lot better to get bridled (or brided) with Jeremy than anyone else she'd met. There was the issue of him being a straight up racist, but she'd pretty much resigned herself to that and she knew if she was honest with herself that it was partly because she wasn't too far off anyway.

The wedding date wasn't picked because the engagement itself wasn't yet set in stone. Jeremy had a choice. Or at least the Mordues had a choice. It was odd to think that Jeremy's uncle had more say in whether Jeremy and Leonor would get married than Leonor herself did, as her father had spent most of the summer after Jeremy's visit making sure she knew everything she needed to know to be a good bride, to run things properly from in Oregon, and every other little detail she'd need ready. She wasn't even going to be old enough to get married for another short while, although her own mother had been married at fifteen so she supposed it was possible . . . still, it seemed like the future had arrived abruptly and rudely on her doorstep and she wasn't even sure what house the door led into.

As such, her mind was entirely elsewhere as she returned to Sonora. It all felt both surreal and unimportant and she found herself wanting to throw herself into it all just for the sake of having something normal while also wanting nothing more than to go back to Mexico and hide in a corner of Los Jardines de Plata until she wanted to come out and no one made her. She was mostly staring off at nothing when Mab spoke to her, breaking her trance and making her realize she'd missed everything the headmaster had said. She blinked to clear her eyes and her mind and to give her the chance to focus on what Mab was referring to.

"Oh," she said, catching up. "No, not at all. Sorry you got it," she said, frowning with sympathy.
She was pretty sure she knew enough about her roommate to know that the walk up to the front of the Hall had been the worst thing ever for her, second only to actually being a head student, and her fellow Pecari certainly didn't give off any vibes in the moment to make her think otherwise. "But you'll probably be good at it," she added. "Anything else important in the speech? I wasn't paying attention."

22 Leonor De Matteo I don't need a crown, a ring, AND a badge. 1471 0 5

Hilda Hexenmeister

October 09, 2021 8:48 PM

More surprise. I come back to this thread. by Hilda Hexenmeister

Hilda waited patiently for Xavier to test out the effectiveness of her spell. She could understand the caution and did not hold it against him. If she was going to share the secret about why she'd been separated from her family in a crowded room, she'd dang well make sure the privacy charms worked, too.

Then he did tell her, and she was more confused than anything else. She'd never heard of anyone being taken away from their family for being bad at magic. That seemed . . . unfair? Unless it was a language problem, but she had understood all of the words he used, so she was pretty sure she hadn't just interpreted the cause wrong. It could still be an idiom, but she couldn't imagine what else 'so bad at magic' might mean other than 'so bad at magic'.

"The good news is you are not abused and your parents are not in prison and still want you," she told him slowly, covering the main bases for why kids got removed from their homes, or at least the two reasons why the Stones or the Hexenmeisters had been. "So it gives hope, yes? Have aurors reason why think this apart helps?" It was aurors who took her and her brothers away from their home so she naturally assumed it was their job to be the ones to relocate removed children for any reason. And she couldn't imagine them doing it unless there was actually a good reason even if this one sounded very dubious.

If one's parents were going to prison, they obviously couldn't take care of their kids any more. If one's parents were hurting their kids and leaving physical bruises, they obviously shouldn't take care of their kids any more. If one's mom wanted nothing to do with one that totally sucked and she didn't deserve to take care of her kids. But if the kid was doing poorly at his boarding school . . . that hardly seemed like the parents' fault unless there were very unusual circumstances involved. Not that she couldn't think of any, but those theories were pretty wild.

Of course, her parents were assassins, so 'pretty wild' didn't mean it couldn't be true.

Still, it wasn't something she wanted to guess at or assume without far more compelling indicators.

1 Hilda Hexenmeister More surprise. I come back to this thread. 1433 0 5