Mab
October 30, 2021 9:15 AM
[Prefect Meeting] Nope. by Mab
It was the last prefect meeting before midterm. She'd been a good little prefect for half a year, doing patrols, not hiding from the people she was supposed to be available for, and not turning the annoying ones into spiders (not that doing that kind of advanced transfiguration was quite within her skillset yet, but the desire had been there, and she could have probably come up with a viable alternative to reach an equally silent result).So she thought she'd been doing reasonably good and had performed her duties well enough to ask for a boon.
As the meeting reached its conclusion and all new and old business had been resolved, she raised her hand. Volunteering to speak was something she almost never did, in class or in previous meetings. That would hopefully underscore the importance of this for her.
When she was called upon, she asked, "Is the opening dance at the start of the ball absolutely required?" Before anyone assumed she was checking for permission rather than trying to understand how many weeks of detention she was going to get for it, she added, bluntly and without quarter, "Because I'm not doing it." She crossed her arms stubbornly, and looked ready to fight over the point.
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Mab
[Prefect Meeting] Nope.
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Hilda Hexenmeister
November 03, 2021 10:37 PM
It gives a problem by Hilda Hexenmeister
The worst thing about Prefect Meetings was the talking. As Head Student, she felt she was particularly obligated to be paying attention and understanding what was being discussed, and she was doing better this year in that respect than she had in her previous two years as prefect. She was trying not rely on Professor Schmidt as much any more, but she still brought him along because usually the topics brought up in Prefect meetings were things she needed to know and she would get clarification from him afterwards about anything that had confused her.They had been moments away from being released and Hilda had already begun putting together her questions to ask the portrait this time when the youngest of the Pecari prefects brought up a new question.
She understood the tone and body language of stubborn refusal more easily than all of the words, but she'd followed those well enough to understand what was being refused. This was about the prefect dance at the ball. A topic Hilda herself had some reservations about.
She nodded in support of the younger girl. "It can be friends dance fast, yes?" she added, expanding the discussion to more than just a yes or no question regarding requirements. "We have many girls, less boys," she added, gesturing around the group of assembled prefects that was more or less representative of the ratio in the upper years in general. "Better with not a love song. We can dance with friends, not pairs."
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Hilda Hexenmeister
It gives a problem
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Selina Skies
November 04, 2021 7:13 PM
It certainly seems that way by Selina Skies
OOC: The events mentioned were not explicitly posted so let me know if this seems too retconny. I feel like Selina's remarks could have been ambiguous and I am hedging about what exactly she said to give more wiggle room, plus there is the good old gossip mill to reinforce so there's enough room for everyone to be right here. Every ball year since SA22, it has been mentioned in some form or other that she does not insist, and checks things beforehand, so I felt these were reasonable claims. Let me know if not. BIC:
Ever since the Great Scenery Abduction Incident of SA22, Selina had promoted the idea that the opening dance was not mandatory. She tried to recall the exact wording she had used when retierating that particular duty during the first meeting of the year. 'Prefects are invited to do the opening dance?' It was usually something along those lines. And the speech always wrapped up with 'if you have any concerns, feel free to ask me now or speak to me privately.' Did they think she was being euphemistic with the word 'invited?' Did they think the invitation to speak to her about their concerns applied only to every other duty she had listed? She did lean towards making it feel like an opt out process rather than an opt in one, but there was still opting.
She was therefore more than a little surrprised and annoyed when she started getting attitude about it.
"No," she replied, as calmly and flatly to Mab as she could. Fighting back seemed like it would only escalate things, and really, they were on the same side, apart from Mab's attitude. She would call her out on it as needed, but to start with, Mab could make herself look ridiculous by footstamping and pouting like a toddler - Selina didn't need to do that for her. "For the last fourteen years, it has not been mandatory because I am of the opion that it an unreasonable requirement," she said, her voice still a pointed contrast to Mab's.
Hilda's chiming in was... more confusing, as it often was. Selina was not sure whether the word had been 'fast' or 'first.' It had sounded more like the former, but the latter made some sense. Except then Hilda seemed to be talking about the type of song.
"People have danced with same sex partners before," she stated. That had happened within all of their memories of being at school, so she wasn't sure why they thought the school might object. "And people often dance with friends too, yes." Again, no one here was issueing a binding contract that they married their ball dates. "Usually the song is wordless. It's a classical piece, suitable for paired dancing. If you don't know how to dance, there are resources in MARS for you to learn the basics. It is a paired dance," she reiterated, as Hilda seemed to be suggesting scrapping that part and... and what, she wasn't sure. "I'm having trouble picturing your other suggestion. You wanted to do an opening dance where everyone watches you and you just sort of... casually dance, like you would in your bedroom?" She couldn't imagine how that would be at all less awkward, especially as other people would lean towards classical paired dancing.
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Selina Skies
It certainly seems that way
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Hilda Hexenmeister
November 04, 2021 10:19 PM
Yes, it is so. by Hilda Hexenmeister
OOC: Yeah, I imagine both Mab and Hilda are probably responding more to gossip mill and preconceived notions than anything explicitly stated. I think Amelia Pierce predated the Great Scenery Abduction Incident (Nathan started in SA20 and they did not co-exist) and she's the one Mab would have gone to for clarifications. Also, Mab is mine as well, so I am not god-modding. BIC:
Hilda watched as the youngest Pecari prefect just looked relieved and subsided without further comment as Professor Skies addressed her concern. That was not what Hilda was concerned about, however. She did not mind dancing in the opening dance, and frankly, she didn't mind dancing with another girl, either. The issue was that she had two friends she wanted to dance with and the current format did not allow that.
She wasn't sure if the problem was that her own question had not been understood or that the idea was being shot down.
Hilda shook her head, frowning slightly as she tried to formulate the words to express what she was suggesting to the group. "Not like bedroom, no," she began, using some of the professor's own words to jumpstart the response. What was that thing she'd seen the ghosts doing in Tumbleweed? That had been kind of like what she was looking to explain, though she had been originally thinking of something a bit less organized and still divided into pairs or trios, though she couldn't recall anything like that being particularly formalized, and probably would come down to just casual bouncing to the beat. "A corner turkey dance?" she tried uncertainly. "Or other dance where no partners need? Or partners switch? Make less pair, more group? Song is quick and fun?"
The thing in Tumbleweed had at least looking entertaining to both watch and be a part of, but wasn't romantic like a waltz or completely casual like vaguely moving to the music with your friends. She couldn't recall exactly what the song had been for the prefects last time, but she didn't remember it being particularly upbeat or remotely interesting to pay any attention to.
OOC: Hilda is mixing up 'contra dance' and 'turkey in the straw' which is where 'corner turkey dance' is coming from.
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Hilda Hexenmeister
Yes, it is so.
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Selina Skies
November 05, 2021 4:19 AM
But also some solutions by Selina Skies
"Like a folk dance?" Selina asked. She suspected a corner turkey dance was an overly literal translation of something in German. She waved her wand, conjuring ghost-like figures the size of dolls who wove their way through a group dance, joining together in fours, lines, and pairs at different points throughout the dance."That's not a bad idea," she acknowledged. "I like it," she clarified, wanting to make sure the meaning was not lost. 'Not a bad idea' was usually indicative of agreement, though she saw how it could sound like the opposite.
"It would need everyone here to agree. You would need to choose a dance and work on it together." A lot of people thought they could 'just wing it' when it came to waltzing, after all, most people had seen some form of paired dancing in their lives, and it just looked like holding each other and going in a circle. She had seen several people undone by that assumption over the years. That issue would multiply exponentially with the number of people on the dance floor. "Serious practise," she emphasised. "I expect most of these dances need an even number of people. Has anyone got a partner yet who is not a prefect? And if a group dance is chosen, does that change your mind?" she asked Mab, her tone was still calm, and she hoped that was a cue that Mab had a chance here to reply in kind and somewhat make up for how she'd spoken earlier.
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Selina Skies
But also some solutions
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Jezebel Reed-Fischer
November 08, 2021 1:34 PM
I hate to disagree but.... by Jezebel Reed-Fischer
Jezebel raised her hand quietly. This wasn't the sort of thing she normally would weigh in on, especially since she was still pretty sure that Martin was basically a friend-date anyway and therefore it didn't ruin anything for the other girls, but it was becoming clear to her that that wasn't exactly the problem in this case."My date isn't a prefect," she said softly. That had been the question, after all. Not whether she liked him that way, or whether she wanted to dance with him 'bedroom' style, or anything else. Just whether her date wasn't a prefect. And he wasn't. He wasn't a prefect and he wasn't a girl and he wasn't anyone Jezebel was in love with, although she was pretty sure being in love was just friendship plus bedroom and so she was halfway there she supposed. In any case, the idea of a choreographed group dance sounded way worse than just dancing on her own with someone. The last thing she wanted was to put on a show; she did enough of that in her personal life. "I don't want to do a group dance."
She aimed an apologetic grimace at Hilda, too scared to offer one to Mab as well. "I like tradition," she added to Professor Skies, figuring that was a Crotalus enough response to get out of having to clear up the fact that she liked tradition for its use in coping and lying.
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Jezebel Reed-Fischer
I hate to disagree but....
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Mab
November 12, 2021 9:18 AM
I just abstain. by Mab
As Hilda and Professor Skies talked, Mab tried to blend back into the background. She had said her piece, gotten relatively easy permission to not participant in the prefect dance (which went entirely counter to what Amelia had told her had been the expectation back when she'd been Deputy Head here), and now she just wanted to return to her normal habit of not doing anything to make anybody notice her (which was the main point of not wanting to be in the prefect dance in the first place).Unfortunately, she'd drawn too much attention today and Professor Skies wasn't letting her off the hook that easily and addressed a question directly at her. Mab had no more desire to go spinning around in a high-energy dance in front of the whole school than she wanted to slow dance with someone just as publicly. It was perhaps 'better' in the same way breaking her nose was better than breaking her leg, but it still wasn't anything she wanted to experience. To Professor Skies' question, she just shook her head. "I don't dance," she flatly declined the opportunity to change her mind.
Jezebel thankfully raised her hand and drew attention away from Mab. It looked like the waltz was back on anyway, since Professor Skies had said everyone needed to agree to the folk dance and Jezebel's was a voice of dissent. That was fine. Had there been an odd number of folk dancers, she just might have allowed herself to be pressured into the broken nose, depending on how enthusiastic Alexander was about it. Waltzing just sounded like slow torture that she wanted no part of, but a choreographed dance would make people watch the group not individuals, and might possibly even be a little bit interesting. She'd tried out for Quidditch this year, and a team dance wasn't too much worse than a team sport. She let out a small breath of relief that this wasn't going to be a hard call she was going to have to make, especially after being so adamant about not being a dancer.
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Mab
I just abstain.
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Anya Delachene
November 12, 2021 9:32 AM
Oh, oh! Compromise! by Anya Delachene
Anya loved Hilda's idea. She didn't have a major problem with the prefect dance as it stood, largely because she did have a boyfriend, but Hilda's idea sound so much more fun.Unfortunately, Jezebel said she didn't want to do the group dance, and Professor Skies had said they needed a unanimous agreement to change things up, and Anya snapped her fingers loudly in disappointment, and let out an unintentional, "Blast, that sounded fun," entirely not under her breath like she'd meant it to be.
As some people turned to look in her direction, brilliance struck and she addressed the professor, "Would it be okay, even if we don't do it as the prefect dance, for some of us to put together a choreographed dance to put on as a show later in the night? It doesn't even have to all be prefects, just whoever wants to do it. I can organize it if you want." She glanced over at Hilda, "Or, it was your idea first . . . ?" she offered, but the older Pecari just shook her head quickly and waved it back into Anya's lap. "I can organize it," Anya reiterated. "Put up a sign-up sheet, do some practices, then we can do our performance at the ball? Would that be okay?"
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Anya Delachene
Oh, oh! Compromise!
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Selina Skies
November 14, 2021 5:49 PM
Or democracy by Selina Skies
Anya, as was so often the case, was present and vaguely on topic, but somewhat wide of the mark. Selina strongly suspected that a group of teenagers who had not wanted to do one dance would not be keen to do a second, and also that anything "organised" by Anya was going to be... interesting."It seems there are mixed feelings on the subject," she summarised, holding up a hand to stem the flow of chatter. Jezebel was not the only one who had indicated having a non-prefect date, though that didn't mean the others were against a group dance.
"After Midterm, I'll put a voting box in here. You can all decide if you prefer a paired dance or a group one. For those with non-prefect dates, they would be allowed to be part of the group dance, but there would be a cut off of the first rehearsal for adding new people." It seemed unfair to expect people to uninvite their dates but if they were working as a group, they would need to know who was involved. "If there are an odd number of people, you can work out whether someone wants to sit out or whether someone else has a friend they are willing to ask. You would be expected to organise rehearsals yourselves, and have something presentable ready the week before the ball.
"Does that sound fair to everyone?"she checked.
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Selina Skies
Or democracy
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