Mortimer Brockert
April 03, 2022 11:53 AM
Returning Feast by Mortimer Brockert
Ah the holidays. Same crap, different years. As usual the midterm break had been full of forced socialization, saccharine atmosphere, and putting up with Eustace’s consistently abominable behavior-honestly, he had the child that he had and was unlikely to get another one, so Mortimer wished he would let it go. Anyway, the Headmaster wasn’t necessarily against familiarity, but when it was something that he did not like, well that made it very irritating. Not that he wasn’t constantly irritated in general, but the holiday season somehow managed to be irritating in a very boring way.The only even remotely interesting thing that happened was Topaz putting her own take on the Twelve Days of Christmas-the most irritating holiday song in existence-by taxiderming seven swans a swimming, six geese a-laying, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree. Obviously she couldn’t taxidermy people, but Mortimer had been forced into attending many society balls and seen plenty of ladies dancing and golden rings.
As usual, he was glad to be back at Sonora, even though most teenagers were totally and completely obnoxious. At least he really didn’t have to interact with them that much. Besides, he firmly believed that education was one of the most important things in life, and so, was passionate-as much as one could ever consider him to be-about making sure that happened. Even if it did mean having to deal with irritating people. Which, come to think of it, was a redundant phrase if Mortimer had ever heard one.
Anyway, once everyone had assembled in the Cascade Hall, he stood up and cast Sonorus on himself. “Welcome back. I hope you have all had a nice break.” Why did he always say that? He really didn’t care. If they had one, great. If not, it wasn’t his problem. The emotional well being of those attending the school, was something that Mortimer was ill-equipped to deal with and not especially invested in, so long as it didn’t affect the safety of the students or cause problems for him in the form of complaints or lawsuits.
He continued. “Before we eat, I have one quick announcement. As you know, the school fair is this year and we have decided to have a carnival.”Which, in the end, was the easiest thing possible.”Also, the school alumni have been invited back to showcase what they have done post-Sonora.” Which could be interesting for some, more so for the potential reunions it would bring than anything career-related that came up.
Subthreads:Aladren
First of many lasts by Ellie Alperton with Rosalynn Tellerman
Back again already? by Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher
Teppenpaw
Year One Round Two by Lenny Pierce with Leviosa Scurlock
Hooray! (Hans) by Liesl Brockert with Hansel Hexenmeister
Pecari
Let's make one thing clear. [Billy] by Reighleigh Mae Thorn with Billy Cobb
Peopling by Oz Spellman with Fortune Ardovini
Peas please by Theo Spurn
Crotalus
Staff
11
Mortimer Brockert
Returning Feast
6
1
5
Liesl Brockert
April 30, 2022 8:03 PM
Hooray! (Hans) by Liesl Brockert
As much as Liesl preferred Halloween to Yule-Halloween being a lifestyle for her, not just a holiday anyway-she had to grudgingly admit that she rather enjoyed the Yuletide holidays because she got to go home and see her family. Not that Sonora wasn’t rampant with her family members but not currently the right ones. Basically, Liesl had been excited about seeing Grandpa Icky and Grandma Imogen and extremely excited to be able to see Krisalyn and, of course, most of all, Uncle Cory. And of course, she got presents and presents were nice. Even if Mother didn’t exactly want to get her most of the things that she wanted. However, Uncle Cory or Grandma and Grandpa usually did.Still, while Liesl would miss her uncle and her sister, she was not unhappy about being back at school. She was excited to see her friends again. Especially Hans. She considered the older Teppenpaw to be her best friend and he was probably one of her favorite people in the world. He was definitely her favorite person at Sonora, possibly even more so than Isla, who was her favorite relative at school, given that obviously neither Uncle Cory nor Krisalyn were here. Liesl and Isla definitely had a Weird Girl bond even though they weren’t weird in the exact same way.
However, Hans was the only other person that the second year knew who liked snakes. Well, him and his dad who had the snake ranch but Liesl didn’t really know Mr. Hexenmeister. She had yet to meet him though he was in talks with her parents about visiting the snake ranch over the summer. Mother, unsurprisingly, was not thrilled with the idea. Not even because it was a snake ranch but because Hans was a boy and she thought it was inappropriate for Liesl to go visit a boy and spend the night at his home. However, Father was a bit more on the reasonable side and maybe the second year could at least go for a day. Or even go for a day, come home to sleep if Mother was so worried about propriety and appearances, and then go back the next day, despite the fact that would all be so much extra trouble and extremely convoluted. Still, it would mean that Liesl would get to hang out with Hans on his (dad’s) snake ranch.
What was interesting to the second year was that Hans’ dad was actually biologically his uncle. However, emotionally he was her friend’s dad, and therefore, his real dad. The thing was, Liesl had a closer bond with her uncle than she did her father (and much closer than with her mother). She knew it wasn’t the same thing, not really, since both her parents were still around and the older Tepp’s weren’t but…that did not stop her from feeling left out of her own family. Mother clearly favored Krisalyn with all her makings of being the perfect pureblood girl that Liesl didn’t have and Father, for all he could be somewhat reasonable, favored Desmond both because of their shared intellectualism and also, probably because he was a boy. The second year was the one who didn’t fit, didn’t belong, was the odd one out.
Which was really lonely and hurtful. She wasn’t going to stop-couldn’t stop-being who she was, and loving snakes and bats and eyeballs and skulls and all the other things that most people considered creepy and gross.And while Hans was literally the only person she knew who liked any of those things-though Isla had puppets that fit into those categories and Gwendolyn thought some of Liesl’s skulls were sort of cool-she still had a bond with her uncle who saw how she was an outsider of sorts with her parents and siblings and took her under his wing because that was just the sort of person Uncle Cory was. And she loved him and understandably, had a stronger bond with him than her parents. Though Liesl would feel weird calling him her dad when her biological father was around and-with the help of nannies and house-elves and tutors-raised her and her uncle had his own kids.
Uncle Mortimer began to speak, something that never took all that long. Usually, he just welcomed them back, which seemed to be a thing that he did to let them know that the Returning Feast was beginning. Her great uncle seemed to live by the saying “It’s better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than to speak and have it proven.” However, this time he announced the plan for this year’s Midsummer fair. Apparently, they were going to have a carnival but that wasn’t the best part. The best part was that alumni could come! And pretty much everyone who’d ever had the last name Brockert since Sonora had been around had attended school here. Which meant Uncle Cory could come! She turned to Hans. “Guess what! You’ll probably get to meet my uncle Cory at the fair!” Liesl was pretty certain he would come.
11
Liesl Brockert
Hooray! (Hans)
1537
0
5
Hansel Hexenmeister
May 02, 2022 7:27 PM
Hurra! by Hansel Hexenmeister
Hansel had returned to Sonora in a cheerful mood. He had enjoyed his break at home, catching up with all of the snakes back on the ranch, as well as his family members. Heinrich had split his time between Utah and Vermont, spending a fair amount of his break with Evelyn (which Hansel didn't think was quite fair since they went to the same school and got to see each other all the time while Hansel was only home for two weeks), but Hilda had been around the whole time, and of course his dad never left the ranch at all except to do errands, so he'd at least gotten to see a lot of them. They were the ones he was closest to, anyway, if he was being honest. Heinrich had been 'away at school' for the vast majority of Hansel's life, and as soon as he wasn't, Hansel was the one 'away at school'. Seven years was a rough age gap to overcome.So he'd gotten caught up on the goings on at the ranch - Dad was handling it just fine on his own, which was expected because that was how he'd lived before he'd taken in his brother's children - and learned about Hilda's school and some of her new friends and teammates as well as what she knew of how her Sonora friends were doing out in the Real WorldTM. She'd already been keeping him up to date with her Quidditch triumphs and defeats, but she went into some of those in more detail as well, with play-by-plays and hand gestures to demonstrate positioning. It was good to see her again and he realized how much he'd missed her.
By the end of the two weeks, though, he was starting to miss the people at Sonora, and that was what brought him hurrying into the Cascade Hall for the Returning Feast, eager to catch up with his classmates and Housemates once more.
He found himself sitting next to Liesl, which was great. She never got tired of hearing about the snakes, which was good, because he didn't really have a lot else to talk about most of the time.
The Headmaster's speech was quick and informative, and then the Feast was underway! Liesl brought up that new topic right away. "That's great!" Hansel enthused, eager to meet the uncle she talked about almost as often as he talked about Uncle Karl/Dad. "My dad can't come - he went to a European school, probably in Germany," Hansel realized abruptly he didn't actually know where his dad had learned magic, and wondered if it was mixed up with the other things that Karl did not like to talk about it. Hans mentally shrugged it away as not really relevant. "You'll get to meet him this summer though, so that'll be soon enough. My siblings might come though, they're alumni!"
1
Hansel Hexenmeister
Hurra!
1524
0
5