Selina Skies
May 01, 2022 8:32 PM
Field Trip by Selina Skies
There were only so many trips to Tumbleweed they could take before the novelty wore off, and Selina was pretty sure they had approached if not passed that limit. It was good for the sake of getting out of the school and seeing somewhere different. Occasionally it was also good for events, be they educational (when the ghosts put on a specific historical recreation), sporting (when the town hosted a Quidditch fair), or social (when it had a pop up market, especially in the run up to the ball). However, there was nothing that quite fit the bill coming up, and so they were branching out with a different school trip.The trip had been announced a week or so into term. They would be going to a magical zoo, with entrance fees covered by the school. As it was a little further away, they would be travelling by portkey, and on the day of the trup, they made sure to give out some very effective anti-sickness medication to every student, just to be on the safe side.
Once they had all touched down, and everyone had had a chance to get their breath and their legs back and sip some water, Selina went over the rules, which had already been discussed at school.
“Alright, here are your maps. As you can see, the zoo is divided into sections. Much like we do in Tumbleweed, each staff member will be responsible for a section. You will be with a group that will go between different areas of the zoo. Once you are in a section, you will be allowed to split off so long as you stay in pairs, and stay within the section. Your staff member will let you know what time to meet them back at the gate of that area in order to move onto your next stop.
“There is a packet of worksheets here, with an activity for each section.” She had tried to make it both fun and educational, but was well aware that as an adult, she did not get to be the authority to label it such—at least, not the first one of those anyway. The activities ranged from completing a sketch of an animal in its environment, to fact-based scavenger hunts. She passed the packets around.
“Alright. Choose your group or partner, then choose a staff member to go with—please divide yourselves out roughly evenly. You will all get to see everything eventually, so it doesn’t really matter who you go with first. ”
OOC: Hello, and welcome to our school trip! As noted, although we're using the Tumbleweed board, we are not in Tumbleweed. 'Sections' would be big categories like birds, invertebrates, big mammals etc. Feel free to make up details about that and the content of the work packets.
You can claim a staff member for your group so long as it doesn't contradict anyone else, or leave it vague. If you need them, tag them, or ask in chatzy.
Have fun!
Subthreads: [Reptiles with Mr. Row] One of our first real adventures! [Billy] by Reighleigh Mae Thorn with Billy Cobb
[Primates with Prof Skies] Intellectual Pursuits [tag Mara] by Bertie Jackson with Mara Morales
Penguins? by Leviosa Scurlock with Piper Wilson
I've got a mission by Fortune Ardovini with Gwendolyn Brockert
The Abandoned by Oz Club (tag Henry) by Xavier Lundstrom with Henry Spellman
Snakes!!!!(Hans) by Liesl Brockert with Hansel Hexenmeister
Not having a field day by Yaniel Ayala Velez with Iris Cobb
So much for a break by Sapphire Brockert with Morgan Garrett
I totally know the word 'invertebrate' in English. by Alexei Vorontsov with Amethyst Brockert
All by myself? by Isla Brockert with Augustine Reed-Fischer
Here's hoping nothing here senses stress.... by Graham Osbrook with Lavender Brockert
New game idea, Angry *Magic* Birds. by Eben Sosna with Christopher Brockert
First up: Ellie! by Freddie Zauberhexen with Ellie Alperton
Anyone need a partner? by Lydia Priory with Verdillia Scurlock
Hey, Jasper, want to hang out? by Philippe Delachene with Jasper Brockert
Kangaroos and Frogs and the Future, oh my! by Gabriel Wilson with Theo Spurn
13
Selina Skies
Field Trip
26
1
5
Reighleigh Mae Thorn
May 03, 2022 3:33 PM
[Reptiles with Mr. Row] One of our first real adventures! [Billy] by Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Ray took Billy's hand as groups split up, absolutely determined not to be in a separate group from him. They may be boyfriend and girlfriend now but it all started as friends and that was what Ray wanted more than anything. That and to see the snakes. Once their attachment had ensured they were in the same group, following Mr. Row towards the reptiles, she let go of his hand. She still wasn't totally sure how she felt about some of the actual boyfriend/girlfriend stuff and other than a few attempts at some casual physical contact like that, nothing too much had really happened. She sometimes tried to imagine herself kissing Billy but she didn't know if she knew enough about kissing in general to really be able to comment on whether or not she'd enjoy kissing him in particular. He was nice to look at though, especially when he took the time to clean himself up a bit, and that was a good start.Mr. Row looked excited about the lizards and things as they approached the various indoor and outdoor exhibits that reptiles occupied but he suddenly looked a whole lot less sure of himself when it came to the snakes, and he lingered away from them a bit. That made some sense, Ray figured, since snakes weren't native to Ireland anyway. Taking advantage of the fact that her animal of choice in this area was not only available to ogle but also provided some distance from authority, Ray led herself and Billy over to the various animals that qualified as snakes. Both the magical and mundane versions appealed to her and she got right up close to the glass barriers to take a look.
"This is nice," she said, enjoying the sun on her shoulders and feeling like perhaps she was a snake herself. Except not in the sneaky betrayal way. "Our first world adventure," she pointed out to Billy with a genuine grin. Then another thought crossed her mind. "Does that make it a date now too?"
OOC: I also write Mr. Row so there's no god-modding taking place.
22
Reighleigh Mae Thorn
[Reptiles with Mr. Row] One of our first real adventures! [Billy]
1525
0
5
Bertie Jackson
May 04, 2022 5:47 AM
[Primates with Prof Skies] Intellectual Pursuits [tag Mara] by Bertie Jackson
On the surface of it, a trip to the zoo sounded slightly childish, and Bertie had no doubt that a lot of his classmates would take it as such, behave appallingly, and fail to get any educational benefit from the exercise whatsoever. But zoological gardens were actually, when done correctly, vital contributors to the natural sciences. On those grounds, he was very much looking forward to the day, so long as he didn’t get stuck with any Pecari hoodlums in his group.It was also a perfect opportunity to engage in an equitable intellectual pursuit with Mara, even though they were in different classes now. He’d also heard a lot of the school couples chattering about the chance for a ‘real date.’ He suspected that the leaving of the school grounds was the independent variable which gave that conclusion. He wasn’t sure it was that relevant—he was fairly sure the ball had, after all, been ‘real’ enough for most people, but… well, people were fickle and constantly moved the goal posts when they were defining things, and that was just one of many irritating things about them. Still, he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity for a much more academic date with Mara—that sounded more appealing and more them than the ball had been.
He’d been sure to ask her about spending time together before they left, partly because things were always a scramble upon arrival, and partly because he thought he might want a moment to get his breath back and not look totally nauseous after travelling by Portkey.
Once his stomach and the hubbub had settled, he found her, and nodded to the least Pecari filled group, headed by Professor Skies.
“Shall we?” he asked. “Hopefully the work about primates is interesting. There’s a lot of interesting studies to be done on them.”
OOC: I also write Professor Skies, so no god modding here
13
Bertie Jackson
[Primates with Prof Skies] Intellectual Pursuits [tag Mara]
1497
0
5
Leviosa Scurlock
May 04, 2022 5:58 AM
Penguins? by Leviosa Scurlock
Levi could barely contain her excitement. They were going on a trip! School was exciting almost every day, given that they learnt magic, but a field trip was extra special. And they’d be going to the zoo—and who didn’t love the zoo? Even her stick-up sister had to admit that they were fun, so long as they weren’t too smelly.The Portkey trip wasn’t an issue, Mama had made sure they were well accustomed to all forms of magical travel, and it was one of the most convenient ways to get both her and her sister to and from London for the frequent trips they took there. It didn’t carry the same risks of losing them or being altogether too squished that taking the Floo did.
Levi only wobbled ever so slightly when they touched down, a bit more used to having a supporting hand from mother than she’d like to admit, but she was quick to bounce back from the process. She half sipped a cup of water just to be polite, and because it was good to stay hydrated when on an expedition, rather than because she really needed it.
When they were told to get into groups, she dithered, more concerned with where her friends were going than what section to start with—as Professor Skies had said, they would get to everything eventually.
“Hey,” she said, bouncing over to someone unattached and who she felt friendly towards (which was basically anyone she recognised from her house or her classes who hadn’t actively wronged her… which no one had). “Do you want to join a group together? Is there anything you really want to see first? I like the birds, but we’ll get to it all eventually, so I don’t mind.” She had heard that there was a mixture of magical and non-magical animals here, and she was very curious to see the latter. “Do you think they have penguins?” she asked, not disguising her excitement in slightest. “I’ve always wanted to see them in real life. They look so funny in books!”
13
Leviosa Scurlock
Penguins?
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5
Billy Cobb
May 04, 2022 4:34 PM
Let's make it one to remember! by Billy Cobb
This was gunna be fantastic, thought Billy. They were goin' out to a full blown zoo filled with all sorts of critters to investigate! That alone was awesome enough, but on top o' that, he had a girlfriend and there was a chance that this might also be considered a date. A date with Ray. He wasn't really sure what all that actually entailed, but he was pretty sure Ma (and Iris) would say he should clean up. Since it was for Ray, he did, or at least tried his best.He wasn't sure how much of his efforts survived the trip. Portkey travel, he decided, was a special sort of fun. When Ray caught his hand he was a little grateful for the bit of extra stability she supplied, not that he'd admit it. He held on to her hand as Professor Skies talked about stuff, gave them home(trip?)work and finally set them free. He didn't really have a preference where they started out, so he happily followed Ray's lead toward the reptile group. Billy only experienced a little bit of disappointment when she dropped his hand. It was quickly forgotten though as he followed her towards the snakes. There was something about the way that she walked that he liked to watch, he wasn't sure what it was, it was just kinda neat.
The snakes that Ray had picked out to watch were also really neat. He brought himself up next to her to gaze into the enclosure beyond. They weren't doing much other than basking in the sunlight, but they weren't like the snakes he'd seen 'round home at all.
"It is nice," he responded without taking his eyes from the serpents before him. Then he grinned at her next statement. They were away from school and home and everything else... other than some slightly distracted professors. The date question however caught him a little off guard. She wasn't sure either? Shucks, where does that put him then? Maybe he'd better just play it safe. "I like the sound of 'world adventure'," Billy shot her a grin with a twinkle in his eye, "I gotta admit I don't know much about dates. They weren't much of a thing back home, but iff'n you want it to be one 'o them as well, I'm game for it."
Another thought struck him suddenly, "Oh! I was gunna tell ya." Billy looked around them to make sure the coast was clear and there weren't noone close by listenin' in. Once satisfied he leaned in a bit closer to Ray and spoke in a lowered voice. "I found a neat thing in the transfig book a little while back and been workin' on it on and off." He looked around again, but this time his eyes scanned the critter enclosures. "Did'ja know there was a magic way to turn yerself into a critter and back again?" It had occurred to him that this zoo expedition might furnish some interesting inspiration on that front.
2
Billy Cobb
Let's make it one to remember!
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0
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
May 04, 2022 4:57 PM
Memorable sounds good to me. by Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Ray smirked as Billy explained his knowledge - which was only slightly less than her own - on dates, her eyes gliding back to the snakes and things to avoid properly making eye contact just then. She prided herself on being bold and exciting and adventurous and Billy had always made her those things all the more but somehow, in this context, she felt very nervous to be adventurous. She was pretty sure one of the snakes stuck its tongue at her so she stuck her tongue back out at it before returning Billy's hesitancy with a stab in the dark at confidence."I'm game," she told him with a smile, looking at him a bit sideways as she offered her hand back to him again. Merlin she hoped it wasn't clammy.
Her attention was drawn sharply in his direction when he talked of turning himself into a critter. "An Animagus?" she confirmed, remembering briefly seeing something about that somewhere. She hadn't really paid enough attention to know whether or not it was hereditary or not. "Do you get to pick the animal? What if you get turned into a snail or something?"
She was torn between the excitement of Billy learning how to turn himself into an animal and the sheer horror of the idea of dating an animal. "What if you get stuck?" she asked, a protective anxiety slipping past her defenses for a moment. "You have a plan to make it work?" Trying to lean into the excitement of it instead, she smiled at him. "You could do so much stuff as a critter!"
22
Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Memorable sounds good to me.
1525
0
5
Billy Cobb
May 04, 2022 5:57 PM
Any good ideas on how to do that? by Billy Cobb
Billy grinned and took Ray's offered hand. He didn't know much about dating, but he did know that he liked it when Ray was by his side. For some reason Oz and some of the others thought she was weird or something, but he just couldn't see it. She was Ray, and as far as he was concerned there was no one else like her. "So," he continued inquiring innocently, "Is there anything else we gotta do to make it an official date?" He'd heard some stories from folks and such, Iris had always said there were flowers involved with dates. But, there were usually flowers involved in whatever Iris was talking about."Yeah, that's what it's called." He confirmed then scratched the back of his head with his free hand while trying to recall the stuff he'd read about it. "I don't think you get to pick. From what I could read, it sounded like the magic turned you into the critter that most represented your soul or somethin' like that." He gave her a wink, "I don't think I'm gunna worry to much about turnin' into a snail. I thought this might be a fun opportunity to see lots 'o different animals and see iff'n my soul resonates or whatever with any of 'em. It might give me a hint." He paused a moment to look over Ray, "What about you? Got any soul critter inside of you yearnin' to get out?"
He couldn't help it. Billy chuckled lightly at Ray's worry about him getting stuck, "Naw, that ain't gunna happen. Only folks that try it that ain't very careful or focused run into that problem." Nothing to worry about there. "I've found another book or two in the library about it and read a bit about the process. You just gotta keep a leaf in your mouth for a month and spit it out during a lightnin' storm or something like that. Nothin' to complicated."
"I know!" His eyes blazed with excitement both at her comment and that smile of hers. "Especially if I got one with wings! Even if I didn't though it'd be great! You wanna try to?"
2
Billy Cobb
Any good ideas on how to do that?
1519
0
5
Piper Wilson
May 06, 2022 6:58 AM
Sloths? by Piper Wilson
So far, things were going pretty well for Piper at Sonora. She was really happy to have a really good group of friends. Although, she hoped they didn’t come across as being a clique. Being cliquey was not a good thing and not very Tepp-ish at all. She should probably try to make friends with other people too. Piper would not want anyone to feel left out and alone.Except, having too many friends could honestly also be a problem. Generally speaking, the first year would prefer to have a few close friends rather than a ton of superficial ones and a person could only give so much and only had so much time for any given thing, whether it was spending time with various friends or doing almost every single activity out there like her cousins Amity and Chaslyn did as kids and, in the case of the latter, at Sonora too. Plus, it wouldn’t be fair to the friends in question, if Piper could not give every single one an adequate amount of attention, especially if there was someone who had trouble making friends-the exact sort of person that needed to be reached out to-and she was the only one they had.
Fortunately, so far, her friends were also all friends with each other so this wasn’t really much of a dilemma at this point. However, that did bring the worries about being cliquey up again. A Teppenpaw clique just sounded…wrong. Like how could a group of Teppenpaws be cliquey when being cliquey was mean and mean people couldn’t be sorted into Tepp? Piper was sure there was a fancy word or phrase to describe this issue but the only words she could come up with were conundrum or hypocrisy and neither of those sounded quite right.
However, it would also be mean and un-Teppish to neglect the friends she already had. She would hate it if that happened to her, after all. If her friends were so busy with others that they didn’t have time for her and she was left out, she would feel awful.
And, of course, Piper didn’t want to end up over-extended like Chaslyn had been, even if spending time with her friends was very different from and a lot more fun than being on an impossible quest for perfection and achievement, which were the only ways to please Aunt Jillian. Obviously, that wasn’t something that Piper had to worry about but she’d never want to let down a friend or hurt them and that was easier to do if she only had a few close friends. Even though she didn’t want to exclude anyone.
So, Piper wasn’t exactly sure what to do to solve what seemed like it would be a real balancing act yet. Maybe she should ask Gabriel. After all, her older brother was brilliant and knew about a lot of stuff so he’d probably know what to do about this problem.
Anyway, today there was a field trip to a zoo featuring both magical and non-magical animals. The first year was very excited because she loved animals, though not enough to give up meat and animal products like Lenny.
Of course, being on a field trip where she inevitably had to find people to hang out with, both because it was required and because it would be more fun to walk around with someone else than by herself even if it that was allowed, brought her back to her earlier dilemma. Which Piper knew was sort of a lucky thing to have to worry about when there were probably people who did not have anyone they could hang out with and who would be forced to join people who might not want to hang out with them.
Which made her wonder if she should go find one of those people so they wouldn’t have to feel rejected and bad. However, before Piper could decide what to do, Levi approached. “Sure!” She replied, grinning at her roommate. She really liked the other Teppenpaw, and having some one on one time would be a great chance to bond. “I have no real preference, I love all animals. Including penguins. They’re so cool. Do you think there are sloths?”
11
Piper Wilson
Sloths?
1556
0
5
Fortune Ardovini
May 06, 2022 7:26 PM
I've got a mission by Fortune Ardovini
This was not the first time Fortune had visited this zoo. His parents had taken him two years ago as part of a family vacation. Still he was looking forward to the trip. Since he'd been there already, he was naturally an expert on the place and could help the others out quite a bit if needed. He did have one goal in mind though, although it was most likely a lost cause. He couldn't afford to think of it like that though, there was always a chance.Apparently they needed partners and groups and such, so he looked around to see who was available and what group might be heading the direction he wanted to go. "So, got any interest in heading over to the small mammal area?" he inquired to a likely looking partner candidate. "I was here two years before and have a small score to settle with a niffler named Spaghetti."
Admittedly, he had no idea what he could possibly do if he actually found the creature again, but it sure sounded cool and dramatic. He saw the group was starting to move and headed towards it, hoping he was being followed. "Come on, we don't want to get left behind." He glanced back with a grin.
2
Fortune Ardovini
I've got a mission
1549
0
5
Gwendolyn Brockert
May 08, 2022 12:45 PM
*is slightly intrigued * by Gwendolyn Brockert
Gwendolyn was looking forward to the field trip to the zoo. It promised to be both educational and fun. Of course, she, generally speaking, thought educational things were fun. Still, she supposed this kind of hands-on learning would be more enjoyable than listening to a long lecture on magical theory. Although, she was the sort of person who kind of found that interesting but going to the zoo was something…different than they did every day at school and it was fun to do things like visit zoos and museums just to see something new and learn things in a way that they didn’t every day.Of course, a drawback to being so focused on her studies was that Gwendolyn had yet to make any really good friends.Which, deep down, probably mattered more. She enjoyed academics and her education was important to her but she honestly didn’t want to be a total outcast either. The Aladren still had more than six years left at Sonora and that time would likely be more pleasant if people liked her.
After all, she honestly didn’t want to be like her dad in that respect. Not because Gwendolyn thought badly of him at all and she was pretty much one hundred percent sure that it was other people who were at fault. However, the fact that Dad had been or at least felt rejected by people when he was in school had completely affected him. It was why she was certain that he would not come to the school fair that the alumni were invited to at the end of the year. Especially since her mom couldn’t come, being that she wasn't an alumni and thus had not been invited.
Maybe if Aunt Kaylie decided to come, as Lydia was hoping, her dad would come too. Although, Gwendolyn didn’t know why her aunt would want to come given that her time at Sonora hadn’t sounded like it had been any better than her dad’s. Especially since these things tended to be on the Quidditch pitch where her aunt had been pretty much crippled.The Aladren wouldn’t blame either of them for wanting to skip coming to a place that was the source of what were unpleasant memories. Of course, Aunt Kaylie would probably come anyway, because Lydia wanted her to.
Still, that was precisely why Gwendolyn needed to make friends and avoid making enemies or alienating people. So Sonora wouldn’t end up being a place where she was miserable and had bad memories of that caused her to want to avoid the place after she graduated. Considering that Gwendolyn considered that a completely valid way to feel, she was sure that if that was the case she would be more inclined to do exactly like that, regardless of what her future children might want.
Besides, they were required to walk around the zoo today with at least one other person. The Aladren gazed around for someone who still needed a partner However, before she could approach anyone, Fortune Ardovini addressed her. “Sure, why not?” Gwendolyn replied. It sounded like as good an option as any. ”Small mammals are cool.” She trailed after the Pecari. “So, what happened with Spaghetti?” This might be interesting.
11
Gwendolyn Brockert
*is slightly intrigued *
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Leviosa Scurlock
May 09, 2022 1:44 AM
You never know by Leviosa Scurlock
Sloths… Sloths… Which ones were sloths again? Mother had given Levi way more books and resources to learn about magical animals, and she didn’t always remember all of the non-magical ones, especially if they weren’t common in Europe. Not that penguins were, but they were just so darn cute that basically everyone gave them a pass and included them.“We’ll just have to find out!” she smiled and shrugged, not exactly wanting to admit to not knowing. She felt a bit about it, because it almost seemed like lying, but she didn’t think it actually was. Mama and Verdillia both would have said that it wasn’t a good idea to showcase ignorance unless you could help it.
Levi was glad that she would be spending the day with Piper. They were roommates, so they spent a lot of time together, but some of that was because they had to. Well, she supposed if Piper really didn’t like her, she could have avoided their shared room, but still… It was nice to be outside of school, to not have to be together, but still be chosen. This seemed like a great occasion for making really fun memories.
“We can try for sloths first,” Levi suggested, wanting Piper to be happy, and hoping that involved joining a nice group, preferably without Verdillia in it.
13
Leviosa Scurlock
You never know
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0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
May 09, 2022 2:32 AM
The Abandoned by Oz Club (tag Henry) by Xavier Lundstrom
A school trip to the zoo. On the surface of it, that sounded like a bit of fun, lighthearted relief from daily life. Xavier would even have agreed, because what kid didn’t like a day out of classes? However, there was one thing getting in the way of that enjoyment. Everyone who was coupled up thought this sounded like a perfect date. And coupled up people included Oz. And not with him.Xavier was mostly managing to compartmentalise enough to not cry every time he saw him. Given that they had classes together, given that he still needed Oz to watch him when he was medicated, and given that he had to keep pretending that everything was fine, that had become a survival necessity. He could bottle up his feelings enough to keep his crying to his bedroom, but it still hurt, and days like this dug the knife in just a little more.
He’d considered his options for partners. He was kind of friendly with some people. But there was one obvious person who shared the disadvantage of Oz specifically being unavailable. It was going to be hard to keep his mind off Oz, whilst accompanied by someone who shared his face, but… well, maybe on some level, Henry would understand. Or maybe Xavier was just a sucker for punishment.
“Hey,” he said, as he made his way over to Henry after picking himself up from the portkey trip. He did not love those things. They were squeezy and he suspected they would have been nauseating without the medication, but at least they were brief. He tried to come up with a way to express their mutual problem, but he could feel the choking bitterness that came with any combination of words he could come up with. Henry was smart anyway. He could easily figure out they were both screwed without Xav pointing it out to him. “Partners?” he offered simply instead, though a little of his woe crept in, even on this single word invitation.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
The Abandoned by Oz Club (tag Henry)
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Fortune Ardovini
May 09, 2022 5:57 PM
Step one: Adventure. by Fortune Ardovini
Fortune recovered very quickly. He hadn't actually expected Gwendolyn Brockert to say yes to him, but she had. Cool. Arguably it had technically been a 'Sure, why not?' which wasn't quite the same, but still the end result was the same. The only problem now was that if he wasn't an absolute perfect gentleman, Mom was going to... well, he wasn't exactly sure what, but it wouldn't be pleasant. While being purebloods, the Ardovini's weren't very high up on the social ladder. That had been part of why Mom and Dad had encouraged him to go to Sonora. It was a smaller school and there were a good number of higher class folks that went there. Not that he had any interest in social climbing at all, but he sure didn't want to do anything to plunge them farther down either.He have her a grin as the followed the group heading for the small mammals. "Well Miss Brockert," he began, "You have two options for this tale. Would you like the short, true, boring one; or the slightly exaggerated, more exciting version?" There wasn't a lot that he knew about Gwendolyn Brockert, other than the obvious stuff. She was a Aladren, a Brockert, and not one of the students he'd hung around much so far. To be fair, most of the people he had hung around with so far had either been in his house, or on the Quidditch team. He supposed branching out was a good thing once in a while. It was how you found new adventures after all.
2
Fortune Ardovini
Step one: Adventure.
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Liesl Brockert
May 11, 2022 11:26 AMLiesl Brockert
StudentHouse: Teppenpaw
Year: 7
Written by: Allegra Brockert
Age in Post: 12
Birthday: November 9
Snakes!!!!(Hans) by Liesl Brockert
Liesl was so excited. Uncle Cory was indeed coming to the school fair at the end of the year and she absolutely could not wait. Like, really couldn’t wait, as in she was supremely impatient about it. There was pretty much nothing she was looking forward to more, other than going to visit Hans on his dad’s snake ranch this summer.Which was definitely happening! Even though she still wasn’t sure if she was staying over or just going for a day or going for the day, coming home to sleep and going back the next day. There were definitely some benefits to magical travel as going back and forth would not be an option without it considering that she and Hans lived in different states. Though that would mean Liesl would have to spend the night (or a few nights) which was what she actually wanted, of course.
Then again, in that case, she might not get to go visit her friend on the snake ranch at all. Liesl honestly didn’t know why Mother had such an objection to her spending the night at Hans’ home other than the fact that the second year was a girl and the older Teppenpaw was a boy. Mother’s preoccupation with propriety-or the appearance of it-was a bit ridiculous in Liesl’s opinion.
Not that most people seemed to care much about her opinion. Mother especially seemed to care more about the opinions of “polite society” -which often meant that of total strangers-than that of her eldest child. Which was why the Teppenpaw really appreciated the few people who did, such as Uncle Cory and that was why him coming to the school fair and meeting her friends-people who seemingly also cared about her opinion-was so exciting.
Therefore, that was why Liesl was so focused on his visit. Plus, it was happening sooner than the trip to the snake ranch and anyway, she was going to get to see snakes today at the zoo that the population of Sonora was visiting for their field trip.
She went through the portkey with the rest of her schoolmates, not really needing the anti-sickness medicine that was provided. Liesl had been using magical transportation her whole life which made her fairly used to its less than pleasant aspects and instead, appreciative of its efficiency. She understood that it wasn’t that way for everyone though and didn’t think there was anything wrong with needing the medication. Liesl certainly wouldn’t want anyone to get sick and start off what was supposed to be a fun event feeling bad. Despite her fascination with blood and gore, she really did not want people to suffer.
Once everyone was through the portkey and Professor Skies finished giving them instructions and maps and worksheets, Liesl turned to Hans and said a single word. “Snakes?”
11
Liesl Brockert
Snakes!!!!(Hans)
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
May 12, 2022 5:21 AM
Not having a field day by Yaniel Ayala Velez
A trip. A school trip. That was the kind of thing normal people enjoyed, which meant a full day of smiling and pretending to be excited. School trips were a lot like regular school… They might pretend to be about academics, but it was really about your peers, and what they thought of you. Everyone was going to be pairing up with friends, just like they always had to in class, only it was going to be a bigger deal than usual. Yarielis had a roommate, and Quidditch people. Did any of those people want to take a voluntary hang out shift as well?Yarielis gripped the sink, glaring at the reflection in the mirror. As usual, when feeling anxious about interacting with classmates it was the person in the looking glass who was getting the blame. If only everything staring back wasn’t so wrong and horrible and unlikeable. The stupid round cheeks. The stupid funny shaped nose. And the excessively stupid mane of hair. Yarielis worked furious fingers through the curls, grasping for some sense of control. Like maybe taming the mess on the outside would help with the mess on the inside. The Crotalus tugged, working the French braids in so tightly it hurt, dozens of little sharp scalp stings, each one not quite enough, seeing as it hadn’t ripped the stupid stuff out at its roots.
When it was done, Yarielis jammed a baseball cap over the top. For just a split second, the reflection was good enough. It had worked, and Yarielis felt like the anxiety had been braided away. Yarielis turned from the mirror before the image could shatter and bring it all swimming back.
Hats and portkeys didn’t mix, so Yarielis had to reluctantly take it off and sling it around a wrist until they landed, at which point it was firmly jammed back on. The braids still trailed, tickling unpleasantly. Yarielis reached up, trying to work out if tucking the ends into the hat was a viable option. This had been halfway achieved, somewhat successfully, when Yarielis felt the other kind of prickling sensation—that of someone’s eyes—and looked around to find someone watching.
“My hair is super annoying,” the Crotalus explained, a touch defensively, before remembering that they were all supposed to be looking for partners. Maybe that was all the other person had been doing. Way to make a great impression if so…
13
Yaniel Ayala Velez
Not having a field day
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Sapphire Brockert
May 12, 2022 10:02 AM
So much for a break by Sapphire Brockert
Sapphire was counting down the days until graduation. Like, literally counting them down. As in, she had a calendar on her wall with little numbers on it marking the days left and at the end of each day she put a giant X through that day’s square on the calendar, comforting herself with the knowledge that she was a day closer to the end.She was honestly ready to leave this place and never ever look back. No alumni events for her. Although, the Crotalus supposed that someday she would have children who would attend Sonora and then there would be the concert and she would have to come back for that. Sapphire did not want to be a mom who put her own needs and feelings ahead of those of her children. She wanted to be a good mom.
It was something she felt she might do okay at. She hoped.Although the seventh year worried she might not be because she wasn’t good at very much and from what she understood, being a parent was hard. Still, at a bare minimum, Sapphire knew that it was important to be attentive and unselfish when it came to her children.
On the plus side, she would not need complicated RATS level magical theory to be a good mother. However, that did not mean that the Crotalus was not worried about RATS. In fact, whenever she thought about them, she felt slightly ill. While Sapphire most likely did not need good scores in order to get married and have children-the sort of people who judged potential spouses by their RATS scores were not the sort of person she would want to marry even if she did think she’d do well-she still wanted to do well to prove that she wasn’t a complete moron.
And also, well, to make sure that Topaz wouldn’t torment her about doing poorly on them until the day one of them died.
So, Sapphire was studying pretty hard as the day got closer. Which she was kind of getting sick of doing. She had a near constant headache and it was getting to a point where just thinking about it was enough to bring her close to tears and give her an anxious feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was already worried about how bad it was going to be on the actual day of the test. Merlin knew that Sapphire did not want a repeat of CATS where she almost vomited on her examiner’s shoes. Even though he’d been really nice about it and tried to reassure that it was all okay, that he would not hold it against her when grading and that the way she felt was not completely unusual. It had still been super embarrassing and besides, whomever Sapphire had for RATS might not be so understanding if the same thing happened again.
Anyway, today there was a field trip to the zoo. In theory, this would be fun and a nice break from the monotony and frustration of studying. In all actuality though, the field trip provided an entirely different problem. The Crotalus would have to find a partner or group to walk around with and that…would be a challenge. The only person outside her family who liked her was Sadie and Sadie had Dathan, whom she’d probably walk around with. Sapphire might end up in the same group as them but she didn’t want to…intrude.
And nobody else would want her around. They never had so why should now be any different. She looked around desperately, hoping someone would approach and ask her to be their partner. She didn’t want to be the one to ask and worry that she’d be rejected.
11
Sapphire Brockert
So much for a break
1459
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5
You're not alone by Iris Cobb
Iris initially thought that the trip to the zoo was going to be great fun. She'd been hoping to maybe hang out with Ray some more, but apparently Ray was going to be hanging out with her brother. Ugh, she didn't want any part of that. That was fine though, if Ray was going to spend the day with Billy, maybe she could just find someone to spend the day with as well. A thought or two drifted through her head as to who that just might be.Admittedly, her first thought hadn't been of her roommate. She liked Amethyst a lot, and they hung out together a most of the time. Being roommates, housemates and classmates did have that effect. She also still knew that she owed Amethyst a bunch for the loan of the dress for the ball last year. She also didn't want to get in the way if Amethyst wanted to spend the day with anyone special as well.
Getting ready for a school day was bad enough, getting ready to go out with hopefully someone that you wanted to make a really good impression with was something else altogether different. Iris had been working on training her hair to behave better, and been having some bit of luck with it on occasion. Apparently today was not one of those days, naturally. She sighed and did the best she could with it. Attire was another problem, her best dresses were still hand-me-downs. At school that was fine, the robes covered them up. However, nobody was going to be wearing robes to the zoo. At home she never felt poor, everyone was in the same boat so nobody cared. Having a Brockert as a roommate sure made things look different here.
In the end she pulled on the least worn thing she could find, a simple, faded, knee length dress that didn't look to bad if you weren't looking at it too closely. The portkey trip was just like she remembered portkeys working in the past. She hadn't much liked them back then either. Once on the other side she was eventually fine and rehydrated. She listened to Professor Skies and then began looking around for Hansel. She'd really enjoyed his company since they'd started hanging out a bit, and if he'd want to spend today together that would be... great....
Iris stopped as she saw Liesl talking to him. Again. A brief surge of anger and jealousy burned through her. Why was Liesl always with him? She'd heard a rumor that Liesl was even going to visit him over break! And he... Iris sighed and turned away from them, the fire giving way in her to something else. Why wouldn't he want her instead? She was a Brockert after all. She had it all, Iris had nothing to offer him.
Moving rapidly away from them, Iris sought out someone else. By the rules she needed a partner, and Liesl had taken the one she would have liked to have. Amethyst probably already had another, but maybe Amethyst was just tolerating her as well since they were stuck together in the same room. That was when her eyes fell upon another fellow Crotalus. Yarielis seemed to be having trouble with her hair. At least that was something Iris understood.
"I know the feeling," she replied giving her own misbehaving mane a small shake. It didn't look like the first year had a partner yet, so Iris attempted a smile. Given her current mood, it wasn't a very good one. "Do you have a partner yet?"
2
Iris Cobb
You're not alone
1526
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
May 13, 2022 5:36 AM
I'll pretend that's true if you like by Yaniel Ayala Velez
Oh yikes. The person Yarielis had snapped at was an older Crotalus girl. That was basically a death sentence. Older Crotalus girls were like hornets who would absolutely sting someone to death for crossing them. Yes, apart from the ‘older’ part, that label had been applied to Yarielis too, and to Freya, who didn’t seem too terrible, but it was hard to believe that irritating an upperclassman wasn’t going to end very, very badly. Yarielis wasn’t exactly small or weak. Amongst the first years, there probably wasn’t anyone physically stronger. Yarielis was bigger than most and played beater. Even Cole, the other first year who could claim one of those points… Well, Yarielis wasn’t confident in asking for an arm wrestling match only in the social sense—lacking the ability to ask without feeling like a weirdo, rather than lacking much conviction about who the winner would be. But there were ways in which Yarielis was still small. Compared to older classmates, for example. Or, even when it came to actual brawn, that didn’t factor in against hornets. You couldn’t throw punches in daily life, but they could stick in little stings right under teachers’ noses. That was what made them so dangerous.Except Iris was… empathising? Even Yarielis couldn’t mistake it for sarcasm, or for somehow being laughed at. Iris’ hair was kinda curly too. Maybe they had that tiny, microscopic thing in common, and it was enough to not induce an evisceration.
“Um. No,” Yarielis admitted cautiously, when Iris asked about having a partner. Iris wasn’t a prefect, right? And they’d literally only had a minute to pair up. So Yarielis couldn’t be in trouble with her for still being solo. What other reason could there be? The first year braced for some kind of nasty comment, whilst keeping a pleasant, neutral smile on.
13
Yaniel Ayala Velez
I'll pretend that's true if you like
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5
Well, in this regard anyway. The rest is up to you. by Iris Cobb
Yarielis seemed pleasant enough, so Iris took that as a good sign. She hadn't really spent any time with the first years since she wasn't in the beginner classes anymore. It was somehow a weird feeling not being the youngest at the school. The idea that, depending on her background, Yarielis might actually know less about magic and such than her was just strange. Iris still considered herself to be largely in the dark about a lot of wizardy stuff.As for Yarielis, the most she knew about the other Crotalus was what Billy told her about Quidditch when she failed to avoid him. Billy wanted to make Hilda proud and be the beater mentor to the new players that Hilda had been for him. He seemed to like Yarielis well enough as a beater. This seemed unacceptable to Iris, the fact that this second hand knowledge was all she knew about some of her housemates. They were supposed to be a sort of family, or at very least a community. Growing up Iris had known everyone in their community back home. That was just the way of things, everyone in the community was necessary for it's survival. Which is why this time away for schooling had been making some issues, but that was a whole different problem. This other one she could try to fix.
"Would you like one?" Iris asked, "I don't have one either and according to the rules, we need one." Her smile now was a bit more pleasant. Maybe she would get to know some more people in her house better and maybe figure out how the community works. Who knows, that might shed some more light on how the wizardy society as a whole worked.
2
Iris Cobb
Well, in this regard anyway. The rest is up to you.
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
May 13, 2022 7:11 PM
Mmmhmmm by Yaniel Ayala Velez
OOC: Mentions of Billy approved by his author. BIC:
The only thing Yarielis really knew about Iris was that she was Billy’s sister. And, by extension, that anything Billy had revealed about his home life also applied to Iris—at least the broad brushstrokes did. It wasn’t like Billy and Yarielis had ever sat down and had a heart to heart about their home lives, but they did spend considerable amounts of time together as Beaters, and Billy wasn’t inclined to be quiet during that time. ‘The Mountain’ had been referenced, and his parents were ‘Ma and Pa’ and tracking Bludgers was nothing like tracking critters. Yarielis wasn’t sure whether to take from all that that he was also an outsider, and of lower status compared to the Purebloods, or that his family probably voted Republican and had never met a person of colour before.
So far, it had gone okay… Billy wasn’t well-behaved, but he didn’t seem mean spirited. Of course, those were the parts that didn’t necessarily apply to Iris too. She was a different person, in a different house. From what Yarielis had heard about siblings, they could either be your best friend or your worst enemy. Iris and Billy shared a home life but not necessarily a personality.
“Yeah,” Yarielis answered, regarding wanting a partner. Iris had not specified herself as the partner. Yarielis kind of expected her to turn around, and pull in someone horrible with a ‘Hey, Yarielis wants to be your partner!’ The first year wasn’t exactly sure who that would be… There was one person she wanted to avoid, because he made her feel uncomfortable, but he was popular enough that no one would think of inflicting him as a punishment. The second part of Iris’ comment did seem to imply it would be her that was the partner, but Yarielis wasn’t taking anything for granted. That was how you fell into people’s traps and they got to laugh in your face.
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Yaniel Ayala Velez
Mmmhmmm
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Mara Morales
May 13, 2022 7:35 PM
Pretty on brand for us, I think. by Mara Morales
Mara didn't regret the Ball thing. It had been fun, after all, once she'd gotten through the awkwardness of first kind of feeling pretty (it had felt like she was trespassing on both of her sisters' territories, at least a little) and then - harder yet - realizing that yes, at least one other person appeared to agree with that assessment of her after she'd gone to the effort to do something different with her hair and put on a nice dress. That had been a weird feeling, but not a bad one at all.No - nothing wrong with the Ball itself. It was just that it made things sorta...complicated, in a way. Her normal strategy to a question like this would have been to just look it up (surely there had to be a book called This Is How To Determine Your Relationship Status somewhere, right?), but she was annoyed by the thought this time - she was pretty sure she'd never indulged in a self-help anything, ever, and she...kinda didn't want to start now. Which left just rolling with things and seeing what happened...which was her usual social strategy, so why did it feel kind of odd to do it now just because she knew Bertie had on at least one occasion pretty obviously thought she was, like, attractive or whatever?
None of this, naturally, crossed her mind when he mentioned hanging out at the field trip, and she'd automatically smiled and said, "yeah, sure thing." The problem didn't really come to mind till the day of and wondering if she was expected to try to doll up her hair or something. Not to the extent she had at the Ball, of course, though, because that would be stupid for an outdoor field trip. The same went for actual lipstick and eyeshadow and stuff - but lip gloss and mascara? Was that a good idea? And was this what, like, Jessica thought about all the time? If it was, then Mara owed her sister an apology; if she thought about this kind of stuff all the time, she thought she might end up kind of high-strung too. Or, alternatively, that she'd string someone else up from the rafters...which Jessica also kinda seemed to want to do sometimes. Mara just hoped Lola had gotten the pretty face without getting the overdose of neuroses.
She compromised on the relevant points in the end: her hair in a ponytail because she wasn't an idiot, but kind of a fancy ponytail, higher than she'd usually wear it, and a lightly tinted lip balm without mascara. One of the nice things about not much resembling Dad's side of the family, with all its blondes and redheads, was that her eyelashes already were visible on their own even if she didn't do anything to them.
"Definitely," she agreed to the hope that the primate study might be interesting. "I'm guessing that magic primates are sort of distant relatives to us the way, uh, not magic primates - wow, that's a phrase....Anyway. The way they're related to humans? Think anyone's tried tracing things far enough back to figure out where magic jumps into the equation?"
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Mara Morales
Pretty on brand for us, I think.
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Alexei Vorontsov
May 13, 2022 8:02 PM
I totally know the word 'invertebrate' in English. by Alexei Vorontsov
Alexei considered himself, after a few years spending most of his year in the south, basically an English speaker. He could think in English, and indeed, at home, sometimes suffered from the same odd times when it felt like someone had cast a Full-Body Bind on his brain that he still occasionally ran into at school - times when he was speaking English at school and suddenly couldn't think of the word he wanted in English or Russian, and at home when he'd speak Russian until he suddenly could only remember something in English, if at all. His cousins didn't mind making fun of him a bit for that, either, though he couldn't blame them, and had to find it a little funny himself. The first words he'd ever heard had been in Russian, it was what he spoke with his parents and siblings and extended family, what he occasionally used for diatribes toward uncooperative charms or potions ingredients in class, and what he thought in more than he thought in English - and his brain chose occasions when he was speaking it to people who could actually understand it to forget a word, or else give it to him only in English? That was like making a joke on himself.Sometimes, though, English still seemed to be the one pulling jokes. If a piece of vernacular wasn't something he'd heard often, he ended up doing things like wondering where the fields were after the Portkey deposited him at the zoopark. Though he supposed it was possible that there were fields somewhere in there; charms could make things fit in spaces that were smaller than they were, and if there were a lot of animals, then obviously some of them would need fields or grasslands, some would need forests, some would require water....could they have an ocean in there? And if so, would it be one of the shiny blue, iceless ones he'd seen pictures of but had never seen in person? It seemed like it would be strange, seeing an ocean without ice....maybe they'd have every sort of territory in there?
It would, he thought, be fun to find out, and he nodded agreeably when Professor Skies mentioned they were to be with at least one other person. Of course, that was perfectly sensible; explorers could not go out into the wild alone. He and Tatiana had always enjoyed novels about adventurers, and only foolish ones went anywhere without true-hearted companions; when they'd been younger, they had joked that they would go be explorer-companions together someday, and truth be told, after seeing all the spats she'd had with Katya over her loyalty to her friends, he thought he might still prefer his sister's company to most if he ever had a real adventure, even if they were both supposed to be old enough now to know that it mattered that Tatya was a girl.
Aside from being a girl, though, Tatya also wasn't here, so he approached one of his classmates for this probably not-too-dangerous expedition. "Do you have a partner? Shall we go explore?" he asked, half-smiling, enjoying his bit of playacting even if it was only in his own head.
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Alexei Vorontsov
I totally know the word 'invertebrate' in English.
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Morgan Garrett
May 13, 2022 8:18 PM
Break is a frame of mind. by Morgan Garrett
There weren't a lot of times when it was super-convenient to be known as the girl with the over-sized, too-colorful, kinda-cheap accessories, which made it all the more of a treat when one came up. When she heard that they were going to a zoo for a field trip, she didn't have to worry about stuff like not having a hat or sunglasses: despite her mother's best efforts, she had a huge black-and-white straw hat and her big red-framed sunglasses and a faux-gold chain to hook the ends of them on around her neck to make sure she didn't lose them all at the ready when it was her turn to jaunt over to the site.The red lipstick was, perhaps, less necessary, but the heck with it. It was almost summer, which meant it was almost time to go back to always taking up as little space as possible and not making anyone give her sideways looks because small towns had literally nothing better to do than talk about how Annie's granddaughter was painted up like she thought she was something when she actually just looked like she'd had a fox's butthole stuck to the middle of her face. She might as well live it up a little while she could.
Well. Within reasonable limits, anyway. She had, to her immense regret, left her shoes flat instead of transfiguring them into a nice set of heels, because the last thing she wanted to do was step in something's dung in too-high heels and go flying. She made a point to think of herself as a joke (that way, if anyone else caught on, it wasn't them making fun of her), but while she guessed she'd laugh it off as slapstick if it happened, she...really didn't want to be the slapstick element of the day's entertainment. Lucille Ball had been a genius and Morgan admired her immensely, but she'd always known she'd never have the confidence to just be absolutely out-there like La Lucy, at least not on purpose.
Instructed to find a wandering partner, she looked around, aiming for nobody in particular, as she more or less knew a lot of people from one place or another. Her eye lit finally on Sapphire Brockert, who looked...lonely? That sucked, Morgan knew all too well how much that sucked, and they'd had some fun conversations before, so why not? She went over.
"Hey," she greeted Sapphire warmly, smiling beneath her sunglasses. "Want to partner up?"
16
Morgan Garrett
Break is a frame of mind.
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Amethyst Brockert
May 15, 2022 10:16 AM
I totally don't know it in Russian. by Amethyst Brockert
Amethyst was looking forward to the field trip today. Maybe zoos were a tad juvenile but well, she still rather liked them. Besides, her cousin Owen still liked them and he was, like, in his late twenties so she supposed it was okay for her to still like them at fourteen. Not that Owen was like some bastion of maturity, but still.At least he wasn’t the bad kind of immature the way some of the Pecaris were so Amethyst supposed it was okay. He was just…it was kind of hard to explain. Like, he was enthusiastic and creative and those were often things that got repressed as one got older. It was fairly unrefined and undignified to show emotions or imagination once one got to be a certain age and the Crotalus tried to be refined and maintain dignity. Which kind of sucked at times, but she still wouldn’t want to act childish, or worse, like Uncle Eustace.
Who arguably was immature too, and most definitely in a bad way. Although his type of immaturity was not enthusiasm-unless one counted his obsession with Quidditch and having a son-and definitely not creativity since Uncle Eustace thought creativity was unmanly and men who were creative, like Owen, were not “real men” but he was definitely undignified and about as refined as a caveman. Possibly less so.
Anyway, Amethyst supposed she didn’t have to behave in such a manner in order to be enjoying herself. She could be dignified and mature and still have a good time looking around at all the various animals. Plus, it was always fun to have a break and see some place that was different from being in school day after day. The problem with a boarding school was that one rarely got to leave, except in the summer and during the midterm break. Amethyst, despite not generally thinking of herself as adventurous per se, as adventurous was a word she tended to associate with those who were into things that were dangerous and physically strenuous, she did like to go different places and see different things.
She went through the portkey to the zoo and waited until everyone had arrived. Once they had, Amethyst listened as Professor Skies gave them their instructions. Then she looked around for Alexei as Iris was going to make other plans today and had encouraged her to find the Pecari instead. She was pleased to comply and hoped that Alexei didn’t already have plans with someone else.
Fortunately, the other third year approached her. “No, I’d be thrilled to go exploring with you.”Amethyst replied, grinning. “Where to first?”
OOC: Iris's actions approved by her author.
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Amethyst Brockert
I totally don't know it in Russian.
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Isla Brockert
May 16, 2022 8:55 AM
All by myself? by Isla Brockert
As much fun as a trip to the zoo sounded, Isla was a bit worried about having someone to hang out with during the excursion. Rosalynn and Lorena both had boyfriends and she had nobody. Well, she had her two roommates but if they were with their boyfriends, that left her with nobody else, much like at the ball.It was not a pleasant feeling. Isla did not want to begrudge her friends but she also did not want to be a third or fifth wheel or be stuck trying to find someone else. She was not sure which would be worse. Although worst of all might be them going on a “double date” with their boyfriends while Isla was left alone.
Well, not alone because that was unlikely to be allowed. Which Isla understood the reasoning behind, safety purposes and all that, or at least that was her theory. Besides she didn’t really want to walk around by herself, of course. However, Isla didn’t want to be paired off with some random person who didn’t necessarily want to be partnered with her. She wanted to be with someone whom she was comfortable with. While the Aladren was generally willing to give people a chance, there were a few people who seemed not all that nice-and those were probably going to be people who had trouble finding partners.
What Isla wanted was to be with her friends but she was honestly worried.While she’d always embraced her own eccentricities and was totally okay with being different in some ways and even a tad odd, she really didn’t like being the odd one out. It wasn’t even that Isla especially wanted a boyfriend. Even if she had one, it wouldn’t solve her problems because this hypothetical boyfriend wouldn’t be someone at Sonora and the problem was her friends going to hang out with their boyfriends at school events like the ball and this field trip. Or worse, go off as couples together while Isla was left floundering on her own.
And it wasn’t as if she felt neglected by Lorena and Rosalynn in general so much,it was just things like this. However, it was precisely something like this that she wanted to enjoy with them, not have her trip spoiled by having to go with someone who didn’t really want her around and have things be all awkward. Isla might accept herself for who she was and generally felt that those who didn’t were the ones with the problem, but that didn’t mean that Isla wanted to be forced to be around such a person all day because she had no other option.
After Professor Skies finished speaking, the fourth year looked around for someone to pair off with, preferably one of her friends but at the very least, someone nice who would actually enjoy her company and whose company she would enjoy. She waited for such a person to approach, reflecting on how much this whole thing sucked when Isla just wanted to go see the erumpets.
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Isla Brockert
All by myself?
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Piper Wilson
May 18, 2022 9:58 AM
We could consulte the map or guide or something. by Piper Wilson
“Actually, why don’t we look at the penguins first?” Piper suggested. “I just want to see the sloths because they’re my cousin’s favorite and I want to tell her that I saw them.” Thinking about Amity and Chaslyn and the importance of time management and not overloading herself, had made her think of how much Amity loved and identified with sloths.Plus, Amity had been pretty much denied normal childhood pleasures, like zoos and would be happy to live vicariously through Piper’s experience.. Even though as an adult, the Aladren alumna had been able to make up for lost time, the first year still thought her cousin would love to hear all about them. Piper hoped to take some pictures of the sloths and maybe get Levi to take a picture with her in front of them.
Still, Amity wasn’t here but Levi was and wanted to see the penguins and Piper…also wanted to see the penguins anyway as well as the sloths. And the monkeys and the prairie dogs and snakes and clabberts and erumpets and nifflers and rhinos and hippos and everything else the zoo had to offer, both magical and not. “I’m not really sure what my own favorite animal is, there are so many I like. I might pick hamsters or puffskiens but I’m not sure the zoo has those. I mean, zoos generally don’t have animals that are kept as pets. Though, they do have snakes and I know people have those as pets sometimes” There was an older boy in their house who had one.
Something else occurred to Piper. “Or if there’s a group that you would prefer in terms of the people in it or the staff member leading it.” She knew that even though she and Levi were paired off, they wouldn’t be the only two people in an entire section given that there were only so many sections of the zoo and so many staff members, some of whom were more…pleasant than others. It was sort of mean to think it, but Piper was sure, for example, that more people would want to join Professor Xavier’s group than Headmaster Brockert’s.
That went even more so for students. Although the Teppenpaw did not have anyone that she especially wanted to avoid personally, including the grumpy old headmaster himself, she knew that sometimes people were not always friendly or certain people just didn’t get along or that someone might be uncomfortable and anxious among certain people or types of people.
Not that that was always fair, like if someone was uncomfortable around Piper because of her own background. It was fine for muggleborns and halfbloods to want to avoid someone like her cousin Kelsey, who genuinely did not like non-purebloods-and therefore also was trying to avoid them herself anyway-but it would be completely unfair for them to just assume that Piper was awful and want to avoid her because she was a pureblood. People who were like that were no better than Kelsey was.
Basically, it was perfectly normal and acceptable to want to avoid someone you were certain would be mean to you or look down on you or otherwise judge you but not okay to generalize a group of people based on a broad category especially one outside an individual’s control.
Anyway, on the other hand, there might be someone else that Levi did want to be around. Although, to be honest, Piper didn’t want to necessarily go find the boys, because while she did enjoy being around the other two Teppenpaw first years, she also wanted to get some one on one roommate bonding outside their dorm time with Levi too. “Whatever you want because I have nobody I want to avoid and I can’t really pick an animal I want to see most.”
11
Piper Wilson
We could consulte the map or guide or something.
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
May 19, 2022 9:10 PM
Not that I'm bold enough to say. by Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Ray shifted her weight back and forth a bit, biting her lip through a smirk at her boyfriend. She wasn't sure how she wanted to play this one out and it was weird for her to feel like a kid and a grown up all at once. "I've heard of different things people do on dates," she said slowly, taking half a step closer so the only space between them was the room it took for their clasped hands to be pressed between their stomachs. "But I don't know if there's like an age limit or something? Or a time period thing? Like how long are we supposed to be dating before we do date stuff?"Her stomach was swirling around but settled as determination made its way there and she used her free hand to brush some of Billy's hair out of his face before leaning forward and softly kissing his cheek. It irritated her that she had to stand on her tiptoes but also she thought it was kind of cute. The hand she'd used to brush her hair away had landed on his shoulder as a way to brace herself as she'd leaned forward and she patted him with it when she leaned back, grinning at him.
"What about you?" she teased. "Any ideas?"
"Ooh you're definitely gonna be like a chipmunk or something," she told ribbed when he said it would be a manifestation of his soul. That was a horrifying thing to think about in all honesty. What if she did it and turned into a cockroach or something? That wasn't a good way to be cool. "Looking around here is a good idea." She liked snakes well enough but couldn't help Billy turned into something a bit more snuggly. Which was a weird thought and one she quickly brushed aside.
She had a lot of questions about the process, specifically what might happen if there was not a lightning storm in time. Since Sonora was charmed to a pretty rainy environment, there were storms relatively often, but usually not anything so intense as Billy might need. What if it was late? Or early? Or never? A month from now, if he started today, it would be getting warmer out anyway. She couldn't help grinning at his excitement, though, or his confidence.
"Watch, you'll get a chicken. Some good wings will do you then," she laughed. "Alright, I'm in. But only to help you. I don't think anyone needs my soul animal wandering around. Besides, who's gonna sneak you in places if you don't have a human teammate?"
22
Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Not that I'm bold enough to say.
1525
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Gwendolyn Brockert
May 20, 2022 9:08 AM
Great. What's step two? by Gwendolyn Brockert
Gwendolyn knew very little about Fortune Ardovini, just that he was a Pecari in her year and played Quidditch. Those things in themselves were not enough to go on. She might have been slightly wary, given that there was a certain type of Quidditch obsessed jock, often in Pecari but not always, that looked down on…people who weren’t, People like her dad, and to an extent, herself.She generally considered herself to be somewhat tougher than to be that upset about people like that thinking less of her, believing them to be the problem but that didn’t mean that she wanted to be around them. They were still people to be avoided. In part, because Gwendolyn did not want to be in position to tell them exactly what she thought of them. She honestly did not like to fight with people and generally did what she could not to be in situations where such a thing might occur.
However, Gwendolyn had seen no sign of these…glaring personality flaws in Fortune. Besides, stereotyping people based even on something like what house they were in was wrong. After all, there were certainly damaging stereotypes about someone like her-biracial, pureblood,and even female-that she would not take kindly to. At all.
Plus, there were negative things people could say about her house and someone could just as easily assume that an Aladren was a know-it-all who thought themselves intellectually superior and looked down on anyone who wasn’t similarly oriented. Like looking down on someone who was not very bright-which they couldn’t help-or someone who was just not as…into intellectual pursuits regardless of their actual capacity for such things. Merlin knew that Gwendolyn knew smart people who weren’t interested in academics such as Aunt Chelsea.
Also, her aunt was basically the perfect example of someone that the first year would not want to have as someone who represented all Aladrens. In fact, she had to look no further than her own family to see that each house was full of diverse personalities even if they were united by some common quality. Gwendolyn, Aunt Chelsea and Uncle Evan were all extremely different from each other. In fact, Uncle Evan seemed different from every person on the planet.
So therefore, it would be as wrong to lump Fortune in with the Pecaris who sucked because he didn’t really seem to suck as it would to lump Gwendolyn in with Aladrens who confused intellectual superiority with moral superiority or Aunt Chelsea.
And he was being polite, which was a good start. “You don’t need to call me Miss Brockert, Gwendolyn is fine.” She told her classmate. “And let’s go with the latter. It sounds much more interesting.”
11
Gwendolyn Brockert
Great. What's step two?
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Alexei Vorontsov
May 20, 2022 5:31 PM
It's bespozvonochnyy. by Alexei Vorontsov
Amethyst had many things going for her as company. He'd sort of accidentally become friends with her in much the same way he'd accidentally become friends with Iris. She was pleasant enough company, and pretty. Her name was a noun, but it was a noun which was actually very close to the word for it in Russian! Except for one problem....Th.
Th was among the banes of his existence. There were so many English words which used that construction, and some of the most common words were among the worst offenders, and while he wasn't like Tatiana, who didn't usually attempt the 'thuh' sound outside of formal settings and more or less substituted in casual settings by using the nearest syllable that did exist in Russian and talking fast enough that people didn't distinctly make out individual sound units, Alexei knew he still skipped it sometimes, especially in words that were close to Russian except for it. He expected that if they joined up with anyone else at some point, he'd end up slipping and calling her 'Ametist' instead of Am-ath-est at least once, but could only hope it was one of those things where he noticed far more than listeners did.
"Thank you," he said when she accepted the offer, avoiding her name for now. "Hm - there?" he suggested, pointing to a word he didn't immediately recognize in English. It began with in, which was a word in and of itself, but could be mashed together with other words sometimes to mean different things - since a 'deed' was an action, he assumed this was a case where it meant something like "not." It also had one of what he and Tatiana called the lying letters in it - one he automatically read as making a 'buh' sound, but which made the 'vuh' sound in English...just as the letter that did go 'buh' in Russian went 'vuh' in English! He hadn't struggled with English as much as Tatya had, but he understood, at least, why his sister had wavered in a half-English half-Cyrillic scrawl when it came to her own name for a long time before she'd finally rebelled and refused to transliterate her name on her school papers anymore. Borontsob and Vorontsov were distinctly different words.
"I do not know what it says," he admitted, figuring this was probably a good idea up front. "I see 'in' and 'vert' in it - I know 'vert' in French, but that word is 'green' here - in-vert, that's a word, no? Creatures there are upside down?"
16
Alexei Vorontsov
It's bespozvonochnyy.
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Graham Osbrook
May 20, 2022 6:02 PM
Here's hoping nothing here senses stress.... by Graham Osbrook
He had, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to drop playing Quidditch formally this year because of his CATS, but Graham had started to wonder if that had been a mistake. He could have really used some kind of - pressure valve, he guessed, something more socially acceptable than sometimes screaming at teakettle-like volumes, and there was nothing like a Bludger to the stomach for taking one's mind off stuff like exams. It was kind of hard to think of anything after taking a Bludger to the stomach, actually, except 'oh god I'm gonna die,' which was....At least it wasn't exams?
As they set out on a field trip, though, Graham began to wonder if perhaps his parents had had a point about CATS - or if, alternatively, he was teetering so close to the brink of a nervous breakdown and a lifetime of being loomed over by one of his mother's colleagues that a breeze would blow him over it. It had to be one or the other, he reasoned, because he really couldn't think of a lot of other explanations for why being on a field trip was, at least right now, making him feel more stressed out about exams. Apparently, at some point, without even really realizing it, he'd started thinking that if he wasn't in class, he ought to be studying, and obviously, if he was walking around looking at animals, he...wasn't studying. Not exactly, anyway. Or, more specifically, wasn't studying the subjects he was worried about; he'd gotten it into his head that he was going to fail Potions spectacularly, look really stupid compared to his little sister, and that the family was going to regard him as a shame and a reproach upon their house for all eternity. It didn't matter how often he reminded himself that the CATS were supposed to assess averageness, and that he was generally pretty average across the board. The idea had gotten into his head and would not go away, aided by the fact that he knew for a fact that all adults were liars. His father sold things for a living and his mother was a psychologist. The day he believed anything that came out of an adult's mouth would...at least probably be at some time long after he himself was also an adult.
He had, though, been neglecting studying for Care of Magical Creatures in his panic over other classes, so he tried to think of this as the universe intervening to make sure he covered all his bases. Plus, Care of Magical Creatures and Potions had a fair bit of overlap, so he could kind of count it toward studying for the exam he'd become obsessed with, right?
With that thought in mind, he shuffled through the worksheets, trying to decide where to go first, while his brain was only about half made of mush. When someone appeared near him, he looked up. "Hi," he said. "Want to be partners? Or go see reptiles first or birds?"
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Graham Osbrook
Here's hoping nothing here senses stress....
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Eben Sosna
May 20, 2022 6:29 PM
New game idea, Angry *Magic* Birds. by Eben Sosna
Magic field trips, in Eben's view, had a lot of things going for them. He'd had no interest in shopping for the Ball last year, but the location of the market had allowed for seeing a real abandoned Old West town full of ghosts, which he could hardly consider uncool. This year, they were going to the magic zoo, and that, too, had a lot of potential to be interesting, at least if his Care of Magical Creatures textbook was anything to go by. He'd been looking forward to the trip since it had been announced and was glad to be on it. Magic field trips were great. Getting to them, on the other hand....Well, nobody had ever said wizards were perfect. That was why the introductions to some of the books mentioned that 'figure out better spells' was a legitimate job, kind of like the magic equivalent of being an engineer, he guessed. The mechanisms these guys used to travel could use some...refining. He'd put it on his to-do list for when he learned the interesting stuff reserved for the older students, and he added a reminder to it as he reached the zoo. He'd make a killing, become respected by at least magic smart people, and do a good deed all in one go, who could ask for more than that?
For now, he put his glasses back on carefully, managing to get them back over his nose without stabbing himself in the eye with the parts that hooked around his ears. This was not usually that much of an accomplishment, but wizard travel was...special in so many ways.
He forgot about that, though, as Professor Skies gave them worksheets (Eben tried to keep a straight face as he received his; in his old school, he'd found these kinds of activities really boring, but he'd gathered that it wasn't exactly the Aladren thing to do to admit disinterest in anything academic. For the first time in his life, he was, if not a Super Popular Cool Kid, at least not dealing with stuff like people playing keep-away with his glasses after stealing them off his head. For the first time in his life, therefore, he had a reason to care about fitting in, since his House seemed on the whole willing to let him do so and the rest of the school seemed at least mostly chill as well) and instructions. He rose on his toes, as though to look over the heads of taller students at the signs, and then noticed what he was doing and came back to the ground as the group started to fracture into mini-groups.
"Want to go look at magic birds?" he asked a likely partner enthusiastically.
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Eben Sosna
New game idea, Angry *Magic* Birds.
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Henry Spellman
May 20, 2022 9:28 PM
You're joining years late, buddy. by Henry Spellman
Henry and Oz had a markedly better relationship now than they had before. He wouldn't have guessed that their shared criminal associations would be the thing that brought them together but it had. He was very glad, and he suspected Oz was as well, that their mom's new house - he supposed it was actually theirs too but it didn't feel like it yet - was only two bedrooms and the twins still got to share when they were there. It was the little things like that that might have once irritated him but now he appreciated. There were a lot of ways twins were lumped together in life and only a few ways in which they actually wanted to be. Coming to Sonora had made it all the more evident how different the two brothers were and it seemed only right to cling to the few remaining ways they were the same.Despite that, Henry couldn't help feeling a little miffed whenever Xavier approached him in class or socially. Didn't this dude know that Henry and Oz shared a face (barely; Henry didn't really think they looked that much alike anyway) and that was about it? Being friends with Oz was great and Henry was glad Oz was friends with someone who he seemed to really care about and who wasn't total crap, but Xavier didn't seem to have gotten the memo yet that his friendship with Oz didn't have to extend to Henry. It was hard to figure out whether it was sympathy for the less popular of the twins that drove him to reach out, or perhaps his own loneliness. Using Henry as an Oz-surrogate when the real deal wasn't available wasn't exactly a great way to win Henry over.
Still, they were meant to be working together on this thing that was apparently not just a fun outing but was actually academic, and Henry didn't have any other prospects lined up to snatch him, so he agreed.
"Where to first?" he asked with a flat smile, his way of quietly acknowledging that they had a task to do. He was a rule follower so he'd do it, but he would've liked a field trip that was actually just a day off. Sonora was harder than their school back home had been and he actually missed the ease sometimes. Only sometimes though. Xavier seemed . . . something. Emotions weren't Henry's forte, but the way he'd asked had seemed loaded. Maybe it was that sympathy Henry hated so much to hear. Pity. Ugh. "Oz is probably gonna go for anything marked dangerous or flammable," he considered out loud, not sure if Xavier would prefer to follow along that way or not. Henry wasn't too keen to watch Oz on a date. "I like the aquarium type stufff if they've got it. I've never been to a magic zoo."
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Henry Spellman
You're joining years late, buddy.
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Augustine Reed-Fischer
May 20, 2022 9:37 PM
Nah, I gotchu, girl. by Augustine Reed-Fischer
Gus had two roommates and thus two friends. Well, he had other friends, but like . . . mostly just his roommates. They were the ones he hung out with the most. Well, okay, so mostly he hung out with Billy.Starting over. Gus had one friend and a ton of acquaintances. Since his roommates, one of whom was a friend and one of whom was kind of a friend but also possibly didn't like him at all, which was fine, both had girlfriends now, Gus was basically left on his own. Again, that was fine. Jezebel and Patience had always played together since they were both girls, and Marcus was never that interested in someone like him. Dathan also had a girlfriend and was also not his age and was also not his friend.
Gus wasn't entirely sure if he wanted a girlfriend but he did think girls were pretty (most of them at least, so long as they weren't his sisters) and he thought maybe it would be nice to hang out with one today. He didn't have any other real strong preferences other than not throwing up as he got out of the magic teleporter situation, and hopefully seeing some of the animals from the African exhibits. Zoos rarely bothered to sort things out properly by where in Africa, so he was pretty well resigned to just seeing whatever was there. It was weird to think that his mom, who wasn't magic at all, had been born someplace that had these wild magic animals and she just didn't know it. Maybe she couldn't see them, maybe they were just livin' their best lives out away from people without magic. He could kind of understand that.
He was lingering a bit, watching people pair off, when he saw one of his classmates and one of the many people related to the Headmaster - he knew because they had the same last name and fancy faces - standing around looking uncomfortable. For a moment, he actually took the time to hesitate and consider, thinking about whether or not anyone else seemed to be approaching her or whether she seemed to be waiting for someone in particular. Since no one appeared in the 0.2 seconds Gus gave to that moment of thought, he figured there was no harm in at least asking.
"Hey," he said, approaching the girl that he was pretty sure was named Island. She was real pretty and he couldn't help feeling a bit puffed up and swell just talking to her. "Do you want to partner up? I wanna see the African animal exhibits but we can see other stuff too. Whatever you want to start with," he said.
OOC: Erumpents are, from what I can find online, African animals. I'm not sure if he knows what an erumpent is or if Isla knows they're African, but wanted to drop some context. :)
22
Augustine Reed-Fischer
Nah, I gotchu, girl.
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Christopher Brockert
May 21, 2022 11:34 AM
Not a fan of anything angry. How about just Magic Birds? by Christopher Brockert
OOC: CW-Brief mention of psychological abuse BIC:
Chris couldn’t help but be slightly worried about the trip to the zoo. Not the zoo part itself, which was cool and interesting and even the animals that would want to eat him, would be safely behind glass. In fact, Christopher generally preferred animals to people, if he really thought about it, because unless it was a dangerous thing that wanted to eat him, he probably wasn’t going to find one to be a source of conflict.
And even then, it wasn’t going to be one where he was judged or criticized or yelled at or mocked or bullied. In fact, said dangerous creature was arguably judging him in a fairly positive manner because being thought of as something tasty was something good. Chris thought pie was tasty, he had pleasant, positive feelings for pie.
Not that he wanted to be eaten of course.Pie existed to be eaten, the Crotalus did not. However, it was still better to be thought of as tasty than to be berated because he disliked Quidditch and wasn’t super macho. Or any of the other myriad of things that humans judged and criticized and fought with each other about, that was just the one he was most used to.
Anyway, the real issue about this whole field trip was that Chris was going to have to have a partner. Not that he exactly wanted to be alone anyway. If that had been an option and he took it, well, he’d look like that loser that nobody wanted to be around. He would be an object of mockery by his peers. Which of course was something that Christopher tried to avoid. Plus, even if nobody said anything or noticed, he’d still feel pretty bad about himself, and instead of enjoying the zoo and the break from the daily school routine, he’d have that horrible voice in his head that sounded an awful lot like Uncle Eustace’s telling him all the reasons why he was alone and had no friends.
Never mind that whenever the second year stopped to logically think about it, the reason that he didn’t have a lot of friends was that he was incredibly wary of anyone he didn’t know well, because of the psychological-he was just going to say it-abuse heaped upon him by his uncle. It was because of Uncle Eustace that Chris was afraid people were going to be unfriendly and by the time he realized otherwise, it was too late and everyone already had friends.
And therefore, he was worried that everyone would pair off and he would end up with someone awful. Of course, the people that the Crotalus would most want to avoid tended to, for some unfathomable reason,have a ton of friends. Also, fortunately, he could not think of anyone off the top of his head who was like his uncle but Chris was still at a place where he wasn’t completely sure of any of the first years, minus the ones in Teppenpaw, just because people like Uncle Eustace didn’t go into Teppenpaw.
Maybe he’d go find Verdillia. She seemed to like being around him.
However, before he could go find the other Crotalus, Eben Sosna approached him. “Sure.” Christopher replied. The Aladren seemed to be a perfectly nice person, and he certainly wasn’t going to be criticizing Chris for not being a jock given that the other second year seemed to be an eccentric nerd who his uncle would have likely beat up in school. Which was something that Chris definitely did not mean as an insult. In fact, it was something that made Ben a safe and therefore appealing person to pair off with
11
Christopher Brockert
Not a fan of anything angry. How about just Magic Birds?
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Billy Cobb
May 21, 2022 12:54 PM
You don't exactly strike me as the 'meek' sort by Billy Cobb
"What?!" Billy exclaimed, "A chipmunk? Bah! I'm gunna be something cool like a wolf or a be..." he hesitated thinking back over his experiences with large woodland creatures, "panther." he finished a bit awkwardly. He'd never seen one of them before, but they sounded neat. He was a little disappointed when Ray said she didn't want to do it as well, but she'd help him! That was awesome! "I think you'd have an awesome soul animal, like a lioness or a hawk." He had to admit she had a semi-fair point about having a human teammate, but... "You're assuming I'd be somethin' you could fit in your pocket." He responded with a wink. Although, for some reason the thought of him riding around in one of Ray's pockets sounded nice. He grinned, "You think I'd be like Archie, huh?" Billy scooped his pet from his pocket where he almost always was.Billy thought Ray looked a touch, nervous? Why? He again thought about what he'd heard about what folks did on 'dates', but they never really happened back home much. From what he'd learned around here, you went out someplace with someone you liked and there weren't really any place 'out' to go back home. Arrangements were just made and that was that. He did catch his breath as Ray stepped in closer and he found his hand pressing against her stomach as hers pressed into his. "I... I dunno," he managed to get out as he stared into her pretty eyes. There was some squirmy feeling going on somewhere in the region where her hand was pressed against him.
At the gentle touch of Ray's fingers and the soft touch of her kiss on his cheek, all manner of ideas flooded through the fourteen year old's brain. Not many of them were 'date ideas' to him though, as far as he knew they were more for after the relationship had been officially established. He was also quite glad that she wasn't entirely pressed up against more of him at the moment. Her grin and teasing question weren't helping none. What was he supposed to do?!
Billy did his best to grin back, "Well, we don't really have datin' back home, but from what I'd heard 'round here there's flowers and candy involved?" His mouth was off running again on it's own, his brain was distracted with other thoughts. Kissing, that was another thing that he'd heard was involved. Apparently Ray had heard that as well. Billy had never been one to think things through properly, Ray had kissed him and he sure wanted to kiss her back. So he did. He didn't know at all how it worked, but he also knew he wasn't aiming for her cheek. He lowered his head to bring his lips to her own lovely ones.
2
Billy Cobb
You don't exactly strike me as the 'meek' sort
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Lavender Brockert
May 22, 2022 1:25 PM
Unless it's something with a calming effect. by Lavender Brockert
Lavender really wished that she could spend the day hanging out at the zoo with Val, just the two of them. It never seemed as if they really got to spend as much time together as the Crotalus would like. She knew some of it was just because Val was trying to do school work that she had trouble with but really, was there any reason why she couldn’t study with Lavender rather than Bonabelle? If anything, certainly Lavender would be less of a distraction than the Aladren since Bonabelle was Val’s girlfriend and the Teppenpaw would want to do…things that people in relationships did with Bonabelle, which she presumably didn’t with Lavender.Also, what Val seemed to have issues with most was Transfig, which was something that the Crotalus was particularly gifted in more than any other subject so when the other fifth year wanted help from Bonabelle in it, rather than Lavender it was just all the more insulting.
Although, studying wasn’t really what the Crotalus wanted to do with her friend. At this point, this close to CATS, Lavender didn’t really want to study with anyone. Or study by herself. Or study at all, period. She was just plain sick and tired of studying when all she wanted to do was, well, at this point, just about anything else.
She wanted to relax and not have to think for a bit, whether it be about schoolwork and CATS or about problems she had in her social life like her best friend not having as much time for Lavender as the Crotalus would like because said best friend was too busy with her human black hole of a girlfriend (as well as most likely the studying that was dominating the lives of most, if not all, of the fifth and seventh years at this time) to spend as much time with Lavender as she would like.
At least there was prefect patrolling. They at least had that time together sometimes.
Unfortunately, the fifth year couldn’t stop, slow down and relax. Not really. If she did for a moment, the fears that she had around failing her CATS came back in full force. Even though Lavender didn’t need really good scores the way some of her peers did for college and careers and whatnot. She was lucky that way but doing poorly on her tests would reflect poorly on her abilities as a witch and that was definitely not something that the Crotalus was okay with.
Even today, with this lovely field trip that provided a break that they all so desperately needed, Lavender couldn’t get away from her worries. First of all, there was still that nagging thought in her mind that she probably should be studying. However, the bigger issue was the social aspect, especially considering she could still more or less study for Care of Magical Creatures somewhat, or at least she could justify it to herself that way. As much as she might want to hang out with Val, Lavender was sure that the Teppenpaw would either have an entire entourage, which wasn’t the same, even if some of that group contained the Crotalus’s own cousins, or she’d go off with just Bonabelle.
So, Lavender wasn’t even going to bother trying. Thank Merlin that she had someone else to hang out with. Since Val was often busy, the Crotalus had been spending more time with Graham and she was getting closer to her housemate. So, instead of trying to find Val and worry about whether or not she’d be able to partner off with her or if Bonabelle would get her way and hog the Teppenpaw the way she usually did, Lavender decided to join Graham instead. “Sure.” She replied. “I was just going to ask you if you wanted to pair off. And I think I’d prefer birds.”
11
Lavender Brockert
Unless it's something with a calming effect.
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Reighleigh Mae Thorn
May 22, 2022 4:02 PM
Seems like you're the one showing me up. by Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Ray grinned, flattered that Billy thought so highly of her soul animal possibilities, although she felt bad that she'd taken the opportunity to dunk on him and he wasn't taking the bait."You're gonna be awesome too," she promised, letting her voice get soft so he knew she wasn't joking this time. "Maybe a bear. Or yeah like that!" she said when he took out Archie. It was funny because Archie was usually hidden away on Billy and so it should've been easy to forget about him, but he seemed important to Ray, like a tiny third friend and trouble-maker.
There was a lot going on in Billy's face when Ray kissed his cheek and she wasn't sure what to make of all she saw there but she was very sure it excited her. Just the look in his eyes made her want to do it again and she suddenly felt like the zoo was simultaneously very public and very private all at once. They were the only two in the world, and also there were other students and professors and stuff all over the place.
"I like flowers and candy," Ray breathed in response to Billy's other suggestions. They weren't where her mind had gone but she could accept them as valid alternatives. It was then very suddenly hard to breathe as Billy leaned in and a big decision suddenly needed to be made. It was an easy one though and Ray pulled her hand free and wrapped both arms around Billy's neck, standing up on tip toes to enthusiastically accept his mouth with her own.
She was pretty sure first kisses were supposed to be polite things, soft pecks stolen in the moonlight, but this one made her hungry in a very warm way in her belly and she was perfectly content to keep kissing Billy until he pulled away. Or she had to breathe.
When they finally did pull apart, she grinned at him, her cheeks flush and her eyes bright with mischief and excitement.
"Ten out of ten," she told him. "We should do that more often."
22
Reighleigh Mae Thorn
Seems like you're the one showing me up.
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Freddie Zauberhexen
May 22, 2022 4:34 PM
First up: Ellie! by Freddie Zauberhexen
Freddie had been doing his best to balance his time between Philippe, Anya, and Ellie, but it was definitely a challenge. Some of the overlap in life helped, like going to the LGBTQ+ picnic event things Ellie hosted, but it wasn't the same as spending time individually with any of his favorite people."I'm going first to go with Ellie," he told Philippe before they took the Portkey to the zoo. He grinned at his boyfriend and kissed the hand he was holding. "Then we meet and do half zoo together?"
He tried never to assume Philippe wanted to spend all his time with him either and was confident the younger Teppenpaw would have plenty to occupy him for the first half of the trip while Freddie caught up with his friend, but wanted to make sure he communicated that too.
When they arrived to the zoo and parted ways, with one final googly grin at Philippe, Freddie made his way through the students to find Ellie. He said her name before putting a hand on her shoulder so she'd know he was approaching and not freak out and then slipped into a hug when there was a chance.
Today, his hair was mostly just a faded rainbow of the colors he'd added over the past few months. He rarely bothered to take colors out since his hair was light enough to dye without bleach, so he layered colors in instead. Since he'd been studying in most of his free time between socializing (which wasn't very much time but he did try to study sometimes while socializing too and that helped), his hair was just a mush of faded vibrancy. It was a parody of his own excitement though, which was eager and bright-eyed despite a certain tiredness that always seemed to plague students at this time of year. He grinned at Ellie, happy that he could take this time to prioritize spending time with people he cared about rather than read anything. Ugh.
"We go together? I meet Philippe later. Now, I am all yours!" he grinned. "Any creature you want see now?"
22
Freddie Zauberhexen
First up: Ellie!
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Sapphire Brockert
May 22, 2022 6:12 PM
So very true by Sapphire Brockert
OOC: CW-Internalized ableism and massive self loathing. BIC:
Sapphire managed a relieved smile when Morgan Garret greeted her and asked if she wanted to be partners. It meant that, well, she had someone to hang out with. That there was someone at Sonora aside from her siblings and cousins who did not find the idea of her company completely abhorrent. Well, she supposed Sadie also fit into that category but the younger Crotalus had a boyfriend here at school leaving her to be likely otherwise occupied.
More importantly though,Morgan asking her meant Sapphire wouldn’t have to be left trying to decide whether or not to risk rejection by asking someone to pair with her or being placed with someone who didn’t want to go with her, and being that person that someone got stuck with.
This was something that the Crotalus always worried about. Being the one left over or left out. The one that nobody wanted. This was how Sapphire often felt here at school. Like nobody truly liked her and that she didn’t belong. That she was as defective and stupid as Topaz said she was. That was the way she generally felt at school, like she wasn’t good enough. Most people did not seem the least bit interested in her.
And quite honestly, Sapphire was unsure whether or not she blamed them for it. After all, it depended on their reasons. If the reasons had to do with her being a pureblood when they weren’t and them assuming that meant that she was snobby and awful, then that was unfair and mildly hypocritical because then they were the ones rejecting her based on her blood status rather than the other way around.
It would also be upsetting if they were looking down on her for being quiet and shy. Or for her epilepsy-which she didn’t really think that people knew about since even her own parents hadn’t noticed it and her classmates also never noticed her- or for her lack of intelligence. Sapphire could never decide whether them not being interested in her was valid or not. She knew herself to not be an especially worthwhile person but at the same time, any of those theories, none of which that she really had proof of but any one of which would provide a reason for why she’d been rejected by her classmates, when thought of logically were unfair and absolutely horrid reasons to exclude someone. It wasn’t as if she were like Topaz.
So, Sapphire was exceedingly grateful to Morgan for asking her to be partners. Plus, while they were hardly close, she had always thought the Aladren seemed nice. Actually, considering the current situation, Morgan was extremely nice. To reach out to the pathetic loser whom almost nobody liked was, like, something Ruby or Owen or Cory would do.
She beamed at the Aladren. “I’d love to!” Sapphire replied. “Thank you so much, I really appreciate this. Where do you want to go?” She was so grateful that she was happy to let Morgan pick out where they went.
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Sapphire Brockert
So very true
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Amethyst Brockert
May 23, 2022 4:13 PM
That...seems hard to pronounce by Amethyst Brockert
OOC: CW- Psychological abuse alluded to BIC:
“You’re welcome.” Amethyst replied. Honestly, it was no problem. She was more than happy to walk around with Alexei. He was one of her closest friends at Sonora and she always enjoyed his
company. It would be nice to get some one-on-one time with him today and she was sure they would have fun together. Of course, it was fun to spend time with Iris too, but Amethyst appreciated what she was sure the other Crotalus was trying to do here and she was never one to turn down an opportunity.
She looked down at the word that Alexei had pointed to. “Invertebrate.” She answered. “It’s basically an animal that doesn’t have a spine.” It was a word that Amethyst knew well from Topaz using it to describe Allegra and Sapphire. Only, her older sister wasn’t using it in an insulting way per se. The way she said it was almost…proud. Like she was responsible for their sister’s and their cousin’s metaphorical lack of spine.
Which she probably sort of was. Allegra was only a few months younger than Topaz so her whole life or at least from very early on in it, the Aladren alumna had dominated her. Tortured her. Made her feel hopeless about the situation and helpless to escape it. Like if she fought back or spoke out things would only be worse for her. It was the same with Sapphire but there was also that added component where Topaz had made the seventh year doubt her intellectual capabilities.
And the way Topaz talked about how Sapphire and Allegra were “invertebrates” was, like, super creepy. It was like she was saying that she had them under her control. That they would do her bidding and never stand up to her. Like it was something that the former Aladren had deliberately set out to do. Although it seemed more that she was trying to make Allegra into her slave/minion whereas she was simply bulllying Sapphire.
Not that that wasn’t absolutely horrible as well.The seventh year had tremendously low self-esteem especially surrounding anything academic such as her upcoming RATS exams. Sapphire was absolutely freaking out over them even though she certainly seemed glad to be leaving school. Which made sense because it meant she’d never have to worry about anything academic ever again after she got through this tremendous hurdle of RATS. Amethyst wished her sister would calm down before she made herself sick, however. It wasn’t as if Sapphire needed good scores for anything other than prove to herself and Topaz that she wasn’t stupid. Though Amethyst supposed that proving Topaz wrong was a valid enough reason to want to do well. However, she wasn’t sure it was worth someone’s health and sanity.
She looked at Alexei. “So, they’re like jellyfish and lobsters, stuff like that. If that’s something you find interesting, we can go there first.” Personally,the Crotalus probably would have picked something furry and cute, but she was fine with invertebrates.
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Amethyst Brockert
That...seems hard to pronounce
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Billy Cobb
May 23, 2022 5:40 PM
Is this a competition? by Billy Cobb
"Heh... yeah." Billy responded with just a bit of uncertainty in his voice when Ray suggested a bear. The idea of him being like Archie snapped him back to his previous mood though. "You'd just love that, wouldn't you?" He replied with a grin and a wink. "I guess I could think of worse things than hanging out in your pockets." He looked around the area again, the snakes were neat and all, but he wasn't sure he quite felt 'snake-like' He liked runnin' around on his legs to much and snakes didn't have none. Nah, he'd have to turn into something with legs.Billy hadn't been sure what he was doing when he leaned down to Ray. He hadn't been sure how she'd react. Frankly, he'd expected a light punch to the stomach, a step out of the way, and a snarky but fun comment about gettin' mushy. Instead when she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought her lips up to meet his, he was in shock. In that moment he was certain he didn't know what he was doing, but he liked it. He wrapped his own arms around Ray's back and pulled her in tight while he just let everything else figure out what it was supposed to do on it's own. Occasionally it worked out, this time it did.
Finally they had to separate and Billy was sure he'd never seen Ray look quite like she at that moment. He was grinning away as well. "That might be the first perfect score I got at the school." He said with a chuckle, "I agree, more often sound like a great idea." Unfortunately he caught sight of some movement from the corner of his eye. Some of the other students had moved around a bit and gotten closer. He didn't think it looked like they saw nothing though. "I guess maybe another time though." As he indicated their fellow group mates getting a bit closer. "I wonder what's in those pens over that way?" he asked while indicating a more deserted area of the snake and reptile zone.
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Billy Cobb
Is this a competition?
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Ellie Alperton
May 24, 2022 5:23 AM
And unicorns? by Ellie Alperton
Ellie had always been an optimistic sort. Not to the point of naivety—after all, she’d had enough to contend with in life not to believe that everything was sunshine and roses. She was an optimist though, in that she usually bounced back. She found reasons to be cheerful.Freddie was splitting his time at the zoo. Part of that still stung, but it was a wound she’d learnt to live with by now. It was a dull ache, whenever she was reminded that Philippe was something to Freddie that she never had been—and by the looks of things, never would be. For a while, she had wished there was someone like Freddie for her. And then she had realised that, within the limited confines of Sonora, there was no such thing. There was only Freddie. And that therefore wanting someone like Freddie really only meant one thing… Now, with graduation and the wild world looming, it was possible again to believe in daydream people. When she’d been stuck scrambling for a ball date, there really hadn’t been any other fish in the sea. Soon, that wouldn’t be true anymore. It meant that she could look on the bright side that at least she got part of him, rather than being bitter than she only got part of him.
She smiled at him, trying to count the colours in his hair. He looked like a box of pastel chalk had been dumped through it. That was beautiful in itself, but she knew it wasn’t the case, and she also had the memory of each of those colours being vivid and new – she had the memories of the whole year of bright, bold colours that had led to this point.
“Unicorns!” she smiled. “I will never get over them being real, or get tired of looking at them. Unless you want to do that with Philippe?” she added. Horses were kind of his thing. She didn’t want to toe step—she actually, truly didn’t. She also didn’t add ‘Or if you think he’s going there first’ because she didn’t want it to sound like she wanted to avoid him, even if she did. She might have finished her sour grapes over the situation, but if she was getting Special Friend Time, she wanted to actually get it without him looking over their shoulders.
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Ellie Alperton
And unicorns?
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Isla Brockert
May 24, 2022 3:03 PM
Excellent! by Isla Brockert
Isla smiled when Gus approached her. It occurred to her that the Pecari was in a similar position to herself as his friends/roommates-she wasn’t actually sure how good of friends that he was with Oz, who mostly seemed to like Xavier…and, of course, Lorena-had girlfriends while he was by himself, just like her. So, maybe he was feeling the same way that Isla was. Lonely and left out.And she felt bad that she felt like that. Rosalynn had been with Tommy as long as Isla had known her and Lorena absolutely deserved to have someone special who really liked her. Especially since she seemed so happy to have a boy interested in her. Isla felt like she should just be happy for them and she mostly was. She didn’t feel like they neglected her and on an ordinary day, Isla was perfectly alright with doing her own thing if they both wanted to go off with their boyfriends. She just worried about things like the ball which was very couple-y obviously or this field trip where she needed a partner.
Or like, things like talking about boys where she was obviously less experienced.The fourth year didn’t think either of her friends was like, super experienced, Lorena in particular hadn’t even been with Oz very long, but like…they were still more so than Isla and she felt sort of babyish compared to her friends.
Not to mention that they both shared something that she didn’t. Which was pretty much the main issue. She felt like she was different than her friends and not in a way that meant she was unique and okay with it. More like her friends had something to bond over that she couldn’t. Even having a boyfriend that did not go to school here would help with this problem but Isla wasn’t allowed to have one until she was sixteen anyway.
Truthfully, she wasn’t entirely sure that she was ready for one anyway. Plus, the Aladren did not want to have a boyfriend just to have one. She wanted to meet someone she truly liked, to have it be something special and romantic. Not everyone was like Rosalynn or Owen who met their true love when they were eleven and Isla had yet to find someone she felt that way about, even if she had been allowed to date anyone.
Anyway, for today, she was just glad to have Gus ask her to hang out. Maybe they could become friends and hang out when their roommates were off with their significant others. Plus, well, the other fourth year seemed fairly pleasant. “That would be awesome!” She replied. “I was thinking of looking at the erumpets. They’re so rare because they only have one baby at a time and they tend to blow themselves up when trying to reproduce so seeing one is like a special treat.” Isla added “ I think they’re African too.”
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Isla Brockert
Excellent!
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Piper Wilson
May 25, 2022 8:18 PM
Yay penguins! by Piper Wilson
OOC: Continued from Levi's F and F post-https://sonora.terragenaonline.net/Boards/Post/62585 BIC:
“It’s no problem.” Piper replied. She wanted to see the penguins anyway. They generally really tended to be a fun animal to watch and were completely adorable. Besides, she was happy to make Levi happy. She generally liked to do nice things for people, not because she thought that it would make them like her better, but because Piper generally wanted people to be happy. Although, of course, she wanted people to like her too, it was secondary to the Teppenpaw.
Honestly, she really did not understand why people were mean to others. She did not have much personal experience with others being mean to her, hence not wanting to avoid any particular group because of anyone whom she didn’t want to be around. There wasn’t anyone here that she knew to be particularly unpleasant.
However, that did not mean that Piper could not think of examples of meanness and cruelty. Both her mom’s older sister Pearl and Pearl’s daughter Carrie were infamous for it particularly towards Ryan, who was Aunt Pearl’s son. The first year had never met either of them and she was glad.
Then there was Aunt Jillian, whose treatment of her daughters, Amity and Chaslyn, could not be considered the least bit kind and loving. Piper did know her, but Aunt Jillian paid little attention to her, although she was critical of Mom for not pushing Piper and Gabriel harder, just as she was critical of the rest of Piper’s aunts and uncles on that side of the family as well as Ryan and Sophie, for not pushing their children in a ton of activities. Aunt Jillian overvalued accomplishment and anyone who didn’t push their children in the same way was a bad parent in her opinion. Piper was not too young to understand that her aunt’s priorities were extremely messed up.
Also, Ryan and Tristan were both involved in careers that dealt with people who did bad things, as a social worker and an Auror respectively. So Piper knew people did bad things, she just had no idea why. She especially didn’t understand why someone would be mean to their own child. How could they have a baby and not love them instantly?
She also didn’t understand how in books and on wireless shows, the popular girls were always the mean ones. Why did anyone want to be friends with someone who treated people that way including sometimes their so-called friends? Just because they were pretty and from good families? (Which were also often the traits of these mean popular girls.) Those were not good reasons to make friends with someone.
Piper considered Levi’s question.”There’s so much! I really want to see everything. However, monkeys are always fun and as cheesy as it probably sounds, I want to see the prairie dogs. They’re so adorable. What about you? What do you want to see besides the penguins?”
11
Piper Wilson
Yay penguins!
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Leviosa Scurlock
May 26, 2022 6:04 AM
And prairie dogs by Leviosa Scurlock
“That’s not cheesy at all, that’s a great idea! We absolutely must get our picture with them!” Levi beamed when Piper suggested they go see the prairie dogs. Of course they should! It was a totally brilliant suggestion. For a second, her eyes searched around, looking for the Pierce twins, feeling like it should be all of them. But then she remembered her plan of this being a nice just-her-and-Piper memory. She was sure they wouldn’t mind. “We should find all the Sonora animals. Maybe the Ilvermorny ones too! Kind of like a scavenger hunt,” she smiled. Along with the actual worksheets they had to do.“Maybe we could find someone from each house to go with their animal, for the Sonora ones,” she suggested, and then realised the glowing problem with that. “Except I don’t really know people outside of Teppenpaw that well…” She felt a little guilty about that. Except it wasn’t intentional. It had been a busy year, with settling into schoolwork, and Teppenpaw having three other people was actually quite a lot to keep up with, especially when they were as bouncy as Lenny and Cole. But they were supposed to be the friendly house. “Is that bad of me?” she asked Piper.
13
Leviosa Scurlock
And prairie dogs
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Piper Wilson
May 26, 2022 2:05 PM
And hawks, rattlesnakes and wild boars. by Piper Wilson
“Thanks” Piper was glad that Levi liked her idea about seeing the prairie dogs. Which was every bit about the fact that they were cute as it was about them being the Teppenpaw mascot. Still, she was glad that her roommate didn’t think it was cheesy.Although, come to think of it, why was something being cheesy considered a negative thing? Cheese was delicious. It was in a lot of really great stuff like pizza and nachos and even just snacking on cheese was good. Why did it mean ,like, something that was over the top and goofy in a bad way? Something that was silly and dumb?
“That’s a great idea too!” Piper replied to her roommate’s suggestion about going around to all the different Sonora mascot animals and maybe Ilvermorny ones. Although she didn’t really know the latter and she was a little surprised that Levi did. After all, the other Teppenpaw was Welsh so it was surprising that she knew the house mascots of a school that she didn’t go to in a country that she wasn’t from. Piper was from America and didn’t know the house mascots of other American schools. “I’m not entirely sure what the ilvermorny ones are though.” She admitted.
She asked “How do you know them?” Since Levi had mentioned Ilvermorny house mascots and taking pictures with them, she assumed that the other Teppenpaw did. It would be strange to suggest finding a house mascot and taking a picture with it if you didn’t know what it was. “I mean, it’s really cool that you do though.” She added.
Piper considered her friend’s question.“I don’t think it’s bad at all,” she said. “Not everyone is a social butterfly. Or clicks with everyone. Plus, there are definite drawbacks to having too many friends. Like, how do you have time to have a close meaningful relationship with each of them? Especially considering all the other things you have to do, like school stuff. Not to mention like, if you have a friend who has trouble making friends,and only has you, then they might feel left out or as if they don’t matter as much to you so you need to make time for them.
Of course, those were the people who needed a friend the most and people should totally reach out to them. So far, Piper was unsure who those people were exactly. “However, you also need to make sure you have time for your other friends and if you have too many friends, you end up neglecting people or overextending yourself and a lot of the relationships end up superficial.”
The first year continued.”I don’t really know the other people outside our house that well either. Except for my brother and cousins,”she added. “Actually if we do this,we could always ask them. Gabriel is in Aladren, Wally and Lavender are in Crotalus and Stanley is in Pecari. Or we could look around in our group. We can get hawks first since we're going to look at the birds."
11
Piper Wilson
And hawks, rattlesnakes and wild boars.
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Fortune Ardovini
May 26, 2022 6:24 PM
Step two: Survive by Fortune Ardovini
Fortune grinned at Gwendolyn, she might not be so bad after all. He was glad, he wasn't really a fan when people were what you thought they should be. It made things so terribly dull, there wasn't any surprise in it at all. That did leave him with a minor dilemma though. Should he tell her that calling him Fortune was fine? That seemed like a really weird and kinda presumptuous thing to say to someone his own age, especially since he wasn't really anyone special. The thought of her thinking for a moment that she should call him Mr. Ardovini was just ludicrous in his own head. He could see it working better if he had some sort of nickname maybe, but 'Just call me Fort' sounded really dumb. So, he let it pass for the time being. Maybe he could figure out some other clever way to say something later."Well, it all started two long years ago," he began his 'slightly exaggerated and more exiting version' of the story as they walked with the small mammals group. "I was but a very young lad of nine years old and my sister had just recently turned one. Mom and Dad had decided to go on a bit of a vacation to see some sights and have some experiences. This very spot was on their list of destinations." He looked around at the things they were passing. It looked fairly familiar yet. "Upon this eventful day, Dad had bequeathed upon me a few sickles for snacks and such while we were here." He glanced at Gwendolyn, this wasn't a complicated story so it was more to see if she had now figured out where it was going rather than if she was keeping up with it.
"Alas, it was into this very zone into which we walk where the tragedy happened. As you may or may not know, Nifflers can be quite the insidious creatures. As I was to learn afterwards, one of the zoo's was particularly magnificent with that characteristic." He paused a moment for dramatic tension, "It was the dread Niffler known as 'Spaghetti'. Just as we arrived in the area, it escaped it's imprisonment and rampaged wildly through the innocent bystanders." He spoke now with growing enthusiasm, "Nothing shiny was safe from it's clutches! Before I knew it my sickles were gone and Mom had lost her necklace! There was chaos and pandemonium as everyone tried to stop the creature at once, but it was all to no avail!" he paused again to slow the story down. "Reports were filed, and eventually the creature was caught, but not until after we had returned home. The zoo recovered and returned Mom's necklace, but nothing was ever said for my poor sickles." He sighed overly dramatically. "I don't know if that creature is still here, or where he may have hidden my treasure. But I will seek him out, and I will do what must be done."
The story finished he grinned again at Gwendolyn again. "That's that. Do you have any exciting stories?"
2
Fortune Ardovini
Step two: Survive
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Lydia Priory
May 26, 2022 8:36 PM
Anyone need a partner? by Lydia Priory
Today was the field trip to the zoo and Lydia was not sure if she was excited or not. Some animals were pretty cool, like unicorns but then there were things like snakes which she was scared of. Which might be why she wasn’t better friends with Hans both because she was afraid of his snake and didn’t want to approach him when it was around and because Lydia didn’t think the other third year would like her too much due to said fear of his snake. Even though he’d always been perfectly nice to her like when he’d included her with the other Beginner Teppenpaws at the ball last year.However, seeing scary animals was not what Lydia was most worried about. She was much more worried about finding someone to hang out with. She didn’t have a lot of friends. Arguably, she didn’t actually have any. She wanted to believe she was friendly enough with the group of Teppenpaws that she’d hung out with at the ball but Liesl was kind of creepy and Hans had that snake that scared so much.
Then there was Gwendolyn, who was her cousin. Lydia was happy that the first year was here now and she had always been happy that she had someone in her family to spend time with since she was too young for Sophia, Bridget and Connor, although her brother still had always been willing to do things with her, unlike her sister. However, she knew that the Aladren also wanted to have other friends, and while a part of her felt a little hurt that Gwendolyn wanted to hang out with other people, in all honesty, Lydia also wanted friends besides her cousin.
The problem was though that she didn’t really feel like anyone wanted to be friends with her. When she met Iris at the Midsummer concert before they’d started school, she had really hoped they would be friends. Instead Iris was friends with Amethyst and while obviously people could have more than one friend, they weren’t as close as Lydia would have liked. In fact, she was unsure if Iris liked her at all.
Although, Lydia did not really fault Iris for preferring her roommate to the Teppenpaw. Amethyst was sophisticated and glamorous while the Teppenpaw was wimpy and babyish and needy. Hence why she did not think she had any friends and why she didn’t think that anyone other than Gwendolyn liked her. And Gwendolyn had to.
Of course, Sophia was supposed to like her too and Sophia didn’t.
Once Professor Skies finished talking, she looked around nervously for a partner. Lydia was sure that nobody would want to go with her but somebody had to. There was no choice. She could already see that Gwendolyn had paired off with another first year and Iris had as well. She honestly did not know what to do, she was terrified that if she asked someone, they would turn her down and she would be humiliated. Or one of the professors would see that she wasn’t paired off and put her with someone who might not be very nice and not want to be paired with her.
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Lydia Priory
Anyone need a partner?
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Leviosa Scurlock
May 27, 2022 6:50 AM
Let's get collecting! by Leviosa Scurlock
How did Levi know the Ilvermorny houses? It struck her as an odd question, coming from an American, as she thought it was the sort of thing one was supposed to know. Although, sometimes Levi got the feeling that Mama wanted them to seem like they’d swallowed encyclopaedias of magic, when no one else at all acted that way. This was feeling like one of those times. Mama had made sure to teach them all about various magical schools. The part that had stuck with Levi the best had been the different ways of representing the houses, especially for Ilvermorny, where they were such interesting creatures.
“Mama looked at a few different schools for us, so I read a bit about them,” she said. That part wasn’t entirely untrue, and it sounded less weird than just saying she’d read, or been made to read, a lot about them. She really had enjoyed learning about the schools after all. “And we read some books that were set there. Their animals are really interesting and magical too, so I guess they stuck,” she smiled, shrugging a little apologetically.
Piper definitely had some good insights into why it made sense to be selective with your friends. Levi really hadn’t thought about any of those points, she’d mostly just been too busy with getting her head around things, but the main point was that Piper didn’t think her a bad person or a bad Teppenpaw.
“Great,” she smiled, as Piper agreed to the plan, and even suggested a few possible candidates. “I guess we’ll just have to see who ends up in our group. This might be a good way to get to know some people in other houses,” she smiled.
13
Leviosa Scurlock
Let's get collecting!
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Gwendolyn Brockert
May 27, 2022 3:48 PM
Good plan by Gwendolyn Brockert
OOC: CW-Brief mention of infanticide and kidnapping. BIC:
Gwendolyn listened as Fortune told his tale, having a feeling that she knew where this was headed, given what she knew about nifflers. “So, this zoo had a habitat that wasn't secure? It’s a good thing that it was only a niffler that escaped and not a lion or a dragon or something. It could have been far more tragic in that case.” As destructive as nifflers could be, they weren’t actually dangerous but still. Had something more deadly broken out, well, she could just imagine all the injuries-if not deaths-and ensuing lawsuits and bad publicity. “Either that’s very negligent of the zoo or this Spaghetti truly is a very insidious creature.”
She also made a mental note not to tell Lydia this story. Her cousin would completely freak out, worrying about giant boa constrictors and exploding erumpet horns and dragons burning things down and ravenous bears just roaming around free. “So what must be done?” Gwendolyn asked, intrigued. Fortune was really a pretty good oral storyteller.
Then the Pecari asked if she had any good stories herself. Unfortunately, the only one that came to mind was the story of her mother being kidnapped as a baby by someone in a rival family. The kidnapper was supposed to murder her but couldn’t do it and sold her instead. This was not a story Gwendolyn thought that she should tell. First of all, it might not be something that her family would want to share with people. That sounded like a pretty personal thing, being kidnapped and not really something that you told someone you didn’t know all that well. Gwendolyn wanted to respect the privacy of her relatives, just like she would want people to respect hers.
Secondly, like, how did one really go from a simple story about a niffler stealing your money and your mom’s necklace to kidnapping and intended infanticide ? That just seemed like a super awkward thing to do. Like it was too much information or that Gwendolyn was trying to get attention or sympathy or something and she really didn’t want to be that person. Even if that didn’t exactly make sense because obviously everything was okay now. Still, somehow it seemed exploitative and just plain wrong.
Besides, Fortune might even think she was making it up and she didn’t want to get a reputation as a liar. Instead, Gwendolyn replied “I’m afraid not. I’ve traveled a bit but no stories out of the ordinary.Maybe we’ll just have to make some that I can tell later.” She really did not want her classmate to think that she was boring either.
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Gwendolyn Brockert
Good plan
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Piper Wilson
May 27, 2022 8:08 PM
I love collecting! by Piper Wilson
“Oh, that’s cool. What made your mom decide to send you to Sonora?”Piper asked. “For me, nobody ever suggested a different school. I mean, my mom’s entire family has gone here. Brockerts go to Sonora and often that also means people who are descended from female Brockerts even though we have different last names.” Not that the Wilsons weren’t important too, and she knew a lot of people where things centered around the father’s family but in this case, well, the Brockerts kind of…dominated things.Not that one of her parents dominated the other in their marriage. They were both equals and treated each other as such, with love and respect. It was more Mom’s family, particularly Uncle Clifford, who was her mom’s great uncle, the Brockert family patriarch.
Maybe that was the same in Levi’s family. Piper had noted that it was her mother and not both parents who had looked into schools. Of course, if the other Teppenpaw’s family was completely like hers where her mother was from a very powerful and important pureblood family, they would have a certain school that they all went to like the Brockerts did. They wouldn’t be looking into different schools. So, didn’t Levi’s dad have a say? Maybe he was just busy with work and let her mom take care of those things.
She was also never quite sure why people went to a school in a different country than they lived in. Although, from what Piper understood, usually everyone in the UK and Ireland went to Hogwarts which meant people in multiple countries went to one school by default, which could only be in one of those countries, meaning people in the rest of the UK went to school in a different country. What she meant was that she didn’t understand why they would come to America for school rather than going to the school that people from their country usually went to. Not that Piper minded them going to school wherever they wanted, she was glad Levi was here, she just was curious about the reason as to why. She couldn’t even imagine going to another American school let alone one in another country. “Did you want to come here?” Piper asked.
Something else occurred to her. “Do you know mascots from other schools too? Do you want to look for them as well, like Hogwarts mascots?” Although she supposed it might be a bit much because they still had to do the assigned activities,unfortunately.
Piper nodded. “Yeah, I mean, I don’t want to, like, exclude anyone. I feel like the right thing to do is be nice to everyone and not snub them or only talk to certain people but also what I said before. I’m not precisely sure how to do that though.” She admitted.
She smiled at her roommate. “Let’s go!”
11
Piper Wilson
I love collecting!
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0
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Verdillia Scurlock
May 27, 2022 9:05 PM
Me? by Verdillia Scurlock
Verdillia was excited for the field trip. Naturally, she’d been to magical zoos before. They tended a little more towards concerts and stately homes for family trips, but who didn’t take their kids to the zoo from time to time? There were lots of fascinating magical animals, and a lot of them were very beautiful too.It was also exciting to get out of school. Verdillia loved Sonora, and living out the boarding school dream depicted in so many of her childhood books, but they did have to spend an awful lot of time there, and there was a giddy rush that came from just getting to do something different!
This trip also seemed like a great chance to mingle and make some closer connections. Trips were memorable, and the people you spent them with could make or break the experience—and therefore form or solidify a friendship. She was tempted to partner up with Chris, because she liked him a lot, but they did already spend quite a bit of time together. He made a move towards someone else, and she tried not to take it personally or feel disappointed, seeing as she had been considering the exact same thing. Maybe she should embrace this as an opportunity to get to know someone she wouldn’t normally have the chance to. She was going to be in intermediate classes next year, and it would be good to get a foot in the door and get to know some of the people who would be her classmates. The current third years were the best bet on that, seeing as they’d already been together for a year of beginners, so weren’t total strangers, and they would be around the longest in intermediates with them.
Verdillia spotted Lydia Priory. She seemed to fit the exact definition of what Verdillia was looking for. Lydia was a year older than her, and in a different house, so Verdillia’s opportunities to talk to her were fairly limited. This seemed like a great one. So long as the older student didn’t think Verdillia was bothering her or being annoying. She worried about that, but Lydia seemed generally nice, from the little Verdillia knew of her. And she was still on her own.
“Hi?” Verdillia said, as she approached the older girl. It came out as a question, and she couldn’t quite smooth out all her nerves and be as confident as she was probably supposed to be. “Would you be interested in being partners?”
13
Verdillia Scurlock
Me?
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Morgan Garrett
May 28, 2022 11:59 AM
So let's make the most of it. by Morgan Garrett
Morgan smiled again at Sapphire, who seemed...very happy about being asked to do something with Morgan. She guessed it was always possible that Sapphire secretly had a huge crush on her and this was the set-up for a whole drama that would take up the rest of their time of school and would be a good topic for a play, but she was pretty sure it was more that Sapphire was super-shy and sort of anxious about people and approaching them and stuff. Which, honestly, Morgan guessed she kind of was, too - she had just learned to handle it in a different way. If everyone was laughing with you, after all, then they weren't laughing at you, so if she wore too many bright colors and said outrageous things when asked about her family situation or whatever, then she didn't have to worry about other people as much.Or at least, that was what made sense to her. Her mom seemed to think she was making it worse, but then, Mom had her own issues, and it wasn't like Morgan had ever seen Mom's methods of handling things work out any better for her. Or, for that matter, in recent years, seen much of whether they were working or not -
But that was a whole different problem, one a world away from here. She didn't have to have any feelings about her mom basically checking out of her life more and more every year when she was at boarding school, where everyone's parents had dumped them to one degree or another. At home, Morgan would have been weird for that, just like she always had been for not having a dad around when she was little; here, as long as she didn't mention her dad's last name, she was totally normal. There was a bright side to everything, she guessed.
"Great," she said. "Wanna go look at the aquatic dealies? It's kind of like being...vaguely not in a desert for once, right?"
16
Morgan Garrett
So let's make the most of it.
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Alexei Vorontsov
May 28, 2022 12:14 PM
It's a mouthful even for me, I admit. by Alexei Vorontsov
Ah, swimming things. Water animals that did not have spines. He knew 'spine' also had a double definition, but in context, he was pretty sure they were not discussing the kind that stuck out of a hedgehog or a porcupine or certain kinds of insect. They were almost certainly talking about the kind that made it possible for the two of them to stand upright, and for animals which lacked one to...not stand upright so much, he guessed."Ah, I see," he said. "Sorry - I looked too much at parts of the word, I did not remember exactly how it meant. Sometimes this happens, if I see a word that is not, eh...not a word I see often? Usually it is ok to look at the parts and then I figure it out, but this one tricked me," he added ruefully, giving the offending word a reproachful look. "Does this happen to everyone with English? Sometimes the word tricks you? It is such a...fixed-together language, so many parts from so many places."
He nodded as she suggested looking at the invertebrates. "This is a good idea," he agreed. "Perhaps next time I will remember the word more, if I see them now? Though we must be careful to avoid the mackle malaclaw," he joked, remembering that one from his book because of the association with lobster. Lobster was good to eat; a vile magical thing that gave bad luck, not so much.
16
Alexei Vorontsov
It's a mouthful even for me, I admit.
1531
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Graham Osbrook
May 28, 2022 12:41 PM
Like your namesake plant? by Graham Osbrook
If Graham had started using his brain maybe half a second faster than he really had, he would have made more of an effort to sound nice and everything, because he was, as it happened, talking to a girl. Not just any girl, either, but one he was...pretty sure he was sort of friends with, now? This being especially remarkable given his having virtually moved into the library this year along with his sister constantly teasing him about 'your rich girlfriend' whenever she got the chance, or else, when he denied that Lavender was his girlfriend, his sister pointing out why Lavender ought to be his girlfriend.Once, exasperated with being the butt of the joke, he'd snapped at Claire to go ask Lavender out herself, if she could point all that out, but Claire had only looked startled for a second before she'd laughed at him. Claire knew him too well, and therefore had almost definitely guessed that he, well, wouldn't exactly have minded if Lavender had been his girlfriend. She was pretty, sweet, not at all what her last name would lead you to think she'd be like, and apparently, the rest of her family was...either she was from some disowned spinoff of the Brockerts or the whole family was a lot more laid back than he'd thought, based on what he'd figured out about who her friends were and who her brother was and everything. On the whole, his sincere alarm at the thought of being murdered by her male relatives when one of her friends had tried to set them up for the Ball the year before seemed, in retrospect, to have been worry for nothing. Which meant that, in theory, things were not out of the question now...after CATS, anyway. He had no existence until after CATS.
Luckily, his somewhat harried manner didn't send Lavender fleeing before he could get it back under wraps. "That sounds cool," he said with a smile. "Do you think they'll have a Diricawl? One of my grandfathers is obsessed with those things."
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Graham Osbrook
Like your namesake plant?
1498
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Eben Sosna
May 28, 2022 12:55 PM
Eh, fair point, me, either. by Eben Sosna
It still felt kind of weird, knowing the name of almost everyone around him, even if they hadn't ever really interacted much. Sure, the entire first year group was smaller than one class had been in Eben's old school, but he'd managed to spend an entire year before not knowing the names of everyone in his class. It baffled him that everyone he'd ever been in a class with had seemed to know exactly who he was, considering he didn't think he'd made any efforts to stand out in any way. He just did his work and then usually wanted to be left alone. What was so conspicuous about that?That, though, was all in the past, and he knew everyone in first and second year, at least by sight. For the most part (admittedly with some help from the school's habit of labelling people on the fronts of their uniforms), he even knew more about people than just their names. Christopher Brockert, for instance, was in Crotalus and was a second year like him. He was in his House-and-year combo with two girls, and they all seemed to get along. In class, Christopher behaved himself enough that Eben wasn't too worried about being shoved facefirst into wherever the big cats did their business or anything today. This was all good, and so he was not displeased when his offer was accepted.
"Great," he said. "Are you any good at sketching?" he asked, looking at the worksheets for the bird section while walking that way. "It looks like we're gonna have to draw some differences between what the wings on one thing and another look like, somewhere in here, once we identify them."
16
Eben Sosna
Eh, fair point, me, either.
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Fortune Ardovini
May 29, 2022 12:00 PM
Step three: Profit by Fortune Ardovini
Fortune chuckled and Gwendolyn's assessment of the situation. "I think it was a bit of both. From what I can remember of Mom and Dad talking about the situation, the people that investigated the incident had to admit that the zoo had done everything they were technically supposed to do for proper niffler containment." He was sure to stress the word 'technically'. "Spaghetti had found some hole in the normal containment procedures and had used it to escape. Those containment protocols had been updated, and from Dad's reaction they were fairly obvious and should have been done regardless." He chuckled again, "Dad's an accountant and doesn't know anything more about nifflers than what he had to learn in school. But it's not hard to say something is obvious when it's written right in front of you.""As for what needs to be done." Fortune paused and gave Gwendolyn a very serious look. "There is a matter of some lost treasure still on the line. If the creature is still in the enclosure I will be forced to glare at him until he feels guilty about his past wrongs and returns the money to me." Then he grinned, "Once that's done I'll get to use them for their intended purpose and get some snacks. I'd be happy to share if you're interested. Snacks are best with some good company."
Fortune gave her an interested look, "Oh yeah? Where all have you traveled? Traveling is always interesting. I've done a little, but not much farther from Texas than the school or here at the zoo." His face changed to one of friendly determination, "A life with no good stories isn't a fun one to live. We do need to fix that soon. What kind of stories do you like?"
2
Fortune Ardovini
Step three: Profit
1549
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Hansel Hexenmeister
May 29, 2022 1:43 PM
They're the best! by Hansel Hexenmeister
Hansel was really looking forward to the zoo trip. For one thing, it was a zoo, and he'd get to see a bunch of magical animals he didn't normally get to see, to say nothing of getting to tell his friends a lot about snakes when they got to the snake house, but also . . . it was something Heinrich and Hilda had never done, and as the much younger brother, it wasn't often he got to be the first one to do anything.His original plan was to join the group that was following around with Professor Marsh, on the assumption that the Care of Magical Creatures professor could answer any questions he might have when looking at the various exhibits, but when they got there, Liesl found him and seemed eager to visit the snake house right out of the gate, and he couldn't help smiling at her enthusiasm and agreeing, "Absolutely!"
Even when he discovered that it was Mr. Row who was the one leading the first group to the reptile area, Hansel decided he would just have to remember his questions to ask Professor Marsh later, rather than risk disappointing Liesl by suggesting they go somewhere else first after all.
As they walked through the area, he smiled at a particularly lovely looking green snake that was rather a lot larger than Cori, (they were not the same species; Cori would never grow this big, and if he could, he wouldn't be allowed at Sonora anymore). "Isn't she beautiful?" Hansel asked in mild awe, unaware that in speaking, with his words directed as much to the snake as to Liesl, they came out all hiss-like instead of in the English syllables he had intended to use.
She turned her head in their direction, and did a fair impression of raising an amused eyebrow, but said nothing in return. She did start moving, though, a slow sinuous motion that showed off her very lovely color and form, almost preening and quite enjoying Hansel's attention to her.
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Hansel Hexenmeister
They're the best!
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Lydia Priory
May 29, 2022 4:03 PM
Sounds great! by Lydia Priory
Lydia was both happy and relieved to have Verdillia approach and ask her to be partners for the zoo. It meant that there was someone who actually wanted to hang out with her. She often worried people didn’t. Sophia generally hadn’t, of course, unless Mom…strongly encouraged (as in forced or at least coerced or even possibly bribed) her. Iris didn’t seem to either. After all, the other third year hadn’t gone off with Amethyst or Alexei this time, but some random first year. Even Gwendolyn had gone off with someone else.It made Lydia feel bad and wonder if there was something awful and unlikable about her. She knew that she wasn’t the bravest or most adventurous person out there or the most outgoing either, but she was generally nice to people. Wasn’t that the most important thing when it came to friends? Treating them with kindness and decency?
Although, Lydia did usually tend to be intimidated by most people. So, arguably, she treated them with fear. Between her premature status as an infant and her dad’s general anxiety issues, she’d been sheltered and overprotected her entire life. Therefore, she hadn’t had a lot of experience with people outside of her family other than those like nannies and tutors as a child. The only person she’d really spent time with around her age prior to Sonora was Gwendolyn so she wasn’t really very used to socializing with them.
So, Lydia was worried that they would be mean to her. Not so much the other Teppenpaws, who were nice by definition but most other people. She was afraid of rejection and mockery from them and while she’d had etiquette lessons as a child-which the third year had adored, as they had made her feel like a princess-it was difficult for her to start conversations without worrying about saying the wrong thing. Day to day interactions with the other students were not the same as knowing what fork to use at a dinner party with members of pureblood society. Especially since a lot of the people here at Sonora hadn’t grown up in the same kind of family and some of them tended to think poorly of people like her. They might very well laugh at Lydia if she acted too prim and proper.
And since Verdillia had asked her to hang out, that meant that the Teppenpaw did not have to worry about being placed with that sort of person. The kind that would laugh at someone like her. Nor did she have to risk rejection by asking someone. Plus, Lydia had hung out with her in Tumbleweed last year and had had a good time. She beamed at the second year. “I’d love to. What do you want to see first?” Please don’t say reptiles. She thought.
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Lydia Priory
Sounds great!
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Sapphire Brockert
May 30, 2022 9:47 AM
All right by Sapphire Brockert
“That sounds great.” Sapphire replied. As she had grown up in Salt Lake City, which was in the desert, followed by school at Sonora, which was also in the desert, she could definitely see the appeal of aquatic creatures and of something different. Maybe when Sapphire got married, she would live somewhere else.Although she supposed that it did not matter where she lived as long as she was married to someone whom she loved and who loved her and treated her well. The Crotalus wanted nothing in the world more than unconditional love and acceptance. She had never really felt that before. Basically, she wanted to be wanted. Sapphire wanted to belong even if it was just with one person.
Of course, she never thought that she would be able to belong in a larger group. As she was really shy, being a socialite was not something she felt like she was going to do well at. While the people at fancy society parties seemed to like Sapphire better than people at Sonora did-which was to say, at all-she still generally felt uncomfortable in large groups. Although, in theory, the more people that were in a particular place, the better the odds were that one of them would like the seventh year,she still found the process of finding that person completely daunting, never sure what to say around others, afraid of sounding stupid. Of someone laughing at her or making fun of her. Of being rejected. Of being a laughingstock and embarrassing her family.
So, of course, Sapphire was terrified of not finding someone who would love her. She had a hard enough time even imagining that someone would like her, let alone love her. She had always believed herself to be stupid and defective and considering what Topaz said and how people at school had treated the Crotalus, it was hard to believe that things would ever change. That anyone would ever truly love her or want to be around her.
It was a depressing thought. Sapphire had been looking forward to graduation partially because it meant that maybe she would get to be around people who accepted her but what if nobody ever truly did? Although she supposed that there was a better chance because she already knew that she didn’t fit in at school, so even the slightest chance was better than none at all. Plus, no more academics.
She followed the Aladren towards the group that was going to the aquatic section, scanning her brain for something to say. “So, are you looking forward to summer?” Sapphire asked. That was completely generic but it was not as she and Morgan were super close or anything so it was as good a question as any.
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Sapphire Brockert
All right
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Amethyst Brockert
May 30, 2022 1:17 PM
A mouthful of lobster? by Amethyst Brockert
OOC:
BIC:
“It’s perfectly all right and understandable.”Amethyst reassured her friend. She was pretty sure that if she tried to figure out anything in Russian, she’d be extremely confused. Although, to be fair, she didn’t speak any Russian at all. Alexei’s understanding of her first language-admittedly, her only language- was obviously much better than hers was of his.
BIC:
Perhaps, though, she should try to learn it. It seemed only fair. Contrary to popular belief, she was not completely self-centered and did not expect everyone to cater to her every whim. The Crotalus was completely capable of empathy. She was not Topaz. She did not expect people to learn a different language in order to speak to her.
Arguably, though, that would be what Amethyst would be doing if she learned Russian though. Especially considering that Alexei already spoke English. Which was pretty impressive really, especially taking into consideration that English and Russian did not even use the same alphabet. Still, it wasn’t something that she would expect of someone so nobody should expect it of her.
Not that Alexei did but there were definitely people who were like that. Who expected people to bend over backwards in order to accommodate them. Then, if they didn’t, they were the ones in the wrong.
“Um, I think it’s a little easier when you grow up speaking it.” Amethyst replied. “There are words that mean different things when spelled differently but sound the same. Then there are, like, expressions, figures of speech that might sound weird to people from a different culture or who spoke a different language growing up.” This would also be the case, for example, if Amethyst heard someone who grew up in a Muggle environment talk about forms of technology that the magical community did not use.
She continued. “Plus, invertebrate is not a word that people use every day so arguably you might not have heard it before. Usually, when people talk about invertebrates, like shrimp or lobster, they mean it in terms of food, and then they’re called shellfish or seafood. Invertebrate is a more technical term.” Technical terms or language was something else that tended to sometimes confuse people, even those who had grown up speaking that language. This was the case with Sapphire and magical theory. Her sister spoke English, had never heard anything else growing up other than the Latin that spells were in, but if someone talked about something complicated and uninteresting about, say, how magic worked,it was harder to understand.
Amethyst nodded.”Sounds like a plan.” She headed off in the appropriate direction.
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Amethyst Brockert
A mouthful of lobster?
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Christopher Brockert
May 30, 2022 5:35 PM
Good by Christopher Brockert
For just a moment, Chris almost panicked when his classmate asked him if he was good at sketching. Not because he wasn’t, but because he actually was. Or at least he thought that he was. Things that Chris sketched tended to look like what they were supposed to be and people had told him he was so it was not like, a matter of his own opinion. He wasn’t just being arrogant.The thing was though that the Crotalus had often been mocked by Uncle Eustace for not just being good at drawing but for being interested in it too. For preferring to sketch or play with blocks than to play Quidditch.For being an artist rather than an athlete. Even though it was his uncle’s own actions that had made Chris have such an aversion to the sport.
Well, okay, he didn’t think that he would have otherwise been interested in playing it. However, Chris probably would not have the deep dislike and anxiety around it that he had. Or in this case, the fear of being judged as a sissy, a wimp, unmanly and other decidedly negative things because of his skill at and interest in drawing and dislike of doing anything athletic would not exist if not for Uncle Eustace.
However, he had to remind himself that most people were not like his uncle. Most people were not aggressive bullies who prized traditional masculinity and athleticism above all else. In fact, Chris did not even know anyone else who had such a skewed, nonsensical view of the world. Or at least not one that was skewed and nonsensical in the same way since, while the Crotalus did not know of any specific examples, people could have many different ways of seeing things that did not make sense to him. The point was that most people thought being artistic was a positive thing. They meant it as a compliment when they said he was good at drawing or building things.
Chris took a deep breath “I’ve been told that I’m not bad.” He admitted. He really did not think that Eben would start making fun of him. The Aladren did not seem like Uncle Eustace at all. He didn’t even play Quidditch. Still, Chris did not want to say that he was good at drawing because he didn’t want to sound like he was full of himself. Being humble was still important and anyway, he didn’t want to sound like he was some great artist and then fall short of his classmate’s expectations.
For what they needed though, he was sure that he would be fine “I think I can manage that.” Chris added.
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Christopher Brockert
Good
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Gwendolyn Brockert
May 31, 2022 2:18 PM
Is it actually profit if it's the same amount? by Gwendolyn Brockert
“That is very true.” Gwendolyn replied. Things did seem obvious when they were right in front of you. In some cases,though, they just seemed obvious,period. Generally speaking, people who ran the zoo and knew animals should know better. Mr. Ardovini might really not know what he was talking about when it came to this problem but for those whose area of expertise this was, it probably should have been. This was not an issue that should have ever occurred. “Did they review containment procedures for all animals or just nifflers?” Gwendolyn asked. Merlin knew that they did not need another escaped animal. It might not be something as harmless as a niffler.There was also quite a bit wrong with Fortune’s plan to get his money back. The Pecari was giving Spaghetti way too much credit. Obviously, the niffler was bright, but she did not think they had such a long memory that two years later, one would remember a particular human that it had stolen money from that it didn’t see every day. Humans did not even remember people they meant once two years ago, though Gwendolyn might remember someone if she stole their money. Not that she had any inclination to do that.
The other thing was that the Aladren did not really think nifflers had that sort of moral compass.One could not expect animals,even magical and/or intelligent ones, to have human characteristics so Gwendolyn really did not think that Spaghetti would just feel so bad that he’d give Fortune his money back. If the niffler had that sort of ability to empathize and realize that the money he’d taken from someone did not belong to him, he would not have taken it in the first place.
Something else occurred to Gwendolyn. “Why did the zoo not just reimburse you?” Honestly, she was really beginning to find this zoo a little sketchy. Maybe this was a negligible amount of money, but that clearly meant that they should be able to give it back to Fortune because the zoo didn’t need it. “Do you think maybe this was all on purpose?” She asked. “Like they deliberately left the containment procedure flawed so that Spaghetti would escape and steal money from the patrons and then the zookeepers would pocket it?” A human conspiracy was completely plausible to her. Though it could easily be that the reason for it was that the workers here weren’t paid very well.
This place was sounding more and more like an expose waiting to happen. “If you can’t get the money back, then what? I mean, we can still share snacks.” She assumed that Fortune had been given more money and she certainly had enough.
“I’ve been to China and various places in Europe, plus St. Berylla’s every year during the summer. “ Gwendolyn replied. She hoped Fortune didn’t think she was bragging, something that was entirely possible. To some, it was fashionable to criticize people like her and see them in the worst possible light. She really hoped that her classmate wasn’t like that. “And…I don’t know, all kinds, I guess so long as they’re entertaining. I like ones where something dark and horrible happens but then the bad people get what’s coming to them.”
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Gwendolyn Brockert
Is it actually profit if it's the same amount?
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Liesl Brockert
June 01, 2022 12:16 PMLiesl Brockert
StudentHouse: Teppenpaw
Year: 7
Written by: Allegra Brockert
Age in Post: 12
Birthday: November 9
They are! by Liesl Brockert
Liesl was super happy when Hans agreed to go to see the snakes with her. Not that she was really surprised necessarily since he liked snakes even more than she did, and she liked them a lot. In all honesty, she was still more surprised to have someone to go see them with in the first place, in particular someone who was also interested in them since Liesl really did not know anyone else who liked them much.Besides, even though the older Teppenpaw was super into snakes,he could have insisted that they go see something else first just because he lived on a snake ranch and got to see them all the time. Although, Hans was usually at school so therefore he actually didn’t really see them as much other than Cori. So, he might actually miss them. After all, Liesl didn’t see Uncle Cory while she was at school and she missed him, which was why she was so excited about him coming to the fair.
Even though that was like, right before the day they went home anyway, and she’d probably get to see him right after. Last year it had not been too long before Liesl wanted to see Uncle Cory and Mother was probably fed up with her anyway. So, her going to visit her uncle was probably a win-win situation all around. Maybe she could get special permission to go home with him after the fair instead of taking the wagon home.
Not that she minded riding the wagon, but of course she would rather spend time with her uncle. Liesl was pretty sure that her parents would not mind. She was generally allowed to go over there pretty often. Which made it even clearer to her that the only reason that Mother did not want her sleeping over at Hans’ was because of how it might appear. Staying with her uncle, aunt and cousins did not appear inappropriate.
She walked over to the reptile area with Hans, Mr. Row and the rest of the group that was visiting that part of the zoo first, joining her friend in front of a large green snake. The older Teppenpaw said something, apparently to the snake, in parseltongue. Liesl looked at him puzzled, she knew about the whole parseltongue thing, but it wasn’t something she understood, just like she wouldn’t understand if Hans was speaking German or Russian or something although she’d taken French growing up and spoke a little Spanish, having asked Uncle Cory’s friend Raúl about how to say a few words, such as skull and snake and eyeballs. Fun words like that.The snake was preening for them, probably in response to what Hans had said. “She’s lovely. She looks like Cori, only bigger.” It was pretty obvious which Cory/Cori that she meant because obviously, her uncle did not look like a snake. “Does she have a name?” Liesl asked.
Honestly, she sort of wished that she could talk to snakes the way Hans could, but then she had enough problems with people thinking she was the bad sort of creepy without them assuming that she was evil or something because she was a parseltongue. Liesl would never understand this prejudice people had against them. Hans was most definitely not evil and with any other extra power or talent, people would put someone on a pedestal.
11
Liesl Brockert
They are!
1537
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Philippe Delachene
June 01, 2022 6:07 PM
Hey, Jasper, want to hang out? by Philippe Delachene
Philippe nodded in agreement as Freddie offered a plan for the day: hang out with other friends first, then meet up halfway through the day to finish the zoo together. "Sounds great!" he agreed and gave his boyfriend a quick hug and peck once the portkey delivered them to their destination. There were a number of people he could spend time with, but his first choice was his roommate.It didn't take too long to find Jasper. "Hey!" he greeted the other fifth year, "I'm meeting up with Freddie later, but did you want to see some stuff together first?" He thought it was best to put it out there upfront that this was a half-day hang-out so there weren't hard feelings later. Jasper had siblings and cousins so there was probably someone he could meet up with too that he might like spending some time with but not the whole day. Merlin knew Phillippe would go mad if he had to spend an entire field trip with Anya, though he thought she'd be fun to see some animals with for an hour or two. If Jasper had other plans, he'd probably look for her next, then maybe flit into Val or Gabriel or Bertie's groups for short spurts until it was time to meet up with Freddie. (Val had a lot of friends so she was probably busy, and he wasn't really close to Gabriel so that might be weird, spending a lot of time with him, and he doubted Bertie could stand him for more than about fifteen minutes if they weren't playing an RPG, so none of those were great options for long term partnering, but short hook-ups would probably be cool.)
"I was thinking primates first?" he suggested, not set on the idea if Jasper had a stronger preference, but he kind of associated Freddie with birds and hoped to do those with him, but he was otherwise not picky and he did love the monkeys.
1
Philippe Delachene
Hey, Jasper, want to hang out?
1489
0
5
Lavender Brockert
June 02, 2022 6:50 PM
Do I make you calm? by Lavender Brockert
OOC: CW-Psychological abuse briefly mentioned BIC:
One good thing that had come out of Val’s excessive busy-ness and being overextended was Lavender’s friendship with Graham. Not that she didn’t worry about Val. Even aside from the toxic girlfriend, being overextended was not a good or healthy thing. She couldn’t help but think of her cousin Chaslyn who had been on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of being so. Of course, Lavender didn’t think Val’s parents were terrible emotionally abusive monsters like Aunt Jillian. As much as she hated to blame her friend it seemed like the Teppenpaw was doing it to herself. She wished she could blame Bonablackhole but she had to admit that she couldn’t this time. However, the Aladren was still a Val-hog.
At least, though she had Graham. Who really was pretty cool and she was glad to have as a friend. It was a good thing to have more than one friend because if one was busy, there was someone else to hang out with. Although, arguably it was possible to have too many. Even Piper seemed to get that and she was almost the baby of the family aside from Charlotte. Piper was the youngest of the first cousin group though since Charlotte was actually a first cousin once removed. Lavender honestly admired her little cousin’s views on friendship.
Although, she sort of thought maybe her own feelings and situation had contributed to them and was not sure what to think of that. Because while Piper’s friendship philosophy was brilliant, she hated the idea of her own problems having an effect on people that way. So, Lavender wasn’t sure what to think. Was it a positive or negative thing? Was Piper reacting to something negative in the fifth year’s life in a constructive way? If that was the case Lavender was proud that her cousin was so bright. Maybe it wasn’t the same way as her trivia obsessed older brother but Piper apparently had emotional intelligence, which was arguably more important.
It made her think about the CATS. Both of her friends seemed super worried about them and Lavender was a bit too, but not as much as Graham and Val. Which made her worry about them . She hated to see them study themselves into oblivion, even though she was doing a bit of that too. There was something about the CATS that made them all panic. Like, really, Graham and Val might really need good scores but Lavender? She was just going to get married and have babies. She only really needed to be competent and she mostly was. Defense gave her a little trouble but there were parts of even that that she did all right in. The Crotalus could actually perform the spells, she just wasn’t quick on her feet.
However, when it came to CATS, people tended to panic.She knew that they had been very important to Ivy too,but she was really into academics. Lavender wasn’t as much, but it seemed that the words “CATS” and “RATS” had these weird magical powers that freaked people out. Honestly, she should be more worried for her friends than herself.
Lavender smiled at Graham. “Really? That’s cool.” She knew that Diricrawls were what Muggles called Dodos, and they thought they were extinct but mostly they were just disappearing. “My family is more of a plant family. My dad used to be a groundskeeper at Sonora and now he has a plant related job that grows like healing plants to help sick people. My sister’s boyfriend is super into plants too and is going to do something with Herbology”
”
She continued. “And then my mom’s family seems to have a thing about naming girls after flowers. I’m Lavender, my sister is Ivy and my mom is Lilac. My cousin Marcus and his wife just had triplets and one is named Marigold and my cousin Arnold has a daughter named Violet. Oh, and my cousin Peyton’s middle name is Rose. I fully expect little Geranium any time now.”
“So why is he into Diricrawls?” Lavender asked, generally curious. “They probably have them but whether or not we actually will see them is debatable given their invisibility powers.”
11
Lavender Brockert
Do I make you calm?
1504
0
5
Verdillia Scurlock
June 02, 2022 7:56 PM
Off we go then by Verdillia Scurlock
She and Lydia had a pattern of ending up together on trips. That was good, right? They’d had a pleasant time in Tumbleweed together, which suggested today would go just as well, and then Verdillia would have a solid friend in an older grade when she moved up to intermediates. She liked plenty of people in her own year group, but sometimes the teachers made you go in mixed grade pairs, or it was just helpful to have someone a little older and more experienced to lean on. Plus, Lydia seemed really nice.Verdillia surveyed their options, with the first factor to consider being whether to follow Levi and keep an eye on her. However, her little sister had made a good choice for once, and was paired up with her roommate, Piper Wilson, instead of being part of a loud gaggle of questionable Teppenpaws. There was also a staff member assigned to keep an eye on her in all the usual terms of not getting eaten by manticores or whatever, and honestly Levi didn’t tend to get into the wandering-off or doing-dangerous-things kinds of trouble. She was just a little socially naive.
“How about the aquatic section?” Verdillia suggested. “Though that’s a fairly arbitrary pick. I’d be game for anything.”
13
Verdillia Scurlock
Off we go then
1541
0
5
Jasper Brockert
June 02, 2022 11:32 PM
Absolutely by Jasper Brockert
Jasper was looking forward to going to the zoo today because it would be a really nice break from studying for CATS. He wasn’t super worried about them, like some were but it wasn’t as if he wasn’t taking them seriously. He knew he needed good grades on them even though Jasper wasn’t exactly sure what classes would help him with his future career as he wanted to be a therapist for disabled children, particularly intellectually disabled children. So, other than Transfig, he had no idea what classes to keep and Transfig was basically more a Brockert thing than something he needed for his future career.He was also assuming Potions might be fairly useful and COMC not so much. Contrary to how they were sometimes treated, intellectually disabled and other special needs children were not animals. Jasper wanted to help them and he planned to treat them with dignity and respect.
And he could have just sat on some charity board to raise money for them. That seemed more like a proper pureblood thing to do but Jasper really wanted to, like, be on the front line, in the trenches. He seriously cared about this issue and wanted to help these people. Maybe he would have to just get good grades and good scores on CATS (and RATS) so he could get into a school of his choice that had this major and then take college courses in what he needed to be trained in,
Anyway,when it came to the “big scary tests” Jasper was far more worried about Sapphire than himself. He did believe she’d do well, or at least better than she thought she would, but she was a complete and total wreck over them. He was honestly terrified that the stress of them would bring on her seizures. In fact, the Teppenpaw was pretty sure that she was having them. She seemed tired and stressed and that could make even a perfectly healthy person with no medical conditions sick.
However, what Jasper really wished was that Sapphire would realize that she was not stupid, not intellectualy disabled even though she thought she was, thanks to Topaz. Yes, she had epilepsy but that did not make a person dumb. True, Sapphire might not be the “genius” that Topaz thought herself to be-which honestly might be true, loathe as he was to think it-but she was of perfectly normal intelligence. Her true problem was a lack of self esteem, because of Topaz.
Honestly, Jasper really hoped that she-and the rest of the fifth and seventh years, himself included-could just forget about the “big scary tests” for the day and have fun at the zoo.
After Professor Skies gave them their…guidelines for the day, Jasper looked around for a partner. Fortunately, his roommate came up to him. The fifth year grinned at him. “That sounds awesome. Monkeys are honestly one of the best animals to watch.”
11
Jasper Brockert
Absolutely
1496
0
5
Lydia Priory
June 04, 2022 12:07 AM
Sounds good to me by Lydia Priory
“Aquatic animals are great!” Lydia replied. Fish didn’t scare her although sharks did, which was one of the reasons that she was so afraid of going in the water at St. Berylla’s, the other being drowning. The Teppenpaw was not a great swimmer. The only reason that she’d had lessons at all was because of the Brockert family’s summers down there but she wasn’t very strong and didn’t have very good upper body strength. She had a tendency to spend the summer just sitting on the beach although Lydia had very fair skin so sitting in the sun wasn’t good for her either.Anyway, if there were sharks here, they would be safely contained in a tank so they couldn’t hurt her. Technically, that was true of all the animals here but there were some she was terrified of anyway. Like snakes and spiders. An acromantula would be terrifying even if it was caged. Ditto a large snake, like a basilisk. Surely though, the zoo wouldn’t have those though given acromantula were intelligent monsters that were capable of human speech and were untrainable and dangerous. They would never allow themselves to be put on display in a zoo. As for basilisks, they could turn people into stone which Lydia was pretty sure would be a major liability. So, it was unlikely that the zoo had these creatures. She hoped.
That didn’t mean they did not have other snakes and spiders though. In fact, the third year knew that they had the former because Hans and Liesl seemed to have gone off to the reptiles section with great enthusiasm. It was something that Lydia would honestly never understand. This might be why she was not closer to her fellow Teppenpaw third year.
And even though they weren’t going there now , she and Verdillia would have to later. There were supposedly worksheets on every section which included the reptiles. Which meant that Lydia was going to get extremely anxious and then the second year might see her freak out and not like her and not want to be her friend. And she really needed a friend!
Perhaps, Sophia was right. Maybe the Teppenpaw was nothing but a horrible burden and crybaby and absolutely no fun at all. Granted, her sister had never used those specific words about her where she could hear them but it was the general impression that Lydia had gotten from her and it was seemingly seconded by Iris’s preference for Amethyst.
Maybe being nice to people was not enough. All Lydia wanted from people was being nice and loyal. Which to her meant that they would be her friend and be there for her no matter what, though of course they could have other friends, she wasn’t that selfish, but she wanted to be able to spend time with them and have them be there if something bad happened. Lydia wanted the kinds of friends that would write to her over the summer and possibly even visit her, the way that she’d heard Liesl was going to visit Hans on his dad's snake ranch-although, of course Lydia didn’t want to visit a snake ranch-or the way that Sophia and her friends were. She just wanted a super close bond with someone other than her parents who would like her no matter what. Complete and total acceptance.
She started to walk in the direction of the aquatic animals. “Do you think they have seals and otters or just fish like at an aquarium?” Lydia asked. “Both are so cute. What’s your favorite animal?” Verdillia had said this was an arbitrary choice so presumably nothing in this section was it. “I have to admit, as common as it is, I do like unicorns myself. And puffskiens are pretty adorable too. I also like kittens but those aren’t really zoo animals.”
11
Lydia Priory
Sounds good to me
1533
0
5
Fortune Ardovini
June 04, 2022 6:53 PM
Details, details by Fortune Ardovini
Fortune grinned at Gwendolyn's question, "Yeah they did. When I wrote home and told Mom and Dad that we were coming here on a field trip, Dad apparently did some research." He chuckled at the letter he got back in response from Dad. "They had reviewed everything and found more than one problem. I sounded like they got them all fixed up though. Dad couldn't find another incident on the record since then." He shrugged, "I think we're okay."When she brought up the point about reimbursement, he bobbled his head non-noncommittally. "Sort of. It also grabbed some of Dad's money, so it all came back in one pile to him. I guess he didn't see the point in giving 'zoo snack money' back to me when we weren't at the zoo anymore." Fortune shrugged, "That part doesn't make the story very exciting though, and makes today's plan seem a little... we'll it wasn't really going to work anyway." He gave Gwendolyn a wink, "Still it's something fun to do." He paused for a moment as she commented on still sharing snacks. "Wait... Dad did give me..." Fortune pulled some coins from his pocket and inspected them. "This is the same amount from last time. He did give me my 'zoo snack money' back." He shoved the money back into his pocket and rolled his eyes. "Did I mention may dad is an accountant?"
"China and Europe?" Fortune asked with clear admiration, "That's awesome. What are they like? I've heard of St. Berylla's. That place sounds like it could potentially be filled with intrigue and such. Someday when I'm rich and famous maybe I'll visit." He gave Gwendolyn another grin and a wink. "Those are the best stories, there are definite things happening, stakes are high but in the end good triumphs over evil and the world is a better place." He glanced around their surroundings, "I'm not sure if we've got much chance of that happening here today... unless some dark wizard attacks to zoo to steal..." his brain swirled around trying to think of something that might remotely make sense, "Umm... an Erumpent for their diabolical schemes?"
2
Fortune Ardovini
Details, details
1549
0
5
Hansel Hexenmeister
June 04, 2022 7:03 PM
Names by Hansel Hexenmeister
"Good question," Hansel said to Liesl when she asked the snake's name. These words did come out in English.He leaned in closer to the snake and addressed her directly in a soft hiss, "Hello, fine lady, may I have the honor of your calling?"
She hissed back her answer, still preening a bit and showing off her length and fine scales. Hansel turned back to Liesl and said, "She's called," then he hissed out the name in Parseltongue, but actually recognizing he did that, he continued, "which roughly translates to . . ." he struggled to put the concept into English, "Bright Dew on Leaves in the Morning. My dad and I would probably call her Morning Dew when speaking of her in English, or Morgentau in German."
"That is a beautiful name," he hissed softly to Morning Dew. "I am called Human Boy Who Speaks." His was more descriptive than beautiful since 'Hansel' did not translate well into Parseltongue as it didn't really have any kind of inherent meaning, and being the smaller human who could speak to them, the snakes at home usually referred to in this way when he wasn't just getting called 'The Hatchling'. As Morning Dew didn't know Karl, that wouldn't mean much to her and would just sound like a nickname for a young being. He waved at Liesl and added, "And this is Friend Who Loves Snakes And Skulls."
Morning Dew hissed back and gave a snakey smile at Liesl. Hansel smiled at her, too. "I told her you like snakes and skulls and she said you have good taste. She does, too."
1
Hansel Hexenmeister
Names
1524
0
5
Gwendolyn Brockert
June 05, 2022 8:43 PM
What about wild details to make a story better? by Gwendolyn Brockert
“Oh, I guess they got really lucky that it was only a niffler that got out. There are some genuinely dangerous creatures here.” They did not need grave injuries or deaths or even someone like Lydia having a panic attack because a mostly harmless animal that they happened to be afraid of escaped. Gwendolyn knew that her cousin was going to have a hard enough time with some of the creatures that were here at the zoo without having to worry about them escaping and attacking or in the case of the animals that weren’t really dangerous but that scared the Teppenpaw anyway, just not safe behind glass.“Was Spaghetti the only animal that got loose?” Gwendolyn asked. Fortune had not really said either way, and while they might have gotten lucky with the rest of the animals not figuring it out, there was a very obvious problem with niffler containment and she wondered if any of the rest of them followed Spaghetti out. A horde of nifflers could be quite destructive even if they weren’t the sort of animals that were interested in eating people.
Of course, it was probably unlikely that anything besides a niffler got out or at least any of the more dangerous creatures because Gwendolyn was sure that would be news. If something got loose and killed someone, she would already know about it. Even if the Aladren didn’t hear about it at the time, certainly when the trip was announced, Uncle Ian would have learned about it, freaked out and refused to sign Lydia’s permission slip. Not that the third year would have wanted to come if that was the case.
Gwendolyn nodded. Logically, that reasoning made perfect sense. “It’s still a good story though.”She reassured the Pecari. “And if you want to go glare at Spaghetti, we can certainly do that. She chuckled. “That does sound like a very accountant thing to do.” As far as Gwendolyn knew about accountants. It was not an especially interesting job but she knew that they were all about numbers and keeping track of money.
“Mine makes wands,”she added, which to her was far more interesting than being an accountant, the Aladren had always found wandlore extremely interesting. However,she certainly was not going to tell Fortune that she thought her dad’s job was cooler than his. She was already worried that he was going to think she was a snobby rich brat. “However, if you got your wand from his shop, you probably didn’t meet him.” Gwendolyn continued. “One of our cousins deals with the customers.”
“They’re both pretty cool. I like seeing the different sites and different cultures. My mom is Chinese-American and still has family in China.” Which was a nice half-truth to tell, since the first year was not about to go into the whole thing. She would be happy to tell interesting stories, but not at the expense of someone that she cared about. “As for intrigue on St. Berylla’s…I’m sure that it exists, but... I’m twelve so, I’m not really involved in it much.”She wasn’t sure that she wanted to be either, but to be honest, she wouldn’t mind hearing about it, so long as it wasn’t something that hurt someone that she loved or otherwise affected her personally.
Gwendolyn grinned. “That would be exciting and an erumpet’s horn would be something that could definitely be useful if a dark wizard wanted to like, rob a bank or commit an act of terrorism. They could also decide to kidnap one of us for ransom. Maybe one of those corrupt zoo people is working with or is themselves the dark wizard and we end up foiling them.” She didn’t actually want this to happen but it was awfully fun to come with these stories.
11
Gwendolyn Brockert
What about wild details to make a story better?
1555
0
5
Liesl Brockert
June 05, 2022 11:57 PMLiesl Brockert
StudentHouse: Teppenpaw
Year: 7
Written by: Allegra Brockert
Age in Post: 12
Birthday: November 9
Acceptance by Liesl Brockert
Liesl waited as Hans spoke to the snake in Parseltongue. She didn’t know precisely what he had said but context suggested that he had asked the snake what her name was. Which he soon attempted to translate to English. “Wow, that’s pretty. Long, but pretty. The differences between parseltongue and English are interesting. Like how things translate.”Honestly, she really did think it was cool how Hans could speak Parseltongue. Although Liesl knew how Parseltongues were thought of by the general population, she thought it was totally unfair. Just like how it was unfair that people were scared of snakes and bats and all the other creepy things that the Teppenpaw loved. She supposed that she had a soft spot for outcasts of all kinds the same way that her uncle did.
Or maybe it was more than that. Maybe Liesl identified with the outcasts. She often felt like one. She didn’t fit in with the prim and proper pureblood girls like Amethyst really and while her cousin was generally somewhat tolerant of her, she knew that the third year thought that she was strange.
And her own mother was even worse.Liesl knew that Mother thought she was a disappointment. That she would happily trade Liesl for Amethyst or Esme. That she preferred Krisalyn who was more traditionally girly and proper-and even though the Teppenpaw wanted to stay with Uncle Cory, it still hurt a bit to realize that Mother-and to an extent Father-really didn’t mind and were happy to have her out of their hair.
No wonder that Liesl had always fantasized about and pretended that her uncle was her father.
However, there were times when she didn’t feel like an outcast. When she was with Uncle Cory or Hans or a handful of others who liked her and accepted her. And she didn’t really feel like one at school either because she did have friends. Being an outcast meant to be friendless and alone as well as different. If you had people who weren’t exactly like you but still accepted you anyway, then you couldn’t be one even if you weren’t with others like yourself.
And being an outcast was relative anyway. Someone who was an outsider in one group might thrive somewhere else. Like her cousin Angelique who had had a rotten time at Sonora. Angelique was a very proper girly type like Krisalyn or Amethyst, like Mother wished that Liesl was and Angelique’s classmates had all been the athletic sort so she hadn’t fit in at all but she fit in perfectly in pureblood society. So, things had ultimately worked out well for the Crotalus alumna. Although it must have left enough of a mark on her that she still mentioned it enough for Liesl to know about it.
Something else occurred to the second year.“Do the zookeepers call her something else and this is her real name?” Liesl asked “ Like they probably don’t speak parseltongue. Who names snakes? Do their parents name them like human parents do? Or is it people like you and your dad?” The Teppenpaw was honestly eager to know about snake culture.
Liesl beamed when Hans translated to her what he and Morning Dew had said to each other. “Tell her I said thank you!” She replied. This was the second time a snake had given her their approval, the first being Cori.
Maybe with snakes was where she belonged and she should live on Hans’ snake ranch.
11
Liesl Brockert
Acceptance
1537
0
5
Verdillia Scurlock
June 06, 2022 9:46 PM
Alright then by Verdillia Scurlock
“I suppose we’ll find out,” Verdillia answered, not really able to guess either way what the zoo might deem the limits of ‘aquatic.’ “I just hope they have hippocampi—those sound so beautiful.”She nodded in agreement with Lydia’s various favourites, wondering whether it was companionable to agree with them all, or whether it would seem like she was just copying. The truth was though, that she really did like all those animals.
“Same,” she said. “It’s hard to beat unicorns, they’re such special creatures. Phoenixes too—there’s something so mesmerising about watching them, like there is with a real fire. And mooncalves have such pretty eyes.” She felt her steps getting springier as they listed all the exciting animals they were going to see.
They joined the aquatic group, though she stood a little bit away from the rowdy Pecari boys (and then did a double take when she realised it was actually the non-rowdy twin from her own house standing there).
“And after all that, probably the ice cream stand and souvenir shop—the best parts of any day out,” she added with a smile.
“Do you have any relatives coming to help with the fair at the end of term?” she asked Lydia, switching her attention to the other big topic of the moment as they made their way though the zoo to the aquatic zone.
13
Verdillia Scurlock
Alright then
1541
0
5
Lydia Priory
June 07, 2022 12:47 AM
This is going to be fun by Lydia Priory
“Oh they do!” Lydia replied. “I’ve never actually seen one in person but yes, they sound lovely.” She didn’t know a lot about them but they sounded pretty and not scary. She generally liked horses, although she wasn’t much of a rider. Riding on one scared her a bit, especially if it was a flying horse. Her great-grandfather Frank had a ranch with a lot of magical creatures including several types of flying horses but she was terrified of riding something that flew up in the air. Lydia was sure that she would fall and break her neck or back.It was the same reason that she had been afraid of riding a broom in Flying Lessons. After all, Mom had gotten in a terrible accident when she played Quidditch in school and she still had a bad back to this day. While Lydia had not had to play the sport in Flying, she still could have fallen off her broom and hurt herself very badly, the same way she could have if she fell off a flying horse. The result was that she had not gotten a really good grade in Flying Lessons, but fortunately her parents were pretty okay with it. Neither of them loved the idea of her going up super high on a broom especially with her mom’s history,
“They totally are!” Lydia exclaimed, grinning. She was thrilled to find common ground with someone, although, to be fair, a lot of people, especially girls, liked unicorns so maybe it wasn’t so surprising that Verdillia did as well. Still, she liked to have something to bond with someone over, anything. In all honesty, she didn’t really have that with anyone else at all. Lydia was close to Gwendolyn because they were cousins and close in age, but the Aladren was sort of…well maybe not like Liesl because she wasn’t squealing over snakes or celebrating Halloween all year long but she wasn’t one of those types who was all into pink and sparkles and unicorns and Lydia was.
She considered what her friend said about phoenixes and fire. Fire was kind of pretty as long as it was safely contained and could not hurt her. The idea of her house burning down and potentially losing a loved one or dying or losing her possessions or being scarred for life from burns and being in a lot of pain. It would almost be worse to survive with burns all over her body than to actually die, now that she thought about it. Lydia was always very careful around fire. However, it was pretty and so were phoenixes.
And she definitely didn’t have any problem with mooncalves. They were adorable. “Those are great too!” Lydia exclaimed. “And I love ice cream and can’t wait to go get souvenirs” She hoped to get a stuffed animal or two or three (or more) and some figurines or something.
“I think my Uncle Evan is planning to come. He’s an artist and I think he’s bringing a bunch of art supplies and random objects and encouraging people to just..do what they feel is right for their project rather than making them look like anything.” Which was basically how Uncle Evan made his art. It was a lot of what he felt in the moment and didn’t “mean” anything else, though when he heard others ascribe meanings to them, it always amused him a great deal.
Lydia continued. “And my sister-in-law Peyton is having a bake sale. She’s really good at baking and cooking. My brother Connor might come help her and my cousin Bridget might come and make mocktails. Oh, and I think Aunt Hope is joining in with our distant cousins who are doing a crafting booth. It’s things like knitting, sewing, crocheting and easy crafts. Ones that are more… organized than Uncle Evan’s.” She went on. “Oh and then I’m sure that there are a bunch of cousins that are more distant doing things, but other than Liesl’s uncle playing the guitar and giving lessons and handing out brochures about wandmaking and wandlore for my uncle Adam, who I know isn’t going to come, I don’t actually know what they’re doing.”
She grinned sheepishly at Verdillia. “Sorry, my mom was a Brockert, so I have this big confusing extended family. Do you have family who went here and are coming to the fair?”
11
Lydia Priory
This is going to be fun
1533
0
5
Verdillia Scurlock
June 07, 2022 2:33 AM
Lots of it! by Verdillia Scurlock
Lydia seemed pleased with her answers, much to Verdillia’s relief. It wasn’t like it was uncommon for girls their age to like unicorns, but at the same time, it wasn’t uncommon to pick on a person for every last little thing, or for it to be fine when one person did it but laughable on another… Not that Verdillia had experienced that directly, but her boarding school books had made it clear that there could be any number of pitfalls and social snobberies at work.“Ooh, it sounds like we’ll be able to have quite the party!” she smiled, as Lydia described her relatives’ contributions to the upcoming fair. She was more interested in the bake sale, mocktails, and crafts than ‘weird art,’ but it wouldn’t be polite to say so. She much preferred paintings where it was clear what they were of, and they had been executed well, to things where you had to ‘interpret’ or ‘use your imagination’ or where the artist said they were making some kind of ‘statement’ but honestly it looked like they were just making a mess.
“That’s something to be proud of, isn’t it?” Verdillia asked, genuinely surprised when Lydia apologised for the size of her family, and for her mother being a Brockert. “My family’s all in the UK, so they went to Hogwarts,” she answered, when Lydia asked if any of them would be attending. By which she meant all the magical members of her family had done that, but she didn’t think it was misleading to not specify. Obviously, one assumed there were caveats to statements such as that. If Lydia said ‘all’ her family had gone to Sonora, it wouldn’t include those who were too young, or the ones who had been alive before the school was founded, and so on. It was taken as obvious that one meant all elligible members when saying such a thing—so much so that it didn’t need specifying.
“Oh, look!” she breathed, as they rounded the corner and the hippocampi came into view.
13
Verdillia Scurlock
Lots of it!
1541
0
5
Graham Osbrook
June 07, 2022 10:48 AM
...Is there a correct answer to that question? by Graham Osbrook
"Really? That's cool," Graham said as Lavender explained all the ways her family was really, really into plants. He chuckled at Geranium, though he wasn't sure that it was really that much stranger than Marigold as a first name. "Sounds likely. Or Hyacinth, Gerbera, Freesia...My dad's mom is the plant person in my family, well, her and my sister. Gran has a whole little greenhouse attached to the shop where she can grow her flowers and herbs for ink and paper-making all year, and Claire's...almost freaky good at remembering all that stuff. Whether Claire goes into Healing or gets the family business will probably pretty much come down to whether Mom or Gran is more stubborn," he joked, though he thought it had more than a little truth in it. Claire got more into things on her own than Graham did, and he was pretty sure her assertions that she was smarter than him were also true, but in the end, they both usually just took the path of least resistance. Neither of them had yet had to confront what happened when an immovable object met an unstoppable force, so it was probably for the best that it was Claire who seemed set to have to do so - or at least, the path of least resistance for him was to sit back and let them all silently fight it out.He almost regretted bringing up his granddad when Lavender asked about him, but he reminded himself that it wasn't like she didn't know about that. He'd been very, very clear with Valentine about how he liked being alive too much to ask Lavender to the Ball unless everyone was 100% on the same page about stuff like his maternal grandfather. It was the principle of least resistance again - he wasn't embarrassed of Granddad or anything, and in fact thought people were stupid if they held that kind of thing against him, but a social reformer he was not. Too much of that and Mom would lose clients and the store would lose business and then what were any of them supposed to do? They relied on rich idiots with unsavory beliefs to make money, as those were the people who tended to have the most of it to throw around on stuff like ultra-discreet therapists and papers with gold flakes in them and absurd stuff like that.
"Well - that's my grandfather who's the, you know, Muggle," he said, not exactly lowering his voice but not shouting this fact out to the masses, either. "My mom's dad. He was always super-into anything he could learn about magic, and the world here, but the Muggles think diricawls don't even exist anymore - they have this saying, 'deader than dodos' about it, when you're trying to say that something is really, really not a factor anymore - so Grandmother says he was really, really excited when he found out that it was just the Statute again and that they weren't really extinct. That's all."
16
Graham Osbrook
...Is there a correct answer to that question?
1498
0
5
Alexei Vorontsov
June 07, 2022 11:18 AM
Definitely not of mackled malaclaw. by Alexei Vorontsov
It was easier when one grew up speaking it. Well, that was true of most languages, he thought. In this case, though, he suspected he was being politely told that no, this didn't really happen to native English speakers, which was a bit of a disappointment. Sometimes, he thought that the Germans had the right idea - just mashing together bits of their own language, even at extended length, to make words, instead of borrowing prefixes and suffixes and derivations from all over the world.Ah, well. Invertebrate - that would be...Greek, then? The way it sounded could have Latin in it, but it didn't mean anything like that would imply, and he'd noticed that sometimes things in Care of Magical Creatures and Potions could lean more toward Greek roots than toward the Latin one saw more often in, say, Herbology (not to mention the spellcasting classes). He liked looking up that kind of thing, sometimes - liked seeing where words came from and how they had been fitted together to make new ideas. He supposed it was inevitable when he thought in two languages himself and had some reading ability in another. Words were fun to play with, at least as long as it was in a context that didn't make him look too awfully stupid in front of others.
"Yes," he agreed gravely. "I know of this. Sometimes this happens in languages that are not English, too. Or between two languages and they are very far away from each other."
"Shell-fish, there is a good word," he said as he followed her in the correct direction. "It is easy to understand, two Englishes together, no? Though, then maybe someone like me will think that you mean...." Did he know the English word for 'turtle'? If he did, it was not springing to mind. "Like cherepakha. The one who walks on four feet on land, and can put the head inside the shell sometimes? It is like a firecrab?"
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Alexei Vorontsov
Definitely not of mackled malaclaw.
1531
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Morgan Garrett
June 07, 2022 11:30 AM
Great! Let's go! by Morgan Garrett
Summer. Whoo. The very topic Morgan had been thinking about while dressing earlier. It was kind of a complicated question - but then, she highly doubted anyone, including Sapphire, was going to pay much attention to what she actually said just because it was her saying it, so she might as well ramble out loud. Maybe she'd sort her thoughts out that way, or else realize that they were kinda stupider than usual and that she should therefore dismiss them."I guess, for the most part? I'm definitely not sorry to get away from Advanced homework for a while," she joked. "Or Advanced tests, geez. Except once I get home, I get to start stressing about being a seventh year in a few months - okay, stressing more about that than I already am," she admitted with a chuckle. She tried not to think about that too much, but it did come to mind now and then, whatever she did. "On the other hand, though, I'm supposed to go stay with Mom first for a while this summer, and - " she shrugged. "I mean, I love Mom, right, but we really haven't been all that close since I started school here." Or really, ever, but it had gotten more pronounced after Dad had showed up to Easter when Morgan was seven, thus disproving Morgan's then-lifelong theory that he was in prison, and then, once she'd started Sonora.... "She teaches Muggle math, so I think basically anything I say breaks her brain a little, and that...kinda leads to us not having that much to talk about. Plus, she won't let me wear make-up or my hats and jewelry or anything, and that sucks, because it's so boring," she groused.
"But that's...way more than you probably actually wanted to know," she realized, with another chuckle, this one a bit more awkward than the first. "Basically, yeah. I get to swim a lot and don't have to worry about how I should be studying instead all the time. What about you? Anything big planned?"
16
Morgan Garrett
Great! Let's go!
1470
0
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Eben Sosna
June 07, 2022 12:17 PM
So, what's the plot of the game going to be? by Eben Sosna
It...seemed that he had done a thing again, Eben decided, as he first waited for Christopher to respond to his question about sketching and the noticed how Christopher made his response. That wasn't good. When he did a thing in a conversation, it was usually a bad thing - he'd stepped on some tripwire or land mine or something in the conversation and triggered it, and now things were going to be explodey in his face probably.The relative mildness of the responses was in odd contrast to how nervous the guy seemed about making them. What, did he think that he was expected to be on par with da Vinci or something if he answered in the affirmative? Eben could sort of understand that appeal of the basic idea - he was always frustrated when he couldn't do something as well as it could be done, too - but didn't get the nervousness. If anything, he'd always been told that it was sort of weird to hold himself to any standard at all, much less to expect it from anyone else - and he definitely didn't tend to expect as much out of other people as he did out of himself. Euan was pretty much the only person he thought could do a lot more than he really did; with other people, he...honestly didn't really think about the subject at all with most people. None of his business, was it?
"Cool," he said. "I'm...so-so or less, but I'm not sure we're going to be graded on how good the drawing is, anyway, as long as we can label it right. Ready to go, then?"
16
Eben Sosna
So, what's the plot of the game going to be?
1538
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Lydia Priory
June 07, 2022 8:12 PM
Tons of it by Lydia Priory
Lydia smiled. “Yes, it should be a good time.” She was sure that there would be enough of a variety of activities that everyone should be able to find something that they enjoyed. The Teppenpaw had obviously never been to a school fair but she had heard the stories from her relatives. Mostly the one about Peyton and the difficulties she’d had with gingerbread people but she’d also heard about what sorts of booths had been at the other ones they’d been to as well. The Teppenpaw was just glad to know that-while maybe there wouldn’t be as many options for things to do as at the state fair-she would be able to find things to do besides rides that terrified her and would potentially make her sick to her stomach.“Her being a Brockert is something to be proud of.” Lydia replied.Although there were definitely those people who thought otherwise. That to be a pureblood was something to be ashamed of, that they were inherently not good people. Which was not true, since most of the relatives that she knew were nothing but kind. The Teppenpaw wouldn’t even say that Sophia was a bad person, because the Aladren alumna was good to her friends and had a very strong sense of fairness and morality. She just didn’t have much patience with Lydia .
Which made her wonder if there was something about her that was the problem. Not to mention those who thought purebloods were bad people made it harder on her. Nobody had ever said anything to her, but if people thought that, it would be harder for her to make friends. And Lydia had enough difficulty with that because of how shy and fearful she was.
However, none of that was the issue here. Verdillia obviously seemed to think that there was nothing wrong with being a pureblood. The third year continued “It’s just that when I try to explain her side of my family, and all the different cousins of various degrees, it’s confusing and hard to follow. Like, there’s so many of them that it’s like a big information overload for most people. It’s difficult enough for those of us who are part of it to keep track of it all and it’s unfair to put that on people who don’t need it.”
It was not unlike any other massive information dump on a topic. Like when a professor went on and on about something tangentially related to a subject instead of just letting the students work on the spell or potion or whatever they were doing. While Lydia was a decent enough student in most things, when a professor went on and on like that, she worried about what portions of that information would be on their exams, both in their classes and later on with CATS and RATS. She did not want to do that to others even though certainly Verdillia was not going to take a quiz on the Brockert family and who was related to Lydia how and what those relatives were doing for fair booths. “And my uncle, Evan, the one who's coming to the fair, is married to one of the Careys. So you can imagine how much fun genealogy lessons are going to be for their future children.”
“That’s too bad.” Lydia replied. “I mean, it’s not bad that they went to Hogwarts, of course. It’s just too bad that they won’t be at the fair. She looked at her friend. “What made them decide to send you to Sonora?” It was interesting to learn what made people from other countries come to school here.
However, she was temporarily distracted by the sound of Verdillia’s exclamation at the site of the hippocampi. “Oh, they’re beautiful !” Lydia replied, awed by the amazing creature in front of them.
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Lydia Priory
Tons of it
1533
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Philippe Delachene
June 08, 2022 5:29 PM
Great! by Philippe Delachene
"Cool," Philippe grinned back when Jasper not only wanted to hang out but was enthusiastic about the monkeys. "They're awesome to watch," he agreed whole heartedly. He pointed to one of the gathering groups of students. "I think that's the small mammal group." He led the way over, checked with one of the prefects in the group that they were in fact in the right place, and then passed that information back to Jasper. "Yup, right spot. We should be leaving soon."They did, in fact, leave soon, and Philippe followed their progress on the park map he'd been given. As they walked he pointed out a few things that looked interesting that they could check out later, but first . . . "Small Mammals!" he announced as they entered into that part of the park. "Whoo! We're here!"
Their chaperone gave a few words of instruction and caution, then they were free to explore this section of the zoo more or less on their own, as long as they had a partner, which Philippe did. "Looks like primates are over here!" he said, pointing to a path his map showed winding between several monkey enclosures. The big sign that said PRIMATES helped, too.
He looked over their worksheet as they walked over that way, checking to see if there was anything the ought to be doing for the Small Mammals section while looking at the monkeys. "Oh, we're supposed to see if we can spot any grooming behavior while we're in this section. I bet we can find some of that here!"
1
Philippe Delachene
Great!
1489
0
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Lavender Brockert
June 09, 2022 10:59 PM
Let's call it rhetorical by Lavender Brockert
Lavender smiled when Graham chuckled at her comment about Geranium and added a few more. Freesia actually wasn’t all that terrible. “Carnation. Daffodil. Buttercup.Crocus” She was glad to make her friend laugh. He needed that when he was so stressed about CATS. She hated to see her friends that way even more than she hated being so herself.“Or how about Crocomesia.” Lavender added. “Decumaria. Calendula.” She looked at her friend. “Have I mentioned we’re a plant family?”She deadpanned. The fifth year was a Daddy’s girl and had grown up around her dad’s greenhouse and so knew more about plants and flowers and what they did than the average. She guessed that she had that Herbology CATS all sewn up too.
However, Lavender was not going to say that. Not just because it seemed a bit like bragging and to do so was obnoxious but because she did not want to say the dreaded C-word. Not today. Graham needed to not think about it and really, so did she. Although this conversation was oddly making her feel slightly better about it because she realized that there were at least two classes she was sure to get Os in and be able to continue.
Lavender would probably continue Charms too. She had never had a problem with the practical part although Professor Wright’s…teaching style. She liked him well enough, he was nice enough but he seemed to give them a lot of…information. He was kind of like Gabriel, someone who genuinely was interested in all of the knowledge he’d retained and took great joy in sharing it. Which was fine, everyone had their things, and all. The problem in Professor Wright’s case was that there was all this information that he was teaching, and she could never be quite sure what would be on the test. Therefore, Lavender didn’t know what she had to remember…and there was so much to try and remember.
She continued. “Well, I guess overall, the Brockerts are a Transfiguration family but like, my immediate family, and some of my mom’s family…more into plants than animals. I’m not sure why we have that flower theme thing going on, exactly. I mean, my dad is the one with the plant related job and my mom has a flower name, so Ivy and I sort of make sense. I’m not sure about the rest.” Lavender didn’t think Arnold had even named his own daughter. So it was super odd. Like there was this weird force in the universe that got them to name people after plants or drew them to plant-named people. “Oh, and my cousin Jake’s wife is Ginger, coincidentally.” She remembered. And Peyton’s best friend was Jasmine. Neither Ginger nor Jasmine was a blood relative-Jasmine wasn’t a relative at all- but still, yeah, plant people.
Lavender nodded. “There must have been quite a few things that blew his mind.” Personally, she thought Graham’s grandpa had a really good attitude about the magical world. There were definitely Muggles who didn’t. Her cousin Kira had grown up terrified of Muggles because Uncle Robert made her think that with her level of magical ability, the Muggle government would try to turn her into a weapon and that some of them would think she was evil. Of course. Kira did learn that not all Muggles were like that and grew to just be afraid of the anti-magic ones who would try to burn her at the stake-not that that even worked, as Kira was a very talented witch and absolutely be able to use the flame freeze charm and apparate away-and the government.
“How did your grandparents meet anyway?” Lavender asked. She was curious since she had never actually met a Muggle. Muggleborns yes, but not an actual Muggle. She wasn’t like Kira who’d had a fear of them instilled in her, or Kelsey, who felt Muggles were filth-and would never ever speak to her again if she ended up married to Graham, not that the fifth year was sure that she really cared about that, but she had not mentioned to her cousin who she went to the ball with.Nor had Gabriel mentioned going to the ball with Morgan to Kelsey-but she just…wasn’t exposed to them generally speaking.
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Lavender Brockert
Let's call it rhetorical
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Bertie Jackson
June 10, 2022 8:41 PM
That's what I had hoped by Bertie Jackson
“Correct,” Bertie nodded, when Mara summarised the taxonomic relationships of various primates.So, here they were, on possibly a second “proper” date or possibly not because people couldn’t make up their minds about the independent variables that characterised one. Speaking of independent variables… Mara looked very pretty. He wasn’t sure whether it was because of something specific she’d done, like changing her hair, or whether because she was always pretty and there was no actual independent variable at play, other than maybe something awkward like hormones. Or being out in the sunshine.
He swallowed down telling her that she looked nice, because he wasn’t sure if that was okay when they were just going to the zoo, not the ball, and because he didn’t want to be awkward and weird.
“No one knows,” he answered her question about when magic appeared. “Or rather, there are several competing theories, with some people being very sure that theirs is right. It’s a little like language—we can make guesses, but it’s hard to be certain. Also, there’s the question of what actually counts as magic. If you have cave paintings that show ritual, spiritual practices, but they don’t resemble today’s magic… How do you decide when magic began?’” he asked. “Hint, there’s a lot of white guy superiority involved, and a lot of dismissal of stuff that doesn’t look like what they recognise as magic.”
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Bertie Jackson
That's what I had hoped
1497
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Amethyst Brockert
June 11, 2022 1:15 AM
That would be revolting by Amethyst Brockert
“Yes, shellfish. Which in actuality are not fish, so I guess this is a tricky English thing. They’re…just animals that come from the sea and have shells, such as shrimp, lobster, crabs, and clams.” Amethyst explained. “Shellfish isn’t exactly a term that people who study these things use, it’s more a term that is used when discussing them in terms of them being food.”She nodded. “I think you mean turtles. What’s the word you used? Can you say it again for me, slowly? Then I’ll know at least one word in Russian.” Alexei was her friend and maybe she was initially interested in his company because he was a pureblood boy from a good family who was not totally vile and repulsive-which from what she understood about Jeremy Mordue was why Sapphire had never shown any real desire to get to know him despite his blood status- but now, after spending more time together, she genuinely cared about him and wanted to know more about his culture.
Therefore, Amethyst was curious to learn some Russian, even if she never ended up being a fluent speaker and turtle wasn’t a word used in everyday conversation. It was not the same as someone demanding that someone adjust everything to suit someone else, because Alexei had made no such demand and she actually wanted to. Besides, learning foreign languages and about foreign cultures made one more worldly and sophisticated and that was something Amethyst wanted to be.
“Anyway, they’re considered reptiles rather than shellfish.” The Crotalus was not really sure of the exact nuances. “I think fire crabs are sort of…in between. Like, they have some similarities to turtles. Their shells are more like a turtle’s, but with gems on them, however…they have legs that are more like those of a crab. Even though they’re not like other crabs because you can’t eat them. At least I don’t think you can. I mean, I think they’re protected and you wouldn’t want to eat them anyway. Turtles are also generally not put in the category as shellfish, possibly because you don’t eat them.”
Amethyst was not, by any means, an expert on animals and animal classifications, so she hoped that the information that she was giving to Alexei was not completely wrong. She did so hate being wrong and she would never want to give someone information that was incorrect. It was misleading to them and she would never want to mislead someone, especially someone that she cared about. Also,although she did not have a complex about it the way that Sapphire did, Amethyst would not want anyone to think she was stupid, which would mean they thought less of her, and she definitely did not want Alexei to think less of her.
So, she added. “Honestly, I’m not one hundred percent sure about some of these things. I know what’s considered shellfish and what an invertebrate is, but some of it you might want to ask Professor Marsh about. Although I can probably figure out the English word for you, I’m really not an expert in animal classifications and why what fits in what category. I’m sorry.” On the plus side, by saying this, admitting she didn’t have all the answers, Amethyst had demonstrated humility. She didn’t know if Alexei would value that, but she felt that it was a good thing, as neither Topaz nor Uncle Eustace, the most repulsive people that the third year knew, would ever do so and therefore showing it was a positive thing. So, regardless of what Alexei thought, Amethyst felt that she had earned Good Person points.
However, she really really hoped that Alexei would continue to think positively of her.
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Amethyst Brockert
That would be revolting
1532
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Mara Morales
June 11, 2022 8:09 PM
Any more ideas? by Mara Morales
Mara laughed when Bertie offered a 'hint' about the arguments over whether a cave painting represented magic or not. "Wow, I never would have guessed," she joked. "When has that ever been a thing?"It did raise a question that she hadn't really thought about before, though, which was...strictly defining 'magic.' They got definitions in the classes, but that didn't quite go along with what the word usually seemed to mean back home...and that was besides how the wizards seemed to understand the term 'magic tricks' in the sense of stage magic, more or less. "I guess I'd define it...I was going to say, 'something happens and it can't be explained by the standard laws of physics,' but you know, one time, they would have said magnets were magic by that definition, and now everyone knows that's not a thing. The stuff we call magic now - it's still part of the natural world, right? I mean, I've never made any pacts with anything to have special powers. So I guess in theory, it's just something that the Statute's kept from being studied the same way as everything else for a few hundred years now."
In which case, someone was bound to stumble across it sooner or later - assuming, of course, that some brighter-than-average person with knowledge of both worlds didn't crack the code on purpose and become a supervillain out to conquer both worlds. Assuming that didn't happen, though, then someday, physicists or something were bound to stumble across something that didn't fit....was the government here actually watching every scientist that was? Because that added an extra element of creepy to the whole thing for her, what with her family owning a business that did chemistry research.....
"It's neat too that some of the other primates can do stuff we can't, as far as I know," she said, deciding to think about neither supervillainy nor people spying on the lab back home. "Like the demiguises going invisible, and...well, I wouldn't want a giant red glowing light on my head, and if we could turn invisible at will, society would probably collapse in a month, but you know. It's a lot further from anything I can think of with non-magical primates, though, anyway. Unless the great apes are holding out on us more than we know," she added, though only half in jest. "I don't rule nearly as many things out anymore just right away, even after I think I've been here long enough to more or less have the rules down."
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Mara Morales
Any more ideas?
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Bertie Jackson
June 11, 2022 9:44 PM
Plenty by Bertie Jackson
“I know, they’re normally so even handed about everything,” Bertie replied, matching Mara’s tone.“Except not everyone can do it,” he reminded her, when she suggested magic was a natural force like magnets. “Certainly, there’s some interesting collaboration that could happen and is being thwarted but… well, magnets work the same for everyone but magic doesn’t.” He wasn’t sure where exactly he came down on the debate of secrecy. On the one hand, the scientist in him wanted to open up every field of knowledge to every other, and thought there would be a lot of progress to be made in applying non-magical scientific theories to magic. On the other, the sceptic in him didn’t trust people to play nice and to not see the whole lot of them as subhuman lab-rats to be experimented on.
“All of which leads back to rather circular definitions, like magic being something that couldn’t be achieved any other way—i.e. magic is something you can’t do without magic. Or definitions of what it isn’t, but as to what it actually is, or how to measure its presence… If you take things like ritual practices, like burning combinations of herbs or marking the walls of caves… A non-magical person could do the same things, and some of the effects like ‘a good harvest’ a hard to measure. If you have a tiger-repelling line and you see a tiger thrown back by it, you can be pretty sure it’s magic. But if they all just avoid the area… hard to say.
“Demiguises are very cool,” he agreed. There were similar things magical people could do, like disillusionment charms, but nothing quite like the demiguise’s ability. “It’s funny how a lot of things that non-magical people write about as superpowers are still things we can’t do… Unaided flight, turning invisible… The most obvious one we can replicate is super strength.”
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Bertie Jackson
Plenty
1497
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Christopher Brockert
June 11, 2022 10:43 PM
Hm...something with Diricrawls? by Christopher Brockert
Christopher breathed a sigh of relief at Eben’s response. He was glad that his classmate had not reacted in a negative way. Well, okay, so the Aladren wasn’t great at drawing, that was totally all right, both because Chris would never criticize a person for not being good at something, the way Uncle Eustace mocked him and Jasper for their lack of ability in Quidditch or Topaz would mock someone for not being as smart as she was-and she didn’t think that anyone was as smart as she was-and because Eben didn’t need to be good at drawing, because Christopher was good at drawing-and actually liked it, though blocks were his true favorite medium. Miles was the one with drawing and painting talent, although as the Crotalus was thirteen, he was going to be better at it than a six year old.Still, this should not be a big deal. He was sure that something about his response had come across as weird and awkward and Christopher hated himself and his uncle both for it. He was not sure why he hated himself when it was Uncle Eustace’s fault, but he did anyway. He hated how it prevented him from making friends because he would inevitably make some social faux pas. Yeah, Eben wasn’t some pureblood that Chris had to impress or there would be dire consequences but he still generally wanted to be liked and now he had probably messed that up. His classmate probably thought that the Crotalus was a giant freak because he was so cautious that he even considered his words on what most would consider a minor matter.
And besides, even though Eben wasn’t a member of pureblood society, some day Christopher would have to talk to them without being so awkward, to make sure that he did not reflect poorly on the Brockert family name. So, it made sense to not be totally socially inept right now, to practice the ability to talk to others without being so strange, so…off.
Unfortunately, Christopher was just not sure how to do that, because of course he didn’t want to say the wrong thing but if he had to try and figure out what was and wasn’t safe for him to say, there would be this weird delay where he figured it out and that would be an issue. Especially considering what was acceptable varied from person to person. Some might think his artistic abilities were admirable and others…were Uncle Eustace. There were-unfortunately-other people like his uncle out there but Chris very much wanted to assume most people weren’t. Eben was not. Eben was an eccentric Aladren who was the sort of person Uncle Eustace would have bullied.
So, therefore Christopher should not have had a hard time saying he was a good artist. Yes, it was important to be modest about things but the larger problem here was that he was conditioned to be worried and anxious that someone else was going to mock him for his lack of masculinity and this conditioning was so ingrained in him that he had to force the logical part of his brain to override it. Which took a minute or two and made his response to someone else delayed a bit more than it should have been.
In other words, he hated Uncle Eustace so much So very, very much.
“Yeah, I think it’ll be fine.” Chris replied. It would be, because even if they were graded on how well something was drawn-which would arguably be overall unfair-he actually was good at drawing. “Ready.” The Crotalus started off towards the bird section.
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Christopher Brockert
Hm...something with Diricrawls?
1539
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Jasper Brockert
June 13, 2022 5:13 AM
Grooming by Jasper Brockert
OOC: CW-Talks about bug eating with a little bit of toxic masculinity and Topaz. But mostly bug eating. BIC:
Jasper walked over to the small animal area with his roommate and the rest of the group, following Phillipe to the primate area “You mean that thing where monkeys pick bugs off of each other and eat them?” He asked. “I am so glad that’s a behavior we lost when we evolved into humans.” He could not imagine sitting around, checking his friends or relatives for bugs, finding them and eating them Of course, humans didn’t eat bugs, or at least he didn’t. Jasper thought some cultures might because a lot of people in other cultures ate things that he would never think of eating. He understood that some of them had no choice but to eat things like bugs, and in that case they were doing what they had to do to survive.
However, the idea of eating a bug made Jasper want to throw up and he could not imagine why anyone would voluntarily do so-and he was pretty sure that people actually did . Which, to him, was hard to understand. It wasn’t a moral thing, like he did not think that they were bad people for eating them or even that they were necessarily disgusting people otherwise. They were just people doing a thing that he found disgusting. The thought of the texture of one inside his mouth nearly made him gag.
And getting lice, which was generally what monkeys were picking off each other, was a disgusting thought in general. Jasper could not imagine getting lice and having one of his parents or sisters or other relatives or Phillipe picking one off him and eating it . Especially considering what some of them were like. The idea of Mother or Amethyst or Esme eating a bug would be almost funny if it weren’t so horrifying and gross and he did not actually love them.
Although actually, Jasper could honestly see Topaz making someone eat a bug. Anyone. Which, if that person was Uncle Eustace it might be funny but he couldn’t imagine how that would work beyond the Imperius Curse, which to be fair, he would not put it past her to use on someone.
Then again, Topaz would be smarter than to use something that would get her wand snapped. Not to mention the Aladren alumna would not feel the need for it given how she’d conditioned Allegra for years to a state of feeling powerless, surely she did not need to imperius someone to eat a bug when she could do it though fear and intimidation. Not sure that would work on Uncle Eustace, but then Jasper would not put it past his uncle to eat a bug to prove how macho and tough he was…and then mock the Teppenpaw for being repulsed by the idea.
Anyway, what he really could picture was Topaz forcing Miles to eat bugs to test out whether or not he was allergic to them. Fortunately, the six year old had been taught not to eat anything that Topaz gave him and Aunt Madeleine was very careful about allowing him (or really, Libby either) around the former Aladren.
“I mean, I guess there’s still a form of people grooming people,” Jasper added. “Like barbers and hairstylists and manicurists and make-up artists and stuff.”
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Jasper Brockert
Grooming
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Philippe Delachene
June 13, 2022 5:40 PM
I brushed my hair today. by Philippe Delachene
Philippe made an odd face as Jasper defined grooming behavior with a bit more detail than Philippe was entirely ready for. "Yeah, that," he agreed with a light shudder. "I try not to think about the bugs and just misinterpret it as them using their fingers to comb the knots out of each others hair."Philippe enjoyed that. He and Freddie did that sometimes when they were doing a hair dye job together. "As a younger brother of Jasmine, and as boyfriend to Freddie, doing each other's hair is something I know humans still do, even not in professional capacities, and it's a lot less disgusting." Anya did not really go in for the grooming behaviors. She barely combed her own hair never mind anybody else's. "And I think it's in the Mom job description to brush your upstart children's hair before they go out in public." Which in his family's case was Anya. Philippe was reasonably good at remembering to run a comb or brush through his on a daily basis, especially if they were doing more than tending horses that day. Jasmine always looked photo shoot ready.
"It's kind of nice, actually, it feels good, and it means they care about you, right? And I guess that's why monkeys do it, too. They don't want those bugs bothering their friends and family, and I guess they get a juicy snack at the same time. Eugh." He gave an exaggerated grimace.
They reached one of the monkey enclosures and Philippe looked into it, his eye tracking a pair of small young ones swinging around on the ropes first (they reminded him a lot of Anya, honestly) before making himself look along the ground to a more sedate pair of adults with one of them running her fingers through the other's fur. "There," he pointed out. "That looks like grooming down in the corner there."
1
Philippe Delachene
I brushed my hair today.
1489
0
5
Jasper Brockert
June 14, 2022 6:07 AM
Me too by Jasper Brockert
OOC: CW-*sighs* Toxic masculinity, homophobia, emotional and medical neglect, and a bit more bug eating BIC:
“Sorry.” Jasper replied. He felt a little bad about grossing out his roommate. At the same time though, he felt that tiny bit of gladness that came with someone agreeing with you on something, even something so small and insignificant. Of knowing that something wasn’t wrong with you for feeling how you did-and even if there was, at least you weren’t alone.
More importantly though was that Phillipe was another guy showing disgust over something that Jasper also felt disgust about which meant that Jasper was not weak or unmanly for showing disgust over it. Although, the other Teppenpaw was a guy who had a boyfriend so Uncle Eustace would probably have something to say about how much of a “real man” that Phillipe was. Still, he would rather be like his roommate than be like his uncle. Who the other fifth year loved didn’t matter, he was still a better person than Uncle Eustace would ever be. Granted, that was a pretty low bar, but still. “I guess that’s a much less disgusting way to think of things.” Honestly he’d just blurted out the bug eating thing without thinking because it gave him such a visceral reaction.
Jasper laughed. “I suppose that’s true.” Although personally, he had never done anyone else’s hair or anything but he did have sisters and female cousins, who did things like that with each other.
The next thing that Phillipe said made him kind of sad. He was pretty sure that his mother had never brushed his hair. She might have played with his sisters’ hair, practicing hairstyles on them when she felt a whim, but mostly that had been left up to their nanny or the house-elves. Or they did it themselves. Maybe they just didn’t qualify as upstarts but Jasper knew full well that had nothing to do with it. “Yes, it does.” He replied.
Because it was. It did. It was just in his case that it meant that the nanny and house-elves cared about him. Of course, the nanny was paid and the house-elves were born to serve them and knew nothing else, but honestly, they did care about Jasper and his sisters. Well, maybe not Topaz, but the rest of them.
However, wonderful as they were and as much as he knew they loved him, it wasn’t the same as having a mother who did things like that for them. He saw how his aunts were towards his cousins. How protective, for example, Aunt Madeleine was of Miles and careful of how she was regarding his allergies. Had it been him or one of his sisters who was allergic to nearly everything, they’d probably be dead. What happened to Sapphire with her epilepsy was bad enough.
And he saw how just plain happy Aunt Helena was to have a baby after all the ones she’d lost, regardless of how Uncle Eustace reacted. She loved Honora so much and Jasper was sure she brushed the little girl’s hair every day.
He couldn’t believe he was actually happy that Phillipe brought the conversation back to eating bugs. “Yeah, I certainly wouldn’t want bugs bothering my relatives either.” Well, most of them anyway. And he was pretty sure some of them would have an absolute fit if they had a bug in their hair. Jasper could easily imagine Amethyst shampooing her hair ten times if that happened.
“I think you’re right. “ He said when Phillipe pointed out the monkeys in the corner.
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Jasper Brockert
Me too
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Gabriel Wilson
June 15, 2022 8:51 AM
Kangaroos and Frogs and the Future, oh my! by Gabriel Wilson
Gabriel was excited about going to the zoo and seeing all the animals that he knew so many cool facts about. Like how gorillas could catch human illnesses like colds-and he didn’t think that they could take Pepper-Up potion either. Or that some water going creatures like turtles, water snakes, alligators, crocodiles, dolphins and whales could actually drown if they were underwater too long. That one had really surprised him. After all, they were water creatures.There were flamingos, who could only eat with their heads upside-down, and kangaroos. Gabriel knew all sorts of interesting things about kangaroos. Such as that baby kangaroos were only an inch long at birth and that their ancestors lived in trees. Now there were eight different kinds of tree kangaroos. However, one of the most interesting things about them was that if you lift a kangaroo’s tail off the ground it would not be able to hop because they used their tails for balance.
Honestly, Gabriel was going to have a hard time deciding where to start.However, he was just glad to have a break. He might not have had any big tests coming up the way the fifth and seventh years did but he still had been thinking a lot about how next year was his final year at Sonora. He was…less thrilled about his impending graduation than he’d thought he’d be. Yes, there was the fact that the Aladren would get to learn all sorts of cool things in college-going to college was absolutely a given for him-but, like, Gabriel would be alone.
Not that he had a super amazing social life at Sonora but he had his cousins and Gaming Club. The Aladren wasn’t really a social butterfly and that was generally enough for him. After all, there were problems with being too social because then you didn’t have time for deep and meaningful relationships with so many friends and your friends might feel neglected.
However, the fact that he wasn’t a social butterfly was one reason that the thought of leaving Sonora was so jarring. It would be easier to think about going to college if he was a person who had an easier time making friends.
Of course, what really terrified Gabriel was having to figure out what he wanted to do for the rest of his life, picking out a major and a career. He loved delving into trivia and learning interesting facts, knowing things but how could he pick out a career from that? Plus, a lot of it was stuff that he didn’t want to do practically. Gabriel knew trivia about diseases, but didn’t want to be a Healer. He knew trivia about crime and dark magic and dark wizards but didn’t want to be an Auror. He knew trivia about a lot of things, and loved to tell people what he knew, but didn’t think he wanted to teach. Getting up in front of groups of teenagers didn’t appeal to him.
And Gabriel knew trivia about animals but didn’t want to be a magizoologist. However, today, he was happy for the distraction. He saw animals everywhere and his brain was filling up with facts about a lot of them.
Making up his mind, he decided on the amphibians. Frogs were absolutely fascinating. There was evidence that they had been on Earth for two hundred million years. They ranged in size from one of the smallest, the Cuban tree toad that was only half an inch long to the goliath frog of West Africa which could grow up to fifteen inches and weigh up to seven pounds. Gabriel hoped that the zoo had both.
Now to find a partner. He spotted a person who was alone and walked over to them. “Hey, do you want to go see the amphibians with me?” The sixth year asked.
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Gabriel Wilson
Kangaroos and Frogs and the Future, oh my!
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Philippe Delachene
June 15, 2022 5:53 PM
I have to admit, though, I decided to shower *after* the zoo. by Philippe Delachene
Philippe marked down the grooming behavior on his educational worksheet (Found: two adult monkeys, sitting on the ground, combing hair with fingers and eating bugs), glad to get at least one thing done on it before he forgot he was supposed to be working on it and had to fill it all out by memory. As he watched, the one monkey ate a bug she found, and he quickly looked back to the young ones running and playing and screaming. "I'm pretty sure Anya was a monkey in a past life. Or maybe a bird. Probably a monkey most recently and a bird before that," he decided, nodding definitively as he made up his mind on this theoretical past. He wasn't sure he even believed in reincarnation, but that seemed right for his sister."What about you?" he asked curiously. "Do you identify closely with any particular animals? I'm hoping, if I ever get good enough to become an animagus, that maybe I'll be an otter. They're fun and social and cute and great at swimming, but they can also defend themselves and those they care about if they need to." He checked his map, "Oh, otters are in this part of the zoo, too! I'd like to go see them after the monkeys!"
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Philippe Delachene
I have to admit, though, I decided to shower *after* the zoo.
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Jasper Brockert
June 16, 2022 11:38 PM
I can see why that''s a good choice by Jasper Brockert
OOC: CW-Mentions abuse BIC:
Jasper laughed. He didn’t know Phillipe’s sister well on a personal level but he knew her reputation and from what his roommate said about her, “That sounds about right.” He thought for a minute. “Amethyst might have been a peacock and Topaz would definitely have been something predatory and vicious.” He never got into the level of how really bad the Aladren alumna was, partially because some of it wasn’t his story to tell and he felt the need to protect the victims-although, on some level they all were victims, obviously Allegra and Sapphire had been tormented the worst- and partially because Phillipe just didn’t need to hear about that level of darkness. People usually did not want to hear about horrible things in everyday conversation. It made things awkward and then the person who mentioned them was blamed for bringing them down.
Honestly, this might be why victims suffered in silence. Or at least one reason, Jasper knew that both his sister and his cousin were so beaten down that they feared reprisal and both had always also felt pretty hopeless about the situation. It seemed much the same with Aunt Helena.Although things were getting better for Allegra at least because her boyfriend Josh seemed the exact right mix of sensitive and strong. Sensitive enough to be as kind and loving as Allegra needed and strong enough to protect her from Topaz’s crap.
Still, these things needed to be talked about. There were people who wanted to bring other issues to the forefront and Jasper thought that was fine and all, but the stigma around abuse as well as that around disabilities of all kinds needed to end-and the abusers needed to be held accountable.
However, he wasn’t sure he would be able to do that. He still wanted people to like him and he didn’t want to make people feel bad…which was the problem. People didn’t want to make others feel bad. Well, most people didn’t anyway. Topaz specialized in it.
Anyway, while he hadn’t gotten into details with Philippe, he’d said enough for the other Teppenpaw to know that the former Aladren was not a good person.
Jasper thought for a moment. “You know, I’m not really sure. I like animals, but I’m not sure I have an affinity with any particular one. Maybe wolves? I mean, what’s something that’s like, protective and caring about its loved ones?” Honestly, as a Brockert, he should have at least thought about what his animagus form would be. Although when it came to reincarnation, Jasper wasn’t sure that he believed in it, but if it was real, he had a theory that in his past life he was mostly good, because there was a lot about his life was good and he definitely had certain advantages, but also he had Topaz and Uncle Eustace as relatives as well as a fairly negligent mother, so he must have screwed up pretty big at some point.“But yes, otters are neat and we should totally go see them next.”
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Jasper Brockert
I can see why that''s a good choice
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My toxic trait is that I think I could walk up to a bear and it would just sense my vibes and not attack by Theo Spurn
They were going to the zoo!!! Theo knew that zoo rules were ‘no touching’ which was disappointing, but probably best. There were a lot of things that he wanted to pet which definitely wanted to bite him in return, and if there had been any possibility—like, not a massive enchanted fence between them—he would possibly forget the thing he wasn’t supposed to do and try it.Still, he was excited for seeing lots of different animals, imagining how they would feel to pet (he was good at tactilising—which was the word he had invented for being able to imagine how something would feel), and hopefully he could get something plushy and soft in the gift shop afterwards. Occasionally, there were also interactive things to do, and maybe he’d get to pet something before the day was up.
He was wearing a sweater with a panda on it, which had pom-poms for its ears. It was several sizes too big, and the really exciting thing about being sixteen was that maybe he was done with the heartbreak that came with growing out of clothes—or at least close enough that the oversized things would be able to ride out any last bits of growing. Maybe he could keep this panda sweater forever.
He listened to the rules, aware that this was going to be a ‘do as you're told’ kind of day, even though it was exciting and he just wanted to do what he wanted. He wasn’t interested in every single section of the zoo, but he also didn’t want to get into trouble. He drifted over to a group that contained several of His People, though he wasn’t actually near enough to look like he was with them. Even he wasn’t sure if he was actually with them right now, or just… around, so it was totally fair that someone else came up and asked about hanging out.
“Sort of,” he answered, when Gabriel asked if he wanted to go and see the amphibians with him. “I am going with this group, and we can hang out, and amphibians are a middle to low level of priority to me, although I have to see them anyway because of the rules.” Some amphibians could feel smooth in a silky way, which wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t the best. They outranked water creatures because those were unpettable, but they weren’t as good as anything fluffy or feathery.
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Theo Spurn
My toxic trait is that I think I could walk up to a bear and it would just sense my vibes and not attack
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