Mortimer Brockert

June 24, 2022 10:50 AM
Yet another year at Sonora was upon them. Mortimer was glad to be back. As annoying as some of the people here could be, given that most of them were teenagers, an inherently annoying group of people, at least he did not really have to socialize with them much. In fact, that was a large part of why he didn’t retire. If he retired, he might have to actually spend more time going to parties and getting together for other social events with members of pureblood society. So, being Headmaster gave him an excuse not to.

Anyway, this year, his grandson Olaf would be coming to Sonora for the first time, and Mortimer was looking forward to that, given that Olaf was the most like him of all his grandchildren.

Once the older students were assembled at their tables and the first years entered the room. Mortimer cast Sonorous on himself and rose." Welcome to Sonora for the new first years and welcome back for all older students. First years, you should have received a blank badge at the end of Orientation. You will dunk the badge in the Sorting Potion and it will turn the color representing your house which are blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw, red for Crotalus, and brown for Pecari. Afterwards, you may join your house table." He noted Olaf’s sorting with pride and immense pleasure. Very like him indeed and just where he always expected. He had quite the knack for guessing what houses his grandchildren would go into.

After the first years had been settled, Mortimer continued. “Would Morgan Garret and Gabriel Wilson please come up and get your Head Student badges." He continued. "In addition, I'd like to call up Rosalynn Tellerman, Ian Malone, Henry Spellman and Augustine Reed-Fischer to receive their prefect badges. Congratulations.” Arguably not as terrible choices this time although of course Isla and Esme were better ones. However, generally speaking it wasn’t that Mortimer was anti-Rosalynn, Gabriel or Morgan-as much as he was ever not completely anti-someone- he was pro-Isla and pro-Esme. In the case of Rosalynn, there was always the factor that she was running two clubs and while Isla was in both of them, that still meant that Mortimer’s granddaughter had less chance of being over-extended than her roommate.

However, at least Rosalynn was friends with Isla and Sapphire had spoken well of Morgan. As for Gabriel, he was a very intellectually curious Aladren which Mortimer thought was a positive attribute. Besides, anyone whom he truly disapproved for Head Student had been excluded from the ballot to begin with this year.As for the rest, Ian was a very dedicated student with the goals of becoming a Healer from what he had heard and Augustine…was the least of evils which most of the time was the best one could hope for from Pecari and Isla had fairly positive things to say about him. Henry Spellman…was the only option but at least he was better than his brother.

Once the prefects and Head Students were back in their seats, Mortimer continued. “This year we will be once again having our Team Challenges.” He had always been fond of this event given that it kept students busy. “ Your teams will be announced within the next couple of weeks with details to come. Our midsummer event will be the concert and acts will consist of challenge highlights as well as any other performance people wish to put on.” He couldn’t imagine why they would want to do anything else with the Challenges going on plus their normal schoolwork, not to mention CATS for the fifth years and RATS for the seventh years.

““Now for the singing of the school song.” He had finally figured out exactly how to mention the school song being sung without lying and saying we would sing the song. We would not be singing, because that would include Mortimer and he would be doing no such thing. They would be singing but saying that seemed to be a bad idea as well. So, the song would be sung,that could be agreed upon by all, even if it was not sung by all. Someone would be singing. Lyric sheets were passed around and the song began.

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


That done, he dug into his steak and bourbon.
Subthreads:

Aladren

Teppenpaw

Crotalus

Pecari
11 Mortimer Brockert Opening Feast 6 1 5

Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher

June 26, 2022 7:44 AM
“Just try.”

Just try, Mom said. Like it was that easy. Lazarus always sort of thought his mom knew everything, but she clearly didn’t get it. He did try. He always tried. But it was hard to feel like you fit in when you were separated by a barrier. Nobody at school seemed to care that he was different - at least, they never said anything in front of him - but it was exhausting sometimes. He was pretty good with his magical book, turning to the page he needed to respond when necessary. But it was annoying, so sometimes he just didn’t respond. Talking to people when you couldn’t talk was just no fun. And anyway, people were exhausting in and of themselves. Lazlo was definitely more on the introverted side of things just in general.

He told his mom that he would, though, because that was easier than saying he wouldn’t, and he got on the wagon.

It was odd at first, watching the new first years scurry to Orientation and not falling in among their ranks. He had all this time now before the feast to go and do.. Well, apparently whatever. This school didn’t seem to have all that many rules, honestly. Overwhelmed by options and incentivized by lack of motivation, Lazarus just went up to his room and started unpacking his stuff. The elves would’ve done it for him, he knew, but he had nothing else better going on.

Eventually he meandered down to the Cascade Hall and took his place at the Aladren table, another weird Opening Feast experience: knowing where he was going. He listened as best as he could focus to the Headmaster’s speech, and instead of doing what he wanted to do and panic about the Challenges mentioned, he decided to make good on his promise to his mom and make an attempt by - gulp - interacting with someone.

As the food began to appear, he helped himself to the dish in front of him, but instead of sitting it down, he held it out toward a neighbor. His smile and slight nod of his head spoke for him, a gesture of Do you want this?
12 Lazarus Jareau-Fletcher An attempt 1548 0 5

Bertie Jackson

June 27, 2022 5:56 PM
OOC: CW brief discussion of institutional racism BIC:

The students of this school could not be trusted to make logical decisions. Admittedly, there had been a run of quite good years. Students from various minorities had made the head student positions - the last two years had seen three Muggleborns, one trans student, and one immigrant all elected to office. But the tide seemed to have turned back the other way. Bertie was less annoyed about Gabriel than he was about Morgan. Gabriel might have been a Pureblood, but he was at least open enough to try out Muggle games and was interesting. He probably still believed certain people were ‘beneath him’ to marry, which was gross, and Bertie wasn’t exactly a fan of friendships that only ran as deep as ‘so long as politics aren’t on the table.’ Given that politics affected nearly every element of his life or existence, it wasn’t something he could easily brush aside just to get along with someone who felt there were limits to what he and his family were worth.

Morgan was just silly.

There was no other word for her, or for the decision to put her in office when someone perfectly qualified like Mara was her competition. Mara was intelligent, resourceful, and capable. What did people see in Morgan? Did they think she was ‘fun?’ He didn’t understand that, both as a description of her general overly loud, underly thought through execution of virtually everything, nor as a desirable quality in a head student. Interesting, how the fun white girl had got chosen over the highly qualified Latina. And yet when it had been Zara who was outgoing and sociable versus Jessica’s… whatever perceived competency, it had been Jessica who triumphed.

And speaking of all these idiots, Bertie was going to be forced to interact with them for ‘team challenges.’ That sounded like being forced to listen to a lot of nonsense in the spirit of ‘giving everyone a say’ even when people had ideas that made no sense. Great.

At least the food would be good. He was surveying his choices when a second year held something out to him without a word but with obvious invitation. Bertie was a little surprised, having not seen enough of Lazarus to know how he communicated, but he knew the struggle of not being able to get your words out well enough.

“Uh- - thank you,” he said. The way the words caught would probably read as hesitation to the younger boy, even though for Bertie it felt painfully obvious that his surprise had made him stutter. Blocks—the times where he just seized up between words—were always less obvious to others, unless they went on far too long. He heaped a small amount of the offered food onto his plate and then set it down. “Did you want anything?” he asked. This time, it was far more obvious. Several of the letters caught, giving more classically stuttered repetitions. He tried not to wince, or tense up. It wasn’t like it ever went away completely. He suspected it was a thing about him that was widely known. He’d just got used to being around people where he didn’t mind it happening, and where it didn’t matter.
13 Bertie Jackson Ah. Yes. Those. 1497 0 5