System
August 12, 2022 5:46 AM
Selina Skies
August 12, 2022 5:46 AM
Challenge One: A-Mazeing by Selina Skies
Selina was excited for the first challenge. Traditionally, this was the closest to a pure ‘strength’ challenge that they got. It tended to either be athletic, or require subverting that need through use of magic. That brought in a problem-solving element, but you still needed fire power of one sort of another to back up your brains.As ever, there were the needs of the specific cohort to consider. Whilst the challenges were designed to push people outside of their comfort zones, they weren’t meant to be downright traumatising or impossible, which meant they had to design them in such a way that students with access needs weren’t at a disadvantage—in this particular cohort, they had to consider how to make a challenge that was equitable for Lazarus, given that his communication method was more time-consuming than other people’s. That meant either limiting the need to talk, making a rule against it, or not making time the deciding factor. Whilst a few different ideas had been bounced about, the one they’d settled on leant more towards the first two options. This was a timed challenge, but one where he wouldn’t be at a disadvantage.
The groups were gathered in the Cascade Hall, although those with a higher number were permitted to wander the rest of the school, save for the Labyrinth Gardens (where the challenge would be taking place) and the MARS rooms (where the teams would go after finishing). They had been given a time to return to the hall by, which was an approximate estimate of when they’d be needed. The posters announcing the task had told them only to bring their wands.
In turn, Selina collected each team, and led them outside. Technically, a labyrinth was a single, meandering path. It was distinct from a maze in that, whilst it twisted and twined back on itself, there was only ever one single route. It was designed to be more of a meditative experience than a puzzle. The labyrinth at Sonora fell somewhere between this and a more traditional maze—it did have branches, and dead ends, but more to create separate areas and a chance for privacy than because they actually wanted students to get truly lost or stuck. However, the familiar paths had been warped and twisted, rearranged into something that was much trickier to navigate. That fact, at first, was only obvious from the large, curved wall they found themselves standing by.
“Welcome to the first challenge. In a moment, you will enter the maze. Although you will all enter through the same doorway, you will all end up in different sections of it. Your job is to find each other. You will primarily score points on how quickly you do that, although you may gain bonus points for the number of obstacles defeated or creativity of the spellwork involved.
“The maze is constructed in such a way that you will not meet an obstacle that is above your grade level whilst on your own.” By which she meant, there were age lines between the various sections, and they could only be ‘finited’ by someone who was old enough to cross them. Whilst that meant that lower years might hit an invisible barrier they couldn’t cross, it meant that they couldn’t wander into danger without an older student to help them. The obstacles in the maze consisted of some ‘combat’ style tasks like those they would find in their DADA classes—minor jinxes that were fired by visible dummies or tripped by less obvious (but still detectable) means, creatures suited to their age range and the fact that they weren’t under the immediate eye of an adult—but also more puzzle solving elements, such as hedges that would close up behind them or gaps that were too small to get through.
“You may use green sparks to try to catch your teammates’ attention, though I’m not sure how well they’ll be able to see them. Please only use red sparks if you feel genuinely unsafe and require intervention from a staff member.
“Any questions?” she asked, taking time to answer anything about the rules of the task, but not giving away any details about what they’d find inside. “Alright,” she smiled, once that was done. “Best of luck. On your marks, get set, go.” She waved her wand, and a doorway opened, which would scatter them to their starting points.
OOC: Welcome to your first challenge! You may make up any reasonable obstacle in line with the above descriptors. Your post will be graded by class standards - i.e. it is about length, relevance and realism, not about how amazingly awesome you claim to be. Your initial or most detailed post for each character will be scored on a scale of 1-5 and every other post you make will gain an additional 1 point.
Unlike normal threads, you do not have to follow a posting order (e.g. keeping the same order of speaking) though try to consult with your team mates in chatzy if more than three of you get back together.
You may not write for other characters. Please give teammates (or staff) room to respond if something happens that would get their attention.
The challenge will run for two weeks, from today until Friday August 26th.
You may also post celebration threads in the MARS room.
Subthreads: Team 8 with System, Xavier Lundstrom, Mab, Jasper Brockert, Fortune Ardovini, Liesl Brockert
Team 1 with System, Oz Spellman, Iris Cobb, Morgan Garrett
Team 2 with System, Lenny Pierce, Yaniel Ayala Velez, Lavender Brockert, Mara Morales
Team 3 with System, Robyn Lundstrom, Phil Carson, Graham Osbrook
Team 4 with System, Billy Cobb, Cole Pierce, Bertie Jackson, Alexei Vorontsov
Team 5 with System, Verdillia Scurlock, Nausicaa Scapetello, Rosalynn Tellerman
Team 6 with System, Isla Brockert, Lyla Holland, Gwendolyn Brockert, Hansel Hexenmeister, Sadie-Lake Chalmers, Eben Sosna
Team 7 with System, Lydia Priory, Valentine Duell, Xarryn Bavol, Leviosa Scurlock
Team 9 with System, Samara Crosby, Theo Spurn, Claire Osbrook
13
Selina Skies
Challenge One: A-Mazeing
26
1
5
Xavier Lundstrom
August 13, 2022 6:32 PM
Divining Inspiration by Xavier Lundstrom
Challenge one was a 'one at a time' deal, which meant Xavier spent most of the day waiting. Given that the school had a whole house of people who they had deemed 'not good at waiting' as one of their primary personality traits, he wondered how they thought that was going to go over. He really thought that number of Pecaris rather than team number should be the deciding factor in order. It was super frustrating. He couldn't even pass the time in any of the ways he liked. MARS was closed off, so he couldn't skate (unless he did it in the corridors, and dang, he was tempted because had they ever said no skating in the hallways? He didn't think so. He didn't think they knew what skates were). His other go to recently had been divination. He couldn't wait for his classes in it - like, literally couldn't, and was almost always spending his evenings fidgeting with the things he’d gathered from Professor Duell. His favourite was the crystal ball. He could totally lose himself in its murky depths, enthralled by the passing of the ghostly shapes whose meanings felt like they hovered on the edge of his understanding. Everything else melted away, and he could lose track of time completely - which was why it wasn’t an option now. He’d also noticed that he was frequently tired after a long session of crystal gazing, or even if he used the tarot but did it again and again and again. It was like going skating, and pushing yourself harder and longer than your body was used to—something he’d always been prone to. Wearing himself out before the challenge didn’t sound like a great plan.He’d done a couple of tarot pulls, because he couldn’t resist, and they were lighter work than crystal gazing. He wondered if the challenges had been future-proofed somehow. If there was something you didn’t want people seeing, then there had to be a way of blocking people like him. Like, how did they stop Seers cheating on exams? Or was it just assumed that The Fates would always be vague enough for it never to actually be helpful? He was getting the impression that they’d be more likely to give a message along the lines of ‘you will face many questions and suffer greatly’ than ‘heads up, there’s an extended essay question on switching spells.’ Still, it couldn’t hurt to try a little tarot. Much like skating in the corridors, no one had told him he couldn’t. He’d been practising single card draws, seeing if he could shuffle the deck and get the same card multiple times in a row by letting his intuition guide him. On his first draw, he got the Knight of Swords. Swift action. Ha. Were they mocking him? He shuffled and searched for it again, but drew Temperance instead. Patience. Carefully considered actions. Fine. If the cards were going to be salty with him, he was going to pass his time in other ways.
Between snacking and pacing and games of exploding snap with anyone else who was as bored as he was, he managed to fritter away the time until it was their go. He followed Professor Skies out into the gardens with the rest of team eight. They were being put into a maze, and had to get back together as fast as possible, whilst not dying of monsters and traps. ‘Age appropriate’ monsters and traps. He wondered what that meant for him. His practical magic had been improving since he’d started learning to channel his divination powers, but he was still low on fire power for a fourth year. Would there be fourth year threats in his path, or had they tailored it to his actual level? He didn’t know which was worse. The thought that he might have remedial monsters was utterly humiliating but probably not worse than literal death. Not that they would let him die. They were often weirdly specific about offering that reassurance like it shouldn’t be taken for granted. Even if his monsters were grade-level, he would probably manage without their help. He had a pretty good fight or flight response, even when it was pushed to engage the ‘fight’ option. The Center had proven that. When he was physically threatened, it startled his powers out of him. Apparently his greedy, power-sucking Seer senses had enough self-preservation to lash out at threats.
He followed his group into the maze, but immediately found himself alone with two paths ahead of him. How was he meant to know which way to go? He could feel the clock ticking, speed was of the— Speed. Speed was of the essence. Swift action… Had he predicted this? In typical divination fashion, the actual answer was only presenting itself once you got there, and could retroactively jam the facts into some kind of significance. Swiftness, but patient, measured decisions. What was that saying ‘more haste, less speed?’ Rushing things wasn’t always the fastest way forward. He could plunge down a path at random, in order to get started and get moving or he could try to work out which was the more effective path to take. After hours of waiting, he knew which he wanted, but he fought to reign that in. He reached for his tarot deck, but he’d left them in his room to ‘cleanse’ themselves/think about what they’d done. He probably wouldn’t have been allowed them anyway, though right now he would have gladly traded his wand for them. He felt more powerful and in control with divination. Although, that would be relying on the fact that the staff wouldn’t actually let anything eat him, because what would he do if he came up against an actual threat? Scare it off with visions of its future? Papercut it to death?
He took in his surroundings, considering what he could use to choose a path. He’d been reading a book that was all about nature divination, and which scorned the use of tools like tarot cards and crystal balls, saying that Seers who became over-reliant on them were limiting their possibilities—that a true Seer should be able to take the world around them and read it, unfiltered through any man-made object. Which was… a strong take. Xavier liked his crystal ball and his tarot cards, and felt vaguely defensive every time he read that book. Yet he kept coming back to it. And now he was starting to see the point. In situations like this, he was kind of screwed if he couldn’t use his powers. And, whilst this situation was fabricated and extreme, he could either carry a crystal ball and a tarot deck everywhere for the rest of his life, or learn to interpret the world without them.
He tried to remember what the book had said. The first couple of exercises were all about using naturally occurring things the same way one would use tea leaves or wax or any other kind of medium in which symbols occurred—like, scattering leaves or dust or flower petals and just willing meaning to make itself apparent. Well, he had plenty of those things. Feeling vaguely ridiculous, and still more than a tad restless, Xavier sat down. He pulled a twig off a nearby hedge and scratched two boxes into the dirt, one representing each path. He gathered a handful of loose earth and tried to focus his energy, exploring down each path in turn as he scattered it and stirred it, continuing until he felt that it was Done. He wasn’t sure if he was sensing that for real or just running out of patience.
When he opened his eyes… a pile of dirt greeted him. Okay. So, what had he been expecting? A giant arrow? He thought that if the fates actually wanted to speak to him, being that direct would get their relationship ticking along much more smoothly, but they never seemed to agree. Right, well, even if he just stared at it intently for a few moments and then picked a path, maybe he’d get bonus points from Professor Duell? It was unlikely that anyone else was trying to divine their way around the maze. There was a difference in the way the dirt had fallen. The dirt in the right box was more clustered. The dirt on the left was more scattered. He was trying to get to people, so did the right represent that, whilst the left was being lost and separated? But the right one… Something about it just seemed Wrong. It wasn’t just clustered but looping in, crossing itself… Barriers on the right versus openness the left? Or loneliness on the left versus reunion on the right? Both interpretations were equally valid, and he would probably never know which was right, and he might well be wasting time. He felt better about the left dirt. He wasn’t sure if that was any real, stronger feeling or whether he’d have been just as confident if he’d left it up to ‘eeny meeny miney mo’ (could you divine with ‘eeny meeny miney mo?’ Was his eeny meenying actually meaningful? Those were thoughts for another day…)
He headed down the left path, moving at a light jog to make up for his slow start. Until he got to his first obstacle. Initially, he thought he was approaching a dead end, but as he got closer, he saw that the hedge was only half the height of the rest of the maze. Enough to be an inconvenience, but the path most likely continued on the other side of it. They hadn’t said he had to use magic, and he was pretty sure his own athleticism was more reliable than his skill with a wand. He reached in, searching for grip, but it was obvious that the hedge was the perfectly unfriendly combination of too flimsy to hold him up whilst being too thick for him to just push through. He thought of all the spells that felt too big for him on something this size or that were beyond his skill level even if he’d been a normal fourth year—blasting it, conjuring steps. If only it was solid enough for him to climb!
If only…
”Duro,” he cast. If this didn’t work, he was going to live to regret that when he had to blast the whole thing out his way. The last thing he needed to do in that situation was give it reinforcements. But, even though the whole hedge didn’t turn to stone (obviously, he was a fourth year and him) it felt much more solid when he grabbed hold of it. He got most of the way to the top before his hand plunged into soft foliage again, and he cast a hasty repetition of the charm, managing to scramble onto the top and drop down safely on the other side, panting slightly.
He picked himself up, and carried on. He faced another fork, and closed his eyes, trying to look like he was Intuiting but actually just silently eeny-meeny-miney-moing. As he rounded the next corner, he heard a voice. It was muffled, on the other side of the hedge, but it was definitely a voice.
“HEY!” he called out, as loudly as he could. “HEY! It’s Xavier! Relashio!” he cast, slicing at the hedge between them. The spell crackled through the air, satisfying and actually frigging working. Except, in his head, that had led to a dramatic parting of the hedge, whereas—even successfully cast—all it did was send leaves and twigs tumbling. It wasn’t actually a spell for creating an opening, just for cutting. “Uh, any ideas?” he called through the hedge.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
Divining Inspiration
1529
0
5
Mab
August 17, 2022 8:04 PM
Team yay. Be inspired. by Mab
Even after actually meeting the people she didn't know particularly well on her team, Mab still thought she could have done much worse on a semi-randomized group of people from the school. Two Teppenpaws and three Pecaris mixed with only two Crotali and no Aladrens (why hadn't she gotten any Aladrens?) sounded like a disaster but Fortune was about the worst she had and even he was pretty tame. They had a decent set of skills, about half of them been somewhat sporty, two being good at Transfiguration, two being good at the Dark Arts (class stuff, not going evil), and no first years to coddle.Given that, at their first meeting, she only asked for red flags and got back all the information the teachers had recommended they talk about at the table, the group was also pretty good at receiving directions and just doing what they were supposed to do without waiting for her to give explicit instructions, so that was promising as well. She probably mostly just needed to lead by example rather than hold anybody's hands.
Which was good, because she was not okay with hand holding.
As the second to last team to go, she was not required at the Hall until rather later than the first groups were, so she spent the time in the library getting some of her homework done and purposefully not thinking about the challenge because, with as little information as they had been give, there was nothing to think about that would be productive. Better just to do the potions essay, get it done, and maybe they'd get lucky and something she just researched would prove useful.
Soon enough it was time to get down to the Hall, so she tucked her books and papers away and headed down. She stuck her bag in an out of the way corner to retrieve later, and gathered with the rest of Team 8. Professor Skies led them out to the Gardens and explained what the deal was. Sounded pretty straight forward. Find everybody on the team and gather them together. They didn't even need to solve the maze, just find each other. And not die, of course, because the fey never did anything safely and there was no reason this would be any different.
As Mab was from the oldest student year group, everything in there was fair game for her, and there was probably something only she could defeat, if they ran into it. It was a maze and the goal was not to clear it. It could probably be avoided. She was pretty sure she could handle it, whatever it was, though, so she hoped they found it. Beating the big bad would probably get some of those bonus points Professor Skies had mentioned.
The one thing she was a bit concerned about, though, was that to find each other, they'd probably need to do something to draw attention to each other and frankly, she liked this group because they weren't huge attention seekers, and that might make things tricky for them.
She stepped through the maze entrance and found herself alone. She sighed heavily, pulling out her wand. At this point they were probably pretty far from each other so there was little use in throwing up the green sparks unnecessarily this early on, but she already dreaded the necessity. She had learned pretty early in life that the best way to survive was not to draw attention to yourself.
Instead, she used the wand for another spell she had personal objections to, but her gripe with this one was more aesthetic than constitutional. "Point me," she ground out resentfully. She set her bearings to the identified north and then picked up a leaf from the path and transfigured it into a piece of sturdy paper (forgoing her wand to do it because she still preferred wandless magic, especially for things that weren't too complicated, and it seemed to impress the teachers). She cast another one to transfigure a stick into a pencil and she wrote "MAB WAS HERE" and drew an arrow. She fastened the paper to the hedge and started walking in the direction she had drawn the arrow. If anyone else found this spot in the maze, they'd know which way at least one teammate had gone.
She moved slowly and carefully, watching for dangers, and spotted two traps. The first had been what Professor Brooding-Hawthorne (the DADA one) had described as a 'magical tripwire' that would have flung a pretty nasty hex at her if she hadn't spotted it and used the counter hex on it. She was pretty sure she had permanently disabled it, but she left another note for anyone following not to step on the spot that would have triggered it, just in case, and used rocks and twigs to outline the area that should be avoided. The second was less a trap and more an encounter with a Pogrebin, which Mab initially mistook for another stone along the path.
She'd started feeling a bit hopeless and sure that this challenge was beyond their team because nobody would want to be the first to call out and they were all just walking past each other, like ships passing in the fog, when she realized it was moving a little bit. She gave it a light nudge with her shoe and knocked it over enough to see its small hairy body, and she cursed. She did draw her wand for the stunning spell she threw at the thing, with a loud "Stupify!", because dueling club had gotten her used to using the wand for more combative spells. Then she gave it a good kick to get it more out of the main path.
She was just looking around to find materials to leave another note warning about the Pogrebin when she heard someone shout a muffled Hey! She froze and spun around, her wand up, crouched and ready for another attack, when the voice repeated, Hey! and then identified themselves as Xavier and the hedge between them rustled.
So they were passing by each other like ships in a fog. "It's Mab!" she called back, then warned, "Stand away from the hedge!" She gave him a few seconds to follow the instruction then threw her hand toward the barrier between them and wished for the fairies to just burn an opening through it. They did so, and she finished the effect off with a wand-waving spell, "Aguamenti!" to throw water over the smoldering leaves so Xavier could cross safely through.
"Are you all right?" she checked. "Have you seen anyone else?"
1
Mab
Team yay. Be inspired.
1473
0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
August 19, 2022 6:45 PM
Yay! And also boo. by Xavier Lundstrom
The hedge yelled that it was Mab. Yes! Xavier was possibly one of a very few people who meant that cheer entirely unsarcastically. Mab was someone he actually got on with, and trusted (she had, luckily, never needed to find this out, but if anything had gone hideously wrong with his experiments last year, Oz had been under strict instructions to get Mab, not a teacher [Oz had been instantly on board with the ‘not a teacher’ obviously, though had seemed less convinced about Mab, or possibly her willingness to come if summoned by him]). She was also a seventh year, which meant that she had enough firepower to protect him if needed. He might not have admitted that part of his relief out loud, and it irked him as much as it comforted him, but it was true regardless.He stepped back as instructed, grinning broadly when Mab burnt a hole for him in the hedge. He stepped forward, and smacked face first into something invisible.
“Urgh. Guess they don’t want us cutting through the hedges. No fair.” He thought that had been a good solution. And decently ‘magical’ which was what they were demanding them all to show off, right?
“I’m fine,” he answered her earlier question, which was suddenly much more pertinent. He was nursing both his nose and a growling spot of resentment, but neither was a serious injury. He kicked at the barrier as he spoke. “And no, I haven’t seen anyone. You?”
13
Xavier Lundstrom
Yay! And also boo.
1529
0
5
Jasper Brockert
August 22, 2022 8:54 AM
Yay enough by Jasper Brockert
OOC: CW-Yeah, toxic masculinity mentioned. I hate Eustace so much . BIC:
Jasper had to admit, he was slightly worried about the Challenges. In particular, he was worried about having to do anything athletic, in particular, that he’d have to fly. It wasn’t simply that he wasn’t good at or didn’t like it, he had a pathological anxiety around all things flying and Quidditch. Any chance that he might have been at all interested in them had been destroyed by his uncle when he was a child.Jasper could hide just how much the idea of riding a broom bothered him…until he actually was faced with doing so, and then he completely froze up.
Unfortunately, that anxiety sort of extended to people who were sporty too…and even more unfortunately, he had people like that on his team. The Teppenpaw tried to be open minded and fair and give people a chance, but it was just like there was a block, the way there was with flying, a fear that they would be like his uncle. Okay, Fortune did not worry him too much, based primarily on the fact that the Pecari was a second year and Jasper was a sixth year.
And while Mab was on the Quidditch Team and the president of the Dueling Club, Esme didn’t think she was so bad.Which meant that she was probably not much like Uncle Eustace. She definitely was not loud or obnoxious. Although she wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy either. Jasper supposed he would have to step into that sort of supporting people role, although arguably his cousin was the only one who would need him too.
Then there was Xavier…who flew for fun. The sixth year was trying his best to give him the benefit of the doubt, even after hearing about the Pecari being rude to Billy Cobb.Maybe he wasn’t like Uncle Eustace, however, people like Xavier just didn’t hang out with people like him. Or Liesl. People like Xavier especially did not hang out with people like Liesl. They made fun of them. Jasper would have to make sure that did not happen. While he and the third year had never been especially close, probably due to the age difference, she was his cousin, and fairly closely related-compared to someone like Lavender, for example-he wanted to look out for her, like a big brother would.
Honestly, even though most of his sisters were older than him, Jasper often felt more like a big brother than a little one. He was the oldest male cousin-although, if Liesl counted in that group, he supposed Owen did too and that made the Teppenpaw alumna the oldest-and while four of his sisters and two of his first cousins were older than him, he still felt the need to look out for his family. That was the role that Jasper had been cast in as a child, the brave knight protecting the princesses from evil. (Evil, of course, being Topaz.)
And, truthfully, it was so much easier to focus on looking out for his cousin than dealing with his own vulnerabilities and insecurities. Maybe it was because of how Uncle Eustace berated and mocked any weakness that any of the boys showed and while he thought, intellectually, that his uncle was full of it, on the emotional side, it had stuck with him. Especially when faced with people who played Quidditch and ran the dueling club and flew for fun and were otherwise good at sports.
It was much easier to encourage Liesl when she clearly thought she wasn’t good at anything. Jasper had been able to see her floundering during the team meet and greet when that came up. He’d felt pretty bad for her. It seemed that under her fairly cheerful demeanor and her love of all things creepy and spooky, she didn’t have the best self-esteem. The sixth year had never realized this about her before, and now he wanted to help her out, hence the whispered reminders of what she was good at.
Granted, Jasper wasn’t sure that those things would come in particularly handy in the Challenges, minus the Transfiguration thing, and maybe the fact that really, Liesl was a pretty brave person. Maybe not like doing the sort of…Pecari daredevil things that used athletic skills, but like dealing with things like snakes that scared some people or like Dark Magic. That was what he was trying to hint at when he was whispering that to her. Jasper didn’t think she was necessarily quick on her feet when it came to dueling or anything, given that she’d mentioned that she was not very athletic.
Still,he hoped the younger Teppenpaw wasn’t too nervous about the first Challenge. Jasper, honestly, was trying not to be. He was worried that this might be the dreaded physical challenge, the sort, if not the exact same thing, that had traumatized Allegra so much. Well, traumatized her more since she’d obviously already been so by Topaz.
The thing was though, that Jasper had been previously traumatized too, albeit on not as strong a level as Allegra had, by Uncle Eustace’s toxic ways, the bullying about how-in his uncle’s opinion-he was unmasculine based on his lack of ability or interest in Quidditch. Even though the sixth year didn’t let on much, he knew full well that if he was actually faced with having to fly, he would absolutely freeze.
And if that happened, Jasper worried that his teammates, Xavier in particular and possibly Mab too and maybe even Fortune, would laugh at him and make fun of him. Thanks to his uncle, he was much more worried about that happening to him than Liesl, even though they very well mock her too, but the older Teppenpaw was a boy, and he had been conditioned by his uncle to believe that people were more likely to think a boy should be athletic than a girl and would be more likely to belittle him.
Honestly, why did Jasper have to get such a sporty team with so many Pecaris? How was this fair? Esme had gotten four Aladrens and so had Isla. Apparently, in addition to teams that weren’t balanced gender wise-he was on a heavily male team, but being on a team with a bunch of girls would not have bothered him since he had five sisters and no brothers-some also weren’t well balanced in terms of house.
It wasn’t that Jasper exactly hated Pecaris or anything, because there were nice ones. Fortune honestly seemed fairly nice and Mab…sort of had Esme’s approval, because she wasn’t loud and annoying although she did seem sort of…like she didn’t really like people. Sort of like an athletic female version of Olaf. And Chris-someone every bit as wary of Pecaris as the Teppenpaw was, if not more so-got two of the good ones. Alexei was friends with Amethyst-who, like Esme, actually seemed to not be a fan of them as opposed to the wariness the Jasper and Christopher felt-and Billy, despite his very loud and typical Pecari tendencies, had always honestly seemed pretty nice.
He was happy for his cousin, but still worried for himself, especially given what Liesl had termed “The Cobb Incident” where Xavier had been horribly rude to Billy. If the fourth year could be rude to someone who was also the athletic type over something else, something about hanging out or something-and the fact Jasper’s teammate had not wanted to hang out with someone who was similar to himself-how would he treat someone like the sixth year who had the hang-ups around flying that Jasper did if they came up? Or Liesl either?
On the plus side, they’d been told that all they needed to bring was a wand. He’d sighed with relief at that. They didn’t need brooms, thank Merlin.
Although, there was always that fear that brooms were waiting for them. And he had a long time to worry about it too, since he was on Team Eight, and the teams were performing this task in chronological order. Or even if brooms were not required, what if they were an option that Xavier either insisted they all do, or made fun of Jasper for not choosing them?
Finally, it was their turn to go and Professor Skies led them out to the Gardens. He listened to the instructions that she gave. He was unsure whether or not it was a good thing that they were initially going to be alone. What if the younger students needed help? Jasper had thought the Challenges were about being a team and he wanted to be able to look out for his cousin.
On the other hand though, well, at least if he wasn’t with his teammates, none of them could judge his lack of athletic prowess. Although, he supposed they might have already given that he’d mentioned it at the meet and greet. Not that Jasper had gone into how he pathologically hated and feared all things flying and Quidditch, since he was sort of embarrassed by it, but he had mentioned that he wasn’t all that good at sports and didn’t like them much, making him probably seem like an outright alien to his Pecari teammates.
Honestly, Jasper would have traded with his cousins in a heartbeat. Or even his roommate, although he would have had to step more as an Assistant Leader had he been with Theo rather than Mab. Still, Phillippe was on a team where he didn’t have to worry people would make fun of him for not being athletic.
At least he didn’t have to fly though. So at least that was some consolation.
He entered the maze and set off on his path. The obvious thing to do would have been to use Point Me but the goal was to find his teammates, not find his way out of the maze. The Homonculus Charm might have been useful if he had a map of the current layout, but he obviously didn’t. Hm.
Jasper wandered around for a bit…until he felt things getting hotter. And not just because he was walking around either. In fact, things kept getting hotter and hotter…until he came to a wall of fire. What the *kumquat*? What the actual *kumquat*? This was downright unsafe.The Teppenpaw had to believe-hope-that none of the younger students had to deal with such a thing.
He considered his options. Jasper could either douse it with water or…use the Flame Freezing Charm. Perhaps he’d get more points for the latter. Besides, it was good practice in case the Statute of Secrecy got violated and people tried to burn him at the stake. Or much more likely, if Topaz tried to come after him with fire.
Jasper quickly cast the charm and passed through the fire, feeling the pleasant tickling sensation that meant he had done it correctly. He walked on, noticing before too long that it was starting to smell terrible. Like rotting fish and dirty diapers. The Teppenpaw automatically cast the Bubble Head Charm and kept going.
Eventually, he heard voices up ahead and walked towards them. Of course, it would turn out to be the two that Jasper was most nervous about but since the goal was to find his teammates, this was definitely a success. “Hey!” He greeted the two Pecaris.
11
Jasper Brockert
Yay enough
1496
0
5
Fortune Ardovini
August 24, 2022 4:49 PM
What's over here? by Fortune Ardovini
Adventure at last! Eventually anyway. Fortune spent the time waiting for his team's turn by brushing up on his charms while wandering about the school. Mainly because he knew he should review his magic, and his legs didn't want to stay still. When their turn finally came, he was as ready as he would ever be.Their task sounded like fun and he delved into the maze with everyone else, and wasn't terribly surprised when he was all alone. He was mildly surprised to be standing in the middle of a small gazebo looking structure. There were hedges in a tight circle all around it, about a foot away, with no apparent exit. His first thought was to just try blasting his way through, but that didn't seem quite in keeping with the challenge aspect of their task. He suspected there was a more clever way out, and decided to look for that first. Speed was of the essence though, so if all else failed, they were just bushes.
One thing he'd learned from reading and listening to adventures, was to always look up. People in stories never did, and it always seemed to cause them such problems. Hanging from the center of the ceiling of the peaked gazebo was a small metal cage, he couldn't see what was in it though. He also couldn't jump high enough to reach it. As he moved around, trying to inspect the cage he learned that it was also important to look down. He stumbled over some debris that was scattered about the floor. There were broken wood bits all over the floor. It looked like someone had smashed a perfectly good ladder.. oh.
With a chuckle he began gathering the pieces together and putting them together like a puzzle. Then with his wand ready he cast "Reparo!" and watched as the ladder slowly pulled itself back into one piece. It was simple enough then to... wait... the latter was to long to set up, and the cage was on a chain that swung around. After fumbling around for a bit he realized he could simply set the ladder up against the cage. Why did they give him a ladder if it wouldn't work? Frankly, they'd given him the wrong kind of ladder, it should have been one of those folding stepladders.. oh. Well, he didn't know the tranfiguration spell to turn a straight ladder into a step ladder, but there were other options.
"Diffindo!" Fortune called out as he cut the ladder in half with his wand. Then he set them up against each other and cast a quick sticking charm to hold the ends together. Hopefully it would last long enough. Once together he quickly scampered up the ladder to finally see what was in the cage. It held a quaffle. That was not what he was expecting. How was that supposed to get him out of here? How was he supposed to get it out?
Fortune felt the ladder shift just slightly under him as the sticking charm began to give way. He grabbed for the cage to steady himself, his fingers grazed the ball as he began to fall, then he was wrenched away by something pulling him sharply from the navel and he landed on the ground while the quaffle bounced away from him. He laughed as the shock passed, it had been a portkey! Pulling himself to his feet, he looked around, it was a round area about the same as the last one, but with no gazebo, and a passageway heading out of it. The ball had come to a stop against the hedge. Should he take it with him? If he recalled properly, touching it again may send him back to the previous area. He didn't really want that, so he left it where it was and continued down the path to see what he could find. Hopefully a teammate. He shot some green sparks into the air as he walked, just in case someone was nearby.
OOC: Fortune is off in another part of the maze as I couldn't see how a second year could wander into an intersection of a fourth, sixth and seventh year area.
2
Fortune Ardovini
What's over here?
1549
0
5
Xavier Lundstrom
August 27, 2022 9:24 PM
Speak for yourself... by Xavier Lundstrom
Xavier felt himself tense at the voice behind him. The odds weren’t particularly in his favour, he supposed. He’d already found Mab, which meant that of the other people they could come across, there was a three against two chance of it being someone who made him uncomfortable.He wasn’t sure why it bothered him so much. The fact that his magic was stunted was scarcely a secret. Unlike academic work, where you could keep your hand down or your paper hidden, practical magic was very much on show. Even if you didn’t work with someone directly, everyone had a sense of how everyone else was doing, and where they ranked. Everyone could look over at other work benches, and compare how they were doing with each other. By now, it was definitely no secret that Xavier was the weakest student in his year, and that he possibly was being overtaken by especially competent third years on a regular basis. And sure, Jasper had never said anything about it, at least not to his face, but Xavier also hadn’t been forced into a claustrophobically small interaction with him, where Jasper would be directly confronted with all the magic Xavier still couldn’t do and would have something to lose as a result of it. Xavier worried about all of his teammates being mad at him for that last point—no one liked having to carry a weak player—but Jasper, Liesl and Alexander worried him the most. They all absolutely exuded old magic—the Brockert name, the numerals on Alexander’s name, the way Liesl dressed… He wasn’t totally sure what it meant, but he read it as ‘super into my own witchiness.’ They all undoubtedly thought being incompetent at magic was one of the worst things a person could be.
And, of course, Jasper would find him not when he was doing something super cool like using magic to help him scale a hedge, but when he was stuck. For a second, he imagined just deferentially bowing Jasper through the gap with an ‘after you’ and watching him smack his face on the invisible wall. But that was horrible. He wasn’t that kind of person. He just didn’t want to have to say ‘I’m stuck’ to someone who was think less of him for that.
“We hit a snag,” he admitted, knocking on the barrier. It didn’t actually make any noise, so he kind of just looked like he was tapping the air, but he trusted that Jasper would work it out. After all, he’d grown up in a land where invisible walls were perfectly normal.
13
Xavier Lundstrom
Speak for yourself...
1529
0
5
Liesl Brockert
August 28, 2022 4:23 PM
Me. Yay? by Liesl Brockert
Ever since the Challenge Team Meet and Greet, Liesl had been feeling pretty bad about herself. Even though Jasper had been giving her hints about what she was good at, the third year still felt like it wasn’t much. The things she’d said, the reminders that her cousin gave her, were basically exactly little things that one said when they were reaching for things that they were good at when they were in a situation like this one where they were being asked to say what they were good at.And the only obviously useful one-the Transfiguration talent-wasn’t even hers alone.Regardless of whether or not she had more natural talent in it than her teammates-aside from Jasper-the bottom line was that Liesl was just not special. She was unique-if one was nice about it, different if they weren’t-but that didn’t make her special. The Teppenpaw did not have a talent of her own that she was better at than anyone else or that most people couldn’t do, like Hans’ parseltongue. She was simultaneously extremely weird and painfully ordinary and mediocre. Liesl both stood out and didn’t.
And it made her feel pretty low. So, she did what she always did when she felt bad, she wrote to Uncle Cory and confided in him. Of course, he wrote back quickly as usual. Which was the case even when she wrote to him normally about what was going on in her life. However, this letter was full of encouragement. Okay, so he’d told her basically the same things as Jasper regarding talents, along with pointing out she was good with her cousins and Krisalyn. Which was also not going to help in the Challenges since she was a third year and the only people on her team younger than her were second years.
What had helped Liesl feel better was her uncle pointing out that she was a good person, which was much more important than being talented, and that she also had something even better than a special talent, which was a good friendship based on something in common. All good friendships were important, but for someone like Liesl, who was different and didn’t have much in common with most people, finding a person with whom she shared common ground was a very big deal.
None of this especially would help much with the Challenge, but it did make the Teppenpaw feel better about herself as a person. Like, she was special to Uncle Cory and maybe she was special to Hans too,.She hoped so,since he certainly was to her. And Liesl had the approval of the snakes on her friend’s ranch which she thought was probably important to him.
Anyway, there was also another way that her uncle had helped her. Generally speaking,the third year had a wardrobe that, while representing her and who she was, and that she hated putting robes over,was overall not really appropriate for what tasks she might face in the Challenges, based on what her cousins had said about them. It was not a good idea to dress in Elegant Gothic Lolita clothing when doing an obstacle course or desert survival. Granted, Liesl would not be doing those exact things, but she might be doing something similar and the poster said only to bring wands giving absolutely no other information. Which actually made her wonder if Uncle Mortimer was behind it.
Still, she wasn’t taking chances on it. So, in addition to a letter filled with heartfelt
encouragement-actually two, since Liesl had gotten a second one from her uncle this morning, along with a cute little knitted eyeball stuffed toy that must have been knitted by Aunt Amy. The stuffed toy market as pretty much devoid of eyeballs, minus the ones in the head of the stuffed animals-her uncle had sent her more appropriate attire, mainly t-shirts and leggings that had Liesl’s favorite things on them and even a pair of sneakers with skulls on them. She suspected her uncle had transfigured the pattern onto those.
And, of course, Liesl had to ask her uncle. Her mother never would have sent her clothes that she liked. Now, she got to wear something that represented.who she was while also being in the sort of clothing that was appropriate if she had to do something where her regular attire would not be so. Plus, she didn’t have to cover them up with robes so that was a plus.
And it was something she needed today, since she was so nervous about the Challenges given her general mediocrity and less than mediocre athletic ability when she was on a team with people who were good at sports. Her clothing was her armor
Currently, she was wearing the sneakers along with a pair of skull leggings and a t-shirt with a big eyeball on it. The Teppenpaw had considered wearing the skull one, because skulls all the way, but the eyeball was supposed to,like, ward off the evil eye and all things considered, she felt that was probably a good idea. Maybe there was nobody evil around but maybe it would protect from being made fun of or having a difficult event that did not play to Liesl’s strengths. Which she guessed would be impossible since she didn’t have any, but at least one that didn’t emphasize the things she was downright bad at like sports.
Anyway, it turned out that her team was going to have quite a wait. They were doing something where teams went one by one, in chronological order, and she was on Team 8. Liesl went back to her room to get her book to read while she waited though she spent some of the time talking to-and being reassured by-Jasper, as well as talking to Samara a little.
Finally it was their turn to go. As Professor Skies gave the instructions, she decided it was definitely a good thing that her uncle had sent her the clothes, because her usual attire certainly would have made things a bit more difficult for her. And Liesl did not need for things to become more difficult for her.
Of course, while a maze full of obstacles sounded like what Angelique would say was “pandering to the athletes”-something which both be terrible for Liesl personally but possibly go well overall for her team, given the fact that they had athletes, assuming that she didn’t somehow mess things up for them-but Professor Skies made it sound like they were supposed to use magic. And the third year was actually pretty good at magic in general, not just Transfig, it just wasn’t something that made her special and the good kind of unique. She might be better than some people, but others were just as good or better than her. However, Liesl could still most likely be successful using magic in this event. At least she hoped so.
The Teppenpaw took off down her path. Eventually, she came to a spot where her path was blocked…by charmed skeletons! How utterly cool! She couldn’t help but grin.
Of course, then Liesl realized that they were an obstacle, not something put there to enjoy and be cheered up by. Pity, it was sort of a shame to destroy them. However, she had to do what she had to do. “Sorry guys.” She apologized before casting a Tickling Charm on them. “ Rictumsempra ” They fell apart and, after a moment of silence to honor them, Liesl continued on her way.
She walked through corridors where the hedge seemed to decide to grow up right in front of her, blocking her way. “ Diffendo ” Unlike the skeletons, these were not the sort of things that the Teppenpaw regretted destroying at all. They were merely an annoyance to her.
Then Liesl came to a clearing where the ground seemed to be crawling with… “Rats!” She squealed. How utterly adorable ! She had always found rats and mice to be extremely cute, even though she knew that they had to sometimes be sacrificed as snake food. Still, they were so extremely adorable that Liesl would have pet them, had she not been a bit afraid they might bite her.
Oh wait, this was another obstacle. She was supposed to somehow vanquish them. Which meant…it was time to Transfigure! It might not be only her talent, but it was her best one.
Okay so rats were small and gray and so were rocks. Or there was the mice to snuff box spell. That might work on rats too so Liesl decided to try that. Fortunately, it worked. Now the ground was littered with snuff boxes,
Then she saw the green sparks. Which meant…teammate! Hopefully it was Jasper, who was absolutely the person on her team that the third year felt the most comfortable with since she knew him previously and he’d been encouraging towards her and he was even less athletic than her, or at least hated Quidditch and flying more . And while, judging by Professor Skies’ remarks,she could not cross into his path, he could cross into hers.
However, when Liesl got there, she spotted Fortune instead of her cousin. Apparently, she was the one who had crossed into the second year’s path. Stil, this meant she had found a teammate so that was good, and Fortune did seem fairly nice. “Hey Fortune!” She greeted him.
OOC: Fortune had a good point, so Liesl's response is to him since it's more likely that she'd cross into the second year path than meet up with the older students
11
Liesl Brockert
Me. Yay?
1537
0
5
Mab
August 29, 2022 5:47 PM
This is weird by Mab
Xavier was all right, relatively speaking. He'd clearly run face first into something and it looked like it stung, but nothing serious. No burns from her own fire, no injuries from other encounters, no despair from the pogrebin. Also, no sightings of anyone else."Me either," she admitted in mild frustration, both at this unexpected undermining of her attempt to clear a path for her teammate, and the fact that time was ticking and they'd only found each other so far.
Before she could begin to try to figure out how to circumvent the invisible wall that took the hedge's place as a barrier between them, or how to find anyone else, someone else found them. So maybe that part at least was going to work itself out somewhat.
Jasper was, she supposed, by dint of being the other advanced student in their group, her deputy leader, and she found it a bit unbalanced and inefficient that the teachers had placed him in a position that would find her sooner than anyone else (she wasn't sure Xavier could be considered placed well to find her as they'd had to burn down a hedge to see each other and there was still the issue of the wall to deal with). Shouldn't the two oldest students have been placed on opposite sides so they could gather up everyone in their respective halves and meet in the middle? That's how she would have set them up if she'd had a say in any of this, if they'd been allowed to strategize and plan at all.
They hadn't though, and now they had a heavily unbalance distribution with three of their four oldest teammates right here and the younger kids Merlin only knew where. Hopefully, Henry was out there, able to help out some of them.
As Xavier failed to audibly knock on the wall he'd run into, Mab tried to feel around for its dimensions, hoping to figure out where its weak spot was so she could take it down like she had the hedge . . . but she couldn't find it. She was pretty sure she was already reaching past where Xavier had run into a barrier, but she took a careful step closer to him, and poked at his still extended arm, and . . . there was nothing between them. She'd successfully made contact.
Confused, she frowned and stepped back where she'd been originally, and tried again. Still nothing barred her way. "Is it a velocity thing?" she ventured uncertainly. "If you approach too fast it stops you but if you move slow and carefully it's not there anymore?"
Both herself and Xavier were changelings, but Jasper had been born to the fey. She glanced his way, "Do you have any idea what this might be? It's blocking him but not me. I can't feel anything here at all."
1
Mab
This is weird
1473
0
5