Selina Skies

November 13, 2022 12:34 AM
The third and final challenge had involved an impressive array of projects, and the scoring had been a real challenge. Selina could see that all the teams had put a fantastic effort in. They were all creative, all featured contributions from the whole team, but at the end of the day, some were more creative, or better executed, or had a more balanced effort from everyone involved. There were a lot of different factors that could contribute to a successful team, as shown by the very differing captains that had headed them. Although the one thing she felt they might have in common was that no one would have pegged them as natural leaders…

A notice had gone up asking all the students to meet in MARS for the results and a celebration. The room had snacks arranged around the outside. In the middle were currently rows of chairs, though these would largely vanish to be replaced by more informal seating arrangements once the announcements had been read out. There would be beanbags and some arm chairs around the edge, but most of the space would be open for mingling, or even dancing if the teams wanted to. A large banner hung across the back of the room reading ’Congratulations All Teams’ and below it were a gold, a silver and a bronze flag with the words ‘First place’ ‘Second place’ and ‘Third place’ The spaces under those numbers were currently blank, but would be filled in soon enough.

“Hello, and welcome,” Selina smiled, once all the students were assembled. “I’m happy to see you all here, and I want to congratulate each and every one of you. Regardless of where your team finished, you all showed a huge range of skills—magical, musical, creative, as well as things like leadership, co-operation and kindness, which are no less important than fancy spells in making something like this work.

“After the results, you will have time to mingle and celebrate. You don’t have to stick with your own team. The party will go on until six. You’re not required to stay for the full time, but I’m glad everyone is here to show a sporting attitude by celebrating our winners, and to take pride in your own achievements during this challenge.

“First, we will begin with the results of the last challenge. Once again, I was impressed by the range of skills on display, and this was a very close run thing.” She waved her wand, and a glittering list appeared in the air beside her, filling in from the last placed team to the first.

=8. Team 2 - 13 points
=8. Team 3 - 13 points
=6. Team 7 - 14 points
=6. Team 1 - 14 points
=4. Team 5. - 15 points
=4. Team 4 - 15 points
3. Team 9 - 18 points
2. Team 8 - 21 points
1. Team 6 - 24 points


She allowed some applause, and a tiny bit of quiet murmuring, but she didn’t want to allow too much time for mental maths, and the spoiling of the final reveal.

“We will now announce the overall winner. As we announce the top three, I would like all members of the team to come up and receive your awards. You will be able to keep the large trophy for the length of the party, after which it will be returned to the school to be displayed in our awards cabinet. Each team member will receive one these miniature replicas to take home.

“When the results of the final challenge are added to your existing scores, this is how our table looks…” she said, waving her wand, to bring up the leaderboard. Again, each team appeared one by one in glittering green writing in the air beside her, filling in a little more slowly than the challenge three results had, and stopping before the crucial top three, which would fill in as she announced them, in bronze, silver, and gold glitter respectively.

9. Team 1 - 35 points
8. Team 7 - 41 points
=6. Team 2 - 42 points
=6. Team 3 - 42 points
5. Team 5 - 43 points
4. Team 4 - 46 points


“In third place, with a total of forty-eight points is…. Team nine, led by Theo Spurn.” She beckoned them onto stage, announcing the rest of the team members as they made their way up, and offering Theo a handshake as she presented him with the bronze trophy.

“In second place, with sixty points is… Team eight, led by Mab Pierce-Beales.

“And finally, last but very much not least, and probably not coming as much of a surprise given how they have dominated in every single challenge, our first place winners are TEAM SIX lead by Sadie Chalmers!” Although she had remained unbiased throughout, Selina couldn’t help but be a little pleased that it was one of her own house who had captained the first place team. She gave Sadie a warm smile as she shook her hand and presented her with both the large gold trophy and her own miniature copy.

“Congratulations to our winners, and to all of you regardless of where you placed. Please enjoy the celebration.”
Subthreads:
13 Selina Skies Challenge Results and Party 26 1 5

Olaf Brockert

November 14, 2022 12:43 AM
It was finally over, thank Merlin! Olaf would now be able to leave this inane activity behind him and be able to do what he really wanted to with his free time outside of class- read . He would have all summer to just sit around doing exactly that given that his parents thought that twelve was much too young to go to balls-and he absolutely loved them for that since going to a ball was basically akin to torture for the Aladren. All those people making small talk. Yech. Olaf despised small talk with every fiber of his being.

Even the Challenges were preferable to that. After all, at least some of the activities used brains and problem solving and magic and his teammates had mostly been bearable. At least as much as other human beings could be.

He was still glad they were over though. However, Olaf was admittedly curious about the results. He was pretty sure Isla’s team was going to win overall since they had been in the lead all along and he was happy for her. Hopefully, Esme would move up too. At this point, the first year doubted that she would finish in the top three but you never knew. After all, stranger things had happened, like, oh people without any musical talent being third in a musical competition?

That still rather bothered him. The idea of having to perform in front of the entire school again, as well as everyone’s families, irritated Olaf to no end. He had better things to do, he’d had better things to do all year long. Although, the initial performance at the end of second Challenge had not bothered him any more than anything else he’d had to do during them. Probably because he had assumed they had no chance of being in the top three. Unfortunately, Olaf had been wrong about that.

Still, if they could be successful in that, well, maybe they had done well in the last one as well. He waited with everyone else to find out the results, rolling his eyes as Professor Skies got all sappy and mentioned things like cooperation and kindness-as if those actually figured into point totals-and celebrating the winners. Honestly, that was what was ridiculous about this party-not that parties weren’t in themselves ridiculous, not to mention boring and annoying-only some of them had any reason to celebrate. Unless they were celebrating it all being over. Olaf hated parties, but that was indeed a valid reason to be happy.

Before they could find out the overall results, the results of the last Challenge were announced. And they made him scowl. Granted, he was pretty much usually doing so, but this actually rather annoyed the first year. How on earth had they tied for last place? Their museum had been amazing.Or at least pretty good.

It had certainly been better than their playing of junk instruments. It was just Olaf’s luck that the one and only event they’d done well in was the one where doing well led to the punishment of having to perform at the stupid Concert. He would have much preferred for it to be this one or even the first one.

Then Professor Skies announced the overall scores. Olaf really wasn’t expecting much here. Not after the abysmal results of the final Challenge.
Yup, there it was. They had tied for sixth with Amethyst’s team. Oh goody. At least Esme’s team had gone up to fifth place, right in the middle of the pack. It was what he knew that she was aiming for after ending up tied for last after the first event. Olaf was honestly happy for her.

And he was extremely happy for Isla too. Well, maybe not extremely happy being so was just not something that Olaf did but he definitely was glad that she won since he hadn’t. Although he had not really cared about doing so and still wasn’t really all that unhappy about how his team had placed-although the Aladren still thought they deserved better in the last event- he was pretty sure it was just human nature to want to win when engaged in any sort of competition.

Of course, when Olaf stopped to think, instead of being caught up in the frenzy of a competition, he remembered that the two most competitive people that he knew were Topaz and Uncle Eustace who were both also the two most revolting people that he knew. And that made him absolutely willing to be a gracious loser and be happy for his sisters,as well as his cousins who had also beat him.

Olaf headed along the outskirts to the refreshments and wondered just how long he had to stay. Of course, he had a book with him for when things inevitably got boring but he did much prefer to be on his own than around a group of people and if the entire school was here, including the Pecaris, well, the first year was sure it would be noisy and chaotic which was completely not his scene at all. Olaf strongly preferred places that were quiet and full of books, such as the library or his dorm room or his bedroom at home.

He took his plate of snacks and cup of pumpkin juice and sat down in one of the armchairs. The minute the noise, which was inevitable considering how many people were there, started to get to be too much, he was out of there.

The first year was just about to take out his book when someone sat down by him…

11 Olaf Brockert It's over and that's the real reason to celebrate 1564 0 5

Nausicaa Scapetello

November 15, 2022 6:14 PM
Nausicaa did not enter the MARS room with high hopes of sweeping the competition and coming out on top where she belonged. The last challenge had gone fine, but despite her best efforts, she didn't think she had been able to pull her team far enough out of the hole they had dug themselves. She had no intention of associating with her teammates any more than was necessary, so she found a seat away from them.

The room was decked out in what somebody must only imagine parties were supposed to look like, downright garish. Nausicaa guessed that Ms. Tellerman would most likely approve. Her seat happened to be next to Olaf Brockert. That was at least one small bit of fortune. He was a house and classmate, he was as close to 'proper lineage' as America came, and he seemed to be one of the few sensible people in the school. He might even make a decent associate.

Her estimation of him went up a slight notch when in the process of rolling her eyes at the Deputy-Headmistress' mention of 'kindness' and 'cooperation', she caught him rolling his eyes as well. Sensible. From that point onward she kept a discrete eye on the boy, his scowl was just perfect as well. The results did not surprise Nausicaa in the least, her team had tied for fourth place in the last round. She blamed those unicorns. And they had gotten fifth place overall. This is why 'teamwork' and 'kindness' were ridiculous. If they had been allowed to trim out the members of the group that had dragged them down, her group would have easily placed first. She allowed her expression to muted displeasure, nothing so dramatic as Olaf's scowl, but it matched it well.

Finally the announcements were over and they were allowed to disperse a bit. Now it was apparently time to 'party'. Whatever that meant. How long was she required to stay? While it might be a good opportunity to socialize and continue her campaign of slow domination, nothing would be talked about except the challenges. Any other topic would be pointless. There would be better opportunities later, except... a thought crossed her mind and her head turned to look for her target.

Olaf was indeed an interesting person here. It seemed as though he might share some of the same thoughts on this farce of a party and the challenges in general. He'd just finished the food table and was wandering towards the seats on the outskirts of the room. Nausicaa smiled a small almost predatory smile. She whisked a cup of something from the refreshment table and strolled casually over to him and gracefully took the seat next to him. "What a lovely party," she stated, her voice dripping with soft sarcasm. For the first time she looked at the drink she had picked up, thankfully it was pumpkin juice. Not the most elegant or refined of things, but it wasn't some ridiculous fruit 'punch' concoction. She took a sip. "How long do you think we need to stay?" She then noticed the book that he was beginning to produce. "I see you came sensibly prepared, which one is that?"
2 Nausicaa Scapetello I concur. 1561 0 5

Olaf Brockert

November 17, 2022 12:11 AM
Olaf raised his eyebrows at the sound of Nausicaa’s sarcastic tone. Apparently, someone besides him thought this whole thing was ridiculous. He smirked. “Lovely party is an oxymoron.” The Aladren boy replied. He absolutely loathed parties, in all their forms. They were so full of…people. And noise. And small talk. All such abominable things.

Honestly, he had never quite understood the purpose of parties. Allegedly, they were to celebrate things, but some of the ones that the adults in his family went to seemed to have no discernable reason for their existence. Olaf had heard Grandfather complain about this on more than one occasion and had found those opinions to be very sensible ones.

And even if there was a valid reason to celebrate something, why would anyone want to do so in a crowd full of other people, some of whom you didn’t know or didn’t like? And have to make small talk with them? Which as far as he was concerned was a mind numbing waste of time, and the last thing that the first year wanted was his mind numbed. He very much valued intellectual pursuits.

Now, it seemed as if he was going to have to spend time talking with his classmate. Oh joy. It was nothing personal against Nausicaa, in fact she might be one of the more tolerable people around. After all, she was an Aladren and one that appeared to lack any of the…eccentricities that Isla or Phil or even his father possessed. And right now, she seemed to have as much enthusiasm for the current gathering as Olaf himself.

Furthermore, she had just asked an absolutely valid question. “I don’t think we actually have to stick around at all.” He replied. The first year was accustomed to, when he was at any sort of gathering, essentially being stuck there. After all, when you were a child, you really did not get to make the decisions about when to leave a place. Not that Olaf considered himself to actually be a child, especially since he was considerably more mature than most people older than him-Uncle Eustace came to mind- let alone people his own age.

The point remained though that at his chronological age, people thought of him as incapable of making the decisions or thought that they had the right to be in control of him and his time. Sometimes, it was reasonable stuff like telling him that he had to go to class and when the classes would be held. His classes were necessary to learn all that Olaf would need to learn in order to be a successful wizard, and he generally enjoyed them and wanted to be there.

On the other hand, there were all sorts of things that the Aladren was forced to do, places that he was required to be, and activities that he was given no choice about doing whether or not Olaf wanted to do them and whether or not they had any real purpose. The Challenges had been one such activity and having to play instruments transfigured from junk in the Concert was an even more bothersome one.

He still did not understand what on Earth had possessed the judges to score his team so high in that one while giving them a much lower score in the last one. Their ability to make and plan a museum had far surpassed anything they’d done in Challenge Two. As in they had some ability to do it instead of absolutely none whatsoever. Quite frankly, nobody on Team Three should be doing anything with music beyond listening to it.
Granted, Olaf was not entirely sure their entry into Challenge Three was the best of them all, which was probably Jasper and Liesl’s team, which incidentally had not gotten first either, but nor were they the worst. He wasn’t sure which was, but definitely not them.

Interestingly enough, the Challenges themselves were an area where Olaf’s opinions differed from Grandfather’s. Grandfather actually approved of the event since it-supposedly-kept the students busy and out of trouble. Never mind that the students like the Aladren actually did not make trouble in the first place and the most hardcore troublemakers would find a way to do so no matter what.

Of course, Grandfather wasn’t a student who actually had to do the stupid things and deal with people instead of reading or worse, perform in the Concert as the result of somehow placing well in one of the events. If Olaf was the school Headmaster instead of a student, he might not mind them either.

“I actually think I already saw a couple of people leave.” He told his classmate. “And yes, I bring a book everywhere I go. This one is ‘The History of Dark Wizards’” It was hardly the most creative title for a book, but it was one that was either going to get him sent to a therapist or keep people away from him if they saw it. Obviously, Olaf was hoping for the latter.


OOC: The students he saw leave are two of mine
11 Olaf Brockert Great minds think alike 1564 0 5