Crashing the party on Labyrinth Gardens

Grayson Wright

December 02, 2022 6:43 PM

Orientation for First Years by Grayson Wright

The wizard who stood under the 1st Years Here banner off to the side of the wagon landing site could, to some eyes, have seemed assembled from an incompatible set of stereotypes. His unremarkable face, greying dark hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and none-too-boldly-colored tie could have belonged to any non-magical man in his mid-forties. Then, though, what could at first have been mistaken for a businessman's dark blue jacket just kept going, extending into a long, wide-sleeved wizard's robe, and he wore a matching pointed, round-brimmed wizard's hat, overshadowing the mundanity of his hair and glasses a bit.

"First year students...All first year students to me, please...."

Finally, all the older students seemed to have gotten off the wagons and dispersed, leaving only the new students. A quick head count came up to the expected number, and Grayson Wright smiled around at them all.

"Welcome to Sonora," he said pleasantly. "My name is Professor Wright. I look forward to getting to know you all this year. For now, though - leave all your luggage with the wagons – I assure you, they’ll be taken care of, and I’ve never heard of a case of anyone losing anything in all the years I’ve been here - and follow me, please."

He only led them a short distance into the Labyrinth Gardens, walking down a wide path which opened onto a hedge-walled courtyard with a central fountain, several stone benches, and three tables in it. On one of these tables, there were as many dark green folders as there were students present. On another, there was a buffet of light snack foods, with lightweight plates and paper napkins available so students could gather several refreshments in one trip if they wished. On the third table, there were several large apparatuses, each topped with a clear (and unbreakable) glass bulb which showed the color of the drink within, though they were also distinguished by written labels on their fronts above the spigots which, when turned, would dispense the contents into glasses: pumpkin juice, apple juice, grape juice, iced tea, and plain water. There was also a box of ice (charmed not to melt) with a scoop in it and plenty of clear cups.

"Come in, everyone, and please take one folder each," he instructed them. "You'll get to the refreshments soon, but if you could give me your attention for a few minutes first..." Once they seemed relatively attentive, he cleared his throat and began delivering the speech he delivered, with minor variations, every September 1.

"Tomorrow morning, you will all start taking seven classes - Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions, Transfiguration, and flying lessons. I'll be your Charms teacher, so you'll see a lot of me for at least the next five years, though you may choose your own classes in your sixth and seventh years. For now, though, you have schedules in your folders which tell you when and where each class meets.”

He blinked affably at them all and tried to sound as matter-of-fact about what he’d come to think of as the important part of this speech as he could. “We know that you all may have had very different educations before today. You'll also each learn magic at your own pace, and you’ll find that some subjects are likely to suit your powers better than others, which will show up in how easy you find learning spells in those areas. If you find yourselves struggling in any of your classes, we - your teachers - will all understand, and so will many of your fellow students, so don’t be embarrassed if you need to ask for help. You'll each be Sorted into a House tonight, with a Head of House from the staff and several older student leaders we call 'prefects' who you can go to for support, along with all teachers having regular office hours and the option for scheduling special sessions if that's what's needed. Don't get discouraged, or let things get out of hand. It's best to address the problem as soon as you see there is one, so we can find a way around it sooner and easier.

"On more cheerful notes, we also can provide enrichment for any subject where you find you learn unusually quickly, and you'll have the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities here during your free time. Club leaders will post sign-up sheets in the next few weeks, and the school Quidditch sign-up sheet should appear in the Cascade Hall. You'll also most likely find people in your Houses who you can create activities you're interested in with, if we don't already have something - you're Sorted into different Houses based on personality traits, though you're welcome and encouraged to make friends from other Houses as well. The Sorting Ceremony will take place later, in the Cascade Hall, where you'll dip the blank badges attached to your folders into a potion. If it turns blue, you're in Aladren, and will get to see even more of me, since I'm Head of that House. If it turns red, that means you're in Crotalus with Professor Skies, our excellent deputy headmistress. Yellow badges go to Teppenpaw, and your Head of House is Professor Xavier, our very capable Herbology teacher, and brown ones will go to Pecari and Professor Carter-Xavier, who is the person who keeps classes running whenever one of the rest of us has to be away for some reason. Some people think of their Houses as a sort of extended family here, and I hope you'll all do your different Houses proud during your time here."

He resisted the temptation to add especially if you're Aladrens; he was not only Head of House, but had also been an Aladren student during his years in school, long, long before any of these kids had been born. Instead, he said, "if no-one has any questions about all of that, you can talk for a while and have some snacks until we begin our tour of the main building. If you do have any questions, feel free to come see me before we begin our tour – and welcome again to Sonora.”

OOC: Welcome first years to Sonora! You can post a reply here to ask staff questions or meet your new classmates. This thread is intended for first year students to have a chance to try out posting and get acclimated to the site before we throw you into the big Opening Feast, which is open to the entire school population and can be a bit overwhelming.

Now, go forth, new first years of Sonora! Post, enjoy, have fun! Everyone here is happy to help out, so if you've got a question, put it on the OOC board or try to catch somebody in the Chatzy and we'll try to get you an answer as quick as we can. Have fun and we’re glad you could join us!

Handy link to the class schedule, if your characters wish to discuss that: Schedule. The Class Overview page also has helpful information and can be found in the School Locations drop-down menu.

[Credit to Nathan Xavier's author for the content of this OOC notice]

Subthreads:

New school, new home, new teachers by Alexander Pierce with Quillan Arcadius

This is fine. Everything is fine. by Nicholas Pierce with Ida Stanford

Crashing the party by Dora Xavier with Leo Lyons

I'm ready to go! by Donovan Peters

16 Grayson Wright Orientation for First Years 113 1 5

Alexander Pierce

December 02, 2022 9:12 PM

New school, new home, new teachers by Alexander Pierce

Alexander Pierce was not nervous. He was totally calm. "There's nothing to worry about," he told his twin brother, Nicholas, as the wagon lost altitude as it approached a large hedge maze. "This year will be fine." These words were said to reassure his younger brother, not himself, because Alexander was calm and not at all nervous. Yes, it was the first time they were really away from their parents for an extended period of time, and yes, there was a possibility that they may not end up in the same House (Alexander figured he was 50/50 between Aladren and Crotalus, while Nicholas was . . . definitely not going to be in Crotalus), and not sharing a room with his brother was an even more horrifying prospect than not living in the same home as their parents.

But it would fine. It would. They'd be sorted into a House that suited them, and they'd do amazing in their classes because they were both very smart, and Mother and Father would definitely not disown them (probably) if that House didn't happen to be Aladren.

When the wagon touched down, Alexander got down first, as he was sitting closer to the exit, and easily spotted the banner summoning the first years. "This way, Nicholas," he said, taking his brother's hand and leading the way over to the middle aged professor standing there. Once there, he did not let go, because Nicholas probably needed Alexander's support in this strange new place so far from home. It should be reassuring to his little brother to have Alexander showing such care for him instead of being too grown up and dignified to hold hands with a younger sibling (Alexander was the elder by six whole minutes). It had occurred to him that they shouldn't look too dependent on each other, but in this case, at least right now at the start when everything was so new, he though family mattered more than appearances. (Barely. He stood extra close to Nicholas so it wasn't so obvious they were holding hands.)

They were fraternal twins, not identical, but the resemblance was strong enough that it would not be difficult for anyone to guess, between their appearance and how closely they stood together, that they were twins.

Alexander looked around them, eyes taking in everything - the Gardens, the wagons, the other students (both in his year and the older ones who wandered off toward the mansion) - and assessing them, trying to guess if they would be trouble for him and Nicholas or someone who might be helpful for the twins.

He knew the other two Pierce branches had representatives here a few years older. Cole Pierce of the Boston Pierces had even been on their wagon, as they were all from the northeast, but they'd successfully managed to stay out of each others' way even in the confined space. He was glad the other, older, two Bostonians that had recently been Sonora student successfully graduated last year. He would much rather be the only Alexander Pierce in the school, thank you very much.

He hoped he didn't need to work too hard to make people forget about the previous one and only remember him bearing that name.

After a little while the wizard led them to another area, and Alexander let go of Nicholas' hand to pick up two of the green folders he pointed out, and gave one to his brother. After that, it would have been awkward to try to hold hands again, as they were holding the folders now, and they'd already let go, so Alexander just held onto his folder instead as the wizard introduced himself and told them about the school.

He didn't expect to have any trouble with his classwork as he was on the upper end of that spectrum of educational backgrounds Professor Wright mentioned. The rest was fairly straight forward, and then they were instructed to mingle and snack before the tour began. Alexander decided to start with a glass of water and headed over to get one.

This tactic provided him with a good excuse to not speak immediately to anyone, and he took the opportunity to quietly sip at his water and eavesdrop on his yearmates, trying to learn more about each of them before risking direct confrontation. Unfortunately, the tactic did not account for whether someone else might approach him and he jumped just a little when somebody spoke closer than he'd realized anyone had gotten.

He counted himself lucky that he'd already taken enough sips that he didn't splash any water all over himself.

OOC: This post may have an unreliable narrator and Nicholas's need for reassurance should not be assumed based on this post. You can, however, assume that Alexander looks a little bit nervous (he's trying to hide it though, so it's not very obvious).

Permission for Alexander to hold Nicholas' hand is granted by Nicholas' author.

1 Alexander Pierce New school, new home, new teachers 1566 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

December 03, 2022 10:41 PM

That's a lot of newness by Quillan Arcadius

Quillan had told himself that he would maintain an upright and dignified posture throughout his wagon ride to Sonora, and absolutely not fall asleep with his face slumped against the side of it amongst a group of total strangers, whose opinions might well Matter-with-a-capital-M and whose intentions could not be trusted. He had read boarding school books, and was aware that sleeping people presented themselves as ideal victims.

In spite of this bad press, he was considering himself incredibly lucky to be going to boarding school, and to be rather looking forward to it instead of absolutely dreading it. Over the course of his early education, a number of his tutors had been fired for their failure to make him learn, even though it had been his own… his own… self? He was not supposed to say ‘failings.’ Difficulties? Differences? At times those still felt like polite euphemisms for ‘failings’ but he was, day by day, shaking the habit of viewing them as such. He wasn’t sure that the idea of not sending him to school had ever truly been considered. That would be a source of shame and gossip, but he could honestly say that he now liked the idea of school and even felt there was a possibility of his doing well here. Had he been able to say that to himself of three years ago, that Quillan would never have believed such a thing.

Between the gentle swaying of the wagon, and the lack of much else to do (he could not easily ‘read’ with so many people around), he failed to keep his promise to himself, and he woke with a start as the wagon bumped to a stop. He gathered his wits, but was told to leave the rest of things. He hopped down from the wagon, hoping he had neither drooled nor got anything drawn on his face during his absence from consciousness.

There was nothing reflective immediately available, so he did his best to infer. Based off a lack of staring and giggling, he presumed himself to be fine (though he would relish the first opportunity to double check) and followed the rest of the first years as they were led to their orientation point by a rather strict-looking teacher. There wasn’t any real reason for Quillan to form that idea, beyond perhaps the glasses, and maybe some subconscious association with other wizards of a similar age trying to drill vowel teams into him whilst he swallowed on a dry mouth, wondering how anyone memorized things that slid around and blurred into each other.

As the professor began speaking, Quillan began revising his estimation of him (whilst running a background analysis on what had led him to form an incorrect conclusion, as that wasn’t something he was fond of doing…). The man spoke softly, and when he talked about needing help and not being ashamed about that, he sounded like he really meant that. In that moment, he reminded Quillan of Ms. Faulk. Officially, his parents had chosen Sonora based on the fact that it was led by a Brockert and attended by people like the Pierces (two of whom were apparently in his year, and which he thought he might already have correctly identified). The Arcadiuses were a little east of Central, and so geographically they were more in the catchment area of Ilvermorny. His parents were also alumni there, but his father had been the first of his family to attend school there, so it wasn’t like there was a long-established tradition. It was, perhaps, a bit of a snub to send Quillan to Sonora, but enough families with similar aged children did the same that it could also be regarded as logical and sensible. And if the Pierces could do so from New Hampshire without it seeming strange, then certainly a family in Illinois had no reason not to. These were reasons that had largely been discussed behind closed doors, and which Quillan only knew a few details of, such as who his peers might be. What he did know was that Ms. Faulk had favoured Sonora too, and had attempted to lightly steer his parents in that direction, whilst never mentioning its strong academic support program directly to them, even though she’d been sure to talk that through with Quillan.

If he had trouble, his teachers here would understand. As would ‘many’ of his fellow students. Quillan wasn’t so convinced about the last part, though the first bit was deeply reassuring.

It was only slightly undermined by the fact that Professor Wright labelled the next point a ‘more cheerful note.’ Theoretically, Quillan knew that his struggles to read and write weren’t a happy topic. He would have been the first to say so, easily remembering the years of frustrated tears he had poured into the process before Ms. Faulk came along. But… There was just something about academic excellence being contrasted as a more ‘cheerful’ subject that reminded him of how very much his parents might wish for him to be different, if they had been aware of the full and continuing extent of his difficulties. Coming from the person who had just assured him there was no shame or embarrassment in needing help, it left a bitter taste.

As they were dismissed to mingle, he spent a little time sorting through and processing those thoughts, arranging them into neat and tidy arguments that he would never dare put to an adult (except maybe Ms. Faulk for a debate class) and then went to get a green folder. He pulled his reading glasses in their case from his pocket, and spent some time shuffling through the contents of the folder for show. He glanced up a couple of times, trying to check whether people had observed him as someone who Needs Glasses to Read, as that was a very important thing to establish before going into class, so that misplacing them could be used as an excuse for squinting at the board and taking his time. Some of it was easy enough to read, some of it he would need more time, or some highlighters, or a read-aloud charm to access, none of which he was about to do or ask for in front of his peers—given that only ‘many’ and not ‘all’ of them would be understanding. It was also his first hour at school, and much as he wanted to know about his classes and his schedule, he also wanted to know about his peers. And the snacks…

He put his glasses away, and collected himself a cookie (because he was eleven) and some fruit (because he was a responsible eleven-year-old), then went to greet one of his peers. He noticed one of the probable Pierces had detached himself from his brother and was getting some water. Quillan was also rather thirsty himself.

“Hello,” he said, noticing that the boy jumped slightly, like he was surprised. Quillan at least hoped that was why, and that it wasn’t that he was somehow already a social outcast that the Pierce boy flinched upon being addressed by. He glanced casually over the spigots, trying to see whether they reflected his face. From what he could see (which wasn’t much) it looked fine and drawing-free, and the other boy wasn’t staring at any particular part of it. Quillan had probably just startled him out of a thought. “I’m Quillan Arcadius, of the Illinois Arcadiuses,” he said, hedging his bets that that was the right form of introduction for the person in front of him.

13 Quillan Arcadius That's a lot of newness 1570 0 5

Alexander Pierce

December 04, 2022 4:14 PM

Maybe a little too much newness by Alexander Pierce

It wasn't Nicholas who startled him. Alexander flushed slightly at being caught by surprise, but the other boy introduced himself properly and Alexander relaxed at the familiarity of it. "Hello," he said politely, "I am Alexander Pierce of the New Hampshire Pierces." Arcadius was a proper family, and it was likely the Brockerts had some representatives or near relations, so it was hopeful that he would made some respectable friends Great-Grandmother would approve of. He gave the other boy a small polite smile that he hoped look friendly. Nicholas was the more personable of the two of them, and it was distressing both that Nicholas wasn't at his side right now, and might not be once they got sorted either.

It was also not very independent of Alexander to need Nicholas in order to talk to people, and he was afraid this was lowering his chances of being in the one House they both had a shot at, as Independence was one of Aladren's traits. Of course, it wasn't exactly that he couldn't interact with new people without Nicholas beside him. It was that he he'd never had to before, and was now finding he was awkwardly looking to the side and waiting for Nicholas to make his own introduction when Nicholas wasn't there.

In case of awkward social emergency, fall back on asking questions to show interest in the other person. Alexander decided this might qualify already. "I don't recall the Illinois Arcadiuses being a Sonora family. Are you the first of your family to attend?"

1 Alexander Pierce Maybe a little too much newness 1566 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

December 05, 2022 12:47 AM

Here's hoping it works out by Quillan Arcadius

Quillan's inference had been correct. He loved when that happened. He was now talking to Alexander Pierce of the New Hampshire Pierces, which wasn't a bad start to things.

Alexander's first question might have been meant as a challenge or a snub, but Quillan didn't think so. Or rather, even though he considered the possibility, he decided to discount it. It wasn't going to be easy to make friends if he went around assuming ill-intentions and double meanings to what everyone said. Talking with people had always been something he found easy, and he was keen to leverage as much good feeling as he could before classes began, and he had to start making excuses for himself. People would be a lot more likely to swallow those excuses if they liked the person providing them.

"I am indeed," he said pleasantly, as if he was glad Alexander had noticed a particularly neatly tucked handkerchief in his pocket. "Great-grandfather was in international imports, back in the day when that involved going away for extended periods, and I suppose grandfather rather took to moving around because he became a diplomat." Because of this, the prior generations of his family had either been privately tutored by someone who went along with the family, or put into the best boarding school on the nearest continent, so as to at least be within reach. "Father and mother both went to Ilvermorny but it's very far from being a family school, and things change," he said, figuring that Mr. Pierce could infer that the leadership of a Brockert and the prominence of families such as his own (and not the growing presence of a learning support department) could push people into considering Sonora the first choice. "Yours has been coming here a while though?" he returned to be polite, even though he more or less knew that from the tone of Alexander's question. "Have you heard a lot of good stories about the place?"

13 Quillan Arcadius Here's hoping it works out 1570 0 5

Nicholas Pierce

December 06, 2022 6:09 PM

This is fine. Everything is fine. by Nicholas Pierce

Nicholas had been places other than his own house before, of course. Admittedly, most of those expeditions had been to his grandparents' house or to another site on Mt. Pierce, with only a few, very rare trips off the mountain, but he had done it. Going to school was different from anything he'd ever done before in a lot of ways, but if he ignored ninety-nine percent of the details, he could think of this as something he'd done before, at least on a smaller scale. It was true that going from doing something on a small scale to doing it on a large one wasn't always easy, but it was far easier than just...doing something new from the bottom, with no precedents to guide him, and so it was obviously the better way to think of this. When he thought of coming to school as merely an expansion on something he already knew how to do, he created a situation where he had no reason to be nervous.

All of that was perfectly reasoned. This made it a disappointment to find that he was, in fact, really, really nervous.

In a small way, it made him feel a tiny bit better that Alexander was obviously (to him, at least - but they were twins) nervous, too. Under other circumstances, he might have found his brother's attempts to play 'big' brother annoying, as he often did, but he had to admit, it was sort of reassuring to have someone else say that everything was fine right now, on the threshold of one of the most important events of their lives. Nicholas was still confident that those six minutes Alexander liked to hold over his head didn't really matter - if all babies acted like little Isabelle had in the admittedly none-too-extensive amount of time Nicholas had spent around her, then Alexander had spent the minutes in question either screaming or asleep or some combination of the two, and how, exactly, were six extra minutes of sleep or screaming supposed to give someone a meaningful head start to life? Maybe six minutes could make a lot of difference when it came to doing a timed exercise, but six minutes of sleep really didn't - but Alexander did have good ideas sometimes. If he said it was fine and Nicholas could understand why it was supposed to be fine, it was probably fine.

"Of course it will," he said, putting as much confidence as he could into the words and into the accompanying smile. "It's all fine." And if it wasn't, well - it wasn't as if Mother and Father were dead or anything. They were still at home in New Hampshire. If something bad happened (which was possible - things happened in magical schools. Their parents had been Head Boy and Head Girl when a really bad one had happened at Sonora, as they'd both heard many times) then of course Mother and Father would come rescue them - and that was assuming that Mother didn't just get so bored without them that Father sent for them after a few weeks whether they wanted to leave or not. There were only so many flowers that could be grown, or charitable events organized, and at some point, one probably even ran out of ledgers. But really, that was all so much idle speculation, because it was all going to be fine. They were going to be very successful here, and nothing bad was going to happen, and that was all...fine.

Nevertheless, he allowed Alexander to drag him around without any qualms once they were on the ground, glad he at least got to keep his favorite person around in this strange new place with so many more people than he thought he'd ever seen at one time before. And none of them except Alexander were family - not really. There were other people called Pierce here, but not their Pierces. They and their family were the Correct kind of Pierces, unlike...those people they had just very carefully avoided getting caught looking at on the wagon from New England just now.

He made an effort not to look around at the other first years or the scenery while a professor talked, assuming this information they were being told was not in the packets they had been given but knowing he wasn't going to find out for a while if this assumption was true or not. His reading glasses were still safely wrapped up and stashed away in his trunk, which he didn't have access to right now, and while he could read without them, it was a lot harder and he wasn't supposed to do it, much less do it in public. When they were dismissed to their own devices, though, he decided he ought to at least make a show of pretending to flip through the information helpfully provided - and when he looked up, Alexander was a little further ahead, and there was a Stranger talking to him.

This, of course, was supposed to happen. Mother especially talked about how it was important that they make good friends at school - those would be the people they could count on for years to come. And it was more efficient this way - they could talk to more people and then debrief about their mutual (it never entered his head that someone could be Something to Alexander and Something Else to him) new friends or new enemies or new nothing-in-particulars, as the circumstances warranted, later. Still, though - he was pretty sure the world had looked less intimidating when they'd been confronting it as a unit instead of like this....

But that's the wrong way to think. Think instead - pretend it's like any time when Mother or Father shows us to guests. Just...remember the part where they aren't really here to tell people who I am and where I'm just pretending that they are and that they did. Okay. So, they say - "our sons, Alexander and Nicholas," and I -

"Good afternoon. How do you do?" he said at someone whose eye he happened to meet.

16 Nicholas Pierce This is fine. Everything is fine. 1565 0 5

Alexander Pierce

December 07, 2022 4:02 PM

I am hoping that, too by Alexander Pierce

Alexander smiled as Quillan confirmed his family was new to the school, and even explained some of their family history, which Alexander found interesting. International imports and diplomat both sounded like quite impressive professions. And it sounded like they had something in common in that they both had parents who met in their respective magical boarding schools. (Though Quillan had not specified that exactly, only said they'd both attended. If it became important, he'd ask to clarify the point, but for now it felt safe to assume if they both attended Ilvermorny, and presumably weren't more than seven years apart in age, they'd met there.)

He nodded in confirmation that his own family had some history with Sonora, though, not any more than if Quillan had attended Ilvermorny. "My parents both attended Sonora. They were Head Boy and Head Girl together, though they were the first Pierce generation to come here. We had been a Salem Institute family before that. I think there was a school rivalry thing or something?" The worst rivalries between schools or sports teams or even families always seemed to be between ones who were close together in physical location, from what he could tell. There wasn't much point in holding a grudge against people you were unlikely to run into very often, he supposed. "So that's why we transferred to Sonora when it shut down, even though Ilvermorny was closer."

"My parents' favorite story is from the year they were the Head Students. There had been a Charms factory explosion nearby, I think, nothing that was the school's fault really, but it messed with their wards and all of the adults were suddenly deemed dangerous and got locked away for a whole semester. Mom and Dad ran the school and organized the advanced students to teach the younger ones and tried to keep everything running as much as normal. They loved it!"

"Most of the time, it's not that exciting though. Mom and Dad were both Aladrens, so most of their stories have a lot of studying in them. Dad was on the Quidditch team though, so there's that. Also, the school does have a four year midsummer event cycle, and there are Team Challenges every seven years. I heard they just did the challenges last year, which means we'll get to be the team leaders when they come around again! I'm excited for that!" His polite smile turned genuine for a moment as he thought forward to that.

1 Alexander Pierce I am hoping that, too 1566 0 5

Ida Stanford

December 07, 2022 5:58 PM

Absolutely, I think perhaps better than fine. by Ida Stanford

This was going to be great! Ida had been excited all week to leave for school and now she had finally arrived! Her official auror training started now! Her parents didn't quite see it that way, they seemed to think auror training started later. But, that couldn't happen until she was done here, which made this the start of her training.

Ida hopped off the wagon and fixed herself up after the ride. She brushed off and smoothed out her new school robe, then pulled out a brush and ran it through her straight, blonde hair quickly. Thankfully it hadn't gotten too disheveled. Once that was done, she took in her surroundings. This place was going to be home and training grounds for the next seven years of her life, she would need to learn all about it. Everything looked nice from this point of view, but she didn't have much time before a wizard called her and the other first years together. She responded promptly to the summons and soon found herself with her new classmates.

She made a note of Professor Wright's name, and perked up especially when he mentioned cases of missing things. Unfortunately he said there hadn't been any such cases, which was a little sad but good. The walk through the garden was neat, she hadn't been in an official hedge maze before. This would need to be mapped, just in case. As she entered the courtyard Ida saw the folders, the snack tables and restrained herself as it suddenly occurred to her that she was hungry. She'd been far too excited to eat much before she had left, now that was catching up to her.

As directed, Ida selected one of the folders and ignored the food to the best of her ability. She found Professor Wright's speech practical even if it was quite a bit of the same information she already knew about the school. She had helped Mom and Dad research the available schools after all. It had been a fun project!

Once they were all released to mingle, she did her best to casually stroll over to the table with the food. I would not do to look to eager, but at the same time her stomach would not allow her to ignore it any longer. She quickly examined the selections on the table, picked up a plate and put a selection of crackers, cheeses, fruit and a cookie upon it. Then she turned back to the group of her new classmates to begin the next part of Professor Wright's instructions, mingle. While she appeased her stomach.

Her eyes scanned about at the potential candidates and they met with a boy. Her first instinct said that this boy was a bit nervous. She gave him a friendly smile. "Very well, thank-you." Ida did her best to answer appropriately. Mom and Dad had drilled into her that proper etiquette was important, however they hadn't exactly gone overboard with details as to what was and wasn't proper etiquette past being respectful and getting 'pleases' and 'thank-yous' into the right places. Was she supposed to introduce herself first, or was he? He hadn't yet, maybe she was supposed to? Well, he had opened with a question for her, so that must be appropriate and perhaps she was supposed to turn it back to him before introductions could get underway. "How do you do?" She asked in return in what she hoped was a friendly manner. Should she add more, or would that derail things? Playing it safe sounded best, she could add more later if needed.

2 Ida Stanford Absolutely, I think perhaps better than fine. 1571 0 5

Dora Xavier

December 07, 2022 8:21 PM

Crashing the party by Dora Xavier

Dora probably wasn't supposed to be here. No, let her rephrase that. She definitely was not supposed to be here. Mom and Dad were getting ready for their new school year, making sure Pecari and Teppenpaw were all ready for the incoming students, and Dora was supposed to be with the baby-sitter and Otto, but Otto needed more attention and the baby-sitter wasn't looking and Dora just . . . left. She'd called out that she was going to the bathroom, so they wouldn't worry, and she had done that first so it wasn't a lie, but then she . . . hadn't gone back. They'd been outside to enjoy the nice weather, so it wasn't far to where the First Years were having their orientation. She'd helped set up the tables, so she knew right where it was. She wouldn't get lost and she'd lived her whole life at Sonora, so she knew she'd be safe.

She was nine! That was not much younger than the new students! Why couldn't she meet and mingle with them? Edu and Zeus were only one year older than her and they didn't seem any older, and these kids were only one year older than them, so it would be basically the same anyway.

She waited behind a hedge while Professor Wright finished his speech. She didn't want to cause any trouble or make him forget what he was going to say, so she waited until that was over before slipping into the clearing and joining the group of other children.

They were all taller than her. That could not be denied. Two years did lead to some growth, she guessed. Quickly, before Professor Wright could spot her and shoo her back to the baby-sitter, she approached one of the new students and smiled brightly and introduced herself, extending out an open palmed hand. "Hi! I'm Dora Xavier!"

1 Dora Xavier Crashing the party 1507 0 5

Nicholas Pierce

December 07, 2022 10:28 PM

You sound confident, I admire that. by Nicholas Pierce

Ha! He'd done it! A whole social interaction, managed completely by himself, without causing a problem, and without anyone looking over his shoulder! It hadn't even been difficult! What had he been so worried about, anyway? The rules were a little different than talking to an old person, but there were rules, and he knew them - Merlin knew he knew them, despite how tedious he had found learning them to be. This was going to be fine, he thought, with a bit more sincerity than the past fifteen to twenty times he'd told himself that exact same thing.

"I'm also very well," he said. "Especially since we don't have to sit down again yet - we're a long, long way from where I live. I'm a New Hampshire Pierce - Nicholas Pierce, specifically."

...And he'd said that completely backward. Okay, so, maybe he shouldn't let a minor success go to his head like that first exchange of pleasantries had. His brain had frozen up a little and he'd been suddenly uncertain (after having doubtless had it bludgeoned into his head a thousand times) if he was supposed to say something slightly less general to move the conversation forward before or after he introduced himself, so he'd tried to do both at the same time, and....

Oh, well. At least, since he was the only Nicholas Pierce, there wasn't much of a chance of any mistakes he made embarrassing one of his relatives unless it was so bad that they were embarrassed just by association, and he wasn't even sure how to make a mistake that big. Since his family had a habit of repeating names, it could have very easily been a different story there - there had once been several Derwents, and Nicholas' father had been named after another Thaddeus Pierce, and then his cousin Caitlin had been named after her grandmother. There weren't any Derwents left, and only one Thaddeus was still alive, and context usually kept anyone from getting too confused about Caitlin and Great-Aunt Caitlin for a lot of reasons, but they still had the Two Anns (his father's identical twin first cousins, Annabelle and Annette) and the Two Alicias (one of whom - the Best Alicia, obviously - was Nicholas' mother, though the other one had also married into the family instead of being born in it).

In light of all that, Nicholas wondered sometimes if people had thought it was strange when he and Alexander had gotten names which weren't too similar to each other's and which hadn't been passed around in the family before. Based on the tendency of initials to echo even when names did not (Marcus and Malcolm, Wesley and Winston, and even his great-aunts' names, Caitlin and Bettina, both sounded a little like his grandmother's name, which was Katrina), he thought he and his brother might have been a real novelty, though Alexander at least came closer to fitting a pattern: his first name started with the same syllable as their mother's, and his middle name was also their grandfather's name. 'Nicholas Diomedes,' though - nope, no one else on Mt. Pierce was named anything even close to that. He wondered sometimes if this meant he, like his similarly patternless distant ancestor Hamlet, would have to become a ghost when he died, but that was the sort of speculation that made people tell him to stop being silly, so he kept it to himself.

"Did you have a very long ride?" he asked, guessing that was a reasonably safe topic of conversation with anyone out here. The wagons were probably better than flying on a broom all that way, but he thought anyone who rode any length in one of them would be glad that they were getting to stretch their legs now.

16 Nicholas Pierce You sound confident, I admire that. 1565 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

December 08, 2022 2:52 PM

It's off to a decent start? by Quillan Arcadius

Alexander had a family history here, but not a huge one. That was a relief. Plus he seemed to be being perfectly friendly so far. He then went on to describe what sounded like a living nightmare with a huge smile on his face.

"Wow, that's very impressive," Quillan said, regarding the Pierce parents' achievements. He hoped nothing like that happened again. The seventh years did look very big and grown up, but he wasn't sure he trusted them to replace the actual grown ups. Luckily, Alexander said nothing like that had happened since. Hopefully that meant it had been a one time thing, and not that they were due for a disaster.

"I'm hoping for Aladren!" he said, when Alexander mentioned the houses. "Though I can see a few of them fitting," he said, deciding to keep it vague for now, in case one of the houses was Undesirable. On paper, they all sounded fine, but that didn't account for the secret but-everyone-knows-that-really-means... which would be passed amongst students. Clearly Aladren was safe though, if Alexander's parents had been there. "Oooh, what kind of challenges?" he asked, both because he was genuinely interested in the subject, but also because he had noticed that Alexander seemed to be too.

13 Quillan Arcadius It's off to a decent start? 1570 0 5

Ida Stanford

December 08, 2022 3:25 PM

You sound like you are bravely trying new things. by Ida Stanford

Ida's mild level of uncertainty at how to proceed evaporated after her conversion partner completed what she assumed was the opening formula. She did praise just a moment at his introduction. He was one of the 'New Hampshire Pierces'. They, along with the Brockerts and other Pierce clans had come up in her research as well. She would need to etiquette properly. Ida was well aware of the fact there were a lot of rules now in play, and she didn't actually know what they were. She did not like that.

"It's a pleasure to meet you…" she stalled out a moment. Could she call him Nicholas? Nick? Was that allowed? Was she supposed to call him Mr. Pierce? But that just sounded weird for someone her own age. So instead she just moved on with the conversation. Maybe he wouldn't notice.

"I'm Ida Stanford," again she wasn't at all sure of high society protocol, and half extended her hand to him in case they were supposed to shake hands or something.

The rest of his topics were easy enough to talk about. "I rode down from Aladren up in Oregon. So it wasn't too bad of a ride." It was a lot shorter of a distance than from New Hampshire. "I haven't really lived there long though; Mom, Dad, my Aunt and I have traveled around the world a lot. Now my Aunt and I have 'settled down' since I need to go to school."

Now it was her turn to pose a topic, some somewhat related. "Have you traveled much?" That sounded like a good one.

2 Ida Stanford You sound like you are bravely trying new things. 1571 0 5

Nicholas Pierce

December 08, 2022 6:04 PM

Courage is necessary for the exercise of the other virtues. by Nicholas Pierce

Nicholas was surprised to hear the word Aladren in this context, and then remembered - oh, yes. The Houses had been named after towns, and Aladren was the only one left. An observer in his house could have been forgiven for thinking otherwise, but the word did mean more than just 'a quick shorthand for qualities our parents approve of.'

A slew of new questions rose into Nicholas' mind after that one sentence. Why, for example, had the House been named after that town? Was it a town known for strong-willed smart people, or had the four names just been stuck on certain sets of qualities at random? If it was the first one, then how had the town come to be that way? And where had they gotten the word from, anyway? Crotalus was a Latin word, he knew - it meant 'rattle' - but the other words weren't. 'Peccary' was an animal, but that was spelled so differently that it could mean something completely different, and 'Aladren' and 'Teppenpaw'...he knew what a paw was? He could only assume it all came from some of the many, many languages of the world that he didn't know.

It was possible that Ida Stanford (who had sort of half-extended her hand, which Nicholas had sort of half-bowed at; he knew some women shook hands because he'd seen his own mother do so, but an incomplete gesture was harder to figure out an answer to) knew the answers to at least a couple of those questions, but he didn't get a chance to ask them before she said more. Ida Stanford, it seemed, had led a life more interesting than his, at least so far. It sounded as though she had really done things before.

One of the things she had mentioned, he realized at once, was something he couldn't ask about - specifically, why her aunt had 'settled down' with her instead of her parents? Nicholas thought he would usually recognize his Aunt Rachel even if he wasn't expecting to see her, but he couldn't imagine why his parents would leave him and Alexander with her even for a little while. Unless her aunt was also her nanny for some reason, then the answer surely had to be something painful to discuss - and even if her aunt was her nanny, there was a good chance it would still be something painful to discuss. His and Alexander's nanny, May, had always looked after them while his parents were busy, but he couldn't imagine them both just...leaving him and Alexander with her so long that it was like they were settled into living with her but not with their actual mother and father.

Luckily, the other thing she had mentioned was more acceptable and even involved a direct question. "Not much, but I've always wanted to," he admitted. "It's always seemed like the rest of the world must be so much more interesting than Mt. Pierce - though there's nothing wrong with Mt. Pierce, of course," he added quickly. "It's very nice there. Our lessons about the rest of the world, though...it's hard to believe sometimes it's really all out there somewhere," he concluded wistfully. "Where have you traveled? Do you have any favorite places?"

OOC: OOC: I googled around a bit; apparently, 'Pecari' is one of the Portuguese words which can refer to peccaries, so that one makes more sense than Nicholas knows. Aladrén, with an accent, is a municipality in Spain and also apparently a surname. Teppenpaw...best I could come up with there was an extremely obscure (there's one family in the country that has had it since 1920; they're still in Tennessee and one of them is a dentist) and a suggestion that I may have misspelled ''Tepehuan," a language in the Uto-Aztecan language family.

16 Nicholas Pierce Courage is necessary for the exercise of the other virtues. 1565 0 5

Ida Stanford

December 09, 2022 8:29 AM

You are quite wise by Ida Stanford

Ida quickly dropped her half-extended hand as he sort of half-bowed at it. Apparently she hadn't got that bit right and she mentally berated herself. She was really going to have to learn these new rules better. Now she was embarrassing herself and probably Nicholas Pierce as well as she fumbled about. That would just not do. Unfortunately that was the situation she found herself in, and was going to have to deal with it until she figured it out, because running away from him was completely out of the question.

The girl couldn't help but nod along with Nicholas' sentiment that 'the world must be so much more interesting'. It really was quite interesting, but since she'd never been to his Mt. Pierce, she really couldn't compare the two. He then asked two rather tricky questions; the first one because it was a rather long list and the second because of the answer to the first one. "Hmmm..." she hummed out to make sure he knew she was thinking about her response while she popped another cheese-topped cracker into her mouth to give herself some time to think.

That didn't entirely work out as she had planned. Instead of thinking about the places she'd been, she thought about the fact that she was now eating food and Nicholas wasn't. She had met him on the way back from the snack table, had he been going that way? Had he been just as hungry as she had been and now she was preventing him from getting something to eat? That wasn't right at all.

Ida quickly swallowed the cheese and cracker, "I'm sorry, were you on your way to get something to eat when I stopped you? We can go that way if you'd like, I wouldn't mind getting something to drink anyway." She sidestepped a bit so that she wasn't between him and the snack table anymore and was ready to follow him if he went in that direction while they continued to talk.

"As for where I have traveled, I honestly can't remember them all; Lots of places around the U.S. England, Germany, Brazil, France, Canada, Japan, Australia..." her voice trailed off and she gave a little shrug. "Mom and Dad are special investigative Aurors, so they get summoned all around the world to solve weird problems. Aunt Lucy is Mom's sister and she traveled with us as a nanny and a tutor." That was the simpler of his questions, now did she have any favorite places? Her mind flitted back through the years, but found it surprisingly difficult to latch onto any given place. They hadn't stayed anywhere very long. "I'm not really sure if I have any favorite places. There was this neat little cafe in..." she faltered as she couldn't remember the name of the city, "in Switzerland that had the best hot coca ever." That part she remembered with a grin.

"What sort of places would you like to travel to? Was there anyplace in particular that you learned about that sounded really interesting?"

2 Ida Stanford You are quite wise 1571 0 5

Nicholas Pierce

December 09, 2022 7:02 PM

Well, I know lots of wise-sounding quotes, anyway. by Nicholas Pierce

Less than five minutes in, and he already needed his mother. She'd have known exactly what to say to smooth over the slight awkwardness of their hybrid half-measure greeting, to make it all seem like good fun so everyone went forward comfortably and happily. Nicholas wished he knew the trick, but he suspected it was like nail polish and the endless fascinating little crystal bottles which covered half a table and which she said were an important part of making sure that she still deserved her annual compliment from Dad (something he had gathered was an in-joke going back to when they’d been his age) - that was to say, women's mysteries, not a thing he was meant to know about in detail.

“I guess we covered all the goal hoops there, didn’t we?” he joked, hoping that would do, and smiling. That was one thing he had figured out: smiling was definitely part of the formula. As long as it wasn’t what he thought of as the No Smile, anyway, but he was fairly sure that he wouldn’t have known how to do that one even if he’d had a reason to want to do it. “It’s nice to meet you.”

He was surprised by the mention of food - he had honestly sort of forgotten about that part while he’d been occupied with being nervous, though it probably didn’t help that at home, eating food involved it being brought to him or him being escorted to it, not it simply being there and him being told to access it or not, as he pleased - and wondered if it was an attempt to politely indicate he’d be more welcome in his absence than in his presence. It made sense, he thought, especially considering that he was the one who had interrupted her. That…would be a bit of a low note to end his first school conversation on, though a polite dismissal was probably better than just being told to go away or having something thrown at him. Those options would definitely be worse, and he thought that even someone who’d never even heard of society would recognize that. Now just to decide if he could spin ‘it could have been worse’ into something Alexander - and, of course, their parents - would accept….

…Except the rest of the sentence indicated that he wasn’t being dismissed. He made note of this. Interesting.

“You know, I hadn’t even thought about it, but that’s probably a good idea,” he said, falling into step with her in that direction.

Snack food at school looked pretty similar to snack food at home. There were some things he was sure he’d never seen before, but also plenty that he might have eaten any day of his life, at least since he’d been old enough to have teeth and everything. He decided to stick to those items for now, not least because he’d have plenty of time to pay attention to sampling strange foods and didn’t want to be distracted while Ida Stanford kept listing places, and along the way explained - partially, anyway - what the story was about her parents.

“Wow,” he said, impressed. “My parents are just financiers.” His mother also had something to do with some of her old family’s business, but…well, for one thing, Nicholas knew almost nothing about that, and for another, his mother’s family was…one of those things. She didn’t like to talk about it. At all. So nobody talked about anyone from that family unless it was absolutely necessary, and then they only talked about that person or those people as briefly as possible. Well, except Uncle Isaac, who was around more than anyone else on that side of the family, but that was different - Nicholas was quite sure that Uncle Isaac didn’t like any of them and that his parents weren’t the biggest fans of Uncle Isaac, either, but they had Business Interests, whatever those were. Unless Ida Stanford became Business Interests, though, which didn’t seem likely if her parents were Aurors, it was best to just ignore the existence of his mother’s original family.

He thought about his lessons when the tricky questions were turned on him. “I have to go to Greece sometime,” he said slowly. “With our names - my brother’s and mine - and that year of Aesop and everything - my parents are really interested in ancient history, so I’ve always heard the most stories about everything around the Mediterranean and the Aegean Seas. I have seen a lot of pictures from there, though, so I kind of wonder about the rest of the, um, planet sometimes. I really barely know anything about Australia except where it is on the globe and that I think most people there speak English.” English being a common language in a place was a good starting point, he had to admit; somehow, he doubted modern people were going to understand Ancient Greek or Latin even in Greece and Italy, and that learning Ancient Runes once he got to third year wouldn’t do him much good in Scandinavia, either. “What was it like?”

16 Nicholas Pierce Well, I know lots of wise-sounding quotes, anyway. 1565 0 5

Ida Stanford

December 09, 2022 9:33 PM

That's almost the same thing, right? by Ida Stanford

A sudden realization struck Ida. Mr. Nicolas Pierce may not know all of the rules of this situation either. That made her feel a little better, but didn’t excuse her ignorance. She smiled along with him, hopefully that would do the trick to move the weird awkwardness out of the way and they could just move past the whole thing. She was definitely going to have to do some reading up on protocol and such.

While Nicholas looked over the food items, Ida filled a cup with pumpkin juice. Her stomach seemed satisfied with the snacks she had found and so she didn’t add anything more to her plate. Unfortunately now both of her hands were full and she couldn’t actually eat anything off of her plate. Hopefully she would soon learn how to make her plate float gently in front of her without her needing to actually hold it. The solution for now would be to find a place to set it down, a table… or maybe if they sat on a bench? She glanced about the area a bit while Nicolas talked about his travel plans. She tried to do it discreetly, she didn’t want him to think she was being rude and not paying attention.

“Greece?” She responded to make sure he knew she had been completely listening to what he had to say. “We were there when I was pretty little. I can’t say I remember much about it. We’ve stopped in once or twice since then, but only for a day or so. It seems like a nice place.” While they talked she started moving towards one of the benches. Once there she could sit and at least have her lap to set her plate upon.

Wait, no… he had just said he had to go to Greece sometime. He had asked about Australia. Oops, maybe she wasn’t as good at paying attention as she thought. Maybe she could salvage this yet, “Australia was interesting, we were just there last year. There had been something with the crazy wildlife down there. I got to see some of Canberra, the capital and then we moved out into the wilderness a bit to the Wizarding town nearby. I did get to see some kangaroos out in the wild, Aunt Lucy took me on a safari as part of lessons.”

Something else came to her mind, “Do you know a lot about this school? We did some research on the schools around and I picked this one.” She paused for a moment, “But everything I know about it is the things that you can find from asking around and reading their literature.” She gave Nicholas a bit of a sideways glance, “Is there anything else about the school that I should know about?”

2 Ida Stanford That's almost the same thing, right? 1571 0 5

Donovan Peters

December 09, 2022 10:45 PM

I'm ready to go! by Donovan Peters

Donovan had been itching to get to Sonora ever since that wizard had come to his house. It still blew his mind that his knack with dairy cows and the occasional unexplainable disappearance of whatever horrible casserole his mom had thrown together had qualified him to go to WIZARD SCHOOL. WITH WIZARDS. It was like a dream come true, getting out of Middle of Nowhere, Iowa, where nothing interesting ever happened.

It was a shock, then, to see Leo standing on the platform for the wagon. Donovan had been agonizing over how to tell his friend he would be gone during the school year, and therefore had procrastinated on it until he had simply run out of time. Some small part of him was glad to see a familiar face in unfamiliar surroundings, but another, larger part, was angry with Leo for never once, in all the times Donovan had complained about being bored, mentioning that he could do ACTUAL MAGIC.

Realistically, Donovan knew (because the WIZARD that came to his HOUSE told him) that there was a Statute of Secrecy, and that Leo really couldn't have said anything, but it stung to know that Donovan had shared all of his innermost secrets, and Leo hadn't.

So when Leo turned green and puked on his shoes during the wagon ride, Donovan felt a small measure of satisfaction, followed closely by shame for feeling that way about Leo. He left his self-appointed corner seat where he could glare at the back of his friend's head, taking the recently vacated seat next to the sick boy. He silently passed Leo the handkerchief that his mother had made him put in his pocket. His protest of 'nobody uses handkerchiefs anymore' had fallen on deaf ears, and Donovan sighed to realize his mother was right.

Landing was somewhat uneventful, and Donovan groaned to see that he wouldn't be allowed to explore just yet. He let Leo, who was feeling much better now that he was on solid ground, lead him into the gardens.

He wasn't really paying attention to whom he assumed was a teacher as he gave his speech. Afterwards, he made a beeline over to the refreshments table, expecting Leo to follow him. He picked up two cups and made to offer one, but the person behind him wasn't Leo at all.

"Oh, hi," Donovan said, unsure what to do with the extra cup he'd picked up, "I'm Donovan...um...do you want this?" He offered the glass of punch, more courteously this time.

OOC: Leo's motion sickness approved by his author...who is me.

64 Donovan Peters I'm ready to go! 1569 0 5

Nicholas Pierce

December 10, 2022 9:43 AM

It's not a bad place to start, I suppose. by Nicholas Pierce

Nicholas noticed the problem Ida Stanford had run into at about the same moment she did, but he was not quite sure how to resolve it. When would they learn to enchant objects to levitate and follow them? And once they did, how long would it take them to stop being terrible at it? It all looked effortless when adults did it, but he knew just enough about how charms worked that he suspected it would be a long time before they could manage multiple objects at once, much less Summon a teacup without its contents ending up everywhere except where they were supposed to be, or never spill a drop of ink while dictating a letter to a quill on a lap desk which was in flight.

It also seemed like the kind of learning curve that would involve giving a lot of scrambled answers even once you appeared to have the trick down, so he forgave Ida Stanford for offering one now, when her actual hands were busy along with her brain. “That sounds amazing,” he said when she mentioned going on a safari for a lesson while Aurors fought…he assumed the wildlife in question would have to be involved in Dark magic for Aurors to get involved, so did that mean the wildlife was smart enough to use magic illegally? It was probably more likely that a Dark witch or wizard had been controlling it to create chaos, though.

And then it was her turn to ask a question again. Nicholas ate a couple of grapes while thinking over all he could remember from years and years of hearing about this place. Things that weren’t in the literature….

“Hm. Well, the only people I’ve really heard about it from are my parents, so some of this might be completely out of date,” he warned her. “But I know there at least used to be a portrait outside the Cascade Hall that keeps up with the House points - he likes Crotalus best, but it’s supposed to be a good idea to be polite to him no matter who you are. Of course, parents always say be polite, don’t they? But mine, um, had to try to run the school by themselves for a few months when they were seventh years, so I guess Mom does have a point when she says you never know when it might suddenly be really helpful for the prairie elves to like you, specifically.” Of course, she also seemed to think any and everyone, from elves to Muggleborns, might rise up and try to overthrow the status quo someday the way the goblins already did about once a century or so, but this was like her habit of telling them the tales of admirable (by her views) and…less admirable people who’d had the same names as them, as examples of what they should and should not aspire to be like: old-fashioned and something that made one a tiny bit embarrassed for her, because it was just all too…dramatic, too historically significant, just too...big…for real life in the modern world. “There’s supposed to be vegetable gardens somewhere out here, too, so there’s food even if something goes wrong for a while, even though that’s not likely…oh, and if you ever meet a talking plant named Tony guarding something, you should probably just give up on getting to it, if Tony’s still around. It’s not really sentient, but it’s really good at guarding things. Or was, anyway. Or so I’m told.”

Nervousness was at least partially displaced by a tingle of excitement at the thought: soon, it wouldn’t only be ‘told.’ Soon, he would know things for himself. Soon, he would find out if they really had as much freedom as it sounded like they would - if one didn’t even really have to sneak to do things without a protective adult right there. Soon, he and Alexander would know this place as well as their own home on Mt. Pierce, and would know exactly what scenes they had heard about all their lives must have looked like. They might even have friends, just as their parents had, which had always sounded as though it was a pleasant experience.

He’d seen pictures, too. It seemed, if he looked at the average arrangements and who was where most often, there had usually been about five of them: a little core group of three Aladrens, his parents and his mother’s roommate Henny, and then his parents had each brought on an extra friend, his father’s roommate Evan and Mom’s Crotalus friend Cepheus, who anyone could have been forgiven for thinking was his mother’s brother instead of Uncle Isaac, if all the person knew was that his dark-haired, dark-eyed mother somehow had only fair-haired siblings. Nicholas thought it would have made sense as a number even if he hadn’t already known it had apparently worked in practice, though he did wonder, sometimes, why Henny hadn’t brought an extra friend, and why the other two guys’ future wives hadn’t been there…but that was beside the point. The point was, not only did it make sense as a number, and not only had it worked out pretty well (or very well if you were him or Alexander, considering their parents had decided to marry each other) - it was also obvious, just in pictures or in listening to his parents talk, that they all really liked each other.

Nicholas was sheltered, but he was not (usually) an idiot. He knew that the whole world wasn’t as happy as his family was - indeed, that most of it was not. That most of Mt. Pierce wasn’t as happy as his closest family, even. He saw how his mother’s smiles changed when they were for outsiders, and how icy the politeness between her and the Other Alicia could get, sometimes. As much as it shocked him when he thought about how they were each other’s brothers, he also thought that his grandfather and his great-uncles didn’t always get along very well - definitely he got the impression that Great-Uncle Marcus’ whole side of the family thought more highly of itself than it did of Grandfather’s family (which was stupid, since Grandfather's family was demonstrably the best), or of Great-Uncle Malcolm’s. He knew, too, that a lot of ‘friends’ in the world were just people with Business Interests - they didn’t really like each other. But his parents and their friends weren’t like that, and, well…he’d always have Alexander, of course, just as his parents had always had each other, and they’d always have their parents just as their parents would always have them. They four were all very fortunate that way, and that was before he added Grandmother and Grandfather into the equation. He just thought it would also be nice if they could also have other people they liked and who liked them. More people getting along would always be better than fewer, wouldn't it?

He smiled a little more easily than before as he added, “I grew up hearing so much about this place that I don’t know if I can remember it all at one time. That’s one of the good things about having a twin, though, we can remember for each other sometimes.” He looked for the twin in question and spotted him. “See that sort of blond boy over there? The person he’s talking to is my brother, Alexander.” It was probably clear enough which of them was his twin even without the clarification; he and Alexander weren’t identical, but they looked a lot alike. Nicholas supposed he might look slightly more like their father and Alexander a little more like their mother, but coming to that conclusion involved thinking about it more than was strictly necessary for most people. “I think Alexander went a little ahead while I was, um…pretending to read the orientation papers.” That was not a good thing to admit…. “My reading glasses are with my other things,” he explained. “And I’d rather not have a headache at the Feast. I’ll read them for real later, of course.”

16 Nicholas Pierce It's not a bad place to start, I suppose. 1565 0 5

Alexander Pierce

December 10, 2022 5:58 PM

So far so good by Alexander Pierce

Alexander nodded proudly when Quillan called his parents' ability to run the school as seventh years 'impressive'. He thought so to, and while he didn't quite wish for something just as terrible to happen so he could be equally instrumental in keeping the school functioning, he did want a chance to prove himself.

He smiled when Quillan offered that he wanted to be an Aladren and nodded in agreement. "So do I. My brother and I - Nicholas, that one over there," Alexander winced slightly as he pointed out his brother just in time to see him half-bow while the girl he was talking to half-tried to shake his hand and neither quite succeeded. Too far away to try to help, he turned back to Quillan and tried to pretend they hadn't just observed any awkwardness. "We're hoping to be in Aladren, too, like our parents." He grimaced slightly, as some of his worry showed on his face. "It's the one House we both have a chance of getting into. I'm a bit more Crotalus, while he has some Pecari and Teppenpaw traits, so if we're going to be together, it has to be in Aladren."

Fortunately, the conversation shifted to the challenges and he was able to at least temporarily divert some of his nerves in favor of discussing that topic, what he knew of it anyway. "The individual events are different every time. I'm not close to anyone who just did the recent ones, so we may need to ask some of the older students about those. The ones my parents did, though, had a haunted school including a boggart and riddles to solve to know where to go next, an obstacle course, and a magical skills challenge. Dad's team won," he added.

1 Alexander Pierce So far so good 1566 0 5

Leo Lyons

December 10, 2022 10:44 PM

Is this supposed to be a party? by Leo Lyons

The look of shock on Donovan's face when they had both turned up to the platform for the wagon had mirrored his own. Leo immediately wanted to pepper his best friend with questions about whether he'd known this whole time about being magical, and how they'd never talked about it, and how great it was to actually have someone to share the secret with, but as Donovan's shock wore into a stony expression, Leo realized that Donovan hadn't known, not even a little. Leo looked down at his feet. It was never a good feeling, to think that you really know a person only to find a hidden part of their life. If he were in Donovan's shoes, he'd be upset, too.

His day hadn't started off the best, his alarm hadn't gone off that morning, so it was a big rush packing up all the last-minute things. It wasn't until the wagon took off and Leo's stomach gave a lurch that he realized he'd left his Dramamine on the kitchen counter. He knew he was in trouble before they'd even reached Kansas, but managed to keep his nausea reined in until the Rocky Mountains. Something about the rolling hills made his head swim, and no amount of keeping his eyes closed and deep breathing could stop it. Donovan had been sulking in the back row of seats, but had moved up by Leo to offer a hankie.

By the time they had landed, he'd gotten his shoes cleaned up pretty well, and Donovan had stopped being mad at him- at least for the moment- so things were starting to look up. Leo had vowed to stop by the hospital wing first thing and get a personal stock of Anti-Motion-Sickness potion to keep on hand. The thing he was most excited for was Quidditch, and he was not about to let his sensitivities get in the way.

As soon as Professor Wright had finished his instructions, Donovan made a beeline for the refreshment table. Despite feeling better now that he was on the ground, Leo wasn't sure he ought to eat anything just yet, so he sat down on one of the stone benches to wait for Donovan to come back.

He was flipping through his green orientation folder when a girl stuck her hand out at him. She was small. Smaller than a normal eleven-year-old, for sure. It took him a moment to realize that the girl wasn't a student; she wasn't wearing the same robes as the rest of them. She'd said her name was Dora Xavier, so she was probably the kid of the Xaviers that Professor Wright had mentioned. He shook her hand, raising a conspiratorial eyebrow.

"I'm Leo. You look awfully young for a first year."

64 Leo Lyons Is this supposed to be a party? 1568 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

December 12, 2022 4:35 AM

I think so too by Quillan Arcadius

Quillan glanced over at Nicholas a beat after Alexander, just in time to not witness anything particularly strange about the interaction. He vaguely ascribed Alexander's facial expression to Nicholas being 'over there' but didn't worry too much about it.

"Good luck," he said, when Alexander explained his house plight. Judging by the other boy's tone, staying with Nicholas was something he very much wanted. Quillan wasn't sure how it would be to room with twins. Based on the size of the year group, it seemed like it would most likely be just them. On the one hand, a third of the roommate dynamics would already be taken care of, in that person A and person B knew how to get along. However, he thought it might be easy to feel squeezed out, or like an intruder in his own room, if he was forced to share it with two people who already knew each other so well. Luckily, that wasn't up to him to decide, or to any of them. He would just have to wait and see. "I could see myself in Teppenpaw or Crotalus too," he admitted, now that these had been deemed safe. Aladren was the one that really made him excited, but he couldn't deny recognising parts of himself in the other two as well. He held back the question 'What would make you an Aladren?' as it seemed rather personal. His own answer involved tiptoeing around his various wounds. He did love learning, regardless of what a struggle it had been at times. Still, he didn’t want to put his love of history on the table, and then have Alexander immediately suggest bonding over a long and wordy book. It didn’t seem like there was an immediate threat of him doing so, but with wizarding pockets you never could tell.

“Those sound great,” he smiled, when Alexander described the challenges. They sounded like they involved thinking on your feet, and real-world problem-solving, which played much more to his strengths. He hadn’t thought that ‘school-wide challenges’ would be very reading/writing based, but it was good to get confirmation that they were more practical, but without having to fish for that information in an obvious way. “Still, it’s going to be a while before we have those to occupy us. I’m hoping for a chess club and a debate team. How about you?”

13 Quillan Arcadius I think so too 1570 0 5

Alexander Pierce

December 13, 2022 6:31 PM

Very good by Alexander Pierce

Alexander's eyes lit up with delight and a true smile formed on his lips. "Chess? I love chess! I'll have to challenge you, even if there isn't a club for it."

He shook his head slightly as he addressed that part of the question. "Unfortunately, all my information on clubs is about twenty years out of date. Even Caitlin - the most recent New Hampshire Pierce to attend - graduated four or five years ago, so even her information wouldn't necessarily be good anymore. I do know they're student run, so if they don't exist you can make them exist. I heard one of the Boston Pierces," who metaphorically don't exist, but actually do because he hears about them all too often for people who aren't there, "ran a dueling club, but she graduated last year so whether she passed it on to anyone or not is anyone's guess."

The Boston Pierces posed a strange conundrum because, strictly speaking, he wasn't supposed to acknowledge them, except there was one at the school only two years older than them, who technically hadn't done anything wrong himself and even his father had been the one of that lot who got disinherited rather than disowned, so basically, Alexander was going with the plan that he could acknowledge that Cole Pierce was not a blank space of nothingness and he could talk about the branch in general. Even the recent graduates Mallory and The Other Alexander, though claiming one of the Actually Disowned as a parent, were both fostered and adopted into the branch rather than born to it, so they could also be acknowledged as People Who Existed. Alexander liked this plan because it did not involve any faulty logic of denying things that actually happened by people who were actually there to people who very well might have witnessed such events and people and knew he wasn't being accurate.

Alexander hated not being accurate.

"What about Quidditch? I do know there's a school team for that." It had been in the school literature, and Dad had grumped about His Day and House Teams, but Alexander thought playing other schools sounded more fun than going up the same three other teams all the time. "Do you think you'll try out for that? My dad was a seeker, and he's hoping we try out and make the team.
It looks good on the resume - teamwork and leadership - so I'll probably try it at least."

1 Alexander Pierce Very good 1566 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

December 14, 2022 4:39 AM

Woo, chess buddies! by Quillan Arcadius

“Absolutely!” Quillan grinned, excited to have already found an appropriate chess-buddy within only a few minutes of starting to socialise. “If there’s not a club, maybe we can start one? If not, at least we’ll have each other to play. And Nicholas?” he added, because it seemed like Alexander was very attached to his brother, and he didn’t want to seem like he was leaving him out.

“Duelling could be exciting,” he agreed, more out of amiability than enthusiasm. He was more of a thinker than a fighter, and whilst he didn’t suspect anything less of Alexander, he just wasn’t convinced that a duelling club suited his personal priorities.

“I’d play,” he shrugged in response to Quidditch. “Like you say, it’s good for teamwork and leadership and all that. I’d probably be joining it more for that than the love of the game itself, but it’s good to do something to stay in shape and connect with people you might not otherwise. Would you go for Seeker like your dad, or something else?” he asked, so that he could avoid stepping on toes when signing up. He had noticed that Alexander had said ‘we’ would be trying out, which he took to mean him and Nicholas. And the trouble with Seeker was that there was only one of it. Of course, the trouble with Chaser was that it was in threes, which might be a crowd. Of course, there was a position that came in pairs… But he couldn’t quite peg the softly spoken boy his own age, who played chess and wanted to join Quidditch for leadership skills, as a Beater.

13 Quillan Arcadius Woo, chess buddies! 1570 0 5