Mortimer Brockert

February 24, 2023 4:09 PM
Midterm was every bit as dull as usual for Mortimer. He would never quite understand why he was required to attend parties. They were painfully boring and served no real purpose. Allegedly, they were meant to be celebrations. However, he was not quite sure what exactly was being celebrated, most of the time. Occasionally, it was something like a wedding or a birthday or at this time of the year, the Winter Solstice. Why, precisely, this last thing was important in this day and age was beyond him, although he supposed it being dark longer was a positive thing. Sunlight was overrated. However, Mortimer did not understand why this was something that required him to spend time with a bunch of people making small talk, which was a far worse torture than any medieval device that had been designed for such a purpose could hope to inflict.

The other thing about this particular time of year was that there was disturbing…wholesomeness about it all. Mortimer had never trusted wholesome things. Like there was something fake, a dark undercurrent about it-and the more wholesome something seemed, the darker said undercurrent was. If something seemed ideal the more likely it was to be a cover for severe dysfunction. If someone seemed too good to be true, then they probably were because nobody was really that…perfect. It had to be an act. Like the families on those sickening holiday wireless specials where the problems were minor at best, everyone got along and the parents had all the answers.Nobody was like that, and if someone seemed to be, they were pretending. Period. And probably covering up something awful. Like a “concerned” parent who was really overbearing and controlling.

Mortimer preferred for darkness and dysfunction to be upfront. It was far less insidious that way. He supposed, in this respect, he could even give Eustace credit for the lack of subtlety in his obnoxious behavior. While completely vile in every way, at least it was honest.

Anyway, between the inane small talk of parties and his son’s honest but still completely deplorable ways, Mortimer was glad to be back at Sonora, where he could at least ignore most of the most irritating aspects of the people around him. The students entered the Cascade Hall and he stood up, placing a Sonorus charm on himself. “Welcome back.” He stated. “I hope you have all had a nice break.” Still didn’t care. He sat back down and began to eat.
Subthreads:

Aladren

Teppenpaw

Crotalus

Pecari
11 Mortimer Brockert Returning Feast 6 1 5

Phil Carson

March 04, 2023 9:21 PM
Phil was glad to be back at school. This wasn't as strange a concept as it might initially seem, given he'd always liked school, both here and regular muggle elementary school, and also given that Sonora taught magic, which still boggled his mind a little when he thought too hard about it, even four years in. Sure there were things he missed from home when he was here (Mom, Disney Plus, video games, real trees - the Gardens had some, but the forests of Glacier National Park, it was not) but there were now also things from here that he missed when he went home (Eben, Game Club, A Giant Library Literally Right Outside His House, the privilege to cast magic basically whenever he wanted, the absence of a bossy five year old who shrieks at the top of her lungs when she doesn't get her way). It was the last of those that was making him particularly glad to be back in Arizona tonight.

Over the summer, he and Loki had more or less worked out a co-existence plan that made his little sister nearly tolerable - and on rare occasions even fun to be around - but many of those included bringing her to the park down the road, and it was freezing outside so that was out of the question, and she had gotten used to being the only child again during his fall semester away, and she also was angry at him for leaving her, so . . . there had been a lot of screaming, and he was glad to be away from her constant bad mood.

The first half, with Mom, had been good though.

And school still had the aching absence of Gabriel, but that was a little less now than it had been at the beginning of the year. He was adjusting to the older Aladren having graduated and no longer being around, though he still sent his pseudo-big-brother regular letters keeping him up to date with the gaming club's campaigns and some general happenings around Sonora. It was fun that Eben had joined up with the club, too, so he still had a close friend there.

Taking a seat at the Aladren table, and waving in Val's direction when she happened to glance in his general direction (or maybe Bonabelle's), he readied himself for his Middle Feast. Today marked the day that he was officially in the second half of his Sonora time, being in the second semester of his fourth year. Three and half years behind him, three and half ahead of him.

After the Headmaster said a few words and officially began the feast, Phil began filling his plate and smiled at his neighbor. "Welcome back."
1 Phil Carson The Middle. It's the Middle of My Story. The Middle. 1536 0 5

Bonabelle Row

March 04, 2023 10:10 PM
Regret felt like a big piece of Bonabelle's whole heart as she sat down at her final returning feast. It was the last feast she'd have at Sonora and she felt as if she'd thoroughly squandered her time the past few years. Well... not so much her time. She'd gotten in the middle of a quadrouple or some such, she had a steady girlfriend, her relationship with her uncle and grandparents was better than ever, her dad was known of but not around which wasn't really all bad although she'd expected it to be, and she kept in fairly regular contact with Jean-Luc. In fact, she was hoping to spend some time with him over the summer after graduation, she just hadn't figured out how to ask. She supposed she was gay or some such, although she wasn't entirely sure because Stanley kind of made her not gay but maybe that wasn't the case. She knew enough about all the letters that made up a special rainbow sort of alphabet soup to know she was maybe just a meatball instead.

In any case, she'd been distant, detached from the present. Each moment was cloudy or cloud nine but she hadn't properly taken the time to appreciate what she had while at school. Of course, she wasn't entirely sure there actually was any way to appreciate it all enough anyway. It was like trying to get enough out of a goodbye hug; you always ended up wishing you'd taken one more breath of the moment before the moment ended.

She was pulled from her thoughts by a housemate welcoming her back and she smiled at him in return. "Thanks," she said, scooping some salad onto her plate. "How was your break, Phil?" She liked to make sure the younger kids knew she paid attention and that she was a good prefect. Or maybe she liked to make sure she knew that about herself.
22 Bonabelle Row And the end of mine. 1488 0 5

Phil Carson

March 08, 2023 10:40 PM
Phil was a little surprised that Bonabelle remembered his name. There was a fairly significant age difference between them (though, to be fair, smaller than the one between him and Gabriel, so it wasn't that weird, really, and they were in the same House, if not in any classes or activities together, and he did hang out with her girlfriend in Gaming Club, so maybe Val talked about him a little with Bonabelle). He smiled a little more warmly at her, feeling pleased and even a little flattered that she knew who he was.

"It was alright," he said neutrally in response to her question. "Had a good time with my mom. Christmas was fun. Dad and Tanya - my stepmom - were fine." He shrugged and rolled his eyes a little. "My little sister was loud and the force of chaos she usually is." That was why he called her Loki after all. He wasn't sure if he'd ever called her Felicity. Maybe, maybe, when she was a baby and taking a nap. Her actual name had otherwise never suited her at all.

"How was yours?" he returned, both because this was the polite and obvious question to ask at this point in the conversation, and because he was genuinely curious what the seventh year did over break. At seventeen, witches and wizards had more autonomy along with the legal right to do magic, and he wondered if she'd taken advantage of that.
1 Phil Carson I wish you luck 1536 0 5