I helped with this! on Cascade Hall

Katey Willow

October 20, 2023 3:44 PM

The ball!! by Katey Willow

The ball committee was asked to arrive an hour before the doors of the event opened to the rest of the school to assist in the final set up and preparations. Katey had dealt with all the external adults (musicians, food vendors, ice sculptors, and anything else the students had selected while staying within their budget) and allowed the students to be the ones focused primarily on the decorations. However, some final touches were needed that went beyond even the near-graduating seventh years’ likely ability, and so with the flourish of her wrist, Katey performed the final transformations. The house tables had already been replaced by smaller ones, but now, they appeared like carved stumps, like one might see in a Muggle perception of a fairy dollhouse. But perhaps the greatest change of all was the walls. In most places, the titular cascades of the room slowed, then stopped as vines and greenery grew over them. Even to a magical-raised student, the words “enchanted forest” would take on new meaning tonight.

Katey turned to her team, absolutely beaming. “We did it! Thank you all so much for your wonderful contributions. You have made the most beautiful ball Sonora has ever seen. Now - enjoy yourselves!”

The main student body began to enter, and Katey gathered those participating in the opening number, the traditional prefects’ dance. She told them to hold their position while she gave the introduction, then went back to the area where the rest of the school was waiting.

“Welcome, everyone, to the ball! This year, as you can tell, our theme is Enchanted Forest. Before we begin, how about a round of applause for our amazing ball planning committee?” Katey eagerly participated in the applause, leading the charge as she always did. “Please enjoy yourselves with friends, dance, enjoy the music and concessions, but first, let’s begin with our traditional opening: the prefects’ dance! Music!”

After the dance, the ball was truly in motion, and the students were free to do as they wished with their evening. As for the medic, she was more than content to simply watch, although she was tempted herself to twirl around on the dance floor a time or two, if she could persuade her coworkers into a dance, to let her ombre dress spin around her while her arms, in long black gloves, held onto a friend. To be young again, but different this time. Better.

Subthreads:

UGH! by Violet Calhoun

I helped with this! by Robyn Lundstrom with Lyla Holland

You deserve better, so I tried to be it (tag Lenny) by Xavier Lundstrom with Lenny Pierce, Oz Spellman

Hoping this is a wonderful evening (Hans) by Liesl Brockert with Hansel Hexenmeister

Beautiful, and for what? by Constance Melcher with Lydia Priory

It's a date? (Piper) by Cole Pierce with Piper Wilson

When do I get to stop hiding in corners? by Yaniel Ayala Velez with Fortune Ardovini

Nerves (Verdillia) by Christopher Brockert with Verdillia Scurlock

Hoping to roll better than a 2 on my skill checks this evening by Phil Carson with Gwendolyn Brockert

A night to remember! (Misty) by Donovan Peters with Misty Brockert

One last dance (Rosalynn) by Tommy Jamison with Rosalynn Tellerman

It's not exactly a sword fight but let's have fun! (Leviosa) by Xarryn Bavol with Leviosa Scurlock

Trying not to cry (Lorena) by Isla Brockert with Lorena Abernathy

Trying to be happy (Alexei) by Amethyst Brockert with Alexei Vorontsov

Being critical. (Nicholas) by Desmond Brockert

It's over. by Ian Malone

After the rush (Tag: Gray) by Katey Willow with Grayson Wright

Admiring by Alma Brockert

Projections (Ida) by Alexander Pierce with Ida Stanford

An unexpected evening (Ursula) by Leo Lyons with Ursula Arcadius

Playing grown ups (tag Charlotte) by Quillan Arcadius with Charlotte O'Malley

Observations, by Claire Osbrook

12 Katey Willow The ball!! 1505 1 5

Violet Calhoun

October 20, 2023 3:45 PM

UGH! by Violet Calhoun

Violet was always pretty ticked off, but today, she was so. mad.

Perhaps it was her fault for trusting her dad to send her a dress, but she thought she had been pretty clear about what she wanted, and that Aunt Desiree would probably help him and save Violet from looking like an idiot. And perhaps it was also Violet’s fault for not checking out the box he sent sooner than the day of the ball, but when she pulled out the dress to get ready, she screamed.

Pink?! It was pink?!

The frills were honestly tolerable, although it looked a bit like a cupcake. She had actually wanted something kind of like that. But she had specifically told him not pink! If she had her way, she would have had lime green, but literally any other color would’ve been okay. Ugh!

She had spent so long trying to get her choppy red curls to do anything at all that she didn’t have the time to try a color-changing spell. Plus if she rushed it, then she might have destroyed the dress entirely or something, and then she would have no dress at all.

So with a final harumph, she headed off to the ball. She found a corner to stand in and hoped nobody approached her.

12 Violet Calhoun UGH! 1575 0 5

Robyn Lundstrom

October 20, 2023 8:50 PM

I helped with this! by Robyn Lundstrom

In the run up to the ball, Robyn had had a lot of things to focus on… She was part of the planning committee, and whilst most of the grade level spells had been well within her capability, there had always been more to do—ways she could stretch herself to be more useful. She’d also needed to plan her own outfit. Given her name, red had always been her signature colour. She felt a little bit weird about it at Sonora, where it represented one of the other houses, but she didn’t think she would suit yellow, and didn’t want to change something that had been her favourite since childhood.

She’d found a red sheath dress, with an extra layer of floaty fabric over the top, which was cut shorter than the under skirt for maximum impact. It had been a little challenging to bend down in it, so she’d focussed on more of the decorating at standing height. She’d paired it with tinted lipbalm, a shimmer eye shadow and mascara, and some cheap but sparkly jewellery. She’d practised various antiquated and/or magical hair curling methods in the run up to the ball, including rag curling and using her wand, and worked out what gave her the best curl with the minimal risk of setting her hair on fire. She felt quite pretty.

And now here they were. Everyone came in, and Ms. Katey got them a round of applause for their efforts, which made Robyn swell with pride. And then… It was over. Except of course, it wasn’t. The prefects did their dance, and the whole entire ball began. But Robyn’s part in it was over, and the committee were melting away to find their dates or their friends. Being on it had been a nice chance to be around other people, but now it was over, she wasn’t sure that any of that had turned into lasting friendships.

She glanced around, hoping to find Lyla and Samara, or a member of the ball planning committee who also didn’t have plans right now.

OOC: Whilst those are Robyn's preferences, the thread is open to anyone who wants to come chat

13 Robyn Lundstrom I helped with this! 1558 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

October 20, 2023 9:28 PM

You deserve better, so I tried to be it (tag Lenny) by Xavier Lundstrom

As the date of the ball drew closer, Xavier felt a tight knot in his chest. It was the feeling of hope, which had been artificially inflating his heart, draining away, and leaving it the sad, shrivelled up lump it really was. Oz had remained shuttered off over his books, acting like Xavier didn’t exist. He wasn’t sure whether he’d imagined a slight thawing since exams and the Quidditch season ended, or whether that was just wishful thinking, but it was very clear that the turnaround needed for Oz to be his ball date wasn’t going to happen.

Xavier had never been closeted. He’d never needed to ‘discover’ himself and worry about it. He’d always been more aware of boys, and just naturally grown into the Feelings that went with that, knowing he was safe and loved regardless. It meant he’d been able to do plenty of imagining about handsome princes coming to rescue him, or going to prom with a cute guy at his side. It was something that was supposed to be his, and be easy, and he was not about to let the universe and all the screwball decisions it had made on his behalf take that away from him. He had the promise of queer solidarity with Lenny, and he would make the most of that.

It wasn’t going to be exactly what he’d pictured. He didn’t need to have a debate with his date about whether they were doing matching suits or not (luckily, most of his daydreams involved choosing the ‘heck no’ option on that, so that was one bubble that hadn’t been burst) and he didn’t need to worry about whether the night would end in a kiss and how you did that and whether he’d be any good at it. He knew he was. And that he wasn’t going to do that with Lenny.

They could still have a great evening though. And as Xavier started to picture it, he realised he had never really agreed on more than ‘at least once dance,’ and that just because he couldn’t have exactly what he wanted for the evening, was no reason to short change Lenny… Maybe Xav wasn’t exactly Lenny’s first choice either, but he could still step up his game and be a better second best.

He’d penned his friend a note, and included a small flower with it, which he’d colour-change-charmed to be the rough idea he had of Lenny’s dress colour.

Dear Lenny,

Perhaps selfishly, I hope you’re still available for the ball. I guess I should say I hope you’ve been swept off your feet and found the date you really deserve, but that if you haven’t, I’d like to try to be him. Still as friends, but a proper friend date.

Enclosed is a flower in what I think you said is your dress colour. Please let me know if you accept, and if I got it right, and I’ll bring you real ones for the real thing. (Fyi, in case the charm wore off, it’s roughly this kind of purple)’ Perhaps it was not super elegant to include a small crayola scribble in the card, but even after this long, Xav didn’t fully trust his magic, even for basic things.

Xavier.

All of which had led to him standing here, with a purple corsage and a bundle of nerves. Partly because the dress Lenny had described to him in their MARS meeting had sounded incredibly loud and over the top and he was going to be attached to it. Partly because it was all a bit weird to be going with someone who looked so much like a girl. Partly because he was kind of excited, and wanted to be good enough, and if there was one consistent message attached to all the crap the universe had put him through, it was that he very rarely was.

“You look stunning,” he said, when Lenny joined him. He gave him a genuine smile. One that even reached his eyes a little bit, because Lenny was his friend and Xav was glad he was there. But not one that lit them up and said he was dazzled, or that his heart was totally fine now. “This is for you,” he added, holding out the corsage. His own tie was in a similar shade of purple, against a lighter purple shirt, paired with a royal blue suit. He hoped it wasn’t too weird to colour match for a friend date, but he’d wanted it to feel like something real.

13 Xavier Lundstrom You deserve better, so I tried to be it (tag Lenny) 1529 0 5

Lyla Holland

October 21, 2023 2:40 AM

You did amazing! by Lyla Holland

In the weeks leading up to the Ball, there was a buzz around the school. Everybody was talking about dresses, dates, and decorations. Well, almost everybody, as she was certain that Olaf, for one, had no interest in such things. Lyla didn't care much for dancing, herself, what with her two left feet, but she was excited to party with her friends.

The Ball committee had completely transformed Cascade Hall, and it felt ethereal to walk through what looked like a real enchanted forest. Lyla spotted Robyn right away, her bright red dress giving her away. Lyla wished that Robyn had been sorted into Crotalus with her and Samara, so that they could all share a dorm room and be best friends and all get ready for things like the Ball together. It just seemed like there was never enough time for all of them to just hang out.

Lyla's dress was just as noticeable amongst the greens and blues of the theme as Robyn's crimson. The shimmery gold skirt swished against her legs as she made a beeline for her friend, stopping only briefly at the refreshments table for a pair of punch glasses. Her bared shoulders made her feel like a Hollywood starlet, and she'd managed to tame her curls- through potions and cuss words- into a sleek chignon at the base of her neck. She carried a mid-size matching purse, filled with gifts for her friends.

"You look amazing!" Lyla told Robyn, offering one of the glasses in her hands, "And this place looks amazing! The Ball committee did a great job!"

Try as she might, she couldn't stop putting exclamations on every sentence. Everything was just so incredible!

"Oh, before I forget," Lyla interrupted her own thoughts, "I've got something for you!"

She reached into her purse and pulled out a small rectangular box wrapped in pretty red paper. It wasn't much, just some stationery from the fancy shop in Tumbleweed, but she'd gotten a set customized for each Samara and Robyn and herself with their favorite colors and initials.

64 Lyla Holland You did amazing! 1559 0 5

Liesl Brockert

October 21, 2023 2:11 PM

Hoping this is a wonderful evening (Hans) by Liesl Brockert

Liesl was actually super excited about the Ball. Normally, she hated balls since society balls were just an ongoing battle in her struggles with Mother where she had to wear dresses that she hated and spend all night feeling uncomfortable because she was explicitly instructed to not be herself more or less. Which was obviously hard when she couldn’t really help it. Liesl was pretty sure that she was supposed to be Amethyst or Esme but that was really hard for her since she was not them.

Sonora’s Ball was different, however. Mother had tried to pull the same thing with the dress buying her some dreadful pastel thing without her approval or knowledge, presenting her with it at midterm. Fortunately, Aunt Amy had taken her to get something that was much more her style. Naturally Mother was immensely displeased with the Teppenpaw’s aunt as well as Uncle Cory for “undermining her authority” and going behind her back. Liesl felt sort of bad about this because she didn’t really want Mother to give Uncle Cory and Aunt Amy a hard time and felt like it was her fault that her aunt and uncle had to put up with that. That Mother was angry with them.

However, when she mentioned this to Uncle Cory, he had reassured her that it was okay, that he didn’t care if Mother was mad at him or even if Father-his brother-was. Still, Uncle Cory said that it was Mother’s fault not Liesl’s and that she should just accept the Teppenpaw for who she was and let her be herself. As for Father, Uncle Cory was not really close to his brothers who honestly treated him every bit as badly as Desmond treated Liesl. While the fifth year got on better with him than Mother, it was a long standing issue she took with Father that he was so condescending towards Uncle Cory. For understandable reasons, she tended to be on her uncle’s side.

Meanwhile Uncle Judah treated him the same way and Uncle Toby had always bullied him. Liesl was really glad her uncle had friends who were like his brothers even if it had meant she couldn’t have Raúl as her CATS examiner. Of course, the fact that she was referring to him by his first name was a pretty big sign that him recusing himself from giving her her exams was probably the right move on his part.

The point was that Uncle Cory not being close to his brothers meant that he really didn’t care if Father got mad at him. Of course, Father seemed to ignore that this conflict over ball attire was happening entirely, no matter how hard Mother pushed at him to take her side. Which he did, but mostly in a passive way that did not involve sticking up for either Liesl or his brother or otherwise directly opposing her. Father was very much that sort of Aladren who felt he was above getting involved in what he deemed trivial matters and also tended to pick his battles.

Anyway, obviously the main thing that made this Ball special and amazing was not that Liesl got to dress like she wanted, but that she got to go with Hans as his date . This was everything that she wanted. Everything that she dreamed of. She really liked him. Really liked him. In that special way that say, Uncle Cory liked Aunt Amy or Owen liked Jemima,

She only hoped that he felt the same way. After all, just because he asked her to the Ball didn’t mean that he liked her that way. Like, sometimes people went with people they only liked as friends, as she didn’t think Phil and Gwendolyn were more than friends and they were going to the ball together. Especially when people were prefects or Head Students and needed someone to do the opening dance with as she and Hans both were. Though she supposed he could have asked one of the other girls who needed to do it and he’d picked her, so that was a good sign, right?

Liesl met her friend in Teppenpaw. “You look very nice.” She said blushing as they walked down to the Ball together.

OOC: Liesl's dress

11 Liesl Brockert Hoping this is a wonderful evening (Hans) 1537 0 5

Constance Melcher

October 21, 2023 3:06 PM

Beautiful, and for what? by Constance Melcher

Constance did not think much of her physical appearance. That was not to say that she thought ill of it - it was simply that she did not think of it in a literal sense. She was quite introspective, and her mind constantly wandered to far greater places and ideas. She did not have the time to wonder idly if she were “pretty”.

However, today, it occurred to her for perhaps the first time in her life that she could actually be considered… attractive.

It was a pleasant thought, really, although the surprise of it caused her breath to catch momentarily in her throat. The deep blue of the top of the dress contrasted against her natural red hair at the places where they met, although the area was limited as she wore her hair up (yes, Mother, a formal ponytail - how scandalous). As she gazed at her reflection, her eyes lingered over her pale, exposed shoulders, then slowly lowered down the changing color of the dress, the gold overlay following it from blue to white, like the sky becoming morning. Constance felt almost ethereal.

She made it through the prefects’ dance routine, surprisingly content with the feeling of eyes on her as she twirled. She was almost sad when the dance concluded. She wanted more, but had no date. Connie remembered fondly her prior ball experience at Sonora, which she had spent with Theo. Her friend. She needed one of those now. Instead, she felt - despite the crowded room - suddenly and indescribably… alone.

12 Constance Melcher Beautiful, and for what? 1523 0 5

Hansel Hexenmeister

October 21, 2023 4:26 PM

I don't see why it wouldn't be by Hansel Hexenmeister

Hansel was excited about the ball, not so much for the ball itself, as because he was going with Liesl. He'd gone with her in second year, too, but as part of a larger group, and they hadn't known each other as well way back then. It was strange to think he'd only known her for less than five years.

He'd done his best to clean up. His blond hair was brushed, and even slightly trimmed though still long and slightly wild because it took greater charms skill than he had to tame his mop. He'd also cleaned the dirt out from under his fingernails, and wasn't carrying any dead animals in his pockets for a change.

His formal robes were the ones he'd bought in anticipation of wearing to Heinrich and Evelyn's wedding as well as the school ball, assuming his brother ever got around to setting a date for that. They'd been engaged (or planning to be engaged? Hansel wasn't entirely clear on that) for as long as Hansel had been at Sonora, and were already living together, but sooner or later there was going to be a ceremony, he was sure, so he'd made sure he got a set of nicely formal robes that would work for that, too. No need to have more than one set, he figured. They didn't have much use for nice clothes on a snake ranch.

His were black, both because that color was pretty standard for formal men's robes, and because he figured anything Liesl wore would look good next to black.

He smiled as he met her in the Teppenpaw commonroom, which had seemed like a much more logical and easier place to find each other than down by the Cascade Hall. Yes, he thought, taking in the sight of her, they made quite the pair. "I love your dress," he returned her compliment warmly. "It's perfect." He offered her an arm. "Shall we?"

They headed down, both of them prefects, so they found where they were supposed to congregate for the opening dance. Medic Willow made her opening remarks, and then, Hans held out his hand to escort Liesl out onto the dance floor. He wasn't exactly a skilled dancer, but he'd gone to the Performing Arts Club lessons and had picked up at least a basic waltz that shouldn't embarrass them.

OOC: Heinrich and Evelyn's living situation confirmed with her author.

I will leave it open to you about whether they practiced dancing together at the Performing Arts club or not. Hans would have at least told her he was going.

1 Hansel Hexenmeister I don't see why it wouldn't be 1524 0 5

Cole Pierce

October 21, 2023 5:05 PM

It's a date? (Piper) by Cole Pierce

When Cole had learned Leviosa got a date, he'd wasted little time in asking Piper if she wanted to go with him. That kind of left Lenny on his own, but Lenny had assured him that it was fine, he'd lined up a semi-date with Xavier, and planned to spend the whole night on the dance floor, with whoever he could find looking like they wanted a partner, and he wouldn't hold it against Cole or Piper if they went together so long as they each saved a dance for him. Cole had agreed to that as long as Lenny promised it wouldn't be a slow dance.

It was technically a friend date, and he planned to check in with Yaniel a few times to make sure he was doing all right, but Cole was doing his best to be a good date for Piper. He had a new set of dress robes - a green so dark they were almost black with little prairie dogs running along the seams - and he'd gotten a fresh haircut, and trimmed all his nails, and brought along a pretty corsage for her to wear at the Ball.

He was also hoping to get in a fair amount of dancing of his own with his date. He wasn't the most experienced dancer in the world, obviously, but he knew enough not to fear stepping on Piper's toes or looking like an idiot. Dancing was fun, and he was expecting it would be even more so with Piper than with his Mom.

She was on the planning committee so they just decided to meet at the Hall itself. He smiled as he spotted her amid the enchanted forest, presenting the flowers with a bright smile, and an easy compliment, "You look magical, Piper, and so does the Hall."

OOC: Chatzy agreement a few weeks ago implied Piper would have been agreeable to a date with Cole. Some assumptions were made. Let me know if anything needs to be edited.

1 Cole Pierce It's a date? (Piper) 1546 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

October 22, 2023 8:17 AM

When do I get to stop hiding in corners? by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Yaniel was a different kind of uncomfortable than he’d ever been before. He could have forced himself into sparkles and ruffles and something his mom would have liked and which other people would have expected. But that wasn’t who he was. In one of their ‘letting you down gently’ conversations, where he’d reiterated the fact that he wouldn’t be especially pink or pouffy or glittery, she had used the phrase ‘Whatever makes you feel good, mija.’ Which, apart from the gendered term of endearment, was something he was sticking to for courage. Mama had probably envisioned a plain, simple dress when saying that, but she had said it.

Cole had helped him pick out a suit and dress robes. Yaniel had done some more reading, and learnt about chest binders. The first time he’d put the whole combination on in Crotalus had been magical. His chest didn’t vanish totally, he was hyperconscious of the way little bits of him squished out of the binder at the edges. But once he put the shirt on, the illusion was pretty good. He wasn’t Cole shaped or Oz shaped, but he wasn’t Yarielis shaped any more either, and that was… Right. He felt like there should have been some super big feeling word for the way it brought tears to his eyes, but the name of the feeling was just ‘right.’

It was one thing wearing it in his room versus wearing it out though. He’d chosen quite a flowy dress robe, so that it sort of almost hid his legs. But even then, most girls didn’t wear dress robes, and the shirt and his bowtie were very, very visible. The added layer of fabric provided by the dress robes meant he could almost scrunch down and hide inside it the way he had with big hoodies, so that he wasn’t flaunting his sudden lack of boob to the world. People would be weird about them disappearing, right? That wasn’t normal. They might ask…

He wasn’t sure, any more, who knew. Yaniel wasn’t ready for the full team, but Oz had been accepting enough that he had started to go back to Beater practice, even if Oz was better at the theory than the practice. It was obvious that he didn’t mind but also that, as he said, he really didn’t think beyond Yaniel as a player, which meant paying more attention to his backswing than what he was calling him. He got it right about thirty percent of the time, self-corrected occasionally, got corrected by Cole a lot, and got silent ‘just let that one go’ eyes from Yaniel to Cole the rest of the time. It made Yaniel appreciate Cole, who had never once messed up, all the more. Going back to beater practice meant telling Billy, and even though they’d told him not to go around telling everyone, he wasn’t exactly known for keeping his mouth shut. It also turned out that picking up someone else’s errors was easier for Oz than noticing his own, which led to moments like him smacking Billy around the head with comments like ‘Dude, she’s a boy now, get it right!’

Besides the nerves that he was losing control over who knew, he felt a twisting knot of guilt that all these people had found out before his own parents. In an ideal world, he would have figured it out with Cole, told his parents, come out at school, and then gone to the ball as himself. But that wasn’t the timeline he’d been dealt.

As he walked down to the hall, he tried to fight off the feeling that he would have been more comfortable in a dress and he should have just worn a dress and that the fact that he was thinking these things made it a lie that he was even a boy at all because what boy would be thinking that and—-

He wanted to wear a suit. He did.

He just sort of wouldn’t have hated it if literally everyone else had magically vanished and he could tick ‘wear a suit to the ball’ of his list as a technicality without actually being witnessed doing so.

He’d done his best to present a happy, confident face to Cole. Yaniel was happy that Cole had a date. He deserved that, and Yaniel had already taken enough of his time and help this year. He didn’t want to feel like a gaping void of neediness that kept sucking Cole in all the time. So he had expressed only happy, positive thoughts about Cole’s date and saved his panicking about it for the privacy of his own room.

He slid into the background of the room, very glad that he was not a prefect. That timing, at least, was working out for him. As the only Crotalus in his year, it seemed sort of inevitable that he’d get it, even though he wasn’t very well-suited to the role. Just the thought of dancing in front of everyone was enough to make his palms sweat.

Oz came and checked in, giving him a fist bump and a ‘looking good, bro’ a little more loudly than he would have liked, and Yaniel spent the next five minutes over-analysing how normal or not other people would find it that Oz called him ‘bro’ but at least that gave him something to do which took over from the increasing desire to just run out of the room.

He backed up to one of the little tree stump chairs that was as hidden as possible under the big fake leaves and sat down, hoping that his general ability to blend into the background hadn’t been disrupted too much by his outfit choice.

OOC: All god modding in this post has been approved or is of my own characters.

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez When do I get to stop hiding in corners? 1554 0 5

Piper Wilson

October 23, 2023 1:10 PM

It is! by Piper Wilson

Piper was extremely excited for the Ball tonight for a few reasons. First of all, because she’d been on the planning committee and was looking forward to seeing the results of all that she and the others had done. They put in a lot of work to make it as beautiful and special as possible and she hoped that everyone had a great time.

At least, she could hope that they would like the decorations and enjoy the food and music. Piper knew that sometimes things like this could be stressful for people for a variety of reasons such as not having a date, not having friends (and being really shy) or all your friends having dates and you not having someone to hang out with. She really felt bad for people who were in that position and the best refreshments, decorations,and music wouldn’t help.

Unfortunately, Piper couldn’t help them by keeping them company or trying to reach out to them tonight either, because. she had an actual date ! True, it was a friend date, but still. After Xarryn had asked Levi to the Ball-something that Piper was very happy for her friend about-Cole had asked her . And even though they were just friends, it was still super exciting! And while obviously they could talk to others too, the fourth year felt like the person who’d asked her to be his date deserved to have the bulk of her attention.

Although, she had been a little worried about them pairing off and possibly leaving Lenny on his own. After all, she would have probably hated it if, say, Cole and Levi went together and Lenny found a date (or Cole had asked Yarielis instead of her after Xarryn asked Levi) and she had been the odd one out. Piper probably could have found someone else to hang out with, since she wasn’t a super shy person or convinced everyone outside her group of friends hated her like Amity had been, but sometimes there just wasn’t anyone. Although her brother and other fairly close relatives-as in the people Piper had known growing up- had dates last time, others had been left out and really had nobody to talk to.

However, it turned out that Lenny had sort of a date with Xavier and anyway, if there was a person not to worry about finding someone to hang out with, it was probably Lenny. She was pretty sure that the other Teppenpaw would be comfortable talking to just about anyone. It was unfortunate that not everyone was comfortable talking to him-people like Kelsey or some of the second years came to mind- but that was on them, not her friend.

Normally, Piper would have met Cole in Teppenpaw and walked down together but members of the Ball planning committee had to arrive an hour early to help with last minute preparations. So after they finished off the final touches and the rest of the students arrived, she found her date.
“Thanks.” Piper replied, blushing. She actually wasn’t sure which compliment she appreciated more. “You look nice too. I especially love the prairie dogs.”

OOC: I will find a dress for Piper later, when I am on my own computer; She is wearing yellow.

11 Piper Wilson It is! 1556 0 5

Liesl Brockert

October 23, 2023 1:50 PM

Neither do I! by Liesl Brockert

Liesl beamed “Thank you!” She replied. Honestly, the dress was such a big deal. It was so important to her, more than anything other than going with Hans, of course, that she got to wear what she wanted instead of what her mother wanted her to wear. After all, Liesl was going to get stuck wearing what her mother wanted her to wear all summer when she was forced to go to society balls.

Which she was obviously absolutely dreading. This was a situation where knowing what to expect was actually worse because she already knew how bad it was. Truthfully, the fifth year wasn’t looking forward to going home much at all. She was looking forward to going to her uncle’s and to Hans’ snake ranch but home? Not so much.

Because even though Liesl had every reason to believe that she was doing all right, she had gotten prefect-and not even by default-and she assumed that she had done all right on her CATS-and Merlin help her if she didn’t because then Father would be seriously disappointed in her and then that would mean both parents would be seriously disappointed in her and it would erase any good will that she had gotten from getting prefect and Desmond would gloat- it would never be all right, not really. She’d never be good enough, because she was always going to be her . Liesl would never be the proper society girl, she’d never be like Amethyst. Not that there was anything wrong with being like Amethyst, but it just wasn’t who she was.

Ironically enough, right now, things were going better for the Teppenpaw than they were for her cousin even though she knew that was to change very soon. She did not know why the sixth year was fighting with her roommate, seeing as Amethyst wasn’t saying, but she really did feel sorry for her. It wasn’t like with Topaz and her Sonora roommate who were two difficult people forced to room together, the two Crotali had been best friends! And it made her sad that they weren’t any more. She really wished she could help make it better.

At least that wasn’t the case with her own roommate. Liesl wasn’t exactly close to Patience but at least there wasn’t any animosity between them. Well, as far as she knew anyway. The other fifth year might secretly hate her for getting prefect or something else.

Why she had gotten it over her roommate, she still didn’t exactly know and sadly neither did her parents and brother. Desmond and presumably Mother seemed to be assuming some terrible deficiency in the other fifth year and/or a super close vote where Liesl won by one vote. Because they did not want her to feel good about herself. Ever.

However, tonight, she did. She felt beautiful and special and wanted . Regardless of whether Hans liked her as any more than a friend, right now she was with her favorite person-sorry, Uncle Cory-in a dress that she actually liked, and she was even getting to dance the opening dance as prefect .

Tomorrow it would all end. The coach would turn back into a pumpkin and she’d go back to being that annoyance, that disappointing prototype. Well, okay, maybe not exactly tomorrow as she was going to her uncle’s but soon. Tonight she was Cinderella- albeit a creepy gothic one-on a date with her Prince Charming.

Once they had finished the opening number, Liesl turned to Hans and asked “So, what do you want to do now? Dance more or get something to eat?” She had no preference, all she wanted was to be with the older Teppenpaw.

11 Liesl Brockert Neither do I! 1537 0 5

Christopher Brockert

October 23, 2023 2:55 PM

Nerves (Verdillia) by Christopher Brockert

OOC: CW-toxic masculinity, implied transphobia and homophobia (Three guess from whom and the first two don't count) Also talks an awful lot about stinky toilets BIC:

Now that the night of the Ball was here…Christopher was actually really nervous. He had not been especially so before. At least not any more than his normal everyday anxiety about doing or saying the wrong thing to attract the attention of the wrong people, a phrase that he absolutely didn’t mean the way people he knew often semi-euphemistically used it, they meant non-purebloods, he meant alpha males dripping with toxic masculinity like his uncle, of which there were thankfully few of at Sonora, even most of the Pecaris and Quidditch players weren’t awful, Cole was even his friend, but Chris….had been conditioned to worry.

However previously he’d mostly been sure that things regarding the Ball would be fine. He had a date with his closest friend and even though he had to dance the opening dance because Verdillia was a prefect,and he didn’t love the idea of getting up in front of the whole school to do anything , at least he was doing something that he knew how to do, and given his background people wouldn’t judge him for being good at. Although Christopher supposed that people might judge him for his background, but the people who were going to do that probably already were.

And now that he thought about that, he was paranoid about it too. If they were the same people dripping with toxic masculinity and not purebloods…would he have to worry about them mocking him or stuffing his head in a toilet when he went to use the bathroom? Worse, would they stuff Christopher’s head in a dirty toilet that someone had just used? And he’d come out sopping wet and smelling terrible and Verdillia would be grossed out by him! She was definitely the sort of girl who’d be grossed out by such a thing.

Though to be fair, most people would be. Even the less girly girls. Even boys. Although, to be honest, Christopher thought Uncle Eustace would pretend it was okay to be dunked into a dirty toilet and smell awful, because he was man and only girls and weak little sissies would be upset about it. Also, Uncle Eustace would be the one dunking people in toilets. Though not for being a guy who was able to ballroom dance. He’d probably go after Lenny first. (Actually, no, he’d totally go after Lenny first. Then probably Xavier and/or whomever was the worst flier among the boys.)

And the thing was, Christopher wouldn’t even be able to tell Grandfather or the other staff members who the culprit (or culprits) were because nobody liked a snitch. Honora understood that.

Anyway, grossing out Verdillia would be the worst part. Because she was his friend and he wanted her to remain that way as he genuinely liked and cared about the other Crotalus. She was the first person outside his family that he’d felt safe around at Sonora. (And obviously he felt safer around her than a couple of his relatives, fortunately ones that were not here as Uncle Eustace had graduated a long time ago and Topaz had graduated the year before he came)

And that was what Christopher was nervous about. Maybe not that specific thing about smelly toilet water-though it could happen-but just…being a bad date. He had never obviously been on one, not even a friend date and he did not want to screw it up. Yes, he’d had etiquette lessons but there was a difference between theory and practice.

So, he’d made sure ahead of time to find out what Verdillia was wearing and covertly find out things like what flowers she liked as well as making sure to ask his female cousins and even his little sister-though not Liesl, because well…Liesl’s tastes were rather different than most-what girls wanted and liked when going on dates. Not that Isla and Amethyst had been on dates either and Alma certainly hadn’t-Christopher might not be an alpha male but the idea of his baby sister going on a date kind of churned his stomach and made him wish he was more threatening-but they…were still girls.

Christopher met Verdillia in the Crotalus common room and said. “You look stunning.” He presented her with the corsage he’d gotten. Earlier, he had had flowers delivered to her which he hoped made up for the awkward, clumsy way that he’d asked her.

11 Christopher Brockert Nerves (Verdillia) 1539 0 5

Lenny Pierce

October 23, 2023 9:37 PM

You're sweet and you've made my night by Lenny Pierce

Lenny had been a little surprised to get Xavier's note, but he'd quickly written back that he had arranged to have dances with most of his friends, but he was otherwise still without a formal date, and he'd be delighted to have a proper friend date with Xavier. This was nearly as much a relief to Cole as it was to Lenny because his roommate had felt a little bad for pairing up with Piper and leaving Lenny more or less on his own, despite Lenny's insistence that he did not feel abandoned. He also compared the flower sample to his own dress and confirmed it was a match, or was at least close enough to not matter.

When he'd gotten dressed, Lenny had opted against the corset his dress had come with, as feminine shaping was not a thing his friend-date was interested in at all, and there wasn't really anyone else he was trying to impress in that department either. He had opted for adding a starlight shimmer to the skirts, nothing too over the top, just a bit of a magical light that twinkled when he moved, and the skirts were really good for swishing around on the dance floor. Rosalynn said he looked elegant, and she'd helped him with a cute up-do that was pinned up with silvery clips that were shaped like leaves and flowers to compliment the woodland theme.

He hadn't used much make-up, opting for a natural look other than a clear lip balm that tasted like strawberry and gave his lips just a little bit of shine. His fingernails were trimmed and shaped and had a fresh coat of shimmery clear polish on them. Nobody would mistake him for going masculine, but he definitely was not pushing for feminine as hard as he could have. He still felt beautiful and fancy for his one and only ball, and that was what really mattered.

Lenny was on the ball planning committee, so he'd finished getting ready well before the start of the ball, and arrived the requested one hour early to help with set-up. He may have found more excuses to spin around quickly than had strictly been necessary while hanging the decorations, but he was loving his dress and how it moved around him.

Once the other students started entering into the hall, he found Xavier and beamed at the compliment. He gave a requisite twirl to show off how the skirts shimmered and spun, then accepted the corsage, very pleased to have a friend-date who would give him one. Xavier had even worn purple, which he found very sweet and adorable. "Thank you. You look quite handsome yourself," Lenny returned.

Xavier wasn't quite the perfect romantic date he'd hoped he might have, but Lenny was very much looking forward to the evening and was hopeful it would be quite magical anyway. So far it was off to a nearly perfect start. Xavier was certainly pulling out many, if not quite all, of the stops for him, and Lenny really appreciated that. Xavier had even gone to the dance lessons, and while Lenny had been busy helping as one of the instructors, they had paired up a few times, and they had danced pretty well together.

As they watched the prefects dance, which neither of them were (so far - Lenny was still a fourth year, so it wasn't until next fall that he'd find out which of the four Teppenpaws in his year got that honor), Lenny asked, "So, any boundaries or preferences I should know about? Like, are slow dances a no-go or are they okay? Do you prefer to lead or follow? I'm non-binary, not female, so I'm fine with switching or leading if that's what you like. And I've got about five people who agreed to save me a dance, so if you need a break, just let me know and I'll find one of them."

1 Lenny Pierce You're sweet and you've made my night 1547 0 5

Phil Carson

October 23, 2023 10:31 PM

Hoping to roll better than a 2 on my skill checks this evening by Phil Carson

Phil was a prefect, a club president, and Gwendolyn's date. By all accounts, this should indicate he was a reasonably successful young man. He had the respect of his teachers. He could lead an adventure campaign and teach people how to play a new game system. A girl liked him enough to agree to go to the ball with him despite having completely hashed up asking her out. He'd even already completed his CATS exams and had neither thrown up on any examiners nor forgotten everything he ever knew when he was demanded to regurgitate it in both written and practical forms.

And those were all good things that he was indeed very proud of himself for achieving, and so were all three of his parents (well, he hadn't mentioned the lack of vomit in his last letters home, hoping it was implied, and he wasn't sure how much they understood of the gaming club, but they were glad he was doing good at school and taking on leadership roles and responsibilities), but . . . he was more than a little nervous about tonight, and almost wishing Eben had gotten prefect just so Phil didn't have to do the first dance.

After the prefect dance should be fine, he thought. He'd have Gwendolyn to hang out with and even if she did want to dance more, they wouldn't be the focus of most of the school anymore at that point. But first they had to get to that point.

They'd agreed to meet in the Aladren common room, as that was convenient and much less crowded and large than the main Hall. His robes were black and more formal and with a ton more buttons than the green school uniform robes, and he felt quite wizardly wearing them, except that his step-mom Tanya had owled him a corsage that morning to give to Gwendolyn (which was no small feat given that she was a muggle and Phil hadn't even known she knew how to send an owl post that wasn't just a reply to a letter he sent to her and Dad) so he held that in its plastic florist box as he waited for her to descend from the girls' staircase.

When he saw her, he smiled and waited for her to sweep all the way into the room before declaring, "You look lovely, my lady Gwendolyn." He held out the plastic box awkwardly. "I have a thing. My step mom says its for you."

1 Phil Carson Hoping to roll better than a 2 on my skill checks this evening 1536 0 5

Donovan Peters

October 23, 2023 10:37 PM

A night to remember! (Misty) by Donovan Peters

Donovan fiddled with his tie for the billionth time. The collar of his shirt itched, but he resisted the urge to unbutton it. It would just be for a couple of hours, and then he could change into comfortable clothes again. His Quidditch jersey was slung over the back of his desk chair, waiting for him. He regretted getting ready so early, as he’d sat in his dorm for the last twenty minutes, having not had to battle with his hair for as long as he’d anticipated. And Leo had tied his tie for him, so he hadn’t even needed to spend time figuring that out.

Donovan sighed. Sure, he hung out with Misty regularly, even barring that they had all the same classes and spent time in the same common room, but this felt…different. This was a date.

Misty had told him ahead of time that her dress was light blue, so Donovan had prodded his pocket square ‘til it matched, which was apparently a traditional move on the part of the boy, though he didn’t see much point in it. Surely, it would be obvious when two people went to a ball together, and it’s not like Donovan was planning on losing Misty in the crowd, only to be identified by the color of her dress. He could describe her face much better than any dress she could wear.

Finally, it was time to head down to the common room. He and Misty had agreed to walk to the Ball together, and Donovan wanted to get there first, so he could watch Misty descend from the dormitories like in the movies when the princess comes down the staircase and everyone is stunned at how pretty she is.

Of course, Misty was pretty, anyway.

He didn’t have long to wait, and the moment was just as magical as Donovan expected. He discreetly wiped his suddenly sweaty palms on his pants before offering one to his date. His fingers interlaced with hers as they stepped together.

“You look fantastic,” Donovan breathed, scared to break the moment. He was sure his heart couldn’t pound any faster. He took a deep breath, trying to slow it, and an irreverent smirk spread across his face.

“Let’s go show you off.”

64 Donovan Peters A night to remember! (Misty) 1569 0 5

Xavier Lundstrom

October 24, 2023 8:32 AM

Great. Now let's outrage society. by Xavier Lundstrom

Lenny had gone with the (in Xavier’s opinion) less alarming variations of his dress. He wasn’t wearing any kind of coserting and nothing on his dress was dancing around. He was just super sparkly, which was to be expected. Xavier didn’t violently hate it. Which didn’t really matter, cos it wasn’t up to him anyway, and he would support Lenny regardless, but it was sort of a plus to feel like his date’s dress (still a weird sentence for his brain to have to think but he was rolling with it) wasn’t trying to burn his eyeballs out.

And Lenny had called him handsome.

“Thanks,” he grinned. It was a while since he’d heard something good about himself that didn’t relate to his progress in not setting things on fire. Even if Lenny only meant it as a friend… Friend compliments hit the warm and fuzzy spots in a way that teacher compliments didn’t and shouldn’t.

After the prefect dance, Lenny had a lot of questions and thoughts. It was… well, verbose. In some ways it felt a little clinical, and reminded him this was just a friend date, where they didn’t really know what the other person was like or wanted. But in some ways it was kind of… safe and nice? Oz was often pretty direct, but his directness was more like shoving his tongue in your mouth, or communicating his feelings loudly and angrily once they were hurt. Just talking about what they both actually wanted was… different. And weird. But not necessarily bad-weird.

“Slow dances are okay,” he confirmed. “I had all these really cheesy daydreams of having a perfect prom,” he admitted. Lenny was fluent in Muggle-speak, so Xavier trusted he’d know what that meant. “Like, I was always out so there was nothing in the way of me just… having what everyone else did. Except the whole wizard thing and the lack of other out gay teens and the dumping of my sorry ass due to Stuff.” Lenny knew the non-gossip versions of ‘Stuff’ by now, so the shorthand was more to preserve their evening than to keep his own secrets. “So, I’m up for making the most of it. Checking off as many prom cliches as possibly except for drunken making out. And… I lead and follow about equally as well as each other.” He grimaced, in a way that indicated this was an apology rather than a boast. He knew Lenny didn’t have a preference, which had put him in the position of trying to work out his own and finding that he didn’t know. Following was easier. When he imagined himself with a guy, he was the one being swept rather than doing the sweeping. But with Lenny it was a little different, except he wasn’t sure that Lenny wanted it to be… He didn’t want to put Lenny in a different box than other guys, except Lenny just had kind of put himself in a different, non-guy box but… Well, Xavier was pretty sure Lenny was better at leading and also didn’t want to be told he couldn’t, but also that he wanted to be twirled. “So, whatever makes you happy, or outrages the heteros the most. I reckon we’ll be more co-ordinated with you leading, but you deserve to be twirled around a bit. Anything else I should know?” he asked, figuring that Lenny had covered most of his own preferences already, but that it wouldn’t hurt to double check.

13 Xavier Lundstrom Great. Now let's outrage society. 1529 0 5

Lydia Priory

October 24, 2023 4:01 PM

I feel your pain by Lydia Priory

Lydia was absolutely not looking forward to the Ball tonight. Which was actually a mild way to put it. In truth, she was absolutely dreading it. Her stomach was twisted up in knots and a few times she actually thought she was at risk of losing her lunch. Or would be if she hadn’t been so anxious that she couldn’t eat anything.

She was definitely at risk of a panic attack. This might actually be overall worse than CATS because Lydia wasn’t actually bad at either practical or theoretical magic while socializing terrified her. She was painfully shy and uncomfortable talking to anyone that she didn’t already know liked her. The idea of standing around by herself made her want to cry and the idea of approaching someone new and worrying about rejection did pretty much the same thing.If someone was mean to her, she would probably burst into tears right then and there when she was already feeling pretty fragile, and then she’d be humiliated. Not to mention potentially mocked-both to her face and behind her back-and bullied relentlessly for her entire seventh year. It would be the same if she had a panic attack.

Which was a very real possibility as she’d had them in both CATS and the Challenges and the former was over something that Lydia wasn’t even bad at! Just over the dire consequences of what could go wrong if she messed up on them. Which were still less dire than the consequences of someone like Ian Malone messing them up since he wanted to be a Healer like Connor was and that involved literal life and death of people with terrible diseases and injuries. Lydia, with all her ailments over the years and those of her mom and other relatives, had a healthy respect for the profession and obviously the shame she would have felt would have paled in comparison-in terms of consequences anyway as she would have felt it very deeply-but still. It would have been bad.

She was just glad her examiner had been super nice and patient with her. The Teppenpaw absolutely was terrified that the same thing would happen during her RATS and that she’d get a less compassionate, empathetic examiner and fail because she had a breakdown-again-and was unable to complete them.

However, that was to worry about in depth more later because right now she had a much more pressing anxiety-the Ball and how alone she would be. She would feel like a bigger loser than she already did. She couldn’t blame them though. Lydia knew that people saw her as weak and needy and fragile and not much fun at all. Why would they want to talk to her at the Ball? The only people she felt comfortable with, that she knew liked her, all had dates. She was happy for them, really she was but she had no idea what she was going to do. Even the Teppenpaws she had hung out with last time weren’t an option. Well, she guessed Patience technically was, but she didn’t quite have the nerve to approach the younger Teppenpaw on her own.

As the time got closer, Lydia got more and more nervous. And, as she was in her dress and make-up, she also completely worried about messing up either due to her issues with her stomach-which again, there wasn’t even anything in but still-and worries about feeling like she was going to burst into tears. Even though her make-up was the magical kind with spells to prevent it from being ruined by such things.

She walked down to the Ball from Teppenpaw by herself. The prefects and Head Students did the opening dance, which admittedly was a potential source of humiliation and anxiety that Lydia was glad to have been spared from. After she found herself still standing alone but near Connie. The other sixth year looked…lost.

And Lydia knew how she felt. And a mix of empathy and solidarity won out over her anxiety. She didn’t want anyone else to feel this way. She approached the Aladren timidly “Connie? Are you all right?”

11 Lydia Priory I feel your pain 1533 0 5

Gwendolyn Brockert

October 24, 2023 5:35 PM

Would a good modifier help? by Gwendolyn Brockert

As far as Midsummer events went, the Ball might be one of the least interesting. Like, take the Fair next year for instance. Gwendolyn was immensely curious about what that was going to be like next time, because each one tended to be different. Maybe, like, something from twenty years ago would be repeated-there were only so many ideas out there after all-but it wouldn’t be the same thing as the one at the end of her first year.

Plus, the Ball seemed to have more drama than any other Midsummer event too, although Gwendolyn supposed that the Bonfire could have some interpersonal drama with regards to sharing tents-she had not been entirely sure that Robyn wanted her there last year, but she..had to share with someone and Lyla was the only one of her friends that she could have shared with so it had been tough luck for the Teppenpaw there-but with the Ball, teenage hormones made emotions run high. People not getting a date, or not having a friend to hang out with either because they had no friends or because their friends had dates and everyone else was paired off which Gwendolyn had to imagine made people feel bad if they were one of the leftover people or the person you liked going with someone else or you had to do the opening dance and had nobody to do it with.

Which she still maintained was an antiquated tradition that needed to go away far more than gendered head student elections or the potential for same sex and same house couples to do things that they probably shouldn’t-although she didn’t know why not beyond that nobody else had those opportunities- did. It just didn’t work out all the time that everyone even had options of people to dance with. Sophia hadn’t, but fortunately Hilda had lobbied for a group dance that time around. This was never going to affect Gwendolyn personally, beyond feeling bad for her cousin’s experience but she objected on principle. Maybe she should circulate a petition about it.

Anyway, the Aladren was glad to not have any of those problems. Or to have another chance to risk having them. Yes, as a Brockert, she would have to attend many, many, many balls in her life, all which, judging by what Gwendolyn had gathered from her relatives, were completely stuffy and not much fun–granted, one of those opinions was Dad’s, and he seemed to like socializing as much as Olaf did and so probably should have been taken with a grain of salt-but this was her only Sonora Ball, and despite the fact that she found the other events generally more interesting, Gwendolyn was actually pretty excited about this one. She actually had a date and Phil was pretty cool.

Well, okay, he was a complete nerd but to her, that was cool. Nerds were much more interesting than stereotypical cool people. She would much rather spend the dance talking about gaming than Quidditch or whatever supposedly cool people liked. Plus, cool people could be total jerks, like Agent Cool in their game. Zephyra kept having to suppress the desire to set him on fire and make him a whole lot less cool.

Also, the irony of the fact that the reason that Gwendolyn had a date in the first place because of the antiquated tradition that she was against and was considering starting a petition to end despite the fact that it was literally something that she never would have to worry about was not lost on her either. Still, she was looking forward to the Ball and spending time hanging out with one of her friends.

She met Phil in the Common Room. “Thanks. You look nice too” Gwendolyn replied. He held out a box. “Oh? Should I be worried?” She asked jokingly.

11 Gwendolyn Brockert Would a good modifier help? 1555 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

October 24, 2023 9:16 PM

Whenever you want? by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune hadn't gotten a date for the ball. He hadn't really tried that hard, and didn't mind going by himself. It was fine. He'd only tried to ask one girl, Yarielis, but she hadn't seemed all that interested. He knew well enough to respect someone's wishes, and didn't push the matter. Perhaps she was hoping someone else would ask. He thought they were friends, but maybe she didn't think of him as more than that. That was alright, he really wasn't sure about it either. He also wasn't quite sure what she'd meant that he 'should ask a proper girl'. Maybe she thought he was some sort of 'high-class' person? He wasn't. From the sounds of things, most of the other girls had dates by the time he finally got to seriously looking into the situation. That didn't actually bother him to much. It was odd, almost as if he wasn't going with Yarielis then he wasn't sure he wanted to go with anyone else. It was a weird feeling.

He didn't really think much more about it as he got dressed up in his dress robes. They weren't the 'latest style', but they weren't shabby either. They were just a nice set of standard, run-of-the-mill dress robes for mildly fancy occasions. When the time came, he wandered down to the hall. Not having someone to meet made that whole process a bit easier. The room looked so different and amazing. He clapped wholeheartedly for the planning committee, they had certainly done a bang-up job. The prefect dance held a mild interest, and he watched them as he wandered to the refreshments to get a drink.

Oz wandering through the crowd caught his eye and Fortune moved towards his Quidditch captain to engage in some Quiddtich talk to pass the time. However from still a little bit away, Fortune saw Oz fist bump another boy whom he didn't get a good look at, and over heard Oz call him 'bro'. That was a bit odd since he'd been pretty sure Henry had just been up on the dance floor doing the prefect dance thing with Iris. The boy shifted back into the decorations a bit, as if he was hiding. Did Oz have another brother? That he smuggled into the dance for some unknown reason and didn't want to be found out? Intrigued, Fortune decided to investigate.

Trying to be careful not to startle this potential intruder, he approached with a friendly smile. "Hi there," He began, "Quite the party isn't it?" He paused then as he got a better look at the person he was approaching. They were definitely wearing dress robes, but he was pretty sure that was Yarielis in them, even if she was shaped a bit differently. But he sure didn't want to make to big of a fool of himself by making some sort of weird mistake, so he continued on as nonchalantly as he could manage. "How are things going over here?"

OOC: Comments made by other characters have been approved by their authors

2 Fortune Ardovini Whenever you want? 1549 0 5

Hansel Hexenmeister

October 24, 2023 9:20 PM

Then let's be wonderful by Hansel Hexenmeister

Hansel danced with Liesl among the other prefects, managing not to step on her feet or run into anybody else, so he counted it a total success when the song was over and they had discharged their duty as prefects to lead off the ball. A new song started up and other people stepped onto the dance floor while some prefects left it. Hansel linked arms with Liesl and started moving off as well, smiling as he answered her question, "I think food first."

As an older teen male, he was frequently hungry and right now was no exception. He hadn't eaten since lunch, having anticipated a lot of new and interesting things to try at the ball, and his stomach growled a little just thinking about what those might be. "Shall we see what the planning committee came up with for refreshments tonight? The place looks incredible," that might even be an understatement. He could hardly recognize the room as the Cascade Hall, though that probably had as much to do with the absence of Cascades as the addition of the forest, "so I'm really curious to see what they put together for food."

He led the way to where the food was being offered, and took two plates from the table and handed one to Liesl. Walking down the buffet table, he took a little of everything, wanting to sample all that was available. "I love my dad dearly, and he has many talents and positive traits, but this is probably the last time I'm going to eat anything that tastes good until September unless Heinrich visits and does the cooking."

Unfortunately, Hansel had inherited Karl's cooking skills, too.

1 Hansel Hexenmeister Then let's be wonderful 1524 0 5

Liesl Brockert

October 25, 2023 3:42 PM

You already are and so is the food. I'll try my best though. by Liesl Brockert

“All right.” Liesl agreed. As much as she would have been agreeable to dancing or anything else Hans wanted, she was sort of glad that he had chosen food. She was kind of hungry and also, most of the time food was the best part of parties. Granted, being with the sixth year was the best part of this one, followed by wearing a dress that she actually liked. However, at society balls, food was definitely the best thing.

If they served food. Occasionally they did not. Which made them even more terrible because there was nothing to do. Oh people could dance or socialize but…well, Liesl didn’t hate the former-though none of the people were Hans, and regardless of whether or not the other person had been likely training in ballroom dancing since they could walk, it still didn’t feel right-but the latter was legitimately torture because she couldn’t be herself and talk about things that interested her and other people were either not being themselves or genuinely not very interesting people because it was all small talk and terribly dull and awkward.

So, food was…usually the best thing as there was no Hans and Mother forced her into horrible dresses that made Liesl feel like…wrong. Which obviously Mother thought that her natural self was and which was why she was forced to conform to societal norms at these parties. And which was why she loathed them.

However, sometimes, there wasn’t food because apparently young ladies were supposed to watch their weight and not pig out. According to Mother, part of the reason they were there was to meet suitable members of the opposite sex so they could marry and no young man wanted to marry someone who stuffed their face and certainly not one who was more interested in eating than socializing and dancing.

So, there was another strike against Liesl. Not that she was against dancing and socializing in general, but those were not the boys that she wanted to do so with. Which would be a good reason to eat a lot, except that it would earn Mother’s displeasure-well, more of it, since the fifth year already had plenty of it-and if there was no food to start with, well, you couldn’t eat what wasn’t there.

Hans clearly didn’t mind a bit if she was going to eat. Truthfully, Liesl doubted that a lot of boys did. She’d asked Uncle Cory and Jasper and Christopher about it, and they all seemed to think the idea was ridiculous. Of course, Uncle Cory generally seemed to think Mother was ridiculous and worse. It was just another way in which she mistreated Liesl-and in this case, Krisalyn too actually–and perpetrated ideas that could be downright harmful to more than just the Teppenpaw’s self-esteem.

Liesl chuckled. She loved going to the snake ranch but the food was not one of the big draws. “Pretty much nobody in my family can cook.” She pointed out. “Unless there’s some distant relation for whom it’s a hobby. All our meals are cooked by house-elves. You want me to bring one when I come to visit?” She asked, somewhat jokingly. Although Liesl enjoyed a good meal, she was willing to make that sacrifice and eat lesser quality food to be with Hans and the snakes.

Besides, Mother probably wouldn’t let her take one of their elves along anyway. In addition to her whole thing about being unladylike to eat a lot, she was also against the Teppenpaw going there in the first place and was likely of the opinion that if Liesl went, then she had made her bed and had to lie in it. Still, she could subvert this in the usual way and ask Uncle Cory if she could use one of his.

She looked over the table. “Ooh, looks like mini-tacos. And I see some sort of soup, it looks like butternut squash. And there’s some shrimp!”

11 Liesl Brockert You already are and so is the food. I'll try my best though. 1537 0 5

Robyn Lundstrom

October 25, 2023 7:03 PM

So did you by Robyn Lundstrom

"Thank you. Twice," Robyn grinned at the double compliment from her friend. She took a moment to survey her hard work again. She supposed that seeing it bustling with people was rather nice, especially now she had a friend by her side - it would have been a shame to do all this hard work and have it be for nothing. Xavier seemed happy. Her brother was here with a friend date. Her brother was here. Standing, moving, smiling. Doing the alive person thing. She knew that her worries about him had been hanging over her all year, but she hasn't really realised how much she counted seeing him get to the end of the year as a milestone until it happened.

"You look fantastic too - your hair! Oh my gosh, we've swapped. You've gone straight and I'm all curly! And not just that, our colours - you're a Teppenpaw and I'm a Crotalus!" She laughed. "Seriously though, you look amazing! You're so grown up and sparkly. Like you could be in a movie or something."

Lyla then made the evening better with a surprise gift. Other girls were getting corsages from dates, but Robyn was pretty sure this beat that hands down. After all, a corsage only lasted for the evening - and, in some cases, so did a date. This was something she could use all summer long for someone who truly wanted her in her life. She suspected there was a matching set for Samara too, and she was fine with that. Maybe they'd even use their sets to write to each other a bit, not just Lyla.

"This is awesome! Thank you!" She grinned and gave Lyla a big hug. "Any advance hints of what I might be reading about in your letters over the summer?" she asked.

13 Robyn Lundstrom So did you 1558 0 5

Tommy Jamison

October 25, 2023 8:15 PM

One last dance (Rosalynn) by Tommy Jamison

This year, Tommy had kept his dance proposal a little more low key. Their previous ball, he had planned something more elaborate with help from Lorena. From what Tommy knew - of American Muggle media anyway - the big “promposal” was every girl’s dream, and he was happy to do it for Rosalynn, but truthfully, it felt a bit childish this time. Not that he didn’t still ask her, of course. Just because they had been dating for literally their entire Sonora careers didn’t mean he could just assume she would be his date. But he kept it more casual this time. The energy he might have invested were better utilized on a different sort of surprise.

He met her outside the Cascade Hall, and though he generally knew what to expect, the sight of her all dressed up still took his breath away. “Wow,” he said at last. He was relieved to see that his blue necktie matched her dress pretty well (although if anyone didn’t know they were a couple, then that person had been living under some kind of rock in the Labyrinth Gardens or something.) It also meant that the corsage he bought her would match, because he had used his tie as reference. The flowers were blue with a black band, much like something else.

“This is for you,” he said, extending the corsage toward her and, if she allowed, placing it on her wrist for her. Once free, his right hand reached speedily into the pocket of his dress pants. Yep, it was still there.

“Actually, I have something else for you too,” he smiled. “Would you like it now or later?”

12 Tommy Jamison One last dance (Rosalynn) 1518 0 5

Misty Brockert

October 25, 2023 8:29 PM

I'll treasure it always by Misty Brockert

It had not occurred to Misty until a few days before the Ball that she would not actually be able to get ready with her sister. At home, Misty always asked Gwendolyn for help when they had to get ready for some big formal event. So while she was eager for her date(!!!) with Donovan, the prep part felt a little sad, getting into her icy blue dress by herself and struggling to get the back zipped up alone.

The Pecari was only a second year, so she didn’t really need much makeup, but she had pretty much been banking on Gwendolyn to help. Not that her sister ever seemed to need much makeup, but Misty pretty much assumed she was perfect at it because Gwendolyn always seemed pretty much perfect at everything. Misty loved and admired her big sister so much.

Misty really wanted to look extra nice tonight, though, so she had to go to one of her Housemates instead. She hadn’t realized just how few girls there really were in Pecari, but eventually, she recruited help from Rae Thorn, a sixth year. That was kind of weird, because Rae had, like… a baby now? Misty didn’t really want to think too hard about that. She didn’t even know you could have a baby when you were still in school! It was not in her nature to be judgmental, but her upbringing was fairly conservative on that front, and so her naivety was genuine.

In any case, Rae was very nice and helpful and made Misty feel very pretty. And when she began descending the stairs from the girls’ side of Pecari and saw Donovan waiting for her, that feeling only magnified. Misty was absolutely glowing as he complimented her. “Thank you!” she grinned. “You look great too! I like the pocket square.”

She let him lead the way to the Cascade Hall, enjoying every second of his hand being in hers. This was, like, really happening!! And the night only continued to shine as they arrived and entered the Cascade Hall. “Wow, it’s beautiful!” she gasped. “I’ve never seen it like this before!”

12 Misty Brockert I'll treasure it always 1567 0 5

Constance Melcher

October 25, 2023 8:43 PM

Let's just forget about that. by Constance Melcher

Perhaps it had been an oversight on her part, but Constance did not anticipate being approached. True, her height made it somewhat easy to lose her in a crowd, but her bright red hair more than made up for it, and the contrasting dress she wore only made her more appealing to the eye’s natural tendency to wander. So it was hardly unlikely to simply not notice her standing there.

But she had sort of thought that… no one would care. In this regard, Connie would be a sort of visual literacy test: something one technically saw, but was it even worth remembering later? So she was a bit surprised when Lydia Priory not only came up to her but asked if she was okay.

“Oh,” she uttered, her surprise audible. “Yes, thank you.” The response was stiff and uncomfortable, both because she did not know her yearmate very well to feel comfortable speaking on matters of personal emotion and also because the subject itself was a bit… uncomfortable for her. “I am just… bored, I suppose.” It wasn’t exactly true, but it was a close facsimile.

“I’d just like to dance,” Connie admitted. Then a thought struck her. “Would you? Like to dance, I mean. I don’t think anyone here would care,” she added, glancing around. This school was unlike most balls which Constance had been dragged to before. “And I know how to lead. I used to help teach Mathias and our younger sisters.”

12 Constance Melcher Let's just forget about that. 1523 0 5

Xarryn Bavol

October 25, 2023 9:58 PM

It's not exactly a sword fight but let's have fun! (Leviosa) by Xarryn Bavol

Xarryn had zero experience and very little knowledge about balls. He was on the Quidditch team, so he knew what a ball was, but the event seemed to have nothing at all to do with the object of the same name. It instead seemed to have a lot to do with dancing. Xarryn also had zero experience and very little knowledge about dancing.

This did not bother him.

Dad didn't know much about balls either. Mom's last letter talked about a 'school dance' which seemed to be about equivalent in her culture, so between what she said, and what he was getting from his peers, he knew he was supposed to dress up nice, dates were optional but preferential to not having dates, and swordplay would be frowned upon.

So he was dressed nice. He had on long blue robes with gold piping that he left open, a lighter blue vest underneath, with a floofy white undershirt that showed at his neck and wrists. He wore tall boots, and sword at his hip (for decoration, because if you couldn't accessorize with a sword, what was the point of dressing up nice?). His tricorner hat was a blue that matched his outer robes, and had a fluffy white feather on it. In all, he thought he looked quite dashing.

He'd also arranged a date with Leviosa, and they'd agreed to meet in the school's entrance hall before making their way over to the Cascade Hall where the ball was being held. Spotting her, Xarryn grinned, and hurried to join her. "Hi, Leviosa! Wow! You're looking really pretty today!"

1 Xarryn Bavol It's not exactly a sword fight but let's have fun! (Leviosa) 1560 0 5

Isla Brockert

October 26, 2023 3:47 PM

Trying not to cry (Lorena) by Isla Brockert

Just like at the last Ball, Isla felt pretty sad However, this time around it was for very different reasons. Last time, she had felt lonely and left out, with nobody to talk to. It had been completely awful as in addition to feeling rejected it had been completely boring. Isla had never found balls to be all that interesting in general and having to stand around by herself while her friends had dates made matters worse, even if Sonora’s balls were less stuffy than pureblood ones.

So, the whole thing left a really bad taste in her mouth and it would be better if the last Midsummer Event of Isla’s Sonora years-it might not be the last one that she ever attended because she had two younger brothers and would someday most likely have children who were students and she’d come back for their Concerts regardless of whether or not they performed in them and who knew if they’d some day recycle the alumni Fair but it was the last one where Isla would be a student-was any of the other events instead of an event that she felt was inherently dull and also brought up her worst memories of her entire time at school. Taking her CATS and RATS exams were a happier memory than the last Ball was.

Still, this time was different. At least in that Isla wasn’t going to be all by herself. Rosalynn would still be with Tommy obviously but at least she’d have Lorena to hang out with and hopefully their other friend would join them for at least part of the time. After all, it was their very last night together at Sonora. They would see each other again but it would never be quite the same as they would no longer be roommates who saw each other every day.

And perhaps Isla was being a tiny bit naive about this. After all, people lost touch after graduation all the time, especially when they came from different backgrounds and had different lifestyles but her cousin Cory was still friends with his Sonora friends and while one of them was from the same sort of family as theirs, the other one wasn’t. So certainly it was not unrealistic for Isla to expect the same.

Also, if it was completely unrealistic, certainly Olaf would have burst her bubble by now and he had yet to do so. Which totally meant that Isla, Lorena and Rosalynn would be best friends for the rest of their lives, bridesmaids in each others’ weddings and everything else that was included in being part of each other’s lives. The idea of anything less than that was absolutely terrifying to Isla, possibly worse than anything that Topaz could come up with.

Still, they wouldn’t be roommates anymore and more than a summer could pass without being together. So this was their last night together as such and while it was a much different sort of sadness…Isla still felt sad. No matter what happened in her future, how good that both logic and Divination methods said it was going to be, she still was going to miss Rosalynn and Lorena terribly.

So, she met Lorena in Aladren and they walked down to the Ball together. Isla looked around the transformed Hall. “The committee did a really good job on this.” She said. “I’ll have to tell Alma how well that she did.” Her youngest cousin at Sonora had been part of the Ball planning committee.

Unable to contain herself any longer, Isla threw her arms around her friend in a big hug. “I’m going to miss you so much .”

OOC: I made some assumptions on where Isla and Lorena met, let me know if you want me to edit it. Also, as discussed in Chatzy, Ros can join them after the Important Surprise.

11 Isla Brockert Trying not to cry (Lorena) 1521 0 5

Amethyst Brockert

October 26, 2023 6:00 PM

Trying to be happy (Alexei) by Amethyst Brockert

Amethyst’s year had pretty much completely sucked and she was glad that it was over. It would be nice to have a few months off from the constant tension of having to share a room with Iris. One would think that Amethyst would be used to a difficult living situation given that Topaz was her sister, but honestly, it wasn’t the same thing at all. For one thing, regardless of anything else she was feeling about her former friend right now-mostly that she was a stubborn grudge holder who wouldn’t listen or accept Amethyst’s apologies even if Amethyst groveled, which of course, Amethyst thought was beneath her-she wasn’t complete psychopath.

Furthermore, Amethyst had thankfully never had to share a room with Topaz. Or any of her siblings for that matter since obviously they had more than enough bedrooms in their house to go around.

So yeah, this situation was horrible and uncomfortable and the Crotalus was sure that Iris thought it was all Amethyst’s fault. Well, and possibly Liesl’s but definitely not her own.Amethyst knew that Henry had asked her roommate to the Ball but since they weren’t speaking, she had no idea whether or not Iris had decided to go for the older Crotalus instead. She really hoped so, for Liesl’s sake but she was truthfully not that optimistic.

And even if that happened, if Iris gave up on Hans and let…fate take its course so to speak as Amethyst really and truly thought that her cousin and the older Teppenpaw belonged together and to be honest, Liesl was going to be hard pressed to find someone who was as perfect for her since she was such an oddball, well that didn’t mean things were going to improve between the two sixth year Crotali. Iris would likely stubbornly cling to the idea that Amethyst was unsupportive of her because she had basically pointed out the truth, at least somewhat, that Liesl didn’t force Hans to spend time with her.

The thing was too, that pretty much everything that Amethyst had said was right . Hans liked Liesl enough to ask her and her alone to the Ball. He didn’t ask Iris and he didn’t ask Lydia and Patience to join them like last time either. And someone else had wanted to go with Iris. Amethyst hadn’t used Divination to predict this either, it was just logic .

Still, it hadn’t been what Iris had wanted to hear then and now Amethyst was the one paying the price. She was unsure if the other Crotalus was bothered by the…environment of discontent but well, the Quaffle was on her side of the pitch.

At least tomorrow night, Amethyst would be home-which was obviously much better now that Topaz had moved out and lived in her own ~~evil lair~~ apartment -and she would get to spend the summer around people who mostly liked her. Unlike Liesl and Isla, the sixth year enjoyed society balls. She was perfectly comfortable being the person she was at them, as her interests didn’t run towards horror and puppets.

And tonight she would be spending time with Alexei. Amethyst was so incredibly grateful for the Pecari, which was a phrase that she thought that she’d never think since she’d always had an aversion to them. Possibly because the only ones she’d known prior to Sonora were Uncle Eustace and Father’s cousin Toby, the former of whom was second only to Topaz in being the literal Worst Person Ever-well, possibly, Christopher might argue otherwise and Jasper might have trouble deciding-and the latter of whom wasn’t exactly a stellar example of humanity either.

Still, Alexei wasn’t like them, and Amethyst was happy to have him. Because in addition to genuinely being a wonderful person, he was her only friend now. They might vote for her for Head Student, but she wasn’t close to them.

She spotted the other sixth year. “Hi. You look nice.” Amethyst was herself decked out in purple, her signature color and wearing her signature, namesake gem.

OOC: Okay, so I left it vague as to whether or not she's his actual date.

11 Amethyst Brockert Trying to be happy (Alexei) 1532 0 5

Lydia Priory

October 26, 2023 7:05 PM

Great idea by Lydia Priory

“Okay.” Lydia replied, unsure if she should keep digging any further. After all, she herself often wanted to know that people genuinely cared but at the same time was sort of glad that they didn’t pry further and she didn’t have to tell them deeply personal problems like about how she felt completely anxious about not having anyone to talk to at the Ball, which was arguably not an issue any more since she was talking to Connie.

Or at least Lydia hoped that she could. That the other sixth year wouldn’t brush her off or tell her to get lost or something else that was mean. Not that the Aladren had ever seemed especially mean , just a little different and lost in her own world. Like she was smarter than everyone else and was, like, busy contemplating whatever people that smart thought about that was deeper and more interesting to them than the things that other people were into.

Truth be told, Connie’s intelligence had always intimidated the Teppenpaw. Which to be fair, was not unique to her classmate since quite obviously, Lydia was intimidated by most people. Still, in this specific case, she was worried that her distant cousin might think she was dumb. Although, compared to Connie, most people probably were, including Sophia, Gwendolyn, Uncle Evan and Aunt Chelsea, who were the Aladrens among Lydia’s close relatives. Oh not that they weren’t all brilliant but Connie had given the impression that she was on another level. Like, most of the time she didn’t see the other sixth year around most of the people around their age, just Professor Wright and her brother Mathias.

Whom Lydia also assumed was a super genius. From what she understood of her distant relations, most of the Melchers were brilliant, other than that one that was rumored to be insane, the one in Autumn’s class. Although madness and genius could be closely related and maybe that relative was actually really smart.

However, she did wonder if Connie got lonely without friends. Like, maybe most of the time the Aladren was happy to do her own thing but then…there were things like this, where the entire school was doing an event and she felt like she needed someone to spend time with and didn’t want to spend time with a teacher or her little brother. Lydia knew from personal experience as a youngest sibling that older siblings didn’t always want to spend time with them.

Then Connie admitted that she was bored. Which was totally not surprising since standing around by oneself at a dance was not the most fun thing in the world and something that Lydia would probably feel too if she wasn’t so busy feeling anxious and like a loser. Of course, it could also be that Connie was just bored by something that was not especially intellectually stimulating. Admittedly, the Teppenpaw wondered why she hadn’t brought a book, like Olaf had. Maybe she had and just didn’t feel like reading right now though, Lydia had no idea.

Although now, of course, she was worried that she was boring the other girl. She was not sure exactly how since she hadn’t really been talking about much other than asking her if she was okay. Not exactly discussing the mysteries of the universe or anything but not enough to be boring. Lydia was just a paranoid anxious person who always worried that she was the problem and that people found her boring because she was weak and fragile and Sophia and Iris seemed to find her to be such.

Then Connie asked her to dance. “Um, okay.” Lydia agreed. She knew that it was perfectly acceptable for people to dance in groups and stuff at these things. They weren’t like society balls in that way. Plus, the two girls were cousins so people probably wouldn’t assume things-or even really care, all things considered- even if Connie did want to ballroom dance instead of fast dances.

More importantly though, Lydia was a person who tended to agree to do whatever another person wanted so they would like her. Also, she didn’t know how to dance any other way anyway. Or how to lead.“You’ll have to, I don’t know how.”

11 Lydia Priory Great idea 1533 0 5

Desmond Brockert

October 27, 2023 3:42 PM

Being critical. (Nicholas) by Desmond Brockert

OOC:
BIC:

Tonight was the Ball and Desmond was glad to at least have Nicholas to hang out with as his other friends had dates. As did one of the girls that he would have asked if Nicholas had been planning to ask anyone. Desmond had been horrified to find out that Ursula Arcadius was going to the ball with Leo ! Now, he wasn’t entitled to a date with her-he felt entitled to a lot of things but a specific girl was not one of them-and once he found out that Nicholas wasn’t going to ask anyone, he wasn’t going to either as he didn’t want to desert his friend, but really? Leo ? Was Ursula going through a rebellious phase? She should certainly understand that the company one kept reflected on them since it was clear that her brother did. If one kept company with those who were disreputable, they also would get that sort of reputation as well. He couldn’t imagine that was what his friend wanted for his younger sister.

Honestly, Desmond felt nothing but sorry for Quillan, even though he’d managed to secure Charlotte as his date. Desmond certainly wouldn’t want someone like Leo going to the Ball with one of his sisters. Not even Liesl . For one thing, even though as he and his roommates had discussed, going to the Ball together did not mean getting married or even being a couple at all, the idea of Leo as a brother-in-law was sickening. Having to spend family dinners with him? Desmond personally hoped he would never see the Teppenpaw again after graduation.

And not even just because Leo wasn’t a pureblood. He didn’t even know how to behave in public, let alone as the date of a proper young lady. He would probably embarrass the younger Teppenpaw before the night was done. Desmond would not be at all surprised if Leo thought the Ball was another “brilliant” opportunity to play a prank which would be super disrespectful to not only Ursula but to Medic WIllow and the Ball planning committee who had put so much work into making it a nice evening for everyone. Leo couldn’t even be counted on to behave respectfully in something as important as class, he certainly couldn’t be counted on to behave at something as trivial as a Ball.

Well, hopefully, Ursula would learn her lesson and make better choices in the future. Of course, he’d been hoping that about Liesl for years, and she still hadn’t outgrown whatever possessed her to behave as she did. Like, Mother had bought her a perfectly appropriate dress for tonight and the Teppenpaw had to be a brat and go get Uncle Cory to buy her a different one.

Honestly, between Liesl,Leo, Ursula, Lenny Pierce and Patience Reed-Fischer, Desmond was really beginning to wonder about the respectability of Teppenpaws, he was beginning to think they were almost as bad as Pecaris. Hansel Hexenmeister too was questionable because of his fondness for Liesl. Oh, and Uncle Cory with how he always went behind Mother’s back and undermined her and her parenting of her difficult child. Not to mention how his job was just not…respectable. Desmond would classify him as an underachiever but he was not sure that his uncle hadn’t achieved to precisely the level that he was capable of.

Desmond walked down to the Ball with Nicholas. “Well, it looks like they did a nice job.” He said, of the Ball planning committee. It might be a trivial thing but he had to give credit where it was due. After the prefect dance, he turned to the other Aladren. “Come on, let’s see if the food is any good.”

OOC: I made assumptions about where they met, let me know if it needs changing

11 Desmond Brockert Being critical. (Nicholas) 1572 0 5

Ian Malone

October 27, 2023 5:42 PM

It's over. by Ian Malone

RATS had passed successfully for Ian. Or at least, he hoped he had been successful at them. Of course, he was terrified that they hadn’t been, even though there was little that he had found that he didn’t know. Though he was naturally worried about that little bit and that it would entirely tank his entire future and that people would die because he couldn’t become a Healer and their bodies would be ravaged by horrid diseases due to their faulty immune systems and kill them because he had gotten a single question wrong on RATS and he was prevented from finding something that would save their lives. So, basically, the usual.

At least, though, Ian had Mr. Barba for his examiner again. So, that meant that he had not had to face one of the man’s colleagues, who were unknown quantities and therefore, terrifying. And once you got past his job, there was nothing even remotely scary about Mr. Barba, Honestly, all Ian wanted to do around him was fix his allergies and alleviate his misery. This and his familiarity was tremendously comforting to the seventh year, although obviously, Ian was still concerned about the Dire Consequences of Getting Anything Wrong and Failing Miserably. Still, there wasn’t that additional anxiety associated with having a mean examiner. Which the Teppenpaw was still completely sure existed.

Anyway, RATS was now behind him and he could now worry about passing his college exams. Although he could not start studying for them yet as he didn’t know precisely what his college professors would teach and what would be on his tests. So, aside from studying just general medical knowledge-which Ian sort of already knew but it was always good to brush up on it, not just for his future career but just to know-he might have to actually…not study. And do other things.

This was a confusing concept to him. He had been doing nothing but study since he got to Sonora. The last few years, he had even spent most of his summer studying for CATS and then RATS. Ian was honestly kind of unsure of what else to do with himself. Maybe actually read something purely for fun.

And there would be balls. Society balls. Which weren’t his favorite thing ever. He had been going to them for a few years now though not as many as some people as the seventh year had always tended to make the argument that he had to study for his exams. Which was the truth but also totally an excuse. Ian was not exactly the most outgoing person around. It wasn’t just that he was focused on his future career as a Healer, he was also really pretty shy and making small talk with strangers was not a thing that he enjoyed or was good at.

Speaking of balls, tonight was Sonora’s and it was also Ian’s last night here. He couldn’t exactly say what he was feeling at this point about it. The Ball itself didn’t especially interest him and he was only slightly more comfortable with his classmates then he was with strangers at society balls so he couldn’t really even say that he’d miss anyone. The only person that Ian was even a little close to was his roommate Tommy whom he had thankfully gotten on with. The last seven years would have been horrid if they hadn’t so he guessed he was grateful for that.

Still, Tommy was someone he’d probably see again, being that he was Aunt Sophie’s brother. Aunt Sophie was married to Uncle Ryan whose biological mother was actually Grandpa Charles’s first cousin-at least if Ian remembered correctly-but Mom was two years younger than Uncle Ryan and Aunt Sophie and she and Uncle Ryan were super close, even if they weren’t closely related. Mom looked at him as if he were her big brother, even if he wasn’t biologically. Which was all a very long and convoluted way of saying that Ian and Tommy were practically family.

And because of that Ian would likely see Rosalynn again too, same with the people who were his actual distant cousins like Isla. Possibly Hans too, if he married Liesl.

So, basically he’d see most of the sixth and seventh years again. Who were all people he was not that close to anyway.

After the prefect dance, Ian headed off to find something to eat. Later he’d tell his roommate that he appreciated how the other boy had been pleasant to share with but for now he was sure Tommy was busy with Rosalynn.

11 Ian Malone It's over. 1522 0 5

Rosalynn Tellerman

October 27, 2023 9:40 PM

Let's have a ball! by Rosalynn Tellerman

Rosalynn had assumed, and so had all of her friends, that she'd be attending the ball with Tommy. They had, after all, been more or less dating since orientation seven years ago. So when he casually asked her to attend as his date, she'd accepted easily, and not thought much about it other than to remember fondly the spectacle he'd made of it in their third year, and to be kind of glad he'd matured since then.

She knew Isla wasn't too happy about ending their Sonora careers on a Midsummer Ball, but Rosalynn was pretty thrilled about it. Her family didn't do them often the way the Brockerts did, so it felt special to her, especially since she did have a steady boyfriend. It seemed kind of magical to end her school days dancing with the boy she'd met nearly as soon as she'd stepped off the wagons, as the two Head Students of Sonora. It couldn't get more fairy tale perfect than that, but somehow it was real, and it was hers.

Her dress for tonight was just as Disney trademarked as the rest of her life, a real Cinderella gown in pastel blue. She almost felt a little silly wearing something so fancy, but she was far from the only one dolled up in an honest-to-God ball gown, and this may well be her only chance to have this. In addition to the dress, her nails were done up nice with a light blue polish, and her hair was curled, and she wore lip gloss and blush and even a little eye shadow (she normally didn't bother with make up but this was definitely an occasion that called for it).

She felt beautiful and elegant and Tommy's reaction to seeing her amplified that. She smiled at him and closed the distance. He offered her a corsage with pretty blue flowers and she smiled and held out a wrist for him to put it on her. "Thank you."

When he said he had something else for her and wondered if she wanted it now or later, she was torn. Later would probably be better. They needed to assemble with the prefects for the first dance. Later would be less hurried with fewer other things on their minds.

But . . . he had another present for her. And she wanted to see it, to know what else Tommy had gotten her for their final night at Sonora.

Well, she was an Aladren and Aladrens prized knowledge above all. "Now," she decided with an answering smile for him.

1 Rosalynn Tellerman Let's have a ball! 1520 0 5

Leviosa Scurlock

October 28, 2023 12:19 AM

It is specifically unallowed to be sword fighting by Leviosa Scurlock

You wouldn’t want a colour that washes you out, would you?

You don’t want people to think you come from a poor family, do you?

You don’t want to look sloppy at a formal occasion, do you?

These were the sorts of questions, with which it was impossible to disagree and still look reasonable, which had peppered Levi’s dress shopping experience, and which had led to her standing here in a pale yellow dress, its bodice and sleeves dotted with three-dimensional flowers, which was only partially of her own choosing. She had wanted to be in Teppenpaw yellow, and apparently this specific dress was the one which her mother felt went well enough with her skin-tone and was elegant enough to be proper for the occasion, as compared to any of the ones that she had liked somewhat better.

As she contemplated herself in the mirror, she could see that she looked quite pretty, even if she didn’t feel totally like herself. But maybe that was the point of fancy balls and dressing up.

She hadn’t been totally sure what to do with her hair. There was a temptation to smooth out the natural curl, both because balls seemed to demand that you changed yourself as radically as possible and because her mother liked her curls and probably wouldn’t want her to. But she already felt different enough to her usual self, so she’d sought Piper’s advice (just on what to do with her hair, not her mother) and her roommate had helped her to put in some fancy braids which wrapped her head like a crown.

As Xarryn was her date, accessorising had been both easy and fun; she had asked to borrow one of his spare swords, seeing as that was the thing that had brought them together. Friend-together. They sword fought a lot, having done it in the play and both being in the fencing club, and now they were going on a date. Levi wasn’t sure whether it was a friend-date unless otherwise specified, or a date-date unless otherwise specified, nor which she wanted it to be. Especially as Cole was not going with Yarielis, but Lenny was going with Xavier, which meant Cole was going with Piper. Levi could feel tangly, twisty feelings about all of that, but she couldn’t quite unwind which bit it was that was causing them, or whether it was just the fact of the four of them being pulled in different directions. Not that she could complain because she was part of that. She was excited to spend the night with Xarryn. She was glad none of her friends were on their own. A little part of her was glad that they weren’t altogether without her, which she thought might be a mean thought. The thought of first kisses was both intriguing and a little bit terrifying, both when she thought about them for herself and for other people. Even though her friends said they were just on friend dates, things might change, and then she’d have to be happy for them and— and it was much more fun to just twirl her skirt and brandish a sword, and know that she had a dance with Lenny to look forward to even if that made the whole ‘what is a date’ thing even more confusing.

“Hello!” she greeted Xarryn, when he joined her in the hall. “Thank you,” she smiled at his compliment, hoping it was more because she’d accessorised with a sword and got Piper to do her hair than because her mother was right. “You look great too. Professor Skies already banned me from using the sword,” she added sadly. “But she did let me keep it.” The deputy headmistress had seemed on the fence about that, but Levi had argued that no, she wasn’t treating this like a costume party (the sheer ridiculousness of her dress had probably come in handy there) and that she was just respecting her date’s heritage. Professor Skies had seemed unconvinced, but compromised on having it as a decorative accessory.

OOC: Professor Skies is mine, so no God-Modding is taking place on that front. Presuming Piper would be willing to help.

13 Leviosa Scurlock It is specifically unallowed to be sword fighting 1545 0 5

Verdillia Scurlock

October 28, 2023 1:15 AM

But you're used to this by Verdillia Scurlock

Was there such a thing as too many ruffles? Or too much sparkle? Verdillia didn’t think so. Certainly not when it came to the one and only ball she would attend at Sonora—though hopefully not the only one ever in her life. She knew mother wouldn’t allow that to happen—she would go to cultured events in places like Vienna, and wear many more dresses like this one. But it would be so much more wonderful to marry into the kind of family where throwing one’s own balls and attending those of friends was just the way of life. To be invited to private ones, rather than buying tickets to public ones.

Still, however many more balls were in her future, that was no reason not to make the most of the one in the present. Her sage green dress sported ruffles around her shoulders, diamantes in lines down the bodice, and a full skirt supported by a petticoat. She had chosen jewellery with matching peridots (because they were a better match for the dress and were a stone with a deeply magical heritage—it wasn’t just that she couldn’t afford nice enough emeralds). Several of the stones glimmered around her neck, interspersed with little silver twigs and leaves in a pretty station necklace, which sat neatly beneath her collarbones (as was proper for the evening). It was paired with matching drop earrings, and her hair was pinned back around the top to properly show them off, though her curls still hung free at the back.

Her evening was off to a fantastic start before it even began. Not only did she have her wonderful dress but she had a wonderful date! And he was living up much more to her expectations of that title, having sent her flowers already. Given that she was a prefect, she would get to show off both her date and her dress in front of everyone, whilst getting to do a perfect, elegant dance. It was the stuff of dreams.

She made her way into the common room to find him waiting with a corsage and compliments.

“Thank you.” She smiled as she accepted both. “You look very handsome too. And thank you for the flowers earlier.” It was proper to smile for one’s date, and Verdillia was very glad of that because she wasn’t sure she could have done anything else. Hopefully her grin wouldn’t look quite so giddy when she got up to dance, but for now she couldn’t help it. “I’m so excited for tonight! I’m sure it’s going to be wonderful!”

OOC: Dress is mostly like this but with short mesh sleeves on the top to make it a bit more modest.

13 Verdillia Scurlock But you're used to this 1541 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

October 28, 2023 1:57 AM

Oh. Really? How...? by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Luckily, Fortune’s date invitation had come after Yaniel had cut his hair. He wasn’t sure he would have had the guts to not just cave in and avoid upsetting his friend had it been before. But once his hair was cut, he was set on doing this his way, and that just wasn’t going to work or be fair to Fortune. He’d been surprised that Fortune had asked him at all. Most of the girls had been prettier than him even when he’d had long hair, and were way more sociable. All in all, he’d never exactly screamed ‘date material’ even before he’d given himself the first step of his make-over.

Fortune hadn’t been weird about it, and Yaniel hoped he wasn’t mad. They were on friendly terms, but without the cement of Quidditch (and with Yaniel’s tendency to avoid human contact at any point where it was optional) it wasn’t like they hung out a lot. The thought of Fortune hating him would have been a major source of anxiety if he didn’t have at least three way bigger ones running at all times. He’d made occasional space to worry about it, but it was also done and he couldn’t change it, nor did he want to. Trying to apologise or talk about it might lead to him being talked into changing his mind (though logic said Fortune had come to his senses right after asking him), and that wasn’t something he wanted to do.

It did sort of suck to have potentially burnt one of his very few bridges, especially now that he was finding himself alone.

Except, Fortune was coming over.

The fact that Yaniel’s immediate thought was Please don’t ask me to dance cemented the fact that turning Fortune down had been the right thing. And hopefully Fortune, seeing how he was dressed, was realising that too… Besides not wanting to fall out with anyone, it was going to be another barrier to rejoining the team if Fortune held some kind of grudge or was weird about this. Grudge-holding didn’t seem to be his style, but Yaniel had never really gone against anything anyone else wanted him to do before.

“Uh. Yeah. They did a great job,” Yaniel acknowledged, waving vaguely at the transformed hall when Fortune opened up the conversation with just… regular small talk. Yaniel wished his voice sounded different. On the one hand, it was easy to change, in that he could put on a fake, gruff voice. On the other, he’d tried that in the privacy of his room, and knew that it sounded terrible, so he wasn’t going to pull that out in public any time soon. Which meant he was stuck squeaking like a girl, or a pre-pubescent boy, sounding exactly like he always had. “Things are going okay.” Not the most in depth response ever, but Fortune was maybe trying to put a bridge over any remaining gap? Keep things pleasant and normal? Anyway, no one needed to hear his honest answers to that question, except his therapist. Even telling her was hard enough. “How are you?” he asked, hoping—perhaps unfairly—that Fortune’s answer was a much more transparent one. Preferably along the lines of ‘Neither holding a grudge against you nor weirded out by your outfit and doing fine, thanks.’

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez Oh. Really? How...? 1554 0 5

Katey Willow

October 28, 2023 12:05 PM

After the rush (Tag: Gray) by Katey Willow

Unlike the set-up for the Ball, Katey did not ask the committee to stay after to take things down. They were ultimately kids, who had hopefully just had the night of their lives and were walking on clouds as they departed, or at least as much as they could given the likelihood of how tired they would be.

There were a lot of ways in which Katey could have taken the decorations down faster by magic, but she was more than happy to solo the clean-up by hand. It gave her some time to reflect upon the successes (and any failures) of the evening, fully with the intention to do this again the next time Sonora’s Ball rolled around.

The privacy of doing it alone also allowed her to be a bit free about it. She had mostly restrained herself during the Ball itself to keep from embarrassing any students who didn’t find it as enjoyable to watch an adult woman twirl around the floor as perhaps another teen might be, but now she spun freely, humming to herself through a wide smile.

However, she realized she was not alone when the end of a turn left her facing one of her colleagues. “Oh! Um, hi, Gray,” she greeted a bit sheepishly. Although a little embarrassed, she still could not suppress her smile. “I was just… cleaning up. Well, mostly.”

12 Katey Willow After the rush (Tag: Gray) 1505 0 5

Tommy Jamison

October 28, 2023 12:14 PM

I'd like nothing more. by Tommy Jamison

“Now."

He had planned this moment almost all year long, but as it finally arrived, Tommy felt his hand instantly begin to tremble. The little box was already in his grasp, but he managed to knock it loose and fumbled to gain control of it again. Slowly, and somewhat afraid of dropping it, he produced it from his pocket.

As he opened it, the contents became immediately clear. On the inside of the lid, there was a note which simply said the words I Promise. On the bottom, there was a ring. The black gold band provided a well-designed yet simple home for the gem, as well as the inscription TJ + RT which would be visible once removed. The gem itself, an aquamarine in the shape of the heart, shined brightly at the center. Indeed, he had done well to match the corsage to it.

It was not an engagement ring. While it wasn’t entirely uncommon especially for Purebloods at this age, Tommy thought that they were just entirely too young for that. “We’re graduating, and everything is about to change. We may not see each other as readily and often as we’re able to here.” Tommy had finalized his apprenticeship with Martin Crosby, the same apothecary under whom his sister had trained, and Rosalynn had her own future to consider too. “But this is my promise to you that what we have will not be left behind when we leave.”

“It would mean a lot to me if you’d accept this promise ring for now,” he finished, “and know that someday, when we’re ready I’ll get you another, and that one will be diamond.”

12 Tommy Jamison I'd like nothing more. 1518 0 5

Christopher Brockert

October 28, 2023 3:10 PM

Being nervous? Yes, I am very used to that. by Christopher Brockert

“Thank you.” Christopher’s robes were basic black dress robes and probably nothing special. He wasn’t especially into fashion. which was probably a good thing, all things considered, he couldn’t imagine how much Uncle Eustace would torment him if he was, as according to his uncle, that was a distinctly girly interest. His uncle’s opinion wasn’t worth much when Christopher really thought about it, he didn’t necessarily value the man liking him-it actually probably spoke well of the fifth year if he didn’t- and Uncle Eustace was decidedly a complete and total Neanderthal but the Crotalus also hated being harassed and made fun of so, obviously he did not want to do anything to draw the attention of his uncle or others like him.

Christopher just had to keep reminding himself that there weren’t, as far as he knew, many people like that at Sonora. He was not sure precisely why he had such luck in that department. Maybe it was because Sonora really didn’t have the best Quidditch program, a fact his uncle often complained about despite it being completely irrelevant to him. Uncle Eustace certainly wasn’t going to want Honora to play so Chris really didn’t understand why he was so…vocal about it, always insisting that Grandfather should force all the male students to play-nope- beyond it just being how Uncle Eustace was.

Still, the reason Sonora didn’t have house teams was a lack of interest so really, the fifth year was unsure why there were so few toxic alpha male jocks running around. However, he was extremely relieved and happy about it. Of course, it was possible that some of the younger students were that way but as Christopher was older than them, they didn’t bother him. Although Alma had never said anyone was like that, and it seemed like the second years were more run by people like Desmond and his friends. There was a boy in that class who played a prank on everyone and seemed to be mostly a social pariah.

Anyway, his robes were well tailored, of good fabric and had been okayed by his mom and Amethyst as being suitably fashionable, so at least Christopher would look nice enough to not embarrass Verdillia. Honestly, there really was a fine line between looking presentable-you were supposed to look presentable-and looking like you cared too much about fashion. As much as girls had so much more to do than guys-which was pretty unfair to them, really-being a guy had its own apparent challenges.

Still, he was showered, shaved and deodorized, things he usually did anyway since, even though some might think he was unmanly, Christopher didn’t like to be gross. Nobody wanted to be around you if you smelled bad. Hopefully, he had not crossed that line of presentable versus um,…fashionable to the point of being unmasculine and ended up somehow stuffed in a dirty toilet.

“Oh, you’re welcome.” Christopher might have worried that that was too over the top nice of a thing to do, but any thought of that was quickly dismissed. Obviously he wanted to be nice to his friend and date for the evening. It was common sense that people liked to be treated well and besides, his uncle never had to know that Chris actually was a gentleman and treated his date well.

Verdillia’s excitement was contagious and he couldn’t help but grin back. “Oh, I’ll do my very best.’He replied. Though now he was a little nervous since those might be some high expectations to live up to. He sure hoped he could meet them.

11 Christopher Brockert Being nervous? Yes, I am very used to that. 1539 0 5

Alma Brockert

October 28, 2023 5:33 PM

Admiring by Alma Brockert

Tonight was the Ball, and Alma was looking forward to it. She didn’t have a date or anything but she had been on the planning committee and was looking forward to seeing the results of their hard work. She had been part of making some of the decorations, even though as a first year, the spells that she could do were pretty minimal unfortunately. However, Alma had made some of the flowers, and used her crafting abilities, plus she used the charm that Professor Wright had taught them to make things sparkle after spending time to perfect it so things were complete and would last for a while.

Honestly, the Crotalus was sort of glad that her first year was over because now she would hopefully get to learn more magic when she got back to school. As a first year, she had really felt fairly useless as she had barely been able to do anything when it came to decorating. It was a good thing that Alma was actually good at doing crafts or she might have been no help at all when it came to the Ball committee. Although she was fairly organized and good at making lists, neither of those things was quite as helpful. Even making flowers was easier and more efficient if you could use a spell like the older students could.

Alma was just glad that in the future, when the next Ball came and even more so, with the Challenges, she would be able to be of more help. The former would be a do-over but she hated the idea of being useless to her team in the latter. She doubted that people really judged Beginner students for not being able to contribute as much, but she personally wanted to feel like she had done enough to feel like she was a part of any successes.

Although with the Challenges last time there had been one event where it might have been better to be a musically trained first year than a seventh year who barely knew one end of an instrument from another. Of course, even then, Olaf had been on a decidedly unmusical team and Isla’s hadn’t been much better and they’d both ended up in the top three. From what Alma had gathered from her brother and cousins though, it didn’t seem as if there had been very many people who had musical skills in the entire school last time, so she supposed it was a pretty low bar. However, they would be doing completely different events next time, so hopefully they would be things that played to Alma’s strengths and either way, she would still be a sixth year and therefore, much more magically skilled.

Anyway, as far as the Ball tonight went, it also was always fun to get dressed up. She had a beautiful pale blue dress on, and jewelry that was elegant and tasteful. She was also eager to see what everyone else had on, at least the girls. Boys’ fashion wasn’t as exciting as they tended to mostly wear standard black dress robes like her brother-although some of them might have the confidence to be more flamboyant, if they liked- but girls would be wearing a variety of things that showed their individual styles and tastes, something that did not happen very much when people had to wear uniforms to class every day.

Also, Alma wasn’t worried that she would have nobody to talk to either. While a surprising portion of the second years had dates, there were still potential options for people to socialize with..

Being part of the Ball planning committee, she had to arrive early to finish setting up. Once they were done and Miss Katey put the finishing touches on everything, the first year gazed around the room in awe. The Cascade Hall was barely recognizable as the place that they ate everyday.

The rest of the students arrived and Alma watched the prefect dance with everyone else. Afterwards, she spotted someone else who was on their own and approached. “Hi. How are you doing?” She felt this was a fair way to go about it. She certainly didn’t want to say how lovely it all was, when people might be upset and anxious for one reason or another. Nor did she want to seem like she was fishing for compliments on how well the committee had done.

11 Alma Brockert Admiring 1580 0 5

Phil Carson

October 28, 2023 8:35 PM

I put no points into performance and my charisma isn't great by Phil Carson

She was smiling and asking questions in a joking tone, but Phil honestly wasn't really sure what a corsage was (beyond something to do with flowers) or what they were supposed to do with it. Was she supposed to just carry around a tiny bouquet the whole evening? That sounded inconvenient. "No, I don't think so. I mean, it's flowers but you can just leave them here if you think they'll be a bother. But Tanya said I'm supposed to give them to you before the dance or I'm a bad date. Or something. I'm not really sure what you're supposed to do with them or what purpose they serve."

He opened the box - luckily dropping neither the box as a whole or its contents on the floor in his efforts to pop the tabs holding it together - so she could get at the corsage inside.

"If you want to be worried about something, I'd recommend your toes. I can't promise I won't step on them, but I'll try really hard not to," he gave as much of a promise as he felt he could reasonably be expected to keep. "My charisma is plus zero, and my dex is maybe a plus one, so I'm not getting a lot of bonus points on my untrained prefect dance performance check or the reflex save if I critically fail."

1 Phil Carson I put no points into performance and my charisma isn't great 1536 0 5

Cole Pierce

October 28, 2023 9:09 PM

Awesome! by Cole Pierce

Cole looked down at his own robes and grinned as she pointed out the prairie dogs. "Thanks! It's an Ann and Ann dress robe. They're the only New Hampshire Pierces still on good terms with my dad, so we splurged a little and bought it from them." Derry the Fourth had never been officially disowned from the New Hampshire Pierces, unlike every other member of the Boston Pierces who had started there (excepting Grandfather, who was technically still a New Hampshire one despite living in Boston? Cole was kind of confused about how Grandfather fit into the family, honestly, other than being Grandmother's ex-husband and Dad's father), but Dad's relations with his original branch had definitely soured when he'd voluntarily chosen to renounce his inheritance and go live with Grandmother and Uncle Three in Boston when Grandmother and Grandfather divorced.

Dad and the twins had been close as young children, and the Anns weren't exactly the perfect models of pureblood values, being women who owned their own businesses and properties, as well as having adopted a child as sisters and refusing all offers (if there were any) to get married, so they weren't really risking too much by association, especially in something as transactional as a robes purchase.

The robes were cool though, and Cole figured it wouldn't hurt anyone to promote his blood relatives' business.

Soon the prefect dance began. Neither Cole nor Piper were old enough to be prefects yet (and Cole really hoped there wouldn't be any hard feelings this fall when one of the four of them got it and the others didn't) so they just watched the older students dance. "Oh, Gwendolyn got a prefect as a date," he noted in interest as he did spot one fourth year out there.

When that dance was over, Cole turned toward Piper again. "Shall we take a turn dancing, or would you like to give me a tour and show off everything you and Lenny and the rest of the committee worked on for this, first?"

1 Cole Pierce Awesome! 1546 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

October 28, 2023 9:14 PM

By not doing it? by Fortune Ardovini

Well, that definitely sounded like Yarielis, and mostly looked like Yarielis, mostly. She was apparently rallying against the 'status quo' or something along those lines. It had been a little while back when she'd cut her hair, he could only guess in preparation for this? Or maybe it was for something else? Fortune liked to think that they were friends, and had hung out on occasion. Although not much lately, and even before she'd never been super-social. That was alright though, not everyone was. As such though, he didn't really know much about her life outside of school... or really all that much about it inside of school either.

That just meant he had to piece together the bits of this puzzle that he could. She had cut her hair, and was wearing boy's dress robes. That was a bit confusing, because dress robes were pretty uncomfortable and not much fun. Granted the alternative for the ball was a fancy dress and he wasn't sure they were designed for comfort either. Out of the two, he'd pick the robes. Plus, he'd probably look ridiculous in most of those things the girls were flouncing about in. Anyway, she'd talked to Oz and Oz had called her 'bro'. Had Oz...? No, maybe Billy, said something about beater practice? It hadn't been much if they did.

Her responses to his initial questions weren't much to go on. He probably needed more information, so far everything was pointing to the idea that she was being a boy tonight. Should he go along with that guess? Maybe avoid it and try and get more info... without making it seem like he's fishing for more info. Somehow.

Fortune sipped at the drink he'd picked up at the food table as he processed these thoughts and figured out where to go next. "Going okay is good." He responded, "About the same here." That wasn't helpful or conducive to making conversation. He needed something more. "Are you looking forward to next year? We'll be fifth years and get to be the ones the professors keep reminding about upcoming major exams." Another thought struck him along side of that one. "Oz and Billy will be gone," he gave her a completely innocent look, "the team will need some more beaters."

2 Fortune Ardovini By not doing it? 1549 0 5

Donovan Peters

October 28, 2023 10:51 PM

May I have this dance? by Donovan Peters

Cascade Hall was decked out like a dream. The Ball Committee had obviously worked their butts off to transform the room into what felt like a real enchanted forest. Even the ever-present water features that gave the hall its name had been cleverly charmed into greenery. Donovan was in awe to see what his magic might be able to do someday.

Misty was also impressed, exclaiming about how beautiful it was.

"It sure is," Donovan agreed, giving Misty a nudge so that they could claim a seat while the prefects were doing their thing, "We should claim a table before they fill up, I think Leo and Ursula will want to sit with us."

Part of Ursula's eleventh hour dance lesson had been to go over dinner etiquette, like pulling the chair out for the girl. Donovan would have been insulted that Ursula didn't think he had any manners, but he had to admit that there were things that he didn't know, and that girls weren't supposed to pull out their own chairs was one of them, so he didn't end up actually feeling that insulted.

It was sort of weird to him how the purebloods did things so differently from everyone else. Dance lessons, old-fashioned etiquette, everything just seemed so...serious, all the time. Like Desmond Brockert, who didn't even want to feed Bowtruckles when he was getting graded on it.

Misty wasn't like that, though. She was vibrant, and energetic, and although she came with a background steeped in tradition, she still acted like a kid.

Donovan retrieved some punch from the nearby refreshment table and sat down with Misty. Once the prefects finished, they opened up the dance floor to everybody. This was it, the moment he'd been practicing for. He stood and offered his hand.

"Miss Brockert, may I have this dance?"

64 Donovan Peters May I have this dance? 1569 0 5

Alexander Pierce

October 28, 2023 11:25 PM

Projections (Ida) by Alexander Pierce

Mother and Father had only had one Ball, in their fourth year, and they had gone together. Alexander and Nicholas would get two Balls during their Sonora years, so the fact that Nicholas did not have a date did not mean Nicholas was doomed to a lifetime of bachelorhood. The corollary was also true: Alexander having a date did not necessarily mean Alexander was guaranteed a marriage upon graduation. They had four years until the next ball, and that one may be much more indicative of future relationship statuses, but he was sure even those were not yet set in stone. He couldn't name any couples who attended their final Sonora ball together who didn't get married, but his sample size was very small, inherently biased toward married couples, and not statistically significant.

But it did happen that people married their ball dates, even the ones from second year, and while securing a wife had not been his primary goal in asking Ida, it had fueled a lot of his parents' interest in her. Also, he would be lying if he claimed he hadn't thought about that, too. Ida had many respectable qualities that made her a promising candidate for a life partner and he had felt it was critical to get his glove in the ring before any of his competitors, and he was sure he would have had many if he hadn't been so quick off the mark.

This gave him an immense advantage, should he chose to pursue a more formal relationship once they were a little older, and he would not squander it. Not a single hair was out of place on his head and his formal black robes were perfectly tailored (an Ann and Ann original, of course, not that men's dress robes had a whole lot of variation without doing something chitzy like having prairie dogs running along the seams) and he looked quite dapper if he did say so himself. He had debated a red tie for Crotalus, but red was a tricky color that might clash depending on what Ida wore, so he had instead coordinated with her to get one that matched her dress.

He had needed to know that color anyway for the corsage, and he had a single matching flower with a little baby's breath and a couple leaves tied together with a small ribbon on wristband for her. He'd thought about something a little fancier, but decided as second years, a larger arrangement would just be too bulky and uncomfortable.

Alexander awaited her near the bottom of the girls' stairs and broke into a smile when he saw his date. She looked lovely and he was definitely not thinking of her like a sister tonight. "Good evening," he greeted her pleasantly. "You look amazing, Ida. Here, this is for you," he said, holding out the wrist band of the corsage so she could easily slide her hand through it.

1 Alexander Pierce Projections (Ida) 1566 0 5

Leo Lyons

October 28, 2023 11:47 PM

An unexpected evening (Ursula) by Leo Lyons

Leo wasn't often surprised, but when Donovan had blurted out to Ursula a ball invitation on his behalf, it had short-circuited his brain. First of all, what business did Donovan have assuming that neither Ursula nor Leo had a date already? Of course, neither had, but that was beside the point. Second, Leo had planned on going solo to the ball, maybe just floating around with the rest of the Quidditch team who didn't have dates. Mainly because he was having trouble finding the nerve to actually ask a girl- although Don didn't need to know that part- but also because most of the people in his year were guys, and the ones who weren't had paired off already.

Ursula had been a dark horse, and Leo admittedly hadn't thought about asking her to the ball until she turned up and started bossing him and Donovan around. A fellow Tepp, and Quillan's little sister, they had paired up in class often enough that they were familiar with each other. When he stopped to think about it, Leo would probably classify them as 'friends', even though they didn't hang out much.

His suit was likely not up to par in the eyes of some of the stuffier purebloods, as it was of the muggle variety, but he hadn't anticipated having a pureblood date, let alone any date, and he was out of time to find a set of 'proper' dress robes. Ursula didn't seem like the type to care anyway, and everyone else could stuff it.

Instantly upon seeing Ursula, Leo knew that nobody would care about his dumb muggle suit. They wouldn't even see him behind her radiance. They made their way to the hall with everyone else, arriving just in time to see Donovan pull Misty onto the dance floor. Leo pointed them out to Ursula.

"Fingers crossed he misses her toes," he joked, "Would you like to dance first, or mingle?"

64 Leo Lyons An unexpected evening (Ursula) 1568 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

October 28, 2023 11:56 PM

Back up a step or two... by Yaniel Ayala Velez

Yaniel gave a wry half smile, as Fortune reminded them what delights awaited next year. It quickly disappeared as Fortune reminded him about Quidditch. And the fact that one of the people who knew, and who would have been on his side, was leaving. He’d known that when investing in Oz. It had made it harder and easier at the same time—it had given him a deadline, and only a short time to ride things out if it went badly (unless it went worst-case-scenario of Oz badmouthing him all round school levels of badly), but it had meant spending his energy on something that wasn’t going to last.

“Yeah. I know… I’ve been trying.” He hung his head, avoiding Fortune’s eyes. “I actually trained with Cole this whole time.” That was supposed to be a positive, but now he was saying it out loud, it sounded like he’d chosen Cole over the rest of them, or gone behind their backs—like they weren’t enough but Cole somehow was. “I didn’t want to lose my skills, I was just…” He was going to have to tell the team some version of the truth. If he wanted them to use his name and pronouns, it was going to have to be the whole truth, but even without that, he’d need an explanation for his absence. “Being around a lot of people was hard.

“I’ve been trying to get back to it. Really.” Which sounded pathetic. Because if you wanted to do something, you just… did it. It wasn’t that hard to show up to a sports practice if you wanted to be on a team. It was a basic requirement. “I went to some Beater practices too, in the second half of the year. I’m sorry.”

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez Back up a step or two... 1554 0 5

Ursula Arcadius

October 29, 2023 12:08 AM

How so, when you planned it all along? by Ursula Arcadius

Ursula had readily accepted Leo’s invitation, once it had come from Leo himself. She had been flattered to hear him say that he had been planning to ask her even before Donovan stuck his nose in, and finding out what ‘doing it properly’ meant to him was on the list of things she hoped to ask him this evening.

Quillan had been a little guarded when she told him about her plans, but had let it go with ‘So long as he treats you well,’ so she guessed he was just being weird and big brotherish about it.

Her dress was a soft, champagne colour, with plenty of sparkle on top, and plenty of swoosh in the skirt, and her hair was piled into a high bun, held firmly in place with both potions and pins, and decorated with rose gold flowers. It had been a little tricky fixing the back of her hair herself, and she had been glad that Charlotte was just next door. Initially, she hadn’t wanted to bother her, sure that she had her own preparations to attend to, but it had been necessary, and it had turned into a lot of fun, even if it was a little weird that the date Charlotte was getting all ready and giggly and nervous for was with Ursula’s brother. Ursula had also fished for as much information as she could get about Leo, but Charlotte hadn’t added anything she didn’t already know.

She met Leo it the common room, and they made their way down to the hall. He was looking rather odd, but she still complimented him anyway, as was polite. And as soon as they got to the hall, there were plenty of distractions.

“Oh! It looks wonderful!” Ursula said, as they entered. A lot of formal events in her world didn’t have a theme, other than looking as polished as possible, or perhaps a colour code, but the few she’d been to had always struck her as more fun (perhaps Leo’s clothes were somehow related to the theme?).

After the prefect dance, Donovan wasted no time in getting Misty onto the dance floor.

She giggled a little a Leo’s comment.

“Here’s hoping,” she agreed. “Let’s start with a dance.” Even if Misty had secured her date first, Ursula’s was both better looking (in her opinion) and a better dancer (in objective measures).

OOC: Mentions of Charlotte's actions approved by her author

13 Ursula Arcadius How so, when you planned it all along? 1577 0 5

Quillan Arcadius

October 29, 2023 12:37 AM

Playing grown ups (tag Charlotte) by Quillan Arcadius

Quillan had a date. He was in the group of date-having people, not hanging-with-friends people. Except his date was his friend, which was good, because going on a date was new and a bit scary. He wished he could get ready for it somewhere other than his room full of people who weren’t going on dates. Like, maybe somewhere where his mother could tell him that he’d parted his hair correctly and that he’d be fine. He’d have even settled for Ursula telling him his hair was always stupid but that he’d be fine. Or that his hair was fine and he was an idiot for worrying. But not even that was available, so he’d just had to get ready with Desmond and Nicholas and try to not feel like a weirdo about going on a date when they weren’t.

He’d asked Charlotte after Charms class. Not directly after, in the corridor or anything, because that would have been as tasteless as asking her in class. But he’d used the sparkle charm on a piece of cardboard, folded it into a flower and sent it with a note (written using dictaquill so that it was legible, and proofread by Ursula to make sure it really said what he thought without any tricksy homophones that had ended up misspelled by his quill) to ask if she would accompany him to the ball and what colour he should make the real flower if her answer was yes.

Now he was waiting with a corsage that he hoped matched her dress. He’d chosen fairly plain black dress robes for himself, both so that he would match well to whatever she wore, and also because he fundamentally wasn’t that interested in clothing.

“Good evening,” he greeted her, when she joined him outside the Cascade Hall. “You look lovely.” He offered her the corsage and his full attention, trying not to worry about the sight of his sister arm in arm with Leo.

He led Charlotte into the hall, finding a position where they could admire the prefect dance. One day that might be them, although he had stiff competition for the position. But even if only one of them got it, the other would be needed as a dance partner. It was strange to think that by the time the next ball rolled around, they’d be the age of the students in front of them. They seemed so grown up, whereas he felt a little like a kid who was pretending for the evening. It would be years before he did more than get trotted out to smile at a few guests and then be put away to bed. And this ball offered not only dancing and food, but pictures and fun decorations too.

“What would you like to do first?” he asked Charlotte.

13 Quillan Arcadius Playing grown ups (tag Charlotte) 1570 0 5

Leo Lyons

October 29, 2023 1:01 AM

It was a very hasty plan by Leo Lyons

While this evening wasn't what he'd thought, Leo was glad to be here with Ursula. It wasn't expressly a date, but it wasn't exactly as friends, either. And while the 'proper' channel probably would have been to ask Quillan if it was alright to ask Ursula, Leo didn't really buy into that sort of tradition. However, it would probably be worth a chat with his teammate if he and Ursula were to get serious, just to make sure there wasn't any friction on that end.

Not that he was planning on getting serious, but he hadn't planned on asking her to the ball until a half hour before it happened, so he wasn't saying anything was impossible.

Right now, dancing sounded great. It seemed like people were splitting off about half-and-half, so the dance floor wasn't barren, but wasn't so full that they'd be bumping into people. The lights twinkled above the crowd, glittering off of Ursula's gown.

Leo led Ursula out and spun her into the starting position they'd shown Donovan. Moving fluidly with the music, Leo led his partner around the dance floor.

"Thanks for coming with me," he said, once they were in a rhythm, "I know it was last minute, and...sort of unorthodox. I appreciate it."

64 Leo Lyons It was a very hasty plan 1568 0 5

Misty Brockert

October 29, 2023 2:04 PM

This, and every other. by Misty Brockert

Misty nodded and followed Donovan to a table of his choosing. Her heart fluttered with the involuntary notion that she would follow him anywhere, which was a bit extreme and felt silly, even for her, hopeless romantic that she was. After all, they were only second years - still a little too young for anything more serious than a fun night of dancing with a cute boy. It wasn’t like they were in love or anything like that.

Although she was glad to see the etiquette Donovan honored. She knew he didn’t come from the same time of formality-driven background as she did, so either he was trying quite hard for her benefit, or there was more to him than met the eye. Misty enjoyed the idea of each more than the last. She knew their backgrounds meant that ultimately, they probably would not work. Someday, they would be older, and things would be more complicated, as there were certain standards she was expected to maintain as the daughter of the most primary branch of such an expansive and esteemed family. A part of her enjoyed the idea of the difficult choice between love and duty, although she hated to cast her family - and mainly in this scenario, likely her father - as the antagonist against her love. Truthfully, her parents had gotten lucky, as they had fallen in love at a time where Mama didn’t seem like a proper choice either but by little more than luck turned out to be a missing daughter of a prevalent Chinese Pureblood family. Maybe that could happen for her and Donovan, too. She would have to find out later if there was any chance he was actually adopted.

“Miss Brockert, may I have this dance?”

She had been a bit lost in thought, sipping her punch and watching the Prefects, but Donovan wasted no time the moment the opening concluded and the dance floor became accessible. Her hand first hovered above her chest, flattered and surprised, until all the years of Pureblood “good girl” etiquette training won out over her pounding heart and she placed her hand gently into his. “I would love that,” she beamed.

Misty allowed Donovan to lead her out, feeling quite happy to be shown off in this manner. She scanned the room briefly for her sister to send Gwendolyn a glance that a sister would know said Look at me! in the most cheerful of ways. “Do you know the waltz?” Misty asked Donovan as they arrived at the dance floor. “I think this song would be perfect to waltz to.”

12 Misty Brockert This, and every other. 1567 0 5

Gwendolyn Brockert

October 29, 2023 4:24 PM

Fortunately, I'm trained in this by Gwendolyn Brockert

Gwendolyn laughed as Phil opened the box. “No, no, don’t worry, I figured it was a corsage.” She reassured the older Aladren. “ You wear them. Well, I do actually. It tends to be the girl who does.” Although it was possible that Lenny might wear one She supposed boys could if they wanted to though they might get made fun of for it. Maybe not at Sonora, since most people seemed to be fairly progressive in these matters or at least kept their opinions to themselves on these matters.

Although there were some younger students who did not strike Gwendolyn as especially open-minded. She could only imagine her distant cousin Desmond’s face if Phil was wearing the corsage instead of her. She was just lucky that the second year had never said anything to her about her mother (or anything else, but that was what came to mind). Well, actually, he was lucky, because at a bare minimum Gwendolyn would have verbally eviscerated him. Of course, he also probably didn’t dare say anything else to her because of who her dad was.

She did feel slightly bad about joking though with regards to Phil and the corsage though. He seemed sort of awkward and nervous. The fourth year didn’t judge him for it, of course, as she knew that sometimes these situations were hard for people like that, Gwendolyn could imagine that her dad would have been equally fumbling. So, truth be told, she found it sort of sweet, probably because it did remind her of Dad. Someone who acted cocky and entitled, regardless of why they felt that way, would be off-putting and unimpressive.

Still, she should not have been joking about things and possibly making matters more uncomfortable for her friend. So, she apologized. “Hey, I’m sorry for trying to joke around and possibly make you feel more nervous.” Maybe on some level she was too and that was why she had behaved in that manner. She took the corsage and put it on. “It’s very pretty, thank you. Tell your step-mom that I said thank you too.”

Gwendolyn raised an eyebrow though when Phil mentioned that she should be worried about her toes. “Um, thanks for the warning. It’s fine with me if you don’t want to do a lot of dancing after the opening dance. For the sake of my toes.” She added. Yup, more joking, this must be how she dealt with nerves. Gwendolyn wasn’t nervous often and she didn’t feel like she was right now but maybe she was just a little. “We can just hang out and eat and stuff.”

“That’s fine too.” The fourth year added. “Charisma is overrated. Psychopaths are charismatic, after all.” And she knew that Phil was not one.

They reached the Hall where the prefect dance was about to start.“Looks like we’re about to find out how well we do.”

11 Gwendolyn Brockert Fortunately, I'm trained in this 1555 0 5

Piper Wilson

October 29, 2023 7:29 PM

Fabulous! by Piper Wilson

“Oh, cool. I got my gown from them too. My cousin Amity is friends with them and they always do nice work.” Piper was not about to ask Cole about the ins and outs of his family and their various interrelations and drama. Not only did she have enough of her own-more so the interrelations the drama part, as in figuring out who was related to who how-but also, it wasn’t her place to pry. If one of her friends wanted to tell her something that was going on in their families, she was happy to listen but she was never going to force someone to talk about or do something that they were not ready to do.

After all, in addition to it probably hurting a friendship which Piper cherished, it would make the other person just feel bad and possibly even get in trouble for discussing family secrets, although there were obviously situations where someone in authority should absolutely be told. The first person that Piper would think of telling was Ryan, because that was pretty much literally his job but these things had to be dealt with by the people who did his job in the state the person who had the issues lived in and it would be better to tell Professor Xavier or Professor Skies.

Obviously, that was not the problem here, Cole was more talking about complicated family trees and branches of those trees and how they got along. Piper sort of related to this, in that her family was just as complicated, although there wasn’t anything where like, there were separate branches of Wilsons or Brockerts in different states that were totally different although still related by blood and did not get along. Oh, different branches of the Brockert family tree lived in different states, like the Headmaster lived in Utah and so did his direct descendents-aside from some girls who married people whose families lived in other states, one of which was to a New Hampshire Pierce- while others lived in Colorado including their patriarch. They were still all the same family with every branch being reputable and no branch hating another branch

Although there were individuals such as her mother’s oldest sister that nobody talked to or really about but…like, that was an individual who was horrible, not a dispute where these people lived in one place and these people lived in another and they hated each other and refused to acknowledge the other existed, even when they were both in the same school with the same last name. So, she was really glad that Cole and Lenny were close, although she didn’t think that there was as much animosity between their branches as their branches had with New Hampshire.

Anyway, Piper was really really glad that despite all the interconnections with the Brockerts, there was not quite so much drama. Nobody talked to Aunt Pearl and most of the issues were between Amity and Aunt Jillian. Honestly, Aunt Jillian was why Piper was not completely comfortable with the whole personal development of others part of being a Teppenpaw. To her, forcing your ideas of what was considered such on another person was not even a remotely nice thing to do. And did being accomplished in a skill really make you a better person? The world was full of talented people who were completely obnoxious and conceited about it.

“Did they make them especially for you or do they just make house themed clothing? Because I bet that Hans would love ones with a snake theme even though he’s a Teppenpaw and not a Crotalus.” Although the older boy lived on a snake ranch and might not go to a lot of balls. Unless he went to them with Liesl in the future. Though from what Piper understood, the fifth year would probably be happy to never go to another one either, but maybe she’d like them more with Hans? She looked pretty happy tonight.

Piper stood with Cole watching the opening number. “Oh great, I see she’s here with Phil. He’s my brother’s friend. They’re in Gaming Club together. I mean, Gwendolyn and Phil, though that’s where he and Gabriel met too. I think she’s the youngest one out there.” Which she supposed made sense, it would probably be just wrong and creepy for anyone younger than that to be doing the prefect dance. Although Lenny was here with Xavier and that was the same age difference as a fifth year and third year would be so she supposed it was okay for one of the prefects to dance with someone younger. Especially if the alternative was humiliation for some people.

“I guess she’s the only one in our year who’ll ever get to dance it.”Piper added. Which was kind of sad, though she knew the whole experience created pressure and anxiety in people. “I hope tonight is especially nice for us fourth years since it’s the only school Ball that we’ll have. We really did do our best to make it nice.” She had been about to say they should dance but now that she brought that up she decided, “Why don’t I show you? We can obviously dance plenty later.”

11 Piper Wilson Fabulous! 1556 0 5

Ida Stanford

October 29, 2023 9:09 PM

This sounds... businesslike? by Ida Stanford

To say Ida was a bit nervous about the ball was something of an understatement. She knew it was silly, and was sure it would be a lovely evening, but the butterflies in her stomach just wouldn't calm down as she got ready. Ordinarily, she didn't worry much about her straight blonde hair, so long as it was bushed and presentable, it was generally well behaved. Now however, when she thought it should maybe do something a little fancier than just being blonde and straight, it was rather uncooperative. It just wanted to do what it always did and nothing more. In the end, she had to give up on it. Her dress was something that Mom and Dad had found in their travels and thought would work perfectly for her. She couldn't disagree, she loved that the flowers on the skirts slowly and gently fell from her waist down to the hem.

She descended the stairs to the common room to meet Alexander with her hair looking mostly the same as always, but adorned a bit extra, and a light amount of makeup that she hadn't used much before. This wasn't a big deal, she thought to herself, it was just a school dance with her house brother. Though.. if she was being really honest with herself, she hadn't thought of him much like a 'brother' for much of this year. Not that she really knew what that meant, since she didn't have any real brothers.

Ida's steps paused near the bottom of the stairs, her breath caught for a moment while the butterflies did some new tricks when she saw Alexander waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. He looked so... fancy and mature. His hair and robes were immaculate, but the thing that really got her was his smile. Was that because of her? His entire being seemed almost alight because of it. She couldn't help but return the smile in kind.

"Thank-you, Alexander." She had very, very briefly considered calling him Mr. Pierce once again, but it seemed only fair to respond as he had. "You look quite handsome yourself." There was more to it than just 'handsome', the word didn't quite seem to do him justice. But, she wasn't sure how else to put it. She slid her hand into the corsage he was holding out to her, and of course it matched perfectly. "It's beautiful, thank-you." She held her arm out for him to take, "Shall we go Mr. Pierce?" This time she just couldn't help herself. Her smile hadn't diminished, but there may have been a hint of playfulness now that hadn't been there a moment ago.

2 Ida Stanford This sounds... businesslike? 1571 0 5

Lorena Abernathy

October 29, 2023 10:20 PM

Same, girl, same. by Lorena Abernathy

Lorena’s family wasn’t completely impoverished, but they weren’t especially wealthy either. For that reason, she had been a little nervous about what she would be able to get for the Ball this year. But to her surprise, Mom had really come through and let her find something really great.

She felt sleek and sexy in her red dress, her first with a leg slit like this, although it wasn’t as high as some others she had tried on (and received a hearty veto from her mom). And she was actually glad to have something a bit more slim-fitted in the skirt, as a lot of girls at Sonora had seemed to go with fuller ball gowns. It had taken a long time for Lorena’s confidence to reach this level, but for once, she didn’t really mind standing out.

A part of her was naturally sort of bummed not to have a date to what was essentially her senior prom, but there were silver linings. More time to hang out with Isla was definitely one of them, knowing that Rosalynn would make some time for them later on too but would obviously spend a fair deal of time dancing with Tommy. Having Isla as company was certain to keep Lorena in positive spirits.

Except now, when the Ball had hardly begun and Isla was already simply unable to contain herself. Lorena had tried to ignore the reality of the situation, but Isla just couldn’t do the same. This was their last night together at Sonora. And sure, the girls would stay in touch, but it would never be the same as it was now. They would go their separate ways - Lorena herself was on track for college in the fall with a major in English literature - and while they would be best friends forever, it was hard to compete with the availability of sharing classes, meals, and even a dorm room.

“I’ll miss you too,” Lorena replied, the genuine weight of the emotion apparent in her voice. “But… let’s try not to think about that yet. Let’s just enjoy the Ball, and then we can all go cry together in our room in the morning before we graduate. We deserve one more happy night together.”

12 Lorena Abernathy Same, girl, same. 1510 0 5

Charlotte O'Malley

October 30, 2023 7:53 PM

From what I understand, it's more fun to pretend than to actually be one by Charlotte O'Malley

Charlotte had been absolutely delighted when Quillan had asked her to the Ball. It had been well worth the wait and it had been really sweet of him to send her a note with a sparkly cardboard flower because it was something that she could keep forever. Although, she supposed if she ended up married to someone else someday-as of course she knew that going to a school ball together as second years did not mean they’d end up together forever, like her parents or Uncle Tommy and Rosalynn, Charlotte and Quillan weren’t even actually a couple now her husband might not be thrilled if she kept a keepsake from a date that she went on when she was thirteen. Not everyone was like Wally who was okay with his girlfriend also dating someone else at the same time as him.

Which was perfectly reasonable, to want to be someone’s one and only, at least at a given time. Like it was okay to get divorced from someone, especially someone awful who mistreated your child and then marry someone else, like Grandpa Jeffrey and Grandma Jamie but it was reasonable to want someone who you were with to only be with you. It’s what Charlotte wanted. And while there was a huge difference between keeping a memento of your first date when you were married to someone else years later-and she doubted Grandpa kept anything around from his first marriage other than Dad although he seemed to be on better terms with his ex-wife’s family than she was, the Teppenpaw had never actually met her biological grandmother, and according to Dad, Grandpa and Uncle Seth, she should consider herself lucky- and being with two people romantically at the same time, she still would never want to hurt her husband’s feelings like that.

So, it was something that Charlotte could keep forever or until she married someone else-if she married someone else, she never knew. For now, it was something to cherish. Although to be fair, she would have been okay even if Quillan had just simply asked her in a completely unromantic setting. He was an adolescent boy, Charlotte honestly had had pretty low expectations, which she felt like he exceeded.

Besides,at that point, she’d just wanted to be asked given how the other two girls in her class already had dates. She probably would have accepted it a bit more easily if she wasn’t the odd one out. Especially as Urusla also had a date with Leo, which Charlotte really hoped that Quillan was okay with, even though it was the younger Teppenpaw’s choice, she didn’t want her friend to be unhappy.Of course she also wondered how her own brothers, especially Stanley felt about her having one. Anyway, had Quillan not asked her, she would have been looking for someone to hang out with tonight.

However, Charlotte liked to believe that the Aladren had just been trying to think up the best, most perfect way to ask her and that had taken time. Especially since they previously had not known the spell that Quillan had ended up using, a spell that was part of a memory that they’d shared even if it was just hanging out in class.

She met the other second year and accepted the corsage. “Thank you. You look very handsome. And the corsage is very pretty.” They stood next to each other as they watched the prefect dance. Next time, that could be them up there. It was entirely possible that neither would get it, that Leo-although the Frog Incident might count against him- and one of Quillan’s roommates would be up there. Charlotte totally thought it should be Quillan, but she was sort of biased, in a way that was more pro-Quillan than anti-Desmond-though Quillan was quite a bit friendlier than her distant cousin was-or anti-Nicholas. However, she didn’t get a say, though she would vote for him for Head Student.

“Hm.” Charlotte replied. “I suppose I am a bit hungry. Besides, we’ll need energy for dancing.”

11 Charlotte O'Malley From what I understand, it's more fun to pretend than to actually be one 1573 0 5

Isla Brockert

October 31, 2023 7:01 PM

Sorry by Isla Brockert

Isla nodded. Truth be told, this had been coming for weeks. All she’d been able to think about was how much she was going to miss her friends and how things would be different and…uncertain. Like, there were things that should be obvious, like that she was going to go off to college and someday she would probably meet someone and get married but well, she was worried that the latter would take awhile.

She already knew that society balls were not the greatest place for finding someone special. Not for her anyway, they were fabulous for people like Esme and Amethyst. However, Isla found them shallow and boring. She wanted someone to get to know-and like-who she really was. That was hard when there was an approved list of topics to talk about at these things. Obviously, her parents weren’t like Liesl’s mother, who couldn’t accept who her daughter was and tried to stifle her, but the Aladren knew how these things were. Maybe there were people who liked more interesting things but they were trapped by the superficial setting.

And even college…well, Isla was worried about her roommate. She had no illusions that a roommate was guaranteed as a friend. Just because she’d been extremely lucky at Sonora did not mean that lightning would strike twice. Like, the only other relative she had that seemed to be friends with their roommate at Sonora had been Jasper. Well, and Desmond.

That was even discounting that some of her relatives had not had roommates here and that Topaz was a psychopath that nobody would get on with. Which was another worry, but not a really big one, after all,most people were not psychopaths and what were the odds that Isla would have to deal with yet another? Unless she actively went into criminal psychology as she’d found out that Gwendolyn wanted to do and she had absolutely no plans to do so.

Still, there were a lot of ways that things could go wrong. Even though Isla was the polar opposite of Olaf and tended to like most people, there were still people who weren’t psychopaths that were still hard to live with. Like snobby mean girls. Isla knew the type, people who were like Amethyst and Esme but…without her relatives’ better qualities. She was a Brockert, so that was in her favor with them but they still weren’t her favorite people. Also, she was weird and people like that didn’t like weird people. Hence the curtailing of personality at society balls. Jacqueline, Liesl’s mother, wasn’t wrong that things were like that, that it was easier to fit in if you behaved a certain way, but she was honestly part of the problem regarding why that was.

Isla was also worried about the polar opposite of mean pureblood girls-and she understood that mean girls were not unique to pureblood society, so she didn’t want to deal with mean non-pureblood girls, whom she understood to be similar, but not with the pureblood society part, they might be worse since her last name wouldn’t be a defense, though they might also suck up to her and use her to get ahead, Isla really didn’t want that either, she wanted something more genuine-but like, she was worried about people who instead of liking her for her last name, they hated her for it.

Basically she meant people like Topaz’s old Sonora roommate. Obviously Isla’s cousin was a large part of the problem and probably most of it, but it wasn’t as if Ness McLeod would have liked any of them, even the seventh year who was not a psychopath and not especially girly either. And Isla didn’t know what the problem was that Sapphire’s roommate had with her, since Sapphire was sweet but Jezebel Reed-Fischer had not seemed very interested in her. Which did not seem to be an anti-pureblood thing since Jezebel had been friends with both Bridget Ferguson and Martin Crosby V.

As for Esme and Sadie, who to be fair, had seemingly got on all right, they just weren’t super close, well, here Isla could actually defend her sister’s roommate. Sadie had been the seventh year’s Challenge Team Leader and was a nice girl who seemed to suffer with self-esteem issues, which might be why she had been fairly friendly with Sapphire as they had that in common. However, Sadie might have been intimidated by Esme, which Isla would understand and not blame her for. If Isla were Sadie, she might have been intimidated by Esme too. In fact, she probably would have been intimidated by her if she wasn’t her sister. Isla was somewhat intimidated by those who were like her.

Still, she could imagine that in some cases, her family members just didn’t click with their roommates and the Aladren kind of feared that too. She was also worried that she was the weird roommate that people didn’t want to get stuck with.

All of which made Isla worried about the future, regardless of what all the tarot cards, tea leaves and crystal balls said. After all, she wasn’t a Seer. She didn’t want her dorm room to be a place where she felt like she couldn’t relax, like Amethyst was going through now. She didn’t know what happened between Amethyst and Iris who had been such good friends before but it wasn’t something that Isla wanted and that too was something that made her grateful for Rosalynn and Lorena.

And she needed it to continue. Maybe they wouldn’t have a falling out like the two Crotali had, but that didn’t mean that their lives wouldn’t get in the way. That happened a lot to people. Isla knew that Cory was in touch with his best friends but one of them, Neal, was from a family like theirs and they went to the same parties and stuff. Allegra was still in touch with Caitlin Pierce, but Caitlin was a New Hampshire Pierce and also,Emerald was married to Caitlin’s brother. So yeah, it was different. Easier. And Isla didn’t want to lose touch with her friends because she lived a different lifestyle, especially one that was not currently very appealing to her

Although now she felt a little guilty. “You’re right.” Isla replied. “And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be a downer.” She really didn’t want to ruin Lorena’s night, that would not be fair to her friend.

11 Isla Brockert Sorry 1521 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 02, 2023 6:03 AM

Speaking as a concerned friend... by Oz Spellman

There had been a rumour going around that Xavier was going to the ball with Lenny. It wasn’t the first time a rumour had circulated about the two of them, given that they were the only two openly queer but unattached students in the school. The previous rumours had been when Oz and Xav had still been a thing, and Xav had explained that no, it wasn’t true, it was just low-key homophobia.

So, while the thought of Xav going to the ball with someone else wanted to squirm its way around Oz’s brain and ruin all the careful focus he’d put into actually succeeding with like… the whole rest of his life, Oz had managed to shut it down. More or less. It wasn’t like it never crossed his mind when he was meant to be memorising incantations, or like he never imagined a practice dummy was Lenny when practising his hexes. But he cast and punched out his bad feelings, and got back to work, because he wasn’t going to come this close to actually finishing high school only to fall at the last hurdle.

Since finishing his exams, it had been a bit harder not to obsess. He’d even tried working out how he might break the ice and talk to Xav, except in his self imposed absence, said ice had got rather thick… The space had done him good. It had let him focus. But it was hard to know how to cross a year of not speaking in just a couple of weeks.

And it probably wasn’t true about Lenny, and maybe he and Xav could hang a bit at the ball and figure stuff out from there.

Except it turned out it wasn’t just homophobia this time, it was the actual truth, even though there was no way in hell that Lenny was Xavier’s type given that Oz most definitely was, and the number of things they had in common could fit on a Golden Snitch. With space to spare.

Oz tried to keep himself busy, checking in with Yaniel, and other teammates, and of course Henry. But this couldn’t be the way things ended with him and Xav—with him twirling around the dance floor, in actual co-ordinated steps, with someone else.

Eventually, he and Lenny stopped being joined together, with Lenny peeling away to the refreshment table. Oz sidled over, doing his best not to look threatening. Oz didn’t think he was a threatening person. He was short, for an almost-eighteen-year-old. But when that was relative to literal children, it was still a height advantage most of the time. He was also pretty broad, and strong. ‘Lead Beater and Captain of the Quidditch Team’ did carry a certain weight behind it, one that said Oz could punch someone’s face in if so inclined. The fact that he was not actually inclined to do so didn’t seem to stop people thinking it. He would have been much more likely to beat up anyone who tried to beat up someone like Lenny than to actually start on Lenny himself. At least, ethically, that was the side he’d be on. He wasn’t sure he’d actually go after anyone with a track record of punching others, for fear they’d take out their resentment of him on Henry. Luckily, this school seemed to be relatively devoid of people who punched others, for fun or power, which meant that Oz’s tendency to hit metal balls and punching bags for recreational purposes had him cast in that role in these people’s sheltered little minds. Or maybe they just assumed that of everyone who didn’t know what a salad fork was or whatever.

Anyway, the point was, Oz wasn’t going to punch Lenny, and he didn’t want the final impression he gave to anyone to be that the thought was even crossing his mind. So he kept his frown on the inside. He did his best to look non-threatening, even though he wasn’t sure what he actually did other than just existing to be ‘threatening.’

“Hey,” he said. Easy, carefree smiles were something he’d perfected early on in life, given the number of times he had to tell people not to worry about him, even as he screwed up and died a little inside at every mistake he made. He threw one on as he approached Xavier’s ‘date.’ “You’re here with Xav? Are you guys like… a thing now?” he asked. “Just asking as his friend,” he clarified, in case Lenny had somehow missed the memo that Oz voluntarily hung out with people like them and therefore obviously had no problem with it.

13 Oz Spellman Speaking as a concerned friend... 1514 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

November 03, 2023 9:35 PM

There were steps? by Fortune Ardovini

Fortune didn't like that dejected look on Yarielis, so he naturally needed to do whatever he could to remedy the situation. "So I have heard," he quickly responded with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "That's great, and it would be really great to have you back on the team." It really would. He wasn't sure what was going to happen with the team next year, there would be a new captain, and hopefully enough people to fill out the team positions.

However, something had pulled Yarielis away from the team to start with, and he sure didn't want her to feel like she had to join again if that something was still a problem. He knew some folks had some weird ideas that girls shouldn't play Quidditch, and that sounded downright ridiculous to him. Why not? That might not be the problem for Yarielis, but he wasn't sure what else it could really be. 'Being around a lot of people was hard' seemed a bit strange to him. "But, if you can't play, for whatever reason, that's alright as well. It sure won't stop us from being friends."

The topic as a whole seemed to be getting her down and he wanted to change the subject. Unfortunately the only other thing that immediately jumped into his head was 'So why are you wearing robes?' and that didn't seem very... polite? So instead he watched the folks on the dance floor for a few moments until something else finally wandered into his head. "Got any exciting plans for the summer?"

2 Fortune Ardovini There were steps? 1549 0 5

Lenny Pierce

November 03, 2023 9:55 PM

Right. 'Friend', huh? by Lenny Pierce

"Hey, I'll get us some drinks, okay?" Lenny offered as they came off the dance floor. He was the reason they were getting thirsty, doing all that dancing, so he felt he ought to be the one to get the drinks. "Is water good, or do you want something else?" Once he had Xavier's order, he headed over to the refreshments table, eyes scanning the crowds for his friends to see if one of them might be free for him to get in his friend dance with any of them.

The first person of interest he spotted was Oz, who was heading right for him. Cool, maybe he could plan a switch off instead of just hoping for an opportunity to tap out and trade partners so Xavier could get at least one dance with the guy.

"Hey," he returned easily to the greeting, wondering idly why Oz was talking to him. Lenny had devious plans involving him, but if Oz had similar ones why hadn't he just asked Xav out to start with?

His next question made this both clearer and a bit more alarming, not just because the ex thought Lenny might be part of a thing, but because the ex was claiming to be nothing but a friend, and might even be actively trying to not to scare they guy who might have a thing with his ex. That did not bode well for a get back together.

On the other hand, Oz was asking, so maybe not hopeless entirely.

"Definitely not a thing, just friends," he promised emphatically. "I'm not exactly his type, but I couldn't find a date and you never asked him." This came out somewhat accusatory. "He was still waiting for you to pull your head out of your butt up until about a week ago, and didn't let me try any matchmaking either. But I bet he'd rather be dancing with you. I got some friends lined up to hang out with tonight if you want to bring him his drink and go for a spin around the dance floor." Lenny's mouth quirked up into a proud teacher's grin, and added, "He's getting pretty good at spins." Oz was rather a lot taller than Lenny was, so Xavier might have some trouble spinning him, but he doubted Oz wanted to.

1 Lenny Pierce Right. 'Friend', huh? 1547 0 5

Oz Spellman

November 03, 2023 11:19 PM

Used to be by Oz Spellman

OOC: CW - references to addiction BIC:

Definitely not a thing. Just friends. Not Xav’s type. All good. All the things Oz had known or hoped and—

Wait. What.

“He said—I—That’s private!” Oz bristled, a red flush creeping up his neck. His skin prickled with the indignation that Xavier had gossiped about him. But then, of course he had. Because to Xavier there was no need to hide any of that stuff. He’d always said it was ‘fine’ if Oz didn’t want to be public about it, but it had never been a very convincing ‘fine.’

But that paled in comparison to the rest of what Lenny said. He made it sound like he would step aside, and then it would be just as simple as Oz walking across the dance floor. It was tempting to believe that. But of course, Oz was the bad guy. He’d known it when he’d left Xavier. He looked cruel, disloyal… But for Lenny to actually say that Xavier had said it—

“Oh yeah, it’s a real butthole move on my part to not want to flush my own future down the toilet to prop up his addictions. And if he still can’t see that—” Oz wasn’t sure what kind of family Lenny came from. Presumably pretty liberal, unless he dressed very differently at home. But Xav had always treated school like it was easy, disposable, guaranteed… You could screw up a year here and there. If you dropped out entirely, the worst that would happen was that you’d be a disappointment, maybe come back later… He’d never had any real perspective on the idea that actions had consequences, or that not everyone had a big safety net waiting to catch them if they screwed up. Oz couldn’t handle Quidditch and his exams and being the one to pick Xavier up every time he fell… Except, he didn’t seem to be doing as much falling this year. Xav could be really sneaky, really good at setting up systems to hide his problems from people. But Oz had seen him eat three meals a day, almost every day. The lack of bags under his eyes said he was sometimes getting pretty full nights of sleep. Xav had put on weight, in the good way where he’d stopped looking like he might snap in half if Oz put his full body weight on him, and his skin was better. It was almost too perfect, just begging for a couple of hickeys to be left around his collarbones to break up all the gentle pink. “Did he actually kick it? For real?” he asked, his voice low, eyes searching Lenny for signs of the wear and tear that came with being Xavier’s closest friend.

13 Oz Spellman Used to be 1514 0 5

Yaniel Ayala Velez

November 04, 2023 10:24 PM

It seems like there should be by Yaniel Ayala Velez

He’d heard Yaniel was training. That was fine… Probably a good thing. At least the whole team didn’t think he’d just been goofing off this whole time. And it would be great to have him back. But no pressure.

Dang, why was Fortune so nice about everything?

Yaniel was not sure what he’d ever done to earn these levels of chill and compassion from the people around him.

Apparently the reason Fortune was being so nice was because they were friends. Still. Even after Yaniel had dropped the Quidditch team and turned him down for the dance. Yaniel narrowly avoided stammering out ‘We are?’ which would have made it seem like he didn’t think so, and he was more than happy to accept Fortune as a friend. He needed all the ones he could get. So long as Fortune wanted to be Yaniel’s friend too…

“Thanks,” he managed instead. “You too,” he added, meaning he regarded Fortune as a friend in return, before realising that Fortune had said ‘we’re friends’ not ‘you’re my friend’ so that made no sense. He swallowed down an awkward explanation of what he meant, sure that would only make it worse. Anyway, Fortune’s attention had drifted back to the dance floor.

Oh no.

He wasn’t going to ask again, right?

Yaniel braced himself, ready with a firm ‘no.’ Would he even dare say ‘I’m a dude?’ But when Fortune turned back to him with a question he had to let it go as more of a started, surprised noise.

“Uh…” His plan for the summer was to tell his parents he wanted to be called Yaniel now, and run away to Cole’s if that went really badly. But he wasn’t really sure how to share that with Fortune. “Just the usual. Helping with the bakery and stuff. How about you?”

13 Yaniel Ayala Velez It seems like there should be 1554 0 5

Alexei Vorontsov

November 09, 2023 6:48 PM

I hope it gets easier. by Alexei Vorontsov

Alexei was approaching the Ball with mixed feelings. He was sure this would have been the case even if nothing else had been going on, but he was also confident that Katya’s engagement to her former Ball date had increased his ambivalence somehow. He didn’t want to create false expectations, or find himself in a position where he either hurt a friend or got stuck in a position he didn’t really want to be in, but just given what he had seen of how people did things in the south, he was afraid that was exactly what he was going to do, especially since acquiring a date for the Ball had been essentially mandatory for him as a prefect.

He liked Amethyst as a friend, and would freely admit she was quite pretty – he found Iris more attractive, but that was worlds away from not recognizing that Amethyst was also quite attractive. It was eminently possible that someday, he might indeed want to marry her, if they stayed in touch after school. That, though, was the sticky bit – well, the sticky bit besides the one where Amethyst didn’t speak Russian and would probably find it a trial to learn when she was practically an adult already. Her inability to communicate with half his family and community was definitely a stickier bit, at least for him (he still could not quite get his head around Katya’s choice of partner and the implications thereof), but yet not the only sticky bit, and the other one was, possibly, even harder to negotiate. It was that he had no desire to get married any time soon.

For as long as Alexei could remember, he had been daydreaming about traveling the world someday. Since he would, when that time came, be an adult who also happened to be a well-enough-to-do younger son with no responsibilities, that was what he intended to do after next year. Of course, he had no real objection to the idea of company, or even female company – for years, he and his sister Tatiana had imagined they would make such a Grand Tour together; when they had been children, it had been easier to ignore the fact that their family would think about as well of Tatiana going on an adventure as they would of Tatiana dancing on tables in a pub – but somehow, he couldn’t see Amethyst having the slightest interest in climbing mountains or exploring cursed ruins or making her way through a jungle or sailing on a boat in the ocean or – anything he half-imagined doing in the near future, really. And it seemed that American girls married very young, as soon as they could after school, making it hardly fair to suggest they stay in touch and see what happened once he had all the traveling bug out of his system (assuming, of course, that he survived the experience).

All of this, however, would have been difficult to put into words in any language – he didn’t think he’d have a hint of an easier time doing so in Russian than he did in English. He was at home enough in both languages that he sometimes mixed up their grammars oddly or could only remember a word in the one he wasn’t actually trying to speak at a given moment, but this...this was all...complicated stuff. Not the sort of thing one actually talked about. He’d have said it was unmanly, except that he didn’t think women were supposed to talk about it too much, either – ambivalence was, after all, all too easily turned into weakness no matter who you were. So he kept his thoughts mostly to himself and just hoped for the best as he greeted his friend on the night of the dance.

“Good evening.” The words were still slightly accented, but not, he was pleased to say, terribly distinctively. “Thank you. You look very lovely.” He offered a corsage, having learned what one was the last time there had been a ball and somehow remembered the tidbit since, and then added, “Thanks again for coming with me, for helping me with this thing. Shall we go in?”

16 Alexei Vorontsov I hope it gets easier. 1531 0 5

Claire Osbrook

November 09, 2023 6:51 PM

Observations, by Claire Osbrook

Before she’d left the dorm, Claire had looked at herself in the mirror and had, for one moment, been convinced she was looking at a stranger. Her narrow face, long, thin nose, and sharp brown eyes had all at least been recognizable, but even they hadn’t looked completely normal, completely like themselves. She had followed her mother’s directions to the letter, so it was hard to really point to exactly where the blusher and eyebrow pencil and lip tint had even been applied, but the combined effect was definitely to make her features somehow...different.

Not, of course, that the subtle-to-the-point-of-invisible bits were the only things in play. The brown and beige pigments on her eyelids were a little more distinct than some of their fellow cosmetics, but surely not enough so to explain just how much larger and more dramatic her eyes looked beneath them. Everything had also been presented to her from a different angle than usual, too, because she was taller than usual. Since she was already tall for her age, she hadn’t seen the point of the inch and a half heels on the silvery sandals she’d been provided with for this occasion – but somehow, they made everything seem to fit her perfectly in a way that none of it did at her natural height. And while the draped neckline of her long, floaty, wide-sleeved, wisteria-colored dress robes was far from unduly low, it did leave her long neck and a wider-than-usual band of her collarbones and the very beginnings of her shoulders visible, and that, too, changed the look of the face above from what she was used to seeing over the top of her high-necked, plain dark green school robes. She hadn’t trimmed her hair back to chin length when it had started growing out this year, and thus she had been able to wrangle it into a sort of loose faux chignon, and it turned out that this, somehow, seemed to change the shape of her face just a little. It was still long and narrow, her nose was still long and thin, and her mouth was still a little too small and prim for the rest of it, so she could still recognize her own face as the same one she saw in the mirror every morning before classes, but she still had the eerie feeling that in their current configuration, they actually belonged to someone else. To someone...beautiful.

Sinking onto a chair in the midst of the enchanted forest which now filled the Cascade Hall, Claire fiddled with the pendant – a little star of white gold set with a single small, bright diamond; it had been in the family for generations, and ever since her mother had presented it to her as a Christmas gift this year, she had almost always had it fastened around her neck to reduce the chances of losing it, though she’d also almost always kept it tucked away inside her robe because of a vague anxiety she couldn’t place – back and forth on the slim chain around her neck as the prefects started dancing. Claire had been mildly disappointed, once, to not be prefect herself, even if she had been able to shrug it off and be excited for her ~~crush~~ friend’s accomplishment. Now, though, it seemed like the prefects’ dance was going to go on forever, and she found herself incredibly glad she was over here, alone and ignored, and not out there in a whirling, technicolor, Sisyphean nightmare.

She tried not to see Verdillia and Christopher. She tried very, very hard not to see Verdillia and Christopher. A few times, though, they waltzed across her field of vision before she could predict it, and she tried to look down quickly each time, her cheeks hot – thank God for blusher partially disguising that – and her heart pounding in her ears, hoping against hope that no-one saw any of the jealous longing she was sure was all over her artificially beautiful face in those moments.

Finally, finally, the dance was over, and the prefects either moved away from center stage or else were joined by other, non-prefect people. Claire, with no expectation of leaving this chair until she evacuated the premises for the evening, looked around the room. She was beautiful, yes, but far, far, she thought, from the most beautiful girl in the room. Classmates she had never even noticed before suddenly stood out, looking completely different in colors than suited them better, or with their hair and make-up done, or, like herself, perhaps in different shoes. If one could have just removed the drab spots that were the guys, it would have been like being in a butterfly garden.

Why, she wondered, were almost all these fascinating, lovely creatures interested in the boys? Why would anyone ever, like...bother looking at boys? Guys, for the most part, seemed to get how boring and unattractive guys were, so what was up with the social expectation that girls should be attracted to guys instead of to each other? Sure, you could like guys as companions, love them, even, on the basis of their personalities – but why did anyone want to kiss one, exactly? What was she missing here? Why, exactly, was she supposed to be the weird one here?

16 Claire Osbrook Observations, 1540 0 5

Grayson Wright

November 15, 2023 2:32 PM

Interesting things do seem to happen there sometimes. by Grayson Wright

Gray knew how much students could get done when they had a mind to do so – he had authored and co-produced two full-length plays when he had been a student at Sonora, and others had pulled off at least equally if not more impressive feats on appropriate (well, mostly appropriate) occasions – but even so, he had been impressed by how good of a job the Planning Committee had done with the Cascade Hall for the Ball. It had not taken very much imagination at all, he thought (and he thought he might be better qualified lately to speak on the matter than he ever had been before), to suspend disbelief for a few hours.

Or maybe – since, as the Charms teacher, he was one of the better-qualified people around here to notice the marks that showed the scene to be artificial, however artfully covered they were – he was just getting his own imagination back...but he tried to quash that thought. Ever since that winter, two, three, four years ago, now, when he’d been sick on and off for months, it had felt, for the most part, as though...well, he would have said that it felt like there had been a hole in the back of his head, except that a hole in his actual head would have been distressing. Strangely, his new tendency to be perpetually short of a story...wasn’t distressing, as such. Just peculiar-feeling. He read a great deal these days, and talked more with his coworkers, and that was fine. It didn’t feel so much as if he’d lost something as though it was just...a few centimeters away, now, instead of attached. As if he could reach out and grab it if he wanted to, and he just, somehow, inexplicably...didn’t want to.

Of course, he had told no-one about this. He preferred it when the people around him thought of him as tolerably sane, and could not see any way that making such a report could do anything but decrease the number of them that did so. Just...living with the situation, on the other hand, seemed to increase the number who saw him that way, as he was generally more aware of the world around him these days. For most of his career, any students who had sneaked off into empty classrooms or the Gardens to canoodle after the Ball would have been largely safe from him unless they literally fell out of something right in front of him, as less than half his mind would have actually been on patrolling his assigned areas in case of them. Now, he thought he stood a passable chance of actually doing this bit of his job correctly, a thought which seemed fleetingly verified when he passed by the Cascade Hall and noticed it still sounded like there was someone in there….

Upon examination, though, he found that it was not a student out of bounds. Instead, it was Katey Willow, seemingly having started cleaning and having moved on to...dancing?

Now this should be in a story, he thought. Not the kind he would have ever written, of course – it was a classic romance set-up, and he had never been the type to write romances; he didn’t know how they worked, how to realistically get past the scene of this sort – but a story nevertheless. When she stopped and turned in his direction, he was embarrassed, but smiled back at her. Katey was, oddly enough – considering she was fifteen years his junior, considerably smarter than him, and in a completely different set of fields – someone he’d consider a friend.

“Sorry I interrupted you,” he apologized. “Thought I heard someone in here and – well, I suppose I was right. Sorry. Would you like me to join you?” He intended to ask if she wanted help cleaning up, but he realized belatedly that it could be taken two ways. Surely not, though….

16 Grayson Wright Interesting things do seem to happen there sometimes. 113 0 5

Katey Willow

November 27, 2023 4:08 PM

What's your definition of interesting? by Katey Willow

It was in Katey’s nature to get a bit ahead of herself. In many ways, this actually worked to her advantage. If she weren’t so eager - so naturally inclined to rocket too fast - she would not have had a medical license at the age most completed bachelor’s degrees.

But sometimes, it meant not thinking things through. Despite what she had been told too many times (words she now worked hard to unlearn), Katey had a great intellectual capacity. When she gave herself the opportunity to analyze, she could do marvelous things. A few of her research discoveries were nearly ready for patent submission.

It took both sides of her working in tandem to complete greatness. However, that intellectual brain of hers was sometimes overruled by the eagerness. Maybe it was the inner child with whom she was recently acquainted bursting forth, begging to be healed and loved and alive. Maybe it was a simple misunderstanding, with no deeper reason other than a difference in goals or aspirations. Or maybe Katey was just too damn happy tonight to see anything other than shared delight.

Regardless of the cause, when Gray asked her if she wanted him to join him, the only thought she had was that it was an offer to dance with her. She grinned. “Absolutely. Come on!”

With no pause or hesitation, the medic grabbed him and rapidly positioned both of their hands to the appropriate places for a dance. She placed him in position to lead, although her joyful twirling hardly left Gray any actual control of their trajectory. She just wanted to spin and laugh, and looking up at him now, she almost could have sworn she felt a small spark. Ahead of herself again, it seemed.

12 Katey Willow What's your definition of interesting? 1505 0 5