Mortimer Brockert

May 19, 2024 3:22 PM
Another summer had passed, much like all the others. Although this year, there had been something that happened that while not affecting Mortimer personally, he still very much knew it was wrong and hated it. And this time, it wasn’t Eustace either though there was plenty of that too. However, that was almost mundane now since it happened all the time. That said, Mortimer could not wait for Honora to be at school and away from her father.

As for what happened this summer though, well, that was something for Icky and Imogen or more likely Cory to deal with, and all of them were more feelings people than Mortimer was. Though to be fair, even he would admit that was an extremely low bar.

Now, however-thankfully so he didn’t have to think about things that happened last summer that might involve feelings including ones he himself was trying to deny that he had, after all this didn’t involve his grandchild, just a grand-niece he actually kind of liked - the new students were entering and the returning ones had assembled at their house tables. “Welcome to Sonora for the new first years and welcome back for all older students. First years, you should have received a blank badge at the end of Orientation. You will dunk the badge in the Sorting Potion and it will turn the color representing your house which are blue for Aladren, yellow for Teppenpaw, red for Crotalus, and brown for Pecari. Afterwards, you may join your house table.” Mortimer watched as his grandson, Uriah, was Sorted.


After the first years had been settled, Mortimer continued. “Would Christopher Brockert and Phillip Carson please come up and get your Head Student badges." He continued. "In addition, I'd like to call up Nausicaa Scapetello, Robyn Lundstrom, Lyla Holland and Xarryn Bavol to receive their prefect badges. Congratulations.” Mortimer could not have been happier and more proud that Christopher had won, despite the fact that the boy looked slightly confused about it. It made Mortimer want to shake Eustace all over again. (Not that he’d previously shaken him, though if some nanny or someone had at some point, it would explain an awful lot. However, Mortimer had certainly felt the desire at many points.) Admittedly, he had really hoped Liesl would win too, since truthfully, he’d always sort of had a soft spot for her-granted, Mortimer’s soft spots were less soft than the average person but still he’d always been sort of amused by her love of horror-and he felt bad for the events of the previous summer, despite it not being his fault at all but he guessed Mr. Carson was fairly inoffensive.

Although he hoped two boys winning wasn’t a bad sign that misogyny was a factor. This had been a humongous worry when they’d gone to gender neutral Head Student elections, something that not even a remotely significant portion of the student population had wanted. Of course, Mortimer was admittedly pretty biased against the student who formed that petition, given that she’d been his granddaughter’s mortal enemy. As it was though, his grandson was chosen and the other person was not terrible so he had to just hope that two boys winning was just a this year thing or that Mr. Carson was just that good an option. He knew Christopher was.

As for prefects, well Mortimer had a bit more to complain about there. Olaf was perfect for the position. Nothing against Miss Scapetello, he had no qualms about her in general and she even had on paper qualifications that Olaf didn't, like running the debate club. In fact, there was even something about her that reminded him of Topaz, though he couldn't figure out what. It was just that Olaf was ideal. More ideal even than his other grandchildren. However, since there was a social aspect to the job that he was pretty sure the Aladren would hate, at least Olaf was unlikely to be broken up about not getting it. And there were no other options in Teppenpaw or Pecari. He probably would not have voted for Mr. Bavol if there had been since the boy was practically illiterate, though Mortimer supposed there wasn’t a lot of reading or writing involved in the job. He’d also acknowledge that it was the fault of the parents and not the student, that Mr. Bavol’s pre-Sonora education had been neglected. However,he felt nothing but pity for whichever CATS examiner ended up grading the Pecari’s written exam.

And Miss Lundstrom stuck out very little on her own, Mortimer mostly knew her by what her relatives were like and their actions, the drama with her brother and the fact that her mom fell into the category of being a pain in the backside. Interestingly, she also seemed to be friends with Samara Crosby, whose mother also fell into the same category.

Which brought him to Crotalus. Now, Miss Holland was perfectly fine for the job in general.From what he gathered, Olaf seemed to hate her less than the rest of the human race in general and that spoke well of her. Had Tawny Crosby not been every bit as bad as Mrs. Lundstrom in a different way, Mortimer probably would have voted for her.Except Tawny was that bad and if Mortimer had to deal with her, someone was going to pay for it.

Once the prefects and Head Students were back in their seats, Mortimer continued. “Our midsummer event will be the Concert. Details to be announced at a later date.” After all, the Concert didn’t always mean what Jason thought it did, where it was exclusively music. Obviously there were some acts in the last one that most definitely didn’t not qualify as such and he didn’t mean Isla’s puppet show either.

And speaking of potentially being very much not musical “Now for the singing of the school song..” Lyric sheets were passed around and the song began.



Every day we strive
Learning to survive
Life’s hardships and to solve its mystery.
Learning to defend
Our honour and our friends,
Flying high to meet our destiny
We will stand and face those who want to harm us.
We won’t let the world transfigure, jinx or charm us
I won’t fight alone, as long as you are with me.
Sonora be my home, my tutor and my spirit
Vasita quoque floeat; Even the desert blooms.


That done, he dug into his steak and bourbon.
Subthreads:

Aladren

Teppenpaw

Crotalus

Pecari

Staff
11 Mortimer Brockert Opening Feast 6 1 5

Xarryn Bavol

May 23, 2024 9:24 PM
Xarryn knew fifth year was when prefects were chosen for each House. He also knew he was the only fifth year Pecari. He might have trouble reading, but he could do simple math well enough, so unless they decided to do something very different about how they determined prefects, he was going to be the one chosen to be Pecari's fifth year prefect.

Sure enough, after the new kids were sorted into their Houses, his name was among the six people called up to get a badge. The two new Head Students were an Aladren and Crotalus, so he was the only Pecari heading up to the front today. He gave Phil a high five because Xarryn was old enough to know a Head Student well enough to consider him a friend, now. That was pretty cool, and also kind of alarming. He realized all of a sudden that those CATS tests everyone talked about all the time and he always disregarded entirely because they were so far away were aimed at his year group this year and they weren't so far away anymore.

He sat back down at the Pecari table in kind of a daze. Fifth year. This was his fifth year and all the hard things in Intermediates were now his things to do, and he really wasn't sure he could this. Some of the practical stuff came easily enough, especially in Charms, but he couldn't explain how any of it worked, and keeping track of all the steps in potions was nearly impossible, transfiguration theory was an absolute mystery, and how was he possibly going to pass enough CATS to be able to take any Advanced classes? He was only barely skating through with just enough As to balance out his Ps as it was.

This was not going to be his best year, but at least he was still in Intermediates. He knew what to expect from Intermediates. You didn't need to test into Intermediate classes. It was next year that kinda terrified him. What if he failed everything? Would he have to redo fifth year? Or did you have to drop out of school entirely?

After the song, he turned his worries on an older student. "What happens if you fail all your CATS?"
1 Xarryn Bavol Fifth year means prefect ... and CATS ... oh no! 1560 0 5

Zeus Brooding-Hawthorne-Smith

May 24, 2024 10:09 PM
Zeus was not the subject of the older boy's question, but he was close enough to hear it and it made his stomach churn. He hadn't even thought about the fact that CATS were the next milestone in his future as he transitioned to intermediate levels, and taking classes with students as stressed out as Xarryn was bound to be seemed stressful just by proximity.

He'd kept his head low so far at Sonora, not really making friends or doing much of anything. He supposed that was the unfortunate side effect of having largely grown up at the school: some of the novelty that propelled his classmates into friendships wasn't active for him. He'd be naive to assume that was all it was, though. He'd gotten himself well in control of his powers but he couldn't turn his face off, and he always felt a little fire in his skin when he was especially upset.

He stabbed at a piece of steamed broccoli, a bit disgusted that it had somehow ended up on his plate when he'd been lost in thought, and tried to focus on his classmates' conversation rather than his own sad meal. Perhaps dumping gravy over the top would help...? He tried to avoid glancing towards the headmistress as Professor Skies was the most likely to notice him misbehaving and hiding a piece of uneaten broccoli under the leftover bone of a chicken drumstick was sure to count as misbehaving.
22 Zeus Brooding-Hawthorne-Smith Third year means intermediates!! 1576 0 5

Fortune Ardovini

May 26, 2024 8:53 AM
Fortune was one of the 'Advanced' students now. He was both pleased and excited by that fact, and also a bit nervous. Not that he'd admit that to anyone. It would all be fine, he'd done fine on his CATS and he assumed the professors had adequately prepared him for the boost in 'academic expectation'. He was pretty sure that was the correct term to use for it. So, overall he was sure things would be fine. Plus, as per the plan they'd worked out last year, he'd hand the Dueling club reigns completely over to Xarryn so that he could work on Gaming (and Quidditch), while Phil got to study and help out where he could. So he wasn't overly concerned in that area. He was going to need to flesh out the game idea he'd though about over the summer, but hadn't actually work on nearly as much as he should have fairly soon though.

The opening feast went as expected, the biggest surprise wasn't really one. He would not have pegged Xarryn as 'prefect material', but there weren't a lot of options. Fortune was fully confident that his friend would do fine, it was really more of a social thing than anything else, and he'd be great at it. Fortune smiled as Xarryn high-fived Phil on the way back to his seat.

The food appeared and Xarryn turned to him almost immediately with a question that Fortune hadn't ever really considered himself. "Hmmm..." He thought about it for a moment, "I dunno. Maybe you'd retake your fifth year again? I wouldn't worry about it though, the professors know what they are doing." He had picked up on the worry in Xarryn's voice, and he had to admit that it might not be completely unfounded. "You can check in with Professor Carter-Xavier and see what she says, I can help you study as well if you want." He gave his friend a reassuring smile, shrugged his shoulders, then moved on to what he considered more important matters. He hoped that might distract the boy from his worries.

"Are you ready to take over Dueling club? You did great as a deputy last year. I've gotta figure out my gaming stuff before the first meeting." Another thought struck him at the moment, that might help Xarryn forget about his worries. "I was thinking about doing a 'high-seas' campaign, and might need an expert to consult with," Fortune gave the boy a friendly, knowing smirk, "Know anyone like that?"

"We've also got Qudditch to think about as well," Quidditch was never far from his mind. "It'd be neat to get two full teams so we could play real practice games here." It was at that moment that he spotted Zeus nearby poking at some broccoli on his plate. He'd been pretty quiet so far as a student, maybe he just needed an invitation. "Zeus," He called over to the boy with a smile, "Have you thought about trying out for the Qudditch team? We can always use more players. Or the gaming club? You don't really have to try-out for that one though, you can just show up and join in."
2 Fortune Ardovini Sixth Year means Advanced I guess 1549 0 5

Xarryn Bavol

May 30, 2024 9:53 PM
Xarryn made a face at Fortune's suggestion that he didn't need to worry about it, but checking in with Professor Carter-Xavier did sound like a good starting point anyway. "Yeah, thanks," he said to Fortune's offer to help him study, though - other than some of the more complex theory stuff- it was actually reading the questions and doing the potions that he was most worried about. Still, any help would probably be beneficials, and he appreciated the offer. And maybe Fortune could even explain the theories so they made a little more sense.

Then Fortune did the best thing he could have possibly done and changed the subject. Xarryn grinned in relief and excitement as his mind moved to the Dueling Club. "Absolutely!" he confirmed, suddenly cheerful.

He perked up even more at the idea of a high seas campaign. His characters always had a sailor background (even the superhero) but it very rarely came into the foreground of the adventure. "I might," he grinned in answer when Fortune asked if he knew any experts on the topic. "That sounds awesome!"

Fortune then started trying to recruit one of the Housemates to Quidditch and/or the gaming club. "Or Dueling!" Xarryn added on, as that was now his club to run. "Mostly with wands, but I'm willing to branch it into swords, too, if there's interest! No try outs for that either, and if you just want to come sometimes, that's fine, too. Lots of people are just casual members for that. But even for Quidditch, I wouldn't stress out about try-outs. Worst that can happen is that you get put on the reserve team to brush up your skills so you can maybe make the first string next time. Or even if you don't like the pressure of a competitive game, you can still be a part of the team! One of the seventh years who just graduated wanted to just do the practices, and that helps us all out too because then we can have practice games with full teams if we get enough people."
1 Xarryn Bavol Now that that's out of the way ... extracurricular pitches! 1560 0 5