Coach Olivers
September 19, 2014 2:47 PM
Quidditch Game I: Aladren vs Pecari by Coach Olivers
The team rosters had been somewhat disappointing this year. Only Aladren and Pecari had been able to create full teams, with a few from Teppenpaw as reserves. At least there were enough students interested to hold a couple matches, and they deserved it after a dry season without last year. Perhaps that break from Quidditch had deterred some from returning to the pitch.The first game of the year always felt a little more exciting than those following. Florence could feel it in the air as she set up a table of water, but she had a feeling the excitement would give into fatigue sooner or later. It was going to be unbearably bright today with the last of summer’s heat already burning up the pitch. She was wearing a wide-brimmed hat and thin, white robes to try to endure the heat. It was going to be a scorching day and she hoped no one fainted or was overcome by heatstroke. The Quidditch uniforms weren’t exactly made of the most breathable material, and any overexcited fans were going to be prone to swooning.
Florence wanted both teams to hydrate themselves properly before starting the game, and she gestured for them to take water as she saw them make their way onto the pitch. When she saw the two team captains, she pulled them to the side. “Please make sure your teammates are hydrated before the game since you both know there aren’t any breaks during the match. But if any of your teammates feel a little woozy or dehydrated, don’t be afraid to ask for a reserve.” She smiled and pat both of them on the shoulder. “Good luck, boys. Go get some water.” The Teppenpaw reserves would be for both teams; with a day as hot as this, she wasn’t really sure what to expect. It would take a lot of stamina to make it through the game if the Snitch didn’t show itself quickly.
She waited a little longer than usual for the players to drink up and for the captains to make their respective speeches to their teams if they so chose. When it looked like they were about finished, she amplified her voice and stepped out to the center of the pitch. “Welcome to the first match of the year,” Florence announced. “Here we have Aladren,” she said, raising her arm to present the side, “led by James Carey, playing against Pecari,” she raised her other arm towards the other team, “led by Rupert Princeton. Captains, please shake hands.”
Once eye-contact was made and hands were shaken, Florence nodded at both of them to rejoin their teammates. She removed the Amplifying Charm before releasing the Snitch and the bludgers. Once that was done, she went to speak to the two teams. “When I blow my whistle, the game begins. The Seeker who catches the Snitch first wins. Good luck to you both.” She picked up the quaffle and readied herself to throw it into the air. “Players, please mount your brooms,” she said loudly, her years of voice projection kicking in. “The game begins in three, two, one—tweet!” She threw the Quaffle up into the air and stepped back. With that, the game had begun.
OOC: Welcome to Quidditch! As per posting rules, two paragraphs minimum are expected, but creative, detailed, and realistic posts will earn more points for your team. Please stick to the rules. In addition, no one should be falling from their broom to their deaths/injury. Florence will intervene before anyone falls to the ground. If you have any questions, tag Coach Olivers in the OOC board. Have fun with it!
Subthreads: </font>Beating with a Smile. by <font color=tan>Captain Rupert Princeton, Beater with <font color="blue">Leonidas Bennett, Beater</font>, <font color="blue">Anthony Carey, Chaser</font>, <font color=tan>Adam Spencer, Chaser</font>, <font color=tan>Annette Pierce, Chaser</font>, <font color='blue'>Francesca, Chaser</font>, <font color=tan>Rupert Princeton, Beater</font>, <font color="blue">John Umland, Chaser</font>, <font color="tan">Liliana Bannister</font>
Being protective by <font color=blue>Captain Jay Carey, Beater</font> with <font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
Must we keep on? by <font color='blue'>Theodore W, Keeper</font>
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Coach Olivers
Quidditch Game I: Aladren vs Pecari
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Coach Olivers
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<font color='tan'>Atlas Primred, Beater</font>
September 30, 2014 5:28 AM
Lets see just how well protected by <font color='tan'>Atlas Primred, Beater</font>
Atlas hadn’t slept much that night, as his mind had been restless with the arrival of his first Quidditch game at Sonora. Although he had been apart of the team the past two years, now that he wasn’t a reserve it was different; there was more pressure, more excitement, and more fun to be expected. After attaching the last bits of his gear he bounded out of the room, butterflies of excitement filling his chest. Once Liliana arrived in the Commons, he smiled and greeted her, complementing her hair. He had always wondered how she managed to create hairstyles that stayed perfectly in tact no matter how long or rough the game was. Katie had been writing letters to him recently, complaining about the lack of bun style in her ballet classes, and Atlas figured that Liliana might be a good resource to tap. He had always meant to ask her about it after practice, but managed to forget each day without fail.As they exited the common room, he noticed the clear blue sky. The Pecari grinned, happy he wouldn’t be bothered by rain soaked underwear like past games. However he may have spoken too soon, for the second he left the shade of the threshold, the heat of the summer sun hit him like a bag of bricks. Within the short walk out of the gardens he had already managed to wet his clothing with sweat. It was on days like this that he wished his hair were a lighter color like his sister’s. Although his hair wasn’t black like most other Asians, its auburn hue was enough to catch the rays of the sun, making him feel warmer than usual. Atlas grimaced as he wiped some sweat from his forehead, wondering if the onset of his least favorite type of weather was a bad omen for the coming game.
Although Atlas wasn’t usually a very talkative boy, especially in hot weather, he was so excited for the game he didn’t even notice that he had been chatting non-stop on the way to the Quiddtich Pitch. “…And I really hope I get in some good shots today. I mean I don’t want to hurt anyone, but as long as someone is caught off guard I’ll feel pretty good,” he continued as the pair neared the Pitch. Liliana, who was usually the chatty one of the two, hadn’t said much, causing Atlas to reevaluate their last several minutes of dialogue. He pursed his lips as they neared the rest of the group, realizing Liliana’s curt replies may have been due to him excluding her from the conversation. “Good luck today Liliana,” Atlas whispered hoping she wasn’t too angry with him. Any other day, he would have pestered Liliana until he figured out what was wrong, but today he had bigger responsibilities to the rest of the team.
After drinking enough water to quench his thirst, but hopefully not give him any cramps, he headed over to Rupert as the Pecari captain began his speech. Even though it was a fairly generic pep talk, Atlas gave the boy his full attention in an effort to get his head in the game. He was so busy concentrating that he jumped slightly at the sound of his own name. He had been given a job, a special job (in Atlas’ mind anyways). He glanced over to the Pierce twins, one of whom he would be defending, and gave them a quick smile. He still couldn’t tell them apart very well, but it was a lot less difficult now that they played different positions. He was actually really glad that Annabelle was the seeker this year for two reasons. The first was because she already had experience evading bludgers, which helped him to feel a little more confident about guarding her on his own. The second was because he would have felt completely intimidated and nervous if he had been charged to guard Jade. Although their past captain was an incredibly talented seeker, she scared Atlas like no other. She was the type of person that he really didn’t want to piss off, which he felt would have been inevitable if he had to spend the duration the a game protecting her.
Once the team had done their cheer and mounted their broomsticks, the whistle blew and the game began. At first Atlas started to fly to Annette thinking she was Annabelle, wondering all the while why a seeker was headed for the Quaffle. Thankfully he noticed after a moment that it was the wrong Ann, and made a beeline for the one he was supposed to be protecting. He wanted to get close enough to her to protect her, but far enough away so that he had a full range of motion to hit any passing bludger.
In only a matter of minutes the game was in full swing, he heard a crack of a bat and instinctually turned towards it, in the event an opponent had aimed it at Annabelle. Luckily it was just Rupert, however not a moment later Leonidas hit it towards Annette. Atlas wanted so badly to go in and help, but he had been given direct instructions from Rupert to guard this Ann. Reluctantly, he gripped his broom helplessly watching as Annette tried to shake the nasty bludger. Thankfully Rupert was there to help, sending the thing towards an Aladren chaser. If Annabelle had the same moves as Annette, he wouldn’t have anything to worry about.
Pecari was just starting to move the Quaffle toward the opposing end of the field, when he noticed the second bludger coming his way. Looking around frantically, he noticed two Aladren players flying not too far away. He had practiced his hits a lot, but he was a little wary he could hit it that far while still maintaining accuracy. He decided to push towards the bludger to meet it in the middle, and thus reduce the distance he would need to hit it. He didn’t want to get too far away from Annabelle though, as abandoning her would endanger the team’s key player. Atlas rationalized that going a little out of his way to hit the Aladren seeker wouldn’t be too bad if he kept a fairly good eye on where the two bludgers were.
His bat hit the bludger with a loud crack as he sent it flying to the smaller of the two Aladrens. Atlas had only really talked to Clark once that he could remember, and that was the day the purple clouds had appeared. Although because of the lack of games the previous year, he wasn’t too familiar with how good the 2nd year was. Then again seeing as it was his first game too, Atlas didn’t know if he was any good either, but he hoped that by the end of this game he would find out. Using the momentum of his swing to help turn himself around, he started back to Annabelle. Even though it was his first game, it didn’t take an Aladren to tell that the only person who would be accompanying a seeker would be another beater.
OOC: Permission to use Liliana as such granted by her author.
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<font color='tan'>Atlas Primred, Beater</font>
Lets see just how well protected
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<font color='tan'>Atlas Primred, Beater</font>
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<font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
October 02, 2014 9:29 PM
Yes, let us see! by <font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
Clark set his pattern, a sort of crosshatch across the pitch, some twenty feet above where the Chasers were messing around. He could see them when he looked down but he didn't pay them much attention except to be mildly annoyed that they were providing cover to a snitch that might potentially be below them. When he reached the edge of the pitch he metaphorically reflected off of it, like a ray of light hitting a mirror. He hadn't crossed his own path again yet when he noticed the Pierce Seeker moving toward him then moving away again before she actually made it over to him.He puzzled over that for a moment but the answer became obvious when a wooden bat loudly clashed against a metal ball and a quick glance toward Clark's Captain proved it wasn't Jay who did it.
He wasn't exactly sure where the Pecari beater was - the sound had given some indication, of course, but there wasn't time to sit there like a lump and look around for the guy. There was a bludger coming at him. Bludgers were a semi-domesticated beast genetically engineered by the snitches (they came from the same planet, of course) to be vicious, blood-thirsty monsters. Or perhaps a better analogy would be the way humans had bred and trained hunting dogs to help them track down and kill wild boars and other creatures. In any case, bludgers were bred specifically for harming Quidditch players here on Earth.
So, knowing the vague direction it was coming from and where Jay was, Clark dropped the nose of his broom, swinging it around, and dove to fly under the Aladren captain. It messed up the seeking pattern, obviously, but Clark's life and limbs were at stake here as he ran away from his first bludger attack ever, so he thought it was an acceptable sacrifice.
He just hoped nobody farther away than Jay could hear him shrieking in terror.
And it was kind of a good thing, really, that it was so hot. Everybody was going to stink so badly of sweat, a tiny little bladder leak wasn't going to be too noticeable.
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<font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
Yes, let us see!
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<font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
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<font color="blue">Jay Carey, Beater</font>
October 02, 2014 10:27 PM
I try. by <font color="blue">Jay Carey, Beater</font>
That a Bludger would come their way sooner or later had, to Jay, been a given. The Pecari Beater accompanying Miss Pierce was the little one, something which confused him enough that he’d tried to figure out what sort of game Princeton might be playing for a long moment, but if he was any Beater at all, he knew to take out the opposing Seeker the first chance he got. That Clark would not be happy about that was also something Jay had anticipated. It only made sense; no one except his possibly-masochistic cousin actually seemed to like Bludgers coming at them, and Jay didn’t honestly think that even Arnold actually liked the pain, he just liked how the game became more challenging and his reputation greater when he played through it. Neither of those things surprised Jay at all.Clark shrieking like a banshee as he fled the Bludger, though, was a little unexpected. He did not know what to think about that, except to hope that no one else could hear it. If the school thought Aladren’s Seeker didn’t have the nerve for the game….
Not that it really mattered to him, of course, he reminded himself as he flew to intercept the Bludger. He was gone at the end of the year. But…well, then Anthony would have to deal with it, it was kind of the family legacy, now, almost – as much as extra sons like him and Arnold could hope for, really, so he’d really rather they….
He shook his head and then hit the Bludger away from Clark’s path, back in Miss Pierce’s general direction, then followed to whack it again to keep the Pecari Beater busy while he dove and flew as fast as he could after Clark, holding onto his broom for dear life with one hand and his bat with the other to get where he could again get between Clark and anything which threatened him before the Pecari Beaters got a chance to attack him again.
"It's all right," he called, hoping to calm the second year down. Terror didn't usually help much with spotting, chasing, and grabbing the Snitch. "Find the Snitch!"
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<font color="blue">Jay Carey, Beater</font>
I try.
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<font color="blue">Jay Carey, Beater</font>
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<font color="tan">Atlas Primred, Beater</font>
October 04, 2014 1:08 AM
So do I. by <font color="tan">Atlas Primred, Beater</font>
Atlas heard what he thought was a faint shriek from behind him. However, he couldn’t be sure if the cry was real, because the wind was making a sound buffer as it whipped past his ears. He wanted so badly to look back behind himself, just one glance to see if he had actually managed to hit his target, but he couldn’t take the risk. If he turned his head, even if just a miniscule amount, there was a chance that his broom would swerve off from its straight path, for at the speed that Atlas was going a small turn could propel him in the wrong direction if he wasn’t careful.However, the feeling of vulnerability was tearing down his resolve. There was always the chance that his shot had missed the target completely and was on its way back right now to nail Atlas in the spine. He hoped that with a game like Quidditch wizard healers would have perfected all kinds of healing techniques. However, since Atlas had never gotten hurt to the point of needing Medic Eir’s care, he wasn’t sure just how advanced or primitive the healing magic was- and he didn’t want to find out today either. Luckily he had flown between Annabelle and the bludger just as the bludger met the bat of the Aladren player. This was expected, an Aladren Beater wouldn’t be so horrible as to let his Seeker get taken out so soon into the game. What he didn’t expect was the sound of a second crack coming from behind him. Had Rupert intervened before a ping-pong bludger game could start, or was it the acoustics of the Pitch mixed with the sweltering sun playing tricks on the young boy’s ears?
A shiver was sent up Atlas’ spine as he discovered that neither assumption was correct, and the bludger was flying full force at Annabelle. If Atlas didn’t move quick he wouldn’t be able to defend his Seeker. Leaning into his broom in the hopes he would go as fast as possible, he met the bludger in the middle, swinging his arm around to meet the ball with his bat. Unlike his last shot, he wasn’t able to position himself nicely before hitting the bludger. During practice, he had found that the sweet spot on his bat was the upper middle, right about the place it was the fattest. If he was stationary, and had gotten the shoulder rotation in that he had practiced, it would have headed back towards the Aladren Beater, or better yet the Aladren Seeker. However in his rush to protect Annabelle, the last thing he had been thinking about was the positioning of his bat or the accompanying rotation. Instead, he had hit it with the lower half of his bat where his fingers laid unprotected, except by his gloves, to the blunt force of the bludger. He felt a sting of pain as he swung the ball away, not caring where he aimed it so long as it was Anywhere But Here. The bludger flew off in a lonely direction away from the bustle of the game. It was a horrible shot, he should have at least tried to aim it, but as long as it wasn’t near him or his teammates it wasn’t a total failure.
Against his will, he found himself looking down to the goals at Liliana. He wasn’t sure why, he had more than enough things running though his mind at the moment such as the pounding pain coming from his fingers, but something in him needed to know what she had thought of the play-- or if she had even seen what might have been his worst blunder yet.
He needed to know. He needed to know if she had seen it because if she had then he would have to shrug it off like a war hero, tough, unaffected by such trivial things as pain. If she hadn’t seen it, and how he hoped she hadn’t seen it-- well then, he could coddle his hand for a moment or two before getting back in the game.
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<font color="tan">Atlas Primred, Beater</font>
So do I.
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<font color="tan">Atlas Primred, Beater</font>
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<font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
October 05, 2014 1:17 PM
I can try, too! by <font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
When he heard the whack of Jay's bat on the bludger, he slowed down, and when he heard the second one, he glanced back in concern, but it was just Jay again, hitting it off toward the Pecari Seeker. He stopped moving for a second, taking a deep breath to recenter himself, and felt pleased his first encounter with a bludger had gone so well.He was mildly embarrassed that he had screamed like he had, but he'd just have to show Captain Jay that he could recover quickly and grab the snitch and - whoa. There it was.
Clark was moving before it entirely registered that the golden snitch was right there, only about fifty feet away. Dad had said they usually showed up when you weren't entirely ready for them, and he wasn't quite, but he was way better off than Annabelle who was still dealing with the bludger Jay had sent at her.
Clark flew. He flew as straight and as fast as his school broom could carry him and the snitch darted, so he changed direction, and a bludger on bat sound said Atlas had gotten Annabelle safe, but there was a snitch and Clark wasn't going to be distracted from its chase. Jay had proven he could take care of Clark and he wasn't going to turn around to see if it was coming for him for sure. He could pretend it wasn't if he didn't look.
Still, fear that it might be on his tail gave his broom some extra speed as he hurtled toward the snitch. His first grab at it missed as his sweaty fingers slide over the little golden ball. His broom swung around, and he lifted both hands off of its wooden grip and closed them around the snitch. He felt the wings flutter against his palms as they captured it between them.
Only then did he glance behind him to check where the bludger was, and seeing it nowhere nearby, he allowed himself a huge grin, slowed down his broom, and closed one set of fingers around the snitch to hold it aloft to show off his victory. "I got it!" he called out, though he wasn't sure if anyone but Jay and possibly Annabelle was close enough to hear it. Those were the two who most needed to know anyway.
His other hand grabbed at his broom again, and directed it down toward the ground. This game was over and some more water, a shower, and returning to the cool inside of the school was definitely in order, as soon as possible.
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<font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
I can try, too!
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<font color=blue>Clark Dill, Seeker</font>
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Coach Olivers
October 05, 2014 6:28 PM
Aladren wins! 150 - 0 (nm) by Coach Olivers
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Coach Olivers
Aladren wins! 150 - 0 (nm)
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