Pecari tryouts (walk ons welcome) on Quidditch Pitch

Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

September 20, 2017 12:29 AM

Pecari tryouts (walk ons welcome) by Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

“Ok, everyone, welcome to Pecari tryouts,” Ingrid called to the assembled group. “I’m Ingrid, the assistant captain,” she explained, pretty much purely for the benefit of Parker, seeing as everyone in second year or up would know that already, and she’d already met Tatiana. “Sammy is sick, so I’m going to be starting tryouts, but hopefully she’ll join us soon.” Start of term germs had got to Sammy. She was sure it was nothing that the medic couldn’t fix up pretty fast, but they had agreed that Ingrid should at least get everyone warmed up and started, in case there was a line to see the nurse, or she was in a particularly difficult mood and decided that Sammy wasn’t fit to immediately run around outside.

“If you’re new to Quidditch,” she added, again for Parker, but without wishing to single him out, “We have four positions on a team. Three Chasers pass a red ball called the Quaffle,” she held it up, “to try to score goals in the big hoops at the end. Those are blocked by a Keeper. Two beaters use bats and heavy balls called Bludgers,” she opened their case but did not release them, “to try to unseat or injure other players. It’s ok though. At school level you won’t get badly hurt, and the medic can patch you up real quick,” she reassured. Apparently in the Muggle world, broken bones took weeks to heal - a level of tedium which she could not imagine. “And finally the Seeker. They look for a tiny gold ball called the Snitch,” she held it up, “Catching the Snitch ends the game and earns the team an extra 150 points. Any questions?” she asked, dealing with any that there were before moving on.

“First up, if you don’t have a broom of your own, you can borrow one of these,” she pointed to a pile on the ground. As the first years had had flying lessons already, they might well have noticed that these were better than the average school broom. The pile, in fact, consisted of brooms that she and her siblings had outgrown or simply upgraded. “It’ll be yours to use for the remainder of the term, and you should keep it with your things, rather than entrusting it to the school broom shed,” she added.

“Today, we’re going to go through a few exercises for each position. I know not everyone here wants to play every position, but they’re all good exercises for your flying, hand eye co-ordination and everything like that. Plus, whilst it’s only me, I can’t watch multiple groups at once, and we don’t want anyone sitting around letting their muscles get cold after warm up.

“First off, we’re going to do some stretches and exercises. Then we’ll fly three laps. It’s not a race. It’s just to get everyone feeling comfortable on their brooms, especially if it’s one they haven’t used before. We’ll then form a line in the air. We will pass the Quaffle,” she held up the red ball again, “down the line to test throwing and catching skills. I might give you instructions as you go, like getting in close, or aiming over the person next to you to the next one down the line. The person at the end of the line will block the goal. We’ll keep rotating so that a different person is at the end every three passes.

“We’ll do some dives and agility practise for Seekers. When Sammy’s here, those of you who are more serious about the position can do timed trials finding a Snitch with one of us. Hopefully Sammy will join us before then, and she can run the Beater exercises with you, as she’ll be better than me at those.”

With that, she began them on a few simple warm ups, before taking to their air and flying laps before getting into formation for the Chaser part of the trial.

OOC - welcome to Pecari Quidditch try outs. Even if you didn’t sign up, you are welcome to join. Ingrid has been pestering people, so if you have a character who needed that little extra nudge of encouragement, you can assume she gave it to them! Quidditch writing is graded out of character based on how well you write, not how well you claim your character does, so please keep them realistic and in line with their abilities and experience. Your post can cover as much or as little of the tryout exercises as you like. Just remember, don’t write for others (e.g. if writing a pass, you can talk about how your character made it ‘he threw it strongly, but a little wide, which meant the next person would have to be quick to catch it’ but not whether it succeeded or failed - that’s up to the person catching it).

13 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte Pecari tryouts (walk ons welcome) 322 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte 1 5

Parker Fitzgerald

September 24, 2017 11:24 AM

Flying can be problem by Parker Fitzgerald

Parker made his way to the pitch full of nervous excitement. He was looking forward to playing any sport, and this seemed to be the one that interested those in the wizarding world the most. Similar to baseball or football back home.

A girl who wasn't Sammy started talking and for a brief second Parker thought he might be in the wrong place even though she did say these were Pecari tryouts. As he calmed down he heard her talk about Quidditch. He wasn't sure if everyone else already knew this information, but he didn't really care as it was a good refresher from what he'd been told already.

Chasers seem like forwards and strikers in soccer. The Keeper the goalie. Except the used their arms instead of feet. So maybe like football? Parker thought, using associations to try to remember the new information.

Bludgers sounded fairly brutal to Parker though. He scrunched up his face trying to imagine what it would be like to be hit by a bat or ball. He'd broken and bruised his fair share of body parts but it still sounded painful. Still football had a lot of people trying to attack other players, and he had enjoyed playing that.

When Ingrid called for questions Parker raised his hand.
"What positions on the team are already filled?" he asked. He didn't want to try for a position that someone already filled.

Thinking through the positions it seemed that he might not be strong enough to be a Bludger at the moment, and seeker would probably need to be good on a broom, which was probably not his fortay.

So Chaser or Keeper. As long as I can stay up on the broom.

When Ingrid mentioned the brooms Parker turned to them with a smile on his face. He saw that they were nicer than the one he had been practicing with, not as many bent sticks at the end. When she said he could keep it for the whole term he couldn't believe it.

Once Ingrid was done talking he went up to her quickly. "Thank you for the brooms," is all he said before he went and looked through them.

He found one that had the name Cleansweep on it and picked it up. As a lover of baseball Parker thought it was a good sign as a clean sweep of a team would probably be good thing in any sport.

After following the warmups, Parker did some stretches he remembered from baseball since it seemed they were going to be throwing things as well.

Ok. Next step get it up and then... you know, fly. Parker thought, still amazed by this.

Parker put his hand over the broom and said, "Up" like he had before during practice. Nothing happened.

No apple. Parker thought and sighed. Wait, what if I imagined I had one.

Parker closed his eyes and imagined an apple in his right hand and held out his left hand and opened his eyes to say up. When he looked towards the broom he found it was already hovering. Parker was so surprised by this development that he stepped back from the broom briefly before getting on the broom.

His cleansweep seemed more comfortable than the school broom from the flying class.

Parker began to make his way slowly around the pitch at first as he had not actually flown before.

He imagined he was on a bicycle that wanted an apple holding one hand out as if coaxing the broom with an apple. Leaning a bit to one side, then another to see how it turned. It moved with great ease.

After one lap Parker wanted to see if he could go faster than a snail pace and leaned forward thinking of images of motorcycles going fast.

Suddenly the broom took off and for a moment Parker was afraid he was going to crash into someone or something, but he leaned slightly to the side and the broom moved with him. He continued the lap, feeling the exhilaration of both not crashing and getting hurt, and simply of going fast. He wasn't sure if he had ever gone this fast by himself on something, but it felt amazing.

As he went into the third lap he remembered Ingrid's comment about it not being a race and tried to slow down. He pulled up on the broom, but that only made him go higher not slower. After leveling out, he tried to sit up in his seat. Though the broom moved slower, it was not much slower, and did nothing for the height. Parker closed his eyes and imagined in his head pulling reigns on a horse.

When he opened his eyes he found that not only was he slower, but he was stopped completely. He was still high in the air though and had no idea how to get down.

He looked around him and asked to someone who was flying below him, trying to sound calm, "How do you go lower? I'm kind of new to this."

41 Parker Fitzgerald Flying can be problem 1402 Parker Fitzgerald 0 5

Ingrid

September 27, 2017 1:20 AM

Problems can be overcome by Ingrid

“We’re mostly looking for Chasers and a Keeper,” Ingrid explained, when Parker asked about the positions available. “However, we’re not against switching things around if someone has a real talent for a particular position,” or, she added mentally, is just plain terrible and needs to be kept out of harm’s way as much as possible. “Plus, we know, for example, that one of our Beaters will be graduating at the end of the year, so if there’s a position that really interests you, but it’s not currently available, it’s bound to be one day, and you may as well get a head start on training for it now. Any particular ambitions?” she asked him.

“You’re welcome,” she nodded, when he was appreciative of the better-than-school brooms.

As they took to the skies, she did her first lap fast, before realising that she was catching up on Parker and about to lap him. She didn’t think that seemed great for morale or safety, so she hung back, keeping an eye on his as he completed his other two laps with varying degrees of speed and confidence. It was lucky she did so, as Parker then called a question out.

“You have to angle the broom downwards,” she explained. “It helps to lean your weight forward which means you’ll probably jump forward or start moving a bit faster before you start going down. To level out or go up, pull upwards - broadly speaking, your body posture helps speed, whilst the angle you point the broom gives direction - so sitting up leads to stopping, but pulling up will take you higher. Let’s try that together, and maybe do a five-minute flying lesson before we send you in to join everyone else?” she suggested. She had her wand in her sleeve, and she drew it now, just in case. “We’ll pull up again way before we’re close to the ground, but I’ll have this just in case, so I won’t let you crash. Or at least, I can make it soft if you do,” she explained.

“Ok, let’s go…” she suggested, leaning her weight forward so that the broom began to accelerate but also pushing the nose downwards. Once they’d gone a couple of metres in what was hopefully a shallow and controlled descent and not a wild dive, she called “And up,” reversing the movement and bringing her broom back up, keeping an eye that Parker was doing the same and not hurtling towards his doom, ready to cast a softening spell on the ground if he looked like he needed it.

OOC - Whilst normally you are not allowed to write for other characters, there’s an exception when a character says “If X happened, then they would do Y.” If you then have X happen, you’re allowed to assume that they Yed. So, in this case, if Parker does lose control and crash onto the field, you can assume Ingrid has cast the spell and he gets a soft landing. You are, however, not obliged to crash just because she’s ready for it.

13 Ingrid Problems can be overcome 322 Ingrid 0 5

Parker

September 27, 2017 5:12 AM

Overcoming through mimicry by Parker

Parker listened to her and nodded.

Everything she said made sense, especially if you began to treat the broom like a multi-directional bike that you didn't have to peddle. When she suggested a five-minute flying lesson before joining everyone else, Parker smiled sheepishly and looked the other way.

“That apparent that I’ve never flown before?” he asked a little bummed and kind of scrunching up his lips. “We’ve not had many flying lessons yet, and my parents use airplanes, not brooms.”

“But,” he added on quickly so as to not be knocked off the team before he started “I’m game to practice as much as needed to play! And for whichever spot you need me in.”

Though preferably one not on a bench Parker thought to himself.

He’d gladly sit bench though if it meant he’d get better at this flying thing. And Ingrid seemed at least willing to explain to him how to do it, instead of his current haphazard way of figuring it all out.

He slowly followed her lead down, and though he was sure he wouldn't fall, it was nice to know it would probably be soft if he did.

It seemed to work surprisingly well. After a surprisingly controlled decent that he imagined during game play he’d have to be a lot faster at, Parker then followed her up when she said up, and replicating Ingrid''s movements as best as he could.

Ok. He was getting the hang of the up and down. The forward part as well, especially the forward at speed part. He had a question though, and was unsure if they had time to practice with this being try outs and all. As he bobbed up and down briefly he thought about it, and decided to ask and practice later.

“Ms. Assistant Captain,” Parker started, not wanting to be too informal, but also not knowing her last name, “in game play, I imagine a quick stop or moving backwards might be necessary. I am getting the hang of up and down, as well as forward, but how can one stop suddenly or move backwards? I won’t try them today, I just want to know for future practice.”

He added the last part, trying to show Ingrid that he was trying to respect the fact that this wasn’t a second flying class, but actual tryouts for a team that he was not yet on.

41 Parker Overcoming through mimicry 1402 Parker 0 5