Event Blossom Ball - Trial of Hecate

English = 5D4A64 | Russian = 4E7A27

As Irina walked up to the trial she found herself quite intrigued by the scenery. It was very similar to the Underworld setting and was very different from one of the previous trials where she couldn’t see in front of her. She was finding these trials to be harder than expected but was still enjoying the adventure of them. They were a challenge she wasn’t expecting to find at the ball and saw them as an opportunity to make herself known during this trip.

Walking over to a table, Irina saw a mask with three faces and was interesting by it. Since the ball was Ancient Greece themed it made sense that it would have to do with mythology. It reminded her of different stages in her life, her pre-magic, her Koldovstoretz time, and whatever would lie in her magical future. On the table with mask was a bunch supplies that looked like they could be for a potion and a lot of pomegranates. It is Ancient Greece themed after all, pomegranates are basically in the name.

As the boy told her what to do in the trial, Irina didn’t really feel like brewing a potion and her wand was hidden but she still wanted to complete it. She was hoping to win the competition and the boy did say to have fun so she tried to find a way around it. Turning to the boy, she said in the most polite way she could, ”Hi there, so I’m not really in the potioning mood, if you know what I mean. This is a party so I was wondering if you could possibly quiz me on my knowledge or if there was another way to get past this trial?

WC: 289

For Moderation:

Reducio

Action: Doing the Trial (Attempting all 3 branches)
Stats: STA: 8 | EVA: 8 | STR: 7 | WIS: 9 | ARCP: 6 | ACC: 7
Heath points: 800/800
Abilities: Sixth Sense, Fearless, and Calming Presence
Effect: +2 to their awareness rolls. If a player attempts to enter a thread that you are already in, there is a 25% chance that you automatically detect them on entry.
Effect: Fear effects such as a dhmpir's aura, the ability terrible presence, a lycanothrope's intimidation or certain charms, potions and jinxes that would normally cause a fear effect do not work on you as you are immune to them.
Effect: An aura of calm. Allies (defined at the START of an instance regardless of later betrayal) gain a 10% chance to auto-hit their chosen target. This does not stack.

Trials tracker: [Orpheus] [Hades] [Hecate] [Persephone] [Hermes] [Apollo]

Attempting all three

Health
600/600
Stats
◇Sta: 6 ◇ Eva: 7 ◇ Str: 10
◇ Wis: 3 ◇ AP: 4 ◇ Acc: 10
Abilities
Martial Artist
Terrible Presence
Trunk

She grinned folding her arms as the brunette tilited her head downwards to take in the items that had been set out for them. In front of her, you had the ingredients for a potion that the brunette probably had brewed countless times in the potions classrooms given it was so basic and it was clear what the pomengrates were for given they didn't belong in the potion nor would they contribute to her spellcasting. Speaking of spellcasting, Elena shoved out her wand giving it a look as if willing it to cooperate with her. The wand had never backfired on her but perhaps the sheer pressure of the trials and the other students who were particapting were causing her to make sure everything went according to plan. "It's just Lumos, nothing too complicated." Elena told herself hoping that indeed, it was nothing too complicated.

If she couldn't even cast a basic lighting charm, she could forget about the potion right now. Her wand drew a loop in the air as her voice sounded clear and confident pronoucing every syallable probably the most careful she had ever been with any spell. "Lumos!" If successful, the whte light would flare up at the tip of her wand before the brunette would extinguish it grinning to herself as she turned her attention to the more practical things, eyes flicking back and forth between the potion ingredients and the pomengrate which lay innocently. Coming to the conclusion she might as well get the wandwork out of the way with a shrug of her shoulders as her wand came to point at the pomengrate. Transfiguration had always been one of her weak points, this would be the proving point to see if she had picked up any knowledge that Professor's Wade and Lian had imposed upon her.

"Reparifarge!"

Closing her eyes not too keen to see what the end result was, the worst that might happen could be that she might end up transfiguring the thing even more instead of the intended effect. That branch of magic was a very tricky field yet the Gryffindor had no qualms about taking a shot at it as she turned her eyes to the final topic of the day and that was the brew for a basic Babbling Beverage. Potions, something Elena thought she had a expert's touch to as she got to work making sure the aconite and Valerian sprigs stayed off her dress. The last thing Elena needed when she got back to the ball was to have her be the center of the spotlight and not in a good way. Adlai and her had toiled endlessly to make sure their dresses were up to par and she was not about to have something like a potion ruin that for her. Adding the dittany as well and concluding the potion with the final steps of what she rememebred, Elena watched as the potion began to swirl in anticpatin waiting to see what the end result was. She was sure she had gotten it right, it had all seemed too easy. Maybe she was missing something, her brow furrowed in concentration as her inner voice soothed here.

All though it was only the third trial she felt as though her brain was already almost completely fried and thus she took it as her own luck that the Trial of Hecate had options, and in this very moment Adlai loved options, as which everyone showed her the most promise in swift success she would take.

Almost immediately transfiguration was ruled out, as she knew for a fact that she did not have the energy or guts to meddle in those magics on this night. The next to be ruled out was potions, as she could not remember the order in which the ingredients were added. Which left the spell casting of Lumos. To Adlai to concept of casting the spell was simple enough, and lucky for her she brought her wand.

Thus, rolling up her sleeves just a bit and taking a deep breathe she moved her wand in what she believed to be the proper motion and shouted "Lumos!" only for nothing to happen. How odd...- she thought as she was sure that was the proper way to do it. Taking a moment she watched the other students completing the same task as her, only to realize she but say lumos whilst completing the motion of the wand-lighting charm.

Taking another deep breathe she began to the motion of the spell, once again shouted "Lumos!" and then completed the motion of the spell which left her will a small light, glowing at the tip of her wand. "Second times the charm." She told herself.

Closed to interactions outside of moderation
Outfit

Potioneering, spell casting, transfiguration.
Now, this was to his liking. As much as Pericles could appreciate a good psychological challenge, putting his magical prowess to the test was the main appeal of all this. He wasn't out for money, or fame, but the brilliant chance to test himself. He would throw his heart into these mock Olympics. The first test was lighting one's wand, a spell he used on a near daily basis. It was particularly practical when patrolling the dark halls of Hogwarts at night. Peri pulled his aspen wand from within a bronze bracer, reciting "Lumos" with flippant certainty. Hopefully, he wasn't being too confident and nonchalant so as to somehow miscast.

The difficulty increased with the next spell: Reparifarge. Untransfiguration was not at all something he practiced on a regular basis; too often, he found himself focusing on anything duel-related, a fact he had only just become aware of. He would have to fix that later, but with any fortune, his familiarity with his wand coupled with clear visualization would be enough to do the trick. "Reparifarge."

The third, most difficult challenge of this trial was concocting a Babbling beverage. Pericles was deeply fond of gardening, and he loved any excuse to cast spells, but potioneering- the realm between the two- was not so familiar. Recreational brewing was not so readily accessible at school. Not that this would stop him. He would recall what he could of the concoction, whispering to himself from time to time as though this helped him recall the appropriate order of ingredients.

Attempting to complete all three branches of the trial

Underworld | Hades | Hecate | Orpheus | Hermes | Persephone | Apollo | Aftermath

INTERACTING WITH: @Marshal Mozor, @Alec Mason

MENTIONING: n/a

Compared to the other trials, this one was further in the foreground than many of the rest. It was a bit surprising. With the release of the ball invitations, Evelynn had been forced—by her own volition and curiosity—to dive as deeply as she was able into researching Greek mythology. Admittedly, given the muggle nature of the topic, the library had only allowed her to look up so much; she had supplemented her knowledge with pleas to her mother to send back printed website pages with Janus for her perusal.

What she'd learned about Hecate was that she was generally depicted as a triplet, an image of three women; or a woman with three heads. Often, she would appear at a crossroads to guard the way and was usually carrying keys, serpents, daggers, or torches. In the invitation, the torch was missing, which Evelynn thought linked back to one of the previous invitations where a voice was used to guide the way in the darkness. There was another invitation as well, the one of Hermes, where the poem mentioned a figure facing three ways and welcoming wayfarers. Nevertheless, it wasn't in the midst of the Underworld that Evelynn would have thought to find the trial representation of this particular goddess, but rather at the entrance or exit of the bridge, in the crossroads from one part of the ball to the other.

Another thing she had learned was that Hecate allegedly held trees to be sacred. In particular, the yew tree. Looking further into this type of wood had revealed something interesting. The late Lord Voldemort, the dark wizard of many decades past, had wielded a wand of yew. From what she had read, it was said that yew was reputed to endow its possessor with power of life and death, and that it was particularly attuned to curse work. Interesting, then, that this trial should call upon its 'heroes' to demonstrate their command of magic. And more interesting still that none of the spells called for had anything to do with yew's magical inclination.

She shared such idle notions with Marshal as they approached.

Despite the curiosities of whatever real or fabricated connections and sources of symbolism she had uncovered from the invitations, however, Evelynn was very keen on this particular trial. A sideways glance to her companion searched for some semblance of calm and confidence in him as well. They had been practicing charms all year and he'd developed at least some semblance of competence over a handful of them. Granted, the wand-lighting spell yet remained one that occasionally caused him grief. She offered him an encouraging smile, one that she hoped didn't carry too much expectation. It wouldn't do to heighten his nerves after all.

"Well…" she uttered quietly after a moment. She turned her head forward again, and dipping pulled up the hem of her gown to reveal one leg in order to retrieve the wand hidden within her riding boot. Her pack of disaster preparedness and her broom, she left on the ground next to Marshal. She wouldn’t be needing them in this moment. Hopefully. Then standing, quipped with a demure smile, "Best of luck."

"Good evening, Mason," she chimed, approaching the host. While he might not have been one of her dorm-mates, as a second-year Gryffindor, he was still familiar to her. The two weren't particularly close, but flashes from last year's slumber party trickled to the surface of her thoughts, and the hint of a smirk creased her lips. "May I?"

Most difficult to easiest, she decided. That way, even if for some reason her wand was choosing to be temperamental, she could at least fall back on her potioneering knowledge. The untransfiguration spell was one that she had only this year been able to cast reliably. Transfiguration was not exactly her best subject, and she had often struggled with it, although stark improvements had been made this year. Focus. Precision. Enunciation. Centering herself and placing her attention solely onto one of the nearby pomegranates, she allowed everything else around her to fade away. Or tried to. Admittedly, the added pressure of performing in front of something of an audience was a touch unsettling. One might have thought she'd be used to it with her position on the Quidditch team, but flight came quite a bit more naturally than casting.

"Reparifarge (reh-PAR-i-farj)," she stated clearly, careful to enunciate her consonants and apply the stress on the correct syllable while dipping her wand in a movement similar to a U.

Regardless of the results, whether with relief or silent self-rebuke, her chest would rise and fall with a heavy breath. And then she'd move onto the next.

With practiced ease and an expression of confidence that suggested failure wasn't even a factor in the back of her mind this time, she lofted her wand, and drew what almost looked to be a lower case omega in the air. "Lumos."

If that failed, her shoulders would visibly sink as every thought turned immediately to the very real wish that the ground would simply swallow her up and spare her the embarrassment from the eyes she was sure were sparkling with amusement to see the "self-righteous know-it-all" fail at such a simple series of tasks.

On the other hand, should she succeed, her posture would straighten proudly, a cocksure smile settling upon her countenance as she turned serenely to Mason.

"As for the babbling beverage," she began, wrist cocking to rest the tip of her wand in the fingertips of her other hand, rolling it absently while she spoke with assurance. "It is a potion that yields the imbiber to speak utter nonsense." It was this concoction that she thought Marshal might have consumed prior to his finally gaining control of his senses enough to actually ask her to the ball. "It's rather simple to brew, really, needing only valerian sprigs, aconite, and dittany. But it can be quite effective depending on what you want to use it for," she rambled. And then go on to explain exactly the process needed to prepare and brew it.

WORD COUNT: 1,002
ACTION: Attempting all three branches

| Outfit |

| Apollo | Persephone | Hermes | Hecate | Orpheus | Hades |

Mikael was surprised as he slowly walked up to a boy standing waving like a dumb child. It seemed that this trial would not require any physical use. Instead, requiring the full extent of their mental capabilities. Mikael had much less faith in his mental capabilities than his physical capabilities. It was not like broom racing required much effort with his mind. Flying had always been second nature to him. A chance to feel free from his earthly bonds. Though, that would not help him here. He would need to focus as much as possible to be able to come out on top for this trial. Transfiguration, spell casting, and even potioneering would require his full attention. His tutor often told him if he had room to think about trivial things, that it meant he was not focused enough. So the boy would delve into his work until there was nothing left. Losing track of himself in his focused nature, was a familiar feeling that brought no worries. He always did his best work when he ignored the world around him. The boy narrowed his eyes as he slowly pulled out his wand. So familiar was the wood that felt weighted in his hand. He and his wand would do great things together. He was sure of it.

Russian (Default) | Norwegian | English

Lovely Creature ⋅ Terrible Presence

| Sta 8 | Eva 8 | Str 8 | Wis 3 | Arc 4 | Acc 9 |