Quidditch Scrimmage 2021 PV

Credit to the wonderful Cassandra Ironwoods

Reducio

The Outfit

Interacting with: @Opeila Winters & @Henry Knight
Mentioning: @Kage Suzuki

"Yea... I'm as good as you can be after two hits from a bludger..." she half-heartedly joked. Her earlier sentiments of wanting to be on the team had now vanished, as she really didn't care to be the target of these bludger attacks, not to mention almost falling to her 'death'. But, this is what she had signed up for, and, at least for the moment, her team was still winning, and so she threw herself into the game with everything she could.

Starlee felt ready this time, and she instructed Opeila to get closer to a nearby bludger. With all the force she could muster, she finally whacked the little iron ball, sending it toward Kage... well, what was supposed to be toward Kage, but Starlee's aim was definitely way off. "Darn stupid little ball... doesn't go where I want it to... or I can't hit the dang thing..." she muttered under her breath.

Moments later, Henry came careening toward the pair, and Starlee watched as the boy got closer and closer, and it seemed Opeila saw him too, and they briskly maneuvered their broom out of harm's way. Wow, an attempted blatch? Not only that, but Henry was apologizing for it. 'No hard feelings... eh?' She promptly stuck her tongue out at the older boy playfully, in a teasing kinda way. "Looks like you were too slow there Henry! Have fun on your penalty lap~" she laughed.

While she was just joking with him, she did deep down appreciate what he said. She reaaalllyyy didn't want to fall again.... and possibly having him there to catch her was some consolidation. She already appreciated Opeila for the same thing.

Action: Doing as Strategized
Stats: Sta: 4 | Eva: 6 | Str: 6 | Wis: 8 | Arc: 6 | Acc: 5
Abilities: Healing Sage
Broom: On Opeila's Broom / School Broom

Everything was more important now. If the Snitch was in sight, the end of the game could be as well. Her team might have the lead right now, even extending it with James, the lone contender for the Quaffle, but what did that matter if the other team caught the Snitch? Then they would lose, and yes, this was just a scrimmage, something she had to keep reminding herself, just... those reminders weren't really working. The nerves were kept at bay by the game not being official, her competitiveness not so much. Losing was not something she wanted to do today.

To their credit, her team operated beautifully. There were a few minor hiccups, but still, you could hardly tell this was their first game; they looked like they knew what they were doing, not missing a beat. Well, they were in position, which was the first hurdle. The execution did not look nearly so impressive; James fumbled a shot on an open goal, Starlee missed the backbeat on the other team's Beater again (though, to be fair, it was a decent shot, the dodge had just been better), and the Alley Oop didn't seem to help much (again, understandably; it was a hard move). All that considered, they were still fine. No one had fallen, they had two more goals under their belt.

And now it was her turn to contribute. She was more experienced, older, their captain today, even, so it fell to her to shoulder a little extra weight, didn't it? A bludger in sight, she lined up for the shot, gunning for the other team's Seeker. A moment before swinging, her eyes shifted briefly to Aurora as she passed nearby. Something about the girl--the tiny first year who was on her team--sent a shiver down her spine. It didn't make any sense, but it reminded her acutely of how she'd felt in the presence of Lana Monet in her duel. As memory recalled, it had really gotten to her then, throwing her off so much there was no reason she should have won. But enough about that now; she had a job to do.

She missed. Completely. Not even 'missed' as in 'missed her target'. No, she'd missed the bludger, her bat finding nothing but air. The absence of the expected impact threw her off balance, and for a brief moment, she wondered if she was going to fall. She didn't, managing to get a grip on the wooden handle, and she allowed herself a second to hang there, facing the ground below. Her face felt hot. How had she done so badly? And she'd just been noting with mild disappointment, too, her teammates' mistakes. Where there was the benefit of the doubt for them, though, no such understanding existed for herself. She was supposed to be better than that! Capable of hitting a ball, if nothing else. It's just a scrimmage. Just a scrimmage. Just a scrimmage...

A scrimmage where the other team had decided to foul, evidently. Blatching was pretty standard in Quidditch, of course, and nothing she wasn't used to after her time on the Slytherin Quidditch team. She'd gone in for a blatch before, even. But with all the attention on calling Henry's foul, a different foul went completely unnoticed. She almost didn't catch it herself; if she hadn't been thrown off by Aurora, she wouldn't have sent a glance at the first year, trying to figure out what it was about her that put her on edge. That's when she saw it, Nicholas locking his broom handle with Aurora and pushing her off her course for the snitch. Not something she'd seen before in a match, but her obsession with Quidditch had led her to read enough books about it to recognize was she saw. Blurting.

"That's a foul," she muttered. The move going unpunished had her blood boiling, but it didn't matter. It was too fast-paced a game to bring it up with the referee. Even if she had the time, she probably wouldn't have; she wasn't the type to talk to the officials about a call, and besides, it wasn't their fault. A cunning move, going in when their attention was elsewhere. It was hard to gauge how far behind Aurora was without knowing where the Snitch was. She sent a glare at Nicholas, not that he'd see it. Keeping a cool head was getting incredibly difficult between her annoyance at Hollythorn's switch to dirtier tactics and her own miserable performance. Just a scrimmage. Right.

Action: Doing as strategized
Stats: 7 STA • 9 EVA • 7 STR • 10 WIS • 7 ARC • 8 ACC
Abilities: Sixth Sense • Evasive Maneuvers • Prodigal DADA Learner
Broom: Tinderblast - In the role of Beater, if an ALLY dodges a bludger during the round, there is a 20% chance that you catch that bludger with your bat and you send it at a RANDOM enemy target.

banner by Henry Llewellyn

@Gia Adelard @Henry Knight @Aurora Ranvier

Violet hadn't been prepared for the sudden interest that the game was starting to give her. Things had obviously spiced up, including the fact that Adelard and Ranvier had spotted the snitch, and were full-on chasing the golden ball. When Violet saw the Hollythorn seeker racing full-speed to catch the main ball of the game, she was fully prepared to launch her far more into the air, but she couldn't proceed without Gia's help, and the Gryffindor hadn't seemed to react at all. It was in her personality that Violet woulkd get angry, and yes, that;s exactly what happened.

She screwed her face mockingly as she saw Ranvier and Murray attempting to do a Alley Oop, she was happy to see that they had failed upon doin it, which gave them more chances to catch the snitch themselves. "Better Luck NEXT TIME, Ranvier!" Violet screamed at the Ravenclaw from afar, a smirk on her face as she continued to pay attention to the game. "And try to PAY MORE ATTENTION, Gia !!!" she said angrily to their seeker. Surely that would keep Hollythorn's seeker with high hopes. Hopefully.

Violet looked at Knight trying to do a foul, and yet he was spotted and was in a penalty lap~ "you IDIOT pay more attention next time you try and do A FOUL" she screamed at him. Now it seemed like Violet was wasting her time screeching at everyone, so she prepared for the next action. Hopefully Hollythorns could get a bit better at playing, right?

Reducio

Statistics
Stamina: 6 Evasion: 8 Strength: 1 Wisdom: 10 Arcane: 2 Accuracy: 8

Perfectionsit

Fouling wasn't cheating, not really. There were set punishments in the rulebook for it, set plays built around tactically fouling in order to trade off risk for reward, any player that refused to see that was not only foolish, but willfully ignorant. Nicholas was no fool, and he'd grown up watching quidditch, and he'd seen more than a few creative interpretations of the rules of play. Pericles' whistle was a signal, a signal that he'd been waiting all game to heed. No more playing nice.

Nicholas's eyes narrowed, tunnel vision overtaking both his sight and his thoughts. He'd tried to take the opposing seeker off her broom with his bludger earlier, and truthfully, he was frustrated that he'd failed. But, if he couldn't remove her from the game, he could sure as hell frustrate her chase.

Henry, bless him, attempted a blatch at the two girls riding together. Unfortunately, he missed, but fortunately, he distracted the referee from the actions of his younger teammate. Nicholas came up on the seeker, all but forcing his broom handle and body against hers, the result was almost instantaneous. Her chase was halted as they were driven off course by the beater's actions. Naturally, the firebrand reacted with shouting, threatening to bonk him on the head.

In reply, Nicholas rolled his eyes, her reaction was ridiculous. If she didn't want to get blurted, she should have avoided him. Moreover, he was doing what he was doing for the team, he was sure that it was friendly banter, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it.

"No idea what you're talking about," He smiled, smugness dripping off his voice as he de-locked and fell away, daring not to get caught by the referees.

He met Henry's smile with one of his own, the shared understanding between the two made manifest by Henry's mouthing of encouragement. Nicholas nodded back before the other boy returned to his lap, the Gryffindor's mood boosted even more.

The rage and self-loathing had entirely faded now, Nicholas was arrogant. Sure, they may have been losing, but he was finally doing well. His ego was re-inflating, boosting his sense of his abilities beyond where they naturally stood. The smirk on his face betrayed that more than any words could.

The only thing that put a damper on his mood was the shouting from Carrington, the Slytherin chaser clearly upset at Gia's inaction and Henry's missed blatch. Nicholas rolled his eyes, couldn't she save that for the other team? There was no point trying to make their own players feel like rubbish, that wouldn't help anything.

"Carrington!" He called out from across the pitch, "Cool it! Leave some aggression for the opponent!" He turned his head toward the two teammates who she had berated and continued, "Good stuff, Henry, Gia!"

He paused for a moment before adding, "After all, looks like Ranvier needs all the luck you can wish!" After all, if she had threatened to bonk him, the least she could do was catch the snitch, wasn't it? Perhaps Carrington had the right idea.

Action: As Strategised
Stats: STA: 7 | EVA: 6 | STR: 8 | WIS: 6 | ARC: 4 | ACC: 4
Abilities: Foulplay
Broom: School Broom
Mentioning: @Henry Knight, @Gia Adelard, @Aurora Ranvier & @Violet Carrington.

Mentioning/Interacting: Team Hollythorn

Outfit

#666

Broom: School Broom

Abilities: Obnoxiously Strong

Stats: |Sta: 5 |Eva: 7 |Str: 5 |Wis: 6 |Arc:7 |Acc: 5|

Actions:Doing as strategized

Okay. Time to switch things up. Things were definitely switching up. Rose had a feeling that the two Bludgers would be flying around more than usual this round. And if someone fell... There had to be someone to save them. Right? Rose glanced at her post by the hoops, and then inched away, keeping her eyes on the bulk of the game. There was a lot of violence this round, and apparently both keepers had indeed spied the Golden Snitch. Although Aurora was spewing pitiful (bonk, really?) threats, Gia wasn't even doing anything, just sitting on her broom. Maybe she had frozen up with all the pressure? Zoned out? Frustration sparked in Rose. She had to do something other than just sit there! Rose heard Beckett yelling from the bench. Well she couldn't really be on the same side as Anastasia Beckett, could she?

Nobody had needed to be saved, but as Rose looked back towards her post, the other keeper had scored twice in her goalposts! Now she was torn. Should she stay here and try to save people at the cost of letting the Quaffle go through the hoops? Or should she go back to the goalposts, at the cost of letting people fall?

For Moderation-

Action: As Strategized

Abilities: Keen Eye | Lovely Creature Allies: Team Hollythorn/Two Broom: School Broom

Stats: Stamina- 6 Evasion- 8 Strength- 5 Wisdom- 9 ArcPower- 7 Accuracy- 5

#b76e79

─────────────────────────── INTERACTION - ───────────────────────────

─────────────────────────── MENTION - ───────────────────────────

Everly did absolutely nothing.

As it seemed like it was her turn to make sure no one from their team touched the ground, Everly hung by, watching closely to make sure no one did before Everly could catch them. And nothing happened. She decided that was a good thing; it meant no one was that hurt, right? Still, Everly felt somewhat useless for doing nothing to help. She supposed it was a necessity, after all, if anyone did fall, at least Everly was there.

Spending all that time observing, Everly was able to take note of the other team's tactic. It seemed that their Keeper had decided to desert their post, but Everly relaxed a bit at seeing that James was the only one going for it. That meant no one could aim for their goals, while James was taking a short vacation. James scored two more goals for Pitch Please - Rose was gone too, perhaps doing something similar to what Everly was doing - fumbling the second attempt. Everly felt sympathy for him, for she had felt something somewhat similar only a few rounds before. At least they had secured a lead in the Quaffle scores, but if they didn't get the Snitch soon, they'd be in trouble.

Opeila and Starlee aimed another Bludger towards Kage, but the nimble Gryffindor dodged again. Everly squinted in concentration, wondering if she would have to take action soon. Everly's attention was caught by a broom shooting towards Opeila and Starlee. The other team had resorted to cheating now? At least Henry was caught - served him right.

It seemed that the answer was no - Everly had yet to do something. Another broom sped through the air, locking broom handles with their Seeker, and Everly's grip tightened, prepared. The referee didn't even spot it - well, that was a feat. Aurora had been knocked off course, but not all hope was lost. Dodging another Bludger, Aurora would fly towards the Snitch... and miss.

But! Gia did nothing. Perhaps she was distracted, or something was going on, but the point was, she didn't do anything. That was good. Maybe they could snag the Snitch before she did. It seemed, for now, the playing field was somewhat even.

ACTION | doing as strategized
HEALTH | 600/600
sta 6 | eva 7 | str 0 | wis 7 | arc 4 | acc 6
seer

chaser
school broom

meh

☆

This Quidditch Scrimmage really looked like a real match to Emma, who hoped that every player around her think the same, and it felt really good to imagine how interesting the match she's playing is. But she was too concentrated to look at the galleries, but she really hoped that people were there - especially some members of the Gryffindor's team - and find the match as interesting as she think it was. Flying from side to side of the pitch, Emma noticed that Aurara have seen the Snitch, and a quick look at her Captain was enough for her to do the next move.

She went closer to Aurora to execute the Alley Oop with her. As she seen the real Quidditch player do this in several matches - she went to every Quidditch game she could. Unfortunately, the girls didn't make it. Emma felt bad, she felt like it was her fault. Even though she had been watching matches and even some trainings - hidden somewhere near the Quiddich Training Pitch. It felt like she was not able to play a good Quidditch Game, which was stupid because she managed to score several time. But still! Her desire was to became a Seeker in her house's team and this failed Alley Oop felt like a sign of 'you're not able to' to Emma. Though, she couldn't keep thinking about this failure; she had to keep going and play as well as she could.

Action: Doing as strategised

Mentioning Rose, Henry, Kage, Nick
Interacting with @Gia Adelard | @Violet Carrington

The opposing Chaser made two easy goals, but he was still grateful for Rose's willingness to help him keep an eye out for falling allies. Regrettably, they were about to be short a chaser themselves, though Henry's attempt at taking out the two sharing a broom would have been well worth it had it succeeded. Kage may have missed the enemy Seeker, but at least she was still doing a crack job at evading everything thrown her way. Had Pericles noticed the sly maneuver which the other Hollythorn beater accomplished, he certainly showed no signs of it, and no one was flying close enough to catch the glimmer of amusement in his eye while he watched over his teammates. More worrisome was the lack of action from their own seeker. A concerned frown forming, Pericles leaned into the Tinderblast, swooping into a steady upwards arch. He came to coast alongside Gia just in time to catch his fellow chaser's lapse into a rage. "Steady on, Violet," he tried to pacify with even tone and subtle smile, "it's hardly a game if you aren't having fun." Then, with an aim at soothing that was less to do with dissuading temper, more to do with encouraging, he turned to Gia. "Are you alright...?" The question was earnest, evident in the way he eyed her with care. "Come along: we can win this yet, but not without your help. Are you ready?"

Action: As strategized.

Reducio

﴾ Stamina - 7 | Evasion - 7 | Strength - 4 | Wisdom - 8 | ArcPower - 8 | Accuracy - 7 ﴿
Perfectionist - Reduced crit range by 1, counters 1 point of crit fail caused by abilities or spells
Keen Eye - 10% chance to automatically identify the location of the snitch
Tinderblast Broom