Trial by Fear: Audience Spectators

Kazuo snickered at Ileen’s rebuttal. “Insolent… big word. I think I need to get my dictionary. I can’t seem to recall what it means.” He glanced over his shoulder at her and gave her a wink before refocusing on the stage. Though he wouldn’t say so aloud, Ileen was highly entertaining - in an irritating way. She obviously had ego, too much of it, in his opinion. Thought far too much of herself, not unlike most of her House he couldn’t help but to notice. The thought amused him, drawing a smirk to his lips as he considered that, perhaps, ambition as a trait should be replaced by hubris. He was not immune to the same mistakes by any means, but he tried to be a bit more graceful when his own pride bit him in the ass. They were learning experiences, after all. He wondered if Ileen would be so graceful when her pride led her to ruin? He glanced back at her as she mentioned the fight club. No, probably not. In fact, he suspected she wouldn’t admit to making any mistakes at all.

“I heard about the fight club. I also heard it was an unsanctioned event. Much like that Blossom Ball that went horribly wrong. Take risks, get hurt. Action and consequence. Unfortunate tragedy.” His tone of voice as he spoke was flat, logical. An examination of the facts without the attachment of emotion. A luxury he was capable of, having not been at either event. Though if asked, he would admit disappointment at not having been there firsthand.

He glanced back at Ruka as he joined the group, giving the older boy a grin. “Knight-the-second is just lazy. Hoping the Fire God will take care of her problems for her.” He shot back with a snicker. “Too bad fire gods tend to be the most capricious. And this cute little Hufflepuff isn’t particularly flammable.”

He fixed his gaze on the stage as the contestants lined up and began their attempts. Living fire! Fascinating! His eyes narrowed thoughtfully as Pierre moved forward and the flames shot up angrily. Pierre’s strategy, cutting the table’s front legs, was a solid success if a bit unconventional. Then Lestrange attempted to repair the table with a bit of magic… and completely failed. Kazuo snickered. “Those who can’t do, teach?” Was his own riposte at the Slytherin boy. “Looks like Lestrange needs some tutoring. Sounds like a job for a know-it-all like you, Ileen-chan.” And if Thomas’ failure wasn’t entertaining enough, watching Henry fail brought wicked delight to his grin. “Ohhh too bad for Henry~”

The next few contestants were entertaining to watch but unknowns to Kazuo. The Gryffindor who flipped the table drew a snort from him while Alexander’s ill-chosen Avifors received a shake of his head. Xailah’s act just drew confusion. Finally, the person he had come to cheer on stepped forward. Dee’s stunningly easy-looking cast and capture earned a loud cheer from him as he raised the glowsticks in excitement, not paying attention to a certain annoying girl behind him as she reached for them. Catching sight of her as she snatched one, he fixed her with a glare. “Tch. Mannerless and honourless. Would it kill you to ask?” He reached into his pocket and pulled out extra glowsticks, cracking and shaking them to life, and offering them to Hana, Percival and Ruka.

Two more smooth successes followed in Dee’s wake and abruptly ended with Alan. Kazuo’s head tilted slightly in confusion as the boy attempted to cast the Dancing Feet spell of all things. His cast backfired and Alan found himself the one dancing. Kazuo facepalmed at the sight which was a good thing because Ileen’s hollered criticism for the Gryffindor might have earned a smile from him and he hardly wanted the girl to see his approval of her suggestion. “Yare yare…” He muttered as the first trial came to a close. “So much overthinking.”

Kazuo leaned back as Kit went on to announce the second part of the trial, a fire-related version of tag where they were expected to douse each other’s torches. As the teams were announced he groaned. “Poor Dee. Henry wouldn’t know teamwork if it bit him on the ass. He’ll probably do something ridiculous like target his own team members.”

Reducio

Outfit

@Ileen Knight @Percival Rainwood @Hanako Tone @Ruka Burnett-Tân

Interactions: @Santario Martin
Mentions: Kit Paine, Katrina Walker, Henry Knight, Alexander Varellion, and Alan Vanes
Open to Interactions

It wouldn't be long after she joined Santario that the event started, the caretaker's voice ringing out through the stadium. He provided something of an explanation to all this, but it was still rather vague and fairly worrisome. The presence of the nurse was reassuring in a sense, as Santario noted. One could argue him being there at all indicated danger to come, though at this point, any Hogwarts event could use someone with medical knowledge present regardless of planned possibility for harm.

Santario voiced the very thing she'd been wondering herself: what was the point of all this? The caretaker had given the start of an answer, citing the need to be proactive. If they wanted to truly prepare the students for the disasters that kept coming at them, why do it this way? Everyone would benefit from something more hands-on, like extra tutoring for the extinguishing spell and practice operating under pressure. This trial thing would surely be somewhat useful, yet observation would only get you so far. "I'm... not sure. The idea seems to be preparing us for danger, I think, by watching them face different challenges." A little late, now that attacks had been happening for about two years. The usefulness of teaching them this way aside, it seemed more likely than not the message and gravity would be lost to the competition.

The trial by fire would be first. It was an interesting set-up, the goal obtaining a token from a table that was on fire. Again, she found herself doubting how useful this would actually be. She could only recall one instance of needing to rescue an object from the flames, and that had been with Vladimir's bag at the Blossom Ball. Every other time it was either a person on fire or the entire room ablaze; the spells that would be relevant to that were different from those the participants might find useful here. Oh well, she was here to support Katrina, so she directed her thought to that. "Are you rooting for anyone?" Maybe Santario was, or maybe she was just here to watch. From the end of their second stage duel, it seemed she might be close to Alan, who was participating tonight.

What the caretaker meant by 'respect the fire', she had no idea. Nonetheless, it was clearly reacting to each participant differently. The twelve had all sorts of approaches, with varying degrees of success. She wasn't sure what she would have done if in their place. Extinguishing the fire had almost seemed too easy, but it was clearly working and it did make sense if this was a proactive event. Why do something complicated when you could eliminate the root of the problem?

It was Katrina's turn. Her eyebrows raised as the fire went crazy, practically erupting. Thankfully she avoided the raining sparks. Though with how violently her fire had reacted, Bridget was worried; whatever was happening was presumably not respecting the fire, and could you blame her? Katrina had harbored a fear of fire for a long time, and while she seemed to be getting over it, Bridget was sure she was still far from a fan of it. And then, for some incomprehensible reason, Katrina ignored her wand, her plethora of spells she knew how to use as a duellist, and made physical contact with the burning table. Instinctively, she reached up, covering her mouth in an expression of disbelief and worry. For all the dramatics of it, her friend's action had worked and she received a bonus token for her efforts, as well as a spike in Bridget's heart rate.

She did not have a particular interest in any of the other participants, though there were a few her vague connections to had her hoping they did well. Henry and Alexander were both on her duelling team, so as teammates and housemates, they had her support. Unfortunately, Henry would emerge from this round empty-handed. Alexander would earn one token. Her support extended to Alan, as well; she'd had some interaction with him in S.W.A.G. Club, later in helping Katrina with her club, and finally as the moderator of her and Santario's last duel. He seemed quite nice, anyway. Though his Tarantallegra backfired, he still managed to get the token in time.

She'd been pretty quiet so far, and it was only now she turned to say something to Santario. "What did you think of that?" Bridget couldn't think of much else to say, so she left it there. Even if Santario didn't have much to add, the silence was fine, not that it was quiet in the stands.

With the first trial over, it was on to the test of unity. It was a logical thing to expose them to, though how helpful would it be to know twelve of them--or six, rather, since they'd be in two teams--were versed in working together? The inclusion of fire after an entire stage focused on it seemed a bit unnecessary, but this was Hogwarts. Did they know how to do anything without something catching flame? Well, it would be interesting to see how this would go and how effective their ten minutes of strategy would be. She was not too fond of the mention of a pressure plate...

Percival felt a small smirk build on his features at Kazou's greeting. "Oh don't worry Kazou. I want everyone to lose equally." he chortled finding the very thought amusing. His eyes gleamed bright with glee at the thought of the chaos that would unfold before his eyes. He wouldn't even have to worry about anything other than making sure to watch out for the best parts. The boy smiled towards Ileen taking a seat between her and Kazuo. Percival would lean towards Kazuo slightly as he huffed out a faint laugh. "I see you must have left a lasting impression." he said referring to Ileen's icy attitude. Before he would turn back towards the field eager to not miss any details.

His gaze flicked towards Ileen as he watched her lean past him. Leaning back slightly to give her space gave him a perfect view of the glowstick she would snatch from the black-haired boy. It dawned on him that he also had not brought anything to help cheer on the participants below. Though, in truth, he wasn't really here to support anyone. Percival watched as the teams were called a chuckle drawing from deep within his throat at Kazuo's comment. Henry Knight was a dormmate he himself did not know on a personal level. Though, the thought of Dealla failing because of a snake was a good one indeed. "This will be interesting to see. I wonder how well Dealla will be able to keep him on track. Though, she does have her big mouth to aide her in her quest." he said in a joking tone.

Interacting with: @Ileen Knight, @Kazuo Shimada
Mentioning: Dealla Prince, Henry Knight

Interacting with @Pericles Dralt

Meenauh listened carefully through all the surrounding noises, the explanation about the kitten and nodded several times, confirming the generous catsitting service Pericles offered to the kitten.

The trials have started and she didn't quite care or paid attention to all the participants, she only wanted to locate Xailah. It was a bit easier compared to the Broom Racing when Xailah not only was on a broom and in full speed but also metamorphed into Aurelia. Pericles pointed at the person with the torch and she gazed around just a little until she finally located the precious friend.

The fire was the trial. And Xailah seemed to be sort of... relaxed? Yes, she has a lot of experience with fire. More than all of them — it's enough to count the balls. But was this one an unusual fire? Well, they wouldn't know. Xailah raised her wand and...

"What?! What the hell was that spell?" Meenauh seemingly raised onto her tiptoes, shoving off the cat down to the floor. The cat didn't like it and jumped back onto the bench in between Pericles and herself. "It's fire! You get rid of the fire and proceed," she exclaimed turning to Pericles, but then quickly turned back as she saw the cringe on his face and gasped as Xailah was practically embracing fire as if she was just fireproof.

Her rolling didn't seem to be successful and her sleeve seemed to be on fire. Meenauh instinctively drew the wand and... carefully put it back. She wasn't sure about the distance. Something clicked in her mind and she created a whole bookshelf in her mind palace for the spells' distances research.

She listened to Pericles and just nodded. Actually, she was shaking her head in disbelief, or discontent that she was actually agreeing with Pericles' dispirited conclusion.


As the participants were divided into groups, Meenauh tried to recognise who was in Xailah's. Two Gryffindor redheads were instantly recognised and then the pale girl she remembered seeing before. The boys on her team were unknown to her at the moment. She wondered whatever task was lying before them in their next trial.

As the rules were announced, Meenauh automatically started to think of the most effective way to extinguish as many torches as possible. Weather spells seemed to be an effective choice as they were an area of effect. But they could also be countered easily. A Wind Jinx could possibly be a smart move, but again, what if the torches were not that easy to extinguish. No one said they were regular torches of regular fire.

She decided to just proceed with watching as it was a team effort and not a duel. As it was all happening at the same time it was hard t see what was happening. She wouldn't see or hear what Xailah cast as a lot of weather spells seemed to be in the works. She facepalmed visibly and kept looking through her fingers. What fear was in this? What was tried?

"How long will this take?" she asked Pericles with an annoyance that could be easily read. She was much freer and much more honest (in her display of emotions) when she was around her friends.

Just as she returned her annoyed gaze back to the show, a geyser of an unpleasant (from the looks of it) substance was released and covered a few people. Her eyes widened and all signs of potential boredom or annoyance faded away as quickly as it was possible.

"What the-" she started, but didn't allow herself to finish. Omnioculars would really help. She needed to learn how to brew some Sight-Enhancing Potion. Father would teach her, she only needed to ask.

She tried to investigate the substance from where she was but it was too far. The voices announced some shadowy figures and it was time for the next trial. There was some symbolism in what was happening. She didn't like symbolism. Extensive symbolism smelled bad. Smelled evil.

She shrugged it off. There was no way it was blood. Such an amount would require several people to donate a lot of blood. But donate blood for a show? It wasn't something professors would allow. It had to be a joke to frighten the children. And she would hate it even more if it was a joke.

"I don't like," she concluded suddenly with a huge frown on her face, "There is no joke to pretend to cover people in blood," she was getting seemingly angry.

She noticed Xailah accepting a towel from Nico. Ha!

"Nico!" she pointed her finger at the redhead, "Nico is-" she lowered her voice, "Nico is a dhampir," she didn't care at that point whether Pericles knew or not, "If it is blood, she'd notice it! And she wouldn't like it, so it's definitely not blood."

She was happy with her quick deduction, but little she knew of Nico's skill of suppressing the urge. That would render all her deduction void. But she had no other way to find out the truth.

As the students we approaching the tents, she automatically readied her wand again. Just in case... Just in case...

Mentioning Xailah, Piérre, Nico, Howard
Interacting with @Meenauh Silmataurea and the cats

Meenauh and Pericles may have looked like altogether different personalities alongside one another: he sat in silent scrutiny, she leapt up and cried out. But beneath the behavior, they felt the same about the situation, both bearing increasingly unfavorable impressions. The drawing of her wand was spied from the corner of an eye. He raised a hand- not to stop her, she had the restraint to do that herself- but to rest lightly against her arm in an attempt at comfort. The same hand then patted the place between them on the bench, encouraging poor Schrodinger to hop up onto a more stable seat.

The next trial placed contestants into teams and pitted them against one another. It sounded straightforward, though the players would still find a way to add an intriguing twist to things. Extinguo was an obvious choice, not in a negative way: it was an easy spell to cast, quick and clean, designed to do exactly what they needed. But Metelojinx to douse opponents combined with the umbrella charm for cover was clever, not to mention entertaining. Although Peri had been rooting for both beneath his quiet state, he would lean forward in fascination as Xailah turned her wand on Piérre, mindful not to squish the latter's Figaro. "How long will this take?" Meenauh asked at his side. Whether or not he caught the rhetoric, Peri answered, absently stroking the kitten on his knee. An attempt was made to balm her annoyance with his signature daydreaming drone. "Before you know it, we three will be laughing about this on our way-"

A dark, gory fluid rained down on a number of contestants, and Pericles was doing anything but laughing. His eyebrows quirked in opposite directions, eyes squinted to slits in an attempt to see clearer, mouth slowly began to bow at the corners. Although he couldn't make out Piérre's expression from so far, he saw the way in which the lad went rigid. Gently, he again covered Figaro's tiny kitten face. A hasty, hushed, utterly discontented exchange took place.
"I don't like."
"Is this some sort of sick joke?"
"There is no joke to pretend to cover people in blood."
"...who are those two, there?"
"Nico! Nico is- Nico is a dhampir."
"Wait, that's Howard White with her... he is, too."
"If it is blood, she'd notice it! And she wouldn't like it, so it's definitely not blood."
"Why would they do this to them? Unless...."

The question was irritable and indignant, then it trailed, Pericles' desperate need to make sense of strange situations quickly setting to work. Underlying outrage simmered, suppressed in favor of observation. "Garish," the boy concluded with an utterly uncharacteristic curl of disdain. He seemed to have come to his own conclusion, but belatedly recalled Meenauh was not a mind-reader, which meant he had to say his thoughts out loud. Pericles speculated coolly: "They've called it the Trial By Fear. Either the organizers believed that their contestants would be too afraid to approach their dhampire peers while covered in blood, or they're using this as some manner of... 'opportunity', to show they are nothing to be afraid of." Believing skepticism to be healthy, he added a polite mumble of "Or so I assume," though his obvious tension indicated he was not pleased with the execution of either possibility.

Kazuo snorted at Percival’s response. “Why am I not surprised? Try not to revel too much in their misery, Rainwood,” He teased with a smirk. There was a sadistic sort of enjoyment to be taken from seeing one’s rivals fail, as with him watching Henry’s failure in the first round. Percival it seemed, was less picky about who he took his sadistic delight in. He glanced back at Ileen when Percival mentioned her and he chuckled. “Yes apparently she’s a bit of a sore loser. Guess it’s a good thing she isn’t in these Trials. I imagine she would fail the team challenge quite spectacularly.” He cast a smirk back at Ileen with the casual insult.

His gaze shifted back to the field as the teams began to assemble, appearing to have come up with their plans. As the challenge began it was difficult to keep track at first as spells were flung rapidly, then eventually things started to resolve into a better picture. Storms and umbrellas and many extinguos. Some out-of-the-box thinking though it failed to beat the head-on tactics of the opposing team. Nothing particularly surprising, though. Rather, it was the organizers who managed to do something surprising. As this was a competition to keep your torch lit it might normally be a safe assumption that the pressure plates would do something that would put out the torch, probably water-related. Yet the organizers seemed to have something a bit sadistic planned instead.

Three students hit the plates. Three students ended up covered in something red and sticky. It definitely wasn’t water though Kazuo wondered if it really was what it appeared to be. Then the towel holders appeared and Kazuo began to chuckle. Howard he knew, Nico he recognized. “Yare yare.(Good grief)” He spoke with amusement. “A hidden test. And it looks like many will fail.” He mused as he watched which students approached for towels and which didn’t. “I wonder if it’s real…”

Reducio

Outfit

@Ileen Knight @Percival Rainwood @Ruka Burnett-Tân

| @Deallah Prince | @Xailah Alptraum | @Meenauh Silmataurea |

What a debacle. Pericles' palms were braced to his knees where he sat, spine straight, eyes downcast at the field. His expression was one of moderate disdain, which was unusually pureblood of him, a far cry from the daydreaming distraction he typically wore. The event had his undivided attention. It sent the little morality cogs churning in his head, dissecting all he had witnessed, weighing feelings against fact, what was being said against what he perceived. Apart from his feelings for the display itself, there was his concern for his friends, who he observed as well as he was able. Xailah seemed to be handling the matter in stride. Objectivity and tenacity were her strengths. Dealla was outraged, and made it quite clear, which came as no surprise. Her strength was being a voice, a force of change and action. One remained relaxed in the rapids, coolly keeping her head above water. The other strove for a means out of them, because what do we have to prove by staying in these rapids anyways?

Peri did not clap when compelled by the organizer, and only half-listened as the next task was announced. He wouldn't be able to see Xailah in the tent, and it seemed his tolerance had tired. A pale finger pointed at the forfeiting Ravenclaw duel captain, and he murmured low to his companion, "I think that's the bravest thing I've seen tonight." With that, he stood, and reached to scoop the mass of Schrodinger up onto his shoulder. "I'm going to check in on Dee, then wait for Xailah to finish out. Will you stay and watch, Meena?" Whether walking alongside her or carefully carrying the cat heap on his own, Pericles had witnessed enough, descending from the spectator stands in an attempt to offer Dealla quiet congratulations on her way.

Exiting Thread

Whatever was happening on the field was already too much to continue watching, or witnessing as merely watching was still implying a possibility to intervene. Which in this particular case Meenauh couldn't achieve. And this was irritating her as if demons were rising inside. Did spells have any travelling distance to lose power? How would she intervene? And what about the consequences? It was a doom-like feeling of helplessness and uncertainty as she wanted to do something to help, but couldn't quite understand what it was. Maybe in the heat of the feeling after the avalanche of spat-out phrases she couldn't quite understand what exactly was her feeling. But she was certain that she was gravely annoyed by the whole essence of this trial, which didn't seem like the good sort of feeling.

Interacting with @Pericles Dralt

When she turned to Pericles, he was already on his feet, putting the fur warm accessory on his shoulder. At the question about staying and watching, all Meenauh's inside jumped up in disallowance as it seemed the only desire was at that moment to leave and grab Xailah with her.

"Don't leave me here! It's a pain to watch. I think I'll go wait for Xailah down below," she actually jumped up after this to grab her bag and throw it over her shoulder in a gracious move, "Let's go. Hopefully, Xailah won't stay until the end of this nonsense," she told Pericles as he started heading towards the exit.

"Though, I'm sure she will," this time to herself in a sad voice as she knew how determined Xailah was in the moments like that, especially if it concerned the mystery to solve.

Leaving the thread after Pericles