17 Dec 2023, 09:30
Sink or Swim?
Joseph stared down into the swirling expanse of water stretched before him, feeling a trickle of fear creep down his spine. Joseph would drown. He was sure about it, no matter what the nurse said to convince him otherwise. Squirming uncomfortably in the little floating device fastened tightly around him, Joseph stole glances at the other students frolicking happily in the water, some chatting enthusiastically about the joys of swimming, which did not help Joseph shake off his feeling of unease the slightest bit.
"It'll be alright," Joseph muttered to himself, giving himself an encouraging nod. Joseph had always longed for a chance to learn how to swim; it was a useful skill, whether or not you know magic, but now gazing down into the deep emptiness of the pool, every bone in his body seemed to be screaming, "Back off!"
Joseph peered curiously at the surface of the water, bending down to allow his fingers to run through it gently. There had to be so much planning behind this, so much preparation. Joseph couldn't possibly see what could go wrong. Yet deep down, questions of doubt still clouded his mind, threatening to make his heart burst open. "Have to do this," Joseph willed himself on, dragging his body to do what it wanted to do least.
"It's now or never," Joseph said, a little too loudly, with a tone of determined finality in his voice. Willing his eyelids to shut, Joseph drew a sharp breath, before plunging headfirst into the pool.
'Plop!' Joseph felt all his breath leave him as he clumsily tumbled into the pool, his hands flailing uselessly by his side, desperately trying to keep him afloat. Groping for the edge of the enormous casserole dish of the pool, Joseph fumbled around aimlessly, his lungs burning for air, before finally with great effort hauling himself back up above the water surface.
"That didn't go very well, did it?" Joseph muttered to himself wryly, between huge gasps of air. To his glee, Joseph noticed that he wasn't the only person struggling to learn how to swim. Only a few paces away, a boy no older than him was thrashing about in the water, much to the laughter of a group of students huddled behind him. Had they been laughing at Joseph too, earlier on?
Gathering all the courage he could muster, Joseph leapt into the water again, trying to analyse how the other students swam. They're kicking their legs... Joseph noticed, attempting to imitate the graceful paddling motion of the other swimmers, but achieving nothing more than a motion giving people the impression he was a heavy elephant drowning in the expansive ocean.
Gritting his teeth, Joseph groaned, frustrated but refusing to concede defeat. He'd learn to swim, even if that was to be the last thing he ever did.
More determined than before, Joseph honed his swimming technique, concentrating on precise kicking and arms motions for the next hour, refusing to call it a day until he could swiftly glide through the water like the swimmers around him.
It took arduous, repeated practice for Joseph to finally confidently swim a few yards to and from his edge of the pool, much to his pleasure. Despite this, the difficulty of the final challenge still loomed over him, threatening to crush Joseph into bits from worry - swimming to other end of the pool, unaided, unscathed. How could he, with so little practice, complete such an impossibly difficult task?
Joseph shuddered, peering in fear at the opposite end of the swimming pool, wondering how he would be able to make it across alive. I can do it. Joseph thought determinedly, though not entirely convinced. Now wasn't the time to back down. Joseph wasn't one to shirk away from hardwork. He was a Hufflepuff, after all.
With a last intake of air, Joseph dived into the icy waters of the pool...
Joseph's breaths came out in ragged gasps. Every stroke seemed to take up so much energy Joseph hardly knew how much longer he could go. Where's the end? Joseph thought desperately, his strokes becoming increasingly panicked and frantic. Surely he was nearing the end of the pool. He had to be. But what if he wasn't?
Joseph's hearted thumped wildly against his chest, his lungs burning for air, as he propelled himself forward. He couldn't last a lot longer... just a few more strokes...
Then he saw it. Only a couple of metres away, the end of the pool was visible, marking the end of Joseph's underwater journey. With newfound energy and hope, Joseph willed himself on, pushing himself to the end of the pool.
Splash! Joseph heaved a massive gulp of air as his head finally broke the surface of the water. He had made it. He had done the impossible. He could swim. Enjoying the moment, Joseph shut his eyes blissfully, letting a sigh escape his lips. He had never felt so grateful to be able to be breathing, and he was sure he would never be more grateful than at that moment.
Word Count: 846/600
"It'll be alright," Joseph muttered to himself, giving himself an encouraging nod. Joseph had always longed for a chance to learn how to swim; it was a useful skill, whether or not you know magic, but now gazing down into the deep emptiness of the pool, every bone in his body seemed to be screaming, "Back off!"
Joseph peered curiously at the surface of the water, bending down to allow his fingers to run through it gently. There had to be so much planning behind this, so much preparation. Joseph couldn't possibly see what could go wrong. Yet deep down, questions of doubt still clouded his mind, threatening to make his heart burst open. "Have to do this," Joseph willed himself on, dragging his body to do what it wanted to do least.
"It's now or never," Joseph said, a little too loudly, with a tone of determined finality in his voice. Willing his eyelids to shut, Joseph drew a sharp breath, before plunging headfirst into the pool.
'Plop!' Joseph felt all his breath leave him as he clumsily tumbled into the pool, his hands flailing uselessly by his side, desperately trying to keep him afloat. Groping for the edge of the enormous casserole dish of the pool, Joseph fumbled around aimlessly, his lungs burning for air, before finally with great effort hauling himself back up above the water surface.
"That didn't go very well, did it?" Joseph muttered to himself wryly, between huge gasps of air. To his glee, Joseph noticed that he wasn't the only person struggling to learn how to swim. Only a few paces away, a boy no older than him was thrashing about in the water, much to the laughter of a group of students huddled behind him. Had they been laughing at Joseph too, earlier on?
Gathering all the courage he could muster, Joseph leapt into the water again, trying to analyse how the other students swam. They're kicking their legs... Joseph noticed, attempting to imitate the graceful paddling motion of the other swimmers, but achieving nothing more than a motion giving people the impression he was a heavy elephant drowning in the expansive ocean.
Gritting his teeth, Joseph groaned, frustrated but refusing to concede defeat. He'd learn to swim, even if that was to be the last thing he ever did.
More determined than before, Joseph honed his swimming technique, concentrating on precise kicking and arms motions for the next hour, refusing to call it a day until he could swiftly glide through the water like the swimmers around him.
It took arduous, repeated practice for Joseph to finally confidently swim a few yards to and from his edge of the pool, much to his pleasure. Despite this, the difficulty of the final challenge still loomed over him, threatening to crush Joseph into bits from worry - swimming to other end of the pool, unaided, unscathed. How could he, with so little practice, complete such an impossibly difficult task?
Joseph shuddered, peering in fear at the opposite end of the swimming pool, wondering how he would be able to make it across alive. I can do it. Joseph thought determinedly, though not entirely convinced. Now wasn't the time to back down. Joseph wasn't one to shirk away from hardwork. He was a Hufflepuff, after all.
With a last intake of air, Joseph dived into the icy waters of the pool...
Joseph's breaths came out in ragged gasps. Every stroke seemed to take up so much energy Joseph hardly knew how much longer he could go. Where's the end? Joseph thought desperately, his strokes becoming increasingly panicked and frantic. Surely he was nearing the end of the pool. He had to be. But what if he wasn't?
Joseph's hearted thumped wildly against his chest, his lungs burning for air, as he propelled himself forward. He couldn't last a lot longer... just a few more strokes...
Then he saw it. Only a couple of metres away, the end of the pool was visible, marking the end of Joseph's underwater journey. With newfound energy and hope, Joseph willed himself on, pushing himself to the end of the pool.
Splash! Joseph heaved a massive gulp of air as his head finally broke the surface of the water. He had made it. He had done the impossible. He could swim. Enjoying the moment, Joseph shut his eyes blissfully, letting a sigh escape his lips. He had never felt so grateful to be able to be breathing, and he was sure he would never be more grateful than at that moment.
Word Count: 846/600
Last edited by Joseph Sims on 17 Dec 2023, 11:06, edited 2 times in total.
Life is like a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans; you never know what you are going to get.
17 Dec 2023, 14:59
Sink or Swim?
▼ See information below ▼
ReducioDon't know how to swim? Need to be rescued? The little lifeguards have you covered! An unofficial group of 6 young students has taken it upon themselves to help ensure no one dies during this errand. If your character needs rescuing or has some other need for a lifeguard, please use the steps below:
- Owl Finnegan Conner on site using the form below.
- If we have a rescuer available, Finnegan will confirm this back to you and make sure that you and your rescuer get in touch.
- Rescues will happen within this errand mass thread, unless you and your rescuer decide to do otherwise.
- Have fun and live to tell the tale!
▼ Rescue request form ▼
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Specifying your desired rescuer is optional. If no preference is given, a rescuer will be assigned to your emergency at random.Code: Select all
Name: <insert your character's name here> Post: <link to the post where you rescue/assistance> Preferred rescuer: <Name a rescuer if you have a preference. Leave blank otherwise> Context: <Optionally provide some context about your character's emergency>
▼ Little Lifeguards ▼
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
▼ OOC Note ▼
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━The moderators running this errand are aware of this group of voluntary lifeguard students and have approved them. Please note that the little lifeguards operate in an unofficial capacity. There is no special benefit or reward to making use of the little lifeguards, nor is anyone else prevented from rescuing students that take part in the errand.
The internal battle that had commenced prior to this very moment was one for the history books. Astra had been thoroughly appalled, terrified even, at the prospect of swimming. Why? She did not entirely know, only that it had something to do with the Fall Ball.
At first, the child was enticed by house points. Who wouldn't be? Then she saw the word "swim" and it seemed like something seized up inside her, making it difficult to breathe. This had quite honestly scared the girl, to the point where she was too anxious to eat, her stomach knotting in coils, and too worried to sleep, her body tense and rigid.
Her logic worked overtime. Well, it's a pool, not the Lake. And you can obviously swim, whether it be a pool or river or lake. So what do you have to lose?
The reassurance that this was a pool and not the lake was what kept Astra on her course as she dressed in first her black swimsuit, then an old T-shirt and shorts. She tied her hair back in as tight of a ponytail as she could on the way down, carrying in her satchel a tightly folded change of clothes.
Well, this reassurance, and also the tiny commitment she had made as an impromptu lifeguard.
See, Finnegan Conner, Bane of Leveret and Target of Sabotage, had left up little recruitment notes for an impromptu lifeguard service. After all, there were only three people watching the who knows how many incompetent children flounder about in the pool. Someone could drown. And that would not look good in the papers.
So Astra in a great move of self-sacrifice had signed up. Hyperion taught her to swim in a river so pools shouldn't be too hard. Neither should lakes.
Oh shut up.
Astra arrived in the Great Hall only to be met with a greatly enlarged casserole dish. The sight was strange surely, bit Astra found she was not surprised.
The new nurse, Sabo, wasn't it? She offered a flotation device which Astra politely declined before doing a swimmer's dive into the water.
Maybe that summer of swim team really will be helpful.
Despite the busy-ness of the Norrick house, Hyperion and Morella always found ways to get Roderick and Astra into extracurriculars. First it had been football (which Astra loathed), then basketball for several years, then the most recent stints gymnastics for the school year and swim team for the summer.
I'll have to thank Mum.
Astra sliced through the water like a knife through butter, dolphin kicking as was custom till she rose to the surface again, racing across the pool with powerful strokes. One, two, three, breathe. When she reached the opposite end, she attempted a flip turn. Astra was not good at flip turns. She floundered for a moment, all turned around, but was off again within seconds.
Nice to know I still got it.
The redhead heaved herself out of the pool and walked to her bag, wet feet slapping on the ground. From her satchel she produced a towel.
Patting dry and wringing the excess water out of her hair, she made her way over to a boy in the corner. The one, the only, Finnegan Conner, Bane of Leveret and Target of Sabotage. She heard the girl currently retrieving her whistle and armband, Marshmallow Girl if she remembered correctly, give him a heads up about Elsian before rushing off to save someone. So Bex, got it. An anti-sabotager.
Astra also retrieved her armband and whistle, swinging the plastic noise piece around for a second before saying "Astra Norrick at your service. You really did a number on Leveret, you know. Great casting." She then walked back to the pool, leaning on the edge with the whistle between her teeth.647/600
17 Dec 2023, 15:57
Sink or Swim?
▼ See information below ▼
ReducioDon't know how to swim? Need to be rescued? The little lifeguards have you covered! An unofficial group of 6 young students has taken it upon themselves to help ensure no one dies during this errand. If your character needs rescuing or has some other need for a lifeguard, please use the steps below:
- Owl Finnegan Conner on site using the form below.
- If we have a rescuer available, Finnegan will confirm this back to you and make sure that you and your rescuer get in touch.
- Rescues will happen within this errand mass thread, unless you and your rescuer decide to do otherwise.
- Have fun and live to tell the tale!
▼ Rescue request form ▼
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Specifying your desired rescuer is optional. If no preference is given, a rescuer will be assigned to your emergency at random.Code: Select all
Name: <insert your character's name here> Post: <link to the post where you rescue/assistance> Preferred rescuer: <Name a rescuer if you have a preference. Leave blank otherwise> Context: <Optionally provide some context about your character's emergency>▼ Little Lifeguards ▼
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━▼ OOC Note ▼
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━The moderators running this errand are aware of this group of voluntary lifeguard students and have approved them. Please note that the little lifeguards operate in an unofficial capacity. There is no special benefit or reward to making use of the little lifeguards, nor is anyone else prevented from rescuing students that take part in the errand.
Madison was super excited!! Once she heard that the Great Hall was being turned into a huge swimming pool, she knew she had to get in and have some fun with everyone else that was there. She had done a bit of swimming with her brother when they were younger, travelling to so many places whilst her dad was playing Quidditch, Madison and her brother went swimming in different lakes a lot. They’d met some other children, whose parents were Quidditch players, and swam in lakes with them sometimes, though always with a parent nearby in case something happened. The point being was that Madi, at her age, was a very strong swimmer and therefore, could help the not so strong swimmers get better, and also not drown. The thought of drowning still scared Madi slightly, floating from her incident at the Fall Ball a few months ago.
Madison arrived with her light pink one-piece swimsuit underneath a top and skirt. She then took off her skirt and top, made sure she’d used a special non frizzing lotion on her hair, so that it didn’t go all frizzy once she got out of the water. She noticed other kids were enjoying themselves and so Madison smiled. She went into the water and, though it was a little chilly, it soon became a bearable temperature, and she swam a few laps of the pool. Madi did freestyle for her laps since it was her strongest stroke. Her older brother James had taught her a good breathing technique that meant Madison was able to go faster, and longer, without breathing as much. She would do two strokes and then breathe just before her third stroke, repeating rhythm that with each lap.
Despite Madison’s incident at the Fall Ball in which she was dragged under water by a Grindylow, being within the walls of the Great Hall, with teachers and other students around, Madison knew she was safe. Once she had swum a couple of lengths of the pool, Madison stopped at the end she started her laps and started treading water, a technique in which your legs work in tandem with your arms to keep you afloat without using another form of floatation device.
Madison also saw her friend Remedy, and smiled at her politely, though she didn’t smile back. This made Madison feel uncomfortable, but she tried to shrug it off and focus on having fun in the pool! However, as she swam a few more laps, she couldn’t help but think back to the time when Helena Rose got her howler and Remedy’s last name had come up in the letter. Oh, fizzing whizzbees, that may be why Remedy is ignoring me, because I came to Helena’s aid and didn’t ignore it!! I guess the sorting hat put me in the right house then, I truly am nice to a fault, of course Madison thought to herself.
Madison decided to distract herself by going over to Finnegan, where he handed her a bright yellow, fluorescent armband, and a plastic whistle on a bit of string. Once Madison put the stuff on, she walked back over to the pool and waited with the whistle in her mouth. Other kids were already having to be rescued, so Madison figured it was only a matter of time before she would have to go in and rescue someone too, facing her fear of going under the surface of the water again. Madison took some deep breaths and waited. She watched the other kids in the pool as they swam around, good thing the teachers have some of us students with them, though not many kids are drowning or having trouble swimming, which I guess is a good sign Madison thought to herself.
623/600
Abilities: Lovely Creature and Charmer
Last edited by Madison Bennett on 26 Dec 2023, 10:35, edited 3 times in total.
'Don't be afraid to shine, even if the rest of the world have turned their lights off' Sta - 7 | Eva - 6| Str - 6| Wis - 9| Arc - 5| Acc - 7 |
18 Dec 2023, 09:15
Sink or Swim?
Flynn couldn't help but chuckle at Harmony's depiction of drowning, whether or not it was on purpose she'd calmed his nerve a little especially seeing she seemed to have a better grasp on the various aids that lined the pool then most of the caregivers that were meant to be looking after them.
"I think I'll pass on a life jacket I hope I'm not that hopeless" as he watched Harmony dove into the, it looked a little awkward but had a gracefulness to it. Well at least he knew he had good company incase things were to go pear shaped.
As Flynn cautiously followed the footsteps left by his buddy the confliction in his chest grew and grew, he was still tentative about what could be but also seeing Harmony patiently wading in the water showed him that there surely can't be anything in the water if she's in there. It all reached a head as Flynns toes tipped over the edge and he was staring down at the baby blue reflection who wore the same mix of expressions as he was, with Harmony edging him on Flynn decided the time wouldn't get any better and that he would just go for it.
Flynn decided to go with the cautious approach and put one leg in first before fulling commiting, however, his apprehension would prove to be his downfall, as Flynns foot was slowly submerged in the water the unexpected chill of the water caused him to hesitate and tense up, this caused him to lose balance and be unceremoniously dumped into the cold depths, this surprising turn of events sparked a instinctual albeit unsightly spasming as Flynn tried to right himself without knowing which way was up. After what felt like a long time fighting for control over his body Flynn breached the surface and sucked in a huge gasp of air, as he quickly grasped the edge of the food dish he grabbed whatever long thing Harmony had given him, as he gained enough sense to watch Harmony demonstrate on what to do Flynn was soon free floating on the long noodle looking thing.
"Ok... that could've gone a little better, tell me I didn't just make an absolute fool of myself" he looked at Harmony for some form of reassurance as he now really quickly wanted to learn to swim so he could cover up his mistake with some half decent swimming to make it look like an accident. As Harmony had shown him Flynn begins kicking his feet to propel himself around the pool his kicks were, admittedly, very brutish as he seemed to kick up more water then humanly possible but was able to move himself forward despite his inefficient movements due to the brute force he was able to apply in each kick. As he kicked more he slowly kicked up less water as he realised kicking up a waterfall wouldn't help move any faster and by the time he'd made his way around the pool he resembled something more competent in terms of kicking, content with his progress he turned to Harmony, "What now?" Flynn said as his characteristic grin started to reappear on his face.interacting with @Harmony Hollins
WC 541+635(previous post) = 1,176
Last edited by Flynn Montgomery on 28 Dec 2023, 00:06, edited 2 times in total.
18 Dec 2023, 17:38
Sink or Swim?
Mentions: @Astra Norrick Wc: /200 English, Thoughts, Others OOC Notes: I already have someone helping Del:)
Moods and More!
“You're braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think”
18 Dec 2023, 18:16
Sink or Swim?
SPEECH
self | thoughts | "others speaking"INTERACTIONS AND MENTIONS
open to interactions◤━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◥As more and more students arrived in the Great Hall, Ophelia felt her space in the makeshift pool shrink. Still, she kept her therapeutic swimming. The pattern and mindlessness of it helped her calm down from the recent stress and the excitement of the upcoming holidays.
More than once, Ophelia heard people screaming out for help. Though she could swim, she couldn't blame them. The dish was deep and it could easily feel like they were drowning at the slightest shift of the water, especially if they didn't know how to swim. She mostly ignored people's calls for help. She'd seen the posters around the school that had been asking for volunteer lifeguards and she knew that the nurse and the prefect would save anyone in any dire situation. Still, whenever anyone called out, her heart stopped for a moment, before their calls died down and there were splashes as they were retrieved and rescued.
Stopping mid stroke, Ophelia gazed around. The pool, as she'd guessed, was full of students, either swimming or learning to swim. It reminded her of the beaches that she'd spent her childhood in, except much, much smaller. People around her were laughing at each other as they tried their first stroke, talking to each other, or just lazily floating to enjoy the water.
Feeling tired all of a sudden, Ophelia moved to the outer ring of the dish. There was just enough room on the side for her to sit comfortably, her legs dangling in the water. Pulling herself onto the ledge and sitting up straight, she watched the scene before her.◣━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━◢
☽ Ophelia Lynn Northwell | i have a whole universe in my mind | Aurélie Nathalie Duval ☾
18 Dec 2023, 23:47
Sink or Swim?
| the seconds are relentless, i'm helpless as they keep flying by... | japanese - english⠀⠀ |
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
I'M WALKING ON MY WAY ALL ALONE⠀
STAMINA • 9 | EVASION • 12 | STRENGTH • 2 | WISDOM • 7 | ARC POWER• 4 | ACCURACY • 10 |  |  |  |
| ⠀ | It was Sunday, December 10th, 2023. For Kim, it was a day like any other day. Yet another 24 hours of being on this earth and cursed to lose everything and everyone he came to care about. It was why he'd taken it upon himself to revert back to how he'd been back in the past. Closed off from interactions with others, unless they were absolutely necessary to being a student. Or regarding the responsibilities he'd taken on, such as running or co-running a club. Despite his current mindset, Kim retained the ability to finish off his homework and complete the itinerary for all his clubs by the end of Saturday. Which in turn meant Sunday was completely free for him. With nothing much to do, Kim decided to grab a bite to eat because he hadn't eaten for a few days and his stomach and body were rebelling against him. Once he'd filled his stomach, he would then head outside to write some song lyrics and probably do some sketching too. After that, he'd check up on the plants inside the greenhouse. Well, that was his plan at least, until he reached the Great Hall and found the 4 main tables pushed to either side of the large room. What was this??? It took him a few seconds to realize what had gone on here. The fourteen year old's first thought had been someone had done an elaborate prank and moved all the tables to see the reactions of the students. The extremely large casserole dish in the center was just an added flourish to the prank. But upon seeing the new nurse there, along with the new Potions professor and Xailah, Kim quickly understood that it was actually an official errand that was being held in the Great Hall at this particular time. Not the work of some prankster. That made it decidedly less interesting to him. A sigh escaped his lips as he lingered in the doorway for a few seconds or so. To go in or not go in, that was the question. Kim was currently dressed in a black turtleneck shirt with a white long-sleeved button-up shirt lightly resting over it with black pants and a belt securing the outfit together. On top of that was a black leather jacket which seemed to fit him rather well. Unfortunately, a large crowd began to gather inside. Kim tended to avoid crowds for various reasons. This was not a place he would feel comfortable in right now. But maybe he could just let everyone else go ahead of him. Once they'd left or were occupied elsewhere, he'd eventually take his own turn there. For whatever this was. Ah, it probably had to do with swimming or saving others? As the nurse went on to explain things, Kim nodded. Yup, he'd been correct with his assumption from before. Thankfully, he was pretty good at swimming, he'd saved a few people from drowning out in the Great Lake in the past. Hopefully, he wouldn't have to save any others in the future. Prove that he could swim to those in charge of the errand and then be allowed to finish it? Simple. But there were so many people there right now. Kim definitely wasn't going to start anytime soon. Once there were only a few people left... That's when he'd dive in. It wasn't as if there was a time limit, right? He watched from the sidelines as various students went off to try their luck in the water of the casserole dish out there. Some were good at swimming, others seemed as if they didn't know how to do it at all. And then there were some who were in between the two. Some of them even seemed as if they hadn't known they could swim! Kim continued to watch them one by one, content to just watch from the sidelines, away from the majority of people there. The dark haired teen's thoughts strayed as he watched them and his eyes glazed over. | ⠀ |
| kim sato tone bakugo | sta • 10 | eva • 18 | str • 2 | wis • 10 | arc • 7 | acc • 20 sta • 10 | eva • 16 | str • 15 | wis • 7 | arc • 4 | acc • 18 |
PC ENCY iNPC ENCY |
21 Dec 2023, 02:56
Sink or Swim?
☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆
additional notes. feel free to interact!
interacting with. n/a, mentioned
☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆ ★ ✮ ★ ☆Bailey smiled as she changed into her favorite bathers- blue and white and gold, secure enough not to move but flattering as well. Bailey doubted that she would ever be confident as some girls were, to wear a bikini. She admired girls that were confident like that, and wished she could be like them, but that wasn't who she was personally.
Bailey slipped on a robe and sandals on over her bathers, before grabbing her over the shoulder bag and crossing her dorm to leave. In her bag bailey had her wand, a book, a water bottle and a small towel - her thought process was that she could cast either Engorgio or Aer Calidus - to either make her towel larger, or to use warm air to dry herself off.
it is really handy to be a witch..... makes carrying things easier, i can just shrink them bailey thought as she bustled through the corridors, making her way as quickly as she could to the Great hall.
As she slipped into the great hall bailey caught most of nurse @Dusana Sabo's speech, and she smiled to herself, happy that someone had decided to teach the other kids how to swim - the rumors about people almost drowning or drowning kept growing and it was quite disturbing.
Bailey looked around the room - she spotted the prefect @Xailah Alptraums that the nurse had mentioned, a large bunch of first years, and …. Baileys heart fluttered excitedly and simultaneously sunk. She had spotted @Kim Sato, but it didn’t look like he had seen her yet.
Since her dear friend @ Hanako Tone had helped her to realize her true… feelings, emotions, towards Kim, Bailey had done anything and everything she could to keep their relationship like a normal, best friends-ship would be. Kim though, was the hard part. He had withdraw practically completely from the world- he was far too solemn and seemed too desolate to be normal, far more than any other teenager Bailey knew.
Bailey was at her wits end trying to figure out what her emotions were let alone trying to rectify the Kim - emotions missing - problem, and she had decided that today she would simply swim and have fun. She had always been a natural in the water, anyways, and had loved swimming even from a young age.
There were plenty of lakes in the forests of Poland that Bailey spent her summers swimming in, and Bailey missed her more care free days, simply spending her days in the water. As she grew older she matured, as anyone would, but she felt a certain responsibility to make the world a better place. Bailey had taken this mantle in stride, and thus went to take off her robe, leaving it with her bag and shoes.
Heading towards the nurse and her prefect assistant, Bailey waited her turn to get into the impromptu pool. Once she had reached the front of the line she would show she could tread or swim front crawl/ free style depending on where you’re from lmao, or whatever they required. Before moving on Bailey would make sure to show her appreciation to the Nurse or prefect Xailah with a simple “thank you so much for doing this!”
Simply happy to be in the water, and not in a dress like she has been at the fall ball Bailey smiled and looked around for someone to talk to, a new face or old. She kept her eyes peeled for someone who needed help as well, as she had a similar mission as the nurse- turn the large number of almost drowning and such into a smaller or non existent number.
ReducioLMAO sorry if not all of this makes the most sleep- I wrote it in several different times, and atm am a bit tired- I apologize if the last 200/400 ish words are less coherent compared to the beginning
Love y’allthanks for reading my rambling
we are all born beautiful. it is a tragedy we are convinced that we are not”
iNPC: Lloyd Matthews Thomas
Main account: Bailey Glade
21 Dec 2023, 15:22
Sink or Swim?
| Date | : | December 10th, 2023 |
| Color code | : | Written|Thought|Said |
Sere heard about the 'Teaching Hogwarts Students How to Swim' program held by the new nurse Dusana Sabo from a conversation she had with several other Gryffindors in the common room. Sere herself feels that the activity that would be held is something weird, considering that the venue itself is in the Great Hall. I know it's impossible to do outdoor swimming training at this season, but... in the Great Hall? How could that possibly make sense? There's no way they're going to grow a casserole dish to the size of a swimming pool and fill it with some kind of water-producing spell, right?
"Whoa..."
Sere opened her mouth until she could feel like her jaw is dropping, alive, and moving of its own desire. How could is this really possible?! What Sere's seeing now is the Great Hall with four long tables that already pushed to the corner. Then, the one in the middle of the hall is what Sere had guessed jokingly: a casserole dish sized as swimming pool full of water. "This is incredibly-insanely amazing." Amazing for the situation she found now and for her joking guess that was right on target.
Today Sere was wearing a full long-sleeved swimsuit -it was the only swimsuit she had brought to Hogwarts- with her arms bring a set of clean clothes and a towel. She placed the things she brought on one of the long tables in the corner before saying "Alright! Let's having fun!" to herself.
Sere can swim. This girl took her first swimming lesson at the age of seven when she followed her parents on a business trip to Seattle. She asked for swimming lessons to fill her spare time, rather than just staying at the hotel. She also had a snorkeling experience when -again- following her parents' summer business trip two years ago to the one of beautiful island called Bali which is located in Southeast Asia.
In contrast to the previous experiences, this is her first time swimming in winter season. Sere stepped in line with the students who were waiting their turn for the test before they could actually freely enter the casserole-dish pool. She watches the student taking turn to showcase their ability. Some of them can swim and some other are potential beginners, but there are a large portion of the students who couldn't swim. Ah, so that's why the nurse held this training.
Sere looked at Dusana who was dressed like a lifeguard in red and yellow, and also the seventh-year beside the nurse that she knew as the Prefect of Gryffindor. Apart from that, on various sides of the pool there are also lifeguards who are none other than the volunteering students. It took a long time until Sere realized that her turn is coming. This girl tied up her hair into a ponytail and starts doing simple warm-ups that she learned four years ago.
Sere put the tip of her feet into the water so that her body wouldn't be shocked by the temperature, and then splashing herself in. Oh my, it's colder than I thought! Sere shuddered slightly, but then quickly and easily demonstrated her ability to move side to side in the pool. She doesn't need a life vest to help her floating. Everything gone smoothly, now she is already swimming and having fun with herself.
Sere can feel the freshness while swimming here and there. It seems like being free from all the fatigue caused by herself. She forced herself to do all her winter homeworks and targeted to finish it before the winter holidays actually started. Sere looked around, realizing that actually there are several students she knew are now also being here, but none of them are really close to her. Oh c'mon! How many acquaintances have you turned into close friends, Sere? Not that much, right? The girl shook her head to get rid of the disturbing voice that suddenly emerged from inside her own head.
Sere swung her arms and legs, started swimming again, letting her limbs carry her along the refreshing water. It doesn't matter, I still have a lot of other time to think about that 'friend' things, she let her loneliness dissolve with the water, now I will just free myself to having fun.
Word Count: 714/600
Last edited by Sere Nade on 24 Dec 2023, 08:08, edited 1 time in total.
21 Dec 2023, 19:54
Sink or Swim?
Hex Colour:
#8C94E9
✿✿✿
Aly Salinger already knew how to swim. Could she swim well? - well, no, probably not like a fish, but she could at least exist in water without drowning. Quidditch athleticism, an attempt at a triathlon a few summers back, and a few Salinger family lake trips in her youth had prepared her well enough for that, at least.
Most of the people in the flooded hall were first- and second-years, and Aly had expected that, at least. Very rarely did people her age come to these Hogwarts castle events, or so she had found; she was usually the only fifth-year, or at least one of a small group, whenever professors hosted things like this. Or, in this case, the nurse. Aly eyed the new woman with apprehension as the swimsuit-clad, curly-haired Ravenclaw slipped into the water. She hadn't been to the Hospital Wing since the blonde's appointment as the new school Healer, though it wasn't for dislike of the witch - she didn't know her yet. But despite technically probably still being a Healing intern from when she'd signed up during her third year, Aly was growing farther and farther from her previous desire to be a Healer by the day. She had bigger dreams to follow now.
Crossing the hall without help? I can do that, easy, Aly thought as her whole body was racked with a shiver - the water was colder than she had expected. Perhaps getting in all at once hadn't been the smartest idea, but Aly was book-smart, not street-smart... obviously. All right, let's do this. Just a lap, to prove you can still swim. To yourself. Not to them.
She didn't need to prove anything to anyone.
And so Aly pushed off the wall, cutting at a decent pace through the water with out-of-practice, but still strong, arm flailing and a few weaker kicks. As a Quidditch player, her arms were definitely more toned and defined than her legs, and it showed in every stroke. No, she did not slice through the water like a knife or a fish, but she was, at the very, very least, a human who could swim.
Dodging the thrashing first-years in the water was a bit more difficult, though. Aly nearly bumped into a few of the younger students on her watery way across the makeshift pool, trying not to hit any of them - or get hit by their waving limbs. Merlin, hadn't anyone taught these children to swim before?
...oh. That's the whole point, innit?
After what seemed like an eternity to the curly-haired Ravenclaw, who had luckily tied said curls back in a tight braid before entering the water (luckily because the large mass of her frizzy mane likely would have suffocated her if it had been wettened whilst loose), Aly finally made it to the other side of the Great Hall. Sure, there was a bit of water up her nose and in her mouth, but she hadn't drowned, and that much was all she had needed. She would never be a champion swimmer, but it would suffice.
Still, though, Aly didn't get out of the water quite yet. The nurse had said that once they proved themselves to her, they could swim freely about as they desired, hadn't she? And so the fifth-year took a deep breath of the cool, still air of the hall, letting the oxygen inflate tired lungs inside her chest; the rest of her body soon followed, bobbing upwards to float in a star-like shape atop the crests and small waves of the makeshift lake. There she floated - peaceful. Serene. Her ears just beneath the top of the water, so that all of the shouts and yells from the swimming lessons soon faded away, muffled by the pressure and the liquid. After all she'd been through this semester, she could use a little calm.
✿ 642/600 ✿
gen1 Aly Salinger || gen1 iNPC Manu Macedo || gen2 Kahira Valerian || staff Aulis Vorozheykin