24 Feb 2024, 12:03
Cold day and a new friendship
Another windy day. Another private training session. Haley was on her way to the training pitch again, broom in hand, her red hair in a high braid and the wind whipping through the trees. After running a long lap in the morning after breakfast and working on her essay, she decided to use the rest of the day for Quidditch practice. That way she could clear her head, do something she enjoyed and, above all, get better. The season was in full swing and Haley wanted to do everything she could to improve her performance with every training session.
English: #008000 Parsel: #008080
@Aaron Jones
When the young Gryffindor entered the field with her broom she was alone but it was no wonder. It was cold and windy but she was glad of it. She swung her leg over her broom and with one powerful push she was airborne. She loved that feeling. It was like the first time every time. Flying. She loved this magical world. She skillfully climbed high into the air and did a few laps over the field to warm up. Then she began to incorporate the first maneuvers, abrupt changes of direction and fast flights. Her cheeks had already turned red from the cold, but she didn't feel it. She focused solely on herself and her broom and tried to improve her weaknesses and mistakes. She practiced for what felt like an eternity on a maneuver where she always slipped off the broom and couldn't get it right. It took her about 15 minutes without getting it right and she decided to take a break and start practicing her quaffles.
She flew a long lamp and landed on the pitch, put the broom to one side and stretched. The long time sitting on the broom was noticeable every time and she stretched her legs, arms and back before grabbing the Quaffle and making a few throws at the rings. It would be nicer to have a keeper with her, but since she had decided to train so spontaneously, she would have to train under simplified conditions today. However, she would make the best of it and work more on her throwing power. With the quaffle under her arm, she took to the air again and began with simple throws at the rings before moving on to more specific exercises.
The only one who fear death are those with regrets
25 Feb 2024, 20:06
Cold day and a new friendship
Aaron had gotten his Silver Arrow just over a month ago now, but he was still amazed at how different it was from his Moontrimmer. The Silver Arrow was so much faster, and it could cut corners unlike any broom he'd ridden before. Recently his training sessions were spent reworking some of his existing broom tricks to accommodate the newfound speed and agility. That included working with Chae-rin to fix the timings on some of the prop drops she did, but the bird wasn't around just yet. So he headed down to the training pitch alone that afternoon, intending to workshop a new trick instead.
As Aaron approached the training area (by foot for once), he noticed someone else was already there. It wasn't unusual to share the area with other students, but the cold and windy weather like this usually kept them indoors. Aaron had grown to enjoy weather like this though, because it gave extra practice against the elements themselves.
As the Hufflepuff teen got closer, vague recognition dawned in his eyes. He was usually really good with names and faces, but a name wasn't coming to mind. What did come to mind was his days on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. Maybe she had been a player on another team? A player he'd never met? She took off into the sky with a quaffle under her arm just as he reached the edge of the pitch. Normally he would leave her to do her thing, but as he watched for a few seconds, he realized she was trying to do some Quidditch training drills. Drills that would be a lot easier with a second person. Motivated by wanting to know why the girl seemed familiar, Aaron mounted his Silver Arrow in a fluid motion and pushed off from the ground.
"Hey!" Aaron called out once he was close enough, waving an arm to make himself more visible. When she showed a sign of acknowledgement, he egged his broom to get closer until he was hovering a few feet in front of her. "Hey, I'm Aaron. I saw you doing some chaser drills - do you want a training partner?" he asked, gesturing to the quaffle in her hands. "I was a chaser for Hufflepuff years ago, so I'm pretty familiar."
@Haley Rose
Aaron has a Calming Presence.Your presence simply puts others at ease, if it is your carefree personality or the trust others have in you, the result is still the same. With you there, perhaps through your encouragement, your allies are able to better focus.
Aaron is a Lovely Creature.You are so incredibly beautiful, it is hard to take ones eyes off of you.
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
2nd Gen PC: Idalia della Torre
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Idalia
8 Mar 2024, 11:28
Cold day and a new friendship
Haley flew little maneuvers that would make a lot more sense if she had someone to pass the quaffle back and forth with. But that didn't stop her from training. The heat had risen to her face at the same time as the cold and her skin was beginning to burn. The wind rushed next to her ears, the clouds gathered over her head and her thoughts were fixated only on the Quaffles. Just as she was about to make her next throw, she was startled to hear an unfamiliar voice behind her. Distracted and startled she threw, the quaffle landed bluntly against the center ring and went to the ground, while she turned around on the broom and saw an unknown person on a broom. At least unknown by name, the face she had seen many times in the castle and probably on the field.
English: #008000 Parsel: #008080
@Aaron Jones
"Hey there." She gave him a friendly smile, others might have been annoyed because they were no longer alone or interrupting training but not Haley. She was always open to new encounters and this one even offered to train with her. Haley grinned broadly at his offer and approached him. "Nice to meet you Aaron, I'm Haley. And sure, that would be awesome since it's not that easy to do it alone." She laughed and as she flew to him she held out her fist for a quick greeting. "Well, I can learn from a pro, how could I pass up this opportunity?“ She winked at him and spun her broom. "What position are you playing now? Or have you retired already?" He looked a little older than Haley, surely he had more experience in the game and Haley really had the opportunity to learn something from him.
“Wanna start with some passing and warm up?" she asked the Hufflepuff boy. She was sure this would be a good start. After all, he hadn't warmed up yet and they could get a feel for each other. She herself had underestimated how important it was to know your playing partner and adapt to each other when she first started playing Quidditch. "I hope the weather doesn't put you off." Her gaze wandered upwards towards the sky, which was now gray from all the clouds. The wind had also picked up and the first few raindrops were landing on her skin. Haley herself was a summer child, but she also appreciated the cool weather, the rain and loved thunderstorms. Above all, she wouldn't interrupt her training because of a bit of rain, the games also take place in such weather and so this was also a great training session.
The only one who fear death are those with regrets
15 Mar 2024, 04:53
Cold day and a new friendship
"Sorry," Aaron immediately said, realizing he had startled the girl into missing her shot. He offered a sheepish smile as she returned his greeting and approached. "And nice to meet you too!" Of course he returned the fist bump that was offered, immediately taking a liking to the redhead. She seemed pretty friendly which was a big plus in the Hufflepuff's book, and she had a certain charm to her. The wink and spin she offered next only enhanced the feeling that she would be a good person to hangout with. He grinned playfully, joking in agreement, "Yep, I'm definitely a pro, so study carefully."
Haley's immediate followup question asking what position he played made him chuckle. "Well, I'm so pro that, yes, I've already retired. I can't believe you've never heard of me. Hufflepuff's best chaser in a century? Aaron Jones? Really not ringing any bells?" he teased, feeling pretty at ease from being up in the air like this. Aaron was in his element. "But no, I uh, stopped playing years ago. I fly recreationally all the time, just not for Quidditch or Racing purposes," he went on to explain. He almost told her about his trick riding endeavors but figured they should just concentrate on the Quidditch training for now. He didn't want to take that focus away.
"And don't worry, I'd choose water over fire any day," Aaron said, following her gaze up to the sky and the impending rain. "I actually like the added challenge this sort of weather brings. More risk means more chances to improvise and work on your instincts," he added. Training in the rain used to be something he avoided as much as possible, but with the adrenaline of his trick riding, he was always looking for ways to one-up himself. Trick riding was difficult on its own, but add crazy weather to the mix and people were sure to be even more impressed.
"I'll get the ball," Aaron volunteered, immediately diving towards the ground where Haley had accidentally sent the quaffle earlier (no thanks to him startling her). Having an audience maybe meant he was trying to show off a bit, so he did pull out of the dive later than someone normally would, emphasizing the skill he had with his Silver Arrow as he retrieved the ball. As he flew back up to her, he passed it and started moving in a standard passing formation with her across the field. Nothing complicated as they got used to each other's flying and skills. The drizzle had started at this point, and he wondered if it would stay like that or get worse. He asked Haley during the next throw, "How's your Quidditch season been? Racking up the points?"
@Haley Rose
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
2nd Gen PC: Idalia della Torre
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Idalia
3 Apr 2024, 16:30
Cold day and a new friendship
Haley laughed out loud and raised an eyebrow, "Well, Aaron. I'll do that, hopefully you won't let me down with your skills." Haley already liked his manner and had a feeling the two shared a similar sense of humor and could get along well. Most of Haley's encounters that ended in friendship started like this. She didn't have any of the 'I hated them at first' friendships. It was always the 'from second one we got on well' friendships that accompanied her through her life. And who knows, maybe this encounter with Aaron would end in just such a friendship.
English: #008000 Parsel: #008080
@Aaron Jones
The teasing only brought a wider smile to Haley's lips and she had to grin. "Well, old man, I don't live in the past. I'm interested in the best Chasers in our present time." She gave him a challenging look, "You're thinking, who could that be? Well, it's me." She winked at him again. "The name Haley Rose should ring your bells." She quoted him, taking a proud stance on her broom. Of course, this was just a fun conceit, because Haley would never seriously claim to be the best Chaser, but she was playing along with Aaron's game.
"You know, sometimes retired players make a comeback. Maybe it would be worth it for you too. But I won't be able to tell until the end of the training session." It was a silent challenge. A challenge to him to show whether there really was skill behind his words. "I agree with you. More risks means more fun AND improvement." After Aaron took a dive towards the ground, Haley shook her head quietly with a grin. She already had a feeling where this training was going. And she liked it. As she caught the Quaffle, she muttered, "Show-off." With a small smile on her lips and proceeded to fly across the field with him in a standard passing formation. It made sense to adapt first, to get a feel for each other. While they repeated the simple maneuvers a few times, she made small talk with him.
"The season is brutal. But isn't it every year?" She laughed, "Well, we won the game against the Hufflepuffs. But Howard White." She paused for a moment and shook her head. "He really is a tough one." But the game against Slytherin was so much more brutal. "Winter Game. Let's do not talk about that. At some time there was only me and one more Lion on the field. The snakes hit us different that day." She didn't know if Aaron might not have seen the games himself, but Quidditch was an experience every time. But Haley didn't know if she had ever seen as many KOBs in one game as she had against the Slytherins. "Spring Games against Ravenclaw is waiting for us. Let's see what it will bring."
"Wanna get in some more harder maneuvers?" asked Haley after the two of them had settled in for a while. She had the feeling that the two of them were well matched, unclear if Aaron felt the same. But she didn't mind adding a little more power to the drills. "And in the meantime, if you're still able to, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? What do you do in your free time since you're retired?" Again, a silent hidden challenge to Aaron, would he be able to concentrate on both? Haley would soon see his skills live.
The only one who fear death are those with regrets
19 Apr 2024, 20:19
Cold day and a new friendship
"Old man?" Aaron quirked an eyebrow at that, his smirk unflinching. As she announced herself as the best chaser of present times, Aaron rose to her challenge. "Well, Haley Rose, make sure you remember the name Aaron Jones, too. I'll show you what I'm made of soon enough," he announced, grinning from ear to ear. He'd be sure to show her his trick riding at some point during their session.
As they flew across the pitch passing back and forth, Aaron could tell Haley was an experienced flier. They were adapting to each other quite well as they held a conversation.
"Oh yeah, Howard is a beast. We were teammates for a time. He's just gotten better over the years, scary almost," Aaron said, agreeing with her assessment of the Hufflepuff upperclassman. "Impressive you held your own against him." Haley went on to talk about the Winter Game - or actually, not talk about it. He grimaced just at the mention of it. He had gone to the game and left halfway through, as he tended to do whenever blatching seemed to be the only thing happening. "Yeah, that was a rough one," he agreed, nodding in sympathy. He would respect her wishes not to elaborate on it.
"Best of luck," he said when she spoke of the game coming up against Ravenclaw. "But maybe you'll prove yourself talented enough that you won't need it," he said, as she caught a pass that he'd added a tiny bit of spin to. He gave a thumbs up when she talked of doing some harder maneuvers. He definitely felt like they were well matched for the task of chaser training. She had plenty of skill, and although the redhead wasn't quite as strong or accurate as Aaron, she definitely had the potential to get there. She was also clearly a hard worker, being out here without regard for the the weather.
"If I'm able to?" Aaron scoffed at her phrasing, though he knew she was just teasing and challenging him. "I trick ride," he told her simply, a small smirk on his lips as he sent the quaffle her way with more spin than before. It turned slightly in midair, but she was keeping up. The drizzle was staying steady, he was glad it wasn't getting worse yet. Maybe it'd just stay a drizzle. "I've been working on some performance pieces, maybe I can show you something later. After we've worked on your skills some more," he teased back, suggesting they needed to give her extra practice with the chaser drills.
"C'mon then, see if you can keep up." He sent a wink her way again as he regained control of the quaffle and took it upon himself to increase his speed. He darted off, spiraling slightly in the air (again maybe showing off a bit) as he started a series of harder training maneuvers. These involved more curved throws, more hard brakes in the air, sprint flying across the pitch. More high intensity training drills that she was likely familiar with, but he kept doing added bits like curved quaffle throws or rushing towards her unexpectedly to keep her on her toes. They were both certainly getting a workout in this, and he was a bit glad for the cool weather and the cooling drizzle of rain.
@Haley Rose
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
2nd Gen PC: Idalia della Torre
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Idalia
20 Jun 2024, 21:12
Cold day and a new friendship
"The old man has spoken." she laughed heartily. "Don't hurt yourself!" she added cheekily and it felt like two old friends were pulling each other's leg. "Well, let's see what you've got." She got ready for anything - there was no way she was going to embarrass herself. Especially not after all the jokes she had just made. She'd better not do that to her ego.
English: #008000 Parsel: #008080
@Aaron Jones
"He is scary indeed." Haley agreed with Aaron as they talked about the Hufflepuffs and Howard. He is simply a strong opponent and she knew not to underestimate him. And she nodded in agreement to his comment about the winter game. "Yes, it really was." It was exhausting, tough and full of fouls. Sometimes the whole game took the fun out of the sport in general. But the next game was a different story and she knew that she actually loved playing Quidditch. Nevertheless, she always struggled with the course of the game.
Before she could rack her brains, she had to laugh again. "I would love it if I could say that I don't need luck. But I never underestimate my opponents. Even the Ravenclaws can be very strong." She just hoped that the game wouldn't be so heavily peppered with Fouls. "But I remain optimistic. I guess that's all I can do." She shrugged her shoulders and concentrated more on training with her new-found training partner.
It was noticeable how Aaron picked up the pace. His passing became more demanding and she loved that he wasn't wrapping her in velvet gloves. It was getting harder and harder for her, but she did her best to keep up and learn a few moves from him. But she didn't miss the fact that he said they had to keep working on their skills. She didn't suppress her smirk, gripped the quaffle firmly in her hand and put all her strength into her throw and tried to put in a spin like he had done. Her result was nothing like his, but she raised her eyebrows in challenge. "My skills, mhh?"
"You little show off!" she shouted into the air as Aaron flew away. But Haley had her pride. She sprinted after him, leaning forward on her broom. "Don't underestimate me!" she laughed, but the laughter was quickly gone from her face and she did her best to keep up, but her curves weren't as good as his, his throws were better and she couldn't keep up with his hard brakes. But she tried to adjust as much as possible while the sweat beaded along her temples. She didn't even notice that the clouds had closed in and it was raining more and more. Nevertheless, she was increasingly unable to intercept the Quaffle and finally had to realize that she was not yet able to keep up.
Just as she had the quaffle, her heart already beating hard, her breathing labored and she could already feel the strength slipping away, she took one last swing and put all her strength into her throw. Just a few seconds later, the dark sky brightened and a bolt of lightning struck above their heads. "Gosh, did I get scared." Haley stopped in mid-air and only now did she realize how soaked she was. She looked at herself and down at the field. "It's a wonder there isn't a lake underneath us yet," she joked. "I guess we should finish training here before we get struck by lightning." Once on the ground, she quickly and skillfully stepped off the broom and into a quick stride. "I must say, old man, you've really got it going on and got my heart rate up quite a bit."
So so sorry fo the wait!
The only one who fear death are those with regrets
5 Jul 2024, 17:09
Cold day and a new friendship
The lightning that lit up the sky really brought Aaron out of training mode. He was suddenly very aware of how drenched he was - the rain had really picked up as they were flying, and he'd been so focused on the drills that he had hardly noticed it. He'd been holding his broom more firmly and making up for the slick surface of the quaffle as they trained, but it had been second nature to do so. Haley pointing out the pitch below them had his brown eyes observing the turf below, also surprised there wasn't more of a pooling effect.
"Yeah, we should probably get outta here," Aaron agreed, lifting his eyes back to the redhead and offering a silly grin. As they flew back down to the ground, the Hufflepuff teenager watched the sky - another strike of lightning lit the pitch, and he got a good view of the streaks of light this time. The shape of the bolt was burned into his retinas for a moment as he finally dismounted his broom, briskly walking beside Haley.
"Well that was fun," he said, smiling at the Gryffindor girl. When he saw how drenched she was as well, a thought came to his mind and he whipped out his wand. "Pluvia Velo." Normally he wouldn't have thought of this for himself, but he had a rather gentlemanly side to him. The spell summoned a transparent umbrella large enough to cover the two of them, and he took a step closer to her to make sure they were both covered. Still, he kept up their brisk pace as they definitely wouldn't want to be in the stormy area longer than needed. He laughed as she called him an old man again.
"I mean, I'm sure my good looks aren't helping that heart rate of yours," he teased, a cocky grin on his lips. He made a show of it by running a hand through his wet hair and offering a pose, but he laughed almost immediately after, unable to keep the joke running for long. "But yeah, you're quite talented, probably could've given me a run for my money back in my Chaser days," he complimented in return, much more genuine with his words this time. "If you ever want to train together again, just let me know! Send an owl or something," he said, offering an equally genuine smile.
@Haley Rose
PC: Aaron Jones | iNPC: Madeleine Nakamura | Former staff account: Marcus Iwasaki
2nd Gen PC: Idalia della Torre
Best way to contact me? Discord or owl Idalia