14 Feb 2022, 21:18
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
14th of February, 2022
‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿
Valentine's Day had finally arrived, a holiday that celebrated both the longing the heart felt for that special someone and the sweet offerings that accompanied the bittersweet experience that was romantic love. Though in recent years, the holiday had expanded its demographic and was now more inclusive of all different types of love. It was a wonderful excuse to remind those you love, no matter what kind of love that may be, just how important they are. It was also a great excuse to eat sweets and enjoy oneself, which was what three of Hogwart’s professors had in mind when they had hosted a Valentine’s tea party, and what better room to host it in than the arguably most romantic room in the castle?
Hogwarts' ballroom had always been grand, with its beautiful arched ceilings that were the home to several intricately designed chandeliers that dangled a family of beautiful crystals that almost seemed gilded in the way they reflected amber hues across the room. The professors had decorated the ornate carved stone walls and floors with an array of red, pink, and white roses. The theme carried throughout the ballroom, as an endless flow of flower petals seemed to dance and twirl through the air, only to land on the stone tiled floor and vanish.
Along the walls of the ballroom, dozens of white-clothed round tables had been set up for the students. The center of the table served as a home to a large of roses, varying in hues of red, and a pastry stand that held the sweets the students hard put their heart and souls into creating. Each table held between four to six place settings, complete with the occupants’ names. If the student had received any letters from their admirers, they would be piled next to the floral pattern plates.
The morning before the Tea Party, each student had received a letter requesting their presence. The letters were quite generic so aside from the student's name and table number, they each said the same thing:
Dear [Student's Name],
Your presence is requested at this year's Valentine's Tea Party. We will be serving a wide array of sweets that have been specially hand-crafted by a special someone, either romantic or platonic. The tea party will take place on February the 14th, at 18:00. The evening is certain to be full of fun and laughter.
A seat for you at TABLE SIXTEEN has been reserved. We hope to see you there.
‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿
| Table Sixteen was situated just beneath one of the large arched windows, allowing the orange hued light of the sunset to bask on the table in all its glory. It was a medium-sized table, holding the place cards for five different students. Hosting a group made up of mostly first years aside from noted second year and perhaps a future mentor for the younger students at her table, @Eliza Corrids. Newcomer @Marius Brown would find himself surrounded by lovely ladies. A potential dream or nightmare, depending on how one looked at the situation. @Adelaide Barlowe was also in attendance, a fiercely intelligent girl from Ravenclaw. She might recognize @Lillian Locile as one of her dorm mates, or perhaps @Phoenix Adair, another young Ravenclaw. The five would hopefully spend their evening caught up in pleasant conversation. When the students arrived and found their place card, they would perhaps notice a surprise waiting for them. | ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━  ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ |
|
|
|
|
|
♡
RULES AND NOTES: ♡1. This is an official event, but threads will not be moderated unless necessary. Meaning that if students start to cast spells or physically attack someone, one of the professors participating will step in. If this is the case, the thread will be moderated as needed.
2. There will be additional surprises. Every few weeks a moderator will post in your thread to describe said 'surprise'. Surprises for each table may vary.
3. The site rules still apply. We understand things can get a little hectic, but please try to keep the site's rules and rating in mind. It is also important to keep in mind that there is a table full of professors at the event, so be mindful of IC rules.
4. The letters have been mixed up. As stated in the original sign-up form for this event, the letters that have been sent have been mixed up due to a mishap. There were also letters that the professors had to rewrite. A few can even be from faceless NPCs even. We are not trying to godmod players, the main point is to stir up some drama.
MOD NOTE: This is a reminder to please not meta-game. There is some information your character would have no way of knowing. It is fine to say your character knows X didn't write this letter to Y because your character has received a note/owl from them before and recognizes their handwriting, but your student has no way of knowing how exactly the letters were mixed up or who is to blame. They also would not know what is written in a letter without opening it. This is considered meta-gaming and we ask that you do not do this as it ruins the fun for others involved.
WHAT IS META-GAMING?
This is a term we use when writers use their real-life knowledge of a subject/situation and somehow allow their character to know without their character properly gaining the information. For example, you may know that a character is a werewolf because you read their biography/ency and somehow, despite never meeting said character, your character knows they are a werewolf.
Please note that this is just a general statement and we are not pointing fingers at any one individual.
│ │ | │ │ | STA: 10 • EVA: 15 • STR: 5 WIS: 20 • ARC: 5 • ACC: 20 | │ │ | • Calming Presence • Perfectionist • Evasive Maneuvers I & II • • Nonverbal Magic • Wandless Magic • Occlumency • Legilimency • | │ │ | │ │ |
15 Feb 2022, 05:46
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
Valentines day. Aka, the living hell. Ew. The happiest, most romantic, most pathetic excuse to by flowers and chocolate and candy hearts and fluffy marshmallows. Liz's second least favorite holiday (second, after that happy skippy bunny day). Was she looking forward to the day? The day full of glitter and hearts and kissing and confessions? No. No she wasn't. And to make matters worse, she had been invited to a valentines day tea party. Tea? Now that was something she liked. She thought it wouldn't be.. well.. too bad, as long as she didn't get involved in any of that mushy gushy stuff. She'd prepared a dress, and possibly brought along some stink bombs in case she needed them (After all, her wise friend Cody had taught her that, and it worked well EVERY time). If, she needed them that was.- Eliza Corrids - 2nd year - Clothing: A light pink dress, rimmed with sequins, sleeves at the elbows, dress reaches lower knees, white, cotton faux-fur shoulder coat that surrounds her lower chest, white heeled boots and a white headband with a heart on it. Her hair is curled and she has blush formed into pink hearts just centered underneath her eyes -
The halls of the school were quiet, friendly, full of love, sadly. People had hung little paper hearts from the rafters, and Liz had decided to burn a few when no one was looking. She walked down the hall, hoping to see a friend, or even a foe at that point. Someone who sucked on a day that sucked. Lovely. No matter, she walked past the Lavatory, the Duelling club, gagging as she passed a couple making out ("Was that Draven and Juni?!") and stopped, taking short, calm breathes in as she stopped in front of the door- to the Ballroom. Eliza pulled out her invitation, scanning it. Yup. This was it. The dreaded room of the dreaded party (everything but the tea, that is. That was pretty lovely) that she would be attending. And why was she attending? She would ask herself that exact question later- mostly so she could see her friends. Not that that mattered, they'd give her the little paper hearts, and the lovely, romantic messages (Now picture Liz gagging). She grabbed the handle to the door, rolling her eyes, to be greeted by a lovely and brightly decorated room, in which was full of lace and petals ("Ack- Blegh- It flew into ma moutsh- magic flowers- *gag*"). She looked in, a few people dawdling idly. She rolled her eyes, side stepping over to a few tables. 10.. 12.. 15.. 16! Eliza hopped over, seeing her name written on a paper. She wasn't expecting anything nice, as she didn't know too many folks ("Curses to my insecurity!!"). She looked left, then right, and eventually,
she
sat
down.@Marius Brown @Adelaide Barlowe @Lillian Locile @Phoenix Adair
15 Feb 2022, 22:03
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
Mentioning: @Marius Brown @Lillian Locile
@Phoenix Adair-----------------------------------
Time: 6:00pm
Outfit: x
When she arrived at the Ballroom, she marveled at the red, pink and white roses which covered the stone walls and floors. It was obvious the Professor's had put in a lot of effort for the evening. Her invitation had said Table Sixteen, so she stopped gawking at the decorations and started to search for Table Sixteen. She found it situated beneath one of the large, arched windows. Only one other girl was there, so it seemed Adelaide had came quite early. "Hello," She said as she found the seat with her name on it. Her eyes briefly scanned the other place cards: Marius, Phoenix, Lillian and Eliza was the name of the girl already sat down. She only recognized Marius's name, and it seemed he was the only boy at a table of girls. She vaguely wondered how he would react to that once he arrived before she sat down in her designated seat. "I don't think we've met before," Her attention drifted back to Eliza, "It's nice to meet you. You look very pretty tonight, I love your outfit and makeup." She smiled as she complimented the girl.
It was then that she noticed the pastry box placed beside her plate. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion, she certainly wasn't expecting anyone to send anything to her. She took the box cautiously, as if afraid it would hurt her, and opened it slowly. Inside the box were vanilla cupcakes with strawberry flavored icing. The red lips drawn onto each of them made her confusion heighten, who in the name of Merlin could have sent these? The blonde read the note, and her mouth was as dry as a desert once she finished and her question had been answered. Love, Marius. His one true love? Something as beautiful as you? That particular line left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, it was as if he was insinuating she was an object. His heart is broken when he sees her with other people? This had to be a very, very bad dream. She never once thought that Marius felt like this towards her. Yes, he had found her lost cat and Adelaide will always be grateful for that, but never once during their interaction did she think he felt anything except friendly towards her.
She pushed the pastry box away from her. This night was off to a terrible start. What would she tell him when he arrived? She didn't reciprocate his feelings, she obviously had to tell him that. But she didn't want to break his heart, especially at the very start of the event. Oh Merlin, no. Her stomach dropped as she remembered the cupcakes and letter she had sent Marius. It was only a thank you for finding Nina, and she never mentioned anything about a crush in the letter. But what if he took it that way? What if he thought she liked him too? She groaned as she rubbed her hands over her face, forgetting that Eliza was sat across from her and probably wondering why Adelaide was having a mental breakdown.
15 Feb 2022, 23:57
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
Lillian walked into the Ballroom with a small smile on her face. She was wearing a sleeveless turtleneck navy blue dress that cut off right above her knees. The dress definitely improved her confidence. Lillian had let her hair out of its usual ponytail for the ball, but she was still stubbornly refusing to wear any makeup. Anyway, Lillian was very excited, it was Valentine’s Day! Even if she wasn’t romantically involved with anyone, she had friends that she cared for. Lillian scanned the ballroom and found her table, number 16, and sat down at her assigned seat, indicated by the name tag. Lillian smiled at the other two girls already at Table 16. Then she noticed the white pastry box. Her browns furrowed in confusion, who would have sent her something? She opened the box and saw the detail on each of the cupcakes. Then she read the note, and became even more confused. Who is Marius? And why is he calling me his one true love? Lillian noticed his name at the table. She would have to ask him when he arrived. Lillian looked back at the other girls, they had a similar box, maybe she should ask them if they received a note too? Lillian decided against it, she didn’t want to embarrass herself.
Be yourself, and if anyone tells you that you aren’t good enough, I give you my full permission to punch them.
16 Feb 2022, 00:57
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
Liz huffed, then her eyes drifted over to a little box placed next to her plate. She was perplexed. Not only did she not recognize any of these people (whom respectively were younger), but apparently, she had either a secret admirer or a.. Well, she wasn't quite sure. She out stretched her hands, grabbing the white box, and unwrapped the little bow, looking inside. And there it was. A little cupcake, with a tiny card next to the lid, and it looked- she wasn't gonna lie, it looked delicious! A cupcake! Just for her!- Eliza Corrids - 2nd year - Clothing: A light pink dress, rimmed with sequins, sleeves at the elbows, dress reaches lower knees, white, cotton faux-fur shoulder coat that surrounds her lower chest, white heeled boots and a white headband with a heart on it. Her hair is curled and she has blush formed into pink hearts just centered underneath her eyes -
The letter though, as she drifted her eyes farther, had some.. not delicious stuff. Weird... is he in love with me? Who the muffin is Marius?! She thought, setting it down and pulling her head back in question of the letter. She set it down, taking a bite of the cupcake, right as a girl walked up. She greeted Liz, complimented her, and so she set her cupcake down in order to pop a quick thank you or hello back.
"Oh- Um- thank you dear! I love your outfit too! I'm Eliza-" She wiped a bit of frosting on her dress and held her hand out for a hand shake, noticing the girl was busy, she put her hand down. Just then, another first year stepped over, sitting down. She didn't say anything, but Eliza smiled and waved at her either way.
@Marius Brown @Adelaide Barlowe @Lillian Locile @Phoenix Adair
21 Feb 2022, 19:30
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED!
@Eliza Corrids | @Marius Brown | @Adelaide Barlowe
@Lillian Locile | @Phoenix Adair
As the students settled into their seats and confusion began to take over as they scanned the contents of their 'letters', some might notice several pale pink roses start to descend seemingly from the ceiling. The same hue as the petals floating through the air, these roses would gracefully glide downwards and land in front of someone at eight different tables; 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11, 13, and 15.
Tables 1, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 14, and 16 would not receive any roses (yet), but they would not go without entertainment. It was from his position at the teacher's table that Orion would stand up and clear his throat, "Welcome students, thank you for attending our tea party! I have hopes to make this an annual event." If only the French man was aware of the chaos he had rained down upon the crowd of youngsters. He had not slept the night before after scrambling to try and correct his errors. The dark circles under his eyes might have been noticeable to anyone sitting close enough to him. "I'm sure you've noticed the roses by now. If you've received a rose that means you are now a bachelor or bachelorette, which means you get to help spread a little love around." His face broke into a smile as if this were a simply sublime idea. With the romantic heart Orion possessed, he likely believed it.
"If you did not receive a rose, do not worry mes amies (my friends), you will get an opportunity soon. Until then we are going to offer you an opportunity to show your love. This means that you can ask us to dedicate a song to a special someone in the crowd, or make an announcement to your peers. The choice is, of course, yours to make." The students received a playful wink before Orion sat back down at the table.
The students might notice the soothing sounds of the harp starting to play from the back corner of the ballroom. There was a shutter that blocked the view of who or how many people were playing. Whilst they would not see her, they could hear the Slytherin head of house, Hjørdis Jensen, had started to strum a harp to help set the mood.
Until people started to request songs, she would simply play random songs that she was pretty sure that the children would enjoy on the harp. Honestly, what did children listen to these days? She had no idea. But she was evidently trying in the fact that she had bothered to learn how to play all of these, specifically for this occasion.
It just so happened that occasionally, another instrument - such as a fiddle or guitar - could be heard in the background too, randomly chipping in. The sound of notes hit the air. It was not too loud but it could easily be heard throughout the ballroom if one stopped to listen for it. It almost complemented the chatter. [Click the music note for the actual playlist]
Confession Time!
Characters at your table have the ability to step beneath the spotlight and make a confession or dedicate a song to someone this round. To make a spotlight speech, simply have your character announce they wish to confess. You can lightly godmod Orion casting Lumos Duo on your character. Have them say what they wish to announce in your RP post, and make sure to tag the mod in charge of your table. Staff will post the confession into each thread (so keep in mind the entire ballroom will gain IC knowledge of what you are saying).
To request a song, simply owl the moderator of your thread with the song title, who it is going to, and what the message is. You will need to roleplay your character doing as much (you can simply say they took time to write a request down). Please keep IC rules in mind as if your character insults someone there could be IC repercussions.
│ │ | │ │ | STA: 10 • EVA: 15 • STR: 5 WIS: 20 • ARC: 5 • ACC: 20 | │ │ | • Calming Presence • Perfectionist • Evasive Maneuvers I & II • • Nonverbal Magic • Wandless Magic • Occlumency • Legilimency • | │ │ | │ │ |
25 Feb 2022, 22:38
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
Mentioning: @Marius Brown
@Phoenix Adair-----------------------------------
Time: 6:00pm
Outfit: x
Her back straightened absentmindedly as she put on a faux display of confidence. Everything was completely fine, totally 100% perfect. "So, do either of you have a Valentine this year?" She smiled, addressing the two girls in front of her before taking a sip of her tea. "I don't, although I've never really been much interested in romance. That's for when I'm older." She chuckled, her eyes unconsciously straying to the white pastry box that she had pushed away. This night was going to get very awkward as soon as Marius arrived. Maybe she should go ask someone to cast obliviate on her, so she could forget ever opening that letter.
Thankfully, her mind had time to stop directing her thoughts to the contents of that cursed letter as Professor Lécuyer started to speak. After the Professor's speech, she shook her head in amusement and turned her attention back to her table. "Thank Merlin we didn't get any roses," she sighed in relief, "Are you two going to dedicate a song to someone? Or proclaim your everlasting love?" She joked playfully, "You can count me out, I'm just going to sit back and relax." Or relax as much as she could before Marius came and she inevitably had to break the poor boy's heart. 'Heartbreaker' was not a title the 12 year old ever expected herself to earn. Hopefully, he wouldn't be that heartbroken. It had to be just a little, tiny crush.
She refrained from asking Eliza and Lillian about the letters they received, as that was quite personal and likely something they would not want to share with someone they barely knew. Adelaide wouldn't be the type of person to share a personal love letter someone wrote to her. Though, the blonde is currently very tempted to burn the one Marius wrote to her.
26 Feb 2022, 00:21
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
- Eliza Corrids - 2nd year - Hex: 8b654b - Clothing: A light pink dress, rimmed with sequins, sleeves at the elbows, dress reaches lower knees, white, cotton faux-fur shoulder coat that surrounds her lower chest, white heeled boots and a white headband with a heart on it. Her hair is curled and she has blush formed into pink hearts just centered underneath her eyes -Elizabeth was SHOOK. Her letter- the one she'd just unwrapped, shocked her. What she wanted to say to this Marius was Oh my Merlin. Sorry kid, Few things. Number one, I've never met you. Number two, You're like.. three years younger than me? And number three, I've already got someone I'm interested in, son! So nuh uh- No way, psycho stranger-. She was perplexed! Had he seen her before? Had she seen him before?! Had they even MET?!
Well to her knowledge it was a no. She sat down in her chair, taking one last bite out of her cupcake. She looked over to see uh.. Adelaide was her name? She'd sneaked a peek at her name place card, and had assumed that was the girl sitting there. Eliza laughed at the girl's question. "Actually, no. I was considering confessing, but seeing as to he is not here, that would be.. a waste? And also an embarrassment to human kind!" She blushed a bit, rubbing the back of her neck. "As I believe a poet said once, "Oh, to be young and feel love's keen sting..." Hah- funny if you ask me. But true, as I believe he.. well, doesn't exactly feel the same for me.. Heh-" She laughed uncomfortably, her dress sparkling in the light.
Liz tuned in to the professers words, watching the tables around their's get roses and leaves. She was confused. What did he mean confess? Like.. say it in front of everyone? Or.. just the special someone? She shook her head, and took a gulp of tea, setting it down and looking over at Adelaide's humorous joke. "Yup.. I guess I'll also kindly refrain.. I mean, no offense to the person I like, but I will glaaadly stay away.." She rolled her eyes, sitting up and smiling to herself. She took another sip, clearly nervous. She did like Cody, it was true. But did she intend on telling him, or anyone she liked him? Nope. Not really. Sayonara, true love.
My work here is done.- Interacting with: @Adelaide Barlowe - Mentioning: @Marius Brown @Lillian Locile @Phoenix Adair -
26 Feb 2022, 13:20
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
OPEN for interactions
@Adelaide Barlowe @Eliza Corrids @Lillian Locile @Phoenix Adair
Marius' Suit:
Reducio
Marius had spent the last few tens of minutes tying his tie. The young boy was not very good at this sort of thing. Back home, in the Muggle world, he would look up how to tie a tie through the internet, but surely he could not do so now...
Did he look all right? He supposed so.
After the Hufflepuff was satisfied with his look, he grabbed his brown suit. Yes, it was not dark blue like his trousers, but he thought it was good enough. Marius had been concerned that he would arrive late considering how much time he had taken tying the tie, and he felt quite guilty about it.
As he almost reached the doorway, Marius noticed something was happening: there was a shower of roses here and there; and music began to play, the sweet strum of harp mixed with enthralling fiddle and guitar that he did not like as much as he enjoyed the harp and the fiddle. He could hear a man's voice, and recognised it as Professor Lécuyer's, but unfortunately he could not clearly hear what the teacher said from where he currently was.
When he entered the ballroom, the professor had finished his speech. Glad that he would not be entering when such an important figure was delivering some words, the eleven-year-old scanned the tables to find Table Sixteen, and as he approached the table he could see there were place cards, which indicated that students were not allowed to choose their own seats or move around.
Even though Marius was nervous - what if someone rebuked him for being late, or if everyone simply pretended he was not there? - he tried hard to appear calm and collected. He sat where he was supposed to and gave everyone on his table a friendly smile and a polite nod. The only person he knew, though, was first year Ravenclaw Adelaide Barlowe.
Did he look all right? He supposed so.
After the Hufflepuff was satisfied with his look, he grabbed his brown suit. Yes, it was not dark blue like his trousers, but he thought it was good enough. Marius had been concerned that he would arrive late considering how much time he had taken tying the tie, and he felt quite guilty about it.
As he almost reached the doorway, Marius noticed something was happening: there was a shower of roses here and there; and music began to play, the sweet strum of harp mixed with enthralling fiddle and guitar that he did not like as much as he enjoyed the harp and the fiddle. He could hear a man's voice, and recognised it as Professor Lécuyer's, but unfortunately he could not clearly hear what the teacher said from where he currently was.
When he entered the ballroom, the professor had finished his speech. Glad that he would not be entering when such an important figure was delivering some words, the eleven-year-old scanned the tables to find Table Sixteen, and as he approached the table he could see there were place cards, which indicated that students were not allowed to choose their own seats or move around.
Even though Marius was nervous - what if someone rebuked him for being late, or if everyone simply pretended he was not there? - he tried hard to appear calm and collected. He sat where he was supposed to and gave everyone on his table a friendly smile and a polite nod. The only person he knew, though, was first year Ravenclaw Adelaide Barlowe.
Having eyes, but not seeing beauty; having ears, but not hearing music; having minds, but not perceiving truth; having hearts that are never moved and therefore never set on fire - these are the things to fear.
27 Feb 2022, 02:01
TABLE 16 | Sweethearts Tea Party
Mentioning:-----------------------------------
Time: 6:00pm
Outfit: x
She nodded in understanding as Eliza also refrained from dedicating a song to someone or confessing her love. You had to be either extremely brave or incredibly stupid to confess your love to someone in the middle of a ballroom, with approximately a hundred other students, when you have the risk of being rejected and embarrassing yourself. The Ravenclaw's attention turned to the pastry stand in the middle of the table. The cupcakes looked delicious, and she felt herself relaxing more when minutes passed and Marius still hadn't turned up. Maybe he wasn't going to come, and Adelaide would not have to break his heart tonight. The blonde was tempted to take her own advice, and write him a letter to reject him instead of saying it to his face. It would be easier that way.
Adelaide took a cupcake from the pastry stand and took a bite, sighing in content as a burst of flavor filled her mouth. It tasted as delicious as it looked. Unfortunately, luck was not on her side tonight as someone else sat down at the table. Her gazed strayed to the newcomer, and she choked on the cupcake in her mouth as she realized who it was. Taking a sip of her tea, she coughed awkwardly, "Sorry about that. Hello, Marius." She should just do it now. Tell him now, get it over with. Right in front of two other people, what could go wrong?
She steeled herself, taking a deep breath before directing her full attention to Marius, "Marius, I'm sure you're a wonderful, nice, respectful guy," She began slowly, "Anyone would be lucky to have you. I will always be grateful to you for finding Nina, but I'm sorry. I do not feel the same way about you. I appreciate the cupcakes, and the letter was - interesting, to say the least. Though calling me something was quite hurtful. Anyway, I really don't want to break your heart, or hurt you. I just needed to be completely honest with you, because I don't want to give you false hope." She smiled awkwardly, she had done it and now everything was likely going to be awkward for the rest of the night. Maybe she should've just whispered it to him, and save him the embarrassment of being rejected in front of two other girls. It was too late now, though.