2022, Stage 3 Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff: Match 3

Round 6

Meenauh Silmataurea

Galton Lansdale vs. Autumn Ivy & Angelfyre McCubbin

Autumn Ivy vs. Galton Lansdale

AngelFyre McCubbin vs. Meenauh Silmataurea

And so the duel continued. Meenauh once again healed herself, neglecting the fact that she was on fire with a brave show of face. In the meantime, her partner Galton was making an earnest effort to blindfold both Hufflepuffs... It appeared he was not met with good luck as he instead was blindfolded. The smoke still persisted, dissipating more and more with every second but not enough to impede both Autumn and Angelfyre in aiming their spells. Autumn's efforts to silence Galton with Mimblewimble went wide, as did Angelfyre's desires to set Meenauh on fire some more.

OOC Info

- The minimum WC for this duel is 50 words.
-You now have 96 hours to post before the next round. Due to recent events summarized by this announcement written by Lear, there will additionally be a 48-hour extension on this round.
- In the same time period, send me (Thomas Baines) your team's actions per owl. Do not hint at your actions in your post.
- If you don't post or owl in the allotted time frame, your action is void.
- Your stats, abilities, and spells have been locked for the duration of the duel (you cannot cast spells that are added to your trunk during the duel, for example). Check out the latest patch so you're on top of things.
- If you have any questions, don't hesitate to owl me, or feel free to reach out on Discord!

Spectator Thread

She had some aptitude for the healing spells, because of her mother's profession, so a few of them and she felt fine enough to disregard the flame, which wasn't strong enough to pay attention. Yes, the principle had to be skipped because the situation demanded a different approach.

It was the second time in this duel when Galton's spell failed him dramatically — this time, the blindfold was already around his head, blocking his vision. She did not move at once, weighing her chances and actions of their opponents, especially as the fog was slowly fading.

Time to act has come.

The discussion with Mr. Wand had gone south. Galton had neglected his side of the conversation, and he was being punished for it. Luckily though, this was just a soft warning. A blindfold was not as detrimental to Galton as another failed Ventus would be. Blindfolds were soft, and that was of some comfort. It didn't feel good, of course, to have failed so badly twice when you'd only cast six times, but who was counting!

All his training with his feline friend, Toad, had brought him to this moment. Fog was one thing, but total blackness was a new game. Things were about to get interesting.

Action: Listening and waiting

Apparently all of Hogwarts' dedicated duellists had been replaced by the wizarding world's equivalent of the Keystone Kops in [(2022) Stage 3] Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff: Match 3, Round 6. The only damage inflicted on the piste in that round was to some egos, no doubt. Yikes!

AngelFyre, miraculously enough, was still standing along with her partner Autumn, and she was very glad of that fact, but her frustrations with her misses were becoming harder to tamp down. Most surprisingly, she felt like her best source of encouragement for the moment would not be her own mind's voice telling her the things she knew inside and out already, so she quickly looked to the spectators to find Simon. If she could just catch his gaze for a moment, she knew that would help settle her. She did not have to search long before finding him, and as was always the case when their gaze locked, she felt an inner peace and a re-balancing of sorts. It was the briefest of moments, but it was enough. She did not expect dipping her toe in that oasis to right everything that was going wrong for her on the piste, but it certainly cleared away her frustrations and doubts, and THAT was definitely going to help.

Now the rest was up to her.

Smiling a 'thank you' at him, she quickly turned her attention back to the stage. Seeing a blindfolded Galton and a fiery Meenauh across from her, AngelFyre looked over to Autumn and smiled encouragingly. "We have them right where we want them," and she winked. Turning back to face her opponents, her countenance becoming decidedly more sober, she got into position and followed up with, "We can do this!"

Action: Doing as Strategized

Sta 5 || Eva 4 || Str 1 || Wis 7 || Arc 6 || Acc 7
Seer 1 (10% auto-dodge chance and 10% auto-hit chance)
Health: 220/500 44%

Mentions @Simon Kincaid

Autumn took a second to fully process the disaster that had just taken place. First, Meenauh had healed herself, and Autumn had raised an eyebrow at that; she expected that as a person on fire (thank Merlin for Angelfyre) Meenauh would have chosen to get rid of the fire, but priorities changed based on the person, she supposed. Still, the magical fire seemed to continue on, disinterested in dying out.

Autumn took a sharp inhale as she heard Galton saying the incantation of the Blindfolding Spell yet again. Her entire body was frozen, and she didn't exhale until she realised his spell had backfired on him. Autumn had never been particularly religious, but she was ready to get on two knees and thank whatever potential all-powerful deity had kept the magical blindfolds off of her team.

The smoke was slowly dissipating now, but between that and the false alarm of Galton's Obscuro, clearly she and Angelfyre were both a little off their games. She watched as her magical attempt of getting Galton to shut up simply sailed past him, and as Angelfyre's magical fire sailed past Meenauh.

Her teammate seemed undettered by this, simply smiling and giving some words of encouragement. Autumn, ever the pessimist, simply replied with a grimace and a "Yep."

STATS | Stamina - 7 | Evasion - 7 | Strength - 7 | Wisdom - 7 | ArcPower - 8 | Accuracy - 9
ABILITIES | Sixth Sense - Perfectionist - Comprehend Languages (Mermish)
RACE | Human
HEALTH | 600/700 - 85.71%

Round 7

Meenauh Silmataurea vs Autumn Ivy & AngelFyre McCubbin

Galton Lansdale vs. Angelfyre McCubbin

Autumn Ivy vs. Meenauh Silmataurea

AngelFyre McCubbin vs. Meenauh Silmataurea

With Galton neglecting the darkness that plagued his vision, and Meenauh continuing to cook to a crisp without a care in the world, the Gryffindor team was laser focused on their goals. For Meenauh, it was only natural that she should make use of Nebulus to obscure the Hufflepuff's vision. After all, it wasn't as if her teammate would have to worry about the fog considering the blindfold over his eyes... On that very topic, Galton was unimpeded by his previous miscast, taking aim and hitting AngelFyre with a Flipendo that would almost certainly make the first year feel a little woozy. Even still, she remained standing through will alone. In search of vengeance perhaps, seeking to make sure the Gryffindors would regret picking on her partner, Autumn hit Meenauh with a Knockback Jinx of her own, packing a certain oomf in the cast. Unfortunately for AngelFyre, her spell missed its mark.

OOC Info

- The minimum WC for this duel is 50 words.
- We are back to the regularly scheduled 96-hour round deadlines! You have 96 hours from the time of this mod to post in this thread.
- In the same time period, send me (Thomas Baines) your team's actions per owl. Do not hint at your actions in your post.
- If you don't post or owl in the allotted time frame, your action is void.
- Your stats, abilities, and spells have been locked for the duration of the duel (you cannot cast spells that are added to your trunk during the duel, for example). Check out the latest patch so you're on top of things.
- If you have any questions, don't hesitate to owl me, or feel free to reach out on Discord!
- Hope you're all having fun

Spectator Thread

The fire on its own was too much to go through. She hated it. She hated the pain, but it was the sort of challenge she had to go through. Mother wouldn't approve. Father wouldn't approve. So sorry.

As she watched the fire fade away while her fog was slowly covering the opposing team, a strong Flipendo hit her pretty hard, leaving her breathless for a few seconds and thoughts entering a whirlwind. She had to stay in place, but every next second was becoming more and more difficult to sustain.

Galton... cast a spell with a blindfold on. She remembered her first ever duel when she tried casting the spell with the blindfold on during her first year. She failed to conjure it three times in a row or so. Mama Lion stopped the duel back then, but she just had to cast the spell, not hit. Which she did. What a misery. But probably something that made her join duelling in general. Thanks, Marla.

Oh, yes, Galton. A lot of questions she had for him once the duel ends. His pretty decent Flipendo went past the flowing fog and hit the younger Hufflepuff pretty hard as well. If they both go down, the chances were pretty good for Galton against the other Hufflepuff. So she smiled and raised her wand.

Total darkness gave Galton and Mr. Wand a nice amount of privacy to continue with their conversation. Sure, Galton had to tune his other senses up, but it made for a truly cozy discussion backdrop. And it seemed that Mr. Wand felt similar. From the thud he heard across the stage he would hazard a guess that his spell had found it’s target.

At this point, Galton was wondering if Mr. Wand just enjoyed challenging him. He would never ask, as it may incur some wrath from Mr. Wand, but it still puzzled him. Wands were a fickle thing it seemed. So Galton returned to the negotiations, hopefully keeping Mr. Wand satisfied with the challenge of total darkness.

Action: Seeing black

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Meenauh continued to burn, and Autumn bit her lip. There was something tragically beautiful about the destructive power of fire, of course, but on the older Gryffindor, in their current situation, the rising flames had almost become a comedic accessory. Certainly it had to hurt a great deal, but the ethics of such things had to be considered after duels, not during. Still, it did look painful, possibly enough for pity.

Possibly.

While it didn't keep Autumn from muttering the incantation of the Knockback Jinx, with her gaze focused and her wand brimming with magical energy against her tight grip, she did cast the spell with what some might argue was a wince.

Still, it seemed Lady Luck wasn't entirely on their side, and Autumn came to realise this as she watched fog begin the form around her and her teammate, her vision fully darkening in seconds, though not quickly enough to miss Galton sending a successful Flipendo Angelfyre's way. She couldn't see whether Angelfyre's spell missed or not, but Autumn had ears and an ounce of common sense. She knew, and she wished she didn't.

There were few times in Autumn's life in which she didn't know what to do, and this seemed to be one of them. Her mind was racing, analysing this and considering that, but all she could really do was try to squint through the magical fog and mutter a low, "Oh, Merlin."

STATS | Stamina - 7 | Evasion - 7 | Strength - 7 | Wisdom - 7 | ArcPower - 8 | Accuracy - 9
ABILITIES | Sixth Sense - Perfectionist - Comprehend Languages (Mermish)
RACE | Human
HEALTH | 600/700 - 85.71%

AngelFyre was sadly aware that once again, her spell had missed its intended mark, but was gratified that Autumn's had found hers on Meenauh. Try as she might, however, she was not fleet of foot enough herself to dodge Galton's Flipendo. The force of it immediately took her breath away and sent a radiating pain of pressure throughout her torso as she was thrust rapidly backwards. Amazingly, AngelFyre found herself still standing. Well, standing was a bit of an exaggeration, really. She was still standing only in the sense that she was still conscious. She was actually bent over her knees, gasping for air like a fish out of water. Her brain was barely even registering the encroaching fog.

She looked to her side, but Autumn was no longer visible to her. Simon would not be visible to her either. She felt separated from everything and everyone in that moment, but breathing was coming just a little easier. Feeling her head clear a bit, but recognizing that she was now standing on two wobbly pillars of Jell-O that would usually pass for her legs, she did the only thing she could do and that was to get into position for one, last, desperate attempt to land her spell.

No final words of encouragement for Autumn would be spoken. They would likely ring false anyway, and besides, she needed her breath to cast her last spell. She would hope, however, her partner would know just how much she hated not being with her to the end. Autumn may have her reasonable doubts about the final outcome, but AngelFyre knew Autumn had it in her to be the David facing down her own situational Goliath.

Autumn just needed to believe it, too.

Action: Doing as Strategized

Sta 5 || Eva 4 || Str 1 || Wis 7 || Arc 6 || Acc 7
Seer 1 (10% auto-dodge chance and 10% auto-hit chance)
Health: 70/500 14%