Special Ebonhide Practice

[neattrick]

TIME TO TALK FEELINGS

It's a beautiful late Autumn morning and the big game with Ribbonfin is tomorrow. On any other day like this, the Ebonhide team might have expected to be summoned to the Pitch at a pre-dawn hour to get in a few extra rounds of drills. Today, they've been instructed to convene in the Lodge to pick up some equipment for a special practice.

When team members arrive at the transfiguration classroom, though, they're greeted with a bewildering experience: Ulysses is standing outside, ushering people in. Inside, Clem has a circle of chairs set up and tells her players to take a seat. While not the most subtle of traps, it seems to have worked.

Once everyone's seated, Ulysses comes in and explains what's going on. He looks like he's about to throw up, but braves his way through the introductory speech:

"Morning everybody. Welcome to [...] practice. As you know, we've got some special activities planned for today. Now, I know you're eager to get down to the pitch, I do, but [...] I'll be honest, we've got something different in mind. A little less action and a little more conversation. [...] Besides, most of y'all are worn slap out anyhow."

Welcome to the practice, team.

THE GROUND RULES

• Clem and Ulysses have conspired to lock their own team in the transfiguration classroom until they've had a good and thorough discussion about everyone's concerns with the team.


• While they are sitting in front of the door and will make cursory attempts to stop anyone from leaving, they won't resort to physically restraining them.


• Everyone is to be respectful of one another's concerns and feelings. No issue is too small to be heard, and everyone is allowed to say their piece.


• You're only allowed to talk if you have the Talking Quaffle.


• The Talking Quaffle is only to be tossed gently and in an underhand fashion from teammate to teammate.


• Concerns can range from "it makes me uncomfortable when you guys fight in front of us" to "I don't know about that play you're trying with the beaters" to "please let us out of the transfiguration classroom".


• Everyone is expected to present at least one concern they have, but due to the open-ended nature of the prompt and Ulysses and Clem's own instruction that no concern is too small, this mandate can be pretty easily side-stepped by presenting a small or non-issue.


• No Journals. This conversation's happening face-to-face between the eight of them. You're not supposed to bring them to practice anyway, so there's no reason for you to even have them.

» CONCERNS: AIR YOUR GRIEVANCES, ONE AT A TIME.

» AFTER "PRACTICE": In case anyone wants to discuss all that discussion that just happened. Clem and Ulysses release the team about half an hour after practice was scheduled to end.

» OOC - Questions, comments, concerns!

Comments

CONCERNS

[neattrick]

Clem sets a bad example

[neattrick]

"Okay, so, like, for example..." Clem begins first thing off the bat, juggling the talking quaffle between her hands. She seems like she's struggling to come up with something on her own, despite being one of the people who designed this whole exercise. "I don't like how much time Ulysses takes up doing drills when we all know how to throw and catch balls already. I feel like there are way better ways we could be spending our time. Thoughts, Captain?" She throws the talking quaffle at Ulysses. Gently.

Clem sets a bad example and Ulysses is no better

[ulixes]

Ulysses, who co-designed this practice and who definitely, explicitly raised the concern about this team's well-being to Clem, looks a little like he's about to die. The nightmarish combination of "actually talking about feelings" and "taking criticism from one Clementine Decourt" puts a high flush across his cheeks — although, to his very meagre credit, he's doing his best to look open and relaxed and not like he'd rather be literally anywhere else.

"i..." Ulysses stares down at the quaffle. Spins it between his fingers. "... take your point, but ..." Another spin. It's possible he's stalling. The urge to re-hash old arguments is very, very strong. "...knowing the basics cold keeps us smooth under pressure." He looks up at Clem. "Got us into shape, didn't it? I reckon Leo—"

Stop. He backtracks; no need to bring that up this early. "I reckon we had the best run plays in the whole school last year. We owe the rest of the team that foundation." Then, he tosses the ball.

Clem sets a bad example and Ulysses is no better and a confused weekday

[tues]

Nimble fingers reach out and grab the Quaffle without full permission of the person behind them. Tuesday blinks and stares at the ball in her hand, cursing the day she made it her motto to always catch whatever was in front of her. (So yesterday, technically.) Her "Ummmm!" Is a little high-pitched.

She's ill-equipped to handle this emotional intervention, and for a moment her mind goes blank, because she doesn't want to air her concerns and upset the natural order of things. "I like both kinds of practices? And I don't know...I mean...don't you think this would all be fixed if we just played more instead of talking like this?"

Her face is a tomato, and she wants to hide under her own chair, and she tosses the ball blindly into the circle. This is horrible.

[casperkim]

Casper catches the Quaffle next. He's been tight-lipped and forcibly stoic ever since walking into the room, attempting not to radiate how irritated he is by this deception or how uncomfortable this situation makes him or how pointless he thinks this is. He's already had experience sharing his concerns with Clem and it didn't go well. He just wants this to be done. At least the first point raised is strictly strategy-related and not...the other sort of point.

"I agree with Quayle," he says flatly, "Running drills keeps our skills sharp, ensures that the fundamentals are second nature, and makes it clear where player strengths and weaknesses are. It's important." He almost adds that they've always done it this way for a reason but stops himself before he can and tosses the Quaffle with a bit more force than he probably should. Sorry.

[theniceboy]

Solomon catches the quaffle easily. "I agree that they're a strong foundation but if we don't play creatively, we're always going to play exactly how we played last year," he says. "It's going to make us outdated and behind the curve when we should be setting the curve, no offense Ulysses. I am uncertain why we are so reluctant to discuss our problems that we require to be locked inside of a room first. We are all friends." Solomon tosses the quaffle.

[destructobot]

Wilde catches the quaffle. It's hard to say what the expression on his face indicates -- there's a resignedness to it that doesn't quite capture the needle of his annoyance, though it comes through in his voice.

"I don't want to discuss our problems," he says. "I want to play them out on the field because we're supposed to be at practice. I don't get why we're here now. We could've done this some other time, like not right before a fucking game. So... I agree with Tues. Does that count as my one concern?"

Then he shrugs. "It's good to be creative and up on the basics. And I think we're both. We'll never be outdated if we think critically about the people we're playing against and keep our plays fluid."

Wilde tosses the quaffle.

[neattrick]

"Okay," Clem says as she catches the Quaffle again. "I know we'd all rather be playing. Like, I'd definitely rather be playing. But I think there's been a bad vibe on the team recently and just not talking about it and pretending nothing's wrong is what we always do. And if we take that kind of energy into a game we're gonna lose. So can we just give this like a serious try before we write it off? Maybe?"

She holds on to the quaffle for a moment, staring each of them down in turn, before she tosses it back at Ulysses. "Say a concern, Quayle," she says.

[ulixes]

Christ, Decourt. Him? Why him? Ulysses catches the quaffle. Opens his mouth once, twice. No sound comes out. He's very bad at this. God, he'd rather be playing. Matter of fact, he'd rather be gouging his own eye out.

Lead by example, Quayle. Do it for your sophomores. "I'm... concerned...." Shit, this is really hard. "We're not doing right by this team," he finishes, and it's too honest, frankly. He's deeply mortified just saying it, and the light blush he's been wearing all morning deepens. +1 star to self awareness; +0 stars for aim, as he tosses the ball anywhere anywhere, so long as it's away from him.

[theniceboy]

Solomon catches the ball next entirely so he can say, "You're supposed to feel that way. It's the foundation of humility, it is the only path that will lead you to do right by the team. It is what makes you a good captain, Ulysses." Which is not the object of the game, Solomon. The game is not pass a ball around complimenting eachother.

So he adds, "I am concerned that..." He frowned because he wasn't sure how to phrase this concern in English. He wasn't positive he could even phrase it in Spanish. It felt irrational. "Casper and Leo were on even footing when Leo was captain. It makes sense that one of you two would be made captain next. But you both were made captain, you both are on even footing and I'm the third chaser. I don't know how to get to the position you three are at and you were all at that position last year, when you were my age. I don't know how to become respected, in a sense. I feel isolated, this is what concerns me. In a sense, I am not new to this team, but I am the only chaser that is not a captain, and that is an isolation I was not expecting at the start of the year."

And then solo threw the quaffle.

[cherubic]

Archie hadn't wanted to catch the Quaffle. This is a nightmare. His heart is beating fast, like a panicked rabbit. There's nothing he wants to add. What are his issues? When older students with reasonable amounts of authority look too closely at him, his skin crawls. When he'd been sour and passive-aggressive, he'd anticipated something far different from the wave of concern that had come his way. In the wake of it all, he'd been embarrassed. The more he objected, the more they worried. They thought he was sensitive and delicate. Weak willed, maybe. Isn't that always what his father says? Even now, they might smell the anxiety on him and rush to his side. He wishes they'd pay him less attention. It's easier to sneak and slide under everyone'e notice if they don't think he's hurting.

Which, honestly, he's not.

"I," he says, then clears his throat. He looks even smaller than normal. Archie picks out his words carefully, but he always sounds stilted. It's not unusual. "I feel as though I lack the context for the relationships established players have. It's difficult. You have existing tensions and rivalries. And they come up when we talk to one another. Sometimes."

A pause.

"AlsoIhatethis," he blurts out and throws the Quaffle away. Far, far away. Get it away from him.

[byebyebirdies]

On the other side of the circle, Corrigan catches the ball. She's the last to speak. She's also probably one of the most unhappy-looking ones there, mouth set in a firm pout. "I ALSO wish we were actually practising right now," she begins, apparently speaking directly to the Talking Quaffle. This feels like wasted time and wasted potential and all because the seniors weren't getting along.

"I feel," tossing the ball from hand to hand, she works her mouth for a moment until she decides what she feels, or at least, until she knows what she wants the others to think she feels. "I feel like the seniors on the team have a lot of BAGGAGE to work through and now we've pulled into it too, and it's no fun. This is like when my parents made us attend family therapy and it was boring. It didn't even help with anything. You should fix stuff out outside of practice so we can play Quidditch."

She tosses the Talking Quaffle without caring where it's headed, or if it even makes it across the circle.

And then she goes back to pouting.

[neattrick]

The quaffle goes bouncing across the floor and into a cabinet, and Clem rushes after it to pick it up and return to the circle.

"Okay, so..." Clem says as she fishes it out from under a desk. "Uhm... so Archie feels like he needs more context to understand what's going on, but Corrigan wants to know less about our personal relationships... so..."

She sits back down in her chair, holding the quaffle between her hands, white-knuckled. "Uh, I don't know what to do about that. Does anyone have an easier problem we can solve first?"

She tosses the quaffle at the first person who looks like they might be thinking about answering her.

[ulixes]

Stop! Throwing! The ball! To him! Decourt! How's that for a problem that's easy to solve? Ulysses does have an issue, though — one that is both practical and also, slightly explanatory with respect to their current predicament.

"We've got to stop booking double practice, or else Stoker'll have our hides." It was also unfair to Castillo and Davenport, but for some reason, Ulysses was less worried about them bashing his head in with a rock. "Either warn him the pitch is ours on account of we're the better team, or start thinking up alternate ways to fill our time and work our ABCs." Always Be Catching. You might all note that they are, in fact, catching right now.

He chucks the quaffle. Anyone with suggestions is welcome to intercept.

[casperkim]

Casper doesn't have the Quaffle so he can't voice his agreement with Wilde...but he does point in his direction the entire time he's talking to indicate his agreement. It's about balance. Nobody is suggesting sacrificing one for the other; they can place a strong focus on fundamentals and still coordinate innovative new strategies. Just like Leo did.

AFTER "PRACTICE"

[neattrick]

OOC CHATTER

[neattrick]

BONUS: Rate your characters 0-4 stars on the following communication skills.

• Empathy
  
• Sangfroid
  
• Eloquence
  
• Self-awareness

Re: OOC CHATTER

[neattrick]

you get 8 stars to distribute or 10 if you're seeing Dr. Perry

Re: OOC CHATTER

[ulixes]

does having too many feelings give you a bonus star or is it a detriment

Re: OOC CHATTER

[neattrick]

you can take it as a +1 to empathy or eloquence or a -1 to sangfroid or self-awareness

Re: OOC CHATTER

[ulixes]

oh god i know that tracks because ulysses really, really does not need those addendums lmfao

Re: OOC CHATTER

[tues]

Empathy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sangfroid: ⭐️
Eloquence:⭐️⭐️
Self-Awareness: ⭐️⭐️

That was too many feelings stars and Tuesday doesn’t deserve them but omg this is so cute

Re: OOC CHATTER

[theniceboy]

Empathy: ****
Sangfroid a word I had to Google: **
Eloquence: **
Self-awareness: **

Re: OOC CHATTER

[cherubic]

Empathy: ...
Sangfroid: ⭐️⭐️
Eloquence: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Self-awareness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

... sorry.

Re: OOC CHATTER

[byebyebirdies]

Empathy: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Sangfroid: ⭐️ ⭐️
Eloquence: ⭐️ ⭐️
Self-Awareness: ⭐️

this was legitimately hard i wanted to give her max 5 stars total, even 4

Re: OOC CHATTER

[ulixes]

i seriously don't even know how to spend these stars bc ulysses definitely gets one (1) star for self-awareness and sangfroid

Re: OOC CHATTER

[sunsoutgunsout]

honestly she got 2 for empathy and 1 for everything else, and that was already generous

Re: OOC CHATTER

[ulixes]

lmfao @ her calling them out tho bc this is definitely 100% family therapy

Re: OOC CHATTER

[destructobot]

Empathy: ⭐️
Sangfroid: ⭐️⭐️
Eloquence: ⭐️⭐️
Self-Awareness: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

:c

Re: OOC CHATTER

[neattrick]

Empathy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sangfroid: ⭐️⭐️
Eloquence: ⭐️
Self-awareness: ⭐️⭐️

y'all right this is way too many stars for clem's current communication skills level

Re: OOC CHATTER

[threatens]

i'm concerned about ebonquid

Re: OOC CHATTER

[ulixes]

they're not very good at talking

Re: OOC CHATTER

[threatens]

i can't believe you dragged the children into this

Re: OOC CHATTER

[ulixes]

it affects the kids when mom and dad fight!!!!!!! they needed to talk it out

Re: OOC CHATTER

[ulixes]

Empathy: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Sangfroid: ⭐️
Eloquence: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Self-awareness: ⭐️

this is....... too many stars on so many levels, but also, yolo