gooseberryhigh | QUIDDITCH: Mar 11, Match #7

Entry tags:

QUIDDITCH: Mar 11, Match #7

RIBBONFIN

AZURCREST

It's clear skies, and the snow is melting from cabin roofs as everyone leaves for the Quidditch pitch for the first rematch of the season. Ribbonfin Cheer had more time to prepare a new routine, and it shows as Captain Ives leads her squad onto the field, everyone moving in perfectly executed synchronization that gets the fish fans cheering. But Azurcrest has a secret weapon on their side: warm weather cheer uniforms. Captain Ignacz orders warming charms for everyone, and it's the first time in months that the school sees short skirts and no sleeves on the field. The crowd loves it.

Right away, it's Ribbonfin's game. Chaser Bagman grabs the Quaffle and quickly breaks away thanks to Rush and Ryder blocking the way of the Azurcrest Chasers. Morales-Tran slips through, but the Bludgers happened to rocket off to the Ribbonfin side of the pitch, and within seconds of game start, Beaters R. Delgado and Evercreech own the pitch. Evercreech snaps off a Bludger at Morales-Tran, which she has to swerve sharply to avoid, while R. Delgado maneuvers to keep the Bludgers out of the hands of Azurcrest. Keeper Flowers blocks the first shot that Bagman tries, but later misses three, all before the 15 minute mark.

Ribbonfin is far ahead when Chaser Castillo finally gets a Quaffle past Keeper Davenport: 50–10 for Ribbonfin, 24 minutes on the clock. Davenport plays well, blocking most of the shots that come at her; although with Ribbonfin's Chasers and Beaters on an all-out offense, her hoops are getting hammered way less than Flowers'. Beater S. Delgado goes hard after her brother, and manages to steal the Bludger from him, which she sends to Hobbs, who times it just right to disrupt Bagman's flight. The Bludger hits the tail of her broom, knocking her around enough to allow Key to take the Quaffle from her. With the ball back in their hands, Azurcrest get off a few quick goals (two by Key, then one each by Castillo and Morales-Tran) but it's never enough to close the gap.

50 minutes in, the score is 70–50 for Ribbonfin. Neither Seeker Popplestone nor St. Clair have seen the Snitch yet, despite the bright, clear sky laying the whole pitch bare to their sharp eyes. At one point, Popplestone chases what she thinks is the Snitch, but was actually a freshman's Artificing project, a metal bird allowed to fly free for a few minutes before Coach Thorn calls for it to be disabled. Lucas Kowalski fires off the spell that finally takes out the freshman's bird, and earns 15 points for their house. (The fake bird, unfortunately, doesn't survive the fall.)

With the Ribbonfin Chasers taking care of themselves, R. Delgado and Evercreech switch tactics, and appear to target Beater Hobbs, the less aggressive of Azurcrest's Beaters. She quickly picks up what they're trying to do, but having to focus on dodging double Bludgers leaves her with little time to help her team. Rush takes advantage of the distraction to knock out another goal for Ribbonfin, while Azurcrest continues to struggle to get Quaffles past Davenport. Beater S. Delgado also switches focus to defend her partner, and there's thrill of delight in the crowd as they realize it's turned into a Beater vs. Beater showdown, with S. Delgado obviously now trying to take out R. Delgado. Soon, there's a furious midair scuffle: both Delgados aim for the same Bludger, but S. Delgado ends up hitting R. Delgado hard in the arm with her bat. Although that Bludger shoots off towards Hobbs, Hobbs moves around it, and fires it towards Evercreech, who was distracted by the Delgado fight. He dodges too slowly; the Bludger smashes right through the handle of his broom. Evercreech, struck in the chest by an fast-flying iron ball, tumbles to the ground and also breaks his leg.

Coach Thorn calls timeout, and gives Ribbonfin a penalty shot for S. Delgado hitting someone with her bat. Captain Davenport subs in Reserve Owsley, but R. Delgado insists on staying, knowing the last reserve isn't up for playing Beater. (Evercreech is carried to the sidelines, where he's allowed to continue watching while Healer Mufferaw fixes him up.) Chaser Bagman takes the penalty shot, and hits it past a still-struggling Flowers. The score is 90–60 for Ribbonfin, and we're an hour and nine minutes in.

Ribbonfin has one Beater out and another bruised, while Azurcrest is still going at full strength. R. Delgado and Owsley do their best, but the pair of S. Delgado and Hobbs fly circles around them, and completely disrupt the Ribbonfin Chasers. Rush gets a close call as a Bludger whizzes right by his ear, while Ryder is hit in the ribs and drops out for Reserve Pitchford. Flowers gets a breather now as Keeper Davenport's side gets slammed by Quaffles. Chasers Castillo, Key and Morales-Tran fly unimpeded, a well-oiled machine, and rack up the points for the next half hour. Azurcrest ties the game 85 minutes in, and keeps going, all the way to 140–90 for Azurcrest. Fans in blue stand up and scream for this bravura showing by Azurcrest's Chasers.

As Chaser Castillo scores his 7th goal of the game, Seeker Popplestone sees the Golden Snitch zipping along the ground, camouflaged against the yellow grass. If she catches it now, Ribbonfin will merely tie, so she suddenly flies straight up into the air, trying to distract St. Clair. He takes the bait and goes after her. Chaser Rush grabs the Quaffle from Key and throws it down to Pitchford, who scores the next goal for Ribbonfin. Popplestone executes a sharp 180 spin midair; St. Clair flies right past her and she heads back to the ground, after the Snitch.

Morales-Tran has the Quaffle next, and zips around the other players to make her shot; but Davenport blocks it, and the ball lands in Bagman's hands. Popplestone took her eyes off the Snitch for too long, but she sees it again, now fleeing towards the stands. St. Clair is back on her tail, but Popplestone has a strong lead on him. Bagman passes to Pitchford; Castillo moves to intercept. Beater Owsley hits a Bludger at St. Clair, but it's too far; Hobbs dives in and directs it to S. Delgado, who sends it right in Popplestone's path. Popplestone has to pull up to dodge it, losing precious seconds. Chaser Pitchford throws the Quaffle as hard and as far as she can to where Key and Rush are jockeying for position in front of the Azurcrest hoops. R. Delgado has the other Bludger, but the Seekers are too close now for a good shot, so he hits it at Key; Rush catches the Quaffle. St. Clair and Popplestone are neck-and-neck, arms outstretched as far as they'll go. Rush makes his shot. Keeper Flowers dives towards the leftmost hoop to block, but the Quaffle skims the top of his fingers and goes in. Seconds later, a Seeker catches the Snitch.

.
.
.
.
.

AZURCREST WINS
190–120

Whether you’re a player, cheerleader or spectator, post below with your character’s reactions! If you wish to post separately about the game, please use lj-cuts and mark for spoilers for the first 24 hours, so no one sees the result before reading the official match description.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Eve lands hard and stumbles to a stop.

That game was....

It started out great. But holy shit that turned into a clusterfuck of a train wreck as soon as Sofia hit her own brother with her bat. Eve feels a little winded, a little annoyed, a lot sore. They fell way short of the points they needed. The aggressive beaters tactic didn’t really work. And injuring two of your beaters in one game was... nearly unprecedented. It just didn’t really fucking happen.

Eve isn’t worked up, though. She shakes hands and all of that. Tells everybody they played bloody great. And then she goes to check on her own team. On Evercreech and Ramon and Gwen and the reserves that kinda sorta helped things.

Not only did they lose, they got nowhere near the points they needed. Worst of all, the majority of her team was hurt or nearly hurt. Avery is quick to descend, put on a smile and tell her team they did great before leaving the pitch to check on Calvin and Peyton.

JD likes playing chaser with Toby and Eve, and has spent many a long practice covering Peyton's position before. And she's definitely hopped up on adrenaline and ready to go by the time she's subbed in. Still, she never hopes to play on game day. And this was a bad match. Not just because they lost - JD's never minded losing much. But half her teammates are injured, one of them badly, and she can't feel good until she knows they're okay.

She checks on Ramon first, because he's closest and she feels bad he stayed in so she wouldn't have to play beater. (Honestly, though? Good thing, because who knows how many bludgers the team would've taken with her playing beater.) After she's sure he's not hurt too badly she excuses herself from the pitch to check on Peyton. She'll catch up with the rest of her team later.

Beater is not Sandy's strongest position and when Calvin and Ramon both get hurt, he knows the remainder of the game is going to be an uphill battle. He goes in determined to give his best effort. Unfortunately, his best effort still allows Sofia and Ree to fly circles around them and to intercept a shot from him that may have cost them the game after it got redirected. Sorry, Gwen.

When it's all over, he lands with a sigh but is quick to put on a small you-win-some-you-lose-some smile. The result is disappointing but they played as well as they could and that's all it comes down to. He stays to check on his teammates (there were too many injuries in that game!) and exchange post-game pleasantries (good game, everybody!). He'd like to ask Ramon and Calvin about additional Beater practice just in case but...right now doesn't seem like the time.

Calvin is overwhelmed, and more than a little torn. He spent the latter half of the game in a fair amount of discomfort, both because of his leg and the rapidly declining state of Ribbonfin. He and Ramon had lost the Beater duel that they'd been told to initiate before the game was even halfway through.

He hadn't registered all of that at first, though. There was a second where he thought to himself that getting hit wasn't that bad, and then he was falling, and everything became much worse. It's possible he cried a little as he gritted his teeth and tried to be tough. Calvin's broom was ruined, and he was already thinking of how best to beg Dimi to let him borrow his for the rest of the year. After that, the game fell apart. Azurcrest soared ahead. Calvin watched from the sidelines, eventually joined by Peyton. Only a Snitch catch could save them.

And that's where Calvin's torn. He wants to win, he wants Gwen to perform well, and if anyone other than Micah had been responsible for undermining that he'd be unhappy. But as things stand, he can't quite bring himself to be. When Azurcrest explodes into cheers, there's one ragged looking fish on the sidelines who joins them.

Edited 2018-03-12 15:19 (UTC)

For once, Gwen can't beat herself up about her performance. She'd done everything humanly possible to give the team time to score, as per Avery's instructions; she'd passed up the Snitch twice over just so they could get closer to that two hundred the captain wanted. Winning before that point wouldn't have helped at all.

She is more worried than flustered when Calvin is taken out; scanning for the Snitch is a good excuse to keep looking at him, seeing how he was feeling, maybe even wishing a little that he was feeling good enough to come back in. Not that she didn't like their reserves, but none of the others were up to the same level. Not for the first time, she wished she could play with him another year, since he was going to be a powerhouse by the time the next season rolled around.

And yet that powerhouse and her best friend got caught cheering for the enemy when she landed, bringing a smile to her face despite them losing. Stopping by the sidelines, she muttered, "Vile betrayer," at him, amused, before Micah could jump on him and predictably smother him with kisses.

Whoa.

Brow knit and smile tight, Griffin's joy is tenuous. Two wins in a row is great, but there's the distinct and nagging sensation that these games were won in spite of him and not at all with his assistance. His congratulations are breathless and delivered with enthusiasm, but any commentary sent his way is received with a polite but wincing grin.

Jeffy is legitimately thrilled that they won. Don't let his manner—which, though still bubbly and bouncy, is more muted than usual—fool you. He's just thinking. There were a few things about his own performance he would want to work on (seriously Jefferson, stop letting people steal the Quaffle from you??? Even if there's a Bludger coming at your face???), but he found himself thinking a lot more about overall team dynamics throughout this game. There are a lot of Ribbonfins on the school team, and he found himself paying extra attention to their every move and storing it away for later. Maybe when things settled down he could ask Calvin how he felt about getting hit now, did he still want to work on that? Toby stole the Quaffle from Jeffy at least once and made more goals than him, maybe he should run some drills next practice for interceptions and stealing and keeping the Quaffle from being snatched right out of your hands.

He has a lot of thoughts running through his head, maybe he should write them down??? Or... he could go celebrate with his team.

Jeffy's sure he'll remember them later. They're gonna eat SO MUCH PIZZA now.

Ok!!! This is better!! Not fantastic, but still, an improvement from last game. Jaime's also just elated that they've won, and instead of being in shock when he lands like last time, he's just all smiles. He goes to congratulate Ribbonfin on a hard fought game, of course, and inquire after their injured players, but then he's going to tell Azurquid how well they'd done, and to thank them for putting in so much work before this game. He feels like he's lucky to have them, and he lets them know. Do they need pizza again? He should definitely see if they can have pizza again.

Though Azurcrest has a bit of breathing room before their next game, Jaime's energized and already has a pile of ideas of how to just keep getting better.

Losing never feels great, especially when the number of injuries on your team is so high, but as usual Ramon takes Ribbonfin's loss in stride. He'd done his job, followed direction, stayed in on an injured arm - all things to view as victories in one way or another.

As he touches down, rolling his shoulder a bit at the ache throughout his arm, Ramon seeks out his still standing teammates for mild and moderately sincere compliments before extending the same courtesy to Azurcrest. Then he's off to see Calvin to check in, and though he lingers some he doesn't stay long, figuring the other boy will want to talk to Micah or other friends. A quick check on Peyton, and then Ramon searches for an expectant looking sophomore amongst the other students. He assumes Balthazar will forgive him for the wait - and if he doesn't, it doesn't really matter anyway.

Typically, Balthazar doesn't care much about Quidditch that doesn't involve Ebonhide. Sometimes he comes and sometimes he doesn't. It just depends on his mood. This time, though, he's got a reason to come and he's inexplicably cheering for Ribbonfin. Go fishies go. He winces when Calvin breaks his leg and Ramon takes a bat to the arm (there's a reason he doesn't play games like this one) but continues his lazy applause and occasional whistling even as the match takes one bad turn after another. So much for a comeback. Hopefully, this won't put Ramon off of their plans, though. At least he's getting a consolation prize?

When the match is over, he pops a lollipop into his mouth and says goodbye to his friends and heads off to meet Ramon.

Edited 2018-03-12 12:20 (UTC)

Lucas committed murder in the middle of the pitch. A necessary murder, to be sure. The small metal infiltrator would’ve wreaked havoc on the objective of her friends on the field. But even the most metal of birds leaves behind a life and family. It’s a loss. That is to say, as soon as the freshman was sure their artificing project wouldn’t work any more, Jade paid them for it in candy she keeps around just for currency purposes, and the promise of a favor later. She’ll regret that, but that’s fine. Right now, she returns to her seat with the bird’s lifeless frame in her hands, and wraps it uncommonly gently in a scrap of silk she has on her for...what,impromptu small animal funerals? Probably. She holds it out to Lucas, with far too much solemnity. It’s his kill, so he should decide what to do with it.
“Long live the birds.” She intones.

This is probably a gift in Jade world.

Edited 2018-03-12 13:21 (UTC)

"Tweet tweet, one of us," he replies, monotone, like an amen.

Lucas receives the broken bird with the gravity of a formal ritual, holding it with both hands. "Our fallen mechanical brother made some mistakes, but we should not deprive him an Azurcrest funeral." Which means they're going to pitch him off the cliff back at their cabins. "Should we have a procession?"

all of you should be asleep now anyway

Game Length: 1h 54m 21s
Final Score: 190–120 (140–120 without Snitch)

EBONHIDE
# goals blocked by Davenport: 12
# goals scored by Bagman: 4
# goals scored by Rush: 5
# goals scored by Ryder: 2
# goals scored by Pitchford: 1

AZURCREST
# goals blocked by Flowers: 5
# goals scored by Castillo: 7
# goals scored by Key: 4
# goals scored by Morales-Tran: 3

Edited (I AM SO VERY SORRY AGAIN GRIFFIN) 2018-03-12 06:04 (UTC)

i'm so out of it i almost hit "Delete Entry"

~~that second half comes courtesy of rng~~ OH HOLY SHIT DID I FUCK UP THE MATH ON THIS MATCH UHHH HANG ON

ok i'm... too feverish rn to fully fix it so that's the official score now WHATEVER don't ask where a random goal came from

Edited 2018-03-12 06:01 (UTC)

Luv u this is great can I get X for Lucas

You got it! Azurcrest, headed for the House Cup!!!

Dead Senior Cecil is so proud. :')

"all of you should be asleep now anyway"

DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO MOM

very proud of everyone who is awake, esp if it's after midnight in your time zone

if it's before in your time zone then ok YOU'RE VALID

Edited (that sounded too mean) 2018-03-12 06:10 (UTC)

i mean to be fair its 2 am and i SHOULD be asleep but there's anxiety insomnia for you

Edited (but i love it when you're mean to me; it shows you CARE :O ♥) 2018-03-12 06:19 (UTC)

SOFIA DONT KILL YOUR BROTHER OMG

He's going to give her shit about this forever

SHES SORRY OK

Quidditch is going to kill me one day, dear lord

Edited (Thank you for working so hard!!!) 2018-03-12 11:41 (UTC)

i'm proud of u birbs

baby birbs!!! gonna eat so much pizza!!!

I hope if any of them play professionally they also request a pizza party after every win

the real reason jeffy doesn't go pro is because he asked the scouts about the pizza party situation and the response was less than favorable

This was the first Quidditch Sunday since like last year I slept before the game and feel empty inside but oh well YAY TEAMS THIS WAS SUCH A ROUGH MATCH :(
Also they should have a brief bird funeral for that dead metal bird

Edited 2018-03-12 13:01 (UTC)

they SHOULD. tiny metal birbs are one of essie's favorite things to make. this is a sad death. :(

No one has to reply to that

Sorry

screaming

i love it

She’s weird

Jade is like a cat, handing out dead birds as gifts.

Useless and a little Gross is def a Jade mark of a kindness

Oh my god they should throw it off the Azurcrest cliff. A true Azurcrest funeral.

Yes. Fly your final flight, little bird

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

QUIDDITCH: Mar 11, Match #7

PLAYERS & CHEERLEADERS

Eve

Avery

JD

Sandy

Calvin

Calvin and Gwen

Toby

Griffin

Jeffy

Jaime

Ramon

AUDIENCE REACTIONS

Balthazar

Bird Funeral

Bird Funeral

AFTER THE GAME

OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

OOC 💫 GAME STATS

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION

Re: OOC 💫 QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION