September 14th, 1895, Morning — Quidditch Pitch

Anne walked the line of recruits hoping to make the team. She'd waited years for this moment, finally, her chance to push Slytherin farther, higher. Anne had several key positions to fill, but she wasn't here to scrape the bottom of the barrel. She'd have quality or nothing.

"Good morning. I'm Anne Moony. I'm you're captain and the person you want remembering your name after this. Your job is to impress me and make all those gawkers in the stands afraid of you."

Walking over to the rows of equipment, she'd arranged. Anne barked her next order. "Chasers, you will start with hoop weaving while dodging some dummy bludgers. These ones won't break you, but you'll be painted green for a few hours and you don't want the school seeing that."

"Beaters, you'll be protecting those floating targets from bludgers. Lose all your targets or take a hit yourself, and you're landing. The longer you stay up there, the better."

"And potential Keepers, you're protecting the three hoops on the end of the pitch. The catch: there'll be two quaffles to deal with. Figure it out.

Each of you get two rounds. Alright, first round, let's move."

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Please post once for each position you are trying out for. Make sure you have filled in the requisite form and have received a “like” from Kayte before posting! The deadline for all posts is 10:59pm EST on September 14th.

By posting in this thread, you agree to have your character present and whole regardless of what happens between the date of posting and the IC date listed.

  

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MJ about made me cry with this one!
Thread Log | Help Anne Blame the DJ

The trick to flying, as with climbing, was not to look down. Silas pushed up off the ground with his legs, the way he'd practiced in flying lessons on the ground. He had little trouble with that part, or getting up to the height that Miss Moony wanted for her tryout candidates. The young woman was sharp of eye and tongue, which definitely made her someone that Silas did not want to disappoint.

He muttered a short prayer under his breath, and clasped the broom by its handle with both hands. The only task ahead of him was to weave through hoops while dodging paint-filled "bludgers," or so the team captain had called them. They looked somewhat like balloons, and balloons should be easy enough to avoid, only floating unless the wind should pick up. He could feel the wind already on his cheeks and in his hair, should it change the would-be sailor might be the first to know.

On the captain's mark Silas leaned forward, picking up speed quickly on the chaser's trial.

  

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As it turned out, a beater's job was not to use the bat upon his teammates. That was a great relief to Silas, who had heard stories of something similar happening at Dartmouth. Hogwarts, by contrast, seemed far less corporal in its approach, the bludgers he must beat were only senseless things. Little more than beasts, perhaps, and man was given dominion over beasts.

Silas didn't utter his prayer this time, though he probably should have. His knees tightened to aid in gripping the broomstick, having to keep one hand on the bat meant one less for flying. Controlling his broom this way was far trickier when he had to zoom this way and that to protect his targets from the mindless bludgers. If only they would go bludge someone else for a while to let him take his beater's trial in peace.

That consternation drove him forward, hoping that his gritted teeth would substitute for a prayer against falling, or falling prey to the bludgers.

  

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Silas would have named them saviors had he been in charge of naming, for that was the aim of guarding the three goals at the end of the field. He had little doubts about spotting the moving targets, the quaffles, from afar. The would-be sailor could see quite far without squinting, a fact he was rather proud of. Getting in front of the hoop with his broom, however, and not overshooting it was quite another matter.

After a few passes, Silas decided his lack of braking power could be alleviated by timing his flight in front of the hoop just right. It would do for the moment, he was only glad to be able to grip both hands on the broomshaft for better balance. Playing keeper seemed to require quite a lot of turning, and the kind of precision that was harder for him to manage yet. His prayer, managed this time between quaffles coming near his hoops, was that the team captain might understand this was only his second week on a broom.

He was determined not to fall off, however, lest his keeper's trial need a savior of its own.

  

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Arcturus had missed out on trying out for a team lead by his older brother by a year. Which was disappointing but he was still determined to do his best. His dormmate, Merlion, was also trying out, it looked like which was surprising to Arc considering how the boy had been screaming Blasphemy about everything. Maybe he was coming around? Arc didn't much care though so he quickly cast it out of his mind and focused on his beater tryout before landing to cycle through for the next position that he was trying out for.

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The following 1 user Likes Arcturus Black's post:1 user Likes Arcturus Black's post
   Silas Merlion

Arc kicked off and began his keeper tryout. It was a little tricky with two quaffles to worry about but nothing too out of hand. He dismounted when his turn ended and watched the rest of the people trying out make their attempts.

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