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Admin Sora
MASTER OF WINGULL ACTUAL WINGULL 8TH YEAR
2,435 posts
Crazy Cat Lady in Training
played by Sora
nothing to say
I heart wingull
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last online Jan 20, 2024 19:16:15 GMT -7
ADMINISTRATOR
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Aug 21, 2017 21:26:14 GMT -7
Post by Admin Sora on Aug 21, 2017 21:26:14 GMT -7
"Welcome to the third and final task of the Triwizard tournament." Boomed the amplified voice of Headmistress McGonagall. The entire Hogwarts student body, the visiting delegates of Beauxbaton and Durmstrang, Ministry officials, and spectators of all ages had been gathered in the Quidditch pitch stands. Far below them lay the field, and what a sight to behold it was! The champions had been spread across the field, each with a large cage beside them in their school colors. "For this final tasks our champions have thirty minutes to catch as many fairies as possible and return them to their school's cage." With a wave of her hand the time appeared in large glowing numbers above the field. "The rules are simple. Our champions can only carry three Fairies at a time, and must return to their cage each time they hear this bell." A loud gong went off, for demonstration. "If they find another champion's cage they can steal from them. If they come across another champion in the arena they can duel each other and take not only their own fairies but their competitors. This will be the only time they can carry more then three."
Professor McGonagall was silent for a moment as she let the purpose sink in. "Our winner today will decide our Triwizard Tournament, but each of these three are champions. They were chosen, and they have performed bravely and admirably up until this point. Champions, finish this tournament with all your strength. Make your schools, your families, your friends, and the entire wizarding world proud."
"Let the third task begin."
(Remember to send me your grid guess each round, the answer I give you will decide how your IC post works. If you miss a round, you can not make it up. The task will go on a minimum of twenty days, but may be longer if there are any duels between our champions.)
@annelise @emile @puck (NPCing for Elias)
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 22, 2017 7:39:22 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2017 7:39:22 GMT -7
It was the Third Task, which meant that it was Elias's last chance to make Durmstrang proud. He had done poorly in both of the previous tasks, but as he had told the reporter from the Daily Prophet, he still believed this was anybody's game. Even if he didn't win the Tournament, he could at least prove that he was something more than a dead weight, and that he had deserved to be made the Durmstrang Champion. Elias listened as the headmistress of Hogwarts explained what the final task would be. It didn't sound bad - unlike the other two tasks, there wouldn't be any outside forces vying for his demise. The only danger that would be posed to him would be the other Champions. They were both formidable opponents - their performances in the previous tasks were enough proof of that. Elias's best strategy was going to be to try to avoid any duels, which he would almost surely lose.
At the declaration that the task was beginning, Elias immediately set off. If he could be quicker than the other Champions, then maybe he wouldn't cross their paths. The limited line of sight was a little disorienting, but Elias made sure that he remembered which direction he had come from. Getting lost in the field would be just his luck. Elias was surprised when he saw not one, not three, but nine fairies ahead of him. He remembered from the rules that he was only allowed to carry three at a time, which was a shame. He remembered the way back to his cage, but he wasn't sure if he'd be able to find his way back to this area and its abundance of fairies. It was no matter, though - he at least had some fairies, which meant that he was on his way to getting at least some points in the final task.
Just as Elias was returning to the Durmstrang cage, the gong sounded. He couldn't guess how much time had passed - the fog really was strange, and he wasn't sure if he had been walking for three minutes or three seconds - but he was glad that he was already back at his cage. Elias dumped all of the fairies he had collected back into his cage, watching as their multicolor wings flitted about. They didn't look too pleased to be put in captivity, but Elias had no intentions of releasing them. He bounced on the balls of his feet, ready to return to the field to collect more fairies.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 22, 2017 20:19:50 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2017 20:19:50 GMT -7
This third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament was a complete and utter joke. Did they, the organizers, really see this as a valid way to end the whole thing? Where was the danger? The excitement? Absolutely nothing in this entire task, at least from the description given to them before it started, sounded interesting. Catching fairies and returning them to their home base? It was childish. The finale was supposed to be hyped up and of grand scale. This was underwhelming, despicable, and silly. Émile was embarrassed to be a champion, running around through the fog trying to catch harmless creatures that had some kind of point value. He didn’t even care about the dueling aspect of it, because he knew that if he went up against either of them, he would win. There was no doubt about that at all. He had heard about what the Hogwarts girl, Anna, had done during the second task and decided that her acknowledgment as a champion was more valid than Greyback’s was. Honestly, the Durmstrang boy was a disappointment on all fronts. He had posed absolutely zero problems so far, and was sitting alone in third place like the abandoned child he was born to be. Émile realized following the last task that he shouldn’t have expected much out of a mutt in the first place. Anna though…she was a different game. Having virtually left her alone the entire time, Émile was unsure of what she was capable of. Only seeing her once during the maze and hearing from secondhand sources on the second task didn’t really help him visualize what she was like when it came to combat. That would change today if he could pull it off.
The sound for the task started, and off the Beauxbatons champion went. The mist was annoying, and Émile immediately pulled his wand out to try and disperse it, but to no avail. Of course there was no way to get rid of it. If he knew of any vision assisting spells, there was a chance they would give him a few extra feet of sight, though it wasn’t like that would truly help him in the end. After a few minutes of blindly walking around, he came across and opening that held a group of fairies in it. There were three different colors of them. He nodded his head, finally understanding what the deal was with the varying colors and how the points would be determined off of them. Not wanting to miss out, he made sure to snag one of each color before returning to his base. Because apparently that was all he was allowed to carry at a given time. So stupid.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 22, 2017 21:42:56 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 22, 2017 21:42:56 GMT -7
Honestly, Anna didn't know what to think about this last task for the tournament. It was on the grounds and really didn't seem all too dangerous, except for the potential duels she might be getting into. The only question was, how serious were the other two competitors about the duels. She didn't think that dueling Elias would be particularly hard, mostly because he seemed so nice that she couldn't really imagine him attacking her. Emile on the other hand ... well Anna didn't really want to have to duel him. She'd heard all about him fighting the manticore and that didn't sound like an easy competitor. Still, dueling wasn't technically the point of the task. It was supposed to be about catching fairies, which wasn't something that Anna thought was particularly difficult. The mist though. She definitely was not a fan of the mist.
She stood in the arena, waiting for the go-ahead. It was annoying that she couldn't see hardly anything in front of her, but once she could go, she used the point me spell and started walking. She decided to go straight, figuring that eventually she would probably run into something. Either some fairies or another champion. Fairies would probably be the better option, but now that the task was started she didn't have much of a choice. To her surprise, she wasn't walking long before she ran into 9 fairies. Anna looked at them, trying to decide what to do. She could only take three, but she didn't know which ones to take. After a few seconds, she reached for one red, one green and one blue fairy, taking them back to her cage. When she was almost back, a simple trip since it was a straight walk from her original spot, the bell rang. She got to her "base" and put the three fairies in the crate, closing the door to keep them in. Then she turned around and leaned against the crate, waiting until she could leave again.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 25, 2017 17:30:51 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2017 17:30:51 GMT -7
The return trip to his base was uneventful, if not completely boring. What a drag this task was. Émile had hoped that the prospect of getting into a duel would excite him, but all it had served to do so far was make him look around cautiously. If one of the other champions heard him walking, there was a chance they could get a jump on him, but the odds of that happening seemed slim. He was surely going to notice them first anyways, and then go from there. He was the better champion and duelist after all. The newspapers and students had apparently forgotten the part during the first task where he had incapacitated a manticore without receiving a scratch on himself. Did they truly understand how difficult that was to manage? There was a reason it was classified as a deadly creature; most people that encountered one ended up dead. Obviously the tournament organizers wouldn’t allow that to happen, but the fact remained that he beat the hell out of it and walked away without a hitch. How many people could say they did that?
The first three fairies were delivered safely and Émile turned back into the mist once again. He had thought he walked a while last time, but this second round was taking a lot longer than he had hoped. The thinking was this: walk in a straight line until he found a patch that had fairies in it, and then take as many as possible. He had already forgotten where the first spot he had been too was, but that didn’t matter as long as he knew how to get back to base. That was why he was walking in a straight line. Eventually he wandered into a clearing, and there they were. Unlike the first group, this one had more of one color than the rest. The obvious choice would have been to take one of each again, but there was also the possibility that taking more of two of them than of the third could also benefit in the end. Really it was all luck. Scooping up the only two blues and one red, Émile started the long trek back to base once again.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 25, 2017 19:43:17 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2017 19:43:17 GMT -7
Elias didn't wait long - he just took the time that he needed to reorient himself amidst the fog of the field. If he could, he was just going to go back to where he was before. When the Durmstrang boy took off again, he clutched his wand. He hadn't seen any of the other Champions yet, but he wanted to be prepared for a duel. Besides, having something to hold on to made him feel slightly better about the strangeness of the situation. He heaved a deep breath as he ran through the arena, and was surprised when he found an area that looked... kind of similar to where he was before. And there were six fairies left, which made sense if he was in the same place as he had been before. Elias gathered three fairies as quickly as possible, more sure of his path now than he had been before, since he had trodden it twice now. He was back at his cage before the gong sounded, shoving his fairies in to join the ones he had captured earlier. Elias was feeling good about his chances for the task - but it had only just begun.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 25, 2017 21:09:09 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2017 21:09:09 GMT -7
Anna had a plan. Well, sort of a plan. She was going to go out and try for the same place she'd gone to last time. It shouldn't be too difficult, since all she had to do was go straight. Hopefully if she went quickly, she wouldn't run into anyone either. Though if she was being honest with herself, a part of Anna did want to run into someone. Catching fairies was simple and putting them in cages was also. After the past two tasks this one seemed a little ... tame. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing and she was sure that if she got into a duel (especially with Emile) that it would be more interesting, but she kind of wished they had to go through the mist with obstacles or something. At least that would make it challenging.
As soon as she was allowed to move again, Anna followed her plan, practically running to the place where she went last time. Once again, she chose 3 fairies of each color before hurrying back to her cage. Rushing was good because it meant she didn't run into anyone, but it also meant that she had to wait by the cage for a longer time. She got there well before the bell chimed, saying they needed to head back to the cages. As she waited for the bell, Anna sat down beside her cage, wand out just in case someone else showed up.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 27, 2017 17:59:09 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2017 17:59:09 GMT -7
Either Elias was crazy, or he was a lot better at remembering the path that he had taken than he had initially thought he would be. When he was permitted to go back into the field again – he had waited for the gong so that he wouldn’t have to return back to the cage as soon as he had left – he made them series of twists and turns as he had remembered taking before, since there were still theoretically fairies to be had there. Maybe his luck was finally getting better, Elias thought with a grin as he stopped dead in his tracks. There they were – the three fairies he had expected to see, the ones he had left behind in his two previous trips to this spot. He was still ecstatic that he had managed to find the same place three times, but the fact that none of the fairies had meandered away? That was even better. He gathered the three of them, and was already jogging back to the Durmstrang cage when the gong sounded. He wondered how necessary the gong really was – he had never had any trouble with taking too long searching for fairies, though since he had just gone to the same place three times, maybe he was a bad example. Elias was going to try to go even further from his cage on his next expedition, while he still had energy. The Durmstrang Champion was a little worried that all of this running back and forth was eventually going to take a toll on his body. He had spent some of his training time running, of course, but even the most experienced of runners felt a little fatigue when running back and forth for thirty minutes straight, especially if they were pushing themselves with the pace – hence why Elias was trying not to push himself too hard. His train of thought was cut off as the Durmstrang cage came into sight, and he put his fairies in, trying to make a game plan for the next time he embarked.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 27, 2017 18:11:56 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2017 18:11:56 GMT -7
Once she could go again, Anna decided to go off in a new direction. She was a little nervous that if she kept going to the same place she'd run into someone and get stuck dueling them. While she wasn't really nervous about dueling, she didn't want to end up losing it and her fairies ... if she found any by the time she had the duel. So she turned right and then went left for a bit. It felt like she'd been walking for ages when she finally ran into some fairies. This time there were 9 again. One red, 6 blue and 2 greens. Once again, Anna decided to take one of each color, though seeing so many blues made her wonder if they were worth the least amount just because there were so many. Then again, maybe the people in charge were trying to trick her. She shook her head, grabbing the fairies that she needed and turning to head back to her base.
This time it was a little harder than last time, and she arrived just a few moments after the bell sounded. Great. Now to wait again for her next chance. More than anything, this task was starting to feel tedious. Find the fairies, catch them, put them in the cage. She knew that if things happened, it would get interesting, but for now that was all it was.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 27, 2017 19:37:21 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2017 19:37:21 GMT -7
As with the previous two trips out into the mist, Émile went off in a direction that he hadn’t explored yet. There were plenty of odds that he would eventually run into one of the other champions to initiate a duel. He was kind of hoping he would catch one of them trying to get their hands into his base to steal his fairies. Then there wouldn’t be an issue with beating them. Émile wasn’t looking to critically injure either of them, but mistakes and accidents happened in duels all the time. It was the last task and every point mattered now. They all knew that. If the organizers had no problem setting them up against manticores, dragons, and forest trolls, then there shouldn’t be an issue with doing a little damage against one another. All there was after this victory was for him to be crowned the official champion, and then he could go back home victorious. Everyone knew it was going to happen, there was no doubt about that. The scoring on the second task had been a fluke, and given the fact that absolutely nothing worth proper scoring had been done in the first arena, the jungle, he had practically won that task as well. Thinking about all of this, Émile came across the next clearing that was home to a group of fairies. Like last time, the colors varied in number. Without much thinking, he grabbed two red fairies and a green one. Apparently there were supposed to be spaces with less than nine fairies in them, but he had yet to see that. All that meant was that he could easily return to these areas and grab a few more if he wanted to. The odds of another champion coming across them was possible, but he had a feeling that he was far enough out that it wouldn’t be an issue. At least not yet. Fairies in hand, he returned to his base.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 29, 2017 10:32:48 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2017 10:32:48 GMT -7
As it turned out… Elias’s game plan was that he had no game plan. He wasn’t going to go the same way he had gone before, because he had exhausted all of the fairies in the area he knew how to get to. The obvious answer, then, was to go a different direction. Which different direction, Elias didn’t really care. He felt like he was just wandering as he once again embarked into the mist, but wandering was better than staying still. And Elias, as always, managed to wander himself into a sticky situation. He didn’t end up dueling another Champion, no, but this was almost worse. He had found another Champion’s cage, and the fairies flitting around inside of it seemed all too happy with the prospect of being released, probably because they didn’t know they were just going to be winding up in a different cage with a different person. Elias didn’t know how to feel. He knew this was part of the task – stealing fairies from another Champion was actually a great strategy, since it took points from them while also giving points to him – but there was something that felt morally repugnant about the whole situation. Stealing was wrong, no matter the circumstances, but… since the Tournament had started, Elias had done a lot of things he had thought he would never do. Stealing could just get added onto that list. Elias opened the door to the other Champion’s cage, grabbing some of the fairies inside before slamming the door shut. Maybe three fairies wouldn’t be missed, but if all of the fairies in the cage mysteriously disappeared, then the other Champion would know something was up. Anna and Émile would probably suspect each other, because neither of them seemed to think of him as a thread (and probably for good reason). Elias ignored the twisting feeling in his stomach that continued to assault him at the thought of stealing, jogging away from the other Champion’s cage before they could return and challenge him to a duel.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 29, 2017 19:11:35 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2017 19:11:35 GMT -7
Rinse and repeat. Émile had a feeling that there was going to be a lot of this throughout the third task. The only variation in all of his trips was how many fairies of each color he found at the end of his treks. So boring. That same thought had resonated over and over again in his head since the start. How many times was this now? Five? Eight? No. It was the fourth. If there was a hard surface to hit his head on, Émile knew he would have done that right about now. Another direction and another clearing of fog disappearing in front of him. He didn’t even feel compelled to run like a mad man through the arena anymore, because he knew he would have plenty of time to find fairies before the bell rung. This time was no exception, just like the prior ones. Émile walked straight into another clearing and grabbed his allotment of three fairies; one of each color, before returning to his base.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 29, 2017 20:00:42 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2017 20:00:42 GMT -7
Once more, Anna was determine to try somewhere new. She could have gone back to the old spot, but she already knew that there weren't enough of all the fairies. She knew that she was probably being ridiculous, trying to get the same number of each fairy, but she didn't know which other one to choose. It was frustrating, because it made the task seem like it was up to chance. Which was why she was trying to get one of each. With one of each fairy, she could at least get a high-scoring one each time. That was better than choosing one and having it be the low-scoring one, wasn't it?
So once again, Anna was going a new way, somewhere she hadn't gone before. She took a few turns and found herself face-to-face with some fairies. She didn't count, but there were at least two of all of them. Smiling, she grabbed one of each color- yet again- and hurried back to her base. It didn't take a long time. Anna was really good with directions. She was a few turns away when she heard the bell. Anna quickened the pace and then relaxed a little when she arrived.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 31, 2017 19:42:04 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2017 19:42:04 GMT -7
Elias didn’t like this. Now that he knew here another Champion’s cage was, it didn’t make sense no to return. It seemed like he was damned no matter what he did. If he returned and continued to steal, he would be labeled immoral. If he didn’t return and didn’t steal, he would be labeled stupid for giving up the chance to get the upper hand. Elias took a deep breath, and huffed it out. He didn’t have time to debate this anymore. He was going to make a choice, and he was going to stand by it… Even if it did make him a bit uncomfortable. When Elias embarked again, he retraced his steps, almost hoping that there magically wasn’t a cage where there had been moments before. He was still of mixed emotions when he saw that the cage hadn’t managed to disappear. But, like he had told himself earlier, he was going to need to stand by his decision. Hesitation was just going to increase the chances that he encountered the other Champion in a duel, and Elias didn’t need that. Sure, there was the chance that he was going to gain more fairies in that manner, but since he was stealing from the other Champion, the fairies would end up in his possession eventually. Elias was swift in his motions, even though his hands trembled a little as he swung open the door to the cage again. Elias tried not to think as he began his trek back to his own cage, but the thoughts filtered in anyways. Stealing didn’t get any easier the second time, and Elias wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be comforting or not. At least it meant that, despite all of his rationalizing, he still had morals. The Tournament couldn’t take that from him.
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last online Mar 29, 2024 0:30:43 GMT -7
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Aug 31, 2017 19:50:16 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Aug 31, 2017 19:50:16 GMT -7
The third task…it was a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It was the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lay between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This was the dimension of imagination. It was an area which we call the absolutely most boring thing known to ever exist. Émile knew that it wasn’t worth complaining about because there was still a lot left to go still. Getting hung up on something as trivial as his own personal entertainment in a contest would only end with him losing again. There was nothing after this, and screwing up now would be a death knell. Émile wasn’t a loser like some people he knew; becoming one now of all times would hurt prospective job offers and his future as a socialite. No one wanted to be the person that finished behind a Greyback. That just wouldn’t do for him.
Émile found himself aimlessly walking again, which was his new favorite pastime in this task. Locating patches of fairies that he had yet to find should have been easier than it was. So far most of them had been full, though they weren’t after he was through with them. This new one was just like the rest, and Émile grabbed three green fairies. He had long since decided to drop his idea of stacking one color more than another. There were obvious ways to exploit that, but he had been preoccupied with keeping himself entertained throughout this experience so now it was out the window. Back he went with the new fairies in tow.
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