Didn't Start the Fire [Monday]

[monday meadow weekly]

"Yes, and no," Thursday cleared up for her about the game. Players would get ingredients for doing different tasks, as a reward, but they would also have to find and harvest ingredients for themselves. Thursday even provided her with a few examples, such as Ashwinder eggs, bloodroot, and Mandrakes.

That was totally cool, though Monday couldn't help but think that it sounded a little dangerous if it were in real life. Mandrakes alone were difficult to handle without the proper equipment—earmuffs, for one—and having to harvest them didn't sound like quite as much fun. Then again, she thought, it must have been an absolutely fascinating concept for a No-Maj, running around and picking up ingredients for potions and brewing things that they could use. It was a lot of work, though Monday hoped that some of the potions wouldn't take as long to prepare in the game. If it did, people would probably get stuck there a while.

She had no doubt that Thursday would figure something out. "Aren't you a little worried about the Statute of Secrecy, though?" Monday hesitated after eating some more of her food, not wanting to come crashing down upon her sister's dreams. She just wanted to make sure that Thursday wouldn't be doing anything that would be misinterpreted by MACUSA or the British Ministry of Magic (or any other governments, for that matter) as a breach of what might have been the most important international magical law. "I mean, No-Majes don't have Ashwinders and stuff in their world, right?" They wouldn't know that they were real, of course; they would just think that they were an element of the game, but what if the lines were blurred? "What if somebody's like… They think that the world in your game is real life—which it is, for us—but they're not supposed to know that… Or somebody's joking around and they start talking about something that's really something from our world, and somebody who's magical hears them and thinks that they know about magic… But the No-Majes don't actually know… But they think that they know because it's part of the game, so then there's some big misunderstanding?" Monday wasn't sure if what she had said made sense. "I just don't want you to get into any trouble for this, Thor." Thursday just wanted to do something creative and interesting that would make people happy, and there was nothing wrong with that. If people—well, No-Maj people—found out that the person who created the game was really a teenage half-vampire… "I can look into what paperwork you would need to get something like that approved," Monday offered. She didn't want Thursday to scrap any of her progress, because maybe her fears were all over nothing. "I know Mom and Dad wouldn't mind paying whatever fees you'd need," she added. "And I don't mind the extra research."

@thursday

[Deleted]

Thursday's game was quite an intricate one. And things always kept changing. Her main idea was to give everyone a glimpse into things that she loved, while creating a new, fantastical world. True, a gamer from the wizarding world would be able to pick out many differences to their life. But that didn't matter. Her main audience was non magical people who wanted a new experience. She just had a base in her own reality. While she was incorporating things in her own life, she did have to keep video game theory and ideals in mind. If a task or quest was too boring, they would just give up. But if it felt impossible, they were bound to rage quite, which was just as bad.

"Aren't you a little worried about the Statute of Secrecy, though?" Thursday shook her head. "Nope, see all of this takes place in a mythical world, yet to be named, and is purely a work of fiction." She gave a laugh. It had been something that the pink haired half vampire had thought of. She just had to make sure that there were enough "wrong" things about it that it couldn't possibly be true. And every fantasy work, book, movie or video game had their own set of rules. Here's was just close to what she knew. She took a few more bites of food, finally feeling there stomach wanting to be filled.

The girl clarified that the No-Mages didn't have certain creatures "in their world" and Thursday laughed again. Don't they live in the same world? "Well, a No-Mag would have never come into contact with an Ashwinder, because their born from magical fire." It wasn't just any old camp fire that would do it. "I just don't want you to get into any trouble for this, Thor." Monday was a typical older sister. The girl worried. Thursday couldn't fault her for that. "You don't need to worry Mo. There will be hints of real things in it. But quite a bit of it is based on pure fantasy. I'm going to have humanoid animals, and battling dragons. The world itself is also totally different. And the character isn't even going to be classified as a wizard." True there were still hole's that she still had to figure out. "Just to make you feel better, I could even ask MACUSA, that is if I ever get done, and if they aren't stuck in Merlin's time" Thursday took another bite of food, stubbornly. Her game would be played by complete strangers, she just knew it. Plus, who said that the ashwinder in their world was the same as the ashwinder in the world she was going to create. They could share just the name.

Monday offered to look into paperwork and Thursday nodded. She was glad for the offer of her sister helping her out. While the little Ravenclaw liked to study and research, something like that would just bum her out. She could read ancient runes, and brew potions like a champ, but legal speak was lost on her. Maybe Tuesday could help her out with some of that too. "That would be great. I wouldn't want to submit anything until it was finished. I grantee that non of those oldies would even begin to understand it as it stands." Currently it was jut blocked out. She had to find an artist....bad

monday meadow weekly

[monday meadow weekly]

Some people had the very annoying tendency of forgetting that Ravenclaws were not the only ones at Hogwarts who enjoyed learning, and Monday Weekly would have been happy to prove any of the naysayers wrong any day of the week. She might have been a member of Gryffindor House for only one calendar year and then some, but daring and bravery and all of those traits that were so closely linked to being in Gryffindor didn't explicitly exclude knowledge. Sometimes, thought Monday, you had to know what you were doing in order to do something brave, and that was where she had come in with her concerns about the Statute of Secrecy and the video game project of Thursday's.

Though there were a lot of things that they did have to take seriously when it came to keeping the magical world a secret, she laughed harder than she would have expected herself to laugh at that point in the conversation when Thursday made a joke about how the universe of the game was mythical and purely a work of fiction. Most No-Majes wouldn't catch on if there were disclaimers about that sort of thing that made them believe that what they were being told was nothing more than a nice story with some pretty art. A lot of them seemed capable of buying into things without question, which was funny but also sort of sad. Monday hoped that Thursday's game would be exciting for them, though, and maybe give some of them something to do with their lives. Maybe they wouldn't even question the universe; they would just be preoccupied by the game itself.

Thursday continued to assure her that she wouldn't need to worry. There would be ample changes to the game and to the universe so that it wouldn't mirror the magical world in which they lived for themselves. For example, Thursday clarified for her, she would have all sorts of different elements in play—humanoid animals and even battling dragons. Battling real dragons sounded incredibly dangerous, but Monday guessed that anything could be possible in a fictional world; the sky was the limit. (…Or maybe it wouldn't be the limit with dragon battles?)

Just to make her feel better, though, Thursday told her that she could go to MACUSA to see about what they had to say about the game. That was, Thursday added, if she ever actually got it finished. Monday was less doubtful that she would complete it eventually. Maybe it would take her a little bit longer because of school, but she would get it done. She was too dedicated to it to leave it sitting there.

She also thanked her for her willingness to take on the paperwork aspect of any sort of legal necessities, and she called out the old people who worked in the government because of the fact that they probably wouldn't understand any of what they were proposing to them anyway. That might have been the case, and Monday laughed, knowing how hard it was just to get magical No-Maj technology approved in Britain in the way that it had been in the United States for a long time prior to the British Ministry's legislation about it.

On the whole, so-called "legalese" didn't bother Monday, however. She enjoyed picking it apart. Besides, with so many siblings, she was used to finding loopholes and intricacies in daily life; policies and laws and procedures weren't very different to half of the debates and squabbles that they found themselves in. None of those typically involved actual laws, but she knew that she could totally apply that knowledge to the "real world".

"If I start on that stuff now, it'll give me some really good practice for when I'm done with school, too," she said eagerly. Monday might not have known exactly what she wanted to do with legal work just yet, in terms of an actual job title, but that sounded like a good first project to take on in preparation for her future.

Monday paused just long enough to continue eating and then flashed a mischievous little smirk at Thursday. She nudged her sister with her elbow—just hard enough so that it would get her attention. "Hey, listen, I'll do it for free, too," she teased her, "but that's only because I'm your big sister and I love you so much."

@thursday

[Deleted]

It was true, Ravenclaw house wasn't the only place that people who loved to learn and study went. There were "smart" students in every house. True, Ravenclaw house was, as far as she knew, made more for those who wanted to fill their minds with knowledge. The common room was designed for studying, and you had to be smart to just get in. But that didn't mean that All the other students, in the three other houses, were dumb comparatively. Monday was a great example of this. The girl was smart, and a great sister on top.

Thursday's game did have some aspects based on the wizarding world. But she knew that she the rules and logic of her every day life, shouldn't make a very compelling video game. She was glad when her sister laughed about the world being a pure work of fiction. While not entirely true, she aimed for it to be close enough to one that those in the magical world wouldn't actually deem it as something that would breach the Statute or Secrecy. But she had also heard, when it came to creative writing, and art, the phrase "wright/draw what you know." Why would creating a video game be any different. Plus, she played plenty of games that could be more realistic than hers. And even some that seemed more plausible to be real in some future. She had found, with fantasy, most people didn't think of it as real. But she did know that there would always be those who would tear at the logistics of the world. What rules did the world play by, and did the creator break any. That was where Thursday had to be careful.

At this point in the development of her game, coding and blocking out the world, Thursday was sure that everything was going well. It was a complex idea. Maybe she should have started out simpler, but this was her first. She had learned coadding, and done little projects from the courses that she had taken. But this was all hers. She had the basic knowledge, and now it was time to go for it. She had a lot of ideas for this game, and while she worked on coadding, she was also still working on the riddles and side quests. She had mapped out the main path of the game, but she didn't want that to be the only thing. She wanted there to be many paths to the same goal, which she had mapped out some, along with other fun things that the player could do.

While Thursday was completely positive that anyone who worked at MACUSA wouldn't understand the work she had done, and potentially deem it a "no go" just from the start, the girl thought it would be a good idea to get someone else involved. Monday was perfect. The girl didn't know much about video games, but she would be able to help with other things. And it would give Thursday the courage to seek out other help that she needed. She knew that she would have to find an artist who was apart of their magical world. It would be too hard to explain things otherwise. And she could potentially risk something ending up being too close to the real thing, purely by accident. And if that happened, she wouldn't be able to tell them. If the girl partnered with a artist from the magical world, she would be able to tell them that she wanted a dragon like the Antiodean Opaleye, but different, and she could even explain how she wanted it different.

True, the girl had to first get some form of cohesive beta version before any approval would be able to be sought for. After approval, she would be able to send it out for beta testing, to see if there were any glitches or major issues that needed to be fixed before releasing to the general public. That in and of itself was a long process, she still had quite some time to go before she could even get there. It would be nice if she could find another witch or wizard as into video games as she was. Someone who could help code the dang thing. But that was why it was more of an obsession project - as apposed to a passion project - for Thursday. She would finish it....at some point.

Thursday was glad the Monday continued to laugh. While it was true that the magical world didn't rely on technology as much as the no-maj world, it was also funny. Here she was, a sixteen year old witch, and she probably knew more about technology than the entire MACUSA organization combined. She also knew that they were rather stingy when it came to the Statue of Secrecy. They didn't even let their students take their wands home over summer break. Maybe they wouldn't approve it, just because it was a fantasy video game designed by a witch. She wondered if Brittan would be more open to it? If MACUSA declined it, maybe the Ministry of Magic would be next. Thursday wondered if Monday would be willing to help her out a second time, if that did happen? Probably.

"If I start on that stuff now, it'll give me some really good practice for when I'm done with school, too," Their conversation did lead Thursday to worry about something that she hadn't thought too much about. But a smile was brought to her face, when Monday said that she would still start looking into it now. Monday was start, and could do some great work. With seven other siblings, and being the oldest of the bunch, she had plenty of practice in settling arguments. "Thanks Mo, that means a lot to me." And it sounded like it would be able to be mutually beneficial to the girls. It could help Thursday get her game out there, and give Monday a good project to work on, and even show to a future employer. That is, if that was the path she wanted to take.

Thursday ate some while her sister did, excited about the prospect of "after" the game was done. That was something that she tried not to talk too much about. She didn't want to get too excited about the after, when there was still so much work that needed to get done. As the thoughts were starting to encircle the young Ravenclaw's mind, she felt a playful nudge from her sister. Thursday looked up as her sister spoke. She said that she would even do it for free, which made the pink haired girl laugh. "but that's only because I'm your big sister and I love you so much." She felt good about that, though she hadn't even thought that she would have to pay for Monday's assistance. "Well, if that's the case, Maybe I'll just have to teach you how to play the game in return." Thursday laughed a little. She knew that the the older girl wasn't good at games. But she also knew that her sister was willing to learn things that her siblings loved.

monday meadow weekly

[monday meadow weekly]

There was a lot about video games that was far beyond Monday's understanding; that was true, but fortunately Thursday knew what she was doing when it came to the creation of the game itself. She had a vision for what she wanted done; all that Monday had to do was make sure that nothing ran into any issues with the law anywhere.

That would be a little bit more difficult as a student of barely eighteen years old who only had a school library to work with most of the time, but at least she and Thursday could use their parents' connections to pull strings if they needed to do that. It might take a little bit longer to confirm the laws with MACUSA because of the distance, but there fortunately wasn't a strict timeline on this project. She could do things in the background while Thursday continued to code the game, and then hopefully she would have all of the information compiled once Thursday was done with the coding side.

Difficulty wasn't really a deterrent for Monday, though, nor did she mind at all when Thursday told her that she'd have to teach her to play the game. Maybe—by some odd stroke of luck—she would actually find that she was good at that game, which would have been a first as far as her siblings' video games went. Occasionally, she got lucky and won a round of a game, but it wasn't the sort of thing where she would have been able to explain how in the world she had managed to do something successfully.

"Deal, Thor," she agreed, laughing. "I'll do everything I can not to break it." Monday hoped that that wouldn't happen, though she guessed that she probably would end up finding some way of getting her character stuck somewhere that would require Thursday's assistance to get them back out again.

@thursday

[Deleted]

While Thursday had thought long and hard about the game that she was creating, her sister did make some good points. She did take a lot of things that she was studying here an now, and putting them into her game. She just had to be sure that even some crusty, ancient wizard from the government would be able to confirm that there were enough differences to pass as safe. It had never been her intention to break the statute of secrecy. While she was going to put a disclaimer in the game, she had to think about more differences and complexities. Though she was certain that her muggle audience wouldn't be able to ascertain the existence of a magical world right under their nose from her game.

In her opinion, her mother, being an actress, was at a higher risk of breaking the statute of secrecy than she was. What if her mother played a which on some movie or television show? Luckily there was still a lot more work that had to be done on the girls side before she felt like it would be comprehensive enough to even present to someone at MACUSA. Even then, she feared that her project would get rejected solely because they just didn't understand it. That would destroy Thursday. Luckily her sister was on her side. The girl trusted Monday whole heartedly. She knew that her sister would do everything to help her out. It was also good that Monday had quite some time to research and work on a case for the game. Thursday did think that it would be a good idea to present it to them sooner than later. She didn't want to do all the work, and then be told no, or about any changes that were required. Stupid government.

She offered to teach her sister how to play the game when she got close to being done. She knew that her sister wasn't as good at games, but her game was different than those that she had played with Monday. She thought that the girl would enjoy the puzzle aspect to it. "I'll do everything I can not to break it." Thursday laughed. "Perfect, maybe you can do some alpha testing for me" She laughed some more. "You'll just have to play around with it, and find any glitches or issues. Basically trying to break it" The girl took a bite of food, happy to have the help of her sister.

monday meadow weekly

[monday meadow weekly]

Thursday seemed relieved when she promised her that she would try not to break her video game, but there was something else that surprised Monday about what her younger sister had to tell her. Maybe she could do some alpha testing, Thursday proposed to her, which sounded like something that was going to be really involved and technical—probably something better suited for Saturday than herself. Monday was glad to hear that it wasn't that at all. As Thursday put it, "You'll just have to play around with it, and find any glitches or issues. Basically trying to break it."

"Wait…" Monday smiled as Thursday took another bite of her dinner. "So, like, I would have to break it on purpose? Merlin, why didn't you tell me that was a job before?!" She couldn't not tease Thursday for not having mentioned that side of things sooner. That testing role sounded like it was a perfect fit; it wouldn't even be hard for her.

"Okay," she decided, finishing up what she had on her plate. Consider me your legal advisor and number one alpha tester, then." If Thursday needed the help from their siblings to test different things out, Monday figured that they could probably rope them into it, too.

@thursday

[Deleted]

Thursday had done her research, and while alpha and beta testing usually was given to experienced gamers, who brutally tore the material apart, she figured her siblings would be a good starting point. Each of them with differing levels of experience. She just needed a fresh pair of eyes. Someone who hadn't been looking at the project and working on it for as long as she had, and would. Someone to find out that maybe the movements weren't smooth, and maybe the character couldn't jump high or far enough to get to where they needed to go. Maybe there was just a simple glitch where the game was supposed to show one thing, but instead it showed another. Thursday needed someone to help point out these issues. And Monday wouldn't be the only person she asked. She'd definitely ask Saturday, and any other sibling or friend that wanted to have a go.

After telling Monday that she would be given the game with the intentions that she actually try to break it, Thursday took a bite of her food. She was feeling much better now. Why didn't she try to find Monday sooner? She even found herself kicking her feet back and forth under the table. Monday seemed suppressed by the pink haired girls remark. "So, like, I would have to break it on purpose? Merlin, why didn't you tell me that was a job before?!" Thursday swallowed her food and laughed. "Well games have to get tested before they are made public. In the first round of testing, players make sure that everything runs the way the it's supposed to - it's sometimes called alpha testing." She was glad to have some knowledge that she felt like most witches and wizards wouldn't have. "Then after any and all changes were made, there's Beta testing, making sure that everything runs smoothly, and everything in the first testing has been fixed. Along with no additional issues." She took an enthusiastic bite. "Some developers only do one round of tests, but I'm planning at least two" She said, food still in her mouth. Finishing that bite, her sister continued.

"Consider me your legal advisor and number one alpha tester, then." Monday had said, sounding quite determined. The girl couldn't believe it. She bounded a little bit, then gave the girl a slightly awkward side hug, being careful not to accidentally hurt the half goblin in the process. "Thank you thank you thank you" she blurted out as if one word.

monday meadow weekly

[monday meadow weekly]

There was a lot more to video games than just making a game, Monday realized. Thursday knew what she was doing, though, and explained how the different stages of testing worked. It wasn't overly complicated, in reality; there were just a lot of steps, and Monday had never really had to think about them before. There was alpha testing and beta testing and all manner of other things.

Thanking her until her words ran together for agreeing to be her alpha tester and legal advisor, Thursday pulled her into a hug from her side. Monday grinned. Even though her sister had hugged her tightly, it wasn't enough to hurt her. (If it did leave a mark, it would be a quick fix. Besides, getting hurt from a hug was totally worth it.)

"It's no problem," Monday reassured her. "Like, I'll totally get the word out on Vibe or something if you want to recruit more people, too." Some people at Hogwarts probably wouldn't understand or would find it weird, but Monday felt that there also would be plenty of people who would want to try it out and do their part to make something really different and cool.

@thursday

[Deleted]

Thursday had done her research. She had read articles, watched videos, taken courses. She knew that it was hard work, but it was her dream. There was a lot or work that went into video game designing. And after all your work to make your game perfect, there was still a chance that no one would ever see it. If people play it, or even like it, that meant that it would fade into obscurity, never being known. But that wasn't something that she wanted to focus on.

Her sister mentioned that she would get the word out for testers and Thursday smiled. "That would be great, but we should wait until they have something to test." She took another bite of food. After swallowing most of it, she turned to her sister "But if you want to put it out there that I'm looking for an artist, that would be amazing." It would help in her search, hopefully.

Feeling much better now, Thursday happily started to eat more of her food.

monday meadow weekly

[monday meadow weekly]

Thursday told her that it would be great if she were to put out the call on social media for testers. There was one little caveat, however: They needed to wait, Thursday reminded her, until their prospective testers had something to test. "But if you want to put it out there that I'm looking for an artist," Thursday told her, "that would be amazing."

"Okay, true… and no problem," Monday nodded. She didn't want people to get their hopes up really high and then get mad at Thursday for not putting the game together quickly enough for their liking. She wanted Thursday to make the game because she wanted to make it, not because she felt that she had to make it to please other people. "I can do that and direct anyone who's interested to send a portfolio to you? That should work, right?" That would be the easiest thing to do, she guessed, so that Thursday would be able to look through what potential artists were capable of doing and how any of that fit with what she had in her mind for how the game would need to look.

@thursday
OOC: Maybe one more on your end, and we can call this done?

[Deleted]

Her game was her baby, but with being in school now, working on it was more of a side project. She had big plans, and it was quite complex. Being that, it was also hard to explain. Thursday was also self taught, and there was a lot that she still didn't understand. Because of that, there was a lot of time on message boards and other places seeing what others said about her problems.

"I can do that and direct anyone who's interested to send a portfolio to you? That should work, right?" The girl beamed. The start of school had been rough, emotionally, on the girl, but this conversation was definitely something she needed. "I'd love that, Thank you Monday."

Fin
monday meadow weekly