Jig

Finite Incantatem [AU Harry Potter RP]

Sorry to hear that. Next time, maybe. :)

Wolf Manor

NB: I'm pretty sure I've done that trick of posting something important on the last post on the previous page, so I'm gonna stick it here as well so it doesn't get missed.

Hokay, apart from one thing that's still to come, it's time to start thinking about 'log posts'.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind with the log posts.

In addition to what I said about them on the previous page...

(which can be found here)

Recap

<Snipped quote by Jig>

... I'd just like to add:

• You may have noticed that I've been putting 'Title cards' in front of each section. I may actually put a 'chapter list' in the Character Tab or the OP in the OoC so if any of you want to recap anything while looking for clues, it might make life easier for you. Since I (probably) won't be posting in the next section, it will fall to the first among you to post to include the 'title card' for this section.
• I'm totally trying to coordinate this on the fly here: I'm not sure if I'm doing a plot-post to introduce the next section (as stated above), and I'm not entirely sure what information to give you in the character tab or via PMs (though there will probably be some). At this stage, it's worth just thinking about what you'd like to do in the log and how you'd like to approach writing it. This RP seems to break a lot of unwritten rules of standard RPing, which I love, and if any of you wants to try something unusual or experimental, please by all means do.
• The 'log' posts also offer a chance for flashbacks to the previous night, if any of you would like to have interacted with anybody else but didn't have the time IRL or didn't feel like you have anything to write (and now do).
• I love the interaction posts, so, firstly, well done, and, secondly, don't be scared of them! They're not somehow 'separate' from the RP: they're definitely a part of it because your characters inform what this RP is, and interaction posts inform who they are. Don't feel like you need to hide them away in spoiler tags!

At this point, it's just a case of getting your breath and having a nice long think (ideally with a cocktail, but maybe that's just me).

Edit:

As far as I'm aware, Jonas, Kim, and Lynne have all gone to bed, while Tom, Marci, and Gray are unspoken for in the IC. I've been as vague as I can in the IC post so as to write them in or out, as applicable. Feel free to quibble this if the details preclude what your character would do, or, if it's close enough, clarify, if you feel necessary, how you got to bed via flashback in your log post. :)

@Jig

Wolf Manor

Hokay, apart from one thing that's still to come, it's time to start thinking about 'log posts'.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind with the log posts.

In addition to what I said about them on the previous page...

(which can be found here)

Recap

• Talk to me about what you're doing. Many rooms are as-of-yet unestablished, and, therefore, presumably, unexplored. I have further room deets to impart to you from my generous and bounteous soul - in return for insight that will give me the chance to be dropping further tiny plot-gobbets if I feel they're applicable to you.
• Think about similar 'day of rest' sections from novels. They're rarely only description: they frequently have very brief conversations in them. Just because you're writing a sort of 'contained' piece doesn't mean you have to do it solo. If your character wants to stay in their room all day and not talk to anybody, that's cool, but I doubt all of them will. Talk to each other, as players, and, if they will, as characters. Collusion is encouraged. The Wolfs will, as in the ball, be unavailable as a default, but with exceptions made without question.
• Perhaps get to know one another. We all know the nightmare that is getting convincing relationships in RPs, but, even if it hasn't been established directly IC, these are people that have been shipped across the world together to a house of German-speaking Germans, including moments entirely alone in waiting rooms and limousines: if you want to assume that at least some of your characters have bonded with or taken offence from others, even if it hasn't been explicitly noted in the IC, please do. See above about talking to each other as players.
• Take your time over it. It doesn't have to be a novel in length and you don't have to do it if you don't want, but there's lots of things to think about with all of the above, including talking to each other as players, so don't just rush into it in order to get on with the next section. If any of you are struggling for time as the others' posts are coming in, as usual, just let me know and I can take the spotlight off you for a bit. Never have posts been so suited for placeholders as these. ;)

@Jig

... I'd just like to add:

• You may have noticed that I've been putting 'Title cards' in front of each section. I may actually put a 'chapter list' in the Character Tab or the OP in the OoC so if any of you want to recap anything while looking for clues, it might make life easier for you. Since I (probably) won't be posting in the next section, it will fall to the first among you to post to include the 'title card' for this section.
• I'm totally trying to coordinate this on the fly here: I'm not sure if I'm doing a plot-post to introduce the next section (as stated above), and I'm not entirely sure what information to give you in the character tab or via PMs (though there will probably be some). At this stage, it's worth just thinking about what you'd like to do in the log and how you'd like to approach writing it. This RP seems to break a lot of unwritten rules of standard RPing, which I love, and if any of you wants to try something unusual or experimental, please by all means do.
• The 'log' posts also offer a chance for flashbacks to the previous night, if any of you would like to have interacted with anybody else but didn't have the time IRL or didn't feel like you have anything to write (and now do).
• I love the interaction posts, so, firstly, well done, and, secondly, don't be scared of them! They're not somehow 'separate' from the RP: they're definitely a part of it because your characters inform what this RP is, and interaction posts inform who they are. Don't feel like you need to hide them away in spoiler tags!

At this point, it's just a case of getting your breath and having a nice long think (ideally with a cocktail, but maybe that's just me).

Edit:

As far as I'm aware, Jonas, Kim, and Lynne have all gone to bed, while Tom, Marci, and Gray are unspoken for in the IC. I've been as vague as I can in the IC post so as to write them in or out, as applicable. Feel free to quibble this if the details preclude what your character would do, or, if it's close enough, clarify, if you feel necessary, how you got to bed via flashback in your log post. :)

Wolf Manor

1:15 AM

The ball has been in full swing, but now it’s clearly winding up. The Guests of Honour have to all intents and purposes retreated, though they are, by now, no longer a novelty to the Germans, who have carried on without them. Sol takes the main stage and thanks the band and the attendees, though he is in no great fit state to do so, barely able to stand at this point and, at one point, he literally, to great amusement, hiccoughs halfway through his brief speech. There is, apparently, just one song left, and so, even the guests that have been long since exhausted get up for one last blast; Sol takes an apparently unwilling Klara as thanks for her work that evening; Michael pairs with one of the twins (the other of whom has already made her excuses); while Gertrud is indulged by a patient Félix in a charming, if stiff, foxtrot.

With the last dance over, the band packs down and the attendees begin to disappear, suddenly equals with the band members and the service staff as they vanish into the night like dust in the wind. With the ball now officially over, Michael and Félix leave by the front door, presumably to wherever they each live on the grounds, joined shortly by Klara, who locks the front door behind her. If the shudder of footsteps and German chatter perhaps just audible in the guests’ rooms is anything to go by, the Wolfs are heading upstairs, too.

With the ball over, and everybody turning in, it can only mean a restful night and sweet dreams for all and even Wolf Manor itself somehow manages to appear sleepy, as it bathes in the dark wilderness of the secluded Bavarian valleys.

But not everybody is in bed. And things go bump in the night.

Finite Incantatem [AU Harry Potter RP]

Bertha Ashdown
10:06 AM

---

Bertha liked Ronan. The two had had their disagreements and knew that they’d probably never be the best of friends, if Ronan even did ‘friends’, but, ultimately, they worked well, if not together, then independently, toward the same goal. Unfortunately, the universe had not seen fit to bestow on either of them a great patience, and so, as Ronan’s voice echoed magically around the corridors of Rosaline Hall on a loop, glitching at the end of the sentence before beginning again like a broken record, her eyes rolled. And rolled again.

“Crucial information has been acquired! Report to the meeting roo- Crucial information has been...”

Either it was some serious information or Ronan had decided to irritate them into coming quickly. Or both. Regardless of the former, the latter was inevitable.

“Finite incantatem,” after a minute of the endless notice, Bertha waved her wand, and Ronan’s voice vanished from the air, filling the hall, once again, with a blissful if slightly eerie stillness. Raising the tip of her wand to her throat, she broke her own silence, voice magnified across the mansion in the same way, “In case you didn’t catch that, please come to the meeting room. Now, please. See you in a moment.”

Her message did not repeat. They had enough to deal with without splitting headaches as well. Still, although Ronan was usually direct, if not a little abrasive, there was something in his tone that she picked up; could it be excitement? Or fear? Perhaps both. The two went together so readily these days that they had become virtually synonymous. Instinctively, like a virus passing through the airwaves from him to her, her own heart began to quicken. She placed a hand on her chest and breathed deeply, gently closing her eyes. Rashness was the easiest way to make mistakes.

She stood up and stretched her legs. She had been resting recently, resting a lot, and now her limbs had begun to dully ache. The previous week, she had been hit in the chest with the business end of a particularly nasty curse; although she had been quick enough to block the worst of it, she was still only just working off the after-effects and had been under strict instructions to take it easy, as though Bertha were the kind of woman to take anything easily. Perhaps now there would at least be something more challenging.

She pushed open the door to the meeting room and strolled in, noting that, despite being a little slower on her feet than normal, she still wasn’t the last. Without saying anything, apart from shooting a curious look at Ronan from across the other end of the room, she took a seat.

Finite Incantatem [AU Harry Potter RP]

Since we have nineteen qatrillion characters, I'm gonna do a role-call to make sure everybody is still here. Can't possibly keep track of you all in my tiny pea-brain, so I'm just gonna tag all your names and if you could quote me in here (so I don't miss your post), that'd be swell.

@Jig - definitely here!
@McHaggis - I should really hope so
@Pirouette
@xCRAZYxFACEx
@Kirah - should also really hope so
@Ghost Shadow
@Shadowcatcher
@Tunks - Toast
@kittyluna45
@TheMaster99
@Phloem
@rawkhawk64

Wolf Manor

I've definitely sat in a drunken stupor for 2+ hours.

Wolf Manor

Apart from one thing I know is coming fairly shortly, I'm not expecting anything else from this section.

Finite Incantatem [AU Harry Potter RP]

Okay, Yoshi, it might be worth having another look at Lorina, because I found a few things that could probably do with a tweak.

Because of Lorina’s… unique ties to The Dark Lord and his followers

@YoshiSkittlez

I might be missing it, but I don't really see what her unique tie to the Death Eaters is that the other spies in the Ashes don't have. It's not really a big thing, but you shouldn't be thinking that Lorina is unique among the spies (unless I have missed whatever that unique thing is :P). Also, your CS states that she is Abraxas' sister. Abraxas is the father of Lucius Malfoy, who was born in 1954, and therefore Lorina would be Lucius' aunt, despite being almost twenty years younger than him...

She is a practiced duelist able to stand against anyone she has ever faced

Okay, many of the problems with Lorina come with the fact that she does feel very over-powered. She is a master of transfiguration, a terrific duellist, who is an impeccable actor that always makes the right decision. It doesn't help that she doesn't seem to have any really balancing weaknesses, or that her skill level doesn't seem to match her age.

For comparison, Bertha (my character) is exactly twice Lorina's age whose entire academic and actual career has been about duelling in some respect, be it competing in tournaments, being an auror, or fighting with the Order of the Phoenix and then the Ashes. It might be worth reconsidering how absolutely Lorina is a brilliant duellist, because there are many characters in this, who, just through having significantly more experience than Lorina, should be able to best her without too much difficulty.

Weaknesses

Muggle knowledge is a great hindrance to Lorina.

Really? When? All their opponents are going to be exclusively magical. Ignorance of Muggle tech and culture being a gap in her knowledge doesn't really disadvantage her.

Because of Lorina’s ‘double life’ there are a lot of stresses that plague her mind, keeping her awake and restless. Because of this, Lorina oftentimes turns to alcohol and drugs to help her cope with the decisions she makes on a day to day basis that she is able to express regret for when she is alone, unable to confide with anyone about the struggles she constantly faces.

On a similar token, this isn't really a weakness as such. Where the sheet says "weakness", it's kind of asking for a balancing factor that will make your character vulnerable, both generally and literally. Lorina not really having any weaknesses but feeling isolated won't manifest in the IC as a balanced character, but a sad OP one.

Draconifors - Transforms the target into a dragon (Lorina has only done this a handful of times as it expels a tremendous amount of energy and has only done it to someone else on one occasion)

The spell might be listed on HP Wiki, but it's actually from one of the HP games, which aren't very canon. It doesn't really seem like a spell that could really exist in the HP universe because, well, turning shit into dragons is... a bit dramatic, no? :P

Lucius Malfoy, assassinated by another branch of the Malfoy family, Rodolphous Lestrange

By the Ashes, akshully. :P

Wolf Manor

Hey, it might all seem better in the morning.

Well, after the hangover.