open RP: croquet

[c_macaulay]

Thanks to magic brownies, Camilla was seven years old.

Thanks to insufferable slights against her gender, Camilla was also furiousShe marched right out of Gryffindor dormitory, out into the castle courtyard, calling for house elves, whom she knew would bring her whatever she wanted. "We need croquet equipment," she ordered. "Arches and balls and

Comments

[h_m_winter]

Henry felt a headache coming on. He knew Camilla, as well as anyone could, and he had a feeling this was going to be a nightmare for the grown-ups involved. From the look of Silas, he wasn't the only one who thought so, either, and he felt a momentary stab of pity for the monk. After all, Silas thought he was dealing with a small, angry angel.

[semper_fi_house]

John hurried across the courtyard after Camilla. He stopped and watched in amazement as little elf-like creatures appeared out of nowhere with a bunch of colored balls and big, wooden hammers. His jaw dropped slightly.

"How..." He stopped and shook his head, instead walking forward boldly to pick up one of the mallets. Maybe it was kind of like baseball. He picked up one of the balls then and tested its weight, tossing it up and down in his hand. It was heavier than he'd expected, but he managed not to drop it.

[ghostorangel]

"It is best not to ask, I think," said Silas, who still found house elves unnerving himself. He kept having to remind himself that they were not, in fact, little bat-eared imps. He looked at Camilla, and at Henry, and at John. "I do not know how to play this game, unfortunately. One of you will have to demonstrate.

He looked up, shading his eyes--with his skin, sunlight was not his friend. Sighing, he pulled his hood up, folding his hands in his sleeves. Ah well. Surely this must be penance for something.

[c_macaulay]

Camilla surveyed the others coldly. She might have been surveying a battlefield.

Part of her really wished Charles were here, so he could tell them all how the game was played. He had always been her champion. But she could very well manage by herself. She just didn't like to be bothered. To expect her to teach them how to play the game they expected to beat her at playing was just adding insult to injury.

Briefly, with meticulous politeness that only drove home her displeasure, she explained croquet as she'd been taught the game, the backyard variety.

[wayward_son124]

BAM.

Two new children, bursting onto the scene! To see... kids beating up some other kid? And a really tall pale guy in a cloak. Dang, he was creepy looking. And really tall, crap! He hoped he wasn't replaced as the tall person in Steph's plan of attack!

Dean burst - almost quite literally - into the group, Steph following in tow, and grabbed at a nearby mallet. Bwah?

"What the crap is this?" he announced aloud, furrowing his eyebrows and swinging the thing around some. It looked like a sledgehammer. Wasn't NEARLY as dangerous as a sledgehammer.

Still, he wondered how it would work on that scrawny kid's skull.

[busty_robin]

Woah. Steph stared, open mouthed, at the Very Very Tall Person. If Dean hadn't already been fully paid (in candy, which was MUCH better than money), his place in The Plan would be in grave jeopardy,

Ohhh. More toys. "I want one!" Steph, however, was talking about the balls. They were the perfect size for throwing. She'd need them later on! Looking from side to side, she stuffed a few in her Big Girl Backpack, trying to whistle innocently. If only she could whistle! As it stood, she blew air and spit out of her mouth.

Innocently!

[ghostorangel]

Silas shot a look at Henry that was something close to panicked. Four children was bad enough, even with one quite gracefully sitting things out; two more was...well, two more too many. A scrum of three he could break up, but if these other two jumped in...it would be a lot easier if he could, you know, hit them, but even he realized that would not be okay.

"It is a croquet mallet," he said, in response to Dean. "And it is dangerous. Be careful."

[c_macaulay]

Camilla, displeased by what she took as patronising flattery, did not say anything at first. When two more children burst onto the scene, however, her curiosity was piqued. "I've never seen so many people at this castle before. I don't know that there's any point in trying to teach them croquet. They'll only forget it when they wake up again, I think."

[c_macaulay]

Wholly uninterested in the prospect of whacking at a tree with a croquet mallet, Camilla led the way out of the courtyard, bemused by how everything seemed so familiar, even places she hadn't been the first time she dreamed of the magic castle. The other yelling children had run off to tilt against windmills, so to speak, except for the relatively orderly John; Henry, as ever, shadowed Camilla, probably grateful she wasn't demanding to be carried.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" she asked the other child, suddenly and without preamble.

[semper_fi_house]

John followed Camilla, not knowing where to find the lake she had mentioned. He was reconsidering his earlier pronouncement that she was just a stupid, boring girl -- she at least was civilized. And, well... she was pretty.

At her question, John nodded. "Four. Three brothers and one sister. I'm the oldest." He glanced at her. "You?"

[c_macaulay]

"I have only one brother," Camilla said. "We're twins. Fraternal twins is what it's called. A boy and a girl can't be identical twins."

[semper_fi_house]

John nodded. "Makes sense. Where's he? What's his name?" A boy almost his age who was hopefully as sensible as his twin sister sounded like a good companion. Maybe he'd want to play Soldiers (he'd have suggested this to the other children if he'd thought they'd have agreed to follow the rules).