#and the nature of the game is that phoenix is almost always proven right so rather than him coming off as hare-brained | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thetombedspirit · 5 days

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I am on a streak of playing games I wanted to play for a while now, cuz I just finished my first playthrough of Hogwarts Legacy!

And I had a blast with it! And of course I'm gonna play it again as a different house eventually, but in the mean time, I wanted to show you the MC I created for the game, based on my house, wand type and the backstory I made for her.

Meet Mackenzie Crowley

You may have guessed by the colour scheme I got going on here, but she's a Hufflepuff. She’s a Muggleborn, born and raised in an orphanage after the horrible murder of her parents: British prison guard Edward Crowley and Irish nurse Marie. Her only remaining possessions she has of her family are her father's signature flatcap and her mother's heirloom ring that she wears around her neck. She will only take off the hat to go to bed or if instructed to by professors. She is an only child and is quite protective of those she considers family.

Her wand is of yew wood with a Phoenix core. 12 1/2" in length and slightly springy in flexibility. She is a fierce protector of others and is not afraid to get rough when her friends are in danger.

She's loyal to a fault, almost frustratingly so, as she often finds herself torn in her loyalties between friends unless given very good reason to.

She has a passion for Beasts and Transfiguration magic. She is always on the look out for a creature in need and is prepared to dive in when they are under threat by poachers. When confronted with large groups of enemies, like goblins and poachers, she usually resorts to transfiguration, transforming enemies into explosive barrels and hurling them at their comrades. She will otherwise use accio, confringo and the disillusionment charm. When confronted with larger enemies like trolls and bigger acromantulas, she uses descendo and flipendo respectively, as well as more damage oriented spells, has as diffindo, bombarda, and glacio, in order to slow them down.

Natty, Sebastian and Poppy are her best friends. Natty was the first to welcome her to Hogwarts and Mackenzie chose her to show her around Hogsmeade to gather her supplies. When the troll attacked and Rookwood threatened her, Natty immediately jumped to her defense and she was the first person Mackenzie told about her confrontation with Ranrok. Though she was skeptical of Sebastian at first, concerning his affiliation with the Crossed Wands Club, she quickly grew to like him, especially as he showed her the Undercroft to teach her "unsanctioned" spells. Though she declines to learn the Unforgivable Curses, she tries to help Sebastian with his search for a cure as much as possible while also trying to deter him from his path to the Dark Arts. Mackenzie was the first person Poppy trusted with Highwing, and was quickly proven right to trust her when she rescued the Hippogriff from the poachers. They since always work together to set creatures free and fight the poachers back.

She loves all the creatures under her care, though the most special in her eyes are Caligo the Hippogriff, Sepulchria the Thestral and the Graphorn known as the Lord of the Shore (which she affectionately nicknames "Duke"). She rescued Caligo as well as Highwing with Natty from Harlow and his poachers and met Sepulchria when she ran away into the Forbidden Forest after a nervous breakdown. She earned Duke's respect when she bent the knee to him after fighting him in combat.

Outside her circle or friends, Mackenzie also has great relations with Ominis, Imelda, Garreth and Amit. She and Ominis got off on the wrong foot when Sebastian showed her to the Undercroft, but he has since come to trust her, especially as she continuously tries to encourage Sebastian away from the Dark Arts. Mackenzie brews her competitive nature in large thanks to Imelda while they tested new broom upgrades through her trials. Imedla fully expects her to join the Hufflepuff Quittich team when it comes back next year. Garreth likes Mackenzie, especially as she helps him get potion ingredients, though she does encourage him to brew his potions safely. She finds Amit's awkwardness oddly endearing and this makes her quite protective of him when it comes to bullies.

When she's outside Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, with the intention of crossing paths with poachers and goblins, she wears a disguise to keep her loved ones safe. The papers have come to calling her the "Avenging Wolf", on account to the wolf mask she wears to conceal her face. When Natty eventually finds out, she insists on joining her, taking on the mantle of the "Avenging Gazelle" (though the public mistakes her for a deer mask). Sebastian and Poppy quickly follow suit with masks of their own (raven and owl respectively).

She looks to professor Fig as a father and trusts his judgement greatly. When asked by him what Mackenzie will do with the repository hidden under Hogwarts, she tells him that she will keep it contain, and that she intends to eventually share the secret with those she trusts. After the battle under Hogwarts and Fig's untimely death, she later finds out through Professor Weasley that he intended to adopt her by the end of the year.

#hogwarts legacy #hufflepuff mc #natty onai #sebastian sallow #poppy sweeting #ominis gaunt #imelda reyes #garreth weasley #amit thakkar

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clareisa · 4 years

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Ateez In Hogwarts

- I added a couple of random facts about their life in Hogwarts in this post. Do you like it? Should I add it to other Harry Potter posts in the future as well?

- gifs and pics are not mine, credits to rightful owners

- English is not my first language, so please let me kindly know if I did a mistake

Hongjoong:

House: Hufflepuff

Blood Status: Pure-blood

Personality: loyal, helpful, friendly, smart, hardworking, determined, emotional, bright

Pet: ferret

Wand (WOOD): Alder wood - Alder is an unyielding wood, its ideal owner is often helpful, considerate and most likeable. When an alder wand is happily placed, it becomes a magnificent, loyal helpmate. Of all wand types, alder is best suited to non-verbal spell work, whence comes its reputation for being suitable only for the most advanced witches and wizards

(CORE): Phoenix feather core - Learns most varied magic, hard to be chosen

Patronus: Dolphin

Favourite Classes: Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms

How Amortentia smells to him: Fresh flowers, Chocolate, Cherries, An ocean breeze

After Hogwarts working as: Auror - He became Auror because of his protective nature and sense for justice. He wants to destroy and punish those who could endanger those who are innocent and protect his loved ones

Random:

head boy

always helps the new students with anything and everything

Hufflepuff won a house cup couple of times mainly thanks to him

music is always coming from the Hufflepuff’s common room when Hongjoong is composing on his piano

his ferret is always on his shoulder, even he is trying to hide her in classes

Seonghwa:

House: Ravenclaw

Blood Status: Pure-blood

Personality: Intelligent, curious, mom-like, polite, sassy, honest, ambitious, dependable

Pet: Birman cat

Wand (WOOD): Vine wood - Vine wands are among the less common types, and their ideal owners are nearly always those witches or wizards who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best. Vine wands seem strongly attracted by personalities with hidden depths

(CORE): Thunderbird tail feather - Powerful, but difficult to master. Can sense danger and cast curses on their own

Patronus: Orca

Favourite Classes: Potions, Herbology

How Amortentia smells to him: Pancakes, Jasmine, Petrichor, Vanilla

After Hogwarts working as: Healer and alchemist - Combination with his intellect, curious nature and the need to helping others he will be the head of St. Mungo’s. In the future, he will be known for creating lots of new medicine

Random:

almost everyone has a crush on him

protective of his best friends group “Ateez”, no one want to cross him

with Yeosang, helping to Madam Pomfrey with sick students in Hospital Wing

scolding his friends for dirty or unironed robes

number one student in the whole school

Yunho:

House: Hufflepuff

Blood Status: Half-blood

Personality: cheerful, lively, friendly, loving, peaceful, diligent, warmhearted, daring, charming

Pet: Golden Retriever

Wand (WOOD): Cherry wood -This very rare wand wood creates a wand of strange power. For cherry wood often makes a wand that possesses truly lethal power, whatever the core, the wand ought never to be teamed with a wizard without exceptional self-control and strength of mind

(CORE): Horned Serpent horn core - Exceptionally powerful and sensitive. Can warn its owner of danger by emitting a low musical tone

Patronus: Dragon

Favourite Classes: Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration

How Amortentia smells to him: Cinnamon Rolls, Apple pie, MOrning breeze, Honeysuckle

After Hogwarts working as: Dragonologist - He always aspired to be one. He admired and was fascinated by them since he was a little kid. After he found out his Patronus is a dragon as well, Yunho knew he was destined to work with those dangerous but awe-inspiring creatures

Random:

best keeper Hufflepuff’s Quidditch team ever had

often secretly going to Forbidden forest, curious about creatures living there

classes are never boring when Yunho is in... if San is around is a mess

always brings a yummy food to his friends from the kitchen elves

often seen chasing after his golden retriever who is as energised as him

Yeosang:

House: Slytherin

Blood Status: Pure-blood

Personality: cunning, passionate, savage, charming, bold, perfectionist, clever, humane, kind, tolerant

Pet: Serval

Wand (WOOD): Elm wood - Elm wands prefer owners with presence, magical dexterity and a certain native dignity. Of all wand woods, they produce the fewest accidents, the least foolish errors, and the most elegant charms and spells; these are sophisticated wands, capable of highly advanced magic in the right hands

(CORE): Phoenix feather core - Learns most varied magic, hard to be chosen

Patronus: Black Swan

Favourite Classes: Astrology, Potions

How Amortentia smells to him: Mango, Gardenia, The beach, Wine

After Hogwarts working as: Hogwarts Potions professor - Actually started with Seonghwa at St. Mungo’s. After he received a letter from the headmaster he immediately agreed and quickly became a favourite teacher at Hogwarts

Random:

new students are often afraid since his gaze is sharp and quite intense

not the teachers' favourite thanks to his straight forward nature

rumoured to be half-siren thanks to his angel-like appearance and voice

love the wintertime when he can snowboard on the hills in the Hogwarts area

always with Seonghwa in Hospital wing

San:

House: Hufflepuff

Blood Status: Muggle-born

Personality: creative, happy virus, caring, crazy, warm, humble, easily fooled by fake sincerity, skilled

Pet: Slow Loris

Wand: Red Oak wood- The true match for a red oak wand is possessed of unusually fast reactions, making it a perfect duelling wand. ideal master is light of touch, quick-witted and adaptable, often the creator of distinctive, trademark spells, and a good man or woman to have beside one in a fight. Red oak wands are among the most handsome

(CORE): Dragon heartstring core - Powerful, easy to learn spells though can easily be committed to another owner

Patronus: Capuchin Monkey

Favourite Classes: Herbology, Charms

How Amortentia smells to him: Orange, Chocolate Cosmos, New Books, The Moment Before It Rains

After Hogwarts working as: Curse-Breaker - Employed by the Ministry of Magic, but doing lots of work for the Gringotts. Almost the equivalent of archaeologists, San loves the travelling included when he is tasked with bringing back gold from tombs and often have to break curses to enter them

Random:

messing around in classes with Yunho

with Wooyoung, they have the cutest Hufflepuff-Slytherin friendship in the school

often the victim of pranks cuz of his sweet and naive persona

has his own little garden in common room with exotic flowers

often gets detention for causing everyone to laugh in class

Mingi:

House: Gryffindor

Blood Status: Muggle-born

Personality: passionate, optimistic, jolly, enthusiastic, heroic, reckless, gallant, lovely, sweet

Pet: pink pygmy puff

Wand: Ash wood - Ash wands cling to its one true master. Those witches and wizards best suited to ash wands are not lightly swayed from their beliefs or purposes. The ideal owner may be stubborn, and will certainly be courageous, but never crass or arrogant

(CORE): Dragon heartstring core - Powerful, easy to learn spells though can easily be committed to another owner

Patronus: Lion

Favourite Classes: Flying, Charms

How Amortentia smells to him: Cakes baking in the oven, Bacon, Freshly washed hair, Lemon

After Hogwarts working as: Quidditch player (Seeker and captain) - Is not the safest job in the world but the euphoric feeling of soaring through the air on a state-of-the-art broom surely just can’t be beaten for Mingi. He has natural talent and can make his teammates always ready for anything

Random:

too soft for his little pink pygmy puff, but always loses her somewhere

sometimes clumsy in casting spells

Yunho is his best friend but in Quidditch he is his biggest enemy

always late to classes thanks to his love for sleeping

supporting his friends no matter what, often cheering for them in Quidditch games if they don’t play against Gryffindor

Wooyoung:

House: Slytherin

Blood Status: Pure-blood

Personality: ambitious, gracious, smiley, driven, fair, cultured, observant, sociable, keen

Pet: Russian Blue cat

Wand: Hawthorn wood - Hawthorn wands may be particularly suited to healing magic. Hawthorn is not easy to master, however, and one should only ever consider placing a hawthorn wand in the hands of a witch or wizard of proven talent

(CORE): Unicorn hair core - Consistent magic, bonds strongly to the first user

Patronus: Black Mamba

Favourite Classes: History of Magic, Ghoul Studies

How Amortentia smells to him: Wisteria, Clothes Fresh Out of the Drier, Morning dew, Pumpkin pie

After Hogwarts working as: Ministry of Magic official - started his journey at Department of Magical Law Enforcement in lower positions. But Wooyoung thanks to his talent, ambitions, manners and skills quickly became head of this department

Random:

pulls pranks on San very often, but he always takes care of him

always get what he wants

in Hogwarts, he can enjoy the muggle music and art dancing that his pure family hate and judge

always makes girls around blush

a charming gentleman with best manners

Jongho:

House: Gryffindor

Blood Status: Half-blood

Personality: strong, energetic, athletic, observant, bold, spontaneous, principled, gentle

Pet: Sugar Glider

Wand: Beech wood - The true match for a beech wand will be, if young, wise beyond his or her years, and if full-grown, rich in understanding and experience. Beech wands perform very weakly for the narrow-minded and intolerant. When properly matched, the beech wand is capable of a subtlety and artistry not seen in any other wood, hence its lustrous reputation

(CORE): Veela hair core - very individualistic and temperamental

Patronus: Shark

Favourite Classes: Ghoul Studies, Defence Against the Dark Arts

How Amortentia smells to him: Wood, Fresh Waffle Cones, Lemon Grass, Coffee

After Hogwarts working as: Auror - working alone with Hongjoong.With Jongho’s power and talent, no one was surprised that he became a one. One of the best Aurors out there, feared by many dark wizards

Random:

MIngi’s most trusted team-mate and beater in Gryffindor team

often hanging out with Hongjoong and training for the Defence Against the Dark Arts class

best in duelling club along with Hongjoong

often asking Yunho to teach him more about magical creatures and how to defend against them

Part of the frog choir, angel voice along with Yeosang

#ateez #ateez headcanons #ateez harry potter au #ateez hogwarts au #kpop hogwarts #kpop hogwarts au #kpop harry potter au #ateez reactions #ateez scenarios #ateez au

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chaoswillfallrpg · 4 years

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GIDEON PREWETT is TWENTY-SIX YEARS OLD and is a LEAD REFEREE with THE QUIDDITCH LEAGUE HEADQUARTERS at THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC. He looks remarkably like CAMERON MONAGHAN and considers himself aligned with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. He is currently TAKEN.

→ OVERVIEW:

Although only by minutes, Gideon is the oldest of the two Prewett brothers. He was then followed by his brother and destined closest friend, FABIAN. The pair were born into the wealthy and prestigious Prewett House, and although they wouldn’t know what this meant till many years later, it would shape them into the men they were to become. Gideon was the mischievous one, the one that came up with pranks and executed them whilst Fabian did all the prep and planning. He was often scolded for running off with a mixing bowl full of cookie dough or climbing too high in the oak tree. The world was his playground and he had no limits. Some were concerned with his lack of fear or about the fact that he acted without thinking, but the truth was that he knew that as long as Fabian had his back, everything would turn out okay. His parents, ADGER and LUELLA PREWETT, were often away from home, either at work or attending important social events. They left MOLLY PREWETT, the oldest Prewtt, to watch over the twins and as much as Gideon often tried to push Molly’s boundaries or manipulate her, Molly had a way with him that nobody else did. She was smart and kind and saw right through Gideon’s ploys. She often interrupted him mid-prank or talked him out of it before he had even come up with a full idea. How Molly could tell he was up to no good or how she could read him so well baffles him to this day. He was never upset with her, but rather impressed with her ability and he respected her for that. As individualistic as he liked to be, he loved his siblings very much and told himself he’d die to save them if the chance arose.

Gideon and Fabian had different interests and skill sets that complimented each other, allowing them to conduct elaborate pranks on themselves and the neighbours’ Muggle children. Gideon often judged Fabian for not being daring enough; ‘how would Fabian achieve anything in life’ was a thought he’d often have. This however, did not take away from his love for his partner in crime. Wherever Gideon went, Fabian was to follow. If they weren’t setting up traps, they were running around the Prewett grounds, hiding in their mother’s greenhouse or practicing Quidditch. Both the twins had a natural affinity for Quidditch, although Gideon enjoyed it so much more than Fabian did. He would always snatch the morning paper from his father’s hands just to get the latest league scores and beg his parents for the newest broom when they were released. Gideon had become so obsessed that his parents had decided to open an account at Quality Quidditch Supplies. It was a dramatic afternoon when Gideon had learnt that first years weren’t allowed brooms, but Molly reassured him soon enough that if he was a star player, the deputy headmaster could make an exception. It was only the summer before Hogwarts that Gideon started to look forward to going to the school, making new friends other than his siblings and other children of The Twenty-Eight. He wasn’t too interested in learning about how to use magic, his worked well enough and academics weren’t really his thing, not like they were to Fabian. No, Gideon made up his mind the night before his first year started, he was going to Hogwarts to simply become a star Quidditch player.

Fabian was called to the sorting hat just before him, and when Gideon was sorted into Hufflepuff too, he was happy that he’d be able to share a dorm with his brother and that if he needed any support, his sister was only a few corridors away. At first the twins spent every second together, but a couple of months later Gideon had begun to seek out other friendships that would either help his reputation or get him credit with the Quidditch team. A few of these included ROWENA ROWLE, AMELIA BONES, FLORENCE JONES and LAURENCE ABBOTT. Gideon spent most of his days either socialising with new faces or practising quidditch. He made the reserve team in first year and had made his way onto the first team by second year, only to become one of the best chasers that Hufflepuff had ever had. He trained hard everyday, only paying attention to subjects such as Defence Against The Dark Arts and Potions. To pass the rest he relied on study sessions with Fabian, which was code for Fabian being his personal tutor and making sure Gideon didn’t fail. As the years passed, Gideon learnt that parties were the best ways to make new friends and the Prewett parties became renowned, attracting students of all houses and ages. One of these students being COINNEACH MCKINNON. Gideon and Coinneach clicked almost instantly, with their sense of humour matching and a common interest in Quidditch, the two boys became best mates. If Fabian wasn’t at Gideon’s side, it would be Coinneach or both. The boys formed a small squad which also included MARIANNE MACMILLAN and CELIA ABBOTT and they gained a reputation that would follow them beyond the walls of Hogwarts.

Other friendships included THORFINN ROWLE, who Gideon had met through Rowena, RABASTAN LESTRANGE and CAIUS BURKE who Gideon had known since a child but had only started getting close too in his later years of Hogwarts and their extended friend circle which mostly consisted of other Slytherins and a few Ravenclaw. Fabian wasn’t too fond of Gideon’s new friends and this drove a wedge between the twins. Gideon understood why Fabian wasn’t happy about his new friends, the group had very strong opinions about blood purity. Gideon, however, was on the fence about their opinions. He wasn’t sure if he believed in their views or if it was just what his parents had instilled in him. Gideon wouldn’t call them his closest friends, but he thoroughly enjoyed a good party and after party with them and often found himself spending a good chunk of his afternoon chatting to Thorfinn in the common room. As his school career came to an end, he started focusing more on his academics as Fabian had refused to continue to help him. With his grades slowly rising at the start of his final year, Gideon started applying for Quidditch teams, kept an eye out for talent scouts and obtained recommendations from whoever would write him one, this included AMOS DIGGORY, whom his sister had connections with. During his final Quidditch match, there was a horrific storm and during one of the final plays, a Slytherin tackled him, he lost his temper and tackled back violently, this caused the Slytherin to slip from his broom and hurtle towards the ground. One of the professors had managed to save him but Gideon was handed a foul and his reputation was tarnished.

It was late spring when he started to receive his responses from teams, in which all politely declined his application. Gideon was gutted, the only teams that considered him were small, local teams, teams that Gideon was too proud to join. He finished his finals with a cloud over his head and if it wasn’t for Fabian and Molly’s support, he might not have passed his exams. Fabian had been scouted by the ministry to work in the experimental charms unit whilst Gideon’s dreams had been crushed by his own anger. It was his father who had suggested that he applied to be an official umpire with The Quidditch League Headquarters. The idea was too train to be an umpire, travel with the Quidditch teams around the country and befriend as many players as possible in the hopes that when he tried out for the teams again, he’d have better connections and better odds, and with his training he would have proven that he had a better understanding of the rules and that another fowl from Gideon Prewett was unlikely. Thanks to the reference Amos Diggory had given him, as well as the Prewett family name, Gideon scored the job. He trained for two years before being awarded his official title. He started small, refereeing small league games in and around London, but as his reputation grew, he was often invited to other parts of the country to lead referee higher league games. When he wasn’t attending events or refereeing matches, he was hanging out in his apartment whom he shared with Fabian, Coinneach, and Laurence. He was content and as much as he had wished to become a star player, learnt that he really enjoyed being a referee and still managed to play twice a week with his local club.

It was only when Molly was disowned that Gideon’s eyes were opened on how uncivilised the whole blood purity debate was. He knew Arthur, he was a great man and he was excited to become his brother-in-law. He was having a tipsy conversation with Arthur and Fabian when Arthur mentioned that there was more that the two could be doing to make the wizarding world a safer place for all and this intrigued the twins. They followed Arthur’s mysterious instructions and found themselves at a pub called the fountain of fair fortune. Inside, they met many others including FRANK LONGBOTTOM, ALICE YEN, LILY EVANS, MARLENE MCKINNON and many more familiar faces. That night the twins swore an oath to do their best to fight the rising chaos and became official Order of the Phoenix members. Since then Gideon spent all his free time eavesdropping on quidditch players and other referees, listening to rumours and stories about dark wizards recruiting monsters and creatures to their side. It wasn’t until an old friend Thorfinn Rowle reached out that Gideon had the idea of becoming an undercover agent for the order. Becoming a member of the Dark Lord’s Army wasn’t as easy as it was to become an Order member and Gideon was given the task of murdering a muggle family to prove his allegiance. Gideon was torn, but since he had nothing to offer the order like his brother did, he believed that the only way to truly help out was to become a spy, especially since he already had existing connections. Later that month, Gideon committed a crime that he swore would go to the grave with him. The Order nor his family had to find out about the murder, they’d never forgive him. He ended that night washing down his guilt with Thorfinn and other Death Eaters.

→ ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Blood Status → Pure-Blood

Pronouns → He/Him

Identification → Cis Male

Sexuality → Up to Roleplayer

Relationship Status → Single

Previous Education → Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Hufflepuff)

Societies → TBD

Family → Adger Prewett (father), Luella Prewett (mother), Molly Prewett (sister), Fabian Prewett (brother), Arthur Weasley (future brother-in-law)

Connections → Coinneach McKinnon (best friend/flatmate), Laurence Abbott (close friend/house mate), Rowena Rowle (friend), Amelia Bones (friend), Florence Jones (friend), Marianne Macmillan (friend), Celia Abbott (friend), Thorfinn Rowle (friend), Rabastan Lestrange (friend), Caius Burke (friend)

Future Information → N/A

GIDEON PREWETT IS A LEVEL 6 WIZARD.

#gideon prewett #cameron monaghan #marauders #marauders rp #marauders rpg #order member #ministry #quidditch league headquarters #magic #taken #taken order member #taken wizard #Magical sports and games

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jeaniegreysummers · 3 years

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yours || jean & scott

summary: jean and scott get married in the botanical gardens. they’re very excited. no sentinel interrupts the vows. the universe said jott rights, for at least fifteen minutes.

when: june 15th, 3pm

trigger warnings: some brief mentions of past trauma, but this is 99.9% fluff, baby! we can do it!

featuring: scott summers

JEAN: Nothing about this day felt normal. Nothing about it felt like something she could’ve prepared for, even if she had, as she’d told Erik, spent decades planning what she would wear, what she would say, what song they would dance to after the ceremony before the party kicked off. In her heart, she’d always known if she was getting married, it would be to Scott Summers. She’d also known that the chances of it happening were slim to none. Mutants didn’t get happy endings. The storybook style final chapter wasn’t written with their people in mind. They were born, they were ostracised, they fought or they didn’t, they died young.

Scott had almost been another statistic. Jean had almost been another statistic. But they were here today, and her best friend’s arm was linked through hers, the satin of her glove comforting against Jean’s arm, and the music was beginning to swell.

She didn’t need the Phoenix to make her chest feel like it had expanded ten times over. She didn’t need her parents’ approval, didn’t need her mother to tell her she was making the right choice, didn’t need her father winking and saying that Jean had always been his favorite because she had a good head on her shoulders. She didn’t need to talk it over with a friend, or play a chess game with her own morality. She didn’t need to do any of that.

Scott had always been the simplest part of her life. He’d always been the one choice, the constant choice, that she never needed to question. . The door opened, and Jean looked up from the flowers in her clasped hands, just in time to see Scott looking up at her too.

They never got the chance for a rehearsal, not with the measures that were necessary to put in place to make this even possible, the mechanisms they ensured to keep their family safe. Jean was glad of it then, because it felt like the longest walk in human history even the first time around, one step in front of another until finally she was under the arch, eyes still firmly on Scott, her cheeks aching with a grin she’d been holding back until right that moment.

“Hi,” she said, a little too loud considering the drop of the music. A low wave of laughter went through the onlookers, but it sounded like noise coming from above the water while she was six metres under. The only person she could see was him.

He’d always been the only one she could see, the only one she wanted to.

As the officiant gathered himself, Jean’s grin turned into a softer smile, her hand reaching for Scott’s. ’Nice suit,’ she projected. ’I think we’re officially hotter than prom.’

SCOTT: The day itself was an oxymoron. If you’d told Scott at practically any point in his life after he’d met her that he’d one day be straightening his tie and preparing to marry Jean Grey in a garden surrounded by everyone he loved, Scott would have been both utterly unsurprised and entirely disbelieving. The day was both impossible and inevitable, the natural progression of the story and the dream he’d never let himself believe could truly happen. He was marrying Jean, because of course he was, and he was caught somewhere in between having known it all along and having never hoped for a moment so perfect.

No one could blame him for the disbelief, he supposed. It had taken so much to get them here, so many things dominoing atop one another to make this possible. There was a graveyard behind the mansion where they’d grown up, and both their names were carved in granite there. They’d held one another in their arms and felt the life drain from each other’s bodies, attended funerals, met again in the afterlife. And now, here they were. Scott Summers and Jean Grey, preparing themselves to walk down an aisle. Wasn’t this always how things were going to go?

The arch cast a shadow over him, providing some quiet semblance of shade as he stood with his back to the priest, watching the door intently. He could feel her on the other side of it, had to make a conscious effort not to walk towards her. It was always like that, when Jean was around. Scott was a moon in orbit, with her wherever she went, caught by her gravity and unable to pull himself away even if he’d wanted to. (And he’d never wanted to, not even for a moment.) He could feel a few eyes on him, knew that some people were watching, and he wanted to laugh at the absurdity of that. Who in their right mind would be looking at Scott knowing that Jean Grey was about to walk through the door? . The door opened, and Scott felt the breath leave his lungs all at once. She looked beautiful, just as she always did. She was grinning, and he knew he was, too, watching as she walked towards him at a pace unbearably slow. Finally, finally she was in front of him, and Scott reached a hand up to move a strand of hair behind her ear absently. “Hi,” he replied, utterly oblivious to everything and everyone but her.

He huffed a quiet laugh as her hand found his, nodding his head. No slime this time, he agreed. Though I’m sure Bobby will be saying something inappropriate any moment now. There was a quiet lapse as the officiant spoke, saying something Scott couldn’t quite hear over the sound of his heartbeat in his ears. You look beautiful, he told her, though it seemed a rather obvious thing to think. How did I ever convince you to marry me? I must be more charming than I thought. Or insanely lucky.

JEAN: She never fantasised about a wedding like movies and the media said she should. At nineteen years old, she didn’t plan this day to the letter, didn’t decide on her color scheme, didn’t look up review after review to find the best cake flavor combinations or practice plaiting her own hair. She thought about it, of course. Jean Grey has been doodling Scott Summers’ name in hearts, and his surname after her own, since long before they even admitted what they were to each other, long before they kissed, long before even their closest friends saw the inevitable happening right before their eyes.

The part of a wedding she had always desired (perhaps because Jean never failed to be the centre of attention in her life; perhaps because she knew from twenty years of working together that marriage wasn’t the end chapter but a beginning; perhaps because Scott inspired a practicality and realism in her no one else could) was the after. When the rustle of red dresses were gone, and she could breathe again without her own hastily amended wedding dress cutting into her side, and the flowers had wilted long ago, and she woke up on the sofa in a tiny apartment with her head on Scott’s chest, rising and falling rhythmically, predictably, as he slept.

Perhaps she should be a little more romantic about the day that served as a bridge between past and present — but recent events had proven every single day spent with Scott was something to be cherished. They could count on loving each other to the last day, but when that was had always been uncertain.

’I’ve pressed his mute button,’ Jean replied. ’He’s being cut off from the cake supply if he makes one pun before the end of the ceremony. The after party is fair game, though. I couldn’t ask too much of him.’ . (We are gathered here today ... matrimony, commended to be honorable, but not to be entered into lightly, but reverently ... if any person can show just cause why they should not be joined together ...)

Jean squeezed Scott’s hand gently, her thumb brushing over the still bare skin on his finger. There would be metal there, within a matter of moments. Nothing would change, but it felt like everything would be different.

’Kara is a master with braids,’ she replied, though she had the distinct impression Scott wasn’t talking about her hair. ’You don’t look so bad yourself, Summers. I always wondered what it would take to get you back into a suit.’ A suit that wasn’t emblazoned with a giant yellow or red X, a suit that didn’t come with a mission statement, a suit that he wasn’t going to war in.

This was the only day Jean could think of in their lives where they hadn’t been fighting something, or planning to fight, or recovering from one. She wasn’t naive enough to think it would last, but it was nice. Just living, just being alive, with Scott was really, really nice.

’That one’s easy,’ Jean said, the corner of her mouth quirking upwards only slightly. ’Bishop isn’t on the continent. My options were going for the second choice, or wait for him to stop beating up DoomBots. You’re a very attractive alternative, Mr. Summers.’

The officiant had stopped talking. Jean tore her gaze from Scott to see the older man looking at her expectedly. . “Vows,” he whispered, and Jean nodded, reaching for the piece of paper tucked into the ribbon around her flowers.

“Just double checking — you can all hear me, right?” Jean asked, turning slightly to the crowd of smiling faces. “We’re not doing the brain meld thing? Okay, good, because I want you all to hear this.” She met Scott’s gaze through the red of his lenses, only slightly obscured by her own reflection. “I want everyone to hear how I feel about you all the time. I want to scream it from the rooftops, and broadcast it on every channel. Every second of every day, I am always so, so amazed that I’m the one you chose to spend your life standing beside, and I’m grateful for it. I’m grateful for you.

“I looked up a lot of very important people talking about marriage, giving their advice and wisdom, and some of it was pretty good. Some of it made sense. Some of it I’d never really thought about before. But you and me, Slim? We’re one of a kind. We’ve been through a lot together. We’re undoubtedly about to go through a lot more. There is no one I would rather face the world with than you. There is no one who gives me faith that there is hope at the end of the tunnel than you. They say marry your best friend, and I say I never had any other choice. You walked into my life and you infuriated me and comforted me. You never backed away when people were afraid. You never doubted me, even when you should. You never stopped, and you brought me back to myself. You brought me back to you.” . Jean cleared her throat, folding the paper together once more and passing it back to Rogue. “There’s a lot of things I could say today, and we would be here for another decade and a half,” Jean said, “but that’s the most important thing I could think of. No matter what happens, no matter who I become, no matter how you change, no matter how the world changes, I will come back to you. I will always come back to you. I love you, Scott Summers, every day in every version — and I can’t wait to keep being the reason for that smile, because it’s my favorite thing in the whole world.”

SCOTT: Happiness had never been an easy thing to find with Scott. As a young child, he’d been too preoccupied ensuring his brother’s happiness to care much about his own. Those first few years of his life had been about Alex and only Alex. Had he gotten his homework done? Did he have lunch money in his account? Did he need a permission slip signed? Was he hovering outside their mother’s closed door again, wondering why she hadn’t made it out of bed that week? Alex was the priority before their parents died and after…

After that plane went down, all of Scott’s energy went into surviving. Alex was gone, being taken care of by a nice couple who weren’t perfect but weren’t Nathaniel Essex, and Scott still worried about him but had other things on his mind. He had to fight just to breathe, had to struggle to keep his head above water. There was Essex and then there was Winters, and both men were terrible, unbearable threats. There was Essex and then there was Winters, and when he’d been going through them he’d been so sure that neither man was survivable. There was Essex and then there was Winters.

And then there was Jean.

She’d been more than a breath of fresh air when she’d found him on that park bench. She’d been oxygen to a dying man, a crystal stream in the middle of a desert. To say that Jean had saved him would have been an understatement. Jean did more than save his life. Jean made his life a thing worth saving. If he could give her something in return, if he could make her smile and keep making her smile for the rest of their lives, it was his duty to do that. It was his dream to do that. . ’I’d be ecstatic to see the look on his face as he tries to hold the puns in, but I don’t think I can bring myself to look away from you for a moment,’ he admitted, smile softening. He wanted to lean in, wanted to kiss her, but something told him it wasn’t quite time for that yet. Not that he’d know for sure, with all the attention he’d been giving the officiant. They were in a room full of the most important people in their lives but, for the moment, Scott’s world had narrowed to one person.

Her finger brushed his, and Scott remembered the first time he met her. He remembered the words he’d use to describe the moment years later, to the sound of groans and sighs around him, the way a pillow flew at his face with a laugh because you’re so lame, Summers. He hadn’t cared then any more than he did now, because those words were true. They were still true. The universe readjusts forever to her slight presence. His world changed the day he met her, was changing again now. And with her hand in his, it only ever changed for the better.

’Kara did great,’ he replied, letting his eyes flicker to her hair for a heartbeat before returning to recapture her gaze. Her hair wasn’t what had him so enchanted, but he suspected she knew that. He flushed a little as she returned the compliment, lifting his shoulder in a slight shrug. ’For you? I’d wear a suit every day for the rest of my life. All you’d have to do is ask.’ He tried, as he suspected she was doing, not to think of the last time he’d worn a suit. He didn’t remember it, of course, but plenty of people in attendance likely did. Funerals and weddings had very similar dress codes, after all. . It was a strange thought to have. A few months ago, he’d died on a grassy knoll in a public park. His life had ended in the arms of the woman he’d loved, and he’d understood that it was, perhaps, always going to end just like that. Today, he was getting married under a floral arch in a park. His life was beginning with the hands of the woman he loved clasped tightly together with his own and he understood that this, more than anything else, had been his destiny all along. Scott Summers was always going to marry Jean Grey. He was always going to love her. No one could stop that, try as they might.

His lips quirked upwards, eyes dancing with laughter. ’Remind me to send Bishop a thank you card,’ he teased, light and gleeful and alive. He felt more alive today than he had in such a long time, with his pulse racing in his wrist and a nervousness that didn’t make sense fluttering in his chest. They were already here. She’d already agreed to love him for the rest of his life. There was no more reason to be nervous, and yet he was.

The officiant reminded them that they were, in fact, still at a wedding, that the crowd was expecting declarations, and Scott huffed a quiet laugh, glancing around briefly before letting his eyes slide back to where they always wanted to be --- on her and nothing else.

Jean spoke, and Scott loved her more than he’d ever loved anything else in his life. He loved her so much that it shouldn’t have been possible, adored her so completely that he wondered how there was room in his head for any thought but her. He loved Jean Grey, and she loved him back. That, more than anything, was a miracle. His eyes felt wet as she continued, and Scott found himself thankful for the glasses obstructing them if only because he didn’t want his rare display of emotion to take the attention away from Jean, from what she was saying. . When she finished, he cleared his throat, letting out a breathless little laugh. She said those things about him. She felt those things about him. He’d been wrong before --- lucky didn’t even begin to cover what he was.

“Is it my turn?” he asked quietly, and the officiant nodded. He laughed again, quiet and airy. “Uh, you all know me. I’m not a man of many words. I’m not someone who’s particularly skilled in talking about my feelings. I don’t know how to put to words the way you make me feel. Loving you is like… It’s like breathing. It’s like the heartbeat in my chest. It’s there all the time, keeping me alive. I don’t know how not to love you. I don’t think it’s possible.”

He squeezed her hand tightly, letting out a quiet, shaky breath. “All my life, I’ve felt as though I was… broken. That parts of me were jagged edges and shattered glass, that nothing could ever hope to put me back together. You changed that. You’ve made me feel whole. You’ve made me feel happy. You showed me what it is to love and be loved, to have a best friend who would do anything for you, to have someone who would fight for you no matter what. You deserve big speeches and flowery words. I wish I had them for you. I wish I could write poems or play music. I wish I could give the world something to show them what you mean to me, but nothing is enough. No words, no music, no art. I love you too much for anything to describe it. I think… I think if I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.” He laughed again, teary-eyed. “I love you. That’s all I know how to say. I love you, I love you, I love you. I don’t know how to stop.”

JEAN: They weren’t really supposed to happen. Despite how easily they fit together now, despite the fact that Jean could look over at Scott and in an instant know what was passing through his thoughts before their link even came into play, she knew that all of this was a statistical anomaly. They’d been brought together in a group of extraordinary people. They’d survived interstellar space missions, and giant robots targeting their home, disasters of their own making, the world’s hatred manifesting in increasingly violent ways over the years. Even on a smaller scale, no one would look at the original X-Men and picture the reserved, stoic leader hitting it off with the girl who defied logic at every turn and found satisfaction in chaos, but it happened.

It happened on that very first day. It happened every day after that, every argument or difference in opinion or conversation under a blanket draped over the kitchen table building to this moment, this second, where they stood up and told everyone how much they loved each other (as if they hadn’t done just that a thousand times before in their lives, albeit without the fancy outfits).

Jean’s smile softened as Scott’s words filtered through, something turning to goo in her chest as the sentiment lodged itself between her ribs. She always maintained Scott was a charmer, not that he’d ever believe she wasn’t speaking from an entirely biased perspective. He just didn’t get to see himself looking like this. ’You never have to,’ she replied. ’I’m going to be your view for the next seventy years. Better suck it up, buttercup.’ She waited for just a moment, chewing lightly on her lower lip. ’And I want to kiss you too,’ she thought, ’for the record.’ . She always wanted to kiss him. She always wanted to talk to him. Everything that happened in the day mattered infinitely more when it was filtered through his perspective, because Scott’s mind was the most beautiful place she’d ever been. There weren’t words in the English language to explain the experience of a telepath — Jean would have to invent some, she knew, just as she knew that she loved Scott well past the point of invention — but she hoped time made up for that lack of vocabulary. She hoped more than a decade of loving him every single day with everything she was told Scott that he was worth it, even if he would never quite believe it.

Scott Summers, standing in front of her, saying what he was saying, thinking even more than he managed to put into words, trying against his nature to let everyone in on a part of his life that could be open to judgement ... Jean let out a small, disbelieving laugh at the fact that sixteen year old Jean would kill to be in this spot right now (seventeen year old Jean, bitter over the fact that Scott repeatedly and emphatically avoided her eye contact at any given opportunity even through the shades, would pretend to be disgusted by the development). “You don’t need to stop,” Jean said, and it came out like a joke, something to prompt a wave of laughter through the crowd once more, but it was the truth.

They never needed to stop again. Not even death could part them — they’d proven that. The world was theirs for the taking, in every way that mattered. There was a fire connecting them, and even more than that, there was love.

There was love. . “With this ring,” Jean repeated, taking the band of metal from the officiant, not hesitating for a second before slipping it onto Scott’s fingers, “I take you, Scott Summers, to be my lawfully wedded husband — for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health; to love and to cherish; in life, and in death.”

’It’s you and me.’ It was enough. It had always been enough.

There was a beat, and then the voice cut through, louder this time.

“I am very pleased to present to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Summers. You may now kiss the br—“

Bouquet now abandoned, Jean hooked her fingers around Scott’s tie, pulling him down so she could press her lips to his.

SCOTT: When he was a child, before that plane went down, Scott had dreamt of following in his father’s footsteps. I want to be a pilot, he’d say to anyone who would listen. I want to fly a fighter jet. He hadn’t known, of course, what it meant to be a soldier. Not back then. He hadn’t understood that there was more to an Air Force pilot than the controls of a plane, hadn’t been able to comprehend the complexities of war.

That had all changed fairly quickly.

In a lot of ways, when that plane fell out of the sky and Scott lost everything in one fell swoop, he got what he’d always wanted. He became a soldier in an instant, was thrust into a war the moment the first optic blast left his eyes. He’d never fly a fighter jet, never be a pilot, but he’d followed in his father’s footsteps all the same. He was a man built for war. For a long time, he’d thought that disqualified him from love.

He remembered being sixteen and looking at a beautiful girl, remembered memorizing the slope of her neck and the way her hair fell against her shoulders. He remembered thinking to himself, I can never have this. He’d accepted it so quickly, done everything he could to distance himself from her. Hours spent in the Danger Room running simulations that would train his head and ignore his heart, ducking into rooms when she walked by because if he spoke to her his hands would sweat and his mouth would go dry. Scott had loved Jean long before he’d realized he was allowed to love her. He would continue to love her long after the universe told him to stop.

(And maybe that time had come and gone already. Maybe after the third funeral, the universe simply got tired of repeating itself.) . This moment, he thought, was what he’d always thought his first time behind the controls of that imagined fighter jet would feel like. At some point, his dream had changed. He didn’t know when, didn’t know how, but there was no part of him that wanted to be his father now. The only thing he wanted to be, in this moment, was Jean Grey’s husband. ’Better make it eighty,’ he shot back, light dancing in his eyes. ’Or ninety. A hundred. Seventy just isn’t enough.’ Nothing ever would be. ’I think we’ll both get our wish in a moment. That’s how these things usually go.’

This thing they shared had always been a series of beautiful contradictions, and this moment was no different. It was quiet and intimate, but it was loud and impossible to ignore. It was utterly private, but a hundred-odd eyes were watching. It was fleeting, but it would last forever. Theirs was an impossible sort of love. Scott had learned to adore it in its entirety. And now, he got to enjoy it for the rest of his life.

There were rings. She slid one onto his finger and he felt like a missing piece had been fixed into place. He put one on her and it looked like it had been there all along. There were words that shook his voice, a trembling smile as he repeated them. “I take you, Jean Grey, to be my lawfully wedded wife…” He heard himself speaking and he sounded far away, drowned out by his own heartbeat. The pounding in his chest was hers. It had always been hers.

’You and me,’ he agreed, ’forever.’

And then she was kissing him, and the world was more right than it had ever been before.

#char: scott summers #discord

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mintymiknow · 5 years

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Stray Kids in Hogwarts

I grew up watching Harry Potter, so why not make my own Stray Kids as Hogwarts students? Includes houses, wands, patronus, and a few extras and explanations! If you want to know more about the meanings behind wand woods, cores, and patronuses, just click the words haha the link’s there. These are simply my opinions, so you don’t need to agree. You can read the other members after the “Keep Reading” link right after Woojin! It’s just to keep it organized for when it pops up on your dashboard!

BANG CHAN

Blood Type: Half-blood House/Year Level: Gryffindor (prefect, head boy); 7th year -- I chose to put Chan in Gryffindor because he’s a natural-born leader. He does have some Hufflepuff traits, but Chan’s bravery and passion really stand out to me. He’s willing to put everything on the line, especially for his members.

Wand: Blackthorn wood (“...being best suited to a warrior. These wands appear to need to pass through danger or hardship with their owners to become truly bonded”), phoenix feather core

Patronus: White Stallion (“White horses, be it mares or stallions, have come to represent warriors on the side of good in folklore and literature”)

Best Class: Care of Magical Creatures

Worst Class: Transfiguration

Quidditch: Chaser -- As bad as he is with games, Chan’s pretty athletic and quick, so Chaser would be the most suitable position for him

KIM WOOJIN

Blood Type: Muggle-born

House/Year Level: Hufflepuff (prefect, head boy); 7th year -- Woojin embodies what a Hufflepuff is like, so no questions asked on this one for me. He’s got a sassy side, but overall, Woojin’s a very supportive and doting type of person who values honesty, hardwork, and never gives up.

Wand: Mahogany wood (“symbolizes strength, safety, protectiveness, and practicality”), unicorn tail hair core

Patronus: Black Bear (“...a fierce opponent who will protect yourself and those close to you but who has a softer side hidden away from the world; adaptable and resourceful”)

Best Class: Charms

Worst Class: Potions

Quidditch: Keeper -- Woojin is tall and broad, and he’s pretty much athletic as well, so he’d be well-suited in protecting the opponents’ quaffles from going in the hoops

LEE MINHO

Blood Type: Pure-blood

House/Year Level: Slytherin (prefect, head boy); 7th year -- The boy is mischievous, savage, and pretty flirty. Though, there’s more to him than that; Minho is also a very cunning, ambitious, and clever person who will stop at nothing to reach his goals. Can be a “I don’t give a damn and I’ll do what I want” kind of person though.

Wand: Fir wood (“...demand staying power and strength of purpose in their true owners; favors owners of focused, strong-minded and, occasionally, intimidating demeanor”), dragon heartstring core

Patronus: Wildcat (“They tend to be solitary, territorial homemakers; they move quickly and confidently; fierce”)

Best Class: Transfiguration

Worst Class: History of Magic

Quidditch: Beater -- I was going to make him a Seeker as he is very observant and quick-witted, but imagine the devilish smile on his face when he strikes a bludger, whether to protect his team or hit the opposing one. He just wants to have fun and mess with enemy players, honestly, whether he wins or loses.

SEO CHANGBIN

Blood Type: Half-blood

House/Year Level: Gryffindor; 6th year -- I often see Changbin sorted into Slytherin or Hufflepuff. He loves dark and may be a big softie who gets scared a lot, but I also see him as someone who is adventurous, very much daring and is willing to take risks, whether for himself or for the team, and that is a trademark for Gryffindor.

Wand: Ash wood (“Wizards best suited to ash wands are not lightly swayed from their beliefs or purposes. The ideal owner may be stubborn, and will certainly be courageous”), dragon heartstring core

Patronus: Python (“Largest species of snakes but also one of the timidest; gentle giant”)

Best Class: Defense Against the Dark Arts

Worst Class: Divination

Quidditch: Chaser -- Changbin can get pretty competitive and is more often than not out there playing to win and score some points

HWANG HYUNJIN

Blood Type: Pure-blood

House/Year Level: Slytherin; 6th year -- Hyunjin has the face and aura of a prince, but we’ve seen countless times how humble he actually really is. But then again, he’s also a super sassy and cunning young man with big ambitions and will work hard and will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. He’s very determined. Hyunjin also gives me that Slytherin vibe of elegance and dignity.

Wand: Elm wood (“...prefer owners with presence, magical dexterity and a certain native dignity; produces the fewest accidents, the least foolish errors, and the most elegant charms and spells; sophisticated wands”), dragon heartstring core

Patronus: White Swan (“White swans are creatures associated with grace, beauty, and loyalty. They are incredibly loyal and protective”)

Best Class: Transfiguration

Worst Class: Arithmancy

Quidditch: Seeker -- Hyunjin’s is observant, quick and nimble, and that translates into his playing style; very much competitive as well, with his eyes set on the prize

HAN JISUNG

Blood Type: Muggle-born

House/Year Level: Ravenclaw, 6th year -- Jisung is often put in Hufflepuff for his soft and friendly personality. He certainly has those down, but remember, Jisung is a lyrical genius. His "crackhead” antics and playful personality often overshadows the fact that he is a very intelligent, witty, and creative person with an unquenchable curiosity. He’s always willing to explore new ideas and things.

Wand: Sycamore wood (“...eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities; may combust if allowed to become ‘bored,’; ideal owner is curious, vital and adventurous”), phoenix feather core

Patronus: Swift (“...have a strong sense of determination and a drive to accomplish things as quickly as possible; hopeful, positive, and energetic; drawn to live and work in large communities”)

Best Class: Potions

Worst Class: Muggle Studies

Quidditch: Chaser -- I think Jisung’s energetic personality and disposition comes in handy with being a Chaser, especially when scoring goals and earning points

LEE FELIX

Blood Type: Muggle-born

House/Year Level: Hufflepuff; 6th year -- Felix is a softie. He has a heart of pure gold and is always looking out for the well-being of others. He’s friendly, though can be very naive and gullible. He’s a loyal person who works hard and values his friendships above all else. He’s often happy and tries his best to stay optimistic.

Wand: Maple wood (“They are not stay-at-home wands and prefer ambition; fresh challenges and regular changes of scene cause this wand to literally shine”), dragon heartstring core

Patronus: Otter (“Otters are extremely playful and curious; have no reservations about following their curiosity since they are also fearless. Associated with friendship, otters are often found holding hands while sleeping”)

Best Class: Charms

Worst Class: Study of Ancient Runes

Quidditch: Seeker -- Even if he’s a friendly and rather pure-hearted person, Felix also strikes me as someone who would go for the “bigger prize” in order to be the biggest help to his team/friends

KIM SEUNGMIN

Blood Type: Pure-blood

House/Year Level: Ravenclaw; 6th year -- Seungmin’s a very observant person. He’s proven so many times that he is analytical and is usually the quickest to notice when something is unusual or off. Quick-witted, artsy, and sarcastic/savage are some of Seungmin’s traits as well. He has a witty, balanced and focused mind too.

Wand: Beech wood (“...young, wise beyond his or her years, and if full-grown, rich in understanding and experience; perform very weakly for the narrow-minded and intolerant”), phoenix feather core

Patronus: Raven (“...the raven easily delineates from others within its broader feathered family due to its appearance and wits; packs an intellectual wallop that easily plays to the mistake of underestimating the raven”)

Best Class: Astronomy

Worst Class: Potions

Quidditch: N/A -- Seungmin seems like the type who would rather just watch and support his team from the side, maybe tease or sass them if they lose. I think he’d rather read a book or take pictures of the game with his camera. But if I were to give him a position, he’d most likely be a Beater.

YANG JEONGIN

Blood Type: Half-blood

House/Year Level: Gryffindor; 5th year -- He’s innocent and almost child-like, but Jeongin is one of the bravest members, to be honest. He’s adventurous, courageous, brave, and daring. He isn’t easily scared, though he can get frazzled or nervous from time to time. Though very playful, the maknae is also respectful and polite.

Wand: Alder wood (“The ideal owner of Alder wand is not stubborn or obstinate, but often helpful, considerate and most likeable”), unicorn tail hair core

Patronus: Dolphin cue dolphin sounds from Jeongin (“...also known for their playfulness and loyalty, dolphins live and work together in groups; does not enjoy dull, routine activities, so keeping busy with interesting tasks is a must”)

Best Class: Muggle Studies

Worst Class: Herbology

Quidditch: N/A -- Jeongin’s a clumsy person, and at present, though very brave, he’s someone who tends to panic and get frazzled under pressure. So I think he’d also support and cheer on his team from the sides with his bright smile and energy. If I were to give him a position though, I’d probably make him a Keeper or Chaser.

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fromthedeskofelizabeththird · 7 years

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Mysme + Ollivanders

Inspired a lot by this post, here are my thoughts about which wands would choose each of the individual characters in mysme. Full credits to @faeriexqueen who wrote the original in regards to D Gray Man characters.

All core and material information is from Pottermore

Jumin

Pine, Phoenix Feather, flexible,11 1/2 inches

The straight-grained pine wand always chooses an independent, individual master who may be perceived as a loner, intriguing and perhaps mysterious. Pine wands enjoy being used creatively, and unlike some others, will adapt unprotestingly to new methods and spells. [x]

The independent, mysterious loner sounds a lot like how Jumin comes across at the beginning of the game. What’s more, we know he’s creative and willing to try new methods, as he is very good at his job, in which adapting to new markets and strategies sits at the core of e v e r y t h i n g.

I chose phoenix feather for the core, as its best known trait is detachment and the fact that it is so difficult to win their allegiance. Jumin is one of the most emotionally detached of the RFA and it can take a little longer than most for him to open up out of his shell.

Black Walnut, Unicorn Hair, slightly flexible, 10 3/4 inches

It has one pronounced quirk, which is that it is abnormally attuned to inner conflict, and loses power dramatically if its possessor practises any form of self-deception. If the witch or wizard is unable or unwilling to be honest with themselves or others, the wand often fails to perform adequately and must be matched with a new owner if it is to regain its former prowess. [x]

I think we all know why a wand attuned to inner conflict would be perfect for V. I chose unicorn hair for the core as they are “prone to melancholy if seriously mishandled”, which again. Is perfect for V. ;w;

Zen

Ebony, Dragon heartstring, rigid, 10 inches

Ebony is happiest in the hand of those with the courage to be themselves. Frequently non-conformist, highly individual or comfortable with the status of outsider, ebony wand owners have been found both among the ranks of the Order of the Phoenix and among the Death Eaters. In my experience the ebony wand’s perfect match is one who will hold fast to his or her beliefs, no matter what the external pressure, and will not be swayed lightly from their purpose. [x]

Zen is proud of his individual looks and history, so much so that he often comes across as a narcissist. He is also very stubborn when it comes to the handling of his career, sticking firm to his beliefs about accepting handouts, even when such decisions potentially do more harm than good.

Add to this the fact that dragon heartstring cores have the most power and are associated with flamboyance, and I think it is perfect for Zen.

Jaehee

Maple, Unicorn Hair, slightly rigid, 12 inches

I have often found that those chosen by maple wands are by nature travellers and explorers; they are not stay-at-home wands, and prefer ambition in their witch or wizard, otherwise their magic grows heavy and lacklustre. Fresh challenges and regular changes of scene cause this wand to literally shine, burnishing itself as it grows, with its partner, in ability and status. [x]

The conflict in Jaehee’s route is the fact that at some point in her life she fell into a rut in her career and stopped following her dreams. A wand that grows lacklustre over time if not given the proper chance to really shine sounds perfect for her.

I chose unicorn hair for the core, as they are known for consistency and are the least capable of being turned to the Dark Arts, which I think rings true of Jaehee, who has the fewest reasons to join Mint Eye.

Yoosung

Sycamore, Dragon heartstring, flexible, 9 3/4 inches

The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities. It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become ‘bored,’ and many witches and wizards, settling down into middle age, are disconcerted to find their trusty wand bursting into flame in their hand as they ask it, one more time, to fetch their slippers. [x]

Yoosung lost a lot of his spark while studying at college, allowing his studies to fall apart while eagerly seeking out the thrill of LOLOL. A sycamore wand sounds right up his alley, especially given that in every route, his actions have very similar consequences to a wand bursting into flame.

I chose a dragon heartstring for him, for dragon heartstrings are prone to accidents and temperamental in the same sense that Yoosung is constantly falling for pranks, but also because dragon heartstring wands are the easiest to turn to the dark arts.... but never of their own accord.

707

Hawthorn, Phoenix Feather, flexible, 10 inches

Hawthorn wands may be particularly suited to healing magic, but they are also adept at curses, and I have generally observed that the hawthorn wand seems most at home with a conflicted nature, or with a witch or wizard passing through a period of turmoil. Hawthorn is not easy to master, however, and I would only ever consider placing a hawthorn wand in the hands of a witch or wizard of proven talent, or the consequences might be dangerous. Hawthorn wands have a notable peculiarity: their spells can, when badly handled, backfire. [x]

Seven has a conflicted nature, of which we are very familiar. Add on the period of turmoil that...well...is basically his life from the agency onwards and the hawthorn wand is pretty perfect.

I added the phoenix feather core both because of its detachment but also because of its tendency to act of its own accord, which reminds me a lot of Seven’s tendency to pull pranks on the other members as well as his activities as a hacker.

Saeran

Hornbeam, Unicorn Hair, slightly rigid, 11 3/4 inches

hornbeam selects for its life mate the talented witch or wizard with a single, pure passion, which some might call obsession (though I prefer the term ‘vision’), which will almost always be realised. Hornbeam wands adapt more quickly than almost any other to their owner’s style of magic, and will become so personalised, so quickly, that other people will find them extremely difficult to use even for the most simple of spells. Hornbeam wands likewise absorb their owner’s code of honour, whatever that might be, and will refuse to perform acts - whether for good or ill - that do not tally with their master’s principles. A particularly fine-tuned and sentient wand. [x]

Saeran has always had one singular passion. When he was younger, it was seeing the sky. When he got older it was having revenge on his bro. In both cases, it was one, singular obsession. Similarly, Hornbeam’s capacity to personalise itself to its owner sounds very similar to Saeran’s enthusiasm for getting the Mint Eye tattoo in what was likely an underground parlour, having taken on Rika’s code of honour not of his own accord of course. Saeran’s conflicted nature, going from an innocent kid to Unknown within the space of a few years would be very interesting in light of a hornbeam wand.

I chose a unicorn hair core because they are known for loyalty and are not swayed to the dark arts easily.

Rika

Vine, Phoenix feather, rigid, 9 1/2 inches

Vine wands are among the less common types, and I have been intrigued to notice that their owners are nearly always those witches or wizards who seek a greater purpose, who have a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astound those who think they know them best. Vine wands seem strongly attracted by personalities with hidden depths, and I have found them more sensitive than any other when it comes to instantly detecting a prospective match. [x]

I chose vine for Rika because she sought a greater purpose and constantly astounded the other members of the RFA in terms of her seemingly bright personality and desire to help other people. She also did have other depths, of course.

Originally I was going to give Rika the dragon heartstring core because of its tendencies to fall into the dark arts. In the end, though, I chose the phoenix feather core, as it is detached and acts of its own accord. Rika was far more detached from the RFA than she appeared to be and created Mint Eye despite V’s warnings not to do so.

#mystic messenger #Jumin han #jihyun kim #zen #yoosung kim #707 #jaehee kang #saeran choi #rika

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the-original-angry-bird · 7 years

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All You Need to Know || Donald Duncan

All you need to know about Donald Duncan and his life

Basic Info

Name: Donald Duncan Age: 16 Birthday: July 10th Sign: Cancer sun, Taurus moon. Gender: Male Sexuality: Unknown (basically decided by who he bonds with) Relationship Status: Single (but has been in entanglements before) House: Slytherin - 6th year Height: 5 foot 9 inches Patronus: Black Swan If your patronus is the black Swan then it is likely you are a highly emotional individual. Your passion allows you to devote yourself to your interests and become an expert in your chosen field. The downside to your passionate existence is that you can sometimes struggle to understand your own emotions. If this is your patronus you will thrive in a warm and friendly atmosphere, you feed off positive energy and give it out just as freely.Only a person of a true kind nature with an amazing depth of emotion could conjure the black Swan patronus. Boggart:The person who keeps killing him. They take on a few different forms, often starting with the present one. Most of the time the person who killed him was a human, and since those are the most recognizable faces he has in this present life, those are the flickering forms the boggart takes. However it has been known to swap to an animal here and there, giving Donald the appearance of being a coward and afraid of many things and people.

Secret: Donald has the rare “gift” to remember his past lives. While that isn’t strange enough to tell people--usually drawing looks of disbelief or scorn--Donald is loathe to admit what his true goals are in this one. Never has he had the opportunity to be a human before now, and on top of that he’s a wizard. It’s a dark burden, but Donald prays to one day get the chance to finally return the favor to that single person. He just has to work up the courage to actually do it.

Goal: Donald wants to seek his revenge upon the person who constantly kills him. Unfortunately, he doesn’t quite have the stomach to be able to kill someone after dying so many times himself.

Items of Interest - Precious Items

Wand: English Oak, Phoenix, 13″, Supple

This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike.Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard won. A wand for good times and bad, this is a friend as loyal as the wizard who deserves it. Wands of English oak demand partners of strength, courage and fidelity. Less well-known is the propensity for owners of English oak wands to have powerful intuition, and, often, an affinity with the magic of the natural world, with the creatures and plants that are necessary to wizardkind for both magic and pleasure. The oak tree is called King of the Forest from the winter solstice up until the summer solstice, and its wood should only be collected during that time (holly becomes King as the days begin to shorten again, and so holly should only be gathered as the year wanes. This divide is believed to be the origin of the old superstition, “when his wand’s oak and hers is holly, then to marry would be folly,” a superstition that I have found baseless). It is said that Merlin’s wand was of English oak (though his grave has never been found, so this cannot be proven).

Yashica Mat 124G, Nikon F2, Polaroid: Donald loves photography now that he’s a human. He adores taking photos and is almost glued to some sort of camera or device that can record things. Part of the reasoning behind it is that he wants to be a photographer and publish a book at some point. That way, when he reincarnates perhaps he can seek out his book and have proof that his memories of past lives are real.

Scolla Stone: While not the biggest fan of technology, Donald is more accustomed to it’s existance than most other wizards. He attended Hogwarts finding himself always frustrated with the slow owls and the lack of his digital cameras to work. Then, the Scolla came out and he’s been using it as his backup quick-shot camera for a while now, as well as a great way to contact his parents while in the halls of Hogwarts.

Personality

Donald is a confusing person to most people looking in. He’s emotionally driven and quick to jump to a response based upon said emotions, so much so that people wonder why he isn’t in Gryffindor sometimes. They tend to run on high and are quick to rise to the surface when he’s under pressure or distressed and they run especially high for one particular person no matter the situation. However to those who know him and have earned his trust Donald is a calm, quiet, and go-with-the-flow sort of guy, which is where the confusion lies.

Mostly his cool and calm comes from a strong appreciation of life and its inner workings. With so many different memories of his past lives, Donald has developed an understanding that all things feel and that they all will cycle back around to live again. It causes a great deal of peace in many aspects of his life, but anxiety in others when he thinks about what pattern lies in his own cycle. He can be perfectly content being alone out in nature.

Despite his mix of rapid personality shifts, Donald is generally a friendly sort of guy who’s slow to trust others outside of his immediate circle. But for those who have earned his loyalty a good and helpful friend is always on hand. Donald may not be the best at listening to problems or dealing with crying people, but he is good at helping those in a pinch through practical means.

Of course, like most Slytherins he has a devious side that rears its head when he’s looking for some fun and encouraged by his housemates. Though never malicious in intent, Donald loves a good prank… so long as it’s not aimed at him. It’s all fun and games until it gets dished back out, and then it can quickly devolve into fits of rage and injustice.

Home Life

Donald’s home life is a simple one at heart, and he likes it that way. His parents are both loving people, content with their lot in life, and his sister is... well he manages to somewhat get along.

His mother is a medical herbalist with a knack for potion-making and crafts brews for medicinal use and based upon an order from clients. She also grows herbs for her own experimentation or to sell later. Donald’s father is a boat captain of a fishing vessel that makes port in Mevagissey, near their home. He’s a rough sort of man, but calm and composed most of the time with a very practical outlook on life and friends. He is devoted to his family, but often the more magical nature of his his wife and son eludes his grasp.

Donald’s twin sister is another story, however. Della was not graced with magic like Donald and is forever a bit bitter about it. She has developed a strong sense of distaste for it and distaste for the family’s simple lifestyle, unlike her brother. Often she’ll ask to get whisked away to London or even beg to take weekend trips to visit her brother with the intention of running off to somewhere more populated than their small town where she lives. While Della might be a bit of a restless spirit, Donald still loves her and tries to do the right thing by her, even if it means dragging her to London every now and again.

Growing up within a more muggle-centered life, Donald is more at home with their lifestyle and accustomed to solving his problems without resorting to his wand. From a young age he’d been out on the boat with his father or in the dirt with his mother and learned to appreciate their devotion to their crafts, even if it wasn’t always as glamorous as the jobs some of his friend’s parents had. He appreciates hard work and is keen to spot it in others around the school.

Donald’s friends back home are all typically muggles with only a few exceptions, namely his uncle. For the most part he’s been isolated from them, except in the summers, due to his absence from their lives as he goes off to school. It’s caused his summers to be a bit more boring, but with magic and a working fireplace he’s managed to take trips whenever invited by his magical companions. Donald’s uncle, however, is another story. Being one of the few other wizards he’d known growing up, there is a sense of respect there, but it’s a far cry from the same sort shown to his parents.

Quick / Random Facts!

> Della is Donald’s twin sister, and the far more restless sibling, even considering Donald’s temper. > Easily stressed by large crowds and prone to outbursts of anger then. > Donald has a great affinity for water and loves swimming whenever he gets the chance. > Is better at Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, and Herbology over the more wand-waving forms of magic. > Holds a very simple and practical outlook on life and his interactions. > Likes peace and quiet over large gatherings, but he often shows up at parties after being dragged by his fellow dorm-mates.

Tattoos / Markings

> A scar on his arm where he accidentally had a fishhook lodged in it > A scar on his knee when he jokingly attempted to kick a door with some friends and kicked through the glass. He cried, a lot. He was 8.

#hc

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mikemortgage · 5 years

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Why Canada — the rightful home of hockey — may never be home to another NHL franchise

John Graham is a race car driver, hockey promoter and believer in improbable dreams, an optimism he applied to his role as the point man for a group of prominent though unnamed Saskatoon businessmen who approached the NHL in 2012 with a pitch to buy the money-bleeding, league-owned Phoenix Coyotes and move them to the Prairies.

Saskatchewan at the time was booming, its economy growing by 2.9% a year, good enough to be second only to Alberta nationally. Saskatoon had grown into a city of 230,000 from less than 200,000 at the turn of the millennium, and was adding more bodies and jobs year over year, a prosperous run propelled by a robust oil sector, strength in potash and uranium mining, and the traditional farming and manufacturing sectors. Unemployment was low and the city’s NHL aspirations high, especially given that Saskatoon had already hosted several successful NHL exhibition games, and also had a 15,200-seat arena, government support and proof of concept in the nearby Winnipeg Jets — formerly the Atlanta Thrashers — that relocating to a small Canadian market could actually be a win for everybody.

Naturally, Don Cherry waded in, devoting a Coach’s Corner segment one Saturday to trumpeting Saskatoon’s NHL worthiness, and assuring Canadians of something they all surely knew: “They are hockey people,” he said. “They will sell out in 15 minutes.”

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly even met with Graham and the Saskatoon group, meetings that produced more meetings, talks that, while cordial, weren’t enough to dislodge the Coyotes from Phoenix, where the franchise remains — a money loser still, albeit under new ownership and with a new name, the Arizona Coyotes.

Chasing cold cash: How icebergs became the field of dreams for believers and schemers

The island Canada forgot: On Campobello, citizens are left exiles in their own land

The small towns that refuse to die: Schemes to woo new blood about more than just staying alive

“Business and life goes in cycles,” Graham says, looking back on those heady Saskatoon days. “For sure, when we thought there was an opportunity to go after Phoenix, Saskatchewan was on an economic high, potash was hot, oil exports were strong. It was the right window for us. Had the team gone in there, I think it would have mirrored Winnipeg’s success. We had everything lined up, but …”

It didn’t happen, not for Saskatoon, and not, more recently, for Quebec City, a locale twice spurned by the NHL in a three-year span in favour of expanding to Las Vegas and now Seattle. The NHL’s repeated snubbing of Canadian markets doesn’t seem just, morally, and it doesn’t seem to jibe with free market economic theory.

Canadians are NHL hungry. There is consumer demand for the product and corporate support, with a demonstrated belief among the business community that being associated with the league isn’t merely a branding exercise, but vital to a brand’s identity. Tim Hortons, Canadian Tire, Ford of Canada, Rogers, Bell, Bank of Nova Scotia, Kraft — and more — have a piece of the NHL action. BCE Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. together own the majority of the Toronto Maple Leafs, in addition to Rogers controlling most of the league’s Canadian broadcasting rights. But in a proven though underserved national market, the NHL appears to be doing everything it possibly can to avoid putting in an eighth franchise.

It can be easy, even comforting, to conclude that the problem must be them: them being the league, its American-sunbelt-loving-New-York-City-headquartered commissioner, Gary Bettman, and the majority of American owners behind him, hell bent on propping up marginal franchises in Florida, Arizona and the Carolinas, while forgoing slam dunk propositions such as the Nordiques 2.0.

Much less appetizing to consider is the alternative, which is that the problem is us: our population, 75-cent dollar, relative lack of billionaire would-be hockey team owners, corporate parochialism and collective inability to grasp, or rather fully admit, that Canada, although the rightful home of hockey, may never be home to another NHL franchise.

Richard Peddie, former president and chief executive officer of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment Ltd., says the financial prospects of an eighth Canadian NHL franchise aren’t great.

To understand why not, it helps to do the math, and who better to run the numbers than Richard Peddie, the former CEO and president of Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment Ltd., and an executive often accused of monetizing every nook of Toronto’s Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena) during his 13 years at the top. “Looking at it, the financials aren’t great,” he says of the prospects for an eighth Canadian NHL franchise. “It is a thin investment, there is not a lot of earnings in it, and you need a rich person.”

Imagine, as per Seattle, that an expansion team costs around US$650 million. If you are not Quebec City, a new arena would need to be built, costing another $200 million, give or take, assuming the new owner convinces taxpayers to pick up a chunk of the tab. Now, almost a billion dollars later — huzzah — you have yourself an NHL franchise earning, in a good year, about US$25 million before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization or, in other words, close to a zero-per-cent annual return on a huge investment.

Hence the need for a rich person, a billionaire at minimum, which in Canada limits the pool to about 100 potential buyers, seven of which — the Molsons, David Thomson, Larry Tanenbaum, the Rogers, Daryl Katz, Francesco Aquilini, Murray Edwards and Eugene Melnyk — already own, directly or indirectly through companies, at least a part of the seven existing Canadian franchises.

Winnipeg Jets co-owner David Thomson watches his team take on the Anaheim Ducks in the second period of NHL playoff action at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Man., in 2015.

Thomson, the richest Canadian around, and Mark Chipman in 2011 paid US$170 million for the Thrashers and the right to move the team to Winnipeg. At the time, it was a boondoggle of a price for a terrible franchise with no discernible fan base in a non-traditional hockey market, and an ownership group that was slinging lawsuits at one another after losing millions for years. But Thomson was the right billionaire at the right time in the right place, willing to pay whatever the asking price was for what today amounts to a civic good-works project, with more or less break-even financials, though the Jets are now valued at US$415 million, according to Forbes.

The MTS Centre during the Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens NHL game on October 9, 2011 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The game is Winnipeg’s first NHL regular season game in 15 years.

Peddie concludes his lesson by adding that, with nominal annual returns, a hypothetical owner entering the NHL game is presumably doing so with two aims in mind: winning a Stanley Cup while betting the asset appreciates in value so that it pays off if he or she decides to sell. Of course, the buy-and-hold-and-eventually-sell sports ownership model starts to look pretty dicey when the price tag up front is a billion dollars and when a hypothetical team is located in a secondary Canadian market, such as Saskatoon or Quebec City.

Yet no matter how bad the math looks, or how far the loonie dips, this is still Canada and fans will pay to watch a team (think, Edmonton) loaded with talent repeatedly fall short of expectations and fail to make the playoffs. It is the kind of loyalty (lunacy?) that doesn’t exist in, say, Arizona, Florida or Carolina — or Ottawa, for that matter — suggesting that Quebec City should hold some allure as a potential destination for an NHL franchise. Right?

A Winnipeg Jets fan looks for tickets for the Jets inaugural game against the Montreal Canadiens at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Oct. 9, 2011.

We put the question to Bill Daly, Bettman’s second-in-command. “I’m not prepared to say that Quebec is not a viable market for a future NHL franchise,” he says via email. “And I’m not prepared to say that future opportunities will not present themselves. Every situation is fact- and circumstance-specific, and I would certainly not rule out the possibility of facts and circumstances aligning in the future so as to create a new opportunity.”

In other words: Quebec City is neither on nor definitively off the table, and remains a Plan B (or C or D) with a fully paid-for, publicly-funded arena, a rivalry with Montreal waiting to be resumed and an eager fan base itching to buy tickets, sweaters and overpriced pints at concession stands.

Daly goes on to say that “further expansion” was not a priority at the moment, though he allowed that as long as there is a demand and “assuming that further expansion is ultimately perceived to benefit the league as a whole, it will be duly considered and may well happen.”

Expansion, of course, is one way to get a team. The other is a relocation scenario, where a U.S.-based dumpster-fire of a hockey situation reaches Atlanta Thrashers-sized proportions, and the team/league cries uncle and heads north. Cast against this scenario is Bettman, a man who hates to admit failure, and rightly so, because failing is bad for business. If teams are seen as portable and relocation is always viewed as an option, there is little incentive for fans, so the argument goes, to invest — practically, financially and emotionally — in a franchise that might be gone tomorrow. At the same time, if the NHL hopes to grow its overall fan base and tap into previously untapped corporate dollars, it needs to expand into markets where new hockey converts might be, not where the fans already are (Quebec, Saskatoon, Anytown Canada).

The NHL’s existing strategy might even be paying off, depending on one’s perspective. Auston Matthews, Maple Leafs star and a former No. 1 overall NHL pick, grew up in the Phoenix suburbs as a Coyotes fan; the Arizona State University men’s hockey team in nearby Tempe has emerged as a U.S. college hockey power; and youth hockey enrolment in the state has quadrupled since the Coyotes arrived in 1996. Hockey has a toehold in Arizona, like it or not. Equally evident is that the Coyotes continue to lose gobs of money, reportedly close to US$20 million a year.

The red ink didn’t bother Daryl Jones. As a kid in Alberta, Jones grew up worshipping Oilers great Paul Coffey, and eventually left home to play hockey at Yale University, before graduating into the world of high finance. In 2013, he and a bunch of other rich Albertans bought the sad-sack Coyotes from the NHL for US$170 million. “We thought, No. 1, that NHL franchise values would go up, and that has largely proven to be true,” Jones says from Connecticut, where he now lives. “It would also enable us to make money when we sold out — the rising tide of franchise values.”

Jones and his partners learned some valuable lessons about hockey in the desert during nearly four years as NHL owners, chiefly: the Coyotes have a loyal fan base; the team’s arena couldn’t be located in a worse spot in terms of fans accessing it for weeknight games; financial losses are hard to stem; and Bettman is sticking by Arizona — at least for now. Their bet on increasing franchise values, meanwhile, paid off. They essentially doubled an initial US$45-million equity investment, selling to U.S. hedge fund manager, and now lone Coyotes owner, Andrew Barroway in 2017. (Barroway is shopping for new partners, and has valued the Coyotes at US$500 million).

Jones now owns a piece of a junior team in Dubuque, Iowa. He believes that Quebec City could work as an NHL market, but that the determining factor for the league forever hinges upon one crucial element. “They look at it as, What is the best business proposition for us?” he says. “I don’t think it has anything to do with whether it is a Canadian or an American team.” In other words, it’s all about the money.

Canadian franchises generate revenues in Canadian dollars, while paying players in U.S. funds. Add in U.S. travel expenses, and the cost of operating minor league franchises, typically based in the U.S., and the pressure exerted on a Canadian franchise’s financial well-being by a weakened dollar is significant. Canadian teams can hedge, buying up greenbacks when the loonie is strong and spending them in times when it’s not. But hedging also costs money, and it involves risk. The NHL salary cap has taken some of the bite out of currency fluctuations, as has league-wide revenue sharing, but there is no absolute cure for it, nor will there ever be.

Take, as an example, Dustin Byfuglien, a linchpin of the Winnipeg defence, a fan favourite with a US$8-million-per-season contract whose true cost to the Jets when counted in Canadian currency is $10.5 million. Winnipeg’s total salary expenditure for 2018-19, before player bonuses, is US$71.8 million, or about $94 million Canadian — and that’s operating with a dollar worth about 76 cents U.S. The lower the dollar dips, the worse the math looks. Remember: it was a 65-cent dollar and ballooning player salaries in the mid-’90s that chased the Quebec City Nordiques to Denver — to be recast as the Colorado Avalanche — and the Jets (version 1.0) to Phoenix.

Patrick Roy holds the Stanley Cup aloft after the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1993.

More disheartening than the dollar is the competition Quebec City has faced in recent expansion wars. Las Vegas is an entertainment mecca and sports gambling hub, while metropolitan Seattle is home to 3.8 million souls and several Fortune 500 company headquarters, including Microsoft Corp., Starbucks Corp., Costco Wholesale Corp., Nordstrom Inc. and a little company called Amazon.com Inc. Quebec City is chiefly home to a provincial government and a pension fund investor.

“If you compare, for example, the opportunity in Seattle versus Quebec City, it is a no-brainer,” says Peddie, the former MLSE boss. “When you start comparing Seattle to other Canadian markets, like a Saskatoon, it doesn’t even warrant a conversation. Out of all the NHL owners, maybe a couple have been to Quebec City, because it is such a charming, European kind of place, but for sure none of them have ever been to Saskatoon, or a lot of other Canadian markets.”

Peddie was approached, post-MLSE career, by a private group looking to examine the possibility of Toronto being home to another NHL team, a big what-if requiring an ownership group with a monopoly agreeing to waive its monopoly. The working assumption was that the alliance between Bell and Rogers would eventually fracture, forcing one of them out of the Leafs’ ownership group. Peddie, in crunching numbers, had the Leafs and the expansion team both playing out of Scotiabank Arena, a model that could work financially, he says, but, in talking to his connections, it fell apart, because both Bell and Rogers were only interested in owning the Leafs.

But as bleak as the odds might appear for Canada landing another team, appearances aren’t always everything. Mark Chipman, the Jets chief executive who hooked Thomson on the idea of the NHL returning to Winnipeg, first approached Bettman about it in 1999. Chipman did everything right thereafter, keeping mostly out of the media spotlight almost until the day the NHL officially announced the league was coming to Winnipeg, by way of Atlanta. Something that looked like it would never happen suddenly did. The lesson? Be patient, very patient, and keep things quiet, since the NHL won’t allow itself to get pushed in directions it doesn’t want to go. (Remember: Jim Balsillie and the Hamilton Blackberries).

Perhaps that’s why a curious silence has descended over the Nordiques 2.0 camp ever since Seattle was awarded its franchise in December. Billionaire Pierre Karl Peladeau and his media company, Quebecor Inc., are the money behind Quebec City’s expansion bid. Peladeau did not respond to multiple interview requests for this story. Mayor Regis Labeaume, a champion of the city’s NHL ambitions, who pushed for the publicly-funded arena to get built and initially wooed Peladeau to the cause, also declined. Their silence could indicate surrender, or it could signal they’re taking a page from Chipman’s playbook.

A young hockey fan cheers on the Calgary Flames before they take on the Edmonton Oilers in NHL hockey at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary April 6.

Which brings us back to the beginning, and the one thing Canada will always have going for it, the thing that makes this market critical to the NHL’s overall welfare, and the notion of landing an eighth franchise before Wayne Gretzky turns 100 plausible: Canadians love hockey, and care about their home teams, even when they are lousy, and even when doing so runs contrary to common sense.

Fans like Dan Mason, a sports professor at the University of Alberta and in some ways your typical Edmonton Oilers follower, though more casual than crazy. He still watches the team on TV — despite all the reasons not to — and catches a game or two a year at Rogers Place. Mason says that in the days of yore, NHL expansion teams set the baseline minimum value for all the teams, a model that worked when applied, for example, to the US$45-million fee San Jose’s ownership group paid for the Sharks in 1991.

Lately, however, expansion fees — US$500 million in Vegas, US$650 million in Seattle — reflect the value of a team in a given market. That’s not just the professor’s opinion it is the NHL’s official position. The Leafs aren’t worth US$1.45 billion if they are in Winnipeg, and a money pit of an NHL franchise — Forbes values the Coyotes at US$290 million — might not cost Quebec City more than it can afford.

Meantime, while it varies from team to team, ticket sales, game-day concessions, foam fingers, hats, sweaters and ice cream bars — all the money people who actually attend the games shell out — still represent about 50% of a given franchise’s revenue intake. Canadians still go to games. Canadian fans still drive revenues.

Loving hockey almost too much has not landed the country an eighth NHL franchise, or, for that matter, a Stanley Cup champion since 1993, but it is one reason not to completely abandon hope. “We are probably not likely to see a Canadian market get an NHL expansion franchise. It will be a Houston, or another market like that,” Mason says. “But if you see a franchise that continues to be in trouble, you can’t tell me that Quebec City is a worse market than Florida — even with a 60-cent dollar.”

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: oconnorwrites

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tagamark · 5 years

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Phinda – The Return

New Post has been published on https://tagasafarisafrica.com/phinda-the-return/

Phinda – The Return

They say that difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. Nothing could be closer to the truth for &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve By: Claire Trickett

A real-life phoenix, &Beyond Phinda’s journey is a story we are most proud of. The relentless challenges faced and hard-earned victories won are poignantly documented in the emotive book The Return (1999). What started as an impossible dream went on to successfully become an important milestone in and microcosm of conservation history. Not only is Phinda Game Reserve now a flagship property, boasting six globally recognised and award winning luxury safari lodges, it is also a proven case study that is widely regarded as one of the world��s most ambitious and successful blueprints for international ecotourism.

Even back then, in 1999, the book refers to a group of “responsible men who wanted to make the world a better place”. Our vision remains unchanged to this day: we strive to Care for the Land, Wildlife and People through the delivery of extraordinary guest experiences. However, luxury lodges and wildlife hotspots aside, our mission is impossible without equal partnership with our neighbours, the local communities that surround our conservation areas and, at the heart of it all, our beloved guests, without whom none of this would be possible.

Every single thing, big or small, that we are able to do in order to leave our world a better place is only made possible by the fact that you choose to travel with us. For that, we are eternally grateful, and we look forward to welcoming you back, again and again.

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Care of the Land The land selected for &Beyond’s first game reserve was identified as key conservation land. Yet having endured almost a century dominated by pineapple, cattle and sisal farms, Phinda’s land had become severely overgrazed and degraded, and its naturally occurring wildlife had long since deserted the area.

With a strong conviction that this derelict land could be beautifully restored to its original splendour, it was purchased by our founders and the rest of its journey has now become conservation history. Overcoming the initial hurdles was paramount: to rehabilitate the mistreated wasteland to its natural vigour; to return the long forgotten wildlife that once roamed the area as nature intended; and, of course, to build luxury lodges that would entice wanderlust travellers from around the world, without whom our impact model would not be viable.

Care of the Wildlife Reintroducing wildlife is not without its challenges, and no one knows this better than &Beyond Group Conservation Manager Les Carlisle. Les’ now almost 30-year career with &Beyond bears an endless string of worthy accolades and laudable victories, not to mention an impressive list of conservation firsts, many of which were accomplished during his time at &Beyond.

Positioned at the helm of this vital mission to restock Phinda’s land with its natural wildlife, Les recalls in The Return, “The first thing we had to do was get legislation in place for the establishment of a Big Five game reserve. We also had to get permission from all of our neighbours. What was most significant was that the community were the first to agree with our plans to return the wildlife. Nkosi Simon Gumede, the leader of the Makhasa Tribal Authority and the Mduku community, had far more sympathy with what we were trying to do than most of the other farmers. ‘The animals were here long before us,’ he said. ‘We should let them come back.’”

From escapee elephants, powerful pythons and disease-ridden buffalo to irate rhinos and not quite- sedated lions (including one that suddenly and very unexpectedly decided to wake up next to Les, mid-flight, in a small aircraft), each day provided its own roller-coaster of events, not to mention the occasional broken bone and bruised ego.

A natural born storyteller, Les’ tales of pioneering conservation are as comical as they are captivating. “One gets accustomed to adrenaline! On one occasion I had grabbed a darted lioness by her tail and was pulling her backwards when the whole pride of about 18 cats came rushing at us. Tony Adams [&Beyond Field & Sustainability Director] said it sounded like the start of a Grand Prix. I was more interested in keeping the lioness from turning around and biting me. Fortunately we were able to intimidate the pride long enough to get back to our Land Rover, by which time the lioness was immobilised.”

Care of the People Wildlife encounters and translocation victories aside, the final and most crucial hurdle was to reconnect the surrounding local communities with their ancestral land. The late Nelson Mandela said it best: “Ultimately, conservation is about people. If you don’t have sustainable development around wildlife parks, then the people will have no interest in them, and the parks will not survive.” Neighbouring Zulu communities were, and continue to be, consulted in all aspects of development, ensuring that their expectations and aspirations are met in a sustainable way.

Community member Gladys Zikhali explains in The Return, “The rural communities bordering Phinda were ordinary people. They never thought that one day they could have better jobs and the opportunity for tertiary education. When Phinda started, for the most part, they did not think that changing a pineapple farm and cattle ranch into a game reserve was a good idea. “They believed that there was every chance that the dangerous game would destroy their farm stock, and perhaps even worse. We couldn’t believe that this belief would change so quickly and so easily. But this is what happened when our people started to work there.

Phinda started with bringing in the wildlife. They also promised job opportunities and training. In 1992, the establishment of the Rural Investment Fund [now Africa Foundation] opened many doors that had been closed to the communities. More and more students are given golden opportunities to further their studies in tertiary institutions.” Fast forward nearly three decades, and our social development partner, Africa Foundation, continues to work hand in hand with the rural African communities that neighbour Phinda. Through effective consultation and collaboration, with legitimate local leadership in place, these communities are empowered to enable development on a far more successful and sustainable scale. Africa Foundation has provided support to 10 high schools, 20 primary schools, one special-needs school and 15 crèches across the five communities surrounding Phinda. It has also provided support to two medical clinics in the area. Mduku Clinic, which was built by Africa Foundation, now operates 24 hours a day, servicing 6 000 patients a month, and its TB/HIV facility provides treatment for over 2 500 adults and 120 children.

“Today Phinda is considered a role model, enhancing cross-cultural understanding, changing poachers to businessmen, linking the rich with the poor, and helping to unite everyone in environmental equation,” Gladys continues. “We, as the Phinda Committee, believe that in a successful family, as we have become, there is always a need for collective action, shared responsibility and pooling of ideas. This alone holds the key to our long-term survival.”

Returning full circle Phinda means “the return” in Zulu, a name that has turned out to be more prophetic than once expected. Not only was the wildlife returned to the land, but a significant portion of the land has since been returned to its ancestral owners in a groundbreaking partnership between &Beyond and the neighbouring Makhasa and Mnqobokazi communities, making a marked difference in the lives of the local people.

This partnership’s been so successful that, as additional land has been handed back to the communities, they’ve continued to request that this land been incorporated in &Beyond Phinda Private Game Reserve, because they believe that their best financial return is gained through the use of the land for conservation tourism. Through our relationships with the local communities and our affiliation with the Mun-Ya-Wana Conservancy (a collaboration of wildlife land owners in the KwaZulu-Natal region), &Beyond Phinda has grown from 13 000 hectares to more than 28 000 hectares of pristine protected wilderness.

Mother Nature once again has the upper hand, and &Beyond Phinda remains a successful microcosm of what is possible. Not only was the habitat returned to its original state, the wildlife returned to its intended home, and the land ownership returned to its rightful owners, but the land has also been returned to conservation. Through the continued return of our guests, year in and year out, this land will be protected, conserved and loved in perpetuity. Phinda is living proof that together, we can leave our world a better place.

Post courtesy of AndBeyond

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