With the capture of Verandi Farley and several high-ranking Trossach members, the British wizarding world has finally caught a break. The rate of rogue werewolf attacks have started dropping at a steady rate and, hopefully, things will stay that way. The Ministry is starting to loosen some restrictions, like not arresting werewolves standing on the street for loitering, however there’s still an obvious power imbalance between wizardfolk and werewolves.
The Cotswolds pack are continuing to advocate for the rights of werewolves and petitioning to change the legislation that has been set in motion by the current Minister for Magic, whilst the remaining Trossachs members are trying to stay out of the spotlight and keep a low profile… for now.
Whilst the British wizarding world seems to have calmed down, the same cannot be said for over in Northern Europe where a rebellion of magical creatures has risen. The state of things has gotten so bad that the European Ministry has enacted protocols to protect those under eighteen whilst their adult witches and wizards fight to keep control of their countries.
Students from Durmstrang have been sent to Hogwarts to keep them safe and those not old enough to attend school have been sent to live with relatives or designated British Ministry officials outside of Europe for the time being.
Will the low rates of werewolf attacks in Britain continue? How long will Durmstrang students stay at Hogwarts? Will the creatures usurp the wizardfolk in Northern Europe? Only time will tell.
SEPTEMBER 2019 It's been a very long, eventful summer in the wizarding world. A baby was stolen, several high ranking Trossach members were imprisoned, and werewolf attacks have drastically dropped as a result. What will happen now school has returned?
MAY 2019 An attempt to capture the beta of the Trossachs has been launched. Were the Aurors successful in their mission? Go read more here!
love, it will get you nowhere/you are on your own, lost in the wild
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Post by RUE HOWARD on Oct 15, 2019 16:49:35 GMT
Knives, before Rue had come to the Trossachs, had been something one used at dinner and perhaps Potions lessons. Sitting a distance away from the fading fire, she ran her finger up and down the flat of the blade of the knife that belonged to her now, not quite as useful as her wand but still far more important than it had ever been before. It was smooth and cold, and even though the night was even colder and threatened to make her shiver, she didn't stop.
As she turned it slightly, the blade caught the reflection of the moon in the sky, not casting too much light yet, but growing each evening. The white light was nothing like the red embers of the fire, somehow a million times brighter despite being what must have been a million times farther away. And it still changed so much here on earth. She wasn't looking forward to transforming again, even if she knew it must inevitably happen, even if she knew that among the pack would be the best place in Britain to do it, what with all the danger.
In the trees behind her, a robin burst into song, and Rue's head whipped around, searching for the little bird among the branches. She had not expected them to sing at this hour of the day, but that was unmistakable. Had something startled it?
note: open to any Trossachs member
kasia's songbird // 5'3" // single // born in england // lives with the trossachs
A small light emerged from the depths of the frozen forest, making ice crystals twinkle like the stars somewhere way above. The snow crust broke under every step the young man made, filling the silence. In the light from his wand he could see a cloud appear every time he exhaled, and he pulled his heavy fur coat tighter shut. He needed to get back to camp and have a mug of warm tea, and then he'd pile the few blankets and animal skins he had on top of himself and head to sleep, at least for a few hours.
After a few more minutes he finally spotted the orange flame in the distance and his step became a bit lighter. Not far now, he thought, just a few steps. Now the only thing that separated him from the camp was a rather thick growth of bushes that extended quite a ways to both sides. He sighed and pushed through the branches, even as they got caught in his coat and broke with a loud noise. In addition to that, he'd also startled a bird. He just hoped that he wouldn't wake anyone up -- lack of sleep only made people more annoyed and brooding, and Vaughn had to admit that almost everyone here was the brooding type.
He stumbled out in the clearing and noticed, that he wasn't alone. The newest addition to their pack, a teenage girl, was sitting on a log. Vaughn had been quite surprised when she'd been added to the Strike team, but he knew better than to argue with Verandi. No, if he wanted to survive long enough to figure a way out of this, he had to keep his head down. It was better to be in a group than fend for yourself, wasn't it?
"Hi," he said quietly, tapping her on the shoulder so to startle her less, "can't sleep?"
love, it will get you nowhere/you are on your own, lost in the wild
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Post by RUE HOWARD on Oct 23, 2019 1:26:20 GMT
Rue nearly dropped the knife as footsteps landed next to her, but she recovered quickly, grasping its handle in her fist and shoving the tip of the blade into the log next to her. There. No accidents then. It wouldn't do to be clumsy in front of one of her very own trainers. Vaughn was no Verandi, not quite so prickly (Rue had learned quick never to cry in front of her), but he was still a lot stronger, and a lot more used to the life of a Trossach.
"Not tired," she explained, which was sort of the truth. Her limbs were all worn out from a day of working and training, but her mind wasn't about to rest. Besides, between the fire's last bit of red light and the moon's silver, it didn't seem quite dark enough to sleep.
Which Rue knew was strange; they were in the middle of a forest, there shouldn't be light like this. But in her mind there shouldn't be birds singing at this time of day, either, and yet there were. Now she knew. There were things she had to learn, how to live out here, how to survive in a world where so many places were closed to her.
She knew better than to ask if who had bitten her had been one of the pack or if they had simply found her--she didn't think she was ready to know yet--but she wondered, wondered if the same people who kept her alive and trained her to defend herself were the ones who had forced her into this life. If she would end up doing just that to someone else someday... and with the wild painful memories of that full-moon night, she was sure the wolf in her was capable of it.
"Too many thoughts to sleep," she admitted.
@vaughnbelanger
kasia's songbird // 5'3" // single // born in england // lives with the trossachs
His lips pressed tightly together as he watched the girl forcefully thrust her knife into the very log she was sitting on. He'd tried his best not to catch her by surprise, yet she'd almost tossed the knife out of her hands upon hearing Vaughn approach. He didn't blame her -- she'd been torn out of the careless life of a 13 year old barely a month ago, and no matter how demanding Verandi was, nobody could expect the girl to be perfectly aware of her surroundings at any given moment. Vaughn had been with the clan much longer, and he still was far from the perfect guard dog.
"Lets have some tea." Vaughn said, walking towards the waning fire. He wasn't going to stoke the fire - they needed to save firewood for the coming days, but he still was a wizard and he still had his wand. Soon enough he returned to Rue, holding two tin mugs with herbal tea. "Here," he offered one of the two mugs to the girl. "It should help."
He sat down next to her, the knife creating a barrier between the two. For a few moments he just sat there, enjoying the heat of the tin mug.
"Would you like to talk about anything?" he asked, knowing full well that everyone in this camp was brooding and not very talkative, and as someone who had 3 younger brothers, Vaughn knew that Rue needed someone to talk to, perhaps more than anyone else around.
love, it will get you nowhere/you are on your own, lost in the wild
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Post by RUE HOWARD on Oct 30, 2019 3:13:45 GMT
The heat of the boiling drink in the metal cup almost burned Rue's hands, but she gripped it harder as if that would force the tea to cool down. Raising it to her lips, she blew softly on it, sniffing it as she did to see what kind it was. It was something she couldn't name, but knew she had smelled before--it could probably be trusted. She had never really been a tea drinker, but she had to admit that something warm to put in her stomach helped a lot on cold winter nights.
She glanced upwards at Vaughn, who was so much larger in his fur coat and heavy boots. It would be easy to be intimidated by him, she thought; he was so much stronger and had trained for so much longer. Still, as he sat heavily next to her, she thought she had far more to be worried about from someone her own size. Something about him told her he wasn't here to yell at her for not being tougher than she was, at least not at the moment. Perhaps it was being a little sister for her whole life that gave her that sort of sense.
At the older wolf's question, her eyes flicked back down to the knife between them, the part of the silver blade that still stuck out from the log. "Talk about what?" she asked. "I don't really know what to say." She frowned, considering. "It's just life things. Feeling nervous about the future, I guess." It was hard to say what the future would hold, now that what had been sort of a pipe dream was really so--that might be the most worrying thing of all to her.
@vaughnbelanger
kasia's songbird // 5'3" // single // born in england // lives with the trossachs
Vaughn understood the girl. Far too well. Being turned into a werewolf had ruined all the plans he'd carefully crafted for years, and now he lived in the fog of uncertainty - would he wake up with an Auror's wand pointed at him just to be hauled off to Azkaban, or whatever it was that the Ministry did with werewolves now. Would he turn one day and be killed while in the shape of a wolf? Or, he'd heard whispers that the wolf in him could take over the human, and maybe one day he'd turn and never become human again?
None of these scenarios were the life he'd wanted for himself. And none of these scenarios was a life he wanted for Rue. He didn't want to know who'd attacked the girl -- he disagreed with the Trossach's way of doing things. He could turn a blind eye on turning adults into werewolves, but teenagers? Hell, she was just 13... There was no way she could have defended herself. But if Vaughn wanted to keep himself in this pack and not be cast out, he had to stay quiet, lest Verandi or someone else found out.
"I understand." he said, his voice soft. "How about we get to know each other, then? I'll start." he took a sip from his tin mug, hissing as the hot liquid burned his lips. "I'm Vaughn Belanger, I'm 25, and..." All basic things that Rue probably already knew to a extent. He sat there for a moment, drawing out his last word. "And I think that sandwiches with tomatoes are the best thing in the universe."
love, it will get you nowhere/you are on your own, lost in the wild
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Post by RUE HOWARD on Nov 15, 2019 2:26:35 GMT
"The best thing in the whole universe? Are you sure?" Rue wasn't sure she believed that a sandwich could be the best thing ever, but then again, she thought, she wasn't particularly hungry at the moment. Maybe the next time she was, she'd think differently--and honestly, that time might not be too far away. She was never sure if she was only hungry because she was growing taller--the pants she had when she arrived already seemed a bit too short--or because of the wolf thing.
"My turn, then?" Rue's voice was rather soft, but not quite so hesitant anymore. "I'm Rue Howard, and I'm 13. And you want me to say my favorite food?" She pursed her lips, thinking about it. What did she like best? "Fruitcake, I think. Don't laugh! I know everybody hates it, but I really love it. I didn't get to eat any this year, though, 'cause Christmas..." She trailed off, having accidentally arrived at the one topic that loomed around like a heavy cloud. It had been almost Christmas when she was bitten, and she'd spent the holiday healing up. All she could hope for was that next year, the situation would have improved, or at least that she could find the ingredients. Baking a cake over a fire didn't seem like the easiest thing in the world, but there had to be a spell to help with that. There seemed to be a spell for practically anything, and even her brother didn't know all of them. "Do you know how to bake a cake out here?"
@vaughnbelanger
kasia's songbird // 5'3" // single // born in england // lives with the trossachs
Post by TERESA NOTTINGHAM on Nov 21, 2019 8:02:56 GMT
Teresa was used to sleeping alone, she'd gotten used to it after a few years of living on the streets, but tonight? She just craved the comfort of somebody to curl into, the heavy weight of someone's arm resting across her body. It wasn't something that she wanted very often at all - when she used to sleep with people only to rob them later, she never ever stayed - but she supposed after sharing a tent with Verandi for a few months before getting her own, maybe it was natural to miss the feeling of somebody sleeping beside you every once in a while.
Making her way out of her tent with her scarf twined around her neck, Teresa moved towards the fire, catching a few tidbits of conversation from Vaughn - someone she had gotten to know over the last few months - and Rue, the person who'd replaced her as being the newest member of the Trossachs. "I'm Teresa, I'm 18 and my favourite food is pumpkin pie," she chimed in, her lips twitching into a smile as she drew her knees up to her chin. "I think you lot should talk about more interesting shit than food though, maybe about..." It was hard to think of a topic that wasn't taboo out here. Questions of their old life, of their families... they were all upsetting because they reminded everyone of before. Before they were turned, before their lives were flipped upside down and everything went to shit. "Met a Quidditch player the other day. Never really cared too much about it before, but I guess that makes them a celebrity, right? Who's the most famous person you guys have met?"
Rue's words stung him right under his ribs. Howard? Why does that sound familiar? Vaughn couldn't put his finger on it, but there had to be a reason why her full name was bothering him. Had he known her before? It couldn't be -- he hadn't been in Britain for several years, and there was no reason he would ever have hung out with someone her age besides his own little brother. Little brother...Christmas... The young man sighed softly, patting Rue on the shoulder as he considered her question.
But before he could start to theorize about ways to bake a cake in the middle of the forest, they were joined by another pack member. Teresa, barely an adult, and yet you'd think she'd been living as a werewolf for years. Nobody in the pack knew too much about each other, though Vaughn often wanted to know what roads had lead them all to this forest clearing. But it was a taboo topic, so instead they chatted away about things like food and celebrities.
"Depends on the team, if he's from the Chuddley Canons, then he'll have to work a bit harder to earn the title of a celebrity." Vaughn said, taking a sip from his mug. "Once I was walking past a muggle fashion show, and some man, dressed in something I can only describe as a gold garbage bag stopped me and tried to convince me to become his model. I guess he was important, but muggle high fashion is... I could stitch together something far more attractive from a few hides and tendons."
love, it will get you nowhere/you are on your own, lost in the wild
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Post by RUE HOWARD on Nov 30, 2019 16:22:34 GMT
Rue glanced up as Teresa popped out of a tent to come join them next to the fire, scooting over to make space on the log just in case the older girl would want to sit next to her. "I have an autograph from a Quidditch player!" she added, happily, until Vaughn's words made her frown. "Hey, I like the Cannons," she said. Who else was she supposed to pick as her team? It wasn't like she had grown up with the sport, that was, until Rowan had come back from school the first year and told her all about it. The Cannons, she'd learned, were her home team, even if they hadn't won the League Cup since the 1800s. If that one baseball team in America could do it after however many years it had been, the Cannons could too, she was certain!
"I've never met any celebrity in person, though," Rue continued sadly. Vaughn and Teresa were much older; they'd had a lot more chances to do cool things like that. "I've watched them on TV a lot. And once I went to the opera, in London, so I got to see the singers in person, even though they were all the way on the stage." That had been probably the coolest moment of her life. She didn't care how strange people thought she was for liking classical music--if she could ever sing like that, she'd feel like all her dreams would come true.
Post by TERESA NOTTINGHAM on Dec 3, 2019 7:48:04 GMT
"What teams play for Ireland? First name was Kiernan. Didn't catch his last name," Teresa said with a shrug. She wasn't that invested enough to ask him questions like that. She was getting a free drink out of the situation and some not so bad conversation about other things, so that had been enough for her. Leaning forward to see past Vaughn, someone who was much bigger than she or Rue was, she told Rue with the utmost seriousness. "You could sell that if you're ever in a bad spot, y'know. Fans go wild for that kinda shit. I mean it. Talk it up enough in a sports bar - wait, no, you're too young for a bar. Forget it." She couldn't pass for being older than she was either. She looked way too... angelic which was interesting seeing as werewolves were considered demonic to a lot of people.
Vaughn proclaimed he walked past a muggle fashion show once, and was asked to be some model. It wasn't surprising... and Teresa definitely wasn't blind. She could see he was attractive with broad, built shoulders and intense eyes that would make a lot of people weak at the knees. "I don't think he was asking you to make the clothes, just try them on. Should've done it," she said, abrupt and to the point though a small smile floated onto her lips. "Maybe you should make us all some clothes if you're such a great seamstress. What d'you think, Rue?"
Whilst the concept of modelling existed both in the wizarding and muggle world, TV did not. Teresa had never even turned one on. Her parents refused to let her set foot into the muggle world as a kid, and she was so busy just trying to survive in the wizarding world as a (just barely) adult... that she didn't want to make things even harder for herself by visiting a completely foreign place. "Opera, hey? That's..." Not cool, but she wasn't about to be a bitch to the girl. "Growing up, my nanny used to tell us tales of how her бабушка was a famous opera singer in Russia. What language do they sing in on the stage in London?"
love, it will get you nowhere/you are on your own, lost in the wild
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Post by RUE HOWARD on Dec 18, 2019 3:37:55 GMT
"Well, the Kestrels are Irish," Rue offered. "My brother really likes Quidditch, so I've gotten to know the teams." She hadn't seen a match before she'd actually gone to Hogwarts, but she'd heard all about it. She wondered briefly if Hufflepuff really would end up winning the Cup this year--Ravenclaw had looked like the favorites after the first couple games, but anything could happen. Maybe she'd hear about it from someone--probably Sally. Her friend was a lot better with a broom than Rue ever had been. "Oh, but I don't think I'd get any money from it. Not this one," she continued sadly, thinking of the letters she'd exchanged with the former athlete. "It would be nice if I could, though. I haven't really got any money."
That thought was stressful, as Rue knew that she could get her next meal and a place to sleep from the pack, but if they were to disappear all of a sudden? It wasn't like she could work anywhere, and it wasn't like she would have anyone to give her money. Rowan wasn't old enough to work either, and her parents... She was terrified of what would happen if they did find her. The pack was the only way she was going to survive, no matter what the truth was about how she had gotten here.
"I'd take some new clothes, Vaughn," she said, trying to crack a smile even as her heart felt heavy. "As long as they're not like those ones you're talking about. They wouldn't be very practical." It was the truth that she needed new ones--she didn't have that many, and she knew that those ones would become too short for her soon. "And yeah, opera. It's really awesome." A bit of light came back into her brown eyes as she remembered. "It's in lots of languages, but the one I saw was in Italian. But they had the translations projected up on the stage, so I could understand."
Teresa was used to sleeping alone, she'd gotten used to it after a few years of living on the streets, but tonight? She just craved the comfort of somebody to curl into, the heavy weight of someone's arm resting across her body. It wasn't something that she wanted very often at all - when she used to sleep with people only to rob them later, she never ever stayed - but she supposed after sharing a tent with Verandi for a few months before getting her own, maybe it was natural to miss the feeling of somebody sleeping beside you every once in a while.
