The Alternity Re-Read: February / March, Year 1

[alt_moderator]

We're getting into some shorter months, so I am going to combine the posts for February and March. This is not to make anyone feel guilty for not reading this fast! I'm not near March myself, but I will also be away this weekend, so I don't want to stifle conversation for those who may read ahead....

PDF Links:
February
March


As always, remember that there will certainly be spoilers in the comments!

Comments

[naomikritzer]

February 9th, Arthur talks about how possibly he or Bill should check on Nicolas Flamel. Molly is furious at the suggestion: "So THIS is what happens when I get sick and can't
keep my eye on you both! You both take hair-raising risks!" and "Arthur, I won't have Bill running such terrible risks!"

...oh, Molly. You'd definitely gained a different perspective by the end of the game!

Feb

[reenie]

Light month, but I think we were on the heals of a player-exodus, right? To be honest I think I wondered at this point if the game would survive, because I'd been on so many that fizzled after about 6 mos.

I find it interesting that non-PC Daphne was being kind to Megan and doing embroidery with her. This fits well with their interactions at the end of the game!

Do I spy the first instance of Seamus inadvertently flirting with Draco? Haaaa

Percy insulting himself - classic.

Lucius continues to entertain: "Carrow, you've proven that torture leads to
poetry. Bad poetry at that." (I think Bella probably found the poetry amusing)

Draco trying to be a good future Death Eater: "I don't read anything that mudblood writes, Father. I shouldn't, should I? Though sometimes I want to know what he's saying so I can put him in his place." He was quite in earnest, too. At this stage Draco was definitely still trying to emulate his father and be everything he'd been taught that a pureblood should be. But I did try to put in that suggestion that it was something he was slightly confused about rather than 100% comfortable with (a canon-based characterization, IMO).

I find it both funny and a bit sad that Harry was pretty much harassed every single Valentine's Day since Year 1, yet died a virgin.

It's amazing how much more secretive the DEs were, later on, compared to this stage. The invention of PMs totally changed the game.

I like how much presence Sarah Fawcett had from the get-go. One of the things about the game that still kind of blows my mind is how fully real some of our NPCs came to be in my head by the end.

Bella says: "That would be Hibbert, first name Merwin, I think. He was a few years older at school, and I remember that Razzer gave him the capped tooth via a box
of cursed toffees." <---Teen Raz, obviously a role-model.

Draco is all upset when Hermione is given to Harry and Dennis is given to him. For multiple reasons. But most notably: "Why can't I have the girl one?" THE GIRL ONE.

Re: Feb

[naomikritzer]

I was definitely playing Seamus as having a crush on Draco, but not really fully understanding his impulses yet. So my intent was to have it come out as admiration, which fit well with the vibe we wanted to cultivate with the mean kids. (It's hard, in a game like this, to tell a story in which the underdogs stay underdogs rather than flipping the tables on the mean kids by pure virtue of numbers and voice, and some of those early players were definitely not into acting intimidated by Draco, Padma, etc.)

Re: Feb

[gwendolyngrace]

I definitely really appreciate the slow burn that will eventually lead the twins to create the ISS lock, and the way it's hinted at throughout this month.

Also, we have the culmination of the Year One "Mean Girls" plotline with Lavender, Padma, and Megan.

And yeah, lots of continued coincidences about future pairs, Lavender's comment about Linus putting "slugs in her hair" for example.

[naomikritzer]

Seamus asks the Twins, "Couldnt you two get a real dog?"

Kind of funny they never did! I mean, an animagus friend who turns into a dog is great and all, but...I think if I wanted a dog, I'd still want a dog.

(Though it's not like Remus and Sirius ever kept a dog. And now I'm imagining the reaction a real dog would have to an owner who was also an animagus. I am guessing that they would think it was the GREATEST THING EVER and would poke you with their nose repeatedly to try to get you to transform and play with them. Until they got hungry, at which point they'd be like, "...time for you to have thumbs again? yes? thumbs?")

[naomikritzer]

So, another thing I'm noticing overall is how bad the shortages are, and how small and struggling Moddey Dhoo is. They've been rescuing babies for years but whether they've really been trying for all of them, or not, is not clear.

It does include muggles, but you can see the much-lower sense of possibility and the sense that muggles can't possibly be all that useful in Alice's post on 2/27, when she talks about the fact that several of the new arrivals have bad teeth. Hermione's parents are both dentists! And at that point in their lives would probably have been rather pleased to be rescued by the secret organization their daughter is a member of. No one even suggests it, though.

Anyway, I feel like some of what we're seeing is the beginnings of how the journals themselves shifted things. The Order existed and had ways to communicate prior to the journals, but they were slow and cumbersome. Alice couldn't just say, "here's a list of what we need" and have people round stuff up. Moreover, once the whole Order could talk, they started to see greater possibilities for action. And cooperation. The Derby breakout is one of the first indications of that -- it's implied that they were partly inspired by Sirius's posts (or at least that they've read them), and because of the journals they're able to get to the escapees in time to save most of them. They also get the McGiverns out of it.

[lapin_agile]

I've thought the same thing: the Order was really not well-connected until the journals arrived. And then, wow! what a difference that magical device made in their ability to communicate. We are watching them begin to repair wounds of mistrust and misunderstanding that had driven them apart over the years.

I have the impression that they were more cell-like in organization with each cell reporting (dear heavens) to Albus (mostly). Some seem to have had a relationship with Minerva, but she doesn't seem to have really been coordinating the Order's efforts--presumably because it was all she could do to be Headmistress while also a Death Eater, and she preferred not to risk knowing too much (despite her ability to occlude). It is poignant when she talks about being unable to use politically correct language when speaking to the Order (because she might slip and use it to the wrong audience); clearly she was at the edge of her ability to juggle both roles/affiliations.

The safety and immediacy of communication by journal changed everything for them.

[naomikritzer]

Seriously. Kudos to you, Bill.

March

[gwendolyngrace]

I forgot that Selwyn appeared this early as a PC!

[elisem]

The first test message of the ISS lock was a nice inkling of derogatory messages to come, albeit aimed at a different target.

[gwendolyngrace]

Lucius as the anti-helicopter parent! Staying out of Draco's detentions and the trouble he and Harry keep getting into. (Though one wonders how much is really good parenting and how much is keeping his own hands clean. Heh.)

But this bit of his discussion (after Ron and Draco serve detention in the Forest) struck me, since I don't even remember writing it: "The instantaneous record provided by the journals offers us all perhaps too much insight to the angst of children's travails. By and large the worries of this term will be supplanted with new concerns
next term, and rivalries and alliances formed now will shift or settle as occasion dictates."

It speaks to the struggles we were already experiencing with using the journals to tell about behavior that could have brought about game-breaking punishments and stuff like that.

[naomikritzer]

"If your mudblood comes to detention we'll probably almost die because that always seems to happen when she's around. Only I suppose she wasn't there the other night in the forest, but we didn't really almost die that time, either, since the centaurs looked
like they might kill but it turns out they didn't want to."

Draco, to Harry, after the detention in the Forbidden Forest. lol.

[naomikritzer]

Bellatrix, on the unicorn: "I can think of no better way to celebrate the spring equinox than with a unicorn hunt. The show of faith between the creature and the young maiden is a symbol of the people's pure and enduring faith in our Lord and Protector."

...that's more apt than I think she intended, given that the unicorn was butchered and eaten...

[jenett]

Icons I wish we'd had the art for in Y1.

(The image for this icon comes from a British Library april fool's stunt in 2012.)

[naomikritzer]

The centaurs apparently said something about the innocent being the first to die, which was intended to refer to the unicorn, but there are a lot of other victims in the game it could have referred to, including Dennis (first PC to die -- okay, he was untrustworthy and thoroughly brainwashed, but he was definitely innocent); Hannah (first of the year's students to die); and Neville (the first to die in the bloodbath that was May 16th, although you could argue that Harry was killed before Neville was in the rite. It depends on what you mean by "killed.")