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-   Term 62: September - December 2022 (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-62-september-december-2022/)
-   -   Arcade Area (https://www.snitchseeker.com/term-62-september-december-2022/arcade-area-117825/)

Felixir 12-27-2021 01:55 AM

Arcade Area
 

https://i.postimg.cc/T3BwnxG2/arcade-area-banner.jpg
As you continue along the second-floor corridor, you will eventually stumble upon a bust of a medieval wizard who is quietly muttering to himself in Latin. But it is the antechamber near this statue that draws in a lot of students because over the years this spot has been designated as a popular hang-out area. More often than not, those who need a break from schoolwork come here to play an array of indoor wizarding games.

Scattered around this small room are chess boards, decks of Exploding Snap cards, areas for playing Gobstones, and other wizarding games ranging from Snitch Snatcher to Wizard Cracker Pop-It to Wizard Skittles. If none of these games interest you, there is a small table where Runok Ko and Rune Riddle books can be found. Otherwise, you can go check out the suit of armour that stands off to the side -- maybe you will figure out that it is guarding a passage to a secret storeroom -- or, if you feel there's more of the castle for you to explore, take the stairway that leads up to the third floor.

Harron Peasley 09-10-2022 10:07 PM

As was typical for most eleven year olds, Reuben wasn't very good at making decisions. He had a new favourite food most weeks, and more recently his favourite place in the Castle had been changing daily. Today, it was this little antechamber.

He'd spend the best part of seven minutes eying the bust, trying to understand what it was saying - suspicious that he could not decipher it, he still kept throwing it wary glances even as he moved further toward the games. Poking around at everything on offer (and passing the suit of armour without noticing anything special about it), the first year eventually took a seat with a book of Rune Riddles, and promptly turned it upside down and started reading from the middle.

emjay 09-22-2022 01:21 PM

Although Phoenix did a lot of exploring last term and was even shown some really cool spots in the castle by his cousin, he was certain that there was plenty he did not know. In fact, he was still on the lookout for secret passages that were rumored to exist. And once in awhile in his free time, he would wander the corridors with his notebook to see where he ended up and if he found anything new or interesting. He was taking better notes this term after not keeping track well enough when he was trying to break the spell code of certain statues he thought might guard the entrance of a secret passage.

Today he found his way heading down one end of the second floor corridor and he paused next to the statue bust. Phoenix had come across him before and found him... not as helpful as he would like when it came to practicing his conversational Latin. But he greeted him with a Salve, quid agis? and gave the bust a careful look. Probably not anything noteworthy about him in terms of secret passages and the like, so he decided just to enter the arcade room instead.

Phoenix liked the sort of strategy games, though it had been a while since he visited this area, for a variety of reasons. But upon seeing another boy there, he gave him a small smile and said, "Hey...Fancy a game?" If not, that was cool too. He could work on some personal strategy... or just continue exploring, remembering the secret room in the Ravenclaw common room he recently discovered. Maybe there was something like that here too.

Harron Peasley 09-23-2022 05:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay (Post 12528996)
Although Phoenix did a lot of exploring last term and was even shown some really cool spots in the castle by his cousin, he was certain that there was plenty he did not know. In fact, he was still on the lookout for secret passages that were rumored to exist. And once in awhile in his free time, he would wander the corridors with his notebook to see where he ended up and if he found anything new or interesting. He was taking better notes this term after not keeping track well enough when he was trying to break the spell code of certain statues he thought might guard the entrance of a secret passage.

Today he found his way heading down one end of the second floor corridor and he paused next to the statue bust. Phoenix had come across him before and found him... not as helpful as he would like when it came to practicing his conversational Latin. But he greeted him with a Salve, quid agis? and gave the bust a careful look. Probably not anything noteworthy about him in terms of secret passages and the like, so he decided just to enter the arcade room instead.

Phoenix liked the sort of strategy games, though it had been a while since he visited this area, for a variety of reasons. But upon seeing another boy there, he gave him a small smile and said, "Hey...Fancy a game?" If not, that was cool too. He could work on some personal strategy... or just continue exploring, remembering the secret room in the Ravenclaw common room he recently discovered. Maybe there was something like that here too.

Reading things upside down and starting from somewhere other than the start was key to breaking codes. He wasn't sure where he'd heard that, but Reuben had decided a long time ago (a few months) that it was advice to live by, and to test at every opportunity possible. The book he'd chosen made little sense upside down, and so with a huff he righted it and found that.... Well, it made little sense to him right-side-up, too.

When he heard a voice that was distinctly not the statues mumble, but spoke in that same funny language that he couldn't decipher, Reuben's head shot up from behind the book, which he then promptly dropped on the table as the other boy appeared. "What were you just saying, to the statue?" he asked, curiosity and suspicion vying to be the main expression on his face.

"What kind of game?" Because his immediate answer was yes!, but then he remembered that he didn't know how to play chess, and he didn't want to look stupid after agreeing.

emjay 10-10-2022 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harron Peasley (Post 12529041)
Reading things upside down and starting from somewhere other than the start was key to breaking codes. He wasn't sure where he'd heard that, but Reuben had decided a long time ago (a few months) that it was advice to live by, and to test at every opportunity possible. The book he'd chosen made little sense upside down, and so with a huff he righted it and found that.... Well, it made little sense to him right-side-up, too.

When he heard a voice that was distinctly not the statues mumble, but spoke in that same funny language that he couldn't decipher, Reuben's head shot up from behind the book, which he then promptly dropped on the table as the other boy appeared. "What were you just saying, to the statue?" he asked, curiosity and suspicion vying to be the main expression on his face.

"What kind of game?" Because his immediate answer was yes!, but then he remembered that he didn't know how to play chess, and he didn't want to look stupid after agreeing.

"The statue?" Phoenix glanced behind him to look at the bust of the old guy, before turning back to the boy again. It had been so inconsequential that he'd almost forgotten about it once he'd entered. "Oh.. It was Latin for hello, how are you," he replied with a shrug. "I'm taking Latin so I try to practice it," he explained. "But he's hard to have a conversation with." Not just because he was made of stone, but more because the statue more often than not made very little sense.

Phonix glanced around the room to see what all was out. "I like gobstones and wizard's chess best, but I'm good with any game here. You can pick." He was pretty sure he knew how to play most games that were sitting out, but he was also open to learning something new. "I'm Phoenix, by the way."

Harron Peasley 10-23-2022 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by emjay (Post 12531368)
"The statue?" Phoenix glanced behind him to look at the bust of the old guy, before turning back to the boy again. It had been so inconsequential that he'd almost forgotten about it once he'd entered. "Oh.. It was Latin for hello, how are you," he replied with a shrug. "I'm taking Latin so I try to practice it," he explained. "But he's hard to have a conversation with." Not just because he was made of stone, but more because the statue more often than not made very little sense.

Phonix glanced around the room to see what all was out. "I like gobstones and wizard's chess best, but I'm good with any game here. You can pick." He was pretty sure he knew how to play most games that were sitting out, but he was also open to learning something new. "I'm Phoenix, by the way."

"Why?" Reuben couldn't help but ask, more surprised than curious. He'd never met anyone who was talking Latin, and he didn't know anyone who spoke it. After all, he'd heard it described as a dead language, and honestly, who could be bothered learning something that has already been unalived?!

This kid, clearly. Maybe there was a reason, of course, other than speaking to weird old statues. Especially when the weird old statues didn't make an sense.

Surveying the games before him, Reuben shrugged and indicated the gobstones set with his head. "I like gobstones," he agreed with Phoenix. "Cool name," he added after the introduction, more enthusiastic than he had been about the Latin. Which wasn't cool, in his most not humble opinion. "I'm Reuben."


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