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Tweak says, "Love me two times, babe!"

Alex lives for the present (pastperfection) wrote in neeps,
@ 2018-03-02 20:12:00

Entry tags:

! ic/ooc, # montrose, ada olivier, alasdair maddock, alex winters, dani miracle, elektra yaxley, jason king, kenna mcleod, lennox campbell, mg mcgonagall, michael corner, roger davies

IC/OOC - Who's Ready to Meet Montrose's New PR Guy?

internalmemo Montrose Magpies Team PR Office
2 March 2000 TO: Montrose Staff and Players FROM: Montrose Magpies Team Office SUBJECT: Getting to Know You!
Hello, Magpies! No doubt, you have seen a new face around the offices, so I thought I'd send out a memo to briefly introduce myself. My name is Alex Winters, and I'll be taking over the Public Relations position from Aureliana effective immediately. She's agreed to stay on for a brief time as we transition her work to me, and I'm very excited to get started here! I'm sure all of you have appreciated the hard work she put in during the interim. A little about me: I was born in Scotland, but moved to America when I was really little, and grew up in Seattle, WA. I went to Ilvermorny- Go, Horned Serpents!- and then interned for a marketing firm in Manhattan before being hired on full time. This was my primary background- international corporate accounts- for nearly ten years, when I felt it was time for a change. But I'm not here to bore you with the details! I'd really like to get to know everyone here, but I know that everyone is busy with three upcoming matches this month, so I'm asking if you could please find the time to either schedule a time or just stop by my office for a brief 5-10 minute chat so I can get to know the team a little better. If you find you don't have time, or small talk just really isn't your thing, I've attached a brief form that includes some talking points you can also use if you wish. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you, and can't wait to see the Unbeatable Magpies in action again!

MADE BY TESSISAMESS···································

(Please feel free to use this post as an IC/OOC, or we can treat it like a journal if your staff member/team player prefers the written medium.)

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

pastperfection
2018-03-11 12:32 am UTC (link)

"I dunno, seeing you Apparate out of that costume in your last game was pretty noteworthy. Nice shorts, by the way. Very in keeping with the current climate." Alex offered Gregor a sidelong smirk as they walked to the break room, where he proceeded to make a cup with a little milk and half a spoonful to sugar.

"Tea is tea," he said with a shrug, but then continued with an abashed smile, "which is probably sacrilege in these parts, and I would really appreciate it if you wouldn't let it get around that I just said that."

By the end of Gregor's spiel, Alex was chuckling. "Okay, but are you not into yoga? Do you have half a brain?" And then he hit on something else the wizard had said. "Adoptive parent?"

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

left_magpie
2018-03-13 12:47 am UTC (link)

"Tea is veddy, veddy British, don'tcherknow? But it's also all about colonialism, so I could give it up if I had to. Not that coffee is any less oppressive. I'll keep your secret, as long as you keep my pinko leanings for me."

Gregor smiled. "I make pop-culture references as a kind of muggleborn detector," he says. "It's nearly infallible, assuming the muggleborn is from or near my generation."

"And yeah, adoptive parent. I am now the second muggleborn in my family, and my sister's kid is a second-year student at Hogwarts. My sister and mother are horrible, horrible people and basically disowned her for being like me, so I have, in the wizarding world, officially adopted a 13 year old girl. She lives with me when school isn't in session. It's both amazing and terrifying."

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

pastperfection
2018-03-13 02:20 am UTC (link)

"My lips are sealed, promise." Alex glanced around, making a great show of checking that they were alone. "Honestly, there are days when I would do unspeakable things for a decent cup of coffee. I'm not proud."

He leaned back against the counter and blew at his tea a little. "I might throw a wrench into that particular system, unfortunately." He pressed a hand to his own chest. "Half-blood- not that it matters. It's a little harder to stay as separated from the no-maj world in America than it is here, so there's a ton of no-maj references that I'm likely to get. Sorry about that."

His expression turned thoughtful. "It's awful, about your niece's family, but it sounds like you're the one she really should be with. I honestly can't imagine what kind of transition this is for you." Alex paused a moment. "You have friends who can help you out, though, right? Some kind of support and advice group?"

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

left_magpie
2018-03-13 03:01 am UTC (link)

"I'll have to remember that, and keep the pop-culture references deeply British. Coffeewise, if you don't like turkish, the best Americano is probably at Books and Beans, in Aberdeen. It's run by a former classmate of mine, but she's not coming back to this world just yet..."

"Funny you should mention a support group. I do have a group of muggleborns that Jason is involved with. But they're not parents. I'd trust almost half of them with a puppy, as long as it wasn't for more than a few days."

"But for parenting advice, I have the other eight or so magical parents of Lynn's Gryffindor classmates, who treat me the way a mother cat does an odd duckling following around their kittens, which is to say they look at me like I'm funny, but they try to teach me to cat, out of kindness."

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

pastperfection
2018-03-13 03:16 am UTC (link)

Alex grabbed a small notebook and a pen from his pocket and jotted down the name. "If this pans out, you may be my new best friend."

He sipped his tea for a moment; now that he'd thought of coffee, it was honestly a bit of a disappointment. "Is the support group part of Uplift or something separate?" A small grimace passed over his face. "I'm sorry. I'm in the getting-to-know-you phase, so I'm probably going to ask a ton of really invasive questions. Please feel free to tell me to back off. Or even fuck off. I won't be offended."

A chuckle left him at Gregor's description, and he smiled over at the other wizard. "You have quite a way with words."

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

left_magpie
2018-03-13 03:39 am UTC (link)

"Six years at WADA, first as a student, then as an accompanist before the war. You have to find something that makes you stand out. But you also lose all your inhibitions, so ask me anything. My bravest moment in the past 33 years was going to Hogwarts to get spoken to about something Lynn and her friends had done, which is why I now have a kneazle named Godric Gryffindorable knocking my things off the shelves at my cottage.

"And WADA doesn't really invite the bagpipe performance majors back for special functions, but they do encourage you to get a job, which is how I ended up working for Montrose and Mel Yaxley in a bird costume. But I also learned how to be funny, because it helps me get my point across."

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

pastperfection
2018-03-13 01:13 pm UTC (link)

"Godric...Gryffindorable," Alex repeated slowly. "That's... anazing." For several seconds, he dissolved into helpless giggles (yes, giggles). He actually had to put his teacup down to keep from sloshing its contents all over the break room floor.

Finally, he seemed to master himself, and he turned an embarrassed smile at Gregor. "Wow, sorry. Apparently I got tickled. Er, right. So, what got you into the coaching side of things?"

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

left_magpie
2018-03-20 03:01 am UTC (link)

Gregor grinned at the giggling man. "If you ever need a name for a pet, I can refer you to a troupe of pre-teen girls who will make sure you regret ever asking them what a particular kneazle is named." His eyes sparkled. He was actually very impressed with Lynn and her friends. He hadn't been that creative at 12.

"Mascot is fun job, but it doesn't really pay the bills. I was also working as a stringer for the New York Ghost, who wanted quidditch scores. I was going to every game, and pretty much burning the candle at both ends. Coach McGonagall got me to start scouting for him, so then I had three jobs, and then I was so useful that it became an assistant coach and had four jobs, and then I collapsed, and I had to quit one of them.

"So pretty much like anyone else, I reckon." He says, keeping a straight face.

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	Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice. pastperfection 2018-03-20 03:15 am UTC (link)
	Having retrieved his tea, Alex took a careful sip, and then found himself staring at Gregor. "Like, collapsed-collapsed for real, or figuratively? I mean, either way- did you ever sleep? I'm no stranger to sleepless nights, and crazy days, but still." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

left_magpie
2018-03-20 03:40 am UTC (link)

Gregor help his hand up and with a whistling noise, pantomimed it falling over.

"So, eight hour match. I went to the locker room at hour 6, exhausted. My friend Torquil, who you may know as 'Laddie the Lion' of Portree, took the costume and went on as 'me' for the rest of the game, to let me rest.

"Passed right the hell out, and woke up in my shorts when the team came back in."

He frowned. "Thought I'd messed up my chance as a coach, but Coach MG is a better boss than I deserve."

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	Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice. pastperfection 2018-03-20 01:03 pm UTC (link)
	"Isolt," Alex breathed on the back of a sympathetic wince. "Small mercies that it didn't happen on the field, at least. Sounds like you've been able to strike a balance since then?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice. left_magpie 2018-03-21 01:22 am UTC (link)
	"Under orders from our illustrious mediwitch, I quit The Ghost, and it's no longer true that my writing is ignored by thousands several times a week." He frowned a bit. "I'd never quit a job before. It's like the bad part of breaking up with a girlfriend, and you lose a paycheck, too." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

pastperfection
2018-03-21 03:31 am UTC (link)

He tries not to smile too much at the mention of Florrie, and hides what does come out behind his tea cup. Alex looked sidelong at Gregor. "Yeah, but sometimes it can be liberating, to leave on your own terms. I quit mine a few months ago, mostly so I could stay in the country. Partly because I could feel a burnout coming on," he admitted. "Yeah, the loss of steady income kind of sucked, but the freedom has made it pretty worthwhile."

He took another sip. "Do you think this is what you want to do from here on out? Take the coaching track?"

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

left_magpie
2018-03-21 06:04 am UTC (link)

Gregor nods at Alex's sentiment. He wondered how old Alex was. He seemed about Gregor's age, maybe younger. "Well, that ties back. I needed to work multiple jobs because I suddenly had Lynn to worry about. I couldn't live in my student rathole anymore."

Gregor topped off his mug of horrible work tea. "So, you know about Jason and his work on the plight of the muggleborn, right? Imagine someone thrust into magical society at age 11, who hasn't heard of our currency, whose family can't help them, and you have a population destined for abject poverty OR a ministry career as a paper pusher, which coincidentally, the education system has been training you to do.

"Now imagine how poor you are if you give all that glamorous paper pushing to be a magical bagpiper.

"Now imagine that your muggle family was the muggle equivalent of exactly that poor. Three jobs seems a blessing, if you can find them."

"So, I'm not exactly coaching just for the huge raise, but I am quitting my other jobs so I can be a better coach and because I got that raise.

"But if you look at Montrose and Portree, and somewhat at Wigtown, you'll find that we've all been playing with and against each other since Hogwarts. Jason and Lennox and Mad Duck and Angus and Dunny and Lex and Mel and Fraser. When I was a second year, Elsie MacFusty was my captain and Sebastian Cavallero was her deepest rival. We've all done nothing but play for and against each other for twenty years. I have no idea what we'll all do when we can't play any more. Or I don't know what they'll do."

"Here I am, 34, and I'm not in playing shape. I never was. I was close. I might've made reserves, if things were different. Coaching keeps me doing the brains part of the game, but not the brawn part. Coaching seems like a great deal to me."

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

pastperfection
2018-03-21 01:47 pm UTC (link)

"No doubt, no doubt," Alex said in the face of the impromptu and rather sobering history lesson. He recognized most of the names Gregor had listed, added them to the patchwork story he was still piecing together. He had to admit to himself that it was hard to really relate, though he'd known and been friends with plenty of no-maj born wizards at school and beyond. It wasn't all that comparable, however, on deeper reflection, but that wasn't about to be something he necessarily shared today. This wasn't his story, after all.

"Sounds like a potent combination of circumstance and skill that brought you to your current path." Alex paused for a second, and rolled his eyes at himself. "And I probably sound like a pretentious asshole." He offered the other wizard a sheepish grin. "Sorry. You'll let me know if there's anything I can do for you, right? PR, and otherwise. I..."

Alex trailed off thoughtfully. "Remind me to send you something I put together at school. Maybe it could help with some of those 'now imagine's. Who knows."

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

left_magpie
2018-03-23 02:54 pm UTC (link)

"As the assistant coach, I'm more of the machinery of making sure Montrose works, making sure Coach McGonagall has family time and doesn't get wound too tightly, making sure that the bludgers get put out in the morning, that kind of thing. If I ever end up in PR, it'll be in the background of somebody else's story."

"For what it's worth, you don't actually sound like a prat, but if you're writing down your opinions of the team based on interviews like this, I'd suggest keeping that journal in the safe..."

"I have to warn you the place of pride in the category of refrigerator art is reserved for the artworks Lynn has yet to send home to her loving Uncle, or perhaps a stellar grade report, but you have piqued my curiosity."

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Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice.

pastperfection
2018-03-23 05:34 pm UTC (link)

Alex smiled again. "I'm sure Coach MG appreciates everything you do- as does the rest of the team. Can't exactly build a strong one without the right support."

He chuckled and shook his head. "Oh, believe me, I have that shit on lockdown. Triple deadlock sealed. If even a tenth of what I've written down over the years got out-" He drew his finger across his neck to illustrate the consequences.

"Well, I doubt this will compare at all to your niece's masterpieces, but I'll make sure it gets in your hands sooner rather than later. Thanks again for the tea, Gregor, and the chat. Feel free to drag me away from my office anytime."

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	Re: Meetings Thursday March 8, before practice. left_magpie 2018-03-23 07:20 pm UTC (link)
	"If you ever decide to write your tell-all memoirs and go into hiding, I would represent you to the British publishing industry at very competitive rates." "Thanks for joining me, and hearing me out. If you need anything from me, like a pibroch, for instance, let me know." (Reply to this) (Parent)

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