Catching up with Kittens
By Rocky Cranston

This past term, we have had a few new Gryffindors (including myself) join the #Gryffindor channel on IRC. So I went out on a little quest to see if the other new kittens would share their views with me about the chatroom.

Predictably, I managed to track down Derek James practicing on the Quidditch pitch, and (rather reluctantly) managed to get him off his broom for a few minutes to answer my questions.

"Who are your favourite people to talk to in #Gryffindor?" I asked him, whilst slipping a cookie into his robes.

"There are lots of great people in there," he nodded enthusiastically. "But one of my favourites has to be Jenny Lupin. She was my first friend in HOL, and she showed me the ropes, so to speak". I slipped another cookie into his pocket, and asked him if there were any others that stood out. "Well, I also speak to Rocky a lot. He licks me a lot, I guess it's a bond of our friendship".

Blushing furiously, I turned to Thaliasta Mcgreave and asked her the same question;

"Hmm." She pondered. "I can't pick one, two, three, or even four people to say, everyone in there is too good for me to pick favourites!" She said with a huge grin on her face. "But if I had to pick people, I would choose Missa, Jenny, Persephone, Rocky, and Tim. But really, I just like to speak to anyone who's online and are interesting." She added, her grin broader than before.

Were my ears deceiving me? Thaliasta and Derek were making #Gryffindor seem sane! I then asked them what they enjoyed the most about #Gryffindor.

"The randomness." They replied in unison. Thaliasta added; "The CR has lots of fun randomness... But #Gryffindor is like, randomness... Real time! Also, I like the butterbeer fun colors."

"I don't talk that often because I'm just flabbergasted by it all." Said Derek with a bewildered look on his face.

Ahh, that sounds more like #Gryffindor I thought to myself. I accio-ed a chair for Derek to sit down. He still had the bewildered look on his face, and didn't look like he could answer my next question, so I turned to Thaliasta.

"What do you think of the atmosphere in #Gryffindor?" I asked Thaliasta.

"It's very laid back at times, and very crazy at others." She replied. "And for some reason, if the #Gryffindor was a room in real life, I imagine there would be purple couches." She added. I was admittedly surprised about the randomness of her last few words. I quicky regained my bearings and moved on to my next question.

"How do you feel about being able to talk to some of your Gryffindor friends, without having to wait for a forum reply or an owl reply?"

"It is amazing." She replied with a dreamy look on her face. "Sometimes I pop on just to see if a certain person is online... it's much faster."

Derek seemed to be coming back to his senses, and looked like he wanted to answer this question.

"Obviously it's a great deal quicker; from a theoretical standpoint (Communications student...), it leaves a lot to be desired, as voice and facial cues are lost over the Internet, but I've obviously run far afield of the question. It certainly cuts time and energy out of the equation." Shocked and stunned by all of the long words Derek used, I had to sit down in his temporarily vacated seat.

"There's just one subject left for us to discuss here," I said to them with a grin spreading across my face. "Anime and JDramas. Has anyone tried to convince you to watch them too?"

"Oh yes." Replied Derek rather firmly. "And only PoT, mind you. My life can't handle anything more than that right now."

"Hahaha yes!" Thaliasta exclaimed with a grin on her face too. "There is constant fangirling, etcetera. I remember saying that I thought about watching some Anime once... And Missa threatened to send me several gigs." She blinked. "At first I could NOT figure out what PoT stood for..." She added in a rather quieter voice whilst bowing her head in shame.