If anyone needs me, I'll be not-hiding in my book fort on Library

Dorian Montoir

April 13, 2019 10:03 AM

If anyone needs me, I'll be not-hiding in my book fort by Dorian Montoir

Dorian stepped into the library. The gentle click as the door closed behind him, soft and familiar, caused a slight smile to spread across his face. He was back. Back somewhere where he felt totally safe and very happy. And he had books to find. It felt good to have something to do, and to look forward to, something to help snap him out of his post-holiday blues. His were, admittedly, rather different than other people’s - it was not sadness at the holidays being over that he needed to get over, but rather the sense of pain and misery engendered by being around… he hesitated. He would always have finished that thought with his brother’s name, but it wasn’t even just that any more…

He shut that down. The thoughts of trip jinxes and expectations and everything that was making life so difficult. It was time to put it aside, and just throw himself into something pleasantly distracting. There were two things that fit that bill. The first was Jehan’s arms, and to be twirled off his feet and passionately kissed. The second was something that seemed much more likely to actually happen, and that was making plans for how he was going to prettify Teppenpaw’s concert act.

There was nothing quite like the feeling of a new project, of stepping into the library and thinking about all the knowledge that was just waiting to be discovered. Of roaming the shelves, as he was about to do, gathering up books and just feeling like all the great and wonderful things that he was thinking of might be possible, that the answers to the puzzles he was setting himself might be clutched in his arms, that the world had so much potential. Admittedly, several of his fantasies about how his and Jehan’s first kiss might come about also began with being in the library, so he couldn’t swear that the shiver running down his spine was totally academic, but whatever he found in the shelves, he was pretty sure he was going to be happy with how he spent his day.

He also had brand new stationery to work with, courtesy of Émilie. For Christmas, she had bought him a notebook whose cover started out black until an animated image of a wand in a light tan colour swished and flicked, changing the colour of the notebook to a sunny yellow on which a black wand emitting a shower of stars and the words ‘Bright Ideas’ in pretty curly writing stood out. She had also got him a black quill with silver sparkles in it, and matching ink. Matthieu had, predictably, had a few things to say about that once their parents were out of earshot, asking Émilie why she was buying Dorian girls’ things as if he ‘wasn’t bad enough already.’ Dorian had calmly and maturely replied that it was not for a girl, it was for him, and not so calmly or maturey stuck his middle finger up at his brother. Matthieu seemed somewhat livid at the thought that Dorian might actually use the gift, in public, where other people would see him. Dorian had been set on using it anyway, because Émilie had given it to him specifically for this project, and it was perfect for it, and having project-specific stationery just made him tingle. Matthieu’s annoyance had set that resolution in stone, however. He was brave. He was strong. Because he wasn’t letting Matthieu and his tidal wave of hatred change who he was. He clung to those words, which had meant so much to him.

He meandered first through the Charms section, figuring they were likely to be the most common type of magic he needed, and picking up a copy of the set text for the advanced students to go with his intermediate and beginner books (the latter of which he had retrieved over the holidays). He certainly didn’t expect to be able to perform the magic in it, but if he was after a particular effect it would be useful to know whether it was possible, even if he might need to ask Jozua to help out with actually producing it. Or ask Kir to ask Jozua… Or work up to asking Jozua himself, just in small steps. He also gave the section a detailed going through, searching for anything that looked like it might have more specifically useful advice, even though he didn’t exactly know what that might look like. He skimmed the contents pages of a couple of guides on throwing ‘Charming Parties’ and finding that they did, indeed, have decor sections added them to the pile just in case. He briefly detoured via the defence section, grabbing a couple of books on disguise (one of their songs, after all, was called ‘Invisible’ - true invisibility verged on the impossible, of course, but hopefully there might be some neat effects they could play with). With a now sizeable stack of books floating along beside him, he made his way to the part he was most excited for. He knew it would only be a small number of books, and for the most part they were likely to be history, rather than how to guides, but there was at least a small section on theatre. He spent longer combing this area, finding that he was tempted to take almost every single book. Admittedly, a lot looked largely historical, but that made them in no way uninteresting or unappealing, and who knew what little gem of absolutely perfect information might be contained in a throw-away line somewhere, just waiting for him to discover it? He decided to begin with a fairly general book, simply titled ‘A Guide to Magical Theatre’ which was bound in slightly aged and cracking dark red leather with gold lettering. Dorian knew that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but it was hard not to trust a book with that sort of appearance. He pulled it from the shelf and opened the front cover, leaning over it and breathing in the smell; the smell, one of the things that made up his experience of amortentia… He closed it, holding it against his chest rather than adding it to the pile at his side as he worked his way along the rest of the shelf. There was a book entitled ‘The Best Shows of -----’ with an actual contemporary decade in its title - he wasn’t sure how much theatre effects had progressed vs plateaued in recent years but it seemed a good thing to try. Next to this was ‘The Best Muggle Musicals of All Time!’ He hesitated for a moment. It was doubtful that would be very helpful to his project, but he had to admit to being curious. A lot of the books Jehan had shared with him from the Muggle world had been very enjoyable. The chance to learn about new stories, combined with one of his favourite art forms, was too good to pass up, and so he slipped that from the shelf too.

The end of the aisle was illuminated with a pleasant sunbeam, falling in through the tall window. Dorian couldn’t help but feel like he would need more things from this section, and the sun had been such a rare sight lately that he was also loathe to move away from it. There wasn’t really anywhere to sit here, but instead, he settled on the floor with his back against the shelf, separating his stack of books into neat little category piles around himself. He took out his stationery, placing it proudly next to himself, the notebook’s cover chirpily flashing away, and the sunbeam catching the glitter in his quill and ink in a very pleasing way.

He was delighted with everything that surrounded him - the sunlight, the books, the stationery, and the sense of expectation for the project he was about to delve into. A project that suited him, that showed who he was, and that let him be unashamedly himself. He was not sure what the definitions of ‘here’ and ‘now’ were - whether ‘here’ was the sunbeam (with a shelf at his back and little walls of books around him), the library, the school or the world; whether ‘now’ was right this second, or whilst he had this project, or whether he could eke it out beyond that. But here and now, he felt safe and happy being himself, and was even rather enjoying it.

13 Dorian Montoir If anyone needs me, I'll be not-hiding in my book fort 1401 Dorian Montoir 1 5

Ruby Brockert

April 24, 2019 11:22 AM

Found you! (Again) by Ruby Brockert

Ruby's midterm had been lovely as usual, although it had been busier than in the past now that she was getting older. She had spent most of it at parties and with her family, two things she enjoyed. Family was really important to her so it was nice to see her younger siblings and cousins. Unlike Emerald and Topaz, Ruby actually missed her siblings who weren't at school yet and she was very excited about Sapphire coming to Sonora next year.

Much moreso than Sapphire herself was. The younger girl was severely anxious about coming. For one thing, she was worried about what her roommates-if she had them-would be like. Topaz, of course, had told Sapphire many roommate horror stories.And Sapphire stood a good chance of being in Crotalus .Or maybe Tepp, at least Ruby hoped she got one of the two. It would be nice to have a sibling in the same house as her, Emerald and Topaz were together after all. Not that Emerald was thrilled about that or that Topaz cared. Plus , then Ruby could look out for her and Tepps were inherently nice.

However Ruby highly suspected Sapphire would be in Crotalus. And they were such a mixed bag. She hated to say bad things about people but some of them weren't that nice. On the other hand, Sapphire would be with Allegra if she was in Crotalus and the two of them got on well,bonded together by their mutual fear of Topaz-and in Emerald's opinion, their resulting anxious personalities.

Sapphire's biggest fear though was that people would find out about her epilepsy and make fun of her for it. Ruby had tried her best to reassure her that it would be okay and that no matter where she was sorted, the Teppenpaw would look out for her. And she was sure Emerald and Allegra would be there for her too. Plus, Sapphire was sure to be inducted into that club that Allegra and Topaz were in so she'd have a ready made group of friends.

Ruby had also attended many balls over the break. Midterm was a social whirl crammed into a short period. Some people might have found it exhausting, but she liked wearing a lot of pretty dresses, as of course she had to wear a different one for each party. Plus, she got to dance a lot and that was fun too. Especially with Dean whose family hers had also gotten together with, since Mr. McLachlan was Father's old friend and she and Emerald were getting friendly with Dean and Caroline respectively.

Anyway, now she was back at Sonora and had homework to deal with. Ruby walked into the library. She needed a book for a Transfiguration assignment that she had to do. However, before she could look for it, she spotted Dorian and approached. "Hi, how's it going?"

11 Ruby Brockert Found you! (Again) 1405 Ruby Brockert 0 5

Dorian

May 22, 2019 9:29 PM

I must defend my books! by Dorian

Dorian was making good progress with his research. He had marked several pages that seemed to contain useful information, and was debating how and where to commit them to paper. He was torn on whether to mark the first page of the new notebook. On the one hand, there was something very satisying about having every thought for this project collected in a single space, and that was clearly the notebook's destined purpose. On the other hand, it was so pristine and perfect with its blank white pages. Even though it was clearly meant to be filled with words, and it would be exciting to do that, it was also the act of spoiling that prstine cleanness, and it had to be worth it. He relished the idea of the notebook being well ordered, with neatly divided sections, so that it remained a thing of beauty, just in a different way. That presented him with a quandry though, because those two ways of using it were mutually exclusive.

He had decided to see how far his preliminary readings got him, in order to better assess the situation once he knew how much he was likely to need to record. However, the book he was reading was rapidly filling up with little torn of scraps of parchment as he found more and more things worthy of note, or at least potentially so. He could, he supposed, title the first page 'Preliminary Notes' which would justify it being a complete mishmash of everything and would bring that style in as part of a well-ordered, section-based system.

Satisfied with this resolution, he was about to commit to making marks on the first page when he heard his name called. He jumped slightly. At first, he had looked up at every sound of footsteps, only to generally find that the person was merely passing the end of the aisle, if they were even within sight. Thus, he had gradually convinced himself that he was being over-sensitve to noise, whilst getting more and more engrossed in his book. Luckily, it was only Ruby. He scrambled to his feet because sitting on the floor was hardly proper, his notebook clutched to his chest because it was his and it was special, and instinct said not to leave it lying around. He had relaxed, more or less, on seeing who it was, and offered her a friendly if surprised smile, but his flight or fight response had certainly been engaged by being suddenly interrupted, and his preferred option was definitely flight - he just wanted to squirrel away all his research materials and his special notebook to a place where nothing bad could be done to them, or to him because of them. Except there was too many for that to be easily achieved, so he also took a step forward, both to greet her and because, subconsciously, he was defending his things, and it was harder for the other person to take his books if he was between them.

"Hello. It is going well. I just research for the concert," he admitted, because she had been at the meeting and already knew about his involvement, and anyway he was supposed to not care what other people thought. "How are you?"

13 Dorian I must defend my books! 1401 Dorian 0 5

Ruby

May 26, 2019 10:11 AM

I promise not to hurt them by Ruby

"Oh, that sounds nice." Ruby replied. "Much more fun than what I was planning on doing, which is my Transfiguration homework." It wasn't as if she were a poor student, even if she wasn't as intellectual as her two sisters, but it was hard to get genuninely excited about Transfiguration theory

And Ruby was a person who was generally excited about things. Such as the two baby cousins her aunts were having. Aunt Shannon was due in April and Aunt Madeleine was having hers in September. She was excited about having her own someday. She was excited about getting to know Dean better-and Ruby was beginning to feel really close to him-as she sort of imagined him as the father of her children.

She was also excited about the concert. Even if Georgia was being-and the fourth year felt bad for thinking it because it wasn't nice-a little overbearing. "I'm doing good. Had a great break as usual." Ruby smiled at her friend. "Did you have a good time at Angelique's party? She really tries to make it amazing, so it would mean a lot to her if I told her you did." She paused. "But if you didn't, um, I won't tell her that. Or be upset with you."

Ruby continued. "How was the rest of your break? Do anything fun?" It was a pretty standard question, something everyone asked everyone but she really did want to know. Dorian was her friend and she genuinely cared and was interested in what he had to say.

"So what are you planning for the concert? I think what you're doing, with all the backstage stuff is amazing. All I'm doing is singing and dancing." And whatever Georgia tells me to do, Ruby couldn't help but think. Of course, she wasn't going to say that to Dorian because it wasn't a nice thing to say and the Teppenpaw tried not to say anything mean. Even about Topaz. And if she could hold back on her little sister, she could hold back on the seventh year. Still, Ruby wondered if Dorian was using his own ideas or if Georgia was directing him too. "Oh and I'm sorry about the amount of questions I'm asking." She blushed a little, feeling kind of silly.

11 Ruby I promise not to hurt them 1405 Ruby 0 5