In need of male advice [Tag: Duncan] on Teppenpaw Commons

Jake Manger

June 06, 2016 3:54 PM

In need of male advice [Tag: Duncan] by Jake Manger

7:30pm found Jake lying in bed, but despite his stationary position, he did anything but rest. He was not in his pajamas, nor was he under the blankets. He was just there, hands folded on his stomach, bright blue eyes breaking from their lock on the ceiling only in quick blinks. A deep inhale pushed his chest up for a moment, and it fell once more in a heavy sigh.

He knew he was being a bit overdramatic over his situation. After all, he’d been in far worse before, like when he had his whole life shattered by the revelation of his father’s true nature, which he now did his best to ignore, though it was harder when the constant gifts--attempts to buy their love, Sally said--kept flowing. As much as he’d hated to admit it, Jake had blown that up, too, because there were such simple options: forgive his father and move on, or don’t. This time, though, he felt so truly cornered, and all over this stupid, stupid ball.

As a boy in a fairly female-dominated school, it was kind of the sixth year’s duty to ask a girl to the dance. The problem with that was there were so many nice girls, and he didn’t want any to feel alone on such a special night. After slight deliberation, he’d manage to whittle the list of options down to two, but he’d been stuck there ever since. It was a decision he had been grateful to never really have to make during the Challenges, but a decision that now came back to haunted.

Diana or Ginger?

On one hand, Jake had taken Diana to their last ball, when he was a second year and she a first year. He hadn’t really known her before that and had basically asked her for names’ sake, but that was how he really got to be friends with her. And, if memory served, he’d had a perfectly lovely time with her. Since they had gone then, he wondered if it wasn’t tradition for him to ask her again.

But on the other hand….. Ginger. The dark-haired boy had a lot of strong feelings about her. She was a friend he had made since that first ball, when she’d arrived at Sonora the following year. Now he looked at her and felt alive, untouchable, like she contained all the good in the world. Ginger was a star to him, a shimmering bright presence, like the sun but safer to stare at, and so stare he did. Jake had been wanting to tell her how he felt for a while now, holding it in both for the sake of their friendship and because he felt wrong about the age difference. They were sixteen and fourteen now, but she’d only been twelve when his feelings had started. But maybe now that they were older, it was the time to act.

He groaned loudly, frustrated by his own indecisiveness. Jake needed help, a second opinion that could hopefully guide his own. Fortunately, he realized, he had a best friend and roommate who had his life together (or at least, more so than Jake did at present). And even more fortunately, said roommate just so happened to come into their room at that exact moment.

“Hey, Duncan,” Jake greeted, sitting up nervously. “Can I ask you a question? Who did you go to the ball with last time?” The two boys weren’t really friends at that point, and he couldn’t seem to recall. He didn’t think it was Araceli, whom Duncan was most assuredly going with this time around, but he wanted to be sure, and maybe he could follow his older friend’s example. Unless Duncan said the girl he took was now furious at him for his apparent relationship with Araceli. If that was the case, Jake would be screwed.

12 Jake Manger In need of male advice [Tag: Duncan] 280 Jake Manger 1 5

Duncan Brockert

June 22, 2016 11:43 AM

Probably not going to be very helpful. by Duncan Brockert

Duncan was stretched out on his bed working on his Transfiguration essay. It was not his first choice of a way to spend his time. He'd have much rather been hanging out with Araceli or giving looking for ghosts one last try. Unfortunately, it had to be done.

Still, it wasn't very engaging work. Thankfully, it wasn't due tomorrow or anything. Maybe he'd put it off since he was getting a bit bored of it. He put it aside and got out a book instead. It was part of his favorite series about the afterlife adventures of an ordinary guy like him who'd died miserably in an accident but then made then made the most of it after when he became a ghost. Someone his own age dying in a painful accident was not a pleasing thought but given that Duncan had basically grown up on the tragic deaths of his ancestors who went on to become ghosts, it didn't bother him that much.

Besides, he tended to be generally fairly cautious. No dangerous, potentially lethal activities for him. No Quidditch for him, the Teppenpaw liked not having his head smashed in. He liked not having back pain from taking a bludger there. The closest he ever got to dangerous was horseback riding which was okay but not really his passion in life. Ghosts were. Duncan liked the idea that death wasn't the end.

Thinking about horses made him think about his sister. He was awfully worried about Juniper. She always seemed so...scared and anxious and it made him just want to protect her. Duncan tried to make time for her as often as he could but it was his RATS year and he was Head Boy and taking four Advanced classes. Plus, he had his other friends so all in all, the seventh year had a lot on his plate. Hence why he needed a little leisure time reading rather than doing a Transfiguration essay.

His reading however was soon interrupted by his roommate asking a question. "Huh? I didn't actually ask anyone." Duncan admitted. "There are two girls in your class, two in mine, two of whom are related to me which would be creepy. At the time, I felt weird asking someone two years younger than me and didn't think an older girl would be interested."

11 Duncan Brockert Probably not going to be very helpful. 271 Duncan Brockert 0 5

Jake

June 23, 2016 3:59 AM

Well that's unfortunate by Jake

“Shoot,” Jake replied automatically. Duncan hadn’t asked anyone to the ball last time. That was not helpful to the situation. He could hardly be annoyed about it--after all, it seemed Duncan had still had a decent enough time, and his reasons did make sense--but it was just… not convenient here.

“I don’t know who to ask,” the younger Teppenpaw confessed. “So I was kinda hoping to see what you did and follow. Because you’re obviously gonna go with Araceli this time, but I didn’t know who you went with last time, because maybe you were friends now with that girl and it was okay with her that you weren’t gonna take her this time.” Barring their own years, it seemed like girls heavily outweighed boys around here most of the time, so dates were sort of a commodity.

“Last time, I asked Diana,” he went on. “And as much as it’d be fun to go with her again, I think I want to ask… uh, someone else.” For someone as gentle as Jake was, he still had a bit of a hard time admitting feelings, particularly of that nature. His brother and sister were like that to varying degrees, a spectrum that seemed to align with age order. He supposed it had something to do with their upbringing. “That said, I’m afraid Diana will be expecting me to ask her. What if nobody else asks her? Or what if they do but she says no because she’s waiting for me? I mean, we’re friends now because I asked her.”

Jake had considered polling Arnold on the matter, but he had decided against it for a few reasons. Firstly, Arnold didn’t have this experience; he’d only had one ball during his time at Sonora, and after some coaxing from his little brother, he’d asked Ji-Eun and everything worked out perfectly. Secondly, Arnold was a little bit hard to get a hold of lately, swamped, it seemed, by his new life, just like how Sally had basically dropped off the radar (one year literally, and the rest figuratively), only seen for events and family functions. And lastly, the least influential of his reasons, Jake felt a little shred of pride that pulled him back from reaching out; he’d managed Arnold’s ball dilemma last time, after all, so he hated to admit that he was unsure this time. The sixth year sighed; girls were so much easier when you weren’t actually interested in them romantically.

“I don’t know,” he said, exasperated by his admittedly self-made situation. “I just don’t want to hurt anybody, you know?”

12 Jake Well that's unfortunate 280 Jake 0 5

Duncan

July 04, 2016 5:22 PM

Sorry by Duncan

Duncan nodded. "Sorry that I can't be of more help that way." He really did feel bad. Over the last few years, he'd began to feel like he should be able to solve things and give advice. To live up to the titles he'd been given at school. He felt he had to have been picked for a reason, and that reason was that there was something about him that was positive and not because somehow the other choices were lacking.

Or at least that's what he wanted to believe. He genuinely did not know if it was true but to think there was a problem with those who'd been his competition seemed, well, rather mean somehow. Plus, it made him feel better to think he was deserving than just the best of a bad lot.

Also, helping people was fairly important to Duncan generally speaking. After all, it was part of his career choice. He was going to essentially be a therapist for ghosts. Help them adjust to being...well, being ghosts. Being dead . So helping the living was good practice. Of course, being that he'd never gone to a therapist, he didn't necessarily know that giving advice was part of the job. Duncan had always rather thought they helped people work through their issues rather than flat out telling them what to do. Granted, he could be wrong about that.

Right now, though, it was Jake he wanted to help. He'd never had any experience with the situation himself. Duncan didn't even know how he'd managed to grow close to Araceli . He just seemed to fall haphazardly into things but he had to say something. "I understand, I wouldn't want to hurt anyone either." Truthfully, the seventh year had to admit that he was glad not to have this problem. Of course, if he gave Jake some advice and it backfired, he'd feel responsible and his roommate might even get mad at him. "Has Diana given any indication that she likes you as anything more than a friend?"

11 Duncan Sorry 271 Duncan 0 5

Jake

July 08, 2016 2:51 AM

Me too. by Jake

Jake wasn’t one to toss around the word “hate”, but this situation was making him start to hate the ball. Or the idea of it, at least, as it related to him. He supposed he couldn’t really claim to hate the entire concept since he’d had a great time at his last one. With Diana, he reminded himself. That was an important part. They had barely known each other then, going together basically because they both sorta needed/wanted dates and their last names were familiar, and that night had been a blast that sent them forward into a solid friendship, at least as far as Jake was concerned.

Diana was a great girl, and for simplicity's sake, he earnestly wished he had romantic feelings for her now. Beyond her personal qualities, she had a name that meant something around here, and would mean something to Jake’s family. Of course, he himself couldn’t have cared less about any of that, but he kinda felt like there was a bit of pressure on him to deliver, so to speak. He needed to find a girl from a good family to please relatives. While none of his immediate ones had ever seemed to care too terribly much, there had to be more distant, more powerful ones who did, or else they would not have had lived up to these standards in the first place. And there were siblings to make up for: Sally was, albeit secretly, involved with a Muggle, but that meant that publically she was thus far an unwed woman. Arnold was dating a pureblood, but Ji-Eun’s family didn’t really seem to be “that kind” of pureblood, not particularly wealthy or powerful.

Of course, Pierce was a good name around here, too….

“Hey, no problem,” Jake returned with a smile; it really did seem like Duncan wanted to help out, but he just lacked the experience the younger Teppenpaw was trying to go on. And it wasn’t Duncan’s fault his life hadn’t played out the way that was convenient for Jake. He did appreciate the Head Boy’s statement of commiseration. Even if the thought had never consciously crossed his mind, it was good to have some support telling him that he wasn’t completely insane to even think about this.

“Has Diana given any indication that she likes you as anything more than a friend?”

The sixteen year old flushed red. That hadn’t even really occurred to him. “No?” he said, though his statement mirrored the inflection of an inquiry. “I mean, not that I know of, anyway.” For someone who was fairly in touch with his own feelings, Jake was pretty oblivious when it came to other people’s. He put in a lot of effort into keeping his friends happy, so he supposed he did think about their emotions, but feelings were sort of a whole different ball game. They were harder, more complicated. As his on-going struggle to accept the truths about his father would suggest, Jake wasn’t great at complicated.

“But even if she doesn’t, shouldn’t she be my number one choice?” he half-babbed. “I mean, since we went together last time? I mean Ginger wasn’t here then, so it’s not like I could have asked her, but I’m just so afraid Diana is-” Jake cut himself off, a horrified expression on his face; he hadn’t meant to mention Ginger by name. With a frustrated groan, he laid down on the bed, addressing his next statement to the ceiling. “I’m so confused, dude,” he said, defeated.

12 Jake Me too. 280 Jake 0 5