Talitha Cumni
May 25, 2009 8:36 AM
Contemplating by Talitha Cumni
(OOC: So I don’t have to repeat a whole lot of details about Talitha’s absence, please see the story in the thread with Oliver and Lutece at the Opening Feast in Cascade Hall.)Talitha and Lutece talked late into the night, catching up on everything. It was strange and wonderful that she and her friends so far could pick up where they left off, just as close and comfortable with each other as before. Lutece finally dropped off, but Talitha was still wide awake. Owl was off hunting. No classes yet meant no homework. Talitha gave up tossing and turning and crept downstairs to the common room.
If Professor Powell were still head of house, Talitha would have checked to see if she was still awake and wanted a chat over a calming cup of chamomile tea. That was one of the many things that had changed, however. The handsome, brooding DADA professor now occupied the HOH suite. Talitha smiled, remembering her childish crush on Professor O’Leary.
So many things had changed. Why was it, when a person left, they expected everything to remain static? At least there were a few comforting things that hadn’t changed at all. Her favorite spot in Crotalus, for instance. She sat cross legged, on the plush rug with the image of a large rattlesnake, in front of the fireplace as was her old habit when the House was quiet and dark.
She wondered what this year would hold. It was jarring to “come back” to the twenty first century with all the conveniences of magic after living without it for two years. She wondered about friends lost, those who had transferred or graduated. She especially wondered about those here. Would they fall into the same comfortable space? Or had she and they changed and grew out of each other. What of Adam? Had he found his strength and confidence? Did he find some one special. Talitha was very aware that if she hadn’t left, that some one special could have been her. No matter what, she hoped they could remain good friends.
She meticulously embroidered an elegant crow on the doe skin case she’d sent him. Encased inside were elegant crow feather quills. She wanted to give him something he could use now and when he went off to college.
Talitha smiled, remembering their special time at the ball. She remembered how she’d sort of hoped for a kiss that never happened. That was alright, it was such a perfect night, she hadn’t been disappointed at all. One thing Talitha knew for sure, this year would be strange and wonderful. All she had to do was to remember the lessons learned over the past two years…. To live within the moment and to welcome changes and challenges…
Soft footsteps broke off her thoughts. She smiled and turned in their direction.
“Can’t sleep either?” She asked.
\r\n\r\n
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Contemplating
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Lila St. Martin
May 25, 2009 8:09 PM
Always a dangerous occupation. by Lila St. Martin
Alone in her room, seated in front of a mess of parchments, Lila St. Martin lowered her head to take her eyes away from her work and, frustrated, buried her thin hands in her long hair.Normally, Lila's first night at Sonora was spent unpacking. She'd had her dormitory to herself since the Other Lila had left in second year, which permitted her all of the freedom in decorating that a student could reasonably hope for, and did her best to make it as much like her bedroom at home as possible. It always came in a poor second to her suite, but making it still required time, effort, and a lot of charms. On the first night of her last year, though, she had broken pattern, only opening up her trunk long enough to hang up a set of robes for the morning and take out her only recently closed stationery set.
She had been working steadily for several hours, but she'd clearly reached her limit. The lists had gone fuzzy first, and now she was having trouble with the half-finished card in front of her. She moved her hands from her hair to both of her temples, but her head wasn't hurting; her eyes were just tired after so much close work. Worse, Lila no longer felt remotely tired anywhere else. Forcing herself to work through it an hour earlier had clearly been a bad idea; at this rate, she'd be lucky if she could get up on her first day of classes, much less play nice with the first years.
This redeeming herself was proving harder than she thought. If it didn't pay off, she might very well lie down and bawl in public.
Pushing herself back from her desk, she glanced at the thin-banded watch still strapped to her wrist. At the sight, she ran her hands over her face again, but to no avail; she was still as vaguely jittery-feeling as she'd been before she'd done it. Suddenly, she couldn't stand to be in her dull and undecorated room another second. Standing up, Lila took the time to push her chair back under before making her way out of the dorm and down the stairs to the common room, walking on tiptoe in spite of herself. Leaving her bed after curfew wasn't technically rule-breaking - the official policy was, if she recalled correctly, that she just had to be inside a Crotalus-only room - but it still felt terribly illicit.
Though, as a seventh year, she had automatic rights to them anyway, she still made her way toward the chairs closest to the fireplace. Those things had been a major status symbol, once upon a time, and there was still a little thrill to be had from realizing Nicoletta, Jordanna, Catherine, and Gwen were no longer around to upstage her at every opportunity a girl could imagine. Before she could reach them, though, an unfamiliar voice spoke, making her jump.
"No," she said, caught off-guard. Oh, Merlin, she wasn't in make-up, and who knew what her hair was doing after she had kept running her hands through it? She was as bad as Allie, forgetting that she could never really count on being alone and sloppy. "I couldn't." Who was it, anyway?
As Lila regained her composure, she noticed that the other girl was sitting on the floor instead of in one of the big chairs. Something about that, for some reason she couldn't put her finger on, struck her as familiar...
The memory hit her all at once. "You're here?" she said, her voice full of surprise. "I thought you left two years ago!"
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Always a dangerous occupation.
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Talitha
May 26, 2009 8:15 AM
Such as juggling dung bombs? by Talitha
Talitha studied the face of her older housemate. Lila wasn’t made up or dressed, which was a shock in itself, but she looked so old. Not in the hadn’t seen her for two years old either. She appeared drawn, haggard almost, as if she bore the weight of the world on her shoulders. Talitha found no delight in this. She might have in the past, her conversations with Lila had been less than friendly to say the least, but after all this time and what she’d learned, there was no more self righteous anger. She did feel a bit guarded, but mostly she felt, well, neutral. There was no harm in having a conversation, was there?“I did transfer out for a while,” Talitha answered. She debated how to word where she had been. She doubted Lila would understand or appreciate exactly how Talitha had spent the last two years. It was hard enough for her best friends to figure it out. “I guess you could call it a…parochial school. It was a good experience, but I’m happy to be back. It feels like coming home.”
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Talitha
Such as juggling dung bombs?
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Lila
May 26, 2009 11:28 AM
Metaphorically or literally? by Lila
At least I'm not losing my mind, Lila thought as the fifth year - where had the time gone? - said she had indeed been gone. She knew she'd paid too much attention to the girls in the year above hers and too little to a lot of other things for far too long, but she couldn't believe she could completely overlook another Crotalus girl leaving the Academy altogether.Parochial school. Lila nodded vaguely. Was that something a little like what Alban was in? Her brother had gotten in at some exclusive place in Sweden for the exceptionally gifted that had ridiculously high standards for entry and required classes in the arts. According to Allie, he loved it there, though he was starting to worry that he'd start to lose his idiomatic English and graduate sounding like a foreigner. A guess said, knowing Alban even as slightly as she did, that he had nothing to worry about. "That's nice," she said, and then seized on the last thing Talitha had said.
She stared at a point a little above Talitha's head for a moment, the nodded slowly. Coming home. She liked it. She would reuse it. "That's very nice," Lila repeated, trying for a friendly smile. She sank into one of the chairs and relaxed into the stuffing, biting the inside of her mouth as something in her shoulder attempted to unkink. "Was it your idea to go, or did your parents make you?"
If she couldn't sleep, she might as well try diplomacy out for size. Besides, this was good material. She needed some evidence to back up the 'Crotalus-is-great' theory.
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Metaphorically or literally?
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Talitha
June 12, 2009 12:40 AM
Either way, it could really stink by Talitha
OOC: Sorry I took so long to get back to this. If you don’t want to continue this thread, I’ll understand. If you do, well, hooray for fuzzy time!“Oh, no.” Talitha explained. “They didn’t make me. I wanted to go. It was really an honor to be selected. I had to apply, get references, go to an interview and pass an evaluation. I almost wasn’t accepted, but someone else backed out so I got her spot.”
Talitha sighed, remembering. She was so used to being on top. She had been one of the better students in her year at Sonora, involved in so many things. She had status in her community because she was the Medicine Woman’s daughter and the granddaughter of an Counsel Elder. She never had to deal with being a runner-up before. It was a bit bruising to her ego. Realizing she’d slipped into her own thoughts, she shrugged and grinned apologetically.
“It was wonderful and horrible at the same time. The place really pushed me out of any comfort zone I’ve ever made for myself. Made me grow up a lot.” Talitha was glad this conversation was a lot friendlier than the ones she and Lila had in the past. “Speaking of growing up, what’s it like to be in the seventh year?”
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Either way, it could really stink
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