Letter for Cleo on Crotalus Commons

Parker

February 09, 2018 2:04 PM

Letter for Cleo by Parker

Parker had already sat still for far longer than he was comfortable with, but this was the last letter he was going to write. It was also the one he wanted to write the most. He put the pen back in the ink and started writing.

Hi Cleo,
I know you said you didn't want to see anyone, but I was hoping you might still want to talk to someone. I don't know the reason for your not wanting to be seen with someone, but I understand. I cut off most of my friends from before I left for Sonora cause I didn't think they'd be able to understand the bits and pieces they could be told.

Now being on the other side, I know they would have wanted to know as much as I could have told them. I also know that it can sometimes get lonely when you can't see anyone you know, but written words can help. I'm not used to writing, so this is hard, but that's what friends do for each other. Right?

Anyways, I wanted to let you know about one of the stories I heard again and again when I was home for the summer. Remember I told you about the old man I would go see with my mom? Well he kept telling me the story of the bird-fish over the summer.

The bird-fish was a fish that was born with bird like features. It could fly and it could swim. Neither the bird nor the fish really understood the bird fish, but soon the bird fish made friends. At first it was a Mouse Bear, a bear that was born the size of a mouse. Then it was an owl-woman. Then a buffalo-man. Soon the group grew larger, a collection of animals that didn't belong in one space or another. As they grew older, they began to find that each of them had skills that collectively helped the whole group. Most animals were scared or uncertain of this new group. But according to the stories this group went around helping different tribes in their hour of need.

Anyway, I thought you might like the story and the gift I got, which should be enclosed. I was going to suggest it as something to put in the wishing well together, but you can do it alone if you want.

Hope you have a good week. Write back soon.

Your bird-fish friend and adventure buddy,
Parker

Parker put a big eagle feather he had found while roaming the mountains in the winter in the envelope with the letter and walked it up to the Owlry. He hoped that Cleo would respond. If nothing else, at least she would have her gift.

41 Parker Letter for Cleo 1402 Parker 1 5

Professor Xavier

February 14, 2018 8:19 PM

And Another One by Professor Xavier

After the first day of classes, an elf popped into Cleo's room. He was a different one from the ones that had taken turn following her about and sitting in on the intermediate classes, but she might have recognized him as one of the ones who frequently worked closely with Professor Xavier and the Gardening club in maintaining the grounds.

"Snappy brings Miss Cleo a letter from Professor Xavier," he told her, and held it out toward her. "He wishes Miss Cleo well."

The letter, if she wished to accept it read as follows,

Cleo,

I understand you may want to keep to yourself for a little while until you get a handle on what you learned this summer. But if you wish to do some solo garden maintenance in the meantime, we have a bit of an infestation of gnomes near the fishpond. Snappy or one of the other elves can show you the way sometime if you're not sure where that is. There's a fair number of gnomes out there, so some elves might be of some help to you with the task, too.

Professor Xavier

He'd had the gardening club do some de-gnoming last year, too, so he knew she knew how to do it, and he thought maybe that might be a good, productive way to expend some anger and frustration as well.

1 Professor Xavier And Another One 28 Professor Xavier 0 5

Cleo

February 15, 2018 9:45 AM

One reply by Cleo

(OOC - set a couple of days after getting Parker’s letter but keeping it here to keep things tidy)

Once she’d dropped the feather into the well, with the wish for things to get better, Cleo’s head had felt a little clearer. Perhaps it was the fresh air. Perhaps it was having had something simple and concrete to do, and having done it. Perhaps it was the wish. Either way, enough weight lifted from her mind that writing back to Parker suddenly seemed a lot more achievable than it had done.

She almost would have liked to stay outside, but she didn’t have any parchment with her, and she also felt a little too self-conscious and overlooked, so she returned to her room. With a clear task in mind, things felt easier, even if it took her several drafts, with crossing out and frustrations, before she was happy with the final letter.

Dear Parker,

Thank you for your letter, and for the feather. I appreciated them a lot. Sorry about your friends back home.

Are you calling yourself a birdfish or saying you’d be friends with one?

Were there any bad animals in your stories that the good ones had to fight against? It’s a nice story. I’m not sure it works like that in the wizarding world though. Most of the things that are half something else are pretty creepy - chimaeras, harpies. Even Centaurs aren’t actually that nice. Are you sure you wouldn’t run a mile if you met something like that? In this world, it’d probably be the smart move.

Cleo.

At first, she’d tried to tell him about using the feather, because she wanted him to know that she’d really appreciated it, but she couldn’t get into that without feeling like she needed to apologise for not asking him along, and then that got back into her saying she wanted to be alone, and she’d said that already, and she wasn’t even sure it was true any more and… It had just got complicated. She felt bad that the letter was short, and she didn’t think it sounded very friendly, which she regretted, but it was the best she’d been able to do.

13 Cleo One reply 389 Cleo 0 5

Parker

February 26, 2018 9:25 PM

Birds of a feather by Parker

Parker had waited a while before responding to Cleo's letter, hoping that he might run into her somewhere like he had a lunch. He was so much better at talking in person with someone than writing, or talking on the phone. It felt more comfortable, more natural, and Parker could tell what the person meant in person. Not just the words they used but more what they wanted to say. It meant sometimes that he would respond in a seemingly nonsensical way, often saying things like like, "Lizards lose their tales when they are scared, to confuse predators," when asked what he had been doing outside all day. In that example, Parker had known what his father had wanted to know was what had Parker learned, not what he had actually done. But words written on paper weren't as easy to cut through, and that's what made Cleo's letter so hard.

So Parker sat at his desk, quill in his mouth, reading over the letter again. He had tried three times to write this letter, each time it had been different, and he had now rewritten this version a few times. The last one had been so quick to write, this one had been more difficult.

Dear Cleo,

I am glad you got my letter and the feather. Back home I would have texted you, but I don't think you have a cellphone and neither do I.

Don't be sorry about my friends back home. I am the one who pushed them away. Now I'm trying to pull them back, which is much harder.

To answer your questions:
I feel like I am a birdfish. Part human, part wizard. Though the new healer says we are all human, the way my parents react to me sometimes makes me think otherwise. Though I would be more than happy to be friends with one as well, we'd be part of a tribe.

In the stories I was told, there were more bad people, and trickster animals that caused problems than bad animals.

To be true, I didn't know what chimaeras or harpies were till your letter, but I've looked them up. Harpies remind me a bit of angels or like these goddesses that one of my former classmates showed us once. They helped people who died on battlefields. So I might run away, but maybe not. Maybe we just don't know much about them. If I've learned anything in Care of Magical Creatures and Defense Against the Dark Arts it's that there is a lot people really don't know, even adults.

Again, I'm not fully of the magic world so maybe it's just that I don't know, and am not good at sitting with books.

Hope you don't have to run away from anything soon.

Your friend of a feather,
Parker

The amount of time he had put into this letter was more than he put into almost anything that didn't involve him being outside, eating, or with other people. Parker read, and reread his letter hoping he was answering what she really wanted him to answer, but he didn't know what she meant so he was stuck responding to the words themselves. Parker stood up from his desk and stretched. He'd have to go for a long walk at this point, he'd spent too much time inside writing. Parker would need to get better at this letter writing thing if this was how Cleo was going to talk with him.

41 Parker Birds of a feather 1402 Parker 0 5