Eh, what's the worst that could happen? on Herbology

Professor Xavier

August 02, 2019 4:21 PM

Intermediates: Eat the magical apples. It’ll be fine. by Professor Xavier

Nathan was so far surviving his semester as a single dad while his wife was on walkabout. He was leaning a bit more than normal on his parents for babysitting duty and Mary for Head of House coverage, but he and Dora and Teppenpaw House were all getting by. Some essays occasionally came back with crayon on them, when he didn’t catch that Dora was getting into his grading pile quickly enough, and sometimes he did his grading in crayon when he couldn’t find where he’d hidden his ink so she couldn’t get into it, but overall, he was getting papers back just as quickly if not faster than he had the previous year.

He still wasn’t back up to his pre-baby speeds of turnaround, and toddlers were every bit as demanding as infants, if in almost entirely different ways, but he was getting better at managing those demands. An increased amount of sleep at night helped with that immensely. Nights were still not completely uninterrupted yet, but there were definitely vast improvements in that area. He hadn’t come to class still wearing his slippers once this year.

Today, he was in his normal place in front of Greenhouse One as the Intermediates arrived. He handed back their homework from last week with a personal comment to each one that varied from ‘good work’ to a reminder that his office was open all day Wednesday if they wanted to go over his comments.

Once everyone had collected their paper and gone inside, he joined them, moving the the center of the room where they should all be able to see and hear him without too much trouble. “Overall, good job on those essays. I would like to apologize if they have a faint smell of apple about them. I had a juice bottle burst open in my bag this morning. I cleaned them up and got the wrinkles out, but the smell seems to have lingered.”

He paused a moment, then launched into the lecture. “On the subject of apples, we’re going to be looking at some magical varieties this week. Who knows what witches and wizards use apple trees for?”

He took several correct answers, including wand-making, fruit for eating, and what he thought was probably a lucky guess when one of the students tried ‘potion ingredients’ as their answer.

“Yes, there are some potions that can use apples, apple tree bark, and apple tree leaves in them.” They were rare and usually obscure, but they existed, so the answer wasn’t wrong.

“Apples comes in many varieties, some wild, most cultivated,” he continued, “And wizards have cultivated some breeds of our own in addition to the more mundane varieties like McIntosh and Gala. In some, like the Reaching Rome tree, the fruit is basically the same as a normal Rome Tree, but the tree itself has magic to ensure its apples are protected while they grow and mature. They can lift their branches above the heads of any animals trying to take early nibbles. Once the fruit is ready, the branches reach down to offer their produce to anyone nearby. Others were grown where the apples have a magical effect when eaten.”

Nathan gestured to the tables the students were sitting around. “In front of you are crates of apples from magical trees. Unfortunately, looking at them, it’s hard to tell what, if any, magical effect an apple will have. Most trees produce several different effects and some apples of their apples will do nothing at all.”

“There is a diagnostic spell which will help you.” Nathan took out his wand and picked up a random apple. “Effectus revelare,” he demonstrated, and shortly after the apple was surrounded in a pale pink nimbus. “Each effect has its own unique color,” he explained, “but somebody is going to need to take a bite to see what each effect is. Don’t worry, the effects of these are all harmless and temporary, though the more you eat the longer it lasts. If there is no colored aura, it’s a normal non-magical apple. You are welcome to go ahead and eat those, too, if you’re hungry.”

Nathan then pointed his wand toward his desk and a piece of chalk rose up to his board and wrote down the incantation. There was no more wand motion beyond pointing it at the apple, so he didn’t see a need to detail that. “You may work as individually or in groups to identify at least three different effects. Note the color of the nimbus and what happens when eaten.”

OOC: There are no canon answers for this as I’ve made it up. Come up with whatever harmless temporary effects you want, such as changing your hair color, your nose glowing like Rudolf’s, etc. Points for creativity. Have fun!

Subthreads:

I've heard that before by Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw with Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Eh, what's the worst that could happen? by Gary Harper, Aladrin

1 Professor Xavier Intermediates: Eat the magical apples. It’ll be fine. 28 Professor Xavier 1 5

Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw

August 03, 2019 10:34 PM

I've heard that before by Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw

“Thank you,” Dorian smiled, as Professor Xavier handed him back his essay with a ‘very good.’ “Ah, and also artwork from Dora. This is nice,” he added with absolute sincerity. He found the occasional streaks of crayon (today’s was bright purple) across his work to be rather cheerful and even if he knew it was in no way personal or really intended he would make sure to thank her for her picture when he next saw her. As Professor Xavier introduced the lesson with an apology about the possible smell of apple juice, he lifted his essay curiously and sniffed. He could indeed detect a note of it. He suspected that when he came back to this essay for CATS revision, he would enjoy revising the subject of desert adaptations more than he otherwise might have. Not that they weren’t neat and interesting, they were. But this was going to make it stand out, and remind him of some of the nice people that populated his world, and the real lives they had, and that was helpful when you were up to your eyeballs in studying.

The lecture started out very interesting. He associated trees most strongly with appreciating their shade, though this was not specific to apple trees. Dorian spent a lot of time lounging under fruit trees in the grounds of his lăoye‘s home, and enjoying the fresh juices pressed from their fruits. It was lychee season when they usually visited - figs and passionfruits too, but it was iced lychees that made a summer bearable. That and the cooling charms that flowed through the airy white corridors.

The subject continued to be interesting, as Professor Xavier listed the various magical effects individual apples could have, and showed them the diagnostic test. This initially seemed very useful, and Dorian was keen to add it to his arsenal of spells. Until they hit the snag - the spell did not tell you what the object would do to you. Only that it would do Something. He supposed, in general, that might be a very useful thing to know. He could then leave those objects well alone. No such option was available today though, because Professor Xavier was requesting them to eat the enchanted apples. Dorian was not convinced by this. On the one hand, Professor Xavier had said the effects were ‘harmless,’ and Dorian trusted Professor Xavier. On the other, he trusted Professor Brooding, and she had still thought it a good idea to get them dosed up on confusing and confounding concoctions. Dorian had not found that pleasant. One could argue that no actual harm had come to him, but he had found it so thoroughly unpleasant being that disoriented, being unable to trust his own brain. He had been frightened and confused and - after it had worn off - embarrassed by some of his reactions, and those were things he preferred not to happen. And so, even when a teacher said that nothing harmful would happen, he believed them, but he felt they might be using a different scale to determine that than he would. Perhaps that was his problem- perhaps he just needed to toughen up. Still, he found himself facing the pile of apples with such a twisting knot of anxiety in his stomach that he felt compelled to check with Professor Xavier first, hoping it didn’t count as cheating, but just being a little nervous, as to what exactly ‘nothing bad’ meant. He used the confusing concoctions as an example, and was assured that - whilst an apple might alter his mood for the better, or put him into a different state, such as making him suddenly thirsty - nothing was going to make him lose his wits, or feel anything unpleasant.

Reassured that his and Professor Xavier’s definitions of ‘nothing bad’ were reasonably well aligned, he began testing apples. The first one he tried the spell on gave him nothing, though he reasoned that might be due to a lack of proficiency with the spell, especially when it happened again on the next. On the third, he got the faintest aura - he couldn’t even be sure of its colour, just that it was there - followed by another fail and a then a light blue which glowed more strongly than the first apple’s aura had. He went back over his rejected apples, finding that they still failed to give him anything, so either he was consistently lousy with the spell or he really had found just regular apples. Once he had a third, he made his way back to his desk. Professor Xavier had said ‘alone or with others’ and ‘at least three’ so having collected several apples was not a definite decision to work alone. It just meant that he had the resources necessary.

He pulled two pieces of parchment and two quills from his bag. He put one set aside for notes and transfigured the others into a plate and a knife because it seemed uncivilised to just start biting into the apples, especially if other people might want to test their effects. The plate was long and rectangular, partly because that allowed him to easily line up his apples and keep them in order, and partly because it had been a sheet of parchment and as this wasn’t Transfiguration, he didn’t feel the need to spend the effort making it round (though it did have a delicate pattern of little white apple blossoms in the corner because, apparently, he couldn’t help that sort of thing).

He performed the test spell on the first apple again, making sure he hadn’t got them mixed up, and trying to pin down its aura. It was stronger this time, and he noted down ‘iridescent’ because it seemed to shimmer with a variety of shades. He cut himself a slice and took a small hesitant nibble. Nothing bad happened. In fact, nothing happened. At least, so far as he could tell. He took a proper bite of the small slice. Nothing.

“Excuse me,” he asked turning to his neighbour, “Do you see anything- oh Maugris,” he muttered, catching sight of their expression, “It’s done something to my face, hasn’t it?” he asked, reaching up a hand to feel. But he couldn’t feel anything different. However, his conclusion was correct because the eyes that were surveying his neighbour with a worried look were no longer their usual brown, but a bright, vivid ocean blue - which, given his colouring and his heritage, anyone was going to be able to instantly spot were out of place.

OOC - godmodding of Professor Xavier approved by his author

13 Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw I've heard that before 1401 Dorian Montoir, Teppenpaw 0 5

Evelyn Stones, Pecari

August 05, 2019 1:54 PM

Magic has no place in Herbology. by Evelyn Stones, Pecari

Evelyn accepted her paper with a soft smile, pleased to see one of her favorite professors. However, the reminder that the professor was available in his office hours made her stomach feel cold. Herbology was one of her favorite subjects, and certainly Professor Xavier was her favorite professor of her favorite subjects. His wife was also usually her Head of House and had been the first one she'd gone to about things at home, which meant the whole family was at the top of her list of Good People In The World. If she was failing this class, wasn't she probably failing others, especially the ones she liked less?

She chose a spot without looking much, keeping up the usual trend of sitting elsewhere from Ness and Malikhi so as to interact with others. Something about effective pedagogy.

When Professor Xavier introduced the lesson, Evelyn almost reevaluated her opinion of him as favorite professor. The one class that was almost always guaranteed to be wand-waving free, the one academic area on campus that had become a sanctuary for her, was now going to require magic of them. Who was to say she wouldn't blow her apples up by accident instead?

She couldn't deny that she'd gotten much better at magic over the years, and clearly she was indeed a magical person, but it tended to be erratic and only basic spells functioned as intended. Some people had suggested that it was because she was so anxious about it that she was actually hindering her own abilities, which is why her magic was so much more powerful when it was accidental, but she wasn't sure she could buy into that. Which was probably the point, actually.

Evelyn hesitated long enough that most of the other students already had collected their apples or chosen a partner, and then found that she was placed conveniently near someone who had always been reasonably nice, even if she'd gotten the impression that he thought she was insane. She approached him with a meek, shy expression. He wasn't very tall, but still much taller than she was. However, this was usual. The unusual part was that when he looked up, moments after taking a bite of one apple which was unfortunate because now she felt like she was probably mooching, he did not look usual at all.

Her eyes widened and an excited flip in her stomach reminded her that she really did love Herbology even if she hated the wand-waving part. This was just way too cool not to love, and it was an apple! An apple did this!

"Yeah, your . . . here." Reaching into her beaten leather bag, she retrieved a compact mirror and held it up for him to see. "Your eyes are not normally blue," she added, in case somehow the effect also impacted his vision or if his brain was just not processing this information.

"I know you've already started but . . . could I work with you? I can get more apples." She added the last quickly and her cheeks flushed an angry red as she bit back at herself, frustrated for having sounded almost as though she was begging. "I'm not so good with spells like this and I know you are," she said, allowing a little flattery to color her honesty. She'd generally found that boys could be persuaded if their egos were stroked. It was one of the primary reasons that she had a hard time finding any of them at all pleasant.

OOC - The usual disclaimer: Evelyn is not thinking rationally and most of her assessments of things do not reflect herself or others very accurately. Boys aren't always like she thinks.

22 Evelyn Stones, Pecari Magic has no place in Herbology. 1422 Evelyn Stones, Pecari 0 5

Dorian

August 06, 2019 9:57 AM

You can't improve on nature? by Dorian

Dorian took the mirror, feeling anxious as he snapped it open to find out what the apple had done to him.

"That is correct," he confirmed, when Evelyn stated that his eyes were not normally blue. His two closest friends had brilliant blue eyes. He had often thought how much more beautiful they were than his dull brown ones (a sentiment that was likely not shared by anyone who'd taken a good long look at him, and seen how deep and kind-looking his were, or how they mirrrored every feeling that was passing through him). Now he had Jehan's eyes. He couldn't stop staring at his own reflection. "I look very strange," he concluded, and what he didn't add was a sigh and the word 'still.' Apparently, it was more than blue eyes that he was missing.

"Of course," he nodded, when she asked if she could work with him, wondering why she seemed to feel the need to justify that. Oh. Right. He was a fifth year. He, Dorian, was big and scary. He gave her a warm smile, remembering how it had felt to join the intermediates, and how grown up and intimidating the older students had been. He felt nowhere near as mature and together as they had seemed. "We can do these first, and then hunt for more if we would like. I think it will be useful to know more for this one," he added, indicating the apple that had a slice out of it already. "For example, does it always do blue - bright blue," he added, because he was making eye contact with Evelyn as he spoke and he wasn't sure what colour he would call her eyes, but they maybe had a hint of lightish blue to them, "Or just makes your eyes be different.

"Also, if you want to, you can practise the spell on these. The first times I did it over there," he nodded at the apple bench, "I was not sure if I get it wrong or just get normal apples. These ones, you know it should do a thing, and this may be helpful?" he suggested, "You do not have to if you do not want," he added because he was pretty sure he would have taken a suggestion from a fifth year as a command when he was in third.

13 Dorian You can't improve on nature? 1401 Dorian 0 5

Gary Harper, Aladrin

August 06, 2019 10:28 PM

Eh, what's the worst that could happen? by Gary Harper, Aladrin

Gary flopped down in his seat with his standard pile of books and notebooks. Herbology was not his best class. He couldn't quite put his finger on why that was exactly. It just didn't hold his interest like the actual spell casting classes, or even care of magical creatures. It was most likely because all of the other classes had something that could inspire him to use in his games. While he had no doubt that learning about magical plants was good, it reminded him of a system's crafting rules,and had yet to find a game system that had an interesting crafting system. Oh well.

He got his paper back with the standard 'good job' written on it and one or two minor corrections noted. It smelled a little bit like apple, and he wondered if the paper could be transfigured into a new piece of paper, without disturbing the ink to get rid of the smell. It would probably be awful tricky. As professor Xavier spoke, he dutifully made notes in his notebook. This class didn't sound as dull as some of the ones they had had. Cursed items were always interesting, well at least to him, watching his players deal with some unexpected turn of events usually led to some fun scenes. Now they had apples to analyse with minor effects, this could be fun.

He collected a few apples and took them back to his seat. The detection charm was a fairly simple one, and before long he had a list of a few colors on his paper. Now came the tricky part, where to begin? The ominous flickering red aura? The scintillating golden one? The murky grey one? The bubbly green one? Eh, only one way to decide. He pulled out his dice bag, and fished out a d4. He rolled it and got a 3, murky grey wins this round. He chomped a bite from the apple, it tasted normal, but as soon as he swallowed the bite he definitely noticed a change. His hair started growing longer and longer. It finally stopped once it reached his waist. It covered his face and shoulders, he struggled go get it out of the way so that he could see again. Not having a lot of success, he turned to his neighbor, "I've discovered what grey means... I just can't see to write it down... how goes your experiments?"

2 Gary Harper, Aladrin Eh, what's the worst that could happen? 1404 Gary Harper, Aladrin 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 10, 2019 11:51 PM

That too. by Evelyn Stones

"You don't look too strange," Evelyn countered, not sure how deep that sentiment ran. She'd said similar things herself and hated to think he really believed it. "You look nice with your normal eyes though." She smiled a little at him but looked away quickly, not sure whether he'd think she was flirting.

Flirting? Why did that even cross her mind? She was reminded in that moment how terrible it was to be fourteen, and she sincerely wished she could be twelve again. Although, that wasn't so great either. At least the first year of Sonora was full of exciting new things instead of crappy new things.

"Thank you," she said, grateful that he wasn't pressuring her one way or the other.

That was one thing that she'd appreciated about Dorian, even though they hadn't interacted much. She was altogether sick of anyone telling her what to do or what to feel or what to think, but especially of guys doing it, and Dorian was usually so far the other way that she often was at a loss. He asked what she thought even when she wasn't sure yet, and that was nice of him. He also had a friendly face, which was helpful. She'd gotten very lucky that he'd agreed to work with her.

"I can do that," she agreed, not hesitating to take a bite. This was the sort of magic she could get behind, and she'd read up on the scientific method that Muggles used, so this seemed like a good way to test it. She didn't necessarily feel anything, but she blinked up at Dorian, wondering what was happening.

As she waited, she answered his last comment. "I'm honestly not great with wand stuff recently . . . and things tend to go wrong. I can try but . . ." She wasn't sure why she was opening up about this greatest failure of hers, but supposed it wasn't exactly a secret either. Most people had seen her hands smoking at one point or another.

Evelyn hadn't gotten to see his eyes change, just the after effects, so she wondered what it looked like. Her eyes' natural grey shifted slowly but starkly until her eyes were dark brown, almost black, like her father's. Nothing changed on her end in terms of vision, so she wasn't sure whether anything was happening at all.

"So? How does it look?"

22 Evelyn Stones That too. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Dorian

August 12, 2019 12:42 AM

What about when, by nature, you suck? by Dorian

"Thanks," said Dorian stiffly when Evelyn complimented him. He knew it was the right reaction to compliments but he still felt awkward saying it - he thought that thanking her instead of arguing implied that he agreed, and that seemed either big headed ir just deluded, and he didn't want her to think him either of those things. "You don't have to say that though," he assured her. He took another look in the mirror. If he focussed just on the eyes, they looked nice but thst was just because they made him think of Jehan. When he widened his field of view and found his own face staring back at him, he still felt confused. Maybe it wasn't terrible, as a look. Just different. He wondered whether he just needed to get over his surprise, although if he did, and he started to like it, what good would that do him? He didn't have blue eyes, and although he was sure there was a spell for that, he was reluctant to do anything that involved pointing his wand at his eyes. And even if he could change his eyes, he'd still be shorter than half the fourth years, and horrible skinny, and just... still himself.

His lack of self-worth regarding his own appearance was not something that would have held up to a great deal of logical scrutiny. After all, he and Jehan were a similar height and build, and it had never stopped Jehan being anything less than perfect in his eyes. He knew that he looked a lot like his sister, and that they both had their mother's eyes, and he would have said in a heartbeat that both of them were very beautiful. He didn't really want to value light eyes or blond(e) hair over dark ones either, as a general rule, because that valued Western traits over others, which was far from accurate or fair. It was all fine for other people though, to be or to have those things. It was just when those things combined to make him that he found them all wrong and worthy of complaint.

"You have mine," he replied, when she asked about her own eyes. "My normal ones," he clarified, giving his own appearance one final bemused glance before passing the mirror back to her.

"I work often with Tatya," he shrugged, when she said wand work hadn't been going her way, "I get used to things being on fire," he was not sure whether this was Evelyn's particular problem but it was a common enough problem that it seemed a reasonable guess. "Cooked apples, we can still eat," he pointed out, sliding the plate firmly into the middle, "Or we can get more. There are many. Though I think the spell was not a requirement - you do not have to do in order to pass the class," he reasoned. Personally, he thought the spell sounded useful, and here was a good chance to practise because they were somewhere safe, and she knew with these particular apples that she should get a result, which would help her know whether the spell was working or not. However, he kept these lines of thought to himself because he didn't want to seem like he was pressuring her. Sometimes it helped more to know you could do things in your own time, or without an audience.

"I am just making notes about the first one," he added, turning his face down towards his parchment to try to reduce the feeling for Evelyn that she was being observed, in case she wanted to try.

13 Dorian What about when, by nature, you suck? 1401 Dorian 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 12, 2019 3:19 PM

That's my life story. by Evelyn Stones

"Oh," Evelyn said, looking away with a blush. "Sorry."

She must be really awful if even her compliments were unwanted. The thought that this might be because Dorian was not confident didn't cross her mind, and she instead focused on the fact that even nice guys didn't want to hear what she had to say. Should she just not talk to anyone ever at all? That didn't seem fair. Ness was always nice so she obviously didn't bother everyone in the world. Or Ness was just too nice to tell her to shove off....

Focusing on the task at hand, Evelyn nodded in understanding when Dorian said she had his eyes. The one thing she was generally comfortable with was her own appearance, so she confirmed in the compact mirror before taking a quick note about this on her paper.

"I wonder how the apple works," she mused aloud. "Like what exactly it's doing. If we had another bite later on, would it do the same thing or would it be a different color?"

Evelyn hadn't known Tatiana to be one to blow things up much, but supposed their previous conversation suggested that she did indeed tend to. Evelyn had smiled then and been sure that she was making a friend. Perhaps she was reading too much into this interaction with Dorian.

"Cooked apples are one of my favorites," Evelyn said, thinking of the baked apples with cinnamon and raisins her mom used to make. "That's a spell I might want to learn on purpose."

When he turned away, Evelyn hesitated. She was pretty sure she should practice magic, even if she was prone to royally botching it. Still, she hated to royally botch it in front of anyone, and was generally pretty sure that's what was going to happen.

Narrowing her eyes and focusing steadfastly on the sliced apple, Evelyn did her best to pronounce the spell exactly as the professor had, and pointed her wand at the apple. There was a definitive aura, something almost shimmery, but it was hard to tell what color it was. Leaning closer, Evelyn realized each slice was a slightly different color. That didn't seem right.

"Is that . . . what did you get?" she asked Dorian, hating to interrupt his notetaking but also hating to just stand there like an idiot with a rainbow apple glowing on the table. "I can't tell if I've done it wrong, or if that's just because it's shimmery? So the spectrum is broken up across the slices?"

22 Evelyn Stones That's my life story. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Dorian

August 13, 2019 6:32 AM

Mine too by Dorian

"Huh? You don't- I'm sorry," he apologised, as Evelyn retreated in on herself and began aplogising. Dorian thought back over what he had just said, searching for anything she might think she needed to be sorry for and drawing a blank. People were sometimes annoyed, or firm with him when he wouldn't take a compliment but he wasn't used to them being upset. If it was even that. Which didn't make sense. "You didn't do..." he began, uncertainly, "I just..." ...suck at taking compliments because I never believe them? Bit too personal. "I'm sorry," he repeated because that was the part he was most sure about.

"Or what will happen now," he mused, when she talked about taking more bites later. If they ate more would it change the colour or just make it last longer? "Maybe we can find these out. So many things from one apple only," he smiled. She also seemed cheered up by the cooked apple joke, and he was relieved, glad to have made her feel a little better, especially given his earlier blunders.

"Mmm, do not start me talking about food. It is a dangerous path resulting in much distraction and mournful hunger," he warned. He was already contemplating tarte tatin with its thin, flaking pastry and beautifully glazed apple slices...

He worked quietly until she called his attention to the apple.

"Yes, very similar. For me, it is more multicoloured everywhere. You do it very well. No dessert for us," he added, pretending to look a little upset about this.

13 Dorian Mine too 1401 Dorian 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 15, 2019 6:57 PM

I'm so sorry to hear that. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn had made Dorian flustered, which meant she was either overreacting to the previous situation, or he was just really frustrated at having to deal with her. Everything else seemed fine though, and other than the awkward bump in their conversation, it proceeded fairly normally.

"That's true," she agreed about the apple, starting to understand how students stayed in school long past the time they finished what was required of them. She had the sudden urge to make her life's work a research project called Apples and Oranges or something equally pithy. "Probably wait for these effects to go away," she suggested.

His comment about wanting to eat did make her laugh outright. "Mournful hunger," she repeated. "That's a great phrase. Waking up in the morning for breakfast seems much more dramatic if it's mournful hunger carrying me to Cascade Hall and not a rumbly empty hole in my stomach."

When she'd done what she was meant too, Dorian . . . complimented her? She'd done well? She'd done well! The idea made her stomach whirl a little bit, but she was excited to think that she might succeed yet. She thought to turn her eyes outward, to look for Heinrich, Ness, Malikhi, or Julius. To find somebody that would be happy with her. It struck her then just how big a difference the wrong eyes make.

"It feels funny to not look like myself," she said, blinking. It was a bit like when her arm would fall asleep and she realized she couldn't move it; it wouldn't normally bother her and she might not have wanted to move it anyway, but now that she couldn't, it really bothered her a lot. More than that, she always did things to look different. She wore makeup and dyed her hair and covered her mangled forearm. She pretended to be different than she was all the time. "I have always thought I have my mother's eyes. I think that maybe I just have my own eyes most of the time. It's these ones that don't belong to me."

22 Evelyn Stones I'm so sorry to hear that. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Dorian

August 23, 2019 10:43 AM

Eh. I'll get over it by Dorian

“Yes, it can have this meaning,” he confirmed, pleased to have been accidentally poetic. “Especially also when lessons are just before mealtimes.” It was not exactly how he had intended it, but he certainly had experienced wishing the end of class would hurry up so he could go eat. He liked learning, but he also liked food, so that definition definitely applied. He also did not wish to discourage Evelyn, or make her feel like she’d made a mistake. She seemed like she sometimes lost her confidence in what she was saying, which was a feeling he recognised all too well. “For me and Tatya also… The food here is different than to home. I suppose this is true for everyone, and of course we choose to come here and are not complaining,” he added hastily - too hastily, with the clear air of someone who knew an argument and was countering it before it had time to be levelled against him, “But sometimes we have homesickness just about food.”

Evelyn seemed slightly thrown by the change to her appearance too.

“That is an interesting way to put it,” he acknowledged, when she decided she normally had her own eyes. “I have definitely my mother’s colour. The rest of my eyes, I am not sure,” he shrugged. Perhaps most people just thought of eyes in terms of colour, but Dorian felt there was more to them that. For his own, there was the startling large percentage of his face that they’d always seemed to take up. His mother had fairly large round eyes, at least compared to many Chinese people. He supposed he might have inherited his wide-eyedness from her too, and it had merely been exaggerated when he was younger the way it was with most children, but he didn’t feel like their eyes looked the same in that regard. He also wasn’t sure who he had to thank for the ridiculous lashes. “Or I think of having my sister’s, or at least sharing - and this is what good brothers do. They look more suitable on her though,” he added.

“More apple?” he added, reaching to slice the next one. They could presumably test a different effect whilst waiting for their eyes to return to normal. And he was worried he’d just hinted that he basically looked kind of girly, which even if it was pretty obvious wasn’t something he generally liked to point out.

13 Dorian Eh. I'll get over it 1401 Dorian 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 04, 2019 1:54 AM

Or through it. I hear getting through it is good. by Evelyn Stones

At first, Evelyn thought couldn't really relate to being homesick over food. At home, many of her meals were dry ramen, hamburger helper, and other such easy options. They were things she'd been able to make for herself since she was small. At the same time, she supposed she could be homesick for food even if she knew the food at Sonora was better than at home. It was comforting to have the memories that came with a box of Pasta Roni, even if she didn't necessarily prefer it to Sonora's homemade options. She found herself nodding along as Dorian spoke.

Then the topic turned to their eyes.

"I like that," Evelyn said quietly. Even with the borrowed color, she didn't look like anybody else. She had her own face, and her own personality hung behind her pupils, like as much light might come in as go out. There had always been a brightness to Evelyn's face that neither of her parents had possessed for a long time.

She couldn't remember Dorian's sister, if she'd ever met her, but suspected Dorian was wrong on that account. "Your eyes see me," Evelyn said with a shrug. "They see Tatiana, and all your other friends. That makes them special, whatever they look like on your sister."

"More apple," she agreed, taking a slice once he'd made one. "Cheers."

Evelyn took a bite and coughed a bit, but the apple tasted alright. It wasn't a very exciting assignment in that apples all tasted basically the same, but that was also the horror of it. To think that she could mistakenly eat a magical apple tart and go walking around with funky eyeballs all day and not even realize it was a bit frightening. There were things that magic simply couldn't make unweird after it made it weird, and the sheer powerlessness of those who wielded magic to actually control it was one of them.

Not sure whether she'd be able to notice any changes, Evelyn looked up at Dorian again and blinked. She wondered if he knew her well enough to spot a change, and whether any of these changes were things she'd only know because she could see more of herself than he could, like if her belly button suddenly turned into a flower or something.

"Do you see anyth--" Her eyes widened and she stopped as the voice of a child came out of her mouth. It wasn't a voice she knew, but not exactly foreign either. She suspected it was what she had sounded like as a child of maybe four or five years old. "You've got to try this one!" she guffawed, pushing the plate back towards him. The whole thing reminded her of breathing helium out of a balloon and she tried not to laugh too hard because even that was altered. Still, she could only barely maintain her composure as she waited to see whether Dorian would try it as well.

22 Evelyn Stones Or through it. I hear getting through it is good. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5