I've never been here before. [Tag Bertie and any other roommates.] on Aladren Commons

Quincy Wright

May 15, 2020 9:14 PM

I've never been here before. [Tag Bertie and any other roommates.] by Quincy Wright

So far, Sonora was a lot cooler than Quincy had expected. He'd been reasonably excited to get to go to magic school and stuff, but he'd liked his Muggle school just fine and it had been hard to say goodbye to the life he'd begun there. It helped that the local middle school started in sixth grade, so he knew his classmates wouldn't all be moving into the same school as him even if he'd continued there and things would have changed. This way, they changed and Quincy got a little of both worlds. Plus the food was way better here, as he and Morgan had agreed, and there were some really interesting questions he could think about and then actually talk about, like with Janis. He wouldn't have been able to get into the theory of soil on dragon eggs with a Muggle classmate. He did sometimes wonder how many other wizards and witches were at Muggle schools in secret. He'd thought it would be pretty funny if he arrived at Sonora, only to find that his friends had also been hiding their magic. No dice, though,

One thing he had been even less sure about was having a roommate or roommates. He and Deidre had shared a room when they were really small, but not for the past several years. He was used to having his own space. He was especially used to being alone since Deidre was generally disinterested with him and his mother was always bus. His father was good enough company and happy to spend time together, but his interests lay in literature and people more than the STEM fields that Quincy so cherished. So on one hand, having roommates would be less than ideal; he was used to having his own space and he didn't know if he wanted to give that up. At the same time, having roommates would be really nice; he would like to have people to spend time with and grow up with and such. He thought that it was probably a safe bet that if they were in the same House, the same biological sex, and the same age group, then they probably had some amount of stuff in common.

The first thing Quincy noticed about his roommate this time was that they had curls in common. Granted, that was about the only thing, and their curls were different, but they both wore them sort of just . . everywhere. Quincy thought it was a pretty good look, both because it looked pretty good and because it emphasized the mad scientist in him.

He'd been afraid that there might have to be some conversation about who got which bed, but he was pleased to find that their trunks had been put at assigned beds and he wouldn't have to worry a thing about it. That meant that any conversation they had tonight would be because his roommate actually just wanted to talk. Whew.

22 Quincy Wright I've never been here before. [Tag Bertie and any other roommates.] 1495 1 5

Bertie Jackson

May 15, 2020 10:07 PM

Well obviously by Bertie Jackson

Bertie followed Professor Wright out of the hall, tingling with excitement. He had, of course, expected to be an Aladren, and was very pleased with being proven right. Zara was not an Aladren. Zara’s friends were not Aladrens. He was going to get to learn something that none of them knew.

That, in itself, was pleasing enough but it just kept getting better and better as Professor Wright led them back to the library. And began using phrases like ‘What I did not mention when we were with all of your classmates’ and ‘concealed.’ Bertie was sure there was just as much secrecy around each of the other houses and their entrances, but it was still exciting to feel like he was being trusted with covert information and being set a secret mission to ensure that he protected this valuable secret. And their secret was clearly the best because it was in the library.

He realised his eyes were shining with excitement and that he was grinning and he did his best to tuck the expression away and be more professional about the whole mission. But this was cool.

He thought he saw some tactical flaws in making it a simple book lever with no actual password because what if someone who wasn’t an Aladren decided that they wanted to research- oh, wait. He got it. Probably not really a problem, he thought, as he considered Zara and her friends.

They settled in for the speech, which was mostly practical things. Including that their door would have their year number on it which was a ‘1.’ Honestly, Bertie thought, if anyone couldn’t figure that out they shouldn’t be at Sonora at all, let alone in Aladren.

After that, he made his way up to his room. Or… their room. Because he had noticed during the opening feast that he had a roommate. One whose pasty skin and red hair made them just about opposites. At least, on the outside anyway. But if they were both Aladrens, perhaps they’d have something in common. Hopefully, at the very least, they would get along.

He gave him a polite nod in greeting.

13 Bertie Jackson Well obviously 1497 0 5

Quincy Wright

May 15, 2020 10:21 PM

(even my author, though!) by Quincy Wright

Before Quincy had left for Sonora, his mother had kissed his forehead and told him to be good and kind. He was pretty sure he'd satisfied his quota well enough between the girl at the feast and Janis, but the thought struck him that if his mom was here right now, she'd be telling him to talk to this kid. They would be sharing a room for the next several years, after all. Might as well start off on the right foot. But which foot?

Quincy smiled and returned the boy's nod and they both mutually seemed to agree to invite silence in as a third roommate. It didn't feel very awkward to Quincy, except that he was trying to figure out how to kick number three back out. He also had no way of knowing if this other boy felt awkward. What was his mom always saying? Ask questions, and get people talking about themselves. But he didn't even know where to start with a complete stranger. It wasn't like he could ask him about how his sister was doing when he didn't even know if he had a sister, and 'what's your favorite food' seemed a little too random.

"I like your glasses," he said. So far, he'd had good luck with raw facts, and who would appreciate such things more than a fellow Aladren? "I don't wear glasses, but I've got a magnifying glass and a microscope. They aren't the same . . . but it must be cool to sort of have those on your face all the time."

Okay, well now he felt awkward.

22 Quincy Wright (even my author, though!) 1495 0 5

Bertie Jackson

May 15, 2020 10:51 PM

(Ooh!) by Bertie Jackson

The kid liked his glasses. It hadn’t sounded sarcastic. Bertie pushed the orange frames back up his nose slightly, considering the remark. His mom would probably tell him off for being antisocial if he didn’t say something. Not that he even was being and not that he had to do what she said anyway. But actually he thought the other boy might not be being a jerk, so he was kind of willing to not be one in return.

“Uhhthanks,” he said, trying to not make the ‘uh’ too long and obvious. It was just a bit easier to get through the ‘th’ with a bit of a slide in.

“Rrreally?” he asked, excited as Quincy said he had a microscope and a magnifying glass. That was way, way more interesting. His analogy was also deeply factually wrong because Bertie’s glasses corrected his otherwise poor vision whereas a microscope and a magnifying glass allowed you to see things that you couldn’t otherwise. Well, Bertie supposed his glasses did that for him, but they just brought his eyes up to normal levels, whereas magnifying tools took the range of vision beyond that. He sort of wanted to point that out but he also really wanted a turn with the microscope, and to not have to say more than necessary. “Do you- do you have them h-h-here?” he asked that being the most important bit.

He took a deep breath, trying not to worry that being excited and tired were going to make things like that keep happening. He was going to have to live with Quincy for seven years, so it was good to know up front whether he was a jerk who needed hexing in the face or not.

Bertie couldn’t keep his stammer on the inside all the time, and was not supposed to. It was impossible, and it was very heavy keeping a secret all the time. His speech and language therapist had made him have lots of boring conversations about feelings and trust and icebergs. Basically, he could make his speech smooth when he needed to, but if he tried to do that all the time he’d be tired and miserable. It was a pretty easy idea to grasp and he wasn’t sure why she’d taken so long to explain it and had to make him make plans and talk to her about it and work through things like stammering in front of other people and not worrying. She could have just taught him the speaking tricks and let him go. He’d have been fine. He’d have used them responsibly.

But he supposed he had just stammered in front of someone new and he cared about that maybe only 6/10 as compared with 9/10 before. But that was totally because there might be a microscope and there was a chance the guy was not a jerk rather than because any of the feelings chats and ‘exposure therapy’ had helped.

13 Bertie Jackson (Ooh!) 1497 0 5

Quincy Wright

May 16, 2020 1:30 PM

We might just be friends yet. by Quincy Wright

"Yeah, 'course," Quincy grinned, jumping off his bed and rummaging through his trunk. Some shoes, socks all in pairs with tags for their colors, and . . . THERE! The microscope case was hard plastic and not particularly fancy, and the magnifying glass was just in a small velvet pouch, but they were Quincy's favorite things. He had another microscope in a smaller box in here too, but that one required a light source and he wasn't about to try guessing at some charms with his wand right now. "This one works like an electric one," he explained as he opened the case. He sat cross-legged on the floor, angled in a way to make room for Bertie if he wanted to sit, too. "But mom set up a light that stays on inside from some spell." He'd had questions about that, too, but as it turned out that one was easy to answer; the values of electric light and magic light seemed to be exactly the same in terms of how they worked for viewing slides.

He set up the microscope and retrieved considered the slides still in the case. He had a number of blank ones to set up for short term use and to set up long term if he wanted to keep any samples, but there were also several with stuff already on them. They were fun to compare, too. He selected a dragonfly wing and a fairy wing - one of his rarer and more exciting slides - and set up the dragonfly wing so his roommate could see how he did it.

He peered into the eye piece, adjusting the slide and everything else until he can see the wing clearly. Grinning, he pushed it towards the other boy. "Just don't zoom in too tight or change lenses without zooming out first, or you'll break the slide," he told him, although if he did break the slide there was a lot magic could do to rectify that. "I don't know how much you already know about microscopes." Which was why he didn't go on to talk about how cool it was that microscopes, on the whole, always produced black and white images, or how they worked with or without glasses. His roommate would figure that out or ask.

"I'm Quincy," he added, realizing they hadn't yet made formal introductions. Then he prepared himself to really remember this kid's name.

22 Quincy Wright We might just be friends yet. 1495 0 5

Bertie Jackson

May 16, 2020 10:15 PM

It's a distinct possibility by Bertie Jackson

The microscope was here! Bertie was pretty sure any Aladren worth their salt would have packed it but it was still exciting. He hoped it was exciting... He remembered when they had had microscopes at the Center, and dad had definitely had to do some dewiring to make them work right. He crossed his fingers as Quincy got out his microscope that his roommate wasn't about to learn the very, very hard way that things did not always work in the magical world...

"Awesome," he grinned, when Quincy explained his mom had problem-solved the making it work issue. That made it sound like Quincy's family might be a little bit like his, but that was a much less interesting subject of conversation than the microscope itself.

"A-a bit," Bertie confirmed when Quincy said he wasn't sure how much he knew about microscopes. "I've used one be-before," he confirmed. Quincy's warnings made sense though. It was important to be careful with something so important, and not everyone was bound to be as scientifically literate and well-rounded as they were. Even in Aladren.

Quincy had offered both something interesting for Bertie to study, and his own name, which meant Bertie was supposed to reply in kind to both things. Luckily, he had something that was just the ticket.

He fished in his pocket, drawing out a stack of cards that were roughly the same dimensions as business cards. He had typed them up on his mom's computer and printed them himself, and then cut them out very precisely so that they were hardly wonky at all and looked very professional. He was not sure how many he would need, but he had settled on twenty. There were twenty five possible combinations but he had ruled out the easiest ones, and this also made them fit neatly onto two pages.

He flicked through to find the 'X' card (he referred to them by the key letter and had arranged them in alphabetical order) because he was particularly fond of that one and Quincy seemed like he would appreciate this. To that end, Bertie probably would have given him a card anyway, but the timing really was perfect.

Quincy had offered him some rudimentary advice on how to use the microscope but this wasn't really the same. Bertie had some clues he could give, if needed, but puzzles were much less fun if someone tried to help you when you didn't want them to.

He paused a moment after handing it over, to see Quincy's immediate reaction and answer any initial questions, before pushing his glasses up and bending over the microscope, leaving Quincy to work out the meaning of the small card which read (with the top line in slightly smaller letters than the one beneath it):

FR GTFX BL

UXKMBX

13 Bertie Jackson It's a distinct possibility 1497 Bertie Jackson 0 5

Quincy Wright

May 17, 2020 1:21 AM

Statistically speaking. by Quincy Wright

There was a good chance that Quincy had gotten the best luck of first years with roommates, because so far, it was going great. Maybe Sonora wouldn't be so bad. He didn't have a single complaint yet, and that wasn't true of his Muggle school. He nodded, satisfied that between his warning and his roommate's prior knowledge, breakage would not occur, and accepted the card he was handed. His face was decidedly neutral as his brain started reacting before he thought about how he felt about this puzzle. That was in part because it was a puzzle, so of course it was good. That's what puzzles were.

It was, he decided, a cipher, probably a cryptogram since he'd not been handed any other tools. That still didn't guarantee that it was the sort of cryptogram that could be figured out with one of those fancy spinny wheel things with letters on them. That wasn't to say it wasn't though, so he started there. There weren't that many two letter words, and fewer that could reasonably start a sentence (which he assumed it was). Also, the two two letter words didn't start with the same letter or end with the same letter, so they could have been something like "it" and "do" but that was sort of odd there.

He ran through it in his head and then decided to get some paper and do it that way, counting out what the other letters in those two letter words would be if the first one started with I or ended with O, and then if the second one did. There were also words like we, me, be, my, or, etc. However, before he had to get terribly far into those options, he realized that if the second two letter word started with I, then "My name is Bertie" worked out.

Quincy grinned. He was going to get on very well with Bertie, he suspected, even if words weren't usually his thing. Puzzles totally were, and puzzles could be number or letters or whatever else. "Good to meet you, Bertie," he said with a beaming smile, only about a minute after his roommate took the microscope. "Do you want to see the fairy wing slide, too?"

22 Quincy Wright Statistically speaking. 1495 0 5

Bertie Jackson

May 19, 2020 8:03 AM

Scientifically speaking by Bertie Jackson

Bertie stared down the microscope, bringing the dragonfly wing into focus, enjoying the fact that he and Quincy were each able to quietly enjoy the task set by the other. Quincy had just accepted his puzzle naturally, as if the offering made complete sense.

Bertie was looked up from the strange, irregular honeycomb of the wings at about the time Quincy broke the silence. Impressive.

“Nice to m-meet you t-too,” he smiled. He wondered a little whether Quincy had used any form of espionage along with his deductive reasoning. Had there been any opportunities for him to work out Bertie’s name? Or had it just been too easy to guess the word ‘name’ would be on the card from context, and then to extrapolate from there?

Seeing as Quincy had got that so easily, the only logical thing was to set him something harder.

“I would-- like that,” Bertie agreed, although he didn’t relinquish his hold on the microscope. “- - - Perha-ha-haps you can find a f-few for me? Interesting ones? I know how to- how to change them,” he assured Quincy. He definitely wanted to look at more things through the microscope but admittedly a part of his desire to study was to demonstrate that he did know how to use the equipment. After all, Quincy had easily known how to handle what Bertie threw at him.

“I’ll work--- out a looonger puzzle for you,” he offered. Whilst Quincy selected slides, Bertie worked out his wording, and split it across three different lines. People often described thinking as ‘looking like the wheels are turning’ and in Bertie’s case that was fairly literal. He didn’t need to risk putting his codes onto paper, and then having to destroy them, didn’t have to run the risk of them being seen. He could picture the wheel in his head.

It probably took a while longer than choosing slides, unless Quincy was really agonising over his choices. But after a few minutes, Bertie was ready to trade fairy wings and whatever else for:

XI SIO FCEY JOTTFYM?
N QNPJ YMJR F QTY
FTUE IUXX NQ RGZ!

13 Bertie Jackson Scientifically speaking 1497 0 5

Quincy Wright

May 21, 2020 10:16 AM

That's the best kind of speaking. by Quincy Wright

Quincy grinned. A wizard kid who knew how to change slides in a microscope was exactly the sort of kid he wanted to be roommates with. It was day one and they were already exchanging challenges. He'd have to write to his mother and thank her for being right about this one.

He selected several slides - fairy wings, various kinds of spores, and several from various parts of a flobberworm - that were his favorite and passed them to Bertie. Waiting was not hard for him and he looked around potentially, occupying himself with wondering whether paint or a color change charm were responsible for the Aladren decorations. When Bertie was done, Quincy accepted the puzzle and nudged the box of slides to make sure Bertie had seen it if he hadn't noticed while he'd been working on the puzzle.

This one was not all one cipher, Quincy realized, grinning. The fact that Bertie had done this in his head was very impressive and Quincy almost immediately set a goal for himself of being able to do the same. As it was, he had to use the back and front of the card, as well as counting on his fingers several times, to figure it out. It took him a few more minutes than the last one and then he grinned, satisfied. "I do like puzzles," he replied. "A lot. And I think this will be lots of fun, too. I'm glad we're roommates, Bertie. How'd you learn this?"

22 Quincy Wright That's the best kind of speaking. 1495 0 5