Letters can be hard [Any Pecari female that attended the drag show] on Library

Gary Harper

August 11, 2020 6:45 PM

Letters can be hard [Any Pecari female that attended the drag show] by Gary Harper

~~Dear Korraline~~

~~Hi Korraline!~~

~~Dear Doctor~~

~~Dear Doctor Korraline~~

~~Hey Doctor Korraline~~

~~What's up Doc?~~

Gary slumped over the paper on the table, intentionally banging his head against the hard surface. Then he gave it a few more thumps for good measure. What was wrong with him? He should probably be working on his Arithmancy right now. He couldn't focus on it though, he really kinda wanted to talk to Korraline some more. It had been a few weeks now... he wondered how things were going for her. Was she still looking forward to MENTAL? Did she... remember him? Did she want to hear from him again?

He sighed and pulled himself back up into a proper sitting posture. Staring at the scribbled on paper in front of him, he thought back over the time they'd had at the drag show. It had been fun, he hadn't talked that freely with anyone... at least not outside of running a game session anyway. It had been fun and relaxing to hang out with her and talk... while taking in the sights of the show. It had felt, natural. He wanted that again.

Maybe that was some of the reason that he hadn't introduced her to 'the gang' while they wandered around. If he had talked to Kir or Parker or Heinrich or any of them, he would have become Sonora Gary again and not this other Gary that had emerged from... somewhere. Maybe that was MENTAL Gary. He didn't know. He briefly wondered if anyone had seen him hanging out with Korraline.

He also didn't know what to do with this letter. He wanted to write it, but longed for and feared the response, if there was any. He wanted to fill it with everything, but had no idea what to put in it. He knew for a fact that Sonora Gary was terrible at this and that other Gary was no where to be found at the moment. He sighed heavily. Again. He was about to crumple up the paper and toss it when someone approached. Reflexively he tried to slide it under some other papers and smiled his best 'I'm completely innocent' smile. "Hi, what's up?"

2 Gary Harper Letters can be hard [Any Pecari female that attended the drag show] 1404 1 5

Evelyn Stones

August 12, 2020 10:56 PM

You're telling me. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn was back to being the ghost version of herself, except this time it wasn't out of terror or grief so much as just a hollow notion that she was feeling the wrong feeling at any given moment. Also, she was tired again. This had all happened as she was approaching CATS and they seemed to be looming wildly closer as she went on. The urge to get into law school was still a good driving force, but she also just wanted to breathe, and it seemed ridiculous to put the pressure of higher education admission on sixteen-year-olds, let alone the fifteen-year-old that she was meant to be at this point in her Sonora career.

Armed to the teeth with books - literally, as she carried a stack from her hands to her chin - Evelyn meandered a little until she noted that Gary was sitting by himself. Evelyn enjoyed studying socially and also Gary was great. And also she should probably fill him in on her life at some point. And also she didn't want to do homework.

She approached and Gary looked markedly suspicious, but she didn't want to pry. Well, that wasn't true, she realised as she set her books down, she absolutely wanted to pry. She just felt rude doing it. "Not my grades," she grumped. "Can I sit with you?"

When he obliged, Evelyn sat and considered Gary for a moment. "You're hiding something," she accused him. He wasn't famous for being subtle about . . . anything. It was one of her favorite things about him because she felt like she could trust him. At the same time, she hadn't known for a long time how hard things had been for him before, so maybe he was better at subtly than she thought. Or else she had thrown a critical fail in perception. Or was it insight? She could still not tell the difference in a lot of cases. "You could also not hide it," she suggested, shrugging. She moved some of her books around as if she were going to study, but she kept her eyes on him with a playful question on her face, making it clear which she was more interested in.

22 Evelyn Stones You're telling me. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 13, 2020 2:27 PM

Are there better options? by Gary Harper

Evelyn didn't look so good again. She had been happier at their get-together over break, and he was pretty sure she had retained some of that at the beginning of the term. Unfortunately with scheduling being what is was, he didn't get to see a lot of her. He really wished his research into time turners had come up with something solid for her. But, the librarian was still holding out on him. Granted, the giant pile of books she was carrying probably wasn't helping.

Gary quickly assented to her joining him at the table. He gave her a pained expression of understanding at her comment about grades. His weren't bad, but he still wasn't sure they were where he needed them to be.

Then she gave him a look. And she pierced right through his web of elaborate deceptions. "What?" He responded, half panicking with a nervous, semi-jovial tone, "Hiding something? Me? Nope, you must be mistaken." His eyes darted towards the paper he'd been scribbling on and back to her. Had it gotten warm in here?

He could also not hide it? Did she already know? Had she seen him at the show with Korraline? He'd been super careful… she was staring at him, watching him, toying with him? He was getting the unsettling feeling he was the mouse in this particular game… and as they say, 'despite what cartoons would have you believe, the mouse doesn't usually win.' What should he do? Change the subject maybe? Talk classes? What the heck had he been studying here anyway? Something about magic?

She was still staring at him. Her eyes were boring into his very soul, she'd see soon enough. Could he run? How far was the door? He couldn't actually talk to her about Korraline, could he? What would she think? 'You tossed us all aside for an evening with a girl?' 'You avoided us, are you ashamed of us?' 'Now you just want to leave us all behind to see her again!' 'Do we mean nothing to you anymore?' He visibly shrank in his seat as the Evelyn voice in his head shouted at him. It came from an angry, crying Evelyn image. A Heinrich image was there trying to comfort her as he scowled at him. The Ness image just wrapped arms around the Lyssa image as they turned their backs on him and walked away.

His face was contorted into anguish as he slumped at the table. "I'm sorry Evelyn…. I'm so sorry." He managed to get out, looking down at his books. "I.. " he took a deep breath and braced himself. "I met a girl."

2 Gary Harper Are there better options? 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 14, 2020 3:11 PM

Whatever you're most comfortable with, friend. by Evelyn Stones

Gary looked a bit like a nervous wreck, and Evelyn wasn't sure what she'd done to cause that. Did she look so terrible that it was making him anxious? She resisted the urge to give herself a sniff to make sure she'd showered and such recently enough not to cause a problem. She was just about to ask him whether he was okay when he suddenly looked as if she'd done something horrible to him and slumped in his seat.

Her stomach twisted horribly as he apologised. What had he done? What happened? Why was he apologising? Her mind went first to Heinrich and Ness, and then to CJ. Was he sorry because he had hurt one of them? Or maybe it was the other kind of sorry. Had he somehow found out about her father and wasn't apologising so much as passing on his condolences? Weird way to do it.

But then... he'd met a girl? Evelyn's eyebrows came together in confusion and she cocked her head. That phrase suggested there was some interest between them, as she doubted Gary would fill her in on having literally just met a girl, but she couldn't tell for sure. She couldn't imagine why he'd be apologising for being interested in a girl, either. It wasn't like he was letting her down or something over it. Unless that's exactly what he thought he was doing, but she couldn't think of why he would.

"That sounds like a good thing," she told him, confused. "Why are you sorry? Where'd you meet her?" she added with an encouraging smile. "Is she cuuuuuute?"

22 Evelyn Stones Whatever you're most comfortable with, friend. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 15, 2020 8:28 AM

Do wizards have candygrams? by Gary Harper

Gary glanced at Evelyn. She didn't look upset, maybe a little concerned, but that wasn't the same thing. It was a good thing, for him at least, it felt like an incredible thing! For them though? He didn't know. "I…" he started, then hesitated. He felt like he had abandoned them, tossed them aside to go pursue his own selfish interests. What would they think of him? Would they abandon him to? Maybe that would be for the best.

He knew Evelyn was having a rougher time than he was and he really didn't want to make things worse for her. At the end of the term, as far as he knew, she had decided to go back and live with that horrible, terrible creature that didn't deserve to be called her father, nor was he sure he should qualified for 'human being' either. He, on the other hand, would be heading off to a school to pursue his own interests with, just maybe, the girl of his dreams. It wasn't right, it wasn't fair.

Gary desperately wanted to talk to someone about this, about Korraline, about what to do and how to proceed. He'd tried a little with Dorian in class at one point, but... that had gotten a little weird. He didn't want to inflict 'weird' on Evelyn, and he certainly didn't want her to think he was flaunting great things in the face of her utter misery. That would make things so much worse, and they'd... leave him behind? Or, was he leaving them?

He gave Evelyn a guilty look and tried again, "I'm sorry because I wasn't thinking of you guys at all at that point. I was just thinking about me." He slouched in his seat, and carefully examined his quill for a moment. "I met her at the drag show." He said when he spoke again, "Things were going alright, then.." he'd stumbled across something that had shattered his hopes for the future, "things went downhill a bit. I'd debated leaving, but I found a quieter corner," to mope, "to think."

A small smile crept across his face that he was unable to contain and his eyes brightened a bit again, "We nearly, literally, ran into each other." His face shifted a few shades more red and his slight smile turned into a dopey grin, as she prodded him for details. Cute? Or rather cuuuuuute? He had the strange feeling that this was how little sisters could act, but he'd never had one so he couldn't really confirm the comparison.

"She was dressed like the Eleventh Doctor, from 'Dr. Who'. Tweed suit, bow tie, fez.." he listed off, just in case she was unfamiliar with the character. He gave a slight, helpless shrug, "She had beautiful eyes, and an amazing smile." his mind and vision drifted away from the table for a moment before snapping back, "But... how much was her and how much was costume? I don't really know." That could maybe let certain things open to interpretation, especially after that conversation he'd had with Dorian. "She was a 'she' though." he stated semi-defensively, "She gave me her pronouns right up front."

"We got to talking nerd stuff... and the evening just kinda passed as we did. It was fantast..." No, this might be bad enough for her, don't make it worse. "It was fun." Fun was good, fun could be allowed and forgiven, hopefully. His little bit of fun shouldn't make her situation seem all that much worse, would it? What he wouldn't give to be able to do something to help her. "So... I did think about trying to find you guys..." but I'm a terrible person and selfishly wanted to keep the amazing treasure I had found all to myself. He let the sentence hang unfinished, and hung his head again. "Sorry."

2 Gary Harper Do wizards have candygrams? 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 15, 2020 8:22 PM

Yeah but do you want to risk it getting cursed to read wrong? by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn frowned a little as Gary explained. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "We should have been paying more attention and doing better about including you. No one should have had to feel left out," she said. "But you don't have to be sorry for that." She smiled when he started talking about having met the girl and even more when he said she dressed like the doctor. She could see the appeal.

"She sounds like a dream," Evelyn agreed with a grin. "To be fair, I think the costumes we pick say a lot about us," she pointed out. "Mine said that I like old movies. Heinrich's said that he didn't really want to be dressing up but that he likes me," she said with a blush. "Yours said that someone else picked your costume," she laughed. "Hers said that she's a dream!" She made a small peep sound and bounced in her chair. "Oooh, I'm so excited!"

Evelyn was familiar with the perfectly terrifying, warm, bubbly feeling that one experienced when interacting with The Person. It was the best feeling ever and a new relationship was interesting. Evelyn hadn't been interested in someone new because she'd been friends with Heinrich first, so she could only imagine it was way scarier.

She waved a hand to dismiss another apology. "Gary, you don't have to apologise at all. Have you talked to her since then? Tell me everything! Is she in school still?"

22 Evelyn Stones Yeah but do you want to risk it getting cursed to read wrong? 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 15, 2020 8:42 PM

Hmmm... probably not? Any other good options? by Gary Harper

"Nononono.." he rattled off quickly while shaking his head. "It wasn't like that. I was having fun hanging out with Ness and Lyssa." Because someone told me I should get to know her better, he didn't say at all because it probably wouldn't help the situation. "After the initial show, when the dancing started, I looked around and they had disappeared on me." he shrugged, "I found them outside... umm.." he paused shifting uncomfortably in his seat while his brain scrambled for something to say, "getting some air." Yeah, that sounds good.

"I headed back inside and that's when I found her." He smiled again. "I hope she's not a dream." A slightly worried look crossed his face, "You don't think I just dreamed her up, do you?" No, she was real... she had to be real. "Now you've got me curious, what do you think I would have worn if I had dressed myself?"

He dismissed the question soon after asking it, she was bouncing and acting a little odd. "You're excited? I'm scared out of my mind." He shook his head at her further inquires. "Nope, just that night... she's a seventh year over at Ilvermorny and she's going to MENTAL next year as well. Assuming she is real and not just a figment of my deranged imagination." He glanced back at his scribbled paper. "I've gotta do good on RATS, I've gotta make sure I get into MENTAL next year. But..." he pulled out the paper and looked at it again. "I'm distracted and have no idea what I'm doing." He let the paper slide over to Evelyn and gestured hopelessly at it. Why not? "Help me Eve-lyn Kenobi... you're my only hope."

2 Gary Harper Hmmm... probably not? Any other good options? 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 15, 2020 8:56 PM

Probably honesty. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn flushed guiltily and sympathetically when Gary said he'd been trying to hang out with Ness and Lyssa. She thought Gary hadn't been interested after all but it turned out maybe she'd been wrong. Well, that wasn't something that Evelyn would ever tell Ness about if she didn't have to. It wouldn't do any good, she imagined, and Lyssa didn't need any reason to feel jealous that a guy liked her significant other. That was just going to cause problems. Plus, it sounded like Gary's crush on Ness had faded upon seeing his fellow Aladren with Lyssa... euphemism-ing.

She smiled though as the topic turned back to this dream girl who was-- "Not a dream," Evelyn promised. "I've seen no signs of delusion," she said, tapping her potions book where a lesson on symptomology was mocking her. "So I think you're in the clear."

His question was a good one and she grinned at the first lady that came to mind. "Parker's bugbear," she decided with a mischievous look in her eye.

He was scared! That's what was wrong! Oh, Gary. Evelyn accepted the paper and then grinned at Gary, feeling an excited thrill rush through her. This was a much better sort of letter than hers usually were. "Oooh, Gary!" she squeaked again. "First of all, you're a catch, you know that? You're a lovely human and you shouldn't be so hard on yourself. She's a lucky lady to have caught your eye," she promised. That aside, it was work time. But . . . she grimaced at Gary. "You know I'm hands down the least romantic person you could ask, right? I'm happy to help. . . . but I am not sure how much real help I'll be." She cocked her head. "What do you want to write to her for? Just to say hi? To ask her out? Something else?"

22 Evelyn Stones Probably honesty. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 16, 2020 9:59 AM

Well, I'm not opposed to that on principal. by Gary Harper

Gary looked at Evelyn with mock incredulity. "No signs of delusion?" he glanced down at the book she had tapped, her potions book. "I hate to be the one to suggest that you may need to study more, but..." he let the word draw out a bit, "I'm pretty sure I regularly exhibit plenty of those symptoms. Usually they are contained to Friday night sessions," he conceded with a hint of a continuing farce, "but they've been known to crop up other times as well."

"Parker's...?" Then he remembered the gaming session... goodness that had been last year. "Gah..." he cringed in reaction." Bugbears were big, ugly humanoid monsters that were covered with hair and had a penchant for violence. Parker's character had tried to sweet-talk one.... and largely succeeded. "That hair and makeup would have been terrible." He commented, then he reflected that mischievous look she had in her eye. "If our costumes say a lot about us.... you think I should have been a terrible monster?"

His poor attempts at a letter made her squeak. He wasn't sure if that was a good sign or if it meant he was hopelessly in trouble. He rolled his eyes at her attempts to placate him. If he was such a catch... why did no one around here want to catch him? Evidence suggested otherwise, but it was nice of her to say. He waved the comment aside with a small casual hand gesture.

Evelyn's next comment caught him off guard. "What?" He asked reflexively with a raised eyebrow. "That's not true at all." He started listing, counting off on his fingers as he went. "Other people I could have asked; Heinrich." He gave her a look just daring her to argue that Heinrich was more 'romantic' than her. "Ness." The look remained, as the whole 'relationship' part of the opening feast argument rolled back through his head.

His brain dug around for more people to even add to the list. This was 'people he could ask about stuff like this', Jasmine may have been a good resource, but he didn't think he could ask her about this kind of thing anymore. Dorian and Tatiana weren't even close for consideration, they just weren't in his circle that close. Morgan was gaming with them, but... he wasn't all that 'close' to her either for this sort of thing. Parker... hmm... "and Parker." He finally put up a third finger. "Alright, in terms of raw romantic skill points, Parker may possibly have you beat by a little. However, you have a few advantages over him. First of all, you are very slightly easier to track down," He gestured at her presence at the table, "plus, you are here already. Also..." he hesitated a moment and blushed slightly, "You share more similar characteristics to the intended audience of the letter better than he does."

He shook his head slightly at the question of why he wanted to write her. "I'm not sure... yes? Maybe? We had that one evening... a rather surreal evening at that. It was fun and I think she did as well. But, I'd like to frankly see if she even remembers me I guess." He shrugged and rubbed his face and eyes. "It's been... however many weeks now. I can't get her out of my head. It'd be nice to know if she's already moved on so I can attempt to do likewise. Or if she hasn't...." His voice trailed off in hopeful fantasy.

"I know the situations were way different, but if you'd met Heinrich for the first time one night and had a good time talking for a few hours before going your separate ways again, what would you want to hear from him?"

2 Gary Harper Well, I'm not opposed to that on principal. 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 17, 2020 2:06 PM

Give it a shot, my man! by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn laughed, there being something very funny about Gary telling her to study more because he was delusional and she'd missed it. "If DnD is what makes you delusional, I think there's a number of us in the same boat," she pointed out.

For a moment, she was almost pulled in to the trap she had mostly set for herself but that Gary was trying to pull her into, but she shook her head. "No, I think you would have made a very lovely, very big, hairy lady," she grinned. "You were hanging out with Parker a lot. He could have been Tiefler! But you're not wrong; the hair and makeup would have been terrible," she agreed, grimacing at the thought. There was probably a potion or charm that could make it go faster but the risks of something like that didn't seem worth it.

She opened her mouth to argue that Heinrich was very romantic, thank you very much, but she couldn't quite make the words come out so she closed her mouth again. She felt romantic around him and he definitely was cute and sweet and wonderful, but she couldn't quite picture him sending romantic letters across the country to someone he wasn't yet dating. She didn't even try to argue with Ness, although she thought the younger Aladren had done a bang up job with romancing Lyssa. Trying to get Gary and Ness to talk again had been pretty successful, but she didn't want to cause Gary any additional hard feelings by pointing out how romantic Ness was with someone other than him. That was just heartbreaking, no matter how happy she was for her friend.

Parker, she agreed, was probably more romantic than she was. "Ah, yes," she agreed as he listed off his first point in her favor. "I like to be chosen by default. 'Present' is such a winning trait of mine," she said with good-humored sarcasm. "I am a girl though, I'll give you that." Shoot. She was a girl. How did girls want to be courted?

"She remembers you," Evelyn promised first. "I can't speak to the rest of that, but you aren't forgettable, friend." She looked back down of the draft of a letter - or draft of a draft of a letter - in her hands and considered, biting the inside of her lip as Gary continued. Then she looked back up at Gary. "You're sweet," she said softly. "It's nice to see you maybe letting yourself be happy a little bit."

She took a deep breath, considering the hypothetical Gary had presented. It was hard to say because she probably would have been the one writing the letter in that case. It was hard to imagine the situation being different, and she was wildly okay with that; part of what she liked so much about being with Heinrich was that he gave her so much room to express herself however she needed to. Perhaps there was something there . . . "I think I would want to know that all of my doubts--" she gestured at Gary to indicate the doubts he'd so recently expressed "-- didn't need to be something I worried about. That yes, he'd had a good time. That yes, he'd enjoyed meeting me. Maybe even that he liked my costume. Maybe if there was something that had reminded him of me while we'd been apart and he wanted to share it. I'd want to know he was excited to get to talk to me again, so I knew that I wasn't the only one who was excited."

22 Evelyn Stones Give it a shot, my man! 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 17, 2020 5:57 PM

Like 'Dear Doc, I have a terrible CHA score?' by Gary Harper

Gary couldn't help but chuckling along with Evelyn. "Well," he began once it was his turn to point things out, "I never said I was a lone case." The levity felt good, he relaxed a little bit in what felt like the first time in quite a while. "From the sound of things, Korraline is in that boat as well."

He looked at her skeptically. "Lovely, big, hairy lady? I'm not sure how often those words usually find themselves strung together in a sentence." He shook his head, "Nope, sorry. That wouldn't have worked. Parker wouldn't have been attired properly for the event had he dressed up like Tiefler." Another thought struck him, "Plus if I'd been hanging on his arm..." He gestured towards the failed attempt at a letter. "We, that is Parker and I, were fantasizing a bit about going into business together once all the schooling was done and over with. He's doing landscaping and I'm doing architecture."

Gary couldn't help but give her just the slightest smirk as she looked like she wanted to argue the point about Heinrich, but then decided against it. "Present is an excellent quality to have. You can't help anyone if you're never around." He may have given her a look that had a tad more meaning in it that he really wanted. "Thanks for being around."

He smirked and rolled his eyes, "Yeah... after Ness and Kir, I guess that's the truth. I didn't get a chance to look, but did Kir have bigger padded bits that Ness could have chosen? Or did Ness pick out the biggest ones just for me?" The attempt at humor to divert her compliment failed. He wasn't good with compliments, what was he supposed to do with them?

"Thanks?" He replied weakly. "I'm not sure though..." his mind wandered a bit, and as happened on occasion, so did his mouth. "I thought I had been happy, but now I'm wondering if I'd just been content all this time. I was happy that night... and now when I think of it as well. It scares the dickens out of me though. Not Charles, but the thought that I may have to go back to just 'content'... or worse." He sighed and watched her think about the letter scenario.

He nodded along as Evelyn talked, taking mental notes. When she had finished, he looked down and discovered he'd also been taking actual notes. Go Aladren brain. "This..." he started a little uncertainty, "is all assuming she is excited." He smiled, "I hope she is." He smiled faintly again, "I really, really hope she is. I guess there is only one way to find out, isn't there?"

2 Gary Harper Like 'Dear Doc, I have a terrible CHA score?' 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 17, 2020 9:50 PM

That's an option. by Evelyn Stones

"Korraline," Evelyn grinned, latching on to the first time Gary said her name out loud. "That's a good name." She put on a face of mock shock at Gary's suggestion that a bearbug couldn't be lovely. "You're going to get somewhere with Korraline, she's going to take off her . . . costume. And you're going to find out that she's all hairy. You've jinxed yourself, now!"

Her shock turned into more sincere surprise, albeit more pleasant surprise, when Gary said he and Parker were going into business together. "That's amazing," she said softly. "I'm so excited for you both! I wish I knew what I was doing . . . I have ideas but nothing that solid. You guys will be amazing." She grinned at the idea that Ness had been extra evil. "You almost definitely got the most padded bits there were to offer," she said. "Although, to be fair, Kir could have made them worse and he didn't."

There was a big part of Evelyn that wanted to make the next thing Gary said about herself. That wanted to apologise for not having been a better friend and go on about how sorry she was, but that didn't help anyone. She knew from experience that that was not what Gary was trying to say and would not be helpful. That was it! She knew from experience. "That's the worst feeling in the world," she agreed. "It's very isolating," she added with a grimace. She thought of telling him her news then, and sharing how happy she was to not feel alone, even in the midst of a life-altering event (another one), but that still didn't seem right. Waiting was better. But not too long . . . he'd undoubtedly feel worse if he found out weeks from now.

"It's worth finding out," she promised. "When Heinrich asked me out . . . well, I told him what I thought about him. I didn't want to keep waiting, acting like I didn't and wondering whether he did. I figured I'd either find out it was mutual or find out it wasn't, but either way would be better than not knowing. I was so afraid to think I was risking wasting time, not being able to be with him if we both wanted to be." She frowned a little. "Not really wasting time, because we were friends. But you know what I mean."

She paused a moment, giving Gary room to breathe, to talk, to change the subject, to write his letter, whatever he needed. When the time seemed right, she finally pressed on, hating the feeling in her stomach as she did so. "Hey, speaking of friends. There's something I want to tell you. It's sort of . . . I don't know. It's heavy. Do you want me to wait until after you get all your letter writing done and sent?"

22 Evelyn Stones That's an option. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 18, 2020 3:26 PM

You don't make it sound like it's a good one. by Gary Harper

"Yeah" Gary responded a bit wistfully to Evelyn repeating her name. "Hey! That reminds me. Do you know what thing Korr or Korra and Aang are from? She said her parents had based her name from whatever they're from, and Niel Gaiman's Corraline." He grimaced, "I was going to look it up when I got home over break, but the Internet was having issues the whole time. Jeremy and Sasha naturally blamed me."

Gary face blanked out at Evelyn's next statement. He was going to get somewhere with her. He was going to remove her…. His face went bright red and he turned to look away from the fairly pretty girl making semi-suggestive comments at him. The immature grin of a teenage boy thinking thoughts he maybe shouldn't fought it's way onto his face despite his best efforts. He'd previously thought of her helping him out of his outfit… her wanting him to do likewise..? He shook his head violently, picked something else Evelyn had said and tried desperately to just think about bugbears. Terrible, horrible bugbears.

He was relieved when she started congratulating him and Parker on something they hadn't even begun to start. "Don't get to excited for us yet. It was just a thought we were tossing around if all works out well." He cocked his head at her, "I thought you were planning on doing the lawyer thing to help people. That is a noble cause." He quoted. "And a heck of a lot more important than making floorplans."

"I think Kir would have needed to bring out the 'not safe for kids' box. Thankfully I am still ignorant of its contents." She turned serious again and he smiled. It was terrible, and if anyone did know what that was like it was Evelyn. She beat out Parker by a wide margin on this front. Although he would have wished for that to not be the case. He nodded, "Yeah. Let's find out."

He took a fresh sheet of paper, his quill and his notes and began again.

Dear Korraline,

"Does that sound like I'm presuming to much?" Gary looked up at Evelyn. "It's a fairly standard greeting, but… 'Dear' does have a certain level of… intimacy implied?" He looked back at the paper again, "But... maybe I want to hint at that? She shouldn't get offended by it, right?"

He then continued on some more.

Sorry I haven't written earlier. Things were a bit crazy over the holidays and then getting back into the swing of school

He stopped again and looked up at his companion. "Should I be starting this off with an apology for not writing earlier? I really probably should have written earlier.. will she wonder why I took so long if I am excited to talk to her and see her again? Maybe she'll think I had other prospects that didn't pan out and she's a fall-back option?" He paled a bit as he said it, "Oh man... did I mess this up already?" He sat back in his chair, and stared at the ceiling for a few moments.

When he looked back down Evelyn was giving him a little bit of a 'look'. He smiled encouragingly at her. "I'll get this figured out, you've been a big help and an awesome friend so far." That look was back again, the one she had when she had first come and sat down. She had something going on, and he'd distracted her. Maybe it had been a good distraction for a bit, but that wasn't going to fix anything. "What's up?" He asked.

Gary shrugged his shoulders, "If it's heavy, I'll do what I can to help bear the burden. No sense in one person trying to carry it alone." He looked back down at the attempt at the letter, "This... this may take a bit. If it'll help you, get what ever it is off of your chest. I'm all ears."

2 Gary Harper You don't make it sound like it's a good one. 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 18, 2020 3:54 PM

Well it isn't me you're trying to win over. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn blinked, surprised that Gary wasn't getting it. "Avatar," she said. "The Last Airbender? You've never seen Avatar? Oh Gary. We're going to have to get together and watch Avatar." She shook her head in mock disappointment. "You're missing out, my friend."

She laughed heartily at Gary's expression - he couldn't even look at her! - covering her mouth with her hand to keep from drawing the librarian's ire. maybe she was glad she didn't have a real big brother, because she doubted Ness and Kir would have this sort of conversation with the same level of mirth. Like she'd told Heinrich, she was perfectly happy with adopted family.

"I bet it'll work," she said when the topic changed and her laughter died down. "And . . . I do. I really really do want to be a lawyer." She grimaced pointedly at her textbooks. "I'm just not sure law school would want me. Floorplans are important," she added vehemently, thinking of all the ways a floorplan could be used for good. "You can keep people safe and happy and healthy with floorplans, and you can make sure everything is okay for people. You get to have a hand in the place they call home. That's really special."

It was sweet the way Gary set in on his letter again and she managed to keep a smirk mostly to herself. She was chuckling because Gary was precious, not because he was ridiculous; she just doubted whether he'd understand that. "Not presuming too much," she agreed. The part about the apology was harder to answer. She thought of when Heinrich had said he'd had a boring summer and not invited her, and it had made her sad even if it hadn't been on purpose. That wasn't quite the same, but it was about as close a parallel as she could get. "Can you make it positive? Like instead of focusing on not having written her yet, focus on how much you wanted to? 'Dear Korraline, I've been wanting to write to you for the past few weeks but wanted to make sure I could get back into the swing of things and give you the attention you're due' maybe? Or something less formal, but more happy?" She gave him an apologetic look. "I'm really really lousy at this."

Gary looked appalled at himself again and Evelyn smiled as a thought came to her. "Nah, you're just at level one or two. Figuring it out. Messing up is how you get better at it. So go on," she added, smiling. "Get better at it. You're doing great," she promised.

"You're sure?" she confirmed, biting her lip when he invited her to talk about what was on her mind. "I don't want to make things harder for you."

Confident that he was open to her sharing, she took a breath. There was no good way to tell someone this but she had had practice now. She was at like . . . at least level three or four. She looked down at her books and paper, picking up a pencil and doodling on the corner of her parchment while she talked because eye contact was scary. When she opened her mouth, her words all came out in a rush. "So my dad died in prison last week," she said. "I'm sort of sad. But also I feel very . . . free. And that makes me feel bad."

22 Evelyn Stones Well it isn't me you're trying to win over. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 21, 2020 5:06 AM

True, someone else has already accomplished that. by Gary Harper

Avatar? The last airbender? He gave Evelyn a look of vague acknowledgement. He'd heard of it, but had just been one of those things he'd never gotten around to watching. "We'll see," he returned. "I've heard it's good, but…" he shrugged and then gave Evelyn a wicked grin, "Maybe I want someone else to…" he turned a bit red. Nope that phrase wasn't coming out of his mouth, "...watch it with for the first time." He ended a bit lamely.

The situation was not improved with her laughter. He gave her a mock grumpy look and muttered something about not getting any respect from the young'uns these days. Would she prefer him a lecherous dirtbag? He doubted it. He also doubted he had it in him. He could hope he didn't anyway.

As the topic shifted, he wanted to encourage her. "If they don't want you, they're the ones making a bad decision." He began, making sure to keep good solid eye contact. "You want it for all the right reasons, you want to help people. You don't want it to just make piles of money finding loopholes for rich scumbags. That puts you head and shoulders above a lot of the other applicants. You'll have real drive motivating you, and you'll be able to make a real difference."

Gary couldn't help but give Evelyn just a bit of a smirk as she extolled the possible virtues of good floorplans. "Maybe I'm going into the wrong field then. You've experienced some of my floorplans already. I don't know that I'd call them 'safe' some of them have actively tried to kill you… well Trym and your other characters anyway." He thought for a moment, "I remember one in particular that used a big hole with vines as a way to get between the upper and lower levels." He gave the books she'd indicated a look and grinned at her, "I guess I've got some studying to do as well."

He tried to at least appear reassured by her. "If," he made sure to stress that word, "you are lousy at this, then I'm downright terrible." He examined his draft again, "Confronting difficult situations is how you gain experience." He sighed, "It's the only way to grow... I just really don't want to botch this though."

Gary set the letter aside and tried to do his best to look attentive and open to whatever Evelyn had to say. Judging by her fidgeting and body language, it wasn't going to be good. When she finally spoke, he had no idea how to react. He blinked with a bit of a blank look on his face. Her dad died? Parental death hit him in a soft spot, but where his mother had been an angel... Evelyn's dad had been on the far other end of the spectrum. Still, this was the person who (however terribly) had still provided for and raised Evelyn who had turned out to be a fantastic person despite or maybe because of everything.

"I'm... sorry?" He ventured. "I don't..." his face twisted up a bit still trying to sort things out. "That seems like a perfectly reasonable way to feel? I'm not sure." He reached out with his hand to offer it to her. "If you need me for anything, let me know." Then he remembered something and a mournful smile crossed his face. He reached down into his bag and pulled out a blood red binder. The front of it was labeled 'Plans for Mr. Stones'. "I guess we won't need this anymore." He set it on the table in front of Evelyn in case she wanted to look at it.

Inside were notes and schemes for getting Evelyn and CJ away from their father. They ranged from 'A Chistmas Carol'esque staging of ghosts trying to convince him to be a decent human being to extractions, fakings of deaths and smuggling to foreign countries. They were all rather fantastic, but none of them ended in the death of Mr. Stones.

2 Gary Harper True, someone else has already accomplished that. 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 21, 2020 2:16 PM

It's true and he's real cute. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn was amazed that she knew anything about a vaguely nerdy muggle thing that Gary didn't. She was almost as amazed that he seemed to be suggesting something, even if it was just spending time with a girl, and she was ridiculously proud of him. She grinned mischievously, loving that he was feeling awkward when she wasn't at all. "My little protege," she cooed. "Get at 'em, tiger."

It was her turn to blush when Gary explained her merits and why she'd get into law school. She felt like there was no way all those things were true about her, but she liked to think other people thought them of her. "Thanks," she murmured.

"Ugh! That stupid hole!" she groaned, laughing. "I take it back. You definitely need to study more." Her eyes sparked with humor. "MENTAL will be lucky to have you."

Gary reached out to touch her hand when she told him what happened, and she mentally congratulated herself and the 'team' for a job well done on getting this lug to open up. Affection was good and healthy, even if it didn't always means touch, and it was nice to see Gary being more willing to give and receive it. "Thanks," she smile a little sadly. "I appreciate it. I'm usually torn between wanting to cry and wanting to dance or something, and neither of those sounds good." She wrinkled her nose. "Heinrich and Professor Wright are coming with me to the funeral - one to keep me company and the other to chaperone off-campus excursions - and I'm anxious about it. I don't really want to go . . . but I don't want to miss it either, you know?"

A red binder with plans for escape. That was a very Gary, very Aladren solution to the problem she'd presented him. She took it with a small smile, opening it to a random page and finding a list of possible fake names for herself and Heinrich. For the family they were building with bricks made of broken homes and lost boys.

"That's really funny," she said, stifling a sob. Why was she crying now? "I guess . . . we don't need them." Because she was free. Because she'd already escaped. Because nothing had changed and everything had changed and she didn't have to keep fighting to survive anymore. "I'm free," she said again, promptly bursting into tears.

22 Evelyn Stones It's true and he's real cute. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 21, 2020 5:30 PM

Yeah, how do I get her to think that about me? by Gary Harper

Gary almost sighed and rolled his eyes at Evelyn. "Well.. that is ultimately the goal here." He looked at his attempted letter again, "Assuming I can figure this out. I just gotta figure out how to say 'I like you. Do you like me?' without sounding like a dork, or a creep. Dear Korraline,” he stated with a resigned sigh, “Do you like me? Check yes or no.”

He smiled slightly as he saw Evelyn blush at his tirade. Then he grinned as she remembered that cursed hole. Arguably, he hadn't actually designed that map, but he'd sure made use of it. "MENTAL will be lucky to have both Me and Korraline." He corrected. "Well, they’ll be lucky to have Korraline,” he backtracked a bit, “Me, with any luck, they’ll be stuck with.”

He nodded along as Evelyn talked about her situation. It was probably inappropriate at the current time, but he couldn’t help but smirking a bit when she mentioned going to the funeral with Heinrich and Professor Wright. “I can see it, duty calls. You need to do what you need to do.” He couldn’t help it. He really couldn’t, “After Val’s game… I think maybe you and Heinrich need a chaperone no matter where you two go. So it’s good that Professor Wright is going along.” Gary gave her a wary, playful smile. “I hope it all goes well… Do you expect any trouble? Should I find or make Heinrich a sword in case any paladining needs to be done?”

Gary smiled a small smile as Evelyn flipped open the binder. That changed though as she started talking and crying? Oh crap. He’d broken her. She was free. Were these happy tears? Sad tears? What was he to do? Give her a hug? Pat her on the head and say ‘there, there’? Sit and stare at the crying girl? That couldn't be the right option.

Instead he shifted his chair around next to her, just to be there if she needed him, or to be ignored if she didn't. He also glanced around to see if he could spot Ness... Ness would probably, maybe know what to do. Ness may also hurt him for making her cry, but that was fine as long as Evelyn was alright.

2 Gary Harper Yeah, how do I get her to think that about me? 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 21, 2020 9:40 PM

Just be you, probably. by Evelyn Stones

"Aww! That would be cute!" Evelyn said, trying to imagine it. "Maybe get some conversation going in there too, but that's not a bad way to go about this honestly. Not your worst idea."

She glanced up at Gary from the letter he was working on, smiling a little for him. "I'm excited for you. I . . . I don't know whether Heinrich and I can go to the same school. I don't know where he'll want to go or where offers law programs. Plus he'll have a whole year without me . . ." On the whole, that wasn't something she worried about. She couldn't help worrying a little though, because there were a lot of amazing people in the world. Most of the time, that didn't bother her. Then, every now and again, a little seed of doubt crept in. It was usually torn out as a weed when she next saw Heinrich.

"Poor Professor Wright," she smirked with a suggestive eyebrow waggle. She wasn't sure whether it would be better to correct Gary or just let him go on thinking that she and Heinrich got up to naughty things when no one was around. She was pretty sure that neither was ideal but it wasn't a can of worms she wanted to open It was . . . well, she was a little irritated at the idea of needing a chaperone. It was safe to say she had control issues and generally didn't appreciate anyone telling her who she could spend time with or not. When she did spend time with people, she wanted it to be on their agreed upon terms, not on the terms other people set for them. Still, she understood that there were some restrictions adults liked to put in place. Perhaps it would be different when she and Heinrich were both over seventeen.

"I hope it does too," she said, grimacing a little to show exactly how likely she thought that was. "Definitely give him a sword. There's one person in particular that I know will be there who . . . has caused problems for me before and I wouldn't be surprised if he did again. That's the big thing I'm sort of scared for," she admitted.

When the binder sent her into a wave of tears and Gary scooted closer to her, she accepted his presence and, checking quickly for consent, wrapped her arms around his shoulders. It felt good to sob and to just . . . be sad. To be miserable. Gary was nice to cry on. This was one of the nice things about the community of friends and family she and Heinrich shared; she was confident that even if Heinrich walked out from behind a shelf of books right that moment, he would be worried only because she was crying, not because she was hugging Gary. She supposed they hadn't ever actually discussed that, but it wasn't a secret that she was friends with Parker or Gary or maybe even Nathaniel. It was just the way life went, and Heinrich knew that.

As her crying subsided some, she pulled away and brushed her face off. "I'm sorry," she said. "I keep bursting into tears and I don't mean to be so emotional." She took a breath. "I've never not had to worry I was going to get hurt before. I'm a little worried about the funeral," she admitted. "But otherwise, I don't have to worry. I'm not going to come back to school with bruises in the fall," she murmured quietly. "That's new. It feels good, but I hate that such a terrible thing feels good."

22 Evelyn Stones Just be you, probably. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 22, 2020 8:02 AM

But, who am I? by Gary Harper

Cute? Is that what he wanted? Is that what Korraline wanted? Gary gave Evelyn a mildly doubtful look. "You think 'cute' is the way to go?" He waggled his eyebrow, "Not dashing, or adventurous, or..." he'd run out of appropriate descriptive terms. "... anything else that I would equally be unable to pull off." He nodded, "Conversation was easy enough at the show, if I could get to that part I might be alright, it's just a matter of all the other stuff that should be said first."

Gary gave Evelyn a bit of an uncertain look. That hadn't really occurred to him, he didn't know what Heinrich was planning after he was done at Sonora. He had another year yet, but was he working towards anything? To be fair though, Heinrich wasn't the most 'open' person in the world. "Does Heinrich have plans for after Sonora yet?" She sounded a little uncertain about spending a year apart from Heinrich as well. "If you want me to keep an eye on him until you graduate..." He asked playfully, "I can see what I can do to make sure he behaves himself." He gave her a knowing smile and winked. "I think that'll be as difficult as watching a fish to make sure it stays in the water."

"Excellent!" Gary said cheerily when she said he should give Heinrich a sword. He then pulled out a sheet of paper and began scribbling on it. Then he cast a few charms on the paper. Once finished he tapped the paper with his wand and it folded in upon itself and changed to a small metal sword. It was no more than two inches long, and not sharp at all. Another tap and it unfolded itself back into the sheet of paper. Satisfied he handed it over to Evelyn, "Here you go, you'll probably see him before I do."

Upon the paper was drawn a sleek longsword with angelic wings serving as a cross guard. It was a drawing of the metal sword the paper had turned into.
Holy Avenger
Weapon (Longsword), legendary (requires attunement by a Paladin)

You gain a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon. When you hit a fiend or an undead with it, that creature takes an extra 2d10 radiant damage.

While you hold the drawn sword, it creates an aura in a 10-foot radius around you. You and all creatures friendly to you in the aura have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects. If you have 17 or more levels in the paladin class, the radius of the aura increases to 30 feet.

Base damage: 1d8+3, Versatile (d10)

"Hopefully it serves you both well. You should be able to tap it anywhere to trigger the transformation." He looked at her with some concern, "Seriously though, I wish there was more I could do for you for this. Be safe."

As Evelyn unleashed her torrent on his shoulder, the thought struck him again this is the sort of thing a big brother should be doing for his little sister, just being a solid shoulder to brace up against when she needed it. Granted another part of that role, at least as far as he knew, was to make sure no one hurt her in the first place. Another thought came to him, but it could wait a few minutes.

Her crying slowed and ceased, and her apologies began. "It's okay. As much as it pains me to say, I'm learning to handle it. Me learning to handle it means nightmares for you, and that's a price I'd rather not pay for such a simple lesson." He had a sad smile on his face now, "It's a good thing, wrapped in a tragedy. The unnatural death of anyone is never a 'good thing', but there can be good things that come from it. I am extremely glad that you don't have to worry about that anymore. I hated that you had to worry about it to start with."

Gary looked away and turned a little red, "I know your family stuff is all sorts of complicated. Mine isn't, as much anyway." He looked back at her a little sheepishly, "I've got to admit, I've started thinking of you as the little sister I never had." His hands had started working on another sheet of paper as he talked. "Which means in my head at least, one my jobs is to try and keep you safe and happy as I can. Unfortunately, again, this is about the best I can do right now." He slid the paper over to her.

It had a sketch of an oval shield covered with fancy magical symbols.
Spellguard Shield
Armor (shield), very rare (requires attunement)

While holding this shield, you have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects, and spell attacks have disadvantage against you.

The shield is made from metal and is carried in one hand. Wielding a shield increases your Armor Class by 2. You can benefit from only one shield at a time.

When tapped it would fold itself up like the sword paper into a small oval shield with a small handle on the back.

2 Gary Harper But, who am I? 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 22, 2020 10:18 AM

Gar-bear! by Evelyn Stones

"Oh stop. You can be those things too," Evelyn told Gary. "What has to be said before conversation?" An idea came to mind and she sat up straighter, trying to lean over as if she could see her idea blossom on the letter Gary was writing. "What if you wrote one that you won't send first? And maybe you can send it if it's great, but just write everything you want to say exactly how it comes to you, no editing, and then you at least have the stuff there already to work from. You don't have to try to think and write at the same time."

Heinrich's plans after Sonora, as far as Evelyn knew, mostly involved taking good care of her and CJ. She was honestly afraid he'd throw away any other career ambitions for the sake of the two of them. Years from now, would he resent her for that? "He wants to help people," she said, knowing that was true of him as a whole. "But I think he hasn't picked anything specific. Just something that he can do well enough in to-- " To provide isn't what she wanted to say even though it's almost what she said. There had to be better phrasing somewhere. "To be able to get by," she decided, blushing. Then she let her weight go, still leaning forward, and mostly just flopped onto the table with her arms out, hands under her chin. "How do you show someone that you want to think about us without sounding like you're trying to find a one-bedroom somewhere soon? Like 'hey, I wanna be in your life' without sounding pushy about it?" She sighed. "I guess maybe you just wait to see what happens, huh?" Rubbing her face as she sat up, she couldn't help feeling a little bit worse now for Gary; communication was hard.

She laughed at his comment about a fish in water. "Nah, you don't have to do that. I mean . . . I hope he doesn't go off and find somebody else that makes him happy, but if he does, then I want him to be happy. If you happen to notice that and could give me pointers to make sure that I'm the one making him happy, that'd be cool, but I can't do a lot from here." It felt so weird to say all these things out loud, because they weren't things that Evelyn normally admitted to herself. Heinrich was her sunshine during the day and moonlight at night (which was still sunshine, but whatever) and she was usually fairly confident that he felt similarly about her. But that was the thing, wasn't it? The catch. You could never know exactly how someone else was feeling, or how likely they were to change their mind later on. She was torn between wanting to fight tooth and claw to show him she cared, and just wanting to make sure he was happy, no matter who that meant he be with.

Gary's display of magic left Evelyn with her mouth open in shock. "That was-- you just-- that was so easy for you," she stammered, amazed as she accepted the paper with the sword on it from Gary. "You're an incredible wizard," she added, jealousy creeping into her voice. Tapping it might work but she'd let Heinrich test that; the last thing she wanted was for Gary to see her try and it not work.

Crying on Gary was surprisingly cathartic and he came back with a wicked high wisdom check when she sat up. "I've been thinking of you as my big brother," she laughed, feeling very warm. And then he gave her a shield. She thought of Siegmund and almost laughed at the idea that she was a princess with the dragon, and Gary was the knight playing chaperone. "Thank you," she said softly, leaning back towards him to give him a grateful hug. A thought occurred to her then and she pulled back to look at him, an excited look on her face. "You have to make her one of these. Not these ones, these are special and will be treasured forever. But make her a little trinket or an amulet or something that's kind of a cute gift but mostly just shows how super amazing you are!"

22 Evelyn Stones Gar-bear! 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 22, 2020 2:28 PM

Rawr? by Gary Harper

"Maybe... but now it's getting complicated," Gary replied, "Well, there's the salutation... which I think we figured out. There's the apology, gotta figure that out yet." He tried to think of any more formalities that should be taken care of. "Then there should be piles of compliments to make up for needing to make the apology..." He was interrupted by Evelyn's next idea.

Write it all out? It could work, he'd have to burn it afterwards or destroy it some other way. It would probably also take quite a few pages more than the edited version, but that was probably the point. "Maybe..." He said slowly, but that wasn't something he was going to be doing out here in the library... with Evelyn looking over his shoulder. That wasn't going to be happening.

He couldn't help himself from smiling again as Evelyn talked about Heinrich and collapsed on the table. "Welcome to my world." He commented wryly. "At least you've already got a relationship started to build from." He thought about Evelyn's problem, it was easier than thinking about his own problems. "At this point, I think the two of you are pretty safe in just sitting down and discussing future plans. Do it sometime." He gave her an encouraging smile. "You just need to make sure that he actually tells you what he wants to do, because otherwise he'll just go along with whatever plans you put in front of him."

Then he appeared to be considering something, "I guess you could use that to your advantage though. If you think there's a job he'd be really good at..." He winked at her, "you can help guide his decisions if he's doesn't have any solid ideas of his own." He gave her another grin, "Sure, if I noticing him being some level of successful in a relationship, I'll let you know what he's doing and how... because that is something that I'm really good at noticing." He chuckled a bit and held out his hand offering it to shake. "HI, my name is Gary Harper, I'm not sure if you've met me before." He held up the paper in front of him, "Well, while he's not here, you can always send him some letters."

He blushed a bit as she reacted to his little trick. "It's just a few spells... I've been practicing it a bit. I thought it'd be a fun way to hand out loot. You found a sword in the chest," he gestured at the paper, "then once you've identified it you can turn it into the paper to get it's stats and things." He shrugged a bit and gave her an embarrassed smile. "Give yourself two more years and you'll be doing even more amazing things than this."

Gary grinned surprisingly wide at her revelation. "No problem," He responded as he returned her hug. "Just so that you know, from here on out, until you hear differently, as your self-appointed, imaginary pseudo-adopted big brother, you have my perpetual and ongoing consent to be a shoulder to cry on, body to hug or sounding board for anything you want to vocalize." Then the smile turned mischievous, "Now I just need to run some checks on this suitor of yours... You said his name was Heinrich?"

He looked a the little things he'd given to Evelyn, "Super Amazing? Eh, what if she just thought it was silly?"

2 Gary Harper Rawr? 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 22, 2020 11:19 PM

You know what that means in dinosaur, right? by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn narrowed her eyes, glaring without menace at Gary. "Just do it," she repeated. "Can you really imagine that? 'Hey, you, thought you'd like to talk about after graduation. Where you gonna live because I want to go with you. Also if you could just fill me in on whether you see us working out long term, that'd be stellar.' Yes, I can't see any risk there." She groaned and tucked her chin so her forehead was against the table. "You're probably right and I am a scaredy-cat," she admitted. Of all the things in the world that could scare her, thinking that she might actually have a future was near the top of the list. Of course, in asking her out, Heinrich had sort of suggested that he wanted a future. A big long future. She was hesitant to take that too seriously because what if it was just a language thing or something? She didn't want him to feel backed into a corner because he misspoke. Of course . . . it was Heinrich. Heinrich almost always thought before he spoke.

Evelyn took his hand when Gary offered it, laughing with him. "Alright, but then you can't give me any flack when I say I'm not a romantic," she pointed out, figuring they were even. "You don't know how to talk to girls? Watch me try sometime," she added, rolling her eyes playfully. "Did I tell you how Heinrich and I ended up dating? I sort of accidentally told him I loved him I think. Well like not accidentally. I meant i-- not like-- no. I just. I used Princess Bride quotes and he knew what I meant and-- ugh. I don't know if he knew what I meant. All that to say that I'm not good at this stuff either." She wrinkled her nose, feeling ridiculous. "Don't you have a letter to write?"

Gary being embarrassed about being complimented really just made Evelyn want to do it more. The dude needed to learn how cool he was. "You're so clever!" she said, mouth agape still. "New plan: don't graduate. Just play DnD with us until we all graduate, and then we can all go to school together and continue a campaign there." The idea of doing spells like that in two years made her squirm though. "Have you ever seen me do magic?" she asked quietly, trying to sound sarcastic but falling flat. "I can barely manage a thing. You know that's why I was held back right? Well . . . that was a part of it." A grimace might have crossed her face before she could hide it away with all the things that came to mind. "I'm practically a squib."

"Hey, I think you've already run your checks on Heinrich. He came fully approved," she complained lightheartedly. Mostly lightheartedly; she didn't know if she really wanted Gary sitting Heinrich down for an interview anytime soon. "Suitor is such a funny word for it. But uh. Yeah, his name is Heinrich. He's a paladin. Real cute," she smirked, raising one eyebrow. "I'm not sure what people tell their brothers. Boyfriends seem like a topic you're not supposed to gush on, but what if I just can't help it?" Putting a hand to her forehead, she pretended to swoon. Then, she sat up as a realisation made her eyes round. "Oh Merlin's sweaty pants, I am a romantic. I just . . . package it in bad humor and stick a bow on it. Ugh. You've ruined me, Harper."

She rolled her eyes at the idea of Korraline thinking this stuff was silly. "She probably won't. Who is going to think it's silly when a cute guy sends her literally magic, personality-fitted gifts? I'll tell you who: people you don't want to date. So either she thinks it's great and you're on your way to winning her over or she thinks it's silly and then she's totally not your type anyway. Don't settle. You deserve to have standards and those standards should include people who think your little charms are amazing."

22 Evelyn Stones You know what that means in dinosaur, right? 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 23, 2020 5:14 AM

No... do you need to enlighten me? by Gary Harper

Gary smiled a bit forlornly at his new sister's struggle it would be easier if he wasn't facing the same exact thing. Maybe he'd have to work an 'As you wish' into one of these letters at some point and see what happens, it seems to have worked for her. He shrugged, "Sorry Sis, life is full of risk." He looked again at his own letter. It was getting difficult to convince Evelyn that she should talk to Heinrich without seeing those same arguments being used in his own situation. "I think we both have the same problem here. How am I suppose to tell you that you absolutely should talk to Heinrich about the future if I can't even write a stupid letter?'

A crazy idea crossed his mind and slid out of his mouth before he could stop it. "Wanna trade? I'll go talk to Heinrich for you and you write me a letter to Korraline?"

He tried to smile at Evelyn's 'new plan', but it came out nervous. 'Don't graduate' was that what would happen if he didn't pass his RATS? Would he need to stay and redo the year? Would they just kick him out anyway and he'd have to become a drifter bum? Either way he'd miss out on going to MENTAL next year and Korraline.

"That does sound.. tempting..." he said rather unconvincingly. Before break he would have considered it an awesome idea. Now though, not getting to MENTAL next year was one of his worst fears. He dismissed the thought to consider Evelyn's question. Had he seen her do magic? They hadn't been in classes together since he was a fifth year and she was a third, and at the time he hadn't really been aware of to many other people other than Kir, Zev, Parker, Conner and Ness.

"Honestly, not really." He cringed as she compared herself to a squib. "But you've made it this far already, which means you've got enough to get you though." Wasn't there some sort of sports-type exersizy metaphor for this sort of thing? "How much do you practice outside of class? Magic is something that gets better with practice and exercise." He gestured at the charms, "I've been practicing with the intent of improving gaming. Making the figures animated and transfiguring the terrain, finding fun ways to distribute loot and clues, making sound effects and such." He waved his wand and a quiet peel of thunder rumbled around them. "Magic is fun," he grinned, "find an amusing reason to use it more and see what happens."

Gary grinned, and picked up a few random sheets of paper "Well, I see here that he did pass the genie test, so that's good. He also helped to peaceably reunite a pair of separated lovers, and talked a skeleton into giving up it's sigil without resorting to violence. These are good points in his favor. Hmmm..." He scrutinized the blank paper closer. "It also says here that he is willing to accompany you to your father's funeral, to stand between you and any horrible people that you may be forced to encounter there." He looked back at her while tapping the papers to gather them together again. "I would say he gets at bare minimum provisional approval. You are permitted to gush at will."

"Okay," he finally relented, "I guess it's a way to find out." He gave her a nervous smile, "She was the Doctor at the party, maybe I could make a... Oh!" His smile turned into a grin, "I think I know what to do."

2 Gary Harper No... do you need to enlighten me? 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 24, 2020 10:08 PM

whispers It means 'as you wish'. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn nodded glumly, agreeing that they were in each others' shoes already and that neither of them liked it much. "Yes!" she agreed immediately, loving that idea. "Oh my gosh, it's perfect." She took a breath. "It's probably not perfect. But wouldn't that be great?"

Her smile came out sympathetic when Gary looked like her great suggestion was one of his least favorite things ever. "You're going to graduate," she promised. It was an idea that she sort of hated, because if Gary graduated, then sometime soon Heinrich would graduate. Then soon it would be her turn to graduate with Ness. She was glad that she and the Aladren were going to be together for that, but Ness also had Lyssa now too. Evelyn felt sort of alone, even though she knew she didn't need to. Ness was her only real friend in their year group. Gary, Parker, Heinrich, Nathaniel . . . everyone was going to go away before she did and then she was going to graduate and she wasn't sure what that was going to mean. Which, of course, brought her back to the point of talking to Heinrich about the future.

She grimaced at the thought of practicing magic outside of class. "I can't ever get it to do anything," she said. "It's better now, but it's a lot of work." She retrieved her wand and focused on the cover of her textbook before waving her wand and mattering the incantation. The cover changed from a mottled blue to a rosy purple. She smiled, proud of herself. "That's the one I'm best at," she said, putting her wand back and reaching instinctively for the Quaffle rock she kept with her at all times.

Laughter burst out at Gary's scrutiny of Heinrich's CV and she grinned, feeling proud that she was dating somebody who was so cool. "He's a good one," she agreed. Her stomach rolled over though at his next comment. It also says here that he is willing to accompany you to your father's funeral, to stand between you and any horrible people that you may be forced to encounter there. Her mind turned again to Cleo and the bravery the older girl had shown. Evelyn wanted to be like that, but that the hard part was knowing what that meant. Did that mean joining all the charities that seemed relevant? Or did that mean telling people who cared about her what happened? She rather thought that they didn't want to know. Gary was finishing his comment before Evelyn could decide though, and she smiled gently at him. "Provisional approval," she repeated. She could gush at will?

It was odd, but she thought that she was rather like a pendulum. She'd started off trying to tell people and it not working out, so she kept it to herself. Then, when it did come out, she found that just wanted to tell everyone. She wanted the world to know what sort of monsters lived among the people. Maybe if they knew, they could be safer for their kids and their friends. Maybe if everyone else knew, then Evelyn wouldn't feel so alone. She felt less alone since telling Heinrich and Ness and the McLeods, but at what point would it stop helping? Was there a limit to how much it could help to get it off her chest? When would she run into someone who did exactly what she had feared and told her all the things she'd spent so long telling herself? She couldn't see Gary doing that, but then she hadn't expected a judge to do that either. She didn't have her dad to testify against her now, though.

"There are some pretty horrible people," she agreed, chewing on her lip. She remembered the cold fear that had shot through her when Gary had hit the table in Cascade Hall and she wondered whether she could handle that sort of feeling again. She almost wanted to chase it, to prove to herself she was stronger than she'd been. She didn't blame Gary for scaring her; he didn't necessarily understand what that felt like. "Heinrich is a good person and he stands between me and all the horrible people," she said, quieter still.

She couldn't do it. Today she was not going to be brave. Not all on her own. Maybe if he asked, maybe if he really wanted to know, but why would he? He wouldn't know what to ask, and if he did, he probably wouldn't want to. The world didn't need to know. It was Evelyn's problem to push aside and break apart and she was just lucky to have people holding her hands while she did it. She shook her head to clear it and smiled again

Gary went on to say he had a plan and her smile brightened, although her eyes felt darker than before. "Do I get to be in on this? 'You put a sonic screwdriver in my pocket because I'm so happy to see you'," she suggested, laughing.

22 Evelyn Stones *whispers* It means 'as you wish'. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 25, 2020 7:04 PM

Oh? I may have to remember that for later. by Gary Harper

Gary chuckled at Evelyn's response to his suggestion, "Well, pretend to be Heinrich and see what you think." Gary sat up straight in his chair and steepled his fingers in front of his mouth as if considering the person that sat before him very carefully. Then after a moment or two of silence he leaned forward, his eyes never wavering from Evelyn's. "So, Mister Hexenmeister, tell me what plans do you have for the future? What are your hopes and dreams? Where do you see Evelyn fitting into all of this?" He made an indiscriminate waving motion with his hand indicating all of the answers that may have been given. "Keep in mind that she cares for you very much, and I would prefer to see that she not get hurt any more." He leaned in a little closer yet, "Terrible things could yet happen to your characters, best to keep that in mind..." He then eased back into his seat, keeping a wary eye on Evelyn. Then he grinned to break the scene. "Think that could work?"

He smiled at her reassurance, she was right. His grades weren't that bad, there was a pretty good chance he would do okay on his RATS as well, he hoped. If he wasn't mistaken though, she sounded a little sad. Sad that he was going? Nah, probably something else. He wasn't that important.

"Nice." he exclaimed as she changed the book cover. He wanted to offer her more encouragement, or maybe advise, or... something? But nothing that came to his mind next sounded good or right. It all sounded.. patronizing in his head. He assumed it would sound even worse if he spoke any of it aloud. So, he just matched the smile she had made and hoped that was the right choice.

Gary nodded at Evelyn's responses to his analysis. "Indeed," Then she sounded... uncertain? sad? At the thought of Heinrich standing between her and the bad people of the world. Something there wasn't right. Did she look a little smaller than she had earlier? That would not do, not for his imaginary pseudo-adopted sister.

He picked up a different set of random papers, "Now let's see what he is getting into." He considered the sheets in front of him for just a moment, "Hmm..." He looked over the top of the pages to the young woman sitting with him. "It says here that you have struggled against adversity your entire life." Suddenly he realized this might get tricky, and possibly upset her more than anything else. Oh bugger. Nothing for it now but to forge onward and hope he could make his point before anything bad came of it.

The tone of his voice softened as he looked back up from his transfiguration notes from last week, "Every time the darkness came to swirl around you to pull you down, you resisted. You stood against it. You have taken that fight and used it to define what you stand for, and what you stand against." He dropped the papers he was holding, "You have done amazing things Evelyn, and I'm proud of you for every single one of them.. even if they are ones I don't know anything about." He smiled warmly at her, "Heinrich is a good one, and you are an amazing one. He is lucky to have you."

Gary sketched a bit on another blank sheet of paper, then wrinkled up his nose in displeasure. "I thought I could maybe make one of those Time Lord pocket watches for her, but they're awful detailed and I can't remember all of the details off the top of my head." He set to work again, "She already has a sonic screwdriver," he commented offhandedly. "It was part of her opening line at the party," He smiled a bit wistfully then it turned into mild confusion, "Why would she put it in my... oh." Once more his face turned red as realization struck him.

Dangit Evelyn, this wasn't fair! He shook his head then gave her a look. "Alright now, we may need to sort some things out here." Was he really going to talk about this? "That's been at least twice now..." apparently so. "that you've brought up things along..." he hesitated "those lines." he gestured very vaguely. "Now, for the record, I don't really have a problem with that sort of talk. But..." he hesitated again, "from what you've told me about your past... or from what I've assumed from what you've told me. I'm not sure that is a fair playing field." He gave her something of a pleading look, "I just don't know how I can respond to you along those lines without... " another helpless gesture was all he could manage to finish the sentence.

2 Gary Harper Oh? I may have to remember that for later. 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 25, 2020 7:36 PM

Is Korraline a dinosaur? by Evelyn Stones

CW - References to sexual assault.

Evelyn really really tried to keep a straight face. She even went so far as to bite her cheek, press her lips together, and fold her hands in her lap. Heinrich would look probably neutral and that was not a face she was going to be able to pull. By the time Gary laughed, Evelyn was barely holding it together and she burst into laughter with him. "That sounds so weird!" she said. "I changed my mind, I definitely do not want you to have that conversation with him," she giggled. Although . . . "But if you do, absolutely tell me how it goes."

Her throat felt thick when Gary took her silence as an opportunity to make her feel better. "There aren't that many people who have told me they're proud of me," she replied quietly, smiling a little. "Thanks, Gar. I think I'm definitely the luckier of the two of us, but it makes me feel a little better to think that maybe I give him some reasons to stick around." Red colored her cheeks. "I really really like him. Probably way too much." She rubbed her face and took a breath, happier than she was sure she had permission to be, all things considered.

She laughed through a wide, mischievously satisfied grin when Gary blushed at her comment, but the expression changed rapidly when he got serious again. Her eyes rounded and her mouth opened in surprise. There was no way Gary was a Legilimens but it sure felt like it just then.

"I never told you about that though," she practically whined. Knowing that was as good as confirmation, she huffed a little to herself. "That's what I get for trying to be vague. My dad went to prison for hitting me, not for . . . that." She gestured vaguely, since it seemed clear that neither of them wanted to say what they were saying. "He had somebody come over who did that--" Gesture. "--but he didn't go to jail or anything." She wrinkled her nose. It was surprisingly easy to feel more angry than scared somehow, although that may have been in part because she was saving up all her fear for the funeral. "They said it was either my fault or that I wanted it, and that my magic was weak and that just proved I was barely a witch anyway." It all came out quickly because it had been right there at the front of her mind all along anyway. "That's who I'm worried about with the funeral and Heinrich getting between."

She sighed again, surprisingly irritated with herself and with everything. Not with Gary, though, so she should probably make that clear. "Sorry." Rolling her neck didn't seem to help, adjusting how she was sitting didn't help . . . nothing helped, she knew. "TMI? Your question . . . jokes like that don't bother me. Like . . . " What did she want to say? She wasn't about to tell Gary that the difference was that some of those things sounded sort of fun now because that was a weird thing to tell a guy about his friend and his friend's significant other, but she also didn't know quite what else was the difference. Except that she did. Thank you, McLeods, for the words. "It's different. I wouldn't joke about something bad happening to somebody. It isn't the same thing when it's bad. Like having company over isn't the same as someone breaking into your house. If you have just moved in and somebody breaks in before your housewarming party, you've still never had company. It's different." It almost hurt her stomach how much she wanted Gary to understand that it was different. How much she wanted Heinrich to understand that it was different. She was pretty sure he did, but what if he didn't? What if he thought she was gross now? That was one of the primary lines of thoughts that could trigger panic, so she pushed aside. Heinrich was always understanding. It would be fine, if it happened. "Good stuff . . . having company sort of scares me but also it sounds like it might be fun to have company sometime if it's the right company. So unless you're joking about trauma or assault, you're probably not going to bother me."

Her nose wrinkled and she blushed but an awkward smile also cropped up on her face. "Does that make sense? And hey . . . thank you for being so considerate. And for being straightforward. My mom treated me like a leper for a bit and that was much worse than just talking about it."

22 Evelyn Stones Is Korraline a dinosaur? 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 29, 2020 5:51 AM

I don't think, but we were all in costume. It's good to be prepared. by Gary Harper

Gary assented to maybe not having that talk with Heinrich, "Alright, but if it does happen, don't worry. I'm sure you'll hear all about it." Would Heinrich say anything to Evelyn if he did have that chat with his fellow Aladren? Maybe, maybe not. However, if they had it in the common room and Ness happened to be passing through and overheard... He smirked playfully, "Your turn though now, what's in your letter to Korraline for me?" His hand poised subtly to take notes, just in case something amazingly useful emerged.

That quiet smile looked good on Evelyn. It wasn't the overly boisterous grin that he suspected she hid behind. Heaven knows he knew how that worked, much less so in the past year or so though for him. "Oh, I think you are just as good for him as he is for you." He leaned in a little closer and continued in a conspiratorial whisper, "Do you remember what he was a few years ago? Quiet and alone?" He gave her a wink and a smile, "You got him to dress up for a drag show." He wanted to make some comment about Heinrich's attire, but.... maybe not. "As long as you're not doing things that you don't agree with just to please him, I don't think you can like him to much."

Gary sat back in his seat a bit when she responded. His face took on a pained expression, he was hurting her with just bringing it up. He'd messed up. Again. He had made an assumption and it had been wrong. A genuine look of relief flooded over his face when she told him her father hadn't done... that. That was good... hitting her wasn't good, but at least it wasn't...

At her next statement his face went hard, and his eyes narrowed. What? Her dad had done what? How... he hadn't gone to jail?! Gary's expression went as hard as steel, he was not happy. This.. this was not acceptable. How could someone even think of doing that to their daughter? Her fault? Magic was weak? What did that...? It was all he could do to not slam his fists into the table in raw fury. Evelyn did not like that, and he couldn't do it. Still they were clenched tight as he fought to keep his breathing even.

"What in the blazes!" he exclaimed, most likely louder than he should in the library. He paused to regain some level of control over the raging emotions tearing through him at the moment. "That is... how could..?" Focus, focus on one terribly wrong thing in that mess to deal with first. He took a long breath, "All of that is horrible, and I am so sorry on behalf of my entire gender. But what in the blazes does it mean that 'it proved you were barely a witch anyway'? What does that have to do with anything that had happened? Are wizards allowed to..." gesture "Muggles at will because they don't have magic?"

Now he wanted to go along with Evelyn, Heinrich and Professor Wright. To protect Evelyn of course, but also to wreak vengeance upon this other miserable excuse for a human being. That was going to happen though, so he began venting his frustrations on another sheet of paper. In moment he was finished and slid it over to her, tapping it en route. It folded up as it finished it's journey and came to a rest in front of Evelyn as her Shadowrunning hacker's Hammerli 620s light pistol. "The shield will only do so much, take Eve's gun as well." While she looked at it, he pulled back the red binder. "No, it's not to much." He tried to smile at her but was finding it difficult at the moment, "In fact I'm going to need some more information. I'm going to need some names and addresses."

As the conversation focused back on Evelyn herself and her thoughts and she began to answer his original question, he found himself relaxing just a little again. He nodded along, "It makes sense. There is a lot of difference there." he weighed the next statement he was considering, "I am glad that your experiences have not set you against ever having people over again..." that didn't sound quite right with the underlying metaphor. "Or at least having someone over again," he added quickly feeling his face start to shift a bit red again. "I mean..." He gave up, sighed and wondered if it was time to go on the offensive on this front now. "So," he began a little hesitantly, "pointing out that someone likes you well enough to try and get into your pants at the drag show...?" he finished questioningly with a weak grin. Was that an appropriate innuendo? He really had no idea how this worked.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not sure about considerate, maybe just 'well-trained' by this point." He gave her a grin the conversation was returning to normal again, that was good. "As for straightforward..." Wait a sec. Her mom treated her like a leper? His eyes blazed and his voice took on a hollow sound. "Your mother knew about this? She knew about this and did nothing?"

2 Gary Harper I don't think, but we were all in costume. It's good to be prepared. 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 29, 2020 11:48 AM

It's nice to know that love is not extinct. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn reached across the table to grab a blank paper from the stack in front of Gary, flattening it on the table in front of her to pretend she was writing. "Dear Korraline," she said. "I think you're sooooo pretty and also very smart and funny." Teasing aside, she thought that she should probably be a little helpful. "I wanted to write because I had a great time hanging out with you and I hope we can figure out a way to do that again some time, but this time I promise to dress way hotter. Yours, Gary." She cocked an eyebrow at her friend. "I think it's a winner. Rough draft, sure, but pretty good."

She blushed, really really happy. It was nice having someone gush about her gushing about Heinrich. She felt special. "I'm glad to be a reason for him to want to be out more. I didn't get him to dress up," she pointed out. "That was his idea. I told him he didn't have to." She shook her head, agreeing that she wasn't doing anything she didn't want to. That was part of what was so amazing about Heinrich; he never pushed, they could talk about boundaries, and, more than anything, she could be herself.

Gary was the first person she'd told who had gotten sincerely pissed off about it all without scaring her. She remembered Heinrich being angry. Angry enough to rant in German and have to take long pauses to breathe when she asked questions. Ness had been pissed too, although that was a bit different. The last time Gary had gotten angry, it had scared her. Now, perhaps because of all the other things she was feeling, she was just pissed too. "Right?!" she replied when he stammered out half questions.

She blinked in surprise when he apologised or his gender. That's not what she'd meant for him to do. Why would he do that? Was there some level of recognition in guys that all of them were capable of the crappy things some of them had done? "You don't have to apologise," she said. "They aren't all bad I think."

She wanted to say that no, wizards obviously weren't allowed to take advantage of Muggles, but she wasn't sure what her father or Mr. Carmichael's stance would be on that. She'd never wondered if her mom had been happy in their marriage, but she at least assumed she was safe. that was a horrifying thought. But her dad wasn't the one who did those things and she doubted Mathias Stones, for all his pride, would give his wife over to somebody for the night. "It was their excuse to keep me back a year from school," she explained nonchalantly; this was almost normal to her. "Because either what I said happen did happen but I didn't use magic, so I couldn't say it was bad because I must have wanted it, or what I said happened and my magic was just too weak so it wasn't clear whether I should go to Sonora anyway. The courts said the first one, my dad said the second, and I started a year late." She shrugged. It was bad logic for sure, but she could see that there was logic. "Professor Wright thinks that my magic came in slow because my reaction to fear is to freeze, not fight or flight, and that's why I don't do much magic when I'm afraid."

Evelyn grimaced a little at the gun. She appreciated it and it was a sweet gesture, but she wasn't sure how she felt about wielding a weapon. She hadn't even managed to wield a wand. "Arms dealing in the library? How very un-Aladren, Mr. Harper," she tutted, raising an eyebrow playfully at him as she poked it back, playing up her discomfort. "Violence is . . . hard for me? I probably wouldn't be able to do anything with it."

She managed to laugh - probably more out of tension than real humor - when Gary asked for names and addresses. "I don't have his address," she said. "And you can't go to MENTAL if you're in prison with a snapped wand, so I think I won't give you his name either."

Her expression changed to a bit of a smirk as he tried to say something that was really sweet but also was clearly feeling awkward about. It was weird to talk about . . . having company. That wasn't a conversation she ever had really, except sometimes with Ness in broad terms. It turned into an outright grin when Gary made his joke back, although it was tempered some by a fierce blush that cropped up on her cheeks. "There you go!" she laughed. "I guess he did do that, huh? Nothing untoward happened, I promise. Although I am not sure I would tell you if it did . . . " Was that a thing boys told each other? She would totally have told Ness; would Heinrich tell Gary? That was a weird thought. Maybe she wasn't supposed to tell Ness? Sort of a moot point at the moment anyway and that wasn't a thought she wanted to linger on too much with Gary keeping an eye on her expression.

Being considerate was something that had to be learned, and she was about to say as much when Gary was suddenly angry again. She blinked, realizing that she'd been unclear. "No no," she said. "She didn't know about it the first time. The second time, she . . . found out. That's why it went to court. She was just so uncomfortable about it all." Evelyn frowned. She'd always assumed that her mother thought she was trashy for doing adult stuff, but she wondered now if that wasn't accurate. It was a weird thing to blame a child for, something she was starting to realize as she found that people who cared about her never seemed to blame her for it. "I think only my dad and the guy and myself knew the first time," she promised.

22 Evelyn Stones It's nice to know that love is not extinct. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 30, 2020 6:00 AM

The bonds of love cannot be broken with 1000 swords by Gary Harper

Gary quirked his eyebrows as Evelyn began to pretend to write. She was pretending to write, right? He smiled though as she talked. "Yeah... pretty good." He responded. "I'm not sure about the dressing way hotter part though." He paused for effect, "There were a lot of layers in that outfit, which is why it felt really nice when I wandered outside in the freezing cold." A bit of a rueful smile crossed his face, "I don't know how Ness and Ly..." he stopped himself when he realized where that was going. What he'd seen still may not be common knowledge, and he didn't want to say things he wasn't supposed to. So, he expertly and gracefully verbally sidestepped the mistake. "Umm.. I mean, yeah. It's a terrific letter."

Gary chuckled lightly. "If I remember correctly, the whole thing was Ness' idea. Which, if I also remember, you agreed with enthusiastically. Which means, you didn't have to ask him. I"m fairly certain he wanted to do it because it would make you happy." He gave her a lightly challenging look, "Spin the scenario around. What would happen? If you knew there was something minorly awkward, but certainly not dangerous that Heinrich seemed really excited about, would you do it? Let's say he knows you feel a bit awkward about it so he's not going to ask you to do it, and may even let you know that you don't have to. What would you do?"

"No, not all of them. Heinrich is good, and Kir." He sighed "It just seems you've gotten subjected to the worst of them... or at least closer to that end of the spectrum anyway." Her explanation of the logic behind all of the horrible crap that had happened to her did little to calm him down. "That..." he started then stopped, "If they..." words were not cooperating on this subject and in this context. He closed his eyes and forced himself to take a few deep breaths. When he reopened his eyes, they had a miserable resigned look in them. ""Nothing in that reasoning is right or okay. Get that lawyer job, the system needs you in there to fix it."

The gun had been a bad idea, but he had needed to do something... anything for her. Something to allow her to fight back against the horrors of the world she'd been facing. He tried to respond to her playful refusal in a like manner, "Where else would we do it? The quidditch pitch?" He poked the weapon and it returned to a sheet of paper. Then nodded at her stance on violence. "I do want to help, please let me know if there is anything at all that I can do."

"Prison?" He gave her a questioning look which slid into a crafty one that was full of schemes. "I'm a muggleborn gamemaster. If you think I'd go kicking in the door, wands a'blazing... you haven't been paying attention." His expression returned almost to normal. Heinrich would probably know his name by the end of this. Maybe he could... this would be a lot easier if Tarquin would just hand over one of the time turners he was sure the librarian had stashed in the back somewhere.

Evelyn didn't get mad at his attempt at innuendo loaded levity. That was good, had he done it right? She was smiling and blushing, that meant he'd gotten it right. He was pretty sure. He grinned and she went on the defense for once trying to convince him that nothing 'untoward' happened. He gave her a look of mock suspicion. "I suspect that you would tell me that nothing 'untoward' had happened." As her duly appointed imaginary pseudo-adopted big brother, he was fairly certain it was his duty to protect her from boys that 'only wanted one thing' from her. Fortunately Heinrich had already gotten provisional approval, but he guessed if Heinrich had been pulling a multi-year scam on Evelyn for one thing and then was going to run... Gary would need to hunt him down as well. He hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Evelyn's defense of her mother was... not quite admirable, but maybe something along those lines. Unfortunately, Gary couldn't see that at the moment, his mind had shifted in a slightly different direction. He tried to sound calm, and failed as his words came out very pointed. "You're saying your mother knew what was going on," he paused to push through the horror of the situation in his mind, "and she still left you with your..." oh how he wanted to add some descriptive words in there, but he held back, "father when she left? She did not get you away from him after he...." slightly more complicated gesture.

2 Gary Harper The bonds of love cannot be broken with 1000 swords 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

August 30, 2020 1:51 PM

A bond of love is worth a thousand swords? by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn smiled along until Gary stopped over the subject of Ness and Lyssa. "Terrific letter," she agreed softly. It seemed like not a thing that they could just ignore now though somehow. "Hey... I'm sorry. I didn't know that Ness and Lyssa were maybe interested in each other when I said what I said before. I wouldn't have pushed the point if I'd known that . . . well. I'm happy for them of course and I think they're great together, but I didn't mean to put you in a weird position." Liking Ness was something she could understand, there had been a time when she maybe had too after all, but that didn't always make it easy and she was, in part, responsible for having made this harder for Gary. "When we talked . . . I didn't think you had any of those sort of feelings and I was maybe sort of callous. I should've checked. You two have been good friends for so long . . ." She frowned. "I'm just sorry." That was one lesson that Ness had been an expert in teaching her; you could be happy for somebody and sad for somebody at the same time, even if it was the same somebodies or the same thing that you were happy and sad about.

On the topic of the drag show, Evelyn was with him until he turned the scenario around, and she showed as much with a bland expression. "Minorly awkward? That's like . . . criteria for me wanting to do something. I can't imagine there being anything that Heinrich was excited about that I wouldn't be up for," she pointed out. "That being said . . . I guess that sort of makes it mean more that he did it." He being not that way meant that dressing up had been probably entirely for her. That was sweet to think about, and she gave a shy little smile. "That's cool."

She nodded, agreeing both that Heinrich and Kir were good ones, that she'd gotten some of the worst of them, and that she should become a lawyer. "That's why I wanted to. That and this whole stupid thing where he was supposed to get custody back when he got out of jail," she added, feeling a bit sour about that still. "I don't know if I could handle it though, honestly. What if I can't fix it and then I just gave myself a front row seat to watch it happen to other people?"

"Quidditch pitch sounds better," she admitted, laughing. "They already give a bunch of us bats and then lob magic murder balls after us, so weapons dealing seems pretty standard." She cocked her head at Gary's tone. "You're worried about me," she realized. "Hugs help a lot. And . . . it's nice that you get mad for me sometimes. People always try to be careful and usually that's better but sometimes I just. . . . I'm pissed off. It feels good to brainstorm completely impossible ideas and feel better about it for a minute."

"Ooh, all those secret names were for you," she said as if the idea was just donning on her as she realized he could probably manage to stay out of prison.

She nodded, thinking he was right about how much she would tell him. She wrinkled her nose but didn't give voice to her other thoughts, wondering if he'd already know by the time she got 'round to telling him. That was weird to think about.

He lived up to the brief of being pissed off with her when the topic turned to her mother. Evelyn opened her mouth to respond and then shut it again, realizing he was right. "I . . . never thought about that," she admitted. She had, of course, known it was crappy of her mom to leave her behind and known that her mother was leaving her to a bad wolf, but she'd had enough sympathy for a woman who'd just wanted to get out that she hadn't blamed her too much. She hadn't considered that her mother knew exactly how dangerous it was and didn't care. She looked down at her hands. "No," she said quietly. "She had another kid with him after that. My mom's a muggle - well, a squib - and I think she felt helpless. She was pregnant before she left us. I just found out about a younger sister this last summer, but I did the math. I think maybe that's why she left. I... I don't know why she left me," she admitted. She bit her lip, irritated at the tears that threatened to betray her. "I always got the feeling she thought I was sort of . . . trashy. For doing that--" Gesture. "--so young. I think she was trying to reassure me, but she told me once that if I was a good girl, it wouldn't happen again. I thought I'd been good the whole time though . . ."

It was hard to imagine saying something like that to CJ. He was good just because he was. Because he was a kid. Because he didn't know that when he was being bad, it was bad. He was learning. Because if an adult hurt him, the adult should have known better. Should have done better.

"I don't know if she believed me that that wasn't the first time, or if that made it better or worse," she admitted.

22 Evelyn Stones A bond of love is worth a thousand swords? 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

August 31, 2020 6:46 PM

Maybe? Exchange rates are not my forte. by Gary Harper

Well, nuts. Evelyn had somehow caught his artful dodge away from that topic. He grimaced a bit as she started apologizing. Fantastic, now he'd let that cat out of the bag. Evelyn knew now and would probably want to talk to Ness about it. She'd have to say where she'd gotten her information, then Ness would be mad at him again. As if he hadn't caused Ness enough grief this year already. His head sunk down to the table.

It was a little nice to hear Evelyn apologizing for sending him after Lyssa though. He lifted his head a bit and gave her a little smile, "Thanks, but don't worry about it. It did make for a bit of an odd term, but... I may not have run into Korraline otherwise. Just..." he glanced around, hopefully no one was close by, "forget I said anything okay? Nothing of it came out at the party, so I'm assuming it's still under wraps. I just stumbled upon them and I don't think they even noticed me. That probably would have gotten really awkward." He assumed they hadn't noticed him anyway based on what had been happening. He was glad Evelyn was being nice about it and everything, but she was taking it oddly far, she was the one that said he should get to know Lyssa better. "I don't know that 'good friends' is the right term." He said with a bit of an awkward grin and turning a little red at the slightly embarrassing thought of the lengths he had gone to try and hang out with Lyssa.

Gary smiled as his point sunk home for her about Heinrich. He smiled back, "It is cool."

A small pang of disappointment hit him as she nodded along with Heinrich and Kir's names. He really didn't want to admit it to himself, but he'd been hoping Evelyn would have added his name to the list. No... she was right, he still had a way to go yet. Someday maybe. Well, he could still try, "As much as I'd like to tell you that you'd go in there and solve all of the world's problems. You know as well as I that wouldn't happen." His expression was serious, but he tried to make it hopeful as well. "When you get into the system, you will probably see terrible things, that is what the system is there to deal with. It will most likely make you cry, it may make you hard and bitter if you let it, but..." he paused and his expression softened, "If you can save one kid from going through what you went through, would it be worth it?" He shook his head slowly, just in case she thought about answering him. "I don't need to know the answer to that question. Only you do, and make sure it's an honest one." he tried to give her a hopeful smile. "Whatever you decide, I'm behind you as much as you need or want me to be."

He nodded along, remembering his conversation with Dorian at the Quidditch game. "Good point," he looked around with mock suspicion this time then lowered his voice, "I'll meet you there once darkness falls. Just let me know what you need."

Gary sat back and nodded, "Yes, I am. As stated before, I'm also proud of you. I want you to be you and to do all the things you want to do, but I don't want you getting hurt any more. You've had more than your fair share of that already." He gave her an uncertain smile, "If there was any of that I could take myself so that it didn't reach you..." his statement drifted off, finished with a bit of a shrug. "I have a few more months of hugs left if you need them. Even after that though, I'm just an owl away for planning."

"Not all of them," He responded to her comment on the names. "Despite my magnificent performance over break, I don't think I could pull off a 'Daisy' very well."

Calm... calm... do not explode in front of Evelyn. Be good. Calm. Gary forced the words through his head as Evelyn talked about her mother. He was not a fan of either of her parents at this point. Finally he cracked a bit. He had to, his face was hard again. "You did not do that." He enunciated each word sharply, and ended with their agreed upon gesture. "You had that done to you. If she did think that, she was wrong. Very, very wrong." He forced his clenched fist to open and looked down at the table. It just wasn't right, none of it. Then a thought struck him, he didn't want to ask, he really didn't, but he had to. "She... isn't going to be a problem, is she?"

2 Gary Harper Maybe? Exchange rates are not my forte. 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 03, 2020 11:59 AM

Love doesn't make for good currency anyway. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn wrinkled her nose. "I'm not sure that it's going to be something they stick on a banner and wave around anytime soon--" that wasn't entirely true with Pride coming up in a few months "--but I don't think it's under wraps necessarily either. Still, you're right that it's best we don't go spreading other people's business around," she acknowledged. Gary seemed to have a deep tendency to make everything else out to be more important than him and that simply wasn't true. While gossiping was bad, opening up to a friend about your feelings about a thing was not gossiping - not necessarily - and he needed to learn to do that! If not with Evelyn, then with somebody. She doubted that either Parker or Heinrich was as prone to pushing his buttons as she was though. She raised her eyebrow at Gary's insinuation . . . what was he insinuating? He and Ness had had a bit of a falling out, sure, but they were still good friends as far as she knew, and that wasn't anything to blush about. It almost seemed like he was suggesting . . . but Ness would have told her if something happened, right? She had a sudden mental image of Ness sitting behind a desk doing Last Week Tonight: Aladren Common Room After Hours. It was almost a fun image if not for the fact that it suggested Evelyn was missing something. "You two never like . . . you didn't end up doing anything, right? You didn't go on a date or anything?" she confirmed a little hesitantly. Perhaps Gary was merely joking because 'good friends' was a funny term to apply to someone you'd tried to date and had had a crush on. Giving into that side of things, she forced a more playful expression. "Okay, so maybe 'good friends' wasn't the goal, but it seems like an apt description of the status quo," she decided.

She felt tense and angry at the system that had let so many people down as Gary confirmed her suspicions of the job she wanted to pursue, but it shifted some as she thought about the impact just one person could make in just one person's life. She smiled a little. "This is why you're one of the good ones, too, yknow," she said quietly. Then, realizing he probably didn't know, she cocked her head. "You are one of the good ones. In case that needs to be made clear. You aren't nearly nice enough to yourself to call yourself that, but you really are." She decided then and there to make another appointment with Mr. Row about school placements.

"A firework show," she said immediately of their clandestine meeting on the Pitch. "Wouldn't that be amazing? Shame we can't be out late enough for it to be really be dark," she frowned, thoroughly distracted by the idea of pretty sparkly things.

She felt smushy at Gary's confirmation both that he was worried about her and proud of her, but she frowned at the rest of his comment. "Don't say that," she said in a dark, hollow voice. "I would never want anyone to go through that. I couldn't . . . no." The streetlight peeking through her blinds and the smell of sweat and alcohol accosted her from another day and she resisted the urge to retch. "I wouldn't want you to take those experiences for me," she said, forcing her eyes to refocus on the moment she was presently in. "Besides, I'm going to be a much better lawyer because of all that," she added with a flat attempt at humor.

Looking him over, she considered the suitability of the name 'Daisy'. "I think you could pull it off. Brown wig and orange dress and you're halfway to the Mushroom Kingdom," she grinned.

She closed her eyes to block out her tears and her emotions, doing her best to let Gary's reassurances hit home with her. She hadn't done it. It had been done to her. Her mother was wrong. She nodded, committing these things to memory because they were just a little hard to believe when she was feeling awash like this. Later, when she was less emotional, she would pick those words apart, turn them over, and examine them for truth. She suspected, knowing Gary, that she would find they were full of nothing but truth, and then she would do her best to write them down over the scars behind her eyes.

When Gary asked about her mother being a problem, Evelyn looked at him again, her eyebrows coming together. "Problem how?" she asked, not sure she understood what he was getting at. "I doubt she's going to the funeral, if that's what you mean. And she's definitely never tried to get custody of me or CJ, so I don't think that's a concern." It was the first times she admitted, even a little, that she would rather live with the McLeods than her mother, but it was easier to acknowledge the validity of that preference in this conversation. "It's been almost six years-- well, almost twelve years and almost six years-- since that stuff happened and she's never tried to like . . . smear my name or something. What are you worried about?"

22 Evelyn Stones Love doesn't make for good currency anyway. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

September 03, 2020 7:32 PM

No it really doesn't. I've heard the more you give away, the more you get. by Gary Harper

Gary nodded along at Evelyn's analysis of the situation. He wasn't going to say anything more about it, that was for sure. He'd had enough of raising people's ire around here. Maybe he should just stop talking all together... no, that would probably make Evelyn mad. He just couldn't win.

Had they ended up doing anything? A date? With Lyssa? No, not really. He shook his head, "No, nothing like that." She seemed... uncertain? "I never really got the chance. There always seemed to be some excuse or something else that needed to be done. Plus I'm bad at this." He looked up at Evelyn again. "Do you think I should have asked?" It seemed awful forward, Evelyn had essentially told him to get to know Lyssa first, and he had tried without much luck, "We did have some fun getting ready for the drag show though. I talked with Parker a little bit about it when we were getting all dressed up. Not a lot though, I guess I was taking things a little to slow." He sighed and sat back in his chair. Then he saw the paper in front of him and grinned, "But that's fine, assuming I can figure this out, I may win out in the end after all."

Gary downright squirmed under Evelyn's heartless onslaught of niceness. He couldn't look at her directly, so he found himself looking at his note once more. She thought he was 'one of the good ones'. Those words settled down somewhere in him and they burned. He'd thought he'd wanted to hear it from her, casually maybe. Just an offhand comment. Something that could be examined as an oddity, and smile at the potential of such a thing and then he could return to reality. She didn't though, in her true YOLO fashion, she'd struck straight to the heart of things, and it hurt.

He wasn't good. He might classify as okay. He wasn't the terrible 'person' that Evelyn's father or this other person was, but good? That wasn't right either. He'd hurt people that he didn't want to hurt. At best he was neutral. Evelyn thought he was good, so even now he was deceiving her. There was another not good thing he was doing. Yet he wanted to be good, to be worthy of such statements. He could only keep trying and hoping. "Thanks," was about the best he could muster with a half-hearted smile.

He grinned at the idea of a firework show. "Maybe we'll have to suggest one for the end of the fair. That could work, right?"

"I know" he agreed resignedly. "I still think you've had enough of them to be an incredible lawyer. But if you're allowed to not want anyone else to go through them, I'm allowed to not want you to suffer them anymore either." He smiled ruefully, "I guess that's what you are looking to do though, make is so people don't need to live through that. You will be a better one because of it."

He blinked a moment at her reaction to the Daisy comment. Then he breathed a huge sigh of relief. "That maybe, sure." His initial thought from the name 'Daisy' hadn't been from a video game, more from an old TV show with an orange car.

Gary shook his head a little uncertainly, "I'm not sure. I guess the custody thing mainly? Now that your father is... no longer with us." That sounded better than other, more fitting ways he could have put it. "I wasn't sure if she may decide to reclaim you both and," he shrugged, "move you off to Australia to raise kangaroos or something?" He smiled, "It would be a shame if you were whisked away again after going through all of that."

2 Gary Harper No it really doesn't. I've heard the more you give away, the more you get. 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 04, 2020 7:50 PM

Well that seems like it's asking a lot. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn didn't want to outright grimace at Gary, but her expression was probably a bit stiff. She couldn't exactly imagine a world where asking Ness out would have been a good idea considering he'd only known about any possible interest for about ten seconds and that news had come in the midst of a . . . disagreement. Evelyn was glad for her own sake as well, since she'd very shortly discovered Ness' interest in Lyssa, and she wasn't sure what that sort of pressure to choose would have done to her sweet Aladren friend. A lot of lists would have been made probably. Her eyebrows did go up at the idea that he'd talked to Parker about it. Until this conversation, she hadn't realized that Gary had had any returned interest, and there he'd gone talking to someone about possibly dating that person's sister's significant other. Of course, Parker may not have known, but still. She was torn between the urge to clap Gary on the back for expressing his emotions and self-advocating, and also just wishing this wasn't a thing that had happened. It made her sad for Ness and Gary both, and what about Lyssa? Did Lyssa know? Should Lyssa know?

"I'm . . . not sure that would have gone well necessarily," she finally admitted, feeling uncomfortable. "Between everything the Opening Feast and the drag show, it sounds like you were just building things up, right?" She frowned a little. "I think Lyssa was already in the picture by then," she admitted.

She frowned a little at the idea that her experiences made her a good lawyer. It made her wonder what the lawyers she'd worked with had been through and if they came across so utterly heartless because they really were heartless or because they just didn't have the experiences that could make them empathise any better than that. "I hope you're right," she said with a small smile.

Her frown returned when the topic turned to her mother but she couldn't help laughing at the idea of raising kangaroos. "No, I think my mother is quite solidly disinterested," she promised, feeling weird that that was any sort of reassurance. "Plus I'm almost seventeen, so she wouldn't have much luck. Maybe with CJ, but she's never tried to see him since she left, and he was barely a year old when she left. She hated him because he was 'too magic'," she said bitterly, remembering the letter both for what it said and what it didn't, despite having burned it up. "I have been thinking about whether or not I want to see her but after this conversation, I don't think I do." She wrinkled her nose, absolutely not having any feelings about that.

22 Evelyn Stones Well that seems like it's asking a lot. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

September 05, 2020 7:53 PM

Yeah, that could be. by Gary Harper

Gary took note of Evelyn's discomfort of the topic at hand. She was right of course, he could see that now. "Yeah," he agreed. "You're right, it probably wouldn't have really gone all that well." Even if he'd gotten a lot of time to spend with Lyssa, going from next to nothing to dating would have been a bit odd, and then he'd be gone and they'd be essentially apart for two years until she graduated.

With a weak foundation… what might have happened if he met Korraline at MENTAL and things had gone like they did at the drag show? Would he have stuck with Lyssa anyway? Would he have dumped her to move on? Neither of those options sounded at all good.

"I think Lyssa was already in the picture by then,"

That was an odd statement. "Yeah," he responded almost as a question, "Of course she was. How else would this have worked out?" Evelyn had been the one to suggest Lyssa, of course she was in the picture.

"I do as well," he gave her a smile. "I like being right. It doesn't happen very often. This one is entirely up to you though, your future is what you make it. The person you become is entirely up to you." He widened the smile, "and so far you've done an incredible job of making yourself into the best person you can be."

Gary nodded, from what he'd gathered of Evelyn's mother so far, it didn't sound like she was losing out on much by not hearing anything from her mother. She may as well be dead too.. his stomach lurched at just the thought and his expression sombered.

"Hey, umm.." he looked around, in the general direction of 'not Evelyn', "I…" he sighed, "Don't think I am trying to tell you how to live your life, but.." he fumbled for words for a moment, "It's… it's just that I lost my Mom… and I can't tell you what I might give to see or talk to her again." He gaze moved from 'not Evelyn' to 'the place Evelyn wasn't'. "You mother certainly hasn't won any awards, but she… she is still your mother and…" he gestured a bit hopelessly, "I dunno." he ended rather weakly.

2 Gary Harper Yeah, that could be. 1404 0 5

Evelyn Stones

September 10, 2020 4:39 PM

Getting a lot though too, I guess. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn grimaced a little, feeling bad for suggesting that it wouldn't have gone well, but not really seeing another alternative. Of course, it seemed that Gary saw something she didn't, because Lyssa's involvement seemed key to it working out. She cocked her head a little, wondering how much about Gary she didn't know. She thought of him as fairly traditional but it almost sounded like he was interested in dating both Ness and Lyssa? Or else he thought Lyssa was going to help him date Ness. That was unlikely. But was it anymore unlikely than him wanting to date them both? "I'm confused," she finally admitted. "How would Ness liking Lyssa help you date Ness?"

She blanched starkly when Gary got out his words piece by piece and understanding came to mind. As it did, guilt made her want to puke. She was complaining about her completely alive mother to someone who would love such a luxury, letting him make her feel better . . . ugh. How could she have forgotten?! There was a part of her that also wanted to react to being told what to do, but she recognized it this time as a coping strategy. If she could find a reason to be angry, then she didn't have to deal with actually considering what was being suggested to her. Gary wasn't even telling her what to do, so she had no room to be angry at anyone but herself. And probably also her mother.

"I'm sorry, Gary," she said quietly, not giving herself the kindness of excuses. For a moment, she toyed with the idea of her own mother's death. What would she think then? There was no fear of harm there, so there was no feeling of freedom to come with that. Just an empty hole where a relationship once was. Perhaps it would be better to try for something. She wanted to hate her mom because she couldn't hate her dad anymore. She wanted to hate her mom because it was easier than hating herself. It was also closer to doing so; how much easier was it to blame this other woman for not standing up to male abusers than it was to be angry with the abusers themselves? Evelyn knew in her head that she shouldn't blame herself, but she couldn't quite help it still. Blaming her mother felt like a justified way to blame herself, without holding that guilt too close. Holding her mother at arm's length was holding her life at arm's length. "Maybe you're right," she finally decided, closing her eyes and rubbing them. "I don't know what I'd even say to her at this point, but I didn't hate her before she left so . . . maybe I could try that again." She took another breath, opening her eyes to look at Gary. "Thank you for being my friend. I'm a big fan of this," she said, gesturing between them with a small, shy smile.

22 Evelyn Stones Getting a lot though too, I guess. 1422 0 5

Gary Harper

September 10, 2020 6:38 PM

It is an odd economy. by Gary Harper

Gary sat for a moment trying to process Evelyn's question. He was confused as well. "Date Ness?" Was the best response he could come up with at the moment. He shook his head a bit, "You mean Lyssa," he suggested. "You thought I should get to know Lyssa better." His brain tried to replay the conversation they had had. Ness? There had been that part with Ness, the realization that maybe Ness had possibly liked him all along and he'd never seen it. That had been... he wasn't even sure what that had been. Realization swept over him... again.

"I'm sorry," he said, almost chuckling. "I didn't tell you, I guess Ness really didn't react. After our 'chat'" He allowed his voice to convey the inflection for the word chat. "I talked to Ness, mostly about the other things we had talked about." He assumed she knew that well enough, "I did drop a hint or so while we talked about..." now his voice wavered a bit and his hands gestured incoherently, "relationship-type stuff." He did his best to not think of some previous bits of their conversation and relationship-type stuff and him and Ness. With any luck he wasn't turning red again. "Anyway, Ness didn't respond to it at all, so... I didn't push it. It probably wouldn't have been a good time anyway." Then he Evelyn a bit of a sheepish grin, "The next best on your list of possible bachelorettes was Lyssa. She wasn't one of the 'snotty' girls" he gave Evelyn a hint of a mischievous grin, "and I just didn't know her that well." He shrugged and added wryly. "I know something about her now."

Oh, he'd done it again. Dangit Gary, when will you stop hurting people? He thought to himself, "No," he pleaded, "I'm sorry. It's not really my business.. it's just..." He had no idea what to think, the fact that Evelyn's mother could have done such a terrible thing was at war with the idea that she was her mother and thus... he didn't know. Mothers were people, they weren't perfect. His own probably may not have been? Possibly. Still, the old ache wore at him, deep down in his soul. Was that the source of his quest for a wife and family? Seeking in some way to undo that loss? Probably. Would it work? Maybe? Should he build all of his hopes and dreams upon it? Probably not. He didn't want Korraline to replace that spot in him that his mother had vacated... he wanted to give someone else what he hadn't had.

Gary gave Evelyn a sad but friendly smile as she seemed to talk herself into the idea. "Let me tell you, writing letters to girls is hard." He held his hand out to her again if she wanted to take it, "But I'm with you all the way if it is something you want to do." The smile turned a bit brighter, "It is an honor and a privilege to be your friend. I am glad that you are mine as well. This.." he replicated the gesture, "Is a good thing."

2 Gary Harper It is an odd economy. 1404 0 5

Gary Harper

Letters can be hard [Any Pecari female that attended the drag show] by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

You're telling me. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Are there better options? by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Whatever you're most comfortable with, friend. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Do wizards have candygrams? by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Yeah but do you want to risk it getting cursed to read wrong? by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Hmmm... probably not? Any other good options? by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Probably honesty. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Well, I'm not opposed to that on principal. by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Give it a shot, my man! by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Like 'Dear Doc, I have a terrible CHA score?' by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

That's an option. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

You don't make it sound like it's a good one. by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Well it isn't me you're trying to win over. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

True, someone else has already accomplished that. by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

It's true and he's real cute. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Yeah, how do I get her to think that about me? by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Just be you, probably. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

But, who am I? by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Gar-bear! by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Rawr? by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

You know what that means in dinosaur, right? by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

No... do you need to enlighten me? by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

*whispers* It means 'as you wish'. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Oh? I may have to remember that for later. by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Is Korraline a dinosaur? by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

I don't think, but we were all in costume. It's good to be prepared. by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

It's nice to know that love is not extinct. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

The bonds of love cannot be broken with 1000 swords by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

A bond of love is worth a thousand swords? by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Maybe? Exchange rates are not my forte. by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Love doesn't make for good currency anyway. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

No it really doesn't. I've heard the more you give away, the more you get. by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Well that seems like it's asking a lot. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

Yeah, that could be. by Gary Harper

Evelyn Stones

Getting a lot though too, I guess. by Evelyn Stones

Gary Harper

It is an odd economy. by Gary Harper

whispers It means 'as you wish'. by Evelyn Stones