Riddle me this (tag Bonnabelle) on Library

Jean Wolfe

August 19, 2020 7:25 PM

Riddle me this (tag Bonnabelle) by Jean Wolfe

Jean-Loup had made a discovery! A really cool discovery! With words and everything! Following their Mr. Fish Eggs conversation, he had looked up ‘roe’ and ‘row’ in a dictionary. Killian was not only a homophone for fish eggs but his actual spelling was also a method of propelling a boat, a line of objects or horizontal entry in a table, or an argument (but that one was possibly pronounced differently because of course it was). That wasn’t all though… He had, after a fashion, jotted his findings down in a short note. It had been a little bit messy, trying to find a way to include everyone he wanted to, and exclude those who didn't fit. He wasn't saying that part was perfectly done but it was just a bit of fun...

Dear Mr. Line of Objects,

A puzzle for you. Why, of the teacher staff (include you - you have class, and Katey teaches to me) is Professor Xavier the one who is different? Librarian half included.

Hope your love life goes well (this is unrelated well-wish).

J-L.

He folded it over, addressed the outside to ‘Kill-yon’ and tucked it in his pocket, ready to give Choux later. He finished up the translation he had actually been doing when he got distracted, and went to return both the regular and the medical dictionary to their places.

As he made his way out, he spotted a small human in one of the aisles, craning her neck upwards. Most of the aisles had ladders for reaching the upper shelves, but this one appeared not to. He recalled that he had seen one of the ladders limping quite badly, so he supposed it had been sent away to be fixed. He supposed it had been sent to the groundskeeper… He double checked the token in his pocket, but there was not indication that Katey Saule had tried to call him back. He wasn’t sure how you cured a ladder of a limp anyway, and whilst he was here to learn, he suspected it was better off going to the groundskeeper.

“Hello,” he smiled pleasantly, “Do you need tall help?”

13 Jean Wolfe Riddle me this (tag Bonnabelle) 1506 1 5

Bonabelle Row

August 19, 2020 7:43 PM

Are you a sphinx? by Bonabelle Row

Okay, so Bonabelle wasn't taking CATS this year, or for four more years, but there wasn't any harm in preparing now, was there? She'd be darned if she was going to fail those tests and it seemed like too much was at stake to put off until later. The problem was that she couldn't really study ahead when so much of the theory was advanced enough that it wouldn't make a lot of sense anyway. When people said to study smarter, not harder, they had it half right; wasting time studying things she'd have to learn all over again later didn't seem like a good way to study at all. Instead, she was going to get to work on some of the practical skills that she could develop now.

She was well aware that her own educational background - that is that she had none - was not unusual. She'd learned to read and write at the hands of her father, but that was about it. The rest of her education was by observation, and she was a slow reader. If she only had four years to get ready for her first set of tests (and only two more years after those ones!), and only one more year before she was going to be adding elective courses, then she needed to get her academic game on.

Acknowledging that her own flesh and blood was one of the best resources in the school for such things had been the reason she'd finally been willing to go see her uncle, but it turned out that they actually got along pretty well, if in near silence about as often as anything else. He'd suggested a few ideas for her to practice and given her some college applications to look at so she could get a sense of what the prompts were going to be like for application essays, and she was feeling like she at least had a plan now.

Unfortunately, some of the books that she suspected were going to be helpful to her were up too high for her to reach. Was this by design? She supposed that it was mostly older students - and thus, often taller students - who were interested in reading about the longstanding political relationship between magical and muggle populations in various countries, but still. If she was going to be improving her reading and writing skills whilst also preparing for scholarly competition amongst peers with varying background, she was definitely going to give herself the leg up that her father hadn't been able to. Plus, the way that Uncle Killian talked about muggle stuff did make it seem a bit interesting. It was a wonder he hadn't become a liaision of sorts; Bonabelle hadn't known a thing about Muggles before Sonora and now she at least knew that electricity existed (if not what it was) and what phones were (if not what they could do other than call people), so maybe he was acting as a liaision already.

She was straining to see to the top shelf, wanting to make sure that the books she wanted were there before deciding whether she wanted to try a levitation spell or the librarian first, when a younger older person approached. He wasn't really an adult, but he was more of an adult than the students at Sonora, so he counted anyway. She nodded, tossing her hair and shaking her salmon-colored hair bow.

"I can't quite see what they are," she admitted. "Is there one about the United Kingdom at all?"

22 Bonabelle Row Are you a sphinx? 1488 0 5

Jean Wolfe

August 19, 2020 9:08 PM

I am certainly mixed up by Jean Wolfe

“Hm, I search,” he informed her. His eyes stumbled slowly across the books, as he didn’t trust himself to skim. He did jump straight to ‘R’ for Le Royaume-Uni without even really realising, although he wasn’t sure if the books were alphabetical by country or by name, or sorted by some other factor such as chronology or the type of politics they dealt with. Unsurprisingly, ‘R’ did not yield results for ‘United Kingdom,’ and he spread his net wider, feeling slow and a little self-conscious.

“I can also make for you a… standing thing,” he gestured vaguely, his hand hovering at a decentish step up from the ground. “If you prefer to read for yourself,” he offered. He did not want to assume that the girl would want to stand on anything he had conjured - placing your trust in someone else’s magic could be a big thing to ask of another person, and although he was more than confident in his conjuring he didn’t want to pressure her into doing that when she’d never even met him. Personally, he thought it was the better option - he definitely trusted it more than his ability to search out books in English. Also, whilst he could do nothing to solve the consequences of his own poor reading, he was more than equipped to help if she fell off a box (or if the box fell out from under her). Had he been able to speak French, he might have joked about that, but he wasn’t confident that, in English, it wouldn’t accidentally come off as ‘I don’t care if I injure you.’ It would also, he supposed, be a bit embarrassing, as he had to take people to Katey to approve his treatments, and admitting he was responsible for their injuries would have been awkward. Not that he thought that would happen anyway.

“Or maybe ask that a chair comes?” he offered, looking around. They were quite far from most of the seating - certainly further than the girl was likely to have wanted to drag a piece of furniture - but he thought he could get one to them without too much bother.

“It is unfair that many of the spells for helping with being too small… you will only learn when you are not small anymore?” he suggested, hoping that made as much sense as it had in his head.

13 Jean Wolfe I am certainly mixed up 1506 0 5

Bonabelle Row

August 19, 2020 9:18 PM

Now that's my language. by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle watched the person search with an amused tweak of her lips. She was not under any impression that knowing multiple languages - as was fairly obvious from his accent - made one inferior, but since she was here to improve her own literacy, it was amusing to find an older student who maybe had an even harder time than she did.

"Either way," Bonabelle said with a shrug when the person ('boy' seemed wrong, but so did 'man') offered to make her a standing thing. At first, she thought he was about to get on all fours and be a stepstool for her, but then she decided that just because that was about all the help she would have been able to offer someone didn't mean that was all the help they could offer her. Her mouth tweaked again when he suggested asking a chair to come help. "I'm not so good at asking for help," she admitted wryly, both because it was true and because it could not be true and still be funny in this context. "A standing thing would be good."

She gave all the way into a laugh - something that wasn't necessarily out of character but was certainly uncommon - when he pointed out the problem with learning spells to not be small after you were already not small. "I'm not sure I'll ever be as big as you," she pointed out. Of course, she didn't know how tall her mother was, so she couldn't say. "I think my dad is about your height though. And my Uncle Killian." She cocked her head, considering. Yes, they were very close. "I'm Bonabelle Row," she added, extending a hand to shake.

22 Bonabelle Row Now that's my language. 1488 0 5

Jean Wolfe

August 19, 2020 9:41 PM

Excellent(e) by Jean Wolfe

Jean-Loup glanced between the first year and the shelf, trying to estimate what sort of standing thing would be useful, and then stepping to the side to make room for its conjuration. With a swirl of his wand and a muttered incantation, he produced a small boxy thing on two levels - a little bit like half a podium, so that it was easy for the first year to step up onto it, but also good for getting a decent bit of height.

“Ah,” he stated with clear recognition when she introduced herself, shaking the offered hand. It was strange to hear how casually she referred to her father as if he wasn’t a great burning hole in the universe that was hurting people. He did not assume that this meant there was no hurt, only that she trusted him less with her feelings than Killian did, which was entirely reasonable. Still, he let the reference pass over him as if it did not register, as that was the polite thing to do when it was how she wanted the subject treated. Instead of getting a sad look for her absent father she got a beaming smile in recognition of being Killian’s niece (and at the fact that she offered handshakes, which was sort of funny and adorable on a tiny eleven year old girl). He tried not to be surprised by her face. He had seen her around, and wondered about her, in that her appearance, her general colouring and so on, reminded him a little of Émilie. He supposed that as well as an absent father she must have a mother of some kind, but presumably one who was not in the picture. He had not connected those dots when Killian had mentioned her, hadn’t thought about who or where the mother was, but the one assumption that he had made was that Killian’s niece would not look so vastly different to him. He thought that Dorian would possibly be very disappointed in him for that and that he ought to try to do better, even if it was just inside his own head.

“Pleased to meet you. I am Jean-Loup,” he stated, deciding to leave out his surname as it was probably less relevant than hers (he imagined his parents’ shock at that idea) and his first name was usually more than enough for people to manage. “And Killian is a little more short than me,” he added with an amused smile, “Close though,” he acknowledged.

“For the books… I know it is not the same,” he prefaced carefully, “But there is… the England books are not the same as le Royaume Uni,” he reiterated carefully, “But are also relevant to you?”

13 Jean Wolfe Excellent(e) 1506 0 5

Bonabelle Row

August 19, 2020 10:03 PM

Brilliant! by Bonabelle Row

"Thank you!" Bonabelle said happily. Well that was a cool spell! She hadn't quite caught the incantation but committed to memory that such things were possible at least. The person - Jean-Loup - looked very excited to have found a relative of Uncle Killian's, and it was sort of nice to know that he wasn't excited purely because it gave him an in with the guidance counselor. He was excited the other way around. Most people had been generally pretty okay about Bonabelle's kin having a hand in their futures, but there were the jokes, of course, and she preferred to get those out of the way. In this case, however, she thought that Jean-Loup was excited because Uncle Killian was someone he enjoyed as a human. That was a nice change of pace and she found herself immensely curious. Who was the man Jean-Loup knew? Apparently, he was a little bit more short than Jean-Loup was. It was weird to think of looking down at someone who seemed very tall to Bonabelle.

She climbed up the steps Jean-Loup had conjured and smirked a little at his question. "Yes, they are different, and yes, they are relevant to me," she agreed, glancing up to grab one of the ones with "England" in the title. There were a few that had either "United Kingdom" or else specific countries included therein and she grabbed those too. As she perused the rest, she looked at Jean-Loup a bit sideways. "What is Uncle Killian like?" she asked. "I haven't known him for very long, and I don't know him very well, except that he always smells like bread." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Jean-Loup," she repeated. "You're the one that makes him go running."

22 Bonabelle Row Brilliant! 1488 0 5

Jean Wolfe

August 19, 2020 10:58 PM

Shiny? by Jean Wolfe

She had accepted his help! He was aware that she had maybe meant her comment about things that mattered a lot more than little wooden boxes, and that were harder to talk about. He wanted to try to convince her that maybe it was a good idea to ask for all types of help, especially from her uncle who very much wanted to give it, but he was pretty sure he only got one shot at saying that right and he didn't want to mess it up. He was also conscious that things Killian told him were somewhat private, and that he had to take care how he treated using them here.

"You're welcome," he smiled. When he thought about things that made him happy, he thought about his patronus - he pictured it literally sitting curled inside his chest where the warm feelings went. It was wagging its tail approvingly in spite of its wildness as she climbed and perused the books, and he wanted to give her all the tiny stairs and all the books and all the help and maybe a cookie. Both because she was a small human who needed all those things but also because she was Killian's small human and he owed it to him.

"Correct," he laughed, when she asked if he had made Killian run. Or perhaps the more accurate phrase was 'coupable' because that sounded like an accusation. "Does he complain very much about this?" he asked with a grin. He had answered this easier part first as he pondered her other question, again wondering how much he could say. How much was too private, either to Killian or to himself, and how much was really suitable to tell her, even if he suspected she knew more about the bad parts of life than most people her age - he didn't need to add his own to hers.

"He is good," he started with the most fundamental truth he could find about Killian, "I don't meet many trustable adults, but Dorian said he is good, and really tries to help. So I tried, and it turned out to be true. I am very glad that I know him. And you are right about the bread," he added, to lighten the tone again, "But at least if we need presents for him, there is always cheap and easy idea, yes?"

13 Jean Wolfe Shiny? 1506 0 5

Bonabelle Row

August 20, 2020 11:54 AM

Smart! by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle wasn't sure why Jean-Loup was looking at her like that. She'd seen him elsewhere on campus and hadn't ever thought of him as a particularly smiley person. It wasn't that he was anti-smiles or anything, but he didn't seem like someone who would be smiling pleasantly just for fun either. But he was nice and helpful and that was good. She smiled when he laughed about taking Uncle Killian running; he had a good laugh. She couldn't help rolling her eyes at his question, although she kept a pleasant enough expression herself to show that it was in jest.

"Uncle Killian? Complain? Hardly," she told him. "He tries very hard to not look sore and sometimes he makes a grumpy face when he makes tea and mutters under his breath about how he'd rather keep his bread belly." Jean-Loup was grinning and she couldn't help grinning herself. It was nice to find people who loved her family. She'd found herself often thinking that it would be nice if Uncle Killian was her dad and it was 'Uncle Lorcan' who was missing, but that was not to be the way of things. She couldn't see Uncle Killian doing anything so irresponsible as bringing her into the world in the first place. But it was nice to find someone who, in a strange way, maybe felt like family too. Wait . . . was that too literal? She gave Jean-Loup another subtle once over, wondering whether Uncle Killian wanted this guy to be Uncle Jean-Loup. She was lousy with ages, but she was pretty sure they were far apart. They were both grown ups though.

This question battered itself around in her head as Jean-Loup talked more about Uncle Killian. Adults were weird, because it could be the sort of thing that he said because they were friends, or colleagues, or super smecret wuvvers. Gross. Cute, but gross. There was another boy in what Jean-Loup said though, so maybe he was with somebody else? And referring to someone as an adult seemed like a good hint at what he thought of him, so maybe Uncle Jean-Loup was not to be. Meh. "Is Dorian your husband?" she asked, figuring it was best to just ask. The name rang a bell though . . . "Oh! Dorian the head boy?" Bonabelle was lousy at paying attention to other people and their lives, so she couldn't even be sure whether this was something she ought to know. It was highly possible that Jean-Loup and Dorian had gone about snogging right in front of her and she wouldn't have noticed if she was within arm's length of a book.

"Adults are terrible," she agreed with a frown, climbing down from the step stool and looking up at Jean-Loup. She was a confident child and it had not yet struck her that she was a child at all. "Except maybe Uncle Killian," she agreed. "You seem alright, too." She smiled again at the idea of gifts. "Do you know when his birthday is?" she asked, remembering her conversation with Valentine. "He didn't get to have a good Christmas and I think we should give him a good birthday."

22 Bonabelle Row Smart! 1488 0 5

Jean Wolfe

August 20, 2020 6:38 PM

It is such a word playsome day! by Jean Wolfe

Jean-Loup suppressed a little grin as Bonnabelle pointed out that Killian wasn’t the complaining type. It was interesting seeing him from another perspective. Jean-Loup thought of him as honest and straight-forward, but he could equally recognise the signs, now that Bonnabelle pointed it out, that maybe Killian would keep things to himself to keep from hurting others. Maybe he’d never noticed because he was just too used to thinking that was normal.

“He tells me he wants to run,” he mimed being wounded by the revelation that this was untrue. “I assume that I do it with his permission. Hmm,” he pretended to consider the issue, “Maybe more running… means eat more bread but not get more fat? You think we can put it like this and convince him? I would like that I make him happy, not grumpy.”

He was a little surprised when she asked about Dorian. He just assumed everyone knew, given how very blatantly not a secret they had made it. However, he then recalled she had not been here for the ball last year, which he supposed had been the biggest moment of making it public. He was affectionate with Dorian when he saw him, but they didn’t exactly make out in full view of the rest of the school. MARS was better for that. Or round the back of the Quidditch pitch on days when the team wasn’t training. Or lesser used sections of the library.

“Dorian is headboy, yes. He is not my husband yet - he is my boyfriend,” he explained, unable to help the smile, real and goofy and awkward, that came unbidden every time he got to admit that outloud.

“Thank you,” he stated sincerely, when she said he seemed alright, aware that he had just been given a very high form of praise. “I forget that I am an adult sometimes. I do not yet feel like one,” he admitted, “But I do try to be good.” He sat down on his box step so as to loom slightly less. “I think I look at it like this… It can be sensible to not trust very easy. But it is still...uh…good plan to...see? To investigate and choose if there is a trustable adult, not just assume they will all be bad, yes?” he asked, feeling that his lack of words was making this clumsily put at best and utterly incomprehensible at worst. “Especially when you have not- do not know how to give the help to yourself.

“I would like to do this, but I do not know,” he stated regarding Killian’s birthday. He was sure that information was written down in a file somewhere in the hospital wing because the staff had medical records and he was also sure that sneakily using them to find out Killian’s birthday was frowned upon. His go to would have been asking someone who knew him, but here he and Bonnabelle were both trying that. He would have assumed that family would know - maybe not a niece, but had Killian’s brother not been such an absent waste of space (funny how you could be both…) he would have been the obvious person- ah! “Oh, you write with your grandparents much?” he asked carefully, trying to remember whether Killian had mentioned this. Killian had mentioned seeming to have a good relationship with his own parents, but it seemed like he and Bonnabelle didn’t know each other well, so he wasn’t sure whether she knew her grandparents or not.

13 Jean Wolfe It is such a word playsome day! 1506 0 5

Bonabelle Row

August 20, 2020 6:57 PM

You're doing very well! by Bonabelle Row

Bonabelle laughed again, enjoying the sensation more and more. "I don't think I'm going to tell my uncle there's a way to not get 'more fat'," she said. Then, realizing it might be a language thing, she continued: "That means you think he is already a little bit fat."

Jean-Loup's expression when he spoke of his not-husband-yet was intriguing to Bonabelle. She couldn't imagine looking like that when she talked about someone. It reminded her of her conversation with Val at orientation about wondering whether they were meeting the boy they'd marry already. Bonabelle was pretty well convinced that boys were useless and girls were not far behind, but she couldn't be sure. To look so enamored though . . . she couldn't imagine being struck silly by another human.

She was quiet as Jean-Loup explained his philosophy on trusting adults. It seemed like a very risky position to take, but she supposed that it might be different if she weren't generally at the whim of the adults in her life. "I know how to help myself," she responded a little shortly. That was the one thing she was good at and nobody would take it away. "That's why asking for help is hard. I'm . . . out of practice." Yes, that was why. Her chin came up a little defiantly as she spoke but it came down again as the topic turn to Uncle Killian's birthday.

Her eyes widened. "Ooh, you're brilliant!" she beamed. "They write to me a bit, but I never know what to say. This will be a thing to say!" An appreciative and impressed smile found its way to her face. "You're going to make my life a lot easier, you know that? Where do I find you when I get the answer? You're . . . in the Hospital Wing?"

22 Bonabelle Row You're doing very well! 1488 0 5

Jean Wolfe

August 20, 2020 10:29 PM

Can I stop now? by Jean Wolfe

Jean-Loup made a frustrated sound deep in the back of his throat and leant his head back against the bookcase.

“This is two times now that I call him ‘fat’ on accident,” he sighed. He didn’t even think he’d made the same linguistic mistake both times, which made it harder to learn. Maybe the lesson was to just keep his mouth shut about anything that wasn’t simple and straightforward? “Okay. I retire from speaking English. Stop before someone is injured. Seulement français. Vous devrez apprendre,” he informed her. Only French. You (plural) will have to learn.

“Okay,” he agreed, when she stated she knew how to help herself. There was a little bit of fight, some jaw-jutting defiance against the very suggestion that she might not, and he recognised the signs of a button being pushed. Perhaps for her telling her that she might need help was like telling him he would benefit from getting his head examined. Though he still firmly believed he did not need that. However, he could recognise that there were certain parts Dr. Greene could poke around in without it mattering to him. He could let her sign off her pieces of paper, he could believe she would not declare him crazy or interfere in his love life. He wasn’t quite sure how well that paralleled with an eleven year old who he was pretty sure did need help, at least sometimes. She called it just being out of practise though. That he could work with. “Well, if you ever think you want some practise, you can try with me,” he offered, “Maybe you don’t need to really need help even. But it’s good to practise, yes?” he asked cautiously, hoping he wasn’t doing as bad a job with this as he did with dealing with the subject of Killian and exercise.

Brilliant sounded a lot like brillant but he suspected this was either a false friend or some kind of slang use, as he was not literally shining and radiant. She seemed pleased with him though, and he could recognise a compliment even when he couldn’t understand it.

“I will be very happy if I do that,” he smiled, when she stated he would make her life so much easier. For someone who didn’t want help, she seemed awfully happy when she got it, and really very accepting of it so far, “Yes, for my working days, I am in the hospital wing,” he informed her, briefly detailing what they were, and the times he was usually off campus.

13 Jean Wolfe Can I stop now? 1506 0 5

Bonabelle Row

August 21, 2020 10:16 PM

Yeah, prolly. by Bonabelle Row

"English is overrated," Bonabelle promised, cocking her head curiously at Jean-Loup. He seemed to care very much. She smiled a little at him though because he was easy to smile at. "I don't speak other languages though, so I usually just don't talk."

She narrowed her eyes at him when he suggested she try practicing asking for help with him. It wasn't a thickly veiled ploy, even if it was a fairly clever one. It did raise her suspicion though, just because it sounded like something people say to kids and she didn't need to be talked to like she was a kid. "That's a very adult thing to suggest," she pointed out. It wasn't like it was actually a bad idea, but she still hated it. "Do you like asking for help?" She didn't really demand to know, but it was clear that it was a challenge, albeit a relatively friendly one.

His schedule was committed mostly to memory - she figured he would probably be accessible to her most of the time as he would be there when students might be there so it would be fine if she forgot a day anyway - and she nodded. "I'll write today. You can sit with me if you want," she added, gesturing with her head at the table they'd debated getting chairs from. "There are more things to whack your head into if you wanted to use English some more."

22 Bonabelle Row Yeah, prolly. 1488 0 5

Jean Wolfe

August 23, 2020 4:06 AM

Onto word play in French by Jean Wolfe

"I agree," Jean-Loup nodded, when she said English was overrated, even though he was surprised to hear her say so. He also thought 'over-rated' implied some general high-ish level of rating, or rather the idea of English being over-rated failed to account for how low he was already setting his opinion of it, but he wasn't about to attempt explaining that. English seemed to be her one and only language though, and it was the language of everyone around her, so he was not sure why it would prompt her not to speak. "Here, I think you will get on okay if you speak English," he stated, "You speak different than Killian?" he half asked, half stated. He was pretty sure she was a heck of a lot easier to understand. He wasn't sure whether it was because she was a child, and therefore said things more simply, but he also thought the way she spoke was clearer.

He seemed to have misspoken with his idea of asking for help though, certainly she was looking at him with suspicion. He had also gone from being alright for an adult to having the latter word levelled at him like it was an accusation of wrong doing in and of itself.

"Usually the asking itself, I do not like so much," he admitted, deciding that the best thing to do mighy be to simply provide the honest answer to her question, seeing as he had no idea how to answer the accusation of talking like an adult. "But sometimes good things come. Like taking bad tasting medicine - it is normal to not enjoy the process, but good to do anyway," he explained.

He smiled at her invitation to both sit with her and, er, 'whack' his head. It was a word that sounded how it meant so he understood, though he thought they were metaphorically talking about English hitting his brain. Check him out, he was riddling and understanding metaphor all in a single day. Dorian, with all his poetry books and philiosophy was going to have to take a step back.

He considered the fact that he had just tidied up his translations. He was done with that particular bit of work, and could have headed back to the hospital wing. Not that there were any emergencies right now, but he could go over the work he'd been doing with Katey or probably find something to do. On the one hand, that felt like the responsible thing from the point of view of being a dedicated intern. On the other, he wasn't sure how many (more-or-less) grown ups Bonnabelle extended the privelege to of sitting with her. Of course, the longer he hung around, the greater the odds that he would accidentally call her fat or say something unreasonably grown up (both entirely by accident, of course) but he thought he ought to at least try.

"Okay. Alons-y, Bonnabelle," he agreed, following where she was heading. "Hey," he added, brightening as he noticed something, "Your name is words in French. Bonne-et-belle, means good and pretty," he observed.

13 Jean Wolfe Onto word play in French 1506 0 5