Valentine Duell
October 01, 2020 8:07 PM
Summertime fun! [Bonabelle, Mam... Marissa, Giselle] by Valentine Duell
Valentine had been ecstatic once all of the plans had finally fallen into place. Bonabelle arrived at the Duell household for her summer visit and they had a great time! At least Val had a great time, she really, really, really hoped Bonabelle had fun as well. All good things come to an end though, and the time was drawing near for Bonabelle to leave them again. So, naturally they threw a tea party. Val was planning to make this a special tea party.Aunt Giselle had seemed amused by the idea at least and had agreed to help. Val also asked Mama if she wanted to join in the party, but didn't tell her what she and Aunt Giselle were planning. She has asked Papa as well, but he suggested it might be more fun to make it a 'girls only' party.
As the drinks were starting to empty, Valentine decided it was time to announced her surprise. "Before this party wraps up, we have one more thing to do..." she smiled in her Aunt's direction. "Aunt Giselle is going to divine our futures from our tea leaves! Who wants to go first!"
She was eager to hear what Aunt Giselle would say about her upcoming school year, would it be filled with lots more friends? Big parties? Lots of Quidditch victories? More exciting adventures with the game club? However, as hostess, the proper thing was to let the others go first. What would they get? That was almost as exciting!
2
Valentine Duell
Summertime fun! [Bonabelle, Mam... Marissa, Giselle]
1490
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Bonabelle Row
October 01, 2020 9:33 PM
Summer something. by Bonabelle Row
Bonabelle had enjoyed the summer break less before coming to visit Valentine. Since her arrival, she'd been able to laugh and smile a whole lot more than she could when surrounded by the glum faces of adults who still wondered where a certain other Row had gone. Bonabelle had stopped worrying because she simply couldn't take it anymore. If he was going to go off and do his own life, then that's all that could be said about him anymore. She could only hope it was life he was experiencing and not something worse.In any case, she'd had fun. She'd brought her letters from Lorena knowing that Valentine would almost definitely be interested in befriending the new student when the time came, and she'd brought several bows to share as well, hoping to really drive home the point that Val could be friends with everyone but ideally wouldn't leave her behind whilst doing so. When the tea party began and it was the official wrap up activity, Bonabelle tried not to be sad about that. It was nice to have enjoyed such a good time, and it was sort of nice to know she was going to go home and nap a bunch and catch up on reading before the start of the school year, and it was nice to know school would start soon, and it was nice to know she'd see Val again soon, but it was also nice to have put that all on hold for the time she was visiting, too.
She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes when Val suggested Aunt Giselle would be 'divine their futures'. Of course, the diviner herself wouldn't have seen it but Valentine would and that seemed like bad form. It had taken a little getting used to for her to realize that the woman was blind, but it wasn't really that weird once you got used to it. Still, Bonabelle just couldn't take such things seriously, even for all that Val insisted her aunt was the real deal. They had giggled tremendously over the fact that they would each have an aunt/uncle at school (there was no word for that concept as a whole, but it was the same sort of idea) and Bonabelle had briefly wondered if the two would hit it off in any real way, but soon decided the age difference might not make that possible. Regardless, she was excited for Valentine's aunt, Professor Duell she supposed, to be at Sonora, but not because the subject was interesting to her. It was, in her particularly practical view, bogus.
"Do Valentine's first," Bonabelle suggested, not in any hurry to get her own done and wanting to make sure her friend got to enjoy all the excitement of it without any of it being tainted by Bonabelle's less controlled facial expressions. This seemed like such an odd thing for Valentine to have planned, but then, Valentine was usually odd and didn't usually have a plan. So it made some sense that they'd be doing something exciting and dramatic and Bonabelle didn't mind participating for her friend's sake. "I haven't finished my cup yet," she added though, taking another sip to emphasize that she couldn't go first.
22
Bonabelle Row
Summer something.
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Marissa Duell
October 02, 2020 10:53 AM
Melancholy is against tea party rules. by Marissa Duell
The dwindling of the summer brought with it a melancholy, which Marissa thought was more or less to have been expected. It had been wonderful having Valentine home, and lovely to meet one of her friends, but now Bonabelle was leaving and that couldn’t help but make Marissa think of how soon Valentine, too, would be gone again, along with Giselle. Reminding herself that being gloomy about Valentine leaving last year had occurred directly before a great deal of drama had entered her life did not help her order her thoughts in a more productive direction. Correlation was not causation and she was going to miss them both.For now, though, they were going to have a tea party, and it was against the rules of a proper tea party to think about gloomy things during it. Rules were rules, and so when invited to join the girls and Giselle for the event, Marissa had put on her nice lacy blouse, some mascara and nude lipstick, and the slightest touch of perfume and focused on the moment and their soon-to-depart guest.
She smiled approvingly at her daughter when Valentine opened the floor for Bonabelle, as the guest of honor, to be the first to get her fortune told – very polite, very gracious. Mama, she thought, would have been proud of Val – her mother had always valued good manners. Marissa was also proud of her. She always had been, of course, but since Val had gone out into the world, she had proven that she had really absorbed good habits and used them properly. Bonabelle, however, declined, turning the focus back to Valentine, indicating her own unfinished tea as a reason.
“It’s best to take very small sips as you get toward the bottom,” she advised Bonabelle. “That way you don’t get a mouthful of grit at the bottom…though you’re probably more used to drinking tea like this than I am,” she excused herself, recalling that the child was from Ireland. “I grew up on teabags – not much for Giselle to read in those.” She peered at her dregs. “I hope you and I both have lovely calm things in these, Val,” she added.
16
Marissa Duell
Melancholy is against tea party rules.
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0
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Giselle Duell
October 02, 2020 5:34 PM
Yes it is, smile and have fun. by Giselle Duell
Giselle was a terrible seer. How could she have missed such a thing? It was true that Valentine might have been angry at her, but if she'd have known of these plans sooner, she wouldn't have told Valentine about her new teaching position so early. This would have been an excellent time to reveal it dramatically. 'I see a new teacher at your school, she is someone you know..' She sighed inwardly and finished helping to prepare the tea properly for the divination to take place afterwards.During the party, she held her own from a social standpoint, but didn't go out of her way to influence the conversation. It was a new experience, sort of. The last tea party she could remember attending had been with Valentine as well, along with quite a few stuffed animals. That had been... another lifetime ago. So, this was was something new. It was nice and she couldn't help the smile of contentment from clinging to her lips.
As the party drew to a close and Valentine made her announcement, Giselle could help but to hear the eager excitement in the young girl's voice. Her friend, Bonabelle, did not seem quite as enamored by the idea. That was alright, Delphi had made it plain that the majority of witches and wizards did not think very highly of Divination as a whole. From what she had gathered Bonabelle was an Aladren at Sonora, and if she understood the house divisions properly, that meant she may be among the more critical groups of the magical community. That was not a bad trait, and one Valentine could perhaps use in a friend at times.
Giselle accepted Valentine's cup, and sent a small smile towards her sister-in-law. "Lovely calm things? Marissa, you make it sound like life has gone through a little upheaval lately." She was going to have to find some lovely calm things in her sister-in-law's cup... she deserved it. Now though it was time to see what the future held for her niece.
She pulled out her wand, and mostly for the sake of the dramatic flourish, she dimmed the lights. Most diviners liked a brighter light source for tessomancy, but it didn't make any difference for Giselle. With the cup before her, she place the tip of her wand on the rim and began slowly tracing the circle of the cup's rim. This had been the tricky part to figure out. Unlike all of the rest of her classmates, she had been unable simply to look into the bottom of the cup and figure out what was there. Like most subjects she had been forced to learn a work around.
"What do we have here...?" The first image almost caught her off guard, "Valentine, you have an admirer already? No.. wait..." Well, that was interesting, "perhaps.. two?" She raised an eyebrow and smiled just a bit at Valentine and her guest. Her wand continued to circle the cup, the magics sensing deeper down and farther forward. Not much in the way of sensible images, perhaps... "That may be a broom... but it isn't quite..." It was a broom, but it was not in one piece. "Oh, be careful playing Quidditch this year. There may be... difficulty." She may have to talk to Valentine later, when Marissa wasn't around. No point in worrying her sister-in-law over potentially nothing.
Then she reached the bottom of the cup, the end of the school year and it nearly made her gasp, "Drama... danger, villainy..." Then she saw it and she relaxed with a smile. "But it is nothing to worry about. You'll be fine." She recalled what Deputy-Headmistress Skies had said about the school's end of year event for this year. Viewed that that lens, Valentine would be probably more than just fine. She handed Val's cup back to her and faced the other two participant. "So," she asked them, "Who is next?"
2
Giselle Duell
Yes it is, smile and have fun.
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Valentine Duell
October 02, 2020 6:07 PM
Fun is good to have. by Valentine Duell
This was so much fun! Valentine got to do a tea party with almost all her favorite people. There were only a few missing, Papa and Pop, and Lavender, and Phillpe, and Alexander, and... alright, maybe more than just a few. Still this was fantastic, Mama had gotten all dressed up so she had as well, it was almost like the first tea party she and Bonabelle had at the end of their first term.Bonabelle's statement struck her as a little odd. Valentine hadn't thought Bonabelle had that much tea left in her cup, oh well. Maybe she had big exciting things planned for this year and wasn't ready to let them out of the bag yet. Oh well, she eagerly handed over her own cup to her aunt and settled down to listen. This could be very important stuff. The lights dimmed and she resisted the urge to snuggle up a little closer to either Mama or Bonabelle, she wasn't actually sure which she would prefer, but either was really out of the question with how they were seated around the table anyway.
Her eyes went a little wide when Aunt Giselle started out with saying she had admirers. Like... boys? There were boys that liked her? She felt her face getting warm as it turned a bit red. She turned to glance at Bonabelle with a look that was meant to convey a 'Do you know anything about this?' sentiment. The Quidditch prediction made her look at Mama, she may not like the sound of that one, but there was no way she was staying away from Quidditch. She was going to try for Seeker this year and take over Mama's legacy. The last bit sounded exciting? Aunt Giselle didn't seem concerned about it, maybe she was just seeing the grand and exciting ending of whatever game Ness was going to run this year!
She took her cup back and looked into it. She could make out some odd shapes in the leaves, it was like looking at clouds and imagining their shapes. Heh, that one almost looked like one of Bonabelle's bows, or maybe it was a chicken. This was fun! She set her cup down excited to see who would go next.
2
Valentine Duell
Fun is good to have.
1490
0
5
Bonabelle Row
October 03, 2020 10:18 PM
Wow so much fun. by Bonabelle Row
Bonabelle smiled at Valentine's mum, quietly thanking her for the suggestion and smiling a bit mischievously at the realisation that Bonabelle probably knew all of these things already. "I appreciate it," she promised. As much as she loved to see her friend, Bonabelle couldn't pretend that one of her favorite parts about visiting was that she got to see her friend's mom. It was weird but it was nice, having someone to look after you and hang out with you and play with you and be around you. It was unfamiliar and a little weird at first, but mostly just really nice. Bonabelle thought that if Mrs. Duell would let her, she would probably have snuggled right up with her whenever Val did. But she wasn't going to ask about that.She glanced between Professor Duell and Mrs. Duell and Val and wondered at the sort of family dynamics she was only getting a little of the information about but decided that was only fair; she wasn't about to tell the world about her own family problems, although Valentine knew almost as much as she did herself, at least in terms of modern dilemmas.
When Professor Duell spoke about admirers for Valentine, Bonabelle looked back into her own cup, suddenly wanting to smash it. Val was going to go off and get married and have a perfect life and she wouldn't need her anymore, Bonabelle already knew that. That didn't make her like it though, and she wished that she could make Professor Duell take it back. Still, Val looked excited, so Bonabelle smiled a little encouragingly at her, shrugging. She sincerely wasn't sure who it could be, not least because she didn't pay attention to the boys at school. Also because it could be any of them; Val was basically perfect, so why wouldn't they like her?
The rest of Valentine's forecast just got worse and somehow the Teppenpaw still looked excited, which sort of blew Bonabelle's mind. She wasn't sure what part of that was worth getting excited about, but she supposed there was enough of a Pecari streak in her friend that villainy and Quidditch difficulties would sound like fun. Bonabelle made a mental note to write to Jean-Loup for some advice on easy first aid she could practice.
Bonabelle sighed inwardly, her cup finally empty as the show finished. She was pretty sure that Mrs. Duell would not be too keen on letting their guest go last, especially when the point of this seemed to be to entertain the children anyway. "I can," she said, passing her cup to Professor Duell with an almost sharp movement. She grimaced at how much it revealed. "Sorry," she muttered. "Nervous." She took a breath, forcing her rumbling stomach to settle some. It wasn't nerves at the predictions, she realised, but somehow it was too. She was torn between thinking the whole thing was bogus and being terribly upset by Valentine's tea leaves, so it was hard to say what she really thought about the whole practice. "What's my earl grey tell you, ma'am?" she asked lightly, aiming for humor.
22
Bonabelle Row
Wow so much fun.
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5
Marissa Duell
October 07, 2020 3:30 PM
That's the spirit. by Marissa Duell
“Oh, really?” said Marissa, smiling too, when Giselle alluded to the past few months in a light tone. It was a relief, seeing Giselle able to joke a bit about it all; Marissa had spent a lot of the past six months worried about how her sister-in-law might be handling everything, even with the legal issues resolved. At this point, after all, Giselle had at least thought that every person she had ever trusted had betrayed her – for years, that Andrew and Marissa had simply abandoned her, and then all at once, she’d found out that Lia really had deliberately treated her poorly…. “Can’t imagine why I might think that.”She watched with interest as Giselle did the magic that allowed her to perform tea leaf reading without seeing the leaves, at least in the way Marissa could. She was quickly distracted by the fortunes being read for her daughter, though. She merely raised an eyebrow at the two admirers, privately glad that her husband hadn’t joined the girls’ party – she was not terribly concerned about any admirers Valentine had or anyone Valentine might admire, not while Val was, well, twelve, but she suspected Andrew would be overprotective right from the start. Well, it was fair, considering he’d married a classmate…Her eyebrows rose in concern, though, when Giselle said Quidditch might go poorly, and she was initially a bit concerned about drama and danger, before she put together Giselle’s tone and the ‘villainy’ bit. Villainy was a strong word…for things that didn’t involve a certain kind of drama, anyway. They had had enough of real villains for a while. “Thinking of trying to introduce Sonora to the theater, Valentine?” she asked her daughter.
Bonabelle offered her cup up, but seemed anxious about it, so Marissa offered her an encouraging smile. She had to remind herself not to mother the girl too much, at least unless it involved addressing her and Valentine at the same time; somehow she felt as though Bonabelle needed a bit of mothering. She wanted to assure her that it wasn’t anything to take too seriously (she thought it had to be unpredictable and imprecise even with a genuine Seer doing it) but refrained out of deference to Giselle and Val’s atmosphere, assuming her sister-in-law would be tactful in any case.
16
Marissa Duell
That's the spirit.
147
0
5
Giselle Duell
October 07, 2020 6:12 PM
Oh.... Interesting.... by Giselle Duell
Giselle smiled at Valentine's reaction to her reading, the girl hadn't actually spoken and that had been an event itself. The reactions from the rest of the table similarly quiet, it was good for the mood. She could tell the other participants were shifting around a bit, small sounds allowed her to imagine what was happening and once she handed the cup back to Valentine, she could get another quick glimpse or two as glances went back and forth around the table.She gave Bonabelle a warm smile as she accepted the cup from the girl. There was a certain inflection in her voice and her movements were a bit uncertain. Bonabelle blamed it on being nervous, and Giselle thought she was probably right, but perhaps not for the same reason. So she simply nodded in acceptance and placed the cup in front of her. What would she find here? What did she want to find? Sometimes that was a better question to ask before getting started. If Bonabelle was a skeptic, she would like to find something that may open her mind to a wider view of what magic could do... in as pleasant of a way as possible.
Giselle took a breath and released it slowly, then placed her wand upon the rim of Bonabelle's cup and began to trace out it's circle. "Hmm... I see.... " Those were strange symbols, and combined strangely, "I see, a meadow, where two brothers meet." Strange, she had thought Valentine said that Bonabelle was an only child. The dice symbol was plainly there, it usually meant a chance or opportunity, but it didn't fit in quite right like this, it must mean something else. Perhaps farther... she kept her wand circling, "There is a chance of reunion." That had to be it. She hoped at least, the rest of the cup was devoid of secrets.
She sighed and handed the cup back with a apologetic smile, "The leaves reveal what they want. I'm sorry there wasn't anything more than that." Hopefully it meant something to the girl, or would mean something to her in the future. Next she turned to her sister-in-law. "Your turn now Marissa, are you ready?"
2
Giselle Duell
Oh.... Interesting....
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Valentine Duell
October 07, 2020 6:40 PM
Fun is very interesting, I agree. by Valentine Duell
Bonabelle didn't' seem to know what Aunt Giselle was talking about with her admirers. She'd just have to keep an eye open this year. However, she did see Mama's reaction to the Quidditch prediction. If Mama said she couldn't play Quidditch this year because of this... she'd... well, she wouldn't play Quidditch this year, but she'd be really mad about it. She may even go so far as to write an unhappy sentiment in her diary about it, and then scribble it out because she'd feel bad about writing it. But then, Mama asked about theater."I was wondering if it meant our D&D group at school," she responded, "But theater could be exciting as well!" She turned to Bonabelle, "Do you want to do some theater this year?"
Bonabelle didn't exactly look like she was enjoying herself. That made Valentine want to give her a hug. She looked like she was trying though, so that was good. Maybe the tea party had been a bad idea. Valentine was well aware that Bonabelle wasn't exactly what you would call a 'people person'. That was fine, everyone was different, but she still needed to learn how to interact with people. After all, it was Bonabelle who had suggested at their first meeting to learn how to properly argue with people. So, Valentine was bound and determined to get Bonabelle to the point where she was at least mildly comfortable socializing with at least a few people. If she had to hold her hand the whole way through, so be it.
Aunt Giselle's reading of Bonabelle's cup was... odd? It didn't sound much like Bonabelle's future at all. It was about some brothers and Bonabelle hadn't told her about any brothers. Granted, she hadn't told her about her birthday either so.... who knows what other secrets her friend was still keeping from her. She smiled as Bonabelle got her cup back, "What do you make of that?"
2
Valentine Duell
Fun is very interesting, I agree.
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Bonabelle Row
October 12, 2020 5:35 PM
I wish we had just stuck with tea. by Bonabelle Row
Bonabelle sort of half smiled at Val trying to get her to do things and shrugged noncommittally. "I'd love to watch you do theatre," she said with a smirk as she tried to worm her way out.When Val's aunt begun reading Bonabelle's cup, Bonabelle reminded herself to be polite. She knew it would probably be vague because that's how Divination worked, didn't it? It was easy to read Val's fortune - the woman knew her niece fairly well and anyone who knew Valentine could safely assume she had admirers and assume she was going to do something dangerous with Quidditch and assume that something villainous would happen because that's what Sonora did at the end of every school year (okay, so charity fairs weren't really villainous but still) - but reading Bonabelle's would be harder. It would be vague, the sort of woo woo that street magicians attempted. I see something about a relative who's name starts with an R, they would say, and then they would ask for your money to tell them more. And that was it right? That was the only reason that Bonabelle didn't like all this was because it couldn't be real and if she thought that hard enough then maybe it would be true.
Two brothers on a meadow. It meant nothing. A reunion. It meant nothing.. It didn't mean anything and it wouldn't mean anything because this was stupid. It didn't matter that Uncle Killian had left fairly abruptly at the same time as Bonabelle, a grim expression on his face and not quite looking at her. And it didn't matter that her dad was his brother. And it didn't matter because none of it could mean anything and it was fine and reunions were all well and good but she didn't even know about any specific meadows and it didn't mean anything.
Valentine was talking. Valentine was asking her a question. And Bonabelle rearranged her face into something like a smile. It was the face she had worn into the bank a lot of times when her dad needed a loan, or into the store when she was supposed to buy a few pieces of candy while her dad emptied out some shelves in the back. Just a friendly smile with a purpose. Smoke and mirrors.
"I'm not sure," she said, which was true. "I don't have any brothers," she added, which was also true. "I'll keep an eye out though," she concluded with a smile towards Professor Duell, a woman she suddenly hated. And it was true, because she couldn't help glancing out the window as if to find an owl arriving with news of a reunion right then and there.
"Your turn," she said to Mrs. Duell as she pushed herself away from the table. "I'm just going to run to the toilet."
22
Bonabelle Row
I wish we had just stuck with tea.
1488
0
5