Alexander Pierce-Beales
November 22, 2020 7:23 PM
I am tagging you [Valentine] by Alexander Pierce-Beales
Alexander was pretty sure that not being in classes with Valentine would make it harder to get to know her, and he wasn't wrong so far. It made him anxious because he thought he could maybe really like his bubbly housemate but he wasn't going to have a shot of getting to really find out if all he had to go on was that she was cute. He thought Sadie was cute too and he didn't know her that well either. Mab was kinda cute when she tried too. It was like someone had walked into his brain and suddenly made him see things he hadn't seen before and it was weird and he didn't know what to do about it. But Valentine was easier to talk to than Sadie, and she wasn't his sister, so her cuteness seemed like it mattered more. Maybe it wasn't that she was necessarily easier to talk to than Sadie, but that he had to do less of the work with her; she mostly just talked to everyone. Sadie was harder to get to know. Where Valentine was the bumblebee superhero, Sadie was more like Oracle. Except not paralyzed.He was doing his best to be casual, hanging out in the Common Room and making himself available if, for some crazy reason, Valentine walked by AND wanted to talk to him AND was free AND . . . man, maybe he should just stick to his sister. To his surprise, Valentine did actually walk in. Considering it was a Saturday morning and most people who had plans for the day hadn't yet gone off to do them, it made some sense, but still.
"Hey, Valentine," he said, his voice annoyingly higher than he meant it to be but also way steadier than he'd dared to hope for. "What're you uhhh doing? Up to? What are you up to?"
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
I am tagging you [Valentine]
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Valentine Duell
November 23, 2020 6:56 PM
Does that mean I'm it? by Valentine Duell
It was Saturday! No classes! Sure, she had some homework to take care of, but that would happen later. She had more important things to do today. She'd had a quick breakfast already and then returned to her room to prep for the day, she grabbed her bag, her gardening kit and slung her camera over her shoulder, and headed out. She stopped as she entered the common room and her name was called out. Alexander! She smiled at the boy, "Hi! I haven't seen much of you lately! How are you doing?""Not to much," She gestured at the things she was carrying. "It's my turn to look over the garden today for gardening club, which meshes well with the Art club project. They want some pictures of some of the plants out in the garden. So, after that I'll need to develop the pictures and drop them off with Katerina." She stopped and sighed, before continuing much less excitedly, "Then I gotta hit the library for some more extra Transfig studying." She smiled a bit morosely, "Yay......"
This wasn't really fair. Here was Alexander just hanging out and she couldn't stay and talk with him. She sighed, she had things to do... things that needed to be done. Then a thought struck her and she smiled, "How about you?" She inquired innocently, "Big plans for today?" Things like this were always more fun if you had someone along with you.
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Valentine Duell
Does that mean I'm it?
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
November 23, 2020 7:14 PM
I hope so. by Alexander Pierce-Beales
As Alexander had thought, he didn't have to actually say that much to Valentine to make a lot of words happen, and that was great. She was easy to talk to in a different way than Mab was easy to talk to."Yeah . . . classes," he agreed with a shrug when she said she hadn't seen him much recently. He didn't want to emphasize that he was older and in a different class, but he couldn't help swelling a notice that she had noticed too. "I've been food. Fine. Good. I'm good."
This was going well.
He was surprised to see that she was interested in photography though, as that was something he had associated entirely with the muggle world until encountering Nathaniel, and now associated firmly with the prefect. He listened with interest and then nodded, realizing she was basically telling him she had a lot of other stuff to do than talk to him.
"I'm alright at Transfiguration," he announced, not sure if he'd ever been alright at Transfiguration. "If you wanted help sometime. Not that you need help. But if you need help. If you wanted help, I could have some. Be of some. I could help."
She had such a nice smile and he really didn't know why she kept smiling at him because he had clearly lost his mind at some point. Unless . . . was she asking what he was doing today for a reason?? His brain shrieked at him. "Nope I'm free today," he said quickly. "Just haaaangin' out." He looked around as he spoke, trying to see whether he had anything he could say he was doing, and ended up drawing the word out instead. It was the first time he ever thought that he would be lucky to find himself waking up from a coma. Valentine was probably the name of a nurse or something in Seattle. "No," he finally said. "I was thinking of maybe working on some sketches later, but that's about it."
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
I hope so.
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Valentine Duell
November 25, 2020 12:27 PM
So now I need to catch you? by Valentine Duell
Valentine giggled slightly at Alexander's slip of the tongue. Had he not eaten breakfast yet? Maybe this plan wasn't a great one. Breakfast was important, she couldn't drag him all around the school on an empty stomach, that wouldn't be very nice. One way to find out, "You didn't skip breakfast did you?" She asked with a touch of concern."Alright?" She responded to his pronouncement of his transfiguration skills, "You're better than alright." Valentine gave him a look just daring him to argue the point with her. "Either way, you're much better than me," her look softened momentarily then brightened again at his offer, "I can use all the help I can get!" She felt like hugging Alexander, but knew he was a bit more reserved than some of her other friends. He might not like it, so she restrained herself. "Plus, you're in intermediate classes now, so you can figure it all out to explain to me next year as well!"
Ooo... he didn't have any plans, other than maybe breakfast. "Well..." she started off slowly. "If you're bored, you're welcome to come along with me. Doing stuff is always more fun with company, don't you think?" She paused again, "If you don't want to that's fine though." Valentine began to hastily tack on, "I know this stuff isn't all that exciting either." Then her curiosity got the better of her, "What sort of sketches were you going to work on later?" His drawing was really cool, when she got the chance to see it.
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Valentine Duell
So now I need to catch you?
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
December 02, 2020 8:42 AM
Yes, please! But I'm not running away. by Alexander Pierce-Beales
Alexander blushed, wishing fiercely that Valentine hadn't noticed his slip. He wasn't sure whether he'd have preferred she hadn't said anything since she had noticed, but he just shook his head. "Not yet," he admitted, hoping that would be an alright way to play it off. Had she given him an out? Or had she given him a shovel to bury a hole that said 'I'm thinking more about food than you'? It was impossible to tell with girls.The blush didn't fade, although it came with a bit more pride, when she said he was better than alright at Transfiguration. He was like 100% sure that wasn't true, but he wasn't about to argue the point. "Thanks," he said sincerely. The way she said he could help her sounded like a long term thing maybe, too, so he was certainly not about to argue with her. He was going to have to study up on Transfiguration, he supposed, although she was right in that he did have a one year advantage on her. "I'd like that," he smiled. "Just let me know when and where and I'll be there," he added, wanting to make sure he did the Brave and was specific enough to make sure she knew he meant it in real, tangible terms.
She started talking more slowly and Alexander was sure this was the moment she was going to end the conversation and disappear, like a Tinker Bell who only had a chance of sticking around if he believed in himself. That would have been a really different version of Peter Pan. He momentarily tried to imagine the lost boys convincing Wendy to up her self-esteem and decided that maybe Valentine wasn't Tinker Bell, but Peter Pan herself. An idea swam in his head for another drawing but that was weird, so he put it aside. You weren't supposed to imagine drawing people whilst speaking to them.
But then she didn't kick him out or run off or fly away or whatever! He blinked round, surprised eyes, and nodded quickly. "Yeah, alright," he agreed eagerly. Part of what she said stuck out to him though, and he paused. This was the sort of thing that fell outside the scope of trying to get a pretty girl to be interested in him existing, and straight into humanity. "I wouldn't have to be bored to want to hang out with you and your interests are definitely exciting," he said softly. "Don't sell yourself short." Maybe she was Wendy.
He gathered his things, clearly ready to set off, and looked at Valentine with again when she asked about his drawings. Which was. Y'know. Fine. It was fine. He totally wasn't worried about saying something creepy or anything. He thought about playing it off as 'I draw people and classmates', which was true, but was afraid she'd want to see and then notice how often she showed up in his drawings. Of course, so did Mab and Alexandra and Nathaniel and stuff too. But it still felt creepy.
"I draw comics mostly," he explained, loosening up since it was a topic he was familiar with. "Super heroes and cities and stuff. I've been trying to make them fit in here better, but wizards and witches already wear funny clothes sometimes and superheroes with wands looks weird too." He blushed a little, worried he was giving too much of his background away. "Weird's alright though sometimes."
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Alexander Pierce-Beales
Yes, please! But I'm not running away.
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Valentine Duell
December 05, 2020 5:50 PM
That won't make for a long game. You're it. by Valentine Duell
No breakfast yet? Well, it did sound as though he had as much going on today as she did, so he was just probably figuring on getting food whenever he got hungry. Now she as asking him to reshuffled his whole schedule just because she liked company. That wasn't very nice of her, and he was being super-nice offering to help her with Transfigurations. He was blushing a bunch at this talk of Transfigurations, she had noticed before that he wasn't one to take compliments very well. He didn't outright deny them like some people did. Last year Gary had done that an awful lot while he was showing her some pointers on game prepping. Alexander at least accepted it, but she could tell it made him uncomfortable.But it was a good kind of uncomfortable, right? He was good at these things and needed to know that. She smiled brightly at his offer and she was tempted to remind him that part of her schedule for the day was studying this afternoon. But he was going to do some drawing 'later' and she didn't want to stop him from doing the things he wanted to do, and make him do extra schoolwork.
Somewhere in that thought process her expression must have dampened a bit because she found herself brightening up again when he said he'd come along with her! This was going to turn out to be a fun day after all. It would have been alright, but now it'd be fun! She did quirk an eyebrow at him with a bit of a mischievous grin. "Exciting? Have you weeded the gardening club's garden before? We'll see what you think after..." Then she remembered. "Oh. You didn't get breakfast yet." She only thought for a moment. "You'll need to go get some, then you can meet me out at the garden."
"That sounds neat," She replied to his drawing response. Her own drawing skills were worse than her Transfiguration skills. She'd always thought it was neat that some people could just make things that looked like the things they wanted them to look like. It was like another form of magic, one that Muggles could do as well. She was mildly jealous, and fairly curious. "I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more of your work sometime." She smiled at his returning blush, "Weird is definitely alright sometimes." She giggled, "A lot of people would probably think what we do in the gaming club is weird as well."
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Valentine Duell
That won't make for a long game. You're it.
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