Ellie Alperton
November 24, 2021 3:40 AM
Matchy matchy (tag Freddie) by Ellie Alperton
Ellie made her way through the gardens, stopping once she reached the gardening club's garden. It wasn't something she was involved with, but it had the advantages of being easy to find and full of flowers. The rest of the gardens were rather deliberately winding, and whilst you might think directing someone to the statue of the frolicky fawn or the lady in the old-fashioned dress was perfectly obvious, there could easily be duplicate statues or too many paths. The gardening club garden was deliberately easy to find, and there was a nice bench to sit on, and nice things to look at.She had asked Freddie to meet her out here. Ostensibly, it was for cafe planning. He always volunteered to help, and she was always inclined to say 'yes' because she didn't want to lose any time she might spend with him, even though the cafe probably didn't need that much active planning. She had a few ideas for campaigns or activities they could run, but most of those would need member input to help make the decisions anyway. Part of her was considering running an activity next time where you had to pair with someone you didn't know, just to force him not to spend the whole time with Philippe. But as he wouldn't be able to spend it with her either, it felt like cutting off her nose to spite her face. And, as he was meant to be helping her plan, he would know in advance and would possibly choose to just not come that week.
She placed her folder on the bench. It was covered in different coloured drops and said 'Find your rainbow,' and there was a rainbow of file dividers inside. Atop it, she had perched several bottles of nail varnish along with acryllic pens and nail stickers, hoping to get some quality friend time in alongside the non-existent planning.
"Hi," she smiled when Freddie joined her. "I thought we could make this a hang out as well as a planning session," she suggested, indicating her supplies. "I was thinking we could come up with a design together. Like, same colours but different deisgns. Or the other way around." Something to show they were besties. She might offer Anya too, because they were supposed to be 'the three of us' but there had always been elements where they paired off, and nails and make up had usually been more of an Ellie-and-Freddie thing.
OOC: Again, Ellie's interpretation very likely to be biased, and Freddie is welcome to have an utterly different perspective on how he's balancing friends and Philippe.
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Ellie Alperton
Matchy matchy (tag Freddie)
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Freddie Zauberhexen
December 03, 2021 1:26 PM
All the matchy! by Freddie Zauberhexen
Freddie was doing great. He was balancing life, academics, boyfriend, friends, classmates, sister . . . he had it all. He hadn't ever really considered himself to be good at stuff beffore in any sort of significant way but it was nice to discover that he was accidentally totally great at this part of life. He supposed it was probably a good sign for what his post-Sonora life might look like too but he wasn't thinking that far ahead. Perhaps that was why he was doing so well; he didn't take the time to plan ahead very often, he just took care of the needs that were present in the moment. At this particular moment, that need was quality time with Ellie and to help her plan stuff. It had taken him awhile, but he'd noticed that she didn't really have much to plan most of the time. Since he wasn't about to get up and speak in front of the group if he didn't have to - not that he would've minded necessarily, but he was aware that listening to his English could be jarring and he was pretty sure that some of them would mind - he wasn't really sure that he had much to help Ellie with. It made him suspect she just really needed some time with friends or maybe time away from her dorm, and he was happy to help with that.Today, Freddie made his way to where he and Ellie had agreed to meet. He never brought anything with him because he figured if Ellie needed this time, then he was going to let her lead it. She liked being in control of things as far as he could tell, and sometimes the best gift you could give someone was the gift of leading their own choices. That was something he thought he and Ellie both understood pretty well.
"Hallo," he greeted with a happy bounce as he approached, bending to give her an awkward standing-to-sitting hug before taking a seat beside her. "You and flowers and sunshine all look pretty," he added, always wanting to make sure people knew they were special.
She confirmed his suspicions when she pulled out nail polish and he grinned at her, nodding eagerly to show he was down for a hang out too. He was mostly pretty sure he understood what she meant to do for their nails but he wanted to confirm. Looking around for inspiration, he pointed.
"Like three rose but red and yellow?" he confirmed, pointing at two roses that were next to each other, blossoming in different colors. "Oder . . ." He looked around again. "Red rose and red Tulpe?" he asked, switching to German to name the tulip he saw.
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Freddie Zauberhexen
All the matchy!
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Ellie Alperton
December 06, 2021 5:54 PM
Yay! by Ellie Alperton
Freddie's happy energy was so infectious. It was hard not to be happy when he was around. Maybe that was why she needed him so much. He also gave great hugs, even at this awkward angle. There was just something extra warm about a Freddie hug. There was the external warmth from the hug, but it also set off a happy glow inside her."Thank you," she beamed at the compliment. He probably gave compliments to everyone. It didn't have to mean anything. But it still made the glowy feeling grow and get fluttery around the edges. Because of course it would. Who wouldn't like being called pretty and compared to flowers? She tried to pack away the jealous part of her brain that was wondering what Philippe got compared to, and how many compliments he got. Maybe fewer. Maybe Freddie was too busy kissing him to talk. That idea squelched like slime over all her happy feelings. She tried to pull them back. "Ite good to see you. You give good hugs," she said, wanting to return the compliment, even though she had most likely told him that before.
"Yes!" she grinned as he explained the ideas back to her. She knew he was probably only using the flowers as an example, but they also wouldn't be a bad inspiration. "Got any preferences?" she asked.
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Ellie Alperton
Yay!
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Freddie Zauberhexen
December 17, 2021 12:47 AM
And all the excitement! by Freddie Zauberhexen
"Thank you," Freddie grinned, happy to have a reputation for good hugs, if indeed news had spread. "We practice more then. Hugs should be practiced many times a day. Hana is healer, she describe. Prescribe. Perscribe. She tell me do more hugs." He leaned in a little as if to tell Ellie a secret. "She not really say that but I think that more people would not be sick if they did more hugging," he explained with a mischievous smile before leaning away again.His grin continued when he discovered he'd understood his friend correctly and that the example of flowers had been clear enough to confirm that for her as well. It was hard enough to be sure that he was understanding by himself without also having to make sure that the other person could confirm it. He had to hear it, understand it, think of a way to reexplain it, actually do the reexplaining, and then hope it was clear, and then the other person had to do the same thing back and-- well, it was a lot.
"We should be same color," he decided after a moment, holding his hand up, fingers splayed, next to hers would be if she did the same, comparing their skin and nails. "We are already having different colors." He tapped his chest where his badge would've been if he were in his robes. "So now we should have match," he smiled.
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Freddie Zauberhexen
And all the excitement!
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Ellie Alperton
December 21, 2021 1:14 AM
Yup. Lots of it. by Ellie Alperton
“Oh, well then, in the interests of good health…” Ellie grinned, holding her arms out again. She was sure she’d heard some similar piece of trivia on needing a certain number of hugs per day to be happy, though for once, she wasn’t going to worry too much about having an exact citation for a fact. She’d take any excuse for a hug, really. Not that she needed an excuse, exactly. Freddie was her friend, and would have given her another one if she’d just asked for it. Still, it felt good, knowing that she always had a reason to get hugs.He opted for the same colour, and she felt the warm bubble of contentment glowing at the idea that he still wanted to be connected in some way with her. She sorted out the polishes, sweeping aside the ones with house biases, though that left plenty of other options, including pinks, purples, iridescents, sparkly, silvers, greens and oranges. She shuffled them around, grouping them into various sets, taking into account Freddie’s opinion until they had selected a set of colours.
“Hand,” she requested, pulling up one of her knees for him to rest it on. She tried not to think back to her recent interactions with Dathan. It wasn’t fair to compare. And it wasn’t really relevant, because Freddie wasn’t an option. And anyway she and Dathan could laugh together. They made jokes and references that the other understood. It wasn’t like he was completely off her wavelength. And sure, it was a little easy to be huggy and friendly with Freddie but that was because he was her friend. They’d had more chances to practise making it normal/warm/fuzzy/nice. Perhaps it was precisely because he absolutely wasn’t in any way an option for her to date was why it made it so easy to hug, and to rest their hands on each other. Because it was just for nail painting. Because they were friends.
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Ellie Alperton
Yup. Lots of it.
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Freddie Zauberhexen
December 23, 2021 10:01 PM
On the outside and the inside? by Freddie Zauberhexen
"I am doing many learns about French," Freddie said as he accepted Ellie's suggested hug with a grin. "I know not yet if Philippe's family does la bise," he added, completely butchering the pronunciation, "but I learn. Do you know? It is the-- " He made smooching sounds in the air in neutral space by each of Ellie's cheeks, far enough away not to be invasive if that was an issue of boundaries for her. He'd learned the phrase 'when in Rome' and was pretty sure it meant that you should do Roman things in Rome and German things in Germany, even though he always did German things so maybe he was Germany. "I like hugs more for most people," he added.The options for colors were only limited a little and Freddie examined his choices as Ellie offered them, discarding green for being the Sonora color and strongly favoring the shimmery ones. He liked pinks a lot and Ellie wore pink a lot but he thought it might look a bit like he'd smashed the ends of his fingers with his cauldron so he suggested silver and a dark purple. It seemed fancy. In the end, he was truly going to be satisfied with most any choice and since Ellie was the one doing his nails for him, he covered his eyes with his free hand for a moment to show her that it was fine for her to surprise him a bit. Ellie was very good at these things and he was glad they did it together because he was basically useless with his non-dominant hand.
"Ellie," he said after a moment's silence. "Danke, dass du eine Freundin bist. Thank you for being my friend." He wasn't sure if she knew enough German to know he'd selected the feminine form of friend, or that he'd chosen the non-girlfriend distinction, but he knew she knew enough about him to know that he rarely just came out with all German around his classmates anymore. It was a sign of his comfort with her; more than anyone at Sonora, more even than Philippe, Ellie was the person he could be absolutely the most himself around. "I am having friend friend friend," he said, waving his free hand. "But you are special flower friend. Danke."
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Freddie Zauberhexen
On the outside and the inside?
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Ellie Alperton
December 23, 2021 11:12 PM
I like to think so by Ellie Alperton
Aaaand back round it came to Philippe. Something to do with bees, which… Well, Ellie knew what bees were in a general context, but in a French-specific one, she would be stabbing in the dark. Luckily(?) Freddie demonstrated. Bees were kisses. Freddie was kissing her. Or well, np. Freddie was kissing the air next to her. To practise for Philippe. The point about family sort of got lost under the idea that kissing was inherently romantic, and that… well, kissing had just happened in her vicinity. And… and all the rest of it.“Yeah. Hugs are good. For most people,” she echoed, not really sure what other part to respond to. Clearly she was ‘most people.’ Hugs for most people, bee-kisses for Philippe. Was she blushing? She hoped she wasn’t blushing. She felt all hot and flustered, and very, very weird about what had happened.
She let Freddie pick out the nail polishes, giving herself time to calm down. It was normal to feel weird about that, right? It had been weird.
By the time he was settled on colours, she was a bit more settled, and was pretty sure she could paint without blobbing polish all over his fingers. She began by alternating the purple and silver to do base coats, figuring she could add a variety of decorative details. As she worked, Freddie talked. Freundin bist. Best friend, she guessed? Though he pretty promptly translated, and the English version didn’t have that word in. But in his clarification, she was special.
Just not as much as Philippe.
She tried to push aside the jealous thought. It shouldn’t matter. Freddie could have a boyfriend and a best friend. People often talked about their partner being their best friend, and maybe that was why it hurt so much to see him spending so much time with someone else. She didn’t want that title taken away from her. But from what Freddie was saying, it wasn’t going to be.
“Thanks,” she said, her voice shaking, and a smear of nail varnish making its way onto Freddie’ cuticle. “You’re special to me too.” Which was why it sucked so much that everything had to change. She wanted to say ‘remember the last ball?’ when it had been them, but that was another path that would lead back to Philippe now.
“Here,” she held out her own hand. “Can you do my base coats to match, and then we can decide on patterns?”
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Ellie Alperton
I like to think so
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