Michael Grosvenor
June 03, 2013 10:37 AM
Everything is ruined forever by Michael Grosvenor
Michael stretched out along one of the benches. He'd always come out here to relax and nothing much had changed apart from how much of him hung off the end of the bench. He stared up at the sunlight which was filtering gently through the trees. Everything sucked. Eris' dad's work had taken him back to England, and her with him. He'd found out over by owl over the summer. She had talked about visiting over Christmas break and they'd promised to write to each other all the time. But it wasn't the same. It was rubbish not seeing her every day, not getting to hold her hand or hug her – she gave good hugs. He kept casting his mind back to the ball at the end of last term. It had been nice to go with her, even though he wasn't really fussed about things like that. Eris always knew what to do to help him in situations like that, how to put him at ease. But now he wondered whether he could have done more for her. If he had known it would be the last time he'd see her for months, would he have made it more special?He had received a letter from her that morning. He had come out here to read it. And now things almost hurt even more. He looked forward to her letters so much, waited so long for them to arrive... The intensity, the longing and the anticipation all grew so great that, by the time he got them, they were somehow something of an anti-climax. He waited for them, assuming they would make him feel better, would fill up the hole that she had left behind. And they didn't. It also took far too long to exchange letters. Sometimes, by the time Eris' reply made it back, asking for follow up or making reference to some particular thing, he'd forgotten what it was. All their news felt so stale.
He didn't know what to do. He couldn't write all this down and send it to her. It would be horrible to read, like he was telling her her efforts weren't good enough, when it wasn't that at all – wasn't her fault. He just missed her. That, he could tell her, and he did. But it hadn't meant the feeling lessened any. He knew he'd have to go back in soon. He had classwork to do. He had never been the most diligent student but even he could feel the future knocking gently on his door, and knew that he had to put his all into the next two years just to maintain his solid average grade. In the old days, he had lain out here until he felt calm again, until he had pushed his worries aside and was ready to put a brave smile on and pretend everything was ok. He started up at the dappled light, wondered how long it was going to take this time...
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Michael Grosvenor
Everything is ruined forever
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Michael Grosvenor
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Linus Macaulay
June 11, 2013 6:51 AM
That's a bleak outlook by Linus Macaulay
It was frustrating; Linus couldn't settle himself to study, and he had really wanted to make a good start to the year, for several reasons. The first was that he had only managed to obtain E grades in both charms and transfiguration in his CATS, and these were two subjects he was continuing into RATS level. The second was that he hadn't been able to solve what had transpired to be a relatively simple Calculus problem over the summer, a fact that had caused his younger sister, Daphne - who had always looked up to her biggest brother - to ask why Linus was bad at math. The third was that he was finding everything about life more confusing than ever, and if he could at least understand his textbooks then that would be one less worry to deal with.Before his return to school to commence his sixth year of magical education, Linus mother had assured him that being a teenager was a confusing time for everyone, and that it would pass. The Crotalus tried to take her advice with good grace, but in fairness, how on earth would she know what it was like to be a teenaged boy, with no father figure, who was a Muggleborn wizard? As if that weren't sufficient to contend with, the holiday period also revealed that Linus seemed to be in a never-ending growth spurt (which he didn't mind in principle, but he would prefer it if he could be allowed to adjust to the length of his limbs from time to time), and he had to shave his face with increasing frequency. Plus the time away from home had estranged him almost entirely from Philip, the sibling from whom he had been most distant before his move to Sonora.
Then there was Brianna.
All in all, Linus felt he was entirely entitled to lose his resolve and flawless composure from time to time, and take a stroll in the gardens to clear his head. He was doing just that, in fact, when he happened upon one of his fellow sixth years, stretched out along a bench. Linus paused his progress. He had never made much of an acquaintance with Michael, but in such a small school (regardless of Linus' enthusiasm in discreetly discovering all there was to know about his peers) it was impossible not to know several facts about his classmate. Things like his disability, naturally, as well that he had been friends with Brianna, but was not now, and that his girlfriend, Eris, had moved back to England. Even though he could claim no friendship with either of them, Linus' own emotional complications clued him into the uncomortable reality each of them must be suffering. No wonder Michael looked depressed.
Striving, as ever, to do his best to help his fellow man, Linus offered the best consolation he could manage. "Hey," he greeted simply, to alert Michael of his presence. Then, after a short pause, he commented, "I heard Eris isn't coming back." Admittedly, that was merely a statement of fact, not the gesture of support that the Crotalus had been aiming for. He, however, would be among the first to acknowledge that tact and eloquence in difficult social situations were not among his skill set; he only had to reflect on the past term's Ball to remind himself of that much. So, after another, longer, pause, during which Linus sought the words to utter, he finally said, "Sorry to hear it. That must be hard for you." It was times like this he almost wished he were the sort of person to doll out off-handed colloquialisms; for example, 'That sucks' would be an ideal candidate for this scenario.
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Linus Macaulay
That's a bleak outlook
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Linus Macaulay
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Michael Grosvenor
June 14, 2013 10:11 AM
Yeah, well... things are bleak. by Michael Grosvenor
Hey. Michael turned his head to see who was there. Great. He wasn't sure who he did want to see right now but he knew it wasn't Linus. If he'd had a list of people he didn't want to see, he was fairly sure he would have thought to list Linus pretty soon after Josh and- He wasn't sure whether Someone would have topped that list or whether some probably deluded part of him still thought she'd forgive him. Maybe especially now that Eris was gone and he was hurting. But the technique he'd developed last year of pretending she didn't exist was working pretty well for him in terms of avoiding hurt and confusion, so he turned his focus back to the fact that Linus was here. Even though that meant sort of thinking about other people because part of why he hated Linus was that he'd swooped in and managed to seem like a hero after not noticeably being there for a particular person for the past few years and in spite of being a massively patronising arse- nal. Arsenal of unpleasantness. That was what he was.Michael swung his legs around, reluctantly bringing himself around to a sitting position so that he could see Linus' face better in case he was going to impose conversation on him. Whilst Michael wasn't really in the mood for it, he wanted to be able to keep up with anything that was said to him. Being thought stupid or incapable wasn't what he needed on top of everything else, and it would be easier to speech-read Linus if he wasn't sideways. He shouldn't have struggled too much, seeing as the paths were otherwise calm and quiet but he didn't want to risk it.
He was very surprised when Linus brought up Eris. He felt weirdly defensive about it. Eris was nothing to do with Linus – he barely even knew her (did he? Suddenly paranoid visions of Linus secretly muscling in on everyone he was close to swam through his brain...). Eris was his. Not Linus' and not anything to do with him. But he knew that was irrational. That Linus was just trying to be nice. It was weird that he was being nice, given everything to do with their mutual non-friend, but Michael wasn't that suspicious by nature, and so he trusted Linus' intentions, even if they seemed unfathomable. Plus he wasn't engaging in all that profligate hand-waving and over-emphasising that he'd tried in order to 'help' Michael last time they'd spoken. All in all, he was being much less of an arsenal, and it wasn't really like Michael to lash out at others, however he felt on the inside. So he didn't.
“Thanks. And yeah... It sucks,” he nodded. He didn't really feel like going deeply into his feelings with someone who was practically a stranger – he barely did it with those he was close to – but he didn't feel that was betraying too many deep and secret emotions. He kind of wanted to know what Linus wanted but he couldn't think of a way to ask it that didn't sound incredibly blunt and rude, so he just decided to wait and see.
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Michael Grosvenor
Yeah, well... things are bleak.
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Michael Grosvenor
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Linus
June 23, 2013 9:06 AM
Spoken like a true pessimist. by Linus
Following Michael's reply, Linus was again at a loss as to how he should react. There wasn't much more he really wanted to say on the topic, given that he knew neither Michael nor Eris very well, and neither did he desire to offer any sort of ongoing support to help his peer deal with the situation, but there didn't seem an easy out from it, other than to abruptly change the conversation. The Crotalus student pushed his hands into his pockets and exhaled, looking at the ground. There was a light dusting of gravel across the path, and the first few fallen leaves hailing the impending change of season. "She seemed nice," Linus commented, in a way that he thought sounded more like he was paying Michael a compliment, rather than indicating any special preference on his part to the girl. He had barely known her, but she did seem nice, despite Brianna's obvious aversion to her.Linus wondered, not for the first time, why all his thoughts seemed to end up on Brianna. He had been avoiding speaking to her, with relative success, as he didn't know what he would say when they inevitably discussed the end of the revious term. Without noticing he was doing it, Linus had retrieved his right hand from his pocket and was rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. Then, becoming aware of his action, he stopped it immediately, and glanced quickly towards Michael to see whether this uncharacterstic moment of distraction had been noted. "So, advanced classes this year," he said, hurrying to cover it up, whislt simultaneously wondering why he couldn't think of anything better to say, and wondering how exactly he'd wound up making small talk with Michael.
"Guess I ought to get back to studying," he thought aloud, sounding much more like his usual self as he straightened his back and thought of the textbooks that were waiting for him in the sanctity of his dormitory (though he would have to navigate through the commonroom first). He had already made a move to vacate the area, but then hesitated, reluctant either to bump into a certain someone just now, or even to do the studying that was most definitely calling to him. If only he had met with someone other than Michael he might have been able to hold a proper conversation, causing adequate distraction.
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Linus
Spoken like a true pessimist.
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Linus
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