Echo Elms
January 20, 2008 10:32 PM
[Mid January] Researching Charms... and dreams (wotw) by Echo Elms
Echo stole into the library at the height of breakfast, when most people would be happily filling their plates and munching down in Cascade Hall. He strode purposefully to the charms section and searched the titles. What he wouldn't give for a Google search on the books or a computerized library catalog. He dismissed Fantastic Fear: Quirky Charms to Frighten Your Friends with the caption "Perfect Spells for Midnight Get-togethers!" after a glance at table of contents.Another title looked promising: The Bravest You've Ever Been by Sandra Benardi. Unsurprisingly, the book was well used and opened automatically to a chapter on talking to the girl or guy of your dreams. Echo snickered, thinking of Saul and Pepper, and flipped back to the contents, but the chapter he was looking for was just an explanation about how some fears kept you from doing something careless and stupid--the way a fear of heights or of dying kept people from jumping off of buildings--and shouldn't be messed with without adult--preferably medi-witch--supervision.
Echo didn't want to involve adults. Adults only made things worse.
He stared ponderously at the shelves a while longer before wandering away from the charms books. Maybe what he wanted wasn't a charm. He meandered toward the potions section and stumbled upon a section he had never noticed before. A tattered maroon volume with golden lettering twinkled at him. He knelt down next to it and tilted his head to read its damaged, generous spine: Dream Magicks: Ails, Cures, and Peace by Io Nightingale. Beside it was How Your Dreams Affect Your Life by the same author. Destiny Hobbs' classic Reading Sleep was on the shelf below with several other astute-sounding titles, and Albert Haff's Blocking Psychic Vampires was to be found above.
He pulled out the well used maroon volume and swiveled into a cross legged sitting position with the book splayed across his lap.
According to the book, which had a detailed section about recurring nightmares, dreams represented the deepest parts of the self and when your dreams kept you from sleeping regularly it represented an inner turmoil... The book had some suggestions on what to do about it.
Do about it.
He leaned his head back on the stacks. No. Way. The answers were here in this book! All throughout this section spread among these volumes...
A short laugh erupted into life, followed by another smaller one until he shook with silent glee and sniffled and sobbed and made himself stop, wiping the side of his face on his sleeve.
His glee stunk of mourning.\r\n\r\n
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Echo Elms
[Mid January] Researching Charms... and dreams (wotw)
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Echo Elms
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Paul Tarwater
January 22, 2008 7:00 PM
Sounds fun enough by Paul Tarwater
Paul twisted around in his bed, waking up fairly late and staying in bed rather than getting up to eat was something Paul wouldn't normally do. He was very normally a morning person (though there wasn't much of a difference between his morning and night self), but this morning he really couldn't be awake or hungry. Though the hunger part confused him, as last night his dinner ended up in the bathroom toilet of Aladren. The not awake part was understood, the time in the bathroom making up for the time he had slept.But now Paul's back was hurting, and he was sore in other places as well, and Lussni had been cutting off his breathing sleeping on his chest the whole time. He hated staying in bed so long, had he the energy Paul would probably be in the Hospital Wing by now getting treated and in class the next hour. But despite the aches, pains, lack of breathing, and boredom; Paul still couldn't get up until it was so late for him he couldn't stand it. Paul got up, dressed slowly, and got his bag together. He felt so unclean from last night, but he really didn't know if he could shower at the moment.
Paul looked in a mirror, and raised an eyebrow. He looked terrible, even Lussni noticed and ended up ignoring him, walking out of the boys' dorm. Paul was so pale, his black hair was dirty and limp, and there were dark circles under his glassy eyes. If he went out, he would probably draw distant attention, people would stay far because he looked so terrible. So there was a good side to this (though eyes watching him was no better). Without another look, the boy walked out of Aladren and into the Library. He wasn't very taught here, not many people would be in the Library at this time.
He walked silently through the maze of bookshelves, slouched and yawning every few seconds. Paul felt like he had the mindset of a zombie, he could barely think. He didn't even pause to pick up a few fallen books, bending felt wrong, it may start on a new sickness. Paul only looked up from his feet when the corner of his eye picked up some sign of movement. A curly haired boy, his year, Pecari. Paul was having trouble with his mind.
Echo! Echo, right, the boy had been his Charms partner. Paul groaned to himself, he never forgot things. Not people, not anything. Paul hated that feeling, forgetting. Well, it wasn't often that Paul saw someone actually reading in the Library, which Echo seemed to be doing. Paul didn't want to go up to him, that might not be good, the boy may get sick too. Paul instead moved a little closer then called to the boy from where he was. "Good book?" he asked, looking at the titles next to him, some looked good. Emotions, mainly.
"Is breakfast over already?" Paul hoped not. He didn't want to run into too many people going to the Wing.
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Paul Tarwater
Sounds fun enough
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Paul Tarwater
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5
Echo Elms
January 23, 2008 7:27 PM
Downright jovial. by Echo Elms
[OOC: I'm assuming class starts at 8am.]Echo surveyed himself before looking up. His face still felt a little hot and his cheeks had runs of salted and rubbed skin across his cheekbones. His voice was going to be normal, he thought, but he wasn't sure. Anyway, he was getting old enough that if it cracked it'd probably be taken as a sign of puberty anyway.
"Uh," he said, because he was really brilliant with the lead-in words like that. He showed Paul the plain, dictionary-like cover. It was a good book, but his Charms partner was likely more interested in the dining hall. "Probably. What time is it?"
There was a clock in here somewhere, but you couldn't see it from where he was. He was already climbing to his feet as he explained, "I got here, at like, I don't know, 7:20-ish... most people were just getting in." He took a quick turn down the row, to where he could see the time.
"Oh, man," he said, glancing between the clock's horrible revelation and Paul, who sort of looked like he might fall over at the coming news, "we've got like 5 minutes to get to History."
He bolted back to shelf, pushed the book back in its gap--there was no time to sign it out--and started for the door at a pace the librarian might scold him for but slow enough that he probably wouldn't bother. He looked back at Paul to make sure he was keeping up.
"I think I got a beat up apple you can have if you're desperate," he dug it out of his bag as he walked, backwards now, and offered it, "Flatt'll probably give us 6 inches for every second we're late." He waited for Paul to catch up and dropped in step beside him.
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Echo Elms
Downright jovial.
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Echo Elms
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Paul
January 24, 2008 5:54 PM
Makes me feel like dancing by Paul
Paul nodded lightly at the book, the title was too faded for him to see at the moment. Maybe if he was a foot or so away from Echo he could see what it was about, but that didn't really interest Paul as much. But the time? Paul had no watch on, and he really had no idea. Well... he woke up around..."It was fourty when I woke up..." Paul sighed. "I'm not really sure how long it took me to get down here though. Not too long, of course." He hadn't taken a shower, hadn't done much but get into an old pair of black pants and a sweater, that shouldn't have taken hours.
Paul then then, moved a little to get in view of what the boy was looking at. Oh, hey, what do you know, a clock. He raised his eyebrow, now why didn't Paul think of looking there before? He sighed, of course, class. He should have gotten up earlier to get the the Hospital Wing, rather than stayed in bed. How stupid.
Paul swore under his breath, he absolutely hated being late for class. Even if he had a good reason to get away with it, it was just something he really didn't like. He could skip class, ditch in the middle, but he did not like to be late for anything. He'd have to go to the Hospital Wing afterward.
Echo was already walking out, and Paul followed, lifting up his bag from the ground.
Paul touched his forehead as he caught up to Echo, he wasn't horrible. Not like last night when he felt like he was on fire. He would probably just need a simple little medical potion. He'd stop by after History of Magic. Though the thought of eating something made his stomach hurt.
Paul shook his head forcefully, feeling the sickness come back after even seeing the apple, "Definately not hungry. Keep it for yourself, you missed breakfast too, right?" He didn't really think he had to mention what he had been up doing all night. "Thanks for the offer though," he added.
"Flatt'll probably give us 6 inches for every second we're late."
Paul groaned, hopefully not, he still didn't finish his homework from last night. "The start of the day doesn't really give me much enthusiasm," Paul sighed, talking more to himself than Echo.
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Paul
Makes me feel like dancing
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Paul
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5