Back to it then? [Tag Ness.] on Library

Evelyn Stones

April 15, 2019 8:52 PM

Back to it then? [Tag Ness.] by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn wasn't sure whether it was silly to hold onto such things as "their chair" or "their traditions" but the big poofy chair in the library was just calling to Evelyn when everyone was back from winter break. The fact that she and Ness had left off the previous term with more questions than anything else swimming in Evelyn's head didn't help any, and now she just wanted to be reminded that it was all quite normal. "Normal."

With two weeks back of classes back under their belt and the usual business of jumping into a new term starting to settle down, Evelyn decided she simply didn't want to wait anymore, and had suggested she and Ness meetup over the weekend. She'd have liked to meet sooner, and perhaps Ness would have as well, but two weeks of classes meant only one weekend had passed since they'd gotten back, and it was all just a blur of everything.

This way, on a perfect Saturday morning, she and Ness could spend time together without bringing all the blur with them. Snuggled down into the chair first - as usual, which was funny somehow since the Aladren was always the more punctual of the two in other situations . . . was Evelyn overeager? She put the thought aside - Evelyn forced herself to be invested in the book she'd grabbed at random from her trunk before coming down. Reading had been a nice way to keep herself sane over break, with the daily life of a baby entirely overthrowing whatever normal life she'd had before, and now she'd use it to keep her wits together here.

Which was normal right? There was no reason to lose her wits. Right?

She jumped when Ness approached, but it dissolved into a smile. As usual for these things, she'd chosen against makeup. Her black leggings and oversized orange shirt (a gift from her mother; it was a jersey from Oregon State University and a surprisingly perfect gag gift that they both enjoyed) were comfortable and she was comfortable and everything was okay. The shirt probably looked garish with her hair, as the normally blonde locks had been dyed into a rainbow of pastel blues, dark blues, purples, and pinks as part of her time off as well. Muggle dye, it turned out, worked much better than Evelyn's attempts at magical dye.

She'd blushed when she'd remembered Ness' comment about these being the colors of the bi-flag, but she liked them and she thought she might . . . well. She liked the colors.

"Hi!" Evelyn beamed, snapping shut her book. Spending time with a close friend was much more interesting than reading about Confucianism again, although the subject was one of Evelyn's favorites and she couldn't be entirely sure that spending time with a close friend wasn't actually Confucianism anyway. "I've missed you terribly, friend," she added, patting the seat beside her.

22 Evelyn Stones Back to it then? [Tag Ness.] 1422 Evelyn Stones 1 5

Ness McLeod

April 17, 2019 8:09 PM

Let's dive right in! by Ness McLeod

Ness had had a pretty fun break. They’d gone for a Christmas party at Zara’s. The two of them hadn’t hung out loads before Zara joined Sonora - or even, truth be told, since she had; what with the first year being in Kir’s house, it felt like the familial promise they had made to look after her fell more on Kir’s shoulders. Or no one’s. Zara didn’t seem to need much looking after.

Outside of that, they had done the usual family things, including the Christmas puzzle. The one thing that had felt weird was Evelyn not being there. And it was weird that that felt weird, seeing as Evelyn had only spent one Christmas with them, but Ness kept remembering back to the previous year and missing her. Still, it was a happy thing that Evelyn could be back with her family, so Ness tried not to think selfish thoughts - obviously the Aladren didn’t wish Evelyn was still coming to stay with them in terms of all the associated issues with that, but it had been a lot of fun, and Ness kept wondering what the Stoneses were up to, and how Evelyn was doing.

The invite for library time was therefore definitely welcome. Not that invites for library time were ever unwelcome but this time it was especially so. It was nice to have their own traditions - the library meet-up, the chair.

“Hey,” Ness greeted in return, “I missed you lots too. I mean, I’m glad you could go home, but I kept remembering last year and just… thinking about you a lot,” the Aladren shrugged, snuggling into the available space. Evelyn’s hair, which had of course been duly complimented upon first seeing her, still raised a smile. It was awesome. “What are you reading? And how were your holidays?” Ness asked, realising that the second one was probably a polite thing to ask, and was something that Ness definitely wanted to know and check in on, even though the book had been the first thing to grab the Aladren’s interest.

13 Ness McLeod Let's dive right in! 1419 Ness McLeod 0 5

Evelyn Stones

April 18, 2019 6:17 PM

My favorite approach to basically everything. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn beamed, glad that she had been missed. "I thought of you all loads," she promised. Really, Christmas at home wasn't half as interesting as Christmas with the McLeod clan, and there wasn't anything quite as exciting as gifts from that bunch. "Thank you for worrying for me," she added. "Things are much better. Dad still gets angry sometimes, but not nearly so much and not so bad. CJ helps a lot, I think. My mom seems . . . I dunno. It's like she was sick for a long time and now she's not sick anymore, but she doesn't really trust herself to really be healthy again? She sort of looks sad pretty often."

Her mouth twisted as she considered her brother. "CJ is perfect," she decided. It was true and, unfortunately, that's what her whole family thought. She didn't hold that against him; he was indeed a perfect little wizard baby. It just so happened that he was the default favorite child of their shared parents. "I sort of wonder why I'm not like him. I'm not as good at magic as he is, and he's just a baby. It makes me wonder what it would've been like to grow up differently."

She stopped shy of suggesting that her dad maybe never would've been angry. It was a thought that had been on her mind relatively often these past few months, but she no longer let herself by into it. For all she knew, her magic had stopped working right when her dad started becoming scarier. That was possible, right?

"The book is about Confucianism," she said, holding it up either to show it to Ness or to offer it. "I like it a lot. It's a philosophy and a religion, although it isn't really a religion. A guy named Confucius started it. He kind of just wanted everyone to be harmonious and to be good humans." She didn't want to go too much into detail if Ness was familiar with the tradition, but doubted that muggle philosophy had found its way into the McLeod home. Truth be told, it wasn't in that many muggle homes either. "You can borrow it if you want."

22 Evelyn Stones My favorite approach to basically everything. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Ness

April 25, 2019 8:16 PM

Splash! by Ness

"Yeah. I mean... How your dad was with you can't have helped. No one flourishes or does their best when they're scared all the time or under pressure," Ness mused when Evelyn wondered how things could have been different. And ok, it wasn’t like Evelyn’s dad had been behaving like the parent of an obscurial, trying to squeeze all the magic out of her, but being traumatised in whatever way could have big knock on effects on all kinds of areas of development.

“And I’m sure you’re better at magic than CJ is. He doesn’t have any control. You’ve been doing great in classes.

“Hmm,” she mused, when Evelyn explained that Confucianism was a religion and not a religion, and allegedly just wanted good vibes for everyone. “I’ll give him a go, but I’m skeptical. Organised religion, or non-religion, and I don’t exactly get on. You see good vibes and a desire for harmony or whatever - I’m sure someone with very different values to you could take that and use it as an argument to conform, to follow everything that’s traditional because anything else is going to rock the broomstick and upset the family. A doctrine is only ever as nice as the person whose hands it’s in. It’s a tool for promoting whatever they already have decided they believe.”

13 Ness Splash! 1419 Ness 0 5

Evelyn Stones

April 29, 2019 5:34 PM

Waves! by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn blushed. "Thanks," she said, smiling. "That means a lot. Especially from you! You're good at everything. Maybe you're rubbing off on me. Osmosis!" She rubbed her shoulder against Ness', a look of mock concentration on her face. "But I really do appreciate it."

Evelyn wasn't sure what to think about CJ. She didn't think that Ness was probably right in that case. It was true that Evelyn had learned a fair amount of magic, and was doing okay in classes, but she didn't seem to have the raw talent for it that CJ did, or that her classmates did. She thought back to her conversation with Malikhi about just living as a muggle, and realized that she was too invested now. She couldn't leave a world that had Ness or Malikhi or Julius or Katerina in it. She just couldn't. It was her world now too.

"I'm glad I came to Sonora," she said simply.

When Ness agreed to maybe give Confucianism a chance, Evelyn grinned. "Only if you want to," she said, holding out the book. "I don't normally let people touch my books, but I'm sure that you'll be even more careful than I would be," she said. "I don't imagine you spend a lot of time with sap on your fingers, for one," she laughed.

When Ness explained why religion could be so harmful, Evelyn couldn't help but agree. She found herself nodding, and cocked her head at her friend. "I think magic is sort of the same way. It's not about the thing itself, it's not about the religion or the doctrine or the belief itself, it's about what people do with it. When you read this, read about Confucianism, not Confucianists," she said. "Although, Confucius was a person . . . but other than him." She grinned at Ness.

"Did I say already how much I missed you? It's so good to see you again." Evelyn yawned hugely. "I think I could just curl up right here and sleep on you."

22 Evelyn Stones Waves! 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5

Ness

May 03, 2019 12:33 AM

Verb or noun? by Ness

"If it was osmosis, then I would be losing smarts," Ness pointed out, "Hey, stop stealing, I need them!" the Aladren teased as Evelyn nuzzled, pretending to absorb things by osmosis. Ness was glad both that Evelyn felt like she was improving and also to be credited with some of that. It was nice to be smart, but making others smarter too also felt good. Just so long as Evelyn didn't actually start beating Ness in tests... Was it mean to think there wasn't too much danger of that? Possibly. But maybe it was only mean to say it, and Ness never would. And the Aladren liked being the smart one, and getting high test scores.

"I'm glad too," Ness replied, regarding Evelyn's presence at Sonora.

"That's true. And I suppose I don't reject knowing more about magic because of that," the Aladren reasoned. "I will take good care of Mr. Confucious and try to greet him with an open mind. And absolutely no sticky fingers," Ness promised. It was always a bit worrying taking treasured possessions into her room, given her roommate but Ness hoped that, as an Aladren, even Topaz had enough principles not to mess with books. Or enough sense to know that if she started messing with Ness' stuff, her precious taxidermied animals were going to get set up into a mini Pride parade, waving tiny rainbow flags, as the very least of the interesting positions and/or horrible revenges that Ness could think of.

"Maybe. But I missed you to a degree that bears repeating too," Ness assured Evelyn, "And feel free," came the offer, when Evelyn said she could quite happily curl up and sleep right there.

13 Ness Verb or noun? 1419 Ness 0 5

Evelyn Stones

May 03, 2019 1:49 AM

For pun's sake, both. by Evelyn Stones

Evelyn laughed. "You're not supposed to know these things, you're magic," she told the more magically inclined of them. "At least I had to go to muggle school at first, and my mom was big on muggle education being important."

She wasn't sure why she felt the need to explain such things, particularly since Ness had likely had exposure to such Muggle concepts anyway, considering that the McLeods were so keen on diversity of education. Still, there were bound to be gaps there, and Evelyn liked when Ness thought she was smart, so she vied for it when the opportunity arose.

"He'll be in good hands then," Evelyn said, glad that the book would find a happy home in the hands of a worthy reader, and also finding herself feeling anxious at the thought of Ness' hands. It was sort of . . . intimate to share a book. Like they were taking turns sharing the same thoughts or ideas. Their brains were licking up the same words. It was special, somehow, and Evelyn was glad she had a friend like Ness.

"Don't tempt me," Evelyn said with a yawn. She was pretty sure that curling up and sleeping would be the best thing ever, but she also didn't want to miss a moment with her friend, and she didn't want to risk doing something weird like snoring, talking, or farting in her sleep. They hadn't shared a room at Ness' house and while Evelyn had drifted off in library study sessions before, that was different than outright sleeping with her friend. Near her friend. "I didn't sleep great over break, and I might not get up for the next three weeks if I sleep right here."

22 Evelyn Stones For pun's sake, both. 1422 Evelyn Stones 0 5