The art of keeping up with yesterday [Tag: Atlas Primred] on Pecari Commons

Liliana Bannister

September 06, 2014 11:23 PM

The art of keeping up with yesterday [Tag: Atlas Primred] by Liliana Bannister

Liliana Bannister did not like Transfiguration. It required the most amount of focus out of all her other classes and she always found her results somewhat lacking. Though she had improved since her first year she still was not happy as it was the only A she had in her repertoire having been able to just barely attain Es in the rest of the courses. She didn’t completely understand the need for Transfiguration. Though she had previously enjoyed playing roughly outside with her cousins, as she was growing older she was starting to realize that when she was an adult all she would want was a stable marriage that would give her the freedom to play Quidditch as much as she liked and dance in the rest of her spare time. She had no plans to ever live or go anywhere that would need her to transfigure anything and she planned on utilizing the Accio charm as much as possible should there be something that she desperately needed or else just going to the darned store and buying a cup. She envisioned no situation in which she would have an abundance of rats but no goblets. The idea was just laughable.

That being said, she still had copious amounts of Transfiguration homework to do (copious being a relative term as any amount greater than zero when it came to Transfiguration counted as copious for Liliana) and all she wanted to do was go to the MARS room and dance. She was procrastinating so much that she had even drafted several letters to Levi (who she had been giving the silent treatment to for the past few days) and contemplated sending the latest one as she just knew he would respond immediately but pride halted her actions. Her favorite cousin had teased her one too many times about her relationship with Atlas (which was, right now, at best distant due to some strange reason that Liliana could not comprehend. Her fellow Pecari had been reserved ever since the Opening Feast and she could not for the life of her figure out why) and she had responded (or rather not responded) by refusing to send him any more letters.

As she tugged at the end of her trademark braid, Liliana glimpsed the boy in question slipping into the Pecari common room. “Atlas!” she called out, joyous that her friend (if he still was that-- given their recent relationship she wasn’t quite sure if she had pushed him too far and now they were simply friendly acquaintances) had arrived. Atlas was, in general, better than her in Transfiguration though he was by no means a genius. Perhaps he’d be able to help her out. It would certainly be a good opening line and pose a situation in which he would have to fully engage (or at least she hoped).

When Atlas arrived, she shoved her Transfiguratiom book under his nose and pointed angrily at a passage. “That. Explain to me why it is we have to learn how to Transfigure that. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to just go to the store and buy one?” It wasn’t that Liliana was opposed to using magic. Rather, she was glad she wasn’t a Muggle as their magicless ways both confused and frustrated her, but she really disliked Transfiguration. She sighed. “Besides, I can’t think of any situation in which I would actually need to use this spell. While we are no short of teapots at home I don’t think I would ever want to have a tortoise and I’m almost certain my mother and grandmother would be horrified to find that their best teapot was now walking around the garden as a tortoise!”

She flipped her braid over her shoulder and turned to face Atlas now, wrinkling her nose. “What’s up with your life? Please, give me some interesting anecdote so I don’t have to think about the rage of Grandmother after discovering tortoise-teapots wandering the gardens.”

OOC: Permission to use Atlas as such given by his author. As for the transfiguration, I just chose a spell that was taught at Hogwarts during Harry’s third year figuring that it would probably have been taught at some point to the Intermediates.

10 Liliana Bannister The art of keeping up with yesterday [Tag: Atlas Primred] 274 Liliana Bannister 1 5

Atlas Primred

September 14, 2014 7:33 PM

What is today but tomorrow's yesterday by Atlas Primred

When Atlas had lived in the muggle world, he never held a particular interest in school, seeing it as more trouble than it was worth. However since his first year at Sonora, Atlas had begun to notice that he actually liked learning. Despite his interest in books, he wasn’t planning out his life career or studying for the CATS and RATS like his more studious classmates might be doing. The way he described it in his mind was that he just liked learning magic, and that was a good enough explanation for him. After all, he was a Pecari through and through. Even if he had a pile of homework and an exam the next day, he would still make time in his schedule to go do something active first.

Atlas had made it a goal to set aside a few hours a week to do some laps in the MARS room in order to avoid the horrible predicament he had found himself in last year (when his swim speed had decreased). He entered the Commons after yet another successful swim, sporting the trademark wet hair of a swimmer. He had more than enough spells in his arsenal to dry his hair if needed, but he liked the chilly feeling of damp hair. That and he still had trouble controlling his magic output, and didn’t feel like catching his hair on fire today.

He had spent around two hours doing laps, a little longer than usual, as he found it relaxing. He had been rather tense recently due to a few worries that he just couldn’t shake from his mind, all which revolved around his best friend. Whenever he saw her, feelings of anxiety, guilt, and discomfort flooded his body, all because she had given him a hug. A silly gesture of thanks, causing him to figuratively topple over himself like an idiot. In the time he had known her, she had never done anything like that before, a nudge on the shoulder or a cheeky grin was about it. So it came as quite a shock to have such a proper witch like her doing something so…so… odd.

“Atlas!” Liliana called out to him as he walked across the common room. He had been so lost in thought he hadn’t even noticed the British witch reading a book. He felt a slight kick in his stomach at the sound of her voice, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been recently. After a brief second, in which Atlas decided that running away wouldn’t be a good idea, he finally dragged himself over to were she sat. Then as if on queue, a Transfiguration book was shoved in his face.

“That,” Liliana said pointing to a passage. “Explain to me why it is we have to learn how to Transfigure that. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to just go to the store and buy one? Besides,” She said after pausing to sigh, “I can’t think of any situation in which I would actually need to use this spell. While we are no short of teapots at home I don’t think I would ever want to have a tortoise and I’m almost certain my mother and grandmother would be horrified to find that their best teapot was now walking around the garden as a tortoise!”

“Uh…,” Atlas said, a little loss for words. He wondered if she could even get the teapot to sprout legs, let alone get it to look like a full turtle. He thought for a moment back to the pillow she had transfigured in their first year- the poor thing. “I think the point is to prepare us for future spells or something. All the stuff we learn will apparently build on itself later,” he replied, although he felt his answer was bit vague. Maybe it was just a universal school rule to teach things that the students will never actually need to know in real life. “But maybe its like a survival thing?” he continued as he read the page over as to avoid actually looking her in the eyes, “Like if Sonora had ran out of food last year, knowing how to transfigure teapots into turtles would probably be pretty useful.” Although he loved food, he wasn’t sure he would be able to eat a turtle he had just transfigured, the whole idea of it felt a little wrong.

Although teaching Liliana about transfiguration wasn’t one of his favorite activities, the fact that he was actually talking to her fairly normally was a step in the right direction. However, his feeling of ease was quickly destroyed with a flip of her hair. The movement, although ordinary in itself, was enough to startle him slightly. His eyes, much to his dismay, unconsciously moving to her face, causing him feel rather sick and anxious at just how close they were to one another. He figured that if they were friends, he should feel comfortable with her, but he obviously didn’t. He had thought it over during his swim, and had come to the conclusion that he felt uncomfortable around her because he didn’t really know her. Well, he knew a lot about her, but not nearly enough apparently. If something as simple as this could startle him, then perhaps it was his mind telling him that he still saw her in some way as a stranger.

“What’s up with your life? Please, give me some interesting anecdote so I don’t have to think about the rage of Grandmother after discovering tortoise-teapots wandering the gardens.”

Atlas’ eyes took this moment to dart away, moving about the room trying to think of something to tell her. “Hmm…,” he paused while trying to think of something to say. Perhaps if he told her something personal, she might share too. “Well, I don’t really know about an anecdote, but I guess I could tell you about my trip to the Garden of Eden last summer,” he said unable to think of anything profound to tell her. He was never very good at being put on the spot. “It’s not like the biblical Garden of Eden though, it’s a spring in the middle of the woods near Santa Cruz. You have to walk through the woods and along the train tracks to get there, so it’s really cool. There is a cliff near it that me and Steven used to jump into the water. It was probably pretty dangerous and stupid, but it was pretty exciting in the moment,” he said a smile cracking on his face as the memories flashed through his mind. “I think it was really only fun because he was there though. He always knows how to break me out of my shell,” he said feeling nostalgic. He thought back to when they first met and how awkward it was then too. Even though he was only 5 at the time, he had never really had many friends, especially ones as outgoing and honest as Steven.

“Your turn,” he said passing the book back to her gently. “Tell me more about yourself…,” he paused, choosing his next few words carefully. “I feel like even though we are friends, I don’t really know that much about you,” he said adding a weak smile. He felt so stupid, but he felt taking this initiative is what Steven would have done. He hoped that by learning more about her, he could understand her (and her actions) better.

OOC: Permission to use Liliana as such given by his author

0 Atlas Primred What is today but tomorrow's yesterday 276 Atlas Primred 0 5

Liliana Bannister

September 14, 2014 8:09 PM

What is deferred is not avoided. by Liliana Bannister

After being called over, Atlas hesitated in his walk from the common room entrance to his dorm, hair dripping on the carpet. Liliana nearly called out to chastise him for not drying off properly and creating a huge mess, but he eventually decided to join her at the table so she decided to save the lecture for another time.

She studied his face as he read the passage she was asking about and then tried to find an answer. This was the closest she had been to him in days and she was beginning to find the whole situation rather ridiculous.

“I think the point is to prepare us for future spells or something,” he finally answered. “All the stuff we learn will apparently build on itself later. But maybe it’s like a survival thing?” Atlas refocused his eyes back towards the book. “Like if Sonora had run out of food last year, knowing how to transfigure teapots into turtles would probably be pretty useful.”

Liliana wrinkled her nose. Eating a tortoise was not at all appealing to her. Besides, wouldn’t the tortoise, still at heart, be a teapot? She asked Atlas this, wondering if a transfigured teapot would actually have any nutritional value at all.

“Hmm...” Atlas paused in his talking, hopefully to think up a story to tell her. As usual, he did not disappoint. “Well, I don’t really know about an anecdote, but I guess I could tell you about my trip to the Garden of Eden last summer. It’s not like the biblical Garden of Eden though; it’s a spring in the middle of the woods near Santa Cruz. You have to walk through the woods and along the train tracks to get there, so it’s really cool. There is a cliff near it that me and Steven used to jump into the water. It was probably pretty dangerous and stupid, but it was pretty exciting in the moment,” he said smiling wide. “I think it was really only fun because he was there though. He always knows how to break me out of my shell.”

“Like a tortoise,” Liliana said delightfully as Atlas passed her the book back and asked her to share a story as well. “I don’t know what to tell you. What sort of story do you want to hear?” She frowned in thought, trying to come up with something to share. She had many stories about the shenanigans she and her cousins had got into while she was still living in England but she had never been a story teller and besides, thinking of England made her homesick. “Wait, never mind, I have one. Every summer, our whole family goes down to the coast of France because that’s where my grandmother is from. We go to her childhood home-- she was an only child and when her parents died they passed it on to her and she decided it would be a good vacation home for her kids.

“Anyway, it’s this huge house right on the coast that has various charms on it so that Muggles can’t really see any magic going on inside of it. Us cousins play Quidditch on the beach and the aunts always bring us lemonade. The summer before I moved to Connecticut I got to invite my two best friends, Tanya and Noey to join us. My cousins were so jealous because they never got to invite friends and they didn’t understand that it was only because I was moving away, so they spent the entire time pranking us.

“Noey almost went home in tears because Carl had taken her favorite doll, thinking it was mine, and dropped it in the ocean from his broomstick,” she shook her head at the memory. “Levi had just finished his second or third year of schooling though and he tried to perform a Summoning Charm. It did work and Noey got her doll back but there were a couple fish stuck up her dress and the smell never quite went away.”

“Levi always does this sort of thing for me,” she continued, an un-characteristically soft smile on her face. “He’s probably the nicest out of all my cousins. Whoever he ends up with will be a lucky witch; I can only hope to be half as lucky as her.”

Whereas most young girls had harmless, romantic-less crushes on their big brothers, Liliana had had one on Levi when she was younger. It was gone now, but the sentiment was still there-- Levi had always been her champion amongst the cousins while they were growing up and the only one that she ever apologized to and genuinely meant it. Perhaps I ought to just write him back, Liliana thought, and she wrote herself a note to do so on the corner of the next day’s Transfiguration lesson.

10 Liliana Bannister What is deferred is not avoided. 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Atlas Primred

September 15, 2014 6:45 AM

Then I guess I shouldn't run away anymore by Atlas Primred

“I don’t really know,” he replied to Liliana’s inquiry about the nutritional value of a teapot. There was a lot of things Atlas wished he knew the answers to, but didn’t. This spell wasn’t too high on his list of wonders, but it served as a reminder that there were many things in this world he still didn’t quite understand. “Well maybe not for eating then, but for company. Say you were all alone in a place you couldn’t escape, or were just lonely,” he said thinking back to his own childhood, “maybe having a turtle by your side would make you feel better.” Although having Katie as a sister was better than any pet, there were days before she was born that he would have given anything to have a little companion. “But you know if you are really all that curious you should probably ask Professor Skies. I’m not really the best teacher at this stuff, and she definitely knows more than I do,” he said accepting his lack of knowledge.

“Like a tortoise,” Liliana said, seemingly satisfied with his story. He supposed in many ways he was like a tortoise, content to stay hidden away in his shell until a rabbit came along and challenged him to be better. He chuckled a little bit. He never really saw himself as a turtle, nor Steven as a rabbit, but it fit all the same. He was happy he met the rabbit, and even if he felt awkward and uncomfortable now, in truth he was happy he met Liliana too.

Atlas listened attentively to her story, smiling and chuckling at appropriate times. She really seemed to like to talk, and he was okay with that. He liked hearing her talk for a few reasons, the first was that anything about the magical world he would generally use as story fodder for Katie. The second thing was that if she was talking she might not notice how stiff he was sitting, how fidgety he was, or how uncomfortable he looked. However as her story went on, Atlas began to realize that there really was a lot he didn’t know about her. She had money to travel, really close friends, and if he didn’t know better, it sounded like she really liked her cousin Levi.

“Levi always does this sort of thing for me,” she continued, an un-characteristically soft smile on her face, which caused Atlas to blush despite the smile being for Levi. “He’s probably the nicest out of all my cousins. Whoever he ends up with will be a lucky witch; I can only hope to be half as lucky as her.”

He thought it was kind of odd for her to say that about her cousin, but he supposed Katie acted from time to time too. He figured it must be a girl thing. “He sounds like a really nice guy,” Atlas said after a moment. “I would love to meet him one day,” he added. However after thinking back to when he had met her family at the concert first year, he instantly regretted the statement, remembering how intimidating her parents were.

“I’m actually really jealous you know, that you have such a big family. I’ve always wanted that, but my parents just barely managed to have Katie, so my chances of having a big family are slim to none… But I’m not complaining or anything!” he said quickly to reassure her that he wasn’t being ungrateful. “It just sounds like nice to have so many magical relatives. So many close relatives. You and I must have grown up so differently huh?” he asked with a smile as he eased into the cushions of the couch. With the adrenaline from his swim gone, his worries were finally soothed by his tiredness. Even though he was so eager to leave before, at this moment he wanted nothing more than to relax with his friend. He figured he could put up with a little discomfort for that.

0 Atlas Primred Then I guess I shouldn't run away anymore 276 Atlas Primred 0 5