Being insufferably sentimental. on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Cepheus Princeton

October 25, 2013 12:50 PM

The Co-Birthday Bash. by Cepheus Princeton

With a birthday in October, throwing big parties during the academic year never really worked out, but this year Cepheus was determined to do so. He was turning seventeen and would officially be legal to practise magic outside of the school grounds. It was big news and therefore needed to be commemorated properly. His best friend had just turned seventeen, her birthday being before his, so Cepheus had offered to have their birthday party together at the beginning of October. She was seventeen now; he was not, but he would be soon enough. As the witch, he had given her the task of decorating the MARS room where they had first met. Cepheus was normally above such petty sentimentalities, but he thought it to be in good taste on this occasion. He had first met Alicia on her birthday; it seemed only appropriate to have her seventeenth party here as well. There wasn't really a better place to have it on the grounds anyway.

Taking the view that they were throwing each other parties and just happened to be having them in the same place and having her decorate for both, Alicia had, after some hasty postal negotiations for supplies with her parents, decked out the area in blue and silver. The blue was, in the spirit of not shoving the House symbolism too far down anyone’s throat, a brighter shade than the Aladren one, the silver in a midpoint between gray and purely metallic, and the fancy chocolate party favors were in neatly-tied alternating bags of the same shades. The glassware was more pretty than expensive and the hangings all paper and cotton, but for a school party, she had ultimately decided it would do.

Cepheus had walked into the MARS room appreciative of Alicia's work. The blue was a bit much, but it contrasted well with the Crotalus silver. He would have liked to have blue and red, but she had been in charge of decorating, not he. Ceph, for his part, had organised the food. There were tables in the water room which had a pool and hot tubs for anyone who was interested. Cepheus was wearing his swimming shorts just for the occasion. Invitations had been sent out to their mutual friends, Alicia and his, but the party itself was not exclusive. He expected people to simply walk in and be pleasantly surprised to see a birthday party going on.

On the table of refreshments, the prairie elves had prepared two cakes: one chocolate with chocolate frosting and the other lemon with white frosting. The chocolate one had Alicia's name, the lemon Cepheus's. There were cupcakes as well as crisps, onion dip, small sandwiches, bottles of butterbeer and pumpkin juice. The Princetons were going to make a generous donation to the school in exchange for this food.

When Cepheus saw Alicia before any of their guests had arrived, he went and pecked her cheek in greeting. "Happy belated," he said with a smile. He had given her the souvenirs from India on her actual birthday very soon after the term had begun. The package he had given her was a small ebony elephant with a box of wrapped Indian tea leaves. "Did you make the tea yet?" A bit later people were beginning to trickle in and Cepheus knew he had to play the good host. He had seen his parents do it often enough to know what the proper manners were. "We ought to go socialise," he told her. "We'll talk later."

OOC: Written with permission from Alicia's author.

Subthreads:

Ready to celebrate by Henny B-F-R with Cepheus

Here's hoping no one gets bashed during it by Alex Devereux

Being insufferably sentimental. by Alicia Bauer with Cepheus Princeton

40 Cepheus Princeton The Co-Birthday Bash. 216 Cepheus Princeton 1 5

Henny B-F-R

October 26, 2013 5:42 PM

Ready to celebrate by Henny B-F-R

Henny was excited for Cepheus and Alicia's party, glad that they were making an occasion of it. She generally got to have her cake and eat it, as far as celebrations went, as her birthday was in term time, meaning she could celebrate with friends, but her and Charlie's adoption day was in the holidays, so she also got to spend an equally significant occasion with the people it meant most to. Her own birthday was the end of the month – far enough from Cepheus' that she didn't feel offended that he and Alicia hadn't included her but soon enough that she supposed she ought to think about what she wanted to do for it. As there was only one of her, and she was not society something a little lower key definitely seemed appropriate. Not that she was expecting the party in the MARS room to be overly formal or anything but she didn't want to just copy what Cepheus and Alicia had done for both of them. It seemed... over ambitious.

As she had grown a good few inches since her Dad had last had the opportunity to indulge his shopping habits, she'd got quite a few new clothes over the summer, and had actually spent quite a lot of time deciding what to wear to the party. She'd gone for a pale yellow dress that she had acquired on one of their ventures into the vintage and second hand stores of San Francisco, and which tended to produce her favourite acquisitions. She hadn't been at all sure of it, when she'd seen it on the hanger, having never really worn the colour. Charlie and their Dad had both firmly insisted it was very in and would look lovely, and they had been right. The dress just reached her knees, flowing down from a high waisted and slightly flared skirt. The cut of the yellow fabric was in simple broad straps but the dress had a large semi-circle of cream lace around the top, which produced the effect of little cap sleeves. It was warm enough around Sonora to wear it without a cardigan, which was lucky as this would have rather cramped the lace. She felt a little like she ought to have heels for the party but she still really didn't feel she had the hang of them, so had slipped on some cream lace ballet pumps. She had twisted her hair up into a simple knot, decorating it with a gold Alice band, and had added touches of shimmery shadow to her eyelids in honour of the occasions. Charlie would probably consider her woefully underdone but she felt more comfortable this way.

She made her way to the party, clutching a little gift bag for Cepheus. She had already given Alicia her present and card on her actual birthday – a silk scarf in various shades of blue. This had been chosen with care and assistance during the holidays. Cepheus wasn't someone whom she would normally regard herself as on present giving terms with but she felt she ought to make the effort, as he had invited her to his party and it was his seventeenth. She had got him a silver plated bookmark, in an abstract, swirly sort of a pattern. It was a very safe, very Aladren sort of gift to give but at least she could be fairly sure that he wouldn't dislike it. To allude a little more to the significance of the birthday, and the traditional gift that she was sure his parents would be giving him, she'd also got him a little box of chocolate pocket watches, which started to tick loudly once you placed them in your mouth. She knew that was probably not the sort of thing one ate at a dignified party but, at a school party amongst friends, she hoped it would be alright, and would appeal to the fun side that she knew Cepheus had, beneath all his formal manner and propriety.

“Happy Birthday,” she smiled at both of them as she entered the party. “Just a little something,” she added, holding out Cepheus' gift to him.

13 Henny B-F-R Ready to celebrate 211 Henny B-F-R 0 5

Cepheus

October 29, 2013 10:49 AM

Got your party hat on? by Cepheus

As the guests began trickling in, Cepheus kept one eye out for Theresa. He hadn't told her yet that he was no longer betrothed. He had been much too busy to write consistently over the summer and was hardly in the country for more than a month at a time. It didn't seem like the sort of news to break over parchment, however, and so he had waited. He was near impatient to tell her and let their relationship become public officially. Cepheus had set up a wireless as well as everything else and upbeat music was playing in the background. He was proud of their work and had high expectations for the attendance, it still being early enough in the term for students to take a day off.

Henny approached and he smiled at her. She was a pretty girl, but she looked lovelier today. It was clear she had worked on her appearance perhaps particularly for today. Just because Cepheus had a girlfriend did not mean he didn't have eyes. "Thank you," he said, pleased she had brought him a gift. He had tried not to expect gifts from everyone, but he loved receiving them especially when they were not expected. "Mind if I open it now?" He did anyway and found a bookmark as well as a box chocolate pocket watches. The bookmark was a very Aladren thing to give, but Cepheus would put it to good use. He enjoyed reading anything but the required textbooks for class. The chocolates were more interesting, however. He had never eaten anything like it before and it caught his interest more than the bookmark as lovely as that was.

"I've never had this before," he admitted. "I hope you don't mind if I eat one." He opened the box, offering first to Henny, then put one into his mouth. It began to tick loudly and surprised Cepheus so much he nearly jumped. Nothing else happened except for the ticking and he laughed. "That's delightful! Thank you, Henny." He wouldn't eat another one now with all the other sweets to be consumed, but he would have to enjoy at least one more later tonight.

Cepheus had tried to approach Henny a few times last year, but he had been dreadfully busy with his own personal disasters. They had seen each other often, to be sure, but it wasn't exactly the same as talking outside of class. "How are you? How was your summer?" he asked warmly, genuinely glad to see her particularly after she had given him this thoughtful gift.

0 Cepheus Got your party hat on? 0 Cepheus 0 5

Alex Devereux

November 13, 2013 10:23 PM

Here's hoping no one gets bashed during it by Alex Devereux

To say Alex was surprised by the party invitation was to make an understatement, both because of how oddly rare formal birthday parties were at Sonora and because of the names on the invitation in question. Cepheus wanting to celebrate his seventeenth in style was understandable, but celebrating Alicia’s too was interesting; girls, for one thing, weren’t traditionally made as much over as boys on even this most significant of birthdays, a girl’s big day was her wedding day, and the last she’d checked, Cepheus and Alicia were neither related nor about to announce their engagement, considering that Cepheus was both already engaged and sneaking around with another girl on the guest list. Perhaps they hoped to give the impression they were related to dispel the dating rumors from last year?

No matter what they were doing, it made things more interesting from her perspective, as well as more complicated, given the way the sign-ups for the Concert groups had gone. Alex had decided this one was a bit too much for her and had demanded that Jay get Lucille and turn up, Jay to give Alex backup if she needed it and Lucille to get to know her future husband’s friends. Jay had not been enthusiastic, but had agreed, and though he was not around when she arrived, she trusted him to show eventually.

“Happy birthday,” she said to Cepheus when she arrived, handing him her gift, a heavy, fancy glass inkwell with a gryphon-adored metal stand and fancy quill she had gotten last Christmas and had never used. Alicia also had a gift, an (in her opinion) overly elaborate glass box from the same occasion. It was not something she would have done outside of school, but she did not really care to explain the complexities of school life to anyone at home to order better gifts, and she wasn’t actually friends with Alicia anyway, so it would do. “Nice set-up,” she added.

Looking around, though, she found she didn’t really suspect Cepheus of much of it. The colors favored Aladren a little too much. So had the whole party been Alicia’s idea, then? Or was it just the combination they’d decided looked best together, with nothing to do with Houses at all? It would be hard to be too worked up about Houses, really, in this context, since it was supposed to be Cepheus and Alicia’s party and they were in Houses with a fairly intense Quidditch rivalry and the guest list would almost surely include the Aladren captain even though the Crotalus Seeker was a celebrant. Yes, she thought, in light of that, Houses were really something they should all try to gracefully forget for the occasion….

With that spirit in mind, she checked out the refreshments, which also looked nice. As long as the various romantic tangles of the year stayed out of sight enough to keep everyone’s wands away, this might actually, she had to admit, make a pretty good party, for a school day, anyway.

0 Alex Devereux Here's hoping no one gets bashed during it 0 Alex Devereux 0 5

Alicia Bauer

December 05, 2013 1:04 PM

Being insufferably sentimental. by Alicia Bauer

She had tried to restrain herself, but Alicia had still spent most of the day leading up to her birthday party smiling to herself, which continued as she allowed Cepheus to peck her on the cheek and laughed at his greeting. “Happy early,” she replied. “You can have your real present – “ an initialed leather-covered folder, the kind he might use as a Grown Wizard With Important Business, accompanied by two self-inking portable quills which were guaranteed not to leak – “on your real birthday, but I did bring you something today,” she added, handing over that wrapped package, a combination biography and strategy book by what she had determined, from reading the international newspapers around the offices over the summer, to be a fairly famous English Seeker. In light of recent events, she was scouring the catalogues for some American equivalent to give Thad for Christmas, but she hoped Quidditch could stay out of things except for this one book for the length of their party.

“I did,” she responded of the tea he had brought her from India. “I have that to thank for finishing my last Potions essay, actually. It was very good, I enjoyed it.”

A fair enough description of her actual birthday, she thought. It had passed relatively quietly, but had been marked by a good influx of gifts. Treasures from her friends, sentimental stuff which she wished to never look at or think of again from her mother, a surprisingly funny card accompanying some more of that citrusy tea she’d had over the summer and a truly awful mug from her father, knick-knacks and joke gifts from her sisters. Anne had sent her a translation of some treatises on friendship and old age, the former, she assumed, meant as a comment and the latter as birthday humor. Even a few of the people she had met over the past two summers had sent cards to acknowledge the occasion. She had spent much of the day feeling sentimental about everybody, really, before her stepfather and mother’s joint gift was explained in a letter at the bottom of the pile and had shocked her out of that, at least for a little while. She didn’t feel bad about it, since she thought most people would be more than a little stunned to find themselves so suddenly women of property.

Minor property, of course. Her stepfather would never allow her to collect rents off anything he really valued in the first place, or enough even from what he did not to break from her family and maintain her standard of living without someone else’s assistance, but still – real estate. Something she could touch. And, more importantly, get money from. Her own money, on a fairly regular basis, rather than just hoarding coins she got here and there in secret compartments. Actual resources, rather than just a getaway stash. There was a definite catch somewhere beyond just Jeremy appointing himself her lawyer to deal with it all ‘for now,’ she suspected Jeremy was distancing himself from something he shouldn’t have been involved in by a degree or two, but the gift also confirmed her as an associate of the Douglas family, at least as good as Rachel, if perhaps in a different way, and – to put it in what Gramma Alma, who had promised her the beginnings of a set of china when she got home, would have considered unspeakably crude terms – raised her market value a bit, meant others could get something by association with her.

Her best guess at what they were thinking involved a few insults to her, but she was still grateful. It was hard to object to something which increased her chances of freedom, of getting off their hands a lot more thoroughly than she thought they, or Jeremy, at least, really wanted to get her off them. She had gotten herself a set to match Cepheus’, even though Jeremy wasn’t letting her meddle in actual business yet. The future was theirs and their friends’, and symbols were important.

“Of course,” she said with a nod and went to be social herself.

She was glad of it – it meant more than she knew she was even capable of saying to her that he, that any of them, would notice her birthday, much less care enough to share the stage with her over it – but the less emotional part of her still wasn’t sure that this party was really the best idea. It was, after all, going to do almost nothing to dispel the rumors about them, and while she enjoyed exclusive social occasions, this year, she really needed to work on the fifth years at every opportunity, to hopefully at least split Waverly’s support base. As it was, the best she’d been able to do was slip in invitations to James and Lucille Carey – Evan’s fiancée and Thad’s new house-elf, who weren’t bad choices, she guessed, for spreading the word that Alicia Bauer was a decent hostess with good friends.

She tried not to think too strategically, though, and found it easier than usual to turn it at least partially off. She had made it, after all – she was an adult now, she could do whatever she liked, some of her classes were good, the rest improvements over what they had been, and she was surrounded by people who cared about her. Beside that, the rest of it didn’t seem that important.

Afterward, she met up with Cepheus again. “That was fun,” she said. “Definitely one of your better ideas.” Her smile lost its almost lazy aspect for a second. “Thanks for letting me in on it,” she said.

She wished, idly, for a second that she could be really sincere, but that wasn't how she and Cepheus worked. It would be horribly awkward and weird and sound stupid and sentimental and he'd probably never speak to her normally again if she did. She just had to assume he would get the point. "Now back to regular life," she said. "How's the Quidditch team going?"

16 Alicia Bauer Being insufferably sentimental. 210 Alicia Bauer 0 5

Cepheus Princeton

December 06, 2013 8:32 PM

Just don't cry on me or anything. by Cepheus Princeton

The party had been a success in Cepheus's eyes and he was glad for it. Alicia's pre-birthday gift had been thoughtful as well as Henny's which he had opened later. He loved receiving gifts, though he liked to open them in private and enjoy them by himself. He'd made the rounds and was glad to see his mates there. He was sure this was the sort of ordeal his parents thrived in and Cepheus hoped he'd made them proud. Hosting these sorts of parties would take some getting used to, especially at home when he had to invite relatives he'd never speak to again for two years. This was easy compared to those awful family reunions.

After his round of greetings, Cepheus had taken a rest in the hot tub, eaten cake and had gone back to the hot tub for a good soak. It was convenient to have these sorts of parties in the middle of the term. With all Advanced courses now it was getting stressful and this was only the beginning. The party had drifted to an end and Cepheus was drying his hair and enjoying one of the chocolate pocket watches, amused by them as a child would have been, when Alicia approached.

The praise she gave made him smile. "It was fun, wasn't it? I'm glad you agreed to do it with me. Did you get to soak in the hot tub?" As he spoke, the ticking in his mouth was made evident and it made him grin. "Sorry, Henny gave me these chocolates. Want one?" He offered the bag to her. "I'm enjoying them far too much." The look on Alicia's face had been more sincere than he had seen it before and he knew she really did appreciate him including her. Cepheus had been glad to include her in the beginning, but it made it all the worthwhile to see his friend pleased with the party.

"Yes, regular life," agreed Cepheus, sighing as he put the towel around his neck. "Just between you and me, I don't think we have a chance this year. We've got two first years, no offence to your brother--Isaac, right?--, two second years, one being my own pathetic brother, a player who's been reserve for Merlin knows how long and Linus and I. Winning team, there." Cepheus shook his head. "Not the best, but at least they'll be trained and we'll have a full team when I take over next year. If Leo decides to join again, that is. We'll be playing against Aladren first, so I'm expecting to see you there." He smirked a little lazily. "How's the whole library monitor thing going?"

Cepheus knew very little about the 'whole library monitor thing' besides the gossip Alicia shared, but it was important to her for her own reasons. "Any more incompetent first years? Or sixth years?" At the mention of sixth years, Cepheus was reminded of his broken betrothal and his face lit up. "Oh, sorry, I've got something brilliant to tell you that I've been forgetting. I'm not betrothed to Megan anymore, you know, the former Teppenpaw? When I found out this summer I was so happy I thought I could fly." It was important news to tell one's best friend and Cepheus could hardly believe he'd been able to keep it from her for this long. "I haven't told Theresa yet, but I'm sure she'll be enthralled. Sorry, you were saying about the library volunteers?"

40 Cepheus Princeton Just don't cry on me or anything. 216 Cepheus Princeton 0 5

Alicia

December 11, 2013 12:43 AM

I'll try to restrain myself. by Alicia

“I gave into temptation,” Alicia admitted about the hot tub. She was generally of the opinion that everything she had was better covered up than not, with even her lowest-cut blouses and dresses suggesting more than they revealed, but she knew there was actually nothing wrong with the proportions of any of it and had decided in the end that it was her birthday party and other people could live with a momentary glimpse of her in a bathing costume or else go away. There were, however, more important issues to consider at the moment. “Why are you ticking?” she asked.

The chocolates made her laugh. “Thank you,” she said, accepting the offer of one. “I assume your parents’re getting you the real thing?” she added.

She had never quite decided what she thought the symbolism of the pocket watch was. Just that he was now expected, as an adult, to manage his own time? But the formal ones, the ones given as birthday gifts, often required a working knowledge of astronomy just to read, so she thought it was impractical in that regard. Likely there had been a good reason once, if only that more people had been smart enough to read the watches without having to think about it a century ago, but now it was just a tradition, probably kept alive just to make people like her wonder about that, and feel slightly cheated that the message behind her own significant present was perfectly clear. Of the two, she’d take the acknowledgment that she’d proven herself worth something before the family gained the legal right to cease association with her without simultaneously declaring themselves the utter failures parents whose children were so out of control that they disowned them were, but still, it lacked sentiment.

“Res loquitur ipsa,” she had to agree when Cepheus described the Crotalus Quidditch team. “I hope it works better than it looks for your sake. If it helps, you can offend my brother all you want, I really don’t care.”

She nodded her assent when he said he was sure she would be at the Crotalus-Aladren game. “Of course,” she said. “This year, anyway. I know it’s a long shot, but next year, I’m thinking of trying to convince you and Thad I’ve become a nerveless female who faints at the sight of blood and can’t come to your games for the good of my health.” She almost managed to stay straight-faced as she said all that, though she was close enough to laughing that her face relaxed into a smile again by the end, despite her truly dreading her closest friends becoming heads of traditionally very antagonistic Quidditch teams in their seventh year. She was not at all looking forward to the conflict of interest she already had getting even more conflicted.

She was about to mention the weird influx of intermediates, including a girl with a boy’s name, rather than discuss some of the sixth year issues going on in the library and how delicately she felt she had to handle things now that Thad was an Assistant again, but Cepheus cut her off with his news first. She stared at him for a moment, stunned, then shook her head. “Who cares about that?” she asked. “Congratulations!” Part of her felt this was incongruous, acting as though he had just won a major prize when most people would regard this kind of thing as bad, but she ignored it and gave him a quick hug.

Alicia had noticed, years ago, that as irritating as it often was in the process, the world really did generally seem to do what she wanted it to do, and she was indescribably happy to see it working for her friend as well. She had been worried about him, both about how it would go if he went through with the marriage and about the possibility that he was going to antagonize the Careys. “I’m sure Theresa’ll be as happy for you as I am,” she added.

She did not see Theresa’s reaction as surpassing her own because of how very much Alicia wanted to see them as an open, cheerful item. Theresa, more than anyone else around, was a threat to Alicia’s happiness. If she got involved with Thad, by her own will or not, it would all go downhill from there even if Alicia was able to ruin Theresa’s reputation to the point that the relationship was broken off before Thad and Cepheus turned on each other, as that would still necessarily involve at least some discomfort for Cepheus, and Alicia liked being happy and having her friends happy around her. She hated how helpless she was, short of doing very, very drastic things, to prevent people from messing that up right now. She did not like depending on Fortuna’s continuing smile.

“If for different reasons, of course," she continued. "Do you think you two might, you know, go public now?”

16 Alicia I'll try to restrain myself. 210 Alicia 0 5