Meeting an old friend (tag Selina Skies) on Cascade Hall

Terrance Muddle

July 08, 2016 3:48 PM

Meeting an old friend (tag Selina Skies) by Terrance Muddle

Terrance Muddle had been stopping by Sonora Academy twice a day two times a week for half a year now to observe Nathan Xavier's teaching. Usually, he just popped in and popped out again, returning to his office at Rolling Rocks College, the small university operating out of Tumbleweed where he was a professor. Usually, he had classes of his own to teach or office hours or other classroom observations to do which prevented him from taking any time to socialize with Sonora's staff. This week, though, Rolling Rocks was still on their midterm break, having a slightly longer one than Sonora did.

As such, he had opted to stick around between the morning beginner's class and the afternoon intermediate's class that Nathan taught. He had tracked down a schedule and learned the beginners left Herbology and headed over to Transfiguration, which was then followed by lunch, which in turn was followed by Intermediate Herbology. He opted to spend the open period he had working with Nathan to help set up the greenhouses, which the professor-to-be hoped would be ready by spring as the new Herbology classroom. It was coming along nicely, having been largely completed over midterm. The greenhouse itself was constructed, but it still lacked furnishings and a sprinkler system for watering the plats that would eventually live there.

Planning the size and location of the student work stations, as well as how to handle desk space for tests and quizzes, took most of that time. No final decisions were reached but a floor plan had been hashed out for approval by the Headmaster and board, so that was significant progress by his book.

Heading over to the Cascade Hall for maybe the second time, he took a moment to marvel at it, and wonder if cascading waterfalls could be worked into a greenhouse water cycle, before he headed up to the staff table. Terrance smiled as he saw that the woman he'd been meaning to catch up with for months now was present.

He slid into the seat adjacent to her and greeted fondly, "Hello, Selina."

They had aged significantly since they last worked together as Head and Deputy Head of Salem Institute, but he'd know her anywhere. At sixty-three now, his hair was fully grey, but he'd lost some of the extra weight of his younger days, so on balance, he felt he was doing well for himself. He didn't feel old yet, in spite of the wrinkles creasing his face in ways that suggested he laughed and smiled a lot, and that was far more important than a silly number in an age box.

"It's been a while," he understated, his accent still muddled between American and British, though it had shifted further along the American spectrum since they had known each other, with just a hint of a western twang joining the mix of East Coast diction he'd picked up as a teenager and young adult and the British pronunciations of his early childhood. "How are Krisalyn and the rest of the family?" Terrance felt pretty proud of himself for remembering her daughter's name (or something very close to it, he hoped), though he was a bit afraid to hear how much the child had grown from the baby he'd once met.

0 Terrance Muddle Meeting an old friend (tag Selina Skies) 0 Terrance Muddle 1 5

Selina

July 27, 2016 6:03 AM

It requires much maths by Selina

OOC - after some mathsing, we concurred that both characters are acutally in their fifties, hence anything in this post that appears to contradict what Terrance’s post said

IC
“Hello,” she smiled, as Terrance came to join her. She had been meaning to make this happen, but their schedules weren’t always totally compatible, given that the majority of his commitments lay outside the walls of the school, and hers - within it - stretched not only to teaching, but academic support, Head of House and Deputy Headmistress duties. On reflection, perhaps she had never outgrown the old Sal Salis over-achiever model. Or perhaps she’d just never learnt to say ‘no’ when someone said they needed her….

It was strange to see Terrance again. To see how much older he looked, and to wonder how much she had changed since he last saw her. Vanity was one of Selina’s foibles, and so she was acutely aware of every line that had appeared, and of the fact that her stomach bore the signs not only of having had two children but of being a middle aged woman whose metabolism was no longer as forgiving of her love for a glass of wine or a piece of cake. Terrance perhaps wouldn’t be able to tell (though he may well guess), that some of the blonde came from a bottle these days, to cover up the greys. Selina was an avid user of lotions and potions, along with gimmicky diets and anything than promised to make getting a trim figure easier than it should be. It was undeniable that she looked good for age, but she knew she didn’t look young any more. Having genuinely young staff around was one reminder. Having a visitor like Terrance was another. Not that she wasn’t pleased to see him. Some things, like friendship and family, were more important than avoiding reminders of one’s age (hence she still had birthday parties, although she had long ago declared candles to be a silly fuss - her recent-ish fiftieth had been a difficult dilemma between her love of a big occasion and a desire to avoid that number being mentioned).

“They’re well,” she smiled, as he asked after her family, “Krisalyn’s living with her boyfriend and working in academic publishing,” she explained, with a proud smile. The news had been covered in the last Christmas card but she wasn’t sure Terrance would remember. “Ema is still…. her free-spirited self,” she added. It was a phrase Selina had discovered during Ema’s late teen years, which presented her rebellious daughter in a positive light - something she was always keen to do, rather than admit that either of her girls was less than perfect. She kept her complaining within the family, glossing over Ema’s faults with people she wasn’t as close to. Since her teenage years, Emaret had been something of a thorn in her mother’s side, having a propensity for dyed hair, loud music and generally being the epitome of middle-class rebellion - i.e. doing nothing terribly serious beyond these offences but these being enough to horrify her mother. “She’s settled on a college program now, she’s studying Magizoology,” it was even a reasonably serious subject - although Ema had had moments of grade fluctuation in her teenage years, and taken a gap year before college, she was reasonably academic. Just not a straight A grade student with a solid plan involving a sensible job and a sensible mortgage on a sensible house, all of which were ideals Selina had been rather set on for both her children. The fact that Krisalyn had always been the poster child for these had never really helped the situation, only giving Ema a further ideal to rebel against, her golden-girl sister always being their mother’s favourite. It had calmed down, now that they were both more or less adults, but Selina was still waiting in vain for Ema’s choices in hair colour and lifestyle to follow suit. “And seems to have a steady boyfriend, which is nice,” even if this one was also covered in tattoos and had dreadlocks and was studying something useless like philosophy.

“John’s bored. Retired from active service and I can tell he hates it, even though it’s a weight off my mind,” she had met her husband through her brother, as they had both worked as Aurors. But Leo Strix’s accident a few years later had rather taken the shine off that career, and made her worry for her husband. “He teaches a few defence classes down at the community centre. - you know, the SING out campaign and the like,” she added. The acronym was a handy little one, which covered four simple jinxes that most wizards and witches could manage, even in high stress situations (stun, impedimenta, nosebleed and glimmer - the last producing dazzling lights in front of the attacker’s eyes) along with four key places to aim a physical blow in order to inflict maximum damage (stomach, instep, nose, groin). “He likes that - makes him feel more useful than pushing papers in the department.

“How about Will and everyone else?” she asked. She knew Terrance’s nephew was his closest family, and she had a particular soft spot for him too, having taught him at Salem. “And, come to that matter, you?” she asked, realising they had skipped over themselves in favour of their families.

13 Selina It requires much maths 26 Selina 0 5

Terrance

August 05, 2016 3:57 PM

Too many maths by Terrance

OOC: So, yeah. As Selina said, he's a decade younger than previously stated. We'll just say he greyed young and keep his physical description the same as given, with maybe just a few less wrinkles. BIC:

It was as bad as he'd suspected but not as bad as he'd feared. The girls were grown, but the younger was still newly in college so they clearly hadn't turned into middle aged women or anything while he wasn't looking. He supposed the Christmas cards were helpful enough to keep a vague idea of how old the Skies kids were getting if not the full picture of their lives.

"Magizoology is a good field," he remarked, "Considered it myself once upon a time, but there are fewer plants likely to bite my head off, so I opted out." He realized, as the words left his mouth and it was too late to recall them, that this might be a concern Ema's mother was struggling with, and dearly hoped she would take it as the apparently ill-advised joke he had meant it to be, as there were significantly more plants likely to bite off a man's head off than some people were aware of. On the other hand, she'd been married to an auror, so her tolerance of semi-risky professions might be different than his own. "A good choice, though," he repeated, hoping to override any potential gaffe.

He nodded along as she explained what her husband was doing now and made a mental note to remind himself of the man's first name. John was just one of those names he always got confused with Joe or James or Jason or something else fairly common and beginning with the letter J.

He laughed as she asked after Will, and then himself, not quite as an afterthought but definitely secondary. "Will is doing very well. His fortieth birthday party is coming up in a few weeks, so he's a bit depressed about that - and so am I, to be honest, how'd the boy get to be forty already? But he's doing well with his supply business, they just added two new greenhouses to double their bubotubor and asphodel crops. And the twins will be starting at Ilvermorny this year, so we are all excited about that."

He waved generally around the Hall, as he continued, "As for me, I'm keeping busy. I'm enjoying the university professor life. Grad students like Nathan get me out of my little academic bubble, so I'm not completely isolated in thesis papers, research labs, and undergrad lesson planning. And Will, Beth, and the kids keep me from getting too lonely, though some days I think about getting another cat. How are you doing?" he redirected, hoping to avoid introducing any melancholy into the conversation. Kate had passed years ago. He'd grieved and moved on, but somehow the idea of finding a new familiar still felt like he was trying to replace her so he hadn't.

0 Terrance Too many maths 0 Terrance 0 5