Cleo James
February 29, 2020 9:06 PM
Finding My Voice by Cleo James
Cleo sat in one of the easy chairs in the library. Thanks to the rigesco charm,her parchment hovered just above her knees, hard and flat enough to write on, as if she was resting it on a book. She preferred the feeling of being able to curl privately into her letter than the overlooked feeling she got at tables. It wasn’t the easiest one to write, and she was sure feeling exposed would have made it more difficult.
The world, once again, had confused her. Although this time, instead of running to hide from it, she wanted to meet it head on. She wanted to ask questions. She wanted to find and to share information. Only she had no idea where to begin.
There was a school guidance counsellor. There was sort of a clue in the name there that he would have been an appropriate person to go speak to. But she didn’t want to. She was out of here in a few months. There wasn’t time to learn to trust him. Furthermore, she was unconvinced how far a presumably-human man would understand anything she was going through. Nor did she want to sit enclosed in a small space with a stranger.
She could have gone to one of the teachers she liked, there were enough of those. Professor Xavier topped the list, of course, but she also had a soft spot for Professor Wright. He had written some of her favourite childhood radio shows and had never once looked at her like he was trying hard to stop himself looking. He might even know a little bit about what she wanted. Still, she had chosen to write instead to Virginia. Now that Cleo’s powers were better under her control they didn’t have to meet for regular lessons any more. However, it had been made clear that the door was always open, if she needed it. She wasn’t sure that Virginia would know how to help, but she was the adult Cleo wanted to start with.
’Dear Virginia,
I hope you and your family are well. I’m pretty good. I’m in control, and I’m feeling okay about myself, she began with the easy part. The hands of the clock inched round as she paused, making slow progress with putting her quill to her parchment. It took a lot of hesitating and many revisions to get the short letter out, but eventually she was happy with it.
A weird thing happened during Midterm. I went to that support group you mentioned a while back, and I found out there are all these girls out there basically claiming to be me - claiming to be the half-veela who was written about in the papers last year, that is.
I don’t know why, and I want to. I want to be able to get their attention. Maybe it’s just something I’ll never know the answer to, and have to learn to let go of’ - she’d had any number of those, and so this was becoming a reasonably well practised skill at this point. ’but for the first time in my life, I don’t want to fade away and not be noticed. I feel like I have something to say for once, only I have no idea who I should be saying it to, or how I get them to listen. What should I do?
Cleo.’
She let the ink dry before finite-ing the spell holding her parchment in place, rolling up the finished letter and shaking the crick out of her neck.
OOC - I would like a letter reply from Virginia, though am happy for that to be posted elsewhere, e.g. CH, and for someone to reply to this as a social thread too.
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Cleo James
Finding My Voice
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Connor Priory
March 14, 2020 4:06 PM
That's great. by Connor Priory
This year, Connor had been spending an extraordinary amount of time in the library. As a future Healer, he had to take every single core subject except Care of Magical Creatures. It was worth it to him to be able to help people but it was still an awful lot of work. That, plus the fact that DnD took place here, had him spending Aladren levels of time in the library.Sometimes, though, it really cut into things he'd rather be doing, such as spending time with Peyton. Connor was ecstatic that she'd agreed to go to the ball with him and tried his best to make her a priority. Of course, sometimes, that meant they studied together. Or he studied while she sat nearby reading. It was just that being with her was nice.
Today was not one of those days, no matter how much Connor might wish it was. Today he was by himself. Not that that was something he minded generally speaking. He was sort of person who was right in the middle when it came to being social. He didn't mind being alone-though of course, spending time with Peyton was the best which had nothing to do with how social Connor was as a person but that he enjoyed her company-but also was not a total loner. Obviously, he wished Peyton was there, but honestly, he probably got more work done this way when he wasn't sort of distracted.
Right now, he was working on his Herbology essay about sneezewort. However, he had been working super hard on it for quite awhile and was starting to be in need of a break. As Beau might say, all work and no play made Connor a dull boy. As opposed to the Pecari, who was all play and very little work. Not that the Crotalus really judged his cousin, but it was a fact. Besides, Beau had a point, if Connor did nothing but study, he'd go crazy. He needed to stop and smell the roses sometimes. Or rather, play Dungeons and Dragons, practice the trombone and of course, spend time with Peyton or his other friends.
He got up so he could go find a book to read for fun. However, he spotted Cleo first. Connor approached his year and housemate. "Hey, how's it going?" He asked the other seventh year.
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Connor Priory
That's great.
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Cleo James
March 22, 2020 3:20 AM
Yuh huh by Cleo James
Cleo slipped the letter into her pocket as her housemate approached, not really wanting to be drawn into a conversation on what she was writing or to whom. It was private. Connor wasn’t someone she was especially close to. That wasn’t surprising, because basically that label applied to everyone except Parker and Professor Xavier. For a time, Isaac too. But he wasn’t around any more. Things there hadn’t ended totally acrimoniously, even after how badly she’d screwed them up. She could probably write and have him write back. Maybe she would work on doing that too… She’d just never been much good at the whole letters thing. Funny, for someone who also sucked at interpersonal communication, that she sort of needed her friends to be physically around to keep up with them. Maybe she was just bad at dealing with people altogether. After all, she wasn’t one.“Goes okay,” she answered the non-question with its requisite non-answer. Connor was generally friendly. They’d had a couple of okay chats throughout the years. But recently, Cleo had been having to polarise people into ‘trusted’ and ‘untrusted.’ There wasn’t the fuzzy middle ground of assuming most people were alright unless they proved otherwise. Or rather, it was smaller. Maybe Connor just about qualified. He wasn’t a completely unknown quantity, but she wasn’t exactly dying to spend more time with him.
“Did you want something?” she asked, managing to keep it conversational rather than blunt or sharp - and in part, she was curious, as to why he was taking the time to speak to her, assuming that there must be some motivation beyond a friendly little chat. Her best guess would be being stuck on Herbology homework, though Connor usually seemed to manage classes fine.
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Cleo James
Yuh huh
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Connor Priory
March 28, 2020 2:43 PM
Yup by Connor Priory
If Cleo seemed reluctant to speak to Connor, he wasn't dissuaded from starting a conversation with her. Nor did he take it personally. He had heard that his fellow Crotalus had had a rough time but did not know the specifics-and he was not about to pry either. They were not close.Which was something Connor sort of regretted. Unfortunately, it was probably too late for that now.They were seventh years and would most likely never see each other again after graduation. They would run in different circles, unless Cleo had some plan that Connor was not aware of to be a Healer and they ended up at the same college. He had actually recieved his acceptance to Pumine, which had a good pre-Healer program. It was just too bad he couldn't go to SUM like his parents because it had closed. However, he had relatives who'd gone to Pumine too and his mom's family donated lots of money there. Much as Connor didn't want to admit it, wanted to think he'd totally gotten in on his own merits, he knew full well nepotism was a factor. It was an inevitable fact of life for people like him.
Ivy had also got into Pumine, but was still holding out for Dofmore, a different higher tier school. Pumine was good especially for Healers, but it wasn't the absolute top of the elite college food chain. Dofmore was. Connor had not even tried to get in. Not because he didn't have the grades-or connections-but because he really wanted to go to Pumine. However, Ivy...was practically an Aladren in some ways so going to an even more elite school was something she wanted. Connor hoped she was successful. Even though it would have been fun to go to the same school.
On that note, he hoped Peyton decided to go to Pumine too.
He was a little surprised when Cleo asked if he wanted something, but did not let on. "Just a friendly chat. I needed a break from my homework and saw you here." Connor smiled at the other Crotalus. "So, do you have any plans for after graduation?" He was not trying to pry, just trying to make conversation and Connor had college on his mind. Well, actually, he mostly had Peyton on his mind, but college was up there and probably a more interesting topic for Cleo than her fellow prefect.
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Connor Priory
Yup
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