Wally O'Malley
December 09, 2020 5:51 PM
Arrangement of the strings [Room 5] by Wally O'Malley
Wally didn’t know.It was a complex feeling he was feeling right now, and he didn’t know how to explain it. For one thing, until his brother informed him that they were dating, he didn’t know that Stanley liked Valentine. Not knowing something so important about his own twin brother was a brand new feeling. Wally and Stanley were super close. They were twins! But even though they still spent a lot of time together at Sonora, obviously, something was different now. They didn’t always sit together in class, or at meals, and they didn’t share a room anymore. Heck, they didn’t even sleep near each other, since they were Sorted into different Houses. It was an eventuality that everyone had seen coming - there was no way they would be Sorted together, just based on the differences in their personalities - but this shift apart was not something Wally was prepared for. Not yet, anyway.
And what’s more, Wally liked Valentine. Like, he liked her a lot. Like, so much. So in a way, it felt like a betrayal that his own brother would go about dating her. Of course, Stanley didn’t know that Wally liked her, so the Crotalus couldn’t really be mad at him, but he felt so hurt anyway. He had to act happy, because he was happy for his brother, really, but he was also so, so sad.
Like a wounded animal, he retreated somewhere safe to be with his thoughts. Wally selected the music room in MARS, a room where he spent quite a bit of his alone time for little practical game. The second year did not actually play an instrument, but he was fond of classical instrumentation. Somehow, peaking in nervously last year, Wally had befriended some of the musician portraits - even a couple who were known to be quite snobby and unwelcoming - and without meaning to, he had convinced them to play for him. So there he sat now, listening to the violins and cellos pluck their sad song, his mind creating a new arrangement as his internal monologue offered lyrics only he could hear. It was a grand collaboration.
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Wally O'Malley
Arrangement of the strings [Room 5]
1492
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Oz Spellman
December 10, 2020 12:17 AM
Neat! by Oz Spellman
Oz spent quite a lot of time in MARS. His go to activity had always been baseball, and the sports room was capable of turning itself into a clean and safe set of batting cages whenever he wanted it to. It was sort of calming, hitting ball after ball as hard and as far as he could without really having to worry. He still had worries, of course. But he didn't have to watch his back, watch what he said, make a judgement on whether someone shady was lurking too close, or kick the broken glass out of the way before starting. He could just bat. He didn't even mind doing it alone. It hadn't been something he had shared with Henry for a long time. His twin had often hung around to cheer him on (or keep an eye on him) back before Oz had started being a jerk, but, well, Oz had started being a jerk and pushing Henry out. And, whilst he wasn't exactly used to batting alone, he felt it was a trade up in this case. Other people were complicated.He exited the room, his bat slung over his shoulder (the room could possibly provide him a better one but he liked his, with all its chips and scratches and off-brand branding), and hesitated, looking towards the music room. He was always drawn to the idea of sticking his nose in, even though he didn't play an instrument. It was a very Henry-ish place to hang out, and he kind of liked the idea of them happening to come here at the same time, even if for completely different reasons. He had only chanced putting that to the test one time, and had been surprisingly close. Henry hadn't been there, but he must have been the last person to use the room because it had looked like their bedroom. Oz had been sort of alarmed to walk in on that and surprised that Henry could leave something so personal just lying around, but then he didn't know how to make the room unmake itself. He guessed it just changed when the next person walked in. He got as far as putting two and two together, and figuring that it hadn't changed because he didn't want the music room, he wanted Henry. He hadn't taken the final step to get to four and realise that the room had given him the closest it could manage. He had waited to see if Henry would come back but after ten minutes of not being put to any musical use, the room had started to dissolve around him, and he had left, satisfied that no one else was going to stumble into their private world.
Today once again, seemed to be the perfect blend of loneliness and blind hope that had him pausing outside the music room door. Or perhaps it really was twintuition. Or just an itch that needed to be scratched every once in a while to quiet down. Either way, he found himself unable to resist just checking...
And, once again, he hadn't been a million miles off. The room was occupied by a Crotalus boy with a twin in Pecari. Just the wrong one.
"Oh, hey Wally," Oz stated. He glanced curiously around the room, not really thinking that someone's MARS room might be rather personal. He hadn't tapped very far into the fact that MARS could show you exactly what you wanted - after all, his just showed him scenes of home, only without some of its complicating factors. True, he hadn't wanted anyone poking around his and Henry's bedroom but this clearly wasn't Wally's house. It looked more like a museum or something. Or, he guessed, kinda like the rest of the school. But the rest of the school looked kinda like a museum. Probably. He had only gone to museums like twice ever. Anyway, everything at school was covered in really old paintings and so was this room, but that wasn't exactly normal. "Is that like a wizard band?" he stated, nodding at the selection of portraits, "That's cool!" he enthused. He had seen the portraits talking and hanging out and stuff but he still hadn't got over that, and he had never seen or thought about anything like them coming together to do something like this. He stared around, grinning excitedly at the magicness of it all.
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Oz Spellman
Neat!
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Wally O'Malley
December 13, 2020 6:08 AM
Are you here for string theory? by Wally O'Malley
Wally heard the door. Well, shoot.It wasn’t Stanley, which was good, because right now, Wally didn’t really know what he would do if his brother walked in. For the first time in his life, he didn’t really feel like seeing him. And it would have been especially bad if Stanley walked in with Valentine. Then he would have probably gotten very flustered and tried to find a reason to escape, spending his walk (or probably a run) back to Crotalus mentally planning what to tell Graham if/when he started crying.
It wasn’t Stanley, but it was objectively the next closest option: Oz. As far as Wally could tell, Oz and Henry were a lot like him and his twin, so having a Mini Stanley come in was not an especially favorable option, either. “Is that like a wizard band? That’s cool!”
One of the musicians stopped playing abruptly. “A band?!” he gasped, lowering his violin and grasping his chest with the drama of it all. The other musicians stopped to hear. “We are individual artists coordinating our talents. If anything, we could be called an orchestra, but please, do not call us a band.”
“It’s okay, Mr. Reid,” Wally said to the painting. “Oz didn’t mean anything by it. And he said it’s cool, too. ‘Cool’ means he likes it. So will you please play some more?” The offended violinist , Mr. Reid, looked Wally over briefly before raising his violin, and he and his fellow paintings played once more. “Sorry about that,” Wally said to Oz, his voice a bit low to hide beneath the music. “Some of them are a little pretentious. But they’re really nice, and they play really nice music.” He let his volume return as he went on. “Sometimes I come here just to listen to them play. At home I have some CDs of classical music, so it’s, like, comforting. I dunno.” He tacked the insecurity onto the end, realizing as he spoke that it was probably a pretty lame thing to admit.
12
Wally O'Malley
Are you here for string theory?
1492
0
5
Oz Spellman
December 14, 2020 2:48 AM
Probably not by Oz Spellman
Oz frowned, not only as the portrait got all uppity with him, but also as Wally stepped in to explain what Oz had or had not meant by what he had said. Admittedly, Wally just meant that he hadn't meant anything offensive, which was true, and Oz recognised a mediator in action when he saw one - after all, he had enough experience of watching one in action. He just wasn't sure how he felt about Wally deciding that Oz needed his help, even if he clearly did, or about stopping an argument when Oz was actually pretty sure he was right. He didn't like a fricking painting, and especially a stuck up one, feeling like it had got the better of him.Still, once the musicians were playing again, Wally was nicer about it, and even called them a word that probably meant something bad.
"S'okay," Oz shrugged amicably. "He's wrong though, yeah? You need loads of people to be an orchestra," he checked, keeping his tone low enough that only Wally could hear. "And more types of instruments." He was pretty confident of these facts, but then he remembered about marching bands and wasn't so sure. Maybe it was the type if music. In this case, it was really boring. Wally had called it 'nice' though, so he didn't contribute this observation to his definition of an orchestra.
"We have CDs at home!" he added enthuasiastically, which sounded like the dorkiest thing out loud but it was a novelty finding someone here who understood non-magical things, plus it was the easiest bit of common ground he could find. "Not classical ones," he added, "I just mean we have some. I thought Stanley said you guys' family is magical though?" he asked, a little confused, and trying to remember if Stanley had actually said that, or if he just seemed to know what was what because of being older.
OOC: If that was an author goof and they don't actually have CDs, we can edit
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Oz Spellman
Probably not
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