You found it! [Professor Skies] on Crotalus Commons

Valentine Duell

February 10, 2021 6:37 PM

You found it! [Professor Skies] by Valentine Duell

Twenty-seven. Professor Xavier had told her that Professor Skies had the memories. As such, Valentine was very carefully not running as fast as she could to the Deputy-Headmistress and Transfiguration professor's office. Twenty-seven. She'd spent plenty of time there getting extra help for her lousy transfiguration skills so she really had no problem finding her way there. Valentine liked Professor Skies, but then again Val liked most of the people in the school. She'd heard that the Professor had been having some sort of family difficulty, and hated to bother her, but.... Twenty-seven.

Her hand hesitated for only a moment at the office door before she knocked and identified herself. Upon being granted entry, she tried to look calm and collected, but suspected she was failing. "I'm sorry to interrupt Professor Skies." She hesitated again, just for a moment, what if she was wrong? Twenty-seven. "It's... it's about the memories. I think number twenty-seven is mine." That had been the number on the poster in the Hall. She gave a weak but hopeful smile as she described the picture that had been on it. The picture that had struck her with something from a long, long, long time ago. "The one with the young girl and dark glasses? I think that's Aunt Giselle when she way my age. I would have been about four..." Her voice drifted off quietly as the next question loomed before her. "Can.. can I see it?" Would she be allowed to? What if Professor Skies didn't believe her?

OOC: Professor Xavier's help approved by his author.

2 Valentine Duell You found it! [Professor Skies] 1490 1 5

Selina Skies

February 13, 2021 7:02 AM

After a fashion by Selina Skies

The knocks had been plentiful since the poster went up in the hall, though one of them had been something pleasant. The knock that landed on her door today didn’t sway her strongly in either direction. The sight of Valentine made her feel guilty - both for the recent incidents that had occurred around her and the fact that, of all the things in the world, Marissa Duell had written to thank her afterwards - and, if she was honest, a tad annoyed. The latter emotion she recognised as unfair. Competent fliers were signed off, and there was a degree to which they were allowed independence on the pitch. It was trusted that they would take reasonable precautions with what they attempted. That those guidelines were ineffective and would need rewriting was not per se Valentine’s fault, but well… it would have been preferable had it not happened. It would not have added reviewing said guidelines to Selina’s list of things to do. It would have meant that someone tiny and much loved would have not have gotten horribly broken. All of those would have been a much more preferable situation.

Still, both Valentine’s physical and emotional health seemed within acceptable parameters right now which meant, if Selina could banish recent incidents to the corners of her mind, this qualified as one of the more pleasant visits she had had about the whole memory debacle. Or at least neutral.

“Certainly,” she nodded, when Valentine asked to see her memory. She seemed more eager and curious than upset, and Selina could understand that. She summoned the memory from her own quarters. “Are you sure it’s yours?” she checked, holding up an image from the memory. She allowed it to play out for a moment or two, hoping nothing too revealing occurred in that time before stopping it. “Can you tell me anything else that might be in it in order to confirm that?” Valentine hadn’t seemed totally convinced, and whilst the resemblance to Giselle was there, Selina didn’t want to assume, and reveal someone else’s memory by mistake. “Even if it’s just guesses,” she added, not expecting Valentine to be able to give her a blow by blow account of a conversation she had had or witnessed at age four.

13 Selina Skies After a fashion 26 0 5

Valentine Duell

February 13, 2021 6:22 PM

Such things are precious by Valentine Duell

Valentine thought Professor Skies maybe looked mildly unhappy as she entered the office. Not that the professor was a naturally upbeat and bubbly person, but she was always kind, calm and patient. She had heard that the professor had been in and out of the school lately, with some sort of family thing? She hoped all was going well, but wasn't sure if it was polite to inquire into such matters. She was fairly certain, however, that the Deputy-Headmistress of the school didn't really want to unburden herself to a thirteen year old student. Still, she thought Professor Skies was doing a great job and had helped her so much in transfigurations that she wanted to help the woman somehow, if she could.

Some of the excitement and eagerness faded from her as Professor Skies acceded to her request. As the bottled memory was summoned, Valentine decided to push her luck. "Thank-you," she said with an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry though, I got so excited I rushed right over here and forgot my manners." She tried to straighten herself out a bit, "I'm not interrupting anything, am I? How are you?" Fully expecting the standardized adult to child response from that question, she still tried to project the feeling that she did care about Professor Skies and was open to more than that if the older woman wanted to talk. A sudden thought struck her. What if... she paled for just a moment before accepting the thought and forging ahead. If it would help Professor Skies to feel better, or deal with things, she would glad... well, maybe not gladly, but she would listen to any sort of lecture on irresponsible flying practices the Professor needed to give. She would also accept any other sort of punishment for the incident that might be doled out, if it would help.

Valentine scrutinized the image again when Professor Skies held it up for her. She couldn't for the life of her drag up any specific memory of Aunt Giselle at that age to mind, but that was the same problem she had with her transfigurations. She just could not form those mental images that other people seemed to be able to do. Something inside her just told her that was her aunt. "Yes?" she said as a definite question. She was almost entirely mostly positive it was pretty much hers. Maybe.

The first few moments of the memory removed all doubt as it began. The mist formed first into the young girl, just about the same age as Valentine was at the moment. This girl was smiling happily, her long dark hair swirled about as her head turned to face down to the smaller invisible person whose hand she seemed to be holding. Dark glasses hid the girl's eyes, but they did not detract from the merriment expressed on her face.

"Come on Val, you're falling behind!" She admonished with a touch of laughter. The girl's other arm was drawn ahead of them both, it was being held by a woman who had been looking around as if perusing a marketplace. The woman turned to look at them. She was tall and slight, in her twenties, and had longer hair than her modern-day counterpart. A large purse was hanging over her left shoulder, and the same hand held a grocery list.

"Mama?" She asked quietly to no one in particular. To Val's eyes, despite being quite a bit younger than she was right now, there was no mistaking who that was. "It's the marketplace in Greece." She continued as if in a trance, her eyes not leaving the ghostly figures that now stood still before them. Without thinking about it, she knelt on the floor in the proper place and took her Aunt Giselle's young hand, completing the scene.

Abruptly, she stood again and turned a few shades pinker. "Sorry," she murmured. Then looked pleadingly at Professor Skies. "Can you continue? It must be mine. Aunt Giselle wouldn't have remembered what Mama looked like. Unless Mama left it while she was here... but then..." Valentine's eyes drifted to the empty spot that she had just vacated. Why wouldn't she be in Mama's memory?

OOC: Marissa bits supplied by her author.

2 Valentine Duell Such things are precious 1490 0 5

Selina Skies

February 18, 2021 8:45 PM

They are indeed by Selina Skies

The use of the name ‘Val’ in the memory was fairly confirmatory. Selina had been half way through the flick of her wand when the figure said as much, and were it not for muscle memory she might have just let it carry on playing. There was also the question of whether she got to stay, which wasn’t something she just wanted to assume.

“People haven’t been appearing in their own memories, so I think we can safely say it’s yours,” she acknowledged. “Do you want some privacy?” she checked. It didn’t seem like a particularly controversial memory, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t private. These all, after all, were things that should never have left people’s heads.

She looked at Val, intent and curious and – she hoped – for the most part happy to see this. It was a nice counterpoint to the other clearing up she had had to do to reunite someone with something they might be pleased to see. Something, if Val’s estimated age in the memory, was anything to go by, she had most likely half forgotten, and wouldn’t have had the chance to look into without this. She looked at the frozen figures in the memory in front of her, and hoped it was a happy one.

13 Selina Skies They are indeed 26 0 5

Valentine Duell

February 21, 2021 6:31 AM

Can I keep it? by Valentine Duell

Privacy? It probably shouldn't have, but the question caught Valentine a little off guard. Her first instinct was to shake her head 'no'. Just the thought of making Professor Skies leave her own office seemed wrong. But, since all of this had come out, she knew that some people had some not so nice memories revealed. This was her memory after all... not Professor Skies'. Did she want to share it? She wasn't entirely sure what all was in it. She considered again the ghostly figures of young Mama and Aunt Giselle. She hadn't seen Aunt Giselle look that happy since she'd returned to them. She'd smiled, sure, but it always seemed careful, guarded. It was not the carefree face in front of her now.

Val looked back at Professor Skies. She was probably the professor that Val had spent the most time with so far during her time at Sonora. She was a good Professor and a good person, Valentine trusted her. Val smiled at the professor, "It's alright, I can't remember anything terrible happening on any of our trips to the market. You can stay, if you like." She certainly wasn't going to insist that Professor Skies stay if she didn't want to. She paused a moment though, "Unless I can't remember it because it's there" she pointed toward the scene, "and not in here." then she tapped her head.

The scene began moving again with the woman speaking, “I was walking too fast,” she excused Val, smiling at them both. “I’m sorry. Here we are, though. Let’s pick out some apples.”

She looked over a display, presumably apples, and then up again, at the vendor. “Chaírete,” she greeted him, the Greek word spoken with a pronounced American accent. She let go of the visible girl’s hand as she allowed her own to hover in the air, looking for a good one to pick out. “It’s always important to look closely at apples,” she added to her charges in English. “You want to check that they’re firm, and look at them all over for bruises – it’s easy for them to get bruised, since people go over them a lot, and not everyone is careful – “

Another, aged voice called out, and the woman turned toward her. “Kyría Argyros!” she replied, smiling at the newcomer. “Chaírete! Agorázo fagitó. Pós eísai?”

While the woman was distracted, the young girl's head swiveled about sniffing the air. "Loukomadies, Val!" She whispered excitedly, trying not to be overheard by their guardian. "Think it's Petros' stand? He may have some to spare again for a poor blind orphan girl and her poor under fed niece." There was a very mischievous grin across the girl's face as she cocked an ear to make sure the woman was engrossed in conversation. She sniffed again and pointed. "That way, let's go!"

This time the it looked as though the girl was being pulled along after the invisible person who was looking back over their shoulder. The figures of the older and younger woman chatting began to recede. Both women watched the pair 'sneaking' away with a smile. Apparently taking that to mean everything was okay, the scene swung around to focus on a particular market stall not very far away before fading out.

Valentine's insides were a swirl of emotions, she was smiling wide and could feel the prickling of tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I... I do remember some of that now." She stated to Professor Skies as she sniffed a bit and wiped her eyes. "I think Mama would go and pay for whatever we managed to beg from Petros... or at least try to?" It was all very hazy. "We had fun... I haven't seen Aunt Giselle happy like that since she's come back..." Her voice dropped off and she sighed, gazing at the place the memory had played out. "Mama and Papa's memories aren't... they have some problems from Greece yet. I wish I could bottle that up and show it to them."

OOC: Marissa memory bits written by her author.

2 Valentine Duell Can I keep it? 1490 0 5

Selina Skies

February 25, 2021 3:34 AM

Yes by Selina Skies

"No," Professor Skies assured Valentine, "These are just copies. So, it's still in there. Even if you can't pull it up quite this clearly."

The majority of the scene was sweet. Marissa Duell was clearly recognisable, though a little younger and a lot more relaxed than the last time she had seen her. It felt strange seeing Giselle as a child, and she was once again unsure whether she should have stayed. She had Val's permission, but not that of everyone involved.

She couldn't help but chuckle a little at Giselle's antics. Not so much at the antics themselves, as she really thought the Giselle she could see was old enough to know better, but at the thought that their Giselle would do something like that. Except, she presumably wouldn't. The Giselle who had come back from Greece was a different person, as Valentine confirmed. Selina found herself treading that fine line again that was familiar from her interactions with Killian and Bonabelle - knowing about the lives of her students sometimes led her know things about her staff members that they might not have chosen to tell her. However, she couldn't exactly deny Valentine a listening ear if she needed one. She took a moment to carefully double check her words, her thoughts, and her motivations.

"The situations you're referring too aren't things Giselle has chosen to bring up with me," she clarified, because she thought Valentine deserved to know that. It was different, talking about a thing someone already knew and letting them in on a secret. "But they sound complicated, and like they maybe make you have a lot of feelings?" she checked. "If you want to, you can talk to me about that. I promise that the only way it would change things for Giselle was if I felt anyone was in danger. I wouldn't have to talk to her about it, and I wouldn't end up treating her differently otherwise." She knew a lot about memory problems, and how they could be hard to deal with. She didn't quite venture that personal connection though.

"As for the memory," she stated, coming at last to the part that was easy, "it's yours if you want it. I mean, it is yours," she added, almost smiling. "A single memory is easy to manage, and it should be safely contained in there. It's trying to get them out or work with lots of them that's the risky parts. I'd prefer you keep it off campus though." It sounded like that was Valentine's intention anyway, but better safe than sorry.

13 Selina Skies Yes 26 0 5

Valentine Duell

February 27, 2021 8:26 PM

Thank-you! by Valentine Duell

Valentine felt something, she wasn't sure what, lift from her when Professor Skies told her that Aunt Giselle hadn't talk to her about what happened in Greece. She wasn't the only one. "Nobody has really told me what had happened to Aunt Giselle in Greece either," she replied a bit sadly. "All I know is that some bad things happened, but she got free and came back home to us." She appreciated that Professor Skies was willing to listen to her. "Thank-you, but I'm not sue there is a lot to talk about there. I'd kinda like to know what happened, but I'm also pretty sure I don't want to know either." She paused a moment to sort out some thoughts. "They say there were some pretty bad things and the person responsible was punished. That's good..." her voice drifted off as she tried once more to collect her thoughts. "But Aunt Giselle is still... not happy again." She sighed, she wanted so much to help fix that, but she didn't know how. Hugs didn't seem to be working.

Professor Skies' answer about the potion visibly brightened the girl. "I can! Thank-you! I will, don't worry!" She was going to give it to Mama as soon as she saw her next, which would probably be at the concert. She would need to find or make... find a nice bow to put on it to make it a proper present. Ooo... Bonabelle was good with bows, she could probably make a fantastic one!

She thought that Professor Skies might look a little bit less... tired now then when she first came in the office. Val couldn't imagine what it must be like to have to deal with all of these memories. She really wanted to offer the woman any sort of help, but rationally she knew there wasn't really anything she could do to help... other than perhaps let her get back to work and let her know that she was doing good things. She smiled at the Professor and Deputy-Headmistress as she stood and took the bottle. "Thank-you very much for everything. I do appreciate it." She moved to give Professor Skies a hug instinctively before excusing herself so the older woman could get back to work.

2 Valentine Duell Thank-you! 1490 0 5