Dathan Fischer
April 30, 2021 6:54 PM
This is just wrong, man. by Dathan Fischer
It was a beautiful early autumn day, sunny and bright - excellent flying weather. Instead of doing that, though, Dathan had started the day out in the library, trying desperately to ignore the enticing view from the windows, but he had not found much success there. The stuffy quiet of the library, how easy it was to look up from his attempts at studying at the slightest echo of footsteps...which usually involved then noticing sunlight somewhere and forgetting about work in order to curse his luck again....He had finally given up on the library after he had realized he had been staring into space and jiggling one knee under the table for like ten minutes straight without getting anything done. Guilt, though, compelled him to try to keep trying to study to some degree, so he took a couple of textbooks outside with him into the Gardens, glumly reflecting on the unfairness of the existence of CATS.
Once upon a time, Dathan had thought that the SATs were the worst test he'd ever have to face, and they had been so far in the future that he had been completely able to ignore their existence. Then he'd come to Sonora, though, and on his very first day had heard about the CATS. They had still been far away, though, so that he'd kind of almost forgotten about them for his first two years. Then he'd joined intermediates, though, and then it had suddenly been fourth year, and the teachers had suddenly believed he ought to be intensely interested in - and terrified of - CATS, and by Christmas it had really begun to dawn on him just how evil and wrong the wizard education system was. SATs would have only determined whether he could have gotten into college back home. CATS determined if he even got to finish his last two years of high school. And then, to add insult to injury, after he put in those two years, he had to face RATS: Revenge of the CATS before the two years of work actually counted for anything. That was just wrong.
He found a courtyard thing and flopped onto a stone bench, trying with all his might to read more thoroughly than he usually did, and not to think about how he had never actually heard about what happened to a wizard who didn't make enough Es and was compelled to become the wizard equivalent of a tenth-grade dropout. Unfortunately, even wizard architecture seemed to be conspiring against him today, because he'd gotten through about three pages before he got uncomfortable on the bench. Groaning, he tossed his cloak thing on the ground and then sat on it. After a while, that got old, too, so he instead just flopped onto his back and put his feet up on the bench, holding his Potions book up above his face...until he drifted just close enough to asleep that his right hand lost the property of grippiness and the book fell forward onto his nose.
He sat up quickly and with a yelp of mixed surprise and pain, allowing the book to fall in favor of shielding his nose from (non-existent) other threats for a moment. At least the thinner side had been the most collide-y he thought. He didn't have a nosebleed, just a strong sense of annoyance, an even stronger sense of embarrassment, and just a smidgen of panic over whether this was a sign that yes, he really was going to for real find out what it was like to be the wizard equivalent of a tenth-grade dropout....
He looked around when he heard a noise. "Hello?" he said, willing at this point to distract himself from his troubles with conversation with a jarvey if that was the best he could get.
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Dathan Fischer
This is just wrong, man.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
May 01, 2021 6:42 PM
Can I make it right? by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Sadie spent quite a lot of time in the gardens because Jack-Jack liked to get outside. Sometimes she would set up barrier charms around a small area and let him hop and nibble (after having carefully checked what was in the area, both from a poison perspective and an is-anyone-going-to-be-angry one). Other days, like today, she clipped on his little red leash, with its ’Incredibles’ logo keyring hanging off the front, on and took him walkies. Or maybe hoppies. She wasn’t convinced it counted as great exercise for her, as he tended to go at a pretty meandering pace but it was fun to get out, and sometimes she could count it as practical herbology revision by observing as they went.They were part way through a walk when she heard a yell. For a second, she froze, not exactly the sort to run towards a yelling sound. Equally though, she wasn’t the kind to run away either. She picked up the pace, as much as she could (Jack-Jack did not see the hurry, and she had to slightly drag him). She paused as she rounded the corner, both in case there was danger but also so she could stop pulling him once she didn’t need to. What she saw was Dathan. He noticed their scuffling, because he looked up and spoke first. Sadie hadn’t really seen much of him this year, and she suddenly wondered whether he would be disappointed in her for that, like it was her fault they hadn’t hung out much. But probably he’d been busy and hadn’t even noticed her absence.
“Hi,” she replied. “I thought I heard a shout?” Dathan didn’t immediately seem to be injured or in peril, which was lucky because she wouldn’t have been much help, but at least it was a good excuse for being here. There was Jack-Jack too. She wondered whether she looked awfully strange, but she was pretty sure her reputation as the weird bunny girl preceded her.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Can I make it right?
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Dathan Fischer
May 04, 2021 7:11 PM
Most things are at least a little better with a friend. by Dathan Fischer
Oh. Great. Not only a person observing his foolishness, but one he kinda knew, too. Welp, time to put on the old ‘blind them with fake confidence’ thing, he guessed.“Oh, hi Sadie,” he said, grinning as though he were not a moron who had just dropped a book on his own head and was not probably going to get kicked out of school in a few months. “Yeah, sorry about that, that was me – I managed to drop a book on my own head, because gravity and the universe are both kind of jerks sometimes. Sorry if I startled you,” he apologized. “Or if I scared this little guy,” he added, looking at the bunny creature she had with her on a leash. It was…a slightly odd sight, you’d expect to see a girl with a little yapdog lapdog on a leash instead of that, but kind of cute just the same. “Jackelope, right? What’s your name, buddy?” he asked the rabbit, before it occurred to him…
He glanced up at Sadie again. “Please tell me this is one of the talking ones,” he said in an undertone. He guessed he could have gone with the thing people did where they played it off as talking to an animal when they were actually talking to the person with the animal, but he seriously doubted he’d said it in a way that would make that fly terribly well. That would have been the action of someone who thought fifteen seconds ahead, he thought ruefully, and planned around either possibility. Well, there did have to be a good reason why he wasn’t in Crotalus, he guessed, rather how there were bleventy-seven why he wasn’t in Aladren.
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Dathan Fischer
Most things are at least a little better with a friend.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
May 06, 2021 11:48 PM
Would you like me to go find you one, or will I do? by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
"Oh. Ouch," Sadie winced sympathetically when Dathan told her what had happened. She had definitely had that happen with a phone, and probably with a book too, even if she couldn't recall a specific example. It was just one of life's hazards, though she would have been way more embarrassed about admitting it than Dathan appeared to be. That was par for the course though, as it seemed like nothing fazed him.She smiled at the fact he said hello to Jack-Jack, although he then seemed worried that had been a silly move, even though people talked all the time to animals - even the ones who couldn't talk back.
"Yes," she assured him, as Jack-Jack wiffled the edge of Dathan's clothes. "He knows about forty words." She didn't point out that this was considered pretty impressive, although there was a confidence to the way she talked about her pet that wasn't usually there. "He's not great at understanding questions though." Jack-Jack was far more solid at saying objects he could see, or ones he wanted.
She almost called him to get his attention, but that would have rather given it away. Instead, she clicked her tongue against her teeth. His head snapped up and he raised a paw off the ground, sniffing expectantly.
"Who's this?" she asked, using a much more sing-song rhythm, and reaching out to tap the Jackelope lightly on the nose.
"Jack-Jack!"
"Good bun." She reached out a hand to pat him. "Most people probably think that's a pretty obvious name, but I'm guessing you get it?" she smiled, tapping the 'Incredibles' logo keychain that was hanging off the leash.
"Sadie!" Jack-Jack answered, in spite of not having been asked, because that often came next and the more he said, the more carrots he usually got.
"Yes. And this is Dathan." She gestured.
"Jezga!"
"No, bun. Dathan." She felt her cheeks glow a little, though hopefully Dathan would realise that Jack-Jack was just learning and didn't mean anything by that. Of he could even understand what he'd just been called. Jack-Jack seemed to guess Jessica whenever he encountered a new human, even though they probably didn't smell at all alike. At least, she hoped Dathan didn't have Jessica smell all over him... "Da-than."
"Karit?" Jack-Jack asked, having worked very hard.
"He's been getting faster with new words, but they sometimes take him a while," Sadie stated apologetically, whilst fishing in a little red drawstring bag decorated with bunnies, pulling out a small chunk of carrot and holding it out to Jack-Jack.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Would you like me to go find you one, or will I do?
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Dathan Fischer
May 11, 2021 3:46 PM
You and Jack-Jack are great. by Dathan Fischer
“Wow,” said Dathan, suitably impressed, upon being informed that his new acquaintance knew about forty words. “Smart, then, aren’t you?” He was pretty sure that this would be the equivalent of being able to think of and spell forty not-basic words in a row for a person, and that was…probably something he could do, but not with anything like exceptional ease (did exceptional have an ‘s’ in it somewhere?).He grinned at the keychain when it was pointed out. “That’s clever,” he complimented Sadie; he was pretty sure he wouldn’t have thought to put double meanings into a name for a pet. “I hope he’s, um, a little less…well, obviously he’s an incredible super-bun, but a little less super-powered than the other one, though,” he attempted to joke, only to trip on it halfway through and then try to get back on the original path. He regarded this verbal stagger with equanimity, because really, what else was he going to do? He’d already done it now, so there wasn’t much point in worrying about it more.
‘Jezga’ was not, as far as he could recall, something Dathan had ever been called before, and he had no idea what it meant… “It’s okay,” he assured Sadie. “It’s kind of a weird name anyway, and like you said, he’s learning. Whatever a jezga is, it’s probably cool anyway, right, Jack-Jack?” He didn’t really see Sadie as the type to teach her pet strange insults, anyway. “He’s better at asking some questions than answering them, huh?” he added, amused by Jack-Jack’s request for either a reward or a bribe; he might not have followed what ‘karit’ was, either, in isolation, but with the visual reinforcement, it was easier to guess.
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Dathan Fischer
You and Jack-Jack are great.
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
May 13, 2021 3:56 AM
Oh, um, thanks. He is. by Sadie-Lake Chalmers
"Yeah, he is," Sadie grinned proudly, easily taking the compliment on Jack-Jack's behalf. The one to her got a much more surprised and stumbly "Oh, um, thanks?" The hesitation was less because she was sure it was a compliment but more that she wanted to double check he really wanted to bestow it."In name only," she assured Dathan with a giggle, as he suggested it was a good thing that her Jack-Jack didn't have super powers. "I don't think we get creatures like that until advanced classes." She smiled because that was (mostly? probably? maybe?) a joke. Though who knew... "I just always liked that movie, and it seemed like an obvious choice," she shrugged, both regarding any further similarities her pet had to the character, and also slightly whether she had done anything clever. One of the reasons she liked it was because she related pretty strongly to Violet, though part of that meant a solid reluctance to admit this out loud.
Sadie hesitated when he asked if Jezga was something cool. She thought so, obviously, but perhaps not something Dathan aspired to be. Happily, he had asked Jack-Jack though, so she was perfectly entitled to keep quiet.
"Yes," she answered the question that was addressed to her. "That was his first word, and he's very good at it." So good that she had to be careful not to make him into a fat little bun.
"Are we disturbing your studies?" she checked. "You must have a lot to do. Congratulations on the prefect badge, by the way." She offered him a very genuine smile, fully convinced he was the right choice (even if he got to spend more time with Ellie as a result). "I guess you won't need a Muggleborn alliance badge after all."
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Sadie-Lake Chalmers
Oh, um, thanks. He is.
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