Alexander Pierce-Beales

July 24, 2021 12:09 AM

This is a date. [Anya] by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Alexander had done the thing and he still wasn't entirely convinced. The whole idea of it was bringing back big first year vibes from Sonora when he'd mostly been sure he was either insane or in a coma or something. As he got dressed in his most decent clothes he could find (well, most decent while still being reasonable for a rollerskating date), he thought that maybe it would be for the best if he just whacked his head and went into a coma during the date, since he hadn't had such luck so far. Since he'd already given Anya a paper flower, Alexander decided he should include some consistency and follow through in his plans and had gone to the gardens to find a rose of the same type he'd drawn for her. It felt silly to carry it around so he did his best to hide it in his hoodie without crushing it, only pulling it out when he finally drew up to the Sports Room.

He'd arrived first and the room took on the look of a skate park he and Bel and Mab had gone to once. They usually skated indoors in their own little rink but he'd always felt cooler when they went out because he felt like he got to simultaneously show off both that he had a family and that he had a skill. Even though no one really felt that cool when they were rollerskating. He looked around at the concrete bowls and winding concrete path through a grassy park and wondered if maybe a regular rink would be better. Before he could turn around to leave and come back for something new - or even before he could really decide that something new would be better anyway - the door behind him opened and Anya was there.

"This is for you," he said quickly, passing her the rose.
22 Alexander Pierce-Beales This is a date. [Anya] 1475 1 5

Anya Delachene

July 24, 2021 10:38 PM

Great. Let's have some fun with it! by Anya Delachene

Anya was still a little surprised that she was about to go on a date. She still knew very little about Alexander other than that he was in Philippe's House and in Theo's year. Their friend groups did not overlap so she hadn't had anyone to pump for information. Philippe was able to tell her that he seemed to like drawing when he saw him in the Teppenpaw common room, but she'd already figured that out by the drawn flower he'd given her. Theo's observations were unhelpful.

Neither had been able to provide any insight into how long Alexander might have been crushing on her, or if he even was. She kind of hoped he wasn't. Being on a date at all was weird enough without needing to live up to the expectations of a crush by someone who didn't even know her.

She wouldn't say she found Alexander particularly attractive, but neither was he unattractive. He fell into that middle ground that encompassed basically everyone in real life who wasn't actively repulsive (like, for example, Jeremy Mordue, who was in that category for his personality). Alexander had a nice smile, though, when he allowed it to shine. She could truthfully compliment his smile if it came down to a compliment exchange.

She wasn't sure he'd be her first choice as a date though. Of course, nobody had been her first choice for a date, which is why she hadn't dated prior to this, and one date was hardly binding. She could give it a go, tell her mom she'd tried the dating scene (Anya's lack of interest in boys - or girls; Mom wasn't homophobic - was coming up as a point of contention in their therapy sessions), and if she hated it there just wouldn't be a second date.

There was going to be roller blading though, so . . . how bad could it be?

She arrived at the MARS room, a couple minutes late because Anya and time were rarely on speaking terms and she had lost more than a few house points for tardiness over the years, and a mild case of nerves had made her walk slower than normal to the sports room. She took a deep breath, told herself it would be fine, and opened the door.

She was immediately met with a single rose, and she took it by reflex. "Thanks," she said, and social conditioning made her sniff it, because more than one person in her life had told her she should take time to smell roses, and this was really the first opportunity she'd really had to actually do that. "It smells nice."

Of course, holding a thorny flower and roller skating were two activities she could not do simultaneously (not without a dare or a challenge being involved anyway) so she looked for a place to put it down, but did not see any obvious options.

Well, she was a fifth year now. She was spending way more time than she liked studying for her CATS. So it was a relatively simple matter to transfigure a random straw she found in her pocket into a vase and use the aguamenti charm to fill it with water before sticking the flower into it. There. Transfiguration and Charms practice for the day. Check.

She looked around the skate park and it looked awesome! She grinned. "This looks super fun. Let's get our skates on!"


OOC: Assumed without checking that Theo would not be able to tell Anya anything helpful about who Alexander was or how long he'd been interested in Anya.
1 Anya Delachene Great. Let's have some fun with it! 1453 0 5

Alexander Pierce-Beales

August 10, 2021 11:36 PM

That's a good place to aim. by Alexander Pierce-Beales

Magic still sometimes had the unnerving effect of making Alexander feel vaguely sketched out but he had also noticed more than once recently that it had the almost worse effect of sometimes being comforting. In this case, as Anya made a vase for the flower happen, he thought it was probably both. He hadn't ever really been sure what girls were to do with flowers when they got them because it seemed weird to give people plants you'd lopped the heads off of, but now he had his answer; they put them on flower life support and let them die another day. That was magic in the most mundane way and also totally not the point of this date.

"Let's," Alexander agreed. He'd brought his own skates to school just because it was about the only way he was willing to get exercise that wasn't required of him and because it made sense; MARS could probably conjure up an exact replica of his own skates but he'd rather spend the time breaking them in even further and reaping the benefits of a perfect fit. For today, however, he hadn't wanted to seem like a total loser weirdo who had his own skates, so he made his to where a bench with skates he assumed were his size as they looked identical to his real ones were neatly placed, ready to be changed into. "Thanks for this by the way," he said as he sat down and kicked his sneakers off. Always the Teppenpaw, it didn't cross his mind not to be polite about someone giving up time to go out with him. "I'm glad you said yes," he said with a small smile. He even took the time to really think about it and decide that his date was very pretty and that maybe his mostly random decision hadn't been a bad decision at all.
22 Alexander Pierce-Beales That's a good place to aim. 1475 0 5