12 Apr 2021, 03:34
Like-Minded and Mark-Binded
Place: Study Room
Date: Friday, December 18th, 2020 - last day before the weekend and Winter Break starts
Time: Afternoon
Jack sat in a chair in a corner of the practically empty study room. Everyone else was busy excitedly exchanging contact information and talking with one another about what they were planning to do over Winter Break. Jack, however, was already packed and didn't much feel like discussing his plans with anyone. He usually stayed at school on breaks such as this but this would have been his first chance to spend Christmas with Ruka as part of the Burnett family. He couldn't miss that nor deny Ruka the experience.
Even so, that didn't mean he couldn't borrow a few books from the library to bring with him during the break. There were so many volumes he knew he wouldn't have access to once he was back in the muggle world with no knowledge or way to find wizard books for casual reading. Best to sort out which to check out now.
The ones he was most interested in bringing with him back to Wales, he decided, were the ones about Binding Marks. He had researched plenty about them ever since he'd noticed Thomas' three-pronged cut and the effect it had seemed to have on him. Then, of course, there were the identical eye-like symbols that were supposedly on Marion and Victor. Maybe Vlad, too? He still wanted to know if those all fell under the same category of Binding Marks.
As much as he had read about and looked into before, though, there was always more to learn and things to test out. This was one piece of magic he didn't need to use his wand for, so he and Ruka could experiment with it all they wanted to during break like the range with which they could sense each other or talk with each other telepathically. Could they wake each other up with telepathy if one of them was asleep? Would the other hear their voice in their dreams? How did that work?
Engrossed in these thoughts and others on the subject, Jack wasn't paying attention to his surroundings or anyone else in the room. It never occurred to him that someone might have recognized him behind a book since he did his best to seem like a slacker in class; not someone who read, researched or studied in their free time. So certain was he that everyone else was too wrapped up in their own Winter Break plans that it didn't even occur to him to disguise or hide the titles and subjects of the books he was reading.
@Kazuo Shimada
Last edited by Jack Burnett on 15 Apr 2021, 02:08, edited 1 time in total.
PC: Jack Burnett | iNPC: Ginyami Midorimori
13 Apr 2021, 22:10
Like-Minded and Mark-Binded
In contrast, Kazuo was not going home for winter break. He’d given some thought to it but in the end, spending two weeks alone in the Shimadas’ London flat was no more appealing than staying at the school and if he stayed, he had access to Hogwart’s entire library, something he didn’t have in London. Given the topic he was wanting to research, in the end, he had decided that he wanted library access more than comfort.
So it was that he had also made his way to the library in search of reading material to further his research. He’d chosen to do it today specifically to avoid all the chaos and chatter of the dorms. The last thing he wanted was to have to answer a bunch of questions from nosy Puffs about why he wasn’t going home. He’d made the mistake of answering one dormmate’s question about the break and it had only led to more questions and confusion. What do you mean you don’t celebrate Christmas? Your family is working? That’s so sad. So you don’t get presents? What about Christmas dinner? Tiresome. It wasn’t that he was opposed to talking about his culture, it was that he grew tired of people assuming their experiences were somehow the default experience. The weirdly unnecessary looks of pity were baffling and irritating.
Though he liked the librarian, the things he wanted to research might raise eyebrows among adults. Even though asking her would have sped up his search, he chose to forage among the shelves on his own, a much more time-consuming task. It was with a small stack of books on curse-breaking that he entered the study room, catching sight of a certain familiar head of bright red hair. Others might not have expected Burnett to be in the library but it was in the library where Kazuo had first met the Slytherin boy. He paused his steps, tilting his head slightly as he squinted at the titles Jack had stacked beside him. Binding Marks? What are those?
Curiosity piqued, Kazuo summoned all his stealth and slowly crept up behind Jack, peering over his shoulder at the book he was reading. “Telepathic communication? But you love to hear yourself talk. Why would you want to do it silently?” Kazuo teased the older boy with a grin.
@Jack Burnett
Don't confuse my attitude with my personality. My personality is who I am; my attitude depends on who you are.