Willow Anderson -- Astrea Soleil Neptune Valentines closed

✿Mentioning✿
@Astrea Soleil Neptune, @Flash Holmwood^{with permission}

Willow had taken a brave step to sign both herself and Astrea up for the Valentine's Day even in hopes that they would be matched together, and that Astrea was actually interested in Willow as well. It was a Cupid's shot in the dark that she had been extremely nervous to take. There were many talks with her brother, Flash, about how she should go through with it and if she should even go through with it. Luckily with his ever present confidence in her, she had decided to just do it.

This was one of her favorite holidays. The Wiccan sort of equivalent of it had actually been February 1st and 2nd and that holiday had been the original plan to ask Astrea out, until this event showed up. Of course she went all out for the occasion. She picked out her nicest pink floral dress, a pair of fleece lined tights to keep her legs warm, and a pair of boots with wings on them. The young badger was truly, pretty in pink. For a little bit of the night she would have to cover up the ensemble with a large white coat to help keep her warm in the Astronomy tower, but she hoped she could shed it upon arrival. Her brilliant pink hair was left down sans for a single small braid that pulled the hair that usually fell into her face back. While her heart would be warm, that was sadly not enough to keep her entire body warm.

With approaching the familiar Astronomy Tower her heart was delighted by all of the decorations that were on the archway. Usually the tower could feel cold and dull, and for once it was bright with the celebration of the wonderful holiday. There were treats outside to be taken for the lucky participants, and Willow went with the small bag of chocolate. A number manifested itself on the blank label as soon as she plucked it with a number. A bright smile came over her face, this was so exciting! Briefly she wondered if Astrea would even come, what if she didn't want to come to the event knowing someone else had signed her up? Would she be mad at Willow for practically tricking her into it? With a deep breath, she entered the tower that had blankets, balloons, and baskets galore. If Astrea was truly upset, then Willow would deal with it. But until she was proven otherwise she would let herself be excited.

After using her brilliant knowledge of how to count, she located the blanket that was assigned to her and saw that she was the first to arrive. That almost made her more nervous to have to wait for Astrea's arrival. With all the fireplaces and warm bodies filling the room, Willow decided to take off her jacket for now so she could look as cute as could be when the brilliant snake did arrive. Willow nervously ate the chocolates from the bag she picked, eyes scanning the room for the only person she really cared about that night.

✿Outfit Reference✿

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interactions @Willow Anderson
mentions Willow Anderson, Lord Neptune, Lady Chou
abilities: terrible presence | lovely creature | spell spread

Truely, Astrea never cared much for Valentine's day. A sugared holiday absolutely bursting with romance and affection for one's partner, it was quite clear why such a celebration would not interest such a serious and supposedly unemotional child. The fiasco that had been the tea party just last year had not made such a day any softer. It was decidedly not a child's holiday in the first place. At the very least, less intended for those too young to grasp at the vague concept of such an idea and more so for those who were bound by duty either to the heart or the home.

Of course, her personal observations of such a reputation were heavily skewed. After all, her Lord and Lady did not revel in public displays of their affection- to this, there were two problems. One, there was no one to display such a thing to if most of their time is spent either busy or isolated and two, they had come into marriage with a solid foundation of convenience. Not love or anything of the sort- but was there much in the first place when it came to an arranged marriage between the two of them? Famously rigid in near every way, shape or form, the word "love" seemed too juvenile to assign to the Neptune-Chou couple. And yet, as much as the idea of such a Western holiday seemed ill-fit for her very traditional parents, the sweetness of fine chocolate and violets always seemed to linger within Cedarwood Castle around this time of the year- though Astrea had never before seen where they had come from or from whose hand did slave away for such riches.

All of this overthinking to say, Astrea expected February 14th to pass by as normally as any other day in her life- routine and filled with considerably too much energy spent attempting to ignore the fleeting looks of her classmates. So imagine her surprise when she had found herself greeted with an unexpectedly cryptic letter that morning, inviting her to the Astronomy tower after dark for the year's special. From whom it was from or who she would be sharing such a time, that was less certain.

Unwilling to hold up whatever poor soul had been paired with her and yet unwilling to stay long enough to develop any sort of new relation, Astrea had sighed with a wariness far beyond her years and headed up towards the Astronomy Tower after tending to Orpheus' needs. The feline quite usually trailed behind his owner if not otherwise occupied and to separate for such a silly reason as a "blind date" made Astrea silently wonder who exactly had signed her up. The long trek from Hogwarts' underground all the way to the highest area of the castle did not prepare her for the pastel quality the tower had found itself adorned with. At least it did not ring as garish as Professor Bercegeay's 'decorations'.

Past the grand archway, heart-covered tables displayed goodies for the taking, sticker labels attached to each object. Disregarding the treats, she pulled from the vase a de-thorned pink rose and found upon its previously blank attachment a number. Curious. Silently cursing the anticipation that came with meeting a stranger or sweetheart- though considering Astrea's social skills, most presumably the former- and yet not knowing who they were to be, the Slytherin slowly walked through the gathered crowd of balloons looming over people already tucked down on their respective picnic blankets. Scanning the area. There-

Ah, how fortunate was she! Her ever-dreaded unknown had not been a random at all, instead the single person to whom Astrea had the pleasure of knowing. Suddenly, all of her sensible worries had been replaced with a few more incoherent ones- her careful observational skills honed onto the delicate dryad she had been paired with. Willow Anderson, ever impeccable, looked somewhat nervous the closer the Slytherin drifted, a cream-coloured coat tucked off to the side and complementing the pale pink of her hair and dress. Strangely, her own attire seemed quite inadequate. "Good evening, Willow." If Astrea had known they had been paired together, she would have come earlier- would have perhaps brought something more fitting for the badger. Alas, it was too late to speculate what-ifs now. But too late to appreciate the joys of now.

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✿Mentioning✿
@Astrea Soleil Neptune

Willow thought that perhaps the arrival of her date would ease the nerves that seemed to be electrifying her body. The chocolate wasn't doing much to ease her anxieties besides giving her hands something to do. Across the room she was able to spot the ethereal presence that was Astrea making her way into the room, looking pretty confused. But also very pretty. She seemed to be the darkness in a room full of bright decorations, but it wasn't a suffocating one. It was one that balanced out the light that Willow brought, together they were a perfectly lit room of awkward affections and a struggle to communicate.

The badger quickly scrambled to her feet, smoothing down her dress and wondering if she had slightly over dressed for the occasion. But no, she had wanted to impress Astrea! Willow had an entire speech planned, she had practiced it. To Flash, to her mirror, to her stuffed animal friends. This was a unique opportunity that had been presented to her, food and stuff already prepared. Chocolate and flowers galore already set up. Willow really didn't have to do a ton of extra stuff... besides making Astrea feel special. There was the fear that Astrea didn't like her back and that this would all be a wash. She was hard to read for any type of emotion, let alone if she liked Willow like... like liked her.

What started as a feeling of really really wanting to her friend expanded over time. All the butterflies and shy blushes when thinking about her began to slowly make sense. While she had a boyfriend in her first year, the way she felt about Astrea was much different to how she had felt about Jack. Astrea made her feel at a loss for words, especially for someone that talked so much when she wanted to. Her hands folded politely in front of her as she stood, the shy smile ever present just for Astrea fixed quietly on her face. "Good evening, Astrea." Matching her formality always felt weird. But of course they were from different worlds, and always would be. Astrea of sparked blood, Willow of sparkle-less blood much to her dismay.

Now it was time for the hardest part, small talk, trying to lead into the big question that Willow had. Surely it couldn't be that hard right? "I was wondering if you'd be my gitlfriend." Welp. There goes that speech. Willow's face was aflame and became as red as the decorations around her. "I-" She didn't know how to follow up. She had only does this one time and it was with Jack. "I meant... to ask how you're doing... and then I got all nervous. You make me nervous." Her eyes couldn't meet Astrea's, instead they were particularly fixed to a point in the ground that had become the most interesting point in front of her. "I don't know what it is about you... but I really like you... and if you don't like me back that's totally fine. I actually signed us both up, I wanted us to get paired together." She looked back up at the Slytherin girl that had stolen her very young heart.

"I had this whole speech prepared, even Flash helped me practice. I- had a plan." The plan was now foiled, and she couldn't stop talking. "If you also don't want to be my girlfriend we can still be friends! That's cool tool! There's a lot of food and stuff, and we could hang out. But again if you don't want to that's fine." She was almost gasping for air. If she had given Astrea time to talk, she'd probably have an answer by now. Willow pulled a small piece of parchment out of her pocket, handing it over to the girl without a word. It was a drawing of Astrea's hand on top of hers in the courtyard.

The day that they had first met, just about a year ago.

✿Outfit Reference✿

Reducio

interactions @Willow Anderson
mentions Willow Anderson
abilities: terrible presence | lovely creature | spell spread

It appeared that this year's February celebration rung more attention that last years, judging by the sheer amount of people gathered in pairs and groups spread about the class area. Whether they had come on their own accord or anonymously invited as she was- that information was less clear. But these children- sat amongst each other in the name of puppy romance, some of their expressions twisted into grimaces and others entirely content- were all irrelevant. When one was approached by someone as wonderful as Willow Anderson, many things became irrelevant.

Whatever Astrea had expected, staring down at the sweetly blushing green witch, she had not gotten. That forwardness Willow exuded, under that crystal sheen of nervous energy! Ever-articulate Astrea Neptune rendered uncharacteristically speechless- quite the consistent side-effect of the fair badger's presence-, reduced to nothing more than surprised spectre within a room full of humanity. She felt as if a fish out of the water, gathered out of her comfort zone and placed a step out of place. An intruder on something so intimate she simultaneously had every and no right to witness, let alone participate in.

Her mask of words, ever-unreliable in direct comparison to the statue silhouette of aloofness she had been carved out of, had cracked in her surprise- leaving her without society's primary method of communication even as her struck heart thrummed with the beat of Cupid's drum. She was not blunt but her supposed eloquence was nothing more than a lucky sham, a cobbling together of learned and observed behaviours gently imitated. A fraud confronted with the truth has at least part chance of revealing its identity, and if the chance fell on the other side of integrity, then there came yet another game of deception and concealment. To this stumble around this illusion of surety, Astrea could only say that she had lived a life of practice until made perfect, of imitation made overmatching. All of this ramble- this incredible crescendo of internalised-confusion born out of repression- to say that to be stripped raw of her carefully constructed walls by such gentle hands was disorienting.

Ended was their careful circling about each other, every time they seemed to meet once more in such a large castle as Hogwarts. The waxing and waning of interaction had dissolved into falling droplets of sugared sun-glass, of hope, the moment this pretty maiden of pale pastel had thrown her speech to the winds. There was no building drizzle- or perhaps it had always been raining and they had been too caught up in their own reflections in each other to notice the sky blessing- to warn them of the storm's approach. Drenched in the elixir of fondness, Astrea took the offered parchment with her head slightly bowed in silent reverence, inked hair falling forward to shield her heart as she gazed upon the image cast in long-dried ink.

"I-" What could she say, to summarise the raging hurricane of warmth building within her chest? There were no careful social rules to dance about with, no language of flowers or fans to discretely decipher from across the room. At least not in the way Astrea had grown up hearing, watching and reading about. Unfamiliar it was but it seemed so genuine and that raw sentiment tugged something loose within her, all-encompassing in its warmth as if new dawn after a night spent cold. Oh, that dreaded feeling of exposed sweetness, so syrup sweet and cloyingly addicting, was back. Of course, it was genuine. What an off-putting thought, to think Willow Anderson- the candlelight illuminating her dim life- would be anything but honest in the delicate situation they had placed themselves in.

What could she say to put into words the rising blush colouring her skin? What else except for- "I would love to." A quiet acceptance of a not-so-quiet confession, whatever their discussion had become so quickly into their school-hosted excursion mirrored their personalities wonderfully. How the words clawed up her throat- tender they were in sound but hungry in their search to validate Willow's plea, practically starved as they drank up the rare vulnerability seeping from a simple sentence that weighed more than any others she had spoken for a very long time.

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