Finished Shortcut Through Library Books! PV Emily and Scout

29th June 2024
Collision In The Corridors with @Colin McCoire and @Scout Fu-Hai
Mentioning @AngelFyre McCubbin
Speech: #cfa120
Thoughts: Italics

So many books in her arms yet there was barely enough time left to finish reading them all no thanks to the looming end of the school year. It was going to be a shame to return most of them when she and her buddy Scout would reach the library. Textbooks and layers of parchment were stacked along Emily's arms as she tried to keep her literature upright. Her chin grazed her Astronomy book while bookmarks stuck out across various pages in the rest of her stack, a couple of which were only ever so slightly pricking her fingertips as she grasped her treasured trove of written knowledge.

None of which made climbing the stairs any easier. She was half relying on Scout to spot her given that her eyes couldn't travel any further than the leather covers of her books. It wasn't that bad all things considered... The books smelt good.

And the threat of her books tipping out of her grasp was the least of her thoughts at the moment. The Forest had been dominating her conscience for the last week. She was determined to head back into the abyss tonight, a last hurrah before she would have to kiss it goodbye until she came back after the summer holidays. She had made sure to blitz through as much reading material as she could on magical beings and all things related, knowing she couldn't borrow books from the Library over the holidays, hence the overflowing pages of scribbled parchment. It went without saying at this point but Emily was guaranteed to have improved her knowledge on her dark magical counterparts by summer's end.

Befriending Scout was an unexpected but beautiful occurrence in Emily's time at Hogwarts. To have her as her best friend was more precious to Emily than the Gryffindor associate could grasp. Not only that, but if Emily could achieve getting buddy-buddy with a dhampir, then what could go wrong with trying to make allies with all the "unspeakable horrors" in the Forbidden Forest?

Hm... She'd put a pin on that last part.

Emily breathed in relief when the pair were finally off the stairs and onto a flat path along the corridors. Though as they say, when one hurdle is passed, another succeeds it. Strange sounds bounced off the walls nearby. Emily had an eyebrow arched before realising they were the sounds of footsteps. They got increasingly louder and faster and before Emily could properly process anything--

BAM!

"GAH!"

Both her and Scout were met with a brute force that collided into the pair of them, sending the girls flying and crashing unceremoniously to the ground, their books falling on top of them like a hailstorm. At one point, Emily's legs were flailed up in the air as she landed starfish-shaped on the cold floor. She blinked blankly.

E-Ehhhh...

Something was bound to leave a mark after that. She was too numb to register the two whirlwinds that crashed into them.

"That was fun, girls! Er! Just our little game of Hallway Hockey! Anyway! I'm Colin! This is me brother, Liam! We're twins!"

Sitting up, Emily looked in awe as she recovered. "H-Huh... Blow me down... You two really are..."

Wait. Hang on. Back up there.

Colin... Colin...? Colin! As in AngelFyre's Colin?! The one whose cousin was...

She was watching him intently as he offered to clean up the mess in the corridor. Emily shook her head, worried she may have misheard his introduction not two minutes ago, strands of her hair sprawled across her shoulders after the collision, her hair ribbon nearly falling out.

Absentmindedly she said, "It's you..."

_{Word Count: 655}

Stats: Stamina: 7 | Strength: 6 | Evasion: 6 | Wisdom: 8 | Arc Power: 7 | Accuracy: 6
Abilities: Non-Human Enthusiast |Cat's Grace

june 29th, 2024		saturday
wc: 500(ish)		dhampir | sensitive to sunlight
interacting with: @Emily Shephard & @Colin McCoire		mentioning: @Brookline Quinn

This was not Scout's favorite way of spending time- accompanying Emily to the library with a mound of books so high she wasn't sure her friend could see ahead of her. She'd much rather be hanging out outside with her friend and climbing trees or just chatting. "Are you sure you don't need my help?" Scout muttered, her eyes nervously watching as the books fluttered about in Emily's arms. It was a lot of books, most of which Scout couldn't even read the covers of- how in the world was Emily able to focus on reading all of them? Even more so with Scout's consistent (and annoying) pestering.

The library got hot easily, and if you sat in the wrong chair (one close by to a window), you could easily get a sunburn. At least Scout could, but her skin was made with the equivalent of paper... if she were human, would her skin burn just as easily? The thought consumed her brain, and she found her attention meandering elsewhere until she heard something...?

Was that running? Wasn't it against the rules to run in the halls?

"Hm? Emi?" Her eyes gleamed around when she heard the soft 'pitter-patter' from behind her grow louder and louder. The situation only gave her a split second to react, which was enough time to put herself between Emily and the flywheels- but it wasn't enough for Scout to properly distribute her weight and not immediately topple over into her friend. Oof, this was just like when she had ran to try and save Brook, only to immediately get crushed. At least this time she didn't feel like she needed a trip to the nurses office.

"Be more careful!" She groaned, pushing herself up and dusting off her skirt. "You totally could have hurt Emily." Though she was no strongman herself, Scout knew she had more experience with roughhousing than her Hufflepuff buddy. If she had to, she'd gently place Emily in the 'squishy' tier of strength.

What had one of them called it? Hallway Hockey? Though her knowledge on the sport was seldom at best, that wasn't really what hockey was like, was it? Didn't that sport require sticks and a hockey puck? Oh- maybe wizards just had their own version of the sport. That'd make sense why Scout had never heard of it, neither of her parents were particularly interested in sports. (Though her dad admitted he played football when he still attended school in China, that was probably the extent of it.) "And what's 'Hallway Hockey'? If it consistently includes running into girls with high piles of books, I don't think that's the smartest game." Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, running into people at high speeds was the exact kind of thing Scout would do back home.

"Emi... are you okay?" She whispered, kneeling down to help dust her friend off. "Do you need to go to the nurse?"

Colin examined the disaster area with satisfaction, while the dark red haired girl grumbled. He had to admit it: Liam definitely got the points for this round! She complained that Emily could have gotten hurt. "Hurt!?" Colin said, his voice full of amusement. "Nah! Tis just a game! Anyway, we're sorry about the books, right Liam?"

"Oh! Yes indeed! Poor books." Liam nodded sadly. The Ravenclaw boy was likely at least as concerned over the health of all those books as he was the two girls or even his own brother! The boys watched as the dark red haired girl dusted herself off indignantly. She turned towards Colin and asked what Hallway Hockey even was! Clearly the Gryffindor's education was lacking in this department!

"Oh!" said Colin. "Hallway Hockey is grand! Ye get a partner, right, and ye pet yer arms around each other's shoulders, right?" He demonstrated with Liam. "And then ye run along the corridor! It's a blast! Ye're allowed to try and trip your partner and send him tumbling; but if you want to win, you've got to score points!" Colin held up his left hand, counting out on his fingers. "Two points for a Hufflepuff, three points for a Ravenclaw, five points for a Gryffindorque!"

"And! A seven point bonus for a combination!" Liam interjected, pointing his fingers at Scout and Emily. "Also! An eleven point bonus for knocking over Izzy Fernandez; and lastly, a thirteen point bonus for not getting caught by a Prefect! Ye two ought to try it! But now, Colin's going to clean up his mess!" Liam gave the girls his best conspiratorial wink and smile.

"I--- What!? Me!? Liam you knocked into me! You got all the points!" cried Colin.

"Aye! I did get the points! I reckon twenty-seven points! But as you know, you get no points for knocking over books!" Liam retorted.

"Hey!" Colin's brows knit together. "That's not a rule! Ye're making that up!" Colin grumbled a bit, but he did draw his wand out from its sheath strapped inside his right sleeve. Holding his wand deftly in his left hand, he gave it a tight swish and flick: "Wingardium leviosa!" he enunciated. As he swept his wand over the books, they began to rise up off the floor, along with all the scattered parchments! But so did Emily! Or at least her pink ribbon did! It tugged at her hair, making her wobble about! Until at last Colin was able to get it to stop!

As the books and parchments began to slowly rotate around the group, he changed the magic, saying "Pack!" Pointing towards a wooden bench along the wall, all the books and parchments and notebooks all flew towards it and came to rest on the bench, sorting themselves into neat stacks! Colin nodded satisfied. "There! Mischief managed! I'd say that was a pretty good bit of magic, eh, Liam?"

"Not bad at all, my love! Not bad for a Slytherin!"

The dark red haired girl checked on her friend, who was still sitting on the floor observing Colin. She was staring at him intently, as if he'd turn into a crow or a wolf right in front of her! He was most surprised when she finally did speak. She said only two words. "It's you..."

Colin looked around, wondering who she could be talking about. For a short moment he panicked. "WhateveritwasIdidn'tdoit!!" he said all jumbly, his eyes wide. Who was this kid anyway, that seemed to know something about him?

Tatsu: d41 roll 1: 6 means Emily wobbles by her ribbon and d41 roll 2: 17 means books rise smoothly; low = finesse, high = power

@Scout Fu-Hai | @Emily Shephard

29th June 2024
"Well, You See..." with @Colin McCoire and @Scout Fu-Hai
Mentioning @AngelFyre McCubbin and @Evelynn Decipio
Speech: #cfa120
Thoughts: Italics

Emily's lashes blinked rapidly. She did hear him right, right? Colin. The Colin. There was every chance she was mistaking him for someone else with the same name, but given his lanky stature and "older student" vibe - however mature it was being shown - she figured she had called him out correctly.

But looking at him now she found this chance encounter... a bit strange. Last she heard about him he was the one that went "feral" during a school event when it was crashed by an evil force a couple years ago now. She tilted her head slightly, amused and confused at his attitude. She didn't really know what to make of him. Maybe she was half expecting him to be a bit broody or... composed? She didn't really know what word she was looking for. All she knew was that the incredibly loud and boisterous lad in front of her, arguing with his equal, was betraying all description of AngelFyre's words a few weeks back.

Unless she had meant "feral" in the sense of running at high speeds into someone like a human battering ram and not even get so much as a graze out of the collision, in which case, she definitely had the right guy.

"Emi... are you okay? Do you need to go to the nurse?" Scout had got down to Emily's level whose knees were still stuck to the floor in shock. Snapping out of her train of thought, she smiled warmly at Scout. Bless her. She was always looking out for the Hufflepuff. She was certainly someone Emily would hike over yonder and back for after all she's done for her. Emily waved a soft dismissive hand, laughing off the whole thing.

"I'm fine. Just a bit of a bonk but no biggie...!" Just as Emily got up with a faint crack in her leg as she stretched herself out, she could feel her lower back throbbing a little, though not enough that it would have her bedridden in the Hospital Wing. She smoothed her uniform down, sensing a slight ache in her side.

Mother of Thra... She hadn't had a fall like that since she was seven years old when she thought it smart to slide down the stairs in the laundry basket. As Scout was giving off to the Peas-in-a-Pod Fellas, she looked at the books strewn across the floor. Her textbooks and research papers for her Super Secret Project were littered all over the place, right there for everyone to see. Calling it a tip was underselling it.

"Oh boy..."

Despite his untamed energy, Colin had caught on to the mess they all caused. With his wand, he wingardium leviosa'd all the books and papers off the ground... But not without taking Emily's ribbon along for the ride too. The spell tugged at the fabric, making Emily squeak out a gasp.

"Nyeh!" Emily teetered on her heels before the spell let go of her ribbon, Colin's wand now commanding all the material to stack neatly on a nearby bench. An adrenaline-escaping sigh left Emily now that it was all over. She couldn't help the wayward smile that nicked her face as Colin puffed his chest out over his efforts, his other half emboldening that claim. He had charisma, she'd give him that, and their relationship was actually... Quite sweet. Even if they were a little rough. Well, she says "rough"... "Comprehensively Mad" seemed to be a better fit.

Though that all seemed to flip instantly when the lad caught on to her presumably silent revelation of his identity.

"WhateveritwasIdidn'tdoit!!"

"Wh-ehh?" She just about registered what had just fallen out of his mouth. She chuckled shyly. "No, no! You've done nothing wrong. I just can't help but feel that I've heard of you before."

She technically did though. During AngelFyre's confession at Evelynn Decipio's gathering a while ago. The same one where Emily's perception of magic and the dark world completely opened her eyes to all she was hidden from. The same one where traumatic and tragic tales were shared that painted such a bleak picture on the beautifully abyssal creatures she wanted to get close to. Thinking about it now in that short pause, it made her swallow awkwardly.

Was she to ask now? Was he the "Colin" AngelFyre mentioned before? How would that work in an introduction if it were true? "Well hello there, I've recognised you as possibly the guy who fought back against a weird Hag or Doll or whatever during a school ball after they targeted your loved ones..." Yeah. Not a good move. Insensitive, that's what it was.

Not to mention incredibly embarrassing if she got it all wrong one way or another.

But that was all a discussion for later, if there was one. What was important was her gratitude to the wild bloke and his help. "Thank you for clearing that all up. And don't worry about the books...!" She tipped forward into a contented bow. Her eyes fell on the newly stacked papers where her research was now sitting. Between meeting whom she thought she was meeting, Evelynn's words from way back and remembering what she had solemnly set out to do, this whole experience felt far too parallel for it to be a coincidence.

_{Word Count: 935}

Stats: Stamina: 7 | Strength: 6 | Evasion: 6 | Wisdom: 8 | Arc Power: 7 | Accuracy: 6
Abilities: Non-Human Enthusiast |Cat's Grace

june 29th, 2024		saturday
wc: 500(ish)		dhampir | sensitive to sunlight
interacting with: @Emily Shephard & @Colin McCoire		mentioning: meow meow meow meow

So long as Emily was okay, that was fine. One might've considered Scout's response an 'overreaction', but she'd be fine with jinxing someone as long as it meant Emily wouldn't be hurt. Even some older students! It's not like once she did jinx them she'd be overcome with the guilt of actually hurting someone else that it'd eat her up inside over and over and give her horrible self-esteem issues, nah, that'd be weird.

But... this hallway hockey thing, it made Scout internally cringe at how many people had definitely been knocked to the ground. She was sure most of the affected students didn't have an equally-as-rowdy dhampir buddy to stick up for them. Was she turning lame? A year ago she'd definitely ask to join those twins but now...? Though she was still a beacon of loving chaos, she didn't find it particularly fun to bump into people on purpose.

And to say chaos seemed to run far more rampant with some Slytherin boys than it did for her would be way too much of an understatement. First they knock all of Emily's books over, then one of them- Colin, right? (or was it the other one??)- does some sort of attempt to float all of Emi's books up and it's like the chaos never even left! Was Scout like this when she was younger? This whole scenario was making her feel really sorry for her dad.

"You know with a reaction like that, you make yourself look guilty, right?"

Come on, that's the first lesson in the mischief-making book! She could've almost rolled her eyes at (who she was pretty sure was) Colin, but that was like super impolite, wasn't it? But for someone who was probably as infamous as he was (given Emily's reaction), shouldn't he know that you have to always keep your mischief on the down low so you don't get caught? Even Scout knew that, and she had only gotten detention once this year!

Speaking of Emily's reaction... did she actually know these guys? Unlike her Hufflepuff friend, Scout didn't really spend much of her time listening to older students talk, and she really could care less about rumors and such. It had only been a year(ish) ago that Scout was the one on the receiving end of all the rumors at the muggle school she attended. She'd rather not listen in on hoaxes about other students. It made her feel horrible, and she certainly didn't want someone else to feel the same way.

But she'd trust Emily's words far more than some silly little rumor.

"You know these guys?" Scout asks, crossing her arms with just a little bit of sass. "And they should feel a little bad about the books." She pinches her fingers, leaving a little bit of room to show how bad they should feel. A small amount, since nothing was lost or destroyed, but still enough because they rammed into her friend! "You could've like... lost a page, or something like that. Irreparable, in my opinion."

"Caileann!" Liam almost shouted.

"Wh---?"

"You know with a reaction like that, you make yourself look guilty, right?" said the dark red haired girl. Colin's head turned quickly from Liam to the girl.

"I ---!"

"No, no! You've done nothing wrong. I just can't help but feel that I've heard of you before." said the brown haired girl. Between Liam and these two, Colin wondered who knew what and whether any of them knew what was really what! His eyes opened wide!

"But! I didn't do anything!" Colin sought desperately to defend himself against he knew not what!

"Cail!" Liam insisted. "Look, we've got ---!"

"I swear Liam! I didn't do anything! No matter what she says!" Colin replied. He really was baffled now! What did this dark red haired kid know anyway? Or was she just messing with him?

"And they should feel a little bad about the books." The girl interrupted Colin's trainwreck of thought. Was she still on about the books? Colin glanced over at the neat stacks of books on the stone bench. They looked all safe and sound to him! Colin shrugged.

"You could've like... lost a page, or something like that. Irreparable, in my opinion," she continued. Colin thought this was really a bit much! It wasn't like he'd accidentally set them on fire or anything!

"I ---! You make it sound like a case before the Wizengamot or something! Honestly!" Liam tugged at Colin's long hair. "Ow! What's that for?"

"Cail! Remember? If you hadn't gone and smashed into these dear little danger noodles and their huge stacks of books we'd already be outside! Or have you forgotten Clair already? You've had that all I want to do is snog Clair look in your eyes all morning!"

"CLAIR!" Colin shouted happily! "WOO!"

Liam bowed towards Emily and Scout as Colin turned away and began loping along the corridor.

Colin turned back. "Sorry about the books girls! I've got to go find Clair! Right now! Before it's too late!!"

And with that the tempest blew over and the chaos picked up speed as it tore along the broad hallway. Until at last, all that could be seen were two heads of white blond hair bobbing as they disappeared down the stairway. "Owoooooo!!" came a last exuberant howl from the distance. And all was calm in the corridor.

Colin leaves the thread.

@Emily Shephard | @Scout Fu-Hai

29th June 2024
Come Back Soon... with @Colin McCoire and @Scout Fu-Hai
Slightly Mentioning @AngelFyre McCubbin
Speech: #cfa120
Thoughts: Italics
OOC Notes: Scout's welcome to cap off the thread if she wishes to!

Emily was still brushing parts of her uniform out and re-tying her ribbon while Colin was busy being heckled by his equal half and Scout, who was giving him the fishy eye. Scout must've had a sibling or something because her protective essence was remarkable. She and "Auntie" would get along in a heartbeat. Emily had glanced off to the side in her best friend's direction, admiring her stance.

While Colin and Liam were mucking around, Scout had whispered into Emily's ear. "You know these guys?"

"Hm? Oh! Well, not really... But..." Emily lowered her tone to just above a whisper. "A girl in my House... She talked about Colin once. Something about him and something that happened at a school event over a year ago." She paused to look at Colin, who was trying to wrap his head around the barrage of interrogations thrown at him. Now didn't seem like the right time to go into it. "I'll tell you the rest later..."

Suddenly spooked out of her thoughts, Emily jumped out of her skin when a yell sounded across the corridor - Colin was the natural culprit behind it. "CLAIR! WOO!" Emily watched amused as he began to gallop about the place.

"Sorry about the books girls! I've got to go find Clair! Right now! Before it's too late!!"

"Eh? Wait--!"

Alas, Emily was a bit slow as the boys bid the girls farewell and carried on with their frantic rampage down the corridors, an elated howl echoing behind them as they ran off like wild dogs. Emily and Scout were left there speechless.

"See you around..." Emily muttered quietly. She walked over to the perfect pile of papers Colin had stacked earlier. Every page was accounted for as were her library books. Hopefully that would ease Scout's conscience on that front. She looked back over where the McCoire boys had scattered off to. Thinking about what in the ding-dang had just happened, Emily's expression twisted into a smile. Despite being pommelled to the ground with the weight of her books falling on top of her, it was a little hard not to laugh about the whole incident in hindsight.

"Heh... Strange fella."

Though now that the moment had passed, there was a whole barrage of questions she had wanted to ask him, things ranging from his erratic behaviour to the "thing" that allegedly happened at Hogwarts. A shame really since she had only met the lad while Colin seemed to be so well-known in other parts of the school - if not the entire campus. Well, there was a time and a place for everything. Now clearly wasn't the time nor the place. Certainly not for Colin who had hastened through the corridors with his brother behind him, looking for Clair... Whoever she was supposed to be.

_{Word Count: 535}

Stats: Stamina: 7 | Strength: 6 | Evasion: 6 | Wisdom: 8 | Arc Power: 7 | Accuracy: 6
Abilities: Non-Human Enthusiast |Cat's Grace

june 29th, 2024		saturday
wc: 300??		dhampir | sensitive to sunlight
interacting with: @Emily Shephard & @Colin McCoire		mentioning: meow meow meow meow

"What a weirdo." Scout muttered to herself, eyes scrutinizing the white-haired boy. What even was his response? She might have been just a little bit accusatory, but like... what was that reaction? The other one was so normal about it! Oh, wait, actually- now that Scout was thinking about it, which one of them was Colin? How in the world did Emily know the difference, especially if she didn't even know these guys?

Maybe Scout was the problem or something, she never was the smartest.

"I think strange might be underselling it," she scoffed, "I mean, who runs through the corridors bloody-murder, knocks themselves into people, and then acts super duper weird about the whole thing? Also who the heck is 'Clair'?" There were probably like a million people in the world with that name, and probably a billion at Hogwarts! Yikes, whoever it was, Scout already felt bad for them. Having to deal with someone like white-hair over there... jeez. "I feel bad for them, whoever they are. Also... um... like... how do you tell which one is which?"

Maybe Emily could share some tips and tricks for telling twins apart as they sat in the library. Or maybe Emily would agree to go hangout outside instead, that'd be so nice. All Scout would have to worry about then is making sure she had enough sunscreen on and her hood was up to protect her face. Ah, then they could chitchat and waste the day doing a whole bunch of nothing, that'd be so nice.

"Emily... am I as much of a weirdo as those guys are? Especially the jumpy one. Did I give off those vibes when we first met?" Lord, she hoped not. She knew she was annoying and all that, but like she thought it wasn't that bad! "I know I'm loud, but am I that loud? By the way..." She peered at the stack of papers and books.

"Are your books okay?"

end of thread _{and the beginning of scout getting confused by the twins}