Overheard Secrets PV Emi and Aston Locked

September 19th 2024
Boy Talk with @Scout Fu-Hai and @Aston Beckett
Speech: #cfa120
Thoughts: Italics

Aston was practically doing Emily's job for her through his reassuring words, even if it was slightly under different circumstances. Still, Emily could practically pay a penny for every sentence that came out of Aston's mouth that Emily was already trying to get into her best friend's noggin. Now that two voices were parroting the same sentiment, Scout was hopefully bound to listen and get it stuck in her head, for real.

Her denial at having a crush on Zyair on the other hand was quite surprising... But also adorable. Emily smirked when she stuck her tongue out at her. So it was a misunderstanding after all. Emily nodded, accepting Scout's claim. "Alright... Message received and logged."

"It'd be more likely that you have a crush on Casey than me having a crush on Zyair."

Emily coughed on her own breath and spit. After a minute spent recovering her startled lungs after being taken aback by that statement, Emily gave Scout a look of confusion and repulsion.

"Me? With that boy? Not in thirty moons, Scout...!" Did Scout forget all that time spent at camp where Emily and Casey had been avoiding each other like the plague, not at all forgetting the fact their first meeting ending up with Casey pushing her to the ground and the constant stand-offs in between everything else.

Besides, Emily was rather sceptical of romance. The genre in a few of the books she read was a bit too... concentrated for her liking. As for real life, a good portion of it never seemed to last. Well, there was a reason it was called young love for all that it led to... But most of all, she had been disheartened by the "love" between her parents, whom seemed more in love with their careers than even each other much of the time. And that was before Emily could even get started on how they've been looking after and "loving" their own daughter.

Emily knew at this point in her life she should stop letting that get to her but it still never did enough to hide her visible disappointment the second it would seep back into her thoughts.

Love. She didn't need it. She didn't want it. Not right now anyway.

"I'm fine for love..."

_{Word Count: 424}

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

"Hmm, true, but still, it can't be that easy to spill a secret as big as that. It's best to tell him and let him know, you trust him right?" Aston hoped he didn't seem too serious and dull, and he was certainly glad when the mood changed to a more lighthearted one with Emily and Scout's banter about love and romance, he chuckled at Emily's startled expression at Casey's name.

"Casey? I met him once, seems like a pretty nice guy, wouldn't be surprised if someone likes him." Aston himself never met anyone he liked in that way, all the movies talk of the one, the one girl you will met and will fall heads over heels for. It's not like he has met many people, hard to have a crush when for nine years out of your 12 years of life you lived with your parents in the middle of nowhere basically never meeting anyone. Even when coming to Hogwarts no one caught his eye, but I'm sure someday a girl like that will show up in my life, we can spend time together and talk about all sorts of things. I can take her out to dinner and all of that, it will be great. It's not like I need to rush to date someone. Dating, marriage, all that stuff. Aston's parents certainly weren't a normal example of it, even though Aston doesn't quite see it yet. He just hopes for someone to love, one day.

Word Count 249/200

september 19th, 2024		thursday, after class
wc: 350		dhampir | sensitive to sunlight
interacting with: @Emily Shephard & @Aston Beckett		mentioning: zyair & aurélie | @Ophelia Northwell

"I feel like you don't believe me." Scout huffed, rolling her eyes. She absolutely, definitely, most truly did not have a crush on Zyair! No, she didn't like him when they first met and she definitely didn't like him when he said he'd wait for her, and she definitely didn't like him the last time they met, right after he got his ass kicked by some girl from Beauxbatons! And especially not throughout all the letters they've sent to one another!

Even though the letters were a little nice.

"Aston, level with me on something," Scout put her hand on his shoulder, giving him a very serious look. "Casey totally sucks, doesn't he? He's flat out miserable!" Her eyes widen and she dramatically thumps back in her chair, groaning. "I hate him! He's so annoying, too." A voice ran through her mind, telling her that 'hate is a strong word, Yi.' Her family wasn't even around and she was hearing their voices too? So lame! At least they weren't in Chinese, then she'd have to translate the sentence too, ugh.

"I think any girl that likes Casey is totally crazy." She huffs again. "He's like okay at first but then he's totally miserable!" Just like her, she found the thought funny for a moment. "But him and Emily would be cute- only if Emily makes him not angry all the time. Don't you agree, Aston?"

If only Aston and Emily had actually met Zyair, then they'd totally understand where Scout was coming from! And maybe they'd get why Scout was so nervous about talking to him. Someone like Zy is way scarier to talk to than someone like Scout. But maybe girls were like that, since she had seen some hanging around him during the camp. Obviously she didn't say anything because she didn't like him but...

"I think girls would totally be into Zyair, way more than Casey." Scout thinks for a moment, comparing the two in her head. "Casey's got the attitude that all the girls in the movies like, but Zyair's really nice and smart- but like in a mysterious way, which people in movies also like." She wasn't getting anywhere with this, was she?

September 19th 2024
The Appeal of Boys with @Scout Fu-Hai and @Aston Beckett
Speech: #cfa120
Thoughts: Italics

For all that Scout was denying about her having even a tiny affinity for Zyair, she sure knew how to do it in a way that made it sound like she was incredibly fond of him. Either that or Emily was far too used to coming across the tropey aesthetics found in rom-coms to convince herself that Scout and Zyair were just good friends. She wasn't going to argue with Scout about it; if they were to have their first fight about anything, Emily would've preferred it if it had nothing to do with boys. Again, far too cliché.

But Zyair quickly flew out of the conversation only to be replaced with Casey. That glued Emily's attention. Though she talked regularly through letters with him, she never expected for him to follow behind her so much as he did. "I didn't realise you got chatting to Casey during camp, Aston...". She felt quite surprised. In a good way. After everything, Casey was still brave enough to stay social. Even if he could get rough around the edges sometimes.

While Aston seemed to think favourably about the Ilvermorny boy, Scout was quick to protest, already popping off about his... Charm. If that was even the right word to describe him and his demeanour. Emily knew he and Scout had left each other in their bad graces, but it still didn't stop the wide eyes she was giving to her when she listed everything that she thought made him into a twit. After finally getting the chance to talk it out with him at the tail end of their time at summer camp, everything about Casey made sense to Emily... But try telling that to someone who probably hated him to the point of no return, even if Scout was her best friend.

"Casey's not that bad. He's just..." It just came to Emily's mind that Scout probably didn't know about his missing brother, practically the back bone to why he came off strongly in the first place. Though Emily never explained that to Scout, did she...?

Oh...

"H-He's just... Having a rough time." Which was putting it lightly. A missing brother, high emotions, grief in the family, negligent investigators and the stress of taking on the investigation by himself, with Emily peppering in some assistance here and there... Emily was astounded how Casey hadn't cracked yet. Or maybe he had and was just grin and bearing it through his teeth. If he was then his perseverance was a lot more impressive than she realised.

"Casey's independent and kind of aloof... But he's a good guy. I know he is."

_{Word Count: 484}

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

"Yeah, we met at the mistletoe spin." Aston replied to Emily with a smile, the camp really was a great time, he went dancing, had a snowball/water balloon fight, and just had a great time with his friends. Scout's hand on his shoulder drew his attention to her, and he listened to what she had to say about Casey. "Well, I don't think so, to be honest he seems like a pretty nice guy, he uh-" Aston stopped himself there, not too sure if he really should mention how he punched a girl at camp. Scout and Emily are won't judge him for what he did right? "He helped me calm down a bit when I nearly got into a fight at the ball. He and Emily? Yeah I think they could be cute together, they seem like they would get along." To Aston it was a fairly simple thought process, Casey seemed like a nice person who was pretty good to talk to, and Emily is definitely nice and good to talk to, they'd probably get along, at least according to Aston's simple logic.

Aston perked up at Scout's mention of movies, that was one topic he was familiar with. "Casey probably would be popular, he is a good looking guy and the attitude probably helps. But the thing movie girl like is the whole bad boy thing, you know? The motorbike riding, guitar playing guy who just fun to hang out with. Oh and they always have nice puffy hair. Zyair sounds like a cool guy, I think I get what you mean Scout, smart people are always nice to talk to." Aston hoped he made sense, he does know he sometimes talks too much about things.

Word Count 290/200