Perilous Revelations
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| xx | APRIL 8, 2025 | 𝙿𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙻𝙾𝚄𝚂 𝚁𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂 |
𝙴𝙽𝙶𝙻𝙸𝚂𝙷 | 𝙵𝚁𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙷 |
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| xxx | 𝓢un rays filtered through the light cloud cover to flirt with the dark canopy of the Forbidden Forest in the distance. Only a month or so ago and the grounds would already have been plunged into darkness, bringing with them the shroud of an evening chill. But it was Spring now, and even tucked within the upper branches of her tree near the edge of the lake, there would still be a couple hours of proper light to read by. Leaves rustled gently with the breeze, water lapping lazily against the stones below. Around her, Evelynn could catch pieces of conversations as the wind carried broken words over the rolling hills, punctuated by the occasional burst of laughter or shriek of surprise--typical student noises pushed into the background of her thoughts as she fixed her attention on her textbooks: A-Level Psychology: Complete Revision & Practice. Absolutely riveting stuff. She thumbed through the pages, half-heartedly reading through the contents. With the number of times she had already read it over the previous two years, she could practically anticipate the review questions before arriving at them. More than once, her attention drifted. On one such lapse of concentration, she spied a familiar head of silver hair through a window in the foliage. Penfield's study of the interpretive cortex was banished to obscurity even while Evelynn quite unwittingly experienced a rather practical demonstration of the brain's chemical pathways as dopamine and norepinephrine released. The hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, posture already jolted forward from where she had languished against the rough bark of the tree's trunk. An affliction of study-induced boredom had clearly taken hold, for she'd stowed the textbook in the satchel hanging on a broken branch nearby, devious intent already glinting in her eyes. Quite curiously, he didn't seem to be peering her way, though surely he must have suspected she was here if he was making his way to her tree. In fact, the more she studied him, the more it seemed he wasn't casting any attention her way at all. He had to have had something on his mind, she surmised, as even his usually unhurried gait seemed unusually clipped. It was probably a ruse. Nevertheless, the whistle of the wind picked up around her, layered upon the crash of water over stone. Around her, a softly crackling symphony of dancing leaves and twigs increased in pitch, augmenting the rhythmic drumming of the approaching steps. They were getting louder. Closer. Muted shadows gave way to saturated hues, the world brightening as though the sun had decided to reverse its course. The branch upon which she perched shifted only slightly as she repositioned, pulling her legs beneath herself, rebalancing. She reached forward to slink along the limb towards the point under which the lean heir's path would take him, but where nails had been, thick claws found purchase in the bark. Muscles coiled. Ears swiveled. She waited. His shadow appeared beneath her. Pupils dilated to disks even as her heart beat thrummed a rapid beat within her powerful chest. With his--unusually unkempt (had he forgone his pomade?)--hair veiling his features from above, she could only guess at the feigned ignorance tainted with amusement that must be colouring his expression. Claws bit deeper into the wood. Just a bit farther. She pounced. In that moment, the sixth-year would catch the blurred image of a very large auburn-furred felid soaring directly for him, ears flattened against her neck, eyes as wide as saucers, maw snarling wide to display very dangerous looking fangs, forepaws outstretched. Evelynn collected herself in the last second in preparation to catch nothing but air as he rapidly shifted into his eagle form to fly safely out of h-- She collided full force with the boy, snarl replaced with a surprised grunt as the pair tumbled to the grassy earth. Her weight may only have been 53kg as a mountain lion, but that was more than enough to topple even the sturdiest of young men when rocketed at them. Claws had sheathed themselves as quickly as she was cognizant enough to do so, though that didn't stop them from snagging his clothing and possibly grazing the flesh beneath. Still, having never actually caught him before, Evelynn reveled in the unexpected victory. Paws grasped around his torso, teeth mouthing at his shoulder, tail flagging high as though planting a claim to uncharted soil. That lasted all of about two seconds before the success dawned on the more human side of her brain. Low-level panic sparked as she scrambled off of him, shifting as she did. Auburn fur seemed to retreat upwards, leaving porcelain skin in its wake and collecting into a bob of auburn curls. Pupils constricted, resuming their usual silver hue. Limbs elongated and shifted, ears and whiskers retracted, and the tail disappeared beneath the return of black school robes. Within seconds, an Evelynn knelt where the puma had been moments ago. "Pericles!" She knelt over him, eclipsing the pale sky. "Are you alright? Did you hit your head?" Her gaze darted over his features, searching for any sign of overt injury. The worry in her eyes was very apparent, her questions tinged with an urgency beyond the moment. Not again, please, not again. The words played themselves in the back of her mind, tempered only somewhat by the knowledge that they were on Hogwarts' soil and he had endured far worse. "You always fly out of the way! I did not think--" she lamented, cutting herself off when trailing fingertips caught the gash in fabric. How could she be so stupid. Things had finally been getting back to normal, and here she was being reckless. "Are you hurt?" |
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Perilous Revelations
Okay, what the fuck.
One moment, Dee was ambling along innocently, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and trying to not walk into her third tree of the day (adding to two doors, a corridor corner, and a suit of armour on the way down). She was really rather proud of herself, it must have been at least two hundred metres since the last time she'd stumbled over nothing! In the next moment, she was hit from behind with the force of an extraordinarily enthusiastic Bludger and ate a face full of grass. Didn't even manage to coordinate enough to catch herself on her hands. This was just the glowing culmination to what had been an experiment with very dubious success. "Oomph," she made ungracefully, then startled herself when her voice came out significantly deeper than what she was used to. There was something nibbling at her shoulder, she noticed, face still squished against the ground. "Ow. Please get off." Whatever it was.
Luckily, it complied, and scrambled off of her with more speed and panic than Dee had anticipated - and also turned out to be more human than she would have thought. It took her a bit of shifting to get her arms beneath her - why were Peri's arms so long? And his body? No one needed to be this tall - followed by some rather ungraceful wrangling to get herself into a sitting position. "Evelynn?" she asked, still dazed, then spit out a blade of grass or three.
Because it was none other than Evelynn Decipio, one of the best friends of Dee's best friends, Gryffindor and coincidentally a puma animagus, as she'd found out last summer. "Ah, that explains the nibbling," Dee muttered, shaking her head to clear it, before adding more audibly, "Head is fine. I think. The ground is pretty soft." Then she paused, realising that Peri's way of speaking was usually more polished than hers, and she was probably doing a terrible job of pretending to be him.
Which she was, technically, doing right now, as evidenced by the tousled silver hair on her head, and the fact that she was several inches taller than she was used to. And missing an eye, which she had not really considered beforehand. In fairness, she hadn't really done a whole lot of thinking before she'd picked up a stray hair from Peri's pillow and mixed it into one dose of her newly brewed Polyjuice potion. She'd watched with a certain fascination as it had turned a bright silver colour - that was a good sign, right? Right? - then examined it for a moment longer, shrugged, and just downed the entire thing, tasting sweet pears and a prickling so sharp it was almost painful. The changing process hadn't been pleasant either, her entire body bubbling and writhing and reshaping itself into something else. When it was over, she'd found herself on the floor, panting, and staring at hands both paler and larger than her own.
In hindsight, it might have been smart to change clothes before doing so - seeing Pericles in the girl's uniform had not been on her 2025 bingo card. Much worse, however, was the effect of missing one entire side of her vision on her balance. She kept feeling like she was stepping into nothing, had fallen down three times before she'd even made it to Peri's wardrobe to "borrow" some clothes, and then hit her head on the door of said wardrobe (ow). Wrangling Peri's long legs into the uniform had also been a challenge - even more so while trying not to see anything she really, really didn't want to - and she'd barely remembered to also snatch one of his eyepatches before sneaking out of their shared dorm, holding onto the wall with both hands for every step. She'd have to practice how to appear human before interacting with anyone, and she'd better do that far away from the general population of the castle.
Which brought her back to the present, in which she might have been far away from the general population, but uncomfortably close to Evelynn. "... am fine," she mumbled, softly, and curiously watched as the redhead's fingers trailed over her borrowed uniform with a certain sense of panic, snagging on a cut her claws must have left in Peri's clothes. Oops. She'd have to fix that before she returned them. "Really. I'm alright. My, uh, reflexes are just off today." There, that was something that Peri could have said, right? And she thought she'd managed a halfway decent impression of his intonation as well. Obviously, she couldn't - wouldn't - keep this up forever, she'd tell Evelynn who she was in a bit. She was just... curious for how long she could get away with this - if at all.
@Evelynn Decipio | @Pericles Dralt
Last edited by Dealla Prince on 6 Jun 2025, 14:41, edited 1 time in total.
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
Perilous Revelations
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| xx | APRIL 8, 2025 | 𝙿𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙻𝙾𝚄𝚂 𝚁𝙴𝚅𝙴𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂 |
𝙴𝙽𝙶𝙻𝙸𝚂𝙷 | 𝙵𝚁𝙴𝙽𝙲𝙷 |
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| xxx | 𝓦hile the words may have been comforting, the difficulty with which Pericles seemed to rise from the ground was not. Evelynn hovered, barely contained guilt still seeping into her features as he seemed to struggle getting under himself again. As narrowed in upon his state of health as she was, the odd manner in which he'd initially responded and even the use of her full name instead of the shortened 'Eve' seemed to go unnoticed for now. Only the comment of 'Ah, that explains the nibbling' seemed to draw a crinkled look of bemusement, its utterance giving the suggestion that he should be accustomed to such practices. This had been the first time she'd actually caught him, however, and the victory had quite definitely gone to her more animalistic head in the heat of the moment. In that fleeting moment, his choice of seemed misplaced. Yet, they would be passed over half a breath later as he confirmed his head felt fine. Evelynn breathed easier at that, allowing herself to settle her weight back upon her heels. She took that opportunity as he righted himself to properly look him over. The first thing that struck her was that he'd elected to wear one of his eyepatches rather than one of the ocular prosthetics. Which was...strange to say the least. Try as she might, she couldn't even recall the last time she'd seen him don the more mundane accessory. Chin inclining just a touch as she scented the air, the lack of pomade was unmistakable. Reaching forward to delicately assist the untangling of a twig here and a few bits of grass there from his tresses only confirmed the lack of product in his hair. The more she regarded him, the more he seemed...off. "Are you certain you are well?" she couldn't help but ask even after he'd just suggested he was. "Where is your prosthetic? And your hair is all a mess." Lips pursed with something on the edge of thoughtful suspicion. Even then, she tapped the trigger for the bracer hidden beneath her left sleeve, launched wand appearing deftly within her grasp a moment later. With easy precision, she flicked it towards the tree, plainly uttering, "Accio satchel," her other hand catching the bag as it obediently zoomed towards her. "You almost look as though you have been chased out of the dorm without time to properly dress," she remarked, already elbow deep in search of the stashed potions and salves she tended to keep readily on hand. No doubt Dealla would recognize the Star Grass Salve and Bruise Removal Paste, but the third jar might prove more difficult to distinguish. Juggling the first two open jars in the same palm as her wand, her other hand dabbed a separate fingertip into each and began gently touching up spots on what appeared to be Pericles' really rather beautiful—even if a bit roughed up—face. "Did the girls throw you out again?" she wondered, a shadow of a smirk tugging at her lips. It wouldn't have been the first time he—as a member of the male species—had been banished from their midst. Evelynn herself had been party to one such occasion last summer when Girls' Night had been declared. Perhaps they had similar such situations in their shared Ravenclaw dorm. "Or was it something else entirely? You seemed very distracted when you were walking." With the care of an artisan handling their prized carving, Evelynn took her time. It wasn't often that she found herself quite so near to the Eagle. Even in cases such as last year's Spring Disaster when he had clung to her after Warren's attack, the situation was fraught with an urgency to escape and get him to safety. They had spent plenty of time together since then, but usually with a task or topic of study at hand. There had never really been an opportunity for her to focus solely on him. She found her gaze traveling over his features as she worked, studying their shapes and textures as one would a masterpiece. |
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Perilous Revelations
With every passing moment it became more obvious that Dee was in way over her head. She'd barely feel confident to pass as a human being - to a stranger, from a distance. Impersonating Peri to one of his closest friends? Less so. At least, she mused, she didn't have to pretend she could walk at the moment.
Unlucky for her, Evelynn was also one of the more perceptive people she knew, as was evidenced by her pointing out all the ways in which Dee was already failing to embody a passable Pericles Dralt. The honest answer would be I took one look at the prosthetics and the thought of putting them in my head freaked me out, badly, I don't understand how Peri deals with this, which she couldn't say for obvious reasons. Thoughts of pomade hadn't even crossed her mind. Dee was starting to sweat slightly under the scrutiny.
Lucky for her, Evelynn offered her a passable explanation along with the interrogation, and some time to frantically try to remember every time she'd seen the two of them interact while the Gryffindor brought out a rather impressive portable medicine cabinet. At least, Dee had seen Peri's pout - the small, subtle one he brought out when something didn't go to his liking, including but not limited to being kicked out of their tent last summer - often enough to make an acceptable impression of it. "Yes, they did, something about privacy and girl talk," she lied, lips curving downwards, and made a mental note to later notify Aly of their supposed gossip session. Her voice took on a slightly petulant note. "I could offer valuable insight, no? And what was the point of moving into the gender-neutral dorm if they were going to make it a gender-thing anyway..." She trailed off, wondering if she was laying it on too thickly - and also suddenly confused at the proximity, and the gentle way Evelynn was dabbing salves onto her - Peri's - face.
She blinked, staying still, her eyes focused on Evelynn's face, which was, in turn, fixed on her with a quiet intensity. That did seem... hmmm. Racking her brain, Dee tried to remember a single time she had seen Evelynn act so casual and familiar towards anyone, with the only sense of panic stemming from the fact that Peri might have suffered some minor scratches. The Gryffindor was usually... professional, reserved, if not aloof. Calling people by their last names, not too fond of nicknames, and not overly prone to physical contact. Yet, now that she thought about it, she did seem to remember Peri usually referring to her as Eve, and the way she was touching his face didn't just seem familiar but automatic, like she wasn't even thinking about it. She hadn't paid that much attention to Evelynn, but it still seemed unusual. This... would require further observation and thorough analysis.
And perhaps, pretending to be Peri wouldn't require as much effort as she'd thought. Dee could just let Evelynn do her thing, sometimes less was more, after all. The less she said, the fewer opportunities she had to blow her cover, and people didn't usually expect someone they were close to and knew well to be an impostor if they looked exactly the same, so she could likely get away with a few hiccups. Still, complete silence didn't seem appropriate, either. "Eve?" The words came out a bit mumbled, Evelynn was currently dabbing salve near her lips. (How had Dee managed a scrape there?) "Thank you, but I'm fine, I promise. You didn't hurt me."
@Evelynn Decipio | @Pericles Dralt
"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."
Perilous Revelations
┏
Shoving the unfinished doll into his baggy jeans pocket, Mad smiled with familiarity but squinted with underlying resentment. Unbeknownst to either witch, the two had brutally sparred at the start of the year, and he seemed to decide this was an opportune time for petty revenge. The Chaser deliberately injected himself into what he assumed was a show of PDA. He threw his left arm over the Ravenclaw's shoulders, reached across him with the right, and tugged straight the half of his collar which unfolded in the tumble. He tried to wipe away- was that animal drool?- from his sleeve. Anyone who knew Pericles knew he despised having his space invaded by those outside of his circle. To top it off, Mad was open-mouth chewing something- raw almonds, based on the smell and muted crunch- while he spoke mortifyingly close to the other teen's face. His lips quirked into a sneer as he asked, "Am I interrupting a moment for you my boy? I need help finding Dee. Unless you have time for a rematch?" It wasn't as though they were keeping a secret from her. Madhup had merely asked Pericles not to tell his girlfriend that he strangled him, and Pericles had agreed on the condition that Mad didn't mention he was hit with a brutal scalping curse. Theirs was a reluctant truce that he took joy in testing.┗ ┛ | @Dealla Prince & @Evelynn Decipio |
(PC: Pericles Dralt)