Quiet Corners and Unexpected Collisions PV Piper Hart

Thread Info:

Reducio

Interacting with: @Phoenix Harlow
Word Count: 409/200

Piper burst into the library completely flustered, her eyes scanning the space for a quiet corner away from all the students. She just wanted was a bit of calm - a place to breathe, to think. She needed a place to get away from the people in the corridors, the bags swinging around, the books clutched tightly to chests, the sound of hurried footsteps and conversations. Luckily the library was just the place.

Even though Piper's only intention of coming to the library was to find some peace and quiet, she figured she might as well make the most of it. So, taking one more deep calming breath, Piper walked towards the row of shelves in front of her.

As she wandered deeper into the labyrinth of shelves, she allowed her fingers to brush the spines of the various books she passed. There were titles she didn't recognise, odd ones that made her pause, thick volumes that looked like they hadn't been touched in decades, encyclopedias with covers so dull they weren't even noteworthy, and novels that, while intriguing, didn't match what she needed. Truthfully, Piper had no idea what she was looking for, she just knew that the right book would call out to her when she found it.

As she wandered, a sign caught her eye: Magical Theory. This sparked her curiosity. She always wanted to know how something worked and also why - the logic behind it all. How exactly did it work? What were the limitations? How about the possibilities? Maybe this was what she needed to figure out her place in this new world.

She turned to enter the aisle, anticipating the questions that she'll have answered and the unknowns she'll find out in these books - but before she could take a step, someone came crashing into her.

Stumbling back slightly, Piper blinked, momentarily stunned. She turned to see who collided with her - it was a girl, likely from her year.

"Oh! Sorry!" Piper blurted out, as she regained her balance. "I didn't mean to get in your way."

The girl hadn't fallen over and didn't seem hurt, so that was a good sign. Piper looked down and saw a thin, navy-coloured book in the girl's hands. A flicker of curiosity stirred, but she hesitated. She wanted to ask about the book but the words got caught in her throat. Instead she glanced back up at the girl, hoping her interest wasn't too obvious.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Date: 13/05/25 | Time: 17:20 | Outfit: Robes | CC: #english, mandarin
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Phoenix took a half-step back and steadied herself. The girl seemed to have popped up out of thin air — or Phoenix hadn't been paying attention to the world at all. She stared down at the needle-thin, navy book still clutched against her chest. No harm was done.

Her eyes lifted slowly.

The girl in front of her looked as surprised as Phoenix herself felt and yet her face was far from unfriendly. Wide eyes and pink cheeks and a breathless apology spilling out as if it had waited poised at the end of her tongue before the collision actually happened.

Phoenix twice blinked.

"It's okay," she murmured gently, her voice as flat and neutral as it could possibly get. Not annoyed. Not irritated. Just neutral. She gripped the book in her hands more firmly, as if the book alone could fend off the discomfort.

They both remained standing still and silent for a moment. Phoenix considered pushing past again in silence — she'd come to seek solitude and not friendship. Something stayed her hand, however.

The girl glanced at the book.

Phoenix saw it in the way her eyes lowered momentarily — barely noticeable but unmistakable to her, to someone who constantly observed people. The girl didn't say anything about it, however. Simply stood, shifted position slightly, as if she wanted to say more but didn't know how to say it.

Phoenix didn't know why, but this provided a moment of hesitation.

"It's wandless theory." she said rigidly, holding the book up slightly. "I haven't yet read it." She didn't know why she said it. Maybe to fill the momentary lull. Maybe to dispel the tension she'd just created. Or maybe she recognized something in the frazzled look in the girl's eyes — the repressed hunger to escape the jammed corridors, the way she looked around the library as if it was the first time she'd taken a breath all day.

Phoenix shifted position, weighing whether or not to say something else. Then, as suddenly as the thought had struck her, she let it drop.

She wasn't smiling, but neither was she frowning.

And with this she stepped aside — but did not walk off directly. No, she hesitated half a beat more than she needed to, glancing back over her shoulder towards the girl, curiosity overcoming her. ─────

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| 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉: @Piper Heart | 𝑴𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: @ |
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Piper watched the girl’s face, trying to read her. But soon she found her expression was unreadable and her voice even more so. It was just so indifferent, so… neutral. Yet this neutrality didn’t push Piper away. It wasn’t the cold or uninterested sort that she’d expect from someone who she’d just stood in the way of, it was just… guarded. Like someone who found that silence was sometimes safer than words.

Then, unexpectedly, the girl spoke.

Wandless theory.

Piper’s gaze moved back to the book as the girl lifted it, the title capturing her full attention. Wandless? Piper thought, How can it be magic without a wand? I mean sure it works in odd ways and not everyone would need a wand I suppose. Maybe I should…
Then came that ever present voice, always lurking and waiting for the moment to strike.
Of course it can be wandless!
Don’t you know anything!!
You shouldn’t ask her!
But… came Piper’s small voice.
What on earth are you thinking?!
How could you think that you should ask someone about this?!
Find it yourself!
Don’t get help!
But… Piper’s voice came in again.
No buts! The voice said. If you want to learn, you’ll have to do it alone! If you ask questions you’ll be judged! Just don’t do it!
No! Just go away! I’ll make up my own mind! Piper thought, stronger and more powerful than before but still with a hint of nerves.
Fine, fine. But I will be here to say I told you so.
And with that, the voice disappeared.

“That’s… cool,” Piper said quietly, shaking off the dazed feeling of coming out of her thoughts. “But how does it work exactly, that’s what I don’t get. I mean - I guess I figured there had to be a way to do magic without a wand but….”

She stopped herself. Was she rambling?
Probably.
Should she stop?
Definitely.

Piper rubbed the back of her neck as the awkwardness came in. With each beat passing she began shifting from one foot to the other. Her eyes flicked back to the girl and just managed to catch her looking back as she kept walking. Piper glanced at the aisle that the girl had come from, then back to the retreating girl. In that split second she decided, let's go after her.

Walking quickly to catch up with this girl she nearly tripped but luckily caught her footing. As she caught up, Piper said, “Sorry to interrupt you again, but if you’re okay with it… I mean if you don’t mind… I mean if you’re comfortable with it,” Piper sighed feeling defeated as she tried to get the words out, “Could I sit near you? I won’t say anything. Just… read. Promise.”

She bit her lip. “I just thought… well that it’ll be quieter where you’re going. That’s all.”

Piper left it at that. There was no pressure on this girl. Just a question, a convoluted and kind of messily asked question. And she hoped that the answer was a good one.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Date: 13/05/25 | Time: 17:20 | Outfit: Robes | CC: #english, mandarin
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She froze, half-turned from the girl, the silence between them one beat too long. The quivering, on-the-brink-of-hysteria plea still lingered in the air, a suggestive mixture of good manners on one hand, cringing request for silence on the other. Phoenix's neutral expression remained, a well-trained mask she'd honed over years, but inside, she registered the exposed vulnerability in the tone of her voice, the repressed fear that made her earlier annoyance irrelevant.
She considered the implications. Escaping was ever away from the library, an isolation spot, a place to remove the weight of the world. Being in that spot, even in quiet, was not on the list. Her technique for dealing with encroaching powers was straightforward: avoidance. A flick of her heel, near-evading in a spin, a step in the opposite member, and the moment was passed, leaving her to the quiet in which she adored. But she didn't stir. She was a picture of apprehensive hope, but she regarded Phoenix in an attention that was difficult to evade, or, rather, very simply, overlook.
But the words "I won't say anything. Just. read. Promise,"hit a chord in an unexpected way. There was no demand, no request for anything but mutual silence. There was no attempt at talking, at engaging in the bottomless, hollow talk which Phoenix detested so. There was an appeal for co-habiting, an understanding of mutual non-intrusion. And the realization that it would be "quieter where you're going"—that, somehow, hit a chord. Phoenix had, in fact, scouted out theloneliest areas in the library, the areas no one ever went, for exactly that reason—for they provided the most complete isolation. That someone else would "get that" and say so, do so in such quiet desperation, was… surprising.
Phoenix's eyes returned to the girl's smiling, hopeful face, then to the dark, thin aisle they had emerged from. Yes, sure enough; as always, the tables in the back were the most peaceful, unbothered as most students in need of lit study tables or popularity-beckoning spellbooks avoided them. She seriously considered recommending another location, a table even deeper down, creating an intermediate space of wider separation between them. But dismissed the idea almost immediately. She wasn't in need of camaraderie, but silence, an atmospheric quietness to be shared. To send her in search of it elsewhere was to refuse sheltered beasts.
There was a small, barely noticeable change in Phoenix. The castle was too much, I know, but maybe agreed-on quiet was different from forced talk. Friendship was not about it, not exactly. This was about a shared understanding of an elemental need for quiet, an intuitive understanding that outside was too much and that the library was an awkward kind of refuge. There was power in the discovery of such a place, power that was true and well understood by Phoenix.
Phoenix spun all the way around, once, smooth, gentle sliding of the eyes. Nontension was present still, no curve to the lip, but the eyes, still wary, went very faintly soft. Nodded once in tacit agreement, a hard, positive tilt for the chin that was in effect a conceding and not an open invitation. There was an implied permission, a offered nod taken in quiet without fanfare or further negotiation.
Then back to gazing toward the distant, solitary corner which she'd first claimed as hers. The tattered, navy book still gripped in her hand, an actual haven from the world, but now, perhaps, a subtle connection as well. She didn't glance back to make sure The girl was behind her, but the very slightest hint of a lessened line between her shoulders indicated the very thought no longer irked her. The loose, quiet scuff of shoes on the floor, not quite close, not quite far, was the only noise heard. Proper distance. The noise of the castle still penetrated the edges of the stillness in the library, but perhaps, just perhaps, a little less so for the presence of another still, quiet individual in search of stillness. The heavy, wooden doors, once shielded against the noise, now contained the promise of something new, an unexpected stillness.
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| 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉: @Piper Hart | 𝑴𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: @None |
⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

Piper’s shoulders relaxed and her breath came out in a quiet rush when the girl gave that small, almost imperceptible nod. Not rejection but not completely welcome either, just something in between. Piper took it gratefully.

She followed a few steps behind, careful not to break the mostly unspoken agreement they had just formed. The corner of the library that they stopped at was perfect, exactly how she imagined: tucked away, still and - most importantly - quiet. It was the type of place where sound seemed to fade before it could properly take shape, as though knowing not to disturb those in it.

Sliding into a chair off to the side, Piper set her bag down as quietly as possible. For a moment she kept her quiet promise, fingers tracing the spine of a book she had pulled from the shelf at random. She opened it and her eyes began skimming through words she couldn’t quite take in, her gaze kept slowly drifting back to the slim, navy volume in the other girl’s hands.

Piper hesitated, biting the inside of her cheek softly, before whispering, “I don’t think I’ve seen a book like that before… Wandless magic.” Piper said softly, nodding towards the book. “It must take… a lot of patience. Does it say much about, well, how it's done?”

She lowered her gaze back down to the book on her lap, though her attention still kept drifting back to the navy book and the girl. The silence between them wasn’t empty, but more like an understanding that didn’t need to be spoken aloud. For the first time that day, Piper felt a small, steady calm settle over her.