A Quiet Retreat PV Closed

Jackson nodded thoughtfully, making a mental note to research a bit more on Japanese customs so he won't offend Selim. He wondered if there was a book in the library he could find. Or maybe he could just ask the Slytherin boy, although that may be rude...

He glanced over at the slytherin when he heard his name being spoken. 'That is indeed a very lovely painting Mr. Kirkland." Jackson raised an eyebrow at the title, a little confused at where he got the 'Mr' from. He briefly remembered his fishermen friend talking about the different ways to address someone in Japanese. Jackson blinked, smiling the tiniest bit. " Thanks, it is one of my best watercolor paintings. It's a painting of a picture i left at home. I didn't want to loose it at Hogwarts, so i left it back in London."

"If you wish, I could teach you how to use a brush and ink for your drawings? I have some spare time in my schedule, so it's no bother for me." When he heard those words, Jackson's head snapped up and towards the other boy, his own smile forming as his iceberg-blue eyes sparkled. " You would do that? You would teach me how to draw with ink?" Jackson asked, almost not believing what he was hearing. " I would love to learn your traditions! If you would really take time out of your day to teach me that is!"

Jackson, your emotions are showing.

@Selim Faust

From his place between the two pairs, Jack thought he was in the ideal position to eavesdrop on conversations that either was having. Unfortunately, the one between Jackson and Selim was making him regret listening in pretty quickly. Perhaps Jackson wasn't as Slytherin-like as he originally thought.

He turned away from them, only to find that the Slytherin girl had followed him. How peculiar; he thought she would have certainly preferred to stay and talk with the Ravenclaw boy. It seemed she was more interested in finding out what a muggle-born child was doing in Salazar Slytherin's house, however. If he was being completely honest with himself, Jack was actually somewhat flattered she was curious about him.

"Yup, that's me - the rude boy," he chuckled lightly, also surprised that his rudeness hadn't seemed to deter the girl in the slightest. "I daresay those Ravenclaw girls from the bathroom were worse, though. Much nicer to meet you, Seilun."

Jack opened one eye to look at her. "As for being muggle-born...funny you should say that. The Sorting Hat said something about that to me, too. Something like, 'they won't be expecting you - a muggle-born'." He opened his other eye, thinking back to the research he had done on it. "I didn't know what it'd meant by that, so I looked it up and found out about Salazar Slytherin's preference for purebloods. But you know what?"

The redhead sat up and turned to Opeila with a broad, mischevious grin. "My favorite characters are tricksters. I've looked up to them all my life. And you know what tricksters do? They subvert the common opinion; undermine society's expectations. They transcend dualities to prove the world isn't as simple as right and wrong or black and white. They bend rules without breaking them using loopholes and subterfuge. They take things everyone thinks they know and turn them upside down to give people a whole new perspective.

"So, like the Sorting Hat suggested, that's what I'm going to try to do." He winked at the brunette girl. "I'm going to show them it doesn't matter where you come from or who your family is or what blood you have. Those are all things we can't control. I'll prove that what matters is what we make matter; what we choose ourselves."

Just then, Jack noticed someone walking away out the corner of his peripheral vision - the boy from earlier. What had he said his name was?

"Hey, LEAF!" he called. He pushed himself to his feet cupped his hands over his mouth to help his voice carry, trying not to laugh. "Where do you think you're going? You think you can escape from us that easily?"

Glancing back at Opeila, he asked, "What do you say we go tackle that bookworm and drag him back? I don't think he's had enough of a taste of us yet."

@Jackson Kirkland, @Selim Faust, @Opeila Seilun, & @Sen Leaf

@Jackson Kirkland

Selim nodded in understanding when he explained why he brought the painting instead of the actual picture.

The Ravenclaw seemed excited when he mentioned teaching him how to use a brush and ink, head snapping up at the mere mention of possible lessons, Selim almost got whiplash from the sudden change in the boy, "You would do that? You would teach me how to draw with ink?" Kirkland asked, seeming to almost not believe what he was hearing. "I would love to learn your traditions! If you would really take time out of your day to teach me that is!"

Selim chuckled melodiously, "Of course I'd be willing to teach you, I'm always happy to show people more of my culture." A pleasant smile adorned his face.

He got him, hook, line, and sinker. Whenever he successfully manipulated someone he always felt reassured after. He hadn't grown rusty during his time at Hogwarts.

Currently, as he saw the Ravenclaw's excited gaze, he could see that he had begun to make yet another connection to help him reach his greatest ambition for the future.

He glanced back at Burnett, seeing that the girl had decided to follow him, and the Ravenclaw boy had decided to leave.

He heard the redhead say something about tackling, and let out an amused huff, the fox was going back to his antics yet again.

He looked back to the Ravenclaw he was having a conversation with, "I have plenty of free time to teach you, Mr. Kirkland, just tell me what time works for me. We can have lessons about three or four times a week, depending on which you'd prefer. Will that be quite all right?" He tilted his head in question.

This was a much more interesting endeavor then he had originally thought.

His reaction of her comment about him being rude made her laugh. Well, he seemed to know how to react to those kind of things...
When he added "I daresay those Ravenclaw girls from the bathroom were worse, though. Much nicer to meet you, Seilun.", she looked at him, obviously doubting his words. "Well, all I saw, before you left, was that crying girl. Sorry, but doesn't make you seem nicer than them." Still her smile wouldn't change.

"As for being muggle-born...funny you should say that. The Sorting Hat said something about that to me, too. Something like, 'they won't be expecting you - a muggle-born'. I didn't know what it'd meant by that, so I looked it up and found out about Salazar Slytherin's preference for purebloods. But you know what?
My favorite characters are tricksters. I've looked up to them all my life. And you know what tricksters do? They subvert the common opinion; undermine society's expectations. They transcend dualities to prove the world isn't as simple as right and wrong or black and white. They bend rules without breaking them using loopholes and subterfuge. They take things everyone thinks they know and turn them upside down to give people a whole new perspective.
Opeila sighed a little overdramatic. "Oh Jesus, a trickster lover. Do you consider yourself one? Well, if you do, you'd need to prove that to me. Most 'tricksters' I've met were narcissistic wannabes.
But I agree with the importance of choices though. I've never said that I don't think that the founders were a little oldfashioned..."

Then he suddenly yelled Leaf's name making Opeila jump. Jack got up.
"What do you say we go tackle that bookworm and drag him back? I don't think he's had enough of a taste of us yet.", he said, looking back to her.

Opeila grinned amused, not really sure what to think of Jack. She also got on her feet. "A taste of us? And what would that be?" She had to think for a moment glancing over to Sen walking off. "You know what? Count me in." A mischievous grin appeared on her face.

@Sen Leaf @Jack Burnett

Sen heard the distant shout of his last name and winced. "Why on earth are they shouting?" He sighed, rubbing the back of his head uncertainly. "Maybe a doppelganger of myself decided to eat their lunch or something." Sen said dryly.

He stood there, unsure whether he should just go or wait and see what happened. "This is getting weird really fast." Sen muttered. He shrugged, and plopped down on the grass, deciding to make himself comfortable.

Laying his head on his arms, he decided he may as well take a nap, whether the group he left back there came or not, after cloud watching of course.

"Do wizards do anything fancy with clouds? Or is it just... What did the books say again? Divination? No, Astronomy I believe. Or would it be a mix of both?" Sen hummed. He could hear a pair of footsteps approaching him, and once they were in earshot he asked them.

"Do wizards do anything like Astronomy mixed with Divination with the clouds? Or is that just muggle fantasy stuff?" He looked at the new arrivals, repeating the question he'd asked himself. He was surprised to see it was the boy and girl, Jack and Opeila. Suddenly he had a thought and he couldn't quite help the mischievous smirk that came to his face.

"You two look good as a couple." Sen chuckled, blurting his thoughts out loud.

Jackson seemed to forget about his cool and calm personality, leaving it in the dust as he thought of all the different art styles and techniques.

Art and Art History was really the only subject he wanted to learn, but they did not provide that here at Hogwarts, which was a little disappointing at first. But what Hogwarts lacked in art classes, it made up for it in other departments.

"Of course I'd be willing to teach you, I'm always happy to show people more of my culture." Jackson's smile only brightened. Someone was willing to teach him more about art and the millions of techniques you could use while creating it. Selim continued after glancing back at Jack.

"I have plenty of free time to teach you, Mr. Kirkland, just tell me what time works for me. We can have lessons about three or four times a week, depending on which you'd prefer. Will that be quite all right?" This made Jackson think, he did have a lot of free time, but he also wanted to use it for his studies.... His grades were fine as they were, this was most likely a once in a lifetime possibility.

Well, to Jackson it was.

" I think three times a week is a perfect amount, seeing as I am on no teams and apart of no clubs. I too, have plenty of free time when i am not buried in my studies." Jackson replied, calming down a lot more as he closed his notebook, placing it inside his bag once more.

@Selim Faust

"Psh! I said they were more rude than me, not that I was nicer than them. Besides, she made herself cry by reading a letter that fell out of her own book. I had nothing to do with that," Jack insisted.

"Didn't I just say I love tricksters?" the boy asked Opeila in response to her inquiry about him being a trickster lover. "And that I plan to prove myself to the whole house of Salazar Slytherin? Just stick with me and I'll show you." He chuckled. "Not that I'm not also a narcissistic wannabe...'cause I'm probably that, too."

Opeila's question made him smile. "No one gets to just walk away from Slytherin students without a word! We give him a taste of us like this! WHOOOOOOO!!!" Jack yelled, charging toward Sen and picking up speed as he ran. Sen appeared to have decided to sit himself down on the grass, but a seated target didn't appear to deter Jack.

Whether it was because the Ravenclaw had chosen to speak his mind about the Slyterins looking like a couple or not was unclear, but the redhead suddenly got a wicked look in his eyes. "DOOOG PIIIILE!!!" he cried, leaping at the last minute with the intent to bellyflop on his intended victim, Sen.

@Jackson Kirkland, @Selim Faust, @Opeila Seilun, & @Sen Leaf

The Ravenclaw smiled as Selim stated he was fully willing to be his teacher. Obvously the boy seemed very excited when it came to a proper discussion about art, or the possibility of learning new things about it. That made this all the easier for Selim; manipulation was always easier if the person he was influencing was eager about something, then they didn't notice what exactly he was doing.

"I think three times a week is a perfect amount, seeing as I am on no teams and apart of no clubs. I too, have plenty of free time when I am not buried in my studies." the brunet responded, putting away his sketchbook. Selim nodded.

"That sounds good. When would you like to start?"

Suddenly, he heard the familiar voice of his dormmate yell, "DOG PILE!"

He jerked around, catching sight of the fox falling on top that random Ravenclaw boy with the Slytherin girl following sedately behind him. Raising a brow, he muttered out a word, face unimpressed, "Typical."

Then he turned to look at his conversation partner, "By the way, do you know that boy? He seems to be in the same house as you." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the oncoming dog pile.

Honestly, he wasn't very phased by what his dormmate was doing. The redhead often seemed rather unpredictable most of the time, unless Selim was watching all the things that lead up to whatever ridiculous fiasco he put on.

Then, he found, it was easy to predict what the fox would do, most likely because Selim was getting used to his behavior, fake or not.

Lovely, that probably means that Burnett can do the same, or close to the same, with him.

Though maybe not, but again, he had learned a long time ago to expect the unexpected with other people.

"Psh! I said they were more rude than me, not that I was nicer than them. Besides, she made herself cry by reading a letter that fell out of her own book. I had nothing to do with that," Jack said. Opeila chuckeled. "Doesn't one rule out the other?
But ok, then I agree with you on them being weird", she said.

"Didn't I just say I love tricksters? And that I plan to prove myself to the whole house of Salazar Slytherin? Just stick with me and I'll show you. Not that I'm not also a narcissistic wannabe...'cause I'm probably that, too.", he answered her questions but she shook her head. "No, I know that you consider yourself a trickster lover, but that is not what I meant. Do you consider yourself a trickster?
About the narcissistic wannabe..." she grinned a little cheekily. "I am not really surprised."

"You two look good as a couple." Opeila just decided to ignore the Ravenclaw's comment. What was she supposed to answer anyway? She knew Jack Burnett for about three minutes if she didn't count the short encounter in the abandoned bathroom, so this was just absurd.

"No one gets to just walk away from Slytherin students without a word! We give him a taste of us like this! WHOOOOOOO!!!" When he stormed off to tackle Sen, Opeila laughed. She didn't expect this to end up that violently.
He was probably taking revenge on Sen for the comment, she thought amused.
She followed her housemate slowlier and kept a little distance to the dogpile. "I hope you don't mind me to... uh... not join this." She grinned at the two boys.

@Jack Burnett @Sen Leaf

"No one gets to just walk away from Slytherin students without a word! We give him a taste of us like this! WHOOOOOOO!!!" Were the only warnings he had when the Slytherin boy flopped on him, beautifully disturbing his cloud watching.

Sen coughed violently, "what the actual hell?" He screamed, caught off guard. "Why are you on me? What is this? What are you doing?" Sen hissed like a cat who fell in water, his expression of bewilderment to match.

Sen was genuinely very much confused. He was almost scared at the Slytherin's actions, had he not seen how relaxed and amused the other girl was. Or they could be planning his murder together because he pissed both of them off. Either one worked for him really.

His arms and legs were splayed out, and he was only able to move his head. He looked back and forth from Opeila, who was grinning in amusement, to the boy on top of him.

He lay there unsure as to what he was supposed to do. Lie there? Struggle?

He paused, the gears in his head turning. His face flushed red and averted his eyes. He just realised he embarrassed himself spectacularly and gave the other two students perfect blackmail material. He looked anywhere but their faces awkwardly, choosing to instead imagine himself buried in a hole where no one could see him.

What was up with him lately? New to the school and already embarrassing himself left and right.