Valentine's Tea Errand Finished

Mentions: @James Cadwell and others

Interacting with~ @Ginevra Tsuchiya

He snorted at Ginny's laughter giving her an wry look before taking a sip of his drink, listening to the others question with a small hum. There was no one answer to that question and he found himself stalling with his answer by taking another drink. Immediately his brain went to an outlandish idea, silly things that he personally wanted just to make his life easier but he knew that those answers would end up seeming sarcastic or a joke from him so he pushed them away, setting down his drink to try and give the other a somewhat decent answer.

Still, he found it hard to truthfully answer. He just preferred being on the other side, learning about others. Not the other way around...

"A time machine," he deadpanned, giving the other a very serious look. He held the act for a moment, taking a drink as he let the other think on his answer before finally looking at her again, "just kidding."

Sorta, but even he knew just how bad time travel could actually be.

"But if I could patent anything…"

okay time machine sounded amazing but dammit humanity couldn't be trusted!

"...mm, a thought projector," he drawled, half serious and half messing around for fun, "any idea for a book or movie can just...be made via your thoughts. No more writers block, no big contract needed, just your imagination and thoughts to give the machine something to work with."

It would never work but if it could? Perfection.

"Obviously it won't happen," he laughed, "but you never said I had to be a realistic idea. What about you? What would you chose?"

@Atlas Reid

She gave a soft laugh as Atlas’s eyes grew wider. She had never really thought of her family as large, and yet it would hold that quality towards others that weren’t used to such chaos as young twins. “Yeah, that makes sense. I think the twins feel that I get all of the attention. Although they shouldn’t feel too bad anymore. After all, I’m in a whole other country than them. But since they’re so much younger than me, I can see your point. My first 7 years would’ve been similar, although I made a small bundle of friends at school that lived really close, so that was nice.” She gave a small nod.

“If you become a professor or a caretaker, you would probably have longer.” Teiki gave a small shrug, eyes closing slightly before glancing up at the other First Year. “But by that time, you’ve got a whole globe to explore. Which I would imagine takes a lot longer.” She paused to consider the spiders. “That’s true. I’m always worried about if they’re poisonous or not. Just the idea of that possibility creeps me out.”

“Zouwus?” She gave a small confused glance, before realization lit up her face. “Oh! Yeah, those always look really cool. They’re so bright, and they look really pretty. A magical lion.” She remained quiet. A small nod came from her, and she glanced up at Atlas. “They are beautiful, aren’t they?” Blue eyes seemed to shimmer slightly, but her voice was quiet.

But it seemed that the two were in agreement to turn the conversation away from that topic. She let Atlas continue onto the next topic of discussion that they (probably Atlas) had found. She smiled happily. “Aw, thank you! I think some people think I’m over the top, but that’s probably reasonable. You seem very open-minded and caring. You’ll do well in any job, really. But yeah, traveling can get lonely sometimes. At least, I’d assume so.” She gave a small shrug, noticing the glance towards Ethen. A small smile formed and she looked at Atlas softly.

Sorry for the wait!

Interacting: @Teiki Laurent

Interacting with: @Mildred Wilson

@Astrea Soleil Neptune

Something about Astrea, which Piérre guessed had something to do with how she harnessed her presence to give the impression of fear, was a little bit peculiar. It was not peculiar in the way he was peculiar, that being he was a little off and quirky in the gently teasing way, but rather, Astrea was peculiar in the sense that Piérre had never met another person so composed and assured with themselves. Something about the way she acted seemed to imply that she was a Blueblood, whether that be magical or not. The redeeming grace about her sort of Bluebloodedness was that she wasn’t the lording over sort. Piérre remembered rich kids from his school in Italian cities and towns, how they had expensive things and flaunted riches that he could only gape at in awe. Astrea seemed to have inherited the nature of pristine and formal Bluebloodedness.

However, for as little as Piérre knew, he knew that that formality did not come without a price, especially in the cases of nobility; if fantasy stories and fairy tales were any indications whatsoever.

Still, she had spoken to him with proper form, and when he mentioned different ethnicities, he spotted her gaze flicking to his shirt, which testified both his house and nationality. He smiled, pleased to know that she had gotten the joke.

Still, it was interesting to hear her side of the stories, the tales of riches and the velvet speech. Yet, there was something about that idea that somewhat abashed Piérre. Certainly, he liked to be playfully formal and prove that he could be gentleman but there was something about the idea of noble living that almost immediately grated on his nerves. Having to have genuine responsibility and work with other people in way sort business and family alliances was almost frightening to the Italian. He liked the idea of freedom and being his own person, offering happiness to anyone who had the fortune to run into him.

At the gap in the conversation, Piérre noticed Astrea going quiet, and Piérre couldn’t help but smile in silence. Even silence had a use. It allowed people to study body language and discover the nature of the other person when they weren’t occupied with speaking. Piérre’s body language was certainly calm, yet energized, and he tended to sway back and forth, as if he were ready to run or jump up and dance at a moment’s provocation. When smiling, which was always, he would look around, ever aware of his surroundings and the people he was close to. Friends, people he had interacted with, potential friends... anyone really.

The party was a little quiet, with Miss Olphie gone and the conflicts that had taken place now resolved. The sounds of people talking were still evident, people getting to know their partners, about their lives, family, relationships in the magical world... But sometimes life was more than magic and honest to God talking to people.

Sometimes the best way to reach a person was through their feeling for the spice of life itself, to push aside that which bound people to drudgery and instead awaken the creative and vivacious spirit of a child within. The spirit that Piérre was a little too much filled with.

A thought struck him like lightning, and Piérre stood, pushing in his chair and gingerly walking to Astrea’s side. With a careful, almost courtly, bow, Piérre extended a hand to Astrea. ”Would you care to dance?” He asked, meeting eyes with her. Yes, he knew that they were young, and Piérre was in no mindframe for a partner, and certainly even if he was, they would reject him at first glance of his personality and attributes, but that was not what Piérre’s point of this action was. ”I don’t really think you can celebrate Valentine’s Day without a dance... Doesn’t even have to be anything serious, just... you want to walk around a bit... in a waltz?” Piérre reached for his wand, a new thought hitting him as a clever smirk lit. ”A Tarantellegra, perhaps?” Biting his lip as he anticipated the thought of charming himself with one of his favorite spells to make him dance like the monkey he knew himself to be, Piérre almost forgot the fact that Astrea could refuse his small offer.

If she did decide that she didn’t feel up to dancing, Piérre would ask her what she wanted to do. ”For,” He added, a little bit of embarrassment at her turning him down sneaking into his voice for such a fool he had been, ”I’m the gentleman, and should do something, especially if it’s something that you want to do...”

Interacting with @Alan Noble

The Gryffindor Prefect watched how her Ravenclaw friend was caught off guard with her question, she didn't blame him because the questions their Flying Professor gave them were slightly odd but not really in a bad way. While waiting patiently for his answer, she looked at Alan and noticed how he was in deep in his own thought, perhaps he was thinking about how to correctly answer her question. Then he suddenly grinned and chuckled softly, his cheeks turned to that familiar soft red she saw many times. "Hey, I won't laugh. Whatever your answer will be I will always respect it." Griseldis told him with a sincere smile. She understood when he said that the question was a bit tough but he was still able to answer anyway. Alan told her when he was a young kid, he used to wear his mother's working cloaks, that caused the Gryffindor giggled, she imagined the young Alan would be quite adorable in his mother's cloak. Griseldis was then surprised to learn that Alan's mother worked for the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, "Wow, your mother has a really interesting job." The Ravenclaw stopped to take a deep breath for a brief moment and continued to tell her whenever he wore his mother's cloak he would had the urge to help fix the problems which lead to him wanting to become like his mother, to join the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad. "That's certainly a very admirable goal, Alan. I totally will support you to achieve that!" Griseldis said to him with a lot of excitement in her tone.

After Alan successfully answered her question, it was his time to ask her with the question he got from Professor Bercegeay. The lioness was quite excited and a bit nervous as well.

"Let's see here No. 38 What would you be doing if you weren't in your current job?"

"Oh...that's also not a very easy question, hehe...", Griseldis did her own "thinking pose" by scratching the left side of her cheek gently with her index finger, while she shifted her gaze to the other side. It only took for a short while until she looked back at Alan, "Hmm...I think these questions are simply just asking what we want to do in the future. Well, I always dreamed of becoming a strong wizard like Harry Potter and I also wanted to protect people I care so I will definitely become an Auror. And if I'm not doing my Auror job...I believe I will teach the children Kung Fu just like my dear grandfather." She answered Alan and felt enthusiastic while thinking about her own possible future.

Interacting with: @Erin Ryan

Though Quinn released Jack with a comment, Jack had still been too stuck in his own thoughts and head to be able to immediately respond to Erin. Weeks of having trailed after Ruka to make sure he ate and slept properly were coming to an end and he was only just realizing he would have to let go of the Gryffindor. Ruka had his own fellow housemate friends to worry about him now. What did he need a trouble-making Slytherin to look after and mother him for?

His experiment with Ruka was over. The second-year may have needed someone to give him a reason to live, but now he had a whole lot more in the form of other people. No longer did it seem to matter if he still had Jack when he had more than enough other replacements. Besides, Jack was fairly certain he would be better off without Ruka, too.

Slowly, he began to process that Erin was speaking to him and he tried to answer as he smiled at her, but part of his mind was still far away.

"I didn't come here with her. She showed up and poured hot tea on someone who tried to talk to me," Jack explained as casually as if he were commenting on the weather. "And this professor seems to enjoy getting names wrong," he told Erin a bit more quietly, as if they were discussing some inside joke. "She's probably confusing me with whatever Jack you said looked like me and just got his last name wrong."

He watched somewhat absently and with a detatched sort of amusement as Erin hollered at Olphie that he was the one she wanted. It was also pretty cute the way the purple-haired third-year claimed not to be worried about him only to go back on those words with a, 'maybe some'.

The questioning statement of 'I am mad at you?' almost made him laugh aloud, but he was fortunately in possession of enough of his wits to know that was a very, very bad idea just then. Instead, he was able to hold it back with a fond grin and a fist held up to his mouth as if to try to hide it somewhat.

"I didn't come here with anyone," Jack gently assured Erin once more, not even bothering to turn to look at any other students as he spoke. "I wasn't planning to stay for long. I didn't know if you would have time to be here because you're a lot busier than I am, especially with Thomas' mystery to look into, so I was just going to show up to earn some house points. Then that girl showed up and decided to make a mess of everything for a bit of attention."

He gave a deep sigh before shaking his head a bit. "I'm sure the professor meant to pair me with you when she said 'Jack' whatever-his-last-name-is. Anyway, what's your question? Let's have it."

Erin had stated what had been written on her paper, but the inquiry only caused whatever part of Jack had been in a present state of mind to get lost deeper in his thoughts. What were his quirks? It was good that he seemed normal to Erin, he supposed...especially when compared to her, but...

Does decieving her into thinking I'm someone else count? he thought with grim humor. Well...she decieved herself, but still. Playing along with her delusion in order to escape my own reality? Is that a quirk? Avoiding people once I think I might care about them? What about that? Or only calling people by nicknames or last names to keep them at arm's length? I mean, there's Erin, but she's different. I'm not Jack Burnett to her...so it's okay. Right?

The next thing he knew, Erin was saying she guessed he had no answer and Jack realized he hadn't spoken in several long minutes. Hazel eyes widened as his attention and presence of mind returned in full force.

"No, wait, Erin! I'm sorry!" he called, running after the part-veela. By then she had already turned to go, but the redhead was determined to catch her before she left the Small Hall.

[Jack leaves to topic to follow after Erin to this topic.]