11 Apr 2020, 02:43
Salty About Sweets
The dawn of spring had brought a much welcome end to the bitter winter cold. The blankets of snow covering the grounds of Hogwarts had begun to melt away at last, winter cloaks were finding their way back into trunks, hopefully not to be seen again for many months, and windows were being opened, gracing the students and staff of Hogwarts with the friendly embrace of a warm and gentle breeze. On one particular Sunday morning in March, Charlie Cutting awoke in Ravenclaw Tower, a dream about battling a dragon still fresh in his mind. Of course, he wasn't thinking about fighting a real dragon, the kind he had come to learn existed since he'd begun his studies at Hogwarts, but one that you would find in an RPG video game, the kind he enjoyed playing when he was home in Leeds. He and his friends would hop online, journey across enchanted lands, slay dragons and rescue princesses. Of course, now that he was a real wizard, he couldn't help but look at those games differently, analyzing them for magical accuracy.
After bathing and dressing for the day ahead, the young Ravenclaw descended the long and winding staircases down to the ground floor, and entered the Great Hall. Something special was going on today, something that had piqued his interest from the moment he'd first heard about it. Charlie had never been one to get involved with any sort of extra curricular activity at school before. In fact, the eleven year old despised the idea of them. It wasn't anything personal at all, and he certainly understood the appeal to them, but that appeal had never drawn him in before, not at his old school, and not at Hogwarts either. But this was simply different all together, because whereas most activities provided him with very little, this one on the other hand was sure to appeal to something: his taste buds.
Laid out along the four tables where students typically sat for meals were large platters of cookies, cupcakes, and cakes, along with more decorating materials than he could imagine. The whole room smelled sweet, far sweeter than even the local bakeries he would go to with his grandparents when he was younger. It made his stomach grumble and his mouth begin to salivate. He couldn't wait to eat sweets to his heart's content.
Hurrying over to one of the tables, Charlie sat down and grabbed a round sugar cookie. It looked and smelled so unbelievable that he could hardly wait to take a bite before slathering it with frosting at all. But as he reached for a piping bag full of blue frosting, a sign next to it caught his eye, and the words upon it made his heart drop.
"Do not eat," he read aloud, with a disappointed tone in his voice. He couldn't help but feel it, disappointed, and perhaps a bit annoyed too. It was just plain cruel for them to put all of these sweets out, ask the students to decorate them, and then not even reward them with a single one. He wanted to leave at once and retreat back to Ravenclaw Tower, or perhaps to the lake where he could try and spot the Giant Squid beneath the not-quite-yet-thawed ice. But he was already here, and the boy decided he'd stay just long enough to decorate a single cookie.
Word Count: 566
After bathing and dressing for the day ahead, the young Ravenclaw descended the long and winding staircases down to the ground floor, and entered the Great Hall. Something special was going on today, something that had piqued his interest from the moment he'd first heard about it. Charlie had never been one to get involved with any sort of extra curricular activity at school before. In fact, the eleven year old despised the idea of them. It wasn't anything personal at all, and he certainly understood the appeal to them, but that appeal had never drawn him in before, not at his old school, and not at Hogwarts either. But this was simply different all together, because whereas most activities provided him with very little, this one on the other hand was sure to appeal to something: his taste buds.
Laid out along the four tables where students typically sat for meals were large platters of cookies, cupcakes, and cakes, along with more decorating materials than he could imagine. The whole room smelled sweet, far sweeter than even the local bakeries he would go to with his grandparents when he was younger. It made his stomach grumble and his mouth begin to salivate. He couldn't wait to eat sweets to his heart's content.
Hurrying over to one of the tables, Charlie sat down and grabbed a round sugar cookie. It looked and smelled so unbelievable that he could hardly wait to take a bite before slathering it with frosting at all. But as he reached for a piping bag full of blue frosting, a sign next to it caught his eye, and the words upon it made his heart drop.
"Do not eat," he read aloud, with a disappointed tone in his voice. He couldn't help but feel it, disappointed, and perhaps a bit annoyed too. It was just plain cruel for them to put all of these sweets out, ask the students to decorate them, and then not even reward them with a single one. He wanted to leave at once and retreat back to Ravenclaw Tower, or perhaps to the lake where he could try and spot the Giant Squid beneath the not-quite-yet-thawed ice. But he was already here, and the boy decided he'd stay just long enough to decorate a single cookie.
Word Count: 566
( Stamina - 5 | Evasion - 8 | Strength - 4 | Wisdom - 6 | ArcPower - 5 | Accuracy - 7 )
14 Apr 2020, 22:10
Salty About Sweets
Reynolds had never really had a sweet tooth. For about the first six years of his life, he had been practically banned from sweets by his mother, who didn’t let anyone in the house eat junk food. After she left he supposed he could have fully embraced and taken advantage of his dad’s very lenient parenting style and eaten whatever junk food he wanted. But at that point, he had gotten used to not having a lot of sugar. It just wasn’t something he really thought about.
That is until he had gotten to Hogwarts. He had befriended some sugar enthusiasts who had introduced him to the wonderful world of cavities and now he was eating sweets on a much more regular basis. Though he was able to restrain himself to just desert at dinner. It was hard some days and when he smelled the absolutely overwhelming scent of freshly baked cookies coming from the Great Hall he just couldn’t help himself.
Spaced out among the four tables were many groups and some single people decorating an assortment of desserts. Reynolds quickly remembered hearing something about this in the corridors, students were being asked to help decorate cookies and cakes and things that were being prepared by the house-elves. He couldn’t remember any specific purpose behind the activity, but he did remember hearing the disappointed sighs of some fellow first years lamenting that the desserts would not be for eating.
Seeing how many desserts were currently covering the tables and how many students were partaking in the activity though made him doubt that. Sure, maybe they couldn’t eat all of the desserts but by the end, they would be allowed to eat one right? Or they would be recycled for dessert at dinner. What else were they going to do with this many cookies and cakes? They wouldn’t let them go to waste, right?
Reynolds made his way into the Great Hall, searching the little groups for a familiar face. He didn’t want to decorate if he was going to be by himself but in a giant room full of sweets he was sure he would find at least his friends Aly or Liv. After a quick pass of everyone though, Reynolds did not see either of his two closest friends.
He felt very silly, would anyone notice if he left without decorating anything? Would they think he was stupid for having just walked in only to walk out immediately? Should he stay and awkwardly try to decorate a cookie as quickly as possible just to say he had? Would that be worse than simply walking out? What if he started and it was terrible, which it was likely to be, and everyone laughed at him? What if he decorated a terrible dessert and then someone he knew ended up eating it and made fun of it without know he had decorated it?
As his mind churned out terrible outcome after terrible outcome, something Reynolds referred to as “catastrophe mode”, his eyes swept across a familiar face at last. A first-year Ravenclaw named Charlie, they had hung out a few times, though never really on their own. They had always had a common friend, like Aly or Liv, there to bring them together. But he was better than having nobody. Reynolds walked to the opposite side of the table Charlie was working at. He walked slowly towards the Ravenclaw, pretending not to notice him and instead focusing on the desserts on the table as if picking out the perfect one to decorate.
Please notice me, he thought. He hated starting a conversation. But from what he remembered, Charlie was a fairly friendly guy, hopefully, he would notice Reynolds nearby and would start the conversation instead. He just had to play it cool. If he made it all the way past him without a response then that probably meant the other first-year didn’t want to talk to him or hang out with him. And Reynolds wouldn't blame if he didn't, and he would simply walk out, pretending he hadn’t found a dessert that interested him enough to decorate. That could work, right?
Post Count: 692
That is until he had gotten to Hogwarts. He had befriended some sugar enthusiasts who had introduced him to the wonderful world of cavities and now he was eating sweets on a much more regular basis. Though he was able to restrain himself to just desert at dinner. It was hard some days and when he smelled the absolutely overwhelming scent of freshly baked cookies coming from the Great Hall he just couldn’t help himself.
Spaced out among the four tables were many groups and some single people decorating an assortment of desserts. Reynolds quickly remembered hearing something about this in the corridors, students were being asked to help decorate cookies and cakes and things that were being prepared by the house-elves. He couldn’t remember any specific purpose behind the activity, but he did remember hearing the disappointed sighs of some fellow first years lamenting that the desserts would not be for eating.
Seeing how many desserts were currently covering the tables and how many students were partaking in the activity though made him doubt that. Sure, maybe they couldn’t eat all of the desserts but by the end, they would be allowed to eat one right? Or they would be recycled for dessert at dinner. What else were they going to do with this many cookies and cakes? They wouldn’t let them go to waste, right?
Reynolds made his way into the Great Hall, searching the little groups for a familiar face. He didn’t want to decorate if he was going to be by himself but in a giant room full of sweets he was sure he would find at least his friends Aly or Liv. After a quick pass of everyone though, Reynolds did not see either of his two closest friends.
He felt very silly, would anyone notice if he left without decorating anything? Would they think he was stupid for having just walked in only to walk out immediately? Should he stay and awkwardly try to decorate a cookie as quickly as possible just to say he had? Would that be worse than simply walking out? What if he started and it was terrible, which it was likely to be, and everyone laughed at him? What if he decorated a terrible dessert and then someone he knew ended up eating it and made fun of it without know he had decorated it?
As his mind churned out terrible outcome after terrible outcome, something Reynolds referred to as “catastrophe mode”, his eyes swept across a familiar face at last. A first-year Ravenclaw named Charlie, they had hung out a few times, though never really on their own. They had always had a common friend, like Aly or Liv, there to bring them together. But he was better than having nobody. Reynolds walked to the opposite side of the table Charlie was working at. He walked slowly towards the Ravenclaw, pretending not to notice him and instead focusing on the desserts on the table as if picking out the perfect one to decorate.
Please notice me, he thought. He hated starting a conversation. But from what he remembered, Charlie was a fairly friendly guy, hopefully, he would notice Reynolds nearby and would start the conversation instead. He just had to play it cool. If he made it all the way past him without a response then that probably meant the other first-year didn’t want to talk to him or hang out with him. And Reynolds wouldn't blame if he didn't, and he would simply walk out, pretending he hadn’t found a dessert that interested him enough to decorate. That could work, right?
Post Count: 692
The willow survives by bending with the wind
Stats: Stamina: 5 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 6 | ArcPower: 6 | Accuracy: 6
15 Apr 2020, 00:04
Salty About Sweets
The last time Charlie had decorated a cookie had been over Christmas holiday. Following their yearly tradition, they had baked and decorated cookies shaped as Christmas trees, candy canes, stars, and gingerbread men. This past year of course had been no different, of course there was the discussion of everything he had been learning at Hogwarts added to it, a discussion which Charlie had dreaded, his father had been unbearably interested in, and his sisters were just the slightest bit jealous (which certainly made it just a little bit more enjoyable). His cookies had always turned out very messy, and the one in front of him right now was no exception.
With the blue frosting in hand, Charlie dragged it back and forth, zigzagging across the surface of the cookie. "It'll taste fine all the same," he told himself with a shrug, as he looked back to the decorations he could use, settling on a bottle of yellow star-shaped sprinkles. As he reached for them, his eye caught the sight of someone he knew. They weren't quite friends, but they had hung out more than once. They were both friends with Aly and Liv though, shared classes too, but Charlie Cutting and Reynolds McNeil had never been together one-on-one before.
"Reynolds! Hey!" he called out to the Hufflepuff boy passing by. "Are you meeting Liv and Aly here?" Aly hadn't said anything to him about stopping by and joining the decorating, but it didn't mean she hadn't made plans with anyone else. "Cause if not, there are plenty of sweets here. You can't eat any though," he added on, still upset about the "No Eating" rule.
Post Count: 277
Thread Count: 843
With the blue frosting in hand, Charlie dragged it back and forth, zigzagging across the surface of the cookie. "It'll taste fine all the same," he told himself with a shrug, as he looked back to the decorations he could use, settling on a bottle of yellow star-shaped sprinkles. As he reached for them, his eye caught the sight of someone he knew. They weren't quite friends, but they had hung out more than once. They were both friends with Aly and Liv though, shared classes too, but Charlie Cutting and Reynolds McNeil had never been together one-on-one before.
"Reynolds! Hey!" he called out to the Hufflepuff boy passing by. "Are you meeting Liv and Aly here?" Aly hadn't said anything to him about stopping by and joining the decorating, but it didn't mean she hadn't made plans with anyone else. "Cause if not, there are plenty of sweets here. You can't eat any though," he added on, still upset about the "No Eating" rule.
Post Count: 277
Thread Count: 843
( Stamina - 5 | Evasion - 8 | Strength - 4 | Wisdom - 6 | ArcPower - 5 | Accuracy - 7 )
15 Apr 2020, 01:38
Salty About Sweets
Cookies and cupcakes and marzipan, oh my! She was in her element as she headed into the Great Hall, still not entirely certain she was in the right place. One of her housemates had mentioned they got to decorate baked goodies to help the House Elves out, which sounded too good to be true. Perhaps she could stash a few delicacies for later? She was bound to be hungry later when looking over her homework assignments. A delicious cupcake would surely put her in a good mood to tackle a Transfiguration assignment with any form of gusto. It surely wasn't possible to get through homework without a plethora of snacks available. If it was, Liv hadn't uncovered the secret to it yet, if she ever was going to. Admittedly, she wasn't motivated to complete her schoolwork either. If it was all just a little easier then maybe she would be more inclined to put effort into it all. It was a wonder she was surviving her classes at all, thanks to the heavy duty study sessions she was regularly subjected to by her more educationally gifted friends.
She wasn't particularly great in the kitchen either, having had a veritable disaster the one and only time she had attempted to create something remotely edible. As it transpired, baking was also not her forte, much to her chagrin. She wasn't intellectual, didn't easily make friends and also couldn't bake. There was a whole string of things she was poor at or had failed in. It was harder to find something she was naturally adept at. Perhaps decorating treats would be a better fit for the socially awkward young girl! Instinctively she reached for a biscuit, before seeing that she wasn't allowed to eat them, taking some of the fun out of this activity from the off-set. If she wasn't naturally sunny-natured, she would have likely sulked, but the first year didn't want to waste time being frustrated by something she had no control over. Instead she would make these biscuits the best decorated things Hogwarts had ever seen! Okay..maybe not the best, but a pretty awesome second place to the House Elves. They had trained at it, so they obviously had an advantage she wasn't privy to!
Neil was already here, as was Charlie which was a great sign. She wasn't sure if anyone else from their friendship circle planned to appear but she was fond of both these boys so that was enough for now. "Neil! Charlie! If it's not two of my favourite people!" she exclaimed loudly. Her natural instinct was to throw her arms around them but considering the activity and that they each had their hands literally and metaphoricaly full it seemed. "You both heard about it too? I heard it from this Second Year who insisted that theirs was the prettiest cupcake of them all. I thought she'd baked them at first but then she said she added prink frosting to the top of it and...well, it was too tempting not to have a go. I did think they'd let us sample some of the goodies too, though!" They too each had a choice of delicious goods that they were trying to cover in pretty coloured frosting and icing. Whereas many people in the hall had gone for one tone and a somewhat muted look, she decided the more colours the better.
With that idea in mind she began to ease crease into a piping bag, unsure of how much force to exert and little noticing some of the mixture spilled over the edge of the bag and onto the table. She was focused and determined. First up, pink. She placed her biscuit central and began to outline the dessert, not quite keeping it to the outer edge. It was then she picked up a blue bag and using a moderately less amount of force began to squeeze the icing out of there in a more inner circle. This time, the two different colours mingled and tangled as if she had intended it that way though she absolutely had not. She released a frustrated sigh and threw her piping bag down irritatedly. "Please tell me one or both of you are having better look than I am! This is...impossible! I don't know how they do it everyday." Decorating could be added to the ever-growing pile of things that Liv just coud not master despite her every attempt at proving to the contrary.
Having decided she absolutey was not doing any more decorating, she reverted her attention back to her friends and took a peek at their creations, now deciding one of them had the best decorated treat without question. The other students in the room were trying but her boys were just superior. If it coudn't be her who took away Master Decorator - her own appointed tite - then she wanted it to be one of her good friends. Neil looked focused on the tray of goodies in front of him, whereas Charlie adopted an approach not too dissimilar to her own. Organised chaos she liked to refer to it. "You do know you're supposed to choose one to decorate not beat them in a staring competition, right? What did the cake ever do to you?" she chided Neil, lightly nudging him in the hope he woke from his reverie and participated in the challenge they had all been set. "What do you think these are for, anyway? They wouldn't ask us to do all this for no reason, and they aren't about to pump us full of sugar and send us off to lessons, so there has to be a reason for it all, right?"
It really was a conundrum and Liv was nothing if not thorough whenever she investigated anything. Maybe they could solve this and help Neil to pick something off the tray before the last student was done in the hall. "If you're going for House Unity, you nailed it!" she giggled, looking over at Charlie's offering. "You just need a splash of red and green and you've made the perfect Hogwarts biscuit!" Maybe that wasn't what he intended on it being but it certainly seemed better than her own somewhat purple gloopy mess that she completely discarded.
She wasn't particularly great in the kitchen either, having had a veritable disaster the one and only time she had attempted to create something remotely edible. As it transpired, baking was also not her forte, much to her chagrin. She wasn't intellectual, didn't easily make friends and also couldn't bake. There was a whole string of things she was poor at or had failed in. It was harder to find something she was naturally adept at. Perhaps decorating treats would be a better fit for the socially awkward young girl! Instinctively she reached for a biscuit, before seeing that she wasn't allowed to eat them, taking some of the fun out of this activity from the off-set. If she wasn't naturally sunny-natured, she would have likely sulked, but the first year didn't want to waste time being frustrated by something she had no control over. Instead she would make these biscuits the best decorated things Hogwarts had ever seen! Okay..maybe not the best, but a pretty awesome second place to the House Elves. They had trained at it, so they obviously had an advantage she wasn't privy to!
Neil was already here, as was Charlie which was a great sign. She wasn't sure if anyone else from their friendship circle planned to appear but she was fond of both these boys so that was enough for now. "Neil! Charlie! If it's not two of my favourite people!" she exclaimed loudly. Her natural instinct was to throw her arms around them but considering the activity and that they each had their hands literally and metaphoricaly full it seemed. "You both heard about it too? I heard it from this Second Year who insisted that theirs was the prettiest cupcake of them all. I thought she'd baked them at first but then she said she added prink frosting to the top of it and...well, it was too tempting not to have a go. I did think they'd let us sample some of the goodies too, though!" They too each had a choice of delicious goods that they were trying to cover in pretty coloured frosting and icing. Whereas many people in the hall had gone for one tone and a somewhat muted look, she decided the more colours the better.
With that idea in mind she began to ease crease into a piping bag, unsure of how much force to exert and little noticing some of the mixture spilled over the edge of the bag and onto the table. She was focused and determined. First up, pink. She placed her biscuit central and began to outline the dessert, not quite keeping it to the outer edge. It was then she picked up a blue bag and using a moderately less amount of force began to squeeze the icing out of there in a more inner circle. This time, the two different colours mingled and tangled as if she had intended it that way though she absolutely had not. She released a frustrated sigh and threw her piping bag down irritatedly. "Please tell me one or both of you are having better look than I am! This is...impossible! I don't know how they do it everyday." Decorating could be added to the ever-growing pile of things that Liv just coud not master despite her every attempt at proving to the contrary.
Having decided she absolutey was not doing any more decorating, she reverted her attention back to her friends and took a peek at their creations, now deciding one of them had the best decorated treat without question. The other students in the room were trying but her boys were just superior. If it coudn't be her who took away Master Decorator - her own appointed tite - then she wanted it to be one of her good friends. Neil looked focused on the tray of goodies in front of him, whereas Charlie adopted an approach not too dissimilar to her own. Organised chaos she liked to refer to it. "You do know you're supposed to choose one to decorate not beat them in a staring competition, right? What did the cake ever do to you?" she chided Neil, lightly nudging him in the hope he woke from his reverie and participated in the challenge they had all been set. "What do you think these are for, anyway? They wouldn't ask us to do all this for no reason, and they aren't about to pump us full of sugar and send us off to lessons, so there has to be a reason for it all, right?"
It really was a conundrum and Liv was nothing if not thorough whenever she investigated anything. Maybe they could solve this and help Neil to pick something off the tray before the last student was done in the hall. "If you're going for House Unity, you nailed it!" she giggled, looking over at Charlie's offering. "You just need a splash of red and green and you've made the perfect Hogwarts biscuit!" Maybe that wasn't what he intended on it being but it certainly seemed better than her own somewhat purple gloopy mess that she completely discarded.
Word Count: 1049
15 Apr 2020, 08:24
Salty About Sweets
Alyssa "Aly" Salinger didn't just "have" a sweet tooth. Oh, no. Aly was the sweet tooth. From the minute she'd learned exactly what chocolate was, they had been the most inseparable of friends, Aly and sugar. Sugar and Aly. Back home at the Salinger mansion, she had often been known to try to beg a second sweet from her matronly house-elf Becca (and the grumpy one, Dinny, before he retired) after the entire family had already had their dinner and their dessert. She seldom succeeded, naturally. But starting in September on the Hogwarts Express, finally away from her parents' and house-elves' prying eyes for the first time, Aly- to put it simply- had begun to go hog wild on sugar. Some people would have assumed that this would cause her sweet tooth to fade, over time, but those people clearly had never met Aly. She was twice as sweet as the sugar she so loved.
This was why, when Aly heard of some dessert-decorating errand in the Great Hall, her brain did not automatically hear "decorating". It heard "eating".
She burst into the Great Hall fairly late to the party in a flurry of black robes and blue-and-bronze, accented everywhere from her scarf to the crest upon her shoulder even down to her striped socks. Aly didn't exactly know if any of her friends from first year would be at this decoration event, but that was no matter- her charmingly delightful personality made it easy to make new pals if she couldn't find any preexisting ones. In the end, however, none of it was of any importance, because she almost instantly spotted two familiar faces in the sea of smiling students. There, quite close to her- it was Charlie Cutting, the fellow Ravenclaw that she had met at the Sorting feast on the first of September, and Reynolds McNeil, the Hufflepuff she had shared a boat with on that exact same day. What a coincidence that they were sitting together, along with a blond Hufflepuff girl that Aly vaguely recognized but couldn't place a name to. That wasn't surprising. Aly was famously (at least to herself and her close friends) horrendous at remembering people's names. They had probably met in a class before or something, but there were so many blonde girls at Hogwarts and Aly could barely recall the names of those with whom she shared a dormitory...
Still, Aly wouldn't let this faze her; she rushed right over and plopped down in the open seat beside Charlie, swinging her satchel onto the floor at her feet. "Hello!" she gushed to the three with a pleasant giggle, giving an extra-bright smile to the strange girl. "Oh, I'm so glad I found you all here- I was beginning to think everyone was completely a stranger to me!"
Before anyone could respond, Aly's eyes zeroed in on all of the snacks in front of them. There were small, round balls of marzipan that Aly assumed could be used for decoration, as well as paintbrushes and dyes that were likely to do just that. The Ravenclaw girl had never much been marzipan's biggest fan, however- it was far too smooth for her, she disliked the texture- so she skipped over those, focusing more on the sugar biscuits, cupcakes, and cute little cakes all around them. The Hufflepuff girl was slathering pink and blue frosting onto a biscuit, while Charlie was attempting his very own, and Reynolds... well, Reynolds was trying, and that was what mattered. Aly spotted a small biscuit with intricate piping sitting abandoned a little ways down the table, and stretched her short arms to reach it. Surely no one would mind her taking a little nibble, if they had just left it here...
It was then that she saw the sign just behind the biscuit. DO NOT EAT! it read in large, printed block letters.
Sure enough, a quick glance around the Great Hall proved that nobody was eating any of the delicacies set so beautifully before them. Aly couldn't even see a single person squirting frosting into their mouths. Her dream crushed, Aly looked over the sweets before her with new, saddened eyes. If she couldn't consume any of the delicacies, then why was she even here?
...but everyone else was decorating, she realized. And she had learned a few piping tricks and tips from Becca, back when she had helped to create her father's thirtieth birthday cake a few years before. If Aly focused hard enough, she could still recall the motion used to create little balls of frosting along the edge of a cake... and maybe, if she remembered harder still, how to create a flower? "Why not?" she murmured under her breath in a cheery attempt to make herself feel better, reaching for a small white cake about the size of her closed fist that sat just a few feet to her right. "I can do this."
The cake already had a base of ivory-colored frosting, but Aly knew it needed more. Some piping bags and tips lay nearby, along with giant bowls of even more frosting in all kinds of different colors. There was even a shimmering gold frosting that seemed as though it had some kind of powder mixed into it... a lustrous glitter of some sort that Aly had never seen before! Now that was something she needed to report back to Becca when she went home for the summer holiday. Aly pulled the gold frosting bowl closer to her, slipped a triangular silver piping tip with a round hole into a piping bag, and filled the bag about halfway with the gold frosting. She began to try to pipe little balls all around the base of the cake, where it met the white plate upon which it sat, and around the confection's top edge too. They weren't perfect, not by a long shot- she was no house-elf, after all, so her balls of frosting were slightly misshapen and a few different sizes. She fixed some of the more egregious errors before giving up when she had done the top and base borders, then pushed the cake slightly away. A flower on top would be the perfect final touch!
There was an empty small plate nearby that had likely held another cake, and Aly grabbed it; she then proceeded to fill another, smaller piping bag with a flat-holed triangular tip and a couple different colors of frosting. At first they came out all muddled together, but Aly kept squeezing and squeezing until they created a nice rainbow pattern- a trick she remembered seeing Becca do for her father's cake to combine his two favorite colors, Ravenclaw blue and Slytherin green. Aly piped a little dot onto the empty plate and then attempted surrounding it with frosting petals like she could vaguely remember seeing Becca do all those years before. Again, her decorating was nowhere near on par with her house-elf's, and the rose ended up looking more like it was sad and wilted and definitely lopsided. Still, Aly waited a few moments for the frosting to begin to dry, and then slid a butter knife from near her seat under the rose, transferring it carefully to the top of the cake. With the first piping bag, she carefully traced her name in her loopiest handwriting on the plate of her completed, decorated cake- Aly, all in cursive with a little shimmering golden heart at the end. Then she sat back and admired her lopsided masterpiece. With a little help from Becca over the summer holiday, she thought, I could be quite good at this someday!
This was why, when Aly heard of some dessert-decorating errand in the Great Hall, her brain did not automatically hear "decorating". It heard "eating".
She burst into the Great Hall fairly late to the party in a flurry of black robes and blue-and-bronze, accented everywhere from her scarf to the crest upon her shoulder even down to her striped socks. Aly didn't exactly know if any of her friends from first year would be at this decoration event, but that was no matter- her charmingly delightful personality made it easy to make new pals if she couldn't find any preexisting ones. In the end, however, none of it was of any importance, because she almost instantly spotted two familiar faces in the sea of smiling students. There, quite close to her- it was Charlie Cutting, the fellow Ravenclaw that she had met at the Sorting feast on the first of September, and Reynolds McNeil, the Hufflepuff she had shared a boat with on that exact same day. What a coincidence that they were sitting together, along with a blond Hufflepuff girl that Aly vaguely recognized but couldn't place a name to. That wasn't surprising. Aly was famously (at least to herself and her close friends) horrendous at remembering people's names. They had probably met in a class before or something, but there were so many blonde girls at Hogwarts and Aly could barely recall the names of those with whom she shared a dormitory...
Still, Aly wouldn't let this faze her; she rushed right over and plopped down in the open seat beside Charlie, swinging her satchel onto the floor at her feet. "Hello!" she gushed to the three with a pleasant giggle, giving an extra-bright smile to the strange girl. "Oh, I'm so glad I found you all here- I was beginning to think everyone was completely a stranger to me!"
Before anyone could respond, Aly's eyes zeroed in on all of the snacks in front of them. There were small, round balls of marzipan that Aly assumed could be used for decoration, as well as paintbrushes and dyes that were likely to do just that. The Ravenclaw girl had never much been marzipan's biggest fan, however- it was far too smooth for her, she disliked the texture- so she skipped over those, focusing more on the sugar biscuits, cupcakes, and cute little cakes all around them. The Hufflepuff girl was slathering pink and blue frosting onto a biscuit, while Charlie was attempting his very own, and Reynolds... well, Reynolds was trying, and that was what mattered. Aly spotted a small biscuit with intricate piping sitting abandoned a little ways down the table, and stretched her short arms to reach it. Surely no one would mind her taking a little nibble, if they had just left it here...
It was then that she saw the sign just behind the biscuit. DO NOT EAT! it read in large, printed block letters.
Sure enough, a quick glance around the Great Hall proved that nobody was eating any of the delicacies set so beautifully before them. Aly couldn't even see a single person squirting frosting into their mouths. Her dream crushed, Aly looked over the sweets before her with new, saddened eyes. If she couldn't consume any of the delicacies, then why was she even here?
...but everyone else was decorating, she realized. And she had learned a few piping tricks and tips from Becca, back when she had helped to create her father's thirtieth birthday cake a few years before. If Aly focused hard enough, she could still recall the motion used to create little balls of frosting along the edge of a cake... and maybe, if she remembered harder still, how to create a flower? "Why not?" she murmured under her breath in a cheery attempt to make herself feel better, reaching for a small white cake about the size of her closed fist that sat just a few feet to her right. "I can do this."
The cake already had a base of ivory-colored frosting, but Aly knew it needed more. Some piping bags and tips lay nearby, along with giant bowls of even more frosting in all kinds of different colors. There was even a shimmering gold frosting that seemed as though it had some kind of powder mixed into it... a lustrous glitter of some sort that Aly had never seen before! Now that was something she needed to report back to Becca when she went home for the summer holiday. Aly pulled the gold frosting bowl closer to her, slipped a triangular silver piping tip with a round hole into a piping bag, and filled the bag about halfway with the gold frosting. She began to try to pipe little balls all around the base of the cake, where it met the white plate upon which it sat, and around the confection's top edge too. They weren't perfect, not by a long shot- she was no house-elf, after all, so her balls of frosting were slightly misshapen and a few different sizes. She fixed some of the more egregious errors before giving up when she had done the top and base borders, then pushed the cake slightly away. A flower on top would be the perfect final touch!
There was an empty small plate nearby that had likely held another cake, and Aly grabbed it; she then proceeded to fill another, smaller piping bag with a flat-holed triangular tip and a couple different colors of frosting. At first they came out all muddled together, but Aly kept squeezing and squeezing until they created a nice rainbow pattern- a trick she remembered seeing Becca do for her father's cake to combine his two favorite colors, Ravenclaw blue and Slytherin green. Aly piped a little dot onto the empty plate and then attempted surrounding it with frosting petals like she could vaguely remember seeing Becca do all those years before. Again, her decorating was nowhere near on par with her house-elf's, and the rose ended up looking more like it was sad and wilted and definitely lopsided. Still, Aly waited a few moments for the frosting to begin to dry, and then slid a butter knife from near her seat under the rose, transferring it carefully to the top of the cake. With the first piping bag, she carefully traced her name in her loopiest handwriting on the plate of her completed, decorated cake- Aly, all in cursive with a little shimmering golden heart at the end. Then she sat back and admired her lopsided masterpiece. With a little help from Becca over the summer holiday, she thought, I could be quite good at this someday!
Post WC: 1273
Thread WC: 3857
| Aly Salinger's ency |
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STA 10 | EVA 14 | STR 5 | WIS 19 | ARC 7 | ACC 18 Charmer • Keeper’s Catch • Paragon of Health • Lovely Creature • Foulplay • Keen Eye who's afraid of little old me? |
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15 Apr 2020, 18:07
Salty About Sweets
When Kaden heard that there were sweets to be decorated in the Great Hall, his bright green eyes lit up with glee. The young Hufflepuff had a serious sweet tooth, especially for cupcakes, and loved to decorate just about anything with bright colors! He could hardly wait to top cupcakes with frosting colored various shades of yellow, pale pink, and soft purple. Kaden had also heard they were not meant to eat any of the sweets, but perhaps he could sneak one into his mouth while no one was looking... ah, who was he kidding, there were probably charms or other spells in effect to ensure whomever ate the sweets wouldn't get away with it so easily.
Bursting into the Great Hall, Kaden quickly scanned the room to see if he could spot any of his friends, and if not, if there was anyone around he could make friends with. It didn't take him too long to spot a group of his friends, Charlie, Liv, Aly, and Reynolds, all sitting together, and only a few moments later he was sitting down with the group, purposely picking a seat next to Charlie.
"Hi everyone!" Kaden greeted the group with a bright grin first. "Hi Charlie." Kaden added, giving the Ravenclaw boy a more gentle smile and a soft giggle before the plate of cupcakes nearby caught his eye. Kaden quickly grabbed one and nearly took a bite before the DO NOT EAT! sign had also caught his attention. "Oh noooooo! I almost forgot we can't eat them!" Kaden cried out sadly, perhaps a bit overdramatically, before the frosting and, as Kaden referred to it, 'the thingy that squirts out frosting', caught his eye. The moment of overdramatized woefulness was over at once as Kaden reached for a frosting dispenser and filled it with pink frosting, carefully dispensing it atop the cupcake he had picked out earlier and using it to draw the outline of a heart before filling in the middle with more frosting. The finished product didn't look quite right because the excitable boy wasn't too great at keeping his hands steady, but Kaden shrugged it off and reached for the rainbow sprinkles to top his work of art. Tilting his head at his finished product, Kaden pondered for a moment how he could make the next one better.
"Maybe... if I use more colors?" Kaden's lips widened into a big smile at the thought, reaching for more frosting colors and dispensers. If his pink creation wasn't good enough, perhaps an entire rainbow of frosting would do the trick.
Word Count: 429
Bursting into the Great Hall, Kaden quickly scanned the room to see if he could spot any of his friends, and if not, if there was anyone around he could make friends with. It didn't take him too long to spot a group of his friends, Charlie, Liv, Aly, and Reynolds, all sitting together, and only a few moments later he was sitting down with the group, purposely picking a seat next to Charlie.
"Hi everyone!" Kaden greeted the group with a bright grin first. "Hi Charlie." Kaden added, giving the Ravenclaw boy a more gentle smile and a soft giggle before the plate of cupcakes nearby caught his eye. Kaden quickly grabbed one and nearly took a bite before the DO NOT EAT! sign had also caught his attention. "Oh noooooo! I almost forgot we can't eat them!" Kaden cried out sadly, perhaps a bit overdramatically, before the frosting and, as Kaden referred to it, 'the thingy that squirts out frosting', caught his eye. The moment of overdramatized woefulness was over at once as Kaden reached for a frosting dispenser and filled it with pink frosting, carefully dispensing it atop the cupcake he had picked out earlier and using it to draw the outline of a heart before filling in the middle with more frosting. The finished product didn't look quite right because the excitable boy wasn't too great at keeping his hands steady, but Kaden shrugged it off and reached for the rainbow sprinkles to top his work of art. Tilting his head at his finished product, Kaden pondered for a moment how he could make the next one better.
"Maybe... if I use more colors?" Kaden's lips widened into a big smile at the thought, reaching for more frosting colors and dispensers. If his pink creation wasn't good enough, perhaps an entire rainbow of frosting would do the trick.
Word Count: 429
15 Apr 2020, 18:56
Salty About Sweets
Reynolds tried not to make his relief too obvious when the Ravenclaw called his name. His plan had worked flawlessly. Now all he had to do was find something to talk about or entertain them both with until he could decorate a dessert and then it would all be over.
Inwardly he chastised himself, why did he have to look at everything as a chore? Was it really that horrible to decorate desserts with someone? Surely he could make it through one conversation without counting down the minutes to when it would be over. Charlie seemed like a nice guy, nice enough to acknowledge him here anyway, and he was friends with Aly and Liv and they were nice people. Nice enough to be his friends too. So he should make more of an effort to be nice too.
He stopped on the other end of the table from Charlie. “Hey, Charlie. I don’t know - uhm I don’t know if they’ll be here, but it is a room full of sweets, I can’t see them missing out. I was actually - actually I was surprised not to see them here already.”
That was a great start! Reynolds had to congratulate himself, that was a couple of full sentences and he only stumbled over his words a few times. Maybe he was getting better at this after all. He was about to move onto phase two of his plan, asking Charlie if he would mind having some company with him to decorate - after all, just calling out his name wasn’t exactly an invitation to hang out - but was interrupted by an appearing Liv Hartley.
He gave Liv a small smile as she purposefully called him by the wrong name, it was their own joke, something unique to their friendship and he liked that. She may have interrupted him but he was glad she was there, he felt more comfortable having the other Hufflepuff there that could connect Charlie and him. He wasn’t a fan of crowds, but a small group of people, especially if that group included someone he was comfortable with, made him feel like he could talk to the group but there was always someone else to step up and say something if he didn’t feel like saying anything at all. And Liv certainly filled that role perfectly, her mouth almost never stopped moving.
He watched as Liv practically threw herself into the decorating process, hardly taking a breath as she went about getting her piping together while talking about the whole process. She didn’t seem to be having much luck and pretty quickly gave up in frustration when her first attempt. It seemed like something he would do, give up after failing the first time. The thought made him even more hesitant to choose a dessert or even tough any of those frosting tools. He stared back at the variety of desserts in front of him, wondering if there was one that might be easier to work with than the others, but they looked equally difficult to him.
As if reading his mind, Liv nudged him saying, "You do know you're supposed to choose one to decorate not beat them in a staring competition, right? What did the cake ever do to you?"
“Oh - well - I just - you know I want to make a good decision, just give me a minute,” Reynolds replied quietly. “I don’t think yours looks that bad though, Liv. Maybe try another?” He didn’t want her to feel like she had failed.
He was about to add the question of “Is it okay if I stay decorate with you guys?” to Liv and Charlie because he had been distracted by Liv before being able to ask permission. But again just as he opened his mouth to casually make sure it was okay, Aly Salinger took a seat across the table next to Charlie, smiling brightly, probably because she was excited to be around all that sugar.
She said hello and Reynolds tried to give her a quick, small smile too, but she was quickly distracted by all the sweets in front of her. Before he could warn her that the desserts weren’t actually for eating, something that apparently concerned and frustrated everyone here, she too noticed the poor sign for herself. He watched the excitement in her eyes drain away as she realized she wouldn’t be allowed to consume any of the desserts. He was actually surprised at her lack of noise, he would have expected her to whine or be more vocal about her disappointment. Instead, she went right to work on decorating the cake in front of her.
He was glad that more of his friends had joined, but he still felt like he needed to ask to make sure it was okay for him to be here. After all, he would be terribly embarrassed if he stuck around without asking only to find out later that they had all secretly wished he had left. So he opened his mouth a third time to pose the question - but was again interrupted.
His dormmate Kaden Truell was next to join the decorating party, quickly taking a seat on the other side of Charlie.
“Hello, Kaden,” Reynolds said, but he didn’t have a chance to get much further than that when the Hufflepuff boy too noticed the “DO NOT EAT” sign.
Kaden threw more of a fit, well not really a fit, but his loud cry did make Reynolds cringe a bit. His blue eyes darted about the rest of the room to see if he had attracted any attention with his moaning. Then he too got to work decorating a dessert and even seemed to contemplate starting a second one. Reynolds hadn’t even started his first.
Slowly he picked up one of the sugar cookies, they didn’t seem as much of a commitment as something like a cake and placed it in front of him. He took for himself a piping bag full of plain white frosting, trying to keep his hands from shaking too much as he handled it. He had watched his friends do several already so perhaps he could learn from the way they had handled the bags. Pulling his lower lip into his teeth with concentration, Reynolds started to squeeze the bag, but he had applied entirely too much pressure.
White frosting quickly plopped onto the cookie and all over his fingers! Reynolds froze. This was the worst mistake of all the mistakes anyone in this room had made. Surely. He should never have come here, he was an embarrassment to his friends, his house, Hogwarts, and probably all of the magical community.
Again he had to chastise himself inwardly, knowing that his brain was tricking him into those thoughts. He just hoped his friends wouldn’t laugh at him for the mistake. He quickly looked around for a cloth or a napkin with which to wipe his hands, but he didn’t see any. Now he was running into a different problem. How was he supposed to get this stuff off his hands?
Like a stroke of genius, Reynolds had an idea. A smile twitched across his face as he looked at his group of friends and acquaintances, all so disappointed in not being able to eat their delectable creations. He didn’t care much for the sugar or anything, but he thought his discovery was important enough to share with those who did.
“Oh no,” he said, with just a little too much inflection in his voice to make it obvious he wasn’t actually disturbed. “I’ve got this frosting all over my fingers. Guess I’ll just have to...lick it off…”
He stuck his frosting covered finger in his mouth and sucked away the sugary frosting and with a satisfying popping sound he pulled it back out, frosting free.
“What a shame,” he continued with the same inflection, trying to make it as obvious as possible that he was saying the opposite of what he meant. “I really hope I don’t make that mistake again.”
He picked the piping back up to “try again” and this time he purposefully squeezed the bag too hard, resulting in even more frosting pouring onto his fingers. With a clearly fake sigh, he shrugged his shoulders hard.
“Oh, man! I’m such a clutz! Oh well,” Reynolds stuck the frosting covered finger back in his mouth.
Finally, with a grin bigger than any he had worn in several weeks, he looked to make sure his friends were getting the message he was trying to send. He didn’t even mind eating so much sugar, he was actually really enjoying himself. He didn’t even realize he hadn’t asked if he could join the group yet.
Post Count: 1457
Inwardly he chastised himself, why did he have to look at everything as a chore? Was it really that horrible to decorate desserts with someone? Surely he could make it through one conversation without counting down the minutes to when it would be over. Charlie seemed like a nice guy, nice enough to acknowledge him here anyway, and he was friends with Aly and Liv and they were nice people. Nice enough to be his friends too. So he should make more of an effort to be nice too.
He stopped on the other end of the table from Charlie. “Hey, Charlie. I don’t know - uhm I don’t know if they’ll be here, but it is a room full of sweets, I can’t see them missing out. I was actually - actually I was surprised not to see them here already.”
That was a great start! Reynolds had to congratulate himself, that was a couple of full sentences and he only stumbled over his words a few times. Maybe he was getting better at this after all. He was about to move onto phase two of his plan, asking Charlie if he would mind having some company with him to decorate - after all, just calling out his name wasn’t exactly an invitation to hang out - but was interrupted by an appearing Liv Hartley.
He gave Liv a small smile as she purposefully called him by the wrong name, it was their own joke, something unique to their friendship and he liked that. She may have interrupted him but he was glad she was there, he felt more comfortable having the other Hufflepuff there that could connect Charlie and him. He wasn’t a fan of crowds, but a small group of people, especially if that group included someone he was comfortable with, made him feel like he could talk to the group but there was always someone else to step up and say something if he didn’t feel like saying anything at all. And Liv certainly filled that role perfectly, her mouth almost never stopped moving.
He watched as Liv practically threw herself into the decorating process, hardly taking a breath as she went about getting her piping together while talking about the whole process. She didn’t seem to be having much luck and pretty quickly gave up in frustration when her first attempt. It seemed like something he would do, give up after failing the first time. The thought made him even more hesitant to choose a dessert or even tough any of those frosting tools. He stared back at the variety of desserts in front of him, wondering if there was one that might be easier to work with than the others, but they looked equally difficult to him.
As if reading his mind, Liv nudged him saying, "You do know you're supposed to choose one to decorate not beat them in a staring competition, right? What did the cake ever do to you?"
“Oh - well - I just - you know I want to make a good decision, just give me a minute,” Reynolds replied quietly. “I don’t think yours looks that bad though, Liv. Maybe try another?” He didn’t want her to feel like she had failed.
He was about to add the question of “Is it okay if I stay decorate with you guys?” to Liv and Charlie because he had been distracted by Liv before being able to ask permission. But again just as he opened his mouth to casually make sure it was okay, Aly Salinger took a seat across the table next to Charlie, smiling brightly, probably because she was excited to be around all that sugar.
She said hello and Reynolds tried to give her a quick, small smile too, but she was quickly distracted by all the sweets in front of her. Before he could warn her that the desserts weren’t actually for eating, something that apparently concerned and frustrated everyone here, she too noticed the poor sign for herself. He watched the excitement in her eyes drain away as she realized she wouldn’t be allowed to consume any of the desserts. He was actually surprised at her lack of noise, he would have expected her to whine or be more vocal about her disappointment. Instead, she went right to work on decorating the cake in front of her.
He was glad that more of his friends had joined, but he still felt like he needed to ask to make sure it was okay for him to be here. After all, he would be terribly embarrassed if he stuck around without asking only to find out later that they had all secretly wished he had left. So he opened his mouth a third time to pose the question - but was again interrupted.
His dormmate Kaden Truell was next to join the decorating party, quickly taking a seat on the other side of Charlie.
“Hello, Kaden,” Reynolds said, but he didn’t have a chance to get much further than that when the Hufflepuff boy too noticed the “DO NOT EAT” sign.
Kaden threw more of a fit, well not really a fit, but his loud cry did make Reynolds cringe a bit. His blue eyes darted about the rest of the room to see if he had attracted any attention with his moaning. Then he too got to work decorating a dessert and even seemed to contemplate starting a second one. Reynolds hadn’t even started his first.
Slowly he picked up one of the sugar cookies, they didn’t seem as much of a commitment as something like a cake and placed it in front of him. He took for himself a piping bag full of plain white frosting, trying to keep his hands from shaking too much as he handled it. He had watched his friends do several already so perhaps he could learn from the way they had handled the bags. Pulling his lower lip into his teeth with concentration, Reynolds started to squeeze the bag, but he had applied entirely too much pressure.
White frosting quickly plopped onto the cookie and all over his fingers! Reynolds froze. This was the worst mistake of all the mistakes anyone in this room had made. Surely. He should never have come here, he was an embarrassment to his friends, his house, Hogwarts, and probably all of the magical community.
Again he had to chastise himself inwardly, knowing that his brain was tricking him into those thoughts. He just hoped his friends wouldn’t laugh at him for the mistake. He quickly looked around for a cloth or a napkin with which to wipe his hands, but he didn’t see any. Now he was running into a different problem. How was he supposed to get this stuff off his hands?
Like a stroke of genius, Reynolds had an idea. A smile twitched across his face as he looked at his group of friends and acquaintances, all so disappointed in not being able to eat their delectable creations. He didn’t care much for the sugar or anything, but he thought his discovery was important enough to share with those who did.
“Oh no,” he said, with just a little too much inflection in his voice to make it obvious he wasn’t actually disturbed. “I’ve got this frosting all over my fingers. Guess I’ll just have to...lick it off…”
He stuck his frosting covered finger in his mouth and sucked away the sugary frosting and with a satisfying popping sound he pulled it back out, frosting free.
“What a shame,” he continued with the same inflection, trying to make it as obvious as possible that he was saying the opposite of what he meant. “I really hope I don’t make that mistake again.”
He picked the piping back up to “try again” and this time he purposefully squeezed the bag too hard, resulting in even more frosting pouring onto his fingers. With a clearly fake sigh, he shrugged his shoulders hard.
“Oh, man! I’m such a clutz! Oh well,” Reynolds stuck the frosting covered finger back in his mouth.
Finally, with a grin bigger than any he had worn in several weeks, he looked to make sure his friends were getting the message he was trying to send. He didn’t even mind eating so much sugar, he was actually really enjoying himself. He didn’t even realize he hadn’t asked if he could join the group yet.
Post Count: 1457
The willow survives by bending with the wind
Stats: Stamina: 5 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 6 | ArcPower: 6 | Accuracy: 6
15 Apr 2020, 20:32
Salty About Sweets
Whereas Charlie had initially stayed at the table to haphazardly squirt some frosting on a cookie and leave to find something better to do with his day, he quickly found that his plans were changing as more of his friends and acquaintances began to arrive. The first had been Reynolds McNeil, the quiet Hufflepuff boy he knew from classes and through other friends they had in common. He'd extended a half-invitation to the boy, but when he just stood their awkwardly for a moment, the Ravenclaw mentally questioned whether or not he had been clear enough, or if Reynolds would just rather not sit with him alone. "Cause if not, there are plenty of sweets here," he repeated back to himself. It had certainly sounded like an invitation to him when he's offered it. Perhaps they weren't at that level just yet.
He hadn't much time to dwell on it however as Liv Hartley's voice arrive, shortly followed by the girl herself. The Hufflepuff girl was a welcome addition to the party, as she fit the "friend category" much more than Reynolds did. And with a personality like her's... "If you're going for House Unity, you nailed it! You just need a splash of red and green and you've made the perfect Hogwarts biscuit!" she had exclaimed with a giggle. Charlie looked down at his work: patchy blue frosting squiggled across a cookie, a few yellow stars atop them. He could certainly see a "house unity" design, though in his head, he had seen the night sky, similar to that of the designs he saw all around Ravenclaw Tower, just a lot messier. He wondered if perhaps he should track down a black piping bag to fill in some of the spots where the blue had missed. It would certain make the sky look much darker and more nighttime-y.
He looked up from his cookie to see Reynolds still idling awkwardly, and was about to ask if he was planning on decorating anything, when another girl appeared at his side: Aly Salinger. A Ravenclaw like himself, the pair had met on their first night at Hogwarts, Aly becoming quickly fascinated and curious of his braces. She hadn't given much time for them to respond to her arrival before she got to work on a small cake. It became quickly clear to Charlie that Aly had plenty of skill when it came to cake decorating, and he wondered if he should ask her to decorate a cake for his birthday next month - though he immediately talked himself out of it.
"Wow, Aly! That looks amazing!" he exclaimed as he watched her pipe balls around the base of her cake. It was certainly more impressive than the rivers of blue he had going this way and that across his biscuit. He noticed an almost-empty piping bag of black frosting within reaching distance and grabbed for it. "So what do you think the deal is with all these?
We can't eat them, but what do you think they-"
His question had been interrupted by the arrival of Kaden Truell, another Hufflepuff boy, who sat on his other side with a giggle. The two boys had met early on in the school year, and while one might assume that the two shared very little in common, something about Kaden had drawn Charlie quickly to him. "Hi Charlie," he'd said with a smile. He'd greeted everyone when he sat, but for some reason he had specifically singled out Charlie separately. Perhaps they were closer than Kaden was to the others. He would have figured Kaden to be closest to Reynolds since they shared a dorm. Either way, Charlie smiled back, noting how much straight Kaden's teeth were. Kaden had a nice smile. It was much nicer than Charlie's - though perhaps once his braces came off next year that would change - it was a smile that... "Oh noooooo! I almost forgot we can't eat them!"
"Heya Kaden!" his Hufflepuff friend's cry had broken his train of thought. "I know right? I was just asking what everyone thought they were going to do with all these," he added on as he started squirting black frosting onto the holes between the blue. "You don't think the professors are going to eat them all themselves do you?"
Looking down at his cookie, it hadn't quite fit the image he'd had in his head of the night sky, but he supposed it would do. It wasn't like they were being graded on it or anything, right?
A horrible thought made its way into his head, as he began to question whether or not they were to be graded on their culinary creations. "It's an assignment! That's why we can't eat them!" he told himself, looking back and forth between Kaden's pink heart/rainbow cupcake, Aly's frosting flower, and Reynolds' white mess he had started licking off his fingers. But shortly after, his brain reminded him that this had been optional, no one was forcing them to be here, and that rationality won out in the end.
Rotating his cookie to see it from all angles, Charlie set it on a large, empty platter in the middle, realizing he had a small smudge of blue frosting on his thumb. "...Guess I’ll just have to...lick it off… Oh, man! I’m such a clutz! Oh well," Charlie turned his attention to Reynolds, showed off his thumb and winked. While the Hufflepuff was obviously not "accidentally" squirting too much frosting, Charlie was not above joining in on the fun himself. "Oops!
so embarrassing he agreed, before licking the small bit off. The spot where the frosting had been remained ever so slightly stained blue, reminding Charlie of the first time he had ever used magic, when he accidentally made green dye vanish off his hands after pranking his sister. He laughed for a moment before reaching for a cupcake and turning his attention toward Kaden and his multicolored creation. "So Mr. Colorful, what color would you say I should use here?"
Post Count: 1009
Thread Count: 1852
He hadn't much time to dwell on it however as Liv Hartley's voice arrive, shortly followed by the girl herself. The Hufflepuff girl was a welcome addition to the party, as she fit the "friend category" much more than Reynolds did. And with a personality like her's... "If you're going for House Unity, you nailed it! You just need a splash of red and green and you've made the perfect Hogwarts biscuit!" she had exclaimed with a giggle. Charlie looked down at his work: patchy blue frosting squiggled across a cookie, a few yellow stars atop them. He could certainly see a "house unity" design, though in his head, he had seen the night sky, similar to that of the designs he saw all around Ravenclaw Tower, just a lot messier. He wondered if perhaps he should track down a black piping bag to fill in some of the spots where the blue had missed. It would certain make the sky look much darker and more nighttime-y.
He looked up from his cookie to see Reynolds still idling awkwardly, and was about to ask if he was planning on decorating anything, when another girl appeared at his side: Aly Salinger. A Ravenclaw like himself, the pair had met on their first night at Hogwarts, Aly becoming quickly fascinated and curious of his braces. She hadn't given much time for them to respond to her arrival before she got to work on a small cake. It became quickly clear to Charlie that Aly had plenty of skill when it came to cake decorating, and he wondered if he should ask her to decorate a cake for his birthday next month - though he immediately talked himself out of it.
"Wow, Aly! That looks amazing!" he exclaimed as he watched her pipe balls around the base of her cake. It was certainly more impressive than the rivers of blue he had going this way and that across his biscuit. He noticed an almost-empty piping bag of black frosting within reaching distance and grabbed for it. "So what do you think the deal is with all these?
We can't eat them, but what do you think they-"
His question had been interrupted by the arrival of Kaden Truell, another Hufflepuff boy, who sat on his other side with a giggle. The two boys had met early on in the school year, and while one might assume that the two shared very little in common, something about Kaden had drawn Charlie quickly to him. "Hi Charlie," he'd said with a smile. He'd greeted everyone when he sat, but for some reason he had specifically singled out Charlie separately. Perhaps they were closer than Kaden was to the others. He would have figured Kaden to be closest to Reynolds since they shared a dorm. Either way, Charlie smiled back, noting how much straight Kaden's teeth were. Kaden had a nice smile. It was much nicer than Charlie's - though perhaps once his braces came off next year that would change - it was a smile that... "Oh noooooo! I almost forgot we can't eat them!"
"Heya Kaden!" his Hufflepuff friend's cry had broken his train of thought. "I know right? I was just asking what everyone thought they were going to do with all these," he added on as he started squirting black frosting onto the holes between the blue. "You don't think the professors are going to eat them all themselves do you?"
Looking down at his cookie, it hadn't quite fit the image he'd had in his head of the night sky, but he supposed it would do. It wasn't like they were being graded on it or anything, right?
A horrible thought made its way into his head, as he began to question whether or not they were to be graded on their culinary creations. "It's an assignment! That's why we can't eat them!" he told himself, looking back and forth between Kaden's pink heart/rainbow cupcake, Aly's frosting flower, and Reynolds' white mess he had started licking off his fingers. But shortly after, his brain reminded him that this had been optional, no one was forcing them to be here, and that rationality won out in the end.
Rotating his cookie to see it from all angles, Charlie set it on a large, empty platter in the middle, realizing he had a small smudge of blue frosting on his thumb. "...Guess I’ll just have to...lick it off… Oh, man! I’m such a clutz! Oh well," Charlie turned his attention to Reynolds, showed off his thumb and winked. While the Hufflepuff was obviously not "accidentally" squirting too much frosting, Charlie was not above joining in on the fun himself. "Oops!
so embarrassing he agreed, before licking the small bit off. The spot where the frosting had been remained ever so slightly stained blue, reminding Charlie of the first time he had ever used magic, when he accidentally made green dye vanish off his hands after pranking his sister. He laughed for a moment before reaching for a cupcake and turning his attention toward Kaden and his multicolored creation. "So Mr. Colorful, what color would you say I should use here?"
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( Stamina - 5 | Evasion - 8 | Strength - 4 | Wisdom - 6 | ArcPower - 5 | Accuracy - 7 )