Crash Landing
x x  Run, run, run. So much to catch up on. The sound of footsteps filled the second floor corridor as a young Gryffindor ran through it, her footsteps speeding up faster, faster, faster, until she was just a blur of robes, trying not to trip over her own feet. Ever since spring break, Lucille had been behind on her classes. And the normally punctual Gryffindor was now barely making it before the door to her class closed and locked. Thankfully, she wasn't rushing to a class right now, no, she was running to her dormitory after some well deserved lunch to catch up on some studying before a quiz. Lucille was burnt out, almost having had enough of everything, and there were times when she felt she might break down in tears at the slightest inconvenience. But the sun doesn't stop shining, and neither does Lucille, constantly becoming that one beacon of light for all. Currently, the beacon of light held a stack of books almost as tall as her, precariously balanced as she weaved through students, teetering left and right and threatening to fall. One can imagine that this scenario could never end well, but Lucille did not have that foresight. At long last, her luck ran out, and her robes got caught in her legs. Lucille went flying, crashing onto the floor, her books falling in front of her in a surprisingly orderly fashion, with the one at the top going furthest straight ahead, while the one at the bottom landed right on her elbows. Lucille winced, but that wasn't where the pain was greatest. Instead, she bent her knee, inspecting it, and running a hand over it. There was a little bump on it, swollen like a cartoon, and Lucille almost yelped as she touched the sore spot. That would teach her to not go running around the halls. Where was a prefect to stop you when you needed one? And of course, her good fortune didn't end there. The book at the top of the stack slid forward, crashing into someone's feet. Lucille looked up, only to see a boy. "I am so sorry," she started, and Lucille could feel her signature rambling coming on. "I really didn't expect that; I can't imagine what happened." Perhaps an exaggeration, considering she knew exactly what happened, but what she meant was she would never have expected to fall like that. Lucille attempted to stand up, only to wince at the pain and decided that she'd let herself rest for a second. Instead of bounding around like a ball of energy, the girl gingerly began to pick up the books near her. "Would you mind getting that for me?" she asked, looking up at the boy with pleading eyes and pointing to the book nearest to him and furthest from her. She recognized him, but she couldn't quite remember his name. She was sure he was in some of her classes, though. The girl soon realized she was blocking the way for quite a few students, and shuffled backwards until she was leaning against the wall. She looked up at the boy with an apologetic smile. Her former rambling had been cut short with the pain in her knee, but Lucille was getting ready to start once more. "I'm guessing you didn't expect this is how your afternoon would go, did you?" She joked. It appeared the girl was intent on making conversation, or at least making up for her crash landing. |  STA 7 EVA 7 STR 6 WIS 5 ARC 6 ACC 4 calming presence x x x  |
| sta 7 eva 7 str 6 wis 5 arc 6 acc 4 calming presence | iNPC: Antoine de Laurent |
Crash Landing
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Reducio
interacting with @Lucille Rosenhart
Reducio
OOC note: sorry for taking so long!
Reducio
Nicandro
Lucille
Lucille
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Nicandro speech hex code: #003d03
Word count: 827
Date: 1st May, 2026
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Today should’ve been a quiet day. To be entirely honest, Nicandro was too tired for his own good, far beyond his lowered tolerance for stupidity and much closer to falling asleep in the middle of classes. Or, in this case, the hallway. He was hoping to avoid unnecessary drama and stressful situations, and, logically, for the time to take a nap. With that in mind, he made his way through the crowd, paying little mind to those walking past him, until a literal elephant seemed to be stomping straight towards him. Startled by the noise of racing footsteps, his eyes tried to make out the source of it, only to find it being a creature dressed in Gryffindor robes. The person was apparently convinced that carrying a stack of books obscuring their face was no hindrance for getting somewhere quickly. Running in hallways was never a good idea, as there were always people in the way and the floor being slippery, but with that method it was more than evident that the Gryffindor would never reach their goal in one piece without tripping. Nicandro did well to avoid coming near the idiot, ready to step aside.
It had to go wrong. Nicandro closed his eyes as the tower fell with a thud, books slithering out in front of the moron, and wisely stopped walking. The chaos would be mire easy to assess. Just then, one of said books came to a stop right at his polished black shoe. With a sigh, he looked down at it and then let his gaze wander further, taking in the manifestation of idiocy sprawled across the floor. It revealed itself to be a girl he was vaguely familiar with, dark brown hair and a somewhat surprised expression on her face. If he remembered correctly, she was one of those people who always wore a bright smile on their faces and couldn’t stop rambling about nothing in particular. In other words: brain-dead and indescribably annoying, and a species Nicandro marked as worth avoiding.
He raised his eyebrow, torn between making a comment and simply walking past the incident to get to his dorm. It wasn’t his problem, no, not really. How could anyone be that stupid anyway?
"I am so sorry. I really didn't expect that; I can't imagine what happened."
Oh dear. Now she had opened her mouth and had actually made him a part of this situation. Wonderful. And what had she just said? She couldn’t imagine what happened? The sentence was so absurd that Nicandro snorted. “Yeah, right. Physics are truly such a mystery. How stupid are you, exactly? You couldn’t have possibly expected this,” he pointed at the mess on the ground, “to actually end well, right?” His voice was loud enough to be heard around them clearly. A vicious little smile tugged at the corner of his mouth and he looked at the people shoving past them to see if they had witnessed the same thing as him. This was so pathetic. What a fool.
“Well, I have to get going now, if you’ll excuse me…,” he muttered, already getting ready to step away, when she asked him to fetch the book for her with a tightness in her face that hinted at pain. Looking at her more closely and at how carefully she manoeuvred around to retrieve her books and to sit at the wall, he noticed how her knee was slightly red. Obviously not in prime condition. Leaving her alone like this would be rude enough that even he couldn’t do it. After all, he had morals, and not helping would be the kind of behaviour his mother would cry about being horrible manners. That she had raised him to be better, bla, bla, while his father would not stop whining that this is exactly one of those situations that tarnishes the family name. He had heard enough of both already.
With a sigh, Nicandro crouched down to pick up the book. For a moment, he weighted it in his hands and considered sliding it towards her like one might throw a bone for a dog, but ended up deciding for the more civilised act of handing it over. He took a step towards her, stretching out his arm, and made sure to hold the very edge of the book so that he wouldn’t have to touch her hand.
“No, I can’t say I expected to pick up books from a hallway,”Eugh, who knows how many dirty shoes have trampled over the floor, ”like a house elf just because someone has never heard of common sense and has the balance of a drunkard.”
A little surprised by her smile, he made a sour expression, wiping his hands on his clothes. How was she still this talkative and cheerful after such a humiliating moment? He looked at her eyes, blinking in mild confusion. “Are you good? Didn’t hit your head or something?” Under his breath, he added: “Although there probably isn’t much to worsen. Maybe it would’ve even fixed something.”
Crash Landing
x x The boy was annoyed, rightfully so, and Lucille bore his comments with an understanding smile. His voice was loud, and the passersby students around them glanced in their direction before walking off, some quickening their pace. Lucille didn't mind, though. To tell the truth, she couldn't tell if he was genuinely angry or if his humor was just sarcastic. She decided to settle on the latter. After all, why would someone be angry at another person for simply falling? And so, after a slight pause, she let out a giggle. "No, I suppose it's not much of a surprise. But I wasn't really thinking, you know, just trying to get to the dorms." She was quite used to laughing at herself, and this was no exception. There was humor in her voice, and a warm smile on her face. She reached out to grasp the book he handed to her, tilting her head in confusion as he held it a bit awkwardly from the edge. That was odd. Well, he must be one of those people who was a little bit germophobic, and she wouldn't blame him for it. "Thank you," she said politely, dusting the book off with her hand. "It's not poison, you know," she teased, looking back at the boy. His drunkard comment only made her laugh. This boy was entertaining, for sure, and anyway, Lucille had to make it up to him. But, right now, she needed his help. He added another comment to the pile, and then seemed ready to leave, but Lucille was determined now. If he was angry, which she now understood by the muttered words under his breath, she would not let him stay that way. "Nope, head's all good, but I did hit my knee. But don't worry, no trips to the hospital wing just yet!" The fall had done nothing to dull her bright disposition, nor did his comments, which she had simply taken with humor, although a nagging voice in her mind told her he was genuinely angry at her. She shook her head, refusing to believe it. All she had done was fallen, right? Why would he be upset? Annoyed, maybe, but he'd let it out. And so, Lucille extended another offer of friendship. "You wouldn't mind helping me, would you? I just don't want to fall again. There's an ice cream from Florean Fortescue's next time we're in Hogsmeade if you do," she said, eyes sparkling. She divided the books into two neat piles, dusting off the ones she intended to hand to him, before holding them out. "I was going to go to the dorms, but I can't in good conscience go now, and truthfully, I needed a reason to procrastinate." An important thing to note about Lucille was that the girl ran on the assumption that everyone in the world was kind and nice. And so it never occurred to her that the boy might decline her offer. To her, it was an olive branch disguised in help, an offer to spend some time together under the pretense of help. It was her way of making friends, bounding up to the first person she saw and simply including them in her life immediately. To some, it made them feel incredibly welcome, but, unbeknownst to Lucille, it was also the thing about her that might annoy others. She bounced up, ignoring the pain in her knee, this time carefully balancing the pile of books in her hands. The girl was a bit too optimistic to let this bring her down, and she glanced at the boy, taking in his appearance fully for the first time. He had a sour expression on his face, and that was the first thing Lucille noticed, but it only made her adamant to change his mood. The girl refused to have someone angry at her, and she would do everything she could to fix it. Lucille often had a bad habit of staring, and so she looked away. Real subtle, Lu. She didn't mention it, instead looking straight in front of her, as if lost in her thoughts. She didn't want to make him feel pressured by her expectant gaze, and so Lucille looked straight ahead, almost treating the boy like a nervous rabbit that might run off at the slightest wrong move. The tension she had didn't show, though. Lucille was a quite confident individual, and her nervousness often presented itself in the form of extra conversation, and so would often only enhance her bubbly presentation. | STA 7 EVA 7 STR 6 WIS 5 ARC 6 ACC 4 calming presence x x x |
| sta 7 eva 7 str 6 wis 5 arc 6 acc 4 calming presence | iNPC: Antoine de Laurent |
Crash Landing
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Reducio
interacting with @Lucille Rosenhart
Reducio
OOC note: gosh you weren’t exaggerating when you said Lucille’s a cutie, she’s so adorable and innocent 
Reducio
[size=#75]
Nicandro
Lucille
Nicandro
Lucille
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Nicandro speech hex code: #003d03
Word count: 687
Date: 1st May, 2026
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For a moment, all Nicandro was capable of doing was to stare at the girl, deeply disoriented and thrown off by her cheerfulness. Why the hell was she not offended, not crying, not yelling at him that she wasn’t an idiot, that he was rude? He’d heard it at least once per interaction with every person he’s talked to so far, except for when he actually thought carefully about what to say. Otherwise, his tongue was much faster than his filter, and he was on an insult speed run. “Did you even hear anything of what I just said to you?” he asked with a condescending kind of toxic, faked amusement in his voice, full of disbelief. Who had stolen this girl’s brain before birth? No wonder she had had that touchdown.
“Ah, so you were in a rush or what? Somewhat inefficient transporting method considering the likelihood of it to fail, as it clearly did.” He was already mapping out the way to the bathrooms in his head, thinking of the extra time it would take to stop by and get the idea of being a little cleaner again. The dirt and bacteria actually were poison in his mind. Perhaps she was equipped with a better immune system than he was and with much more lenient parents when it came to cleanliness. Once a mindset was anchored in a consciousness, it was rather futile to attempt to reverse it, especially if it’s all a person has ever known. As she continued explaining cheerfully how she had only injured her knee, he tilted his head slightly. “How very fortunate that you’re alright,” he drawled. “I was already so concerned that someone would have to carry you to the nurse and explain everything to her. You truly dodged an embarrassing situation there.” The sarcasm was practically dripping from his words. Considering how her fall had looked like, there was no way it could get any more humiliating for the girl, although Nicandro had started to figure out that apparently, she wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Or she was simply a really good actor, trying to cover up a fail.
"You wouldn't mind helping me, would you?”
Was she really that unable to tell that he was more than uninterested in talking to her, let alone remain in her orbit for any longer than necessary? Merlin. He couldn’t recall any encounter with a comparably oblivious being. Well, he’d just have to make it even clearer then. “No, I do mind, actually. I have things to do, and helping you is only going to take away some of my very precious time and limited energy, so, the answer is no. I’m not going to waste it on you. You’re a nameless little bean to me, so that would be illogical. Which I am not.”
She kept going, trying to convince him, tempting him with a free ice cream. Did she really think he was that desperate and too poor to afford one on his own? She likely had no idea of the posh life his last name included. Even if, he’d rather die than spend time with that dumb creature that had those big, beaming eyes with that disgustingly weird look in them as if they were already best friends forever. Too bad that he wasn’t interested. Boo-hoo.
With a smirk, he crouched down to be at eye level, watching her dust off the books that were likely supposed to end up in his arms. He would never carry those. “You’re likely so much stronger than me anyway, you totally got this,” he said, taking the books from her and standing back up at the same time as her. Satisfied that her knee seemed to be functional enough for her to already jump around again, his bad conscience gave the green light to leave. “A reason to procrastinate? Oh? And you don’t want to fall again? I have the perfect advice for you then.” He piled his stack of books back on top of hers, arranging them neatly and giving her the sweetest of smiles before his expression turned back to cold just as fast. “Walk twice.”