Morning Spirit OPEN Closed

Mars nodded along with their answers, stifling a yawn as they folded themselves onto the bleachers. It wasn't that the two of them were boring- far from that actually- but they started to drift off slightly, the haze of sleep pulling at their eyelids.

They were brought back to reality with a start, catching the tail end of each explanation. Hmm, circadian rhythm then. Mars was the same in a way- they were naturally an earlier riser for... one reason or another, but they certainly couldn't find it in themselves to run. They were still young, why not gorge on cookies now and worry about it later?

They hummed lightly at Alan's explanation. Scott... didn't ring any bells, but they had to figure he was capable enough if the Gryffindor trusted him. Was he a Prefect? Maybe? They weren't sure. The morning air was probably clouding their brain.

Mars took a second to think about Alan's question. It might have been easier if they were actually in the mood to run or had proper attire because then well, the track was right there and the answer was obvious. But unfortunately, they weren't, and even more unfortunately, this just so happened to be one of the rare times when they actually appreciated the company. They really- didn't want to be alone right now.

"Uh.." Mars stalled, grasping for straws. They glanced around the Quidditch Pitch as if answer would somehow right themselves into the air. Quidditch Pitch, Quidditch Pitch... Oh, that was something.

"Ah, right! This is where they held the Blossom Ball, no? Or on the main pitch anyway. How was that? I didn't g- well I did but then there were giant wasps and fire so I left. What was that about?"

@Alan Vanes @Mars T'ien

Katrina had to keep refocusing. Her mind and her memories were fighting for attention and she was struggling to keep the one she really wanted in the front of her brain to stay there. She was again glad that she was so good at hiding emotions. Or at least she was telling herself that because it could simply be because each of them was a little bit lost in their own thoughts.

Katrina listened to Alan and Mars in turn. However, when Mars said the words 'Blossomball' Katrina visibly cringed. Just like every time that word was said, her mind relapsed into the memories. It was much harder this time to pull herself from it. She could feel her chest tightening, her heart rate speeding up, the fear settled in her bones. Katrina bit her lip hard enough to keep from fully spiraling into a panic attack, but not before spacing out for a bit too long.

"I- Sorry," Katrina stammered, "Uh, the-- ball, right?" She paused where most people would have put the word 'Blossom'. "Yeah, I was there. It was here I mean. The mosps and fire roses among other things," Katrina felt her stutter coming back, her happy-go-lucky mask slipping. She paused, attempting to get her thoughts in an ordered line. "I stayed for as long as I could," Katrina laughed a bit uncomfortably. Nearly passing out and being taken on an actual broom (yes the girl terrified of heights and brooms, on a broom) to the Hospital Wing. Where she was unconscious for a day and a half. Wonderful memories really. Great, now my internal voice is sarcastic.

"Fire roses? There were fire roses?", he wondered, raising his eyebrows in surprise as it was the first time that he was hearing about those. He would glance at Katrina who had been the one to mention them, hoping for her to elaborate on those. As for the "giant wasps"...

"Those were mosps, not all of them usually attack unless you attack them it must have been the huge amount of flowers that had attracted them to come out of the forest," he would explain to both of the girls but mainly to Mars who had been the one to ask about the insects. "They just really love flowers, but it was a blossom ball and I doubt people knew we had mosps close-by. Perhaps we should be using fake flowers next time of make sure to have flowers that don't carry any kind of scent," he added with a small shrug. Not that he was planning on organizing a next ball but perhaps with the professors permission that would not be all too impossible. Perhaps they learned that they could not take a ball away from the kids or they would be organizing one of their own which was probably quite stupid and dangerous in hindsight. But there was a saying that you are always smarter afterwards and Alan could finally say he understood the meaning of it.

@Katrina Walker and @Alan Vanes
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Mars cocked a head at the stammer in Katrina's voice. That wasn't usually there, was it? She'd paused too, forgone the word "Blossom," but they figure it was just forgetfulness, a side effect of the morning air. Mosps and fire roses? Huh.

"Well, you stayed longer than me," they joked, "Although I'm kind of glad I missed it, if there were fire roses and... mosps?" Even as their eyes crinkled around the edges, they swept over Katrina's form. She looked more nervous than she had been, stuttering and laughing in a way they hadn't seen before. Mars turned to Alan as he began to explain what mosps were, putting it off for a moment.

"Ah, that makes enough sense. It was a secret ball, yeah? I guess whoever organized it wasn't aware." This was why they let professors handle things. Typically, when the students tried their hand, only disaster seemed to follow. It was kind of... funny that the whole thing had been overrun with what were basically giant glorified bees. Probably hadn't been in the moment, but hearing it second hand—Mars let out a faint laugh.

"Next time, just go to Party City and buy out their fake flower section, maybe?"

Even through their joking tone, they had this nagging suspicion that Katrina wasn't doing okay. Mars turned their head in her direction, concern washing over their eyes.

"Katrina, you alright?" they asked. Maybe it wasn't their place to pry but then... well they'd already done it, hadn't they. Cursing themselves a little, Mars backpedaled on the statement. "If you don't want to say, it's fine. We can move on from this or... do something else?"

Mars left it as open-ended as possible. They hadn't meant to trigger whatever this was. If she wanted a way out, here it was.

Katrina shifted again, a bit uncomfortably. She was usually able to mask everything so well but things kept slipping. The stutter in her voice wouldn't go for so long without being unnoticed. She didn't want this to be about her. She wanted normal. But that was never an option at a school of magic was it?

"The fire roses," Katrina started slowly, forcing the stutter from her voice, "I'm not sure exactly what they were but whoever touched them burst into flames," She swallowed, trying to erase the phantom smell of burning things, "I just dunked a few in some cups of water but managed to cut my finger and it felt like fire in my bloodstream for the moments before they were extinguished,"

Katrina was silent for a moment. It wasn't the flames that had scarred her. Mentally and physically. It was the mosps. The whole thing. The Third Year failed at hiding a shudder. Mars was sort of joking about them but Katrina spaced out for a moment again. Then Mars looked to Katrina, a level of concern in their gaze.

"I-I'm," Katrina wanted to finish with 'fine'. But the words were caught in her mouth. "No it's just-- This is the first time I've been in the Pitch since that night. Bad memories I guess," Katrina laughed a bit awkwardly, mimicking her laugh from before. "I was uh-- stung twice by the mosps so I don't really associate this place with great memories," The truth spilled out before she could stop it. Katrina did stop before spilling out the truth about her panic attacks. She didn't want to completely ruin the morning with her miseries though.

"But I'm fine,"

Alan nodded, he of course had been here a couple of times anymore but then again he did not have it as bad as some of the other kids. He had heard a lot of stories and rumors about all that had gone wrong during the ball and was at the assumption that they got away lucky with only a few mosps after them. Then again he did believe that they were still in a bad spot and that the whole evening should not have happened. But they say that you are always smarter afterwards and he could not believe how true that sentence was in that situation.

"Do you guys want to head back maybe? It will be breakfast time soon anyway, right?" he offered and assumed that the rest of them would agree to leave as well, after all there was not anything keeping them there on the pitch during that very moment and Alan was sure that it might do Katrina well to get some distance between the pitch and herself. "It's very brave that you came back here after what happened," he had to admit though with a slight smile into the girls direction before he would start to slowly head back towards the castle after grabbing all of his stuff.