Breakfast Brawl PV Rafa D PV Jo M PV Ruka T Clo

@Rafael D'Spacito, @Jo Morgan, & @Ruka Tân

"Tell that to your little sweetheart!" the Gryffindor girl had shot back. "Have you even been paying attention? Our fight was with you, until dumbass over there decided to attack Rafa."

"He doesn't know the full details of what's going on," Jack retaliated, attempting to calm at least his voice to sound less panicked even if his heart was still beating in his chest like mad. "Leave him out of it. He's your own housemate, for crying out loud!" Once Ruka was by his side - well, sitting by his legs - and near enough for the Slytherin to protect him once again, Jack managed to reign in his rampant emotions a little more and clear his mind somewhat of their influence.

"You're threatening us with a piece of paper?" the lioness laughed, sounding incredulous. "What is it, a Howler from your mom?"

He couldn't help smiling at that insinuation for a number of reasons. One was that both of his parents were muggles, so his mother wouldn't have even understood what a Howler was, much how to send one. Another was that Jo seemed to dismiss the 'piece of paper' so easily as something to be concerned about. A Howler would have been nothing compared to what he had in his hand right then. But that just went to show what she knew.

"I thought you were supposed to be smarter than the rest of your pride, Lioness," he hissed with a contemptuous glare. "We're in a school teaching magic. Don't you know better than to underestimate something simply by the nature of what it seems to be?"

As he continued to speak, however, it seemed Jack himself had underestimated Rafael's thirst for blood, because he didn't see the bigger boy's fist coming; only felt it nearly dislocate his jaw as his head was jerked to the side with the momentum of the impact. The envelope in his hand dropped from his grasp, falling to the ground right in front of Ruka who sat beside the Slytherin's legs.

Ouch... the Welsh boy thought vaguely. Well, at least his attention is on me again...

@Jack Burnett @Rafael D'Spacito @Jo Morgan

The stinging pain of Bird-Brain's fist colliding with his face blinded Ruka for a short moment, his hand reflexively trying to shoot up to cover the impacted area, but he found himself unable to do so. There were fingers digging into his flesh, a ruthless weight on top of him that didn't seem to have any intention of letting go of him anytime soon. That Ruka had been able to escape was nothing but lucky circumstance, years of wiggling from the grip of people who'd been meaning to harm him, and the fact that he was about half of Rafa's size and with that much more nimble and evasive. That he had to abandon his robes in the other boy's clutches in exchange for his freedom was just a small prize to pay.

Following the conversation going on between the other three kids wasn't all that relevant to Ruka anymore as he sat on the floor, feeling like a defenceless toddler, an inch away from latching onto Jack's legs in an attempt to protect him from any more harm. It wouldn't have done any good, he knew as much, would have just restricted his movements, so no matter how much the scared child inside him was begging for physical contact, Ruka kept his hands to himself, wand still outstretched as he let the spoken words drift past his ears but never fully inside.

He vaguely registered Jack pointing out that Ruka didn't know the full extend of what was going on, that he should be kept out of this quarrel, but that didn't seem like a valid argument. Maybe he didn't know exactly what this was about, but he did know that walking up to someone who was doing nothing but have breakfast and just punching them in the face was all sorts of wrong. If that someone also happened to be someone Ruka cared about then that definitely made it his business, whether he was aware of any kind of backstory to the situation or not.

He didn't say as much, however, didn't really have the time to say anything at all before Rafa had recovered from losing hold of one victim to move back to his first one. "No!" Ruka yelled, frozen in shock as he could do nothing but watch the other Gryffindor boy's fist slamming into Jack's jaw, a sickening sound accompanying the impact. There was a good chance, from his own experiences, that Jack's mouth tasted nauseatingly much like copper at this point.

From the corner of his eye, Ruka noticed the envelope Jack had been holding up until this point fluttering to the floor right where he was sitting, and without thinking about it much he reached for it with the hand not uselessly waving his wand about. For a second he just stared at it, weighing his options.

He could get back on his feet, threateningly wave the envelope around, but that hadn't done much good when Jack had done it and Ruka was far less eloquent and also had not the faintest idea what the card was actually going to do. If it was even going to do anything at all.

Another option was to cast a spell at Rafa, but the girl he had with him had drawn her own wand and was probably as ready to attack as her bloodthirsty friend, so whatever kind of curse Ruka could think of he could be quite sure to be hit with something equal in effect just seconds later.

No, what they really needed, since it didn't seem like any Prefects or teachers had even taken note of the commotion yet or were simply not bothered enough by it to interfere, was something unexpected. Something that would completely take Rafa's attention away from Jack, would make delivering another punch last on his list of priorities. Something embarrassing.

Something humiliating.

Ruka was not big on violence but equally as opposed to mindless humiliation. There were better ways of hurting people, smarter ways. He liked to think he was above simpleminded attacks that lacked all patience and finesse, but desperate times clearly called for desperate measures, and there was absolutely no way he was going to let this big brute take out all of his anger and aggression on Jack, no matter what the reason for it may have been.

Pulling his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment as if gathering strength and energy for his next action, Ruka dropped the envelope back onto the floor and pushed himself up onto his knees, fingers curling into the belt loops - or maybe the pockets? Ruka could barely register himself acting at all - of Rafa's trousers and put all his weight into yanking them down in one swift movement.

No matter the outcome of that action, Ruka assumed it would be enough to take Rafa's attention off Jack again at least.

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Interacting With: @Ruka Burnett-Tân
Mentioning: @Jack Burnett • @Jo Morgan • Student NPCs
Hex Color: #800000

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The humiliation was instantaneous.

Rafael was on fire. He was one-hundred-percent fucking sure he was on fire – there would be no other explanation for the way his skin burned painfully, blistering from the contact of a dozen prying eyes as his face darkened into a deep, dangerous color of crimson, the color of poinsettias or those tiny wild strawberries you’d find in the weeds. He’d never felt so overheated in his life, his entire livelihood flipped from scrounging desperately for warmth within the confines of the Great Hall to seriously considering stripping himself of his hoodie, the only article separating the world from his bare midsection – how was this actually happening? Where were the flames? The tongues of heat that were sure to engulf him at any given second? He wished they would come already. He wished they would rid him of the monumental shame that now attacked his senses at every glance and chuckle directed his way. He’d had that dream before. Everyone had had that dream at least once in their lives, but surely only a handful could admit to actually living it out in front of half the fucking secondary. The effect of Ruka’s assault was instantaneous – the Captain was almost hyperaware of the snickers, the visages of multiple girls he’d flirted with earlier in the year covering their mouths as crow feet danced at the sides of their vision. He could feel the judgment wafting like hot fumes through the air, courtesy of the rowdier classmates he’d spent hours in class passing notes with. He could feel the shame washing over him like a cold bucket of ice water – except, for some reason, the ice had mixed with the heat, causing each individual hair on his arms to stand on end. He was suffocating in grief, he was sure of it. Everyone had seen him. Fucking everyone. He’d never been so embarrassed in his life.

Only those who had already been following the events of the fight would have been able to see the flash of red and blue Spider Man boxers, and even then, the article would only be visible for a fourth of a second, the Captain’s quick hands having already yanked his pants back upwards in defense of the little dignity he’d had left. It had been far too late, however – even with his pants secure in place, he felt naked, visible to anyone and everyone glancing in his direction. Though no barriers had been erected about his figure, he knew he’d been cornered, the agony he felt solely mental in the way that it stripped every ounce of ego he still had within him and poked at that fleshy, inflamed sensitivity he had deep within his psyche. It would be enough to completely shatter any ounce of sanity still alive within the chest of the young boy. If he thought he’d been fucking done before, this was a new level of rage. This was beyond self-control, beyond restraint, beyond reason.

This second-year was going to die a horrible death.

Having mastered the art of the peripheral, it would take only one blink to fully assess his surroundings. Jo had a wand, Jack was still reeling from Rafael’s last assault. Ruka was still crouched in front of him, maintaining the same position he’d used to rob Rafael of his dignity. That was fucking perfect, then. A deadly sneer would spark to life upon the face of the firecracker Gryffindor as he seized the shoulders of the older with a strength he’d never before used. Then, in a manner he’d practiced many times before but never once used in a practical situation, he channeled every ounce of weight and strength in his body through his knee, aiming it straight for the nose of his victim. His success would sound throughout the air in a sickeningly satisfactory snap – the Captain loved it. He needed more. Words would do nothing now, absolutely fucking nothing. If no one stopped him from his rampage, this sad excuse for a Gryffindor wouldn’t just need a medical team.

He’d need a coffin as well.

Permission to mess up Ruka's face granted.

Interacting with: @Rafael D'Spacito @Jack Burnett @Ruka Tân
Mentioning: @Rosie Marricott Willew


Jo grit her teeth. Ah, that envelope. The fangs of the snake, always brandished in wait for the moment of strike. Jack’s little weapon. Then again, maybe his only weapon, as the boy had yet to draw his wand. Could he be bluffing? Maybe there was nothing inside the envelope at all, and it was all just a last-ditch effort to save his own skin since he didn’t have his wand on him and couldn’t hope to stand up to Rafa in an actual fistfight. Merlin knew how gullible Gryffindors could be! Who was to say that Jack wasn’t simply exploiting that weakness and was actually secretly laughing at them right now under his breath? Even the possibility of such a thing made Jo’s blood boil.

"I thought you were supposed to be smarter than the rest of your pride, Lioness. We're in a school teaching magic. Don't you know better than to underestimate something simply by the nature of what it seems to be?"

The words stung an angry place in her heart. Jack sounded just like Rosie - yet another person to laugh at her place in the House of the Brave. To play with the little gray cells in her mind that whispered she didn’t truly belong. She’d show him. She’d show her. She’d show them all. But not like this. Lashing out wouldn’t help her or make her seem any smarter - on the contrary, it would just make her seem like an angry child desperate for attention.

“Well, it seems to me that if the effects really do cover a broad range, you’d to be smarter than to open it up in the Great Hall. But you’re right, that’s only an assumption. So go ahead, disappoint me.”

Perhaps she should have spent less time being snarky and more time paying attention - by the time Jo finally turned her attention to Jack’s sidekick, the damage was already done, and there was nothing she could do except watch in horror.

The Gryffindor at her nemesis’ side, whoever he was, had made a grave mistake. Was he strong enough to pay the price? Jo didn’t think so.

Rafa was going to kill that boy. She could feel it. He wasn’t going to stop until he was satisfied, and Merlin knew how long that was going to take. Jo had seen the boy angry enough several times before, but this was different. There was something animalistic yet almost professional about it, and Jo wasn’t sure she liked it. Violence without sense was horrible, but for some reason this seemed even worse. Like Rafa knew how to hurt people, and he was doing so intelligently. Like he had rationally chosen violence. The vey thought, even in its confusing and inchoate state, chilled her to the bone. Jo wouldn’t allow this. She barely knew Ruka. She hadn’t chosen to fight the boy like she had chosen to fight Jack. It wasn’t right to direct their anger towards this newcomer, simply because of where his allegiance was. For all Ruka knew, Jack was being bullied by two Gryffindors and needed his help. How like his House, then, to step in to defend the weak! And yet, brave did not always mean righteous.

Pity for the enemy. Jo could almost hear Lady Aithne curling her lip in distasteful amusement. Now that’ll get you killed.

Jo pushed the thoughts of home aside, steadying herself. She needed to get that boy away from Rafa while he was still conscious. If nothing else, he deserved the chance to surrender now. To let Rafa know he wasn’t a threat anymore. Rafa just needed some time to think. To calm down. Now, in this state, he even seemed like a threat to her and himself. She had to separate the two. Using any means possible. Sucking in a breath, Jo tightened her grip on her wand and pointed it at her smaller Housemate.

“Flipendo.”

Permission to cast spell granted by @Ruka Burnett-Tân. Ruka, it's up to you whether this hits or not. (Jo will feel guilty for casting either way.)

“Stay out of this!” She shouted at the boy, wand hand shaking. Someone had to be calm here. Someone had to be rational. Someone had to make sure that Jack Burnett was the only one who would regret the events of today.

In the moments after the blast left her wand, Jo felt like there was a moment of silence. An accusatory moment. The world had stopped and was waiting for an answer.

“It was for your own safety,” she explained to the boy, feeling a pang of guilt at having been the first one to use her wand in a fight. There was always something about bringing magic into mundane things - even though they were witches and wizards, it still seemed unfair. “I’m sorry.” She looked away. She wasn’t even sure what she wanted from Jack anymore. Was it an apology? An offer of friendship, or neutrality at least? She wanted to beat nine kinds of hell out of the boy. That was what would make her feel best at this moment. So was it pain she was after? Did she just want the boy to suffer humiliation so she could call it even? Even that seemed like it would not satisfy her. It certainly wouldn’t satisfy Rafa. Or would it? Jo didn’t know what he was thinking anymore. It seems as if the “dynamic duo” was falling apart, all inside her mind. She needed to keep it together! All she had done was blast the boy back a few meters!

And yet, as something had changed within Rafa, so too had something changed within Jo. This was the first time she had pulled her wand in a fight. She had hurt another person, willfully. Hit them with a jinx. You didn’t just bounce back from that. The circumstances surrounding the spell were irrelevant. For the moment, magic had lost its wonder and become a dirty thing - unpleasant and unnatural rather than heroic and fascinating.

Jo attempted to pull her frenemy aside, lowering her voice a little. “Rafa, please, calm down. You’re going to get us expelled!” As the words left the girl’s mouth, she could feel the flames of her fury receding as they turned to the icy chill of fear. Expelled. It was a terrifying word. To come crawling home in disgrace. To lose Hogwarts forever; to be torn from this strange new world that she had just stepped foot into. To become unworthy of the arcane. It was the worst possible fate she could think of - so far worse than anything she could do to Jack or his little ally at the moment. Better to get away from all this, then, before a Prefect or Professor showed up.

“I’m not leaving unless you are... I’ve got your back, alright? But we need to be rational! I don’t like the look of that envelope. Jack’s got something planned. It’s probably why he decided to sit here in the first place! Can't you see? We're walking right into a trap!"

@Rafael D'Spacito, @Jo Morgan, & @Ruka Burnett-Tân

Jack stared, slack-jawed, when the genius Gryffindor acted fast and pulled Rafa's pants down in an attempt to distract him with his own embarrassment. He wanted to laugh but dared not; his jaw still smarted and his crotch was still sore. There was hardly any time to dwell on that, however, when Ruka was suddenly the target of attacks from both their enemies - Rafa's knee to Ruka's face and Jo's Knockback Jinx.

Doing his best to react as quickly as possible, Jack dove to try to catch his fellow redhead if and when Ruka was blasted backward by the force of Jo's jinx. He grunted with the effort and the pain it shot through his limbs, but he grit his teeth and endured them. It was better than Ruka smashing his head open on a stone wall or something.

The bloodlust that Rafa emitted after that was practically palpable. Even Jo must have recognized it to have confessed to Ruka that she had knocked him back 'for his own safety' which both surprised and worried Jack. If Jo was worried for Ruka's saftey, that meant she wasn't certain she could reason with Rafa anymore. He certainly seemed to Jack to be beyond reasoning with, but it wasn't until that moment he decided that attempting to do so would have been a lost cause.

He had a few options and began to narrow them down one by one. He could have used the card as he'd threatened to. However, it would have only made Rafa go from one kind of mindlessness to another which would have given them all a whole new set of problems. Sure, it might have turned out in his favor, but it might not have as well; the potential results were all too unpredictable. There was also the fact that Jo was right about him being too smart to open the envelope up in the Great Hall full of people. He wouldn't have done that unless he had truly been desperate and he wasn't to that point just yet.

Jack, of course, hadn't brought out his wand up until then because he had wanted to play the role of the defenseless victim being attacked out of nowhere to any onlookers. Now, though, he hadn't been the first one to use magic in this fight; Jo had. She may have been right to in that particular situation, Jack supposed, all things considered. Still, he was glad he had the excuse of saying it hadn't been him who'd started it.

Now that magic was already involved, he could use it as well and do so with the argument of magical self-defense. It was time to put to use the second year spell he'd taught himself specifically for occasions such as those. He wasn't about to let Ruka get hurt again while he just stood by and did nothing.

Taking out his wand from the pocket of his robes, Jack thrust the end of it in Rafa's direction and quickly drew two mountain peaks in the air with its tip, calling, "Immobulus!" Blue light shot out, heading straight for the Quidditch-playing boy. ((OOC note: Rafa can decide whether or not the spell hits!))

Regardless of whether or not the Freezing Charm hit, Jack looked at Jo. "Sorry, but I can't take any more chances about whether or not your muscle-minded monster can be reasoned with. It's for everyone's saftey - including yours and his own." Also, his spell - unlike Jo's - was harmless, so the Slytherin had less qualms about using it than Jo had about having used her own.

Jack decided that, if Rafa and Jo would allow them, it was time to leave. Gingerly, he moved to try to grab both Jo's riddle cube and the envelope from the ground, stuffing them in his pockets as best he could while still attempting to maintain a grip on the older student. He was determined to get himself and Ruka to the hospital wing as soon as possible. With any luck, Rafa wouldn't stop them.

Due to Jo still seeming to be relatively rational-minded, judging by her attempt to try to 'rescue' Ruka in a way from Rafa's irrational wrath, Jack decided to leave her alone. He just hoped that by this point she had the sense to drop their petty fight as things were, cutting their losses and letting them leave. If Rafa had become immobolized due to Jack's spell, he could stay that way until he could cool down or a professor or prefect could take care of him and his out-of-control temper.

"C'mon, Tân," he muttered wearily, doing his best to help Ruka along. "Let's go find a school nurse."

@Rafael D'Spacito @Jack Burnett @Jo Morgan

In hindsight it may have been a dumb idea.

Distracting Rafa by humiliating him in front of everyone in the Great Hall had served its purpose in directing his attention away from Jack, but the burning rage that he focused on Ruka instead was an unfortunate side effect. The second that it took Rafa to pull his trousers back up felt like it stretched into an eternity, but as soon as the moment was gone things were happening too quickly for Ruka to do anything at all to prevent them.

The sound he made when rough hands grabbed his shoulders must have echoed through the Great Hall like an eery announcement of his impending pain; a mix between a yelp and a squeak. Forest green eyes widened as Ruka watched the approaching knee and an incredulous laugh escaped him at the thought that just a moment ago it had been bare for everyone to see. Then, before he could do anything else, there was the impact, making his bones crack sickeningly loudly, blood rush to his ears in a way that made him dizzy. Tears filled his eyes with a sting as his mouth adapted a faint taste of copper. Without thinking, the first thing Ruka did was reach up to wipe at the warm liquid pooling in the dip above his upper lip and found himself strangely surprised when his hand came away red.

Before he could do anything but stare at the blood on his fingers, he heard a spell being cast - the first spell of their encounter - and the next thing he knew was the shocking pain coursing through his whole body as he was propelled backwards by the force of the spell cast at him. He expected to smash against the table behind him, tear his back apart against the wooden bench, be covered in breakfast food as well as blood, but instead he collided with a body, could feel arms preventing him from crashing against anything that could possibly harm him any more than he already had been.

"T-tsha-?" he murmured dazedly in an attempt to press out the first word on his mind, but his tongue didn't seem to want to cooperate - not with the blood dripping from his nostrils and the stinging pain in his head and limbs. He thought he could hear the girl talking but he wasn't sure what she was saying or if the words had been meant for him. All he knew was that his nose currently felt like it had been forced all the way into the back of his skull.

The body behind him moved and Ruka rapidly blinked his tears away to watch Jack lift his own wand at Rafa, a flash of light whirling towards the livid Gryffindor. Violently coughing against the taste of blood in his mouth, Ruka didn't wait to see if the spell hit, could barely hear the words Jack seemed to direct at Jo. Instead he curled his fingers against Jack's arm, shakily pulling himself to his feet.

They needed to get out of there, was the only thing on his mind. They needed to leave, in case Jack's spell had missed and just drawn Rafa's wrath to him again. As things were, Ruka was glad to assess that he had been the one who had taken most of the damage, and all he could hope for was that they would be able to leave before anything worse could happen.

Jack seemed to be having the same idea. His voice rang through to Ruka like he was talking to him through a thick coat of fog, but the message was clear enough as the Slytherin did his best to steer Ruka towards the exit. There was no way of knowing if the other two Gryffindors would allow their departure, but Ruka was as quick as he could be in setting one foot in front of the other, lifting a hand to press underneath his nose to prevent even more blood to pool in the cracks of his lips and flavour the tip of his tongue with copper. He only murmured his agreement to Jack's words about finding a school nurse, unable to ignore the sting behind his eyes long enough to form words.

Speaking may have just made him throw up anyway, and the least he could do was to make sure he kept down the food Jack had made him eat.