25 Aug 2021, 14:49
The Showers Were Full
More secrets perhaps with @Paige Grant
"No I haven't played basketball," he said and looked over to her with a playful glare. It was pretty obvious from her disgust in him and his throw that she had, in fact, played herself. Simon looked at the result of his throw, his shirt just laying there flat on the ground and tilted his head, still not really seeing too much wrong with it. "I can swim. I've played hockey and I've played squash." Those were his two sports. "Played squash back in my muggle school in London. Pretty damn good at it too."
Was he prolonging the next statement he would have to say since she asked about what he said in avoiding the sun? Perhaps. How did one even begin to bring up that subject. Granted, Paige seemed to be a good friend, she was a fellow Hufflepuff, and she already did seem to be going to keep his secret about swimming naked in the Great Lake but...but this just carried more weight.
"Yea, I burn pretty easily, especially if its not early morning like this or late evening." He extended out his arms to check but so far he was alright. It probably helped that most of his body was under the water for the most part - and it helped he was now clothed.
"Craziest thing. Growing up I thought I had a genetic condition called Xeroderma Pigmentosum. It's uh, it's not that, but it's genetic alright."
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
25 Aug 2021, 19:49
The Showers Were Full
Paige raised her eyebrows. "That is... evident... but your throw wasn't actually that bad, you know." She assured Simon. She followed hsi gaze to his shirt, which was less likely to dry in that position. It would be damp, if dry at all. She turned her gaze back to Simon as he started talking about what he did do. "Oj, I swim, but like I don't do those fancy strokes and stuff. I just can swim in water.. if you get what I mean!" She spoke.
"Squash? Coming from a very sporty person, I mean no offense when I say I have no idea what that is. But I bet you are good at it." She responded. He seemed proud of his abilities in that sport, though. He also mentioned Hockey, which got Paige interested. "Oh, I love hockey! My mom winces, though, every time someone is checked." She laughed at the memory.
She looked at Simon's arms as he checked to see if he was burned. He wasn't. "I would hate being burned easily~" She pondered. She felt bad for Simon. He mentioned a condition~ A very long word.
What.
Paige squinted, confused. "I don't know what that is~ Sorry. Is it the condition of being burned easily or something?" She tilted her head. "If it's not that, what is it?" She asked, not catching on.
@Simon Kincaid
25 Aug 2021, 20:08
The Showers Were Full
Another secret with @Paige Grant
"Aversion to sunlight, causes some pretty bad things like skin cancer and scaring. That's not it though...that would be the more...normal condition," he glanced up to the sky above them. Did he tell her? Again he reminded himself that Paige Grant was already keeping one secret of his. Was it better to trust her with more or worse?
He sighed, a long heavy sigh. "You know back in November when that one Hogwarts Headliner article came out about dhampirs and how....awful they are? How Hogwarts was at risk because there were some within the walls. It had this whole part about what to look for in a dhampir so one could be warned and know that they were in the presence of one. Be read, be cautious, you know?"
He remembered how disgusted he was at that article. "Well I started to look up some more information and it uh, it all clicked. So one day I put it to the test. In the library, Gryffindor Haley Rose and I sat there and we investigated the signs one by one. The strength, the speed, the paleness, the pupils dilating in the darkness. Then I closed my eyes and she gave herself a papercut to see if I could tell the presence of blood and ...." he paused because it was a hard memory.
"And I knew the instant she did it. She didn't make a sound so it wasn't as if I heard her but I could smell it. There was an urge there and...." he stopped at that.
Actually he stopped completely at that. Simon slowly began to make his way towards the edge of the lake and pulled himself up onto the bank, sitting right there at the edge of both. Paige was probably glad that he moved away from her.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
26 Aug 2021, 00:19
The Showers Were Full
Paige screwed her eyebrows together, trying to piece everything together as if it were a puzzle. Unfortunately, Paige was never good at puzzles, and she was not catching on. She looked at Simon, clearly puzzled. She felt that she was being insensitive because she didn't understand. "Sorry I don't understand~" She blurted, looking down.
She looked at Simon's fair skin, and thought about how he said he could get skin cancer. Well, with that condition. Suddenly Simon seemed fragile, and she wanted nothing more than to pick him up and whisk him away to the shade, and cover him in sunblock. She didn't want him to be hurt. She hated seeing people hurt, mostly those she was close to.
Paige nodded slowly, raising an eyebrow. "I do remember that~ it made me worried. Not in the way you would think, though." She said. She had worried that if one would do that to dhampirs, then would they do that to werewolves? It had nagged her that someone would do that at all. The world had enough chaos in it.
She tried to follow Simon's words, but her head was clouded. She tried to solve the puzzle, but the pieces wouldn't click. Simon~ Simon couldn't be~ Paige had nothing against none humans, fangs and all, because she was a non human. But to see one of her close friends in a new light like this~ as what others would call a blood sucker, a monster~ It was weird.
She shook her head. "Wait... wait what are you sayin?" she asked. Maybe she was wrong. Simon, however, stopped speaking. He began to back up. She watched him swim away before she snapped out her trance.
"SIMON! I don't care if you're not a human!" She yelled. "You're my friend! When I met you, you were still a dhampir... and you are now. What has changed?" She reasoned.
And then words arose in her head.
"And you're not the only non-human here right now." She blurted. There. It was done. She swam to him. "I'm not- I'm not a human, either..."
@Simon Kincaid
26 Aug 2021, 00:34
The Showers Were Full
Softer voices with @Paige Grant
He reached over, taking his still very damp shirt into his hands and messing with it before slipping it on. She might have said that she didn't care, but did she? I mean, wouldn't there be SOME difference now? He felt there almost had to be.
And if there truly wasn't any difference in feelings now, what about later on? He was to get adult fangs, he was to eventually develop that terrible presence. Wouldn't he then be more of a monster? Would he then be less human than he was now?
Simon ran his hand over the bottom hem of his shirt to straighten it out when she said her last remark. Not the only non-human? He glanced up. Paige certainly didn't have the pale skin of a dhampir and he didn't get that vibe from her, so he assumed that's not what she meant.
What others were there? He had learned about some other halfbreeds in the library last year. Giants, goblins... Simon watched as Paige swam over closer to him. He wasn't scared of what she might say, just curious. Maybe this was similar to how Paige felt, curious.
"You're not just saying this to make me feel better, are you?" he asked, his eyes lifted to where she was. He didn't think Paige would do that. She would try her best to make him feel better but not by dying about something as serious as that. "...What are you?" he kept his voice lower. Not only had she swam closer to him but also he didn't want to draw attention if anyone else was up and about now at the camp.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
26 Aug 2021, 00:46
The Showers Were Full
Paige watched Simon began to pick up his shirt~ He was walking away.
He was leaving.
He was walking away from her.
Was he trying to protect her? She didn't know. But she wasn't going to try to be in his shoes. Because that would be insensitive. She knew nothing she could say or think would even be close to what he was going through. Being a werewolf wasn't that bad~ people wouldn't be scared that she would jump out at them and bite them.
So Simon had it worse. But in a way, they weren't different. It made her heart ache that Simon would walk away from this. From the truth. She was his friend. She was not scared of him. Why would he think that?
She shook her head. "I wouldn't lie about something like that. I like to make people feel better, yes... but.. no. I'm telling the truth." She gripped the bank and pulled herself up. Crouched, she looked at Simon.
"I am a... okay. Whew. I'm a werewolf." She brought her leg out from under her, pointing at faint tooth marks that had scarred her leg, a reminder of that night. "Proof. This is the bite." She said.
She looked at Simon. How would he react?
@Simon Kincaid
26 Aug 2021, 00:53
The Showers Were Full
Close talks with @Paige Grant
A bite mark. That's what first went through his mind and where his focus rested, not on the fact that she was a werewolf. This seemed more drastic than what he was going through because as she said, he had always been a dhampir. It was no different than the first time he met her in the Rehearsal Room when she was practicing her dancing.
But for her, it hadn't always been that way. Yes, she had been a werewolf most likely the entire time he had met her but not her whole lifetime. The scar showed that. "Wow," he said, not showing a bit of being scared or apprehensive to her. "Guess I should stop sulking since I'm not the only one with other things going on, huh?" he came and patted the soft grass next to him, inviting her to come sit with him. It was a warm day and she wouldn't be cold - the heat of the day would see to that.
"How did it happen?" For him, simple. He was born that way. He knew not all dhampirs had that experience but it was his own and he sort of already told Paige that but saying it was genetic. He hoped that she wouldn't mind sharing these details and as a friend, he wanted to know.
It was nice to know, in some ways, he wasn't alone.
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
26 Aug 2021, 01:05
The Showers Were Full
She looked at Simon. First his eyes, then his whole face. She didn't see the fear on his face. That was good. She didn't see disgust either. Also good. So far, he was taking this well. To be fair, the only people besides her family who knew about this were non humans... or part something. So she got no bad reactions yet.
yet.
Wow. Not a bad reaction at all. "It wasn't that 'wow' before it turned to a scar." She said bitterly. She shook her head, moving to sit next to Simon. "Sorry." She felt bad that she had snapped at him. It wasn't his fualt.
She looked at Simon. "Yes, you gloomy glum. Stop sulking." She joked, slightly punching his arm. She took a breath.
Here goes. Telling the story wasn't something she enjoyed. It brought back emotions.
" It happened when I was 7.
We were camping during the summer in the woods like we always do. My mother told me and Ross to play outside. So I said let's play Hide and seek. It started to get dark, and Ross still hadn't found me. And I- I saw a wolf. And it saw me. It chased me.. It grabbed my leg- but it was hanging onto my leg, too, above a giant ditch. It slipped, and I had to get back to the cabin. I thought-" She gulped. I thought I was going to die. She risked a look at Simon.
@Simon Kincaid
26 Aug 2021, 03:09
The Showers Were Full
Discussions along the bank of the Lake with @Paige Grant
His eyes watched her own and it only showed concern before he smiled, "I'm glad you're safe now," he gave her a small smile. Simon looked down and reached out, placing his hand over top of her own and gave it a soft squeeze. "I can't even imagine what you must have gone through." It sounded terrible and to be the person who actually experienced it - he was sure it was probably something that she thought of often.
"I can promise you two things. The first being that your secret is safe with me." Even if she had told others, he valued the fact that she felt comfortable to tell him. "And secondly, I'm here if you should ever need me."
She didn't have to be alone in this. Sure, their species were quite different and it wasn't the same. She would only turn into her werewolf form on a full moon and he was always a dhampir. He was born that way and she had been made that way. Still, they were both rather outcasts at Hogwarts, somewhat forced to keep what they were hushed so not to cause a stir amongst their classsmates. "Thank you for telling me. I appreciate it."
He let it sink in for a moment that both of them had just entrusted the other and he was glad to have a close friend like that. "You're like...the third person ever to know this."
Be kind to one another. (*iNPC is Miles Thatcher)
8 Sep 2021, 18:48
The Showers Were Full
Simon was not hesitant to comfort Paige, which was nice. She enjoyed the fact that Simon would want to comfort her, even if he knew he couldn't *really* relate to what happened to her. The thing is, this was the past, she couldn't change it now. She offered a smile to her friend,
"Thanks, Simon." It was ince to know someone truly cared about this. Unlike her parents, he knew the right things to say. Her parents were a bit freaked out, still, about what happened. Simon didn't make her feel like a monster, he wasn't human either.
"Yeah.." She simply said. She couldn't imagine that she DID go through all of that, it was unbelievable. It was unexpected, there was no way of knowing that something like that was going to happen. Werewolves were just stories to her then, just like the rest of the magic. But no, it was real. All real.
She looked at Simon carefully, because promises were important but hard to keep. For one, they can be dangerous. Yeah, promises and secrets, drama was never too far away when those were around. "Heh. Thanks, Simon. One day we'll be able to be open about this stuff, you know. I hope." She sighed. "I'm sure of it." Her voice was uncertain, but her words sounded sure. If she believed it hard enough, it might happen.
"Thanks for telling me your secret, too. You could of lied or brushed me off.. but no. I'm glad that you're honest, Simon." She said truthfully. The fact that he was honest about it made it all okay, she wouldn't of liked it very much if he had lied. It was up to him, of course, but she just didn't like being lied to.
She turned to Simon. "Really? Wow.. I feel kinda honored..." She raised her eyebrows, deciding her little joke could pass to lighten the mood. she counted on her fingers. "Well.. 3 others from the train know this, because they were all admitted they were part... something, so I pitched in... then... another werewolf knows about this... And now you." She finished her sentence with a smile to Simon.
She suddenly realized where they were again. "Oh gosh. Wish I brought some towels or something... but heck, how was I supposed to know?" She wrung her wet hair out to the side, feeling the soft breeze come in to freeze her while she dried.
@Simon Kincaid