Solo More Than Meets the Eye Fin

Saturday was much easier to go out on. This was one of their less class-heavy days anyways. The boy had taken the chance to slip down to the Great Lake with every spare moment he could scrounge.

As Piérre continued to scan the shoreline, the boy became aware of how many memories he had down by the gently lapping waves. Today was a bit more brisk, with wind causing the lake to produce a cold wind which smacked against Piérre's frame and caused his cheeks and ears to be nipped by the incessant cold. He was trying a different patch of the lakeside today.

Eyes down on the ground, he kept searching, kicking the top layer of pebbles and other vegetation which had drifted on shore in order to search below and see if his prize was somehow more buried in silt and sand. He crouched and got on his knees in order to dig lightly with his fingertips, just in case he had to turn or rotate particularly suspicious stones which looked oh so close to what he was looking for.

Tonight was the blossom ball, or rather the Spring Festival. He ideally wanted to find this little trinket tonight.

Search [DC 30] (1d20[10] + 10 + 1): 21 (Failure)
Keen Eye (90-100): 36 (Failure)

Nowhere to be found.

Standing again, green eyes glanced about with precision and worry. If past years were any indication... Tonight someone would get hurt. Maybe it would be him, maybe another person.

Maybe it would be Romeo.

A soft growl left him, one of frustration as he kicked his little pile of useless rocks as far as he could into the lake. So many rocks! And none of them right!

How the hell was he supposed to protect himself, let alone Romeo or anyone else who he threatened with his mere presence?!

A presence which always seemed to hearken ill luck and begot terrible misfortune.

He was on his own tonight. And he prayed that he wouldn't see his brother tonight. For Romeo's own well-being.

Tomorrow is another day.

Date: April 3

It was getting near to dusk, and the boy was down by the lake again. His search was still continuing, and today just like the past ones, he was looking down at oddly shaped pebbles and sickle-sized stones. Not bigger, no smaller. Green eyes continued to squint in the fading light.

A little while longer and it would be impossible to find anything in the dark. In addition to that, curfew was soon, and the boy would have to return to the comfortable Niffler Nook and its compact, cozy environment.

Half-heartedly, Piérre kicked around a few piles of stones, brushing them away in order to see that lower rock layer. He even went so far as to wander ankle deep in the lake in order to keep up his search.

Search DC 30 (11d20[14] + 10 + 2): 26 (Failure)
Keen Eye (90-100): 89 (Failure)

For a second the boy's eye lingered on a certain rock that was white and had a strange black dot in its center. Eyes lighting for a second, the boy swooped down and nabbed the errant stone, drying it and turning it in both his hands as he observed its every facet.

It was almost perfect... But not quite. The hole in its center did not pass entirely through the rock. Even if the little pin-sized gap did create a hole through the stone... It would not be naturally large enough to fit upon the leather cord that the boy was currently wearing as a necklace.

It was too late to look for longer. Tonight the boy would have to retire to his dorm room in preparation for classes the next day.

He had to keep trying. He had to.

This time it was during lunch hour that the boy made his now daily venture to the Great Lake and that mysterious prize that he was obsessing after. He was beginning to interface with his old comrades more and more, which in and of itself was a victory.

He had been accepted into the dueling club, albeit as a reserve... But that was okay. It was to be expected with such a long absence from any other school activity up to that point. The boy had to prove that he cared enough about this to stay dedicated to it no matter what happened. He couldn't help that patience was a virtue. He could only be patient.

So, search and scour he did. As every day before this, he searched and sought for that pebble or stone that he had left unturned the day before. Footstep by footstep, inch by inch... He looked once more.

Search DC 30 (1d20[11] + 10 + 3): 24 (Failure)
Keen Eye (90-100): 64 (Failure)

Nothing to be had. As usual, as the pattern seemed to be making abundantly clear to the disheartened boy. Disappointment after disappointment as each day passed. Was this becoming more of a fool's errand than a mission at this point? Was this a definition of madness?

Or be there some method in it in the end?

He had to believe that he was doing this for a reason. It was the only way he would stay dedicated to this cause.

Belief can be a powerful thing.

It is as powerful as you let it be.

April 5th

After classes, Piérre hummed quietly as he gently made his way to the Great Lake once more. Truth br told, he was starting to feel that what he was looking for simply wasn't there.

That everything that he had hoped for was foe naught. All he wanted was a protection. All that he wanted was just a physical token of that reassurance or symbol of protection. Was that really too much to ask?

Perhaps, based on his futility thus far in searching, that assumption would be more accurate than initially thought. But, of there was one thing that Piérre was, it was persistent, and he would be darned of he wasn't going to put his mind to something until he succeeded for once.

So... Start turning stones. Start digging in the sand bit by bit. Keep looking, keep overturning.

Search DC 30 (1d20[13] + 10 + 4): 27 (Failure)
Keen Eye: 27 (Failure)

And just as it had been for the past few days... It seemed that today would not be the day that the boy's incessant search would come to a close. It seemed that he would have to continue to resign himself to searching fruitlessly at the banks of the Lake.

He would try the shallows tomorrow. Running water seemed the most logical place to look, after all.

The Jester returned to the dorms.

Halfway through the school week, and almost a week into this seemingly and probably definitively obsessive search. At least nobody could tell him that he wasn't able to stay focused on something which was a long term effort.

Granted, this effort was built on a mixture of determination for self and the need to find a way to feel more secure in a school full of eldritch terrors, but the end all be all was that this was dedication no matter how many ways you looked at it. Unfortunately, the boy's hope for finding a similar trinket for his brother (no matter how rocky their relationship was right now) was diminishing by the second. In the end, the Jester was beginning to realize that that hope, although altruistic and optimistic, was probably more of a fool's errand than simply searching for the Jester's own ends.

So search he did.

Search DC 30 (1d20[6] + 10 + 5): 21 (Failure)
Keen Eye: 75 (Failure)

And jist as he had been disappointed many times before, Piérre was disappointed now. Was it not enough that his leaving the dorms early with only the aid of an invisibility cloak to prevent his likelihood of being caught as an contractor of the school code.

Whatever. He could take a detention. No bruise on his pride.

He didn't really have much anymore anyways.

Twilight had to be the key. Though he had done a little bit of research over holiday leave, the Jester was still uncertain as to the most subtle nuances in searching for these more unusual sorts of charms and magics.

Therefore, once more after the classes had ended for the day, the boy was out and about at the small streams which trickled into the greater body of the Lake. He waded into it ankle deep and crouched, his fingers stirring up the bottom and turning over stones and sands. When he got bored of the riverwater, he clambered towards the shore and sought there as well, painfully aware of the sun slowly setting and harkening to the incoming night and the hastening of the time leading to lights out.

Shrugging with a sigh, Piérre glanced downwards again and tried to focus his mind on searching. This was swiftly becoming more of a task than an activity.

Search DC 30 (1d20[10] + 10 + 6): 26 (Failure)
Keen Eye (90-100): 90 (Success)

He began to idly pick up stones with flat bottoms and began to skip them across the waters. Two bounces. Sometimes three if he was lucky.

Seven had been his best when he had a really good skipping stone on hand.

A smile crossed his face as he cathartically recalled good times of the past. Before school. Before magic. When he had been a Muggle and nothing more. Perhaps it could have been better if he had never found that little wellspring of magical potential. Perhaps it would have been worse. Fate and life was fickle like that, always thinking the grass was greener on the other side.

The Jester picked up a strange-looking stone vertically sticking out of the sand, his fingers idly running about it to find the smooth skipping surface. He found a small divot and a gap within it and hesitated right before he threw it.

There, slightly off-set from the center of the stone, was a perfectly round hole which cut all the way through the rest of the stone.

It was about 2 inches in diameter at its thickest point, and the hole in it was probably a little less than an inch in diameter itself. It was just right for a leather cord necklace.

Sitting down hastily, Piérre yanked the empty cord from around his neck and swiftly pushed the cord the through it and looped the other in such a fashion to create a Lark's Head knot tightly securing the newly found Hag Stone to the necklace permanently. He slipped it over his head so that the stone fell on his breast. Taking the stone between finger and thumb, Piérre raised it to eye level, peering through it narrowly and with great interest.

Some said that if you peered through a Hag Stone you saw between worlds.

Piérre didn't see the world any different, at least not at the moment. But this was now a charm he had. Perhaps it would prove itself as just a confidence boost... Maybe it would be something more.

Maybe it would protect him from those darker influences. That was what he had remembers of his slapdash research.

That with it he would be more ready to fight the dark.