Errand Add A Little Bit Of... Spice Completed

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It was June 1st and now time to head down to the Great Hall for the Pride month celebration. AngelFyre knew she had some learning to do because when she first heard of Pride month, she mistakenly thought it was having to do with House Pride within the school. Hey, you do not know what you do not know, but what she did know about herself was that she had a heart for people, a willingness to learn, and a bright mind. Plus, if she was a judge of what might be coming based on the last such events, there were going to be refreshments, a crafting table or two, and a good deal of knowledge imparted. That suited AngelFyre just fine.

Long before she reached the base of the stairs on the first floor, the happy chattering of a large number of voices could be heard coming from the Great Hall. As she approached the entrance, she stopped in her tracks. Normally the Great Hall was a place of astonishing beauty. Right now, however, it was rather an assault to her eyes. Everything, and she really had to check herself on this, but absolutely everything was awash in rainbow colors. Even a good number of the dresses worn by the girls seemed to carry on the rainbow theme. It honestly looked like a unicorn had projectile vomited rainbow colors e v e r y w h e r e. It was equal parts revolting and endearing all at once.

Just when she was about to enter, she saw Clair making her way out. Clair stopped for a couple of minutes to exchange pleasantries and she gave AngelFyre one of her beautiful Pride bracelets, also in rainbow colors. "Oh, it is beautiful. Thank you so much, Clair. That is really a cool thing you did for everyone." The two soon parted ways and AngelFyre entered, proudly wearing her new bracelet.

Suddenly deciding refreshments were no longer of interest, AngelFyre made her way to the crafting table. After looking over the supplies and choices, she decided to go with making floral arrangement number one. She looked over the instruction sheet with an eye to detail and then collected her materials. Looking at the prototype on the table, AngelFyre thought it looked very much like a beautiful, rainbow colored lotus blossom. Settling herself down, she decided to focus on conversations going on around her as opposed to just losing herself in a crafting black hole.

As she listened, it struck AngelFyre that she really did not know much about her friends' love lives or their preferences. Was that due to their ages? Was that something one even brought up or waited for the other person to bring up? She sat there feeling more and more uncomfortable, as if she may have failed her friends, however unintentionally, in some ways. The question now became what, if anything, was she to do about it?

As she continued to put her floral blossom together, she was aware her head was suddenly beginning to throb.

interactions: open to interactions!
extra note: used levitation charm

Interacting: @Nia Greenwood (Open to interactions.)	06.05.22
Mentioning: @Nia Greenwood	#6a55d6

Nell looked in the mirror as she adjusted her outfit. Her necklace was fine, the shorts looked good, the shirt was good... Overthinking. Nell sighed and started walking the Great Hall. She heard about a special something to do with Pride Month. Just her cup of tea.

She made her way to the Great Hall. It was June and it was Pride Month. Her sexuality hadn't been something she was super open about, but then again, Nell wasn't a very open person generally. She knew that she was queer, but she wanted to take time to discover her sexuality. It was something she didn't owe to anyone, something she could keep to herself. Nell took advantage of that, since she felt she owed a lot to people. (She didn't). One of these things that she "owes" is good exam grades. Maybe this would be good take her mind off of things for a little while.

She stepped inside and made her way to the Ravenclaw table. In front of her was a cake. A trainbow cake. A really big rainbow cake. So many colors made their way to her eyes as a smile creeped up on her face. The House Elves and all those who helped set this up did an excellent job. The place was so filled with loved and everything was so bright. She truly loved celebrating her true self and seeing people do the same. Seeing this in front her made her feel truly at peace. After observing what was in front of her, she decided it was about time to begin decorating.

Nell looked to the other tables which were filled with supplies upon supplies which various students were already using to decorate. At the Hufflepuff table, there were instructions for seemingly cute pride flowers. She decided she would make one. Nell wanted to do the colors of the unlabeled flag, so she gathered the colored paper and began to shape it. She sat and put the paper together patiently then... voila! It was done. Next, Nell made some posters of different pride flags. She cut and pasted, sketched and colored. Time was passing by so quickly and Nell was having a great time.

A girl came over to the Hufflepuff table and sat down. She seemed a year or two younger than Nell but seemed sweet, nonetheless. She asked the table, “Are there any pink, blue and purple coloured papers?” Nell gathered the three colors and exclaimed, "Over here!" She handed the papers to the girl. Wanting the seem friendly, Nell asked, "Hi there, I'm Nell, it's nice to meet you," with a smile on her face.

Word Count: 442

Date: 04/06/2022 || Time: After dinner
Outfit: Hogwarts robes with hood drawn over her face

Sophia had no earthly idea why she was here. She'd heard about the event days ago, and she only vaguely knew what it was about. It was supposed to be Hogwarts' own Pride celebration, apparently.

Sophia only vaguely knew about the LGBTQ community, and what little she did know, she owed to her demigirl friend Pax. But why was she here? She didn't have a reason to be at a Pride celebration did she? She was straight. S-T-R-A-I-G-H-T. She wasn't questioning her gender. She was just a boring, straight girl.

She could tell herself that she'd come to support a friend, but she knew that wasn't true. She couldn't use Kim as her reason for being here, since no one knew that Kim was gay except her. She couldn't use Pax as her excuse for being here, since they barely knew each other, and she'd only met them weeks ago, technically. She was here without any logical reason, and now she had to either come up with a reason to justify her presence, or avoid any faces that she knew.

It wasn't a matter of embarrassment, not at all. She was Catholic and knew that she could never be a part of this community, but that didn't mean she had a problem with other people being a part of it. She loved Kim. He was one of her best friends. And Pax? Well, she could feel the blossoming of friendship there as well.

Yet despite having no excuse to justify her presence, Sophia felt a strong desire to be here. To show support not just to her friends, but to everyone in the community.

...and there was the matter of Gem.

Sophia remembered learning all about her old American church's opinion on homosexuality, but knowledge of what she was supposed to feel wasn't enough to ward off the strange feelings about Gem that she'd only recently begun to acknowledge. Yeah, she couldn't lie to herself anymore. She was... attracted to Gem. She's only noticed because of how seeing Gem flustered by Colin - and Kim prior to that - had made her feel, and now she had to find a way to get rid of her feelings. She had to bury them as deep as she could possibly manage.

But still, she found herself sneaking into the Great Hall for the Pride celebration, her hood pulled up over her face. She was avoiding everyone that she could see who knew her, because she couldn't explain why she'd felt the urge to be here. Instead, she focused on her stealth, lurking around the room and admiring the decorations other students were making.

She made her way to the Hufflepuff table, keeping her head low and her face covered by her hood. She drew her cloak tightly around her front, doing everything she could to be unrecognizable. Even so, she'd noticed a few familiar faces.

Colin was in the distance at the Hufflepuff table, pestering Pax. She'd thought she saw him looking at her earlier, but thankfully he'd turned back to Pax.

Kim was there, with some random girl Sophia recognized from the duelling match they'd watched together. That should have hurt her feelings, but since learning Kim was gay, she didn't feel as flustered or jealous around the boy anymore. Still, she didn't have a good answer for why she was even here, so she tried her best to hide from him.

Sophia scanned the tables eagerly, and it felt strangely similar to how she'd snuck into the kitchen at night as a little girl and browsed the cupboards. That same feeling that she was breaking the rules somehow. Though, instead of breaking rules in her house, she was breaking the rules of her church. Yet that didn't bother her too much. Instead, she felt guilty that she didn't feel guilty about breaking the rules.

Her eyes landed on a rainbow ribbon, probably designed for floral arrangements or something. With a quick look around to make sure no one noticed, she swiped the ribbon and slipped it into her inner robe pockets.

There. She had a souvenir. Now what could she do? She still had to avoid the ones who knew her, but that didn't mean she couldn't watch other students with their decorations, right?

So that's what she did. She watched other students decorate, marveling at the creativity and the beauty of the various rainbows and other types of flags she saw around the Great Hall.

Notes:

Reducio

I know straight/cis people don't need a reason to celebrate Pride Month, but Sophia doesn't understand that. She doesn't properly understand that she could still support her friends without being asked to.

Interacting:

Open to interactions

Mentioning:

@ Kim Sato || @Regina Miller || @Pax Zhang || @Colin McCoire

Colin sat next to Pax, happily chatting and colouring. He still had no clear idea what they were making all these decorations for. Some gay and festive celebration, no doubt! It was almost the end of the year, after all, and surely that was worth celebrating, even though the gaiety would be somewhat marred by the sorrow of leaving friends behind for a time!

After a while, Colin finished the striped poster thing he was working on and leaned back to relax a bit. He looked around. He could hear Bea's broad brogue not too far away. Poor lass! She seemed to have some trouble switching from Scots to English. It had been a long struggle for Colin as well, and he often slipped back into Scots at odd times. He'd have to ask her about that. Delicately, of course. If none of the other kids minded, then neither would Colin! But if Bea herself felt at all embarrassed or down about it, then he'd do what he could to help her!

Suddenly he got a really queer feeling. The odd kind of sensation you get when you know something is lurking about the place --- it triggered a now deeply ingrained instinct in him. His nostrils flared a bit and he looked around the room trying to sort out what it was that was so interesting to that Other part of his mind. The predatory part. His lips parted slightly and he licked his teeth. Yes, something interesting was in the air!

His nose was always full of the scents of the school --- food and treats, potions gone beautifully well or spectacularly wrong, other students and teachers, a few of which he knew well, and here the scent of paper and wax and coloured pencils and other art supplies.

His eyes and ears scanned the place for whatever was lurking ---

That's it! Whatever --- whoever! --- it was was lurking in plain sight! He bumped into Pax as he turned to look around. Everything seemed normal. Just students having a good time. And then something caught his eye! A bright red cape and hood!? Who --- !?!?

Colin nudged Pax: "Look, down there! Little Red Riding Hood!" Yes, that was the lurking intruder. Red Riding Hood, a little way down the Hufflepuff table. "And by the looks of it, Hunter, she's headed straight for the Big Bad Wolf!" He gave Pax a wicked grin. "Let's have some fun, shall we!"

Colin kept his face turned away from the red cloaked figure. Just enough that it wouldn't be obvious that he was staring, but turned just enough that he could keep his eyes on it, for he wanted to see if there would be any reaction. He was certain he knew who the skulking figure was. He took a deep breath and called out, rather loudly:

OI!!! GINGER SNAPS!!! WANT SOME MILK AND COOKIES!?

Interacting with: @Pax Zhang and @Sophia Nelson || Mentions: @Beatrice Langstreth

W.C. = 501

Banner by: Liana Kerr

Mentioning @Sophia Nelson, @Pax Zhang, @Colin McCoire
Interacting with @Kim Sato
Colour code - #831100

WC: 292

faye simmons
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Date: 04/06/2022| Time: 8:00 | Outfit: X| CC: #369676
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───── Being a muggle in Hogwarts had its ups and downs, Faye had realised. Sure, she may not know anything about the wizarding world or which way to hold her wand but, if there was one thing she should know about, it’s muggle traditions, specifically Pride. Unfortunately, you’ve picked the wrong muggle. As an (extremely) sheltered child, the Ravenclaw had only learnt what she had wanted to learn, like the works of Jane Austen and enough basic maths to get by. The notion of Pride had completely flown over her head, even if she had noticed a Derry Pride flyer or two back home, it wasn’t enough to get her interested. She’d simply goggle at the rainbows and colour and forget to read the words and dates.

Therefore, the conception that this event was for Pride was not something she was completely aware of. She still found herself wandering down to the Great Hall, though, under the impression that this was just a party with a lot of rainbows. There had been a plan to wear something so extravagant that she’d blind somebody, but that plan had quickly fallen through after she’d gotten too lazy to have to solve another one of the Ravenclaw door knocker’s ridiculous riddles. Honestly, after a long day doing work that you don’t understand, you do not want to climb up all the way to the common room just to do more work. So, she’d just stuck with her normal Ravenclaw robes.

Faye was quick to enter the hall, latching herself onto the back of a gaggle of other students in a state of apprehension, almost as if she was undercover. This was something she’d taught herself to do when forced to attend events alone, so people wouldn’t come up to her to chat. To all bystanders, she’d just seem like part of a group. It was a perfect plan, or it should have been until she finally inspected her surroundings, especially the Ravenclaw table.

Her normal house table was full to the brim with (quite literally) a rainbow of snacks, which immediately called to her. Pushing her way out of the flock of girls, Faye power-walked over to the table and snatched up one of the rainbow-iced cupcakes, completely ignoring the confused grumbles of the girls she had left behind.

By now the table was starting to obtain more and more visitors, getting a bit too crowded for her liking. She made to leave the table to walk around and perhaps take a look at what else the event had to offer when, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a bowl of sweets.

“SWEETIES!!” Faye cried, diving over and grabbing at least an armful, before looking around and putting it back with a guilty look on her face, taking a reasonable handful this time. Ripping open a DipDab and coating the lollipop in as much sherbet as she could, she began to wander through the hall with no real destination… wait, was that who she thought it was?

Yes, standing right there at the Hufflepuff table, perfect as always, was her crush best friend, Regina Miller. And her other good friend, Kim, was accompanying her! Oh, this event was about to get a whole lot better! Careful not to spill her precious DipDab, Faye sprinted over to the table and almost tackled the duo, an enormous smile plastered across her face despite the sour sherbet lollipop.

“Guys!!! You’re here!!! Oh, I am so happy to see you two!! Especially you, Reg!! Love your dress, very… you!! Any of you’s want a sweetie?!”” Faye thrust the handful of sweets at her friends.

“What’s this whole sha-bang for again? I sort of just appear places and don’t know what’s happening. It’s my speciality.”

word count: 633/800

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| 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉: @Kim Sato @Regina Miller | 𝑴𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈: @ |
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Open to Interactions
(especially with anyone willing to educate AngelFyre about Pride month)
OOC: AF's writer is a Civil Right's Attorney and well versed in what Pride month is and its history.

Looking around the room, AngelFyre saw a few people she knew. Some she knew better than others, like Colin and Bailey, and others she really knew only in passing, like Kim and Sophia and Quinn. They all seemed to travel in the same circles lately but had only managed to ever say just a few words to each other. She would have gone over to remedy that situation, but given Kim's aversion to crowds at the last Errand, AngelFyre did not want to be a reason yet again for his discomfort.

Then her eyes landed on Harper. Perfect. They had not really gotten a chance to speak at the CCP Errand, so maybe now would be a good time. AngelFyre collected her materials and moved around the table to the other side and down the length a little more than halfway. Placing her supplies down at a spot next Harper, she greeted her with a bright smile. "Hi, Harper. How are you? Hope you do not mind too awfully much my just dropping in on you like this. I thought since we did not get a chance to really talk to one another last time that we might get to know one another a little better now." Picking up a pair of scissors, AngelFyre continued to cut out the multi-colored blossoms for her centerpiece which she had diligently been working on before joining Harper.

Her head still throbbed and her unease about knowing next to nothing about Pride month prompted a confession. "You know, I have to admit I know nothing, really, about Pride month. Clearly rainbows are a part of it, but I think rainbows in this instance mean something different than what I was raised to believe about rainbows and the promise they represent from God. If I were to guess, I would assume in this instance that they mean a sort of acceptance... an inclusivity of all people and their choices to love whom they love." She had stopped crafting somewhere in the middle of her confession and had started twirling her hair as she always did when she was very deep in thought.

Slowly realizing she had sort of drifted off into her own train of thought, she looked over at Harper with a contrite expression. She chuckled, a bit embarrassed and said, "Wow, sorry about that. I get easily lost in my own thoughts sometimes." Continuing on with her crafting, she asked Harper if she had a better understanding of the point of Pride month. "What about you? Do you know any more about Pride month than I do, which is next to nothing. If so, care to enlighten me? And if you would prefer to talk about other subjects, I am game for that, too," she said most earnestly.

Leon is available to interact with anyone!

Leon slipped into the Hall quietly, eyes flicking around the room in search of two specific people, Claudia and Alice de Luca. He'd not gotten much of a chance to speak to either of his sisters in a while, but he assumed they'd both be here, Alice with her girlfriend that she insisted was a hundred percent real and not made up in the slightest, and Claudia most likely with a tray full of bright rainbow snacks she'd baked. However, as he stood awkwardly by the door, watching for any sign of either of them, it slowly became clear that neither of the de Luca sisters was here. Maybe they just hadn't arrived yet, Leon reasoned to himself. Maybe they'd get here soon. Of course, there was also the possibility that they just weren't coming at all. Alice was always busy with studying, which was why he doubted she actually had a girlfriend at all, and there was no way Claudia would show up anywhere without her older sister to hide behind. Well. It was worth sticking around to find out, wasn't it?
He walked between the tables, looking through all of the posters and zines. Leon wasn't part of the community - at least, he was pretty sure he wasn't, he'd never had a crush before, so he had no clue what he was - but most of his family was. He'd met Sasha's partner, a cheerful red-haired wizard, over the holidays when they'd been invited to celebrate with the de Lucas, and Alice seemed to have a crush on a different girl every time he spoke to her, although now she was trying to convince him that she had a real girlfriend. Plus, he had two mothers. It was just another way in which they were all different. Sasha liked everyone, Alice liked girls, Claudia liked boys, and Leon simply didn't like anyone. Perhaps he never would. He wasn't quite sure yet, but he figured it didn't really matter. Not for a few years, at least.
He slowly moved to the snack table, eyeing all of the brightly-colored food, trying to figure out which ones were things he was familiar with and which ones he didn't know. It was a bit harder, seeing as they were all in rainbows now instead of their normal colors. He picked up a fruit skewer cautiously, nibbling at the strawberry on top. Fruit was always pretty easy to recognize. Leon took a seat at the Slytherin table as he ate, observing everyone else in the hall as he waited for any sign of his sisters. There were plenty of people here who he recognized, although he didn't make any attempt to talk to anyone. In fact, he was almost praying for nobody to even notice him - he doubted his social ineptitude would make him many friends here.

word count: 476