4 Jul 2018, 09:43
Ask and Receive
✸
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Let there be light.
Dorian had asked for light, and Eris had produced it with the utterance of a single word. The tip of her wand was aglow with a pale light that served as far more of a source than the steady flames from the candelabra he held. "Right here" Dorian pointed, directing her to aim the light at a particular spot. The light source was far better, but she was right. They needed more. Max was quick to interject as he gave them a look. Dorian stood silently and watched, giddy when Max too was able to cast the spell and add his light to Eris'.
That left only himself.
"Let me try too!" he yelled unnecessarily, far too excited to not make the attempt. He used the substantial combination of light to see his wand, glaring at the thing as if that would make all the difference in the world. He mimicked what he had seen both Eris and Max do just moments ago, uncertain of the theory behind it but recalling the spoken word. "Lumos." Something was happening! The wand was starting to react in his hand and for a moment he was sure that he had done it. But then the light at the end of the wand turned red. As far as he knew, this wasn't supposed to be happening. The colour from the other two's wands was far subtler. He flashed the wand as if it were a matchstick and he was trying to out the flame. The red glow vanished soon after, and Dorian wore a sour look, clearly embarrassed at not being able to do what they had done.
"Who needs the stupid light anyway!?"
It was you, Dorian, who had first asked for a brighter light. Regardless, the adventure continued. He noticed the place where Max had now focused his attention, assessing it closely himself, mind whirring at the prospect of what lay beyond should they succeed in retracing the steps outlined by the clues they had been given. During the other boy's scrutiny, Dorian noticed where he had erred. Either he had misheard the words as they had been said while he was still eavesdropping, or he simply got them jumbled in his mind. He had been some distance away in hiding initially as they spoke in hushed tones, so it was very likely he had simply misheard. He remained silent on the matter, opting not to admit his oversight.
And instead perked up at the mention of destruction.
Max wanted to know if they had any ideas? Dorian was ready for this. "Just one!" He took a leap back from the wall and aimed his wand between the space of the fourth and third brick as Max had indicated. "Flipendo!" In an instant, a sound like a cracking whip would startle the unprepared as it reverberated along the walls and through the hollow tunnel. Before they could berate him, he offered his reasoning. "This is the perfect spell to do what we want. It isn't a very destructive spell on its own, so we can control where it hits without having to worry too much about damaging anything else. I'm kind of an expert at this spell at this point, so trust me when I tell you that if we combine our spells and aim for that space in the wall, we'll see results." It might work. Flipendo was a spell capable of blasting apart fragile objects. The wall was well-worn and vulnerable from being worried at by whatever or whoever had been here before them. If the three aimed and cast their spells at once, Dorian was sure something would give way. "On three?" One. Two. Three...
"Flipendo!"
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✸
✧Improvidus, Apto quod Victum✧
Stam: 3, Agi: 3, Str: 4, Con: 7, Arc: 7, Acc: 6
7 Jul 2018, 09:29
Ask and Receive
May it be a light to you in dark places
when all other lights go out.
when all other lights go out.
Max cast the spell himself, and now a small beam of light shot out of his own wand. The two children were not master spell casters, by no means. They were 11 and 12, respectively and their skills, apparently, lay elsewhere. Even though both of their spells weren't very good, and the light resonating from their wands was faint, it still lit up the walls with an amber hue, shining on the bricks they were to destroy.
While spellcasting might not be their strong suit, messing stuff up certainly was. There was a sense of kinship already growing, as Eris and the two boys stood at the threshold of what could of been immortality. Obeying Dorian's gentle directions, Eris's wand shot towards the spot he had pointed out, protruding enough light to squint at the bricks, as Max's light joined her own.
Watching the taller boy run a hand on the bricks of the wall, Eris's own wandless hand reached for the wall, before her hand and her head whipped back, hand falling limp at her side, and face turning to stare at Dorian, who had just let out an enthusiastic scream, that echoed off the walls of the small hall, and down the stairs they had just ascended, a whoop that rattled the stars. If the stars could see so far under their rays, to the three children gallivanting around the school.
It was hope, excitement, and the freedom that Hogwarts provided. If only his spell had actually worked the way it was meant to work. The tip of his wand burst forth with light, but the light was red as blood. It shone brighter than Eris's own light, and just went she was about to utter that, perhaps, the light, while red, was not a bad thing, when the light died out again.
The boy contradicted his own statement of craving the light in his sullen rage, and Eris raised an eyebrow-impossible to see in the darkness, unless Dorian had decided to stare at her face. Biting down on a retort, or an ask to try the spell again, Eris directed her attention back to the wall that was to be her adversary. As Max spoke, reaffirming that they would be attacking the wall, a sense of ruthless excitement coursed through Eris.
What child didn't love destroying stuff? Or, to be more specific, what Gryffindor child didn't love destroying stuff? "Yeah, I have an idea. Let's destroy this wall!" Eris grinned, wincing slightly as Dorian's first spell hit the wall with a loud noise.
Before she could do anything, the light from Eris's wand died out of it's own accord, leaving only Max's faint wand light to point at the whole in the wall. Pretending that the wand light had died out because she willed it so, Eris aimed her wand at the spot Dorian had cast at.
"Flipendo!"
sorry not sorry bout' what i said
STA: 6 EVA: 7 STR: 1 WIS: 8 ACC 9 ACC: 9
abilities: transfig DC -5
19 Jul 2018, 17:58
Ask and Receive
Was it providence, fate, or just plain old luck that the three students who'd met up on this particular night happened to have an affinity for destruction? And the fact that they all knew Flipendo well enough to be confident it would work... Whatever it was, something had brought them together and they were about to find out for what purpose. It had to be behind this wall... it had to be. Dorian's first Flipendo was much more successful than his over-powerful Lumos, striking the wall hard enough to reveal that the thing was on its last legs. Hopefully whatever had been hidden inside wasn't something breakable - though when imagining immortality, breakable was the last thing one would think of. No, this had to work.
At Dorian's suggestion that they all try at once, Max nodded and adjusted his grip on his wand as he glared at the wall as if a look could reveal its secrets. He'd have to let the light die out and they'd be left in the momentary flickering of the broken-off candelabra, but it had lit their way well enough before now. As Eris's light went out, Max's concentration wavered too much to maintain the spell and they were left in an orange glow as they all aimed at the wall. On three, his friend had said, and Max put all of his remaining concentration and effort into remembering exactly what it was Professor Scheinberg had said about the spell. Hand movement, incantation, intent of what it did.
As one, they all prepared to cast the spell, and excitement was an almost corporeal thing in the air as they reached the finale to this adventure. This was it. In three, two, one...
"Flipendo!"
All three spells struck at once and the sound they made was tremendous. The stones didn't so much break as blow apart, the force of all spells at once destroying the mortar holding them together and causing them to collapse inwards. Max stumbled back and threw a hand up as even some of the bricks around the ones they'd meant to break fell in, the whole wall shuddering with the impact. Dust and grit seemed to make a veritable storm of particles in the air, and one breath inwards was enough to have anyone cough as the last of the debris crumbled to the ground, making pebbly sounds that seemed loud against previous dark, muted silence.
"That - " Max burst into coughing, thumping his chest as he spat out a clump of saliva that was a colour it shouldn't be. Probably gray, though it was hard to tell with the lack of light. " - was awesome." He straightened from where he'd crouched to cough, reaching up to ruffle his hair as he shook his head, scattering pieces of old crap everywhere. Though this was certainly something that was supposed to be a secret, he itched to tell his aunt about the whole thing because he could only imagine how proud she'd be of him for blowing stuff up with his friends. So wicked.
"You lot alright?" he asked as he waved a hand in front of his face to clear some of the rapidly settling dust. Without waiting for an answer, he eagerly stepped forward and plunged his hand into the darkness of the hole they had created without a single modicum of caution. They deserved an amazing prize for figuring this all out, trudging through a creepy old passage, and breaking down a wall that was loud enough it might accidentally draw the attention of a professor. Speaking of... they'd better hurry, just in case.
Feeling around in the darkness, it was disappointing at first to find that all there was behind the brick was wooden planks. He hit them with his fist and winced at the low, dull thud that said there was nothing behind the wood that could hold any secrets. He continued knocking up the wall and was about to ask for more light when his knocking was interrupted by his fist going through thin air. "Holy f - " Without wasting any time, he stuck his hand into the hole, his entire shoulder pressed up against the wall, and stretched until his fingers touched something. It took a bit of maneuvering but he finally managed to get a good grip on it, his hand shaking as he pulled out what had been hidden behind the wall.
Stepping close to Dorian's candelabra since he was too elated to attempt Lumos again, he held out the small box he'd pulled from the hole in the wall. It was old and wooden, looking like it had once been lacquered but had lost the sheen of that with age. There were no outward designs beyond the fine grain of the dark wood - nothing to identify it as special - but the mystery surrounding it gave it some sort of dark, attractive power nonetheless. They probably shouldn't open it - they should take it to a professor or to some shop that could check whether or not there was a curse on it. It would be the dumbest idea in the world to crack it here where no one knew where they were and where they might not be found for days... if ever.
Max opened the box.
What kind of kid would actually stop here, anyways? If he didn't open it, Dorian or Eris probably would've because you didn't just come all this way to give up right at the end. Was it unicorn blood? The Philosopher's Stone? The Deathly Hallows?
"Guys, it's - "
He stared uncertainly for a moment before his face fell dramatically at how mundane the thing in the box was.
" - a map. It's a map of the Great Lake."
"There’s something brittle in me that will break before it bends."
Fearless | Poison Resistance
STA - 7, EV - 5, STR - 1, WIS - 9, ARC - 10, ACC - 8
Fearless | Poison Resistance
STA - 7, EV - 5, STR - 1, WIS - 9, ARC - 10, ACC - 8
23 Jul 2018, 04:01
Ask and Receive
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BOOM!
Or a sound similar to that could be heard as the wall was blown apart by the combination of destructive spells. Dorian was buffeted by an onslaught of rubble and dust as he shielded his face, and as the dust slowly cleared he could make out the shape of the newly formed hole in the wall that they had just made. "Bloody awesome!" he emphasized after Max. Again. Far too loud. Not that it mattered anyway with the sound that they had just made by blowing up an ancient wall. Was this considered damaging school property? Dorian spared a wary glance along both paths of the corridor to be sure there wasn't an angry Professor or Prefect coming their way. Then his eyes landed on Eris. She was a Prefect. Was she doing all of this just so she could take the credit for busting them later?
Then again, it would be the accusatory word of two decent students versus the word of a wayward Prefect.
"Who cares!? IMMORTALITY!!!" he responded to Max's concern. There was no time to contemplate their well-being in the face of such a discovery. Injury would mean nothing when they became immortal. While Max worked at actually finding whatever it is that they needed to find, Dorian inched closer to Eris, still very shirtless and unaware that he might be attracting some flesh-eating creatures that smelled bare flesh. His clothes, by now, had dried a little but were still damp from their earlier ordeal. Especially while they remained in this dark, dank atmosphere. He bumped her on the shoulder with his elbow. "Are your goosebumps as real as mine? Huh!? This is really exciting! What are you gonna do first after you're immortal?" The candelabra was all but forgotten, but he still held the thing in his hand only half conscious of something being there. Only when Max stepped closer did he realize that he was holding their only source of light (although I'm pretty sure Lumos can be maintained while casting other spells? xD)
"Hurry and open it!"
Dorian almost dropped the candelabra in his excitement, only managing to retain his grip through sheer force of will. As the box was being opened, Dorian closed his eyes tight, practically shaking at the prospect of what they would find. His body is ready! And thenMax's words knocked him for six. His eyes ripped open as he violently shook at those words, staring down at the contents in max's hand to see that it was indeed a map that they had found. The candelabra fell from his grip then, skittering along the hard ground beneath as he snatched the map from Max and scrutinized it with a fiery stare. There was only so much he could see through the still-burning fire that allowed minimal light from below. "What the hell!?" A map! They had done all of this for a godforsaken map... If one listened closely enough they could hear Dorian's heart plummeting to the ground along with the shattering of all his hopes and dreams.
The quest had ended in vain.
"Maaaaaax...!" Dorian's whining was unbecoming, but he was beyond maintaining his cool image, especially now that things weren't working out the way they had hoped. He was crushing the map in his hand without even knowing it, but luckily despite how old it might have been, it seemed to have been kept in pristine condition through, likely, magical preservation. "What are we even supposed to do with a map of the Great Lake? It's just... I- This is stupid!" Dorian was about to crumple the thing in his anger and toss it when he heard a sound akin to tapping echoing along the walls of the enclosed space. His head darted to the left, and then to the right. It was nearly impossible to pinpoint the locational source of the sound, and the darkness left much to imagine. "Uhh... Guys? I get the feeling we're not alone."
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✸
✧Improvidus, Apto quod Victum✧
Stam: 3, Agi: 3, Str: 4, Con: 7, Arc: 7, Acc: 6
24 Jul 2018, 09:11
Ask and Receive
Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves?
Even while we're still alive.
We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants.
Even while we're still alive.
We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants.
The noise didn't bother Eris, and the fact that a smarter prefect might find them was far from her mind, as Eris stared at the effects of the three children's spells. Honestly, it was a miracle that all three spells had worked out, but Eris wasn't complaining about the miracle, not when it suited the moment so perfectly, and worked in the three Gryffindor children's favor.
It was a storm of dust, and she was standing in the middle of it. The cloud of destruction flurried around her, as the long monotone of the three booming spells and the breaking walls echoed around the children in a beautiful display of violence, that sung to the violent nature festered in all three of the small children's souls. They were a strange group, the two boys and the red headed prefect, who clearly was breaking all the rules of prefect-dom. It was known that Eris was most likely going to be fired anyways, after her punching of Eri Windstone, but the days had gone by, and the prefect was still allowed to patrol.
How amusing that three harbingers of chaos happened to be wandering the hallways at the same time, and that Dorian and Eris had both spotted Max, which had lead to the adventure at hand. It felt destined to be, a group of destructive force. People couldn't not become friends, after doing something so strange together. They were going to be immortal together, although, Eris had to admit, the idea of being immortal wasn't all the great. She didn't want to be the next Edward Cullen, sparkling in the sunlight and preying on girls millions of years younger than her. Oh god, would she be a vampire if they found immortality?
Oh well, she'd be a cool vampire. Shrugging away her worry, Eris peeked through the hole in the wall, just as Max reached his hand into the hole. Dorian answered a question that Max had asked priory, and Eris rasped out a laugh of a cough. The light from Dorian's candle was the only thing that penetrated the darkness, so with a quick whispered incantation and a large amount of concentration, Eris waved her wand in the shape of a cross (or something like that, I can't describe anything) and muttered lumos.
Just as before, a faint light shone from the tip of wand. Not bright enough to illumine the hole well enough, but bright enough to help the three children see. Finally able to focus, Eris let out a breath of laughter again, coughing out dirt, as she did so. "I don't think I have goosebumps, just a lot of dust everywhere. Oh gosh, I'm going to need a shower after this, we all are, if we want to make sure the professors and ...sane, prefects don't find us." As if the other two hadn't guessed already, Eris reinstated the fact that she was not going to be ratting out the other two, and that they were all in the adventure together.
"If I was immortal, I think that I would want to travel the world. Get away from London and my family, and really just see everything that's out there. You know what I mean?"
Before anyone could say that they understood what she meant, Max pulled out a box, and any conversation stopped. Eris's heart thumped in her chest, as Dorian said what they all were thinking. Even so, Eris's own voice echoed Dorian's words, breathless delight and excitement coursing through her.
"Yeah, come on, open it!"
The light from her wand somehow stayed, as Eris gathered closer to the box, waiting with baited breath for Max to rip the lid off and show the treasure inside. Hopefully there was enough for all three of them. Eris didn't want to battle it out with the other two, in fact, there was a part of her that hoped they could end the adventure as friends, and Eris wasn't sure she wanted immortality that much, if it would turn her into a vampire.
Her neck craned forward, as Eris let out a grin, unable to suppress her excitement as they were able to see... a map. A map. No treasure, no potion, nothing of interest. Just a map. Was the treasure at the bottom of the lake? Even though a small part of Eris was overjoyed that she wouldn't be turning into an edgy vampire, the girl was aware of Dorian's whining, as he took the map in his hands. There had to be reason they had been handed a map.
"Hey, don't hurt it, Mr. Hulk smash map now. We might need to use it." Eris muttered, before shrugging her shoulders, wand still carefully held in one hand. "What no-" Dorian heard it at the same time she did, and Eris, even though she was a prefect, panicked at the sound of noise.
Maybe it was a mouse, or maybe it was a professor or prefect out to get them. Either way, it was late, and it might of been time to go. They could figure out more about the map another day. It wouldn't be hard to meet up again, considering they were all in the same year and house. "We should go.." Eris echoed her thoughts out loud, staring at the two boys. "We can figure more out about the map after we sleep."
sorry not sorry bout' what i said
STA: 6 EVA: 7 STR: 1 WIS: 8 ACC 9 ACC: 9
abilities: transfig DC -5
29 Sep 2018, 02:14
Ask and Receive
Disappointment was a palpable thing in the air, and Max had no words for his friends as Dorian voiced everything he was feeling. A map? That was it? It was completely useless and the exact opposite of what they'd all expected. Unless... no, there hadn't been any markings on it, no 'X marks the spot' like this was an adventure they could continue. It was just a piece of paper with a place drawn on it that you could find at any store around. He was about to say that it must have all been a stupid prank when the tapping made him start badly, shooting paranoid glances around the halls.
Hogwarts wasn't a dangerous place... right? He trusted the professors to look after them, although if the professors found them then it wouldn't go well. He hadn't known Eris for long but he could see her prefect status being useful and he didn't want her to go down for this little excursion that had been his idea to begin with. He didn't need to go out after curfew, it had been a choice, and he might feel the slightest bit bad if his friends got in trouble because of it. Though not too bad, since they'd decided on their own to come with him.
"Yeah, we'd better go back," he said, his voice dropping to a hush in case whoever or whatever was out there might be listening in. With a small sigh, he snatched the map back from Dorian before the other Gryffindor boy ripped it or crumpled it into a damp, unreadable ball. As much as he'd also like to destroy it (or dramatically burn it to take out his anger), Eris was right that there might be something they were missing. They'd spent a while wandering around in the dark all tense, and this late at night none of them would be thinking as clearly as they would in the day time. Did the map have anything to do with immortality? Probably not. Was it still something that had been mysteriously hidden in a wall in a secret passage years ago by a possible Death Eater? ...That made it worth taking a second look at.
Carefully smoothing it out from where it had crinkled slightly at Dorian's tight grip, he folded it neatly and tucked it into his robes to keep it safe. "We'll look it over later, I'll keep it safe for now. Maybe we can meet up in the Common Room one of these nights to figure it out together." We, we, we. It was official; they were the immortal trio and come hell or high water they'd search out immortality together. With that in mind, the conclusion to this little adventure didn't seem so bad. Sure, they hadn't gotten anything concrete to better their lives, but the friendship they'd made somehow felt like it might last nearly as long as the immortality. Giving his companions a grim smile that was both bitter and sweet, he turned away from the destruction of the wall so they could all leave the dark, creepy place for good. They could think about what it meant later, but for now all they could do was return to bed without getting caught.
Reducio
Exeunt Max, Eris, and Dorian
"There’s something brittle in me that will break before it bends."
Fearless | Poison Resistance
STA - 7, EV - 5, STR - 1, WIS - 9, ARC - 10, ACC - 8
Fearless | Poison Resistance
STA - 7, EV - 5, STR - 1, WIS - 9, ARC - 10, ACC - 8