Closed Stuck in the Earth Errand PV R. Lark and Y. Fang

Bex was one of the few students who had taken on Professor Blumenthal's request that wasn't absolutely dreading it. Oh, the weeds did indeed smell as awful as they were all warned they would. But at this point, all of Hogwarts had been smelling like this for weeks. Bex tended to spend the majority of her free time outside, so she'd been getting hammered with the rotting smell so badly that she was worried it was going to start seeping into her hair. For the first time in her life, she'd begun to heed the instructions on the bottle and shampoo twice.

She'd watched other students, many of them older and much more experienced than her, hack, slash, and hex the weeds all month, and yet there were still weeds everywhere. Sometimes if you want something done, you have to do it yourself. And what Bex wants is for her favorite spot by the Great Lake to be habitable again.

Also, the house point would be a nice bonus.

The one and only advantage Bex had over the weeds is that she was an experienced weed murderer. She'd spent so many spring mornings out with her step-father, Leo, in the garden that she might as well have been these weeds personal grim reaper. Or at least, this is what she was telling herself. In truth, these weeds were both far more gooey and far worse smelling than any plant, wanted or unwanted, that she'd ever seen in Leo's garden.

She came prepared, though! She'd brought her Herbology gloves, a spade, and, most importantly, a handkerchief that she'd wrapped tightly over her nose and mouth. This past month had proven this method to be largely ineffective, but at this point it was really just for emotional support. She'd tried to braid back her hair like her mother often did for her, so that she wouldn't get any gross weed-guts in it, but gave up halfway through and just pulled it up into a sloppy ponytail.

One of the biggest disappointments of her time at Hogwarts so far was the discovery that she wasn't old enough to be allowed in the forbidden forest. Bex was absolutely desperate to go, seeing as some of her favorite hobbies were being in trees, being around trees, and being on brooms that once used to be trees. Plus, some of the creatures they'd been learning about that lived in the forest sounded so cool, and really, what was the danger if she were to go with a professor or a group of other students? Sadly, despite her curious and adventurous spirit, Bex was, at her core, an avid rule-follower and wouldn't dare risk getting in trouble in order to sate her curiosity.

Thus, she watched sadly as some of the older students made their way into the Forbidden Forest, and, after giving herself a moment to fantasize about following them, instead turned and began to seek out the weeds along the edge of the forest.

The weeds were laughably easy to find, pervasive as they were, and the only real difficulty in finding them came from the fact that half of Hogwarts was outside hunting for them. With no small amount of effort, Bex had managed to uproot three of them when she came across another First Year who appeared to be having a far less successful go of it than she was.

She watched as he went to battle with what was apparently a very sturdy weed, before he seemed to lose his grip on fall backwards. Bex felt herself wincing, both due out of sympathy for the pain he seemed to be in, as well as the unfortunately rather embarrassing nature of the fall.

She flushed sheepishly as the boy saw her standing there and called out to her. It was pretty rude of her to just stand there and not even make sure he was okay, and the guilt propelled her over to the fallen boy faster.

"Sorry!" She called, as she made her way over to him. "Super sorry." She said again, as she skidded to a stop, holding out her hand to help him up. "Are you okay?"

[ october 29, 2023 ] ♥ outfit

xin is slowly revealing her hopeless romantic (and super strong) side!!

And so the autumn arrives with a buoyant lack of subtly, and how she loved it so. There are the browns that come as a comforting quilt to the earth, yet the rest are the hues of volcanoes, of firework sparks and festival hoopla. It is as if nature is calling out to the spring and the trees can't help but become as flowers, towering blossoms of flamed foliage to dance into the skies before tumbling as giant confetti to the sidewalks and verges.

Yet there was a strange odor that lingered in the cool autumn breeze, unwilling to be blown away. It was fetid, fusty, malodorous, musty, noisome, putrid, rank, and Xin almost fainted after a mere 5 seconds out in the grounds. True, there had been gossip in the Thestral Thicket about how the professors used house points to bribe the students because of how disgusting the plants were, but you would have thoAnd so the autumn arrives with a buoyant lack of subtly, and how she loved it so. There are the browns that come as a comforting quilt to the earth, yet the rest are the hues of volcanoes, firework sparks, and festival hoopla. It is as if nature is calling out to the spring and the trees can't help but become as flowers, towering blossoms of flamed foliage to dance into the skies before tumbling as giant confetti to the sidewalks and verges.

Yet there was a strange odor that lingered in the cool autumn breeze, unwilling to be blown away. It was fetid, fusty, malodorous, musty, noisome, putrid, rank, and Xin almost fainted after a mere 5 seconds out on the grounds. True, there had been gossip in the Thestral Thicket about how the professors used house points to bribe the students because of how disgusting the plants were, but you would have thought the smell would get better over time.

It didn’t. Just even worse as the days passed on and on. She would have preferred a nice book session in her dorm, but alas, the opportunity to earn house points was just too good to be true. At first, it had seemed like a lovely idea - pull a few ugly weeds and Gryffindor would get one step closer to winning the house cup. And then she saw the plants ahead.

"What is - Eurgh!" That pretty much rounded things up. For the plants were noting more than ugly. Repulsive, fleshy things, they were like bombs that were filled with bulging tumors of pus with disgusting red things oozing out of it like some popped blister, and gave out a stench of rotten meat. It squelched around her boots, emitting some foul-smelling, unidentifiable liquid but was otherwise pretty unharmed. No wonder the professor had to bribe students.

The first year was so deep inside her thoughts, that it came as quite a surprise when a way-too-familiar voice sounded just a few yards away from her. It said "Ow!" accompanied by a loud thumping noise. The girl hid a smile behind a rather convincing grimace and turned round, only to see -

"Seems like someone need help," she taunted good-naturally and skidded to a halt right beside the now-sprawled-on-the-ground boy. With a girl beside him.

"You okay?" the lioness asked with a firm glare at the girl as she pulled Pyxis onto his feet. She made a move as if to touch his hand, but sighed and with a flick of her wrist, lifted the revolting plant onto the ground. "Rather unstable," she mused and tugged on another.

@rebecca lark & @pyxis hellebore –––––– ♥

@Rebecca Lark @Fang Yun-Xin

The figure slid closer into view and Pyxis recognized a Ravenclaw from his year, though he couldn't recall her name. That realization came with disappointment as he took in the fact that he had been taking classes with her for almost two months now and all he had to show for it was some familiarity with her face. His networking-philic parents would have been upset with him had he told them anything like that, but what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. Or something like that.

"Yeah. Yep, I'm fine. I don't think concussions are on the menu... but it did hurt," he gave an embarrassed smile and rubbed the back of his neck. The Ravenclaw seemed genuinely apologetic, so he continued with, "Sorry about calling you out like that. I guess I was kind of frazzled by the fall." He accepted her outstretched hand just as his Gryffindor friend, Yun-Xin, came into view.

"I would've been fine," Pyxis pouted as he got up with some assistance from the Ravenclaw. "But I accept your help humbly," he went on, turning to his savior, "I know we have some classes together, but I don't believe I ever caught your name. I'm Pyxis, and this is Yun-Xin, if you haven't met her yet."

He regarded the weeds that the Ravenclaw was holding and her get-up that resembled his own, sans his pink gloves. "Seems like you're having better luck than I am," he admitted. Even though the Slytherin had just begun and that stubborn weed was his first, he still felt a bit shown up by the girl who was already carrying three and by Yun-Xin who pulled up the one he was trying to get. Though, the boy had to remind himself that this wasn't a competition and the more abominations his peers uprooted, the better all of them would feel. Yet, he didn't want to go without gaining the house point after braving the horrid smells of the grounds, so Pyxis settled into another squat and pulled on some of the other weeds in the cluster.

"Have either of you had experience with Hogwarts before this year. By family or reading, I mean. If you do, is all this," he motioned across the grounds with his hands, at the students ripping disgusting weeds from the earth, "normal?"

WEIRD WEEDS MOD POST

The plant was not easy to remove. The thick stalk went deep into the ground and it would require two hands and a mighty (actually several mighty) yanks to extricate the plant from the ground. The roots went deep and seemed to wrap around rocks and other plants. The remains of a dead woodland creature apparently strangled by the roots of the plant came up with it.

x

October 29th, 2023

Grounds

Interacting with @Pyxis Hellebore and @Fang Yun-Xin

𝓣he Gryffindor girl who had joined them was not someone Bex recognized, but she had to wonder if maybe the other girl recognized her from the glare she had just received. Had she upset her in some way? Bex hoped that the other girl had borne witness to the event in it's entirety, and not just the part where the Slytherin boy yelled out in pain while Bex stared him down like a prat, as that could have easily led the other girl to the logical conclusion that Bex had pushed the Slytherin boy. Bex really hoped the other girl didn't think that, as everyone around here seemed to solve their interpersonal problems with duels, and Bex knew, with nearing perfect certainty, that should she ever be challenged to a duel, she would be one hit K.O.'d, dead at 11. So, no, not ideal.

As such, she was extremely relieved to hear that the Slytherin was unhurt, both out of genuine concern for his welfare as well as the due to the fact that this would (hopefully) lower her chances of honor duels for the day. "I'm glad you're okay." She replied. "And it's alright, I would've been upset if I'd fallen like that, too. I really am sorry I didn't come make sure you were okay sooner."

After the Slytherin boy - apparently named Pyxis - introduced himself and his friend, Yun-Xin, Bex followed suit and introduced herself to the pair. "No, I don't think we've met. I'm Rebecca," She told them, "But I mostly go by Bex."

She set her heavier than expected basket of weeds on the ground, as even through the semi-protective barrier of her handkerchief the plant's sickly-sweet fumes were staring to make her feel light-headed. "I think I've likely just had more practice. I've spent a lot of time gardening." Not to mention that she was stronger than her tiny frame would lead you to believe, from years spent hiking with her mother, as well as from playing football and Quidditch. She got that impression that Pyxis was, as her father liked to call himself, "an indoor cat". She couldn't tell one way or the other with Yun-Xin, but seeing as the girl had been able to pull up the weed Pyxis had been struggling with, she imagined that the girl could probably hold her own. (Additionally, the dark-haired girl's willingness and ability to handle the weeds without some sort of face covering commanded both fear and respect from Bex, who was certain that she, on the other hand, was being slowly poisoned.)

As Pyxis sunk down to continue their task, Bex followed suit, starting to dig into the ground around another one of the weeds a few feet away from him. She bit her lip in thought as she considered the question that Pyxis had posed to herself and Yun-Xin. Honestly, of all the things that Hogwarts students and staff considered to be "normal" and "healthy learning curriculum for children" asking them to pull some gross weeds seemed pretty harmless.

But if Pyxis didn't have any wet and wild Hogwarts stories from his family to go off of - one of her dad's friends likes to tell a truly harrowing story about a Halloween prank gone wrong featuring pompion potion, muffling draught, and one very angry pygmy puff that had given Bex nightmares when she was little - then he was likely muggle-born, and she could see how bribing students to perform high stakes landscaping could seem odd to him.

"Yeah, Hogwarts is just kinda like this. My dad was the 'spend 8 hours a day in the library' kind of Ravenclaw, and even he has weird stories to tell about this place. Supposedly we'll get used to it."

She began the pain-staking process of hacking away at her weed's roots as she watched Pyxis try to tackle his own. This had to be worth more than one house point, right?

OOC: I'm interpreting the mod post to mean that it's Pyxis's weed specifically that the event outlined has happened to, so I'll wait 'til his post to respond to the dead animal extravaganza.

@Rebecca Lark
*permission obtained to godmod Fang Yun-Xin

“Nah, it’s not on you to check on me. I think I was just being dramatic,” Pyxis assured the girl. For someone that liked being the centre of attention, it was quite odd that he desperately tried avoiding the spotlight at Hogwarts. But the boy was a perfectionist as a result of his upbringing and he surely didn’t want eyes on him while he failed at casting spells over and over again. Maybe it was the lack of regard for him in recent months that spurred his call out of the Ravenclaw, because he knew it wasn’t something that he would normally do.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Bex. Or, it’s nice to meet you outside of class, I guess. Though, I wish we could talk somewhere less smelly,” he wrinkled his nose, though the action was hidden behind the piece of cloth secured around his face. Any time Pyxis walked across the grounds over the past few days, his senses were only mildly assaulted by the sight and scents of the plants. But now that he was standing in the thick of it, he wondered how he hadn’t passed out yet. He still wasn’t breathing through his nose, but he could taste the air and it wasn’t pleasant.

After pulling on some of the sickly things in his vicinity and watching Yun-Xin wander off some distance away, Pyxis decided on one of them that looked no different from the ones nearby. He dug his feet into the ground as best as he could and wrapped his hands around the base of the plant. He turned his eyes away from the vibrant pustules and gave another hard pull. Nothing budged. The snake pursed his lips and rocked back on his heels, resting his hands on his knees.

“Well, that makes me feel better. I’m definitely not versed in this gardening stuff. But I didn’t expect de-weeding to be this intense… Is that even a word? De-weeding?” He braced himself for another attempt, repeating the process of tightly gripping onto the plant, but this time, he didn’t sharply pull up. Instead, he kept up a constant pulling force, gritting his teeth and using the weed and his legs as a leverage point. The method seemed to be working as roots began pulling up from dirt so he readjusted his hands and continued. As the weed released itself from the earth, Pyxis felt a sense of pride at having pulled it out on his own. Then he actually looked down at his loot.

The roots were lengthy and some tendrils had even broken off, remaining lodged in the dirt. Pyxis initially wondered if he should try to remove those too in case they continued growing, but his thoughts were soon taken over by what was undoubtedly some kind of creature entangled in the roots of what he was holding. Not even a whiff was needed to tell that the vole-like animal had been dead for some time.

“ACK!” he shrieked, dropping the plant and stumbling backwards. He pushed himself up from his squat and took a moment process the sight. “T-that doesn’t usually happen with de-weeding, does it?” he asked Bex, but his eyes were still locked on the strangled vole. “Or… or if this is Hogwarts just playing with us, it’s going to take a while to get used to it.”

x

October 29th, 2023

Grounds

Interacting with @Pyxis Hellebore

𝓣here was a peculiar sort of tradition-cum-curse at Hogwarts where the people you'd meet during your time there sort of just... drifted away, somewhere right outside your peripheral view. She might not know it yet, but in time Bex would become well acquainted with the peculiar sting of countless friendships vanished up into the sky like a child's birthday balloon, a beloved recollection far out of reach. People are fickle, fleeting creatures, there one day and gone the next. If there was a pattern to it all, it wasn't one that she would ever be able to see the edges of.

Sometimes things are only visible in retrospect. Caution: objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

She watched unconcerned as Yun-Xin wandered away from the two of them; she was sure she'd make her way back to their little group, eventually. She turned back to the task at hand, paying the Gryffindor girl no more mind.

"It's nice to meet you, too. I think all of Hogwarts is kind of smelly, at the moment. I think it's seeping into the stone."

Bex watched as Pyxis struggled to pull out the next weed, grateful that the handkerchief shielded the smile she was trying so desperately to repress from view. She didn’t want to be rude a second time, but it was rather funny that the boy kept being bested by plants. While these weeds were definitely the foulest ones she’d ever seen, bar none, they still were just that, at the end of the day. Weeds. She considered just reaching over and helping the suffering boy yank it out of the earth, but after her misstep earlier that might not go over so well.

“De-weeding sounds like a word, I think. Or maybe weed removal? Weed eradication? Those have way more syllables, though.” She paused for a moment in thought. “Wait, I think it might just be weeding. And, no, it’s not usually this hard at all, at least it wasn't whenever I did it in our garden back home.” Somewhere in the middle of her of Ted talk on the etymology of weeding Pyxis seemed to finally get a good grip on the weed he’d been fighting with, and she watched as the boy put his whole body into excising the plant from where it was stuck in the earth. This seemed like major overkill until he had managed to actually remove the weed, at which point it became startlingly clear why this particular weed had been so insistent upon staying where it had put down roots.

“Oh, gross!” Bex said, sounding far too cheerful for someone who’d just been party to rodent grave desecration. She’d always had a strong stomach and not nearly enough good sense, and as such she curiously poked at the bones with the toe of her shoe, making a dramatic gagging noise when the bones all but fell apart at her touch. “No idea if this is a Hogwarts thing. Maybe though, look, doesn’t it look like the weed was using it for fertilizer?”

Regardless of how cool she’d found the whole thing, digging up a dead animal was far past what was asked of them in order to earn their single house point each, especially since, judging from the sheer number of students out roaming the grounds as makeshift gardeners, the distribution of house points was likely going to even out once this was all said and done. In her opinion, this was a job well done, and they could turn in their weeds and call it a day, leaving any further animal carcass removal to the upper years.

“I think I’m going to head back up to the castle. Thanks for hanging out with me, this was… weird. Did you want to walk back together, or are you staying out here for a while?”

Leaving the thread, and will make her way back up to the castle.

OOC: Permission granted by Fang Yun-Xin's former writer to godmod her out of the scene.
I'm sorry this took so long, just looking at how out of date this banner and reply coding is due to my negligence shames me and my family.