Autumn's Truth PV Marshal Mozor Closed

Stunning Banner by Winnie Harper

@Winnie Harper

Ah, the magnanimous season of Autumn. Directly trailing the sultry days of summer, as if to provide the earth's denizens a reprieve from the sun's wrath. A time to bid farewell to the luscious greens of yore, and embrace the change of a diverse palette - one of reds, of yellows and everything in between.
It was this time of year that shorts and tank tops were abandoned, in favor of sweat pants and hoodies; when a cold drink would be shunned for the warmth of hot cocoa.
Marshal was nothing if not a fan of hoodies and hot cocoa. Both revived memories of safety, peace, and family fun - most especially around Halloween.
Raised by a mother who basked in the splendor of fall decorations, and a father who valued all things ghoulish and frightful, the boy had come out as some ultimate mixture of both. Which essentially translated to: the scarier the Jack-o-Lantern, the more it spiffed up the place.

On this particular Autumn day, the young Gryffindor had experienced a rush of adventurous energy. As usual, the stone walls of the castle could not contain him, for there was surely some fun to be had without. Of course, that fun would never find him, and it was up to him to do the heavy lifting.
So, he had donned a plain black hoodie to compliment his gray sweats, pilfered a cup of hot cocoa so kindly provided in the Great Hall, and ambled his way to the grounds.

The icy breath of nearing winter kissed the skin on his face, reminding him of just how soon the world would resemble a sea of white. Pulling his hood up to protect his ears from its frigid touch, he continued his aimless trek. While he wasn't exactly certain what he was looking for, it seemed that simply putting oneself in a promising position was often enough to be rewarded by the hand of fate. And the opportunity it placed before him now was serendipitous indeed.
The ginger hair offered the first whisper of suspicion to his hoodie-covered ears. Skin the shade of cream, and eyes the color of a cloudless summer sky served to confirm that he knew this girl.
Winnie Harper, the one with whom he'd shared a day taken straight from a fairy tale. On that day, they had touched the sky together, and Winnie had touched his heart. Yet now more than ever, it seemed like nothing more than a dream.
Their meeting had taken place just before summer vacation earlier in the year, and he had shamefully failed to achieve any form of communication during the time away. As a result, they had lost contact, and he hadn't seen the girl around much since their return to school. But it seemed this was as good a time as any to get further acquainted, four months later.

"Those reds can never hope to touch the vibrant tone of your hair against a blue sky," he said as he approached, by way of greeting. Glancing upwards to take in the gathered clouds overheard, he continued, "Though even the clouds can't dim your glow, I see." Returning his gaze to her, a crooked grin stretched one corner of his mouth, subtle amusement mixing with the admiration in his expression.

DATE: 10/27/21 OUTFIT: Dress

INTERACTIONS: ▪ @Marshal Mozor ▪

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Another plucked flower was held between her fingertips as she silently inspected it, her thumb gingerly stroking over the petals. This one she placed within her bag, although a twin was plucked and tucked into the section of her hair just above her ear, allowing the stem to rest snugly. The Ravenclaw had become so engrossed in the activity that she had not heard the forgotten blonde approaching her.

It was with a sudden movement that she turned to face him, the hip-length ginger locks that framed her face flowing with the sudden motion. The tresses were still crimped from the nightly braids she had to twist her hair into to avoid waking up with the long locks wrapped around her neck.

She recognized the handsome stranger, but only as a year mate whom she attended classes with, and not from the time they had touched the sky together. Unfortunately, the special moment she had once held dear to her heart had been vandalized, painted over until the only thing that remained was chipped dried paint that displayed a glimpse of what the pair of hopeless romantics could have shared. Although there had been many other variables aside from Mathias Pride's involvement. Marshal was taken with another girl for one, and Winnie did not like to share. There was also the fact the two had lost contact after their meeting, and that a boy named Levi Drakos existed.

Regardless, the cracks were enough to help her fit together two pieces of the puzzle. A feeling of deja vu. "I..." Winnie's reaction was similar in nature to the pair's first meeting; her face practically glowing a dark shade of pink. That smile had her heart drumming against her chest, but she was uncertain why. Perhaps it was the way the boy looked at her with adoration in those bright hazel eyes, shimmering with the vibrant colours of sunlit boughs. "Am undeserving to be compared to something as bright and lovely as the sky."

Her eyes flickered from the carefree sunkissed tresses of golden hair that managed to stick out from beneath his hoodie, down to his charming smile, "I know you." ... Somehow. Outside of classes and Quidditch, she just couldn't place her finger on how. Her brow furrowed as she tried to remember, to claw through that fog once more. She would end up empty-handed, just as she always had. "S-Sorry I... I lost my memories a few months ago, so I'm still trying to place a few people. We... We have met, right? I feel like I know you..."

Stunning Banner by Winnie Harper

Interacting With: @Winnie Harper

Mentioning: @Evelynn Decipio

If not for the silvery throng of clouds in the sky, or the way the chilled breeze caressed his form, Marshal might have concluded that this was a revision of one summer's day, four months prior. From the way amorous words rolled off his tongue without thought, to the dramatic change in the hue of Winnie's cheeks, this scene mirrored its predecessor. Even her tongue faltered in uncertainty, just as it had then.
In fact, so glaring were the parallels that it almost seemed too similar. As though she hadn't expected such things to pass his lips, despite clear experience to the contrary.
Truth be told, if he didn't know better, he'd have sworn the disconnection in her eyes indicated that she didn't recognize him at all.

"And yet the day is brightened by your presence," he pressed on, waiving away the girl's pursuit of self-deprecation. "Who is the sun to tell the flowers they do not need its light? And who are the flowers to tell us we do not need their beauty?" Emboldened by the history of physical interaction between them - when their hands had united as he helped her onto his broom, and her arms held him close while they soared through the air - he moved a pace nearer, reaching to tenderly pluck the flower from behind her ear. If she did not pull away, or move to stop him, he would twirl the blossom between two fingers. "And who are you to tell me that you don't outshine the sky?"

It wasn't until Winnie spoke again that he stopped dead in his tracks. Flower stem still pinched between fingertips, the boy froze where he stood, as if the red-head's words had been spoken with the cold of a thousand winters.
The warmth within his breast seemingly whisked away by the wind, only his eyes remained animated, actively searching those of his company for signs of deceit. Surely this had to be some sort of joke. Though such might have been in bad taste, it would serve as an explanation.

In the course of the most recent school ball, Evelynn - his date for the night - had seemingly been robbed of the knowledge that he existed, and effectively abandoned him without a word. The demoralizing disregard had left him baffled, and inflated his sense of jealousy, which ultimately led to a brawl between himself and the first two people to touch his date.
Violent outcomes aside, he had never received an explanation of what had overcome Eve that night, thus leading to personal theories.
To date, the best he could come up with was a Forgetfulness Potion, perhaps placed in the beverage Eve had consumed moments before her odd change of character. But why would such a potion have been placed within the refreshments at a school dance? And by whom?
Those questions had gone unanswered, and now yet another girl who'd captured his affections had apparently forgotten him.

Then again, this instance seemed different from the mishap with Evelynn. While she had appeared forgetful, as though her mind were marred in deep fog, she had still recognized him. Winnie, on the other hand, claimed to have forgotten who he was altogether.

"Of course you know me," he said slowly, following a long hesitation. "I'm Marshal. Marshal Mozor?" Watching her expression, he awaited recognition; but none came. Growing slightly exasperated, he went on. "I know your name is Winnie. We met at the Quidditch pitch a few months ago, just before summer vacation. You wanted to draw the area from above, and I took you on my broom so you could see it."
All flirtation and charm was suddenly replaced with consternation in his countenance, his distress that another girl had forgotten him visibly growing.

Finally, the whole of her words hit him, and he squinted in concern, arms folding over his chest. "I'm sorry. What do you mean, you 'lost your memories?'"
Things like that didn't just happen. Or at least they shouldn't.

Abilities In Effect
Charmer

DATE: 10/27/21 OUTFIT: Dress

INTERACTIONS: ▪ @Marshal Mozor ▪

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Her soul leapt at every word of that prose. It felt unfair. How could the universe taunt her with such a poetic soul when the love she held in her heart for Mathias was just beginning to blossom? Unless a higher power was forcing her to withstand a test. Would the small budding flower be plucked like the one Marshal had stolen from her tressesl, or would it withstand the dazzling sunshine that took on a human form in the shape of Marshal Mozor? Either way, she was more than just flustered; when Winnie fell into this state, all sense of logic halted and she would blurt things out. Things like 'goat' or the comment she had made about Levi's eyes. Eyes. The boy had nice eyes too. "Nature clearly is losing its standing, for the light of your eyes challenge it with a mixture of hues it can never quite match, a shade that blazes with more radiance than the setting sun itself." The words came out of her mouth before she could stop herself. Dear Merlin, what the hell was wrong with her? "S-Sorry, I... I shouldn't have said that but you came up to me saying such nice things, I thought you'd like to hear something nice back..." She wanted to fade away or hide. She was already starting to shelter her face within her hands

"Marshal..." She repeated his name, it felt familiar rolling off her tongue, "I like that name... It sounds like marsh marigolds, or marshmallows..." She could not help but stumble over her words, still flustered from his prose; the boy may as well have stepped out of a fairytale. The nicknames sounded familiar, but she still could not quite place her finger on when and where. The lost memory was but a phantom who whispered misplaced thoughts into her ear. It was to her good fortune that the Gryffindor boy would help her fit together the missing puzzle pieces.

"You did?" She asked, her brows raised in surprise as the darkened hue played on her cheeks still. "That... That sounds very fun. I wish I could remember it..." It sounded more than fun; it sounded terribly romantic. How could she have forgotten such a day? But if it were nearing the end of June, would it not have been during the time she and Mathias had started to date? There was a bit of inconsistency there... Unless... Oh God, what if Percival Gray was right? What if she was some sort of harlot who liked to string boys along? What if Levi had made her forget them all? Would others come out of the woodwork? What the hell was wrong with her?

Maybe she was overreacting, maybe he had just helped her draw the Quidditch field-- "Oh, wait...! I remember that piece. " She suddenly turned at her hip, bending down to start digging through her leather satchel bag, careful not to crush the flowers as she did so. She withdrew her leather-bound art journal and flipped it open to a pencil sketch of the Quidditch field. "This one, right?" She pressed the journal into the blonde's hands, should he accept it. It was the only evidence of their meeting.

She cast her eyes downwards at the look the boy named Marshal gave her. She almost resembled a dog being scolded by its master. Regardless of the lesson San had given her to teach her how to control her emotions, she felt guilty whenever she had to explain she had forgotten such lovely moments, and today would be no different. "I... Someone gave me food laced with a forgetfulness potion... A lot of it... I forgot around three months of my life."

Stunning Banner by Winnie Harper

@Winnie Harper

The verbal riposte which left the girl's lips met his ears, its sweet warmth seeming to trickle into the darkest recesses of his soul, softening his countenance once more. One would simply be remiss to hold any sharpness toward another who uttered such mollifying words. Yet his gaze still did not hold the same tender tone as before, nor did an answering string of prose leap from his tongue. Instead, gentle concern colored his features and tainted his voice as he responded to her unnecessary apology.
"And I couldn't have possibly asked for anything nicer," he said. A number of compliments to follow the comment with filled his head, but he shook them away. Of the few things that ruled over romantic interest in his mind, consideration for another's well-being would always prevail.

Winnie's subsequent remark regarding his name brought a sad smile to his lips. If he thought the interaction to this point had seemed familiar, her immediate response mirrored the one she'd given in their first meeting perfectly.
That confirmed it, then; he'd been forgotten again, and there was clearly something wrong.
"Fun couldn't even begin to describe it." The quiet confirmation left his throat as more of a sigh than anything else; of longing for what once was, and of mourning for what lived on only in his memories. No longer was the special encounter shared between two minds intertwined by a single thread in the woven strands of time. No longer could the budding emotions of that day be nourished, for one flower's roots had been clipped, leaving the other to grow in solitude, able only to gaze upon the dead petals of its counterpart and lament the potential they'd never had the chance to reach.
He didn't know what might have caused the girl's loss of memory, but if there was anything to be done, then he would do it.

A soft light of recognition finally shone through the deep-seated fog in Winnie's eyes, the first sign that Marshal had seen. Turning away momentarily, she reached into a satchel at her hip, rummaging inside for a few moments before facing him once more, a book now occupying her hands. Scarcely did he glimpse its leather-bound face before it was whisked aside in a flurry of rustling paper, as thin sheets of papyrus were displaced in an apparent search for a particular page. Upon completion of said search, the book was overturned and introduced to his own grip, in an effort to afford him a better view of the page's contents.
Hazel irises immediately brightened with recognition, studying the drawing for a moment, then flicking back to Winnie's features.
"So you do remember!" came an exclamation of excitement before he managed to check himself. "A little, at least. That's better than nothing. You obviously haven't forgotten everything entirely."
Then perhaps the roots of their shared memory hadn't been eradicated from her mind completely. With nourishment and care, a new bud could grow, and the fire they'd felt on that day may yet be reignited.

Any semblance of hope vanished with the girl's next words, however, replaced by an emptiness within his chest as he attempted to discern the implications of what she'd said. The meaning seemed to be direct enough, but surely he'd misheard or misunderstood somehow.
"They... what?"
That couldn't be right. The very thought that anyone would knowingly do something so nefarious was ludicrous on its own, but for it to be done to someone as sweet and - frankly - innocent as Winnie? That was a level far deeper than absurdity.

Were the red-head to repeat the tale of her misfortune, the boy's hazel eyes would adopt a darker hue, an ominous cloud seeming to rise within his lungs.
Following several seconds of silence, his gaze would shift beyond Winnie's face, landing instead on an indiscernible point in the distance, as though he were unwilling to fix the grim stare upon her. Posture unnaturally still, like a scarecrow tasked as a sentinel over her heart, the only visible movement would be the subtle trembling of the sketchbook in his hands.
"When you say 'someone,' do you mean you have no idea who did it?" The question would come slowly, each word carefully enunciated.

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Interacting With: @Marshal Mozor

Outfit: ꕤ

Mentioning: @

Date: October. 27th, 2021

As a look of concern twisted Marshal’s visage into an image Winnie oft found stalked her nightmares, the Ravenclaw experienced a sinking feeling within the pit of her stomach. Her ignorant mind had thought she had pieced it all together, believed she had dusted off each piece of the puzzle her lost memories had bequeathed her, but as she mentally took a step back, it dawned on her… She had forced pieces to fit together, had hammered them down with her hand until her mind accepted them as a match. Now, this princely boy had approached her carrying a handful of puzzle pieces. She would either need to discard them or take apart the entire cursed puzzle.

Winnie's gaze fell downcast at that response, the inky tendrils of guilt gripping her heart. It seemed to follow her around, casting a shadow over her whenever she was faced with the reality that there were moments she shared and bonds she had created that she could never retrieve. What was perhaps worse was that she had given Marshal a moment of hope as his eyes scanned over the drawing she had presented him. It was a bird's eye view of the Quidditch pitch, one that she had become rather familiar with after practicing for her position as Ravenclaw's second-string chaser. "I mean, it sounds familiar and I kind of know it happened, but I can't remember specifics." She had to admit to Gryffindor. Disappointing the golden-haired boy truly felt like kicking an innocent dog. "I suppose this doesn't make any better, but I really wish I could remember it. It's like... Have you ever woken up from a dream and there are things from it you can place, but the core of it has seemed to vanish?" She asked the boy with a tilt of her head, her brows furrowing as she tried to properly express herself.

"I--..." That darkened gaze seemed like it belonged an entire world away, and it was one that Winnie recognized. She had seen the same look cross her brother's face the day he had discovered her memories were erased. The expression called for blood. "I do, but... I still don't know the entire story. It could have been an accident." It was a lie, but she didn't want Marshal to get into trouble as Jack had. She also didn't want him to hurt Levi, no matter how terrible the act he committed was.

"Y-You don't have to be angry for me, I've accepted it." If she were to tell Marshal the truth, she would have to calm him down first, otherwise, he was likely to storm off. Her hand reached across her sketchbook to take the Gryffindor's hand as if this act alone was enough to distract him from his anger. As their skin brushed together, the Ravenclaw experienced a sense of déjà vu. It had been there before, but she could see it more clearly. How there was a familiarity that seemed to dance around Marshal's form, a melody she could not quite place. Haunting in its nature, perhaps the echoes could of what could have been. As if his heart had known her own eons ago and she was left with nothing but the dull ache of what might have been.