Date: August 2 2023 Time: 9:51

Interacting with: the awesome @Irina Shevel Mentions: X

English | French Thoughts

Alarian | Pierre | Reltyl | Hyltwis

Irina has permission to godmod Mahlioz + her family lightly if needed (:

Mahlioz was pacing in her room, trying not to think. She was failing miserably. Her brain was going every which way, trying to see if there was anything she hadn't done. Her room was cleaned, like her parents had asked (not that she thought Irina would mind, but she'd done it anyway), and it had an extra bed next to hers. She'd been racing up and down the stairs as soon as she'd woken up, trying to get everything in place. Her cardboard collection, in a corner of her room, was ready. Her books were tidied up and ready. There was not one thing out of place.

...Except Irina. Irina was out of place, because she wasn't here yet. Of course, she was supposed to come at 10:00, and it was only - Mahlioz checked her watch for the millionth time - 9:48. There were still twelve long, excruciating minutes to wait. And so the best thing Mahlioz could do was pace and think.
On her wall were two maps she'd spent the last few days making. They were somewhat accurate blueprints of the first and second floor of her house, detailing the best places and the ones to avoid (including Hyltwis' room). These maps can be found in this post She couldn't wait to show them to Irina.

Mahlioz checked her watch again, only to be disappointed by the passing of only two minutes. Ten more minutes to go. She decided to go downstairs and wait by the fireplace. Reltyl was in the living room, playing on their tablet, and Hyltwis was probably upstairs in her room. Mahlioz couldn't understand how they weren't as excited as her. Irina was coming! It should have been enough to make everyone wait by the fireplace with her.

Irina clattered down the stairs for what felt like the a hundredth time, holding the fifth item she had almost forgotten; her wand. She shoved it hastily into her backpocket before rushing to the fireplace where her Dad was waiting. He grinned at her and chuckled, muttering, "Taking after her dad."
Her Mum walked through from the kitchen and rolled her eyes with a smile, quipping back, "If she took after you anymore, she'd forget her own brain!" Amara turned to her daughter and warpped her in a tight hug.
"Your first sleepover! You have fun and send an owl if you want to be picked up . . . not that I think that will happen though."
Irina hugged her Mum back, murmuring, "Yeah, no chance that's gonna happen. Mahlioz is the best." She pulled away and smiled up at her Mum. "Sure you can't come and meet her?"
"Sorry love, my Peace Draught is about to turn purple and then I need to add the Unicorn Horn. But you make sure to send my hello and," she turned back to Lyall, "Ly, make sure you apologise I can't be there. Alright, have a great time sweetie. Love you!"
They shared a last hug before she hurried out of the room and outside to her Potions shed. Lyall picked up Irina's backpack and a small pot next to the fireplace. "Okidoki niffle! Ready to go?"

"Ready!"

In reality, she had been ready to go for the past few days. In an un-Irina like fashion, she had decided to pack 3 days ago, rather than the usual 5-minutes-before-we-leave packing. As soon as she had woken up, she had pestered her parents about leaving, following her Dad around the house and even entering her Mum's Potion shed (something all of the kids had been firmly banned from doing). But now she was finally off. She was finally going to see her best friend!

Lyall checked the letter in his hand for the address one more time before putting it down and holding his free hand out for Irina to take. She eagerly grabbed it, jumping up and down in her excitement to get to Mahlioz's house. Lyall said threw the powder down, clearly said the address and the pair stepped into the fire.

The journey was short and familiar, and Irina thought the few seconds spinning were few seconds too long. She finally felt her Dad pulling her forwards and she stepped out eagerly arriving in Mahlioz's house. She scanned the room before seeing her best friend, emerald eyes gleaming and chocolate skin glowing.
Irina pelted across the room squealing, "Mahlioz!", before crashing into the Slytherin in a tight hug.

Alarian | Pierre | Reltyl | Hyltwis

Irina's face hurt she was smiling so much. After they released each other, Mahlioz stepped backwards and said, "How are you? What've you been doing? I'm so excited! What do you want to do first? Oh, and I have to show you my room!" Irina giggled at the spurt of words, aware that Mahlioz usually didn't speak this much . . . ergo, her friend was just as exited as she was.
"Hehe, I'm good, I've been waiting to see you, me too, whatever you want and absolutely!" Irina replied, reeling off the sentence as fast as possible, not even trying to remove the broad smile on her face.

Irina looked over at the now talking adults and waved. Her other hand was grabbed by Mahlioz and as she was tugged out of the room she shouted, "Bye Dad! Nice to meet you Mrs and Mr Evethisawe!" The she pelted after Mahlioz up to the second floor.

"After, I can show you around downstairs, but for now, I think we should let the adults adult."
"Pff," Irina laughed. "They're gonna be adulting for hours! Next thing you know my Dad will be staying here too," she joked.

She was relieved to hear she would be staying in the same room as Mahlioz and eagerly stepped through the doorway into her bestfriend's room.
It was a little larger than hers but looked just as cozy. Every square inch of shelf Irina could see was covered by books of all coloures and sizes. There was a mattress lying next to a bed covered in an array of stuffed animals. The room appeared perfect for Mahlioz and Irina turned to find the Slytherin sitting on her bed and grinning.

"I'm so glad you're here! I missed you so much! And I can't wait to start doing stuff. Reltyl is going to be so shocked when they find out you've never played video games before!" She paused, realizing something. "Oh my goodness, you haven't even met them yet! I'll have to introduce you to them." Finally trying to calm herself down, she asked, "So - what do you think?"

Irina sat next to Mahlioz and gave her another hug, far shorter this time. "I think our parents are gonna rue the day they let me come over - they're never gonna get me to leave! And your room. Is. Gorgeous. I love it!"
She pulled away and looked at her friend saying, "And you're right, you do need to introduce me to them . . . and maybe explain a little more about how vi-dee-oh games work cause I don't wanna look too stupid." She chuckled, thinking about Reltyl. Mahlioz had spoken a little about Reltyl, they were a squib and Mahlioz was incredibly close with them. Irina was actually pretty excited to meet Mahlioz's family - being a people person, the idea of meeting people who were family to her favourite person was very exciting!

So, what are you thinking of doing first?"

Date: August 2 2023 Time: 9:51

Interacting with: the marvelous @Irina Shevel Mentions: X

English | French Thoughts

Alarian | Pierre | Reltyl | Hyltwis

Mahlioz's heart was beating so frantically it felt like it was trying to escape (and probably go hug Irina). She'd been looking forward to this day ever since she'd had the idea for it, and now here the two of them were, sitting together on Mahlioz's bed with grins on their faces, joking around like Irina had always been here.
The Slytherin remembered that day in the owlery, when they'd spun around and around giggling like lunatics, and had wished that moment would never end. But now she really wished this one would never end. Or the whole week. That would be great, if they could put the week on repeat, forever. She didn't even know how it would go, but she knew it would be great.

"Yeah - I don't think I'll be able to let them!" Mahlioz laughed, speaking of Irina's parents who were very surely going to regret having accepted this by the end of the week. "And thank you!" She herself couldn't see very much in particular that was gorgeous about her room (well, maybe apart from her stuffed animals - and the green wallpaper), except that Irina was in it.
The soon-to-be second year laughed again at the mention of video games. "Alright, I'll explain them to you, I think Reltyl might drop dead if they realize you don't know what they are." Although they were probably the best person to explain. Mahlioz wasn't too far off from Irina - she'd only ever played Minecraft, and even in that, she'd managed to die in creative mode.

"Okay, so. They're like interactive paintings that have been specifically programmed - or made in a certain way to do specific things - by muggles. A lot of them have storylines where you have to make choices to get to different parts of it. It's kind of like a tiny interactive world that only exists until you turn it off."
Mahlioz actually had no idea if any of this made sense. Had she been in Irina's shoes, she would have been even more confused than she had been. But the Gryffindor was a lot more curious and adventurous and imaginative, so... maybe there was a chance she'd learned a little about this stuff before? In any case, it would be a lot easier to explain with an actual video game in front of them, but they'd cross that bridge when they got to it.

"I don't know!" Mahlioz admitted when her best friend asked what she was thinking of doing first. "Honestly anything. I just can't believe you're here!" Mentally, the girl ran through a list of things to do in her mind, before landing on the one and only sport she liked. "Er... have you ever tried archery before?"

Irina listened closely to Mahlioz's explanation about video-games, hanging off of her every word. Her brain was whirring with excitement and curiosity at this new muggle thing to learn about - Aunt Liz had been more than happy to explain certain muggle creations, but this video-game thing had not been one of them.

Once Mahlioz had finished speaking, Irina sat, legs crossed and face screwed up in an effort to understand.
"So," she said slowly, "So can we control these interactive paintings? And are they in frames or something?"
It sounded pretty cool, but she still didn't quite get it - maybe it would be easier to watch Reltyl and try and pick it up as she went along.

Irina sat up straight and lent forwards in excitement as Mahlioz mentioned archery. "Have I? I love archery! Aunt Liz took me and Kay on a little trip thing and we were taught how to do it."
Irina snorted as she remembered how Kay had done some accidental magic on that trip. "Kay kept on missing the target so he changed the direction of each arrow. It kinda looked like they were going in a horizontal arch! The instructors were really confused. It was hilarious," she chuckled, her laughter getting harder to contain. "And then Aunt Liz walked over and muttered 'Errm, you're not allowed to do that, right?'" Irina shook her head ruefully and looked up at the ceiling, smiling at the memory of her brother.
She then looked quickly back at Mahlioz, mouth open in shock. "Hang on, you have archery stuff here? Dude, you're house is seriosuly awesome."

Irina jumped off of Mahlioz's bed, shouting "What're you waiting for," over her shoulder as she pelted out of the room.

. . .

She then walked slowly back through the door again, a sheepish grin on her face as she muttered, "I don't . . . actually know where I'm, er - I don't know where I'm going." She gave a broad grin and gestured through the door. "Lead the way?"

Date: August 2 2023 Time: 9:52

Interacting with: the marvelous @Irina Shevel Mentions: X

English | French Thoughts

Alarian | Pierre | Reltyl | Hyltwis

Mahlioz had grown up with the best of both the wizarding world and the muggle one - her family used both brooms and cars, both magic and electricity. Before she'd gone to Hogwarts, she'd of course known that not everyone was like this, but it had sort of felt that way anyway. She had never had one without the other - how could anyone else?
But Irina - who was a halfblood herself - only knew the wizarding world. And though she'd known there would be loads of people like that at Hogwarts, it was still rather weird to have to explain a video game to someone who had never even heard of them before.

"Kind of," she replied with a laugh to the question about frames. "Uh... there's different devices you can use to play them. You'll see. And yeah, you can control them, but how depends on what device you're using. Sometimes there's buttons, and sometimes you can just touch the painting and it will react."

The topic changed to archery and Mahlioz was elated to hear that Irina had done it before, and even loved it. Mahlioz couldn't help joining in on Irina's laughter when she recounted how her brother had been so sick of missing his target that he'd used magic to steer his arrows. "I've really got to meet this Kay someday!" she exclaimed, trying to get her breath back. She couldn't remember if Irina had said something about his age or whether he was coming to Hogwarts. She would have to ask at some point.

"Oh, well, I don't know if it's all that good," she said with a sheepish grin. "We've just got a couple of bows and a paper target. But I'd love to do some with you!" She didn't even have time to finish her sentence before Irina had leapt up and out of the door, asking Mahlioz to lead the way. The Slytherin gladly obliged.

-------------------------------- Time Skip to ~10:00, in Mahlioz's backyard -------------------------------

The Evethisawes' backyard was pretty peculiar, to be honest. From the outside, it looked small enough, just like the rest of the nearby backyards. But as soon as you were actually in the backyard itself, it was quite a bit bigger. Nearly half of it was fenced off, for Alarian's magizoologist duties; most of the time, Mahlioz had no idea what kind of animals resided there. Maybe that was concerning.
The rest of the garden was reserved to a trampoline, a shed, and mostly grass. Mahlioz went straight to the shed to get out two recurve bows, a couple of arrows with suction cups on the ends, and a paper target, which she sticky-tacked to the wall of her house.

Then she handed a bow to Irina. "You ready?" she asked with another grin.

Irina bounced on the bed slightly as she listened to Mahlioz continue to describe computer games . . . her brain was beginning to fry. They seemed pretty cool though and sounded a little like Wizard Paintings. The Shevel family had a small one in their kitchen of Balsam Mango Shevel, Irina's great-great-great grandfather. He had had an unfortunate encounter with an intelligence potion gone wrong, isolated himself for a number of years before returning to human society with a small tribe of over 20 house-elves. They had revered him and when he died, commemorated him with a portrait. Apparently the house-elf tribe was now living in the Maldives. Balsam was a little cockoo but Irina loved speaking to him - it was hilarious ever time.
Irina immedietly forgot about her crazy great-great-great-grandfather as the best friends ran from the room and out into Mahlioz's garden.

Irina looked around in wide-eyed glee at Mahlioz's garden. It was enormous, enough space to play a great game of tag, a shed that once peeked inside held the promise of great entertainment and, most intriguing of all, the fenced off portion of the garden. Irina seemed to recall Mahlioz mentioning her mum being a mazigoologist or whatever it was called - maybe it had exciting and exotic creatures! Irina's Mum also dabbled in magi. . .thing, owning a shed the kids were forbidden to enter. She decided to speak to Mahlioz later about the hilarious connection between their parents.

Mahlioz collected a pair of bow and arrows from the shed before returning, a broad grin on her face. "You ready?" she asked, proferring the bow.
"You bet," Irina grinned, taking the bow and jumping dramatically into a ready stance. "Prepare to be wowed my insane talent and sheer awesomeness!"
Irina nocked the arrow on her bow, keeping in trained downwards and her index finger above and middle, ring fingers below the arrow. In a (hopefully) fluid motion, she drew the bow, string pulled back and fingers pressed against her cheek. She closed one eye, took a deep breath and released the arrow. It sailed gracefully through the air, cutting through it with a clean precision . . . and missed the target by several inches.

Irina dropped the bow in surprise, eyebrows raised in vague surprise and mouth slightly open. "Hmm. This is harder than I remember!" She turned to her friend and gave a sheepish grin. "Feeling wowed yet?" Who knew archery could be so hard!

Date: August 2 2023 Time: 10:03

Interacting with: the really-awesome-let-me-get-my-thesaurus-ah-here-prodigious @Irina Shevel Mentions: X

English | French Thoughts

Alarian | Pierre | Reltyl | Hyltwis

As Mahlioz watched Irina take her bow, readying it and getting into position to let her arrow fly, she couldn't help but feel incredibly, insanely lucky. This girl, this amazing girl with a bow in her hands who had been smiling and laughing and generally being awesome was her best friend. A year ago Mahlioz had barely known what having a friend was like, and now here she was with this amazing, amazing person.

Who apparently hadn't done archery in a while. Neither had Mahlioz, so she really couldn't blame her. Mahlioz burst out laughing once again at Irina's 'feeling wowed yet?' "Oh, definitely," she said, a slight grin trying to sneak out as her only sign of sarcasm. "That was, what... ten centimeters off? Fifteen? That's nothing. You basically hit the bull's eye!"
The Slytherin, still beaming, brought up her own bow. It had been a while since she'd last shot, what with Hogwarts and all the tests and exams at the end of the year, but it was basically second nature to her by now, archery. (Not that that kept the bruises off her fingers. They still hurt for ages after a session). She went through the same movements as Irina, aiming for the center of the target.

Well... okay, maybe it wasn't as second nature as she'd hoped. It really had been too long. She'd thought she would at least get the red ring, but her arrow seemed to have been compelled towards the white. At least it was on the target. Her skill hadn't left her yet!
Nocking a second arrow, she turned to Irina. Her best friend. The most amazing person on earth, right now. "Again?" Mahlioz really needed the practice.

Reducio

Timeskip to later, so we don't have to keep RPing all their archery?

"Feeling wowed yet?"

"Oh, definitely. That was, what... ten centimeters off? Fifteen? That's nothing. You basically hit the bull's eye!"

Irina laughed, the giddy happiness glowing in her chest. It was times like this that she just thought 'I love Mahl!'
She watched as Mahlioz raised her own bow, her body making it very clear she knew what she was doing. The arrow cut through the air and made a satisfying whump as it hit the target. Irina secretly felt a little relieved it only hit the white - it would have been more than embarrasing if Mahlioz got bulls-eye first try.

They spent the next few hours firing at the target, laughing at one and other's mistakes and shouting loudly when either hit the centre of the target. There was a lot of nudging elbows and whistling in each other's ears so that by the time they went to pick up all of their arrows, they had to treck all around the garden.
By the time their arms were aching so much they had to stop, Irina had hit the centre 4 or 5 times! Mahlioz had exceeded her score by a mile but for some reason Irina's competetive streak had stayed dormant, simply happy to spend time with her best friend.

Time-skip to 12:15 - Mahlioz's dining room

Irina followed Mahlioz through the house, grateful at the suggestion of food - the archery had taken her mind off of her stomach for a miraculous few hours but now . . . she was hungry.
Mahlioz's mother had called them from the garden announcing lunch and the two girls had happily stored away their gear to hurry inside.

Irina walked into the dining room and waved to the gathered family, already sitting at the table. She ate with her family too, so the sight was fairly normal - she gave a cheery wave before looking to Mahlioz, checking where she was supposed to sit.
Once sitting down, she gave a quick glance around the room, curious to see more of Mahlioz's home.