Interacting with : Reducio @Ellie Randensmith, @Summer Lancaster, @Rayne Alex Crown

Outfit: Reducio

Notes: Reducio Speech: #8e19d7 Thoughts: italics Date: July 20th, midmorning

After the summer solstice, the weather seemed to grow hotter and more turbulent. If Devon had to be honest, however, she didn’t mind the rain or thunderstorms that often accompanied hot and hazy summer days. She enjoyed dancing in the rain. Their apartment building complex had a pretty nice overhang to it, too. Launching pirouettes under the cover and outside of the cover was pretty easy for her to accomplish … at least if there was no one walking on the sidewalk.

Devon had always been a pretty independent girl. She had no problem walking around New York City by herself. The only time she really felt lonely was when she went to any of the attractions around the city. Even then, she always had the option of asking one of her three siblings. Her family lived near the intersection of 3rd Avenue and East 53rd Street, which put her within a decent distance of many iconic New York locations.

Summer breaks like this were usually pretty planned out. Devon would leave her apartment complex, take the subway to Central Park (or even walk if the weather was really nice out), practice some yoga, kick her soccerball around, FaceTime with Kaitlyn under her favorite tree, study some magic or practice some Xylomancy, stop for a delicious smoothie, and then head back home. Sometimes she played the violin, too. It would depend, naturally, on the day.

For today, though, Devon carried a gym bag on her back. Stuffed inside were her Divination journal, her soccer ball, a yoga mat, and a water bottle filled with cool water. The young girl skipped out of the subway terminal, walking up to the street level and entering Central Park. It was a lovely location, filled with many attractions to capture her insane amount of energy!

With a bright smile, Devon dropped her gym bag at the base of a large tree overlooking Gapstow Bridge. After rummaging for a few seconds, she took out her soccer ball from her bag. She briefly took her cellphone out of her pocket and turned it on, waiting for her pending call from her best friend, Kaitlyn. With a happy sigh, she kicked the ball in the direction of a bunch of trees and ran after it.

Reducio

Note: 378 words

Ellie had made it to New York City. They say if you make it here, you can make it everywhere! That's the muggle saying, right? After putting her bags in her friend Summer's apartment, they headed out to Central Park. The walk wasn't to far from Summer's house so they made it there pretty fast.

Summer took a break to go to the bathroom so Ellie decided to explore on her own. The park was huge! There was a little trail that Ellie started to follow with bushes lining it. Ellie took in a breath of air. There were so many kids around! Some were in a corner, kicking these white and black balls through nets. Is this... muggle quidditch? Ellie looked to another section where a group of teenagers were on some weird rectangle. Ellie looked at them, puzzled, what were they doing? The rectangle appeared to be... glowing? Ellie shrugged and continued her walk.

One of the bushes rustled and a ball came out. It looked like one of the balls those kids had been playing with! Ellie watched one of them kick it and put her foot on the ball. A girl then came, through the same bush. Maybe this is her ball? Ellie smiled and kicked the ball to her like she had seen the other kids do.

"Is this your ball?" Ellie asked. Probably should have asked that before I kicked it to her. Oops. "Do you mind uh, teaching me how to play?"

Word count; 249

Reducio

@Devon Wallen @Summer lancaster @Rayne Alex Crown

Interacting with : Reducio @Ellie Randensmith, @Summer Lancaster, @Rayne Alex Crown

Outfit: Reducio

Notes: Reducio Speech: #8e19d7 Thoughts: italics Date: July 20th, midmorning

This. This was perfection. The air flowing breezily through her ponytail. Devon absolutely loved it! This was one of the few reasons why she decided to play soccer as a young girl. Now, it was harder, sure. But she found other soccer players at Ilvermorny. Plus, she could usually find a bunch of muggle kids interested enough to play over the summer, if she really wanted to. Otherwise, she enjoyed taking this time to practice. Central Park certainly felt vast, accommodating many people all at once! There was plenty of room!

Kicking a soccer ball in the vegetative oasis that was Central Park was a lot different than the bustle and rustle of the rest of New York City. Devon knew there was truth to the old saying … ‘The city that never sleeps.’ On the few times she didn’t fall asleep until late at night, she still often saw people awake and roaming the streets, or heading to one of many venues open late at night. She was often very curious about the nightlife and what people did that late. There had to be something going on. Even with her extroverted behavior, she also didn’t think she wanted to know … especially as just a young thirteen-year-old girl.

As she neared her ball, Devon’s eyes widened as a girl stepped over. The girl kicked her soccer ball back over to her. She dashed closer to intercept the ball and returned a kick back to her. “Yes, this is my soccer ball. I decided to come here to practice … it’s one of my favorite spots.” A smile crossed her features as she let out a giggle. “I can, if you want. This sport is played with 22 players at a time, 11 for each team. I won’t be able to show you too much, but I can try my best.”

Reducio

Note: 311 words

The girl told her that this was indeed her soccer ball and kicked it to her. Ellie stared at the ball as the blond girl in front of her told her she could teach her and explained a little about the game, like how it was played with eleven people on each team. Did I really just ask a muggle girl to teach me? Ellie thought, Well that act or something we learned about just said we shouldn't, talk about magic... interactions are ok though... I think!

"Neat!" Ellie told her and passed the ball back to her, "So, um, where do you want to go?"

Ellie smiled. Besides Summer, she hadn't really talked to anyone in New York City... yet. Ellie wished she could teach the girl quidditch but as she had learned about in History of Magic class, wizards and witches couldn't reveal themselves to muggles.

As Ellie's mind kept racing with thoughts, there was one that her brain kept going back to, what the girl said about eleven people playing on a team at once. She didn't know why, it just seems strange, like it was a lot of people. But eleven people is not even that much! Maybe it just seemed that... actually, she had no idea!

"What are the roles in... soccer?" Ellie said, hoping it didn't sound weird that she didn't know what soccer was.

@Deven Wallen

Interacting with : Reducio @Ellie Randensmith

Outfit: Reducio

Notes: Reducio Speech: #8e19d7 Thoughts: italics Date: July 20th, midmorning

A giggle crossed Devon’s lips at the girl’s answer. It was always great to hear someone else agree with her … and hopefully it would lead to a fun interaction!

Devon’s green eyes glanced around the area where the girls were currently standing. There were people nearby. Could they overhear what was being said? Was what they were saying sensitive? She didn’t think so, but who was she to judge? She gestured to the girl, kicking the soccer ball a little further away, toward a grove of trees. Yet, there was still plenty of room to kick the soccer ball.

As such, Devon kicked her soccer ball back to the girl, offering a bright smile. “Roles? Oh, positions!” She giggled quietly. “Ok, so, I could get more detailed, but I’ll give the basic idea. Each team has a goalkeeper. They defend the goal and can use their hands within the penalty area. We have three defenders who are supposed to prevent the opposing team from scoring. While they have specific functions, the whole idea is for them to defend the team’s side of the field. We have four midfielders who can do both defense and offense, who act fluidly in the game … depending on where they are needed. Finally, there are three forwards who are the offense and are designed to score goals,” she hashed off based on memory, clearly rambling on.

Devon was the type of girl who could talk on and on and on, if given the chance. At least … until she ran out of content. That didn’t mean that she wasn’t socially awkward, however! Just because she liked to talk didn’t mean that she was the best at talking. Then again, the young teenager had a simple desire at heart … to be friendly to others, and hoped to accomplish such a feat.

Reducio

Note: 308 words

Interacting with : Reducio @Ellie Randensmith

Outfit: Reducio

Notes: Reducio Speech: #8e19d7 Thoughts: italics Date: July 20th, midmorning

A light flush bloomed on Devon’s cheeks at the mention of the word … muggle. Despite it being just a word, it provided her a lot of information … ever since she heard of it and its different iterations from being the youngest sibling. With precision, she kicked her ball into the air and caught it. Without warning, she dashed over to the girl, leading her to a nearby tree with no one nearby. Before, her voice was nice and loud … a prime example of her extroverted nature. As it was, she enjoyed talking.

“Hey, don’t say that word too loud,” Devon whispered to her, keeping her voice low in contrast to before. “… and we refer to them as No-Maj’s here in the States, as they don’t have magic …” she trailed off, quietly. Pulling away, however, she next spoke at her regular bubbly volume. “Yes, other countries play it … er, some call it by different names, though. It’s called soccer here. It’s called football in England,” she explained, tossing her ball to the girl.

Then the girl introduced herself … likely as some form of trying to hide the blunder from before. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ellie. My name is Devon,” she replied with a smile. Clearly, she was talking to another witch, which was always beneficial. That also meant that they needed to keep any mention of magic to a minimum and to make sure that no one overheard them if they did. To be fair, Devon didn’t like the International Statute of Secrecy and wished she could talk about magic to Muggles. It would make her whole life easier. But, sadly, that law was firmly in place.

Reducio

Note: 285 words

Yup the girl defiantly caught her slip, but instead of looking at her funny or asking what the ment the girl told her not to say the word too loud. It's not like Ellie had tried! She was just so used to saying that! The girl explained that in America, muggles, were referred to as No-Maj's, which made sense. Ellie had always wondered where the word muggle had come from and saying No-Maj made way more sense then muggle, of course muggle was a funner word to say. Just something about the way it sounded on her tounge. Muggle. Ellie whispered it softly in a voice that no one could hear unless you really tried, and even then, it was so quiet.

“Yes, other countries play it … er, some call it by different names, though. It’s called soccer here. It’s called football in England" Ellie was told by the other girl while she was randomly thinking about muggles and no-majs, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ellie. My name is Devon,” Devon finish with.

Ellie smiled. "That's a nice name, I don't think I've ever heard it before, pretty! Do you uh... want to start playing? Sorry if i'm a klutz!"

Ellie smiled, although she was unsure if what she said was the right way to respond. Was this game going to be similar to quidditch? Was she going to suck? Or was she going to do ok? Ellie couldn't wait to start playing. She looked at the other kids that were playing this. They looked like they were having fun. Maybe she would too.

@Devon Wallen
Word count: 230
Speaking: #b88d00

Interacting with : Reducio @Ellie Randensmith

Outfit: Reducio

Notes: Reducio Speech: #8e19d7 Thoughts: italics Date: July 20th, midmorning

Smiling at Ellie, Devon was curious if she had somehow embarrassed Ellie with her words. Hopefully not! That wasn’t her intention! Rather, she wanted the other girl to know the connotation for what nonmagical people were called in America. After all, she had heard of the term muggle while visiting Hogwarts, and ocassionally from her bestie. She had no real preference toward the terminology. In her opinion, it all meant the same, anyway!

“Thanks! I agree, I haven’t heard of anyone else with my name,” Devon shrugged. Not that she minded. Having unique names just made it easier in class, when the teacher went through the attendance … at least in her opinion. Regardless, she was interested to know why her parents named her as such, but she never received a concrete reason from them. Strange. But, she didn’t press on it.

Glancing at the ball, Devon let go, so it dropped to the ground. “Ok … if you’re sure.” Looking around them briefly, she pointed to a goal post nearby that no one else was using. “This typically uses two of them to play a game, but we can just use one for this. The whole objective is to kick the ball into the net.” She finished. With a smile, Devon kicked the ball in the direction of the goal and gracefully ran after it.

Reducio

Note: 226 words

Eager to start, Ellie watched Devon with curiosity, what would they start with? Would she first learn the object of the game? How to play each postion and what each entailed? or would she learn something else?

Devon pointed at a net that no kids where using and explained how you normally used two of these but they could just use one since they will just be kicking the ball. After Devon said all this, Ellie watched as she kicked the ball and ran after it. Deciding it would be wise to follow, Ellie did. She chased after the ball with Devon and stopped when she reached her, which happened to be at the nets.

Ellie looked at the muggle kids and watched as they kicked it into the net. Deciding to try it, she took the ball from Devon's feet and kicked it into the net. Actually, it never reached the net, her kick had been too soft and landed a little ways from the net. Earlier she had seen one of the kids kick it and not quite meet the net so they ran after it. Deciding to do as they had done, Ellie ran to the ball and kicked, this time making it in the net. She looked at Devon, did this girl think that was weird? Or would she join? Ellie left it up to her.

@Devon Wallen
Word Count: 230
OOC notes: Sorry for how late this is!!