Welcome to the Jungle
Being back in Tenūsa was strange, rooming with his ex-boyfriend was stranger, but Arturo felt compelled to return to support Matthew and his alma mater during their Open Day where both International Schools and other adults were invited into the jungles of Omah Geni for a glimpse at the mysticism and allure of what Tenūsa had to offer the world as a non-traditional schooling opportunity for those within Pasifika. He'd known of some of the others he would be rooming with, but it wasn't anything Arturo wasn't comfortable with at his big age.
There was a stint where he was the Grand Dukun and he would be lying if a part of him didn't want to see how exactly the school had been doing without him. Ego got the best of them all, right? Besides, Arturo had missed the glitz and glamour of his career saving the magical wilds and the limelight/attention that came with his level of expertise. Arturo never shied away from the rubbing of elbows and charming the pants off of the wizarding elite for some private donations for the sake of his agency and their company's mission.
All it took was a single portkey and Arturo had disappeared from the location in New Zealand and found his way back to where it all began.
It's where he met Kiara Tūwhare, his dukun who helped show him the world of conservation, where he met some of his best friends, where he had learned about his own bongao tree frog patronus, and where he ultimately decided that after three years of teaching, it was time to focus back on his career. He'd hoped that Kiara would've joined them or even take some time with Jason and Kavi, who was now a full-on seventh year almost ready to graduate. It was so wild to watch these young wixen grow up and be a part of their formative years.
And now, Arturo's hand grazed against the foliage that felt like a second home to him, his eyes scanning through the verdant lush jungle until he spotted the array of traveler wagons set up for some of them. It was quite the spectacle, whimsical and somewhat kooky in design and aesthetic that had Arturo chuckling slightly at the design. He couldn't wait to see what Aulis had to say in this thick accent about how tacky this looked in comparison to what he imagined Koldovstoretz to look like.
Luckily for them, they had been placed in what Arturo had always been the most comfortable in. The High Houses were part treehouse, part mountainside, using nature as the blueprint for what they decided to build. It was beautiful and exactly how Arturo loved it.
Arriving up to the door, Arturo pushed it open as he watched as magic transformed the dwelling into a large, comfortable space easily able to accommodate the adults who had decided to attend with very prominent elements of nature intertwined into a living space.
" Anybody home? " His voice curled into a question, curious if he was already late to a party forming or if his promptness had caused him to be the first to arrive.tag. high houses (group a): @akinyi odera, @anthonie engelbrecht, @aulis vorozheykin, and @ruckus weems
Welcome to the Jungle
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Welcome to the Jungle
As much as the bright-eyed, young-spirited teenagers were the world to him, Anthonie Engelbrecht decided he deserved a tropical paradise holiday.
With long, winding stairs ahead of him and a bustling world of mingling attendees behind him, he chose the former and began his ascent. Individually separated quarters connected by draping bridges, the twenty-five year old glanced upwards to find buildings precariously dangling above him, kept together by sheer will and a touch of magic. When he found his own, tree bursting to life with birds and insects, a hand clamped around the door handle and pushed down with decisiveness.
" Anybody home? " Slipped out a voice from before him as Anthonie stepped into his High House lodgings, wood creaking as nature whispered beneath white trainers.
The structure reminded him of home, with its towering buildings carved into the mountainside. Uagadou's caverns were much drier, the air crisp and vegetation sparse in relativity. While they did boast fog and a torrent of streams, it was no comparison to the utter jungle Tenūsa was. Yet he had barely had time to admire the sights from his advantageous position of hight as a man, holding himself younger than he looked, strode into their common area with a youthful gait.
The door swung to a shut behind Anthonie, yet it was not his only answer for Arturo Reyes. No, outgoing as he was and eager to make an impression, he had far more to say.
" I see you have already settled in, " Anthonie remarked with a small smile, bag plopping down on the sofa with muffled protest. Stretching his shoulders, he held himself higher, more squarely as he approached the older man, introducing himself as : " Anthonie, it's a pleasure. " Meeting you. Being here.
Then his eyes flickered, and blue seemed to brighten under the Tenūsa sunlight. Holding herself with the same elegance she always had was a figure more familiar than he had expected. A beautifully rich brown complexion, curly hair perfectly matching piercing dark eyes; Anthonie thought she had not changed at all since he last saw her, when he was still a fourth year and she graduating. Mentor, friend - labels no longer mattered as the drop of a name confirmed his suspicions.
Still, it came out more as a question : " Akinyi... Odera? "
He grinned. " Far too long has passed - how are you? "
@Arturo Reyes, @Akinyi Odera | banner by Adeline Spinks
we are all stardust and stories. we are all dreams.
Archer Duncan | Liliya Starkova
Archer Duncan | Liliya Starkova
Welcome to the Jungle
AULIS VOROZHEYKIN.
KOLDOVSTORETZ. DIRECTOR OF STUDIES.
Russian. | English.
Spoken. | Thought.
Upon arriving to the Isle of Divination, a place he had visited more than once before (seeing as how he'd, you know, dated the former Headmaster and all), Aulis could not help but be filled with a foreboding sense of dread and unease. It washed over him like a tsunami as he Portkeyed in with the few of his students who had decided to come attend this dreadful mess of an event during the winter holiday; sure, he did not mind escaping the cold for a few days on a sunny beach, but he almost wished none of the attendees of the Koldovstoretz Conservatory had wished to come on this field trip at all. It would have been much, much easier for him simply to never come back to this place.
Still, the Director of Studies - he was going on nearly a year now with such a title, something of which he would never exactly tire - reminded himself, mentally and silently, that the reason for these disquieting jitters would not even be here. The last Aulis had heard, his ex-boyfriend had been off researching in New Zealand, back to his conservationist ways. This was not to say that Aulis had kept tabs on Arturo - oh, who was he to lie to himself? Of course he had, but no more than he did on any other person he deemed a potential threat to him, or at least that was what he told himself to sleep better at night.
Speaking of sleeping, he was told quickly that he had been assigned to spend these next two nights in a 'High House', whatsoever that was, with four other adults. The names of these adults were not shared with him, but Aulis made a point of finding his as soon as he could possibly get away and setting up a spot to watch the house from a safe distance away. Eyeline glued to the door; Omnioculars glued to his face. Lights and movement from within the windows informed him that a woman had arrived before, dark-skinned with curly hair, and it did not take long for two more men to arrive just a little ways away from each other. Aulis squinted at the one in the back first; he was young, and cute, too, with round glasses and wavy brown hair. Then, just as the first one opened the door, Aulis focused his attention to this man - built, all rippling muscles and tanned skin, and the man turned his face just slightly enough for Aulis to recognise him in the fraction of a second before he disappeared into the High House.
'Twas almost enough to make Aulis drop his binoculars.
Arturo. Not researching in a faraway land after all, as his network had informed him; no, Art was here, here in the jungles of Tenusa, where vines wrapped around trees almost as tightly as they had once wrapped around each other. Flashbacks of the house in New Zealand hit him, too, as a flood of memories rushed through his brain. Aulis tamped them down. No. This is not the time. Now is the time for preparation. How do you greet your ex-boyfriend after three and a half years apart?
The fourth of his four roommates had not yet arrived, but Aulis knew that it was time to act nevertheless. Stowing his Omnioculars in his bag, the impeccably dressed Director (in a white linen shirt and matching shorts, to beat the heat) stood and made his way to the High House in which two strangers and one who had never really been a stranger already stood. He took a deep breath, listened to the accents on the other side of the wall and made mental notes about what to say, then kicked the door down.
No, not really - he wasn't that dramatic! But Aulis did push the door open with a loud bang!, one-armed as he used the other to circle a marked loop in the air with his ree hand. "So, that I'm not the last one. Is good! But I knew would happen, yes." Blinking wide eyes at the trio gathered there, Aulis pointed to each one in turn as the door swung shut behind him with an equally loud creaking sound. "Only three remain, here. From Hogwarts, from Uagadou, and is one who once upon time called the place his home." Pointedly ignoring looking at Art, even though he had placed a long finger very, very close to the other man's chest in the last clause of his previous sentence, Aulis swooped in-between Anthonie and Akinyi and gave them both a brilliant, if theatrical, smile. "Maybe, let us place the bets, dear friends, for the last member of our group? He will be... where from? Or she?" Eyebrows waggling, it seemed almost as if the Russian was daring them to guess at an answer which he already knew. The bright white hair would give away his Seer heritage - or, at least, trick them into thinking that was the case. Not that Aulis truly knew anything about the fourth member, but perhaps one of these would, and they'd give something away that he could use to spin one of his famous yarns.
Still, the Director of Studies - he was going on nearly a year now with such a title, something of which he would never exactly tire - reminded himself, mentally and silently, that the reason for these disquieting jitters would not even be here. The last Aulis had heard, his ex-boyfriend had been off researching in New Zealand, back to his conservationist ways. This was not to say that Aulis had kept tabs on Arturo - oh, who was he to lie to himself? Of course he had, but no more than he did on any other person he deemed a potential threat to him, or at least that was what he told himself to sleep better at night.
Speaking of sleeping, he was told quickly that he had been assigned to spend these next two nights in a 'High House', whatsoever that was, with four other adults. The names of these adults were not shared with him, but Aulis made a point of finding his as soon as he could possibly get away and setting up a spot to watch the house from a safe distance away. Eyeline glued to the door; Omnioculars glued to his face. Lights and movement from within the windows informed him that a woman had arrived before, dark-skinned with curly hair, and it did not take long for two more men to arrive just a little ways away from each other. Aulis squinted at the one in the back first; he was young, and cute, too, with round glasses and wavy brown hair. Then, just as the first one opened the door, Aulis focused his attention to this man - built, all rippling muscles and tanned skin, and the man turned his face just slightly enough for Aulis to recognise him in the fraction of a second before he disappeared into the High House.
'Twas almost enough to make Aulis drop his binoculars.
Arturo. Not researching in a faraway land after all, as his network had informed him; no, Art was here, here in the jungles of Tenusa, where vines wrapped around trees almost as tightly as they had once wrapped around each other. Flashbacks of the house in New Zealand hit him, too, as a flood of memories rushed through his brain. Aulis tamped them down. No. This is not the time. Now is the time for preparation. How do you greet your ex-boyfriend after three and a half years apart?
The fourth of his four roommates had not yet arrived, but Aulis knew that it was time to act nevertheless. Stowing his Omnioculars in his bag, the impeccably dressed Director (in a white linen shirt and matching shorts, to beat the heat) stood and made his way to the High House in which two strangers and one who had never really been a stranger already stood. He took a deep breath, listened to the accents on the other side of the wall and made mental notes about what to say, then kicked the door down.
No, not really - he wasn't that dramatic! But Aulis did push the door open with a loud bang!, one-armed as he used the other to circle a marked loop in the air with his ree hand. "So, that I'm not the last one. Is good! But I knew would happen, yes." Blinking wide eyes at the trio gathered there, Aulis pointed to each one in turn as the door swung shut behind him with an equally loud creaking sound. "Only three remain, here. From Hogwarts, from Uagadou, and is one who once upon time called the place his home." Pointedly ignoring looking at Art, even though he had placed a long finger very, very close to the other man's chest in the last clause of his previous sentence, Aulis swooped in-between Anthonie and Akinyi and gave them both a brilliant, if theatrical, smile. "Maybe, let us place the bets, dear friends, for the last member of our group? He will be... where from? Or she?" Eyebrows waggling, it seemed almost as if the Russian was daring them to guess at an answer which he already knew. The bright white hair would give away his Seer heritage - or, at least, trick them into thinking that was the case. Not that Aulis truly knew anything about the fourth member, but perhaps one of these would, and they'd give something away that he could use to spin one of his famous yarns.
|| DATE. 3rd Jan. 2026 | LOCATION. Tenūsa, Omah Geni, IoD | OUTFIT. here | WORD COUNT. 874/200 ||
|| KEEN EYE | PERFECTIONIST II | CHARMER | NONVERBAL MAGIC | WANDLESS MAGIC | LEGILIMENS | OCCLUMENS ||
@Arturo Reyes, @Anthonie Engelbrecht, @Akinyi Odera, & @Ruckus Weems
|| KEEN EYE | PERFECTIONIST II | CHARMER | NONVERBAL MAGIC | WANDLESS MAGIC | LEGILIMENS | OCCLUMENS ||
@Arturo Reyes, @Anthonie Engelbrecht, @Akinyi Odera, & @Ruckus Weems