jasmine & chia for desiree and bat💙
jasmine ⇢ do you have a movie or book you loved but will never watch/read again?
[Desiree has to consider this question incredibly carefully.]
Desiree: "...Truthfully...no, I cannot zhink of anyzhing zhat fits zis question. I have not watched many non-Magique moving pictures, but ze few I have zeen are pleasant enough. And as for books -- mon Dieu! Even zhose books zhat I have read a million times, I would be happy to read again. Even zhose books I have read and not enjoyed as much as ozhers, I would be willing to try again at zome later date. If I end up not liking zhem again, ah! C'est la vie. And zhere are zo many more wonderful zhings to read, in zheir place."
Bat: "Robinson Crusoe. I read it quite a few times as a young lad, largely because there weren't that many fiction books in print appropriate for boys my age back then, Muggle or otherwise...but over time, I've found both the main character and his outlook on the world and the people in it who differ from him less and less pleasant. From what I've been able to research about the author of the novel, it seems Mr. Defoe was an intellectual to a degree, indulging in political satire and championing the ideas of religious freedom at a time when people were arrested for speaking ill of the nobility and violently persecuted for their faith...but the character Defoe created sadly embodies the painfully racist, imperialistic attitude that many non-Britons came to associate with England in particular, when it was a world power."
chia ⇢ what’s an inside joke you have with someone else?
[Desiree can't bite back a wry smile.]
Desiree: "I do not know if zis counts...but ze very time we first met, Monsieur Aquila told me to call him by his nickname alone. I refused, zince we were still but strangers, and it would not be appropriate -- zo I only called him 'Monsieur Aquila.' Even when I joined his crew, I zhought it would be best to call him 'Captain,' for zhat is what he is."
[Her long-lashed black eyes twinkle with something almost girlish, with how much amusement dances through her expression.]
Desiree: "Even now, he ztill tries to coax me to just call him by his nickname -- but I never do."
Julio Aquila is a very handsome name. Zeems a great shame, to shorten it.
Bat: "Oh, my old school friends and I had plenty, back in the day. Most of them at my expense...but hey, it was all in good fun! I laughed just as much as anyone else."
Sometimes all you can do in the face of having eternal bad luck is have a good sense of humor about it...
[Memories of Barty and Cecelia swooping in to save him from the consequences of yet another lost bet flicker over Bat's mind, making a bittersweet smile twitch at the corners of his lips.]
Bat: "For a more modern example, though, I can always point to one I've got with Grim. I very often have to go up to the school in dog form -- I'm an Irish Wolfhound Animagus -- and quite a few the portraits have found me rather cute, especially when I come bearing gifts for Grim in my teeth. So several of them started calling me different things, such as 'Mutt' or 'Wolfy' -- "
[Bat's fanged grin spreads.]
Bat: " -- nicknames that Grim occasionally will also 'adopt,' when we're out in public with me as a dog. He always gets such compliments about how well trained I am."
[It's clear this amuses Bat greatly.]