bit tricky

Rian Wood Ravenclaw | 6th Year Ze/Hir/Hirs An over enthusiastic artist, painting with the colours of sound. The resident cuddle-bug. Ravenclaw's Quidditch Captain + beater because this team can't get any worse, yeah?

[ben-ji-min-deactivated20170804]

Benji’s brain was desperately trying to find some kind of order in what was happening, trying to find a logical way to deal with, well, Rian, but it was failing miserably. It’s not that Benji always knew what to say, but now it was like his brain wanted to mimic Rian, since it was all over the place. He didn’t even know where to begin. “Um, are- are you al-alright?” Benji blinked, and he was sure he looked like a very confused pigeon. “W-woo-woosah?” It did sound kinda cute. “Wh-whales make more of-of a ‘woooooaaaaoo’ s-sound, n-no?” He let out a long low pitched whiney sound- well, as low pitched as he could- and then just marveled for a moment that he made that sound. “W-why are you f-fanning my face?” It did feel nice, some cool air was always appreciated, but that didn’t meat that Benji was still trying to find a way to process this all. 

“N-non- nonbinary?” He frowned, trying to scan his memory, but he didn’t recall it ever hearing in Korea or Japan, and this was the first time he heard in the UK. “N-no, what- what does that mean? What- what are you th-then if you’re not-not a girl or- or a boy?” This was nothing he’d ever imagined himself asking or talking about, but it was something new to learn about, and he was open to do just that. “I- I didn’t know, I’m- I’m sorry. Wh-what should I c-call you then?” He gasped lightly, remembering all the times he called Rian “she” in his head. “Should I n-n-not refer to- to you as s-she? Um, I- I’m sorry if- if I shouldn’t?” Maybe he didn’t understand this all yet, but he didn’t want to offend anyone, ever. Which is an unrealistic goal, but try to tell his anxiety that.

“Oh- oh n-n-no, oh no, I- I don’t think I- I should fly. Th-that- that will end badly.”

[ughrianpls]

Click clock, tick tock. Rian clicked hir tongue, not impatiently, but to keep hirself grounded and focused because they kept jumping around, hopscotching between topics and conversations. All of which ze had so many thoughts for but things needed sorting and those sparks, those fireworks of familiar colours from the sound was one of the ways ze had to wrap around hir thoughts as tethers, else they’d escape. “I’m dandy!” Right as rain, peaches, because Rian firmly believed it and if you believed hard enough, it was true. So ze smiled, all happy teeth and the tip of hir tongue snagged between the gleaming whites, and was fine because ze believed it.

“Well, I’ve always heard if you grabbed your ears like this,” and ze demonstrated by snagging hir earlobes between hir thumbs and index fingers. “And if you went like a whale, the woosah noise? That it’d work wonders for your nerves.” Rian shrugged, still pinching hir ears and smiling rather than continuing because it was the kindest option. Ze already felt a smidgen of guilt for overwhelming Benji, when ze just really wanted to snuggle him into pieces and maybe feed something sweet to, because he looked like he’d need to eat more often.

“Yep! Got it! It’s called that because, right so follow me here -” Okie dokie, so ze did have to finally let go of hir ears to hold up hir fingers. “Because, right, you only have those two options - being a girl or being a boy, in your head yeah? So those are like, what most people expect but gender is different from biologic. Gender is an identity and so it goes outside of being on that scale, which people’ll sometimes say are the gender binaries. So you’re outside of the binary. So! Nonbinary! It’s really just a fancy way of saying nothing at all, because that can mean a lot of things. You can, of course, feel like you just aren’t any of those things - a boy or a girl or anything else - and you can be neutral, which I am.” Lots of words. Ze felt a little bit lightheaded from talking so much in all one go so Rian had to pause for breath before continuing. Ze swallowed a great gulp of air then dove back into making words tumble out in some sort of sense. “Really, like I said, it’s just not being a “boy” or a “girl” in sort of the traditional sense? So you can feel like one and not the other, or sometimes both, or sometimes just being one then the other depending.“

Rian felt really, really bad for again speaking a whole lot and maybe overwhelming poor Benji even more so ze paused, bit in the middle of hir next thought so hir mouth maybe was hanging open.. maybe. Rian blinked. Twice. A couple of more times because it was better than counting, then shook hir head. "Please don’t.” Ze waved hir hands, again last minute bad Rian no touchy. “I mean, it’s okay, it’s fine, I don’t mind! Just, now that you know, it’s not…I go by ze? Say with me, strong zed sound! And hir, like here.”

Hir hands kept fluttering through the air and they hovered, a loophole that Rian was very proud of hirself for finding, around his shoulders, ghosted over his head and the grin, which was all sorts of kind and comforting before, was positively Cheshire. “Nope, I don’t think it would. You’d be brilliant.”

[somniatisart]

[ughrianpls]

right beneath my skin;;

Rian's a heartstopper.

No, really.

Watching this Wood fly is asking for cardiac arrest.

Oliver kept a shed just for his brooms, still does, but with better locks now that the twins are much older and much cleverer, but they were always pesky little imps. They got into his shed, more than once and still do, but there was a special occasion that stuck the firmest. It wasn't the first time, but it was one of those when it was new and exciting still, and it was one of those times that meant more than the others before and after.

There was a sleek little silver model, something Nimbus or another. Rian fell in love for the first time, so maybe it was actually A First? Anyways! Ze loved it, so ze needed it.

Ze got it and it was bitting off a little bit more than ze could chew. Rian's crash must’ve been spectacular, if ze could’ve remembered it.

Rian remembers the up, the electric taste in the back of hir throat and everything washed out but beautifully, like looking at the world through an old glass window or the end of a bottle of sea glass, and ze remembers the down, when the broom bucked hir off, all heart and wind and feeling and it was like flying but in reverse.

Then ze woke up to Oliver and Jay's voices, Margot and healers hovering.

There's a looping line down hir naval, around hir hip. It tickled up hir side quite a ways too. It's one of the few fixtures of hir appearance, if you glimpse it. Ze loves it.

Ze also loves flying. And falling. Because it's a bit of both, all mixed together regardless of what, actually, is happening and everything is electric and hir heart's beating fast and faster and faster faster faster -

Rian Wood is in love with the sky and it loves hir too up until it doesn't but the ground always catches hir.

The Ravenclaw’s captain can fly hardly like anyone's seen, all the broomsticks ze's ever had each an extension of hir petite riot. They live under hir hands, breathe with hir heart. Quidditch is in hir blood but flying is like living.

Margot will have grey hairs.

[hugolikesowls-deactivated201701]

paint me the colors of emotions; paint the colors you see

[hugolikesowls-deactivated201701]

Rian & Hugo

As soon as the intruders voice breaks through the fog in Hugo’s mind, he haltingly turned his head to face the other head on. He couldn’t see completely clearly due to the liquid that had permeated through his eyes, he only saw the vaguest outlines. Whoever they were, all Hugo saw was brilliant, luminescent colors. He rapidly blinked the tears out of his eyes, still taking shallow inhales of breath. It was then he could finally discern the figure as Rian Wood. “I was,” he finally replied, biting down hard on his lip, hoping that would dampen the quiver in his voice. “I didn’t expect any other person to be present.”

Hugo wasn’t completely certain how he felt about Rian being the one to discover him in such a state. While ze wasn’t a completely unknown entity, after all, Hugo had struck up a quite recent friendship with hir twin, as well as being related to others which where close to hir. Plus it wasn’t hard to spot the Ravenclaw either, especially when ze was sporting brightly colored hair. 

There seemed to be a plethora of things which someone might do to comfort someone. These behaviors were usually apart of Hugo’s long list of ‘do not’. While touch was the most noticeable, Hugo also disliked pity. So he was surprised when Rian didn’t offer words of comfort, but instead critiqued him. “I apologize for anyone I’ve potentially upset. It wasn’t my intention to disturb anyone,” he hiccuped, his face breaking into the smallest of grins. While he would have preferred hir to leave him alone, their was also a peculiar feeling in his stomach when ze sat next to him. 

“No, nobody had ever mentioned that to me.” That’s all it took before the tears started to flood his vision again, because somehow with that one statement, all of his fears and insecurities poured out. “Nobody tells me anything. That’s not completely true, in fact it’s quite the wrong way about it. I just don’t understand such things.” He’d said that phrase over and over, ‘I just don’t understand’ with a million different verbs and adjectives. Prior to now, it was a simple, unimportant excuse for Hugo’s erratic behavior. Now it felt like something to be ashamed of, upset by. It felt real. 

Curling up into a ball, he hoped to hide his tear-stained face from the Ravenclaw. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, the sound muffled due to the fact his face was currently buried in his legs. “I don’t usually do this. The crying. I didn’t wish to burden you. I just— I don’t feel capable of telling anyone these things.”

[ughrianpls]

Even in the face of the earthquake mess of Hugo's voice, which made hir feel only a mild case of the lost-and-helpless, Rian did hir best to keep the aubergine at bay by smiling at him. "It's okay," ze reassured him, because it'd take a little more noise to make hir quiver out of hir skin. "Most people don't seem to expect me."

Hugo was, well. And maybe that was the best summary ze could attribute to the Gryffindor. He managed to put himself into a glass case, how Rian wasn't sure but just typically ze would’ve entertained a second's split of second thought when approaching him in fear of smudging that glass. Not enough to stop hir, oh no that'd take a case of an unstoppable force running into a cloud of greys and blacks to hinder this littlest Wood who could. But the sentiment was all there and that's what counted. In hir eyes that was a blaring foghorn for the world to remain far, far away and come never ever again.

Ze hunched around hir knees before ze actually did something silly like smashing that glass and looped hir arms around hir ankles. Hir check rested atop the bony joint, diminishing hir smile into a pleased little curl in the corners. "No worries," because come to think about it, it may have been hir tea. "I like my peppermint strong, anyways, and most don't and I think really that was just the final deal? That and green's only good with lemons and honey but I ate the wedges on the way."

Oh, no. "Please don't cry," there was a touch of desperation in hir plea. Ze felt hot and ice dribbling unpleasantly down hir neck, a panicked concern gobbling up at all of hir thoughts and making hir feel twisted up little kinks in hir tummy down to hir feet. Ze clenched all around, toes curling up in the chilly grit and hir fingers pressing into hir calves as ze hugged hirself tighter. Anything to settle the terrible unbearable feeling. Rian hated seeing anyone, even silly boys in glass houses throwing rocks at hir friends, upset and hurting.

"That's quite alright because I just did and now you know?" That didn't sound very helpful. Ze worried away at hir lip, the best thing to keep from chattering over Hugo. It came in handy, the silence, when he found the ground to be a better audience. Rian couldn't much blame him, these sands were very nice. "That's alright too. Because sometimes you just have to? I just didn't mean to make you cry. Hey," wait no don't touch. The finger about to prod his shoulder jerked back. Rian sat hir chin atop of it because bad. "Being upset isn't ever a burden. Knock that off at least."

Teeth sunk into hir knuckle, because it was there and ze needed to think and it was better than trying to gnaw away at hir knee. "What don't you understand? Because if people don't tell you anything, they can't expect you to know. So what do they expect you to know that you don't?"

[ben-ji-min-deactivated20170804]

Benji gawked at Rian, and then quickly blinked and smiled bashfully. “O-oh, sorry, it’s j-just- I’ve never m-met such a, um, distracted girl. Or- or g-guy.” He clasped his hands over his mouth. “Oh, o-oh no, I- I don’t w-want to offend y-you!” His face started to heat up and he started to stutter more. Why did he have to say that. “It’s j-just, um, I? I h-hope you find the- the person the shirt be-belongs to?” Okay, time to just give up. 

“H-hi Rian!” He smiled back at her, trying to regain his posture. She seemed really friendly, so no reason to be not polite. “N-nice to meet y-you. I’m B-Benji.” He shook his head, giving her an amused smile. “Y-you’re the f-first person to- to have ever s-said that to me. I d-don’t play- play Qui-Quidditch. S-S-Sports r-really aren’t m-m-my thing.” To not even start about the asthma, and his inability to fly, and his fear for his face being broken by a wayward ball.

[ughrianpls]

Was it bad ze was used to that bafflement? It probably was. Rian grinned and wiggled hir fingers in the face of it, not the least bit blashful in hir salute. That was, well, until everything went teakettle upways. Or was it sideways? Teakettle down. "It's alright." Ze clicked hir tongue, a hot spiral itching up from the back of hir neck to the tips of hir ears. They went purple. Then out, whoosh, all the steam and panic and hir mum's voice. Rian's face went a little slack, before ze tossed hir head and reached out and remembered last second Benji's bubble. Instead hir hands fluttered themelves through the air. "Woooosah, woosah. Say it with me, woOoOoOoOoshaaaaaah." Like a whale! "Like a whale!" If ze fanned his face, would that make it turn a different colour? Ze tried that, because the choked cherry colour was very nice and personally, wouldn't mind hir face going that shade, but ze knew for everyone else that wasn't the case. So ze did just that, tried cupping as much air to soothe the burn. "They probably won't want it back, so no worries! Thank you though."

"But! I'm not offended. It's just, I'm a Rian. Not a guy or a gal. Have you ever heard of the term 'nonbinary'?" Rian, all wide eyes, tilted hir head curiously this way then that. A curious little owl, that was the impression.

"Hullo Benji!" Ze beamed at him, the wide grin somehow growing with the little beater's delight. "You should, y'know it? How about flying? How do you feel about that?"

[allloversbetray]

[ughrianpls]

a bucket would be nice

Rian & Augusta

Rian twisted hir tongue, rolling it between hir teeth before latching down on it. The pink tip stuck out from between hir lips. There was a paintbrush in hir florescent hair, an eye watering canary yellow today, and hir wand ze fiddled and twiddled between one set of digits. The only ones fluttered through the air in their stained glory, plucking and poking at the threads of colours, the bursts of sounds that lit hir vision up like firecrackers.

Everything had a snow feel to it, the sort of snowy feel one got from scratchy cotton or sharp taste of peppermint lingering in the back of their throat. Which, honestly, could be explained by the candies ze suckled and munched on. BUT that was besides the point! Ze didn’t know how else to describe today, it was a snow-without-snow sort of day, very unusual for the time of the year, being only the start of the year and all,  but still slightly disappointing. Whatever.

The fire crackled and ze jolted, a bucket of ever-changing ink and rosewater tipping over the cobble stones. Ze shrieked and descended on the mess like a fanatic bird. “Oh no, oh no no, oh no this is very bad, oh Merlin!” Purples and blues, those were nice, greens and yellows yes yes, all very good but oh god hadn’t there been a set of books over in that corner? Was there invisible ink - yes, yes there was, ze recalled now. Bugger. “Marvelous, I’m dead. Whose books where those?”

The puddle kept spreading, despite hir best efforts to corralling it with magic and then, more fanatically, by stripping off hir outer robe to try to mop it up.

[ben-ji-min-deactivated20170804]

Rian did indeed look messy, paint on clothes everywhere, but somehow, it looked like it would be weird to see her with tidy clothes. Benji frowned. “W-wait who- who’s shirt is it th-then?” Maybe it was from a boyfriend? Though who accidentally wears clothes that aren’t theirs? Benji looked with wonder at Rian- he would never be able to be this chaotic and, well, distracted? 

Benji quickly nodded. “I’m f-fine.” Maybe he’d just explain to Rian real quick his thing about touching. “I- I just d-don’t like b-being touched un-unexpectedly by- by people I d-don’t know very well.” Quickly he added, “It- it’s nothing p-p-personal! S-s-sorry.”

[ughrianpls]

“Uh...”

There were a few good candidates in mind. Jay, Karis, James, Margot, Kai to name a few right off the tip of hir fingers but ultimately, ze was very strongly and highly doubting that whoever this shirt belonged to that its rightful owner would want it back once it became a Rian Wood original. That tended to be how these things went anyways. So ze threw hir hands up. "I haven't the foggiest!"

"Oh," and the little 'claw sagged around the edges, hir bright and cheery airs going a little topside for just a moment before ze was back, beaming with that ridiculously happy grin. "That's easy! I'm Rian, no worries because I never take anything personally. Do you not play Quidditch? Why do I feel like you should play Quidditch? Anyways, I'm Rian."

[hugolikesowls-deactivated201701]

paint me the colors of emotions; paint the colors you see

Rian & Hugo

To say Hugo was frustrated would be an understatement by his own volition. His sixth year of schooling had only just begun and he started to be bombarded with things he couldn’t describe. It’s not unusual for Hugo to have strife with his own feelings, which he felt were often light-years away from anyone else’s. Jay could wistfully talk about Damien in a way that made Hugo’s skin crawl, but also made him yearn to be able to feel something that strongly about someone. Every time someone mentioned love or hate it drove Hugo mad. He didn’t understand and whenever someone assumed he did, Hugo felt full of something heavy and lonely, that made his eyes sting a little and his body feel tingly. He didn’t like it at all.

While he did spend a great deal of his time alone, he never felt what some might call loneliness. Or maybe Hugo did, he wouldn’t know any better. Though, sitting on the edge of the Black Lake, all these weird feelings stirring inside of him, with nobody to explain then or make sense of them, he started to understand what Albus or Flora meant when they mention loneliness. So he screamed, he screamed for the second or third time in his life. He was alone, it was okay for him to scream at the world because Hugo can’t see what everyone saw. How can others call him a genius when he couldn’t even comprehend what anger or sadness feels like. “Hugo’s a robot, Hugo’s a genius, Hugo’s special. I am beyond exhausted and nauseated by everyone else because they don’t understand and I can’t even begin to explain how I feel.” He picked up a small rock, hurling it into the lake. It did make him feel slightly better when he heard the soft whoosh and splash. It still didn’t take away the heaviness in his heart.

“Why can’t I understand? Why does everyone seem to understand all of these concepts and ideas when they’ve never been told? Why do I need to be told?” Hugo couldn’t even continue asking himself questions because there was something caught in his throat and there was water coming from his eyes. He was crying, he’s cried twice in less than one year and he hated the way it makes him feel.

Except he wasn’t alone wallowing in whatever emotion has currently plagued him, because as soon as he was finished shrieking at the foggy sky, he saw a flash of color before his eyes. All his mind could supply him with is ‘this is bad, so so bad’, and Hugo’s heartbeat started to speed up. “Who’s there? Please, whoever you are, just abscond and leave me be.” Hugo didn’t want anyone to see him like this, so weak and so vulnerable.

[ughrianpls]

"But you were yelling?" The confusion was real. Rian blinked with it, befuddled and worried, confused and upset. Ze shuffled a bit, because ze was torn between forwards and backwards and so hir feet made a compromise and moved a step left then right. Like a dance. The grass, rocks and grainy sand felt weird on the bottoms of hir bare soles.

You know what got itself a funny taste? The sound of a scream. Which, yeah, bare with us for a tick will you? Because it does. Rian swears by it. Hugo's shout tasted like aubergine. Not the vegetable though that was very adept anyways but the brilliant, deep shade of purple. A beautiful, very good purple because after hearing it, little speckles appeared on the bridge of Rian's nose to accompany the tint the world briefly had taken. But dissettling in all its loveliness.  So ze abandoned hir welcome back tea with the giant squid to pursue it. Stitch gotten upset by the crowing so he followed Hugo's advice even before he had gotten the chance to give it, running away into the bushes when the Gryffindor's voice burst their bubble.

You could perhaps, maybe, most definitely, say that Stitch was all of Rian's good sense by the way. When he ran away from weird sounds made in the middle of the castle grounds, his doting little owner picked up shop and ran towards it. Because ze never understood caution. Get bit? Try again, just more slowly. Fall? Pick yourself up and dust off, even if it took a piece of you as a reminder. Someone screaming a week into the school year and for unknown reasons? Leave the green and peppermint safety behind and venture forth!

The riot ball of colour personified just squinted and made up hir mind to tip toe forth. Even though the roaring lion in front of hir had a little bit of a reputation about touch and do not and how right now, with everything across his face, all the damp and tears, and the purples still vibrating in hir teeth, Rian couldn't help the instinctive need to be closer to offer some sort of comfort. Ze was a very notoriously tactile person who needed to constantly have a grasp of hir surrounding to help keep hir head from floating away. It made sense that ze would assume others were like that too.

"Besides, you're upsetting my friends." Call the Wood a little overly protective of the lake but ze happened to be obviously fond of its occupants, merpeople and giant squid and all those in between. "Not to mention, well." Rian planted hirself down on the ground, setting down roots to say huh fancy that? I'm not leaving. "Hasn't any ever told you, it's not nice to throw rocks?"

[ashara-deactivated20171021]

r a v e n c l a w — “you’re just as sane as i am.”

[hipsterhalfblood]

[madscientistkai-blog]

Clouds made of Fear | Kai & Rian

[madscientistkai-blog]

“Alright then.” Kai responded with a nod. “You set up what time works for you and I will add it into my schedule.” He shifted in place and removed his hands from behind his pockets to clasp them firmly behind his back. The conversation was still settling uneasy with him and the anxiety had begun buzzing up his spine and behind his eyes. He dug his nails into the butt of his palms and used that as a focus point. The last thing he needed was to have an anxiety attack in front of Rian Wood.

“I was actually quite disappointed in my speed.” He admitted, much more quickly than it usually took for him to analyze and confess his faults. Merlin knew he had plenty, but finding which ones to say out loud always ended up being difficult. But, his speed was something he felt was acutely lacking discipline from the year before. The rush and wind and release he got from flying before wasn’t there at practice. At least he didn’t feel it was the same and it could be possible he just didn’t have the passion he did before and needed assistance finding it again.

“I will try.” It made sense and at the same time it didn’t. They worked on different wavelengths and it was painfully obvious. Ze was much more able to wing it and be flexible and he preffered to change things as problems arose and needed detailed plans and strategies to follow. He realized much too quickly he had volunteered to be hir assistant and, surprisingly, didn’t mind as long as ze didn’t. “I mean, that is, as long as you do not mind me assisting you. I think I could learn a thing or two from your leadership skills.” He said meekly, unsure of how it would be accepted.

[ughrianpls]

"Okie dokie!" Rian chipped happily. Maybe Wednesday's 5pm block? To start with? Ze can ease into it, because again taking data from this session would be superfluous and not something ze'd feel comfortable doing, as a captain. Ze knew most of hir team to be much better than this one day's worth showed them to be! Ze had faith it was all just their sleepy muscles, needing to shake off summer.

Head still canted leftways, Rian's eyebrows rose rightways as hir multi-hued eyes darted over hir Chaser's face. Ze drummed hir bottom lip with hir fingers, as fluorescent green and azure eyes unfocused, this time following a replay in hir mind of the practice match ze had staged as an easy opener for the season. Yeah, ze nodded to hirself, a little sluggish if ze thought particularly hard about Malakai's flying but honestly not something ze marked up to other than perhaps exhaustion. Griff was a babbler and he certainly babbled his way into hir room, one morning right before classes, to take a nap. Rian had chalked it up to that but okay. Okay, ze could work with that. "We can work with that."

Hir brain snapped back into place, the quiet silver-lacing of his words drawing Rian back down to reality like a tether. Ze beamed at him, hir eyes dilating and focusing between one blink and the next becoming warm silver. "Good! And no, no  no, I don't mind! In fact, thank you. I was actually worried, y'know, about that? Because as fun as it is to fly as you please maybe you're right and we need a little bit of organisation. I had thought of a few things but really besides maybe a spearhead or two to break up other formations, nothing concrete?" Rian drifted closer to the ground, the tips of hir shoes barely skimming the muddied earth as ze laughed. "You're not gonna learn a thing from me, because I'm a nutter. You'll probably teach me a thing or two."

[gdijay]

and he doesn’t even dad joke || jacen and rian

[gdijay]

“I’m not the one who knows the dates, Margot’s the one who knows the dates!” Jay nearly shrieked at his twin. He ushered for hir to move quicker, tossing socks and mismatched trainers at hir so ze could get a move on.

Jay also knew how to walk, thank you very much, and so yes, he did struggle against his twin when ze very much made it clear that he needed to follow hir. “RIAN! I got it, I’m coming. Just let me go, fuck’s sake, you act like I need a lead on to get me to go anywhere.” And if he snapped particularly sharply it was because he was just a tiny bit stressed out because how could they have forgotten Oliver’s birthday?!

“Well, we could probably figure out how to shrink it and he could use it on his key ring or something. If it came from us you know Da won’t get rid of it all willy-nilly.” And now he was grasping at straws trying to come up with some kind of acceptable gift-giving, and with Rian’s rapid-fire questioning, Jay wasn’t able to process much what with their running and all.

They burst out of the castle, doors flying, and even though they were on foot, it was good betting that they would make it to Hogsmeade in good time. “I dunno, Ri, we’ll probably just have to see what’s for sale when we get there, and yes, I do have my purse.”

[ughrianpls]

"Bugger!" Because Jay was unfortunately right on all accounts - Margot kept the dates, they kept their promises and tired not to make too much of a mess in their wake. Speaking of - Rian flipped onto hir tip toes, not quite managing to get full en pointe in the pair of mismatched trainers Jay chucked and ze scrambled into, mid-walk. Where was Margot?

Rian reached back, blindly, to paw at whatever part of Jay ze managed to lay hir outstretched hand on. "Ssssssh, ssssh, calm thyself." But ze relinquished hir hold, both hands fluttering away distractedly. Hir pace faltered when one of hir ankles rolled and ze stumbled, falling back into hir twin. "Where's Margot? I can't find her." Which, considering they just burst from the castle like there was a flurry of Bat Boogie hexes on their tails, was not surprising but still distressing.

"No no no!" Ze cried and latched onto his shoulders, spinning them again around. Ze ended up walking downhill backwards to shout. "We can't get Da a head, what are you thinking? You stop that, no thinking allowed. I'mma be the brains so lets get Oliver something nice! What about -" What were their funds? What was open, this late in the day? What when how and why did they forget until the last bloody second? "How were his feet?"

[flowercrcwnprincess-blog]

Pretend You Saw Nothing

Finley & Rian

Of all the things that could possibly pop up to ruin a perfectly fine day, Artist Block was, without a doubt, Finley’s least favorite. It was more the bane of her existence, the one true rival in her heroic quest to conquer the world’s demons, that one evil in the world that she could hardly overcome. And at the present, Artist Block was making itself present in her pleasant life and making it a living hell. Groaning in frustration, she tugged at the page before her until it ripped from the binding of her sketchbook, crumpling it up into a ball and then tossing it into the Black Lake where it met with the other balls of failed drawings and floated away with the current. A pout formed over her pink lips, and she reached up to tuck stray blonde hair behind her ears, eyes just watching the seven crumpled messes bob in the water, some unfurling the damper they became.

Turning back to the fresh page, she placed her pencil against it, making one fluid light line on the paper, followed by another, and another, and another. The lines were making shapes, images, sketches, across the blank page, little gray marks growing darker the more confident the shapes became. She was quickly creating an image of a person, thus far just a figure made up of shapes. A sphere for the head, cylinders for the neck, arms and legs, and upside down triangle for the torso, and some other weird shape for the pelvic region. Curved triangles marked knobbly knees, rectangular shapes for hands. It was starting to become something but soon enough she lost direction and suddenly was stalling again. “Ugh – oh, why do I even bother?” she moaned, throwing the book down onto the ground beside her and flinging herself back with a dramatic flair so that she was laying now on the stony shore of the lake.

Eyes closing against the dim sunlight seeping past the October clouds, she moaned and groaned on and on, “I suck, I suck, I suck,” beneath her breath, until she was singing it in a light and airy voice, hands miming a ukulele and mentally remembering the chords she was singing. So lost in the throws of her self pity and frustration, due to the evil A.B. of course, Finn hadn’t a moment to notice that someone else was by the lake, and had their eyes on her during her pathetic display. Only when she paused, trying to go back and recount the chords she just hummed to herself, her eyes flew open and she noticed someone in the peripherals of her vision. Sitting upright and staring wide eyed at the water, she sat in silence a moment before clearing her throat. “So… Lovely day, isn’t it? Thought it might rain, but… Luckily it’s dry. Just a tad chilly,” she awkwardly blurted out, as if discussing the weather would somehow erase the humiliating scene that was spied upon by this intruder.

[ughrianpls]

The icy waters stung hir eyes but Rian was more than happy to stay submerged, if it wasn't for the burning burning ache as hir lungs protested at the abundance of hydrogen-bonded-oxygen and the lack of plain ol' oxygen. Or you know, not entirely oxygen because then you'd get sick and that'd be almost as bad as not having it though maybe not, because you are actually breathing - Rian broke the surface of the water with a gasp and coughed up lungfuls of water. Ze was, actually and contrary to popular belief, very good at Charms! Today was just not a day hir wand had wanted to cooperate with, so hir Bubble Head Charm burst about midway through hir ascent.

Ze kicked and kicked, pushing hirself up in the waters into a dead-mans float on hir back to gasp and try appeasing the little devils that were hir lungs because boy, oh Merlin, did they burn. Ze's gotta work on hir cardio or whatever. Maybe run with Jay in the mornings? Maybe.

Rian was happy to drift around, the bag slung around hir shoulder dragging hir down some back into the bottom depths but then there was a little push, in the middle of hir back, that kept hir afloat. It felt very slick and very soild and what were those? Oh!!! "Oh!! I know what you want, hold on hold on hoooooold on!" Ze turned out hir various pockets and out came the little goodies ze had snagged from the kitchens before taking a plunge into the Black Lake. The shrimps floated down and as suddenly as the tentacle had appeared, it was gone and ze was ducked briefly back under the water. When ze came up, this time sputtering and laughing, ze cupped hir hands around hir mouth. "You're welcome!!!!"

Something floated across hir nose. Rian crossed hir eyes to follow it, then the next, and the one after that, until ze got really curious and started swimming to shore. Ze tried to catch the little papers that floated in front of hir, to shove them into the bag without tearing them and leaving little debris trails. It wasn't particularly nice to litter, y'know? 

Catching sight of hir friend, Rian could barely contain hir excitement and stopped swimming to squeal. Ended up with a mouthful of waters for hir troubles but the coughing fit was very much worth it. "Finley! Finn, Finn, Finn!!" Ze trudged out of the waters, waddling some in the still heavy pair of trunks, to lunge at hir. "Finn!!! You sing beautifully. Why haven't you sang before? I like it. And yes, I was hoping it'd rain, y'know so I'd have worms? But instead, I wanted to find shells. So. I found shells!" Speaking of, ze untied the strap of the bag to let it plunk heavily down on the rocky shore. "But,” ze followed the bag, slipping on the stones onto hir bum. “Why do you suck?"

[butidontcare]

[novellearts]

[ben-ji-min-deactivated20170804]

Benji frantically waved his hands at Rian, red in the face. “N-no, no, un-undressing is not necessary, n-nope. P-please keep-keep your shirt on.” Benji got out his wand and quickly pointed it on the spot on this shirt, muttering tergeo. As the paint disappeared, Benji looked up at the other student. “You w-want me to do y-you as well?” He tried remaining as friendly as he could- it wasn’t Rian’s fault he was so touchy when it came to physical contact and swapping clothes- but it still came out a little bit strained and nervous.

[ughrianpls]

Rian clucked hir tongue and, oh why hadn't ze thought of that? "Oh, nice spell-work. Very good!" Ze beamed, easily letting the small spot of embarrassment that sprung up slide right off hir feathers. Like a duck! "Huh? What? No, no, don't bother, all of my stuff's a mess and it's not like, well I don't think this is mine." Ze tugged out the hem and tucked hir chin in to look down at the colours embroidered on the material. "Nope! Not mine!"

The, what was probably a (ze hoped), friendly grin faded, just a tad. It grew smudged in the corners as Rian squinted in concern at Benji. "Are you alright?"