Beer
Stupefy!
Posts: 9
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Post by Beer on Aug 23, 2014 15:03:40 GMT -6
Mason was late. And not just the fashionably-late kind of late, either. That would've been alright. But no... Dakota had been sitting in the library for the better part of a half hour, absentmindedly scanning the text in the arithmancy book that rested open in her lap. She'd figured she might as well knock out some of her other homework while she waited, not wanting to get ahead of Mason on the Defence Against the Dark Arts work they'd been assigned.
"This would be a lot easier if we could use cell phones here and just text each other... Not that Mason would really know how to work it." Kota couldn't help but laugh a little as she thought aloud, imagining him- or any other pureblood wizard, for that matter- try to figure out a phone. Being magical was great and all, but it always amused her how the smartest, most talented wizards would be completely useless at trying to make use electronic things she'd taken for granted her whole life.
Dakota shifted in her seat to get more comfortable, clearing her mind so that she could go back to studying her arithmancy- though she turned her gaze to the library's entrance every few minutes, hoping that Mason wouldn't be too much longer.
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Post by genimgemini on Aug 23, 2014 15:56:27 GMT -6
It would have made perfect sense for Mason Blake to have overslept for his Saturday morning meeting with Dakota. Mason was smart, studious, yet notoriously scatterbrained. His partner had been waiting for him for the better part of a half an hour while Mason likely snored to the dreams of various Hogwarts upperclassmen and the wonderful bacon-accented meals that he would eat come consciousness.
However, the sweet temptation of sleep was not the roadblock that had kept the hyperactive Blake boy from his appointment. Mason had finally, however late, approached the table at which his comrade was waiting and laid the pile of large manuscript and chronicle onto the table, finally appearing from behind it with a bright grin and a coffee-wired wideness to his dark brown eyes.
“Sorry I’m late. Am I late? I’m probably late.” He began to deconstruct the tower of books into smaller piles, producing a mug of coffee that he had miraculously not spilled and placed it onto one of the stacks of books. “I’ve been here since seven looking for material and I think I just lost track of time.” He checked his watch. “YUP!” He said loudly, earning a healthy ‘shhhhhh’ from a surrounding table. “Whoops sorry.” He called over his shoulder, sitting down in a chair and readjusting his shirt which had creased with the books head had carried over.
He took a drink and opened a book, finally looking at Dakota through his haze and blaze of work. “I was thinking that, since we’re focusing on hexes, that we do trends. Y’know how spells go in and out of fashion? All that. A sort of demonstrative timeline of jinxes and counterjinxes and their apparent origins and the like. Whatdy’think?” He said quickly, pulling the manuscript of paper and a quill from the inner workings of one of the heftier texts.
“Now Agrippa defines a jinx as any spell whose effect may be seen as annoying yet amusing to those around. He was a bit insane, though. Muggles locked him up in the 1500s I think, though he has a point.”
Mason pulled his head from the book and stopped cold, looking at Dakota in surprise.
“I’m sorry. Hi. I’m ranting again, aren’t I?”
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Beer
Stupefy!
Posts: 9
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Post by Beer on Aug 23, 2014 21:49:05 GMT -6
"Sorry I’m late. Am I late? I’m probably late."
Oh. She'd missed seeing him come in! The excitable voice pulled Dakota from her arithmancy studying and her gaze flickered up to his face. "Very late~" Almost 50 minutes, to be exact, though she didn't say so aloud. "I was two minutes away from sending out a search party!" She grinned, teasing, though truthfully... She'd only been half sarcastic on that one.
At least he was here now!
Dakota closed her arithmancy textbook up and set it off to the side, giving Mason all the room he needed to lay out the books he'd supposedly been gathering since seven that morning. (Something she didn't really believe.) At least he was hyped up and ready to get started now, even if he was a little too excited and loud- Kota flashed a quick apologetic grin in the direction of the students that had shushed him.
That was Mason, she supposed. Dakota truly only knew him from class, but that was all she needed to figure him out. Smart as hell, just as a Ravenclaw always was, and with a mouth that moved almost as fast as his brain- sometimes even faster. And both were working in full force this morning!
Kota eyed the little mug of coffee he'd brought along, wondering if it was too late to try and confiscate it. It seemed to help him come up with some decent ideas for the project, in any case! The brunette scooted closer to the table as Mason suggested working up a timeline of different jinxes and their current trends. "Interesting. like that! It'll give us a lot to work with, too~"
She grabbed a piece of parchment and a quill to begin taking notes, all ears while Mason rambled on about Agrippa. "Understatement..." Dakota mumbled under her breath, referring to the ancient wizard's supposed insanity. "Everyone was hunting witches and wizards then, yet he purposefully wrote stories about them." The man was practically begging to be caught and jailed.
“I’m sorry. Hi. I’m ranting again, aren’t I?” Dakota paused at that, laughing quietly as his mind finally caught up to his mouth. "Hi, good morning. Maybe just a little? But it's alright~ I'm used to it!" Her mother was the exact same way, and Kota had always found silence deafening. She shrugged and dipped her quill into the jar of ink, ready to get back on the subject at hand. "But anyways. How far back should we start on this? Not the beginning I hope."
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Post by genimgemini on Aug 23, 2014 23:28:04 GMT -6
Mason put the quill neatly between his teeth, giving himself both hands to work with as he flipped to specific pages in both books. “Itfs wlfs fwunkunk” He found the paged and promptly removed the feathered quill from his mouth. “Err, I was thinking that we’d start from the present and work backwards, fifty years at a time. Do one or two interesting jinxes from each half-century!”
He paused, eyes rolling towards the season as his face explained his brains work. “Let’s think… presentation is during double periods for two days, there are… what… forty of us in class? So that’s twenty groups. That’s four hours for twenty groups… Twelve minutes each, probably rounded down to ten to make up for the fact that Shylock’s going to have to rush us to get up and present anyway…. We’ll have enough time to do at the very least two-hundred years work of history and jinxes!”
He let his eyes skim back across the pages. “Some of my favorites are… langlock, this half-century of course… Flipendo was really popular around fifty years ago, It’s a pretty basic knockaway type jinx that’d actually be the kind of thing you’d expect in a Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Fifty before that… ooh! This is one of my favorites! Levicorpus—it leaves the victim dangling upside down by their foot. The counterjinx is simple so we’d better go over that tho I’ll expect that some of our classmates will take this one a bit too far.” He gasped for breath. “Before that’s my alltime favorite. Cantis. It’s an uncontrollable singing jinx. The counterjinx is a lot like what you’d expect it to be but it has to be used nonverbally because, well, you’re singing. So that’s a lot of work and really important.”
He handed a few of the books across the table. “Do you have any you think’d be fun?”
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Beer
Stupefy!
Posts: 9
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Post by Beer on Aug 26, 2014 13:18:09 GMT -6
To say that she was impressed would be an understatement. Mason really had this project all worked out, and Dakota had to wonder if maybe he honestly HAD been here in the library since seven this morning. "So, with about two spells per every fifty years, spanning two hundred years... That's ten jinxes. I think that should be more than enough for a ten minute presentation~" In fact, they would probably go over those ten minutes.
Dakota wrote down each spell he rambled off, making sure to add the specific decade it went with for later reference. Levicorpus and liberacorpus as the jinxes from a century ago, langlock and flipendo for the previous fifty years... "Ooo, I like cantis too~" Maybe not one of her favorites, but fun nonetheless. Kota took the books he'd passed her way and flipped through them, using the quill to scan through the text. "The inflatus jinx and the ebublio jinx are pretty amusing. Harmless, too... Mostly. They would both fit into jinxes that are popular now~ So now we just need four more!"
After taking a moment to jot down her own suggestions, Dakota went back to looking through one of the books she'd been given. "Ooo, what about tarantallegra? It'd be great if that and cantis were popular at the same time... Uncontrollable dancing and singing at the same time." That would be hard to counterjinx, though, especially since the counterjinx for cantis had to be nonverbal.
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Post by genimgemini on Aug 26, 2014 21:53:32 GMT -6
Mason ran a long fingered hand through his hair, mussing it up slightly in the process Not that he really cared about looks. Mason was a simple boy; he focused on books and logic, not on boys and britches. He had never been the most socially away, as was obvious by his sporadic ranting, unkempt appearance, and interesting investments of time throughout his Hogwarts years. It had only been two years since the boy had truly isolated himself, spending his first few years at Hogwarts a bouncing mass of attempted social fury. Mason had, since the passing of his mother, decided on a much more focused and (some would insist sadder) mantra towards his remaining years in the education system: Don’t think, just work.
And he had been, for two long years Mason had focused only on school, not on friends, not on his brother’s well being, not on his own happiness, but only on pushing through and starting his post-Hogwarts life.
The thought had crossed his mind, of course, as he worked with Dakota on their Defense Against the Dark Arts project. It was the smallest of glints in his eye as he listened to Dakota add a few of her favorite jinxes.
“I like the inflatus jinx and bublio, too.” He commented, scribbling the names down on another sheet of parchment on the tabletop. “Tarantalegra… ooh!” He snapped his head up to look at her. “D’you think Professor Shylock’d let us use class volunteers? I’d love to get Jimmy Wilkins as a victim….” He scratched the back of his head. “Only kidding! Only kidding! …Mostly kidding.” He counted the list of jinxes that he had made. “Ooh that’s gonna be a lot. D’you think we should pack this much up and start practicing or…” He shrugged, digging his fingers into his knees.
“I mean you probably have plans already. But I can get started if you’d like, that way we can be ready for the presentation, if you wanted.” He fumbled, staring around the library in a way that only Mason could manage.
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Beer
Stupefy!
Posts: 9
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Post by Beer on Sept 10, 2014 16:52:42 GMT -6
"You are so not kidding." She smirked a bit, writing one last little note before she closed the book and laid her quill down. They definitely had more than enough jinxes to work with now, so when Mason suggested packing everything up to leave and practice, Dakota nodded and began gathering together the enormous stack of books he'd picked out. "Nope, no plans! And it'd be really rude to leave you to do all work by yourself!" Dakota glanced up at him with a curious look, wondering if people did that to him a lot- ditched him when they'd gotten all of the easy stuff done. He certainly looked like he expected her to take off.
Kota merely went back to stacking the books on top of one another, lifting up what she was able to carry once she'd tossed her quill and parchment into her school bag haphazardly. "So where do you want to go to practice? The lake? Gardens? Forbidden Forest?" She smirked while she started towards the front desk to drop the books off, her gaze on Mason. Kota highly doubted he would break the rules and venture into the forest they'd been thoroughly warned to stay out of, but if there was one rule she would willingly break... It would be that one. She was so curious about what it held!
"Your choice~" The Hufflepuff girl laid the books down in the return bin before she turned to face her partner, all smiles as she waited to see where he decided they should go.
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