An early post in a role play about rearing monsters. This one didn't last very long, but it's a good example of how long I can get.
Matias and Kerane had spent the last few hours they had together raiding the bakery and sitting atop their usual hill with their plundered (but paid for) sweets. They chattered at each other, bickering and joking as per usual, though there was quite a bit more pondering about creatures and Matias looked uncharacteristically sullen.
"You should just charm a deer and come home," Matias said, laying back in the grass. The ceremony started in half an hour. Kerane would soon need to go home and get ready. She covered her mouth and belched quietly, over-stuffed with pastries.
"A deer could be nice, but I'm going to stay out as long as my partner will put up with it," Kerane said. "I want to see as much of the world as I can see, and this might be my only chance to do so for a long time."
"Explore after I'm dead. What am I going to do all day with out you here, huh? Who's going to bail me out of trouble?" he said, rolling onto his side and propping his head up on one arm to stare at her.
"Probably your parents, like they always do. And if you weren't such a jerk to everyone, you probably wouldn't get in trouble at all. No one wants to mess with the nagas. Besides, it'll do you some good to make some new friends," she said. He groaned in response and flopped back onto his back.
"As per usual, there are some flaws in your logic. You inform me that no one wants to mess with me, then immediately insinuate that I can make new friends," he said. He rubbed at his eyes as he spoke.
"You could. I didn't say it would be easy to make new friends, I just said it would do you good. Your first step is to stop being a mischievous little rat and pissing off the villagers. Really, that'll go a long way," Kerane said. She lurched backward before launching herself forward and getting to her feet. "I've got to go now. The ceremony starts soon."
"Wait, I've got a present for you," Matias said, also pulling himself upright. Kerane looked back at him curiously. She hadn't expected anything from him but grief. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small thing. He held it out for her, revealing it to be a crude wooden ring on a long loop of string. She took it from him and examined it. The ring turned out to be shaped like a snake, with a rough diamond pattern on it's back, similar to Matias'.
"It's a necklace," he said, looking rather awkward. "I just don't want you to forget me."
Kerane beamed at him before sliding the string over her head. She then proceeded to punch her friend in the shoulder.
"I'm not going to forget you. You're my best friend. And I'll be back with two new friends soon enough! Maybe my they can be your friends, too," she grinned.
"There's no guarantee that your companion will like you and I don't know how friendly bonded creatures can be to other people," Matias said, sulking.
"Oh shush," Kerane said, pulling him into a quick hug before running off to the village. She yelled over her shoulder, "I'll see you at the ceremony! Thanks for the necklace!"
She ran the entire way home, her bare feet pounding the ground and kicking up dust on the dry roads. Kythis was due for a good rain, it had been nearly a week and a half. She skidded to a halt outside her home in the village. Her parents jobs made their living situation somewhat strange. Her mother was a devoted blacksmith, while her father tended to fruits and vegetables. He wasn't exactly a farmer, just a very devout gardener. As it was, they owned three separate locations in the village: her mother's shop, her fathers garden, and their home. Throughout the day, she didn't see much of either of them unless she accompanied them to work, though they both ceased work on Tuesdays to spend time together.
Kerane had spent the vast majority of her childhood exploring the areas around Kythis with Matias. The rest of her time was spent helping her father tend his garden, since she was also gifted in the same magics that he was. Today, though it wasn't Tuesday, both of her parents were home early. Kerane was somewhat surprised by this, though upon actually thinking about it, it made sense. They had apparently been sitting in the den, wondering where she'd gone off to.
"We were hoping you'd come home before the ceremony," her mother said, smiling. "Out with Matias, I take it?"
"Yes. He bought me pastries. And look!" she said, pulling the necklace out of her burnt orange shirt.
"Ah, lovely. I'm sure he spent a lot of time on that. Did you thank him?" her father asked.
"Ah, yes. Not very well, though. He was being a bit more emotional than I'm used to, it was kind of disorienting," Kerane said, rubbing the back of her neck. "I expected more snark and less sad looks. Though I guess there was still enough snark."
"Well, it is still Matias," laughed her mother. It was one of Kerane's favorite sounds. Her mother had a lovely laugh.
"We've got presents for you as well," her father said. "Mine you'll find later. It's in your pack. Plenty of preserved fruits for you, and some fresh greens and carrots for early on. Also a few dozen packages of seeds, all labeled accordingly," her father said, getting up and placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Mine you can have now," he mother said. She made her way into the other room and returned with a large bundle in her arms. Kerane unwrapped it to reveal two new short swords and sheathes to go with them. She stared at them, her mouth slightly agape. She pulled one out of it's sheathe and tested the balance. It was remarkably similar to her old ones, given the changes. They were much like her old ones in a number of ways, but the blades were very different. They curved in a few places and over all, looked much more elegant.
"Th-thank you! I'll put them to good use!" she stammered out, offering a quick bow to her mother. She re-sheathed the sword and fastened them both to her hips. It was a dangerous world they were entering, and these would most certainly come in handy. She had a fair deal of practice using short swords: she sparred with Matias on a regular basis since their parents wanted them to be able to fight, just in case they ever ran into anything dangerous exploring the woods or when they left on their journeys. She was rather attached to her old swords, but they had been her mothers before they were hers, and perhaps she was over due for an upgrade.
"We also considered buying you a dress for the ceremony, but we thought you wouldn't really enjoy that. Instead we bought you some boots, since it's advisable to wear shoes on this long of a journey," her mother said with a wink. "We put them in your room, since we didn't figure you'd put them on until after the ceremony."
"Speaking of the ceremony, we should probably get going. You ought to be there a bit early," said her father, standing now. Kerane grinned and nodded, and they headed off towards the town center. Once there, her parents entered the already gathering crowd, and she went into the small building set up for the leaving to wait in for the ceremony to start. Any gifts that were not given personally were placed in the building before the start of the ceremony. As it was, there seemed to be a fair amount of dried foods, and the town had pooled together quite a bit of money for them. It was traditional to give a gift, if you knew the persons leaving fairly well, and most people gave a few coins. This added up nicely and was well useful on the road. There were tolls to pay and supplies were always needed later on, and it was nice to not always have to try and find work to buy them.
Kerane sat down on one of the little stools provided for them to wait for the person she'd be spending at very least a few months with.
Witch and witches apprentice role play done through email. I used to use Kite for a lot of things.
Kite shuffled around the store, plucking goods off the shelves haphazardly and placing them gingerly into a small wicker basket slung over her arm. The shop wasn't set to open for another hour and a half, but all of her frequent customers knew they could come in during her working hours if there was something they needed urgently. This rarely happened, though. Most people wanted magic for fairly benign, if not somewhat petty things. A charm to ward off a streak of bad luck, a potion to help with our daughters bad skin and could you please talk to that spirit that keeps knocking over all of our plants? Nothing that can't wait a few more hours while decent people drink their coffee and down some poptarts.
Kite remembered the days of her apprenticeship being much more exciting, and it wasn't only because the small things were still new and fascinating. The woman she had studied under actually did seem to get a lot more big jobs. Also quite a few more terminally ill folks looking for magical help when science failed them.
Kite shuddered. She was, at very least, glad that most people didn't put their lives in her hands. She was sure she could handle it, it just seemed like a whole lot of very heavy responsibility. Still, an interesting job every now and again didn't seem like too much to ask. She had been at this game since she was very young, but she still had a ways to go before she actually became popular in the city. She had kept her own shop for the last ten years, and in that time she had amassed a small group of loyal customers who provided fairly steady business.
The woman bounced to the front window of the shop where several window boxes grew thick tufts of herbs. She pulled the shears off their hook on the wall and harvested the final ingredients she needed. The gathered ingredients in tow, she made her way into the back room and began tossing things into her small cauldron, which had been set up to boil earlier. She had a customer coming in for something to heal her cat, so said her crystal ball.
Amalie "Kite" Boer was a twenty nine year old little woman who owned the shop "Catastrophe Prevention" on 31st street. She specialized in potions and consorting with spirits, though she offered all kinds of magical services. She had been in the magic game since she was nine, and had been heavily interested in it before then. Her mother had dabbled in kitchen witchery, but had never taken it any further than her hearth. It was her that got Kite the apprenticeship with Mrs. Gretchen Alderson, who had taught Kite until she was eighteen. She did a bit of wandering before settling down in this particular city and setting up shop. She was yet unwed, and hadn't shown any interest at all in changing that.
She stood at five feet and seven inches. She wasn't a particularly imposing figure, though, when not focused on anything, she wore a look of irritated displeasure and she never did manage to figure out why. She had tawny hair and bright brown eyes, wide hips and a plump frame. She wore a lot of dull orange clothing.
Minimalistic but still probably the best example of my coding skills. It even has quotes and all that jazz. Yes, it's a shitty Naruto AU.
⇀ Haku Yuki
❄ We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt. ❄
Haku sat, nestled in the low lying branches of a massive fir tree. The sharp smell was pleasant and soothing, and the shade it provided was nice as well. Direct sunlight was extremely uncomfortable for Haku, being a vampire. The sensation of burning, while bearable if necessary, was not something he felt the need to regularly subject himself to. He kept to forests and caves during the day.
Haku was a wanderer. Vampires were not widely accepted creatures, since they fed on other sentient beings. The luckiest of vampires found sympathetic humans that sheltered them for a while, but that could only last as long as the humans lived. Sometimes they'd be adopted into families, as sort of permanent guardians, offering whatever services they had in exchange for blood from the family and a place where they wouldn't be treated like monsters. Most vampires didn't have the temperament for that, though. Centuries of persecution by humans tended to make them bitter. Hostile. Haku was relatively young, and had not yet forgotten the kindness of loving humans. Sometimes, vampires would attract other vampires, and they'd live in family groups. This had the benefit of companionship, but raised quite a few problems. A group of vampires was much more noticeable than a single one, particularly if they stayed in one place. Settling down was difficult. People tended not to like being preyed upon, and if you didn't kill your victims, you could be identified.
As it was, Haku traveled. He made and sold medicines, during the day, insisting that he was a well meaning demon to explain the fangs. Oddly, he face less persecution from this than he would of had he admitted the truth. By night, he donned a mask and preyed on whatever town he was closest to. He always helped more people than he hurt, and he flat out refused to kill or turn any of his victims. One of the few good things about being a vampire was not needing to feed too very often along with the enhanced physical prowess and heightened sensitivity to magic, he supposed. The long life was up for debate, but to him, it was more of a curse.
He sighed and leaned back a bit, looking up from the paste he had been grinding in a mortar and pestle. The forest he was in wasn't a pine forest, there was a mix of deciduous and conifer trees, all living together in one large biome. This particular forest had been his home for about a month now. There were several villages within and around it. There was a lot of walking involved, but he hadn't even hit half of the villages yet, and he figured they'd have a hard time hunting down one man in this huge forest.
He made to go back to working the paste in the mortar, but something distracted him. Hovering in front of him was something that most definitely hadn't been there a few seconds ago. It was on fire, but the fire seemed to be fizzling out. Once it had, the thing continued to hover in place. It looked like a letter. He stood to read it, not bothering to pick it up.
"Hello Haku,
Please gather anything you'd like to take with you and put it into that back pack of yours. Be sure to put the back pack on. You will be transported to my home in five minutes time, and I will not be transporting you back to the forest. You've been selected for a mission most important. There will be further explanation upon your arrival.
Terribly sorry for any inconvenience,
The Wizard"
Haku hesitantly grabbed the short letter and reread it. It didn't sound like he had a choice in the matter, so he quickly gathered up his things and put them in his backpack, which had been sitting a few feet away. He hadn't had much out, just some herbs and what he had been working with, so it didn't take very long at all. He hoisted the pack onto his back and found a nice stump to wait on.
He wasn't waiting very long. He blinked once, and upon opening his eyes, he found the world spinning around him. Everything was a blur of color and rushing wind and it was so dizzying he slammed his eyes shut and kept them so until the rushing noise had stopped.
When he opened his eyes again, he was lying on his side outside a small house. He slowly sat up, his head still spinning, and discovered that three other people had been transported with him. He didn't recognize them. It was very quite here, but a quick look behind them revealed that they were not too far from civilization. He wordlessly got to his feet and tried to help the person closest to him to theirs. It was a young girl, not much older than he looked.
⇁ Tsukiko Matsuoka
☽There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.☾
Tsukiko groaned, bending herself over backwards (which resulted in a satisfying series of cracking noises) and flipped off the stool she had been on. Her hands met with the ground rather hard and momentum carried her legs over her head and she ended up in a bridge position. Rather than trying to stand up from that position, she flopped to the ground and sat back up. She glared behind her, and with a defeated sigh, returned to her stool.
She added another link to the chain mail she was making. Then another. And a few more. The repetitive action was somewhat cathartic at first, but several hours in, it was just boring. Thankfully, it was almost done. Her hands moved swiftly; they were well practiced. She worked as a blacksmith in her home village of Tathain. She had lived there all of her life, and she currently didn't have any plans on leaving. The village was deep within the heart of a forest, hidden from the vast majority of the rest of the world. Elves tended to be secretive.
They were also fairly self sufficient, reducing the need for trading with outsiders marginally. What they did trade for was mostly luxury, and the sheer quality of their goods made trading very profitable. Items of elven make were very desirable to many of the races.
Tsuki, however, did quite a bit of trading with the outside world. She needed raw ores for her work, which was one of the few things the forest was lacking in. They weren't willing to dig up their home, so even if there was ore in the area, she wouldn't have access to it. She mostly traded with dwarves, who were probably the least impressed with her fancy magical metal work, but who also knew they could sell it for a huge profit to humans.
A few more links and... yes! She was done! Finally. She hopped down off of her stool and held up the heavy steel shirt by the shoulders. Finding it satisfactory, she hauled the shirt over to a mannequin in the front of the building and fitted it onto the headless thing. She gave it one more admiring glance before turning on her heel and...
Nearly jumping out of her skin. A ball of fire had appeared in front of her, with a letter inside. She clutched at her heart with one hand and grabbed the letter with the other, not bothering to wait for the flames to go out. No one in the village made regular use of spells that transported things, and she didn't figure anyone would if it wasn't of utmost importance. She read.
"Merry meet, Tsukiko,
In five minutes time, you will be transported to my home to have a very important mission explained to you. You need not grab anything; you and the rest of your company will be transported back to your shop. I will explain why once you get here, though you can probably already guess.
Terribly sorry for the inconvenience,
The Wizard"
Tsuki stared at the letter for a bit, thoroughly puzzled. Who needed her for a mission? Who was The Wizard? There were plenty of wizards, but none of them that she knew had a capital letter. And was she expected to outfit a bunch of people, because that seriously wasn't good for business... She flipped the letter over a few times, but there was nothing else to be noted, other than the paper was a lovely shade of pink. She admired the red ink as well. She wondered if she could get a bottle, before shaking off that thought and tossing the letter onto her work table.
If she was going somewhere, she was going to use what time she had left to prepare. She climbed the stairs to her bedroom and grabbed her bow and her sword. She didn't know how much damage she could do to a wizard with physical weapons, but if there was any chance that this wizard was going to turn hostile, it was better to have them than to not. She fitted her bow into her quiver and slung it over her shoulder and suddenly the world was spinning and she felt like she was floating. She tried to keep her eyes open as everything rushed around her and she sort of managed it. It was probably a good thing, too, because when it stopped, she saw the ground rapidly approaching.
She barely managed to avoid impaling herself as she threw her arms up to protect her face. Sword sticking up over her shoulder, still clutched in her hand, she slowly curled her legs up and pushed herself onto her knees. She looked around, noting three other beings. One of them was trying to help another up. She stared forward at the house in front of them.
It was small and made of stone, though you could hardly tell for all the ivy. Sprawled out around it, there were flowers aplenty and the edge of a garden was visible around the side. Furls of smoke rose from the chimney, adding a hearty scent to that of the flowers.
Tsuki got to her feet and warily pointed her sword forward.
Grub rearin' RP Intro. All the other posts were really short and I accidentally killed the rp before it got anywhere by forgetting about it for a little while. Whoops.
The mixture of Alternian and American architecture was a bit odd. The family hadn't been responsible for it. The Department of Inter-Species Cooperation had drawn up the blueprints and the Alternian construction droids had built the neighborhoods. It was a remarkably quick process. Earth had never seen more efficient construction.
Less quick had been the education of the parents. Books had been written for them. Classes had been created. Trolls had come to educate them on the nuances of their culture and how to emulate a lusus. Lesson plans had been made and teachers had been found to teach the young trolls once they were old enough to go to school. The DISC had planned to raise the trolls to be aware of their original culture, but also to be able to function in human society. It was the job of the parents to assure this goal to the best of their abilities.
In order to become the parent of a troll, one had to be fairly young and have no children. The potential parents had to be relatively strong and be able to deal with a large amount of stress. The screening process was extensive, but a good number of volunteers had made it through. They then began the process of meeting their housemates and neighborhood. More time was spent with the housemates, obviously, but there were a few large meetings for neighbors. The support network for the new parents was being built, slowly. A twenty-four hour hotline was set up for them to call if anything disastrous happened.
Kite tapped her foot, going over everything she had learned. Today was the day they moved into the neighborhood. It was not, however, the day that they received their children. There was a two week period they had to get through first to make sure that the four of them could live together. Kite doubted that there would be any problems. She had lived with Finn for a few months before and they both got on pretty well with the others.
She took one more look down the street and then headed inside, leaving her scooter in the driveway. Finn had all of her stuff with him. She thought he had beaten her here, but she was apparently wrong. She shoved the door open.
"Hey!" Finn said. He was sitting on the couch, flipping through channels.
"Where the hell is your car?" Kite asked. "I was waiting in the driveway for five minutes."
"In the garage? You were behind me, where did you think I was?" Finn said with a laugh.
"I don't know. Let's just get our stuff unpacked," Kite sighed, grabbing his arm and pulling him upright.
Kite and Finn had been friends for a very long time. They were both 23 years old. Finn had worked since he was 16, and Kite had gone to school until last year. She dropped out with the intention of going back later, until she'd decided to become a parent. The government was funding this project entirely, as raising a troll was expected to be a full time job. Once the trolls were able to go to school, the parents would be allowed to get day jobs for extra spending money, but until then they were to live off the (fairly substantial) government check. Most of the people that were weeded out in the screening process were just there because of that arrangement.
They unpacked their things from Finn's truck fairly quickly; it was mostly just clothing and trinkets, since the house came furnished. They weren't sure when the others would arrive. They figured they were fairly early, since it was just then noon.
"So, how bad do you think the farms going to rot without you there?" Kite asked Finn.
"I've got a friend who agreed to take care of it. So long as he doesn't kill my sheep, everything should be fine," Finn said. He looked uneasy. Kite patted him on the shoulder.
"It's better than leaving Zak there alone," she responded.
They chattered for a while longer before Finn wandered upstairs to set up his computer. Kite stayed down stairs waiting to greet the others.
Puella #1 for Rabid Hamsters PMMM: Your Own Story role play Guild. Meet Parse, wordy c**t and generally strange being.
Parse Katriona Frey
Location⇢A dank and musty alleyway Mood⇢Startled Companionship⇢A pink haired lass that threw me to the ground Quest⇢Find out why I am on the ground...
⋙ Love the Despised ⋘
Parse was silent as a young girl ran into her from behind and toppled her to the ground. The only sound that came from her was a quiet "urff" as the forearms that came up to protect her face slammed into the concrete. To be fair, a strong enough breeze could send Parse downward if she was distracted, and distracted she was. This seemed different, though. This had force behind it. She wondered if it was intentional as she shoved herself upright and brushed the crumbled concrete out of the divots the debris had dug into the sides of her arms. She propped herself up on her knees and noted that the white tights that covered them had been shredded.
She leaned slowly to her right and flopped herself over, settling on her rear and looking over at her attacker, which was apparently a rather small girl with pink hair.
"Sooo..." she started, her voice rather friendly and not even mildly phased. "Did you mean to do that, because that was one hell of a bump."
She laughed a little and slumped forward, sort of rolling into a standing position. Her movements were like viscous liquid, like sludge crawling upward. Occasionally she'd twitch and it mimicked drips, her head suddenly flopping to one side like a curious dog. She trudged over to her fallen... assailant? New friend? and offered her a hand.
"Parse Katriona Frey, at your service. Pick a name, use whichever, but if you call me 'Kat' at any point, I'll find a way to summon a demon special for you," she said. This was a somewhat normal greeting for her. She liked to layer on a bit of batshit when she met new people. If they went running, it saved her a lot of time and a bit of heartbreak.
⋙ Befriend Enemies ⋘
⋘ OtherOrdersConcur: Hey yo Oshe, how you doin'? ⋙
Transform!
ＡＬＬ〓ＧＬＯＲＹ〓ＴＯ〓ＴＨＥ〓ＭＵＳＨＲＯＯＭ〓ＭＡＧＩ Weapon⇢Tarot Cards Main Power⇢Tarot based magic attacks. Secondary Power⇢Heightened intuition and divinatory skill. Soul Gem⇢Orange, in the shape of a mushroom. Pinned to the back of her bow. Dressed Up
The most recent of my samples, meaning I literally just wrote this and figured I should update this post. Three characters each, though my angry medical nin is AWOL at the moment. Naruto is the fandom, go figure.
Gaara offered a solemn nod, then pondered the bit of story he had been given.
"That they did not find what they are looking for is somewhat surprising. Your wounds have healed far past what they should have, considering only precious few hours have gone. You claim no clan, but it's a possibility that it's a trait inherited by blood," he said. Perhaps he spoke because it seemed strange to speculate on a past she did not know without informing her of the ideas. He was not entirely sure.
He studied the girl with care. The wounds were showing visible signs of healing, though they can't have been stitched up for long. She was in much better health than she had any right to be, considering she had been very near death not very long ago. He had briefly considered the doctors prowess was beyond what he had been told, but dismissed the thought as asinine. He closed his eyes a moment, in thought. When he opened them again, he spoke.
"Welcome to the Village Hidden in the Sands, Kanade. Your existence here is somewhat problematic, but you will receive the treatment you need. I apologize, but we must keep you under surveillance. No less than two nin will be posted, one inside your room and one outside. You have given us very little information and I cannot be sure if it is honest ignorance or purposeful deception, though I would very much like to trust you.
"I will personally be checking up on you with as much frequency as I can spare. If I find any of my men injured by your hand, I will hunt you down and eliminate you. So long as you've been honest, you are welcome here. If you've been deceitful, it will be the end of you," he spoke in a low, flat voice begetting just how dangerous he could be if provoked. In truth, he somewhat regretted the open display of hostility, even with the qualifier of a desire for friendliness. Intimidation was not a tactic he frequently employed, and he was fairly certain it was unnecessary here, but Kanade was a risk, and if she proved dangerous, it was on his hands.
Elsewhere, a petite ninja slunk out of her bed, more sensing the rise of the run than actually witnessing it, as the small windows of her adobe abode were covered with thick, black fabric. Sure enough, as her head rolled towards the nearest one, light was oozing through the black, highlighting the tall window but illuminating the room none.
In fact, a small oil lamp was the only light in the room. Kaori twitched the dial up a notch, raising the wick ever so slightly out of the oil and shedding light on a bit more of the room. She whispered greetings to the voices that met her here and a farewell to the ones she'd left behind in the strange dreamscape she had been visiting.
The cold of the night hadn't quite crept away in the dim glow that the peeking sun offered, and even though adobe held temperatures nicely, a bit had crept into the air. Still, it was not enough to stir her naked flesh as she slowly, deliberately got dressed. A simple black dress was pulled over her head, orange hem hanging at her knees. She bound her legs, keeping the slit up the side of the dress practical instead of revealing. The length of fabric and small bit of metal that was her badge of office found itself tied at her waist, a makeshift belt that kept nothing up. It very quickly shifted, sitting at an angle instead of straight, as it had been tied. Her kunai pouch, as well as a few smaller pouches that she looped around her hitai-ate, were dug out of the mess of scrolls and papers that littered the rooms of her cramped apartment.
She wandered into the dark kitchen, the small enclave too far from either of the dim lights for normal people to manage, but Kaori saw well in the blackness and fished out a breakfast of hard, dried meat. She held several strips as she slipped on her sandals and emerged into the red-tinged world, locking her door behind her and stalking down the road towards the Kazekage's manor. She needed to be briefed on today's mission before she could depart. From her understanding it was a two man team, mostly to be discreet. Some sort of delivery, an important document, perhaps. Bandit activity had increased substantially lately, and Suna could not afford to have it's secrets sold.
He did not even bother opening his eyes as his heart drummed against his rib cage and the cold sweat clung to his skin in the early morning darkness. He argued with his body until breathing came easy again and the clatter of veins and bone had turned into a dull throbbing in his head. He opened his eyes as his brows furrowed and he met yet another day with panic, followed by scowls. He propped himself up and grabbed his wand off the bedside table, offering a quick glance to the clock to confirm what the decided lack of sun had already told him.
4:53 a.m. Impressive, he'd gotten an extra seven minutes of sleep today. A hot shower warmed him back up. The dreary rains of London weren't hospitable to night terrors in the best of times, but with dementors roaming the streets and an apartment with a faulty radiator, Nori found himself frozen from head to toe every morning.
Everything magical in the house glimmered with the shine of concealment charms, as the apartment was very much muggle-owned, and very much muggle-inspected. He didn't figure the land-lady would be coming by today, unless the kind dear was dolling out cookies again. The woman was coming on in years and her four boys rarely visited. Nori was the youngest in the drab apartment complex and the woman had taken a shining to him. If he had been somewhat less emotionally constipated and anyone had ever asked, he might have admitted to having a soft spot for her as well. Nori's own mother had died shortly before he'd graduated from Hogwarts, a 43-year-old widow that had nothing but kindness to give.
He regretted that he was not more like her, but, at very least, he showed the land-lady with her cookies what kindness he could, even if she didn't have a wand.
The announcement in the Prophet of the Marriage Laws had told him he'd be moving soon, however. He glanced to a few choice places, scattered about the room, now that he was out of the shower. There was some chance his new spouse would come here, but if the studio apartment with the twin bed was honestly the best choice for their living space, his hopes for the future were grimmer than expected. Still, though... he had some things to clean up.
He spent the morning bustling around the apartment, vanishing the things that no one could ever know about. He had fully intended on a long, solitary life. He'd built up a fair amount of savings in the meager vault his mother had left him but he had more than he needed here and had honestly not made any plans to move at any point in the future. He was finished rather quickly, going over his hiding places in case he'd missed something as he sipped a cup of piping earl grey and enjoyed a breakfast of strawberries. Of course he hadn't; the young man's memory was impeccable and the hiding spaces were frequently uncovered.
He soon heard the land lady above him shuffling around her apartment. He picked up the little crate of strawberries in ginger fingers. It was no longer overflowing, but there were still more than enough. He made his way up the narrow staircase and rapped three times on her door. She greeted him first with confusion, then a smile. Dressed in a pink bathrobe and curlers still in hair, she opened her door to him. Half his mouth twitched up in a small smile and he settled at her small dining table and waiting for her to "make herself presentable."
She spoke to him as she fluttered around her home. She spoke of the other tenants, and a post-card from her oldest, and asked him how he was and if the internship was going well and apologized for not having made her muffins yet. He responded to all he could.
"Anyways, I brought these mostly so you wouldn't eat the muffins today," he said in a raised voice, projecting so she could hear him in her bedroom where she was dressing. "You can't eat chocolate chip muffins every day, it's just not healthy. A bit of honey and these are much sweeter and a hell of a lot better for you."
She joined him at the table, far too used to the gruffness in his voice to be bothered by it. She was now fully dressed in a simple, purple dress.
"I've got the kettle on, if you haven't had your morning tea," she offered, gesturing to the pot on the stove he'd noticed long ago.
"I have, but I wouldn't mind another cup," he said and she nodded, hopping up once more and fetching them their cups. He'd learned long ago not to offer to help. She slapped his hands away every time he tried. They shared a meal, dipping ripe berries in honey and sipping pekoe from mugs, instead of cups. When she inevitably asked what had brought him up here today, he frowned. He told her it was very likely that he'd have to move, made up some excuse that he'd been transferred to a different hospital. Just to try and deter the fact that she very much looked like she was going to cry, he added that they had recognized his talents and found him a doctor to work under that would better suit his needs. This worked, but only slightly.
"I'll still visit, of course," he pointed out, having thought this had been somewhat obvious. Apparently it was not, as she appeared a bit taken aback. They were very similar in that they did not often get visitors, but she did not enjoy her solitude as much as Nori did. She looked quite happy at this promise. He wondered if he could get a phone to work in a magical household. Honestly, Leslie was the only person he actively liked. He pointed the last bit out and she slapped his hand and told him not to talk like that.
He spent a fair amount of time talking with her that morning. The rest of the tea quickly grew cold. A bout of incredulousness at his name came up at some point, which was somewhat frequent. Nori's ancestry was Japanese, but it was far, far removed and the family was such a mix of races at this point that you would never, ever guess. Only by a string of odd luck that the last name of Ito had stuck with them up to this point. His parents had been amused by the blue-eyed, strawberry blond baby with the last name of Ito and gave him a first name to match. Depending on his mood, he was either mildly irritated by this or sort of sadly amused.
At the end of it, he'd received a promise of baked goods in the mail and he'd promised to send her pills, which earned him another slap on the hand and a fairly long ramble about the time she'd caught one of her sons smoking "mari-jew-wanna" and could have beat him.
The talking ended and she gave him a hug, which he tolerated and half-halfheartedly returned. He trudged down the stairs to meet the awaiting Prophet that had surely been delivered by now. He wasn't entirely sure if he felt good or sad. He didn't bother thinking it over to find out. A glance at the clock told him it was 7:15. Today was his day off, anyways, so this wasn't particularly relevant.
He fiddled with the old brass key and got the door open. Sure enough, the paper was sitting on his table. He shut the window and settled down. He found his name very quickly in the columns declaring who would marry who. He met this with a sigh and closed his eyes before leaning back in his chair. A few minutes of pinching the bridge of his nose and he investigated his new wife. A prod of the wand changed the name (Cassie Kennedy) to scroll through her contact information. He supposed he was just glad he woke up as early as he did.
He closed his eyes once more, briefly, before wandering back into his bedroom and pulling out the current book he was memorizing. He figured it would be highly impolite to show up so early in the morning, or at least that's how he justified this blatant procrastination. Besides, he had studying to do if he was to become a great healer. This "Cassie Kennedy" could wait until noon or show up herself.
He set to memorizing everything you can do with the essence of dittany, retaining very little as his mind kept throwing worries at him.
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