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 Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2016 3:38 pm
Summer classes were almost over. It was time for Chester to make a choice. On one side there was MIT, his spot in the engineering program, a future full of numbers, innovations, and accolades. On the other there was magic, supernatural celebrations, and a strange, new world full of peril and adventure. He knew which he wanted now, but the other option was the one he had dreamed of fulfilling nearly his entire life. Abandoning it so abruptly would raise questions he wasn't prepared to find answers for, and he couldn't deny the thought of doing so disappointed him a little too. To give up Poole Industries on the strength of a little lumos felt reckless at the very least.
Usually when he was trying to keep from thinking he ended up at the library, and today was no different. Lately Chester had been venturing closer and closer to the kiddie spell books—sticky, large print things detailing love potions, hag stones, simple healing—and feeling guiltier and guiltier for it. It wasn't like any of this was real magic, though if what Mr. Mercer had said was true everything was real magic, but he knew that every step he took in that direction was a step toward changing his life. At least his parents wouldn't find out about his new interests by snooping on him. Neither they nor any of their friends would be caught dead inside a library.
He was as close as he had ever gotten, The Beginner's Spellbook by Madeline Muener turned cover-out on a shelf no less than six feet away, but Chester still couldn't bring himself to approach. He stood in the middle of a moderately busy fork, one he knew well. The path to his left led to the section of the library devoted to math theory.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2016 9:16 pm
The library was a place Nathaniel knew all too well, especially considering the consistently skyrocketing prices of textbooks these days. That, paired with that he simply found books fascinating, meant that he was currently wandering through the aisles of one right now, letting his fingers drift almost reverently along the spines of each one as he tried to find what he was looking for.
He didn't really even know what he was looking for. Anything. Everything.
The aisle he was in had to do with one of Nathaniel's favored subjects and his major, mathematical theory. He carefully selected two that he thought would be of use to him for his upcoming fall semester, and then, just because he could, two more that simply looked interesting.
Coming out of the end, he almost ran into a young man standing directly in the middle of the fork, Nathaniel stopping abruptly before he collided. He didn't quite seem to know what he was doing there, which gave him pause.
"Hello," he said politely. "Are you, ah...lost? Or anything?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 2:55 pm
Considering how guilty he felt it was a wonder he didn't jump. Chester swallowed as he faced the one who'd spoken, a tentative smile creeping onto his face.
"No, not lost," he said. "I came here for the math, but... well..." He gestured at the magic stuff. "This is fun to look at too. It just makes me feel silly to have been caught." He glanced past the other young man for a moment to make sure no one was annoyed by their conversation. "Do you go to Rider-Waite?" Chester had barely been enrolled there himself, so the fact that he didn't recognize the blond didn't mean much.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:50 pm
Nathaniel gave a nod, peering a little more curiously at the young man, then down at the aisle he was gesturing to. Blond brows drew together as he considered the subject matter before he turned back to the other.
"Oh," he said, "Yes, I do. I'm a second year at Rider-Waite. I don't think it's silly, by the way," he added.
Nathaniel took a step closer to the nearest shelf, eyeing the spine of a book.
"Are you into this sort of thing, then?"
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 9:00 am
In his experience, normal people didn't go around poking fun at the interests of those they didn't know, choosing indifference or a change of subject instead. This guy's reaction was far more positive than either of those, and it gave Chester pause. A potential classmate might cause him trouble if they thought he was even more of a colossal nerd than his peers generally did, but he was somehow sure this one wouldn't.
"Only recently," he replied after his moment of thought. "But now I find myself here, wondering if I might enchant a rock so it lets me see fairies." He chuckled. "I didn't know Ashdown was so... strange. Not until someone showed me." He moved closer to the shelf as well. "Talk to Your Pet. Hm. I don't have one."
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Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2016 5:49 pm
Nathaniel's brows rose high enough that they were in danger of disappearing underneath his fringe of blond hair - but he was also glad that he wasn't the only one to have thought that there was something peculiar about the whole city of Ashdown.
"Do faeries exist, then?" he asked keenly, very curious to hear the answer of this. "I would love to see if those are an actual being, I've read up on them before. I didn't know you could enchant rocks to speak to them, that's fascinating."
Nathaniel's eyes skimmed over the titles and the book spines.
"What about - no, wait, that's talking about furries, not faeries. False alarm."
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Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 5:52 pm
"Oh." He really wasn't making fun. Well, at least not about the fairies. Furries, on the other hand...
"I'm not sure about any of it. Furries included." He smiled again, though it was directed toward the shelves. If he was being honest, he was pretty sure there were actual furries running around, but he had only been on the very edge of understanding what had gone on at Blackfriars, so he couldn't confirm.
"But I'm confident that magic exists, at least here. I've... A woman spoke to me in my head. I've opened doors into a world where it rains all the time. I'm hoping some of this other stuff pans out. Fairy rocks and the like."
He hesitated, then decided it was a little late to take things back or try to pretend he hadn't just said all he had. "Chester Poole. I'm a second year as well. Technically." Since he'd transferred, they were making him take a load of freshman fluff along with his more interesting classes.
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Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 6:29 am
Nathaniel took a few moments to flip through the furries book, just because it was there and it was curious, before he slid it back onto the shelf with a whole world of regret behind the decision. He glanced sideways at the other, brows raised.
"A woman spoke to you in your head? That's pretty cool - and weird," he added, after a moment's thought. "Did you know the woman? I'm not sure I'd like it if it rained all the time, it's not really very good for plants, y'know."
He kind of hoped the fairy rocks worked out too. Nathaniel gave the boy - Chester - a smile of his own.
"I'm Nathaniel Parrish," he said, "It's nice to meet you - oh, here's a book that talks about the...fae...?" Nathaniel squinted a little at the spine as he tugged the book out from between two thicker ones. "Here, this might help, or something."
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 7:24 am
"No, I, um..." Maybe he had said too much. This was all starting to sound really stupid in hindsight, like an overeager child talking about his game of make believe with a visiting uncle. Chester paused again.
"You really don't think this is silly?" He took the book Nathaniel had picked with a nod and a distracted thank you. "I didn't know her, no. And it is kind of cool to think about now. At the time, I thought she might kill me." He chuckled nervously.
Chester leafed through the book, though his heart wasn't in it at the moment. It did look like something that would help when he had the concentration to read it, however, and he tucked it between his elbow and his body, intending to take it with him. "Do you do a lot with plants? I'm horrible at taking care of living things, though I do like visiting public gardens. They're soothing."
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Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 6:47 pm
Nathaniel paused in is book perusal to look back at Chester, eyebrows raised.
"Nah, I don't think it's silly at all," he said, and his tone of voice was slightly lifted in surprise, as though he hadn't expected the question. "It's somethin' you're interested in, right? And I mean, who knows, it might be true. Y'never know unless you look, right?"
He offered a smile, passing the book over, and went back to searching.
"Well, I'm glad she didn't kill you," Nathaniel said, stretching out a hand to leaf through a few dusty spines on the shelf. "And yeah, I love gardenin', it's what I do in my spare time n' all. I like public gardens too; one day I'd love to visit the poison garden in England."
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