ariplotter

The Ruins of Hogwarts

If anyone wants to start up a friendship or mutual dislike with Sienna, let me know! She's kind of new to real friendships, but she's working towards coming out of her shell this year. She can get overwhelmed by people who are too loud or pushy,or insensitive, but she tries to be patient and see good qualities in everyone.

The Ruins of Hogwarts

Sienna Rodriguez
Hogwarts Express

***

@McHaggis @Potter

Sienna was relieved that Dally’s feathers weren’t causing Morgan’s reactions. She’d never heard of someone disliking animals so much that they sneezed and coughed from simply being around them, but, to each their own. Sienna fell quiet for a moment, watching as Morgan fiddled with his trunk to withdraw his seventh year DADA textbook. Morgan was in the middle of opening it when he spoke again, asking if her piercings had hurt.

His questions were interrupted briefly by the arrival of Tessa, a familiar Slytherin who was often the subject of discrimination because of her blood heritage. Sienna smiled warmly as she joined them, then turned back to Morgan, who seemed eager to hear the answer.

”Oh,” she said; slightly surprised that he was showing genuine interest. ”I suppose they did hurt a bit when they were first pierced; but because I got them magically done, they healed much more quickly than piercings from a muggle shop would have. Now they don’t hurt at all. I'm not sure what spells the artist used, but I'm sure they'd be easy to find if you did some research on Magical Body Art. If you're interested, I got them at the "Tatoo Artist" shop in Diagon Alley.” Sienna glanced from Dally to Tessa’s owl.

“That’s a nice barn owl,” Sienna said. “He looks sweet. What’s his name?”

If there was any subject that Sienna didn’t mind making small talk about, it was animals and magical creatures. She felt calmest when she was talking to Dally or studying a new specimen in Care of Magical Creatures. Someday, she hoped to see a Phoenix in person—maybe even meet the one who had given the feather for her wand, if possible. But for now, she was more than satisfied with Dally’s company and with being able to spend time around animals both magical and non-magical.

The Ruins of Hogwarts

@McHaggis Forgot to @mention you in my post, so I'm doing it here x)

The Ruins of Hogwarts

As Morgan entered her compartment, Sienna noticed that he was trying not to stare at her new piercings while he set down his trunk, sliding it under the seats with care. He sneezed upon catching sight of Dally in his cage, and Sienna briefly wondered if he was allergic to owls.

"I'm sitting here. I hope that's acceptable," Morgan said cordially, sitting with a flourish and crossing his legs. Sienna shrugged, not particularly minding. A few years ago, being alone in a small space with a guy would have been terrifying; but now, she only felt slightly uncomfortable because she didn’t know him very well. What little she knew was that Morgan’s family vehemently opposed anything even slightly related to the Dark Arts, despite Morgan’s own brother becoming a dark wizard; and Sienna only knew about that because of her father’s late night conversations with various shady characters that had passed through the Rodriguez Manor over the years.

In fact, few people who weren’t dark wizards even knew that Luis had slipped back into his old ways after his wife’s death. He kept up a perfectly normal pretense with his job at the Ministry and his charming Hispanic accent and proper demeanor. He kept his dark dealings confined to the time he spent at home; grooming her now 20-year-old brother to become a powerful dark wizard, as well as the heir to the estate.

Sienna bent her head over her book, trying to lose herself in the words she knew so well. She needed to stop thinking about her father and brother; stop feeling dragged down by the mistakes they’d made, and make a new identity for herself.

Morgan kept looking over at her; dark brown eyes darting curiously from her piercings to her hair. Sienna supposed much of the beginning of the year would be like this, but that was all right. Anything to distance herself from her former family.

Sienna decided to make an attempt at conversation, since they would be sitting here together for the rest of the long train ride.

“You’re Morgan, right?” she asked, holding a thumb to the page she was on, so the book wouldn’t snap shut while being jostled by the train’s slight movements as it rattled along. “If you’re allergic, I know a charm that could help,” she told him, gesturing to Dally.

Gamers World: A Virtual Escape (airplotter and pockets)w

Elia flopped down onto her couch; finally able to relax after a long day of work and school. It had become apparent to her in the past couple of years that neither her full-time retail job nor her full-time university understood or appreciated how much time and energy Elia had to expend into each of them. Without her assistant manager position at New True Blues, Elia would have no way of paying for her hefty tuition and affording rent at her small, cramped apartment; and without needing to pay for her university classes and future Business degree, she wouldn’t have a reason to put in so many hours at New True Blues, which desperately needed her expertise and dedication among a crew of workers with a high turnover rate, who were always either unqualified or unwilling to work as hard as they should.

She sighed, wishing they would both cut her some slack. At least, miraculously, she had the next three days off from work and school; an unprecedented occurrence.

Elia briefly flipped on the TV, but was bored within minutes. She turned it off and rummaged in the fridge for some leftovers, choosing cold pizza over a Tupperware full of cold spaghetti. Once her hunger was sated, Elia wandered over to her room; grateful for the lack of stairs in her one-story apartment.

She flopped onto the bed just as she had flopped onto her couch, and her hand brushed against something plastic. Elia brought her head up to see the helmet she’d touched; the grey headset for her FIVR console. Elia smiled. She hadn’t touched it or logged into her Firewind account in more than a few months. Perhaps it was what she needed to jumpstart her three-day weekend in a good way.

Elia turned on the console, plugged in her helmet, and tugged it on over her dark curly hair. The visor greeted her with a ping and a message.

Welcome back to your Yxel Entertainment Systems FIVR Gaming Console. Software update in progress, please wait until this update has completed before you continue.

“Huh? I didn’t install any updates,” Elia pointed out.

Mandatory updates installed. Uploading process in progress. Please wait until this update has completed before you continue.

“Oy.” Elia removed the headset and lay back on her pillow, wondering just how long the supposedly mandatory update would take. Sometimes these FIVR games were more trouble than they were worth.

Elia fell asleep, woken only by the ping of her console several hours later. She wasn’t hungry yet, so she sat up, rubbed a small bit of drool from the corner of her mouth, and placed the headset back on. This time, a paragraph of words scrolled across her field of vision.

Software update: Complete
Initializing system start-up.
Start-up: complete.

Elia smiled and spoke the words she hadn’t said in too long of a while. “Start up, initialization. Connect.”

Gamers World: A Virtual Escape (airplotter and pockets)w

Realized I never really sent you my character! Here she is. Just a very basic CS.

Name: Elia Martinez

Appearance:

Age: 19

Defining Chivalry (ariplotter and Red Helix)

Instead of giving her question a verbal answer, Aidan stood and grasped one of Lyn’s breasts, squeezing it with enough force that she felt it even through her leather jerkin. “How about that?” he asked, with a smirk evident on his frustratingly handsome face.

Lyn’s eyes widened, and her cheeks flushed a red that rivaled the color of her hair. “O-oh. I see,” she stammered. “I’ll do my best to work with you on this, my Lor—er, Erik.” She certainly hadn’t been expecting him to do anything of the sort, and wasn’t sure how to respond as Aidan’s hand lingered on her body.

She knew everything there was to know about proper swordplay and battle tactics and shieldwork, but Lyn had no experience in the field of intimacy; not to mention that Aidan’s general demeanor made her feel more flustered and uncomfortable than she had ever felt around anyone else. When she’d been taunted by men like Orenel or called to on the street, a sharp right hook usually shut them up, if they ever went past inappropriate words and had the gall to try and touch her. But what could she do to Aidan except follow his orders?

The Ruins of Hogwarts

Sienna shouldered her totebag as she approached Platform 9 3/4; grateful, not for the first time, for her proficiency at performing both the Summoning Charm and the Undetectable Extension Charm. They’d come in handy when she needed to collect all of her stuff from the home she’d been kicked out of. Now, all she appeared to have was a rolling trunk, a totebag, and an owl cage containing her best friend, Dally; although the totebag contained considerably more than would normally fit into it.

The past week or so staying at the Leaky Cauldron hadn’t been unpleasant at all. Initially, Sienna had worried about not being able to pay for her needs, but she soon remembered that she had a small fortune stored in the savings account her father had started for her at Gringotts when she was 11. Because it was in her own name, and she was a legal adult, her father wouldn’t be able to freeze the account. Sienna wouldn’t have to be concerned with her finances for a long time; but she still intended to use it sparingly, since she had no idea how soon she would find a paying job after graduation.

She did, though, splurge a little to pay for her new tattoo and piercings. They were a way for her to completely separate herself from the family she was now actually separated from. Sienna knew she would get some strange looks from new students and even from many of the students she’d grown up with; but they couldn’t be much different from the looks she’d gotten almost her whole life, due to her long grey locks of hair, caused by the unstable magic and uncontrollable grief she’d experienced as a 6-year-old girl who lost her mother.

“We’re going back to Hogwarts for the very last time, hermanito,” Sienna said quietly to the tawny owl she held in its cage. “Unless I end up becoming a professor there, of course.” Dally cooed softly back at her, and she ran at the barrier, emerging on the other side just in time to hear the train’s warning whistles echo through the station. Sienna made her way to the Hogwarts Express and boarded, handing her luggage off to the attendant, but keeping her totebag and Dally in his cage. She walked down the long line of compartments, ignoring the first years that first stared at her septum ring and grey hair, and then scooted past her guiltily when they realized she’d caught them staring.

Sienna came across a compartment that appeared to have just been barged into by Mina, one of Sienna's friends from choir who was little and sweet, but unafraid to speak her mind. She glanced in past Mina to see a strikingly handsome boy with carelessly perfect blond hair, and another young man who in appearance and style seemed to be his exact opposite; both of whom she recognized to be in her year, but not her House. She smiled hesitantly, not sure if any of them had noticed her standing there, and moved on.

Next, Sienna passed a compartment that held Callum—a sixth year Ravenclaw she’d spoken to a few times over the years—and his new girlfriend, a pretty Gryffindor who was the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, if Sienna remembered correctly. Not wanting to bother the two of them, Sienna gave a small wave to Callum, who was probably too busy catching up with his companion to wave back at her. Sienna wasn’t bothered at all, and kept going until she found what might possibly have been the very last empty compartment. Sitting down with a sigh, she set Dally down next to her and fed him a small owl treat before rummaging around in her totebag to find her dog-eared copy of Clockwork Angel. Sienna already felt better about her situation; but she knew that she would truly be able to breathe and relax once she arrived back at Hogwarts—her true home.

The Ruins of Hogwarts

Almost ready to post :)

Defining Chivalry (ariplotter and Red Helix)

Lyn nodded thoughtfully. It made sense that it would take a long time to master sorcery; she doubted that she would ever have the patience to sit down and study ancient spellwork for long enough to become decently skilled with it.

She winced inwardly at the girly sound of Helga’s giggles, watching as the maid walked away. Had Aidan just complimented her again? He must simply be keeping up the pretense of his ‘Erik’ character; surely, that was it. Perhaps Lyn should have asked if he wanted to maintain a more detailed masquerade, with details such as flirtations between Erik and herself. Erik was from the Western Isles, anyway; and there were few reasons for a young woman and man to be traveling alone together to the place they both hailed from, other than a romantic journey of sorts.

Lyn managed to finish eating in good time; and a quick glance out the window revealed that their belongings were still safely secured where they were left. “I’m ready when you are,” she told him. “Also… Is there a certain way I ought to be interacting with you while we are in public view?” She asked this last question in a lower voice, even though no one appeared to be paying attention to them.