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Post by Quinn Ashwinder on Aug 22, 2009 14:13:08 GMT -5
Quinn shrugged, "I spent most of my free time growing up in forests, so this one, while bigger and perhaps more dangerous, isn't all that different from other forests. You can get lost if you want to, or be found." It didn't take long for Quinn to think of bowtruckles and their trees. Sometimes she managed to catch a glimpse of a unicorn or two, as though they hovered just out of sight, but she'd managed to pick up a few pieces of hair while she was there. "I find all sorts of extraordinary things in the forest, things that make me not want to have to come back to the real world." It was like a fairy tale out there, a place where no one could find her, but herself, and yet magical things happened.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Aug 22, 2009 14:27:25 GMT -5
Markise looked aside at Quinn as he took a bite of his apple, wondering not for the first time how people could like being outside so much. He'd gotten a lot more tolerant of it last year, especially of sitting by the lake, but he'd never have wanted to go into the forest alone. "I'm from New York City, so no forests there. We have Central Park, but no forest." He'd never cared much about Central Park either, until this summer. Then it had become a necessity. And he intended to keep up the tradition by running along the lake in the morning after his pilates routine.
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Post by Quinn Ashwinder on Aug 22, 2009 14:30:37 GMT -5
New York, Quinn thought, it seemed a world away from England. She'd been here her entire life, and hadn't thought about leaving until Kiley had died. But Kiley had wanted to get away, she'd wanted to see the world and everyone in it. "I've heard that New York is amazingly modern," Quinn said softly. "I'm from a very very small town in England, before this year I was homeschooled." If you could call it that, mother had bought some books, and Kiley and she had poured over them, learning what they could, practicing on each other.
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Post by Markise Sterling on Aug 22, 2009 15:19:17 GMT -5
Markise shook his head. "I've always been in school," he said. "I went to Muggle preschool and elementary school before wizarding school. Both my parents work. And yeah, New York is so different from this place." It was an entirely different world, the tall buildings and constant activity compared to the huge open spaces in Scotland. Ariel had probably hated New York for a while, though by the end, he'd been doing fine. And still wishing he was elsewhere, the way Markise was now. He reminded himself that he was going to Australia this winter and hoped he wouldn't hate it.
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Post by Quinn Ashwinder on Aug 22, 2009 15:26:53 GMT -5
Quinn sighed for a moment, "my father was from America, he was a muggle." She didn't know anything other than that, but she thought that her mother might have a few photos somewhere. "I never met him, he passed before I was born," before Kiley was born. "I think he might have been from Wyoming, have you ever been to Wyoming?"
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Post by Markise Sterling on Aug 22, 2009 16:01:30 GMT -5
Markise shook his head. "Just New York and California," he said. "I went to a school in California because it was cheaper than the one in New England." And he'd found out too late that it hadn't been whatever his parents had been paying, anyway. He'd be working on his charms for the rest of his life and probably never get caught up. But he'd met Dare. He mentally sighed.
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Post by Quinn Ashwinder on Aug 22, 2009 19:59:03 GMT -5
Not knowing what to say Quinn walked next to the boy for a few silent seconds. It sucked that he'd gone to a school so far from home, because it was cheaper. But she wished that had been her problem in life. "I'm just happy I got here. I may not know or understand everything here, but somehow I know that life here will be better, it has to be, right?"
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Post by Markise Sterling on Aug 22, 2009 20:14:57 GMT -5
Markise nearly laughed at that, but somehow he restrained himself. What would have been a humorless smile came out almost sympathetic. "Right," he managed, keeping private the information that he'd never wanted to kill himself at SWIM. He hadn't even wanted to leave until those last few weeks. But he supposed that if he looked at it from that angle, Hogwarts was better than SWIM. But only because he hadn't come out here. He was sure that if he did, it'd be just as bad, if not worse than what had happened there. And as horrible an experience as it had been for so much of his stay here, he had Ariel now, because he'd come to Hogwarts when he had. "What is it you don't understand?" he asked, turning himself back to the conversation.
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Post by Quinn Ashwinder on Aug 22, 2009 20:22:17 GMT -5
Quinn smiled a bit sheepishly, her fingers twisting into her hair again, "everything. How to talk to people, how to navigate large buildings filled with self-important ghosts." She shrugged, how to live without Kiley. She didn't know how to stand and be the person she needed to be now. "I want to be different than I was before, I want to stand up for what I didn't like when I was living with my step-father."
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Post by Markise Sterling on Aug 22, 2009 20:56:05 GMT -5
Part of that Markise had been working with Ariel over for quite a while now. Ariel didn't seem to see it, but he was infinitely better at talking to people, especially to him, than he'd probably ever wanted to be. "That's a good goal," Markise said, glancing aside at Quinn. "If you want to change things, you've got to start somewhere." It was strange to think of. Sometime during the last soul-sucking year he'd forgotten that. "As for the castle, the stairs move and sometimes the rooms do, too. So don't worry about getting lost. And all the ghosts are pretty helpful except the Bloody Baron."
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Post by Quinn Ashwinder on Aug 22, 2009 20:59:57 GMT -5
Quinn nodded, she'd managed on her own to find out about moving rooms and stairs, things that though annoying, and house elf you spotted was willing to help you work through. "I'm starting with a club, I don't know if the headmistress will allow me to form it or not, but I'm hoping she will. I think that Dare and or Michael might join me, but I'm not sure if that's actually the case. I hope at least."
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Post by Markise Sterling on Aug 22, 2009 21:12:25 GMT -5
Markise blinked and looked away, completely torn as to how he should feel about that. Everything still hurt, but he had Ariel now and somehow it was different. The longing wasn't blinding anymore. He wanted Ariel. He didn't know if he should even mention that he knew DareandMichael. It would be so awkward talking about them, and Markise didn't want to have to make up a story about why that was. So he didn't comment on them. "What kind of club?" he asked.
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Post by Quinn Ashwinder on Aug 22, 2009 21:24:31 GMT -5
Quinn grinned from ear to ear, the more she talked about this the happier she was. "It's an advocacy club, something for people who have issues that need to be addressed, or for people who want to make the world aware that it isn't black and white anymore. For Dare and Michael, it's because they're gay," Quinn blushed he probably already knew that. "For me, it's so that people know more about magical creatures, and what their rights should be. Like werewolves, centaurs, vampires, merfolk, and many more..
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Post by Markise Sterling on Aug 22, 2009 21:56:50 GMT -5
"That'd be good around here," Markise said, and hoped that Quinn wouldn't notice that he didn't offer to join. What would he support? He'd be afraid to support gay rights and get outed for it, and he didn't want to have anything to do with DareandMichael for a while, at least. And that was assuming Dare would ever want to talk to him again after whatever had happened. But he didn't want to think about that. "That sounds like the kind of thing my sister would do. Her name's Brindle, she's in Gryffindor." There. Brin could go crazy in a club like that. He could see her trying to take it over if it didn't work fast enough.
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Post by Quinn Ashwinder on Aug 22, 2009 22:00:08 GMT -5
"Really? I haven't met anyone named Brindle yet, and I'm in Gryffindor." Of course with all of the students out and about for summer holidays she wasn't sure who was still waiting to come home. "I could really use as many people as possible. There are to many issues that just stand unresolved. I don't want anyone to have to be afraid that they won't be loved." Quinn closed her eyes in humiliation, she thought she might have done it, scared someone else off.
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