Inspiration (Open)

Contrary to popular belief, the first year of anyone's school life - whether muggle or magical - wasn't as relaxing as how everyone had claimed to be. Of course it would seem easy for the older students when they looked back at their previous years, but that was because they should have already learned and grasped the basics by now.

If they actually looked back hard enough, they would realize the struggles they had to go through to master the basics, the fundamental knowledge and spells that were the ground work to build up towards the more advanced skills.

Right now, Miyu was going through that stage; it didn't help that European magic was rather different from the Oriental kind he had been taught by his parents. He had learned that the hard way during his first Charms class, in which he set off quite an explosion, reducing the feather he was supposed to make it fly to ash. He was reprimanded for channeling too much power into his wand - made worse at the horror of getting extra homework for his blunder. Well, at least he could cut some corners with theory essays and speed through them (it's all about making a logical argument), but the practical side was giving him a splitting headache.

Maybe he just need a break; exploring the castle would be a good start.

He left the Ravenclaw Tower and hopped down the moving staircases (they were fun to play with, but a total pain when you're going to be late for class). He stopped in his tracks from time to time, either to study the moving paintings and snigger to himself at the weird clothes the people of this continent had worn during the Victorian times and before, or tapping his fingers on the statues and suits of armor stationed along the corridors.

He reached to a room that was filled with gold, silver and bronze - of trophies, medals, badges... an assortment of awards for all those who had done some form of services to Hogwarts. This must be the Trophy Room he had heard about from the upperclassmen - the Room of Immortal Fame.

However, he wasn't the first one who had come into this room. He spotted a girl who was examining them, and she didn't seem to be aware of his presence. Miyu instinctively searched his own pockets... but was disappointed that he had forgotten to bring his joke stuff. Not even a piece of paper he could use as shikigami to do some tricks. He only had his wand.

...Oh well.

He approached the girl as quietly as he could, then he blew a loud raspberry at her - like how Peeves would usually do. "Wha' choo lookin' at?" he asked, trying to look over her shoulder - but even after he tried to tiptoe, he was still shorter than the girl.

---

Amy Westwood

Miyu arched an eyebrow at Amy Westwood's reaction - he had heard students of his year complaining about Peeves' horrible pranks from time to time, but he didn't know that something as simple as blowing a raspberry was more than enough to piss off a girl this much! Also, this girl sounded worse than his already strict mother - just listen to how she was ranting off her head at him now! "Observation Number Six: girls don't like people to blow raspberries at them... which means they don't like Peeves then," he mused out loud in a mock-serious tone and glanced off side, a hand under his chin in a thoughtful manner. Then he looked up at Amy, tilting his head sideways slightly. "I had to imitate Peeves to get your attention, that's all. You look like you want to get yourself sucked into those trophies." There were rumors about a few places within the school that some unfortunate students had fallen victim to... and were never heard of ever again. He couldn't help but shudder a little at the thought of that.

The mention of Donald made Miyu frowned at the bigger girl... Wait, they were siblings? Now that she had mentioned it, he could see some resemblance between the two. Oh, so it was possible for families and relatives to be Sorted to different houses even if they shared the same blood... He knew that most of them were being Sorted based on the qualities the individual wizards and witches possessed, and the Hat was rarely wrong with its choice (well, it had been wrong, but it was still mostly right - that's the main point).

"I know who Don is," he said, crossing his arms behind his head. "And no, why would he tell me to do that? He's just my friend; he doesn't own me or anything." Miyu narrowed his eyes at the girl, somewhat displeased. "I think it's not nice of you to assume that I'm someone's minion just because I'm short and small."

Hmm. Miyu considered Amy Westwood's comment about Peeves: she was right to say that no one would want to cross paths with the poltergeist on their good day, but without that ghostly prankster around, Hogwarts would have fallen into shambles under the dictatorship of the Ministry's toad Doles Umbridge years ago. Besides being one of the many unlikely heroes who had saved the world from the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, the boy was sure that no matter how righteous some of these 'lawfully good' students had claimed to be, anyone would feel smug to watch their enemies being an unfortunate target to Peeves' horrible jokes. He smirked slightly at the older Gryffindor girl - well, everyone's a hypocrite in their own ways, whether they wanted to admit (or even aware of) it, or not.

When Amy chided him for his kind paranoia, that made the young boy roll his eyes. "'The most dangerous place is also the safest', but it holds true the other way round too," he stated, quoting an Asian saying that he had read before somewhere... maybe in some muggle books, he couldn't really recall which at this moment. At her attempt to snark at his relationship with her brother, he responded with a mere shrug. As she had said so herself, Donald could be painfully polite at times, much to the young boy's annoyance - sometimes he even wondered if growing up would mean a higher tendency to chicken out from having some fun. Well, he would just have to enjoy his first year as much as he could before he had to face all the troublesome teen angst and whatnot.

Why so serious? Why the long face? Urgh!

He could say that for the girl before him. Something about the way she tried to joke with him felt... weird. She certainly had hit him in his sore spot - he hated people to question his manhood just because his time hadn't come yet (soon... hopefully) - but why would she want to try so hard to rile him, right after bossing him about showing respect for others? Was she so petty that she had to get back at him for blowing a raspberry at her?

...Everyone is a hypocrite, after all.

Instead of making a snappy comeback at her sarcasm, he chose to regard her with a judging look. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction that she could overpower him in a battle of wits, even if she was older than him. It wasn't just about his pride as a man (to-be) - hey, he wasn't Sorted to Ravenclaw out of the Hat's pity for him!

Miyu shrugged at Amy Westwood's question about him dropping by this dusty room filled with the old glories of the predecessors of Hogwarts, all left here in the cold glass cases and pretty much forgotten, unless students like him and the Gryffindor girl decided to pay these metal bits a visit. He narrowed his eyes at the row where the House Quidditch trophies were kept - for more than a decade, only Gryffindor and Slytherin ever won the Cup, with no sign of the yellow badger and blue raven. Were the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws that awful in this wizarding sport? He wouldn't be surprised if people catcalled the 'Puffs for being "too grounded to even hit a Bulger at anyone" and the Ravens "only brains and no brawn" after seeing such a disappointing result.

He was a little intrigued to see a certain name on a plate dedicated to the best Quidditch players - James Potter. Harry Potter's father was a Chaser? Ever since he came to Hogwarts, everywhere he went he could hear students whispering and gossiping about the 'Chosen One', so much so that it even became the topic of his History of Magic homework essay. Harry was a brilliant Seeker during his time in this school, and many assumed that his father was one too, that Harry had inherited James' Quidditch blood. Miyu's own father was also a Chaser in Mahoutokoro, and he did joke about his son being suitable to play Seeker if the young boy could be allowed to join the house team. The thought of it put a small smile on the first-year's face.

In response to Amy's snark about looking for people to get suck into a trophy, Miyu rolled his eyes at her and pointed to a glowing trophy - the Triwizard Cup. "I read in one of the history books about a Death Eater turned that trophy into a portkey, transporting Harry Potter and another Hogwarts participant to watch the rise of the Dark Lord. Who knows if that portkey is still working after all these years?"

Miyu responded the Gryffindor girl with a bored drawl, "Well, who knows? Nothing is foolproof anyway, magic or not." He shrugged, gesturing at the Cup with a lazy wave. "I guess as long as no one is stupid enough to touch it - or even steal it, who cares?"

Folding his arms behind his head once more, he began to stroll around the room. "You're right about one thing, though. This room is sure a treasure trove of Hogwarts' rich history, and half of them weren't even significant enough to go into the history records in the school's library." He let out a sarcastic laugh in response to Amy's speech about Voldemort. "Even better that some of them were probably superficial rewards that they didn't deserve at all... or even cursed fame."

His turned around to give the fourth-year a wry grin. "I don't believe in coincidence, only the inevitable," he said in a mock-cryptic tone. "There are unseen forces to guide or manipulate us to trigger certain events. Whether we are aware of it or not, or if it's for the good or worse, sometimes not even the puppeteer pulling the strings know, either." He wasn't that philosophical - merely quoting from a mixture of muggle media he had glazed over in the past - but he was having fun toying around with the Gryffindor's mind.

To drive her around in circles.

Maybe he was being an ass towards someone older than him - eh, it would be best that he didn't go there and make fun of a girl's age. That was a landmine he definitely wouldn't want to set off here, not when there was almost zero chance for him to win her in an actual wand duel.

---

Amy Westwood

Miyu rolled his eyes at Amy Westwood's response to his rhetorical questions about the Triwizard Cup. The serious way she replied to whatever he had asked was amusing - and annoying at the same time. Guess Gryffindor wasn't just an oddball house filled with twerps and jerks... which made him wonder why this girl wasn't in the same house as Donald, with the air of vanity he was feeling off her when she was showing off her knowledge. Or, maybe he should just be glad that she wasn't in Ravenclaw at all. The first year was sure he probably wouldn't be able to handle his Hogwarts life with a bossy senior like her hovering behind his back like an overgrown nosy bat.

At her smirk about the Hufflepuffs, the young boy raised an eyebrow at her. "Nobody owes anyone anything, so why should we give the 'Puffs free medals? That's just like telling them that they are spineless. Either they've to earn it themselves, or get nothing at all."

Regarding fate and luck, Miyu could only let out an exasperated sigh. That was why he couldn't stand idealists and their blindness towards the hard, real truth. "You're asking about 'the point'? Makes sense if you say we can try to chase after our desired future through hard work, but too much of a stretch if you say that we all 'make our own luck'." He snorted. "Are you saying that we can actually control luck? Even if we have some magical powers that normal humans don't have, we are no gods."

Turning his attention back to the Quidditch Cups again, he said, "History is interesting, but also equally dumb if you read deeper into the stupidity of people repeating the same mistakes over and over again no matter which time period they were in." The muggle World Wars were one of the greatest examples to prove his point. "And well... if the teacher teaching us wasn't so hopelessly dry." He had to roll his eyes at the last line.

"And speaking of which... what are you doing here, anyway?" He narrowed his eyes at the Gryffindor. "It's definitely not about these dusty trophies, or whatever history behind those glass cases."

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OOC:
Sorry that I'm high on philosophical debates and stuff lately. I hope I didn't bore you (and Amy) with them...
Anyway, I think it's amusing that they never bothered to ask each other's name, lol.

A contradictory feeling began to rise somewhere within Miyu. Part of it was an increasing annoyance towards this bossy know-it-all, but another part was a strange excitement at being able to debate on even ground with someone technically older than him. Ha, age doesn't denote a person's maturity - and how dare she question my intellect? At that thought, he stared at Amy Westwood with a look of disdain.

"Yeah, I know where you're coming from about making choices and stuff, but you're totally missing my point," the young boy said. "There are things that are completely out of our control, regardless of the decisions we make. No matter how much we try to control the situation, or try planning ahead in pursue of a desired outcome, life just doesn't unfold as we predicted. Something else out of our reach must be influencing how things are going to happen, something we're not aware of." He shrugged. He felt that this girl was a little too optimistic for someone who was more rooted in practicality like him, but he guessed that it wasn't a bad thing. Rather, he felt a bit jealous at how people could have so much hope even if the circumstances was bleak and grim, while he was too hard-headed to try and search for something positive to look forward to.

That aside, at least they had a few things they could agree on without going into another dumb argument. One of which was their sentiment towards the teacher of History of Magic. "It's amusing to have a ghost as professor, but Binns is just impossible. I bet he has been drifting around for too long to feel any empathy for his students to realize we find him dead boring." He snorted. "Pretty sure everyone would welcome the idea of getting a new History teacher who doesn't sound like a faulty recording tape."

The young raven could tell that the older girl was trying to shift his curiosity away from her true purpose for being here, in this dusty room filled with the glories of the past. Why would she do that - what was she trying to hide? "Oh? That sounds like you've been here countless times... Maybe it's my lucky day to bump into you here today, and perfect opportunity to get you to give me a gallery walk on all these dulled metals in this room." He watched her with a blank gaze. "Unless you're actually lying, of course."

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OOC:
Sorry for the long delay! I admit that it seems somewhat unusual given that Miyu is only an eleven-year-old boy to know so much about these "mature" topics, but his intelligence is above average kids of his age, yeah. Glad that you enjoy the philosophy discussion between our characters. I see these threads as interactive prompts to encourage some character development before the site's main plot events, and to build relationships between our characters.

A heads up that I'll be doing a lot of OOC footnotes from hereon, since there isn't an OOC thread anywhere on this forum for non-IC convos. I'm not used to how sparse social interaction is between the members of this site as compared to the other RP forums that I'm also active in. To me, RPing isn't just about writing back and forth with other RPers, but also to build social connection with them, getting to know them better and create more opportunities for collaborations and joint projects. I feel the need to get to know the people I'm RPing with better to enjoy writing with them more.