Ravenclaw
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Ash
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Post by Hayden Pierce O'Brien on Oct 22, 2016 6:06:19 GMT
Easter break 2003 - The Orphanage
Hayden is spending her break at the orphanage, and Ari decides to use that time to try and bond with her.
Easter break was here, and for once Hayden wasn’t at Hogwarts. Instead she was back at the orphanage. The lengthy adoption process was slowly progressing, and the O’Brien family wanted Hayden there for the holiday weekend. Which the orphanage workers apparently thought was a good idea. Hayden had mixed feelings on the issue. They seemed nice enough. The four she had met, anyway. But she had come close to being adopted before, and something always came up in the end. No point getting attached. Aside from the weekend itself, Hayden would be spending the rest of her break at the orphanage. Most of it probably out here in the yard behind the orphanage sketching. With Hogwarts in session, the kids filling it today were all under school age. Not that there were many older orphans anyway. Mostly just the ones who had come in older like Mikko, currently spending his break at Hogwarts, or who were considered unadoptable like Toby, off somewhere recuperating from last night’s full moon. With both boys indisposed, there was no one beside Hayden as she sat against the yard’s fence with a sketchpad Claire O’Brien had given her. Not that Hayden minded being alone. She certainly did it often enough at school. Her idle sketching of a Thestral was interrupted by a set of footsteps. Hayden lifted her head, squinting against the spring sun, and found herself looking up at the new guidance counselor. They had spoken a few times during weekend meetings in Hogsmeade. Apparently Ari wanted to get to know the older kids as well as the younger ones. Hayden didn’t really know why. Once they hit school, most of them wouldn’t ever get adopted, so why bother? Not that she disliked Ari exactly. The woman certainly seemed nice, if a bit nosy. But Hayden knew better than to latch on to her the way some of the younger kids had. Staff at the orphanage came and went as often as children. Hayden wasn’t betting on Ari sticking around too long. She was fully expecting a pushy attempt at conversation. She had actually come back this week mentally prepared for several rounds of fending off Ari’s attempts to ‘get to know her.’ What she was not expecting was for Ari to sit down in the grass beside her and pull out… Were those paints? Hayden’s forehead furrowed in confusion as Ari produced an artist’s pad of her own and flipped it open. What in the world was going on? Was this some kind of attempt at tricking her into talking about the O’Briens? She should know by now Hayden wouldn’t fall for that. Her energy was far better spent on the moldable younger kids than a teenager who might not even be her problem in a few months. Besides, this was just plain unnerving. The only people who really approached Hayden here were Mikko in brief energetic bursts and Toby for long periods of silence seeing as Hayden was apparently the only one who would put up with him. Which was fine. There was actually something nice about the two of them sitting together in silence. But the same could not be said of Hayden and Ari. Hayden just stared over at the counselor, thoroughly confused as she tried to figure out what the woman wanted. Adults always wanted something when they sought Hayden out. So what was it? @ariwilson (OOC - I did the thing!  Now to go finish the other thing.) |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2016 12:20:09 GMT
Ari was glad she'd taken up a counselling role again. And it was rather a relief to be able to use magic in the children's presence. The kids at the orphanage were wonderful, and it made her happy that the little ones all seemed to love their new counsellor, who popped in quite a bit despite it not being her job to play with the younger ones. She was, as she kept being reminded by a particularly bossy mean old nurse, "here to talk sense into the damaged ones not play around with the ones who don't even know why they're here". But Ari made her visits anyway.
Recently, a particular girl had become of interest to Ari. In the process of being adopted - in which Ari would be overseeing the girl's happiness - but she had a similar backstory to Ari - it involved fire and saying goodbye to parents, at any rate - from what she had read in the profile, and it was all only recent. Only five or so years ago. Ari had tried to speak to the girl, try and help her, get to know her; but she had gotten angry some times, and for the rest of it she was rather cold. She was pushing Ari as far away as possible, but Ari was stubborn and had kept trying. The further she got pushed the harder she pushed back.
She had been watching the girl as she played with one of the littler ones in the back corner of the garden which five year old Mia had decided was a fairy garden. While Ari was hunting fairies, Hayden Pierce, soon to be O'Brien, was sitting on the other side of the yard, sketching. Ari wished there was a way that Hayden would listen to her, but nothing had worked. Kids seemed to respond best when having fun - doing things they liked and… that was it! Hayden was drawing, and seemed to be happy doing it, and Ari herself loved drawing.
So Ari took Mia back inside, promising to help her look for fairies again next time, grabbed her satchel and headed back out again. Hayden looked up as she approached, clearly expecting the usual attempts at talking. Instead, Ari sat down crosslegged beside the girl, sent her a brief grin, and began pulling her things out of her satchel. The bag had an undetectable extension charm on it, and pulling things out was a little bit diccifult. Ari had to weave her way in just past her elbow before she carefully weaved it back out again, placing several tubes of muggle oil paint beside her. Next was her sketchpad, and then her paintbrush. Finally, her palette (she knocked something over in the bag on the way out, and there was a rather large crash, to which Ari winced but otherwise ignored).
Ari could sense Hayden's eyes on her, but she focused on what she was doing, rather than engaging the girl. She opened a few tubes and soon the palette was a rainbow of paint. Only then did Ari begin. Chewing thoughtfully on the end of her paintbrush, she chose pink as her starting colour, and then carefully began to paint a picture of Mia, the pink dress her starting point. Ari could practically feel the confusion radiating off Hayden - she supposed this didn't exactly happen every day; it certainly hadn't in her orphanage. But she waited for the Ravenclaw to break the silence. Then they'd be talking on her terms, not Ari's.
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Ravenclaw
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Ash
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Post by Hayden Pierce O'Brien on Oct 25, 2016 23:37:11 GMT
Ari didn’t say a word as she sat down, merely smiled over at Hayden. What in Merlin’s name was going on here? Hayden watched suspiciously as Ari pulled out supplies and even jumped a bit at the crashing noise that came from the bag. But the crease in her forehead gradually softened as Ari began putting paint on her pallet. There was something remarkably calming about art. Even if someone else was doing it. Hayden could feel her suspicious giving way to curiosity as she studied the beginnings of a painting taking shape on Ari’s page. And still there was no talking. Maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t all some ploy to get Hayden to “open up.” Maybe Ari just wanted to paint. The concept was a little hard for Hayden to accept, but the simplest answer was most often the right one.
The cheery colors of Ari’s work contrasted pretty sharply with the Thestral on Hayden’s own page. Which probably made sense given the guidance counselor was rather bubbly, especially when compared to Hayden’s more contemplative nature. The Ravenclaw’s pencil finally began to move again, adding a bit of detail to the Thestral’s face. “You ever see a Thestral?” she asked without looking up. Hayden didn’t really care for small talk. Mostly because she didn’t get a lot of practice. She either dove in all the way or just stayed quiet. But seeing as she didn’t really mind having Ari there so long as the counselor wasn’t pushing her to talk about anything emotional, Hayden had decided to go for the former. Almost as if Ari’s silence had allowed the woman to finally pass some kind of test. Which in a way it had. People who couldn’t appreciate silence didn’t tend to be much good at truly listening. Hayden continued on, her voice easy and conversational, as her pencil worked at the drawing. It was easier to talk while looking down at paper. “People think they’re scary, but they’re really not.” She paused briefly, focusing in on getting the tail how she wanted it before continuing. “Some wandmakers actually use their tail hairs as wand cores.” Wandlore was another fairly serious hobby of Hayden’s. She had read practically every book the Hogwarts library had on the obscure subject. “Supposedly they can be pretty unstable though. And they’re not very loyal. Why would someone want to depend on a wand that could jump ship at any moment?” Here she stopped drawing to look up at Ari, the serious expression on her face hinting there was a deeper meaning to that sentence. Why should Hayden bother getting attached to the guidance counselor when the woman could just up and leave whenever she wanted to?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2016 11:40:10 GMT
Ari could sense Hayden's emotions softening as she began to put the paint to her palette, leaving some colours as they were and mixing a few others so that a wide array of colours decorated the wood. Contrasting Hayden's rather dark drawing - a thestral - Ari's colours were bright pinks, greens, purples and blues. She chose a beautiful sunset pink colour in which to dip the end of her brush and her hand moved to the sketch pad, beginning to outline a pair of shoulders underneath the pink dress that Mia had been wearing. As she began, she finally heard Hayden's pencilling resume. She tried to resist smiling widely at Hayden starting a conversation, but couldn't stop the slight uplift of the corners of her mouth.
"I have, actually," she replied, and then the smile faltered slightly. That brought back memories of the fire. She had quite enjoyed the odd sense of protection that being with the thestrals had given her, but it wasn't a subject she'd ever been exactly comfortable talking about with other people. But Hayden didn't know that, and Ari was actually managing to talk to her without receiving the cold shoulder or deflections. So she humoured the girl, doing her best to push away her memories of the long past. "I think they're rather charming, to tell you the truth. Far from scary." Ari leaned over and watched with the ghost of a smile as Hayden concentrated on the tail of the beautiful beast. "And your drawing is exceptionally good. Have you always drawn like that?" Hayden clearly had a talent. And Ari recognised it. She could see the feeling being put into the drawing, and to draw such a creature… Ari had met very few who could even see them.
Ari smiled when Hayden began to talk about wandlore. Clearly the girl had a hobby - not many people knew about Thestrals before fifth or sixth year, and even less knew about the use of their tail-hair in wands. Subtlety was not Ari's strongpoint, and she missed the underlying meaning to Hayden's words. She began the blonde of Mia's hair as she thought about her answer. "Thestral Hair as a core chooses those who are unstable themselves. Supposedly, they attach to those who are unloyal or unsure of themselves and others. A wand that jumps ship fits well with someone who jumps ship themselves, wouldn't you say?" Ari paused, thinking about it. "They're supposed to be powerful, too. People who are unsure of themselves often seek out power to make themselves feel more worthy. I don't believe power is necessary to make someone's worth greater, but many do." There was her counsellor side coming out. Wandlore had always fascinated Ari because of the whole wand chooses the wizard thing. Personalities and values made all the difference, and Ari found it all very captivating. "I don't think I would want a wand with Thestral Tail core - I already said I don't feel that power increases ones worth, and I value loyalty rather highly. I wouldn't want a wand that jumped ship, as you put it." Ari glanced up from her drawing and over to Hayden. "What about you?"
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Now to go finish the other thing.)
