Whites stretched, standing near the dueling field and looking it over. It wasn't that he was looking for a fight, or even for practice or anything like that. In fact, he much preferred not fighting. He was just here to check out a part of the school that he, for obvious reasons, had never checked out in his entire year of being here. Apparently, the dueling field was a newer addition to the school, made after the famed War of the Shadows that had rocked Spain over the course of months.
Man.
Whites looked up at the sky, chock full of clouds and a couple birds. He was glad he wasn't around for that stuff. A few zombies he could handle, maybe, though he'd rather not, but terrorists? Internationally renowned terrorists who were responsible for all sorts of organized crime all over the world? How was a bunch of students supposed to do that?
And apparently, they had. He wasn't sure on the details, but somehow they'd won.
The school was still here and life went on.
Whites grinned.
Basically, it meant the good guys always won, and that's why he was happy about being here, in the school, and not out there, attacking it for god knows what reason.
Post by Micha Volkov on Nov 4, 2010 15:33:20 GMT -5
It's been so long, I've been out of my body with you I feel alone, feel at home, feel like nothing is true
She had thought she was quite adept, for a witch her age, but the fight against the undead had taught her otherwise. Even those slouches Whites and Leon had matched her spell-for-spell, even saving her at some points.
It was humiliating.
When you're burning down, when you're burning down It's the way that you fake it, I know it's too late
And thus, Micha found herself at the Dueling Field. It was a pleasant day for outdoor practicing, and she meant to use it well. That was, until she saw the figure standing there, opposite she and looking up at the clouds like a moron. The hand on her wand clenched slowly, but her face remained calm, even as she made her way across the field, dark gaze never leaving the boy.
"Whites," she addressed him, formal as ever. Her free hand busied itself smoothing her robes, not that she cared if he noticed, but rather because she would not be caught dead looking messy in front of a slob like him. Perhaps, though, he could be useful, here. She didn't bother with any smiles, or flirtatious fluttering of eyelashes, just looked up at him, her pigtailed hair ruffling against her pale face in the wind. It would be enough.
"Practice with me."
I just wanna take you down We, we're gonna bring you round
Whites was distracted from his rather random cloud-gazing by a familiar voice. He turned, and there she was, all five feet, two inches of her. Though she was rather shorter than he was, the way she held herself as she walked and spoke and the way she dressed, as well as her expression, made her seem much more... intimidating than she should have been. And there was something about those eyes, the way they looked at him, that made him a little uncomfortable.
But on the other hand, she totally had pigtails in.
Awww.
He hid this from the world, of course.
Other than that, though, she looked like your average--if slightly pale--teenage witch.
"Micha." He said back to her, though it felt weird to have it roll off his tongue. He wasn't sure if he could quite imitate her accent, and wasn't sure if she wanted to be called by her last name, but hey. No need for formality, right? They had fought the undead together. That was supposed to bring a group of strangers together and force them to bond.
Apparently, she didn't think so.
"Practice with me." With anyone else, that would've felt friendly, casual. Sentence fragments usually had that charm, but not with her.
"I.." He thought about saying that he didn't want to, but eh, what the hell? It wouldn't hurt--hopefully. "Okay." He smiled at her, in an attempt to lighten things up a little. "What do you wanna practice?"
Post by Micha Volkov on Nov 4, 2010 20:28:55 GMT -5
He spoke her name casually, and she felt a stab of anger that did not touch her cool gaze. She had not told him her name; not only was he a halfwit, he was an eavesdropping halfwit. He was only spared her wrath because he at least said the name correctly, unlike some who apparently thought it was perfectly fine to put their own spin on simple syllables. She let her momentary displeasure pass, and focused on the situation at hand.
He had that idiot grin on his face again, like he thought she a simpleton who would warm to him at just a facial expression. He had risen slightly in her eyes due to his strength in combat during the corpse invasion, but he would just as quickly drop if he did not cut out the puppy dog eyes.
"What do you wanna practice?"
Her delicate chin raised. Her next words were likely to come off as praise, but she did not mean them that way. "You have been in battle before, yes? You and Leon were somewhat capable, back with those... creatures." He should feel blessed she showered him with so many words. It was quite a lot, for her.
She took several lithe steps backward, pushed her sleeves up to bare slim, sun-starved arms. Her wand came up, bared like a cat's fang. Micha Volkov would ask for a favor, but she did not like it.
Wait, what? Battle before? Did she mean, like, before the zombie attack? (He'd been told later that they weren't actually zombies, they were some kind of Dark Magic Illegal Being, or something like that. A DMIB.) He'd barely even play dueled before. Though, if she thought that he was capable... A compliment, obviously... He wasn't one to correct her. Besides, it wasn't that much of a stretch.
Only when Micha rolled up her sleeves, pointing her wand out, did he start to rethink his position. Maybe... Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
"I, uh.." Nah, it'd be okay. "Alright." He smiled again, though he felt that getting her to crack a joke or two would be like boning Zooey Deschanel; impossible and futile to wish for. Besides, Whites loved eggs. He couldn't give them up, not even for her.
"Well, you obviously knew how to use Reducto well enough!" He started, hoping praise was a good start. "But for non-zombies.." Inferi. He corrected himself on the inside. "Do you know the disarming spell?"
Post by Micha Volkov on Nov 4, 2010 21:52:03 GMT -5
He hesitated -- her eyes narrowed -- but then seemed to give in. Good for him, she would not have forgiven him if he had done otherwise.
"Do you know the disarming spell?"
A dark eyebrow raised, the faintest of smiles appeared. "Of course I do, any first year worth anything knows that spell. Or, would you prefer me to demonstrate my knowledge on you?"
A joke?
Probably not. Micha Volkov rarely joked. If anything, she looked forward to seeing the Gryffindor fanboy crawl about on the grass looking for his wand after she'd blasted it out of his hand. It would be a source of amusement, however small. Aleksei would appreciate her sense of humor.
"What else have you got? Perhaps I should just find Leon and ask him, instead."
She was in unusually high spirits today. The girl let the smile remain, though the rest of her demeanor stayed just as cold as before.
Well, thought it was biting, it was accompanied by a smile. That was a start. Was he already cracking this girl's ice cold exterior? It probably was more a result of the nice day, rather than his kindness and humor. No one could stay mad on a nice day like this.
"Hey, hey, hey. No need! I bet I know a spell that you don't." If eyes sparkled, his would have at this point. "have you heard of.. Expulso?"
He smiled. It was a flashy one. "I tried using it on the zo.. Inferi. It wasn't that much of a difference, but I figure..."
Post by Micha Volkov on Nov 5, 2010 23:30:12 GMT -5
Expulso? No, she had not. It irked her to admit that he, out of all people, would know something she did not, especially a spell, but Micha bit back her pride and simply gave him an unimpressed look.
"I have not."
The minute amount of friendliness she had displayed had hardened back into her usual aloofness, and she ignored his wide grin. She had allowed him a bit of humanity, and of course he had leapt upon it. The girl narrowed her soot-colored eyes, considering him. For now, she would let it pass.
After all, had she not called him comrade, during the battle before? A slip of the tongue then, just excitement at her first real action. But he had proven himself; was she not here now, asking him to teach her?
Micha Volkov had never had a friend, and she had no interest in one now. However, an ally in battle might not be so bad. Useful, even. Eventually, he would understand she had no interest in any intimacy beyond acquaintanceship. And if he could not figure it out on his own, and soon, she would make him understand.
The girl brushed a stray curl away from her mouth, and spoke again, further answering his question. "That is to say, I have not been taught it in class, but I believe you used it on the, how do you say, Inferi, did you not?"
Whites nodded, when she said she hadn't but did notice that he'd used it. He'd actually sort of regretted wasting his time on a spell like that in a space like this, all for the want of cool points, such as the ones Leon and Micha herself had recieved.
Seriously, using magic to transform her cat into a massive machine of death? Using a spell to jump over Inferi and saving both of them? Why couldn't he be bad ass like that? All he could pull off was a lame spell that didn't do anything much different. But hey, he could teach it to her anyway.
"Alright." He tried to seem more teacherly, while being careful not to be condescending. "Well, there's.. Reducto, of course." How to explain this? Ah, right. "Accio Dummies." He was hoping 'dummies' would be taken by his wand to mean the practice dummies, rather than a couple mysterious Hufflepuffs. Hopefully there were none around to throw off his spell.
Luckily, it seemed the Puffers had stayed inside today, and two practice dummies came drifting lazily towards him. He frowned. He really needed to work on his Accio. He used his wand to twist them about, until both of the dummies were standing upright, stakes in the ground.
"Reducto." He cast this one at the dummy on the left, and the expected result came forth: it's upper left "torso" area was blown off, edges looking a little charred. "See, that's pretty good. More than you need for like, a duel, anyway. But, for special occasions.."
He concentrated hard. This one was trickier, and your focus had a lot to do with the effect of the spell. Depending on how hard you focused, how controlled you were, the effects could be devastating. The friend who'd taught him this, back home, had been able to blow up a large boulder out in the woods. He had to do something similar to this dummy, if not to impress Micha then to at least prove to himself that he could be useful.
"Expulso!" He shouted, swinging his wand at the training dummy on the right. The helpless dummy immediately blew up, as in, most of it was completely blown off of the stake. Without any distractions, the spell could be devastating. Whites had spent some time practicing it, of course, same as any other spell, but this one had the most satisfactory result considering the result was a friggin' explosion.
Bits of wood sprinkled down from above, but thankfully the force of his spell had sent almost all of the debris flying behind the dummies, and towards themselves.
Post by Micha Volkov on Nov 6, 2010 1:12:30 GMT -5
She watched the dummies slowly move their way after his rather lamely cast spell, and she gave him an amused glance. "Teacher," her sarcastic lips said, "I believe your Accio could use some work."
At his Reducto, she did not so much as blink. She knew the spell, had used it on the undead during their battle. If he had a point besides to show her that he lacked any sort of aim, he had better get to it.
And then he did.
The second dummy exploded, wood chips rained from the sky, and Micha's mouth fell open.
"Wow," she breathed, dark eyes wide, so caught up in the moment she did not notice the slivers of wood that had fallen in her curled pigtails. When he'd cast the spell the first time she had not seen the effect, as her attention was distracted by the corpses at her throat. Perhaps, perhaps this boy was not as much a fumbling dullard as she'd originally thought.
Her attention swung to him, and her voice, when she spoke, was once again cool and under control. "You will teach me, yes?"
As Micha breathed her 'Wow', Whites felt more accomplished than he had in a long time. He turned to her, grinning. He could feel proud about this, right? Sure, Pride was one of those Seven Sins that he was supposed to be wary of, but come on. He'd just gotten a 'Wow' out of this quiet russian Micha girl, who sent out mixed signals like a crazy motherfucker. That, in itself, was quite the accomplishment!
"Sure," he started, eager himself to help her learn. It wasn't every day that someone asked him for help with anything. He wasn't sure if he'd make a good teacher, but goddamn he would try. "But uh, just real quick.."
He reached over, and brushed a few of the wood bits out of her pigtails. He didn't want her to kill him, but he also didn't want her going around, bouncing about with wood in her hair. That sort of thing just wouldn't do!
"Okay. The most important thing for the spell, besides, you know, the incantation, is concentrating. If you're not trying very hard--" He pointed his wand at the stake where the dummy had been, "Expulso." The stake snapped, but otherwise, nothing really interesting happened. "Not much will happen. You just have to stay focused, and what works for me is imagining that whatever I'm aiming at is blowing up. It just makes sense, you know?"
He pointed at the second dummy.
"Wanna try it? For wand movement, it's just the basic point and shoot, really. I don't know if swinging your wand like I did earlier helps, but it's something that helps me focus on the target."
Man, he was talking a lot. Hopefully it'd take her mind off of him touching her hair. What if that was one of her Things?
Post by Micha Volkov on Nov 6, 2010 2:45:09 GMT -5
He touched her.
All at once, all thoughts of awe left her head, and she glared at him, furious in her own blank-faced way. Were she a wolf like her sur-namesake, she would have bit the offending hand as soon as it dared to cross her personal boundaries.
Was he an idiot? Darkly, she wondered just what an Expulso would do to a living, breathing human, especially at this close of quarters. If he so much as moved an inch toward her again...
He moved on as though fondling barely-acquainted girls was nothing out of the ordinary, speaking about concentration and wand-waving. Very well. She would put this discrepancy aside for now, but she would not forget.
Micha Volkov never forgot.
Gripping her wand so hard her knuckles turned white, the girl turned to the still-standing dummy. She had to imagine it was blowing up? Even better, she'd pretend it was Whites.
"Expulso."
Her anger left her in a rush as the dummy was obliterated into a fine powder. She smiled, admiring her handwork, and then cocked a dark eye his way.
Whites let out a low whistle as the second dummy was gone in a matter of seconds. This girl was a real natural. It'd taken him tons of practice. Maybe she just had anger issues, and that fueled her magic. He'd heard of that before. She didn't seem mad. He thought for a few moments, trying to think of any weird or obscure spells that he could teach her. He wasn't that great of a student, and it was a shame because he was sort of having fun.
"Let's see..."
He thought back to his days running around with his friends, trying to practice duel, and remembered a trick they'd learned from... He couldn't remember where they'd figured it out from. He just knew it had something to do with quidditch.
"There's a little trick I know, that'll help you if you're ever in a magical duel." He said, bringing his wand up, then switching it over to his left hand. "If someone disarms you, you're pretty much screwed, you know? So, to make it a little harder on them..."
He pointed his wand at his hand, and spoke clearly so she could hear. "Tenere." He then passed his wand over to his right once more. "It won't stop a really powerful disarming spell, of course, but if they don't mean it, you'll probably be able to keep your wand on you. It makes it so you can grip stuff better. It'll wear off after a while."
He smiled. "You try. Nothing special for this one, really. Just the word."
Post by Micha Volkov on Nov 7, 2010 11:55:31 GMT -5
He whistled as though to show his appreciation in his own crude caveman way. A compliment would have sufficed, but it seemed he delighted in acting oafish.
The girl followed his movements, the wand passed smoothly from one graceful hand to the next. She spoke the incantation as well, the word rolling forth easily from her learned tongue.
"Tenere."
She could not feel much of a difference, even as her right hand reclaimed the wand again. Perhaps it felt a bit more firm, there, but aside from that, she had to wonder if he was just stalling for time, giving her bits of fake Latin so that she would stay. If that were the case...
Her wand had flicked his way, and her lips were already forming words before he would even realize what she was doing. Micha was, as the Americans said, a quick-draw, something she prided herself on. Maybe she did not know all of the most up-to-date spells, but she could rapid-fire magic like the best.
She would see if this Tenere of his was real, or made up. If it were the latter, well, he would soon find himself disarmed and at her mercy.
He watched, proud as she used the charm. He was happy to be helpful, to help teach and whatnot. He wasn't the best teacher, sure, and he was no Ravenclaw--his knowledge of spells, charms, and hexes probably looked much like hers--but it was a nice feeling, being helpful.
And then, out of nowhere, she flicked her wand at him. He felt his wand jerk, but the charm on his hand helped and--though he almost lost a hold of it--he kept it in his hand. It had almost flew entirely out, as caught by surprise as he was, but the extra hold in his hand, plus the magical properties, kept it there.
He grinned, and just as quickly--though not exactly as quickly as Micha, she was obviously a better spell-caster--swung his wand back and said the same.
"Expelliarmus!" He held back, of course, just a little, in order to better illustrate the uses of the charm.
"Good job, by the way. Almost lost my wand there!"
Teagan Offline: This board is full of nostalgia.
Aug 22, 2020 8:39:09 GMT -5
Missing the old MH: gotta say missing when MH and all that was around.
Nov 6, 2019 0:02:30 GMT -5
Willow_lazy: why tf are there 400 posts about adidas
Sept 6, 2018 17:35:57 GMT -5
Azrael: I'm not hard to find, since I'm the only one there who goes by "Azzy", I'm pretty sure. XD
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:41 GMT -5
Azrael: Dunno if anyone still pops by here from time to time, but if any of you mofos do and still feel like gettin' yo nerd on, I've been hanging around this here place a bunch recently: www.roleplayerguild.com/
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:10 GMT -5
Azrael: hold onto your pantaloons
Jul 25, 2016 5:16:43 GMT -5