Post by Sparky Cobalt on Nov 2, 2010 17:20:40 GMT -5
[ooc: Caution. This post is In the Past. Only post here if you are also In the Past. Also could I ask for First Post for Talon In The Past? Otherwise man, this ain't gonna go anywhere, past or future.]
A large Eurasian Eagle-owl (Bubo bubo for the scientifically savvy) made its way towards the headmaster's office, whizzing past student after student and almost taking up the entire hallway everywhere he went with his wingspan. More than once, the tip of his wing clipped a student in the head, or the very heavy package he was carrying would knock into something.
After a long, heavy flight, full of shrieks and moans, the delivery owl finally placed the package in front of the massive ruby statue.
"SKRAW", it yelled up at the statue, and then flew away, knocking a vase over on its way out.
That package was a rather large crate, wooden in nature with a simple note stuck to the top.
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Nov 3, 2010 1:19:49 GMT -5
ooc: right so, this takes place IN THE PAST which is to say that it takes place before the whole 'Talon gets burned to a cinders' thing, before the zombie invasion, before the Romulus vs. Azrael, before Leon and Micha came to FFU, before...everything that has happened since FFU's activity started. It also means Roan is still crazy and the Tower is still intact. Anyway, moving on.
bic:
The Headmaster was sitting back in his chair, a mug of butterbeer in his left hand. The drink usually cheered up most people who drank it, but the creamy yet strong liquid had no effect on him beyond the effect firewhiskey had on people drowning their sorrows down in Drakborough. It'd been a few days since Rezna and he had their talk - if it even be called that - on the tower, and the Headmaster was beginning to wonder if maybe he ought to go downstairs to the Hospital Wing and talk things out.
Things had been going so well for them, he thought. It had just been work that had gotten in the way, and even then, that was simple to fix. It wasn't like Talon couldn't put aside the paperwork for one day. He wasn't even doing any work right that moment. And there hadn't been much trouble in Firefox since the Shadow War, just a few minor mishaps, a quidditch season, and when Phugsius had been transfigured back. Sometimes he wondered if perhaps he and Rezna were just too shy to really face one another. That they just made excuses not to talk.
Perhaps they really did want each other, but when compared to all the war, death, and horror they'd mutually experienced, where did love fit? Talon put his right hand on his brow and began to massage it. Too much thinking while drinking, he thought, and put the mug of butterbeer back on the table. Yes, he thought, it was time to go down and meet with Rezna. There had to be a way to talk this out. Just then, Talon heard an owl's hoot and a vase breaking in the hallway outside his office, and he stumbled out of his chair. Taking his wand in his hand, he called out, "Yes? Who's there?"
No answer.
"Hello?" He called out again. Still no answer. That was odd. The Phoenix had moved aside for someone, yet there didn't seem to be anyone present. Perhaps it was a prank made by the students. Or perhaps it was a trap. He muttered an incantation under his breath, and pointed his wand at the door. From Talon's side only, the door became transparent, and the 'visitor' was revealed to be nothing but a box.
A delivery, then. Talon chuckled to himself and got out of his seat, walking over to and opening the (now once again completely solid) door. "That would explain the hoot..." Talon commented to himself as he took the note and read it. An expression of confusion passed over the Headmaster's face, and wordlessly he tapped his wand to the top of the box, which caused the box to cut apart at the seams.
Post by Sparky Cobalt on Nov 3, 2010 1:38:16 GMT -5
The box fell apart elegantly, each side flopping apart to reveal the insides of the package, the present, the gift.
On the bottom of the box lay a very rumpled, crumpled, tired looking flamingo.
The Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) can stand anywhere from four to six feet. This particular flamingo was on the larger side, as five feet, eleven inches of massive pink feathers and a very depressed looking face lay in a very messy pile, two legs sticking out in opposite directions. Apparantly, he'd been put in upside down, and the banging of the box hadn't done much for the flamingo's situation.
Slowly, carefully, as if he was a newborn, the flamingo propped itself up on one leg, carefully raising itself into a standing position once again. A few unhappy shakes later, his feathers were mostly in order. The flamingo looked straight up at Talon for a moment, then looked down at the ground as if he saw a tasty Teagan fish. This was impossible, of course, as they were in a building without rivers, but it was hard to say that a flamingo was looking at the floor as if he was the most dejected, failure of a reject flamingo in the word.
Did you know Greater Flamingos can live to be eighty and beyond?
Man, what a depressing flamingo life this one would have. He'd meet the love of his flamingo life, one with massive wing coverts (thus redder wings overall) and a very nice set of bright pink legs, and she would deny him. He'd never be the proud father of a chalky white egg, he'd never stomp around the mud puddle it was housed in to keep it warm, and he would never see his grandparents in Basel, Switzerland. He'd probably get his wings clipped, too.
He looked somewhere at Talon's chest, as if unable to look him in the eye again, and one massive pink leg scratched at the ground.
"Honk." It said, voice quiet yet annoying at the same time, attempted to project his inner sadness and perhaps, as well, his hangover. "Hooooonk."
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Nov 3, 2010 3:09:27 GMT -5
This was a rather exotic present. Talon stared at the rather shy pink bird as it adapted to its newfound location, his original look of confusion never vanishing. How on earth was this Flamingo his? His thoughts returned to his original idea of this all being some kind of elaborate prank. Still, the gift of a flamingo could be useful to him. Such rare and complex birds, and especially with such hardiness and their long lifespans, would be useful in a variety of transfiguration spells.
Still, as the bird honked at him in such a low, sad, and annoying fashion, Talon couldn't help but check to make sure he wasn't dealing with a rather unfortunate situation of transfiguration to begin with. "Specialis Revelio," he casted, scanning his wand up and down the flamingo like a scanner. "Mm," Talon muttered, "whoever put you in this form knew what they were doing." He wasn't entirely sure who this bird was, or if it was even somebody he knew, but he certainly knew it was a human he was dealing with.
This really was some fine handwork. He didn't want to say anything to the victim, of course, but he marveled at the complexity of the magic as he prepared to change him back. Fortunately, while a very advanced transfiguration spell, it was nothing that the Headmaster couldn't undo. "Homorpho!" Talon shouted.
Post by Sparky Cobalt on Nov 3, 2010 13:57:21 GMT -5
The bird simply stood there as Talon did his inspection, scratching one leg with the other in an embarrassed fashion, cocking his head while the wand passed over him.
With a final 'honk' at Talon, he started to return back to normal.
Sparky Cobalt (Homo sapiens misellus) slowly morphed out of the flamingo's body, pink and white making way for darker hair, brown eyes, and (thank god) his plain, grey/blue/black clothes. The sudden change in colors was rather jarring, but expected if you knew who the hell this was. For a moment, Sparky stood there, just blinking, and then stretched his arms and legs when he was sure they were no longer wings and sticks. After a moment of reorientating himself and stretching, he looked up at Talon, the headmaster, his teacher, his boss.
"Good... Good morning, sir."
A single pink feather fell from his hair, and he blew it to the side.
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Nov 3, 2010 18:02:58 GMT -5
The flamingo was really Professor Cobalt. Talon certainly hadn't been expecting that. He looked at his former student and colleague with a combination of confusion and moderate amusement. "Good morning, Sparky," the Headmaster responded with a tinge of laughter in his voice, and his sapphire eyes followed the pink feather as it fell to the ground. "I imagine you have quite the story to tell as to how you ended up in that form," he said, before pointing his wand at the broken vase in the hallway. "Reparo," he casted, and the vase came back together on its pedestal.
Sparky didn't look like he'd had the best night of his life apart from being transfigured from a flamingo anyway. He had dark circles under his eyes and his skin was incredibly pale, and certainly didn't look like he was in the best of health. Still, at least there was some excitement still going on around the school. The Headmaster was beginning to wonder if anybody did anything around here for fun. "Unless, of course, you'd rather keep that to yourself. I'll respect your decision, if that's the case, and trust you have your reasons," he continued, and waved his arm to invite Sparky inside.
"Come in, though, sit down. I'll get you something to drink," he said, and walked into his office. He pointed his wand to one of his bookshelves and with a sharp whizzing sound it transfigured itself into a rather nice cabinet full of drinking glasses. He took one of them out and brought it over to Sparky's side of his desk. "I'll have you know that this, here," he motioned to the glass, "is the manifesto of Adeline Delune. Marvelous woman. Had a great deal of interesting opinions." He opened the filing cabinet beneath the former bookshelf, which revealed not paperwork but a bottle of firewhiskey and three bottles of butterbeer.
"Shall you pour yourself a glass of water, sir, or would you prefer something a little stronger?"
Post by Sparky Cobalt on Nov 4, 2010 13:54:16 GMT -5
Sheepish in more ways than one, Sparky didn't say anything just yet. He followed Talon into his office, and debated what he would tell the Headmaster. It wasn't that he wanted to lie, or tell stories. He would tell the truth, but how much of it was okay to tell? He certainly did not want to go into detail about the events at the bar, or the two guys they'd run into. He supposed he'd stick to the relevant parts, and just mention that he, perhaps, might have been drunk.
Considering the story, though, he supposed he should stay away from the 'stronger' bits of Talon's hospitality.
"I-I'll just have some water, sir. Th-.. Thank you." He smiled a little at the glass being the manifesto of some lady he'd never heard of before. He supposed if he was more learned he would know and appreciate it better, but for now it was just an amusing novelty. Maybe that was all it was meant to be, but hey.
He sat down with his manifesto of water, and sighed.
"I was... uh.. I was down in Drakborough last night, having a.. a drink.." He was trying his best to keep this professional! He couldn't lose this job. He'd be out of a home, too, for one thing. "And on my way home.." Yeah, best to skip the homo. "On my way home, I ran into a... certain ex-Head Girl." He chuckled lamely, pretty sure Talon knew who he was talking about. He'd seen them together (supposedly) enough times to guess at the drama between the two of them, right? They did go to school here, after all.
"And it... didn't end well."
Sparky scratched behind his head, only to find another pink feather.
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Nov 4, 2010 15:43:39 GMT -5
When Sparky decided that water was his choice of drink, Talon closed the filing cabinet full of drinks. He tucked his wand back into his robes and returned to his seat, taking his butterbeer back in his hand and giving his attention to the other Professor. He chuckled lightly with Sparky during parts of his story, taking a sip of his butterbeer periodically, but he was very interested in the information he gave him about the former Head Girl.
"So she's still around, then? Teagan Monolayre?" Talon asked, curiosity in his voice. He'd sent her a letter asking her to take the position of Potions Mistress around the same time that Sparky had stepped up to take his job as Muggle Studies Professor. She had always been a very talented witch, quite possibly the most talented in her year, and would have made a valuable asset to the university's staff, but she had refused the offer. Yet here she was, still in Spain. He hadn't heard much about her being involved in James Mustang's government, and he hadn't run into any shops down in town owned by her either.
What could she have been doing in Spain that was so much more important than a paying job on Talon's staff that could feed her?
Potions had been her knack, but if she had been capable of such a flawless transfiguration, she would've made an excellent Professor of Transfiguration as well. Granted, the post was already taken by one former Prefect Protege Seapplek, who, being an animagus, was more than qualified for the position. But Protege had gone off on a vacation at the end of last term, and he wasn't entirely sure if he was back from it yet. It'd been several months now, and he hadn't even sent word by owl or any form. Perhaps Talon needed to be a bit stricter about his staff's traveling.
Didn't Sylph just go on vacation, too? And it wasn't like the Headmaster wasn't immune to it either. It seemed, out of all Talon's staff, the only one who didn't take off unprofessionally at a moment's notice was the Professor sitting right across from him.
The Headmaster took another sip from his mug as he thought over these things.
Post by Sparky Cobalt on Nov 4, 2010 15:54:47 GMT -5
"Yeah.." Sparky said, in regards to Miss MOnolayre. "We don't really... ah, talk much. But she is definitely still here." He supposed it was obvious, because she had turned him into a flamingo. Then again, it was just talking. He could pull this off, right? Right.
"A-anyway, ah, yeah... I think that sending me to you as a.. as a flamingo is just her brand of humor." Sparky attempted a light smile. He was always on the wrong end of her humor, he found. How was it that they were always shoved into awkward situations together, and yet he always came out the lesser? Of course, he had no real proof that Teagan had transfigured him, but who else could it be? There weren't exactly tons of extremely skilled, extremely cunning wizards in drakborough who would do this to him. No, he didn't remember anything after he'd hugged her. He'd woken up in the box with a lot of pink on his body, and that was about it.
He felt awkward, just sitting here with his boss, drinking. What could he do? He supposed he could talk more.
"I don't think I'll be... drinking again, anytime soon."
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Nov 6, 2010 9:49:54 GMT -5
Talon laughed with Sparky as he discussed Teagan's sense of humor. Perhaps having her on the staff might make dull her caustic nature with professionalism, though admittedly the Headmaster had no idea what it was that the Professor across from him had done while intoxicated. He supposed it was best if he didn't ask.
The wizard realized in that moment that he might possibly be the most lenient boss in history. Letting his staff take excessively long vacations with indefinite extensions, and now he wasn't even asking Sparky what exactly he might've done while drunk. He honestly didn't even care if his employee had been drinking at all. In fact, Talon realized as he smiled and sipped from his butterbeer, it made him like Sparky even more just knowing that the guy wasn't all about the job.
Not that any of his staff was 'about their jobs.'
"I'd suggest it," Talon said seriously, though with a tint of joviality, and put the butterbeer back on the table, "because I might not always be here to put you back to normal." He smiled at his employee, but after a moment he spoke again, "now if you'll excuse me, Sparky, I actually have some work I have to get done. Apparently we're expecting a lot of new transfer students, and I have some letters to write. Unless you have any other questions?"
Post by Sparky Cobalt on Nov 6, 2010 14:06:03 GMT -5
If he was being dismissed, it was one of the nicer cases he'd been exposed to. He showed the Headmaster a small, grateful smile and nodded appropriately. "Yes, sir. Thank you for the, er.." Help? Rescue? Savior? "a-assistance." A little more polite than necessary, but he wasn't sure how else to describe it. He scooted his chair a bit back and stood up, straightening his robes as he did so. "Th-that's great, though. I guess I oughta get a, um, a class prepared." Sparky smiled sheepishly. "I'll, ah.. I'll see you soon, sir." And with that, Sparky gave a small bow of the head and headed out the door.
He'd better not find any stray pink feathers in his clothes. That would be embarassing, and even more rumors about him would be spread, most involving tears as lubrication.
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