SS: Stacking UP

[sweetpinkpixie]

CHARACTERS [this is a closed RP]
Reuben Darcy [Harron Peasley]
Sage Ramson-Kruus [sweetpinkpixie]

Alas, it is OWL year.

The time had come to cast Depulso at procrastination, which is the precise reason why fifth year Slytherin Sage Ramson-Kruus had snagged fellow fifth year and Reuben Darcy after Charm class and told him to meet her in the Dueling Area.

Nothing to see here. Just two friends since primary school having a necessary study session in an unorthodox and competitive way!

[Harron Peasley]

Would it surprise anyone to know that Reuben hadn't started studying yet?

No?

Because he totally hadn't. He'd barely even thought about OWLs, except for in an abstract, far off sort of way. Even when his parents send literal OWLs to ask how his revision was going he'd somehow managed to focus on anything else. But somehow he couldn't ignore Sage's request, though he did manage to omit the 'OWL studying' part of the activity from his brain as he made his way into the duelling arena, twirling his wand between his fingers.

Not a sensible idea, really - as he entered, some sparks shot from the end and hit the wall, rebounding. Luckily, his physical reflexes were still good and he could duck in time - no harm, except for a minor smell of singed hair. Somehow this mishap didn't dampen his confidence, though, and his grin remained wide as ever.

"You got a plan in mind, or do we just shoot spells at each other and hope they land?"

[sweetpinkpixie]

It certainly would not surprise this Slytherin, that was for certain. Which was precisely why she had invited him to partake in her little studying experiment. Under the guise of it being motivated out of the goodness of her selfless bleeding heart, Sage was not above giving herself the advantage and setting herself up with an opponent she was confident she could defeat.

Hey, everyone had to hone their skills somehow and really there was a mutual benefit here no matter what was you sliced it - preferably an odd number of times.

The grin paired with the premature wand misfiring, however, elicited the softest of disgruntled groans. The predictability of his unpredictable wand flare she could deal with. It was the bedazzling sparkle as he flashed those pearly whites pairs with his mug in general that was going to be arduous. Horrendously inconsiderate of Reuben, honestly.

“I do, actually, and it is far more civilized and purposeful that just flinging spells at one another as if we were in some ragtag Dueling Club,” she huffed as she grabbed one stack of books and thrust them towards his chest to take. “You lay these out on one side of the dueling platform, just along the edge if you will…without them falling off. No need to open them either. The enchantment works regardless of position,[b]” she explained with an entirely too pleased with herself sort of twinkle to the eye. IF he were paying attention to the covers of the books, he would notice each was simply one of their fifth year textbooks. “We will be dueling but…dueling with a splash of gobstones.”

[Harron Peasley]

Whilst he was glad that Sage had a plan, Reuben was also not prepared to have books shoved at him. Whilst he took the shock well, keeping hold of all the books and only letting out the smallest gasp, he was still a little confused by her instructions.

"A ragtag duelling club doesn't sound half bad," he mused, only partly joking as he turned to the platform and tried his best to follow her instructions. Which was to.... put them on the side of the platform? If he'd not had an armful of books, he might have shrugged, but he did actually start doing as he was asked - though standing the books up on their end took a little bit of concentration, especially for the thinner ones.

Maybe he should stop checking his friends out and actually listen to what they wanted, but that was unlikely to happen anytime soon. Unaware that he was placing them down wrong (rather than 'laying them out' as she'd requested), Reuben glanced over his shoulder at Sage. "What do you mean, gobstones? How does that work?"

[sweetpinkpixie]

For the record, Sage Winter Ransom-Kruus always came prepared - it made her skin crawl otherwise. It was one of her strengths, logistical preparedness, but some may argue that it was also one of her weaknesses because she had a plan she was hyperfocused on completing said plan.

...and Reuben was already getting sidetracked by scrappy dueling. Sort of.

Even IF she did agree that a scrappy underground dueling club sounded cool, she was not about to admit this aloud and risk tiptoeing even further off task. Which is why she snapped her fingers twice, on either side of his head, and leaned in towards him just a tad with a wide eagle eyed stare. "Reuben, focus." Which was what SHE was doing as she set her stack of books out in a neat equally spaced row. She knew full well that not everyone would be up to her standards and she expected as much when she turned to see how the Hufflepuff was faring...but...honestly? Honestly. He was really lucky that he was cute. As long as they were not on top of one another then things would work as intended.

The Slytherin wasn't sure if he just didn't know what gobstones was (not that she would blame him really, it was hardly as riveting as football or quidditch) but she did not feel like explaining too many logistics and delaying starting the actual fun part: competitive studying. "Well, in gobstones the winning stone thrown squirts an icky smelling liquid into the person who threw the losing stone's face. Here, we aren't playing with stones and we the only thing we are throwing will be spells from our wands." Which was of course leaving out tons of details that she better get to know. "I've enchanted our textbooks to recite questions upon command. Just a little basic modification of the Summoning Charm where instead of Accio object we will be saying Accio Quaestio and pointing to a book of choice with our wands. The book will then create a large bubble that will float between us and sing a question related to that subject. I tried to get it NOT to sing because it does get horrifically irritating but...whatever, it adds to the charm or something. Either of us can answer regardless of whether or not we summoned the question from the book. HOWEVER...if you say the correct answer, then the other person gets splashed with a jet of water. If you get it wrong...then you get splashed with the water. You can test your reflexes and try to cast a Shielding Charm about yourself to not get splashed too. It's really killing multiple fwoopers with one stone in terms of OWL preparations. I'll be tweaking the system next term in preparation for NEWTs as well." And there she was, hands on her hips with her chest out, looking entirely too proud of herself. "Got it, DS?"

[Harron Peasley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetpinkpixie

For the record, Sage Winter Ransom-Kruus always came prepared - it made her skin crawl otherwise. It was one of her strengths, logistical preparedness, but some may argue that it was also one of her weaknesses because she had a plan she was hyperfocused on completing said plan.

...and Reuben was already getting sidetracked by scrappy dueling. Sort of.

Even IF she did agree that a scrappy underground dueling club sounded cool, she was not about to admit this aloud and risk tiptoeing even further off task. Which is why she snapped her fingers twice, on either side of his head, and leaned in towards him just a tad with a wide eagle eyed stare. "Reuben, focus." Which was what SHE was doing as she set her stack of books out in a neat equally spaced row. She knew full well that not everyone would be up to her standards and she expected as much when she turned to see how the Hufflepuff was faring...but...honestly? Honestly. He was really lucky that he was cute. As long as they were not on top of one another then things would work as intended.

The Slytherin wasn't sure if he just didn't know what gobstones was (not that she would blame him really, it was hardly as riveting as football or quidditch) but she did not feel like explaining too many logistics and delaying starting the actual fun part: competitive studying. "Well, in gobstones the winning stone thrown squirts an icky smelling liquid into the person who threw the losing stone's face. Here, we aren't playing with stones and we the only thing we are throwing will be spells from our wands." Which was of course leaving out tons of details that she better get to know. "I've enchanted our textbooks to recite questions upon command. Just a little basic modification of the Summoning Charm where instead of Accio object we will be saying Accio Quaestio and pointing to a book of choice with our wands. The book will then create a large bubble that will float between us and sing a question related to that subject. I tried to get it NOT to sing because it does get horrifically irritating but...whatever, it adds to the charm or something. Either of us can answer regardless of whether or not we summoned the question from the book. HOWEVER...if you say the correct answer, then the other person gets splashed with a jet of water. If you get it wrong...then you get splashed with the water. You can test your reflexes and try to cast a Shielding Charm about yourself to not get splashed too. It's really killing multiple fwoopers with one stone in terms of OWL preparations. I'll be tweaking the system next term in preparation for NEWTs as well." And there she was, hands on her hips with her chest out, looking entirely too proud of herself. "Got it, DS?"

When Sage leaned in, Reuben half expected her to kiss him. That wouldn't explain the clicking, of course, but kissing was never far from the Hufflepuff's mind and when a hot girl was that close, his brain just went there.

Safe to say he was a little disappointed when she told him to focus. He HAD been focusing!! On her lips!!

AhEM.

Swallowing, he shook himself a little, trying to clear his mind. With the books placed, and him still not realising he didn't need to have stood them all up, Reuben turned back to Sage and listened to her explain the rules. Or he tried to, but honestly it was kind of difficult to focus, and he felt like he was playing one of those video games where his favourite strategy was to jump in and figure out the rules later. "Accio Queso," he said with a grin. "I've got it."

He did not, in fact, 'got it'. But he spoke with the confidence only a fifteen year old boy had, before he started patting down his robes looking for his wand.

[sweetpinkpixie]

He was impossible. Did he know that? Though impossible was a word not in her vocabulary, especially when she had her sights set on a project and there were several at hand in this current moment. She would not be going into further details at this time and no he did not need to know that he was among her hyperfixations.

Though, unlike him, her attention was NOT on anything hormonally driven. Which is precisely why his cheeky grin and provocative gaze did nothing for her in the moment.

Unamused, the Slytherin let out a heavy and exasperated sigh. "Quaestio," she repeated at almost a whine, her arms unraveling from across her chest so she could tap her lips with her index finger. "Watch again and commit it to memory. QUA-ES-TI-O." Sage overly enunciated the word this time, which made the hairs stand on the back of her neck and stomach knot because no one was casting spells like that and it felt beyond unnatural.

[Harron Peasley]

Reuben honestly thought he was the opposite of impossible, because apparently being dim and unaware of ones own stupidity gave them a rather inflated sense of self.

Though perhaps he'd inherited that ego from his parents. Or his grandparents.

"That's what I said," he carried on grinning, completely convinced that he had said it correctly. It sounded the same to him, though of course his attention wasn't wholly focused on the spell. "Quessssio." See, he was basically a pro at this game already. Put him in, coach!

"QUAESTIO," he said once again, getting it right after her enunciation. He'd been waving his wand exaggeratedly whilst he did it, not realising that a book was about to sing a question.