A lack of scale

[Chayton Ateara]

being nine foot three, Native american part giant and a hufflepuff transfer student were all characteristics that had the potential to make life hard for the new seventh year. However Chayton Ateara had survived his first week at his new school. not only had he survived it he was actually almost enjoying it, well as much as anyone could enjoy being the new kid in a school on the total opposite side of the world. the main advantage of the school had been madlyn, the girl who he had met last december and had since kept in contact with over owl the girl he knew he had developed a crush on as soon as they had met, even though he wouldn't admit it as he was sure that she was far to good for him. over the last several days he had explored the castle between his classes, ducking to get through doors and several times having to back into walls to let people pass on the stairs in the house. he hadn't been into the grounds as it had been raining all week however today was sunday and the sun had finally come out. he put on an oversize grey shirt and hoodie in the dorm and headed outside. it was nice outside as there wasn't the constant reminder of how abnormally large he was. not doors every few meters that didn't quite come up to his shoulder, nor arches that he had learned pretty quickly to duck or suffer a bruise on his forehead. outside was nice as there was no scale, was he just tall or just a lot closer than he looked. a book in his hand he headed across the lawn stopping by a large tree that was randomly growing on its own just to one edge of the grass. he stopped and sat down taking his glasses out of his pocket he opened his book examining the diagrams of machines. his jeep at home had started to make a funny noise before he had left and he wanted to work out what it was so he could try and explain to his ad how to fix it though he knew he would leave it to Chay when he got home or take it to a mechanic if it broke down.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire's hair, clothes and arms where covered in paint not that one would really notice her arms because of the tattoos on them. During the summer the tattoos on her legs became real. It had taken a while but she was not almost fully tattooed up. She knew that over time ideas would come to her and she would add more on to what she had already created. It was fun and there was very little pain involved, well for her anyway. Then again Sapphire suspected that getting hit so many times with pain inducing curses had left her nerve ending borderline numb. Whether that was a good or bad thing was still up in the air. Sapphire was working on a new painting that had just come into her mind. Ruby kept calling her boyfriend a dragon and Sapphire had taken that and had come up with the idea for what could be used as a defense structure for the Wonderland Orphanage. As far as dragons went the one she was filling in at the moment was pretty bad ass. Sapphire was about to do some black detailing when a shadow came over her canvas. She looked around to see what was casting it when she met possibly the tallest man she had ever seen. Man because she had pretty much had gotten used Madlyne. He seemed, if that was possible taller. Then again she wasn't really one to judge height. She was five foot two in heels at the moment she stood an even five feet tall. Had she been so distracted by other things that she hadn't seen him before. As a matter a fact yes she had been. Moving back into the castle. putting a new paining on her dorm room door, classes. Then it came to her, the boy was the new Transfer. "Don't think anyone has said welcome to Hufflepuff to you before have they?" She asked the huge figure reading the book.

 

[Chayton Ateara]

Chayton looked up when he heard someone approaching him. there was girl who looked pretty scary, she quickly shut the book and put his arm over it to hide what it was as along with his size his interest in muggle machines had gotten him in trouble with the other students at his last school. and this girl looked scary to say the least. he sat there uncomfortable half waiting for the taunts to come, half thinking he should make a move now before they did. however as the girl spoke he realised that she at least didn't seem to act like her looks, or at least she was acting nice for some reason, maybe to see if he really was a threat. "No I don't think anyone has" he muttered cautiously. "I am Chayton but everyone calls me chay" he said being polite. and offering her his hand to shake. even if she was going to make fun of him he was at least going to start it of polite so that if he was wrong, which he hoped he was, then he didn't want to leave a bad impression.
he thought back over the week trying to place the girl and he remembered that she was in some of his classes, so she must be a seventh year, but he couldn't remember what house she had been in. what were the houses agin, hufflepuff obviously, that was his house, griffin door, the house Madlyn was in. then there was crowsfoot or something, he didn't know anyone from there, and the green house where a lot of the people looked unfriendly. he waited cautiously trying to see if the girl was being genuinely nice or just pretending to lull him into a sense of security.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire took his hand and shook it even though she felt as if she was shaking hands tree. It wasn't his hands it was just his relive size compared to her. She quickly got ever it though. "Sapphire Bookchild. Depending on who you talk to to my nickname is ether Phire or Slag." She said with a wide grin on her face. She was really so easy going about what people said about her because of the Rumor Has It mag but she made a good show of seeming like she was. In her mind if she made it seem like it didn't bother her at all then they would get tired of writing about her. The best protest was not protest at all after all. "And my sir name doesn't mean that I love books even though I kinda do. It means that I don't really have a sir name." She explained before he made fun of her last name. Ever since she had dropped the name Clow people asked or, if they where meaner, made fun of the fact that she had taken the last name Bookchild. They didn't understand that this was what she was. She was a book child, a girl born of the records and made by the life she lead and not by her history like the lives of everyone else.

"Where where you before this? Your a transfer, I know because I haven't seen you before this year. I may not have talked much but that didn't mean I didn't notice." She said laughing softly. Sapphire knew that she looked tougher than she acted but that was because her face and her chosen style gave off a prickly felling. It was how she felt on the inside. She was nice enough but she did have she spikes. Like stone around a gem. That and her tattoos where mirrors of the scars either physical or emotional. In her mind she was making something beautiful out of something ugly.

 

[Chayton Ateara]

Chayton shook the girls hand. she didnt seem like the kind who made fun of people, the fact that she sort of made fun of herself "well It is nice to meet you Sapphire" he said shyly. he may be caustious of peope but often he was okay at judging their personality, and to him despite how she looked she didnt seem too much of a threat. "bookshild is an intereting last name" he said leaving it at that, it was the sort of last name tht sounded like it had a sotry abeind it, unlike most peoples wos story was that they came after their farthers in the family tree.
he looked at her briefly before looking back at the ground. "yeah, I transfered this year from Orion Accamy in alaska." he mumbled. it hadnt been a good school for him, a small school, an all boys school. not the school for him. so far he was enjoying it much more here, the fact that Madlyn was here helped as well as the fact that most people here were nice. "have you been here since first year?" he asked. deciding that he may as well try to keep the conversation going a couple of friends would be much appreciated, and he wasn't sure what else to ask.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire nodded. "When I first came in I wanted to be a Ravenclaw but the Hat saw that I was better suited for Hufflepuff. Haven't lost my 'Clawness though. I still love to read and like to learn but it's not an isolation tool anymore. That and I write my own comic books. If that not 'Puffy I don't know what is." She said with a broad grin. She loved her imagination and what she could come up with. She could take critisisem though. When she first sent in her story boards the editors had spotted plot holes and had pointed them out. Sapphire went back and wrote the story again. "What was it like in Orion? It sounds cold if it's in Alaska but what's the student body like. And do you ware uniforms?" She asked thinking about the uniforms for Hogwarts. They wheren't bad and they where completely modifiable to show personality. Ruby hated the ones from Beauxbaton because there was only so much one could do with a shrug. Sapphire could say it because she had heard it so many times before. As she waited for a response Sapphire picked a piece of dry paint out of her hair.

 

[Chayton Ateara]

Chay nodded when Sapphire started talking about the houses. he really didn't know much about them only that they each had a table in the great hall, had different common rooms, and different crests on the uniforms. for example he had a yellow crest with a badger on his where as madlyn had a red one wit a lion on hers. "I don't know that is 'puffy' or clawy. to be honest at orion we didn't have houses" he said. in his old school it was more done in year groups each year had a living area then there were about three dorms off it.and every year was one floor higher until the seventh years had a tower. on questioning about his old school chay grimaced. "It was cold and dark, we had uniforms they were dark green and made of a wool so if they get wet they stayed soaking for days. and the people weren't really that considerate of others either" he said. he didn't mean to sound like he was moaning about the school but it had very few happy memories for him and a lot of bad ones. he was glad that he was here for his final year of school. he already seemed to have two friends, at least he hope there were two, and sapphire wasn't just playing with him, though he often had a good sense of knowing that and sapphire didn't seem to give that impression.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire tilted her head then realized that he had no clue what she was talking about. "In Hogwarts there are four houses. They where named after the four founders of the original Hogwarts in Scotland. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Gryffendor where the last names of the founders. Ravanclaw liked to teach smart and cleaver people so the Ravenclaw house are considered to be a bunch of bookworms. Slythering liked to teach those that where resourceful and that where willing to flat out break the rules in order to get what they want so Slytherins have been known to be a bit of a dodgy bunch. Gryffendor liked to teach the brave and the bold so Gryffendors have a reputation of being some real confidant go getters. We are Hufflepuffs, our animal is the badger and we are thought of as the left overs but there's another side to that. We're the ones that can take what life throws at us and still make it out the other end whole. Where others crumble we stand tall. A Gryffendor is brave and bold but they're inpusive and don't tend to think things through, a Slytherin is resourceful but they tend to be self serving so you can't count on them in a pinch, Ravenclaws do think things through there is such a thing as over analyzing things. Us Hufflepuffs are the perfect combinations of all of them with the added bonus that we will do what we have to with a smile." Sapphire said then nodded. It took a while but Sapphire was proud of the house that she had gotten into.

She listened to Chayton explain his school and wrinkled her nose. "Wool is never ok. A heater spell only makes the material shrink. The student body sounds a bit rough but then I can't talk I got out of a situation where my mental and physical well being was at risk every day. Speaking of people being nasty to one another, watch out for a paper that calls itself 'Rumor Has It'. It's a gossip mag on a skellegrow." She said rolling her eyes. Sapphire thought that someone needed to tell Chayton about RHI. It was better than finding it one day on the end of the table with a black and white picture of them.

 

[Chayton Ateara]

Chayton listened as sapphire explained the houses to him. he was glad that someone had because there were some things about them that confused him, Ravenclaw was smart, Gryffindor brave, slytherin selfish and by the sounds of it hufflepuff were pretty nice well balanced people. "I guess that explains why i got some odd looks when i sat at the ravensclaw table for dinner the other night" he said glad that he could at least pretend that it was due to his mistake and not his size. he also realised that that was probably why he seemed to get a bad vibe from the people at the green table a lot of the time. "hufflepuff does sound like the best house" he said glad that he had been sorted into that house not the others, he wasn't brave at all, didn't feel practically smart and he was just plain glad not to be in slytherin.
Chay smiled at sapphires reaction to his description of his last school, he almost chuckles but wasn't quite that comfortable yet. "Shrinking is never good for clothes, it is trouble enough trying to get them to fit in the first place." he said leaving the sentence at that. a little rough was one way to describe his old school, though here seemed a lot batter, most people he had met had been nice, though that wasn't saying much seeing as he wasn't the most sociable of people. chayton heard her mention that her mental and physical wellbeing was at risk every day but he didn't want to ask her about it as he wasn't a curious person and didn't know her very well anyway. however at the news of a gossip magazine he closed his eyes briefly. that wasn't something he liked. but he guessed gossip was inevitable when so many teenagers were together in the same place at the same time, it was inevitable. "I hope it isn't to bad" he said. surprisingly gossip wasn't that bigger thing at his last school as being all boys most disagreements were tackled head on.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

"It may not be. You may end up as a side story or not at all. It's favorite targets are me and one of my best friends Kate Moon. I call her Moonbeam though even though she has siblings here but she's the only Moonbeam. To me anyway." Sapphire said shrugging. Sapphire hated the fact that Kate was made fun of. She was so nice to everyone. Then again she most of people that the mag had gone after never really did anything to deserve to be talked about in such a way. She ingnored the remark about him having a hard enough time making clothes fit. She was sure Chay had a hard time with people talking about his height too. Not that she could relate. Sapphire often wished she where taller but what she didn't have in height she made up in other ways. She looked at him up and down then tilted her head. Sapphire suddenly shot up and ran for her art bag. She took out a carbon pencil and her sketch pad. Sapphire had invented the Steam Dragon but she had been having trouble thinking up the inventor who built it. Sapphire ran back to Chayton and started to draw. "Stand still if you don't mind I want to get the aesthetic as close as possible." She said as she put the pencil up while closing one eye. Sapphire started to draw again. A few moments later she had the rough sketch of a man that looked a bit like Chayton but with a more confidant swagger. He had one arm leaning against his creation while next to it was a mound which was comparative in size. The Steam Dragon with it's pipe horns was much bigger than the junk pile and the man was big enough to lean on it's snout. The man had goggles over his eyes, a grease stained t-shirt with jeans and a huge smile on his face. On the neck of mechanical dragon was a woman that looked like Madlyn in a way. Sapphire didn't know why she had put her in the picture but she liked the way it looked. "What do you think? I will call them Ratchet and Switch." She said showing Chayton.

 

[Chayton Ateara]

chayton shook his head. he was pretty sure that he had seen someone called kate one morning on the house table. as sapphire talked he realised that she was a sort of odd girl. a very nice girl but the sort of girl who saw the world in a different way. he was right. "It's a shame that you are the two to get picked on. I know enough about that from experience. though you seem not to let i bother you" he stated wondering how she did it. however just then she ran away. had he said something to upset his new friend? he watched her run to where he guessed she had been paining before. and come back with a sketch pad and pencil. "what are you up to" he asked warily as she started drawing. it was sort of making him feel uncomfortable he shifted slightly before she told him to stay still. not sure what else do to he stayed where he was looking out over the grass trying to picture the engine in his head and think of what directions he would give his farther on how to fix the air con.
after a while the girl turned the picture around. and was surprised by what was on it. he smiled and laughed a deep chuckle. "that is really amazing" he said the shirt and jeans looked very much like what he wore working on the car. and even as self conscious as he was the closer to mechanics he got the more confident he became, when he actually got something working that had been declared past use that was the only time when he may show almost that much pride. though that didn't cross his mind for a while what did was the girl on the dragons neck. "Is that madlyn?" he asked. feeling a heat at the back of his neck that came when he though of her. "Ratchet and switch, are interesting names. who is who?" he asked though in his mind the names had already aligned themselves she was switch and he was ratchet. he wasn't sure why that way around but it seemed to fit better.

 

[Sapphire Bookchild]

Sapphire beamed. She had her inventor and her pilot both at the same time. "Oh so you know Madlyn! I thought I was going to have to explain who that was based on. I don't know why I did that but I though that the two of you would make sense in the story. The comic book that I'm working on is called the Overworld Chronicles. Junction City is one of the main focuses of the story. He's Ratchet and she's Switch. They got in a bit of trouble in another part of the Terralark, that's what the country on the ground is called and had to run so they ended up in the recycling city of Junction and took on the names. It's here where Ratchet started to work on the creation you see, the huge Steam Dragon. The thing about Junk City is that you grow to love the place the longer you live there. It maybe surrounded by a land fill but the people are really nice and no one judges you on your past. The Steam Dragon is a mech that Ratchet builds as a war bot to protect Junction. Switch is good enough to be a licensed pilot but she never had enough money to take the test in the Sky Cities. Before she came to Junction with Ratchet she was running air ship travels to anywhere on the ground. She pilots the Steam Dragon. That's a rough back ground but that's what I came up with as I was drawing." She said all at the same time. She knew she had answered more than the question he had asked but Sapphire felt like since one of the characters where based on him that she needed his approval. She wanted to make it clear also that Ratchet and Switch where not bad people they where just unlucky enough to have to run.

 

[Chayton Ateara]

Chayton smiled when sapphire asked about madlyn. he could feel the heat spreading to his face. he liked madlyn. she was the reason that he had transferred here an wasn't still at orion. he listened as she talked about "yes I know Madlyn" he said looking away towards the ground to hide some of his reaction. he had me her about nine months ago at the start of the year (oe was it the end of the previous yar) and had been so shocked to see another part giant that he had slowly been falling for her. he was sure that she was far to good to be anything more than a friend to him. thoug they had sent a lot of letters during the previous semester both glad to have another part giant to talk to.
he listened as Sapphire spoke abut the story, it didn't make that much sense to him. terralark, sky cities, war bots and junction. she wasn't entirely sure. what she was talking about, it sounded like some comic she was writing. "if that is just a rough background you must put a lot of thought into the characters" he said changing his hand position on the engine book it was funny that she had said that he had created the dragon as he was good with machines and although he generally foe things he did sometimes make things from scratch. mini planes, and birds that were suspended from his ealing at home maybe he would have a go at making a dragon one day. but he generally didn't do much on machines at school as people had always thought him weird when he did, and he didn't have all the tools there anyway.