Open Cat-like Tread

[Chrysander Kaster]

It was inevitable, really, for Chrys to have a moment where he struggled to hold it together. When news of his friend's death had first reached him, he'd struggled to really pluck the correct emotion into his feelings and subsequently instead spent the time rationalising all of it to himself, relatively in need of an explanation he could understand. As a pureblooded witch, one from a family such as hers, Chrys had almost believed her death to be a joke. Surely no one from the magical world, a long line of people who had magical, pureblooded family, would die of something so muggle as to hit a deer and crash. For one long and horrible moment, Chrys had thought someone was playing a rather elaborately cruel prank on the world, and almost had laughed at the audacity of such a thing. Only it had not taken him long at all to realise how wrong he'd been and by that point he'd felt as though his right to mourn had ceased. Chrys had lost a lot in his life, so much that for the last months he'd began to believe that he was completely immune to the thoughts that probably occupied the minds of the other people in Elsie's life. Her siblings, her mother, her closest friends, and it had caused him some guilt for a time, but if his lesson in History of Magic just now had told him anything, it was that he could be sure and certain of nothing. Perhaps he could easily hide his emotions from others, and he had the kind of long developed methods that worked for him to combat grief, but that didn't mean that he couldn't still experience and go through the stages of grief he'd been trying to hold back for so long. His own anxieties aside, his need to push himself to the edge, the pressure himself into being a better person only meant that he felt lost, uncertain of his role in his own life and where his future might sit. He knew he'd ruined most of it, but that didn't mean he actually wanted to know he would have nothing left by graduation. It was like the realisations kept coming, sucking all his ambitions and hopes dry before carrying on and coming back around. It was all slipping through his fingers like sand, and trying to fight against it only made it faster.​

 

[Robyn Taylor]

It was safe to say that Robyn was enjoying her time at Hogwarts here in New Zealand. She wanted to make friends, and find out just how different classes here were to Ilvermorny, and she had an entire year to do that. She hadn't thought about what she was going to do during the break between semesters, though she probably wasn't going to go back home. She wanted to explore the country while she was here, after all, otherwise there wasn't much point except for the schooling experience. She wanted to make the most of her time here. Who knew when she would be able to come back. Robyn rubbed her eyes, feeling tired from all the studying she had been doing. She probably should have changed study methods before she started revising the work, as revising after each lesson and then a little bit every day was exhausting her poor brain. But the fifth year was so used to it that it difficult to break the habit. Being the fourth week of her first semester on exchange felt strange. She felt like she should be doing something other than going to class or the library or the dorms, but she hadn't signed up for any clubs and now she wondered if that had been a mistake. She was only here for a year so she hadn't considered it to make much sense if she had joined one. But on the other hand she could have made friends by now. Robyn sighed. Maybe she should continue with her assignment tomorrow. She had plenty of time to complete it still. The weather was good, so once she had gone back to the dorms to drop off her stuff, she headed to the cliffs, not having been there yet since she arrived to the school. Robyn was about to lay down on the grass and close her eyes to relax, when she spotted another person. She hesitated for a few minutes, before finally deciding to go over to him. It was about time she got acquainted with someone properly. "Hi," she said to make her presence known. The boy seemed sad, or lost in thought, she couldn't quite tell. "Wow, it's a nice view from here," she commented, peering over the edge but not enough to fall off the cliff. She wasn't that reckless.​

 

[Chrysander Kaster]

Chrys usually knew the people who came to talk to him, so usually they knew not to sneak up on him, since he wasn't very good with that. So the fact that someone had snuck up on him immediately told him that he didn't know them. He jumped as she spoke, and looked around to see a pretty blonde he didn't recognise. That told him she was either a recluse, or brand new, though his money was on brand new given her accent. he couldn't quite pick exactly where it was from, he just knew it wasn't from here. "F*ck!" He said, holding his hand to his chest to calm himself. He hadn't meant to let the reaction get away from him like that, as he didn't like to seem like the easily spooked type, because normally he wasn't, but he also wasn't normally lost in thought like he had been now, so this was a whole new dynamic he was unfamiliar with and perhaps a little not happy with. He didn't like when things happened to him he hadn't expected. "Jesus, hi," he said, taking another calming breath and straigtening himself up, running his fingers through his already messy hair. "Sorry, yes, hello," he said again, shaking his head. "You're new are you? Most people would have seen this view right now," Elsie had especially enjoyed the view, and risked house points every time. Honestly Chrys as surprised more prefects and professors didn't patrol around here because it wasn't exactly like there was a barrier or anything. "I'm Chrys," he said finally, reaching his hand out for her to shake.​