Closed Trial and Error

[Solomon Tofilau]

PlotID#99156​

Sully had thought it would have been easy enough to find a good charm to jinx someone's eyebrows, but he and Lysander had eventually agreed it seemed easier (and way more fun) to just make up their own. And, after spending some time, voluntarily, in the library of all places, they figured they had a pretty good idea of how spell making worked too. It seemed like it was mostly about intent and finding an incantation to channel said intent. Which had turned out to be easier said than done. And after all the charms books they'd had to pour over to say that, it hadn't even been that easy to start off with. But still, a few latin dictionaries and several brainstorming sessions later, Sully was confident they had some working potential for an eyebrow growing spell. Now the only hurdle was getting one to work properly.

They'd decided to get some time to test things out down in the duelling chamber, and Sully was grateful no one in the SDA was down here as he poked his head in before skirting inside. SDA kids might have been able to help, but Sully wanted this to be his and Lysander's project and he didn't want anyone else seeing it till they were ready to show it off. Readying his wand, Sully bounced in place a bit, twirling it and trying to remember how to pronounce some of the potential incantations they'd come up with as Lysander arrived.

 

[Lysander Summers]

The research they'd had to do to figure out how to create their own spell had been so boring. Lysander didn't think he'd have gotten this far solo, there wasn't enough motivation, and the books in the library had almost put him to sleep while he'd read through them. It had gotten more interesting when they'd researched latin, as if just saying anything in the language would cause some sort of magical reaction, a spark from his fingertips or wand, or something in the room exploding. As fun as it was to say these random phrases, it was still a whole language that they didn't actually have the time to delve into, and he'd had to make do with trying to find hair, or eyebrow specific words to use as incantations. If this worked, there were plenty of other spells he would have liked to try.

The last time Lysander had been in the duelling chamber, he'd been crowned the champion of his year. It was just a nice fact he liked to remind himself about. And everyone else. This time, he was going to be doing something that was somehow even more exciting than duelling his classmates and coming out on top. He grinned as he caught sight of Sully and pushed the door firmly shut behind him. He didn't want anyone else spying on them or stealing their ideas. They'd both put a lot of work into figuring out how to create a new spell, and it wouldn't be fair for someone else to take a shortcut. "Don't start without me." Sander called, clambering up to meet his friend, and withdrawing his own wand. He fixed his sleeve, where he'd written down quite the list of latin words to use. There'd been too much to memorise, and with the exams just around the corner, his brain simply didn't have the capacity to retain all that extra information they'd scoured the library for.​

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully hadn't been waiting very long when Lysander clambered to join him on the duelling platform. "Can't start without my test dummy," Sully said making a joking lunge at Lysander with his wand to see if he could make him flinch before laughing. "One of these we came up with has to work, aye," Sully said, squinting at the writing Lysander seemed to have crammed onto his arm and shaking his head in amusement and a touch of jealousy that he hadn't thought of that. Eager to get started, Sully traced one of the wand movements they brainstormed in the air, a flick towards the target's eyebrows, followed by a swishing motion downwards. It felt solid and Sully nodded. "Let's do it," He said, approximating a duelling stance before throwing out the first incantation he could remember. "Magnus Eyebrowious" He said, immediately lowering his wand to check if anything had happened to Lysander's eyebrows.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander almost threw his wand into the air, not expecting Sully's lunge. It was embarrassing, and he felt his cheeks redden, shaking his head to laugh at himself. How had he won two tournaments, again? He was glad no one else was around to see. "Yeah, yeah. We'll see who the test dummy is." He retorted, bouncing into a stance of his own to prepare for their spell experimentation/mock duel. He kept his wand low, ignoring the urge to want to whip up a "protego" when Sully threw the first spell his way. He wasn't sure what to expect from it even after all their research, and for a moment assumed nothing happened, until all of a sudden he could smell the burning. "What is that?" He asked aloud, looking down at himself to inspect the only parts of him he could actually see. He seemed okay, until he could feel the burning, right over his left brow, and he immediately began to repeatedly smack his palm against the singed hair, or whatever was left of it. "Oww, ow, ow. What did you do?" He half laughed, half whined and pulled his hand away, taking small dark hairs with it, the tips still brightly lit and smouldering. That definitely wasn't supposed to happen. He wiped his hand off on his pants and furrowed his brows, or brow? He wasn't sure anymore. It had felt a heck of a lot smoother. "My turn! Eyebrowio!" Incanting the first word on his list, Lysander mimed drawing two eyebrows in the air and flicked his wand toward Sully, almost forgetting that they'd come to grow their eyebrows, not remove them. The intent thing was important, and it took a lot of effort to try and stay focused on the outcome, rather than getting even.​

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Watching Lysander closely for any reaction, Sully had to nearly shove his fist in his mouth to stop from laughing as he watched Lysander's eyebrows. It was small at first, but it was undeniable, especially with the smell of burning hair, that his left eyebrow hairs were curling and burning. "Pffft, okay not that one," He wheezed as Lysander managed to pat out the burning eyebrow. There was a dark smudge where Lysander's left eyebrow had been and Sully nearly choked on his own spit trying not to laugh at the sight of it. It was hard, but they had to focus right now. He could laugh at it later.

Sully was so focused on being focused he nearly missed Lysander's attempt at their jinx hitting him. He took a step back from the impact, immediately wishing they'd thought to grab a mirror. His brow felt kinda warm and prickly, so something was definitely happening, but Sully wasn't seeing any luxurious eyebrow hair obscuring his vision, so he wasn't sure what. Patting his face, Sully made a distraught sound when he felt the extra hair, now grown across the center of his forehead. "You gave me a unibrow!" He said, barely managing to finish the sentence before choking out a laugh again at the ridiculousness of it all. "Right, my turn again," He said, feeling even more intent to get their spell right. "Enfroncio!"

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander watched with complete fascination as more hair grew between Sully's brows. It wasn't what he had wanted, but it wasn't nothing. He laughed silently, a long, drawn out exhale that took all the air from his lungs, and had him pressing a hand to his side. It wasn't what they were aiming for, but it was still so good. Sully looked ridiculous, and he could only imagine how he looked himself. "It looks great! An improvement." He laughed, once he'd caught his breath back. He tried to ready himself for the next spell, instinctively raising a hand to cover his (remaining) eyebrow, and having to slap it away before the spell reached him. It felt different this time. Not so hot, just tingly and different. He ran his fingertips across the hairs, not feeling much of a change. "Guess it didn't work, huh?" He said, withdrawing his hand to reveal a now blindingly blonde brow. He double checked the words written on his arm and licked his thumb to wipe off some of the ones that had failed. "I wanna try...this one." He decided, waggling his wand towards Sully again. "Supercilio!" He incanted. He was liking the -io's. Engorgio made things larger, so it felt like it sounding similar helped. It was hard to miss Sully's brows now that he had more of it to target. He lowered his wand, waiting for something to happen. His face lit up when it seemed as if one side of his monobrow had grown longer than the other side. "It sort of worked! We're doing it! Maybe we need to wave it differently?" He wondered, not sure how much it mattered. He'd been doing whatever he felt like at this point, but this was progress.​

 

[Solomon Tofilau]

Sully snorted when Lysander pulled his hand away from his remaining eyebrow, admiring how the bleach blonde look somehow made him look even stupider. But now it was Lysander's turn and Sully braced himself as Lysander shot back another version of the spell. There was an odd sensation at his brow and Sully squinted upwards, trying to feel at his face with his hands. "Oh, yeah- Yeah! I can see it!" Sully said, trying not to go crossed eyed as he watched the hair descend over his left eye and partially into his vision. They must both look a mess, but Sully was pretty thrilled with the results.

"Right. Right," Sully squared his shoulders and readied his wand. He was having a blast but they were also so close to getting this right and he didn't want to mess it up. Lysander was right that the incantation and seemed solid on that one, and Sully was keen to try it out himself. Though he wasn't sure what results he'd get on what was left of Lysander's eyebrows. "Maybe it'll fix your other eyebrow, aye," He said with a quick snicker before casting the spell himself, giving his wand a quick swiping motion, like he was wiping something off Lysander's forehead. "Supercillio!" There was a pause as the spell hit, and Sully quickly hurried over to check Lysander's face for any new growth. "I think your eyebrow's coming back," Sully said with grin, his smile faltering as the hair seemed to keep growing. "Uh oh-"

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander braced himself for another spell. With one eyebrow already missing, there wasn't a lot left to lose, except another brow. He was excited. The incantation they'd landed on was looking good. Not for Sully, who looked comical, but they were so close. He squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the spell brush against his brow, a faint zap of magic. He opened them to see Sully standing much closer, checking it out for himself. All he could feel was a mild, irritating itching over the brow that had been burned off, and he reached his hand up to scratch at it. "You think so?" He asked hopefully, wishing he could see it himself. All he could feel were prickles jabbing at his fingers, gradually getting longer. He grinned, pleased that they'd already been able to undo the damage. He didn't have anything to worry about if growing his eyebrow back was that easy. But then, one side of his vision became obscured by long, flowing blonde brow-locks, and the other soon followed suit with brunette hair, covering his face like mismatched curtains. "What's happening?" He said, earning him a mouthful of hair. He couldn't see Sully anymore, or anything else for that matter. His vision swam with hair, the colours mingling together as each eye tried to adjust. By the time it felt like the growing had stopped, the curtains of hair hung past his shoulders, and he had to raise both hands to draw them apart. He stared at his friend in silence for a moment, unsure what to say, before bursting out into a fit of laughter. "This is wicked!" He shook his head, feeling the weight of it sway from side to side. He could tuck each side behind one ear if he wanted to now, and he did just that to get them out of the way. He had to wonder what possibilities opened up with the chameleon comb now that he had eyebrow hair longer than the hair on his head. "Oh man, we did it! This is going to be so awesome in a duel. Wait until everyone sees! No one's gonna expect this!" The slug-vomiting charm had been solid for helping him win, and he needed something people weren't going to expect now, especially Ajaccio. This was perfect! "So uh, we didn't come up with any ideas for a counter charm..." Sander commented, unsure of how they were going to fix what they'd done. "Unsupercillio?" He questioned, tapping his wand against his lengthy eyebrows. Nothing. He chuckled despite it. "I guess we should go see if the nurses know how to give good haircuts."​