24 Feb 2019, 22:11
The Art of Reading
Private to @Elena Jones.Thea loved books.
Well, not only Thea. Her whole family loved books. Most of her muggle friends loved, or at the least liked books. There was one that didn't, and let's just say that the friendship didn't last long. She wasn't even surprised at her love for books - her dad taught her how to read at quite the young age, maybe three and a half, so at the age of four when she joined a mainly Polish pre-school in England, she was not only the oldest but also the most respectful of the kids. She still remembers how when there was a dispute between two kids, she would be the one asked to solve it.
Her mom fondly recalls memories of when she'd come to pick Thea up, she'd see her sitting on a chair with a book, reading aloud to children that were surrounding her with the teachers just in the corner. She doesn't remember this herself, but close enough.
Of course, reading isn't the only thing Thea liked. She liked to draw, and she could also decently play the flute and the ukulele. But even those things she learned primarily from books, which her family just hoarded. Books about the basics of art? Sure. Art history? Got it! Music beginner, moderate, and advanced level for most instruments in the world? Why. Not.
So it was only natural Thea loved them.
Even more natural was her reaction when she learned that Hogwarts had a library, and when she actually saw it. Summing all her emotions in one word at that moment would be pretty much impossible, but the word mesmerized is probably the safes option to choose. She was happy, and shocked, and confused, and scared, and curious, and sort of just conflicted. The young witch set herself a goal - read all, or at least most of the books in the non-restricted area by the seventh year. Quite an impossible task, but the girl didn't mind. It will be fine, right?
It turned out to be harder than Thea originally thought, so after a month or so she came to the library mostly not to read, but because of the atmosphere, and generally how quiet it was there. A truly magical place. So she came there at least once a week with a sketchbook and a wooden pencil case, filled with pens, quills, crayons, pencils, and brushes.
She usually wasn't interrupted which was perfect for her. She liked to draw in peace. Of course, she could work without it, but it wasn't just that, it was also how magical this place was. So when she saw that someone was near her, she was startled. She'd usually go far, far back into the room so no one really would bother her, but here she was.
"Hello?" the Hufflepuff called out. She wasn't sure if the other girl originally wanted to talk to her, but if she did that'd be a good starting point. A hello.
Last edited by Thea Knott on 1 Mar 2019, 14:26, edited 2 times in total.
Stamina: 8 Evasion: 8 Strength: 6 Wisdom: 6 Arcane Power: 6 Accuracy: 6
25 Feb 2019, 06:01
The Art of Reading
It had been nicely silent in this corner of the library, only one person reading, and Elena was silent enough she at least thought she could read then quietly leave without being noticed.
All the wandmaking books in the library had been finished the previous month, which was impressive seeing as there was about fifty of the damn things. Well, supposedly about a hundred but most of them had been annoying autobiographies, and that isn't wandmaking that's an autobiography. Now that was over with Elena had been searching for something interesting that wasn't schoolwork or fiction.
Hiding in the art section of the library was a small set of books on different artistic styles of woodcarving, the only way to describe the find was perfect. It was this set of books that Elena was reading when the girl called out to her. She blinked a few times in surprise then turned and smiled at the other girl, her brain was still foggy from being pulled out of an interesting article on native american totems and so she went to her go-to greeting, "Hi, I um, I'm Elena."
It was awkward as hell and slightly confused, which perfectly described Elena in the morning, or Elena without coffee...
I'm weak my love.
25 Feb 2019, 18:32
The Art of Reading
Well, this was awkward.
Thea was trying to keep calm and not overthink the situation, but overdoing pretty much anything was in her nature. So internally, she was panicking, but she tried to calm herself down. She smiled back at the girl, although she was aware of how the response was awkward. She probably disrupted the girl in reading or drawing, or just mindlessly flipping the pages, or to be honest whatever she was doing. Thea hated annoying people and just knowing that she somehow might have disrupted the girl in whatever she was doing was horrible.
"My name is Thea," she said walking up and sitting down next to the girl with her sketchbook. "Native American totems," she read aloud from the page the girl had her book opened upon. "Seems interesting," the girl added after a while before taking a look back at her sketchbook and automatically starting to lightly sketch out a base for a totem. She rarely did anything besides humans, mainly girls, mainly only the faces, so it'd be interesting to draw a still object for once.
Thea looked back at the girl, noticing that it was a Slytherin. Thea hasn't met many of students from houses other than her own, and even then they'd just pass in the halls. Even so, the Slytherin house had probably the most fascinating... structure? Reputation? She automatically sketched out a small snake on the totem, along with a badger and smiled.
Stamina: 8 Evasion: 8 Strength: 6 Wisdom: 6 Arcane Power: 6 Accuracy: 6
25 Feb 2019, 22:23
The Art of Reading
Elena looked up curiously as Thea walked over. It seems what she said to Rowan still applied, people would stop to talk to you no matter what you were doing. In this case it wasn't completely unwelcome, mostly because she wasn't trying to sleep.
"It is interesting, I'm trying to figure out how to get the design." Elena figured that being rude wasn't the way forward. Friends were useful and the girl was feeling a tiny bit lonely without her friends. Rorie, Tal, Min-seo, all three of them hadn't really been talking to her recently. In fact Elena felt almost as if Alan was her only real friend left in the world.
It appeared Thea was sketching up a totem, it was quite a cool design, "I could carve that, if you wanted. It never hurts to do a bit every now and then, I'm a bit out of practice anyway."
Out of practice was an understatement, Winter still had its grip on the school and going outside was difficult. Finding somewhere that she could carve anything without being told off that was inside was an impossible mission unless she went to the owlery. Which was still freezing cold, probably even more so than normal because of the higher altitude. Elena could deal with it at the start of Winter but now the cold was something she felt in her bones.
I'm weak my love.
21 Mar 2019, 21:07
The Art of Reading
Native American Totems.
It's nothing you really think about, is it? It was a bit weird to do that on an everyday basis. No offense, obviously, but Thea wouldn't think of it as a casual topic. An interesting one, that's for sure, but it isn't something that'd randomly pop up during a conversation or during anything the young Hufflepuff knew about.
Nevertheless, what Thea recognized as tension between the two quickly disappeared, at least for Thea. The girl named Elena seemed quite nice, and talking to her made the Hufflepuff feel less annoying and more... carefree, to a degree. The calm and magical atmosphere of the Academy's library also helped her, and how she was used to spending time here alone.
She kept on sketching, looking at the girl with the corner of her eye before she mentioned that she's trying to figure out how to get the design. This is where Thea's attention averted from her drawings and she gave Elena a confused stare. "Isn't that sort of... uh... easy..?" she asked with both hesitation and confusion in her voice. "I mean maybe it is to me, I just don't know how..." she tried to explain herself. Did she sound arrogant before? She certainly did, or so she thought.
"You could??" Thea was startled when she heard the girl mentioned actually carving her small sketch out. Although Thea could understand the creative drive andwanting to practice more, it seemed so surreal. Not only cause that's not what strangers do but doesn't this take time? And effort?
"Isn't it hard? You'd need materials, tools, probably a place to work. And also measurements for the carving, right?" she listed. Her father taught her something about sculpting, although she didn't remember much. Actually, she didn't remember anything but that it needed a lot of time, effort, and skill.
Stamina: 8 Evasion: 8 Strength: 6 Wisdom: 6 Arcane Power: 6 Accuracy: 6
21 Mar 2019, 23:00
The Art of Reading
Thea's drawings were clearly amazingly detailed and so the Slytherin didn't take any offence at her statement, "Sometimes it's easy to design, but I'm learning a new pattern of carving, see? Lots of little tiny swirls to make it look right, and gentle angles. Different from what I'm used to. I need to work on making it look in the style on my sketch, and also add some mathematical stuff like so."
Elena pulled out her sketchbook and opened it to the page on butterfly making, degree angles and exact measurements were attached to a bunch of technical drawings and a normal sketch was in the centre of the page, "You draw what you want, then figure out the mathematics to make it."
"Of course I could! I'd love to draw something cool like that." Elena grinned,
"And yeah, I have my tools with me in the dorms though. As for places to work, I tend to just hang out by the lake. It's quiet enough there that I don't have to worry about people coming and poking me about what I'm doing."
"If you want, we could make it together. I could teach you how to do the technical stuff now, and then the carving later." Elena offered.
I'm weak my love.