4 Oct 2019, 17:41
Pies and Prejudice
[quote]
[quote]
Reid Kovacs. Year three. Quidditch beater for Hufflepuff, Prefect of the same, on the newspaper team. A half-blood with one side of the family probably depressingly mundane, and the other a well-known group of purebloods who resided in the same city as the Averys. That last bit was one of the reasons Max was so interested in finally getting to know the kid after they'd had a few odd run-ins; it was always good to make connections in your hometown, since you never knew when you might need quick help that was figuratively just down the street.
But there was another reason Max had been looking for him since nearly the beginning of the school year, and it had nothing to do with rationality or logic. For whatever reason, word on the street was that Kovacs was the target of many peoples' wrath for doing nothing more than existing. He was apparently a nice guy, yet there was an ever-growing gang of people ready to beat the living tar out of him for causes Max couldn't even begin to imagine. If he were a better person, Max might step in to help the poor guy out of the goodness of his heart. Unfortunately, he was a pretty bad person and the main reason he wanted to get to know the half-Fosgate was because some well-hidden, very dark part inside of him was undeniably drawn to conflict. If befriending Reid ended up leading to fistfights and hurled curses in defense of the Hufflepuff, well... Max had no issues with that.
"Hey, Reid," he said with a grin as if they were already friends, aware that other people around could see what was going on and easily make inferences. "Good to see you, mate, you're looking well. Listen, this is out of the blue, but I think we ought to become the best of friends. I was talking to Rosie, see - " To be fair, Rosie was getting the shit beaten out of her while he was talking to her, but it wasn't technically a lie. "And she said you're a real good guy, very down to earth and worth getting to know. In a world where everyone wants to manipulate someone or lies constantly, a person like that is a breath of fresh air. What do you say? One Quidditch player to another, would you like to give it a shot?"
Reducio
It was nearing the end of breakfast when Max caught sight of the guy he'd been quietly trying to find for a while now. School was a whirlwind of busyness between class, Quidditch, and studying, so there usually wasn't much time to look, but by a stroke of good fortune Max spotted the brunet before he had time to escape leave the Hall. With a small grin to himself that was the equivalent of a muttered 'challenge accepted,' he stood and excused himself from his friends to march over to Kovac's table and lazily plant himself into a seat just vacated across from the boy.@Reid Kovacs
Reid Kovacs. Year three. Quidditch beater for Hufflepuff, Prefect of the same, on the newspaper team. A half-blood with one side of the family probably depressingly mundane, and the other a well-known group of purebloods who resided in the same city as the Averys. That last bit was one of the reasons Max was so interested in finally getting to know the kid after they'd had a few odd run-ins; it was always good to make connections in your hometown, since you never knew when you might need quick help that was figuratively just down the street.
But there was another reason Max had been looking for him since nearly the beginning of the school year, and it had nothing to do with rationality or logic. For whatever reason, word on the street was that Kovacs was the target of many peoples' wrath for doing nothing more than existing. He was apparently a nice guy, yet there was an ever-growing gang of people ready to beat the living tar out of him for causes Max couldn't even begin to imagine. If he were a better person, Max might step in to help the poor guy out of the goodness of his heart. Unfortunately, he was a pretty bad person and the main reason he wanted to get to know the half-Fosgate was because some well-hidden, very dark part inside of him was undeniably drawn to conflict. If befriending Reid ended up leading to fistfights and hurled curses in defense of the Hufflepuff, well... Max had no issues with that.
"Hey, Reid," he said with a grin as if they were already friends, aware that other people around could see what was going on and easily make inferences. "Good to see you, mate, you're looking well. Listen, this is out of the blue, but I think we ought to become the best of friends. I was talking to Rosie, see - " To be fair, Rosie was getting the shit beaten out of her while he was talking to her, but it wasn't technically a lie. "And she said you're a real good guy, very down to earth and worth getting to know. In a world where everyone wants to manipulate someone or lies constantly, a person like that is a breath of fresh air. What do you say? One Quidditch player to another, would you like to give it a shot?"
"There’s something brittle in me that will break before it bends."
Fearless | Poison Resistance
STA - 7, EV - 5, STR - 1, WIS - 9, ARC - 10, ACC - 8
Fearless | Poison Resistance
STA - 7, EV - 5, STR - 1, WIS - 9, ARC - 10, ACC - 8
8 Oct 2019, 23:34
Pies and Prejudice
[font=PT Serif]Reid wasn’t the brightest, but he certainly wasn’t the most stupid of the bunch. He was naive in the sense that he always saw the best in people before the worst, in this case, Max seemed to extend an olive branch. While he never really had an issue with Max, he’s heard a few things and he didn’t exactly listen all too closely to them. He seemed decent in character, not outstanding, but someone who he wouldn’t mind talking to. [/font]
[font=PT Serif]At the very least, he would nod at or get to know better. But even with that seemingly earnest offer by Max, just something gnawed at his heel to be careful. If Max looked closer, he could probably see the growing bruise on his features, it wasn’t that long ago that he had an altercation with Erin Ryan. It was a purple and black bruise on his cheek, his lip was busted, and he seemed to have a shadow under his eye. Neither student walked away clean anyway.[/font]
[font=PT Serif]“Rosie said that? That’s nice of her.” A faint smile appeared on his features, some relief to the wounds he was still mending from. The Hufflepuff broke a small muffin in two and paused before he planned to eat one half, he gently pushed the plate between the two of them. The rest could be for Max if he wanted it. “But I do want to give it a shot ...” Friends were hard to come by, people to trust as well, but friends who he could trust? Even rarer. Maybe it was the recent turn of events that slowly began to taint his optimism. [/font]
[font=PT Serif]It felt like the world was out to hurt him, maybe his luck was just that bad. His hand came to to scratch the back of his head, he didn’t know what to say to Max, it was pretty sudden. Plus it sounded like a business proposition, not that he’d even know what a business proposition was like. Though his accent now kind of took him by surprise after listening to it again, it reminded him of his uncle. [/font]
[font=PT Serif]Reid’s accent was of course different, he was a midlander and Max was a northerner. “Your accent, Max … Manchester? Some of my people are from that city so I thought it sounded sort of familiar. It’s a pretty busy place.” Reid’s own motives to get to know Max was different, he seemed to ‘exclusive’, he was a very mysterious student to him. He knew him in his first year and suddenly he had come back in his third year, why was that? It seemed like everyone he got to vaguely know had something happen to them. Maybe Max was the same, but it wasn’t what he wanted to get into as he didn’t want to be asked either.[/font]
"Trouble usually finds me."
17 Oct 2019, 00:55
Pies and Prejudice
[quote][quote]There was more hesitation and caution there than Max had come to expect from a resident of Hufflepuff. Must've had to do with the bruising on his face; Max could sympathize with that after his fight with James, and he internally wondered just who had left Reid so brutalized. There were a few larger guys in year two and three that could probably do that much damage; maybe one of the half-giants? He'd have to dig deeper to find out who he was about to make enemies of by befriending Reid.
Luckily the name-drop of Rosie seemed to help, and after a moment things were looking on the up-and-up. Reid had agreed, however reluctant, and once you got your foot in the door with someone it wasn't hard to step right into the house. Except now the other boy was offering him a piece of food, and Max stared down at the half-muffin suspiciously, revealing his own form of paranoia. This kid wasn't some agent out to get him, right? It was weird to offer food to someone you didn't know, unless it was yet another Muggle custom he didn't know.
He lost his relaxed posture as he leaned forward, eyes darting from Reid to the food and back. A business deal, maybe, a test of sorts to see if he would eat it. Gingerly stretching his hand out, he accepted it with a strained smile. It was just general Hogwarts fare, so there was no reason it should be poisoned. Unless something had been slipped in while he wasn't looking. Swallowing thickly, he lifted it to his mouth and took a small bite with an appreciative hum, nodding as if it was great.
"Mm," he said, doing everything he could not to grimace as he delicately set it down. "Thanks." There was no strange taste and he worked up a mouthful of saliva to swallow it down, enough to coat his stomach in case something funky went on. Dusting off his hand, he leaned back again and focused on what Reid said next. That brought the smile back to his face and he shrugged a little, pleased his accent didn't sound like it came from his home town. It was supposedly a 'working-class' accent and his parents had drilled it into him to speak in a more posh way. Still...
"The accent might be Manc, but that's not where I'm from, mate." His voice dropped lower, adopting the rougher tones of his hometown that reminded him of shoving Tommy through the library and running down the canals as people shouted at incoming ships. Rosalyn and Alisdair hadn't let him go often - or at all, it was all sneaking out - but when you were a kid your brain was a sponge that absorbed everything it heard. "Right outside Birmingham, that's where I grew up. Mum don't enjoy it when I talk like I'm from there, though, says it's an abhorrent back gully accent. I don't much mind it, but I don't like hearing people bawl and the like since they treat you with more respect when you ent from out near Black Country."
It felt good to talk rougher, but he switched back to a more refined accent so he didn't fall into the habit. "You're from Derby with that accent, correct?" He wondered how far to push, whether or not to let Reid know he knew about the Fosgates. Better not, since this was under the guise of friends rather than business partners. "But you have family from around? Anyone close to us Brummies?"
Luckily the name-drop of Rosie seemed to help, and after a moment things were looking on the up-and-up. Reid had agreed, however reluctant, and once you got your foot in the door with someone it wasn't hard to step right into the house. Except now the other boy was offering him a piece of food, and Max stared down at the half-muffin suspiciously, revealing his own form of paranoia. This kid wasn't some agent out to get him, right? It was weird to offer food to someone you didn't know, unless it was yet another Muggle custom he didn't know.
He lost his relaxed posture as he leaned forward, eyes darting from Reid to the food and back. A business deal, maybe, a test of sorts to see if he would eat it. Gingerly stretching his hand out, he accepted it with a strained smile. It was just general Hogwarts fare, so there was no reason it should be poisoned. Unless something had been slipped in while he wasn't looking. Swallowing thickly, he lifted it to his mouth and took a small bite with an appreciative hum, nodding as if it was great.
"Mm," he said, doing everything he could not to grimace as he delicately set it down. "Thanks." There was no strange taste and he worked up a mouthful of saliva to swallow it down, enough to coat his stomach in case something funky went on. Dusting off his hand, he leaned back again and focused on what Reid said next. That brought the smile back to his face and he shrugged a little, pleased his accent didn't sound like it came from his home town. It was supposedly a 'working-class' accent and his parents had drilled it into him to speak in a more posh way. Still...
"The accent might be Manc, but that's not where I'm from, mate." His voice dropped lower, adopting the rougher tones of his hometown that reminded him of shoving Tommy through the library and running down the canals as people shouted at incoming ships. Rosalyn and Alisdair hadn't let him go often - or at all, it was all sneaking out - but when you were a kid your brain was a sponge that absorbed everything it heard. "Right outside Birmingham, that's where I grew up. Mum don't enjoy it when I talk like I'm from there, though, says it's an abhorrent back gully accent. I don't much mind it, but I don't like hearing people bawl and the like since they treat you with more respect when you ent from out near Black Country."
It felt good to talk rougher, but he switched back to a more refined accent so he didn't fall into the habit. "You're from Derby with that accent, correct?" He wondered how far to push, whether or not to let Reid know he knew about the Fosgates. Better not, since this was under the guise of friends rather than business partners. "But you have family from around? Anyone close to us Brummies?"
"There’s something brittle in me that will break before it bends."
Fearless | Poison Resistance
STA - 7, EV - 5, STR - 1, WIS - 9, ARC - 10, ACC - 8
Fearless | Poison Resistance
STA - 7, EV - 5, STR - 1, WIS - 9, ARC - 10, ACC - 8
24 Oct 2019, 13:00
Pies and Prejudice
[font=PT Serif]Something about Max unsettled him, or was it even Max? As the Gryffindor boy spoke, his gaze shifted often from him to the food he was picking. His head bobbed unconsciously as if to say, 'I'm listening'. As he spoke about his 'abhorrent back gully accent', he nodded with an amused noise of approval at the account. He agreed, he liked this side of the boy, he didn't seem to speak so high-class than he normally did. Still, Harloch's voice echoed in his mind like a record player he couldn't turn off. [/font]
[font=PT Serif]His budding paranoia didn't really come from him, he was fine with Max in all honesty. It was the questions perhaps that worried him. Over the summer, his grandfather made it a point of how to act, how to speak, and how to carry himself. Build bridges where it matter, burn the ones that don't, that was too hard to abide by. He broke most of it in Hogwarts, who was his grandfather to tell him what to do? [/font]
[font=PT Serif]But his wrath was enough to convince him even in the slightest offense, talk too much and you're too an issue to the family. He wasn't raised not to be so reserved, he was crude, he was rowdy, perhaps he was even a fool. But he found it hard to change his ways, harder to not trust the good in people and that Max was simply just getting to know him. By now, he knew that Max and some of the other students he's been in school with for nearly three years were purebloods. [/font]
[font=PT Serif]Why was that such a poignant detail all of a sudden? "Derby born and raised, small city just smack bang in the middle. Offen confused with someone from Nottingem though, guess we sound similar sometimes." He emphasized, humorously pushing against the table for a moment. His 'u' always ended up sounding like an 'o' in some cases, he was stupidly hyper aware of that now since they were talking about each other's intonation. "Dunno what my mum really said about our accent -" His jaw clenched for a moment before the emotion faded, he let it slip for now.[/font]
[font=PT Serif]"She enunciated her words more. Reminds me of yours a little, but -" His mouth twitched to a gentle smile that he maintained, almost pained because Max had asked about a very revealing detail. The Fosgates. "She has family of in Birmingham, that's probably why she sounds like that. The um ..." He placed a hand on the back of his neck for a moment, playing it off as a mere fixing of the tail of his hair rather than a nervous tick. [/font]
[font=PT Serif]"Fosgates. They're not actually in the heart of Birmingham, but their pub is." Too much, don't say too much. At least he was being honest, but not too honest. "Have you heard of 'om? I don't know if they're that known." he nonchalantly asked. They weren't the most prominent family, they stuck to their ways, quiet and toiling. But he had heard that their pub had been there for a while. It was there as far as Birmingham's industrial rise and fall. [/font]
[font=PT Serif]During the day, it served the common wizarding folk, at night, it became a lounge that served a more aristocratic crowd. Reid wasn't exposed to any of it yet, maybe one day he will. But he was curious of Max's own family and what they did. "Does your family do business in Birmingham?"[/font]
"Trouble usually finds me."