like real people do | cordie

[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

june 27th 2026

THOUGH THE PUFF PALACE WAS NOT MUCH TO BE seen on the outside, it was important not to judge a book by its cover. Not that Eli would know of course, he never did read these days - unless forced by his mentor, and even then it was more of a cursory skim. Inside, Puff Palace was an eclectic collection of personalities. A mish-mash space, cluttered with bric-a-brac and little notions of each residents individual hobbies. Eli loved it, the cosiness of tripping over shoes and coats. Of fighting over notes on the fridge and who left that glass on the edge of the draining board, causing a great scramble of broken glass when the washing machine was on.

He hadn't meant to end up at Puff Palace, of course. Eli's dad had told him to stay for a couple of years, finish his internship and get a 'proper job' before he looked at flats. But, it had gotten so uncomfortable to live there that Eli had begun to sleep at the reservation. More than once he had kipped on a hay stack in a smelly paddock. Eventually, after gluing himself to Cordie's hip, he'd found his way to the bottom of her bed. From there, in true Puff fashion, they had taken great pity on him and when a room had become free Eli had seamlessly cemented his position as a fellow Palace peasant. His room, of course, was not as comfortable as Cordie's.

Sleep rumpled, Eli practically sleep-walked to Cordie's room around noon. Two cups of tea balanced precariously in his clumsy hands. He'd stumbled home from a night shift at the reservation, slept fully clothed atop his covers in a restless heap, and then awoke chilled and lonely. He was not very good at making tea, but Eli liked to think he was getting better. At least, he hoped. Lifting each mug to sip at the overfilled edge, Eli used his socked feet to knock on Cordie's door. Two clumsy knocks with his heel, before he used it to open the door gently.

"I brought tea..." Eli whispered, edging a lazy head around the doors corner, messy hair falling into his eyes blindly. "At least, I think it's tea." He joked, inserting his shoulders into the room and then the rest of him in a slow, tentative crawl. Plenty of time for Cordie to banish him, should she decide his company was inadequate. Her room was a little bigger than his, though it would be hard to tell with all the things she had. The pictures stuck carefully on her wall, the cosy blanket Eli had dreams about. Her bookshelves filled with titles Eli had never even heard of. He loved that room, it was much better than his own. Plus, it had Cordie in it.

Her bed was elevated, and Eli had fallen out of it more than a few times, but she had a lovely rug below it. He thought she'd probably moved it closer after the second, or third time he'd face planted. Mattress just level with his chest, so that when he shuffled over to hand her the mug of tea, he could lean over and rest his shoulders and head on the covers comfortably. He looked at her with a thin, sleepy smile.

"I just woke up," He told her obviously, as if it wasn't apparent from his appearance, or the way he'd noisily crashed out of his bedroom like a cornered deer upon waking - as he did every day. "We had a crup litter last night." He lifted his mug to his mouth and sipped it slowly, barely flinching at the watery, milky concoction. He really did try. "Tea's a bit shit," He warned her, taking another sip, laughing quietly so that he snorted some of the liquid and had to cement his mouth shut and cough through his nose until it passed. 

cordelia regan smith

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[cordelia regan smith]

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The change in dynamic that working all week and then going home to the apartment she shared with her fellow former Hufflepuffs was so weird to her. It was more of a forced social interaction than being in the dorms at Hogwarts had been, but also allowed her to maintain her autonomy and hide away from her roommates if she desired to. Of course she liked them all well enough that she hadn’t had to do that yet. The option was available to her though and that was what Cordelia liked about it. Her door was open more often than not, and having casual conversations with her roommates – typically kept brief because of her – was the sort of thing that she had been working towards for a couple of years now. Knowing that it would have come so soon after graduating was something she wished she could have foreseen, but here she was! Pretty soon here she was going to try and integrate her cat into the building, at first afraid because she didn’t know if she would last more than a week or two. He had been living with her mum, perfectly content with the extra food she always fed him, and the last time she had stopped by, was looking extremely fat. The room to explore here was bound to get him to lose a few pounds, and if not, she’d start him on a diet.

The other new addition to the ‘Puff Palace’, as her roommates affectionately called the shared apartment, was Eli. He had joined a few months after everyone else, when one of their other roommates abruptly moved out and left an open room. That had made for an interesting time, and she still wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Obviously having him around all the time was awesome, but there was more to it than that and she didn’t know how to broach the topic, or if she even should to begin with. There were plenty of nights where he passed out on her floor after they spent hours discussing animals and workdays, and whether or not The Quibbler was utter garbage in the sort of stories they put out. Cordelia didn’t believe for a moment that things like female leprechauns or cupids actually existed, yet she was consistently put on jobs where she was supposed to ‘catch and photograph’ them. But seeing was believing, so the second she did happen across one of these mysterious and probably not real creatures, that would be it. Her editor was constantly prattling on about how muggles were the same way, and if only they knew what was lurking all around them. Aside from being ominous, she couldn’t exactly refute that at all.

Sitting at her desk around noon, the heavy perfumed air in her room was starting to signify that a mid-afternoon nap was probably necessary. Staring at printed photographs that had dried overnight in the attic-turned-darkroom above her was like pouring sand directly into her eyelids and letting them dry out. Heavy and blinking every couple of seconds to jolt herself awake, she knew she wasn’t getting anywhere with this work. Both looked exactly the same despite having spent an insane amount of time trying to burn an overexposed section to make it darker. It hadn’t mattered though, and she was pretty sure this photo was going to have to be presented as it was. Her door had been partially opened, though she heard the distinct creak of its hinges rubbing on one another before she actually saw it opening. With the way her room was situated, her desk was effectively behind the door, the corner acting as an improvised door stop. Too often it had a habit of catching a vacuum from other doors opening or closing in the house, causing it to slam shut frequently. Even though magic could fix any damage caused by it, she preferred to have it bounce off the side of her desk than all the way against the wall.

Eli was the one coming in, though doing more of a creep into the room than anything else. She had to lean back in her chair to see the mess of hair that preceded the rest of him, and he was saying that he brought tea. That was one way to wake up, she supposed. Unless it was chamomile, and then she was going to be out instantly. Cordelia took a cup from him before watching him fall onto her bed, which had been happening with a lot more frequency now that he had his own bed and was relegated to her floor anymore. “How m-many?” she asked about the crup litter, her words interrupting the attempt at drinking the tea. It had been a while since she had seen a crup, they obviously didn’t go hand in hand well with the cats that her mum always had.

As she was about to take a sip of the tea, Eli warned that it wasn’t that great, and she pulled it away from her lips again. It didn’t look off, and he was drinking it still. If it was any better, he’d probably be working at Honey’s Cat Café serving tea there, instead of at the reserve. Either way he’d be working with animals. “It can’t be that bad…” she muttered back, braving a sip. Her taste buds were met with something that tasted more like watered down milk than tea. She preferred hers strong, with almost next to nothing in it to alter the flavor of the leaves. That contradicted everything else about her so much that she was fine accepting any sort of tea, even this. Swallowing the rest of what was in her mouth, her nose scrunched up and her lips pursed at the aftertaste and she gently sent the teacup on her desk. “C-Could be better,” Cordelia admitted. There was a kettle in the kitchen that basically did everything on its own, and she could summon it to her room with a flick of her wand if need be. “It’s a bit…m-milky?”

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 1,017 ● The American Nightmare by Ice Nine Kills

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

june 27th 2026

THE TEA WAS SHIT. Even Eli couldn't deny it as he forced himself to swallow the milky, lukewarm concoction. Of course, Cordie was an absolute diamond about his obvious British shortcomings. He watched her throat convulse around her mouthful, his eyes crinkling at the corners warmly as she forced out a polite, complete bullshit reassurance. "It can- it is..." He peeled himself off the bed and crossed the room towards Cordie purposefully. He took the mug from her carefully and collapsed onto the ground in front of her desk, setting both their mugs to one side.

"Four," He said instead, stopping her from the agony of comforting him about the tea. "She had four pups." He was grinning up at her, not at all deterred by his awful brew skills. He hung onto his knees and rocked back and forth, hair flopping and eyes still bloodshot from his uneasy, unfulfilling sleep. "I was thinking..." He tutted thoughtfully, averting his gaze to the photographs Cordie had sprawled across her desk, the smell of developer still clinging to the corners in such an oddly comforting manner. "Maybe you could name one?" He scrunched his nose, tilted his head with a shy and hopeful shrug.

Rolling onto his knees, Eli sidled up close to the back of Cordie's chair all at once. For some reason that was beyond him, Eli couldn't look her in the face sometimes. It was like it was painful, knotting up his lungs in a way that wasn't actually painful at all. "What're you working on?" He asked in a hushed whisper, as if they were sharing a secret. He gripped the back of her desk chair, propping his chin on the edge of her shoulder comfortably so that he could look at the artistic shots. "Any Bigfoot sightings?" He joked, lifting his brows and turning slightly to catch just a glimpse of her profile. His chin shifting against her shoulder as he spoke. 

cordelia regan smith

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[cordelia regan smith]

▲

Trying to crack a smile about the fact that four adorable crup pups had been born while her body was being subjected to the milky tea hell. Honestly, calling it tea was an extremely high offense, and had there been criminal charges on the incorrect way to prepare it, Eli would have been shackled and dragged away to a gulag. He seemed to be in agreement that it was horrible, and Cordelia wished he had merely mentioned that before she’d swallowed some of it. Even if he had been a few milliseconds faster, she could have gently let the ‘tea’ back out into the cup discreetly and played it off as if she had tasted some of it. Not that off-tea was going to ruin the rest of her day, but she could already tell it was going to take something extremely strong or potent to overwrite the milk-tea abomination that had viciously overwritten her taste buds.

She had just enough time to whip her wand in the direction of the kitchen (where the charmed and superior tea kettle was) as Eli launched into asking her to name one of the pups. If they were going to be drinking tea while discussing such important matters, it was going to be on her terms and with something much, much stronger. “Are y-you sure?” she asked quickly while turning her head to glance out her doorway to see if the kettle and its associated paraphernalia were floating their way yet. Nothing. “I-I’m not really good with names…” Her own cat, Pyro, was named because he looked like a burst of flame as he bounced off everything in his path. Short for Pyromaniac, of course. “That’s such a large responsibility, d-don’t you think?” A silly name for a crup pup that could end up not being anything like its title would be such an awful thing. She would at least have to meet the litter and get to know them all a bit before determining such a thing!

“Trying to see if I burned the print enough…” Cordelia responded slowly and carefully, surprising herself that she got through so many words without any revisions. Sliding both prints across her desk so that they could be properly viewed by Eli, she shrugged. It was possible, and this happened quite a bit with her, that she had simply stared at each print long enough that her brain fixed the problem with the lesser version and made it seem like they were the same thing. “This part,” she leaned in closer to point out the area that was overexposed. “I can’t see the differences anymore. I wish it was B-Bigfoot.” Though wishing on something like that meant fate would find it funny if her editor sent her on another wild goose chase trying to locate the creature. Most likely in the Tube or somewhere equally preposterous.

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 480 ● Satan Prayer by Ghost

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

june 27th 2026

THE THOUGHT HAD OCCURRED TO ELI BEFORE the first crup had even taken a breath. He'd thought, watching over the panting mother with a kind hand and plenty of patient encouragement, that Cordie would probably have loved it. And he'd thought as the first golden haired crup was pushed free that she'd maybe like to name them. It was first come, first serve, after all. He'd report to his researcher that night with a parchment of names and a collection of data observed from mother and cruppies.

Of course, Eli expected her insecurity. The softness of her face as she asked how sure he was. Eli snorted, rubbing at his nose restlessly as he let her stew and stress for a grace period before he nodded lazily. "I wouldn't have asked if I wasn't sure." Absently, he heard the kettle begin brewing somewhere down the hall. Cordie's discreet wand movement doing nothing for his sleepy ego. He was almost thankful, having abandoned his mug of terrible tea by the leg of her desk chair as he rolled onto his knees and draped himself over her shoulder like a well worn scarf. "It doesn't have to be a good name." He reached up to poke her side teasingly as he peered over her shoulder. "It just has to be named by you." He grinned happily, practically preening. "Then you can come visit him and see how big he grows." He tugged on a lock of her curly blonde hair. "Has hair like you, kind of curly and gold."

Turning into her shoulder slightly, he slung an easy arm over her other side in a lanky sort of embrace as he rocked her with him in an attempt of reassurance. "It's really not that deep, Cord." He whispered into her cheek, his voice still rough with sleep and refrained laughter. She took everything so seriously, and it was something Eli had grown incredibly fond of. But, it also meant that even the smallest of decisions felt monumental. It's why he hadn't bloody well kissed her yet, the idea of her mechanical brain whirring itself into a frenzy leaving him feeling guilty before he even tried. "It's just a name."

Facing back towards her desk, Eli rubbed his chin against her shoulder in some kind of odd, animal pat of comfort. He let the subject drop for the moment, turning his attention to her images instead. She'd pick it apart in her own mind and come back to him when she was ready. Plus, Eli loved photography. He hadn't Cordie's professional, creative eye, nor her discipline, but he'd adored it. The way she captured the unbelievable in such a stark manner that it made it real. He could look at her pictures all day. He plucked the photo up when she pointed at the slight overexposure. Eli wasn't good with the technicalities, but he knew one thing. "It looks good," He told her with a stern face. His other arm still looped around her, he raised up behind her chair and hunched to rest his chin on her head this time.

Making a big fuss of turning the image this way and that in the light, flapping it in front of her face annoyingly. "It adds character... movement." He raised up to stand straight as a host of tea paraphernalia flew into the room all at once, arranging itself atop Cordie's desk as instructed. Eli cradled the image in his hands and huffed in amazement. "You're still the best charmer this side of the Atlantic, huh?" He patted her on the head with her own photograph. She was very competent at just about everything. It was kind of hot. "Show off..." 

cordelia regan smith

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!

[cordelia regan smith]

▲

Merlin, naming animals was a big responsibility! Eli probably didn’t think much of it because he was around them daily, but to her it was sort of important. She liked knowing what their personality was first, and then going from there. Arbitrarily tossing around names without a clue could lead to a crup pup with the name Peter, when he was really more of a Sir Pawcett of Puppington. Even with Eli telling her that it didn’t have to be a good name, she couldn’t just will something into her head like that. There had to be a reason first. The comparison in the pup’s looks to her own tangled mane was sort of funny, causing her to crack a smile. He tried to reassure her again that ‘it was just a name’, putting an arm over her shoulders as he did so. It didn’t matter what he tried to pull now, that crup wasn’t getting a name until she met it first. Because only then would she be able to come up with a name worthy of it.

Eli was right: the photo, both versions really, looked great. But her brain wouldn’t allow for those sorts of things. It had to be one or the other, even though their minute differences were only discernable by those that actually understood photography. Once it went into print, no one would ever actually notice the overexposed bit. They’d probably just think it was part of the glossiness of the magazine or a printing error on part of the Quibbler. She wanted to add on to Eli’s comment about the movement in the picture, but was interrupted by the tea kettle arriving in her room. “It’s a s-simple spell…” She’d mastered it years ago, having started by learning the inner workings of a regular, mundane kettle. This specific one was charmed to do all sorts of things, meaning all it needed was a wand wave to activate it. Muggles had things like that too, except they couldn’t levitate over or self-pour.

Watching to make sure her cup was poured perfectly and to her tastes, she picked it up gently. “T-Tell it how y-you want it,” she explained, unsure if Eli had ever used this kettle before. As she brought the cup up to her lips, she blew on it gently, the steam telling her it was still a minute away of being the right temperature for her. That was the nice part about this kettle, after all. Fixing it to her specific needs had been amazing. “I-I’ll name it,” she said after a moment. “B-But I w-want to meet first.”

Elijah Theron Fleming ● 437 ● From the Pinnacle to the Pit by Ghost

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Elijah Theron Fleming]

only dust settles.

june 27th 2026

CORDIE WAS AS SERIOUS AS A NEWT AT TIMES. Luckily for Eli's sanity, he found it completely endearing. The crease in her brow very stern as she seemed almost lost in thought. Even as Eli prodded at her incessantly to chose the crups name before it was too late. He found wells upon wells of patience for Cordie. Unmoved by his proximity to her, but absolutely bowled over by the prospect of poorly naming a crup she'd never even seen.

As he watched the silver platter deliver a polished kettle full of steaming tea, Eli placed the photo down carefully. He stuck both hands into his pockets and grinned, completely starstruck by Cordie's charm work as he always was. "Every spell is a simple spell to you," He told her plainly, watching as the teacups tinkled happily beside a little pot of sugar cubes and a small jug of milk. It was almost picturesque. It seemed to know Cordie's preferred combinations by memory, pouring a perfectly golden cup of tea that she plucked from the platter carefully.

"Uh..." Eli flicked his gaze from Cordie's encouraging stare, and the floating tea kettle. He couldn't help his mad little laugh at the ease of it all. It was charm work he could not even dream of. "Two sugar, splash of milk..." He asked the kettle, bending down at the waist as if to whisper in its non-existent ear. "Please." He added with a little nod of his head, looking at Cordie for confirmation as the kettle tipped a perfect amount into the neighbouring teacup. He hesitated a moment before picking it up for a cautionary taste.

They sipped their perfect mugs of tea in relative silence. Eli trying to decide if he could taste the magic like he could taste full fat milk. "Thanks," He muttered after a moment, unsure if he was thanking the kettle or Cordie as he warmed his hands happily. His eyes heavy with tiredness and contentment. Cordie was quiet a little longer, seemingly happy to sip her perfected tea without interruption. Alas, as it happened she was simply thinking. Eli lifted his head abruptly as she spoke, blinking as the compromise settled in his ears. "Oh!" He laughed, shaking his shaggy head like a dog. "Cordie, you can have whatever you want." He said with complete confidence, reaching over to knock his teacup against hers like a toast. "Tonight, you're mine." He grinned at her mischievously.

[END ELI]

cordelia regan smith

NEVERLAND at ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0!