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last online May 10, 2024 8:31:21 GMT -7
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Mar 5, 2017 11:46:36 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2017 11:46:36 GMT -7
Xan couldn’t deny it when Winnie said that there was still so much of the world to explore. But someone could live for a hundred lifetimes and still not be able to explore the entire world – Xan didn’t mind having some things left unseen, because that was just a part of life. “Yes, and you’ll be able to explore it all even if I’m gone.” Xan reminded Winnie. Watching her siblings have adventures from up above would be just as good as having them herself, wouldn’t it? Xan wasn’t sure if that would ever come to pass, but it would be a good enough substitute for Xan if that was what had to happen.
Winnie changed the subject, saying that there were loads of hidden passageways around the castle that they didn’t know about. “Yes, that was implied in the word hidden.” Xan said, placing down another chocolate. This wasn’t getting any better, but she didn’t know how to stop being angry. She wished that Hugo was there. “We can go looking when I can walk reliably.” Xan sniffed. She didn’t want to promise a timeline that she couldn’t adhere to.
@winifred
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last online May 10, 2024 8:31:21 GMT -7
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Mar 23, 2017 22:42:30 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2017 22:42:30 GMT -7
“Yes, and you’ll be able to explore it all even if I’m gone.”
“But it won't be as fun without you,” Winnie protested. That wasn't to say that Isaac didn't know how to make things fun, too, but there was something special about being able to giggle about adventures—ill-advised though they might have been, on occasion—with her sister.
That was true, too, of all of the hidden things within the walls of the very castle in which they had spent so many hours of their lives. Xanthippe made a remark about how their not knowing about the passages had been implied along with the word “hidden”, but Winnie was so excited by the thought of it—and nowhere near the Ravenclaw that her sister was to try to pick it apart—that she wasn't bothered.
“We can go looking when I can walk reliably.”
Winnie nodded. Waiting was safer, and it was better to stay positive. She wasn't going to tell Xanthippe that she considered levitating her around as an option, if walking was off the table. If Xan didn't regain her strength to that extent, there must have been a workaround.
“We can find somewhere special,” she suggested eagerly as she dived back into the construction of the gingerbread house. “Somewhere that can be ‘our’ place. And we can bring Zac, and…” The centuries of students who had come before them didn't matter.
@xanthippe
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last online May 10, 2024 8:31:21 GMT -7
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Mar 24, 2017 11:23:10 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2017 11:23:10 GMT -7
Xan let out a small sigh. She was already having a hard enough time with all of this without the guilt of leaving her siblings behind plaguing her too. She was sure that that wasn’t Winnie’s intention in saying that everything wouldn’t be as fun without Xan, but still, that was the way that it felt. “Winnie…” Xan said quietly. “You’re going to need to start doing things on your own.” It was almost certain that Xan was going to have to repeat her sixth year, which meant that when Winnie and Zac graduated, they were going to be doing so without her. The trio was going to be split up no matter what they did after Hogwarts. Xan almost felt bad for Zac, having to deal with Winnie on his own when Xan was still in Hogwarts.
“Any place can be as special as you make it.” Xan said with a shrug. The classroom a few doors down was special for her, because that was where Hugo had taken her. It wasn’t the place itself that was important, but the memories within that place. “Winnie, you can have a special place with someone else.” Xan said. She didn’t want to push her sister too far away, but if it was permission to have other friends that Winnie was looking for, then Xan was more than happy to get it. Her sister needed a chance at life, even without the Ravenclaw there.
@winifred
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last online May 10, 2024 8:31:21 GMT -7
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Mar 24, 2017 12:02:28 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2017 12:02:28 GMT -7
At Xanthippe's sigh, Winnie looked up. “Winnie…”
“What?” she asked softly. She didn't think that she had done anything wrong.
“You’re going to need to start doing things on your own.”
It wasn't new, hearing that. She had heard it before, although usually from adults and not from her siblings. Every time it came up, she didn't see what the problem was. “Why?” she questioned, genuinely confused. Why did she need to do things alone, like other people did. They were triplets; they were a built-in party of three. “Even when you're gone, Xan,” she said, “I'll have Zac.” It wouldn't be the same, necessarily, but two-thirds of their three was better than one, especially when Winnie knew that Xanthippe's absence wouldn't be intentional. She hadn't chosen to be ill.
“Any place can be as special as you make it.” Except for the Hospital Wing, thought Winnie, which would never be “special” to her. It was different because Xan was there, but that didn't make it “special”. There was nothing “special” about having her co-triplet stuck there. “Winnie, you can have a special place with someone else.”
It took everything in Winnie to keep from crying. Xanthippe didn't understand. Her own sister didn't understand, and it hurt. She shook her head. “But I don't want one with someone else,” she tried to tell her. “Not when I can have one with you and Zac.” That was the way things had always been, and she didn't want them to change now. “Don't worry, Xan,” she smiled. “I can't replace you. I won't.”
@xanthippe
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last online May 10, 2024 8:31:21 GMT -7
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Mar 24, 2017 12:19:41 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2017 12:19:41 GMT -7
Xan wished that she could climb inside Winnie’s head so that she could make this whole thing click. Everyone seemed to understand that you need a life beyond your family except for Winnie. “And what if Zac gets sick? What happens then?” Xan asked, knowing she was being harsher than she needed to in order to get her point across. “We can’t promise you that we’re always going to be here. And we don’t want you to get burned by your own inability to look beyond us!” Because then there would just be bitterness. And Xan didn’t want that.
“You can have more than one special place, Winnie!” Xan said, anger and exasperation starting to creep into her voice. “You can have more than one adventure, and you can have more than one friend! Just because you choose to spend time with someone else doesn’t meant that you love me or Zac any less. And we know that!” Xan wished that they were someplace other than the hospital wing, so that she could leave her sister to think about what she had said. But now the only way they were able to separate would be if Winnie left, and if Winnie left, she was going to do so in tears. Great. Xan sat, stock-still, on the bed for a moment before returning to their gingerbread house in silence.
@winifred
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last online May 10, 2024 8:31:21 GMT -7
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Mar 24, 2017 13:03:29 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2017 13:03:29 GMT -7
“And what if Zac gets sick? What happens then?”
“He can't,” Winnie announced, wondering if one of the treatments the nurses had been using had gone straight to her sister's head. Zac couldn't, and how dare Xanthippe suggest such a thing! “I won't let him.” It wasn't unreasonable to her. One sibling who had gone through everything that Xan had was enough. If there was a way, she would have taken all of it.
“We can’t promise you that we’re always going to be here. And we don’t want you to get burned by your own inability to look beyond us!”
Winnie hesitated, shocked by Xanthippe's tone. “What do you mean?” What inability to what? “I don't need anyone else.” It wasn't as though she spoke only to her brother and sister. There were other people—her roommates, for instance. She talked to them. But, if Xanthippe thought that she could replicate the same closeness that sharing a womb and sixteen years of life outside of it had created with someone else, she was wrong.
Xan told her that she could have more than one special place. That would make it less special, she thought, but she supposed that they could have multiple special places… just in case someone took one of them by accident. “You can have more than one adventure, and you can have more than one friend! Just because you choose to spend time with someone else doesn’t meant that you love me or Zac any less. And we know that!”
“But I choose to spend time with you and Zac…” she tried to explain, shaking her head. “Like now.” Her siblings might have been her siblings, but they were also her friends.
@xanthippe
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last online May 10, 2024 8:31:21 GMT -7
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Mar 25, 2017 13:40:52 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2017 13:40:52 GMT -7
This was frustrating. This was frustrating, because Winnie just didn’t get it, and there was nothing Xan could do to make her understand. She wished that Hugo was there – he knew how to explain things better than her, especially when Xan got to the point where emotions superseded logic. “You do need other people.” Xan sad with a sigh. “You just don’t realize it yet.” She was sick of trying to prove that to Winnie, though, and all in all sick of this conversation. Xan swung her feet back around to be on her bed, and laid her head back on the pillow. “I don’t feel well, Winnie.” Xan said, blinking up at the hospital wing’s ceiling. She hated having to lie to her sister, but she would have hated it even more if she lost her temper even more than she already did. “You can finish the gingerbread house by yourself.” Xan added in a whisper, closing her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at her sister’s disappointed face.
@winifred
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last online May 10, 2024 8:31:21 GMT -7
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Mar 30, 2017 19:51:49 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2017 19:51:49 GMT -7
Xanthippe told her that she needed other people, and—sure—maybe she still needed their parents on occasion and her professors to teach her about their subjects, but she didn't need anyone like she needed her siblings. And, as difficult as it still was for Winnie to hear Xanthippe say that she wasn't feeling well enough to continue with their project, she had to accept it.
“Oh, okay,” Winnie said, watching her sister move to lie back down. She didn't want to sound too crushed, for Xanthippe's sake. She knew that her sister couldn't help it that she wasn't well, though she knew that the gingerbread house-making must have been too much for her, after all. “That's alright. I'll finish it and bring it back as decoration for you,” she promised, beginning to move everything out of Xanthippe's way so that she could get her rest.
Once she had gathered everything back up—bags of sweets hanging from her arms to leave her hands free to carry the gingerbread house still under construction—she looked to Xanthippe again. “I love you.”
@xanthippe OOC: One more or finish here?
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