Mañana Será Bonito (Shiloh)

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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Visiting one of the dragon reserves sounded exhilarating. Being so close to dragons who, apparently, were rather tame when they had space to themselves, still made her a bit nervous but in the fun kind of way. ”My brother actually works at the rescue center now…I bet if I ask him he’ll let me know when they get another one in.” Eli had been weirdly evasive lately. With everything that had happened at the start of the month, how could she blame him? But she’d been asking since the Christmas holidays if she could visit his apartment, and he hadn’t gotten back to her on it yet. Now, it was going to have to wait until the summer to happen. Which was whatever. Getting him to share details on dragon eggs was probably going to be an easier task, if she was being completely honest. Meeting him on his level about his interests always seemed to work out in her favor.

”We can’t be good at everything,” Shiloh agreed. Though there were definitely overachievers like that. Sometimes it felt like Temp was. Only when she was being an ‘adult’ and acting as such, and not as her older sister. ”Umm…but yeah, that’s life I guess.” And while it could be unbelievably cruel at times, she had learned very quickly over this last month that trying to control it for herself wasn’t going to work at all. That only made everything worse.

”The Wit-Sharpening potion, right?” Shiloh started to get back on topic. They had lost track when the notebook came out and Reina asked about the pen colors. She still found it funny how some reacted to that. ”Like I said before, I break down in my notes with different colors, the steps, ingredients, and anything important. So like right here,” Shiloh pointed to the fourth step where the Armadillo Bile was remixed and the liquid went from red to yellow. ”Because it’s not supposed to turn green at all, I wrote that instruction in green.” The visual of it made everything easier.

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[reina watanabe nakamura]

March 20, 2028

Shiloh mentioned that her brother worked at the rescue center in Hogsmeade, and she might be able to find out from him when they had a dragon in. "Perfect." Reina smiled. She already had an "in" there, then.

Her advice on how no one was good at everything was also sound. It wasn't the first time Reina had heard that sentiment, but it helped that it was from someone her age and not someone significantly older who thought that they were imparting some wisdom on a younger person.

Back to Potions, though it was more enjoyable for Reina to chat about other subjects, Shiloh continued where she had left off. "Like I said before, I break down in my notes with different colors, the steps, ingredients, and anything important. So like right here"—she indicated a part of her notes—"because it’s not supposed to turn green at all, I wrote that instruction in green."

Because it's not…? That sounded to Reina like Shiloh had it backwards, but she guessed that was why they were her notes; the whole point was to jog her memory. To Reina, it made more sense to color-code everything based on the color the potion was supposed to be at each step. That way, she would have a quick visual reference for if she were doing it right.

"Okay," Reina said after looking over the part of Shiloh's notes on the armadillo bile. "Wait…" She wanted to make sure she was reading what Shiloh had written correctly, now that she was actually paying attention to it. "…You don't want it to turn dark green? But then you add more of the ginger root to make it lime green?" If it were up to her, she would have just put all of the ginger root in at once and then all of the armadillo bile. That was practically the same thing, wasn't it?

shiloh elspeth fleming

[shiloh elspeth fleming]

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Shiloh knew that her own notes could be confusing to anyone other than herself. She’d seen the way some of her other classmates stared at her as she wrote everything down and then copied it again with her colored pens. But these were her notes after all. The most she could do for Reina was explain her methodology and how it helped with her learning and studying and hope that the other girl took some of it with her. Everyone learned differently though, but Shiloh stood by the fact that having at least the steps and liquids in color helped immensely.

”That’s right!” she answered maybe a bit too cheerfully. ”Probably shouldn’t have that line colored in that way, but I kept getting the shade of green wrong and ended up adding it into my notes as a warning.” This was one of those times where she broke her own notetaking rule and put it in. Similarly, if a potion mixed incorrectly a certain way was sure to kill her if she drank it, she made sure she littered the page with skulls as a warning. Those ones were always fun to brew. ”But whatever works for you, right? Because even though this helps me, it might not be the right fit for you.”

The real problem with Potions was how particular everything was. She agreed with most on how silly it was that there were very specific amounts of ingredients needed and cautious cauldron stirring. If someone could just make a machine to do all of it, like how no-maj had blenders, then life would be so much easier. And that was coming from someone who enjoyed potion making!

reina watanabe nakamura ● 280

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