Take me to a different view [Cordelia]

[Deleted]

Adonia had found her new calling in life.

No, not really, but she was incredibly fascinated watching this fire eater! She was sure that she could do that, and be great at it, with just a little training. She may be brave and reckless but she wasn't stupid. She knew that some things required extensive training so that you didn't burn your perfectly good mouth. And she did have a perfectly good mouth, one she rather liked using, so she wouldn't want to ruin it by being stupid. Still, it was amazing and she was now determined that she would learn how to do it.

Once the fire eater started bowing, Adonia applauded wildly, her eyes scanning the crowd for someone to gush to about how cool that was. Her eyes caught on a girl up ahead with curly hair and a camera... a beautiful specimen, really, looking a little innocent but smart. Adonia always trusted her gut, and her gut said this was the girl to chat with in this moment.

She moved through the crowd, only a few people over, to stand beside the girl, turning her attention to the fire eater, who was still bowing, and continuing to clap. She leaned over toward the girl, "what an amazing act, right?" she asked casually, engaging her in conversation hopefully.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@adonia

There was something extremely compelling about the fact that there was now a carnival being held. Cordelia had heard that it had to do with the tournament, though the actual reason didn’t exactly matter to her. It was happening, and she was there. Mostly because she wanted to take pictures of something other than the castle and flowers for once. She knew that there would be large crowds, but that happened during the tournament tasks as well, so there was nothing new there. The pretense of being able to fill a few rolls of film up was enough to get her moving and outside, camera in hand, and a bag full of film just in case she went a little crazy. Truth was, she was going to go overboard regardless. Carnivals didn’t happen often, and this was one she felt she could get into.

The majority of her time was initially spent snapping away at the different people and games. It certainly drew an odd bunch, and the workers were of the sort of crowd she had never seen before. There were muggle carnivals on occasion back home that she tried to get out to take pictures, and the same could be said about them as well. The one thing she did have to say about it all: muggle films did a poor job of showing these people in the right light. The fire eater that Cordelia was currently perched in front of was definitely one of the more interesting ones she had come across so far. There had to be some kind of technique they were using to swallow the fire, because it certainly wasn’t normal fire. As the fire eater finished the act and bowed, Cordelia finished up her remaining shots and prepared to move onto the next thing. From somewhere in the crowd, a girl appeared and approached the Hufflepuff. “Y-Yeah…” she responded awkwardly, unsure if a more creative word was really necessary or would be wasted coming from her. Her input wasn’t exactly the best at times. “I-I-I’ve n-never s-seen that be-before.”

[Deleted]

The girls sweet and timid response made Adonia want to pinch her cheeks and 'ooh, how cute!' her. She. Was. Adorable! Such a gentle little soul. And Adonia was happy to get involved with people like that. They needed her the most, more often than not. "Me neither! I think I could do it," she said proudly. She really did, too! Adonia had a strong belief that you can make yourself capable of anything you want to be capable of. With the proper training, and sometimes even improper, you could be anything you want to be. And Adonia was dead set on learning how to eat fire.

"How do you think they do it? Maybe they swallow some kind of fire protection potion... But muggles do it too. Any ideas?" she inquired of the girl. The best way to get unsure people to talk was to ask them questions, not necessarily hard ones though. Just about their opinions and thoughts. That was easier for people to respond to, because they could just answer honestly. Adonia found that people were the most interesting when being honest, too, so it was a win-win scenario.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@adonia

This girl thought she could eat fire too? Cordelia kind of wanted to see that attempt in the future. While it would give her ample time to take more pictures of the process, any injuries could be fixed up by her. Was it bad to think that way? Any kind of real life practice would only help solidify her reasoning for becoming a healer after graduation. Saying that she had fixed some girl’s scorched throat after trying to swallow fire was way more impressive than fixing scrapes and broken fingers. Considering her social awkwardness, anything to throw on the resume was better than nothing. “I-I c-couldn’t,” Cordelia frowned. The crowd was dispersing now, though it wouldn’t be long before another performer arrived to do their thing.

Upon being asked if she had any idea on how they did it, Cordelia pondered the question. The other girl had brought up a fire-protection potion, which might have been able to do it, but she wasn’t sure if it was just that. “Th-There are c-cold flame sp-spells r-right? P-Probably one of th-those…” Though if she were to be honest, it was probably a combination of things. The man they had just watched was easily a professional at it, so any combination of muggle techniques with the added benefit of magic was possible. “W-Wish he had d-done s-something m-m-more with it. L-Like a d-dragon…”

[Deleted]

The girl said that she couldn't do it, which Adonia was kind of expecting. Upon her mentioning the 'cold flame' spells, Adonia's jaw dropped, nodding in agreement. Then the stuttering girl mentioned her wish with a dragon, and Adonia laughed. "Well, cold flames is rather brilliant. I think you've figured out how I'm going to start practicing," she joked. "As for the dragon thought... do you mean you wish the fire made the shape of a dragon or the man was more like a dragon in his use of the flames?" she asked, actually not sure exactly what this girl was getting at.

As the crowd dispersed, Adonia gently reached over to touch the girls elbow. "I could use a little company, if you want to walk a bit with me?" she asked, her smile soft and an eyebrow slightly raised in question. "I'm Doni, by the way." She thought her nickname would work better with this girl for some reason, so that was how she decided to introduce herself.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@adonia

Cold flames was brilliant. It was an easy solution to a possibly dangerous trick. In an event like this, she kind of hoped that the performers would be using safe spells to do their shtick. But these were also performers, and doing the best trick possible was also part of their job. The more dangerous it was, the more the crowd would be enthralled by it. She could see both sides. Then there was the question about the dragon. Cordelia pondered it for a second. She had meant breathing fire that turned into a dragon, though the other one would be just as cool. “Sh-Shape of a d-dragon,” she affirmed. It couldn’t be that much harder to do that than it was for normal fire. At least she didn’t think it could. Mastering the whole fire breathing part was the hardest, easily.

The Hufflepuff figured that their conversation was going to end there, since the crowd was leaving and there was going to be a period of time before the next performer arrived. She certainly wasn’t going to sit around until then, especially when she could run off and take pictures elsewhere before returning. Before she had the chance to say goodbye, which was completely her own fault for not knowing how to interact properly with people, the other girl got Cordelia’s attention by tapping her, and then asking if she wanted to tag along. Cordelia didn’t respond right away, instead deciding to hear her out. If all she wanted to do was walk around, then that wasn’t all that bad. When it came time to leave, Cordelia knew she would have no problem just saying so and heading back to the castle. “S-Sure I-I g-guess,” she nodded slightly, fiddling with some of the buttons on her camera as she did so. “C-Cordelia,” she responded, as the girl introduced herself as Doni. That was definitely a different sounding name. “Soooo…wh-where first?”

[Deleted]

The girl said she meant the shape of a dragon and Adonia grinned, nodding. "What a great idea! Maybe another one of the team does it and we just got the lame one," she giggled, nudging the girl with her elbow as if that was now some hilarious inside joke of theirs. Really, these guys were magic, so really anything was possible. Adonia didn't know why they didn't take advantage of that... though, she didn't understand the magic wither.

The girl agreed to walk with her after a moment and Adonia smiled sweetly. "Cordelia," she said with a nod. Cordelia has where they would go first and Adonia looked around the carnival with her brow furrowed and lips pursed to the side. "Ooh! What do you think about Hippogriff rides? Have you done that yet?" she suggested. Maybe this girl was too nervous about the creatures...

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@adonia

The lame one. Cordelia wasn’t sure she would call the fire breather lame because he hadn’t shot the flames out in the shape of a dragon. That was simply her wish that he had done that. Then again, Doni could also be right; maybe there were more advanced ones that could do different tricks. At the end of the day, being able to do that level of magic was impressive. Cordelia knew that she would never be able to pull it off, in the fear that she would end up scorching herself. She already had issues talking as it was. Burning her throat or vocal cords was something the Hufflepuff didn’t need in her life right now.

The other girl nudged Cordelia and then asked what she thought about Hippogriff rides. They had those here? Like a mechanical muggle ride right? Real ones seemed dangerous to her. From what she recalled about Hippogriffs, they required a certain level of respect commanded towards them. There was no way a prideful creature like that would trust a nervous wreck like her. It would see right through her. And nothing against the Doni girl, but she seemed like she had a lot of energy. Tuning that down to ride a Hippogriff sounded like it would be next to impossible. Still… “I-I hav-haven’t,” she answered after thinking about it for a few seconds. “Are they r-real ones?” Her concerns were still about whether or not they would be riding living, breathing creatures. “I l-like c-calmer animals. L-Like…” she trailed off, not wanting to get into that one. The second she started to say that she liked llamas, the more she started to stutter. There was clearly a higher being that thought it would be funny to make her like the animal that was the hardest for her to say.

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Doni cocked her head to the side as Cordelia said she hadn't done the rides, and asked if they were real ones. "I think they are," she said. Everything the event advertised made it look like they had the real creatures to ride. Cordelia said she liked calmer animals, but paused upon naming any. "Pigmy Puff?' She wasn't actually sure if those counted... But she had seen some and they were cute! "Or perhaps a more docile cat? Sometimes they can be rather hyperactive and mean," she chuckled. She felt like she rather affiliated with those cats. "But some cats can be nice. Ooh, maybe a mooncalf!" Cordelia had managed to send her on a small tangent now, but she seemed to land on the thought of the cute little calfs. She waited for Cordelia to respond now, knowing she could be a steamroller if she didn't pause.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@adonia

Doni’s answer didn’t really help at all. Cordelia supposed that if the rides were with real Hippogriffs, then there would be special precautions taken in order to prevent anyone from getting hurt. Still, there was the possibility that it wouldn’t like her at all and wouldn’t let her ride. Doing that in front of a queue waiting for a turn would be embarrassing. It might mean getting away unscathed, but having a crowd laugh at her for something she couldn’t control? That’s what her nightmares were made of. Willingly putting herself in that situation was going to be difficult.

When she mentioned that she liked calmer animals, the other girl finished her sentence. What should have been llamas was instead pigmy puffs. “Th-That’s too c-calm. I-I’m afraid I w-would f-forget about it.” The second option was a cat, and she nodded her head at that one. She already had an orange tabby cat back in the dorm rooms. He was a fiery one, which was why she had named him Pyro. “M-My cat has a l-lot of energy.” Cordelia felt obligated to point that out for some reason. “Th-Though only when I-I p-practice l-l-levitation spells.” He liked jumping around and trying to catch the things she floated. It was cute, and it got him to chill out at night. The last thing she needed was her roommates being woken up by him bouncing around the dorm like a wild animal.

She cocked her head to the side at the mention of the mooncalf. The name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t put an image to it. “I d-don’t think I kn-know what that is…” If it had been taught in Care of Magical Creatures, then she either hadn’t been paying attention or been thinking of different things. “I l-like l-l-llamas though.”

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Adonia laughed as the girl said she was afraid she would forget about a Puff because they were too calm. Then she mentioned a cat and Adonia clapped her hands together with glee. "Oh! Cats are great. What's its name?" she asked excitedly. She wasn't surprised that the cat was into levitation spells. That really just meant it was like any other cat, interested in swatting at thing a dangling above them. Unless the girl was actually levitating the cat itself... That thought made Adonia chuckle under her breath.

She then said that she didn't know what a mooncalf was and that she liked llamas. "Mooncalfs can be a similar temperament to llamas I think... They just like to hang out and eat," she explained. "Do you know a lot of llamas, then?" she inquired, steering Cordelia away from he Hippogriff rides for now. Surely they could find something else to do... Something fun but maybe a little challenging, less challenging than Hippogriffs though.

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@adonia

Cordelia tried her best to smile as Doni laughed. She wasn’t exactly sure what was funny about anything that she had said, but apparently the Durmstrang girl found it that way. The talking point was her cat now, though. Which was a little easier to converse about than Pygmy Puffs, which the Hufflepuff had never handled before. She would stand by her opinion though; they were difficult to remember, being so small and calm. “P-Pyro…” Cordelia said quietly. “B-Because he’s an orange t-tabby,” she added a few seconds later, because it seemed like it was necessary to understand. She remembered first year when some of the other kids had laughed at the cat’s name. They didn’t understand that the orange tabby was named that for a reason. He quite literally bounced off the walls in a fiery flash. They didn’t laugh after they understood. Anyone that happened to gain her cat’s affection was a good person in her opinion. He was hard to handle at times, but keeping him calm meant that they were the kind of people to take their time with listening to her stutter through conversations. It sounded silly, but Cordelia had yet to see anything different.

The other girl explained that mooncalves were similar to llamas. That made sense. They were grazing animals then. Llamas had other purposes as well, though the ones that liked to sit in fields and eat all day were her favorites. They didn’t really care about anything else going on around them, and that meant she could sit and watch them all day. Cordelia shook her head as Doni asked if she knew any llamas. If only! “D-Do you?” That sounded like a stupid question, but sometimes people had them for pets. She wasn’t sure how popular they were with the Durmstrang students, being mostly from colder climates.

[Deleted]

"Pyro! I bet when he runs really fast he looks like a flame, with that coloring?" Adonia guessed. It was actually a really clever name. Adonia would just name things the first thing that came to her head, really. That was usually the name of some character from Shakespeare. Cordelia shook her head as Adonia asked her if she knew many llamas, and Cordelia returned the question. "Nope. I don't think I've ever actually seen one in person," then she laughed, "or rather, in llama! Come on," she stepped beside Cordelia and linked her elbow through the girls and gently started pulling her along. "I'm thinking that we should do the chocolate frog race. It's right over there," she said, continuing to pull the girl along.

Cordelia seemed like she nodded someone to hold her hand through the wonders of the carnival. And while Adonia wouldn't be free the entire time, she was sure going to make a small dent in the girl having some fun while she was around. The chocolate frog racing was pretty easy and fun to watch, since the whole chocolate frog magic was pretty amazing in and of itself. It was also slightly horrifying, but Adonia tried not to worry about that... that made things too complicated!

cordelia regan smith

[cordelia regan smith]

@adonia

The mental image Doni planted inside her head was hilarious. Pyro did kind of look like a flame when he was running. Though Cordelia had initially named him because of his fiery energy and ability to blow up whenever he felt like it. Explosive and pyrotechnics, more than fire. “Y-Yeah ki-kinda. He r-runs a l-lot too,” she nodded her head. If only there was a way to get him to chill out. She had tried a multitude of things, and the easiest was floating objects in the air above him. The only problem with that was maintaining a constant float while also trying to complete other work. Multitasking was definitely a skill, but trying to keep an eye on more than two things was difficult, even for her. And watching Pyro bounce off all the walls 24/7 was hard enough as it was. She imagined it was similar to taking care of a child, except one that didn’t stop moving no matter what. Exhausting was another word for it.

Cordelia frowned a little when the other girl said that she had never seen a llama in person. They were kind of great. Not seeing one was actually a bit of a disappointment. Begging to go to petting zoos was one of her favorite things to do when she was younger. Now she could get up and go whenever she wanted while at home. Of course, finding a field with one in it was even better, because that was a new llama she had never met before. Most people liked petting dogs they passed by, or scratching cats. Cordelia liked staring at llamas in fields.

Doni reached out and hooked her arm through Cordelia’s before the Hufflepuff could even react. Off they went, apparently to do the chocolate frog racing game. She was pretty sure that she had snapped a few pictures of that earlier in the day, though going back for a second look was always good. Sometimes she’d notice little details that escaped her the first time. That and chocolate frogs were fun to watch hop around. The charms on them were absolutely delightful, and figuring them out was one of her goals in life. “H-Have y-you ever p-played it b-before?” Cordelia asked as they arrived at the stand.

[Deleted]

Cordelia mentioned that her cat ran a lot, and Adonia nodded, mocking a solemn nature. "As do I, Cordelia. As do I."She smirked. It was a true fact, she was just teasing about the solemnity of it. They arrived at the stand, and the girl asked her if she had ever played the game before. "Yes! And we are going to race together," she exclaimed confidently, stepping up to the worker. The worker explained that the game was quite simple, you just took a chocolate frog package, opened it and set it free in its racing lane. The objective was to see which one got to the end first, there really wasn't any skill behind it, it was just the luck of the draw. Adonia nodded, turning towards Cordelia, "okay, you ready? If you don't have enough tickets I'll gladly let you use some of mine," she offered.

Once she had her frog, she stepped up and got ready to let it loose in the second lane. She gave Cordelia short nod. "Okay, whenever you're ready!" She said. She would let Cordelia give the worker the go ahead so that the race could begin.

cordelia regan smith