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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 12, 2019 10:41:02 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2019 10:41:02 GMT -7
April 20, 2025 It was the second day of the Flower Festival, but the thought of how many people would probably be packed inside of one greenhouse had made Chrissy hesitant to attend at all. Fortunately, she saw as she landed on the ground outside of it, it was much larger than the Hogwarts greenhouses. That was also sort of overwhelming, but the wonderful earthy smell of the greenhouse made up for it.
It was easier to decide what to do by process of elimination. She wouldn't dare set foot inside a maze; even if it was just really tall rose bushes, just the thought of going near it made her skin crawl. She didn't really have a need to pick her own plants, nor did she have much of a need to buy anything.
Having seen a few of her fellow students with flower crowns, though, Chrissy knew what she wanted to do. Given that she had been named after a flower—the chrysanthemum—it was only fitting for her. Besides, if it cost her anything to make one, it probably wouldn't be too expensive.
She found her way to the booth where the flower crowns were, and she found a free space beside a tall, thin girl who looked to be a few years older than she was. Chrissy knew that she didn't know her from Ilvermorny, and she couldn't recall having seen her around Hogwarts, either. She looked from the girl to the table and immediately smiled. There were chrysanthemums right in front of her place.
@summer OOC: Whee!
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 13, 2019 6:11:35 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2019 6:11:35 GMT -7
Summer was excited about the flower festival. Simon had scoped it out the day before and decided it was safe enough to go. He and Liam came with her today, of course, and she was frolicking around like a school girl. The second she saw someone with a flower crown she insisted on locating where those were made. Once they found it, she got settled in and Liam and Simon stayed nearby, but let her sit as if on her own for a moment.
She assessed the flowers before her, and started to systematically weave them together. The proper geometrical formula for making them stick was easy to follow, and soon she had a crown already finished. Her fingers moved quickly, as if she'd done this a thousand times. She asked if she could make another and soon started up on it.
A new person approached to join the table. Summer always made sure to asses new people. She glanced up, and the girl smiled. Summer smiled too, then looked down at the flowers. She pointed, "chrysanthemums. Pretty."
(If you wouldn't mind tossing specific memories you want summer to see in like italics or something that'd be rad!)
@chrissy
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 13, 2019 8:53:47 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 13, 2019 8:53:47 GMT -7
April 20, 2025 The girl beside her looked over at her then. "Chrysanthemums. Pretty," she commented at the flowers.
"Yeah," Chrissy agreed with a nod. They were pretty. "That's my name, actually. Chrysanthemum," she told the other girl, watching to see how the flowers needed to be linked together so that her crown wouldn't fall apart the moment that she went to pick it up. She couldn't remember if she had ever actually made a flower crown before. Maybe she'd knotted clovers or dandelions together before when she was younger, but she wasn't too sure.
She had picked flowers, of course; she knew that she had. Her mother always used to point out the chrysanthemums to her, in particular, whenever they came across them.
"Look, Chrissy!"
Her memory of the voice had faded with time, but Chrissy knew that it had been her mother speaking. Her mother kneeling, holding her so that she could pivot her in the right direction. She must have been—what?—three, maybe? If that?
Chrissy had a photograph of the moment somewhere, filling in the gaps she couldn't recall anymore for herself. It had been Mother's Day, her father the one behind the camera. How much of it was just the photograph that she was remembering?
"Chrysanthemums!"
That one little action, being turned around in the right direction. Her mother showing her the direction in which to look. Pointing, smiling.
She looked back down at her hands. Picking up a few chrysanthemums to get herself started, she began the work of weaving them together.
@summer
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 19, 2019 19:03:24 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 19:03:24 GMT -7
That was the girls name. She watched the demonstrator showing some ways to make the crowns, and Summer set her own crown down on the table for a moment. She suddenly looked at Chrysanthemum, the visions in her mind. A pretty woman, speaking to her about the flowers. The pretty lady showed them to a little girl. This girl. Summer cocked her head to the side, watching her as she looked down at her hands to start working on a crown.
"It's easy," Summer said with a sigh, reaching back to work on her second crown. She kept her eyes on the other girls hands though, while she did hers without looking. "Nice hands. Soft, I think?" she suggested, nodding toward the girls hands. "Your mother, pretty smile. In there," she reached a hand up to tap the girl on the side of the head.
@chrissy
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 19, 2019 20:37:27 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 20:37:27 GMT -7
April 20, 2025 "It's easy," the other girl said with a sigh, seemingly frustrated with the pace at which she was working on her crown. Chrissy looked over at the girl and how deftly she moved, effortlessly piecing together a crown without even bothering to see what her hands were doing. They were just moving.
"Nice hands. Soft, I think?"
Chrissy wasn't sure what the girl was talking about or if she was speaking to her. It was an odd comment to make, she thought, though she supposed that the girl didn't have much need to focus on what she was doing; she was already excelling at it. As for herself, Chrissy wasn't failing, but she was far from moving her fingers with the same dexterity.
"Your mother, pretty smile. In there."
She flinched and dropped her flowers onto the table as the older girl tapped her on the head, not having anticipated being touched. It was evident to her then, though, that the way that the other girl spoke was stilted. The girl spoke in short sentences, if they could even be considered sentences. They were just words, really. It was as though her speech was… impeded somehow? Chrissy wasn't entirely sure, but it wasn't exactly natural.
What was stranger still was that the girl had mentioned her mother. Her mother, about whom she had just been thinking, had come up in conversation without Chrissy's having mentioned her. She was pretty, the girl said. She had seen her—her mother, that was. There was only one explanation for that, Chrissy knew, because she knew that she had never met this girl before in her life.
Eyes wide, Chrissy looked to the girl. "You're a Legilimens…" she breathed, a statement of acknowledgement rather than a question of confirmation. "You saw her."
@summer
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 19, 2019 20:40:21 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 20:40:21 GMT -7
Chrissy dropped her flowers and Summer brought her hand back quickly. "Sorry," she said quietly. Chrisst spoke, and Summer shook her head. "Never finished learning. Only kind of," she explained. "Yes. Pretty," she nodded firmly, setting down her own flower crown. "I'm Summer," she offered, carefully holding her hand out toward Chrissy. But not like a handshake, her hand was palm up, toward the sky, as if how someone would hold a hand out to have something placed inside of it. "You can show me, if you want," she said, her sentences growing a little more structured.
@chrissy
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 19, 2019 21:22:26 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2019 21:22:26 GMT -7
April 20, 2025 The older girl apologized to her for having startled her and corrected her when she had identified her as a Legilimens. "Never finished learning. Only kind of," she shook her head, although her thoughts sounded more coherent to Chrissy than they had seemed before. In any case, she had definitely seen a glimpse of her mother somewhere in her mind; that was still true, even if the girl might not have been completely trained as a Legilimens.
"Yes," said the girl. "Pretty." The girl dropped the crown that she was making onto the table and moved her hand. "I'm Summer." It seemed like she was going to shake hands, though she held her palm in the wrong direction. It was odd, though Chrissy didn't comment on it.
"It's… nice to meet you, Summer," Chrissy replied, trying to be polite in spite of her confusion about Summer. She couldn't quite explain what was "off" about her, but there was something there that wasn't completely… normal.
"You can show me, if you want."
"Show you…?" Chrissy was failing to understand. "Show you my mom, you mean?" She paused. What would some girl whom she had only just met want with her memories of her mother? She didn't know.
Or had she seen some of the other memories in there, too? Chrissy could feel her heart beating faster inside of her chest. That must have been what Summer meant. There was plenty inside of her mind that she didn't want to have resurface.
Chrissy breathed in, closing her eyes. She wished that she knew how exactly Occlumency worked so that she could turn off the parts of her brain with the memories that she couldn't bear to deal with. There was stuff that she didn't want anyone to know or to see. Alyra knew, and she was one of the few who did.
She was in a hospital room, the memory of which was seared into her mind. White. Those ceiling panels that looked like tile floors reversed and stuck up there. The hospital gown that she had had on had been the first clean clothing that she had worn in weeks. She had just been taken from her abductors.
There was Alyra's face somewhere in there, one of the first people she had seen upon being rescued. Time blurred. Healers came and cared for her, rather than hurt her more. She sat up in some nondescript bed, her body—already slim—thinner and more frail than normal for a child of her age.
Her parents didn't come, and they wouldn't ever come, and she had to come to terms with the news that she had received. Her parents were dead. She didn't want to talk about what had happened to her. (That much hadn't really changed.)
"You can see… other stuff?"
@summer
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 20, 2019 6:12:34 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2019 6:12:34 GMT -7
Chrissy said it was nice to meet her. She questioned Summers words and Summer just nodded, looking down at her outstretched hand and then up at the younger girls face again. Since there were so many people making crowns, they would not cause a scene. Everyone was focused on themselves. Chrissy guessed that Summer meant 'showing her mother' and Summer neither nodded nor shook her head, "anything," she suggested. She didn't use her abilities often. Her clairvoyance, her legilimens. They had been messed with. Played with. Burned at the edges. Mismatched. But Summer knew a damsel in distress when she saw one. It was easy to spot something you were yourself.
Chrissy closed her eyes, and Summer kept her hand up. Summer closed her eyes too, and the memories came through. White. White panels. Looked familiar. Gown? Another beautiful woman, red hair. Healers. Summer winced at the sight of them. Her jaw dropped a little. She saw pain. Slim. Parents abandoning. She tilted her head to the side, then opened her eyes.
"You can see... other stuff?" Summer nodded. "Anything. Bad memories. Remind me of..." she shook her head, bringing her hand back and swiftly rotating her entire body to face her crown once more. She moved quickly, whispering. "One, two, three, four, five, six, twenty. So many. Running around. Chasing. Easy to get taken in the confusion." She stopped again, turned to look at Chrissy with wide eyes, "who took you?" her voice, still a whisper.
@chrissy
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 20, 2019 7:42:40 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2019 7:42:40 GMT -7
April 20, 2025 Summer suggested "anything", and Chrissy wasn't even sure what was running through her brain—or Summer's.
It was when they made eye contact with one another again that Summer confirmed that she could see other things. "Anything. Bad memories. Remind me of…" She turned away, back to her crown, before she could say what it was that it reminded her of, however. All that Chrissy could hear Summer saying were a few numbers; she was counting, got to the number six, and then skipped ahead to twenty. "So many. Running around. Chasing. Easy to get taken in the confusion."
Then she stopped whatever she had been doing, whatever trance into which she had been placed, and looked back at her. "Who took you?"
Chrissy swallowed. Summer would see it anyway; maybe she had already. She didn't know; she wanted to ask but didn't want to know what Summer had seen up there, in her mind. "Th-They were witch-hunters," she answered her, her own voice at a shaky whisper. She hadn't gone back to work on her crown. "They killed my mom and dad and took me."
@summer
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 22, 2019 20:43:56 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2019 20:43:56 GMT -7
Witch Hunters. Dead parents. Summer shook her head. "Evil. Hate us. Me too," she explained. She remembered the bright lights, the dark ones, the scary places and sounds. She stopped shaking her head. "Finish crown. Relaxes," she suggested in a soft voice, reached a hand over to pat one of the girls that was nearest too the crown she had stopped. She held Chrissy's gaze before turning back to her own again. She worked on it, but slower than before. "Bad magic too," but she couldn't tell anyone about that. Simon said. "Sorry for your family. They loved you?" she asked, but she already knew the answer. Loving parents. Different that her own.
@chrissy
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 22, 2019 21:19:02 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2019 21:19:02 GMT -7
April 20, 2025 "Evil. Hate us. Me too."
Chrissy paused, even as Summer seemed to be able to go back to work on her flower crown and seemed to be instructing her to do the same, she couldn't shake it. She had met others with troubled pasts; dead parents weren't all that uncommon, but that wasn't it. She had a feeling that what Summer meant went beyond what she had said about her dead parents. She tried to bring her hands back into focus so that she could work on her flower crown some more.
"Bad magic too. Sorry for your family. They loved you?"
Slowly, Chrissy nodded, looking forward into the distance instead of at what her hands were supposed to be doing to construct her crown. "Y-Yeah." She had taken her parents for granted when she had had them. Nobody expected their parents to be gone in a moment like that or to go through what she had.
"…S-Summer?" Chrissy questioned as her eyes snapped back towards the girl next to her, not knowing how to word what she wanted to ask the older girl so that she would get a response that she could understand. "When you—When you said 'me too'… Did you mean… That they…" She gestured as she emphasized the word, trying to skirt around what she meant while also hopefully making it clear enough what she meant. "They", as in the witch-hunters. "Is that… why you talk like that? Because of them?" she wondered aloud. If that was the case, she was glad not to be able to see inside Summer's mind.
@summer
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 23, 2019 5:45:47 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2019 5:45:47 GMT -7
She stuttered, but still a yes. Then Chrissy said her name, and Summer turned back to look at her as well, slowly, almost casually. Summer listened, generally she would cut someone off, but she let the girl finish with asking why she talked like this. Summers brow furrowed, she shook her head. "No," she explained, "not entirely. Maybe a little," there were others responsible for her apparent lack of social communication. Almost moreso than the witch hunters. "A lot of details," she explained, lifting a hand from her crown to wave it. Then her brow relaxed and she pouted slightly at the girl, "I'll buy you a treat," she suggested, "sorry for bringing it up. The bad," she sighed. She moved back to her crown and nearly finished it as she spoke again, "Simon. Brother. Tells me I should not talk to other like that," she shook her head, setting down the second crown. She kept her eyes on it, running her fingers around the edges of the petals. "Not polite, he says. Simon's always polite. He's sweet," she adds, her voice growing softer.
@chrissy
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 23, 2019 8:08:51 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 23, 2019 8:08:51 GMT -7
April 20, 2025 "No," Summer answered her, "not entirely. Maybe a little."
Chrissy nodded.
"A lot of details."
That, too, she understood. It was the same with her own story, though the fact that Summer was capable of seeing into her memories left less to explain, perhaps, than if she weren't.
"I'll buy you a treat. Sorry for bringing it up. The bad."
Chrissy shook her head, noticing then that Summer was already finishing up that crown. She didn't mind that Summer had been talking about the bad stuff, not when it ended up that she had been through what she had—or the closest thing to what she had been through of anyone whom she had ever met.
"Simon. Brother. Tells me I should not talk to other like that. Not polite, he says. Simon's always polite. He's sweet."
Nodding again, Chrissy went back to work on her own crown again and trying to remember where she had stopped. "No, no… It's okay," she reassured Summer quietly as she tried to resume work on her flowers. "I'm happy there's somebody else… like me out there," she said, even if she hoped that no one else would ever have to go through what she had gone through. "Like, I don't have… siblings or anything, so it… makes me feel less alone, you know?"
@summer
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 30, 2019 9:51:17 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2019 9:51:17 GMT -7
The other girl nodded often during Summers words, showing that they were listening. A shake of her head though, when Summer apologized. Chrissy continued her own crown, saying it was okay. Voice soft, that made Summer lean a little closer to her to listen in better. She said she was happy there was something else like her, then explained that she didn't have any siblings or anything and that Summers words made her feel less alone. That made Summer offer a gigantic smile, a small giggle escaping her lips. ”We're sisters now,” she announced confidentially. ”I can't... tell where I live. We'll find each other,” she sat up straighter, ”how is the crown? Beautiful,” she pointed out, nodding toward Chrissys work.
@chrissy
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last online May 4, 2024 6:48:32 GMT -7
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Jul 30, 2019 10:39:30 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2019 10:39:30 GMT -7
April 20, 2025 Summer smiled and giggled, a noise that Chrissy hadn't expected to hear from the older girl. She wasn't used to being "in" on the giggling; it was always directed at her, it felt, rather than with. "We're sisters now," Summer told her, at which Chrissy smiled just as widely.
It felt as though she had known Summer her whole life, as though they had been meant to meet one another. Maybe their bond was really like sisterhood, Chrissy thought; the older girl knew some of her darkest memories now, but she didn't judge her for the fact that they existed or anything like that.
"I can't… tell where I live. We'll find each other," Summer confided in her.
"It's okay," Chrissy promised, looking back at her flower crown as she worked on it. She didn't mind not knowing where Summer lived, and she was in school, anyway. "You can send me letters to Hogwarts. The owls will know where to deliver them to you, right?" She had heard that owls could travel across distances to find recipients in ways that people couldn't. "I don't have a phone or anything like that," she added, though maybe that would have been easier for communication.
As she thought it over, Summer asked her how her crown was coming along and then said that it was beautiful.
Chrissy smiled again. "You think so? It's not as good as yours, though."
@summer
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