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Elijah Theron Fleming
ILVERMORNY ALUM MWRC APPRENTICE RESEARCHER
505 posts
Infatuated with Cordie Smith
played by Chanel
in too much space we hide.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 12:19:30 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Apr 10, 2020 15:57:16 GMT -7
Post by Elijah Theron Fleming on Apr 10, 2020 15:57:16 GMT -7
summer, 2025 ELI HAD ONCE DREAMED OF GRADUATION LIKE IT would be his saving grace. No more tests, no more dorms, no more rules. If he graduated, which he did, he would be free. Except, nobody told him that adulthood was fucking terrifying. Or, that his winning apprenticeship at a renowned animal sanctuary would be as regimented as it was difficult. He was gonna work with animals, Eli had always known that. But, he hadn't factored in the part where he had to learn how. It hadn't occurred to him.
"I don't know, man, they just gave me the list." Eli had stammered to the retail worker. Juggling an armful of specialised feed, he felt a sweat break out on his brow as the man behind the desk counted the cash again and again and found it wanting. After they went back and forth a half dozen times, Eli sighed and pulled out his own pouch and handed over the missing galleon. Trust that old bat to short him. Just another one of his tests, Eli thought, with a sneer.
Face almost entirely hidden, Eli tried to peer around his large bag of feed as he navigated the cold, cobbled streets of Horizon Alley. It was a seedy kind of place. Not the type of street his mom would want him on, but then again, she was dead. So, he tried to enjoy his minute of freedom, but it was hard when his arms were screaming in pain. Stopping by a wall, Eli dropped the bag and sighed heavily. When he lifted his head, it was to see a mirage of curly blonde hair behind a dirty display window.
"Cord-" He mumbled to himself in shock, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. Dragging the feed across the ground, Eli didn't even check to see if a cart was coming as he crashed in to the stores door, disturbing a crying bell and tearing a corner of the feed bag. "Cordie!" He exclaimed, halfway in the door, creating an echo in the deathly quiet bookstore. He cringed at his own lack of self control, hefting the bag over the lip and quietly - too little too late - closing the door behind him.
"Cordie, what the hell are you doing in Horizon Alley?" Eli asked with a tired smile, so relieved to see her that, had he been just a little more exhausted - he might have cried. They garnered a few stares, but Eli kept his voice as low as he could manage, parking his bag of feed by the door and sidling up beside her. "Hair grew out." He commented with a lift of his brows, nudging her with one elbow.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 19:39:42 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Apr 29, 2020 20:48:52 GMT -7
Post by cordelia regan smith on Apr 29, 2020 20:48:52 GMT -7
▲ Obscurus Books had tricked her a few years earlier – Cordelia had assumed it was an actual bookstore because of its name. Surprised when she first stepped inside, it certainly wasn’t there. It was a publisher for books in the magical world, mostly to help out the wayward witch or wizard looking into putting a book together. Now technically there was a small shop near the front of the business, one where the most recent published works and best sellers were displayed and for sale, but that wasn’t really of any interest to Cordelia today. If she wanted to buy any of those, she would go to Flourish & Blotts because the prices were cheaper and the employee there never paid any attention to her and let her go about her business however she pleased. Here though…it was like the secretary was always zoned in on her and waiting to extrapolate on any of the books Cordelia picked up to look at. Today was no different, and the one currently in her hands was titled “Chimera King: Buying, Breeding, and Business”, which, according to the secretary, was going to be flying off the shelves once it actually went into print. Cordelia didn’t know much about chimeras, but she certainly didn’t think that it was necessarily a popular topic outside of the news of someone being killed by one every now and again. The fact that people actually bred these creatures was sort of strange too. “Th-That’s cool I-I guess…” she said quietly back in response to the secretary’s description of the book, which was verbatim to what was on the back cover when Cordelia flipped the book over. Hearing her name suddenly shouted from the direction of the door had her and a few of the other people in the bookstore portion of the business practically jumping in the air, and she bobbled the book she was holding around in her hands, managing to catch it before it hit the floor. Straightening up, she turned to see Eli rushing towards her, a bag of something dragging behind him. “L-Looking at books…” she said meekly, aware of the secretary’s gaze even more than she had been before Eli showed up. He pointed out that her hair grew out, and she nodded her head. “I l-liked it shorter, b-but this is fine I guess.” Having to even out the trim from the fall term blunder had taken months to correct, and now it sort of looked better. There was no fixing the tangles though, as much as she tried to. “What’s that?” she asked, looking around Eli at the bag behind him, hoping to divert all the attention that was suddenly on her. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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Elijah Theron Fleming
ILVERMORNY ALUM MWRC APPRENTICE RESEARCHER
505 posts
Infatuated with Cordie Smith
played by Chanel
in too much space we hide.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 12:19:30 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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May 11, 2020 8:12:38 GMT -7
Post by Elijah Theron Fleming on May 11, 2020 8:12:38 GMT -7
summer, 2025 SHE DID NOT LOOK HAPPY TO SEE HIM. BUT, THE thing about Cordie was, Eli could never tell just by looking at her. Her doe-eyed expression always verging on fear and displeasure. Like she'd been cornered by the ugliest boy she'd ever seen or something. Eli had gotten used to her, his easy going demeanour learning to roll with her terse silence until she gave in and said something. "Yeah, should'a guessed." Eli snorted, pointing at the artful piles of glossy covered books, as if they'd been fresh pressed.
"Well, I could always cut it again." He joked, tilting his head so-so. Although a minute, cold expression overtook him that she might just take the offer seriously. "Joking-" He added in a rush, hands up in surrender. "I've laid down my scissors for good." He'd made such a mess of it the last time that he was quite rightly afraid. Forgetting about the feed bag entirely, Eli was almost confused when Cordie pointed behind him. Her speech surprising him more as it was near perfect. He looked behind him, expression screwed with confusion before it dawned on him.
"Oh, that!" He laughed, nodding his head as his expression slowly turned sour. "Speciality feed bag for the thestrals, I think." Eli explained, as if Cordie would have any clue as to what he meant. He looked back at her, his hands curled behind his back as he wrung out his fingers secretly. "I mean, I work at the animal sanctuary, obviously." He snorted a laugh, rolling his eyes at himself. "For some reason I thought you knew." And then he crossed his arms over his chest, a ball of restless energy. "What about you?" He asked with genuine interest.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 19:39:42 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Jul 21, 2020 20:30:43 GMT -7
Post by cordelia regan smith on Jul 21, 2020 20:30:43 GMT -7
▲ Her head started to turn side to side before Eli managed to finish his sentence about maybe cutting her hair again. She had since figured out how to charm the scissors on her own, and even then would still only trust a professional at it. It felt strange to have her hair levitating, as if held by an invisible person, while the scissors clipped through it. If she wanted a ghost stylist, she’d find one. As she contemplated that, Eli put his hands up and admitted he was joking, which she sort of realized halfway through. “They w-weren’t even the right k-kind of scissors s-so…if they were, m-maybe.” Or, you know, go to the ghost. “It wasn’t that b-bad. Honest,” Cordelia lied, probably fairly obvious. She didn’t have enough practice with that, and her mum always saw right through it. Just like she had when she went home for Christmas break with the hack job of a haircut. Eli would probably end up apologizing about the hair debacle for years to come, so pointing out the bag behind him was Cordelia’s way of changing the subject. He explained that it was for his work, so that they could feed the thestrals there. She had never been able to see them, but the supposedly detailed drawings of them in magical creature textbooks were enough for her to be happy that she couldn’t. “F-Freelancing ph-photos for the Prophet…sometimes. M-Mostly working on m-my stuff like usual.” The newspaper had its own designated photographers, and she was far from the type of personality that career required. She was the type to easily be bulldozed by crowds during Quidditch matches, and lacked the hawkish nature those photographers had. Working at her own pace, on her own time was a lot easier. “What other animals do y-you have there?” she asked, more curious about his new job. Everyone she knew from school (except Lily) had managed to find cool jobs. All she had was her camera. Still. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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Elijah Theron Fleming
ILVERMORNY ALUM MWRC APPRENTICE RESEARCHER
505 posts
Infatuated with Cordie Smith
played by Chanel
in too much space we hide.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 12:19:30 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Jul 22, 2020 11:52:47 GMT -7
Post by Elijah Theron Fleming on Jul 22, 2020 11:52:47 GMT -7
summer, 2025 HER PURE ATTEMPT AT DEFENDING HIM WAS cute, but Eli knew better. An erupting laugh shaking his chest, making him bite his lip as he shook his head. "Yeah, sure that was the problem." He teased, knowing that Cordie was simply trying to make him feel better. She needn't, really, because Eli wasn't beating himself up about it. It was a funny anecdote, just another reason why he liked hanging out with Cordie. He could never predict how it might end. "True... you lived."
Looking back from the feed bag to Cordie's waiting face, Eli's face lit up with a grin. "Photography!" He said at random, holding out his hands. "That's fantastic!" He'd always thought that Cordie was as scared about the future as he was. She was so good at so many things, but people didn't always get Cordie, Eli thought. He liked to think that he did, but Eli was always a little self serving. "They're lucky to have you." He added, quieter this time as he realised he'd probably embarrassed her once again. "What kind of stuff?" He asked, stepping closer to her and further away from the wretched feed bag.
"Jeez..." Eli carded a hand through his messy hair, thinking about his answer. He wanted to impress Cordie, knowing her secret love for creatures big and small. "I mean, we got Thestrals, obviously..." He twisted his mouth, head moving so-so, as if reluctant. "Fire-crabs, Dugbog's, Bowtruckles and even a Hippocampus..." He looked at her, almost too eager to catch her answering expression. Far more than her words, which were delayed at times. He'd learned to read her face instead.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 19:39:42 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Jul 23, 2020 21:39:12 GMT -7
Post by cordelia regan smith on Jul 23, 2020 21:39:12 GMT -7
▲ There was a lot more excitement from Eli about her current employment status than she had for herself. Freelancing had always scared her, and there had been plenty of muggle blogs that had warned about starting that way without any base clientele or knowledge on it. She had just spent the last seven years at a school for magic, and decided her best chance at life would be taking photographs. Literally every muggle in existence could do that with their phone, and here she was trying to convince them that her way of doing it was superior. And that confrontation right there was the part that she couldn’t get past. “Well…it’s m-more like I p-pitch a photo to them. And they decide to b-buy or not,” she bit down on her lower lip, because the uncomfortable truth of the whole thing was ready to come out. “I-I’ve only s-sold two so far.” Admittedly they were good ones, but that didn’t fetch a high price. She was still a nobody, and it was bound to stay that way for a while at the rate she was going. As for her personal work, that was easier to talk about, “B-But I’ve been shooting a-a lot of architecture. N-Now that I c-can go places other than London, it’s easier.” The only stipulation by her mum was that she made it home before dinner. That was the rule if she wanted to keep living at home. Cordelia was scared of the alternative, which was finding her own flat and trying to pay rent off her measly freelanced photographs. There was no way she could do that! She was starting to feel stressed about the whole thing, but the departure towards Eli’s job was welcome. Talking about animals was easier, and they were loads cooler than anything she was ever doing. “I-I’ve never seen a Hip-p-pocampus b-before,” she managed out, the stutter getting the better of her while trying to pronounce the creature’s species. She was pretty sure they were aquatic, though there were a lot of sea creatures that seemed to all look the same in the end. Whatever Hogwarts couldn’t bring in for class, she hadn’t had the chance to see for herself. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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Elijah Theron Fleming
ILVERMORNY ALUM MWRC APPRENTICE RESEARCHER
505 posts
Infatuated with Cordie Smith
played by Chanel
in too much space we hide.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 12:19:30 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Sept 25, 2020 7:34:07 GMT -7
Post by Elijah Theron Fleming on Sept 25, 2020 7:34:07 GMT -7
summer, 2025 NODDING ENTHUSIASTICALLY, ELI STARED IN rapt attention. Though Cordelia tried to play down her accomplishments, Eli was blind to it with fascination. He remembered first meeting Cordelia and how she had charmed his mom's old camera from splinters to whole again. How she'd took pictures of the llama's in spring, all while consumed with interest. "That so cool," He said sincerely, smiling at her in encouragement. "So do they go in any newspapers, or something?" He asked curiously. "In anything I'd read?" He joked.
"Where've you been?" He asked, tilting his head. He envied her. That she wasn't rooted to one place, even just travelling to take pictures of old buildings. Eli had always preferred his photographs moving, like a trail of migrating gnomes or dragon flies. And faces slack with emotion. But, that was why Cordie was the professional and he was shovelling gun 16 hours a week. "Aw, you should come visit!" He exclaimed, hand lifted in excitement. "I mean, I'm still an intern, I'd probably have to sneak you in." He said with an obvious shrug. "Bring your camera, maybe you can get a million dollar shot." He suggested, lifting his brows daringly.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 19:39:42 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Oct 11, 2020 20:10:19 GMT -7
Post by cordelia regan smith on Oct 11, 2020 20:10:19 GMT -7
▲ Even though she had only managed to sell the two photographs, Eli wasn’t wrong: it was pretty cool that she had managed to do that. Especially in such a short amount of time too. Obviously having a salary job was preferable, and she was working towards that, but having the freedom to do whatever she wanted after being held back by school for so long was the best. “Uhhh…” she had to think for a moment about what publication the one photograph had been sold to. “The Prophet for a small article…and I c-can’t remember the m-magazine name for the other.” It was a horridly unimportant magazine, and she still didn’t know why they wanted a picture of a broken lamppost in Hogsmeade that she had taken in the spring time after a particularly bad storm. But who was she to say no when they were the ones offering money? It seemed silly not to sign over the rights to the photograph at that point. As to Eli’s question on where she had been so far, Cordelia could only shrug. She had been everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Most of her adventures since graduation had focused on retracing her steps of places she had visited before but hadn’t had the time to really study and photograph. None of these places were horribly interesting past their intricate architecture and the fact that she wanted to take pictures of them, so there wasn’t really any reason to talk about each individually. “J-Just around, I suppose…” It really depended on what she was looking for. She could walk down the street and find an interesting piece of stonework and decide that was worth a snap or two. “Really?” she said a lot louder than she probably should have inside the pseudo-bookstore. She could already feel the glare of the annoyed secretary creeping into her skin. “School should’ve t-taken us there for class…” She had specifically taken Care of Magical Creatures up until her seventh year in the hopes that they would be allowed to go, but it had never happened. Not so secretly, she really just wanted to go to take pictures. “Wh-What kind of animals do y-you have?”MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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Elijah Theron Fleming
ILVERMORNY ALUM MWRC APPRENTICE RESEARCHER
505 posts
Infatuated with Cordie Smith
played by Chanel
in too much space we hide.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 12:19:30 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Dec 15, 2020 6:31:14 GMT -7
Post by Elijah Theron Fleming on Dec 15, 2020 6:31:14 GMT -7
summer, 2025 ELI SLUMPED IN DISAPPOINTMENT. He didn't read the Prophet, which shouldn't have been much of a surprise. Eli didn't read much of anything. "I haven't read it." He admitted with a sheepish smile. "Do you have a copy?" He asked in a vain attempt to make up for his lack of interest. His brows lifting hopefully. "You could show me."
Eli was desperate for any escape, even in the media of photographs or stories. He leaned toward Cordie with a kind of ravenous interest. If it wasn't her photographs he was clinging to it was idea of travelling. Eli had never intended to stay in one place after graduation. Necessity had forced him. It was a bitter pill to swallow. And perhaps not fair for him to project this on to Cordie, her discomfort evident in her rocking posture and stumbled reply. Eli barely noticed. "Around is better than here." He surmised with a shrug and a short laugh.
"Really!" Eli exclaimed, eclipsing Cordie's raised voice by a few decibels. He was enthused by her enthusiasm. He didn't care about field trips anymore, but he nodded any way. Eli had always had a tense relationship with school. It was still too fresh a wound. He turned his head in time to catch the snarling expression of the book-keeper. Eli realised their welcome wasn't going to last for much longer. He cast a quite gaze to his abandoned food bag and pasted on a smile.
"We got everything." He said, shrugging his shoulders and stuffing his hands in to his pockets. When he realised Cordie had expected more than that Eli's mouth flapped for a second. "I mean- well, we got Thestrals, Hippogriff's, Firecrabs..." The list went on and on, Eli doubted he'd even discovered every single creature kept within the reserve. "Lotta rehab cases." He mused sadly, his mouth twisting slightly. "Lemme know when you're free, I'll sneak you in." He lifted his brows daringly, tongue in cheek.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 19:39:42 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Dec 17, 2020 21:10:21 GMT -7
Post by cordelia regan smith on Dec 17, 2020 21:10:21 GMT -7
▲ “Y-Yeah…b-but it’s at home.” Would it be weird to carry around copies of her work? Occasionally she had a binder of failed prints sitting in her bag, but that was only because she needed to have it with her at school. There wasn’t exactly a need for it anymore, especially because the darkroom she had been using the last month or so was an easy disapparation from there to home. “Do y-you have a phone?” Cordelia asked, pausing briefly before immediately realizing that she hadn’t given any context to her question. “S-S-So I-I can t-text a p-picture of it…” Currently her only contact on her phone was her mum, having angrily deleted her dad out of it the previous fall when news of his affair had come out. Apparently not all witches and wizards had phones yet, which sort of made sense. Lily didn’t as far as she was aware, and Cordelia could only assume that was for the best. She didn’t need the distraction of the internet or games. That would be horrible for her during her repeat year at Hogwarts. She shrugged indifferently when Eli pointed out that being around was better than what he was doing. The former Hufflepuff didn’t really see it that way. She enjoyed the structure that school had brought. Having a rigid schedule and then working her interests in around that was way better than aimlessly wandering around London trying to find new things to take pictures of. While she enjoyed her newfound freedom, she was already missing her old way of life. This new stuff was scary, and there was absolutely zero guarantee that it would work out in the end. She had no idea how to put any of those worries into words and certainly didn’t think it would be fair to dump it all onto an unsuspecting Eli. “Ohh…o-okay,” she responded, feeling like she had been bombarded with a lot of information all at once. She had sort of asked for it though, and Eli was the easily excitable type after all. How she kept drawing that sort of personality in was beyond her knowledge. “I mean…whenever is f-fine.” She hadn’t seen a hippogriff in a couple of years, and she was positive that she wasn’t going to see a thestral any time soon. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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Elijah Theron Fleming
ILVERMORNY ALUM MWRC APPRENTICE RESEARCHER
505 posts
Infatuated with Cordie Smith
played by Chanel
in too much space we hide.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 12:19:30 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Feb 7, 2021 17:44:32 GMT -7
Post by Elijah Theron Fleming on Feb 7, 2021 17:44:32 GMT -7
summer, 2025 'A PHONE'. Eli's mind went blank momentarily as he tried to figure out what she was asking for. It clicked a moment too late, his confused mouth snapping shut. "Right! Like, a cell." He exclaimed, clumsily feeling at his jean pockets with a nervous laugh. "Yeah, I've got a phone- obviously, I mean." And he shook his head, his curls crowding over his forehead as he stuck his hands in to those same pockets. His sisters liked him to keep a wizarding tech mobile on him, to keep in touch, but it got buried in his spelled pockets often so that he had to go digging for it. Pulling out a handful of sickles, his wand, a crumpled up receipt and what could only be described as 'loose animal feed', Eli finally pulled his cell out. "Here it is!" He declared triumphantly. He handed it to Cordelia expectantly. "Put your numbers in to." He said with a grin, leaning in close to watch her operate the piece of machinery. It wasn't that he didn't know how, he did. But, Eli had spent so much time around wizards and creatures that sometimes he forgot.
Once it was in there, Eli took it back and held it to his chest. He nodded at Cordelia, his mood lifted by the presence of good, familiar company. It beat crochety old shop keepers and his stiff overseer. Or, worse yet, his father. The mans mood souring by the minute, especially after Eli had told him about losing his internship. Proving to their father, apparently, that Eli had better get a 'real job'. Eli had answered that by getting an equally degrading shop shovelling wizarding shit. "Text me sometimes- I mean, your pictures." His ears were a flaming red. "Or, just text me." He added boldly, his chin dipping with a restless nervousness.
"It'll be fun, I promise." He encouraged her, pulling back carefully, afraid he would scare Cordelia off. As he was prone to doing. "I'll text you and we can meet up." He said again, because it amused him. 'Texting'. It was quicker than owling, of course. But, most of the time that was an inconvenience for Eli. He preferred the delayed disappointment of owls back and forth with his dad. At least then, for a while, he could pretend everything was fine. "Well... I'll be seein' ya." He said, reluctantly taking a step back as he bent to lug his feed back in to his arms. "Better get this back before I get my head bitten off." He rolled his eyes with a short laugh.
[END ELI]
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last online Mar 28, 2024 19:39:42 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Feb 13, 2021 21:24:16 GMT -7
Post by cordelia regan smith on Feb 13, 2021 21:24:16 GMT -7
▲ Was calling it a phone the wrong thing to do? It didn’t seem like Eli knew what she meant, until he called it a cell. That made her seem like maybe phone was an outdated term for it. And that was exactly why she had felt hesitant about getting one that was charmed in the first place. So many of magic-kind seemed to be perplexed by the concept of phones, outside rotary ones, that she felt silly even asking Eli if he had one in the first place. All muggles were attached to theirs, so it was strange that she could wander through the shopping districts and only see a handful. But it looked like he did have one, and after a moment of rummaging through his pocket, he produced a phone. Or cell. Now she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to call the thing. Cellphone covered both, but was too long for her liking. She took his phone when he held it out to her, and spent a solid minute trying to type her information into it. There was a film of dirt (or some other unknown animal-like substance) on the screen, and it was causing her taps to not register. After forcing her thumb into it aggressively a few times, she handed the phone back once her number was in. “Y-You need to m-message m-me first…I don’t have y-your number…” she reminded him, since she hadn’t given him her phone. That would be easier, since then she wouldn’t have to be the one to send a message first. She didn’t even know how to start a normal conversation, how was she supposed to start a text one? When it came to the trip to his work, she nodded her head. Aside from seeing the animals, she really just wanted to take pictures. If, for whatever reason, it fell through on Eli’s end, she could probably send the sanctuary a letter and ask if she could come by and take photos. From what she remembered the last time she was in Hogsmeade, they were pretty relaxed, and having pictures to put up would be a good way to show people the magical creatures they had. Even thinking about that was too ambitious of an idea for her though, and Cordelia sort of rocked in place on her heels, feeling weird for thinking that way. “Y-Yeah…bye,” she waved at him as he grabbed the bag of feed and left. A trail of spillage followed behind him to the door and Cordelia stared at the receptionist awkwardly as she gave Eli a head start on the street, before also quickly making her exit. She hadn’t caused the mess, so she didn’t want to be stuck there cleaning it up. [The End] MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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