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Post by alfonztytusjedynak on Mar 19, 2008 15:44:48 GMT -5
Alfonz opened the door to his apartment and looked around. Empty.
The entire apartment was empty due to the contents of his apartment being moved to Hogwarts. Of course, he was moving them back, but at the moment he just starred into the abyss that was his home. It was as dark, and as useless to him as most of his ideas and feelings were. He should have stayed at Hogwarts...though, with that thought he almost choked. Stay at Hogwarts?!
His mind had become clouded with images and ideas, thoughts, and failures that being back here only made things worse. Celina wouldn't be staying with him until the end of July....or August sometime, and until then, Alfonz had no idea what he was going to do. School was out, so his job was done....did he start planning the games and stuff for the new year? Or was that his boss' job? Alfonz didn't know, nor did he care.
Glancing briefly sideways, a familiar door caught his eye. How he had managed to not even look at it when he had passed, was beyond him. Alfonz had gotten over her. Or at least, that's what he tried to convince himself every time a memory or a past time with Shay fluttered in and out of his mind. Plus, how could he think of her when Tamis was also on his mind.
Filtering a hand through his dark hair, he wanted to pull it out. The frustration was enough to sicken him, as were the feelings that both of the women induced into him. Women and their torturous ways of humoring themselves at the expense of men. It created a sickness within Alfonz that was deeper than anything he had ever felt before....no....he had felt this sickness before. But since then....had he really succumb....Alfonz examined the darkness of his apartment, yet still stood at the door unable to enter fully.
Would the darkness suck him in and torture him as well? Alfonz was certain of it.
(OPEN)
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Shay M. Loire
Witch
Photographer
Killing time and two birds.[on:Eyes open.][of:Eyes closed.]
Posts: 499
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Post by Shay M. Loire on Mar 19, 2008 21:54:52 GMT -5
Today had to have been an absolutely wonderful day for Shay. The shots she had gotten in a nearby hamlet had been wonderful, and some of them had surely been her favorites and well worth their place in her portfolio of her best shots. The small town had unfortunately been ravaged by a natural disaster, and a little girl had been so scared out of her wits that she climbed up a large tree to find her parents. Alas, she couldn't find them, but she couldn't get down the tree either, so she had been stuck up that tree, bawling her eyes out. As Shay's team had walked with a townsperson who discussed the events of the disaster, they heard her. Sure enough, under the thick branches and leaves, that red-head lass had been whimpering loud enough for them to hear.
Without a second thought, the townsman took out his wand and levitated her off the tree. Shay had already had her camera in hand, so she was ready for action as they were. And so she had the girl seemingly flying to the man, her face red and blotchy but so relieved, even if she couldn't explain how he made her fly. Truth was, she was a Muggle, and the hamlet was a pseudo hybrid of both Muggles and wizarding folk. To see both walks of life depend on each other was a relief. The townsman had lived alone except for his elderly mother, who unfortunately passed in the disaster, and it gave him great joy to help out the little girl. The trip there took even longer by because they had to help her locate her parents, who at some point reappeared, much to everyone's relief.
The goodness of the act remained in her mind as she came back home, opting for a meal before heading back to the headquarters to format a few captions and receive her next mission. Until then, she had went to check her owl before getting to her apartment. A bit surprised at finding a formal envelope, she eagerly opened it, scanning what it had to say when she understood its purpose: A local newsmagazine had wanted to publish two of her pictures for an article of theirs, and they expressed deep interest in her photos. Already she was on a level of a high. She shouted once but said nothing else seeing as she was all alone.
Within leaps and bounds up the steps, she was getting such an excited feeling, one that brought her to focus again on her work, but this time with more enthusiasm. She shuffled the letter back behind the other package she had carried from work, which contained negatives of today's shoot. She held them carefully to the light, and made no effort to look around. Shay had been living in Wendelring long enough to know where the cracks and bumps were, so she could hardly want to pay attention.
In excitement only attributed to a witch or a wizard, she had her packages levitate in the air as she fished for the keys. Everything was at equal length except for the negatives, which slowly moved up or down as she still analyzed them. Under her breath she muttered "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness," happy to get the keys in keyhole as she entered her own apartment, objects floating around her as if she held her own gravitational force.
Not once did she look over to where Alfonz lived. The empty apartment was nothing new to her, and gradually she lost interest in peeking at the solemn door. Even if someone moved in there, she wouldn't have made a quick welcome to them. The place generally felt like a bad omen.
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Post by alfonztytusjedynak on Mar 19, 2008 22:48:17 GMT -5
He jingled the multiple items in his pockets, still wondering how to enter. Did he just enter? Light up the apartment to make it so the room didn’t feel as much of an abyss and more of a welcoming? Welcome to what, was the only question that was floating through his mind that day. He had nothing but confusion rushing through him, loss floating around him, and failure creeping at every peak hole. It was lucky that he was even able to stand in front of his apartment door that day. So many times, he could have landed in Azkaban like London had after January.
A cold shiver ran up his spine when thinking about that. And also, when he thought about the threat Shaw made on him when Alfonz had told him that he was leaving. And who shall fill your big-brotherly shoes then? Celina was in danger, and with every turn that Alfonz took, it only put her in that much more. He couldn’t leave the Deva without putting her at risk, and there was no one he could go to about it. His own burden, one that Alfonz figured he would carry around until breathing his last breath.
Finally, Alfonz walked in. As he did so, he started fumbling with the miniaturized furniture in his pocket and made his way around the apartment. If he got everything put together and the way it was, maybe it would be more comforting. However, as he did so, it didn’t feel any better. Pounding and shifting things around, the walls shook and the door that Alfonz never shut completely only allowed more sounds to echo and travel in ever which way.
It wasn’t until the bookshelf smashed on the floor that Alfonz just finally gave up. “Forget it!” he yelled out, not even caring and throwing his hands up in the air. There was one thing he hadn’t unpacked yet, and he was just about to. Walking to the kitchen, flicking his wand he accio-ed a glass into his hand and reached for the mini bottle of brandy he had in his pocket. Taking it out, he enlarged it and swirled it around.
Ah….sweet escape.
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Shay M. Loire
Witch
Photographer
Killing time and two birds.[on:Eyes open.][of:Eyes closed.]
Posts: 499
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Post by Shay M. Loire on Mar 19, 2008 23:10:53 GMT -5
Once inside her apartment, she let her equipment bag fall gently to the ground as she always did, finding no use in putting it in her room as she knew well enough that she would need it once she was out the door. Humming to herself for a bit, she lowered the floating items with a wand-in-hand, and with the other hand, she let down her hair. Putting it up in a bun was bothersome for her, and she could not bare it too long before a headache could set in.
However, whether she liked to have one or not, she felt one come on the minute she heard the sharp thuds against the wall. It startled her for a second, as if hearing a phantom sound. For a moment she let the hairs on the back of her head stand up when she imagined the possibility, but she could forget forgetting it. It was repetitive, it was angry, but it was there. She could not deny the sounds coming from 302 and not her head.
While she would have liked to fight the curiosity and continue to analyze the letter, her intentions turned to putting an ear to the wall. The separations of the apartments were not completely solid, and so she could confirm that the mess in sounds were next door.
A moment passed when there was nothing, and it was a bit more nerve wracking than the angry sounds. For all she knew, it could have been a burglar. Yet how could it? It wasn't as if Alfonz kept the place like a mansion. Surely there was nothing to steal in what was his apartment.
Moving her ear away from the wall, she looked at the plain border between herself and the angry stranger. With a mild intent for confrontation, she raised her fist and pounded back on the wall, loud and strong enough for it to reverberate and make a difference.
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Post by alfonztytusjedynak on Mar 22, 2008 13:20:28 GMT -5
Just before he could lift the full glass of brandy to his lips, a pounding was heard at the wall. Lifting an eyebrow, Alfonz turned his head very slowly to the back of his apartment. The long hallway that held the bathroom and the two bedrooms separated the kitchen where he then stood, and the wall where the pounding was coming from. It was by pure chance that he had stopped all his banging around long enough just to hear it.
Putting down the brandy, he shook his head and went to go check out the sound. Surely there’d be no one in the apartment he lived in. When he had moved out, he had taken all of his belongings with him, or so he thought he had.
Checking out ever crevasse, he saw nothing. Again, his eyebrow lifted in suspicion. “Hello?” he called out in his apartment, almost wondering if it was the ghost that was supposed to live in the building bothering him about rent. It wasn’t late, but he only had a day or two to present his money. Not to mention, he was unsure if his payments were getting owled correctly to Wendelring to keep his apartment. Sighing frustrated like, he saw nothing. “I have the rent, you just have to allow me to get settle before going to the bank,” Alfonz stated sure he was speaking to the landlady.
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Shay M. Loire
Witch
Photographer
Killing time and two birds.[on:Eyes open.][of:Eyes closed.]
Posts: 499
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Post by Shay M. Loire on Mar 22, 2008 16:15:36 GMT -5
Shay held her position by the wall, this time moving her ear to the wall again to hear any sort of reaction. She wanted to wait for a while, but she felt she would have wasted her time if it went on too long. For a moment she closed her eyes, and as soon as she closed out the sense of sight, she could hear a voice very well, greeting her pounds on the wall.
Her eyes went wide open as she felt the disbelief well up in her. It could not be, she thought. Alfonz had definitely moved out, and from the looks of it all, moved on. She had been sure that besides him being in Hogwarts, she would probably never see his face again, except when it came to photographs. Other than that, he was looking to be something of an illusion as the days created a chasm between now and the time they last saw each other.
Now she felt nervous. It would be stupid to answer him through the wall, and she couldn't have been too sure to know it was him. Maybe it had to be someone else who sounded like him who had moved in and now she was becoming the creepy neighbor who made odd noises. As she tried to think of something to do, she put a hand to her stomach, feeling the undeniable case of the butterflies forming. Now it was feeling to be too much, and she didn't want to walk around not knowing who was now living next door to her.
Without a moment's notice, she slipped her key back into pocket and walked out the door without her robes. She could only take a few feet until she would come to apartment 302. She could barely sigh before she could knock on the neighbor's door, wishing and hoping it was someone she had never seen in her life.
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Post by alfonztytusjedynak on Mar 22, 2008 19:54:28 GMT -5
Nothing. Not a sound in response to what he had said. The building was playing with his mind, among the many other thoughts and phantom emotions he had stored within him. Alfonz let out a huge sigh of relief, as if he had been holding his breath for ages. Looking around one last time in all of the back rooms and such, there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. It was just a mostly empty apartment, for a pretty much empty guy.
What had happened to him since Durmstrang?
Alfonz shook his head to himself and went back into the kitchen. The brandy was still set nicely in the glass he poured it into to be drank and he couldn’t wait for the liquor to be washing in and out of every taste bud in his mouth. It made him water at the mouth just thinking about it.
Picking up the glass, however, his disheveled bookcase bothered him greatly as it lay sprawled out on the floor, shelves flung every which way from where they were supposed to be set up. It caught his eye, and he just couldn’t do anything but let the frustration seep into him once more. Nothing could just work now could it? He was lucky that Rolen was going to be Pro…at least that worked.
Just millimeters from his face, the glass tipped up, his nose could smell the toxins that he was about to consume…and then there was a knock on the door. “Damn it…” he growled to himself among some other curse words. He couldn’t be in his own damn apartment for even an hour before some person was knocking at the door. It was frustrating and as he slammed down his glass, brandy spilling on the table and his hand, he wiped it off on his robes as he stomped over toward the door.
“WHA….oh…Shay?” Throwing it open Alfonz half expected it to be just absolutely no one important. Alfonz half expected it to me some kind of debt collector coming early to the quidditch players apartment. He half expected to be anyone else….
There was obvious shock on Alfonz’s face as he tried to collect himself, filtering a hand through his hair and breathing deeply. “Well, what do you know…” he said softly and a lot more calmly. A nervous smirk came across his face. What was she doing there?
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Shay M. Loire
Witch
Photographer
Killing time and two birds.[on:Eyes open.][of:Eyes closed.]
Posts: 499
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Post by Shay M. Loire on Mar 23, 2008 18:31:42 GMT -5
"Alfonz..." She said practically in a trance-like tone, however she would have liked to think she was lucid when she realized the "stranger" of next door. For example, she had the right mind to turn her heel... except no other part of her body could follow suit.
It was an odd way of thought in comparison to their encounter three months prior. It felt like she had been vulnerable back then, feeling a sort of spiritual weakness that came with the degradation of her relationships at her own hands. Yet the days that separated the last time they met-- waves and waves of days-- she was feeling a different kind of vulnerability. The spotlight was on her now, yet she could only meet it with a blank face capable only of polite manners for a short conversation.
Her mouth closed after speaking his name, but she thought to open it again. "I thought I had a new neighbor," she said lamely, digging her hands into her cargos. She cleared her throat. "I, um, thought you permanently left Wendelring?" Instead of staring at his chest, she decided to meet him eye to eye. Suppose she was wrong? she thought. He was looking like a stranger... and if delusions could be added, she could say he even smelled like a different man. Out of jealousy, she wanted to become a stranger. Yet she wasn't sure if that could hold true.
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Post by alfonztytusjedynak on Mar 23, 2008 18:51:56 GMT -5
It was like she hadn't expect to see him. Not that he had expected to see her either, but at the same time a little piece inside of him had wanted to. Just not then...not when everything was so messed up. He was not alone...or rather...his thoughts of another kept getting in the way, just as thoughts of she threatened to also lurk in the shadows of his mind and prevent him from acting on actions. But they hadn't. So, why now did he look at the girl from next door and wish so badly to embrace her as he once had. He looked away from her slightly, needing to get his thoughts on track.
It wasn't, of course, until her next words did he look back at her. "New neighbor?" he asked, only to get a response that she thought he had moved out. Did she want him gone? The instant thought burned him to the quick. "I just got..." he hesitated before moving on. "...another job. I wasn't about to...Celina wouldn't have anywhere..." he stumbled over his own words, not knowing exactly what he was saying. Instead, he changed his tone and his dictation. If she hadn't wanted him to be there, he could play that game, too. "It's not like I disappeared or something." Alfonz remembered the comment she had made to him at the wedding. He remembered it because his cheek where she had touched still tingled as he thought of her.
And yet, was he even allowed to anymore? Alfonz could only ask himself such questions he bottled up deep inside of him.
"So...um," again, damn the hesitation. Alfonz leaned against the doorway, crossing his arms as he did so. "How have you been?" he asked genuinely.
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Shay M. Loire
Witch
Photographer
Killing time and two birds.[on:Eyes open.][of:Eyes closed.]
Posts: 499
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Post by Shay M. Loire on Mar 24, 2008 21:49:05 GMT -5
She murmured some stumbles of her own as he tried to explain the situation "Oh... I just thought... Yeah, that makes sense..." It was hard for her to make sense of this, though. She didn't want logical answers, but she needed to understand that she couldn't grab an ego all of a sudden and think that the world revolved her. At the moment, she thought.... she was an illogical answer. It was a repetitive formula, coming from past relationships.
At the moment she realized that she had to update him on the last few months. It was a panicky thought, wondering why she wasn't doing as well as she should have. Well, for the most part she was still working her way up in her career, as the letter in her apartment proved. But personally she was in a slump of sorts in her personal life. The fact that Brittany and her lived together did mend their relationship, and so it was no longer an issue. Still, she had gained no love interests; the only affair she was having was the one with her camera. "I've been doing better... I just found of that some of my photos have been selected for a newsmagazine." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "What about you?"
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Post by alfonztytusjedynak on Mar 25, 2008 6:57:06 GMT -5
Alfonz listened and tried not to let certain comments get to him. He knew that they weren't meant to be taken wrong, however, he couldn't help but think that she was doing better because she wasn't with....because he wasn't around. "Is that so?" He said nodding, again trying to not think about how she had been doing better without him around. It's not like he hadn't been doing well for himself either. Celina and he were even that much closer with him working at the school, he'd found interest in another...
Again, Alfonz wondered about what he was doing there standing in front of Shay. Was just his essence misleading to the girl? Or was she misleading him? Alfonz mentally shook himself free from his own thoughts. They were nothing more but neighbors now, and though his cheek tingled slightly, he only itched it to make it stop. Neither one of them may have disappeared from each other's sights, but it didn't mean that they'd ever be what they once were. Then again, what were they?
"Ah, well...you know...." What had he been doing? Trying to show Celina the true nature of her friends...macing it to the Head Mistress to the point of frustration where she couldn't take ignoring him any longer, but instead surprising even him and complying to what he had wanted from the beginning...setting up quidditch games for a school he really didn't care about. "...work and stuff." Alfonz shrugged.
"Hogwarts isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be," Alfonz said, trying not to smirk too widely.
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Shay M. Loire
Witch
Photographer
Killing time and two birds.[on:Eyes open.][of:Eyes closed.]
Posts: 499
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Post by Shay M. Loire on Mar 29, 2008 23:09:00 GMT -5
Shay found herself trying to resist giving a genuine smile. She couldn't tell herself why she didn't want to show her warmer side, but it had to have been because a small part of her wanted to run away. I don't want to be here, do I? It was reason against reason, and she wanted to put it to a persuasive perception. All that little part hoped for was that she could look bored so that she could find an excuse to leave, but it was, of course, uninfluential.
She nodded as his words came almost lazily, nodding as if she could help to get them out. A sly smile peeked out though when he made his confession. For those three seconds the smile grew wider, going against her internal plans with her impulsive expressions. "... See... Hogwarts is amazing!" She laughed, but promptly covered her mouth with her hand and tried to play it off as her being too loud in the hallway. She cleared her throat and started again. "So I'm glad things are working out well for you."
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Post by alfonztytusjedynak on Apr 2, 2008 7:20:11 GMT -5
Amazing was...a bit strong in Alfonz's opinion. He was there for one purpose only, other than his job. Raynor....well, thought that had been a plus was more of a dangerous tight rope act, and above all else, he hadn't really done anything that no one had talked about later behind his back. Hogwarts had it's moments of enjoyment, and he was glad to be near Celina, but Alfonz never EVER would have used the term amazing associated with it.
It was almost as if saing the Deva was amazing....and that just wasn't it, either.
"Amazing is a bit strong..." Alfonz snorted, shaking his head. "I said it wasn't that bad....doable....but not amazing," he resisted the thirteen year old urge inside of him that wanted to roll his eyes and looked at Shay, and then down the empty hall. "Don't worry, seems pretty dead here. I'm sure no one's going to see the fact that you couldn't help but smile at me," his tone was full of jest and cockiness, loving the way she had smiled and hating himself for loving it so. Alfonz crossed his arms and leaned back against his doorway more. "Unless of course Allegra's looking at'cha down the hallway...." Alfonz peeked around the corner as if he was about to see Thornton's sister standing right there. "Then we both may have problems."
As Alfonz could have guessed, he didn't see Shay's roommate, or his coworker. Which, in Alfonz's mind was a relief. All he needed was Shay's friends to be talking to her right in front of him about who they thought he was, and how lousy of a guy he turned out to be. They didn't know him, or what he was doing. But he had to agree with them on one stance; Shay was probably better off without him. Alfonz smiled just a bit and found that just by looking at her, he could tell this. She had a glow that he hadn't seen since they first met....
...it was as if she was almost back, to what he had found to be, her normal self.
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Shay M. Loire
Witch
Photographer
Killing time and two birds.[on:Eyes open.][of:Eyes closed.]
Posts: 499
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Post by Shay M. Loire on Apr 11, 2008 15:59:03 GMT -5
"We'll agree to disagree, then," Shay said when he still didn't find Hogwarts to be amazing. It was his prerogative, anyway. He probably didn't like to take in the history in the hallways and in the people, or enjoy the food better than homemade food, or just find the right to form good old bonds with. She had expected it, though. Shay could imagine him trying to pack his ego with him, but it was unable to fit.
Although he was seeming right at home when she could experience his arrogance again. Instead, she beat him to the punch and rolled her eyes at him. "You see, I had a little spasm in my face, and it brought the sides of my mouth up. I don't see why I would need to smile for you." Still, she had a smirk of her own and a knowing, wiggling eyebrow.
"And I'll have you know no one's home," she said matter-of-factly, but then regretted it, wondering if it sounded like she was actually welcoming him somehow. "Not that it matters-- I have to get to work very soon," she added, making sure to make it sound urgent even though she had just about another hour left before she had an urgency to leave.
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Post by alfonztytusjedynak on Apr 18, 2008 13:16:14 GMT -5
Of course, had he really known what her normal self even was? What they had was a fabrication of infatuation, and the attitude she was giving him at that moment was more irritating than not. “Spasm in your face? Well…I should have figured,” he paused slightly. “That’s nothing new it seems. It’s good to see you haven’t changed a bit.” His smirk faded itself, looking away trying to figure out if he was about to get just purely annoyed with her, shut the door, or entangle himself within her female tactics. He really wanted to do the former rather than the later, but she spoke again.
“Wow…no babysitter,” he teased harshly, a smirk reappearing as he shook his head. “Oh, work…still taking pictures then?” he asked crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. “Shay…what are you really doing over here?” he finally asked looking away from the young woman. Their lives had parted…then at the wedding….but at the moment it felt as if id didn’t matter, and he couldn’t take it. It either just would stop, or do something else…but Alfonz was growing weary of the something else…and secretly his heart broke as he found…
…he was falling out of whatever he once had for the girl.
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