xp_logs | Topaz and Stephen || Library Restocking

Stephen fulfills his punishment for messing around in the library. And Topaz proves why she shouldn't actually be alone with magical children. Backdated to January 23.

Topaz huffed as she hauled the last box of heavy books into the back of the library, groaning about halfway there and dropping it on the floor. Where was the angry French elf when she needed him? She glared at the box for a minute before shoving it the rest of the way back.

A tentative knock sounded on the door and a clearly scared Stephen sidling into the library. The teenager released a breath he didn't know he'd been holding when he saw it was just Topaz and no Jean-Paul, Stephen would admit, if only in the comfort of his own head, that he was terrified of the Canadian. "Hi Topaz."

Topaz rolled her shoulders and peeked out around the bookshelves. "Hey Stephen." A tiny mew echoed Topaz's words, and a small black kitten wound its way through the tables, wrapping around Stephen's ankles. "Midnight, no." Topaz sighed, going to retrieve the cat and putting her back in the office, closing the door. "Sorry, come on. You know where we're working."

"Yeah...did I apologize for that?" Stephen asked nervously holding out a box to Topaz, "I'm really sorry, I don't know what I was thinking."

She took the box, raising an eyebrow. "Bribery gets you nowhere, Stephen," she reminded him. Not that she would say no - he was British after all. He'd probably brought some great treats from England.

"IT's not a bribe," Stephen hurriedly assured her, "It's a thank you for not telling Amanda about the...incident. I don't want to even think what she'd have said."

"If you're ever interested in hearin' it I can recite it word for word," Topaz said as she examined the contents of the box, unable to help the small smile that pulled at her lips. "Just replace 'living chess pieces' with 'exploding water bottle."

"Living chess pieces?" Stephen offered Topaz a small smile, "This sounds like a story that you need to tell, I mean you can't just leave me hanging like that."

"Absolutely not," Topaz replied, though she was definitely smiling now as she led Stephen into the back. "I'm not givin' you ideas. Especially not ones that can be easily traced back to me."

"But see, you've given me ideas now. And could you live with yourself if something happened while I was experimenting trying to make it work. Or you know unleash a killer football onto the mansion? Cause I might just end up doing that," Stephen replied hopefully with a cheeky grin.

Topaz rolled her eyes. "Fine, you get one free pass with me though Stephen. Everyone should hear Amanda's speech at least once." They got to the back and Topaz grabbed a piece of paper off one of the boxes. "All the boxes are numbered, I drew up a diagram so you don't have to try and learn what a card catalog is. Stock the books in the box on the shelf that has the corresponding number." She broke into one of the boxes and started working. "Anyways, chess pieces. A couple of my mates wanted to play wizard chess - you know, like in Harry Potter - and it sounded like a fun experiment so I animated a chess set for them. Did it a little too well though, the pieces attacked us and escaped into the mansion."

Stephen reached down to grab one of hte boxes, a quick glance at Topaz's chart and he was off into the library settling the box down within reach as he started stacking books. "What if you tied the enchantment to a specific field, like the chess-board? They couldn't get off to attack you, but they stay alive where you need them on the board?" he asked. "Kinda like a two part enchant, neither works byslemselves but put them together and bam, you're on a roll." This aspect of magic, where you could see it actually doing something.

"I'm just going to assume you're asking all these things hypothetically and don't actually plan on trying anything," Topaz said lightly, refusing to answer any of those questions. She wasn't helping.

"Of course," Stephen demurred, "It's not like I actually have anything I'd like to bring to life or anything. I'm not entirely sure how I'd feel about kicked a sentient ball around, probably pretty bad. Maybe I could animate Amanda's board and markers so she doesn't have to write everything out in magic class."

The image of Amanda going to write on the board and finding the markers already writing for her was amusing Topaz would admit. She ducked her head away so Stephen wouldn't see her smiling as she continued stocking the shelves.

While they worked in silence Stephen let his eyes wander as he thought about how to make the spell work. It'd make a great present for Amanda...or a horrible one and she'd hate it but you know you never know until you try. "So any other lessons on magic that I 100% shouldn't try?" he asked curiously.

Topaz tilted her head, thinking. "Don't try to summon anything. And I don't just means demons or spirits, one of the kids that was here with me decided he wanted to magically summon potatoes once and they appeared randomly around the mansion for a week."

"Potatoes? Really?" Stephen fell silent for a moment as he tried to wrap his head around that, "Ok nope I just can't figure that out. How on earth did he end up summoning potatoes of all things. I mean that sounds kinda awesome, like that movie with the meatballs and food falling out of the sky, 'We have a rain of potatoes on the common room while the gym is under seige from a pressure front of tomatoes. Bring your corn chips cause that salsa is hot,'" he narrated into an imaginary microphone.

"Well in his defense, he was trying to summon potatoes," Topaz said. "He just forgot to put a qualifier on it that he only wanted a few potatoes and not for them to keep randomly appearing everywhere."

"Ok... so note to self, always make sure to put a modifier in, although having a ton of tea might be useful in this place. We must get through quite a lot of it."

"That's what the grocery store is for," Topaz pointed out, raising an eyebrow. She wasn't really doing well at this 'discourage frivolous use of magic' thing. Amanda's speech probably would have worked a lot better.

"Well yeah, but then it wouldn't be magic tea," Stephen pointed out recently, "You know how a nice cup of tea always has relaxing properties, as if it's magic. Now you have a reason for being able to claim that."

"Until the magic tea turns you into an elephant. Not so relaxing after that."

"I dunno, elephants seem to have a pretty relaxing time," Stephen pointed out with a grin, "I mean they get to wander around playing and eating all day, as long as there are no predators or zookeepers around. They're a major downer I hear."

"Yeah but eventually you'll get turned back into a human and then you get to listen to Amanda lecture you. That's a lot more of a downer than predators or zookeepers."

"How bad can it be? I mean my parents used to lecture me all the time but if you don't push the boundaries and try out new things then you'll never know all you can do. Besides," Stephen grinned, "Being able to turn into a animal would be really really cool. And think how useful it could be."

Topaz just sighed, shaking her head. This was exactly why no one should ever leave her alone with kids, honestly.