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[attr="class","ctopline"]I'm turnin' off the light right now

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[attr="class","clyrics"]Wishin' you were 'round with me[break]
But you're in a different town than me

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[attr="class","cbody"]Finals were next week, and then his first year of university would be coming to a close. After a year of school at University of Bangor, Caerus was still unsure if this was even what he wanted to be doing for the rest of his life. Did he even want to invest three more years into getting a degree in Astronomy? He couldn’t say that he was all that sure anymore. He had always liked his astronomy classes and he had always been good at the subject. Staring up at the sky at night had always been relaxing, and peaceful, and as much as an extrovert as he was, there were definitely occasions when he needed that time to himself.
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But did he really want to be an Astronomer? He wasn’t all that sure. When he had graduated Hogwarts, university and a spot on a professional league team had come nearly simultaneously and having both of those things had felt right. He loved Quidditch and he loved Astronomy. But with Quidditch out of the equation for Merlin knew how much longer, he just had Astronomy—and that had made him far less certain of it. He didn’t know what he wanted to do anymore. Didn’t know if he was going to drop out of school and try to figure something else out, or if he was going to stick it out, and hope that a cure came eventually. Then at least, he would have Quidditch back too.
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It was something that he wanted to talk to LJ about, but he hadn’t spoken to his best friend since he had walked in on him and Rhea. He had no idea how long LJ had been shagging his sister and not telling him about it, and he was still a little upset about it. Not about the shagging necessarily, but the fact that it had been hidden from him for Merlin knew how long. It wasn’t like eh would have liked it being something that was happening. It was his sister, they were talking about, after all. But how long had they been sneaking around? That was what was still bothering him.
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Caerus had no idea if they were still in contact or what went on between them, but he knew that his parents were aware of what had happened, because he had been the one that had told them. He knew that they had also told both him and Ophion that they were trying to arrange a marriage for Rhea between her and Jarred. He felt a little bit guilty about that. None of them had ever thought all that much about having an arranged marriage at all, because their parents had never talked about it. Ophion was the oldest, and still unmarried, and that hadn’t been something that was brought up for him either. But clearly, their parents were worried about Rhea’s behavior enough to do that, and he figured a good portion of that had to be his fault, since he’d relieved her messing around with a halfblood. Even if it was LJ, even though they all loved LJ, he was still a halfblood.
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Tonight, he didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to think about his friend’s secrets, or his sister’s potential arranged marriage that had sprung up because of what he’d done. Instead, he had decided to spend a few hours at the casino. Sure, he should probably be studying for his finals, but he wasn’t actually all that worried about them. There would be plenty of time for studying later this week if he really wanted to. But he felt mostly prepared already.
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He’d played a few rounds of blackjack already, before deciding to take a break to go to the bar. His pockets were already feeling a lot lighter, but there was still time to turn that around. And if he didn’t, that was fine. Caerus didn’t make a habit of bringing too much money into a casino. Just enough to have fun, not enough to lose any serious amount of money. “Hopefully you’re having better luck tonight than I am,” he said to the person next to him, with a grin, as he sat down at a free bar stool. When the bartender came around, he ordered a whiskey neat, which had been his drink of choice all night.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]727 ● @ open ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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Now or Never

I'm turning off the light right now

i'm calling it a night now

Temperance was nervous. Tomorrow marked the first night of spring performances. She was performing an étude she had composed--and then the Braithwaite orchestra was to perform the sonata she had written in the fall. She had spent hours at the practice sessions. The musicians knew the lifts and dips perfectly. She had nothing to worry about, but worry she did anyway. It was hard to think of anything else. These were milestones in her musical career. She had already ascended to first chair in London. 

But that was playing the music of others. This would be the first time her own music was publicly performed. It was exciting and nerve wrecking. The others at Braithwaite had sworn the two pieces showed off the breadth of her skills well. The étude she would perform was exceptionally complex. It was short, barely five minutes, but it was not meant to be long. If the musical community was impressed by it, the piece could become part of the regular practice rotation for those seeking to master the double bass. It could even be merged into the Braithwaite curriculum if the head of the Music Division was impressed. 

That might have seemed silly to others, but she was excited at the notion that something she had created was so elegant and intricate that it could be used to guide musicians towards the mastery of an instrument would be a real mark of pride for her. It was all a stepping stone towards more complex, long compositions. The sonata she had composed was not as technical as the étude, but it held considerable meaning to her. It had a deeply sorrowful melody. It was a song of mourning. The music was her proclamation of unresolved pain and loss. She repressed and hid her emotions, but she poured them into her music. Her compositions laid out her confusion and frustration. They showed the depths of all she felt. 

Tomorrow, she would be performing in Kelsey Park down in Beckenham. But tonight, she and several of the other masters students were drinking and gambling away their nerves. Though not the avid gambler that Theadora tended to be (especially when it came to Quidditch matches), Temperance could enjoy herself now and again with a wager at a table. If tonight was an omen for tomorrow, things would go well at the performances, because she been quite lucky. She had played quite a few hands of baccarat and left the table with more in purse than she had set down with.  

The Mountbatten had not been drawn to any of the other tables, though--and decided to wait for her friends at the bar. It wasn't another of the Braithwaite that took the seat beside her, but a relative of her mother's husband. Temperance offered a smile to the wizard. "I don't want to brag, but my purse is a bit heavier than it was earlier. Considering your poor fortune, let me buy you a drink." Was it really her buying the drink though, if the funds came from her winnings? That was more like the house was buying the drink.

@ Caerus • 516 •  temperance's outfit

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

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[attr="class","ctopline"]I'M TURNIN' OFF THE LIGHT RIGHT NOW

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[attr="class","clyrics"]WISHIN' YOU WERE 'ROUND WITH ME[break]
BUT YOU'RE IN A DIFFERENT TOWN THAN ME

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[attr="class","cbody"]He had to figure out what he was going to do. Not just with his life, which was obviously the bigger problem in the grand scheme of things. But what had been on his mind currently was the situation with his best friend. It was difficult to believe that LJ had just been lying to his face for Merlin knew how long. Was he being dramatic about it? Was he making it into a bigger deal than it needed to be? He didn’t know. He just knew that his best friend had been shagging his sister and lying to him about it. Now he wasn’t speaking to his best friend, his sister wasn’t speaking to him, his parents were trying to arrange a marriage, and everything had definitely managed to get mucked up these past couple of weeks.
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Caerus had to work things out with LJ, he knew that—and he knew that he really had to figure out how to get Rhea to forgive him. He had been pissed at LJ, pissed at what he had walked in on and what his friend had said to him, but accidentally punching his sister instead of his friend had not been the plan. He had apologized, but she had still not spoken to him since. Now that she was back at school, there was very little that he could do about that except for hope that she would decide to forgive him by the time Hogwarts let out of the summer.
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LJ was another matter entirely. Caerus didn’t know what to do about that. He didn’t know if he needed to apologize for something, or if LJ did, or if they should just both go on like it had never happened. Maybe they needed to have a heart to heart. About his sister. Merlin help him. But he didn’t know if LJ cared about her or if it was just strictly a shagging thing. He didn’t know if he knew that their parents were arranging a marriage for her or not—or if they were still together on the side. He had no bloody idea, and he really preferred his life a few weeks prior, when he didn’t know anything about his sister’s sex life. It was something that he could do without thinking about, but it was an unfortunate consequence of his best friend being the one that was shagging her.
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They were just going to have to figure it out. That was just not going to be his problem. He had his own concerns. Figuring out what he wanted to do with his life, if he wanted to keep learning Astronomy, or if he wanted to drop out and live on a beach somewhere or something. That sounded good right about now. Not that there were any good beaches in the United Kingdom that were even worth living on. Without Quidditch, he just wasn’t sure just what he wanted to do. This epidemic had really made a mess of things. It wasn’t as if he had been all that certain of what he’d wanted to do with his life even before this. But now he really didn’t have a clue.
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If he could distract himself with some gambling, that was exactly what he was going to do. He hadn’t had much luck, but he had money to lose, so it was not that serious. And he never gambled enough for his father to even lecture him on it. He knew the odds of seeing someone that he knew here was pretty high, but he definitely hadn’t expected Temperance. Not that he was complaining. She was sort of his cousin in a convoluted sort of way. “How generous of you. I’m not going to say no to that.” He was never going to say no to a free drink—and if she was up money anyway, it was practically them getting a drink for free. It was definitely good that someone was having better luck than he was.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]668 ● @ tempe ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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