Chatting with Blake and other Beavertails over tea by the fire

You end up with Blake and a number of other Beavertails at a table in the corner of the House common room, close to the fireplace. Fauna Aspen is there, having flitted back in like a forest spirit after you overcame Blake in the duel. You squint at some of the ashes under the iron racks holding the burning wood.

"Are those books?" you ask.

"Haha, yes," Blake says. "Old examinations, workbooks from graduated students. They salt and ward them and burn them to start the fires in the kitchen and common rooms."

"Why?" you ask.

"Half-built spells and sigils," Blake says. "Stacking up like slow poison. Now and again one fires off by itself. So if you get sent to Detention, they might have you decontaminate old books before sending them to the flames."

"Oh!" Fauna says. "I guess that makes sense."

"Part of why we copy and re-copy," Blake says. "Why the Prefects and instructors check that our work is just so. Any magical writing you want around you, you want to be clean and wrapped up in warded bindings. Some say the Fifth House was careless with their old spells and that's what came to get them."

"Is that what happened?" Fauna says.

"Before my time," Blake says. "I mean, maybe somebody here knows what really happened, but I've never gotten a straight answer out of anyone. Eaten by demons, expelled for forbidden magic, called away as a whole for higher duty, riven by in-House rivalry." He shrugs. "Something happened. There's an entire House of Boarbristle standing empty. They keep it standing, but that's about all."

"Tell us about Turnbuckle," says one of the other first-years. Cathleen Turvey. She could be a model for Snow White. Milk-pale face, pink lips and cheeks, long straight black hair.

"Not for first-years," Blake says. "Little village on the other side of the Weirding Woods, not too far. "Second-years and after might go for a lark, or to buy some special little thing, or just to sleep a night or two out of dormitory."

There are some giggles at the table after Blake says the word "sleep".

"Don't go all by yourself, even as a second-year," Blake advises. "Get yourself rolled and robbed, like as not. Go with two or three others. It's not..."

"A wretched hive of scum and villainy?" Cathleen pipes up.

"Well, no," Blake says. "But it's sort of a town and gown thing. All us stuck-up fancy academy scholars and them having to put smiles on their faces to get our custom for their shops and lodging houses, while the Academy throws its weight around about what the townies can and can't do."

"How do you know all that?" Cathleen says.

"I was born in Turnbuckle," Blake says. "Scholarship boy."

Maybe that's why Blake was offended so personally by the sexual energy you and Susan Quaffle had leaked out over half a wing of the Beavertail dormitories. Quick to defend his dignity.

"I thought I'd be going to West Gryphon," Blake says, "But I came high in my Wizarding Levels and presto-change-o, there I was at Boarbristle. Ma and Da were proud, and happy I wasn't going far away."

"How about the Weirding Woods?" Fauna says. With her short horns and cloven hooves, she could pass for one of the residents disguised in a House robe.

"Oh, they talk up the danger," Blake says. "But if you know where to go, and when, there's little to fear." He furrows his brow, looking at the forest-girl. "You're a woods-girl yourself."

"I'm from south," Fauna says. "I don't know these woods at all."

"Well, deeper in there are centaurs," Blake says. "And if you're caught there at the wrong quarter of the moon, there are the Cockwalkers."

More giggles from the table, and a few expressions of curiosity or incredulity.

"No, really, that's what they look like," Blake says. "If you took a man's thing, you know? Shaft and balls? And then put some legs on it on the balls side. Like that." He makes some motions on the table with one hand, fingers pointed down to show a creepy-crawly motion. "They run in packs, looking for places to burrow their shafts into. They'll take lads, lasses, or even try to push into people's ears and noses, and they have these wide feet, they can climb right up your clothes or your legs."

Expressions of disgust and creeped-outed-ness come from round the table.

"Oh well," Blake says. "Stay on the main trails, don't go wandering off, you'll be fine. Probably."

Blake gets a few more questions on Turnbuckle and the Weirding Woods as he's established himself as the Local Expert, and all of you are green in all things Boarbristle, Woods, or Town.

"Oh, right, if you want to see the Woods, you can ask to help clear the trails. Tedious, but it gets you out in the fresh air if that's what you like, and you can get in good with the Housemistress. She likes things well taken care of, and thinks the other Houses are up in their pride, out in their heads or down in their rivalries and should be paying more attention to Boarbristle the place, rather than Boarbristle the idea, if you take my meaning."

Hearing that about the Housemistress helps you feel that you're in the right house, Beavertail. The House that actually cares about the real, actual place you're all living, to keep it safe and clean and working, not to puff up some grand notion.

You sip at your tea and try to take it all in.

Possible next Moves:

• Ask Blake to introduce you to someone who can get you on a Weirding Woods work party. Roll +DILIGENCE(+4) (+2 Diligence, +2 CHARM spell) to ENCOUNTER Blake. On a 7+ he tells you the right person, on a 10+ take +1 Forward for his recommendation. On a success, take a DILIGENCE goal. (Maybe Fauna Aspen will also be interested.)
• Ask Blake to take you to Turnbuckle. As a first-year, you're technically forbidden, but he can probably make up an excuse (Poesy's helping me with ...). Roll +DILIGENCE(+4) to ENCOUNTER Blake as above, and on a 7+ Blake will take you. On a 10+ he introduces you to someone especially interesting or important, and you may take +1 to ENCOUNTER them.
• Wait till after the tea party breaks up. Ask Blake to sneak you in to see Susan. Roll +DILIGENCE(+4) to ENCOUNTER Blake as above. On a 7+, ENCOUNTER Susan, on a 10+ take +1 Forward to ENCOUNTER Susan.
• Pursue Fauna Aspen. Roll +DILIGENCE(+2) to ENCOUNTER her and ask about her life as a forest person and her interest in the Weirding Woods.
• Start your classes. Sleep, roll for RAPID GENDER SWITCHING, and describe your first class.

You have 4 XP.

Traits: Ambition -1, Bravery +1, Cunning +1, Diligence +2.
Special: Rapid Gender Switching after sex or sleep. You're currently intersex, willow-slim, with reduced primary and secondary characteristics.