Tristan Verona
Starring: @Raizel Voltrouz 2025/09/07
"Is it strange to hang around a place where magic doesn't exist? Where you could just… be normal for once?”
Silence was the only appropriate response. It wasn’t that Tristan didn’t have anything to say. It was that he needed a moment to think about what had been said. Given the sudden tension rising from his question, the absence of words was a mercy he could offer.
In the following moments, the chirps of crickets took over the conversation. The sound of skittering in the darkness replaced utterance as a wood mouse collected hidden seeds to satisfy its appetite. The moon, although silent, shone down hauntingly on their small haven. A cold chill in the air contributed heavily to the eerie ambience.
Normal… what exactly did normal look like? He wished he knew. Everybody had a different opinion on the matter. For some, normal was the thing they missed the most in a world that was always shifting. For others, it was the thing that made them comfortable when they looked at you. That’s what he was trying his best to be for others, but unlike Raizel, the closest way he had found was through magic, not through its absence.
Tristan’s world was very different from hers, and there wasn’t much he could offer. So instead of trying, he imitated her and laid back down with his arms resting behind his head. His eyes stared into the night sky, counting the craters on the moon and waiting for the lunar eclipse to begin. Time passed slowly, offering a momentary respite from an eventful evening.
After a few minutes, he mustered up a bit of courage and cautiously broke the silence
“I don’t know what normal means to you, but I don’t think anything here falls into that category. We live in a castle with ghosts and talking paintings. We have a stone dog that decides if we are allowed to go to our rooms or not. Some students look at us weird because we are in the House of Misfortune or whatever. I doubt most kids in the UK would find that normal.”
He thought about his current look. He rarely chose this face. The only exception was usually around Halloween when disguises and costumes were part of the fun of it all. Here, he didn’t have a choice. This place made him feel vulnerable and exposed. His eyelids closed for an instant and beneath them were found the intangible forms of thoughts, reflections and discomfort. Normal had become unnatural. He opened them once more and decided to search for shooting stars instead.
“But, I understand wanting to pretend. I do that too”
Silence was the only appropriate response. It wasn’t that Tristan didn’t have anything to say. It was that he needed a moment to think about what had been said. Given the sudden tension rising from his question, the absence of words was a mercy he could offer.
In the following moments, the chirps of crickets took over the conversation. The sound of skittering in the darkness replaced utterance as a wood mouse collected hidden seeds to satisfy its appetite. The moon, although silent, shone down hauntingly on their small haven. A cold chill in the air contributed heavily to the eerie ambience.
Normal… what exactly did normal look like? He wished he knew. Everybody had a different opinion on the matter. For some, normal was the thing they missed the most in a world that was always shifting. For others, it was the thing that made them comfortable when they looked at you. That’s what he was trying his best to be for others, but unlike Raizel, the closest way he had found was through magic, not through its absence.
Tristan’s world was very different from hers, and there wasn’t much he could offer. So instead of trying, he imitated her and laid back down with his arms resting behind his head. His eyes stared into the night sky, counting the craters on the moon and waiting for the lunar eclipse to begin. Time passed slowly, offering a momentary respite from an eventful evening.
After a few minutes, he mustered up a bit of courage and cautiously broke the silence
“I don’t know what normal means to you, but I don’t think anything here falls into that category. We live in a castle with ghosts and talking paintings. We have a stone dog that decides if we are allowed to go to our rooms or not. Some students look at us weird because we are in the House of Misfortune or whatever. I doubt most kids in the UK would find that normal.”
He thought about his current look. He rarely chose this face. The only exception was usually around Halloween when disguises and costumes were part of the fun of it all. Here, he didn’t have a choice. This place made him feel vulnerable and exposed. His eyelids closed for an instant and beneath them were found the intangible forms of thoughts, reflections and discomfort. Normal had become unnatural. He opened them once more and decided to search for shooting stars instead.
“But, I understand wanting to pretend. I do that too”
