| Jazmee27
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======
It should be noted here that I don’t drink alcobhol of an y kind-despite my friend’s attempts to corrupt me, and Mom’s friend Curtis wanting me to try some wine on a few occasions; presumably, I don’t like wine because, apart from the white variety, I don’t like grape juice. And the only thing Tiffany bade me drink was Mike’s Hard Lemonade, which I didn’t care for either. So, until such time she finds something I *do enjoy…
But that doesn’t mean my characters abstain. The legal age for those in the magical community is 16—which is probably why I think part of tape three is dumb. One could say I forgot in the earlier tapes; it was covered in great detail in the first series, and will be again in the third.
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Reply #801. Jun 14 12, 5:31 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
The day Maria finds Preston and Devlyn enjoying shots of whiskey, Preston is a little ashamed or embarrassed at first—but still manages to be as defiant as usual. And, in the end, Maria admits she has no objections with what he’s doing, since “God said nothing to me about not drinking.”
Later, the 16-year-old stumbles into Belle’s room on the way to his own, and the reader (or listener) gets a glimpse into just how “brotherly” he feels:
Preston (softly, almost reverently): Ah, there’s my Belle… She looks so peaceful sleeping like that. Nice nightgown, too.
Shortly after he lurches into his own room, there’s a sharp rap at the door.
Preston (sleepily): Uh-oh, busted… Oh, hi Belle.
Belle (angrily): Are you *drunk?
Preston: Uh… yeah.
Belle (angrily): I should have known! And just what were you doing in my room?
Preston: I forgot which room is mine—the one next to yours.
Belle: Go to sleep!
Preston: That’s what I’m trying to do!
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Reply #802. Jun 14 12, 5:32 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
Yet another funny scene in the tape series if hours after everyone’s left the Potions Room. Preston has Connor remain behind while the “belligerent little brat” cleans up his mess. When he finally emerges, he finds his mother waiting with a list of yard work. “Since he enjoys being outdoors so much, let his punishment be cleaning up out there,” Maria explains to Devlyn.
Maria (glancing at her son’s sullen gaze): Look who’s done cleaning! Want some more chores to do?
1Connor (reddening): Don’t even think about it, Mom!
Maria (thrusting the paper at him): Too bad…. Now who do I find to show you what’s what in the shed while I sit through another painfully boring meeting?
Devlyn (nervously): Don’t look at me; please, don’t look at me.
Maria (exasperated)?: Oh, Devlyn!
Devlyn (throwing his hands up in resignation): Fine! I can’t stand it when you look at me like that?
Maria (feigning ignorance): Like what?
?Devlyn (thickly): Like… that.
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Reply #803. Jun 14 12, 5:33 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
After her meeting’s over, the Assistant Headmistress happens to look outside—and swears explosively:
Maria: The yard looks like a jungle! I don’t know *what Connnor did to it, but… How in the hell are we supposed to fix this?
Devlyn (breathing a gusty sigh of frustration): Oh, Preston?
Preston: Did someone call my name? (Grimmaces) Oh, God, the yard.
Devlyn (through gritted teeth): Connor.
Maria: It looks like a train wreck!
Devlyn: Worse than that—a train wreck, hurricane and tornado combined.
Preston: And maybe an earthquake on top of that… Well, there’s only one way to fix this: magic. I’d suggest, in the future, not giving Connor yard work; maybe have him do the boys’ bathroom or something… with a toothbrush.
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Reply #804. Jun 14 12, 5:34 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
It’s beyond comprehension how anyone could believe something so crazy, but… On tape four, after the fiasco with the yard, after Preston’s made the castle “look decent again,” Devlyn, Maria and Preston head inside for an adult beverage. In the kitchen doorway, they freeze and stare open-mouthed at the 12-year-old standing at the counter (at Maria’s first exclamation, he whirls and attempts to hide the evidence of what he was doing).
Maria (flabbergasted): What the hell… is that?
Devlyn (equally stunned): Looks like… Alonso!
Maria (regaining her composure): What are *you doing here?
Alonso (clasping his hands behind his back): Nothing.
Devlyn (narrowing his eyes): What’s that behind your back.
Alonso (too quickly): Nothing.
Maria (rolling her eyes): Uh-huh.
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Reply #805. Jun 14 12, 5:36 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
Just then, Alonso’s twin enters, gazing around him with barely-concealed fury.
Ontario (incredulously): No wonder you’re so tired all the time-and no wonder you’re so much more… moody.
Alonso (furiously): All right, all of you-you think I’m doing something wrong? What am I supposed to do?
Maria (softly): Not this.
Alonso (pointing a trembling finger at preston): Well, what about *him?
Maria: We’ll let Preston answer that one.
Preston: Um… I’m older; and I’ve seen more than you ever will. I know you’ve had it rough, kid, but—
Alonso (furiously): I’m not a kid-I’m twelve years old!
Preston (heavy sarcasm): If you’re not a kid, then… I’m sorry, but I forgot what twelve years was like. (Bitterly sarcastic) Oh, that’s right: I wasn’t allowed to be twelve-I had to jump right into being thirty!
Maria (stunned all over again): Wow!
Preston (looking at Alonso without the slightest hint of sympathy): And you can’t feel good, can you?
Alonso (so softly as to be nearly inaudible): No.
Prestonn: At least *I enjoy the taste of it; *you, you’re making faces every time you swallow!
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Reply #806. Jun 14 12, 5:39 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
Maria: You’re not going to be a bad influence on the kids, are you, Preston?
Preston: Hell, no, I’m trying to talk him out of it; but if he insists on drinking, it should at least be something he likes…
Maybe he thinks he’s torturing himself or something.
Alonso (whispering and not meeting anyone’s eye): I deserve nothing better.
Preston: You hear this? He “deserves nothing better”. And why is that, Alonso?
Alonso (trembling): I brought this all on myself.
Preston, Maria and Ontario: Huh?
Alonso (staring at his feet, twisting his hands nervously and mumbling to himself): I caused all this.
Ontario (startled): Oh! He blames himself for everything bad that’s ever happened to him.
Preston: That’s the biggest piece of BS I’ve ever heard. Alonso… stop. You didn’t “bring it on yourself”.
Devlyn: Is there any more of that crap in your room?
Alonso (shrugging his shoulders): Perhaps.
Preston: Check his dresser.
Ontario: I’ll be right back.
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Reply #807. Jun 14 12, 5:40 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
Alonso (glaring at Preston with unveiled hostility): How do you know so much?
Preston: You don’t want to know.
------
TO BE CONTINUED
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Reply #808. Jun 14 12, 5:41 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
When Ontario returns to the group, he’s carrying a large quantity of liquer that’s only manufactured in Scenoria and is known for being quite strong (there were so many in Alonso’s room that still others glide after his brother).
Devlyn (mouth hanging open): Wow!
Preston (rolling his eyes): Told you.
Maria: How much of this stuff do you consume a night?
Preston: More than you’d care to know.
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Reply #809. Jun 14 12, 5:42 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
Preston (Heavy sarcasm): It’s quite impressive, really: He’s been taking sips of this throughout the day; we should all have smelled it on his breath and yet, we didn’t. Why is that, Alonso?
Alonso (looking away): I don’t know.
Preston (chuckling darkly): Do we need to unblock your mind, Alonso?
Alonso (panicked): You couldn’t; you wouldn’t.
Preston: You can’t block me, kid.
Alonso: Oh, God (faints)
Maria: He’s not—
Ontario: No.
Preston: He needs sleep.
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Reply #810. Jun 14 12, 5:43 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
Alonso (stirs feebly, then lies still, glaring up at everyone)
Maria: Are you going to let us pick you up, or do we have to manhandle you?
Ontario (to the others): Stand back; I’ve got it. (to Alonso) I’ve been on the receiving end of that expression so many times it no longer phases me.
Alonso (faintly): You can’t treat me like this.
Ontario: It’s for your own good; one day, you’ll thank us. Now, unstiffen those muscles before wwe force you to, and that will hurt—a lot—and we don’t want to do that to you, but some of us are more willing than others to do so.
Maria: Even Preston?
Ontario: He was the one I spoke of when I said, ‘some are more willing than others.’ (lets out an exasperated sigh, then releases some of his magical energies. Before it touches him, Alonso’s muscles relax and the 12-year-old lies limp, gasping fearfully) See: he doesn’t want to suffer; he just feels entitled or something.
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Reply #811. Jun 14 12, 5:45 PM
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| Jazmee27
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======
Some of the more funny parts of the audio drama involve how imupatient Preston is. To understand the hilarity, one must understand my friend Tiffany. She’s one of those people who’s naturally sarcastic, and who loses her temper at the slightest sign of immaturity or idioacy. A great deal of that stems from her job as a “Loan Officer,” or whatever the title’s called. She spends all day on the phone with borrowers, and I know for a fact many of the lines she has her characters say are ones she’d love to say to said borrowers, but of course she can’t because it would mean her job.
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Reply #812. Jun 15 12, 8:22 AM
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| Jazmee27
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As the Potions class grows longer and longer, Preston’s patience is becoming thinner and thinner. A bunch of the students—all but Isabelle—end up having some sort of difficulty brewing a Simple Healing potion. For example, one of the instructions is tgo add a “pinch” of something; Anja, Anaastasia’s twin sister, adds more than that, and winds up with something she doesn’t want. “Help!”
Preston (barely concealed exasperation): Read this. It calls for a pinch; Any more and you won’t get what you want.
Anja (panic-stricken): Uh… what’s that?
Preston (exasperated): You take your thumb and your forefinger, and go like this; voila, a pinch.
Anja (gratefully): Oh… thanks.
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Reply #813. Jun 15 12, 8:23 AM
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| Jazmee27
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=====
Nearby, Ontario isn’t faring much better. He seems lost in thought, and at Anastasia’s exclamation, looks up questioningly. “What?”
Preston (gently): Uh, Ontario, it looks like you missed an ingredient.
Ontario (horrified): Oh!
Preston (snapping his fingers-makes the failed potion vanish): Start over.
Ontario (relieved): Thank you.
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Reply #814. Jun 15 12, 8:24 AM
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| Jazmee27
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======
Brendyn, “the quiet one,” also finishes with no problems, and iis allowed to leave. “Thank you kindly.”
When another student “acts out” because he’s not getting it, Preston loses his temper:
Preston (exasperated): Oh, come on-it’s not that hard! It should be fourth- or fifth-grade math!
Student (beginning to panic): But I totally messed up-look!
Preston (regaining some semblance of calm): All you did wrong is you mixed it too fast. If you notice, it says to stir slowly.
Student (awed): So it does… But what if it had told me to stir fast or medium? What then?
Preston (making stirring motions in the air): This is ‘slow,’ this would be ‘medium,’ and this is ‘fast.’
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Reply #815. Jun 15 12, 8:24 AM
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| Jazmee27
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======
As I contemplate my drama, I cannot help but think that all my characters—well, the good ones—have one thing in common: intense suffering. “We’ve endured far more hardship in our lives than any one person of similar age in the human world.” It’s what draws them together, holds them close, binds them. Yet, at least in the second series, the Dark is able to break those ties (some), destroying the connectors between certain characters. One way they can do this is through deep, dark secrets-it’s so much easier to manipulate someone if he/she is unaware of the bigger picture.
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Reply #816. Jun 15 12, 8:25 AM
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| Jazmee27
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It’s the start of something, or maybe it’s that I want it to be-but knowing the end of the story, I have to wonder… did things really turn out the way I intended?
The answer, unfortunately, is no. First off, I began the second audio two years ago-and a lot can happen in two years. The story’s taken so many twists and turns in that time, and many were unwelcome. It’s like I always say, the story tends to write itself.
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Reply #817. Jun 15 12, 8:26 AM
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| Jazmee27
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Either that same night, or the next day, Anastasia seeks out Alonso. And I can hear Tiffany’s voice in the background saying, “a cute girl usually brings a man out of his misery”.
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Reply #818. Jun 15 12, 8:27 AM
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| Jazmee27
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In this scene, Alonso’s clearly suffering from a hangover, and whatever feelings of shame or guilt—or both—are compounded by the realization of what he’s put her through.
Anastasia (moving up to sit next to him): You’re not taking care of yourself.
Alonso (looking anywhere but at her, and speaking so faintly as to just be heard): Why should I?
Anastasia (awkwardly): Because I… love you.
Alonso (looking up at last): You… seriously?
Anastasia (passionately): Does it look like I… I wouldn’t joke about something like that. I’m not like some girls who’d play with another’s emotions! (The 10-year-old glances away, thinking how, even if he doesn’t return her love, at least they’re friends) Just… promise me you’ll take better care of yourself.
Alonso (quietly): All right (looks away, then forces his gaze to meet hers) and… I love you, too.
Anastasia (feeling her muscles relax): The words sound so foreign coming from you (most likely, given his past experiences, they very much are)
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Reply #819. Jun 15 12, 8:28 AM
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| Jazmee27
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NO IT'S NOT
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As the day progressed, I felt a certain lightness of spirit at the realization that the date was finally here. The day I’d been told-well, the day *Mom was told-that Charlaine and Robert were leaving. Mom wants me to be nice, but I reall y can’t bring myself to be judicious in my memories of thenm—well, her, as I didn’t know him. The only time I encounterecd Robert was when he came up to apologize about taking Mom’s head off when she shook out the bird’s towel over the balcony. “Hey! You’re not supposed to do that!”As for his wife, there’s nothing in this world that can excuse her behavior.Clearly, she has mental issues—but that’s an explanation, and nothing more.
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Reply #820. Jun 15 12, 8:29 AM
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