forum Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. // OxO // ClOSED

Started August 24, 2022 by @EtherealDreamer

tune

Aspen nodded and smiled.
"Mrs.Finch approved the Quidditch match, if I can do it." She said excitedly.
"What are you looking at?" She asked, eyeing the book he had open in front of him.

"Really? That's awesome!" River said. He glanced down at the book before showing Aspen the cover of it. "It's about the history of The Chateau, how and why it was made, stuff like that."

Aspen nodded.
"So what've you learned so far?" She asked curiously.

"I learned that this actually used to be the home of a lazy, greedy tyrant who taxed his people greatly but never gave them food, protection, or anything else in return," River said eagerly. "He held a masquerade ball during the Black Death, inviting only the richest nobles to join him in safety from the plague, denying his own subjects protection.
Apparently a few days after he did this, a mysterious, handsome man entered the castle and killed everyone inside. A peculiar named Edgar Allen Poe came by a few centuries later and wrote a story based off of the events that happened in The Chateau. The book here is a lot more detailed than that, but I thought it was a really cool story."

Aspen nodded.
"Masque of the Red Death." She stated "the story he wrote anyway."
"I can't believe Edgar Allan Poe was peculiar, but I guess it explains a lot."

"It says here that his peculiarity was having dreams so vivid that he could describe them in perfect detail, and the dream wouldn't leave him until he wrote it all down," River stated, looking at the text in the book. "Weird ability to have, but I've read some of his work and it definitely explains a lot of things."

Aspen nodded.
"Yeah," She said in awe "It really does."

River smiled and closed the book as he stood up. He held it in his arms as he said, "I was going to take this back to my dorm and then grab a few snackd, you want to come?"

Aspen nodded and stood up.
"Sure." She said, smiling down at him.

River walked out of the library with her, trying to remember the correct path back to the kitchens.

Aspen led the way, confident in her steps and stopped in front of the room River and Darius shared, waiting for him to go inside first, since it was his room after all.

River glanced at Aspen gratefully as he opened the door to his room, waving at Darius when he saw the other boy already in the room, reading a thick leather-bound book at the desk.

Aspen followed, carrying the stack of books River had had sitting next to him, which she had grabbed on whim, she made her way over to the other desk, across the room and sat the books down.

"You got another desk in here?" River asked Darius in surprise.
"Yeah, I figured you might want one and Maya found an extra one lying around," he replied, gently closing the ancient-looking book.
"Thanks," River grinned before turning to Aspen. "And thanks for bringing those as well, you didn't have to."

Aspen shrugged and sat on River's bed, which like hers was bare with only a blue comforter and white sheets.

"I put the snacks over there if you two want some," Darius said, gesturing to the large potato sacks that were unceremoniously dumped in the far corner of the room, next to one of the bookshelves.
River nodded and grabbed one of the bags, dragging it closer to his bed.

Aspen made the bag float to her slowly, then opened it, digging in and grabbing a book from the pile on River's desk, opening it and careful to keep her greasy finger prints from getting on the page.

River grabbed a snack for himself as well, getting the history book and sliding down to sit on the floor, his back against his bed.

Aspen opened the book, reading the title briefly.
Large events in Peculiardom, it read.
She flipped to the first page and began reading.

River skipped to the chapter after the one he'd already read. This one talked about why there were so many hidden passageways and secret rooms and where they were. He smirked as he scanned the pages, doing his best to commit the directions into his memory.

Aspen read half of the chapter, then closed the book and rolled onto her back, staring at the ceiling.

She ate the chips, slowly.
"Are you having fun?" She asked River.

"Yeah," River saaid, finishing his chapter roughly around the time she did. "This is actually a really great book."

Aspen smiled to herself and rolled over, facedown.
"I still can't believe this place is real." She said, but it was terribly muffled, considering her face was pressed into River's pillow.

"It's amazing," River agreed, popping another snack into his mouth. "I love it here."

Aspen sat up.
"It's so unreal it's hard to believe it is real, y'know?"