#3 Morning (OPEN)

Mathias almost walked into a stone pillar in his rush to get to the courtyard. He had a string in his mouth that he tried to extend with one hand but couldn't reach far enough. He huffed and looked around, spotting a fellow Ravenclaw classmate.

'Hey, Autumn - you got a minute?' Mathias smiled as he approached, offering her one end of the string. 'Hold this.' He waited to see if she'd take it, though offered no further explanation, then carefully paced himself five feet away while holding tight to the other end.

(OOC: Sorry, I posted earlier, but I had completely missed Mathias' post so I rewrote it. So sorry.)

Autumn lifted her gaze as she saw a fellow fifth year Ravenclaw, Mathias, walk into a pillar. A small, amused smile appeared on her face as she watched him struggle with a string. Before she knew it, he offered her the string as well. She placed her sketchbook on the bench and took the string then watched curiously as he began to walk a small distance away. "What are you up to, Mathias?" she inquired.

Autumn was vaguely aware of another girl who watched them for a moment before moving on to read a book. It seemed slightly odd to see a Slytherin alone without a posse of friends, but she brushed off the thought and returned her attention to Mathias'... experiment? She couldn't quite figure out what he was doing, so she awaited an explanation.

Anise looked up instinctively when Sallow wandered closer to where she sat, puzzled and curious as to what he was doing with strings and parchment. Her eyes followed him as he came closer, and didn’t think twice to take the string he had offered as she tried to figure out exactly what he was up to.

“Balancing seeds?” She asked, her tone a mixture of curious and criticising, “What on earth…”

She stared at his setup for another moment, then asked, “Are you going to balance seeds on the string, or what?”

While his behavior was somewhat odd to Anise, she could appreciate the sight of a mind at work and was genuinely curious to decipher what was happening and what he was so intent on learning. Abandoning her book on the bench, she stood and took a step towards him, asking, “Do you need any help with that?”

'Yes.' Mathias grinned at Anise. 'That's exactly what I'm going to do, in theory. It's not very strong though, could you two come closer?' He directed the girls until they were only about eight feet apart, and adjusted the string to be straight but not too tightly pulled.

'Alleged?' Mathias scoffed good-natured at Autumn. 'The theory is all there. I can show you my notes, if you like? I've just yet to figure out the exact calculation and method of which they balance on non-natural elements or environments. A piece of yarny-string, for instance. I've given it a wax coating too, and not the cheap candle kind.'

They might have noticed that while holding it but he wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't since it was a thin layer and didn't feel all that wax-like, just weird. 

'It should work,' he added. Mathias leaned so he was at eye-level with the string, hand on it to adjust any small inaccuracies. His other hand held the seed - an orange-sized, bramble-looking thing. 'My dad sent it to me, says it was from Africa. They've got more at home and are going to try growing it in one of our spare acres.' He beamed proudly, though his focus remained on the string and getting his little experiment ready. 

'Remind me later - they're in my dorm, somewhere,' Mathias said. Where did he put those notes? Apart from the extra ones he scribbled on his rush there.

He raised the seed above the string, ready to try it out, but waited while Autumn asked him a question. Best not to get distracted. 'Some seeds are meant to balance or may be able to, in the right conditions. It's so fascinating! No one really knows why they do it, but some seeds behave in weird ways or give off weird smells when they balance. I want to see what for myself and maybe figure out why they do it and what it means for their survival.' He explained it in a rush, excited to get started and loving the whole concept.

'Besides, I want to prove I can do it.' Mathias gave her a cheeky grin, as she still considered his task to only be an alleged concept.

Unable to wait any longer, he delicately placed the large seed on the string. It wobbled for a moment, and he gasped in excitement. Then the seed shot off the string and smacked him in the forehead. With a yelp of surprise, Mathias tumbled backwards and grabbed the prickly seed. He grumbled incoherently and shoved the seed back into his pocket.

'Not the right wax,' he mumbled. He grabbed some random parchment and scribbled more notes - checking the breeze and the string and anything else he believes influenced his failure. Mathias wasn't put out by it, only the fact the seed was ouchy when it hit him.

'I'll figure it out sooner or later.' He huffed, straightening on his feet again. He opened his mouth to saying something, but gasped and quickly checked the time. 'Blimey! I'm going to be late. I promised I wouldn't forget. Gosh, okay - er, thanks for the help. I gotta go.' He grabbed the string and stuffed things into his pockets then fled the courtyard in a rush.


[OOC: Yeah, Mathias needs to be at the lake now. But this was fun! I hope we can RP again soon.]