He was only gone for a second, but on his return there a box under his arm. Finally, there was going to be a bit of fun around this dreary old place. The box opened with the clink of wood, and before Gertie knew a large, wet ball of green slime was an inch from her nose.
A shriek escaped her lips, she never wanted to be close to a frog again. Watching one explode was a different matter all together, and one that wasn’t gong to get her covered in frog if she used a shield charm. Thwack. The frog flew across the room. “What was that for?”
Wincing at the high pitched shrill that came from his friend, Vindictus watched with mild amusement as his little guinea frog went sailing across the room. It hit a candelabra and rolled along the floor, lying in a little heap before coming to its senses and hopping under a chair. The young man gave an amused grin to Gertie before snatching up the candles from the floor and shoving them back into their holes, fingers twitching as flame and hot wax licked his skin.
“I wanted you to see what it looked like before,” Vindictus said plainly before crouching down, shooting a lean arm under the chair and catching the frog easily in his fingers. He’d had a lot of practice catching them - it was far too easy with magic to help and it helped pass the long, boredom encrusted hours.
Plopping the little animal down onto the table near the couch, he drew out his wand and pointed at the creature. Shooting a look to Gertie, he raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you done deafening me? Can I do this now?”
(Source: the-vindictive-dark)
Gertie did her best to keep her face straight as an arrow. “Yes, perfect.” It had been a long time since she had last seen one of Vindictus’s spells in action. Seeing them always made something near her stomach lurch in joy. “Would you show me? On a frog?”
His eyes suddenly became a little more twinkly, unblinking and…intense. “…sure. You best know a cleaning spell though. It can get a little messy and I’m not good at that womanly crap.” Pushing himself off the floor (thankful for the rug that kept his body away from the cold stones), Vindictus soon disappeared out of the common room. Quickly navigating towards his bed he pulled out a box from under it where a lethargic toad sat in a small wooden box made of dirt. Grabbing the toad he went back to the common room and held it out, practically shoving the animal in Gertie’s face.
“Here.”
(Source: the-vindictive-dark)
With as much creativity as she could muster, Gertie eyed the marking once more. It was a rare occasion when Vindictus did not know the answer to a thing, and she was determined not to let the little fact that she did not know either spoil this for her. “It’s a mark showing that you’ve missed a letter. You make it when you’ve written in ink and can’t correct it. There is a spell for it of course, but I can’t remember it. The dot means you missed a ‘U’ and the little squiggle means you missed a ‘P’.” Gertie hoped another question would not be in order. “And what are you writing for, anyway?”
Scooting up slightly so that his back rested against the edge of the couch, Vindictus dipped his quill into the inkpot just near him on the floor and he wrote in a U and a P where the marks were. Giving a small nod at the Rightness of the new spellings, he gave a small shrug. “Notes for a spell I was trying. Knocks a person’s head off…or is supposed to anyway. Tried it on some frogs. Didn’t really work. Sort of just…left them all squished.”
(Source: the-vindictive-dark)
“Must you always run your hand over the parchment like that? You’re making the letters all run together.” Taking the ledger in hand, Gertie mouthed the letters as she repeated them to herself. “You’ve missed a few letters.” With her quill she added a dot above the p and gave a flourish to the second t before sliding it back.
Vindictus gave a small grunt and roll of his eyes, poking at the paper with a finger in deliberate retaliation. A few lines of still wet ink smudged under his attention. Snapping the paper back he looked at the new lines with skepticism. “…what’s this dot here for?” he questioned. Sure Gertie knew what she was doing but that didn’t mean he did. Thankfully she was one of the few people he did not mind admitting to he wasn’t sure of himself in this area.
(Source: the-vindictive-dark)
“…d…c…a…p…a…t…a…t…e” Looking down to the word he’d written sloppily in his little book, Vindictus rolled over on the floor and shoved it up to Gertie for inspection. “Is that right?”
Phyllida’s cheeks grew warm under the scrutiny of his glare, but remained calm and marble to his words. She had the unfortunate malediction of blushing whenever stared down upon. She pursed her lips in response to his remark, knowing that pursuing this argument would only lead to more rage and will to retort in unladylike manners. Instead, she brushed an idle hand to smooth down the foldings of her pale cerulean dress, and stared back at him once more, “It’s more than a cat, it’s a companion. I’d rather talk to a beast than to you,” she admitted in a fit of uncared stubbornness, but deep inside of her she knew well that perhaps it was needless to say such things.
Cat and man stood in the hallway, still curiously watching this friend of Elizabeth’s. He hadn’t really bothered to meet any of the other hob-nobbers she hung around with as they weren’t exactly approving of his company. He watched in amusement as she smoothed her dress. Shoving CatTimothy’s tail away from his face, he smiled slowly, showing his teeth. “Don’t you know? I am a beast,” he said casually, leaning forward a little.
Ever since he was a child, Vindictus was always close to his mother. The other villagers did their best to not interact with the pair so Aldreda became his only friend in addition to being his only parental figure. Though he did attempt to socialize with other children these interactions hardly ever went well and sometimes at the hands of his mother.
Aldreda did little to encourage her son to seek other people out for company, preferring to keep the boy close. She would often scare any children who thought to befriend her son and sometimes would even make them believe it was her son who caused them harm.
However, she was also the cause of direct harm to her son, throwing him in danger’s way to “teach him valuable lessons.” Though in the beginning he resented his mother for her actions, Vindictus soon grew exceeding attached to her and after she explained her hopes for him, saw her harsh lessons as an asset. As he grew older they grew closer and once he hit puberty an Oedipus complex vibe was added to their relationship.
To this day his image of the ideal woman is entangled with the image of his mother.
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