crown on the ground / DEVYN

[Danni Oberlin]

Danni wrinkled her nose at her reflection with utmost distaste, twisting her body from one side to the other in order to inspect herself from all angles. She'd blown quite a fair bit of the money she'd been saving up when she'd gone out shopping earlier that day, and she was wondering if she'd made a massive mistake with a dress she'd bought. Usually she stuck to cute, pastel-coloured type dresses, often very sophisticated indeed, with a bolder accessory or two to shake things up a bit. She'd decided to break entirely out of this when she'd eyed up the dress in the window of the shop - it was so not her, with all of its clashing, wild colours, but she felt nearly confident that she could pull it off when she'd traipsed out of the shop with it clutched to her chest. It was sort of ballsy, the kind of thing that'd make her stick out a mile, and while she liked being appreciated for her good fashion sense, she was fairly certain that this number would be deemed as over-kill. There was a small part of her, however, that positively clung to her dress, insistent that she'd knock everyone dead with it on. 

Frankly, she needed another opinion, and usually she would've entrusted Karina with such a massive decision, but Karina, unfortunately, was not around, and Danni was far too impatient to write to her. Anyways, she wanted Karina to have the full effect of seeing the dress, not a crappy description of it. Heaving a large sigh, she supposed she could ask her mother what she thought, but she was a good ninety percent certain her mother's assessment of the dress would just not suffice. 

"Damn," she muttered under her breath - Danni didn't often swear, and damn was quite enough for her - and she chucked herself down on her bed beside the magazine she'd gotten that day as well. Really she'd only gotten it because it had an interview with a guy who'd just gotten home from spending five years on a Dragon Reserve. The interview wasn't very long at all, but her adoration of dragons, and the fact that the guy was ridiculously attractive, had spurned her on. She'd already read the interview twice - both of the time she could practically feel her eyes sparkling - but, she supposed, she could read it again. Even the dragons couldn't work their magic, however; the fact of the matter was, being undecided about the dress was a dilemma and a half, and if she left it too long she'd just end up chucking it into the back of her wardrobe and never looking at it again. It was so stressful she nearly went to bite her nails, but halted in her tracks with a stern look on her face. Her nails were grown out to perfection, and she wasn't about to screw with them over such a simple matter. She'd just have to wait until she could harass Karina about it, and she was sure she'd be able to trap her best friend tomorrow, or perhaps the next day. 

She chucked a hesitant look to the right. Her sister's room was just a little way down the corridor, and she knew for a fact that Devyn was in that night. Frowning at her most prized cuddly toy, she muttered, "I'm going to brave dragons, but I'm worried about my sister..." into its blank face. The frowning was then directed towards the grinning, bordering-on-smug face of the handsome young man in the magazine. "You know what? Screw it," she said, almost rebelliously. Jumping to her feet, she tossed her hair back, fidgeted a bit with the dress, and nabbed a packet of jellies. Peace offerings. And if Devyn was in any way majorly bitchy when she waltzed in, they could always be used as a weapon. With a surge of determination - her sister was going to help her whether she liked it or not, because that's what sisters were there for - she marched out of her room, traipsed down the corridor (listening with satisfaction to the click of her heels) and knocked purposefully on Devyn's door and pushed her way in without waiting for an answer, one hand hovering over her eyes.

"Sorry if you're, you know, shagging anyone in here, but this is important," she announced, voice dripping with sarcasm. She'd never gotten over the thought of Devyn having sex with Louis Weasley in a room so close to hers, when she was probably in, a couple of summers ago. God. She could've just walked in. Lowering her hand, she noted with satisfaction that no-one else was there, and no-one was in a comprising situation. Fab. "Don't kick me out. This is an emergency," she enunciated the word carefully, lest Devyn should underestimate the seriousness of it. "I'd ask Karina, but she's not around, so. You can help me out, okay?" The words sounded rather too harsh - Danni so wanted to be sweet and bubbly all of the time, but with certain people - namely Devyn - she sounded so blunt and sharp and sarky. Inwardly berating herself, she softened her words with a smile, brandishing the jellies. "Want one?" 

______
ooc. this is shit sorry?? how do you thread

[Devyn Oberlin]

Devyn sat at the desk in the corner of her room, focused on reading in-between replying to letters from Damien, which were quickly getting on her nerves as usual, because he was being a prick, also as usual. She set down her pen after writing and sending her owl off, as she preferred writing with Muggle pens rather than a quill and ink, and then leaned back in her chair, proceeding to slam the book she was reading shut out of irritation. She was debating whether it was worth the effort to get up and go downstairs to the kitchen to find food, but just then heard a knock on her door, and before she could even respond with a firm ‘No,’ since she knew Danni was the only other person home, she heard the door open. She didn’t look up, pretending to be engaged in reading, because her back was to the door and her sister couldn’t see that she was actually sitting there doing nothing.

“Here’s a tip: you could try waiting for an answer to the knock next time before barging right in. Wouldn’t want you walking in on anything you’d end up throwing a fit about. It’s your call,” Devyn replied finally, eyes still trained on her closed book as she considered what the best course of action was, and then coolly added, “Sorry, but I can’t help you. I’m busy.” When it was apparent that her sister wasn’t leaving, Devyn sighed, finally looking up from her desk, bewildered for several moments after swiveling around in her chair and taking in her sister’s appearance in the doorway. She was wearing a dress that was considerably bold and colorful, even for Danni, and Devyn managed to bite her tongue for only a moment before shaking her head and reacting. “No, I don’t want a jelly, I want to know what the hell you’re wearing. Are you planning on joining the circus sometime soon?” She tried to tell herself that she was most certainly not being unnecessarily rude to her sister because Damien had practically said that Danni was hotter than her. Obviously that had nothing to do with her attitude, because she wasn’t usually particularly nice to her sister, either.

(OOC - Noooo it’s perf, I’m sorry about my reply, though!)

[Danni Oberlin]

If Danni had her way, she and Devyn would be the best of friends, and waltzing into her room wouldn't be a difficult thing, and she wouldn't get such a snarky response for doing so. She was certainly aware that the reason that they weren't such good friends was at least fifty percent her fault, but no matter how desperately she tried to patch it up she found she couldn't. The cold response from her sister stung somewhat, but she kept her head held high, saying, arms folded, "I'm ignoring the bad attitude. Like I said, emergency..." when Devyn lifted her gaze, however, Danni felt her heart sink. This had been a terrible idea. Prancing around in such a bold dress in front of Devyn had not been well thought-out. She cursed herself momentarily for her idiocy.

"Ugh, whatever. I don't even know why I'm asking you, because it's not like you're the most fashion-forward person in the world, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And, also," she chucked the jellies on the bed beside Devyn, throwing back her hair and forcing herself not to just pout and flounce out of the room at once, "You're very rude. You could've said politely that you didn't like it, okay?" She kept her composure for about fifteen seconds before she cracked, and twisted around to get a look at herself out of Devyn's mirror, brushing back her hair and sucking in her stomach. "Does it really look that bad? I thought it was, like, quirky..." remembering that she had thrown the jellies down, she broke her concentration and darted back to snatch them up again. "Mean sisters don't get jellies," she informed her righteously.

[Devyn Oberlin]

“What sort of emergency?” Devyn countered, scrunching her nose in disdain and thinking that it was probably something along the lines of clothing or make-up or accessories (basically all the things she couldn’t be bothered with wasting time on), as wardrobe-related dilemmas were the only sort of dilemmas that she’d ever witnessed her sister having. From the look of Danni’s dress, she wondered if that was what her sister had waltzed in to ask about, though she was confused about why she wanted her opinion in the first place when she should’ve immediately known what it would be. She felt that her sister must have sometimes forgotten that they weren’t friends, as there seemed to be no other explanation for her ridiculous behavior.

“Friendly reminder that I don’t care about fashion,” she added nonchalantly, “So any and all insults about my fashion sense will be duly ignored and will not matter to in the least. If you’re going to try to put me down, at least think up something that you know I’ll actually give a shit about. You know me better than you think you do and you've done it before, so I’m sure it’s not that difficult.” Rolling her eyes, she threw her sister a rather skeptical look. “C’mon, you should’ve known that it wouldn’t work. It’s not quirky, it’s just… Too much? I don’t know, I don’t dissect dress styles for a living, but even I can recognize that thing is not cute. I don’t want your jellies,” she informed her, but then suddenly felt the slightest bit guilty for being so harsh, and went on levelly, “If it makes you feel any better, it’s not you, it’s the dress. It would make anyone wearing it look like an absolute train-wreck.”

[Danni Oberlin]

"This kind of emergency!" Danni huffed, indicating her dress. She twirled around for extra emphasis, and even went so far as to stamp her foot once the twirling had ceased, throwing her hands up in the air and jerking her head back towards the heavens. "God, why couldn't I have a sister who understands the seriousness of picking the right dress?"

After these words had tumbled out of her mouth, however, she felt somewhat awkward, because, heavens, she bet Devyn wished she had a sister who wasn't so obsessed with clothes and didn't suck at almost everything academic, a sister who was as stroppy as she was and as cool as she was and as sarcastic as she was. And she bet, now that she had let that slip, Devyn would have something cruel to say about it. She wasn't going to let Devyn catch her feeling guilty for something so ridiculous, however, and she managed to cover up rather well indeed, continuing on with the conversation.

"Please. Anyone could work out that fashion is not one of your top priorities," Danni cast a despairing glance towards Devyn. "Seriously, I have been offering a make-over since god knows when. I have so many dresses that would look so much better on you," at this, she tossed Devyn a slightly envious look. Although they were both roughly the same size, Danni maintained that Devyn was the slimmer one. "Wow. That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Train-wreck! Thank you! So sweet and helpful..." she twisted around to face the mirror again, trying desperately to find something nice about the dress. Weirdly enough, now that Devyn had bad-mouthed it, she sort of wanted to prove her wrong. "It's...it's out there. It's outrageous." She made a brave attempt at salvaging her disastrous buy.

[Devyn Oberlin]

“Oh, the dress,” Devyn nodded casually, as if she hadn’t seen this coming at all, and then muttered something about real emergencies under her breath before going on, mock-cheerfully, “Many apologies for my complete lack of knowledge or interest in the seriousness of picking the right dress. Merlin forbid I educate myself on real world issues instead of clothing choices. I’m so embarrassed with myself because I can’t be of assistance to you in this matter. Truly.” She placed a hand on her heart, shaking her head and feigning solemnity.

“You know what I do and don’t care about. If you wanted a serious answer about your dress, you could’ve wrote to Bass to hurry on over here to check it out and give you her opinion. Or whoever else your friends are these days,” she added, as she was never really sure where Danni’s social circle began and ended, “There was no need to involve me in this and then get frustrated when I didn’t give you the response you wanted. That’s just stupidity.” She sighed deeply, gathering the willpower to not stand up and literally push her sister out of her room. “I don’t want a makeover, thanks. I’m doing just fine the way I am,” she said coolly, repeating this for what seemed like the hundredth time in the span of a couple years. Watching her sister continue to observe herself in the mirror, she rolled her eyes again. “It’s too outrageous. The fact that you’re in here asking me about it confirms that you had doubts about it in the first place, and that you wouldn’t be confident wearing it in public.”

[Danni Oberlin]

"Yes, the dress," Danni repeated, placing special emphasis on the words and widening her eyes. "And, oh my god, do not get all haughty with me! Issues of the world my ass," she propped a hand on her hip, surveying Devyn with a quirked eyebrow and a shake of her head. "All you care about is getting drunk and partying. And while I celebrate the fact that you seem to be embracing a social life..." she got slightly distracted by the jellies she was clutching, and scrabbled around for a pink one, popping it in her mouth. She then continued as though nothing had happened, voice thick, "You can not get all uppity just because I happen to care about how I look."

Devyn was probably right - she should have summoned Karina. Karina would have understood that the matter was urgent and she would have been supportive and fantastic at giving just the right advice. Plus, Karina was quirky and fashion-forward, and would therefore know the right amount of spice an outfit needed before it verged on being over-the-top. "Karina," she corrected her, "Is busy. Probably. And you could let me do a makeover as a favour to me," Danni snapped, swallowing the jelly. "Just a bit of this and that with your hair - a bit more oomph - and something nicer to wear, and a bit more make-up - and if you didn't like it (which you completely would) then you could just change it back. I'd be done in a jiffy. Karina would help," she suggested, and then she hesitated. "Actually, she might not. I wouldn't blame her if she wouldn't. You're so rude," she flicked a glare towards her sister.

Devyn's opinion on the dress, however, depressed her slightly because it seemed almost spot-on, and totally confirmed her fears. "I wanted to go a bit outrageous," she confessed, "You know, I think I look too - conservative, sometimes? But maybe you're right," she blinked at her reflection, and then said, resignedly, "I'd probably stop traffic with this on." To numb the despair, she snatched another jelly and bit into it viciously.

[Devyn Oberlin]

Devyn rolled her eyes, her sister’s insults going right over her head, as they were all unoriginal in that she’d heard them many times before and thus they had no impact on her whatsoever. “Oh, so you have been paying attention to what I’ve been doing lately. You deserve awards just for that,” she chided, making a face at Danni that she probably didn’t catch because she was too distracted by the bag of jellies in her hand. “You’re so stupid,” she went on despairingly, finding Danni’s near-obsession with her appearance to be utterly unwarranted, as she secretly thought her twin looked pretty even when she didn’t spend countless hours on her make-up and clothing, but of course Devyn would never directly tell her this, opting for something more suitable, “You care too much, has anyone ever told you that?”

She sighed, being purposely overdramatic to match her sister’s snappy tone, which she typically would have ignored, but there was something about Danni barging into her room and telling her what to do with her appearance that put her on edge, more so than usual, and she threw a pointed glare in her sister’s direction. “Like I already said, I really think I’m doing fine just the way I am, thanks again,” she repeated dryly, “If I wanted a make-over, I’d ask. Sorry to say, however, that that day will never come. Keep waiting if you’d like.” Danni’s remark about her being rude did not bother her, as once again, she’d heard it on far too many instances in the past for it to mean anything to her. Most of the time she felt like they’d been repeatedly having a variation of the exact same conversation for several years now, and it was getting old, to say the least.

“What’s the occasion for going a bit outrageous?” she asked, having to exert considerable effort to sound even slightly interested, because she figured if Danni was going to waste her time, she might as well know why, “I don’t think you look too conservative. And if you want to be bold, I do like your red dress. You know, the strapless one?” she shrugged, not even knowing why she remembered this particular dress, as she was pretty sure Danni hadn’t worn it since the previous summer. Then, attempting to sound a bit knowledgeable to prove the point that she could potentially care more about her own appearance if she truly wanted to, added, “It goes nicely with your hair. And eyes. Red’s a good color on you.”

[Danni Oberlin]

"Dude. I pay attention to what everyone is doing. It's good to be well-informed. And anyways," she said practically, "You can't expect that I wouldn't hear about you being drunk all the time and snogging everyone. I mean, it's whatever," Danni said dismissively. "Just, you know. It'd be sort of hard to miss." She kept her tone of voice light and casual, but it just wasn't fair. She put so much time and effort into her appearance and boys still liked Devyn more, and she tried so hard to be fun and nice and people still thought Devyn was better company. Plus, Devyn wasn't nervous about sex and the like, whereas the thought of going further than snogging practically made Danni's knees knock together. "Don't call me stupid," she snapped, dragged out of her reverie. "And yes. You have. About seventeen million times. And it's good to care about some things."

Danni had meant for her offer of a makeover to sound enthusiastic and complimentary and fun, but, as usual, it had sounded like an insult, because whenever she got near Devyn she found herself descending into bitchiness once again. She had no idea how to scrabble back and make it clear that she wasn't insinuating Devyn was ugly, or anything, but she knew if she tried she'd just dig herself deeper. "One day you'll need me," she settled on this, shaking her head at her sister. "And I won't be available. One day you'll want a super nice make-over, and I'll be - " she snapped her fingers to indicate a disappearance.

"You don't need an occasion to buy clothes," Danni informed her righteously. "And anyways, it's summer. There are always parties, and I can always go out with Karina, or a date, or whatever. Speaking of parties, actually - " as usual, she'd let her mouth run away without her head fully processing what she was saying, and she realised she'd nearly said something about the Nott party rumoured to be coming up. Everyone was talking about it. And although Danni had been bursting to ask Devyn about what had gone down between her and Sebastian Nott (she'd been highly dismayed that nobody had had the scoop) she wasn't sure if now was the most appropriate moment to dredge it up again. Although she wanted to. She couldn't bear holding her tongue. "The red dress?" She said, widening her eyes, in a very transparent attempt to change the subject. "I think it makes me look fat," she informed her twin. [/i][/i]

[Devyn Oberlin]

“I haven’t been snogging everyone, so you need to get your facts straight and stop over-exaggerating,” Devyn retorted, immediately on the defensive. Normally, she wouldn’t have given a toss what anyone thought, but she had the faintest idea that her sister seemed to think she slept around with more people than she actually did. She’d only had sex with two people, for Merlin’s sake, and Danni needed to get that through her head, even if she’d only directly been told about the first. “I’m calling you stupid for a reason,” she replied with a shrug, though she wasn’t even trying to justify her action, “And you care about some things way too much. I’m saying it for your own good, believe it or not, but it’d be worth it for you to tone it down a little. Just a thought.”

She raised an eyebrow as her sister went on, still unable to take her seriously. “Again, I don’t think that day will ever come,” she informed her, feeling like she was just repeating herself unnecessarily. Why did they have to keep going around in circles? It was getting more irritating than her sister’s mere presence, and that was saying something. She had to raise her other eyebrow as well when she heard Danni’s next words, focusing in on the one part that actually interested her. “A date? When was the last time you went on a date?” she asked, trying very hard to not sound too curious. That only left her sounding incredulous, which was probably not good if she didn’t want to put forth the effort to genuinely fight with Danni if she happened to react negatively.

She disregarded her sister stopping mid-sentence when she said something about a party - it was suspicious, but she couldn’t bother to inquire about it, because with Danni, it was probably just a case of her reorganizing her thoughts as she spoke rather than before she spoke. Whatever she’d been about to say, it most likely wasn’t worth Devyn’s time. “Yeah, the red dress,” she repeated, and then rolled her eyes expressively in Danni’s direction, “For god’s sake, no, it doesn’t make you look fat. Why would you even think that? I swear it doesn’t, and you know I would tell you the harsh truth no matter what.”

[Danni Oberlin]

"Everyone, a few people..." Danni waved a would-be airy hand to indicate the difference was irrelevant. "You know, I mean, go you," she punched the air lamely. "Like I said, I'm glad you appear to have a social life." She wouldn't admit it to anyone, but she'd always been a tad worried Devyn would completely step out of having fun merely because of what appeared to be her complete disdain for everyone but herself. "And I'm saying don't call me stupid - for a reason," Danni snapped. "First off, because I'm not, second off, because it's mean. We can't all get perfect grades." She eyed Devyn reproachfully as her sister suggested she 'tone it down', but opted not to respond. No, she would be quiet and dignified. Quiet and dignified. Aloof, even. She could do it. "Your face needs to tone it down!" (Alright, she couldn't.)

"Oh yes it will," Danni proclaimed ominously, going so far as to raise a finger and wag it reprovingly at her sister. "Do you know how good I could make you look? I'm an artist with a make-up brush. Which is just as well, seeing as I've been using one since I was like twelve." She was more than a tad offended by the fact that Devyn seemed surprised that she'd been on dates as of recent. "What's with the raised eyebrow?" She demanded, voice raising higher. "And anyways, it's not like you're interested, are you?" This was spoken loftily. "Not like you care what I do with my time. If I brought a guy home - god forbid - you'd probably just snipe at him until he made an excuse and then refused to see me ever again." Or, the nasty voice that resided in Danni's head chimed in, or he'd prefer Devyn and go for her instead.

Devyn hadn't seemed to pick up on her cutting herself off, which Danni supposed she should've been thankful for. She was a tad disappointed, however. It would have been the perfect lead-in to a conversation about Devyn's love-life - her proper love-life - and then Danni could've gotten all of the juicy gossip without having to ask outright. Then she could warn her sister about that bastard Sebastian all over again. Then she could storm over to Sebastian Nott the next time she saw him and accuse him of being treacherous and gross. God, she loved drama sometimes. "Not fat fat," Danni amended. "Just - you know - a bit chubby. Get me? Like...it makes my arms look wide, and my chest look flat, and my stomach pudgy..."