notapipe @ July 26 2003, 00:20:38 UTC

Justin and Draco's conversation is bringing back painful/amusing memories for me, but at least they're being funny and refreshing.

Also, I forgot to mention before: Justin has a cat, yay. Why must NA torment me with Hufflepuffs I can identify with?

Anonymous @ July 26 2003, 00:37:08 UTC

Why painful? :((

- Justin's player

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 00:41:24 UTC

I had a jumping out the window (first floor) escapade a while back, completely in jest, but I screwed up my ankle/foot because I land for shit, even from a first floor window.

Anonymous @ July 26 2003, 00:45:36 UTC

:O How about we, um, not jump from windows?

- Justin's player

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 00:49:20 UTC

I don't. Besides the once. And if I hadn't been inept, it would have been very amusing. As it is, it's simply very amusing and mildly embarrassing (it's a good thing I have no shame, or people would be deprived of a chance to point and laugh at me).

Anonymous @ July 26 2003, 00:24:33 UTC

What? His icons have always had borders. o_O

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 00:33:49 UTC

Really? Am I just a total freaking moron? I just checked, and you're right. I am a fool. Thank you.

dragynville @ July 26 2003, 00:38:42 UTC

I have an incurable case of Ernie lurve. "I'll file that away." XD XD

tiamet_nox @ July 26 2003, 00:41:41 UTC

Who doesn't love Ernie? The N_A Hufflepuffs rule!

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 00:44:24 UTC

The biscuts that can hear what you think sounds remarkably like something I heard while moving from channel to channel in my slow channel by channel way tonight. Only it was altering one's thoughts. PS's disinformation plan will backfire and will end up helping Ernie, just you wait.

You know, or not.

dragynville @ July 26 2003, 00:55:51 UTC

Yes, 'cause now he'll be On The Alert for suspicious biscuits. The real question is, who will he feed them to as a test subject? XD

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 00:57:00 UTC

Well, he'll be visiting Seamus with Hannah soon, presumably. He could test them on Seamus.

dragynville @ July 26 2003, 01:00:13 UTC

I can just see him poking biscuits in people's faces and diving for cover if anyone tries to hand him a whole tin of them. XD

black_dog @ July 26 2003, 02:20:55 UTC

Do you suppose the biscuits can still read your mind if they're wrapped in tin foil?

hobaggins @ July 26 2003, 10:49:11 UTC

No, I wouldn't think so.


But... a more important question:

Are they sentient biscuits, (and if so are they working for their own benefit or are they in league with others?) or are they just the instrument in someone else's quest for information superiority

black_dog @ July 26 2003, 19:48:48 UTC

I imagine they would have to be part of a team of some sort, biscuits being notoriously slow to take initiative on their own.

black_dog @ July 26 2003, 02:17:15 UTC

Being obsessed with chronology and generally anal, I was thinking about the timing of the Harry and Justin visits.

PS apparated to Finch-Fletchley's house "yesterday morning at quarter to ten." He had gone to see Potter "the evening before that." The trip to F-F was described as requiring him to Apparate "out of [his] way," and as involving a near-death experience "before [he] could return to the Manor."

Although the phrase about returning to the Manor is ambiguous (he could have made a special trip from the Manor just to scare Justin) the implication of "out of my way" seems to be that the visit was a detour on the way back to the Manor. Are we to assume, then, that he spent the night with Harry?

hobaggins @ July 26 2003, 10:50:05 UTC

Although the phrase about returning to the Manor is ambiguous (he could have made a special trip from the Manor just to scare Justin) the implication of "out of my way" seems to be that the visit was a detour on the way back to the Manor. Are we to assume, then, that he spent the night with Harry?

*sputter choke gurgle lust*

Yes, please

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 15:43:54 UTC

Okay, I would really LIKE to subscribe to this idea, but there's really no need to assume that he actually spent the night with Harry (though I don't see any reason NOT to, except that I don't see the Dursleys as being very supportive of such an event, and are probably apparation charms around the Dursley's house to prevent that way of sneaking in).

He doesn't say that the TRIP ITSELF was out of his way on the return to the manner, but that Justin was trying to get [him] to Apparate out of [his] way. This refers to the request in PS's previous post, which, the way Justin put it, is out of Draco's way, something Draco made a fuss about. Now even if Draco were to have gone back to the Manor, and then apparated out to scare Justin when he woke up, his statements would make perfect sense.

black_dog @ July 26 2003, 18:54:03 UTC

Hmmmm. I must quibble. I do realize he uses the phrase "out of his way" in the previous post to describe stopping by Justin's, to the SW of the Manor, when he wants to be heading East toward Surrey. In that post, the phrase obviously implies that he has a destination in mind, and that a side trip to kill Justin would not help him reach his destination.

You're suggesting that when PS repeated the phrase twice in today's post (thereby giving it a rather odd emphasis) he was merely alluding to the language he used yesterday. But I don't see why he would do that if the context for the trip had changed. If he were simply apparating from the Manor, his destination would be Justin's house, there would be no "out of the way", though he might complain of having to apparate "to hell and gone."

The fact that he repeats the phrase suggests to me that the visit to Justin remains, in fact, a diversion from another intended route. And it is clear that the intended route is home to the Manor, from somewhere. And we have a very obvious candidate for where that "somewhere" was.

Your move!

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 23:16:53 UTC

I could link to this but I really don't like arguments from authority anyway. And this just more fun.

I'm saying that Draco is referring to Justin's request, thus his context is the original request, not the actual events. He's raving about the injustice of what Justin ASKED him to do, since you know, he actually DID do the deed, that wasn't quite so bad.

The SECOND out of the way is obviously not a path reference, in context, and the first is firmly a Justin's request context. The thing is that when you extract phrases from context they no longer maintain a semblence of their original meaning. Draco is likely to use these negative phrases, like out of my way or all the way out there (which actually would contradict you in a straight non-context reading, since it implies a home base, but context, yay) because he likes to make a production, not because he wants to transmit a hidden code "Hey! I spent the night in the closet under the stairs on 4 privet drive" (Yes, I know Harry's not in the closet, so what?).

And since there ARE logistical problems with staying at Harry's, it's more reasonable the other way. This doesn't mean there isn't time for him to have fun with Harry, just that he doesn't stay over.

Anonymous @ July 27 2003, 00:46:35 UTC

I agree. If Draco was at home, going to Justin's house would be going out of his way, since he obviously wouldn't have been there for any other reason but for Justin's request.

black_dog @ July 26 2003, 19:06:08 UTC

Also, I just noticed, in the comments section, he uses the phrase "swing by" to describe his visit to Justin's. Which I think clearly implies he was stopping over during a trip from one place to another.

Not to mention, that he is travelling at the crack of dawn and obviously in giddy high spirits.

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 23:18:01 UTC

Swing by has to be understood in context. swing by to kill him as he'd asked. It's obviously in the "Justin's request" context, not in what he actually did context. This is key.

Additionally and nitly: Quarter of ten is NOT the crack of dawn. I can vouch, I'm up until dawn a lot, and that's more like 6 here. And I'm south of London (44 N to 51 N).

black_dog @ July 27 2003, 01:59:39 UTC

Meh, I have to defer to the star. Otherwise, I would honestly find your reading more strained than mine, but I couldn't dismiss it out of hand.

As for "crack of dawn," I was being facetious. My recollection of being on summer vacation in high school is that quarter to ten was pretty damn early to be out and about, especially if I'd been out the night before!

anatidae @ July 26 2003, 03:17:36 UTC

YOU METNIOEND BORDKERS>1!1!! For as long as ever, I've always noticed the lack of borders in icons.

You have no idea how much better icons look with borders. It's not hard, it gives a touch of sophistication, and they make square shaped icons look like squares instead of misleading rectangles (y0, deanthomas, seamus_f, purestblood, lupercus, seekercho, blondenarcissa, legit_regit, jadedsirius, wheresmytoad, blushcrush and practically everyone in NA and Nraged and guh). They totally ownz.

I have nothing constructive to share with the class. Whee.

notapipe @ July 26 2003, 15:47:26 UTC

Of course, I'm also a complete hypocrite who leaves his old icons borderless.

anatidae @ July 26 2003, 17:01:06 UTC

I noticed that too. >:0.

anjaliesque @ July 26 2003, 20:27:59 UTC

You have completely sold me on borders. I may have to prop up my eyelids so I can stay up and add borders to my own icons. Or, following Justin's fine example, jump out the window in shame.

hobaggins @ July 26 2003, 10:44:58 UTC

Does Seamus sound a little less friendly than usual in his reply than the usual tone he uses with Malfoy?

ALSO: Malfoy clearly has an house-elf (I almost just said elf-house... hmmm....) fetish. That was why Malfoy being a house-elf for detention (no time to find link) was thought up as worst.possible.punishment

hobaggins @ July 26 2003, 10:46:30 UTC I can say things that make sense, truly

Does Seamus have a less friendly tone in his reply than the one he usually applies with Malfoy?

moojja @ July 26 2003, 11:26:50 UTC Re: I can say things that make sense, truly

I think so. Maybe Seamus is annoyed at Draco for the disintegration of his relationship. Even though it really wasn't Draco's fault.

black_dog @ July 26 2003, 19:22:22 UTC Re: I can say things that make sense, truly

Damn, I'm sort of on a contrarian roll today, but I didn't think Seamus' tone was unfriendly at all. I thought it was significant that he went out of his way to comment to Malfoy, to reconnect with him, pretty much as soon as PS got his apparation license.

As for the tone, I thought that, just as Harry often does, Seamus was using PS' own style of rough teasing, and it actually felt kind of intimate. He was certainly trying to make PS laugh at the Hufflepuffs, and he was daring him to come visit Dogear, pre-empting PS' obvious first reply about manual labor. My honest first reaction was, uh-oh, Seamus is flirting with Draco again even though he knows Harry is housebound.

Anonymous @ July 26 2003, 20:29:38 UTC Re: I can say things that make sense, truly

I agree. If I remember correctly, this's the first time since his breakup with Dean, that Seamus responded to Draco's post. I always feel that Draco 's the one Seamus actually enjoys talking with. Remus is very kind , Charlie could be a perfectly rebound guy and probably good for sex, but there might be some generation gap. Maybe because of Charlie who's (hopefully) mentally mature, Seamus' s secure enough to talk to Draco again without causing misunderstanding. And I've really missed Draco and Seamus' slightly flirtatious and friendly conversation, especially when Harry 's been obviously absent from LJ.

saffronlie @ July 27 2003, 04:54:18 UTC Re: I can say things that make sense, truly

It made me laugh, especially the part about not taunting the Hufflepuffs. A bit like, please don't feed the animals, they bite, or don't feed the plants, because one day, they will EAT YOU. :D

adolfa @ July 26 2003, 14:23:52 UTC

I find it hilarious that Draco is using his recent ability to appear and disappear instantly to inflict bodily harm upon people. It's like a hit-and-run.

*shakes head* Only ps.

sheron @ July 26 2003, 21:11:14 UTC

Has PS's post dissapeared for everyone? Is it just LJ acting up or a decision on the part of players?

Anonymous @ July 26 2003, 21:28:04 UTC

It has disappeared and reappeared mysteriously like this quite often for the past couple of days. Keep refreshing, and it'll come back again.