paradisa | thirty-two detention slips

[Late on the night of the 30th, there is a remarkably rare sight in the castle's library - Alex Russo, sprawled in a library chair with her bedroom-slipper'd feet propped up on a table, where they most likely should not be. She's got a couple of dusty books open around her, but doesn't seem to be doing much more than absently flicking at the pages right now.

This "Being Good" thing. Self-improvement. All of that jazz. It's been a few months since she set her mind to it, ever since the broadcast that made her realize what a useless lump she actually is. But changing that's even harder than it looks. After having been no real help during any of the most recent Incidents, she's decided to brush up on her magic. See if she can learn something other than cheats and tricks. However-]

You know what someone should invent? Books that you can, like, absorb. Just touch them or something, and poof. You know everything. Then maybe I wouldn't fall asleep fifteen times in one chapter.

[Her old nemesis - reading. Particularly of the educational sort.]

I-D-K how people like my brother can even do this all the time. Like, don't your eyes hurt or something? Maybe that's why so many people get stuck in glasses. They're always making their eyes read.

[Feel free to bother the resident Scrooge McWizard, either in person or over the journal tucked up against her elbow.]

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[ Remus is just making his way past her, carrying an armful of books as he scans the shelves for their original places, ready to head downstairs for a late dinner and then to bed. He stops when he sees her and just sort of blinks owlishly at her, looking rather surprised.

No offense, Alex, but he isn't used to seeing you here. And he's in the library at least three or four times a week. He knows who the regulars are.

Regardless, he scoffs lightly and shakes his head as he turns to place a book back on one of the shelves. ]

But that would take all the fun out of reading, don't you think? No one would be able to just sit and enjoy a good book.

In my experience, the effort required to learn something is partly why the lesson is retained in the long-term. Your brain must physically alter itself in order to retain knowledge, and to remove this effort would remove your ability to retain new knowledge and skills permanently.

[She looks up at Remus, and raises one dubious eyebrow, a smirk on her face.]

Tell that to someone who actually enjoys reading. I just don't get what the big deal is. I mean, it's a bunch of squiggles on a page, and staring at it for hours is supposed to be fun? No thanks.

Yeah, well, if you could absorb it and make it stay there, then that would take care of all that retaining crap. I just think that some people would learn a lot more from dusty old books like this if it didn't mean sitting around in the library all day.

[ He chuckles softly and shakes his head. ]

Obviously you haven't been reading the right books, then.

[ He pauses a moment, looking down at his stack of books, before he makes his way over and places a book down next to her. ]

You'll do much better with this one, I'd expect.

Unfortunately, that is not how the mind works. Have you considered listening to an audiobook? You could do so on your portable music player of choice, and still benefit from learning what the book has to teach you, in a more easily-digested medium, if reading does not hold your interest.

thirty-two detention slips

Action!

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sorry for the delay, irl stuff :(

sorry for the delay, irl stuff :(

That's alright!

It's all good, I feel your pain