July 25th, 1895 - Race Weekend

With Emerson off to his maternal grandparents for a two-week stint, Jack didn't feel as guilty as he could spending part of the Sanditon's Race Weekend with Evangeline and her children. He also though that perhaps they ought to ease in, spend time separately before getting everyone together. Plus he's already met Elliott, and Emilia seemed a little more reserved, more like Jack, in social settings, so they were still warming up to one another.

Unfortunately shortly after they'd sat down with their picnic basket and gotten started on the snacking Emilia had spilled something on her dress. She and Evangeline had gone in search of a powder room to get it cleaned up, which just left Jack with Elliott on their blanket on the beach for a few minutes. "Are you looking forward to the race this afternoon?" He asked after a moment of chewing on what to discuss. Jack had only been to the resort a handful of times before, mostly for charity events and to take Emerson to the zoo when he was younger, but it had been a while. The warm sunny weather with a nice breeze coming off the water made the endeavor that much more pleasant. It was nice there was somewhere with a reasonable temperature and predictable weather (hurricanes aside).

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Elliott Rowle c/o Tycho Dodonus
FYI/feel free to join Evangeline Rowle / Emilia

  

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Elliott was bouncing off the walls, he was so excited. Hippogriffs! Racing! Healer Jack Collins! Operation Be My Father was going to go well. He insisted upon it. He was sure Emilia would come to adore their future father too if she just got to know him.

"Yes. When I'm old, like 18 or something, I'm going to race hippogriffs too," he said confidently. He didn't think his mother would let him while he was young.

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Jack had to chuckle quietly at Elliott's youthful exuberance. Also at the fact that he thought eighteen was old. "Do you like magical creatures?" Considering the first time he had encountered Elliott was at the hospital for a creature bite, he had hoped the young lad hadn't been put off them entirely. Hippogriffs were very exciting to the children. Hell, Jack thought they were pretty exciting too.

Leaning back onto his hands, Jack was relieved that this didn't feel as awkward as he'd anticipated. Eva's children seemed to be quite welcoming, even if Emilia was a little less outgoing about it. Elliott certainly made up for it with his enthusiasm.

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"Yes, I love them! I want to see dragons but hippogriffs are cool too. You reckon people ever race dragons?" It would be cool if they did and kind of waste if they didn't. Surely, not all dragons were man-eating. Or could be trained somehow to not be? But training dragons felt iffy, even to him.

"Would you race dragons?"

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"I don't think I'd be brave enough to try either," Jack admitted. He'd seen the damage both could do up close, it wasn't pretty and it could be lethal. Jack didn't really believe in using animals like that for sport either. Sure horses and other domesticated animals where helpful for commuting farm work, but Jack had a hard time in thinking most wild creatures, either magical or muggle, should be used for entertainment purposes. Of course it hadn't stopped him from attending today and he wasn't going to go protesting anything, but those were his thoughts on the matter.

"It's been a while since I interacted with a hippogriff," Jack said, trying to artfully dodge the dragons question. "They can be quite majestic, especially up close." He would much rather interact with a hippogriff than a dragon. "If you choose to take Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts, you will get to see them."

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