[open] and you can tell the sun in his jealous sky..
[OOC: Just to let everyone know, Cassie is backdated to the thirteenth. Everyone else is on the current date. :)]
On the thirteenth, it is Cassie Riddle’s twenty-third birthday. In the early morning, she is up on the roof of Kashtta, playing guitar. She’s singing a pretty little folk song she was fond of from back home to the skies of the ( Read more... )
On the thirteenth, it is Cassie Riddle’s twenty-third birthday. In the early morning, she is up on the roof of Kashtta, playing guitar. She’s singing a pretty little folk song she was fond of from back home to the skies of the ( Read more... )
She nods as her friend poises herself to shield her eyes, waiting until she's done so before cracking a second egg. "There we go," she says after a moment, handing the bowl to Cassie. The yolk mixture in it is somewhat pearlescent, though otherwise a fairly normal yellow. "--Whoops, eggshell." She notices a fragment of it in the mixture, and deftly plucks it out. "There. Now you can mix these in, just like any other eggs."
As she sorts through the decorations wondering which ones would be best to make patterns with, she remembers Cassie had a question. "Cockatrice... they're also known as basilisks. Half bird, half dragon. The adult ones are more dangerous than these eggs. If they look at you, they'll turn you to stone forever." She smiles a little sadly. "But they're also not very good parents. So you can hunt for eggs in the forest without being much at risk."
She's taken it upon herself to know all the good ingredient-gathering places in Chicago. And with a lot of Rift activity there, the forests of Grant Park have proven to be a particularly rich source of strange and wonderful natural phenomena, of the type most people would think twice before touching. And the type alchemists find particularly prized. There are good reasons, she occasionally thinks, why most of the villagers back home were wary of her work. It's just that handled properly, it's all perfectly safe.
...Well, mostly safe. The scars on her hands, already building up again even after the Polyjuice Potion healed her, are testimony to that. But the wonders of alchemy are worth the risk to the self, and indeed, facing the danger's part of how it helps one grow. That's the part the people back home really didn't understand.
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She looks into the bowl again, bloody weird eggs these are. But if Iris reckons they'll be alright - she'll just go along with it. She laughs and begins to stir the mix in, listening as Iris talks.
"Baskilisk? Isn't that the snake-thing off Harry Potter?" she asks with a frown. The film had come out years ago and she'd went to see it with her friends. She's not the biggest fan of it - she's not big on the fantasy and science fiction, but everyone seems to like Harry Potter. Even Cassie.
"There was this big snake like thing called a Baskilisk and it turned everyone to stone. Well, it petrified them and stuff if you looked at it," It was something like that, anyway.
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"Yeah, that's pretty much a basilisk, but... what does that have to do with Harry?" she asks. "Do you know him? He's a friend of mine too. I guess our worlds are pretty similar, so he'd probably know what they are. I was pretty pleased to find them here. Makes converting some of my recipes into Chicago-style a lot easier." Though when she says recipes, she's talking about alchemical ones. And when she says Chicago-style, she means what you do when you're suddenly thrown into a world without Dunkelhites and Pendelooks.
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"Um.. Harry Potter is a fictional character," she says carefully, still utterly bemused, "Back in my world, this woman wrote a book series about this Wizard called Harry Potter who goes to a school for Wizards and Witches called Hogwarts. And they even made a film series from the books,"
She ruffles the hair on the side of head almost awkwardly, leaving flour as she does, "He's... he's like... a world-wide famous fictional character. The book series about him is the most popular in this generation,"
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She thinks about Cassie's words for a moment. It isn't unusual that someone who performed great deeds would have fiction written about them. Plays and poems about legendary heroes are pretty popular, after all. It doesn't mean the stories aren't also true. Or at least, true-but-embellished. She's not thinking of this in terms of its meaning Harry isn't real; she's just awed by the notoriety his acts have achieved.
"I guess he really was a hero in his own world, then," she says. "To have a saga written about him like that. I never knew. I mean, I know a lot of people who come through the Rift are kinda famous, but.... Wow." She lets out a little nervous laugh. "I probably shouldn't tell him, though. He seems like the kind who'd be awkward about that sort of thing, if he knew. --Hey, you're getting flour in your hair." She points to the side of Cassie's head.
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The longer she's here, the more she begins to understand about the people who come through the rift. Maybe in some universe, Harry Potter is a real boy. Maybe they don't look like the actors and actresses who played them in the movies in her world - but they're there.
"But maybe he is real. Like, with all the universes there are - there's a world out there where the other-wise fictional Harry Potter world is actually a real place," she says with a slow nod, "Maybe there's worlds where all fictional characters are real,"
That must mean there's a Narnia. And maybe Aslan really does sound like Liam Neeson. Cassie is happy at that.
Cassie looks at her hand, "Oops," she utters. She reaches over to Iris and ruffles her hair, "There, now you have some!"
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"Either way, he's definitely real," she insists, laughing and squirming away as Cassie flours her. "--hey! ...But actually, if you know about his story, then... maybe you know Hermione? Hermione Granger? She...." Her tone turns a touch wistful as she fluffs out her hair, sending up small clouds of flour. "She was one of my best friends here. When I first came through the Rift, she helped me. And we did alchemy together, and magic... we shared so much. But then the Rift took her away."
She bites her lip as she continues to talk. "She came back. Except it wasn't the Hermione I'd known, but sort of... she was from a different time? And she didn't remember anything we'd done together. And it's kind of... I want to still be her friend. Because I missed her so much. But it's kind of awkward."
She lets out a small, self-conscious laugh. "--Sorry. I guess... I just haven't known who to talk to about it. Harry seemed to think that if it was too hard for me, I should just stay away from her, but... I can't do that to a friend. And he wasn't really any help. And I can't talk to her about it, really, 'cause... it's just awkward. You know?" She glances over at Cassie. She's made a valiant effort to rub out the flour, but her eyebrows are still all white.
"I guess I just wondered... what would you do, if it was like... if it was like one of your friends didn't remember you any more? How would you get things back to the way they were?"
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As she begins separating the mix into smaller bowls to add the colouring to, she nods, "Yep, she's Harry's best friend. One of them, anyway. Harry, Hermione and Ron! She's like, really smart and she's got big, curly hair," she tells her with a small laugh.
But the laugh dies in her throat and she turns to Iris with a look of slight shock and sadness, "The rift took her?" she didn't even know the rift could do that. "I'm very sorry about that, Iris," Cassie falls silent, listening intently and trying to work out what advice to give her.
She shakes her head, "No, no.. it's fine! I can see why that would be awkward. The Hermione that's come through again won't know you - but the friendship you've had with her is still in your heart," she says softly, falling silent once more to think, "I suppose you could do this two ways, either start afresh. It's same girl, right? She won't think any different, I would presume. It would be difficult for you, but easier for her,"
Cassie pauses once more, still trying to think. It's a difficult subject and it's not one she's ever come across before - but she wants to offer as much advice as she can. "Or perhaps you should just talk to her. Take a moment to have you both alone and don't force it upon her. I know it'll be difficult for her too, I'm sure she's going to understand that there was another version of herself here. So, just be gentle on the subject, just talk to her and offer your friendship, tell her it's there for her when she's ready to take it,"
She offers her friend a small smile, "It won't be easy and it might take a while, but I'm sure you two will be friends again,"
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Well, no, she's pretty sure it'd be a meaningful act of Rift, but it'd still hurt. Chicago isn't exactly the happiest place in the multiverse, but she's here for a reason, and there are people here she loves. She doesn't want to have to start all over again.
And besides, given what a Rift did to Dmitri.... No. She pushes that thought firmly to the back of her mind. She's not going to dwell on that. Not on Cassie's birthday, and moreover, not ever. So she takes in Cassie's words instead, slowly nodding.
"We have-- talked a little," she says. "It just kinda felt awkward. I wasn't sure what to say. But... maybe that, what you said, maybe that's what I should say. That my friendship is there, when she's ready to take it. I mean, I don't want for her just not to have it, you know? But I don't wanna force it, either, like you said. So-- yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good idea."
She smiles at Cassie. "Hey, thanks. You're good at these things." She thinks back to the description her friend offered earlier, before they got onto this rather depressing track. "But yeah, the way you described her before. That's really definitely her. I've heard them talk about Ron, too, but I don't think he's here."
She's finding it fascinating that her friend, who claims to know all this from a book that she's convinced is fiction, can describe Hermione perfectly. There's got to be more to it than that. Still, she's intrigued, and she ends up saying what Cassie is thinking. "Do you think that... we're fictional stories somewhere?" Without missing a beat, she adds, "That would be kind of awesome."
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Cassie smiles encouragingly, "Exactly, it can't hurt to say that to her," she says with a nod, "It probably might be the easiest way to go about it for the pair of you. Just take it easy, see how it goes,"
"You're welcome," She laughs, "I think it's the wisdom of old age," she jokes, tapping the side of her head with one finger. She's better with words, she always has been. Sometime she believes that words are stronger than actions, if you have the right way of saying them.
"Oh, you couldn't miss Ron if he ended up here," she laughs as she speaks, grinning brightly, "Bright red hair, rather tall - says 'Bloody hell' a lot.." she tilts her head to one side, eyebrows, "Woah, and Harry! He's got the lightning bolt scar," Now that's just insane, it makes her a little giddy to think there's a boy out there in Chicago with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead.
Cassie stops for a moment, a small smile at her lips, "I was thinking that!" she says, "I mean, yeah - maybe there's a book or a film or something about us in another world, we could be famous there!" She laughs, "Or maybe, there's someone living your entire life as if you'd never fallen through a rift. That might mean someone's out there singing my songs and they're a famous musician, like I could have been... Erm... doppelgänger I think they're called,"
She shakes her head, "Crazy, huh?"
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"And nope, I haven't met Ron. Although he sounds like someone I used to know. Bright red hair, tall, swears a lot...." She can't suppress a giggle. It would be so weird if Edge were one of Harry and Hermione's friends. He'd look totally out of place.
"Fascinating," she says, in response to Cassie's Crazy. "Hey, I bet I know how we could find out. There's this thing called Google. Actually, Hermione taught me about it." She finds that quite ironic, right now. "You can spell out letters in it. And if you spell out the letters of something you're looking for, it can help you find it. Sometimes, anyway," she adds. It wasn't that useful for helping her find out about angels.
"...Hey, do you need any help with any of that?" She gestures to the cake mix. "Not really sure what I should be doing. And too many cooks spoil soup, you know, so I didn't wanna jump in."
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"I'm sure we all know someone like Ron," she says with another laugh, "Everyone's got a mate like him: the jokey one. The one who's always a bit daft, but he's still a good lad and stuff, yeah?"
Cassie snaps her fingers, "Google, yeah! I know Google!" she says with a nod, "You can search anything in the world on it. One thing will bring you thousands of results, brilliant huh?" She taps her chin in thought, "We could go to the library or something and use a computer to search ourselves and see if we're fictional characters in this world,"
She looks down at her cake mix that now dished out into six smaller bowls. "Oh! Right, yes! Sorry! You can help me mix in the food colouring so we can make our rainbow cake," She taps each bowl, uttering a colour, "Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple," She hands over a bottle of red food colouring to Iris whilst she takes the green. "Add a few drops at a time and mix it in until the mixture's pretty bold enough in colour. And be careful, this stuff might stain a little,"
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Of course, one day Iris might be forty too. She's never really thought about that. Whether she lives or dies has never been too much of a concern to her, as long as she gets her work done. If she fades from this life, there'll be another waiting. Only, if she keeps getting born into the same body, won't she get really super-old? "Wow," she says, not really aware that she's speaking out loud. "I'm going to be a thousand someday."
She grins at Cassie's statement. "Well, daft is one way to put it," she says, translating the word effortlessly. "I'm not sure I'd say jokey, though. Too serious, if anything. But yeah, he was a good person." For all the spats she's had with Edge, she can't deny that.
She takes up the vial of food colouring, dripping it into the mixture and giving it a good stir. The red stuff does stain her fingers, but she doesn't really mind. It's not like she's never had stains on her skin before. In a way, the familiarity is comforting.
"...Will this turn you red if you drink it?" she muses, holding up the little bottle. The thought fascinates her. It'd be interesting to be blue or purple for a while, at least until natural processes flushed the colour out of your system. You could really have fun surprising people. "If you could be a colour for a day, what colour d'you think you'd be?"
Yes, she's distracted now. It's not terribly uncommon, with Iris.
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She laughs and shakes her head, "Oh no, of course it won't! This stuff's just regular old food coloring. Nothing magic or rift-y about it," she says, adding more coloring to her own mixture. It really is endearing how strange her friend can be sometimes; it's one of the reasons why she likes her and why she's proud to call her a friend. "Although, it might turn your tongue red for a little bit,"
Cassie thinks for a moment, "Erm.. I don't know, haven't really thought about it," She finishes with the green mix and starts on the blue, passing the yellow to Iris for her to make orange and yellow mixes. "Cream, maybe. It sounds boring, but it's one of my favorite colors. A nice, warm cream,"
She tilts her head to the side, "I've always wanted to get my hair dyed lilac, like a purple rinse kind of thing," she says as an afterthought, "That might be pretty cool. What about you? What color would you be?"
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As theories of reincarnation go, it's certainly a little skewed from the norm. But then, one supposes that's to be expected when her first and only experience with the phenomenon was being Rift-dumped into Chicago. It's not exactly the route most people take out of the afterlife. If they take any route at all.
"My tongue red," she ponders, staring into the mixture. "That's not as exciting as it could be." She'd really have preferred a full-body colour change. And maybe if you used two colours, and drank them before they mixed thoroughly, you could be marbled. That sort of thing would be far more interesting. "Besides, my tongue's already red. ...Huh. Maybe if I did something to this food colouring, alchemically, I could use it to turn people red." She smiles at Cassie. "Not that I'm just going to go around doing that. Without their permission, I mean. But it'd be fun for a little while."
She tilts her head this way and that, trying to picture Cassie with lilac hair. "It would suit you, I think," she says, after some consideration. "--Hmm. It would be really fun to be a metallic colour, like gold or silver. Then you could stand really still, and pretend to be a statue!" She laughs. "Though I think if I had to go with one like the ones you have here, maybe green. I could hide in the woods and surprise people. That'd be pretty fun too."
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She laughs, "No, not as exciting as having all your skin and hair and stuff one colour," she replies with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "Ahh, not entirely red... it's a sort of pinky colour," she sticks out her tongue just to prove this and laughs once more. That would be something she'd like to see, "As long as they change back after a while!"
Cassie ruffles her hair in thought, still mulling the idea over. She'll make a decision at some point, maybe choose to do it over the summer or something. Or maybe even just dye part of her hair. Like the ends.
"People did that in London!" she says brightly, "Street performers! They would dress up as statues and stand really still and people passing could give them money for doing it. You'd get men covered in bronze, dressed up as soldiers from the First World War. Or girls covered in gold, dressed up as angels. I saw one who would reach out into a small pot and give you a little jewel if you gave her some change. It was really neat!"
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