And now... owls.
((Link goes to a post in Mayday's journal. Didn't want to spam the comm with a socking.))
After a shower, a good night's sleep and another awkward meeting, Jaime managed to get some breakfast and make his way to the Owlery without further incident ( Read more... )
After a shower, a good night's sleep and another awkward meeting, Jaime managed to get some breakfast and make his way to the Owlery without further incident ( Read more... )
Yet.
"Hey, I'm not going anywhere near a swamp if I can help it. That," and here he indicated the sunny weather outside the windows, "is probably wetter than it ever gets back home." It had been raining early in the morning, but the skies were mostly clear.
He kept pace with Lola as she snagged food, pointing out one or two additional things but generally just holding the basket to catch food. As he'd said earlier, he wasn't picky. He did bypass the chicken this time, still mildly weirded out by Steph's cannibal chicken going right for the drumsticks earlier.
Doomed. DOOMED. Oh, man. "I don't want to put you out or anything," he began, then blinked. "Wizard robes? Don't tell me there's a dress code here." He couldn't have figured that out by looking at the crowd. The doom of shopping aside, he really didn't want Lola to have to pay for his stuff. If all else failed, the scarab could make clothes, but that would require firing up the armor again.
...so it was probably going to be shopping. Couldn't be worse than being dragged around by Brenda. For one thing, he didn't think Lola had a scary crimelord aunt who was only leaving him alone because of Brenda.
Oh, look, a distraction. "Doritos," he said immediately. "Wait, why not both?"
Nope, not a mind reader. His little sister didn't call him the Bottomless Pit for nothing.
Down at the other end of the hall, Exploding Beet Girl went down under a volley of assorted fruits and vegetables, and someone else tackled her. "I think we need to get out of here."
He did stop to snag some chocolate chip cookies. Priorities and all that.
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Hello, was she talking about the weather? Ah, no. No, that was not clever and witty conversation at all.
She let a few bottles of various soft drinks slip into the basket and grinned. "It's no bother. I think there's a fund or something for new students that got sucked into this school without anything to wear. I'm here to help." Oh yeah. That was what angels did! She totally had an excuse for going shopping with him now! Ohh, the devious scheming of Sanchez...
Indeed, why not both? Lola nodded, dropping the bags into the by now almost full basket. "Both it is! Excellent choice, my good sir, I must say." She turned towards the foodfight, frowning, and bit her lower lip. "I hope Tomo's okay over there." She wasn't terribly worried. Tomo was unbreakable. Still, just in case, she sent a tiny dose of good vibes over there, just hoping to make sure that nothing... too horrible happened. She couldn't help it. It was like a reflex. She didn't make a show out of it, though, and the golden shimmers in the air were barely visible to the naked eye.
"Yeah," she said afterwards, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear as she smiled at him. "Let's go. I hope I didn't put too much food in the basket. Is it heavy?"
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He wasn't entirely convinced, although it did make sense there'd be a fund or something like that. "If you say so." Yes, because being devious was second nature to angels, right?
Jaime was settling the bags and closing the lid when Lola turned her attention to the food fight. "Who?" He turned to follow her gaze to where Exploding Beet Girl had gone down. "You know her?" he asked, and then froze as he noticed energy shimmering in the air, moving over to where the combatants had fallen. He blinked, surprised; since he hadn't been looking at Lola when she'd sent out the vibes, he hadn't seen them coming from her. "What was that?"
"A little bit. Wait a second." Pity he only had additional strength when the armor was activated. He set it down on a vacant bench and shifted the heavier stuff around so it was distributed a bit more evenly. "Okay, that's better." It was still a bit heavy, but manageable and he wasn't as likely to drop it on his foot this way.
Suddenly, Exploding - no, Tomo - jumped up again, holding what looked like a book over her head triumphantly, considering she was pretty much covered in food otherwise. "HA! I WIN!" With that, she peeled out of the Great Hall with almost inhuman speed, laughing, with the person who'd tackled her hot on her heels.
Jaime blinked. "Looks okay to me."
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"Yeah, that's Tomo," smiled Lola. "She's a friend." Possibly a wife. She wasn't sure if she was actually married to Tomo as well or if they were both just married to Dwight. Or if it mattered. She grinned as the girl darted out of the room, evidently completely fine. "Good. Sometimes I get a little worried that she'll end up breaking something the way she zooms around, but she just... never manages to get hurt. It's a neat trick."
Okay. Time for confessions. Lola had blushed a little bit when he'd asked about the energy. Oops. She hadn't meant for him to see that. But yeah, okay, he deserved to know what she was. It was an important part of her, and if this was a date like she was suspecting then... Yeah. Then he absolutely should know.
"I'm from Columbia, originally," she began carefully after he had finished with the basket and they could start walking outside. That was more of a theory than fact, because her canon does not specify Lola's exact origin. "I haven't been there in ages, though. Um." She twitched her nose. "This is going to sound a little weird, okay? So just go with it." Okay. Deep breaths. There were weirder stories than hers at Hogwarts, she was aware of that. It all depended on your normal level of weird, though. Saying that you were an angel straight out of Heaven probably did rate pretty high...
"I'm from Heaven," said Lola, checking his reaction. "What you saw just now was angelic energy that I sent out to, well, make sure no one got hurt in the food fight. At least that was what it was meant to do, but the magic at this place can make it go a bit wonky sometimes. Usually I'm able to read minds, too, but that doesn't work here at all. It's all noise most of the time."
Was she babbling? It sounded like she was. She was getting increasingly nervous. It wasn't the first time she told a human what she was, but it was the first time she told a... well, a guy. And she had no idea what his opinion was going to be on the matter.
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He stared at the space that Tomo had occupied a few seconds ago. "And that's normal for her? Wow. Like the world's smallest freight train. She came in an hour ago yelling something about exploding beets and declaring war." He hadn't quite caught all of it, but not for lack of trying.
Lola's blush confused him momentarily. He really wouldn't have noticed the energy were it not for the scarab. Which meant he shouldn't have picked up on it. He'd already figured there was something weird about her, but hadn't said anything because it was not his business. Oops. "I've had a pretty steady dose of weird already," he assured her. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Might as well make it easier since he'd gone and opened his big mouth again about something the scarab had picked up. Seriously, couldn't the Reach have built an off-switch into the thing?
It was probably a good thing he'd distributed the weight in the basket, because otherwise the next bombshell would have probably made him drop it on his foot. Jaime opened his mouth to say "You're from Heaven? Isn't that my line?" or something equally lame when the scarab decided to confirm what she was saying. Sort of. Using terms that only the Reach would use (who else used "quantum improbability manipulation" when "magic" was so much simpler?), but it boiled down to exactly what she was telling him. But still. From Heaven?
The first coherent thought he had after his brain shut down and rebooted was, Note to self: DO NOT TELL HER about the time you accidentally burned down that church. Technically, it was the rampaging lunatic who punched the police car's fault, but... nope. Still blamed himself for that. And it was such a good thing she couldn't read minds now.
A very small part of him, the part that was making sense of this place, was noting that was probably why the scarab didn't spaz unnecessarily when she was around. Another small part of him was worried that in comparison, his own story was still bizarre and creepy and he just had no idea where to begin even after this confession. Assuming she didn't know about it already. Years of Sunday school were already getting jumbled up in his head.
But he was going to have to say something instead of standing there looking like he'd been smacked in the head with a two-by-four, because now she looked like she was afraid he would run away. "Um." Okay, he had use of his vocal chords again, that was a start. "Then why are you here?"
As far as braindead questions went, it wasn't the worst.
((Out for the night! Will be limited tomorrow til 7 PM EST - class begins! Gah.))
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The blush did not receed. If anything, her face grew hotter. Well, he didn't appear to be freaking out, which was a plus... Or he just did a really good job at hiding it. There were no doubts whatsoever that he believed her, though, which was a bit unexpected. She wondered what his secret was... Was it weirder than hers? Probably. He was tapped into some power-source that she couldn't pinpoint, and it was making her both extremely curious and a bit nervous. She didn't think that the energy was evil, but since it was something so completely different from everything she knew it was difficult to tell.
Rubbing her cheeks to try and hide the fact that she was blushing - it wasn't working very well - Lola took a deep breath, avoiding looking him in the eyes. "We get these... missions," she began, a part of her wondering if she was allowed to tell him this. This was Hogwarts, though. Different rules applied. "Usually there's this one person that we have to guide. Make sure they find their reason to be on Earth, you know? Their purpose."
She bit her bottom lip again, thinking about how to put this. "In this case it wasn't just one person, but a place. There are a couple more of us around here. We... maintain the balance, I guess." She shrugged, and then looked up into his face, a tiny frown creasing her forehead. "Are you freaking out? Because you're allowed."
There was another question that she kind of wanted to ask him. She wanted to know if this was a date or not. But yeah, that could wait. She didn't want to put more stress on him than she already had. Poor guy.
((Re-posted because I forgot about these comments. =P I feel your pain about school. Horrid thing, getting in the way of RPing...))
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"My definition of normal's being updated by the hour," he added. "And things were already pretty weird before I got here. Unless you already know about that," and seeing her blank look, "or not." It explained why she hadn't run in the other direction, but unfortunately it meant he'd have to try to explain it.
There was no question in his mind that he'd have to tell her the truth, especially after that confession. It wouldn't be fair. The problem was how he was going to explain it (and the less visual aids, the better). "You want to talk about this outside? Where there's less people and it's safe to eat without dodging projectiles?" Just because Tomo was gone didn't mean the threat had passed.
It was probably a good thing she didn't ask if it was a date. Whether or not it was a date would depend on if he could explain the scarab and if the truth wouldn't freak her out. Angel or not, he didn't know much about the thing in his spine; the only reason it wasn't technically evil was because it was defective. And if it still was, he wouldn't blame her for wanting to stay away.
((At least I can still workninja. And I don't know if you saw the update to the permissions post, but until canon contradicts me I'm classifying the scarab's alignment as Chaotic Neutral thus making it blatantly obvious I play D&D, if you're wondering how it should ping Lola. I should be on after 11:30 PM GMT, but I think that's after midnight your time and don't want you to stay up waiting for tags.))
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So, his life had been pretty weird before? Her interest was piqued even further, and her lips twitched into a bit of a careful smile. "Yeah, outside would be good. We'll find a calmer place." Lola thought for a moment, running through her mental list of Places To Go. The lake was a good bet. The ground might be a little damp, but it was one of the calmer places on the school grounds, and it was such a nice day. Perfect for the game called Revealing Weird Things About You!
"The lake is nice," she said, gesturing at the door. "Come on!" The angel began to walk again, glancing at him occasionally, not for the first time at Hogwarts wishing that she could still read minds. Clearly Jaime was used to weird things. The question was just how weird. And she wondered what his story was, if she was going to be able to deal with it... Lola had experienced a lot of strangeness, fighting demons and dark powers. She hoped that she wouldn't freak out about this. Whatever it was that was off about Jaime, he deserved to have her stick around. After all, he was still here after hearing her confession...
Suddenly they stepped into sunshine, the chills and shadows of the castle melting away into warmth. It was a wonderful autumn day, the morning's rain only remembered as shallow puddles in the road leading off into Hogsmeade, and Lola couldn't hold back a contented sigh. She always felt better outside. The energy from plants, trees in particular, was very similar to her own angelic energy, so it was like being sudddenly surrounded by green, frothy healing vibes, that soothed her and made her feel much better about this whole thing. She wouldn't have minded strolling towards the forest and say hello to the trees, but yes, better to head for the lake.
So she did, trying to be casual and like she hadn't basically said, "I am a celestial being with wings and a halo who's work consists of making people happy," just now. As she strolled, keeping her pace slow so that he wouldn't have to run with the heavy basket, she pointed out Places To Know.
"So that way is the Quidditch pitch," she explained lightly. "And following the road you can get to Hogsmeade, which is this groovy little wizarding village." She decided then and there that she wasn't going to tell him about the tent village unless he asked. She was being weird enough as it was without the added element of an unwanted husband and a beet farm. Lola gestured at the forest looming in the distance. "That's the Forbidden Forest. Never been in there myself, but I hear it's got unicorns."
Her eyes sparkled in almost childish delight, here. She'd never seen a unicorn, obviously, not even in Heaven.
((Okay! *makes notes of this* Good information to have... And I just want to say that this RP is making me kind of happy. =) ))
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Jaime had accepted that Lola was an angel, but he hadn't let the idea sink in to the point where it brought up a lot of painful questions. Most of which began with "why." This was probably a good thing. Besides, if she didn't know his story, then she wouldn't be able to answer a lot of them. He wasn't entirely sure how the scarab had confirmed her story, but the response essentially came down to If we can scan for magic and see astral projections, we ought to be able to see angels. The scarab hadn't been able to pin that down until Lola essentially told it what to look for. Which made sense. Around here, there were a lot of possibilities to cover.
Outside was good. Nature was good. Even when it wasn't this mellow, even when the trees were attacking him, the scarab had no interest whatsoever in "damaging nature." They also weren't surrounded by hordes of students who all pinged his unconscious radar out here. It felt suddenly good to be out in the open air, as if the Great Hall had been stifling but he hadn't realized it until now. The weather was colder than he was used to this time of year, but the cool breeze seemed to help clear his head.
He made special note of the way to the Quidditch pitch, since he'd agreed to meet Steph there the next day. "That's the village? Somebody mentioned it at my Sorting, but nothing about what was actually there."
Note that the words "shopping" or "buying" were not in that sentence. He doubted she'd actually forget the shopping promise, really, but there was no point in dropping reminders. Besides, that would be putting off the Revealing Weird Things About You game. Lola had basically dumped her own Big Secret on him, hoping it wouldn't scare him off. He hated lying to people he cared about, which was the main reason he sucked at lying in general - so he could not just keep a lid on his own secret. It wouldn't be fair. He just had to figure out how to go about it.
Fortunately for Lola, he only peripherally noticed the tent village and didn't comment. "Unicorns. Really? Why is it forbidden? To keep people from going in after them?" He'd never seen one either, but then, there were still a lot of things he hadn't seen.
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