And now... owls.

[bantersucks]

((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

Comments

[nicknamegirl]

She nodded, understanding, or at least trying very hard to. So his family knew... From what Lola remembered of all these countless comic books, superheroes were usually very keen on secret identities, hiding who they were even to the people closest to them. She was actually oddly pleased that Jaime's family knew. She'd never been a big fan of secrecy.

The scarab sounded a little like her own powers, except more intense and difficult to control. Well, impossible to control. Lola's powers were at least adapted to her and by now came as natural to her as breathing. She could sense if a being was vicious, benevolent, upset, in despair, or blissfully happy, and she could modify her response accordingly, trusting what her senses told her. It had been a bit new and frightening in the beginning, but she'd had people to go to for advice. She couldn't imagine having all this power and not really knowing why it reacted the way it did, not to mention not having anyone to ask...

Lola smiled upon hearing what the scarab picked up around herself. It was a bit flattering, to be honest. "There are a lot of powerful people at Hogwarts," she agreed thoughtfully. "Not all of them are bad. Mm." She pursed her lips together, thinking. "If the scarab is at least less prone to spazzing around me, then maybe that's a key to make it calm down more while you're here." Her cheeks turned a little pink as she realised how that sounded. "I'm not saying that you should have me follow you around everywhere you go, because that would be, um, weird." Oh dear. Yes, she needed to stop talking.

Lola took a breath. "I told you there were a few more angels around here? Well, one of them is way more powerful than I am. His name is Michael. I don't know, maybe there's something he could do." She waved a hand vaguely in the air, searching for the proper words to use. "He might be able to help. Make it easier for you." She really hoped he could. Well, he might be able to. Michael was an archangel, after all. An archangel who really liked and cared about humans. And also, he was the headmaster of her school. She was used to coming to him if there was anything she wasn't sure about.

Blinking, she turned towards the sparrow, which did not look the least bit innocent as it sat on her sandwich. "Rude of you," she told it sternly, but didn't shoo it off. Sparrows need food, too! Lola simply picked off the pieces of mozzarella, uncertain on whether or not the cheese would be good for birds, and put them aside, leaving the rest for the pretty damn cheeky sparrow. "There's one with avocado and watercress somewhere in there," she sighed, peering over at the basket. "And muffins. A must on every picnic, muffins." Obviously.

[bantersucks]

Jaime hadn't even been thinking in terms of secret identities when his family found out. He'd just been desperately trying to explain where he'd been for a year that was only one night for him. Besides, he hated secrets to begin with. Not that he could have kept up lying to his family anyway. He took a bite of his sandwich, mulling over that one. Nah, he wouldn't have made it a day.

"I noticed. Problem is, it's hard convincing the scarab that. It does listen to me, though, it takes someone really scary to set it off all the way. It didn't reach boiling point around what's-her-name, the scorpion-throwing girl, but it didn't like her at all. ...which is why they didn't manage to sting me. Although she was distracted." Where was this going? "Anyway, when it 'turns on' all the way, so to speak, it's really, really obvious and kind of freaky. Not something I want to happen in, say, the middle of the Great Hall during lunch rush."

He took another bite as Lola mentioned how to calm down the scarab, and had to cough to keep from choking and laughing, turning red. "Mmph. That's okay, I didn't think so. You'd probably get bored after a while anyway."

"Avocado and what?" Definitely one of her picks. He pulled out a sandwich with a lot of green stuff in it that he didn't recognize. "Is this it?" The muffins were easily identifiable, and he retrieved a muffin and a cookie for himself before sitting back down beside her. He smirked at the sight of the extremely smug sparrow sitting atop its prize.

He considered her suggestion for a second. "I'll think about it. Thing is - yeah, I know, another thing - I found out it was defective. Broken. According to the guys who made it, that was because it was repeatedly exposed to magic for years before I picked it up. I don't want it 'fixed' - I don't trust the guys who made it and that's an entirely different story." Oh, is it ever. And he's probably overloaded her enough as it is. "So, I don't know how much magic it was exposed to or how it was exposed, but there's so much around here... I just don't want it more broken, you know?"

[nicknamegirl]

"Maia," she filled in helpfully, though she wrinkled her nose at the thought of that girl. "She's a demon, and I mean that literally. Believe it or not, but she's done worse things than throwing scorpions at new arrivals." Like trying to kill Lola's best friend, assassinating Cleopatra (yes, that Cleopatra) and various small but no less devious deeds since she came to Hogwarts, including but not limited to trying to seduce aforementioned best friend's boyfriend. Maia really had a lot of talent for pushing Lola's buttons. The fact that she was now married to an octopus was something that the angel considered high justice. Plus, it was hilarious.

She grinned, still a little embarrassed at what she'd said, and gave him a friendly biff on the shoulder. "I doubt I'd be bored, babe. You have to admit you're kind of interesting." He certainly had a lot of stories to tell, anyway.

"Watercress." Lola shook her head, laughing a little as she took the sandwich. "It's got this sort of... peppery flavour. You can have a bite, if you like," she offered. "Leaf vegetables. It's good for you."

She laughed again, a light, genuinely amused laugh. "You're just shock-full of things, aren't you?" she smiled teasingly, before having a sip of her Coke. Then she turned more serious again, and nodded. "Think about it. How is it broken?" Because that might be important. Healing something was one thing angels in general were very good at, but just keeping something just broken enough, that was a different matter. She hadn't really heard of a need for that before.

[bantersucks]

The news about Maia didn't even make him blink. "So do all demons act like sixth-grade bullies? Okay, sixth-grade bullies with weird powers, but still. Or is she just special like that?" He had no intention of finding out, and he would be content to stay as far away from her as possible. Although he might be amused if he knew about her marriage situation. ...Maybe.

He returned her grin in spite of himself. "Interesting? Nah, I'm the normal one in my group of friends if you can believe it. Weird just comes after me. You want entertainment, spend five minutes with Brenda and Paco."

"I've heard rumors about that. I'm good, though, thanks." Well, he does have lettuce and tomato on his sandwich, too, so he's not a total loss.

"You hsve no idea." But he smiled anyway at that, his own smile fading at the next question. "They weren't very clear on the how so much as the why.
I'm not sure what it was supposed to do, but I can probably guess. And I really don't think it involved me being in control." He frowned. "If it wasn't supposed to be good, I don't know what that makes it now. Or me."

((Taking off! Should be back late Sunday night!))

[nicknamegirl]

Lola laughed slightly. "No, she's just special. As far as demons go, she's not really that intimidating. I mean, not that I claim that the scorpions can't be creepy, but she's still mostly talk and no action. I've seen worse." Oh, Maia would just hate knowing that... Mwehehehe. Lola made a mental note to tell her. "You probably won't have to worry much about her, though. She lives in the tent village on the school grounds at the moment."

Hm. He was the normal one? "I think you're entertaining," said Lola loyally and took a bite of her sandwich. She was planning on having this one all to herself, away from hungry birds, so she didn't put it aside after one bite. If he didn't want a taste, tehn it was his loss! He wouldn't get a second chance at the yummy watercress, the foolish boy...

"I don't... get a really evil vibe from it," she said, a little hesitantly. It was difficult to get a real grip around the scarab. Sometimes she thought she had it figured out, but then the energy changed and she had to give up to avoid giving herself a headache. "I don't know what it is. It's... slippery." She bit her lip and looked up at him, sudden surprise in her eyes. "I do know that you are good, though. It doesn't matter what the scarab is. If it's broken, then you're in control, right? With a little practice, you can tell it what to be."

((Okay! Sorry this took me so long. >.< ))

[bantersucks]

"Remind me to stay away from most demons. She made it really mad, and I really don't want a fight if I can avoid it. Somebody else might get hurt." He frowned, remembering something. "Tent village? What's she doing there? They're not fumigating or something weird like that, are they? Or are they just full up on rooms and had to put people somewhere?"

Without the passenger in his head, yes. "I'm the straight man in the group. Or the referee. Or the babysitter, some days." Jaime chuckled. "Let me put it this way: the whole freshman class bet their entire spring trip money Brenda would take Paco down before midterms." He took another bite of his almost-gone sandwich, chewing thoughtfully. "You know, I never did find out what happened with that."

"Really?" He blinked, honestly surprised. Not that he'd expected it to come off as good, but if he ever encountered someone who could get an idea of what it was, he'd mainly expected it to come off as crazy evil or something. Oh, he'd hoped otherwise, but at the same time he'd been trying to brace himself for the worst. "'Slippery' sounds about right. Whatever logic it operates on isn't anything like Earth logic. It thought this batty researcher was a threat, but it didn't want to even fight the magic homicidal trees that were trying to smash me and my friends to bits because it 'doesn't damage nature.' Go figure."

Her observation about him made him blush, a little, and he tried to cover it by finishing off his sandwich. "I'm trying. It's a really, really, really slow learner, though. And even when it's freaking, it'll listen if I yell at it enough." He took another swig of his soda. "Maybe I'll even be able to do it without the yelling someday. That would be nice."

[nicknamegirl]

She doubted he'd be needing much reminding, but nodded anyway. "Got it. Normally I would have advised you to just ignore her, but I can see it would be difficult for the scarab." There was a slight pause as she took a bite of her sandwich, picking out a piece of avocado and popping it into her mouth. After she had swallowed she answered his question, amusement glittering in her eyes. "Oh, the Sorting Hat got a bit weird a while back and married some students off with people they didn't even know, and forced them to live together in tents. Maia's one of them." Lola really couldn't help a giggle slipping out. She really shouldn't be so happy about Maia's misfortune. Dwight wasn't really a catch either. "Rumour has it she's married to an octopus."

She smiled when she heard him talk about his friends. Drawing parallels to her own circle was a little difficult since angels didn't usually go for taking people down (though of course there were a couple of hotheaded exceptions) but she recognised the way he talked about them. Suddenly she kind of missed Heaven. Okay, so she had a couple of her friends here, but there were some that she hadn't seen in months. Lola wasn't really used to being away from the Heavenly City for that long. "Sounds like you have a lot of fun," she chuckled. "Never a dull moment, anyway."

Lola paused in the middle of a bite, her mouth open in surprise. Then she closed it, blinking. "Homicidal... trees?" she repeated incredulously. Okay. That was new. Hey, if the scarab was opposed to damaging nature, Lola was supporting that. She was all thumbs-up about nature. Still... homicidal trees?

She looked down at her toes, cheeks flushing - again - as she realised that perhaps she had been a bit forward. Stupid truth-telling compulsion... "I'm sure you'll be able to." Oh, and she was just making it better for herself. Sigh.

"So, where do you want to go afterwards?" Lola asked, hoping she wouldn't just keep making the both of them blush. "I mean, I did promise to show you around."

[bantersucks]

"So it's really marrying people off randomly? Ron mentioned that, but I guess it didn't stick." He grabbed an apple out of the basket as she explained just what Maia was married to - and almost dropped it.

Maia was married to an octopus. He stared at Lola for a second, letting that concept sink in, before he burst out laughing. "I'm sorry," he said once he'd managed to recover. "I know I shouldn't - but that's just so wrong. How does the Hat even enforce that? I'm surprised there isn't a riot at this point."

"No kidding." Even before the Crisis. "Yeah, and all the arguing and crazy aside, they're really good friends. Don't know where I'd be without them." A lot less sane, probably.

"Yeah. It was some kind of spell that made them start attacking us. Which is when Brenda and Paco found out - I was going to tell them anyway, the tree thing made that happen earlier than planned. They took it pretty well." Dude, Brenda's first reaction (after giving him the "you're an idiot sometimes" look) was a hug, so that was a pretty good sign. Paco already knew, but the story of how he knew was so long they'd be there all afternoon.

He smiled; Lola might feel a bit better if she knew how much he needed to hear something like that. "Thanks."

Taking a bite of the apple, Jaime thought about that for a second. The tent village was immediately out of the question. The wizarding village might be an entirely separate trip. "I was wondering where to find the library," he said after a moment's thought. "Especially if that's the best place to learn stuff." Care of Magical Creatures might be cool, but he doubted it would cover how to screen conversations or protection charms.

[nicknamegirl]

"Absolutely randomly." Lola grimaced. "No attention paid to compatability, orientation, species... The Hat just moves in mysterious ways." She grinned very widely at his laugh. This whole conversation had been much too serious for a while. "We're all at the mercy of a crazy piece of headwear." The angel paused, thinking a moment, and then wrinkled her nose. "I... sort of got caught up in in too. The marriage thing. I would like to point out that it's very much against my will, however." She raised a finger decisively again, not looking very pleased at all about being Mrs. Dwight Schrute #1.

Wow... His stories just sounded so completely out there. Lola shook her head, laughing softly. "Your stories make mine sound so stupid... I've never been attacked by a tree." She paused, thinking. Hm, well, there had been the time where she'd been assigned to look after the young man who turned out to be William Shakespeare, and who could forget that one mission where she'd been stuck believing that she was a Jamaican slavegirl? "I did turn into a cat once, though," she said brightly, grinning. "That's impressive." Or, you know, weird.

Oh yeah, the library! "I'll show you that," Lola nodded. "The whole castle is really so huge it'd take more than just one day to see it all... You can still get lost, even if you've been here for months, too..." With that, she finished her Coke and put the empty bottle back in the basket. "It's really a pity they don't make maps over this place."

[bantersucks]

"Wow. I guess I'm lucky it was distracted when it Sorted me. Now I'm afraid what it'd have done if it was paying attention."

Oh, man. The hat had married Lola off too? Did that even count as a marriage if a Hat did it under duress? So did that mean this wasn't a date? He was so confused. "That - that really sucks," he said, feeling bad about laughing now. "You didn't get married to anything really weird, did you?"

Most of his stories really were out there, sadly. And she hadn't heard about the two trips to outer space yet. "Yeah, because being attacked by trees is so many degrees of not stupid." But he was smiling. "I've never been turned into anything before. You've got me beat there."

Polishing off his own soda - there wasn't much left anyway - he put the bottle in the basket as well, wrapping up the half-eaten apple and tossing it in. "I heard it changes every so often," he mused. "I guess maps would be obsolete really quickly. It'd still be nice to have a general idea. Not everybody's helpful when it comes to giving directions around here."

[nicknamegirl]

Lola was really, really not counting it as a real marriage. He wanted her to wear a bonnet, for God's sake! She may have had the patience of an angel, but even Lola had her limits. She shrugged, making a face. "Some guy named Dwight who owns a beet-farm. I'm one of two wives." Lola frowned. "Or maybe I have a wife, too. I'm not really sure. The girl Tomo who we saw before? She's Mrs. Dwight #2." Sigh. "It's not that weird, I guess. Still, I hope the Hat gets bored with it all soon and lets everyone have a divorce. My cunning plan is to distract it with something shiny so that it'll forget all about it."

She finished off her sandwich, leaving the crumbs out for the birds, and laughed softly. "Guess we're both kind of weird, huh?"

The angel nodded, starting to fiddling with her hair to make it lie down a bit at least before exposing it to the wind again. "Well, the Great Hall is constant, as is the library and the common rooms. It's just the getting there that's tricky." The left-overs from the sandwich that the sparrow had stolen were taken and wrapped in plastic, since the bird had given up on trying to devour the whole thing. Lola shook her head at it, slightly amused, and watched it protest feebly as she took the sandwich away. "No, if I leave it here you'll eat until you explode," she told it firmly. "I won't have that. Stop being so greedy."

[bantersucks]

Beet farm? Two wives? Tomo? Jaime stopped, trying to picture that one. "...I bet Tomo makes it interesting. That explains why she was yelling about exploding beets, and maybe you ought to be careful. Because of the exploding part."

Jaime shook his head, chuckling too as he got to his feet. "I think we're par for the course around here."

He offered her a hand to help her up. "I've already been warned about the moving staircases. There's a girl in my house who says they have it in for her." The sparrow's protests made him grin. "She's got a point, man, it's five times your size," he added, feeling silly for talking to a bird but unable to help himself.

[nicknamegirl]

She laughed. "She certainly brightens up the place. She's got at least twice the energy of a normal person, so sometimes I think it's a wonder she doesn't spontaneously combust." Though of course she was glad Tomo didn't. Lola was very fond of her. She smiled, shrugged. "Explosions I can handle. Dwight might explode when he see what she's done with his beets."

Accepting his hand, Lola stood and brushed off her jeans just in case grass had stuck to them. "Thanks," she grinned, and kneeled to pick up her shoes and look at the sparrow. "See? Jaime agrees with me." Talking to animals was nothing special. Lola had a friend who did that all the time. She stroke a finger over the sparrow's grey little head, and it made a vague attempt to nuzzle her hand. Lola sighed. "Okay, fine. If you're hungry later you can come look me up. Silly thing."

She shook her head at the silliness of birds and stood up again. "Okay! Library? I hope I don't get us both lost." And then there was the Question, too. The Date Question.

[bantersucks]

"I noticed. You could put her on a giant hamster wheel and she could generate power for half of El Paso. ...but that'd mean she'd have to stay on the wheel, and I'm guessing that wouldn't work."

Jaime closed the basket and picked it up, quickly checking to make sure they weren't leaving anything behind as Lola actually stroked the sparrow. Must be an angel thing, and wow, did that ever prove he was getting jaded to the weird. "Sounds good. If we get lost, it'll be an adventure. Or something. But probably not your fault."

[nicknamegirl]

The wind started playing with Lola's hair again, but she was too deep in thought to bother with it. She gave the sparrow a little wave as she started to make her way, slowly, back to the castle.

"I'll do my best to make sure we get safely to our final destination," she promised. Then she paused, looking slightly nervous. "Jaime? Is... this a date?" Okay, forward. But she couldn't stop herself. "Because if it isn't, that's fine," she babbled, hand going up to fiddle anxiously with her hair. "I mean, if this is a friend thing. That's good. Friends are good. But if it is a date, I mean, that's... good too." Could you fry eggs on her cheeks? They certainly felt hot enough. She should just stop talking now... And she was NOT going to look directly at him, either.

[bantersucks]

Oh. Duh. He'd almost forgotten about that.

After the Info Dump of Weird, the whole date question had kind of fallen by the wayside. It was kind of funny, really. "I... don't know," he admitted, managing a nervous laugh. "Haven't really asked anyone out since, well, it happened. So I'm, y'know, a little rusty? But I was hoping it was. A date. Really." Okay, he was just going to focus on not dropping the basket and stop running his mouth. Good plan. But he couldn't help smiling.

He looked towards the castle. "So... which way? Do we brave the food fight zone or is there a better route?"