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

[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?"

[nicknamegirl]

"Oh." Lola smiled, pleased, and threw a sneaky little glance his way. He was smiling too. Good. "Okay. So it's a date, then." Happy to have this mystery cleared up, Lola straightened her back to fully play the part of the tour guide.

"The library is on the fourth floor," she explained. "So we take the main stairs, past the Great Hall... If we move swiftly we'll avoid the foodfight. Um. I hope." She nodded at the picnic basket. "We can leave that to a House-elf when we get inside, so that you won't have to carry it around with you all the time." Lola doubted the librarian, whoever that was, would approve of food amongst all the books.