[open] and you can tell the sun in his jealous sky..

[starryeyed_cass]

[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

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[sophicsulphur]

Iris is pretty much jumping at the chance to bake cake with one of her closest friends. After all, cake and friends are two of the things she does best, alchemy notwithstanding. And right now, she's still struggling to get back up to speed on that last part, so what better way to spend an afternoon than indulging in the former two? Especially given it's an occasion. She's never one to take an important festival lightly, whether that festival is personal or otherwise.

She's brought her own ingredients, just in case Cassie needs them, though when she walks in and sees Cassie's flour-covered form she laughs and says, "Well, I can see I didn't need to bring any extra." She sets her bag down on one of the counters, and begins to fish out a few things anyway.

"Do you have enough decorations? Chocolate sprinkles? Small sparkly things? Large sparkly things? Things that sort of tingle in your mouth and make your head feel fuzzy?" She holds up something that looks a little like a large konpeito. It's clear that not everything Iris has brought

[sophicsulphur]

Iris continues to match that confused look, every inch of the way. "Yes, that's right," she says, her words equally as careful. "He's a wizard, and he want to Hogwarts Academy of Witchcraft and Wizardry back in his world. He lives right here in the Kashtta. He helped me move."

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

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie frowns for a moment, she doesn't feel as if her friend understands her right. She bites down on her lower lip slightly as she pauses, tilting her head to the side. "No, no.. what I mean is... In my world, Harry Potter isn't real - he's a character that was made up," she tells her.

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!"

[sophicsulphur]

Iris is still rather bemused at the made-up idea. She's sure they must have got that wrong. After all, she's seen Harry, and he's very much alive. Although the idea that every story that's ever been written is real somewhere is an intriguing one indeed

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie stands with an amused look on her face and returns to her mixing. She's quiet for a few moments in though. The idea of fictional stories being real is definitely intriguing, but strange. She wonders how many more people are fictional characters in another world. Could she, Iris or Saul be fictional in another world? That there's someone who looks like them playing them in a movie? Or they're book characters? Who knows

[sophicsulphur]

The Rift can take people away, she thinks, as easily as it brought them here. She's almost surprised Cassie didn't know. But she keeps her thoughts inside, not wanting her friend to dwell too much on what that means. That any of them could be taken from this world, at any time, and end up somewhere else unfamiliar. That the friendships they've forged here could be ripped apart by a capricious act of Rift.

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

[starryeyed_cass]

She certainly hopes that won't happen to her. She isn't sure what she'd do herself if any of her friends were taken away from her. It's different offering advice to someone else and dealing with it yourself. While she doesn't find it difficult to make friends, it certainly wouldn't be a walk in a park to do it all again. She just hopes it won't be too difficult for Iris, she knows friendships mean a lot to people.

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

[sophicsulphur]

Iris laughs and shakes her head when Cassie jokes about old age. "Nawww, you're not old yet," she chips in automatically, and even in her world's terms, she's not. Mid-twenties is respectable adulthood, but she's known people who kept going for much longer than that. Especially if they have alchemy to help them.

"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

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie would hate to think what she'd be in Iris' age terms by the time she hits forty. Probably ancient. She knows if Robin heard her say she's old, he'd assure her she's probably still a child in his eyes. He never did say how old he was, but she knows he's well... old. She laughs and shakes her head, "Well, I'm getting there!" she insists with a grin

[sophicsulphur]

Iris would prefer to use the word venerable, Cassie. After all, if you live that long, you've probably got a real flame of wisdom behind those twinkling eyes. The more foolhardy types simply don't make it that long.

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

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie looks across at her with a frown, "What..?" she's seriously confused. Did she just say she's going to be a thousand? Surely not... right? "A thousand? But you're only sixteen

[sophicsulphur]

"Yeah, but if I keep dying and getting born again," she says, the words oddly casual over the sound of vigorous mixing, "then eventually I'll reach a thousand. I guess anyone would. Right

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie's not entirely sure how to answer that one, "I would guess so," she says after a short pause, "But then... most people don't come back after they die a first time, usually that's it. They just go to heaven, or hell, or somewhere else

[sophicsulphur]

"...Really?" Her eyes fix on Cassie, now intrigued. "I mean, I didn't think I was gonna come back, either... I thought I'd just stay dead. That would have been nice," she says, seemingly oblivious to how that sounds, before the ball finally drops. "--Oh. Sorry. I guess that sounds weird. I mean, I'm not trying to say-- but you don't understand what it's like. Until you've been there. If you had, you'd know why I said that... I mean, I wasn't trying to be morbid or anything." She brushes a clump of hair from her face, leaving her with a small red streak across her forehead, then scratches the drying smear. Something Cassie said isn't quite making sense to her: she's heard it used as an epithet, but her internal translation sense isn't coming up with any link between the word and any concept she's known. "...What's hell

[starryeyed_cass]

Cassie nods in all seriousness, "Yeah, no one ever comes back from being dead, that's it. No second chances or anything, just one life. But I like to think our souls go on, somewhere," She smiles weakly, shaking her head briefly and waving one hand in a dismissive motion, "Oh, no - don't worry about it. It sounds like where you went was a nice place, like the tone in which you talk about it

[sophicsulphur]

Iris giggles a little at Cassie's words, bringing two more bowls over to her side of the counter and beginning to carefully add in the orange, drop by drop. Her tongue pokes out in concentration as she makes sure she has just the right amount of orange-- never one to be imprecise about her ingredients, is Iris, for she's learnt the hard way that that gets you burnt-- but, after a brief stirring to ensure the colour's mixed all through, she's ready to continue the conversation.

"But people clearly do come back to life," she says, the source of her giggle. "I mean, I'm living proof that souls go on. My body was burnt on a funeral pyre. And yet, here I am, in the body I was born in