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]

Jaime didn't intend to simply chat and pretend nothing had happened. He had never been good at pretending nothing was wrong, and the one time he had done that to respect a friend's wishes... no matter what Paco said, he did still feel responsible for what Brenda's dad had done. It might not have happened if he'd gone and told someone, or pushed harder for her to let someone know.

Not to mention that it was harder to think clearly on an empty stomach. And his mun was braindead last night. The last people he'd explained the story to who had no real frame of reference were his family and his two best friends, and those explanations hadn't gone too well. (Dani Garrett didn't count. Aside from the fact that her granddad was the last to use the scarab, the lady was so bugnuts the story barely fazed her.) He might explain some of it to Steph tomorrow, but she already at least understood the superhero part of it

[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

[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

[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

[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

[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.