Open RP: Back to Normal - or, What Passes for Normal Around Here

[bantersucks]

After sending out a quick owl, Jaime headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was still early, so he got some breakfast and scarfed it down in peace

Comments

[unbittenapple]

Bella has sat at all of the tables at one point, trying to talk to people. It's weird, being pulled out of her Edward funk. It's certainly not as bad as it was; she can actually breathe now! But Edward's been busy, and they're not really in the same house, and Alice has been strangely away recently, so Bella is feeling a little uneasy; and this shows in her countenance.

She nods quickly at Jaime, glancing at the fruitbowl. 'Could you pass me a pear, please?'

[bantersucks]

It took Jaime a second to register that someone was talking to him, and another second to realize what she was asking. He looked up, blinking, suddenly noticing that there were more than a handful of people around. When did that happen? "Huh? Oh. Oh, yeah."

Fruitbowl. Right in front of him. Duh. He grabbed a pear and offered it to the girl, feeling a little sheepish. "Sorry. Kinda out of it today. Still getting used to this place again."

[unbittenapple]

Bella smiles shyly as she takes it, nearly dropping it on the polished wood of the table. 'It always has something new to worry you with, this place,' she admits. Much like a man she knows. 'How long have you been here? I mean, are you new?'

Bella...hasn't been to any Sortings except her own.

[bantersucks]

"Noticed that, all right," Jaime said with a smirk. "I'm kinda new all over again? Was here for a month, then got dumped back home for a while then dumped back here. So I've gotta learn my way around the weird all over again. How about you?"

[pippithepirate]

Everybody knew that cake was the ultimate breakfast food. Or if they didn't, they ought to. Pippi, being an educated girl (well, educated in things that were actually important, like piracy and how to deal with bullies) knew it anyway, and her opinion was really the only one she went by. Thus, she had talked the House-elves into baking a cake for her most mornings, which she would enjoy in the Great Hall with a glass of strawberry lemonade and a small bowl of raisins for Mr. Nilsson.

Today was not an exception. The carrot-haired girl skillfully maneuvered her breakfast over to the Gryffindor table, where there was a boy sitting already. He appeared to be reading. He was, presumably, all educated and stuff. Pippi wasn't very good at reading, so he automatically gained her respect

[bantersucks]

Again, Jaime's reaction was delayed, but he did look up when Mr. Nilsson chittered and he realized he was being addressed. "Hm?" He blinked a couple times at the sight of the monkey on the girl's shoulder. That was new. "Oh. Hi." He marked his place, looking at the monkey curiously. "And hi to you too."

He glanced down at the book. "Uh, it's a book on strategy. I'm still trying to figure a lot of it out." Unfortunately, he doubted the Hogwarts library had most of the books that Ted's notes made reference to.

[pippithepirate]

Mr. Nilsson calmly climbed down from Pippi's shoulder to sit on the table, and she gave him a raisin to nibble as she looked at Jaime.

"Strategy?" she repeated. "I can tell you about that! When I was out to sea with my Papa, he taught me all about it." As she spoke, she grabbed her fork and began digging into her cake. Yum. Whipped cream and strawberries. "It's all about coming up behind the bad guys and not make a sound," she explained eagerly, "and then you take a torch and you press the bit with the fire on it against their breeches and they fall into the water. And then you don't have to worry about them, because there are sharks in the water. You can just focus on going through their ships for treasure after that."

Pippi nodded seriously and picked off the marzipan rose. With great satisfaction she popped it into her mouth, and chewed. Ahh... Today's rose was a good rose. The House-elves were getting good at the roses! They had been all dry and crumbly before.

[bantersucks]

Jaime listened to her explanation, grinning in spite of herself. "What about if you're not on a ship at sea?" he pointed out amiably. "I'm from El Paso, and it's mostly desert out there. Can't rely on sharks to take out the bad guys."

He smirked at her breakfast choice, but didn't comment. Far be it from him to nag a kid who was not his little sister about the merits of cake for breakfast. "I'm Jaime. Is your Dad here, or is it just you two?" he asked, indicating Mr. Nilsson as well. Mr. Nilsson didn't really have to worry about the scarab, honestly; it was behaving, and it had no interest in the girl or the monkey.

[nicknamegirl]

Lola had been up early, but not gone for breakfast until she was sure Jaime would be up as well. He'd looked so tired the last time she saw him, that she wouldn't have been surprised if he'd decided to sleep in. So she'd gone out on a morning jog, gotten back, showered and changed before entering the Great Hall, with her cheeks still faintly flushed from her run. Since her blow-dryer was on the fritz, her hair was slightly damp from the shower. Using vibes to dry her mess of dark curls just didn't work as well.

She saw Jaime almost immediately and made her way over there. He was too into his book to notice her at first, so she calmly sat down opposite him, grabbing a piece of toast. After a second or so she said, "Hey."

When he decided to look up, he'd see her smiling.

[bantersucks]

The book was not a fast read, but some of Ted's notes... not for the first time, Jaime was sorry he'd never had the chance to meet the guy. Just for the commentary on why you shouldn't play poker with Batman if nothing else. The real one, anyway.

He was already smiling a bit at the mental image of Booster Gold being cleaned out at poker when he looked up. His smile only grew wider when he met Lola's eyes. "Hi."

He marked the page and shut the book. "Sorry. A lot of my stuff from home wound up in my room. Just going over something I hadn't read in a while." Which, given the weird encounter he'd had the other night, was worth reviewing. "Uh, how long were you sitting there?"

[nicknamegirl]

The toast was carefully buttered and smeared with strawberry jam, and then Lola poured herself a cup of tea from a nearby pot. "For about a second," she said calmly. "Don't worry about it, babe. Looks like... an interesting book." She was trying her best to sneak a peek at a page, but only caught the word 'strategy' read upside-down, and then several hand-written notes around the text before she had to give up.

He was looking much better today. "I'm guessing you slept well?" Lola grinned, plopping two sugar cubes into her tea.

[bantersucks]

"Yeah, I was out cold about a second after I hit the sack. Definitely needed it." The lack of bad dreams had helped too.

He caught her glancing at the book and grinned. At least he could explain it to Lola. "It's... not really a quick read," he admitted. "I think this is the third time I've read over it. But it's kinda important."

[lemondrop_party]

Albus decided to take breakfast at the Gryffindor table today. As a Gryffindor himself, past and present, he was entitled to do so; and as shadow headmaster professor emeritus, he should make the rounds every now and again.

He took a seat no more or less prominent than anyone else's, sitting among the students as though it were a commonplace occurrence for them to share breakfast with someone old enough to be their grandfather. There was something unassuming and casual in his quiet good cheer. He helped himself to an orange and magicked the peel off in a spiral.

[bantersucks]

The skinny teenager sitting a few seats away seemed totally absorbed in his reading and completely oblivious to anything else around him. Which was why it might have seemed a bit odd that the second Dumbledore sat down he twitched upright like he'd received an electric shock (or like someone had started screaming in his ear). As he did so, he accidentally knocked over his glass of juice, sending the contents spilling all over the table. Away from his books, of course, but still all over.

"Oh, man," Jaime groaned. "Be quiet," he muttered under his breath as he grabbed a napkin and desperately tried to stem the flood of orange juice with it. "Sorry, sorry. You have got to stop doing that!"

[lemondrop_party]

Completely calm, Albus pointed his wand at the onrushing flood of juice. "Scourgify", he told it, and the juice promptly evaporated itself away, leaving no residue nor trace of its passage.

"Charms class has not been held in some time, has it? So you would not have known that spell. Allow me to introduce it, and myself. It is a Scouring Charm, and I am Albus Dumbledore."

[bantersucks]

It took Jaime a second to respond, since it took the scarab a second to calm the hell down and realize that the very powerful wizard was just cleaning the spill and nothing more.

"I'm still playing catch-up anyway," he admitted, embarrassed and adding that spell to the list that might be handy to learn later. "Sorry about that. I'm Jaime Reyes. Nice to meet you, sir." The 'sir' was automatic - as calm and pleasant as the man seemed, there was a definite sense of authority.

He rubbed the back of his neck, partly from embarrassment and partly trying to quash the general unease he was getting due to the scarab. It wasn't screaming any more and it wasn't pushing to attack, but it was scanning and it was nervous, which never helped. "Um, are you a professor here?" Dumbledore certainly looked the type, and he didn't feel like he had much to learn here.

[girl_george]

George wasn't a girl for crowds, but she was a girl for breakfast. It was a never ceasing conflict, but this morning, her stomach won. Besides, so far George had been keeping in touch with her friends mostly through owls, and that just wasn't enough for her. Even a psychic could get lonely sometimes.

So she easily made her way to the Gryffindor table, dressed in her usual cotton dress and cardigan. It could be said that the dark-skinned girl dressed like she had just walked out of the 60's, but even in the 60's they had jeans. She sat down across from Jaime as if a meeting was already scheduled, and reached over to grab some toast, which she covered with a glop of jam.

George was still for a moment, to allow Jaime to subconsciously get used to her presence, so she wouldn't startle him with her question when she rose up slightly to peer at his volume. "Are you finding it helpful?"

[bantersucks]

Too late; Jaime had already been startled once and thus was keeping all dishes out of the range of his elbow.

As a result, he was trying not to get too wrapped up in the reading. "Hm? Oh." He smiled when he saw who it was. "Hey, George." He blinked a bit at her question, but then shrugged it off. "It's a little bit out of my league, but I'm getting some of it. I think. What's up?"

[girl_george]

"Good! But be careful of getting something on it. Of course, I think that's the mark of a really good book, don't you? Jam stains, bent corners, yellowed on the ends." She took a bite out of the toast and chewed thoroughly before she continued, putting the toast down on her plate.

"Nothing much; that's ok, it's nice to have some quiet time after last summer. Normally autumns are so hectic. I know winter is supposed to be the gloomy season, but there's always something in the air for the fall. How have you two been, Jaime?" She reached over for a nearby pitcher. "And would you like some orange juice? It's a little bit sour."

[bantersucks]

"Well, it wasn't originally mine. It'd feel - disrespectful if I got stuff on it. Sounds kinda silly, I know." He shrugged, sheepish. "Had a close call once already, so I'm trying to be careful."

"Last summer?" he asked, concerned in spite of himself. "Nothing bad happened then, did it?" Lately, when things got hectic in his world, it was usually the insane weird variety of hectic.

"Sure - yes, please. I didn't get much last time." Three months back home had manners kicking in automatically again. "Okay, I guess. Got sent back home by accident for a few months. But here it was only a few days. Not sure how that works or why. Guess I'm glad I didn't miss much. Would've liked a warning, though."