Application: Dairine Callahan, Young Wizards series

[computerwizkid]

With a small bang of displaced air, a twelve-year-old girl appeared, carrying what might have been a laptop computer, if laptops had eyestalks and jointed legs. She looked around, an increasingly annoyed expression on her face, and groaned

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[girl_george]

"Those sandwiches sound good." George walked into the sorting room, and offered Dairine a welcoming smile. "I'll make you some cookies later in return. Pleased to meet you, I'm George."

[bowchickamaou]

(( Yuuri is jumping in with George-mun's consent. Could we post in order of George-Yuuri-Dairine ? ))

"Cookies? Hey, count me in." Yuuri walked into the Sorting Room with a typical bounce in his step and an equally typical goofy grin. He was the kind of boy who always got up on the right side of the bed. "George, who's the new kid? I'm Shibuya Yuuri," he said to Dairine. "Nice to meet you!"

[computerwizkid]

Dairine was already pulling the bread, mustard, and bologna out of her claudication - apparently out of thin air, to those watching. "Nice to meet you, too. Do you go by Shibuya, or Yuuri?" she asked, and then added, a little apologetically, "It's pitiful, I can't keep naming conventions on my own planet right."

[girl_george]

Meanwhile George had reached into her rucksack and pulled out an old, small sheet. More proper for lounging than sleeping under. She smiled and explained that, "I was on my way to do my laundry."

She rested it on the ground and was otherwise quiet, though eager to help Dairine set up.

[rosecasson]

Rose tilts her head.

'What's bologna?'

[computerwizkid]

"It's a kind of lunch-meat. Kind of sausage-y. And it's pronounced baloney. I think it's Italian."

[rosecasson]

'It sounds yucky,' Rose confides. 'I don't like meat you can only have for lunch. I prefer chicken.'

[computerwizkid]

"I guess it's not for everyone," Dairine said with a shrug. "That just means more for me."

[bantersucks]

((About to pass out - Dairine may be pinged by the alien tech inside Jaime from the tiny bit I know about YW.))

The first thing that came to mind when Jaime spotted the applicant was that she reminded him a little bit of Brenda, just not as angry. Then he noticed Spot, and the scarab noticed Other Things, and the ensuing internal argument made him forget all comparisons to Brenda.

Which was why he didn't approach her immediately, but hung back for a second, seemingly whispering furiously to himself. "Don't do anything stupid, okay? Just back off." Man, he bet this girl didn't have to argue with her sentient computer every hour of every day.

"Hey," he said once he'd finally won the argument. "What's the Crossings? Other than not here."

[computerwizkid]

"It's the biggest worldgating facility in this part of the Universe. Think: an airport the size of Rhode Island, with just about any kind of alien you can possibly imagine and a lot you can't coming and going. And it's run by giant purple centipedes." Dairine grinned. "I blew a good bit of it up on my first visit, and the stationmaster's kid is still one of my best friends. Go figure."

[bantersucks]

"...giant purple centipedes? Something tells me this place isn't gonna weird you out all that much." Which was saying something. "Yhe way the castle changes shape and moves things around, if you blew something up here nobody would ever be able to find their way around again."

"Any kind of alien?" Okay, maybe he sounded like a broken record, but he had to ask. "You know of any profit-obsessed ones called the Reach?" He paused, looking a bit distant. "Okay, really profit-obsessed."

From what he'd been able to learn, the Reach were all about profit - enslaving worlds, for them, was all about financial gain.

[computerwizkid]

"I don't blow things up much, anymore. Haven't had that kind of power to spare in months," Dairine assured him. She paused for a moment, thinking about his second question, and then shook her head. "Not off the top of my head. Profit-obsessed sounds a bit like the Tawalf, though. Skinny magenta humanoids?"

[toujours_sirius]

After looking over Dairine's application, Sirius approached her with a friendly smile.

"I'm Sirius Black, and I daresay you're right that I wouldn't press charges. Not too fond of law enforcement, to be honest with you." His head tilted a little bit as he regarded her (in an entirely unperverted way, regardless of whatever Question 4 might have intimated at) before adding, "You remind me of a close friend of my godson's."

[computerwizkid]

"Really?" Dairine asked, crossing her arms, hugging Spot to her. It wasn't entirely a defensive gesture, but she didn't really know what to make of Sirius. She raised an eyebrow. "And is that a good thing?"

[toujours_sirius]

Sirius, being rather used to his presence drawing out apprehension from people for a number of years now, didn't take particular note of Dairine's discomfort. Actually, if anything, it was far better than some other people's reactions.

"Oh, absolutely. He picks his friends quite wisely," he replied, an unmistakable note of pride in his voice, "and one of my good mates and I have said many times that this particular one has got to be the cleverest witch of her age." Now he grinned. "So it was a compliment."

[computerwizkid]

"Oh. Well, thanks, I guess," Dairine replied, looking a little more comfortable. Really, she should know better than to let first impressions get to her like that, she thought. She'd referred to her own senior wizard as "Old Crazy Swale" for years, before she'd gotten to know him.

"Is she here, do you know? If we're so much alike, I'd like to meet her sometime," she said, after a moment.

[ugly_old_hat]

"What's it with you and the bologna?" the Hat asked in a not particularly unfriendly manner as it breezed in and settled on Ddairine's head.

[computerwizkid]

"I dunno," she replied with a shrug. "I just like it, I guess. And it keeps fairly well, so it's a good food to keep on hand when I don't know if I'll be able to stomach the local food."

[ugly_old_hat]

"Oh, come now, Scottish food is quite delectable," the Hat protested. "In fact, I don't see how bologna differs so much from the combination of onion, oatmeal, spices, and sheep's lung, liver, and heart!"

The Hat actually did make a good point.

[computerwizkid]

Dairine laughed. "I'm sure it's delicious. You're talking about haggis, right? I've actually always wanted to try that. But what I meant was like when I go off-planet and stuff. There's a lot of planets I've gone to that I wouldn't even be able to digest the local food. Where they eat silicon and boron and stuff." She shook her head. "I've never found any food from Earth that I couldn't at least keep down."