The (Second) Unpopping of Teatime ((open RP!))

[marvelousfacets]

Waking up feeling as though one has just stepped out from a vat of warm butter is a very curious sensation. Waking up feeling as though one has just stepped out from a vat of warm butter for the second time in one's life is stranger still.

After a quick pat down to make sure that he was still intact, or as intact as he last recalled himself being,

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[waste_lock]

The castle was as familiar to Nny as any place had ever been, by now. The role of 'caretaker' had even sunk in to some degree; there were small nuisances he saw to on a daily basis and no-one the wiser. The throngs of students swelled, shrank, swelled. There was a rhythm to the place that some days he could almost decipher.

He could tell, somehow, when he walked down a nearby corridor, that there'd been an unpopping, even before he smelled fresh butter. His first reaction was to slink past, avoiding the doubtless confused and bleating arrival, but at the last moment he turned the corner, looking to see who'd just emerged from the realm of snacks.

He stopped in his tracks as if flash-frozen.

[marvelousfacets]

How fascinating - if mildly irritating - that Teatime could remember these walls and floors and the distinctly magical feel of the air and still be unable to determine his exact location. Someplace foreign, he knew, someplace far from Ankh-Morpork and... yes, even the Disc itself, he's certain of that. Curious, it's all very curious, and he wanted very much to get some answers.

He halted barely two steps down the hall, not hearing or seeing but Seeing another nearby. The smile on his face hitched up further at the corners, and he whirled neatly around, already prepared to greet and interrogate whomever had happened upon him.

Until, that is, he saw whom exactly it was who had happened upon him.

(Who, exactly, his brain whispered eagerly, is it?)

Teatime tilted his head to the side, just a touch. He caught himself after just a moment's hesitation, and in a flash he was standing scant inches from this not-stranger, all friendly, too-wide smiles. "Hi! What is your name?"

[waste_lock]

It....

It was Teatime. Nny wanted to grab him by the collar, search him for the scars his former self had worn, but was transfixed by that smile.

Exciting. One way or another, it would be exciting.

"You don't know?" he murmured. "Use your training and intuition, and tell me who I am."

[marvelousfacets]

The absence of a fear reaction whilst in such close proximity to That Smile was very interesting indeed, but Teatime wasn't surprised. No, of course this man wouldn't be scared. That much he knew.

Standing very still, he examined his face with an eager sort of curiosity. "You're my friend," he said after a moment, with absolute certainty. And not his usual sort of 'friend', the kind that he often had quick and bloody falling outs with. A slight narrowing of those mismatched eyes, searching, grasping, and then the fog cleared, just slightly, just for a moment. Teatime's smile widened. "Nny."

[thefuturemrpond]

Rory was on the way to make his daily check of the popcorn room when he saw the new arrival. The man's eyes were ...weird. But Rory had seen a lot of weird. Weird was what you got around here.

"Are you all right?"

[marvelousfacets]

Teatime had stopped to examine one of the many moving paintings decorating the stone walls, utterly fascinated. The pastel-stippled woman and her horse seemed incredibly uncomfortable with the attention and refused to come out of the background no matter how politely he tapped the frame.

At the question his head whipped around, and with a sigh and a whinny of relief from the painting Teatime bounded over to the man who had spoken. "Oh, I'm doing wonderfully, thank you for asking," he said, putting on what he believed to be a friendly smile. Rory might not agree. "I am a bit puzzled, though. Where, exactly, am I? I'm afraid what little recollection I have of this place is quite muddled."

[thefuturemrpond]

Rory was already on his guard, and the smile was ...more worrying than friendly, yes. But it wouldn't hurt to be polite. Probably.

"Yeah, that happens," he said, with a sympathetic wince - he was quite familiar with having his memories messed around with. "You're at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Officially you're a student now, but no one's actually taught a class for ages. We're in a country called Scotland, on a planet called Earth, and I'll stop there so you can tell me if any of that sounded completely mental." He was coming to understand the Doctor's habit of giving completely baffling explanations for everything. You never quite knew what anyone considered normal.

[marvelousfacets]

Not Ankh-Morpork, then, or anywhere on the Disc at all. Somehow Teatime wasn't very surprised. There was a... different feel to the air here, and not just due to the lack of the unholy stench that constantly emanated from the River Ankh. Things worked differently here, Teatime felt. How they worked differently was another question, but he would investigate that later.

"That will do nicely, thank you." A magic school, then? While he didn't know much about his family Teatime was fairly certain that he had been an only child, and as such had no magical capabilities aside from those given to him by the crystal rolling around in his eye socket. Perhaps that was different here. A dozen more questions swirled about in his brain, but they were put aside when Teatime realised something very important. "Ah, but pardon me, I'm being terribly rude. My name is Teatime. What's yours?"

He would have his answers soon enough, he was sure. Good manners always came first.