Open RP: Henry in the library.

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

Camilla had warned him about the dog-Latin he would have to endure if he wanted to find any spells here. And yet he's ploughing through several books, snorting incredulously at points, it's true--but still reading them.

It seems his intent is to learn all the spells in the Hogwarts library by rote. He hasn't even got a wand yet. He is, however, making notes with a very expensive-looking pen, pages upon pages of cramped handwriting.

His eyes hurting him a tad, Henry Winter takes off his glasses and idly looks up, to see if anybody else is around.

Comments

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

His Classics-entrenched brain briefly translates Nox and back again. He takes the hand coolly--it's the way he does everything.

'Henry Winter,' he replies. Very much NOT wearing a sarong. 'Might I ask you how long you have been here?'

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

Quite some time, although I seem to have spent most of it as a piece of popcorn. I was just revived recently.

*Albel blinks at a random thought. It just struck me that I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time in castles.*

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

Henry's eyebrows hover somewhere above earth and orbit the moon for a bit.

'As popcorn?'

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

If I knew why, I'd gladly tell you. It makes just as much sense as turning into anything else, I suppose.

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

Camilla had believed herself a deer that night, he knows. But that was about being wild and free and surrendering to madness.

'I wonder what believing yourself popcorn must say about you.'

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

Believing? If I wasn't really popcorn, I defy you to explain why I awoke surrounded by popcorn and covered in butter. *The warrior shudders for a moment at the thought of some of the people he knew being in the same room as him when he was covered in butter. Some noblewomen display a shocking lack of self-control.*

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

'Perhaps you were thinking of a famous book,' says Henry, thinking back to Kafka, and quirking his lip up. 'And found yourself somewhat confused. What time were the clocks striking?'

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

I don't believe there were any clocks in the room, and if there were, they weren't striking. Slipping on a butter-covered boot and sliding into the wall does not lend itself to observations about the time, in any case.

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

Dryly, 'Goodness, how terrible. Were you hurt?'

From a man who did much worse to a friend, one can hardly expect genuine sympathy from Henry unless Camilla is involved.

Yet he keeps up the facade.

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

*Albel taps his left arm pointedly, producing a metallic sound.* I've been through worse.

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

'And survived, I take it?' One might expect Henry to exclaim heartily 'Good show, good show!' Only he's about as un-British as you can get.

No, really. We're not that warped. Not even the ones who went to Oxford are THAT warped.

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

I'm standing here talking to you, aren't I?

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

'Yes,' he concedes, 'But I am more than a little dead.'

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

You're in remarkably good condition for a corpse.

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

'Much the same condition as when I was alive,' he corrects, 'Save a scar on my head.'

No, you can't see it. You're not Ron Weasley.

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

*Albel scratches absently at his left arm, despite the fact that it isn't really there.* Huh. I've seen potions or runes that can bring a man back from the brink of death, but never a place that revives those who are fully dead.

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

'I was wandering,' he supplies. 'The door opened for me. I am in no doubt I was dead to the normal world; something exists beyond that, saw fit to place me in here.'

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

*Albel remembers his journey to 4-D space.* There's something beyond this world, alright. I met a few people there, once.

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

'Really? My own journey was fairly solitary,' he says with some chagrin. 'Were they helpful to you at all?'

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

A fair few. Some others were simply in the way. Sometimes aggressively so. *Where "aggressively" is defined as "waving around an energy whip, laser sword, and/or gigantic rocket launcher".*

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

'Tiresome, then,' he comments, hiding a smile. 'How long did you spend there?'

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

Long enough for my tastes. Frankly, the town was nearly driving me insane. No one ever reacted rationally to anything. *Translation: "My very presence didn't cause everyone to flee in abject terror."*

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

'That is generally why they are 'other worlds',' Henry points out, edging towards his book again. Is there a spell for finding out what world you were in?

[aquilus-albel.livejournal.com]

((OOC: Spoiler warning on the off chance you particularly care about not finding out how the game Albel's from ends.))

Hopefully, this world isn't a game.

((Yes, Albel knowing he's a character in the Eternal Sphere video game is canon at any point after he's gone there.))

[onewinteryday.livejournal.com]

Henry looks slightly amused.

'What's hope got to do with it?'