Open RP: Mel, mind-reading and Potions For Dummies

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

OOC: Okay, so since Mel’s just turned 18, she’s got a few new abilities. One of these is being able—not being able to stop—hearing people’s thoughts. Therefore, if your pup tags this thread, Mel will be able to hear his or her thoughts and will probably respond to them. It goes without saying: please put your pup’s thoughts in the tag!
She’ll have learnt to control them by the next time she does anything. I just wanted to torture her.

Dumbledore’s comments—unintended, she’s sure—about having an ‘eternity for learning’ really stung. So Mel went to the library (shock, horror.) Carrying a teetering pile of books (with the still-unread Angel Handbook on top of the stack), Mel is trying to grope her way down the corridor, hoping the walls don’t suddenly decide to be made of quicksand or whatever.

The floor seems to have a vendetta against her. She catches her foot on some uneven stone (‘WHO PUT THAT THERE?!’), and her books go flying. She swears—‘Damn!’—and gets on her knees, gathering up the various spellbooks and wishing she hadn’t got out the ones that looked the easiest.

The books seem to have slid rather a long way down the corridor. Mel shuffles to get them all, but it’s going to be a task and a half with just one pair of hands.

Comments

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

Mel's lip curls. 'Former East London council estate kid,' she says. 'Forgive me if my phrasing wasn't completely clear.'

(She really ought to be more open-minded about drugs, in that case...)

'I meant, how do you function. All I can see of your mind is twisted and warped and lit up artificially. It's not healthy.'

[degeneratewolfe.livejournal.com]

It's not a term he's familiar with. He supposes it's an attempt to puff herself up, and mentally waves it away. "How? Quite honestly, I'm something of a medical mystery in my time. I happen to enjoy it, by the way. It makes me feel special." He says that in a tone dripping with sarcasm. "I look upon it as my own personal quest for enlightenment. As for healthy, that's something of a given. Then again, explain how fasting is healthy. Or fun, for that matter."

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

The unspoken question sticks in her throat. What do you do for the drugs?

'What has fasting got to do with anything?' she asks, trying to calm herself down.

[degeneratewolfe.livejournal.com]

"Enlightenment," he says, enunciating like he's talking to a child. "Some people fast, some people choose self-mortification, some people drop acid. None of these options are particularly healthy, and only one of them sounds interesting to me. Though I suppose self-mortification has an appeal for certain people... And so, my dear girl, that is why I have made myself into a medical improbability. The ultimate high is my holy grail." He had it and lost it, once. He doesn't plan to let mere death get in his way now.

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

'And most people find faith some other way,' Mel mutters. She shouldn't judge him.

'Don't die again for the ultimate high,' she says. 'It can't be that good if you have to sacrifice something you hold dear.'

[degeneratewolfe.livejournal.com]

"Faith? Who said anything about faith? I'm just trying to occupy my time in new and interesting ways." There's the small matter of having something of a god complex, but that's neither here nor there. He frowns when she mentions death. "That was a mistake." He decided that she would probably be the type to interpret that optimistically, so he clarified: "No one could predict that Shub would have a change of its metaphorical heart and cost me my victory. No one."

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

'New and interesting,' she repeats bitterly. 'Does everyone see it in that way?'

'You can't undo dying,' she says. 'Not really. Hogwarts becomes the centre of your world; your ONLY world.'

[degeneratewolfe.livejournal.com]

"Do you honestly believe that I care in the slightest how others view my actions?" He laughs, genuinely amused. "You're so naive. It would be adorable if it weren't so terribly dull."

He waves a hand dismissively. "Obviously I can't go back to being alive in my where and when. But while I'm here, I plan to make the most of it."

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

'I meant how it affects others,' says Mel, the air around her growing sharper. 'I don't like seeing people get hurt.'

Make no mistake, now she is angry.

[degeneratewolfe.livejournal.com]

"Yes, well, we all know the saying about omelettes and eggs, now, don't we?" He's amused by her anger. Honestly, people are so funny when their emotions get running. Anger is much more amusing than, say, despair. Despair is hilarity in the first few minutes, and then it just gets old.

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

Despair would never sit well with Melanie Beeby.

She's this close to unleashing her full angel. But there's no telling what she might do. She could seriously hurt the man.

'You can't do it here?' she forces herself to ask, feeling herself glow slightly.

[degeneratewolfe.livejournal.com]

Pissing this girl off is the most fun Valentine's had in ages. "Can't do what? Continue my experiments? Of course I can. Common addicts can make the most astounding concoctions out of simple household objects, and if those idiots can do it, then imagine what I can do with magic. I'd offer you some samples but I have the feeling that appreciation of them would be lost on you."

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

'On other people?'

Mel is tight-lipped now. 'Appreciation nothing. I wouldn't be affected.'

[degeneratewolfe.livejournal.com]

"Come now, do you think I'd waste my efforts on an unappreciative audience?" Granted, he had been using house elves for testing some of his more questionable efforts, but that was hardly likely to cause an uproar. The elves were always doing things to themselves anyway.

[totallyluminous.livejournal.com]

That calms her down, at least.

Until she hears about the house-elves.

By this time, she can't be bothered anymore. She may go down to the kitchens and tell them all not to take anything off the man. Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness, after all.

'Seems you just did with this conversation,' Mel says shakily, and marches off, books in hand.

[degeneratewolfe.livejournal.com]

"I hardly consider an entertaining handful of minutes a waste," he says mildly, not bothering to raise his voice as she leaves. He walks off, humming the same not-quite-tune he had been when he had found her.