hh_mirror | Open RP: Library Fort

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Open RP: Library Fort

Time moved... strangely, at Hogwarts, or at least it did for Constable Fraser. Things seemed to blur together a lot more here than they did in Chicago, or even out in the Yukon; which was how it got to be the middle of May before he realized that 1) he'd somehow missed the anniversary of his former partner's disappearance and 2) he'd missed said former partner's birthday for the first time ever.

These two facts were a little distressing, and had made him a little melancholy, but he decided to be pro-active about it. It had been just over two years since he'd last seen Ray the Former, but that hadn't stopped him from making presents for the last two birthdays, and it certainly wasn't going to stop him now!

The library, apparently, wasn't quite as safe a hiding place from the new Ray as he'd once thought, but it was safer than either their room or the Gryffindor Common Room, and he figured if he angled himself just so... A-hah. Positioning himself behind a veritable fort of books and old Quibblers, sitting just so he could see the library door, he set himself down and began to toy with what looked like string and beads and pieces of wood.

He wasn't exactly hidden; he was trying to avoid Ray for the moment, but he probably would have welcomed any other company.

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Fraser gave the newcomer a brief, blank look, but that lasted about two seconds before his natural sense of politeness kicked in. He wasn't sure what the young man actually was, but that hardly mattered at a place like Hogwarts. "As far as I know it doesn't, actually, but.." He looked down at the spread before him and hesitated. "Well, I suppose I don't really need all of these." He'd brought extra supplies with him, after all... And the -- well, whatever it was, it seemed very pleased. He thought.

Summoning up a smile, he pushed some of the leather strips and beads over towards Strong Sad. "By all means, please do join me. My name is Constable Benton Fraser, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Who might you be?"

Strong Sad lowered himself into a chair across from Fraser and eagerly gathered the beads and strips he had been offered. "Oh, I'm Strong Sad, of...um...." Now he felt like he needed some sort of militaryish affiliation, too. Oh, wait a moment! There was something. "Of the Homestarmy (http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Homestarmy)." He started tying an extravagant sort of knot at the end of one of the strips.

Fraser raised his eyebrows. "I'm not-- not entirely familiar wiht that organization, I'm afraid." Homestarmy? It sounded positively made-up, but on the other hand so did a giant walking... hippopotamus...?

He rallied himself. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sad." The knot, now, that was curious; Fraser found himself watching, trying to see if he could identify it. His hands continued to work, tying his own strings together into an increasingly elaborate net.

"Oh, the Homestarmy is a force to be reckoned with. Our main duties are to ensure that no one works on Labor Day, but we held our own in the Battle of Strongbadia, with only the sacrifice of Third-Style Private Frank Bennedetto (http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Frank_Bennedetto)." Strong Sad paused. "May he pop in peace. As our leader says, our membership is 'limited to the few who are sick and tired of playing second-fiddle to a two-bit wrestle man' - that's my brother, Strong Bad - 'and his yellow dog' - that's The Cheat, although he's not a dog, so I don't really know why Homestar said he's one."

Strong Sad examined Fraser for a moment. "We wear uniforms, too, but, well...our budget is pretty much nonexistent, so they don't look as snazzy as yours." His eyes dropped down to Fraser's hands. "Oh, that's some cool knot tying you're doing. What are you making?" Another brief pause, and then, "Oh, also, you can just call me Strong Sad. Should I call you Constable?"

Genuinely quite interested, he listened to Strong Sad's explanation. So far he'd catalogued about four or five different worlds that were clearly and strikingly different from his own, not counting Hogwarts itself -- here, apparently, was another, as different from the others as night and day. He understood about a third of what Strong Sad was actually saying, but still! It was all very interesting!

Plus, Strong Sad had complimented The Uniform, which always earned a gold star in Fraser's book. "Ah, thank you," he said with obvious pride, leaving his work to straighten his collar and lanyard slightly. Snazzy. He liked it. At Strong Sad's questions he looked down at his project, then back up at the--- whatever he was. "As you like. Most people call me Fraser, admittedly. And this--" he held up the net-- "will be a dreamcatcher, eventually. It... tangles up all your bad dreams before they can get to you."

"Oh, a dreamcatcher!" Strong Sad nodded knowingly. He was quite familiar with all sorts and forms of arts and crafts, although admittedly most of what he made often found its way into Strong Bad's, Strong Mad's, and/or The Cheat's clutches, and then the item often...was no more. "Do you have a lot of bad dreams you want to catch?" He started stringing some beads onto the lanyard, where they began to pile up behind the fancy knot he had tied.

Fraser's mouth twitched ruefully, his eyes lowering to the half-made dreamcatcher in his hands. "Sometimes, yes." Usually on the nights his back hurt -- the bullet in it never let him forget for too long that it was there, and on those nights he dreamed about dying in the snow. Sometimes his leg hurt, too, where Geiger had stabbed him, and that usually made him dream about his father, but those dreams were much easier to deal with when he could actually go and talk to the man.

"It's not for me, though," he murmured, twisting two strands together. "It's for a... a friend of mine." Honestly, who this was for, he had no idea. He'd had some vague idea about sending it back to Chicago, but... Well. Flashing another small, slightly sad smile, he looked up and nodded towards Strong Sad's string of beads. "What are you making?"

"Oh. Well, if your friend has bad dreams, maybe it's because his brothers are sitting by his bedside at night, telling spooooooooooky stories to his subconscious!" Of course, Strong Sad spoke entirely from experience.

He raised up his project to show Fraser. "This is a tai-chi headband. I'm separating the beads by little knots so that they are aligned along the various pressure points of my head. That way, when I wear it, I can have my chi flowing freely. Of course, it doesn't matter how freely flowing your chi is when your brother throws a The Cheat into your stomach in the middle of your poses, but...well, I guess the best you can do is hope The Cheat isn't carrying a tazer. Or a statue of Van Buren."

"Well... no, I don't think so. He doesn't have any brothers." Fraser had the feeling Strong Sad wasn't actually talking about Vecchio. He wasn't sure he wanted to intrude, though... Maybe that was a normal brother thing? He didn't have any brothers, and he'd only met his sister for the first time a year ago; he really had no idea how normal families worked, especially not normal hippo families.

Moment by moment, Strong Sad was losing him a bit more. He gave him a sort of a wooden look. "Of course," he echoed. "Do-- do you mean Martin Van Buren? The ex-President?"

"Oh, sure. Old Kinderhook. There are many busts of him if you know where to look," Strong Sad said easily as he added another bead and then worked another knot into his creation. "eBay is a veritable bust heaven. I once won a bust of the Geico gecko with a last-minute bid of seven dollars and twenty-six cents!"

Given that Fraser didn't know eBay or Geico, much less the gecko, much less the Cheat, he was very confused right now. "I, ah... I see." His brow creased, indicating that no, he really didn't at all. He decided it was worth asking a few questions. "This 'e-Bay' is an auction house, then, I take it? What, exactly, is a cheat?"

His hands had stilled, temporarily, on their interweaving; Strong Sad had his attention for the moment.

Strong Sad was quite used to no one understanding his blather - or, worse, throwing dodgeballs at him or simply abandoning him in the middle of it. In fact, it was a bit shocking that Fraser hadn't yet attempted to throw any beads at him or choke him with one of the strings.

"Oh, yes, eBay is an auction Web site. You can get almost anything on you want on there. Do you have an e-mail address? I can link you to this one seller's page. He's a veritable arts and crafts warehouse!" When you come from a place where the only store is Bubs' Concession Stand (http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/Bubs%27_Concession_Stand), eBay was a must!

"And it's The Cheat, not a Cheat, and...well, I'm not really sure what he is or where he came from. But he's here at Hogwarts now." Strong Sad sighed heavily. At some point, he knew he was going to suffer hard because of that. "He's about knee high, yellow fur with black polka dots...kind of square shaped. My brother says he hatched from a giant egg containing a lifetime supply of fishsticks (http://www.hrwiki.org/index.php/flashback), but...well, I think it was actually French toast sticks."

If Strong Sad thought he was making any more sense now, he was sorely mistaken. Well, okay, the first part was relatively clear, if a little... well. "Uh, yes, I do have an e-mail address, but I wasn't aware that Hogwarts had an internet connection. There are no phone lines in the building, so far as I know." Which, when you came from 1999, was the end-all be-all of internet.

"And..." He hesitated. "Well, this isn't really arts and crafts, you see. The dreamcatcher is an ancient symbol of Inuit folklore." It felt a little odd to be getting defensive against a miniature hippo. He wasn't sure how he felt about this exchange. Maybe he'd fallen asleep and was having a vision quest? Although this definitely wasn't like any other he'd had.

"I... see," he murmured, not seeing at all. "And are giant eggs containing French toast sticks particularly common where you come from?"

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Open RP: Library Fort

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