Open RP Hallway to the Ravenclaw Common Room

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe walked out of the Sorting Room and into a hallway... a rather large hallway.  "Wow... I have no idea where I am going."  He looked around, quite lost and started walking to the right, hoping to run into someone who knew where things were.

He took notice of the decor, very fitting for a medieval-style castle.  Wide halls, suits of armor, moving paintings...  wait... what... moving paintings.  He stopped in front of a wall of paintings, trying to figure out what was making them move.

Comments

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

"I'm always open to learning about new things, talking with new people, and being around those with different interests than myself." He stifled a laugh and added, "well, maybe I could teach you all a thing or two about technology. Either way, it will be interesting merging two such different types of people."

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

Camilla thought of Henry and the little Greek-alphabet typewriter he'd bought in Mykonos, and couldn't help but laugh a little. "It's quite beyond us, I'm sure. But I was thinking of buying some computers. Computery things. I'd be thrilled if you'd have a look at them, when I do. I don't mean that I want you to maintain them; it must be awful, to have people expect things like that of you, and anyhow they'll be primitive by your standards. But I imagine they would be interesting for you to see."

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe laughed and said, "well, once I learn something about how to get any kind of technology working here, I'll be sure to help you out. But from what I understand magical environments tend to do strange things to most electronics, unless you do some work on them. But I would be interested in taking a look at modern technology of this time. It'll be like an interesting history lesson for me." He added, "It's not a problem, I enjoy working with technology, it won't bother me to take a look at them, in fact I'll probably find it fun." He has no idea how much of a dork he sounds like here of course.

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

"Oh, that -- the magical alterations. Those aren't a problem. There are resources outside Hogwarts, certainly, if you know the right people, if you have the right currency. Which we do." Camilla waved away the entire problem. "What I have will be working when it gets here. If it isn't, I'll send it back until it does, but I don't think that'll be a problem."

If he sounded like a dork, Camilla wouldn't be the one to point it out. But, of course, one of her favorite people in the world was prone to projects like translating English poetry into Latin for fun. "And you can meet Henry." This she made sound like the most appealing wondrous thing in the world; as though she were saying, and we'll fly to the moon.

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe had a look on his face like you'd just told him Christmas now comes once a month. "That's great, I was worried I'd have to spend weeks just getting a laptop to function through trial and error."

"I'm sure it will be wonderful, I can't wait to meet your friends."

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

"Oh, you can still do that, for fun, if you like. What do they call it? Reverse engineering? Only you haven't got to, if you don't want to." Another of those small sweet laughs. "There's so much here to truly learn, it might be a waste of time to reinvent what's already been invented. Have you got a wand yet, Jeff?" He'd told her at his Sorting that she could call him Jeff, and she certainly wasn't going to call him Mr. Universe, a name that struck her as a drastic and unfortunate misnomer.

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

"Well, I am planning to get one for myself which I probably will work on myself; I'm going to be working with it a lot anyway, so it'll be a good idea to figure out one kind of electronic before I work on something truly complicated." He added, "I have one, but I haven't had a chance to do anything with it." He pulled the wand out of his jacket pocket. "I would like to learn some magic, but I just haven't had much time yet."

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

"You'll want to learn how to cast wards, at the very least. They're indispensable for keeping letters private, and for having conversations you'd rather people not overhear. It's not the safest place in the world, Hogwarts, you know." A nervous glance about the bar punctuated the remark.

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe nodded and asked, "How would I go about learning to cast wards? I have a feeling that they will definitely come in handy at some point." He noticed her nervousness, and wondered what she would have to worry about here. She seemed so confident, like nothing could touch her; it was impossible to think that she would have anything to fear even slightly.

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

Camilla was silent for a moment, and then said, slowly: "Well, I could teach you, I suppose." She'd taught Henry, after all. "What's your wand made out of?"

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe said, "Hey, works for me." He then looked down at the wand and said, "Um... It's a 9 1/4 inch cedar with a unicorn hair core."

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

"Cedar was used by the ancients in embalming (http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2003/10/22/mummies031022.html). And the unicorn hair may suit you because you've died (http://www.hp-lexicon.org/magic/wands.html#unicorn_hair)," Camilla noted neutrally. She did not volunteer any information about her own wand, a slender thing she extracted from her bookbag. "There are many wards used around here, and most of them I think are dreadfully wasteful. Stupid expenditures of energy -- people warding things to turn into a butterfly and fly away if the message falls into the wrong hands, or to give an unintended reader warts, or something. I don't hold with that. The oldest wards are the best. I use most a very simple and strong one." With her free hand, she reached for a cocktail napkin. "Assume this is the letter I've written, and I want to send it to ... oh, let's say I want to send it to my friend Francis. I haven't even got to write his name on it. All I have to do is to concentrate on him, in my mind -- I know him rather well, this comes very easily -- and point the wand at it, and say: Dissimulo. It means 'I conceal,' in Latin. That is, it's the first-person present active indicative of the verb dissimulare. Most wizarding Latin is terribly, terribly degenerate, which only suggests to me that this ward must be very old indeed if the Latin in it is proper. The magic isn't in the language itself but in the intent, focused by the wand; the speaking of the word releases that intent."

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe watched her intently, "interesting..." he said under his breath as she explained his wand's traits. He listened very carefully as she explained the spell, not saying anything. When she reached the end of her explanation, he said, "so the key is to focus your intent, and use the word and wand to focus it. He took a cocktail napkin as well, and pulled a pen out of his pocket. He scribbled something down on it, focused on his friend Wash, and imitated Camilla's wand procedure as he said, "Dissimulo," at which point nothing happened.

He looked down at the paper, then looked up, and asked, "what did I do wrong?"

((Reposted like a dozen times because I fail at life))

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

(( Hehe, 's ok. ))

"You might not have done anything wrong at all," Camilla said. "Nothing will happen unless someone who isn't meant to read the message intercepts it. With this particular ward, the message will simply appear blank until the proper person receives and reads it. After that, of course, the warding's invalidated and anyone can read it."

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe stifled a laugh at his own expense. "Well, that would make sense," he said obviously questioning his own intelligence slightly. "Then I have one question; can you read it?" he asked her, holding up the napkin.

((If you want me to have failed at the spell, make up what it says, I'm not feeling imaginative enough to make something up at the moment.))

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

(( Really it's up to you whether your character succeeds or fails at the attempt. Warding shouldn't be too terribly hard, I don't think, since everyone uses it, and Henry who isn't very good at magic can cast satisfactory wards; but of course this was Mr. Universe's very first try, so maybe it makes sense for it not to have worked. How magically talented do you think he will be? ))

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

((Well, I see him as picking things up fast, but not this fast. He does have a knack for learning things. I figure maybe a try or two more, but he'll probably get good soon. So I'd say he failed this time, but succeed next time.))

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

(( ok! ))

Camilla took the napkin and unfolded it. "It's a good thing you didn't write anything very private," she said with a little shrug, handing it back. "Try again? Remember, the wand is only conducting the magic, and the word you speak is only a cue for its release; the actual intent is yours to use at will."

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe looked down at the napkin, slightly embaressed, but willing to try again. "Alright, lets try this one more time..." He thought about Wash, saw his image in his mind, and pointed the wand at the napkin. "Dissimulo"

((Once again reposted for failure at life and HTML))

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

Once more Camilla took the napkin and unfolded it; once more she glanced at its contents. This time, though, she did not hand it back, but shook it out to show that the surface he'd written on appeared blank.

"Good," she said, favoring him with that smile again, a smile at once promise and reward. "Now you can send things securely." She laid the napkin on the bar beside his glass. "A similar ward can be done to screen conversations that are spoken aloud, but that's a bit trickier, as there isn't an object like a piece of parchment to focus upon. It's useful in the Sorting Room if nowhere else; I use it almost everywhere. Again, there are different ways of doing it, and again, I always think the classic form is the best. The incantation is obduco culicare, which I can write down for you -- " she did so, on the blank napkin she'd used as an object lesson for warding; she hadn't actually written anything to Francis on it, anyhow -- "but which I'm afraid I can't properly demonstrate, not without more people around."

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe was thrilled to find he'd done it right this time. He was even more thrilled by the brilliant smile of his companion. He paid attention just as intently this time for her directions, if not more intently, for he would likely have done just about anything for one of her beautiful smiles. "obduco culicare..." he repeated back quietly, trying to memorize it.

He took the napkin and put it in his pocket, saying "well, next time we're around more people I can try it." He added, "is there anything more you can think of that would be useful to learn now?"

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

"Oh, there are any number of useful things," Camilla said vaguely. She was beginning to feel a little anxious; Charles hadn't shown up at all, which was the whole reason she'd been lurking about Ravenclaw, since she had things to give him that she'd promised to bring, and the longer she was here, the likelier Henry would start to wonder things she'd rather him not wonder. "You should practice, though. And you should look into textbooks. Most people here spend time in independent study, since classes aren't offered all too regularly." She glanced about again.

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Once again, Mr. Universe wondered what Camilla was so anxious about; but he wasn't going to say anything about it just then. He answered, "that's probably a good idea, I'll probably go check out the library sometime soon and check out some more spells." He saw her looking around again, and asked, simply curious, "are you looking for someone?"

[c-macaulay.livejournal.com]

Camilla was silent a moment, then nodded. "My brother. He's a Ravenclaw."

[the-mr-universe.livejournal.com]

Mr. Universe answered, "Oh, I didn't know you had a brother here"