[identity profile] ra-tilt-chimera.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] hh_mirror
Lacking any pressing to do, Zel had settled down to some serious cure-sleuthing in the Library. He wasn't entirely optimistic about the results, but what could you do?

Zel was intimately familiar with his own personal luck. And his luck was basically that whenever he got a lead on a cure, something would come along and break it up. Generally, he'd expect Lina or Xelloss to come barging in, but since neither of them were here - he was sure he would have heard them being Sorted; another thing about his luck was that it never missed a chance to make him run into Lina again - it would be something else.

So he was poring over likely-looking tomes, keeping a keen eye out for ones that looked as though they might spontaneously combust when he touched them. This was why he was looking for a flame-dousing spell first. How he was going to practice it, he wasn't sure, since he didn't want to risk setting a fire in the Library. But he tended to pick up most spells fairly quickly - Transfiguration being an exception. This might have been a defense mechanism on the part of the chimera spell, though, which he was beginning to suspect had a mind of its own. It wouldn't have surprised him.

Date: 2007-12-08 05:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
((May not be able to tag back til tomorrow night, but...))

Okay, so, when it came to anything remotely technological (even something useful like why it had issues with Hogwarts magic), the library was sadly lacking. So that was why Jaime was searching the stacks for books on magical artifacts - specifically, how and why they'd come to be magical and what the side effects were. It was kind of a leap, but until it had attached itself to him, the scarab had certainly appeared to be magical. Maybe there was something about risks of magic absorption.

He was looking at the books on the shelves rather than where he was going, so when he came around the corner into the same aisle that Zel was in, he didn't notice the chimera was right there. But the scarab did.

Which was why seemingly out of nowhere, Jaime jumped as though he'd been shocked and promptly dropped all the books he'd been carrying to the floor. "Crap. Uh, sorry." He hastily bent down to pick them up. "Shh. Chill out already. Gonna give me a complex at this rate."

Date: 2007-12-09 04:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
Jaime sighed. "Thanks. Not my day." He was actually more frustrated than anxious; the scarab's spaz attacks were getting really old, really fast. And while he'd mostly recovered from Halloween and sleeping was no longer an issue, the scarab had been on edge ever since then. More so than usual.

Which was why Zel might notice the odd assortment of tomes: some books that detailed how certain magical artifacts were created, one useful book about why Hogwarts magic had issues with technology, and a couple books about the dangers of magical absorption that at a glance could be mistaken for advanced physics (they were about as dry, really, but it was as close as he could get to the subject matter he was looking for).

"Thought you were somebody else," he added lamely, noticing Zel's curious look. He didn't yet realize that Zel hadn't made the connection, given his track record of barely keeping his secret identity.

Date: 2007-12-09 03:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Personal project." Jaime took the books gratefully, readjusting his grip on the stack to keep from dropping them again. "Trying to figure out how Hogwarts magic really messes with technology. It's not exactly consistent, from what I've seen." Which was an understatement.

Date: 2007-12-10 03:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Really? Lucky for you, then. Technology and magic back home don't mix too well - from what I've seen, anyway," he amended. "Magic tends to screw up technology." Scarab certainly didn't like it. "Seems like more of the same here. But it's totally unpredictable. Hence the random pile of books."

He nodded, remembering the name from when he'd been playing possum. "Jaime Reyes. Nice to meet you, Zel." In spite of the paranoid pain in his spine.

Date: 2007-12-10 03:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Yeah, and 'flashy' usually means 'more likely to blow stuff up.' Not to mention that it tends to completely defy the laws of physics," Jaime mused. Seriously, he was still boggling over the dentist thing. Both times.

"About three months now. Maybe longer. Hard to keep track of time around here, but I know Halloween was over a month ago." The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, and he mentally kicked himself for even mentioning that night. "Um. What about you?"

Date: 2007-12-10 01:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Who?" Jaime blinked, confused. "Hey, I wasn't talking about you." Where had that come from? Zel couldn't have possibly recognized him, he didn't think he was that obvious. "More like certain people I know." Even before he'd come here. The entirety of Pinata's magical abilities involved blowing herself up.

"You don't normally look like that?" Zel's appearance didn't faze him in the slightest, since a) he'd already met him and b) that was kind of average by Hogwarts standards of weird.
Edited Date: 2007-12-10 01:41 pm (UTC)

Date: 2007-12-10 02:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Ouch. I can relate, kinda. Except with my friends, it's less blowing things up and more punching. Makes me feel like their babysitter sometimes." But he'd missed them like crazy the first month he was here.

Jaime nodded. Again, he could identify with the concept of the Long Story - especially the awkward part. And the 'stupid kid' part, although there was no way he could have predicted what happened when he brought the scarab-shaped rock home. "So, not a magicked food thing. Got it."

Date: 2007-12-11 01:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Ouch. I don't think Brenda and Paco would blow anything up. Unless they got locked in a room together for more than half an hour," Jaime amended, then hesitated. "Your friend's not here, is she?" Hey, Brenda had shown up, you never knew.

"Back? You mean you got it reversed and then... wow. That really sucks." The dentist thing had just been embarrassing.

Date: 2007-12-11 02:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Yeah, I can imagine that. If she blew up a tower or something and the castle decided to move stuff around to accommodate that, no one would be able to find their way around anywhere," Jaime mused.

"Sorry. Don't blame you at all." He cast around for a subject change and found it as he spotted a book on his list, sitting on the top shelf. Setting down his stack on an empty shelf nearby, Jaime reached up for it - and scowled as his reach was maybe an inch too short. There was nothing to stand on, and trying to climb the shelves would probably be a disaster.

Embarrassed, he swallowed his pride and glanced over at Zel, who was slightly taller. "Could you, uh...?"

Date: 2007-12-11 02:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Thanks." Still mildly embarrassed - hey, every single member of the media had to make a crack about his height, it was going to give him a complex at this rate - Jaime took the book and flipped through it, making a face. About as dry as the Strategy book in his room, but it was the kind of thing he was looking for.

He shut the book and added it to the top of the stack, hefting the books once again. "I better quit stalling and actually go try to read some of this stuff," he sighed. "See if it's got anything I can use. Nice talking to you. Meeting you, I mean," he corrected himself unnecessarily, wondering how the heck superheroes kept what they were and weren't supposed to know in and out of costume straight.

Date: 2007-12-11 01:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] bantersucks.livejournal.com
"Nah, I got it," Jaime assured him. The stack wasn't that heavy. "As long as somebody doesn't spaz out for no reason again," he whispered.

"Hard part's gonna be combing through all the useless information for something useful," he added, with a wry glance at the book on magical absorption. "But I've had a lot of practice with that lately."

The scarab's retort was almost indignant, and he couldn't help but smirk a bit as he hauled the books off to an empty table. Small victory, but he'd take it.

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