Open RP: Lake/grounds

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

((Sarah needs to be more social, feel free to come and talk to her. I'm on IRC if you want to chat about it first. xD))

Reaching the end of the section in the book in her lap, Sarah's gaze left the page and traveled out over the lake. Thus far, she had been what she considered successful in learning, despite having had no classes to attend. She had discovered books in the library that apparently were the last texts used when classes used to happen regularly and had been using them as an outline to steadily make her way through the coursework. This self-guided independent study, even in subjects she did not care for much, was more initiative than she had in her first year of college, but then, that hadn't been necessary in a school where they had classes. So far she had determined she was average at wand work and surprisingly good, in her opinion, at Potions and Care of Magical Creatures. It was hard to judge the latter, of course, with only written work and no classes to interact with the creatures, so perhaps she'd have to track down a way to do so. It was the former, however, that she was most concerned with, as there were still things she had questions on and knew she could use a teacher... she just had not gotten the nerve to do so yet.

She sighed, leaning back against the tree as she looked around, unable to concentrate and go back to her book. There were not many people around where she sat, as it was not close to the lake or the castle, but there were enough to observe. That had become one of her favorite non-studying activities, as the temptation to know more about the people from different times and places and races was far too great to resist.

Comments

[catremistrae.livejournal.com]

Grant came down the path to the lake with a bucket of kelp in his hand. He noticed the new student sitting against the tree and waved in greeting. "Is that a good book?" he asked.

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Sarah looked up with a smile and waved back, then nodded. "It is actually, it's about thestrals. I'm not someone who can see them, so I'm settling for reading about them." She looked curiously at his bucket and then at him.

[catremistrae.livejournal.com]

"Thestrals are interesting animals, but ugly as sin. We don't have much use for them at Hogwarts anymore." He was about to hold out his hand and introduce himself when a pale man walked right over Sarah.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he shouted.

[a-tin-solider.livejournal.com]

Data turned to the man.

"I was not paying attention. I have already apologized."

He turned back to the young woman.

"Are you hurt? Again, I am sorry."

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

"No, I'm fine, I promise," Sarah said quickly as she set her book aside and stood up, looking between the two men with a slightly anxious look. "It's okay, I get lost in thought and do that quite a bit myself, so don't worry." She smiled at them both and then held out her hand to Data first, hoping to show she had no ill will. "I'm Sarah."

[a-tin-solider.livejournal.com]

"And I am Data."

He shook her hand, hoping he wasn't squeezing too hard. It had taken him a long time to calibrate an acceptable level of pressure, and he still recieved the occasional comment calling his grip too weak or too strong.

"Please, do not let me interrupt. I was only exploring the castle."

He almost took a step away, then thought better of it, realizing it might be interpreted as hostile, and ended up just standing there, wearing a look of mild bafflement.

It was really kind of cute.

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Sarah smiled again and waved her hand for him to stay. She was definitely intrigued by Data, her curiosity likely apparent, and she did not want to lose the opportunity and meeting someone. And, if she was honest, the somewhat awkward way he was standing there touched her and made her want to help him look less... well, uncomfortable didn't seem to be the right word. "You don't have to leave," she said, and then turned to the other man, holding out her hand once more. "And, as I said, I'm Sarah. It's nice to meet both of you, I haven't actually met many people here yet."

[a-tin-solider.livejournal.com]

Data had come out of the castle again, avoiding the game (which seemed to have petered out, anyway) and made his way towards the lake. He had no set agenda, an unusual experience for someone who had spent most of their life in Starfleet, and found that left to his own devices, without a project to work on or duties to perform, he mostly just... wandered.

There were a few people by the lake, of varying origins. He was busy enough watching those around him (trying, always, to understand the hidden subtleties in their interactions, the undercurrents he could never quite grasp but knew were there) that he almost tripped over a young woman sitting under the tree.

"I am sorry. I did not see you. Are you injured?"

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

((ooc threading note: This comment follows the ending of events in this thread (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/615864.html?thread=29305016#t29305016), rather than the comment it is in reply to.))



"So, Data," Sarah said, turning to smile at him, "how have you liked Hogwarts so far?" Now that her attention was solely on him, she wanting to learn more about her new acquaintance. He was certainly unique in appearance, but that was never a thing that had much of an impact at all, as she counted among her friends some very unique creatures indeed. She was simply openly curious about the man before her.

[a-tin-solider.livejournal.com]

"It has been an... interesting experience. With the exception of four years at the Daystrom Institute, I have spent most of my life in Starfleet or Starfleet Academy. I expected Hogwarts to be much like that Academy; however, this is not the case. It is far more... chaotic.

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I sort of expected a bit more organization myself," Sarah said ruefully, looking at over the lake before looking back at Data. "It seems independent study is the best way to learn anything here, even though it's tedious."

She was silent for a second and then spoke. "Would you be willing to tell me about Starfleet and its Academy?" she asked hopefully. "I admit, I'm curious about everyone I meet, as we all seem to come from different places."

[a-tin-solider.livejournal.com]

Data lasped into silence for what seemed to him to be a very long time: to Sarah, it would have seemed only a brief second, as if he were gathering his thoughts.

It was true that he valued the friends he had made on the Enterprise. It was equally true that he bore no ill feelings towards anyone: such was his nature, or so he had thought. A grudge requires an ability to hate, or resent, and he could do neither.

And yet...

As he processed his memories of the Academy and his tenure with Starfleet, he encountered more and more examples of hostility; of not being undersootd, and no one taking the time to understand; of being mostly isolated, or patronized, treated like little more than a very complex machine, which he knew in his deepest programming he was not and had never been intended to be. None of which had bothered him at the time. He had just gone on with his plans, watching and learning as best he could, until he was assigned to the Enterprise (less through his own ability than that it was the flagship and therefore an example of diversity, he had always secretly believed) and somehow landed among people who would treat him as... well, a person, albeit an unusual one.

Now, going over those memories, he found they did bother him. In fact, based on his experiences with Lore and the emotion chip, he would go so far as to say they made him... angry. It was nothing like the anger Lore had fed him: that had been a raving, howling thing, like a void - but it was some form of anger, he was quite sure. Bright and hot...

But that was impossible. He hadn't installed the chip: would have destroyed it if Geordi hadn't stopped him.

He spoke. "It depends entirely on what you wish to know. Starfleet is an exploratory force under the purview of the United Federation of Planets, of which Earth is a founding member. While it has defense capability, it is not a fully military organization. I am the third officer of the Enterprise, the flagship. Starfleet Academy is a four-year training school for Starfleet, much like a college, and all Starfleet officers must complete Academy training. The entrance testing is rigorous, as is the workload."

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Planets. Not one, but more than one. Sarah's eyes rounded out quite wide for a moment, as of yet still surprised when she encountered some idea that made fiction or fantasy a reality. The idea of spacegoing vessels were not unfamiliar to her, even more so by what she had learned from Stephen about the woman he was with, who had also been on one. That was not a thought she particularly wanted to contemplate.

"So you are from some reality's future?" she asked and then nibbled her lip in thought. "Though, I suppose if that's the case, you can't tell me some things, can you? In case I happen to be from your reality in the past and end up changing the future?" She grinned briefly. "Coming here has made me remember more about science fiction than I ever thought I would have. So really, whatever you could tell me would be fine, maybe about yourself? Are you from Earth? Why did you decide to be in Starfleet and then come here?"

She suddenly gave him a sheepish look. "Unfortunately, I'm quite nosy, and tend to ask too many questions.

[lilypotter60.livejournal.com]

Lily was sitting by the lake, staring sightlessly over the water. Sighing, she finally moved, after what seemed like hours of simply thinking. Turning her head as she stretched, she saw a young woman sitting under a tree near-by. Thankful for any distraction from her troubling thoughts, Lily stood up, brushed the grass from her skirt, and walked over near the girl.

She sat down near her - not so near as to be intrusive, but close enough for easy conversation, should the girl desire - and resumed her pensive perusal of the lake.

After a few moments, she spoke, "I used to feed the Giant Squid," she said. "Sometimes my suite-mates and I would nick sandwiches from the house elves and sit out here for hours, feeding the Squid and talking and studying." She looked around and smiled sadly, hugging her legs to her chest and resting her chin on her knees. "It's always so lovely out here."

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Sarah looked up from her book at the sound of an approach, no more than a flick of eyes upward to see who was approaching. When the redhead spoke, Sarah closed her book and smiled in welcome.

"You fed it?" she asked, eyes rounding out a bit in surprise. From reading, she knew the creature inhabited the lake and was no danger, but the idea of feeding it - well, that was slightly intimidating. "That must have been amazing the first time you did it - I mean, unless it was commonplace, I forget not everyone comes from places Hogwarts seems like a fairytale of sorts."

[lilypotter60.livejournal.com]

Lily laughed. "I was Muggle-born...er, that is, I didn't come from a Wizarding household. Believe me, this place was a bloody dream when I first came. And I thought I was going to die the first time I fed the Squid."

She held out her hand and squinted against the sun. "I'm Lily. I just got sorted a few days ago into Ravenclaw."

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

((sorry this took so long, my DSL was acting up))


"And you've fed the Squid with your suite-mates already?" Sarah asked incredulously as she scooted closer and shook Lily's hand and then laughed. "Clearly I am missing the fun by being in Gryffindor. It's nice to meet you, I'm Sarah."

She grinned, looking around. "This place is amazing, I still can't believe I'm here." Something conflicted briefly crossed her features. "I also never imagined being here would be how it has been, but... I suppose that's part of life." She shook her head, smile returning. "So, you said Muggle-born? That means you are actually from the Hogwarts 'reality,' right? I'm actually not certain if Hogwarts existed in whatever reality I came from, as I came from the past - from 1989 to be exact. I bet that sounds kind of crazy, doesn't it? I can hardly keep it all straight myself sometimes."

[lilypotter60.livejournal.com]

Lily couldn't help it. She threw back her head and laughed. Tears running down her face, she couldn't seem to stem her giggles.

"Well, let's put it this way," she said, struggling to control herself. "You came from a point in time about eight years after I died." Slowly, her laughs died down, and she shook her head. "I'm sorry. It's not funny, actually. It's all rather muddled up."

She sighed and leaned back. "I went to Hogwarts back in the seventies. After I'd graduated, I married James - a fellow student - and joined something called the Order of the Phoenix. We were fighting against Voldemort." She tilted her head in question, "I don't know if you've heard of him. He is - or, rather, he was - the worst Dark Wizard in a thousand years." She shuddered slightly. The sights and sounds from the night she'd died threatened to crowd around her; with visable effort she pushed them away. "James and I had a son, Harry. He's here, actually, in school. Then, when Harry was a year old, Voldemort came to kill him. James died. I died. Harry..." she trailed off and shrugged. "Well, this is where I get fuzzy on the details. Harry survived. I'm still not quite sure how. But, when I...died," she said the word with visible distaste and confusion, "the next thing I knew I was in the Sorting Room."

Laughing again, bitterly this time, she rubbed her face with her hand. "Time has become a very fluid enemy," she said quietly.

((OOC: Well do I know the evils of DSL. No problem! I'm about to leave work, so I'll be off for about half an hour myself.))

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Sarah flushed first at Lily's laughing and then grew wide-eyed when the young woman revealed just why she was laughing. Dead? So far she had met people from the past and future, talking creatures and generally odd people, but dead was by far the newest. The fact she looked very much alive was a bit disconcerting as well. She listened, attention completely on Lily's explanation, connecting some facts with those things she had read during her history studies. Her rather compassionate heart felt no small amount of sympathy, unable to image herself in such a situation. Not that she was not currently in a situation she'd never imagine herself in, but still, this had to be hard on the young woman next to her.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that," she said softly, looking at Lily in concern. "I can't even imagine how overwhelming it is to have such a drastic time shift happen, to end up where your baby is now a student and you and your husband are no older. In your situation, I think I would want to just hide from it all."

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Sarah looked up at the sound of a voice, eyes widening for a moment in surprise at the... well, creature before her, before she remembered her manners and offered him - at least she thought it was a him - a smile. this would be the first non-humanoid she had interacted with, but then, that really wasn't new to her, even if she had not done it at Hogwarts yet.

"Hi," she greeted cheerfully, "something I can help you with?"

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Sarah nodded and closed her book, waving him closer. It seemed studying outside was accomplishing her desire to meet others better than being in the common room.

"That's fine, I happen to be interested in the same so I'm glad you asked," she said and held out her hand, unsure if it was still an appropriate gesture with a tentacled creature. "I'm Sarah, a Gryffindor and recently new here. And you are?"

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

"Well, it is very nice to meet you, Admiral ZEX," Sarah said, shaking his tentacle very gently and trying hard not to laugh at the ticklish sensation. "And no, I have never heard of the VUX, until today. So you are from a different universe in this reality, or a different universe in another reality... or some other confusing combination?" She grinned, still baffled that meeting people not included questions about universes and realities.