Closed RP: Stephen and Sarah - The Surprise

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

((This starts Friday morning. Good clean fun with appliances abounds!))


With minimal fuss, Sarah and Stephen had left the school by Floo to seek out a waiting cab in a nearby 'Muggle' village. Their destination, as far as Sarah knew, was Macduff Aquarium in Aberdeenshire, but this whole day just existing was already so incredible to her. They were leaving the castle - and with it she hoped the stress that had plagued them recently - and venturing out into the non-magic world which she had not been in since her arrival. To be fair, she had not gone beyond the castle and grounds except once to Hogsmeade with Stephen, so she was quite excited.

Settled against Stephen's side in the backseat of the cab, she was content to point out things that caught her attention on the drive - and even explain things that might have been interesting to a man from the 19th century - or simply just sit in companionable silence. The familiarity of being in a car after two months was refreshing because it was something distinctly non-magical and not connected to what they had left behind, and it was all that much better for having Stephen, who was already her new 'familiar', right next to her. They both needed this, in her opinion, so she had been ridiculously pleased when Stephen had mentioned the plans. Without knowing it (or so she assumed, as she had never mentioned her birthday), he had given her an early birthday present in this day trip out with him. There was no more she could ask for, and yet...

"Stephen, I think the cabbie's taken us to the wrong place," she said once she had gotten close to his ear to whisper without being overheard. Outside the window of the now stopped cab was a cottage, very lovely but not the aquarium she had been expecting to see. Too preoccupied with the view or with Stephen, she had not even noticed telling road signs that might have led to confusion much sooner.


((R-ish for quite a lot of smut in various places. xD))

Comments

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

With intense interest Stephen had watched Sarah using The Telephone. (Why this device awed him more than, say, automobiles -- well, who knows why?) After she put it down, he picked it up and pressed random buttons for a while to listen to the tones, until she gave him a goodnatured poke to get his attention long enough to remind him he should wear a jacket. By the time the cab arrived they had everything they needed, and amazingly Stephen did not forget the housekeys.

At Sarah's direction the cab took them first to a small camera shop. (Stephen, having no idea that an aquarium might have a gift shop in it, did not know that cameras could be procured in such a place; and Sarah was not from a decade when disposable cameras were common.) The driver waited while they went in. Stephen did not think it should take very long to purchase such a thing. It was a very small device, was it not? He had seen Remus use one, once.

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Luckily for Sarah and her brain had digital cameras been offered she found the display containing the 35mm cameras right upon going into the shop. She did not want to take too long, but she did want to make certain it would give her good pictures of the aquarium today. She ignored the high-end priced cameras and started looking over the inexpensive ones for something suitable, as at this point in time she still intended to buy her own camera. Silly Sarah.

While she was lost in contemplation over a few in front of her and referencing a guide manual on the display, the sales person approached and made her way toward Stephen. The woman promptly greeted him, decided to pitch the most expensive camera on the display and began describing all of the wonderful features than made the excessively costly piece of equipment simply the best to be had in the shop.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen was far from gullible, and knew exactly what the saleswoman was about. He also knew that he was in no marketplace where bartering would be normal, and that he was rather out of his depth when it came to electronics. (His veneration for The Telephone being a case in point.) He decided that he wanted something that looked as though it had fewer ... breakable parts.

"Show me something that can do what that one can, without the bits that attach to the top," he said. He meant the detachable flash, not that he had the vaguest idea what it was.

She looked at him oddly. It would seem that a person buying a camera should know the names for its parts. He returned the look levelly. Clearly he expected to be humoured.

When he wound up buying not one but three cameras, because he did not like the look of any of their "bits" but thought that if he tried a number of different ones he might be less irritated than he would by using a single unsatisfactory machine, the saleswoman realised that humouring him had been a good idea.

Especially considering the speed of the transaction. After all, they had a cab waiting outside.

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Having finally decided on a camera between the ones on display she had been playing with, Sarah turned to find the sales person to retrieve the one she wanted only to see her busy behind the counter ringing up not one but what looked to be three cameras for Stephen. Completely shocked, she made her way to the counter but was too late as he had already handed over a check to the woman and was gathering up the bag. She did catch the total still on the display screen of the register and nearly fell over. Cursing herself silently for turning her back on him for the time she had - which had hardly been that long! - she followed him out of the shop and then spoke.

"You bought three cameras, three exceedingly expensive cameras," she said, as though the fact were not obvious. The slight fretting she had done over the excess of spending for vacation was quickly slipping to a large worry about his spending habits and where he was getting all this money from. Ridiculous ideas of bank robbery and more were born in that moment, but first she settled on the easiest question as she walked to the cab. "Umm, you know how checks work, right?" she whispered, though no one was likely to overhear them.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"Of course I know how cheques work." He looked at her curiously before opening the cab door. It was an odd question. Once they were both inside and the vehicle was on its way to the aquarium, he handed her the bag containing the cameras. "I dislike them all really," he said. "They are clumsy pieces of work."

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Gaping again as she pulled the receipt free, Sarah just started to shake her head slowly, producing one boxed camera after the other. If he knew how checks worked, that likely meant he had not just written a rubber check. Good God, where was he getting all of this money from? She cast him a curious look, perhaps a teeny bit suspicious, and then returned to the cameras.

Maybe there was an explanation? There had to be, so she thought hard as she opened the first box, an idea finally dawning. Was it possible this reality was the natural future of his and therefore he could have sent word back to his time to have money set aside, had it gain value over 200 years and then afforded this? That thought made her head hurt a bit, as that involved determining which realities connected and which didn't and wondering if this was also her future and, if so, was there a version of herself in America right at this moment, only nearly ten years older - and if not in America, where was she? Had she - a fleeting, wistful thought - gone elsewhere or had she stayed in the wizarding world and did that mean she might well run into herself and... she was stopping now, because this was only going to lead to a headache. The time concepts were just better off not pondered or thought about.

"This is why I was looking at the ones I did, we didn't really need anything this elaborate and," she began and then dropped her voice to a hissed whisper to avoid being overheard as she started opening all three boxes, "this is nearly ten years advancement on camera technology." Looking them over, she attempted to determine which she would be the best to use today. "That woman totally fleeced you! I have half a mind to go back there and read her the riot act for poor salesmanship, I mean honestly. These two are fantastic cameras but this one is just meant to be flashy."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

Stephen gave Sarah a sharp look. The idea of anyone having fleeced him was nothing short of preposterous. The verb to fleece generally only pertained to him in sentences where he was the subject rather than the object, and having to do with games of piquet.

"She tried to sell me something else but really I had not the inclination to hear her out. Now listen, my dear, it hardly matters." He had a vague notion of taking apart the camera she disliked, perhaps prodding at it a bit with the butter knife, later on.

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

"Well I'm glad you didn't, she probably would have sold you the most ridiculously expensive one, but it does matter, I can't believe she got you to buy three cameras," Sarah said, mildly incensed as she picked one of the two and got out the manual. Despite her upset over the horrid saleswoman - as she had yet to realize it was Stephen who had decided three would be a lovely number - she was completely impressed at this camera. Luckily many functions were, for the most part exactly, the same and those she did not quite grasp she decided to leave for later study.

"Could you hold this open for me, please?" she asked, handing him the open manual so she could work various settings and load the film as she referenced the book. "Thankfully, this one seems like it can be somewhat easy to handle with everything set correctly." Though irked still by the saleswoman, she did smile at him as she continued to ready the camera. "The pictures from this one are going to be amazing. Do you want to try using it? She sold you enough film that you can use the whole roll trying it out."

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

The ride to the aquarium was very short, however, and before much progress could be made at all -- before Stephen could express much more than an affirmation that it was his idea to leave with three cameras, and a certainty that they could very well leave the ones they did not like in the cab -- they had arrived.

[nopower-overme.livejournal.com]

Completely gobsmacked, Sarah made a sound of absolute disbelief and just stared at him.

[estebanmd.livejournal.com]

"Well?" The auto had stopped and Stephen had paid the driver. Sarah apparently had not come to a decision on which camera she liked, so Stephen gathered them all -- open box, manual and all -- into the bag and opened the door. This time the cab driver had opened Sarah's door before Stephen could get out and do so himself. There was no chance for her to demur further.

The building that housed the aquarium did not resemble any Stephen could remember having seen. The structure most like it was a round hut he had seen in Moahu. Holding out to Sarah the hand that was not holding the bag of cameras, he thought that this should be interesting. Perhaps there would be scholars there similar to the ones he had been accustomed to meet at Black's, or at the Royal Society's evenings.

(( Moahu is a fictional island created by Patrick O'Brian. Apparently he thought that it would be too limiting to site his tropical intrigues on the actual Maui or Oahu. Or something. ))