Fifth Floor Common Room, Tuesday Evening

[not_in_the_book]

Once again, there were appetising scents emanating from the fifth-floor common room. Ronan was in another cooking mood. This time, it was the rich and spicy scent of Mexican -- well, technically Tex-Mex -- food, grilling chicken, sweet chilies, and a dash of cumin, with sliced bell peppers and onions in another pan. Ronan was still chopping and preparing, but already on the counter was an array of tortillas, and various moddable toppings that people might wish to put on their fajitas.


(OOC: Hey, he's cooking again. Come feed your characters. Open to ALL. :D )

Comments

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head. "A what now?"

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan paused. "Not from around here?" he asked, a bit tentatively.

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

She shook her head. "No, I'm a bit far from home. But I'd hoped I was getting better about knowing the terminology of this world. I'd simply never heard that word before now."

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan nodded. "Fajitas are a food from a specific region of this country, based on the cuisine of the country immediately south." He's done his research. "It's grilled, seasoned meat -- in this case, chicken -- with grilled bell peppers, and then a variety of garnishes to taste." He gestured, and then started making himself another to demonstrate, adding salsa, fresh chopped tomatoes, sour cream, and shredded cheddar to his. "You wrap up the filling inside the flatbread -- it's called a tortilla -- and then you eat it."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

Aravis tilted her head the opposite way. "Oh, all right. I don't know that I've ever seen such thin bread." She glanced up, starting to carefully assemble a fajita with surgical precision. "I am Aravis. Forgive me for not making my name known before now."

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan nodded. "I'm pretty sure there's only the one place on this world where they make it that thin." He smiled. "And I'm Ronan. It's not a problem at all, I find the introductions here just tend to happen when they want to."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"From where do you hail, Ronan?" she asked curiously. "Your accent is unfamiliar to my ear."

[not_in_the_book]

"I'm Irish," Ronan replied. "Er, that is, I'm from Ireland. It's another country on this world." He paused. "One version of this world, at least. There seem to be several that align here, somehow."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "I know of people from both the past and future versions of this world. I'm from another world entirely, though I haven't managed to avoid the inevitable confusion of time."

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan blinked at that. "You're from another world entirely, and you still managed to end up meeting someone from your world, yet from a different time, here? That's... actually kind of impressive."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"One of the students is the king of my country's allies to the north," she explained. "In my time, he's almost in his third decade. Here? He's seventeen. It's...interesting."

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan chuckled. "I can imagine it would be. I, myself, am a year out of time; I'm from a year in the past. Yet a friend of mine leaves for this school after do, yet has already been here almost a year, because she didn't travel through time at all to get here. It's... interesting at best, disconcerting at worst."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

Aravis blinked. "...that's worse than mine, oh my. You're friends with her in your own time? Do you communicate with her -- your version of her -- now?"

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan shook his head. "It's a little bit harder. I can communicate with my other friends back then, but they're all wizards, whereas she's not. So the ways I use to get my messages back -- and to get messages from them -- won't work with her." He smiled. "I will see her when I go back to visit, however. Which will hopefully be soon."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"That'll be odd," Aravis, master of the understatement, said.

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan nodded. "And doubly so because I can't mention anything about the school. She doesn't know about it yet in my part of time, and she doesn't know that I know about it until I show up here in her timeline. So I can't mention anything about it."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

Aravis stared. "...where does she think you are?"

[not_in_the_book]

"Oh!" Ronan exclaimed, realising he'd left out an important part of that story. "I'd imagine she thinks I'm back home in Ireland. She -- and most of the other friends I was talking about -- live here, in the States. So it's not like she sees me all that often, anyway."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

Aravis nodded slowly. "Your friendships span a great distance," she noted. "If Ireland is very far from here."

[not_in_the_book]

"It is," Ronan said. "Well, relatively speaking. But I first met most of my friends over here when they had come over to Ireland, and then I came over here to help them with a problem that had arisen." It was simpler than saying they'd gone off-world together to save the universe.

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"Is that difficult? Maintaining friendship at such a distance?" she wondered.

[not_in_the_book]

"It helps a lot being a wizard," Ronan said. "Mostly because it gives us much easier ways to keep in touch, and ways to get back and forth relatively easily, and without spending any money. But it's not the same as having them just down the road, that's for certain."

[notqueenyet.livejournal.com]

"You're a wizard?" she asked, eyes going wide. "Can you turn pillows into cows?"

[not_in_the_book]

"... I don't think so?" Ronan said. "There may be other people here who call themselves wizards, but have entirely different types of powers. That's certainly not something I can do, though."