Second Floor Common Room [Tuesday Early Afternoon]

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

The facts were these: Ned was baking a pie again. He'd almost tried to theme this particular pie with that of a volcano but the volcano was long gone and so was that idea. Ned didn't really want to simulate lava in a pie anyway.

He'd chosen a new recipe this time, something he'd never baked before and had set out to prep and cook in the common room.

He wouldn't call this a routine yet but it was relaxing. And it was nice to get out of his room and do something besides annoy himself with all his issues.

[Open common room is open. Work is boring. I am hungry.]

Comments

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"You know the birds personally?" Ned asked, almost amused but mostly serious because, well, this was Fandom.

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

"Well, they don't talk as much as they do at home," Giselle confided. "But you can tell what they like. They're very nice."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"They talk to you?" Ned asked, stopping his prep work to kind of stare. "With, um, words?"

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

Giselle tilted her head at him. "Well, how else do you talk?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no, yeah, I talk like that too," he said, nodding. "I mean, do they talk back with words?"

If they did, Ned might start backing away. Maybe. Or use his pie as a shield. Maybe.

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

"Yes, of course," she said. "The ones at home did at least. The birds here are very helpful but they only like to sing."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Where are you from?" Ned asked, setting to work on the pie filling. "New York?"

Ned had heard about New York. He figured it was a good guess.

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

"What's New York?" Giselle asked. "I'm from Andalusia. Where are you from?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"New York's a state," Ned said, putting together that she was either the oddest space person he'd met or she was from Earth that wasn't this Earth but it was Earth.

...headache now.

"I'm from Coeur d'Coeurs," he said. "I don't think we're neighbors."

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

"Coeur d'Coeurs," Giselle sighed. "What a romantic name. Is it by the Mountain of Joy?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"No," he said, smiling. "I don't know what the Mountain of Joy is. Coeur d'Coeurs is on Earth. Um, this Earth? Does that make sense?"

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

"I heard this was Earth," Giselle said. "It's not a very pretty name. I don't think I'm from here. I fell down a well and ended up in that big city that used to be across the bridge."

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

Okay, that was a new one.

"Fell down...a well?" Ned repeated. "I'm not dreaming, am I?"

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head at him. "I don't know. Are you feeling well?"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"A little shellshocked," he said honestly, "but I always feel like that. Y-you fell down a well?"

[stucklikadope.livejournal.com]

"Well, I didn't fall so much as I was pushed," Giselle confided in him. "It was a wishing well, you see. And an old hag told me to wish for my heart's desire, but then she pushed me!"

[death-and-pies.livejournal.com]

"Heart's desire?" Ned said quietly, keeping his voice low. "Is that...a treasure?"