Fourth Floor Common Room, Late Friday Night

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

A book and a common room weren't exactly the best of bedfellows, but Edmund was tired of Reno's ferret looking at him expectantly and examining the same walls over and over again was getting old. So with a mug of tea and and his book, Edmund found a comfortable chair and dropped into it. He might have looked content to be left alone, but secretly he wouldn't have minded some company.

Comments

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper, with Blind Seer walking beside her, was up on the fourth floor because the third floor's common room had a distressing lack of cookies.

"Hello," she said to the room's other occupant, recognizing him in that vague "we attend a rather small school and I've probably passed you in a hallway at some point" kind of way.

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Ed looked up from his book. While he'd expected to see someone while sitting here, but Blind Seer was unexpected. "Hello," he replied politely and nodded at both of them, one after the other. "I don't think I see you on this floor normally."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Am living on floor below this one," Firekeeper replied as she made her way towards the kitchen cupboards. "There was no cookies." It was, she felt, an adequate explanation for her presence.

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"I believe there are some down there," Edmund replied somewhat helpfully, gesturing in the direction of one particular cupboard. "I could be wrong. I've noticed that sweet things don't tend to last long."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

Hurley peeked his head in the common room. He was a little restless, but didn't really want to bother Tahiri. So, he'd gone a-wandering.

"Hey dude," he said, not sure he'd met the other guy before.

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Firekeeper opened the indicated cupboard and peered inside, grinning a little when she saw a familiar-looking blue-and-white bag that held the cookies with the icing in the middle. Orayos? Something like that.

Flopping on to a nearby seat, she grabbed a couple and then held the bag out to Edmund. "You want?" she offered. "He not care much for sweet things," she tilted her head to indicate the wolf, who'd hopped up onto a couch and sprawled himself across it.

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund leaned forward and accepted a biscuit. "Thank you, just the one." He'd put his book down by now. "I'm Edmund. I don't believe we've formally met."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Hello," Edmund replied, not actually sure if he'd been called 'dude' before. "You're not from this floor either, are you?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"I not think so," Firekeeper agreed. "Am Blysse. He is Blind Seer." Blind Seer looked up at the mention of his name and gave a slight nod.

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Pleasure to meet you, Blysse." He'd almost called her Lady Blysse, but it was a habit he was getting fairly good at breaking. "Do you talk, Blind Seer?" It didn't hurt to ask.

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"Nope. One floor up," Hurley said. "But I stop in here on, uhhh, Mondays somethimes."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Any reason for Mondays?" he asked. "And, er, you do know it's not Monday today." He paused. "I think."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"Uhhhh, Rumor Gal, mainly," Hurley said. "And yeah, I know, It's Friday. Pretty easy to remember the day when you work on it."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"That's the show with all of the pretty, rich people, isn't it? I haven't seen it," he added hurriedly, "aside from wandering past when it was on."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Hurley said. "It's kinda like... I watch it cause it's so not like anything I know, I guess."

He entered properly and waved. "I'm Hurley, by the way."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

The title was technically her right, but being as she thought of herself as a wolf first and foremost, it was really more something she tolerated when humans insisted upon using it.

Blind Seer gave a nod in response to Edmund's question. "He speak," Firekeeper translated. "In manner that Beasts do. But he understand human words."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Then it's also a pleasure to meet you, Blind Seer." He addressed Blysse again. "There are Talking Animals where I'm from," he explained. "Can most animals talk where you're from?"

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Edmund," he replied. "There's a lot on television that isn't like anything I know. Especially reality television. It's supposed to be like its name, reality, but it's far from it."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, seriously," Hurley said. "Especially the stuff on MTV. It's kinda scary what's happened to that channel."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Was it not always Sweet 16 and that car ride show? Not that I watch those either."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

Hurley chuckled. "Dude, I'm from, like, fourteen years ago. They still played music videos, then."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Music videos," Edmund repeated. "Oh, where the people are singing and there's usually something completely unrelated to the words going on? Often with flashing lights and ladies with not enough clothes? Are those called music videos?"

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"Yeah..." Hurley said trailing off. "I'm guessing you're, like, from another planet or something?"

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Something like that. Castles, knights, Talking Animals, no electricity. Before that, 1940s England, so no MTV or music videos."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"...Whoa," Hurley said. "So you, like... went from england to... magical knight land?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

She shrugged. "Royal Beasts is much smarter than Cousins, but even they is having speech."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Ed struggled a bit to understand what she was talking about. "Both Royal Beasts and Cousins are animals?"

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"With only a few steps," he nodded. "You'd think it would do your head in, but after a few years the idea seems almost normal."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "Royal Beasts is like he," she pointed to Blind Seer. "Stronger, faster, smarter- sometimes larger. Cousins is..." she frowned, not entirely sure this island had any of the sort. The horses at the Gig were not Wise Horses (and she wasn't about to get in to the difference between Wise and Royal, because that was largely semantic), but they weren't dim either. "Smaller wolf. Ones humans is used to seeing," she settled on.

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"Dude, just a few months here has me thinking a lot of things are possible," Hurley said. "My roommate can move stuff with her mind."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

Edmund nodded slowly in understanding. "We have the same distinction in Narnia, but different names. Where are you from?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"Over Iron Mountains, north of human kingdom called Hawk Haven." Despite being formally adopted by Kestrel House, she still didn't think of Hawk Haven as 'home', and in any case, it wasn't where she'd been raised.

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"That would make cleaning up the room very easy," Ed replied. "Well, for her. You, on the other hand? Well, I wouldn't want to annoy her in case she found a way to move my bed onto the ceiling."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"I'm not familiar with it, but that's fairly normal around here." He wasn't much of a conversationalist, so from there he struggled with what to say. "You can turn on the television if you'd like."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

Hurley chuckled. "Yeah, I make sure to stay on her good side. Our room might get really tricky to clean, soon, actually."

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

"So far, everyone say that," Firekeeper nodded. "Is a different world, they say." She glanced at the television screen and then at Edmund's book. "You not mind?"

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

He shook his head. "I don't mind. I didn't expect there to be so many different worlds. It's strange that everyone gets along so well even though they come from different places."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Why's that?"

[kestrelswolf.livejournal.com]

Needing no further encouragement, she found the remote and turned the television on, flipping through channels until she found something that looked vaguely interesting. "Most humans from different lands where I am from is having enough trouble getting along," she commented dryly. "And they is all from same world."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"My roomie? She wants to replace all the carpet with grass," Hurley said.

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"Grass," Ed repeated. "Indoors. Is she touched in the head?"

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

Hurley shook his own head. "She just likes going barefoot," he said. "So, she wants grass."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

A small grin briefly crossed Ed's face at that. "The same where I'm from," he replied, thinking of Calormen. "That makes Fandom all the more strange. People aren't meant to get along so well."

[once-a-traitor.livejournal.com]

"That seems a bit odd when she could just go outside more often. No offence to your roommate, of course. Although that does make me wonder how you'd keep it alive, and if you would have to mow the grass often."

[likes-chicken.livejournal.com]

"True," Hurley said. "But I guess she wants to put in, like, grow lights and stuff. I figure, it won't hurt, and she really wants it, you know?"