fandomhighdorms | The Roof [Monday afternoon]

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The Roof [Monday afternoon]

Four had spent the last week exploring the island, learning the ways out, the places that were easiest to defend, the places that served food (he'd have to talk to the faction leaders about getting his monthly points for food and clothing converted into something he could use here), the places that sold clothing, and most importantly the shooting range and gym.

He was pretty impressed with the facilities, despite Chuck's warnings about them.

And now he was up on the second to last place he had to scout out--the roof--staying by the door and breathing through his fear of heights. After he was done here, he'd check out Selkie Point.

His eyes closed briefly as he worked to calm the pounding of his heart. He'd check out Selkie Point tomorrow, probably. Maybe even the next day.

[OOC: Open!]

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Nathan shook his head. "No. I've never had a pet." He really did not have the lifestyle for it. "I wouldn't be any good at it anyway. I'm careless."

"Me too but Pascal pretty much watches after himself," Rapunzel replied easily, shrugging. "So what's England like, anyway? I've never been there but you're like the gazillionth person here I've talked to who's from there."

Or like the third. Whichever.

Nathan guessed that his version of England was probably a lot different than those she'd spoken to others about.

In answer to her question, he shrugged one shoulder. "I liked it well enough," he said, deciding that lying would be the best bet here. "It gave me a lot of things to draw since you could be in the city one hour and the country in another. I preferred the country. I don't like crowded places. It's too loud."

So, not a complete lie there.

"I'm not fond of crowds, either," Rapunzel admitted. "I get lost in them, and people step on my hair, and...yeah. I think that where I'm from is like that, too. The capital wasn't all that far from where I lived out in the country. Close enough I could see parts of it from my window, anyway."

Which gave her lots to draw.

"Are you from now? The present, I mean?" she asked, once again curiously eyeing the sunglasses. "I guess time-travel's a thing here, too."

Nathan definitely had noticed the hair. It was hard to miss. Previously, Annalise had been the girl with the longest hair he'd ever seen and her hair hadn't even been that long. This was a new definition of long.

If he noticed her looking at his sunglasses, he didn't let on. "I think I am." It was a little hard to tell. "I know what certain things are and I've used things like mobile phones and radios before. I don't really care for them."

For many reasons. "You're not from now?"

"I don't think I'm from this planet," Rapunzel admitted doubtfully. "Um, I'm from Corona, and no one here has heard of that except a girl from a neighboring kingdom, and she says no one here knows anything about where we're from. So, uh, I guess I'm from the past? Sort of? We don't have...computers or those little phone things or glasses like yours, where I'm from."

See what she did there? It was more polite than how she usually asked about things. She was learning.

"You don't have sunglasses?" Nathan could understand the lack of computers and phones. He'd talked with Edward and Ichabod to know that that wasn't uncommon. "How do you keep the sun out of your eyes?"

Granted, that wasn't all he was using his sunglasses for but he knew that was the main function.

"Hats?" Rapunzel guessed thoughtfully, and put a hand over her eyes to shield them. "Or...doing this? I don't know. I didn't spend a lot of time outside before I came here. Sunglasses, huh? You can still see through them?"

Obviously. But it seemed impossible to her.

"I can," Nathan said and thought about taking his sunglasses off. "They're tinted so the sun isn't so harsh on your eyes but you can still see everything clearly though a little darker than usual. They make it so your arm doesn't get tired holding it over your eyes."

"Wow." Rapunzel peered at his glasses a moment longer. "It's like stained glass, huh? I guess that makes sense. I've never thought about the sun being bad for your eyes. Doesn't it make it hard to tell what color things are actually?"

These were the the sorts of things she worried about.

"You can still see colors," Nathan assured her, finally taking the sunglasses off. His eyes were the easiest thing to show since the only thing strange about them was how dark they were.

He extended the sunglasses towards her. "You can try them, if you want. The colors are still there, I promise. Things are just shaded. It's like you're under a giant tree all the time."

Rapunzel smiled at him, and hesitantly took the glasses. She didn't even notice that his eyes were particularly dark -- it was a combination of not knowing to look for it and being distracted by ooh, sunglasses.

She carefully placed them on her face, her hands staying on the stems lest they fall off her nose or something. "Oh, wow! It's just like everything's two shades darker. I bet these are nice at the beach."

Way to catch up to everyone else, Rapunzel.

"I've never really worn them to the beach but I'm sure they are," he said, smiling a little at her discovery. "They're good for whenever's the sun's really bright and you have to be outside for awhile."

Also good as part of a disguise. "And your arm won't get tired. Pair them with a hat and you'll even avoid a sunburn on your nose."

"They're easy to find?" she asked, pulling the glasses off gently and handing them back to him. "I mean, like, no one's gonna look at me funny if I go shopping for them?"

She was already thinking about writing this down in her sketchpad, so she could get some for the summer. Maybe they'd help her blend in a little more, here. (She probably should start with her dress, but still.)

"They're readily available," Nathan said, sliding the sunglasses back on and blinking a few times. "You can find them just about anywhere. If anyone looks at you funny, then there's something wrong with them, not you."

"That'd be a nice change," Rapunzel laughed, playing with her hair a little self-consciously. "At least you blend in here a little better than I do. People seem to kind of assume there's something wrong with me."

Well, she had seventy feet of hair. That wasn't normal. So.

Blending in here was a lot easier than back home where Hunters could tell what he was just by a simple look. It was harder for fain to realize he was something different.

"Because of your hair?" Nathan guessed since he saw nothing else unusual about her. "People just don't understand what they don't know."

"Mostly," she said, shrugging. "I guess it's pretty unusual here."

She knew it was unusual at home, too, don't worry.

"My mother's a witch," she added, "so I guess I'm kind of used to stuff that a lot of people here aren't, and vice versa. Do they have magic where you're from? We do, but it's secret, mostly. People don't understand what they don't know, like you said."

"Your mother's a witch?"

That maybe came out a little more surprised and louder than anything he'd said previously. He immediately looked abashed and reigned himself in.

"There's magic where I'm from," he added, quieter now. "Most people don't know about it or see it happening."

Rapunzel cocked her head, looking apologetic. "Sorry. She's not like, an evil witch." At least, she didn't think so. That opinion might change. "I think that's how it is at home," she said slowly. "Or...well, people don't think magic is real, so they don't look for it even when it's right in front of their nose. That's what Mother says, anyway."

"Sorry," he said, shaking his head and looking down. "I didn't mean anything by that, I promise."

He'd just been surprised by the word, of all things. "Does that mean you're a witch too?"

"Nuh uh, I'm super-boring," Rapunzel said immediately. "Not a magical ha -- not a single magical thing about me!"

Guess what she'd almost said? Oh, Rapunzel. She was a bad enough liar as it was. No need to really toe the line.

"Do you have anything magic about you, if you know about it?" she asked, trying to deflect attention away from herself.

Nathan shook his head. It was just easier to lie when he knew so little about the people here and the place he'd ended up in. Suspicion was a hard thing to let go of.

"I just know it exists," he said, shrugging a shoulder. "So, I think that makes me even duller than you are. I'll never know magic."

It was easy to think that way since he hadn't gotten his Gift yet despite having had his ceremony.

"Don't say that!" Rapunzel chided immediately. "You could still learn it, I bet. Don't give up on yourself! I bet there's books on it or something here."

"Maybe but I'm not even sure I want to know magic," Nathan admitted. It'd gotten him into so much trouble back home. "I wouldn't be any good at it anyway."

The Roof [Monday afternoon]

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