trans_9 | Kid really needs to learn to watch where he's going [Open like an open thing]

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Kid really needs to learn to watch where he's going [Open like an open thing]

"You've gotta be kiddin me!" Alex shouted, shaking this video screen he was holding. "My own AI! Stop that!"

Apparently he was having trouble getting through one of the levels of his own game.

Sure it was using basic text for it's graphics, but he was a programmer, not a graphic's artist. Besides, since he just had different symbols for different units and different colours for different armies and some symbols set aside for use with terrain, there was no need for fancy graphics.

So distracted by his strategy game he nearly walked into one of Stacy's fleshy walls as he wandered down the hallway, stretching his legs. He had spent his time from when he got on the ship until now programming this thing and convincing people from the engineering department to made the equipment he needed. He was damn well going to enjoy this game, even if strategy wasn't his thing. In fact, the only reason why he had made a strategy game at all was because he had an idea earlier for a new algorithm that would more efficiently analyse enemy movements and know how to react better. This was of course, best suited for a.)a fighting game- which would require a graphics artist for it to be really playable- or b.) a strategy game.

So here he was, forty battles in, fighting an AI who seemed to know what moves he would make before he did.

"Come on! Get out of my friggin head you pile of bytes!"

Yup, he was far too into this game to notice much of anything around him. Even the walls sometimes got in his way. He didn't much care- usually you were left alone if you appeared very busy, and this game was getting to be such a pain now, he had to focus on it. For all he knew, he was about to walk straight into someone. Given the sheer number of people on the ship, this was bound to happen.

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"We call non-magical people Muggles at home," she says, not seeming to mind having to explain herself. She's gotten fairly used to it after being on-ship for so long.

Shaking his hand, however, will be difficult with a rat ensconced in her palm. Carefully, so as not to bother Alice, she shifts the rodent into her left hand, taking Alex's with her now free right, smiling and smiling. She loves meeting new people.

Alex nodded, "w-we didn't h-have m-magic in m-my w-world. S-science w-we have." He looked away and shrunk himself as much as he could before continuing, "S-some of i-it does s-seem l-like m-magic t-though..."

Alice was responsive to Luna's movements, moving to the other hand with little effort. Alex was clumsy enough that Alice was used to working around his fumbling movements, a purposeful guidance was easy to follow. She continued sniffing, getting Luna's scent and exploring her lap.

She nods, watching him curiously.

"I've heard Muggle science is quite interesting. I read a book on the physics of Earth once, but I can't say I understood much of it. I had already heard of gravity, but once they started talking about the theory of relativity and inertia and things, I just got confused."

She lets Alice continue her investigative trek, tracing her back with a few fingers, smiling.

Alice stuck her nose under Luna's shirt, but pulled her nose out with a simple admonishing, "Alice," from Alex. She continued her investigation, climbing up the front of her shirt instead.

Alex laughed. He had been taking that class before he was abducted. It was easier for him than History, but that wasn't to say that it wasn't challenging. "Y-yeah... P-physics is d-difficult... B-but then ya g-get into e-even c-crazier things in c-colleges and u-universities. Y-You don' study science wh-where you're from?"

Luna watches Alice clamber up her dress with visible amusement, hands folded in her lap.

"There are two halves to my world, and I only lived in the side that uses magic. We don't have any reason for Muggle sciences, as magic so frequently defies them, so I never learned any of it. The closest things we have are Potions, which is the study of the combination of magic and organic materials for the purpose of affecting and altering humans' mental and physical beings, and Transfiguration, which is the study of entirely altering a physical form. We had to turn rats into goblets once. It's a very difficult class." She pauses, eyes still fixed on Alice, her head tilting slightly. "I suppose Astronomy counts, but that's a little closer to Muggle science."

"P-please don' turn A-Alice into a g-goblet," he said with a smile, fairly confident that the strange girl would not be turning his precious pet into a fancy cup. "A-Astronomy i-is something I've h-heard of. The s-study of s-space. H-heard about the d-discovery of d-dark matter. W-was on the news a w-while back."

Alice settled herself on Luna's shoulder, pulling pieces of Luna's hair to groom.

"Of course not," she says, wondering vaguely how a rat Alice's size can handle hair that Luna herself can barely keep up with. It is longer than her waist, and she never has had much time for things like hair. "I wasn't very good at it to start, so to try would be rather fruitless. Furry goblets are only useful for certain kinds of tea, you know."

"Is dark matter a kind of ether?"

Alex blushed, "I... h-have no c-clue," he admitted. "J-just k-know that i-it's a type of m-matter. I... I th-think i-it doesn't absorb l-light... o-or something..." He nervously scratched the back of his head, watching as Alice struggled with the pieces of hair.

Luna "hmm's" thoughtfully, tugging a large portion of her hair away from Alice's little paws in an attempt to make the rat's life easier, draping the blonde tumble of semi-tangled curls over her other shoulder.

"Your rat--Alice?--is very enthusiastic. Daddy's always reckoned that rats are smarter than we give them credit for."

As Luna pulled her hair away Alex noted, "Sh-she likes ya. She a-always like people, b-but u-usually doesn' t-take ta g-grooming someone l-like th-that so fast."

Alex nodded, "Th-they are. Sh-she's trained f-for all sorts of th-things. She knows the w-word no, an' her name, an' ta t-tell me wh-when she n-needs the b-bathroom. Sh-she e-even know h-how ta find m-my friends b-back home by s-scent. She also c-can f-find things like k-keys. C-could pro'lly t-train her ta do even m-more."

"According to Professor Grubbly-Plank, I have a way with animals," she says, not sounding at all self-congratulatory on this fact. It is merely a statement thrown out while she runs a finger down Alice's back, head cocked so she can watch the rat fiddle with her hair.

Tugging her wand from behind her ear, she conjures a few small slices of bread, tearing one slice up into little bits, offering them to her in the flat of her hand.

"She sounds like an excellent pet," she says. "I've never had a pet, but I think I would pick a rat if I ever got the chance. They're quite handy, aren't they?"

Excuse Alex as he stairs in amazement. "I-It's like, y-you're right outta fairy t-tale! L-like... Glinda!"

Alice isn't quite as shocked, but she is rather happy about the bread, picking up the piece in her little hands and nibbling happily at it.

Luna stares at him rather blankly. "I don't know any Glindas, and I'm not sure I bare any resemblance to Babbity Rabbity." Pardon her while she indulges in confusion for a mo'.

She's a little distracted from Alice, but she strokes her back again, head tilting a bit further in Alex's direction.

"I do hope my heart isn't hairy. That would be simply terrible."

Culture disconnection engage. Alex looks even more confused, but realizes there must be some sort of disconnect here. "No, no, no... Th-that's not wh-what I mean. F-fairy tales in m-my world have w-witches an' faeries, and dragons that a-are holding p-princesses c-captive. G-Glinda's a b-beautiful g-good witch. I... I've n-never heard of th-the fairy t-tale's y-you're talking about."

"Ah. That makes a bit more sense," she says, looking thoughtful. "I am a witch, though I'm not sure about the beautiful part." Why yes, her cheeks are pinker than they were a moment ago, thank you for noticing.

"Our fairy tales are different than those of Muggles. I can't say I've heard any of them, but I assume they all deal with similar things."

Alex smiled, "You're v-very p-pretty!" He was red himself, right up to his ears.

As Alice gave up on her hair and decided to move on to her ear lobes while working around the earrings, Alex continued, "I-I o-only r-remember the f-fairy tales th-that Loretta t-told me. Sh-she tried t-ta h-help me g-get s-some of my ch-childhood back, s-since I o-only r-remember a f-few v-vauge things h-here an' th-there. S-still, I'd be h-happy to t-try to share s-some with y-you, b-but it'd p-probably be e-easier ta r-read th-them in t-the library."

Luna swallows, going rather stiller than usual, eyes unusually intent on his face. A tide of red has shown up, and it takes her a second to think of anything to say, because really, this hasn't happened before. How exactly is one supposed to react to these kinds of things?

"Thank you," she says rather blankly, blinking and shifting awkwardly. Her wand tries to roll away from her, as she had dropped it in her lap and it had gotten dislodged when she changed positions, and she twitches to catch it, face going redder while she tries to get a grip on her normal placidity. She...doesn't get thrown off-kilter very frequently.

"Alice, that tickles," she says quietly, shifting Alice's little paws off her neck and ear, fighting off an embarrassed smile as her hair falls in front of her face.

After a moment, when she is composed again--sort of--she looks at Alex, eyebrows slightly lifted.

"That would be lovely, though I'd be perfectly willing to go to the library if you'd prefer not to. It's a wonderful library, you know. Not quite as large as the one I'm used to, but it has most everything one would need."

Alex looked at her in disbelief, "Smaller? R-Really? I-I've n-never been in s-such a b-big library b-before! L-Loretta w-was a-always in th-the N-New York P-Public L-Library, which w-was about a-as big, b-but I've o-only been in a f-few s-smaller libraries. S-still, I-I w-wouldn't mind t-telling y-you the s-stories... I... J-just... well, I s-stutter, a-an' I m-might f-forget bits, o-or tell t-them wrong. I d-don' know t-them to w-well."

Alice curled her way around Luna's neck, to sit hidden in her hair. She settled down and got comfortable. It was warm and safe in there.

"Oh, yes," she says, nodding vaguely. "The library at Hogwarts is quite a bit larger. It could be an Extension Charm, though, I suppose. Anyway, stuttering doesn't bother me at all, and things that are forgotten are often meant to be that way. It's what you remember that's important."

She sits still for Alice, looking rather dreamy (and still a little pink around the edges) as she settles on her shoulder, Luna taking great care not to move her hair.

Why on Earth did Hogwarts sound so familiar? Still, "W-well, t-then I w-won't mind t-telling y-you some of th-the ones I k-know, b-but there are a l-lot of l-longer o-ones that were g-good, b-but too long f-for me to r-remember."

Alex too was still a little flushed as he spoke, scratching at the back of his head. "I p-probably bother a-a lot of people w-with my st-stutter. I a-always g-got teased f-for it a-at school p-pretty badly."

"I could tell you some of mine, if you'd like," she says after a moment, eyes brightening. "I'm sure they'll be interesting to compare, whether or not we both forget bits of them."

She smiles a bit then, head tilting slightly. "If it bothers them then they're not worth bothering with. I got made fun of a lot, too, at home. They called me "Loony" Lovegood and stole my shoes. People here are much nicer."

Alex looked rather shocked at this revelation, "R-really? B-but you're so nice. Wh-why would they do th-that? I-I mean, y-you're even offering ta t-tell me some o-of your tales!" He smiled and blushed a little bit more, "I'd love ta h-hear them, by the way!"

Her smile widens, and she shakes her head. "People think I'm quite peculiar. Nobody's ever explained it to me, so I'm really not sure why. I had rather hoped that people would get nicer when I started hanging out with Harry, but I think I caught them at a bad time. Sometimes being the Boy Who Lived isn't as good a thing as you'd expect." She pauses. "Niceness doesn't seem to have much to do with it."

Harry... He knew that name. And that title, 'the Boy Who Lived'. How could he not have recognized it earlier? Probably because he did sometimes tune Loretta out when she ranted about this or that book. "A-as in Harry Potter? I-I don't k-know the s-series w-well, but it's a p-pretty popular book series i-in my world. I w-was never m-much of a r-reader though."

He held up his hands, "B-but it's s-still r-really terrible th-that p-people were still mean! I m-mean, it's n-not like i-it's really o-odd th-that you're f-from a book! I-it's l-less odd th-than meeting ch-characters from v-video games, s-since I r-really know th-those characters. I-it's not l-like I know y-your ch-character, wh-which is k-kinda u-u-unfortunate, c-cause y-you seem like a r-really g-great person." He was bright red by the time he finished speaking, partly because he hadn't taken much of a breath in his whole nervous rant, and partly because he realized he had been complementing her a lot.

And really, who in the world doesn't know that name? "Oh, yes. He's one of my good friends," she says, and far from sounding pleased with herself for making friends with Harry Potter of all people, she really just looks more happy than anything. "I still find it rather odd that there are books about Harry and Hermione and all of us in other places. Knowing that your name is a part of popular literature somewhere in the Universe is a little baffling."

"And I'm not from a book, Alex. I'm from a world just like you are," she adds, looking rather like she's considering laughing. She hasn't encountered anyone this easily flustered before, and it's proving to be amusing in the kindest of ways. "Everyone you might have heard about in those books is real somewhere." Beat. "Please don't worry about offending me, either. That's rather difficult to manage where I'm concerned, as far as I've seen, anyway."

Kid really needs to learn to watch where he's going [Open like an open thing]

:3

Is Luna wearing sleeves?

Short ones--they come down to about mid-bicep.

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*stares. He is not a flight of stairs.

Ah, well, that's good. Luna would have been confused if he were.

It would make his already terrible self-esteem even worse!

Plus, he'd be letting people walk all over him. Oh, that was awful, I'm sorry. Dx

XD Nah, that's exactly what I was thinking!

xD Glee!

they make such a cute little awkward couple. XD

homgyes

aslkdaslk; DAAAAW

x3

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