Application: Susan Sto Helit, Discworld

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

A tall, thin young woman appears in a puff of hot-pink smoke. Her hair, coiled in a rather prim bun, is white with a black streak through it; her eyes cold blue. She's sensibly dressed in a plain white blouse under a black jacket, long black skirt, and boots, and she looks rather schoolteacher-ish -- although instead of a ruler or pointer, she holds a cast-iron fireplace poker in her left hand. Her right hand is empty, which seems to startle her when she realises it.

She looks around hopefully, and immediately her face falls. "Oh hell. Hell. Now what?"

At the sight of Mickey and the Cat, she seems not so much astonished as deeply, deeply aggravated. She pinches the bridge of her nose and sighs.

Mickey coughs theatrically. "'What is your name?'"
"Susan Sto Helit."

"What is your quest?" asks the Cat. It's perched, suddenly, on the roof of one of the gate-stiles.
Susan narrows her eyes at the Cat, suspiciously. "Who wants to know?"

"'What is the average w..?'" Mickey frowns down at the notebook. "You know, I don't really see why that's important." He flips a page. "'If you could be granted three wishes, what would they be?'"
She looks thoughtful for a minute. Then she laughs, humourlessly. "No, I don't think so. There'd be a trick; there always is. Wish someone alive again, they come back as a draggy re-animated corpse with a taste for brains. No thanks."

"Or," the Cat says, examining its tail with interest, "if you were a genie and someone you were trying to give three wishes to was trying to trick you into giving him more, what would you say?"
"I'd tell him to stop being an idiot and that he clearly didn't deserve any of the damn things."

Mickey looks rather nonplused at the next, but reads, "'When the revolution comes, what skills will you be able to barter for food?'"
Susan rubs her forehead and looks very tired. "Revolution? Are you expecting one? Well, I'm a schoolteacher by profession. I'm good with children, and I've got a solid education."

And I can walk through walls, vanish, DO THAT VOICE, work outside and around time, oh, and save the universe if needed as well. Best not to bring that up now, though; who knows what these ... beings might do about it. And one never knew who might be listening. She doesn't mention the poker either, although she shifts it from left hand to right and holds it in a matter that suggests that she's had a lot of experience beating the hell out of things with it, or at least threatening to do so.

The Cat rolls its eyes in a friendly (and rather disconcertingly out-of-sync) way, and asks, "Milk, dark, or white chocolate?"
She smiles, although it has to be noted that the smile really doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Dark, of course. And no bloody nougat centres, please."

"'Choose the two coolest: robots, pirates, fairies, bears, ninjas, monkeys, vampires, or humans,'" says Mickey, giggling a bit as he goes through the list. "'Explain.'"
"Someone once told me that 'ninja' was Agatean for 'the passing wind'," she says. "Some vampires are all right -- well, the Black Ribboners are, anyway -- and the Tooth Fairies tend to be good, hardworking girls. But for the two 'coolest' -- humans, because for all their stupidity and aggravation, they do manage to pull off some remarkable things. And bears, because as animals go, they're relatively sensible beasts."

"Great!" Mickey flips through the blank pages of the notebook at top, cartoon-y speed. "Well, I think that's just about it! Oh, and I'm supposed to ask, 'for your safety: are you carrying anything sharp?'"
"Just this," she says, indicating the poker. Her seemingly amiable expression is not entirely pleasant. "It only kills monsters, mind you."


((Susan is taken from a few years after the end of The Thief of Time; before her arrival at Dizzy Land via an unfortunate magical accident, she spent a few months at Hogwarts in hogwarts_hocus.))

Comments

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"Your poker kills monsters?" Rukia asks curiously, as she approaches the new applicant. "What kind of monsters?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Bogeymen and crawly things in the basement, mostly, but -- Rukia? Rukia Kuchiki?" Susan stares at her in frank astonishment. "How did you get here?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"I was trying to go to Soul Society and I -- " There's a pause as Rukia looks up at this new woman.

"How did you know my name?"

((No, that's fine with me. :D Rukia won't remember Susan or Hogwarts, though.))

[hidden-paw.livejournal.com]

"I wonder," drawls a voice from behind her, "What exactly your definition of 'monster' is?"

Macavity's leaning on a near-by wall, watching her. His red, feathery tail is twitching slightly, and he's looking at her with metallic green eyes, a slight smile twitching the corner of his mouth.

She smells of death, but she looks neither dead nor dying, and that interests him. It also serves as a relative diversion from the severe irritation he's beginning to harbour for this place.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan's expression is carefully bland, betraying nothing in particular of the profound What in the world is this? that she's feeling.

"It's not purely based on apperances, if that's what you're asking," she says. "Behaviour and nature are important factors as well."

[hidden-paw.livejournal.com]

"For example," he continues, as though she hasn't spoken, "One might wonder how you would stand with felids whom in their own world are considered to be the most evil criminal to ever walk the planet."

Macavity steps up to her, and tilts his head to one side. "Also, incidently, if you'll forgive the manner of my inquiry, what precisely are you? You don't seem to be actually human."

[anthony-crowley.livejournal.com]

Crowley gives his charming smile to the young woman at the gate.

"Finally, someone with taste in chocolate. I'm convinced that nougat is a tool of the Opposition."

He doesn't, of course, say who the Opposition is. It's an old trick of his, leaving the implication that he's on the same side as the person he is talking to, and thereby instilling instant camraderie and trust. However, he hasn't counted on the person he's talking to being Susan Sto Helit.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

What the hell? "... Professor Crowley?" What is this, a Hogwarts Gaudy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudy)?

[anthony-crowley.livejournal.com]

"Fuck. Not you, too." What was this place, a lost and found for freaks?

"Look, lady. If I ever do become a professor, which I still highly doubt despite what several people have said, it's not for another fifteen years, okay? Right now, I'm just Crowley from New Orleans Square, and nothing more. Got it?"

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Psyche hears Susan's voice coming through the...megaphone...thing that broadcasts all the new arrivals' answers, and in a split second appears as a cloud of butterflies over by the entrance arch to the main park. She pauses there for a moment; the odd mix of old friends from Hogwarts knowing or not knowing her has been a bit of a strain, and there was nothing in Susan's answers to indicate which Psyche should expect. But after all, she thinks, watching her friend, it's still Susan, and if they have to meet again as strangers...well, why should she delay and keep them strangers that much longer?

She solidifies, and approaches with a warm and very slightly hesitant smile. "Hello, Susan."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Astonished, joyful, relieved -- Susan stares at her old friend as if she can't quite believe her eyes. "Psyche? Oh gods -- it is you, isn't it?"

Within the question is the unspoken fear that, like Rukia and Crowley, Psyche won't remember her. Susan is a resilient-minded girl, but if this is a different Psyche ... she's not altogether sure she could handle it.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

And with that, Psyche abandons circumspection and throws her arms around Susan, hugging her fiercely, like a sister.

"I'm so glad to see you again," she says after a moment.

[alicereflection.livejournal.com]

Alice performs the obligatory curtsy before repeating the sentence she must have said a thousand times before (it feels that way, at any rate).

She sighs in relief at the sight of Susan. "At last," she says, "someone with a sensible concept of clothing. May I ask what Aggataean is?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan smiles a bit at the comment about the clothes, and reminds herself to ask Psyche if she's seen Logan. "They're --" Explaining that they are natives of the Counterweight Continent isn't going to help, is it? "-- foreigners. At least relative to the city where I live, back on my home world."

[alicereflection.livejournal.com]

"Oh," says Alice. This is a reasonable explanation for her.

"You said you were a schoolteacher?" she continues. "Have you served time as a governess as well?" Something about Susan's stance reminds her of her old governess. Except she has no doubt she will get along better with Susan than she ever did with Miss Prickett.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

Sirius has no idea what to make of this new woman. There's something about her that's so, well, the only word for it is proper, and Sirius tries to avoid using that word at all costs if he can. She's somewhat of a cross between some of his less psychotic female relatives and every governess he's ever had, and he's tempted to avoid her so as not to get shouted at for tracking mud on the carpet and the state of his clothes, but she somehow seems interesting. Maybe it's the hair, that one shocking streak of black tied up with that conservative bun, that makes him imagine that there's something more to her.

"So what sort of monsters does that thing kill, anyway?" he asks, meandering up with a grin on his face.

((Not having been at H_H, I've no idea if Susan knows who Sirius is, but if she does, no need to be shy about it *g* He'll have to cope.))

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"The kind that hide under beds, in closets, and in basements," Susan replies with a wry half-smile. She sizes him up with a glance, curiously. Hard life, possibly younger than he looks? And why does everyone want to know about the monsters, anyway?

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Like ghouls and boggarts? There was a boggart under my bed when I was a boy, but somehow I think the wand is easier," he says, twirling his wand between his fingers. The question was more of a dramatic method of introduction (and he'd have been rather put out that he'd been beaten to it by a cat and a young girl), but he is also testing the waters as to her political views. If she doesn't think vampires are so bad, then she might not be quite the stereotypical pureblood he'd had her pegged as at first, despite the suspicious whiff of a good upbringing she gave off.

"The name's Black, by the way," he says gruffly, but extending a hand. "And since it doesn't seem to be a given around here, of the late 20th century." He watches her face closely for a trace of recognition of the name. He doesn't give his first name to avoid the inevitable panic speaking the words 'Sirius Black' can cause, but there aren't many Black men left to choose from. Still, if she hasn't recognized his face by now, she might be from before (or after) his time.

(( Well, that's all right then, he doesn't get his questions answered for a little while longer. I enjoy keeping my characters in the dark. As for Sirius, I imagine he'll be a bit disappointed when he finds out it's her natural color, but otherwise I've no idea how he'll take to Susan XD))

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

Setsuna's main point of focus here, having never known Susan, is to point at her poker and ask, "Think they'll let you keep that?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

She shrugs a little. "Your guess is as good as mine. Do they make a practice of confiscating things here?"

[swordandchalice.livejournal.com]

He closes his eyes and tries to remember what happened when Cayce arrived, but then realizes he didn't stick around until the end, and has no idea....

"You know...I have no idea. We need to ask them why they bother asking that kind of question."

[that-depends.livejournal.com]

"I suppose it depends on which bears you know," the Cheshire Cat remarks, as though none of the other conversations have taken place since that particular answer was made.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Well, admittedly, most of those I've met are those who showed up when Gawain stepped on cracks," Susan said. "But I have to admire an animal that knows to get its head down when it's bloody cold and food is hard to come by."

[mickey-mous.livejournal.com]

"Well o-kay," says Mickey happily. "Are you ready to choose an excitin' land to live in, Susan?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan suspects that she will never, ever get used to this talking Mouse; and the endlessly chirpy voice will probably drive her mad if she has to listen to it for very long. She takes a deep breath, and with as much patience as she can manage, says, "Both Main Street and New Orleans Square sound pleasant enough. I think I have a slight preference for Main Street."

It's Crowley's use of the word "occult" in relation to the inhabitants of New Orleans Square that tipped the scales; even if she's largely reconciled to that side of her family these days, she'd still rather not be defined by it if possible.