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]

"Hogwarts?" Rukia sounds very bewildered. "I never went to a Wizarding school." She pauses, trying to calm herself. "We have some people from there, but I didn't know any of them until they came here. . ."

The spirtiual reading Rukia gets from Susan is odd indeed, but she can't really place it. She almost feels similar to a shinigami, but. . .no, not entirely the same.

"Who are you?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Logic presents two possibilities: either Rukia is amnesiac, or there's been some kind of time-hiccup, and she's either never been, or has yet to go. "Maybe ... perhaps it's in your future?" The other possibilities are a little too disturbing. "I apologise -- I'm not really sure how I got here, and this is all very confusing, I'm afraid." The second question ... as always, tricky to answer. Especially since Hogwarts-Rukia knew the whole story. She decides, for now, to stick to the barest truth. "I'm a schoolteacher. From the Discworld, originally." A wry smile; she can't help it. "And I've had an excessively interesting life."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"Perhaps," Rukia concedes, still sounding a little unnerved. What would she, of all people, be doing at a Wizarding school? "Do you mind if I ask what year you come from?" She knew a lot of the. . .beings. . .here came from different time periods.

Rukia nods a little. "A schoolteacher. Do you like it?" Then she says, "And what's the Discworld?" She knows she's asking a lot of questions, but she's very curious, now.

Rukia returns the smile, although she isn't quite sure why. "You. . .seem like it, especially if you're from the future."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"When I ... left Hogwarts, it was 2006," she says. "I wasn't teaching there, but -- yes, I do like teaching, actually." It's a fact which never ceases to amaze her, frankly. "As for the Disc ... it's a flat planet carried on the backs of four elephants, who in turn stand upon the back of the cosmic turtle Great A'Tuin." She smiles. "Being from there seems to have been good preparation for all manner of strangeness."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia considers that. "I see," she says. "When I left, it was 2004 in the human world." Normally she wouldn't readily dispense such information, but the power and type of spirtual energy Susan gives off makes Rukia trust her.

Still, she's not sure she'd go to Hogwarts. She just can't imagine why, or how.

". . .I'd imagine it would," Rukia says, not really sure how else to respond.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Well, this is awkward. Susan is well aware that she knows things about Rukia that the shinigami wouldn't normally tell people. It's in her nature to be forthright, however, and while she's wary of revealing things that might be in her future, she feels she ought to come clean about the rest.

"I should mention," she adds in a low voice, pitched for Rukia's ears only, "I ... know a few things about where you're from. And who you are. You -- the future you --" or the alternate Rukia, but let's not get into that now, "-- had to tell me that, because you'd gotten involved in some matters close to me. But you may count on my discretion here."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia leans in close, wide-eyed, not entirely sure how to take that. "I see," she whispers, mind racing. Voice dropped so that only Susan can hear her, she asks, "What kind of matters were these?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan considers her response carefully. "My grandfather is in a line of business very much like yours," she said. "And I have some of ... talents. So there were those who, shall we say, wanted things from me as a result. And others with vendettas." She looks at Rukia apologetically. "I didn't want to drag you into it, but certain people insisted on making it your business as well as mine."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia nods, slowly. The story's believable enough, if you ignore the Wizarding school aspects of it. She reasons that Susan must be the Discworld's equivalent of a shinigami, then, even if they probably don't use that terminology there.

She did her best to assure Susan, "I wouldn't have wanted to have stayed out of it, anyway. That wouldn't have been fair to you." She sighs. "Who were the people that wanted something from you?" she wonders aloud, although she has her own suspicions already.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

With some reluctance, she says, "His name was Ichimaru Gin. He disappeared himself before anything serious happened, but ... he made my life, and that of some of my friends, very uncomfortable for a while there."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

A shudder runs up the back of Rukia's spine. Now that name, she does remember. Rukia can only imagine what he must've wanted with Susan. . .

"Gin is generally not a trustworthy character," Rukia says. "I hope you didn't have to learn that the hard way."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"Well, having a suspicious nature is good for something," Susan said. "No, he got no change out of me, if I do say myself. I'm still not entirely sure what he was after, but --" she shrugged. "All's well that ends well, I suppose."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"With Gin, sometimes it's never entirely clear," Rukia admits. She remembers her first meeting with the man and a shiver runs down her spine.

"Anyway, I'm sorry I don't remember you."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan smiles. "It's all right. It's good to see you again. Er. Again for me, anyway."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"It's good to see you for the first time." Rukia smiles, but then she pauses and blinks. "Or the second time?" But. . .

"But if Hogwarts is my future, then this is the first time," she reasons out loud.

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan nods ruefully. "This time business is terribly complicated. Again for me, first time for you." She thinks, briefly, of Lobsang, and speculates that he'd probably have something to say about that.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"Yes," Rukia agrees, not knowing what else to say.

"I never would have believed in time travel before I came here. Now I'll believe anything."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

A sympathetic smile. "I know exactly what you mean."