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.

[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]

"You don't remember? I met you at -- at Hogwarts. The wizarding school." It's been quite a while (http://community.livejournal.com/hogwarts_hocus/413446.html) since she last saw Rukia, true, but they were on slightly more than nodding acquaintance at least.

[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."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

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

[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."

[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."

[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]

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.

[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.

[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.

[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."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan, with a small noise that just might be a sob, returns the hug as fiercely, in an entirely uncharacteristic display of emotion.

It's a moment before she can respond to Psyche, and she clings a little bit before stepping back, looking slightly embarrassed. She passes her hand over her face and blinks rapidly a few times, and with only the slightest wobble in her voice, she says, "I -- yes. Me too. Oh gods, I was afraid I'd never see you again."

[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?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

...Well!

Possibly it was just as well that Rukia's non-recognition had softened Susan up a little and prepared her; instead of being offended, she had to work to suppress the tiny smile that was tugging at the corners of her mouth. She raised her free hand in a conciliatory gesture. "Right. Fair enough. I apologise, Prof -- ahem, Crowley. Won't mention it again." Still, it was hard to look at him without thinking of well-disciplined geraniums.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"I thought you might not know me," says Psyche, beaming with just a hint of tears in her smiling eyes, and the words rushing out of her, "and it's not that I want or expect to understand everything in the world all at once, but these last few days have been...I haven't known what I'm supposed to do or if I'd ever see anyone I cared about again..."

She takes a deep breath, and smiles brilliantly and somewhat more calmly. "How are you? Are you all right?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"I was afraid you wouldn't know me either -- Rukia and Crowley didn't, and I -- no. No, I don't think I am all right." Now that some of the the initial shocks have worn off, Psyche's question has made Susan painfully aware of the reality of her situation. "Oh, Psyche, I have so much to tell you ... and you probably have a lot of questions, I'd wager, since it's been several weeks since you -- since --" The phrase turned into popcorn shapes itself, but Susan can't quite bring herself to say it.

[anthony-crowley.livejournal.com]

Damn. Now he's all curious. And unsure how much she actually knows about him. Apart from now knowing that he apparently doesn't age for fifteen years.*

"Well," he says conciliatorily - she backed down, he supposes he can too, a bit. "Just not to anyone else, if you would. I don't want to take responsibility for things I haven't done yet."

And there's really no polite way to ask what he wants to ask, not that he generally worries about such things, but there's something about Susan that demands it. "How well did... will we know each other?"


((That's okay, though. His PB hasn't (http://img.meetup.com/photos/event/7/d/a/c/event_92172.jpeg) either. Oh, and I can spell, too. ><))

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Several weeks?" Kira said something about it being months since he'd seen her (http://community.livejournal.com/dizzy_land/3712.html?thread=136576#t136576), but she remembered it had been a while since she'd seen him. But Susan...it can't have been over two weeks since their last talk...? "Well, everything about time is strange here," she says aloud, "but several weeks since I what? And oh, dear," she reaches out for Susan's hand, remembering what a precarious state her friend's life was in, "what happened?"

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan nods. "Fair enough; you can count on my discretion." She permits herself the smile, and finds that she's oddly comforted by the irascibility of her former? future? Herbology professor -- some things do, indeed, never change.

"We weren't close friends, if that's what you're wondering," she says with her usual frankness, "but we were on good terms." Were? Will be? Ah, the limitations of grammar. "I took classes from you; that was about the extent of our interactions."*