InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Ain't nobody got time for that"

professor susan p. hastings (_believeinmagic) wrote in silverage,
@ 2011-08-12 21:13:00

Entry tags:

!log, lee scoresby, susan pevensie

Who: Susan Pevensie, Lee Scorsby
When: Friday evening
Where: World's Fair
What: stuck in the snow!
Rating/status: TBD

Susan hated bundling up, it always, on some unconscious level, reminded her of Narnia. Snow in the middle of summer, due to these ... aliens (they were alien, there was nothing normal about them) coming made her think of Narnia all the more.

She'd decided, after taking an early day at work, to go see the World's Fair. It would take her mind off Narnia, and it would do good to smile a bit. She had kicked out the alien she'd foolishly allowed to room with her - if she allowed anyone to room with her again, it was going to be someone with no abilities, like the ability to pop a sword out of existence. Except the boy she found, Zack Fair. He was sweet, and she didn't think he'd hurt him at all.

She was musing about the situation when a gust of wind took her hat. "Grab that hat!" she yelled at a man who was also foolishly in the blizzard like her. She was surprised to see a bunny frolicking near him as she ran closer. Of course, someone took their pet to play in the fun snowstorm. Still, Susan wanted her hat!

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leescoresby
2011-08-13 02:53 am UTC (link)

In a matter of a day or two, the World's Fair was wiped out. After all, which mother would take her kids out in it when there was snow reaching up to half of their legs? Or which couple would go out on a date here when those fancy fine dining restaurants sure provided a more romantic and warm atmosphere?

Lee was both glad and not glad for this fact. He'd visited the World's Fair many times before, always so interested by the hustle and bustle and the NASA exhibits but the people always got in the way and he always ended up leaving and wanting for more. And so now was his chance, and it was a lonely place. Still, Hester was happy to be out and about in the snow and really, Lee couldn't ask for more than Hester's company and joy.

And a hat -- yes, the hat was important especially after a strong blow had threatened to steal it from his head but he kept it on by force of his hand and so it was safe. But then someone's hat wasn't and he turned around slowly with Hester following his direction in time to see a lilac cap of sorts captured by the air. "Look, Hester--"

"I know, it's a flying cap, now go and get it."

Lee watched it descend after the burst of wind for a couple more seconds until it was reachable by a simple raise of his hand and a hop. Having secured the knitted thing in his hand, he turned it a little as if to study as he started back to the woman who'd lost it, Hester hopping behind him.

Lifting it to the woman, he called to her, "This yours, Ma'am?"

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_believeinmagic
2011-08-13 02:57 am UTC (link)

"Yes, yes, it is!" Susan yelled back, holding her hair as she ran over. She graciously took it from him and jammed it back firmly on her head.

"Thank you, it's incredibly windy, even for a snowstorm. I suppose it's not a regular storm either," she commented, feeling much better now that the hat was on her head. She nodded at the rabbit, "You just bring your rabbit out to frolic, or something else bring you here?"

Now that they were together, and the only people for what looked like miles (seriously, the buildings were lost in the swirling white), she found herself thinking that some company would be nice, if he didn't seem to mind.

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leescoresby
2011-08-13 03:38 am UTC (link)

Finding someone to see Hester was always a joy -- but also a shock! Especially as the woman didn't seem to have a dæmon of her own. Unless it was, of course, say an ant or a spider or a rat, or a butterfly or those things you can keep in your pocket.

"You can see Hester!" Lee said as he always did when someone without a visible dæmon recognized his hare.

But Hester, she had taken it upon herself to hop around the brunette, leaving marks of her feet deep within the snow in a circle that surrounded her. When she couldn't find a companion, she sniffed at her air, but couldn't find anything worth a warning.

"Now Hester, that was rude," Lee said to his little hare with a chuckle as she returned to his feet. Looking up to Susan, he removed his hat and smiled. "Beg your pardon, Ma'am, but Hester was just looking for your dæmon. She'd like to make friends if she may."

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_believeinmagic
2011-08-13 03:45 am UTC (link)

"Of course I ca-" Susan started to say before she realised that if the man was this excited, then most people probably couldn't see the rabbit.

She looked at the man curiously. She wouldn't have pegged him as a new arrival. She was distracted from her thoughts by the rabbit hopping around her. "Curious little rabbit," she remarked.

The man was wearing a cowboy hat. In the middle of a blizzard. And he had a very friendly rabbit. "She sure is cute." She knelt down and reached out to pet the rabbit, "I don't know what a demon is - I do, but not the way you seem to mean it."

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leescoresby
2011-08-13 04:01 am UTC (link)

Wh-- what the hell was she doing--

Lee could feel his breath freeze and his hair standing as Hester hurried to hop behind his foot and hide and stooping, he captured the woman's reaching hand with a firm right and straightened up to shake her hand with a good smile on his face. Did she actually think she could touch his Hester?!

His heart was still beating like mad behind its cage as he said, "Sure is a mighty cute feller. And I'd be happy to introduce myself to anyone who says that. Scoresby's the name, Ma'am. Lee Scoresby."

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	_believeinmagic 2011-08-13 04:22 am UTC (link)
	Susan was more than a bit shocked then the man - Lee, he'd introduced himself - grabbed her hand as the rabbit scurried away. "Does she bite?" Susan laughed. "I'm sorry, she seemed so friendly! I'm Susan. Susan Pevensie." The rabbit looked like she was cowering, and Susan instantly felt even worse. "I'm sorry," she said softly. "I didn't mean to frighten her." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

leescoresby
2011-08-13 04:42 am UTC (link)

Well, Lee and Hester were sure now that she doesn't have a dæmon. If she did, after all, she would know that you were never supposed to touch another person's dæmon until you were closer than good friends.

"Pleasure to meet, Ms. Susan." He was starting to calm down. Susan seemed sorry what what she had been about to do, after all, and Lee wouldn't blame her for not knowing. "I beg your pardon for the reaction, too...but let's just say it's a bit of a necessity." Because telling her outright that no, she was not supposed to go about touching dæmons seemed rude. She at least knew now, though.

"Hester doesn't bite a pretty hand, don't you worry," then looking at his feet behind which Hester peeked, he said, "Come out 'ere and say hi to Ms. Susan, Hester."

"Howdy," she said, but she didn't move farther away from Lee.

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_believeinmagic
2011-08-13 04:49 am UTC (link)

She smiled, warming to Lee, "No, no, sir, it's alright. I know how particular people can be about their pets." She'd never had any, but she guessed it was like having a much simpler child. Not that she knew what that was like, either.

The rabbit crept out and Susan smiled - until it spoke. Then she jumped and tried to jump back, but of course, it was windy and snowy, and she wound up just falling into the snow. "Oh!" she said, trying to stand up, but having difficulties with her scarf. "Oh!" she said again, standing and brushing her hair out of her face. "It talks!"

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leescoresby
2011-08-13 05:22 am UTC (link)

Oh, Silly Lee, of course she wouldn't know that dæmons talked! He had to remind himself that Susan was one of those people who could see them without having one and he promised to make sure she didn't fall off her feet like that, again. It must be embarrassing.

He chased after her for two steps, hands reaching out, one with a hat, and Hester faithfully along although he recognized the hint of glee the hare had felt as they watched Susan regain her poise. Not a very good thing to feel, Hester.

But Lee said none of it as Susan managed to stand up, again. "Hester can talk," he confirmed as kindly as he could, his mustache outlining a sort of smile tipped in his face while he scratched his jaw. "Dæmons can talk. I hope she didn't startle you too much, Ms. Susan."

"And I'm a 'she'," Hester decided to take some courage as she said that and she leaned closer to the brunette. "Its only belong to animals." And she, of course, was a dæmon -- and she was damn proud of it.

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_believeinmagic
2011-08-13 05:29 am UTC (link)

"I ... I ..." Susan couldn't find words. She was a child again, standing in the frozen woods of Narnia, listening to the creatures talk of the White Witch and the terror that unfolded. If there were somewhere to sit down again, she would.

"I don't know," she finally said to Lee. "She startled me." To the rabbit - as it was always kind to talk to something that could talk to you, she said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Hester. I am dreadfully sorry I tried to touch you as though you were a pet. You are, obviously, so much more than that."

She and Lucy had buried their hands into Aslan's fur as they walked with him to his death; they'd sobbed into his mane for hours after ... it was all a fairy tale. A fairy tale of a scared little girl who couldn't go home, so she made up fanciful stories and got her siblings to believe them too. Of Mr. Tumnus and the Beavers, and Edmund's betrayal.

"Where are you from, that ani- creat- beings other than humans, can talk?" She was trying to be respectful of Hester's insistence on not being an animal.

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leescoresby
2011-08-13 05:50 am UTC (link)

Oh. Talk to Hester in that manner and it was easy to earn her forgiveness.

She and Lee, though, thought that Susan's question was, in a way, oddly put. "Dæmons," he said anyway to her so that she finally knew what to call Hester the next time she tried to describe her. "With an A and E. Don't ask me how they're called that," Lee chuckled as he put his hat back to his head before he bent to pick up Hester from the ground and carry her like a child might a toy -- in his arms and against his chest. "We're from Texas, born and raised," he answered simply. "Been ages since I returned home, though. And if you don't mind my noticing, Ms. Susan, you don't sound like you're from around here, either." He tipped his head a little to the side as a form of a shrug. "Least not to begin with."

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_believeinmagic
2011-08-13 05:59 am UTC (link)

She scrunched up her face in confusion. Nothing of her life had really made any sense until New York, and now, after 15 years, none of it was making any sense again. "Deemons," she said, trying to say it like he had.

"Dæmons. From Texas? I just assumed ..." she trailed off. Neither of them - or none of them, she should count Hester too - needed her to finish that she thought they were some of the 'New Arrivals'. "I'm from England, originally, grew up there. I've been in New York for 15 years," she said. "We didn't have talking - rather, nothing talked over there except the humans. What is a dæmon?" Hester didn't look like a demon. Dæmons - from what Susan could tell, looked exceptionally ordinary.

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leescoresby
2011-08-13 07:40 am UTC (link)

"Nothing?" Lee's smile spread a little as he shook his head. "You just never see them." Because as far as he knew, many of his relatives, old and new, had always been born with dæmons. He didn't understand why some wouldn't have dæmons, though, and some would -- but he'd always known that those who didn't have dæmons probably lived very lonely lives.

"Now this might disappoint you, Ms. Susan, but I can't really tell ya what a dæmon is." He cleared his throat as he scouted the area for a place for them to sit down in. "A dæmon's a kind of animal that never leaves you, basically. Like Hester here," he looked down to the hare who looked practically lethargic in his arms but it was her way of being at home, "never left my side all my life. And she's mine and mine alone." And before he continued, he made sure he looked at Susan in the eye so that she would understand what he has to say next: "No one else can touch her but me, and we can't stray too far away from each other either."

Gesturing to a spot behind Susan, he opened his arms and bent a little to toss Hester to the snow. The hare kicked herself off him and hopped twice for balance as she turned and looked up to Lee. "Now right there's a good place to sit. How do you fancy some Belgium waffles, Ms. Susan?" he asked as he started towards it.

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_believeinmagic
2011-08-14 07:07 am UTC (link)

"Nothing at all unless -" unless you walked through a cupboard, or stared at a painting, or any of the other ways in which one could walk into Narnia. But that wasn't real. Unless this was like what Other-Susan was saying, that if you could imagine it, it could happen. Had she been dreaming of the White Witch? Why else was there all this snow?

She nodded, "I understood sir. Rest assured, your Hester is safe from me."

Her eyes widened at the waffle house. She'd heard about them, but had never made it over to try them. Apparently they were heaven on a plate. She could go for that. "I would be delighted," she said, walking with him.

"Forgive me if this is rude, but how do you handle having Hester with you everywhere? I think she'd gather quite a bit of attention."

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leescoresby
2011-08-14 12:54 pm UTC (link)

"Not as much attention as you'd think," Lee said as he matched Susan's pace, his hands in his coat's wide pockets, Hester happy to be with the snow, again. "See, not everybody here sees dæmons, only the ones who do have dæmons or one of them newcomers." He chuckled. "Still don't understand how they do it..."

The waffle place was not far and had only two customers seated in separate tables and three staff waiting for the day to end. While Hester chose a table in the center for them to sit in, Lee had ordered for their bestseller and a cup of coffee to go with it.

"More than the attention, though, there's the lack of it," he went on after they were done and were seated, Hester moving away for Lee's space. "Not everybody can see her. That's why I've gotta mind her all the time, make sure no one steps on her and all. It's not easy in a crowd but Hester and I manage just fine."

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_believeinmagic
2011-08-15 09:49 pm UTC (link)

Susan frowned, "Your logic, Mr Scorsby, fails to make sense, as I can see Hester and I am neither a newcomer nor do I have one of my own."

She followed suit and ordered a bestseller for herself, though she asked for a cup of tea ("any kind, so long as it's tea"), and took a seat opposite Lee.

"I would imagine that would be quite difficult. I wonder -" she started then broke off. Oh well, she could share with him, couldn't she? "I wonder how many others have secrets like that, little daemons that no-one else can see. Once, when I was a child, a little girl waiting for the War to end, my little sister invented this fantastical world that my siblings and I all joined in with her - and there the animals - creatures really - could talk and everything about it was magical. Your Hester, and this dreadful snow, make me think about that. That was over 20 years ago and - well, I suppose you don't want to hear of the imagination of some very lonely children."

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leescoresby
2011-08-16 01:12 am UTC (link)

"Now don't be a downer, Ms. Susan," Lee said pleasantly and chuckling a little, his hand stroking the back of Hester who was now curled comfortably on his lap. "Nothing wrong with a little imagination, a little fantasy world here and there. Me and Hester used to play all the time when we were kids. Some kids think we're lonely but well, they just never see Hester." He winked at Susan.

The waffles didn't take long to make, and soon they would be served their orders and steaming drinks.

Lee took a sip from his. "Anyway, I always say folks without imaginations are the lonely ones. They don't see things the way we do. Which war was that you were waiting on, Ms. Susan?"

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