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[treadingdawn]

[Click.]

[Is this for real?]

[Why yes. Yes it is.]



Hello. Um, this is Caspian--

[BEEEEEEEEEEEP. Sultry woman's voice:]

Hola. Caspian del buzón de voz está roto. Esta es su refrigerador.
Por favor, hable muy despacio y voy a mantener su mensaje a mi mismo con un imán!
Gracias.

[BEEP. End automated message.]

LABEL MESSAGES AS TEXT, TXT MSG, OR AUDIO. EVERYTHING IS PRIVATE, NO PARTY LINES.
Action for Narnia crew, anytime, anywhere, or pre-arranged with anyone else.

Comments

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[suncolors.livejournal.com]

"At school, the ghosts carol, and the ceiling is lit like a snowy sky with candlelight sometimes. There are parties, but not everyone is invited, and there are gifts, though not everyone receives them...but it's all good fun, really," she assures him with a nod, pausing to situate her shoes better next to her before going on.

"Dad and I, we would have Christmas trees of course," she tells him as if he knows, despite his words to her. "And there is usually a great deal of food, though I should be just as happy to simply have pudding." Long blond hair falling over her shoulder as she leans forward absently, she smiles a bit to herself. "Not everyone celebrates where I'm from either. But they celebrate other things, and there is, at this time of year, something or someone for everyone." Her feet curl over each other as she speaks, an absent movement just as her hands in front of her, fold, delicately as you please. And for all that she is saying, at least she hasn't whipped her wand out or anything.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[treadingdawn.livejournal.com]

He listens to her with his full attention, and not the absent-minded kind one grants a guest who always says the same thing you don't want to hear. Caspian listens to her because he's very interested in what Luna has to say about Christmas. Ghost carolers and snowy skylight and candlelight and gifts all make that world, the one Lupin says is one the verge of war, sound wonderful nonetheless. Briefly he wonders what it takes to get the ceiling lit in such a way, if it's possible to do that for the Pevensies. They talk of Christmas as a family tradition, it would be nice to make it as rich as possible. And even better it would be a nice surprise for Edmund, not if he arrives but when.

"It really is a good holiday, isn't," Caspian remarks with another smile.

Something and someone for everyone. It would be as nice as the warmth in his hands. Then he hears the words again, the words that make him feel sick to even acknowledge. You'll always be on the outside looking in. He cups his hands a little tighter around the flower, not enough to crush it, but to keep its light his.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[suncolors.livejournal.com]

"Oh it can be, but most things can be good, given the right light."

The war is both at the top and the bottom of Luna's consciousness. She is aware of it but it is in the same way one is aware of the sky being up and the ground being down below one's feet--hopefully. Not all things need to be put to words. This is how it is for Caspian, who she does not know but would not mind knowing better, Caspian who for all that he has decided not to speak of his unease, remains uneasy.

Sometimes Luna wonders about unhappiness, but not too often, just enough to put moments like this into perspective. That it is personal is obvious, and that things aren't quite right the way they are is clear enough in the air around him...and again she doesn't even know him, not barely. But it does not always take knowing history to know the present, and this, if anything, may be her forté in handling people--or not handling them, as it were.

There are her reasons, though not her thoughts behind the quiet look she sends Caspian's way. Talk if you like. Stay quiet if you like. This night is not unkind and there is worse company that could be had between us.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[treadingdawn.livejournal.com]

"I'd like it to be as good as possible. You don't miss or long for things you never had experienced in the first place, not so much," he starts then upnods over his shoulder, "but it is their family tradition. There should be no reason that one spent here should be any less meaningful."

Caspian is very sure of this.

"What are your plans, Luna," he asks her, smiling again.

Now he understands how insufferable and irritating patient people can be, just sitting there oh so kindly and waiting, knowing, you'll eventually come crawling to them because your need for a listening ear wins out over your need to maintain solid gold pride. But he will not lose yet. It's just rude to continue talking about yourself, really. He'll learn more of Luna first. It's only polite.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[suncolors.livejournal.com]

"I think I will visit the unicorns," she tells him quite seriously, to the point where if it was anyone else, it would be taken as a joke, but her sincerity is there even in her wide eyes. "They would appreciate being remembered on a day when everyone is so happy," she explains further and then, because she noticed, "They are not your family as well?"

Luna has known people would speak before they did, and Luna has similarly been caught of guard before--though this is the less present offender--but right now she is not quite either, dawdling somewhere in between, but that's a space she is quite comfortable with, all in all.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[treadingdawn.livejournal.com]

Wait what? He blinks twice, staring at her again, not because he thinks she is joking but because she is clearly serious. There are only a few other individuals who take unicorns as seriously. He finds himself wondering about Lightfoot again, if he is happy back home and all his kin are safe. He wonders the same of Bree, which is silly because Bree knows the Kings and Queens of Old have seen to his safety, but Caspian wonders nonetheless.

"They do deserve that sort of respect," he says to Luna, not at all humoring her and very much agreeing with her.

Oh she had to ask. But he did say it as much, that they are the family, the Pevensies minus one brother who they very much deserve to have, and he the Telmarine King. Separate things. Lucy would be very disappointed to hear these thoughts.

"The Pevensies? No," Caspian says quietly, brown gaze focused on the flower instead, "they are my friends. I think we're very close though, like family." But like family isn't being family. "I'm sorry, Luna, I should not be saying these things." Why do you keep doubting, he asks himself, and he feels the illness well again.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[suncolors.livejournal.com]

She doesn't remark on what he should and should not say because it isn't her place to do so. But she listens, gaze wandering now and then from Caspian to Destrier, and from Destrier to the general area out front, and from that to her shoes, and back again. When she does comment, it is on something she feels qualified to talk about--not that these topics are so few, but this one is especially relevant.

"My friends are my family," she almost whispers, eyes moving to fall to the flower. "I'm not at all certain when I decided that." It is like she is talking about having decided on color for a wall she is fond of. "My mum always said that friends made better family than some family did. I don't know that the family appreciated that of course..." she trails off, smile there just in traces now. "But there is more than one kind of family."

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[treadingdawn.livejournal.com]

Those words draw his gaze from the flower and back to Luna. He wonders who her friends are and if any of them are in the City. Caspian doesn't know much about her but he finds that he wants to know more, to learn about her and maybe gain an insight into her perceptive manner. She knows more than she lets on, not of personal details, but intuitively. He has no defense against this because it's very true. The truthfulness of it makes the Telmarine feel guilty and ashamed and ill again. It's so very wrong to think otherwise, so why does he? When he came back the Pevensies were playing games. He chose to sit on the porch for a little while before coming in, and he doesn't know if they noticed him out there or not. He doesn't know what they talked about in his absence else he would be even more ashamed.

"I know," Caspian admits to Luna, without disclaimers or embellishments.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[suncolors.livejournal.com]

Severus is a friend, she would say despite her other peers consternation over the subject. Harry, though he is not here. Ronald, who is, and Hermione, however logically stalwart...and there is of course Ginny, and Regulus who is rather dead but no less a friend than the others. No one has told her that Severus Snape is also dead, but she knows that too. Some friends will return and others will not but Luna is the type to live with both feet on present ground and a hand in both past and future. It is this spherical way that helps her perceive, even if the science is not so easily broken down, and she would gladly get to know this Caspian X of the House of Telmar better, because he is one friend she supposes would not return. They are not of the same world. Best to make do with what time is given...and clocks aside, time is the one thing the City is always abounding in.

The night settles around them like a blanket of silence for some time before she says anything else, but when she does it is not abrupt so much as meandering, as if she had been talking all this time, though she has not.

"I'm sure your family loves you," she looks back at the house. "You would not seem so worried if they didn't. There is no need to worry when no one cares, after all. Then we just move on to being empty." Glance shifting from the house back to him, she peers up, because she is sitting and thus shorter than him, quite a bit, in fact. "You are not empty."

It is a simple statement, honest, plain, presented.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[treadingdawn.livejournal.com]

He knows Snape and he knew Harry and he knows Regulus in passing. He isn't so acquainted with the Weasleys or Hermione.

But whoever her friends are, if they come from that world and that school, then they must be equally special. Her world sounds like an interesting one and Hogwarts a wonderful place for magic and those able to use it. Idly Caspian thinks Merlin would be a perfect student there. He is unaware of the extent of Merlin's legacy in that world, but all the same, Merlin would like a place where magic is openly studied, wouldn't he? A place where the things that make them unique are allowed to flourish and thrive. This line of thought comes back to home and he swallows the dryness in his throat. He is not a magical sort of person and he has no talent for alchemy but Narnia has allowed him to do great things. Why would you ever not let them come back?

When Luna speaks again Caspian is neither surprised nor interrupted in thought. Her voice and her words flow rather naturally with the synchronicity of things. Maybe this is part of Luna's magic as well, yet he doesn't think her the type to directly use it for the sake of making conversation easy. That would be dishonest, she does not strike him as the dishonest type.

"I may not be empty, but I am a bit ridiculous," he admits to Luna, giving the blond a glimpse of a shy smile. She is right, of course. He has felt so close to being empty only once, on the field of battle with that man at his feet. And he decided killing them both on that day would not be worth it at all.

"I think that Destrier would be more than willing to take you for a ride sometime," offers the Telmarine, his way of saying thank you and valuing her company. This strange fair lady. She reminds him of a star.

a horse and...wait...never mind. wrong book.

[suncolors.livejournal.com]

Luna would like Merlin, though Luna likes most people, which isn't to make those likes any smaller, but simply to be factual and clear. It is difficult to get Luna Lovegood to actively dislike you, and if it happens, you are not probable to be enviable in that. Other people might call her less a star and more a cloud but Caspian's kindness is there on his face before it is wrought in his words and she knows that, sees that, is fully aware of it all. In any case, if she ever speaks to him, she will be sure to invite him to test his magic where he can feel without concern for its right or wrong nature. Magic is magic, she thinks. To his words, well, she waits a while, thinking over them, mulling, because once again, what would the hurry really be with one of them wandering around dubiously alone at some odd hour and the other dubiously alone, well not quite alone, but sort of, on porch steps? Nothing.

"We must all be ridiculous sometimes," she says at last. "But that doesn't make us feel any less foolish." A pause. "Still, fools can be helpful too." When he offers more time for her with Destrier, her smile is bright again, completely there, and she nods once. "I would like that very much."

To be thought of as a lady would come as a surprise to Luna, and she might laugh, did she know of it, but it would be a gentle laugh that said: thank you, for one thing or another. And isn't it nice to be here?

And good to meet you.