Causeway - Monday morning

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Fandom wasn't the first town Cassandra had wandered through since she left her second life behind, but there was something... different about it.

The dirty, half-starving girl in torn clothes and a worn backpack looked around curiously as she stopped at the end of the causeway. As she looked around her stomach grumbled and she frowned down at it. With no money there was no way she could get anything to eat. At least not unless she could find someone to let her wash dishes for a meal or something.

With a tug at her backpack straps to settle her meager supply of clothes, Cassandra walked slowly into town. Searching for... something. She wasn't sure what.

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[smartestone]

After leaving the dorms and oh look, a Ron! to get some things in town, Hermione headed to the Perk just to get some things to bring back. She didn't exactly make it there, though, having seen the new girl. "Are you all right?" she wondered, coming closer.

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cass' head snapped around with a start and her weight shifted slightly before she decided that the girl probably meant her no harm. "Yeah," she replied shortly. "Where is this?"

[smartestone]

"Fandom," Hermione answered, and that hasn't been a strange question in a long time. "Virginia. Where are you supposed to be?"

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

With a shrug and a small, sad smile Cass shook her head. "I don't know. This is fine." Her eyes flicked about curiously, trying to take everything in.

[smartestone]

"I'm Hermione," she said with a tiny smile. "This tends to be a good place for people who can say 'I don't know' to that."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cass didn't let her hands drop from her backpack straps, but did lift one of them in a tiny wave. "I'm Cassandra." She was still looking around, at a bit of a loss, when her stomach grumbled again.

[smartestone]

Hermione was pretty sure she heard that. "I was about to head to the Perk. It's a coffee shop. Did you want to come along?"

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

It was an awfully tempting offer, but Cass wasn't sure. "Do they have tea there, too?" she asked curiously.

[smartestone]

"I wouldn't go there if they didn't," Hermione smiled. "It's good, too."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

It wasn't like Cass had other plans, really. "I like assam." She nodded for Hermione to lead the way, full of questions she wasn't sure how to ask.

[smartestone]

Hermione turned to lead her the short distance to the Perk. "So where are you from?" she wondered.

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

That was a good question. Cass just shrugs as she follows, "Nowhere really. I just sort of... wander around."

[smartestone]

"Oh," she said, considering this. "And this is the next stop? Do you tend to stay long?"

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"Don't know," Cass shrugged again. "Maybe. It's not like I'm really going anywhere." She sighed.

[smartestone]

Hermione opened the door to the Perk, letting Cass inside first. "I'm sure no one would mind you staying for a while," she said. "How old are you?"

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

Jeff was a big brother now. He had responsibilities! Like running really fast to go tell Turtle and Chad about all the news and maybe nearly (nearly!) accidentally running into someone on the way and babbling apologies at them.

"...Sorry! I'm a brother now, I've got responsibilities, obviously, which is not to say that's an excuse as much as it is a reason. You know what responsibilities are like, they sort of sneak up on you and cause collisions, which is very dangerous, maybe no one's quite ready for the responsibilities of brotherhood and that causes all of those traffic accidents..."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cass' eyes were a bit wide as she stared at him. He was... chaotic. The torrent of words was bad enough, especially considering how new she was to them, but his body language was just as jumbled. After a moment she realized she was staring and shook her head, her voice soft, "Don't worry about it."

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

"Obviously, I'd be on the front lines to help prevent reponsibility collision," Jeff babbled on, taking her words more as a reason to start backpedalling than as a reason to stop talking. "It's just you can't always be everywhere all at once. I mean, I tried, obviously, but I just sort of found myself running into a wall."

He paused.

"...Not that I run into walls recreationally, it's just sometimes they're sort of... there."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Her eyes didn't glaze over, but that's because they were wide with a sort of horrified fascination. How could anyone have this much to say? How could they keep it all straight. So Cass just nodded numbly and offered lamely, "Running into walls is no fun."

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

The answer was very simple: Jeff never kept anything straight, so it didn't really matter what was coming out of his mouth - it'd never have any structural integrity anyway. "And really bad when you're trying to flee your mother's eyes when she's going through your underwear drawer looking for questionable stains, it doesn't really help your random loiterer story."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

"I can imagine," Cass said weakly.

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

"Then again, random loiterer stories are tricky," Jeff bravely plowed on, "You have to anticipate the presence of actual loiterers or you might wind up having your mother chase you down the street with a statue of a large-- well, let's not go into that."

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

Cass nodded, still confused, "Right. Let's not." She blinked a few times, "Um... you looked like you were in a hurry?"

[scary-jeff.livejournal.com]

Jeff blinked, then jumped in place. "Oh, right!" he said, grinning nervously, "Sorry, gotta go! Responsibilities, collisions, you know how it is, get a bit carried away--"

And within moments, he was gone, barreling down the street.

[iseewhatyoumean.livejournal.com]

She just stared after him dumbly. Well, that was... interesting.