ya_assemble | If I could visit the moon, well I'd dance on a moon beam but then? [Open]

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If I could visit the moon, well I'd dance on a moon beam but then? [Open]

Drifting like a ghost through the eternal hustle and bustle of Santa's workshop a pale blond girl seemed simultaneously in shock and yet utterly serene as she gazed about at the color and life that filled every corner of the main work areas.

She sidestepped elves and slid around yeti as they went about their business, greeting many of them by name before coming to her final stop. The moon window nook.

She'd discovered this place not long after she was rescued from the evil witches that had been enchanting children with a siren song. Among the children taken captive it was discovered she was like many of the visitors to this shop, from another world.

And so she was briefed on the situation and left to her own devices. A bit of an odd one even by the standards of this place she seemed perfectly content to watch and listen and help herself to what she needed unless there was someone nearby she could politely ask.

It was in this fashion she claimed this corner of the workshop as her own. It was a nook with large clear windows framing it that looked out over the frozen land below and the glowing face of the moon above. The Northern Lights danced beautifully along the sky making it a very peaceful place in an otherwise busy shop.

Today she had a stack of books resting on the ground next to the built in bench and it's many cushions. Some fresh hot chocolate steams on a small table nearby along with a plate of fresh baked sugar cookies.

Wrapped in a warm knit sweater with a picture of a rabbit on it she made herself comfortable and smiled at someone passing by greeting them in her soft dreamy voice.

"Hello. Are you looking for something?"

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"No," said Abed, because he too had mostly just been wandering around.

Not aimlessly. Never aimlessly. He loved Christmas and for right now he was living in the place where Christmas was almost a living thing. He still wasn't sure all of this was real but even if it wasn't, this was one of the most spectacular delusions his subconscious had dragged him into and as long as it seemed real, he was going to make the most of it. So he spent most of his days exploring every single thing he could find in the Pole.

He didn't say anything else for a moment, tilting his head at the girl as he looked at everything around her - the cocoa, the books, the cookies.

Then he pointed at the cocoa.

"You should try the peppermint cocoa. It's the best one. I can tell that's not it because they always put a candy cane in as a garnish as an extra touch of whimsy."

She smiled just a faint smile. A tug at the corner of her lips as her wide eyes studied him carefully like she was trying to see through him.

"I like the peppermint, but I thought I might try nutmeg today. It's very different."

She gestured in offering in case he wanted to try it for himself all the while never taking her eyes off him.

"No thanks, I don't want any. Nutmeg is just cinnamon that isn't trying hard enough."

Abed nodded towards the books.

"What are you reading? Do they have anything good? I know they have a library here but they also have every movie and TV show ever made and I lean more towards visual media. So I'm putting my ability to not need sleep to good use and marathoning everything. Ever. I can fit a lot more TV shows in one day now."

She waited for him to finish blinking slowly before looking down at the Hot Chocolate and then back to him. If she had any comment about his opinion she kept it to herself.

"I've found a few alternate histories about this world. I was curious about where the threads separated."

She took up her Hot chocolate and had a sip.

"Have you been using Billywigs? We used to mix them with our pumpkin juice when we had a late study night and couldn't waste time sleeping."

"No," said Abed, shaking his head. "Unless that's a British name for stick bugs but even if it is I'm pretty sure nobody eats or drinks those." He raised his hand, curling and uncurling his finger. "Although if that's a street name for Adderall people do use that to study but I don't. The only time I did was when my friend Annie slipped it into my study group's coffee without us knowing before a test. I stayed up for three days straight and invented a new language. But I've never taken any on purpose."

He sat down across from her on the opposite end of the nook.

"I can stay up that late because now that we're myths we don't have to sleep as much. We can still sleep for fun but we don't actually have to."

Abed's eyes suddenly flashed open more widely as everything she'd said finally registerd.

"Where you're from, you drink pumpkin juice?" he asked. "What about Butterbeer?"

Was this who he thought it was? Was she from where he thought she was?

Edited 2015-02-01 07:43 (UTC)

She listened with fascination at his explanation and blinked slowly once more looking like a pale owl in the moonlight.

"Why yes I do. And tea, and sometimes milk. It's important to drink lots of regular water as well."

Ravenclaws sometimes forgot their nutrition in favor of studying.

"Do you?"

He bounced slightly where he sat but that was the only sign of his excitement over Luna's existence.

"Nope. But that's only because I haven't been to Universal Studios Orlando yet. I've seen some butterbeer recipes online that looked okay but I never tried any because I figured it'd make it a little less magical if I made it myself."

He really ought to explain, shouldn't he.

"I think I know who you are. Because all of us here are fictional. Which I always knew a little bit but now I know for sure. This place has stories about us that people somehow thought up and wrote and because of the kids' belief, we've been brought here from the universes where those stories are real. For instance, I'm from a geeky, slightly inaccessible sitcom with strong continuity and occasionally uneven writing and I think you're from a series of best-selling young adult fantasy books."

He pointed at her.

"But for some of us, we have stories about each other back home as fiction, too. Some people come from worlds where they know me from a TV show. And some come from worlds that might know you as being from a story. In my world, there's a series of books about Harry Potter and his friends and their fight against V-" Wait. Wait, stories had power in this universe and that meant names did, too. He wasn't going to jinx it. "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. That's where you're from, isn't it? That world and that fight."

She felt as though this man was working on another plane of existence perhaps with how quickly he spoke. Thankfully she was a good listener and had experience in compartmentalizing long strings of information.

Her wide eyes lit up however at his explanation. It was fascinating to consider, a theory that only some of the more creative and open minded Ravenclaws would consider.

"I was wondering if it was something like that. Did you read the books I was in? Do you suppose they have them here?" She'd quite like to see what other people or some kind of omnipotent writer had to say about her.

Some people might have existential crisis or panic attacks over this sort of revelation. Luna was just curious to see how much more there was to it.

"All seven of them," Abed said, nodding. "And I saw the movies. The yetis could probably give you copies. If you're from in the middle of them, you might want to avoid reading them past the point of your present. Knowledge of the future could make you act differently, even if you try not to, and create a butterfly effect. If things don't go the same way they do in the books it could alter the future so Harry doesn't win and..."

Oh. Oh, she was real. She was real and sitting in front of him. That meant she could really get hurt and her friends could really die.

"...And some people die. You probably wouldn't be able to save them even if you knew who and how. Knowing would probably just make you sad."

Alright, empathy. Nailed it.

"I'm Abed Nadir." Really, if they were talking so much meta they should know each other's names. "You're Luna Lovegood, right?"

"It's nice to meet you Abed. I am Luna Lovegood like you said." A dreamy smile feeling honestly a little flattered that he knew her.It was almost like being popular.

Seven books AND movies? While she'd never gone to that many films in the past she had been to them and the idea was almost as intriguing as a book or seven. Only then did she realize that the story probably wasn't focused on her own internal journey because while she was the main character in own life he had already said who was more likely the lead in these stories. Still she couldn't help but ask.

"Do the books do fairly to portray Harry's friends helping him? Hermione seems to do a great deal of the work from what he's told us."

That was one thing to admire about Harry. He was always willing to give the credit to others.

As for his concerns about changing the timeline or making herself sad it lined up logically. While time travel wasn't a major field of discussion in classes at Hogwarts Luna had read up a bit on it for research into a potential conspiracy she thought she'd discovered.

People would die in the war. It wasn't something she wanted to dwell on but given where she had been before coming to this world it seemed inevitable. She'd even pondered the very real possibility she would die in Malfoy's basement or during one of her sessions with Bellatrix. Perhaps she wouldn't live to see the final book?

Edited 2015-02-01 19:50 (UTC)

"The books make you all out to be sympathetic. A lot of it is from Harry's point of view and he's grateful to have you all helping him."

It was a strange thing being fiction-yet-not-fictional, something that could be easily uncomfortable. In some ways, it was reassuring to him, because he'd always suspected that out there, somewhere, his life was a TV show.

But it was a little alarming and strange, too.

He looked at the floor, blinking a few times.

"You're all important. You matter. More than most people do in most stories."

Even more than he did. Or Jeff did. Or any of his friends did. They were all equally important to their particular narrative but a sitcom wasn't a fantasy adventure book. The fate of the world wasn't on the line - just sometimes the fate of the school.

It was very comforting to hear and she didn't show it much but it relaxed her some. She was still eager to read it for herself but there would be less apprehension hidden behind her placid expression as she did. The last part of his explanation caught her attention though.

"Everyone is important in their own story. It's just a matter of who's story you're reading." She reasoned thinking back to long nights of discussion in the Ravenclaw tower of heady topics like these.

"And all stories are important in their own way. That's why we are here after all."

"No, not really. All people are important, at least in that they're important enough to exist. But some people don't have stories, they just have a string of random events that don't really culminate in a coherent narrative. And some people that have narratives don't have important ones. Take one of the standard ones for instance: Someone grows up in a small town, marries their high school sweetheart, has kids, buys a convertible during a midlife crisis, gets divorced, meets someone else and gets second lease on life, gets remarried, and dies surrounded by their loved ones. It's still a story but it's not really that inspired."

He pointed at her.

"But you're part of a story about saving the world," he said, going slightly wide-eyed, his voice getting suitably dramatic. "It affects thousands, millions, even billions. The ramifications of having You-Know-Who take over the Wizarding World would be catastrophic since it'd hurt all wizards and leave him poised to harm people who don't even know wizards exist, completely unchecked, since they don't know the threat is even there. The Death Eaters could do things like transfigure major water supplies into poison or imperious people in charge of nuclear warheads to start nuclear armageddon."

He nodded at her. "Scale matters. Even if the part you individually have is small, if it's part of something greater your actions mean something more and that story means something more, too. Before this, I was part of an ensemble cast who did save the school from getting blown up once but mostly we just mattered to each other. Which isn't bad and is special in its own way but it's still not the same as being important."

He went on, "My small story wasn't important but it mattered because it affected who I am. And now that I'm in a story with this kind of scale that means I have a better chance of helping when it is something important. Small stories matter but they're not important, they just make people ready for things that are important via character growth."

Edited 2015-02-12 06:12 (UTC)

Despite her usual unflappable nature Luna couldn't help but feel her cheeks grow pink when he expressed the sheer scale of the adventure she was destined to complete some day and she nodded encouragingly as he explained to her how he saw the situation at hand. It made sense though she felt even in the end he was under selling himself. Either way this was all abstract so there was no right or wrong answer.

"What if perhaps we thought of it like poetry?" She offered. "There are rules of course in both narrative and poetry, but there are some forms of poetry that defy those rules and still are considered to be poems. So would your random events be considered an abstract or unconventional form of storyline?" Something new and different, not fully understood but worth exploring.

As for the rest of it she smiled. "Whatever character growth you are approaching, I'm sure it will be interesting. I've been in this place for months just watching and there is no one quite like you. That is important I think." Either in the process of understanding the grand scheme of things, or at the very least providing something interesting.

"I hadn't thought of that," Abed said at mention of poetry, tilting his head thoughtfully. "Although I'm a lot more into visual media. But I hadn't considered avante garde film. You may have a point. I may have to start filming myself to see if there are any interesting narrative patterns."

But wait, what? What did she mean by that? That there was no one quite like him? He was used to that reaction but it usually wasn't worded in a positive way. Either it was something sincere (Arc words! Like "I see your value now.") Or she was being sarcastic.

"When you say there's no one like me do you mean that in a nice way or do you mean that in a 'you should be shoved in a locker' kind of way? I'm bad at reading faces. Your mouth is making a shape but I can't tell if it means you're smiling or if you're grimacing." He added, "Or if you're hungry."

She didn't seem the type to mean it in a hostile way, given her characterization in the books, but it was always hard to tell for sure and he had to account for people not always being identical to the vision of the people that wrote their stories.

In his defense, Luna's placid expressions were hard to read for normal people.

"I meant it in a positive way. Unless you enjoy being shoved into a locker. Some people find small spaces comforting."

And really shouldn't they all be more comfortable while trying to save the universe?

"You already know that I stick out among the people I live with." She added "So perhaps we can stick out together." That would be nice wouldn't it? More strange friends that accepted her in exchange for her acceptance. A very balanced relationship between unbalanced people.

He considered it, then pointed at her.

"Two outlandish misfits with our heads in the clouds, on the outside looking in at the normal people, finding solidarity in the fact no one else understands us. A slight cliche, but some things are a classic for a reason."

He paused for a minute, considered, then said, "What the hell. I'm in."

He sat down next to her on the windowsill and looked outside at the aurora, picking up and munching on a sugar cookie.

"You don't have movies in the magical world, do you, just the Wizarding Wireless. I should show you some muggle movies. You like fictional animals that might possibly be real, right? I bet you'd like Avatar." He paused, then corrected, "The James Cameron movie not the Avatar movie that stole an hour and a half of my life and did the cinematic equivalent of stabbing me repeatedly in the face." A pause. "The whole time I watched that movie, I could almost see it dancing over the corpse of the beloved animated TV show it murdered, to the eldritch chanting of M. Night Shyamalan's yes-men."

Edited 2015-03-07 00:43 (UTC)

Movies. Ah yes she had read about those.

"I've never seen a movie before. Do we have those things here? The Avatar and not the one that made you dwell upon the unending march of time as well as your attachment to the animated TV show?"

It would be very unfortunate if he was driven into depression by accidentally viewing it a second time.

"The way you speak about him, it sounds like M. Night Shayamalan might be related to the forces of darkness we're here to oppose."

"Yes," Abed said, completely serious. "Yes, he is. The only way to explain directing that horrible is if he's creating bad movies to serve some sort of dark master."

He added, "There are lots of movies here. And a big screen TV. And lots of TV shows. They even have their own version of Inspector Spacetime."

Which had over twenty years of canon for him to catch up on.

Paradise.

Edited 2015-03-07 04:11 (UTC)

"An inspector of space a time?"

Sounded fascinating.

"I've never watched much TV either. We mostly read at home and of course you can't have those things at Hogwarts. It would be interesting to see how other people enjoy it." She looked far and away as she sipped her hot chocolate once more.

"And if people from those shows can end up here...it's a little bit like studying for future tests and things isn't it? We may be fighting alongside some of the same characters from fiction we read or watch."

"Inspector Spacetime is the version from my world. The version from this world is called Doctor who. You should watch it with me some time. It's about a time-traveling immortal alien called the Doctor who travels through time and space on adventures where he typically saves people from evil aliens or sometimes saves humanity from itself. He takes companions everywhere with him that are meant to be audience surrogates to show them all the wonders and oddities of the universe."

Good stuff.

"And you're right about watching things. I plan on watching and reading everything that our enemies are from and everything that all of us star in so I know what our enemies know since they can watch it all, too. That way I'll know what they know about us."

"You'll have all the information you need to craft a clever plan to counter their clever plan to counter our clever plans." She reasoned unintentionally indicating a Xanatos gambit. This was all very exciting and she beamed at him.

"I think you'd make an excellent wizard given the chance."

Abed could only stare at her for a moment.

"That's the best thing anyone's ever said to me."

Hands down. No one had ever said anything better. Ever.

"Do you want to come watch Doctor Who with me? We should kick the start of this friendship off with a TV marathon of some kind."

There was a nod and Luna rose to her feet with the fluid grace of someone not quite of this world. A warm smile and she gathered up the plate of cookies.

"I would love to. I can't think of a better way to celebrate a new friend of such uniqueness. It's perfect."

Because in the book of Luna Lovegood which resembled a glitter covered multicolored notebook with aliens on it, uniqueness was one of the most important things in the world. Congratulations Abed you take the gold even while surrounded by elves and yeti.

Molly's Hat of the Day (brown rabbit with a nose and eyes and pink on the inside of the ears!) was made by one of the yetis, and it was a bit oversized (on purpose, though, he swears!) and Molly then decided to steal a sweater they'd made for Kon and some fuzzy socks and has been running around happily drowning in oversized warm goodness and sliding on the floors for fun, including past Luna's little window nest.

"Nuh-uh," she said as she slid past, then trotted back to talk more. "We never talked. Sorry, that was rude, I get really distracted here a lot, 'cause there's so much cool stuff. I'm Molly!"

Her smile didn't waver as she greeted Molly from her cozy corner.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Luna. I like your hat. It looks comfortable and bouncy."

More like floppy but either way it was exactly the sort of headgear Luna appreciated.

"There is a lot here to distract. It would take powerful will to not be distracted."

"Thanks!" Molly beamed, and shoved it up on her head a little to keep it from falling in her face. "Chuck made it for me! He's one of the yetis."

Molly would have appreciated Luna's fantastic lion headgear, if she'd ever had the chance to see it. ~~Sadly, the movie didn't come out until after her comic was cancelled, and that's the best I've got for timeline bullshit.~~

"Luna's a pretty name. What are you reading?"

"Oh I like Chuck." Luna cast her gaze into the main section of the workshop to see if she could spot him. "He likes to help me inspect the mistletoe for Nargles when it's too high for me to reach."

The Yeti and elves had been the kindest creatures to their guests and Luna was always thanking them for this or that.

"I've been reading up on alternative histories this week. Finding common threads between my own universe and others. There seems to be a great deal of divergence around the 1900's depending on which universe you are in where some become much more colorful and active as humanity advances with magic, science or some combination of the two. Other universes do not advance as quickly and the gene pool remains much more mundane. "

The idea of a world without magic was almost too awful to consider.

"Yes. Have you seen a bedazzler around here?"

Mabel didn't look as if she needed it, judging by the amount of plastic jewels already on her sweater, but she had an armful of Santa hats that were unbedazzled. Gifts for the new myths, not that Luna needed to know that, since she'd be getting one too. Once Mabel got to know her a little better, anyway.

"I'm Mabel! Nice sweater."

She proudly lifted her armful of hats to show off hers, bright pink with a heavily bedazzled dinosaur on a skateboard.

Luna's eyes seemed to reflect the fake gems of the sweater as she admired it, her dreamy voice rising with admiration.

"That is absolutely beautiful. You're very skilled with a...bedazzler?"

She knew what dazzle meant of course but she'd never heard of such a device. If it made such pretty accessories though she'd love to find out more.

"What does it look like?" She could perhaps help with this hunt.

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If I could visit the moon, well I'd dance on a moon beam but then? [Open]

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