[ Claire is just going to ignore that face without ignoring it whatsoever, at all. Difficult to ignore a face being made when you're already looking at the person in question. That being said she definitely enjoys it in some way that is probably ultimately horrible and mean-spirited. Or always just kind of flattered, oddly, to get that sort of reaction.
Meanwhile la la la... ]
Well you're not working right now, so that's out. [ She's putting her foot down on that one, thank you. ] I think I've actually only been to the holodeck one time before. It's been forever.
I've only spent more than a few moments in one once. [ And it was with her father, which he's not going to say in the context of 'is this a date' because that feels SUPER WEIRD. ] I'm not actually too sure how it works.
[ She looks both perplexed and a little concerned, but if any old idiot on the Tranquility can figure it out, Claire feels they'll be fine. Anyway, she's able to call the lift upon arrival, involving the very rare and often longed for skill of pushing a button. While waiting for it to come to their floor, she turns to face him again. ]
I think we'll be able to figure it out. If not then I guess we'll just wander around a hologram for the rest of our lives. So you better pick something good.
I'll just end up picking Scotland, [ he muses, because he's boring and he lives in Scotland and his other experiences are terrible, ] do you want to see if it'll do Texas?
[ Maybe in a more realistic fashion than his little card. ]
I don't know. Do you want to look at a bunch of cows?
[ Of course that's not all of Texas, and she has only seen a tumbleweed once, but the point remains. Scotland sounds much more interesting than boring Texas. And much greener. Not that she hasn't missed it in its own fashion from time to time, but Claire assumes it's more missing what being there represented before everything went completely to hell. Normalcy. Routine. That kind of thing. ]
Sometimes I think I'd get homesick if I saw Texas the way the holodecks project images.
[ But then again, maybe not. Maybe it would just make her think about Odessa and all the shitty things that happened there. ]
All right, where do you think? Paris? The Himalayas? [ Someone else might sound whimsical, but Severus seems like he's actually trying to come up with something. The lift doors open and they get to escape onto floor 10; as usual it's empty. He thinks only Ryuuzaki is left, and he's usually working. Not unlike Severus. ]
[ There's a level of association with the 10th floor's emptiness that she doesn't find cold or echoing, even if the only reason that she does come up here is to visit a room that she has complained about being, sarcastically or otherwise, just a little too chilly. At this point getting off of the lift here doesn't require a look around to see if anyone is going to wonder what she's doing up here, not that it would matter if anyone did. ]
All second homes to me. [ She says it without missing a beat or looking up at him, raising her eyebrows are the floor. Gosh, Severus. It's only after the words are out of her mouth that she turns her face a bit to show him the slant of a smile. ] I've never been to Paris before. That sounds really cool.
[ Maybe she should slow down for two seconds and examine the guilt that is still eating away at her slowly from the inside out, but that would require too close of a look at anything that isn't their holodeck options. ]
Hmph. [ He can tell she's teasing; he squeezes her hand. ] I've never been either. Some--
[ f..riends, no, he can't rightly say that, can he? Fuck. ] --upperclassmen I knew went, every so often. I was always working and, you know. I'm not really one for posh affairs.
[ An understatement. But he manages not to sound too awkward about it. Little by little, he's getting used to talking to her about things in ways that aren't sudden emotional freakouts.
He palms the holodeck door open when they get to it: large and black and lined with a grid.
[ Her eyes skip up to him following the brief reconsideration between the natural progression of friends that the sentence was leaning toward and the resulting upperclassmen conclusion. She knows without having to ask what he's talking about, makes it a point not to pull herself away regardless of whether or not the desire strikes her. It doesn't. ]
My grandmother tried to send me once. Literally the day after I met her for the first time. Obviously it didn't take. Someone once told me that Paris smells, so maybe we're lucking out.
[ Does the holodeck also generate smells? She knows that it crafts artificial sunlight but beyond that she has no idea. Claire steps into the room after him, easing her hand out of his so that she can take a look around. After a moment she returns to his side and loops her arm through his. ]
Nathan's mother? [ A guess, based on last names and her lack of tragic divorce backstory. Severus goes to fuss around with the controls as she answers - he has to ask her 'what the bleeding hell is this' at least once, about all the buttons - and manages well enough. Paris is not native to the TQ's universe, but there are enough French people aboard he's sure there'll be a reasonable representation. And of course there is; a little odd with the graphing together of time, but that's negligible.
Eventually: success. He manages to get it to pop up with them on a large hotel balcony on the southeasterly end of the Champ de Mars, facing the Eiffel Tower. ]
[ Claire nods and hums to confirm. It's the first she's thought of Angela in a while. And Nathan, to be fair, though she supposes that isn't technically true as the latter is constantly floating around the back of her mind somewhere, along with Peter and everyone else that she finds herself missing when she doesn't have some kind of stimulus right in front of her. Thankfully, the holodeck and Severus both seem happy to oblige. She helps by pressing buttons where buttons themselves come under questioning, and eventually they're able to figure it out. The image, so lifelike, blooms and then blinks into view, either a technical, momentary glitch or just something normal to processing, and then there is Paris.
It really does suck that they can't touch anything, or that she can't go wandering off and buy a bunch of Parisian clothing to contend with the mass amounts of sweaters that she has been reduced to, but it's a very nice alternative to the usual decor of the Tranquility, even if she's plainly aware of the fact that it isn't real. ]
Do you feel very posh now? [ She asks, having wandered to the other side of the balcony to test the construct of the hologram itself. She doesn't touch it, but it does look very real. ] I imagined Paris would smell more like baguettes.
I feel quite touristy. [ His posh bar is set pretty high thanks to the Malfoys - not that this isn't perfectly nice. Even very pretty. ] I expect only baguette shops smell like that. Which are called boulangerie in French.
[ Yes, that does sound exactly like 'boo lingerie', the spookiest underpants ever, which is why the English get a kick out of referencing it. Ha ha, French people are dumb.
Severus paces a bit, then conjures one of the sofas from a media library. ]
[ Her peal of laughter is sudden and loud, and it echoes a little on the holodeck, bouncing off of the real walls and reminding everyone involved of what this actually is. ]
Boo lingerie?
[ Once the couch materializes, Claire chooses the option of sitting down rather than wandering around and bumping into walls as she tries to determine where reality beings and image ends. She has to test the give a little before sitting on it by discreetly pressing her palm into the arm to make sure that she's not going to fall through when she sits down but following that she's happy to indulge. ]
I'm never going to look at French bread the same way again. I'll never know if it's trying to scare me or seduce me.
[ She loosens her laces and kicks her boots off, since they're still packed with grass and dirt on the bottom, and draws her legs up to sit with her knees bent. ]
Perhaps it'd be both, [ he says, forcing the French through the nanite translation. His grasp on the language is conversational enough, but to a native ear he's still got quite an accent. ]
I'd be concerned if either were effective. Given it's bread. [ Severus sits down beside her, looking out into the fake distance. Sitting and staring, it almost does seem real. Certainly real enough to fool his eyes, which is impressive for a machine. ]
[ One word is probably easier to force out than a sentence, no matter how short. Even on that single word, her accent is atrocious and American, but she doesn't know French enough outside of very, very basic dialog that she's traded back and forth with René, to judge on pronunciation. ]
I know a guy from Haiti who sometimes would speak French at me. He never mentioned anything about sexy, scary bread, but I only ever managed to make it to ten and a few other general things. His French is beautiful. My grandmother speaks it, too.
[ If she turns her head away from the source, she thinks the light actually feels like sunshine. ]
I only speak a little. One of the schools mine liaises with is in France, we have people go back and forth. [ He reaches down to unlace his boots, taking a page out of her book. When he sits back Severus reaches out to poke at her ankle. Gimme yer foot, cheerleader. ] Mostly I can get through Slavic languages, since they're all so closely related and I speak Russian and Bulgarian.
[ Which is probably boring to the outside world, but the dark arts are very popular in eastern Europe. And Severus is kind of awful. ]
Do you have much communication with American schools?
[ She asks while tentatively unwinding her feet after the moment to takes to determine why he's poking at her. Her leg stretches out until she's able to reach her ankle across his knees. The other leg stays bent at an angle, tucked into her thigh. Admittedly the stretch feels good, no matter how relaxed. ]
I can barely speak Spanish. Nathan actually speaks pretty good Spanish, which shouldn't have been surprising but kind of was at the time.
[ Her tone is self-deprecating but gently so, with a smile of the same caliber to match. Not for the first time she wonders what the hell he actually sees in her. Despite having clear faith that she's smarter than she gives herself credit for, Claire sometimes catches herself wondering why he's bothering with some blonde college girl who's still lousy at math, including linear algebra, when one time she walked in on him examining the actual structure of a fucking spell. ]
[ Severus is trying to stave off feeling awkward; having Something To Do will help, even if that something is rubbing her foot, okay. That seems harmless and boyfriendy enough. ]
Not through the school, not really. I've had correspondence with Americans due to academic publishing, but it's rare. Most international cooperation involves sporting events.
[ Her feet probably smell or something. They've been crammed inside of boots for the last six hours or so. Also any who's having the arch of their foot messed with is going to squirm and try not to laugh. She's had pedicures before. She knows how this is going to go. ]
I thought I told you a while ago that you had to at least teach me swear words in sign language. [ Which is a yes, at any rate. ] What kind of sporting events?
[ Severus really, really doesn't care if her feet aren't foot fetish model sparkling. He has sickly skin and gross hair and bad nails and teeth stained from smoking. IT'S FINE. ]
You'll have to take lessons from Nill. [ Mild sass. Severus is busy, okay, and if she learns swear words she should learn real words too. ] Quidditch, mostly. Chess and gobstones have international leagues but only Quidditch has an avid following.
I briefly knew her caretaker before he vanished, he has a horrendous vocabulary. I'm sure she wouldn't be offended. [ Maybe Severus feels slightly bad for not doing more for Nill yet. But anyway-- ] Gobstones is like a marble game, but the marbles shoot foul-smelling liquid at you if you cock up a move.
[ Feet aren't weird but they are feet. Fortunately hers are covered with socks, even if they do have their own thin layer of dirt clouding the color. ]
To be fair, I do already know one swear word in sign language. [ She promptly flips him the bird. ] Might take the pressure off of teaching me all the rest instead of teaching me things like dog and hello my name is and murder ship.
[ And wow having your foot rubbed even when things don't necessarily hurt but definitely do still feel strained and stretched is kind of awesome. ]
You have the most ridiculous names for games. [ And things in general. Muggles is a dog's name, come on. Meanwhile she's just assuming - ] Flying like on a broom? Or flying like Nathan?
[ Severus raises two fingers. ] Dialect differences.
[ In his time, the American middle finger hasn't quite caught on; with wizards it may never, given the reason it spreads to Europe is popular films. ]
Gobstones is perfectly functional, not unlike 'football'. [ He pronounces the word like he finds it really silly and foreign. Which he does. ] Quidditch is on broomsticks, yes. Its name comes from mashing up the different sorts of balls it uses, quaffles bludgers and snitches.
[ Well that looks silly. Probably raising a single middle finger does, too. Curse words in sign language have to look better than that. Either way, Claire makes a face. ]
Okay, I don't make any excuses for the weird sports names and terms and vocabulary that we've got going on, true. I had spirit, yes, I did; however, scouts honor, at heart I was only ever really there for the cupcakes and bus rides. [ That was an embarrassing sentence, but there's no denying it, even if she is in Cheerleaders Anonymous these days. As for their sports terminology... ] But how are you going to defend a word like quaffle?
[ She isn't laughing but she wants to. It shows. ]
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Meanwhile la la la... ]
Well you're not working right now, so that's out. [ She's putting her foot down on that one, thank you. ] I think I've actually only been to the holodeck one time before. It's been forever.
[ Yep, it's been exactly forever. ]
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[ But at least there'll be scenery? ]
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[ She looks both perplexed and a little concerned, but if any old idiot on the Tranquility can figure it out, Claire feels they'll be fine. Anyway, she's able to call the lift upon arrival, involving the very rare and often longed for skill of pushing a button. While waiting for it to come to their floor, she turns to face him again. ]
I think we'll be able to figure it out. If not then I guess we'll just wander around a hologram for the rest of our lives. So you better pick something good.
[ All nonchalantlike. Which is a word. ]
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[ Maybe in a more realistic fashion than his little card. ]
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[ Of course that's not all of Texas, and she has only seen a tumbleweed once, but the point remains. Scotland sounds much more interesting than boring Texas. And much greener. Not that she hasn't missed it in its own fashion from time to time, but Claire assumes it's more missing what being there represented before everything went completely to hell. Normalcy. Routine. That kind of thing. ]
Sometimes I think I'd get homesick if I saw Texas the way the holodecks project images.
[ But then again, maybe not. Maybe it would just make her think about Odessa and all the shitty things that happened there. ]
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All second homes to me. [ She says it without missing a beat or looking up at him, raising her eyebrows are the floor. Gosh, Severus. It's only after the words are out of her mouth that she turns her face a bit to show him the slant of a smile. ] I've never been to Paris before. That sounds really cool.
[ Maybe she should slow down for two seconds and examine the guilt that is still eating away at her slowly from the inside out, but that would require too close of a look at anything that isn't their holodeck options. ]
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[ f..riends, no, he can't rightly say that, can he? Fuck. ] --upperclassmen I knew went, every so often. I was always working and, you know. I'm not really one for posh affairs.
[ An understatement. But he manages not to sound too awkward about it. Little by little, he's getting used to talking to her about things in ways that aren't sudden emotional freakouts.
He palms the holodeck door open when they get to it: large and black and lined with a grid.
Weird. ]
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My grandmother tried to send me once. Literally the day after I met her for the first time. Obviously it didn't take. Someone once told me that Paris smells, so maybe we're lucking out.
[ Does the holodeck also generate smells? She knows that it crafts artificial sunlight but beyond that she has no idea. Claire steps into the room after him, easing her hand out of his so that she can take a look around. After a moment she returns to his side and loops her arm through his. ]
You're about to get super holodecky posh.
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Eventually: success. He manages to get it to pop up with them on a large hotel balcony on the southeasterly end of the Champ de Mars, facing the Eiffel Tower. ]
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It really does suck that they can't touch anything, or that she can't go wandering off and buy a bunch of Parisian clothing to contend with the mass amounts of sweaters that she has been reduced to, but it's a very nice alternative to the usual decor of the Tranquility, even if she's plainly aware of the fact that it isn't real. ]
Do you feel very posh now? [ She asks, having wandered to the other side of the balcony to test the construct of the hologram itself. She doesn't touch it, but it does look very real. ] I imagined Paris would smell more like baguettes.
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[ Yes, that does sound exactly like 'boo lingerie', the spookiest underpants ever, which is why the English get a kick out of referencing it. Ha ha, French people are dumb.
Severus paces a bit, then conjures one of the sofas from a media library. ]
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Boo lingerie?
[ Once the couch materializes, Claire chooses the option of sitting down rather than wandering around and bumping into walls as she tries to determine where reality beings and image ends. She has to test the give a little before sitting on it by discreetly pressing her palm into the arm to make sure that she's not going to fall through when she sits down but following that she's happy to indulge. ]
I'm never going to look at French bread the same way again. I'll never know if it's trying to scare me or seduce me.
[ She loosens her laces and kicks her boots off, since they're still packed with grass and dirt on the bottom, and draws her legs up to sit with her knees bent. ]
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I'd be concerned if either were effective. Given it's bread. [ Severus sits down beside her, looking out into the fake distance. Sitting and staring, it almost does seem real. Certainly real enough to fool his eyes, which is impressive for a machine. ]
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[ One word is probably easier to force out than a sentence, no matter how short. Even on that single word, her accent is atrocious and American, but she doesn't know French enough outside of very, very basic dialog that she's traded back and forth with René, to judge on pronunciation. ]
I know a guy from Haiti who sometimes would speak French at me. He never mentioned anything about sexy, scary bread, but I only ever managed to make it to ten and a few other general things. His French is beautiful. My grandmother speaks it, too.
[ If she turns her head away from the source, she thinks the light actually feels like sunshine. ]
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[ Which is probably boring to the outside world, but the dark arts are very popular in eastern Europe. And Severus is kind of awful. ]
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[ She asks while tentatively unwinding her feet after the moment to takes to determine why he's poking at her. Her leg stretches out until she's able to reach her ankle across his knees. The other leg stays bent at an angle, tucked into her thigh. Admittedly the stretch feels good, no matter how relaxed. ]
I can barely speak Spanish. Nathan actually speaks pretty good Spanish, which shouldn't have been surprising but kind of was at the time.
[ Her tone is self-deprecating but gently so, with a smile of the same caliber to match. Not for the first time she wonders what the hell he actually sees in her. Despite having clear faith that she's smarter than she gives herself credit for, Claire sometimes catches herself wondering why he's bothering with some blonde college girl who's still lousy at math, including linear algebra, when one time she walked in on him examining the actual structure of a fucking spell. ]
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Not through the school, not really. I've had correspondence with Americans due to academic publishing, but it's rare. Most international cooperation involves sporting events.
Would you like to learn sign language?
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I thought I told you a while ago that you had to at least teach me swear words in sign language. [ Which is a yes, at any rate. ] What kind of sporting events?
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You'll have to take lessons from Nill. [ Mild sass. Severus is busy, okay, and if she learns swear words she should learn real words too. ] Quidditch, mostly. Chess and gobstones have international leagues but only Quidditch has an avid following.
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I can't ask Nill to teach me how to say shit in sign language.
[ Maybe she can learn real words from Nill and Severus can teach her all the crass ones. Compromise is good in relationships. Meanwhile - ]
What the hell is Quidditch? And gobstones?
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I briefly knew her caretaker before he vanished, he has a horrendous vocabulary. I'm sure she wouldn't be offended. [ Maybe Severus feels slightly bad for not doing more for Nill yet. But anyway-- ] Gobstones is like a marble game, but the marbles shoot foul-smelling liquid at you if you cock up a move.
Quidditch involves flying.
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To be fair, I do already know one swear word in sign language. [ She promptly flips him the bird. ] Might take the pressure off of teaching me all the rest instead of teaching me things like dog and hello my name is and murder ship.
[ And wow having your foot rubbed even when things don't necessarily hurt but definitely do still feel strained and stretched is kind of awesome. ]
You have the most ridiculous names for games. [ And things in general. Muggles is a dog's name, come on. Meanwhile she's just assuming - ] Flying like on a broom? Or flying like Nathan?
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[ In his time, the American middle finger hasn't quite caught on; with wizards it may never, given the reason it spreads to Europe is popular films. ]
Gobstones is perfectly functional, not unlike 'football'. [ He pronounces the word like he finds it really silly and foreign. Which he does. ] Quidditch is on broomsticks, yes. Its name comes from mashing up the different sorts of balls it uses, quaffles bludgers and snitches.
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Okay, I don't make any excuses for the weird sports names and terms and vocabulary that we've got going on, true. I had spirit, yes, I did; however, scouts honor, at heart I was only ever really there for the cupcakes and bus rides. [ That was an embarrassing sentence, but there's no denying it, even if she is in Cheerleaders Anonymous these days. As for their sports terminology... ] But how are you going to defend a word like quaffle?
[ She isn't laughing but she wants to. It shows. ]
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