another time. another age, another journey [ségolène]

Early afternoon, Chatoeil town square. It was warmer here, and cleaner. She didn't really need her borrowed cloak, or the second pair of socks she was wearing under her worn skirt and boots.

Linnet had spent the past few months in and around London, mostly relying on the hospitality of friends she barely remembered, though she felt a certain fondness for some of them now she was forming new memories that she could rely on. She made certain never to sleep on the same sofa for more than a week or two. She only accepted one item of clothing from each person who offered. It wasn't right to take advantage of people, that much she didn't need to be told.

She was earning money now, though. Not that she had a job as such, not yet. She hadn't managed to find anything that didn't make her feel uncomfortable and confused. Most jobs seemed so...pointless. Why would she want to pour coffee for someone who could easily do it for themselves? Although she didn't realise it, in many ways Linnet was still thinking like the tree she had been for so long, and the experience had changed her. She understood that healers, for example, had a very worthwhile job, but it wasn't something she could imagine doing, even if she had the abilities. She didn't even have a wand any more, after all. But a tree simply took what it needed and gave back the air that others breathed, and she was having a hard time translating that into something her human form could do.

It had started when she had spotted an discarded guitar in an alleyway. Two of the strings were broken, but it had sparked a memory, and she remembered something she could do. Play music, make people happy, and they would give her sickles that she could use to buy food. That was as close to a form of symbiosis as she had so far discovered, and so she'd taken the guitar, cleaned it, replaced the broken strings, allowed her fingers to remember how to create music, and then sat in the street and played. Sometimes people threw money to her - she tended to get a better reaction close to the pubs in Diagon alley - and sometimes they told her to get a proper job. But she was surviving, and would have continued without any further purpose had someone not asked her how her grandmother was these days.

This time. the memory came with an emotion. It wasn't one she could name, but it made her feel sad and hopeful and bereft and guilty all at the same time. Linnet had no idea how her grandmother was. She hadn't even thought to approach anyone in her family to let them know she was alive. It hadn't seemed important. but now...

Now she was in Chatoeil. She knew her grandmother lived here now, it was just a case of remembering where. With her guitar strapped to her back, she walked down the street. She knew she'd been here before, but nothing seemed familiar. Linnet had hoped she would be able to find the residential area without needing assistance and thus find her way to her grandmother's house, but that didn't seem likely now. So instead she started looking around for someone who she felt able to speak to. Linnet spoke French; someone had mentioned the year she'd spent at Beauxbatons and thus it had seemed reasonable she could speak the language, so she'd found a book in French and discovered she could read it.

There. A woman, seeming close to her in age. Ordinary looking, a little taller than Linnet herself. The elemental reminded herself to smile as she approached and said in accented but clearly understandable French "Excuse me? Can you help me please?"

@Inga (sorry, it won't let me tag poor Ségo xD)

If asked which role she had in society, Ségolène would say that she was a spectator. The young witch basically just witnessed other people's lives rather than actively live her own. She lived through others and through figures from novels. Interacting with other people was difficult for her and Ségolène liked to pretend that she was fine with being more or less an hermit. However, sometimes, deep down, she felt like something was missing. Then she wondered how it would be to actually let someone close. However, letting a person close meant that she risked a touch and sometimes a touch just triggered a vision that in fact Ségolène's biggest fear in life.

She liked to watch others live though. She liked to imagine how it would be to be normal like them. It had to be great to have a partner and to take comfort in a hug, pleasure in a kiss and, well, in sex, build a family, a real fulfilled life... Sometimes Ségolène cried herself to sleep, thinking that she was doomed to be alone. She felt like others went through changes, a development while she was stuck, really quite like a spectator in theatre. She was on her seat, quiet and still, watching how others lived their lives. She felt like one day she'd die an old spinster with nobody to mourn her passing. It made her shiver but then again she felt like she had no choice, no chance to change anything.

The young witch saw herself as an outsider and tended to forget about the few close friends she had from time to time as none of them really truly knew her for who she was. She just couldn't confide in them, explain to them that she had seen things from their past that they had never bothered to tell her because they were simply too painful and personal. She felt guilty that she had these visions and intruded the privacy of others. It was wrong to spy on these past events and yet she could not help it. Since her last vision a few months ago Ségolène had been even more distant than ever towards other people. She had not even visited her parents for Christmas, fearing that they'd dare to give her a hug then.

The girl had left the Beauxbatons library and made her way through Chatoeil towards her flat. She liked this walk from the school grounds through the village towards her flat. It somehow belonged to every work day that she walked exact the same way home. She liked to observe the people and animals she met on her way, liked to observe how nature changed with the different seasons. Now she had spotted some snowdrops on her way and they hinted that nature was waking up like a sleeping beauty after a sleeping period that was winter.

As she reached the town square, she saw a young woman around her age who had a guitar strapped to her back and who looked rather lost. The girl approached her and Ségolène felt a little tense but tried to overcome this feeling because the other witch seemed rather shy herself. She smiled when she was addressed and nodded. "Yes, of course. What is it that you need help with?" she asked tentatively.

Linnet was almost startled when the woman replied. She didn't know what she had expected...she had no expectations really, and that was good, because everything about the world seemed strange and startling. It was just the speed at which everyone seemed to react, so unlike the peaceful, slow lifestyle of the plant world. There, hours or days could be taken to make a decision and carry out the action. Take the water in? A comfortable process over a period of hours. Grow towards the light? A careful movement over a day or more. But with humans, everything was instant, and she was still trying to get used to it, and she thought that could take a long time.

She hadn't yet decided what she wanted to say, or how she would ask it. But that was alright, because the woman - actually, she could still be called a girl, just about - had a pleasant face and didn't look like she wanted to rush away immediately. Her voice had a nice musical tone that Linnet liked, and that made her feel more relaxed. But what she wanted help with...she went over it in her mind again.

She wanted to visit her grandmother. She knew her grandmother lived in Chatoeil, but she couldn't remember the address. That was alright though, because she could tell them her grandmother's name and they would be able to help her that way. But before any of that, she needed to find the correct area of town, because people didn't live in this area. Linnet was pleased with herself; she'd recalled all these thoughts, carefully planned over a period of days, in under a second, and certainly before this girl decided there was something wrong.

"Would you tell me the way to the residential area?" she asked carefully "I wish to visit my grandmother, but I...haven't been to Chatoeil for years, and I have never been to her house, and I seem to need directions. Can you help me with that?" This time, her smile was real. Linnet was pleased with herself. There! She'd spoken to a stranger and managed to appear almost entirely normal.