[TTD] star to show the way [Nathan]

It was December, and it was cold. Linnet Willowsong hated the cold, though she remembered a time when it hadn't been so bad. A lifetime ago, when she'd been an ordinary witch child and had gone skating with her friends on the frozen lake at...the name of the place, and the memory, both slipped fretfully through the fingers of her mind as she tried to grasp them and were gone. That happened a lot. Enough that she was getting used to it.

She lived a half life now. Half of what she had once been had been stolen, and she didn't know how to reclaim it. Some things were returning. Social skills for example - she now knew without being reminded that clothes were an essential, even indoors. Words had been slower, but the languages she had spoken were improving daily, though her speech was still slow and confused much of the time. The memories - some had returned with crystal clarity. She remembered that her grandmother lived in Chatoeil. She remembered she played guitar. She remembered she had owned a cat. She remembered a figure who had been with her for her first morph, who had been her dearest friend - she remembered a sweet face, kind eyes, laughter...and there it ended. And she had yet to add an emotional connection to any of these. They were just that - memories.

Linnet currently subsisted on the kindness of friends she barely knew, though they claimed they had known her well. Her bed was a sleeping bag on a sofa. Her clothes were borrowed from others, her council robes too distinctive to wear in public because...she couldn't remember why. She ate what she was offered, and vaguely she knew this state of affairs couldn't last. She needed to find...herself again.

But the others, the friends, talked about other things. About jobs and ambitions and hopes for the future. None of that made an impression on Linnet, but she'd worked out that having a job meant money, and that would mean not having to sleep on someone else's sofa and wear a pair of borrowed jeans and a thick red sweater that made her look even paler than usual. So she was looking for a job. Muggle or wizard, she supposed it didn't matter - she didn't fit anywhere, though wizards would likely be more forgiving to her apparent strangeness. So Linnet was walking the streets of London, passing cafes and shops and businesses, looking for signs in windows that advertised for work. She could sell things in a shop or a cafe, she supposed. How hard could it be?

Harder than she hoped, because employers expected someone who could reply quickly in coherent sentences. But she was oblivious to the polite replies of "sorry, we just hired someone" and continued until she was tired. She sat down on a windowsill outside a boarded-up shop and sighed, closing her eyes. When she opened them, she realised she was sitting directly opposite an alleyway, and there was something at the passage entrance lying in the shadows. A bag, perhaps? Abandoned...was there something in there she could use? Linnet got to her feet and crossed to the object - an ornate box, about twice the size of her hand, encrusted with jewels so large and resplendent that even in her diminished mental state she felt sure must be coloured glass. She sat down at the entrance to the alleyway and picked up the object, turning it over and over in her hands. It didn't appear to have a clasp, or any other way of opening, but it was fascinating and pretty all the same.

Oblivious to her surroundings and passers-by, Linnet continued to study the object as the cold winter wind whipped her fine blonde hair around her face.

@Nathan Butler

Winter was a tough time for a lot of people, Nathan knew.  The season was not kind to those bereft of shelter and a warm hearth.  While some families were fortunate enough to enjoy hot dinners, others went to bed with rumbling bellies.  It had always been the way of the world but still it weighed heavily on Nathan’s conscience every day.  It drove him to be generous with his time and money.  Often he took charity too far, giving far more than he could afford to, but Nathan couldn’t help it.  His own life was a lost cause, he had long since accepted that he did not deserve to be happy, so he lived to improve the lives of others.  He didn’t see it as completely unselfish though, since the act of helping people made him feel good – made him feel less like a useless, worthless lump just taking up space on the planet.

Nathan was hurrying down the street, running late (as usual) for a social engagement, when he noticed a young woman sitting on the ground near an alleyway.  She appeared to be on her own and looked a little lost.  He didn’t have time to stop but still he couldn’t just walk away; particularly when she looked so pale and insubstantial, as though the wind could carry her away.  It only took a moment for him to come to a decision, his steps turning in her direction.  This was more important (and he figured no one would really miss his presence at the party anyway.)

“Excuse me, miss?”  The Trainee Mediwizard approached slowly, a kind smile on his face.  “Do you mind if I join you?” Without waiting for a reply he lowered himself down onto the ground next to her.  He supressed a grimace at how frigid and hard the surface was under his buttocks, squirming briefly before crossing his legs.  “I’m Nathan.”  He offered politely once he had settled.  “What’s your name?”

Upon closer inspection, he thought the girl looked cold.  Her clothes did not appear thick enough for sitting idle on an icy winter street.  Nathan himself was feeling the chill.  Even so, he shrugged off his heavy overcoat and held it out.  “Could you do me a favour and hold on to this for me?”  He asked casually, ready to drape it over her knees if she accepted.  The 27-year-old feigned nonchalance about the low temperatures and rolled his shoulders dismissively.  “I don’t need it.”  As much as you.  A chill wind bit through his sweater and shirt even as he spoke the words.  Nathan did his best to quell a shiver and tried to think warm thoughts. 

There were questions that he wanted to ask about what she was doing here and if she had somewhere to go, but he had enough experience with this sort of situation to be sensitive to the fact that some people didn’t like to ask for or accept help.  He didn’t want to scare her off so it was best to try to build a rapport first.  They just needed something to talk about…  That was when he noticed the object in her hands.  “That’s an interesting…”  Nathan trailed off, stumped.  He had no idea what the strange box she was holding was supposed to be.  “Ummm,” he stalled with a sheepish grin, “what is it?”

Pretty. The box was pretty, even if it did seem to be nothing more than ornamental. Linnet vaguely remembered things that were just for decoration and nothing more. Things that were round and brightly-coloured and sparkly and were hung on...trees, for... No, that was as far as the thought went, though if she'd been paying a little more attention to the less important parts of her surroundings she might have remembered Christmas trees and the baubles that were usually hung from them. She shivered slightly as the wind gusted past, chilling through the thick sweater she wore that really wasn't enough for winter. But still she continued to study the box, not even realising anyone had noticed her until a male voice spoke and then someone was sitting down next to her.

She studied him as he say down, a curious, small frown appearing between her fine eyebrows. For a minute she wondered if he was somebody who knew her and whether this was going to be a problem. The other people who'd known her had turned out to be helpful and kind, and they hadn't sent her back to Inverness or told the Ministry for Magic that she was alive and not permanently turned into a tree after all, but what if this was a professor? She lowered her hands into her lap, still holding the object, and considered his introduction.

He didn't know her, she decided after a couple of seconds. He'd asked her name, and that meant... "Linnet" she said, her voice less hoarse and tired-sounding than it had been. Indeed, while she had little recollection of the fact, it sounded almost as she had before her transformation, soft and almost musical, with traces of a midlands accent. She wondered if she should say more, but then he removed his coat and asked her to look after it. The frown returned, because she didn't understand why someone would remove a coat in the middle of the street. The fact that Nathan apparently thought she had nowhere to go and nothing else to wear was entirely lost on her, but she nodded anyway, putting the object into her lap and taking the coat with both hands. She held it in her lap for a moment, then spread it over her legs, stroking the heavy fabric. He'd asked her to look after it, so this seemed an entirely acceptable thing for the young woman to do.

Then she remembered the box and pulled it out from beneath the coat, and of course he noticed. Linnet didn't mind that. It wasn't hers, just something she'd found, and although it was very pretty she felt no sort of emotional attachment to it. She wondered then if it belonged to the young man and was about to ask if it was his, holding it out towards him, when he spoke again. Alright, so that wasn't why he was here either, but it meant she needed to answer him. "I don't know...I found it there..." she said, gesturing vaguely off to one side. As she did, she had to hold the object in one hand which necessitated gripping it more firmly. As she looked up at Nathan there was a click, and the box fell neatly into two pieces.

"Oh!" Her exclamation was soft but still sounded surprised as another, equally mysterious object was revealed. Linnet felt quite sure she hadn't seen something like this before; another box-like thing, but more rectangular (aside from a short stump at one end) and certainly less pretty. She reached for it curiously, looking up at Nathan as she did so, noticing it had numbers on the front and some other symbols. "Arithmancy..." she muttered, and then something akin to a smile briefly passed her lips. She'd remembered something! The numbers...she remembered books and charts and...no, that was all for now. But it was something! The memory spurred her curiosity and she pressed some of the symbols at random, squeaking in surprise as the thing made a sound and lit up. She jumped, and it flew out of her hands towards Nathan where it continued to make noises and flash.

He could have it, she decided. She'd stick with the pretty, unusual box that only opened if you pressed it in a certain way!

[OOC: This is a pic of my first ever mobile phone from 2001. I seem to recall the entire thing lit up when I got a text message xD]