video; man's greatest treasure (after the blood rains stop)

[reparo]

[The video isn't accidental this time, and focuses on Hermione - her face rosy-cheeked and smiling, actually smiling.


To the observant eye, one can tell she's in the old, dilapidated house that some people used during the final battle in Hatthevar as a sort of refuge. (It's the Macarena house.)]

Friends - ah, I've been thinking all day what I'd say to us all after a battle as final and difficult and hard as this one. I didn't get to say this to my friends back home, I didn't get the chance to say this to Harry, but...here goes.

Well done. You did your best, and you somehow saved the day. Look at this place. Look at this world! I know the beacons are being repaired, so it's still sometime before we leave but I think we could say we're leaving it better than we found it?

[Like it's hard. She lets out a tiny laugh.]

Also, I think - and I'm not taking any feedback on this - that I've earned myself this.

[The view focuses on the floor, where she is sitting currently, and specifically on a half-empty bottle of wine. Hermione gone wild.]

Comments

[clavesregni]

[Caitlyn doesn't have many friends back home, and that makes parting with the ones she's made here all the harder. Here, there are people who actually want to talk to her about all the things she's interested in, or go exploring, or at least are concerned with more than the latest fashions and the latest political intrigues. Here, nobody looks at her and sees a Kiramman, she can just be Caitlyn. And Hermione has been a very good friend. Both to her and Vi.]

I'm going to keep practising. [Said with the very intent sincerity of one who plans to practise lying in front of a mirror until she finally gets the hang of it.]

And uhm. [Ah. Yes. They had pretended to be girlfriends, hadn't they?] Y-yes. But perhaps you could find a real girlfriend as tall as I am.

[reparo]

[They had - the pinnacle of her improvisational skills, that one. Dragging Caitlyn away from a spiritual (literally) sex worker. She should be a little embarrassed of the possessive hissing she did, but consider that she's had wine.

She can only be a little amused, chin in hand, considering that take.] Hmmm...I don't think I know a lot of tall women back home. [She takes another sip of wine, and mutters,] Not sure any of them know I'd be interested, also.

[clavesregni]

You should tell them. [Blurted out maybe a hair too fast. Don't make her mistakes, Hermione.] If you'd be interested.

[Awkwardly, she taps her fingertips against her cup.]

Or you could find a short girlfriend. They're nice as well, I hear. [A little joke. Almost every woman she's ever met has been shorter than her.]

[reparo]

[She figured she'd wait until a final battle and kiss them in the middle of it. Hermione style.

She lets out a small laugh.] You'd better hope so Caitlyn, because I've not met anyone who wouldn't be short in your eyes.

[There's a moment where her expression turns needling and smug.]

Soooo...are you going to take your own advice? Tell Vi you're interested?

[clavesregni]

Oh. Yes. Well. Yes. I. [She frowns oh-so-seriously.] I wrote her a letter. Explaining how I feel. I'm going to give it to her when I get home.

[She fumbles in her bag, pulling the letter out of her notebook, should Hermione wish to read it.]

/screams in a normal way

[reparo]

Oh - [What a question. Of course she wants to read it.

There's a little smile at the opening paragraph, because she wants to make a reference and call it a very Mr Darcy introduction, but there's no way Jane Austen's work exists in Caitlyn's world, so. She reads on.

Looks up, a little misty eyed and openly hopeful.] Oh, I hope - here. [She hands her the letter back.]

I will have my fingers crossed for you. For luck.

[clavesregni]

Thank you.

[For a moment, Caitlyn holds the letter in both hands, staring down at it, before tucking it back into her bag.

And then she leans forward and wraps her arms around Hermione's shoulders, pulling the other girl towards her in a tight hug. She really is going to miss her very much.]

[reparo]

[If you caught her expression in the moment when Caitlyn began leaning, the expression of awareness of an incoming hug, you'd see relief and joy. Hermione goes into that hug gladly, wholeheartedly. Arms around the other girl, squeezing tight.

It feels good to hug. It feels sad to know that they will, eventually, say goodbye.

Eventually, words muffled:] She really is kind. You've got good taste.

[clavesregni]

[Caitlyn squeezes hard for a long time, having to work herself up to letting go. She'd never had to say goodbye before arriving in this world, and she's learning that it never gets any easier, no matter how many friends she loses.]

I have impeccable taste. In love and in friends. [Perhaps she hasn't always been the best judge of character. But when it comes to Vi and the friends she's made here, she's quite sure that her taste is unimpeachable.]

[reparo]

[She lets out a laugh - oh! She said love!]

You should add that to your letter. A P.S., Hermione agrees my taste is impeccable, in both love and friends.

[clavesregni]

[Caitlyn barely manages to get her awkward blush under control before she finally pulls out of the hug. It's a bit silly, how many people she's confessed her love for Vi to, all without having said it to Vi.]

With your seal of approval, I'm sure Vi will be quiet overcome and throw herself romantically into my arms. [Despite being a joke, there's not a hint of sarcasm. Caitlyn knows that Vi values Hermione's opinion, and if Hermione...

Well, she did value Hermione's opinion.

Caitlyn's smile fades as she remembers that Vi will likely have forgotten all about their adventures together here. She has her notes and photographs that she can share, at least, and perhaps, with time, some of those memories might come back.]

I'm sure she'd appreciate it. I know she cared for you, too.

[reparo]

[Her smile falters, the same thought crossing her mind. Quietly,]

She won't remember me. I know.

[She rubs the back of her neck, glancing at the cups of wine, she pressing her lips together.]

I'm going to drink the potion to remember, even if my friends call me delusional when I return, so...

[clavesregni]

I am too.

[A rueful smile crosses her face.]

Before coming here, I spent years wanting to see the world. I begged my parents to let me go anywhere at all. But I was too young or it was too far or too dangerous or there was no reason to go. I wasn't even allowed to cross the river. Now that I've finally seen the world, even if it isn't my own, how could I choose to forget it? Or all the friends I've made?