What does it mean? (open-Astronomy Tower)

[Jory Addison]

((OOC: if anyone can give me the meme my title is quoting, you get a brownie point))

This evening there was going to be a four planet sunset, and Jory wasn't going to miss it for the world. He didn't know if it meant something, but maybe he hoped it did, maybe he hoped it was a sign...however lame that sounded. He had paper and was set up in front of the very best telescope in the astronomy tower to watch and record it. It wasn't every night that something like this happened, and he could already see Mercury coming into sight above the treeline.

[Brindle Sterling]

Brindle didn't know a thing about any special sunset. She was just exploring the castle, and she'd never actually been to the Astronomy tower outside class. She'd already done all the thinking she could stand, about Leo and Ryan and boysingeneral, she'd already run through her routine enough for three nights, and she had no homework. But school was starting back up soon, so here she was, back after a good, but uneventful, summer in New York.

She didn't see the boy at first. The sunset caught her attention, the colors stretching across the sky a natural draw. She decided that since she was here at the right time, she might as well stay.

She was too aware to be completely oblivious, though. She felt someone else nearby before it fully registered and she turned to look at him. She wondered if he was doing homework, but wasn't about to interrupt. If he noticed her, then she could throw out an apology for interrupting.

[Jory Addison]

"Tonight's a good night to come to the tower," Jory said when the girl came in. Breezy? He vaguely recognized her from prefect meetings and the common room, but he had never really cared enough to go talk to anyone really. It was safer to keep a low profile. He looked through the telescope for a few long seconds before he looked up at the girl.

[Brindle Sterling]

It took Brindle a few moments to place the boy, and then her eyes brightened a bit. "Jory, right?" she asked. She'd been so excited by her appointment as a prefect that she'd absorbed everything like a sponge, including names and faces. Not to mention she could have sworn she'd heard Markise complain about him a couple times in passing. "What's going on?" Apparently something, if tonight was good for it.

[Jory Addison]

"It's a four planet sunset tonight," Jory said, eyes bright with excitement. "Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury are all in a line following the sun. Regulus is in there, too, but he's just a bright star. There's Mercury." He pointed out to a little white dot that could easily have been mistaken for a star. A few degrees above it was Regulus, only slightly smaller. "What's your name? I see a B...and an...r in there somewhere..."

[Brindle Sterling]

Brindle's lips curved. "I see a dog with striped fur," she said. "We're glad my mom didn't have a thing for gingham. I'm Brindle," she told him at last. She looked up from him to the sky as she crossed the tower floor. "I didn't take Astronomy last year, there was just so much going on and I heard the teacher gave a lot of homework."

[Jory Addison]

Well, Jory certainly wouldn't forget her name again. Brindle. "I'm really into it, the homework doesn't seem that bad. If you ever wanted to take it I'd help if you wanted." He wasn't sure if she would want to, or why he was even offering, but he couldn't bring his mood down even if he tried right now, and it seemed right to offer.

[Brindle Sterling]

Brindle eyed Jory with mock suspicion. "Are you any good?" she asked. She'd heard stuff about him, hadn't she? She thought it was him, anyway. She boycotted the Daily Prophet with everyone but Silver, but she wasn't deaf and if there was anything the girls in the dorm liked to talk about, it was guys and the gossip column.

[Jory Addison]

"Depends on what you're talking about," was out of Jory's lips before he had a chance to even consider stopping it. His eyes widened and his cheeks turned red before he grinned and looked away. "Sorry, I mean...yeah, I am." He shut his mouth tightly after that. He really needed to learn that whole think before you speak thing.

[Brindle Sterling]

Brindle grinned, her mind taking that somewhere that she knew he didn't mean. "You can tease me a little, I won't break," she said, stopping at the telescope next to him. "I'll only bawl like a baby if I break a nail." She raised one hand and waggled her fingers lightly, her joke obvious. She kept her nails clipped to nothing, and even the black paint on the tips was carelessly chipped.

[Jory Addison]

"Oh yeah, I'm sure." Really, Jory would probably be the most reactive if a nail was broken. "I bet you could take anything." She was small, but she looked tough, she looked like she could take care of herself and Jory wasn't about to test the limits. Not that he felt at all threatened. He may not have imagined her coming up, but he didn't mind one bit.

[Brindle Sterling]

"An angry hippogriff?" Brindle suggested. She appeared to think about it, then nodded. "Yeah, I could take it," she said, then lowered her voice. "As long as I didn't tell the hippogriff that." She knew she was good, but she'd only been doing it a couple years, she still had a lot to learn. "What about you? Is Astronomy your thing?"

[Jory Addison]

Jory grinned at the image of Brindle fighting a hippogriff, then nodded at her question. "Well, kinda, anyway. Divination, really, but in that astronomy's like my favorite, but you know, arithmancy and runes is in there, too." Are in there, too...whatever it was, he didn't really care all that much. "I like the stars."

[Brindle Sterling]

Brindle's lips curved, and her eyes sparkled at his rambling. Some of her best friends rambled, and it just made her like him that much more. "I like runes," she volunteered, though she didn't volunteer how she'd gotten into them. I had a massive crush on my brother's friend and he'd do rune readings sometimes for fun just didn't sound cool.

[Jory Addison]

"They're fun," Jory said, nodding. "I'm not really good at them, though." He was better working with cards and stars and tea leaves. "Maybe we can trade sometime." It was always good to try to learn more, even if it was just the little that someone knew as a hobby. There was always another side to it, another way of looking at something.