milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Wingardium Leviosa is a first year spell, one Lily's had down for years now, simple levitation.

Still, it's good to practice the basics sometimes.

Which is why there's a small brown teapot (empty, of course) hovering about five feet above a table tonight.

And below it, a redheaded witch with her wand out, watching it slowly spin in the air.

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"So you're from Earth, then, are you?

"I haven't been coming here long. I'm still learning I can't assume that people are."

Ellen nods. "It's not a particularly nice version of Earth," she says, "and most people here seem to be from the past compared to when I'm from, but- yes, I'm from Earth. The United States, more or less."

"'Not particulary nice'?" Lily asks.

Above her the teapot wobbles even more until, with a short flick of her wand, she sends it back down to the tabletop.

"Did something happen?"

"There was a war," Ellen says, glancing down at the table. "Two hundred years ago. Um, do you know what atomic weapons are? Nuclear weapons, that kind of thing?"

Lily nods.

"They were the Second World War, right?"

"They were only used twice in the Second World War," Ellen says. "The United States dropped one on Japan, and then three days later dropped another one on another city, and Japan decided that if America was willing to use that kind of weapon they'd better surrender right now."

"The Great War happened in 2077, and it was weapons that big, all over the world."

"Oh my God," Lily says.

That's one hundred and two years in her future, 2077.

"That's horrid.

"Which is probably a bit of an understatement, isn't it?"

"Little bit," says Ellen, wiggling one hand in front of her. "But it's probably the politest way to describe it, so that's all right. You probably get the general idea. Most people here seem to come from much nicer places, so it's almost always good to meet somebody new."

She still hasn't quite forgiven that one policeman for being such a jerk, though.

"I've only been coming here for about a month, so it's very nice to meet someone new."

Especially someone she's not related to.

She'd still sorting out how she feels about that.

"Does coming here help, with an unpleasant world?"

"Usually, yes," says Ellen. "It's helped me get used to being outside- I grew up in a Vault, which is an underground shelter the size of a small town. Coming here helped me get used to being under the open sky instead of a ceiling."

"You grew up not going outside?"

Lily's eyes are wide.

"Not until I was nineteen," Ellen confirms. "The biggest open space I'd ever seen before that was our atrium, and that was maybe... I don't know, it had a twenty-foot ceiling or so."

"I don't remember a time I wasn't in and out of doors all day.

"What was it like, seeing it for the first time?"

"I thought it was another room," Ellen admits. "I thought it was the biggest room I'd ever seen and that it just had a really high blue ceiling. It kind of spooked me that I couldn't tell where the walls were. And that the floor wasn't flat, because all the floors in the Vault were just flat and smooth and perfect and outside was all rocks and ground and slope and things."

"It's a reasonable thing to think, if you only know rooms," Lily says.

And then realizes something.

"So . . . wait, how did being here help you get used to the outdoors?"

Ellen indicates a door in the opposite wall from the entrance.

"That leads outside," she says. "Outside here, I mean, not to home or anything. When I first came here I'd go outside for a little while and stand under an open sky until the thought of how big all that space was got to me, and then I'd come back in here and sit with my back to the wall and breathe into a paper bag until I calmed down. I kept doing that so I could stay outside a little longer each time."

Lily looks at the indicated door.

"There's an outside? Like on Earth, not like ..." she gestures to the Window. "It's not that big a space, is it?"

"Oh no," says Ellen. "It's green out there- well, during the warm times it is, it's all cold and grey now. But there's grass, real live grass, and there's trees that aren't dead and brown- I mean, they don't have leaves right now because it's wintertime here, but still- and there are mountains and a huge lake full of clean safe water that things actually live in, and everything."

"I'll have to check that out sometime," Lily says.

"It didn't occur to me there was anything other than the bar here.

"You don't have grass and living trees?

"Is that from the war?"

Ellen nods. "There's a valley up north about a day or two's travel from where I live that's properly green," she says. "I've brought some of the seeds from the plants there back to where I live now, to see if they'll grow anywhere else. The rest of the area's a desert, though, so everything has to live on whatever it can find- and there's not enough water for real trees."

Lily nods. It all makes sense.

"Are they growing, or have you started yet?

"And where do you live now?"

"I planted them, but I had to travel," Ellen says. "I hired some people in town to look after the seeds while I was gone. If I make it back to Megaton any time soon I'll be able to check... that's where I live, a town called Megaton. It's a walled town, all made out of airplane parts. Um, flying machine parts, I mean. None of them work any more but they made great walls and stuff."

"Oh, I bet they do," Lily says, "if they're anything like the aeroplanes in my world.

"I hope your seeds are growing, too.

"How long will you be traveling?"

"I'm not sure," Ellen admits. "But it should all be settled fairly soon, I think. If everything goes well I should be able to visit Megaton again within a month."

Well, she hopes, anyway.

"How much longer do you have in school, by the way? We usually got sent to our future jobs when we turned sixteen, back home."

"Two more years after this one, which I'm about half-done with.

"I'll be sixteen at the end of next month, and we'll meet with our Head of House about careers advice, but I don't have any idea what I think I might like to do after school yet."