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WHO: Charlie and Luna
WHERE: The Batgirl Apartment
WHEN: Monday Night?
WARNINGS: Teenagers
SUMMARY: Charlie and Luna play video games and Luna asks awkward questions.
FORMAT: Para to start, then whatever?

Charlie had a spot cleared out on the edge of the room that she used for bouncing, and she had described in what she hoped was enough detail so Luna could use it for apparating in. The rest of the room was just as messy as usual, though she'd at least taken a few minutes to gather up all her dirty clothes and shove them in the hamper.

Otherwise? Messy. Messy messy messy. Even her desk was messy, covered with her laptop and school books and an old picture of Josh. Charlie was flopped out on a beanbag chair on the floor as she waited for the witch to show up, poking through the dashboard on her xbox.

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There was a loud crack. And then there was a Luna.

"Charlie!" She waved. The mess didn't bother her -- after all, it was positively clean compared to the Lovegood house. Though it could have used a nice Crumple-Horned Snorkack Horn just to give it a bit more cheer.

Somehow, she managed to trudge through the mess and get to the computer. Where she was hovering. Right over her shoulder, peering at the screen, of course. "What are you doing?"

Charlie half-turned in her seat to give Luna a wave. "Hey!" And then she was back to facing the machine as the other girl reached her. "Sorry about the mess," she added with a faint grin.

Then question got a shrug out of her, since she was just reading news about the Majesty things. "Nothing, really. I had to get off Oracle's computers I think the light was giving me a headache so..." She trailed off. "But I'm done!" She closed the laptop with a clap, making the other stuff on the desk jump.

Luna frowned, not understanding anything she saw on the screen. "Don't worry about it. You should see our hom-- my home, back in England." She smiled fondly.

Her eyes remained on the laptop for a while before, ever so reluctantly, refocusing on Charlie. What she wouldn't give to inspect such a strange Muggle device! "Oh, good, I was hoping we could spend some time together... but wait. Who's Oracle?"

"I think I could waste some time spending it with you," Charlie grinned jokingly.

"Oracle is my...guardian, I guess. Or, was. But it doesn't matter," Charlie shrugged a bit and turned her face to face the other. "She got ported out...months ago. Before Josh or Helena or anybody, she was the first."

"That's nice of you to say," Luna smiled, completely missing the joke. "Most people would prefer not to, I think."

She looked around the room. Trying to find somewhere to sit before settling on, well, settling herself onto the biggest and most comfortable-looking pile of clothes. "I'm sorry. If it helps, I... understand the feeling. A little."

Even though everyone she knew seemed to be coming back lately. Which, suddenly, she felt terribly guilty about.

"Well most people are stupid, then." Charlie was not one to beat around that sort of bush.

She shrugged some and twisted around completely in her seat to watch Luna hunting for somewhere to sit. "It doesn't matter. I've still got Cass and Steph and...other people. People disappearing on me is nothing new, I deal, I'm good at that."

She grinned, seemingly oblivious to Luna's sudden mope.

Luna smiled to herself at that.

She sunk back into her clothes cushion, looking up at Charlie with a thoughtful expression. "That's a relief. It's good to have a lot of people, isn't it? But are you really all right with that?"

Charlie shrugged after a couple seconds. "Yeah, I am. I mean, I have to be, I can't do anything about it. I've never been able to do anything about it."

"If you're sure," Luna murmured, not sounding entirely convinced. But there were plenty of distracting things lying around! Such as the X-Box, for starters.

"Is that another computer?" She asked, slipping on her Spectrespecs to get a good look at it.

"It's not being sure. It's just...stuck." Charlie shrugged. She didn't like it, but she couldn't fix it. "It happens to everybody. Even you left for a while."

Oh good, a distraction. She shakes her head. "No, that's my xbox."

"But I came back. Maybe they will too." She sounded so sure.

And what a distraction it was! Now if only she could figure out how to-- aha! Slowly, Luna began raising her hand to quick it a quick strike. She'd seen Mr. Weasley do that before. "Exbox, hm? That's a rather morbid name."

Edited 2011-08-03 02:32 (UTC)

"Maybe," Charlie didn't sound convinced, and didn't have time to say anything else as Luna was apparently going to her her xbox!

"Hey!" She literally bounced across the room, appearing in a cloud of light and grabbing Luna's wrist before she could smack the machine. "You don't hit it!"

Luna blinked, surprised, and tried to slip out of Charlie's grasp.

"You don't? I thought that was how these worked." She bit her lip. "Then again, Muggle Studies never was one of my better subjects..."

Charlie let her go once she was sure the other wasn't going to smack her xbox, and then pointed at the button on the front.

"No, you don't. You just push the button." She did, and it wooshed to life. And then she turned on the television for good measure. "See?"

Luna stared for a moment. She'd heard of televisions before, even seen an old one Mr. Weasley tried (emphasis on try) to repair, but it just didn't compare to seeing one in real life.

"That's brilliant!" She squealed, eyes darting back and forth between the X-Box and the television screen. "Can you do it again?"

Charlie just blinked at her friend.

"You mean you want me to turn it on again? You don't want to see what it does?"

There was more darting back and forth of her eyes. This time, from Charlie to the television and back again.

"It does more?"

"Of course it does more. It's a video game system." Charlie frowned at Luna. "You've really never seen one?"

She titled her head, frowning slightly, eyebrows coming together in deep thought. "What's a video game? Is it anything like Quidditch?"

Well, that answered that question.

"...No. Well, I mean, there was a quiddich video game back home but it was awful. Uh. It's...like..." She looked away, trying to figure out how to explain it, and after a few seconds she gave up.

"It's a game you play, but on the television, here..." She started hunting through her game collection and eventually came up with two. "Here, you want to see a game about space shooting, or about zombies?" She's got Halo and Dead Rising, apparently.

"You've played Quidditch, but you... haven't played Quidditch?" She had a feeling she was missing something here.

Taking a good look at the games didn't really clear up anything, unfortunately. "I think I would feel a bit conflicted about killing Inferi. They were people once. How about we try the other one?"

"It's just...you can play games on here but it's not the same as playing games. In real life. Most of the time." She shifted a bit and shrugged, putting the zombie game down and sticking Halo in the xbox. It turned on showing a big fancy picture of the Halo and such.

"What's an Inferi?"

Luna's eyes stayed glued to the screen as she tried to puzzle out what Charlie was saying. "Like... like reading a book on spells versus using them. Except far more entertaining."

She was so lost in her confusion, and the spectacle, that she almost didn't hear Charlie's question. "What? Oh, they're awful. Dead bodies reanimated by Dark Wizards and Witches. Merely puppets, really, the poor souls."

"...Oh," so they were zombies too, but Charlie didn't feel the need to point that out. "Yeah, like reading a book about spells except, you know, fun."

She held up the controller. "You play it with this. Want me to show you or do you just want to try?"

Luna just raised an eyebrow. "Books are fun." Come on, Charlie, everyone knows that.

She frowned at the controller, thinking. "Is it safe, to use someone else's? That can be a bit risky with wands."