Hogwarts
School Healer Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Jun 28, 2017 16:03:58 GMT
It had been several weeks since Mali stepped foot on The Homestead. She liked the house, the Ashland's family home was certainly showing it's age but it still had a certain rustic charm that was hard not to love. In certain ways the home reminded her of the people who resided in it. The well cared for gardens spoke of the former Hufflepuff inside, the one that she was coming to see. Mali felt very unsettled as she meandered down the walk to the Ashland's front door, mostly because she felt like an unwelcome intruder given her problems with Theo and the fact that Meg didn't actually like her. The two women had bonded a little when Meg showed up bleeding but they had a long way to go before she could even begin to consider her a friend. They tolerated each other at best, but Mali felt guilt and pity over Meg's situation so she was working to come up with a solution. She might even have one, but it needed testing. The Healer in her wouldn't let her work her hopes up too high, werewolf wounds stubbornly resisted almost all healing methods and the scars persisted through all remedies.
Still. She had to try. As long as she was trying, Mali could keep the guilt at bay. So with a few of her new creations tucked in her bag, the witch trudged up the house's driveway to knock on the door. She stood with her arms crossed and drawn in as she waited, a miserable frown weighing down her normally cheery face. The memories she had with Theo in the very same house were starting to creep back in and drag her down into the bleak abyss the cracks in her heart created. Months ago they were talking about a future and now they could scarcely talk to each other. Things were just too weird and she thought she could cope with it but now there were doubts. The door opened and a blonde head poked out as she was debating between leaving and sticking around. "Theo's not here, is he?" Mali asked hastily, looking every bit as uncomfortable as she felt. If he wasn't then she would be alright, if he was... Well, she would try because she owed trying to Meg. "I've got some things to try on your face." She shook her head and her shoulders slumped. "Sorry, I should have written you ahead of time, but I had some unexpected free time today and I've heard you're not really keen on leaving the house so I thought you'd probably be here." Christ. She was digging herself in a whole of insensitivity and insult today, wasn't she?
"That sounds bad, that's now how I meant it. I just meant it was very likely that you'd be here and writing ahead would've taken up unnecessary time." Mali suddenly felt very uncomfortable looking at Meg and turned her attention to her bag instead, rifling through it to find several potion vials of varied sizes. "I've just been really busy, between Hogwarts, the Ministry and Remus. The potion requires a lot of attention just before the full moon, too. If Theo and I were still a thing I don't even think I'd have this time." Oh, that was a silly thing to say. It made her heart sadder than it already was and well, his sister was right there. "Anyway, Eoin and I have been experimenting a bit and we'd like to try it out on your scars, if you're up for it?" Eventually someone would have to find something that worked, so why not them? Mali held out the vials, looking from her hands to around Meg, searching for signs of the troll. "We're hoping it'll help minimize them, at least lighten them a bit so they'll sort've get softer and blend in to your face better. Can I come in?"
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Shop Staff
Bartender at the Three Broomsticks Lab Assistant
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24 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Meg Ashland on Jun 29, 2017 18:06:49 GMT
Despite what pretty, charming things might exist outside her house, Meg still felt most comfortable at home. One bright spot wasn't quite enough to chase all the creeping shadows away - it just sort of chased them into the corners, for evaluation at a further time. That time just so happened to be anytime she found herself alone. It was hopeless - be it a few minutes or a few days, Meg couldn't be around people all the time, and she couldn't distract herself forever from the things she needed to face. She tried. Oh, she tried. In the absence of people, the sun made a pretty acceptable substitute for a bright spot, and Meg wore herself out nearly everyday working in the gardens underneath its blaze.
But it still wasn't enough. She'd catch a glimpse of her face in a window, or the scars around her neck and shoulder would start feeling tight with movement, and it would send her reeling. She felt like a stranger in her own body and it was driving her mad. She didn't want to confront that stranger; she just wanted them to go away.
Another stranger was sort of remedying that for her. He had been kind and funny - and okay, handsome - and the way he had seemed to look between her scars was inspiring Meg to do the same. Or to at least try. In those shadowy, absent moments with no one around and nothing to do, Meg let her mind think whatever it wanted. She let herself feel whatever she needed to feel. It was a pretty messy and involved business, all said, and when a sudden knock at the door sent her rolling off the couch, she was hastily wiping at her face on the way there.
As happy as Meg was for the distraction of people...well. The one standing at her door now was causing her just as much internal conflict as everything else lately. Meg didn't hate Mali. Mali had just annoyed her for so long that the effects were lingering. Meg wasn't even sure she was annoyed by Mali, anymore. The girl had saved her life, after all. Still - seeing her standing out there on the front porch sent a groan through Meg. Theo wasn't home. And even if the girl was here to see him, Meg knew Mali would gladly settle for her next. Anyone to gab to, and she felt like she knew what Mali would want to talk about - and Meg had had quite enough of that subject today already.
Mali's first question, though, was about Theo. "Nope, sorry," Meg said, shaking her head - but Mali didn't look sorry for it. She looked like she didn't want him to be there. Meg knew something was going on between them - Meg had the prime lookout spot to see that Theo hardly left the house now, either, save for work - but she didn't know its extent.
She wasn't going to ask. Heck no. Talking about her brother's relationship still gave her the willies, as immature as that might be. She didn't have to wait long for whatever else Mali wanted, anyway - one never really did, with Mali. Mali had stuff for her face. Meg raised an eyebrow, nearly wincing as Mali rushed right on through what counted for an explanation, but came out as more of an insult. Except Meg wasn't really insulted. Just pained by how true it was, and how other people were noticing. She shrugged, waving a hand for Mali to go on. She did. She brought up Theo again, causing Meg to frown and raise a questioning eyebrow, but then it was all about Meg's face again. She looked down at the vials in Mali's hand - something to minimize the scars. To help her blend in. Meg glanced back up at Mali, measuring her look. Meg knew Mali wanted to help werewolves, to create and refine things that would make their lives easier...but she wanted to help Meg, too. And it was really difficult to turn that into something annoying. Meg smiled her lopsided smile.
"Yeah, come in," Meg said, shuffling out of the doorway to let the girl in. She shut it behind them and trailed down the hallway, toward the kitchen where the best light in the house was. "What have you got? Anything I've heard of before?"
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Hogwarts
School Healer Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Jul 3, 2017 15:36:46 GMT
Nope, sorry. Theo wasn't there and instead of looking disappointed, Mali looked very relieved. The tension in her stance melted away and she relaxed into a posture that looked more natural and less guarded. She still wasn't ready to see Theo and she wasn't sure if they would ever manage to fix what was broken between them. The text message fight had destroyed her faith that they could get through anything and the questioning look on Meg's face solidified it. Didn't she know? He didn't tell Meg? Didn't he talk about her like Mali talked about him? She was surely driving everyone around her mad with how much she was lamenting about Theo but if his sister didn't even know... Her shoulders slumped as if she was finally accepting defeat.
There was little time for Mali to wallow in self pity because Meg stepped aside and Mali pocketed the vials and slipped in to follow the blonde into the kitchen. The woman's face looked nearly as it had the day she healed her. The skin looked like it had settled a bit, there was no blood.. but the scars looked just as gruesome and angry as they did in the immediate aftermath. They were painful to look at but Mali made a point to look directly at Meg. It would be hypocritical to try and soothe her insecurities while treating her like damaged goods and as a Healer who healed disfiguring spell damage as a specialty she had a bit of practice looking at the person and not the injury. Besides, Remus made it easy to see who he was underneath the gnarled skin, Meg likely would too. Eventually.
"No, you haven't." Mali shook her head before tucking stray strands of dark hair behind her ear. "They're not exactly completely our own invention, we just looked for ways to enhance things we already know work.. They just don't work on werewolf wounds." There was the smallest hint of pride in her voice as she spoke, not too much because Mali wasn't very confident that any of what she had would work. She set down on her bag on the table and then pulled out one of the chairs for Meg to sit. "You're too tall for me to work on if you're standing." Damn the Ashland's and their troll genetics, even Meg was tall and lanky. Every single member of the family made Mali feel like a goblin standing next to them. "But Wolfsbane has only been around for what? A decade, maybe less? Before that werewolves had no relief during their transformations... So I'm confident that there's a way to fix the wounds from a werewolf, it just hasn't been found yet."
The witch retrieved the vials from her pockets and lined them up on the table. "This is mostly just an educated guess, honestly. But what other option have you got?" Mali picked a vial filled with a thick purple liquid. "We nicked this, it's just your standard wound healing potion with a few things added in. It might burn or sting but it's harmless." She was 80% sure it was harmless, anyway.
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Shop Staff
Bartender at the Three Broomsticks Lab Assistant
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24 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Meg Ashland on Jul 12, 2017 2:52:11 GMT
Meg wasn't in the habit of ever watching Mali too closely, but the girl's behavior now was strange enough to make Meg curious. Theo and his girlfriend were usually so gaga over one another that anything different just felt...weird, even for outsiders. Meg wasn't sure she liked the change. When it came down to it, she wanted her brother to be happy. And Mali too, she supposed. Mali was an incessant ray of sunshine and Meg could pretend all she wanted but sometimes she really did like having that sunshine around. It was just unnerving to see Mali a little less bright than usual. If Mali did her good today, perhaps Meg might poke at her thoughts a bit, pay her debts to the girl with an open ear...if she wanted it, of course. Meg was never quite sure how much Mali actually liked her, if at all.
None of the things that Mali brought were things Meg would know - not that that was surprising, really. She was never that great with potions. "Sounds like a lot of trial and error," Meg commented, not meanly. That was probably a lot of work and it was nice to know that Mali was thinking about her and her troubles even while inundated with all that work. Meg grinned when Mali pulled a chair out for her, and took a seat. "Or maybe you're too short." That wasn't meant meanly, either, just facts. And maybe some gentle ribbing. Meg tried to get comfortable in the kitchen chair as Mali went on, knowing they would probably be here for a while. "You think?" She said, just to say something, not daring to get her hopes up that anything would ever fix her. Meg knew she got off lucky, she did, but the scars were still terribly hard to live with and she'd be rid of them in an instant if possible. Only, as far as she knew, it wasn't possible.
Meg eyed the vials on the table, lifting her chin up and tilting her head so Mali would have easy access to her face. "Not a one," Meg shrugged, side-eyeing the girl and grinning. She wasn't worried about educated guesses or trials and errors. Mali had saved her life and to Meg, that made her a pretty damn good Healer. Meg nodded, giving the go ahead for Mali to begin slathering the potion on her face. Almost immediately, it burned, but it wasn't the worst pain Meg had ever experienced. "Mm, yeah, that burns. A lot, actually." That didn't mean she still wouldn't gripe about it.
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Hogwarts
School Healer Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Jul 18, 2017 6:55:32 GMT
"It is." Mali admitted with a nod of her head. They were all just sort of floundering around in the dark but at least Mali knew the general direction of the light switch thanks to the company she kept. "A very educated trial, though. Eoin's a brilliant potion master and I'm a decently competent Healer. Together we should be able to figure something out." Strangely enough, trying to help Meg with her scars is where Mali felt the most useful. She wasn't just dropping ingredients into a wolfsbane soup but using her brain and trying to theorize and experiment to invent a new method of treating werewolf wounds. That hint of pride turned into a brightness and sense of optimism, temporarily shooing out thoughts of Theo for a dash of hope. "It'll be wonderful when we do figure it out. Just think if werewolves didn't have to walk around with the tell tale scars? It would do wonders for them socially, I think. Maybe help with the stigma a bit."
Despite the grey heaviness that hung over The Homestead, knowing Theo could be lurking around any corner at any minute when he lumbers on home, Meg managed to keep things light with little dashes of humor here and there. "I'm not short, I'm travel sized. Like those little muggle sweets on Halloween." Meg was likely just talking, filling in the gaps where the conversation seemed to lull but Mali thought it was important to keep her hopes up. "Yes, of course." She forced confidence into her voice because she wasn't really sure. "Someone's got to eventually invent something that works, who's to say it won't be us? Or that it's not one of these?" Once she got rolling on the optimism train, it didn't stop.
Mali was feeling a lot better than she did when she first arrived, but she kept an ear out for signs of other people. "Sorry, I added a few things to try an potentiate the potion's healing effects but some of them are a bit caustic." Her hand was very steady as she applied the potion to Meg's face, right up until she heard a pop and then the front door open. She froze in place like a rabbit who heard the rustle of a fox in the nearby grass. She craned her neck slightly, listening to the sound of the new arrival's footsteps. Sounded like Theo. Had to be Theo, she knew the sound of his footsteps by heart. A panic crawled up her spine. "Sorry--I'm sorry. I've got to---" As the foot falls drew closer the panic intensified. Mali wasn't ready to face Theo at all, much less in his home with his sister around. Every square inch of her was tingling with the desire to flee, to get out of there before the troll could darken the doorway. "I've got to go." In her haste, Mali's hand slipped and the potion rushed out of the vial and splashed into Meg's eyes and all over her face.
All that competence Mali had moments ago was gone. She step back from Meg, clutching the vial, unable to will herself into action. Theo came lumbering through the door just a moment later and Mali was wide eyed and frozen, looking between the two siblings.
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St.Mungo's
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31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
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Post by Theo Ashland on Jul 25, 2017 0:05:37 GMT
After a particularly long, particularly messy day at work, Theo wanted nothing more than his bed (after a shower, of course). He started thinking about the isolated silence and comfort of his bed at least three hours before quitting time, and by the time he popped into being on his front doorstep, he was downright craving it. Normally, Theo wasn't one for isolation or silence. He much preferred letting off the steam of a hard day over a pint or three and a pub loud enough to where he couldn't hear himself think even if he wanted to. What he preferred even more than that, though - was an evening with Mali, doing something or the other so absolutely silly he could forget completely the troubles of his day. He'd been thinking about her a lot today, too, he always did when he was at the hospital. And much like everything else in their relationship, those thoughts were mixed throughout the day. Sometimes he was thinking about how much he missed her and how much he just wanted to go home to her. And sometimes - usually when the calls were slow and he had to spend too much time within the hospital walls - he thought about abandoned he felt, here in this place first and now in his whole life.
Those thoughts followed him from the hospital corridors to his front doorstep. Rationally, he knew the truth. That Mali hadn't abandoned him and actually felt the exact same way he did. But Theo wasn't a rational beast, and that was their trouble to begin with. Rationality had no hand in their love at all, neither of them seeming to ever prefer a thought over a feeling. So when it was good, it was really good, and when it was bad...well. When it was bad Theo hid away in his troll cave as much as possible.
Theo was greeted with screams as he walked into his house. And cursing. And more screams. Meg screams. Theo's eyes went wide as he ran the rest of the hallway, tripping over and then knocking over a side table on the way there. He glanced at her bedroom door, but the sounds were clearly coming from the kitchen, and he had his wand in his hand by the time he skidded across the tiles. He saw Mali standing there, but his brain didn't exactly register who she was as he scanned the kitchen in panic. Meg held much more of his attention, pushed up against the kitchen table and practically clawing at her face. Something was dripping off of her, and the pungent smell in the air immediately kicked Theo into emergency mode. He went to Meg, wrapping his hands around her wrists to pull her hands away and...dear gods. Her face was burning.
"Don't touch, don't touch!" He urged her in a surprisingly quiet voice. She was rubbing whatever it was into her eyes, and he was sure that was what was making her scream and not just curse every god known to man. With one hand, he tried to hold Meg's hands down while his other was on her back, guiding her over to the kitchen sink. Meg stopped cursing the gods and started cursing him when he pushed her head under the faucet...but at least she stopped screaming. While he worked on flushing out her eyes, he looked around the kitchen for something to wipe her face off with. This was all decidedly non-magical for a bunch of wizards, but seeing as how Theo had no idea what was burning Meg so badly, he didn't want to risk making it worse by adding any magic just yet. Hanging over the pantry doorknob, he spotted a dishtowel - and just in front of it, Mali.
Mali. Mali was here. In his house. While his sister's face was burning. Just standing there. Why? Theo furrowed his eyebrows at her as if he didn't quite understand what she was. "Why are you just standing there?" He snapped before he realized he was going to do it, his exhaustion and exhausting thoughts from the day reacting badly to the sudden surprise of seeing her. He tried to soften his gaze as he nodded behind her, "I need that towel. Please." His hands were otherwise a bit occupied with Meg.
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Hogwarts
School Healer Creature Task Force - Registrar
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21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
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PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
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Post by Mali Johar on Aug 3, 2017 15:52:30 GMT
Screams. Gods. Why did people scream so often around her? It didn't used to be like that and Mali wished for those much simpler times. Now there were screams everywhere she turned, at farmhouses and eyes and apothecaries and hospitals. Now in the kitchen of a home that she was rather fond of, to a woman who meant a lot to someone that she was fond of. The screams, the fact that someone was in pain and that she was the cause froze her right in place. Her entire brain blanked out, leaving nothing but apologies to stammer over and empty vials to clutch.
Theo made it to the kitchen and untangled the mess Mali had made, leading Meg to the sink to wash away the caustic potion. He did it so well and had so much practice cleaning up her little messes. Poor Meg had already gone through so much and now her face was bloody burning. Mali watched Theo and Meg without really seeing them. The whole thing felt surreal, a little floaty. The screaming continued to echo in her ears even after Meg stopped. Her heart raced in her chest and pounded in her ears, adrenaline was beating through her system but she just. couldn't. move.
When Theo snapped at her she gave a start with wide, panicked eyes. Mali's breath caught up in her throat, along with her voice. "I.. I didn't.." When Theo spoke again it was much gentler, bless him. She nodded at his request, pulling the towel from the cupboard and forcing her feet to carry her close enough to hold it out to him. "This wasn't supposed to happen." Mali finally managed a whole, complete sentence. "This wasn't. I was just trying to help." That was the gist of it, wasn't it? The gist of everything. Mali was only trying to help. At The Eye, at the hospital, with the werewolves and now. It always ended badly and yet she naïvely soldiered on like her intentions mattered more than the end result.
As soon as Theo took the towel she retreated hastily back, to get out of the way. As much as the witch wanted to flee the house and never look back, she couldn't leave just yet. It was time for her to grow up, wasn't it? To accept that the good intentions weren't enough. Look where good intentions led them? Theo hunched over Meg and Mali feeling too disconnected from Theo but needing him all the same.
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