Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
|
| |
21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
|
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
|
Post by Mali Johar on Aug 9, 2017 4:22:59 GMT
It had been several days since Mali had last seen Theo. He helped her help a friend and then they had a nasty text argument that in Mali's mind essentially ended all hopes of reconciliation. He had to think and to her there should be nothing to think about, the answer to the unasked question should be as simple and as automatic as breathing. They either loved each other or they didn't. If they did, then they would have fixed what was broken. In that moment Mali felt like she'd lost Theo's love, all over a single night of desperation and bad decisions. Theo's heart and affection was such a bright and shiny spot in her life that when it was gone the world just seemed dimmer. Mali felt dimmer, too... more sullen and disconnected from everything and everyone.
An essential piece of Mali was missing without Theo, but she had to figure out how to repair it on her own. Without Theo. A trip to Hogsmeade was in order, it wouldn't fix things but the sweetshop had never failed in cheering her up for a little while. Little ghosts haunted that village, though. Ghosts of snowball fights and spider protection and first kisses. Mali had underestimated the emotional weight the little village would carry and she trudged through the streets as a broken woman. Slumped, with her hands shoved in her pockets, eyes downcast. If she looked up she might catch sight of another ghost of a girl and a troll strolling happily down the streets.
Her mood lifted minimally once she reached Honeydukes, it was hard not to feel a little better when surrounded by shelves upon shelves of chocolates and sweet candies. By the time Mali had made her selection she was standing a little bit straighter and there was even a trace of a smile on her lips until she rounded the aisle corner just in time to see an unmistakable troll lumber through the shop door. Her heart thumped, sending little pleasant tingles through her chest the moment she laid eyes on him. The dying flame of their relationship flickered back to life.
Her stomach lurched with an uncomfortable feeling of dread along with all those other sensations. Mali hadn't spoken to Theo since that string of text messages. She turned her phone off and stowed it away 'til the device wouldn't feel like a brick in her pocket. Now was not the time or the place for any of that. The witch was going to bail out, retreat down one of the aisles 'til she could slip out when his back was to the door or something. Mali whipped around and made to scuttle away but took out a shelf of sugar quills along the way. The candy and display crashed to the ground, drawing out the most vulgar thing Mali had ever shouted. "Bloody effing hell!"
So much for being inconspicuous. They were trapped now, there was no way to pretend they hadn't seen each other. She stared wordlessly at Theo for a good long moment, face falling into a bitter scowl. Poisonous words were on the tip of her tongue. She wanted to shout at him for being so oblivious to the fact that she desperately needed him, scream at him for leaving her alone when she didn't want to be alone, tell him that he was stupid and blind and selfish and.. Mali wanted to beg him to come back.
But Mali didn't do any of that. She didn't say a word to Theo, instead she disregarded him and sank down to her knees to gather up the sugar quills she knocked over. The shop keeper made no move to assist in the mess, too busy sticking their nose in the daily prophet. She wasn't going to cry either, not today. Mali still felt too bitter and angry over their past argument to cry, but she did sniffle just a little.
|
|
St.Mungo's
| |
31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
|
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
|
Post by Theo Ashland on Aug 12, 2017 20:41:48 GMT
Theo's day started out innocently enough. Well...sort of. He was headily determined to make himself have a nice day so he could avoid the brooding discomfort his current predicament had him in, so maybe such an effort wasn't all that innocent...but either way, he needed it. Badly. Theo's head space was nothing short of a category five hurricane and if pretending that his life was as sunny and mundane as the streets of Hogsmeade was what he had to do to stop himself from whirling away, pretending he would do.
He was doing a decent enough job of it, anyway. He started out at the Broomsticks to bother Meg and imbibe as much as was deemed appropriate for day drinking. Then he bought a meat pie and enjoyed a walk down and back up the cobblestones, trying to work off his buzz. He bought a new quill for the hell of it, and a new scarf because up here the mountain air already tasted like autumn and Theo really liked autumn. He picked his way through a few other shops as well until he came, weighted down with his purchases, to Honeyduke's. One simply didn't visit Hogsmeade without a trip to Honeyduke's. Also, Theo might not have worked that buzz all the way off yet.
Theo perused the candy shop aisles with all the seriousness of a corpse, searching for the perfect treat to end an alright day. He had his favorites and knew what he liked, but he wanted to try something new. A resounding crash on the other side of the shop drew him out of his reverie and backwards into a jar of blood lollipops, adding his own crash to the mix. Theo cursed and scooped the meager display back into its jar before whipping around to make sure the candy shop was not, in fact, under attack by foul-mouthed Death Eaters. That would be a shit end to his alright day.
Theo's heart, already pumping hard with trauma and adrenaline at the loud noise, did a funny thing when he found the source of the noise. Seeing Mali so suddenly and unexpectedly sent his heart clear up his throat with the strangest sensation that it was trying to leap out of his mouth. Or his nose. Theo...laughed. His heart was so subconsciously happy and consciously desperate to see Mali that the sound was choked out of him before he could stop it.
What he got in return was a scowl, and then Mali disappearing. Theo's heart flopped then, reminding him that this was not one of Mali's trashy romance novels where the guy is a total ass clown but gets to win the girl back anyway. This was Mali's actual life, where the guy was slowly - so very bloody slowly - coming to the realization that he might be a bit of an ass clown but he needed to think about it first. Mali had already given Theo the opportunity to come see her and to be happy about it, but he had decided to think instead.
Thinking was never really Theo's strong suit. For instance, he was standing there now and doing quite a lot of it and it was getting him nowhere. He moved forward a bit so he could peek over the shelves and down at Mali. He felt like he was standing on the edge of the cliff. He had put his own dumb self in exile from her...but he had said he would always be there to help her. And maybe it was just sugar quills, but she looked like she could use some help now.
Theo rounded the corner to Mali's aisle with hesitation, setting down his packages on a shelf at the end for a quick and easy escape. He stepped to her and squatted down, picking up handfuls of sugar quills without looking at her. "Did I scare you?"
|
|
Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
|
| |
21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
|
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
|
Post by Mali Johar on Aug 14, 2017 3:00:38 GMT
For the shortest moment in the history of time, there was a brief flicker of hope. Something had drawn them into the very same shop at the very same time and Mali was prone to believing that it was fate, that something greater than themselves was trying to push them back together. This was the stuff romance novels were made of, and if someone could think it then why couldn't it happen in real, actual life? And then the bloody troll of a man started laughing, and the moment was over. Gone, replaced by a feeling that was dark and heavy, chasing the brightness from her features and twisting her expression into something uncharacteristically sullen and angry. The air was so thick with tension and hostility, radiating primarily off the little witch, that it felt suffocating.
The loss of light didn't suit her face, it even felt weird and off. The muscles felt tight, unused to frowns and scowls. Spite tasted sour and unpleasant in her mouth but it gave power to the terrible words that were trying to tiptoe their way onto her tongue. Losing Theo behind the shelves made those words a little easier to swallow down and her temper easier to tame, but she was still fuming. It wasn't fair to be so angry at Theo, but Mali couldn't help it. She wasn't even sure what they were anymore and he had the audacity to accidentally show up in the same exact candy shop while Mali was trying to forget him. He wouldn't come talk to her when she needed it and now he was unconsciously refusing to let her try and move on.
How could one move on? Just look at his face, his puppy dog eyes. She was scowling at the floor as he made his way into her aisle, decidedly not looking at those puppy dog eyes. Mali froze when he spoke, mid reach for a sugar quill. Theo's voice made her heart race, pulsing a warm and tingly feeling through her chest with every beat. "No." she said flatly, gathering up more of the sweets 'til her hands were full. Theo asked a question and Mali answered, that was all she owed him. Nothing more, no explanation as to what sent her into the display of edible quills, no small talk.
The witch reached for a blue sugar quill, ironically fractured in half just like her heart, at the same time Theo did. Mali snatched it away right out from underneath his fingers. "Don't you have some thinking to go do or something?" The sour taste came back and she didn't really care for how viciously she was treating Theo, lashing out at him like a wounded animal, but she couldn't bring herself to apologize for. "Just go away." That was the exact opposite of what she wanted but it was what she actually needed. "You wouldn't come when I wanted you too. You don't get to laugh in my face now" Or several feet away from her face, really...semantics. "and pretend you were here all along. I don't need you to pick up sugar quills, I can do it myself. I needed you that morning and you weren't there, you don't get to be here now."
|
|
St.Mungo's
| |
31 years old
Gryffindor Alumnus
|
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Mego
|
Post by Theo Ashland on Aug 28, 2017 2:36:06 GMT
That was more than a scowl on Mali's face. It almost seemed...hateful. Not quite, but almost. At least to him, in this whacked out emotional limbo he found himself in as of late. That scared Theo, sent thrills of adrenaline through his gut. He didn't know if he would be able to handle Mali hating him. Anger, yes...but not hate. He really needed to get through this whole thinking thing fast if he wanted to prevent that. Knowing full well that his very presence was pissing Mali off, Theo still went to her side. Even if she was the angriest witch in the country, she couldn't completely hate him if he upheld his promise to her...right?
"You scared me," Theo said, the moment he realized the one word he got out of Mali was the only word she was going to give him. Being next to her made him want to think even less, like his heart and everything else in him knew what it needed to do. Thinking seemed silly in comparison. His heart nearly finished its route up his throat and out of his nose as he watched, in slow motion, his fingers almost brush Mali's. Then the moment was gone and the poison was back. "Oh, come on," Theo sighed under his breath. "I've already been doing a lot, actually. I think I might be-," Theo was cut off by Mali's directive. Go away. Theo blinked up at her, cheeks burning as she went in on him. He didn't mean to laugh, same as he didn't really mean not to come over that morning. He didn't mean it. He was just scared. "I know you don't need me now," he said, and it hurt him to say that, because that's exactly what he was so afraid of. Part of it. Theo stood up and sullenly stuffed sugar quills back into their containers. "I'm just trying to help you. Is that really so bad? What are we, strangers?" Theo had so many things to say and his hurricane brain whipped them all up into a frenzied nonsense. "I said I was always going to be there for you. And I am. Your rules for when I'm supposed to and when I'm not supposed to are just too bloody complicated."
|
|
Hogwarts
School Healer
Creature Task Force - Registrar
|
| |
21 years old
Hufflepuff Alumnus
|
PLAYED BY OOC NAME
PLAYED BY Trish
|
Post by Mali Johar on Aug 29, 2017 7:43:22 GMT
Poor sweet Theo. There was no way to win this little confrontation. If he chose not to help she would've been livid that he ignored her and now that he was coming over, gathering up the sugar quills and all, she was mad that he was there. She knew that she was being terrible and that Theo didn't really deserve it. It was her actions that flubbed everything up in the first place, but it was easier to get mad at him then to come to terms with that. So she fumed at him. When he spoke again, telling her that she scared him, something that was likely meant to be endearing or cute (or at least she would've found cute if she hadn't been so bloody mad) but only irritated the witch. Mali looked up to stare at Theo with a look of pure irritation on her normally light and bright features before she returned to her task.
And then the big troll made a fatal mistake. He sighed. Mali hated that sigh. It grated against her nerves like sandpaper and got her hackles up like nothing else could. She hated it back at the ice cream shop which is what sort've marked the beginning of the end, and she hated it now when her heart was fighting with itself, pushing Theo away while silently begging for him to never leave again. He'd been doing a lot of thinking, actually. Gods, he was insufferable when she was mad at him. That must be so difficult for you. she thought viciously. Suddenly Mali felt very sick over just how mean she was being and that compounded the miserable feeling that being close to Theo brought.
He just needed to leave, let her be alone in her misery because he didn't deserve to be treated like that but she couldn't stop. Mali told him so and was met with a terrible feeling of guilt because he looked hurt. The witch climbed to her feet and shoved the sugar quills back into their containers with a little more force than necessary. Mali wheeled around on him, full of frustrated, angry tears. "You picked up some sugar quills! Want a bloody biscuit!? You were supposed to come over, you thick troll! You were supposed to come over so we could talk about things and work it out but you didn't, you went back to sleep and left things where they were and now you want a pat on the back because you picked up some sweets? And that's too complicated to understand? Just go away, Theo! I don't want you to 'be there' for me if you're going to check out every time it's uncomfortable."
|
|
