70 Minutes in Hell
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♫ What'll come walking through that door... ♫
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The bruised and battered heart of Aly Salinger had been through somewhat of a whirlwind in the last year. After what seemed like finally settling into a single life, letting go of all her past pains and frustrations and infatuations, the hurricane arrival of Evelynn Decipio into her worldview and circle of friends had turned it all topsy-turvy. Aly had spent months pining after her with the occasional exception. After all, it was difficult to resist when your celebrity crush appeared in front of you and asked you to dance. It had taken until the spring for Aly's feelings for her lioness friend to really start fading, only to be replaced by a potential new love interest in a dark-haired boy from Tenūsa. She still didn't know Kavi all that well, though, despite having a healthy like for his bone structure and quiet poeticisations, and so in the end, when Winnie had asked her if she was up for a date, Aly had hesitantly said yes, though only partially because of her lack of a real love life in recent months years.
She trusted the younger girl, and honestly, Winnie hadn't been herself since coming back after the winter holiday. The mop of scarlet hair masquerading as a human, who had once been so bubbly and upbeat and excited about everything, was more of a shell nowadays, retreating into herself and relying more on her fiancé (a word Aly still didn't like, mind you) than on her friends. At the spring soirée, for instance, Winnie had barely said three sentences to her before entering into a whispered, seemingly worried exchange with Mathias. Once upon a time, the two girls could've chattered on about fashion and gowns and fabrics for ages, but Winnie was so different as of late, and it was clearly understandable why. A fall that high could hurt anyone's psyche, even the strongest of them. That was the other part as to why Aly had agreed to letting Winnie set her up on some blind date of sorts, because it seemed to be a sign that the pink-clad princess was getting back to her old self. If it made Winnie happy to set her up, then sure, Aly was going to agree to it come hippogriffs or high water.
And so, on a Friday evening in late May, just weeks after her seventeenth birthday, the sixth-year Ravenclaw found herself wandering down towards one of the abandoned classrooms to which Winnie had directed her during dinner. A blind date in an empty classroom seemed a bit of an odd choice - why not Madam Puddifoot's, a popular date spot, or the warm, familiar comfort of the Three Broomsticks? - but who was Aly to question Winnie's all-knowing confidence and matchmaking? (Okay, the vial of Love Potion Antidote in her pocket beside her wand suggested she might've been questioning a little bit, but one could never be too careful. At least she had left her knife in the dormitories, because if Winnie found out that Aly had brought a blade to the occasion, Aly was pretty sure that she herself would be the one ending up getting stabbed with it.)
Upon arriving at the classroom in question, Aly nudged open the cracked door, her heart beginning to flutter in her chest. It was one thing to meet a stranger, but to meet a stranger for a date? When both people already had romantic expectations right off the bat, were testing each other out to see if they could potentially be a match, two halves of the same heart? It was certainly nerve-wracking for the teenage Ravenclaw who, let's be real, was already a walking bundle of pure anxiety. Luckily, the room was empty, though clearly Winnie had been here - if the faint scent of strawberries still lingering in the air wasn't obvious enough, the setup would've made it so. Most of the chairs and desks had been cleared away, leaving the floor empty save for the scattered flower petals and occasional candle glowing golden light around the room. In the centre, two seats had been placed on either side of a single table. Another candle, scented this time, burned hot and bright upon it, its floral aroma mixing with the strawberry ambiance, a scent that was sweet and fresh and altogether quite lovely. And, of course, because it was Winnie, she'd placed a bowl of the very fruit on the table beside the scented candle, all red and lush and shimmering, beside a small dipping pool of melted chocolate.
Aly herself flushed scarlet at the sight.
Merlin, Winnie, what do you think is happening with this guy? It's just a first date!
Still, the teenager's sweet tooth was of legendary proportions, and she couldn't help but approach and give the rich chocolate an appreciative whiff. Aly didn't quite dare yet take a strawberry and dip it, but she had half a mind to; instead, she crossed to the window, all moonlit and ethereal with the beams dancing upon her freckled face, so that she could stare out over the silvery dark grounds and distance herself from the sugary temptation. The stars were bright tonight. Perhaps it was a good sign.
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♫ A man I never saw in my life before... ♫
@Jack Warren
mentions @Winnie Harper (given permission for setup godmod), @Evelynn Decipio, @Arjan Oberoi, @Kavi Kattimani
♫ A man I never saw in my life before... ♫
@Jack Warren
mentions @Winnie Harper (given permission for setup godmod), @Evelynn Decipio, @Arjan Oberoi, @Kavi Kattimani
gen1 Aly Salinger || gen1 iNPC Manu Macedo || gen2 Kahira Valerian || staff Aulis Vorozheykin
70 Minutes in Hell
Jack could feel the familiar discomfort beginning to throb behind his eyes, a clear warning sign of an oncoming headache. In the past, the boy was hard-pressed to decline a request from his little sister, no matter how harebrained the scheme, but in combination with her literal puppy-dog eyes, the deep sense of guilt that sat stiffly in the pit of his stomach only made refusing her even more insurmountable. So much to his chagrin, he meandered down the dimly lit hallway towards what he hoped to be an uneventful and quick blind date.
With each step, he drew a line, pulling the tip of his boot across the smooth stone, hoping to delay his arrival. However, no amount of sidestepping and lagging could prevent the wrath of Winnie if he were to bail on this little one-on-one rendezvous. As the classroom, the point he was told to show up to, grew closer, so did his curiosity. Honestly, who would his little sister deem crazy enough to deal with his busted-up head and abrasive personality? But before his pontification could continue further, the archway of a classroom came into view from around a corner that Jack slid past.
Maybe he should embrace the weirdness of this event in his life. Close his eyes and dive, take a chance. "Fuck it.." He muttered under his breath, and as quickly as he could, Jack pulled himself into the classroom. He didn't even bother to check if the room was occupied before turning his back to the room as a whole and pulling the door shut. As it closed with a solid and noticeable thud, the Hufflepuff let his hand slide down the door before taking a breath. His eyes followed his hand down, and towards the hem of a soft brown corduroy button-up shirt, long sleeves pushed up to cuff an inch below the elbow. Jack had decided to accessorise with a ring or two and a silver necklace around his neck to add a bit of pop to an otherwise dark and skewed outfit.
Finally, he finished up his final attire checks with his hand pushing through his hair to complete the 'I just got out of bed' hair. He didn't want to seem like he was trying too hard. Jack always wanted to ride the line between being overdressed and slobbish. Though he may never admit it, he cared deeply about how he presented himself to others, even if it meant a blind date that he wasn't particularly enthused about. With a winding sweep, the boy turned around, prepared to see what Winnie had prepared for him!
The polite smile that he had plastered against his face fell immediately as a certain Ravenclaw centred in his vision. This was a betrayal. Why would Winnie want to do this to him? Was this revenge for him leaving? The insurmountable disappointment and annoyance splayed across the sneer that replaced his soft smile. Throwing his hand up to his face, Jack spoke through his fingers as his head hung, "Oh, for fuck's sake- Why are you here?"
Mentions @Winnie Harper
Interacting with: @Aly Salinger
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; You will go far"
-Teddy Roosevelt
Stamina- 7| Evasion- 17| Strength- 12| Wisdom- 5| Arcane power- 7| Accuracy- 10
Abilities: Fearless & Charmer
70 Minutes in Hell
♫ Why do I need this headache... ♫
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The door creaked open behind her, and Aly froze for a moment, unsure if she should turn around so instantly or not. After all, the second she laid eyes on this boy of whom Winnie had spoken so highly and so cryptically, the mystery would be over, the magical mystique in the air dissipated. The international students were not in attendance at Hogwarts, so it had to be a student here at the school - someone her age, or at least close enough; someone kind enough for the sweetest of the Ravenclaws, Winnie, to be fond of; someone handsome enough for Aly's admittedly particularly picky taste. There were so many enoughs, each so hesitant and unsure and a wild reach, and every one of them would vanish into the still air of the evening classroom the moment the sixth-year did a one-eighty.
Looking out into the stars twinkling above through the ceiling-height windows of the room, Aly forced herself to take a deep breath, enjoying her last moment of Schrödinger's blind date. (Maybe the blind date was with a cat!! That would have been wonderful - a blind date for Aly's beloved pet Dauncey, perhaps, rather than for her herself. That was the type of shenanigan she would have feasibly expected from Winnie. Then again, cats couldn't have chocolate and the cat being potentially quite dead would be, er, a bit of a downer.) As the door thudded shut behind her, Aly turned - first with her head, her shoulders and torso following with the rest of her body, and for the first time laid eyes on this beautiful, wonderful person about whom Winnie had ranted and raved.
Except... he was neither beautiful nor wonderful, and Aly had heard ranting and raving about this particular boy many a time before, but in a much more negative capacity.
Their eyes met - emerald filled with instantaneous rage versus an annoyed, disappointed grey - and suddenly, they were no longer wix in a classroom but rather Old West cowboys and criminals on a dusty town road. The sheriff was quicker to the draw, Aly's wand in her hand in an instant, and she whipped it towards the all-too-familiar face: "Petrificus Totalus!" Dee had hexed Kavi for her, after all, and she was going to pull her weight in this friendship, politeness be damned. But perhaps her aim was off because of the unexpected reveal of her worst enemy standing in front of her, or he was just that good at dodging spells just as much as he had practice dodging responsibility and blame; either way, the spell sailed just past his left ear, the light brightly illuminating his face in a way that Aly could not be at all unsure of his identity. Even with the giant scar bisecting his visage, he was unmistakably still Jack Warren: her best mate's ex-boyfriend, breaker of hearts, stabber of eyes, absolutely the last person she had expected to see and the one she had promised to immediately hex if she ever laid eyes upon him again. Not that Aly had ever expected to do so - after Jack had permanently blinded Peri in one eye at the previous year's spring ball, he had left the school, and Aly had thought him to be at least expelled if not permanently banned from ever stepping foot on the enchanted grounds again. Forget Muggle-repelling charms, the academy needed to invest in the invention of a Warren-repelling spell.
Clearly, though, he had not been banned. He had not been expelled. Because he was here, and for a moment, Aly thought that perhaps he'd just wandered into the wrong classroom, but no, the silver jewelry accenting a semi-fancy button-up suggested that, like the Ravenclaw, he'd dressed up for the occasion. It was very obvious that Jack was the boy about whom Winnie had promised emotional intelligence and otherworldly aesthetics, and Aly knew in that moment that her redheaded friend had truly hit her pretty head much harder than anyone had thought in that fall from the Owlery months earlier. There was no bloody way that anyone would ever think Jack Warren worthy of romance, let alone of her, for the rest of eternity. Not after what he had done.
Because her spell had failed, and he wasn't paralysed and therefore she knew she was not safe - Damn it, I should have brought the bloody knife after all! - Aly kept her wand at the ready and took a step back, her back bumping up against the window. Fuck - she was trapped. What had been promised as a dream of a night was quickly turning into a nightmare of epic proportions. Still, though, she refused to be scared, pure righteous anger taking over as she bit out a furious retort: "Why am I here? Why are you here? Why haven't you been-" She wanted to say locked up in bloody Azkaban where you deserve to be?, but something stopped her. "I dunno, expelled or something?" Despite her attempt at angry bravado, her voice wavered slightly. Aly was no Gryffindor, after all. This man had emotionally broken one best friend and physically broken another. Who knew what other dangers he posed, not only to the Hogwarts population as a whole but to her specifically...
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♫ What an idiot... ♫
@Jack Warren
mentions @Winnie Harper, @Dealla Prince, @Kavi Kattimani
♫ What an idiot... ♫
@Jack Warren
mentions @Winnie Harper, @Dealla Prince, @Kavi Kattimani
Reducio
Jack gave permission for him to be hexed (but Tatsu had other ideas). Rolls:
gen1 Aly Salinger || gen1 iNPC Manu Macedo || gen2 Kahira Valerian || staff Aulis Vorozheykin