Winter Wonderland

[Jeremy Rohlwing]

At least she hadn't said sorry. That was always quite refreshing. What was more, yet more of his offhand self-pity hadn't thrown her off much - she had merely agreed. Excellent. It was validation, wasn't it?

He paused at her questions, half regretting the fact that he'd steered them close enough to the - well, obvious - topic. He thought about it too much already, let alone how much it came up in conversation. Still. Jeremy had to be getting better at it, hadn't it? Same went for everything - practice made perfect, or whatever. Wasn't it getting easier, already? With time came acceptance, he supposed. "Nah, don't mind at all," he answered, consciously draining the words of any lingering bitterness before they reached his tongue. "Happened earlier this year. Got a bit knocked about -" he left his cane leaning against his leg for a moment to free a hand for tapping at the back of his head (mostly in demonstration, but also in reflex, as the last things he'd seen flashed up in his mind again) " - in a sodding carriage accident."

Now they were on the subject, how to get off it? he wondered. He didn't begrudge her asking, no - but there was only so far one could go with the gory detail, or the gloomy reality of living like this now. "So don't let anyone go telling you Irvingly's a dull place, no matter how quaint it might look," he added, a fleeting smile on his face as he pictured what it must look like here today - a little idyll nestled in the hills, Christmas stalls all decked out and a sweet festive feeling in the air. Jeremy had never used to appreciate it properly: the little town, all cobbled-together, mismatched and merry.  

Pfft, given I post at a snail's pace myself I should be thanking you XD

The following 1 user Likes Jeremy Rohlwing's post:1 user Likes Jeremy Rohlwing's post
   Lucy Pettigrew

[Margaret O'Neill]

Raising an eyebrow Meg glanced around at the happy looking little village with slightly renewed eyes: she has thought it a mostly dull but pretty looking place with little character beyond what a few itinerant muggles had brought with them, but it seemed she was wrong. It was a mostly dull, pretty place, with a bit of character courtesy of its muggle population and apparently, a total lack of cooperation between the muggle and wizarding population beyond the odd opportunity to get drunk and ride a sleigh.

She didn’t need to ask Ivy to know that a healer would have probably been able to save the young man’s sight. Accidents happened that were irreversible even in their world but she knew enough about the level of muggle medicine not to have a high opinion of it.

“Oh I wouldn’t dream of it,” Meg said with arch dryness, pushing down her opinions of the Irvingly situation. Having been here so few times she could count them on one hand she was hardly the expert.

“Plenty of carriage accidents down our way too I’ll have you know. Lords and ladies flying all about the place,” she smirked and finished her drink, contemplating another as she was in no immediately demand to take her lover home because she was too cold. Warming her up was a pleasant affair but not one she could afford to think about in public. “Of course we don’t have them really. Lords and ladies I mean.”

Merlin, she was babbling now and about utter bollocks, the worst possible combination. Best move away from that. If what she said was all this bloke would ever know about her then she didn’t want it to be utter shite. She’d give witches a bad name at this rate.

“Do you fancy another? That went down a bit well but I’m sure we could risk another. Unless you’re about to be summoned by your family?”

  

[Jeremy Rohlwing]

He huffed a laugh.

Carriage accidents in the wizarding world, just went to show that magic didn't solve everything. Jeremy supposed that was comforting, in the oddest kind of way. He couldn't pretend he didn't always feel a touch... less for lacking it, for having lived his whole life in simple oblivion of its existence; but at the same time, he didn't think it'd do him any good to have it. Magic clearly hadn't solved the problem of poverty (which, really, Jeremy hardly understood), and he didn't fancy the magical side of society any more than he did the usual one.

"Can't say I'm surprised," Jeremy said at her next remark, amused and a touch more emboldened than usual. Not that he knew a whole lot about lords and ladies in the ordinary world; his pre-Irvingly life, quite contentedly, had been far removed from the world of the upper classes and the nobility. They might've been from another planet. "Wouldn't have expected the Queen to trust your lot, anyway..." He didn't know all the backstory about why this insane proportion of wizardfolk had found themselves holed up in the Scottish countryside, but from what he'd gleaned since being in contact with them all, it had been because the normal world hadn't taken to them well, at one point.

"Ah, I'll risk another." Jeremy said dryly, though a corner of his mouth quirked up as he added, "If they ask, I'll just say I didn’t see 'em."

/wrap, maybe?

  

[Margaret O'Neill]

(Can do!)

Ah, that was more like it! Meg sniggered at the sense of humour so similar to her own and thought it a shame she was likely to never see this bloke again. He was certainly a rare one in either community and after spending the majority of her time in Attie’s company it was always a secret pleasure to be around someone who was more her sort. She didn’t feel like she was constantly about to say the wrong thing for once!

“I’ll get them, stop here,” she added unnecessarily but with the same dryness. “Don’t go wondering off now.”

As she pushed through the crowd she didn’t see any muggles looking as though they had misplaced a blind man so Meg felt satisfied that she would at least get a little bit more conversation out of her new acquaintance and didn’t feel too put out at handing over the strange muggle money to the vendor!