[ 99th consult | voice ]

[dr_conscience]

There are always a few of these - curses that seem to come around with some kind of regularity, almost like traditions. I can't imagine making sense of exactly why it is some of them become annual events and others come and go, essentially forgotten. The theme of violating personal boundaries and dragging up memories for public viewing is hardly unique to this curse, but here it is again.

Of course, this one does have a potential bright side, if you're lucky enough to have the City issue something that's worth hanging onto instead of mass producing your best Risky Business reenactment. We all have moments we don't really want to share, that we don't want to be made public for scrutiny, but we also have moments we look back on and wish we had captured, people we wish we had reminders of with us here. It honestly can help to remember that it's a mixed bag out there.

[And switching it up from being too serious, he gives one tongue-in-cheek addition:]

There is also a risk of paper cuts, so you might want to take an umbrella if you go out.

Comments

[hexuality]

[And when he gets there, she's waiting in the lobby with two cups of coffee in hand, one of which she offers when he approaches her. Then Ginny smiles.]

Thought it'd be poor manners to demand all this out of you and not bring a peace offering.

[dr_conscience]

[That gets a nice smile out of him as he takes the coffee - even though he'd hardly have minded without it.]

Honestly, it's really not that much of a demand. But thank you.

[And in his other hand, he holds the photo he found - the rather foreboding shot of Ginny, Neville, and Luna huddled around the table. He offers it without delay - no sense in putting that off - though he doesn't turn the face of it towards her in doing so.]

And this would be yours. I thought it better to pick it up than just leave it lying there.

[hexuality]

[She smiles briefly in thanks as well as to shrug off his first words because it isn't a problem, never; and then she takes the photo and glances at it and the smile fades a little. Oh. It's not nearly as bad as the Chamber or any of their battles; if anything, it's bittersweet, because she misses Luna and Neville and the bond they formed that year...]

Thank you. [Merlin, they looked so young. She's still sixteen back home, she knows, but she traded for her years here because she earned them, feels more twenty than teen. Doesn't change the facts, though. Not really.] A little worse for wear, aren't we?

[Talk about this one first. She found one of his on the walk over and it's in her back pocket, but.]

[dr_conscience]

You do seem to be, a little.

[Not the worst, not the best. He'd imagine the context isn't the most pleasant, but it doesn't look too overtly bad.]

It looks like you were dealing with quite a bit.

[hexuality]

It was war, Dr Wilson. I reckon that's always quite a bit to deal with.

[It's easier to say, now, than in the past, perhaps because it is in the past now, instead of this dark, looming thing to look forward to the moment she returned home. She tips the photograph to the light and she can almost see the flickering torchlight in this snapshot of a memory.]

I've always been good with tactics, though. Planning was more Luna and Neville. [She grins up at him.] Never really been one for plans.

[dr_conscience]

[Well, there's the word that hasn't quite been said aloud yet. It quite suddenly fills in all the details on everything he's picked up on, each quiet concern he's kept in the back of his mind when speaking with Ginny. Terrible for someone so young to have had to deal with, but saying as much would only really accomplish a kind of pitying condescension.]

I would certainly say that it is - and that's a truth that I'm sure applies to any war in any world.

[And here she is, standing there and grinning. It doesn't strike him as that odd that she can grin about it. Clearly a single grin doesn't mean that everything's okay, because of course everything isn't. What it does imply to him, along with any number of other things he's noted in her, is that even though everything isn't okay, she can still see the things that are okay. It certainly speaks of a strength he respects in her.]

An ability to improvise is also a strength. Though you must have made quite a team, bringing those strengths together.

[hexuality]

[She never meant to keep it secret from him no more than she tried to keep it a secret from the rest of the City. It was just something she felt (still feels like) she had to handle alone, that it was no one else's war to fight or thing to fix. Ginny's expression softens into something more apologetic as if to say, I know or Should've mentioned it earlier.]

We were a nuisance in the best possible way. [Student rebellions usually don't attract the attention of the government, do they? Enough to try and kidnap the ringleaders for leverage against their families, or vice versa.] I think I just answered a few of your questions, haven't I?

[dr_conscience]

It does explain a few things, yeah.

[Worrying is Wilson's natural state of being, really. But his expression stays soft - it's certainly not something he would imagine anyone could be eager to share, any preconceived and misguided societal notions of glory and such aside. Definitely not something he faults her for.]

Is that still going on for you, back home?

[hexuality]

[She shakes her head, glancing down to the coffee cup in her hand and one fingertip tracing the lip of it.]

We won. [But it isn't over, not really. There's still so much rebuilding to do, funerals to attend, families to knit back together as best they can. She flips her eyes back up to him, adding: ] When I came back last July, it'd been a week since the battle at school.

[dr_conscience]

[One small sigh as he tries to imagine what that must have been like - coming back so soon after that, the wounds still fresh, a life to try to reclaim.]

I probably shouldn't be surprised at the City's knack for timing by now. I can't imagine it's worth much, but I'm sorry for that. And, for the record... if you want to talk about any of it, anytime, you can always let me know. [Reiterating:] If you want to.

[Because talking about something like this is something she needs to decide to do.]

[hexuality]

[She smiles, at first reflexive but entirely genuine.]

I'm rubbish at talking, but if I'm ever cursed to not shut up, you'll be the first to know. [Which is as good as it's going to get.] Don't worry about me, alright?

[Because she doesn't want to bother anyone with it, no one outside the loop. But now it's hard, because they're at such a comfortable place in the conversation, and she still has something of his that is less than pleasant as well.]

[dr_conscience]

If nothing else, I can do my best to keep you from rambling all over the network.

[A small smile, still tinged with concern.]

And I'll try not to worry too much.

[He's just being honest; that's the most he can ever do when it comes to worrying.]

[hexuality]

Done it once before, I don't think there's much else I can say at this point.

[She studies him for a moment, then she softens a bit and pulls out his photograph (young, angry, a bar) and holds it out.]

Except, well. Here.

[dr_conscience]

[Oh. This is... the second time he's seeing that. He gives a small, sardonic smirk at it as he takes it.]

Oh, good. There are copies.

[And, actually, a short laugh at the end of that statement.]

[hexuality]

[With a sympathetic grimace,]

Sorry. Seems like the City'll never spare our feelings if it can help it.

[dr_conscience]

[A small, sardonic smile.]

I would hardly expect otherwise at this point.

[He shakes his head slightly at the image, looking at it yet again.]

Hardly my finest moment, is it?

[hexuality]

I wouldn't know.

[She tips her head, one arm braced around her middle and the other lifting her coffee to her lips.]

It could be you're starting a fabulous bar fight for the hell of it. You wild rebel, Dr Wilson.

[dr_conscience]

[Funny choice of words, actually. There's a slight pursing of his lips.]

Well, I didn't mean to start a bar fight.

[He just kind of... did. A small breath before he voluntarily offers the context.]

I wasn't exactly having the best weekend to begin with, and... someone decided to play the same song on the jukebox, over and over, no matter how many times or how politely he was asked to stop. It was a stupid impulsive reflex.

[hexuality]

[She can't help it. She does bite her lip around a smile.]

You're lucky I know what a jukebox is, now.

[dr_conscience]

[Okay, that he actually laughs at, then pauses to take advantage of the lessening of his own tension for a sip of coffee. He shakes his head, still smiling.]

Well. I don't necessarily mind pausing to explain any non-magical terminology as needed.

[hexuality]

I think I can pass off as entirely non-magical with the time I've had to get used to it all.

[She pauses.]

I'm not, er, distracting you from work, am I? As much as I love stories.

[dr_conscience]

Almost. I mean, now that you've got Hot Wheels down, of course.

[He feigns very serious consideration on the point of Hot Wheels, making sure to express their gravity. Of course, he shifts back towards actual seriousness as he continues. A share gets a share in turn, it's only fair.]

And no, you're not. Fortunately enough, we get pretty decent breaks. Though as far as the story goes - well, that was the short version of it. It was my first medical conference, fresh out of school, and I'd just happened to receive divorce papers from my wife at the time... just a bad concentration of circumstances that made me lose my temper.

[hexuality]

Hot Wheels are the most important part of my cover story.

[Because it's a silly little thing they bonded over and Ginny's fond of that memory. She does listen, though, of course she does. She doesn't know a lot of divorced couples back home (more widowed than anything else), except maybe Dean's parents because his father left when he was so young, but maybe it was because he couldn't admit to being a wizard to his wife.

Gently,]

I'm sorry. [Then - ] I would've started a fight, too.

[dr_conscience]

I hadn't even meant to. I didn't throw the bottle at him, for the record - but it did break a mirror and that's what inspired the fight. I even paid for it, but... I still got into a bit of trouble for it.

Certainly not my proudest moment, but... it wound up not being the worst weekend of my life.

[hexuality]

Sometimes there're just some things we need to work out

[She smiles briefly.]

Ask anyone who knows me. It was hard during the rebellion at school—they stopped sports so I couldn't fly, couldn't get the stress out. I almost picked a few fights. [She did.] We're not built to cope with everything.