RP: Saying Goodbye
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tutistempus_rpgDate: 15-22 October, 2001
Characters: Alicia Spinnet and Sam Spinnet [NPC]
Setting: London, Bath, The Ministry of Magic, The Portal and Settlement 1 in Zeelandia
Content: Adult, for adult topics
Status: Private: Complete
15 October, 2001
Alicia stared at the message in her hand. The delivery had been brief, very brief, and she hadn't had any chance to ask any questions about what or where or how or perhaps the most important to her right now: Why her? "It's all there," she'd been told, and had nodded dumbly, before she had closed the door to get a closer look. Three electronic devices, datapads he had called them. There had been no hesitation when she had accepted the invitation, including her brother and mother.
Just like everybody else, she suspected, she hadn't missed the disaster that was playing out around the Pacific Ocean or the swift change in the air, the dark clouds that had appeared as with the snap of her fingers, and the brewing panic in the people around her. There had been talks of a nuclear winter, which to her sounded very likely, but she hadn't known what to do. How could she possibly prepare for what in her mind was an ice age that would happen in a time span of a couple of years? She had taken to stockpiling various cans of food that she could find, warm clothes and had tried reading up on wards, hoping that somewhere there'd be one that could insulate either her flat or her parents' house. Her mum and Sam had been doing the same, and now she had gotten this message.
Apparently someone had found a safe place, a pocket in time, where they would be safe, and for some reason she didn't know, she had been chosen to go. More importantly, however; she could bring her immediate family. "Immediate family..." she muttered to herself. That would be her mum and Sam, since she didn't think the term 'immediate family' covered cousins either once or twice removed. The thought that it didn't include her friends, Ange, Fred, Oliver, Katie, all of them, tugged at her heart, and she couldn't even tell them that she was leaving or where she was going. It was all so very... secret.
Alicia stopped in her tracks. If it was all so secret, then maybe it was all an elaborate hoax. Slowly she shook her head. No, it seemed real enough, and now that she thought about it; she wouldn't lose anything by going to the Ministry at the appointed time one week from now. The worst that could happen would be that she would be cold somewhere other than her mum's house.
"Sam!" she called out as she knelt by the Floo. "Sam! Meet me at mum's place in twenty. You're not gonna believe what I have to tell you." How could he? After all, she could barely fathom it herself.
19 October, 2001
Alicia looked at the list in her hand. Most of the items on it had been crossed out, and the rest she was fairly certain she had acquired one way or the other. It had been difficult going by the list. Hell, it had been difficult writing the list, because how in Gryffindor's name did you make a list of what to bring back in time, where nothing existed yet apparently they would be provided for in return for their practical work?
When she had met up with Sam at their mum's place, it had taken a while for it all to sink through, and though her mum hadn't seemed as thrilled about it – come to think of it, Alicia had found her rather discouraged about the news – they had started planning how best to go about the preparations. In the end, they had agreed to meet up at the family house in Bath on the 21st, to start packing. They had up until then to get all of their practical things retrieved, purchased or otherwise acquired and ready for departure.
So Alicia had gone through everything she had, catalogued every piece of clothing and found that she didn't need much if anything at all. As it was, she was covered when it came to everything from warm winter clothes to skimpy, light summer wear. But they would wear, and she wouldn't be able to just go out and purchase any more, so she had hit the stores and started stocking up on extra shoes, boots, coats, jackets, jeans, shirts, jumpers, everything she could think of, so that she had at least two of each. That way she could probably make it through. She had kept it practical, valuing robustness over looks. She had emptied out her savings to finance her spree, though a tiny little voice kept whispering to her that she could get it billed and nobody would be the wiser as for why she couldn't pay. She didn't though. That would be too much for her, and she was certain that if she even tried it, alarms would go off and blinking signs would call her out as a fraud.
It was as she had passed Harrods that she had realized what she was doing, because right there, in the window, was the little black dress she had considered for so long, yet decided not to buy, since it would blow her monthly budget on her rather limited Healer's salary. Now, however, there was no reason to save the money, and though she couldn't quite explain what she would do with a black dress and red pumps in a prehistoric environment. She looked gorgeous in it, though, if she had to be honest, and decided that that would be her farewell present to herself.
21 October, 2001
Alicia looked over the things her mum had spread out across the living room floor. Something was off about it, though she couldn't figure out what. Every single thing made sense to her, as things her mum would want to bring. Keepsakes and memories, heirlooms and pieces of their family's history. There were even two piles of new clothes, though neither of them was of the kind she could ever envision her mum wearing.
"...and I want you to bring the tea set along," her mum continued from beside her. "It's probably silly, but you are English and at some point... well, you never know if you'll ever have to serve high tea or host..." Alicia turned to look at her mum as her voice broke. "Lisha, love, I've packed my wedding dress for you, and that would be a nice occasion for the tea set and the silverware."
Alicia shook her head, not understanding what her mum was talking about. The way she was talking was as wrong as the things they were looking at. "But mum, you're going to be there. It's not just me. It's us. You, me and Sam, right?" The look in her mum's eyes scared her more than anything. "Right?" she tried again, though the finality had left her voice. "Mum..."
Her eyes were beginning to sting, and she swallowed down when Sam's arm came into view as he wrapped it around their mum's shoulder. "I don't think mum's planning on going," he whispered, the shock of the realization Alicia was going through clear on his face.
"Mum," Alicia whispered again, pleading, hoping to somehow change her mum's mind, but her mum just shook her head.
"When your father died," she started, then took Sam's hand and looked up at him. "When Nigel died..." Alicia watched her family. She had lost her father and brother, but her mum had lost the love of her life and her son, and Sam had lost his father and twin. "Everything's changed so much, and I'm not sure I could do that again. I'll go... spend some time with them."
Try as she might, Alicia couldn't say a word. All she could do was look at her mum. She understood her, though; at least she thought she did. Her mum wasn't an adventurer, she had lost, she had survived major loss yet it had taken its toll on her. Making a new life was overwhelming, and to her mum apparently impossible, so when her mum enfolded her in a tight hug and started whispering apologies, all she could do was shake her head.
And then the tears came. The scent of her mum's perfume and knowing she wasn't likely to ever smell it again was what undid her. She didn't know how long they were standing there, but it was dark before they started packing.
22 October, 2001
Alicia woke up early. A sense of serenity was in the air, as if the panic and despair of yesterday had been cleaned out of their system. Last night had been cathartic. They had laughed and cried as they had stuffed themselves with all the things they could think of that they wanted to try, before they had shrunk and packed up everything they had gathered. Their mum had brought in their dad's old trunk and had asked them to please respect the written instructions she had taped to the inside of the lid. A glance into it before Alicia had shrunken it to fit in her backpack had revealed numerous gifts each with either a date or situation scribbled neatly across the front. Then they had curled up in the sofa with the photo albums and gone through every single one of them, before they, too, had been shrunk and added to the luggage, and they had climbed into bed, sleeping on either side of their mum like they had done when they were kids.
Turning onto her side, Alicia found her mum looking at her. She frowned a little.
"I was watching you sleep, Lish," she said gently, and Alicia nodded. This was it. They were leaving, mum was staying, and though she was going to miss her fiercely, she now knew that that was the way it had to be and she now knew what she had to do.
"Like when I was little," Alicia smiled, and her mum nodded. "Sam snores," Alicia giggled, and in that instance the snoring stopped and Sam's sleepy voice rumbled - something about him doing no such thing.
Before breakfast, Alicia indulged in a long soak in the bathtub. She didn't know what was waiting on the other side, and would hate to have missed the opportunity should their new life come without a tub. Heading into the dining room, she stopped by her Healer bag and slipped two vials of clear liquid into the pocket of her jeans.
Breakfast was lovely, and soon they were standing by the door, Alicia and Sam each with a large backpack on their back, Alicia with a guitar case and Sam with his keyboard in one hand, a pile of requisition parchments in the other. They were ready to go, all they needed was to say goodbye.
Alicia stood back while Sam kissed and hugged their mum, and as it was her turn, she allowed herself to disappear into her mum's arms, fishing out the two vials of Draught of Living Death from her pocket. "You need to be careful with this," she warned her mum, hoping to get the message through to her. "One vial will make you sleep like the dead. Two will immediately cause your heart rate to spike and then drop critically." She pressed the vials into her mum's hand and once again could feel the tears stinging in her eyes as they kissed and turned away.
All it took was an apparition to take them from their childhood home to the Ministry of Magic. Neither Sam nor Alicia said anything as they weighed in their wands and followed the directions they had been given. They handed back the datapad that had been intended for their mum, and Sam handed over the requisitions to have larger musical instruments that didn't do well with shrinking to be sent through. Looking around them as they started walking, Alicia thought she recognized a face or two, but couldn't wrap her mind around who was around her.
It was only one small step, and suddenly Alicia felt as if she was Apparating through the Floo and then she stepped out into the richest looking forest she had ever seen. "Jungle," she muttered to herself, and stumbled slightly when Sam was too busy to watch where he was going.
"What?" he asked her, and hoisted up the keyboard case.
"It's a jungle," Alicia told him, to which Sam just shrugged and looked as if she had just told him that the water was wet.
The drive back to the settlement, the welcome, the signing on for a job and a house all went by as if a blur, and yet Alicia found not a shred of confusion about it all. She and Sam would be sharing a duplex on the northeast corner of the second and eastern path that she would be checking in at the medical center tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock to start working as a Healer, while Sam would be teaching at the magical school.
All of their belongings were in their houses, and was waiting to be unpacked an un-shrunk, but first they had some business to tend to, something they had promised their mum before they had gone to bed the night before.
"Like when you moved into your flat in London," Sam said as he sat down next to Alicia on the small stairs leading up to the deck that connected their houses.
"And like when you and Nigel moved into that hole in Glasgow," Alicia grinned and handed him the bottle that had been kept safe wrapped up in the quilt from Alicia's bed.
"Oi, that was above a bookstore," Sam reminded her and popped the cork to the cheap, sparkling wine and filled each of their coffee mugs with the chilled drink. "That was a classy hole."
"To classy holes," Alicia chimed in and clinked her mug to Sam's. "May this be the classiest of them all."
Characters: Alicia Spinnet and Sam Spinnet [NPC]
Setting: London, Bath, The Ministry of Magic, The Portal and Settlement 1 in Zeelandia
Content: Adult, for adult topics
Status: Private: Complete
15 October, 2001
Alicia stared at the message in her hand. The delivery had been brief, very brief, and she hadn't had any chance to ask any questions about what or where or how or perhaps the most important to her right now: Why her? "It's all there," she'd been told, and had nodded dumbly, before she had closed the door to get a closer look. Three electronic devices, datapads he had called them. There had been no hesitation when she had accepted the invitation, including her brother and mother.
Just like everybody else, she suspected, she hadn't missed the disaster that was playing out around the Pacific Ocean or the swift change in the air, the dark clouds that had appeared as with the snap of her fingers, and the brewing panic in the people around her. There had been talks of a nuclear winter, which to her sounded very likely, but she hadn't known what to do. How could she possibly prepare for what in her mind was an ice age that would happen in a time span of a couple of years? She had taken to stockpiling various cans of food that she could find, warm clothes and had tried reading up on wards, hoping that somewhere there'd be one that could insulate either her flat or her parents' house. Her mum and Sam had been doing the same, and now she had gotten this message.
Apparently someone had found a safe place, a pocket in time, where they would be safe, and for some reason she didn't know, she had been chosen to go. More importantly, however; she could bring her immediate family. "Immediate family..." she muttered to herself. That would be her mum and Sam, since she didn't think the term 'immediate family' covered cousins either once or twice removed. The thought that it didn't include her friends, Ange, Fred, Oliver, Katie, all of them, tugged at her heart, and she couldn't even tell them that she was leaving or where she was going. It was all so very... secret.
Alicia stopped in her tracks. If it was all so secret, then maybe it was all an elaborate hoax. Slowly she shook her head. No, it seemed real enough, and now that she thought about it; she wouldn't lose anything by going to the Ministry at the appointed time one week from now. The worst that could happen would be that she would be cold somewhere other than her mum's house.
"Sam!" she called out as she knelt by the Floo. "Sam! Meet me at mum's place in twenty. You're not gonna believe what I have to tell you." How could he? After all, she could barely fathom it herself.
19 October, 2001
Alicia looked at the list in her hand. Most of the items on it had been crossed out, and the rest she was fairly certain she had acquired one way or the other. It had been difficult going by the list. Hell, it had been difficult writing the list, because how in Gryffindor's name did you make a list of what to bring back in time, where nothing existed yet apparently they would be provided for in return for their practical work?
When she had met up with Sam at their mum's place, it had taken a while for it all to sink through, and though her mum hadn't seemed as thrilled about it – come to think of it, Alicia had found her rather discouraged about the news – they had started planning how best to go about the preparations. In the end, they had agreed to meet up at the family house in Bath on the 21st, to start packing. They had up until then to get all of their practical things retrieved, purchased or otherwise acquired and ready for departure.
So Alicia had gone through everything she had, catalogued every piece of clothing and found that she didn't need much if anything at all. As it was, she was covered when it came to everything from warm winter clothes to skimpy, light summer wear. But they would wear, and she wouldn't be able to just go out and purchase any more, so she had hit the stores and started stocking up on extra shoes, boots, coats, jackets, jeans, shirts, jumpers, everything she could think of, so that she had at least two of each. That way she could probably make it through. She had kept it practical, valuing robustness over looks. She had emptied out her savings to finance her spree, though a tiny little voice kept whispering to her that she could get it billed and nobody would be the wiser as for why she couldn't pay. She didn't though. That would be too much for her, and she was certain that if she even tried it, alarms would go off and blinking signs would call her out as a fraud.
It was as she had passed Harrods that she had realized what she was doing, because right there, in the window, was the little black dress she had considered for so long, yet decided not to buy, since it would blow her monthly budget on her rather limited Healer's salary. Now, however, there was no reason to save the money, and though she couldn't quite explain what she would do with a black dress and red pumps in a prehistoric environment. She looked gorgeous in it, though, if she had to be honest, and decided that that would be her farewell present to herself.
21 October, 2001
Alicia looked over the things her mum had spread out across the living room floor. Something was off about it, though she couldn't figure out what. Every single thing made sense to her, as things her mum would want to bring. Keepsakes and memories, heirlooms and pieces of their family's history. There were even two piles of new clothes, though neither of them was of the kind she could ever envision her mum wearing.
"...and I want you to bring the tea set along," her mum continued from beside her. "It's probably silly, but you are English and at some point... well, you never know if you'll ever have to serve high tea or host..." Alicia turned to look at her mum as her voice broke. "Lisha, love, I've packed my wedding dress for you, and that would be a nice occasion for the tea set and the silverware."
Alicia shook her head, not understanding what her mum was talking about. The way she was talking was as wrong as the things they were looking at. "But mum, you're going to be there. It's not just me. It's us. You, me and Sam, right?" The look in her mum's eyes scared her more than anything. "Right?" she tried again, though the finality had left her voice. "Mum..."
Her eyes were beginning to sting, and she swallowed down when Sam's arm came into view as he wrapped it around their mum's shoulder. "I don't think mum's planning on going," he whispered, the shock of the realization Alicia was going through clear on his face.
"Mum," Alicia whispered again, pleading, hoping to somehow change her mum's mind, but her mum just shook her head.
"When your father died," she started, then took Sam's hand and looked up at him. "When Nigel died..." Alicia watched her family. She had lost her father and brother, but her mum had lost the love of her life and her son, and Sam had lost his father and twin. "Everything's changed so much, and I'm not sure I could do that again. I'll go... spend some time with them."
Try as she might, Alicia couldn't say a word. All she could do was look at her mum. She understood her, though; at least she thought she did. Her mum wasn't an adventurer, she had lost, she had survived major loss yet it had taken its toll on her. Making a new life was overwhelming, and to her mum apparently impossible, so when her mum enfolded her in a tight hug and started whispering apologies, all she could do was shake her head.
And then the tears came. The scent of her mum's perfume and knowing she wasn't likely to ever smell it again was what undid her. She didn't know how long they were standing there, but it was dark before they started packing.
22 October, 2001
Alicia woke up early. A sense of serenity was in the air, as if the panic and despair of yesterday had been cleaned out of their system. Last night had been cathartic. They had laughed and cried as they had stuffed themselves with all the things they could think of that they wanted to try, before they had shrunk and packed up everything they had gathered. Their mum had brought in their dad's old trunk and had asked them to please respect the written instructions she had taped to the inside of the lid. A glance into it before Alicia had shrunken it to fit in her backpack had revealed numerous gifts each with either a date or situation scribbled neatly across the front. Then they had curled up in the sofa with the photo albums and gone through every single one of them, before they, too, had been shrunk and added to the luggage, and they had climbed into bed, sleeping on either side of their mum like they had done when they were kids.
Turning onto her side, Alicia found her mum looking at her. She frowned a little.
"I was watching you sleep, Lish," she said gently, and Alicia nodded. This was it. They were leaving, mum was staying, and though she was going to miss her fiercely, she now knew that that was the way it had to be and she now knew what she had to do.
"Like when I was little," Alicia smiled, and her mum nodded. "Sam snores," Alicia giggled, and in that instance the snoring stopped and Sam's sleepy voice rumbled - something about him doing no such thing.
Before breakfast, Alicia indulged in a long soak in the bathtub. She didn't know what was waiting on the other side, and would hate to have missed the opportunity should their new life come without a tub. Heading into the dining room, she stopped by her Healer bag and slipped two vials of clear liquid into the pocket of her jeans.
Breakfast was lovely, and soon they were standing by the door, Alicia and Sam each with a large backpack on their back, Alicia with a guitar case and Sam with his keyboard in one hand, a pile of requisition parchments in the other. They were ready to go, all they needed was to say goodbye.
Alicia stood back while Sam kissed and hugged their mum, and as it was her turn, she allowed herself to disappear into her mum's arms, fishing out the two vials of Draught of Living Death from her pocket. "You need to be careful with this," she warned her mum, hoping to get the message through to her. "One vial will make you sleep like the dead. Two will immediately cause your heart rate to spike and then drop critically." She pressed the vials into her mum's hand and once again could feel the tears stinging in her eyes as they kissed and turned away.
All it took was an apparition to take them from their childhood home to the Ministry of Magic. Neither Sam nor Alicia said anything as they weighed in their wands and followed the directions they had been given. They handed back the datapad that had been intended for their mum, and Sam handed over the requisitions to have larger musical instruments that didn't do well with shrinking to be sent through. Looking around them as they started walking, Alicia thought she recognized a face or two, but couldn't wrap her mind around who was around her.
It was only one small step, and suddenly Alicia felt as if she was Apparating through the Floo and then she stepped out into the richest looking forest she had ever seen. "Jungle," she muttered to herself, and stumbled slightly when Sam was too busy to watch where he was going.
"What?" he asked her, and hoisted up the keyboard case.
"It's a jungle," Alicia told him, to which Sam just shrugged and looked as if she had just told him that the water was wet.
The drive back to the settlement, the welcome, the signing on for a job and a house all went by as if a blur, and yet Alicia found not a shred of confusion about it all. She and Sam would be sharing a duplex on the northeast corner of the second and eastern path that she would be checking in at the medical center tomorrow morning at 8 o'clock to start working as a Healer, while Sam would be teaching at the magical school.
All of their belongings were in their houses, and was waiting to be unpacked an un-shrunk, but first they had some business to tend to, something they had promised their mum before they had gone to bed the night before.
"Like when you moved into your flat in London," Sam said as he sat down next to Alicia on the small stairs leading up to the deck that connected their houses.
"And like when you and Nigel moved into that hole in Glasgow," Alicia grinned and handed him the bottle that had been kept safe wrapped up in the quilt from Alicia's bed.
"Oi, that was above a bookstore," Sam reminded her and popped the cork to the cheap, sparkling wine and filled each of their coffee mugs with the chilled drink. "That was a classy hole."
"To classy holes," Alicia chimed in and clinked her mug to Sam's. "May this be the classiest of them all."
