RP: Kicking Back After Work

[tt_alicia]

Date: 25. April 2002
Characters: Alicia Spinnet, Lisa Turpin, Remus Lupin and OPEN
Setting: The World’s End
Content: Worksafe
Status: Open: Public


…and then she needed to tighten the stitch juuuuuuust. With a sigh, Alicia watched how suture easily ripped through the fragile skin of her grape number she-stopped-counting-after-the-first-bowl. After Doctor Sloan had given her the task of suturing up a cut grape yesterday, she had spent her free time trying to make that happen, her goal being to learn suturing without leaving horrible scars behind without using magic. By the time she had left the Med Center yesterday, she had reached a point where she could sew the grape back together, though it would still shift when it was picked up. Today’s goal was to fill that lack in her skill-set.

Annoyed, she popped the massacred grape in her mouth, wincing when her tongue registered the sutures she had conveniently forgotten about. With a sigh, she spit the fruit into the rubbish bin, and sliced another grape in half.

It had been a very slow day, and about an hour – and several injured grapes– later Alicia had tied the final knot, slowly sitting up straight and with a small gasp noticed that the grape in front of her now had been sutured together with eight perfect stitches, tight enough to keep it from shifting yet without tearing the skin. That had earned her an approving nod from the older doctor, who had tossed an orange at her – which she had easily caught, much to his amusement – and had informed her that tomorrow she would be working on her running subticular stitches.

Sending Viktor a message that she was going to the pub and that he was welcome to join her when and if he could, she packed up her things, changed out of her scrubs and carefully carried the sutured grape with her across the Settlement Center to the pub. Gently she set it down in front of her and ordered celebratory plate of chips and an ice tea.

Comments

[tt_alicia]

Alicia had just paused chewing her chip to listen to another colourful string of words that came flowing from the kitchen, when the sound of the chair next to her being moved, had her turn to see who was joining her.

“Doing quite fine, Professor Lupin,” she smiled at him, chuckling as the tirade from the kitchen came to an end with a spectacular expletive. “Impressive. How about yourself, sir?” There was something uncanny about sitting in a pub, next to your professor – even if he technically wasn’t your professor anymore, he looked every bit the way he had looked when he had been teaching – and not have to worry about having points deducted for ordering an adult beverage. Of course, Alicia wasn’t drinking alcohol, but still.

[tt_remus]

Remus chuckled, "Well, if there were people here who didn't know how to properly curse, they do now." He hesitated sitting down. "I'm well. I hope I'm not interrupting anything." How embarrassing it would be if she was expecting Viktor to come along.

Remus did find it odd to be conversing with former students so freely, especially since they all had gained about ten years of age since he had last known them.

[tt_alicia]

“Every day’s a new opportunity to learn, right?”

When Professor Lupin hesitated, Alicia shook her head and gestured to the chair. “No, no, you’re not interrupting anything. I was just celebrating a smaller victory, and thought I’d do so by eating greasy pub food.” With a HouseElf in the house, even on evenings when she couldn’t feel bothered to cook, their supper was usually delicious and nutritious, which at the same time made pub food both seem subpar and yet oddly fulfilling at the same time. “Viktor may join me later, but so far I haven’t heard back from him yet.”

[tt_remus]

Remus nodded, "Thank you. Which smaller victory is that, if I may ask?" More often than not, he resorted to the pub. It wasn't as if he couldn't cook, it was just easier not to. He'd change, perhaps, one day. Thankfully, his metabolism hadn't caught up to him yet. That was a matter of time he knew.

[tt_alicia]

As Professor Lupin sat down, Alicia took a quick sip from her glass before she held up the grape, careful not to squeeze it too hard, especially now that it was beginning to dry slightly. “I’m learning to cope without magic,” she told him, a bit of pride shining through her smile as she showed him the grape. “Today I Healed a grape the Muggle way. Tomorrow I get to work on an orange.”

Chuckling softly, she placed the grape back on the table before she shrugged. “It’s a small thing, but it’s taken me… hours, well, days actually, to get this right, so it’s a small victory, but still a victory.”

[tt_remus]

"You did a really good job. I had to do that to myself once. It didn't look anywhere near that good though," Remus said. "Is it an orange without the peel? I would think it would be easier with it. Less tearing and all that," he said, thinking it over.

[tt_alicia]

“Thank you,” Alicia smiled at Professor Lupin, appreciating his acknowledgement of her work. His mention of his own attempt, however, had her frown slightly. For a wizard to use sutures on himself he would have had to have been in really bad shape, otherwise she would think he would have used magic to heal up any lacerations. “It’s never easy to do sutures on yourself, even if you have both hands free to do so,” she told him, even though she was fairly certain he was already aware of that fact.

Putting the grape back down, she shook her head. “Neither, actually, or well, both, perhaps.” Alright, that didn’t even make sense to herself, so she held up a hand with a disarming smirk. “I’m stitching the peel back on.” With a shrug, she sighed. “I’ve specialized in Artefact Accidents, you know… cauldron explosions, broom crashes, broken bones and torn skin, all those hands-on, physical injuries, the ones you can’t heal with potions alone, so aside from doing pregnancy tests and administering potions I’m pretty useless as a Healer right now.” Trailing her finger along the edge of her glass, she glanced at if for a moment, before she continued with a small smirk. “So when a Muggle surgeon from Three offered to teach me how to do with sutures what I usually do with magic, I jumped at the chance… even if I was a bit surprised that I’d be embroidering fruits in the process.”

She looked back up at her old (well, older than her, at least) Professor. “How about you, Professor Lupin? What are you doing these days?”

[tt_remus]

Remus made a slight face, "Putting the peel back on?" He was trying to picture someone trying to stick a peel back on the orange. That couldn't be fun. Let alone having to apply that to a human. "No, it wasn't east to do so, but the wound wouldn't heal with magic and I couldn't travel anywhere. So... I had seen a muggle movie once where they sewed someone up..." It hadn't been the smartest idea Remus had, but it was effective to say the least.

"Oh. In between working I just spend time with friends. Catch them up on what they've missed. It's great to have everyone together again. What have you been doing?"

[tt_alicia]

With an amused chuckle, Alicia nodded. “Yeah, and suturing it on the inside. It’s like… Healing a wound from the inside out to minimize scarring and lower the risk of infection.” Somehow, she couldn’t help but find it a little amusing that the man who had taught her most of what she knew about defending herself against horrific curses and whatever other dark things were squeamish about things she had long since learned to see as nothing more than a problem to be solved. Then again, it was something she had had to learn – the hard way – and Professor Lupin’s experience ran differently from hers. It made sense. To her.

“You did what you had to do,” she agreed, “and lived to tell the tale. Seems like you did the right thing then, yeah?” Tilting her glass gently towards him in a quiet toast, she took a healthy gulp. “Ah, I’ve been doing pretty much the same thing as you, except that I’ve had to make new friends here and every day I hope and pray that I’ll see my old friends’ names on the new arrivals list.” With a regretful shrug, though, she continued. “Been working at the med center, learning Bulgarian, planning our wedding and volunteered in one of the after school clubs for the younger kids, both magic and Muggles as a project to bridge whatever gaps might be between the two groups.”

[tt_remus]

"It left a nasty looking scar, but I survived," Remus chuckled, "Will I do it again? No." He listened to her run off her list of what she had been doing, seeming impressed. "Certainly makes my life seem quite dull. Bulgarian? How's that going?" He liked the idea of volunteering at the club. That was one way to ensure the peace between Wizards and Muggles. Start them out young.

"Have you two set a date?"

[tt_alicia]

“Eh, I’ve seen you with your friends here at the pub, I hardly think your life qualifies as dull,” Alicia grinned, “but really, I’ve just tried to keep busy, that is all.” Then she nodded. “Yeah, Bulgarian. Viktor’s Bulgarian, so’s his friends, we live in the Bulgarian enclave here in the Settlement, and the Babas, well, the old women, the grandmothers, they don’t speak a whole lot of English, so I’ve had to learn at least the basics. You know ‘yes’, ‘no’, ‘thank you’, ‘this is delicious, ‘no, I’m not pregnant’, and I figured why not go for it all? It’s a very… sturdy language,” she concluded as she shifted in her chair so she could rest her elbow comfortably on the edge of table.

“The wedding’s… agreed on, but no, we haven’t set a date,” she chuckled. “There’s just been too much happening to get any further than talking about how we want it done. Uhm…” Alicia paused for a moment. “Not to change the subject, but… you should come down to the club sometime. We try to do a different topic each week, like we started out with the very simple fact that magic and Muggle people really are very much alike. We’ve had Healers and Quidditch players in, the Dragon Keepers were a hit, and I think it’d be lovely for them to see that some witches and wizards are more than just people, and that though it may be scary because that’s what they’ve seen on film, it really has to do with the personality of the witch or wizard.” For a moment she chewed on her lip. “Would you be willing to talk to them about lycanthropy, Professor Lupin?”