[ttd] just a game of waiting [jade]

May 2004

It was a Sunday afternoon and the weather was so nice, it almost reminded her of Italy. Marisa was glad that she had planned to spend the better part of the day with her friend Jade, looking forward to any excuse really to be outside with the summer sun on her cheeks. She was dressed casually in light wash denim and a light weight linen button down white shirt, a black clutch slung over her shoulder, her chestnut hair a riot of curls swept to one side as she walked with Jade down a busy street in the heart of London.

They normally had tea in Diagon, but Marisa hated being so caged in to a two block radius and there were so many wonderful little cafes and shops and eateries that she thought it a shame to not venture out once in a while. Today she had mentioned a new tea shop to Jade that she had visited last week that she thought she would enjoy and she was glad that Jade had easily agreed.

She hadn't seen Jade in a few weeks, work and what have you, so she was busy catching her friend up on the latest happenings with clients, little anecdotes with her cats Jamie and Joel, and travel plans for the summer.

A commotion behind them and a shout for help had her stopping midsentence as she turned to look as a man edged with an air of desperation snatched a women's purse from her arms and was sprinting towards them, fleeing as fast as he could. He was grizzled, his eyes sunken, and Marisa wondered what reasons he had for making this choice even as she slipped her vine wood wand from where it was tucked in her sleeve and whispered a tripping charm.

The man was sent sprawling to the ground, skidding before two good samaritans, a tall man and a woman, made a grab for him. He evaded and Marisa watched carefully, weighing the risk of doing more magic in this busy street, but the man dropped the purse and took off down an alley. It wasn't a perfect outcome, but the woman was returned her purse and crying, thankful, because her late husband's ashes were in her bag. She was on her way to scatter them. Marisa's heart twisted for her, all fear at repercussions from her little interference swept away. It had been the right thing even if it was a risk.

But there was still a question on her tongue. "Think anyone saw?" she asked with a glance at Jade, worrying her lip.

@Jade Carroll

May was one of Jade’s favourite months. The days were nicely long already, everything was in bloom. The weather was usually pleasant enough. She had been glad to hear from Marisa and had gladly accepted her suggestion to meet at a different place in London than the café in Diagon Alley where they usually met.

Jade adored her slightly younger friend and was eager to catch up with Marisa. There wasn’t a whole lot she had to tell her - Jade’s life hadn’t been very exciting these past weeks - but at least she could tell her about Luna Lovegood’s visit to her family’s toy shop which had been quite amusing, really. Surely it would amuse Marisa to hear that Luna had asked for a very peculiar plushy.

When they met, however, Jade gladly listened to the things her friend had to tell her, holding back her own little anecdote for later. She liked listening to Marisa and felt that the other witch had a very charming way of talking about her life. She was listening closely, a slight smile on her face, when a commotion interrupted Marisa’s story.

Eyes widening in surprise, Jade just watched how a man snatched a woman’s purse. She didn’t actually react and just watched the scene as though it was a play in the theatre. Marisa, however, was quick to react and cast a tripping charm.

“Nice one,” Jade said quietly, grinning slightly. Then Marisa asked her if she thought that anyone saw it and she shrugged. “Nah,” she said reassuringly. “I doubt that. Besides, you did the right thing,” she chuckled softly. “He totally deserved it.”

Marisa smiled lightly at Jade's praise and then her smile widened just a fraction as her reassurance, giving her a nod. Had he deserved it? She wasn't sure. Was it justice? She could agree to that, at the very least. It would be silly to admit that such an occurrence reminded her of her Auror days, considering a fleeing thief was nothing on the level of what she had been training for, so she kept that to herself as she said, "At least she got her purse back."

As they continued walking, Marisa glancing once more over her shoulder at the woman clutching her purse tightly, she asked after what had been going on with Jade as of late. "Tell me what's been going on for you," she implored as she glanced at her friend, feeling that niggling awareness she always did when she had spent too much time talking about herself (which was usually after 1.5 minutes).

They had just about reached the cute cafe, the exterior painted a muted mint green with an arch of flowers over the door, when something shrill sounded off in Marisa's purse. She clutched at it in alarm, surprised by the sound, as she realized a few seconds too late exactly what it was. The sneakoscope her brother had owled her for some unknown reason. It's shrill noise that seemed to echo off the building next to them only made Marisa even more eager to shut it up because if there was one thing she hated more than anything else it was attention. She opened her purse and the sound grew louder, but she tried to find it in the bag.

"My brother got me--" she said, feeling her face heat already, "--Sneakoscope. But I don't know how to turn it off?" she said, glancing at Jade seeking help as she grabbed at the item but didn't pull it from her purse since there were so many muggles around. She just hoped someone would think it a car alarm or something.

“Yes,” Jade agreed, “that’s definitely a good thing. She’s probably still in shock, though.” She wondered briefly if they should approach the woman and ask her if she was okay but decided against it. Marisa had used magic in muggle surroundings. It was better not to attract any attention to them now and just pretend like they had nothing to do with this at all.

“Oh nothing much,” Jade said lightly. “Just the usual, you know. I’ve been tending to my animals, and have been creating some new toys for the shop… I’m planning to travel again soon but I’m not yet sure where I’ll go. It’s time to write a new travel guide anyway. Where should witches and wizards travel in 2005?”

Jade usually spent some time exploring a travel destination and then it took another few months to write everything up and paint some pictures for the travel guide. She expected the new one to be published sometime before Christmas.

Startled by the sound that came out of Marisa’s purse, Jade didn’t go on talking about the locations she was considering but looked at her friend, feeling a little alarmed. “What the…” but Marisa already explained it. Jade stepped closer to her friend and peered into her bag. Then she looked left and right and pulled out her wand, pointing it at the sneakoscope, wordlessly casting a silencing charm on the item.

[OOC: Up to you if her charm was successful or not haha]

Marisa hummed her agreement. "I would imagine so, getting mugged right in a crowded street in the middle of the day?" She shook her head at the ridiculousness of it all. She took a small pleasure in the fact that she had been able to help in some small way even if the risk of being caught using magic still chased at her heels.

"What kind of new toys? Anything you can share?" she asked, glancing at her friend as they walked, their strides seeming to match up easily. Jade was so easy to get along with, Marisa always enjoyed her company, and her job sounded so intriguing. Marisa smiled, a laugh in her eyes as she shrugged. "I haven't traveled for pleasure the past few years, just mostly for work so I'm not sure I'm the right person to ask," she mused, trying to keep the note of misery out of her voice. She wanted to travel more, but it wasn't something she could do right now, not with all the debts she had to pay back thanks to her father's gambling. She still racked her brain for something useful. "I hear Dubai is nice. Or Saudi Arabia for something different?" she suggested, thinking of the two places Reed had mentioned he'd been to lately.

She saw Jade pull her wand and her skin felt tight on her face as she surreptitiously glanced around to make sure no one was watching. There were a few muggles wondering where the sound was coming from, but the wordless charm Jade did a second later made all go quiet and Marisa breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks," she said quietly as she closed her bag quickly and pushed the strap back up on her shoulder, one hand still on the bag, worrying it would start going off again any second. She pushed the curls back off her forehead as she looked around to see if anyone was staring and pointing at them like it felt like. No one was staring though and if they had been curious about the noise, they had tracked it down to the two women standing outside the tea shop.

"Hope it doesn't go off again," Marisa said, biting her lip, with a bit of a worried smile. Her mind filtered through some muggle-worthy excuses just in case it did as she held open the door for her friend, refusing to let something as silly as a gifted Sneakoscope ruin her day out with Jade.

“Yeah and I always feel that muggle women have less of a chance to fight back than we do,” Jade said, thoughtfully looking at the lady as she slowly seemed to recover from shock. As a witch with a wand at the ready Jade felt she could, if needed, defend herself even to a physically much stronger wizard.

Marisa asked about the new toys and Jade smiled, she liked to have several different jobs and took pleasure from designing toys that she would have liked to play with as a child or simply that she imagined young witches and wizards of this time would love. She particularly liked to make plushies of magical creatures but was definitely not limited to that.

“I made a new collection of magical pet plushies, kneazles, owls, toads… I’m still working on some magical effects for them. The owl does hoot and blink when you cuddle it. I was trying to charm them to flap their wings but my mother seems to think that this would be too much.” She smiled and shook her head as she recalled the conversation. ’imagine the child forgets the owl and it flaps its wings and something is knocked over and breaks. We don’t want that.’

Jade shrugged thoughtfully as Marisa mentioned Saudi Arabia and Dubai. She never liked hot places and imagined those would totally fit into the category of a place she’d consider too warm. Then again she could not limit her travel guides only to places that she enjoyed herself.

“We shall see,” she said evasively, “I’ll find an interesting place to visit for sure.”

Happy that she had been able to silence the sneakoscope, Jade smiled at her friend. “Yeah, I hope so, too,” she agreed as Marisa said she hoped the sneakoscope wouldn’t go off again.

As they stepped into the café, Jade’s smile only widened. “This place is lovely,” she said quietly as she looked around. “Have you been here before often?”

Marisa nodded, her brow creasing. The idea of muggle women having less of a chance at fighting back brought up memories of the break in at her shop and she tried not to shake. She was a half-trained Auror who had been steps away from her wand and still had gotten assaulted and yet many muggle women didn't have some of the training she did or magic. She was suddenly very grateful about the wand she felt stashed in her sleeve.

"Kneazles?" the witch asked, some brightness returning to her gaze at the idea of a cat-like plushie. She wondered if her two cats Joel and Jamie would take kindly to the imposter if she brought it home. Perhaps it depended on the charms Jade used. "That sounds nice. Does the toad hop? The cat meow?" she asked as they made their way to a small table by the window framed with mint color curtains. 

"I'm sure you will, your guides are always great," Marisa agreed easily. "I'm always finding new places to add to my travel list, I'm not sure how I will see them all even if I live to 100," she added with a smile as she pulled the petite menu towards her and gazed at the offerings. "I found it last month. The cranberry orange bread pudding is delicious, I might have to get some today too, but first.." Her finger trailed down the menu.

"I'll probably start with the chicken salad croissant. What are you thinking?"

“Yeah,” Jade smiled fondly. “I thought since some kids don’t get the pets they’d like they’d get a chance to have a plushie version of them at least. This collection is even a little cheaper than the more exotic magical creature plushies.” It was something that she had decided in a chat with her mother and Jade still wasn’t sure if it made sense or not. However, they’d see how it would work out in the end.

“The kneazle purrs,” she offered with a little laugh, “I’d like the toad to hop, it would be fun, but these are cuddly toys so they mostly react to the touch. A frog hopping away would send the wrong signals. I’m still figuring out details but it might change its colour to a warmer shade.”

They had taken a seat in the meantime and Jade beamed at her friend as Marisa said that her guides were always great. “Yeah, I know what you mean,” she offered, sighing. “I also think there are so many beautiful places to see. We cannot visit them all in a lifetime. Besides, there are some places I’d really like to revisit, too.”

“The chicken salad croissant sounds delicious,” Jade agreed and they both ordered their meal.

They talked little while they were eating and just enjoyed their food and the atmosphere at the café.

“I saw a fabric store just a few blocks away from this café,” Jade mentioned after they had already paid, “I’d like to go in there to check if they have plush that might work for some more magical creature plushies. Shall we go in and see what they have? Maybe you’ll even find something you can work with, too.” Having said that, Jade got to her feet and grabbed her handbag. Seconds later they stepped out onto the now sunlit street.

[out]

"It's a good idea," Marisa agreed easily. "I would have gotten one for my brother when he was in school," she added, thinking about Marco when he had just been a little Gryffindor. "Allergic to most pets," she explained before she nodded. "I can't wait to see them, I think they'll turn out adorable. They always do."

At the idea of traveling and seeing all the beautiful places, Marisa simply nodded with a serene smile. She wasn't exactly in a position right now to travel, but she knew at some point in her life, she would. At least she hoped she would. But she didn't want to bring the mood down with reasons why she couldn't, reasons why she chose not to so she nodded with a soft smile. "We can only try," she said in reply to trying to visit all of the places in one lifetime.

Lunch with Jade was nice, easy, a comfort and the food was delicious. This place definitely was moving up toward the top of her list of favorite eateries. "I'd love to, let's do it," she said as she placed her napkin on her plate, paid, and then followed Jade back into the street, the sunlight bouncing off the windows of muggle cars that trundled past as the two women fell into step towards the fabric district.

/end