Winter Came Early, Didn't It? on Hospital Wing

Zevalyn Ives (with Jozua Sparks)

March 28, 2018 1:07 PM

Winter Came Early, Didn't It? by Zevalyn Ives (with Jozua Sparks)

Zevalyn shivered, the greenhouse feeling frigid in this bitter autumn cold snap. She was feeling a bit listless too, in addition to cold, but Georgia's shriek got her sitting up straight and looking around for her her best friend. . . who was gone. Fortunately, Professor Xavier seemed to have the problem in hand, though he inexplicably took the time out of dealing with Georgia's emergency to point at Jozua, seated next to her, and order, “Take Zevalyn to the hospital wing!”

Zevalyn was about to protest, but then the professor cast a finite and the already frigid greenhouse became downright intolerable with cold. She immediately began chattering and barely noticed Jozua helping her to her feet and out the door. Outside was colder still and Jozua - she had misjudged him, he was a decent sort after all - gave her his robes to wrap around herself, and he walked back to the school in these winter conditions wearing nothing but short sleeves and didn't even complain about it.

They eventually made it in to the Hospital Wing, which was also cold. One would think a wizard school could handle a bit of a cold weather, even if it was a bit out of season, better that this.

“She's got a fever,” Jozua told the Healer. “Zevalyn Ives, Fifth year, Aladren.” He seemed to know the drill here.

But wait, fever? “I don't have - oh.” Wait. That must be why Jozua hadn't looked even a little bit chilly walking back. It wasn't actually as cold as she was perceiving it. “It started on the way out to Herbology. I thought it was just cold outside.” She rubbed her arms, “and inside. Do you have a blanket?”

“The greenhouse was like a million degrees,” Jozua put in, “and she was still cold.”

“It was not that warm,” she disagreed. “It was cold there, too.”

“I was sweating. See? Smell me.” He stepped closed and raised an arm.

“Ug! Yuck!” No, he was a terrible person after all. A stinky smelly terrible person.

1 Zevalyn Ives (with Jozua Sparks) Winter Came Early, Didn't It? 380 Zevalyn Ives (with Jozua Sparks) 1 5

Aisha Kapoor

March 30, 2018 9:44 PM

No, it really didn't by Aisha Kapoor

Aisha was becoming less and less surprised at the sight of shivering students appearing in the hospital wing.

“Thank you,” she nodded at Jozua. He and Joe had been the opposite types of patients… Joe had been hard to persuade to stay, Jozua hard to get rid of. On the whole though, that meant he'd given her less trouble, and he was being helpful now. She was inclined to think of him as quite a nice boy, and would have had trouble matching the rest of the staff's description of him with the person she'd met.

She retrieved Zevalyn's file, listening to their additional information, which quickly dissolved into an argument and… Ok, he was quite a nice boy, but he was still a teenager, and apparently they had a tendency to be either disgusting or lacking in social grace or both.

“Thank you, Jozua,” she said, much more flatly this time. “I think you can head back to class now. Zevalyn, I think I agree with his diagnosis… Open up,” she requested, sending the thermometer over. It sat silently for a minute before squeaking out ‘102.'

“Ok. Into bed. Take off your outer layers - you won't be feeling cold once you've had some medication. Any allergies? Any other symptoms?”

13 Aisha Kapoor No, it really didn't 1482 Aisha Kapoor 0 5

Kir, Georgia and Healer Kapoor

April 04, 2018 1:06 PM

A little later by Kir, Georgia and Healer Kapoor

(OOC - I write for all three characters, hence the joint post. This is set later that same day).

IC
It had started with the intention of borrowing Georgia's class notes, so he could take them to Zevalyn. But Kir had felt obliged to ask how she was, post-invisibility. Well, not obliged… He liked her, and he had been worried by her disappearance because that was not really a thing that was meant to happen. And she had seemed a little run down from the whole thing - complaining of feeling kind of sluggish, and between the fact that there was a fever going round and her best friend had it, Kir hadn't been exactly surprised when he'd put a hand on her forehead and found it was on the warm side, so now he was making two deliveries to the hospital wing instead of one… Not that Georgia wouldn't have been capable of going by herself, she didn't seem super sick yet, but he was going anyway, and it was always nice to have a bit of moral support.

“Hi,” Georgia greeted the healer a little awkwardly. “I… I don't think I'm that sick?” she added questioningly, “But… I dunno. I feel kinda off. And I went invisible earlier. And Kir said I should come see you just in case…”

“I think Kir sounds very sensible - I assume that's you?” the healer nodded approvingly at the boy. “Better to catch it before it gets serious. And are you just here to help - not feeling sick yourself?” she added.

“Actually, I was coming to visit A- Zevalyn. If that's allowed.”

“Quiet, well behaved visitors are permitted,” she nodded, without too much warning in her voice, seeing as he'd already given some evidence that he belonged to that category. “Now, you come over here and have a seat,” she added to Georgia, drawing a curtain (which seemed to block out a surprising amount of sound as well as screening people from view) across the middle of the room so that she could speak to her new patient in private.

Kir made his way over to Zevalyn's bed.

“Hi,” he smiled. “How are you feeling? I brought you notes from the classes you missed - I tried to take down anything relevant to the fifth years alongside my own notes. I was going to borrow Georgia's for you too, but well, you see how that ended.” He placed the stack of parchments on Zevalyn's bedside table, hoping that she appreciated the gesture. Flowers were, of course, much more traditional… But she wasn't really very traditional, which he liked, and she was an Aladren, so maybe she'd appreciate the class notes more. Still… flowers were thoughtful…. He vacillated, wondering which would have been better. Beside him, the pages began folding themselves, until a pretty little stack of origami blossoms had made themselves out of the notes.

13 Kir, Georgia and Healer Kapoor A little later 366 Kir, Georgia and Healer Kapoor 0 5

Zevalyn

April 08, 2018 3:35 PM

Nice to see you by Zevalyn

Zevalyn was relieved when the Healer sent Jozua away. He was so - ugh. Though, in her disgust, she had forgotten to be miserable with cold and fatigue for a moment. For just a moment, she wondered if he had done that on purpose? No. Not likely.

She opened her mouth dutifully for the thermometer and was not terribly surprised that it reported the other two had guessed correctly. 102. Not the worst fever she'd ever heard off, but definitely something that needed to be treated. And if it wasn't actually frigid in here, then treatment was more than welcome, though the idea of removing her layers was not. Reluctantly she did so, and realized she still had Jozua's robes. Well, she'd figure out how to get them back to him later.

"No allergies, just some fatigue for other symptoms," she answered the questions, as she wasn't actually aware of having raised the temperature in the greenhouse, despite Jozua bringing it up. She just figured it was a greenhouse. Greenhouses were hot, weren't they? Especially if it wasn't really zero degrees outside like she'd thought it was. The thing with her CoMC notes didn't even occur to her to bring up, as that had been over a week ago.

She took her medicine and laid down, glad for the opportunity to rest and thankful that she'd escaped the pus plants, even if it meant she was losing the XP for that encounter.

She woke some hours later, feeling much better, and more temperature-normal, if a tiny bit warm, and found a book to read. She was a few chapters in when Kir and Georgia came in. She smiled sympathetically at Georgia, but she was secretly glad she'd have a bit of company until the thermometer said her temperature returned to normal (it was currently at a respectable 99.0, as of about fifteen minutes ago) and she was allowed to go back to her own room.

While Georgia got checked out, Zev turned her attention to Kir and smiled gratefully as he offered her the class notes. "Thank you," she said and meant it, "I only just caught up, and I don't want to fall behind again. And thanks for helping Georgia," she added, because that was important, too. "She's my best friend," she told him, in case he hadn't realized that, "So I'm glad someone was looking out for her while I'm stuck in here." She went to pick up the class notes to glance through them to see if she had any questions about them, and then stopped, because they had folded them into flowers while she was talking. "Oh, um, well, that's . . . pretty," she said. Not practical for reading them, but . . . pretty. "Did you charm them?" she asked, impressed by the spell quality and creativity, if not the function of the charm.\r\n

1 Zevalyn Nice to see you 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Kir

April 09, 2018 8:30 AM

I come bearing black humour and awkward personal problems by Kir

Amber was definitely looking better, he was pleased to note. She was engaging in the suitably Aladren-like behaviour of sitting up reading, and was no longer shivering convulsively. All good signs. He was sure she'd be back to her usual adventuring self soon enough.

“I reckon I'll be getting offered a job here soon. Or possibly ending up here myself. She's the second one I've brought in. This horrible fever that's spreading round everyone better not be contagious,” he joked. “And glad to help. Georgia's nice. And we're the friendly house, after all,” he smiled, when she thanked him for looking after her friend. “I hear in Crotalus that if you can't trace your family back three generations they just leave you dying on the floor. Sorry,” he added quickly, realising how callous that probably sounded, “I… I don't really mean that,” figuring that wasn't much of an explanation he added. “My family is ex-society, so they have a pretty dark sense of humour about the whole thing.”

He glanced at the notes as Zevalyn went to pick them up and did a double take. Even if he had been inclined to lie - which he was not - he was pretty sure the look on his face right now meant it wouldn't be credible if he said ‘yes.' He was about to say ‘no' when an even more honest answer sprung to mind…

“Not intentionally,” he said, regarding the flowers with suspicion. “But… I mean, I was thinking about it. I mean, how people normally brought flowers but I'd brought homework instead. And earlier, I… I think I made something move.” And right before his nails had been painted, hadn't he been thinking about the Tepp girls who'd been doing that? He honestly thought he was a much likelier candidate for making himself over than Amber was.

“I guess it's going around this year,” he added, going rather red, because for all that Zevalyn thought she'd done it too, and Jozua definitely had it was kind of embarrassing. Like he wasn't completely in control of his own body. Which, he knew that as a teenager, he couldn't fully expect to be… His dad had had a really, really awkward conversation with him about those kinds of things. Like, how his voice was going to go through a phase of embarrassing the hell out of him. And… other stuff. Other stuff that he definitely didn't want to discuss with Amber, and so if accidental magicking was on the same list as… as that stuff, then…Just no. So much no. But awkward as he'd found the talk with his dad,his family was pretty open about Teenage Things and they hadn't mentioned this being a possibility. Which either meant that it wasn't, or that it was so taboo that even his family didn't want to talk about it.

“So, uh, homework or flowers? For future reference - though hopefully I won't need to visit you again here.”

13 Kir I come bearing black humour and awkward personal problems 366 Kir 0 5

Zevalyn

April 18, 2018 11:42 PM

Does this medicine make people extra wordy? by Zevalyn

Zevalyn blinked in surprise at Kir's apparently very low opinion of Crotali. She had already basically eliminated all the Crotalus boys in or near her year as potential ball dates, because she assumed being a muggleborn meant they wouldn't be interested in her, but she hadn't specifically assigned that mindset to Crotalus as a whole. And there was a rather large gulf between ‘not dating' and ‘leaving for dead' that she wouldn't attribute even to the snootiest of the purebloods.

Maybe she'd just been too busy studying to notice and she was letting her pre-magic life of being part of the privileged class influence her, but she didn't think anyone in the school was quite that racist against her. It just wasn't something pretty blond girls really needed to worry about in her life experience. If she needed help, people tended to appear out of the woodwork to help her, regardless of them knowing her parents were non-magical.

Maybe she was still privileged, just not by as large a margin as in the muggle world. She wondered if maybe straight up muggleborns were actually luckier in that regard than people like Kir and Georgia who got hit with institutionalized racism earlier in their lives. Heck, Zevalyn had two extra years - essentially three when one accounted for her September second birthday - of avoiding that kind of quiet animosity than even most muggleborns. She came into the wizarding world as a teenager, a day shy of fourteen, already pretty sure of who she was becoming (and thinking that ‘witch' was plenty enough to have to work into that self-image), rather than as an impressionable pre-teen only just starting on that journey, and maybe that made a huge difference in how she saw herself and the world around her. That she was sixteen before she took her nose out of her books and paid any attention to the people around her probably protected her even more.

She still didn't think anyone was about to leave her for dead or anything (that was, she hoped, an extreme exaggeration), but she supposed Kir's resentment may not be entirely unfounded, especially if his family had cause to walk away from that part of wizarding society. Judging by the rainbow pins and badges on his bag, she could probably guess which issue had been under contention. Which, come to think of it, may be a whole family crusade since many of them said ‘The McLeod Foundation' on them which sounded like something that probably didn't just spring up recently when they realized their fourteen year old son was into guys and so probably had nothing to do with Kir himself at all as Georgia had assumed, though of course, neither did it entirely eliminate the possibility that she was correct . . . “Erm,” she said awkwardly, because that thought - the one where Kir may be promoting his family's cause rather than his own orientation- put the magically folded flowers into a whole different light.

Granted, that he may be bi and was possibly flirting with her had already occurred to her, but that he was potentially straight and almost certainly flirting with her somehow seemed a bit more . . . she didn't know, imminent or something? That was probably the wrong word. It just felt more like it was actually happening and she wasn't just imagining it.

It wasn't that she didn't think guys would want to flirt with her (assuming, of course, they weren't culturally prohibited from doing so due to her being a muggleborn) but it just seemed like so many of the guys in the school were that sort, that when it happened, she thought she might still be misinterpreting it, especially if there was a chance the guy in question was gay. Which there still was but - argh, she was so confused and wasn't sure if that was because of hormones, medication, or her recent brain frying.

At least there was a concrete question for her to answer: Homework or flowers, which made for a better sickbed present?

He was probably flirting. She was pretty sure.

Right, answer to question, she should do that. “Ah, well, homework is practical and something I need, but um,” she looked a bit helplessly at the homework she currently had, “homework folded up into origami flowers is . . . less so. But at least they won't die. Cut flowers always die, and it's sad, and what sort of message is that sending to somebody in a sickbed anyway? But they're pretty, while they last, and until they do that dying thing, they help lighten the atmosphere and make you feel better emotionally, if not physically, so they're not entirely useless either, but then there is the dying thing, so maybe a potted flower? Or balloons. I like balloons. Wizards have balloons, right? Though probably not the little ones on sticks that say ‘Get Well Soon!' and are all shiny and reflective on the back. Those are cute.”

Also on the matter of hormones, medication, and her recent brain frying, she wondered which of those was responsible for her excessive amount of talking.

“Though given that I'm on the mend and you're the one hanging out with sick people, the better question is probably which do you prefer?”

1 Zevalyn Does this medicine make people extra wordy? 380 Zevalyn 0 5

Kir

April 19, 2018 9:18 AM

Something round here definitely does by Kir

He got a blink and an ‘erm.' He tried to tell himself that it could have gone down worse, in that Zevalyn didn't seem actively upset with him for being a deeply horrible person who had said such a terrible thing, but it wasn't really, by any stretch of the imagination, going well either.

He wished he could do a better job of explaining so that she didn't think badly of him for what he'd said. Normally he didn't shy away from talking about how he felt, but this was deep and personal and complicated, and he wasn't really sure where it would stop if he started. He hated the politics of the Pureblood world with a passion, but at this stage his classmates were just the victims of that, not the perpetrators. Unless they were actively antagonistic to him, he couldn't regard them as The Enemy. He was also supposed to be available to help… His parents were pretty clear in the idea of boundaries around that – he was not expected to be a counsellor, or try to rescue his classmates (or ‘recruit' them) or sort out their problems. But if they were aware, through him, that help was available, that was a good thing. He could be an example, a voice that explained there was an alternative. His parents didn't expect more of him than deciding what his principles were and sticking with them, but he found it hard not feel personally responsible for his classmates. Especially now that was actually an issue he was facing… He had witnessed Jehan Callahan asking Luke Powell to the ball, and it hadn't seemed to be a joke or a dare. He hadn't approached Jehan there and then, not wanting to risk drawing negative attention that came with someone like Kir talking to him, but he'd found a time to speak to him when he was on his own (eventually – the kid was damn popular, though how long that would last when his friends found out…), to slip him a few kind words, a flyer and an explanation. He'd mailed his parents about it, and they'd mailed back saying he'd already done all he could do for now. And it didn't feel like enough. Because Jehan's family was One Of Those Families. His brother was in Kir's class, and Merlin knew what he thought, or would think or do, and Kir wanted to just scoop Jehan up and rescue him before anything horrible could happen. And he didn't even freaking know him. But it hurt his heart and it frightened him, and it made him angry, that the world might be cruel to someone over who they loved, because that just wasn't fair – that concept, of course, had been one he'd always been aware of, but it had been a lot more abstract up until now. Now it had a name, and a face – a twelve year old face that might get punched by meaner older kids. He couldn't stand the thought that Jehan might start to get picked on, or be in trouble, and that he might not be able to do anything about it – might not even know it was happening. Even without it having much affected him, the crueller side of the Pureblood world had definitely been on his mind.

But he couldn't talk to Zev about that anyway… He wasn't sure who else had seen Jehan ask out Luke, or who had heard it on the grapevine, but he wasn't going to be responsible for it spreading. Not that Jehan was exactly keeping it a secret, but if there were any negative reactions, Kir did not want to feel like he'd been involved in the news reaching the people responsible. He kind of wished he could talk to Zevalyn about the other stuff though – the way he hated everything the Purebloods, as a collective, did, whilst having to be kind or at least neutral to them all as individuals. Because each individual one was not at fault. Because he had to be better than they were. Because the last person anyone was going to go to for help was someone who'd been a jerk to them… And that it just got tiring sometimes. He didn't want to trade, he knew he valued being the better person in all of this, and that being someone who was doing the right thing was worthwhile even when it was difficult, but it was just hard sometimes, and he wanted to complain about it to someone who understood, and vent his feelings about all the horror in the world and how powerless he felt about it, sometimes through the outlet of off-colour jokes, to people who might understand, and to whom it wouldn't be damaging to what he was trying to do. He wanted someone he could relax in front of. Let down the front of the kind, helpful guy and just… be pissed at the world because it sucked and the people in it made him angry sometimes.

He mumbled something which might have been a further apology but was mostly just awkward noise, not trusting himself to actually open his mouth right now without going on a very long ramble about The System and his Feelings.

Zevalyn seemed to prefer the option of changing the subject rather than getting into his deeply weird family and emotional hang ups, which he supposed was a good thing – he was pretty sure you were meant to trick people into dating you before you revealed how crazy you and your family were. And the whole saga of what he meant by ‘ex-society', plus the politics and emotions that went with it, were possibly not a conversation well suited to a time when she wasn't feeling at her best. Much safer to pick up the subject change instead.

“Balloons?” he asked quizzically, “What are these ball-oons of which you speak?” but he'd never had much of a poker face, and couldn't keep a smile from appearing as he said it, “Yes, we have balloons. Some of them even do things like sing, though those are often banned from hospital wards because they're really very irritating – even on their own, but if you get half a dozen all signing different songs or singing at different times, I imagine it really is quite awful.” He glanced slightly suspiciously at the homework, but it showed no sign of transforming itself into a cute little balloon on a stick. “Noted for future reference,” he assured her. “I guess you can just… unfold your homework when you want to have a look at it. Sorry for… being weird,” he wasn't sure he could come up with a more specific term for what he had done there, and that covered rather a lot of… recent incidents.

“You're worth the risk,” he smiled at her, as she mentioned he might get sick. He wondered whether he was brave enough to try taking her hand, because it seemed like the kind of line that went along with doing that. He thought about it for a moment before deciding that he definitely was not, especially after making a massive idiot out of himself, so he focussed instead on answering her question. “Hmm, I feel like I should choose flowers just to buck the stereotype but fifth year, Aladren grade class notes,” he gave a sharp intake of breath, “Tempting. I guess it's another tick for the merits of balloons that they're at least a nice gender neutral gift. Well, unless people insist on making them pink and blue. Like… Why would anyone do that? There are only two permitted colours for cheery inflatable sacks of air, and we've decided half of the population likes this one and half the other… Who came up with that? And why did everyone like… go along with it?”

13 Kir Something round here definitely does 366 Kir 0 5