h o l l y (hollyharpie) wrote in valesco,
@ 2014-02-08 20:41:00

Entry tags:

adrian mattias, anya kalinnikov, danielle rookwood, donovan rookwood, grail yates, group, hamilton nott, henry wadcock, holly troy, jeremiah whitehorn, kendall broadmoor, magnolia mattias, mattie scarpin, melania comstock, michal conway lynch, nona pepper, oliver comstock, savannah davies, scarlett rabnott, seth wadcock, therese bonaccord

Hogsmeade Valentine's Spectacular! Friday, the 14th
Now, Holly was definitely not someone who enjoyed the frills and lace of Valentine's Day. Usually, she hated it, it was in the top five list of things she hated, but this year? She felt like celebrating. It had been a damn good year, and Holly was taking every opportunity to showcase the good bloody mood she'd been in. Sure, there had been its blips (McCormack owed her quite some bit), and each moment made her appreciate each and every day.

But that was the sort of sappy stuff she and her husband didn't say, so that was why she had insisted that their visit to Hogsmeade tonight was to crack jokes and judge the couples that took this holiday way too seriously.

It was turning out to not be as horrendous as one may have thought. Hogsmeade was a village on display, each store front lit up with lights, the street lamps giving off sprays of glitter and confetti as couples walked past. The different food places had set up heating spells around outside tables and counters, the aroma completely filling her every sense. The lake had turned into a beautiful ice rink, while a magical ferris wheel lit up the sky. The village had always amazed her, knowing that it was the only place in the country wizards and witches could be completely at ease with their magic outside of Hogwarts.

"Good thing they didn't let the kiddies out," Holly said, eyes catching sight of the castle in the distance. "They'd ruin the romance."

- Hogsmeade is open to all! The village streets are sort of like a Valentine's fair, hosted by Madam Puddifoot's (so you know there's some cheesy stuff).
- For some ADDED FUN, a little trickster has laced the chocolate supply with a truth serum. The amount of chocolate your character ingests, the more truthful/the longer they are under its spell. Soo...that could lead to some fun, y/y? >:D
- ALSO, for players on non British Isles teams, this is the last weekend to be home because practice for the WC starts after Valentine's Day! So get those feels out because you're shipping out!

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rabbit
2014-02-20 03:26 am UTC (link)

His face contorted, and for a few brief moments, Ollie deeply considered letting Nona be. The last time they had spoken she had asked for time, and he had rather scorned-like travelled to Africa for the most fruitless of searches. And then, New Year's Eve...

He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut tight as he wondered how all roads had placed him here. He in front of Madam Puddifoot's, desperately seeking some clarity from the unwanted life he was currently leading inside the shop, and her... he paused, finding that he could not immediately assume what Nona would be doing here. What was she doing here? What would she be--- he couldn't imagine she would willingly attend a public spectacle such as this lonesome, let alone with someone else....

Ollie cursed under his breath, realizing what he was going to do even before he did it. Bringing his balled fist up to his head, he pressed his hand into his forehead for a few moments before letting out a strangled, "Wait!"

Like second nature, he flicked his cigarette into the snow as he hurried after her. She was fast, but so was he, and with the longer set of legs, Ollie caught up to Nona eventually. Though, he would admit, a task made no easier by her. He withheld this thought as he turned on his heel to face her. But she continued to trudge right past him, and it was with a huff that he caught up to Nona again, and kept pace with her only by walking backwards in front of her.

"Nona--- please, stop," he begged, putting his hands up in a passive attempt to stop her. He had no doubt she would plow right through him, but it was worth a vain effort.

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raindrops
2014-02-20 03:51 am UTC (link)

Against her will, her feet seemed to slow until they would no longer move forward, and Nona was unwilling to risk more of her dignity by turning around and walking in the other direction.

He didn't have a right, she thought, to be here, and ask her to stop, and talk to her as if—as if he wasn't here with someone. Clueless as to most social niceties as Nona was, gossip still reached her ears. Nicola Scarpin, was it not? She doubted that witch would let her date slip through her fingers, so she must have been close by, and the thought made her skin crawl.

After a moment, Nona reminded herself that she didn't care. Clearly asking for time was asking for too much.

She'd always believed she could never hold Oliver Comstock to his word. Only, she thought such a victory wouldn't feel as hollow as it currently did.

"What do you want?" Nona asked, deliberately looking to the side.

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rabbit
2014-02-20 05:35 am UTC (link)

All of the sudden, he felt the unshakable desire to tell her what he had done. That he had gone, with Jake Bexley, to Ethiopia in search of this "potential" child of his, and, that they had spent the whole month of December following trail after trail that Ollie knew would, eventually, lead to what he was looking for. Nona could turn away from it, attempt to keep him from the truth, but he would--- it would come out. Perhaps not today, or tomorrow, or a year from now, or ten years from now, but it would, eventually.

He had taken in a deep breath, even ready to announce this to her, but.... just as quickly as Ollie had inflated, he deflated. It had been a long time since he had last seen her, and every moment he stood before her was a further reminder of that. So, instead, he let out his long breath in the form of a heavy sigh.

"I thought..." he began, brows knitting as he tried to catch her gaze. "I don't know," Ollie admitted, believing it the truth. What did he want? Well, that was all relative, he supposed, but in this specific instance, all he knew was that he hadn't been able to just let her walk away.

"To talk to you," he settled on finally. But wasn't that always the case? He felt an unsettled and uncomfortable sear begin to burn in his side. That was always the case, and look how what it had produced for him yet; nothing except confusion and longing. His mouth pulled into a slight frown.

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raindrops
2014-02-20 06:07 am UTC (link)

Her closed her eyes and the first image that popped into her mind was watching the sun come up over the castle and its hills early in the morning, laying beside Ollie under a tree. The smoke from a cigarette, forgotten in his hand, clouded over the muted sunlight. She'd taken it from him and examined it, braving a puff or two at the conclusion of her test. After the smoke cleared her throat and her lungs stopped burning, she rather liked it, but he'd taken it from her before further testing could happen.

When she blinked the memory away, she was left with a lingering heavy feeling. They had talked so little, yet seemed to have said so much, so much that she could remember with crystal clarity what felt like a lifetime later.

And now, they seemed to be unable to stop words from pouring out, yet they seemed to mean nothing at all.

She meant to walk away. She meant to not give him the time of day. But instead, she found her head moving in his direction.

"Then talk," said Nona, an almost defiant look in her eyes when she met his gaze. They held for just a moment, before she curtly turned her head to the side again.

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rabbit
2014-02-20 04:27 pm UTC (link)

Had he traveled back in time? The coldness in which she addressed him pricked of memories from last summer, when he had fought and grappled for the simplest of acknowledgments from her. Not that Ollie could say Nona had completely warmed to him like she once had, but he had thought, after Halloween...

His brows crossed, and in the moment, he felt very frustrated. Frustrated at all he wanted but couldn't have, frustrated at the path his life was currently following, frustrated at why everything was so difficult. Life wasn't meant to be easy, and if everything was handed to him on a golden platter, he knew it wouldn't have any matter at all, but must it all always feel like a constant uphill battle? Was it truly supposed to feel like this all the time? For not the first time standing in front of Nona, Ollie felt the strong desire to grip the witch before him and shake the answer to his questions out of her.

He knew he could do no such thing, so instead, Ollie sought to achieve the next best thing. Letting out a loud huff, he quickly moved to fill her turned gaze. Glancing around briefly at the snow filled (and fortunately sparsely-filled) street, he addressed her in a hushed tone.

"Why are you acting like this?" he asked, needing to know why more and more every second. "Why are you talking to me like that?"

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raindrops
2014-02-23 11:35 pm UTC (link)

Her flat expression turned thunderous. "Why am I acting like this?" she repeated in a voice cold enough to freeze the Sahara.

He seemed so earnest and serious, and she felt the first real urge in her life to do violence.

"Do you actually believe you have any right to be standing here, talking to me?" demanded Nona. "Do you think you deserve anything from me?"

Though she wanted nothing more than to run away, she found herself moving ever so slowly towards Oliver, her ire growing with every bit of distance gained. "It was not easy telling myself you would be back for me for good. It was not simple to understand how my past would have to become a part of yours, so we—there might be a future between us," she tossed his own words back in his face. "Everything I kept secret for years was yanked away from me—I deserved time to think! And I asked for it, because you said you would fight, and you lied!"

The violence of her words surprised even Nona. "But it was too long to wait for you, wasn't it? Or you never intended to, because you have someone else now. I am talking to you like this because you are cruel, and you are a liar, and it doesn't matter that I love you because you broke my heart and I am sorry I ever saw you again!"

She stood as her shoulders shook from effort of breathing and a trail of angry tears ran down her thunderstruck face.

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rabbit
2014-02-24 05:25 am UTC (link)

He thought he deserved a little from her, but obviously he had been mistaken. Stunned muteness engulfed him upon Nona's response, and Ollie struggled to swallow down what she had to say. This was the most he had ever gotten from her in what felt like ever, and it felt.... he was unsure how it made him feel. For, for once, she had opened up to him, but by doing so it had revealed the worst of truths that he hadn't realized were plaguing her so deeply. Hadn't realized or didn't desire to acknowledge?

Whether or not he had assumed her silence over the past four months had been her answer was irrelevant. Perhaps minutes ago it hadn't been, but now... his head docked down, and in defeat Ollie covered his face with his hands briefly. His thoughts ran, and he played back her words in his head.

"I am. I will," he muttered, pushing his palms into his eyes before letting his hands fall to his sides. Ollie's face had darkened in the few moments of curling away from her, but that did not deter from his absolute resolve to help her understand.

A fire lit in his eyes, and before she could slip through his fingers like so many times before (though now, he thought, it would be more accurate to say before she stomped over and by him), Ollie quickly gripped Nona's shaking form. He had never seen her like this before, had never thought... it unnerved him, but what else could he do but address what little he could?

"Nicola Scarpin means nothing! She means nothing to me, Nona. She is but a family friend with overzealous delusions. She is not--" he pursed his lips, immediately thinking that out of all Nona had said, this was not what he wanted to clear first.

"I thought your silence was your answer! I thought... you had decided, and I had lost. I didn't think... I didn't know..." He felt scared now, truly perturbed that this that had settled in her without his knowing would be their undoing. It did not matter if she loved him because he had broken his heart? Did she know how many time she had seemingly broken his in the past year?

His hands shot to her face, gripping the sides as tightly for as long as he could. She must look at his face, she must see that he was telling the truth, that it may look like... he didn't see himself a liar, but it was not difficult to understand her point of view.

"What do you want me to do, Nona? Tell me what to do! I can't guess anymore, I can't keep agonizing, and double thinking what it is that I should be doing while you leave me in the dark! I did not know, I can't know anything if you don't---" His eyes raced across her face, taking in all the emotion emitting from it. His shoulders sagged. "I'm sorry," he finally admitted.

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raindrops
2014-03-15 07:28 pm UTC (link)

"I don't know." Her instinct had been to fight and claw against his iron grip on her, but Ollie's words distracted her. By the time he held her face in his hands, the fight had gone out of Nona. Her shuddering ceased, and Nona did not know how to stem the outpouring of emotions. She thought that releasing all her pent up feelings was supposed to make her better, when in fact she felt much worse.

She didn't know what to make of his declaration that Nicola Scarpin meant nothing to him, when much of the gossip she had been privvy to disagreed. Hearing it had saddened and enraged her, because she thought they had made progress on Halloween, actual progress for them, and yet… he was with someone else, so what did that mean of his feelings for her? Nona had fought long and hard for attention in her life, and she unequivocally refused to do so with a person who—with someone who had told her that he felt—

"You were gone, and I thought… if I waited until you'd gotten back, I'd know… and then you did, but she—" The truth came out muddled, and reluctantly, but Nona was unable to stop herself, voicing thoughts she had had for months but had never dared utter. "I want you to forget everything about the baby. It would be… easier, if you didn't know, because, otherwise… I don't know if we can ever get past this."

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rabbit
2014-03-15 10:31 pm UTC (link)

Forget? Almost instantly, Ollie felt his gut twist and his chest tense. Forgetting was something... he had been preparing for... to do anything she said, as he had already decided anything would be easy to give her, for there wasn't truly much he found more important than proving to her his earnest devotion... but... instinctually, he gripped to what he knew tightly. That, he could not give up for her. It was too precious, too life-changing, to significant, especially having gone so long unknown... giving up all he knew, now, it couldn't... he couldn't.

But it didn't have to be like that.

Despite thinking that his grip on Nona had loosened while lost in thought, it stayed firm on her face. Perhaps from the perpetual and instinctual feeling that he was always loosing her, or, that his limbs stopped working when his mind was locked deep in thought, but nonetheless when he came to seconds later, Ollie felt determined and ready to persuade that all wasn't what she thought.

"We can," he asserted, making sure to look her in the eye. "I think we can." His mouth formed into a frown momentarily, not because of any sadness filling him, but frustration, because how could she not see what he did so clearly? A frenzied energy began to fill him. "If you try, if you just allow it. It doesn't have to be-- it doesn't have to be like this. Hiding secrets, doubt, uncertainty.... why can't it be---"

Ollie cut himself off, glancing briefly sideways at the snowy street as he finally released her. His hands now hovered in the air, helping articulate his words. There was no one around, but that did not temper the urgency in his voice. "It can be simple, we can start anew, it would be easy!"

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