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9/27
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Harry Potter:"Do you really think there's going to be a war, Sirius?"
Sirius Black: "It… feels like it did before."
TURN ON THE LIGHT is a Post- Potter roleplay that takes place twenty-five years after the Second Wizarding War.
We welcome canon and original characters in this (currently) sandbox style roleplay.
Though Ava had arrived at her brother's place an hour ago, the uncorking of a bottle of muggle wine was the official announcement of her arrival. Without even a moment's hesitation, and despite the fact that this wasn't her place, she scooped up two wine glasses and promptly proceeded to fill them up far past the 'normal' first serving size.
"Seriously big bro, a dinner party without dinner?" Though that shouldn't have been a shock. None of the Watts siblings could cook worth a damn. Ava was certain she would burn a peanut butter sandwich - which in itself was a feat because you didn't need a stove for those!
"Jalapeno Poppers... Potato Skins..." She held up each box from the supermarket that laid on the countertop. "Boneless wings... How can actual chicken wings be boneless? Then they're not wings." She rolled her eyes, taking a sip of her wine and tossing the box onto the table carelessly. "You do know that these need to be refrigerated, right?" Likely not, by this point, the cardboard was nearly soaked through. "You're doomed." At this rate, they all were.
Ava consistently brought nuance to Link's life. Though mostly good, sometimes the nuance was.. interesting. Her wine popping, was in Link's mind, erring on the side of good. She usually made herself at home, and today was no different. She breezed through his abode like she owned it, kicking her feet up as she saw fit. Link didn't mind. Ava was Ava.
"Okay first of all-" He began his protest, a first left hand on his hip, his right pointing accusingly towards his sibling. She had a point and she knew it. Resistance was futile, but what the hell. "I specifically mentioned light bites. I have the receipts. Also we're not doing the chicken wing argument AGAIN. Nor are we doing the 'is a hot dog a sandwich', nor 'is cereal a soup'."
He grabbed the haphazardly thrown box and, at this point, uselessly placed in in the refrigerator. "Yea well.. shit." Right again. "Listen tonight isn't about the food okay? We'll figure something out. A pizza or.. gyros or something, just go sit down you menace." He scrounged up the remaining TGIF branded appetizers and placed them in the fridge. Maybe a bit of an oversight. This is why he never hosted.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." She rolled her eyes taking another sip of her beverage. She made a point to move her mouth and her hand as Lincoln spoke mocking him to an audience of one: herself. Little sisters were going to 'little sister' after all and she was placed on this earth to keep her brothers humble (and also be the star of it of course).
"Light bites?" Not missing a beat her eyes lulled over to the soaked-through boxes on the table. "Once they melt they'll be more like heavy smoothies... Gross... chunky... smoothies." A shiver ran up her spine and an 'ugh' left her lips and she didn't even bother to swallow it back down. "I'll stick with the wine thanks." She gave him a little cheers before taking another swig. Thank Merlin for the wine or this night would have been a total loss.
"That's good because both of those arguments are just facts." She shrugged her bony shoulders and tapped her fingers on the top of his kitchen island. "You know that you're magic right?" She asked him rhetorically in a flat voice. "One wave of your wand and this whole evening is maybe salvageable." She held up one finger. "Just one little swish." Or was there something else at play? Of course there was.
His baby sister slid with ease onto one of the tall stools, crossing her legs. "Or are we trying to impress a certain someone with your newfound domestication?"
"You can never be wrong, can you?" Never. His lips pursed as she mocked him. Frustrating as ever. "You are.. unbearable, at times." He was convinced that Ava would be like this well into old age. He could see their elderly forms, Ava still badgering him about frozen meals and other inconsequential aspects of his life. It made him shudder.
"You're a gross chunky smoothie.." He muttered under his breath, hopefully out of earshot, but he wouldn't be surprised if she had heard. Link was witty, but Ava was enough to break that down sometimes. And so if she resorted to school-age banter, so would he.
Her next factoid elicited an eye roll that would make the Mean Girls proud. He feigned shock and awe, both hands on his cheeks as his eyes widened, and jaw dropped. "I'm- I'm magic? Golly what wonderful news! Oh how momentous!" He face dropped to neutral before continuing - "Listen. There's 6 of us tonight. Elle will be here soon, and so will Tom and Ava. The only person I'm concerned with impressing for the time being is Elle."
She was too smart for that. Way too smart for that. But that wasn't gonna stop Link from trying to sell it. "Just.. Bea likes this guy I think. They met on some dating app, and I think she really likes him, so I don't wanna' ruin that for her." Just saying those words made Link feel as though he had been sucker punched in the gut. He couldn't even look at her as he said it. He grabbed a clean coffee cup from the dish rack, and rewashed it mindlessly, scrubbing gently. "And Elle is great. So that's that. Now if you have any ideas to rectify the food situation that do not include magic, be my guest but it is a muggle night, and that includes you too." He concluded as he finished rewashing the clean mug. He leaned on the island facing her, awaiting beration of some kind. The million dollar question born of this soliloquy, was whether or not Ava would listen. Link knew what side he'd bet on.
"It's a terrible condition." She tisked, shaking her head. She of course knew that she wasn't always right... just almost always which was close enough for her! "Heavy is the head that wears that crown." She lifted her glass again as if to emphasize her regal status and took another sip. Lush that she was. Their parents would have been so disappointed (actually dad would be thrilled mom... not so much but she wasn't here was she?).
At his little insult she grabbed her wand from her floral coat jacket and with a flick and quick muttered word, Lincoln was shoved by an invisible force. Quite proud of herself she set the wand, elegant and black, on the table and tucked a few strands of blonde hair behind her ear. "I heard that." She informed him pointedly. "That was a warning shot." And so was that statement. Ava, despite her wind intake, was quite a good spellcaster. She excelled at two things at Hogwarts - gossip and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Both equally scary.
"Tom, hm?" Interesting. "What kind of a name is Tom? A stupid one." She answered her own question with an eye roll. As tough of a time as she gave her brother she was also protective of him and sometimes he needed a little (big) push.
"Dating app, huh?" What was a dating app? Another question for another day. "And how do you feel about said Tom?" Folding her hands in her lap sporting expertly manicured fingernails painted a rosy brown she studied her big brother carefully. "Just so we're clear."
"Heavy is th- ..so now you're royalty?" He wouldn't be surprised if she actually believed it. Being gently shoved for his smoothie comment was fair. Punishment fits the crime. That didn't stop him from throwing his arms up in an exasperated manner. "You know if I stooped to your level.." It was likely that nothing would happen. They'd get into a magical prank war? An invisible force shoving match? Not worth it.
"Tom is like, a top 10 most common name in the western world, so you easily insulted like at least 10 million people globally just now." That was..nice of her though. Tom may be a good guy. Link didn't really know. But that doesn't mean that Link particularly had to love that he was encroaching on someone he loved. But what was Link thinking? She wasn't property. She wasn't 'stolen'. She's willingly with the guy. So he would learn to like Tom if she did.
His eyes found a fixed point on his plastered white kitchen ceiling - a small crack in the paint meeting that gaze. "Just.. be nice. I hear Tom is a sweater vest, eyeglasses wearing kind of fellow. And you.. well you're abrasive, and sometimes outright hostile. So don't be like that. He might cry." It wouldn't be the worst thing, but Link wanted minimal mishaps.
"What century are you in again?" He had nothing for her but a brisk head shake, and an about face to grip the edges of his sink. "She likes him, so I like him until he proves otherwise." It was probably no use. A sigh escaped from Link that seemed to last forever. "What do you want me to say Ava?"
"Don't you know anything, Linky? A queen knows that she is a queen always - even before everyone else." She noted confidently as if it was true, helping herself to another much smaller sip of wine. As much as she adored the muggle beverage she had a hunch that she would need to have her wits about her this evening - and not just for playing board games. Her brother needed her tonight, whether he wished to admit it or not.
"Even stooping you can't reach my level, dear brother. It is far, far, far too high for you." She didn't get a job working at The Ministry of Magic being a total dolt (though some men had managed it). Also not being an idiot had its advantages: like seeing how her brother was currently avoiding her gaze pretending to find something of interest on the ceiling. This would not stand but she also knew that she needed to approach the situation with tact... something that she had very little of.
"He sounds horribly boring - even by muggle standards." She would have to get her jabs out now if she was to 'behave' like Lincoln insisted on. Then again, she wasn't sure if she would appease him or not. That was still up in the air. "Wouldn't be the first time I made a man cry and certainly won't be the last. If it was to occur I mean. I'm not saying that it will." No promises. That was the safe bet.
Watching how her big brother braced himself honestly hurt her as she cared for him a great deal. Even though she couldn't see his face his posture, the way his back heaped in a sigh, told her all that she needed to know but it looked like he still needed to be notified. "I'm not trying to get you to say anything." A lie. "And if you don't know I'm not about to tell you." Another lie. She couldn't help herself. "It's like mother always said 'Honesty is the best policy'... or maybe that was some cartoon. Same difference." Ava shrugged and now it was her turn to sigh. Tact. Right.
"Lincoln..." She frowned, briefly glancing down at her lap, then back to her brother. "You do realize this is an awful idea for a number of reasons, correct?" Shaking her head she once again glanced down at her lap smoothing out the material of her designer dress pants. "Tom should have just stayed home." His presence was going to make her brother miserable (more so than usual) whether the man wanted to openly admit it or not.
"I know I love you. And that you are often a pain in my ass." Defeated, he gave his baby sister a kiss on her forehead. She meant a lot to him. Even when she was in what Link called 'full main character mode'. He noted the negligible sip - he knew his sister. She was slowing down. To be more present? Sometimes that was good for Link, sometimes it was bad for Link. A coin flip outcome. A dice roll. How fitting for game night.
In that same vein, it sometimes bothered Link how much his sister knew him as well. It was a give and take. He couldn't hide anything. Odd mannerisms and habits became threads to pull, and damned if she wasn't right far more often than she was wrong. "Oh yes, I can only hope to aspire to be like the venerable Ava Watts one day." He itched his nose, wondering if these comments ever really bothered her. Or if her high horse was so elevated, they couldn't even reach her.
Admittedly, Tom was pretty boring. To the extent that he had Link wondering why the hell Bea was even into him in the first place. "I'm aware. No making Tom cry. Unless he makes Bea cry. Then do whatever you want with him, I don't care." He would never. But what man didn't place himself in fantastical hero scenarios from time to time? Whisking the citizen away in the nick of time from the villain. But Lincoln wasn't a hero. And Tom wasn't a villain. He made his bed, and would lie in it.
Perhaps he was broadcasting too much. But the sibling connection set off the alarm bells in his head as she tried to placate him. "Right."Good one sis. He couldn't say she wasn't empathetic. But he could see the words she wanted to say as clear as day in his head, beating him up side that very same head, again and again.
But then she got even more serious. That was rare for Ava. Usually, it was when Lincoln was making some sort of critical error. "I..." He didn't really know what to say. No snarky remarks. No excuses. Yet somehow, in that moment, there were a million things he wanted to say. She was right. "I just want to see if they connect. If Tom is the best match for Bea, so be it. Let's just make the most of the night." If the tables had been turned, Ava had said the same thing he would BERATE her. Yet here he was. Making the same mistakes, over and over again.
She tilted her head to look up at Lincoln with a little smile after he kissed the top of her head. Though the two taunted and teased one another often they were very close and had each other's backs to the end. As kids, with their parents so out of the picture like they often were, each other was all that they had (and Alan of course).
He was holding back and yet saying so much at the same time. He really was a marvel at times. They both were: The Watts.
"You never really listened to mom's little phrases." With a heavy intake of air she slid off the stool and walked over to Lincoln with her wine glass and his, offering it to him. "In that case you're going to need this." Placing the glass of wine in his hand she looked him in the eye (being of similar height). "We both are." Clinking her glass lightly against his she downed a gulp or two and continued. "Because last I checked you're an auror not the boyfriend verification office... unless there's suddenly a new department at The Ministry that I'm unaware of which... unlikely."
The doorbell chimed and her eyes moved in its direction but she made no move to budge her feet. "Showtime." Patting his back in a gesture of encouragement she then left him in the kitchen walking to the door and opening it. So it was her brother's home... so what? The sound of Bea and a gentleman's voice could be heard as could Ava who was promptly hugging them both.
