| Details for Lunch at Mungo's |
| Summary: | Cooper goes to visit Ranjali at St. Mungo's for lunch |
| Date: | 04 October, 1937 |
| Location: | {$location} |
| Related: | None |
| Characters |
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Even though Cooper has a bed reserved for her here at Mungo's, she thankfully hasn't been in enough to really be familiar with the area. And with some considerable effore, she finally finds the clerk desk for the Spell Damage ward. "Yes, I'm here to see Healer Winterthorne," she says, holding a large paper bag of what smells to be Italian food. She owled Ranjali earlier in the day hoping for a lunch appointment and now she's here in her dowdy mens work wear, minus the glasses this time. "Oh no, no I'm not injured I'm just having lunch with her." She grins sheepishly. The clerk must have noticed that she had a bed reserved.
Ranjali has been keeping busy today, in the usual way. Its been nice, actually, getting into the routines of St. Mungo's, relying on the steady income of patients and keeping her usual professional cool despite the varied and strange things she is presented with throughout the day. She's dealing with one such thing when Cooper arrives, along with a couple of other healers. The three surround a bed with a patient who seems to have transformed only his upper body into some sort of tentacled creature, trying to get him to stop flailing the appendages long enough to get a look at him. Ranjali notices Cooper as she pulls back to reach for her wand, and a bright smile illuminates her eyes, "Oh! Oh, forgive me, I'll be just a moment. Do you see the door there? There's a table in that room, I'll meet you there in just a moment, alright?"
Cooper turns away from the desk a moment to see her desired healer and a bright smile also warms her face as well when she wiggles her fingers to greet the lady. "Never mind there she is," she quickly tells the ward clerk before grimacing to see the humanoid octopus man patient. "Oh..uhm…okay…okay…," Cooper's trying hard to concentrate on Ranjali but its hard to take her eyes off that … thing. She quickly dodges the other bed and Mungo's staff and heads exactly to where the woman tells her to go, and while she waits she sets up lunch on the table. Spaghetti and meatballs plus chicken parmesan with two bottles of coke to wash it down. Yum! The aroma soon fills the room she's in.
The room is small, a sort of storage closet that has been converted into a tiny room for the staff to have short meals and breaks in. But there is room for a few, and the furniture is at least clean and matching. Ranjali pushes her way into it with the air of someone escaping a few moments after Cooper, sighing the moment the smell reaches her. "Oh, that is lovely. I simply cannot thank you enough." She sighs, the tension of the former moment leaving her smaller, less of the outgoing presence of just a few minutes ago. "I am sorry though that I could not take you upstairs, the view tends to be better."
Cooper lifter her arms up and presents the meal to Ranjali with a bright 'Ta-da!' And waving a hand in a 'pshaw' manner she shakes her head and pulls out a chair for both herself and the healer. "Oh don't you worry about it. It totally beats the ministry. We have no windows there. We're completely underground!" she grins and with a flick of her wand the tops to the bottles are popped open with a satisfying fizz. "To windows!" she toasts and takes a sip of her coke while starting to dig into her food. "So how've you been? Anything strange or interesting happen to you as of late?"
Ranjali giggles at Cooper, her eyes alight with amusement. "To windows." She lifts her glass as well, dropping into a seat. She's putting her bottle down and reaching for a fork when the question is posed. Raising an eyebrow, she replies, "Do you mean besides having to heal someone I was starting to think of as a friend? Or the part where he, ah… said something so impossibly rude to her just prior to that incident that I am starting to doubt my sanity?"
Cooper spares no time for manners and formalities, but immediately digs into her food. And while she's not a messy eater, she isn't exactly the most pleasant thing to look at when eating. It could be the way she over stuffs her cheeks and occasionally opens her mouth when chewing. With a voice muffled by food, she quirks a brow as she slurps in some spaghetti and asks, "Who's the friend and what did he say that was so terribly rude?"
"Mr. Troy?" Ranjali blinks, watching Cooper eat. She looks politely to her own plate after a moment, and with practiced motions begins to eat herself. Her table manners, by contrast, are refined, as though she was taught from an early age how to eat in the presence of Lords and Ladies. holding her utensils delicately, she twirls her fork, "Unless I am forgetting, which is possible. But it does indeed seem to me that he had, ah," And here she blushes, "Rather bluntly asked you to, er, engage in intimate activities with him."
Cooper gets a bit of tomato sauce on her pinky, and sucks it off without a though as she looks at Ranjali when she first mentions Magnus. A beginnings of a scowl begins to form on her face and then she starts to ask her next question. "What did that rat say to yo-oh…," her words trail off and she licks her lips before turning a bit red herself. She picks up her coke and takes a sip then clears her throat. "Is that the rude thing you were referring to…" Cooper's eyes look awkwardly about the room. "Yes well, he wasn't asking, you see. He doesn't necessarily have to ask you see because we…erm…you know." Half her face, scrunches. Does she really need to explain to a health care specialist?
Ranjaliblinks, her eyes focused on her plate. Which, to be fair, is quite appetizing. "Oh, I see. Forgive me, I shouldn't even be asking." Her own blush deepening, she smiles hesitantly, "Then I suppose I no longer need to worry about him. Nor you, I hope?" Because she is a health care specialist. And Cooper is her friend. And Magnus… well, she'll probably always worry about him, with the way he talks.
(New BB reply (7/12) posted to 'Discussion' by Jackson: NMitH 1937: Signup Sheet)
"No, no…it's alright. We're both adults here, right? And friends…I hope. You shouldn't be shy about asking me anything," Cooper shrugs and then adds, "Besides, it's a purely casual affair. No strings any of that relationship stuff. Just…physical." She cringes after that last word, realizing that perhaps it was a poor choice. And she looks to Ranjali cautiously as gaging if she was being a bit too TMI for the healer. "Anyhow, what he said, I won't deny that I probably was doing something to warrant it. However, aside from that. Has he said anything else rude to you? How about that day in the malt shoppe?"
Ranjali slowly nods, as though uncertain of this possibility. Her face closes quickly into a polite mask, it seems the concept of purely phisical affairs may in fact be too much for her. "In the malt shoppe?" She blinks, frowning in thought as she tries to respond despite being rather out of her element. "No, not then. I- " Oh, dear. But then, Cooper said it wasn't an emotional attatchment, right? "I invited him for tea, after that. He didn't say anything, really. But I did not wish it to happen again, his… familiarity. And yet I was unprepared. He… continued to be forward with me, and when I resisted he said… well he claimed… that he was rather… attatched to me." Miserably, she lifts her fork and takes a bite, so that she doesn't have to talk for a minute.
Right when Cooper's about to shuffle a whole mess of of pasta into her trap, she freezes with her fork in mid-air and her mouth slightly open to listen closely to Ranjali. His familiarity. His attachment. Does it mean what she thinks it means?! Cooper can hardly contain her growing rage and her blue eyes go wide with slight anger when she asks, "Ranjali…did Magnus….-attack- you?!" She of course uses polite terminology, given the proper nature of the woman she's dealing with. But she puts down her fork and slides her chair over try and put an arm on each of the woman's shoulders while look Ranjali dead in the eye. "Tell me. Tell. Me. You -need- to tell me if he hurt you in anyway," she says with the utmost concern. Cooper does not stand for her fellow woman getting harassed.
"What? No!" Ranjali, though she does not resist being grabbed, leans away some from Cooper's intensity. "He… he tried to kiss me!" She stares up at Cooper, fearful, "I'm sorry, I don't… I dn't know how to talk about things like this. He just… he said he had feelings for me. And then I saw him with you and I worried, he seems to… able to persuade people… " She swallows.
If Cooper wasn't too confused before, she's definitely confused now. Not removing her hands from Ranjali's shoulder she narrows her eyes in thought and asks, "Wait…doesn't he know that you're attracted to women? Why would he…even make a move on you if he knew that?" she hmms skeptically. She takes her hands back this time and scratches her chin in thought, "Well yes, he a diplomat. They're the wormiest sort." But she looks to Ranjali curious, "Does that mean…he convinced you to…actually…kiss him?"
Ranjali is shaking her head before Cooper even finishes asking her question, the grimace on her face making it clear she did /not/ find the idea attractive herself. "No, no of course not. He said… something about kissing being casual, and I just couldn't. I don't think that way. /Nor/ do I have any interest in… men." Ew. Shaking her head, she puts down her fork and reaches for the bottle, "It just sounded… so similar, to what he said to you. Other than, of course, the language."
Cooper sighs in relief but not for what one may think. "Well thank god, it's good to know that there are -some- people in the world who don't fall prey to his wonky words," she says and slides her chair back to her side so that she can continue her ungodly way of eating. With a shrug she continues thinking on the topic, "It's possible that he really could be attracted to you and was thinking of going in for the kill. Or perhaps he just likes the attention. But I don't know…something about it just sounds so off to me." She scratches her chin, the auror gears turning in her head. "Did he mention anything else? Anything of a different topic?"
Ranjali's blush has spread all the way across her nose and to her ears now, and she ducks her head, hoping that it won't show so badly. "A different topic?" She asks, confused. Reaching up to tuck loose strands of hair into place, she considers this, "I don't… think so? Why?"
Cooper runs a thumb over her bottom lip, still thinking and thinking deeply. "I'm just wondering if maybe he was using you to achieve something else…maybe he gave a hint of it during the conversation…," she says, half talking to Ranjali and half taking to herself. But she waves her hand around again and shakes her head, "Eh forget about it. I'm spoiling lunch. It's not worth thinking too much over what that fool does. Only do me a favor and make sure you actually -sock- him the next time he tries anything funny with you."
Ranjali listens thoughtfully, and eats. The food is pretty awesome, afterall. "I, ah… " Sock him? She chuckles, sheepish, "Certainly I wouldn't mind having such confidence, but… well I wouldn't even know how to do that." That's right, she cannot throw a punch. "Though I suspect you do. Perhaps you can teach me, some time? After lunch. Which is fabuolous, by the way."
"Oh of course!" Cooper's face lights up at the idea and she nods vigorously. "I'm not too great at punching, I've had to take classes on it. In fact, I'll do one better. We'll take a self-defense course together that the MLE program offers. It's fun and really useful!" And without even asking Ranjali's permission she already sets it as a date!
Ranjali offers a tentative smile. "Really? That sounds nice. I'll send an Owl when I know my schedule. Hopefully there is a course that I can attend. Though I doubt it will much help me with men who are far too smooth for my rather small experiences." She grins, lifting the coke and taking a sip, "Ah, but lets talk of something more pleasant. Like this fabulous lunch, and where you got it… " She continues to ask Cooper about things like restaraunts for the rest of the meal, both fascinated by the subject as a cook of /no meals ever/ and more and more interested in Cooper's company. The woman is fascinating, and Ranjali is quite eager to learn more about her soon. And that class will be the perfect opportunity.