| Details for Daisies, A Lot of Them |
| Summary: | Magnus pays a visit to his favorite distressed quarantine patient |
| Date: | November 24, 1937 |
| Location: | Magical Bugs Ward, St Mungo's |
| Related: | St. Mungo’s Mayhem – Vials Unleashed |
| Characters |
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Magical Bugs London
Sun Nov 24, 1937 ((Mon Nov 05 02:40:07 2012)) (F,3 NE - MB)
Like many of the other wards in St. Mungo's this ward is rectangular with the two long walls occupied by sets of adjustable beds accompanied by a nightstand and an armchair. Unlike the rest of the wards in the hospital there are no curtains here to provide privacy. Instead each bed, nightstand and armchair combo is separated from the rest of the ward by its own set of transparent walls since this ward is dedicated to the treatment of infectious diseases both magical and mundane. Instead of curtains the walls have been enchanted so that with a word from the patient or the doctor they will turn a smoky grey to provide privacy. Large signs at both ends of the room read, "Absolutely no visitation is allowed until a member of the St. Mungo's Healer staff has cast all necessary protection charms including but not limited to a Bubble-Head Charm. Under no circumstances will a guest visit a patient under self-cast charms". Large globes float along the ceiling filling the room with a gentle, relaxing light regardless of the weather outside or the time of day or night.
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Though Magnus has given the hospital a fairly wide berth after the events of the last several days - with no particular desire to return - it has occurred to him that Cooper will be trapped here for an extremely uncomfortable two weeks or so. So, as he walks into the visitation room, with its booth-like seating and glass separation wall after requesting to see the auror, he comes with a bouquet of roses and a large bottle of whiskey. After being directed to a booth by a healer (who departs to an adjacent room, looking bored and mildly inquisitive about the objects he's carrying), he sits down and arranges the two objects in front of him on the counter in front of the glass, then folds his hands over his lap and waits for someone to direct the quarantined woman to him.
In the next room over, the the muffle noises of a commotion make their way through the wall. There's 'slam' followed by a few rough pounding noises while a man yells angrily, 'Miss Cooper you need to put that down, now!' The words can be barely made out, but they're clear enough to hear and after what sounds to be a struggle, the door on the other side of the glass opens. And in enters Genevieve Cooper herself in all her hideous and disgusting glory, covered entirely with purple pustules. She's being helped by a male healer whose got a bubblehead charm on his face though it looks more like she's being restrained slightly. Her rather miserable expression adds to her overall unsightly appearance, and half the way though, she scowls and throws the man's hands off her with a rough shove, before giving him a glare. Even though the healer backs off, he gives her a warning look and says, "Later, you eat."
When Magnus first entered the visitation part of the ward, the healer that set him up will have told him that Cooper's been a strangely difficult patient. Not willing to let go of a pad of paper that she's been scribbling notes and drawing random maps on. To put it plainly, she's working herself to exhaustion, sitting around all day thinking and writing and refusing to sleep or eat or take her medicine lest they take her notepad away. So here she sits before Magnus, separated by glass looking rather fatigued, but also slightly panicked. Her one finger touches the corner of a chalkboard-like slate that is embedded in the glass between them, and silently she mouths something while her words come to life in white letters on the slab: 'Help me get out of here. I really think they're trying to kill me.'
Magnus startles slightly when he sees the auror, although he tries to keep his reaction from seeming obvious. Of course, he /knew/ she had Spattergroit, so it's not as if he wasn't expecting her to look… somewhat horrific, but it's still a bit of a shock to see the cute blonde woman in this state. Especially when she appears to hav ebeen neglecting her sleep and sanity. The ambassador stares at the letters that appear with a worried expression on his face. "Genevieve, you know you can't leave until the next full moon." Quickly, he holds up the bouquet and bottle as if to distract her. An easy smile settles on his lips as he switches into French: "Look, I've brought you something, madamoiselle. Beautiful flowers for a beautiful girl. And booze, for an alcoholic." Though perhaps he should have mixed half a sleeping potion in with that latter…
Cooper's pustulized finger slides across the top of the slap, making the words fade away until she mouths with worry 'But what if I die before the next moon?' She licks her lips which are dry and chapped and the whites of her eyes are sallow, their yellow hue only matching her teeth which look like they've been infected with their own sort of disease. But a desperately downcast look spreads up on her face when Magnus holds up the gifts. Cooper leans foward, a sick hand pressing agains the glass as if she were trying to grab the whiskey from his hand. The roses are ignored completely. 'I like gerber daisies.' The words appear in white on the slab and are soon replaces with, 'I'm not sure they'll let me have that, but thank you. Only Ranjali visits me.' And that's only because the healers sent for her when Cooper was giving them such a fuss about talking to the woman. Turning back to Magnus, the more words make their appearance 'Magnus, I can't stay here. I just feel like…there's something dangerous going on and I'm stuck here unable to do anything about it. You have to get me out. Can't you use your diplomatic powers?' The look of frustration on her face mirrors the one she wore not too long ago at Watershed when she read his manuscript.
"You'll be fine, Genevieve. The healers will see to that." Clearly, the girl has a phobia of hospital settings. Magnus logs this little factoid away with some degree of exasperation, though his annoyed expression softens when she transmits the message about the flowers. Spattergroit /can/ be dangerous, and although he knows that it is extremely unlikely to be fatal thanks to modern advances, the man still looks concerned… and (perhaps, very discreetly) slightly guilty. "I'll bring you daisies soon, then, madamoiselle. As many as you like." He tut-tuts at her next message, though, and manages to look admonishing. "I'm visiting you, aren't I? And I'll try and bribe the hospital staff into giving it to you. I'm sure somebody here values hard galleons over their professionalism." Smirking, he waits patiently as she writes out the last bit… then frowns. "I don't think so, Miss Cooper. While I may have a little influence here and there, it doesn't extend to being able to smuggle quarantined hospital patients with highly infectious diseases into public. And I've already expended a good deal of favors and goodwill just so I didn't have to remain in that dreadful dustbin you MLE types hold people in for extended questioning."
Genevieve Cooper has dealt with gashes and bruises that would make many squeamish. There are times where she's almost bled out or starved. She even took a couple of crucio's a few times. But she's never dealt with disease treatment. It's all so uneventful with too much waiting and biding of her time. She simply can't take slow death. 'They keep trying to take my work away from me. I feel like its because they're that thing I've been fearing. Maybe they know I'm trying to stop their, so they're trying to kill me.' Her blue eyes are wide with a bit of fear. It's likely the lack of sleep, the illness and the weird side effects of the medicine that's making her so anxious. Pouting at the man, one could practically hear the whine in the text: 'Those galleons are useless then if you can't break me out.' Magnus' look of guilt, catches her attention though. Even in all her delusion, she's still sharp upon reading his face, but Cooper's only partly sure. Though she doesn't ask anything of it. The text clears and she then says 'I never got a chance to ask, but what the hell happened in that room? No one's been able to answer my questions. What did you do?'
As much as the ambassador is trying to keep his sarcastic side in check, he can't quite help but roll his eyes slightly at this. "Genevieve, I know aurors are supposed to be paranoid, but this is utter nonsense. Nobody is trying to kill you." Sighing, Magnus looks around, as if he could find a way to just get to the other side of the room. Of course that would be insane, and anyway it's impossible, but he looks more than a little frustrated that this is the best he can do to comfort her. For an instant an incredibly annoyed look crosses his features, as if he's recognized the weak spot he's developed for the auror and is berating himself for it. At any rate, he opts for more distraction (it usually seems to be the easiest tack to take around Cooper). "Ma chere, you really must get more sleep. Those pretty blue eyes of yours are starting to look rather red." He ignores the plea about the galleons, but his expression goes more somber when she asks about the events of the night that lead to this situation, and he sighs. Any guilt transmitted by his tone of voice at this point is purely fabricated guilt: "Inmates from the mental ward got Vanishing Sickness and attacked the three of us, in that room. I used a blasting curse… I couldn't be sure where they were, and I needed to make certain they wouldn't hurt Miss Taylor or Miss Diderot." He's scowling with the memory, and that, at least, is genuine.
'It's NOT f-- nonsense. If I die there has to be preparations. There's unfinished business I need to have taken care of.' Of course, St. Mungo's does not condone cursing, thus all spattergroit communication defices have been set up to censor any profanity. 'For one, I want gerber daisies at my funeral. A LOT of them.' Cooper looks absolutely certain about that, finalizing it with a nod. But she shakes her head when he urges her to get some rest. 'I can't sleep. There's just too much going on and I need to be out there to solve it. Ranjali…I'm afraid she's in danger. There are so many odd things happening with her.' Though with equal solemnity she listens with intent to the explanation of his tale, and when Magnus admits to using the blast curse her brows raise and she licks her chapped lips in disbelief. It's not so much that he used it only Cooper was unsure the man had it in him. 'Miss Diderot?' She recalls Annie being in the room, but has never really heard of the other name. 'Did the man die from the curse?'
"Of course. Go ahead, then, Miss Cooper," Magnus drawls, rolling his eyes again just a bit when he sees that it's going to be impossible to get the auror to realize that she is not, in fact, being slowly murdered by the hospital staff. "There will be daisies, mmhm." He's not trying to be terribly convincing, so there's a possibility she'll realize he's just humoring her even in her rather delusional state of mind, but the sardonic chill goes out of his eyes once again when she mentions her inability to sleep, not to mention Ranjali. "I want you to sleep for me, Genevieve. Try your best. The more rest you get, the sooner you'll be back on your feet once you're released." It sounds a bit awkward - he's not used to sincerity - but he's blessedly saved from having to go on by her questions. "Miss Diderot is my assistant from Germany. She's just recovered from an illness." He pauses over the last inquiry, and eventually just nods.
Strangely enough, Cooper seems somewhat eased by his assurance that there'll be daisies and she nods, calming down and mouthing a thank you to Magnus. Even if he was trying to humor her, it seemed like something very important to her. But her brow quirks once more at his second urging for her to sleep. Pursing her cracked lips she regards him with interest, leaning forward to rest her purple puss-ridden chin to look at him. She looks rather grateful to have his true concern, even if she's wary of it. However she does say 'You're a bit awkward when you're being really nice.' And to put the cherry on top: 'In fact it makes me feel awkward being on the receiving end.' She scrunches her nose and offers him a warm sort of Hufflepuffic smile after that, but she's still very thankful none the less. But Cooper's expression turns instantly somber once more when he nods. And she pauses a long while to let the meaning of it settle in before her finger tip touches the slate: 'Well s—-.' The words stay on the slab for a long time, pausing to think of what to say. Pressing her lips together she then asks: 'Well how do you feel about that?' An oddly probing question for sure, but those blue eyes, despite their jaundice looks directly at him with intent.
Magnus's lips curl down in a disconcerted scowl at the auror's blunt reply. In a very un-Magnus-like moment, he actually flushes slightly, though it disappears /very/ quickly as his pale eyes narrow at the pus-ridden girl through the glass. "Yes, well, I'm sure you won't have to worry about being subjected to it too much, Miss Cooper." He leers at her for a moment - if he were a less dignified sort of person, he might stick his tongue out - though her cute (well, as cute as one can be coming from someone who is currently a strange shade of purple) smile does mollify him a bit. The 'Well s—-' just gets a long, tired stare from him, and he follows up her probing with a mild shrug. "Hm. I'm not certain. I couldn't see the fellow, really - at the time it simply seemed the only thing to do." He frowns. "They tried to have their way with the women."
Oh but she catches it! Genevieve Cooper catches that very brief hint of a blush and it instantly makes her smile. In fact, it's actually the full out grin that she tends to sport - so bright, so genuinely warm and yet oh so playfully teasing. It's a grin that only Hufflepuffs can give really and no amount of purple puss can put a damper on it. 'Come now, awkward looks nice on you.' Though she nods with a bit of understanding at his response to her question. Nothing judgmental, really. Just pure musing from her end. 'Strange how that happens, isn't it? It's like you did it without thinking. Something made you turn a switch off and then it just happens. And it all seems so necessary and justifiable.' She runs a thumb over her bottom lip. 'It almost makes you forget you just took away a human life, as detestable as the human life is.' Cooper seems rather lost in that thought for a while until she drags herself back to reality. And with the sweetest smile anyone had ever given she shrugs, 'Sorry I haven't killed anyone in a while, but you'll be fine. I'm no barrister but you'll get away with self defense. Justifiably so. Is Miss Taylor and your assistant alright though?'
"Too bad I'm not nice, Miss Cooper." Magnus smirks, though there's a hint of genuine affection in the look the man is giving her after that grin. He simply looks at her for a few moments - not at the way the disease has temporarily marred her features, but simply into her blue eyes - then shakes his head slowly and shrugs again, when the odd half-written conversation turns more serious. "I suppose I've been trying not to dwell on it. Because… yes, it was necessary. Some things have to be done, whether we like them or not." With a sigh, he nods in response to her judgment about his impending hearing. "Miss Taylor and Miss Diderot are just fine. They escaped without any real harm done, thank goodness. And… oh. I have an appointment in an hour." The ambassador curses, having glanced away towards a wall clock for a moment. After a few seconds of contemplation he looks at Cooper again and smiles. "I'll come back after my meeting, Genevieve, and sit here with you while you sleep, to make sure none of these nurses are slipping you anything while you're napping. Get a pillow ready." He winks conspiratorially… though he's not sure she'll be able to discern that he's joking.
It's rather unusual, but Cooper actually looks pained to hear he has to go, she practically lets out a struggled groan and leans close to the glass. Her hand presses against it as if trying to reach out and prevent him from going. 'Really? You HAVE to go?' There's just a hint of disappointment in those big blue eyes of hers, which just seems more pathetic with how sick and fatigued she looks. It could be because she actually misses the wormy diplomat, but it could also be because she's desperate for a familiar face in this cold fluorescent lighted ward. 'Just leave the flowers and such with the healer at the end. I'll likely be able to keep the roses and perhaps reclaim the whiskey when I leave. But remember. Gerber daisies.' Her eyes widen in panic though when he quips about nurses feeding her drugs while she sleeps. Immediately, her hands rush to the side of her face in terror. The bags under her eyes look darker, and the jaundice in the whites looks more severe. No words appear on the slate but it's clear she's murmuring 'Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.' He's truly frightened her into never sleeping again now.
"I really should. I've been putting my accountant off for a couple of weeks now." Magnus frowns at the young woman's demeanor. He looks down at the flowers and the bottle and nods; he's about to pick them up when he suddenly notices the look she's giving him, after that last comment. Cursing to himself for letting his sense of humor get away with him, he looks over at the clock again and then, in a manner that looks rather defeated, sighs and stops his slow rise from his chair. "Oh, don't look at me like that, Genevieve, it was just a bad joke…" He curses himself /again/, under his breath this time rather than simply in his own mental dialogue, and shoves the flowers and bottle back into place, then sits again. "I'll stay here with you. My accountant can wait. Go get your pillow."
And suddenly all the gloominess in Cooper's face disappears, and her eyes instead widen in pure, child-like relief and happiness. She could practically cry, but she doesn't because she's tough and she's and auror. To think those eyes could have ever killed someone! She's so stupidly happy when he gives in that she doesn't even write him another message, only presses both hands up against the glass and mouths a million 'thank you's. And then she immediately turns around to slowly stumble her way back to get indeed get settled. Of course, she doesn't go as fast as she would like, and a healer comes to help her back to bed while another healer gets Magnus properly prepped with the proper sanitation and bubblehead charms for him to enter the quarantine ward. But good god is this pathetic Auror stupidly happy.