December 16, 2020 – 9:11 PM
Marlena Scamander — Played by Lauren
16th December, 1890 — The ABC
For Marlena the month of December was dominated by two things: avoiding Christmas parties and yet somehow inadvertently finding herself part of them. The Ministry ball was not for another week and Urquart had won her eternal devotion by nixing the idea of a departmental gathering, so she had thought she was safe, barring the interference of her mother and the very likely possibility that she might have to show her face at one of the events Helga no doubt had lined up. She cared for husband hunting even less than she cared for Christmas though she would concede that the latter had improved since Veronica and Eugene had injected the enthusiasm of children into proceedings.
Before she could enjoy the revels of children though Lena needed a few nights to herself, or rather to be herself, and she had found in the last year that the ABC was just the place for that. It wasn’t obvious on first inspection, and when she had fist stumbled inside Lena had been sure they were nothing more than schoolboys who refused to grow up, but soon she had begun to notice things around the bar that led her to think she was perhaps not the only person in the building that had little use for the honourable estate.
Today the pub was decked out in its festive finery, which essentially amounted to throwing glitter on top of cobwebs, and Lena was quickly handed a cracker. She eyed it suspiciously for a moment, her brain taking a while to catch up to the fact it was actually quite pretty and not made of beer-soaked newspaper as she would have imagined being the case. Eventually she crossed the comfortingly sticky floor to the bar and, after ordering herself a large gin, held the cracker out towards the nearest person she knew by sight.
“It’s Kieran, isn’t it?”
![[Image: NKWBLG7.png]](https://i.imgur.com/NKWBLG7.png)
MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022
December 20, 2020 – 10:24 PM
Kieran Abernathy — Played by Beanie
There was something charming about the ABC around Christmas; it was always decked out in tinsel et cetera, but it was a little like putting a gown on a pig. He was half-drunk already; he had, to be frank, been half-drunk most of the day. It was in the holiday spirit.
"That's me," Kieran said at the sound of his name. He grabbed the other end of the cracker. "And you're Marlena, right?" Marlena - Miss Scamander - was a bit more upper crust than most of the ABC's clientele. She was also clearly very educated - she did something complicated at the Ministry. None of this was a mark against her, really; it was just that she was different and Kieran was intrigued by it.
December 24, 2020 – 9:51 PM
Marlena Scamander — Played by Lauren
Nodding Lena pulled at the cracker and was surprised to find that the expected short, sharp snap was considerably louder than she had anticipated and had quite clearly been magically enhanced. So much so that the noise rang in her left ear and she was rendered momentarily deaf, though not enough that she missed the laughter of the barman who had handed her the cracker in the first place.
“Ffff-” She hissed, holding a hand to her ear. “I suppose I ought to have known better. Are you alright?” Another barman, this one looking much more sympathetic, pushed her drink across the grimy bartop. “I don’t suppose this is gratis for clientele you’ve deafened?”
MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022
December 28, 2020 – 11:03 PM
Kieran Abernathy — Played by Beanie
The shot went off so loudly that Kieran leaned back and clapped a hand to his ear, mirroring Marlena. He was still flinching when the barman slid Marlena's drink at her. Kieran downed the rest of his and gestured to the sympathetic barman for another drink. "I'll survive," Kieran said, "It was a little aggressive for us, though."
January 4, 2021 – 5:16 PM
Marlena Scamander — Played by Lauren
Marlena laughed as she took a healthy swig of her drink, enjoying the sensation of neat gin, barely drinkable, burning down her throat. It reminded her of...well...best not to ponder that too much if she wanted to remain in high spirits.
“You know before I started coming here I was told that this public house was entirely aggressive,” she glanced over her shoulder at the gathered clientele, not the shiniest perhaps, but mostly idealistic idiots she had grown fond of. “I have no idea at all how it got such a reputation given...” she waved towards the rabble. “Well you know. Can you enlighten me?”
MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022
January 5, 2021 – 6:15 PM
Kieran Abernathy — Played by Beanie
Kieran laughed at her question; if he hadn't been a nigh-permanent fixture in the Augurey, he would have wondered the same thing. "Some of them have a history of being mouthy, with their families," he settled on, "And I think that eventually 'mouthy' got translated to 'aggressive.' Funny, as [MARIUS] couldn't hurt a fly."
February 12, 2021 – 12:36 AM
Marlena Scamander — Played by Lauren
“Merlin forbid anyone should disagree with their family,” Lena laughed along gaily, though in truth she thought she probably got on better with her family than anyone else in this bar did given their general demeanour of being alone in the world. There was a certain look in the eye that gave them away she had noticed and no one had it more than the man before her.
He did seem to have someone though, the girl behind the bar, the one that had caught Marlena’s eye more than once. They lived together, or so she had heard, but they didn’t seem to be together as far as she could tell which immediately set her brain whirring.
“Is Eileen coming tonight?” She asked, casually glancing through the crowd. “She mentioned she might be working…”
MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022
February 15, 2021 – 12:28 AM
Kieran Abernathy — Played by Beanie
Kieran, who normally hated being anyone's keeper, was happy to be Eileen's. "I think she's trying to come by after," he said, "But if we don't see her I can tell her you asked after her." He liked Miss Scamander, who was from a good family but offbeat enough to be interesting, and obviously if she was looking to see Eileen she had good taste in company.
March 11, 2021 – 10:41 PM
Kieran Abernathy — Played by Beanie
Kieran grinned at her, and did her the credit of not prying. Instead he said simply: "I'm glad to see you here again. You should come around more often."
