September 1888 — Evergardens

Don Juan had no idea where he was. He knew it was very late at night, which wasn't helping him locate himself at all; there was no daylight and very few lights turned on indoors, which made it hard to find anything he recognized. He'd started the night at a party, one he'd attended with friends rather than his family. He was always a little freer when his family wasn't around to see and scold — not that he tempered his behavior much for their sake, but there was a difference. So he'd had a little more to drink tonight, been a little more gregarious, lost his coat with alarming speed, and then ended up indulging in some party potions with a description that had in hindsight been a touch too vague. And then presumably quite a bit of things had happened, and he had ended up here — wherever here was. His vision was returning to normal but was still occasionally doubled, and coupled with the drink it made it impossible to walk a straight line. Someone had just asked whether he needed help. An excellent question.

"I think what I need is a cigarette," he decided. He reached for his cigarette case and it took a second too long to realize the reason he wasn't finding it in his pocket was because that pocket didn't exist — he wasn't wearing his suit jacket. At least he still had a shirt. Presumably also trousers and shoes, but he hadn't gotten around to checking. Since he had misplaced his cigarette case and all its contents, he instead turned his attention to the person who'd asked if he needed help. "Do you have one? Or — fare for the Knight Bus, maybe."

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[*in this timeframe Don Juan is in his early-mid twenties and has a reputation as a rake/partyboy but hasn't had any significant public scandals]

  

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MJ made this <3

She was supposed to have just stayed late enough for sundown and return in time for dinner, but it had come too soon. And then before she knew it, Evangeline was in front of her, waking her up on one of the benches in the Perennial Garden. Trowel in her hand, Phie almost clipped Evangeline as she jerked awake; but it wasn’t from a dream:

Darkness first; and then the subtle glow of what she knew to be the floating orbs lighting up the garden path. It wasn’t cold; it wasn’t warm, either. Her point of view showed the vast cieling of Evergardens. More specifically the main garden. The view doubled and then joined back together as Philomena saw herself come into view, a disgruntled look on her face as she heard a male voice ask,

“I think what—————,”

And as the voice spoke, Phie had been able to focus on the background that slid into focus behind her head in the vision. Wake up she did; Phie jerked out of her snoozing position and darted out of the Perennial Garden with her chaperone close on her heels. Evangeline didn’t ask what had happened but just managed to keep on Philomena’s heels up until she skidded to a halt next to the person sprawled on the ground. Given her vision, Phie wasn’t surprised by the sight but Evangeline let out a yelp, asking if the man was okay.

Frankly, Philomena couldn’t give two lemon drops if he was okay because she now understood why she had looked irritated in her vision. Hands on her hips, she waited until the man had finished speaking. “I do not,” She replied indignantly. “Though I would appreciate it if you would kindly get up please. You’re on the quail nest.” And though it was underground, there was no guarantee that they weren't already scared out of their wits because someone had the rudeness to sit on the entrance to their home.

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❧ Welcome to Evergardens ❧

Don Juan was a bit surprised by this request, because he didn't remember getting down. He felt that just a moment ago he had been working very hard at walking straight, which implied he'd been on his feet... but really that could have been half an hour ago, with how off his perception of time (and most other things) was at the moment. A glance around him revealed that she was correct — at least about him being on the ground. He didn't know about the quail nest part. What did a quail nest look like? He didn't see any eggs laying about. He hoped he wasn't sitting on them — egg stain on his behind sounded quite embarrassing, given the likelihood that he was going to have to make his own way home from here and there was no telling how long it would take him. The two women who had found him here didn't seem inclined to hand over any bus fare.

"Gladly," he agreed, though it was easier said than done. He leaned forward and grabbed onto his knee for leverage, then tried to stand. He made it halfway up, wobbled, put his arms out to regain his balance, and then promptly lost his balance again. To keep himself from falling he latched onto the only upright thing within arm's reach — which, as it turned out, was the woman who didn't want him in the quail nest.

"Hello," he said with a sheepish smile, as though he did not know how he'd found himself here.

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MJ made this <3

His expression of perplexity would have been amusing had there not been a faint cooing noise coming from approximately 20 centimeters below him; the tell tale sign that the quails had indeed woken up and were not happy. Philomena cast a worried look at the ground whilst he was busy attempting to get up, then looked to Evangeline with a harassed expression on her face. They would surely be out of here in no time, and then home before her family could send out a search party. Turning back to the gentleman (was he a gentleman if her first impression of him was this?): “Now if you would come with me, I believe I — oh!”

One moment she was staring at her chaperone, and the next she was face to face (face to chest really, which didn’t help the situation one bit) with the greenhouse’s intruder. Her hands had involuntarily and automatically come up to steady him; and to make matters worse, that wasn’t the extent of her unwilling involvement because the quails had now been added to the equation. A few small pops behind her followed by a great amount of chirruping told her that the quails had come to defend their territory. A simple side-step would have saved the animals from any sort of trampling under normal circumstances, however Philomena also attempted to bodily remove the man with her as well. Coupled with the fact that said man had thrown her off balance….well, she caught the edge of her skirt on her heel and immediately careened to the right. “No!”

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❧ Welcome to Evergardens ❧

He'd latched onto her because she seemed to be stable enough to keep him upright, but apparently that wasn't meant to last long. He'd hardly gotten his bearings when suddenly they were both heading towards the ground. Don Juan let go of her arm and used his hand to try and regain his balance once again, and while he was unsuccessful he did manage to get control of himself enough to land next to her on the ground instead of on her, which she must surely have appreciated. One of his arms was still tangled up with her — it had been sort of around her waist when he'd been standing, but her dress and skirts were in such a disarray now that they were on the ground that it was hard to tell if that was still the case. His sleeve disappeared somewhere into the fabric of her outfit and his hand was up against something solid. He probably ought to disentangle himself completely, but before he could make an effort to do so the birds had started swarming. (Whether swarming was an appropriate adjective or not was anyone's guess; Don Juan's vision was still slightly blurred and the birds were moving more quickly than he could make sense of, so swarming felt appropriate to him).

"Strange pet," he murmured, assuming that he had probably ended up in someone's garden and that these were the sorts of vanity animals rich people bought to make their gardens more interesting. Peacocks were more common for that purpose, weren't they? If one was going to go with birds, anyway; he knew someone who had a zebra. These didn't look half so colorful, and not so well-mannered, either. "Sit," he told one of the nearest quail, but it didn't appear to recognize the command, so he nudged it with one toe instead.

One bare toe, he noticed. Don Juan scowled at his foot. "Where've my boots gotten to?"

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MJ made this <3

Having suffered plenty of falls before, Philomena was no stranger to the confines of gravity but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get quite sick of falling all the time. Hitting the ground with a most unladylike grunt, she immediately tried to wriggle away from the man as quickly as possible. It was made infinitely more difficult by the fact that the quails had popped into existence and were looking for vengeance. A few of them warbled angrily at the man while some of them scurried up to her feet for refuge. Phie normally would have laughed when the man tried to issue them a command, but at this time, this late at night when she was hungry, she very much had had enough.

“They are not pets,” she protested, sitting up to lean forward and shoo the quails away so she might get her feet underneath her. (By all variations of the definition, they definitely leaned more towards pets than anything: they were somewhat domesticated, and Phie enjoyed keeping them within the greenhouse, but she rather thought that aside from making sure they were fed that she left them to their own devices as much as she could. And she certainly hadn’t trained them to do anything like sitting.) “And even if they were they certainly aren’t prone to listening.”

As she brushed her skirts off preparing to get up, she noticed that her intruder was indeed missing his shoes. For the love of Merlin. Were his boots off when she approached him? “I don’t suppose you remember anything before you woke up do you?” He had the remnants of the smell of alcohol on him, so she could venture a guess as to what the answer would be.

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❧ Welcome to Evergardens ❧

Did he remember anything from before he woke up? First of all, he wasn't really sure whether he had woken up, in that he wasn't sure he'd ever been asleep. It was possible he'd just been — away, a bit, mentally. Or that he'd been fully present and just not recording memories properly. Maybe he'd forget this in another few minutes. Maybe he'd already forgotten the last five minutes — maybe that was where his boots had gotten off to, maybe they were covered in quail-egg and he'd taken them off to try to clean them and they were somewhere within arm's reach? Though this did not explain the lack of socks — and such speculations would probably not endear him to the quail-lady, he reckoned.

"Oh, sure, loads of things," he said, hoping that perhaps leaning into the ridiculousness of the situation would catch her off guard and break the doom-scowl facade she'd put up. "I was a Gryffindor at Hogwarts, for one."

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MJ made this <3

At his response, Philomena tried to keep a straight face; but failed and ended up letting out a bubble of a laugh. Perhaps it was the late hour or the fact that the man’s disheveled appearance was rather amusing, but it seemed pointless to keep frowning at the man who seemed rather harmless despite his choice of landing place. There were few places where Philomena felt completely safe, and despite the intruder, the Evergardens Conservatory was one of them. Besides, Evangeline was with her. And thus far the man had only seemed to give off a bumbling and rather charming haphazard air as opposed to a threatening one.

“If that is all you can remember sir, then a trip to the constable’s station might be in order to try and at least ascertain your identity.” She said, casting Evangeline a look.

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❧ Welcome to Evergardens ❧

"Oh, no," he said, stretching out lazily against the ground. He was hoping she was joking about taking him to the constables, so he was determined to treat it as a joke. If she did drag him down to law enforcement... well, he wasn't seriously worried about being arrested and having his life derailed (even if he were arrested surely his parents would come to sort things out as soon as they heard about it). It would rather complicate his journey home this evening (morning?) if he had to make such a detour, though. His experience with law enforcement was that they always wanted to talk too much. Far too interested in answers to questions that Don Juan and the sorts of people he hung around with knew better than to ask.

"I'm sure it will come to me. Just give me a moment to enjoy the scenery of — whose gardens are these?" he asked, glancing around.

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MJ made this <3

Phie had expected to stay late but not be detained this late by a stranger. He had an odd air about him, but not one that seemed at all threatening. Even so, while Phie wasn’t a violent person by nature, she was getting quite agitated the longer this went on. She was hungry. “They’re mine!” She answered, exasperation coating her voice. “Well, they’re my family’s — it’s Evergardens’ — Sprout’s Evergardens, and my name is Philomena Sprout. And whilst I’m quite flattered that you’re enjoying the view, I can tell you that it’s infinitely better when the lights are all on and it is visiting hours.”

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❧ Welcome to Evergardens ❧

"Oh," Don Juan responded, more to her shift in tone than in the information. He was wearing through her good graces faster than he was regaining his bearings. And here he thought he'd been rather adorable through this whole interaction.

"Well, they're lovely," he said in a placating tone. "And I do so appreciate the after hours tour, Miss Philomena. I'm not very good at getting places during visiting hours. Chronically late-running pocketwatch."

Jokes aside, he did work his way up to his feet. She didn't seem like she planned to indulge his laying in the quail nest much longer.

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   Philomena Sprout

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MJ made this <3

She could only gape at him, wondering if this was a result of his intoxication or if this constant state of placid intrigue and mild bewilderment was something he put his family through on a daily basis. His attempts at calming her down only served to make her bristle and sputter. Mostly at the assumption this was a tour; she gave better tours of her establishment than this. And while yes, the quails were quite endearing when one wasn’t trodding through their nests, his label of “lovely” at the mere clearing they were in might as well have been him calling their surroundings as “quaint”.

“One wonders how you manage to walk around during the daytime.” Phie muttered, not knowing where or indeed how to start protesting how her gardens were more than just “lovely”. He was lucky she didn’t punish him on the finer points of symbiosis between flora and fauna. She stepped back a few paces while he got up, pressing her lips together at the unhurried manner with which he was extruding himself from the quail home.

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❧ Welcome to Evergardens ❧

She hadn't said much, but her body language indicated that her anger had not abated. Something had really soured her mood, then; he thought the joke about an after-hours tour would have softened her at least a little. Well, his interaction here had run its course — if she was determined not to find him charming then there was nothing left to be done. Not at whatever time of the night this was, with him missing his jacket and his shoes, at any rate.

"My mother does often wonder," he said, tone as solemn as if they were discussing a terminal illness he had which was entirely incurable and whose symptoms were untreatable; a misfortune of the universe, rather than any consequence of his own choices. Patting the space on his torso in which his coat pockets would have been, had he still been wearing a coat, he continued in a resigned way, "Well, I suppose I'll see if the Knight Bus takes credit. Or — maybe there's a friend I can walk to," he considered. "Are the Evergardens in Hogsmeade?"

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MJ made this <3

That his mother agreed with her at least quelled her annoyance with him but only slightly. The man in front of her seemed very well-to-do, which meant that he likely had an overbearing mama that very much wondered what to do with this…hurricane of a man. “Forgive me for saying so but by the looks of you, the Knight Bus might make an exception and let you aboard.” She injected as much sarcasm as she could before blinking at his question. Dear Merlin, this man thought he was in Hogsmeade!

“N..no, we’re in London.” She supplied through her shock as she stared up at him. “Just..where exactly is home for you?”

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❧ Welcome to Evergardens ❧

The look on her face was rather amusing. He tried not to look too pleased with himself, though, as he'd only just gotten her to step back from her threat of calling the constables on him and wasn't keen to see her riled again. "Ireland, occasionally," he answered with half a shrug. He was aware that this would be an entirely unhelpful descriptor, but she was welcome to make of it what she would.

"You'll have to walk me to the street," he pointed out. "If I hailed the Knight Bus here I'm sure it would make a larger mess of your quail's nest than I have."

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MJ made this <3

Ireland, occasonially, he’d said. Which Philomena took to mean that he was referring to a domicile he only visited when the whim called for it. Whoever he lived with she hoped had enough of a constitution to handle drop-ins like these on the daily. Even after one encounter with this man Phie wasn’t sure she’d be able to take another night if he were going to go crashing through her colocasias.

He seemed like one of those people who one wouldn’t be surprised to find out they brought an entire circus with them, with the chaos to boot. Though with the expression he was sporting now, Phie wondered if he fell in the more harmless sort of crowd. He hadn’t tried anything lascivious (though with Phie’s luck that could just be her), and so she gave a resigned sigh. “Very well, though I’ll admit it’s the first time I’ve had to chaperone someone else, let alone a man.” She commented as she collected herself. “It’s just this way. Mind the nest again, if you please.”

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❧ Welcome to Evergardens ❧