» Group #11

[Ezekial Aesalon]

"I'm Eze Aesalon," he introduced himself, voice calm and soft. Thank Merlin he wasn't drunk. "We were sent on an expedition by our village to scout out the nearby territory," he said, "have you perhaps run into any other groups?" He hoped that announcement wouldn't prompt them to try to kill them or something.

Eze wasn't good at this whole 'talking' thing. He hoped some of the other men helped out, although, to be honest, maybe they could bond with these ladies over the Callum/Everett baby mother drama.

[James Riley]

James nodded along with Ezekial, realizing that introducing themselves would likely be a good idea--these women didn't seem dangerous, particularly; they were hardly sirens or veela and didn't appear to be on the verge of transforming into any hideous monsters or something or the sort. Of course they wouldn't, though; the area around Hogsmeade really wasn't very dangerous, for all of Cassandra Trelawney's doom-and-glooming. Or at least, not that James and the rest of the 'lousy drunkards' had seen.

"I'm James Riley," he added, "I'm a healer." It was the most non-menacing thing he could think to say, since the women still looked a little uneasy. If they were from Hogsmeade, it was possible they needed a healer.

[Callum Baines]

All talk of conquests—shared or otherwise—moved to the back burner as they group encountered a pair of strange women. Cal had not anticipated actually encountering anyone this far in the middle of nowhere, and their disheveled appearance made him wary. Unlike Eze—which, frankly, he could not believe—Cal had not been sober for several hours, so the cleverest thing the caretaker could do in that moment was place himself behind James who, to be frank, did not look as if he could harm a fly.

[Morgan Ilkin]

Morgan looked suspiciously at the men, who introduced themselves in turn.
"Very nice, gentlemen. Very nice. Now, what in God's name is a healer? That sounds like you have to deal with magic." Her eyebrows were raised as she looked at the group of men. "You." She pointed at Callum. "No hiding. I want to see you all. My name is Morgan and I'm the one in charge here." Well, that wasn't the whole truth, but they did not know that.

[Callum Baines]

Merlin, another woman who fancied herself in charge? And here they’d only just gotten rid of that Trelawney, or so it seemed! Still, she had a weapon, muggle though it might have been, and that fact alone was enough to prompt Cal to move into a more visible position, however grudgingly. The caretaker even kept his mouth shut, for all that many a snide comment about a woman being in charge of anything other than running a household kept springing to his tongue.

This woman did not trust them, and it would doubtless go badly to antagonize her further.

[Nancy Ingrahm]

More? Why were there more?! This was some sickening attempt to take over their town. It was all down to those magic people, those witches that Nancy had been under the impression had been banished. Nancy stood next to Morgan, prepared to follow any instruction she was given to fire. She would be happy to shoot down the witches. "Do as she says!" she shouted, doing her best to steady the slight tremble in her hands.

[Ezekial Aesalon]

Eze coughed into his hand. "Magic?" he asked, hand wrapped around the wand in his pocket. "Come on, now, does James look like he can do magic? Scrawny git." James was taller than him, yes, but Eze was starting to consider that maybe these ladies had someone from Hogsmeade locked up somewhere. They had jumped to 'witches' awfully quickly.

He wished he was drunk and hoped that Kitty's owl wouldn't arrive anytime soon.

[James Riley]

Things had gotten rather out of hand rather quickly, and James wasn't at all thrilled about it. The fact that they said magic like it was a bad thing was something James was unprepared for; he had spent so long in Hogsmeade he'd nearly forgotten how difficult it was to be a wizard living in London--or anywhere without magic, for that matter. Maybe healer hadn't been the best choice of words. Still, there was nothing incriminating them, yet.

The sudden appearance of pistols that James hadn't seen before was not at all comforting. Still, two Muggle women with pistols against four grown men with wands--even if two of them were of questionable sobriety--should have been no contest. And while James had been all for diplomacy, all thoughts of being able to sweet-talk his way past these ladies ended when they started pointing pistols at him--for while he wasn't sure of the exact specifics of Muggle technology, he was pretty sure that those little pistols were not meant to do him any good.

His hand was on the outside of his clothing, but resting against his wand--close enough to fire a spell if need be. "Look, ladies, we don't want any trouble--sorry we bothered you, but you just stop with the pistols a minute and we'll happily enough walk off. You'll never see us again. Promise."

I am not getting shot for the Ministry of Magic, James promised himself.

[Everett Grimm]

How on earth had then gone from comparing the girls they had slept with to getting held up at gunpoint? Neither one of these women looked like they were kidding around either and Ev was not in the mood to get shot. "Ladies please, let's be reasonable here. We mean you no harm." He meant it really. There was no need to get violent. It was time for them to go home anyway. Long past time for them to go home. If they could get out of here intact then they could alert the ministry and then the could let those trained fools take care of this little muggle town.

"We were just passing through and we'll be out of your beautiful hair in no time." He assured them, throwing in the casual flattery. The fact that they had guns only proved to show this group of semi-sober morons had in fact walked into some ramshackle muggle town. Everett highly suspected that this wouldn't have happened if they hadn't chased certain members of their group away. Now however, was not the time for a big fat I told you so.

[Morgan Ilkin]

Morgan looked at the men and then at Nancy and at the men again and said with a heavy sigh.
"Well, if you do speak the truth, I can let you stay with us and rest for a day. Lower your weapon, Nancy. At least those gentlemen know how to behave. I bet you're all thirsty and hungry. Come, we'll get you something."

[Nancy Ingrahm]

Nancy pursed her lips and didn't lower her weapon for a few moments, still not sure she trusted the men. "All righ'," she conceded. She still didn't like the look of them but she wasn't going to contradict Morgan.

[Callum Baines]

Well. It seemed as if these women had weighed the options—to shoot or not to shoot?—and elected in the men’s favour, for which Callum was grateful. True, there was little doubt that the wizards could make short work of the woman should the need present itself, but at least one of them likely would have gotten shot, and the caretaker was not particularly keen to fill those painful shoes. Besides, now food was on offer, and growing up poor had ensured that Cal would never turn down a free meal.

Without hesitation—though a wiser man might have done so—the caretaker moved to follow the strange women, affording James a congratulatory clap on the shoulder for calming them down with such ease.

[Everett Grimm]

Well at least they weren't getting shot and now they were getting food and a drink? Ev was a little wary about getting cozy with this bunch, lest one of them say something stupid again; he would much rather just hightail it out of there and report to the ministry. However, for the sake of avoiding any more gunpoint, he could just go a long with the flow.

"We don't want to put you out." He hesitated, trying to stay polite and neutral, both new things for him. Everett had never really ever had to have been both in his life. This was a lot of new territory for him all in one day and he was not used to it. Really, it was just time to go home.

[James Riley]

James relaxed a little, but not much, as the women did. He wasn't exactly comfortable with the idea of shacking up with them--but he didn't want to seem as though he didn't appreciate their hospitality, either.

"Much thanks," he said, ducking his head humbly. "Though Everett's right, we'd hate to be a burden, and I think it'd be best we didn't linger long. If you can spare some water we'll gladly drink, then be on our way, with your pardons."

[Nancy Ingrahm]

Nancy wasn't entirely sure where Morgan was headed with inviting them in, perhaps to make them join the small group of prisoners they had collected, she just wasn't sure. "We insist. Wouldn't wan' you t' think us in'ospitable, after all."