Who: Vic & Pippa What: Pub cleaning Where: The Coo When: After the last battle (backdated) Rating: Low
Adrenaline lingered after the impromptu battle for Vic, who jogged through the cave’s passageways to her flat and helped herself to a shower to wipe off the debris. No dried blood this time, thank Godric. And no failures, either. She’d done all right. She’d fit in this time. And this time, the blood was on the corpse of the fucker who’d tried to sneak up on her.
Thankful for something to do (or at least somewhere to go--Vic had offered her hands to Pippa but she wasn’t sure what sort of cleaning she’d signed up for), she jogged back through the caves into the center square, heading straight for the Coo. Pushing the door open slowly, she peered in wondering about the battle’s impact on the pub--population-wise and structurally.
*
Weathering out the battle inside the pub had been… tense. Pippa had known it would be—that was why she'd invited everyone to join her, in the hopes that being in hostess mode would help her not feel it so much. It hadn't really worked. Every boom that traveled below the surface had people jumping, especially the ones that came with a scattering of rocks hitting outside. She'd ushered everyone away from the windows just in case, but luckily there hadn't been building damage. Just a few larger chunks of rock blocking the door when the lights turned back to their normal hue, but some wandwork had fixed that after some acrobatics to get herself in line to take it out. After that, most patrons chose to leave, to find their loved ones or assess the damage done to their homes. Pippa fought with herself about keeping the Coo open just in case any soldiers wanted to drink away their feelings about what had happened but looking around at the broken glasses and bottles that had fallen when the ground shook and gauging her own state of mind, she hung a sign outside that apologized, set out some free bottles of brew, and went upstairs to change. If she was going to be cleaning, she might as well be comfortable.
With her hair piled up on top of her head and her comfiest jammies on, she began the work of cleaning while she waited for Vic, staying in the front room so she'd be there when the other girl arrived. Still, when the door opened slowly, she called out instead. "Sorry, we're closed. There should be some beers outside if you need one."
---
“If you’re gonna close it’d be decent of you to set out some nachos or crisps, too.” Vic offered a shaky grin, always relieved to see Pippa after returning from a battle. Especially one like this, unplanned with the added effect of scaring everyone inside the caves with earthquake-like thumping, too. She slipped inside and closed the door behind her, glad to see Pippa at least looking comfortable in PJs. She took a few slow steps toward her, boots crunching on glass so she moved with care though her eyes locked on her best mate the entire way. “Hey.”
*
Pippa's grin was annoyingly shaky as Vic appeared, and it seemed like the more she tried to fight it the worse it became. she couldn't stop herself from evaluating everything she could see—Vic's skin for blemishes and bumps and her movement for changes indicative of pain. It was a relief not to notice anything immediately. "Hey yourself. Food'd be a step too far, I think."
---
Vic could actually feel Pippa's eyes roving over her and she suddenly became hyper aware of each movement, a faint, self-conscious flush rising in her cheeks. "I swear I'm all right, Pips." She shoved her hands into her pockets and nodded toward the ceiling. "Where should I start?"
*
"You'd say you were alright even if you were holding your guts in your hand," she pointed out with an arched brow before looking around at the mess in the front room. "I'm trying to group it all together before I spell it back in place, so nothing gets anywhere it shouldn't... Then I need to go inspect the cellars and count up everything we lost between this and that. Don't suppose you've a broom somewhere on you? I wanted to see how the roof wards handled."
---
“Not true!” Vic shot back, even though she knew it was probably a little true. “You can check me this time. Not a scratch anywhere.” It was a point of pride, really. She followed Pippa’s eyes around the pub. “Grouping shite, cellar inspection, then--”
“You can borrow my broom if you need. It’s in the supply closet,” Jack offered as he emerged from the kitchen balancing a dozen boxed meal orders. “Making a delivery run, I’ll be back!” He nudged the door open with his foot and tapped it closed behind him.
Vic would’ve offered to help, but she’d kind of already promised herself to Pippa. “Cool, so I can help you with that too.” She pulled her wand. “Shall we start the sorting, then? Any chance I can pull myself a pint while I work?”
*
"Thanks!" Pippa called out after her brother, who was a whirlwind as usual after these sorts of things. At least they both had some kind of use. And he was much less likely to be killed. Turning back to Vic, she put her hands on her hips, mostly as a place to rest them while she looked over the place once more, almost compulsively. "I'd be insulted if you didn't get at least two. Try different taps, let me know if the shaking did anything to them. And then after your first one, maybe you could take the broom for the roof inspection?"
---
“Yeah. Brilliant, thanks!” Some more glass and debris crunched under her boots as she made her way behind the bar to pull herself a pint. Reemerging, she took a few testing gulps and smacked her lips together, considering. “Seems good to me.” With her wand hand, she helped Pippa sort the items into the piles she’d designated. After that, she magicked the dirty pint glass into the dishwashing bin and headed to the supply closet to fetch Jack’s broomstick. “Oi, so what should I be looking for up there? I mean, besides the obvious stuff…”
*
Setting the dishwashing charms going, Pippa flicked her wand to get the mop out of the closet while Vic was in there getting Jack's broom. It danced its way into her outstretched hand, a little wheeled bucket screeching out after it. "Mostly just obvious damage, I guess? If you feel like some strategic pebble throwing would be fun, you can test how the ward itself is doing." Building integrity wasn't her thing, really, though maybe it ought to have been with the frequent cave-ins that happened when they were first building here. They'd put up wards and she hadn't had much cause to think about it since.
---
“Sure, yeah. I’ll check it out.” With a two-finger salute, Vic tossed Jack’s broom over her shoulder and headed back outside, mounting and kicking off the ground in one swift motion. She spent ten minutes hovering above the pub’s roof, pulling her wand and casting mild to moderate (but soundless so she didn’t frighten anyone) hexes at the wards. The hexes ricocheted and fizzled out, which seemed like a good sign, so she returned to the pub to relay her findings. “Seems all right to me. I tested the wards with a few hexes. I’m not a building person though, obviously, so it probably couldn’t hurt to get one of the Sustainability sods to take a look.” No doubt they were probably going to test all the cave structures, just to be safe. Or so she hoped. “Let me go down to check on the cellar with you, all right?” She had no idea what sorts of things could be wrong down there, but it seemed more dangerous for one person to inspect the situation alone.
*
While Vic was gone, Pippa busied herself with getting the chairs and tables cleaned up then stacked them so the mop could clean up the spilled booze and ephemera. The place almost looked as good as new by the time she returned. All that was left was the cellar.
Tucking a loose strand of hair back up into her bun, she pointed to the stools instead, heading behind the bar. "Sit and have another pint, yea? Thanks for checking the roof. I figure the Sustainability people will be plenty busy, so if I'm good to sleep here tonight, I can bug them tomorrow at some point."
---
“Or you can sleep with me tonight, just to be safe?” The offer flew out without second thought. “With us, I mean. Either one. You know how it is. Ginny snores and I blanket-hog. Choose your poison.” Her chuckle carried with an uneasy sort of tinge at the edges. “I’m good for now on the pint. It was no problem, really. Didn’t do much.”
*
"Yea, but grumpy Gin is the worst. You should probably stay here to save yourself from all of that, to be honest." Grabbing a glass, she filled it up anyway and set it on the bar near Vic. "Remember when I said insulted?"
---
“That’s the bloody truth,” Vic said with a laugh. Eyeing the pint, she fired a soft glare at Pippa. “You trying to get me drunk, Rosmerta?” Of course she was teasing--she couldn’t even manage to fully bite back the grin threatening to escape.
*
"Drink in hand means arse in chair, means I get to also put my arse in a chair." She did just that, taking the stool next to the one by the pint. A soft sigh escaped involuntarily at the sensation of relieving her legs and feet from their duty. "Whatever's happened in the cellar can wait a bit. And I'm always trying to get people drunk. 'S my job."
---
Vic snorted, taking the pint and bring it to her lips. “Damn. For a second I thought I was special.” She took a long drink to hide her smirk, lowering the glass and eyeing Pippa. “You’re really all right, yeah? From what I heard on my way over, lots of people got pretty damn spooked.”
*
Spinning a bit on the stool, Pippa shrugged one shoulder. "Hard to get spooked when you're in a room of people and you're trying to keep them level headed enough not to trample someone. At least, not scared for myself," she added quietly, focused on her hand a bit too hard as she swiped at a line of blood from the earlier glass.
---
Pride swelled in Vic’s chest. “You’re such a badarse. Not easy keeping a cool head during a bloody crisis.”
*
Huffing a laugh, she rolled her eyes skyward. "It's like a pub fight brewing. I've got plenty of experience with those."
---
“It’s a bit more intense than a pub fight, Pips! You lot had no idea what was going on out there. That’s got to be intense and terrifying.” She took another swig, licking the foam from her upper lip. “So hopefully we’ll get another lull for a while.”
*
"What was going on out there? I still don't really know." She had plenty of guesses, but they were all pretty dire and she didn't want to speak them into existence.
---
“I dunno all the details. Seemed like a small army coming at us. I was stationed near the cave entrance, tried picking them off with stunners before they got in. Nobody got in--or if they did, they didn’t get back out for sure to tell the others. I know that much.” Her eyes fell to her half-empty pint glass, fingertips tracing up and down the side. “Made my first kill today.” She delivered that with a soft, even tone void of emotion. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it, or if she felt anything at all.
*
No one got in. Pippa clung to that fact. But they could have, her brain insisted on finishing. For almost a year, the caves had felt safe, like they were invisible. Now she wasn't sure she could feel totally safe here again. No wonder they hadn't announced what had happened. They were probably trying to spin it. "Saved us, is what you did," she answered, just as softly.
---
Vic summoned her Gryffindor courage to meet Pippa’s eyes, searching for any hint of disgust or fear or anything that might suggest Pippa thought less of her. “I dunno about that,” Vic rasped, offering a slight shrug as a substitute for even dipping her toe into unpacking the whole killing someone experience. “It is what it is, I reckon.” She finished off her pint and nodded toward the direction of the cellar doors. “Let’s go and check the cellar now?”
*
Pippa wanted to press on it, but she held her tongue. What Vic had done was nothing short of heroic, but she figured she wouldn't be able to convince her of that right now.
At the mention of the cellar, she groaned. "I don't even want to think about how many kegs and barrels we might've lost. Maybe I got lucky, though. They're pretty sturdily built."
---
Vic hopped off the stool and offered Pippa her hand. “C’mon. We’ll manage with whatever we find.” They’d done all right so far, hadn’t they?
*
Placing her hand in Vic's, she let herself be pulled off the stool, all of the aches she'd been becoming numb to back in full force as soon as her swollen feet touched the ground. she was a pro at pushing past that sort of discomfort, though, and she led the way to the cellar.
"The Sticks would have never had this problem," she grumbled quietly as she opened the door and started down the stairs that were nearly a ladder. Despite having been there when it was built, she'd not warmed to the cellar of the Coo yet. There had been too many restrictions in place at the time it had been built.
---
“Lumos,” she muttered behind Pippa, the tip of her wand providing more light as they descended the stairs to the cellar. “You’ll get it back, Pips.” She had to believe that. Otherwise, what was the point in putting her arse on the line as she had been?
*
"'Course." She went back and forth between believing and not, but right now she was on the side of not. She was actually on the side of them not even surviving the next year, but she wasn't going to share that with anyone.
It was the sound that struck her first, definitely some kind of liquid-moving noise. Cursing, she lit her own wand, expecting that the barrels were leaking. Instead, she saw a fissure in the wall spurting water the same moment her foot landed on the cellar floor—and in 7 inches of water. "Great buggering-" a twist of her wand set the candles along the wall aflame so she could begin casting locomotor. "Help me get the supplies upstairs, yea?" She could feel the water creeping up her calves already, but if they moved fast maybe it would be okay.
---
The sound hit Vic’s ears at the same moment and she grimaced, not hesitating before rushing forward in her boots into the water. “Shite, yeah. On it.” Thank Godric they hadn’t waited longer--hopefully there wouldn’t be much damage done to Pippa’s stock and supplies. She concentrated her spellwork on levitating the barrels up the stairs one by one. Then she went at the wall. She glanced at her wand and wracked her brain for any sort of… wall patching spell? Grumbling a few swears under her breath when she came up empty on a magical solution, she slid her wand into her back pocket and decided to use her body to block the fissure, which… didn’t do much except for give Vic a second shower of the day. “Damn! Do we call on a Sustainability sod or what??”
*
Turning from settling her last barrel upstairs and her patronus after it, Pippa turned back to find Vic… plugging the hole with her body. "Merlin, Vic!" The water was sloshing up her thighs as she moved toward the wall. "Back away a mo." She cast a bubble charm, the orb growing as more water filled it, but not breaking. It wouldn't stop the water but maybe Sustainability would know what to do when they got here. "Get upstairs before you catch your death."
---
Vic stepped aside and, upon realizing how quickly the water had been rising, she fired off her Patronus, calling out her message to the wispy lynx to carry across the way to the Sustainability folks. Then she took Pippa’s hand and tugged her toward the stairs. “C’mon, it’s not safe to stay down here alone.”