Order Only: Recruits
Feb. 17th, 2014 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_siriusIt was such a wretched evening tonight that we shut up the garden hours ahead of our normal close. But of the people who were there, two were ones we'd been thinking might make good recruits: Tim Wang and Edna Parsons. Er, not that they were together mind.
Mrs Parsons lives in a building nearby - you might recall she's the one whose landlord Beth confirmed is already a member of the Muggle Underground Railroad, so we're reasonably confident that unless she's completely idiotic, she won't have any issues from him, at any rate. Not sure about her neighbours - though she's brought the lady in the next flat here at least once.
Wang's an interesting bloke. I once overheard Ellie asking him if there wasn't anything she could get for him - he doesn't touch a drop of beer. He smiled and said he was just fine with his gillywater; he just likes the company. Ellie asked, 'Any particular company?' and he said that he quite fancies how relaxed we keep things, how no one puts on any airs. Then there was a time when Mrs Spindleton was clucking over him and drew him out a bit. I listened on that conversation, too. Turns out, his wife was one of the casualties in the World Cup bombing.
The others we think worth approaching:
We're not expecting that every one of them will accept, of course, or that we want every one of them right away. Rick, Rebecca, and Avanti are the best suited for active roles, I think, while Tim, Enid, Edna and Gladys would likely be more comfortable in support positions. Craig's as enthusiastic as any young man at 16 or 17, but we'd need to get him a wand and some training before he could make an effective combatant, certainly. He might do for a messenger if we need one, as the family he works for send him out on errands quite a bit.
Mrs Parsons lives in a building nearby - you might recall she's the one whose landlord Beth confirmed is already a member of the Muggle Underground Railroad, so we're reasonably confident that unless she's completely idiotic, she won't have any issues from him, at any rate. Not sure about her neighbours - though she's brought the lady in the next flat here at least once.
Wang's an interesting bloke. I once overheard Ellie asking him if there wasn't anything she could get for him - he doesn't touch a drop of beer. He smiled and said he was just fine with his gillywater; he just likes the company. Ellie asked, 'Any particular company?' and he said that he quite fancies how relaxed we keep things, how no one puts on any airs. Then there was a time when Mrs Spindleton was clucking over him and drew him out a bit. I listened on that conversation, too. Turns out, his wife was one of the casualties in the World Cup bombing.
The others we think worth approaching:
- Enid Dribb - she looked after Bea a time or two before Ellie came to stay with us
- Craig Cantrell - he's the young lad who works for the Parritts and he's quite sweet on our Ellie
- Rebecca Kestenbaum
- Avanti Sharma - Both of them were a few years ahead of Dora, but I don't think they're mates with each other or anything. I've barely seen them have a conversation, actually
- Gladys Malone - Ellie said she was in at Valentine's, still rather bitter about her husband leaving her when he knew perfectly well she was a halfblood
- Rick Sacher - I think Rick is short for Frederick, isn't it, Dora, and not Richard. He was telling another patron a few months ago that his parents emigrated here from Austria back when Grindelwald was making things uncomfortable there. Had loads of stories about their escape, back in the day
We're not expecting that every one of them will accept, of course, or that we want every one of them right away. Rick, Rebecca, and Avanti are the best suited for active roles, I think, while Tim, Enid, Edna and Gladys would likely be more comfortable in support positions. Craig's as enthusiastic as any young man at 16 or 17, but we'd need to get him a wand and some training before he could make an effective combatant, certainly. He might do for a messenger if we need one, as the family he works for send him out on errands quite a bit.
no subject
Date: 2014-02-18 03:38 am (UTC)Enid's a dear. A bit lonely, but not one to whinge or moan. Everyone in the garden knows her, and she's always invited to join someone's table when she's here. There's just something about her you trust. I actually think she'd make an excellent spy if we ever needed someone to go someplace and listen for us.
You're right about Kestenbaum and Sharma: they aren't mates. Sharma was five years, maybe, ahead of me in Hufflepuff. I hardly knew her at all then, but she's nice enough now. Brilliant with a charm, too.
Rebecca Kestenbaum, though, we're especially fond of her. She's the one who makes the finger puppets to amuse Bea--they're always dead clever things, made from twine and parchment or a bit of flannel and ribbon or twirly wire and little googly glass eyes. Bea thinks she's the Niffler's nugget. And she's been so disappointed since we've stopped bring Bea along.
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Date: 2014-02-18 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-18 03:51 am (UTC)She was a Ravenclaw, and I hardly knew her. I think she's just two years ahead of me, though. But you know, I hardly knew anyone then. I could be spokesperson for a publicity campaign to tell kids life gets so much easier once you leave school and get a few years on. And then people surprise you: the ones who were ridiculous bores at school turn out to be interesting, and the ones who never gave you a second look can be absolutely lovely. Mind you, sometimes there's no change at all, and it turns out you were absolutely right about some of them!
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Date: 2014-02-18 04:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-02-18 04:49 am (UTC)Something about the stories she writes, probably. Near as I can tell, they're always skirting what's acceptable.
She and Melv Wright sometimes talk about what her next plot's going to be. Or rather, he peppers her with questions and then tells her if he thinks her ideas are full of holes. She had one where one of the important characters was going to be a squib, but he talked her out of it. Still, she's always having some stupid Ministry bureaucrat get in the way of the hero's saving the day, or she has some MLE buffoon ruin all the evidence and make it nearly impossible to solve the mystery. (She doesn't call them MLE, I don't think, but I doubt anyone's fooled.)
Mind you, I don't think she's going to be another Astra Morgansen. Her books keep it all pretty light--she hides all her barbs behind humour. Pretty low humour a lot of the time. They're written for boys, mostly.
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Date: 2014-02-18 05:49 am (UTC)No, wait. It was the way she talks about her parents. Calling them Mr Kow and Mrs Tow?
She was talking with Tim about them one evening, and he didn't find that as funny as I think she meant it to be. Not sure whether he was offended or just thought she should be more respectful of her parents, but I took it as another sign she's our sort.
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Date: 2014-02-18 03:44 am (UTC)I'm wondering -- right now, Sherwood handles the button traffic from the camps. Should we fold these in with what they've got in place, or have our own station set up at Moddey for Order-specific messages?
Sherwood has more people than we do, and a system already in place -- but if we had our own set-up, we could be a little more immediately responsive, depending on the scale we end up with, of course. And as the buttons can be used by non-magical people too, we've got a slightly bigger pool to work from of people who could take down messages and send things along.
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Date: 2014-02-19 07:29 pm (UTC)Let me know if you want me to find out the Ministry has any kind of file on any of these people.