kent abercrombie is unforgivabled

( Application for KENTON ABERCROMBIE )

( Wards )

Kent random facts.

Kent intro on the connections meme (current players only).

Kent want ads: brother.

[Warded to friends]

I got my wand back over the weekend and they're letting me go home tonight. I still am under a lot of restrictions and will be for a while, but I can at least cast wards again.

I'm going to be in for quite a bit of therapy and I won't be allowed back to work for a while, but I can go sleep in my own bed, and that's great.

Also, you guys have all been aces about visiting and bringing books and keeping me from going barking mad while I've been stuck in bed, so thanks. I'm lucky to have all of you.

[Warded to Unspeakables]

I'm being released to go home from St Mungo's this evening, but I'm not being permitted to go back to work yet. I won't be back until at least the beginning of June, and I'm still under Healer's supervision.

If somebody would bring me all my action figures, I'd be really grateful. Thanks.

[Warded to Brutus]

I got your note, and the flowers, which were nice. The healers have been keeping me crazy busy with therapy since they let me have my wand back so this week has been all "cast spells, sleep". But now that I'm getting out of the hospital and will have some time to do things, we should definitely talk in person.

I hope you're doing better and that your brother is doing better too.

[Warded to Melissa and Benjy Fenwick]

I just wanted to say how sorry I was to hear about Cathy. She brought a lot of happiness into a lot of people's lives, including mine. I hope knowing that she'll be remembered with love serves in some small measure to lighten your grief.

[Warded to Abercrombies]

Following our discussion, I've had some time to think about a lot of things and talk with Mum and Dad. I want to reiterate something that I said at the time that I think got lost in the argument, which is that I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings and made you feel that I don't value your input. I do, even when I don't agree with it.

You've asked that I bring important decisions to you all in advance and, because of that request, I'm telling you about a decision I made after my discussion with Mum and a separate discussion with Caleb. Apparently Mum threatened to override my expressed wishes about my medical proxy by taking matters to the Wizengamot. Accordingly, I'm having a legal proxy drawn up to reflect my wishes on this matter, which are that Caleb continue to hold my proxy in the event of my incapacity. Until I've been given a clean bill of health, or at least advised that my chances of relapse are minimal, by my Healers, I believe that Caleb should continue to hold my proxy due to his Mysteries authorisation.

I understand this is not going to be a popular decision, but I've had quite a bit of time to think about it in the last week and a half, and I have made it after due consideration. I hope you understand that it doesn't have anything to do with not trusting you.

[Warded to Cora]

I just wanted to say hi and that I hope you're doing all right with everything still, or as all right with everything as you can be under the circumstances.

[Warded to Caleb]

I can't wait to get out of here. I told the girls about the proxy; we'll see how they take it.

Also, wand-handling jokes, har de har.

I got this new journal today and I was told I could use it, so this is me writing to say that I'm alive and reading along. Also, that I really appreciate Caleb, who's been a trooper, and my family, who've put up with a lot, and all my friends and colleagues who've asked after me and visited. Also the healers and mediwizards and hospital staff have been fantastic, and I wouldn't be alive to write this without their hard work, so I'm grateful to them.

They tell me I'll be here at least another week. I don't have my wand back yet, so I can't ward people privately. Sorry about that, and sorry if I'm slow to answer, and for not being up to writing more just yet.

( Private )

[Warded to Brutus Scrimgeour and Caleb Croaker]

I thought you'd like to know that I filled up an application for medical leave and put together all the supporting paperwork. Brutus, I've included copies of some of the journals I've kept for you in the documentation.

I'll be filing it with Miss Avery personally on Monday.

[Warded to Cora Cornerstone]

I just saw the Prophet. I'm so sorry, Cora. Do you want me to come and do whatever needs doing? I can be out of here in ten minutes if you need me.

[Warded to Unspeakables]

I may be bailing out of here to go help Cora. I'll leave my lab in order. Somebody make sure the weekend feeder is set up for my animals if I don't get back here, please?

ETA after this: Never mind, it's okay, I'm not going.

[Warded to Abercrombies + Caleb]

I'm probably going over to be with Cora. I'll have my journal. Ward me if I'm needed.

[Warded to Brutus Scrimgeour]

I'm sorry we missed each other last week but some stuff you ought to know about happened this weekend. I'm not talking about my stint getting arrested during the food fight riot last week. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it was stressful. But that's not what I wanted to talk about.

I went to the circus this weekend and I had an appointment with Patrick Dawlish, who used to be an intern here, in Prophecy. He's the seer. They call him the All-Seeing Peithagoras. Anyhow, he used to date my sister and I knew about him working here, so I checked him out. He issued me a prophecy, a real one. I didn't take it formally, because I didn't have the equipment, but I don't need to have it tested. Anyway, he said there's some bad things coming my way and I can't avoid them. I don't know what that means, but if it means something medical, now somebody will know.

Because of Caleb's heart trouble, he's not supposed to be under major-league stress, so I didn't tell him about it. He'd just worry to no effect. If something comes of it, we'll sort it out then.

Also I was in all that shit in the journals under wards this weekend. Caleb called me on it. We went and batted some bludgers around Sunday and that helped.

I'll send down my usual measurement information in the morning. Also, I'm running low on the current preparation. I can probably last another week but maybe not if we have another shitstorm in the journals so bad one of my friends gets questioned by the DMLE.

( Private )

[Warded to Patrick Dawlish]

Thanks again for the reading. Obviously it wasn't what I wanted to hear, but I appreciate the heads-up.

Caleb and I went to the circus yesterday and had a great time. I recommend it highly for an entertaining afternoon and evening.

[Warded to Shannon, Peyton, and Caleb--rings until they open their journals]

Could I get one of you to come down to the DMLE and bail me out, please? I got caught in the cafeteria protest and I was arrested.

No, I wasn't doing anything. Yes, my robes were ruined, and I'm pretty annoyed. Yes, I am the bad son today.

I owe you guys one.

[Warded to R&R]

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I will not be in attendance tonight. I'll see you next week.

ETA after this: I'm not injured; I was just picked up along with a bunch of other people in a sweep by the hit wizards. My sister is bailing me out and I'll be fine after I get home and out of my robes and clean up.

Note to self: avoid cafeteria protests in future.

[Warded to mutual friends of Caleb & Kent including R&R folks and poker night attendees]

Caleb is turning 25 a week from today and we're celebrating at the flat Saturday night. Come one, come all, and give me a head count so I can make sure we have enough food, drink, and cake. Costumes are not required but they are highly encouraged, and impromptu singing might spontaneously happen.

We're looking forward to seeing all of you.

[Warded to friends]

OK, I know I'm not supposed to write about bullshit light stuff like entertainment at a time like this. I'm sad and angry about the horrible things that were done on Diagon Alley; I wish ease for the survivors and healing for the injured; I want the guilty punished. But even though what I'm about to write about may be stupid and unimportant compared to that, it means something to me.

A generation lost its Doctor tonight.

We just watched the final episode of Logopolis and saw Tom Baker regenerate into Peter Davison. It was stupid. He fell off a radio tower and that made him regenerate. I wish he'd gone out on a high note and not after collaborating with his enemy, the Master. I wanted this to be good so badly and it just didn't live up to the standard of the earlier Tom Baker stories. The show hasn't been the same since Mary Whitehouse got Philip Hinchcliffe fired and the new showrunner, John Nathan-Turner, is going to ruin the series if he goes on like this. He got rid of Romana, who was a brilliant companion, and replaced her with a whiny teenaged boy, a fairy princess, and a loudmouth Australian.

And now they're replacing the best Doctor of all with a jumped-up pretender whose sole important previous credit is in a bloody series about a country vet. And the only reason that was worthwhile was because the lead actor was in a car wreck and couldn't do the outdoor scenes! How is this supposed to make him ready to take on the most important role on television right now? I'm so glad they've got a year to get their shit together and at least try fix all this, if it's even possible to paper over the mistakes Nathan-Turner has already made.

They should have fired Nathan-Turner and begged Tom Baker to stay on. There's just no way Davison is going to be able to live up to him. It's like they grabbed two punk actors and replaced Shatner and Nimoy as Kirk and Spock, and who the hell would take that seriously?

[Warded to Caleb]

Emmeline's decided to find us girlfriends. What do I do now? Help!

[Warded private]

I didn't mean to drop her. I really didn't mean to drop her. I had her and then she just slid out of my hands and fell. I should have caught her. How did I not catch her?

Didn't I want to catch her? I don't know why I didn't catch her. This stupid project has me questioning everything.

[Warded to Caleb]

Take my remains back to my homeland for honourable burial after your boss kills me, please.

[Warded to friends]

Yes, I was the one who accidentally dropped Beth Ketteridge. I get a Troll in team-building, I guess.

[Warded to friends and poker regulars]

Caleb and I are hosting poker Saturday night at the flat. Let me know if you're interested and we haven't already talked about it so I can figure out what we need for snacks and beer.

Veronica, if you want to come by early and watch Doctor Who, this is a good week. There are only four more episodes after this before the show goes on break.

[Warded to Cora]

How are you feeling? Are you up to coming to the flat on Saturday for poker? I'll come get you if you want and you're not up to apparating.

[Warded to Brutus]

Following up on our discussions last week, I'm keeping a list of things that annoy me out of proportion to their worth and it's getting to be a surprisingly long list. I knew I was uptight but I didn't think I was low-level angry about things all the time.

[Warded private]

I probably owe Caleb a minor apology for our tiff last night, but Merlin's saggy left ball, he's got to back off about girls. I'll bloody tell him when I have something to tell him. He's worse than Mum, if only because I see more of him so we talk about it more often.

It's not like I'm not thinking about girls all the time now, or at least that's how it feels, har-de-har-har. And it's not like I don't have a bunch of gorgeous female friends. But most of them are out my league anyhow, and some of them have brothers who would kill me for so much as looking crosswise at them, and on top of all that, Cora's hurt, and who wants to be that kind of creep? Not me.

Plus, the female of the species is a bigger mystery than anything I deal with at work. Sometimes I think I should just declare that I plan a life of celibacy and maybe that will solve the problem, or at least the part that involves other people. The part that involves me, I'm stuck with.

In case you were wondering: the Department of Mysteries has nothing to do with love potions. But we do get owls about them!

I love my job. I feel very lucky to work in the Department of Mysteries. I believe we have an important role to play in making the wizarding world a better place.

I love my family. I feel like I don't seen enough of them. I believe I should plan a family dinner sometime soon.

I love my friends. I feel like I don't appreciate them enough. I believe I should tell them how fantastic they are more often.

[Warded to Caleb]

I love stupid Ministry sensitivity assignments. I feel like a moron for having written that. I believe I should skive off work early and go have a pint.

I did some data analysis recently on episodes of Star Trek and made an interesting discovery. We all know that the show treated crew members outside the core cast as essentially disposable, particularly if they were redshirts: almost three-quarters of deaths during the series were redshirts. What I hadn't previously considered, and probably should have, was the circumstances under which redshirts didn't die.

Obviously they don't die as frequently if they don't go down to the planet or no fight breaks out (either with an alien life form or on the ship). But the other key metric turns out to be the nature of Captain Kirk's relationship with the alien life form. If it's what we might delicately call a "conquest" scenario, which is to say the alien is female and humanoid and Kirk fancies her, then the odds of the redshirts dying go down dramatically--unless, of course, there's a fight, in which case there will be blood. Or something.

I can break out the maths for you, but the odds of a redshirt dying are 53% in a given episode, but only 12% if it's a conquest episode. The answer is clearly this: dashing starship captains need shagging.

This information is brought to you courtesy of my Star Trek Concordance, my lunch hour, and my research for the next R&R session. Cheers!

[OOC: source]

[Warded private]

Just counting how many people were on that Death Eater watch list scares me: Brutus, Catherine's sister, Ashley's brother, and Kelly. Not to mention Ted, and while I don't imagine he was a specific target of the Knight Bus incident--nor do I imagine I was important enough to be one--it's only a matter of time until someone notices I live in a Muggle flat with a television set. You'd think Mum would have learnt her lesson from the way her own parents turned her away when she married out. And here she is making the same kind of mistake with me and my friends for my own good. Except all she got was shunned, and now they're killing people.

I don't blame her for being afraid. I blame her for taking it out on me, and worse, on Caleb when he wasn't even on the bus. It's not his fault. I'm going to be angry at her about that for a while.

[Warded to Catherine and Melissa Fenwick]

I know you've probably heard this a hundred times since the broadcast, but let me know if there's anything I can do for you. I should be cleared to apparate Monday if you're concerned about going somewhere alone.

[Warded to Ashley Ketteridge]

I'm guessing after this week that you might need a chance to drink whiskey and bitch at a friend. If you just need to bitch, write away; if you want some strong drink, the wards are open.

I think I've consumed more intoxicants, both prescribed and voluntary, in the last week than I have in most of the last year. I went out with some of my work colleagues for firewhiskey last night and we had an impromptu poker party at the flat earlier this week. I enjoyed both events, so I'm thinking that some sort of semi-regular poker events might be in order. Consider this my way of gauging interest among our friends and acquaintances.

[Warded to Unspeakables]

I should be back at work tomorrow although I'm under Healer's orders not to apparate for another week. I'll see all of you then.

[Warded private]

Note to self: it's still slacking if you choose to stay home when you know you can work just because you don't like your project, even if you did have a concussion.

[Warded to friends]

I'm cleared to go back to work tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who has fed me and kept me company and kept me and Caleb sane. It's been a great help to have all those errands run and to know I don't have to worry about cooking anything. Also thanks to Broderick for helping me to St. Mungo's.

[Warded to Alice Longbottom]

Auror Longbottom, I said I'd ward you in a few days to let you know if I remembered anything else. I'm afraid I don't, at least not consciously, although I have no idea what you'd get with a pensieve. I wish I could offer more help. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to assist in your investigation.

[Warded, unusually sloppily, to friends]

I was on the bus last night. I'm all right but I had to stay overnight at St. Mungo's because I hit my head. I'm going home today with Caleb.

My glasses broke and I lost most of my new books. But I'm ok.

[Warded private]

So I wonder whether I'm more of a failure because I didn't end up with a date or because I didn't particularly want to ask for one. (And not because of Cora, either. She's fantastic.) At least the stew turned out well.