summertime sadness | bianca

[oberon anteros blishwick]

i feel it everywhere

nothin' scares me anymore

Late Summer 2021
Bianca Alia Rivera

Oberon took a seat in the breakroom. Surprisingly, the table he’d frequented during his initial intern year was empty. Perhaps a sign that he’d made the right decision to return to the UK. The lingering ache in his chest reminded him of what had pushed him back here and what he had left behind. Working in the States had been a good time. Oberon enjoyed it quite a lot and learned quite a bit. But, the urge to escape his pain was too strong. So far, Oberon had only really spoken to his mother about it. He had moved back home until he could find an affordable flat.

His parents were thrilled to have him home, and the Ministry happily accepted him back. The caveat was that their only opening in the Department of Mysteries was in the Love Chamber. It was a cruel irony, but he accepted it nonetheless. His work at Area 51 ½ had been with Space & Time, so he’d hoped to work in that department, but he’d take what he could get for now. A notebook lay open before him, and he scribbled down notes, occasionally pausing to think through a concept or idea. It was an important item for him, something encouraged for Unspeakables. The notebooks were charmed to only open for their owner and were essentially tamper-proof. While it might have seemed a good idea to distribute such items to other departments. They didn’t need the hassle of carless Aurors or trainees with notebooks of important information they could no longer access.

But his work required such secrecy, and right now, his focus was entirely on an idea he wanted to get down. His original lunch plan was to write down some notes and then read a comic book he’d brought while eating his sandwich. But then he’d gotten so carried away that he didn’t notice someone pulling a chair to his table. Oberon had been back all of two weeks, but ramping up to take over some of the workloads of the other Unspeakables in his area had taken most of his time. When he registered the body in his peripheral vision seconds later, he closed his notebook, which caused a golden spirals to stream out of the spine and encircle the book before disappearing. ”Hey!” Oberon greeted Bianca happily. They’d befriended one another during his intern year when she had also been a trainee and by chance. He’d caught her muttering under her breath in Spanish at the coffee station.

template by vee

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Late Summer 2021

The coffee cart in the Atrium was always busy, but Bianca heaved an especially impatient sigh while she waited for her coffee. She flipped through the case file, scanning quickly without reading any one page for too long and pretending not to notice the glances from other Ministry workers waiting for their coffee. Because it was their problem if they spent all their time in the office and didn’t know what an Auror fresh from the field looked like. Anyway, what did they expect from her? Bianca had suffered twelve hours on a stakeout only for Jones to be late in switching her out. And he’d arrived on the scene just to tell her to head back to London to look over some fresh findings from forensics on a different case. So fun.

It was only the sound of her name that caused Bianca to glance up and push her way to the cart again to grab her coffee. She scanned the mess of straws, sugar, and napkins before setting her coffee down to open the lid. “You’re out of…” she paused for a moment as she searched for the word in English, pursing her lips in frustration as she repeated the word again and again in her mind in Spanish. Merlin’s beard, she hated English. “Fat milk,” she finally tried to describe, still searching for the word ‘cream’ in her mind. But the sound of a snort from behind her caused her to tense and turn sharply on her heel to find the source. She raised a challenging brow at the other Auror, looking fresh as a daisy and like he hadn’t been out in the field for at least a week. Wouldn’t surprise her, though – hadn’t he just been bragging last week about not even interviewing for the job? What crazy luck when Dad was an old House mate of the Department Head.

“Maybe that’s good enough for the second-rate Ministries that Castelobruxo serves, but here in the big leagues we—” he cut himself off with a shriek as his tongue erupted in boils, and as he brought a hand to his tongue he shrieked again as the blisters spread quickly to his fingers. Bianca slipped her wand back into her robes, casually picked up her coffee, and left without another word (although she couldn’t quite hide the smirk as she knocked shoulders with the frantic Auror on her way out). She would definitely hear about that later, but most Auror captains didn’t care much about interpersonal conflict in the office. Aurors were an unruly bunch, and they butt heads often. Bianca had found pretty quickly that her bosses wouldn’t intervene in cases like this – everybody just took care of themselves.

Bianca sipped at her coffee as she wound a familiar path through the breakroom, although the sight of someone sitting at her usual table made her pause. His back was familiar, even if he hadn’t been haunting this side of the Atlantic for a while, so Bianca resumed her walk slowly so she could tilt her head and try to catch a word or two of his scribbled notes. Still, never underestimate an Unspeakable’s paranoia. Accepting defeat as he slammed the notebook shut, Bianca sat down across from Oberon and set her coffee on the table. “Now who let you or that back into the country?” she challenged, eyes glancing down to the subpar comic book sitting on the table. It had been such a disappointment to find another Spanish-speaking comic fan, only to realize that he preferred Marvel. But the challenging tone was somewhat neutralized by her smile, because hey – she was still happy to see him.

oberon anteros blishwick

[oberon anteros blishwick]

i feel it everywhere

nothin' scares me anymore

Late Summer 2021
Bianca Alia Rivera

Oberon’s eyes beamed as Bianca sat down. And it took him a whole second to realize what she was talking about as his eyes followed her stare to his books. When Obie met Bianca all those years ago, they were both training in their departments, and really he’d just been shocked to hear Spanish spoken so fluently. The Ministry was a diverse place, and on his way from the Atrium, he could listen to bits of different languages, but he didn’t hear Spanish all that often. Most Spanish attended Beauxbatons, and those in Latin America typically attended Castelobruxo, like Obie’s mother.

However, nothing was perfect. Hopefully, this minor disagreement of Marvel vs. DC wouldn’t put Obie on the wrong side of Bianca’s temper. And if he was being honest, how could he not have noticed Bianca. Had his ex not already wrapped Obie around her finger, he might have hopelessly wandered in Bianca’s direction. ”Is this your way of saying you missed me?” Obie teased as he placed his notebook on the comic book. He leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms. He didn't notice how much he slouched when he hyper-focused on his work like that.

”How’s the Auror life?” Obie had seen them in the Atrium that morning. Walking around as if they were the Minister himself. He hadn’t spoken to many of them. There were even personalities too much for Oberon. Perhaps that’s why he enjoyed his work. A group of like-minded individuals but an array of personalities at the same time. And they had their own little corner of the world to work in.

template by vee

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

The truth was that first impressions stuck, whether you liked it or not. And with Bianca, there was usually no middle ground at all – only the stark black and white of her world. She either liked you or she didn’t, saving a special glare for her most treasured enemies or casually keeping the seat next to her free so she could monopolize the attention of her favorite people. It wasn’t so easy to change those impressions – but Oberon had no reason to. He’d checked off some of the most important boxes from their first meeting, and Bianca had sulked for a fair bit when he’d first wandered off to the United States. Because she still wasn’t so comfortable with English, or the culture shock of living in London, and it set her at ease to have someone that at least understood a little bit about home. Or the value of curling up with a good comic away from annoying people (which was most of them).

So yes, she was happy to see him again and it loosened the tight set of her shoulders. Even if as usual, he wasn’t completely in the moment and it took a second for the dreamy expression on his face to fade while he hid the comic book and tore himself away from his notes. In a sign that showed that she might have missed him a little bit, she indulged his abstract moment instead of pushing forward relentlessly like the impatient bulldozer she’d been accused of being in the past. She shot him a smile at his question and leaned forward over her coffee. “Not before you admit that you’ve missed me, Obi-Wan.” He wasn’t a Muggleborn – which automatically demoted him in her internal ranking to below Leo – but there were very few wizards here who would appreciate the joke. Oberon would, though.

She shrugged at his question and leaned back to flip through her files, overwhelmingly bored with them already. “Fine. But these cases are all the same nowadays. What does a girl have to do to get a nice, grisly murder around here?” Bianca spared an eye roll for her captain’s morning briefing – yesterday’s, of course, since she hadn’t been here to suffer through today’s. He’d warned them all to enjoy the calm to catch up on their paperwork and practice their Occlumency. Word was that the department had gotten lax since Voldemort’s defeat decades ago, especially since every Dark wizard after him had been your typical bad guy. No world-ending evil for her, so it seemed. But Bianca didn’t care to dive into the politics of the Auror office. She fixed Oberon with one of her piercing stares, an interrogation classic. “But tell me about you. Finally gotten tired of the Americans?”

oberon anteros blishwick

[oberon anteros blishwick]

i feel it everywhere

nothin' scares me anymore

Late Summer 2021
Bianca Alia Rivera

Oberon smiled broadly. Fortunately, his cousins with a non-magical parent had introduced him to various parts of that world. This included comic books, of course, but also various other subjects, such as Star Wars. And naturally, one of his younger cousins here in London had caught wind of the nickname and would call him nothing else. So, hearing ‘Obi-Wan’ from Bianca was no surprise either. It was sort of endearing, and Obie didn’t mind the comparison to such a wise character. It surprised many what the pureblood knew of the non-magical world.

He tilted his head, looking at her. ”Of course I did.” There wasn’t anyone quite like Bianca, he had to admit. But he looked at her curiously. She didn’t seem particularly happy about her work. ”You would’ve loved Las Vegas.” Obie responded. He didn’t particularly like it, except for the food. But the non-stop lifestyle of bright lights and hedonism made room for plenty of wrongdoing, which included a grisly murder or two. But then the question returned to him. Instinctively, Obie’s eyes looked down at the table for a second.

He was a man of secrets, and yet he wore his heart proudly on his sleeve. Bianca could’ve asked him about his work here or back in the States, and he easily deflected or avoided such questions. But with something like this, he could hardly hide how he felt. ”American.” Obie responded, stressing the singularity of the word. Shrugging lightly, he sat back in his chair. It always took him some time to crawl out of the hole he always dug himself into. ”I needed a change of scenery, so I came back home.” Would he move again? Oberon didn’t know. A broken heart had prompted his last move. But for now, he was fine right here.

template by vee

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Bianca gave a satisfied nod as he acknowledged that he’d missed her too, and she sat back in her seat to ignore her files and sip at her coffee. He’d been gone long enough that she might have been a little worried it meant he actually liked it more over there than here, and that was an unacceptable thought altogether. She liked him, wanted to keep him close, and honestly – if he wasn’t such a hopeless romantic about true love, she might have made a move a long time ago. But as things stood, Bianca liked to stay far away from anything that resembled feelings and Oberon was a big warning sign. She perked up at the thought of Vegas and arched a curious eyebrow at him. “Is it anything like the movies? Seems like the perfect place for a crime. Everyone giving in to their worst instincts…” The thought had its appeal and Bianca filed it away for after she finished her interrogation.

Because there really was no other word for the organized approach she took to check on her friend who she hadn’t seen in, what – years? Bianca sipped at her coffee and stared at him fixedly while he fidgeted in his seat and looked away. He had a secret, and Bianca held the silence a moment longer until the truth came out. So that was why he had come back. Oberon was going through all the classic stages of ending a major relationship – seeking out familiar things, making big changes to feel like you could be in control of something. At least he hadn’t shown up with bangs.

She gave an exasperated sigh. “Oberon, why do you do this to yourself? Your heart belongs in your chest, not in someone else’s hands. Especially if they’re going to use it as a toy.” She shook her head at him and idly lined up the edges of her files so the paperwork formed a neat stack while she spoke. Bianca had never understood her friend, and especially his attitude about looking for ‘the one.’ She liked her life exactly the way it was, and if there wasn’t someone out there who could show her something better – then she wasn’t interested in what they were selling. She made a little ‘tch’ in the back of her throat and shook her head again. “You don’t need a change of scenery. You need to get it out of your system. Hard refresh."

oberon anteros blishwick

[oberon anteros blishwick]

i feel it everywhere

nothin' scares me anymore

Late Summer 2021
Bianca Alia Rivera

Oberon thought of his visits to the city and how overwhelming it was. All the lights and sounds and constant activity without end. From the simplest petty crime to gruesome murder stopped any of it. It was definitely not the place to make the genuine connections that Obie was looking for. Although by the lines he witnessed outside the chapels, not everybody thought the same way he did. ”Somewhat.” Obie stared off a bit into space. He supposed it would depend on the movie. Personally, he’d never witnessed or been close to anything like the movie Casino, but it didn’t feel as farfetched either. He shrugged. ”Plenty of troublemakers, never a dull moment.”

But then they got down to the real point of the conversation, or so Obie figured. Leave it to his good friend, the Auror, to drill down so quickly. He flinched slightly, frowning at hearing his full name from Bianca. But he really didn’t have an answer. ”It just…didn’t work out.” It wasn’t as if it were some fleeting romance or a fling. Time had been invested, much as the time before his initial move. In any case, Oberon didn’t want to get into the details. ”Hard refresh?” Obie asked for clarification. Merlin, he hoped she, didn’t mean a new hair color or bangs or something ridiculous like that. What he needed was to find his footing again and on familiar ground this time.

template by vee

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Bianca resisted the urge to wave her hand in front of Oberon’s face or hit him with his subpar comic. He had a habit of drifting off into his imagination and spacing out, even in the middle of a conversation, and Bianca might have paid money for him to say 30% of what he was thinking out-loud (because then it might resemble a conversation and not a series of disjointed statements). But it was poor form to manhandle a friend who she hadn’t seen since their trainee period ended, so Bianca waited an impatient second longer until he tuned back in to note that Vegas was full of troublemakers. That might have been meant to dissuade her from the city, but it sounded like part of its charm and exactly up Bianca’s alley. She liked troublemakers, and excitement, and the opportunity to show the criminal underworld who the boss was.

A moment later, she was glad she hadn’t given in to the impulse for violence – because Merlin’s sake, Oberon looked sad. He didn’t elaborate much on what had happened exactly, but Bianca could guess. He always fell hard and fast and it ended badly for him once the magic of the relationship began to wear off. For her, at least, because he always seemed devoted until the last day. Years had passed since the last time they’d properly hung out, but Bianca had learned a thing or two about people since becoming a full-fledged Auror. Circumstances changed, but people didn’t. And the Oberon that had come back from the States wasn’t much different from the Oberon who’d left, in principle. “But you still think your way is best. Look at me. Do I look like a kicked puppy?” Bianca asked frankly, pointing at herself before taking a cool sip of coffee. They were both stubborn, in their own ways, and they’d discussed the philosophy of love before. So Bianca only rolled her eyes and clarified, “Hard refresh. Put the memories in a Pensieve and go back to the last version of yourself where you were happy without her. You do remember what it’s like to be single, don’t you?”

oberon anteros blishwick _

[oberon anteros blishwick]

i feel it everywhere

nothin' scares me anymore

Late Summer 2021
Bianca Alia Rivera

It was probably best Oberon had cut his hair very short before beginning this new job in the Department of Mysteries. The boy wasn’t exactly impulsive, but his heart always had more pull than his mind. And how did one argue when something just felt right at the time? But as his mother and others constantly reminded him, Obie was too trusting. Even in hindsight, he tried to see where he’d missed the cracks forming or maybe ignored them. But it hadn’t always been that way. Ultimately, they were never the person he’d fallen for.

Obie opened his mouth to respond but closed it. Clearly, the answer was no, but Bianca had the exact opposite approach to love. ”No.” He responded dutifully. ”Although I wonder how many poor boys you’ve left looking like me.” His comment was lighthearted, or at least Obie’s way of trying not to sink back into the depths. It was enough to tread water sometimes. But then it was Obie’s turn to give Bianca a look. ”I spend plenty of time single, thank you.” Bianca’s sense of time was clearly off. Wasn’t it good that her friend studied space and time extensively over the past couple of years?

”Now I remember a certain trainee who would work all hours of the day and forget to eat.” Obie’s eyes darted to her files, coffee, and lack of a proper lunch. ”You should come over for dinner!” He happily suggested Bianca had met his parents before his move, and his mother always asked about his friends—especially the Latino ones. ”I’ve been overfed since I moved home, you have to help me.” Not that Oberon would ever turn down his mother’s food. Leave him stranded on a deserted island with no magic and just arepas, and he’d be fine. Plus, all she kept asking was what happened to his amiguita, Bianca.

template by vee

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

He almost looked like he was going to argue with her for a second, and Bianca raised an eyebrow imperiously at the chance to show off exactly how stubborn she could be. It was one of the reasons she’d taken so well to Dueling Club, back in school – that stubborn need to prove that she was the best and also knew best. And it was another reason why her arrest rate stayed so high, even if it came with the added cost of burning the midnight oil and losing touch with people like Oberon that kept her grounded. Still, the years apart hadn’t changed much of the dynamic between them. They were still set in completely opposite camps, each determined to do things their way – but at least he knew better than to argue with her.

“I’m very honest about what I’m willing to offer,” Bianca answered bluntly, even if she had sidestepped his observation that it usually ended worse for the other side. She liked to have fun, but she didn’t play games. Intimacy was off the table, a relationship was out of the question, and she shied away from anything that started to resemble a routine after a while. She was in control of her life, and the thought of giving some of that away to someone else and being reliant on them – someone who would have the ability to influence how she felt, what her future would look like, whether she was happy…that scared her. And if it left her looking like Oberon – then even more reason to keep doing things exactly the way she was now. Maybe someday she'd convince him to give her way a try, although her expectations on that front were low.

He was saved from Bianca about to call him out for his dubious claim that he was occasionally single by the distracting mention of his family. She brightened at the thought. Even with magical transportation, Chile was incredibly far away and her mother still hated any mention of magic. It’d been ages since she’d last seen her dad and their short phone calls between shifts didn’t do much to dull the homesickness in her chest. But dinners with Oberon's family had become a staple of her trainee period and it'd made the transition to London less turbulent. Besides, no one kept up with all the chisme better than his mom. “Are you trying to bribe me into leaving your love life alone with arepas?” Bianca demanded, failing to fight back a smile at Oberon’s (somewhat misguided but still thoughtful) way of being. She tapped her fingers on the table and then nodded seriously. “An Auror never turns down a cry for help. But it comes with conditions, Obi-Wan.”

oberon anteros blishwick

[oberon anteros blishwick]

i feel it everywhere

nothin' scares me anymore

Late Summer 2021
Bianca Alia Rivera

Arguing was futile when it came to this woman. Fortunately, it wasn’t a powerful trait of Oberon’s to argue relentlessly. And besides, there was always that look in Bianca’s eye that scared him just enough to not even fathom the thought. So Obie wouldn’t bring up the men he’d noticed in those early years, simply pining for any attention from Bianca. Merlin, even negative attention seemed to satisfy them. Poor saps, not that Obie could blame them. There was something intransitively alluring about her fiery nature, not to mention she was beautiful. However, the pair was best suited as friends and he was happy to have her in his corner.

Oberon gave Bianca his best innocent look. ”I’d rather willingly listen to you read your treatise on ‘The Existential Analysis of DC Comics Universe Main Characters’ than talk about my love life right now.” Obie responded quickly. And that was one hundred percent true. ”So, yes. It is a bribe.” Casually, he leaned back in his chair a bit and crossed his arms while a thought came to mind. ”That’s not illegal, right? Because forcing DC comics on anyone must be some kind of human rights violation.” Obie smirked, chuckling through the last part of his sentence, unable to keep a straight face anymore. Normally his poker face was quite excellent despite how visible his emotions often where. He sighed as he uncrossed his arms. ”There’s always conditions.” Oberon muttered.

[ end oberon ]

template by vee

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

There was no better sign that Bianca had clearly hit a nerve than Oberon’s immediate pivot to familiar insults. It seemed that the break-up was still too fresh in his mind (and his heart, because Bianca could say as a professional that she’d never seen something with more shoddy security), and the whole situation screamed ‘too early’ to point out some of the hard facts about life. And love. Still, Bianca’s mouth dropped open at the audacious, factually incorrect, off-base and completely wrong things that were coming out of her friend’s mouth now. No, ex-friend – as if he’d get off scot-free. Especially when Bianca had just cursed someone at the coffee cart for daring to insult her. His attitude towards DC comics was simply backwards, not to mention her ability to deliver a well-articulated and moving manifesto about beloved superhero characters.

“Besás a tu madre con esa boca?!” Bianca demanded in outrage, hands curling into fists on the table as she glared at Oberon. She forgot what they’d been talking about beforehand, the topic having completely escaped her mind in the face of this new insult. “Listening to my analysis of the deep complexities of DC archetypes is a privilege. Not like your worship of soulless Marvel formulas that have somehow mistaken cheap one-liners for witty banter, which is a form of torture that should be made illegal immediately.” It was only after the last of her outraged sentence had come out in a rush that Bianca stopped to take a stabilizing breath. Think about the arepas, she reminded herself, although she could still feel the same rush of adrenaline coursing through her that she got after a particularly thrilling chase. Oberon was smirking across from her as if he thought he’d won something, and Bianca leaned over the table menacingly. “I hope you got your story straight about this girl, because I’m telling your mother that you got dumped again,” she threatened. That’d be sure to ruin his dinner, for sure, and maybe then Bianca would be satisfied in her newly found quest for revenge. She smiled at him winningly and raised her cup to take a long sip.

Yeah, she’d definitely missed him.

oberon anteros blishwick
[End post Bianca!]