thanks for coming to my ted talk

[tonkstedtalk]

basics —

age: twenty-six

house: hufflepuff

primary: london school of witchcraft · 1973

major: charms · 1979

occupation: repairman at walworth’s wired & wireless 

the story thus far —

Ted grew up a in the heart of London. The son of muggle doctors, he inherited his parents’ zest for life and energy. He always had the kind of brain that never seemed to turn off. He was always looking for a new challenge and something to keep him interested for longer than five seconds at a time.

Thanks to his parents busy careers, he was often left to entertain himself, usually turning towards impossible puzzles and learning new skills to keep himself busy. Before he found out he was a wizard who could do real magic, Ted learned how to do close-up, muggle magic. He found he was especially good with card tricks and sleight of hand. Even once he found out about the magical world, he still kept up with learning how to do card tricks entirely without magic, finding it to be impressive one way or another.

As Ted discovered the world of actual magic, he found himself fully immersed in an entirely new world. Even moreso he found himself drawn to Andromeda Black during his later years in primary. At the end, this relationship (if it could be called that) would result in an unexpected pregnancy. 

At seventeen, Ted found himself a father. It was this daunting task of fatherhood and providing for a child that found Ted deciding to forgo the university experience and wanting to find work so that he could help provide for his daughter. Not only that, but Ted also knew the family Andromeda came from and wanted to do what he could to avoid Nymphadora inheriting those family values. 

Though Andromeda stayed with her family, she and Ted found their own way to make things work when it came to co-parenting. They would often have secret liaisons and Ted himself kept his own daughter’s existence something of a secret. Few of his close friends knew, but for the most part, in an effort to protect Nymphadora, he decided that it was best to keep the circle as small as possible. It wouldn’t do to have the Blacks find out as they would surely see that he, Andromeda, and his daughter suffered consequences for this indiscretion, but even more for the intermingling of muggleborn and pureblood. 

Over the years, Andromeda and Ted drifted apart, though he made sure to send regular correspondence to Nymphadora, especially once she started to read. 

In the meantime, Ted found himself fascinated by the growing world of muggle and Wizarding technology and the overlap that was occurring as wizards borrowed from muggles to create their own versions of arcade games, cinemas, and even the iFlown. 

Deciding that he was tired of working dead end jobs at shops, he pursued his education at the university level in the Fall of 1976, focusing on Charms. More specifically he had a plan to study magical methods of programming their technology, fascinated by the wizards superior method of communication via the iFlown. 

Graduating in 1979, Ted found employment easily at a sort of magical junk shop where he serves as a repairman for various wizarding technologies, and even muggle ones and everything else in between. He hopes to eventually further his career by working for Quick Quotes HQ, but for now he contents himself with pulling apart old televisions and iFlowns and putting them back together in the hopes of creating something new. 

dating history —

Decent and normal

[tonkstedtalk]

cissanoir​:

Narcissa was relieved to hear it and the breathy sign and loosening of her shoulders said as much. “You know what this means, don’t you?” Narcissa sometimes imagined her gaze like the scope on a bow, and that wherever she aimed it, if she meant it, it would strike right to the heart. That was how she felt now, waiting for his reply. 

She nodded, filing that away. These were important facts to know about people. One never knew when having an important fact about someone’s preferences would come in handy. For good, of course. But also sometimes for evil. It was a relief to hear, anyway. Men who liked sports too much were uncouth and low class.

“It means I will simply have to show you around my place, and you can return the favor in showing me yours once this weather has passed.” She was bolder than she often seemed, it would be foolish to forget that but people often did. 

.

“And what does that mean exactly?” he asked. Ted held her gaze as he waited for an answer.

An almost nervous chuckle escaped him. He wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He wondered if Narcissa was the kind of person who often said things and made plans but never followed through. Yet somehow Naricissa didn’t seem the sort of person who had no followthrough. 

“Yeah, absolutely,” said Ted with a vigorous nod. It didn’t do to reject her proposal. Not when this was the beginning of what could be a days long lockdown. Had they meet anywhere else, it would be easier to say no and just never see her again (though, Ted had a feeling under normal circumstances they didn’t run in similar enough circles to meet). “Who knows, Tinworth Boardwalk might become a new favorite place of yours.” 

[tonkstedtalk]

ajransome​:

A.J. nodded. “Probably.” He was skeptical of any organized faith, in general; but—this certainly felt cult-y. “Seems like people are coming in droves for him.” A.J. refused to say Holy Sorcerer on account of the fact he found it utterly comical. “Cleo fucking hates it.” It was only once her name left his lips that A.J. realized how little he talked about her. For whatever reason, he liked keeping pockets of his life separate. 

.

“Yeah, I don’t understand it. I mean, I do, but I don’t. Cults prey on those who are vulnerable, right? It’s always a specific type of people they suck in, people at their most lost and hopeless moments. But, I couldn’t even imagine how fucked I’d have to be to get there. Some strange people come to me talking about spirituality and belief and all that? I’m turning around, you know?” Ted glanced at A.J. “That someone they try to recruit?” 

[tonkstedtalk]

alsodromeda​:

Expectation. It was a word Andromeda knew well, so she nodded. One she’d been running from her whole life on bare feet. She wished to evade expectation at every turn, but she wasn’t really sure why anymore. Maybe once it was a skill that served her, a narrative that made sense. Never let them expect too much of you. She was an artist, she saw the world how it was (or she liked to think so…) and that meant she saw how hungry the world was, and how sharp the teeth of the exploiters. If she could make them all look away from her, stop expecting things of her, maybe she’d be free. A long time ago she’d realized that wasn’t true, but it had been so long of this song and dance she forgot how to move through the world without it. She didn’t have to be that way, but she didn’t know how else to be. 

“Are they happy for you?” She hid the strain in her voice by taking a last sip and clearing her cup of coffee. “Your parents. Are they happy you’re doing what you want?”

.

“Oh, yeah,” said Ted as he waved a hand. “Mum and dad have always been the sort who believed in going after what you want in life. You would think they’d be very practical people given that they’re doctors, but I think since I’m their only kid they didn’t want me to be too messed up, push anything onto me and make me resentful, you know? Hope Dora’s like that. Not resentful of us.”

[tonkstedtalk]

cissanoir​:

“Yes but don’t the,” her voice dropped to a whisper, “carnival folk run those things?” She imagined clowns and bearded woman and all manner of unbathed horrors, and it sent a little shiver up her spine which she didn’t hide but leant into for effect. 

“If I wasn’t here!?” Narcissa loved to repeat people, she was under the impression it would make them fonder of her and as far as she was aware, so far that theory proved true. “Well, I would be out to tea with a lovely friend, or perhaps working at my scrapbooks, or wandering around the gardens,” said like a dream, “at St. Armand,” by which she really meant Lucius Malfoy. Modern day royalty, chiseled statute of Pureblood power and charm and might. He was her very best dream, her favorite fantasy, her most interesting interest.

She had spoken to him once. 

Narcissa realized she lost herself to thought again, and came back to Walter with a very bright smile. “I might even have practiced my archery against the wind. Do you do any sport, Walter?”

.

Ted looked at her and couldn’t help but let out an amused chuckle. “It’s not a carnival with side shows and freak shows and geek shows,” he said. “Are those even allowed anymore?” he mused but shook his head, perhaps wizards had their own versions that were still out there. “It’s a boardwalk. Less horrifying human exploitation and more carnival games and fried foods.

Ted nodded as she spoke, feigning interest. He shouldn’t have been surprised by what she might choose to do, but it was still hard to accept how different Narcissa was from Andromeda. “St. Armand? Can’t say I’ve ever been. What else have they got there?”

Ted couldn’t help but laugh for a second time. “No, no, I’m not much into sports. At least, not playing them. I like a good Quidditch game, though.” And football, but he wouldn’t dare bring up something so muggle as football. 

[tonkstedtalk]

ajransome​:

When the question met A.J.’s ears, he took a large swig of beer. Anything to numb the visuals that left him queasy more often than he cared to admit. “Weird is an understatement.” And he would leave it at that. No one deserved to know these horrors. In many ways, it was precisely why A.J. was perfect for the role. He could hoard the visuals, keep those memories buried within himself until he, too, was gone from this earth. He decided to switch the topic to something else entirely, albeit still nauseating—a different kind of nauseating. 

“Have you heard much about that church?”  

.

“The one that’s set up camp in Cardiff?” Ted asked brightly, as if they were discussing something far more pleasant. “They’re definitely a cult, right? I mean, I know they call themselves a church, but that can’t be real.” And in all fairness, Ted didn’t really know what they were about, just that they seemed to crop up around the same time the statute fell. 

[tonkstedtalk]

alsodromeda​:

Andromeda snorted, the spell that held her thoughts captive to the past finally broken. “Not as many as you’d think.” Maybe a potion could cure a headache, a fever, many common things, but Andromeda had also seen what it couldn’t do when it had failed to heal her elder sister’s hand of the curse it sustained. And now, when it failed her. Two girls reaching for things they should never have touched, both living a life in consequence to it. 

Narcissa at least had evaded that fate. For now.

Suddenly she felt the exhaustion of it all—these last months—catch up to her. Andromeda tried to steer the conversation into shallower waters, lest she drown. “Did you ever think of being a Healer before you got into your work?” She considered him as she saw him: nurturing, caring, calm. Three traits she fought for her life every day to barely scrape the surface of. “I think you’d have a good bedside manner.” Andromeda popped a hot chip into her mouth. “I mean, I would have flirted with you for extra jelly if you were my nurse in the mental ward. Pretty high praise.”

.

Ted shook his head with a chuckle. “No. I think people expected it of me sometimes.” His parents being doctors certainly hadn’t helped, either. “But, I don’t know if i could stomach half the shit I would need to actually work at a hospital. Some of the horror stories I’ve heard.” He thought of when A.J. had worked their stint there and shuddered. “No, I think I’ve got the personality for it, but not the constitution required,” he concluded. “I’d end up sick, myself. Being able to tinker and pull apart inanimate objects is much more my speed.”

[tonkstedtalk]

alsodromeda​:

Had he always listened so well? Had he always had such an understanding face? Such insightful takes? Andromeda pondered that, trying to recall, but the morgue of her thoughts was a cold and winding room, and none of the drawers were labeled. It housed things like her memories of meeting Ted, but it also was a minefield of memories which had been locked away very specifically, ones she was afraid of finding accidentally if she started snooping. Andromeda had to let it go, for now. 

Instead she shook her head. “I… really didn’t,” she admitted. “I thought I was making perfect sense.” That was the scariest thing to her. Not what she might hear, or see, or do. She’d seen and heard and done a lot of scary things that weren’t hallucinations. But it terrified her to think that when it happened the next time, would she recognize it for what it was, or would she fool herself again? 

“I went out for a premiere party,” took a few things she shouldn’t have, came home three days later, “and I remember Trixy coming up to me somewhere. I think she got the Medi-Witches. Apparently I ran.” She offered a self-deprecating little laugh. “Pretty standard of me, actually. Maybe I should ask for a re-think of the diagnosis.” Ha, ha. “They sedated me, I came to in the mental ward at Mungo’s. Still have the grippy socks, too. Great for when you’re mopping a floor.”  

.

Ted couldn’t even begin what that all must have been like. It made him feel suddenly guilty. He knew he probably shouldn’t; there had always been an understanding between him and Andromeda and it was that Nymphadora was always put first. However, perhaps if Ted had been more active in recent months and years, he might have seen or noticed something. He knew even with all that, things were complicated if only by the fact of her family being who they were. 

“Course, we’re taught to trust our own minds,” nodded Ted as she admitted she hadn’t really come to that conclusion on her own. "Surprised that wixen haven’t figured out a cure for that,” said Ted. Perhaps it was naive of him to think that wizardkind could have conquered something as enigmatic and mysterious as the brain. “I mean, most other ailments seem to have a quick fix for them, you know?” 

[tonkstedtalk]

cissanoir​:

“Never!” she declared. “Is it not very terribly dirty!?” Narcissa’s eyes were searching and her question genuine. After the last year she’d spent almost exclusively around St. Armand hoping to run into Lucius Malfoy any chance she got, Narcissa had grown a little… dare she even think it, bored of her usual haunts. “I’m full of many surprising interests, Walter,” she teased, even if he was probably right. It was probably not Narcissa Black’s scene.

.

“Well, no dirtier than anything else that’s outdoors,” said Ted. It certainly wasn’t the first thing he worried about, anyway. “Well, then go on,” he told her, “what would you be doing if you weren’t here?” 

[tonkstedtalk]

alsodromeda​:

Andromeda stalled her answer with an exaggerated shrug, the kind accompanied by a look half between a grimace and something sheepish. “I’ve been better.” Even as she said it she wasn’t sure if that was true. No, Andromeda was not alright per se, but she might have been the best she’d ever been right this second, in terms of how well she was taking care of herself. The facts were that she was living a peaceful life, free of abusing drugs and diligent about taking the prescribed ones. Her daughter went to school, came home, passed her classes. Andromeda had a house she didn’t have to maintain or pay for. So why did she want to tell him she wasn’t alright at all?

“They have me on potions and such, yada yada. So I’m not going to flip out or anything.” They made her feel sluggish sometimes though, trapped behind glass. Andromeda hated to be trapped. When they were all younger the sisters would play their games of hide and seek in the estate. Of course Andromeda despised the game because invariably Bellatrix would find some way to lock Andromeda wherever she had hidden and pretend for hours she could not find her, oh how good Andromeda is at hide and seek. Narcissa, impressionable young thing, never suspected. She was always found right away.  

Before she realized she was saying it, the words were tumbling out of her mouth. “It was really scary though. Like… being stuck in a dream. You feel like the only way to wake yourself out of it is to do something big.” The word she really wanted was, “Crazy. You’re not sure if it’s all real or it’s all fake, but if it’s fake it doesn’t matter what happens, right? So…” 

Two hands wrapped around her coffee mug taking warmth where they could get it. She raised it to her lips and drank not because she wanted it but because she needed something to do. When she lowered it she was smiling, like none of that had hurt to bare at all. “I mean I was dead set that the seal sunning himself outside my window in on the lighthouse rocks was an animagus. Talked myself out of that only to turn on the wireless. Glenda Chittock is a lovely woman but I do begrudge that I thought she was speaking directly to me from the station, imploring me to flee the country.” 

She waved to the waitress. “Can I have the fattest plate of chips you’re contractually allowed to give me?”

.

Ted took this chance to drink his coffee, both hands holding onto it so he could feel the warmth move from his palms into the rest of his body. He watched her carefully as she spoke, trying to gleam anything from her body language he possibly could. “I’m not worried that you’re going to flip out, just so you know,” he told her, a small smile on his face. He was worried about her, though, that she was alright. 

“Well, must be nice to have answer, though, I reckon.” Of course, Ted would never pretend what it was like to have a brain like that; a brain that was so unique that it altered reality for someone so convincingly it blurred those lines. “I mean, I’m sure it’s still not fun, but least you know that there’s a reason you felt like that, like a prisoner of your own mind and whatever it compelled you to see or hear or think.” Even more importantly, she was also getting help for it.

“How’d you figure it out, though? I mean, how’d you know that you needed help?” 

[tonkstedtalk]

cissanoir​:

Narcissa smiled, but her eyes were vacant. He might as well have been speaking a different language to her. Tinworth — Narcissa was familiar with it as a concept. She knew there was a beach, though not a very warm one. She knew her family had a cottage there, though not a very nice one (by her standards). She knew Andromeda lived in that cottage in Tinworth, and had even been there once or twice via Floo, though she’d never stepped outside of it and into the coastal town. 

But fish and chips? Games? What sort of games, and where, and how? And what was a boardwalk? Some sort of sport she’d never heard of? Narcissa imagined something like a surfboard, but with the straps and contraptions of snowboards and skis. A little bit intrigued, she wondered aloud “What variety of games?”

.

Ted glanced at Narcissa. “Are you asking because you’ve never been to the boardwalk at Tinworth? Because that’s what it sounds like you’re saying,” he asked, his eyes narrowed, though in a playful sort of manner. It wouldn’t necessarily surprise him. Despite his limited information on the specific personalities of Andromeda’s family, he figured she had relocated there for a reason and that reason could possibly be that her family didn’t frequent the area. “Not your scene, is it?”

[tonkstedtalk]

alsodromeda​:

Andromeda sucked her tongue; she didn’t know if that made this easier, or more difficult to explain. “Well,” —the waitress came back with drinks, Andromeda ripped the corners from several packets of the processed fake sugars at a time and dumped them in, stirring the spoon with magic— “they lie is the thing.” The curve of the teacup’s edge met her lips. She dumped the liquid back, and though it was too hot she didn’t wince. 

“I didn’t want you to think—” Shit. No, she couldn’t say it like that. Breathe, start over. ACTION. “I don’t have a drug problem.” She was a mum! That should have been enough. “Which, right, yeah I know that’s what people who do have drug problems probably say.” In her case though, it was true. Andromeda had… a boredom problem. One she had, occasionally, solved with drugs. But that was beside the point, the point wasn’t the drugs because they weren’t the problem, just… a problem,. A different problem. It didn’t matter, because she wasn’t doing them now. Really, she couldn’t because—

“I was actually…in hospital.” Fucking hell, Black. Spit it out. “So, not a junkie. Just mental.” Even if she said it as a point of pride, the shadow that crossed her face along with the words told of a girl far more afraid than she was willing to let on. “Just a little schizophrenia.” Like the common cold, or chlamydia. She could conquer it in a weekend… “I’m not asking you for support or anything,” she was quick to add, finally meeting his eyes across the table. “I just thought you shouldn’t worry about if I’m… if Nymphadora is safe in my care.” 

If she’d known him a little better, she might have realized those were her own doubts she was using him to voice, because clearly Ted had seen and hadn’t thought that. 

.

Ted looked up at the waitress to nod his silent thanks, before grabbing his coffee and putting in a couple of packets of sugar. He simply nodded at Andromeda’s words that they lied. He didn’t disagree and really only read this tabloid in particular because of the name mentioned. Though, he didn’t say as much as he figured it was better to let Andromeda say what she had to say without interruption. 

Ted almost slipped up when she mentioned she was in a hospital and immediately followed it up with being mental, as if to say that just because she was in a hospital, didn’t make her so. However, she was quick to clarify that point. Schizophrenia. 

Despite Ted’s own parents being doctors, aside from the fact they didn’t discuss their work too much (they believed strongly in patient confidentiality), they weren’t those kinds of doctors and he didn’t know much about the disorder. Of course, he had a vague understanding of what schizophrenia was but it was far from really and truly understanding it in any real way. 

“What does that mean?” he asked, forehead wrinkling as his eyebrows knit together. “I mean, for you? Are you... alright?” 

[tonkstedtalk]

cissanoir​:

“Now tell me,” she began to peek through cupboards with efficiency so as not to be accused of snooping, which she most definitely was doing, “when the storm is over and we can leave, what is the very first thing you want to do?” It was one of her favorite games for getting through unamusing times, this make-believing. 

.

Ted joined her in her quest, also sorting through different drawers, though perhaps more absentmindedly. “Well, realistically, probably check in with other people I know, make sure they’re okay,” started Ted. “Now, if I look at it from the perspective of things I would like to do before I die and trying to do what I wish I could be doing now looking at the imminent danger just outside, then probably at Tinworth, on the boardwalk. Getting in that last round of fish and chips, games and all that.” Not necessarily true, but Ted didn’t think the answer truly mattered. 

[tonkstedtalk]

ajransome​:

“I’m always on the brink of getting caught up with something, that’s the problem.” A.J. reached into the refrigerator to grab two beers, handing one over to Ted.

.

Ted took the beer from his friend. “Speaking of getting caught up-- how’s that medical examiner thing going?” he asked.  “Do you get to see loads of weird stuff?” Ted sometimes thought he might have made a good investigator. The challenges of putting together that kind of puzzle might have been something he could have been good at, but the idea of having to deal with blood and other sorts of disgusting scenarios had always been a dealbreaker. Even when Nymphadora had been. young, he had been queasy at any kind of sickness or injury.

[tonkstedtalk]

alsodromeda​:

“That’s exactly how this works.” She nodded. “Correct. My soul is between me,” she pointed to the heart of her chest, “and that waitress, okay?” Andromeda inclined her head towards the nice woman now putting in their orders at the register. 

Her eyes flicked down to the table to behold the gift, and only because she still had a finger to her heart was she able to physically feel the fracture from it breaking. “Oh,” she breathed. “She’ll love that.” Maybe. Probably? Andromeda had been worrying for quite some time that actually she didn’t know a thing at all about Nymphadora. A worse feeling still, that she didn’t spend enough time being thoughtful about Nymphadora. Why wasn’t she making swan napkins? Why didn’t she think her kid might like a biscuit as much as she did? 

Which brought her to the real point in all of this, the one she’d been skillfully avoiding. “Look, I don’t know if you read the papers, but I just thought I should explain…” Because as thoughtless a mother as she sometimes could be, Andromeda at least knew that if she’d heard Ted went to rehab, she’d want an explanation. And if he didn’t know… well, loathe though she was to stick to her word she had kind of swore off lying and planned to stick by it. 

.

Ted smiled. He hoped Nymphadora would like it, anyway. Ever since he had decided to go to school and move forward with his own carer aspirations, he knew that his own parenting had fallen by the wayside. It had been much harder than he thought to strike that balance, really. Though, Ted had promised himself that with the new year, h’d make a renewed commitment to be more involved. After all, she was no longer a baby or toddler whose memories of what had or had not happened would soon be forgotten, but a girl quickly approaching those tween years which were really going to make up most of her more formative experiences. 

“Yeah, I do read the papers,” nodded Ted as his eyes now found hers again. Though they focused on her, it was not with judgement, but rather patience as he waited for her to go on. After all, was it really his business? It was hard to say what should and shouldn’t have been something he could inquire about when it came to what might be relevant when it came to co-parenting and what might fall into the realm of their individual and personal lives. It was part of that balance that was hard to find.

[tonkstedtalk]

alsodromeda​:

“No way am I telling you that,” Andromeda balked. “That’s way too intimate.” Her expression said what her mouth couldn’t: not like we have a kid together or anything. She pulled back at the menu’s  plastic where it was coming away at the corners, flicking it back and forth. She was just about to say something else when the waitress made her way to them. 

“Yeah, we’ll have two coffees. Sugar for one, just a bit.” She winked at Ted.

.

“So, you get to know the most intimate part of my soul, but I can’t even get a peek into yours?” Ted asked looking affronted. “That’s just not very fair, is it? Should give me something to go on.” He looked up at the waitress. “Chocolate biscuits, too, if you don’t mind, while you’re at it,” he added and looked back at Andromeda when the waitress took her leave. He held up the napkin he had been folding, which was now a swan. “For Dora,” he said. 

[tonkstedtalk]

cissanoir​:

Narcissa giggled. “Is there more than just the one?” The Black family. How cute, she loved that.

Wilkins, Wilkins… Narcissa combed through the rolodex of her mind searching for family friends and influencing people of the name (a habit). And then she remembered with much delight, oh right! “Walter Wilkins! Your grandmother must be the former Headmistress. She bakes the most wonderful poppyseed loaf. You’ll have to bother her for the recipe on my behalf.” Assuming neither of them died a grueling death by fire, considering the circumstances. 

“Help me scour the lavatories for first-aid supplies?” It was not really a question, even if she was polite enough to pretend by asking before trotting off. They could round up supplies and then round up Healers in training and then round up the injured but in the very important meantime Narcissa could get to know Walter Wilkins because though her eyes and heart were set on Lucius Malfoy she was a clever girl and knew that clever girls always kept a backup or two.

.

Ted nodded at Narcissa’s apparent recognition of the name and nodded along, figuring that was the best course of action. With any luck this would be the one and only time he would have to speak to her. Better to simply hope she forgot all about it once this ordeal was over. Or he might die a horrible death and be burned alive. Either way.

“Sure,” said Ted snapping back to the situation at hand. At least gathering up supplies would keep him busy. He followed Narcissa. “Ought to even be a proper first-aid kit or two round here either way.” If there weren’t, he would put good money on them keeping stock after this, anyway.