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Tweak says, "Whatever! I do what I want!!"

sewcreative (sewcreative) wrote in 20somethings,
@ 2022-06-21 16:04:00

Entry tags:

c: beau rosier, c: caleb o'leary, d: 2028 06, ~ complete, Ω: rp

RP: Just a boy and his book
Who: Caleb O'Leary, OPEN
What: A strange place to sit
When: Tues 21st June
Where: Right outside The Creative Collection
Warnings: ? TBC,
Completion Status: Complete

The weather in the last few days had warmed up considerably and it had affected both the clothes Caleb was wearing and his state of mind. He didn't mind the heat too much, but it did brighten up and disrupt his way of thinking. He was happy, but kind of restless. He wanted a change of scene, wanted to do something different. Do something just because. But Trina needed him at the shop since it was her day off.

Etta was indoors, but he'd ended up sat outside, sat on a tiny cushion, his legs crossed and a bag by his side. His back was against the window and a tall reusable mug of half-drunk tea were by his side. He had casual summer trousers on, with white t-shirt, and a mushroom print shirt that he'd embroidered in several places with lots of bright coloured mushrooms to fill in parts of the design, plus scuffed white trainers. Trina would have sent him home to change, or tried to, but she wasn't around.

In Caleb's lap was his ideas book; a battered looking being progressively filled with ideas, designs, notes for projects and a few outright doodles. It was mostly the latter he was drawing today. He was letting his mind wander. He had reimagined passers by as any number of different flora. Drawn some as they appeared, but then added mushrooms and flowers growing from them and their clothes. They looked strange and somewhere between peaceful and deeply unsettling depending on the particular drawing and the eye of the beholder.

He had been drawing for some time, brushing off the odd passer by who stopped, or inviting them into the shop. Etta could call him if she needed him, but she probably wouldn't. At least he assumed so as he slouched back, his head resting against the shop window, mind starting to drift aimlessly as his eyes stared, unfocussed, into the middle distance.

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beaurosier
2022-06-26 01:54 pm UTC (link)

It was Beau's first full week of freedom after filming for Grace season two had wrapped and he had precisely zero plans or appointments for the next few days. He had a handful of auditions pencilled in over the next few weeks, mainly to keep his hand in. The executives at WeeVee were making all the right noises about there being a third season of the show, but Beau had been in this business long enough to know he shouldn't take anything for granted. Doing other auditions was just sensible and likely the reason Beau had worked steadily since leaving school so many years ago.

Beau had a five o'clock shadow and wore sunglasses as he strolled down Victory Road on his way to the Daily Prophet for a chat with one of their writers. An iced oat milk latte from Higher Grounds in hand, he stopped when he realised that Caleb was sitting outside the Creative Collection.

"Hi, Caleb. Nice mushrooms," he remarked gently with a smile, hoping he didn't startle him.

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sewcreative
2022-06-26 10:57 pm UTC (link)

There was a bit of an art to having an unfocussed gaze but also paying enough attention to not be thoroughly startled. It was a good thing to develop when you had a wandering mind but also a host of siblings with varying levels of vindictiveness built into their revenge strategies. Caleb had developed it pretty early. It meant he'd heard and half-seen Beau coming, although he couldn't have been sure who it was until he spoke and Caleb himself looked up.

"Hi, Beau," he said, giving him a smile. He half expected to also see his brother despite only noticing one person approaching. His mind had semi-grouped them together, despite knowing they had independent lives and jobs beyond their relationship. "Thanks. I've been enjoying weirder looking flora recently." He wasn't sure if Beau had meant his shirt or his book, since both had a bit of a mushroom theme going on.

He blinked and came back to himself more, straightening up slightly. "What brings you to ...?" he waved to encompass the street, the shop, and the general vicinity, unsure which was Beau's specific target.

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beaurosier
2022-06-27 06:49 pm UTC (link)

Behind his sunglasses, Beau's eyes crinkled with amusement. He would have been doubly amused, not to mention heartwarmed, if he had known that Caleb had mentally grouped him with Nate. Their weekend trip to visit the O'Leary parental unit had been successful and it was a genuine relief to Beau that he was accepted; his estrangement from his own parents was a dark, prickly thing somewhere in the core of him.

"Day off," he explained before taking a sip of his drink. "But just heading over the the Daily Prophet offices for an interview." A necessary evil in his line of work, but at least the focus would be on upcoming episodes of Grace and not himself. "I wanted to enjoy the sun a bit instead of going straight there."

He gestured at the book. "Working hard or hardly working?" he joked.

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sewcreative
2022-06-27 09:44 pm UTC (link)

Caleb frowned. He wasn't sure how a day off and an interview weren't mutually exclusive. He stretched out his legs and stood up so he wasn't craning his head up to talk to Beau. More than he'd done for anyone else who had stopped off with him. "The sunshine I understand," he said. "You can't afford to waste decent weather in England. Doing an interview on your day off though," he said and wrinkled his nose. "But I assume that's only a short thing."

He glanced at the book that was still clutched in his hand and see-sawed it back and forth. "It's technically my work book, but I've not really been working. The heat made me restless and Etta has a handle on the shop," he shrugged slightly. "Plus I'm in yelling distance if there's a problem." He realised he was a little bit stiff from having sat all but on the floor for so long and started trying to flex his various muscle groups subtly. "We definitely haven't reached a place where being the boss is the easier job," he said.

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beaurosier
2022-07-02 02:08 pm UTC (link)

Beau shrugged, lips twisting wryly. "I guess to me any day without filming is a day off." He'd never once worked a nine-to-five kind of job but he could at least recognise that his perception of work was skewed compared to most people and involved a little mental gymnastics on his part. "Hopefully short, though," he agreed. "Just talking about some upcoming episodes."

He could understand the heat causing restlessness. It was one of the reasons he had come into London early for a coffee instead of twiddling his thumbs at home. The weather was nice enough that it made him want to do things outside, but the heat just felt draining. London was always so humid, too, in his experience.

"Looks like being the boss suits you, though," Beau remarked. "The shop looks like it's doing well?"

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sewcreative
2022-07-02 02:39 pm UTC (link)

"I guess that makes some sense," Caleb replied with a slight scrunch of his eyebrows that said he only partly understood. "Oh, if it's only a short thing that makes more sense." He couldn't claim to have a regular working pattern himself, and had never really had one if he was honest so strange work hours didn't seem odd, just there being some kind of work on a non-working day. If he took non-working days he'd had to become strict with himself so he didn't burn out.

He leaned back against the window of the shop slightly, a concession to his relaxation. "I've been my own boss since the mediwizard training stopped working out, or near enough," he said. "But the shop is a bit more, and having responsibility for people other than myself is... weird." He shifted his head and glanced through the window at Etta, but she wasn't even looking in his direction. "But it's doing well enough. Katarina and I both have some people who have bought our stuff since we were still doing markets, but so many more people come through the shop." The loss of their regular muggle clients had been a bit of a blow, but not one which had outweighed the wish to have permanent space and stop dragging huge mounds of stock everywhere.

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beaurosier
2022-07-02 04:54 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, I guess it must be." Beau technically employed people like his trainer, stylist, and even his gloriously ruthless publicist, but he'd never really thought of them as employees or himself as anyone's boss. He had an eye on directing at some point in the future which would give him an opportunity to try out that sort of authority - hopefully if Grace was renewed for a third season he might be able to plant the idea of him directing an episode in Silviya's head.

He glanced at the shop window. "It always looks like you have new stock and new creators whenever I pass by." That seemed really encouraging for a small business. "Do you ever make anything for yourself?" he asked curiously. It had been weeks since he'd even picked up a paintbrush, Beau experiencing an unusual block on his creative endeavours. Usually he was itching to get into creating anything, but nothing was inspiring him right now.

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sewcreative
2022-07-04 06:44 pm UTC (link)

Caleb, who was always quietly pleased about compliments to the business he'd worked very hard at, couldn't help but smile at the comment. "Thanks. I'll admit a bit of that is stock rotation to make everything look fresh, but there's usually someone bringing something new in. It's the benefit of lots of small producers," he enthused.

He waved an equivocating hand. "Not as much as I'd maybe like to, but I embroidered this shirt, and most of the time I've got something with decorative embroidery on I usually at least contributed to it," he said as he smoothed a hand over the grain of the mushrooms, feeling one of the few he'd turned into toadstools with French knots. "Most of the things I keep or do for me are clothes." He shrugged, knowing it was a bit of a weird choice, but he preferred to put other people's work on his walls.

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beaurosier
2022-07-07 06:42 pm UTC (link)

Beau nodded. He'd been painting for years but rarely kept much for himself - there were a lot of pieces and sketchbooks stored in his attic, but most were given away. It was rare that anything ever ended up on display in rooms that he regularly used.

"The shirt's great," he said, genuine in his compliment. "If you're ever taking commissions for that sort of stuff, let me know?"

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sewcreative
2022-07-08 01:10 am UTC (link)

The compliment very easily provoked a wide smile from Caleb. "Thank you," he said. The question, on the other hand threw him slightly. "Oh, umm, wow," he said blinking in a slightly inelegant fashion. "You know I'd never really considered doing it on actual clothing for anyone but me," he said. "I make patches and all the non-clothing items to sell but-" he cut himself off just to give his brain time to process for a few more seconds.

After a few seconds he was slowly shaking his head. "You know, most of the embroidery I was originally taught came from fashion embroiderers Mum Nat set me up with, but I don't usually sell it." In his opinion high-fashion embroidery was arduous and deeply underestimated by most people, and as much as he'd had fun learning and taking part he had no desire to buttonhole himself into that world.

"You know what, let me see how I'm feeling after the Literary Flourishes gala about clothing projects rather than me just sewing random things onto my clothes when I need something to do with my hands or hiding mending with a fun designs. Trina convinced me to copy the design from some historical waistcoat she found pictures of and it's a lot of bloody tiny stitches, so it might be a while before I feel like doing clothes again!" He was nearly finished with the piece, but it had consumed far more of his free time than was probably reasonable because of the deadline.

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beaurosier
2022-07-09 08:34 pm UTC (link)

Smothering an amused smile, Beau hadn't expected a reaction like that from Caleb. From where he was standing, the storefront of Natalie Designs was just in his peripheral vision. Growing up in the O'Leary household had to be quite an education.

He shook his head. "Don't worry if it's not on the cards," he said. "Just throwing the idea out there." Beau shrugged. "Maybe I need to learn to embroider," he added, only half-joking. Most of his artistic pursuits had been taken up due to boredom on set - that why sketching was his go-to, something that just needed a pencil and a sketchbook. "Or maybe I'll just pick up a couple of patches next time I get to stop by."

Beau sighed. "Right. I'd better go get this interview over and done with." Time to go hint enigmatically about upcoming plots for his and Lynn's characters. "But we should get dinner or something sometime. You, me, Nate?"

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sewcreative
2022-07-10 10:44 pm UTC (link)

"No, it's okay," Caleb said, his face still crunched up in thought. "It's worth thinking about." He wasn't sure if it would mean taking one of his few remaining sewing hobbies and making it work would suck some joy out of it for him. And if that was a good idea. But he knew about the costs of skilled embroidery in fashion as a one-off, which was somewhat tempting. He chuckled at Beau's suggestions. "Both of those options work. I'm here if you actually want to talk about trying it out, and I will also sell you weird patches that require only sticking charms and no sewing skills!" There was spellwork involved in embroidery, and it certainly made some things easier, but a lot of control and care was still involved.

With a smile and an understanding nod Caleb took Beau's point. "Please don't let me make you late. Dinner would be good though. We can work something out another time. It was nice to see you," he said and offered Beau his hand to shake. Personally he loved hugs, but he understood that people often found them a little invasive with unfamiliar people.

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