InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Boop!"

ariadne (labyrinthine) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2010-11-14 11:28:00

Entry tags:

!closed, *log, ariadne, sirius black

WHO: Sirius Black and Ariadne.
WHAT: Coffee and mapmaking!
WHERE: A coffeeshop somewhere in Colligo
WHEN: Backdated to after this post.
RATING/STATUS: Incomplete; probably PG-13 for language.

Paris had the Metro, New York had the subway, and Colligo had a public transit system without a catchy name to it. But it got you around and it wasn't too expensive, so Ariadne didn't question it. As with most things in her new city, really. She stepped off the bus and headed towards the coffee shop where she'd agreed to meet Sirius, a large pad of drafting paper tucked under her arm and an array of pencils and a ruler stuffed in her bag.

He'd said something about maps, after all, and wanting to create one. She'd found a map of the city for tourists but it wasn't very detailed, and the scale was off besides that. So she was prepared to start more or less from scratch. Was this going to be another Marauders' Map? Not that she was anything like one of those four pranksters, she told herself. Her rulebreaking was somewhat more sophisticated. And more actually illegal. But that was quibbling over details.

She got herself a cup of coffee and snagged a booth, setting her things down neatly on the side of the table and waiting for her erstwhile companion to show up. Probably he was busy chasing a cat up a tree or something.

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labyrinthine
2010-11-14 06:39 pm UTC (link)

His greeting was met with a shake of the head and a fond smile. Always had to make a scene, didn't he? "Not too long, no. And babysitting's a bit of an overstatement, isn't it? You enjoy it just as much as Phil does. And get in just as much trouble." Ariadne sipped her coffee and watched him dump entirely too much sugar into his cup. No wonder he was constantly bouncing off the walls.

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pad_foot
2010-11-14 06:56 pm UTC (link)

Sirius pulled a brief 'oh, very funny' face in her direction as he poured a small mountain of sugar into the strong black concoction. People kept telling him he should switch to those weird white pills that came in the pink packets, but Sirius ignored it. He'd let the muggles keep their strange little customs and just make sure he moved around enough to burn up any fat that tried to settle. Which the sugar pretty much made him do anyway.

Sirius took a sip, then reached over to drag the pad of paper before him, hoisting a scathing eyebrow up as he examined it. "I still say parchment would have been more dramatic. How many treasure maps do you get on drafting paper? A pirate wouldn't be seen dead with this."

Not that they were making a treasure map. But still. The point was still valid. Sirius glanced across at her, a smirk curling effortlessly at the corners of his mouth. "How's the new place?"

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labyrinthine
2010-11-14 07:03 pm UTC (link)

The thought of drinking her coffee with that grainy mess in it made her grimace. How could he ruin good coffee like that? "Parchment is expensive, even with my discount," she informed him, kicking him gently under the table. "And this is just a first version. We can always refine it and copy it onto something nicer. Unfortunately they haven't added this place to Google Maps yet."

His question caught her off guard, and Ariadne lifted her cup to her mouth to cover as she thought. "It's..." Quiet. Lonely. Peaceful. Empty. "It's fine. I'm fine. Really." Which was the real question he was asking. Sure, she missed Eames and Arthur, but being around them was too painful still, and she needed a chance to be away and sort out her own head.

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pad_foot
2010-11-14 07:29 pm UTC (link)

Sirius rolled his eyes, then lifted his eyebrows in feigned offense as her foot made contact with his shin. Not that it hurt. At all. He knew better than most that Araidne didn't seem to have a scrap of extra weight on her. What was milding annoying was that Parchment was available by the bucket-load at Hogwarts. You could barely move for the damn stuff. Although he couldn't help but be pulled from that thought and look completely baffled at her next point. "Gooey maps?" he repeated, smooth brow furrowing.

The animagus nodded, quiet for a moment. He could tell she missed Eames and Arthur, but from what he knew about the situation it was probably for the best. Not that he'd tell her that. And he had to admit it was easier being able to walk about her new place without the possibility of bumping into Eames or the Regulus-double. Especially in his varying stages of undress.

Sirius jumped to his feet, having managed to stay still for a grand total of three minutes before leaping round the table. "Scoot." He slid down on the cushioned bench next to Araidne, grabbing the pad of paper and turning it to face them. "Right. Here's what I was thinking. You've read those books, yes? You know about the map?"

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labyrinthine
2010-11-14 09:19 pm UTC (link)

"It's a computer thing that has maps for the whole world," she said, shrugging. Even without the wizarding thing, he was still from before the internet. Sometimes she had trouble remembering that. It was creepy to think that he would properly have been old enough to be her dad if they were from the same world. Which was why she didn't think about it that often.

Ariadne was relieved that he didn't press the issue of her new living arrangements; it wasn't something she wanted to talk about, and for once he was actually respecting that. She resisted the urge to check her totem and shuffled over, nodding. "Yes, I know about the map. Do you want to do the same thing and stalk people here?"

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pad_foot
2010-11-15 11:10 am UTC (link)

Sirius gave her a scathing look. "It was more to avoid people than stalk them. You've never met the elderly loon that is Argus Filch. Anyway, it was a bloody fantastic piece of magic."

Sirius was almost obscenely proud of that map - it was the result of over a years hard work, after all - they'd started it in sixth year and finished it a few months into second. A year of stalking passageways, working out passwords and twisting charms to meet their own needs. And it was a good distraction from his recently estranged family and an unfurling war - was it really surprising he was searching for the same thing now?

"It's just... something to do," Sirius shrugged, reaching over for his coffee and absently flipping open the pad of paper to reveal a clean sheet. "It's so fucking boring here half the time."

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labyrinthine
2010-11-15 11:44 pm UTC (link)

"Oh, it was very impressive, no doubt." She wasn't going to argue about it, even if she had no personal experience. But it had certainly sounded awesome when she was reading the books.

Ariadne shot Sirius a look, pulling the pad over in front of her. "And the other half of the time we're attacked by zombies or turning into asshole teenagers or being forced to confess our innermost thoughts. You prefer that?"

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pad_foot
2010-11-16 04:25 pm UTC (link)

"I'd rather we found a happy medium," Sirius treated Ariadne to a slow, cheeky grin, then slumped back in the seat as she pulled the pad towards her, slinging his arms back to rest along the back of their shared bench. Sirius tilted his head in that slightly canine way he had, examining the paper in an uncharacteristically serious way.

"Sooo..." He moved one arm, nudging Ariadne gently in the back of the head. "Let's see. Draw... this place." He vaguely indicated the coffee shop as a whole, craning his neck back for a moment so he could examine the area behind him, long hair falling back from his face.

Sirius snapped back until he was the right way up after a moment, crossing his arms over the table and balancing his chin on top of them to watch Ariadne draw.

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labyrinthine
2010-11-16 10:14 pm UTC (link)

That earned the animagus another eyeroll. "I'd settle for that. I mean, before all this kicked off I was a graduate student. Not exactly exciting." Then she'd found herself immersed in the world of mind crime, and had more excitement than she could have ever hoped for.

"Draw it?" Ariadne grabbed a stray stirrer and used it as a straight edge, mapping out a quick but messy blueprint of the shop with its tables and counters and trash cans. And then, just for good measure, she started sketching out the shop from their perspective, but with the walls bowed outward at the top and everything somewhat elongated. After a while she forgot about Sirius watching her, bent over the pad with her hair falling every which way and her lips pressed together.

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pad_foot
2010-11-18 08:26 pm UTC (link)

"I was fighting a war against a psychopathic dark wizard," Sirius shot back, still lazing absently back in the booth, kicking up long, jean-clad legs to rest on the bench opposite. He remained like that, reclined with a casual elegance in the way same very he used to spend most of his classes at school. He cocked his head a little, watching the lines spill from Ariadne's pencil as she sketched out a blueprint followed quickly by an detailed, remarkably accurate sketch of the shop before them.

Sirius was quiet for almost an unheard of amount of time before a brunette waitress hurried past, collecting the empty mugs from a nearby table. Sirius allowed a slow grin to unfurl charmingly as he caught her her eye. "Alright?"

She smiled shyly back and hurried away, and Sirius sat back up and slid to the edge of his seat, reaching out and taking the drawing from Ariadne. "My go." He examined the picture for a moment. It was good. Really good. And he pulled a mildly impressed face in her direction before shaking his hair back and taking the pencil, drawing a few haphazard diamonds on the floorplan in the places of the customers, labeling them in his slightly looping script. 'Old guy with ear-hair' made it on there, as well as 'hot waitress' and 'scrotum nose'.

Sirius tossed the pencil carelessly aside, fetched his wand from his back pocket instead, and placed the point carefully in the middle of the sketch. There was a moment when long, flowing words were muttered under his breath, and then all of a sudden the markers started to move. Sirius smiled smugly to himself, taken with his usual arrogance as the 'earhair' man got up to shuffle to the toilet and his hastily drawn mark followed the trail on the paper, plotting his slow route over the floor.

"Now imagine it...." he waved a vague hand around the table, miming a bigger piece of paper. "Everywhere."

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labyrinthine
2010-11-21 11:02 pm UTC (link)

Of course he flirted with the waitress. She couldn't even be mad about it, though she could be irritated as he pulled away the nearly-finished sketch. And that vaguely impressed look was probably all the praise she would get from him, so Ariadne would take it as a compliment.

She'd read the books and watched the movies, and she knew what the map would do, but watching the paper come alive in front of her was still astonishing. Ariadne smiled in spite of herself, watching the markers glide over the paper. "It wouldn't be as easy as that, would it? For the larger version. And would you have to draw markers for every single person here or could you make it - I don't know, auto-locate them?" She pulled the paper towards her again. "And the scale - maybe I could draw parts of the city and you could collate them, and make it zoom in and out depending on how much detail you want." It was more interesting than her models that were being made for no real purpose, and it had the potential to be a vital outlet for her creativity. How could she resist being fascinated?

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pad_foot
2010-11-22 07:07 pm UTC (link)

"No..." Sirius bit down gently on his bottom lip, lost in a rare moment of complete concentration as he watched the markers make their lazy way around the paper map. "It's a separate charm. We edited that one when we were making the map so that it would locate everyone automatically. There was too many people coming in and out the castle. Same as here, really."

Still, as huge as Hogwarts was, Sirius suspected a city would be quite different. Admittedly, at least the streets here didn't change every other day, like Hogwarts corridors had a habit of doing. But it was so much bogger. Perhaps the two problems made the complexities of the tasks equal. After all, although Sirius rarely let on, he was really quite exceptionally bright. It was half the reason his and James' antics at school had infuriated their teachers so much.

Araidne tugged the paper towards her, pulling Sirius from his musings and causing him to glance over to her, planting his chin on his palm. "That's what I was thinking. Selecting certain buildings and making them enlarge over the paper. It should be an easy enough charm. I'll work on it."

Sirius took the opportunity to cock an eyebrow in the young woman's direction, a slow, arrogant grin unfurling. "And you thought I was just a pretty face."

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