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Tweak says, "Plug it in, plug it in!"

Ben Boot (zenben) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2014-10-18 23:45:00

Entry tags:

character: ben stebbins, character: zacharias smith

A day at the track
Who: Ben & Zacharias
What: Racing brooms, dinner and excitement
Where: Broom racing track
When: Saturday, 10/18, afternoon/evening
Rating: SFW

Ben was flying high by the time they were seating with dinner, despite having been on the ground for a full half hour. It had been too long since he'd flown, and he'd never flown anything like these brooms. He knew they weren't top of the line if it came to competition, but it was still far more than the broom he'd had at school. That they got to keep the brooms was even better, and made his not even placing in the top half of the Novice race only smart a little. Even better, he thought that Zacharias had had just as good a time, and Ben always liked it when his friends had fun. Especially friends who kept to themselves so much.

"That was bloody brilliant," Ben said, after the waiter had come and gone and come again with their drink orders. "My old Cleansweep couldn't even dream of achieving those speeds." The Cleansweep, which had serviced him well enough at school, had been the first thing sold to make room for another guitar. He had little regrets about that, but it would be nice to have a broom again.

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unspeakableness
2014-11-05 03:42 am UTC (link)

Zacharias was pretty sure he'd won the lottery when it came to date activities. Not only had he gotten to fly a high-performance racing broom, but he got to keep that high-performance racing broom. True, he didn't have a lot of use for it in his day to day life, but maybe this just meant he'd have to make more time for it when he wasn't working and taking care of all the annoying responsibilities that came with being an adult. And he'd even gotten to meet a few racers. And he hadn't even been upset at losing! Which was shamefully a bit of a big deal for him, though he reasoned part of it was because they had more experience than he did, and another was that he was no longer in school, no longer being ridiculed by someone commentating his actions on the Quidditch pitch. The day had been good enough to make him momentarily forget that his wrist had been broken when Ben's name had been the one pulled as the person who'd won him for this date.

He nodded at what Ben said, taking a sip of his gillywater. "It was. And had I known more about racing in Hogwarts, I wouldn't have focused so much on Quidditch." It was, at least in part, a joke, but in part a bit of truth. The only time Quidditch offered that kind of speeds for him as a chaser had been diving for a missed Quaffle pass or trying to race to the other side of the pitch. "It's probably about as close to free flying as anyone can get without sprouting wings or ending up as a bird animagus," he added, idly thinking about how charming and transfiguring wings would work on a person. Somehow, he wasn't sure it'd work too well on the basis of how humans were designed, but he decided not to bore Ben with such stupid thoughts.

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zenben
2014-11-05 04:10 am UTC (link)

"There's a lot they don't tell us in school," Ben agreed, taking a sip of his Butterbeer. There was nothing quite like a Butterbeer after a little physical exercise. "Probably because if we'd known things like this existed, we'd have been even harder to keep alive." Quidditch and the Forbidden Forest were bad enough, he supposed they didn't need to add dangerously high speed racing to the mix.

He arched a brow at Zacharias. "Do a lot of thinking about what it'd be like to sprout wings, do you?" Then again, perhaps he did. Ben didn't know much about Zacharias' job, or just what Unspeakables did. Maybe thinking about things like humans sprouting wings was just part of the job description.

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unspeakableness
2014-11-05 05:11 am UTC (link)

Zacharias looked down at his menu, letting his eyes roam over the food choices the track's restaurant had to offer. Quietly, he was glad he hadn't mentioned much else about wings and flying. He felt strange and stupid enough without having spouted out his thoughts on the subject. Apparently he was the only one who'd ever thought about what it'd be like to fly without a broom, to have the type of control birds had to ride wind currents and go where they wanted. "Not really," he said in an offhanded way, shrugging a little. "Did as a kid, but I think lots of kids idly wonder about flying until they get a chance to ride a proper broom."

When the waiter came back, Zacharias ordered bangers and mash, deciding to keep it relatively simple. He didn't know the food at the track's restaurant, and he figured picking something easy, simple, and that, at least in his mind, was hard to mess up entirely.

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zenben
2014-11-06 02:44 am UTC (link)

Ben wasn't sure, but he thought Zacharias might have been embarrassed over mentioning the whole wings thing. Hoping to put him at ease, he said, "That's more interesting than what I thought about as a kid, which was basically how to get out of doing my chores with the least amount of effort." Ben had been a rather lazy child, unless it was something he really wanted to do. "Though I did have a phase where I wanted to be a dog, and went around barking at people all day. I was three, though."

Ben went for the shepard's pie, as it was a personal favorite and hard to get wrong. Hopefully the track wouldn't let him down. "So, how's work going? Working on anything exciting lately?"

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unspeakableness
2014-11-06 08:17 pm UTC (link)

"It's going alright," Zacharias said, deciding not to point out the definition of unspeakable. "And, yes, but... Well, it's really rather boring to discuss what you can't discuss by not discussing it," he said quickly, though not rudely. He shifted in his seat, getting more comfortable. "But... thank you for asking." He meant it, too, even if, deep down, he was normally bothered by people asking about work. But those people were often trying to play Make The Unspeakable Speak, not showing polite or genuine interest.

"Anyway, how is your music going?" he asked, sincerely interested, secretly hoping he'd remembered correctly. He could have sworn he'd talked about it or written about it before. If he were mistake, well, maybe he could try to segue into a discussion about music. Most people liked music, and most people seemed willing to discuss it, at least to some extent. Sure, he himself wasn't as well versed in music and music discussions as some, but he at least liked it well enough to talk about it from time to time with people. Mostly the non snobs, though, as he was only capable of so much discussion with them before he got lost or they got annoyed at his lack of refinement and selectiveness.

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