InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "We built this city..."

Stacey Rivera (pinkyink) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-01-21 17:47:00

Entry tags:

character: gregory goyle, character: stacey rivers

RP: An introduction of sorts
Who: Greg and Stacey
What: First meeting
Where: Monument Park
When: Wednesday, January 21 2005
Rating: TBD but probably SFW

As much as she had complained about the cold weather, Stacey really was actually somewhat relieved to actually experience the change in temperature, if only for the significance of actually being back home where she belonged. After spending a couple of hours at the parlor, assuring herself that her business was still perfectly fine, she bundled up in layers of winter clothes and headed out to the park with a sketchbook and a few pencils.

Settling herself on the ground - though out of the way of anyone who might be taking a stroll - she started doodling. It was nonsense at first and then a few pages of random objects - the bench to her left, the trail of a woman's scarf in the breeze, a few of the hibernating plants, before she began to actually concentrate, the entirety of Monument Alley from her current vantage point. It seemed almost narcissistic to draw just the front of her own store - though she kind of wanted to, and probably would in the future.

Having finished the outline of what she wanted, Stacey was just starting in on the more details pieces when a shadow fell over her page. "Take two steps to your left, you're blocking my light," she said without looking up, still piecing together the door of Finnigan's on the paper.

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goyle_g
2015-01-22 09:30 am UTC (link)

In the months he'd been living in Monument Alley, Greg had been gradually building a routine. He worked regular hours, he played Gobstones on Monday nights and he had places he liked to go to eat and drink. It hadn't been as comfortable as living at home, but it had just been starting to feel unremarkable. And then Christmas had happened. Not only had Greg had to readjust to his family home and living with his mother for the holiday, but no one else was where they were suppose to be either and some of his favoured businesses were closed.

So it was that Wednesday lunchtime found him standing outside Sweet Nothings and scowling at the 'reopening in February' sign. He'd read the sign last week, too, and the week before, and the week before that - but he couldn't seem to retain the information. Wednesdays he took his lunch early and he bought a cake or pastry from Sweet Nothings... The break in his routine reminded him that all of this was still new and that he didn't really know what he was supposed to be doing anymore. Hadn't since school.

Knowing he'd didn't have to get back to work for a few hours, Greg wandered down Monument Alley. He could have gone into Finnigan's but while they did okay food, they didn't do much in the way of sweets. He could have visited Florean Fortescue's but it was too cold for ice cream. Above all, neither of those were things he did on Wednesdays! He came to a stop in the park, not knowing where to go. It took him a few minutes to realise the comment had been addressed to him - and even when he realised, he didn't move immediately. "What?"

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pinkyink
2015-01-22 12:58 pm UTC (link)

Glancing up from the paper, Stacey had to crane her neck a little to be able to see the stranger's face in front of her. Since he appeared to be confused, she reached out, tapping the side of his knee with two fingers as she said with a small grin, "Down here."

Leaning back slightly to better see - because from her position on the ground, the man's head was very far up - Stacey left her drawing alone for the time being, choosing instead to focus on her newfound company. "Are you lost?" she asked after a moment, a hint of concern worming its way into her voice. "Because honestly, you kind of look like you've got no idea what you're doing with yourself. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean that I want to help, if I can."

She hadn't meant to spew that many words all over the first conversation with a stranger, but it did tend to happen sometimes. Rather than be embarrassed about or apologize for her nature, she just added, "I'm Stacey, by the way."

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goyle_g
2015-01-22 03:01 pm UTC (link)

Greg was just beginning to process the situation - stranger, drawing, 'light' was starting to make some sense - when she spoke again and Greg frowned. "I'm not lost. I live here. " He waved in the vague direction of McHavelock's. Looking down again he confirmed that he definitely didn't know this persona and that, therefore, she had probably been calling him stupid. Past experience taught him that most people were - even people who offered to help. "I don't need help," he reiterated. Maybe he had no idea what he was going to do with himself until his lunch break was over - he didn't like to go home in the middle of the day because Mrs McHavelock had started to complain that he was 'bothering' her or her customers when he did so - but that was no business of anyone else's.

"What are you doing on the floor?" he asked, because she kept moving around but she hadn't got up. "It's cold." Greg had warming charms on his cloak but it was still too cold for a picnic, or for ice cream.

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pinkyink
2015-01-22 06:03 pm UTC (link)

Stacey looked down the alley briefly at his gesture, before returning her gaze him, considering. The frown and the words came across a little defensively, but she just offered him as bright smile at the insistence that he didn't need help. "Okay," she said agreeably with a small shrug of her shoulders. "That is an epic grumpy face, by the way. You don't have anything to smile about?" she added, hating to see people who didn't seem happy.

"Drawing," she answered, since there wasn't much more of an explanation than that to her current position. Grinning again at the comment about the cold, Stacey replied, "It is! And while it's terrible, I've just spent way too long in Puerto Rico, where it felt like the weather never changed, so I've actually missed the cold, strange as that is."

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goyle_g
2015-01-26 05:30 pm UTC (link)

If possible, Greg's frown just deepened at Stacey's words. He considered just walking away, but from looking down at Stacey like this he could see dark ink on her hand, wrist and beneath her hair. He wasn't a stranger to tattoos - Marcus had recently invested in one - but he still associated them with the dark mark, especially ones that weren't brightly coloured. To Greg, the tattoos marked Stacey out as not some boring, insufferable Gryffindor and so he decided to stay, at least until she actually insulted him. "I wanted a pastry," he said, his only offered explanation for not smiling. He'd wanted a pastry and now he couldn't have one and he'd have to go back to work on an empty stomach. What was he supposed to smile about anyway?

Not entirely sure he knew where Puerto Rico was, Greg just shrugged. "At least it's not raining." Then, even with magic, it would be uncomfortable to sit on the ground - and her drawing would probably be ruined.

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pinkyink
2015-01-28 01:07 pm UTC (link)

"And Sweet Nothings is closed," Stacey said in understanding, nodding slightly. "Which is rather disappointing, yes." She paused, her eyebrows furrowing slightly for a moment as she thought before she continued, "Isn't there another bakery-like shop in Diagon? Sugar...something. I'm not going to be able to remember the name, but I could have sworn it was there." Nowadays she mostly stuck to Monument Alley, and if she needed something from the Muggle world, she just walked out the front door of the flat, rather than through the Leaky Cauldron, so her knowledge of Diagon Alley was bits and pieces, leftovers from her days of shopping for school supplies.

She grinned again at his comment, and agreed, "At least it's not raining. That, at least, is something to smile about!" Stacey was aware that not everyone shared her optimism or her enthusiasm, but hopefully by sharing her own positivity, it could brighten someone's day. "I'm Stacey, by the way," she offered, realizing that she had no idea who she was talking to, and she always liked knowing people's names.

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goyle_g
2015-01-28 06:33 pm UTC (link)

Finally, Greg's expression cleared. There was a bakery in Diagon Alley. It was just a little bit further on than the shop, and if he stopped there on his way back he could easily finish off a pastry before going back to work. He wouldn't even have to be late, probably.

"You said that already," he pointed out when she reminded him again of her name. Now that his worries were eased, he was able to read the repetition as a prompt for his own manners - such as they were. "I'm Goyle." Only his friends called him Greg and this girl, though she'd helped him, wasn't anywhere close to that yet. Life might have been easier for him if he'd used just his first name when he could get away with it - but deception had never come easily to Greg unprompted and no one had yet told him to stop presenting his surname first and foremost. It would be useless anyway - the kind of people who cared were going to find out one way or another.

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pinkyink
2015-01-29 01:26 pm UTC (link)

"I did, didn't I?" Stacey stated with a laugh. "Sorry for the repetition then. Sometimes my mouth spews out things faster than my brain can keep up with." Giving him another smile, she said earnestly, "It's nice to meet you, Goyle." There was something vaguely familiar about the name, but she just figured it was from school, and didn't concern herself with trying to figure it out any further.

Putting her sketchbook and pencil in the bag at her side, Stacey stood up, brushing off her pants as she asked, "Mind if I make my way over there with you? I suddenly have a craving for a chocolate croissant." That had been one of the staples in her mother's bakery, and she had a lot of fond sense memories tied up with that particular pastry.

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goyle_g
2015-01-29 07:00 pm UTC (link)

Stacey's mouth seemed to be spewing things out faster than Greg could keep up with, too, but it might have helped if he'd been giving her more than half his attention. He was, at least, glad when she stood up because looking down at her had been giving him a crick in the neck. With some vague idea that Stacey wanted to be shown the way to the shop, since she hadn't seem sure of its location or even if it existed, Greg nodded. "Yeah, okay," he added.

Greg would have been perfectly happy to walk in silence, but now that it seemed they were going to be spending at least a few minutes of time together, his mind was slowly processing information. "Stacey what?" he asked. Not the most polite question, but he was used to knowing who he was talking to and it was the quickest way to find out.

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pinkyink
2015-02-04 03:28 am UTC (link)

Smiling up at him - even when she wasn't sitting on the ground, Goyle towered over her - Stacey let him set the pace of both their walk and their conversation, keeping her eyes in front of her so that she didn't inadvertently run into or over anyone else on the path. "Thanks."

Glancing over at the question, her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she answered, "Stacey Rivers." With a wave of her hand at the sign over the door to her shop, she added, "Or Pinky, if you prefer." She had no idea if he would catch the reference or not, especially since they were already passing her parlor, but it made her grin slightly.

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goyle_g
2015-02-04 06:20 pm UTC (link)

Rivers. The name meant nothing to him, which probably meant Stacey was halfblood or muggleborn or, at the very least, not the kind of pureblood Greg was used to. He was supposed to be fine with that now - which was strange after he'd been told muggleborns were good for nothing most of his life. His mum hadn't outright said that he was supposed to be nice to them, but he wasn't allowed to use the world mudblood or complain that the Ministry was too soft. So, where he once would have stopped walking with Stacey immediately, he just sort of shrugged.

"Pinky?" He caught the gesture out of the corner of his eye but wasn't quick enough to make the connection. It sounded like a stupid nickname to him. It didn't sound anything like her name. "Stacey's fine." The passed through the passage into Diagon Alley and Greg pointed in the direction of the baker's shop. "It's up there."

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