InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Save the cheerleader..."

Dominic Chambers (knowhow) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-01-28 17:47:00

Entry tags:

character: dean thomas, character: dominic chambers, character: luna lovegood

Luna's Birthday!
Who: Luna, Dominic, Dean - any other friends of Luna welcome
What: Birthday celebrations
Where: Dominic's flat
When: Wednesday afternoon / evening
Rating: SFW

Though they'd been in the same Hogwart's House, Dominic didn't know Luna particularly well - which made planning a birthday surprise for her a little bit challenging. Never one to back down in the face of a difficult task, Dominic had asked around and tried to remember all that he'd seen of Luna. He had an idea she liked painting and since Dean, the only person Dominic knew to invite, was also an artist he figured he couldn't go far wrong with that. The Roost was booked at lunchtime and for choir in the evening, so he'd chosen to set things up in his own spare room. The actual implementation hadn't been that hard. White muggle wallpaper (the drying process hurried along with a few choice spells) with 'Happy Birthday Luna' written across the far wall in dark blue glitter. There were art supplies - both muggle and magical - piled strategically in a corner and even three aprons.

After lunch, Dominic went looking for Luna. They hadn't arranged a time or a place but given how much she'd been working lately, he hoped it wouldn't be too difficult to find her.

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Dean/Dominic/Luna

knowhow
2015-02-03 01:37 pm UTC (link)

Dominic nodded. He loved his job too - hence why he kept doing things for free for friends and friends-of-friends and even Luna, who he didn't know that well on hi own but was the friend of a friend of a friend. "Guess we're lucky, then. A lot of people hate working." Not that many of his friends, fortunately, but a lot of his clients, some of whom clearly resented having to spend money on his services to make a business they didn't really care about profitable.

He turned back to his unfinished sketch, frowning at the cartoony looking wings. He leaned in, trying to make the tips pointier instead of being rounded, but if anything that made it worse. "Maybe I should leave the art to you two and just take photos," he said, laughing. He had brought his camera, but he didn't intent to give in as easily as all that. He glanced over at Luna, watching as she went straight for the paint without any kind of outline. He definitely didn't have that kind of confidence, but then he hadn't painted artistically since he was in primary school. "Have at, Dean," he encouraged, gesturing at the wall. "Unless there's anything else you need?"

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Re: Dean/Dominic/Luna

artistdean
2015-02-03 03:22 pm UTC (link)

Dean moved over to the paint and considered his options. He didn't especially feel like doing anything too fancy, in fact something simple might be nice after all of the intricate plans he'd been making for paintings drawn from his sketches of Spain. He dug into his bag for the pad he'd found in a muggle shop, shiny sheets of paper that could be used as disposable palettes. He flipped it open and started dumping some paint on it before starting to paint some fairly simple lined patterns. "Yeah, we're pretty lucky," he said, smiling.

"I'm good thanks. Honestly I sort of bring supplies with me pretty much everywhere just in case. Well, that and the fact I forget to clear out my bag too often," he said and shrugged. "And don't stop unless you really want to. This is meant to be fun, right, not some sort of skills test?"

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Dean/Dominic/Luna

loonacy
2015-02-04 04:31 am UTC (link)

"They do seem to complain an awful lot. It's sad. Everyone should love their job." She loved her job(s) but they wore her out. And she didn't really take all that good care of herself when she was busy taking care of her father instead. Taking care of the animals as well. No time for Luna. "Oh no, you should draw with us. I'm not very good either but it's fun to do. And it's soothing."

At least it was her for her. She always found painting and drawing fairly relaxing. In fact she was drawing swirls and all kinds of girly things. Butterflies. A picture of a dragon. That kind of thing. "It's definitely fun, you should sit." There was definitely no need for confidence when it came to this sort of thing.

No one was going to see it but them.

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Re: Dean/Dominic/Luna

knowhow
2015-02-04 06:13 pm UTC (link)

Dominic smiled, glad to hear that Luna loved her job, no matter how much it was stressing her right now. "I guess everyone can't," he said. "We need people to do jobs like cleaning and retail and owling people about products no one really wants to buy. I'm not sure anyone loves those jobs - they just do them because they need money." And he was aware that some people would consider his job, or at least his dad's job, to be that kind of work. Still... surely no one really enjoyed cleaning up after strangers? He watched Dean prepare his equipment, impressed. "A man after my own heart," he said, gesturing. "I don't have that much in the way of supplies, but I've been known to tinker with little things in my friend's homes if I'm invited over."

Returning his attention to his sketch, he shrugged. "I'll stick at it for now, but I might get some photos later. Stick to a medium I actually know something about."

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Re: Dean/Dominic/Luna

artistdean
2015-02-04 10:14 pm UTC (link)

"My mum's never been all that in love with her job, but it pays the bills, which is the important thing." Dean painted as his spoke, painting something akin to a multicoloured barcode of thick and thin lines in a variety of shades. "Actually," he said, after a couple of seconds, "the important bit was probably the fact she met Dad through work. Not my birth father, my stepdad," he said in explanation. He wasn't really used to painting and talking at the same time, but it was sort of nice to have company.

He painted another line and then cocked his head to the side, an idea coming to him. "We could always do animated stick men, create some sort of thing together," he suggested. The other two might not have the experience to have as much control over their simple drawings as he did, but a little magic could make even simple stick men pretty entertaining.

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Dean/Dominic/Luna

loonacy
2015-02-05 05:14 am UTC (link)

"You do have a point, Dominic. Not every job can be great. I don't mind doing those jobs though, if they're needed." If someone needed to be cleaned up after, then she would help some people out. "Needing money is a good reason to have the job too. My mum had a job that she didn't always like, but it was okay for her." It was the stuff at home that she loved to do. But for her and her father, she was forever grateful that they got to do what they loved.

"Photos are nice. I used to take some at school. And for my dad for the paper. But I haven't in a while." She wasn't sure why she had stopped. Not enough time, she supposed. "Oh we could do that. It would be fun!"

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Dean/Dominic/Luna

knowhow
2015-02-06 05:13 pm UTC (link)

Dominic nodded along to Dean's comment - and Luna's. "Yeah. Dad doesn't love his job, I don't think, but he's happy he makes money and didn't have to keep going to school. Mum, on the other hand... Total opposite. Loves her job, even when it's stressful, and was always disappointed I didn't take more after her on the academic side." Which might sound strange coming from a Ravenclaw, but there was more than one way to learn and Dominic had never really been interested in subjects that focused heavily on book-learning. "Yeah. I have to do a lot of cleaning up after myself in my work, but it's not my whole job, you know? And I get to use magic. I was thinking of people who clean restaurants and offices and that's all they do..."

"I think I can manage stickmen," he said, smiling at Dean's idea and Luna's obvious approval. He'd definitely love to see how Dean worked the animating of them - he'd been curious about the painting process ever since the show. Not that he was expecting this to be anything like as impressive, of course. There wasn't that much you could do with stickmen. "Have wizarding portraits always moved?" he asked, addressing the question to either of them. "It's funny to imagine wizards having moving, talking portraits before muggles had developed television. Might explain a few ghost stories, though."

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Re: Dean/Dominic/Luna

artistdean
2015-02-06 10:29 pm UTC (link)

"Neither of my parents were expecting massive academic skill from me, since they're not academic either, which is good, because I definitely wasn't a genius book-wise," he said, shrugging. He'd done okay, but he'd never been at the top of any of his classes. And going back after a year on the run had never appealed, especially given his mental health at the time.

Dean grinned and moved over from his random painting to a free space and stuck the big paintbrush he'd been using into his mouth and using a felt tip he drew two standard stick men in dark blue. He turned his head at Dominic's question. "I don't know about always, but for a long time, sure. I learned about it during my apprenticeship, the whole art thing is handed down from master to apprentice. I mean some of the simple stuff is obviously out there in books and stuff now, but some of it I'm literally not allowed to tell you," he said.

"Do you guys know a basic animation spell?"

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Re: Dean/Dominic/Luna

loonacy
2015-02-07 06:37 am UTC (link)

"I don't know that I was expected to do anything, but I wasn't really good with book learning either," she admitted. They were both kind of odd Ravenclaws that way, but Luna always liked learning by trying her hand at it and doing things instead of reading about them. She liked learning, it was just not her favorite thing to do. She started painting little stick figures on the canvas and tried to make them into cohesive, like a little story.

She nodded her head a little, "I do. I have to know it to put the pictures in the Quibbler."

Which honestly was one of her favorite things to do.

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Dean/Dominic/Luna

knowhow
2015-02-09 05:18 pm UTC (link)

Dominic raised an eyebrow - one of the most effective ways to get him interested in a topic was to tell him there was knowledge about it that he wasn't allowed to have. "Tease," he said, giving Dean a wink and a shake of his head. He was definitely going to go look up that simple stuff that was available, though. There might even be a way he could incorporate it into his work.

"I know a few animations spells," he admitted. "Mostly for objects, though, not so much for drawings-on-paper. But I'll pick it up quick." He was confident in his ability to master any 'basic' spell, especially one that was likely related to something he already knew how to do. He moved closer to where Luna and Dean were drawing and added, not another stickman but the same kind of stylised 'W' shape he'd used to represent birds in flight as a kid.

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Re: Dean/Dominic/Luna

artistdean
2015-02-10 04:43 pm UTC (link)

Dean shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, I can point you to the more reputable books on the topic, but I signed a magically binding contract about the rest." Some of the books he'd scanned had had hilariously inaccurate ideas about the non-public parts of the art creation process.

"Oh, excellent then," he said and pulled his wand from his pocket and animated his two figures, using the spell aloud for Dominic's benefit, who immediately started doing a silly dance in the style of the Macerena in time with each other. He snorted with laughter, not sure that it would work because of the simplicity of the figures.

"I like the bird," he said, grinning. "Well, I assume that's a bird," he teased.

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Dean/Dominic/Luna

loonacy
2015-02-10 11:00 pm UTC (link)

"They take all of that very seriously," she said a little wistfully. She wasn't complaining about it, but she supposed she understood guarding that kind of thing secretly. But what all the secret stuff might be, she was completely clueless since she couldn't think of anything that could be that secret.

She set the brush down and smiled, watching the little figures on the page go back and forth. That was sweet. Picking up the brush again, she drew a little girl who started to do ballet twirls over the page. She put blonde hair on her and drew her a little cake. Then she drew another little stick figure who promptly gave the ballet dancer a kiss on the cheek.

Hey at least she could live vicariously through her stick figure drawings. However she did seem to be lost in her own little world.

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Dean/Dominic/Luna

knowhow
2015-02-12 05:05 pm UTC (link)

Slightly disappointed, Dominic nodded. "I'd appreciate that, actually. Like I said, I'm not the biggest fan of book-learning, so if we can narrow the amount of books I have to read to appease my curiosity, I'm all for it." He watched both Dean and Luna carefully as they cast the animation spell, smiling at the antics of their animated figures. "It's a bird! It's just... far away." He grinned and then attempted the spell himself - to no result.

It took him a few more minutes to work out what he was doing wrong (wand movement, as usual) and get his own drawing to give a few apathetic flaps of it's 'wings'. He shook his head, annoyed at himself for not getting it but knowing that now was not an appropriate time to stand her and make repeated attempts. This wasn't his workshop and he was supposed to be helping everyone else have fun, not drawing into his own world of problem-solving. He summoned a few of the left-over colouring pencils and started carefully adding a strip of green 'grass' under Luna's dancing girl. "Maybe I'll provide the backgrounds and you two can add the action," he suggested.

With a glance at Dean, he walked around and sketched in a 'beanstalk' on Dean's other side, with some white-blue clouds at the top.

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Re: Dean/Dominic/Luna

artistdean
2015-02-13 02:13 pm UTC (link)

"Couple of books should do it," he said. "I mean the public stuff can get you a lot of the same effects if you've got the skills, but it takes practice. The professional stuff is a lot more precise, has more variations, that sort of thing," he explained, freezing his figures and adding some clothes to them before reanimating them.

He watched Luna's little figures with a smile and concentrated, sending his two dancers over to hers with a spell. One immediately switched to dancing ballet and bowed to the ballerina, beginning to lead her in a dance.

"Backgrounds work too," he said. "But, yeah, the spells can take some practice to get the effects you're aiming for." His stray man was now looking a bit miffed, his arms folded and foot tapping. "Of course, you get good and even the stick men have personalities, which can get a bit trying."

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Re: Dean/Dominic/Luna

loonacy
2015-02-14 04:04 am UTC (link)

The dancing figures seemed to please Luna a lot. She liked to dance, but her version of dancing was different than other people's. The figures were cute though. She smiled up at Dean and Dominic and then put some flowers in the grass and a little dog that the figures could play with. The little dog ran around the stick figures, only to get petted by them.

If she wanted to, she would add a bunch more animals. She was probably better at painting them than she was people. But she didn't want to overwhelm the pictures with a bunch of weird animals. Most ones that they would deem not real, even if she thought they were pretty real.

"Try putting a smile on his face?" she asked with a shrug of her shoulders.

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