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Bryony Capper ([info]goodlight) wrote in [info]finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-02-11 14:29:00

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Entry tags:character: bryony capper, character: theodore nott

Sketch Swap
Who: Bryony and Theo
What: Sketch swapping
Where: Finnigan's, The Corner
When: Wednesday 11th, after work
Rating: SFW

It had taken some time for Bryony and Theo to agree on a place and time to meet up - not helped by the fact that Bryony kept putting it off to arrange her sketch books into some kind of order. She'd considered taking out anything she didn't want seen, but in the end couldn't quite bring herself to actually rip things out of her otherwise perfect books. She left the earliest drawings - from Pineview Hall and Hogwarts - at home, but brought along her newest book, featuring nearly everything she'd done since starting her apprenticeship. For propriety's sake, they'd agreed to meet somewhere public, and The Corner was quiet enough that they weren't too likely to be disturbed.

Not really having any set hours, Bryony arrived early after Braith chased her out of the studio with complaints that Bryony's anxiety was contagious. Bryony had honestly thought she'd hidden it better than that, but she was nervous. She was getting more comfortable with people seeing her work, but she could count on one hand the number of people who actually had a piece to call their own. Besides, those had all been gifts chosen and bestowed by her. Seeing as she had no idea what Theo might like, she was planning to let him pick for himself - even though that meant she'd have to sit there and watch him judge which piece he liked best.

Since she doubted Theo would be here yet, Bryony waited patiently at the bar for her turn and ordered a pumpkin juice, which she then carried into The Corner. She immediately went to the table by the window, where they'd have the best natural light - though it was already fading fast. While she waited, she looked through her own sketches, marking out the few that she wouldn't be happy to part with.


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[info]nottfinished
2015-04-12 05:46 pm UTC (link)
Theo was comfortable meeting people in Finnigan's and, as always, was pleased to be able to tell his therapist that he'd been being social and with someone he didn't really know very well too; the therapist did seem to like the idea of him making new friends, even if Theo had no idea why he even had the old ones he did. It looked as well as though that number had further decreased now too; he hadn't heard from Ernie in some time and no one had told him the other was in any trouble, so he was beginning to realise that Ernie had done the sensible thing and cut ties with him. Theo didn't blame him but he did struggle to ignore the choked feeling he had when he thought about not seeing him anymore.

He entered the place with his nightmare drawings in a spelled binder, keeping them straight and flat and neat even if it had been raining, purely for Bryony's benefit than because he felt that the scrawls deserved any such treatment. He hated seeing them because everytime he did he had that sick feeling in his stomach like when falling of a broom or rolling out of bed, a sensation of falling that didn't feel as much an antithesis to the birds as it should have done. He didn't think that he should be taking a picture from the girl either, not without paying her for her trouble and he hadn't even seen her work yet. His was the expulsion of a horror that haunted him and he felt a little like he was tainting her even handing it over. Hopefully it would lose it's power to be harmful when it was in her hands.

He scouted around for the girl a little and then wandered over to the Corner to start looking, pleased when he saw that he wouldn't have to keep looking. He didn't order a drink yet, hoping to pay for hers, and came up to her, clearing his throat to get her attention. "Miss Capper?" he asked tentatively, not wanting to startle the wrong person.

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[info]goodlight
2015-04-13 04:16 pm UTC (link)
Bryony looked up and smiled. "Yes, hello. Mr Nott?" Though part of her wished she didn't, she still felt more at ease among fellow purebloods who had been raised with the same standards and expectations as had been drilled into her. There was a great difference between knowing she wanted to be more casual, and feel more comfortable among people who were, and actually achieving that goal. "Please, have a seat." She noticed he didn't have a drink, but didn't comment. If he wanted to go get one, of course she would excuse him to do so.

"I hope you're well?" She closed the sketchbook she'd been flicking through - even though she'd have to open it again in a minute. It was just instinct, to close it around others unless she was actually sketching at the time. She did have pencils with her, just in case Theodore had kept her waiting, or she'd seen anything particularly worth capturing.

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[info]nottfinished
2015-04-14 09:15 pm UTC (link)
Theo winced almost imperceptibly at the use of his hated surname, reminding him of his father each time. She didn't know that he didn't like it though so he didn't take offense. "Thank you." he said with a smile as he sat. "And you can call me Theodore, if you wish." he offered, hoping she'd take him up on that. He saw that she had a drink but didn't bother going to get one for himself alone, not particularly thirsty and happy to wait until she'd finished hers to get one and her another, if it came to that.

He hesitated again with that question, recalling that it hadn't been that long ago that he was jumped in an alley, beaten up and nearly raped, and would have been if it hadn't been for the vicious beautiful angel who'd arrived just in time. The nightmares still haunted him the way they always did, but all in all he was, well. Not bad. Not as bad as he could be? "I'm well thank you, and yourself?" he asked, genuinely wishing to know even if his initial response had been somewhat avoidant. He caught the action of her closing the book she had with her, curious immediately but not so much that he'd be rude. He laid his folder on the table and pushed it towards her. "Oh, this is the drawing for you." he couldn't completely extinguish the puzzled tone in his voice as he said that, like he still didn't understand why she wanted his scribble.

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[info]goodlight
2015-04-16 12:43 pm UTC (link)
"Thank you," she said, genuinely meaning it. She liked calling people by their first names, she just felt more comfortable when she had explicit permission to do so, though this didn't seem to be considered necessary by a lot of people. "You can call me Bryony, as well." Technically, her first name was 'Susanna', but no one had used it for years.

She took a sip of her drink, careful to wipe the bottom of the glass against a napkin first, to ensure no condensation dripped onto her precious sketchbook. "I'm fine, thank you." Valentine's day was coming up - far from her favourite holiday, and beyond it the dim spectres of her sister's birthday, Mothering Sunday... On the plus side, Marcus was back in London, so there were things to be grateful for. She pushed her sketchbook carefully to one side to make room for the folder he slid across to her, opening it immediately. "The colours are beautiful," she said, looking up with a shy smile. It was still a little strange for her, to talk to other people who enjoyed art as much as she did. "The feathers are almost shiny - like a real bird."

Trying to push her anxiety to one side, she offered him her own sketchbook. "It's mostly just pencil sketches, at the moment," she said. "I'm trying to work on my portrait skills."

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[info]nottfinished
2015-04-17 11:46 pm UTC (link)
Theo wasn't used to talking to people who were used to the same pretentious high society mazes and roundabouts way of speaking and conversing with each other that he was, but he had to admit - reluctantly - that it did make conversation easier when both of them were playing by the same rules. Sure they were rules he hated, but at least they could hate them together? "Thank you Bryony." he said, smiling back at the allowance, feeling strangely pleased that he'd been offered such.

He caught the way she acted to protected the book she'd just closed and could respect the fact that it was clearly important to her, even if it did make him feel worse about 'gifting' her with his own scrawl. "I'm pleased to hear it." he said in response to hearing she was well, sincere in a way that he could easily have chosen not to be; this kind of exchange was usually as much a game as tennis was, but he was invested in this conversation and he meant the things he said. Bryony had been kind and he wouldn't insult or devalue her with the sham straw man that his conversations could be.

Looking at the picture was a little uncomfortable for him. He didn't really put much stake in dream imagery but he was sure there was something about hearts in drawings that set off warning bells, something he'd picked up from his meetings with his therapist, who he had conveniently left in the dark about this picture. He certainly wasn't as taken with the drawing as Bryony was, maybe because he thought he could see the way his irregular heartbeat fluttered in the lines of colour, or just because he'd created it and so his instinct was to dismiss it immediately. He tipped his head to the side, more watching her look at the drawing than looking at the drawing himself, seeing it through her eyes making it seem less distasteful.

He took her offered book with something approaching reverence, picking up on the way she'd protected it, the careful way she treated it, even the edgy energy in her now as she handed it over. He almost didn't want to open it and wouldn't have done if he hadn't thought that would have been a bigger insult to the girl than not. "Thank you for letting me see these." he said as he opened the thing, browsing her work with concentration and taking in every detail. "This isn't really my area of expertise-" he admitted. "-but even my amateur eye can see how good these are." he didn't even mean it as a compliment, simply stating what he saw to be fact. "You could have shown them alongside Dean Thomas' artwork in the gallery." he added, enraptured by the pictures that he was moving through, so much so that he hadn't looked up since she'd passed them over like a little kid seeing fireworks for the first time.

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[info]goodlight
2015-04-20 04:58 pm UTC (link)
Bryony flushed pink at his compliment. She knew it would be bad manners for him not have said something nice - but he sounded so sincere, and his comment was more specific than a generic pleasantry really needed to be. "They're not good enough for that yet," she said, correcting him as gently as she knew how. "I'm actually apprenticed under the same artist Mr Thomas apprenticed under - Braith Whitehead..." She paused, to see if the name would mean anything to him. "I've only been there a few months, the full apprenticeship is two years." One of Bryony's greatest fears was that her mother would find a way to remove her from Towpath Studios and Braith's instruction before her time was up, but of course she didn't mention that.

"They're only sketches," she said, tone almost apologetic. She almost added that she preferred landscapes - that she was better at landscapes, but feared it might sound as if she were bragging, especially as he'd already complimented the work he could see. It was rare to see anyone so entranced by her work - except Marcus - and she smiled a little, until he turned the page to a particularly hurried and unfinished sketch. "Not that one," she said quickly. The lines were far more jagged than anything else in the book, the sketch begun in a moment of high emotion and then quickly abandoned. Fortunately, the face was still featureless and there was no way anyone could recognise that the narrow shoulders and waist were those of her eldest sister. She lifted a hand to point to a small cross in the bottom corner. "I've marked the ones I wouldn't want to give away. I hope that's alright."

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[info]nottfinished
2015-04-25 09:26 pm UTC (link)
Theo had no idea what kind of improvements could be made to what he was seeing; he was glad he wasn't in the business, although he did feel strangely affronted on behalf of Bryony's talent that it wasn't seen as good enough. It was good enough by his standards. He thought he'd heard the name Braith Whitehead thrown around at Dean's gallery showing but his mind was so full of cracks and patch repairs and holes that he couldn't say for sure, although he did nod for her to go on. Dean's work was amazing and it didn't look - to him anyway - that Bryony had far to go to be perfect. "Would you need the full two years?" he asked, completely out of his depth with the subject matter and purely perplexed that these sketches could need so much improvement.

He liked the rough, honest nature of the pictures she'd created, appreciating them maybe even more than a full scale coloured painting. He almost withdrew like he'd been bitten at her sudden plea, unsure if he was even allowed to look at it if it was so personal, biting at the corner of his lip like he knew he'd done something wrong. "Oh, yes, of course." he said, moving on quickly although he'd liked the passion in what he'd seen. "Really I don't think I should be taking any away; apart from the fact I don't know how to choose, I think they'd be happier with someone with a more critical eye." he said, now even saying that he wasn't worth even a sketch.

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[info]goodlight
2015-04-27 08:13 am UTC (link)
"I think so," Bryony said, privately wondering whether two years would even be enough to get her up to the standard of Braith and Dean. "These are just sketches, after all. I need to be able to paint portraits, too, and then there are all the magical effects. Braith hasn't even started teaching me those yet." She'd read about them - everything she could get her hands on - but the artistic community was careful of its secrets, and there were things that could only be handed down from master to apprentice. The ability to animate portraits, make them speak and listen, give them a semblance of life. Even on her landscapes, Bryony had yet to do more than make a few branches appear to sway in the breeze. That had been a triumph, at the time, but now she knew there were much more complex things ahead.

She tilted her head to look quizzically at him. "If you don't take them, they'll just stay in my sketchbook forever," she pointed out. Occasionally she would gift something she'd drawn to Astoria or Marcus, but those were usually drawn or painted specifically for them. She wasn't in the habit of giving away sketches for no reason. "And you've given me something of yours." She patted the folder beside her. "It only seems fair that you take something in return."

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[info]nottfinished
2015-04-30 05:37 pm UTC (link)
Theo kept looking through the sketchbook as Bryony spoke, giving him a glimpse into a world that he didn't even know he knew so little about. He'd read a little about magical paintings before he'd started school, but the only ones he'd had around him had been family portraits, none of which helped develop any love for art. One painting stuck out in his mind and it wasn't even a real painting - a giant picture frame in the Nott's living room, a tall-windowed place with the dark opulence of a funeral parlor and mirrors set up in a paranoid fashion so that wherever you sat there was always a view of whoever was coming up behind you. The gilded frame surrounded a blank canvas that sported a scorch mark that went so deep the fabric was ripped a little; it had been a picture of his mother, but Theo's brain had always blanked out the background scene, any remnant of memory the portrait might have brought back.

He wondered if Bryony's sketchbook wasn't the best place for her sketches, safe from his dirty fingerprints, but he was struggling with walking a line between his distaste for himself and not wanting to insult Bryony. He smiled a little at that last though, more than a little self-deprecating. "I wouldn't call that an equal exchange." he pointed out but then the smile faded to something more thoughtful. "They're all honestly too good for me to choose - would you choose one for me? One you think I should have?" he asked a little shyly.

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[info]goodlight
2015-05-02 05:30 pm UTC (link)
The fact that Theodore wasn't watching her as she spoke actually made Bryony feel more comfortable. He was focused on her sketches, which might not be particularly polished or perfect, but they were far more beautiful even in that state than Bryony could ever hope to be physically. Not only was her work at least acceptable on a technical level - but she also tried to choose things to draw or paint that were beautiful in themselves. "No, I wouldn't either," she agreed - though she knew she was agreeing with the technical meaning of the words, and not the spirit in which he'd intended them. "Yours is coloured, and mine are only pencil sketches."

She shifted the chair a little closer at his question, so she could look through the book without taking it from him or obstructing his view. She tried to remember what she knew about him from his journal entries - but it wasn't much that was coherent. He hadn't wanted to work with animals or children, so she mentally eliminated anything featuring those subjects from her list. "It's hard to choose when I don't know what you like," she murmured, more to herself than as a complaint. She flicked past a sketch of Marcus in his new flat, not something she was willing to give away. After flicking back and forward through the book for a few minutes, she finally settled on a sketch - a relatively complete picture of two men playing chess while a woman sat watching. The faces of the three people were finished, and one man's hand which was on one of the pawns. The other five arms faded into undefined shapes where Bryony hadn't had time to finish before they'd moved on. "This one, if you like," she suggested.

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[info]nottfinished
2015-05-06 07:17 pm UTC (link)
Theo was reassured when Bryony agreed with his opinion, although he quirked his eyebrows perplexed at the distinction she made, not getting that she was referring it back to what he'd said or what she'd really been saying.

He turned the book a little towards her, lifting it to move it instead of swiveling it round, aware of how precious it was to her. He watched her look through the entries, touched that she was actually putting thought into picking something that he'd like. He didn't think there was a picture in that book that he would have objected to receiving though - everything he'd seen had been more than he'd deserve to have. He tilted his head from one side to the other as he studied the one she'd picked out for him, tracing his fingers over the sketch lines without actually making contact with the surface of the page. It looked almost real for all it's unpolished, raw nature, like the moment itself taken out of time, movement depicted in stationary lines and the thoughts, the concentration of the players, the mood of the piece tangible. He liked the undefined nature of parts, as though they had been designed to be out of focus, drawing attention to the more finished places.

"It's wonderful." he said without looking, absorbed in it already, as though he was there watching the match. He snapped out of it and sat up a little more, smiling a little uncertainly at Bryony. "Are you sure?"

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[info]goodlight
2015-05-18 10:55 am UTC (link)
Bryony smiled to herself as she watched Theo examine her sketch. It wasn't often anyone looked at her work with this much feeling. Even with Marcus, who always appreciated anything she showed him, there was a nagging doubt in Bryony's mind that he was only saying so to please her, because he cared about her independent of her work. It was obvious that Theo had been brought up to be polite, as she had, but this reaction went beyond that. "Absolutely," she agreed. It was one of her more complex pieces, and had taken a good amount of time, but if she'd had any doubts about giving it away they had been banished by Theo's reaction.

"Let me?" she asked, taking the book back and using the spell she'd been taught when she bought the book to remove the page without leaving any sign that it had once been there. The book still looked complete, and the twin page attached to the one she had removed had sealed itself to the book's spine so there would be no weakness or risk of losing it. "I don't have anything it put it in," she said apologetically. She hadn't thought that far ahead. She glanced over at the lower shelf of the bookcase, which held several large books. If it were her, she'd press the sketch between the pages of one of those just for transport, but she didn't want to suggest it when it wasn't really her place. If Theo didn't want to carry something bulky home, after all, it was really no business of hers how - and whether - he kept the page from becoming creased.

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[info]nottfinished
2015-06-05 12:59 am UTC (link)
Theo let Bryony take the book back without protest, already not sure he deserved to take it and willing to give it back the second Bryony changed her mind. He was intrigued at the spell she used to so nearly remove the page from the book, and when he took the art back he ran his finger down the removed edge, amused with the satisfaction of a smooth edge. "It's okay." he assured, doing as she'd thought and selecting a book to secret the page inside, only he shrank it down too so that it was more portable, sure that it wouldn't hurt the artwork he was so enamoured of. "That was a pretty piece of spellwork." he added.

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[info]goodlight
2015-06-05 02:52 pm UTC (link)
Bryony gave no outward indication of her relief as Theo stored the page carefully away, but she still felt it. Even if the sketch were destroyed the minute Theo left, at least she wouldn't have to see it happen. Besides, that seemed unlikely. "Thanks," she said, happy to talk about something that wasn't her own work. "They taught me when I bought the sketchbook, but I think it would work on any book. It's not difficult." She opened her mouth, ready to offer to show him, then closed it again. Why assume he would even be interested in learning it?

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[info]nottfinished
2015-06-20 08:37 pm UTC (link)
Theo's hand settled over his pocket like he was worried the git would disappear if he let it go, genuinely touched by the gift. He was absorbed in listening to Bryony tell him about the spell she'd just used though, his mind wandering to see if it could be applied on other materials, although he'd gotten used to his own morbid mind that he wasn't too disturbed when he thought about how dangerous it could be if it was applied to flesh and bone; he'd been mutilated before by his father but he'd never seen a severing spell like that before, if a severing spell was even what it was.

"Would you have the time to show me how to do it?" he asked easily, never too proud to learn, his Ravenclaw-esque mind a veritable sponge for new spells. "Do you need to spell the book first? Is it like a severing spell? Does it only work on books?" he asked in quick succession before putting the brakes on. "Sorry; how about I let you get a word in first?" he said, amused and irritated by himself in equal amounts.

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[info]goodlight
2015-06-23 09:35 am UTC (link)
Smiling, Bryony nodded. "Of course," she said. "You don't need to charm the book first, but it helps." She opened her sketchbook again, more to have something to do with her hands while she explained than for any actual demonstrative purposes. "If you're charming an individual page you have to find the other side of the leaf that would have been attached to the one you remove and individually seal it to the spine," she explained. "That's why most magical sketchbooks come pre-charmed to do it automatically."

She stopped leafing through her sketchbook and reached into her bag to see what else she had with her. Her journal (that she'd brought in case she and Theo couldn't find one another) and a fiction book. She was reluctant to remove pages from either - especially the journal, which was already imbued with such complicated magic. "It's not a severing spell," she said. "It's - a separating spell, I suppose. You're separating the page from the binding that holds it to the spine." She flicked to the back of her sketchbook and showed Theo the last page, and the way it was actually the same sheet of paper as the first page. "If I just ripped this page out, I'd risk the first page coming out in time too, see?" She didn't know if she was explaining this well at all. She performed the spell once more, slowly so that Theo could see the movement and hear the incantation. "That's the separating spell. And my book will automatically seal the first page in." She gave it a tug to show that it wasn't loose.

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[info]nottfinished
2015-07-15 10:18 pm UTC (link)
"Thank you." he said gratefully when Bryony agreed to give up her precious time to school him on this. He listened intently like he always had as a child at school, absorbing every word or wand gesture or instruction. His gaze was drawn to the book when she opened it and he didn't interrupt her but nodded that he understood, remembering the way all the pages had slid out of his writing books when he'd pulled some of them out when he was younger and still did that kind of thing.

He watched quietly like a little bird as she rummaged in her bag and then clarified the spell. "Oh, I see." he murmured, still paying the utmost attention. "Do you know the sealing spell for a book that isn't already charmed?" he wondered, curious as ever.

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[info]goodlight
2015-07-20 11:57 am UTC (link)
Bryony didn't have much experience teaching people anything, but she found it wasn't as hard as she'd thought it would be - at least, not with Theo who was both quiet and attentive. She had nothing to reseal, so she couldn't do a practical demonstration but she showed him the wand movement and carefully enunciated the incantation.

Once Theo seemed satisfied with what knowledge she'd been able to impart, she reached for her pumpkin juice, throat a little dry from talking. She finished what was left and then closed her sketchbook again, laying the newly separated sheet carefully on top of it. "I'll have to go soon," she said apologetically. "I promised my aunt I would make dinner." It was her usual excuse for getting out of awkward situations - but in this case it was actually true. Aunt Hecuba didn't really need Bryony's help anymore, but since Bryony was living in her home rent free it seemed only fair that she do something in return.

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