Tweak

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Tweak says, "seven days............"

hopalongcharlie (hopalongcharlie) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-02-26 00:51:00

Entry tags:

character: charlie weasley, character: dominic chambers

RP: Modifications
Who: Charlie & Dominic

What: Discussing possible modifications to Wingbeat

Where: Wingbeat!

When: Wednesday 25th Feb

Rating: NSFW - Language (because Charlie)

Between being first on the afternoon delivery list for once and efficiency with the books, by the time three o'clock was rolling around Charlie was once again alone in the club. It was always a bit of a weird thing when it happened, but he sort of liked it. He liked the proof of his success, even if it was a bit echoing and empty at the moment.

In the end he had grabbed himself a Gillywater from the back, written a note for whoever opened the till tomorrow to put it through so they didn't lose track and was perched on a stool enjoying the music he'd stuck on. He was resisting the urge to yank off his prosthetic and itch his stump, which was apparently very irritating today, but it wasn't a good look business-wise so instead he was concentrating on the beat with his head tipped back against the wall, bottle in hand, waiting for Dominic to show up.

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knowhow
2015-02-26 02:35 pm UTC (link)

Between Valentine's Day and Charlie's owl Dominic had had time to completely strip down his work room. It was a good feeling - moving on from the scented roses project freed up a lot of his personal time and space. He fancied giving himself a week or two without any outside small projects, just so he could have his work space for his own ideas. A big outside project like Wingbeat, though, that was very exciting. Especially getting to potentially change the interior structure to improve access. That was almost a Hogwarts-level job, though without the added intricacy of having to deal with centuries worth of magic imbued into the building.

Dressed in his usual casual style, he made his way to Wingbeat a little before three - smiling when he opened the door to hear the sudden swell of music. "Charlie?" He spotted him pretty easily, leaning back in a way that put his chest and arms on show. Dominic had tried flirting with Charlie before, and quickly realised it wasn't appreciated, but that didn't mean he was blind. "Someone looks relaxed," he said as he approached.

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hopalongcharlie
2015-02-26 04:34 pm UTC (link)

Charlie's eyes, which had drifted closed as he waited opened again when he heard the door open. He smiled at Dominic, shifting himself away from the wall again and draining the last of his water. "Someone is done with both books and the delivery early, so just waiting for you," he said, grinned and shuffled himself off the stool. Taking a couple of seconds to make sure he was stable he then stepped forward and offered his hand to Dominic.

"Good to see you again, Dominic. Thanks for coming."

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knowhow
2015-03-03 01:42 pm UTC (link)

Dominic grinned. "Always a good feeling, though not one I get to experience very often." Generally, Dominic worked on multiple projects at a time - about as many as he could fit in his brain - so even when one ended there were others ongoing as well as dozens of jotted down thoughts to take its place. He shook Charlie's hand enthusiastically, looking around the club as he did so. "You've changed some things," he observed, not offended in the slightest. Of course Charlie would change things as he learned what he and the club needed. Which was probably why he was thinking about improving the access.

"You're giving me a nice meaty job to think about and you'll be paying me," Dominic said with a shrug. "It's really no hardship to be here." He'd always found a bit odd to be thanked for turning up to do a job he loved and that paid pretty well. "What do you want to start with? The sound levels?"

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hopalongcharlie
2015-03-03 07:05 pm UTC (link)

Charlie shrugged. He only got to have the feeling if he was lucky with all his admin and when the delivery turned up. "Depends when I am on the delivery list. Sometimes I'm stuck waiting for fucking hours." He'd even been known to send whichever of the staff was on rota for the week home again if they were done with their prep and the delivery hadn't turned up. He glanced around, things had shifted gradually as what worked and what didn't became obvious. "Yeah, some of it. It's working better like this."

He snorted, he understood the pull of decent employment. "Well you did a great job with the place the first time around, seemed like the ideal bloke to make the big changes.

"Right, yes!" he said, clapping his hands together. "I don't know if you saw me asking around for modifications which might encourage more people to come through the journals the other week, but I had a couple of responses about the sound levels in particular. I think for most of the club it's fine, but I was hoping we, well, you could create an area where the sound is lowered somehow. And maybe also restrict how many people could be in that area?" He didn't want to name names particularly, even if he was pretty sure Dominic would at least know of the people who had put in the requests. The sound was definitely the more requested thing, whereas the access was partly a request from himself.

"I was thinking it would be better to have the area down here so people who want to use it don't have to trail through the whole club to get there," he suggested.

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knowhow
2015-03-04 02:40 pm UTC (link)

Dominic had seen Charlie’s entry, but hadn't taken too much of an interest. He realised now that had probably been a bit slow off the mark. He should've offered to be involved in any modifications there and then. Fortunately, it had turned out well for him even without his active input. Luck of the Irish, some might say. "Have you been in the Corner at Finnigan's?" he asked. "The sort of enclosed bit with the bookshelves? There's some enchantments there to keep the music down. Turns out that's easier than making two separate music enchantments at different volumes." Yes, naturally Dominic had tried it both ways. "I guess what you want is something similar, but broader so it keeps out the noise of people as well." He paused to look at Charlie with a questioning lift of his eyebrows, to make sure he wasn't misinterpreting.

"Down here makes sense," he agreed, glancing around the floor. "Any specific thoughts as to where? Do you want to include a bit of the bar so they can order without having to get out of their zone?" That might be a bit trickier... though it did occur to Dominic suddenly that the whole bar might actually benefit from a similar charm. "Or if the club gets noisy enough, maybe I could anchor something to the bar itself - it'd give your bartenders an easier job of it. Assuming I can get it right." Which was a pretty big assumption, because right now it was just a sketchy idea in Dominic's head. He slid his wand from his pocket, not actually to do anything, but he felt like he thought better with it in his hand.

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hopalongcharlie
2015-03-05 03:02 pm UTC (link)

"Mmm, yeah I have," he said, nodding. He'd not exactly realised there was any sound suppression on the place, but he'd not been there very much, and he admitted as much. "I wasn't paying enough attention to realise it was quieter, I must admit, but yes, that style of thing. It's not just the noise of people though, I had a specific request about not having the quieter area crowded. Although I'm assuming that's a different spell-set." He might not be an expert at this sort of spellwork but he was decent at most spells.

"Oh, yes, good plan, he said, wondering why the fuck he hadn't thought about including part of the bar. He considered how noisy the bar could get on some nights. "If you can shield the bar a bit in general that would be great. It sometimes feels like barely-organised chaos back there," he added. He did his share of shifts behind the bar on one floor or the other because he hated not being able to keep busy.

He walked closer to the bar scanning both sides which seemed the easiest places. He gestured to one side. "That side is further from the music, if that'd make it easier. Plus the bar exit is the other end. Less need for extra people in the area," he said. It wasn't the end of the bar that currently had most of the stools and tables in it, but that was easy enough to change.

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knowhow
2015-03-05 05:56 pm UTC (link)

Dominic nodded, moving over to the area Charlie had indicated. "Further from the music is good. And you're not wrong - the crowding issue is a whole separate set of enchantments. Let me take it one at a time, yeah?" It wasn't a complaint, exactly, but Dominic knew how he worked best and layering things one over the other tended to be easier than trying to tackle the whole project at once. For him, anyway. Different people worked differently.

"I take it you want sound generated within the... bubble, for want of a better word, to be unaffected. Otherwise everyone who walks in is going to feel like they've gone deaf." Dominic swished his wand slightly between his fingers as he thought, trying to decide exactly what to start with. Basically it was three sets of spell work - one for the bar, followed by an extension on that with an added crowd-managing spell. Already he could see three or four challenges with that. "This isn't really the kind of thing I can take away to my workshop to get right," he said, looking up at Charlie. "Would you mind if I hung around here during the day? When you're waiting for delivery, or someone else is around, obviously. It might take me a while to get it perfect."

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hopalongcharlie
2015-03-06 03:45 pm UTC (link)

"Sure, sure. Your area of expertise not mine," he said lightly. He knew dragon wards worked in layers too, but they weren't really his favourite area even if he was slightly better at them in a pinch.

Charlie nodded, idly banishing his empty bottle into the nearly empty bin which collected them behind the bar. "Yeah, I was told loud noises and sudden noises were the problem, but no need for anyone to feel deaf. I still want them to enjoy the music and be able to talk to each other, well maybe talk loudly to each other." No need for the usual yelling.

He shrugged and nodded his assent. "Sure, most of our our deliveries come in on a Wednesday and I only open up about an hour and a half before we open the doors other days, but I'm happy to spend a few extra afternoons here if you can do some on a Wednesday. No Mondays or Tuesdays though. They're my weekend equivalent and I avoid coming here unless I absolutely have to!" he said.

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knowhow
2015-03-07 03:54 pm UTC (link)

Dominic's eyebrows drew down slightly. "Do you get a lot of sudden noises, or was that just a general comment?" He'd been to Wingbeat a few times, and couldn't think of all that many noises that would come suddenly - but then, he didn't have a problem with it so maybe he just hadn't noticed. "Helps if I know what I'm working with."

"No Mondays or Tuesdays," Dominic agreed, grinning. "Got it." Since Charlie was still hovering patiently, and Dominic assumed he didn't want to watch as Dominic started the process of experimenting, Dominic glanced up at the second floor. "Want to show me what you want done to improve access?" he asked. "May as well show me everything while we're both here, and then I'll stay out of your way as much as possible while I'm working."

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hopalongcharlie
2015-03-07 10:46 pm UTC (link)

Charlie snorted and shook his head. "Nah, not so many sudden noises, but you might get the odd breaking glass. They do get spelled break resistant, but sometimes one gets missed re-spelling. Oh, and I think there are some of the DJ options that are big blasts of sound or something, so if you could maybe stop or seriously dampen reaching in that would be great."

Giving a quick smile of thanks Charlie nodded and moved over towards the stairs to the second level. "Sure, no problem. This one is a little more personal, what with my leg," he said, gesturing towards his prosthetic. "The thing is that stairs can be pretty awkward or tiring if you've got a fake leg, and I didn't know if there was some way of helping people out. Levitating platform or something?" he suggested. He planned to suggest demonstrating the ways in which he might have to climb up or down the stairs. Most of them tended to get in the way of other people in one way or another, it was why he tried to go between floors as little as possible when the club was actually open.

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knowhow
2015-03-10 03:40 pm UTC (link)

"Finnigan's does the same," Dominic said. "Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to work some kind of cushioning charm over the floor. Then you'd only need to respell one thing, rather than dozens..." He paused, lost in consideration of that idea for a while. The major downside was that adding another layer of magic to a building was fiddly - and having got all the spells just right so that none interfered with any other he was reluctant to go back in and try tinkering all over again. It could easily take weeks to fix if he got it wrong. If ever he was involved in the very early stages of building a pub, club or restaurant, though, he was going to suggest it.

He snapped back to attention as Charlie started to talk about the stairs. "The problem with levitating platforms is timing," he said. He'd learned that while working at Hogwarts - there was a reason most wizarding establishments still used stairs, and it wasn't just traditionalism. "If you set it to lift every time someone stands on it, you risk whisking unsuspecting people off their feet - not to mention what does someone do at the top if it's down at the bottom? You can't just put a button in like you can with muggle electricity. On the other hand, if you set it to lift every minute - or whatever - you have to work out the ideal timing, which is a pain." He crossed his arms, tapping his wand lightly against his shoulder, sending a few stray bronze sparks up as he did. "If you want it just for you I can probably work something out, but if you want something more general I don't think a platform will work." Could he fashion a magical equivalent to a stair lift? That might get in the way of other people even more, though...

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hopalongcharlie
2015-03-12 01:22 pm UTC (link)

"Yeah, I think it's pretty common, but I'm guessing you can't change that now," he said. He'd got the tip from a couple of the publicans he'd asked for tips when he was setting up.

Charlie sighed, he hated that his disability made things more complicated, even if coped with almost everything he needed to do with almost no problems. "Yeah, I didn't think it would be exactly easy, but I was really hoping that I could have it for other people too. I mean I can't be the only fucker around who has mobility problems. I've not noticed anyone, but I want us to be as welcoming as possible, you know?" he said. He knew he hadn't done everything right straight away but he was trying to improve all the time, like how he'd quietly re-labelled the single stall toilet on each floor as 'disabled and gender neutral' instead of just disabled.

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knowhow
2015-03-12 05:09 pm UTC (link)

Dominic shrugged slightly, one eyebrow raised. "I could, but you'd have to shut for a few days - especially if you wanted me to do it alone. Maybe longer, depending on what the security spells are like." He gave Charlie a considering look, remembering that he'd worked with dragons and had a brother who worked as a curse-breaker (a profession Dominic wished it were possible to get into on practical experience rather than pure academics). "I'm guessing pretty good - so make that up to a week. Probably not worth it to save yourself a glass every couple of months." Finnigan's would be even more complicated, what with the layers of magic in the Roost.

"It's a good aim," he said, nodding as he walked up a few of the stairs, hoping the new perspective would give him some inspiration. "And people don't always look like they have issues, but stairs can still be a struggle." He walked up a few more stairs, approaching the doors to the upper floor. "We could put in two platforms, set so one goes up when the other goes down. That solves one of our problems." He wondered if it would be possible to set it so one platform could be summoned or levitated - with an automatic sympathetic response in the other. "Drunk people should probably not be expected to rely on their wands..." he mused aloud. "Would you be okay with a password? You could print it up so it's not actually secret or anything." That might actually remove the need for two platforms, if it could be set so that one word meant 'up' and another meant 'down'. "I'm just not sure how noise from the club would interfere... Hogwarts has loads of passwords, but not in noisy areas."

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hopalongcharlie
2015-03-12 08:26 pm UTC (link)

Charlie snorted, his security spells were both stringent and rather finicky. They also had some rather unusual effects when triggered thanks to them being somewhat designed for dragons. "Yeah, I'll deal with a few glasses lost a year, closing for a week isn't going to save me that much in the long run," he said. "And no, my wards aren't very friendly."

Setting one shoulder to the wall and crossing his arms to watch Dominic climb the stairs. Clearly he thought on the move. "Passwords would be good. I mean I want to discourage people abusing whatever you do, but I'd rather put up with a little abuse than not have something for people who need it. We already have posters up about the rules, a couple by the stairs for a platform will be just fine," he said. "Just nothing too hard to say for anyone who can't talk well once they get even vaguely pissed. No idea how it'll work with sound levels though." His spellwork was good, but not what you might call creative or much based in theory.

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knowhow
2015-03-13 05:21 pm UTC (link)

"Noted," Dominic said with a smile, his gaze drifting back to Charlie's arms crossed over his muscular chest. This was definitely a sign it was too long since he'd been with anyone new and he made a mental note to come back for LGBTQ night tomorrow. Maybe he'd find a Charlie look-alike who wouldn't mind taking him home. He grinned a little wider. "Neither are mine." The wards on Finnigan's were a little more standard - but Dominic's private words on his flat were some of his more creative work, and updated when he fancied toying around with security spells for any reason.

Dominic hadn't considered slurring - or accents. "I wonder if Krum had any trouble with passwords at Hogwarts," he mused. "Portraits aren't sentient but -" He trailed off, an idea having struck him. "They're not sentient, but you can set them to work within certain parameters. I have no idea how that works." The tone of his last words indicated this was an exciting prospect, rather than a frustrating one. He had to shake himself back to the present after a moment with an apologetic glance at Charlie. "Probably not practical. Too expensive, for a start, and fuck knows how long it would take me to work out the details." But Dominic knew it would be preying on his mind. The lack of information sharing in the artistic community was not going to help at all... "If I have a breakthrough in six months I'll let you know."

His mind was suddenly whirring, jumping from one idea to the next and back again in a way that wasn't really conducive to conversation. "Give me a couple of days to think," Dominic suggested. "Then I'll owl you my best suggestions and a quote and you can agree or make changes and we'll set a date for me to start work."

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hopalongcharlie
2015-03-14 03:28 pm UTC (link)

Charlie smiled and nodded, chuckling slightly. He could only imagine that the wards of someone who played around with spells for a living could only be slightly alarming.

"I could ask my sister-in-law, but Fleur's English was always pretty understandable," he said, shrugging. He'd always thought magic could be pretty accommodating if it was spelled sympathetically, but that wasn't always the case. "Sure, you have fun investigating. You're always welcome to come down and fiddle with whatever you do if you think some discovery will really improve how it works."

He could see that Dominic's mind was busy and moving. "Of course, no problem at all. I'll update the staff on the situation. Thanks for coming down, it was good to see you again," he said, shifting himself back off the wall and adjusting. Maybe he could go and have the dancefloor to himself for a while before he went home. It was always better if he didn't to worry about making an arse of himself when his balance wavered too much, plus he loved to fling himself around like an idiot sometimes.

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knowhow
2015-03-16 02:17 pm UTC (link)

Dominic nodded, adding 'Fleur' to a mental list of possible avenues for exploration. He'd make a real list at some point, probably as soon as he got home so it was all fresh in his mind. "Careful, I'll take you up on that," he warned, still smiling. He was better with paid projects, but he did have a habit of going back to his personal ideas and tinkering with them beyond the point it was really useful.

He offered Charlie his hand once more. "No need to show me out, I can find the way. I'll get that owl to you as soon as and we'll work out a schedule for how long it's likely to take before you can announce the changes." He was heading to Ireland for Mother's Day, but that shouldn't interfere too much. Besides, sometimes a day or two of just thinking, instead of heading straight for experimentation, actually improved matters. After shaking Charlie's hand to seal the deal, Dominic gave a cheery wave and headed for home.

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