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Tweak says, "I ated the purple berry!"

Bryce Dustan (_bryced) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-04-04 17:22:00

Entry tags:

character: bryce dunstan, character: tristan travers

rp: a whole new world
Who: Tristan and Bryce (and Sophie)
What: Eating and exploring
Where: The Corner, Finnigan's
When: Saturday, April 4, early afternoon
Rating: Probably SFW

As part of his attempt to introduce his daughter - and reacquaint himself - with the magical world and all that that entailed, Bryce had brought Sophie out to Finnigan's for lunch. There was nothing overly obvious to him that would indicate the pub was any different from others he'd eaten in over the last few years, but Sophie was well aware that the people filling it were wizards and witches, and it showed. The little girl's curious stares at nearly every person had Bryce constantly reminding her that it wasn't polite, but it seemed that the only thing truly capable of distracting her was the bookshelf standing the room they'd chosen a table in. No matter what happened around her, her eyes kept returning it, blonde curls bouncing every time she turned her head.

He'd hoped that food would provide something entertaining enough to keep Sophie's attention, but in between bites, he could still see her glancing over, and Bryce couldn't help but smile softly to himself every time he caught his daughter doing it. About halfway through lunch, Sophie looked up at him and said, "Hey, Daddy?"

With a chuckle, Bryce answered, "Yes, princess, you can go look at the bookshelf - after you finish lunch." Sophie's wide eyes at his apparent mind-reading skills made him laugh again, and he reached out to tug lightly on one of the curls next to her face as he instructed, "Eat your fish." The second half of Sophie's fish and chips disappeared quite a bit faster than the first, and just a few minutes later she was hopping own from her chair, as he reminded her to stay in sight. Bryce could see her hair flapping around a little wildly as she nodded absentmindedly, already entranced by the books she was making her way towards, and he made sure to keep an eye on her as he finished his own food at a more leisurely pace.

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alliterative
2015-04-05 01:51 am UTC (link)

Tristan had decided to spend the day out of Pandora's flat and out of his house. He'd check on his mother and had breakfast with her. He'd even run a few errands for her, giving Fluffy a break. His mother seemed to know that Easter was the following day, and Tristan had tried to pick up things for a small family celebration, separate from the one Orville would be throwing later Sunday afternoon. He'd even read up a bit on Muggle traditions, thinking she might enjoy a few of them (even if some of them didn't make sense to him). He'd wanted something a bit different, something that could be just for her, Julian, and himself, letting his great-grandfather handle a few more traditional (and likely very boring) aspects.

After he'd run errands and made sure his mother was still doing well, Tristan had decided on a small lunch. Finnigan's wouldn't have been his first choice, but it hadn't been his last, either. He liked the pub well enough. He just wasn't always in the mood for the atmosphere of a pub. However, the Corner had helped with some of that, the lower decibels allowing him to enjoy his little lunch in relative peace. He even managed to finish a book he'd borrowed a few weeks before while eating. Which, to him, meant that he'd have to return it and see what else was available.

Pushing back from his table, Tristan got to his feet and picked up the now read book. He still had some butterbeer left, which, to him, meant he could finish it while starting a new book, provided he found one that interested him that afternoon. If he didn't he reasoned he could go browse a bookstore for one of the books on his to read list (which was, admittedly, rather long, but roughly six years in prison meant there were a lot of new books to discover). He crossed the room, idly wondering which book he might buy first if he did buy a book today, and stopped short of the bookshelf as he spotted a small girl with curly blonde hair in front of the bookcase.

"Hello," he said with a friendly tone, a smile on his face. As he put the book back on the shelf, he assumed one or both of her parents or guardians were around. After all, most people didn't let small children wander around a pub without supervision, and there were a few other people in the Corner that afternoon. Surly one of them was responsible for the girl.

"Do you see anything interesting?" he asked, glancing at the books on the shelves and down to the little girl. "Because I see a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which, if you haven't read, you really should." He gently pulled out the older copy of the book from a higher shelf and carefully set it down on a shelf a bit closer to the girl. In the back of his mind, as he resumed the search for a book of his own, he hoped she wouldn't scream and call for her parents or her parents wouldn't rush over and assume he was harassing her. Subconsciously he tugged on the left sleeve of his robe, even though it was already rolled all the way down.

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_bryced
2015-04-05 02:22 am UTC (link)

Sophie had been staring in a little bit of awe at the books, unable to decide what to look at first, and unsure if it was okay for her to touch things. Just as she was about to reach out for a brightly colored spine on one of the lower shelves, a man approached and started talking to her. Normally she would have immediately run back to her Daddy, but she could see exactly where he was, and she really liked books, so hopefully this man would be able to help her find one. She shrugged at the question, but before she could say anything, he was already making a suggestion, and she reached out to take the book in question eagerly.

"What, like a bug?" Sophie asked, her tone increasing a decibel or ten at the thought, which was what made Bryce turn his head for a closer look. Of course his daughter would start a conversation with someone less than five minutes after wandering off towards the books. He wasn't really surprised, because she was a social as he was and as in love with reading as her mother had been, and of course if she was going to talk to anyone, it would be whomever was also interested in the offerings of the bookshelf.

"Why would a bug write a book?" Sophie asked, looking from the cover to the man who had offered it, and then immediately added, "Are you magic? Because Daddy says that this is a magic place, but I haven't seen any of it yet."

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alliterative
2015-04-05 02:46 am UTC (link)

Tristan looked down at the little girl with another smile. "Yes," he said, reaching his hands into his pockets, fishing around. "I am magic. More precisely," he continued, pulling out a piece of paper, "I'm a wizard. I'm also very sorry you haven't seen any magic yet," he added, glancing down to the paper as he began folding it. "Because this is a magic place, or at least a place for magical people like witches and wizards like us." Or presumably like them. He could only assume she was a witch if she were here in the wizarding part of London, or at the very least that her father assumed she would be a witch and not a squib. He didn't mention that, of course. Instead, he continued talking, absently folding the paper here and there.

"Beedle the Bard was a wizard. It sounds like the bug, but it's spelled differently. He lived a long, long time ago -- hundreds of years ago, in fact! And he wrote stories for young witches and wizards." He paused a second, licking his lips. "They've been compared to Muggle fairy tales," he hoped she knew about those, at least to an extent, "but they're meant for witches and wizards.

"There's one about a warlock's hairy heart, and one about a wizarding and his hopping pot. And there's one about a witch named Babbity Rabbitty, as well as others, all of which you'll have to read the book to learn their stories," he said, moving to squat down in front of her. "I don't like to give away the plot of stories, you see," he said confidentially.

"However...." Tristan finished fussing with the paper, closed it between his hands, and concentrated. It'd been quite some time since he'd really done any magic without a spell or without his wand, but he wasn't going for anything major here. When he opened his hands, he smiled as a paper butterfly flapped its wings. "I can help with the magic thing." Smiling, he gave a little blow on the butterfly, and it fluttered over to the little girl.

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_bryced
2015-04-05 03:51 am UTC (link)

Sophie stared up at him raptly as the man - the wizard! - talked about the book, clutching the object in question a little closer to her chest, as if someone was going to come along and snatch it from her. "Like Cinderella!" she interjected with a large grin, continuing to smile as he spoke.

She shrieked in delight as the butterfly came to life, saying excitedly, "Daddy, look! It's a flutterby!"

Bryce leaned down to scoop his daughter up in his arm, settling her on his hip in a motion that spoke of much practice as he asked, "I'm sorry, it's a what?" He'd decide to make his way over when Sophie had taken it upon herself to ask about magic - he'd heard that even from his seat across the room, and figured the he should probably be involved in any conversations on that subject matter, at least for a while.

Sophie paused, thoughtful for a moment before she answered, "A butterfly!", holding it out to show him where it rested in her tiny palm. "Are you a wizard too Daddy?" she then asked, apropos of nothing, though Bryce was long accustomed to never knowing how his girl would change topics. "Why don't you do magic?"

He didn't sigh - experience had thought him that doing so at Sophie's questions made her pout, which wasn't something he wanted to deal with presently - and instead answered, "Yes, I am, and for very complicated reasons that I will explain when you are older." Turning to look at the man, Bryce offered an apology. "Sorry about her hijacking you into a conversation. Books are pretty much her favorite thing."

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alliterative
2015-04-05 04:23 am UTC (link)

Tristan bit his bottom lip a little as he straightened up, wondering if maybe he'd unintentionally crossed a line. If the man weren't magical, there'd be no way he'd be able to enter this pub. He'd not be able to Floo or Apparate or simply walk in through the Leaky Cauldron and into Diagon Alley to make it all the way to Finnigan's on Monument Alley. Even if his daughter were a squib, he'd still have to be a wizard to get them both here. Clearly something was going on, and he hoped he hadn't made it worse. He wasn't trying to. He'd just wanted to show the little girl a bit of magic.

"It's alright," Tristan said to the man with a smile, brushing his hair behind his ears. "I was a Ravenclaw, so I think it might be a requirement to engage in conversations about books every now and again." He laughed a little, nervous at having to make conversation. How long had it been since he'd actually spoken to a stranger outside of serving one at Wingbeat? That only required so much skill with speaking, and only so many of them actually wanted to provide polite chatter while waiting for their drinks. "Even if I weren't, I'd still like books, which means she's in good company when it comes to talking about them." He shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Or, at least, I didn't mind the hijacking," he said, another little laugh escaping.

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_bryced
2015-04-05 06:50 am UTC (link)

Bryce was surprised to find that he didn't feel the slightest pang at hearing the name of Anna's house from their school days - while he'd dealt with her death a while ago, he would have thought to coming back to the world that killed her would have opened those wounds up all over again. Instead he was finding that he didn't see traces of her everywhere he looked, and was instead cautiously relearning the magical side of life with his daughter's intrigued enthusiasm along the way. His own wand was on hand in one of his pocket - a habit he'd never broken, though even now that he was back, so to speak, it wasn't seeing much use.

He returned the smile with one of his own, appreciating that the man didn't seem particularly bothered by Sophie's intrusion. "Well, thank you nonetheless," Bryce said, readjusting his grip on the little girl as he felt her moving. When he turned his head slightly to see what she was doing, he could see that she had brought the small piece of paper up to her face, and moment later had blown it back towards the man in the same manner he'd given to her in the first place, clapping happily as it's tiny wings made their way through the air. "That's a very nifty trick," he said to the wizard with a small nod at the object. "I was never able to quite get the hang of that one."

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alliterative
2015-04-05 03:14 pm UTC (link)

Movement caught is eye, and a second later, the paper butterfly fluttered toward him. He held up his hand, catching it on the back of it, and smiled again. He titled his head down a little, as if examining the paper creation, letting his hair fall from behind his ears to cover his cheeks. He couldn't be sure, but he thought he might be blushing just a little. Which, if you asked him, was stupid because it wasn't like that was a blush worthy compliment. If he had to blame anything, which he felt he did, it was the fact that he'd had so few conversations outside of his family that he merely couldn't distinguish a simple comment from a compliment. He swallowed and said, "It's a fun party trick." Not that he'd been invited to many parties or felt particularly comfortable at the ones he had been to lately, but this man and his daughter didn't need to know that.

Tristan's mother enjoyed that trick, too. However, when he'd performed it, he'd used his wand because he often had a whole menagerie of paper animals moving about, and he found it a bit easier to handle them all with his wand. Even when he was little, before he'd ever gotten his wand, he'd make little paper animals and stuffed toys move. It entertained him, and his mother liked it, and, honestly, he'd been glad to see the little girl liked it, too. He smiled a little to himself at the memory and made a note to make a bunch of paper animals for his mum for tomorrow.

"If you want, and if your daddy says it's alright, you can keep the butterfly," Tristan said, looking up at the little girl, then her father. He didn't want to overstep, though he didn't mind letting her keep it.

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_bryced
2015-04-06 12:22 pm UTC (link)

The man's reaction was intriguing, and Bryce found himself a little curious at what exactly he'd done to elicit it. There wasn't really any way to ask though, not without making everything awkward, which was about the last thing he wanted. So he did the only thing he could, and nodded in agreement with the comment, because he could definitely see how that sort of trick could come in handy. He did have a feeling that there was going to be a temper tantrum in his future when he couldn't recreate it, but that was hardly this stranger's fault.

Sophie's eyes widened at the offer to keep the paper animal, and she turned her head to look at Bryce, who couldn't help chuckling slightly at the expression on his daughter's face. "What do you say, princess," he prompted, and the girl grinned widely as she looked back at the man.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, as though the butterfly had been the best thing to happen all day - which, knowing Sophie, it probably was, in her mind.

For some reason, Bryce was not quite ready to walk away - perhaps because this was the easiest conversation he'd had with anyone, especially magical, in quite some time. Still, it would be rude to hang around and intrude on the man's time, knowing that they had no real reason to stay. "We won't take up any more of your time," Bryce started. "But thanks. I'm glad she didn't scare you off with her exuberance."

"I'm not scary, Daddy," Sophie interjected with a roll of her eyes, making Bryce chuckle once more.

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alliterative
2015-04-06 03:59 pm UTC (link)

He couldn't help but smile at the little girl's reaction at being allowed to keep the paper butterfly. It was definitely cute, and he couldn't help but marvel at the pure joy. Had he ever been like that? When did people lose things like pure joy and sheer curiosity at the world? He knew roughly when he had lost those things, but he also knew that, sometimes, it flickered back to life in him. Watching the little girl's excitement caused that tiny spark inside him. Deep down, he hoped it lasted.

"You're welcome," Tristan said, extending his hand and nudging the butterfly back over to the little girl. Then, as the butterfly flapped its way to her, he added, "No, I have to agree, you're not scary."

Shifting a little, he wasn't entirely sure what else to say. He did, however, say, "You didn't take up my time." He brought his hands together, idly twisting the ring on his finger. "Or, well, it wasn't poorly spent time. That might be a bit more accurate." He swallowed. "Point is, you're welcome, and she didn't scare me." And, still not really knowing what to say or do, he gave the man and his daughter a friendly smile, ignoring the sudden rise of anxiety about his lack of direction about what to do next.

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_bryced
2015-04-07 02:50 am UTC (link)

Sophie was once again entranced by the fluttering object, and she offered the man another wide grin at his words as the butterfly landed on her shoulder.

Bryce returned the smile with one of his own, unsure of what exactly he was going to say in response when his daughter took care of that for him. "Do you like ice cream? Because Daddy said that after lunch we can go get ice cream," she rambled, and the only thing that kept him from hiding his face in his hands was the fact that he was preoccupied with holding her.

"Sophie," he began, making sure to keep his tone even as he turned to look at her, their faces a little too close for him to focus properly. "Not everyone has the same plans that we do." He glanced back at the other man, and then added, "You are welcome to join us if you'd like though. I think I can remember where Fortescue's is."

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alliterative
2015-04-07 07:41 pm UTC (link)

Opening his mouth, Tristan had absolutely not idea what to say or how to respond. He closed his mouth quickly, still fussing with the ring on his finger. What was he supposed to say? He didn't want to be rude, but he also didn't want to unintentionally intrude all because he couldn't keep his mouth shut about books. He licked his lips a little, hating that he felt entirely flustered for no good reason. Except that he really hadn't been invited out by many people, even if people was a little girl he suspected wanted to see more magic. And the last time he'd been to the ice cream parlour had been on Halloween with his brother and cousin. He swallowed and decided to try again.

"I do like ice cream," he said, directing his reply to the little girl. That, at least, was easy enough to respond to. "I don't want to intrude, though," he added, shifting his gaze from the little girl to her father. "I'm not especially busy at the moment, but, well, I mean, we've only just met, and we don't even know each other's names!"

Shut up, he scolded himself, pausing to take a breath.

"I'm Tristan, by the way." He stopped fidgeting a moment and extended a hand, taking a step closer to the man and his daughter.

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_bryced
2015-04-14 12:53 am UTC (link)

Bryce couldn't quite hold in his small grin at the man's reaction, inexplicably pleased at the response. He couldn't quite get a word in edgewise, though that didn't stop Sophie from saying, "Ice cream is the best!"

Shifting his daughter's weight, Bryce offered a hand, saying, "And I'm Bryce. This is..."

"Sophie!" the little girl proclaimed, throwing both hands up in the air before immediately clapping her hands together to re-catch her newly acquired butterfly.

Chuckling, he said, "It's a pleasure, Tristan. And like I said, you're welcome to join us."

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