InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "She's got huge tracks of land!"

Seamus Finnigan (openbottle) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-06-21 11:08:00

Entry tags:

character: melinda bobbin, character: seamus finnigan

Cupcake / Ice cream decorations
Who: Seamus and Melinda
What: Looking at cupcake decorations
Where: Sweet Nothings
When: Friday 19th June [backdated]
Rating: SFW

Seeing as there was a lull in business, Seamus decided to nip over to Sweet Nothings almost as soon as he received Melinda's last message. It wasn't as if she was far away, so if she was busy he could always turn around and go back to work. When he pushed open the door he was greeted by the smell of warm cake and a lack of any obvious other customers to keep Melinda occupied.

"Hey," he said, smiling. "Hope you don't mind I popped right over." It only occurred to him now that she might want time to prepare, especially if she was going to show him the stuff in her own stores. "I can go away again if you're busy, but maybe I can borrow that catalogue?" He really, really wanted to find out if there were little sugar shamrocks. It seemed important that he have them.

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_melinda_
2015-06-21 02:28 pm UTC (link)

As the last batch of cake for the weekend’s orders had been set to cooling, Melinda had started wiping down the counter. It wasn’t dirty, but a sparkly clean display just looked better, more inviting, and frankly; it made her feel better. The clock above the door jingled, signaling a new customer, and with a smile, she looked up to see Seamus entering the shop.

“Hello,” she greeted him back, and shook her head. “Not really that busy right now, so your timing’s good. Can I get you something? Coffee? Tea?” Melinda hadn’t a clue what kind of decorations Seamus was thinking of, and with her current collection it could easily take a while for him to go through them… if he didn’t know what he wanted either.

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openbottle
2015-06-23 01:45 pm UTC (link)

"Excellent," Seamus said, smiling as he moved closer to the counter. "Must be my Irish luck. I'll have a coffee, please, and a slice of whatever you recommend. Or a cupcake, or a pastry. Doesn't have to be something that comes in slices." He was babbling, slightly, but that was usually an indicator that he was in a pretty good mood.

He stood on the customer side of the counter, fiddling the inlay of his thumb ring round and round without really noticing. "Good day so far? Apart from having to deal with nuisance pub landlords who're after your confectionary connections?"

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_melinda_
2015-06-25 11:51 am UTC (link)

Melinda sent her polishing cloth out back to the kitchen and cast a cleansing charm on her hands before she started pouring Seamus’ coffee. “Well, I have one slice left of the Salted Caramel Layer Cake,” she smiled at him, amused by his babbling. With Seamus, though, she didn’t take that as a bad thing, it just made it easier for her to simplify the things by taking the easy option. Seamus, she had no doubts, would object it if wasn’t to his liking. “There you go,” she handed him the cup and gestured to the table in the corner of the shop. “I’ll be right over with the cake.”

It didn’t take long to get the last slice of cake prepared and served to Seamus, and soon after Melinda rolled in her small table with her sprinkle organizer binders neatly arranged on it. “So, you’re looking for sprinkles?” she chuckled and gestured to the table. It was an occupational hazard, she claimed, that decorating cakes led to hoarding all kinds of decorations, and sprinkles were so easy to store and save for later. So, she had a binder system filled with small samples of the sprinkles she had stored in less glamourous containers out back. “What kind of sprinkles? Any particular colours? Shapes? Flavours?”

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openbottle
2015-07-01 12:33 pm UTC (link)

Seamus grinned broadly. "That sounds like heaven," he told Melinda. Of course, all of Melinda's cakes and pastries were heavenly, but she already knew Seamus's thoughts on that. He wrapped his hands around the mug of coffee but didn't try to drink it immediately. Prone as he was to burning his tongue on too-hot liquids, he couldn't do it all the time.

"I am," he agreed once he'd taken a bite of delicious cake. "M'having an ice cream party, for my birthday." He grinned at her. "Invitations haven't gone out yet, but you're getting one. You and Dean'll be the only ones who know the theme in advance." Seamus was a fan of surprises, although much less so of the jump-out-and-scare people variety now than he had been at school. Once she started probing the matter, Seamus realised just how out of his depth he was. "Sprinkles come in flavours? I thought they were all just... sugar-flavoured." Remembering his conversation with Dean, he took another bite of cake before continuing. "Do you have little green shamrocks?" he asked first. "Or know where I can get them? That's really the only specific thing I've got in mind. Everything else... just an assortment, really, so people can choose what they like."

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_melinda_
2015-07-04 08:30 pm UTC (link)

“An ice cream party?” Melinda grinned and looked up from where she was arranging the binders for easier access. “That sounds brilliant. I haven’t been to one in years.” Well, unless she counted the many, many ice cream parties she had catered since she first started, but she didn’t, because she hadn’t been an actual guest there. “I’d love to go, but would it be alright if I brought a plus one?”

Seamus’ question had her halt in her arranging, before she chuckled. “Of course, they come in flavours,” she beamed and pulled out a binder from the bottom of the system. “If it can be coloured, it can be flavoured,” she mused as she arranged three small piles of sprinkles on a clean plate and handed it to him along with a small spoon; bright green apple flavoured, brown chocolate sprinkles, and the red strawberry flavoured. She doubted that was what he was going for specifically, but it was easier to explain like this. Although, she paused again when she heard his main request. “I have shamrocks,” she chuckled. “Setting up shop next to a pub owned by an Irishman, pretty much makes that a required item.”

From the binder marked ‘Green’ she picked out three small boxes. “These are the ones I have,” she said as she laid them out for him. “There are the sparkly, these shiny ones, and then the more ordinary, plain green ones.”

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openbottle
2015-07-07 01:04 pm UTC (link)

Seamus grinned, hoping that Melinda's reaction would accurately forecast the enthusiasm of his other guests. "Of course you can," he said easily. "Just warn me if they're allergic to dairy, or something. I don't want to accidentally exclude anyone." Already, part of Seamus's brain was off on its own little tangent about inclusivity, but he firmly wrestled it back on track. "Anyone in particular?" he asked. He hadn't come here to investigate Melinda's personal life, but he felt they were friendly enough that asking wasn't rude.

"You say that like it's the most obvious thing in the world," he said, gesturing between Melinda and the piles of sprinkles she was rapidly producing. "But I've never had flavoured sprinkles! They all just taste of sugar, unless you get those jelly diamonds, but then, they aren't sprinkles really." He reached eagerly for the spoon, pushing his cake to one side to return to later. He first tried tasting just one sprinkle, but it wasn't really enough to get an impression of the flavour so he quickly scooped up a few more of the green ones, humming appreciatively. "I like," he pronounced, moving on to the red ones. "I'll have to label them, though. Don't want people assuming green is mint and getting apple instead."

Beaming, Seamus watched as she produced her shamrock-shaped sprinkles. "I suppose that was obvious," he said, trying now to remember if her St Patrick's Day cakes had had sprinkles. He couldn't remember, even though he knew he'd bought several. "They're all great!" he enthused, leaning closer to look at them. "Are they flavoured too? If not, maybe I can put the sparkly and the ordinary ones in a bowl together."

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_melinda_
2015-07-07 04:33 pm UTC (link)

Melinda felt taken back to her teen-years when she felt her cheeks heat up – even if only a little – at the question of who her plus one might be. “Uhm, yeah,” she said and cleared her throat, setting down a binder and pulling a stray strand of hair behind her ear; everything to keep her hands busy, it seemed. “Viktor Krum? Don’t worry, we’ll be discreet about it, so the press and the public won’t know, and I think he’d appreciate that, too.” Outside of Cho, Marietta, and her parents, this was the first time she was openly addressing – sort of – that there was something between her and Viktor. Apparently the crowd and the excitement of a League victory had meant that it had faded in the news or at least written off as simply a celebratory gesture.

She simply shrugged at that, and sent Seamus a small, apologetic smile; to her and everybody else working with cakes and desserts, flavoured sprinkles were one of the most obvious things in the world. “No, but those diamonds are decorations, so they can be used for ice cream as well.” She watched as he tasted, letting him figure out how to best do that for himself, and nodded as he came to the conclusion that labelling them was probably a good idea.

This year Sweet Nothings’ St. Patrick’s Days cakes hadn’t had sprinkles on them, rather they’d had a green chocolate shamrock on them, but she had used the sprinkles before. “No, unfortunately they’re just the sugary sprinkles that you know, but…” reaching over she poured a little more of the apple-flavoured sprinkles onto his plat – it was what she already had handy – and then added some of the shamrock sprinkles to it. “You can combine them with flavoured ones, and it’ll still have that shamrocky feel to it. I’ve several different flavoured green sprinkles, if you’d like, but it’d also work with white sprinkles.”

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openbottle
2015-07-09 12:37 pm UTC (link)

Seamus watched, amused by the sudden flurry of activity and the slight tint of Melinda's cheeks. When she finally spilled the name, he grinned - and could see why she'd been flustered. It wasn't every day one brought a world class quidditch player to a friend's party, after all. "That's great," he told her. "And yeah, probably for the best. I mean, I'm inviting Harry, Ron and Hermione - plus Oliver - so there's always a chance of something out of left field - but I can put up extra wards if you think Viktor would appreciate that." It was a much-advertised perk of Private Parties in the roost that Dominic always used an invitations-only charm to keep unwanted guests away.

Seamus considered as she added the two sets of green sprinkles together, using his spoon to taste the combination, though it wasn't really necessary. "I think I like the shamrock ones on their own," he eventually decided. "But I'll definitely use that trick for some of the other decorations." He just had a fondness for the shamrock, and liked the way it looked without anything else getting in the way. "I feel like I should start making a list," he added, scrambling in his pocket for a piece of paper and a pen. He headed the list with shamrocks in big letters - then paused. "I have no idea how many sprinkles is a reasonable amount... and I don't have my list of ice cream flavours with me." Sometimes, when Seamus tried to be organised it didn't quite come off. "What do you reckon, little bowls of basic flavours, one of shamrocks and then one normal, flavourless rainbow sprinkles?"

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_melinda_
2015-07-12 07:15 pm UTC (link)

Melinda drew a breath of relief, really only hearing that Harry, Hermione, and Ron would be there. Viktor considered them friends, so that was bound to be good. “No, no,” she smiled at Seamus. “I think with them there, security and discretion will be just right.” At least she couldn’t imagine Viktor opposing that, nor did she think any of them would go blabbing to the Prophet about anything that happened there.

She chuckled when she saw how Seamus headed his list; the man sure did like his shamrocks, didn’t he? “That would definitely work,” Melinda agreed. “My suggestion would be one kind of sprinkles for each flavor of ice cream. That gives a balance to it when you set it up. All depending on how many people will be there, you won’t need big bowls, just a couple of spoons in each, unless you want to borrow a couple of the topping dispensers we use for cupcake or ice cream parties?”

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openbottle
2015-07-14 10:20 am UTC (link)

"Well, I can't promise they'll all come," Seamus pointed out. His friends were so busy that he'd long since stopped being upset when they couldn't all turn out for his birthday, or other events. "But we'll set up as if they are, and that should hopefully be enough. And you know Dominic would never do anything with the pictures without asking first." His mind had leapt a little there, but it didn't occur to him that Melinda might not follow the trail of his logic. Dominic was always taking pictures, and sometimes Seamus put them up around the pub - but not without permission.

Seamus listened to her seriously as she outlined how she would go about things. "That's a good point," he said. "I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. I don't want sprinkles overwhelming the ice cream!" He added a little diagram to his notes - big circles to represent ice cream with smaller circles for the bowls of sprinkles, matching to remind him that he needed to think about the logistics. "I think bowls will be okay. Do you have a list of flavours the sprinkles come in?"

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_melinda_
2015-07-20 02:12 pm UTC (link)

Melinda sent Seamus a small smile and a slight wave. “I’m sure it will be,” she agreed with him. By now, she figured, she ought to have learned that in some cases she had to ask for special treatment, but she still didn’t like it, and she had a feeling that Viktor didn’t either. However, she was also pretty sure that he liked being put on display without permission even less. And as for Dominic? Well, Melinda hadn’t even considered him, but she trusted him and had for years.

“Well, there are those who holds firmly to their belief that ice cream is merely an excuse to eat sprinkles, so don’t be too surprised…” Melinda chuckled, although she agreed with Seamus that it was the ice cream that should hold the major focus. “I don’t have a list, per se,” she said with a regretful twist of her mouth, “however, I can give you a copy of the catalog I order from. But really, when it comes to tastes, sprinkles are a bit like Bertie Bott’s Beans only without the nasty flavours, and if you can’t find a particular flavor, I can make a batch for you with a day’s notice.” With a wave of her wand, she duplicated the catalog and handed it to Seamus. “That goes for colours and shapes as well.”

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openbottle
2015-07-22 08:55 am UTC (link)

Seamus nodded. Oliver and Harry had both been seen around the pub a fair amount, as well as other quidditch players - Flint and Davies and Gwenog Jones - and there'd never yet been any real trouble. Seamus was fairly confident a private birthday party wouldn't suddenly be the point at which journalists descended. And if it was, well, he'd have a solid faction of Dumbledore's Army there to turn them back if necessary.

"You're amazing," Seamus said, taking the copy of the catalogue she offered and leafing through it to get a general impression. "I'm pretty sure this lot will be more than enough to pick from without troubling you to make special orders - but I'll keep it in mind if I ever need to." With that, he returned to his abandoned caramel cake. "I should probably get back to work once I've finished this - and let you get back to serving other customers."

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