InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "This is one long fortune."

Dominic Chambers (knowhow) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2015-08-20 12:45:00

Entry tags:

character: charlie weasley, character: dominic chambers, character: genie de la lune

Animal Planet
Who: Dominic, Genie and Charlie
What: Safari Adventure!
Where: Longleat Wildlife Park
When: Tuesday 18th August [backdated]
Rating: Probably language - Charlie

The travel plans had all been arranged in advance. After some debate, Dominic had decided that the easiest thing would be for him to drive the car down on Monday night, stay somewhere nearby and then have the others apparate to meet him on Tuesday. He'd picked a nice hotel for himself and taken advantage of the gym, the nice shower and the included breakfast before driving to the agreed meeting place. All he had to do now was wait for Charlie and Genie to arrive.

Despite the somewhat awkward revelation that Charlie wasn't remotely interest in sex (with Dominic or otherwise), Dominic was still looking forward to the day. He hadn't managed to squeeze in a holiday yet - it would now have to wait until after Dean's birthday at the earliest - and taking a day to do something outside his routine was almost as good. Dominic liked his job, but that didn't mean he didn't want a break sometimes. Today was going to be exactly that. No magic, just driving and conversation and maybe some photographs.

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hopalongcharlie
2015-08-20 03:18 pm UTC (link)

Charlie had managed to rub his stump over the previous week, mostly due to a lot more walking around than he often did and, he rather suspected, a piece of persistent fluff caught between his liner and his prosthetic. Thankfully he'd used the cream he had for just such a situation and after resting on Monday he was once more happy to be walking around and looking forward to the trip Dominic was taking himself and Genie. He was up earlier than he ordinarily would be to ensure he'd had plenty of coffee and eaten his porridge before it was time to meet them.

Making sure he had his muggle money with him and that he'd left Echo enough food he apparated carefully to the meeting point Dominic had arranged. He stepped out from behind the hedge and smiled when he saw Dominic already waiting. "Morning," he called, raising his hand. "Hope you've not been waiting long." He knew he wasn't late (being raised by a mother like Molly late wasn't really in his vocabulary outside of the most dire circumstances), but he didn't think sitting waiting for people to appear was all that fun of a prospect. He moved over to the car and reached out one hand, the other automatically readying to give Dominic a friendly clap on the arm too. He wasn't so much for hugging people before he knew them fairly well.

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wolfinboots
2015-08-21 04:55 pm UTC (link)

Genie wasn't more than five minutes late, and that was only because she had had to reassure Violet and Owen before she left. She was looking forward to this, and she was very glad that it hadn't been anything serious she'd had to deal with before leaving.

"Sorry, guys! I'm here, I promise," she said, waving bye at Brigid who had Apparated her over really quick. She still didn't have a license or the ability.

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knowhow
2015-08-24 04:07 pm UTC (link)

Dominic stepped forward to greet Charlie, ignoring the stupid little rush of butterflies at the friendly physical greeting. It wasn't too like him to get crushes like this, but he supposed there had to be exceptions to every rule. It was probably the psychological effect of knowing it was impossible that was keeping him interested, and he wasn't going to let something so trivial make things awkward. "Not at all," he said. "I've been up for a while, had breakfast, went to the gym, so I only just got here really." He grinned. "I'm looking forward to this."

He was about to elaborate when he heard Genie's voice and turned slightly to see where she was approaching from. "Hello you," he said, waving. "Looks like we're all here." He turned to Charlie, choosing a matter-of-fact question rather than beating around the bush. "Are you going to be more comfortable in the front seat, or the back?"

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hopalongcharlie
2015-08-24 04:55 pm UTC (link)

"Oh, that's good," he said, pleased to know that Dominic hadn't been waiting long. "Well you'll be pleased to know that I'm not short on coffee or food this morning so I'm not a grumpy bastard," he said, smiling.

He turned too as Genie arrived and raised a hand to her in greeting too. "Hey, Genie," he said. He wasn't bothered that she was a few minutes late, getting to unknown places wasn't always too easy for people, especially if people couldn't apparate.

"Oh, erm, I could do either, but the front is probably easier so I don't end up at a weird angle," he answered honestly, thankful for Dominic's matter of fact manner. People could get very weird about his leg once they knew about it.

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wolfinboots
2015-08-27 04:56 am UTC (link)

Genie bumped a shoulder companionably with each of them when she came up to them. It was better than hugs, because she doubted they thought they knew her well enough for one, and it was a natural enough movement for the were. "Shotgun's yours, then, bossman," she said with a grin. "We want you to be comfy." Besides she wasn't above just sticking her head between the seats like an excited dog to chatter at them, so she didn't mind.

Some might say she was daring to socialize with her boss, but she didn't really worry. If it had been someone other than Charlie, it might have crossed her mind, but here she gave it very little concern. Charlie was good peoples and she trusted him.

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knowhow
2015-08-28 04:28 pm UTC (link)

Dominic treated Genie to a particularly happy smile, glad she wasn't making a fuss about the choice being offered to Charlie. Dominic had been 99% sure she wasn't going to be one of those women who insisted on (in his opinion) outdated displays of chivalry, but you could never be completely sure about anyone. "No grumpiness is allowed," he said, giving Charlie his best imposing eyebrows for a brief moment. "We're going to go see all the coolest muggle animals and if we're lucky we might get to feed a giraffe." Dominic had no idea if Longleat offered that particular treat, but he knew someone who'd done it somewhere in the UK.

He opened doors for both his guests, letting them get settled before putting the car into motion and pulling back out onto the road. "So what're we most excited about?" he asked, glancing at Genie in the rearview mirror. "Let me guess - Charlie wants to see the lions and Genie wants..." He frowned, having more trouble over an appropriate pick for Genie. "Leopards? Antelopes?" He wasn't sure why he'd gone for those two, but he wasn't exactly thinking too seriously about it. He'd picked lions for Charlie because of the Gryffindor connection. "And I want to see elephants."

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hopalongcharlie
2015-08-28 08:45 pm UTC (link)

"I had a fuckload of coffee and went to bed early last night," Charlie said, amused. "Plus I get to see a load of animals today, so it's all good for me," he said. He'd picked up a book on muggle animals the other day and been reading it more closely than he'd ever studied the topic before. "Isn't it a bit cold here for giraffes," he asked, remembering they came from Africa.

Settling himself in the car took only a matter of seconds, especially since he could stretch his legs into the foot well. "Lions are good," he agreed, "but I'm looking forward to the elephants too. They're the closest thing in size to a dragon after all, and what I've been reading about their intelligence is fascinating." He buckled his seatbelt and leaned back, waiting for the journey to start.

"I did charm my leg to black, so if it ends up visible for some reason there's no need to worry about alarming the Muggles more than the usual amount a prosthetic would bring," he added casually. He knew both Dominic and Genie had seen the usual parade of colours and patterns which were charmed to cycle through the limb, and that Charlie could manipulate that function.

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wolfinboots
2015-08-29 09:30 pm UTC (link)

"I dunno, I'd like to see the cheetahs and the wolves, if they have all of those," Genie said, carefully casual in her listing of favorites as she always was. She didn't know if Charlie had figured anything out -- he hadn't said, and she wouldn't ask, and she wasn't about to open herself up to that without cause. The wizarding world could be very harsh.

She clambered into the car, sitting in he middle where she could move to either window or chatter at them as they went along. "Elephants are very cool," she agreed. "I'd love to ride one one day, but I don't know if I'll ever get the chance." Sounded like fun to her at least. Of course, she'd probably think riding a dragon was fun, if the opportunity arose. "Good onya, bossman. Black won't stick out," she said, though she hadn't been particularly concerned. Charlie was clever; she doubted he'd get them in trouble.

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knowhow
2015-09-11 01:02 pm UTC (link)

"It's a bit cold here for a lot of things," Dominic agreed. He'd never looked into how they kept the animals warm. "Me included, when it gets towards winter. I think they have shelters they go into at night, but I don't really know..." He shrugged. "These places tend to be pretty focused on education and conservation, so I'm sure they're not keeping them uncomfortable." Maybe that was a naive belief, but Dominic was - unlike most Ravenclaws - happy to let ignorance be bliss on that score.

He smiled as both his guests displayed genuine enthusiasm for the animals and the outing. "You might have to go to Africa or India or somewhere for that," he said to Genie. "I've certainly never heard of anyone doing it here." His mind was whirring in a hundred animal-related directions, from the idea of swimming with dolphins to riding a dragon. "I don't know much about dragons," he admitted. "I suppose they're more intelligent than elephants?" Magical creatures tended to be more intelligent in general. "It would be an interesting comparison."

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hopalongcharlie
2015-09-11 06:51 pm UTC (link)

Charlie huffed a laugh when Dominic mentioned it getting too cold for him. He'd certainly had that problem when he was in Romania which tended to get long spells of snow in the winter, but it was far less of an issue now he was back in the UK. Although he rather suspected that if he visited Romania in the depths of winter now he'd be far less inured to the cold. "Oh, I don't doubt they're keeping them well. Some animals are more resilient than people expect. And if I remember rightly the weather in some parts of Africa can get pretty cold at night," he said. It was far from being his area of specialisation though so he wasn't sure if that was the area for the animals kept at the park or not.

"Oh, I could bore you both for hours about dragons. I'm not entirely sure about the intelligence levels of elephants, but sure dragons are pretty intelligent and have a whole range of sophisticated behaviours but they've never actually been tamed. And their whole method of interaction with humans is fire-breathing, biting and, you know, eating us so I'm not sure it's quite the same thing." Charlie shrugged lightly. "Don't get me wrong they're amazing and fascinating, but generally not to be fucked with."

He turned to grin at Genie in the back. "Yeah, black's what I use if I go running and it's not had any weird comments yet. Few stares, but I'm sure that's general 'the guy with a fake leg is running' shit rather than the colour of my prosthetic."

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wolfinboots
2015-09-12 12:03 pm UTC (link)

"Nah, probably not, but I've not gotten out of the country since I was small. Can't afford it," she said with a shrug and a smile. "But someday!" Maybe someday. It'd be fun, she thought.

She laughed. "Yeah, they're not to be fucked with," she agreed. Though she sometimes thought she'd like to see one herself, even if even the wolf in her head thought that might not be the wisest course of action.

"Well, it doesn't seem to be terribly common, even in the Muggle world," she said with a shrug. "Though I've met a couple of Muggles with prosthetics. People are always curious, I guess."

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knowhow
2015-09-18 04:42 pm UTC (link)

Dominic laughed. "The two Gryffindors are telling the Ravenclaw not to be reckless," he remarked, amused. "Pretty sure Rowena and Godric are spinning in their graves. But I wasn't seriously considering fucking with dragons, it's just nice to dream..." He shrugged. "The problem with preferring practical learning to books is that it means you can't study all the areas you want to. There's not enough time and not enough money."

They pulled in to the car park of Longleat and Dominic slower. "Right, we've got two choices, I think. Grab a casette and go round on our own in my car or else get out and join a coach which will have a guide. There's advantages to both. In my car, we can talk about magic, and slow down at the interesting bits as long as we're not holding people up. But the guide will have more knowledge than us, and he'll be able to point out specific real time things that the casette can't."

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hopalongcharlie
2015-09-20 08:24 pm UTC (link)

Charlie decided not to point out that his own recklessness had got him burn scars and contributed to him losing a leg. He didn't want to be depressing. "Oh, I'm not saying abandon recklessness completely. Just know what you're dealing with. I'm all for haring off on weird adventures." He screwed up his face in understanding about lack of money being an issue for both of them. "Yeah. I got really fucking lucky with my job. I wouldn't have had most of the opportunities I did without being paid to have them."

He hummed in agreement. He'd seen a few muggles with prosthetics of one kind or another over the years but it was a pretty rare thing. "I don't mind the curiosity. I just have to remember to tell them something they'll understand if I get asked. The answer is a very vicious flesh-eating bug, er bacteria, apparently," he added. "Healers suggested it."

Turning to look at Genie he raised his eyebrows at her. "What do you think? Either sounds good to me, but I sometimes fuck up and talk about things Muggles couldn't explain. Especially when it comes to animals." He had a good track record generally speaking, and a fair few muggle friends at one point or another, but animals were a bit of a downfall.

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wolfinboots
2015-09-24 11:54 am UTC (link)

"Oh, sweetie, I'm still all for jumping off cliffs and such. I'm just wary of things that bite more than a little." Dogs, wolves, even other weres dind't fuss her. Dragons? Dragons could take her in half or more.

"As fun as listening to someone might be, we might be safer to go alone," Genie said after Charlie encouraged her to speak with his eyebrows. "Especially since we're already comparing creatures." She grinned. "I'd rather not get in trouble for breaking the Statute, today at least."

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