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Tweak says, "You love me so much!"

Dominic Chambers (knowhow) wrote in finnigans_rpg,
@ 2014-10-03 17:09:00

Entry tags:

character: dominic chambers, character: zacharias smith

Experimental Charms Funtime!
Who: Zacharias and Dominic
What: Mixing magic and electricity - could be dangerous
Where: Finnigan's
When: Friday after work
Rating: SFW

Unusually, Dominic had spent his day surrounded by books and manuals, trying to piece together some understanding of how electricity and film projection really worked. He had grown up in the muggle world, and been schooled there until he was eleven but while he'd certainly used electricity he didn't have an in-depth knowledge of it. One day of reading wasn't going to help much but it might give him some understanding. Enough to work with, he hoped. He'd been more than a little intrigued when Seamus had passed on Zacharias' message about trying to get a projector to work in Finnigan's. It would be amazing if they could get it up and running, something they could use more than once.

It wasn't an area Dominic had a lot of experience with. Mostly he was content to live in the wizarding world and experiment with the limits of what he could achieve with pure magic. That didn't mean he didn't miss films and television sometimes, though. After closing up his books, he apparated over to Monument Alley and made his way to Finnigan's. It was only just after five, so he might be too early to meet Zacharias just yet - but he didn't mind waiting. Once he'd ordered his lemonade (no alcohol while he was working), he set up at a table by the door, the better to spot Zacharias when he came in.

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unspeakableness
2014-10-07 09:20 pm UTC (link)

Zacharias nodded a bit as he set his bag on the table and pulled out first the projector thing and then his notebooks, arranging it all neatly on the table, his drink well out of the way in case of an accident. He'd stayed up later than usual the night before to work on it, determined to get at least part of the work done and familiarise himself with the machine to make things hopefully go smoothly once at the pub. And the kid had said he'd wanted it by Sunday, so he didn't see the point in wasting time. He sat down, taking another quick stock of everything he'd put out, double checking that he hadn't forgotten anything.

"I'm all for being walked through both your magic and what you planned. Feel free to look through my notes," he said, giving a nod toward his notebooks. He'd already submitted the information to the Committee on Experimental Charms and gone through the processes with them, so he didn't mind sharing. Had this been a year ago, though, and he likely wouldn't have volunteered to help in the least.

"And if we can't get this thing to work before Sunday, one of us can ask Seamus if he'd be willing to give up any information about the types of wards he has so we'll know how to work around them without negatively affecting them. And if he still doesn't feel comfortable sharing, I can always tell him about some that won't affect or be affected by whatever we do with the projector thing that maybe he'd be up for using just during the film." Not his own, though, no; he'd modified and reworked the wards and charms on his own flat. However, prior to that, he had others on them that he'd worked with when he first worked out how to make small electronics work in a magical environment like a personal residence. "I don't want him to be uncomfortable or inconvenienced over something that could also have easily taken place at a place without magic." Like the kid's own home or renting out a space somewhere at a Muggle pub and putting up proper protection charms to keep out Muggles.

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knowhow
2014-10-08 04:37 pm UTC (link)

Still standing, Dominic moved over to the notes Zacharias gestured to, leafing through them curiously. He might not usually be one for reading, but that didn't mean he didn't want to get at least a little idea of how Zacharias worked. "You're more organised than I am." He wasn't ashamed to admit it - he'd never been a very good scholar, even if he was inventive. "I suppose that comes of being involved with the Committee. Or at least helps." Dominic, if he even made notes, tended to spread them out between whatever notebook or scrap of parchment or paper he had on hand - and sometimes reading back over them he couldn't even understand them.

"I think he'd tell me about the type of wards, if we needed him to. I've known him since he was... twelve or thirteen?" Dominic couldn't remember exactly. They'd met on the ferry back to Ireland from Hogwarts, before either of them had been old enough to apparate. After that, Seamus had started inviting him to spend pits of his holidays in Greencastle, and had even visited Dominic's home a time or two. Seamus having a muggle father had meant it hadn't been too big a risk. "He really wants this kind of thing to be able to happen here. The meeting, I mean. Though I think he'd be ecstatic if we could make it so he can show movies on a regular basis."

Finally abandoning Zacharias' notes, Dominic sat down and pulled a roll of parchment from his pocket. He spread it out on the table and started to make some notes on the magic he knew was already present in the building, explaining it to Zacharias as he went. "And a lot of magic went into refurbishing it, but that was two years ago and I don't think those spells should still be interacting with anything," he added, when he'd finished.

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unspeakableness
2014-10-14 06:45 pm UTC (link)

Zacharias decided not to note that he didn't say there was anything wrong with the meeting itself so much as poor planning on that kid's part and that he'd said that if he really wanted to show a film to this group, and they couldn't get it to work, then he should have just considered this particular type of meeting -- the kind with a film -- one that would be better suited outside the middle of a heavily magical and magicked area. Then the next meeting, and any subsequent non-film related meetings, could have happened at the pub. It was just poor planning as far as Zacharias was concerned, especially since he wanted this done with less than a week's notice. Part of Zacharias debated on packing up and telling the kid he needed to learn to give better warning of things like this, but he'd already pulled everything out, so he stayed put. For now.

Pulling a notebook and quill in front of himself, Zacharias watched and listened as Dominic wrote down his own notes and explained the spells. He made a few notes here and there on particular things he said, mostly to ask more about them or to take them into consideration. And he nodded when Dominic mentioned spells that went into refurbishing the pub. He didn't personally think that they'd have much of an affect at this point, provided they weren't embedded into the structure itself but instead used to construct and reconstruct the building. He thought as long as the building wasn't held up by magic, they shouldn't interfere, but he made notes about them just to be safe.

"Alright, nothing sounds too difficult to get around and take into account," he began, taking a few seconds to pull out spare parchment from his bag. He spread it out width wise and began incorporating his own knowledge with what he knew of Dominic's knowledge. "I think we should first address the biggest, most complex spell first and work down. From my experience, they can interfere the most, and we can cross them off the list," he pointed with his quill to the notebook where he'd made a list as Dominic had explained the various spells he'd used on the building, "as we go. I know it might seem counter-intuitive to start big and go small instead of starting small and adding on, but, like I said, the bigger, more complex the spell, the more likely it will be the one that interferes with making it work. Also, I think it'll need a few more charms on it to account for any spell usage from the patrons, which will probably be the most difficult thing to do given how much that can vary even hour to hour. However, I figure one or both of us can be here on Sunday to re-calibrate the magic should the projector thing stop working.

"But first things first," he said and began outlining his thoughts and plans about how to go about making the projector thing work in the middle of a magic heavy street.

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knowhow
2014-10-16 01:44 pm UTC (link)

"No, that makes sense to me," Dominic said. "Start with the big picture, then add the details." It was how Dominic tended to work in his own projects, too. "We don't want to waste time getting it to work with small spells only to realise the larger ones are going to make the idea impossible." He hoped that wouldn't happen but he wasn't too worried - it didn't seem likely, if Zacharias had already got the projector working once that between the two of them they wouldn't be able to achieve a repeat performance. He'd only been sat down a few minutes, but he got up while Zacharias made more notes, wand out and ready to begin the actual magic.

He frowned slightly as Zacharias talked about customers doing magic which might interfere with the projector. He hadn't thought of that, and Seamus certainly couldn't ban people from doing magic for the duration. "I suppose I can be here." He hadn't been planning on coming. Despite being openly bisexual, it wasn't something he felt he needed to attend a meeting to talk about. Still, attending in order to deal with the projector didn't mean he'd have to be involved with the meeting itself. "Though if you're free, maybe you should come. I know more about magic interacting with magic than magic interacting with electricity." Which was why, he supposed, he hadn't thought about the customers.

Zacharias still seemed to be in note-taking mode, so Dominic left him to it, briefly, while he made sure there were no spells left working on The Roost itself. He was pretty conscientious about returning the room to its 'raw' state in between activities, but checking would give him something active and practical to do.

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