Andrew Kirke (dragondrums) wrote in reduxpitch, @ 2016-04-07 23:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | !thread, character: evan potter, character: xavier ansari, location: hogsmeade, retired character: andrew kirke |
Who: Andrew Kirke, Xavier Ansari and Evan Potter
What: It’s Evan’s turn to meet the people in Andrew’s life.
When: Thursday 7th March
Where: Panquake House.
Rating: PG
Andrew had thought the Easter holidays would mean he had less work to do, since he didn’t teach music lessons while his students were off school. Somehow, he’d forgotten that school holidays always meant Dominic Maestro’s saw an increase in the number of parents dragging kids with them as they shopped. Andrew had spent most of the first four hours of his shift rushed off his feet, giving demonstrations of the less common instruments, answering questions, tracking down obscure sheet music and putting sales through the register. When the shop closed at five, it was a mess and Andrew spent far longer than the usual hour setting it to rights. By quarter to seven he was hungry and in need of adult conversation. So, naturally, he had owled Evan a request to meet him at Panquake House.
Andrew, after a brief detour to the nearest muggle settlement, arrived with a bag full of far too much rice and naan bread and various kinds of curry. The guy at the Indian takeaway had seemingly recommended everything on the menu, and Andrew hadn’t been much inclined to say no. Walking into the kitchen and setting the bag down on the counter, the first person he saw was not Evan, but Xavier. “Hungry?” he asked, which seemed a fair question given the time and place. “I’ve got loads of curry if you want to join us. Evan should be here any minute.”
--
Xavier had been making tea and pondering what to do for dinner when Andrew walked in with a bag of something that smelled amazing. He hadn't been about to just take some without asking, because that would have been rude, but he was very glad about the fact that he was offered some. Because he was hungry and making something would take too much time. And there was good smelling food right there ready to be eaten.
"Yeah, thanks," he said, glancing away to take the kettle off the stove and pour the water into his mug before leaning back against the counter to look at Andrew. "You look.... tired?"
-
The voting week so far had been pretty underwhelming seeing how no voting had actually taken place. Then again a corruption scandal probably made it somewhat exciting. Personally, Evan would have prefered to just have it all out of the way, but still not enough to actually regret entering the race. As tiring as he found some of the campaigning, the point he had tried to make was doing well, especially, seemingly, with the younger voters. It did also help that uni didn’t start back up until next week, even if it did leave Evan with almost too much spare time.
When Andrew had suggested dinner, Evan had gladly accepted. Spending time with Andrew was always nice, so it was hardly as if Evan had any reason or even marginal intention to refuse. He apparated to the Panquake house, for a change, not in his pyjamas but actual clothes. The smell of food met him before Evan had even managed to get to the kitchen, and once he had, Evan gave Andrew a smile. “Hey,” he greeted, walking over to press his lips against Andrew’s cheek before even noticing that there was someone else in the kitchen. “Oh, hi,” Evan said. Evan wasn’t sure if he had met the guy before. Maybe passed him in the corridor on Evan’s many trips to the kitchen for tea? He wasn’t Ken, or Ash-something or even the goth hedgehog Evan had met once, which meant that Evan wasn’t sure he knew his name. Then again, it wasn’t like Evan knew Ash-something or goth hedgehog’s names either. Evan was not excellent at names.
Oh! The chair. The kissing reward chair! Evan did know who the guy was. “Xavier, right?” Evan said with a small nod as if confirming the answer before he had a chance to receive one. “You kissed Andrew to see if his kisses were worth rewards,” Evan stated with a glance at Andrew to make sure he wasn’t wrong.
--
Lots of people came and went from Panquake, and Xavier rarely talked to any of them unless he had reason to, which usually he didn’t. So when a guy walked in the kitchen, he had a vague memory of seeing him at some point, but it could have been any time, really. He just stood there kind of awkwardly - more that he was there than actually feeling awkward about it - while Andrew got kissed on the cheek, then raised his hand in a little wave once his presence was noticed. Based on the cheek kiss situation, Xavier was assuming this was Evan. He was about to introduce himself, because that was the polite thing to do, when his name came out of Evan’s mouth instead.
“Right,” he replied, and then when Evan went on he just kind of… blinked. It was a fair and accurate description of what had happened, but it was still strange to hear about. It made him wonder what else Evan knew about - like the whole kiss olympics situation - but he wasn’t about to ask. “Yeah, that was… me. You made that castle, right? I thought that was amazing.”
-
Unlike Evan’s family, Andrew felt perfectly comfortable with displays of affection in front of Quake, and he let a hand come briefly to rest on the small of Evan’s back before he pulled away to focus on the delicious, delicious food. A little bit of magic set plates and cutlery out on the table while Andrew conveyed the containers of food by hand. “The guy labelled everything, and I’ve got a menu with descriptions,” he explained before beginning a search for drinks. He chuckled at Evan’s rather forthright question, but it didn’t exactly surprise him. “The castle is amazing,” he confirmed, though at this point it was hardly necessary for him to make his feelings about the castle any more obvious than they already were. “And the blanket fort.” He hadn’t actually shown Quake the blanket-fort-tent yet, but he’d certainly talked about it.
While he fetched drinks for everybody, Andrew tried to think if he knew anything - or anyone - Xavier and Evan might have in common. With a lot of Andrew’s friends it was easy, because they could always talk about music or quidditch. Evan was a little more challenging. Andrew didn’t doubt he and Xavier would be able to get along - Andrew expected all his friends to like Evan in the end. Even Axel could probably be charmed with animal facts. “Evan’s also running for Minister,” Andrew added, smiling, “since I guess you’re not going to be voting for Lockhart.”
--
At both Xavier and Andrew’s comments about how the castle was amazing, Evan gave a small shrug. He didn’t think it was but Evan could still appreciate that others might. There was a dodgy staircase and one of the towers was broken, so there were things that made it not amazing, but Evan was also smart enough to recognise that unless you had built it or had to mark it for uni, the castle probably did look quite impressive. Evan was mostly just pleased that Andrew liked it, even if Evan did feel a bit bad about how much space it was taking up in Andrew’s room.
Evan had forgotten about Lockhart getting punched but Andrew’s words did remind him and Evan glanced at Xavier thoughtfully. Andrew had assured Evan that it hadn’t been a ‘punch a minister candidate’ kind of thing and much more a ‘punch Gilderoy Lockhart’ kind of thing so Evan was still okay to come around the Panquake house. This was good, because Evan liked visiting. “I am,” Evan confirmed with a nod, following the plates to the dinner table, since he might as well. “I wouldn’t vote for me either, though,” he added thoughtfully. It was somewhat true, Evan would vote for Evan but he also didn’t think others would be choosing smartly if they voted for him. A twenty year old with no political experience was not the best choice, no matter how much Evan thought that the Ministry did need a shake-up.
--
"A blanket fort sounds amazing," Xavier mused, getting his tea and moving over toward the table to scope out the food Andrew had gotten. He didn't really want to intrude on their dinner but there was a lot of it and he was hungry. "Maybe I should make some sort of blanket fort around my bed. Can't hurt anything, right?"
He stopped a moment as Andrew's mention of Lockhart, groaning softly and rubbing his hand over his face. "I swear, that can die any time now and I'll be perfectly fine with it." He looked over at Evan, almost apologetically. "I promise I don't actually have an 'aggressive attitude' or normally go around hitting people. He's just a git. Please don't tell anyone I said that."
-
Andrew sat, spooning rice onto his plate while he considered the menu and tried to decide what he wanted. After a moment’s hesitation, he went for a little bit of everything, then (if he wasn’t full) he could return to anything he’d particularly enjoyed. “It definitely can’t hurt,” Andrew agreed enthusiastically. He wasn’t sure a blanket fort without an Evan in it was going to be as good a cure for what ailed you, but since Evan wasn’t available, Xavier would just have to make do. “If it weren’t for the dogs, I’d say we should make one in the living room big enough for all of us. We could camp out and tell scary stories about the Bloody Baron and the man on the car roof.”
Andrew shot Xavier an apologetic look. He hadn’t meant to bring it up if Xavier would rather forget about it. “It died already,” he said cheerfully. “I saw the article about you and Cedric. And if anyone brings up you and Lockhart again, we’ll just send Aisling to give them a quote…” Aisling could definitely come up with something suitable salacious about threesomes that would get the gossip pages writing about nothing else for quite some time.
--
Evan shrugged off Xavier’s assurance that he wasn’t aggressive and didn’t usually punch people. Firstly, Evan didn’t really care, mostly because what he had heard from Andrew about Xavier so far, and from having just met him, nothing about the guy struck Evan as particularly aggressive. Secondly, Evan had met Lockhart. Whilst he wouldn’t have punched the man, Evan could very easily see why someone else might.
Getting a wide selection of the food on his own plate, Evan ate some before going back to Xavier’s earlier comment and Andrew’s follow up in regards to blanket forts. “There are spells,” he explained after chewing his food. “Quite simple spells, really,” Evan added. “To create blanket forts. You just need a sufficient amount of blankets and sheets and maybe fairy lights.” Personally, Evan liked blanket forts with fairy lights but he had made plenty without. “I can teach you how,” he offered. They really weren’t complex spells and Evan was very happy to share the joy of blanket forts.
--
"Yeah, glad I can always count on some story about my made up love life to take down actual things," Xavier added as he carefully put some food onto his plate, not wanting to take too much of anything to disrupt the dinner they'd been going to have without him. He shifted down into one of the chairs and took a bite, his attention focused on Evan as he talked about the fort.
"You can?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "That would be nice. Then I can turn my bed into a fort and even if I can't sleep, at least I'll have a fort." He glanced over at Andrew, pausing a moment as he finished taking a bite of his food. "And I'd make it big enough we could have a camp out there, no dogs allowed."
-
Pleased, Andrew laughed. “Oh yeah,” he said, “I forget not everyone’s room is full of model castles and tartan chairs and a full size keyboard.” In Xavier’s room, they probably could make a fort big enough for them all - minus dogs - while Andrew’s room just about had space for two. Three, if you were willing to get very close. “I can highly recommend Evan as a fort builder,” he noted, reaching for a sip of his drink as one of the curries turned out to be hotter than expected. “He even comes prepared with his own blankets, sometimes.” He chewed some naan bread thoughtfully before adding, “I think I’ve still got them here, actually.” He also had a lot of Evan’s shirts, which he should probably make an effort to take back at some point, before Evan ran out.
“Do you think Aisling’s ever been in a blanket fort?” he asked, smiling slightly. From all he knew of Aisling’s childhood he was going to guess ‘no’. What he didn’t know was whether or not she’d appreciate the experience. She might, or she might think it was childish and not understand the appeal. It was hard to judge for sure.
--
Evan frowned slightly as he chewed his food. Andrew’s room was full of things, it was true, and the castle really wasn’t very little. It made Evan feel bad that Andrew probably felt like he had to keep it because Evan had given it to him. There was no practical use for it, which in the grand scheme of things made it a pretty bad present. At least the chair Xavier had given Andrew, whilst taking up space, served and actual purpose. And it was also really quite awesome. Maybe Evan could look into changing the magic around so he could downsize the castle. He made a mental note in looking up some spells.
“Why can’t you sleep?” Evan asked instead. He appreciated the recommendation for his blanket fort building skills but also as far as skills went, Evan was pretty confident in those. “I’m not sure blanket forts fix inability to sleep,” he added thoughtfully because there really was no scientific proof that they would or could.
--
To be fair, Xavier’s room was more minimal than it probably needed to be. It was just that he didn’t have much use for a lot of stuff, so other than his bed, and a dresser, there weren’t many large objects taking up space. Were he to make a blanket fort, it could definitely be a big one. “I have a lot of blankets, and I can definitely get more. And no, I doubt Aisling’s ever been in a blanket fort. There’s a first time for everything, though.”
He glanced over at Evan as he took a few bites of his food, wishing he had a good answer to his question. If he did, maybe he would have had better luck fixing it. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly, shrugging a shoulder. “I’ve been having trouble with it for a while, haven’t been able to figure it out. I didn’t think it a fort would fix it, but at least I’d have a more interesting place to lie awake.” He paused, tearing off a piece of naan and taking a bite. “Besides, at this point I’ll try almost anything.”
-
“Sounds like a plan,” Andrew agreed - because the idea of introducing Aisling to the world of blanket forts was definitely a good one. “I mean, we could all fit in the tent Evan made me, if we had somewhere to put it up.” Andrew had always intended to invite Quake to have a look, he just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. “Either way, we should definitely get Aisling involved. And Ken. Ken likes blanket forts.” Axel could come if he liked, of course, but Andrew had a feeling he wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about the lack of movement that blanket forts tended to require.
Pursing his lips slightly, Andrew hummed with concern. He didn’t really know what to suggest. He’d had trouble sleeping his first term at Hogwarts, but he hadn’t really done anything special to make it stop, it just had over time. “That sucks,” he said. “You want to exhaust yourself on my drums? Usually works for me.”
--
Evan, too, was of no use when it came to advising someone about what helped sleeplessness. If anything he was probably worse than Andrew, because Evan had never experienced sleeplessness. “That does suck,” Evan agreed nodding at Andrew’s words. He ate some more of his food thoughtfully, shrugging slightly after washing it down with some water. “I can definitely show you the spells,” he decided. “You can even keep the blankets if needs must,” Evan added because he was sure that if he needed them again for Andrew’s blanket forts, Evan could just borrow them back.
“Did you know that dolphins have to consciously remind themselves to breathe?” Evan asked as he scooped some more curry up in his naan. “This means that they never sleep, but only half sleep, because otherwise they’d forget to breathe and that’d suck,” Evan explained with a small nod. It seemed somewhat relevant to the conversation they were having.
--
Xavier was sure he had plenty of blankets they could use, and if he didn’t he could get more on his own without having to use any of theirs - not that he was opposed to it, but he didn’t want to put them out of some blankets. It didn’t particularly matter, he supposed, but he didn’t want to inconvenience anyone and their already established blanket fort.
“Thanks,” he said to Evan, appreciative of the offer to show him the spells. “And I appreciate the offer for your drums, but I’m not sure that would help me.” He’d never really played them before, and while he understood they were much more physical, he thought the fact that he had no idea what he would be doing might be more overwhelming than being tired by it. His gaze moved over to Evan when he started talking about dolphins, slowly chewing on some naan. “I didn’t know that, no.”
-
Andrew had quickly come to really appreciate Evan’s animal facts, and he smiled now as Evan shared another one. “I guess that makes sense,” he said, “since they have to get to the surface to breathe.” He broke off a fragment of poppadom and dipped it in sauce before eating it. “What about seals and things?” he asked, not necessarily expecting Evan to know the answer, but just voicing the question because he was curious. “Or do they sleep on land? Because they could, I guess, except they might get eaten.” Andrew really needed to look up a marine research centre, or something, because he thought Evan would love it.
“Maybe the gig will help,” he suggested to Xavier. “You know, tire you out?” Andrew usually had trouble sleeping the night after a gig, but the next day he slept longer and more deeply than usual. It hadn’t been that long since their last gig, though, so maybe Xavier hadn’t found it helpful. He shook his head, at a loss for what else he could do or say. “Are you too hot? Or too cold?”
--
Evan smiled when Andrew said it made sense and his smile grew bigger when Andrew asked about seals. There was something very pleasing about the way Andrew seemed to always have a question whenever Evan shared something. It didn’t matter to Evan whether Andrew agreed or disagreed with whatever Evan said, because what he did care about was the potential for a discussion. Even if it was seals and their sleeping patterns right now. “There is a study,” Evan said. “That suggests that seals sleep with half a brain always awake,” he explained before stuffing some more curry in his mouth. Once swallowing, Evan got some more rice on his plate. “They can sleep on land or in water, with their heads being the only part of them above water,” Evan added. Seals were really great, he thought. Not as great as those whales that ate them, but still.
Whilst Andrew asked Xavier if perhaps their gigs would tire him out enough to sleep, Evan pondered whether people could sleep with half a brain awake. Probably not. That was inconvenient since perhaps it would have been a helpful skill for Xavier. Still, Evan had zero suggestions of what would help someone sleep, so he ate some more food instead. No point in attempting to contribute when he had nothing to contribute with.
--
Xavier continued to eat quietly as they spoke about dolphins and seals, watching the two of them and just kind of taking in everything they were saying. He didn’t know much about animals, though he didn’t think about that much on a normal day, but it seemed to him this wasn’t an uncommon topic of conversation between Andrew and Evan seeing how easily they had moved into it.
“Not too hot or cold, just unable to get comfortable,” he said with a shrug. “The gig might help, can’t hurt. That’s kind of how I feel about most things these days.”
-
“That sounds risky,” Andrew noted, imagining a sleeping seal becoming a very easy target for a shark or something. “Can the half of their brain that’s awake control enough of them to swim away from danger or is it just breathing and things?” As he spoke, Andrew realised he had no actual idea what having half your brain awake would mean. He’d accepted it because Evan had said it, but he had no way to understand it.
Feeling full of curry and rice, Andrew started to close the containers no one was currently eating from. There was still plenty left that he could keep for the next day. Maybe he’d leave a note letting the rest of Quake know to help themselves, Aisling would love that. “Maybe we should get a book,” he mused to Xavier as he stood to tidy the now-closed containers away. “There must be books on sleeping, and we might find something helpful.” Andrew would probably leave the actual information-gathering to Xavier. He wasn’t well-suited to book-learning.
--
Evan frowned at Andrew’s question, pondering what the answer was. Not being either a zoologist or a neurologist, Evan wasn’t sure he could give a factual enough answer to the question. “It probably wakes them up,” he said thoughtfully. It seemed likely that the awake part of the brain would make sure that the other half also came awake. “Or, you know,” Evan added with a small shrug. “They just get eaten.” That seemed likely, especially since seals were one of the main groups of sustenance for many other animals.
At the mention of books, Evan nodded. There were books on everything, so there would definitely be books on sleeping disorders. “I can check the university library.” The Cambridge University had a rather extensive library, so if there were books, they’d have them. “Muggle might be easier than magic, but there’s got to be magic ones, too,” especially for potions and things, Evan thought. The disorder itself might also vary depending on whether one was Muggle or magic, but Evan wasn’t too sure without checking books first.
--
The research part of things wasn't exactly Xavier's forte. He never knew where to start, and then if he got into it, he didn't necessarily do well with figuring it out. That wasn't his wheelhouse. When Evan mentioned the university library, he had a feeling it might lead to information that would go right over his head.
"Thanks," he replied quietly, nudging his empty plate away from himself. "Aisling was looking into some things for me, but I think that was mostly to do with potions. She's definitely better at the research than me."