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last online Mar 27, 2024 15:16:27 GMT -7
OTHER
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Jan 31, 2021 16:38:57 GMT -7
Post by Galen Francis Ollivander on Jan 31, 2021 16:38:57 GMT -7
IT HAD BECOME SOMETHING OF A HABIT, FOR Frankie. Retracing the familiar steps up through London from the pub, or work each night. Though not always drunk, he was often swaying with the wind when he did so. He wouldn't have been brave enough otherwise, depending on his desperation. And, of course, how much he dreaded going back to the Ollivander's family home.
On this particular night he was not drunk. He'd been working for Ronnie, clearing out stock for the New Year. Her overbearing personality and the slew of snide remarks had driven Frankie to the nearest off license after closing. He'd bought a bottle of cheap whiskey and an even cheaper can of cider. To take the edge off. The cider he had consumed on his walk up, each guzzle easing the headache throbbing between his eyes. When it was finished he discarded it and tucked the whiskey bottle under his arm, almost as if to hide it from himself.
When he arrived at the block of flats, he pressed every button but Harper's until a neighbour buzzed him in. Too afraid that Harper would hear it was him and refuse to buzz him up. She'd never done so yet, but somehow he always assumed that 'next time' would be the 'last time'. This was where he'd 'disappeared to', Frankie thought, recalling his conversation with Nellie. He'd stopped hiding at hers and started hiding at Harper's instead.
Climbing the stairs, Frankie felt light-headed and happy. It took more than a single can of cider to get him drunk, but it was a good enough start. Easing the tension from his shoulders as he slumped against Harper's door frame and lifted a fist, rattling the wood lazily. "Harper..." He sang in to the wood, head leaning against the frame as he continued to rattle the frame. "Hope you ain't got a date in there," He teased, licking the cold from his lips, the bottle warm where he nested it in his armpit. "I've brought you a gift."
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last online Mar 28, 2024 2:18:45 GMT -7
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Jan 31, 2021 21:14:43 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2021 21:14:43 GMT -7
▲ Work was becoming increasingly draining as the holidays drew closer. She should have expected that there would be more inquiries about the charmed technology that was quickly being integrated to every aspect of their lifestyle. But the prospect of these magic-tech phones and laptops being Christmas gifts hadn’t even crossed her mind. There were specifics necessary for each device – the model, for instance – and a background check had to be performed on both the person requesting a charmed object and the one receiving it. Of course, she wasn’t the one performing the background checks, as that went to the Improper Use of Magic department. Those old crones had no concept of what this technology meant to the broader community, and decided that they were going to do a complete search on every individual asking for a device. That obviously wasn’t necessary, since they should have already had the witch or wizard on file if they had done something wrong. It was a simple cross reference that needed to be performed, and yet they opted for the lengthier route. It caused an unbelievable headache on Harper’s end, and she was already starting to feel the heat of angry parents wanting a charmed laptop for their kids to take back to Hogwarts. As if that was her fault! Most of the time she had all of her work complete the day it came in, and then it sat in a pile in the corner until Improper Use finished up with their portion of the job. Needless to say, it was time consuming and energy draining, despite the fact that she wasn’t doing anything wrong with her job. Therefore, unwinding became difficult at times. She had been home for over an hour already, but had made the mistake of logging into her work email and had been bombarded by messages regarding a phone that had been picked up earlier in the day. The problem? It was vibrating uncontrollably, and making a loud noise. Fifty emails back and forth later, and she had managed to convince the witch that their child was simply receiving text messages. Somehow, and Harper really didn’t understand this, the parent had figured out what email was but couldn’t get the general concept of a cellphone. She managed to turn her laptop off just in time to see another email come through, and shut it angrily. The knock and call of her name from her front door as she did so almost made her jump off of her couch. It wasn’t like it was late by any means, but she also wasn’t expecting anyone either. Whoever it was hadn’t messaged her either, as her phone screen had been empty since she’d left work. As she approached her front door, the voice coming from the other side of the door became clearer, and she realized it was just Frankie. Getting worked up over work had clearly gotten to her head more than she thought. “You can’t keep calling yourself that. That’s like repackaging a present over and over again,” she called through the door as she unlocked it, opening it just enough so that she could stick her head through. “And what if I do? What would you do then?” The only date she had tonight was with a bottle of wine, using her work laptop as a coaster for it. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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last online Mar 27, 2024 15:16:27 GMT -7
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Feb 17, 2021 15:16:25 GMT -7
Post by Galen Francis Ollivander on Feb 17, 2021 15:16:25 GMT -7
THE SOUND OF HARPER'S VOICE FILTERING through the doorway eased Frankie's anxiety. He slumped against the frame, a dopey smile curling one corner of his mouth as he heard the lock snick back and the wood crack from its hinges. A hand tucked in to hold the neck of the cheap whiskey. The other lifting up to rub an itch between his brows as he hid his smile behind his hand.
"But that's part of the thrill of it." He drawled, shrugging one shoulder, the other leaning against the door frame. Close enough to Harper to see the freckles across her nose, even in the dim lighting of the hallway. All he could see was her head and he placed a hand on the doorway between them. Not enough to push, but enough to convey his intention to come inside.
"I dunno," He answered honestly, his tongue running along his teeth in a restless sweep. "Ask 'em for a threesome?" He joked, his brows lifting as he tilted his chin down towards her, laughing under his breath. They were almost nose to nose and he nearly kissed her, leaving enough room for Harper to pull away if she wanted to. "I brought whiskey." He said, smelling of wood shavings and cider.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 2:18:45 GMT -7
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Feb 28, 2021 21:04:27 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Feb 28, 2021 21:04:27 GMT -7
▲ “Hmmm…” she sighed, narrowing her eyes at him as if she actually needed to think about letting him inside or not. She sort of liked having this power; there was nothing Frankie could do to get past the tiny gap in the door, the chain lock taut between them. If only that worked on everyone, namely Ondina. Muggles, and in this case squibs, stood no chance against a lock like this if they didn’t have a pair of bolt-cutters or knew how to kick a door down. She had watched plenty of police reality television growing up, since there was nothing else to do when she was stuck at home during the summer. “I’m trying to decide if I’m still bored or not from opening the same present,” she teased, pursing her lips at him. Which immediately turned into a jaw-dropping ‘o’ shape as he brought up the idea of a threesome, immediately showing her a bottle of whiskey he had with him. “You know I’m way too vanilla for something like that,” Harper laughed, shocked that he even mentioned it in the first place, especially with how bold it seemed to her. Closing the door quickly as he leaned towards her in the gap and sliding the lock off, she opened it all the way so that he could step inside. “I’m only letting you in because of the whiskey,” Harper explained, reaching out for the bottle and taking hold of it. She leaned up to kiss him quickly, before stepping back into the hallway a bit. “And because I can’t drink it all on my own. I think that’s a fair trade.”Flicking her hand at the door, it closed behind Frankie – a simple wandless trick she had been practicing in her eternal boredom whenever she was home alone. Little things like that were easy without a wand, though anything more than a slight push or a pull on an object was still a long ways away from happening for her. Setting the bottle down on her coffee table, she grabbed two glasses from the kitchen and brought them back over to the sofa, struggling when it came to pulling the cork out of the bottle. “Make yourself useful,” she teased again, holding the bottle out for him. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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last online Mar 27, 2024 15:16:27 GMT -7
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Jun 23, 2021 9:50:22 GMT -7
Post by Galen Francis Ollivander on Jun 23, 2021 9:50:22 GMT -7
VANILLA WAS NOT HOW FRANKIE WOULD HAVE described Harper. But, that was out of context. His hooded gaze staring down at her freckled face. The way the washed out light from the hallway behind him made her half in shadow. Red hair illuminated by the warm light emanating from within. She looked at him without judgement or fear. Not even that familiar disappointment he'd grown so used to from his own flesh and blood. Harper looked at him with endearing softness and the lightest annoyance. He fell inside when she finally opened the door.
"Drinking alone...?" Frankie drawled lazily. "Now that would be pathetic." As if he hadn't just spent the first half of his night pouring booze down his gullet like his life depended on it. But, that wasn't sexy enough to say out loud. He gave a self deprecating laugh instead. Though the laughter died somewhere near the back of his throat as he watched Harper's hand flick easily, the door shutting with a thud right at his back, making him flinch. "Easy, Sabrina." He hissed through his teeth, shivering at the cold snap of magic that lifted the hairs at the back of his neck. He could have gagged at the feeling, but that might have been the booze.
Throwing himself on to Harper's heinously comfortable sofa, Frankie wordlessly took the bottle without asking. A lopsided grin on his face as he eased the cork up by hand before using his back teeth to finally pry it free. He spat it in the opposite direction carelessly, shaking the contents with a tipsy excitement. "You know it's not half bad when it's got a fuckin' cork in the top." He teased, before clumsily filling both of the offered glasses Harper had produced. Own glass in hand and bottle abandoned on the coffee table, Frankie slouched back against the sofa, an arm reaching out across the backrest to brush against Harper's shoulder, body sinking in to the cushions. "So, did you miss me?" He asked with a slow lift of his brows, taking a mouthful from and his glass.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 2:18:45 GMT -7
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Jul 10, 2021 21:37:01 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jul 10, 2021 21:37:01 GMT -7
▲ Despite her seemingly endless amount of muggle knowledge, she didn’t understand the reference Frankie was making when he called her Sabrina after waving the door closed. His reaction was certainly curious though, as she had forgotten that using magic around him sometimes got him prickly. Probably the reason for the way he said it. That wasn’t going to stop her from waving her wand around whenever she wanted to, so he needed to get used to it. Something as simple as wandless magic wasn’t going to cause any harm, and all it did was remove easy movement, like closing the door or moving ingredients for a meal around to their proper places. She was starting to get to the point where there were more times than not that she was using quick spells to complete things. Cleaning and cooking was infinitely easier that way, and she wasn’t sure she even knew how to make dinner without charming everything to do it for her. Thinking about it as she struggled with the whiskey bottle, maybe Frankie was right… She watched him rip the cork out with his teeth and then shoot it across the room, laughing at him as he did so. “That works, I guess,” she said through a chuckle as she took her glass and leaned back into the couch and Frankie’s extended arm. “Hmm…” she sighed dramatically as she took a long sip of the whiskey. The first one always bit harder than it actually was. Trying to get a taste for it had taken a long time for her, but it seemed to finally be playing nicely with her taste buds. “I find it hard to miss someone when I saw them only a few days ago,” Harper reasoned as she looked up at him. “Work has been taking up all my time. I feel like I can barely stop to think, you know?” Time passed effortlessly when being at the office was all consuming. Having the freedom for this was becoming increasingly rare. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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last online Mar 27, 2024 15:16:27 GMT -7
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Aug 1, 2021 17:52:06 GMT -7
Post by Galen Francis Ollivander on Aug 1, 2021 17:52:06 GMT -7
SLOUCHING BACK IN TO THE SOFA, FRANKIE looked as if he was melting in to the cushions. His arm heavy across Harper's shoulders as it slowly slid from the backrest to her actual body. An unintentional bonus for him as he cradled his glass against his stomach lazily. His shirt wrinkled, the top buttons undone carelessly. He leaned in to her as she took a drink, that careful expression on her face. The one that never seemed to leave until Frankie least expected it. Like, when she was standing toe-to-toe with her psychotic little sister, for instance.
"Really?" Frankie was close enough to her now that when he turned, he could have leaned his chin on her shoulder easily, nose aligning with the crook of her neck. "That's so sensible..." He drawled teasingly, staring at the constellation of freckles on her cheeks and her nose, which was a little red from the sun, he thought. "But... what if I missed you?" The hand that was over her shoulder reached up and he threaded a long piece of her red hair between his fingers lazily, tangling it.
"I don't know..." He replied with bracing honesty, finally letting his chin drop down on to her soft, rounded shoulder. She was like a steadying weight he could lean against, the glass wetting his shirt where he pressed it against him tightly. "My work is just... it's mind-numbing." He sighed so heavily it ruffled her hair, so he leaned back to get a look at her, his own presence stifling him. "I used to be a doctor." He revealed, his mouth slack and dry. He took a swig to wet it, the alcohol burning in a pleasantly familiar way. "Pulling pints just isn't cutting it." He joked darkly, swallowing around the lump in his throat. He did not have the strength to even mention his acidic older sister's shoppe.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 2:18:45 GMT -7
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Nov 20, 2021 20:51:52 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Nov 20, 2021 20:51:52 GMT -7
▲ Sensible. That wasn’t a word she heard often. Everything at work relied on wild theories to get technology to mesh well with magic and growing up there wasn’t much sensible about dragon scorched gifts from her dad or dealing with her sister’s illness. Was it wrong to relish in absolute nothing? Having her own place now was the freedom she had been struggling for years to get, and even though her parents probably would have assisted her right out of Hogwarts with rent, she didn’t want to rely that much on them. She didn’t want to be Ondina. Who absolutely was not helpless but still maintained the guise of being a perfect little kitten that needed to be doted on taken care of. Everyone seemed to forget that cats were vicious killers and tacticians of destruction when they saw it fit to do so. She took a long sip of her drink to mute out the negative thoughts, because everything had honestly been going pretty well before those popped up again. That was the sort of thing that Ondina would relish if she was privy to them. “Then you would have been over days ago,” Harper teased through pursed lips before leaning down to quickly peck him on the forehead. He had slid deep into her couch, which was so easy to do and impossible to escape once it happened. The worst was when refills were needed or food had to be grabbed at the front door. Getting this couch was one of her better ideas if she really wanted to pat herself on the back. Frankie responded about his own work, and Harper knew that she shouldn’t press too much on it. There were some things about him that were like a minefield; not that she was scared to navigate it, but more worried what the effect would be for him if she started asking questions. She hadn’t known about the doctor bit though. “Wait, what?” she said in surprise, adjusting herself on the couch so that she could get a better look at him. “Not that I don’t think your incapable of that, but what?” She wasn’t sure if that made everything make a lot more sense or shroud him in more mystery. Because she had definitely thought his job as a bartender was quite a bit below what he was capable of. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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last online Mar 27, 2024 15:16:27 GMT -7
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Sept 4, 2022 14:05:49 GMT -7
Post by Galen Francis Ollivander on Sept 4, 2022 14:05:49 GMT -7
THE PARTNER OF WARM WHISKEY AND SOFT couch cushions was like a balm on every one of Frankie's frayed nerves. The warmth of a body helped as well, he supposed. Easing his aching bones backwards, sliding into the soft curves of Harper's side. He sighed a quiet, crackling laugh when she absently pecked his drooping head. He'd never been the type for forehead kisses, or sweetened affection. And yet, something tightened in the confines of his old chest at Harper's careful charm. He had actually missed her, Frankie thought, but he didn't say it again.
Leaning backwards, Frankie watched the change in Harper's face as his old merits sunk in. Everybody was so bloody surprised, Frankie didn't have it in him to be offended by it any more. Harper was so genuine about everything, even surprise. Frankie gripped the back of the sofa and nudged her thigh with his knee. "What?" He grinned at her, tongue running behind his teeth with something akin to smug satisfaction. "I don't look like a doctor to you?" He dropped his leg and leaned over to place his glass on the coffee table.
Sitting back, Frankie loomed over Harper's side. Tongue in cheek as he let his free hand lace their fingers together for a second. From there, he walked his fingers up the back of her hand. "Phalanges, metacarpus, carpus..." His voice low and almost reverent as he flexed muscles in his mind he hadn't touched in a very long time. His fingers ran up her lower arm, humming as he continued, "Ulna, radius, humerus..." He lifted his brows with creased laugh lines around his mouth. His hand settled warmly on the jut of her collarbone under the soft material of her shirt. "I was pretty good, you know..." He felt his smile slacken and fall, lips pulling down at the corners. "I was really fuckin' good." He couldn't look at the aching sincerity always present in her face.
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last online Mar 28, 2024 2:18:45 GMT -7
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Sept 25, 2022 10:01:15 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2022 10:01:15 GMT -7
▲ "Honestly? Not in the slightest," Harper laughed. Not that she knew many doctors to begin with, and those she did used magic instead of the mundane. Though that brought up a great discussion she'd had before with others, about how modern muggle medicine was essentially magic for them. A different form of potions and alchemy that suited their non-magical natures. She had so many questions for Frankie now, because medical school was definitely a unique experience for those from their world. And here she thought she had a wildly different view on things because she knew how to use cellphones and laptops better than most. With the way her own work was going, eventually everyone would have one or the other and be more attached to the muggle world than ever before. Their community honestly needed it. Sometimes it felt like they were in the dark ages. Listening to him name off the different bones in her hand and arm as he traced up to her collarbone caused her breathing to become shallow. This was the side of him she knew was absent most of the time, but had never wanted to pry into. He stopped at that point, and she immediately knew there was still something left that wasn't ready to be talked about. A deeper sadness that took over the momentary expertise he had just shown. Merlin, what had happened to him? Harper gently took his hand into hers and moved it up to her face. It felt giant, but comforting like always. She didn't really know what to say in this moment because she had no idea what would be proper or not. "Can you tell me more?" she asked, rolling her thumb over his much larger hand. She wanted to know everything, eventually. There was a lot to unpack with Frankie Ollivander, she knew that much. But she was pretty sure she'd get there eventually. MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0
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