[mini plot] where we tent for our treasure [#eli]

It was April, and it was chilly!

Max curled herself up in her oversized cardigan and crossed her legs a little tighter into their pretzel-ed configuration. Blue eyes sent glances left and then right in search of ridiculous activities. "I was hoping more people would be here." For warmth! And live entertainment! Which was the sole purpose she convinced Elijah to truck his butt out to this event! The allure of delightful spectacles doing whatever craziness they do for huge events such as this was bound to be, well… delightful!

Alas! They were early. Per usual for Max. Overly early. Annoying early, perhaps. But better to be early than late! Right?

Max sent a slow glance towards Elijah who had taken a seat next to her on the blanket she purchased while on a raid in Prague. Thin looking at first glance, but magicked by a skilled street-cart saleslady to feel like a cloud. So for Max, this was functional and comfortable. Hopefully Elijah felt the same. The glance was to make sure Elijah was even slightly intrigued. Hopefully. Cue worrying-Max.

Anyways, Max reached out and repositioned her supply bag of drinks and foods to pass the time. A small telescope in the side pocket, charcoal stick and parchment pieces in another, and a cheap camera that's survived far worse than Hogsmeade shenanigans should suffice to capture some moments. Elijah was there to capture the best of them.

As she stuffed her hands into her bag, she pulled out two brown bottles of wheat beer from a nearby brewery. Gentle on the alcohol level, you know, so she didn't look creepy. "Care for one? I have more if you end up liking it!" She smiled brightly and pulled out two plastic wrapped sandwiches. One with cucumber and another with turkey. The cucumber was by default hers. "Turkey sandwich?" Her head tilted to the side, shoulder shrugging in the act as she offered the sandwich over to Eli.

"I'm sure more people will show up soon." She reassured him, giving an actual physical nod of her head and yet still finding herself hoping deep down that he didn't think this was a waste of time.

With a soft sigh, Elijah Dasher lowered himself onto the blanket that Max had been so generous to bring along, and was surprised to find it to be quite comfortable. Once his lanky frame was settled, the man slipped off his backpack and rummaged around inside for a few moments. In a few fluid motions the cartoonist had pulled out his various pencils, inks, and paper along with a telescope for himself, and a few comic books to share. He wasn’t sure if Max liked comic books, but Arden and his mother were always harping on him to share, and comic books were things that he had in spades. With everything set out within reach of both of them, Eli pulled a piece of drawing paper on a charmed drawing surface to keep the paper dry, and in place, into his lap and began to doodle absently.

Honestly, the man preferred being early rather than late, as it gave him the chance to doodle and people watch without having to worry about dealing with crowds or other inconveniences. Not to mention, if they were going to be drawing, and capturing the night, they needed to be in the right spot, and this seemed to be it. Glancing up at the sky for a moment, Elijah wondered how many different ways the sky would light up. The possibilities seemed to be endless in his mind, and that made for some very interesting drawing ideas.

His train of thought was interrupted by Max’s cheery voice. Did he want a beer? Eli wasn’t really sure what to do, he’d never really had any alcohol before. While he debated, he rubbed a ink stained thumb over his chin, leaving a dark trail across it. Part of him thought about refusing, but the other part of him also knew it would be rude. Not that being rude wasn’t something Elijah wasn’t good at, in fact, he was quite good at it. But being that Max hadn’t done anything to annoy him or upset him, he saw no need to be rude at the moment. So with a nod, Elijah reached for the beer “Thank you...i’ll let you know what I think.” He finished with a small smile, not entirely sure what the appropriate reaction was.

When the drink was followed by a sandwich, Elijah was genuinely surprised, but reached a hand out dumbly to take it, and offered her a small nod in return “Oh..er thanks.” With that, Eli took his first sip of beer, and began unwrapping the sandwich. The beer was interesting to say the least, but it wasn’t as bad as he’d been anticipating “Where did you get the beer?” He asked in what he hoped was a conversational tone, but he wasn’t sure if it had worked.

At her reassurance Eli nodded in return “I’m sure they will...this is supposed to be quite the event, no?” After a slight pause the man flicked some of the hair out of his eyes before continuing “Have you ever seen the lights before?” Eli usually prided himself on knowing a lot about many different things, but tonight, he had to admit he knew little of the lights, except the basic facts.   

Twisting the cap off of her own bottle, Max pressed it against her lips and took an initially small, but as she thought about it probably a larger drink would be a far better choice to start off the evening, and so it turned into a gallant gulp of the hefeweizen styled brew. Upon hearing Elijah's question of the beer itself, Max pressed the back of her sandwich wielding hand to her lips as she swallowed the last of her gulp down. Blue eyes focused on Elijah and a small smile of apology plastered itself across her face, you know, since she couldn't answer right away and made the poor guy wait another two seconds.

"I actually got this in a small wizarding town close to the Muggle town, Chipperfield, it's just outside of London. But there's this place and it's very fascinating!" Max nodded, all of a sudden getting a little caught up in her story. Prepare for fast talking and a brain dump of information dear Eli! "It's called 'Hollowed Brewery' and it's this inn, but it's also a restaurant! And if you walk past the fancy restaurant part you get to this bar. It's made out of this beautiful , rustic wood. Probably an aged mahogany." She blinked and glanced quickly at Elijah. That bit was probably unnecessary. Wood. Really, Max?

Anyways!

"But, so they have these four beer brewing areas that are connected to these wooden barrels that are holding their home-made brews! It's really quite intricate and interesting." She gave a few quick, unknowing nods and straightened her back out, reorganizing her thoughts to where she was going with all of this chitter chatter. "So, I got their blonde ale. I think they called it 'Veela's Dance' or something equally as clever." She looked at her bottle and blinked, the corner of her lips tugging downwards as she realized how ominous the bottles looked without a proper label. "I swear I'm not trying to poison you with mysterious beer in unlabeled bottles, Elijah."

Now she was a creeper.

Max took another swig and tried to keep her eyes bugging out out of embarrassment to a minimum. Giving another quick series of this time knownnods, Max smiled. "It really should be quite interesting! I want to say that this is something that happens every so many decades, at least for people to be able to see it in this particular location. My father claimed to have seen it, but he…" Don't get sad, don't get quiet! Come on… "He might have been confusing it with something else." She paused and fiddled with the plastic around her sandwich, opening it up surely by the end of it. "He didn't spend much time around Hogwarts after graduating. But, at least we're prepared for it!"

The girl changed the direction her thoughts were heading and redirected them to all of their supplies. Typical Claw alum moves right here! She gave a flick of the pocket holding her telescope and camera with her the toe end of her shoe. "We won't miss a thing!" She was back to smiling and finally managed to unwrap her sandwich all the way. "So, will you be drawing in the moment, or interpreting from pictures and then adding your own twist to it?" Everyone had a process for what they did, that much Max had learned over her years. And, since she wasn't skilled in the arts necessarily, she was honestly intrigued in how Eli would go about the whole process. "I bet a watercolor effect would be quite lovely and suitable in this instance…" Max chimed aloud, for no real rhyme or reason.

As Max launched into her interesting, if not long winded response to his question, Elijah found himself nodding along politely, as he was apt to do when he didn’t want to offend anyone too grievously. But decided as she was about half way through, that the small brewery/restaurant combo actually sounded like something he might enjoy looking up in the future.  He made a mental note to look into the place some more when he wasn’t supposed to be watching the northern lights. After another beat he added “Do I owe you something for the drinks, and the sandwich?” Social conventions like this one made him want to eat his shoe. He couldn’t ever figure out whether he was in the right or the wrong asking these kinds of things.

He nodded again while the witch finished describing the inside of the brewery, and thought that if they had a quiet corner he could sit in, he definitely wouldn’t mind spending some time there when he didn’t care to be at home in his room. Veela’s Dance wasn’t particularly clever in his mind, but he said nothing of the sort as he tipped the bottle back in his hands to examine the bottle. It was a home brew alright, and it looked just rustic enough that he imagined many a folk grabbed it off the shelves for its unlabeled novelty.

When Max reassured him that she wasn’t trying to poison him, Eli laughed “I wouldn’t have guessed you were, but perhaps that’s my fault. Anyway, whats a few drinks between friends?” He added nervously before clamming up again, and taking a deep drink from the bottle in his hand. The more he drank the stuff, the more he enjoyed it, he noticed. It was odd, but he supposed this was probably why regular people also enjoyed the stuff. But he put that topic aside for another time, as he watched the witch nod. She certainly did like to nod, he noticed, and she had yet to call him Eli like so many others did without thinking.

Elijah wasn’t sure how to feel about it, if he was being honest, but he didn’t mind it enough at the moment to be cross with his companion, which was a rare occurrence in itself. Eli realized Max had stopped talking about the once in a lifetime chance to see the lights rather suddenly. Frowning the wizard debated whether or not it would be appropriate to say anything pointing it out, but quickly decided that it might be one of those taboo things, and decided not to risk it. Twitching slightly, Elijah shot a quick glance at Max, waiting for her to recover enough to continue before he said anything more “Better to know what’s coming than not, I suppose..” He knew he must have been horribly awkward, because even he could feel it that time.

Taking a bite out of his sandwich, the man chewed and listened as Max poked her telescope with her toe. He offered her another smile after he’d managed to swallow the rather large bite and nodded. But he was glad that she’d been obviously more thoughtful than he had. He’d brought comics, for Merlin’s sake.

While he mulled over the best way to answer Max’s question, he fiddled with the small piece of charcoal that had found its way into his hand again, then absently rubbed a finger along his nose before he’d realized he’d done it again. He was so used to being covered in ink, charcoal, or paint that the brunette didn’t mind, but he didn’t want to appear completely socially inept for once in his life “Probably both, if I can manage to get some good drawings and a good picture or two for later use..” He paused shrugging “Honestly, I think I’m just glad I’m here, to see it.” It was an unusually honest response, and Elijah wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but didn’t think anything more of it as he returned her question “How about you? What’s your preferred method?”