juststopped | for Krem

It isn't the first time she's ended up somewhere she didn't necessarily intend. In private, she's done her fair share of crying over Flemming - she misses her daughter like a part of her, even after so many years - but in public, she's decided to put a brave face on it. After he'd delivered her to her apartment, Krem had told her that he'd be happy to take her for dinner, once she felt more settled. Adaline's done a little bit to make the apartment her own. She's gone back to the place that Sam bought her and put together a capsule wardrobe that's a sad shadow of her guest room back in San Francisco. She is, in short, trying. And that has to count for something.

It's the middle of the afternoon when she texts Krem.

Dinner would be nice - Adaline.

They arrange to meet at a place that Adaline's walked past a few times. It's not a particularly showy place, but she does make an effort, putting on a dress with a full skirt that reminds her of something she might have bought new in the fifties. She does her hair and make-up. She considers heels for a long time and then decides to wear them anyway. Krem strikes her as someone who doesn't lack for confidence, quiet though it seems to be.

She's a little late when she steps into the restaurant, shrugging out of her coat to let the hostess check it for her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

juststopped

"On and off," she says, nodding, idly toying with silverware because she honestly finds herself in danger of blushing if she looks at him too directly for too long. She blames Ellis for this - for reminding her that she has a heart again. "I'm best with photographs and film. Older things. What's your friend's name?"

From:

krempuff

"I don't think I've ever been to one, actually," Krem said, sort of contemplatively. There were statues and monuments and old ruins all over Thedas, and he had seen a great many in all his traveling. But the concept of a museum still struck him as a little odd.

"Dorian," he said. He hummed a little. "He's from home. Home home, not just where I was brought from, either. We're countrymen--different parts of the country, but." He waved a hand a little bit, almost dismissively at his rambling, and cleared his throat. "Anyway, you'd know if you'd have run across him. Very sharply dressed, often accessorizes with an unnecessary amount of jewelry. Far too well groomed mustache."

From:

juststopped

"You paint a very vivid picture," she says, and she can't help but laugh, nodding thanks as the waiter delivers their drinks. "I'll definitely keep him in mind.I love museums though; a lot of people don't value the past nearly enough."

From:

krempuff

He let the waiter pour the wine, and even managed to not make a face that it was only a little bit of wine in his glass. When the waiter had gone, he poured himself a little bit more. If he'd paid for the bottle, he was drinking his share of wine. He tilted the bottle toward Adaline inquisitively.

"We didn't have museums back home. There were libraries, but most of them were private, or the Circles controlled them. History was a thing taught by the Chantry--ah, the churches."

From:

juststopped

"Oh!" says Addie, eyes wide, interested to hear about where he's from. She nudges her wine glasses towards him and takes a sip of her soda while he pours.

"I originally trained as a secretary but I've mostly been doing archival work for years now," she says.

From:

krempuff

He smiled a little pouring her an equal measure of wine to his own--it only seemed fair, and she seemed the sort of lady that would definitely call him out if he short changed her on the service when he'd already doled himself out.

"So it's something you definitely enjoy doing," he said with surety. He set the bottle aside, much more content to focus on her than try to find ways to explain where he'd come from. "The archival work."

From:

juststopped

"I just like history," says Adaline, reaching for her wine glass, cradling it between long fingers as she studies him for a moment. "Too many people are too wrapped in the present to even notice the value in things that have already happened."

From:

krempuff

Krem let himself admire her fingers a moment, the length of them and how she spread them against the glass, as he listened to the way she spoke. It was a lovely idea, certainly; about how Dorian looked at his archival work as well, and as much as Krem enjoyed debating him about it, he knew there was merits to it.

"There are benefits to both, I think," he said, and nodded a bit as he sipped his wine. "My home could have benefit from making history more accessible. There was too much repetition of it, too much thought, well, we can do it better because we know best now. Being wrapped up in the present. But I don't think it does well to dwell too much in the past. You'll forget where you live, what's ahead of you."

From:

juststopped

Adaline makes a thoughtful noise as she takes a sip of her wine. How often has she left parts of herself behind over the years? She's shrunk herself down to her most useful size.

"Agreed," she says. "It's worth holding on to the valuable and the beautiful but sometimes you've got to let things go."

From:

krempuff

The appetizers came, along with small plates so that they could separate out what they wanted evenly--though Krem thought that an awful waste of resources, really; he wasn't the one setting the table, though, or doing the dishes. He waited to see which one she'd pick first.

"Besides archival work," he asked, "what do you fill your time with? You said you like photographs and film?"

From:

juststopped

Adaline makes a beeline for a fish with mushrooms and garlic. A thought that, maybe, she might regret having garlic later fleets through her mind and she dismisses it, glad that she doesn't blush easily.

"I read a lot. I go to the movies. I love music. Languages? I used to like to travel." She sighs a little, laughing. "I make myself sound terribly dull, don't I?"

From:

krempuff

"No," Krem assured, shaking his head a bit and smiling, trying some of the bruschetta himself while she tried the fish. "No, not at all. Honestly, though, I think it's hard to make most people sound particularly dull."

He hummed a little, eating for a moment, before he shrugged a shoulder. "I've made you talk about yourself an awful lot, I feel like, I'm sorry. You can ask about me as well, if you'd like too."

From:

juststopped

Shielding her mouth for a moment while she finishes chewing, Adaline takes another sip of her wine and then smiles.

"Your accent," she says, tilting her head a little, earring making a musical sound as it shifts. "Where are you from?"

From:

krempuff

Krem smiled and tilted his wine glass a little. "You haven't heard of it. That isn't a slight on your travels, either, Adaline--I mean, except for myself and the three other people from my world, no one in Darrow has heard of where I'm from."

He took a bit of the fish next, to try it as well. The garlic was sharp and flavorful and he hummed softly. "I'm from a land called Tevinter, in a place called Thedas."

From:

juststopped

"Tevinter," echoes Adaline, sounding out the unfamiliar words, taking care to copy his inflections. "And I thought I was terribly cosmopolitan because I lived in England for a summer." She laughs at herself, at how ridiculous she sounds. "What's it like there? Do you miss it?"

From:

krempuff

"From reading about Earth," Krem said, laughing softly, "It is a bit Ancient Rome and late British Empire. Clinging to the vestiges of our once glorious past, constantly in mired conflict with a long-time Barbarian foe to the north. Seat of all the great culture of Thedas."

Krem made a bit of a face, rolled his eyes powerfully. "I do. I really--sometimes, more than others. Dorian helps with that. I left nearly ten years ago, but he left much more recently. We didn't know each other back in Tevinter, but we were expatriates in the south. Hm. That's putting it nicely. We were exiles."

From:

juststopped

"Goodness," says Adaline, taking another bite of her food. The look on his face is amusing and she laughs a little, not cruelly, though. When he says the word exile, Adaline sobers, a little. It's not like she doesn't understand that, a little. Even though she'd been able to go back to San Francisco eventually.

"That must have been a hard life," she says, taking another sip of her wine. "I'm so sorry that you had to go throught that."

Already, she likes him enough that the thought of that hurts, a little.

From:

krempuff

"It was...life," Krem said, and shrugged, not precisely resigned but settled to it at least. "It was better to have left Tevinter when I did. I didn't have another option. Things were good in the south for a while. And, now, I'm here."

It was such a painfully abridged version of things, but the rest of it seemed terrible dinner conversation. He smiled gently.

From:

juststopped

"Let's talk about something else," says Adaline, brightly. Talking about the past clearly isn't something that Krem relishes and she can sympathise with that. On impulse, she reaches out and squeezes his hand. "What's life like here? What do you do with your days? I still feel a little like I'm on holiday."

From:

krempuff

Krem laughed a little bit and hummed. His own laugh was a bit of an upheaval at the moment, so he avoided the detail of that at the moment, as well. But his routine hadn't changed, spectacularly.

"I imagine it's like it is in any other city? It's not so different, even, than how it was back home. Everyone has their routines that they get into, and they tend to go about their business." He sipped his wine. "I work two jobs. I do athletics training at a gym, and tailoring at a department store. It keeps me busy, keeps me out of trouble."

He tapped his foot, thinking a little. "I told you about the street fairs, there's a fir amount of parties and the like. People find ways to pass the time fairly regularly. There's no way to travel, so it's a matter of filling the day to day, I suppose. I think that's a bit easier for someone like me, who didn't travel for the first near twenty years of their life and never saw any of this technology until he got here."

From:

juststopped

"I will miss travelling," says Addie, draining her glass and thinking about it for a moment before holding her glass out to him for more with a little smile. "I suppose I'll have to make my own fun."

Which is, after all, what she's doing.

From:

krempuff

"It is a damn shame," Krem said softly, almost wistfully. "Even if I never got to go home, I'd like to see some of the places I've read about since I got here."

He pulled out the bottle of wine again and filled up her glass. As he was finishing and refilling his own glass, the waiter came back out again with their entrees, placing them in front of them. Krem indulged himself in glancing over the waiter briefly as he walked away from their table, before telling himself that he was being rude. Even if this wasn't anything more than friendly dinner, Adaline deserved his undivided attention.

He lifted his glasses in a little toast. "To making our own fun?"

From:

juststopped

"I've been some amazing places," she says, watching as he refills her glass. The waiter puts the plate of pasta in front of her and she catches her hair back so that she can lean down and inhale the aroma of it for a moment. Over the years, she's eaten some amazing food. Thankfully, her metabolism has never let her down.

She lifts her own glass to match his. One eyebrow quirks.

"I'm sure we'll figure something out between us," she says, her face perfectly straight.

From:

krempuff

Krem was proud, both for his relatively olive complexion even in these winter months and for his own growing control, that he didn't immediately flush at her soft tone and direct gaze. He tipped his glass against Adaline's so that they gave a light, musical clatter, before taking a little sip and turning his attention to his pork and potatoes.

Everything lulled, briefly, into a pleasant and companionable silence that was filled with the desire to enjoy the first bites of their meals. After a few minutes, he looked up at her. "Would you like to try a bite?"