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Tweak says, "CAPTAIN ASTRO & GALAXY LAD!"

Erik Lehnsherr (wealreadyare) wrote in colligo_threads,
@ 2011-07-11 17:14:00

Entry tags:

erik lehnsherr, shosanna dreyfus

WHO: Erik Lehnsherr & Shosanna Dreyfus
WHAT: Erik is out scouting properties for his own business and happens across an interesting looking theatre.
WHERE: The Colligo Cinema
WHEN: July 11th; Afternoon
RATING: PG
STATUS: In Progress

Erik had been in Colligo for nearly a month and while he had learned how to be frugal early on in his life and had been flabbergast at the amount of money he had been given at the bank, a hundred dollars simply didn't last as long as in this time as it did back in his own. It wasn't surprising considering everything seemed to cost about ten times as much as it used to, so as it was, Erik could only figure that he'd done quite well making what little he'd been given last for as long as he had. Now, he had two options in front of him. He could either allow himself to be supported by others or find a job that he was likely neither suited nor qualified for. But as neither of those options appealed to him, Erik decided he'd do what he had become so good at during the last few decades. He'd take the third option instead.

Despite the fact he'd barely been six years old when his family had lost their business to Kristallnacht, Erik still vividly remembered everything that his father had ever taught him about their family craft. 'Jeweling is an artform,' he used to say. 'We do with metal and gems what the painter does with oils and canvas and what the poet does with pen and paper.' His father had told him once that manipulating metal was in his blood. There was a bitter irony in that statement now. If his father had only known just how much he had ingrained in his son the family trade... Erik couldn't help but wonder if he would have looked upon it as a blessing...or a curse. Either way, it gave him an edge when it came to crafting that his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had never had before him. And Erik had faith in his memories of his father filling in the rest.

Having spent much of the morning pouring over the unoccupied commercial properties in the business district of Colligo, Erik had decided to walk back to the Mansion rather than taking a cab back and wasting what little cash he had remaining on him. Other than keeping him from going broke, walking also had other benefits like seeing things that he might have otherwise missed had he been in the traffic. Like the tiny little theater that he stumbled across after turning a corner, his gaze having been caught by the foreign language poster in one of the handful of 'now playing' displays outside. In the time that he had spent in America, Erik hadn't seen a single theater playing films that weren't in English. Intrigued, Erik had moved his attention from the posters outside to the young woman in the box office.

"It's good to see some diversity represented around these parts. Most of the movies I've seen since I arrived were more flash than substance. Very American."

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jewishvengeance
2011-07-11 11:22 pm UTC (link)

Shosanna had gotten a job in the small theatre within her first few days of arriving in Colligo. It was still familiar enough, even with what advancements there had been since her own time, that she fit in rather easily. She was intelligent, which also helped her acclimate to the changes, but it certainly was made easier by the fact that her boss was an elderly man - a local - who simply preferred the quiet life and had only had the place to start with because his wife had adored foreign films so much. Now she was dead and he simply didn't have the heart to shut it down.

Personally, Shosanna hoped to possibly convince him to sell it to her someday. It was just her and two other employees, with the owner's son helping out on weekends. There wasn't much business but it stayed afloat and the customers were loyal. And although she preferred to be in the projection booth, far removed from the people coming and going, she found she honestly didn't mind covering a break from time to time in the box office if only so she could say hello to those who spent their hard earned cash there.

She was doing that when someone spoke to her about something other than the time or price of a particular film. She cut her gaze upward from the magazine she'd been idly flipping through, scanning him with a practised ease of a young woman used to having to know her surroundings at all times. Her lips quirked upward a bit and she sat up a little straighter.

"There's something to be said for a good story," she replied lightly. "It should be able to tell its tale without any... flash."

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wealreadyare
2011-07-12 12:55 am UTC (link)

"Quite," Erik said, offering the young woman a bright smile. There was a hint of an accent in her words, the familiar dulcet tones of le français, and if anything, that prompted Erik to be instantly fond. With the number of Americans which populated this makeshift city, it was nice to meet another member of the European continent. "Kids these days don't seem to appreciate the subtlety behind a good story that can keep you on the edge of your seat without something exploding every five minutes," And that statement leaving his lips just marked him as well past his time. Congratulation, Erik, you've reached old aged in your early thirties.

"Erik Lehnsherr," Erik said by way of introduction, chuckling a bit at the complication that the box office glass made to his instinct to shake hands. "It's a lovely place that you've got here," He said, tipping his head back up to examine the building. He'd seen the huge multiplex in the heart of the city in one of his earlier walks and hadn't quite known what to make of it. It made sense in a society that seemed to think that more was better no matter what they were discussing, but the nondescript appearance of the building and the almost factory like atmosphere in the various hallways had prompted him to only linger for a moment. This was quite more to his speed where the theater was just as attractive as the pictures being shown inside of it. At least, from the outside. It was probably just as wonderful inside.

"I'm not taking you away from anything, am I?" Erik asked. If she was in the box office like this, she was probably working, officially, but it was always hard to tell when there's a line out the back to keep the individual busy. Either way, Erik still stepped to the side a bit where he could still talk to her but didn't look as though he was perpetually in line.

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jewishvengeance
2011-07-12 01:55 am UTC (link)

That was the second time that Shosanna had heard that name. It had been offered to her shortly after her arrival in the city, over the strange device she still felt no real urge to use very often. Her smile became more pronounced as she shook her head. "I am only covering a break," she explained. "Unless someone wants a ticket, I have nothing more to do."

Getting a little more comfortable on the stool provided, she added, "And we've spoken before. I'm Shosanna." She had given her real name when she'd arrived, willing to extend such a trust. So far it hadn't been in vain yet each time she offered she felt her stomach clench a bit with worry. This time, however, she wasn't worried. He was Jewish, just like her. She had nothing to worry about with him.

She might have said more but the door to her booth opened, the person she'd been covering for finally returning. Holding up her finger at Erik for him to wait a minute, Shosanna gathered her things and exited the box office. A few moments later she stepped outside, approaching Erik with a slight smile. "Now it is time for my break. It is also a pleasure to meet you, in person."

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wealreadyare
2011-07-12 02:43 am UTC (link)

Erik recognized the name, the utterance of it sparking an instant empathy within him. The woman standing in front of him was one of the few people in this city that understood the sort of history that had shaped his life, shaped both their lives, in a way that wasn't filtered by decades of distance, and that was enough to give Erik an instant desire to both get to know her better and make sure that she was comfortable within the city. But he was able to restrain himself from saying things that might make him seem insane.

Stepping back when he was signaled to wait, he returned her smile as she approached him again, "The pleasure is all mine, I'm sure. I don't think I'm the most interesting person to run into on the street," He said, glancing down the street before turning back to Shosanna and smiled. "I saw a coffee shop just down the street, though. I could always buy you a drink and let you decide whether I am or not yourself."

Which, yes, was perhaps not the best thing to put more of his limited funds into, but even if her break was only a handful of minutes long, it would give them the opportunity to talk without a malfunctioning communication device between them.

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jewishvengeance
2011-07-12 03:30 am UTC (link)

Shosanna smiled at the invitation for coffee. True the shops around here paled in comparison to the ones she frequented in Paris. However they weren't too terrible and it was certainly better to spend her break there than standing on the corner. "Coffee sounds good," she agreed with a nod. To some it might seem too hot but Shosanna enjoyed the beverage year round.

"I've enough time for a cup. Shall we?" she urged. She had a limited time on her break and would prefer to spend more of it sitting down with the coffee than discussing getting it. Turning, she waved at the young man standing in the box office before follow Erik in the direction of the coffee shop.

"What brings you to this part of the city?" she questioned curiously as they walked. Shosanna saw no reason not to make idle conversation en route and had to admit that not many non-locals made their way into the theatre area. They tended to stick to the larger, gaudier shops a few blocks away, she had discovered.

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wealreadyare
2011-07-13 01:06 am UTC (link)

"Taking a look at the empty storefronts," Erik said as he walked with her. Erik had already looked at the main area of the city, but the atmosphere of chain stores and trendy boutiques was not the sort of thing that he felt like being surrounded with constantly, so instead, he'd expanded his investigations to the farther reaches of the city and had found a pleasant balance between the manufactured consumerism of the city center and dubious legality of many of the warehouse district's stores in this area's much more familiar charms. "Checking out exactly what areas were available and which ones might work when it comes to housing a new business," He said, glancing at her sideways with a smile before stepping around her when they reached the cafe and pulling open the door. "After you," Erik said with a slight gesture towards the inside of the cafe and followed behind her as she entered.

"This area of the city is actually quite nicer than the rest of it. At least, in my opinion. It's much more like what I'm used to. There's enough to adjust to in this place without having all 50 years that you've missed jammed immediately under your nose in the form of everything being far too fast and far too loud all at once," Or maybe he really was just feeling his age a lot sooner than he should be by having to witness all of this progress in one foul swoop. "Speaking of adjusting, how are you settling in?"

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jewishvengeance
2011-07-15 12:09 am UTC (link)

Shosanna had to admit she was a touch surprised at his reason for being in the area. Whatever she had expected upon first meeting Erik, she certainly hadn't anticipated he might be the type to run his own business. Or at least not one that would fit in nestled into the area of the city where the theater was located. She didn't say anything about that, though, instead simply listening as he spoke.

She didn't speak at all, in fact, until they were already seated at their table a few seconds later. Once they were, she met his gaze across the table with a smile. "As well as I can hope to adjust," she answered honestly. "I have always been good at adapting, which helps." Mostly that adapting skill was born from necessity over the past four years of her life but if there was anyone in the city she didn't have to explain that to, it was the man sitting across from her. With a brief glance around the shop, she added, "It is a lot to get used to, though. So many advancements..."

With a slight shake of her head to stop herself from going off on a tangent about the wonders of modern technology, Shosanna instead arched an eyebrow and asked curiously, "What sort of business are you considering?"

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wealreadyare
2011-07-15 12:58 am UTC (link)

Erik understood the ability to adapt. It was one he had cultivated himself after the war in order to try and deal with a situation where he didn't have any support or no desire to follow the standard rules of how to operate in society. But still, there was quite a bit more in this place to deal with than just figuring out how to make a bit of money in order to grab a train ticket to the next country over.

"It's almost too much to take in all at once," Erik said as he offered her a fond smile. "But it's nice to think that the world has developed so much when there was a point there when it looked like we were all going to destroy ourselves," He said quietly before raising a hand to attract the attention of one of the waiters.

Once their order was placed, Erik smiled at her curiosity and felt a warmth thinking about the plan that he'd laid out in his mind, "I'm hoping to build up a jewelry business. My family had one in Nuremberg when I was a kid, and as long as it's been since I was there, I hate the idea of letting what my father taught me go to waste." Even if it was never going to be put in practice back in his own reality what with the mission that he had to fulfill, there was no reason for him to let himself flounder when he didn't have anyone that needed to be protected.

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jewishvengeance
2011-07-15 05:46 am UTC (link)

Once again, Shosanna found it a bit difficult to imagine Erik in the line of work he'd chosen. She understood the fact that he had clearly changed thanks to the war. She knew that most of the Jews who had been persecuted had changed in ways that was not easily explained to anyone who hadn't suffered through it. However she still had a hard time picturing him creating jewelry, of all things. Not that she would say as much and was equally sure she would be able to associate such a thing with him once she grew accustomed to the idea. For the time being, though, she was surprised, but in a somewhat pleasant sort of way.

"Good for you," she agreed with a smile. Some part of her, the part that had felt upon arrival in this city that the suffering of her people had been in vain, couldn't help but feel a bit vindicated on behalf of Jewish people everywhere that he was choosing to pick back up the family business that his father had tried to instill in him before the Nazis had come. There were days, far more often than not, that Shosanna desperately missed the dairy farm where she'd been born and raised. She missed the sound of the cows, missed using the knowledge of running a farm that her parents had given her on a daily basis throughout her childhood. They were dead now, their farm little more than ash-covered ruins, and Shosanna knew she could never go back.

When her coffee arrived, she took a few moments to wrap her hands around it and allow the warmth of the mug to seep into her fingertips before raising it to her lips to take a sip of the steaming liquid. "So," she said, peering at him over the brim of the mug, "you said before that you were from after the war, yes?"

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wealreadyare
2011-07-15 07:56 am UTC (link)

"About a decade and a half after," Erik said as he took a sip of his coffee to steel his nerves for this discussion. As much as he wanted people to remember what happened during the war, it wasn't an easy thing to talk about. That was perhaps one of the reasons that being around Charles was so much easier than other people. They didn't need to discuss his past. With Charles's ability, he knew it all already. And it was just understood between them that it was what it was, no more, no less, and while Erik wasn't going to defend anything that he had ever done as moral, as long as Charles didn't contend him on the justice of it, no more had to be said. With someone who couldn't read his mind or his emotions, however, it was trickier. "Our camp was liberated a month before I turned thirteen."

There was no need to say that he had been the only who had made it out. That part was almost silently understood between survivors who came upon each other living solitary lives. Such a situation meant that there simply wasn't anybody else.

"I'm thirty-one now," Erik said with another sip of his coffee before settling it down with a thoughtful look. There really was only one thing that she could possibly want to know with a lead in like that, and offering Shosanna a deep smile that showed just how happy he was to say these words even so long after the fact, Erik leaned a bit closer to her and dropped his voice slightly, "They lost. Badly."

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jewishvengeance
2011-07-19 07:51 am UTC (link)

Although there had been moments in Shosanna's life since that terrible day she'd lost her family, she had never truly been happy. Knowing that the man responsible for the deaths of her parents and little brother was still out there, still walking free and even receiving a hero's praise for the slaughter of innocents, had kept any real sense of pleasure at bay. She had simply gone through the motions of her life for four long years, finding love with Marcel but far too caught up in the pain and anger brought on by her loss to ever let herself fully enjoy her time with him, or anything else. However when Erik confirmed what she had desperately hoped was true, the instant she heard that verification that the Nazis had lost the war and had done so in a rather spectacular way, Shosanna felt that hardened part of her begin to crack ever so slightly.

There was no keeping the pleased smile from her face and absolutely no chance she would ever apologize for wearing it either. In fact if they weren't in a public place she very nearly would have burst into tears at the news, quite possibly breaking all rules of propriety by hugging him as well. However they were in public so Shosanna settled for simply smiling brilliantly as she once more raised her coffee cup to her lips to take a sip. "Good," she said firmly, with a decisive nod.

Setting her cup back down, she was still smiling as she pointed out, "If we were in either of our times, then, I would be older than you." Had she survived the task of burning down her theatre, that is. Something told her that the odds were not on her side for that, though she didn't add that fact. She simply elaborated, "I was nineteen when they invaded France. My Papa was convinced the Americans would come but they did not reach us before we were forced to go into hiding." She didn't elaborate on her own feelings regarding how long the Americans had taken to come to the aid of those who had needed them. In a place like this, where so many around them seemed to be American, it didn't seem like the smartest thing to say.

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wealreadyare
2011-07-19 10:07 am UTC (link)

"The Americans never came when they were supposed to," Erik said quietly, his thoughts turning back to the camps and how many times the Allied bombers had flown overhead. The next one is going to stop. The next one of going to land. It had always been a hope that so many had held until it was one plane too many passing them by for that hope to hold out any longer. "Too many other things to deal with. And they weren't really in it to fight the Germans, anyway. The Western front was really just a blip on the radar on their way to the Pacific." Was he bitter? Just a little bit, but it was to be expected for a man who still hadn't completely rid himself of a decade old grudge that he'd just resolved.

"Actually, there's a man here who claims he killed Hitler himself and the the Reich used body doubles to cover it up for years," Erik said, taking a sip of his coffee. "And, to be honest, I'm not disinclined to believe him. That seems like something the Reich would do in order to conceal a power vacuum and prevent internal squabbling."

Taking another sip of his drink, Erik chuckled as he smiled at her, "And yet, here, I'm almost a decade older than you are. It's very hard to wrap one's head around."

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