didnt_see_that (didnt_see_that) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-06-19 18:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, jonathan harker, pietro maximoff (quicksilver) |
Who: Pietro and Jonathan
When: Early June (Before the Spider Plot)
Where: Baxter’s Bakery
What: Language Lessons
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete
Wanda had beaten him to it, of course. He’d mentioned language exchange with a man on the net but then he had been so caught up in settling in and finding a job that it had slipped his mind. It hadn’t been until his twin had returned home and began mumbling in Italian that he had remembered.
A very apologetic email later and he had arranged to meet the other man at the very same place Wanda had. He’d been for a morning run and wasn’t working until the afternoon so had time to grab a drink and begin the exchange. Entering the coffeeshop he got a drink and looked around, Wanda had described him but he was struggling to locate a young man whose hair was greying.
The hair had gotten even worse than it was when Jonathan first met Wanda, but thanks to Myrcella’s magic (and he’d sent her a gift card to her favorite Italian place, so she could take her boyfriend or whomever she wanted), it was back to the dark-as-a-raven’s-wing shade. And thus Jonathan felt more like himself - his dream bleed over effect had settled to a very faint simmering as well, no longer in danger of suddenly experiencing a flare-up of madness.
Thank god that had settled. He was really kind of over the skin-crawling sensation of brain fever and all that it entailed. There were enough mental problems that ran in his family without that being involved.
His own drink in hand, an Earl Grey tea since he was trying to cut back on the coffee, he spotted whom he was supposed to be meeting (or at least, the man he assumed to be the elusive Mr. Maximoff) and went over with a smile and a greeting. “Are you Pietro?” he asked kindly. “If so, I’m Jonathan Harker. And I’ve got us a table - “ A nod in the general direction, where he’d stashed his books and things, “Back that way.”
Pietro smiled as he was approached, “That would indeed be me” he confirmed, “Sorry I did not recognise you. I think my sister may need glasses” he grinned as he followed the man over to the table. Pietro had yet to start dreaming so he wasn’t aware of quite how much they could effect people here, though he had been around for the vampire thing. That had been rather annoying since it had kept him cooped up inside.
“I hope I did not keep you waiting too long?” he checked as they sat down. Pietro had brought a pad and pen but other than that nothing.
“No, not at all, don’t worry,” Jonathan assured the other man, settling in his seat and resting the paper cup on the table. He pulled the top off, blowing a little on the liquid to cool it. “I think I first met your sister when I was having hair malfunctions but things are back to normal now. Uh - “ That sort of brought up the whole ‘this place is a madhouse’ topic of discussion but Meestahrrr Harrkarrr would tread carefully.
A tea sip, and he lifted his eyebrows inquisitively. “How are you settling in to Orange County?” There, that was mostly neutral. And left it wide open for all sorts of places for the answer to ping off to.
“Ah yes, her description of you is somewhat different” Pietro smiled, “Things are going well. I have recently gotten employment at a gymnasium so that is good. There seems to be a lot of odd things that happen here but most people seem calm about it” Nobody had really panicked when there has been vampires on the streets.
Odd things. That was a polite way to describe their little box of insanity, set apart from the rest of the world. “I hear that they get odder but people just sort of become accustomed to it? Congrats on the employment, by the way,” he toasted with his cup, the still-hot tea that the British mother hen at the consulate would be so proud of him for drinking (he was trying, okay - sometimes it was easy to get in touch with his otherself, the stuffy Victorian scholar who hailed from Exeter).
Then he began to arrange the books on the table, stacking the Italian ones he’d brought so he could figure out where a good place to start would be. Wanda was borrowing one of his workbooks, though he had plenty to hand out for lessons. “Honestly, I don’t think I will ever fully get used to the oddness. It helps to stay calm when it does happen, but if I ever get desensitized to it, you have permission to taser me or something.”
There were a number of ways Pietro could have described this place but since he was meeting this man for the first time he figured politeness was the way to go. Pietro had also gone for tea but mostly because he preferred it, he didn’t have a British mother hen watching over him.
Pietro could always use the workbook Wanda had, they’d no doubt end up practicing on each other anyway. He needed to look at Russian books to work out the best one for Jonathan, mostly he was just relying on his own mind since it was his first language. “I think the worst thing for me was not being able to go outside rather than the oddness of vampires, I am not sure what that says about me” he joked, “I promise. I will set my sister on you, that would snap you right out of it” he added with a grin.
“Ah, that’s right, you have a thing for the outdoors,” Jonathan remembered that from their initial conversation. Then he also remembered the other books he had brought with him - because he was essentially a library all on his own; his house was stocked with plenty of reading material and shelves that were nearly bursting and caving inward from the weight of the collections.
A few Lonely Planet books were added to the table, and he nudged them toward Pietro. “One’s a guide just for LA, which I read thoroughly when I started working at the Consulate, but it’s got helpful tips for getting around without a car - in addition to info on the best places to go. Then this one’s just a guide to southern California’s beaches, which would be welcomed, I think, since there’s just so many.” Hidden ones, more public ones, but good for someone who liked the outdoors and the sunshine.
“And I believe that about your sister. Anyone studying Neurology, I have a healthy dose of respect and fear of,” he joked.
Pietro nodded, impressed with his memory, “I do, it killed me not being able to get out for my run” he smiled, his sister had joined him and practically passed out. She was definitely not as sporty as her twin.
“Thank you very much” he said with a smile as he flicked through one of the books. “I am sure they will be wonderful and much more than I know now” He was particularly looking forward to reading up on the beaches now that he had started surfing lessons it would be good for when he went out alone.
“You have learnt about Wanda already my friend” he teased, “Imagine being her twin, I can get away with nothing”
It must be interesting being a twin. Jon was an only child, and he had grown up mostly quiet and keeping to himself. Boring. His life had been boring before he left for college, and his parents were straight-laced supporters of the GOP, they donated to the Conservative Party of Wisconsin, and would probably faint from shock over what he’d been doing lately but they didn’t need to know about that right now.
“She looks out for you, that’s all,” he had to smile a little at that. “There’s something to twin bonds, I think. Kind of an extra sense, isn’t it? I wouldn’t know personally, but they seem to be wired for bonding even while in the womb.”
Pietro smiled fondly as he thought of the unique link he and his sister shared, “It is definitely something special. We always know when something is happening to the other. I cannot explain how or why but I just know. Wanda broke her arm when we were younger and I felt it and rushed home, nobody could tell us how I knew” but he rather liked it. It was reassuring to have someone so connected.
“That’s uncanny. Fascinating, really. I’m always awed by what the human mind is capable of - especially here.” Being desensitized to all the madness, yes, but Jonathan also thought that living in Orange County definitely made you a stronger person in a sense - a new version of yourself, forged from iron. You’d have to be, in order to learn to deal with what life threw at you. Things weren’t so simple in their neck of the woods.
Well, speaking of brilliant minds and all of that! “Oh, so I sort of have a plan all drawn out,” he said, and wow, big surprise. Such a dork. “A lesson plan, I mean. You’re already fluent in a couple other languages so Italian shouldn’t require extensive time to reach proficiency. I’m thinking about twenty-four weeks, give or take? Some say three months but I personally don’t think you can reach fluency in that short of a time unless there’s complete immersion going on. Russian may take me a little longer to learn,” he grinned. “It’s a complicated language.” He estimated it would take twice as long to learn Russian as it took to learn, say, a language like French - which he already knew.
Pietro agreed that it was rather fascinating but unlike his sister he didn’t feel the need to explore why or how the mind worked. He was more interested in the incredible things that people's bodies could endure and feats that could be performed. They rather complemented each other really.
“You are far more organised than me, I see why my sister likes you” he grinned, “But that sounds fine. How often do you think we should meet up?” he asked, he didn’t mind of course but he knew Jonathan was a busy man studying a hard subject and didn’t want to take up too much of his time.
“It’s a quirk of mine,” Jonathan admitted, with a laugh. Organized, anal retentive, whatever you wanted to call it - though he tried not to cross the line into territory of the second very much. Even if his genetics set him up for such things. Alas. “But I’m thinking once a week should be sufficient, for meeting up? We can always meet here. And go over things. There will also be homework too, in a sense - though we don’t have to call it that.”
Just like they were in school! How fun. Well, for him it was. He’d try to make it as fun as possible for someone else too. “Uh, practice, I mean. But I have plenty of workbooks.” Rosetta Stone also wasn’t bad - he’d used it before, but preferred Pimsleur, for one thing. And a lot of it was about developing friendships too, right? He could always use more of those.
“It is a good quirk to have I think” he said, he could do with being more organised sometimes, he had a habit of running late. Though Wanda tried to keep him on time, mostly by setting all their clocks five or ten minutes fast. “Once a week sounds like a good plan to me”
He chuckled, “I think with my sister at home I will definitely get lots of practice at home. I will do some research on books to learn russian, I am afraid I only have what is in my head right now” Since he’d never needed to learn it before. Friends were definitely a bonus to things like this and Pietro liked having lots of them.
“That’s no problem. I’m a bit of a polyglot, so hopefully I should pick it up faster than the average bear,” Jonathan assured, since languages were his specialty. And law. And...anything scholarly at all, really. He just loved learning all sorts of new things. “But we’ll go over Russian next time. For now, let’s see...I think starting with some simple grammar ought to do it.”
Then he was off, at the speed of light. Well, at least Quicksilver was in good company these days.