Esmeralda dances to the rhythm of the tambourine (changewillcome) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-08-03 19:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, diana prince (wonder woman), esmeralda |
Who: Esmeralda and Diana
What: Diana comes across the Court of Miracles and is curious.
When: Early/Mid July
Where: The Court of Miracles
Warnings: Low
Thus far, Orange County was proving quite intriguing. There was much to see and do, and Diana was trying to find her way around. She’d at least been to Disneyland, and had subsequently found some excellent places to eat at. She still needed to explore, however. There was much to Orange County that she had yet to discover, and she was intensely curious.
Which was one of the reasons she was currently taking a walk and finding some new sights. The July the 4th had been an experience. The fireworks had been very beautiful, however! Diana wasn’t American by any stretch of the imagination, but she’d celebrated the day with Kitty when asked. She was more than happy to immerse herself in the culture here, it was the better way to learn about other cultures, after all. Diana could sit and study artifacts from the ancient all day, but it wouldn’t give her the full picture of the culture they had come from. Which was part of the reason she missed Greece. History still seemed to be alive all around modernization.
The tall brunette found herself in front of a place that had boards on the windows. It seemed slightly worse for wear. Victim of drunken escapades during the holiday? Or outright malevolent vandalism? It was hard to tell. At any rate, the name of the place caught her attention, and it seemed to be open for business, so curiosity got the best of her and she stepped inside. She may have seemed to be a little out of place in the tavern-like place, she was dressed well, and it was the right way to accentuate her classic features.
A smile started to cross her face. Diana could immediately tell the place had a lot of character. The stage was something she found interesting as well. Clearly performances happened here somewhat often.
Things had been… interesting since the latest vandalism at the Court. There was the fact that Esmeralda was pretty sure that she had lost Kitty as a friend because she didn’t agree with the way she was talking about things, a strike first mentality that would just lead to more hatred and violence no matter how good intentioned the reasoning. The fact that there were those who came to the Court for help that such actions would put into jeopardy. When you try to fight the world, the world will fight back and even when you say you’re making things better, it’s not better for everyone and those who suffer already were most likely to continue suffering.
But, she couldn’t think about that. Esmeralda was used to losing friends and there were obligations and performances, people to help as well as simply serve drinks to and flirt with. The first thing to be rebuilt was the stage given a lot of money came in when Esmeralda was able to dance. Windows could wait.
Because the dances were never quite on a schedule (they were determined the day of, both if there would be one or two dances, and then which ones), Esmeralda was waiting to go on with her sword dance. As Diana walked in, Clopin made his way to the stage to do the usual introduction before ‘disappearing’ and being ‘replaced’ by Esmeralda who then went into the double sword dance routine.
Once finished, she ‘disappeared’ and quickly changed into the outfit she used while playing server, the outfit she tended to wear for the majority of her dreams, and then went about, flitting between patrons until she came up to Diana. The woman certainly did stand out.
“What can I get you?”
The introduction on stage certainly caught her attention. Diana watched Esmeralda’s dance with the utmost intrigue. The woman was extremely skilled, and it had been a while since she’d last seen a sword dance. It was difficult to miss the fact that this was a Romani establishment. Diana had studied some of their culture and experienced it from a couple populations in Greece. She had the utmost respect for them, as she did for pretty much everyone on the planet.
When the dance was complete, she gave her applause, a bit awed at how Esmeralda had ‘disappeared.’ But that was part of who Diana was. She was wide-eyed and more than eager to learn and immerse herself in other cultures. Which had been part of the reason she’d wanted to come to America, to get new experiences.
As Esmeralda approached, Diana gave her a warm smile. “A glass of wine, please.” She responded. “You are a wonderful dancer. It has been a long time since I last saw a sword dance.” Diana couldn’t help but to add in the praise as well.
Making a note of the order Diana gave her, Esmeralda then smiled at the compliment.
“Thank you. You’ve seen them before?”
It was true that sword dances were rare. Especially as the one she did was from the 15th century, as were the swords she used. Though that did tend to happen when she had picked up the dance from her dreams. Thankfully those were over at least. One less thing to worry about beyond the repeats that sometimes happened.
“Only once when I was a child. My mother was taking me on a trip around mainland Greece. We saw some Romani performers there. I was very enthralled by the dance.” Diana recounted with a smile. It was one of those childhood memories that had stayed with her and stayed strong as she’d grown. Perhaps it had even led to her love of history, of learning about different cultures.
Speaking of cultures, she noticed Esmeralda’s accent. “If you don’t mind my asking, are you French?” She hoped that wouldn’t be taken as an insult, especially if she was French-speaking Belgian or something of the sort.
Esmeralda gave a small nod and smile. It was true, that Romani were more or less everywhere. And nowhere that was ever truly kind to them, but it was what it was. Dwelling on it did no good, they all made their way and got on. Defied those who would see them gone by simply living.
“I see.”
And then the question, which made her quirk a brow, “Interesting question for Romani, but yes, we are originally from France.” It was no fault of Diana’s, Esmeralda just tended to find it amusing in a wry sort of way when someone asked where she was from, especially when they knew that she was Roma.
The way Romani were treated was something that Diana didn’t like. Though that sentiment was held across the board for various peoples who were attacked and hated simply because of their heritage. Diana was one who was an intensely optimistic person and believed in love and the goodness in people. Not everyone was bad, and she knew that. It tended to save her sanity when the world went insane.
“Ah, yes, I suppose it is a bit of a strange question. I hope I did not offend you, it was not my intention. I simply enjoy learning about others and their origins.” Probably an odd word choice in the use of ‘origins’ but English wasn’t her first language. History was just something she couldn’t know enough about it, and that included people’s origins on a cultural level.
Esmeralda smiled and shook her head some at the comment.
“None taken. I know how confusing English can be.” It seemed to her that Diana was truly interested and not just ignorant. And it was also clear English wasn’t her first language either. With as many mistakes as Esmeralda could make with the language, she really wouldn’t begrudge someone those same issues. Especially as it was more wry amusement than anything at the comment.
“Learning is always important though. Not many seem to want to.”
“English is really confusing, I agree.” Diana could speak it well, but it was notorious for being a difficult language to learn. Add in all the slang that native speakers used, and it was sometimes hard to decipher what people were saying. Nevertheless, Diana also learned from her mistakes, and liked learning.
“Sadly, they do not. But I have always been fascinated by other cultures, and the world in general. I may live and work in the past too often, but I like finding new experiences.” Which was one of the reasons she’d even come in here to begin with.
Esmeralda still often found herself asking Grantaire or Peter for help with certain phrases though she had definitely gotten better with her English in the time that they’d been in California. True she more often spoke French with Grantaire but he helped where he could and explained things, which she appreciated.
“New experiences are what help us grow and are just as important as the past that we learn from. To see the changes that have taken place and remember they do happen.”
Yes, even with everything going on, the threats, the fights, the familiarity of losing friends, Esmeralda did hold to that belief. Things changed and for the better. She wasn’t about to lose sight of that no matter what got thrown at her.
Still, she could see Clopin giving her a look and she shook her head some before turning her attention to Diana.
“It seems I am talking too much, so I will go and get you your drink. I’m sure we will continue our talk later.” If not here, then on the network as she was pretty sure she recognized the woman from the network. With a smile, she nodded before heading to the bar to get Diana’s drink so that she could go back to her current playing of server now that she wasn’t dancing.