Esmeralda dances to the rhythm of the tambourine (changewillcome) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-11-30 20:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, esmeralda, finn mikaelson |
Who: Esmeralda and Finn
What: Unexpected reunion
When: 30 November 2017
Where: The Court of Miracles
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
While the Court of Miracles was (more or less) an upstanding establishment in the fact that they appeared to cross their t’s and dot their i’s, it still had the feel of a travelling gypsy show from days past. Cards were read. Seemingly magic was performed through slight of hand and typical tricks. Illusions. Able to be explained as a gimmick, it was also a testament to their heritage.
As for Esmeralda, she was waiting behind the ‘festival’ stage’s curtain for her entrance. She had three dance slots, wherein she sometimes would serve after the fact, others just watch. Today was a serving day. But right, listening for the opening from Clopin.
“Come one, come all. Hurry, hurry, here’s you chance, see the mystery and romance! Come one, come all! See the finest girl from France. Make an entrance to entrance. Dance La Esmeralda…. Dance!”
And that was the cue, Clopin pulled the ‘moon curtain’ to reveal Esmeralda, tambourine in hand. It was always her favourite part of the night, being able to dance and it was also one of the more popular portions of the night for those there for the entertainment, though this was only one of two dances she did, a dance she had done on the streets of Paris. But as the dance came to an end, she ‘vanished’ off the stage, listening to the reactions from the crowd before heading to the first table of the night.
“How can I help you tonight?”
Kol had been right when he’d said that the dreams would cause Finn to want a drink. If he’d thought that dreaming about Henrik’s death had been hard, he wasn’t prepared for Esther’s death at the hands of their father. While he didn’t always see eye to eye with their mother, finding out she was killed had been extremely upsetting. Normally he would have talked to one of his siblings about the dreams, but none of them were quite as close to their mother as he was.
So he had decided to grab a drink after work and try to get it out of his head. He had intended to go to the same bar where he’d met up with Freya recently, but upon driving past the Court of Miracles, he decided to try something new and quickly turned around and after finding a parking space, he headed inside.
He had just sat down when a girl approached his table, “What’s your strongest drink?” He asked, glancing up at her.
Esmeralda had a particular rule when asked for suggestions, she always would suggest metheglin. Especially as they did have a variety of spiced versions on hand, all with different alcohol content as it was made at the Court. However, there were drinks with a higher alcohol proof.
“It depends. I would say strongest is absinthe. Though if you want to drink clean, we have overproof rum as well.”
There was the ever present lilt of an accent given the fact that she grew up on the streets of Paris.
Finn had had absinthe before, considering he had spent quite some time in France and while that would probably do the trick of helping him to stop thinking about his dreams for a little while, but he didn’t think he needed that just yet. “I’ll have the rum.” As he continued looking up at the woman taking his order, he began to realize that he knew her and had he not been quite so much in his own head at the moment, he probably would have realized it sooner, “Esmeralda?”
Marking down the order, Esmeralda was about to leave when the man said her name as if he recognized her. Obviously he didn’t usually come to the Court, she’d have recognized him more easily then. Still, she did pause and tilted her head to the side to see if she could place him. Given the amount of people she had met in Paris, especially those who would make a point to stop and talk with her frequently instead of just dropping coins into a hat or getting angry when she or one of the others had done the pickpocketing thing. But right.
“Finn, yes?” At least, she was pretty sure it was Finn.
Finn nodded, “Yeah. What’re you doing here? Last time I saw you was in Paris.” It was actually remarkable how many people from Paris were also in Orange County. First Vincent and now Esmeralda. Of course he knew Vincent better than he knew the woman standing in front of him, but he knew her well enough to recognize her after a few years. “Have you been here long?”
It really was strange how many people from Paris had shown up here. Grantaire, Vincent, now Finn…. Though the world was small like that she supposed. Esmeralda knew that people often would run into people here from the Dreams but no one from hers had shown up. Well, beyond those in the kumpania but that was different. “We decided we wanted to try something more permanent… as for how long we have been here? A year and a half now I think it has been. Or about that. You?”
“I just came back a few months ago,” Finn had never really talked much about his family life when he was in Paris, partly because anyone he worked with knew his family so he didn’t need to and people who didn’t know his family, he’d wanted keep it that way so he could simply be Finn. “I’m from Orange County originally. What made you choose this area?”
Esmeralda nodded some. She was used the random sidewalk talks that she had in Paris. There never was much depth to them. No grand telling of family histories or anything like that. Then again, most people would just walk on by - avoid pickpocketing and the like. So she had never thought much of it.
“Well that would bring someone here. As for us? Clopin chose the place.” Shrugging, Esmeralda rested her hand on her hip, noticing that Djali had decided to come upstairs. Running goat interference while getting Finn’s drink might become necessary. Ah well, such was life at the Court of Miracles.
Finn nodded as well, “Unless things have changed since I was here last, it’s a good area. I hope you’ve been having success here.” From the looks of it, it appeared that things were going well for them here. “I do think that’s a first.” Finn had never seen a goat wandering around a bar before.
“Yes, we have.” They of course dealt with xenophobia and people telling them to go back to where they came from (always ironic given they were Romani), smashed windows and the like, but it wasn’t like it had exactly been any better in France. As for Djali, Esmeralda smirked some, “Ah yes. Djali. He just showed up one day.” Whistling to the goat, Djali came over and Esmeralda dumped the lettered tiles on the ground. “I’ll go get you your drink and Djali can keep you company until then?”
Smiling some, Esmeralda gave a nod and turned as Djali started to use the tiles and spelled out ‘bonjour’ for Finn to see.