WHO: Dom and Blue WHAT: Encounter at the diner WHEN: March 24th (backdated) WHERE: Panorama Diner RATING: Low STATUS: Complete
Once she was assured she didn’t have to rush to figure everything out Dom had spent most of the first day wallowing in bed, wondering if she’d ever see her friends and family again. The night before she’d been decorating the nursery with Mac, looking forward to a future together, and now she was in a strange land surrounded by strangers. She’d given herself that first day to grieve and put herself together, and then put it aside.
Dominique Weasley had never backed down from a challenge in her life and she wasn’t going to start now. Things could have been worse. She could have been plucked from home and stuck in the middle of the jungle or plunged into the dark ages or any number of equally bad scenarios. Instead she had a nice rent free apartment in a city that openly mixed magical and muggle and had many other people in similar situations to her. Others had adjusted. She would too.
So the next day she pulled herself together, made herself presentable, and started exploring the city to get a feel for the place. The better she knew it the better she could apparate to places she needed to go in the future. One of those places happened to be the local diner.
Blue was not the best waitress, but she was a good one. The Panorama diner was not the greatest meal, but it was a satisfying one. She was still in the middle of her battle with management to get the Roadkill Burger removed from the menu (not happening) and at least some of the older bullet holes patched up (maybe). But at least the jukebox was not stuck on old country music until her ears bled. Like most of her early shifts, the place was dead—a grisly-looking guy (maybe part bear) sipping the abysmal coffee was the only interaction she had in an hour.
Until another customer walked in. One who absolutely did not look like someone out of an old western. Or a minotaur (his name was Glenn and he was a delight, but he was a regular patron of the notorious Roadkill Burger and Blue would not win a fight if someone was still regularly ordering it.) She hurried to the front to seat her.
"Hi, hello. I'm Blue, I'll be your hostess and your waitress today. Maybe even your cook, time permitting," Blue said, flashing her a smile. Blue was never this overeager when she worked at Nino's, but she was bored and this person was likely going to order something that wasn't disgusting sounding. She gestured to a booth and started pulling out silverware for a place setting and laying down a menu.
"There's not really specials, but if you want to mix-and-match something on one plate, that would count."
Dom forced a smile at the eager waitress. The diner, like the city itself, was unlike anything she’d seen before, but the purpose was familiar enough and she was hungry. Looking at the menu it was clear she wasn’t going to find much that reminded her of the cuisine back home however.
“Hello Blue, I’m Dom. What would you recommend? If you’re the cook sometimes as well as the waitress you’ll know what’s good.”
"I'm the cook, as in, I backseat-cook when I think the actual cooks are making something horrific. I do not recommend the Roadkill Burger, though," Blue said, with overstated seriousness. She held up the extra menu to read—she knew it like the back of her hand, but now she was trying to come up with creative combos for Dom's sake.
"You can't go wrong with the taco tornado. But if that feels too adventurous, you could probably get something simple like hotdogs or—well, our milkshakes are palatable." She did not sound convincing, so she frowned a little in Dom's direction. "Honestly, I'm the only estrogen in this place. Most of the dudes that run this diner are going to be suggesting the bacon-on-bacon-on-bacon. Which, no."
“These ‘dudes’ sound like some of my male relatives.” Dom shook her head at the description. “Some people will truly eat anything.”
Blue’s reassurance was having the opposite effect on Dom, mainly due to the fact whatever she ate would be passed on to the twins. Still, she’d eaten stranger things on her and Mac’s extended holiday to Spain, the Canaries, and Brazil earlier in the winter so she supposed it couldn’t be that bad. Perhaps a milkshake to help wash it down, she needed to gain weight after all. She pondered for a moment then nodded.
“Let’s try the taco tornado then and a milkshake to go along with it. Would chocolate or strawberry go better with it do you think?”
Blue leaned in conspiratorially. "There is this burly satyr who I have seen come in here once, but I'm almost positive he was part garbage disposal. He ordered everything on the menu and ate it all without flinching once. It was a sight." She waved a hand in front of her face. " All of this to say is that your relatives would probably like him if he ever shows back up."
A dark thought of her own relatives not being here crossed her mind, and she promptly pushed it off. "And I would have to go with chocolate, mostly because you can't go wrong with chocolate. Even here. They manage to get it right." Blue quickly scribbled down the order on her pad, and shoved everything back into her front pockets.
"You're new, right? Like one of the new Outlanders that came through." It was strange to reference herself in that group; outlanders, outsiders, all of it sounded the same to Blue Sargent. She was used to being part of camps of people who were considered other of normal society.
Dom pushed the thought of her relatives out of her mind at Blue’s words. If she thought about them too much she would cry and she refused to cry. She wanted her mum, her sister and their grandmother. Not to mention Mac, her fiance and father of her twins. But that wasn’t likely and she had to make the best of things here.
“Chocolate it is, then.” She declared after a heartbeat’s consideration.
“Yes I am. I arrived here Monday. What about you?” The girl seemed perfectly ordinary so she had no idea if Blue was a local or an outlander.
"You're new-new," Blue said, sounding surprised. Blue tried to think about what she did in her first week,if she would have been brave enough to venture into diners and stores alone. She had been lucky, Gansey was here before she was, then Henry right after. She had the people she cared about, so there hadn't been any real reason to immediately worry.
Blue heaved a heavy, wistful sigh. "A month or so, give or take." She made a so-so gesture with her hand. "It's not bad, not if you have a strong resolve and a sense of adventure." Blue paused, reconsidering what she said.
"Or you just can go with the flow better than narrow-minded people. There's a lot of weird things here, and magic isn't something people are all in tune with. So hopefully your brain doesn't totally break the first time you see a tree nymph or something."
“I’m more likely to break from some muggle contraption I’ve never seen before than magic.” Dom responded with a slight smile. “And before I started expanding I was fearless, drove my family and friends mad with the risks I took on the pitch. Slightly less so now because of my passengers. It’s just me and them, you see, so better to get the feel for things sooner than later.”
Blue seemed well settled from what she could see. “So you’ve been here a month? What’s been your biggest adjustment?”
Blue whole expression went wildly confused. Muggle? She barreled on because lingering too hard on something from other Outlanders felt like opening up a can of worms Blue was underprepared to handle. "I admire people who know what they need to do and when to do it. I think too many people see independence as selfishness when I've always seen it as trying to make my way in the world on my own, you know, laurels or whatever. So good on you."
She considered Dom's question for a moment before answering—be painfully honest or try to soften the blow? Blue was never one to walk on eggshells. "Just being here, I guess? Figuring out there's no real way home anyone has discovered. I'm comfortable, mostly, but there is that sense of unease, knowing it could all be gone just as quick as we all showed up. Adjusting to that knowledge at the back of my mind is, ugh, weird. It's just weird."
With a sigh, Blue gave Dom a once over. The mention of passengers gave her pause. "Do you like mashed potatoes? I can throw in extra, on the house."
Dom took in the words and wished she hadn’t asked. But she had and Blue had answered. “I appreciate the honesty, thanks.” She reminded herself that it could be worse. “This whole world is weird.” But fascinating. If her family were here then she wouldn’t mind the situation nearly as much, it was so very different from what she was used to but not in a bad way.
At the offer of mashed potatoes she raised an eyebrow, wondering how the combination would taste. She was hungry, and if she didn’t like them she didn’t have to eat them. She beamed a smile at the younger woman. “That would be nice, thank you Blue.”
"Weird is a good way to describe it," Blue said with a shrug of her shoulder. She scooped up the menus again, and dropped a few napkins on the table from her apron pocket for Dom. Blue could be hard, and prickly, and very standoffish (sometimes all three, and sometimes all three while working shifts at the diner) but niceties went a long way. Especially alone in a strange place.
She waved off the thanks. "Don't worry about it. Just don't tell any of the guys in here." Blue nodded toward the counter where the same regular was still nursing a cup of dirt-flavored coffee. "They'll start getting ideas about freebies." She took one step back, then another. "I'll get you water, and a taco tornado, chocolate milkshake, and mashed potatoes coming right up!"